#like it makes so much sense for them to become a powerhouse group

[my-coven-is-claudia]

pondering how katelyn essentially replaces garroth in the gar/laur/aph dynamic during s2. like garroth, katelyn builds a rapport with laurance and becomes his comrade in arms. she plays the grounded, well-mannered, strategist to laurance’s impulsive, confrontational, casanova self. she also develops an close relationship with aph and acts as her personal guard, becoming extremely protective of her. honestly, katelyn slots in perfectly into this trio, adapting almost seamlessly and it allows her to grow and change as a person. and then garroth comes back. someone needs to be displaced. laurance leaves. you cannot have both.

[nickel156]

New theory incoming:

What if Rhysand is actually Valg? Okay, not a new new theory, but I come with new receipts!!

Bear with me, because once you start connecting the dots, it starts to look real suspicious. Let’s talk about how the Inner Circle seems to mirror the Cadre in Throne of Glass—because let’s be real, they’re all miserable.

Look at how Rhysand doles out responsibilities: Azriel, the shadowsinger with a traumatic past, is tasked with torturing people as a spymaster. And guess what? He hates it. It’s literally the last thing he wants to do. Then we have Cassian, who’s put in charge of keeping the Illyrians in line—an entire group of people who don’t respect him, who he’s constantly battling, and a job that leaves him emotionally drained. And then there’s Mor, who’s forced to keep the Hewn City in check—the place that brings her so much pain and trauma, the place she despises. And let’s not forget that Rhysand gave her the “opportunity” to kill her parents, knowing full well that Mor would never be able to go through with it, leaving her trapped in this endless cycle of pretending and unresolved pain.

And let’s not forget about Amren. Rhysand touts her as this second-in-command powerhouse who has all this freedom, yet he binds her to Velaris and to his Inner Circle. She’s trapped in a body she hates, pretending to be something she’s not. Remember, Amren is ancient, powerful, and she longs for a sense of freedom and the ability to return to her true form. But what does Rhysand do? He ties her to Velaris, makes her part of his court, and essentially uses her powers as a failsafe whenever things get dire. And when Amren finally has the chance to become her true self again, to escape, she’s roped back in. It’s almost like he needs to keep her close, keep her feeling indebted to him, so she never truly finds her own way out. Another parallel to the Cadre, who were always indebted and beholden to Maeve.

So why would Rhysand, who supposedly loves his family, give them jobs that do nothing but torment them? It feels a lot like the Valg in Throne of Glass and how the Cadre was bound to Maeve—stuck in miserable positions, tied to a leader who claimed to be doing everything for the “greater good” but really just kept them all under control. It’s almost like Rhysand is purposely keeping his Inner Circle in roles they despise to maintain a sense of power over them. He creates this narrative of being the savior and protector, while they’re the “necessary” pawns who have to suffer for the “greater good.”

It’s a consistent theme: Rhysand presents himself as the caring, understanding leader, but his actions suggest he has no problem keeping his closest friends in tormenting roles for the sake of his control over the Night Court. They’re constantly doing things they hate, locked into positions that make them miserable, all while Rhysand stands above it all with this narrative of being the “most powerful High Lord” with the “perfect court.”

Sounds a lot like how Maeve ruled over her Cadre, doesn’t it? And if you squint, you start seeing the parallels between how the Valg control their pawns and how Rhysand manipulates his Inner Circle. Just a theory, but the more you think about it, the more the pieces start to fall into place…

[flowerwiththemachinegun]

Underground fight club AU HC's Turks First? I may not revisit this one to add more but i might cause i’ve thought of some for the Soldier boys, Wutai, Avalanche and Co.(especially taking away Barrett's gunarm?? and Don Corneo’s Fight Club. Idk, I want a fighting game with these guys. Ugh and that blonde guy with the white suit is here…I want these boys brawling.

Kind of picture these scenarios with more realistic hand to hand combat and weaker magic…if someone is that much of a sore loser to use it (cough cough)

I imagine these fights happening in Corneo Colosseum

Rules: No Weapons

No Magic

It’s legal as long as the ref doesn’t catch you

Reno and Rude: 

Both of these guys are a problem to fight. Together? Nearly unstoppable. They’ve got a few losses under their belt as a duo, not too many, this is no losing team by any means. Though Avalanche’s fight club has given them a run for their money several times. They’re both agile and can use their raw strength to benefit them, making them easily adapt to the fighting style of their opponents. 

Rude at times will distract the ref, allowing Reno to get in a cheap shot with his baton. Effectively stunning his opponent allowing Rude to follow up with a barrage of devastating kicks and punches. These two don’t mind playing a little dirty. With the help of one of their fellow club members occasionally interfering from ringside, usually in the form of Tseng providing Reno with his baton or Elena slipping Rude a pocket knife for a particularly nasty fight. From time to time they’ve sabotaged opponents before fights, resulting in fighting an already beaten down enemy or a default win by DQ since the fighter “never showed up”. 

Reno talks a lot of shit during fights, often showcasing his cocky nature. Something about this is contagious for Rude. While he won’t show his cockiness verbally, you can tell he’s getting an arrogant air about him in the way he fights. The more attacks Reno and Rude land, hype them up for a Turks Combo.

If ykyk, these guys are like the equivalent of the Uso brothers during their title reign. One is hardly seen without the other. If one starts a fight (usually Reno, the little shit starter) the other is following directly behind the other. On occasion they bicker about who’s the better of the two Rude, it’s all lighthearted though the stats show who is the better standalone fighter.

Elena (she's only 18?? Yea, I never fuckin knew Jesus christ she’s a baby. It makes sense now. So how old was she in BC? cause I can’t find shit.) 

This little lady has no problem taking down these big brawling men. Quick and agile, don’t let that tiny body mistake you. Equaling out to be a bit of a powerhouse due to adopting portions of Rude’s fighting style early on in training. Specializes in many forms of MMA, as all of the Turks do. 

The whole Turks team plays dirty, let’s face it. With that being said she too uses underhanded tactics. If the odds aren’t in her favor she’ll find a chance to pull out brass knuckles, a  move she’s dubbed “Elena Knuckle”. While she likes to prove she can do it without the assistance of others, her fighting becomes impeccably perfect when her other club members are ringside. Being the youngest out of the group means she’s got something to prove in her eyes, especially to the rest of her team. Elena has to show them that soon, she’ll be taking their place as the greatest fighter. 

Doesn’t have much of a losing streak, any losses stemming from Avalanche’s Tifa. Elena considers Tifa to be her rival due to the challenge she’s able to provide her. Often drawing out rounds at times as Elena loves a good fight with Tifa. Tifa’s ability to adapt to her fighting style and keep up a constant back and forth adds to the intoxicating euphoria that keeps Elena coming back for more. When Tifa is her opponent cheating is off of the table. She wants to beat her fair and square. 

Rufus and Tseng 

You really fucked up enough to get in a fight with these two? Have fun getting scrapped this fuckin bad. The very definition of winning by any means necessary. These matches end so fast they aren’t even fun to watch anymore. Cloud and Barret hold a pretty steady win streak against them, also sharing a losing streak against the duo of Angeal and Sephiroth. 

The fight won’t stop until their opponents aren’t moving. They like knockouts only cause as a duo they kick too much ass to accept anything less. They feed off of each other's energy pretty well, nearly resonating with each other that is making Tseng and Rufus stronger during fights. Interrupting combos for either one or dual attacks sets them back and can leave them vulnerable, allowing for a chance to counter attack. It’s a small window, so their opponents better move fast.

Don’t try these two while they’re out and about, seeing as how these clubs have deep rivalries they tend to clash outside of the ring. If Elena is with them it’s certainly an on sight kind of scenario. The amount of fights she’s started while accompanying Tseng and Rufus between themselves and Avalanche is steadily stacking. (usually due to seeing Tifa.)

Rufus (Obviously club leader)

Once again. Win by any means necessary. This man has had everyone but Tseng banned from ringside from constant interference. Often the other Turks provided him with weapons, the point is to fight each other. Not kill each other. Yet with the choice items Rufus would have his members bring out, the crowd certainly couldn’t tell the difference. 

Favorite go to is a pocket knife. (would be hot no?) Tseng makes for the perfect distraction during this time. Arguing with the ref over “unfair” scoring. Getting into the specific of the striking scores, but who really even gives a damn in an underground fight? Definitely likes to slice a person’s face. Genesis hates having to fight against him. It isn’t just because he’s taken a handful of ass whoopings from the spoiled boy of the underground world, but due to his gorgeous fucking face. He sliced Genesis’ face once and he almost burned down the entire warehouse district, resulting in “no magic” rule shortly after.

Nothing but wins because he be fuckin cheating on some roman reigns shit also doesn’t fight very often. Whenever he pops out for a fight it’s almost a paperview like event. Holds the current championship hostage, no he hasn’t lost it but he should have. If it wasn’t for Tseng that title would be getting kissed goodbye.

Tseng

Despite helping everyone else cheat, he’s the only one with a clean record. While he knows it would bother the rest to boast about it, Tseng has a lot of pride in his solo win streak. Another member who doesn’t fight as often as the others, as their trainer he needs to stay in top condition. 

At times he gives off the impression that he doesn’t move very fast. Don’t let that fool you, one minute it seems like he’s taking a breather but the very next second Tseng is practically on top of his opponent. Taking them down with heavy hitting attacks. The force he applies to these attacks gives him a powerhouse like technique along with being quick and graceful. Doesn’t get knocked off his feet easily, only powerful attacks will cause Tseng to fall. 

Tseng and Elena 

These two work well together, Tseng tends to let Elena take control of these fights to assist excelling in her fighting capabilities, still supporting her in any way that he can. Will regain control if he notices they’re starting to take some major hits and often takes heavier blows to protect his favorite fighter.

The way they feed off of each other's energy is more intense than Tseng and Rufus. Combining their aura together for their signature Tag Team move. Tseng gains a bit of cockiness watching how his star pupil fights so well. Sure, Elena could fight before joining the Turks but Tseng helped elevate her skills substantially and loves seeing it up close against others. 

Losing streak? What losing streak, the way Elena is determined to show off to Tseng losing is never an option. She’s a Turk goddamnit, losing isn’t acceptable. It already hurts her to have any losses on her solo record, so with the assistance of Tseng she can’t begin to imagine why they would lose in the first place. 

[livannasalinger]

Dc x Dp prompt 3

I was thinking lately that most of the prompts and fics that I see, they range from: focus on Danny, focus on Jazz, oneshots here and there with some different characters, maybe sam and tucker, but not much more than that. Of course, ultimately, the idea of Dc x Dp goes through the importance that Danny has to establish this connection (ghost king, meta laws, being a hero, classic black hair and blue eyes of the Waynes, etc etc) and focus more on relationships with DC characters (batfam, superman, Wonder Woman, etc) . At the same time, I've recently been thinking about how there are few fics that portray the rest of the Casper High as a functional group (not counting Everlasting trio). And then, there's this fic that I really like (see prompt 2) that talks about a different way that the incident with Spectra could have happened. With all this, I thought:

- what if, these incidents with the ghosts made the group more cohesive: I'm not talking about everyone being super friends, although that can be cool, but I'm talking about actually seeing them build a dynamic because they need to protect themselves from danger and they can't get help from anyone else -  Justice League doesn't interfere/doesn't know/doesn't believe

- Anyway, X years pass, the events of DP (except Danny's revelation to the world) occur, but unlike canon, the children mature faster, and start to blossom like powerhouses - imagine Assassination classroom and how they became after graduation, that kind of thing.

- But that's when things start to get interesting, because "out of nowhere" a group of people with impressive skills and suspicious training in different areas begins to appear, young people trained in things they shouldn't. At first, the connection was not clear, as everyone is in different areas, but little by little a pattern starts to become clearer: maybe their presence, maybe some more ghostly physical characteristic.

I see two ways this starts to get noticed:

-- At a Justice League meeting, several superheroes start listing people of interest and justifying why. They might have noticed these people as possible future villains, or maybe they want to recruit them, or something like that. The point is: when one person starts talking, another hero starts remembering that he knows a similar person, a pattern starts to be observed, an investigation starts to be made.

OR

-- An investigation is already under way, as there is a group of people who came from the same place, started to become influential in the field of choice, and nobody can prove, but many suspect that this group is responsible for the disappearance of a mysterious government organization called GIW

In any case, an investigation begins showing  the different ways that the Amity Park group has grown to be BAMF including: Tucker Foley, Sam Manson, Jazz Fenton, Valerie Gray, Dash Baxter, Paulina, Kwan, Star, Wes weston.… maybe even Ellie and Dan.

The investigation proceeds, old photos of the group can be found and they notice the disappearance of only one person: Danny Fenton. Which makes no sense, as he is seen multiple times with all the suspects, but effectively there is no record of him anywhere: no college, no job, not even how he gets from one place to another, no plane ticket, nothing.

It would still be really cool if everyone in the group followed certain customs, derived from the lessons they received on how to deal with ghosts or because they are Liminal and that's why they behave a little differently and, even if they've been living with "normal people" for years , sometimes they just forget common sense and scare people without intending to.

The conclusions that the JL, villains  and other groups, can come to are potentially hilarious: are they villains? what are their goals? Are they a secret cult with this Danny as their leader? Are they or are they not doing something illegal? Are they a threat? And if so, a threat to whom?

At the end of it all I can see Mr Lance showing up and thinking "how come this is supposedly the most powerful group of people in the world?!" and in 5 minutes solving any chaos or misunderstanding like:

"Pride and Prejudice, not even Mr. Weston was that bad" (looking at Red Robin's conspiracy board)

[day6source]

DAY6: Retelling the paradox

DAY6 shows what makes them special on their new album Fourever by Kim Doheon

“I’m so moved by the stage, I won’t be alone any longer / Among all of the possibilities, thank you for choosing me.” The first song on DAY6’s Fourever, “Welcome to the Show,” which marks the band’s return to full strength after taking three years off for its members to complete their military service, is an anticipatory start. Along with Young K's lyrics, which directly express the overwhelming emotions of the members who did not give up music during the long hiatus as “moved,” the song opens with a synth riff that signals a new beginning for the band, followed by a bright guitar performance with a thumping bass drum. What comes next is interesting. “The future that you’re welcoming with me might be risky. But there might also be tear-filled emotions.” After a thank you reminiscent of an idol’s fan song, Sungjin warns of an uncertain future. Wonpil then creates a twist by saying, “Even so, if you won’t let go of my hand,” and their show begins in earnest. As all members sing the main melody heard at the start, Young K affirms once more in a firm voice. “I promise you this much. I’m going to give my all.” A warm hello from the returning band moves from anxiety and chaos to great joy, becoming a beautiful anthem of promise. Before the first verse of “Welcome to the Show” is over, we can glimpse DAY6’s path traversed, their identity, and a vivid musical surface that hints at the future they will embark upon.

DAY6 is all about paradoxes. They started out by internalizing the clash of values that come with being an idol band from a powerhouse agency. Despite unabated critical views toward the idol bands in the early 2010s, their agency chose to believe in the power of paradox instead of contradiction. To overcome the negative perception, the members, who had never held an instrument before, practiced for more than 14 hours a day, spent more than 100 hours a week performing together, and set a goal of debuting with their own music. Prior to their debut, the band performed small-scale busking gigs and rock festival stages, starting with Live Club Day on July 31, 2015, to get a feel for a real-life experience. Their debut showcase was held at the West Bridge Live Hall in Hongdae area, and they followed a real indie band’s schedule, announcing performance venues on Instagram, performing on the street, and communicating with fans instead of performing for televised music shows. Since 2017, the group started improving self-sustainability by releasing two self-written songs each month with the “Every DAY6 Project,” a steady stream of creative output. Naturally, the attention given to the new band was not as widespread, but through hard work, DAY6 has been able to chart a path to the seemingly incompatible idol band ideal. But the real key is that, in the process, DAY6 has established their own creative perspective and narrative delivery. Paradoxical situations and the process of resolving them are at the center of DAY6’s musical world. They capture universal moments in everyday life from a different perspective. Their debut song “Congratulations” marks the beginning of what is often called “running while crying,” an expression that refers to the songs with lyrics that go against the feel-good beat of the song itself. The person congratulating you for being so great is an ex-lover who coldly abandoned you. “You Were Beautiful,” an iconic staple of DAY6’s discography, also looks back on the good times with a past lover, but there is a dark sense of nihilism that it’s all over. The same goes for “I Smile” from their first studio album, Sunrise. The vow to be invariably cheerful is actually an expression of perseverance to clench your fists and bite your lip to avoid ruining an awkward reunion with a long-lost lover. “I Like You” goes, “The days that go as I wish, there weren’t many.” In “Time of Our Life,” which has become a generational anthem to youth, DAY6 confesses, “I’ll be honest with you. It wasn’t that easy for this moment to come,” in contrast to the bright melody. We can understand why Sungjin chose to share their uncertainty in “Welcome to the Show.” And nowhere is this formula more evident than in “Happy,” the second song on Fourever. DAY6 desperately cries out for happiness in a bleak reality where “Algorithms only apply to successful people” and “I'm sinking. I think I'm going to cry.”

Crises and climaxes are particularly prominent in the compositional stages of DAY6. In “Zombie,” where they are at their most precarious, their nihilism is taken to extremes. That’s why it’s all the more poignant and precious when they finally get their happy ending. They repeatedly question their beliefs about happiness and love, search for answers, and then defend those answers with unwavering faith. It’s a deep sincerity that only those who have fought to achieve and protect something can bear. It’s a journey that starts in “Hurt Road,” where they sing, “You knew and I knew that this is not an easy road. It’s not that you and I didn’t know that not many flowers bloom on this road,” and ends with, “But I can push through as long as I have your love,” in “You Make Me.” “Time of Our Life” says, “I waited so long for this day to come,” and encourages us to write together “a page of our beautiful youth.” “Sweet Chaos” sings of a good love that overcomes a chaotic disorder. This also becomes the case when we encounter the upbeat synth-pop “The Power of Love” as the next song for “Happy” in this album. DAY6’s music matured as their narrative grew stronger. While in the early days, DAY6 centered on Korean indie soft rock and embraced the trendy pop and rock music of the time, they continued to make musical strides by maintaining the appeal of straightforward rock music, adding electronic sounds, and expanding into various genres such as sentimental ballad and jazz. The expansion started with “days gone by,” which took on a 1980s new wave vibe and picked up steam with The Book of Us series, yielding rich musical results like “EMERGENCY,” “365246,” “Day and Night,” and “Love Me Or Leave Me.” The Book of US : Negentropy - Chaos swallowed up in love, their last album as a complete group before enlisting in the military featured a romantic blue-eyed soul song “Only” and an honest love song, “so let’s love,” while maintaining the electronic sound texture throughout. The project that took on a stronger pop feel was DAY6 (Even of Day), a trio sub-unit of DAY6 absent of Sungjin’s guitar and vocals. Wonpil’s keyboard-heavy production brought textures reminiscent of early 2010s bands like WALK THE MOON and Neon Trees, while Young K refined his talents as a singer-songwriter.

With all four members participating in vocals since their debut, they have now found the optimal combination that conveys different sentiments within a single song using their voices. Young K, who writes lyrics, is the vocalist who can most empower DAY6’s music. The range of his voice, which is as strong and cheerful as his bass, has expanded from the raps in their early days to the choruses that now promise the team’s sureness. Having released a solo album, Letters With Notes, with the composer Hong Jisang, who has worked with DAY6 throughout their career, and written “Rose Blossom” for the girl group H1-KEY, Young K is now a fully-fledged singer-songwriter. In contrast, Sungjin, the rough-edged main vocalist, is the pillar of the band. He retains the raw emotion from DAY6’s early days and adds a touch of rock in various areas of a song, from the run-up to the takeoff. The instantly recognizable voice of Wonpil is multi-dimensional. His clear voice creates a zone of coexistence between the innocent youth, the fragile and wounded youth of today, and the youth who desperately dream of the future. Wonpil, who delivered his unique lyricism and presented “A journey” in his solo album Pilmography, is truly a member who “runs while crying.” Dowoon’s drumming is the foundation on which all of this music can be stably unfolded, a vast canvas for DAY6. FOUREVER is packed with the quartet’s inner strength. After the sing-along-inducing “Welcome to the Show” and a cry out of “Happy,” which they must have dreamed of countless times during their long hiatus, they preach the power of positivity in “The Power of Love,” fix their shoelaces and try to forget a breakup with “Get The Hell Out” and run through the track once again with “Sad Ending.” After this youthful rush, the album calmly closes with the romantic “Let Me Love You” and the DAY6 (Even of Day)-esque “didn't know,” looking back on the past and staying true to DAY6’s music. As the quartet didn’t have much time after Wonpil’s discharge last November, they chose to take a style that fans are familiar with rather than bringing big changes, a choice made possible because they had confidence and faith in their masterful work. Tickets for DAY6’s three-day concert, “Welcome to the Show,” held at Jamsil Indoor Stadium from April 12 to 14, sold out in a heartbeat. Referring to their popularity, some entertainment outlets titled their articles “An urgent need of self-grasping.” Jamsil Indoor Stadium is the largest concert venue in Seoul following the Gocheok Sky Dome, KSPO Dome, and INSPIRE Arena, as the 60,000-capacity Seoul Olympic Main Stadium is being renovated. Mobilizing more than 30,000 spectators over three days for a team that hasn't performed as a full group in three years is no small feat. It’s a testament to the public’s support for them. When the articles were trending on social media with their titles, no one doubted DAY6’s status. It wouldn’t be out of place to see them on an arena or stadium-sized stage shortly. The band’s story of overcoming paradox and singing of love and the power in their voices bring them as “one” and make them invincible as their song suggests. In an era where the dark values of mistrust and individualism are spreading, it’s beautiful to see these four men reunited to brighten the world with their music. DAY6 never fails to deliver. I believe in the band and their sincerity.

[disillusionedjudge]

((last night I went on a long-winded ramble about the Occuria, and I'm gonna add to that! Because this might be all I'll do tonight (though there is a lil ask I might get to after this, heh), and also because I can lol

but, my new thought is: there are no other gods and there is no Great Father. It's the Occuria and Occuria only, but not even they are actual gods.

like my longer ramble, I might be trying to shove a triangle into a crescent-shaped hole yet again lol, and while I don't actually have anything to back up this thought, I do have an in-game possibility for this as well as real-life. Also I realize that this can tie into the very last idea I proposed about Gerun being the Great Father and dismissed pretty quick, so I'm gonna be dragging that idea back into the spotlight sdfgghd

now, to cut to the chase, we as humans have a rich history of finding explanations for things we can't understand. Typhoons and cyclones and other natural disasters are attributed to creatures like Cetus. Various gods are said to control specific aspects of life and the afterlife, such as Demeter being the (Greek) goddess of the harvest, earth, and fertility. To be faced with a more spiritual or supernatural being such as the Occuria, why would the humes and other races of Ivalice not believe them to be gods? Especially when they're out there picking random people to be their "champion" and giving them life-ending magical stones.

with Gerun being the leader of the Occuria, it would make sense for them to be considered the Great Father, especially if they were the one handing out nethicite to their chosen champion(s). You have the clear leader of the group, boom, they're the main god. And while I still like my original idea more, with there being a main god (the Great Father) and the Occuria being lesser gods, this idea is interesting because, to me, my brain jumps to: what if they're not gods at all?

the Occuria are immortal, but to an extent. I think it's safe to assume they've been around for centuries, as clearly there's generations between King Raithwall and Ashelia, and for Archadia and Rozarria to rise into the powerhouse Empires that they are in-game. They clearly have longetivity on their side, but is it permanent? No idea - maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But they can die, or "die", depending on how it goes for them, as seen with Venat.

At the final climax, Venat fuses with a dying Vayne Novus to become the Undying, but when Vayne is finally defeated, so is Venat, in an eruption of Mist. So... so much for being the Undying, lol. Anyway, from that, it's clear that Venat is dead, but are they? Now, it's entirely possible that the Mist is what the Occuria are made of, hence their limitations and control over the nethicite and chosing champions. It's possible that, given time, that an Occuria can reform from the Mist, but... honestly, I don't think that would be possible given that Mist would disperse, and if they don't reform right away, they might not be able to reform at all as the Mist would merge into the environment and either spread across Ivalice or be concentrated into certain areas (like Raithwall's tomb), or utterly destroy an environment if there's too much of it. Which... actually presents an interesting idea that maybe the Occuria need a "champion" to spread the Mist via nethicite? so that way the Occuria to stay alive, and without the Mist, they would die and so would Ivalice as its known, so it could be said that the fading of the Mist would be the catalyst into an apocalyptic-esque scenario but that's an entirely different train of thought and I'm struggling with this one as is considering I'm fading fast sdjhgsdf

Anyway, my main point is that it could be said there are no gods or Great Father, but it was the mortal races' way of explaining the Occuria. But the Occuria themselves are not gods (or they can be, but I don't quite buy that) given they are not truly immortal and are limited in what they can and can't do. They can't destroy Venat to prevent them from causing the trouble that they did by involving Dr. Cid and Vayne, but they also can't control Ashelia to do their bidding without some wild manipulation and the arrogant belief it'll be foolproof. There's only so much they can do to keep Ivalice in the way they want it to be without the aid of mortals. They can be killed, but whether or not it's a permanent death or only temporary is unclear.

While I do like this thought, I'm honestly still leaning toward what I wrote up last night because, a) I think it sounds cool for there to be a main god and the Occuria being lesser, and b) this isn't hitting all the notes I want it to. In this situation, is the Occuria responsible for the creation of Ivalice? If not, how did they come about? Though, I suppose it could be said the Occuria once had been far more powerful than they are now, but when the Espers rose up to challenge them, the Occuria defeating and containing them drained so much of their power, they could no longer control Ivalice like they once had, and may have even dwindled in numbers in the process. But that can also happen in the original idea I had, with the Great Father having either been "killed" (or their energy dispersed so greatly they're no longer the powerhouse they once been) by the Espers in this war, and the Occuria therefore stepping up to take control, but them being "lesser", they cannot do as much as the Great Father could and need to rely on using mortals for their own goals.

[beebee-stingz]

Niigo but they’re guardians from the hit mmorpg Destiny 2 (real??!)

Kanade:

- Warlock. No question.

- Uses well of radiance

- Her Ghost’s name is K. They’re pretty much the same as kanade (pathetic wet cats)

- She’s the group’s fireteam leader

- Resurrected just after the destruction of the Black Heart took place

- Probably the most “fit” to be a guardian out of the group, since she has a strong will to protect and save people. But instead she just spends most of the time in her apartment/ship composing music.

- Fascinated by the Hive in particular and their ritual songs. She’s been driven to death many times trying to get a recording of the Deathsinger’s Dirge to dissect it and see how it was composed

- Her ghost has been encouraging her to try getting out more, so she’s been trying to teach the kids of the Last City about composing and creating music.

- Whenever she’s on patrol, she ditches the group to find anything from the Golden Age and Pre-Golden Age related to songs. She has a massive file saved on a computer dedicated to anything from lyrics to music sheets that she’s found over the years

- She spends time “recreating” lost music from those eras too as sort of a side project when she isn’t composing her own pieces. This is also the main inspiration behind most of the pieces she creates.

Mafuyu:

- Hunter, since she’s athletic and stuff

- Stasis enthusiast

- Her ghost’s name is Yuki, taking inspiration from when Mafuyu was resurrected during a snow storm. Her personality is a lot like Mizuki’s, in the way that they’re the sort of meditator when it comes to Mafuyu’s horrid anxiety.

- She was resurrected only a few months before Kanade was resurrected. Making her the “oldest” member.

- She used to maintain a good girl personality around the vanguard and other guardians. She had an unwavering allegiance to the Light and its cause, until the Hunter Vanguard passed away. This would expose the cracks and make her question her loyalty. In spite of that, she would remain loyal… on the outside anyways. She would start to use stasis behind the Vanguard’s back and learn more about the true nature of Light and Darkness. This has caused her to question a lot about the Vanguard and, ultimately, what she herself had been fighting for. As well as who she was and what she truly wanted *insert identity crisis here*

- As time goes on, she’s finding that she only wants to protect and be with those who mean something to her- her fireteam- through whatever means necessary. She ditched the attitude and ditched putting loyalty in something she deemed imperfect.

- She often turns to Elsie Bray and Eris Morn for answers on Stasis and its connection to both Light and Darkness. The amount of time she spends with both of them worries her fireteam lowkey, except Mizuki- who recognizes that both forces one in the same. Mizuki is just worried about her becoming really edgy and potentially having a shitty fashion sense more than anything

- She’s very drawn to Kanade and the music she composes. Often critiquing, writing lyrics, and composing alongside her whenever she can. (Wow shocker)

- She owns several aquariums on her ship, and collects all sorts of aquatic creatures from across the system

- And yes, she has Poukas.

Mizuki:

- HUNTER. A very, very stylish Hunter, in fact. So much so that it annoys literally everybody. The sparkliest shaders? The most extravagant cloak? They’ll proudly let you know that they have what you don’t. Not their problem you’re too broke to pay a visit to Eververse!

- Uses Blade Barrage and Strand

- Resurrected just before the Red War. I’m talking like. MOMENTS before.

- Their Ghost’s name is Amia. She acts like Mizuki’s leash, making sure they don’t die from doing reckless things (they end up dying anyways lol)

- They’re dating Ena and often gets her riled up due to how much they bicker, the two fight like an old married couple. They also go on Crucible dates with Ena, they both fight a powerhouse and have earned Lord Shaxx’s approval, which doesn’t take much because Shaxx gets excited very easily. They also like to give Ena a hard time by making her switch to Bubble or be Div Bitch™ during encounters with higher ranking enemies.

- Each and every one of their knives have cute little ribbons on them :3

- They often updo their hair, even knowing full-well that it’ll just get messed up the second they put their helmet or cloak on.

- Despite being the “youngest” member of the fireteam, they call the most shots and act as a meditator. They often get mistaken as the leader bc of this

- Their eye for fashion has landed them a part time job at a local guardian-oriented boutique in the City. They help outfit newer guardians and gives them overall fashion advice

- Even though they’ve gained the approval of Shaxx, they doe NOT like being told what to do especially by the Vanguard. Cayde-6 is to blame for this, since they looked up to him before he passed. They also don’t entirely trust Drifter, either. So they’ve restored to just acting upon their own principles.

- They intuitively questioned the Light, and knew something was off from the start. So during the entirety of Beyond Light, they were all “lmfao told you so” to literally everybody. They revel in both light and darkness

Ena:

- She’s a Titan!

- She prefers to use Hammer, but often gets put on Bubble duty per Mizuki’s “request”

- Her Ghosts’s name is Akito… and yes, they hardly ever get along

- Resurrected around Rise of Iron

- She’s also rather stylish partly bc of Mizuki’s influence, so much so that she gets mistaken for a Hunter herself

- She and Mizuki are DATING!!! (I AM SHOVING THE MIZUENA AGENDA DOWN EVERYBODY’S THROATS AND IM NOT SORRY)

- She practically lives in the Crucible because of her competitive nature, but also per Akito’s request a while back because of her short temper getting out of hand at some point and needed some way to let it out

- She found an old camera once while on patrol on Venus and takes it with her wherever she goes to take reference pictures

- She discovered her talent for art out of boredom. She found some random pen and piece of paper in her ship while in orbit and began to absentmindedly doodle an image of Mafuyu. Being proud of herself, she decided that she wanted to try her hand at art as a hobby.

- She takes monthly art classes in the City, which are often taken by regular citizens. She’s, most times than not, the only guardian in those classes.

[plushcat42]

Introducing another version of one of my characters

This is Claws! A HTF OC :D

I really really wanna do a Fic with my characters and the shows cast for shits and giggles that like, gives it a proper story

Anyways

She’s a war vet like Flippster as was actually a member of his battalion, and they were friends.

She used to be a very optimistic character, trying to keep the spirits and morale up of her fellow soldiers. Maybe she was just being starry eyed or lying to herself. But it worked, she was good morale support.

However one day while making an advance her group was attacked and she was one of the handful of soldiers that were kidnapped by the Army; and she would be the only surviving kidnapped victim.

Subjected to awful, inhumane experimentation, Claws was meant to be; like her fellow soldiers; a throw away subject for the Tigers as their real goal was using them as the foundation for a way to turn their soldiers into an artificially enhanced unstoppable powerhouse. But for whatever reason Claws was the only person that seemed to be able to handle the brutal and invasive surgeries and modifications. So she eventually became their focus.

Grabbing some poor wolf that looked similar to her, the tigers killed the wolf and took her gear; including her tags and put them on the badly defaced body and made sure her battalion saw it so no attempts on recovering her(or the other soldiers they’d kidnapped before their deaths) were looked for. As a way to hopefully keep their facility safe from being infiltrated. Before beginning their attempts at brainwashing her. Hoping that they’d also be able to potentially pry some information from her.

It didn’t work.

Claws had, by this time, formed a bond with one of the members of the Tiger’s own faction that they’d forced into her situation as no one was willing to risk their life to be experimented on and tortured. He was just some random soldier like her before it all and was very visibly weak from everything as like every other test subject; his body was not taking the experiments well and it was killing him.

For a long time things were stagnant progress wise; however when their general was slain the Tigers’ facility went into overdrive. Trying to save themselves from defeat by finally achieving what they were trying to do.

And unfortunately experiments eventually yielded the results the Tigers wanted but it ended poorly for them. Somehow, something they’d done gave Claws the ability to become this hulking behemoth of rage and bloodlust. However their attempt at controlling her failed and she broke containment and broke her friend out(although it was technically ‘collateral damage’) and he did get out of the facility.

The stars seemed to align because another battalion wasn’t that far off because they’d already had their suspicions about the area and with the dwindling strength he had gave them the information they needed to get to the facility.

By the time they got there the whole place has been ravaged but Claws was found unconscious.

Her and the tiger(I’ll call him Blue for now) were the only experiments that got out of there alive. Although some others were found in the facility and rescued, any attempts at keeping them alive failed and they past away shortly after being taken from the facility.

Claws’ recovery was a slow one. She was physically okay pretty much immediately after the incident but mentally, not so much.

She and Blue were each other’s supports after that and gave what information they had to the army. Blue was too physically weak to even think about fighting for them and Claws was too unstable to do much anything so she was discharged and Blue was allowed to go with her.

She eventually regained her tags and wears them pretty much religiously. They bring a weird sense of stability to her and she really doesn’t know why.

Ever since she turned into that monster in the facility she’s been paranoid it’ll happen again and since Blue is the only one that knows about it thus far, he is her safeguard from letting it happen again.

How?

Claws bought and gave him a tranquilizer gun with some heavy duty darts and gave him the instructions of; if she ever turns, shoot her and do it without hesitation. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

Claws currently is quiet, and quite the pessimistic and paranoid person although she still tries to be friendly enough with strangers.

Protective of Blue; she thinks of him like a brother and if you mess with him you’re going to find out what it’s like to feel the wrath of a person that’ll fuck you up just enough so that you don’t desperately need the hospital but should probably think about it because your ribs ain’t feeling right.

Claws picked up the habit of smoking pretty much immediately after she and Blue were allowed to go live their own lives again.

I wanna go into depth about her meeting the cast of HTF(again in the case of Flips) but I’ll save that for another post lmfao

Here’s some other drawings of my lady

[doubleddenden]

Pt 4 to DD changes Ash's teams for no reason except pure boredom and pettiness. Remember this is pt 4 to the AU I've made for Kanto, Orange Islands, and Johto so far.

We're now at Hoenn and the Battle Frontier- I did group them together despite being kinda separated like Kanto and the Orange Islands were, but that's mainly because we're now reaching the point where I started missing a lot if the episodes as a kid. I can't really rewrite a story I don't know, yknow? But I can redo teams and make my own diverging points.

So... yeah. Remember I evolve or replace what I want, no hard feelings.

For the Hoenn Saga

And the revamped *Sevii Islands* Battle Frontier saga

I'll explain what I can below, but I do want to aim for shorter posts. Still a long read tho.

Starting with Hoenn:

Personally I would have loved to have given him Swampert or Blaziken instead, but Blaziken is important for May, and Swampert- while my personal favorite of the Hoenn starters- would make for repetitiveness given how in this AU, we've already fully evolved Blastoise and Feraligatr. Plus Ash's Sceptile is way too cool to get rid of.

The minor changes thus far would be simply to evolve Grovyle to Sceptile BEFORE the Hoenn League. I like Grovyle, don't get me wrong, but starters take way too damn long to evolve in the anime, especially Sceptile, who didn't evolve until towards the tail end of Battle Frontier. Didn't like that, so we're gonna say he evolves during Juan's gym battle to give the audience a healthy balance.

Corphish evolving into Crawdaunt might upset someone lol. I even agree Corphish is just a better design- but I've always, I mean ALWAYS hated it when a Pokemon more than capable of evolving in the anime just... doesn't. Made no sense to me as a kid. It also just doesn't help that Corphish was probably one of my least favorites of the crew because of his annoying voice and attitude, so i wanted to give the good ol college try (i almost deopped out) and try to salvage it somehow. I only made it slightly better imo. I could see Corphish evolving into Crawdaunt after having to climb Mt Pyre and dealing with a bunch of Ghost types, gaining a Dark type move like Knock Off and eventually Crunch to make use of that extra typing.

The last big change for the Hoenn team is just completely replacing Glalie with Aggron. I don't remember how Ash caught Snowrunt or evolved it into Glalie, it just never felt right as a kid though. Like it just kinda came out of nowhere and doesn't really feel like an Ash Pokemon to me. I don't think it ever did any big battles, either? It was a late league addition that I remember he dumped with Torkoal at Oak's lab the moment the writers saw their chance.

Enter Aron, who imo would be caught on Dewford Island and be a much better replacement- and also a favorite of mine. Aron would be a bit timid at first, but his typing would make him Hella defensive in battle, which Ash would utilize often. He'd look up to Pikachu, Tailow, Treeko, Corphish, and Torkoal because of how they seem unafraid to fight. It wouldn't be until he evolves into Lairon, right before Flannery's gym fight, that he finally becomes brave enough to fight on his own. He'd be a pretty cheerful Pokemon but easily spooked by ghosts or invisible Pokemon, or just sudden noises, but Ash would take pretty good care of it. Max also takes up a habit of giving Aron, Lairon, and eventually Aggron a nice polish to his metal armor, which spooked him at first but became one of their favorite bonding experiences.

Lairon would finally evolve right before the league after being inspired by Sceptile to try harder, and in turn prevents Team Rocket from stealing a bunch of League goers' Pokemon. Also, it'd be at this point that- surprise! The gang finds out Aggron is a *girl,* and she apparently has a crush on Sceptile after his amazing fight with Juan. Aggron would be an amazing powerhouse to the team that would help carry Ash to the top 4, but she'd gain a strange habit of acting meek and shy around Sceptile, so double battles just didn't work from that point onward.

Interesting enough, it's not some nobody with a Meowth in cowboy boots that beats Ash. The Hoenn League would actually be double battle focused, and instead he'd have to fight a rather... peculiar trainer with a blue coat and a strange device on his arm.

This would be Wes, the same Wes from Colosseum, accompanied by Rui of course, and his team would be as follows

(Based on my own Colo team)

Wes ended up being granted special permission to participate in the Hoenn Pokemon League by Steven Stone after Wes managed to show his skills against Steven during a trip to Orre. He's not a jerk per se, but he's not friendly, either, except to Pokemon. Quiet and reserved, but a terrible liar according to genki Rui. Ash and Wes have a moment to bond after the two get lost in Victory Road during separate training sessions, and both came to a mutual respect, Ash even finding a talking point about how he has an Espeon of his own.

The league battle was tough. Ash brought his usual brand of Shenanigans and Team work, but Wes is a hardened double battler by necessity. Wes makes use of amazing combos and strategies- having a Raikou definitely doesn't hurt, either, which caught EVERYONE off guard with the flawless coordination of Mantine's Rain Dance and Raikou's Thunder, which would take out Pikachu and Swellow after an attempted Thunder Armor pt 2, and deal serious damage to Aggron, Sceptile, and Torkoal. In a moment of desperation, Torkoal learns Sunny Day and Sceptile learns Solar Beam, this combo being just what they finally need to defeat Raikou and Mantine. Sceptile would take down Misdreavus, but not before it uses Perish Song. Typhlosion would take out Torkoal with the boost from Sunny Day, and even take out Crawdaunt with the lessened power towards its water type moves, leaving the unfortunate combo of Sceptile and Aggron, who is of course still smitten by Sceptile. After seeing Sceptile get messed up, Aggron finally overcomes these feelings and takes out Typhlosion, leaving only Wes's Umbreon and Espeon left. Sceptile and Aggron put up a fight, but Perish Song finally takes out Sceptile, leaving Aggron alone and damaged. She puts up a good fight, but Umbreon and Espeon's teamwork just prove too much, and Aggron and Ash lose the league. Wes would go on to win the league, but not without giving Ash a solid congratulations for coming this far, since most people don't make that far. He would then tell Ash that if he's ever in the Orre region, they should have a rematch, and part on good terms.

The rest would go about as normal with Ash and Co returning to Kanto for a bit- but it's not long until Scott invites Ash to participate in the Battle Frontier challenge he has set up out towards the Sevii Islands. I chose this instead of Kanto as a good tie in to FRLG, whose only contribution with the Sevii Islands in the anime being Chronicles, where Richie meets an old man, a Chikorita, and a Salamence as they fight Moltres... speaking of old man Silver, tho- well first.

Coming back to Oak's lab, everyone meets Ash's old Pokemon. While there, Crawdaunt decides that he wants to party with Feraligatr for a while, and Torkoal starts helping Deliah, Mimey, and Primeape with baking, so Ash decides to give him a break with his Mom.

Of all Pokemon to come say hello, it's Ash's Slowpoke. When Misty comes to visit, she tells Ash about a King's Rock she found and gifts it to Slowpoke. A Shelder from a lake hops out and clamps onto Slowpoke's head, and Slowpoke evolves into Slowking. Slowking is now much smarter, and now he is so excited to actually be able to think that he wants to travel with Ash, so Ash gladly takes him. Slowking would finally get its chance to shine with powerful psychic and water type attacks, and even make use of Skill Swap to trip up enemies.

Donphan- still being pretty young, gently persuades Ash to take him as well, so Ash proceeds to take the gang with him to the Sevii islands to complete the Battle Frontier challenge. Donphan matures a lot and learns very powerful moves like Earthquake to help bring victory.

Meanwhile, May's contests are moved here as well.

Most of the journey through Sevii is about the same as original Battle Frontier, but with certain filler plot replaced with island relevant plot.

Since Mt Ember is on One Island, we'd do the Battle Factory challenge there and have the Frontier Brain use Moltres instead of Articuno, and in a twist of fate, Ash's Blastoise would show up to fight, showing off his new move: Hydro Cannon.

7 facilities, 7 Islands, no brainer. The islands are big enough to have a few episodes on each just traveling around anyway. I'd imagine Ash would reunite with Butterfree for a bit, the gang would run into Lorelei on 4 Island, even have encounters with Deoxys, the Latis, and even Mew.

There's another arc where Ash and Pikachu reunites with Richie and Sparky, and also meet Silver- no not the GSC rival.

This Silver from the Chronicles episode. It's been a long fan theory that he might know Ash somehow due to his reaction to Richie mentioning him, some even think he's Ash's father, but I think he's too old for that. Instead, we're canonizing him in this AU as Deliah's father, and thus Ash's grandfather (keep in mind in official canon, Deliah apparently had Ash when she was only 19, so this can track). Silver is of course pretty brash, but he and Ash get along famously. Silver tells Ash about how proud he is of Ash in his last few league matches, but couldn't attend due to being so far away- one of which was chasing the legendary birds, and is amazed to hear Ash beat Moltres quite recently.

Silver would sort of join the gang for a bit as a coach to both Ash and May- for Ash, he helps to really drive home better tactics for the kind of pokemon he uses and to really tune into their feelings on a deeper level, and for May he's actually quite adept at move combinations that can wow judges. He also gives sage yet crude advice to Max at times to really help him decide what he wants to do with his life someday, and the same to Brock- actually being the first to point out that Brock can't be a breeder if he doesn't even BREED pokemon, so that'd plant the seed for Brock to change career paths in Sinnoh.

Silver's training would help May evolve Blaziken and it would learn Blast Burn, Brock evolve Marshtomp into Swampert and teach it Hydro Cannon, teach Sceptile Frenzy Plant, and he even helps Max catch his first Pokemon- a Sentret.

And this is the team I'd imagine him having

Ash would be familiar with Gengar and Alakazam from his younger days, but the rest would be completely new. Salamance is his ace for sure and his main mode of transport, and he literally fought and wrestled Armaldo for dominance before catching it, and Houndoom is Silver's pupper he hatched from an egg a year ago. We'd get a bit of background for Chikorita, and it turns out he was abandoned for being weak, so Silver took him in and is training him visually so he'll be prepared for an actual fight some day, and then they plan to find and show up the loser that abandoned him- Chikorita has taken a bit of Silver's rough and tough personality, and Silver loves the little guy's spunk.

Continuing on-

The final battle in the Battle Pyramid would take place in the Tanobi Ruins on Seven Island, and Ash would of course employ similar tactics to fight Brandon with Pikachu and his Kanto starters.

However, despite how thrilling the adventures would be, it and Hoenn would be condensed a little, because there's one more adventure I wanna squeeze in before Sinnoh.

After Ash declines the offer to become a Frontier Brain, the gang see what appears to be Shadow Lugia in the sky. They end up chasing it all the way to 4 Island with Brandon, where Team Rocket (not Jesse or James, the organization) are teaming up with Cipher in order to learn about Shadow Pokemon.

Ash and the gang end up fighting against them, but in the midst of the chaos, Shadow Lugia shows its power and steals the SS Libra containing an entire hoard of stolen Pokemon, and Sceptile and Aggron get caught up on the ship. Ash and Pikachu bravely climb aboard as it takes to the sky, leaving Brock, May, Max, and the rest of Ash's knocked out Pokemon behind. However, Silver quickly gives chase on his Salamence.

Ash gets caught by Cipher aboard the ship, and he and his Pokemon get knocked out. Little do they know that they would be riding all the way to Orre.

...which will be pt 4 :D! Pt4 will be a custom arc based on Colosseum and XD, since the anime avoided that like the plague. I already wrote more than I intended. Sigh. Well, tomorrow will probably be more detailed.

But anyway, thanks for reading. Tune in next time for a What If AU of Ash going to Orre... which may or may not come tomorrow or the next day. Unsure.

[ihopethisendswell]

Like I think the main four are all powerhouse in their own way, and while I generally think of Damien as the heavy hitter, I think it's moreso Jolee, at least at first.

Both Damien and Jolee have pretty much trained in their craft ever since they were kids. Damien was trained as a bounty hunter- to gather information, and take down a target. In this sense, he's more equipped for stealth, taking opponents out from afar. But he's also been trained as a weapons man. Basically, Damien can handle a bunch of different weapons, some at once. He's a jack of all trades, though he much prefers to be in the back unless it's absolutely necessary.

Jolee, so far, has been raised to be a weapon- not that she really knows that. Maybe she does subconsciously but actively ignores it. Unlike Damien, who was trained to be as merciful as to be merciless, Jolee was simply trained to be something brutal and dominant. She can be a complete monster despite her kindness. She can be stealthy- in fact a lot of her work requires it- but if you need someone to raise hell for you, Jolee is that person. Especially when you take into account her self healing and indestructibility. She's pretty much an unstoppable wall.

So yeah, Jolee is moreso the powerhouse of the group, with Damien right after her. At least in the beginning.Mind you, Jolee doesn't have any flashy powers that can be thrown at enemies( though you could argue she had become a super soldier but eeeeeeh), and Damien doesn't have powers period. Them being considered the powerhouses of the group is really showcase of their skill. I don't want to make it seem Ash n Lyric are "weak" in comparison. Again, I consider all of them powerful in their own right. I just mean Jolee ( and Damien) are like the ones that hit hard and stay up longer than most.

[scotianostra]

John Cunningham, the renowned  musician, composer and record producer was born on August 27th 1957.

Before the likes of Runrig were bringing their own brand of Scottish folk mixed with rock music, we had Silly Wizard, with Johnny,  Gordon Jone, Bob Thomas, who toured as a trio before adding Andy M. Stewart and other members, including Johnnies brother Phil as the band chopped and changed line ups in the mid 70′s. 

Johnny Cunningham was born in Portobello, Eand  was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but later became inactive.

Johnny started playing fiddle at school when he was six years old. Phil took up the accordion at an even earlier age, and the two established a musical rapport, and spectacular velocity, which never deserted them. Johnny was only 15 when he joined Gordon Jones and Bob Thomas in the first incarnation of Silly Wizard, a band that was to take traditional music by the scruff of the neck and hurl it on to a roller-coaster ride that would set the pace for so many others to follow.

Johnny was one of those questing, free-ranging Scots musicians that Hamish Henderson proudly saluted as "the wild rovers of the tradition". They didn’t come much wilder, in more senses than one, than Johnny Cunningham. He lived life, as they say, to the full. But there was a deeply serious side to him, as anyone hearing him play would quickly detect.

From being the fastest fiddle in the West during his teens, when he was the dynamic powerhouse in Silly Wizard, he became an acclaimed master of the slow air, that seemingly simple but in fact devilishly fragile form that invariably sorts out the musical men from the boys.

When brother Phil joined, the pace of both the group's instrumental repertoire and its career picked up even more momentum as they turned a new generation on to traditional music played with previously unimagined vim and vigour and given the added appeal of their onstage comic cuts.

Already popular in Scotland, Silly Wizard found audiences equally, if not more receptive in Europe and America and began to spend so much time touring the States that Johnny decided to settle there. The biggest attraction of life in America was, he maintained: ''Good hot water pressure. The first time I took a shower, I was sold. But I didn't mean to stay this long.'' Stay he did, though, continuing to tour and record with Silly Wizard into the late 1980s while establishing himself both as a solo artist, with the albums Thoughts From Another World and Fair Warning, and as a record producer for groups including Cherish the Ladies andSolas. 

He also continued to work with Phil for a time,first in recording their Against the Storm album in 1981 and then in joining with brother and sister Micheal O' Domhnaill and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, of legendary Irish group the Bothy band, in Relativity.This quartet recorded two still much admired albums in REL Studios, Edinburgh,during the mid-1980s and later reformed to produce one of the highlights of the Celtic Connections festival's early years in 1995.By this time, Johnny had become as well known for his mastery of the expressive slow air form as for the speed freakery with which he established his name.

He played both because, he said, the fast ones cheered him up and the slow ones made him sad, so he'd have to play another fast one, and in many ways this two-speed gear reflected his life and personality.

He enjoyed living and working in America. But he could get fearsomely homesick, so much so that in his local bar in New Bedford they called him Mr Scotland - because he never stopped talking about his homeland. Other people might have remarked that Johnny simply never stopped talking. But he did - to laugh. And it was an infectious laugh.He found making a living from doing something he'd be doing in the pub anyway ''ridiculous'' and like brother Phil, he had a huge store of anecdotes about being on the road as well as childhood memories.With that familiar cheery cackle, he'd recall family holidays to Kinghorn, where they huddled on the beach with a flask of soup and looked back across the Forth towards their house in Portobello.

No wonder he became homesick in Boston, he remarked.Never afraid to try something different, he got into all sort of musical situations in the States.As well as touring with fellow fiddlers Kevin Burke and Christian LeMaitre in the popular Celtic Fiddle Festival, he played with Daryl Hall & John Oates, Bonnie Raitt, country band The Johnston Brothers and the jazz-influenced.

With the Boston-based hard rock band Raindogs he toured alongside Don Henley, Warren Zevon and Bob Dylan, even adding fiddle some nights on Dylan's own set. He later described this experience as ''brilliant - when I could understand what he was singing about''.

Like Phil, he also became involved in theatre work. He wrote the music and lyrics for an award-winning Broadway show based on JM Barrie's Peter Pan and had recently written a screenplay.

He had just completed his annual tour of his music, songs and poetry show, A Winter's Talisman, with Irish singer Susan McKeown when he was rushed to hospital on the `5th of December 2003  in New York and died in his long-time partner Tricia's arms.

Described as a  lovely, amiable guy. A massively influential bearer of the Celtic message. A restless, multi-talented artist. And, alas, a wild rover no more.

[snarkywrites]

Saturn Direct: Onward

Saturn stations direct on September 29th, 2020 and we can all breathe a little better knowing that one of the astro  giants is finally moving on. We have been on a ride with Saturn in Capricorn since 2017, learning a lot about ourselves and our relationship with authority. We continue to experience the impact of government with these Saturn and Pluto transits. Where we are now is not the same place, we were several years ago. This has been a transit of maturity of growth and pain. Many people saw the world with new eyes, our rose-colored glasses were shattered. The horrors were outlined for us, but we have also learned to see some hope in the darkest of hours. Saturn in Capricorn has exposed the changes that need to be made on a societal and political level. This has been a powerhouse transit, moving and reshaping us from the core and reflecting in our environment. The collective has felt Saturn in Capricorn, but we know that together, we can all hope for greater change in the future after learning the lessons and facing the consequences from this transit. Here’s to growth for the years to come and hope for a better tomorrow.

Aries – Saturn has placed you in a position where you can either sink or fly. If you have worked and powered through the last couple of years, with the fire and drive of not giving up, congratulations! Saturn direct means you can continue to go forward without feeling blockages when it comes to your career. However, with your ruler currently retrograde it is still not smooth sailing. Consider this a time to get your plans going and feel the momentum building until dreams start to take off in November.

Taurus – This transit will have you sticking to your convictions without second guessing yourself. Saturn direct powers you through the next phase which will have you more focused on status and achievements. You are very much in a contemplative state, analyzing your past achievements and failures but the good thing is you are learning from them. Get ready to feel more empowered as we approach the end of the year.

Gemini – You have been going through one of the harshest transits for the last 2.5 years but now you are slowly feeling the weight being lifted from your shoulders. That sense of optimism will begin to peak through with Saturn finally going direct and exiting Capricorn at the end of the year. Use what you have learned during this transit that has shaped who you are and where you will be headed. You are not the same person from 2017, instead you have grown and matured. The road has been tough, but you will see how the journey was worth it.

Cancer – Saturn direct means you will finally be able to see the truth behind your relationships. No longer will you feel like you are mirroring partners because now you have grown to learn more about yourself and what you seek in someone else. This Saturn transit has been rough but empowering. There is more motivation to get the achievement you desire and the recognition from your peers. You are learning to embrace the limelight and to allow yourself to shine. No more hiding your glow since you have so much more to offer to the world.

Leo – You have given it your all during this Saturn transit since 2017. There have been a lot of obstacles for you to overcome but Saturn has taught you a lot about being diligent and patient. You have learned that even if you give it your all, you are still going to face challenges and the outcome will not be what you originally planned. You’ve excelled at coordinating, fought and learned to understand your limits while refusing to back down or give up. During the next several months you are rekindling with your fire energy thanks to the trine your sign is making to Mars. You can see the finish line and are awaiting your victory.

Virgo – The state of your romantic life is probably not the same as it was 2.5 years ago. Saturn might have brought about a person who turned your world upside down but the experience, although tough, was a learning lesson for you. For those who are single, this transit made a change in your social circles. During the retrograde it was possible you reminisced and learned about the changes you need to make for romances. Your dynamics with others will also change moving forward. Saturn direct will have you focused on rebuilding and restructuring how you view yourself and your ideology.

Libra – One of the tougher transits for you and it would make sense why you will not miss seeing Saturn in Capricorn. The retrograde period brought you back to your roots and the emotional experiences you might have felt with partners. This Mars retrograde might also have brought back some painful memories that you need to learn to cope with to move forward. Mars and Saturn are making you move from the tough waves that life brings you and the unexpected changes. Your identity has changed because you might feel more empowered and mature given the position you have been put in. It is possible you were thrown into a leadership role at work, school or even made some tough decisions at home. Saturn showed you what you were capable of and how independent you can be.

Scorpio – A rough transit to have because it can open some emotional wounds you might have at home or with friendships. Saturn retrograde taught you that to interact with people, you need to listen and be patient. Being explosive during this transit over the last several years has led you nowhere. To avoid drama and fights, you needed to truly listen and change some mannerisms. You have developed a sense of courage, especially in the workplace or school. With this planet finally going direct, you know your strengths, how good you can articulate your thoughts and how to manage situations with different groups of people.

Sagittarius – This Saturn transit has felt like a redo of Saturn in your sign. You continued to face similar challenges with identity and truly learning the meaning of independence. Saturn in Capricorn taught you to be more open to accepting and forgiving yourself and this is what you are working on now that the planet is direct. The boost from Mars will allow you to burn through the emotions as you continue to reshape your thoughts and philosophy during this process. Get ready for some excitement as you can feel the cashflow begin to change and the optimism growing since Jupiter, your ruler, is also direct.

Capricorn – Who am I? Is the question you probably repeated to yourself several times during this transit. Saturn retrograde had you pouring through different situations as you tried to maintain stability in your life while the chaos ensued. You are the fighter, with Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn currently in your sign. The pressures and responsibilities piled but you managed to keep your cool (sort of). Now with Saturn and Jupiter doing direct, you can once again plan and see the road ahead with clearer eyes and a smile. You will feel renewed as Saturn stays for the next few months before finally exiting your sign.

Aquarius – With Saturn direct here, you feel some of your pressures melting off as you come to peace with your subconscious. The issues now with Saturn will involve your own maturity but that all begins to manifest when Saturn enters the sign of Aquarius. This is a period where you will be mentally stimulated, driven to connect with others and will discover your own inner voice. Many will be open to listening to what you have to say. Your experiences can serve as a healing experience as well. Saturn has taught you how to heal, to grow and to motivate others. You will wake up from the cloudiness Saturn presented and will take on the world inspired.

Pisces – The pressure is off and now you can once again feel like others have your back. Saturn direct will have you remembering the pain or excitement you felt during this transit. There might have been close friendships that have ended but you made new ones. This path has not been an easy one for you and Saturn in Aquarius will present some of the similar themes from this transit. You are learning to become more independent and self-reliant. However, you will also learn to seek help from others if you are in need because certain situations can be hard for us and we will need the support system from others.  

[anxious2dsimp]

Everything He's Not | Iwaizumi x GN! Reader | Short Fic

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Flavour: Angst (Reader x Cheater!Oikawa) to Fluff (Reader x Iwaizumi)💔→☁️

Reader: Gender Neutral!

Format: Short Fic (alternating between two sides of the story, y/n and Iwa's)

Part: 1 out of 2 (read part 2 here)

Word Count: 2.3k

Summary: Y/N, has dated the very popular Oikawa Toru for a while, through him becoming friends with his group. However, little do they know about a certain stoic ace's feelings for his best friend's s/o. When Oikawa screws up big time, will Iwaizumi's true feelings finally show? And what will Y/N do when everything goes down?

Warnings: Cheating, cursing, breakups, basically Oikawa x Reader angst turned into Iwaizumi x Reader fluff.

A/N: I wrote this for myself a while back but I edited it into a gender-neutral reader insert on a sleep-deprived whim (sorry if there are any mistakes, feel free to let me know!) Ik it's very random, but hopefully someone likes it :)

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Your POV

Dating Oikawa Toru was definitely different from what you expected; at first you were weary about the volleyball star, but after giving him a chance you started to see the real him. Yes, he was the captain of a powerhouse’s Volleyball team and had a ton of fangirls, but really he was just a regular guy with dorky interests and an alien obsession, which was the side of him you fell for. It wasn’t all great, dealing with his fangirls was rough; luckily you were safe being from another school, but they’d take any chance they had to try and gain Oikawa’s interest, flirting with him as he did the same back, not with bad intentions, it was just his personality. It did slightly annoy you, but you knew he was clear that we were together and wouldn’t take things further, he was just keeping up his image, and he promised you that was all.

Since your Karasuno friends didn’t particularly like your relationship with the setter (though they did respect it), you two hung out with his Aoba Johsai friends; that’s how your friendship with Iwa, Makki, and Mattsun started. You all became good friends, so they all helped you keep Oikawa in line while at school (especially Iwaizumi). Since you got along so well your friendship became its own thing besides Oikawa, and before you realized it, you and Iwa were such good friends that you chatted almost daily on the phone.

You don’t know what exactly made you bond so much, maybe you were similar in the sense that you were both used to being lowkey, keeping things together behind the scenes; regardless, you both enjoyed each other’s company. That Tuesday afternoon was one of those days, Oikawa had something to do at school, so Iwaizumi invited you, Makki, and Mattsun over to his place to wait for the captain like you usually did since it was the closest to the school.

So, you just chilled like always, laughing and playing video games, talking about whatever came to mind. While you were in the middle of a Mario Kart match, you heard the front door of the apartment open, “(y/n)-chan! I’m sorry for the delay~” the brunette said in a sing-song voice.

“Hi to you too, Oikawa,” said Makki, poking fun at him, to which he just rolled his eyes and walked over to the couch. “Aren’t you gonna give me a kiss?” Oikawa asked standing in front of the screen, causing all four of you to start yelling at him to get out of the way, making him pout. “One sec, Toru-chan,” you said, biting your lip while focusing on keeping your first place intact for the last lap. The setter just giggled and got out of the way, walking around the sofa to stand behind you.

Iwaizumi’s POV

‘Eyes on the screen Iwaizumi,’ the ace told himself as he tried to focus on the game, attempting to ignore the way Oikawa kissed (y/n)’s neck while they played, trying to get their attention but failing miserably other than a giggle here and there. Iwa could tell by the way their (e/c) colored eyes pierced the screen that they wanted to win. The boy could see why his best friend liked them, unlike most people (y/n) actually treated Oikawa like a normal person, which definitely got him going. It wasn’t just that though, you all became such good friends because they’re smart, funny and beyond kind; but that’s all you were, friends. So why did it make him moody to see them be all couple-y?

After all, they were together while he was just the friend, the one who kept the fangirls off Oikawa so (y/n) didn’t have to worry because he couldn’t do it himself. Even though Toru was Iwaizumi’s best friend since they were kids, he couldn’t help but think that his friend wasn’t the greatest boyfriend. However, that was the same reason why he couldn’t say anything either, after all, they made him happy and vice versa, so he just kept telling himself to keep his damn eyes on the screen.

Luckily for him, the game was soon over so you all ordered takeout and sat around talking. “Yo, (y/n), there’s this new scary movie on Netflix, we should watch it this Friday night,” Mattsun stated, stealing one of Maki’s fries and throwing it in his mouth. “That sounds fun, but I can’t Friday! Karasuno has a friendly match against a few Tokyo schools this weekend so we leave Thursday after school,” (y/n) explained with a sweet smile, Iwaizumi’s eyes casually wondering over to Oikawa to see him looking upset.

‘Ugh, here goes,’ the spiker thought to himself. Lately, Toru had been restless and uncomfortable because according to him, his s/o was slipping away from him. Oikawa had somehow managed to convince himself that Karasuno had made it their mission to get their manager (y/n) to stop liking him and had been getting increasingly dramatic and jealous lately for no reason.

“But I thought we were going to hang out this weekend,” Oikawa whined as he pouted at his significant other, trying to seem jokingly disappointed though his best friend could tell he actually was upset. “Babe, we literally talk every day and we hung out all this past weekend, and today,” (y/n) said taking his hand.

“Plus, you have friends too, Shittykawa,” Hajime said, trying to get his friend’s mind out of that dark place since he knew he was more prone to make stupid comments when it was there. Oikawa didn’t drop it, insisting on how they were talking less as (y/n) continued to explain that school had been busy and how he also had responsibilities that took up his time. They eventually got him to shut up, but Iwaizumi couldn’t shake the concern that he was being too stupid, and it felt like he was getting closer and closer to making a mistake.

Your POV

You had to admit you did feel guilty when you told Toru you were leaving for the weekend, it was true that you had been way too busy with school and that neither of you had much free time, but you knew that your feelings for him were still strong. So, that Thursday after school you were happy and excited to hear that the trip had been postponed and you’d actually travel on Saturday morning because Sensei had a very important meeting on Friday afternoon. With the change of plans, you decided to go surprise your boyfriend, and it already being late in the afternoon, by the time you got to his place he would be home.

As you got off the bus by his place and got closer to his house, the sun beginning to set, a couple by a small park caught your eye, causing a soft smile to appear on your face. That park was always where you two would hang out when you wanted to be just the two of you. Walking closer, however, the smile quickly disappeared as you realized the “couple” was none other than Oikawa himself with one of his persistent fans he told you not to worry about. ‘Maybe they’re just hanging out as friends,’ or at least that’s what you told yourself as you squinted and kept walking.

Picking up your pace you got closer, now being able to see their faces more clearly in the dimly lit park only to watch them kiss, the girl’s arms around his neck while Oikawa’s hand slid up her thigh. You didn’t know what to do, so you just stood there in shock as silent tears began to fall down your face. Almost as if you were in a trance, you reached into your pocket and took out your phone, dialing his number as you saw the brunette react.

He looked down surprised at his phone screen as he scooted apart from the girl and picked up the call as if it was nothing. “Hey beaut-” he started to say before you cut him off, not having the strength to hear his happy tone. “How could you?!” you sobbed angrily into the phone as his face became anxious. “What’s wrong babe?” How could he try to play it off as if he had no idea?

“You lying, cheating, son of a bitch! We’re over,” you yelled angrily, hanging up right as his eyes met yours. You were close enough to see the horrified and heartbroken expression on his face, but before he could say anything you turned around and just ran. Grabbing the straps of your backpack you sprinted back down the streets, your vision blurry with tears as your (h/c) hair was pushed back by the wind. It was only when you were back at the bus station and were sure that Oikawa was nowhere to be seen that you stopped and realized; you didn’t know where to go next.

You could go to your Karasuno friends, but you weren’t in the mood to hear “I told you so” and couldn’t go home to not worry your family. As you sat there and looked at the screen blankly, tears continuing to fill your eyes, a notification appeared. ‘Hey loser, how’s the trip going?’ you read as your eyes looked at Iwa’s name by the message. He was your best shot, you were close and he wouldn’t judge, so without opening your phone again and ignoring all of Oikawa’s calls you jogged over to Iwaizumi’s place.

After ringing the apartment and hiding your teary and now out of breath voice in the intercom, Iwa’s mom buzzed you in, and once you got to his floor you were greeted by Iwaizumi looking concerned, more so once he saw the state you were in. “(y/n), are you ok?” Iwaizumi asked as he walked over to you, hugging you as you hid in his arms and sobbed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know where else to go. It’s Oikawa,” you explained as he nodded and got you inside. He made some tea and brought it with you two to his room, both of you sitting on his bed. “Ok, what did Shittykawa do now?” he asked as he looked up at you and handed over a warm mug. “D- did you know h-he was cheating on me?” you managed to stutter out between sobs, trying to sound collected but being embarrassed by your inability to do so.

“He- wHAT?!” His reaction startled you, and when you looked up from the cup and saw his horrified, furious expression it made you feel less like you were overreacting. “I- the trip got postponed to Saturday morning, so I went to surprise him to his place and saw him in our bench making out with one of his fangirls,” you explained, watching as Iwa’s face became angrier and angrier, realizing how you don’t think you’ve ever seen him like this, “I’m sorry I came to you, I know you’re best friends.”

Iwaizumi’s POV

Seeing them like this was already painful, but learning what Oikawa did was too much, Iwaizumi couldn’t believe how his friend could do this to (y/n). The spiker had never cared when he did stuff like this or worse than this to his fangirls. After all, he thought, they were the ones stupid enough to be blinded by his charm, but he never fathomed Oikawa would be able to do something like that to someone as great as you. “What? Hey, don’t even dare apologize,” he stated firmly as he took both mugs and set them by the bedside table, hugging (y/n) tightly and feeling them snuggle into him as they cried. Seeing them like this killed him. ‘Fuck Oikawa,’ he thought to himself, ‘if before I had stayed out of the way because they were good for each other that’s no longer the case.’

“I’m so sorry he did this to you; I should have stopped him. If I had known I would have, I should have been paying more attention,” the ace rambled into (y/n)’s hair as they cried softly, getting angry at himself before being interrupted by them pushing themselves away from him gently to look up at his face. “Why are you apologizing as if this was your fault? Iwa, he’s the one who’s an asshole, not you,” they stated, wiping a tear from their face.

“Because,” was he really going to say this? Screw it, here goes nothing, he told himself before continuing, “I knew you deserved better than him, but I convinced myself he would be different with you because I saw how good you were to him, and how happy you looked.” (y/n) just looked at him, mouth slightly ajar as they seemed to process what the boy had said. He couldn’t take the silence anymore so to avoid the blush he felt was beginning to appear on his cheeks he asked; “so did you dump him?” They nodded, looking down at their cup of tea as they chuckled and replied; “on the spot, over the phone.”

Iwaizumi chuckled back, releasing some of the nerves; “serves him right.” They smiled weakly at his comment and absentmindedly ran their fingers through their hair, My god were they gorgeous, Hajime thought to himself, only then realizing it was the first time it was just the two of them in his room, suddenly becoming self-conscious. Calm down, he told himself while taking a deep breath, looking over at (y/n). 'They just broke up with their boyfriend, being here with you is their last concern,' or so he thought. “Do you… want to watch (favorite movie) and eat ice cream?” the spiker suggested after thinking for a moment, he knew that was their favorite movie, and ice cream helps get over jerks, right?

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[splendidly-secret-sick-fics]

Ooo! What about Kuroo feeling really unwell during training camp while training with Bokuto, Akaashi, Tsukki, Hinata and Lev? He's probably felt bad for a while, but just suffered through. So when everything becomes too much, a panicking Hinata runs to get Kenma... and you can decide the rest.

Only if you're comfortable with writing it though! Have a nice day!

Leaders Don’t Cry: a Kuroo sickfic

Pairing: sick Kuroo, caretakers Kenma, Tsukki, Bokuto, Akaashi, kinda Hinata & Lev

Word Count: 4,266

Warnings: vomit, swearing, slight emetophobia, and sad Kuroo :(

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Thanks for the request friend :) I’ve only ever written Kuroo & Kenma as side characters, so this was kinda fun!!

I’m not super super happy with the overall product, but that’s alright. I do feel like maybe it’s not super cohesive? Idk. Let me know!! I look forward to improving my characterization of Kuroo and Kenma.

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Kuroo was a Leader. He was someone that others looked up to. Someone you could depend on.

Leaders were extroverts though, and Kuroo had to admit he did his best Recharging alone in his room or the quiet company of the Kenma. That’s an Introvert Thing, apparently. Even when he was young, too many people or too much social interaction drained him. Another Introvert Thing.

When he met Kenma and started playing volleyball, it seemed he naturally outgrew his Introvert Model, shedding his shy, intimidated outer-self. It was easily replaced with the Extrovert Model.

Now, Kuroo liked being surrounded by his team and his friends and he liked meeting new people. That’s an Extrovert Thing. So Kuroo was an Extrovert.

(“That makes you an Introverted Extrovert, Kuro,” Kenma told him one day. Kuroo didn’t understand how that could possibly be a thing.)

As an Extrovert, it was only natural that he became the captain of his volleyball team his third year. It was only natural that he was the Bridge between Karasuno and the Tokyo powerhouse schools.

(Kenma claimed, when the two of them were alone at least, that it was really his friendship with Chibi-Chan and their coaches that did that. Kuroo refused to concede this point.)

As the Leader and Bridge, it was again only natural that not only his team, but also other teams’ players were drawn to his wisdom and sparkling personality.

(“You forced yourself on them,” Kenma sighed.)

And that’s how he, Kuroo Tetsuro, Certified Extroverted Leader, came to be in Gym Three, long after their main practice ended with two of Karasuno’s first years, Bokuto, Akaashi, and Lev.

And that’s also how he ended up in the Worst Possible Situation.

It went down like this.

They were at another training camp with the Fukurodani Group and Regular Guests, Karasuno High. It was a short one, thrown together quickly because of the long weekend.

After much convincing (read: coercion) from him and Bokuto, Tsukishima Kei agreed to join them again for blocking practice. They pushed because Kuroo couldn’t stand to watch this kid’s talent waste away and Bokuto was personally offended that Tsukki still didn’t seem to enjoy volleyball.

It should have come as no surprise that Karasuno’s Hinata Shoyo joined in again, determined to redeem himself from his previous loss at the last camp.

And then because Haiba Lev decided that Chibi-chan and him were rivals, he joined in too.

(Akaashi claimed he had no choice but to join. It was either endless practice or endless Dejected Bokuto. Kuroo thinks he’s just masochistic.)

Their first night was awesome. He saw a fire ignited in Tsukki and got to smash Bokuto’s spikes back in his face. Plus, his ego was boosted because the three first years were all wowed by his skill.

Tonight, however, was not great. If he was honest with himself, things were bad from the second he woke up, and promptly wanted to curl back into his futon.

His head hurt and his body ached. The sounds of his team waking up and getting ready for the day set his nerves on edge the second he heard them. He felt overcrowded and overstimulated and he wasn’t even out of bed yet.

It had all the signs of a Recharge Alone Day, but it was the last full day of a training camp in which he was supposed to be a Leader. So, he pushed that all aside and got up to go lead.

As the day progressed, Kuroo gave more and more thought to Kenma’s “Introverted Extrovert” theory. He still loved his team and wanted to be around them. He did want to participate in the games and hang out with the other teams.

He also so so very badly wanted to sit in the dark for the next several hours.

Kuroo’s headache only grew more insistent as the day went on, likely due to the sounds of squeaking shoes, bouncing volleyballs, and the too warm summer heat. He got increasingly more fidgety and nervous all day and it made him uncomfortable in his own skin. That, added to the already ever-present soreness of his limbs only served to make him more miserable.

But he was the Captain, so he shoved those feelings down, ignored his headache, and tried to act as normal as possible. For the most part, his plan worked and no one bothered him about what might be wrong. Kenma was the only one that eyed him suspiciously every time his Extrovert facade slipped a little. At the end of the regular practice, his best friend approached him slowly.

“Hey,” he said, his voice quiet as usual.

“Kenma! What’s up, dude?” Kuroo forced, trying to maintain his usual Extrovert Mode.

“Cut the crap, Kuro,” Kenma sighed, blunt and exhausted as usual.

“Kenma, what are you—“

“Are you sick?”

The question caught Kuroo off guard. Was he sick? He thought it was just an Introvert Day that he had to push through. Maybe Kenma had a point though? It wasn’t like he normally felt this drained during a training camp. That usually came after the camp ended.

“No,” he eventually replied and waved his hand, “nah. Just tired. I think practicing with the guys at night took more of my energy than usual.” That must be it. He didn’t usually have to put out that much energy after practice. Lev, Hinata, and Bokuto were all True Extroverts, after all. Unlike Kuroo, who just molded himself into one. It made sense.

Kenma studied him with wide eyes before relenting and saying “Don’t push yourself, Kuro.”

“I won’t, don’t worry. I am a little tired though so maybe I’ll forgo evening prac—“

“Kuroo-san!” Hinata ran up to them, “are we practicing again today?? I want you to show me that cool wha-BAM block again!!” He jumped up and slammed his hands down, most likely trying to imitate exactly what he was trying to convey. All the loud explanation did was call attention back to his headache.

“Shoyo, Kuro was actually just saying that he was—“

“On my way to look for you Chib-chan!” Kuroo interrupted. Kenma narrowed his eyes at him, but Kuroo couldn’t deny the little red headed twerp.

“Let’s go grab something to eat and then we’ll round up the others.”

Hinata looked at him with those stupid starry eyes and nodded before running off to pester Tsukishima. Kuroo deflated some.

��Kuro. It’s okay to take breaks. I know you think that this is what you should be doing as Captain, but it’s alright to say no sometimes,” Kenma said.

“I know, Kenma,” Kuroo smiled gently, ignoring the uneasy feeling in his gut, “Thank you for looking out, but I’m fine! It’s only one more day. Tomorrow afternoon once everyone’s gone, I’ll just hang out in my room. You can come over if you want and play that new game I bought.”

Kenma studied him again before letting out a long-suffering exhale.

“Sure. Sounds good.”

After they ate, the six of them met up in Gym Three for another three on three. On the outside, things were going well. On the inside, Kuroo’s head was quickly descending into chaos.

He pretended that Bokuto, Lev and Hinata weren’t too loud. He pretended that he had enough energy to show them the same move seven times. He pretended he was enjoying this.

All the while, his headache slowly transitioned into a migraine, his limbs got heavier, and his dinner swirled in his stomach nauseatingly. It took maximum effort to stay awake, let alone play a three on three with three of the most energetic people he’d ever met before.

It all came to a head when his feet slammed down after blocking one of Bokuto’s cross shots. The power behind those normally made him stumble upon landing, but this time it sent a sharp pain shooting through his head and stars dance in his vision. He couldn’t regain his footing, and he stumbled onto his ass.

“Kuroo-san?” Akaashi asked when he didn’t get back up. He couldn’t get back up. The stars were still there and he couldn’t really find his feet.

“Y-yeah?” he stuttered.

“Hey, hey, hey, Kuroo, you alright my man?” Bokuto’s voice boomed and he winced before he could stop himself.

“Kuroo-san? What’s wrong?” Akaashi was kneeling beside him now. He could tell by the proximity of his voice.

“Just a a little...dizzy,” he forced a laugh, trying to play it off. He squeezed his eyes shut and brought a hand up to squeeze at his temples. What the hell was happening?

“Kuroo-san! Do you want some water?” Hinata’s voice rang and clanged in his head. He groaned.

“Kuroo-san, don’t die!!” Lev’s voice pounded. He grimaced.

“Would you idiots keep it down?” Tsukishima, beautiful, quiet Tsukishima commanded.

“Hey, Stupid we’re just trying to help!” Hinata screeched.

“And clearly he’s got a headache, you massive dolt. Keep your volume down,” Tsukki snapped back. Kuroo would thank him if the room would stop spinning.

Suddenly, a hand was on his forehead.

“You’ve got a fever,” Akaashi stated.

Oh. Well, Kenma was right after all. He was sick. The confirmation snapped something into place and all of his emotions, his control, whooshed out of him in one fell swoop. All the symptoms he ignored all day came to the very front of his mind and all he could think about was how miserable he felt.

“Oh,” he choked around the abrupt knot in his throat. He blinked his eyes open and turned to look at Akaashi. The setter was serious as ever, but there was a small frown on his lips and tiny furrow to his brows.

“Bokuto-san, can you bring me your warm up jacket?”

Bokuto nodded and quickly, but thankfully quietly, brought their jackets over and Akaashi draped it around Kuroo’s shoulders.

“Kuroo-san, do you want to lie down?” he soothed.

“Akaashi, I don’t feel good,” he muttered. There was a burning in his eyes and a quiver to his lips that he really wished would go away.

“I know. We’ll get you to your room, but first, I need you to get yourself together some.”

“I don’t...I don’t feel good,” he said, an all too evident shake in his voice. This is not what Leaders do. But he felt so terrible, there was nothing he could do to prevent this sudden onslaught of emotions. Before he knew it, warm tears rolled down his flushed cheeks.

“Kuroo-san!” Hinata screeched. Tsukishima smacked him upside the head. He glared and rubbed the back of his head.

“Kuroo-san,” he tried again, quieter this time, “don’t cry, please. It’s okay!”

Kuroo couldn’t help it. He appreciated Hinata’s attempts at comfort, but he was so drained and he was so sick and he couldn’t help it.

“Kuroo, what can we do to help, man?” Bokuto asked gently, much to his and Akaashi’s (flustered and very evident) surprise. He sat down by Kuroo and rubbed a hand soothingly up and down his back. It helped for a second, but then it just made his skin crawl and his stomach turn.

“I I don’t...I don’t know,” he whimpered pitifully, “I don’t feel good.” He exhaled and dropped his chin to his chest. The downward spiral of both his physical and mental condition brought him further and further into his own self-incurred misery. He needed someone else to be the leader. Anyone.

“Ahhhh, Kuroo-san.” Hinata flailed.

“What about Kenma?” Lev whisper-yelled. Hinata’s spine straightened sharply.

“Good idea, Lev! I know where he is. I’ll go get him!” Hinata proclaimed and ran out.

“Kuroo, what doesn’t feel good?” Bokuto asked.

Kuroo inhaled shakily.

“Head.. my head hurts. And I’m sore and uh and my st-stomach,” he responded through panting breaths.

“There’s a stomach bug that just hit a couple of the player’s on Shinzen’s team,” Tsukishima supplied helpfully.

“Sounds like you might’ve picked that up, Kuroo-san.” Akaashi clicked his tongue.

This was news to him. It must’ve just happened because usually the captains kept each other up to date on those kinds of things as soon as they could. If that was true, that would explain why it came on so quickly. He was fine yesterday. Even just a few hours ago, he was nothing but a little groggy. Now it felt like he got hit by a bus.

If it was a stomach bug, that meant….

“No, no,” he panicked, “no I don’t want that.” He wrapped his hands around his swirling stomach.

“Kuroo, calm down. It’s alright. You’re gonna make it worse,” Bokuto said. Kuroo shook his aching head.

“No I hate throwing up, Bo,” he whimpered and dropped his head to look at his shaking hands.

“Oh…” Akaashi breathed, “do you feel like you might?”

“I don’t know,” he said again. Because he didn’t want to. He absolutely did not want to puke. Not in front of these first years. That might ruin all of his credibility as an upperclassmen, let alone the Captain of a powerhouse school.

Geez, what a pitiful and pathetic display he was putting on. He was supposed to be someone these kids looked up to, and now they were helping him.

“Here,” Tsukishima said, handing Akaashi and Bokuto a bucket from the supply room. Kuroo eyed it distastefully.

“It’s just in case, Kuroo-san!” Lev tried. But the more Kuroo got worked up in spite of himself, the more he realized that wasn’t true. His current emotional state wreaked havoc on his head, which in turn twisted his gut.

Several minutes passed and Kuroo took the time to collect himself so that he could get it together enough to go to his room. At least there he could be miserable and pathetic alone.

While he was able to get himself to stop crying, the come down from the sudden rush of emotions only made his other symptoms that much more prevalent.

Kuroo groaned miserably, “where’s Kenma?”

“Hinata-kun has gone to get him. He’ll be back soon hopefully.”

“Akaashi, I don’t feel good,” he whined and curled tighter in on himself.

“I know,” Akaashi said.

“Feels… bad…” he swallowed thickly.

“Kuroo…” Tsukishima warned. He shook his head.

“‘M sorry,” he mumbled. Something heaved in his stomach and he pulled his shoulders up to his ears and brought the back of his hand to his mouth.

“Y’guys should go,” he said around the pool of saliva in his mouth and the heaviness of his jaw. Who he was talking to at this point, he wasn’t sure. He just knew that being around him right now was only asking to catch this. He also knew he was about to puke and he really wanted to try and maintain some of his dignity.

“Too late for that, numbskull. We’ve been around you for days. If we’re gonna catch it, we’re gonna catch it. Might as well make sure you don’t die,” Tsukishima said. Kuroo, behind his mounting nausea and hazy brain, was touched by his salty kouhai’s attempt at comfort.

“I think he meant he doesn’t want you to see him spew, Tsukkidude,” Bokuto murmured. His hand was still on Kuroo’s back and while it was more comforting than bothersome now, it also served to swirl things around in his stomach and brain. He nodded lethargically.

“Kuroo-san, if you could, uh— please, just, um...wait...for Kenma-san, I think it would make you feel, uh, better. To have him here, that is. Instead of...uh...me,” Akaashi stammered. Kuroo heard the nervousness in his voice and felt bad. There wasn’t much he could do to stave off the inevitable though.

“You squeamish, ‘Kaashi?” Bokuto asked.

“Uhhhh,” Akaashi hesitated, high pitched, “maybe a little.”

“Bo,” Kuroo panted, punctuated by a sick hiccup.

“I gotcha, buddy. Bucket’s right here,” Bokuto reassured and placed the bucket in his lap. “You can leave guys, I got this.” He said to the other three.

“Yeah...I’m gonna take you up on that,” Lev said uneasily. “Sorry Kuroo-san.” He bowed and then sprinted out of the gym. Tsukishima looked more hesitant, but ultimately bowed and left as well.

“Akaashi?” Bokuto said right as Kuroo spit into the bucket. The sounds of their conversation faded in and out with the rest of Kuroo’s surroundings. All he could fully register was the lump of something nasty moving up his chest. All he could see was the blinding red color of the bucket.

A few airy burps that grated his throat passed through his parted lips. He whimpered.

“It’s alright, Kuroo,” Bokuto’s voice filtered through the haze. He gagged.

It hurt. It hurt so badly. Each heave, gag and hiccup that plagued him for the next several moments.

Where was Kenma?

Kuroo coughed, hiccupped, and a small stream of vomit trailed out of his mouth. It wasn’t enough. It still hurt. He wheezed.

“Hey, Kuroo-san, try to take deep breaths,” Akaashi’s shaky voice commanded.

“Can’t,” he gasped, coughing up more bile.

Fuck he wanted this to be over.

Cough, gasp, puke. The painful, horrific cycle repeated for several tense minutes. It didn’t relieve any of his discomfort.

Bokuto patted his back and tried to offer comforting words. Akaashi wouldn’t look at Kuroo, but he was there, another steady presence to offer some grounding to Kuroo.

“Kuroo- san! I found Kenma!” Hinata’s voice cut through his misery. “He was in the shower. I’m sorry it took so long!”

“Kuro,” Kenma said, voice calm, blunt, comforting. He took Akaashi’s place at his side, his Snorlax slippers and ratty sweatpants taking up Kuroo’s peripheral.

“I don’ feel good,” Kuroo told him around the bile coating his mouth. Kenma put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

“I gathered that,” he said with amusement, “it’s okay. Just relax.”

Kuroo shook his head. Relaxing meant letting this happen. He did not want it to happen.

“Tetsu, don’t be an ass,” Kenma sighed, exasperated.

“Kenma,” he whimpered. The hand on his shoulder squeezed again.

“How long has he been like this?” Kenma directed at someone else in the room.

“About 15 minutes,” Akaashi’s shaky voice answered.

“Shit, Tetsuro, why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Kenma asked. Kuroo shook his head slowly.

“Didn’ re’lize,” he slurred. His stomach cramped and his inhaled sharply through his teeth and gripped tightly at his shirt. As soon as the cramp passed, he gagged, his body jolting forward.

“Uh, I’m gonna—I’m gonna go,” Hinata stuttered out and then Kuroo heard his tiny feet run from the gym.

“Can you two go get Nobuyuki and Yaku from the Nekoma quarters? I’m sure Lev is looking for them, but he’s an idiot,” Kenma demanded of Akaashi and Bokuto, the inflection behind his voice commanding and unwavering. It comforted Kuroo in ways he didn’t understand.

Despite how it appeared to onlookers, Kenma was alway the one taking care of Kuroo. More than Kuroo took care of him, anyway. The setter always knew exactly what Kuroo needed before he even said anything. He was passive most of the time, content to let things be, but stubborn and steadfast when he needed to be. Which was something that Kuroo was grateful for, too prone to letting his emotions take over. Kenma was a sturdy support for Kuroo when he was at his weakest.

“They’re gone, Testsu. Relax and let it happen. It’s just you and me,” Kenma told him. He put his forehead on the top of Kuroo’s matted, sweaty hair. The parts of Kenma’s hair that touched Kuroo were wet and cold. It felt nice. 

The uncharacteristic gentle action from Kenma made something in Kuroo’s chest twinge and he whimpered, fresh tears dropping into the bucket.

Kuroo could be himself with Kenma. He didn’t need to be the Captain or a Leader or an Extrovert or even an Introverted Extrovert. He could just be Kuroo.

“Just us, Tetsu,” Kenma said and pulled his head back.

Kuroo inhaled slowly, deeply and exhaled, trying to relax his shoulders and back. It didn’t take much more for his stomach to finally find relief.

A gurgling hiccup brought up a small stream of bile and he coughed. Another hiccup brought a little more. Then finally, he belched, wet and heady, and heaved, a much stronger torrent of disgusting vomit moving up his chest and out of his mouth.

“There ya go,” Kenma sighed. He moved Kuroo’s unruly hair, made more disgusting by the sheen of sweat covering his forehead, back and away from his face. Kuroo lurched forward with a gag, bringing up more of his dinner.

“Holy shit, Kuro, that’s some fever. I’m sorry you’ve felt so bad all day,” Kenma whispered. Kuroo shook his head, spitting out the nasty taste in his mouth, trying to find his breath before the next round. 

He didn’t get much of a chance before he heaved again.

“God,” he slurred between wretches.

“It’s alright. Calm down,” Kenma instructed.

He puked twice more before his stomach settled for the time being.

“Kenma...please…” he whispered, gesturing for him to move the bucket away.

“Here,” Kenma handed him a water, “drink this first. Rinse out your mouth.” Kuroo did as he was told and spit into the bucket. Kenma took it away after that and Kuroo thanked him quietly. He inhaled, bringing his head up and looking at Kenma for the first time since the setter got there.

Kenma’s eyebrows were furrowed ever so slightly, a subtle pout on his lips. He brushed Kuroo’s bangs back again.

“Thanks, Kenma,” he smiled weakly. Kenma clicked his tongue.

“You’re an idiot,” he sighed. It lacked any of its usual blunt edge.

“Kuroo!!” Kai called out, running into the gym. They were both wearing medical masks, a couple more in their hands.

“Hey,” he said sheepishly, a hand on the back of his neck.

“I knew something was wrong. You really are such a dumbass,” Yaku said, a hand on his hip and an eyebrow raised. He was as blunt as usual.

“Thanks, Yaku. You’re as gentle as ever.”

“Yeah, well. Can’t help it when you decide to push yourself to this point,” he said, turning his face away. “Idiot,” he added as an afterthought. Kuroo couldn’t see his cheeks behind his mask, but his ears were red.

“You alright Kenma? Here,” Kai asked and handed Kenma a mask. Kenma shook his head.

“Too late for that,” he sighed.

“Yeah, but several of Shinzen and Fukurodani’s players have gone down with the same thing as our fearless leader here. We’re trying to contain it so it doesn’t spread more,” Kai explained.

“Yeah. Exactly. You wear one too, Kuroo,” Yaku insisted. Kuroo didn’t like the idea of having his mouth covered, but he also didn’t like the idea of spreading this wretched fate to others.

Kenma and Kuroo took the masks and then Yaku pulled some meds out of the bag on his shoulder and handed them to him. Kuroo’s lip curled, but Kenma pinched his elbow and he relented. They hit his stomach with a hollow thud.

Kai held a hand out to help Kuroo up. As soon as he stood, his knees buckled and black spots danced in his vision. Kai quickly caught him around his waist and threw Kuroo’s arm around his shoulder.

“Try not to pass out until we get back to the quarantine room. It’d make things difficult,” Yaku said. Kuroo would’ve rolled his eyes if he had the energy.

Together, they made it back to the classrooms (repurposed as sleeping quarters for the camp). There was a room for people who already puked and one for anyone experiencing symptoms. Kuroo was shocked to find Akaashi there, leaning over a trash can, Bokuto rubbing his back, as well as several Shinzen players, a couple Ubugawa players, and the setter from Karasuno.

Hinata was there as well, sitting beside Kageyama with his arms crossed and a disgruntled look on his face.

Yaku set up a new futon for Kuroo and Kai helped him settle into it. He immediately curled up on his side, exhaling in relief.

They asked if he needed anything, promised to bring him a change of clothes, and left. Kenma saw them out but then came back and plopped himself down beside Kuroo.

“You can go, Kenma,” he said, looking up at him with one eye open. Kenma shrugged.

“I wouldn’t leave you,” he said plainly. Like it wasn’t embarrassing at all. Kuroo smiled to himself.

“What’s with Chibi-Chan?” He asked in lieu of a response. Kenma snickered.

“His team sent him here when Kageyama came down with the bug. Apparently their “secret relationship” isn’t so secret.”

Kuroo chuckled. That was probably why Akaashi and Bokuto were both here as well.

“You know,” Kenma said.

“Hmm,” Kuroo replied sleepily.

“No one thinks you’re less of a Leader just because you’re sick. It happens to everyone. Doesn’t mean you’re not still someone other people look up to,” Kenma said quietly, matter-of-fact.

“Mmm.. you’re right,” he muttered back. He was. Kuroo knew that. He appreciated the reminder though.

“Go to sleep, Tetsu,” Kenma said and stretched his legs out beside Kuroo. He ran his fingers through Kuroo’s hair. Sleep called to him and his eyes slowly closed.

He woke up several times before the next morning, because of other people puking, because he needed to puke and once when Kenma puked, swearing Kuroo out for getting him sick.

He apologized profusely and pulled Kenma’s hair back with the hair tie he kept on his wrist.

Kuroo was a Leader. Someone other people liked and looked up to.

Sometimes Leaders needed someone to lean on too, he supposed. Thank goodness he had Kenma.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Ash Ketchum: Badass or just bad?

Depends on the saga, and that itself is probably the most frustrating thing about him.

In Kanto, he was a moron, and even kind of an asshole. But I honestly didn't mind that, considering this season's role in the grander scheme of the show. I don't even mind how his Pokemon League journey ended. It was only his first attempt, and considering that he didn't earn most of his badges, his losing because he gambled on Charizard is surprisingly fitting. In fact, it's the perfect symbolism. He lost because he had a lot of power but had yet to earn it. He was a novice, the stupid moments are appropriate for this stage of his journey.

He's definitely come a lot further by the Silver Conference, but he's still depending on Brock and Misty. They're his teachers and they pretty much co-parent him. He's definitely gained power and experience as a trainer but he needs to take the training wheels off. I don't have a lot to say about Johto, but I also think that him gradually phasing his Kanto pokemon out and replacing them with the new ones meant that his growth was framed differently than other series', and maybe that's why I just never got into his Johto team.

To an extent, he does do this in Hoenn. Brock is still around, but with Misty gone the whole group dynamic shifts around. Seeing Ash alone and with new companions in those first three episodes, though? Man did he feel like he had come a long way. By the end of the Hoenn series, he even got a little too overconfident. Though I have soft spot for Hoenn Ash and I feel like he did earn that confidence. Still, few things symbolize how much he still had to learn as him straight up forgetting that Seismic Toss wouldn't affect Brandon's Dusclops. He made the right choice, continuing to travel and declining to become a Frontier Brain.

Everyone knows Sinnoh. Everyone loves Sinnoh. Apart from Tobias. Ash grew as a Trainer more in this adventure than in any other. In no small part due to having Paul as a rival. It motivated him to challenge himself. Gen 4 was where the games really fleshed out the competitive aspect and you can see this reflected in the show. Even the training itself, stuff like the counter shield. The entire storyline of Chimchar. I can bring nothing to the conversation about how incredible Sinnoh was.

We don't talk about Unova.

Kalos on the other hand, was-okay, okay, I'm kidding. I won't do that. But seriously, Unova was such a disappointment. I don't even mind Pikachu losing to Snivy, it's clear that was a "forced loss" plot-wise, that didn't truly reflect Pikachu's skill. But the entire saga was like this. I was joking before, but I'm serious when I say that we don't talk about Ash vs Elesa. What even was that nonsense. Not even Kanto Ash would have done that.

Kalos Ash was best Ash. I like Alola very much, perhaps more than most people, but I can't ignore the perfection that was the XY arc in the anime. Ash was a rock star in this storyline. He was at his most likeable, had far more agency, was very much competent and even inventive - and had his best team, I'm saying it. I don't even mind that he didn't get mega evolution, he pretty much got his own exclusive secret mega. Should have won the Kalos league though.

Alola, despite being one of my favorite arcs in the anime and finally giving Ash the league victory...it was honestly the sharpest reset he's gone through since Unova. Sorry, I love the whole school idea, but after he was the runner up in the Lumiose Conference...Ash should be like, an assistant teacher. Not a student who even feels the need to cheat. Doesn't help that they made him go from looking sixteen to looking seven.

Journeys is fun. I haven't seen a lot of it but this arc makes me happy because they actually committed to having Ash become and stay a league champion. They didn't retcon it, and he doesn't feel like he's reset at all. His team is a powerhouse, and they even gave him a Lucario at long last. This gives me hope for the future, that he won't get reset anymore.

So, yeah. His trajectory is a lot of ups and downs. He catches a fair number of pokemon, all things considered. Sure, he'll never "catch em all" but I actually prefer quality over quantity for his pokemon - since they basically retire from the series after they finish a league on the active team. That's why so few of his Unova mons are memorable, there were simply too many.

And yeah, he releases far too many of them, but again - it's not like he was ever going to use Greninja and Goodra again after Kalos. A release is a departure from the show, just like Ash does to his teams when he goes off to a new region. Some of them are pretty stupid (He gave his Primeape away to a total stranger for no reason, mere hours after finally getting through to him. You suck, Ash.) But other make sense. Anytime he releases a pokemon for the sake of their happiness, I can't complain. But I will complain when he leaves them with other people for "training" Dude, that's your job! It's right there in the name!

[centrally-unplanned]

Allocating Your Aesthetic Budget: Sailor Moon Edition

Sailor Moon is a show that undoubtedly built a powerhouse of a visual brand. Should I even bother posting a screenshot of the sailor scouts, given that I am 100% confident anyone reading this can recall them instantly? I guess it won’t hurt: 

Anime is often really good at creating iconic designs like this, through repetition of the visuals. It is awkward in live action shows if characters just wear the same outfit every scene (what, they only own one outfit? Are they homeless/work in the tech industry?), but animation gives us enough aesthetic “distance”, an awareness that this isn’t accurate to real life, that you can buy into the conceit. By wearing the same outfit every time, it just becomes the character. Not to mention a studio can really save quite a few bucks by streamlining production with neat tricks like having only one character design to animate - when you are on a shoe-string budget, like pretty much every anime in the 90’s was, every cut corner counts.

What is interesting about Sailor Moon is that most of the time it doesn’t really use this conceit at all.

-----------

Episode 15 of Sailor Moon’s first season has, in its opening act, this shot of all of the Senshi (at the time) talking to the plot-of-the-day character, who clearly trains rock Pokemon in 16-bit caves in his off hours:

If you knew nothing about these three characters, you could probably infer about 80% of their personality just from their outfits. Usagi (the blond one in the middle, if that's necessary) is wearing:

Light pastel colours, with pink on top of that: girly, feminine, bubbly and breezy

Short-but-not-too-short of a skirt, and red heels: cares about fashion, wants to project an image of being a woman with a romantic hint to it

Long-twin tails w/ buns: Contrasting the shoes, she is still immature and childish. It also means she is the protagonist of an anime 

Rei (far right) rocks a very different look:

T-shirt and jean shorts, shoes over heels: sensible, practical, a bit sporty

Very short shorts, long black hair: Confident, a bit aggressive, and suggestive of a more overt sexuality

Ami (far left) settles into a more restrained vibe with:

Full, long, but sleeveless dress, bob-cut hair: Chaste, more conservative, but not to the point of prudishness; particularly with the length (and the hand posture, shielding her body) probably a bit shy

Monochrome blue colour in outfit & hair: reserved, serene, possessing a calm demeanor

I know I have seen the show already, but really none of these details are a stretch - this is just the language of fashion. And all of these outfits are outfits that the characters have never (or rarely) worn before up until this point. The cast of Sailor Moon, far from that animation conceit of “standard outfits”, change clothes all…

the….

time.

     I just randomly clicked on episodes to find these, it requires no hunting

And while it isn’t always as spot on as the top picture, they all in some way embody the language of visual design to speak to the personality of the characters. If you want to see more, check out one of the multiple tumblrs dedicated to the everyday clothing the Sailor Senshi wear, because of course those exist.

If this was a 2010’s Kyoto Animation show, pointing this out would be the end of it - every one of their shows has this level of impeccable detail. Sailor Moon is notable in that it is not at all that kind of show; the animation and designs in Sailor Moon take perpetual shortcuts to get the job done. I don’t think the transformation sequences need to be belabored - the way they permitted the team to recycle identical animation sequences, multiple times per episode, was surely a godsend to the production schedule. Yet not all of the budget limitations are so prettily masked:

     I’m sure they finished the background art in the...VHS release?

The show is filled with dirty animation, unfinished backgrounds, backgrounds that are a simple color gradient for no clear reason, and so on. It is clear that the Sailor Moon team did not have the resources for every detail - which is why the decision of what details they did choose to prioritize is so interesting.

----------

What is the point of Sailor Moon? I do believe that shows have “points”; and by that I don’t mean a message or theme but a core appeal to an audience, something specific that they will get out of the show. Almost every show appeals along multiple axes, and Sailor Moon is no exception, but I want to focus on one: aesthetic identification.

If you learn someone is a Sailor Moon fan, there is the obvious follow-up question you have to ask, namely “which Sailor Senshi are you?” It’s the which-Harry-Potter-house-are-you question of anime, a horoscope where you can choose your sign (in this case literally). The premise of this concept is not hard for media to execute on - it is just personality traits and aesthetics grouped together under a label, a basic building block of media and clickbait internet quizzes. Harry Potter, ironically, raised up its memetic question almost by accident, as its focus is so squarely on House Gryffindor that the others are almost forgotten; it was just so mind-bogglingly popular that it didn’t matter. 

Sailor Moon, however, takes this concept and allocates so much of its aesthetic budget into making it a centerpiece of the show. Sailor Moon herself is a klutzy, lazy romantic, Sailor Mercury is a shy, earnest bookworm, and so on, with none of them ever really becoming very complex characters. However, the show devotes itself to making you *feel* these archetypes as strongly and intricately as possible. All of those outfit changes are chosen because not only do real girls care about their outfits and can therefore identify more strongly with characters who do the same, but so they can constantly emulate their archetype in diverse, different ways. The show doesn't have the budget for intense action scenes, so after Sailor Moon engages in her hyper-serious transformation sequences, she proceeds to, nearly every time, bumble through the combat scenes like this:

Oh sure, the scenes are done this way because it is funny (and good comedy can be done on any budget - these shots are frequently still frames with motion lines!), but it is also done this way because Sailor Moon is a total screw-up, and if you identify with that it is validating to see someone “just like you” able to pull off wins despite it all. The transformation sequences are not only beautiful animation that showcases aspirational power, but are also crafted to highlight the personalities of the Senshi in question - unless you think aggressive, combative Rei got fire powers by coincidence. Half of the run-time of every episode is spent, not on the plot du-jour, but on light-hearted personal squabbles between the cast because those scenes are not just funny, but also allow for far more moments of character expression. 

All of that work pays off in building with the audience, not a connection with a character who reflects their identity in total, but a connection that reflects one aspect of their identity in an extremely deep (dare I say multifaceted?) way. I think if you were to describe Sailor Moon as a “shallow” show, you would actually be right to say so, in a sense. These characters will never have the true depth of personality, themes and so on of a more ‘adult’ show. But those adult shows have to spend their effort somewhere - for all that the themes of say Evangelion or Paranoia Agent are pristinely detailed and impactful, you aren’t ever going to be memorizing the moves of their transformation sequences. The way Sailor Moon committed so strongly to fleshing out the archetypes the Senshi stood for is, I think, one of the keys to how this cast of five became so iconic.

     Not even their school uniforms match! They had to spend time in-universe *justifying* this!

----------

A Final Note:

At least, everything I’ve said here applies to Sailor Moon at its peaks. The show, however, is not one without its stumbles, even in Season 1. This section doesn’t flow into the core essay too well, but I wanted to note it because if you were to watch Sailor Moon today, you might struggle to feel the dynamic outlined above. The biggest culprit here is the length - Season 1 is 46 episodes long, and sections of it most certainly drag. They also take a startlingly long time to introduce the cast - this choice builds tension around their arrival, but it also means the later Senshi get a lot less time to establish themselves. Sailor Venus in particular gets hamstrung by this - she is introduced and then immediately arc plot elements sweep the narrative, and so she is left as a hollow shell for some time. The pacing of the show is undoubtedly flawed.

I think Sailor Moon is a show that you do have to keep its time and place in mind for - namely, middle schoolers and anime nerds watching it on broadcast TV in the 90’s. As an adult you “get” the point of the show pretty quickly, and get satiated on it almost as fast. Watching it all in a few sittings only heightens this problem. For a younger audience, and one that is waiting for a week between episodes with no internet for plot reminders, all that extra time is needed to jog memories and build connections. And younger audiences just have that limitless commitment to the things they love! If you think no one could actually enjoy seeing the same transformation sequence for the 30th time, watch it with someone who would have died for this show when they were 10 and you will be disabused of that notion *very* quickly. 

Still, we can’t travel back in time - Sailor Moon is a show of its era. There are “filler-reduced” guides out there, though I caution that the plot of Sailor Moon is absolutely not the point of the show in comparison to the character dynamics, and so sometimes the filler is the best part (Cat-Rhett Butler is the best character in the show YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT). Certainly, however, some method must be used to cut down on its length. If you are going to be a first time viewer in adulthood, that reality should be kept in mind, and if you do accept it for what it is you can really appreciate its core appeal - and don’t forget to finish it off with a 1990′s era internet personality quiz to really wrap it up!