#no I'm not gonna help you on your japanese fuck off

[bixy]

I never understand why men will talk to me about wanting a japanese gf, like perhaps there's a reason your clown ass is single

[sturnsdarling]

an unlikely friendship

{insp by @sturnioz au} fratboy!chris needs a girls help with a deal, and the only girl he knows he can trust, is fratboy!matts.

vibe check: suggestive between reader and matt at the start, drug dealing, doing drugs (coke and weed), drinking, bad vibes from the other frat boys, reader and chris being enemies to best friends damon and bonnie style

4.7k words (I yapped a bit on this oops)

A/N: this is kind of a follow up to the 'what the fuck is wrong with you' fic but also not really? idk bro its the duo we didn't know we needed. also the song I chose for this is one of the best songs to come out of the shit hole country I call home so give it a listen and i'm also fully aware that an american frat would never play this song but its my story so, kick rocks.

love and cigs, merc

You were hovering over Matt, kissing him through your whimpers as he matched your pace, fucking up into you as you bounced on his cock relentlessly.

Your daily dose of Matt was quickly interrupted by Chris, charging in the room with a spliff hanging from his lips.

"Yo, y/n, I need t'ask you somethin" Chris was completely un-phased by the sight of you on top of Matt, luckily covered by his duvet.

"Chris, what the fuck are you doin, dickhead" Matt said in a huff as you quickly clambered off him and onto to the bed, covering yourself in shock.

"kid, show me somthin' I ain't seen before and I'll start throwing racks over y'both" Chris raised his brows in his brothers direction before turning his attention to you, "y/n I need to talk to ya"

Matt rolled his eyes, pulling the duvet to bunch up over his still hard cock. You pulled the duvet up to cover yourself completely, looking at Chris in complete bafflement.

"can it wait? i'm kinda busy right now, Chris" you shifted where you sat, glancing down at the messy bed and back to Chris.

"nah, it can't" Chris replied, taking a long toke of his joint and dead panning

"you're fuckin' unbelievable" Matt huffed, draping his arm over your shoulder and pulling you into him slightly "what do you want, kid"

"I need to take you on a deal i'm doin' tonight" Chris said.

"what?" you and Matt asked in unison, brows furrowed as Chris' face remained unchanged.

"what? am I fuckin' speaking Japanese or somethin'?" Chris' face scrunched up in annoyance, "I need ya for a deal"

"why me?" you ask, just as baffled as Matt beside you

"cause you're a girl" Chris shrugged, still toking on his joint.

"Chris, there is no way in ever loving fuck you're taking my girl to a fuckin' drug deal" Matt shook his head, annoyance thick in his voice.

Your heart swelled at the pet name, "your girl?" you craned your neck over to look at him, eyes flitting between his.

"yeah, my girl" Matt nodded with a smirk, edging his lips closer to yours as he repeated his words.

You locked your lips over his, your hand instantly coming to his jaw, pulling him into you with a giggle, he returned the kiss, tracing small circles on your shoulder with his soft finger tips.

"okay, if you two are gonna do this shit infront'a me can you pass me that cup cause i'm gonna fuckin' throw up" Chris said, retching at the sight of you and Matt all loved up.

"you came into my room, kid" Matt broke your kiss, pointing his attentions back to Chris as you chuckled

"anyway, s'not happening, find someone else" Matt shrugged stubbornly.

Chris groaned, rolling his eyes, "why, dude, y'being fuckin' annoying"

"why do you need a girl for the deal, anyway?" you asked, curious.

Chris toked his joint, "cause" he blew out the cloud of smoke in his mouth, "the house I'm goin' to is full of little bitches that've never felt the touch of a woman in their lives, you'll be like... bait"

"absolutely fuckin' not" Matt butted in, his voice stern.

"how bad could it really be?" you looked to Matt, somewhat intrigued by Chris' proposition and Chris' ears perked up at your curiosity

"are you stupid?" Matt looked at you instantly, brows furrowed, "angel, I am not lettin' you go to a frat house full of kids that wanna roofie you and fuck you on the campus green, nah, absolutely not" Matts grip tightened around you.

"first of all, i'm not fuckin' stupid, i'm smarter than you so, watch your mouth" you said, tone stern as Chris let out a little 'oh shit' from the end of the bed, "and second of all, i'm fully capable of looking after myself"

"and s'not like I'd let anything happen to her, I'll have her back" Chris added, trying to sound as uncaring as possible as not to let onto the fact that he actually thought you were alright.

"see, Chris will have my back" you mimicked Chris' words, flitting your eyes in Chris' direction whilst facing Matt, your face riddled with a cheeky smile at Chris actually being nice for once.

Matt groaned, rubbing his temples with a stretched hand across his forehead, "I don't know" he sighed

Chris' shoulders dropped, he sighed and rolled his head backwards before taking a deep breath and looking to the both of you, "look, y/n's the only girl I trust t'do this with me, kay? so either she comes, or it don't happen and I really need this deal to work"

You were slightly taken aback by Chris' honesty, shooting him a small smile that was met with a quick eye roll. You looked back to Matt who was looking at his brother, clenched jaw as he bit the inside of his cheek in thought.

"nothing happens to her, kay?" Matt said, after some deliberation.

"nothin" Chris nodded, standing to attention.

"cause I will personally see to your death, kid, like I will actually break every. single. bone. in your body until you're limp and heavy like a wet sock" Matt added, pointing a finger at Chris as excitement swelled in your body.

"super graphic, dude" Chris winced, "but fine, nothin happens or I die, got it"

Seeing Chris back down to Matt was always an interesting sight, it was like watching wolves fight for dominance. You squealed in excitement over the whole ordeal.

"I'm so excited, why am I excited?" You said, cheesing

"because you're a little sadist" Matt laughed, pulling you into a tender and short kiss, "if anything happens, you call me straight away, okay? anything"

you rolled your eyes, peppering another short kiss on Matts lips, "yes, Matthew, I will call you" you couldn't help but smile at Matts protectiveness over you, it was nice to never have to worry, you knew he had you, always.

"good girl" Matt smirked, "now, Chris, get the fuck out" he turned his attention to his brother as you wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him down into you.

"be ready by eight, kid" Chris said, walking away but looking at you over his shoulder.

"will do" you chuckled, turning to pull Matt into a sloppy kiss, Chris groaned and walked out the room, slamming the door behind him.

Later that night,

You were getting ready in Matts room, putting on your best 'bait' outfit and applying a smooth layer of red lipstick. Matt watched in awe as you stretched your plump lips open, applying the red tint to the corners of your mouth. You caught him staring at you in the mirror and chuckled at his slack jaw appearance.

"maybe you shouldn't go" Matt said, coming up behind you and resting his chin on your shoulder.

"Matthew" you rolled your eyes, putting the lid on your lipstick and turning around, wrapping your arms over his shoulders, "everything will be fine, I'm a big girl, okay? I can look after myself"

Matts hands snaked around your waist, making you arch into him, "I know, angel, but-" he sighed, "you're my girl, I don't really like the idea of you bein' bait for a drug deal, fuckin' hate it actually"

You cheesed at the pet name, it was his favourite thing to call you today and you weren't complaining.

"I'll be fine, I promise" You said, inching your red lips close to his as his lips parted in anticipation, you chuckled at his subtle neediness for you, knowing you were the only one who got to see him like this. You pulled your face away with a smirk and Matt tutted, raising his hand to your jaw quickly and pulling your face towards his with brute force, capturing your lips in a messy kiss.

You whimpered on instinct, arching into him as his hand came down to knead at the flesh of your skirt covered ass before placing a firm smack on one of your cheeks. You squealed with a smile, pulling away from him. Matt gazed down at you, red lipstick smeared across his lips. You giggled, bringing your thumb to his lips to wipe the stain away and Matt caught your thumb between your teeth with a teasing bite and squeezed your ass once more.

Your moment was interrupted by Chris once again, bounding into the room with, surprise surprise, a joint hanging from his lips.

"you ready, kid?" Chris said.

You peered at him over Matts shoulder and Matt turned his head to look at him. You dropped your hands from Matts shoulders, stepping out from in front of him so Chris could see your outfit.

"how do I look?" you smiled, holding your arms out in display.

"like a slut" Chris toked his joint and you cocked your eyes to the side with a half smile.

"dude" Matt warned from next to you.

"what?" Chris shrugged, "it's perfect" He grinned.

You hummed a satisfied sound and patted your skirt down, admiring your, according to Chris, slutty outfit.

"lets go, it's eight" Chris said putting his joint out in the ashtray on the table by the door after one final, long toke.

"okay" you smiled, turning to Matt to kiss him goodbye. His hands found your face instantly as you slotted your lips around his, Chris groaning behind the two of you.

"see you later" You pulled away from the kiss, hands wrapped around Matts wrists.

"see you later, angel, stay pretty for me, kay?" he smiled, placing another short kiss on your lips.

"mhm" you nodded, turning to face Chris with an excited smile.

As you walked away, Matt placed an encouraging slap on your ass. You walked past Chris, sauntering down the stairs. Just before he could follow you, Chris' shoulder was in Matts grip.

"what, kid" he huffed, but was cut off by the sight of Matt glaring at him.

"if anythin' happens to her, I will fuckin' end you," he said, his tone threatening as he spoke through gritted teeth.

Chris rolled his eyes, "Kid -" he went to speak.

"I'm serious, Chris. She's very fuckin' important to me and if she gets even close to hurt 'cause of you, we will have big fuckin' problems" Matt added, glaring at Chris.

Matts tone made Chris shift in his skin, completely unafraid of his brother but knowing what he's capable of when he's upset.

"m'not gonna let anythin' happen to her, kid, I promise, she's safe with me" Chris said, keeping Matts eye contact to show his sincerity.

"good, I trust you" Matt said, dropping his hand from Chris' shoulder.

Chris prodded the side of his cheek with his tongue and raised his brows quickly, trying not to let on that Matt trusting him was more important to him than anything.

"see ya later, angel" Chris mocked Matt, walking out the room with a chuckle.

The walk to the house was a lot less awkward than you thought it would be.

"so, whats the deal with this whole 'i need this to go well' thing?" you asked, looking to Chris with a cigarette between your lips, "why's it so important?"

"it just is, kid, why you askin' questions like you give a fuck" Chris tutted, looking you up and down with judgement.

You chuckled at his defensiveness, raising your hands in jesting surrender as you let your cig hang from your lips, "alright" you raised your brows and widened your eyes.

Chris looked at you and rolled his eyes with a sigh, pulling the preroll our from its tucked position behind his ear, he put the joint in his mouth and lit it, cupping the end with one hand as he sparked the lighter with the other. He took a long toke before blowing the smoke into the air.

"this house is one of two houses I don't sell to on the entire campus" Chris said, his voice strained slightly as he blew out the smoke.

"right" you said, encouraging him to talk.

"and, as we speak, Nate is at the other, working his Boston charm on the little christian girls of kappa kappa new" Chris smiled at you, raising his brows as he took another joke of his joint.

"and I know that thats a done deal, so, if we get this house tonight, i'll officially be the dealer of the whole fuckin' college" Chris raised his arms, turning as he gestured to the dark, street lamp lit campus.

you chuckled at his gesture, raising your brows quickly, "you sure do have big aspirations, Chris"

Chris tutted, "don't judge me, wise ass, not everyone can be a genius like you or Matthew" Chris mocked your voice as he said his brothers name.

"hey, I'm not judging" You raised your hands again

"you definitely are, kid" Chris rolled his eyes, returning his attention back to the street as he toked his joint.

"nah, i'm not, I think what you do is actually pretty cool" You shrugged, being honest.

"really?" Chris looked to you again, his face screwed up in confusion.

"yeah, you gotta be clued up to be able to do what you do, it's kinda admirable, in a... weird way" you nodded at him, holding his eye contact.

He didn't say anything at first, only fought the smile trying to crawl onto his face. Chris chuckled, shaking his head "thanks, kid, but I don't really need your approval to do what I do"

You rolled your eyes, retreating back into silence at Chris' incessant standoffishness.

When you got to house, you adjusted your outfit as you stood in the front garden, the music booming from the house as Chris finished his joint.

"you look fine, kid, stop faffin" Chris tutted.

"I know I look fine, asshole, I don't need your approval" you copied his earlier words with a grimacing look.

Chris couldn't help but laugh, you were the only person that spoke to him like that and he wasn't sure why he didn't want to throw you in front of a car because of it.

"when we get in there, jus stay close to me, y'don't even need to speak" Chris said, throwing his joint on the floor.

"so what the fuck am I here for then?" You tutted.

Chris groaned, "you know how car dealerships always have a hot chick standing by the car?" he tilted his head at you.

"yeah?" you scrunched your face at him.

"car" he pointed to himself, "hot chick" and then to you

"right" you said, bluntly.

"trust me, I know these boys n' they'll do anythin' to even look at a girl, let alone be associated with one, even if it is through their dealer" Chris added, hearing him speak about dealing made you see how smart he really was, and you felt yourself begin to kind of respect him

"so, just be a hot girl and help you sell product by doing nothing but being a hot girl?" you summarised.

"exactly" Chris smirked, slightly admiring your willingness to help him with this.

"I can do that" you shrugged, throwing your cigarette on the floor and stamping it out under your boot.

"thats why ya here, kid" Chris turned and walked towards the house, you followed him, puffing your chest out slightly and painting your features with a sly confidence.

The whole house was vibrating with people, 'Traktor' by Wretch 32 blaring through the speakers as you and Chris walked through, everyone turning to look at you both as Chris' presence cleared a path.

The whole party seemed to shift as Chris walked in, everyone whispering about the two of you, you heard mutters as you walked behind Chris, picking up the ends of sentences like 'who is that with him?' and others like 'I swear thats his brothers girl'. You had never developed the crippling gene that made people care about what other people thought of them, so knowing that everyone was talking about you didn't bother you in the slightest, maybe thats why Chris asked you to do this with him.

Chris was dapping up people as he walked through, seeing some personal regulars. He introduced you to everyone as 'Matts girl', some you already knew from spending so much time at the boys' frat house, others you had only met in passing or not at all.

Once Chris had manoeuvred you both through to the kitchen, you were met with a sight you despised. An entire group of frat boys, all clad in chinos and polo shirts, playing beer pong, terribly, and chest bumping each other every time the tiny ball entered the red cup.

"this is my personal hell" You said to Chris, resting your arm on his shoulder as you lent your body weight on him.

"you and me both" Chris chuckled, "lets go, it's game time"

Chris walked over, his demeanour shifting slightly as he approached them. He shifted from just Chris to dealer Chris, carrying an ampt up air of 'don't fuck with me' and a broadness in his shoulders that was honestly fascinating to watch.

You followed suit, pushing your hair back from your chest to hang down your back, leaving your cleavage on full display as you adjusted your walk, swaying your hips with purpose and swallowing all the hilarious jokes at the group of boys' expense you were definitely going to tell Matt later.

"yo, Chris, how you livin' bro?" One of the boys noticed Chris as you walked towards them.

"sup, Cody, was' good?" Chris dapped him up, shooting a nod at the rest of the boys' frat brothers.

"who's this?" Cody asked, gesturing to you and looking you up and down, near enough licking his lips at the sight of you.

"This is y/n, she's Matts girl" Chris replied, "y/n, this is Cody, he's the president of the frat" Chris looked to you, shooting you a short look that you understood immediately.

"hi" you smiled at the boy, blinking at him like a cat, "where can I get a drink?" you asked, putting on your best sorority persona.

"I like this girl" Cody looked to Chris who raised his brows quickly in response, "drinks table is over there, sweetheart" He pointed over to the far end of the room, "yo, packer, get Chris' pretty friend here a drink" He turned to shout to one of his frat brothers.

Packer did as he was told immediately, and within seconds you had a drink in your hand.

"Thanks, Packer" you said, brushing the boys hand for a moment as you took the drink from him and took a sip, returning your attentions to the boy who was undressing you with his eyes.

It made your skin crawl, in all honesty you wanted to throw the drink in his face, knee him in the balls and spit on his convulsing body, but, you had a role to play.

"so, I'm here 'cause I heard that your dealer got put away, and you boys in dire need of a new supplier" Chris said, pulling Cody's attention away from you.

"thats right" Cody smirked, trying to be as confident as he could in Chris' presence.

"well, I got everything ya need, bro, what'cha want" Chris shrugged, selling a pen to a writer and being effortlessly charismatic.

Cody chuckled, nodding his head and pressing his tongue to his teeth, "I told you last semester Chris, I dunno if the boys wanna be associated with you like that"

Chris rolled his eyes, "Cody, bro, who's in charge here? the boys? or you?" Chris lightly poked the boys shoulder, asserting dominance over him without even trying.

Cody thought for a moment, looking back at the boys as they continued to be terrible at beer pong.

"that is true" He nodded, looking back to Chris, "but, we gotta try before we buy, you gotta party with us" Cody added.

Chris opened his mouth to speak and looked to you for a moment, you looked up at him, furrowing your brows slightly with a small cock of your head.

"I dunno about that, bro, this ain't really my crowd" Chris said, shaking his head.

Before Cody could try and convince him, your arm was rested on Chris' shoulder once more, getting his attention.

"oh, come on, Chris, the boys wanna party, let's show em how we party" you said, your voice thick with faux encouragement disguising the message you were praying Chris was picking up on.

Chris narrowed his eyes at you and you widened yours, with a tense jaw, he turned to Cody, "alright, lets party"

Cody smiled and wrapped his arm round Chris' shoulder, guiding him over to his frat brothers and you followed them, cheesing at Chris cheekily as he shot you a glaring look from over his shoulder.

"lets do some shots!" you shouted, raising an arm and skipping over to the drinks table to get shot glasses and a bottle of vodka.

The drinks started to flow, and at some point, Chris actually looked like he was enjoying himself.

You and Chris were killing it; you beat everyone at beer pong, declaring yourself the duo of all duo's; at one point you were on a table, pouring straight liquor into Chris' mouth from about three feet up, surrounded by hoards of frat boys all cheering you on; you were arm wresting with frat boys, Chris acting as your coach, rubbing your shoulders and patting your face town with a vodka soaked tea towel as if you were a world champion boxer. It was actually, a lot of fun.

You had ten shots lined up, moving down the line side by side to do five shots each. You both knocked them back with ease, shooting one after the other like it was water. When you got to the final shot, you let out a loud 'whoop', echoed by Chris, who groaned at the feeling of pure vodka slipping down his throat. You held your hands up, asking for a high five of Chris and, in his drunken state, he complied, hitting your hands with his with brute force. You laughed loudly, cheesing at him, giving him a look that he knew meant 'its working'.

Cody and his frat brothers were around you, cheering you on as they struggled to keep up. Cody couldn't keep his eyes off you and, despite the sick feeling it gave you in your stomach, it gave you an idea.

"give me a baggy" You leant up to whisper in Chris' ear.

"what? why?" Chris said, shaking his head slightly.

"Just, trust me" you pulled away from his shoulder, nodding at him and holding your hand up.

Chris reached into his pocket, pulled out a baggy of coke and placed it in your palm, brows furrowed in curiosity as he watched you saunter over to Cody.

He couldn't quite make out what you were saying, but as you approached Cody he saw your whole energy shift, you went from your usual cold and standoffish self to a welcoming and flirty girl, Chris couldn't help but be somewhat proud.

You approached Cody, placing your hand on his chest with the baggy tucked between your fingers and got on your tip toes to talk directly into his ear.

"get your keys out" You said, putting on your best slurring drunk voice.

Cody did as you said, reaching into his pocket and handing you his keys with a smirk. You opened the baggy, keeping eye contact with him as you loaded just enough to sniff onto the end. You raised it to Cody's nose, placing a delicate finger on his nostril, your eye contact never wavering.

Cody snorted the lump of coke off the metal, his whole face scrunching up at the sensation of it shooting up his nose. You giggled, taking the key and licking it clean, batting your lashes at him before placing his keys back in his hand, letting your hand linger on his for a moment before turning away and walking back over to Chris, your face dropping from a smile the instant Cody couldn't see your expression.

Chris laughed, shaking his head in slight awe at you as you rolled your eyes, still swaying your hips, knowing Cody was looking at you.

"that was genius" Chris said as you reached his side, leaning on the counter and pouring yourself another drink.

"I know" you shrugged with a smile, taking a sip and turning back to face the party.

Chris watched as Cody bragged to his friends about what had just happened, telling everyone how hot you were and how good Chris' coke is. You nudged Chris with your shoulder and he grinned down at you, you cocked your head towards the frat boys and he pushed your shoulder jestingly, walking over to the group of boys, reaching into his pocket and handing out baggies, taking rolls of cash in return.

You stayed tucked away against the counter, watching as Chris pulled in cash endlessly, handing out bags of coke and weed to almost everyone at the party. At one point, he didn't even need to ask people if they wanted anything, they were coming to him and all he had to do was name his price. You smiled behind your cup, knowing that this is exactly how he wanted the night to go and happy that you got to be a part of this strange exchange.

Through the crowd of people, Chris found your eye-line, shooting you a grateful wink, one you returned before slamming your drink.

you pulled out your phone, vision only slightly blurry from the amount you had drunk. You messaged Matt, letting him know that everything had gone perfectly and that you and Chris were actually getting along.

You were snapped out of your text conversation by Chris saying your name, "you ready to go, kid?" he asked.

"yes, desperately, I can feel myself getting stupider just be being here" you groaned, following Chris as he walked you both through the party.

the walk home was actually, nice.

"when you loaded that key for him, I actually thought the kids knees were gonna buckle" Chris laughed, taking a long toke of his joint before offering you some.

You shook your head at his offer, reaching into your bra and pulling your cigarettes out, placing one in your mouth and using the end of Chris' joint to light it.

"dude he was literally shaking, like even being around me was enough to make him cream his pants" you chuckled, smoke leaving your mouth as you spoke.

Chris keeled over in laughter as he walked beside you, "it was fuckin' genius, kid, you're comin' on every deal with me when I have t'pretend to like those fuckin' losers"

"I'm happy to be of service" you said, curtsying at Chris with a ridiculous smirk on your face, your cigarette dangling from your lips.

Chris just laughed at your gesture, shaking his head as he toked his joint. You both walked in comfortable silence for a while, heading back to the frat house. You thought about the night, about how if you had told you a week ago that you would go out with Chris, and actually enjoy yourself, you would have laughed in your face.

"you know, I had a really good time tonight" you said, surprise thick in your voice.

Chris looked over to you and a cocked brow, "don't sound too surprised kid, m'not that bad"

"nah, you're not, you're actually kinda pleasant to be around when you're not being a cocky shit" you jested, pointing your cigarette at Chris accusingly.

"thanks, I guess" Chris chuckled, "you're not too bad either, kid"

you gasped, holding your hand to your chest, "did the Christopher Sturniolo just admit that he actually likes hanging out with me?" you said in exaggerated shock.

Chris rolled his eyes, taking a final toke of his joint and flicking the dead butt in your direction, you laughed, dodging the attack and ashing your cigarette at him.

"don't get too crazy, I wouldn't say I like hangin' out with ya" he smiled, "but I did have fun"

you walked the rest of the way home in silence, only breaking it to occasionally giggle about the events of the night or for Chris to tell you he needed to 'take a leak'. You had a surprisingly nice night, and for the first time since you had known him, you were beginning to actually like Chris, finally seeing what Matt meant when he says that he isn't 'all bad'. Chris shared your near admiration, seeing you for more than the confrontational, for lack of a better word, bitch that was fucking his brother and best friends with his girl.

It was an unlikely friendship, but it was definitely blossoming.

taglist: @sturniozalt@mattslolita@shaquilles-0atmeal@blahbel668@sleepysturniolo@le4hsblog @sarosfilms @joemamaaa42069 @2muchofaslvt @seluky10 @cherib3lla @jetaimevous

[i-cant-sing]

Okay okay, I have another idea-

Yandere dad Nanami x Nanami reader

I've made yall see the menace Fushiguro reader who we all love and adore, but let's talk about Nanami's daughter who is an absolute angel and polar opposite to Fushiguro reader.

Child reader is just the most well behaved kid, listens to her father always, and since Nanami is raising her, she's also going to be very good in her studies because papa Nanami is a very good teacher. I mean, reader is definitely on top of her class and has a whole wall dedicated to her awards and medals. She just has to show off her math skills when she plays cafe (because obv she's gonna be a baker who bakes fresh bread daily for Nanami to buy and make sandwiches) and uses Monopoly money.

And when I say reader is polite, that is the understatement of the history. She just cannot bear to offend anyone! She has to put "-san" with everyone's name and has to address them correctly. "Yuji-san! Megumi-San!" And "pervert-San!" Which is Gojo, because of course Nanami has told her to beware of him and only address him as "pervert-san".

"But my name's Gojo!" He tells you, but you're so distressed because dad told you to call the white haired man wearing a blindfold/glasses "pervert-san" and it'd be rude to address him as anything else!

And Nanami adores his kid so much. She's such a perfect child, never breaks rules (don't talk to strangers or Pervert san.) and is such a goody-goody. He is a present father, he makes time for you. The Jujutsu sorcerers can wait, the world can be saved by someone else, but he needs to attend your school play at all costs. And even when hes not around for the day, he has raised you to be a very responsible child- like you even go get the groceries on your own when dad is late! (Like that Japanese show in which they send kids to shop on their own)

But of course, there are times when he needs to be away for longer periods, so he needs to hire a babysitter. His top choices: Shoko(although hes a little hesitant since you have a morbid curiosity learning and Shoko would happily let you accompany her to the morgue), Yuta, Maki, Megumi + Yuji + Nobara.

Who is NEVER allowed to babysit you? Gojo.

Gojo babysits anyway. (He fr steals you from Megumi trio)

And Nanami just comes home to Gojo and reader eating takeout and he's just like "Y/n, how could you let Pervert san in your home and eat with him?" And reader's just on the brink of tears and is trying to defend herself "b-but you said to be polite to guests! And Pervert-san bought food for me. Wouldn't it be rude to not share it with him?" *reader's teary eyes* and then Gojo is like "you'd rather let your child starve? Can't you see how tiny she already is?!" *Gojo's teary eyes* and Nanami pops a vein "it's not cute when you do it!"And then kicks Gojo out of the house.

Even though reader can dress herself up appropriately, she still has to have her hair done by Nanami, no matter what age. At some point, reader probably realises that it's something Nanami needs more than she does. It's a tradition, you think, but it's actually a coping mechanism for Nanami to deal with the fact that you're "growing up" and don't ask him to watch cartoons with you or read you bedtime stories anymore🥺

And Sukuna??? He takes one look at you and he's already decided he's gonna be mean to you, but then the more time you spend with him and Yuji, the more he realises.... its just not worth being mean to the only person who is so sweet to him and actually greets and talks to him like he's an individual person and not just a parasite inside Yuji's skin. Like reader just goes "Sukuna-san! I'm painting Yuji-san's nails but he can't pick a color. Will you help?" And he's like "Alright, fuck it I'm taking this brat with me when I comit mass murder. She's safe."

I feel like Nanami will allow reader to have a fairly normal childhood, so he keeps his yandere tendencies at a bay. It's when you start growing up and as he says "the others try to taint you with momentary pleasures" that his yandereness begins to show. Honestly, it's just more of his protective tendencies coming to light than anything else. He thinks people don't have your best interests in and sometimes he's right, but how else will you learn if you don't experience it?

Also, if you do end up having cursed energy and the ability to see curses, I think that's when Nanami starts spiralling down. He does not want you to become a Jujutsu sorcerer, he wants you far far away from the Jujutsu world completely. He can't- he can't allow what happened to Haibrara happen to you. He can't allow your innocence and naivety to be tainted by the horrendous world of curses. He'd rather risk you hating him forever as he locks you away than allow you to put your life at risk for others.

You are his priority. Your safety is his priority. You'll understand in due time why he did what he did, so while his heart does break hearing you cry and beg to be let out of your room, he doesn't regret putting you in there one bit.

Nanami sighs as he continues prepping your dinner. Guess he'll have to add some crushed sleeping pills so that you don't get sick from crying your bodyweight out (or more like he can't bear to see you in such a pitiful state.)

God save the poor souls who do end up kidnapping you.

[sirxlla]

Perfectionism

----------------------------------------------------

Warnings: Angst, Fluff

Prompt: Dick came back from a bad patrol and doesnt wanna talk anyone besides you because 'they think less of him' in his mind (request @nesting-dreams for the idea )

Notes: Gender Neutral, italics are actions and thoughts.

-With that said it's all under the cut-

Dick practically dragged himself into the apartment, he thought he was hiding it well but he wore the sadness, stress and anxiety unmistakably on his face.

He was the first son, the example for all his other brothers. He felt such a pressure to be the ideal hero from everyone around him. Dick knew it was him just being a perfectionist probably but that pit in his chest wouldn't leave that easily.

He had found you in the kitchen making dinner. It smelled sweet but also so savory, his stomach was just aching for food. Your little bare feet padded against the ground as you moved around the kitchen.

"Hey, I'm home." Dick states as his arms moved around you from behind, you could just feel the tension rolling off him and you hands laces with one of his as you turn around in his arms.

"Rich, what's wrong?" It was exceedingly obvious something was wrong. The burner was turned off so you didnt have to worry about burning dinner and even if so he was more important.

"Do you...I- I feel like...Am I a disappointment? I fucked up tonight on patrol...Bruce sent me home early. I just..." He trailed off and was clearly beating himself up.

"Baby, I'm sure he's not disappointed." You attempted to reassure your sweet man, your hands had to reach up to touch his face because he was quite a bit taller than you. You closed the gap between you to by pulling his head down to your shoulder so you could hug and comfort him easier.

He hugged you and just burried his face in your neck, bending over like this was quickly uncomfortable so he picked you up and set you on the counter to help level the height difference out.

"What if I mess up and someone dies?"

"Baby, you are probably the most perfect and skilled in your family and you almost never mess but My Love...you are still entirely a human. Your humanity is what makes you so efficent and good at what you do...Jason and Damian dont have that, Tim bounces off the walls like a crack addict and Bruce often cares more about vengence than anything else. You're as close to perfect as perfect can be...If you were anymore perfect I'd have to dump you cause I'd feel unworthy." You joke sincerely at the end there to try to bring his mood up a bit.

"I made this like Japanese Curry stuff, do you wanna try it together?" You asked him trying to get his mind off all this and cause you knew he hadn't eaten and that probably wasn't doing him any good.

"It smell's amazing, Honey. Whats in it?" Dick mumbled into your shoulder, he was very hungry but he was so prideful.

"Just like steak pieces, carrots, potatoes and it's got some rice I'm gonna pair with it."

Dick moves out of your way and lets you prepare the food, he's starving but he won't tell you that. Once the plates were down and both of you sat at the little kitchen table you had, you held his hand with one of yours as the both of you ate.

The gesture of just holding his hand was just gentle reassurance and as his stomach was filled the worries and anxiety slipped from his mind, plus he'd never had this food and it was very quickly a favorite of his. Turns out his anxiety was just him being hungry and a bit of a perfectionist when it came to himself.

Masterlist

[ditizygirl]

Editblr is a breeding ground for idolatry, ableism, racism and so much more all for a community about putting images together.

I've been here for only a year but I feel like I've seen it all, and the excuses oh my god the excuses. You are all 15-19, you should not have the mental capacity of a 8 year old. Your common sense is non existent and almost all of you guys are so fucking stupid it's pissing me off more than any god can understand. You are old enough to have logical thinking skills, you may have a disorder and it may be a reason but not an excuse.

Alot of you have forgotten the saying "Think Before You Talk" and I've sure as hell done alot of thinking. This is my deep dive into editblr.

Ableism

Typing quirks are a way of personal expression but why do so much of you hate to add plain text. I can understand to extent because plain text hates my head because of how long it can be but I'm not gonna act like a little bitch about it. I'm gonna add my typing quirk or even fonts itself to it.

I'm gonna ask someone to help me, or to do it for me. Stopping making excuses for ableism. Alongside with the typing quirks, your psds are ugly and eyestrainy. Psds also fall under racism because I have no idea why you guys are ignoring the fact some make dark skin characters lighter but in the case of ableism most of them are really bright and makes it hard to see.

Orange and brown? Green and yellow? Blue and brown? Why are you putting colours that can be so much eyesore together? And won't even tag as eyestrain and when someone does ask you only do it for one post.

Romanticization

This one is weird as fuck and I see no one mentioning it. Editblr highkey has a ddlg problem, this "little girl" aesthetic you guys have going on borderlines ddlg alot and its icky. The baby talk typing quirk is disgusting, stop it.

I'm not one to judge how someone copes with their trauma but what I DO judge is how you act when majority says its uncomfortable. Now this section I'm a bit unsure how to phrase it, gotta love dyslexia, but that isn't going to stop me.

There's alot of very uncomfortable romanticization of stalking which I've seen so much of alongside abusive relationships and the justification of these things.

Racism

Really can't escape this one unfortunately. Many of you are like kpop idols, you're too dyslexic towards the difference between appropriation and appreciation. Incase you forgot let me remind you.

You can not gift japanese names. Gifting names is a native practice therefore you can only gift native names. Also I've noticed you weirdos befriending people just to use their cultural names. I can't even say it east asian fetishization because its only Japanese.

Also for the love of God can you guys stop saying nonmem and non women especially when referring to sexualities. It's not hard to simply say "queer attraction to women" and "queer attraction to men".

Coming back to the "gifting" names thing, I think it's interesting how all of you conveniently have a Japanese friend who "gifted" you the name of a cute pink anime girl. Maybe I'll do a post later on how much of a bad liar you guys are.

Closed symbols is also another big problem you all have. No matter how much times you're told you can't use something you always cry "but my friend from xyz culture said it was ok!" One person can't speak for a whole culture. You're nothing but a coloinzer in disguise hiding behind the idea of aesthetic. If you want to know if a symbol is closed just use this site.

Goddess Personas

Yea this one is getting a whole section of its own. Like any people I am uncomfortable with goddess personas, especially being someone with biblical sources. Now the idea that a teenager on the internet is making people call them a goddess is strange isn't it?

In my opinion, they're all annoying, copy and paste, and I think not a lot of people talk about how the really bad ones get. You all love to indulge them, make them think they have power over them. You put them on a pedestal and praise them and get surprised when it all goes to their head?

Stop giving 14 years old power, stop indulging in their habits and letting it go their head. Forcing people to refer to you as their goddess? Their Lord and saviour? Their idol? Someone they must listen to? It creates a power inbalance which always leads to the weirdest of manipulation. Also all the engagekiss copiers are so obvious why would you want to copy the identity of a groomer? It says alot of about yourself if that's what you think is ideal.

Callout Posts

Now, personally, I believe that the only reason a callout post happens is because someone was affected, does it not? Very rarely would a callout post would be a fake one, especially if someone has more then one. If you defend someone who has more than one call out post that's on you and you're gonna end up making one some day I can genuine you that. People don't make them for no reason.

This is all I have to say for now. I hope you guys really consider what I have written here, or not, considering the fact you guys have shown multiple times you lack reading comprehension

@starriesse @dollicous @doveinne @firstgf @kiochisato @lamboll @cherryshh @narcbf @lavendergalactic @npditary @sprinkleoverdose @necroangelz @eskeys

[nkyslover]

` ` OOPS! I'M DOOMED...

whoops, looks like you caught yourself in quite the situation! when your homeroom teacher pairs you up with satoru gojo, your one and only; academic rival, for a project, your conflicted. as satoru himself would say, "sorry honey, the world doesn't work like rainbows and sunshines."

mara's notes! — back with another lame fic, i genuinely might have writers block or something because my ideas are non existing atp😭 send help yall PLEASE and i hope u guys enjoy it!!

"satoru gojo and y/n y/l/n, you both will be together for the project time."

you couldn't stop your eyes from widening as you froze in your seat.

satoru gojo!?

what the hell did your homeroom teacher think she was doing? pairing two people who absolutely despised each other, together for a project!?

your sure she knew. how could she not? you two are the only ones who compete in competitions that involve alot of debating, in another word, arguing?

or how you both would start to argue about how to pronounce different vowels in japanese, and how he'd ask you questions you didn't have the answer to when you'd be doing a presentation?

it was pure hatred.

"class will be dismissed in 5 minutes, until then, please pair up with your partner and discuss." your teacher smiled, before diverting her question to her book, scribbling notes on it. chairs started to move, and you start to frown. how are you gonna survive?

she stops, glancing up. "also, there will be a total of 6 times you will have to meet up. its a must, and you must complete these 6 meet ups to make sure you haven't missed anything."

your done for.

"get back here!"

god he was fast.

but that was all you could hear. okay, you may or may not be sprinting or running for your life away from the tall white haired boy who was chasing after you.

"leave me alone!" you cried, shoes hitting the ground as you turn the corner, huffing and puffing as you hope he leaves you be.

"why are you running!?" he yelled, turning the corner after you and following you down the hallway of the big academy. you manage to not bump into anybody as you dodge the crowd. "because your chasing me!" you screamed, as other students gave you both knowing looks. it was probably normal, then again.

"fuck— stop running! really, i'm not gonna stop until you stop!"

you turn another corner into a more secluded hallway, and then you trip, foot slipping as you yelp loudly, bag falling out of your hand as you fall forward, if it wasn't for a pair of arms slipping around your waist, you definitely would have face planted!

but then again, that's how you ended up in an empty study room in the library. satoru gojo had dragged you there, and he was too strong to even protest against anyways. poor you!

"i want to go home." you mutter, dropping your pen on the page full of notes that you just written. "after this, we have 5 more meetings to make so just keep writing or we won't get anything done now."

you frown.

"stop looking at me like that." he lifts his head, eyes meeting yours as he narrows his eyes as a silent threat, you don't hesitate to pick up your pen and keep your head down. "bully." you mindlessly mutter under my breath.

he's gonna act like that didn't tug a small smile at his mouth, yeah.

a few days later, you think your more than halfway through your project. wait, you think? maybe it's because you've been telling satoru off for being lazy when he's the one telling you off, and oh, we can't forget! you may or may not have caught him staring at you. you blink, and suddenly his eyes are on the book, which is odd. are you going insane? maybe it's the air of his dorm room.

okay, you might have been spending time in his dorm. he might have been feeding you snacks, and you both might have been bonding.

that sounds like a crime.

you also have his number now! he sends weird messages, did i mention?

gojo: sugs told me u have a date???

gojo: btw u need to cancel it bc we need to study some extra contents on the project

you: wait what??? but we've finished the project

gojo: i told u we need to study

gojo: get ur ass in my room before i drag u

you: i can't cancel the date it's a date gojo

gojo: too bad too sad, im waiting

matter of fact, he did have to drag you. and you actually didn't mean to blank the guy you had a date with but it wasn't your fault. somehow his contact disappeared from your phone. you didn't have a lock on your phone, but at the same time you didn't suspect anybody.

that makes you more unlucky.

now, your labelled as "satoru gojo's girlfriend" but how the hell did this even happen? maybe you didn't even realise when you started to fall in love with him, gaze meeting with his, hands accidentally touching when you'd walk together, and the butterflies in the pit of your stomach when he brushed a strand of hair behind your ear when it got in your face.

whatever, young love, as they say!

[redxx95]

Tachibana & Kurosawa parallels that are making me go insane

Hey guys so I had some Thoughts that are not letting me go so I did some digging and now I'm gonna present yall with my findings. They are horrible. (Spoilers for volume 14)

So how this all started is me wondering if Kurosawa ever feels a little guilty about entering a relationship with Adachi, since things could've been a lot easier for him if he'd simply gone out with a woman (to him it would've been Fujisaki) instead. He often mentions Adachi could've been happy without him, after all.

Then I remembered this bit from the end of volume 14 about how Adachi doesn't know how to deal with advances because Kurosawa was always intercepting them for him and decided to properly translate all of it.

"Adachi felt guilty, but him not understanding the tactics of love or how to evade invitations is my fault. I don't want anyone to take him away, but I also don't want him to ever learn any of this. Of course I can't tell him that though."

Tactics of love, huh. You mean like...

Giving little compliments... (The phrasing here is almost the same in japanese except Tachibana is using polite speech)

Offering favors...

Invading personal space...

Going "hey you like this thing, why don't we do this thing together?" ...

Helping out when they're weak and vulnerable...

You mean tactics like that? Man it sure is convenient that Adachi remains blissfully unaware of any of this huh. Okay So. Before you raise your pitchforks at me, yes there's obviously some nuance in all of this. Kurosawa is doing all of this to befriend Adachi, first and foremost. He wants to be closer to him because he loves him. Tachibana (as far as I can tell) just wants to get in his pants lmao Also Adachi's a Grown Ass Man and can definitely make his own decisions, and it's not like he got really manipulated either, since he could read Kurosawa's thoughts and intentions the whole time. I could still see Kurosawa having some self-doubts about their relationship though, if he ever realizes that he might have "manipulated" Adachi into a relationship that is objectively worse for him, considering the alternative of being with a woman and completely evading all the problems they've had with homophobia. Not to mention that Adachi is clearly good with kids and might want some of his own, which is something he can't have with Kurosawa, since adoption requires couples to be married in Japan and gay marriage is illegal, as we know. What if Kurosawa ruined Adachi's chances to lead a happy life, for his own selfish reasons?

...

Now, here come my truly insane speculations about vol 15 and how this could tie in with drama around Matsuura :)

So on that last page she's clearly approaching Tachibana, who, as we can read pages before, wants to get black-out drunk to forget all his romantic woes. Which means he will be very talkative to a nosy Matsuura. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll reveal literally everything to her, how he wanted to go for this cute, inexperienced coworker named Adachi and how he got told to back off by his big scary boyfriend named Kurosawa. "Oh yea they work together at Toyokawa. I even told him it's really risky to date coworkers, can you believe it?!" Matsuura just goes "Oh that is Interesting."

She might even try to get under Kurosawa's skin by drawing parallels to his harassment in vol 1 and him pursuing Adachi, since Kurosawa has a higher position in their company and earns more, and Adachi being inexperienced. One could easily construe this as a power imbalance between them. Throw into the mix the issue of being "forced into a relationship that's looked down upon by society" and the looming threat of their relationship being revealed to their workplace and Kurosawa might truly spiral, maybe even breaking up with Adachi, just to fulfill yet another parallel to Tachibana.

Man would that be fucked up or what haha

[dr-spectre]

hello!

I've seen your hypnoshades callie stuff alot on my feed, and I just kinda had a question for ya.

if the hypnoshades were, indeed, a metaphor for drug abuse by celebrities...would that not make Octavio an enabler, as he allowed Callie to utilise the hypnoshades (and most likely aided in the creation of them) ??

(this does not make Octavio a totally irredeemable bad person, at least not in my opinion. Perhaps it's the only way he knows that he can help Callie, maybe . It's just something that I've noticed that's never really been brought up in the other stuff that you've written).

Okay.... here's the thing about the hypnoshades. it's pretty obvious that Splatoon 2 in someway was rushed and that includes the story mode. It came out 2 years after Splatoon 1 and it launched with not a lot of content. Unlike something like Octo Expansion or ROTM where there is lots of explanations on things and how things work, in Splatoon 2 there isn't that and it's incredibly rushed. We don't fully know the circumstances of what happened to Callie and how Octavio gave her the shades, all we know is that Callie was like "ok fine I'll hear you out" and joined the Octarians cause of reasons I've said a trillion times lmao.

Octavio for sure did some bad shit let's not kid ourselves. He is the antagonist and he's not gonna be all sunshine and rainbows. In some way yeah he enabled Callie to use the shades and therefore she ended up getting addicted to them. Her rematch dialogue in other languages shows that Callie is attached to the shades and is a bad coping mechanism for her because well... She's still doing the acting gig and it's still hurting her.

Heck even Marie in the Russian translation says "why are you so attached to those stupid glasses? Callie, those glasses are only getting in your way!"

However this addiction is actually kinda treated like a joke and makes Callie seem more like an idiot and that.... pisses me the fuck off to no end. I get that Splatoon is silly but this is just near character assassination to me tbh.... Especially how the community treated her in that time.... But i digress.

I still don't think that Octavio is some vile monster that abused Callie in some way shape or form. He treated her as best as he could in that scenario, he didn't restrain her, he didn't force her into anything. He let her decorate bases and do other things because it helped boost the morale of the Octarians, hell the Octarians got inspired by her and made music with her vocals and stuff like that.

I truly believe that the hypnoshades are just that, hypnosis shades. Octavio probably made them for Callie so that she's less likely to just suddenly run off, which is still fucking bad mind you. Callie was willing to stay and yet Octavio was like "just in case....." But here's the thing also, hypnosis isn't mind control and you can't brainwash people with them. The term "brainwashing" is only found in the English translation of the Japanese script and so far we don't have retranslation of the original script and I'm not gonna fully trust the English translation. As a Sonic the Hedgehog fan, i know that some English translations can fuck up important details and completely change the tone of the story so easily lol.

Octavio is more of a caring person than he is not. He has been shown that he does care for troops but he's just a little bossy towards them and he has to be because his race is on the brink of collapse. He has to make these quick and bad decisions to save his people. When his people got kidnapped by Mr. Grizz, he immediately went looking for them and wanted to get revenge. And when he finds out Mr. Grizz did it, he drops his hatred for the New Squidbeak Splatoon and helps them out. His people are his top priority.

Hell if you want the ultimate proof that Octavio isn't the worst person in the world, Callie went with him to the Low Water Party after Octo Expansion, Octavio would not bring a hypnotized Callie that was missing during the events of Splatoon 2 to a fucking rave party, everyone would get his ass lol. So yeah, a Callie not under the influence of any shades went "yeah I'll rave with you!!!!"

She even smiled when Octavio came down to rescue Neo Agent 3 when everyone else was shocked, if that doesn't scream that they are good terms then i don't know what will.

Sorry if this seemed very rambly, when people talk about Hypno/ Octo Callie in any form i lock THE FUCK IN lol!

[mjis0nfire]

DPxP5 - The Mansons' Host Kids

The foreign exchange program was a surprise, but not entirely unwelcome for Sam. Until her parents dropped the bombshell that they will be hosting two of the kids. For fuck's sake, one of them is literally a model despite being her age - blonde hair, blue eyes, thin and pretty, magazine covers and interviews- God the more she looks at her picture the more she looks like Star.

Her new host brother doesn't look all that better - a jock posing as a punk with that bleach-blond hair.

She hates it.

And she hates it even more when they actually show up and act all sunshine and smiles, especially the girl, Ann. It's just a reminder of the conventional 'family' Sam's parents wished they got to enjoy.

She doesn't even notice the piercings on Ryuji, Ann's variety in her bags, or how the two cringe and shrink in at how painfully cheerful her parents are to have them as 'part of their family'. She just gives them the cold shoulder. All of them. And rants to Danny about her frustrations when Tucker starts begging for Ann's number.

That resentment bubbles over one night when Ann stays with Sam to help clean after dinner. Especially as Ann tries to ask about her fashion to fill the very purposeful silence.

"You can drop the act, yknow." Sam cuts her off, annoyed.

A tone that seems to genuinely confuse the blonde. "Sorry?"

"The whole smiles and rainbows and tolerant shtick. I can smell the bullshit from here. Your poser friend doesn't help matters."

Ann's eyes widen a bit at her bluntness before she settles. "I'm not bullshitting you. And I don't think Ryuji would count as a 'poser'-"

"Please, he's got 'jock' written all over him. Like he's just trying to be 'cool'. It's not gonna work. Not on me."

Ann can't help but give a huff of a laugh. "And here I thought those cliques were just for crappy American movies-" She stops her tease when she sees Sam's glare her way.

"He hasn't run in over a year. Not competitively. And he dyed his hair our first year of high school. Mostly so I wouldn't be the only blonde in class."

That gets Sam's attention, softening her annoyance a bit. Come to think of it... It is odd that a Japanese girl would have flaxen blonde hair...

"I ask about your fashion because I'm genuinely interested. It looks good on you! And I know Japan has different fashion subcultures than here, so I don't want to be insensitive or compare it to something it's not, yknow?"

"Seriously?" Sam asks with almost a laugh in her voice.

"Seriously!" The blonde's smile brightens. "I didn't come here to poke fun at Americans. Well- not too much anyway." She quickly and jokingly corrects herself. A joke that actually gets Sam to chuckle a bit.

"We deserve most of it, honestly."

"Heeyyy, don't lump yourself in with that!"

The two girls finish the dishes quickly, but still linger in the kitchen for a long while, chatting and swapping stories and fashion tips. Turns out Danny’s host siblings are friends with Ann and Ryuji.

Maybe this whole thing won’t be so bad.

[writingforstraykids]

Be nice

Pairing: Minchan

Word Count: 2983

Summary: Sometimes, Chan helping him out isn't what Minho wants, and this time, they get into a fight. Later that day they talk but it never stays at that with them...

Warnings/Tags: angst, minor fight, fluff, lots of kisses, teasing, smut, top!chan, bottom!minho

Minho stares at the ceiling, wondering if Chan would join him at some point tonight. The lights of passing cars illuminate the room, and the continuous sound of raindrops hitting the bedroom window calms him slowly. He hates getting into fights, especially with Chan. His boyfriend was a sweetheart, but when he got mad, everyone else felt like hiding and let him deal with it. Which was exactly what had happened today. 

Six hours earlier 

Minho scrolled through his phone as his stylist made the last adjustments to today's outfit. They'd be giving an interview soon, and he was a little nervous since it would be in English once again. Understanding wasn't the problem, but the time his brain needed to process the information and grasp some words together for an answer was simply too long. He hated it, wishing he could participate more, and Chan knew how upset he could get because of it. Nevertheless, he had repeatedly told him that he'd take over the Japanese, becoming more fluent than the rest. One of their staff members came up to him, and Minho greeted him politely. 

"The company feels like you're going to be left behind with all those English interviews coming up." 

"Sorry?" Minho asked, confused. "I'm here, aren't I?" 

"Yes, but a lot of this promotion is focused on English, so we need you to open up more," he told him. 

"What's going on?" Chan asked, strolling over as he saw the utter confusion on Minho's face. The staff member repeated himself for Chan, who frowned. "Why? You're not pressuring any of the others who struggle with that either." 

"Well, they try, at least. Everyone knows they won't get any new bits of information from him, though," he told them, and Chan glanced at Minho, whose face fell. "We need you to try at least." 

Minho was hurt by that because everyone knew how much he struggled with it. Nevertheless, this was his job, and he knew he had to put in some work to excel. "Okay," he nodded quietly. 

Chan placed his hand on his lower back and shook his head. "There's no need to pressure him like that. You all know I always try to include him."

"You may be the leader, but you're not the babysitter," he told him, and Minho closed his eyes in defeat, knowing Chan would be pissed now. 

"It's okay, I'll try harder. I'm sorry," he said, and Chan opened his mouth to protest. "Just let it be, please," Minho said before stepping away from them and sitting down on the sofa next to Felix. 

"What's going on?" Felix asked gently, but Minho didn't get to answer as Chan came over. 

"Why don't you stand up for yourself?" he asked, and Minho stared at him blankly. 

"You're serious right now? You do know your position as the leader is a little more secure than mine, right?" he asked defensively. 

"They're not gonna kick you out just because you tell them to fuck off once in a while," he said. 

"I got kicked before, didn't I?" he gave back and grabbed his phone. "Just stop, they're right you're not my babysitter, Chan, I can handle it." 

Chan huffed. "You're right. I'm your boyfriend, and I'm there when you're in trouble." 

Minho contorted his face. "It wouldn't have been a problem if you didn't waltz in and take over once again." 

"Now it's my fault they're telling you that stuff?" Chan asked, offended. 

"Chan. That's not what I said, and you know it," Minho sighed before pushing himself up. "Stop, okay? It's embarrassing." 

Chan stared after him as Minho left their room and closed the door a little too loudly. He took a deep breath before following him outside. Minho was leaning against the opposite wall, nervously fidgeting with his hands. "Min, come on," he said softly. 

Minho closed his eyes in defeat and shook his head. "I mean it; you're not making things easier. I know I'm shit at it, but you defending me for being shit at it makes it even more obvious."

"I was trying to help, okay? That's all," Chan said. 

"I don't want your help, okay?" Minho told him. "I love you, Channie, but I have to figure out some things on my own. Stop hovering." 

Chan looked at him for a long moment before going back inside. Minho sighed, knowing he was beyond pissed now. 

This time, Chan didn't mention him once or ask any questions to include him. He kept his distance during the game they played, and once they were done, Chan packed up his stuff. "We're going home," he told him firmly, and Minho blinked at him surprised. 

"I thought we were getting dinner with the -," he asked, but Chan's firm look made him stop. "I suppose not, then," he said, grabbing his bag. 

The others watched them nervously as Chan opened the door and let Minho out first, who waved at them with a halfhearted smile. As soon as the door closed, Minho turned toward him. "You're an asshole." 

"Excuse me?" Chan asked firmly, gently pushing him in the right direction, and kept walking next to him. 

"Why would you spoil our group dinner just because you're pissed at me? They were looking forward to it all week. I was looking forward to it." he said. 

"You're a grownup, you can still go," he shrugged, and Minho stopped walking. 

"You know what? Maybe that's a good idea," he told him. "Because you're being ridiculous right now, and I'd rather enjoy my evening instead of hiding until you calmed down." 

"Great, fuck off then," Chan said, not noticing the tears shimmering in Minho's eyes. Minho didn't answer and dropped his bag to his feet before turning on the spot and returning inside. Chan rolled his eyes and grabbed the bag before leaving. “Fucks sake,” he cursed.

Jisung watched him worriedly as he stepped inside. "You're okay?" 

"Not really, but that's between me and Chan," Minho told him, accepting the hug he offered. If there was one thing that he cared about, it was not pulling the others into their disagreements. Their relationship shouldn't weigh heavy on the group mentality. 

Two hours earlier 

Minho came back later that night, waving Changbin goodbye, who had driven him home. He sighed softly as he pulled the door close behind himself and slowly walked into the living room, spotting Chan on the sofa. "Hi," he said quietly. 

"Hey," he said, not looking up. 

"You should've come, it was fun," Minho told him gently, trying to make peace. 

"It wouldn't have been with me hovering," Chan said sourly. 

Minho nodded more to himself. "Okay," he whispered, putting his keys on the kitchen table. "How long?" 

"What?" Chan asked, irritated. 

"How long do you need until you can look at me again and talk to me without being pissed off?" he asked calmly. It wasn't meant as an insult or tease but to check his boundaries. 

Chan put his phone down and stared at him, a little startled. "What?" 

Minho closed his eyes for a moment, reminding himself to stay calm. There was no use in exploding and triggering Chan's response even more. "Listen, love," he says very gently. "I had an amazing evening, and I don't intend to ruin my mood with another unnecessary fight. I missed you there, okay?" 

"Why? I thought you don't want a babysitter?" Chan said before he could think it through. 

Hurt filled Minho's eyes as he grabbed his keys from the table. "Now you're just being mean," he told him, clearly disappointed, and made his way upstairs. 

Chan groaned at himself and leaned back into the sofa, rubbing his face. 

Now

Chan still sits on the sofa, unsure if Minho would like him to join him tonight. By now, Chan knows Minho has every right to be disappointed, and deep down, he knows he didn't mean any harm telling him to back off a little. He is still hungry and craving that amazing noodle dish, Minho made them a few days ago. But now is hardly the time to ask him for it, having no idea how he made it. 

He looks up as Minho slowly comes down the stairs, his breath hitching when he sees him. Minho is wearing nothing but boxers and a shirt he lent him, his hair framing his face beautifully. Chan is once more reminded of how effortlessly beautiful Minho is at all times. Minho's eyes meet his, and the world seems to stand still for a moment. "Min, I'm sorry," Chan says softly. 

Minho walks past him into the kitchen and pours himself a glass of water. Chan gets up, hesitantly making his way over and leaning against the kitchen island opposite him. Minho puts down the glass and searches his eyes. "You had dinner yet?" he asks. 

"No," Chan shakes his head. 

Minho sighs softly and opens his arms for him. Chan doesn’t hesitate and practically throws himself into his arms, hugging him tight. Minho gently runs his hand through his hair and plants a soft kiss on his head. "I know you meant well, Channie love. It's just…" 

"I don't make it easier, I know," he nods. "I just hate seeing them treat you like that." 

Minho places his fingers beneath his chin, lifting his face. "I have you, at the end of the day, I don't care what they say," he says, rubbing his thumb across Chan's lower lip. "We both know they're right, I have to try sometimes." 

Chan smiles softly and sinks deep into his eyes. "Did I ever tell you how adorable you are when you try though?" 

Minho's eyes brighten up, his smile growing shy. "Not since we recorded Drive." 

Chan smirks, cupping his face. "Mhm, the day of our first kiss. You were too adorable to resist." 

"So that's why you finally confessed your feelings," he teases lovingly. "I don't think I ever saw you that shy again." 

Chan mindlessly brushes back his hair, caressing his cheeks. "I was scared to ruin our friendship." 

"Technically, you did," Minho grins and searches his eyes. "We're way more than that now, aren't we?" he asks and turns, kissing the palm of his hand. 

"There's just one thing that bothers me," he tells him, and Minho frowns softly. "Your last name." 

"What?" Minho blinks at him. "Go blame my parents, thank you very much," he protests, gently shoving his chest. 

Chan grins before taking his hand and mindlessly fondling his ring finger. "I intend to change it one day," he says, and Minho's eyes widen, realizing what he is on about. "When all this is over, I'll officially make you mine." 

Minho chuckles softly and rolls his eyes at him. "You're so cheesy," he giggles. 

Chan smirks and pulls something from his pocket. "Until then, I want you to hold on to this for me," he says, sliding a subtle silver ring up his finger. 

"Channie," Minho breathes out, stunned. 

"Happy birthday, Minho baby," he says sweetly after checking the time. It’s only a few minutes after midnight. 

Minho's heart is about to burst, and he pulls him in, kissing him hard on the mouth. Chan's lips crash onto his, a soft moan leaving his lips that shoots straight to Minho's stomach. He sinks his hand into his hair and presses himself close. "Love, I need you. Right now," he whispers against his lips, and Chan takes the hint. He lifts him up, chuckling as Minho wraps his legs around him. Minho kisses him heavily as Chan maneuvers his way through the living room and up the stairs. He doesn’t even bother turning on the lights and sits down at the edge of their bed. Minho straddles his lap, hands cupping his face as he kisses him passionately. Chan sinks his hand into his hair, pulling him back as his lips travel down his neck. Minho moans sweetly at the sensation and presses him closer to his skin. "Chan, sweetie," he pants, and Chan hums questioningly against his neck, sinking his teeth into his skin. "Lube. Now." 

Chan chuckles at his impatience but reaches for the table next to the bed, grabbing the lube from the drawer. Minho takes it and slips from his lap, chest heaving softly from their heavy kisses. 

Minho leans down and captures his lips in another short, soft kiss. "Take it all off," he whispers before grabbing the hem of his own shirt. 

Chan doesn’t need a second invitation and pulls Minho back down on his lap as soon as their clothes are gone. He hungrily kisses him before getting up and lowering him back on the mattress. "Fuck, you're beautiful," he tells him quietly, and Minho smiles sweetly beneath him. 

"Please don't make me wait," Minho answers just as quietly, reaching out for him. 

Chan flicks the bottle open and pours some lube on his fingers. He spreads Minho's legs, and his hand disappears between them. Chan watches his face in awe as he starts to open him up. Minho pulls him into an open-mouthed kiss, arching into him as Chan adds another finger. As soon as Minho tells him he's ready, Chan grabs a condom and prepares himself quickly. He pushes in with slow, careful movements and can’t help but groan when he is fully buried inside him. "Fuck." 

Minho beams up at him, softly burying his fingers in his hair and pants at the pleasant stretch. He takes a moment to adjust before nodding. "Okay," he whispers, and Chan starts moving. He watches him full of adoration, brushing back a curl that's already sticking to his forehead, and places his hand on his neck, thumb fondling his cheek. Minho presses their foreheads together as Chan thrusts in deep, both moaning at the feeling. "Feels so good, Channie hyung," Minho tells him, and Chan growls softly at the honorifics. 

Chan's bracing himself on his lower arms, gently playing with Minho's hair. He leans into Minho's touch as the younger one caresses his cheek, and their lips brush together, moans and soft sounds of pleasure echoing between them. Minho's head falls back, toes curling as Chan manages to hit his prostate. His hand shoots up, nails burying themselves in Chan's shoulder. A punched-out sound leaves his lips as Chan buries his nose in his neck simultaneously, gently licking the spot he previously sunk his teeth into. "I got you," Chan rasps against his skin and hits his sweet spot again. Chan watches Minho’s face flood with pleasure, lips falling open with soft whimpers and moans. Moonlight dances across his dark hair, highlighting every significant feature of his face.

Minho chases his lips, moaning into the kiss loudly, and wraps his legs around Chan’s waist. “Don’t stop,” he pants, gripping his hair tightly. “So close…”

Chan kisses a trail down his jaw, keeping the same pace as Minho’s hips start to stutter beneath him. He reaches down between their bodies, wrapping his hand around his dick and pumping him fast. “Come for me, baby. Make a mess,” he rasps into his ear, and Minho does, whimpering his name as he paints their chests. Chan picks up the pace of his thrusts, knowing Minho only likes to be overstimulated when he’s in the mood for it.

Minho smiles at him lazily as Chan falls apart above him, lovingly fondling his hair as the older one collapses onto him. They lay still for a moment, both catching their breaths before Minho speaks up again. “We could’ve done that earlier, maybe you wouldn’t have been sulking all day then..”

Chan giggles and weakly punches his arm. “Fuck you.”

“I thought you did already,” he teases, kissing his hair. “I’m joking.”

“I know,” Chan snorts before pushing himself up. “We need a shower.”

“You still need dinner as well,” Minho reminds him.

“Yeah, about that,” Chan starts, and Minho snorts softly. 

“You’re addicted to that dish already, aren’t you?” he asks, and Chan blushes. “You always are when I try something new,” he giggles. 

“You know me too well,” Chan laughs. 

“Of course I do,” he smiles smugly. “And, of course, I’ll make it for a very late dinner,” he tells him and gently pats his back. “Now get off me, you big baby, before I get too lazy to move and decide differently,” he says, laughing as Chan does so immediately. 

After their shower, in the dim light of their bathroom, Minho sees the scratch marks he left on Chan’s back and contorts his face softly. He gently brushes his fingertips over them and meets Chan’s eyes through the mirror. “I’m sorry.”

Chan smirks before turning and wrapping his arms around him. “One of the reasons I call you kitten, it’s fine,” he assures him, and Minho fondly rolls his eyes at him. “Also, I don’t want to pressure you or anything, but I can help you out with the English stuff at any time.”

Minho stares at him, amused for a moment, before squinting his eyes at him. “You know why that’s not a good idea?”

“Why?” he asks, clearly confused. 

“You’d have another excuse to fuck me stupid and blame it on me speaking English,” he smirks, and Chan’s jaw drops. 

“How is that bad?” he asks, playfully offended. 

“How is that helping with learning? I’d be distracted the whole time, and we’d get nothing done,” he protests. 

“It would work like a reward system, which is quite effective, by the way,” Chan smirks. 

“Oh wow, he’s speaking English, but somehow he can’t walk straight anymore. I wonder why,” Minho thinks out loud, and Chan starts laughing.

“Shut up, I was being nice,” he giggles. 

“I’m just being realistic,” he grins. 

“Buzzkill,” Chan snorts.

“Be nice, it’s my birthday,” Minho pouts playfully, squirming away and laughing as Chan tickles him.

MASTERLISTS | PROMPT LIST | GUIDELINES

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[v3ng3anc3-qu33n]

War.

"Okay so we will split up and lure as many of the heroes as possible to the main city block hopefully before they can fully learn about all of our abilities and powers, there a bunch of the smaller villains will be waiting and start fighting as we fight this will be war." I calculate. "Any questions?"

A few people raise their hands, and I point to Compress.

"Why not just have the lower villains lure them there?" Compress asks incredulous.

"Well thats because we did that to start this they would expect it." I coldly explain.

Everyone pauses and slowly lowers their hands.

"So is everyone clear on this new plan my dumbass overlooked how heroes sometimes have their own damn planes and jets and fucking boats!" I announce loudly. With a chrous of agreement, I nod, and we all start to get ready getting into our villain suits.

Me and Toga go to Tokyo and start breaking havoc me destroying roads and buildings and her attacking civilians, and quickly we gain the attention we want. However, it is not from the people we want...

"Y/n..?" A deep voice asks.

Me and Toga freeze.

"Toga, you take care of him, and I'll deal with the rest." I coldly proclaim as my eyes start glowing vibrant purple.

"Fuck yeah I'm gonna beat your shitty exs ass!!" Toga shouts.

Toga quickly jumps at Damian with her needles out as I charge at the rest of the batfamily going for Jason first.

"Aww what's wrong.. Red Hood you didn't miss me?" I ask pouting.

"You're insane and a monster." He retaliates.

"Rude." I scoff before shooting magic at him loosely purposefully missing.

Toga and Damian engage in close combat and I send Toga a message mentally.

'Remember we need to lead them back to the main city block' my voice rings in her head, before she looks at me and nods.

I dart off with Toga pausing briefly.

"What's wrong your punches are weaker than usual." I say acting as if we were running away before me and Toga keep running to the main block.

They follow us closely and as we get there we see the others with all the other hero teams who came to try and aid the Japanese heroes.

"Hello all, thanks for joining us... now now this isn't how we treat our guests." I sweetly exclaim, and the League joins me where I am in front of a building with the heroes across us. As we do so, the smaller villains quickly charge out, and chaos unleashes.

I smile sinisterly before I give the League the go-ahead to join me immediately, targeting the Justice League, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and Bat Family. I create a giant magic bubble to trap us together alone just me and them.

"What? Suprised?" I ask.

"I thought no one good was supposed to be hurt." Damian sneer.

"...you're right, that was the plan, but well... I got hurt, and here's the thing the line between good and bad blurs so much the way black and white are just shades of the same colour." I exclaim giggling maniacally.

"You're an insane bitch!" Stephanie shouts.

"You will pay for this y/n" Superman says his sons agreeing.

"Oh me? Well, everyone breaks. No one stays kind forever... no one can take it or fuckihg fake it forever. Some people snap! And well, I just happened too by the very hands that I would carefully bandage, and that would help out me back together." I say my voice cruel yet heartfelt my voice unsteady.

I then catch Wonder Woman's lasso from where she was behind me, and I use it to slam her on the ground and tie her up with it.

"Would anyone else like to try?" I ask.

Superman flies at me with his laser eyes. I pull out a hand mirror and reflect it in the direction of Wonder Woman, making him immediately stop and try and choke me. Damian freezes along with the rest of the batfamily, but I push through and break his arm and also tie him up with the lasso.

Both speedsters then charge at me. I flick my wrist, and the ground becomes slippery, and the liquid then floats up and binds them together next to the others. A similar pattern happens until it's just me and them batfamily left. I have the other heroes in a floating bubble. I look at them before pausing.

"You know how this all started?" I ask.

"...wait why the fuck did this start?" Beast Boy asks.

"You killed an innocent man and woman with those disgusting powers of yours!" Starfire exclaims.

"Tsk tsk not even telling the truth anymore? My how far you have fallen." I say as i look at the batfamily. "That's a lie, by the way. I did kill the man, but he was far from innocent. He killed the woman... in the same way I saw my parents killed, so I snapped my powers overflowed and killed the man... but you wouldn't know that... as the person who supposedly loved me wouldn't even let me explain... and considering his past, it's absurd..."

"...what? You didn't kill that woman?" Damian asks his voice broken.

"No, see quite the opposite. I am or was a hero here. I got my hero licence and had a loving adoptive father, so I set off for America to try and help the mess you all created... i had the blessing of The Avengers who are family friends as a just in case... but emotions and logic don't coexist well... so I just ran. I had done some secret hdden hero work in helping the smaller villains who did it out of desperation find jobs and food." I say.

"I-" Damian pauses and is cut off.

"You still killed people these people!" Bruce shouts.

"Um so do you?" I say in an obvious tone.

"What? No, I have a no killing rule." Bruce says.

"Umm, you still kill people?" I say i see the batfamilys confused faces and sigh "okay so you have created a cycle of creating super villains and a cycle that allows for the super villains to have goons and people to work under them whether they like what they do or not."

"What?" Dick says.

"Oh my fucking gods.. okay so when you stop a villain damage happens and when damage to the city happens and the rich don't fix it the taxes rise making the cost of living rise as everyone needs extra money the need causes desperation to get more money to survive and be able to eat with that and the fact that in Gotham you have a decent chance of not making it to the next day people will act reckless for money and what they need, therefore supervillains always can find employees in goons." I explain "then you ruthlessly beat the goons and cause them to pay wicked high medical bills or just die because they can't afford it or they just die because you only treat the supervillains as people and give them repeated second chances. Then, by being batman, people afraid of death and being forgotten have something to go against or have people who like the thrill. Since you appeared, crime has multiplied, and so have prices in Gotham. What you do and because you exist more and more, super villains appear, and more and more civilians need to turn to crime to try and make ends meet. You are all a scourge. Mostly you though Mr. Wayne."

They all freeze.

"Shit." Tim says dumb stricken.

"Well they've got you there Bruce." Jason says.

"Not the fucking time Jason!" Dick says.

Damian just stares at me before walking closer and I put my hands up my magic ready to attack but I freeze as he stays 3 feet away.

"I am so sorry, my beloved." Damian says, his smooth voice breaking. "I should've listened.. but why do this."

My eyes flicker briefly "for fun of course!" I say trying to save face.

"Beloved? Where did that necklace come from?" Damian asks cautiously.

"My mirror. My magic mirror. Why?" I ask defensively as the black metal with talon like prongs around a piece of quartz with a black smoke and bright green liquid inside floats a little.

"Talia." The whole batfamily says in realisation.

"Talia who?" I say.

"My mother tried to turn you evil! It's a necklace with a raged soul and part of the Lazarus Pit. It makes you turn your sadness to evil rage." he says furiously

"What?" I ask in disbelief.

"Just let me see it" he says.

I lower the other heroes first and undo the shield encasing all of us together before saying "why." As I back up.

"I just want to see." He says his hands up.

"Fine." I say.

I turn around and unclasp the necklace and hand it to him, but as soon as I do, I freeze. My body drops to the ground. I feel my heart stop beating, I realise what I've done and the pain I caused and I feel my last breath leave my lips with the whisper.

"I'm sorry.."

[im-tops-bottom]

Had a fic idea ... Here's a dialogue to best express it...

Minho, on the phone: Baby I'm breaking up

Felix: I'M PREGNANT

Minho: first of all I meant my phone is breaking up and I'm having trouble hearing you.

Felix: ohhhh

Minho: second of all... You are? Is it twins? A boy? A girl? A litter of little kittens? Enough to have their very own class where we can teach tjem Korean, English and Japanese. Ooh ooh we can teach them to sing, dance and rap of course. We will send them to school every day and make sure they at least attempt a class in everything. I can't wai- Felix?

Felix, hangs up the call and panic dials Han:

Han: Whats up?

Felix: I thought Minho hyung was gonna break up with me and I panicked

Han: oh god please tell me you didn't do the cliche thing. Please please PLEASE tell me you didn't

Felix, silent:...

Han, ends call and calls Hyunjin: I need a favor

Hyunjin: You must be in desperate need if you're calling for a favor

Han: My twin flame Hyunjined hyung

Hyunjin: Say less. HEY BABE!

Changbin, rushing down carrying twins: Yes?

Hyunjin: Lix did a me and we are gonna to go full UDIM

Changbin, puts the sleeping babies into a crib next to Hyunjin before taking out his phone: oh god oh god oh god

Jeongin, on the phone, sleepily: Hello?

Changbin: Yongbok!

Jeongin: How many times do I have to tell you I'M FUCKIN JEONGIN

Changbin: quit having an identity crisis. This is serious

Jeongin: This better be good

Changbin: Yongbok

Jeongin: I will hang up this phone

Changbin: and I'll kick your ass if you don't let me finish this damn sentence. Yongbok code red operation UDIM activated

Jeongin: well why the fuck didn't you say so.

Changbin: I'm gonna murder you

Jeongin, rushes out of bed: let's focus on Lixah first. I'll grab Minnie and everything. Meet everyone at Lixies

Changbin: on it

Jeongin, hangs up and calls Seungmin:

Seungmin: Hey

Jeongin: Operation Unnecessary Drama llama Mode has been activated

Seungmin: did Hyunjin hyunjin Changbin again?

Jeongin: No worse

Seungmin: oh?

Jeongin: Felix did a Hyunjin

Seungmin, sighs: oh my way

-An hour later-

Felix panicking: He ended with wanting a litter of our kittens around. I'm a human. I'm a man 😭😭😭😭

Seungmin: That's what you get for doing a Hyunjin

Hyunjin: I still hate how thwt is still the name we are calling it but still...

Felix: Help me

Seungmin: I called in a favor.

Felix: Are these the same people that got Hyunjin and Changbin the twins?

Seungmin: Yes

Felix: oh god

Jeongin, walking in with Changbin, Chan, Han, a mother cat with several kittens and the father cat as well as sleeping babies: oh hi Hyung

Felix: WHAT THE FUCK?

Minho, walking in proud: This is what you get for Hyunjining me

Felix: HYUNG!

Minho: I realized I may not be able to knock you up the only way I want but we got all the babies we can ever hope for

Felix: once again... HYUNG!

Minho: Oh and the rest of the guys will be moving in to help

Felix, sits down and pouts towards the ground:

Minho, sits next to him on the couch: How's the proud new mama of four and grandmama of four feeling?

Felix, eyes start watering as Chan hands him one of the babies and the Mama cat brings one of her kittens up to him: They're adorable

Changbin hands the other twin off to Minho: we'll be here to help. And they babies can all grown up with each other

Felix: thank you

Everyone watches as the cats bring the kittens up to snuggle on the couch by Felix's side as the babies feed off the mum

Tears fall from Felix's eyes.

Felix: I love my SKZ family

[beansterpie]

ES21 japanese volumes part 3/??

<< part 1 < part 2 ||

HAHAHA guess who found a site with japanese scans?? (Also yes hello it's been close to.... half a year??? (fuck) since my last post-- a big part of that is because taking clear pics of panels/pages on my phone was a pain in the ass so I kept procrastinating lol)

Now lets get back into it!

We left off at the end of Sena's unwilling first morning practice, where we got to see just how fast he's able to run. We were then informed that their first match is happening the following day... while only having 3 players :')

oh the lengths one must take to subdue Cerberos....

Panel 2 -> HIRUMA: We need 8 people by tomorrow's match! We'll split up to gather them! Panel 3 -> KURITA: 8 people? SENA: I thought you said that American Football requires 11 people...

You'd think he might catch on to what's happening after all the 'top speed in the NFL!' fuss at the end of the last chapter.... but our boy is not smart, your honor.

But Hiruma (seemingly) relents, saying how they each have to find at least 3 people to help out their team by the end of the day. Whoever finds the least amount of people faces whatever penalty game that Hiruma comes up with, so uh, there's reason to fear.

Panel 1 -> Basketball club Panel 2 -> SENA: Alright, I'll start here...! Panel 3 -> imaginary SENA: How would you like to play in an American Football match? Panel 4 -> imaginary SENA: We'll prepare all of the equipment! All you have to bring is your fighting spirit!!

imagination vs reality....

Panel 1 -> SENA: Um... excuse me Panel 2 -> SENA: So... I was wondering if maybe I could get you guys to play in an American Football match for us... or something... Panel 4 -> JERSEY #16: Ahh... I'll pass. JERSEY #8: Yeah, not interested. SENA: I-is that so... Panel 5 -> SENA: Aahh-- it's no good. Why do I always....

Ah poor Sena. But all those years of timidness and cowardice aren't going to up and disappear overnight because then we wouldn't have a story. Also, an aside, but in these earlier chapters Sena has this little... verbal tick, I guess? where he ends his sentences (usually requests) with "なんて…" (na-nn-te), shown in panel 2. A different form of the word is often used at the end of a joke, meaning essentially "just kidding!", and this is like... an uncommitted, spineless little version of that. He's asking them if they would please consider playing in a match, and basically ending it with: "haha jk...." 😔

I translated it as "or something..." because he ISN'T joking, he just can't help but say it because he's that non-confrontational, and I thought that might be confusing without context? Or perhaps I'm just over-explaining, but alas.

Panel 1 -> KURITA: Wanna play in an American Football match!? Panel 2 -> JERSEY #16 & #8: No! Panel 4 -> SENA: No, it's not over yet! This isn't the only sports club! Panel 5 -> SENA: I'll go around to all of 'em--! Panel 6 -> HIRUMA: You're playing in a match for the American Football club!

I had to put in all three of their uh, pitches? to the basketball club because I love this little sequence lol. It's such a fun way to show the differences in how each character approaches a problem, and visually displays their body language so well. It's like the funniest version of the three billy goats gruff story

Is this the first official appearance of Hiruma's little black book? It's funny, it's dastardly, and it's just as much for the sake of cartoon violence as his guns are lol. (Seriously, some of the stuff he uses to blackmail people has me side eyeing Hiruma (and Inagaki) real hard rip. The fact that you're not supposed to take any of it seriously is it's saving grace.)

Panel 1 -> JERSEY #16: Uwah, again!? JERSEY #8: Will you give it a rest!! We said we're not gonna play!! Panel 2 -> HIRUMA: Hooo~ that defiant attitude.... I take it you two are first years? Panel 3 -> HIRUMA: Hhmmmm, so Satake-kun from year 1 class 2, and Yamaoka-kun from class 5, huh? Panel 4 -> HIRUMA: Satake-kun is-- well well! The true culprit behind the underwear thefts of the swimming club! And Yamaoka-kun-- what's this? He gives a kiss to his poster of Ai Kago every morning? Whoow, isn't this painful! SATAKE: Wha-- YAMAOKA: How do you-- Panel 5 -> HIRUMA: Now, I think I'll just spread the word!!! SATAKE: Waahh w-we'll play, we'll play! YAMAOKA: Please let us play in the American Football match!!

The severity of the dirt seems pretty skewed to me, but I guess to a teenage anime boy from the early 00's, general embarrassment is just as bad as sexually harrassing your schoolmates 🙃

But anyway, now we know exactly why Hiruma is so feared by the general student body (and faculty)! A real menace to society <3 Btw, at the time Ai Kago was a girl in the pop idol group Morning Musume.

After going to every other sports club in Deimon, Sena finally comes into some luck at the track and field club....

ISHIMARU: An American Football match? Yeah sure, I'll play!

Ishimaru.... you're such a good guy..... 😭

Panel 1 -> SENA: R-really!? ISHIMARU: Yeah, and y'know-- Hiruma's probably gathering the first years, right? Panel 2 -> ISHIMARU: So if I play with them, I'll get to know their physical abilities, and I can invite any of the promising ones to the track and field club. Panel 3 -> ISHIMARU: That's ok, isn't it? As a give and take. SENA: O-of course!! Panel 4 -> SENA: (Yay, that's one person!) Then I'll be seeing you tomorrow! Panel 5 -> ISHIMARU: Tomorrow!!? That's impossible! SENA: What--!!? Panel 6 -> ISHIMARU: I work part time for the local magazine delivery-- I have to deliver them all by noon tomorrow so it'll be tight. Sorry

Poor boy can't catch a break. And enjoy Ishimaru in his like, first and last serious arc for the rest of the series..... :') you deserved better my boy.....

Ishimaru's fairly casual attitude towards Hirma makes me so curious about what he's like in class though lol. I guess for people that Hiruma has no direct use for, they end up flying under the radar and don't have a strong opinion on him? Maybe to some students in Deimon, Hiruma is just 'that eccentric guy in my grade' lol. Strange thought.

But you know, at least Hiruma managed to get some people to help out! Wow, such charisma.

Panel 1 -> (from left to right on the chart -> ): Sena, Kurita, Hiruma Panel 2 -> SENA: Amazing!! So many, just by himself...

Panel 1 -> SENA: Hiiee!? Panel 2 -> KURITA: Hey.... I guess you're also at zero, huh.... Panel 3 -> KURITA: Even Hiruma stopped after 7 people.... and all the sports clubs have already gone home.... It's no good, we're not going to make it in time for the tournament.... Panel 5 -> SENA: I-I'm going to make another round!

Like, ok. So I haven't actually read that many sports manga (mainly because they tend to not hold my attention very long), but Eyeshield's opening chapters are so charming and cute and like... well set up that I always love re-reading it. It might ultimately be a classic coming of age/underdog story, but at this point Sena isn't even interested in playing the damn sport lol (in fact playing the sport is the thing he's got the most reservations about). It's just that he's made friends with Kurita and wants to help him (and Hiruma) towards this goal they're so passionate about, and also wants to feel like a part of something. Idk, it's really successful in fleshing out Sena's personality imo, and manages to make this extremely cowardly kid very endearing (which I think is kind of a rare thing in a shounen manga protag, not to mention a sports manga one).

BUT anyway, he spots Ishimaru doing deliveries and jumps over the fence to reach him.

SENA: Please let me gopher-- no, I mean-- please let me help you!

His heart is in the right place! When you've been a doormat your whole life, it takes a minute to move past it!!

Anyway, skipping ahead a few pages because I've already used too many images on this chapter lol (not me straight up posting half the pages of this chapter so far 😭) -- Sena helps Ishimaru deliver half of the magazines and so they manage to hand them all out that night. Since that frees Ishimaru up the following day, he agrees to play in the match-- which means Sena managed to get one person!

He returns to the club room and tells Kurita the good news, but that still leaves them with.... 10 people.

Panel 2 -> KURITA: We're short.... one person.... Panel 3 -> KURITA: We were so close.... Panels 5 & 6 -> Sounds of the crowd cheering

Panel 1 -> SENA: U-um! Panel 2 -> SENA: For the last person, if I... if I participate...

Whenever Sena thinks about potentially playing American Football in these early chapters, I've always liked that the things he focuses on is the sound of the crowd, the... kinship, maybe? of being on a team. There's probably an element of the glory that appeals to him, but it mostly seems to be the ambience and passion and unity that he's drawn to. As opposed to like, Monta later on who (initially, anyway) really just wants the fame and adoration of being a popular player lol (and good for him, the heart wants what it wants). But for Sena, as the protagonist, it helps me connect to his wants at this point in the story a lot more organically as opposed to if his desire had always been "I wanna be The Best Sportsman™!!!" But again, that's a me thing lol.

Of course Hiruma has to interrupt before Sena commits one way or another lol

Panel 1 -> HIRUMA: That fucking konbini!! Running out of sugarless gum!! Not even flies would chew on that nasty-ass sweet gum!! Panel 2 -> HIRUMA: Oh damn, I forgot to put them up halfway through.

Hiruma's comically short temper that vanishes between one panel and the next will always be funny to me lol. Explosively coming into the club room, ranting about unimportant bullshit while tossing soda at to his teammates (which is quite thoughtful of him actually) and then casually revealing that he's taken care of everything....

Sometimes when I'm feeling unmotivated, I think to myself "what would Hiruma do?" the answer is usually 'several illegal things', but I can at least try to emulate his proactiveness lol.

Panel 2 -> SENA & KURITA: WE DID IIITT Panel 3 -> HIRUMA: We didn't do anything!!! I'm the one who ended up doing it all, you useless idiots!! Actually, give back my cola!! I don't have a single drop of fluid to spare for you morons!! Wilt and die!

Well. No one ever claimed Hiruma was gracious.

That's (more or less) the end of chapter 3! Finally!! The chapter ends with another character room, this time for Hiruma. I'm also putting Kurita's here, which was at the end of chapter 2 but didn't manage to squeeze in.

Page 1 Kurita Ryoukan 2nd Year Deimon Devilbats #77 Power: ***** Speed: * Technique: ** [upper corner: "My refrigerator" bottom left: "Bookshelf-- bursting with American Football magazines" bottom center: "Weights over 100kg"] Page 2 Hiruma Youichi 2nd Year Deimon Devilbats #1 Power: ** Speed: ** Technique: *****

When I read this manga for the first time back in highschool, I was SO frustrated that it just showed the club room instead of Hiruma's bedroom. Ngl I still feel a little cheated, but I guess they had to maintain that gremlin mystique somehow 😔

(Also join me as I puzzle over where the fuck Kurita keeps his futon.... 🤔)

------------

I was going to cover the next chapter as well, but I think I'll just end this part here-- the next chapter is more or less when the first match starts, so I figure I'll do those together! Honestly this chunk of the story didn't have any egregious translation errors in the fanscans so there wasn't too much to comment on that front lol. Enjoy my ramblings about how much I like these early chapters, they're so charming!

[marley-manson]

Finally watched the Xena finale, thanks to the fanon episode order treating it as a midseason soft finale that gets fixed by When Fates Collide lol.

And man, it really was a hot mess. I could barely follow the plot, and many aspects were very arbitrary and like, revealed off-screen. The most hilarious of course being Xena suddenly announcing, like a minute before the end of the episode, that oh actually apparently she has to stay dead, sorry Gab, xoxo

It is VERY Xena though to have a plotline where Xena anticlimactically dies in the pre-credits scene at the beginning of part 2 and both you and the characters assume for the rest of the episode that she's going to come back to life like usual until the tragic twist lol.

Akemi was... resoundingly mediocre as one of Xena's exes. Her only personality traits were 'proto-Gabrielle' and 'wants to kill her dad.' Also like... was there incest subtext there? Like it was implied that the little creepy afterlife she was in was like, her dad's ghosts' personal brothel or something? But like I said, the plot was very hard to follow.

The themes were also a mess of course, it's been said many times but yeah ignoring the central theme of the show (atonement is pointless if you're doing good now) in favour of redemption thru death was dumb, the set up was dumb (we're blaming Xena for 40k deaths because she set a couple dudes on fire in self defense? Man at least give me an actual deliberate atrocity here), and choosing death over Gabrielle was like a dumb reverse Ides of March. Also Gabrielle just going like, 'damn okay I guess, bye forever,' was unbelievable. Even if Xena wants to backslide, I'm pretty sure Gabrielle would force her to come back to life anyway, fuck those souls. Like, it's not even clear how Xena's death helps them? Killing Akemi's evil dad again freed them from torment or whatever, who cares if they don't get avenged? What is a state of grace? How will they be lost, if she comes back to life? People go unavenged all the time, deal with it.

That said, I'd been under the impression that somehow Xena's death here contradicts the whole reincarnation thing, but I didn't get that at all? Idt there's any stipulation that she has to stay in the Japanese afterlife, just that she has to be killed and stay dead, and it does make sense since in their next lives Xena is a lot older than Gabrielle, so she should logically die a few decades earlier.

On the more positive side of things, it was very fun to see Gabrielle shining as ~the new Xena~ Love to see her kicking that one dude's ass twice, and the moment she catches the chakram is super cool. The non-Xena chakram-catch has always been framed as an 'oh shit, this woman's gonna be hardcore as hell' moment in the show so I love that they use it to show how far Gab's come.

And of course, gay gay gay homosexual gay. Like, season 6 is the point where I would say it is textual if only the show didn't go out of its way to scream "IT'S STILL AMBIGUOUS" a couple times lol (reporter's question in You Are There, fans in Soul Possession saying "yay Xena and Gabrielle are finally together" when they hear Harry and Mattie are married, eg.) "If I only had thirty seconds to live, this is how I'd want to spend them: looking into your eyes. I love you, Gabrielle." Like goddamn. I appreciate this cast and crew so much. Plus the incredibly thinly veiled makeout scene <3

Finally, while I think her chatting with Xena at the very end was meant to be more metaphorical or symbolic rather than literally Gabrielle talking to herself, it was an unfortunately funny image and a pretty terrible final scene imo. I do like the 'I hear they're in need of a girl with a chakram' reprise though, I gotta admit. Go kick some ass babe <3

And despite very much not liking that Xena dies in the finale, I would still read/watch the shit out of Gabrielle's now-single adventures as a just-as-invincible gay hero, kicking ass, fucking women without ever settling down with anyone, telling stories about Xena and becoming even more famous herself.

[archivalofsins]

OH ANGER CANCELED‐ he talked to Mikoto.

(Please like and reblog the original translation.)

Also feel free to take a gander at these as well- Milgram Timeline Translation, Interview with DECO*27 and Takuya Yamanaka on the Interactive Music Project MILGRAM -ミルグラム-, and Rochisama's Portal Timeline Translation and Interrogations as well. I will be referencing information gathered from all of these translations in order to support some points throughout this post.

The Milgram Timeline Translation is still a work in progress. So, please don't bother the people working on it for more, be patient, and respectful. Translating things takes a lot of work and effort that shouldn't go underappreciated. I'll also link these again when I reference them as well.

With all of that out of the way today I'll be discussing Kazui's August 5, 2024 Birthday interaction.

Quick side note my anger is not canceled I was just being hyperbolic because I was excited that it was Mikoto. Milgram stop fucking foreshadowing and do the thing already challenge.

24/08/05 (Kazui’s Birthday)

Mikoto: Well, you know... I appreciate your feelings, but... I don't know what I might do, even I'm not sure myself. So, I think it's best if we're not together for a while. Besides... haha, aren't you scared <-(Point 1) Kazu-san?

Kazui: Hmm, due to my job <-(Point 2), I'm used to dealing with troubled youths. You must have your reasons. I don't feel like prying. Well, come over if you feel like it. Staying alone all the time will make you feel down. I can keep you company if you need to relieve some stress <-(Point 3).

Mikoto: Yeah... I'm not really used to relying on others, you know. How should I put it, I feel like I'm being a bother. <-(Point 1) I can't bear that feeling of being pathetic... I guess I'm being very Japanese about this, haha...

Kazui: Hmm...well that's fine. If that's easier for you, I won't force you. But you know people in their twenties are still kids (Point 3). It's admirable that you're hard on yourself, but I think it's okay to cause a bit of trouble for others. After all I'm nearly forty <- (Point 4) and I'm still a kid at heart.

Point One: Scary & Bothersome

In this timeline interaction we overhear Mikoto state his discomfort with asking others for help. He states that he has a difficult time relying on others because he doesn't want to be a bother.

This is an issue alluded to through both of his music videos,

MeMe

"You don’t have to keep it in and hide it away “I” will save “me”."

Double

"I’ve got you, leave it to me."

"Welcome home, another day, another day with that hardly barely there of a smile. Keeping things at bay, you’re doing your best “No, I need to do more…”, say what? You’re gonna break."

"Oh, hello? Mom? It’s been a while Yeah… well, I mean, some days are hard, but… I’m doing alright, don’t worry- How’ve you been? I’ll go home next time I get some time off."

First Trial Written Interrogation

Q.16 What’s your relationship like with your parents?

Mikoto: My parents are divorced. I get along well with my mother though, she’s the one who raised me I don’t want to make her worry.

That he can't,

"Bear that feeling of being pathetic."

MeMe

"If I could laugh, if I could go back I’d play dead even though I’m alive right?"

Double

"Hey now, I saved you, right? So why in the hell are you crying? Cling to me, hoist me up as your “savior”, stand up and sing out your gratitude, that’d be good." - "Hey, I just wanted to save you, so why did it come to this? Cling to me, hoist me up as your “savior”, stand up and sing out your gratitude, so why."

Being pathetic-

Mikoto asking Kazui if he's not scared of him also mirrors how Kotoko asks Mu if she's afraid of her in the timeline interaction prior to this one,

20/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)

Muu: Muu thinks it's all Kotoko's fault in the end. Because Kotoko went on a rampage, everyone's desperate. They're not paying much attention to Muu. Somehow, it's boring. I don't get it.

Kotoko: ... Did you come all the way here just to tell me that? Aren't you afraid of me? Next time, my fangs might be directed at you.

Muu: Why? Kotoko punishes bad people, right? Muu isn't bad. Besides, hehe, you're talking like you're fine, but aren't you the one who won't be forgiven, Kotoko? What will you do then? Will you bite yourself? Hehe, that's interesting. I'd like to see that.

Kotoko: ...You're good at provocation. I'm praying that you won't be forgiven. When that time comes, I'll thoroughly crush you.

Continuing their parallels.

These are all the reasons why on the surface everything Mikoto said here would come off as just the usual. Like of course he'll be this way it's how he's always been. Yet there's a bit of weirdness to this as well.

The issues with his behavior here begin to reveal themselves when we take into consideration how he's interacted with everyone up until this point in comparison.

For example let's take into consideration how Mikoto has acted towards Kotoko over the course of the portal timeline,

20/05/27 This is Rochi's translation and the link goes to their page. The timelines listed here will be their's unless stated otherwise.

Haruka: Haa…… haa…… Haa…… Ah…… Um…… Ko-Koto-Kotokotoko-san……

Kotoko: ……what?

Haruka: Eek…… eh, um……! I-I! I’m sorry! ……I-I’ll see you later……!

Kotoko: ……what was that about? This is the third time.

Mikoto: Oh~ Koto-chan, you’re here. The guard was complaining earlier that you never answered their call.

Kotoko: Huh? ……I never heard about anything like… Haruka……!?

An individual Mikoto has been hounding to partner up with him since the series started,

20/07/01

Mikoto: Hey, hey, Koto-chan. I’ve been thinking this ever since I first heard your name, but don’t you think the names “Mikoto” and “Kotoko” kinda sound like siblings?

Kotoko: No.

Mikoto: Don’t say that! Let’s get along well from here on as the Koto-Koto combo!

Kotoko: I’m not doing that.

Mikoto has been bothering Kotoko incessantly from the start with little regard to her feelings on his behavior but he's suddenly worried about being a bother now?

Kazui even cited their possible team up as being an issue for Milgram as a whole.

Stating,

"Ah… yeah. Like back when he went out of control, right? I can't quite read him, though… If both of them were to attack us, it's possible that we'd suffer a total defeat." A total defeat? "If that happens, this prison game would probably come to an end as well. All of that depends on your judgment, right, Guard-kun? Who will be forgiven by you and who won't be…"

Voice Drama Translation Transcript

That this prison game would come to an end if Kotoko and Mikoto teamed up. This makes Kazui approaching Mikoto on his birthday and offering to help him seem like a calculated action. Well more so his attempt at dissuading Mikoto from teaming up with Kotoko and get him on his own side.

This is Kazui actively attempting to mitigate a possible problem that he actively warned the guards about. In the hopes that the audience and Es would have continued to vote Mikoto guilty. Now he's left to try to stop this potential crisis.

Kazui never once complained about Mikoto's more standoffish and isolated behavior during this trial. This is the first time he's attempted to reach out and it's seems to be when Mikoto himself has settled down for the most part. Even though he is still rightfully worried about what he may possibly do.

But with the possibility of Mikoto beginning to socialize again and possibly continuing his attempts to collaborate with Kotoko it makes sense for Kazui to kind of want to get ahead of that if he can. Especially since he's stated that Mikoto is an individual he has trouble reading and getting a general idea of.

Even if it weren't for those things he'd still have a vested interest in intervening in any possible team up Mikoto could have with Kotoko. Simply because Mikoto has been having conversations like this,

20/08/03

Mikoto: By the way, Koto-chan. Who’s stronger between you and Kazu-san? <-(Point 1) You both know martial arts, right?

Kotoko: ……if it was a fair one-on-one fight <-(Point 1), probably Kazui.

Futa: Isn’t that obvious? What a stupid question. There’s no way a girl could win in a fight against a man. This is real life, not a manga. There’s too big a difference in body size. And that’s what determines the weight of your attacks.

Kotoko: ……Futa’s not entirely wrong there. In a lot of martial arts, they specifically split up divisions based on body weight for that reason. I’m bantam, and he’d probably be either cruiser or heavy. Well, I’d still break an arm or two though.

Blatantly discussing in the open whether or not Kotoko could take Kazui on her own. Kotoko even stating that in a fair one-on-one fight she wouldn't be able to. However, in a two on one unfair fight those odds change a lot and that may be the sort of fight Mikoto is interested in. Because he's not interested in playing nice with Kazui even though he's very cordial here.

If Kazui overheard this as well his concerns about Mikoto possibly teaming up with Kotoko in the second voice drama would be more than reasonable.

Because it seems like the only reason Mikoto wants to team up with her despite admitting,

Q.12 What do you think about Kotoko?

Mikoto: I don't like her.

Is just to beat the shit out of this one man. I don't know why- Hell, honestly I don't really care why simply because it's funny that this may have been a long term goal of his. I don't believe this to be a leap because why else would he be asking Kotoko who would win between her and Kazui? Sure it's a casual way of broaching that topic but it's perfectly reasonable to ask why the topic needed to broached.

Does that make sense?

I'm curious as to why he was curious about this. I also don't think it's a leap to assume he might want to jump him given he's paired with the prisoner who jumps people and we've seen him sneak attacking people in his own mv as well.

Plus, again he certainly hasn't worried about being a bother to Kotoko. He's done nothing but bother her. Here's the timelines to prove it.

21/08/13 (Mikoto’s First Trial)

Mikoto: Ugh… ow, ow…… Ahh, first I get stepped on, then I get kicked, what even is this……

Kotoko: ……welcome back. How was it?

Mikoto: Ah, Koto-chan, I’m back. Honestly, where do I even start!? Just look at this lump on my head! It’s huge! I don’t even remember what happened, but this is violence!

Kotoko: Hm… How unfortunate.

20/10/07 (Mikoto’s Birthday)

Mikoto: ■■…… gh…… Gah…… ■■…… aaa…… nh…… ■…… ■■■■■……!!

Kotoko: …………hm. Have you finally calmed down? Kayano Mikoto.

Kotoko: ………… So you want me to wish you a happy birthday <-(Point 1)? I don’t really mind, but is that really something for you to be saying to me?

Mikoto: You’re the last person I need to have the whole group <-(Point 1). If there was just one person left it’d be bugging me all night and I’d never get to sleep, right? At times like this you have to abandon your pride and just say something, right~?

Kotoko: Ok, here you go. Happy birthday. ……if this is what will help you sleep soundly.

Mikoto: Oh, thanks! Now I don’t need to worry~

22/12/15 (Kotoko’s Birthday)

Mikoto: Ah, Koto-chan. It’s been a while. Both of us have kinda split off from the group, but how’ve things been? <-(Point 1) A lot’s happened, but for now let’s try to get along. I mean, it’s your birthday today, right? I got the feeling nobody else was going to do anything, so I came to celebrate <-(Point 1).

Kotoko: ……how carefree. It doesn’t matter, a villain like you won’t be forgiven next time either. And when that time comes, it’ll be the end for you. I’ll make sure of it myself.

Mikoto: Ahh?? Just try and do it, you nutjob. I’ll crush anyone who hurts me…… You’re gonna be totally beaten at your own game……! [TN: The word “me” here uses first person pronoun “boku”.]

Kotoko: Hm. The border between the two is getting a lot vaguer. Your entire existence is a crime. <-(Point 1) And I will see you’re punished for it. That is what Milgram, and Es, and I have chosen.

That's the whole reason Kotoko says this in her first trial written interrogation,

Q.14  Are there any prisoners you don’t get on with?

Kotoko: Mikoto. He’s loud and bothersome.

Okay well how do we know Mikoto dislikes Kazui to the extent that he would want to jump him. Hey, wasn't this a birthday timeline weird? Wasn't it missing something? Man I couldn't imagine what-

Oh, wait birthday wishes? Just like Mu's when she spoke to Kotoko who instead of wishing her a happy birthday threatened to kill her and hoped she got voted guilty.

Well, it's not like there's any evidence that Mikoto is someone who cares deeply about birthdays or even a statement that tells us Kazui has wished him Happy Birthday before himself that would be-

I'll stop fucking around let's get into it,

From Mikoto's Birthday 2020,

"You’re the last person I need to have the whole group."

Mikoto gets upset at Kotoko in his first birthday timeline because she is the only person out of everyone in Milgram not to wish him Happy Birthday. Meaning Kazui very much to Mikoto's own admission wished him a happy birthday.

Next his birthday from 2021,

21/10/06 (Mikoto’s Birthday)

Mikoto: ……ah, Futa? What’s up? Did you come to celebrate my birthday?

Futa: Hah!? Like I care about your birthday. ……what’s up with you, though, you’re usually a lot more excited. I thought you were the sort of idiot who’d make a big deal over your birthday.

Mikoto: Yeah, usually that’d be the case. ……I think I must be getting tired. It’s like I’m anxious over something but I can’t really explain what it is…… Like, the feeling that I’ve been totally wrong about something. Haha, but it’s not like talking to you about it is gonna do anything.

Futa: Yeah, yeah, just like you say. Talking to me about it isn’t gonna help. ……but, it’s not like I don’t get what you’re saying. Or rather, I understand exactly what you mean. And if it’s the same thing as I’ve been feeling, then it will just get stronger as time goes on...... probably. But anyway, rather than talking to someone like me you should go and bother the others. Go and get showered with their stupid birthday wishes.

Futa highlights that Mikoto has a habit of making a big deal out of his birthday like Mahiru and Mu do. Mikoto doesn't deny this either blatantly admitting yeah he makes a big deal out of his birthday and he usually would be doing so but he's a bit tired. Because that trial one verdict is hitting.

Futa even tells him he should go and bother the others and get showered with their stupid birthday wishes. Implying that he in fact did bother everyone else for birthday wishes the previous year as well and that's how he got birthday wishes from everyone. Yes he even bothered the child if what this is implying is correct.

But wanna know something funny?

The only person that Mikoto has wished a happy birthday to consistently is Kotoko. This is quite literally the first birthday interaction he's appeared in outside of his own and Kotoko's and he didn't even wish this man happy birthday. That's how little he knows or cares about Kazui.

He doesn't even know todays his birthday or- Well, I'll save that for another point.

Point 2: Occupation

This one is shorter than part one but should be interesting as well.

"Hmm, due to my job, I'm used to dealing with troubled youths."

Okay, this could mean a lot of things but for the sake of clarity and knowing when to take L's when necessary I'm going to view this as confirmation that Kazui is in fact a cop first. Now before I go into a long tangent about why I would personally dislike him being a cop let's actually discuss the facts.

Why do I believe this statement can be interpreted as alluding to the idea of Kazui being a cop as accurate. Well in all honesty it doesn't have to mean that but ignoring the possible elephant in the room isn't going to help anyone. Plus I have a duty to myself to not ignore the information laid right in front of me even if I don't like it. Because if one makes a habit of running from reality they'll only be running in the opposite direction of their own possible happiness all of their life.

First off Kazui in the translation states that due to his job he has experience with dealing with troubled youths. Troubled youths here could also mean violent youths.

Taking into consideration the definition of the term DoctorBunny sent to me,

As we know also from DoctorBunny the police division associated with Kazui's armband is,

Department 1/捜査一課 Check out his post on the armband

Which deals with,

[deals with murder, robbery, assault, abduction/kidnapping, false imprisonment, sex crimes and arson ] of the 刑事部 Keijibu the Japanese dept. of criminal affairs

Now all of this showcases that the division he was depicted as serving under would deal with some violent youths around Mikoto's age. This supports the framing that he's a cop. It really is that simple if the facts align they just align.

Now there are some things that once given this subtle confirmation cease to make sense in hindsight. Including Kazui stating,

Q.04 Are your family proud of you?

Kazui: Nope. They probably don’t consider me anything more than an embarrassment.

and in his second interrogation stating,

Q.10 What was your father’s job?

Kazui: He was a policeman. It seems he’d always wanted me to be one too.

However, this can be easily explained away by assuming he became a police officer but did something that led to him being fired or let go. Not only ruining his name but his familial name as well. He doesn't say that his family used to be proud of him and they just consider him a disappointed now though.

While in other instances he does make statements that allude to things being new developments,

Q.13 Who do you want to see right now?

Kazui: They won’t see me anymore.

Q.09 Tell us your family structure.

Kazui: It’s only me now.

Which makes it sound as though he's been a disappointment to his family for a while. It also just makes a lot of his narrative odd in hindsight unless put under a certain framing.

Specifically due to his glitched voice lines,

"Er, so…… could you listen to what I say without laughing? I…… Hinako, I love you more than anything. I'm so dumb… Why did I have to dream."

Now no one else's glitched voice lines have been lies. So taking out of consideration any new voice lines being revealed trial three because I can't know what is not yet known. It'd be difficult for me to believe that Kazui's glitched voice lines are lies when none of the the prisoners glitched voice lines have been lies so far.

Plus even if one does want to believe that he's lying about loving Hinako here that would ignore the framing of his entire first song. Or be due to someone reframing it to discuss a yet to be seen third party such as with the prominent gay theory.

Now I don't speculate about fictional characters sexualities. I just write what I like to write. I don't enjoy writing speculation on that because my own sexuality was put under scrutiny through most of my adolescent life and I know it's not fun from first hand experience. So, I don't like doing that. But for the sake of positing a third solution let's say that Kazui likes men and women for the time being.

Because I don't want this to come off like I'm taking shots at a wildly popular theory that I care nothing about.

So, under this hypothetical scenario where Kazui is attracted to both males and females. Let's hypothetically say the female he was attracted to was Hinako as he says in the glitched voice line,

"Hinako, I love you more than anything."

Let's pretend for ten seconds this voice line is a true statement- Can we all play house for a minute?

This would align with his cover song Cowardly Montblanc.

A song specifically about being afraid to tell someone that you've known for a long time that you like them. That also has the added benefit of implying the singer is referring to a work acquaintance at that-

"When we meet to discuss our contract- Once again, I go on falling into you."

Also for clarity's sake I'll put down all the lyrics from Cowardly Montblanc and there Half equivalents,

"These are all the feelings I have; I’ll only say them in this many words. I loved you, but it was a heavy burden. Is that all there is?"

All this time till now has hurt me, the scales of my heart has decided to sway. If continuing to hide is called unhappiness- Not even one word will get to you.

Who was it that I loved again? All that time I spent whiled away, and you disappeared into invisibility, even though we should still be touching.

Please tell me what I should do, my heart will float away and disappear. If I were to make sure and suffer, I would rather be by your side. Laughing together, side by side, this distance in our relationship is misleading me, is this what happiness is? Where did I go wrong, probably from the beginning.

If I completely forget you, my reflection will disappear.

The curse of reuniting with you puts a dagger in my heart. I imagined that you saying "See you" is the same as "It's over”. Only if your heart would change but that’s not possible. Please tell me what I should do, feelings shrouded in lies will float away and disappear. I could try you, and also try to touch you but you probably won’t notice. I understand that this love is out of bounds, so nothing has to change. All these memories and you- Only if I could erase them.

Put me under anesthesia. My face flushes at your inside voice. I can’t turn back time, so even the truth is okay. I'm gonna get scared again.

I’m sure nothing will change and we’ll laugh together and call each other stupid names. So many things I wish I hadn't known, I'm just a coward. What I gave up a long time ago why is it questioning me now? So many things that I should now have known, I'm just a coward.

This mont blanc tastes of sugar. Barefoot as I am, I want to indulge in your sweetness.

Laughing together, side by side, this distance in our relationship is misleading me, is this what happiness is?

“I wish you’d just hurry up and die!”

"All these memories and you. Only if I could erase them.

Kazui's official commissioned fanart is also just her ghost lingering over him. Staining him red in areas too.

Just never listen to a English cover of Cowardly Montblanc ever actually. Because that would really re-contextualize this shit for a lot of people. Because when I saw Cowardly Montblanc I was like oh shit that break up song. That song about someone refusing to be fucking turned down.

The translation "I wish you'd just hurry up and die."

The first cover to introduce me to this song ten fucking years ago,

"That's right, you're here with me now. That's right, you fade somehow. Because of that, I never can tell you just how I feel. "It would just be better if you died... ...right before my eyes"."

Though these covers are pretty good.

Even without relying on fan translation the wiki lyrics translation isn't doing him anymore favors by highlighting the one continually falling is the singer. Then turning it around at the end like you're going into me now while still highlighting the continued cowardice.

It really does highlight Kazui's mindset within Milgram well. The mindset where he believes he should have kept lying and honesty isn't worth it. Because taking the lyrics of Cowardly Montblanc in any version is just like yeah no actually yeah lie. Cowardly Montblanc is literally the and we never spoke the truth again song.

While quelling my doubts by thinking, “Even the truth is okay,” I was wishing for it all to be a lie. Because I worked out the consequences, and I was still a cowardly mont blanc, after all. You’re going into me so we can repeat this ad nauseam. I’ll gasp out any response to that I can think of.

Cowardly Montblanc is the "truth hurts" song. Half is the follow up where Kazui goes,

"I should've committed harder. I should have lived and breathed the bit."

For almost four whole minutes.

Going if I could have just kept lying maybe you'd still be here. Which aren't words that a man who doesn't care deeply about someone else would commit to.

Yet he's said it rather consistently,

Q.18 Do you regret your “murder”?

Kazui: I regret it. I wish I could’ve just kept lying.

And the prisoners can lie in their written interrogations, their voice dramas, and even imagine misleading visuals in the song extraction if they're feeling a bit fancy given After Pain. But they can't just lie in the lyrics of the song.

Like some things have to be true.

They can be sneaky sure but like there has to some facts here. Even discounting all of Kazui's first cover song it is repeated throughout Half that he wants to still be with this person and for nothing to change. He also states that he regrets his actions elsewhere but literally that is all of Half.

Even in Cat he's says it's much better to be a let down to someone else than get let down. Which implies that he's been let down before and did not enjoy it.

Plus you don't say,

"Maybe, perhaps... or... could it come true... like- It’s for the sake of true love, who wouldn’t lie for that?"

He even spells it out right here it's for the sake of true love who wouldn't lie for that and the only person he's been displayed lying for, wanting to lie for, or regretting not lying for is Hinako. Which in retrospect makes that one blank answer from his trial two interrogation so much more fucking funny.

Q.11 Did you love the person you killed?

Kazui who has spelled out that he did as much as he can, "Interesting well you people clearly can't read. So, I don't even have to dignify this with a response."

Who wouldn't lie for true love? I guess he lied because he didn't love her-

Kazui: ... (Hinako, I love you more than anything.)

Okay but what does this have to do with the cop thing? Well the thing is if he is a cop then what about his life was wrong? Like what led to this murder. He got the job his father wanted him to have, married the woman he loved to his own admission. Everything should have been fine right? Well, ya know there's this funny thing that cops do for jobs.

Sometimes they go undercover with other cops even have to play house and fake a relationship for the job. This is discussed when cops marry unknowing civilians but they can also do this with other cops and they will both hopefully know it's just work. It's just business. Now I personally think it would be hilarious if Kazui actually liked Hinako and caught feelings over the course of cover work but she was just here like uninterested.

Because it would explain the misleading distance in their relationship. Why they seem to just be playing house in Half. Why we've never seen the inside of said house outside of the set of that play. Using the ring like any of the other props in his arsenal. All of that would be explained if they were actually doing undercover work. But it's not like the only solution I mean she could've dumped him maybe she wanted the divorce then what.

Who am I to say. He could have very much still liked her and she could have just lost interest over time. Then that scene where they're talking off stage is her just trying to let him down gently who are we to say that he wasn't the one dumped here. Everyone else in this series who has had a relationship of any kind has gotten kicked to the fucking curb he is not special.

Kazui is out here like,

"Love (plus) Destiny = Crap, smash it, shatter it, bye-bye." then five seconds later- "To be caressed by you, that would be perfection."

Come on, I mean come on.

Now this next thing is just me being bullheaded because I typed it all up and I don't want to erase it. So have fun with this mini rant about why I think Kazui being a cop would be boring.

*Beginning of Rant*

This would be a boring outcome to me. Because I've already read two other cops written by Yamanaka and to say the least I wasn't impressed by either. I was slightly impressed by the first one but that had to do with a myriad of things disconnected to his status as a cop and he stopped being one by the end of the narrative. I don't even want to talk about Shota even though I understand his issue intimately when it comes to living by a strict ruleset and being greatly insecure when it comes to making decisions for himself due to trauma.

Long story short everything decent about either of those characters were due to aspects outside of them being cops and mostly good character writing in general. The cop angle was actually rather cliché and if I had to take it a step further I'd say it was trite. If those characters existed as stories in Omniscent Reader Persephone would send them back- Okay, I'll stop being salty like they wouldn't be. Because if they were on Persephone's plate I'm certain they'd lack flavor. Wait I have one more Jackalope called Mikoto mass produced goods but honestly with how many cops Yamanaka has written I'd say that'd be Kazui.

Okay I'm done. For real this time.

I'm personally hoping he can hit a happy medium with Kazui but given what I've seen previously I'm doubtful for sure. It's like if I kind of liked the first course, and I kind of hated the second course but was even more mad that outside of that one aspect this character was really good... It's my hands are tied I can't lie about my preferences my standards here are high my first experiences with cops in anime were Detective Conan and the file You're Under Arrest in elementary school.

He's not topping that my standards are too high I can admit that. Do you know how many cop shows I watched regularly I watched ID discovery religiously in high school. Kazui would have to do something impressive for me to not go ahn regular cop shit. That's on a narrative level.

The secondary thing is if I thought he was a cop I would've voted this man guilty on principle. All cops are bastards isn't just a fun acronym it's a state of mind for me. If I find out someone is a cop they tank in favorability as they should. Cops have never helped me. I don't doubt that they've helped someone but like not me. Like literally one my earliest memories are cops handcuffing my mom and sister in our home.

And then to add insult to injury I found out later those cops were sent by my cousin because he fucking hates my mom and he was a cop at the time. He told me this he had no shame about it I wasn't even holding it against him really. That was a back and forth situation between my mom's family and my dad's. That's a situation where I can fully say every party involved was wrong to an extent. So he had his buddies do that because that's how cops are in my experience. I don't know how they are in anyone else's life but that's mine.

I am acutely aware of the shit cops have and can still get away with it. When cop is added to Kazui it tells me personally that the sky isn't the limit with crime anymore the limit is space depending on how high up he is he can get away with anything and they'd just retire him. The last thing I would want do is help a cop that's my personal line. I mean I like Kazui personally he's a fun and chill guy. I'm nothing if not flexible it's just really a cop? Out of every occupation... Like it doesn't matter how sad or pathetic his life is or who wanted him to be a cop. At the end of the day he's a cop he's good. I think Milgram is actually the only place that could reprimand him in all honesty unless he was also in a Shota situation then the public will do it.

Then as we went over- being a cop runs in his fucking family! So his father has police connections and others cop would want to help him simply because they are on good terms with his father. I'm not going to destroy his reputation or anything. Him being a cop and his father being a cop should be just as bad as Mu's dad being a landlord. It should be worse actually!

Cops are who your landlord calls when they evict you. They are the people who make sure you get gone, sometimes not peacefully, and other time permanently. Like those jokes in Class of 09 these ones it's funny in the context of a fictional scenario but cops can just be like this and that's actually fucking terrifying.

Like it is not fun for me to personally consider Kazui being a cop. Hits a bit too close to home. It is actually quite stressful. I'm not going to hold you I can't say if I would have voted this man guilty solely for being a cop if I thought about the implications of him being one more during his second trial but it definitely would have made me uncomfortable enough not to vote after the knee-jerk reaction subsided. Oh but not all cops- I don't give a shit he's already killed his wife this is like the specific sort of cop people talk about when they refer to bad ones. So he doesn't even get that statement to cover his ass.

He is already in here for murder. I don't know I need to know more in this case. Mostly because even though I do get rightfully upset by this sort of thing I'm not trying to be someone who is completely led by impulse. Yet, since people have proven they're down for a police state as long as people they like are in charge with Kotoko I'm not surprised people didn't touch on it as much as I personally would have and have done here.

I live in the US though you're not about to hear me defend someone for being a cop. I'm kind of pissed this show tricked me into defending one at all. It does not matter what the cops sexuality or ethnicity is to me. They're a fucking cop. Yeah not every cop is bad but the police system is a systemic failure. So, regardless of how many good cops go in they either don't stay good cops or they die. Because it's a systemic failing founded on taking advantage of the vulnerable and underprivileged. Kazui could have been a great cop that would not change how policing is done we can't put the ills of systems on individuals. That's what Shota's story was about.

Yes people can do more harm under flawed systems. Yet, the only real harms they can mitigate while working under a flawed system the ones they themselves could have committed. Plus cops turn on other cops all the time predominantly female ones which we see in Kazui's story. So it just gets worse the more it's looked at fully which is considerably not good.

*End of rant*

Point 3: Everyone's a Child to a Real Adult & Proper Stress Relief

"But you know people in their twenties are still kids"

Kazui views everyone in Milgram as a child. Because he is the oldest here. Regardless of how many people who are legally adults try to compare themselves to him in seniority he is not interested. This is a mindset you get the older you are.

The older you are the older your definition of children gets. To my dad who is eighty being immature or young includes people up to their seventies. This has nothing to do with shipping this is literally how adult mindsets work. What one defines as young is colored by the bias they gain through their lived experiences.

For example I think being twenty five is pretty young. I wouldn't consider it a child right now like that's a young adult. Yet that's because right now twenty-five for me is four years ago. Imagine like in two more decades when twenty-five for me is now twenty-four years ago. Or even just when I'm thirty five and it was ten years ago.

Right now I currently believe I'm much more mature than the person I was one year ago. The me of ten years ago is a child to me. That me was only nineteen. That's a fucking baby I didn't know shit at nineteen I didn't think I knew everything either. God I wish I had that confidence I did not. I barely knew how to use the internet. Because I was pretty much raised without using most the social features and then thrown into it. Man I was kind like Futa back then actually.

I caused my fair share honestly. Man but when you're that age ya know it's good to be cocky. At that age you're figuring yourself out. See I'm doing it right now! That is my point 23 was over a decade ago for Kazui fucking Shidou's age is exactly a decade ago from Kazui. I recently had a short relationship with two people three and four years my senior and the experience quite literally made me want to kill myself.

Like legit I tried multiple times. I'm not joking. Because it was infantilizing. Constantly it was a consistent form of demeaning disrespect and mistreatment. Sometimes I wish people the best and I still do- The best of everything but it's hard. It truly is difficult to not see someone younger than you as beneath in some way or someone older than as condescending and kind of uppity.

Be it as inferior intellectually, less understanding, or just less independent for a myriad of reasons. Which is already something I'm personally self-conscious about already. Now imagine having someone around who simultaneously treats you like a child and the only adult in the room. And that was my October of last year until now.

So I was kind of applauding when Kazui called Mikoto a child. When he said people in their twenties are still children. Because I could feel the way that Mikoto had to hold in a cringe in the text. Like kind of temper himself and I thought I know how he must be feeling right now. To be an adult but not really to have a job to feel like one of the oldest here and have that bubble just popped by Kazui like you're a kid too.

He must be fuming on the inside right now. He must be wondering what gave him that impression were the nicknames too childish is it how I talk. What gave him this impression that I was just some pathetic misguided youth that needs a father figure right now?! What made him think that and if I could put this man in the ground right now ooo mother fucker. Come up to me with this shit on his fucking birthday you must think you're such big man huh.

I'm nearly forty but I'm a child heart hello fellow kids ass son of a bitch. Oh I'm Kazui Mukuhara if you can just beg for my help real quick because you clearly need it- You need a crack upside the back of your fucking skull, fuck you. I said it before and I'll say it again,

"“I” will save “me”."

If I wanted help I'd ask you condescending son of a- get out go! Leave I've turned you down- Away with you! What came out instead,

"Well, you know... I appreciate your feelings, but... I don't know what I might do, even I'm not sure myself. So, I think it's best if we're not together for a while. Beside... haha, aren't you scared Kazu-san?"

And he's just gonna keep talking like I'm gonna change my mind yep there he goes. Mm, hm...uh huh. You gotta be polite it's just one of those days. This conversation will end eventually.

Mikoto's Second Voice Drama

"It's pretty tough, isn't it? Ahaheheh... There's been so many things beyond my comprehension since I got here." ... You really... do laugh when you're suffering, huh? "Huh?" You don't get angry. You don't scream. You laugh, like it's a minor inconvenience. "Ah... I guess so. I might have that kind of trait." ... "If you just laugh and pretend, usually things will work out in the end, right? I'm pretty good at that making things work out to the best of my abilities." Is that so... "Eheheh... But... It's not coming to an end. All of this."

"So, I think it's best if we're not together for a while. Besides... haha, aren't you scared Kazu-san?"

That brings us to the second point.

"If you need to relieve some stress."

As we discussed before the troubled youths thing can also mean violent youths. So it seems like the stress relief being referred to here is friendly sparring to make sure that Mikoto doesn't end up lashing out again. Though Mikoto seems to be warry about sparring Kazui because again he does not know what he will do. Taking his statement at face value here instead of just saying it's because he dislikes Kazui.

It's a reasonable excuse to give. I don't know what I'd do or even my own strength so I think sparring with you would be irresponsible. Is a completely reasonable response to that sort of offer even if Kazui is just trying to help. Like over all this is a very polite conversation. Despite the undertones which I am appreciating.

Kazui even tells Mikoto he can just come talk to him in general because being alone can be difficult. Which we've seen Mikoto have difficulties with how isolated he's become on his last birthday,

23/10/06 (Mikoto’s Birthday) This translation was done by Maristelina but some parts explaining personal pronouns have been omitted check out the link to see those!

Mikoto: Is it true… There’s really another me?  These tattered clothes, and scaring everyone, it’s all because of him. They say I'm a murderer... Isn't it unreasonable to expect me to believe that?

Mikoto: Can you hear me talking like this?  If you can hear me, then answer me. Why are you doing such horrible things? Hey. It's your fault things have become like this. ……Answer me!!

Mikoto: Ah, ahhh!! Because, I did it for your sake…! Because you would break apart!!

Mikoto: What am I doing...? There's no way you'll conveniently give me an answer. I should just stop thinking about everything already...I'm tired......

So, yeah it was just a nice offer not much else to say.

I mean I could go over why it's kind of weird that Mikoto is hesitant to take him up on it. Especially since they were in a smoking club before, he talked about hobbies with him, etc. So it's just generally a good offer but instead of the whole he may want to jump him thing, Mikoto just might genuinely be concerned about what he may do. I mean I'm not against considering that.

It's just I can simply imagine if anyone else gave him this offer he might have jumped on it. I don't know maybe if Kotoko said this.

Point 4: Nearly Forty

Um excuse me what do you mean nearly you were thirty-nine at the beginning of 2020 and you turned forty that year. You had a birthday and everything. So you should be like forty-four today. Weird for you to say nearly forty.

Well, Gunsli you see if they believe they're not aging then-

Then why the fuck celebrate the birthdays? Habit? For fun. I mean clearly not everyone is celebrating it's not like Mikoto wished Kazui happy birthday here or like Kotoko wished Mu a happy birthday in the timeline before this one.

Well if we just believe that they're not aging because they're either dead or in stasis like in Caligula Effect-

Comment from Yamanaka May 16, 2020

"I apologize for posting 2 days in a row. This is Takuya Yamanaka. I realized that there's something essential that I need to clarify to ensure everyone can enjoy Milgram fairly, "so I picked up the pen again." That is, there is no connection between the fictional universes of Milgram, DECO*27, and Takuya Yamanaka's other works. For example, the girl from past DECO*27 songs or that person from Caligula... There are no such connections. Milgram is a completely new world created in collaboration between DECO*27 and I. So, you can dive into this content without needing any previous knowledge of our past works. Enjoy it from the start!! Thank you for your understanding and support."

Yeah two separate worlds. A bit of a bummer not too surprising though. It just would have been so much fun.

A lot of writers have narrative tells or habits. Where even when something is completely new it will have similarities to their previous works that end up standing out to those who engaged with said other works. However, those previous works shouldn't overshadow what a creator is making now.

It's pretty similar to how when Hao came out a lot of people compared the sound to Salamander. Every creator has certain sounds or themes that just tickles them the right way or they simply enjoy exploring. So there are similarities between Milgram and Caligula that are bound to crop up from time to time. Like Yamanaka's writing of cops- I'm sorry I won't bring it up again.

Outside of that Caligula Effect Overdose is a game that covers murderers extensively. So much so that it's wide range social network involves several classes that have been involved in one murder or another. The second couldn't be further from Milgram as it more so focuses on rehabilitation while growing to better work with and trust others.

Something Milgram itself and the staff have stated the series is not about. However with that bit of concrete information given to us we can stop with the comparisons and start cracking into the world of Milgram proper.

So before we get into age let's talk about the concrete things we know about Milgram as a world.

It canonically has twitter and Jackalope is on it,

April 28, 2020 Jackalope Announcement

"Hey, have you been waiting patiently? I'm gonna explain what you guys are gonna do next. ... Wait for May 1st, 7:00 PM. I'll personally teach you all about Milgram. Well, until then, get others involved in Milgram. We need to think about 'sin'... Various thoughts and sensibilities are necessary. You understand, right? ... And there are those on Twitter who dare to call me a rabbit. I remember your profile pictures..."

This is written in the character of Jackalope and we see Futa using Twitter in Bring It On. So, this is just canon. It's not big news or anything. It's just funny to note.

This is also something that differentiates it from Caligula Effect as the main social network used in that is called Gossiper.

We also know that the timelines have been compared to tweeting.

May 25, 2020 Jackalope Announcement

"Starting today, we'll synchronize the voices within Milgram to your devices. In simpler terms, it means the prisoners will start tweeting on the timeline too. Just so you know, your comments won't be visible or audible to them. Think of it as one-sided eavesdropping. Well, that means you can say whatever you like without any worries. Remember, the only way you can interact with them is through Es. That's the fundamental rule of Milgram. You'll understand more about this eventually. Don't worry, I'm here, watching all of you."

Comments on the app won't be heard by the prisoners because the only way the audience can communicate with them is through Es. This means nothing said on the app can be heard by the prisoners. Information posted elsewhere like on Twitter or YouTube can be heard but to what extent is unknown.

The implication from these statements is that Jackalope oversees the Twitter. Because he bluntly implies such multiple times and even compares the timeline to the characters tweeting. There's yet to be an implication that Es hears what the audience is saying through Twitter. However it has been implied that the theories are being filtered to Es through other means.

This makes it seem as though all of the information sent to the Milgram platforms is being filtered for Es. Since Jackalope says the prisoners can't hear us here but not that Es can't. So, anything pertaining to the prisoner's crimes/the audience's speculations regarding the prisoner's sins may be sent to Es to overlook and consider while the things not pertaining to that are ignored. Just like with how the Prisoner Interrogation Questions are filtered and chosen by management.

Note that I said "prisoner's sins" there with the intent of referring to sins generally. That is because things outside of the prisoners murders can be considered sins by the wider audience. For example how the audience considered lying or getting a divorce Kazui's sin or how the audience interpreted Yuno's sin as abortion even though many people rightfully wouldn't conflate abortion with murder.

These sins were in fact filtered to Es who stated that they had the impression that abortion could be Yuno's crime because the audience told them it could. Same with the idea that Kazui's crime was sexual in nature as again the audience told Es that Kazui's crime was related to sexuality. How they chose to interpret those things only speaks to Es as a character.

However, the prisoners will only know what Es themselves communicates with them when it comes to the audiences personal feelings regarding them.

This is something highlighted by the fact that Yuno says this in her second voice drama,

Hm…well then, should I tell you what I heard the voices saying in my head?

"Because she's pitiable.” “There's no mistake that she has some kind of reason." "She might have become like this because she had some kind of hardship in her past." "She's become like this because there's some problem in her home life—because she doesn't know love yet!"

"Because of that…I'll forgive her."

Everything that Yuno stated to overhear that Es admits to thinking about has to do with why people found her innocent.

That she's heard others debating her sin but not all the other things said about her. So the prisoners could just be hearing the statements on the crimes that have been filtered through to Es and that Es has taken into consideration. Yet, mundane things won't be considered. Unless it's related to why we voted them a certain way it won't be brought to their attention.

This is probably why Jackalope highlights it's fine to vote based on any reasoning. Although the only way that prisoners hear the voices of the audience may predominantly be through YouTube comments.

Yamanka also stated this in a translated interview,

"I came up with the idea for "MILGRAM -ミルグラム-" during a meal with DECO*27. I didn't want the suggestion to be perceived as just a polite social gesture, so I proposed the idea on the spot. Originally, I had thought of turning it into a game, but after seeing the music video for "Otome Kaibou," I was inspired to develop something that was synced with music. I found this idea more modern and interesting. The comment section of Vocaloid songs often features various people offering their interpretations and analyses of the music video. However, there's usually no way to confirm whether these interpretations are correct or not. So, I came up with the idea of providing an answer and turning it into a complete story."

So we can at least pin down that the world has similar social media platforms to the one that we reside in ourselves. That Milgram has been operating for a good while given the content from the novels. As well as that the Milgram web-series that we are engaging in tends to focus more intently on YouTube comments.

Which can explain why certain aspects of Milgram were highlighted in the first end of trial notice and in following voice dramas while other things were not.

Back to the age. This doesn't really tell us that Kazui isn't aging because he celebrated his own birthday too. So he would know his own age he just sort of lied here and Mikoto doesn't know enough about him to even tell that this is a lie. He can't really correct him or maybe he just doesn't want to. However, I doubt many people within Milgram have given the others their specific age. He could say whatever number he wants none of them would know.

We were given his age information and it's not like Es told everyone all of the other prisoners ages. So, it's just weird he said this. Because then we would have to believe Kazui who has been present for all of his birthday's since Milgram started simply can't count. It's not even that far up to count and trust me I have dyscalculia and dyslexia. I had to check his age before posting about his birthday yesterday multiple times. I still don't trust it said thirty nine and I have the page up right now.

But it says that. I don't know why he would still present himself as not being forty yet but I don't really care either. It's not the biggest lie to tell. Maybe he's embarrassed about the immense age gap between him and everyone else here. I don't know all I know is he celebrated his birthday and gave his proper age when he was interrogated first trial.

"Once again I'm Mukuhara Kazui, age thirty-nine. Nice to meet you, Warden-Kun."

Like hell I wanted to say this was because they weren't aging too. That could be fun yet that's not how him reporting his age works. Vampires can lie and say their eighteen but they still know how many years they've been alive.

This and that simply don't have that much to do with each other. This just randomly confirmed prisoners can lie about their ages and that we simply don't know how long he's been almost forty. Which is actually scarier to me. Since he came in here saying he was thrity-nine and is still presenting it as though he is despite the very clear passage of time that he was fucking involved in for four years. Right in front of all of us and everyone in that jail!

Like I don't know what to say to that it was such a casual lie. So, harmless actually. Just a blink and you'll miss it type thing. It's either that simple or for some reason he knows that their bodies aren't aging which again wouldn't change how time is mentally perceived regardless.

So even in that niche situation he'd still be fucking lying because we saw him celebrate all those birthdays and we know he can count. He knows how old he is why did he say this?!

Like bro- What?

Other than that Kazui gets to join the still a child mentally club!

23/08/05 Maristelina translation

Kazui: Hmm... well, that's fine. If that's easier for you, I won't force you. But you know, people in their 20s are still kids. It's admirable that you're hard on yourself, but I think it's okay to cause a bit of trouble for others.  After all, I'm nearly 40 and I'm still a kid at heart.

20/06/18 Rochi's translation

Kotoko: Treat you like a child? Hah, you’ve got to be kidding. Back when I was your age, I was already the person I am today. I don’t have any plans to let you get away with something just “because you’re a child.” ……remember that.

20/07/11 Rochi's translation

Shidou: ……I’m not really like that. ……that’s just what it is to be an adult. When I think back…… I don’t think much about me has changed since I was around your age. Getting older…… it doesn’t mean something drastic is going to change about you.

Alright this took literally all day I'm going to eat now.

[jamisonwritestf2trash]

what would the mercs' favourite shows/anime be? You might have done the 'shows' part before so im giving you the 'anime' option as a fresh twist ^w^ (No im not battling a double-hyperfixation of tf2 and jjba and seeking validation through mutuals why would you even think that-)

What Are The TF2 Mercs Favortie Animes?

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Oh boy it's been a hot minute since I've watched an Anime, I used to be so feral for any anime 😭

Mutual appreciation comment!!! Thank you for your asks! I love seeing them pop up, you always have really good prompts 🫶🏻

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POSSIBLE SPOILER FOR DEATH NOTE?

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Demo- Kakegurui

Did I ever mention that this man loves to gamble? Also, you cannot convince me that this man isn't super expressive when he does so. Literally is the anime. Loves how batshit insane it is. Loves getting whiplash from one episode to the next. Wasn't a fan of season two, but adores season one. Bindges, and re-bindges the show at least once a month. Just loves feeling insane when he watches an anime.

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Engie- One Punch Man.

Saw Genos and immediately went "I could build that." And doesn't elaborate. He's not gonna lie, he may or may not have tried to follow Saitama's training routine once, but threw up when he got to the running part. Don't get me wrong this man isn't weak or anything but I genuinely don't think anyone on this team can run besides Scout. Loves watching OPM because he loves how unbothered Saitama is and wishes he could be like that, and also wishes he could be as strong.

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Heavy- Your Lie In April

Loves the mix of a slice of life and melodrama. Doesn't care too much about how slow the show is. Just enjoys watching everything play out and being along for the ride. This man sobbed at the end. Couldn't believe it, well he could but he also couldn't? Even though it breaks him everytime he sees the ending, he still loves rewatching it.

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Medic- Japanese Tales of The Macabre/Parasyte

HE. LOVES. JUNJI. ITO. It'd be so wrong not to think so. He has genuinely wondered about the logistics of Layers Of Terror... be afraid of this man if he gets a curious look in his eye over any episode of this anime. He likes the books more but also loves the anime. I added Parasyte too because this man is a sucker for all types of body horror and I think Parasyte should always be mentioned. Just lord help us after this man's mind starts working when watching his favorite body horror animes. You'll here a mix of screams from the poor characters and Yippees! From Medic as he watches the horror.

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Scout- Death Note

I think this is everyone's starter anime, but it just happens to also be Scout's favorite. I can't tell if he'd think Light is a genius or insanely stupid. But that's not super important. Loves Ryuk! He'd want a death note just to have Ryuk hanging around the base. This man would be a menace if he had the death note honestly. He'd probably write his name down first just to label it, forgetting he'd die.

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Sniper- The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Man has never related to a fictional character so hard until now. Also wishes he could be perfectly average in the public eye and also has inhuman natural talents. It's not even funny how much I can imagine Sniper in this anime. He watched every season and loved them all (likes season one best though) and regularly rewatches the show when things get to stressful around him. It's his comfort show.

(Not that anyone asked but, I fucking love this anime, it's not even funny how much I love this anime I'm going feral.)

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Spy- Black Butler

Can a fictional character have a kin? Well in my mind yes. Spy kins Sebastian so fucking hard. Picked up the trait of taking his gloves off like that. Definitely share the same annoyances, living with incompetent coworkers, an annoying child, a criminally insane friend or two, you know the normal stuff! Was severely disappointed by season two. Loved everything else though.

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Soldier- Attack On Titan

I think he likes AOT because of all the Gore, blood, and fighting. I can imagine him kicking his legs and smiling all goofy while watching this. This man bindged the entire show, no doubt. Like the other mercs were genuinely worried about him. He's a mix of devastated and happy that the show hasn't ended permanently.

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Pyro- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

The insane person loves insane anime, who would have guessed? No, but genuinely, you'd think they'd have a short attention span, wouldn't be able to understand what's going on, and lose interest. Nope! Absolutely love this anime. Has probably rewatched it a million times already. Has made Engie watch this with him and utterly confused the poor Texan. Feverishly waiting for part nine.

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I hope you like this! I had to pull out my list of animes I've watched, and oh boy it made me realize how weird. Maybe? That my taste in anime is.

Also sorry its not super long or super indepth I was going off some very vague memories for a few of these!

I love you guys!