#only to literally be the reason it happens again 8D

[magnifiico]

this is a classic exploration of "an explanation for a villain's actions" as opposed to "an excuse," but

magnifico's trauma from the kingdom he lost long before ever building rosas is exactly what bleeds into his insanely severe and over-the-top reactions to insubordination of any kind. his previous kingdom fell because of an uprising: because the populace rioted, and the response turned into an outright civil war that burned the kingdom to the ground by the end of it

innocent lives lost. good people left homeless and in despair. he's never healthily recovered from the mark that left on him, and so he is prone to lashing out (and straight-up flying off the handle, jeezum crow) when anyone so much as questions him because his brain makes crazy leaps in logic: the moment anyone starts questioning their ruler, getting ideas that go against the ruler's ideas, a seed is planted that can grow into the worst possible outcome. this is precisely why (on top of sporting a massive ego) magnifico does not tolerate transgressions—even innocent ones that really shouldn't be considered a transgression

here comes the irony though: in all his efforts to prevent this from happening, he still gets a similar outcome. the people of rosas still rise up against him. a conflict breaks out because he's tried so desperately hard to stop it. self-fulfilling prophecy. ✭

[aikoiya]

I see a lot of people saying that Danny is trans or gay or some other member of the alphabet mafia & that they're reasoning involves him being half-ghost.

But, I can't help but feel like that's a very poor reason.

For one, you choose to transition. It can't be an accident unless you're coerced, but even then, a choice was made to change your body.

Like, of course you don't choose to be trans, but you do choose to go through with the actual transition itself.

Danny did not get to choose to become a half-ghost. It was an accident where he fucking died! Then he was ripped back to life!

Like, don't get me wrong. I do see the parallels of hiding a major part of yourself from your parents, but it's still not a very good comparison.

In fact, when he first did get the chance to choose, he chose to go back to being what he was before. Then, for everyone else's sake, he chose to help anyway which resulted in him becoming Phantom again, but even then, he still didn't choose to become Phantom, it just sort of happened.

The closest thing I can compare that to is a doctor botching something at the hospital like spilling acid over Danny's genitals at a young age, then he transitions the kid against his will. Danny's miserable & tries to hide this fact for 2 years because, suddenly, he's lost something of himself; before deciding for himself to detransition, then deciding to help the doctor who essentially ruined his life anyway, only to be forced back into transing again, but this time, he's just gonna give up & live with it.

That's like saying, "Transition even if you don't want to & if you detrans, we'll force you to transition again until you give up & just decide to live with the consequences!" 8D

Do you really want that to be the message of your movement?!

Like, sure, Jenny from My Life As A Teenage Robot makes sense to be trans, especially by today's standards. Why? Because she WANTS TO BE HUMAN DESPITE BEING A ROBOT BY NATURE!!

Though, I don't think anyone can rightly say she's transfem because all her mother's other XJs appeared to be female too, so why just suddenly change that?

But she actually is canonically transpecies. Literally, she's transhuman. Canonically!

Not to mention, the creator of MLaaTR went out & said that they were flattered by the comparison, making it more than okay to headcanon it!

Like, it was okay before anyway because headcanon doesn't need to follow canon. But, now it's okay to regard it as canon too!

And that's the difference! Hartman denied it, making it noncanon!

As for being gay canonically? Not once have I ever seen him be interested in a guy! He's been plenty interested in girls, but no guys in that way.

Like, I could maybe flex enough to see him as bi, but I cannot see him as gay because it doesn't make sense as far as his character goes. He likes girls. Full stop! That is canon & you can see that in the way he interacts with them!

You can say he's gay in your headcanon & I may not agree with you, but that wouldn't matter because it's your headcanon & you can do whatever you want in your headcanon! You could make him a 6 foot blue alien with purple spots if you wanted!

So, as you can see. There is a difference!

Like, it's just fine to hc these things. It isn't okay to present them as canon when they aren't though!

You can make your own opinions, but you can't make your own facts.

Truth is truth. Reality is reality. Fiction is fiction. And Danny is not trans canonically.

Like, you can't just say that the sky of Galifrey is canonically green because it's not. The skies of Galifrey are red! Canonically!

You can write a fanfiction where Galifrey's skies are green, but don't say that they're green in the show & try to pass it off as fact because they're not!

That's called lying!

As for you jerks getting onto me about Word of God. I'm an aspie! I find comfort in rules & structure & the rules are that the creator defines canon, fans define fanon, & the individual defines headcanon! By picking on me for that, you're being ableist bigots!

[nickywhoisi]

SO IT HAS BEEN A GODFORSAKENLY LONG TIME

WOW I KNOW and sadly there has just been too much to regale. A lot that would be very uncomfortable, but thank the whole entire cosmos that now I can say that, for the past few days, things have finally become steady and even a little good again. I got some motel stays to get out of this absurd heat AND IT HAS BEEN SO GOOD TO BE ABLE TO COOK AND HAVE A FRIDGE AND MILK AGAIN

I can watch some good TV, and I have finally gotten the energy back to come to terms with such slimebucket populus' mental ideas about homeless people, and how it really does not apply to me and no matter how much I can get accosted by it, I should try my best to not...automatically hate people. I mean, I still do, but I am working towards getting all my trust back. It will be a very long road there. But I also have enough energy to rekindle my love for my interests and catch up on my shows and videogames and art. I have been slowly creating and doing more, and it feels good.

I am really hoping a certain pet store does not get kicked out in place of a fucking shitty pot store. That just means to me all of the mall its in will be literally smoked out of all business, and it will all go to be destroyed. I don't want that, and I am so tired of these things like this. I will be sent to an early death by dementia if this world keeps changing too much around me exactly into what I don't want it to be.

I did get to visit it for a couple final days though. So now I will always have the memories of the tetra fish, the bubbling sounds of the fishtank filters, the sights of the colorful dioramas, the bird cages and the gerbils. The slightly checkered floor. It's all there in my mind now. I even got a pet, so I fulfilled a wish of mine from way back when; to get a pet of my own from there. Sadly, the bird is a little shit at the moment, but I'm slowly learning how best to take care of it, and hope that it will finally learn to appreciate my efforts for it. It was not an easy decision to make as a homeless person and was a great expense, and the bird is also still a baby so it has a lot to learn. Far too many errors and badness between us happened so far, but just last night and today seems different from these rocky beginnings.

And most importantly, I got the correct help from Options, and UCRC got me not only one but two referrals for their mental help and homeless prevention teams! I have to figure out where I'll be on Tuesday so I can make it, and I really wish I could get started on getting help from the other team, but tomorrow, I can at least call the second team to get psychiatry help. I think this will be really good for me, like this journaling has been. But it's so incredible to me! I set out to get a referral, and I got TWO when I was beginning to dread that they didn't have/do these services and I would have been so afraid that options would be just another organization who cornered me with incorrect information and I would have had no reason left to trust anyone trying to "help". My social connections I think would have been fully over, dead in the water. That would not be okay. So as impatient as I am with one team not being available while I very much am ready, I will try to get some more time here at the motel, because it still seems like the weather is absurdly hot, and I need to keep me and the bird out of that heat.

Additionally, I have FINALLY AFTER EONS OF WAITING FOR THE RIGHT TIME gotten back into watching One Piece. I'm on the Nanone G-8 island, the series' best filler arc. It is still super good, just like I remember 8D Jonathan is such a great guy and amazing captain. He's the only one in the whole show with a galaxy brain and he has actually good strategic thinking. The Straw Hats get a really different kind of battle here; purely of wits and creative problem solving, and I think that's why in a shounen show famed for spectacularly wild battles and pure combat, this arc sticks out so well even today. I can only hope there are more moments or characters like what we get here later on in the episodes.

My art I am still working on slowly, with limited art supplies too. But I did get some good inks, so I'm gonna upload. And I finally extracted the files I needed for the book finishing posts. Unless my mind is really going and I've already done? Might need to check. Disregard if I have.

[venomous-ko]

Wine Drunk while watching Godzilla vs Kong

Some major spoilers up ahead!

Mans really just annoyed the shit out of his coworker until he left so he could hack shit, huh?...I love it! 🤣🤣

——————————————

You mean to tell me that the explanation for why Godzilla attacked the one tech company site by the dude who studied Kaiju communication and behavior for a living is just, “sometimes people (and creatures) change”???? Like some dumbass justifying a toxic person/relationship??? Like excuse me???? Why are the literal teenagers making more sense than you?????

Also, we’re all in agreement that this facility is either housing Ghidora’s dead head, Mecha Godzilla, or Mecha Ghidora, right?!?

——————————————

Lol! “Apex Cybernetics!” That’s not foreshadowing! 🤣

——————————————

Apparently, I didn’t get my fill of white nonsense from Falcon and Winter Soldier, bc someone decided to put this blonde-hair-blue-eyed little bitch in charge! That’s not ganna go wrong somehow. 🙃😑👀

Like this bitch literally wanted to send a fucking child into unexplored hollow earth territory without a second thought! 🙃🙃🙃🙃 I was literally like 🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕 for that entire convo.

——————————————

I’m sorry! This conspiracy man just met these teenagers, and his first impulse was, “yeah, theses seem like some good people to break into a tech conglomerate with!” 🤣🤣🤣🤣

——————————————

Why are these people surprised Kong knows sign language? These are people who study Kaiju (and presumably other animals in order to draw conclusions about certain behaviors) for a fucking living!!! We have primate species that recognize and communicate in sign language already! Why is this surprising???!?! Like...has NO ONE except this precious child tried this????

Also, nothing bad better happen to this child.

——————————————

That ship literally fucked around, and Godzilla let it find out! Lmao!

——————————————

Kong: Hey, Godzilla...look at me...

Godzilla: >:[

Kong: ...bitch.

——————————————

Precious girl: Thank you, friend 🧏🏽‍♀️

Kong: ☺️😴

THIS GIRL IS TOO PRECIOUS!!!!

——————————————

Bitch-ass White Man: How’s Kong with heights?

BITCH, you really ganna try that?!?! You really think you ganna find any aircraft(s) that are ganna be able to support all that weight?? Never mind any other problems with Kong trying to nope the fuck out of that situation and all kind of other hosts of problems!

And if you do somehow have one (or multiple) WHY TF DIDN’T YOU USE THAT BEFORE KNOWING FULL AND WELL YOU RAN THE RISK OF GODZILLA MERCING KONG’S ASS IF YOU TRAVELED VIA SHIP!?!?!?!

——————————————

Down the Hell Naw tunnel we go!

——————————————

“I think it’s romantic,”

I fucking love Millie Bobbie Brown’s character!! 🤣❤️🤣

——————————————

WHY IS THIS TEENAGER SMARTER THAN EVERYBODY OMG!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

——————————————

“This is page one in the ‘Playing God’ handbook, right?”

I’ve decided I love this character! 🤣

——————————————

WHY YOU GETTING INSIDE THAT THING—Oh god! 😨 Why y’all got eggs!?!? This is like if Weyland-Yutani succeeded in getting Xenomorphs! 😬

——————————————

Oop! Locked in! THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T HIDE OUT IN MYSTERIOUS ROOMS!!!!

——————————————

Oh shit! Apex Cybernetics think they on that Wakanda shit now!

Also, why was that one Apex Cybernetics bitch bitching about how one of those HEAV crafts could power Vagas for a week if y’all clearly have a whole network or transportation using this tech!

And I never understood how tech companies kept that shit to world domination shit! Build a public transportation system with that shit! Boss man said he likes ideas that make him rich! Pretty sure that would do the trick!

——————————————

WINE BREAK!!!

Saving the rest of the last bottle for coking Gumbo, so gotta open up a new bottle

——————————————

Aw, Kong is so sick of this bullshit! 😂😭

——————————————

“It’s not working”

Bruh! Give it more that two seconds!

——————————————

HOW DARE Y’ALL USE KONG’S LOSS AGAINST HIM!!!! HOW DARE Y’ALL!!!

——————————————

HEAV go Brrrrrrr Shoooooooooooom!!!!

——————————————

LMAO!!! Monarch has their own brand of bottled water!?!?! Idk why that amuses me so much!

——————————————

This hallow earth portal thing is some Pacific Rim bullshit right here, lol!

——————————————

NYOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM

——————————————

Are we...are we really Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaur-ing this shit rn??? 😂😂😂

——————————————

“It’s beautiful,”

Of course it’s beautiful! No hoomins have touched it! Lol

——————————————

Y’ALL GOT FUCKIN DRAGONS IN THIS BITCH!?!?!?!!! 8D YO!!! SIGN ME THE FUCK UP!!!!

——————————————

*marvels at the creature creation ideas*

——————————————

Kong’s first thought: *nom the dragon guts*

——————————————

THE ROCK HAND OMG IM GANNA CRY!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 It’s the same gesture the Precious Girl did OMG!!!!

——————————————

“We going in?”

“Yeah”

The BALLS on this child!

——————————————

“AAAAHH 😐”

*fear*

LMAO!!!!! I’M FUCKIN WHEEZING!!!

——————————————

“Sacrifice Pit”

OMG 🤣🤣🤣

——————————————

I KNEW IT!!!! MECHA-GODZILLA MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!!!! 8DDDDD

——————————————

YO PACIFIC RIM RAN SO MECHA-GODZILLA COULD FUCKIN SPRINT!!!!!!!!

——————————————

YO IT’S A GOOD THING I AIN’T SEEING THIS IN THEATERS BC I’D BE FLIPPING MY SHIT!!!!

——————————————

“Humanity, once again, will be the apex species,”

THERE it is!

——————————————

Why Mecha-Godzilla so skeeny?!? He need ta be thicc if he ganna take down REAL Godzilla!

——————————————

*Ryan Bergera conspiracy voice* Is this the real reason Kong was contained!? So this douche could snatch up Skull Crawlers without Kong intervention???

——————————————

OH SHIT!!! I think this thing is emitting alpha waves (or whatever we’re calling it) and THAT’s what set Godzilla off!!! He fought Ghidorah, heard this shit and went, “Nu-uh, bitch! NOT AGAIN!!!”

——————————————

Monarch dude: Yo, Godzilla’s headed to Hong Kong for some reason?

FUCKIN CALLED IT!!!

——————————————

This look like the door to fuckin General Grievous’s lair,da fuq?!? 🤣🤣🤣

 ——————————————

I got waaay too emotional over that handprint, y’all! 😭😭😭

——————————————

Y’all, the fucking art history major in me is fuckin screaming at this temple scene! The fact that some of these Kaiju not only had the urge and drive and capacity to build a fucking temple around this power source or some shit and create weapons like the axe that Kong just fucking Excalibured the shit out of that one skull crawler’s skull fucking implies the fact that there is intelligent civilization amongst these fucking Kaiju and all that shit! I want to know more about this shit! Take that you fucking racist-ass white historian motherfuckers!

(Note: I definitely needed to use talk to text for much of this bit, because there was no way I was going to be able to contain all my excitement in just typing, alone, lmao)

——————————————

BRUH!!! Why y’all exiting g the HEAV without no breathing apparatus or lead suits or nothing!?!?! In previous movies, y’all implied that these Kaiju lived in environments in which their environments were hella radioactive compared to our own!!!

——————————————

Kong is s the true heir to the iron throne, Lmao!

——————————————

FUCKING CALLED IT!!!! THEY HAD GHIDORA’S REMAINS IN THERE SOMEWHERE!!!!

——————————————

OH FUCK!!!! Y’ALL AINT JUST SENDING OUT ALPHA VIBES WITH YOUR MECHA-GODZILLA!!!! YOU SOMEHOW USING GHIDORA’S HIVE MIND OR TELEPATHY SHIT TO DO IT!?!?!?! AAAWWWWW SHEEEEEET!!! Y’ALL ARE BONED NOW!!!! FUCKIN BONEROWNED!!!!

——————————————

Godzilla! My bruh! My dude! You didn’t HAVE TO get up right where that bridge was!!! 😂😂 Ya douche bag!!!

——————————————

At the same time, tho, I can just hear him going, “Ah! FUCK! NOT AGAIN!!! Sunova bitch!! Motherfuckin!! STOP BUILDING sHIT SO DAMN HIGH!!! Goddammit!”

——————————————

You know, with all the Bright twinkly lights in Hong Kong, I can’t help but think of the sequel to the original Gojira movie ( that I can’t remember the title of ,rn) where he was fucking triggered by fucking lights. And I wonder if this little scene where he’s stomping all through Hong Kong is a tribute to that or whatever. But I’m probably overthinking it.

[Sober Edit: it was Godzilla Raids Again]

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*GASP* HOLY SIHIIIT!!! The axe is made out of Godzilla skute!?!?! GOLY BALLS THAT’S NOT ONLY COOL BUT CONTRIBUTES MORE TO THE FACT THAT THESE KAIJU (likely Kong’s species, in particular) WERE REALLY FUCKING INTELLIGENT AMD TJOUGHT, “Imma beat this muthafucka with their own spiky thing! Bc that’s what screws us over, so, why WOULD’nt it hurt them!?!” I need SO MUCH MORE of this Kaiju/Kong culture studied and shit! HOLY FUCK!!!

It even fucking glows!! Like ... they managed to fucking piece together that its glow was a fucking warning sign like Sting or some shit!!!! Holy fuck!!!!

Also, how does that work? How are the skutes still connected even after dismemberment???

 ——————————————

NO FUCKIN WAY WRE YOU—AAAAAAAAHHH!!! Excalibur that shit my boi!!!!

——————————————

I FUCKIN LOVE YHIS MOVIE HOLY SHIT!!!

——————————————

“ that’s Apex property now,”

Excuse me bitch! Are we really not gonna listen to the scientist who saying “hey we don’t understand the shit out of this fucking power! Maybe we should hold off on taking some fucking samples!”

Are we really just gonna ignore that shit???????

 ——————————————

Kong said: TRY ME BITCH!!!!

——————————————

Oh thank the GODS this Serizawa dude is taking precautions like his old man! Also, what is his relation to Ken Watanabe’s Serizawa!?!?!

——————————————

UH OH!! SOLDIER DUDES GETTIN ATE!!!

——————————————

OH SHIT!!! PILOT JUST GOT ATE!!! FUCKIN DRAGON BASEMENT UP IN THIS SHIT!!!

——————————————

BITCH YOU REALLY GON THROW A ROCK AT IT!!! FUCKIN NONSENSE OF THIS BITCH!!!

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LOVE AND FITE ME ENERGY IS STORED IN THE ATOMIC BREATH

——————————————

“Shoot him!”

WHY!!!???!! He literally had NO problem with you before then!!!

——————————————

Why does white man who don’t know anything about this vehicle suddenly know how to pilot this shit!???!?!!!!!

 ——————————————

Y’all love had SO MUCH wine!

——————————————

The FUCK this dude got a flip flop phone for!!!?!????!!!?

Da fuq!?!?! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 yeah that’s the most unrealistic part of this entire fucking movie! Not the fuckin Kaiju robots. Not the fucking hollow earth bullshit! The fucking flip phone! LMFAO!!!!

——————————————

“Maintenance! I’M MAINTENANCE!!! This bitch ain’t buying it”

That made me laugh WAY FUCKIN harder that it should have!!!!

——————————————

Y’all really ganna try to shoot at a kid!?! REALLY!?!?!??!

——————————————

GAWD, I’m so glad I impulse bought these oatmeal bites from Dominos! 🤤😋

[Sober Edit: I have no idea how my autocorrect managed to convert “Parmesan” to “oatmeal,” but okay! 😆😅]

——————————————

Kong be like, “Hey, bitch!!! You lookin’ for me!?!?”

——————————————

Find you a partner that bites your neck like Godzilla does! Lmao!

Sorry, I’ll be crawling back into my hell hole, now.

——————————————

EAT YOUR FOOKIN VEGETABLES GODZILLA!!!!!

——————————————

Did Godzilla just axe throw with his fuckin teefs!!!????!?!?!

——————————————

THIS IS THE FOOKIN MONSTER VS MONSTER FIGHTS IVE BEEN CRAVING SINCE KING OF THE MONSTERS HOLY SHIT!!!!

——————————————

“Really? Groupies, again?”

First of all, again!?! What happened last time???

Secondly, where tf are YOUR grpupies, asshole! No need to judge! Ya cunt!

——————————————

“There can only be one alpha,”

Really! You really gotta bring your toxic masculinity into a fuckin monster fight, my dude!?!

——————————————

Kong said, “Yeet! YEET SELF!!!”

——————————————

I am living for the feral fight scenes!!!!

——————————————

Kong’s expression , tho! 🤣🤣🤣

Like, “Can you ducking NOT, Godzilla?!? Can you, like, fucking chill??!!? Aight, fine! ASDASHKLSDJKLDZJL ADKLKDZDJ!!!!!!”

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Awwwww! Godzilla let Kong go, bc he knows what it’s like to be the last of his species! 🥺🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭😭

——————————————

“This is how we [...] win!”

Oh, honey, you ‘bout to die! Lmao! 😂

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Oh god! I knew he was going to use the sign for “coward” at the most inappropriate time! Lmao! At least the Precious Girls is smart enough to know what Dumbass White Man means, lol

——————————————

Oh, thank god we do t see this dumbass in any sequels!

——————————————

Dammit, he escaped!

——————————————

This girl is too good!

——————————————

Did y’all really think you were ganna break into a semi-sentient Mecha-Godzilla by GUESSING ITS FUCKING PASSWORD!!?!?!?!!!!???? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

——————————————

YEAH!!!! TEAM-UP COMING THROUGH!!!!!

——————————————

“I was hoping to die with adults, but that’s okay,”

🤣🤣🤣

——————————————

“I’VE GOT TO DIE WITB YOU AND SOBER!!?!?!”

GOD, I love this movie!!!!

——————————————

OOOOOOHHHH HOLY SHIT!!!!! 😱😱😱😱😱 He powering up the axe!!!!!

——————————————

YOOOOOO KONG WENT PREDATOR/YOUTJA ON MECHA-GODZILLA’s ASS!!!!

——————————————

Kong said, “I’m done, y’all! Imma take a nap!”

——————————————

“Dad. Uh...Bernie.”

I fucking love Bernie!!! 😂😂😂😂

——————————————

JIA NOOOO!!! Don’t go running between two disgruntled Kaiju bby!!

——————————————

Yo, why do monsters have less toxic masculinity than we do??? Lol!

——————————————

Yaaaaaay! Kong has a new home!!

——————————————

WELP!!! I fucking loved this movie, and I highly recommend it to everyone!!!

[sukirichi]

[ BROKEN RECORDS ; asks ] 

💌 — love letter from @kyriaan​

from track 007. 

Okay okay im still kinda meh'ish' but i really wanted to answer you so 😭 ill try to compile both my answer to your answer on my love letter and my hyped review on track 7 <3 so yeah another long ass rant from me 😩💕Suki... Suki pls I totally forgot Tsumu had a crush on us Suki... And then poor Tsumu ir there sulking cause he still likes u- JFBFBDVDVSJCHDHSIA omfg i wanted so much to hug him my baby I like him so much 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 and he was trying so hard to behave while just sitting there sad fhfhfvbbshsjfhbdjaofhffhsoshd TSUMU YOU'RE STILL IN MY TOP 3 BABY 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂 

And then you throw the whole dancing scene with suna and I dont know whos on my top 3 anymore 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃 SUKIIIIIIII THAT SCENE ALONE GJGJBFBSJCNFNKSOSNF OMFG IM FALLING SO HARD FOR SUNA I THINK? I think my top 3 had 4 dudes in it cause 3rd place has Suna and Atsumu tied?? Hfhfbfbfhdhsja I CANT PICK?? BUT BUT I WAS FEELING STUPIDLY DOWN WHEN READING THAT AND THAT SCENE ALONE MADE ME FEEL SO SOFT IT WAS SO CUTE AND OMG IF SUNA DID THAT TO ME I WOULD DROP ON MY KNEES AND ASK HIM TO MARRY ME CAUSE OMFGGGFFFF DUDE EVEN WENT AHEAD AND SAID THAT WHOLE 'HES GOING TO BE ONE LUCKY GUY'

Oh shit im crying again that scene lets me emotional 😭😭😭😭 someone get me a sunrin irl pls

Anyways the way that suna knows y/n is just.... FUCKING END UP TOGETHER ALREADY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST JBVSHSJBEHSISJ

Also how powerful are we?? HOW FUCKING POWERFUL ARE WE TO SCORE SUNA KITA AND TSUMU?? ARE YOU GONNA TELL. ME IF OIKAWA MOFO TOORU APPEARED HE WOULD ALSO BE ON HIS KNEES FOR US?? (okay no wait... No nooo i would legit drop anyones ass for tooru hes that powerful for me like sorry suna was fun but TOORU)

Yo nah but the whole Kita sex scene- let me breath bestie LET ME BREATH CAUSE I WAS HOT BUT AT SAME TIME I WAS FEELING GUILTY 😂😂😂😂 ESPECIALLY WHEN HE WAS FEELING DISAPPOINTED NEXT DAY LIKE KITA PLS BABY WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING?? 😬😬😬😬 But at same time his 'ill fuck the thought of him out of you tonight' I ALMOST MOANED YASSSSS TELL ME DADDY HOLY SHITTTTT

👀👀👀👀 Still not a kita simp ✌️✌️🤏✌️

Okay Kita deserves the best tho I mean okay he went there as a y/n mom's plan but he did ended up helping alot... Especially cause he knows no matter what y/n heart will always be suna's and pls give Kita the best ending possible cause he deserves someone who will trully love him and show him the world cause mah boy deserves it

*breaths in breaths out* i hated this scene- not in a bad way but shit i hate rejections... To the point im kinda afraid of confessing now cause i despise the feeling of being rejected... The best i can descrive it it like this coldness in your chest that descends your whole body and then you feel frozen in place.. Thats how it feels for me I hate it I absolutely despise it- its also the feeling i have when in a really bad situation and ugh...

The suna part made. Me feel this no matter how many times i reread it the feeling doesnt lessen it keeps being there cause (okay you probably are tired already of me saying this but) Suki I feel like I cant put it in words how much of a fucking good of a writer you are. Ill go ahead and say you are by far my favorite writer the fact i always feel so engaged and the fact i always feel like im there its just- it blows my mind.

I felt like suna was personally rejecting me and i hated it- i swear the moment he said prove it I almost screamed HOW? My brain had to take a moment to just slap me and say: 'kya you reading this is not happening chill-' cause i was already sobbing uncontrollably... I even whimpered the dont leave me 😬 my sadass went to bed feeling so sad thanks to suna... Man i wanted so much to hug him and i swear i would give him as much love as he gave y/n cause well i kin suna alot in this series cause im like that im a giver i treat others the way i would like to be treated (reason why ive been down lately ✌️) and i cant blame suna for finally setting boundaries- his call tho 'do i not stand a chance with you anymore y/n? Are you really not capable of falling in love with me?".... Oh suna... We are in love with you.. We always were we're just fucking stupid 😩

Also mari pls go jump off a cliff <3 youre in need dear cause sleeping with other man just to separate suna and y/n <3 i want so much to punch her 🙂🙃

Now for the love letter part (im so sorry for this being so long ✌️)

You said that if we asked suna he woukd say that he genuinely loved mari okay... Ill go ahead and say yes he liked mari he even learned how to love her and he genuinely cared for her BUT and heres where my personal view comes in so maybe ill be biased here still for me that was just a he loves her as in he cares you also love your friends and care for them but he didnt love her- and by this I mean- he could never be fully committed for her. Yes he loved her and he felt happy with her but like track 7 proved everything he would do in the back of his mind was y/n he deeply wished Mari was her and for that he just loved Mari cause he learned how to care about her- but he never forgot who he trully was in love it. Also the happiness he experienced with Mari was pretty much the one I experienced the bliss of having someone there and that bliss also made suna turn a blind eye to all the red flags from Mari cause to him all the jealousy meant she cared and thats toxic but suna was so desperate for some sort of 'she cares' that even all the possessiveness was bliss for him... And that makes my heart clench for suna...

'suna had to put an effort for the relationship' and saddly i feel like mari didnt... Mari didnt care mari was there because she was a fangirl of suna and got lucky, the way she just discarded him so effortlessly that proved-screamed how much she loved him- she didnt. She was just possessive over him she liked the whole 'hes mine' dynamic and suna was the perfect boyfriend cause he was giving her the world... What he wanted someone to do for him.

Also yeah suna and y/n might have been spurred from them being fuck buddies but well love doesnt really have an agenda- they just clicked, understood each other and had chemistry yeah they had tons and tons of sex but feelings started not because of sex but thanks to their deep connection... Also that dsncing scene in track 7 that alone spoke for their whole relationship- that alone is enough to defend their feelings for each other- yes it might jave started just as fuck buddies but ended up in them loving each other deeply and that is enough love after all doesnt need a perfect start. It can start out of the most stupid ways.

You said life with excitement and fun wouldn't be permanent or real.. Honestly i think it could be.. Cause i mean when you love someone that deeply your life always feels exciting even with the littlest things and that the purest kind of love. Even just going for a walk at the beach would be fun for them or even staying up watching movies i believe suna and y/n would always find a way to make their lofe exciting without much effort.

Also it kinda makes me. Sad when i see some anon saying that y/n and suna relationship are toxic? It makes me. Confused maybe because I was in such extremely toxic one (girl i sweat if you search for toxic relationship my ex's face will be there as an example 🙄) that Mari to me screams toxic! Possessive, manipulative, jealous and a few more if I think closely about it while with y/n and suna they are just two idiots that are hurting each other cause they're just that: idiots one that is afraid to get hurt and the other that keeps hoping- dont get me wrong what they're doing is not healthy but i dont find it toxic honestly

Sorry for the extreme long rant 8D I tried to keep it short but you always make me so hyped to talk about your works 😩

Hfbfbfhfhfieia

[ from saeren ]

NAHHH CUZ I LOVE TSUMU SO MUCH HERE HE WAS SO PRECIOUS. I didn’t write too much about them in college but Atsumu was so cute when he crushed on YN. he was always sending her memes and cute texts like “have you eaten” “good morning” and she’d feel so awkward because she doesn’t know how to let him down easy without hurting him. either way tsumu would feel hurt. AND YES PLS HE WAS SO SAD I MEAN, HIS CRUSH AND HIS BEST FRIEND NEARLY HAD SEX RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM SO THAT’S GOING TO HURT

SUNA AND ATSUMU TIED?? tbh I loved that dancing scene bcos suna is one of my faves and I really wanna do that with him hehehhehe. NAHHH PLEASE SAME IF SUNA DANCED WITH ME AND MADE A WEDDING PLAYLIST I’D BE LIKE boy what’re u waiting for let’s get married now !! n yes he said whoever YN will choose in the future will be one lucky guy IM SOBBING RN

naur cuz. there’s something about dating your best friend. I’m not saying a boyfriend wouldn’t know you as well but there’s something different when you’re best friends first. they could literally share eye contact and have a long ass conversation just from that. their connection is different.

HAJKALA AS FOR THE POWER, BR! YN IS A VERY CHARISMATIC AND FRIENDLY PERSON !! she’s like one of those people you meet that not only are they attractive as hell, but they’re also super approachable and down to earth. that’s why she’s so popular + she’s flirty and can make a stranger feel welcome or comfortable in the first meeting. SGSHJAK I WAS ACTUALLY PLANNING TO ADD OIKAWA HERE BUT I WANNA MAKE IT MORE INARIZAKI CENTRED

the seggs scene with kita SOBSSSS he’s such a soft dom IDC he knows where the clit is, he knows how to hit it. he’s a “your pleasure first before mine” type of guy. kita is perfect, PERIODT. HE GIVES DADDY VIBES HUH AHSKAA HE’S SO SWEET YET SEXY IM IN LOVE WITH HIM ISTG IF SUNA WASN’T OUR BEST FRIEND THEN I’D RUN FOR KITA ALL THE TIME. and I agree, kita deserves the best !! and don’t worry, I actually plan on giving kita the best ending, I promise you he’ll be fine (slight spoiler there)

 YESSSSS OMG I’VE BEEN REJECTED BEFORE AND THAT’S EXACTLY HOW I FELT, MY BODY WAS SO COLD AND I WAS SO CONFUSED LIKE IT MAKES YOU THINK. am I not good enough, did I do something wrong, do you not wanna give me a chance or try it out but ofc I’d never say that out loud. AND KYAAA AAAH IM YOUR FAVORITE WRITER??? NO CUZ YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE ME CRY. I remember ur asks way back reckless era and you used to tell me that my writing made you picture the scenes easily and you felt you were there in that moment and I’m just so grateful thank you so much <33

NO BCOS WHEN SUNA SAID “prove it” I was like. this is it. that’s his hot boy shit moment. man’s has had enough of being thrown from one toxic relationship to another and he also deserves his good moments yknow. and you kin suna here?? BESTIE IM SORRY TO HEAR THAT, SUNA’S BEEN THROUGH A LOT HERE AHSJAKA. that’s true about suna tho !! he’s definitely affectionate + a giver. he’s happy being the one who gives most of the time but he’s a human as well, ofc he’d want to receive the same amount of love back. ALSO HIS PHONE CALLLLLL ugh tbh that part was the one that made me the saddest bcos he’s just. he wants to know if there’s really no more chance. all this time he never gave up. but he’s also tired so if yn says ‘no more’ then he’ll give up. its his way of respecting himself too ahsjaka

YOOOOO I AGREE WITH THAT. he cares for mari as a person but not 100% as a lover. but ofc he’s still thankful for how happy she made him because she was there at his worst. and that’s true, deep down suna still wishes that it was YN who’s right beside him. he will always ALWAYS want her back. he learned how to love mari in a way that was more out of mutual care but not in the way he loves YN. no that’s reserved only for YN – she will remain no 1 in his heart. AND YESSSSS the reason why suna overlooked the red flags was bcos to him, its something that was supposed to be “normal” like no perfect partner existed. he thought mari’s attitude of pushing YN away was normal, and its normal to want your partner’s best friend keep some distance but not to the point of mari’s place where she literally wants the two of them to cut each other out of their lives.

and aww I’m so happy that you realized how I wanted to portray suna and yn’s relationship. they’re….like the definition of youth in its freest form. they were fucking around and doing stupid things, but they had a connection. they had something deeper than just sexual intimacy. even if they never dated or even if YN never proposed the idea of it, they would’ve actually been still great friends. and oooh I actually don’t remember saying life with excitement and fun wouldn’t be real HAHAHAHA so I can’t comment further on that. but I think when I ‘said’ those I probably meant that it’s not always going to be all rainbows and unicorns in a relationship. there’s no such thing as a relationship that’s always happy and sweet 24/7, but ofc it can be sweet and it can be pure even with the little things <33 they just need to work on it.

hmmm tbhhhh… suna and yn are toxic in a way that they refuse to let each other go when they clearly can’t meet halfway. toxic doesn’t have to be limited in just being mari-like in which they are possessive or manipulative, because then if we’d drive deeper into yn’s personality, then she’d be stringing suna all along and that’s unfair of her. she knows suna wants more and yet she remained being friends with him, which totally isn’t a bad thing, but it’s because she keeps flirting with him and is so romantically comfortable with him that she doesn’t realize it’s hurting suna because he’ll give double meanings to that. their relationship is ‘toxic’ because they’re not entirely good for each other, they’re not that ready to be with one another yet and neither is the world letting them be in peace, so forcing their relationship to a point they’re hurting another is the toxic part.

[ from @kyriaan ]

Ah also not me feeling all proud and mushy cause my analysis made you mind blown fjfbdnsjdkpa 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I guess its also because i see this story as a really big mirror of my own toxic relationship sonits extremely easy for me to get it... And oh boy the way i kin suna here

But dhdhfjdospdhfbsoa 🥺🥺🥺🥺 i feel happy now *huggles*

[ from saeren ] 

and aah yes ofc, I’m really happy whenever someone can see the underlying details I scatter throughout the story !! yeah omg same hahahaha broken records is also half inspired by the toxic people I’ve met. I kin kita here tho and I’m so glad you’re happier now !!

[gojira007]

MORE SONSAL HEADCANONS!  MOOOOORE!!!

Once again, @ninjakasuga​ wrote up a series of SonSal Headcanon Prompts, and once again I’ve been tagged to contribute.  And also once again, I’ve decided to go whole-hog with it, so enjoy some more SonSal 8D

1.) What would a normal non-eventful evening at home for the two be like? 

The sun sets.  Sonic decides to take one last run around the village; Sally watches.  She doesn’t exactly know why she finds it as soothing as she does; maybe it’s just familiarity (or after a certain point nostalgia).  Whatever the reason, though, it’s always a comfort.  He comes back in after a while; she’s picked out a book the two of them can read together.  He always gets really into it when they read together, snuggled up on the couch; he starts up whole conversations about details he finds especially funny or Dramatic.  They’ll have something simple to eat (”something” meaning Chili Dogs for Sonic, like, 99% of the time, but he does like to at least occasionally try out whatever it is Sally’s having), maybe discuss plans for the following day...and then, eventually, without even entirely realizing it, they’ve fallen asleep on top of each other.

2.) Adoption! Yes/No, Why? 

We talked about this a little bit last time, but I do think, if Sonic and Sally were going to have another kid, they’d lean toward Adoption.  Partially because it’s what they know; they effectively did the same thing with Tails, after all, so they have a good sense of what it looks like.  But also, it would in fact be their way of Giving Back, so to speak, of making sure that a kid who lost their family the same way they did would get to have the same kind of support that they did, and that they provided for Tails when he was growing up.  Their hearts, to my mind, would just very naturally go out to a kid in that kind of situation.

3.)  Their Anniversary approaches! What would each do?  

It eventually becomes a bit of a tradition for Sonic to write Sally a song as his anniversary present; the first time through, it is, of course, A Big Deal, but he eventually realizes it means just that little bit more to make it something private, something small and special that the two of them get to share just for themselves.  Sally, meanwhile, uses NICOLE to create a new holographic Racing Course for Sonic that she makes sure is loaded with tricks and tough turns; she knows how much he loves a challenge, and agrees to time him on each one.  And every year, at the end of the day, they go to the Lake of Rings and just...sit together, watching the water and the stars.

4.) Favorite Vacation they took as a couple? 

Angel Island, absolutely.  Partially because it meant sweet-talking Knuckles into letting them do so in the first place, which they both found way, way too fun.  But mostly because they so often visited Angel Island in the past only during times of Crisis; they’d never gotten the chance to just...be there before.  And as it turns out, the gigantic tropical paradise that also gives you a bird’s eye view of the entire planet makes for a gorgeous location.  Besides which, there is so much to do there that they both just love; discovering new mysterious kinds of plants (Sally started up a whole journal just for them!), racing through the jungle, watching all the unique sorts of wild animals that live there...the whole place really is just wonderful, and they’re only sad that they don’t get to see it like that more often.

5.) A special gift they gave the other that really touched their heart. 

 * Once, while venturing into Robotropolis, Sally wound up having to hide out in Uncle Chuck’s old laboratory.  Robotnik had unsurprisingly stripped the place bare of any potentially useful equipment or data a long time ago...but there was one thing he hadn’t noticed: a small lock-box.  Upon investigating it, Sally discovered something she’d never seen before: a faded photograph of Sonic as a child (even younger than when they’d first met!) with Chuck at the future site of the Lake of Rings.  Sally managed to take the box and photo with her back to Knothole without Sonic knowing.  The photo’s colors had faded all but completely, likewise the film it was printed on was so fragile that even the slightest upset could break the whole thing.  So she secretly worked with NICOLE to create a restored version of the picture, which she then gifted to Sonic alongside an explanation of where it had come from.

* Sonic remembered once when he and Sally were kids, she showed him “the Acorn Royal Family Tree”: literally, a small, unique kind of tree planted in the palace gardens.  It used to be a tradition each year for the Royal Family to visit the tree together and see what new blossoms had managed to spring up on it.  Unsurprisingly, the tree was destroyed when Robotnik took over...but as it happened, Sonic was able to discover the seeds during one of his globe-hopping adventures.  He thus privately planted and nurtured it, and once it had begun to fully mature, he made sure to show Sally, promising her that she could visit the tree with her Knothole family the way she had with her father.

6.) Sally’s pregnant, how do they handle the pregnancy ups and downs

Ironically, it becomes something like an Inversion of their usual selves: Sonic goes full Worrywart, freaking out every time Sally’s stomach feels funny or she gets a bit too sweaty or Literally Whatever.  Sally, by contrast, becomes much more impulsive; if she wants to eat, she’ll eat.  If she feels like taking a nap, boom, nap time.  They both love trying to think up names together, too; indeed, they take to brainstorming them almost once every week (and one suspects it takes them as long as it does because they enjoy the Game of it too much to let it go; seeing how absurd their suggestions can go before they can get the other to laugh is a particular favorite).  

7.) Parenting, how do they tackle it together? 

You would think much the same way they did with Tails, and indeed if there’s any one thing they do take away from that, it’s their ability to work together in making sure the kid get support, attention, protection, and love.  But, assuming this new kid comes after the end of the War (which I choose to believe, because I absolutely don’t think they would intentionally have a kid during the War), the truth is, much like with the pregnancy, it plays out almost like the reverse: Sonic is a very protective Dad, and wants to make sure his kid doesn’t have to learn about the harshness of the world until they absolutely have to.  Sally, meanwhile, works very hard to give the kid access to new ideas and experiences; she is very eager to give her kid the kind of childhood she’d always wanted.  Still, while this occasionally leads to disagreements on How Much Is Too Much/Too Soon, at the end of the day they are every bit as much a Team as parents as they were as Freedom Fighters, and as such they do a really good job of delegating and sharing responsibilities.    

8.) Which of them is the parent to freak out most when their kid/s get into the dating age? 

Honestly?  They both take it pretty well.  Assuming their kid ends up showing much interest in dating to begin with, by that point they’ve both learned to trust their kid enough that while they will absolutely be mindful for signs of unhappiness or Cause For Alarm, they’re also not going to interfere too much; even Sonic The Protective Dad knows well enough how important it is to give kids space to make their own choices on this front.  

9.) Who starfishes the most? 

Sally, absolutely and without question.  Like...Sonic can get tuckered out sometimes, but not much, and when he does it’s an easy enough thing for him to nap off.  But when Sally gets exhausted?  She gets EXHAUSTED.  And that means a good, long Starfishing is in order.  Sonic does like teasing her about this sometimes, but for the most part he honestly finds it adorable.

10.) Oh no, one of them is sick, how do they handle tending to their loved one? 

Here, at last, we see them very much in the Modes we would expect: Sally goes Full Doctor, checking every bit of medical data she can find, comparing symptoms, preparing five gajillion different treatments (in descending order of Back-Up In Case The Previous Treatment Doesn’t Work), that sort of thing.  Sonic, meanwhile, is more reactive; whatever Sally needs, she just has to ask and he’ll do it in a flash.  Hot soup?  Cold press?  Another blanket?  Name it, it’s done.  

[thefloatingstone]

I’m just gonna make 1 post about this and then try to never talk about it again... but the ending of She-Ra was kinda sorta bad actually. Even if you ignore “Stole the entire ending of an anime for its emotional climax by copying it shot for shot” (although I am bias and this is the part of it that killed the show for me). But here’s some other reasons;

1: Decided to give the abusive parental figure to Adora and Catra have a LAST MINUTE FACE TURN and sacrifice herself to save them, taking time to turn around and say “I’ve always been proud of you” when the ENTIRE SHOW has been using every episode it had to show how Shadow Weaver’s treatment of Catra is 99% of the reason she is the way she is. How her emotional abuse, mental abuse, pitting the two girls against each other and encouraging competition for her approval is WHY Catra is so fucked up and earlier episodes even addressed how Adora either did not want to see or chose not to focus on how her doing well was actively hurting Catra because it turned her into the target of Shadow Weaver’s abuse.

But no. It’s fine. See guys? She was always proud of her. That makes it ok. Because she was proud of Catra while she was abusing her. This ending for this character is bittersweet and emotional. We should be thinking about how they’ve redeemed this character. From her lifelong abuse of children. Because she said she’s proud of them. It’s ok now.

2: The entire setup of Hordak and his emotional arc throughout the previous seasons were completely thrown out the window and never seen again except for the last 3 minutes of the final episode where she shows up and goes “hey remember me? I used to be a main character”. The show literally forgot about him. When the entire previous season was about him doubting his beliefs in what he is doing and why. The final season had been setup so that we see the climax of his character arc as it had been written with care up until this point.

But no. We literally do not see him until the last bit of the last episode and he has no character climax. They literally went “And Hordak’s there too 8D”

3: Bow is pissed at Glimmer for her betrayal and doesn’t know if he wants to trust her any more for her actions. This carries on for several episodes until they resolve this tension between the characters. Catra is brought into the circle by Adora after she has been nothing but antagonistic throughout the whole show and actively tried to murder all of them. Bow is already sewing her a membership jacket to the best friend squad within the first 5 minutes.

4: We never see a satisfying conclusion to Hordak and Entrapta’s friendship/relationship/comraderie/whatever. We set up the previous seasons how Hordak thinks Entrapta betrayed him. How he thinks she was sent to Beast island and is therefore dead/killed. His torn loyalties between his only friend and his leader. I can’t even remember do they even share a single line of dialogue with each other? I think they do at the end but it’s more like

5: I am pretty convinced that all the screen time that could have been used to bring the unfinished plot lines to conclusions were given to Netossa and Spinerella who were background characters as best in earlier seasons and now given secondary character status for no narrative reason at all.

6: what the fuck happened to Imp? Why was Imp there to begin with? What was the point of adding him and where did he go?

anyway.... now I’m never gonna talk about it again. Just needed to get this out there and I didn’t want to say it right after the finale aired because I didn’t want to get attacked but also I didn’t want to shit on anyone’s excitement for the ending.

[the-nysh]

Reaction notes on opm s2 dub: ep2

Back again watching it live on toonami with my mother. :) She’s seeing it for the first time so I gotta refrain from explaining spoiling too much for her, while I’m interested in both her reaction and any interesting localization differences.

First up is the impression on Garou’s debut. Listening to his voice more, he does sound younger (not as deep), but his va sounds like he’s really getting into it, so I like what I’m hearing. :D It’s pretty fun. He’s really nailing that cockiness and energy to his voice. He can be all smooth and charismatic one moment, to mocking and loud with anger/emphasis the next. Like when he says,‘the strong are strong!’ I think it works. And it’s not just the way he talks either, but his language. He says stuff like ‘come at me,‘ ‘cordially invited to a little slaughter party,’ (nice) and ‘spectacular debut, huh?’ Like, it has that teasing, taunting, self-absorbed feel, but also sounds a little sing-songy and theatrical too, cause he uses all these fancy eloquent words to make his points. (Yeah, he sounds ‘fancy’ is what most came to mind.) It actually makes him sound intelligent with a purpose (especially in contrast to how blasé and casual Saitama usually talks).

My mother was alarmed with the violence (her surprise when Blue Fire hit the wall in particular, not the arm), but when I asked her what she thought of Garou, she was all ‘that evil guy?’ Like she wasn’t sure, so I had to forcefully restrain myself say ‘m-maybe. 👀’ (Ayy, I did point out to her that he happened to take out a bunch of criminals in the room so...) When he showed back up after the credits vs Tank Top Vegetarian (she chuckles at the funny hero names), she remarked, ‘oh it’s the guy with the v-shaped hair! It’s Wolverine!’ And I just ajfkghkghkg, because Wolverine (esp the actor, Hugh Jackman) is one of her favorites, so I’m 👀👀👀 Oho yeah, next ep will be fun. 8D

Sonic vs Genos and Fubuki vs Saitama were the next major parts of the ep. (Before then, when Genos and Saitama were chilling in the apartment, I couldn’t resist pointing out the egg apron, cause I love it. X3) Genos speaks like he absolutely can’t stand Sonic, which is heh. :P Truly, his scoff when Sonic introduces himself as Saitama’s rival, ahhh. Like such insolence, you pest! Meanwhile, (20 min later, hah) Saitama meets Fubuki. ‘I’ve already got a vacuum cleaner’ ahaha. Fubuki’s voice is perfect by the way, self-assured and smooth as silk. Saitama on the other hand speaks so informally (another huge contrast to the earnest and formal Genos) using slang language like ‘what’s shakin?’ ‘noob’ ‘poser’ ‘I’m hype’ ‘come at me bro’ (in contrast to when Garou said that too, but without the ‘bro’). So yeah, even just from the way Saitama speaks like a Millennial his bored, causal attitude makes him stand out from the rest of the cast. My mom even said, ‘he’s so low key, like nnnnn,’ so heh.

Vs Fubuki, when Saitama gets all pissed and serious (‘show heroes some respect, poser’) his tone turns way more heroic and accusing with emphasis. His speech to her even had those parallels to what Garou talked about too, about being strong in particular, so that was nice to hear. My mom approves of Saitama’s viewpoint about ranks, but really dislikes (truly, she audibly scoffed many times) at Fubuki’s obsession with them. Ah, and of course, I’d hoped my mom wouldn’t comment on it, but she did for that one unnecessary shot anyway, with ‘boy, big boobs.’ (The only part of the ep I could do without, so hhhhh;;) 

More amused reactions from my mom included laughing at the ‘you had lint in your hair’ bit, when Genos decided to blow up the whole area, at the menacing ‘come at me bro’ egg Saitama shot, and when Fubuki finally realized, ‘Such power. He’s not normal.’ :P

Afterwards, when Fubuki explained the reasons for her actions were because of her sister, my mom was still unimpressed (like ‘oh,’ but still another scoff at her). She just really disproves of that kinda rank obsessed mindset. It confused my mom why there was a need/system for any hero ranks at all, like ‘why do they have to fight each other for it all the time? Genos isn’t trying to surpass Saitama, so why can’t they all just be friends and work together?’ (I also had to explain how most characters, except for Genos and ah King for that matter, don’t know or believe Saitama’s strength either, so that’s why he gets confronted/challenged so often instead of respected.) But, seeing Fubuki express desire to join their little friend group eased my mom about her somewhat. :’D

Seeing the credits earned an immediate ‘that’s it?!’ reaction, ahaha. (These 30min snippets are too short for her!) Then during the after credits scene for Genos and Saitama’s hero names, ‘Demon Cyborg’ got an ‘ooooh’ from her, and I was especially glad to hear ‘Caped Baldy,’ buahaha we both laughed. (So relieved it wasn’t the bland/literal ‘Bald Cape’ from Viz, so the dub knows better.) Preview for next ep (the big ep3) only showed the Tank Toppers arriving and Vegetarian getting his face punched in, so nothing special spoiled there. But ohhh man I’m excited (I even told my mom it’s gonna be a good one), cause ep3′s definitely one of my favorites this season. Gonna be plenty more ‘Wolverine’ for my mom to look forward to next time too. ;D

[muthaz-rapapa]

StarPre: Zodiac Forms

Now that I’ve got the good quality official art, c’mon, did anyone seriously think I would not ramble about the zodiac forms in another long post? :P lol

Crap, I should be studying my Japanese since I’m traveling to Tokyo next week (GONNA GO VISIT THE PRECURE STORE, WOOOOT~!) but I want to get this post out first cuz I know I won’t have time or internet access to do it later.

So let’s do this!

Taurus form – BRAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSS

8D

This one I like best out of Star’s two forms (but Pisces is awesome too!) for that reason but I also love how they changed her short tutu-style skirt into an asymmetric, flowing one. And that cow pattern is to die for~! <3

The butterfly earrings and horns are a very nice touch as well! *chef’s kiss*

Pisces form – I can’t explain why or how Hikaru pulls off the mermaid look so well…but she just does, okay?

Maybe it’s the twintails.

Anyways, super cute! Adding a touch of blue and deep magenta to the overall light pink theme really makes her look more tropical.

Then there are the sea accessories and ugh! Sometimes when I look at this, I’m reminded of Mermaid Melody except the way Star is designed here looks a lot more fun.

Before I get into this, I just want to say that we can now celebrate Lala’s bubble shorts blooming into space dresses! Aaaaaahhh~ <D

Leo form – Y’know when I saw Lala go “RAWR!” in the movie trailer, I was like “This is it, if this is the last thing I see, I’ll be happy I lived”, hahaha!

Lion imagery is just so cool, y’know? (as Gelato can testify)

The wild hair, the crown.

Yeap. This pretty much confirms it. Lala is Space Queen. ;D

Cancer form – I’m simultaneously gushing over her crab hair, how much I love this shade of yellow green and giggling mad that she resembles a jellyfish more than a crustacean. xDD

*sigh* Really, I think Lala’s forms turned out the best. They faithfully captured the aesthetics of the Star Princesses while retaining Milky’s original design and without making it overly gaudy, too.

Lala, you are perfect! <3

Libra form – Normally, I would say that’s too crazy for even crazy magical girl hair but then I remember Felice’s Alexandrite form and how extra that was in all its Mother Nature floral glory���

…and I just shut my trap.

Still, it seems like Libra form had the least effort put into it.

I mean, yea, they moved some colors around (more like seeped the orange into the ombre of Soleil’s hair) and extended the reaches of her dress but it’s practically the same thing save for Libra’s hairdo…which looks more like a wig she put on that anything.

That’s just it. The dual cornucopia there catches your attention right away on how…fake it looks that it’s as if the rest don’t matter as much. Which is sad cuz the Libra Star Princess is perhaps one of the best Star Princesses based on what little personality we did get from each of them. And I just wanted to see something more creative for her form, that’s all. :(

Maybe it’ll look better in motion? We’ll just have to see if that happens in the movie. As of right now, this still picture isn’t really helping my impression of it.

Scorpio form – Much better. Absolutely adore the slimmer cut and my, does Elena look downright gorgeous with a ponytail! <D

I’m always reading about how “full of passion” Scorpios are and while I don’t let those descriptions get in the way of appreciating their characters, have to admit that “passion” was the first word that came to my mind when I saw Soleil in this form.

She literally looks like a goddess of sunsets. Beautiful.

Capricorn form – Still not sure if I’m the type of person who favors something just because I so happen to share a quality or trait with that one certain aspect of a character…

And I freely admit that the Capricorn form is not the best of bunch (though it’s definitely not the worst)…

…but it looks unarguably lovely regardless and I love it with all my heart because me is a Capricorn, after all~ <3

The tiny hearts themselves may be a bit much but it’s part of Capricorn Star Princess’s design so honestly, I have zero problem with it. They’re adorable~

Then I kinda squealed because Selene traded her umbrella/lamp shade skirt for a fancy bed canopy! LOL xDD

But most of all, it’s simply wonderful to see Madoka with wavy hair (AGAIN WITH THE HAIR!). Ooooo, gotta love that transition from light purple to fuchsia! X3

Like I said before, they made the Cures’ respective color schemes and the Star Princesses’ color schemes quite compatible. But that’s a given since they’re within close range of each other anyway.

Sagittarius form – Ok, I may have said Lala’s forms looked the best but I believe the Sagittarius form alone can blow everyone else’s out of the sky.

I mean, look at her! Isn’t she friggin’ STUNNING?!

The long side pony tail (*SCREAMS*), the mature vibe the long gown gives off and most of all, MADOKA HOLDING AN ACTUAL BOW AND ARROW AND LOOKING LIKE A WARRIOR MAIDEN DESCENDING FROM THE HEAVENS TO PURGE THE EVIL FROM THIS WRETCH WORLD!!

HAAAAAA……I dunno why I get so emotional over form changes, I just do.

Alright, first things first. This is not the place for me to spill my grievances about Cosmos in general so rest assured, I won’t do that. But I am allowed to say one thing.

Toei. I don’t understand your incomplete logic.

Cure Cosmos is a rainbow Cure. You either give her all twelve differently colored forms or you give her none at all.

Seriously, it makes no sense that she gets four zodiac forms, leaving the other girls with only two when we could have had:

1) the original starters with three zodiac forms each

2) Cosmos with either twelve (because SHE’S THE CURE OF EFFIN’ RAINBOWS!!) or one exceptionally glorified rainbow super form (with seven cat tails because RAINBOWS!!)

This is less about midseason Cure privilege (which Cosmos has heaps of) or the fact that they won’t be able to fit so many forms in an hour long special (it’s movie budget so piss off!) and more about not doing your math right to get the best, maximum output! xP

*sigh* Ok, petty raging done (for now). Moving along…

Aries form – As some of you may know, I’m not a fan of Cosmos’ rainbow skirt but I find I can easily overlook that (along with the cat ears, the flat top hat décor, the weird braids and the dorito clips) to appreciate the full picture.

And the Aries form may just be my most favorite out of Cosmos’ forms. Since Aries is the ram constellation, the white wool trim looks appropriate, especially against the crimson of her outfit. Frankly, I think Cosmos looks better in this red design than her normal blue-rainbow Cure form.

Then there’s the poofy (kyaa~!) hair that just acts so well as a backdrop to the ram horns.

Mm, yes, definitely my favorite. *nod nod*

Gemini form – Again, where the fuck were you when Met Gala was happening this year?!

Like, this would not only fit right in with the camp theme but could’ve won best dressed that night!

The only thing I’d consider getting rid of is the rainbow but then it’d probably look less campy so maybe not.

Anyways, I was the least fond of this form when I first saw it but the more I look at it, the more I’m learning to like it…??

The red cape (and cherry earrings) provides a sharp contrast to all the green going on, too.

Virgo form – Azure blue complements light pink and white in a very angelic sort of way. Pretty~

Cosmos’ hair also looks delightfully charming when it’s curled and has a flower decoration in it.

…That’s all I have to say, really.

Oh no, wait.

It’s extremely odd to me that Cosmos gets two zodiac forms that correspond to other Cures’ birthday signs and she doesn’t even get the form of her own birthday sign.

Hikaru’s is Aries and Elena’s is Virgo. Look who got those forms.

Yuni’s sign is Libra. That form went to Soleil instead.

…WHAT IS UP WITH THAT?! >:/

Aquarius form – Is it just me or do the rainbow pleats actually work here?

We’re dealing with water and the droplet beads attached to the ends really reminds me of the rain so that’s probably why.

Cosmos’ hair also looks mega good in waves, too.

And the stars~! Exquisite!

On another note, again she always comes as a strange package because if cats in general hate water, then pairing Cosmos up with Aquarius is the biggest mismatch of them all, them both having a blue theme be damned. xD;

~~~~~

*SIGH* Finished!

…Or not. One last thing. There’s always one last thing.

It’s just a real shame that these forms are exclusive to the movie. I mean, I know we all have our opinions on whether or not Form Changes are actually useful in the tv series (I don’t care, I just like looking at them and that’s reason enough for me)…

But the stock footage was severely underwhelming for StarPre so having these in the show may have done some good to alleviate that feeling.

Also, the Zodiac forms have a much closer relation to the space motif than the Twinkle forms do. Seriously, the most noticeable things about the Twinkle forms are the tiaras and it’s weird because we already have the Star Princesses. So WHY do we need to put tiaras on the Cures? They’re not aiming to become princesses themselves, they’re channeling the powers of the stars (aka the Zodiac princesses!) so they should take on appearance respective of the star signs!

Again, I really don’t understand Toei logic.

……AND ONE MORE THING! OMGODD

Is there anyone out there who tried to draw what the first four Cures would look like in the forms that went to Cosmos? And if there is, may I see them? Please, pretty pretty please please please?!?!?

[hoenn-hakase]

TPP Bronze: Day 8. The End

Where we last saw Fifer, she had just become Champion for both Kohto and Kanto and had begun to explore the lengths of her domain as she'd hardly knew anything about Kanto. Prof. Koa gave her a Cave Pass that allowed her to go through Cerulean Cave where she found and fought her toughest opponent yet: TPP's own, AJ. Unable to beat him, she returned to Kanto's mainland where she seems to be seeking the greatest treasure of all: Her Purpose.

We start the day bright and early in Vermilion City. Having never been in a port city, but having been in a train station, Fifer sure wanted to check out the docks. What would be found down there? A big fancy boat? A rare pokemon in hiding? A gateway to HELL? Well.... APPARENTLY! D8!

Going down the stairs to where the loading area normally would be, Fifer instead stepped out of the port and into the Glitch Worl!!! Which bizarrely enough, also seems to be the source of the Plague o' Rocks that's been slowly trying to encase Kohto for some time now. A stray NPC tries to ask her if she came from Johto and admires her rare Pokemon he wonders can be found there. Glitch Worl seems to be a pretty enclosed space, having the doors blocked and buildings too fragmented to hold anything. No treasure to be found... So Fifer heads back to the Lost Boy and decides to ask the.... clone? Yes, she didn't notice at first, but there's a girl in blue who turned toward Fifer when she tried to get the girl's attention, and... SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE HER???

The girl suddenly takes her through another doorway, (down the rabbit hole indeed...) where she found herself suddenly TRAPPED in a mess of world fragments and somewhere in the distance, a horn blows, signalling that they're being taken away somewhere. Even as she can feel the "ship" moving, she eventually manages to kick the door open and stepped out to find... she was still in the same place. In front of the fragmented gym of the town she departed from anyway. How strange. Talking to another girl this time, or what she THOUGHT was another girl, turned out to be some copy of her as well and the pair of Fifers decided to shove her back into the pocket dimension to seal her away.

Wriggling out the side door this time, Fifer seemed to be quite put out with this place, and these... "twins" and decided to see if she could just fly back to Cerulean City. Somehow... that worked? She eventually went back to do a bit of a test, and certainly the port still lead into the Glitch Worl. But she could leave it just as easily with Fly. Having learned this, she heads back to the League, presumably to talk with the council about barring off the docks until they figure out how to prevent people from falling into The Void.

After dealing with those bugs, Fifer decides to go beat up some real bugs and does a long grind session in the Viridian Forest where she stumbles across a fisherman who is mad about someone telling him there was a good fishing spot there, but only bugs!

Feeling her training is complete, it's time to rechallenge AJ! And fail. ... Multiple times. So instead it's BACK to training! Off to the League to again get the help and advice of her fellow League members. There's something troubling about all this, I'm sure. AJ is known destroyer. Has he only been going easy on her?

Things only turn weirder (and Glitchier? Come on, Bronze you were holding up so well....;o; ) as she has a total WHITE out

Perhaps the answer isn't just in sheer brute strength, but something... more. Remembering Sabrina's words in how the power of the bond Fifer has with her Pokemon, the love they share, is more powerful than anything, Fifer appears to be working on strengthening her bond with Lucy

Working her way through the LITERAL Maze of Trees, Fifer finds a hidden house that seems to be some kind of Game Corner... Only there's no games inside the building. Instead a shady man tells her CONGRATS on her excellent sleuthing skills in being able to find the Secret Room. His friend then proceeds to give her AS MANY MASTER BALLS AS SHE WANTS 8O 8O 8O The chat proceeds to get so many, the game goes into a sort of "hyper mode" where the music, text, and character movements all suddenly move at an accelerated pace to speed things up XD

Having been deemed a Master of Glitchcraft, Fifer decides to test her strength elsewhere. She eventually heads to the Kanto Power Plant, where she walked through the door into the Old Couple's house in the heart of Deep Cave. Stepping out of the house proved she was, in fact, still in the cave, so it wasn't that they were removed to the Power Plant, but that she figured out how to create a portal of her own. Digging her way out, she returned to the Power Plant entrance just fine. Magic~ 8D <3

Fifer seems very excited to discover such powers and immediately decides she MUST try this elsewhere to give herself confidence in this new ability. She returns to the Glitch Worl and proves she doesn't even need to Fly to leave this weird place, as she can just step back through the doorway she created to enter it. Entering and leaving Vermilion City Gym also appears to form a gateway, giving her a shortcut back to Memoria Town.

A new plan forges as she seems to piece things together, eventually setting up a gateway at the entrance to Dark Tunnel that would lead her directly into Cerulean Cave so she could bypass the guards and go more quickly after AJ. In the end it was a long, and hard fought battle but with a bit of luck and strategizing, we FINALLY CLAIM VICTORY! >O

AJ actually doesn't have much to say (not to US anyway XD) and just as mysteriously as he appeared to Fifer.... he vanished. Leaving one to wonder if he was ever truly there... The credits roll and the Chat cries and Fifer... Well Fifer managed to warp into the game's true finale. A mysterious lookout spot where she could see all of Kohto through a lense and found --?!! waiting for her with a happy Congrats on her completing all there is to do in their tiny home. She also meets with Freako, a strange man who thanks for playing "the game". One of Koa's aides is even there, saying the professor sends his regards. Everyone's so proud of her ;o;

As she talks to all the people, and takes in the sights, her ItemFinder starts going off. A... a treasure? It doesn't appear to be in the building, but stepping outside reveals the "lookout" is in a house by the sea. It... It's Cerulean Cape! I mean, Enders Isle. Fifer continues to look around the clearing it sits in, thoroughly cut off from the rest of civilization. The ItemFinder starts to react to something outside now... she follows... She follows until she finds herself back in the gateway to Cerulean Cave and a soft mist fills the area. The Voices leave, some sending hearts and well wishes as they do so. The game ends.

This was long but still kind of fun. I think if I do this for the next run, I'll start doing it from Day 1 so hopefully I won't be SO far behind as I started this when it was almost over. I know my points of interest are kind of wonky, but I hope I could at least make these info-dumps amusing at least. Thanks! <3

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

Okay, well since no one asked about it, here's a few bonus notes and lore ideas to come up while I was going through all this.

The PokeGear was back in full swing this run, and we had several numbers calling us at all hours of the day, but the ones that stood out to me the most were: Youngster Zach, Camper Nate, Lass Dana, and PokeFan Beverly. I suppose given the chat's reactions whenever one of them called had something to do with it. (Dana is Bae though apparently)

I'm not sure if it was a bug or what triggered it, but while we were in Viridian Forest, Mom called after EVERY. SINGLE. TRAINER. to tell us she went and bought something and it's in the PC. Whether she was pushing for PC use or simply seems to be gaining a bit of a shopping addiction due to just how much dough Fifer's been raking in through her battle and treasure hunting skills, it was really funny. I really do wonder if the same phone call just kept getting triggered even though she only meant to call us once, or if there actually was a new item in the PC for every time she called, but we'll never know.

For anyone curious, I believe I saw we had 171 Master Balls over the course of Bronze. According to Kelcyus: "and most Masterball'd mons: Master Alakazam, Master Golbat, Master Graveler, Master Goldeen and Master Tangela which was caught with the original masterball."

Speaking of, Kelcyus made a comic about the incident, but I didn't actually notice it since I was more or less skimming over events in my vid watching so while skimming I didn't see anything out of place with a trainer battle and the continuing on down Route 9 toward the Power Plant though knowing that the area was off limits now explains SO MUCH about the stuff that happened in that area. Like the gateways to different areas because nothing was programmed in place of the Power Plant and Rock Tunnel and so forth. If I calculated correctly, the Edna OH SHIT incident happened back on Day 7. While it's hilarious that after turning into a Magicarp, Edna accuses us of hacking, the truth is, the gate house to the underground between Cerulean City and Vermilion City was meant to block the path to Route 9. Instead it was about two spaces over, creating a one space gap for Fiver to simply walk through and then use Cut on the tree as normal.

While I keep making jokes about the Plague o Rocks that seems to be tormenting Kohto (that one village I never got the name for, Acre Forest, Cerulean Cape, ect all having the large square boulders blocking off places for seemingly no reason) and then finding them EVERYWHERE in the Glitch Worl, and the stray NPC still talking about Johto, (as well as a few others like in Saffon and in the Route 9 forbidden zone) I can't help but wonder if the random rocks are Glitchwork or actually (from a lore prospective) actually from the remnants from Brown when Johto was basically buried due to (I thiiiiink?) an earthquake. Seeing how Kohto and Kanto are directly connected, and both areas have these rocks to some extent, and Johto was basically destroyed, I wonder how far flung the effects of that disaster struck. o.O;

And that's all I can think of at the moment. ^ w ^

[quadcorenewkids]

Touching the Void - Chapter 1

I’m posting this because, although I like a lot of parts about this, it feels too dragged out for a first chapter... too slow. Idk, I just have some mixed feelings, and since it’s the first chapter, I don’t mind posting it because... it’s not technically spoilers? 8D

Man, I hate how different things look from the word program to the actual post, no matter where it is. It never looks quite right :/

An evening in the McCormick household where one didn't need to fight to have dibs on the TV was a rare fucking evening indeed. In fact, Kenny's parents weren't even home... or so he assumed. If there wasn't yelling and bitching coming from somewhere within earshot, they must've been out and about. Didn't surprise him in the slightest. Kevin - pretty quiet as per usual - probably locked himself in his room so he could drink all night, and Karen - sweet, naive Karen - was already in bed at this hour, having had her dinner and going straight to bed. Hard to believe she was in Fourth Grade already. Felt like yesterday when he was back at the wonderful age of 10.             He remembered playing their games, the boys and him... being afraid of the Sixth Graders, and everything. Yet now they were he Sixth Graders... that still hadn't settled with him, even if it didn't really feel like they'd grown up at all. And having Middle School looming around the corner come next year? Yuck. He had a similar reaction when flipping the channel to the next fuzzy one. Fucking figures, the one night he didn't have to wrestle his drunk-ass brother or parents for the remote, and there was nothing good on. No sports aside from re-runs. Not even much late-night adult content to be found either. Just the fucking shopping channel - god, he hated that with an immense passion - and some boring documentaries and talk shows. He flipped over to one idly and stared blankly at the screen while the voice continued to narrate. The content on the screen wasn't memorable to him in the slightest.           "-and it begs to offer this yet unsolved question that we ask ourselves constantly: 'What were we put on this Earth to do? What is our purpose?' A-and there's just no rightful way of answering that, try as we may. It's a solution that we, as individuals must come to understand and learn for ourselves. All we can do to aid the process along, is by pushing ourselves in the general direction of self-discovery."             He had his finger on the button to switch the channel, before - at the last second - the guy on the TV added, "Which brings me to ask you... why do some people long to die?"             That caught Kenny's attention for an extra moment, "W-When you have the potential of a great, grand purpose in our lives as a result of what we were put on this Earth to do, why would you want to knowingly take your own life away? Why do most of us fear Death so greatly... but others don't? What in the world makes us so unique from one another in such a queer manner? What drives these people to do these things?"

The other man on the TV laughed at him, "Sounds more like we've got a 'Q&Q' show than a 'Q&A' now, Abe."

"These are trying topics. You try to come up with an answer. A real answer. It ain't so easy, is it?"             "Well, if you had to ask me, I'd say some people are obviously just more miserable than others. The quality of life and the gap and all that mumbo-jumbo. If you're down in the dumps long enough, it might seem like that's what you were put on the Earth to be - a metaphorical punching bag."             "Is that what you view yourself to be? You know, some experts say that our words and actions reflect how we feel about ourselves more than they affect others."             "Pfffff. You think I'm a punching bag? I'm living the dream, Abe. Or what feels like the dream... that's good enough for me."           The 'Abe' guy opened his mouth to talk again, but Kenny flipped the TV off before he could utter another word. God this night fucking sucked so far. He got up to get a drink - not a drink drink. Seeing what that shit does to other people sure has its way of souring you on even touching the stuff. Shoving the dozens of beer bottles and cans aside in the dirty old fridge, he pulled out a soda he'd stashed in the very back. It'd been opened before, so it was completely flat by now... but he honestly didn't give much of a shit. Flat or fizzy, it was still a nice treat to have, now and again.             While he sat and chugged back what was left of his week-old cola, his mind wandered back to that dumb-ass talk show again. 'What were we put on this Earth to do? What is our purpose?'

Did it really matter what the purpose was? You make something of yourself, or you don't. Either way, everyone has access to titties on the internet, and that was enough of a reason alone for some people to work and pay the bills. Can't even get a good magazine nowadays without having to pay like twenty dollars plus shipping... they don't even ship it in discreet packaging anymore! What a fucking time to be alive, when your neighbour can walk by and see the latest issue of Playboy sitting on your front step in broad daylight because some asshole couldn't be bothered to stuff it in the mailbox.

Not that he really cared... wasn't his name plastered all over it. He'd used his brother's name when ordering the subscriptions, and he didn't think anything of it when he'd answered the door the first time to pick them up. He'd probably just assumed his drunk-ass couldn't remember ordering it. He'd never complain about free titty magazines though, that would be fucking blasphemy. Kenny just had to make sure he got up early enough on mail days to be able to snag them first when he saw them... he wasn't the biggest fan of second-hand merchandise. Who could blame him?             He crunched the can up with one hand and tossed it in the general direction of the trash can. It hadn't been emptied in weeks, so it just kind of harmlessly bounced off the heaping pile of other cans and rolled on the floor. He'd have to do something about that at some point soon.

He once caught Karen trying to clean up the disaster that was the kitchen. Poor girl almost cut herself on a bottle that'd been broken at some point. After that, Kenny told her that she shouldn't clean up broken bottles and cans - at the very least, not without using a towel or something to protect her hands with. He'd insisted that he'd try to tidy up a bit in her place... but he'd gotten lazy. It gets to a point where if you're the only one in the whole fuckin' house making an effort to clean up, you just don't feel like it's even worth trying. But he'd do it eventually. For Karen's sake, at the very least.             With a sigh, he sauntered over to his room and shut the door quietly behind him. He always made a note to try and do that. No reason to slam doors around and, on the off-chance, wake up his sister. His parents did that enough, that quiet days like this were just... unheard of. This whole evening had been a fucking weird one. He flopped down on his bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment.           "Some people are obviously just more miserable than others. The quality of life and the gap and all that mumbo-jumbo. If you're down in the dumps long enough, it might seem like that's what you were put on the Earth to be - a metaphorical punching bag."             He snatched his pillow and buried his face into it, heaving another sigh. Maybe he shouldn't of even bothered trying to watch TV, if all he can think about is a stupid fucking talk show... but when he thought about it, Kenny kind of felt like a punching bag. Some days, more literally than others. No matter what people threw at him though, he would bounce back from anything. Always coming back, to no one ever remembering. No one remembers the punching bag. He rolled over and glared at the wall. It was going to be one of these nights again, huh? He hadn't gone on such a downward spiral since... since Fourth Grade. Everything had fuckin flown by the past couple years. The usual weird shit would happen every once in a while, but he felt like he was getting involved in it less and less. Stan, Kyle, and Cartman would go off and do shit on their own after school somedays, and it was like they never thought to ask him to join. On one hand, Kenny wasn't complaining – fuck no. That meant he'd been through less shit that could end up with him dead again.           On the other hand... he sort of missed it. He hadn't even worn the Mysterion outfit in what felt like fucking forever... when had he last gone out in it? He got up and went over to the dresser to take a look. It was exactly where he'd left it last time - placed in the bottom drawer. Forgotten. He picked it up and held it out to get a good look at it. It was so small, to him. Had it really been that long? He slowly took his parka off and put the cape on overtop of his shirt. It didn't drag on the floor like it used to, that was for sure. The first few times he'd worn it, he remembered being a dumbass and tripping over it on a few occasions. He'd twisted his ankle once or twice, and one instance actually involved him falling off a roof. That had been agony.             Yet he hadn't cut it any shorter or anything. He'd instead persevered and got used to knowing where it was and how to not trip on it. He casually grabbed an edge of the cape and brought it close to his face in what was meant to be a dramatic pose. At least it was long enough to do that, anyway. The hood was a bit small though... and he didn't even dare try on that light purple one-piece. He took a look in the drawer again to find the half-mask sitting at the bottom. He slipped it on over his head, but it was so tight on his eyes. With a scoff, he'd pulled the ensemble off and shoved it back in the drawer. Maybe there was a fucking reason he'd stopped wearing that thing. All it did now was bring back memories of that fucking cult.             But it had good memories associated with it too. He'd protected his little sister against bullies in Greely as Mysterion... he'd even become a 'Guardian Angel' to her. That, was what made it worth it. That was why he'd kept wearing it up until last year. He wanted to protect people that couldn't do it alone. He wanted to be this stupid little mountain town's 'guardian angel'... to keep it safe from fucking monsters. He scowled at the open drawer now, at the outfit thrown into a ball and wrinkled to hell. Cartman had been one of those monsters... he'd been fucking insane to drag an Elder God into his schemes. He certainly didn't miss hanging out with him. "Friend" or not.           Kenny didn't bother to close the drawer before stumbling back to his bed and throwing himself upon it again - this time sans parka. Maybe he'd bring back the persona... maybe he wouldn't. He honestly didn't want to think about it anymore... he just wanted the night to be over so he could just go back to school tomorrow - words he never thought would pass his mind. But all that kept coming back to mind was that... Fucking... Talk show.             "'What were we put on this Earth to do? What is our purpose?'... It's a solution that we, as individuals must come to understand and learn for ourselves. All we can do to aid the process along, is... push... ourselves in the general direction of self-discovery."           He'd tried that once. It didn't end up all that great.

People don't really realize when they drift off to sleep. It's just a quiet cloak of darkness that overtakes the mind... it's nigh undetectable.         He wasn't any different, at first. He didn't know he was dreaming. It felt... too real.             This place felt familiar... but for the life of him, he couldn't fucking remember where he was, exactly. It was like it kept changing... shifting... the lighting bounced around the ground like water at the bottom of a pool. The sand was red... no, not sand. Dirt. Or... stone? Kenny couldn't focus on it at all, like he'd pulled an all-nighter and hit the point where he just couldn't *mentally* stay awake anymore. The area around him was hazy, and alien. Strange plants - if you could even call them 'plants' - and formations were all around him... nothing familiar besides that feeling deep down that he'd been here once before.             The only thing that knocked him out of his stupor was a voice from behind him, but it sounded like he'd missed part of the conversation before it... "...maybe we should just find a place to hide and wait for help!"           That sounded like... someone he knew... Another voice reverberated, this time right next to him, "What help, dude? Nobody in the real world even knows we're here."           Kenny finally looked towards the source of the voices. They were like mirages... blurry... but he recognized them. He recognized the words. Clyde and Kyle. Mentioning the real world? But that meant... This was R'Lyeh. It came to him like a slap in the face, waking him from the hazy phase he'd just been in. The weird lighting, the even weirder tentacle plants and shit... the other boys in costumes... and then he saw himself walk from where he stood, like he'd waltzed right out of his own body, donned as Mysterion. He felt a distant pain in his gut, as he watched himself take charge and insist he'd find help. He knew what was coming all too well.             Quite frankly, he didn't want to fucking relive it a second time. He closed his eyes to block it out as he heard Clyde call his name. He'd forgotten to block the sound out... and it was a horrid sound. And the pain! The pain hit him like a fucking truck, like he'd actually gone and done it again! Seething agony for what felt like an eternity... and then darkness overcame him again.

He woke up in a cold sweat, grasping at his chest for the spikes he'd known were there when he'd purposefully plunged himself upon them. He laid there, catching his breath and trying to cement himself back in reality for a good long moment, before glancing over at the clock. Four in the morning. It didn't feel that long had passed, but who the fuck knew, when you were asleep, right? Time flew by like nobody's damn business... he'd wished for it earlier in the night. Now, he regretted it. That's not what he fucking meant by it at all.

He glanced at his hands, then passed them through his hair, cringing when he realized it had slicked back somewhat from the sweat on his brow.             Fuck this night sucked.

[queensofthekastle]

frank and karen's first kiss set after the events of the punisher? or non-shippy frank and curtis interaction because i love them :) for the prompts!

HOW ABOUT FRANK AND CURTIS TALKING ABOUT KAREN PLUS A BONUS????? 8D

“I think I need you … to make me go, today. Someone doesn’t make me, I’m not gonna show.” 

That’s what he told her, and she’d kissed the top of his head and put him in her car and driven him into Queens. He hadn’t been able to muster up anything to say during group, but he’d gone, and he knew she was waiting outside, working on a story on her tablet in the car, to take him home again. Home–

Something like it, anyway.

“’Pete.’“ Curtis stops him on his way out the door. He uses that name carefully, if Frank told him to use it all the time, he’d jump right on it. He almost seems to like the idea of becoming a new person. 

… That would probably make things easier. 

“Yeah?”

“Everything ok?” Curtis asks. Frank looks at the wall.

“Things are … it’s been a bad week. You ever … you ever wake up from a nightmare and realize it isn’t a nightmare?”

“You mean, realize that the nightmare is everyday life?”

“Nah, like … like you’re dreaming about the shit and you wake up sweating but it’s not stress just … adrenaline.”

“Oh, so, a good dream you wish was a nightmare. Yeah, it happens. Has that been happening to you?”

Frank looks away from the wall and toward the doorway.

“Yeah. Sometimes.”

“Is this new for you?”

“Not exactly.” Not at all. He used to do this … after the second tour, it happened all the time. Only reason it hadn’t happened after the last one was because everything after that had been a nightmare. Some of it still is.

“Any idea what might have changed?”

Everything. 

“No. Everything has been … normal.”

“Maybe that’s the problem. We went from a situation where the adrenaline was constant … well, when we weren’t bored stiff.”

“Lot of hurry up and wait over there, right?”

Curtis chuckles. “I’ll say. Did I ever tell you to read ‘The Things They Carried?’ It’s about Vietnam, but there are some real truisms in there. What was it he wrote … something like, ‘war is boring … but in the way where you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing,’ something like that.”

Frank lets himself laugh. Try to, anyway. 

“Exciting boredom, yeah. Even laying there in some shitty tent you’re–you know at the back of your mind something could fly in there and blow you up in the time it’d take you to blink.”

“Exactly.” Curtis nods. “Coming from that to this … it’s like quitting something cold turkey. And your brain does stupid shit when it’s missing its fix. I know that doesn’t fix the immediate problem, but if you’re kicking yourself about it, maybe keep that in mind.”

Frank nods again. 

“Yeah.”

“Have you talked to Karen about this?”

Frank looks up too fast and too hard, and he knows he’s already answered. Curtis shakes his head.

“Frank, come one. From what I’ve heard about this woman, there’s nothing you couldn’t tell her. Why keep it in?”

“Karen, she’s … she has enough to worry about.”

“Oh, and she won’t worry about you if you just act like an asshole and say nothing about it?”

Frank glances at Curtis, and finds he has nothing to say. Curtis smiles as he shakes his head again.

“I won’t tell you how to live, Castle, but from what I can see? Nothing but good is going to come out of opening up to her. That’s all that’s happened so far.”

He’s not wrong. Frank standing here is proof of that. But that’s half the problem.

Maybe more than half.

The next words are harder to get out.

“Curt, I don’t know if I’m …”

Curtis cuts him off.

“If you say ready, I’m going to come over there and hit you. There is no ready but what you make, that’s one of the what, five useful things being over there did teach us?”

“Yeah, Curtis, but this isn’t like over there, this is–”

“Frank. Hey. I know that, and I know what you’re saying. Just hear me out. This thing with Karen, it’s … it’s its own thing. And no one would judge you for seeing where it goes. And it sounds to me like she wouldn’t ask too much of you, either.”

“Karen asks for whatever she wants. She’s a journalist–a damn good one.”

“And does she ever ask for more than she ought to know?”

Frank scoffs. Of course not.

“She doesn’t usually have to ask.”

“Well, there you go. I won’t pretend like she’s going to have any more answers than I do, but it sounds to me like she can meet you where you’re at a lot more than twice a week. There’s no reason she shouldn’t be as safe a space as here. Complicated, maybe, I don’t know. But safe.”

Frank watches him for a beat, drops his eyes, and nods. It’s a non-answer and they both know it.

“I’m bringing you a copy of that book next week,” Curtis adds.

“Looking forward to it.”

That’s where they say their goodbyes.

Frank makes his way into the January cold to where she waits in the lot, a lone car in a sea of concrete and snowdrifts turned to icebergs by the heating and cooling of the lot around them in the days since it was first plowed. He climbs in and closes the passenger door quickly behind him, before the chill can follow him in.

“Hey,” Karen says, setting down her tablet on the console. “How’d it go?”

“It … gave me some shit to think about. Hey–Do you … do you ever remember something fondly you wish you didn’t?”

She hums to herself, tucking a stray hair behind her ear, as if her hat is going to let it stay there.

“Sure, sometimes. I think a lot about those early days at Nelson and Murdock–we literally could have died. I almost did. At the time, it was terrifying, but looking back …”

“You miss it?”

“Kind of? Not exactly … It’s not like, if you gave me a magic button and said ‘push this and you’ll wake up back in the thick of the Fisk case’ I’d actually do it, but maybe if you gave me one that said ‘push this and you’ll get to feel all of that again …’ I don’t know, I might take a hit of that. Why? Does this have something to d–”

He goes for it in a rush, cutting her off with a gentle hand on her face to turn it toward him. Not like the elevator, not like so many little moments over the last few weeks, not like– he goes for it fast. Not hard, just, sudden. 

She has to know it’s coming, she could stop him if she wanted to, if she acted quickly. She doesn’t. Karen kisses him back with her hands on his face as if to hold him there forever. He just might let her.

Curtis would be proud.

[autistickitten]

Top Text: Unintentionally Rude

Bottom Text: “CRAP”

This happens to me ALL THE TIME. Social niceties escape me either because I don’t quite understand them or (more often) my brain is just on Task Autopilot.

Here’s an example.

I was just telling a story about this one time I threw my student ID at a receptionist… Literally, the only thing that was running through my mind was, “Here’s my card! 8D” There was no spite or ego or anything else attached to it. I just…did it. It wasn’t until I noticed the receptionist’s severely bemused expression that I backpedaled and realized what I did. Oh my god, I was mortified. I sheepishly reached over and took up my card again like, “Sorry…” And then I handed it to her like a normal person would.

I’ve also done the thing where I say something without realizing it’s rude until someone reacts. Like, once, I was doing this training program (for teacher’s aide stuff) during lunch hours, so everyone would bring in their food and eat before the training. I had just finished eating when the woman who was training me and my friend said that we’d start in a few minutes. And, for some reason, “Yeah, since you're still eating” flew out of my mouth. Apparently, my dyspraxia kept me from hearing the weird emphasis on “you’re,” so I didn’t think about it until my friend slapped my arm and I…facepalmed at myself.

Being socially appropriate is hard sometimes-

[gigsoupmusic]

Y△CHT (Colours Hoxton, London - 13 Feb 2020)

Last night we were absolutely privileged to see one of the most innovative bands of the day perform at the lovely Hoxton venue that is Colours. YACHT (or, to be more exact, Y△CHT) are a band hailing from Portland, Oregon, though now are based in Los Angeles. They have been going strong since 2002; the spelling of their name is not a typo (the A is stylised as a triangle, and evokes the sail of a yacht). The name itself comes from a rather strange science course (no longer in existence) that keyboardist Jona Bechtolt attended at age 16 called "Young Americans Challenging High Technology".

Comprised of Claire L. Evans on lead vocals, the aforementioned Jona on keyboards (and guitar), and Rob Kieswetter (aka Bobby Birdman) on bass and keyboards, Y△CHT have, according to Claire, finally found 'the holy trinity' following a number of permutations.

Y△CHT have been making headlines lately for all the right reasons: they have created a fantastic new album called Chain Tripping, for which both the music and the lyrics were composed via Artificial Intelligence. Last night was, mainly, about showcasing this new album. Yes, you heard that right. A variety of different AI processes were used to write not just the lyrics but the music as well. It should come as no surprise that Claire has a science background. Author of a recent book called Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, she has been very much at the forefront of science-tech, with her own blog Universe (hosted by National Geographic), as well as regular science columns in The Guardian, Wired and many other publications, plus Futures Editor of Vice's 'Motherland' science website. Y△CHT have, therefore, been pushing the boundaries of AI and musical composition to its limits.

The first thing we noticed was that the band decided, for reasons unexplained at the time, to perform the entire Chain Tripping album backwards. By backwards, we mean starting with track 10 ("Little Instant") and finishing with track 1 ("(Downtown) Dancing"), though we wouldn't put it past them to decide to play the actual music backwards one evening as an experiment! Claire has a tremendous amount of energy on stage. She is constantly throwing shapes (think: cover of David Bowie's Heroes album, and vogue it up a bit), so much so that half the photographs we took ended up having to be discarded, as she was a blurry mess. Even Jona and Rob failed to keep still for long, often interchanging mid-song two or three times with one another's keyboards, which were located at opposite ends of the stage.

So, the stage was pretty busy, and the crowd were soon screaming with pleasure. Although a band should of course mainly be about the music, there is nothing more boring than seeing static band-members. We enjoyed the first three songs (the last three on the album), in particular the very cheerful "Stick it to the Station". Our first stand-out song, however, had to be song 4, "Sad Money", which was quite different, and a lot more trancey. We asked Claire later which songs from the album were likely to remain in the repertoire when they perform a Greatest Hits concert rather than an album showcase like we heard last night. We were delighted to hear that "Sad Money" is one of their favourites and therefore likely to make the cut. Following that came a much slower song, called "Death" – which just so happened to be the first track that their software churned out when they started with this AI experiment. This was quite dark, and included some rather violent lyrics, including 'stab, stab, stab a cop' repeated a number of times. We asked Claire later about this, and whether the fact that software coming up with controversial lyrics means that the lyricist can be exonerated, therefore implying that self-censorship is no longer necessary in this future world. She agreed it was a good point, and there would certainly be some plausible deniability. However, at the end of the day, the band were still involved in the selection process of the lyrics from those that were generated. The actual lyrics, nonetheless, were not something they would have come up with themselves, but the band thought it rather delightful that the AI process should decide to suggest such strange phrases.

In between tracks, Claire would often address her audience. This again made the gig appear to be much more intimate (in spite of the fact that the venue was heaving with bodies). What was most obvious was how different each of these new songs actually are, from the very 80s sound of "Loud Light" to the quite bonkers track "SCATTERHEAD". On the latter, we loved the use of the cowbell and great guitar effects, which were also evident on "Hey Hey", another 80s-influenced uplifting track which includes quite a dirty deep-house synth on top of a Kim Dealesque bass-line. The strobes came on for "(Downtown) Dancing", the first track on the album. This was the longest song thus far, and included a funky dance bit that was evocative of the famous section in the middle of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Again, we loved the cowbell. Claire got the entire auditorium clapping at one point, adding to the party atmosphere.

Hearing the album back-to-front, it now made sense why it should be performed that way, as it meant there was a real build-up to that final moment. Of course, this was not the end of the gig. Even with albums as good as Chain Tripping, a lot of people would have felt short-changed had some of the older songs not been performed as well. Y△CHT went on to perform six non-AI songs in total, starting with two from their 2015 album, I Thought the Future Would be Cooler: firstly the track which shares the aforementioned album's name, and then "Hologram". This was followed by "Hard World" from their 2017 Strawberry Moon album, a song about animal rights which was accompanied by the projection of their trippy video featuring a happy foot and a sad foot. This was another song during which the two male components of the band were swapping sides and instruments throughout the song. We share the video in question below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D-Z9rUvlqM Following this came one of our favourite tracks, their cover of Brigitte Fontaine's 1969 utterly surreal French-language song, "Le Goudron". This cover appeared as an online single in 2012 and is well worth downloading. We actually first came across it while watching a superb Italian comedy directed by Paolo Sorrentino about Berlusconi called Loro, in a scene where a rich young scam-artist is trying to entice Berlusconi to an orgiastic party in a villa overlooking the politician's garden. This tune featured in the scene below, and it was a Shazam moment. Thanks to both technology and serendipity, we learnt of this fantastic track, which led us to the band's back catalogue and, ultimately, reviewing them for GIGsoup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJiiVWFozs0 "Le Goudron" really is a splendid tune, and is probably the most psychedelic of the ones they played last night. The irony is, when you translate the French lyrics into English, they are as bizarre as some of the ones that AI has thrown up for their new album! Following one of those pseudo-encores we wish weren't a thing (we can't remember the last time we heard a genuine encore that the band had not already orchestrated), Y△CHT returned with what was probably their loudest (and certainly most new-wave) track, "Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire)" from their 2011 album Shangri-La, and then ended with the pure pop funness of "Psychic City" from their 2009 album See Mystery Lights, which was coincidentally the first of their albums to feature Claire.

So, will Y△CHT use this process to make another AI album?, we ask Claire after the gig. 'Yeah, I think some variation upon it. But by the time we sit down to make another record the technology will probably have evolved by leaps and bounds. It already has. Since releasing the album, the tools that we used are obsolete. So, I'm excited to try to find some other cobbled-together mix of futuristic tools for the next record that challenges us in the same way that this one did. I don't want to get stuck in a rut.' We were interested to find out whether, by using AI, they felt that some of the creative process of songwriting was taken away from them, but Claire was adamant that she did not feel that way at all. The process allowed them to end up with tons of song lyrics, from which a small percentage was useful. These would then be rearranged (or 'cut up') following a method which has its origins in Dadaist poetry, was famously used by the author William S. Burroughs, and also employed by David Bowie on some of his greatest and most-loved albums.

These single lines of subsequently rearranged lyrics were generated by inputting into the software not just the lyrics from Y△CHT's entire back-catalogue (to give the process an identity closer to the band's original style), but also lyrics from some of their favourite artists, such as Patti Smith or Bowie himself. We asked Claire whether they had to remove some of the generated lyrics because they appeared to be too close to something Bowie or Smith would have themselves written. 'No, the amount of data that you need to train a machine-running algorithm is so significant. I mean, it's literally like seven-hundred thousand pages of text. So the nuances get lost. It's more like you're teaching a machine English based on only song lyrics.' Last night really was a fantastic show, and when Claire addressed the audience in her effervescent manner it seemed especially intimate. We referred earlier to how Y△CHT are now making headlines for all the right reasons. It wasn't always thus: in 2016 they suffered what amounted to a PR disaster when they pretended that they were trying to stop a sex tape they had made from being leaked on the adult website Pornhub, which generated a lot of negative publicity. We personally found the video to be quite innovative – it has a disturbing sci-fi ending – but the band are very remorseful about the stunt and acknowledge that it was in bad taste and should never have been done.

Now, however, it is all about the future, in more ways than one. Thanks to their scientific knowledge, we know that using AI is really just the start of it. It is marvellous to have innovative standard-bearers in modern music today. We have felt that in recent years, there has been nothing new any more. Previous generations had Kraftwerk, Frippertronics, Phil Spector's Wall of Sound... there seemed to be very little new to be coming out of the studios for the current generation. This is now changing. Thank you, Y△CHT, for making the future of music a little more exciting and a little more cute. Read the full article

[maketakunai]

Toumyu Mihotose 4/23 Live Viewing Report and Stage Summary

Hello! I watched the new Toumyu, Mihotose no Komoriuta, once live and once at the live viewing, and now I have a nice(?) report about it to share with you!

Warnings:

-ALL the spoilers -Very tl;dr, it’s almost 6k long lmao -Written very unseriously and in Asuka-language -Tsuntsun for Kuri-chan -Many editorializing comments -I was writing this while watching the LV and I forgot some parts -Ishikari (Ishikirimaru/Nikkari) contents www -Otokomichi is JUSTICE

Notes:

-Nikkari Aoe = Araki = Nikkaraki, etc - “Nikkari is the best sword” directly translates to “there was a fight scene and Nikkari was really cool in it.” But also he’s the best sword -Ookurikara = Kuri, Kara, etc. -Sengo Muramasa = Sengo, Senbon, etc. -Kebiishi = KBC = a big bad guy -bug = Matsudaira (Tokugawa) Nobuyasu, Ieyasu’s son -Links to historical figures’ Wiki pages tossed in where relevant but I’m no expert on Sengoku Period/Tokugawa family history myself, so, yeah.

The show starts with Ishikiri drawing lovely pictures at the sword house. He shows Kuri but Kuri doesn't like it. Even though it's very nice! He explains that he's writing the story of their adventure, and Kuri asks him to show it to him when he's done. Ishi's like are you interested :)? and he's like NO I DON'T MAKE FRIENDS ok

Ishi decides to start with a cool flashback to when Sengo-chan came home from the sword bakery, pink lights flash all around. Ota Motohiro must be stopped. Stop him. A strange song plays. Tonbon says OH NO you're here and Senbon is like “Hey! Let's get naked!” and poms his pompom. Spicy.

Tenbu 11 Mikawa - Nikkari and Kuri coming back from expedition, suddenly bad guys are attacking the people! It turns out that these people just so happen to be the Tokugawa family vassals, like, Honda Tadakatsu and all them! But unfortunately they all get murdered by the retrograde army. Regrettable.

A guy carrying a bb gets stabbed, a lot, then just as he's about to kick it the swords show up and he passes the bb off to Araki wwwwwww My favorite line in the entire show: “この子はどうすればいいのかな”Just in this really soft and 8D;;; smiley nervous voice “Um, Ookurikara? What :T do you think I should do with this kid :T?” wwwwwww “DONT TALK TO ME”

Back at the sword house, Ishikiri's talking to the boss, they say it's going to be intense! Ishikiri wants him to leave it to him. The sword boss also says there's a high chance of “them” showing up and to be careful!! D: nuooo...

Meanwhile, Tonbon introduces Senbon to Mononon, he mysteriously manages to refrain from hitting on him for possibly the only time in this musical. Or, possibly before he can, they get called in to see the sword boss.

They go see him with Ishikiri, he gives them their mission to find the kids that have been attacked in the middle of expeditions and save them and figure out what's going on.

These four sing a song about going out to battle, it's kinda good. Monoyon's tights are intense.

Nikkari is the best sword

Kuri tells him to go alone, it'll be easier to protect the bug that way, but bad guys show up and Araki's like “sorry, I'd love to, but it looks like we are tied together by destiny~~~~~” They fight some bad guys, when suddenly who shows up but a hot pink sword! Senbon Muramasa shows up to uchigatan some randos. “instead of an introduction, how about we take our clothes off?” “Hahahaha what”

Mononon visits next to bring luck to all the swords

Tonbon storms in a while later to spear some guys.

Finally slow sleepy Ishikiri, so chill, the chillest of all swords, shows up, and destroys like twenty guys in a single attack because he is an ootachi. The best sword

at some point during this scene Nikkari ducked off the top left hand side of the stage to drop off the baby, a little while later a bad guy kinda wandered over there and suddenly Nikkari sword plunged out of the darkness and assassinated him, it was so cool, Nikkari is the best sword

So!!! Finally the six swords are together and we can sing! The most important song!

TOUKEN RANBU TSUYOKU TSUYOKU KITAESHI HAGANE IMA

Here he is, it's Mr. KBC. He looks like Darth Vader, I was very scared to see him ahahahah. It was ok in the LV but when I watched it live I kept getting really scared every time they said something about KBC or when he showed up ;;;;;

Nikkaraki explains the situation about everyone dying, bb starts crying, Ishi takes it and cheers it up for a bit, it cries again, Monoyon discovers! This bug is Tokugawa Ieyasu. Monoyon cuddles it and talks about how it's his treasure. His most precious bug. I feel like there was just a lot of laughter in this scene for whatever reason. Well. Nikkaraki and Ishi and Senbon are all in one place. Of course there's going to be a lot of casual hahahas and huhuhus flying out of any given conversation.

Lullaby one sung by Monoyon Sada-chan to lull the baby Ieyasu to sleeps. This nen nen nen nen nen kororin song will be repeated many times throughout this musical so please be prepared. Well. The title of this silly musical is “the lullaby of 300 years” so what else can we expect! It would be stranger if there wasn't a lullaby being sung a bunch!

Swords are trying to figure out what they should do now that all the Tokus are dead, obviously history cannot continue on its usual track if the kid who is going to grow up to unify the country is suddenly an orphan and has lost like 95% of his army/family/etc. thingy. Just then Ishi has an idea so crazy it just might work! What if, to keep history on course and ensure that those bad Retrograders will not show up and ruin everything again... we become the Tokugawa retainers....

He sings a song to gently persuade the other swords to his way of thinking. Koko ni kibou ga aru, a bug~ we can't let anything happen to this bug~

Yes, so, we will become the erased retainers, hahahaa, I will be Hattori Hanzo :|b we will make history happen just as it did before! But, Senbon thinks he is an evil Muramasa Demon Sword cursed to bring misfortune so he will go away, Kuri is not interested in anything but stabbing dudes so he will go away too, oh no. Meanwhile Nikkaraki will become Sakai Tadatsugu, a nice advising fellow. Monoyon will become Torii Mototada, a very reliable and loyal retainer! Famously, in the end, he sacrificed his life when he and 2k troops managed to hold off 40k of Ishida Mitsunari's forces long enough to let Ieyasu's forces regroup in time for the battle of Sekigahara. Perfect for a Monoyon! Tonbon is supposed to be the Honda Tadakatsu replacement (his former owner) but he has no faith in such a thing.

Little cute Nikkari was shocked to learn the warmth of a bb ;n; He and Ishi have a little private chat about the past. “Before, I asked you why I couldn't become a holy sword, and you said it was probably because I cut down a child, even if it was a ghost... I never thought I would be able to understand the warmth of a child, but holding this bug in my arms, I think I'm starting to understand what you meant...” “Well, you may have cut down a ghost child before, but this time, the child you have saved will become a god. I'd say that's pretty holy.” “A-ah... really ;;o;;/ ;n;” is I think the gist of the conversation they have here, tbh I'm a little fuzzy on the details but what is important here is that they laughed softly together and gave each other a lot of soft meaningful looks.

Ishikari is real

Now a montage of fool swords tryna raise a baby wwwwww narrated by Ishi. I cannot help but notice that we do not get the chance to see any of Ishi's amusing parental blunders, why are you trying to erase history!!!11!11!1 “To absolutely no one's surprise, Monoyon Sada-chan was the single best sword parent, as expected of the little waki who stayed by his side as his treasure~” Monoyon came out with the bug and played peekaboo and stuff with him, making the bug laugh, but suddenly the bug started crying! “Oh no, looks like you pooped a lot, let's get your diaper changed!” says the cheerful waki.

“Mr. Nikkari also surprisingly took to childcare like a sword to stabbing dudes” Araki shoved the baby bucket wwwwww in previous shows he came out with a stroller thing and was pushing it like a normal human but in raku he was just like. Shoving it and letting it roll on its own while he walked behind it wwwww He picked up the bug and then said “You know, i don't hate soft things.... maybe I'll eat you!!!” a good sword parent

“Tonbon seems like he should have his shit together, but perhaps he was the roughest and most disastrous of all of them.” Tonbon came out with the bug strapped to his back and started flailing around his spear. At first the bug liked it but then it Did Not and he panicked and unsuccessfully tried to cheer up and continue spear practice with the crying bug wwwwww

“Senbon and Kuri were protecting us from a bit farther away. Probably. Separately. Probably.” “Hey, Kuri, want to ~~~live with me~~~” “I DON'T MAKE FRIENDS” “But I~~~ extremely~~~ want to become ve-ry good friends with you~~~~”

Time skip!! The Ieyasu bug became a smiley bigger bug of 10 or so, very cute! I want to squish it. Nikkari and Ishi? and Monoyon are talking with the bug. He clearly loves his sword family very much! But, he doesn't know they're swords, of course...! (also it makes you wonder if these kids are supposed to be in disguise or if this bug just grew up like “well my one dad has green hair and my other dad has pink hair and my other other dad is blond with pink tips and my other other other dad has normal-ish brown hair but I have literally never not seen him with anything less than flawless eyeshadow, i'm sure all kids grow up this way” Also??? They have to be doing other things like castle management and raising armies and whatnot, right, so probably the implication is that they're supposed to look like normal randos of the time period bUT ALSO LIKE what if they don't??? what if they are just like. Clearly otherworldly swords and the bug's just like Nothing Is Wrong and so nobody else has the nerve to question it wwwwww) Anyway they have a chat or something and Monoyon's like “Let's sing a song little one! KAA KAA, GEKKO GEKO” and the bug sings it too and it's so precious wwww i love

Senbon and Kuri are visiting to report their status. romanchikku Muramasa Fwamily song? Side note Mokkun worked really hard to imitate Suwabe's weird katakana pronunciation of desu and things, side note 2 how does Suwabe do that? Anyway Tonbon sang a couple bars of a song, then explained to Kuri (who DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW, HE DOESN'T MAKE FRIENDS but Ton's like chill, it might come up in the mission so just let me tell you this ok) that there was a legend that Mr. Muramasa Demon Sword was bad luck to Tokugawa thingies, then Sen sang his song about night and darkness and moon thingies. Clearly he is very worried about this mission!!

Nikkari came out and Senbon got EXTREMELY NERVOUS AND PANICKY. “Sh-SHOULD WE GET NAKED????” “There's no need for that.... right now 8D” standing in silence, Senbon wiggling “HAHA WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME” “it sure is. A time 8D” Nikka tried to give him some advice like “hey it's nice trying new things, like, me raising a bug, who would have thought it but it's p good!” but Sen was too shook to deal wwww (did I miss something, why would Senbon be nervous about Nikkari all of a sudden? Is it just because he walked in while he was showing Emotional Vulnerability through song? Is it because he relies on his aggressive flirting as a means of keeping people away, except for not only does it not bother Nikkari but Nikkari is Extremely Into It and is flirting back and Senbon can't actually deal with that? Did they hook up sometime during the intervening ~10 years but it didn't go so well and now it's awkward? I really just don't know.)

is this a new song or is this the same song still. anyway more singing! Kuri sang too maybe! Cool bug growing up montage with it, the small bug had sword practice with his best boy Monoyon and then spun around and transformed into a cool adult! Probably, exactly like that.

And, his first child was born, a small bug named Nobuyasu (known as “bug” from here on). I don't remember this so much in the LV but in the live show, Ieyasu, like, kept passing the bug to Ishi but then the bug would start crying and so he'd have to take him back. He played with the bug and made silly sounds and it was really cute :)

OK now time for battle again! This is the battle of Okehazama where Ieyasu's ally the Imagawa clan gets rekt by Oda Nobunaga but the Tokugawa turn out totally ok :) Monoyon advisor, when asked about the luck of this battle, told Ieyasu something to this effect, hey! that's spoilers! Senbon flirted with Kurichan outrageously.

So there are these soldier dudes standing around and this little farmer guy called Gohei comes out and he's like wow! A war! My first war! and the soldiers are like “you, a soldier? Give it up, you won't last five seconds :/” They go to beat him up and Gohei's like STAY BACK and they're like OH NO he's got a weapon but then he just pulls out this tiny little sickle wwww They menace him a bit as he flails the sickle around and then who appears suddenly but Kuri Kara-chan!!! Gohei became friends with Kurichan, somehow, somehow. Somehow. Basically he's like “o-OH hey BRO yeah this is my BRO if you mess with me, you mess with my BRO” and Kuri doesn't really do anything lmao just stands there and all the soldier guys are too intimidated by his existence www Eventually they're like “w/e let's go guys :|;;;” only the poor two soldiers that are stuck with Kuri between them and the exit like slowly awkwardly move toward him, then give these incredibly deep respectful bows before dashing away. Gohei runs after them like “that's what you get you NERDS,” and taunts them by shaking his butt in their general direction, only he forgets he still has his sickle in his hand and stabs himself in the ass. Regrettable. Kuri turns to go now that this tomfoolery is over with but Gohei stops him and says “Um, hey... what's... war like?” and. I. Well I forgot what Kuri said in response =u=;; but after that he said something along the lines of “it's no place for someone like you :/” and ran off!

Then we get a battle scene, not so much with swords battling I think? Mostly a lot of human soldiers? But also Ishi is there for sure! At some point the whole scene kind of wobbles and falls into slow motion and Ishi has this small dissociation moment where he's just surrounded by all this horror and bloodshed and violence and he's kind of just slowly turning around taking it all in.... before he turns back to his fight and finishes off his enemy. Poor sweet Ishi ;n;

At the end of the battle the swords meet up again. Kuri's like “hmph ;/ is that all there was to this battle ://” and Ishi is really not having this today so he's like. “Oh 'is this all' huh so the many lives that were lost today mean absolutely nothing to you, all right, if that battle just now wasn't enough for you, that's fine, I have good news for you, DRAW YOUR SWORD I'M GOING TO FIGHT YOU” They have a sword battle where Ishi clearly has the advantage. He kind of pushes Kuri around like “hmm :/ your sword is very light isn't it?” and Kuri is unhappy.

Senbon breaks it up. “exCUSE ME. What are you doing you are NOT ALLOWED TO GET NAKED WITHOUT ME” Ishi's like haha oh you're right! he's Into It too wwwwww

Then Ieyasu finally turns up and he's like oh hey who's this cool guy I've never seen before, he was great in that battle thingy! Hey! Guy! What's your name! Ishi(?), seeing his chance, says “oh 8D Mr. Ieyasu 8D This is of course none other than Sakakibara Yasumasa!” Ieyasu says Wow cool! Hey Mr. Sakakibara, how about you fight with my team, it'll be real nice to have you! And in a surprising moment, the Kuri kneels down and swears allegiance to Ieyasu. Nice

Lullaby 2? Probably. Probably sung by Ieyasu to his bug? That's my heart's impression but I didn't take any actual notes on this. Anyway it grew from a baby into a small bug that can run around!! Again, very cute!!!

The bug ran up to Ishi to show him a nice flower he found! “Do you know what flower this is?” “Hahaha. Yes, it's called aconite. (In Japanese, torikabuto, “bird helmet” www)” and the bug's like “Wow cool!!” and then Ishi's like “By the way it's extremely poisonous hahaha” and the bug got scared and threw it across the stage www. Ishi had him do HaraKiyo and it was very cute www The bug has been watching this war go on and such and he wants to be useful. Ishi(?) tells him “well to be useful you have to work on your swords practice” but he only likes flowers, not swords. He wants to do something useful with flowers! Then Gohei came into the scene and wanted to learn swords from Kuri but he was like Nah. Then Gohei told a sad story about how war took everything from him, his parents got killed in a war and he and his little sister survived but after that they had no food and his sister starved and how now he has to be strong too. Then the bug asked Kuri to teach Gohei as well and Kuri had no choice but to agree to his lord (a very loyal sword? Kinda cute...) and bug and Gohei became friends? And the bug looked at Gohei's hands. “A-ah, this is embarrassing, I'm sorry, my hands are all hard from farming...” Meanwhile poor little Kuri-chan having agreed to this absurd demand is waiting at the corner of the stage. Ishi's like “Ah, is it ok to keep your sword teacher waiting?” and Gohei's like OH NO I'M SUPER GOMEN and ran after the very annoyed Kuri Kara. The bug looked at his own hands as he walked away. “My hands... are very soft...” Perhaps, I get the feeling that Ishi is feeling a bit melancholy here, but maybe that is just because of what is to come...?

Now Ieyasu is allied with the Oda forces and is participating in their battle vs. Azai Nagamasa. Again, Monoyon advisor tells him that luck is on their side...!

Nikkari is the best sword

Tonbon is still deeply uncertain about being a good replacement for his former master, Honda Tadakatsu, which is a problem because this is a battle where Honda played a pivotal role. Monoyon Sada-chan, reliable as all wakis are, thinks of a clever way to make him get it together. “Tonbo! There's someone who's been badmouthing your former master!” he says! Tonbon gets mad! Who is it!! Who is this guy!!! I will FITE HIM!! But Monoyon points to him and says “The one insulting your master.... is you!!” Basically to not believe in himself is insulting to the master who always trusted him as a weapon, maybe? Tbh I forgot what his point actually was OTL Anyway he gives him a pep talk about how he can be the best Honda Tadakatsu if he believes in himself and isn't dumb. Then Ton sings a song about he will become Honda and breaks into the enemy stronghold singlehandedly against like 10000 guys. Cool sword.

After a successfully won battle, we get a scene with Gohei and bug and Kuri, bug has a request! He wants Gohei  to teach him how to farm. Gohei says ofc!! but if it's okay, in exchange, he wants bug to teach him how to read. Ofc it's okay!! says the bug, and he doesn't know many yet but he'll do his best to learn new words so he can teach them to him too! then they sword together with Kuri, Ishi sings a song and we get another growing up montage, welcome Ohno Mizuki, thank you for your self.

WHY AM I HERE BY HIS SIDE WHY AM I DOING THIS IS THERE ANOTHER WAY Ishi says and aggressively rips out pages from his notebook. Bless

Suddenly Senbon shows up to a meeting of swords and Ieyasus and declares that he is now Ii Naomasa and he's going to join their team. Please stop your wicked ways. Also like no offense but.... why... what was the buildup to this change of heart......

And Nikkari saw that Ishi was stressin' out and not letting anyone into his heart so he tried to strike up a conversation and help him but he got rejected..... please fall in love............. let him support you in your time of suffering.....

SO HISTORICALLY it turns out that what happened is that this very bug that the swords have raised from childhood will be ordered by Ieyasu to kill himself quite soon...! Not only that, the one who assisted his suicide aka actually killed him was none other than Hattori Hanzo, currently being portrayed by our boy Ishi Kiri Maru. Oh no! Meccha trouble. No wonder the poor little big sword is so sad and doesn't have time for love :/ Probably everyone knew about this except like Kuri bc he doesn't make friends. As the sword who stayed by Ieyasu's side to the end, Monoyon remembers that Ieyasu always regretted this to the end of his life.... and even he isn't quite sure why he had him killed. A nice sad slow rendition of TKRB plays over this scene.

Now we're going to fight something! Cool!

Nikkari is the best sword

Bad guys from the time army thingy come for the first time in a while and they fight them, Senbon is kind of losing his chill but it's fine, also he definitely sat on an enemy uchi or something and spanked him

Swords are defending Ieyasu and bug and Gohei and sending them deeper into the building to hide from the bad guys, but bad guys keep spawning! Eventually all the other swords are distantly located and the only one left is Kuri-chan! He does his best to fight all the guys, alone, just like you wanted, right :? He kind of collapses in exhaustion after he finished off the last one... right? Except OH NO there was one uchi or something left and it ran up to stab Ieyasu! But!! Gohei jumped in front of it and took the hit, giving Karabou enough time to get back to his feet and finish the uchi! Rest in RIP gohei. “That's why I didn't want to be friends :((“ nice live viewing camera work slowly zoomed in on the Kuri's 1 (one) emotion.

Ishi comes out to visit and pray at Gohei's grave. He has a song about “I want to save you, but everything keeps spilling from my fingers. Why do we fight, I don't want to lose any more of the things I'm holding onto....” He fights with Kuri by unspoken mutual agreement and afterwards Ishi tells him his sword has gotten heavier. Nikkaraki comes out and tells him Ishi is praying not just for Go but for all soldiers and things and even enemies and just everything. “why is he fighting then” probably he wants to put an end to all war...

sad Kuri whose feels are now getting in the way of his ability to fight and he's dokidoki artichokey. He goes to give Go's grave a flower except then he doesn't. “Idk what will happen when no more war but..  maybe I want to see it!! And only then will I give you a flower” ok that's fine but what are you going to do with the one you have now tho

and the sad baby bug visits the grave, full of regrets...

NO KBC IS WAITING STOP YOUR EVIL THESE SWORDS ARE DOING THE BEST THEY CAN

Mononon is under attack! From bad Sengo “COME ON NO ESCAPING GET NAKED” “WHY DO I HAVE TO GET NAKED” “BC WHEN YOU LOSE IN PRACTICE FIGHTS YOU HAVE TO GET NAKED” “BUT I WON” “WELL THEN YOU SHOULD BE STRIPPING OUT OF SHEER JOY” suddenly Araki and Sengo gets a little panicked because he's here to foil his nefarious plot. “Haha, sh-shall we all get naked then?” Araki: “Ok but I only get naked after a fight” “o-okay GOOD CHANCE LET'S ALL GET NAKED” Monoyon: “Anyway what's so good about getting naked” “SHALL I SHOW YOU 8D” Ton: DO NOT BE FOOLED BY HIS EVIL WAYS then Kuri came out and Sen almost stole his heart(?) by pretending to be hurt but then he didn't. Then because all four of the great Ieyasu generals were together Sengo made them line up and pose for no reason. Nice

Ishi came in and asked if they were having fun “WE'RE NOT” Araki: “no it's fun we're lining up” “IT'S NOT FUN” “oh, well, that's very nice, suddenly I have to go kill the bug now so bye” nice transition

There's a big argument about “what Ishi are you really going to kill this bug!! He did nothing!! Can you really kill someone who did nothing wrong!!” and Ishi snaps back that it can't be helped! This is how history goes and we have to protect history! He is suffering so much :(((( Nikkari probably makes them let him go. After some discussion the other swords are going to go help him kill him(?) for moral support(??) and everyone's sad especially Monoyon, they tell him it's ok and he doesn't have to come, he should just bring luck to everyone instead of death. He trails sadly after everyone on their death mission anyway.

the bug talks to his father Ieyasu. He wants to be slain because poor Gohei's death traumatized him and because he doesn't have the determination to be in the war anymore. Can't deal. Can't hold a sword anymore. Dad shoves his sword back in his face and screams at him that he has to fight!! He storms off and Ishi comes to take his place, presumably to kill him. Cool bgm of that yurayurara song whose name I don't actually know. The Ishi's sword is half drawn and he is frozen as bug confesses his inability to succeed his father. But then he sings his lullaby and Ishi gets his heart broken. His sword slides slowly back into the sheath. “Hanzo, I have a request of you. Please kill me” <//////3

approximately 2.5 seconds after Ishi decides that he really can't kill the bug after all, the KBC arrives to ruin everyone's day. Thus begins a very difficult and long fight against the single OP enemy D||!! (Also. I have to ask. Is the KBC automatically dispatched without any other info on the situation as soon as a change in history is detected, or like. were there a big panel of KBCs monitoring the silly swords going about like forty years of child-raising like “well yeah technically they’re not supposed to be here doing this, but those other guys already screwed things up and I’M not about to become a surrogate sword parent, let’s just.... leave them alone for now....”)

Everyone is being tossed around but our very strong and sturdy ootachi is still standing strong! Ishi fights the KBC singlehandedly and declares his intention of wrecking the KBC even if he breaks in the process, kind of??? implied???? that????? he's getting corrupted or something???? something is very wrong, but then, the bug shows up and gets stabbed trying to save Ishi from KBC. Everyone fights KBC and Ishi yells over his fallen bug!!!!!!!

Then they all fight together, they say lines about getting hurt (awakened?) they all stab the guy and then suddenly light flashes out!!! Very similar to the end of Tenroudenmyu when The Thing happened.

Next, timeskip! to the day of Ieyasu's death. ;n; he is an old man! Monoyon shows up and Ie recognizes him as Mototada, then he sees Nikkaraki, “wow, you came for me too Tsunetsugu!” then everyone! “Wow, everyone! Sorry, I'm the only one who lived such a long life.....”

“I always hated war. Sorry for being such a pitiful and terrible aruji” the monoyon shakes its head nyuaaa “when I first held the bug, the bug who was happy with just a lullaby... I cursed even that small happiness. I wanted to bring war to an end.” gets out of bed “How's that!!! I did it!! I got rid of it!!!” “i wonder if this was for the best.... that it took this much spilled blood to make it here.... Nobuyasu... sorry....” and keeps apologizing over and over. Intention to keep calling for him until the end. Then a cloaked figure shows up, who is it? It is none other than our bug Nobuyasu, but! he has become Gohei!! A humble farmer planting his crops in peace! Nice!!! and the world is beautiful! The Ieyasu is so happy and he falls back into Mononon's arms, softly singing the start of the lullaby until he passes away. Monoyon starts singing with him but stops because he is in tears. Araki advises him to smile :)

They come back! Sen and Ton are arguing about Tokugawa stuff again, then they're going to practice fighting, then Monoyon, a Fool, wants to join and Sen says “Ok, but by the end we might both not be wearing a-ny-thing at all~~~” “W-Well that would be! A problem!” Monoyon runs away chased by the cackling Senbonzakura. Nikkari and Ishi are sitting down looking at Ishi's book, Ishi shows him his nice picture of him! “ehhhh~ so that's how you see me...?” Ishi is shocked www then he shows him Kuri “Ah yeah, I can imagine it perfectly” “right!!” “his face when he sees THAT” wwwwwww heartbroken. Then Nikkari sits next to him and looks at the gloomy Ishi and says “Ishikiri?” “Hmm?” and starts laughing until Ishi laughs back and they both laugh with big smiles on their faces!!!!!!! I love them!!!!!! Laughing is the best in the end!!!! (the cry of my heart)

Ishi writes some more stuff, then realizes he has to go to horse duty, accidentally leaves his book behind. Sneaky Kuri finds it, flips through it until he gets to a certain page, then softly smiles for just a second before he frowns again.

Everyone sings the lullaby song together!!! The full version! the end of the first act!!!! Very nice!!!

Act 2

Starts with weird vines and a haunted house? Why? I don't know. No one knows. Some nice dancing by our ensemble guys.

A cool song. I liked the Nikkari and Ishi kecha part, Ishikari is real. They all had cool black cape thingies and the lining of Senbon's was pink and beautiful. I love it.

“Shall we get naked?” says Senbon and they take off their first layer of clothes. another cool song. Centered by Senbon Muramasa. At the end he does a sexy dance move where Tonbon spins him around and he ends with his leg wrapped around him :) whoa. Muramasa fwamily.

The part where they determine who slacked off the most in today's musical. Tonbon says “I have never once slacked off in my life!!” unfortunately for him at the show I saw live he was chosen www Senbon or someone was like “so much for never slacking off 8D” hahaha. At that show, he said his “近寄らせはせん！ ”(I will not let anyone get closer!) line except he followed it up with “...except for you, Aruji~♥” Thank you................. I love you..........

At senshuuraku, a miracle occurred and the sword chosen to say an embarrassing romanchikku line to the audience was none other than... Both!!!! Ishikirimaru and Nikkari Aoe!!!!!!!!! At the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I lost it tbh I was screaming alone in my house at 9:14 pm. Anyway they went back to back and took turns saying parts of their lines together and Ishi shot the audience to the heart with a bang and Nikkaraki blew a kiss and anyway Ishikari is real, thank you...

Nikka to Kuri: “I'm going to have you accompany me a while longer.” Araki/Zaiki duet. Endless Fighter? That was the primary Englishy bit in the chorus. Some mystery notes in there. Pretty catchy? I don't really have a good ear for songs to start with but this is the only one that I can still remember some of the tune and lyrics to which says something probably! :D;;;

Ishi and Mononon duet. A lot of high notes, I don't know that this was necessary? But it was cute, they're cute. Cute swords.

Tonbon solo, probably the best song(?)? Because y'all spi can SING. He was really cool and cute too :(((!!!! Wonderful!!!!!! Very much he deserved this solo!!!!

Soft and slow song with swords wandering through the audience. Ishi peekaboo'd the live-viewing camera wwww Kuri showed the camera an X because he doesn't make friends, thanks. There was a very important moment in the live viewing where Ishi was singing and Nikkari just kinda stopped and watched him with a really soft look..... Ishikari is real.....

When I watched it live, Kuri was going to walk down our aisle (where a lot of Kuri oshis were waving lights for him) but then he was like EXTREMELY NAH and turned around and went back to where he came from :T Brat. In character but like come on. At least Monoyon hung out at our area for a while and Ishikiri came and harakiyo'd some people, please purify me Ishikirimaru.........

Next they brought out the drums and the human actors and had some flag waving! Cute tokugawas!!!! Cool drums!

Next, everyone takes off their second outfit and we get a song that is not Otokomichi. Like it's a p good song, like, it would be really hype if it was a leadup to Otokomichi, but, it's not Otokomichi, so, what's the point...? why even have a sword musical? Without Otokomichi? Tbh

In Not!Otokomichi their little prop thingy they played with was a small version of one of those jingly shrine bell thingies where there's a lot of bells attached to the one thing? And it had like rainbow strings -u-! Great! Like this maybe vvv

Finally we end with Touken Ranbu (song) drum version and the redressed swords sing a final reprise of it!! Right!! This is how you have to end the swords musical!! I'm lookin' at you Tenrouden!!!

At Japan senshuuraku, they announced a DVD for the live they held at Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima, only a year after it happened but that's fine. Then they announced a new myu to be happening between November and January of this year, with no further information! That's fine! I didn't want to know what swords were appearing in this one, of course not! It's fine!!!!! Last, they announced Dream Live Swords 2017 for this December, to be held at Budokan and Osaka Castle Hall and Saitama Super Arena!! Holy cannoli!! Big houses for lots of swords!!! Please bring back all the swords for this but ESPECIALLY my Shinsengumi swords :V Please give Kanesan an ever larger audience for his haikus......... thank you.......................

Personal Rating: 7.5/10

I enjoyed it a lot! And I know for many people this was their favorite swords musical this far :O The casting as always was flawless, the only equally perfect casting decision to Araki Hirofumi as Nikkari Aoe that has ever been made is Ogoe Yuuki as Horikawa Kunihiro. And, I was happy to see it live! But, I thought Tenroudenmyu was superior in having bigger emotional moments as well as having overall catchier songs (esp. in part 2 ><). And, there wasn’t really anything in Tenrouden where I was like “ok but why” like there was in Mihotose. Also they took Otokomichi out????? I’m legit really upset about this lol. But, I also think there were some things this one did that improved on previous ones, like trying to share the focus more equally between all six rather than having two kind of leftover swords just hanging out in the background. And it very much feels like they’re trying to take the overall narrative somewhere rather than limiting it to the Swords Angst Over Their Former Masters plot we’ve had before, especially by bringing the KBC in. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do with the next one...! *____*

Thank you for reading! Please share your thoughts on swords musicals as well! Discussions and dissenting opinions are always welcome *u*

[card-gays]

"protip: when a flashy billionaire proposes to you, you’ll know" - you REALIZE that you have a Duty to tell us how the official proposal went, right~? ;) (srsly that whole thing was the sweetest fucking answer EVER and I love kaiba defying expectations and just flaunting Atem everywhere once he's comfortable

I wasn’t sure about sharing this one, since I was worried it wouldn’t be quite as impressive as whatever you were imagining, but…. here it is~

Planning Ahead- Or, “Prideship Proposal Time!”

Early one morning, before they’re even out of bed, Kaiba nuzzles at Atem’s cheek and asks him out to dinner. Which itself isn’t unusual, Kaiba has the most free time in the evenings after all, and being with Atem has finally given him a good enough reason to dine out rather than at home (or alone in his office) all the time. But the thing is… it’s not really like him to plan it only a few hours in advance.

Which means he must have had it scheduled already just in case Atem said yes, and waited until then to seem spontaneous.

And when Atem puts that together, it….is honestly really cute to him? And definitely like Kaiba. So Atem kisses him and says sure, he��d love that. And doesn’t think anything of it.

His first sign that something was different should have been when Kaiba actually didn’t change their reservation when Atem asked if they could try that new place that just opened, instead (very gently) insisting on one of their more favored places. But Kaiba almost always let’s him pick, and they were already getting dressed up more for their usual spot, so again, Atem doesn’t really think much of it.

(in his defense, Kaiba hasn’t pulled on a shirt yet. so.)

Kaiba kisses his shoulder as a thank you, and tells him to take his time getting ready, since they’ve got plenty of time left before their reservation, and while Atem doesn’t dally he does take extra care to do himself up that evening. A little more gold to frame his eyes, the wings of his liner making them look a little more sultry than usual. Highlighter on his cheekbones with a soft sort of shimmer in it… the earrings Kaiba bought for him last christmas, the pendant from his birthday. He’s a stunner even before he slips on his clothes, and Kaiba just sort of watches him with a soft look for as long as he can before Atem catches him looking and laughs, gesturing at the sloppy job he did with his tie. “Distracted, are we?”

“Maybe..” Kaiba smiles, and Atem rolls his eyes in amusement as he steps forward to redo it for him. A skill he developed literally only for occasions such as this.

“You’re incorrigible.” Atem says, a small smile taking over his own face. Sweet and warm.

It tugs at Kaiba’s heart, the familiarity of it all. Domestic bliss already.. he’s never had so much nervous energy converted to excitement so quickly. “I love you.” He says, one of the softest voices he’s ever used.

Atem looks up with an eyebrow raised, not sure what he’d done to spawn that kind of reaction. And that look on Kaiba’s face… He thinks he maybe knows what’s going on, then, but he doesn’t say a word. Just kisses him (quickly, careful not to get any of his gloss on Kaiba’s skin and accidentally cause a media frenzy…. again)

The drive there is a jittery one for the both of them, but the good kind. The ‘we keep glancing over at one another when the other’s not looking’ kind of jittery. The ‘I can’t wait to get there and see what happens’ kind of jittery.

(Atem catches Kaiba looking once, just once, on the way there. Kaiba calls him beautiful and Atem feels a rare heat flood his face at the words. He’s not really the type to blush, but..)

Atem’s not sure what he’s expecting when they get there, but a restaurant (his favorite restaurant) rented out just for the two of them isn’t it. Normally Kaiba likes for everyone to see them, to put a hand on the small of Atem’s back, or vice versa, and walk into a room knowing everyone must be dying of jealousy for how happy they are together. What a perfect couple they clearly make. And he’s even more sure…

He admires the candles, the flowers, the only table set in the whole place being theirs. Soft music playing in the background, and it’s the song that makes Atem realizes it’s made to look like their first proper date. Without having to ask he already knows he can expect the menu to be the same despite this place ‘Trendily’ changing the actual menu every six months. They don’t serve older items for anyone, is the word. And yet, as it’s handed to him, there it all is.

“Kaiba…” Atem says, the name having become something of a cheeky endearment over the years, toted out in playful moments like this. One hand partly covering his face as his smile grows a little wide, an odd but cute quirk Kaiba’s never tired of watching. “This is too much….”

(Kaiba’s confidence takes a small dip, and he takes a deep breath, measures out some calming thoughts. A silent reminder to himself not to expect the worst, that Atem clearly means things like this in an idiom way the way anyone would, and not in the ridiculously hyper-literal way his pessimistic mind throws at him despite no one ever meaning it in such a way.

But the doubts don’t stick like they used to, and Atem’s laugh has always cut right through them anyway)

Atem drops the hand and looks at Kaiba with nothing but pure affection, and for the first time that night Kaiba has a sneaking suspicion Atem knows exactly what he’s there to ask.

“I just… wanted it to be special.” Kaiba says, and Atem looks like he’s about to melt in his seat at the words.

“It already would have been.” Atem admits, maybe breaking the facade, but finding it worth it to say so. And by Kaiba’s smile, he’d say he made the right choice. “Still, this… this is beautiful, Seto. I’m never going to forget it.”

He reaches for Kaiba’s hand across the table, and Kaiba takes it without hesitation.

Kaiba had planned to propose in the garden outside the building, the whole place done up in lights in a way that gives the place an air of magic. He’d had them plant some of Atem’s favorite flowers, fix the old fountain Atem admired so much…..

But kneeling on the floor of an empty restaurant before they’ve even ordered drinks, somehow, feels more right.

And judging by Atem’s face, the way his eyes glimmer in the soft lights as they grow a little misty… he’d say he was right.

(Atem kisses him before he says yes, and then kisses him again. Barely casting the ring a glance on his way to meet Kaiba on the floor and take his face in his hands and kiss him again…)

(he rest of the date goes as planned anyway, with Kaiba confessing as they have their dessert in the garden that this is where he’d meant to propose. Atem just gives him that soft-eyed gaze and tells him that would’ve been nice too, but he’ll never forget the way Kaiba did.

Someone could propose in fireworks and Atem wouldn’t find it half as sweet or half as special, to be perfectly honest.

Kaiba laughs at that one, the kind he only breaks out amongst the people he trusts. “I’d thought of that too, actually.”

One day he’ll let Atem see the notebook full of ideas for that night he’d wind up deciding against. One day.

(Atem will have a lot of questions for the one that just says ‘New constellation’ with a question mark beside it. A lot)

Atem does admire the ring during the drive back, when he can finally take his eyes off of Kaiba, anyway. It’s beautiful, honestly. Natural white gold, with a slightly wider band and a flared shoulder setting for a stone that’s clearly meant to resemble the color of Atem’s eyes. It’s perfect, honestly, like Atem picked it himself. Though it does give him a thought..

“Would you wear an engagement ring? If I picked one for you, I mean…”

Kaiba’s not even sure what it is about the sentiment that hits him so hard, but he practically stumbles over his “Yes, of course.” in an excited rush to say it.

“Good,” Atem says. “I… may have bought you one. A month ago.”

“Ah..”

(Kaiba has him text Mokuba on the spot to let everyone know they’re taking the entire next day off)

———

Hope you liked it!