#i say 'start' when they dropped miku first but that's different

[miyanagi]

what did they mean by this

[celluceta]

✭ Law, Bepo, Penguin, Shachi & Ikkaku finding out you like Vocaloid + headcanons ✭

Hi there! Here are some silly headcanons I've been thinking about the past few days. I've been listening and drawing Vocaloid a lot lately and this idea popped in my head, so I hope you like it!! A good friend of mine helped me with this💚

Please keep in mind that english isn't my first language so there might be grammar errors🫠

I had a lot to write about Law and Bepo...

Also I won't be talking about UTAU that much since I'm not very familiar with them,,, sorry.

🎐Please keep in mind these are MY headcanons! If yours are different, that's perfectly fine! Feel free to drop them in the comments if you want🎐

⭐Gender neutral reader⭐

Law

Ok so I headcanon there is a common room in the Polar Tang, with a couple of long sofas and where every member of the crew has their own little space somehow, like walls covered in posters and shelves filled with, books and even plushies of marine animals and their hobbies.

You were spending one morning there, listening to your favorite Vocaloid playlist in a den den mushi (you know, like the ones that appear in film red) when Law arrived, looking for a medicine book he didn’t have at his office.

Normally he would have just walked out the room, but as your den den mushi started playing Tokyo Teddy Bear, his eyes couldn't help but rush to look at you.

You noticed it and glanced at him as well. As your eyes met, he quickly looked back, grabbing the book and heading out the room.

"You like Vocaloid, captain?"

It took him a few seconds to answer before leaving you there. "Why would I do? It's a waste of time".

You were confused but didn't think much about it.

Until a couple of days later, when you walked past the door of his office and heard something familiar...

"Shinkai shoojo mada mada shizumu"

You couldn't believe it. You opened the door and looked at him with a smirk on your face, meeting with his shocked, flushed red face.

"IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" He shouted at you before you left the room giggling, hoping you wouldn't tell the rest of the crew.

He's not the biggest fan, but since Bepo is, he ended up liking a few songs. He would never admit it out loud though, he thinks it would ruin his image.

I can't stop thinking he listens to the most edgy Vocaloid songs... . ...

You know, Lost One's Wheeping, Ghost Rule, Aishite Aishite Aishite and more.

Definitely enjoys Kikuo more than any other vocaloid producer. Also Wowaka.

Nobody knows about this, but he knows the whole lyrics of The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku.

Bepo

Do I have to say it?

Seriously, do I have to say it?

This guy's OBSESSED. He's been listening to Vocaloid for years.

Maybe even before leaving Zou.

Everyone in the crew learned about Vocaloid thanks to him, so when he discovers you also enjoy it, he'll go so excited you'll get trouble understanding what he's saying. You'll see his eyes shining as he's speaking.

One day, on a karaoke session they decided to have not so long after you joined the crew, he started playing Ring no Shitensi.

"Oh, I know this one!"

And his sprakling eyes rapidly landed on you, his lips drawing a bright smile on his face.

He runs into you, not midning the music still playing as he holds your hands and starts talking to you so fast you can barely understand him.

You glanced nervously at Penguin and Shachi for a moment, and they just lifted their thumbs, telling you it was normal.

His favorite producers are definitely Mitchie M, Kinoshita and Livetune.

No matter how many redesigns Miku gets, he'll always prefer the first one.

He knows all the producers mentioned in Kagamine Let's Say the P Names. All of them.

He's one of those people who blast christmas music once it's October 1st, but instead of Mariah Carey it's just Snow Miku songs.

He has a space in his room dedicated exclusively to his lightstick collection, and he knows all existing choreographies from the concerts.

Obviously, in their karaoke sessions, he'll just sing Vocaloid (and Uta) songs.

He has dragged Penguin and Shachi with him, and the rest of the crew knows the lyrics of at least one song or two. Knowing about Vocaloid is inevitable when he's around.

When he discovers a new song Law might like, he eagerly shows him. Law always says he's not interested, but he ends up listening to it on repeat when he's alone.

And he's just as obsessed with UTAU as he is with Vocaloid.

Penguin & Shachi

I feel like instead of them reacting to you, you'd react to them.

Like, again, on a karaoke session, you'd see how they sing along with Bepo, and that just surprises you.

"I didn't know you guys liked Vocaloid!"

"You never asked" They said to you with a playful smirk.

They are glad you also enjoy the music, but don't mind as much as Bepo. Shachi would maybe express it better than Penguin.

Sometimes they join Bepo with the lightsticks, specially if he's playing classics as World is Mine or Luka Luka Night Fever. They ended up learning the movements from watching the bear.

Huge. Deco*27. Fans.

Also they enjoy a couple of Mitchie M and Neru songs, but leave the edgy ones to Law.

Would have a whole discussion over what Miku's voicebank is better on a daily basis.

"V4 pronunciation is way better, man"

"Yeah but it doesn't sound as robotic as V2. What's the point of Miku if she doesn't sound like a robot?"

Shachi's a Rin fan while Penguin prefers Len. Sometimes they tease each other like little kids over who's better, but at the end of the day they both enjoy the twins.

Not that much to say about these guys, just average fans.

Ikkaku

(so sad there aren't more GIFs where Ikkaku appears😭 but this one's fire anyways)

Short because she doesn't really care about Vocaloid that much.

She would be like "Oh that's cool" and continue what she was doing. She just doesn't care at all.

Definitely the most chilled listener among all of them.

V Flower and Gumi. That's it.

She doesn't listen to Vocaloid that often, just from time to time when she remembers they exist.

At first she was like "Wth are they doing..." whenever Bepo, Penguin and Shachi danced with the lightsticks, but now she's gotten used to it.

Has no problem listening to Bepo talk about Vocaloid for quite the long time.

But the bear made her hate Snow Miku songs. She wouldn't have if he didn't played them on repeat from October until the next one is released.

She actually enjoys some of the classics.

Specially Magnet.

You know why... 🧡🤍🩷

[virtuallidol-archive]

*GOOFY AHHH TUTUORIAL*

lesson 2: getting started on psds!!

hit "read more" if interested!

** NOT ALL PSDS ARE FILTERS, PSDS ARE USUALLY BASES THAT YOU CAN OPEN UP. PSDS ARE PHOTOSHOP FILES THAT YOU CAN OPEN UP AND EDIT WITH ALL OF THE LAYERS. THIS IS A TUTORIAL FOR A FILTER PSD (aka, making your OWN filters) **

hey there!! welcome to lesson 2. you don't need to tune in on lesson 1 to understand this, because it was just about finding editing programs and finding tutorials and motivation, so if you already know about all of that, you are basically prepared for this lesson.

this is a tutorial for PHOTOPEA, idk if this works anywhere else. also, this is INTENDED FOR A COMPUTER. (ex: dragging and dropping files and all of that stuff)

STEP 1: the first thing you may* see when going into photopea is this screen:

drag any image into the box that says "drop any files here" if you are a noob and don't know how to drag and drop files you can find a tutorial here. anyways, like i was saying drag and drop any image.

now it should look something like this (but instead of the hatsune miku image its the image that you prefer):

STEP 2*****: now that you have your image, look at the symbols at the bottom right corner. you should see this folder image (folder is circled in red)

you should click the folder button. now you have created a folder. this is going to be the filter.

now that you have the folder down, before proceeding further make sure that its HIGHLIGHTED

go a little bit above the corner, and you folder should be highlighted like this

if its not, just click on it.

now that its highlighted go back to that right corner and click this half circle button that i circled in red

once you click it, this should pop up

i usually hit the "selective color button" first

it usually presents you with this:

at the top of the image, you should see the "colors" button, thats the color you are editing. click it and choose the color you want to edit. you can edit how much a certain color is in a color lol. if yk what i mean.

now i spent a little bit of time editing the selective color, and you can see that the image looks a little different. scroll up to the original image on stop one to see what im talking about! you can add many selective colors until your satisfied!

as you can see, i've added another selective color!

now, right below selective color, (back in the half circle menu) you can see "replace color" this is what it looks like (i've already edited it but you get the idea)

you can choose a color to make FUZZY** and after you do that, you can change the hue, saturation, and lightness to your liking.

here is what my miku image looks like after FUZZINESS**, not a big difference but u can still kinda see it.

STEP 3*****: after you've done that, go back to the half circle menu and close to the top but not all the way, you can see "curves". they look like this:

now you can bend them and destroy them to your liking.

(the higher UP you make your curve go, the lighter it gets, the more LOW you make your curve go, the darker it gets. it also does some other stuff too***. just keep on breaking and bending it to your liking.)

now this is what my filter looks like

STEP 4*****: after your done with abusing and breaking lines now go back to half circle menu and find "color balance". it should look like this

its already edited but whatever (everyone thing should start at zero) but just move the circle more towards the color that you want there to be more of. also hit the range thing to effect more then just the shadows.

now heres what it looks like:

the difference is VERY small****, but you can see that theres more green and cyan + blue when you look closer.

Step 5*****: near the curves thing, you should see "brightness/contrast" you should probably hit that. and it should look like this

adjust it to your liking! its already been adjusted in the image as you can see but still.

Step 6*****: now if you hit the half circle button and look a little bit BELOW curves you should see "vibrance" it also has a saturation button but just drag the circle to your liking.

Step 7*****: next is "photofilter" its in the half circle button in the middle. if you want more of a certain color, click on the orange box to change it. here is what it should look like btw:

also the "density" is how much the color effects the image.

step 8: also, near the "photofilter" in that middle row a little bit above it, there is hue/saturation. its pretty explainable what it does, but just adjust the circles to your liking.

i have been editing this for the last hour, i hope atleast ONE person finds this post helpful. if you are currently reading this, thank you! if you used this tutorial, PLEASE send me the PSD you made!! (through the "request" button on my blog or @ me in a post!!) /nf

IF YOU FOUND ANY OF THE * SYMBOLS, THIS IS WHAT THEY ALL MEAN:

.. * i HOPE your photopea looks like that, it SHOULD. if it doesn't look like that your PROBABLY not on photopea.. your probably on some alien website or something. ** I honestly don't know what "fuzziness" means yet so i'm just as confused as you are. *** other stuff being: change of colors, making the image more red (making it look like it took place in hell!) interverting the image, making the colors more gray. **** honestly a lot of the options make the difference very small ***** you don't need to use ALL of these options if you don't WANT TO. i honestly don't use photo filter for most of my edits.

[drop--pop--candy]

stares at u autistically. I know we're strangers but I'm curious about that dgr au

HIIIIII nws i love when ppl ask me abt my aus :D i was planning on writing it at some point but the prsk hyperfixation has faded juuust enough that i don't think i could do it now shdjdhfjhd anyways all of this to say im gonna explain the whole plot (of ch1. i lost steam so bad) to you now. hits you with my autism beam

(cw violence, death, drug abuse but like it wasn't on purpose?? this one isn't as bad as it sounds i swear)

so! starting with the basic facts this au is a saki protag. i noticed she dies in pretty much every dgr au (usually really early) and i love her so that rly pissed me off and that's what motivated me to make this au LMAOOO anyways the supports are tsukasa and toya because i am just a liiiittle insane abt the tenma siblings

nothing Particularly Interesting happens in the prologue except for the miku design drop. she's got elements from every sekai's Miku, one pigtail is dark pink like l/n's miku and one is her regular green like mmj's miku. her hair is twisted like vbs miku and her voicebank/tuning is in the style of wxs miku. also she's got heterochromia and different height socks like niigo miku. also this wasn't in the prologue (because i did actually write it) but everyone's tablets have a dm feature so they're basically just phones except they don't let ppl out of the sekai. also also wasn't in the prologue but important detail that it's against the rules to go in someone's else's room even if they have the door unlocked/open unless they give you explicit permission OR they're in some way incapacitated (passed out/dead). all the other rules are pretty much the same from previous dgr games

chapter one time!!! this one is Sad. they're all sad actually dgdhdhdjdh anyways so the motive for this chapter is like a million dollars. and everyone agrees that's a stupid motive and none of them would kill for money. nobody's gonna kill anyone we're better that that ‼️‼️‼️ <- moments before disaster. anyways so all the money is in a giant cube in the gym and a few people talk abt how just having it so out there in the open could entice people. and minori is not having that at all so she gets shiho to help her take this massive box from the closet that's on the second floor of the dorms. the box doesn't actually weigh that much so minori lifts it on her own and instead gets shiho to stand just a few steps down on the stairs and guide her down since she can't find a way to fit the box down the stairs when she's facing frontwards. but when she takes the first step down backwards she slips and falls down the stairs, knocking shiho down with her. the fall breaks shiho's neck, killing her pretty much instantly. it also breaks several of minori's bones, so she takes more painkillers than she should and is really really Weird for the entirety of the investigation because of it.

she doesn't make like. a huge effort to hide that she killed shiho because she was planning to confess, but she doesn't end up doing that because at the start of the trial miku is like "oh btw if you're the murderer and you get caught you get executed lol" and minori just. can't make herself do it bc of the Fear. i think if everyone hadn't figured it out she would've ended up confessing to save haruka and all her friends but everyone did figure it out so she didn't have to do that.

in minori's execution she's got wings like icarus (held together by wax) and she's flying over the ocean. she's still hallucinating from the painkillers so she thinks the glow from the sun is a bunch of glowsticks that are in her color so she flies towards it. the wings melt and she falls into the ocean. minori can usually swim but between the broken bones and the current of the sea she can't keep herself afloat and drowns. and that's the end of chapter one :)

negl to u this took me an hour to type up HAGSHSGSHSGSH i can explain more but just. later i need a break lol. so if u want to see more feel free to send me another ask and i'll answer it in a few hours or maybe tmrw or something but Soon i promise

[pleuvoire]

Rosemary, since youre the one who got me to listen to more PinocchioP recently, I'd love to know what your favorites of his are if you'd like to share :3

HEHE….. strap in this might get a little long. i like his music a lot. gonna start with my top favorites and then just throw other ones onto the pile from there

nobody makes sense - probably my top favorite. LOVE a good "life has no meaning so we have to create meaning" theme, and the visuals are beautiful. i'm buried in a garbage heap, looking up at the stars...

nice to meet you, people of earth (my own translation of the title lol) - ALWAYS MAKES ME EMOTIONAL. the strengths and faults of humanity viewed through the eyes of a hopeful outsider...

loveit - a quiet melancholy one about easily getting sucked into self-destructive relationships... and the mv is beautiful

anonymous m - best of his recent work imo. LOVE a good meta exploration of hatsune miku as a character or not-character

lonely ufo - one of the first songs of his i ever heard. makes me emotional...

ghosts play to the audience - really interesting song about creative integrity vs crowd-pleasing as an artist and the unclear boundary between the two. also about ghosts! and it bangs!

yozurina - a song about the uncertainty and attachment of long-distance love. dawn comes again...

vocaloid is lame - a melancholy song about dealing with haters of one's work that sort of turns into a classic pino-p "finding optimism in the midst of your sadness" thing. the high note on the astronaut line always makes me tear up a bit

everything about animals - duet between miku and pino-p himself! "there's tigers, horses, deer, working adults, livestock, monkeys, you who once raised your first cry..."

it's a festival, hey come on! - i only checked this one out recently because of the creative mixed-media mv and it took a while to grow on me but now i think the chorus is so catchy. flashing lights cw

tonchinkan feast - possibly the first of his songs i ever heard. kind of an oddball but i love the creative mv. my party trick is i can sing this from memory. if you listen to it you'll understand why it's a party trick

motivation is dead - THEE depression song

god-ish - i'm sorry vocaloid community for putting this one so far down the list i just thought of a bunch of other ones first. this one got so crazy popular it shows up in "all time miku songs" tribute art. kind of wild. i was there when it dropped, who'da known...

magical girl and chocolate - another recent one that got popular although not to the insane degree of god-ish. when i find a toku character to apply this to it's over for you guys

non-breath oblige - forgot about this one for a bit but it's so good it makes me emotional. wish it was humanly possible to sing

and i'm just gonna throw ultimate senpai, what's inside, kick ass literally, nee nee nee, and mushroom mother onto the pile real quick before this gets too long. you've already seen 404, apple dot com, what yama says goes, last continue, reincarnation apple and common world domination from my other post so i didn't write up a blurb for any of those but those are some classic favorites of mine too, especially the first three. NOW as if this post wasn't long enough here are some collabs and stuff of his i like:

i'm a controversy by ado - vocals by ado, written and produced by pino-p. aka THE FUCKING DREAM TEAM EVER. this song expresses ado's conflicted reaction to the controversy she's generated with the social criticism in her music. imo THEE best song to come out of the voca-p adjacent circle this year. mv goes hard too

(not) a devil - collab with deco*27, another insanely popular voca-p, possibly the most insanely popular one currently active. as you can imagine this one made quite a splash. i like duet collabs like this because you can hear the difference in how each artist tunes their miku. pino-p's muted soft-spoken miku ftw

gorgeous big conversation - collab with utsu-p, a less popular but still fairly big voca-p known for his signature heavy metal sound which you can hear in this song. i love the lyrics of this one they are silly and surreal, i wish this video was subbed. shoutout to internet comedian arufa who is the guy in the video, he also provided the human voice in anonymous m. you may know him from this video which got popular on tumblr

ok hope this wasn't too long :) enjoy!!! also, i put these in no particular order, but if you pay attention to the upload dates think it's interesting to see how the style evolves over time. also did you know the art is done by pino-p himself :) with some exceptions obviously but that distinctive style you see always popping up is done by him

[disorentedfae]

Okay so first part of chapter 2 of my blorbo fam fic because I am impatient. (Srry this not has been proofread)

<<<<<<<_c_h_a_p_t_e_r_2_>>>>>>

Legend was in the north-east courtyard. He had been exploring Warriors’ mansion and he felt like being outside for a bit. He found a rather large tree and decided to climb it. Enjoying himself he stayed in it for about a half hour, then a familiar blue-haired las walked up to the bottom of the tree and yelled his name.

“Miku!?” Legend yelled, he wasn’t expecting to see her until they got to his era and even then he wasn’t sure she would be there. He started climbing his way back down. I has only been, what? Three months since he last saw her, but that was too long for him.

She cupped her hands around her mouth to amplify, “what are you doing here?!” A smile across her cute face, “please be careful you idiot!”

Legend dangled his foot down for a second, looking for the next foot hold down. “What do you mean-?” Ah great, he needed to drop a little to the next branch down. “My question is-” He released his grip on the branch he was hanging on to and fell a slight ways; he then snatched onto another branch to rebalance himself. “How and why the frick are you here?”

She leaned against the tree looking up and watching him struggle to come down. It assumed her really, even if he almost gave her a heart attack at moments. “I’m here because I live in this house, Captain Link is my dad, Link.” Now hearing this Legend hesitated for a moment while he reached for another branch. Big mistake on his part because the current one he was hanging onto snapped him in the face; landing him right above his left eye. His foot then tripped over a small branch sticking out of the branch he was standing on. He wasn’t too far from the ground but still enough to hurt him if he fell, which he did.

“Link!!”

He hit several large limbs and multiple branches on his way down. ‘Softening’ his fallI as he plummeted down. It was only fifteen feet from where he fell but his body’s impact on the ground still sounded atrocious; a loud slightly cracking thud when he hit the dirt.

______________

Time propped his feet up on the small table, leaned his back on the back of the sofa, and soaked in the warmth from the sun. He wouldn’t say it, but this journey was taking a tool on him. The traveling through the different lands in different times, and having no end in sight; not even a clear enemy (though he has his own ideas ) was exhausting. So there was no shame in taking a well deserved rest in the luxury of his father’s Warriors’ home.

He declined further and closed his eyes, listening to the little of nature he could hear, and the distant voices as well. He could hear Wind, Hyrule, Wild, Sky, and Twilight chatting away- rather loudly- in a few rooms down.

He started drifting off to sleep, the haze of being in the middle of sleeping and awake wouldn’t seem to go away. Dream meshed with reality and made for strange thoughts.

Foot steps, they belong to someone- no two people. One was heavier and the other only was using one foot? Hmmm maybe it was a three footed cast iron pan, wait no that’s not right, he thought. Images of pans and a choir of sizzling singing bacon swept his mind as he started to dream heavier. A whisper and then ‘sshhh’ startled his mind just a tad bit, enough for him to remember the footsteps.

he cracked open his eyes, two people were walking out of the room into another hallway; all he could see were their backs. There was one with blue hair pulled back into pigtails, she was taller than the other and sported a gray tunic with black pants, elegant silver accents embroidered along the seems. Blue accents strategy placed. The other had blonde hair and a red tunic, he had his left arm around the girl putting his weight on her, he was limping and not moving very efficiently.

The blue haired girl looked back at him, jolting once she made eye contact with the man. A short gasp, a moment of tension and then she seemed to understand that Time was registering none of this. They both continued on, hushed voices and odd memories floated by Time as he succumbed to sleep.

________________

A chaotic game of ‘I doubt it’ was in motion. Sky had won 3/4 of the many games they played because none of the others could tell when he was lying about the cards he put down.

“Im placing down three eights,” Sky stated, his lip ticked into a grimace for a split second.

“I CALL BULLSH-”

“Language Wind!”

“Fine!” Wind placed down his hand of many cards, “I doubt IT! He made that smile again!” He flipped over Sky’s freshly played cards. Spreading them out sowed three eight cards.

Sky started cackling, “take em’ all sailor!” He shoved the stack of about thirty cards to Wind’s already big hand. More of the same bickering and chaos ensued.

The maid came into the room and told them ‘Sir Link will be home in around the next two hours’. A half hour latter Four joined them.

After another hour or so of absolute humorous games they made their way to one of living rooms. Said living room was the one Time was napping in. He seemed to just have fallen asleep; his eyes still ever-so slightly moving as they do for a little after he falls asleep.

Wild pulled out his slate and snapped a pic of the old man sleeping peacefully.

Hyrule flopped (quietly) down on the chair, curling in his legs under him and leaning against the slanted back of the chair, “Sitting down and being lazy makes me tired,’’ he said.

Soft chuckles coming from some of them. Sky then joined him by grabbing a pillow off of the couch and laid down beside Hyrule’s chair. “He’s got a point,” Sky voiced, “and the sunlight is so comfortable here.” He let out a yawn which then set off a chain reaction between most of them as the minutes followed.

“How about we go explore?” The champion stated. He looked over at his companions who weren’t currently sleeping or about to be. “I’m itching to do something besides sit and lay around or play cared games,” he shifted his feet towards the hall. “I want to have at least a little bit of an adventure. Now come on!” He then started to scurry to the beginning of the hall.

“Wild wait-’ Twilight was cut off by Wind pushed him in the direction of Wild.

“Let’s go follow him!” Wind then grabbed ahold of Four’s arm and dragged him along too despite the protests.

[gamebunny-advance]

@Civilian AU!Anon

Here's Kayane of the Civilian AU! 

Aw, she’s pretty cute! I like the Miku-style detached sleeves, they’re a cute reference, and the emphasis on the Sakura blossom motif is cute too. I really like the transparent layer on her skirt! I’m a little curious to see how the “black light” phase is going to work since she’s already starting with dark colors. Maybe she becomes a blinding light, lol.

I also like the variations on the teams’ symbols/colors, so they’re still parallels, but still unique for the swaps. Very nice!

More thoughts under the cut since they got too long for the tags and I have some visual aids this time.

I knew that she’d be a mermaid from the silhouettes you sent in, but it’d also be cool to see a non-mermaid Kayane.

Fun Fact: Some of Sayu’s original concepts had her as a bunny themed idol. You can see some of this concept art on the wall during Sayu’s defeat cutscene.

I think that mixing themes can work, but I’m having a hard time following the through line between “Sakura” and “mermaid.” The through line for Sakura seems to be the Japanese pop idol influences. As mentioned before, there are clearly Miku influences in the design and Sakura are associated with Japan first and foremost. And that’s all fine, I think that isolated, all those themes could make a very cute character design.

I guess what’s throwing me off is that *neither Kayane or Sayu are associated with Sakura, so the addition of it makes me want to see an even greater emphasis on it rather than it just be an “icon” on her outfit.

I think I’ve said this before, but when it comes to AUs, I like to see a focus on what makes the AU different from the original, so since the Sakura theme is unique, I would love to see it get pushed further.

I want to see “Kayane if she was a virtual idol like Sayu.” more than, “Kayane if she was Sayu.” I know those statements sound very similar, but there’s nuance that makes them different. The former is a deconstruction and reconstruction of the pieces of each character, and the latter is a fusion of both wholes. Neither is necessarily better than the other, and they both have their places and uses, but I have a preference for the former most of the time.

As a personal example, let’s look at my recent Kun3h0 x 1010 swaps.

I would say that the first pass is closer is a “fusion” because it takes White and puts him Kun3h0′s outfit, just in his theme colors. There are some elements that changed to fit him: the belt accessory now resembles NJ’s screen instead of a rabbit, the heart motif was swapped for a star (I associate White with stars, but that isn’t a canon element), and the design on the boots changed from the speakers to more resemble the original pattern on the 1010s legs. And besides the outfit, there were some elements that were added/changed to keep Kun3h0′s elements from being completely erased: the skin turned pink because Kun3h0 has a human skin tone (and pink is a normal skin tone in the NSR universe) and his irises had to change from white to purple because the sclera aren’t black anymore.

The second pass first asks these questions: What makes a Kun3h0 unit a Kun3h0, and a 1010 a 1010? I decided that the most important parts of Kun3h0 were the rabbit-ear headphones, the boots, and the gloves, so those were going to stay no matter what. Instead of keeping the strict construction of the outfit, I kept the silhouette mostly the same. So he still has the crop top, the shorts, and the sleeves still taper outwards, but the design of the top was changed to be more sailor themed because a key-part of 1010s characterization is the sailor motif. To add onto that, a sailor hat was added to really push the sailor elements since a lot of the other iconography was dropped. The outfit colors were also kept monochrome and black was used in more places to better replicate the 1010′s original uniform.

To me, the fusion reads more as, “White in Kun3h0′s outfit.” while the deconstruction-reconstruction reads more as, “White if he were in the same series of robots as Kun3h0.” I don’t think either is significantly better or worse than the other, but there were different thought processes for both which came to different conclusions for the prompt, “Kun3h0 x 1010 swap”.

I hope that this explains and illustrates what I’m trying to get at.

I know that it would be kinda difficult to really “deconstruct” Kayane because her entire role/design revolves around her relation to 1010, so in an AU where she has nothing to do with them, it makes it a little harder to visually emphasize the things that originally characterized her. However, that being the case means that there’s actually more room to focus on new visual motifs like the Sakura to really make the design your own. You did it with Daphne & Jan with their new underwater motif, so I think you can do it here too.

Again, I really like the direction these are going, but I just know that they can be pushed so much further.

But I don’t always give the best advice, XP. They say that you know you have a good design not when you can’t add anymore, but when you can’t take anything else away, so me asking you to “push” the designs further might not be the best advice and shouldn’t be taken as an absolute. I can only tell ya what I want to see, not necessarily what’s the best choice.

*Strictly speaking, there is a canon flower!Sayu that appears on a poster in the Akasuka district. I find the design itself kinda underwhelming for a themed alt, (it’s no all pink Sakura!Miku), but I know it wasn’t made to stand out on its own: its function is to be a cute themed variation of the character, not totally reinvent her. It’s literally a little poster on the side of a wall that not everyone is even going to take the time to investigate, so I understand not wanting to spend too much time designing a more grandiose flower themed Sayu.

[liz-and-the-blue-bird]

Good Morning to me

Though it is pretty close to noon right now.

Today's soundtrack

We broke up today.

Well, kind of yesterday but we finished talking it all out today.

She was cheating on me but was only emotionally. Hm. The only shouldn't belong in the sentence.

An alternative soundtrack, for if you want something more akin to what I feel right now.

It's a big shame, because I really did feel like she was it. We, in theory, had a lot in common, with just enough differences to make conversations interesting. We had similar hobbies, conversation styles, hell, even libido, everything. She just simply never let me share it with her, at least that's my perspective.

It's kind of weird, because this was the same girl that made me start writing these blog posts to myself when she broke up with me many years ago. You can still see them if you look at the "to me" tag.

I've come to really like this set of articles to myself. I appreciate the sentiment they provide and the care they give, well, "to me." They say what I'm currently doing or what happened, my thoughts on the subject, and, most of all, they're kind to the future me.

I like that they're somewhat public, but not particularly so, as I don't know most of you in person, I don't think.

But I digress, let's focus on the topic at hand.

So I broke up with her. I don't want to get into how I found out, what exactly happened, what even was the cheating itself, because I know down the line when I read this, it will hurt. And I've saved logs and all that of this information so I can find it if I ever want to. So instead I'm choosing to focus on what is positive about this relationship ending.

First of all, because she simply didn't give me time or attention at all in our relationship, I actually have very few associations with her. I put my recent music likes on random and found that very few of them really hit me in the same way that they did when I had broken up with her many years ago. We didn't have any anime we shared between each other because she just didn't want to spend time watching anime via discord with me, even when she said she was excited about it when we first got together. We played 2 total games, one of which I'm not going to play again and the other of which is minecraft. Like in no way am I going to associate her with minecraft that's way too big of a topic. All of that. So I'm somewhat getting away scot-free.

I've never felt more weight-loss motivated in my life. Not gym-going motivation, but weight-loss motivation. I've never really had an issue with going to the gym. I've always had issues with stopping eating. And right now... I really feel driven to calorie count. Mostly because of the following reason:

I... kind of want to make her feel like she lost something big. Well I know she feels this way, she told me herself. She wants to keep it going, will drop the guy she cheated on me with, etc. But I ... just won't be able to trust her. I won't. That's just how it is. But I really want to make her feel like she lost something. I know it's petty, but sometimes it's ok to be petty I think.

So i've set a goal for myself. It's somewhat loose but it's there.

There is one song that I actually somewhat associate her with. It's the Set it off X Miku song. Which is.. a break up song. Well rather, a lost love song.

In the song, the singer says it's been 10 months and 20 days since the break up and they're still thinking about their previous partner.

So, well.

Weight loss target of sub-200lbs in 10 months and 20 days (either December 30th or January 2nd depending on how you count this, I'll go for the more recent one).

I'm somewhat overweight, and I've struggled with it for a long time, but I hope this can keep me maintained on this target for a while. I'd been researching this topic anyway (mostly for the ex girl anyway) so I feel like I have the tools nowadays. At least I hope so.

When I was first broken up with by this girl, I used it as a way to learn how to be better alone. Maybe now I can use it to be better at not being lonely.

Cheers.

And well, good luck.

I won the I love you game because you were busy loving someone else

[slashingdisneypasta]

Slashers + Jennifer Check x Reader || Oneshot

Title: Peeping Toms and Bets

Notes:

This is a remake and revamp of an old Oneshot request I did in my old blog. I hope you like this! 

Jed is changed to Bubba, because in this shot the character does act most like Bubba then Thomas or Jedidiah ^^ 

The 2 would you rather’s were found online.

Plot: Jennifer has invited you over for a sleepover and you ask her a very interesting question. Oh and the boys are all listening together in and betting on your response to the question. 

Warnings: Suggestive or course language. 

Chucky, walks down the hall, headed for the kitchen while he knows the succubus and her friend are hidden away in the living room, feels a harrowing sense of disgust at what he sees. Well, the disgust being only on a strictly face value basis. Mostly he’s interested to hear the excuses his fellow Slashers have for their camping outside the closed living room door while two teenage girls have a sleepover inside. The first one to notice his presence, when he stops is Bubba who was taking a break from straining his ears to listen to whatever’s happening inside and look down the hall. Where he spots the bright hair and plastic features of child terror. He gasps, quickly and quietly, and alerts the others by tapping spatially on Michael and Stu.

They all turn to see Chucky, and Michael’s shoulders drop heavily in exasperation. Can’t he be left in peace? Why’d all these people have to join him? Stu gasps along with Bubba, before dissolving into a slightly guilty turned down grin, on one side, looking to the floor. Freddy has the good humour to look guilty, too. But isn’t really.

“… what the hell are you two doing??!” Chucky finally manages to spit out, past his pure amusement of the, concerning and slightly horrifying, scene. He raises an eyebrow and feels a tad out of place but stands his ground, when Stu and Bubba ‘Shh’ him, violently. Spit breaking from their mouths, he’s sure.

Freddy nearly panics entirely and immediately smacks Stu’s hand away from his face, looking between those two idiots and the door. “Shut up! Both of you, you were louder than him!” While he goes off on the two, Michael just sighs and opts to look back through the crack in the door that he was peaking though. “And you! Shut it! They might hear you, and then we will all be in trouble.”

“’All’??” Chucky exclaims furiously, eyes wide and wholly incredulous. “I’m not playing peaking Tom on teenage girls as an old man- “

Freddy’s voice is barely a whisper, in fact it’s much more like TV static then a human voice, due to his burnt vocal cords. “Don’t get your panties in a twist, they’re dressed. This is not a porn video. To my knowledge girls don’t, in fact, get undressed to sleepover with each other.” Stu mumbles a quiet ‘Yeah, unfortunately’ and pouts, as a couple of them share a moment of silence for the tragic misconception. Including Chucky and even Bubba. Michael rolls his eyes, still stretching his neck to look through the crack, back against the wall. “Haven’t caught a glimpse. We’re just listening.”  

“And you don’t think they’d mind?” Recovered, Chucky smirks smugly, words dripping with sarcasm. Almost evilly, as if he’s 2 seconds from blowing their cover and telling Jennifer-or, worse. Jason, - what they’re up to.

Bubba looks nervous, at that, touching the tips of his meaty pointer fingers together and looking ashamedly thoughtful. But then Michael makes an audible ‘Pfft’ sound from under his mask like he really couldn’t care less if they minded, causing their plastic acquaintance to raise his eyebrows in surprise, he relaxes. If Michael doesn’t care, maybe he shouldn’t either. Michael is cool.  

What would Jason say, though? Just as Bubba’s thoughts on that are immediately shut off, when the TV inside the living room turns off and silences engulfs the area. Then the girls inside start talking, which understandably makes every boy or man on the other side of the wall turn on their listening ears to level 99 and lean towards the sound.

Chucky makes a split-second decision and joins them on the floor. To tell the truth, he doesn’t give a flying fuck whether the girls mind, either. But he had to pick on these assholes, so if Stu doesn’t stop snickering at him, he’s going to cut out the teenager’s tongue, wrap it up and use it as a stress ball. Stu seems to get the message when Chucky connects gazes with him, slowly touches his own tongue, and then mimes violently tearing it out.

//

After the obligatory 3 movies (One romance, one horror which was a tough decision due to your friends living arrangements of course, and one comedy), you and Jennifer stop to recoup and recharge, and start talking. You’re wrapped in blankets and your favourite pyjama’s, and she’s dipping into her coloured popcorn. The only sugar, to your knowledge, that this girl intakes. Its no wonder she’s so gorgeous. She decides on a diet and exercise regimen and sticks to it. Truly amazing. You? Well… you prefer your snacks to a model perfect body.

Surrounding the two of you are many, many pillows and blankets. Some you’ve come to realise were stolen from some of her roommate’s rooms, due to their particular smell and some concerning stains. Also, the one that evidently belongs to Michael has a violent looking hole in it and has stuffing poking out.

Another is a full size Hatsune Miku body pillow, and you don’t dare to ask whos’ room she snatched that one from. Although, you have your suspects. Confirmation, though, is an entirely different experience. And one that you would rather not have.

As you start talking, you dig into your own chosen caffeine for the night. You’re playing would you rather, of course.

Because its fun, to give your friend two horrible or disgusting options and make them choose one.

“Would you rather have uncontrollable gas at work for the rest of your life or for every first date you have for the rest of your life?”

“Work!” Jennifer decides, immediately, apparently horrified by the other prospect. “If I was an uncontrollable fart machine for all of my first dates, I would starve! Who cares if my stuffy boss smells eggs for the rest of his miserable life.”

She sure has some… strong feelings, about her non-existent future boss. You snigger, sipping your drink through a chewed straw. “Okay, okay…”

“Would you rather have an animal best friend, any animal, meaning if it were a bear or a horse you could ride them around, or be married to someone who is peak attractive for you.”

That stumps you, and for a moment you just sit there with your mouth open, thinking furiously. Jennifer grins wide. “A wonderful pet buddy or best sex??” And at that, she starts to laugh a bit, patting your knee. You’re lost! “Impossible!”

“I know what I’d pick-“

“Yeah I know what you would pick. Evil one.”

She laughs some more.

Evilly.

After a couple of minutes of that, her teasing you and you thinking, you finally decide. Although, you only say it very, very quietly and into a pillow, so no higher power hears and grants it.

After that, you feel the need to be evil as well and think for a few moments deeply about wat to ask her… then come up with something perfect. You smirk at her over your pillow and sit it back down on your lap, still holding it. “If the world was ending, and it was up to you to save it, and you did want to save it, and you had to sleep with someone to do that… who would it be?” She immediately opens her mouth to say a name, but you quickly, mischievously hold up your hand halt her, and add the evilness. “Thing is!! It has to be one of the Slasher boys that you live with. Patrick and Carrie don’t count.”

Like you did before, she stops. Slowly closes her mouth, and looks off into the distance. Stuck. “Uh, so… one of… Bubba, Chucky, Freddy, Jason, Billy, Stu, or Michael?”

Oh, damn. You think, realising you forgot to cast out Billy and Stu. Well, that was a bust attempt at causing her strife-

“That’s impossible! What the fuck??”

Oh, okay. That’s kind of sad for Billy and Stu… But, uh, good for you!

//

The creepy group outside the door, which has grown a few more hands and legs belonging to Billy and Jason. The former only being there as he was trying to stop them from being weird but had given up and got tired, so he sat down. Now he was, apparently, apart of this. Somehow.

Billy is here because his DVD player got jammed.

After hearing Y/N’s question, multiple reactions come from these Slashers.

1.       Chucky and Freddy are very creepy and partake in some wolfish grinning that frightens Bubba and puts off Jason.

2.       Stu goes very, very red, and grins a little goofy. He shut down the moment the question was issued, so he didn’t hear the incriminatingly insulting thing that Jennifer hinted about him.

3.       Bubba also goes bright red, and covers his face.

4.       And Billy pauses momentarily, having caught the ego crushing material, then takes a deep breath and sits up straighter. “Oof, so, lets lay some bets?”

Billy holds up 10 fingers, sitting cross legged the furthest away from the door or wall, in general. “For Jen saying Michael.” The said shape of Haddonfield turns gruffly to the Ghostface original, who shrugs and grins his knowing grin. “I could explain it to you, but then you would think I checked you out.”

“Oh no, but in reality, you just watch his movie once a month- once a week in 91.” Stu narrowly escapes Billy’s wrath, ducking out of the way and practically into Bubba’s lap when his friends reaches for his hair. Michael just deeply sighs, along with Jason and continues to watch.

“Moving on from that borderline embarrassing bit of information that I’m sure we’re all going to ridicule you for later, I have a bet too. Since you think she’ll pick Michael, I’ll put 50 on myself.”

“30 on Billy. Despite, his gayness.” Freddy adds, preoccupied listening into the living room, but never too preoccupied to tease.

“I’m not gay!”

“Its okay, Billy, its 2020. You can be open with us.”

“Fuck you man, you suck, you’re going down on the favourite Slasher list.”

Freddy just giggles at that, turning his full concentration back on Jennifer.

Jason sighs deeply, his shoulders literally raising and falling in an obvious effort to make it noticeable. It is noticeable, its just that no one cares that he disapproves. He sighs again, this time quieter to himself, in hopelessness. He refuses to gamble on this.

Stu holds up a hand full of fingers and a thumb, five. “On Y/N picking Jason.” Michael nods to that, agreeing and holding up both his hands, 4 times. He’s got 40 on Y/N picking Jason. Jason himself looks specifically at his fellow voiceless murderer Michael, in horror. He thought better, of him. Michael only shrugs in response, like ‘You shouldn’t have though so highly of me. That was stupid.’. besides, its October, he’s naturally bound to take more risks. Plus, he’s had an odd inkling, that Y/N’s liked Jason for a while. She comes over a lot for Jennifer, but sometimes she hangs with Jason instead.

Chucky smirks at the interaction. “As I’m obligated to always contradict everyone else, I’m going to bet fifty-five, on her picking Freddy.”

“Oh. Hell no.” Billy butts in, unhappy with these high ass numbers. “I’ve been flirting with Y/N for weeks. It’ll pay off, she’ll pick me.”

Bubba doesn’t bet. He remembers how Drayton and Chop Top get when they used to bet on horses, and it wasn’t pretty. He doesn’t want to be like that, no.

//

Jennifer’s still thinking a couple minutes later, and you’re starting to worry when she finally moves. And flops back on her mattress that she’d had Bubba carry down here for her, in the hopelessness of it all. You will be sleeping on the couch, but you’re on her mattress too right now for until you go to sleep. If you go to sleep. This particular question may take some time.

“Uhh… lets see… “You crawl up to her head and plonk down where you can see her face. She chews on the inside of her cheek, and then starts to think out loud for your benefit. “Billy’s our age, and so pretty,” You nod, understanding. He is very pretty. “But… “

“But?”

“Well, but… Michael is so big!” She throws her arms onto the mattress on either side of her body for emphasis, causing you to open your mouth and raise your eyebrows and the boldness, then laugh and nod at the same time. Yeah… yeah… that true too…

And a very interesting point… You think to yourself, dusting a gentle pink across your cheeks.

“Y/N, no. This is not a laughing matter!” She’s grinning, though.

You raise your hands, playing surrender. “No, no, of course not! I’ll stop!”

“You better.”

//

“Stop fucking around!” Freddy exclaims, not loud enough for either of the girls to hear of course. He grits his teeth. “I’m betting on the outcome of your decision, bitch! Shut up and say ‘Billy’!”

“So… “Chucky starts to rethink his decision to bet. “What happens if they don’t decide? Is the game off, or… ?”

Billy halts for a moment, then looks at Bubba for a second. “Oh, yeah Bubba? You think the money should go to the new TV fund?? Well, if you say so!”

Bubba immediately looks panicked and confused, a serious squawk escaping him aimed towards the others. He didn’t say that! He didn’t even think that! Honestly, he thinks it’s should go towards a chicken coup…

Jason quickly pats Bubba’s shoulder, still in a perpetual state of exasperation and tired, but still wanting to assure Bubba that, they know. Billy’s full of crap, we know you didn’t say that.

//

Finally, Jennifer decides and makes an ‘Ah!’ sound, moving her finger from her lips thoughtfully, to the air excitedly. She sits up and faces you.

Oh, this is very serious. It must be. It demands eye contact. “You’ve decided?

“Yes.” Her finger lowers to her shoulder height. “Okay so, I simply boiled it down to a science.”

“You did?” You ask, just humouring her.

“Yes. So,” She starts counting off Slashers from her list of possibilities with her fingers. “First of all, Freddy killed his wife. So, he’s out.” Well that makes sense. “And Billy tried to kill his girlfriend, so even though he’s sexy, he isn’t trustworthy either, so he’s gone too.” So far so good. “Jason’s rotting away, and ‘Au Decaying’ doesn’t really stimulate me to do anything apart from spray him with anti-bacterial and Hello kitty deodorant, despite his wonderful shoulders.” Oh, yes. Jason does have nice shoulders. “Then Bubba’s flesh mask is a complete turn off, Chucky’s a Good Guy, not a bad boy. And Stu’s a weirdo.”

You nod, a smile reaching your lips and the pure simplicity of her end decision, coming to the only conclusion. “So… Michael.”

“Yeah!”

“I don’t think he showers regularly.”

“Eh, neither do a lot of the boys I eat.”

//

Stu is gaping, very wide and very deeply. “A weirdo??” He looks in disbelief to his best friend and the victor. Michael nods, being hurtfully honest with the kid and Billy comforts him with a shoulder pat. He is also reeling. He hadn’t previously identified his Sydney fiasco as a warning for other girls… maybe he should have. This could be an issue.

“Yeah… man, you are a weirdo.”

“Thanks so much, buddy.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome.”

“Bad boy?” Chucky asks, pleasantly surprised. He turns to Bubba, who’s looking indignantly at the door because his fashion is ahead of their time! “Do I have bad boy energy?”

Freddy sulks. “Oh… I get it… “

Jason rolls his eyes at them all. They’re all ridiculous!

//

“What about you?” Jennifer asks, turning the tables on you.

“Me?” You squeak.

“Yeah, you.”

“Well… “You square your shoulders, ready in the face of a challenge. “Well, lemme see… Well, Jason is strong, and sweet- “

“Oh yes.” You wince, at Jennifer’s sudden cold tone, as she squinty glares at you. “I know you think Jason’s sweet. You’ve abandoned me multiple times, to ang with him the kitchen! Betrayal!”

“Aha… ah… well, moving on! Chucky’s got a very hot aura!” You quickly push on, afraid of your friend’s wrath about Jason. “A-and, um… He’s also very handsome as a human, so I guess it wouldn’t be bad if he were in that form… “ Jennifer breaks out into a grin, glad to have made you stutter a bit, and back to her good mood. You sigh, back muscles relaxing. Evil girl.

“Yes, and the rest…?” Oh, she still wants you to answer the question, okay.

“Well. Stu’s tall, and rich. Which, of course, isn’t a deal maker but it’s a good point to mention.” Jennifer nods solemnly at that. “Michael provides a very nice… well, err, he would make a nice nude model. And Freddy’s got a really attractive voice, which I don’t think he knows which is very good thing, don’t let him know. And, Bubba’s so sweet. And Billy… is Billy. I don’t know what to say, he’s been flirting with me for weeks now.”

Jennifer rolls her eyes. “Mood.”

//

“I’m… Billy.” Billy grins, feeling proud of his persona for a moment and puffing out his chest in pride. Chucky gazes at Jason, like ‘Yeah, I guess he is the whole package… ‘, and Jason himself scotches away from the ginger doll. “I knew she was picking it up! I learnt all I know from movi-“

“Me, you know all you know from me.” Freddy cuts through, deadpanned.

“Which explains why she wasn’t jumping for joy when she mentioned it.” Chucky yawns.

“Hey!!” Chucky gets a chuckle out of that reaction from the two.

“Who cares?! This girl is just after my money!!” Stu exclaims, looking hopeless. He chuckles, haughtily then and crosses his arms. “Well guess what? None of its mine! It belongs to my parents! So, ha!” Michael shakes his head and looks disappointedly at the teenager. That doesn’t help your case… It really does not…

“Well Charlie, maybe I don’t need to flirt. My voice does it for them,” A devious smirk slips across Freddy’s face and he evilly cackles after a moment. Jason looks severely exasperated at him, and Freddy just sticks out his tongue. “Jealous.”

Bubba is touched that they think he’s sweet. That’s nice.

___ NOW MAKE YOUR DECISION! ___

Billy Loomis:

“I’m gonna have to disagree with you, Jen.” You grin and can’t help it. Its sort of a nice thought, to have to fuck Billy. “Billy’s the only choice.”

She scoffs and throws some of her popcorn at you.

//

Billy stretches and yawns, like he’s so very exhausted of that thing called being fuckable, and turns to look weirdly smug at Michael. “That’s right, only competition. She chose me.”

“-Only competition!? Excuse you, former bud!” Stu smacks his friend, scowling.

“Well that is what you get for outing my obsession with the Halloween movies to Michael fucking Myers.”

“You bitter thing!”

Bubba Sawyer:

“Aww, Bubba.” You decide, finally truly thinking about the cinnamon roll. You smile. “It has to be Bubba. He’s the cutest, and the nicest one here.” Jennifer makes a ‘yuck’ face.

“The mask??”

“That can be removed.” You reply quickly.

//

Bubba blushes brightly in the dimness of the hallway, pulling away from the wall he was listening to, between Stu and Jason continues to look bashful and gooey at the floor for a little while, until Jason realises he’s going to have to guide him home to hid basement bedroom and looks deeply unamused about it. But, still kind of happy for his-pseudo brother.

“BUBBA?! Who bet on Bubba?!”

Chucky/Charles Lee Ray:

Lowly, with an embarrassed, dark blush on your face, you mutter. “Chucky… “ Jennifer looks two seconds from king shaming you, so you rush to add. “In human form!! Dear God.”

“Oh… “She doesn’t look convinced, making you roll your eyes. “Yeah, sure. You tell yourself that. You go be nasty on the couch.”  

//

Chucky looks smugly at everyone, in turn, very, very happy with the outcome of that despite not winning the bet. “Yeah.” Freddy scowls at him.

“Don’t you look at me.”

“Yep, me.” Chucky ignores him. “Suck it.”

Freddy Krueger:

Realising who it would have to be, you widen your eyes and consider lying. But of course, decide to be honest. “Uh… well, um, Freddy… yup.”

She raises her eyebrows. “What if he goes batshit and tries to choke you to death?”

You laugh, at that. “Honestly, I do think choking would be a part of it, but in the case of danger I’ll just call you!” You grin cheerily at her. “Best friend!”

“Aye,”

//

“I don’t understand her.” Chucky feels the need to inform everyone. “But I just one the bet so good on her.”

“Four weeks, of my wonderful flirting, and I’m stabbed in the gut.” Billy groans, and throws is money on the floor. Shaking his head, he gets up and leaves, put out.

Stu sniggers, and gets up to follow him, turning back just to tell the others. “He’ll never recover.”

Freddy looks like he thinks he’s just won an Oscar. “I’d like to say a couple words!”

“Oh, christ.”

“I’d like to thank all my competitors for losing, and uh,” he finishes shining one of his knives on the edge of his jumper. “I promise to say hi to Y/N for you all later tonight when I visit her in her dreams.” Michael facepalms.

Jason Voorhees:

Finally, you decide and nod your head firmly. And exclaim, cheerily. “Jason! He’s perfect, I love, what a guy.”

When you look at Jennifer, immediately you let out a ‘YAH!’ scream and jump back, seeing her horrifying aura.

“I NEW THERE WAS SOMETHING GOING ON!”

“Stop itttttttttt!”

//

Stu facepalms. “Why did I only bet five???”

On the other hand, Michael smirks proudly under his mask, collecting his money. Yep, Jason. What a guy, indeed.

Everyone else, looks to the hockey mask wearing Slasher, who this whole time was against their listening and betting. How will he react?

He… has gone into silent shock. He may need some minutes alone. You… him?? You would pick him??? You… would pick him?? He raises his eyebrows under his mask like ‘Oh’. What is he supposed to do with this information?

“Yeah, I know hockey puck. This may be a shock for you, being ugly and all, but- Jason?”

Jason’s already up walking thoughtfully down the hall.

Michael Myers:

“Ahh, I have to agree with you. Totally Michael.”

“Told you!”

//

Michael but sits and experiences his punishment, which is many, many upset Slasher outcry’s.

“Both of them??!”

“Greedy bitch.”

“How??”

Michael sighs, and turns to an indifferent Jason for help. Jason looks at him and feels zero remorse for him, he brought this upon himself. He should not have been betting and spying.

Stu Macher:

“Well, these are all… interesting choices,” You start, cautious. “But, um… I think will go with Stu. Very cute, very funny. Very not connected to anything rotting, and... less stabby, then the others..”

“Well, that’s true. Probably a good choice.”

“Yeah,” You smile. “Okay, so, moving on. About that movie… “

//

Stu has this goofy ass, shocked, love struck look on his face that makes the rest of them a little nervous for about 2 seconds. Chucky takes the initiative pokes him. “Hey, Daffy Duck, what wrong with your fac- “

The 2 seconds ended, and so does Stu’s quiet, as he lunges up and grabs the doorknob, ready to throw it open and rush on in there and blow all their covers. Michael immediately shoots to action and grabs Stu’s leg to stop him, fighting not to let Stu shake him off. Everyone tries to vein to persuade him not to go, shut him up and clam him down, but their efforts are weak compared to the power of a horny teenager.

“Hey, hey!” Chucky exclaims, through everyone’s panicked whispered, grunts and frantic arm waiving, patting Michael on the shoulder. “… he’s gone.” With that out, Chucky shoots down the hallways as fast as his little legs can take him. Michael and Billy follow, because like hell they are going to get caught because Stu’s stupid, and Stu bursts into living room, revealing the other 3 still on the floor in the doorway… Freddy, incriminatingly on his knees just where the crack in the door would be, slowly, awkwardly waives and Jason bows his head in apology.

Bubba bolts.

[shadowbanki]

Symphony Saga: Resonate: Haku Arc Outline (so far)

Chapter 1 (Brief cold opening where the big underlying plot is vaguely explained.) (Brief run-down of Haku’s life, and her grandmother’s recent death) Chapter 2 November 29... Haku and Neru are two misunderstood, troubled, 16-year-old students who meet at lunch and break period. They both have autism and are ostracized for it. Haku shows Neru her stuffed kitten Snowbell, and they bond and talk about nice things. There was pizza for lunch, but it ran out because the bullies pushed Haku and Neru to the end of the line. Haku and Neru had to eat nasty asparagus coleslaw casserole instead. The day isn’t looking too good for them... but at least they met each other. Haku is happy to have met a new friend. Chapter 3 Everyone starts talking about Haku and Neru and teasing them. Bullies start sticking Neru with needles during her walk to gym class. In gym class, Neru can’t walk far because the lunch upset her stomach. During the 5-mile marathon outside that the boot camp teacher made the class do, Neru lags behind in the rain. The rain turns into a thunderstorm while Neru is outside. The entire school loses electricity during this time. Meanwhile, Haku has a breakdown in math class because she is reminded about her grandmother’s recent death, and has to go to the counselor’s office alone in the dark. And the school is big and even scarier in the dark. Haku then trips and falls down the stairs. Neru ends her school day in the nurse’s office, and getting painful rubbing alcohol being put in where bullies sticked her with needles. The counselor’s office is nearby, and they see each other there. Haku and Neru have both had a horrible day. But finally, they can see each other again. Chapter 4 Haku and Neru meet again after school, and decide to run away together. Haku’s mother is always late home from work, and Haku’s dad is nowhere to be found. Haku’s mother is very neglectful and Haku is convinced her mother wouldn’t miss her. Meanwhile, Neru is an orphan and lives with her mean grandmother. Haku and Neru pack away their important things and run away to the mall where they find a secret room with a magical mirror. They get sucked through, and end up being transported to the magical world of Whimsica, in the town of Speckle Town! After stepping through the mirror, Haku’s plush cat Snowbell comes to life. They are sent out through a portal mirror that is in the magical world. This mirror is a one-way portal, meaning they cannot go back through it to get back to Earth. The mirror is located in a wooded area in Speckle Town. “Where am I?” They both ask each other. Snowbell, who is now alive, jumps from Haku’s arms and begins to wander off. Alarmed, Haku and Neru follow after Snowbell, and notice a very magical feel about the woods. They eventually make their way out of the forest and into Teto’s magical bakery. Luka is there too. (Magical and whimsical food!) (Add more details) (Introduce Luka’s pet, Tako Luka) (Haku and Neru spend the night at the empty housing space in the Cozy Building, which is a large apartment complex that also has things like a store, recreation center, and clinic. Others who live there are Ame and her parents, Teto and her parents, Taya and his parents, Ritsu and his parents, Miku and her little sister Mizu, Chapter 5 November 30. Haku and Neru attend their first day of Adventure Academy. Haku and Neru have two classes out of six where they are together. Snowbell also gets to go to school with Haku. In one class where she is alone, Haku meets friends named Ame and Joy. Snowbell makes friends with a little lioness cub named Buttersotch. Neru hangs out with Luka a lot. Teto hangs out with her friend Momo and tells her about the new students. At lunch, everyone meets together. A villain attacks. (The villain, however, doesn’t show their face, but they turn something into a monster.) (Haku and Neru unlock magic powers in order to fix things!) (Sparkle and Twinkle randomly show up and tell the two how to use their newfound powers...) December 1... It’s the birthday of an outgoing, popular person at school. They get to have a school-wide party that cuts through class time. In one of Neru’s classes, she notices a person who is quiet and seemingly standoffish. Apparently his name is Wallace. Wallace is quite tall, doesn’t talk much, nor does he show much expression. He is always working on something secret under his desk, and he’s very good at hiding it. Everyone spreads rumors that Wallace is doing something “bad.” Neru doesn’t believe the rumors and senses that Wallace is misunderstood. She wants to confirm that he is a good person, so she sticks around after class. Neru doesn’t mean to be eavesdropping, but when Wallace thinks nobody is around, Neru catches sight of what he creates. He makes small stuffed toys. Neru thinks it’s nice that he has a hobby he’s so passionate about, but she sees something else unexpected. Wallace passes by a drop-off donation box for children who cannot afford holiday gifts and drops the toys he made in it. Neru comes out to talk to Wallace then. He has a startled and flustered reaction. “Ah! Please tell me y-you didn’t see anything... I mean... um... I wasn’t doing anything... okay? You saw NOTHING?” “Huh?” Neru asks. “I don’t get it. You’re doing something so nice, but... you don’t want people to know or see?” “Ah... well... it’s....” Wallace turns red. “It’s... embarrassing.” “...Why?” Neru says. “Well...” Wallace says. “The toys I make... they aren’t very good... I guess... not yet, anyway...” “But... I don’t think that matters at all.” Neru says. “I’m sure the kid who receives your gift that you put so much heart and care into will be overjoyed when they see it.” Neru looks in the donation box, even though Wallace tries to stop her. “Aw, they’re not bad at all.” She says, seeing what he made “Ah, well... my father... used to make stuffed toys.” Wallace says. “They were much better than mine. He passed away a few years back. Lately I’ve been feeling down, so my uncle told me I could use the skills I learned from him to make people happy... and well...” “Well... does it feel nice though?” Neru asks. “Knowing you’re making people happy?” Wallace’s face lights up with an unexpected smile. “Yeah!” He says. “That’s great.” Neru says. “Well, I’m Neru. And well, I already know your name. Wallace, right?” “Yeah, but... um... I’d like to be called Wally, please...” Wallace says. “That’s what I’d want my friends to call me.” “Oh. All right then, Wally.” Neru says. However, two ridiculous villains (Maddie and Sadie, the mad and sad clowns) show up and try to destroy Wallace’s things he worked so hard on. Stelle, Lunette, and Celestine show up. They give Haku and Neru advice and tell them a message from Queen Rainbow, the Queen of Whimsica... Apparently, Haku and Neru have been recruited into a group that fights for justice all around Whimsica. All they have to do to participate is to continue to be true to themselves and to continue to use their magic, determination, and kindness, to settle problems. After this fight, Maddie and Sadie end up reforming and becoming good. They join Gladys, the glad clown, and form a trio to make people laugh. Intermittently in the story, Haku’s backstory about her brother Dell, who she lost before her parents divorce, had been told. We also get to know of Haku’s cousin Miku, who mysteriously disappeared. December 2 During lunch, Haku catches sight of Miku, her cousin and treasured friend from childhood who mysteriously disappeared one day. They have an emotional reunion. Haku offhandedly comments to Miku about her lost brother Dell again, but notices Miku grows a sour expression on her face at the mention of his name. However, soon enough, things are attacked again... and the villain this time is... Haku’s long-lost brother, Dell? Dell has been notorious in the school for being evil and causing trouble for the innocent. Miku, who also has magical girl powers, transforms and begins to fight Dell. Haku is in disbelief and is saddened watching two precious people from her childhood fight. “Dell... this can’t be!” She cries. “I know you aren’t like this... you were so sweet to me. You can’t really be on the side of Monochrome. You just can’t!” Dell has a completely different and mean look in his eyes than the gentle look Haku remembered from childhood. Dell doesn’t even remember Haku. He appears completely cold, and he seems sinister. Dell is creating monsters to terrorize and destroy peace, while not even seeming to bat an eyelash. Haku is heartbroken at having to fight Dell, but Neru urges her she has to do it. Eventually after a strong attack is fired at him, Dell retreats... Haku is left crying, deeply affected at what she just experienced. December 3 Haku had spent the last night thinking of what to do if Dell shows up again. Haku is a bad cook, but she stays up all night making a batch of the cookies Dell used to eat when they were still living together as children. She doesn’t give up until they taste exactly the way they did that time. Dell shows up again and Haku begins pleading to him. Dell begins charging an attack, getting get ready to hit Haku, but Haku just stands there. Everyone watches, thinking Haku is nuts. Haku starts singing to Dell. She sings to him the song Dell always sang to her when they were little. Dell suddenly remembers Haku. Precious memories... they begin flooding his mind. It shows, because he grows a soft expression stops charging the attack... But all of a sudden, he shakes them off and charges at her with a punch. Miku pushes Haku out of the way and continues to fight Dell. Haku is crushed once more. Miku notices Dell isn’t fighting with full force today, and he retreats. Miku even notices Dell seemed like he was fighting back tears. December 4 Dell shows up again, and this time, a group is with him. Dell has a really sad look in his eyes this time... Haku tries to give Dell the batch of cookies she made, but Dell rejects them and begins to fight Haku. Suddenly, all targets are on Haku. Haku defeats most of the group except for Dell and the mysterious leader of his group, and is in bad shape. The leader of Dell’s group attacks Haku. He is very powerful. To Haku’s surprise, Dell jumps in and helps Haku fend off the attack. “Haku...” Dell speaks. “It’s okay now. I’ll fend him off myself. You stay safe. I don’t want you to get hurt!” “Dell... Dell! No! I can’t... You’ll get hurt too...” Haku begins crying. To Haku’s surprise, the man says something strange... “Betrayal, huh? From my own children, huh?” “I’m NOT your son!” Dell shouts. Haku’s face turns white. “You can’t deny facts.” He says. “You are my son, Dell. And... Haku. I am your father.” Haku is too shocked to speak for a couple seconds, but... “No!” She shrieks. “You are not! You’re a part of Monochrome! You’re evil. You’re the one took Dell away long ago. You made him like this! You raised him and brainwashed him to be just like you! Dell... he was always very sweet to me. He was always protecting me. He’s even protecting me now! He never wanted to be a part of Monochrome! Now I will protect him from you! Begone!” Haku hits Gin with an ultra-strong attack, and Dell joins in. Gin decides he cannot handle it, so he retreats so he can live another day. Haku and Dell did not defeat him this time. But at least they chased him away...

[yellowocaballero]

You And Me (And Your Friend Daisy)

Thanks for pushing me to finish this, Anon! This is a short, fun, and romantic story written in the verse of my other fics Bell, Book, and Candle and No Sin But Ignorance. Takes place some time post the ending of No Sin But Ignorance. That being said, this is probably very comprehensible without knowledge of those fics, so feel free to just view it as a no-apocalypse au. The majority of this was written while writing Feste - more accurately, when I needed a break from the crushing depression of Feste, so that’s why it’s so cheerful. :)

Yes, it’s named after that Garfunkel and Oates song, because that’s the plot. 

The rest of the story is under the cut!

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

“Are you going to tell me where we are?”

“You have to guess! And no peeking!”

Jon sighed, slouching in his seat. He hated surprise vacations. He hated being forced to leave work and ‘take a break’ because ‘you’re contractually obligated to use your PTO hours’. And he did take vacations, he didn’t know why everybody acted like he didn’t. He and Georgie took Gerry to Blackpool once a year for Spring Break. That was a whole week off. That was enough for anybody. 

But Martin had been pointedly sending him emails about ‘fun couple’s trips’ and ‘romantic getaways’ in an ultra-subtle act of subliminal messaging. Indeed, the three emailed promotional advertisements listing off fun, relaxing, and romantic things to do with your significant other were so subtle that Emma was forced to listen in on the automated JAWS voice reading them out and then call him a ‘fucking idiot’. 

Whatever. It wasn’t as if Gertrude took any vacations, and nobody got on her back for it. Jon was willing to bet that Dekker never sent Gertrude any passive aggressive emails. He would have to ask him later - they got boba together once a month, he was an excellent conversational partner. He was, of course, slightly insane, both for his fervent adherence to the ancient religions and willingness to come within five feet of Gertrude Robinson for personal reasons, but all the best supernatural hunters were. 

“Well, we’ve clearly been driving north for the past eight hours, judging from the angle of the sun,” Jon said, annoyed. The car radio was playing the Archers in a dull drone, which Jon had insisted upon, because he and Daisy never missed an episode. This confused and frightened Martin. A bag rustled, and Jon knew that Martin was fishing around in the plastic convenience store sack for more Jaffa cakes. “Combined with the time, that can only mean that we’re going to Scotland. I don’t have any close friends in Scotland and I’m willing to be you don’t either -”

“Hey!”

“ - so unless you assigned yourself the task of following up on the Scottish Slaughter Statement without me assigning it to you, and deciding to bring me along, I’m guessing that we’re going to stay in a hotel and do...touristy things.”

“Wrong again,” Martin said triumphantly. He liked keeping track of every time Jon was innocently incorrect about something, just to prove it to everyone else. “I mean, yes, we are in Scotland, you’re right about that, but we are not staying in a hotel. We’re staying in the country.”

“Darling, I would love to sit on the Scottish Moors and stare out into the endless, unceasing fog with you in complete silence,” Jon said lovingly, “but I thought you wanted to do something romantic.”

“That’s not romantic?” Martin gasped, horrified. “Have you even read Wuthering Heights?”

“You and Gerry are two peas in a goth pod.”

“He’s goth, I’m gothic. There’s a difference. And don’t tell me that you don’t enjoy gothic literature - you’re literally a Byronic hero.”

“Oh, here we go,” Jon sighed, as the car bumped over a speed bump. He hadn’t heard another car for hours now, and he knew that they had to be in the middle of nowhere. The weather had grown colder, more humid, and occasionally he could hear the bleat of cows. It was...calming. 

Then Martin started listing off the very many reasons why Jon was a classical Byronic hero, then Jon had to remind him that none of that stuff had technically happened, then Martin began insisting that it happened in their hearts, then Jon got deeply engrossed into today’s episode of the Archers and felt the need to inform Martin about its illustrious and aged history, which prompted Martin to put on Hatsune Miku when the episode was over and indoctrinate Jon into whatever ‘Vocaloid’ was, and by the time the car transitioned to skittering over bumpy gravel they were both entering a heated discussion about the most superior of the ‘Vocaloids’. 

“ - and she created Minecraft?”

“And she’s trans,” Martin said heatedly. 

“Good for her,” Jon said, just bemused. The car engine quieted, and keys clinked and rustled. “Are we here?”

“Yep! Seven hours later.” Martin sighed and made a quiet, satisfied noise, probably stretching, and Jon didn’t bother to fight his smile. Man was like a cat. “I want to show you around and everything, but honestly that drive was exhausting and I might take a nap first.” He sighed happily. “Peace. Quiet. No coworkers.”

“I’m your coworker,” Jon pointed out, opening the door of the car as Martin did the same. He stepped onto gravel, grinding his trainer a little into it, and breathed in. The air tasted...fresh. Clean. Pure and just a little chilly. It was nice. It perked Jon up, as the wind lightly tousled his curls. He stretched his legs too, cramped from being knitted up in the small car. Martin popped the boot and started loading packages into his arms, and Jon walked over and held his arms out so he could help Martin carry the packages. Martin dropped a picnic basket filled with snacks in his arms, and handed him his own suitcase, as Martin dropped his own suitcase on the ground with a heavy thump. “How does a teenage girl create a video game? That’s very impressive.”

“This week you are my boyfriend,” Martin corrected him, thumping the boot down. “No Emma getting on my case about misfiling the papers. No Michael concern trolling me. No Eric judging me for my taste in tea. No Gertrude terrifying me every second of the day. I am free. I am not going to think about work, or anybody related to work, for a single second. No Entities. No fear demons. No monsters, besides my boyfriend.”

“Thanks,” Jon said wryly. “Aren’t we forgetting someone?”

“Oh, darn it!” Martin opened the back door of the car, and pulled out a carrier. The wire door of the carrier cinched open and Tiresias came bounding out, barking madly and running in little circles around Jon, his tail beating against Jon’s leg. Jon laughed, lifting his burden higher in his arms, and let Martin loop his arm around Jon’s and guide him towards what he had to assume was some kind of building. “C’mere, boy. Good boy! You were so good for the trip! You’re getting a hundred snacks as soon we get inside.”

“Are you going to tell me where we are yet?” Jon asked, exasperated. 

Martin squeezed his arm happily as they walked up an incline, shoes scuffing dirt. “I got permission from Daisy to borrow it. It’s her cabin, just outside of Applecross. It’s really in the middle of nowhere, nobody around for kilometers. Just us and a great deal of cows. It’s really gorgeous, Jon, with such clean air and beautiful hills. I can’t wait to go for walks with you. You’ll get so much time to go through your audiobook collection. And we can snuggle, and I can cook for you, and we can listen to more radio dramas, and we can talk about our future, and you can pet the cows…”

“Sounds wonderful,” Jon said honestly, squeezing Martin’s arm back. They paused, Martin rustling his keys again, and Jon heard the grinding of metal before a door seemed to creak open. “I can’t wait to spend this week with you. I could use a little peace, I think.”

“Gods, me too. You have no idea how stressed I’ve been. It’ll be just you, me, and -”

That’s when Martin screamed, and Tiresias barked excitedly and ran forward, almost bowling Jon over, and a familiar voice broke the quiet of the rustic cabin. 

“Aren’t you a good boy, Tiresias? Aren’t you a good boy?” Daisy Tonner’s grin was audible through her words, but it held a familiar tint of ferociousness. “Hullo, Jon. Blackwood. What are you doing here a week early?”

“Early!” Martin squeaked. “I said we were coming up the first week of September -”

“Really?” Daisy said, voice casual. Seemingly. “Because I have it down in my calendar as the second week. This is my vacation. And I’m not leaving.”

Silence stretched between them. Jon smiled happily towards the sound of Daisy’s voice, placing his burdens at his feet, and soon Daisy walked forward and enveloped him in a bone cracking hug. 

“It’s so good to see you,” Jon said, hugging her tightly back too. “I’m sure we can share the cabin for the week. It’ll be fun, like a sleepover!”

“Oh, I think so too,” Daisy said, her voice tinged in a wolf’s grin. “Don’t you think so, Martin?”

“Good fucking christ,” Martin said. 

****

True to his word, Martin was exhausted enough that he immediately made the bed and collapsed into it. Jon lovingly took off his shoes and socks and Tiresias even, adorably, pulled the comforter up around Martin’s ears. But Martin didn’t sleep: he seemed preoccupied in angrily muttering to himself about how he didn’t get the time wrong, she did, this was all her fault, and it was also completely on purpose, devil woman, everybody was trying to ruin everything - 

“Love, if I ask her to go, she’ll go,” Jon said. 

“No! Ugh!” Martin screamed lowly, muffled, and Jon realized with amusement he was screaming into the pillow. “It’s her house, she’s doing us a favor, I don’t want to be rude! I can’t kick her out of her own home!”

“Are you going to be passive aggressive at her until she leaves?”

Incriminatingly, Martin was silent. 

“She’s more stubborn than you are. If you try to solve this with your usual methods she’ll outlast you.”

“I hate her so much,” Martin groaned. 

“Don’t say that,” Jon said loyally. “She’s really come around to you, you know. She hasn’t threatened to chop your dick off in - oh, two weeks now. That’s a new record.”

Martin groaned again. Jon kissed him on the cheek, turned the light off - “Jon, you just turned the light on.” - turned the light off for real this time, and went into the living room/dining room/kitchen to start putting away all the food they had brought. He bent over his suitcase, withdrawing Tiresias’ harness, and whistled to call him over before snapping the harness on. Tiresias stiffened into what Georgie called ‘Buisness Boy Mode’, and Jon grabbed his handle with one hand as he loaded the groceries into the other. 

“Here, let me help.” Daisy lifted the other load from the floor, leading the both of them into the kitchen and opening the fridge. “I know Georgie’s organizational system.”

Jon just sighed, slowly navigating his way to the fridge to put his own load away. They had clothing to unpack, things to set up, and arrangements to plan, but Jon had the sense that none of it was getting done immediately. 

“What were your plans for this week?”

“I normally go up here to hunt,” Daisy grunted, sliding cans into the cabinet. At Jon’s raised eyebrow, she clarified, “with guns. They’re all locked up in the gun cabinet, as is my ammo and knives. Neither you nor Martin have the keys, but the cabinet is in a closet near the bathroom. That should be locked too.”

“Goodness, Daisy, I’m not an errant toddler. I won’t play with your collection.”

“You’re my errant toddler,” Daisy said loyally, giving him a noogie and making him scowl. “Say it. Say you’re an errant toddler.”

“Goodness, Daisy, leave me be -”

Then she lifted him up, like he was nothing more than a bundle of sticks, and held him in the air as he screamed and kicked his legs, trying to get down. Tiresias, the Traitor, the Serpent, the King of Lies, barked happily. “Let me down! Daisy!”

“Say you’re an errant toddler and I’ll let you down.”

“I shan’t. Daisy, stop -!” But then she started tickling him, which was extremely dangerous, and Jon was forced to cackle out in breathless laughter, “Fine, I’m a toddler, let me down, you crazy woman!”

She tossed him lightly onto the pull-out couch, putting away the rest of the groceries herself, and Jon let Tiresias sit on top of him and lick his face as he could almost audibly hear Martin pouting in the bedroom. 

“This’ll be fun,” Daisy said, shutting the cabinet and rustling some familiar boxes. “Can’t believe Tim paid me fifty quid to do this. I would have done it for free.”

“Do what?”

“Never mind. I have your copy of Life, do you want to play?”

“Sure!” Jon sat up, feeling Daisy sit down next to him and set out the game pieces. Then something occurred to him. “Wait. What are you doing with my copy of Life?”

“Georgie lent it to me.”

“...why did Georgie -”

“I was going to leave it here for when you came up,” Daisy said easily, and Jon nodded in acceptance. “Spin the spinner to see whose turn comes first.”

Jon considered thinking deeper about this, but Daisy wouldn’t lie to him. She was the most trustworthy person he knew. She didn’t have a deceitful bone in her body. He shrugged and reached forward and found the spinner, giving it a good twist before rubbing his thumb over the braille. Something occurred to him. 

“Maybe we can ask Martin if he wants to join -”

“I’m sure he would prefer his rest.”

“Okay!”

This vacation was going to go great. Why had Jon been worried?

****

That night they had a delicious barbecue outside, cooked by Daisy. Martin ate it in angry silence, which was quickly broken by Jon’s frequent nudges and directions for conversation. He wasn’t the most socially adept person at the best of times, but Martin and Daisy were two of his best friends and he knew how to get the both of them talking. He was even able to draw them into a spirited conversation about 19th century literature - Daisy preferred Russian novels, while Martin preferred Gothic romances and Hugo and Jon tended towards nonfiction. Afterwards Daisy grabbed her gun, kissed Jon on the cheek, did something that made Martin squeak in fear, and tramped off to go hunt deer or something. Jon waved her off with a blessing, his sixth sense thrumming with satisfaction for the Sacrifice. 

He spent the night cuddled up with Martin, watching Beauty and the Beast on his laptop. Martin was obsessed with Disney movies in a way that explained a great deal about him, and Beauty and the Beast was his absolute favorite. Jon ran his fingers through his soft and feathery hair as Martin squeezed his hand, and Jon’s heart settled in complete contentment. The audio description voice droned gently about the heartwarming falling in love montages, but Jon wasn’t really paying attention: he just felt safe, and warm, and as if he wanted the moment to last forever. 

Then his mobile rang, a clear automated voice saying “Gerard calling. Gerard calling.”

“Oh, I should get that.” Jon straightened, throwing out a hand on the coffee table where he thought he had put his phone, and Martin pressed it into his hand. He accepted the call quickly, putting it on speaker and holding it up to his ear just like, he was reliably assured, ‘an old man’. “Hello, honey?”

“Jon!” Gerry yelled. “Did you get the cabin okay?”

“Oh, so everyone knew but me,” Jon said, amused. “You’re on speaker, Gerry, so say hello to Mr. Blackwood.”

“Hi Martin! Are you guys having a good time? You have to take me next time, I want to see Daisy’s guns!”

“You will not see Daisy’s guns,” Jon said quickly. 

“Hi Gerry,” Martin said, a smile clear in his somewhat strained voice. “Sure, you and Georgie should come up next time. Make it a party. Why not.”

“Told you she’d do it,” Georgie said, and Jon perked up. “Hullo, love. How’s your romantic getaway going?”

“Oh, it’s lovely,” Jon said, excited. “We’re going to walk down to the town tomorrow, check out some of their antique stores. I’ll let you know if we find any interesting art.”

“I’ve been up to Daisy’s cabin a few times with Melanie, it’s delightful. Great place for her to hunt and for me to practice my carrion photography. It’s always nice just to get away from it all! I hope you haven’t touched any work, Jon.”

“I haven’t,” Jon said loyally. He paused a beat. “Do Statements count? Because I was planning on listening to a few recorded ones as a sort of bedtime story?”

“That’s just self-care,” Georgie assured him. “Treat yourself, queen.”

“Thanks, honey. Make sure Gerry gets his homework done? Do you need any help? I have some time now -”

“I got it,” Georgie said, laughing slightly. “I can still help a fifteen year old with his English. I’ll make sure he brushes his teeth too. Just enjoy yourself.”

“Have a good time, Dad!” Gerry called, the affectionate nickname making Jon smile. “Bring me back a cow!” Slightly more muffled, Jon heard him say to Georgie, “Mum, when Jon goes on a romantic getaway, what do you think they -”

“Night, honey! Night, Martin! Love you!” Georgie called loudly.

Jon laughed, unable to stop himself from waving a little, as if they were there. “Night, you two. Love you too. Stay safe.”

“We will! Bye!”

The line clicked off, and Martin’s arm stretched across Jon’s shoulders squeezed a little tighter. Jon extended a foot and clicked the space bar on the computer, starting up the movie again. 

“You’d make a really good dad,” Martin said, almost to himself. 

Jon settled back against Martin, leaning his head against his shoulder. “I feel like one already, honestly. Obviously, I have far more experience with teenagers than babies, but they can’t be that hard. If I don’t drop them…why?”

Martin coughed a little, abruptly flustered. “No reason! No reason.”

“Do you want kids?”

“Can’t exactly have them biologically,” Martin muttered, before sighing. “Yeah, I’d love to...foster or adopt or something. I’ve had my - differences - with my parents, but I’m still glad they adopted me, you know? I’d like to pass that on. But...better. Much better.”

“Georgie is talking about fostering again once Gerard moves in with Eric,” Jon said quietly. The thought of Gerry moving out, of living full time with Eric again - it just seemed weird. Almost wrong, although it wasn’t - Eric adored Gerry, and he was a competent father. It was just that...well, technically, Gerry had been living with them since the beginning of the universe. On a purely literal level, they really had always had Gerry with them. It would be strange. “As a - recipient of the foster care system myself, I’d like to make a difference too.” He smiled thinly. “We’re very compatible, aren’t we?”

“Would it be...you and Georgie…?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

Martin sighed a little. “Is it dumb that sometimes it feels like you already have a family built in?”

Hm. Jon hadn’t quite thought about it that way. “You know those jokes about me and Georgie being married are just jokes,” Jon said reproachfully. 

Martin moved away a little, leaning forward, slipping his arm from Jon’s shoulder. He abruptly missed the warmth. “But you’re partners. You’re raising a kid. And I know Daisy and Tim think of themselves as your overprotective big siblings, they aren’t even wrong.”

“Many people have siblings? And friends? Some even have kids, I’ve heard.”

“I don’t.” There was really nothing for Jon to say to that, so he didn’t say anything. “I don’t want my entire social circle to just be through you…”

“It won’t be,” Jon said firmly, reaching out a hand and brushing it against Martin’s arm. He squeezed it firmly. “You don’t have to be Lonely anymore, Martin. I won’t let you.”

“Is that a promise?” Martin said, as if he was joking, as if Jon wasn’t certain that he wasn’t. As if he needed the reassurance. 

“How can you be lonely when I’m here?” Jon said, and trailed his hand up along Martin’s arm until he reached his neck and he could cup his face. He rubbed a thumb against his wispy stubble, light and thin. “I’m right here.”

Martin kissed him, and then the movie was quite thoroughly forgotten as Jon necked with his boyfriend on the couch like a teenager. They forgot everything, and for a small period of glorious time Jon forgot everything that he knew, in all of its entirety, and his Eye saw only the here and now. 

Then the door thumped open, the wind blew into the cabin, and heavy footsteps thumped into the room. Something dragged behind the footsteps, something that sounded a bit...wet. 

Martin, who was thoroughly on top of Jon and almost done unbuttoning his shirt, froze. Jon just craned his head, trying to hear the sounds of what was likely a dead deer being pulled in through the entrance way better. 

“Hello Daisy!” Jon said, still pinned down. “How was your hunting?”

“Lucrative. We’re eating venison tomorrow.”

“Great! Need any help getting that put away?”

“No, I’m good.” Tiresias barked happily. “Here, boy, you can have a little. Good boy. I’ll probably skin and clean it outside, I just wanted to get my gloves.”

“Take your time!”

Martin sighed and got off Jon, straightening his own clothing. “Yeah, Daisy, take your time.”

“Oh, am I interrupting something?” Daisy said blithely. “I didn’t mean to.”

“You’re fine,” Jon assured her, fixing his own hair from where it had grown tangled. “Want to finish this movie with us?”

“Sure, let me gut this animal first.”

“Great! Scooch over, Martin.”

“You know,” Martin said, “maybe we want to move to the bedroom?”

“If we stay in the living room I can hook up your laptop to the television and we can watch the movie that way,” Daisy said innocently. 

“That sounds good,” Jon agreed. He patted Martin’s hand. “Is that alright with you?”

Martin sighed. “Yeah. Of course.”

That night, Jon curled up next to Martin on the creaky wooden bed, listening to the flies buzz around them and the crickets hiss their lilting song outdoors. 

His earbuds were still nestled in his ears, the soft hum of his Walkman cutting the quiet night, his own pre-recorded voice reading out a story. Martin sat next to him, and occasionally Jon could hear the soft shift of the pages of a book turning. Every so often Martin would gasp, or make a little noise at some exciting event in his book. 

Jon rolled over, throwing out an arm and pulling Martin in close, resting his head on Martin’s shoulder as he let the earbuds roll gently out of his ears. Martin was soft and warm, the cotton of his t-shirt rubbing up against Jon’s cheek, and Jon let his mind gently bliss out and drift away. 

He thought about the breakfast he wanted to make the next morning, and of the soft beat of Scottish sun on his face. He thought about the creak of cobblestones as jumped-up jalopies rolled over them, and of the shifting and groan of old wood. He thought of the bright, sharp summer smell of the highlands, and the sinking and sticky marshland. 

“We should visit the antique store in town tomorrow,” Jon murmured. “Georgie’s been looking for a new lamp, and I think they should have a nice Rococo one for cheap.”

“Oh? Maybe I can pick something up too.” Martin gently scratched Jon’s scalp, making him bliss out even further. “Nice of you to always loop us in on the best deals, you little shopping catalogue.”

They, of course, had not been to the town yet, and there was no reason for Jon to know of the antique store, or the Rococo lamp. Jon hadn’t even thought about it, the information as available and easy as the layout of the convenience store down the street and a left turn from his childhood council flat. 

Martin’s voice broke the quiet, cutting through the buzz of insects. “You know I love you, right?”

“I know everything,” Jon yawned, snuggling into Martin’s side closer. 

“Not what I meant.” Martin hesitated, almost awkwardly. “You’re a literal mind reader and everything, but I’m not, so…”

“Oh, Martin.” Jon reached a hand up and cupped Martin’s cheek. “I built this world from the bedrock of my love for you.”

“Uh - wow! That’s - it’s kind of weird how you can just say that and have it be true!”

“Our lives are weird,” Jon agreed, brushing his thumb over Martin’s lips, and he carefully leaned his head up to kiss him, and they passed the long silent minutes just like that. 

Several hours later, Jon found himself jerking awake. Martin was snoring beside him, and he couldn’t feel any sun on his face, so Jon figured it was likely still nighttime. He carefully slipped out of bed, reaching out a hand and trailing it along the wall until he managed to leave the bedroom, navigate down the hall, and enter what he was fairly sure was the living room. 

“Jon?” A voice broke the night. Daisy, who had taken the pull-out couch. “You looking for the loo?”

It was only then that Jon realized that he didn’t know why he had gotten up. Tiresias snored loudly in the kitchen, adding a subtle undertone to the noise from outside, and Jon found himself shrugging helplessly. “I don’t think so. Did I wake you up?”

“Nah. Hold tight, I’ll help you to the couch.” Sure enough, after the almost silent footsteps echoed through the main room Jon felt a soft hand on his back, and she led him towards the couch. Jon lightly kicked it, testing its height, and gently lowered himself onto it, the springs of the pull-out bed breaking through the night. “What has you up?”

Jon just shrugged again. The bed creaked beside him, and he felt calloused fingers carding through his hair with gentleness that would have been surprising to most people. 

“Am I a bad boyfriend?” Jon asked, surprising himself. He hadn’t even known he was thinking that. 

“Did Blackwood tell you that you were?” Daisy asked sharply. 

“No! No, not at all.” Jon sighed. “I just...I just have different needs than him.” He could already tell what Daisy was thinking, and he shook his head. “Not about the - the you know what thing. I just...I know how much he loves me. I know what he thinks of me, I know his dedication to me. Sometimes I just assume that he’s - capable, of what I’m capable of. Do I not tell him I love him enough? Am I not affectionate enough?”

“You aren’t as perceptive as you think you are, Jon,” Daisy said, amused. “I think you’ll find that Blackwood has quite a few more secrets than you think he does.” She untangled her fingers from his hair and squeezed his arm. “Blackwood’s insecure. All insecure people want mindreader boyfriends. But you force him to use his words and ask for what he needs, Jon. It’s uncomfortable. But it’s good for him. He needs to learn to speak up for himself.” She hummed slightly. “He reminds me of Basira, a little. She’ll never tell you that you bothered her, and she just lets it pile up and up. But then you go just a little too far, and then she explodes all of that pent up anger and frustration on you. She likes to pretend she’s a real robot, but she’s just as human as the rest of them.”

“I’m so terrified of Basira,” Jon said miserably. “Remember when I dropped a plate and she told me that the reason why my gran didn’t love me was because I was an attention seeking nine year old?”

“She’s so mean. I love her so much.” Daisy patted Jon on the back. “Buck up. I’m working on Blackwood. You focus on enjoying your vacation.”

Jon let himself lean to the side, resting his head on Daisy’s shoulder. “I’m worried that Martin will realize that I’m not capable of expressing romantic affection in a socially typical manner and leave me.”

“God, shut up, whiner.” But the bed creaked and Daisy’s head gently slid out from under his shoulder, and Daisy gently helped Jon to his feet. “I’ll get you back to bed. Bitch about your imaginary relationship problems to me in the morning.”

Translated: I love you, I’ll always be here for you, and goodnight. Jon huffed a quiet laugh. “Aren’t the lights off? How can you see anything?”

When Daisy spoke again, a quiet bass growl echoed underneath her words, and Jon grinned with her. He Knew, like how he Knew that he loved Martin enough to destroy the world, that Daisy’s eyes were flickering yellow in the darkness. “Don’t be fooled by appearances, Jon.”

She helped him back to bed, and when Jon slept through the rest of the night he dreamed of nothing but Martin’s weight on his. 

****

“What a beautiful morning!” Martin said loudly. “The birds are chirping, the Scottish highlands are beautiful, I am here on my romantic vacation away from everybody with only my lovely boyfriend for company - and Daisy Tonner!”

“Glad to be here,” Daisy said affably. 

“This is so much fun!” Martin said, still loudly.

“I think so too!” Jon said enthusiastically.

Tiresias barked. 

After a breakfast pointedly prepared by Martin, they all got dressed and saddled up to go walk into the village. It was a quick walk, only about twenty minutes, and Martin and Daisy enjoyed the scenery as Jon enjoyed the warm grip of Martin’s hand in his and the breeze on his face. 

When the trail began sloping further downhill, and their footsteps began to slide against the incline, Jon pulled what Gerry would have called a ‘pro-gamer move’ and moved his grip up until he was clinging to Martin’s arm. Martin sprayed a hand out, resting it against Jon’s back, and helped him down the trail. 

“Whoah! You alright, honey? Careful of your step!”

“Jesus christ,” Daisy muttered. 

“It’s hardly Jon’s fault -” Martin began heatedly. 

“Yeah, Daisy,” Jon said, delighting in setting them against each other like the cold, uncaring god he was, “check your privilege.”

Then they were off, because despite Daisy was allergic to social consciousness, and Jon whistled a jaunty tune, composed in the 15th century and unknown to all but its lonely shepherd creator, as they navigated their way downwards. 

The village was small, nothing more than two streets with cheerful wooden facades and swing porches set out on the decks with wizened elderly people sipping from bottles of Irn Bru and smoking down cigarettes to the dregs. At least, as narrated by Martin, who seemed to already be mentally writing his small-town murder mystery in the Scottish highlands (Martin’s poetry needed work, but his fiction held a certain massmarket appeal). Knowing Martin, the protaganist would likely be either a grandmother with his own personality, or a thirtysomething gay man who had twelve counts of arson on his record and was running from the cops. 

Wait. Wait, Jon should use his words. Ask instead of look. Display interest in Martin’s inner life - which, granted, seemed to be a waste of time when Jon could just Know and not waste his breath, but Georgie had been coaching him in this. 

“You should give the ex-con narrator a boyfriend,” Jon said supportively. “Maybe bring back the gay bar owner from the last book?”

Martin almost tripped over the gravel. “How did you know I was thinking of - Jon, I told you not to read my mind!”

“Lay off, you know he doesn’t do it on purpose,” Daisy said uninterestedly, growling at what Jon guessed were passerby on the street. 

“Daisy, stop telling me how to talk to my boyfriend -”

“Oh, he’s your boyfriend now, is he?”

“Yes! Yes, he is!”

“Let’s get some ice cream!” Jon said loudly. 

“How did you even know there was an ice cream - fine! Fine, of course!” Martin sighed loudly. “Why not!”

As it turned out, they were right in front of ice cream. Jon loved it when things worked out. 

****

Twenty minutes later, after Martin laboriously reading out all of the entirely too many flavors to Jon, Daisy growling at everybody at the store like an errant dog, fighting with the owner of the store extremely politely about his actual dog existing, and finally taking their ice cream outside to sit at a picnic bench and attack their waffle cones, Jon felt content. 

He indicated this by telling everybody everything he knew about emulsifiers, which were extremely neat and a lot of fun! Because nobody was stopping him talking by saying ‘let’s talk about something else, Jon’ or ‘isn’t that a bit boring, Jon?’ he moved onto the history of waffle cones, safe in his assumption that everybody was as interested in the topic as he was. 

“I love you so much,” Martin said, somewhat dazed, when Jon stopped to draw a breath. “Did you know that this is the second time this has happened?”

That stopped Jon short, when nothing else did. “Really? Has it?”

Martin’s spoon scraped his small paper bowl. “Yep. Uh - for my birthday, I think. Me, Tim, and - and Sasha, and you. You ordered rum raisin. I was thinking...did you actually like rum raisin? Or did you just panic?” He laughed, somewhat self-consciously. “You didn’t remember about it even before the whole apocalypse thing, so no sweat, but…”

“Oh.” Jon realized, for probably the fifth time, that Martin held years and years worth of memories in him, and that Jon had only fragments and impressions. He knew that he had everything important, that everything he needed was within him, but - did he? What if he was missing the key to everything, the key to Martin, and all he needed was to just Look deeper? “That’s - I could remember it, if I wanted.”

“It’s fine, Jon,” Daisy said quietly. “Don’t go giving yourself a migraine.”

“I could,” Jon insisted. “I’d like to remember something like your birthday, Martin. Precious memories, or - or something. Give me a moment, I can send a quick prayer, and -”

“You know,” Martin said, and he squeezed Jon’s hand. “I’d rather make new memories right now. Where we are right now, that’s - that’s the most important place, innit?”

Jon smiled at him, and he knew, in the most mundane of ways, Martin was smiling back. “I like to think so too.”

“Ugh,” Daisy teased, although perhaps to an outsider it may have sounded mean, “get that sappy shit outta my face.”

“You’re just as bad with Basira,” Jon shot back, smiling. “You two are in love -”

“Take that shit back,” Daisy hissed. 

“You want to get married -”

“Who told you!”

Jon tapped the lens of his glasses smugly. “A little Eye told me.”

“Beholding cuck.”

“No, that’s Peter -”

“Martin would know all about Peter, huh?” Daisy sneered, and the pressure on Jon’s hand intensified for a brief second before it withdrew completely, leaving his hand cold and empty.

“Jon, can you give me and Daisy a few minutes of privacy, please?” Martin said pleasantly. 

Jon raised an eyebrow, licking the ice cream dripping down his hand. It was Vast flavor. Tasted like...ozone. “Why?”

“He doesn’t know the area, you can’t send him off alone,” Daisy shot back, strangely smugly. “Come on, Blackwood. Whatever you want to say to me, you can say it in front of him.”

“You know what, fine. Fine!” Martin thumped the table, making Jon start and Tireasias stiffen. “I have done nothing that warrants this kind of treatment from you. You are disrespecting me, disrespecting my relationship, and you are insulting my fucking intelligence. I appreciate you loaning us your cabin, but if I knew that it would come with strings attached then I would have paid for my own bloody hotel! Why are you doing this!”

“Tim gave me fifty quid,” Daisy said, like the wolf that had caught the canary. “Plus it’s fucking funny.”

“Done what?” Jon asked, confused. 

“I want you out of my vacation, Daisy,” Martin hissed. “If you won’t leave the cabin, then I am booking my own Air BnB and that’s fucking final! I don’t care if I have to - to fight you in the street about it, I can and I will, you don’t want to mess with me -”

“Sure.”

Martin stopped short. Jon licked his ice cream, fascinated by the drama. “What?”

“I said sure,” Daisy enunciated clearly. “I was waiting for you to fucking say it. I told Basira I’d be home by tonight, anyway. Knew you’d snap.”

“I - what! What! What?!”

“You’re a pushover, Blackwood,” Daisy said. “Your coworkers, your friends, everyone - they just walk all over you. It’s fucking stupid. You are the archival assistant who survived the apocalypse with memories and sanity intact. You lasted longer on the position than anyone since Emma Harvey, and you didn’t have to lose your soul to do it. You looked Elias in the face as you burned his Archives down. You’re not a pussy. And I was sick of seeing you act like one. It’s fucking annoying.”

“I hate you so fucking much,” Martin whispered, somewhat in shock. 

“Well, I hate seeing my best friend date a passive aggressive loser, so we’re both unhappy.” Daisy stood up, feet shuffling against the cement, and Jon felt her press a kiss against his forehead. “You two have a nice day out. I’m going to go hunt things, and head back to London. Take care of yourself, Jon. And cut out the PDA, it’s gross.”

Suddenly, violently, with a crushing realization, the entire vacation was recontextualized. 

“I don’t appreciate any of this,” Jon said crossly, scowling in her direction. “Honestly, Daisy, you don’t -”

“Blame Tim. Love you, Jon. Love you, sweet puppy. See you later, Blackwood.”

Jon and Martin sat in silence as the sound of footsteps receded from Jon’s hearing, and the low murmur of the small village set in around them. Martin still seemed to slightly be in shock, his ice cream slowly melting, and Tiresias yawned sleepily in the sun. 

“I hate her so fucking much,” Martin whispered. 

But Jon just smiled, and reached out to brush a thumb over Martin’s close-cropped hair. He leaned in, whispering into Martin’s ear. “Hearing you yell at the scariest woman I know who isn’t Gertrude Robinson was pretty fucking sexy, love.”

“I hate her so - wait, it was? Really?” Martin coughed awkwardly. “Well, she really had it coming, and it’s not a huge deal, and I know she’s your best friend and I should be nice to her, but -”

“ - but she was right,” Jon said firmly. “An arse about making her point, but she was right. I’m working on using my words. You should too. All of the books say communication is key in a relationship. So let’s communicate, alright?” He faltered a little, uncertain if Daisy would want him to say this. “And - and it was obvious, from what she said, that Daisy respects you. It’s a very difficult thing, to win Daisy’s respect. I think she was trying to help us, in her own - unorthodox manner.”

“I hate her so much,” Martin groaned. 

“It was very sexy,” Jon hinted. 

Martin leaned in and kissed Jon lightly, and Jon could feel his smile against his own. “How about we finish our food,” he said quietly, “walk around town for a bit, buy some souvenirs for your family, and then go back to the cabin and snog and cuddle for a very long time? If that’s okay with you?”

“I’d like nothing more,” Jon said. 

And he was right. It was messy, and weird, and painfully uncomfortable.

 It was perfect.

[bluepenguinstories]

Happiness Overload Epilogue III

After a while, we finally won. It took more effort than we were told, but about as much effort as we expected. There was still much ground to cover even after the conflict died down. Like, I hated to admit it, but for a while I would just watch the fragmented remains of the world I once resided on. Meaning, there was a long gestation period where no new timeline was created. There was a lot of weight, y’know, and it was hard to remember the person I started that journey as, and whether I was different now that that journey had just about come to an end.

Beside me, at the front, was my girlfriend, my lover. Sometimes she’d shower me in kisses, but other times she would get annoyed with my antics. Couldn’t say that I blamed her, as it’s not like my growth meant I had to let go of my humor.

As for how we defeated the organization once and for all...we had some help. Some people went back to their time willingly. Some were less friendly. I didn’t really care to remember all those fancy little details. Only a few really stood out to me. Like after we booted Dr. Humble and Dr. Modest into some odd timeline in the year 1907 with just the clothing on their backs. Why 1907? Maybe that’s the time they thought they could pick up the pieces from and start fresh from the ashes, but when they told us that’s the time they were from, we just went with it. At least we gave them nothing.

Then, Coriander and I ran, firing away at guards along the way. There was a bit of a mess to clean up eventually, but that was neither here nor there.

Down some long sets of halls, we regrouped with Juniper, and were surprised to find she had made some new friends. With one in particular seeming rather close to her.

“Juniper! Thank goodness you’re okay!” I cried out in relief.

“Guys! I’m so glad to see you!” Juniper also looked overjoyed.

“Who’s this?” I asked.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Hepburn,” the taller figure answered. She extended her hand. I shook it. “I’m from the HR Department. Or was! It’s pretty cool that I can use past tense now!”

“Huh. What was your job, exactly?” Coriander asked.

“I mostly suggested things to departments. Though they usually got twisted and the way they got interpreted was a little out of my hands.”

“Really? How so?”

“Like, I thought we should have a Morale Department because I couldn’t help but notice our members had some pretty low morale. So I brought it up like, ‘hey, right now everyone’s kind of bummed out and demotivated, but I think if we had some kind of mascot, our company morale would be so much better. For example, Hatsune Miku is really popular and it’s a scientific fact that no one’s unhappy when Miku is around. So maybe if we got an AI to encourage us, we’d benefit. The same could be applied to humanity as a whole!’ Then later I guess they added a dash of evil to the proposed AI, but by then I was already suggesting things to other departments.”

“Dang,” I groaned. “Sucks when intentions get misrepresented like that.”

“Yeah, well this place is big so it can be like a giant game of telephone around here. I don’t blame anyone, really! Besides, at least they gave me credit on the project.”

“They did?” I was confused. I never heard of any Hepburn being factored into the plans.

“Well, I was actually named after the Mt. Etna in Italy. I later changed my name when I became a doctor, of course!” She informed me. That sounded like a potential shocker for information, but I didn’t know how.

“There’s a lot to dissect there, but I’m no scientist, so let’s put that aside for now. We still have much work to do!”

Coriander meanwhile, trying to show off her attitude as ever, grunted.

“So are you and her like a thing now?” She asked Juniper.

Juniper rolled her eyes. “Come on, guys! I’m not thinking about that stuff right now! I’m just glad to have made friends! Really!”

“All right. Can’t blame you. We can’t declare victory just yet.”

Indeed. Our reunion had to be cut short so we could round up more people. Thanks to the collective effort, though, at least it didn’t take ages, like many would have thought. I took it upon myself to destroy all time travel devices after someone left. Every little time cube in the room full of time cubes and then some.

All but one.

The same one I had pocketed. On the off chance that Coriander and I could ever leave that ship (or whatever it could be called), I wanted to hold on to it. For a while, we lived out our days on the ship, but we didn’t really seem to age. Not really, anyway. Maybe if we made it back to Earth, some version of it, we would find ourselves aged many years over. Or be just as young as we were before we entered The Flashbulb’s headquarters.

Before long, it was just a few of us. Coriander, Juniper, Dr. Hepburn, Dr. Katsushika (she said she’d leave eventually, it was just hard for her to leave all her art supplies behind), and I. Everyone else parted ways with us in some capacity or another. Many we grew to be friends with, but had to leave them behind all the same. That was fine with me, as a good few people always made me more comfortable than a whole crowd. Even with the company, it really was a lonely existence. Enough to drive anyone mad.

But we kept searching.

I would look around on a screen which displayed a nigh-endless supply of timelines. I narrowed it down to the year we lived in before we left home. Then, I looked for a place where Coriander and I didn’t already exist. At long last one day, I found such a place.

“Oh my god! Spicy! Meatball!”

“For the last time, don’t call me spicy meatball!” Coriander retorted. Yeah, yeah, so not all of my nicknames for her stuck, but I was excited enough to try.

“We can go back home!” I cheered.

Coriander leaned in close. “What?! Really?!”

It was decided long ago that if we ever decided to go back to Earth, it would have to be in a timeline where we didn’t already exist. I didn’t quite like the idea of killing myself off just to live on. I don’t know how it would have worked for Coriander, but she agreed that was for the best. What pained me was thinking that when this new timeline from the ashes of our destroyed world came about, was the uncertainty of not knowing what the version of Blanc would be like. If the version of me in that world would ever meet them or not. I think I would be content even if that Velvet didn’t meet that Blanc, but would I be content with the possibility that the Blanc of the new timeline wouldn’t be happy?

I didn’t want to focus on that. I really didn’t. I had my life, and my journey, and as painful as it was, I had to let such a possibility occur. It was better than no possibility at all.

“Hey Juniper!” I called over through the microphone. “I think I found a way to get home!”

If I had to guess, it was like an hour later when Juniper came through the doors, but time within those confines wasn’t something we really kept track of, as much as I wished we would. She was out of breath, having ran, but she was just as cute as a button as ever.

“Really? Guys?” She huffed, hunched over her knees. Jeez, I really should have told her to take her time.

Time...that was a strange word to use. But one that seemed unavoidable.

“There’s just one problem,” Coriander pointed out. “Apparently Juniper already exists on that version of Earth.”

“What?!” I balked. “That’s not fair!”

Popsigirl/Dr. Katsushika fell down from a ceiling vent and landed doing a cartwheel.

“That’s the way things go! You’re going to have to make a compromise to get your happy ending!” She snapped her fingers and grinned.

“Argh! I hate compromises, and I hate this ‘no perfect ending’ bullshit!” I turned to Juniper. “I wanted you to come along with us wherever we ended up.”

That was enough to get me to sulk. But Juniper just smiled.

“Aw, it’s okay, guys. I think it’s more important that you two get to go. Don’t worry about me!”

“But I’ll feel bad just leaving you behind like that.”

She shook her head. “Don’t think like that! I’m really glad to have met you guys, really. It’s not that I don’t want to return to Earth one day, it’s just that I’m fine with waiting. I always knew we would probably have to split, anyway.”

“What about you, though?”

“Honestly,” she looked away, still smiling, but she looked a little more nervous. “I’m not sure how my journey will continue, and I really will miss you guys, too, but I still consider you guys my friends and I’m more now that one day, I’ll have something of an idea. For now, I’m happy just having gone on this journey.”

“You say that, but I’m still worried about you being safe…”

“Please have a little more faith in me than that.”

I let out a long sigh. There was a handful of emotions attached, but when I drew in a new breath, I managed a smile.

“All right, then,” I said at last.

“So it’s decided, then? You guys are gonna go?” I could feel Dr. Katsushika’s excitement on her breath as she leaned in close to me. I wanted to shove her aside, especially when Coriander still couldn’t stand her presence, not that I blamed her for that, either.

“Not just yet,” I grimaced. “I want to make sure you’ll go home first.”

She flashed a grin, then wrested control of the monitor from me and with fervent motions, searched away until she found a time and place.

“I understand that I can’t really be forgiven for the stuff I’ve put you two through, but I think I’m going to enjoy being with nature again! Maybe I’ll be a sage or something, or take a vow of silence, or become a hermit who feeds ducks?”

“I’m sure you could pick up art again, too,” Juniper suggested. “You just gotta take it easy, is all.”

That got Popsigirl worked up into a storm of laughter.

“Hun, ‘art’ and ‘taking it easy’ don’t belong in the same sentence. But...I’d like to draw and paint, yes. And maybe I’ll get it right in time.”

I used the time travel device to open up a portal to the timeline Dr. Katsushika selected. I wasn’t sure which name she would choose in her timeline. Maybe she’d drop the doctor. Maybe she’d drop having a name entirely. There was a fondness I felt thinking about the possibilities, even if I couldn’t really forgive her.

When five became four (Dr. Hepburn, Juniper, Coriander, and I) I waited for Dr. Hepburn to enter the room, then I bade Juniper and her our final goodbyes.

“Hey, I can’t promise a perfect ending either, but for what it’s worth, I hope you the best,” Coriander told Juniper.

“I second that,” I added. If Coriander didn’t say it, chances are I would have. It was becoming more and more difficult to find the right words, so I was just glad Coriander could sometimes fill in the blanks for me.

“I would like to inform you that I had a board meeting with myself and it was unanimous that whatever happens, we’ll have fun,” Dr. Hepburn assured. I refrained from asking. Really, when you got down to it, she was a last minute character.

Juniper reached into her pocket and handed me something.

“Here, I made it. It’s a little invention of mine.” I looked at the object in my hand, a small metallic sculpture of a beetle.

“I call it a june bug! It can light up in the dark, but only in the month of June! That way you won’t really have to worry about leaving me behind too much.”

I laughed, though it almost came out like a cry. I had to wipe my face, even though it was more humorous than anything.

“That’s so dumb...I love it,” I told her.

I set the time travel device on the desk I had been sitting at. Coriander was the first to walk through the portal. I was sure I’d see her in just a little bit. But before I would, I turned to Juniper and Dr. Hepburn once again.

“If you guys do find a timeline you wished to go to and decide to leave, please destroy that for me. Or, if you decide to stay here...destroy it, too.”

Was it really necessary to do so? I mean, I could trust them, and all access to the headquarters from outside had been blocked off. Still, maybe it was the paranoia in me that told me it was better to be safe than sorry.

Wherever Coriander and I may end up next, with a good, a bad, somewhere in the middle as an ending awaiting us, I was just glad I would be brave enough to face it. No, that wasn’t just it. It meant even more to me to be able to spend the rest of my days, however that looked, not being alone.

[sparrellow]

Say It Again

Yeah, it was at that moment I realised I had feelings for you.

rating: G genres: romance/fluff ship: rin/len

“Why do you like me?”

The question came out of the blue one night, when they were sitting on the couch watching some dramatic romance show on TV. Rin had turned her head to him while the ads were running, blue eyes illuminated by the screen.

Len swallowed and tilted his head to look at her. He cracked a grin. “Why are you asking me that?”

Their hands were knit in the space between them. Her skin was warm and clammy, but her fingers fit his like pieces of a puzzle.

Rin glanced away. “I just…” she said, faltering. Her tongue darted between her teeth. “I guess I’m still in shock.”

He watched the side of her face, glowing blue under the television's glare. “I don’t know. I… there are so many things to lo— like about you, I don’t even know where to start.”

She shifted on the chair, tucking her legs underneath her backside. “Then… how? When?”

“When what?”

“When did you realise you liked me?”

Len tore his gaze away to stare down at his knees. “I think it was back in first year, when you did that musical and got the supporting role,” he said. “You weren’t the main character, but… there was something about you on that stage. It’s like I saw you in a different light for the first time. I thought about how much I wanted to be the boy you were serenading, to be up there beside you. Yeah, it was at that moment I realised I had feelings for you.”

Rin squeezed his hand. “Romantic,” she said, a hint of cynicism in her voice.

He smiled. “What about you?”

“It’s not as… perfect as your story, but,” she paused, pursing her lips in thought, “it was the school festival, last year. You were paired off to go scout some customers with SeeU, and I was upset because you two looked really good together. I wanted to do it with you. Miku had lectured me for my sour attitude and asked, ‘Why do you care so much?’ It was then I realised. Oh.”

Len laughed. “To be honest, I wished I could do it with you, too. I thought you looked cuter than SeeU in the maid outfit, but I guess everyone defaulted to her because she’s a model.”

Rin screwed up her face. “Yeah. And you’re like, the hottest guy in class.”

“Don’t flatter me.”

She nudged him with her elbow and he yelped. “Seriously. I never thought I needed to see you in a butler costume until then. That’s enough to make anyone fall for you.”

Len waggled his eyebrows teasingly, leaning close to her face. “You want to see me in it again?”

Her lips curled. “Don’t make me change my mind,” she said.

They hovered close, eyes locked, before Rin leaned in to press her mouth against his. Her lips tasted like her favourite balm, citrus, and she smelt like her shampoo, grapefruit. She was warm and soft and inviting. He could just about drown in her touch.

She curled her fingers under his sleeve, and his hands moved to cup her face. When they parted, they pressed their foreheads together, cheeks flushed.

Len gave her a goofy smile. “Can I say something risky?” he asked.

Rin stared at him a moment, uncertainty showing. Her hand slid down his arm, stopping to rest over his hand on her cheek. “Go on,” she said.

“I love you, Rin.”

There was a beat of silence between them, where they just stared at each other. Len’s heart thrummed in his chest, anxious, and he wondered whether he’d said it too soon. She drew a finger down over his lips and to his chin, stopping there.

“Say it again,” she whispered.

He dropped his gaze, suddenly embarrassed. “Um,” he fumbled. “I love you.”

Rin tilted her head, lips mashing against his again. But as soon as she made contact with him, she drew away, the cold hitting his face like a slap.

“I love you too, Len,” she told him, her eyes twinkling.

Nothing could take away the radiant smile on her face.

[bearpillowmonster]

Top 15 Anime!

I’ll be talking about them in order of appearance, that way, if you see a picture you like, you know what anime it is. The order shown does not represent how much I like one over the other. This also does not represent my ratings on MyAnimeList because since my viewing, my opinions have changed on some and I don’t want to reevaluate my score. Three more rules, NO anime movies, and some I may not have finished, only because they have 100+ episodes and nothing I’ve dropped so no One Piece.

This is going to be controversial...heck, anime is controversial. 

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki Kun: My tagline is “It’s an anime about art...an art about anime.” It follows the life of a manga illustrator and the friends he’s made along the way and a bit of slice of life in there too.

Plastic Memories: Red alert! We have a tear jerker. I was recommended this anime and was told it was sad, no big deal...I then got through it and cried during the ending. I talked to the person who recommended it to me and I said “About that ending...” and they said “I didn’t see it.” “What?!” “Yeah, I thought, this is too sad, I can’t watch the last episode.” Needless to say I made them watch it. I woke up in the middle of the night crying then it affected the other person the same way, this is some powerful stuff. Think of “Ex Machina”, wait no I haven’t saw that. Well maybe “Her”...yeah no haven’t saw that either...Anyway it’s just an android anime.

Sword Art Online: Address the elephant in the room, this one is a divided one. Ok, so just to clarify, I’m specifically talking about the first arc of the first season. We all know the plot at this point, people get trapped inside a full dive video game with real stakes. This resembles my resurgence with anime, I was never serious about it until I saw this. You either like it or you don’t, and even if I do like it, I’ll be the first to say it has a fair share worth of crap but I’m in so deep that it is what it is, when it shines, I really enjoy it, tell me seeing action like this isn’t cool.

Toradora: This is THE romance anime in my opinion, it’s so well crafted. It just makes sense, even if you can’t relate it to yourself, you know somebody you can. I found it here on tumblr through a gif and that gif was the ending, I didn’t know that until later but even knowing what the ending was going to be, I didn’t care, it’s the journey, I even looked into the manga.

Attack on Titan: Sie sind das Essen und Wir sind die Jaeger! That means “They are the prey, we are the hunters.” My friend introduced me to this by showing me the titan fight at the end of season 1, in return I showed him the Legend of Korra, so I guess we’re even. That was before Season 2 which took forever to come out so I knew the struggle just as much as everyone else. This whole series kind of took everyone by storm, I mean if you don’t care too much about the hype then it’s good, it’s something to get into, something to wait for, even if it’s dark and gory, it’s nice to know there is a big percentage experiencing the same thing.

Gamers!: I’m scared. The manga has been going on but season 2 just won’t come out “Maybe next year” I keep thinking but we’ll see, I’ve purposely been avoiding the manga because of it. I don’t like to see the word ‘Gamer’ so much because it makes me think of how cliche people try to be in order to fit into the crowd, too many fakers but this, this gets it right, it deserves its title. I started with the dub but I didn’t like the voice of a specific character, it just didn’t fit them and the sub was always at least one episode ahead of the dub so I watched the sub and then whenever the dub came out, I watched that too. I was that pleased with this anime.

Chihayafuru: The characters, the music, the visuals...all over a card game. If you can make that interesting and make me sit on the edge of my seat, not only watching it, but also awaiting the next season then you’ve done something right. This is technically a sports anime? But not, I don’t really consider it as such and is the only one you’ll see on this list because it’s not a genre I’m into so you know they succeeded in that field too.

Rurouni Kenshin: Sometimes it isn’t easy to explain something right out, it’s the feeling it gives off that explains it all. This is my calm anime, it’s just so peaceful yet has action, definitely not your average ‘sword fighter’.

Hunter X Hunter (2011): I didn’t watch the 1999 one (yet) and you know what? I probably tried the first episode 3 times all together because the first two, I just wasn’t feeling it, it was like “They’re just going to be different fighters.” NO! I kept coming back because I wanted to give it another chance and I succeeded and I loved it, I realized just how in depth it was and a lot more than “Tournaments” PUH-LEASE! I knew I’d love it as soon as Gon made it through the boat during the first few episodes.

Yu Yu Hakusho Spirit Detective: Made by the same creator as HxH, who is also married to the lady who made Sailor Moon! This family man...But yeah, I didn’t like Yusuke’s hair and I thought it was going to be a bunch of tournaments which meant a lot of filler. Yeah there is ONE tournament (that I know of) this is one of the ones I didn’t finish yet, but it’s not a whole lot of filler. In fact a lot of the stuff surrounding it has to do with the Spirit Detective part, hence why I put that part in the title. What made me change my mind and get into it you might ask? Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the opening song: 

Dimension W: If you saw my other lists, you know I like to have a few wild cards in there, this is one of them, once again, where is season 2?! It has to do with electric coils, basically what builds their economy, a new type of power source. We know about the X, Y, and Z axis but what about W? It’s not as complicated as it sounds. My favorite character is named Loser...yep, what more do I need to say, just try it out!

Erased: Same person who recommended Plastic Memories, recommended this so gear up. This is actually a time travel anime, it seems odd at first but you’ll understand pretty quick. It’s a mystery, something I’m a sucker for, you can tell a lot went into it with some pretty talented people. It’s twelve episodes long and I watched the second half in one day, I binged this baby probably more than any other.

Rascal Does Not Dream: The poster I used is actually for the movie which finishes the title with “of a Dreaming Girl”, but I didn’t want you to take it at face value because at face value it’s called “of Bunny Girl Senpai.” and features a girl who dresses as a playboy bunny which sounds like a hentai, but it’s not! Let me explain, this is actually a conspiracy series, a series of strange events if you will. The girl only dresses like that for a little bit because she’s invisible to everyone but this dude (no, literally) and she’s trying to get attention. The dude goes around fixing problems such as that and something his sister deals with. She got bullied so bad that it hurt her (again, literally) and it caused her memory loss. Then there’s the girl who splits into two different personalities (do I need to say literally again? You got it now? Ok.)

Quintessential Quintuplets: Face Value! Looks like another harem...and it is. But listen, Miku Nakano.

Apparently a lot of other people agree with me. It’s kind of embarrassing to explain but basically it doesn’t beat around the bush. This dude ends up with one of the quints, it even has a scene where he marries them but you don’t know which one it is because...they’re quints. I said how I liked mystery and slice of life...well, this is basically a guessing game, it keeps you interested even if you think you know who it’s going to be. The other sisters are just as good of characters with their definitive personalities.

Mob Psycho 100 II: I wanted to end this off with a bang and I while I watched both seasons, I wanted S2 to represent this one because it does better in every way. Let me put it this way, I thought the first season was alright, I gave it a 7, kind of average. This season I gave a 9, it surprised me and it did really well from its action to its art within the action to its characters, this might be the best second season I’ve watched of an anime. The story expands on these characters and explores morals and stuff that only hit the surface in S1. It shows how you don’t ‘need’ seasons worth of material to make a good final episode, there were time where I thought ‘How is it going to top this’ in the middle of the season and then blew me away by the end of it.

Well time to stay indoors, here are my recommendations for your quarantines.

[sparklyjojos]

THE SAIMON FAMILY CASE recaps [8/13]

In which we meet the children, Ajiro becomes a Big Damn Hero, and the detectives get a tour combined with even more explanations about magic.

--

Waiting for the morning of January 19th to arrive, Ajiro and Kirigirisu discuss the case once more.

If Tamako was murdered, then how? Did seeing the curtain change colors shock her to death? Kirigirisu muses that since the family is full of magicians, maybe someone hypnotized her in such a way that the color change was a signal for her to drop dead. Ajiro replies that it’s not plausible; hypnosis can’t actually make the subject do something they wouldn’t want to do on at least some level. Hypnotizing even someone with suicidal tendencies into dying would be pretty hard. A more plausible option is that Tamako was already dead before her wheelchair was moved to the stage. If so, then Akiko who brought her there would be the obvious suspect.

The problem is that Akiko was the next person to die. However, if her death really was a murder, then the culprit chose a very unreliable killing method, so maybe it really was just an accident.

Yuuta’s death was likely a murder. The witnesses claimed they saw a man digging a hole in the sand, but maybe that man was actually the culprit burying the body.

Daisen could very well have been murdered; if Takayoshi made it into the mountains and performed the switch without being spotted, then an assassin also could have hidden somewhere. Ajiro theorizes that maybe Yuuta went to Tottori using Daisen’s car, then got murdered, which would make Daisen believe he himself was the intended target. Of course, everything is just a hypothesis.

“The first thing we should be trying to learn is who is targeting who,” Ajiro says. “The target may be Fujita-gumi, but at the same time it may be the Saimons… I think we should keep an eye on the Tsukumos and Tousens as well. I don’t really have a tangible plan on how to do it yet, but—Tensui, you’re here, aren’t you.”

The sliding door to their room moves aside revealing Tensui standing quietly in the dark hallway.

“I had a feeling someone was there,” Ajiro says without surprise while Kirigirisu as always has to take a moment to calm down his pulse.

Just like before, the conversation between the three is done through writing. Tensui proposes that he and Miku will keep the Saimon household under close observation throughout the day.

Kirigirisu has a strange feeling that maybe Tensui is actually the murderer, grasping the chance to get closer to his next victim… but no, that would be stupid, considering the next victim may not even live in Kami-Saimon, and with two Tensuis in existence one could still move freely even if the other one was stuck somewhere.

The detectives can likely trust Takayoshi to keep an eye on the Fujita household too. That awkward anxious man is the last person Kirigirisu would suspect of murder.

This leaves one problem: if one Tensui is going to be watching his family all day, how will he know what the other Tensui is doing and if he’s not in danger?

Do not worry about it, Tensui writes. Whenever I’m out and about, the other I always secludes himself in the shrine. No one other than us can enter it.

By “the shrine”, he means the building on the little island in the middle of the garden’s pond. Before Tensui leaves the room to hide, he asks them to show up at the pond a little later.

--

In the morning, Ajiro and Kirigirisu take a walk through Kami-Saimon’s splendid garden, wondrous in the middle of a bright winter day. The shrine Tensui talked about is visible on the little island at their big koi pond, Ryuugaike. With its octagonal base and roof, the shrine looks highly similar to the famous Yumedono, the “Hall of Dreams” of Houryuu-ji Temple in Ikaruga.

Once the detectives make a circle around the pond, Kirigirisu realizes that not only does the shrine not have any visible entrance, there isn’t even a bridge leading to the island.

“The shrine is called Seiryoin,” Ajiro informs him.

Seiryoin… Kirigirisu imagines it might be written 清涼院 [like the JDC writer’s name], a fitting name for this “pure” and “bright” “temple”. Ajiro doesn’t actually know how the name is supposed to be written, but his pick would be 静療院, a temple of “quiet” “recuperation”. Maybe neither way is correct, who knows.

The detectives are waiting on the shore for Tensui when someone suddenly appears next to them. “Suddenly appears” seems like the right phrase to use, considering the man’s footprints begin in the middle of the snowy field as if he teleported there.

The man is, even more surprisingly, not Soga Tensui, but that quiet contemplative man who played the afro clown in the show: Saimon Akio. (Tamako’s grandson, Akiko’s son, Takayoshi’s and Taishi’s brother.)

“Good morning! Indeed what a good morning we have,” Akio greets them with a kind expression. “But more importantly—look over there!”

He points towards the island, where in front of their very eyes Soga Tensui emerges from the doorless shrine, seemingly phasing out through the stone wall. Then he starts walking into the lake—no, walking on the lake, getting only his soles wet, and casually makes it to the other side away from the detectives. His famous Sea Walk.

“Anyway, I’m going to be the one guiding you around today,” Akio says. It’s only expected, seeing as Tensui will be busy keeping an eye on the house.

--

Akio gives them a sightseeing car trip around town—Tsuwano is small enough that it’s not a far journey. The detectives climb the local torii to get a full look at the town from up high. It’s easy to notice where the Tsukumos and Tousens live; it’s a surprisingly wide space south of town, full of various buildings and trailer houses. The two families’ houses are actually connected with Shimo-Saimon into one complex, demonstrating just how closely their lives are intertwined. The entire complex is called Sanasou (山烏荘)—a strange wordplay on the phrase “the trio’s house” (三羽烏の家).

Akio drives them to Sanasou. As soon as they arrive, they spot a few snowmen and a lot of tiny footprints on the ground, and then several curious children come running their way, some happily shouting seeing Akio. A few kids are still holding snowballs; it seems the adults interrupted one fierce battle.

The oldest child present is Tousen Matoki, looking around grade school age and acting like he’s the kids’ leader.

“Look, look!” Matoki does the thing where you put your right hand in your left jacket sleeve and left hand in your right sleeve, and makes an attempt at a dignified princely expression. “I’m Shoutoku Taishi!”

“Oh come on, Maji-chan, you do this every time,” comments the girl next to him. It’s Matoki’s sister Yomiko, the one who played Koyomi. She may have looked older on stage, and may have seemed a bit creepy with her staring back that one time, but with kids her age around she turns out to be a really nice girl. The nickname Maji-chan probably came from an alternative reading of Matoki’s name and is of course a horrible pun on the word “magician”.

Matoki and Yomiko act quite brave and natural in front of adults they barely know. In comparison, the other girl present—Tsukumo Emu—is hiding behind Yomiko’s back, and even further behind them, keeping careful distance, staring at the adults cautiously, are Tensui’s twin sons, Juku and Joukei.

The twins look pretty much identical, but after several meetings with the family Kirigirisu has learned to somewhat differentiate between them. Joukei is the one lacking confidence and with constant scared look in his eyes. Juku’s eyes just seem emotionless and unimpressed. Though their intense, somehow unnaturally pretty stares are filled with different emotions, they equally make Kirigirisu feel like his consciousness is trying to slip away.

It’s hard to believe that either of the twins would play the cheerful, energetic role of Kotensui. The puppet’s voice must have been dubbed over by another boy.

Apparently the twins got here from Kami-Saimon on their bikes to play with the other children.

“Chisato and Chiaki already got here too,” Joukei informs in a timid voice.

Juku mutters something too low to be heard.

“What did you say, Juku-sama?” Yomiko asks. (Why the ultra-honorifics among children?, Kirigirisu thinks in surprise.)

Beautifully expressionless Juku mutters the same thing a bit louder. It sounds like Kudaranai… Ima wa kudaranai yo… Huh? “This is stupid”? “It’s useless now”? What is?

Before Kirigirisu can figure it out, they hear a woman scream at the top of her lungs.

“Ria! Koma! NEMU!”

Everyone turns to see the most unusual scene. Two Shetland Sheepdogs are running towards them at breakneck speed, pulling a sled with a crying tiny girl—Tsukumo Nemu—and being chased by the trio of Nemu’s terrified mother Yumeji, Matoki and Yomiko’s mother Maki, and the only still single Tsukumo sibling Ranma. Several white doves are flying around in chaos.

“What the… Nemu, watch out!” Akio shouts and runs towards her, Ajiro instantly joining his side.

Before they can reach the sled, the dogs see them approach and react with a sudden swerve, the force involved sending little Nemu flying high in the air.

In an instant, something similar to two long poles zooms past Kirigirisu. He glances back: Kotensui’s Magic Hands are being deployed out of Juku’s sleeves. They reach towards Nemu, and barely, just barely—

—miss their mark.

But Ajiro is already close enough, jumps in the air and grabs the girl before she can hit the ground. Nemu is safe in his arms.

Once everyone catches their breath, the newly arrived adults explain what happened. The dog sled is a toy strictly for the older kids. Nemu had to jump on when no one was looking, scaring the dogs and making them run for the hills.

The white doves flying around belong to Tsukumo Ranma, who takes care of the family’s aviary. Though in his late twenties, he still has a lot of a cheerful child left in him, and perhaps because of that all the kids in the family love him. When the sled incident happened, he was in the middle of loading doves up his sleeves to surprise the children with a Channing Pollock-style illusion, and the birds got out in the chaos.

Teary-eyed Yumeji thanks again and again for saving her daughter. It looks like Ajiro became an instant hit with the kids, too, graduating from an adult stranger to someone they can trust. Even shy Joukei and Emu, even stoic Juku are all smiling at him.

For some reason, Juku’s look of approval and respect towards Ajiro leaves an especially deep impression on Kirigirisu.

--

Akio leads them to the training studio. A few girls are already there: Chisato and Chiaki (Akio’s daughters) along with Akiko (Taishi’s daughter) are training their ribbon-hula hoop routine, while slightly older Tsukumo Seika observes them with a critical eye. The girls stop, not wanting to show the secret to outsiders, but Akio assures them it’s fine; Tensui actually wants them to explain the method to the detectives. Akio leaves for a moment to change into his costume while the girls perform the illusion.

Just like in the show, the girls dance with ribbons which suddenly turn into hula hoops. Chiaki and Chisato successfully make their moving hoops link together, Akiko approaches with her own, and—all the hoops clang down to the ground.

“What are you doing, Akiko?!” Seika yells.

While Akiko is staring on the floor with tears in her eyes, Kirigirisu takes a glance at the hoops… which turn out not to be as normal as he thought.

“She didn’t do it on purpose,” says Akio, suddenly showing up next to them in his clown costume, though without makeup. (How can this man just keep appearing out of thin air?) He picks up a hula hoop and it suddenly returns to being a ribbon with a sound like tape measure retracting.

Akio explains that the ribbon-hoop is a magic prop. What looks like the ribbon’s handle is actually hiding the entire hoop, which can zoom out telescopically in an instant. The resulting hula hoop isn’t actually a closed ring, but has an opening small enough that it can’t be seen while moving fast. The illusion of the Linking Hula Hoops is basically an unusual variation of the famous Linking Rings.

“But linking the hoops while moving so fast… could anyone accomplish such a feat?” Kirigirisu asks despite having already witnessed it a few times.

“We are the Circus of Magic,” Akio says. “Any illusion requires training to polish one’s technique, especially circus acts combined with magic. That’s why these girls are practicing hard every day.”

“And apparently can’t focus at all lately!” Seika comments harshly, but calms down a little when Akio asks her to demonstrate a few more illusions with him.

Akio and Seika first set up the little table from two planks; this too is apparently a special tool that can be bought in a magic shop. Then Akio produces three red balls out of nowhere and passes them to Seika, who turns them white with a stroke. Kirigirisu inspects the balls and realizes they are reversible, just like that handkerchief changing colors that Tensui showed him. (Even stern Seika looks tickled seeing Kirigirisu’s child-like joy as he keeps changing the ball’s color back and forth.)

Akio demonstrates the next part: turning the balls into long pins by inserting them into an empty tube.

“Are you familiar with Doraemon?” he asks.

“Dorae… it that also an illusion?” Kirigiru doesn’t understand why the girls start laughing at him when he says this.

“It’s a very popular comic for children.”

“I’m familiar with it,” Ajiro says. “My son Souya is a fan, so we’ve read through it many times. I think it’s a masterpiece.”

A short explanation on Doraemon follows. Kirigirisu finds the premise fascinating (a time-travelling cat robot from the 22nd century who has a four-dimensional pouch?!) and decides he and Kano will have to check it out later.

Akio invites him to watch the illusion again, but standing behind the table this time. He sets the tube on the table, then retrieves a white pin from inside his clown costume’s front pocket (maybe not as spacious as Doraemon’s pouch, but still big) and hides it behind the tube. So that’s how something can magically appear “from the inside” when the tube is lifted.

Kirigirisu inspects the tube closer and realizes the opening facing up is slightly narrower than the one on the bottom… and that’s because there’s something similar to a small pocket around that opening, where the squishable balls can be hidden. A spectator looking through the tube from its bottom end wouldn’t notice anything suspicious.

Next, another illusion making use of the spectators’ limited angle of view. Akio holds one ball between his fingers and with swift movements makes it magically multiply into three… except the two additional balls are actually just two empty half-spherical shells. What seemed like a single ball actually had those two shells covering it. It’s a variation of the popular illusion known as the Multiplying Billiard Ball.

Finally, Akio performs the Five-Ball Cascade for them, five balls changing colors from white to red in mid-air as they’re juggled. The secret here is astonishingly simple: the balls used for this particular routine have their halves colored differently, white on one side and red on the other. The rest of the act is just a matter of practice.

“A different method is used for the pins changing colors,” Akio explains. “Do you know what that could be, Ajiro?”

“Using a mirror, I think.”

Judging by the girls’ expressions, Ajiro got it right, but Kirigirisu doesn’t understand how on earth a mirror could be used that way.

Each of the three girls takes two white pins and stands in a triangle formation, while Seika heads slightly behind them… and disappears into thin air. The three girls start the juggle, but eventually sneakily throw the white pins behind them where they disappear, only for red pins to be thrown back instead. It’s not that Seika disappeared; she hid behind a large mirror to help with the act.

Kirigirisu understands now how Akio was able to appear out of thin air earlier. Mirrors.

Akio gets to the next illusion. He takes an empty beer bottle, puts it inside his hat… no, just pretends to put it there, while actually hiding it in his chest pocket. So that’s how. The sweets were likewise produced out of his spacious pocket rather than from the hat.

Finally, Akio gives them what looks like a remote control with a small lever, encouraging them to play with it for a second while he’s changing back into normal clothes. The lever turns out to move the arms of those tall three-armed fire stands from the show, opening and closing them back inwards like an umbrella. The stands are designed in such a way that fire can be extinguished in an instant by pushing the arms into the stand.

“Juku’s Magic Hands are a similar mechanical device, though a lot more complicated,” Akio says once he joins them again, then announces that this would be enough explanations for the day.

--

Akio continues to guide them around the place. He leads them to another building—for some unknown reason called Shakuya (杓屋)—where two hammer sharks are swimming in a giant tank under the watchful eye of their caretaker, Tsukumo Souma, the hunchbacked man who’s little Nemu’s father. He doesn’t seem to be one for much conversation.

As they leave the building, they bump into Ranma again—and thank god, because his calming personality is somewhat needed after those sharks. Ranma shows them around the aviary filled with countless dove cages surrounding a cramped aisle in the middle. There’s a particularly big mysterious box with closed double doors in the back.

“Do you keep birds in there too?” Ajiro asks.

“Oh, no. There’s just this big figure of a dove inside. We’ve had it for ages, it serves the role of a god protecting the birds. We call it Onikaru-sama.”

The detectives have already met Ranma, Souma and Miku, so it’s time to head to the main part of Sanasou and meet the fourth Tsukumo sibling, Tsushima, the man looking like a bank employee. That first impression turns out to be close to life, as the man manages the show’s finances, looking as stressed as one can expect considering how much debt they’re in. He’s constantly busy and doesn’t really want to talk to anyone. As they’re leaving, they spot the man’s nervous son, Touji, who quickly hides somewhere.

Tsukumo Karan (Seika’s mother who played the Courtisane Hana Dayuu) then shows them to a room in which elderly Tsukumo Tamako and Tousen Tamako are resting in beds next to each other, under full-time care of Tousen Natsuko. In another room Tsukumo Mitama is similarly caring for her husband Gensui (the old one, known as the magician Soga Tengen in his days).

They quickly leave as to not disturb the seniors. Akio tells the detectives about how decades ago, shortly after the war, the show’s most splendid illusion was the underwater escape as performed by Soga Tengen. One day during practice his son Souma forgot to lock the cage, resulting in the shark viciously biting Tengen. The magician survived, but would never be able to move on his own again. Thirty years later, Tengen still leads his life in bed constantly cared for by his wife Mitama, while Souma still continues to raise sharks in a neighboring building despite protests from a few family members.

The tour comes to an end around noon. Ajiro calls Daisetsu and Miku in turn, making sure everything is fine in the Fujita residence and in Kami-Saimon. Daisetsu says that maybe Ajiro saving Nemu prevented the day’s unlucky accident, so they have nothing to worry about now. Maybe the case is going to stop here? Indeed nothing happens until late evening, so Ajiro and Kirigirisu head to the same bar as the previous night, meeting up with Daisetsu, Takayoshi and Uyama (somehow with an even more pronounced way of sighing “oh, oh!” now) as well as with Hyousen’s son Hyousai. Surely nothing bad will happen before midnight.

Shortly before midnight, they get a message that Tsukumo Mitama was found dead in the bath, where she must have fallen and drowned. It is later ruled as an unfortunate accident.

The case is nowhere near to being over.

--

A month later, on February 19th, Saimon Akio dies due to electrocution when the water filter at the pond malfunctions killing him and all the fish he’s been taking care of. When the body is found, all the water in the pond is dyed red.

--

A month later, on March 19th, Saimon Chisato is found dead from blood loss after apparently cutting off her hand using the Arm Guillotine prop. It is noted that she has been suffering emotional instability from stress related to the Case.

--

A month later, on April 19th, Fujita Daisetsu collapses on his way home from the bar and is taken to the hospital, where he dies from alcohol poisoning.

--

None of the eight cases so far have been deemed suspicious by the police, all of them ruled as either death from natural causes, accidents or suicides. Nevertheless, this perfectly spaced string of cases can’t possibly be a natural occurrence.

Who is the target and who is targeting them?

Perhaps the next month will show us the Case’s another face—or should we say, a mask.

--

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[animebw]

Symphogear XV: Series Reflection

I’ve been doing this shindig for about a year and a half, and it’s been pretty damn hectic at times. I’ve run into a lot of shows that challenged me in a multitude of different ways, moments and stories so jaw-dropping that I felt I could never do them justice with mere words. But there’s an extra bit of irony in that consideration now that I’m finally at the end of Symphogear. After all, this show’s entire thematic point has been about the inability of words to communicate what you’re feeling, and how desperately we fight to rise beyond that limitation regardless. Hell, you could argue that I’ve essentially been doing a Gear Wielder’s job myself here, communicating ethereal ideas and feelings and trying to put them in a form that people can understand and relate to. Maybe that’s part of the reason I’ve fallen so head-over-heels in love with it; I know firsthand how difficult the task before Hibiki and company really is. It’s hard to get across what you’re feeling with tools this imprecise, to connect with people when the nature of reality itself keeps us as separate entities. But like the great punch lesbian herself, I keep reaching out regardless, because I know there are feelings well worth sharing and building together.

And Symphogear has made that task so, so rewarding. This ridiculous, uneven roller coaster ride has been, without a doubt, one of the most worthwhile shows I’ve analyzed for this blog. It inspires me in so many different ways, even when it falls short of its audacious ambitions. I love its kinetic energy and bombast. I love its unapologetic queer driving ethos. I love its bold-faced commitment to sincerity in the face of all odds. I love how it never stops trying new things, never stops finding new ways to express the countless exciting thoughts bouncing around in its brain. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Symphogear is one of the most important anime I’ve ever watched in terms of figuring out why I value this medium so much. Even this far into my anime craze, I’m still finding new reasons to love it, new reasons to appreciate its existence. Symphogear’s eclectic mashup of genre and tone could only ever come from the no-holds-barred, try-anything ethos of anime, from a willingness to be as stupid and weird and ridiculous as overblown as you need to be to get such operatic points across with the panache and courage they deserve. In the time since I first watched it, this franchise has come to represent why anime will always be worth fighting for. Any medium that can produce something so singularly worthy deserves to stick around.

So what do I say now that it’s finally over?

Well I guess I better start with the only thing that really deserves to be said: Thank you. Thank you, Symphogear. Thank you for one of the craziest, most invigorating experiences of my anime-watching career. Thank you for the ridiculous action setpieces and fantastic animation. Thank you for the stunning performances and killer soundtrack. Thank you for the bravado, the tenacity, the showmanship. Thank you for Kirika and Shirabe. Thank you for Hibiki and Miku. Seriously, thank you for Hibiki and Miku. Thank you for the imagination, the conviction, the heart, the willingness to go above and beyond.

But above all else, thank you for a finale that I will remember for the rest of my life.

I cannot overstate what an incredible achievement XV has been. This isn’t just the best season of Symphogear yet, this is the culmination and perfection of every reason why it’s been so worth fighting for. The action is more dynamic and explosive than ever before, with stunning animation that regularly left me gasping in my seat. The storytelling is more thoughtful and resonant than ever before, with story threads and thematic undercurrents that gripped me down at the very base of my soul. The villains are the best villain team yet, posing a legitimate moral uncertainty that makes every clash with them a nerve-biting affair. The spark of understanding has never shone as strongly, with such colossal courage and such meaningful connections to make. Hibiki and Miku’s relationship, taking central stage like never before, only becomes even more beautiful and resonant. This is the apotheosis of everything that makes Symphogear great, every reason it’s been such a breath of fresh air for me over the past months, all delivered in the most rousing opera performance I’ll likely ever see. And if I’m still reeling from the impact tying up this post four hours after the fact, then that’s all the proof I need to stand up and applaud until my hands ache from the effort.

Because above all else, beyond any points I could make about production quality or storytelling consistency, the reason Symphogear has lingered so long in my thoughts is that this show- this utterly bananas show- is what I want anime to be. I want every show I watch to be this courageous, this heartfelt, this determined to break every barrier in its path and forge something beautiful through sheer force of will. I know I compared Symphogear to Gurren Laggan a while back, and that comparison has never felt more true. Symphogear is everything that I wanted Gurren Laggan to be, inspirational on a level that knocks me out of my complacency and convinces me that anything I want to accomplish is within my grasp. It makes me believe in the power of this medium with every confident step it takes. And with XV, it doesn’t just deliver on that promise a thousandfold, it pierces the heavens with that promise and sends it hurtling through space like a rocket-powered ship of dreams, exploding in rainbow firecrackers that spell out song lyrics in their wake. This is every last reason I love anime jacked up to titanic proportions and let loose to stupefy the world with its majesty. I bow before Symphogear with more conviction than I do before Death Note, or Attack on Titan, or My Hero Academia, or Yu Yu Hakusho, or most other big franchises you could name. And if I’ve been able to share even a fraction of its beauty with you over the course of writing about it, then I know its song is still going strong.

So you know what? Fuck it. I don’t care if Tsubasa’s arc was awkward and kinda mishandled. I don’t care if the lore doesn’t make any goddamn sense. I don’t care if this franchise is still chronically averse to the idea of subtlety. The reasons we fall in love with shows don’t come on some objective idea of quality in construction. They come from the connections they forge with us, speaking in a language we can never hope to fully understand, yet still feel speaking to us all the same. And with XV’s colossal finish in tow, I value Symphogear about as highly as I possibly can. I value it for its outrageous entertainment value, for its unyielding spirit, for Hibiki’s gentle fist, for Chris’ newfound family, for Genjirou’s paternal brilliance, for Miku’s blinding radiance, for one of the single best fictional relationships I’ve ever had the pleasure to experience. This is the reason anime is worth fighting for, writ large in stunning spectacle and a heart that beats louder than any other. Symphogear is good on a level that defies reason, so why bother trying to make sense of it? If there’s one thing this franchise proves, it’s that even when you don’t fully understand, you can still connect more deeply than you could ever dream. And the connection Symphogear has forged with me is one that I will cherish until my dying day.

And so, at long last, for countless hours of heartfelt joy, for every moment that Hibiki and Miku share together, for a finale to end all finales, and for standing as the definitive reason why the ethos of anime is worth carrying on, I award Symphogear XV- and by extension, the entire Symphogear franchise- a score of:

10/10

What a remarkable show. What a remarkable time. Thank you all for joining me on this epic adventure, and if you’re desperate for more Symphogear love from me, consider following my person blog, Ardania22, where I’m certain I’ll be reblogging a mountain’s worth of HibiMiku content now that I don’t have to risk getting spoiled anymore. In the meantime, I hope you stick around here for the show that will take Symphogear place among my regular rotation!

Speaking of which, good lord, I can finally get back to my regular watchlists now! Huzzah! If you’re new around these parts, I watch two shows concurrently, one long running (currently Haikyuu), and another shorter series I choose from a pre-selected list by random number generator. So, what fortune does my future have in store for me?

Snow White with the Red Hair

Ooh, it’s gonna be an interesting October. Thank you all so much, and I’ll see you next time for the start of a new adventure!