#no idea how far along we are in the render tbh

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 10, day 15

Man, 2D art is *so* much easier for me XD At least when it comes to making the progress I'd planned to for the night

I redid the text and adjusted the size of the dragon, plus also made the canvas wider to fit the text in the way I wanted it. And honestly? I think I really like it like this! :D

Now I just need to tie down the dragon into a final piece instead of the sketch she's in right now :D

[haikyuu-scenarios-drabbles]

you weren’t supposed to hear that (F! reader)

A collection of instances where your roommate hears you moaning their name whilst your fingers are between your legs. Or your neighbor. Or maybe you walk in on them saying your name. Take your pick 😈

warnings: NSFW, manga spoilers (in terms of what the boys do post timeskip), degradation (i think?)

a/n: i'm so nervous about this one LOL i’m super into Sakusa but I don’t know much about him tbh. he’s some good eye candy and that’s all i got. and i like the idea that he’d be a bit softer with you. anyways, hope you enjoy ✨J

taglist: @apollochjld @kurosarium 

Other parts: Kuroo | Ushijima

Sakusa Kiyoomi 

You weren’t really sure what you were expecting when you filled out the application to be Sakusa’s roommate. The application was straightforward, maybe a bit excessive, particularly in the cleaning department, but nothing you couldn’t handle. And you would’ve done almost anything to be accepted given the price was a steal and the owner of the apartment claimed they would be away frequently. So, agreeing to a few ridiculous housekeeping requests seemed reasonable to you.

All Sakusa wanted was someone to look after his apartment while he was gone, keep it tidy and clean it thoroughly before he returns. You also had to send pictures of the state of your current apartment to ‘prove’ your cleanliness. Excessive, but retrospectively—extremely worth it.

Though what you hadn’t been expecting was for the owner of the apartment to be Sakusa Kiyoomi, an outside hitter for the MSBY Black Jackals. Nor had you expected him to actually accept your application.

In all honesty, Sakusa had been a little desperate. Nobody who’d applied came even close to his expectations, and when he’d read you clean your bathroom at least once a week, it was like a breath of fresh air. And when he met you, you were pleasant and described that you mainly like to keep to yourself which sounded perfect to him. But what really convinced him was that you showed up wearing a mask. He wasn’t sure if you could tell how surprised he was, but the second he saw it, he almost accepted you on the spot.

That was over a year ago now and you and Sakusa have been living in a comfortable rhythm. When he’s home, you gladly help him clean when you have the time, and sometimes when he gets home from practice you already have dinner cooking which he can’t deny he’s come to enjoy. When he’s away, he feels safe that his home isn’t going into complete disarray or collecting dust because you’re there. And when he comes home, he loves that the apartment is nearly spotless.

By now, he almost considers your germs his own. He doesn’t mind sitting near you eating dinner, or next to each other on the couch. In fact, he finds he rather enjoys your presence. But lately, the two of you have been sitting closer on the couch and table, and when he’s gone, he actually misses you, which he will never admit. Coming home to a clean apartment and even you just popping your head into the hallway to greet him before retreating to your room is enough for him.

His growing problem is that he isn’t sure if it’s enough anymore. And it became terribly clear to him when you came to one of his games for the first time.

After the game you waited for him outside the locker room, feeling a little out of place even though Sakusa gave you a VIP pass to be allowed back here. When he emerges, he finds you swarmed by his teammates, politely indulging them and telling them you’re just waiting for someone. It makes his skin prickle in the same way it does when people touch him unprompted. Even worse, Atsumu is far too close to you for his comfort.

You seem fine though, brightly greeting him when he approaches, much to the shock of his teammates.

“What’s a pretty girl doin’ knowing our ‘Omi, hey?” Atsumu drawls, sending a sly smile your way as Sakusa frowns at the nickname.

Before you can open your mouth, amused by the nickname you’ve never heard before, Sakusa interjects, ��She’s my roommate.” Rendering the rest of them speechless (which is quite the feat), he takes you gently by the arm so the two of you can leave. Two things shock them: that Sakusa has a roommate and that he touched you.

“They aren’t so bad,” you grin up at him as he scowls, the two of you heading down the hallway towards the exit.

“You don’t have to spend hours on end with them.”

You shrug, knowing Sakusa is a man of unique circumstances when it comes to other people. A thought that makes you stop in your tracks, your hand shooting out to grip his arm to stop him, surprising him enough that he doesn’t recoil from your touch. “We should go this way,” you say, pointing down a different hallway.

He just looks at you, then down at your hand still wrapped around his forearm which you quickly snatch away. “Why? This way will be closer to the car.”

“I came by this way earlier and there was a group of your fans waiting for you,” you grimace. “I’d guess they’re probably still there.”

He frowns, grumbling to himself, but starting towards the hallway you pointed out. He’d very much like to avoid that situation if possible. The two of you make it out unscathed and un-swarmed by his avid fans, and on the way out to the car he can’t help thinking how much he appreciates how considerate you are. Anyone else would have told him he’s being ridiculous and to meet his fans. Not you, however. You always take his feelings into account.

That was weeks ago now. And none of his teammates have let it go since.

For you, when you first moved in, you swore to yourself you’d never fall for him. Not even after you accidentally walked in on him working out in his home gym, his lean and muscular arms out on display, a thin sheen of sweat dampening his dark curls—you nearly combusted. You forced yourself to put it out of your mind, because how could you fall for him? His annoyingly attractive face on billboards haunts you everywhere you go, and he was a stand-offish and a little neurotic for months. But as time as passed, he grew on you.

You now find his need for cleanliness endearing. Particularly now that he’s seemingly accepted you into his ‘bubble’. You’ll never forget the moment he touched you for the first time of his own accord. It was simple, nothing to think anything of really, but for him it was a big deal. It was just a brief touch on the shoulder while you were washing dishes thanking you for dinner. Afterwards, you took note of every time he touched you. One that stands out the most was when he wanted to escape his teammates at the very first game of his you attended. It was firmer, more of a silent plea from him that stunned you.

Really, you could be perfectly happy living like this. Except that your thoughts wander to him far too often now. Especially when he’s gone. It feels weird not having him around, scolding you for missing one spot on the counter, or sitting quietly next to you on the couch—you think about him a lot. His silent presence is strangely comforting, and it doesn’t help you watch his games while he’s away.

He is beautiful to watch. To the point you can’t even believe you live with him. Your efforts to keep your feelings in check were futile. You get so riled up that recently you’ve begun tiding yourself over to the thought of him. At first, you felt pretty ridiculous, especially since it’s hard to imagine him wanting to be…dirty like that, but eventually you just let your imagination run wild. You let yourself believe that with you, he’d be different.

It’s become a habit now while he’s gone. You know it’s awful. Yet you can’t stop yourself. Not when you haven’t been with someone since moving in with Sakusa. At first it was because you didn’t want to piss him off by bringing some stranger into the apartment. But now, you don’t even think you could. Not when you know you’ll only think about him the entire time.

He left only yesterday for his away game, but you’re already missing him. Already foolishly letting your thoughts wander into darker territory that you keep locked up tight when he’s around. His game is tomorrow, so you take the opportunity while you’re almost one-hundred percent certain he won’t come home early. On several occasions he’s come back a day early, but never before a game. Always after.

Your new favorite spot is the shower. Mostly because you can imagine him maybe letting loose a bit while the two of you are actively being cleaned in the process. Once you’ve stripped and the warm water is cascading down your back, it’s easy to imagine him.

You’ve pictured him so many times before that sometimes it really does feel like he’s there. That it’s his hands trailing down your sides, resting your hips, his mouth gently kissing along your neck as his hands move lower. The thought of him towering over you, his curly hair damp from the water, those dark eyes boring into you has you trembling in anticipation.

You’re already soaking when you run a finger between your folds, gripping the tiles when it reaches your clit, wondering what Sakusa’s fingers would feel like instead. Dipping your head, you let out a small, “Kiyoomi,” as you picture him whispering filthy things in your ear.

When Sakusa enters the apartment, he wrinkles his nose under his mask at the slight mess. Though, he supposes he can’t blame you. He wasn’t supposed to be home for another three days. But the other team cancelled unexpectedly, unable to get to the destination due to terrible weather. He hears the shower running in the other room, so he pulls off his mask and gets down to work. He can talk to you about it later.

Though he can’t help imagining you in the shower. Your body freshly clean, water running down your back, between your breasts, and along your legs. His mind gets so clouded by the image that he doesn’t realize he’s been scrubbing the same spot on the counter for a few minutes now. He’s jolted back to reality when he hears a sharp, “Ah!” emit from the bathroom.

He drops his cleaning supplies and quickly strides towards the bathroom thinking you’ve fallen in the shower. The door is slightly open, steam trickling into the hallway, and before he can knock and ask if you’re alright he hears your voice again.

“Oh—Kiyoomi...”

His hand stops mid-air, eyes widening with the realization of what you’ve just said. He pauses for a moment, debating what he should do. He can’t deny he thinks about you more often than he should, and more frequently as of late. And to him, the shower seems like the perfect place. So, he pushes the door open quietly, unzipping his jacket and saying into the silence, “Did you say my name?”

You almost take a tumble into the tub in surprise at hearing his actual voice in the bathroom with you. Close enough to lead you to believe he is in the bathroom. Yanking your fingers out of you, you push back the curtain, intent on yelling at him for intruding on you and scaring the shit out of you, though your voice dies in your throat.

Standing in the middle of the bathroom is Sakusa Kiyoomi, in all his infuriatingly delicious glory, pulling off his shirt and moving to rid himself of his track pants as well. He’s looking at you, deadpan, eyes moving down your body but stopping where the shower curtain is still covering you.

After a moment, you collect your senses, managing to choke out, “Wh—what are you doing?” Just your luck that he came home early at this exact moment and that he heard you. You’d curl up into a ball of embarrassment right now if you weren’t so shocked by his demeanor.  

Now that he’s completely unclothed you struggle to keep your eyes above his chest, gripping the curtain harder when he steps forward and says casually, “It was a long flight, I want to take a shower.”

You gape at him. “Right now?!”

He just takes a hold of the curtain, pulling it open slightly so he can step in next to you, and you’re so stunned you make no motion to stop him. And now you’re finding him towering over you in the small space of the shower, so close you can hardly breathe. All the air gets punched out of your lungs when his large hand rests on your hip, turning you so your back is facing him so he can lean down at tease in your ear, “You asked me to come in here, after all.”

All of the heat leaves your body, pooling directly between your legs at his tone. He wastes no time, lathering his hands up with soap and running them along your sides before reaching forward to cup your breasts in his hands, thumbs roaming aimlessly along your nipples, the soap foaming between his fingers.

“Were you thinking about me in the shower?” He asks, his tone dropping into something dark and dangerous. “Such a filthy girl.” He tugs at your nipples, rolling them between his thumb and forefinger making your knees tremble and the growing need between your legs even worse.

“Sa—Sakusa,” you moan, tilting your head back onto his shoulder, getting the full view of his hungry eyes boring into you.

He frowns, pinching your nipples slightly harder, reprimanding, “That isn’t what you called me earlier.”

You writhe in his embrace, gripping his arms, forcing yourself to keep eye contact with him as you correct yourself. “Kiyoomi.” He smirks at you, relenting on your nipples as reward, though continuing his soft ministrations.

You can’t help your ass arching backwards, coming into contact with his hardening member, giving him a bit of his own medicine as you grind against him. He hisses through his teeth, admonishing, “What a needy slut.”

“Fuck,” you mewl, pressing against him even harder. You can’t explain what his voice saying those things is doing to you—all you know is you need him to fucking touch you already. “Please, Kiyoomi,” you beg, lifting your arms up and around his neck behind you, your fingers twining into his wet hair. “Make a fucking mess of me.”

He groans deep in his throat, rutting up against your behind and wrapping one strong arm around your middle while the other trails towards the apex of your thighs. “Is that what you want? To be my dirty little slut?” Your fingers grip his hair even tighter, nodding embarrassingly quickly, standing up on your tiptoes to get his hand any closer to where you desperately need him.

Once his fingers reach your core, sliding up through the slick gathered between your legs and towards your clit; your knees nearly give out from under you. If it wasn’t for his arm around you keeping you up, you would have sunk to the floor at the sheer pleasure that sweeps through your body. His fingers are infinitely better than yours and having his solid frame and prominent hard-on pressing behind you almost sends you through the roof.

“Is this what you wanted?” He asks quietly against the skin of your neck, his hips grinding up against your ass, which you gladly return with pressure of your own.

“Yes—yes,” you say, gasping when sinks a finger knuckle deep into your heat, quickly adding another and praising you for how well you’re taking it. He watches the space where his fingers are disappearing into you with a sinful expression, enjoying intensely how you’re practically shoving yourself onto his fingers.

“What a good girl,” he whispers, setting your skin on fire, wanting nothing more than to keep being exactly that for him. He smiles devilishly, in a way you would have never imagined he could in your wildest dreams. An almost savage glint in his eyes as he presses harshly on your clit, eliciting a choked sob out of you, and making you dig your nails into the arm wrapped around you.

“Please—,” you say, head lolling on his shoulder allowing him to finally kiss you fully. Surprising you as his tongue slides into your mouth, his fingers relentless, his free arm now helping you drive his fingers even deeper. Voice coming out in a pathetic whine that makes his cock twitch, you plead, “God—Kiyoomi, please!”

“Use your words.”

Thoughts far too hazy to be any sort of embarrassed you hold his dark gaze. “Fuck me.”

Suddenly, his fingers are out of you and he’s bending you over, the head of his cock pressing into your dripping entrance before he sheathes himself completely in you, a hiss escaping him. His head drops to rest his forehead on your shoulder, droplets from his wet hair sliding down your chest as he composes himself from how fucking amazing you feel around him.

“Fuck,” he moans, the closest he’s come to breaking his resolve from just fucking you within an inch of your life. “So tight for such a needy slut,” he grits out, hands resting on your hips as he pulls out only to thrust into you again. His fingers dig into your hips to slam your ass into his, increasing his pace to the point you can barely see straight. Your own fingers scrabble for any sort of purchase on the tiles in front of you, desperately attempting to ground yourself against his brutal pace.

“You feel so fucking good,” you praise, earning you his hand reaching down to lift your leg onto the edge of the tub allowing him to sink even deeper into you.

The lewd sound of skin slapping together, the two of you panting and murmuring nonsense to each other, and the shower continuing to run fills the space as he continues to pound ruthlessly into you is all you’ve ever dreamed about. As he litters kisses and soft bites along your spine, the pressure in your stomach builds and builds, and before it bursts you gasp, “Oh my god—Kiyoomi.”

He notices your body starting to tense up, your back arching and fingers twitching as your orgasm comes hurtling towards you. Taking the opportunity, he pulls your body up, your back flush against his chest, hips never faltering and fingers finding your clit to bring you even closer to release.

“Cum for me,” he orders, voice so cold you feel a little embarrassed by how much it turns you on. But you know that’s just how he sounds sometimes and he’s probably playing it up a bit for you. “Cum on my cock like the good little slut you are.”

That sends you tumbling over the edge, your entire body convulsing as white-hot pleasure courses through your veins, prolonged by him continuing to plunge into you. The sensation is so overwhelming you start writhing in his grip, attempting to ride it out while he holds you firmly against him restricting your movement.

He can’t hold it back much longer, your walls clamping down around him nearly made him cum on the spot, but he holds you through your orgasm, forcing you to endure the full brunt of it while he continues fucking you. Though your body relaxing against his, your fingers winding into his hair, and your voice asking him so politely to cum for you makes him lose it. He grips your hips tightly, jackhammering into you chasing his release. Eventually his hips still, thighs shuddering as he concentrates on keeping the both of you standing while he cums.

The two of you stand there in silence, water still running, as his forehead rests on your back, both of your chests heaving at the exertion you just expended. Your heart is thundering against your chest, unsure what to say and hoping he’ll say something first. He groans, relinquishing your hips from his death grip and pulling his softening cock out of you.

You really shouldn’t have been surprised by what he says first.

“We should rinse off,” he suggests, despite the fact he’s still leaning on your back, hands now resting harmlessly on your hips.

“Okay,” you murmur, reaching for the soap and moving out of his grasp. He just stands there watching you, the water streaming onto his back, a completely passive expression on his face. If it was anyone else, they might have interpreted it as boredom or that he’s uninterested but to you—he just looks content.

You motion for him to turn around and start lathering the soap along his back, relishing the free chance to roam your hands all over his incredibly built body. Peering around his shoulder, you find him with his eyes closed, the smallest smile curving his lips as he enjoys your hands massaging his back. You smile to yourself, moving on to find his shampoo and gently scrubbing it into his hair, tucking the small pleased groan he makes into the back of your brain to remember later.

After a few quiet moments he says, “The apartment’s a mess.”

That makes you frown, a sour expression adorning your face. Poking his side, you reply, “Well, you weren’t supposed to be home for another three days!” He turns around, washing the soap off his back and out of his hair while you take no time to start exploring the expanse of his chest with your soapy fingers. When he opens his eyes, looking down at you, you pout. “Can’t we leave it for tomorrow?”

As much as he dislikes that, he can’t help but agree, finding the prospect of curling up in bed with you much more enticing.

Once he’s finished, he returns the favor washing your body, and the both of you step out of the shower to dry off. You pull on the pajama’s you’d left in here for after your shower that you thought you’d be taking alone while he simply wraps the towel around his waist, making it almost impossible not to stare at him as he waits for you.

You’re surprised when he leads you to his bedroom, changing into pajama’s of his own as you slide under the covers. They smell like detergent and the faint scent of Sakusa’s body wash, wrapping around you pleasantly—you take an indulgent breath, letting the scent soak into your senses. It gets even better when he joins you, hand resting on your bare arm, fingers drawing small circles against your skin. He gives you a soft kiss to the forehead, enjoying your freshly showered body against his beneath the sheets and your fingers in his hair.

“You know I honestly didn’t think you knew how to kiss,” you joke, tapping his chin, “With the mask and all.”

He peers down at you, the subtlest glint in his eyes as he replies, “Have I changed your mind?”

Your resulting cheeky smile makes his pants feel a little tight. “I think you might need to show me again.”

[rena-te]

I’m gonna throw some random thoughts/predictions about NEO at the wall. Mostly bc I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a while and need to shout into the void about it. (It will get into the Game’s Opening Sequence as well as any information that’s come out so far, just to mention it in case you were avoiding that content.) Join me for a lot of this down below the cut!

First of all, Tsugumi. In A.N.D we see her in a destroyed Shinjuku. Along with the visions of the future she gives Neku there are these messages.

“Everyone’s gone away..... All that’s left in the world is me.” (City being destroyed.)

“I can’t hear a thing...” (Tsugumi is walking the streets alone.)

“Hello? Is anybody there?” (Joshua shooting.)

“Somebody... Anybody... Can anybody hear me?” (Rhyme dying to (purple) shark noise.)

This last one isn’t a vision. It happens after Coco shoots Neku and he vanishes. Which leads me to think, since it is mostly a repeat of the first two future visions, it’s actually happening in this moment. It could be Tsugumi calling out one last time...... Before she’s overtaken by something?

“Too late... It’s all over...” (Same as first two. Tsugumi’s eyes notably turn red more than before.)

How is she giving Neku these visions? (It seems that she’s just calling out to anybody, and for some reason Neku heard her.) To send visions like that I’d think that Tsugumi is either Shinjuku’s Composer or maybe an angel? Or something else we’ve not seen? And they’re all visions of the future. Is Tsugumi speaking into the past as well as projecting those images? (We’re assuming that the reason for Shinjuku Reapers being in Shibuya is bc the UG in Shinjuku has been destroyed. So are the visions congruent with Shinjuku being destroyed or is the city being destroyed in the future, likely sometime between TWEWY and NEO?) The possibility of time travel makes things a million times more complicated.

Or maybe Tsugumi wasn’t quite sending him visions at all, and it was a kind of side effect of being linked to a Composer (since they are somewhat omniscient, and bc some of those visions were not really related to Tsugumi.) She was just trying to communicate with him, but some of that power leaked through their psychic bond and gave Neku a bit of clairvoyance?

If Shinjuku’s UG got destroyed, does that leave the Composer alive? We know that the Composer killing themselves would effectively shut down the UG, but if it happens the other way around? The Composer still exists, but would there be no consequence for losing an integral part of themselves? If the Composer’s connection to the UG is so pivotal, maybe the UG being gone is the reason why Tsugumi seems so...empty? (Is she so vacant that someone else is pulling the strings at this point?) It’s odd for Tsugumi to call out to Neku for help, but target him in NEO. (Given orders to target him.)

Also maybe the UG being destroyed but the Composer still existing explains Joshua’s....odd reaction to her? “How fortunate she managed to escape erasure.” Said when he was just in a position of wanting to kill himself in order to destroy his UG. He doesn’t use that sprite often ya know. It could explain the expression he has and the mumbled speech bubble used. Joshua said that he needed to get rid of His UG bc it could negatively tamper with the other grounds. To discover that could be done without killing himself... (And without him knowing of the apparent side effect of a “vacant Composer” Assuming that theory is true in the first place.)

But why does she have a Mr.Mew doll? Uhhhhh.... There’s also some time shenanigans happening too. And that throws many “what-ifs” into the mix, so I’ll avoid going down that rabbit hole. Basically I have no idea, the possibilities are kinda endless with time travel.

Another thing. This guy is also important. Very important apparently. I had a vague idea about him at first, a guess kinda outta left field, but I mean....I’m liking what bits I’ve scraped together for my guess theory by now. Onto speculating about Mr.Kubo here......

In the game’s opening sequence he walks right past Tsugumi (so connected to her in some way), leans in towards the camera, looks at you and does his little eccentric pose.

The only other characters who sorta look into the camera for the opening sequence are Shiba and Shoka, BUT in Shiba’s case it’s more like the camera is centered on him looking forward, and Shoka is more so interacting with Rindo with the way her scene was done. Here Kubo is just walking alone, stops and his eyes lock with the camera...... so wtf does this mean, you’re probably asking. It’s just a funky game introduction, it’s just this dude being weird. Yes, that is all true.

I know that he’s introduced in the line up as a Shinjuku Reaper, along with everyone else. But... I think this guy is Shinjuku’s Producer. If Tsugumi is Shinjuku’s Composer it makes sense for him to follow Her into Shibuya, he’s basically tasked to watch over Her.

Compared to the other Shinjuku Reapers, his color scheme is more...grey scaled. The girl has a grey suit, but Kubo doesn’t have any colors to his outfit at all. His clothes are plain compared to everyone else in this lineup. His facial expressions are the only...unique thing to his appearance. In the little bit of English dialogue we have of him so far, it seems that he’s giving us some kind of advice? And Fret looks to be put off with his eccentric (I can’t think of a more accurate word for it) demeanor.

So the middle aged man with an eccentric personality, with a tendency to give advice (?), pretending to be involved in the game in ways they are not, clothes styled in only neutral colors, and the funky little watch they’re wearing....along with the light poking at the fourth wall (Mr.H- “You mean those teasers?”) both Kubo and Hanekoma fit that bill.

Tbh Hanekoma is a bit eccentric, we’re just so used to how he is by now. The watch is just a minor thing that’s a fun little similarity in their designs don’t worry about it. Don’t tell me the watch isn’t important it ties everything together. Also after a quick goggle search, one website is telling me that Kubo’s name means “sunken ground” in Japanese and this other website is telling me what the individual kanji means, (I do not know Japanese in any way and am assuming that the internet is right about all this. I feel like it tracks with him being a Producer though.)

And just to cap it off, maybe Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor. If he rose through Shibuya’s ranks so quickly he’s gotta know what he’s doing. Did he throw Shinjuku out of balance and get rid of the UG so the Composer would be an empty puppet (like Tsugumi kinda seems to be.) Is that why he’s doing all this? Does he plan to become the Conductor (right hand man of the Composer) and then erase the UG, rendering it’s Composer vacant and take control? Shiba wouldn’t know about the Producer, naturally. Is that what it’s all culminating too? Will Joshua be in danger at some point from this guy? I’m wondering when the Higher Plane would step in, but this might just be Kubo’s job since Shiba was Shinjuku’s Conductor (and Hanekoma’s job, since it’s happening in Shibuya now) unless it gets completely out of control. They don’t seem to interfere much, just letting the assigned angels do the groundwork.

So that’s all my thoughts about stuff. I wouldn’t go into the game heavily expecting much of this though. As fun as theories are I’ll be fine enjoying the game for whatever happens. The world-building in twewy is just extremely fascinating to me and I love it so much. This is just my take on a “‘what if” situation anyways so nothing close to this may happen, hahaha. But speculation is very fun and I love to flex my twewy knowledge (it’s been next to useless for like 10 years. Finally twewy is relevant.

[kangyeosaang]

#showyourprocess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

thank you csenge @imdefs​ for tagging me to show how i made this set ✨

buckle up folks this is gonna be long bc min. character limit uni papers thought me a lot of things but def not how to be concise 

01. planning

this was a long time ago but i do remember wanting to make something with overlays bc quite honestly i started working on this way too late and it seemed the fastest lmao. jokes on me i had 2 failed attempts and this also went through some changes along the way. initially i wanted to combine dye, bol and present:you... them being my fave eras for this lovable dumb man. so it would’ve been one pair for each gif.

02. creating

picking footage

so onto creating,, first things first the concept had to be changed bc present:you only had light shots so that had to be removed rip, here you can see a failed attempt at me trying to include it. this was before i started making proof on concepts for gifsets which later on saved me so much time... but not this time

once i accepted defeat i had to reshuffle the shots and add some new ones but it was all good i was not losing braincells at all. so onto the real gifs, gonna show you the red one bc that’s my fave of the three. 

making the base

btw i’m always working with timelines and smart objects bc it feels way easier than frames. so here we started with this jaebeom, and since the background and his hair it’s pretty dark those will be the parts which will be covered with the next gif. i made it black and white and also adjusted the levels a bit to make it a bit softer (lowered the whites and lightened the blacks)

for aesthetic purposes i always go for one close shot and one wider shot, then literally all i did was add the other gif on top, and set it to lighten. okay this is it that’s the whole process bye. oh we need the rest too? okay okay. so btw for a while i was considering making both of them coloured but then bw looked better when having all three gifs under each other, felt more like a ‘set’

now for this gif in particular i did not need to mask anything, shocking, but for the others i had to either blend the edges or make the bottom layer darker at some places to let the top layer show up a bit more e.g. for the second gif i needed a tiny blending like so (it’s the layer 1 copy 3 lmao)

making the overlay bits

then we are basically done with the main part of the gifs, obviously i applied colouring to each inside the smart object. but i always like to add something extra on top which are usually two things: 1.) full overlay gif something blurred (literally any kind of footage.. i used leaves, water, space renders etc. so far), or a light leak, oooor a bokeh effect whatever and just keep it subtle. and 2.) some smaller moving bits which are usually sparkles, dust, stars, galaxy stuff etc. u get the idea. for the above gif this happens to be Layer 1 copy 2 rip. also in this case this overlay is actually this jaebeom footage blurred and with some colouring added on top of it to have this redish brassy tone (not me forgetting about this completely lmao) obviously it’s zoomed in and i’m using the top left part of the video blurred. look at me explaining my chosen gif with another gifs gahd i’m bad at this. anyways it just goes to show i use practially anything i can think of and just blur it. 

for the full overlay footage i either go black and white and set it to overlay or soft light, whatever works best, or go coloured and set it to lighten again.... whatever blending mode works best. for this specific 2nd gif i went with lighten. for the smaller moving bits same tbh i just adjust the levels/curves to only show the bits i need when it’s set to lighten, i.e. i make its background more black so it won’t make the gif hazy. 

 adding the text

so anyways i add those on top so it’s not boring anymore,, practically just concealing the fact that all i‘ve really done was adding a gif on top of another and set it to lighten rip. oh yeah we have the text layers, nothing fancy here: for the script i used Challenge and the serif is FogtwoNo5. For the script i sampled some red from the background and just set it to overlay, and for the serif i just went with full caps adding some extra kerning bc one: for full caps you always need that, not this much lol, and two: it just looks better okay. 

last touches

then i added a levels adjustment layer because i felt the gifs were a bit brighter than i wanted, so we ended up with this 

saviiiiiing 

oh my gahd we are almost theeeere, for saving gifs here are my settings, i did not have to tell photoshop which colours to use luckily so it was an easy process.

03. posting

eeehmmm posting... yeah nothing exciting? i just save it in my drafts check it on mobile, and if something is really messed up i’ll change some colouring and saving settings, but this was a fairly ‘easy’ gif for tumblr to compress decently so none of that. 

if you read this far bruh.... i don’t think i’ve made sense anyways thank yooouuu 💕

and the five amazing CCs i’m tagging are 

🎬 dear wifey, rosie @se-jun​​​​ for these victon posters which i definitely did not make her choose and we ended up with the same i would’ve chosen 🌈 vivi @yeekies​​​​ for making a rainbow from the mostly yellow blob that is the fireworks mv 💙 yv @woodzm​​​​ for this beauty where the blues are colourmatched so well it makes me mad 🌸 lotta @halahala​​​​ for this miracle of a gifset which made me not despise pink 🌈 bridget @lilacwoo​​​​ for this 12/10 rainbow right here because apparently i like rainbows. shocking.   

feel free to ignore and all them usual stuff

[shintorikhazumi]

A Warm Diana Chapter 6: Overheating

A/N: Seriously writing a couple of my story updates in the hospital since I’m watching my dad who got admitted. There’s no internet in his room so I post upon arriving at home. Finally having Christmas break after hellish exams haha. Sorry this took so long. I’m having a bit of writer’s block, tbh. One of the reasons I stopped writing for so long was because I lost the USB flashdrive with all the prepped plots and chapters and all that. It really was a huge blow to motivation. I legit cried over it. I also lost so much progress on other stories so… since some chapters had planned out info already in their files. I’m really trying to figure out how to move this story towards the end point. At this stage, it’s just full of Akko and Diana awkwardly trying to figure out their new dynamic, now that their relationship is clearly changing. Haha, I’m struggling with the plot. Still, trying my best. Btw, my headcanon is that Diana in love = OOC Diana so apologies in advance xD Not Beta read because I don’t have a beta reader now. I’ve been reading and correcting by myself, but I usually miss a few typos or mistakes, so again, sorry ‘bout that. Anyway.

Happy Holidays!

Enjoy?

~Shintori Khazumi

 A Warm Diana Chapter 6: Overheating

Relationships require balance.

At times, they are as if you were riding a seesaw, or maybe just tipping scales. At other times, they feel like a tug-o-war, and sometimes it’s more of a shoving and pushing motion.

Regardless of how you adjust the weights, you will find that it takes two sides to pull off that balance.

You may find that perfect balance now, or it may come millions of troubleshooting sessions later. It is different for everyone, it varies from person to person.

Your search may be painfully awkward, or incredibly sweet; filled with unspeakable joy, or unspeakable heartbreak. Just know, so long as you try, you’ll eventually stumble upon that sweet spot of balance tailor made for two.

Just keep working it out.

You’ll discover it soon.

And once you have it, a new chapter begins.

~0~0~0~0~

If you were to ask Akko for a list of her favorite things, broom rides and Diana would most probably top that list. She often related one with the other. There was just something about the heat of Diana’s back as they flew across the cooling horizon as the sun set, dropping the day’s temperature a few degrees down. While flying was one of the most magical experiences for Akko, she would easily argue that Diana was just as- if not, even more- magical than any spell that she could think of really.

Diana herself was magic.

With how her streaked blonde hair sparkled as the rays of the retreating sun hit it at just the right angle. How her eyes glimmered with mirth as she chanced a glance at Akko sitting behind her, arms encircling her waist. How her lips twitched upwards into a slight smile as their eyes met, how her body was soft to the touch, slender and felt really nice to hold- Akko should stop her train of thought right there.

Clearing her throat along with her mind, Akko silently urged Diana’s gaze forward with her hand gently pushing Diana’s cheek facing her away; slightly worried about the prodigy not looking where she was driving.

It only took her a few seconds to jump right back into her mental worship of the girl sitting in front of her. It wasn’t just a physical magnificence that Diana exuded. Her talent was far above and beyond a normal person’s, heck- even a normal witch’s. Despite this, she had the dedication to keep striving for more, to whole-heartedly pour her heart and will into improving, not for her own sake solely, but for others as well. Her mind was as attractive as her heart. Clever lines, smooth conversations, powerful words; Akko could listen to Diana go off all day. This was something she would never have imagined she’d think some time ago, remembering all the times she felt annoyed as Diana chided her, wishing the heiress would shut up.

It truly surprised her how she could change. How Diana could change. How they could change each other. What a wonder. What kind of spell had been cast on her? If love was a spell so powerful, no wonder so many tried to obtain it.

And at this moment, Akko thought Diana wielded it the best, casting her magic on Akko, making the brunette yearn and long for her, daily feeling her affections grow as she could only see more reasons to be in love with the Cavendish heiress.

Everything about her was just… magical.

And though magic and reality sometimes clashed in so many people’s opinions, Diana managed to make those two things work in a wondrous complement. Just another one of her many abilities, Akko admired.

“Akko.”

Ah… another thing she loved. Diana’s voice; the way she called out her name, the way her lips formed each syllable, how her tone caressed it in such a tender way it made her heart melt-

“Akko?”

“Ah- I… I-I just love your voice!” Realizing what she had just blurted out, Akko clapped her hands over her mouth, face a charming shade of red as, once more during their little broom ride, blue met red.

Diana blinked at the surprising confession, before her expression melted into one of teasing amusement. “Is that so?” Clearly, she was pleased. “Why thank you, Akko. I find myself quite fond of your voice as well.”

With her companion rendered speechless and unable to hold further conversation, Diana laughed quietly, turning her attention back to her task of manning the small broom they were on.

The reason as to why they were both on this peaceful flight was Diana’s suggestion to further secure their escape from their definitely angered dorm mother.

Never in her life had Diana imagined that she would be one to run away from authority. More often than not, she was the authority being run away from. She was that chasing, chastising figure who preserved the peace and discipline of the Academy.

…She was also the girl who screamed about just how much of a mess she was, prompted by her feelings for a witch quite familiar with the other end of the chasing game.

And she was in awe at the fact that she did not mind this change of pace one bit.

Diana almost jumped as she felt Akko’s arms tighten their hold around her waist, a weight- presumably Akko’s head- finding it’s purchase on her back. Akko had pressed her ear to the area, indulging in the sounds of Diana’s heart that did her no favors in hiding her emotions, betraying the calm she tried to show. It made the smaller witch smile giddily. It was the pleasure of knowing that she was the cause of such reactions from someone as amazing as Diana that filled her own heart with paramount joy.

The flight remained rather uneventful. It was tranquil, and the gentle breezes were almost enough to lull Akko to sleep, combined with the soothing scent of Diana’s shampoo, and the steady thrum of her heartbeat that served as her lullaby.

Almost, because Akko’s ever brilliant and excitable, yet sometimes anxious and doubtful mind had other ideas.

Ideas that may or may not be good, but nevertheless may be an adventure.

This time it was good, though! Akko swore! …maybe. She would admit that the notion slightly unnerved her, but it just felt right to challenge some things.

So, she decided to voice her idea to her partner in crime, thinking this was a good opportunity as any- scratch that- this was the perfect opportunity for her idea. It was the perfect moment, and all the cogs of this operation were aligned to allow this moment.

“Hey, Diana?”

“Hmm?” Akko loved how the hum vibrated against her ear, it was a pleasant feeling.

“So, like… I was thinking…” Diana gave her another hum to let her know she still had her attention. “Since we’re like… out here and together and all, already. And I don’t really know when we’d get another chance to do it since you might be busy, and I might be busy, and I guess we both can get very busy-“

“Akko, just say it.” Diana laughed lightly, one hand patting over Akko’s pair that rested on her stomach. She heard a deep intake of air, before the words,

“Can I drive?”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, uh,” Akko was beginning to make exaggerated gestures that were causing their little vehicle to swerve, and Diana got a tad bit nervous. “Y-you see, like, maybe I could drive and you could, like, tutor my flying again, y’know? Since we’re already out and flying, maybe you could, um, guide me as I drove and stuffandmaybenotIguessitwouldbesaferforyoutodrive-“

“Akko! Calm down!” Diana laughed a little louder. “Calm down.” She repeated much softer; and Akko now noticed that they both were making a slow descent onto a rather large tree branch. “It’s fine. I like the productive idea.” Diana threw her a nonchalant smile as they dismounted, holding the broom out for Akko to take.

“Th-thanks.”

“Still, I don’t think I’d ever be too busy to allow myself to spend some time with you.” Diana stepped a bit closer, effectively cutting Akko’s breaths a little short. “I’ll always make time for you.” Her face was even closer than her body, and Akko swore they could kiss if she leaned just an inch more- “And besides, we already have our usual tutoring sessions. Couldn’t we do it then?” Diana asked. “Actually, don’t we already have flying sessions from time-to-time? Silly, Akko.”

With those words, Diana had pulled away, leaving a flustered Akko staring at her for a few seconds. She giggled a beautiful tune, taking one of Akko’s hands and pressing the broom’s handle against it, closing calloused fingers around the rod.

“Come now, we don’t want to be having this lesson in complete darkness, now do we? The sooner we get to it, the sooner we finish and get back to the dorms.” Diana was seriously enjoying this too much. “I heard the dinner menu will include some Asian cuisine, and I’m rather excited for it. I’m sure neither of us would dare miss it.”

In a slight daze, but with her partner’s words registering in her shaken mind, Akko nodded her agreement. Straddling the broom, she waited as Diana situated herself comfortably behind her, feeling the warmness of her palms that lightly rested on her shoulders. It felt awkward for Akko, if she were to be honest; it also worried her that Diana might not be safe or secure behind her unless she held on slightly, um, tighter somewhere that was easier to hold on to? Not that Diana couldn’t easily take care of herself, but Akko still had her misgivings. Despite these beliefs, it proved difficult for the smaller witch to voice her concerns so she decided she might as well just kick off and trust that Diana would be alright.

But as if Diana had read her mind, feeling the tense muscles beneath her hands, she transferred her hold, arms snaking their way around Akko’s slim waist, thumbs brushing on a toned stomach over the brunette’s clothes, applying a certain amount of pressure for a small ounce of fun to get Akko to lighten up.

-Or so Diana claimed.

At the action, Akko found herself making an odd sound between a yelp and a squeal that made Diana uncharacteristically grin devilishly. Whipping her head around to glare at the perpetrator, Akko felt the slightest bit annoyed at the guiltless heiress wearing an innocent expression, but with a playful glint in her eyes.

“I swear,” Akko began. “Try that again, and we’re both falling to the ground; and it’s not even going to be my fault this time.” After keeping her gaze on Diana for just a few seconds more to ensure the girl didn’t pull anything funny, Akko looked forward, taking deep breaths and trying to focus her mind, chanting the spell that would get them up and flying once more.

And up they went.

…

At least, they were supposed to.

Albeit at her proposal, Akko found her feet rooted firmly on the ground, the phrase, Tia Freyre, dying on her lips.

She found her gaze flickering between the view of the horizon and the very far ground, and her will wavered.

Maybe it wasn’t as good an idea as she originally assumed.

“Akko?” Diana’s soft voice called for her attention, and she could only respond with a whimper. Upon hearing that, Diana felt the slightest panic begin to plant itself in her mind. Something was suddenly wrong. “Are you alright?”

Akko tried opening her mouth that suddenly felt very dry. She felt nauseous all of a sudden, and her vision swam. She considered giving in to the call of the darkness, but then she remembered that Diana was still behind her, still waiting for a response.

And if anything happened to Akko while they were out here, she’d surely feel responsible. Not to mention, Akko would be causing her extra trouble, dragging her unconscious Japanese weight back to campus.

She’d rather not leave Diana with a memory of her being such a burden again.

But at the same time, she’d also prefer not being the one to cause Diana harm should she make a fatal mistake. Ah yes, there was that too. Such a timely reminder that made her shake in her standard Luna Nova boots. What if she messed up and hurt Diana? That scared her more than anything else could. And that wasn’t something unexpected, at all. The fact that she herself could accept that she was a walking disaster only deflated Akko’s ego, and fed her monsters, more.

“Akko?”

But Diana was still waiting. Waiting so kindly, so patiently. She was still reaching for Akko’s heart, doing her best to clear out the clouds, and tell the girl that it was all okay. That they’d be okay. That she could do it.

Maybe it wasn’t true. Or maybe it was.

Nevertheless.

Maybe Akko could fake it ‘til she made it then. If it was for Diana, she could.

“I’m good.” She finally replied. With a heavy sigh, she braced herself, croaking out a shaky, “Tia Freyre”, and they were off.

At first, the take-off had its wobbly movements, and this fed Akko’s anxieties and lack of confidence in her abilities in magic, especially in flying which she had struggled the most with while learning. Maybe she was too apprehensive, so on edge and overthinking every little thing, and every possible bad situation, untrusting that she could fly both of them safely on course. Her hands were beginning to sweat and slide along the broom’s handle quite easily as she tried to steer them in the right direction. But before her mind could fall back irredeemably deep into the negatives and impact her performance significantly, she felt a squeeze to her waist and a nuzzle to her shoulder, yanking her out of the sinking sand that was her thoughts.

Fingers lightly walked their way to her shoulders, massaging the stiff muscles till the knots came slightly undone. Circular patterns were soon drawn on them, and it was as though she was being told, ‘It’s alright. Breathe. I believe in you, that you can do it’.

Still in doubt, Akko squeezed the wooden handle, eyes trying to remain trained to the scene in front of her. A tremor ran through her body as she coughed awkwardly, trying to trust in those words as Diana trusted in her.

Just then, she felt a hand placed on the center of her back, aligned with where her heart was, and she immediately understood.

‘I believe in your believing heart.’

Again, those words. They rung deep within her, gathering in a pool of hope and springing out into a fountain that allowed her actions to be filled with confidence and faith. If not faith in herself, then faith in Diana who believed in her.

Akko felt it blossom, the confidence she needed to try; to persevere. And it was all thanks to her companion. Her beautiful, all sorts of wonderful companion who knew Akko; who understood her.

Diana had spoken nothing, and yet she had successfully conveyed every word Akko needed to hear at the moment.

Readjusting her grip on the broom, Akko breathed in and out deeply, eyes closing momentarily, before revealing determined reds. No need for extra pressure on herself. She knew she had practiced; she knew she had studied. Diana knew that too. She had been with Akko every step of the way, and now it was time to see their sessions’ payoff.

As they ascended to a decent height, motions stabilizing, winds calm, with Akko only feeling the minimum magical usage drain from her body, she couldn’t help but be proud of herself. Her eyes widened as she felt the energy course through her veins, her body and the broom obeying her commands with relative ease. Realization hit her; she could personally tell that she had improved from her earlier days in Luna Nova, and she felt excitement bubble up within her, channeling into tiny bursts of happy laughter.

“Diana!” Akko exclaimed, daringly taking them into an upside-down loop in the air, speeding up at times, and slowing down smoothly with little struggle. “Diana, I can fly!”, she declared, going for a sudden drop before rising back high in the air. “I can fly!”. They zipped past trees and fields, headed down over a small pond where their feet barely grazed the water before Akko pulled upwards, spiraling into the sky gently.

“I can fly!” Akko repeated, again and again; each time serving as a reassurance, a confirmation of a truth she had longed for. “I can fly!”, she said as they traversed the Luna Nova skies, aiming for the setting sun.

“I can fly.” Akko’s proclamations were growing softer, yet more filled with emotion. Diana could have sworn she heard Akko choke up this time. Leaning to her side and over Akko’s shoulder to try to catch a glimpse of the brunette’s face, Diana’s conjecture had been confirmed.

She made it just in time to see a solitary tear escape the most gorgeous rubies Diana’s ever seen.

“I can fly… Diana. I can fly.” She spoke in a silent whisper, that last echo of joy.

And those words and the sparks in Akko’s eyes filled Diana’s heart with so much adoration, so much pride. She was genuinely happy for Akko. She knew for a fact that flying was one of Akko’s biggest dreams.

And witnessing the girl’s dreams come true firsthand, was Diana’s dream come true.

As they soared, twirled, giggled, and boisterously hollered their merriment, emotions only heightened- as high as the altitudes they so freely conquered.

And Diana slipped.

Overcome with all these intense emotions, senses filled with the sights of the world, and the scents of nature and of Akko, ears receiving the songs of the wind and Akko’s laughter; skin feeling the rushing cool, and Akko’s body pressed against her, and Akko filling her immediate visage, brown tresses and all; and Akko… and Akko, and Akko, Akko-

Diana kissed the back of her neck.

She’d lost control, and jumped on her impulses.

She’d lost control… and so did Akko.

With a loud yelp serving as the sole warning, the sound transformed into piercing screeches and wails as Akko shot out bullets of, “what do I do”s, while Diana tried her best to yell back the answers that fell on ears that could not focus on her voice at all, they spiraled down, and they spiraled down fast.

There was no time, Diana realized.

The ground was ready to catch them, and it was meeting up with them sooner than they’d like. Neither of those facts were very appealing.

What could she do, what could she do; what could she do- if only time would wait for them-!

“!!!” Diana’s memory and experienced served her well as she regained her calm and senses, a spell she had used before making its way to the forefront of her mind as she chanted a resounding, “Scrylla!” And immediately, time slowed down for them. This gave her the opportunity to shake Akko out of her panic, all but yelling at her to pull up immediately.

And Akko did.

~0~0~0~0~

After a few slow laps in the air to allow the shock to fade from their very bones, Akko guided them in an even slower descent until their feet were, once more, flat on the ground.

Moments of silence passed, both girls too frazzled to utter anything right away. All they did was begin their unrushed trek towards the main building, sun just about ready to disappear beneath the lining of trees.

They made it all the way to the cafeteria, no one having uttered a word still. Halting in their steps in front of the large, closed wooden doors, feet shuffled awkwardly, throats were cleared, and eyes darted all around.

…

Not being able to take the overwhelming tension, Akko took it upon herself to break it… though she was lost as to what to say in this kind of situation where they had most certainly almost died.

(Though if she thought about it, this wasn’t a rare occurrence either.)

“Um, so… right. Um… I’m-“ Where should she start? A greeting? With an apology? She did just almost kill them. It wasn’t quite on purpose, but- Okay. She’d apologize.

Akko inwardly groaned, words forming on her tongue, breathing in, ready to spew out strings of ‘I’m sorry. And I’m sorry.”

“I-“

“I’m sorry!”

“Huh?” That most certainly did not come from her.

“I… apologize for causing you distress.” Diana mumbled shyly, uncharacteristically. “Especially in that situation, and placing us in danger. I’m sorry.” Her body facing Akko, she had bent herself in a perfect bow.

“D-Diana! You- you don’t need to apologize! That was all me! I should’ve gotten a grip and-“ In her frantic state, Akko had reached over to grab Diana by both shoulders, trying to get her to straighten her posture once more, embarrassed to have someone like Diana in such a state in front of her. “It’s fine, really. You, You’re not at fault!”

At those words, Diana looked up, unease flashing in her eyes.

“Are you sure?” She whispered, Akko almost missing the words. The shorter girl nodded.

“I’m sure.” She replied, just as gently. “You didn’t really do anything wrong.” Akko offered one those smiles of hers that made Diana’s stomach do summersaults, flips, and run miles a minute.

It almost made Diana feel completely relieved. Until she remembered what she had done. Hanging her head ashamedly, she spoke again. “I would still like to offer my apologies. I may have crossed a line just then…”

“Huh? No, what are you, don’t apologize, Diana!” Feeling awkward at how Diana kept asking for her forgiveness, Akko rubbed the nape of her neck out of habit, and a recent vivid memory suddenly began replaying in her mind- the cause of their little “accident”.

Noticing the realization flash across Akko’s face, Diana looked to the side, a hand braced on the opposite arm, crossing her front, as if it were some form of comfort. Diana felt very shy, and very small at the moment.

And that look did not suit her at all, Akko thought. She’d be damned if their day ended on a sad note after all of this.

Reaching for both the heiress’ hands, she called, “Diana-“ And maybe she had gotten a little too excited, too close, as she the aforementioned girl jumped at the sudden proximity. “Ah! S-sorry.” Akko exclaimed, backing off.

Before she could release Diana’s hands, however, she was pulled right back in. “It’s alright.” It was a quiet statement, a simple one. Yet full of so much emotion and assurance.

Akko was entranced once more. Put under Diana’s spell, breathless and unable to pull her eyes away from those deep ocean blues. It was as if she was being reeled in. Caught by the other witch- hook, line, and sinker. She was getting so close. So, so close.

Blue eyes flickered down momentarily, and Akko was pretty sure she knew why.

Closer.

Closer.

Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong.

The chime echoed through the halls, an intercom announcing that dinner would be over in the next ten minutes, and that students should hurry up and finish their meals.

Just like that, the spell was broken, two girls separating a safe distance from one another.

“I-I guess we should hurry now! Wow, we… we sure took our time, haha!” Akko was the first to turn away, pushing the door to the mess hall open, attempting to escape the situation; but before she could take another step forward, a hand clutched to one of her own.

She looked back in time to see a blush bloom on Diana’s face, and Akko thought that it was prettier than any flower.

She probably wasn’t any better.

Diana gave her an unsure smile, like a question, a request for permission. She looked so soft and cute; Akko couldn’t help herself. She responded with a relaxed smile of her own and a squeeze to Diana’s hand, pulling her into the room.

They shared one final look, admiring each other’s features; eyes now clear and full of strong emotion. Two faces burned a fiery red, but their hearts probably burned brighter.

Hands bashfully intertwining as they made their way to the counters, grabbing trays of food and choosing a free table. Trying to focus on the rare Asian cuisine served for tonight’s meal, both tried to erase any remaining embarrassment or lingering awkwardness in the air, but found themselves failing.

Should someone say something? Should they simply eat in peace?

Both sighed in unison, attention darting to each other as they shared a laugh, blushes searing hotly across their faces.

It was starting to get a little hot. But it wasn’t bad at all.

~0~0~0~0~

Another day of much dreaded dance practice. At least, on Akko’s part, she hated it. After all, it was so boring as she was stuck, simply observing everyone else. Her teacher hadn’t really paid her any mind the moment she stepped into the extra class, neither was she given the go-ahead to join everyone else. So, she now found herself seated once more at a corner of the room, watching everyone else practice.

She observed everyone’s motions, trying to get a sense of what dancing entailed, trying to maybe image-train herself. Understanding and picturing the steps out clearly might help her be able to do it once she started dancing.

If the teacher allowed her to take part, that is.

At this point, that prospect was looking a little vague.

A sigh.

“They say you lose a year of life with each sigh, you know?” A pleasant timbre tickled her ears; a hand was extended, entering her line of vision. “I certainly wouldn’t like that. I’d prefer to see you around for much longer.”

“…I didn’t know you could be such a tease.” Akko giggled, looking up into bright eyes that stared at her expectantly, a kind smile playing across Diana’s face.

“I can’t say I don’t share the sentiment. I didn’t know I could be one either.”

Rolling her eyes, Akko took the outstretched hand, a squeak of surprise escaping her as she was pulled up abruptly into comfortable arms.

“W-what are you doing?” Akko aggressively whispered, a shiver running down her spine as a hand made its way to the small of her back, the other taking her own hand. Reflexively, her free hand found purchase on Diana’s shoulder- had it always been this broad- and Akko felt herself led a step forward, onto the dancefloor.

“Why, I’m simply ensuring that all my classmates contribute to this event. Slacking off isn’t a very good thing to do, right now.” Diana responded with her no-nonsense face on, before it was replaced by an impish smirk. They took another step. And another.

Was the world going to end today? Were pigs about to fly? Would Finnelan suddenly become a sweet, kind teacher? All these impossible thoughts streaming through Akko’s head were prompted by the oddness of Diana’s behavior. The other girl certainly had been acting quite different as of late, at least around and towards her.

Before she could question such events further, she suddenly realized what the girl had implied. Eyes widening, but brows furrowing, her face must have been quite a spectacle. She could clearly see the taller witch holding back a laugh. “I’m not- I’m not slacking off!” That was all she could come up with as a reply in her flustered state.

Diana was clearly amused, if her toned-down chuckles were any indication. Akko braced herself for more teasing, wondering if it would end soon.

Contrary to what she was expecting, Diana became serious all of a sudden, smile much more sincere now.

“I know.” – was Diana’s only reply. They had stopped in the middle of the room, Diana adjusting her hold on Akko, allowing the girl time to get more comfortable in the starting position, and get used to their proximity.

“Wha-“

“Dance with me, Akko.”

And that was her only warning; the next thing she knew, Diana had taken the lead, and the ease at which she could follow those movements stunned her, in a good sense, she supposed. Diana never failed to amaze her in everything she did.

Still, regardless of Diana’s skill, it did not hide the fact that Akko was inexperienced and no amount of knowledge-less observation could help her. She soon found herself stumbling into ready arms, careful in catching her.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, Diana! I can’t do this after all-“ She was unable to complete that statement as she was back in the original posture, Diana taking the lead, slower this time.

“The waltz, like any other dance, has its basics." Diana began to explain. “Take a step backward with your right foot,” Akko did as she was told without question. Diana nodded as if to say, ‘good’. “Step to the left with your left foot, then bring your right next to it.”

Akko clumsily tried to match Diana’s smoother actions, experiencing some difficulty with executing it in synch with Diana’s poised steps. She wanted to be as graceful as she her partner, but that was proving to be a challenge.

“Do not dwell on how you are performing, at the moment, Miss Kagari.” Diana instructed softly, as if she could hear Akko’s thoughts. “Focus on what you should do first. Now. Left foot forward, and right forward, but to the right; then bring your left foot to your right.” Diana hummed her approval as Akko was able to do as taught.

Akko would make a few random noises and squacks, but Diana paid them no mind. Her full attention was on guiding Akko, watching her every movement and correcting her accordingly until the girl got used to the motions, able to grasp the concept better, movements less rough and choppy.

“One, two, three; one, two, three.” Diana began counting to the music that had been playing in the room, picking up the pace of their movements to correspond to the sound. Her eyes remained staring into Akko’s intensely, yet gentle all the same. A paradox, much like Diana in her entirety was.

Similar to Diana’s concentrated state, Akko could only focus on her; everything not Diana fading out into nothingness. Only Diana remained. Her sweet voice, the way her hair swished about, the body that fit perfectly against her own, the scent she wore today: a bit of a vanilla-like fragrance, and fresh apples; and Akko thought she looked simply dashing, even if she was only in their school-issued jersey and shorts. The clothes did nothing to deter how absolutely gorgeous Diana was in her eyes.

And on that note of being an absolute beauty, Diana’s face was the kind you’d never get tired of staring at for as long as you could.

Eyes you could drown in, refreshing, gentle, and kind; a beautiful shade of blue. Then there was her nose, perfectly sculpted. Diana had fair skin, with a healthy tinge of pink on her cheeks. And of course, there were Diana’s lips- lips that Akko might have been staring at longer than necessary.

Lips. Full and plump. Inviting. Beautiful. Pink. Soft, they looked so soft… Warm.

Diana.

Diana’s lips. So close. If she’d only lean down the tiniest bit forward, maybe they could-

“One, two, three. One, two three. One, two- Miss O’Neill! I could have sworn I told you not to do that part like that-!”

The loud sounds of instruction, berating, and the clacks and squeaks of shoes returned to Akko’s hearing, reminding her of where she was and what she was doing.

“Miss Kagari, Miss Cavendish! Aren’t you a bit too close?” Their teacher’s voice completed the shattering of their own little world, reality seizing them back. With wide eyes, the pair disentangled themselves from one another, standing at a more decent distance away now.

This game of enchantment and being brought back to reality was becoming a dangerous habit of both, it seemed. It felt like playing with fire, and they were at the brink of something they did not know was about to take place; whether the consequences of that event be good or bad. They were both losing control. Over what? Akko felt she’d know soon.

Quietly, she made her way back to her corner of the room, picking up her towel and water bottle, taking long sips to help calm her nerves.

The last thing she registered before losing herself in thought was that she could barely hear Diana’s apologizing to the teacher; it was the only thing she was aware of at that moment… and maybe along with the fact that it was starting to get a little hotter.

~0~0~0~0~

In a corner of Luna Nova’s grand library, away from the prying eyes of other students, the temptations of any distractions, and the general noise of the school halls, was their spot.

A location in the wide chamber’s expanse that served as the standard meeting place of two witches. The top student, and the top problem of teachers- or so some professors and students labelled her. Diana would strongly beg to differ.

Here, in this little area, they’d often meet. To many people, two teens seemingly meeting secretly in a hidden corner of a building sounded like a scandalous affair waiting to be discovered. However, that was not the case for Akko and Diana. Most definitely not. Undoubtedly.

…maybe.

After all, this place was a sanctuary for them that would aid them in their dreams of becoming the greatest witches in the world. It was their place of focus and meditation, growth and dedication, progress and improvement.

It was their study spot.

“Dianaaa~” Akko whined, shattering the silence of the library momentarily. “I really don’t get this problemmmm~” She groaned, flopping face-first into her math book. “There’s just no way!”

Diana sighed, shutting her reading material with a soft clap. “Akko, have you ever heard the phrase, ‘When there’s a will, there’s a way’?” Diana addressed calmly, transferring from her seat by the window to the one next to Akko, adjacent to her initial position, and looking over the girl’s work.

“What if I don’t have a will…” Akko grumbled, glaring at the letters on the notebook she was solving on. “What does the alphabet have to do with math anyway! And what are these symbols and squiggles and lines! This isn’t art class!”

Diana wanted to laugh, finding Akko’s little exasperated tirade adorable, but she knew the girl would just pout at her even more, and possibly get annoyed. The initial response, she’d welcome, but if it meant Akko would ignore her again, she’d rather not.

She decided to give Akko a tip instead, seeing as the girl was relatively close to getting to the answer. She realized something that made her smile proudly at Akko, gaze warming over. “Well, at least you’ve gotten this far in your solution. On your own, might I add.” She gave praise as an encouragement, pleased at Akko’s apparent progressive improvement. She had yet to tutor Akko on this latest topic in their class, but the girl seemed to have been listening attentively in class, managing to understand this much of the material.

“N-not really.” Akko had become bashful as Diana commended her efforts. Despite feeling shy, Akko felt elated that all her hard work paid off in some way or form. Just like how she was able to fly the other day. Fly freely, fly happily with Diana by her side.

Ah. Right. She was reminded of a certain happening right away, but she decided against thinking about it, pushing it to the back of her mind. It would be best if she didn’t dwell on those memories if she wanted to continue concentrating in this study session, actually getting work done instead of dreaming of Diana at almost every moment, awake or asleep.

Opting to shift the attention away from herself to hide the blush that was definitely about to show, Akko turned to Diana. “I wouldn’t get to this point if it weren’t for you, Diana.” Akko admitted with a sincerity that made Diana’s heart flutter.

“Th-that was because of the effort and perseverance you put in.” She countered, her own cheeks taking on a pink hue.

“Not at all. Even with all the work I put in before, I never got far. But ever since you and Ursula-sensei began teaching me, I-“

“Well, you and sensei have been working hard together; I really haven’t done much.” Diana reasoned, ever the humble soul.

“No, you’ve done so much Diana! You’ve really helped me learn a lot, you’ve taught me a lot!” Akko exclaimed, lifting off her seat a few centimeters closer to Diana.

“If we are on the topic of learning from someone else, then you’ve certainly given me more life lessons than I’ve ever given you!” Diana countered, also rising from her seat.

With every return of praise, and/or compliment, the pair failed to notice the distance between them shrinking, too into their war of gratitude.

If she were being honest, this situation stressed Akko out somewhat. Today had been quite comfy; peaceful, friendly and homely. She was hoping it would stay that way. It had been a while since she could simply relax around Diana without worrying about how she should act towards the white-haired witch. Any awkwardness between them these past few weeks, courtesy of their changing relationship, had been forgotten… until this point. It was like she had returned to stepping around the eggshells that were her doubts and fears about this relationship, and the unending internal queries of how she should approach and act around Diana now. She thought she had become quite excited at the prospect of a more intimate relationship with Diana, but equal to that excitement was the amount of fear she had tried to push away these days.

Akko felt her tension rising again, an imaginary string representing her calmness, being pulled taut. What had started as one of their rare calm moments that they almost never had between them nowadays- in the form of a study session- transformed into a heated exchange between the pair, stored tension unravelling from the bundles kept within them.

“You-“

“No, You!”

“Akko!”

“Diana! It’s thanks to you, being so wonderful and amazing, and talented!”

“But Akko you’re the amazing one! You’re inspiring; full of hope, dreams, strength!”

“You’re the strong one! Doing your best for the sake of your family, and for the school, it’s one of the things I like about you!” Akko had now raised her voice, eyes squeezing shut at the intensity with which she expressed her emotions.

“Well, your outlook on life and the way you face your fears and goals head on is what I like about you!” Diana threw back.

“Aren’t you describing yourself? That’s what I admire about you! That and your ability to believe in me, and the people around you!” Akko returned the fiery compliments each time.

“You’ve embodied the phrase, ‘A believing heart is your magic’, and I’ve always admired that about you!” Was complimenting someone always this stressful? Diana wondered.

“Well, if you admire me, then I look up to you!”

“I wholeheartedly appreciate you, then!”

“I respect you!”

“I adore you!”

“I enjoy being around you!”

“I savor every moment I have together with you.”

“I find you very attractive!”

“I love everything about you!” Diana was sure she had never been as loud as this before, especially not while expressing her feelings towards someone else.

“Oh yeah?” Akko challenged, eyes now holding a staring contest with Diana, both waiting on the other to give in, feeling as if they’d explode otherwise.

“Yes.”

“Really now?”

“Yes!”

“Really, really?”

Diana took a deep breath, pushing the next words out, backed with a large volume. “Indeed, I DEEPLY cherish you! I-”

“WELL, I LOVE YOU-!”

Ah.

Two pairs of eyes went wide, Akko stuttering and fumbling out sounds, unable to form anything coherent. Diana felt the need to turn her head away, breaking their connected gazes, trying to look anywhere, at anything that wasn’t Akko to help her calm down.

Had the brunette meant what she said? Was it true? The words Diana had been longing to hear… had they finally been expressed?

Sure, she had a feeling- scratch that, she knew Akko loved her. She tried to trust in the girl and the feelings she was stirring within Diana herself.

Still, it came as a shock.

Diana knew she had said it to Akko before, and that the said girl likely returned her feelings; but she also knew that something was keeping Akko from committing to those feelings. There was always something keeping her from saying it.

Fanning her face, Diana tried to breathe in and out slowly.

The atmosphere was becoming too hot for either of them too handle.

Her eyes that had been darting every which way suddenly made a mistake, her gaze returning to where it had first been, and now they were locked with crimson pools, still wide, so large, so close yet again. Too close, once more.

Diana had forgotten how to breathe, and Akko seemed to struggle likewise.

It was a silent staring contest. A stark contrast to the moments of yelling prior to this. Their eyes saw nothing but the other’s, their breaths mingled due to their proximity. The shared heat between them becoming increasingly unbearable with each passing second that they held fast to their post.

Then it happened. So quick, Diana could have missed it, but it was obvious. Akko’s gaze had flicked to her lips, and in the split second it took for her eyes to meet Diana’s again, the distance was obliterated.

It was soft, yet intense. Hot, but refreshing. Full of mistakes, and absolutely perfect at the same time. Scary but then… they were each other’s reassurance. It felt like forever, but only lasted so few seconds.

Pulling apart breathless, Diana managed to comb a quivering hand into brown tresses, keeping Akko close as she bumped their foreheads together, shutting her eyes to allow her senses relief. In that single moment, Akko had managed to arrest all of her. Everything she felt, smelt, saw, tasted, heard… even thought. They were all Akko. Akko. Akko.

Her scent, the beat of her heart and clammy palms now resting on Diana’s lap; her shaky breaths, the taste of strawberry chapstick, and the red eyes that had tempted her so.

It was all Akko, Akko, Akko.

Akko and her smile. Akko and her whole being.

Akko and her lips.

“Again.”

It was not a request.

Diana would probably have to apologize for her greediness later, but right now, she had lost every chance of regaining her control any time soon.

As they separated after the second kiss, Diana felt the little wind she even had left in her get knocked out her lungs as Akko’s dazed expression did Diana no favors of keeping her sanity.

And as if to tip her over the edge,

“I love you… Diana.”

…

“I’m sorry, Akko.”

“H-huh? What do you…” Before Akko could even feel confusion or hurt, a loving hand cupped her face, body pulled ever closer by the opposite arm now clinging to her waist. And then came a command she was compelled to comply to, nodding at each repeat.

A single word.

“Again.”

Even if it was looped a thousand times, she wouldn’t say no.

“Again.”

“Yes.”

“Again.”

“Until you’re satisfied, Diana.”

“-!!”

Akko pouted as Diana had created some space between them, breaths heavy and eyes wide.

“Don’t act all taken aback now!” Akko sighed fondly, giggling at the destroyed tension, nuzzling Diana’s cheek sweetly before contrasting that action by fixing the girl with a heated stare, looping her arms over her shoulders, pulling the taller girl down to her level. She had been enjoying Diana’s initiative, but it seems she now needed a jumpstart.

She smirked at the audible gulp, offering a proposal to study something else other than math against swollen lips.

 “Okay, Diana? …Now do it again.”

 They’d finally overheated.

 A/N: Anddd… done! Finally! I could cry!

I baked a frick ton of cookies yesterday and today. 100 fairly large ones hahaha for the holidays. That also took some of my updating time.u I hope I don’t take this long for the next chapter. Huhuhu. It is stressful to think that it takes so long for me to dish something out. Feedback if you would be so kind? Thank you for reading and Merry Christmas!

~Shintori Khazumi

[helly-watermelonsmellinfellon]

UPDATE!

9/20/2020

Okay, so I’m definitely glad to live in a house that has Doors, Closets, Walls in the Bathroom(s), a Kitchen, and no stairs. These are the biggest pluses I can think of at present beyond us having few neighbors and it being dead quiet at night(thank God).

Unfortunately, being uprooted so quickly means we’ve had no internet connection this entire time and whatever I got was from bumming off of Walmart the few times we went! My life requires internet connection for me to do fucking anything! I’m useless any other way.

I’m pissed because on September 6th I purchased a 1 Month Subscription for the PSN so I could extend my experience another month(to October 8th). I had to do surveys to get the money to even buy the thing. It was necessary if I want to be able to play Dead by Daylight(or any game requiring an online connection tbh). We didn’t get internet until October 6th. The move has rendered 2/3 of that month useless, meaning I basically wasted $10 and because I’ve had no internet connection, I haven’t been able to do more surveys to get more points to trade in for gift cards.

I do not like wasting money. I’m poor. It’s like everything I’m against.

So I’ve just been stressed from that since I don’t know when I’m gonna be able to play DbD again(or much of anything).

Add on the fact that we have so much shit but no idea where to put any of it, and I wanna pull my hair out.

Like, we needed to move things twice with the same moving truck, and then the rest was split between 2 cars several times because the truck was only rented for 2 days. We cleaned out the dining room of all the stuff dumped there on the first night, and then the second night the second load came in and we’ve barely made it through it all. [Edit: 10/6/2020 - It’s mostly cleaned out y now.]

A lot of it was my sister’s so she’s just got stacks of shit in her room with nowhere to put all of it. So there is an empty space in the dining room now, but we can’t put anything else away right now.

Why?

-There is central air, and it isn’t working. It’s been in the 90s/100s ever since we got here. I’m using 3 fans in my room alone. My room is the coolest and goes down to like the 70s at night. It’s fucking sad as hell. Anyway, dude had to come out and fix the air. It needs a part(and the landlord said if we bought it, he’d remove the price of it from the rent each month apparently). So we buy it and it gets put in. Air’s still not working for some reason? Don’t know much more about it tbh. [Edit: 10/3/2020 – We just got back our ACs and just put them in the windows. Central Air ain’t doing shit still.]

-There’s no hot water. The thing that heats it needs a part and the landlord gives the same rent option. So now there’s hot water and lower rent.

-The kitchen sink needed a final part. We got the part, put it in. The pipe broke. So we need to get a new pipe for it(with the same option about rent from the landlord). [Edit: 10/3/2020 – The sink is shit still. It clogs too quickly no matter what we do and to get a full day’s use out of it we need to pour acid down the drain each night. Wtf?]

So in order to put everything away, we need to be able to put all the crockery away first. That’s an ass load of things that are ours and then a lot that were my Nana’s. We’ve been slowly and steadily doing the dishes in the bathtub of my mom’s bathroom because we can’t use the fucking sink because of the pipe and the fact that the drain gets clogged really fast. [Edit: 10/4/2020 - We’ve finally got things working out. Most stuff is put away now.]

There’s so much stuff we have.

And no internet. I’ve been dying.

I don’t know if Taylor Swift did anything in this time.

I don’t know if I lost any followers because I vanished. [Edit: 10/6/2020 - I actually gained followers somehow.]

I don’t know what any of my fav YouTube reactors are doing.

I didn’t have any music to listen to.

I didn’t have access to Dead by Daylight.

I’ve been suffering in hot boredom! T_T

Good News:

My room is finished, so that’s nice. I didn’t have as many things as I thought. And this room is so much bigger than the other. Like, my bed is pushed up against a far corner across from the door. Lengthwise, along the back wall, it’s about 10 ft., widthwise, along the side walls, it’s about 15 ft. on one side and 18ft. on the other side where the door is.

My sister’s is the exact same size and shape but mirrored. She likes hers too.

Here’s how our rooms are shaped, just mirrored against each other.

I am glad to be away from all the shit from before, I just wish things could go smoothly for us for just once. Being poor just comes with bad luck unfortunately.

And there is still drama on all sides. The rent is not cheap. I don’t even have to pay it and I’m stressing over it. As such, I kept all boxes that held my shit, and just put them in the closet. Everything will be easy enough to pack up since I didn’t unpack a lot of things too. I don’t trust anything and am an eternal realist. And realistically, for poor people, things always get worse and never get better(or manage stay better long enough to count).

Mom and I knew that step-bro and his wife would manipulate their way into living with us somehow. That’s how these things go. He jumps in over his head, fucks up, and the moment he’s held responsible, he picks up and moves on to the next house in the cycle so he can avoid his problems. And he’ll repeat it over and over again. He’s been doing this since he was 10.

Which means them and their baby. And since he’s like an adult-sized baby, I’m none too pleased, and mom isn’t either.

And I don’t even have internet to lessen my suffering.

Edit: 10/6/2020 - We have internet! This post was something I was working on the whole time I was gone, as you can tell by the edits added.

[finsterhund]

A comprehensive guide to Heart of Darkness lost media. Fake, and real

a forward: there appears to be some sort of conflict between Eric Chahi and Frederic Savoir. Things Eric speaks about, Fred denies. However Eric generally has proof to support his side of things but Fred never provides such.

I will edit this as I go along. I intend to source things as best I can. I will not post it to a better website until it is adequately sourced.

I’m not currently planning to include press material, promotional renders, alternate releases of the final game, etc. here (yet!! that may change)

The Movie

What we know is true:

Dreamworks was interested in adapting Heart of Darkness as a feature-length computer animated movie. Predominant parties at play were Jeffery Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg. They invited several of the devs including Eric to the Dreamworks studio in LA, showed them Prince of Egypt storyboards, and toured them around. The movie was never made and development was never started.

According to Eric, the head of Virgin Interactive, Martin Alper repeatedly went to Paris to bother and harass him to abandon all work on the game and give the movie rights to Katzenberg. Eric didn’t want to throw away all that work and wanted to release the game first. Alper abandoned the team and project soon after, dooming the game to years of development hell as they needed to find a new publisher. Fred claimed that “half of the article (in which Eric discussed this) was incorrect” but never went into detail as to how or why

Rumors:

Even though George Lucas was interested in HoD’s display at several expos, he did not involve himself in any film ideas. It is believed he may have stolen ideas of alien monster designs for use in the Phantom Menace but this can easily just be coincidence and is unfounded.

The movie was not going to be live action despite some fan speculation.

The Pilot Animation/character test

What we know:

In Eric Chahi’s biography he mentions that a small animation studio did contract work of some animation concepts for Heart of Darkness. They were ultimately replaced with what Amazing would go with. This may or may not be associated with the same concepts as when they briefly thought to make the cinematics with 2D bitmaps but it is unclear. Eric states that this pilot was made however and in a demo reel from the studio they mention working with Virgin and Amazing Studio.

Rumors:

Fred said it wasn’t a thing but didn’t clarify.

This might have been the opening cutscene in 2D, or it may have just been character models and test animation. It is currently lost entirely with no actual stills of the thing itself.

Blood

What we know:

Someone untrustworthy but people latch onto this sort of shit said the original version of the game has blood in it. We know from tradeshow footage, digging through the final game’s code, an early build of the game, etc. that if anything the original versions were LESS violent. There is no evidence there was ever blood. Anymore than there’s evidence of the poison berries (which we will get to later)

The Gameboy Advance port

What we know:

Heart of Darkness was going to be ported to the Gameboy advance. According to Frederic Savoir the project was quickly canned due to cartridge costs that Nintendo didn’t want to pay for.

Rumors:

Someone claiming to work on this port said that Infogrames founder Bruno Bonnel wanted the game to have an Adidas promotion and change Andy’s shoes. Fred says this isn’t true, and there’s no evidence that this was ever an actual thing.

The Jaguar Version

What we know:

Heart of Darkness was briefly considered to be published on the Atari Jaguar. There are internal letters discussing how good of an asset it would be for the console. That’s as far as it ever apparently went.

The fake developer copypasta:

A copypasta of obviously fake ideas that were potentially given from Amazing to this apparent Jaguar dev has been passed around since 2014. This included poison berries that would make Andy explode, fan-theory sorta ideas about how other children perished in the darkland, a magic mirror, and what is very clearly just the maggots from spiritual successor “Limbo”. This individual provided no proof and his story was far from convincing. And no evidence that someone other than the Amazing team themselves having access to official development code from the game has ever been brought forward.

The Saturn Version

What we know:

Before the game ultimately came out for Playstation, it was going to be a timed exclusive for the Sega Saturn with Sega purchasing an exclusivity from Virgin Interactive. This fell through due to Virgin intentionally (according to Eric) throwing a monkey wrench in things and the Saturn was not viable when they were finally able to publish the game after getting picked up by Infogrames.

There is an incomplete playable demo of the first level and first two story cinematics in English and Japanese from the 1996 Toy Tokyo Show. In it there are slight programming differences such as a screen sliding transition animation, the inability for spectres to eat Andy, features cut from the final game involving the shadow dogs that are still mostly present in the final game’s code, and some slight graphical differences.

Frederic said the Saturn was easy for him to program on, and he finished things quickly so it was likely fully playable but no complete copy has been found.

Rumors:

It is unknown if there is a full build of this version of the game for Saturn. The Toy Tokyo Show build is the only publicly known one.

Based on footage from other events it appears to be from after changes were made to spectre sound effects and some behaviors. So this may have been a build from after the game was altered to be “easier” as mentioned by Eric Chahi at the time.

The Phillips CDI Version

What we know:

Heart of Darkness was offhanded mentioned a handful of times in a few CDI magazines in 1996. But there is no actual evidence the game was actually in development for the console and it was never confirmed in more trustworthy publications. CDI has less evidence than the planning letters of the Jaguar version. A supposed slipcover of a Heart of Darkness CDI CD was supposedly in existence but the guy claiming to have it couldn’t or wouldn’t prove this, with the only evidence appearing as convincing as a fake mock-up photoshop job and CDI websites discussing the final version of the game in full despite providing no evidence development for the console existed in the first place.

The most likely explanation is some idiot at Virgin said “CDI” when discussing this at-the-time secretive project because it would have had to be on a CD-based console and there weren’t that many of them yet at the time and this slip up briefly spread.

The iMac Version

What we know:

There was discussion of a Mac OS version of the game being developed, but nothing about the final product has surfaced online.

There was a page titled “imac” on the official website but the image files weren’t archived.

Heart of Dakness: The Return of Shados

What we know:

A scam artist on indiegogo pretended to be affiliated with Amazing Studio by using stolen assets and copying the kickstarter campaign of a different indie game in an effort to scam HoD fans out of money.

Both Eric Chahi and Frederic Savoir collectively agreed that this was a big fat scam.

It got taken down in under 24 hours of its discovery after I personally called the guy out on being a scamming piece of fucking shit and tattled to Fred.

As it was a scam with its only “evidence” being stolen text and doctored fan art and concept art from the original game, it’s very obvious nothing about this mess actually existed.

Delicious meal.

Merchandise (various)

What we know:

There are photos of merchandise, there have been real items show up, and there have been rumors or discussion of potential merchandise. Real confirmed ones include:

The Vicious and Amigo action figures. Given away for contests, at trade shows, sold on the infogrames store, and potentially included as part of a special box set of the French version

The Japanese big box version came with a mousepad. It is different than the round mousepad that also exists. We do not know where the round mousepad originated from. Potentially tradeshows or contests like the other items here.

Playstation controller and memory card. A memory card was sold separate in the UK, and in France a controller and memory card set were sold. Only photo of the set is in Eric’s collection. Memory card has shown up several times online. I own a complete sealed one.

The hat. Given away at press events, potentially worn by team members, and a version was also available on the infogrames store. Only physically existing version documented has the VIRGIN logo on it however so there’s definitely variations

Skateboard and t-shirt. Discussed in contests. Photos in magazines. Have never shown up so far. skateboard may have been available on infogrames store.

Photos exist of a backpack and fanny pack. Eric has these, the only known ones to exist, in his collection. Fred said they were officially released but they have yet to show up.

Rumored Merch:

A blanket. Briefly mentioned as if it genuinely existed on a French forum

Probably more tbh but my memory is shit. As I am writing this it is 2AM

[thatgirlonstage]

Gah I don’t have time tonight to sit down and write a proper meta about it but, I really really love how BNHA’s villains are evolving in a very real way along with the hero kids. Normally, in a series like this, the Big Bad sort of character is relatively static — think Father from FMAB or Ozai from ATLA*. Early encounters with them are usually explicitly used to demonstrate how far overpowered and outmaneuvered the heroes are at that point in time; if they win, it’s by luck or intervention from a mentor/third party, or they escape or the Big Bad willingly lets them go. Alternative twists on this involve the hero encountering the villain in a weakened state (Voldemort in the first few HP books) or otherwise lacking power they will later get their hands on. But even if the villain gets a physical/magical/whatever power-up later on, their OTHER aspects — their ideals, how well they work with others, their leadership capabilities, etc — usually remain static. It’s the hero who gets all the lessons in the power of friendship and evolving as a person.**

But BNHA... doesn’t do that. Shigaraki is actively evolving. He RECOGNIZES that he’s making mistakes and THEN HE TRIES TO LEARN FROM THEM. Yes, beating him early on still required the intervention of a mentor figure, but except for the Noumu Class 1-A was arguably not that far behind him in terms of skill. Shigaraki has had to get BETTER at what he does to continue to take them on, not just in terms of a quirk power-up, but in his ability to work with the League of Villains and lead them. He’s had to solidify his idea of what it is he’s even DOING and WHY and what he WANTS.

This all brought on by the fact that it’s REALLY INTERESTING to compare and contrast what Overhaul is saying to Shigaraki in the new anime episodes vs what’s happening in the manga right now. He’s CHANGED as a result of his encounter with the Eight Precepts and Overhaul. He reevaluates, he GROWS as a character. Not in the sense that he becomes a better person, but simply that he is more than what he was before. Which is, really, what makes him a really compelling villain — we don’t know exactly what he’s going to do next, not just on a “we don’t know his plans” level but on a much more fundamental, “we don’t know how his GOALS are going to CHANGE.” And that’s much more dangerous.

*there’s SOME chance that OFA eventually returns as the ultimate Big Bad, which renders this null and void, but tbh I find that sort of unlikely at this point. He must still have some role to play or he should have been killed off in his fight vs All Might, but all my money on what The Big Final Climax Fight will be is on Shigaraki vs Izuku

**villains who have active “fall” arcs are different, but they’re also not usually THE final big bad in a traditional heroes vs villains story — Anakin Skywalker is not static, but Palpatine is

[otomebois-bb]

AU Prompt - Day 14 of Gavin Month

Title: My soulmate? Who's that?

Pairing: Gavin & MC

(Tagging: @that-wasnt-so-bad @ceres-zephyr @mlqcdokidoki )

Notes: First, I think today's prompt was supposed to be a Tomb Raider AU, but uh, I don't really know that (don't @ me pls) so I changed it to a Soulmate AU! Secondly, I was getting really sick and tired of slacking off (both for various reasons and no reasons at all), so I've decided if I have to skip days 11-13, that's fine, but I'm NOT skipping this one since I had a good idea for it that I was super excited about. Also, tbh, I really want to turn this into a mini series/short story since I'm so proud of it and would love to write more backstory for it and what happens after the end of this... but that'll have to wait until after Gavin Month is over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stared out the window sadly, with a hint of bitterness as I sighed. I glanced down at my wrist and pushed my sleeve back far enough to be able to see the timer that blinked tauntingly at me on the soft skin of it.

[[MORE]]

It read 2 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 22 seconds... no, 21... it kept counting down.

It was my soulmate timer.

Basically, everyone was born with a soulmate. A timer on a person's wrist indicated how long they had left before they would finally meet their soulmate. Once they did, the timer would forever read zero, and their soulmate's signature would be tattooed below it. Some found theirs when they were really young. A few found theirs when they were really old. Most typically found them when they were in their teenage years, somewhere between the beginning of high school and graduation.

However, in two days I was turning twenty two, and I still hadn't met my soulmate. I was beginning to think my timer was lying to me. I really didn't believe I was ever going to find my soulmate, and that was why I'd given up looking and just started dating. I was currently going steady with a boyfriend of one year. He, too, had given up on ever finding his soulmate.

Did I want to find my soulmate? Of course. I wished for nothing more so strongly... but I didn't really believe it would ever happen, and that's why I'd given up the moment after graduating from high school. To make matters worse, it was around the same time that my dad had died and passed his company onto me, which was hard. I had basically resulted to thinking I'd be forever alone; no father, no soulmate...

I frowned. I didn't like thinking of such depressing thoughts.

I turned my attention back to the meeting I was in, back onto Anna, who was speaking. In two days our company would be filming a short documentary on what police officers did on and off the field, and Anna wanted me to go ask for at least one officer's consent to be on the show. I gulped, swallowing my nerves. While I knew I wasn't a criminal, speaking to policemen was honestly quite intimidating to me and always had been. Even though I never did anything bad, I was always afraid an officer would somehow find a reason to give me a ticket for something or worse, lock me in jail.

Despite that, I sighed and accepted the task.

Two days until my birthday.

Two days until I met my supposed "soulmate", according to my timer.

Yippie...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later, I stood in front of the police station, my boyfriend, Chase, by my side. I was now twenty two, and, as I'd checked before getting out of the car (discreetly, so Chase wouldn't notice), my timer now read 12 minutes and counting.

To say I was nervous would be an understatement — I was a bundle of anxiety.

"Knock em dead, babe," Chase encouraged me, pecking my lips quickly. As he walked, backwards, towards his car, he hollered at me, "I'm taking you out for some birthday dinner, so don't make any plans tonight!"

I nodded, smiling and waving as he got into his car and drove away. As I watched the car disappear from my eyesight, something in my stomach felt weird.

This was wrong, all wrong, and I knew it... but I didn't want to believe it. I wasn't going to meet my soulmate anyway, so I might as well settle down with Chase. He was handsome and financially stable, kind and romantic. He would be able to give me a good life with beautiful children, if we wanted it.

But would it really be a happy life?

The question wouldn't escape my thoughts.

I sighed and rolled my shoulders, trying to relax my nerves as I hyped myself up to enter the police station.

Finally, I managed to gather the courage I needed to walk up the few steps and push the door open. Immediately, a group of three officers, two young females and an older man, noticed me. The man, who seemed to be in charge at the moment, called out, "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh..." My nerves had suddenly resurfaced, rendering me unable to form a proper sentence off the bat. Shaking my head, I blurted, "I'm here to film!"

The moment the words exited my mouth, I knew I'd made a mistake. The officers were instantly on guard, and surrounded me. "Film? State your name," the brown haired officer demanded, and her badge read Officer Jackson.

"Wait, sorry, what I meant was—"

"You'd best get out of here if you don't want any trouble," the man warned me. "We don't let anyone film us without permission."

"That's what I'm trying to say! I—"

"Hey! What's going on here?!"

Another officer entered my sight, his voice loud and strong. His hair was a light caramel, his eyes a golden honey. He was tall, and confident; he seemed like a dependable officer — no, a dependable person. I started to explain, "Well, I was told earlier this week that I could — OUCH!" The moment his eyes zeroed in on mine, a sharp pain flared through my wrist, and I yelped, immediately clutching it, trying to ease away the pain with my thumb, though oddly enough the pain had subsided just as quickly as it had appeared.

I didn't understand why I'd felt that, but apparently this new officer did, his face visibly growing pale. He stepped towards me, holding his hand out, and said, "Let me see your wrist." The others seemed to feel threatened. I guessed that what he said had sounded like a demand to them, but to me it seemed more of a gentle request.

I did as I was told, hoping it would get me out of this situation, and the man took hold of my arm and slowly, so painfully slow it was suspenseful, rolled my sleeve up enough to reveal my wrist. My mouth dropped into a gasp, my eyes widening.

My timer read zero. Underneath it, the name "Gavin" began to etch itself onto my skin in cursive.

No way, I thought, glancing back up at the man who held my wrist. He stared at the finished timer and the name with a blank expression. "You're... Gavin?"

My voice shook him from his trance, and he fixed that emotionless gaze on me, staring into my eyes. For a moment I was afraid he'd yell at me for assuming, and kick me out of the police station, and I'd have to walk back to my office where Anna would never let me hear the end of it for not filming... but to my surprise, his eyes softened, and a small smile stretched across his lips. "Did no one tell you how soulmates work?"

I shook my head, and admitted sheepishly, "Not really..."

He sighed, but his smile stayed. He let go of my arm and pulled up his sleeve, showing me his timer, which was also at zero... and, as I kept staring, my name drew itself under the timer in the same elegant cursive. "It felt like an electric shock, right?" Gavin asked, to which I nodded. "That's what they say it feels like when you lock eyes with your soulmate and your timer stops counting down."

I merely stared at him, dumbfounded. "You mean... you... it's you?"

Gavin laughed — a melodic sound that was too contagious to not laugh with him. "That's what I've been trying to tell you, silly." He lowered his sleeve and waved his hand, shooing away the other officers, who grunted before leaving. "What are you here for, anyway?"

"Oh!" I exclaimed, being reminded of my task. "I work at a producing company. I was told we were given permission to film what officers do on and off the field as long as we got at least one officer's consent. Since I'm the head of the company, they decided I should go represent us and see who was willing."

"Well, you got what you needed. Let's go; we'll start with off the field." Gavin winked at me, ruffling my hair before he grabbed my hand and led me out of the police station.

I didn't expect I'd ever find my soulmate, since I thought my timer had somehow gone haywire. And yet, here he was, leading me towards a shiny, sleek motorcycle, and even though I technically had a boyfriend, I couldn't have been happier to finally find the person I was really meant to spend my life with all along.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

END.

[completeoveranalysis]

TRC Translation Notes Volume 13 (Chapters 91 - 99 + Omake)

The wondrous third installment of the new Translation Notes from @giniroangou, now looking at Volume 13. I can’t believe how far we’ve come, this still feels so recent. 

Highlights include: that’s so love, secret drugs, justice for Syaoran’s detective skills, improved Kuroparents, and cuddle pile!

Chapter 91

p.11-12 - Just for fun, the word that’s been translated as “love birds” is “raburabu”/“love love,” which is frequently used to indicate that two people are lovey dovey together, so to speak. Mokona continues to use the word “rabu”/“love” throughout her proceeding comments. First she says, “It’s love! It’s love!,” then she turns the word “love” into an adjective (so, “But it was so romantic” becomes literally, “But it was so love”), and finally, “Isn’t love nice?”

p.15 - Since a commenter asked, this world’s name rendered directly from the katakana is “Rekoruto.” I think the fan translation of Lecourt works the best as a country name, but I’ve always liked how the original name is reminiscent of the word “record” given all the libraries, so I can understand the use of Recort as an alternate translation. As far as I know there are no right answers here - I don’t think CLAMP has officially clarified? - but in fandom you’re probably most likely to see people using Lecourt.

P.22 - The translation has switched from “Daddy” to “Father” but the original Japanese is the same as it’s always been. As I mentioned earlier, this was “Otou-san,” for which “Father” would be a more accurate translation.

When Fai says that they’re “not permitted” to sell the swords, he’s really just saying they shouldn’t sell them. I’m pretty sure if they actually wanted to they could.

Chapter 92

p.31 - As a bit of trivia, Kurogane calls his mother “Hahaue,” which is a more formal and old-fashioned word for “Mother” than the commonly-heard “Okaa-san.” It’s something you’d be unlikely to hear from anyone today, but fits right in with the apparent time period of Kurogane’s Nihon. (Likewise, a little later he calls his father “Chichiue,” the equivalent word for “Father.”)

p.33 - In the translated version Kurogane’s father calls him a “brat,” but the term he uses is “wanpaku bouzu,” different from both words Kurogane has used for Syaoran (“gaki” and “kozou.”) While I think “brat” works well for the exchange between Kurogane and his father, normally I’d interpret this phrase a bit more warmly - it’s like he’s calling him a little rascal. Not that brat can’t be said fondly, of course.

P.34 - Following up from the previous note, Kurogane’s “I’m not a brat!” can be interpreted along the lines of “I’m not a kid!”

Kurogane’s father is referred to as the “ryoushu” (領主) indicating that he is a feudal lord, but the extent of his holdings isn’t necessarily as large as a daimyo (though it very well could be!) From the tiny bit of research I’ve done, ryoushu seems to be a fairly ambiguous term, so we have some leeway in interpreting his position. If anyone is well-versed in historical Japanese terminology and/or has more information on this, feel free to step forward!

p.35 - The translation of “kusa” as “grass” here is unintentionally hilarious - that is a legit translation of the word, but in this context “herb” would be more appropriate. (Either way they’re suddenly sounding like pot farmers though, HELP.)

p.38 - It seems like you may have misinterpreted the speech bubbles from your tags, but the parent who Kurogane is said to resemble is his father rather than his mother, much as I love the image of baby Kuromama climbing trees (though who’s to say she didn’t!)

Chapter 93

p.51 - Kurogane’s “I want to protect Suwa and everyone in it,” is spoken first as, “I [want to protect] Suwa,” then clarified to, “I want to protect everyone.” You could interpret this the way the official translation did, or you could say that to Kurogane, Suwa is equivalent to the people there.

More significantly, Kurogane’s vow of protection is, “I want to protect Mother and Father, who protect everyone else.”

p.59 - Now that Kurogane’s grown up a bit, he calls his father “Oyaji.” This means “Father” as well, but it’s used primarily by men - it’s rougher and more casual than “Chichiue” or “Otousan.” In English translations it’s often rendered as the colloquialism “my/the old man.” We see later that he still uses “Chichiue” when speaking to his father directly, though.

Chapter 94

p.67 - There’s nothing here I would consider a mistranslation, but I’d like to clarify some nuances in the dialogue. Kurogane’s “I’d rather have you feeling better!” is, “It’s fine as long as you get better.” When his mother responds by calling him a good child, the word she uses is “yasashii,” meaning gentle/sweet/caring. I really love this word choice in juxtaposition with Kurogane’s actions - he’s yelling, but his mother clearly recognizes that it’s coming from a place of care and concern.

p.68-70 - This is getting into nitpicky territory and I’m too lazy to write out the specifics, but please take my word for it that in the original text it feels clearer that Syaoran is actually in the process of figuring things out and heading towards a conclusion rather than just summarizing information he’s already said, lol.

p.79 - Since “You people...” sounds kind of alienating in English, I’ll clarify that Kurogane’s saying, “Everyone…”/“All of you…”

Chapter 95

p.87 - I don’t think it’s clear in the translation, but Kuromama tells Kuropapa that he mustn’t take Ginryuu with him without calling for her first (to bless the sword, as we learn shortly after.)

p.88 - The tone of this exchange is different as well - it’s not about demands being made but about the actions each of them choose to take. Kuropapa says, “You’ve always been like this. You keep pushing yourself too hard,” and Kuromama replies, “I could say the same of you.”

p.90 - A little elaboration on Ginryuu as the “Dragon of Water” - the original text refers to Ginryuu as one who rules over/controls the water.

Chapter 96

p.107-108 - I’m not certain that Kuromama’s final words are a request for Kurogane to protect Suwa. It’s difficult to tell because she’s speaking in sentence fragments, but she’s using the same structure for both “Suwa” and “You” (“Suwa wo...” “Anata wo...” vs “Anata ni/ga…”), and there is no pronoun associated with the following “Must protect…” This leads me to believe that she’s still struggling under her own obligations here, feeling that she must protect both Suwa and her son even as she dies.

p.120 - A clarification so Amaterasu doesn’t sound totally irresponsible here: She says she led her army in assuming that monsters would invade Suwa, the implication being that she came as soon as she could after hearing about Tomoyo’s dream.

Chapter 97

p.133 - Amaterasu isn’t trying to reason with Kurogane, as it appears in the translation. She’s speaking to the people with her (or the readers, however you want to see it), saying that he’s lost himself and that it can’t be helped, but she has to stop him. My interpretation would be that she’s ready to put him out of his misery here, tbh, hence the look of pain on her face. It’s brutal, but she believes it’s the only thing to be done at this point. Tomoyo literally saved Kurogane’s life here.

Chapter 98

p.142-143 - Since this became a topic of discussion, the “U” noises Kurogane makes here are indeed a sort of animalistic groaning noise (at least that’s how I would interpret them.) The Japanese “u” sounds like a shortened English “oo,” so just imagine he’s alternating between short and long versions of that sound and you should have an idea of what it’s supposed to be.

p.150 - I’m pretty sure this came up near the start of the manga, but as a reminder this castle is called “Shirasagi,” not “Shirasaki.”

p.153 - When Kurogane says his name here it’s “...Kurogane” rather than “Kurogane…” There are far too many weird punctuation-based tonal shifts in this translation, let me tell you.

p.156 - SPEAKING OF WHICH… Mokona’s line should end in an exclamation mark (“Syaoran is crying!”) and the ellipsis comes at the front of Fai’s line (“...He won’t let go.”) I don’t always point these out or even notice them but they’re deeply frustrating. As subtle as the changes may be, they still affect the way these lines come across.

Chapter 99

p.165 - It’s actually quite likely that Syaoran led with “I think I saw your past” - the language Kurogane uses in the original text implies that he’s confirming something that was already speculated/assumed. I don’t think it lessens the moment at all, though.

Omake

p.177 - What’s been translated as Yuuko telling Mokona to find a good place to stay was originally, “You need to make sure you get enough sleep.”

p.179 - Mokona’s actually saying here that everyone’s going to sleep together! Canon cuddle pile! :D

[celestialholz]

Qcard 28? If that ok? 🖖🏻

OH MY GOD I WAS HOPING FOR THIS ONE. Thanks anon! :D Sorry this has taken me a hot minute, I’m generally quite crap at life…

Welcome to your dose of Sunday evening feels. Call it dinner, because one needs a balanced, nutritional meal of angsty love at least once a day, and I am LIVING for soft Qcard tbh. #DoctorHolly (tl;dr? The word of the day is ‘bittersweet’, my friend). Y’all can blame these Expansion feelings I’m giving myself…

(Fun fact: This is something of a spiritual prequel to last week’s prompt on snowballs [http://celestialwarzone.tumblr.com/post/179725251226/qcard-and-11-it-seems-to-fit i.e. this thing], though you definitely don’t need to read that first - it’s simply the same ring we discussed there).

28. “Marry me?”

Prompt list here: http://celestialwarzone.tumblr.com/post/179662102941/send-me-a-pairing-and-a-number-and-ill-write-you

“Would you marry me, if I asked?”

“Would you marry me, if I asked?”

Across his quarters, Picard glanced up from his PADD with exasperation.Of all the ridiculous things the god had ever asked him…

“Congratulations,” he drawled. “Amongst a veritable myriad ofways to distract me that you’ve employed over the years, you’ve finally discoveredthe most absurd.”

Q leaned over the sofa, his lips curled into a frown.

“I’m being serious, Jean-Luc.”

The Captain emitted a disbelieving titter as he consulted the dutyroster he’d been working on once again.

“Now I know you’re not. When are you ever serious about anything?”

“I am perfectly serious about us, as well you know, Picard.” Q’stone was snipped, eyes hard, and his lover gave a soft sigh as his PADDvanished with a brilliant, petulant flash. Well, if the only way he couldcontinue working was by indulging him… twelve years beside him, and the entitywas still frustratingly insecure.

Then again, he certainly wasn’t offering him his full attention.He hitched upright, heading for his replicator.

“Tea, Earl Gray, hot.” It materialised with a whir. He took aconsidered sip, smiling, feeling Q’s eyes heatedly upon him. “So, where wouldwe do this? Would we perhaps hire out Ten Forward?”

He noticed Q’s vague surprise in his peripheral vision as he perused ashelf of exotic trinkets from their travels.

“I… hadn’t considered it,” he muttered, “but I’d thank you to thinkthat I have more class than your pit of drunken starship iniquity.”

Picard smirked at the carvings of an ancient vase, shaking his head.

“I’ll be sure to inform Guinan of your glowing report.”

“I’d rather you didn’t.” Q grimaced, features turning pensive. “KatiganVIII, perhaps. Ten-foot high waves of crystal upon a cornflower shore, usbeneath them in wedding finery, or whatever passes for it in Starfleet. Oramongst the ruins of Lanigo, seeing as you apparently have a distinct fondnessfor them.”

The dry observation didn’t pass up Picard, who pointedly moved to an artefactof different origin – an archaic toy, which slotted together in multipledifferent ways. He rotated it curiously, giving it his full concentration.

“You are aware, presumably, that Will would be the onboard officiant inmy absence?”

“Yet another reason we’re not doing it here,” Q growled. “I wouldrather perish than recite vows in that man’s general direction.”

The lack of conditional tense didn’t escape the observant Captain’snotice, who manipulated the puzzle with vague amusement – was he assuming hisagreement?

Two can play theteasing game, mon dieu.

“I imagine the buffet would be a culinary delight…”

“Oh, exquisite. The most delectable of canapés, caviar, Tinibriansnufflegorts, foie gras… anything French, naturally, as well as your family’sbest vintage on ice. Candles absolutely everywhere, in shades of deepestvermillion and most regal sapphire, permanently aflame. It’ll be incrediblyromantic, Jean-Luc,” he cooed.

Picard directed a curious look at a (hopefully replicated – Q hadassured him) section of the Bayeux Tapestry that had hung upon his lounge wallfor a little under two years, gaze drilling into the primitively renderedswordplay – so he had thought about this, then.

“Of course, the crew would all be invited.” His voice remained admirablylevel, verging on sarcastic – this was a spectacle, surely, nothing more thanan elaborate attempt at distracting him –

“No,” Q replied instantly. “This isn’t for them.”

A resounding clack echoed as Picard’s fingers slammed a pieceinto place with far more force than he’d intended.

He’s not – he isn’teven joking. Dear gods above…

“Oh,” Q murmured sadly. “You actually thought I was just tryingto distract you.”

Why wouldI not think –Picard strangled down his own astonishment, digits lightly shaking against theflaking wood, his tone beaten into submission to remain neutral after a fewsharp swallows.

“What would you say, Q?”

The deity paused for a moment, knowing full well that he wasn’treferring to his own shock.

“Oh, something doubtlessly trite and exuberant,” he remarked softly. “Perhapsthat I have lived for millions of years, and that I never understood theconcept of a soulmate, or maybe that I would rip apart the known universe toprotect you, and trust me, I know it inside out. It’d be along those lines,certainly.”

Tears sparkled in slate-grey eyes, Picard finally deigning to turn tohis beloved.

“Do you have any idea how terrifying that is?”

“Significantly less so than the thought of being without you, I assume.”Q was staring earnestly at him, his expression matter-of-fact.

The human took a slightly ragged breath, heart beating wildly.

“Why do you want to do this, Q?”

Q murmured a bitter half-chuckle, getting up to prise the puzzlequietly from his hands.

“Because you don’t get to stay with me forever,” he whispered. “I canbring you back, of course, but that would be dependent, and I…”

He swallowed silently, collecting himself, cursing the very idea ofthis obtuse mortal and the weakness he had spawned at his very essence.

“It would be something of a comfort to know that somehow, in spirit,you’re always going to be by my side.”

He clicked softly; the conundrum split into pieces, the fragmentsincomplete without one another, but the ultimate prize at their heart. Picard’sgaze locked to it breathlessly, enraptured; it was unmarked platinum, jetblack, sparkling with what seemed like impossibly condensed stars.

“A permanently collapsing supernova.” Q’s voice was somewhat hoarse. “Capableof invisibility when you’re in anyone else’s company – I entirely understand ifyou don’t want this made into public knowledge – and I can make it into anecklace or something, if you’d rather –”

“Q.” Picard choked his name.

“Yes, dear?” His eyes were steel with intensity.

“Ask me the damned question.”

The god nodded nervously, fingers raising; Picard caught themimmediately, gaze burning.

“No,” he requested quietly. “No pomp, no ceremony, no relocation – not evena candle, mon dieu. I’m not here to respond to my magician,simply to the one I love.”

A distant, thankfully uninhabited spiral galaxy burst into an infernoat Q’s anticipation, at the absolute delight that was this human – he was wellwithin his rights to expect the universe’s most exuberant proposal from a manwho could easily deliver it, but he was more than content to simply accept thebasic question, already knowing his exact reward. He was truly exceptional.

“Right.” He cleared his throat, trembling silently. “Do I just –”

Perhaps that galaxy was far closer than he’d assumed, because by theContinuum, was it just him or had it retroactively climbed several thousanddegrees in the previous few seconds?

“However you wish, Q,” Picard reassured gently.

A muttered relief left him – thank the stars for that. It wasall getting vastly too… sweet.

As you command,mon capitan…

A firm hand spun the Frenchman, who gaped upwards and through theexoglass of his quarters as fireworks burst into existence, spelling out asimple question: MARRY ME?

“Surely you didn’t expect me to be so basic, Jean-Luc?” Hebreathed to his ear. “Not very me, is it?”

Picard burst out laughing, utter, fond exasperation permeating to hiscore.

“You entire fool,” he whispered. “I must be insane, but yes.”

Q beamed, arms wrapping tightly around him from behind.

“Guilty as charged,” he murmured. “Thank you, dear. Now,if you’ll excuse me, at least spiritually – I was rather delighted, you see,and I’m fairly certain half the quadrant saw that. Somewhat ruins the conceptof subtlety.”

Picard shook his head with a grin, willing for once to forgive him hisindiscretion, silently basking in the majesty of the universe as he pressed awarm kiss to his beloved’s clasped hands.

Perhaps he’d entirely lost the plot, but by his god, he’d willingly acceptit for this wondrous brand of madness.

[queensweasley]

Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald - Review

Okay so yeah, post got some likes so I’m doing it.

I am one of the lucky people who was able to see Crimes of Grindelwald already. It’s been released today here in France but since my cinema had a premiere yesterday night, I have been able to see it one day prior.

First of all, if you want PSA, you can find them here : [link]

So, let’s start with :

NON-SPOILER PART

Overall, I didn’t dislike the movie. I didn’t really like it either. I feel like there is too much information, too much plots at the same time, and in the end you don’t really care about any of them. The movie is a complete train wreck, tbh. Too many things happening and it’s all crashing together into some kinda alphabet soup where you can see the letters but can’t really form words.

The first scene is one of the best in my opinion, and yet also one of the worst. Nothing makes sense in it. You totally get what is going on, but you don’t understand how it could happen. It clearly summarize the movie, I’d say. It shows an action, done following a plan, but some element are just coming out of nowhere. This scene doesn’t look right at the beginning of Crimes of Grindelwald. It should have been the ending of Where to Find Them.

At that is, in my opinion, one of the movie’s biggest problem. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a good movie, but a bad introduction to a 5-movies-long saga. Most of the element that seem forced in COG could and SHOULD have been introduced in WTFT. Mostly characters, tbh. I’m mostly thinking Leta. Okay, technically she has been introduced back then, but I think we should have had more than just a photograph and a mention of being New’s ex. Tbh, I don’t even understand why she’s Newt’s ex but that might got too spoiler-y so we’ll talk about that later.

Other characters, in the contrary, are largely underused. They are clearly there to serve later in the movie saga, but in that case they have too much screen time and importance. I’m not only talking about then being too present in the movie, I’m talking about them being too present in the press tour, ads and everything. Part of the marketing of the movie has been done around them, all that for them not being a huge part of the movie. And I’m not talking Dumbledore here, well, not only Dumbledore at least.

Characters treatment, meanwhile, is one of the most inconsistent things. While some like Newt, Jacob, Grindelwald or to some extent Tina are faithful to what we saw in the first movie, others like Queenie, Credence or to so extent Tina seem kind of OOC. (Yes Tina is in both cases). I’m not saying how they are different, but while it didn’t displease me too much for Credence, it sure makes me want to start #justiceforqueenie. This leads to the relationships going from really great for most of them to a complete trainwreck in others and, in one case, abusive.

While I’m clearly saying mostly negative things, the movie isn’t all bad. As I’ve said, some characters are great, most jokes are great too and while some complain about the visual effects I wasn’t too choked by them. The music is discreet but immersive and that’s all I ask of a soundtrack tbh. It’s just mostly been through the WB effect. To quote Deadpool : “So dark and broody, are you sure you’re not part of the DCEU ?” It is a good story, just not rendered in a good way. You know, one of those story you like almost all elements but not how they’re treated and you just want to rewrite them yourself to fix it. That’s at least how I feel about it, I’m ready to kick J.K. out and write in her place.

Now this might be a bit confused but I don’t want to say too much. So if you don’t care about them, we can now enter into :

HEAVY SPOILER PART

They are, quite obviously, to be found under the cut. 

I have a lot to say about it so I’m going to organize them into categories. I might forget some things but hey, I’m no professional. So, let’s start.

Scamanders and Lestrange - I find the trio to have a really good alchemy. The brothers are not depicted as the old-as-time “the successful asshole vs the weirdo angel” trope. Theseus, although successful indeed, never use it to compare himself with Newt. I don’t even think he compared himself with Newt. He’s successful, wants to help his brother the best he can and fuck, he’s a hugger and it’s refreshing to see brothers hug. (I’m saying that as someone whose sister has never hugged her, so I might be totally partial here). The relationship Newt has with Leta is also pretty good. You can sense that there’s history and it’s clearly not a case of the girl now being a bitch. Problem is, I have no idea why they split up in the first place. They seem to still go along, they seem to still care, if not feel love, for the other… And in the contrary, I don’t see why Theseus and Leta are engaged. Outside of “we need to bring Leta into the story”. They seem to go along pretty well, and clearly they care about one another but I don’t sense love. And it’s got nothing to do with the actor’s chemistry. They do have chemistry during interviews and all. No, it’s clearly lazy plotting. I think things would have been better if Leta had been engaged to Newt from movie 1 and a friend (maybe colleague) of Theseus.

The Lestrange lineage - Now you will not make me say one single good thing about that crap. The movie has indeed some good things but this is not one. First of all, it’s a mess. We don’t care about it for most of the movie and the moment we start caring, we learn that it’s not even really related to our story. Also, it’s quite the horrible story and it’s not treated in a good way at all. It’s also highly problematic, like a white man casting imperius to rape a black woman clearly sends some messages, but it’s not even used. There is no moral to this story. Lestrange is not depicted as bad because he raped the woman, he’s seen as bad because he never loved anyone besides Corvus, made Leta hate herself because she’s born of a rape and inspired revenge in the family of the woman he raped. And not only is there no moral to it, but it’s just a plot device. It’s just here to grow some artificial suspense as to the origin of Credence and only to reveal that it’s not even the real origin of Credence. And you know how it could have been avoided ? By saying that Youssouf is not the half-brother but the cousin of Leta. Leta is the daughter of arranged marriage, as is the custom with pureblood, and her father remarried to have Corvus. Now you can present him as being an asshole for not loving his wives and daughter. And Youssouf is not here for revenge but because he thinks he’s found his cousin’s brother and want to reunite them.  Here. How to create your fake suspense without adding rape and racism.

Nagini the maledictus - She could have been removed from the movie. Really, she’s useless so far and I’m hoping she’ll have more use later. She’s got too much screen time and I’m sure she had to be connected to Credence somehow but then they should have been more warm to one another because so far all she’s done is stand silently behind him.

Queenie and the treatment of mental health - I love Queenie. She’s been my favorite for along time in the first movie, after a few rewatching got her replaced by her sister. She’s still a character I loved a lot and I was always defending her when a friend who doesn’t like her at all was talking bad about her. Now… Well… I get that she’s not mentally alright. And I suppose that someone like me who doesn’t have any mental health issue, I’m not the best judge of that. I actually find very interesting that she suffers from her legilimency, and the fact that it gives her panic attack, all alone in this city she doesn’t know, hearing thought she can’t even understand (French people think in French after all, at least most of us do) is a really interesting thing that deserves to be treated better.What I struggle with is how abusive they made her relationship with Jacob, and the conclusion that is given of her mental state. Queenie is a legiliment more powerful than most others, able to read thoughts without much efforts, and who never revealed her nature to any ministry member because she didn’t want to be used like a tool, an object. Yet she manipulate Jacob like a toy, taking his consent away as a mean to finally get engaged. She’ basically doing to him what the first movie established she didn’t want done to her. And when it’s revealed that she’s just struggling with her identity, her difference,there is only one conclusion. “You’re mad.” Or “You’re crazy” idk I saw the movie with french dub. At first it’s just a thought. Jacob has been manipulated by the woman he loves, he’s confused. And he regrets it immediately. But by the end of the movie, Queenie who’s been suffering, who seem to have found a solution, hears it again and this time it’s not a lost thought. It’s an affirmation. “You’re mad.” That’s all she’s gonna get from the people she counted on. Between a man who condamns her mental health and a man who offers to help, I can understand she choose the latter. But this still doesn’t make sense.If she’s such a powerful mindreader she should have known that Grindelwald is manipulating her. You know what I think ? I think Jacob should have turned.

The reference to WWII - One of the things I loved was that mention. Grindelwald show the future and it’s not a great one. Jacob, who has been in the first war, is shook to see that. It was strong. In France (and maybe elsewhere I don’t know), WWI has a nickname. “La der des der”. Basically, the last of the last (war). Seeing the violence of the war, the soldier who fought in it believed it to be the war who would put an end to all the wars. Never could another be worst, be more violent. History proved that it wasn’t the case. But at the time, they delieved it to the core. Jacob believes it to the core. And then, this man who has fought, this man who is of polish origin (if not a polish immigrant, i’m not sure if it’s been specified), sees the war, the violence, the people in line in a concentration camp. And tbh, I think this might have been a turning point for him. He’s seen what the human race has done worst, and then he sees that it’s not even the worst, and that the worst is to come. Many would just want to stop that, that’s what Grindelwald is proposing. While him not turning is a good thing, the contrary would have been interesting as fuck.

Paris yes, but not in France - Okay so this is totally coming from me being a French girl. I didn’t see Paris, I didn’t see France, in that movie. I saw it with French dubbing so idk if there was some french dialogue but if there was that’s the only clue we have that we’re in France. We could have been in another country, I wouldn’t have had a clue. I don’t see what the point was. Why settle the plot in Paris, exactly ? There was to use of France’s culture, history or anything. Nothing justified being in Paris. I mean sure the ministry was pretty. But yeah that’s all. You know, I think about it because I’ve just rambled about WWI and II but it would have been a nice thing.If Jacob was to be tempted by his PTSD, one thing that could have been nice to show are the “gueules cassées”. Gueules cassées literally means “broken faces”. It designates the soldiers that survived WWI but came back with huge disabilities and/or deformities. The movietakes place in 1927. Before 1930, disabled people struggled more than ever to find a job, most couldn’t find any at all. THIS is a huge part of French history and THIS goes in accordance with the message of Grindelwald that muggles are dangerous, destructives.

Grindelwald himself - He was… not that bad, actually. Maybe I was expecting too much bad things from him. Depp isn’t that terrible, I found that lately he’d been under-acting ? Don’t know if that makes sense. But he seemed to be at least invested. His plan wasn’t that great though, overly complicated for nothing and all. But overall, while not a great villain, not a bad one. I wish he was more manipulative, because right now it seems just saying “Hi” makes people join him like wtf. Also… “I hate Paris”. Yes dear, like every french people, get over it. :)

The Strange Case of Aurelius Dumbledore - Okay, two possibilities. One, Grindelwald is lying to Credence about his real identity, in order to give him a target. He’s just making him a weapon against Albus. Two, Grindelwald is telling the truth and Credence is actually a long lost Dumbledore brother. This would make no sense. Dumbledore is, at least 18 years older than Credence is. The younger Dumbledore is supposed to be Ariana, and she is only 5 years younger than Albus. (She was 14 when her mother died and Albus had just left Hogwarts so 17). It’s written black on white in the book that she was attacked when she was six years old. Their father was imprisoned the same year. Three years before Credence was born, his alleged father was imprisoned for life in Azkaban. Somehow, I doubt there are conjugal visits. This is totally messing the timeline up tbh. I really hope Grindelwald is actually lying.

So… I might have forgotten a few things. Don’t hesitate to message me if you want to discuss about these things or some I might have forgotten.

[annathetrickster]

part 4 of my thoughts on FE4, covering chapter 3. 

spoilers under the cut obviously.

so first a bit of backstory that will help explain whats going on up to this point; 

in chapter 2 we helped lachesis defend nordion, and rescued eldigan who was being held captive after his unsuccessful attempt at negotiating peace. unfortunately, in the process we also conquered most of augustria (think of it as the state, and nordion one of its many cities/castles). eldigan was obviously unhappy about this and told sigurd he’d have one year to sort out the mess and get them back on their feet and under their own rule.

TLDR: we had no choice but to take over a bunch of land, and now we’re trying to get them back to being self governed.

a lot of this game is politics so i can understand if its hard to follow for most of you.

so even though eldigan said we’d have one year to sort things out, and he opted to let chagall live (ugly guy who locked him up), chagall decided that he’d rather attack us even though we’re apparently almost done restoring the peace.

its about time deirdre opened up more. she’s usually so formal with him even though they’ve been married for a while now. i wonder if something happened between them.

OHHHHHHH SHIT 

they fucked.

no idea why, but i completey forgot about seliph and julia while playing this so this still surprised me quite a bit. still, its very interesting to see deirdre finally go from calling him ‘milord’ to ‘my love’ now that they’ve done the deed. 

its time.

its worth noting that changing class doesn’t reset your lvl, so you stay whatever lvl you are and just gain additional stats. pretty interesting way of handling class change.

right so onto the map. 

as far as difficulty goes, this one seems like the easiest one so far. my main concern is the desert area towards the north of the map since i don’t see any way to access that part of the map, but we’ll cross that currently non-existent bridge when we get there.

and just like that a wild ship appears.

im a total sucker for the whole “girl who’s normally tired of a guys shit ends up actually liking him” deal. its part of why i ship inigo and severa so much. 

take notes guys: flowers are old news. want to impress a girl? get her a 12 might weapon capable of attacking up to 4 times in one round of combat.

and now she feels bad for being so rude to him. lex seems like a genuinely nice guy tbh.

so it took me a few tries but i think we’re just about ready to seize the castle. this chapter so far has definitely been the easiest yet. you really just had to defend your base for a good few turns but once thats taken care of taking the castle is fairly simple.

again, chagall is the ugly guy who imprisoned eldigan and he’s only still alive because eldigan thought it’d be totally cool to let him live and we’d be able to work out a peaceful solution, even though he literally already tried that and it got him locked up.

he goes on to tell sigurd about how his father, lord byron, is a prime suspect in the murder of prince kurth (the prince of grannvale, which is basically the state sigurd’s castle/city, chalphy resides in), and how theres rumors that both he and his father worked together to murder the prince. this is obviously just more of sigurd being setup to fail by the higher ups since his father and prince kurth were very close.

also tailtu was there and she apparently wants in the holy man’s pants.

1 down, possibly 2 more to go.

shanan: deirdre no

deirdre: deirdre yes

so deirdre gets abducted by this cloaked figure who’s been manipulating everything behind the scenes. earlier in the game, i believe around chapter 1, he mentions something along the lines of wanting to ‘resurrect the dark lord’, and that in order to do that you need deirdre. the exact details of what he said are hard to remember atm but there’s definitely some heavy NTR implications with what he said earlier in the game, as well as him mentioning ‘cleansing’ the slate of her life for her ‘true husband’. 

im sure more will be revealed as i progress through the story. as for seliph, he’s still with shanan.

eldigans patience with this guy is incredible. remember he had the chance to kill him last chapter but eldigan opted to let him go, even though he locked him up.

hes about to ride against his best friend all for the sake of honor, loyalty to his country, and his own pride. he reminds me a lot of camus actually in that both are loyal to an extreme fault. if battling against his best friend is whats best for the future of augustria then he’s willing to lay his life on the line for that cause.

great idea, because that totally went well the last 10 times.

top 10 photos taken seconds before disaster

and there it is.

the source of all the headless horseman eldigan memes you’ve probably seen

eldigan fucking dies.

not only does he die, but the way he’s killed is extremely dark compared to other games in the series. its not enough chagall wants him dead, he wants him decapitated, and humiliated. even though all eldigan did was what he felt was best for the future of his country. pretty heavy stuff.

so how is eldigan as a character? basically camus is his closest comparison. both of them have extreme loyalty towards their country, and while eldigan might not have the added complexity of a love interest, i think the fact that he pays the ultimate price for his unyielding loyalty makes him every bit as good of a character as camus is.

rip in pepperoni eldigan. press F to pay respects.

another handsome sailor moon villan appears

also wyvern emblem is a thing

apparently they’re dracoknights, interesting to learn that this is the first you see of them, and not FE8 with the ability to class branch pegasus knights or wyvern riders into them.

of course dracoknight emblem is not match for finn emblem.

also, im not sure how advised this is, but out of all the characters ive gotten so far this is my main force. 

sigurd

finn

quan

ethlyn

lex

ayra

sylvia

lachesis

i tend to favor smaller armies in the main series games and prefer to have a handful of OP units vs a bunch of mediocre ones so we’ll see if i can continue that strategy going forward.

meanwhile all the other characters just kind of hang around the castle. mostly because im way too lazy to drag them along on these ungodly maps.

its time

E҉̳͎̟̖̼̙̞̀n҉̫̩̪͎̮͞t͏̖̯̫̻̫̖̳̱̦e̩̫̟̰̤̙ͅr͎͇̠̼̻̥͔͘͟ ̵͓͟͝t̶̨̢͇̟h̡͉̲̗̱̫̜͔e̜͕ͅ ̼͈̠̖͈̻̩V̥̙̩͔͜ͅÓ̵̠̪͖̗̱͖͍̟Ì̮̬̞̰D̪̯̮̖

gotta say, so far this is my favorite sprite by far. his class is great knight unlike finn and quan who are duke knights. the sprites in FE1-8 just have a certain charm that the newer games can’t match. even with fully rendered 3d models.

ok, several things to point out here;

how does he know eldigan died? we were literally halfway across the globe when he was killed, and we’re currently outside the castle, whereas eldigans body is presumably inside. unless of course he literally has his head on display or something extremely gruesome to that effect.

“youve murdered countless innocents, and eldigan” >implying eldigan isnt innocent?

this guy literally killed your best friend, possibly has his head on display, and the worst you can come up with is something you’d find on a negative yelp review?

i’d really like to see both him and marth just drop an F bomb once in a while.

#let sigurd say fuck

and finally this annoying fuck is dead.

oh boy, not only does he have to face his best friends lifeless body but now he’s about to learn his wife was abducted. i would really hate to be sigurd right about now.

not that shanan is in any easier of a position. imagine telling someone like sigurd you failed to do the one thing he told you to do. as kind and compassionate of a leader he is, he would still be an extremely imposing figure for shanan.

you had one job.

given the heavy NTR implcations, probably getting banged out by some other guy right about now to “resurrect the dark lord”.

after some pretty heavy storyline developments, the second castle is taken, one more to go.

so after all thats happened with eldigan, deirdre, and sigurd we’re kind of forced to care about this nameless character who is now the commander of a group of pirates after their boss died/was killed. she’s been telling them not to pillage and loot but they refuse to acknowledge her authority because she was just some girl their captain found rather than his actual daughter, and they’d rather do whatever they want (as pirates tend to do) than listen to her.

personally i find it hard to suddenly care about the well being of this character after eldigan literally gave his life for his country, and no one knows what happend to deirdre, but apparently the castle must be taken so here we go.

you’ve heard of horse emblem, now get ready for.. pirate emblem

“i know we’re pirates and we’re capable of traveling across water and all, but lets all invade this country through this one fucking bridge where we can only cross one at a time. single file everyone, mind your manners.”

then we have these guys to deal with who somehow ended up on the other side of the map before the bridge was placed.

this guy being a holy man is the only way he has the patience to deal with her tbh.

seriously why wait till now to give him such a powerful weapon, what is with this game and holding out weapons until you’re 80% done with the chapter.

so to put in perspective what you have to go through if you want to recruit tailtu, as i mentioned she starts at the upper left corner of the map and the hoard of pirates from earlier will chase bridget forcing her to retreat west. keep in mind: the only way to progress through the chaper is to seize the castle where we defeated chagall, meaning sigurd needs to be all the way down there. unless you’ve played this game before you have no real way of knowing whats going to happen next and therefore no way to prepare for the shit ton of pirates who will make their way west in an attempt to kill bridget. 

sure you could check the wiki and preemtptively place your units near the bridge, but even then unless you have cavalry movement you still have to chase after them pretty hard and keep bridget, tailtu, and claude out of danger. so again this would be another case where you’d have to reset the original game and try the whole chapter all over again if you want to recruit any of the 3.

thankfully we have the wiki and an ungodly amount of patience and i was able to save all 3 of them, even though ill probably never use either.

auntie ayra took care of all the pirates pretty easily so aside from running away from pirates with tailtu and bridget, this chapter was probably the easiest so far.

again, im not sure why we went out of our way to take this particular castle, and its not really helping sigurds case as a traitor. unless im missing something, the pirates had nothing to do with us as far as i know.

so after we take the pirate castle langobalt (pictured) shows up and apparently has orders to arrest sigurd who is being branded a traitor. another random guy (presumably his advisor) admits that it was langobalt himself who murdered prince kurth and is framing sigurd for the crime.

of course we knew sigurd was innocent already, but we didnt know who exactly killed the prince.

in a rare moment of weakness, sigurd actually loses his cool which is to be expected really. his best friend died, his wife kidnapped, and he’s about to be arrested. how would anyone not lose their cool at this point.

well that is going to do it for chapter 3. to recap, eldigan fucking dies, sigurd and deirdre have a child (seliph), deirdre gets kidnapped and possibly NTR’s sigurd unwillingy or otherwise, some pirate stuff happened, and sigurd is about to be arrested so he’ll be laying low in silesse for the time being.

overall the story sure took an interesting and very dark turn pretty quickly so im definitely looking forward to seeing what happens, especially with deirdre.

thanks for reading and thanks for your patience with me getting these posted.

[leinbow]

Would you say this arc has been weak overall for BNHA? Everything seems kinda pointless to set up such a great hero only for him to be "shot down". Also neglecting several characters that were just introduced this arc.

Hello!!

I’m personally enjoying the arc so far tbh. But I can understand if others don’t. Hori has shifted his storytelling in this arc so it may have turned off a lot of readers who were already used to his usual style. Maybe he’s experimenting? idk

What changed in Hori’s style you may ask?

Slower pace overall, in terms of action

That…omniscient narrator (hit or miss, reminds most people of the narrator in HxH)

Going back and forth in the timeline is so fucky (it honestly confuses the hell outta me)

I think this is the longest arc we have so far

Anyway, as for the story itself, this arc is so long a lot of things happened it’s overwhelming. It may also be a reason why it’s harder to digest the stuff that’s happening. I had hoped there would be a break between meeting Overhaul and going after him (like, the story could shift back to school stuff for a few chapters before they pursue their plan to raid the Yakuza, for example) but Hori knows no breaks. lul

Introducing the Big 3 serves as a metric or a glimpse in what Deku can achieve in 2 years. I think it is important to make that distinction because in the end, this story is about Deku. Everything we’ve been reading relates to how Midoriya Izuku becomes the greatest Hero. Since we’ve been shown the highest power ceiling Izuku can feasibly achieve (All Might), it’s time to show a realistic expectation for Izuku’s power level in a few years (Mirio, a 3rd year student) as a sense of progression.

Now, the fact that Mirio is also presented as the original candidate for OFA, not only he’s the goal or target for Izuku’s potential power level up, he also becomes an “obstacle” that Izuku needs to overcome. Not in terms of power, because as we established, Izuku can’t realistically surpass Mirio right now, but in terms of self-confidence and desire to be Hero. Izuku needs to prove himself on how deserving he is to be chosen by All Might. Specifically to Nighteye.

Why Nighteye? Izuku had already told us (through narration) that his training under Nighteye will be a long and lengthy one. Suffice to say we’ll be seeing a lot of Nighteye from here on out. As we all also know, Nighteye still doesn’t acknowledge Izuku even at this point. He still believes Mirio is the rightful heir to the OFA.

Enter Mirio — and oh man, he’s now sufficiently “shot down” as you put it. This is why a lot of people are torn with this turn of the story, because these are 2 possible outcomes that people fear will happen (through knowledge of typical shounen tropes lol):

Mirio loses his Quirk permanently. Izuku feels guilt and gives up OFA to Mirio. Mirio will reject it. Essentially making Izuku “overcome” the “obstacle” easily since Mirio is now “weaker”. OR,

Mirio loses his Quirk permanently. Izuku doesn’t feel guilt. It doesn’t matter anyway, since Mirio is still weaker, therefore rendering the “obstacle” useless.

Essentially people hate that Izuku “won the challenge easily”. Nighteye is left to say, “Now that Mirio is Quirkless, I’m forced to acknowledge Izuku since there’s no other options literally”.

But here’s the thing — I don’t think that’s gonna happen. In fact, I think it would be opposite. Nighteye will pressure Izuku more to giving OFA to Mirio since he still believes Mirio to be better. Essentially, they’re now starting on the same level — being Quirkless — unless Izuku can prove himself to be better at being Hero than Mirio.

In any case, it all boils down to:

Nighteye is a man who knows All Might and his future, and as such, has high standards on who he views as deserving of OFA

Considering Nighteye’s high standard, he only has one he deems worthy, which is Mirio

The readers (us) needs to know why Nighteye views Mirio as the only one worthy. And with the last few chapters I believe all of us now understand right? 

Izuku, the main character, still needs to prove himself to Nighteye, who is his mentor now that All Might can’t do it anymore

Mirio lost his Quirk as a part of Izuku’s growth as a character. It was a necessary sacrifice (according to Horikoshi’s story)

I have no fucking idea how Horikoshi’s gonna pull off “Izuku proving himself to Nighteye” without a significant part of the fanbase getting mad, but we’ll see!! Just last week’s chapter there are people getting mad for “Izuku saving the day alone, whoopee-doo, he’s gonna save Mirio and Eri and take the credit, where the fuck are the Pro Heroes” and guess what, this week’s chapter revealed he was not alone and Aizawa and co. are actually with him 😂 Everybody loves to jump to conclusions.

As for neglecting characters, the only characters I think Hori failed to develop is Nejire and Ryukyu. Bubble Girl, Centipeder, etc. are all very minor characters so they’re not that important, along with the 8 Bullets like Rappa. Nejire and Ryukyu could be recurring characters though since they’re part of the good guys so there’s still hope for them. Fatgum too. But in the end, the most important characters are the people close to Izuku so it’s understandable why some don’t get too much focus.

(I don’t get Amajiki’s focus though, storytelling wise. Maybe his purpose is just to show us how awesome Mirio really is idk. Kirishima’s focus/backstory is also out there but oh well, it already happened.)

TL;DR — This arc is fine.

[ilikebigbooks-and-icannotlie]

I do not hate Mal!

Hey, so @savagekaz recently got me thinking about Malina hate, and I just kind of wanted to talk about it, I guess? Let me start off by saying that I am not anti-Mal, it’s more that I’m pro-Alina. And time and time again, Mal proved that he was not. Until she suddenly disappeared, and he had a wake-up call and realized that he did indeed need her in his life. Whether that was actual love or a sudden unhealthy need is still up for debate. Either way, I’d like to call your attention to the following (super long) quote from another book. Names have been taken out to avoid spoilers: “I don’t understand!” He breaks, finally losing his composure, his voice rising in pitch. “What could [he] … possibly do for you?” I’m so shocked, so unprepared to answer such a question that I’m rendered momentarily speechless. … So I take a deep breath and try to find the right words, the right way to explain that there are so many bigger, heavier issues to deal with, but when I look up I find [he] is still staring at me, waiting for an answer to a question I now realize he’s been trying hard to suppress. Something that must be eating away at him. … So I take a deep breath. “It’s not something I know how to explain,” I say. “He’s … I don’t know.” I stare into my hands. “He was my first friend. The first person to treat me with respect—to love me.” I’m quiet a moment. “He’s always been so kind to me.” [He] flinches. His eyes widen in shock. “He’s always been so kind to you?” “Yes,” I whisper. [He] laughs a harsh, hollow sort of laugh. “This is incredible,” he says, staring at the door, one hand caught in his hair. “I’ve been consumed by this question for the past three days, trying desperately to understand why you would give yourself to me so willingly, just to rip my heart out at the very last moment for some—some bland, utterly replaceable automaton. I kept thinking there had to be some great reason, something I’d overlooked, something I wasn’t able to fathom. And I was ready to accept it,” he says. “I’d forced myself to accept it because I figured your reasons were deep and beyond my grasp. I was willing to let you go if you’d found something extraordinary. Someone who could know you in ways I’d never be able to comprehend. Because you deserve that,” he says. “I told myself you deserved more than me, more than my miserable offerings.” He shakes his head. “But this?” he says, appalled. “These words? This explanation? You chose him because he’s kind to you? Because he’s offered you basic charity?” I’m suddenly angry. I’m suddenly mortified. I’m outraged by the permission [he]’s granted himself to judge my life— that he thought he’d been generous by stepping aside. I narrow my eyes, clench my fists. “It’s not charity,” I snap. “He cares about me—and I care about him!” [He] nods, unimpressed. “You should get a dog, love. I hear they share much the same qualities.” “You are unbelievable!” I shove myself upward, scrambling to my feet … “My relationship with [him] is none of your business!” “Your relationship?” [He] laughs, loud. He moves quickly to face me from the other side of the bed, leaving several feet between us. “What relationship? Does he even know anything about you? Does he understand you? Does he know your wants, your fears, the truth you conceal in your heart?” “Oh, and what? You do?” “You know damn well that I do!” he shouts, pointing an accusatory finger at me. “And I’m willing to bet my life that he has no idea what you’re really like. You tiptoe around his feelings, pretending to be a nice little girl for him, don’t you? You’re afraid of scaring him off. You’re afraid of telling him too much—” “You don’t know anything!” “Oh I know,” he says, rushing forward. “I understand perfectly. He’s fallen for your quiet, timid shell. For who you used to be. He has no idea what you’re capable of. What you might do if you’re pushed too far.” His hand slips behind my neck; he leans in until our lips are only inches apart. What is happening to my lungs. “You’re a coward,” he whispers. “You want to be with me and it terrifies you.”

That quote belongs to the beautiful and amazing Tahereh Mafi. And yes, it comes from a completely different book, but it speaks to Malina so much, in my opinion. Alina loves Mal because he was her first love. And that’s basically the gist of it. Despite the fact that he slept with so many other women and turned her away for years. You could say that she loves him because he loves her so much, but so do entire armies of people. You could say he was willing to die for her, but again, so we’re entire armies of people. You could say that he loves her before she was the Sun Summoner, but he didn’t. He didn’t fall in love with her until after the fact. And he resented her for it and learned to love her despite it. Meanwhile Nikolai loved her all along. Nikolai also loved and understood her after the fact. Because she pulled him out of the darkness. And she lost a part of herself that she loved, and Nikolai did too, both of them far more so than Mal, who didn’t even know he had the power until the very end. Alina wanted to love Nikolai. She just felt guilty about it. Because she spent her entire life trailing after Mal. Which I guess sort of takes us to my favorite quote from this book series, and my favorite quote from any book ever tbh: “Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay. I tilted my head back. The stars looked like they were close together, when really they were millions of miles apart. In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach.” I think Nikolai scared her. I think being a queen scared her. I think being understood scared her. But I think loneliness scared her most of all. So I think she picked Mal because he was all she’d ever known, and all she ever really needed to know, and he was easy. And I think Alina didn’t want complicated. I think she just wanted to hide. From herself, from her fears, from her memories. I think she just wanted to forget. And all Nikolai could ever be was a reminder.

[ralphspina-blog1]

get to know me meme thing

LAST

1) Drink: chai tea... or wait, water after that, but the chai was good enough that it should still be mentioned

2) Phone Call: i last called my parents, the walk in clinic were the last to call me

3) Text Message: “did it turn out alright?” to a friend who accidentally said “i love you” to her bf well before she planed to, lmfao <3

4) Song Listened To: starboy by the weeknd, i still go on tears where i listen to it for hours on repeat

5) Time I Cried: yesterday, i’m pretty sure... i still mostly cry every day, and have been for a concerning amount of time, but eh

HAVE YOU EVER

6) Dated Somebody Twice: more than twice, tbh, i don’t even know how many times we ultimately broke up and got back together

7) Been Cheated On: same person as above, but even more times than we broke up because i was weak

8) Been Kissed By Someone And Regretted It: oh yes indeed, i have not wanted all of the kisses i’ve gotten

9) Lost Someone Special: i’ve lost some incredibly special people in my life. the two i miss most are my cousin (once removed) who passed away when i was about nine, and a former girlfriend (definitely the most serious and meaningful relationship i ever had) who passed away this past november

10) Been Depressed: yeah, i first started seeing professionals about it at 14 or so

11) Gotten Drunk And Puked: lmfao YES I HAVE, that was my life for about six months when i first went to college

THREE FAVORITE COLORS

12) brown

13) green

14) blue

IN THE LAST YEAR

15) Made New Friends: yeah! and i’m so happy :3

16) Fallen Out Of Love: i’m not good at doing that, sadly

17) Laughed Until You Cried: omg yes, i do that about once a week

18) Found Out Someone Was Gossiping About You: no, and i hope no one’s that pressed for gossip because i’m boring af

19) Met Someone Who Changed Your Life: i’m not really sure about that yet, it’s early in the year to know... unless we’re saying since last march, in which case yes, for sure

20) Found Out Who Your True Friends Are: i’ve lost touch with a few people but it wasn’t as harsh as that, more just shedding the social group that was only social because i don’t... go out... these days

21) Kissed Someone On Your Facebook List: in the last year - i don’t think so

HOW MANY/MUCH

22) Facebook Friends: 86

23) Pets: none :(

24) Want To Change Your Name: i did already! in my late 20s

WHAT

25) Did I Get For My Birthday: a couple of new pairs of glasses!

26) Time I Woke Up: oh my god, i think 3:30 am. it was a rough morning

27) Were You Doing At Midnight: trying to sleep...

28) Can’t You Wait For: my next distraction, it’s been a dull day

29) Was The Last Time You Saw Your Mom: she’s sitting beside me on the couch right now!

30) Was Something You Wish You Could Change About Your Life: how it’s played out already - i wish i had finished college the first time. how it is now - just find the energy to do literally anything at all

31) Are You Listening To Right Now: suit and tie by jt

32) Gets On Your Nerves: people who constantly have to be making noise in one way or another, like as a nervous tic, because it does the opposite for me

33) Talked To A Person Named Tom: ... i mean probably, at some point?

34) Is Your Most Visited Website: tumblr, plurk, dreamwidth, youtube

35) Elementary School: it’s been torn down, my dude, it has ceased to be

36) High School: merritt secondary school

37) College: TRU (twice), kwantlen

38) Hair Color: dark ash brown

39) Long/Short Hair: oh god, kind of grown out short?? i need a haircut so tragically

40) Crush: UGH GOD I’M SO ABOUT JPITTS NOW HELP ME

41) Do You Like About Yourself: i guess my ability to see things from perspectives other than my own, or at least consider them?

42) Piercings: ears twice, labret once, all grown over now

43) Blood Type: A-

44) Nickname: maddie is my nickname, really, very few people diminutize it more than that, it’s short for madeline

45) Relationship Status: single and not gonna mingle

46) Zodiac: not only sagittarius, but triple (sun, moon, rising) sagittarius

47) Pronouns: she/her

48) Favorite Show: the last show i saw that really knocked me flat on my ass was stranger things, but i’m always swinging between them too often to have a solid fave. i am deep in hbo war, tho

49) Tattoos: i have six! two on my back, one on my chest, two on my left arm, one on my right

50) Left/Right Handed: right

FIRST

51) Surgery: tonsils when i was 4 or so

52) Piercing: ears, age 12

53) Best Friend: oh jeez, i think his name was nicky...

54) Sport: tee ball

55) Vacation: birch bay, washington state

56) Pair Of Shoes: oh my goodness, i have noooo idea

RIGHT NOW

57) Eating: nothing

58) Drinking: water

59) I Am About To: uuuuuugh i have no idea, maybe nap

60) Listening To: now i’m on dive by ed sheeran, it’s my fav off the new album so far

61) Waiting For: tags, hopefully

62) Want To See: moonlight, so badly

63) Want To Get Married: groans loudly and slides off the couch like tina belcher

64) Career: keeps sliding and groaning

WHICH IS BETTER

65) Hugs/Kisses: hugs are more multipurpose, but kisses are rarer which makes them a kind of treasure

66) Lips/Eyes: that depends, tbh, on whether i’m admiring someone physically or getting to know them on a more mental/emotional level. but if i like someone’s lips, they’ll be incredibly distracting at all times

67) Taller/Shorter: these are all situational...

68) Younger/Older: for friends and other roles in my life, p much irrelevant as long as we get along! romantically, either is fine so long as it’s not such a wide difference that it creates an uncomfortable power dynamic, or just renders us unable to relate to one another

69) Romantic/Spontaneous: OH MY GOD NOT SPONTANEOUS, never ever ever, my anxiety does not take surprises well

70) Nice Arms/Nice Stomach: assuming a “nice stomach” is meant to be washboard abs or smth, definitely arms bc i like a soft, cozy stomach tbh

71) Sensitive/Loud: i’m not really sure what dichotomy this is supposed to present... i don’t think how loud someone is says anything about how sensitive they are

72) Hookup/Relationship: i’ve never been able to hook up, personally, because i don’t have the self-confidence to hop into bed with a stranger. that takes heavy amounts of trust and mutual respect for me. but if that’s how someone does it, i make zero assumptions about them based on that

73) Troublemaker/Hesitant: i think being a troublemaker or mischievous or whatever can be code for straight up not giving a shit about the feelings of others, or even going after them on purpose. if it’s good-natured, though, it’s all good, and i’m so crazy hesitant that i could use someone with that influence

HAVE YOU EVER

74) Kissed A Stranger: no

75) Drank Hard Liquor: yep

76) Lost Glasses/Contact Lenses: lost? no, but broken for sure

77) Turned Someone Down: yes i have

78) Canoodling On A First Date: lmfao HOW DO WE DEFINE CANOODLING HERE... maybe...

79) Broken Someone’s Heart: not on purpose, and not even thoughtlessly, but i’ve had to do things for myself that have hurt people very deeply

80) Had Your Own Heart Broken: oh yeah, absolutely

81) Been Arrested: no

82) Cried When Someone Died: yeah

83) Fallen For A Friend: almost exclusively when it comes to irl crushes

DO YOU BELIEVE IN

84) Yourself: oh my god, do i try

85) Miracles: in some senses

86) Santa Claus: well, he’s a mythological figure of sorts, it’s a different sort of belief

87) Kisses On A First Date: they do, in fact, exist!

88) Angels: i believe in presences remaining with a person after death, because i’ve felt them myself, but i don’t know what form i’d call them

89) Love At First Sight: love is an ongoing process, or as massive attack’s teardrop says - love is a verb, love is a doing word

OTHER

90) Best Friend’s Name: laura

91) Eye Color: hazel

92) Favorite Movie: hard core logo