#robots and cowboys are my weakness

[justalittlebluetiefling]

What are some of your favorite anime (outside of Bleach and DBZ)? Were there any that were formative for you growing up that you might attribute to your personal preferences in storytelling?

Hmm this is a really good question! And one that's a little hard to answer, only because I fell out of anime for such a long time that I have vague memories of why I love the anime series that I own, but not a lot of specifics.

I was talking to my partner about it and I did realize that a common theme in a lot of them is dark sci-fi/fantasy, which is something I still tend to prefer in a story. Or it's something that will shoot something up to the top of my list. Things like Fullmetal Alchemist and Elfen Lied. RahXephon was actually very big for me for a while, because music and "alien" invasion and giant mech fights. I've watched RahXephon so so so many times, but it's been years and I should probably do it again. It is possibly still my favorite. But like, looking at the other sets I own, I think dark and/or based in our actual world but something Fucked Up happened tend to be my favorite types of stories.

Two other anime that were really big for me growing up were Sailor Moon and Fushigi Yugi for different reasons. When I was very young and it was still on "cable" TV, I used to record episodes of Sailor Moon while I was at school and watch them when I would get home. I've still never actually watched the series all the way through. Maybe that should be my next attempt. And I loved Fushigi Yugi before I ever saw it, because it was still very hard to access (less common) anime when I was younger and the only thing I had of it were printouts and synopses and character info from various websites. But one day, I saved up enough money and got my mom to buy me the series on ebay and I watched it like three times in a row before I switched to something else because I was so excited to finally have it.

[dragons-hoard-of-fandoms]

(Murder Drones Episode 6 spoilers!)

MEDUSA ROBO RAPTORS

Oh thank goodness, Tessa still actually cares about her robots. I was worried she would've gone all "cold and professional" and just treat them like tools to dispose of once they've outlived their usefulness.

Uzi sees a real-life human for the first time and immediately bites it. Never change, ya little gremlin.

Whoa whoa whoa wait, so Cyn is the one who sent the Disassemblers??? Huh. I actually considered that being a possibility a while back. Maybe I've got a bit of Nori's gift of prophecy myself. >:)

YES YES YES UZI CAN ACTIVATE HER WINGS AND TAIL AT WILL I WAS LITERALLY SO WORRIED THEY WERE GONNA SHOOT THAT DOWN SOMEHOW

That awkward moment when you reunite with your dead boss. My heart goes out to all the J fans, I wanted to see more of her too. 😔

SHE WANTS TO HOLD HIS HAND DON'T TOUCH ME I'M WEAK

'Kay bye Tessa, nice knowing you for like five minutes.

Cowboy baby? Cowboy baby.

Wait ew gross, egg spider cowboy baby.

Secret underground society of crazed Drones?? Also forcing them to get high via magnets.

NOOOOO STOP TORTURING N

Oh that's screwed up. That's so screwed up. They're lucky they're robots because there's NO WAY YouTube would let this fly if they were human.

Wait, was that Earth? Is Earth destroyed?? ARE THE DOGS OKAY

I'm starting to see where that "Nori caused the Core Collapse" theory is coming from.

Tessa. Dude. No. I legitimately want to like you but if you're presenting trolley problems like that then you're gonna make that very difficult for yourself.

How to Train Your Dragon moment- Wait, no, never mind. Also blood?? Like actual blood?? From a human???

NO NO NO NO CYN PUT HER DOWN PLEASE PLEASE PUT HER DOWN

Is that the Singularity???

HUGGING!!!!!!!!

SHE'S ASKING HIM "YOU GOOD?" LIKE HE DID TO HER IN EPISODE 2

HAND HOLDING AND BLUSHING HAND HOLDING AND BLUSHING HAND HOLDING AND BLUSHING HAND HOLDING AND BLUSHING

REJOICE NUZI NATION WE HAVE FEASTED WELL THIS DAY

Doll can you please just... not? Also Sonic reference maybe?

V GOT HER GLASSES BACK

CYN NO LEAVE THEM ALONE HAVEN'T YOU ALREADY DONE ENOUGH DAMAGE

NOOOO V WHY WE WERE ALL FINALLY STARTING TO GET ALONG

And yet another episode with no sign of Thad. I'm going to assume he got adopted by a pack of wolves at some point during "Cabin Fever" and is just vibing in the forest with them, which means this post got hit by Apollo's dodgeball of prophecy.

[bluef00t]

thoughts on the ironhide storyline?

Knights of the Golden Circle: the Atomic Robo arc so peak that it's singled out in the site preview blurb.

Well, I'm assuming you mean that, and there isn't an Ironhide RSA I missed. (I'd read it! I prefer the spinoff genre characters to the real-person teams, which may defeat the purpose of the title Real Science Adventures, but whatever.)

"Thoughts." That's vague. Well, I love the bonkers set-up. There are other arcs that can absolutely only be done once (Ghost of Station X, Savage Sword of Dr. Dinosaur, Vengeful Dead), but only this one has the quality of Brian + Scott leaning in like "Okay. We know. We swore that causality is sacred and there will be NO time shenanigans, and that's STILL true. But just this once we're going to bend our own rule slightly, because we really, really, really want our robot to get to be a cowboy. Thanks for understanding."

The art's fantastic. I'm glad this one made it under the wire for the era of pencil-lined Robo volumes because the subtle textures really complete the grungy dusty look. The colors, too. Robo's electric blue and vril's crystalline pink stand out like alien intrusions in the sepia-toned world. Mwah.

My first time reading, I felt like it was a cop-out on the stable time loop to make Ironhide real in his own right. But since then my opinion has reversed! It cultivates a real air of Old West legend for Robo to be preceded by whispers of a reputation so shrouded in mystery that he doesn't even know it. I now actually think it should've taken Robo until maybe his dozenth public superhuman feat to realize I May Be Contributing To The Legend Somewhat.

Robo's initial interest in Ironhide strikes me as a riff on kids latching onto representation in comics. Especially when characters "like you" are stereotyped or absent, so you imprint on someone who isn't supposed to be like you, but represents your personal experience way more. But I'm probably projecting there.

Paradoxically to my RSA opinions, I like historical cameos in Robo proper. Holliday + Reeves + Robo are a really fun trio. Helsie is a fine "final boss", but I'm glad more time was spent on Caldwell's gang to get our fill of saloon shootouts and train chases first.

As an aside—pulps have a tendency to pick a villain from an "anti-American" political group with little thought put toward their underlying ideologies. (Which is how you get "our blonde superhuman can out-punch the Nazi ubermensch, so there" and incoherent Soviet/Nazi team-ups.) I point this out to say that the writing in Robo is generally better than that. It may tiptoe around historical politics a little (Helsingard is a Nazi collaborator, the Knights used to be Confederates), but the pulpy cyborg plot keeps at least one throughline: these were people in the human trafficking business for power and profit. And of the legends of the old west, Bass Reeves would have some very strong convictions about that.

Honestly a weakness here is that the story gives you a lot of hints in place of explanations and just trusts you'll work it out. Like the FIFTEEN YEAR timeskip. I only NOW, writing this, realized that the dates on the wall (which make no sense as "where am I in history?" guesses) are probably reactor lifespan calculations.

It's a better problem to have than agonizing infodumps or actual plot holes, but in some cases I liked my initial assumptions better than the real answers! Like, I first thought he was using his own heart to power his gadgets, and that's what was killing him so fast. Would've been metal if true. (I guess he did rebuild himself to make that possible later.)

Well, even minus that. It's a tasty cowboy trope for the protagonist to know they're already dying (or I've just listened to Streets of Laredo too many times) and a great time travel trope for the ending to be a foregone conclusion and our protagonist to still fight like hell to the bitter end. Yesssss.

In a way, this is already how readers experience the historical stories, trying to piece together the cost for this preordained victory with scraps of historical knowledge and faith that it will all make sense eventually. But this time Robo's in on it, too.

[atamascolily]

princess tutu re-watch, episode 17

Evil Raven: where the FUCK is that heart, I'm so hangry right now

Rue: Uhhhh, Princess Tutu keeps interfering, and--

Evil Raven: DADDY DIDN'T RAISE NO FRIKKIN' WHINERS, GET OUT THERE AND BUST YOUR BUTT TO BRING ME MY DINNER

meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ahiru is internally googling "how do I deal with demonic possession?" and coming up with zero hits when she is interrupted by a dramatic dude on a bull. Somewhat surprisingly, the bull is not also a student.

OH SHIT IT'S THIS GUY HAHAHAHAHA

between his declaration that he is "a true prince" and his lackey fanning rose petals around him, he'd fit right in on Revolutionary Girl Utena

Femio (for that is indeed his name): I'm a real Don Juan! Time to up my game and speak mostly French in spite of my obviously Spanish theme!

gosh, Ahiru is spending a lot of time naked in this particular out-of-the-way fountain.

Ahiru tries to convince Rue not to be evil, but their tete-a-tete is interrupted by Femio dancing to "I'm Sexy And I Know It" while his lackey carries a boombox on his shoulder

Rue: Wow, I hate you, great job.

Femio: Ohohohoho, another conquest!

Femio invades the dance studio half-naked and demands a solo, lolololol, and does the Robot and the Electric Slide to demonstrate.

Femio: EYYYYYYYY, MACARENA! stikes a pose

Femio: Alas, I am too avant-garde for this studio--the price of following my HEART--

At the word "heart", Mytho wakes up from his coma enough to sign I LOVE YOU PLEASE SEND HELP before collapsing

everyone thinks Ahiru and Femio should date solely for the drama, lololol

Neko-sensei: Amazing technique, Mytho, but I'd prefer if you survived your next performance.

Evil Mytho drags Rue for offering to get a heart by herself

Rue: Trust me, I have just the sucker in mind

Fakir: WHO KEEPS VANDALIZING BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY?

creepy cryptid at the window: lolololol!

Uzura: surprise drum solo zura!

random megane guy from previous episodes: WILL YOU BE QUIET ALREADY?

(for better or worse, "love-love-zura" is one of the things that immediately comes to mind whenever I think of this show)

Rue's seduction attempt falls hilariously flat because Femio can't handle the concept of monogamy, lololol

Fakir (holding a squirming Uzura): WHO TAUGHT YOU THOSE WORDS, YOUNG LADY?… oh, no, is this Charon's payback for all the times I sassed him as a kid??

Forced to choose between Tutu and Kraehe, Femio.exe has stopped responding. He is trampled by the running of the bulls as Tutu and Kraehe gracefully leap to safety

Kraehe: you know what? Fuck it. vanishes in a flock of crows

Tutu: My work here is done. graceful curtsey

Fakir: where the hell did all these bulls come from?

Ahiru: Literally no idea!

Uzura: RIDE 'EM COWBOY ZURA! Fakir: Ignore her, she's just doing it for attention. I did the same thing when I was her age.

Ahiru re-enacts Mytho's message and Fakir.exe has stopped responding. The bulls shuffle ominously, sensing weakness.

Ahiru: Oh, did I forget to mention, it's from Mytho!

Fakir: Holy shit, do not scare me like that!! I thought I was going to have to deal with FEELINGS!

Mytho: Too bad you didn't have enough… animal magnetism to capture that guy's heart, Rue. *rimshot*

Drosselmeyer: OOOOOH, nice one! Hahahaha, you're so fucked!

[zrtranscripts]

Season 10, Mission 5: Go West

A clone and a super soldier walk into a bar...

~

ERNIE VAN ARK: Well, Ranger Five, that should be it, on the horizon. The base holding your namesake, Runner Five. A top secret Valmont facility in the Spanish desert. An entire prison dedicated to a single high-priority captive. That’s what it said in the intelligence we stole from Casablanca, but all I see is an Old West town. A single strip of wooden buildings. A saloon, a sheriff’s office. No signs of life.

I don’t know much about the American West, Five. They only had so many history texts on Red Scorpion Base. Sam once said they used to make cowboy movies in the Spanish desert. There must be old sets in this area. Sam knew a lot about movies. I hoped... one day I might get to watch some with him.

[Ranger Five’s implants whir]

Weeks of searching, Ranger. Weeks since we escaped Red Scorpion. All those Valmont decoys. The fake prison in Gibraltar. The false Fives in Tangier. This can’t be another dead end, it can’t be! What would the old me say, I wonder? Something megalomaniacal, I expect. I hear him sometimes in the night, Five, scolding foolish little Ernie for letting Valmont get ahead.

Valmont’s weakness is his flair for drama. That’s what the old Van Ark would say. His tendency for fancy. Just because he built a prison doesn’t mean it looks like one! See? Most of these buildings are wooden backdrops, but not the saloon. Its windows are all barred and sealed. Hiding a prison in plain sight surrounded by tumbleweed, that’s the sort of thing Brent Valmont would do!

You’d better get your implants ready for a fight. Runner Five’s imprisoned on that film set, I’d bet on it. It’s getting dark. We can use those wooden carts to cover our approach. Watch out for guards. There’s a hero waiting on our rescue. Run!

~

ERNIE VAN ARK: Here we are, Ranger Five. The saloon. It’s even got swinging doors. Sam’d love this, wouldn’t he? We’d best be careful. We don’t know what we’ll find inside, although... it’s strange we haven’t encountered a single guard yet.

[footsteps on creaking wood, piano plays]

I don’t understand. This place is deserted, but it’s certainly not a real saloon. Look at that thick metal door behind the self-playing piano. And the bar’s a computer terminal in disguise. [sighs] Hold on, I’ll hack the door. [computer zaps] Inside, Five. Quick!

[door opens, devices whir and hiss, chemicals bubble]

So much for the Old West. This is a laboratory! Centrifuges, robot arms, dissection tables, all fully automated. There! A cell door, in the corner. That must be where Runner Five is kept. Can you wrench it open? [implants whir, metal creaks, monitor beeps] A padded cell. One poor soul strapped to a gurney... Don’t worry, Runner Five, we’re here to - ! Oh. That’s... Not Runner Five.

PETER LYNN: Time for another robot checkup, eh, Brent? Got to top me up? Oh God! Oh, that’s Van Ark himself! That’s all I... [laughs] That’s all I need.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Peter Lynn! He’s unconscious. So many tubes connected to him. The immortal! He’s the priority prisoner, not Runner Five! [discordant piano chord, alarm blares] Damn! Can you carry Peter, Five? [implants whir] Please try not to hurt him when you unhook the tubes. There’s a back exit past the fume cupboards. Must lead up into the hills. We’ve got to get him out of here. Come on, Five!

~

[alarms blare in the distance]

ERNIE VAN ARK: Alright, Five. We’re out of the immediate danger zone. These hills and gullies will give us cover, but security can’t be far away. There must be guards somewhere. We need to keep moving. How’s our patient faring? Can you hear me, Peter?

PETER LYNNE: [gasps] Cold... So cold. Oh... no, no, no! Take me back!

[cloth rustles, metal clanks]

ERNIE VAN ARK: Don’t struggle, Peter, you’ll hurt yourself. Here, take my coat. [rocks clatter, zombies growl] What was that? A hand reaching out of the ground right where my foot was a moment ago. Zombies! Another one. Careful, Five. That one almost got your leg. We need to get Peter out of here before they surface fully. Quickly, run!

[footsteps in gravel]

PETER LYNN: What’s going on? Van... Van Ark? No, you can’t have me.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Keep a good hold on him, Five.

PETER LYNN: Get your metal monstrosity off me. I can’t be here! Jenny needs me.

[cloth rustles, metal clanks]

ERNIE VAN ARK: You won’t be doing anything for anyone if those zombies get you. Now, where have they gone? [rocks clatter, zombies growl] Up ahead, Five, clawing their way out of the ground. They must have burrowed under us. No time to evade them, Ranger. We’ll have to take them out. Put Peter down and fire.

[implants whir, zombies splatter]

Thank you, Five. These must be a variant of our Tunisian zombies. [footsteps] Oh no, Peter’s running away! I didn’t think he was well enough. He’s in no state to fend for himself out here. We need to get after him. Come on, Five!

~

ERNIE VAN ARK: Another Old West film set, and nothing but scrubby desert all around. Peter must be hiding in there. Keep your sensors hot, Five. [devices whir] There, slumped against that stagecoach. The adrenaline must have worn off finally. Peter, please do listen to me. We’re here to rescue you. Well... maybe that wasn’t the initial intention, but it’s certainly what we intend to do now. You have to stop running away! Let Ranger Five help you.

PETER LYNNE: [laughs] Your oversize Roomba can just keep its distance! I have had enough robotic hands inserting things in me for a lifetime! There are only so many curative substances one man can take, even me!

ERNIE VAN ARK: Curative substances?

PETER LYNNE: Which one was your favorite, Ernie? The one that blistered every inch of skin on my body? Or what about the projectile vomiting? Or – or that one where all my blood vessels ruptured at once, leaving me clinically dead for a week?

ERNIE VAN ARK: Peter, these experiments, these horrible experiments, they weren’t mine! I-I know what my other self did to you. Janine told me. I think it was the thing she was angriest about. But I’m not with Valmont. I was his prisoner, too! He destroyed the only homes I’ve ever known. Red Scorpion Base, my friends from Abel. He even killed Guillemette. And she was... kind to me, in her way. I saw him bragging about it in a Ranger’s files.

PETER LYNNE: I... don’t know what your game is. Maybe you are telling the truth, [laughs] I can’t tell! I think I lost touch with reality several experiments ago. You need to stop your walking Tonka truck stomping around like that. If you are who you say you are, I would get going while I still can.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Not without you.

PETER LYNNE: I have to say, [laughs] I’m surprised this latest batch is so mild. Uh, you know, I’ve had worse comedowns in abandoned warehouses in Manchester. Credit where it’s due, though, it certainly is... moreish.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Moreish? Has Valmont been injecting you with opiates? To make you dependent, I suppose.

PETER LYNNE: You know, a normal person’s first thought would have been to numb the pain.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Oh. Yes, I suppose it would.

PETER LYNNE: It doesn’t. Just FYI. Numb the pain, I mean. Oh, and as-as for the dependency, bit redundant if you ask me. Not like I have much choice but to stay here. [rock rumbles and clatters] Oh, [laughs] there’s my ride now.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Burrowing zombies, more this time! We need to move before the whole street gives way! [ground collapses] Peter, Ranger? Is everyone alright?

PETER LYNNE: Oh, yep, never better!

ERNIE VAN ARK: Fascinating! We’ve fallen into some kind of underground tunnel system.

[zombies growl]

PETER LYNNE: And we’re not the only ones.

ERNIE VAN ARK: There’s zombies breaking through the walls. I thought they had human hands, but they’re actually more like huge blunt claws.

PETER LYNN: This is no time to admire monster design, Van Ark. Listen, I don’t much care if you live, but assuming you do, I suggest you follow me. I’ve been here before... and I know a way out, but we need to go now.

ERNIE VAN ARK: You heard him, Five. Run!

~

PETER LYNNE: Looks like we’ve lost them for now.

ERNIE VAN ARK: A chamber in the tunnels filled with Old West memorabilia. A sheriff’s hat, a gun holster, a giant cow’s skull. Wait. Not all of these are animal bones. That’s a human tibia with some flesh still hanging off it. It looks like it’s been... gnawed! Peter, what is this place?

PETER LYNNE: Ah, it’s just a cavern.

ERNIE VAN ARK: A cavern with claw marks on the walls that are a perfect match for those mole-like zombies and pits in the ground filled with more half-eaten corpses. I think that one’s moving! This isn’t a cavern, it’s a larder!

PETER LYNNE: I suppose you could call it that.

ERNIE VAN ARK: You brought us here deliberately! You wanted to be caught!

PETER LYNNE: Well, what was I supposed to do, trust you? Ernie Van Ark, action hero? Oh, forgive me if I don’t buy that from the man who ended the world!

ERNIE VAN ARK: And you allied with him from what I’ve heard! Why am I irredeemable, but not you?

PETER LYNNE: I don’t know! Uh, maybe both of us are, uh... But I can’t leave. The way out’s over there. I’m going this way, into the belly of the beast. Follow me or don’t follow me. I don’t care.

~

ERNIE VAN ARK: There he is, Ranger. Just standing in the center of a huge chamber surrounded by decaying, half-eaten corpses. He looks utterly without hope. Peter, please -

[intercom squeals]

BRENT VALMONT: Petey, Petey, Petey. If you’re hearing this, it means you’ve tried to escape again.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Oh no.

PETER LYNNE: Don’t worry, it’s a recording. I don’t even rate live surveillance, apparently.

BRENT VALMONT: You remember the rules of La Prisión de la DeLuca, don’t you? You stay put and let me try out my samples on you and I don’t cut off Janine’s fingers one by one and make you listen to her screams. Got it? Good! Now you enjoy the zombies hospitality and I’ll have someone out to pick you up ASAP. ASAPish, anyway. Only fair to let my undead security team have a nibble after the trouble you’ve given them. Oh, and uh, don’t try this again! Third strike, and Janine really will be out. Ta-ra.

PETER LYNNE: Oh, I escaped once before, but the zombies caught me. They’ve got a slow-acting strain of the virus, so they don’t need to feed as ravenously as your normal zom. They just bury you in a pit and pull bits off whenever they fancy a snack. It was... Days before the extraction team arrived.

ERNIE VAN ARK: So Valmont says he has Janine, and you just... believe him?

PETER LYNNE: [laughs] What choice do I have? If there’s any chance I can keep her safe -

ERNIE VAN ARK: No.

PETER LYNNE: What do you mean, no?

ERNIE VAN ARK: I won’t allow it. We came here to rescue a friend and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We can find Janine together. Runner Five, too.

PETER LYNNE: And if I don’t want to come, you’ll just kidnap me again, I presume.

ERNIE VAN ARK: No. If you stay, we stay, too.

PETER LYNNE: Oh great, very productive. We can all enjoy Brent’s lovely acid trips together!

ERNIE VAN ARK: Yes, except he won’t need you then, will he, if he has me? I can be his scientist and lab rat rolled into one. What do you think happens to you then? To Janine?

PETER LYNNE: You... [laughs] you wouldn’t.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Don’t presume to know what I would or wouldn’t do, Peter Lynne! You refuse to believe I’m on your side, so do you really want to risk Valmont getting his hands on me again? [zombies growl, rock clatters] Hundreds of burrowing zombies bursting out of every square foot of wall and ceiling. Decision time, Peter. Them or me.

PETER LYNNE: Alright, fine! That tunnel to the left, that’s the route Valmont’s men took the last time they hauled me out of here. It’s a safe passage to the surface. Follow me. Go, go!

~

[footsteps]

PETER LYNNE: [gasps] The surface. We’ve made it.

ERNIE VAN ARK: Keep running. These zombies tunnel at incredible speed. We’re not out of the woods yet. [zombie growls, rock clatters] To your left, Five! Claws bursting out of the ground.

PETER LYNNE: Up ahead, a whole line of them like an undead barbed wire fence!

ERNIE VAN ARK: We’ll have to jump them, then head for the river beyond. Ready, Ranger? 1, 2, 3, jump! [implants whir, footsteps, water flows] We’re over the river. Keep going!

PETER LYNNE: Wait! [laughs] Wait! [laughs] They’ve stopped following us.

ERNIE VAN ARK: The river must act as a natural boundary to their territory.

PETER LYNNE: Oh God... Oh God, what was I thinking? I can’t go on the lam with Van Ark! Janine...

ERNIE VAN ARK: Peter, you being locked up in that lab helps no one but Valmont. What do you think he’ll do to Janine once you’ve outlived your purpose, hmm?

PETER LYNNE: But when he finds out I’ve escaped -

ERNIE VAN ARK: Who’s going to tell him, the zombies? That message was prerecorded. He doesn’t know you’ve escaped yet. And he doesn’t expect you to actually try, not with Janine at stake. He won’t know you’re not in the zombies’ larder until he can get a recovery team out here. That will be two weeks at the earliest based on the map I’ve constructed of Valmont’s facilities. Find her before then, and Janine’s safe.

PETER LYNNE: All right... Say I trust you on that. What’s next? Do you even have a plan?

ERNIE VAN ARK: That recording, do you remember hearing anything in the background?

PETER LYNNE: I don’t know. Bird calls, maybe?

ERNIE VAN ARK: Several different species, if I’m not much mistaken. And more than that. There were waves, too, crashing against rock.

PETER LYNNE: So we’re looking for a seaside location that’s... popular with birdwatchers, or-or used to be?

ERNIE VAN ARK: There’s only one Valmont facility that matches those criteria. I’ve got the map here. Look, this island.

PETER LYNNE: Tabarca. That’s... really close. All right. Okay. I don’t know what Valmont’s drugs have done to me, or... how I’ll cope without them. But I can last until we get to Janine. I can free Jenny. And then nothing else matters.

~

[mothfinite]

Hiii I saw this from my bestie Max's blog and decided to hop in!!

Romantically im kinda all over the place but I'll pick the main types I'm weak for. I'm bisexual so any gender works for me!

Big monster men (esp insectoids), I'm also just a sucker for goofy villains!!

COWBOYS, COWGIRLS, JUST ANYONE WITH A SOUTHERN ACCENT.

~ @berryshipbasket

ask game here

@berryshipbasket HELLOOO hi welcome in!!

for you i have....

zazz! i feel like he fits the goofy villain + big monster vibes. a member of the deadly six, hes kind of unhinged and loves destruction and Violence

scratch! 100% goofster of a rooster, originally from aosth as one of the main villains, tho due to the nature of the show its mostly just silly slapstick schemes. he does come back in the archie comics and is an assisstant to breezie tho!

and of course, with the mention of cowgirls, its bunnie again! she is The (half robot) Cowgirl of the sonic franchise. shes sweet and loyal but can kick major ass

[topzsun]

I'M A COWBOY ON MY OWN TRIP

── ♡ BOOTHILL

❝ the road of a galaxy ranger is a lonely one. fortunately, boothill would never leave you be. ❞

Boothill is impossibly hard to get a hold of, and you consider that the next time he shows up for his maintenance, you’ll plant a GPS on him.

The unofficial Galaxy Ranger and ex-robotic scientist that you are, Boothill had become your personal project. His maintenance, upgrading his body and enhancing his current weaponry have been your turf, something you took keen delight in that you’ll never speak to the word, lest Boothill catches wind and stops paying mind to your complaints.

His entrance is always predictable. With a kick to your door, you will scoff, and he’ll stroll in with a damaged component or two that you’ll have to fix. When your door opens with a creak instead, you feel a chill run through your spine and you are already out of your desk chair by the time he stumbles in. Something heavy lodges in your throat when you catch your first sight of him, a mess of stray wires and missing metal, his prosthetics wrapped around his steel torso to try and keep his wiring and sensors from spilling out. His eyes are dull when he looks at you, missing his usual toothy grin. You run and grab him before he can collapse to the ground, ushering him to the medical bed you found in an abandoned hospital, treating it like an exam table.

“What happened to you?” You stress, and you gently move his arm out of the way to assess the damage. You examined the more critical damage first, where some cords were snapped clean. You believe Boothill to be extremely lucky that it wasn’t the one connecting him to his artificial heart. Metal was easy to replace, rewiring was not and if the component keeping him functioning stopped working, there was no way you could revive him again. Your teeth catch the bottom of your lip at the thought.

“Sorry, I got all banged up, Doc,” It’s the first time he’s ever apologised to you for coming to your workshop for fixing. It’s also the first time he’s ever been such a wreck, so you decide to ignore the semantics and shake your head.

“How did it happen?” You interrogate, lifting one of his legs that had a gaping hole in the middle. At your delicate touch, his ankle suddenly detached and you wince instinctively.

“They opened fire suddenly, fudging scum,” He spits out in hatred, and despite his visible exhaustion before, his eyes light up at the memory. “They were blasting away while there were kids there.”

You don’t inquire about the safety of the children. Boothill is one of the most skilled rangers you know, and even if an entire armed military began a shoot-out, he’d find a way to evade it. With the amount of bullet holes in his body, he definitely used himself as a human shield and the thought makes you purse your lips. From the long years since you’ve met him, you were quick to find out that Boothill had very few weaknesses, but one of them was definitely children. You aren’t sure why, and you don’t know if you’ll ever know. Hopes, dreams and history aren’t things discussed between rangers. Even your mutually beneficial relationship with him is a rarity amongst the group. Yet, there is a mutual understanding. Things that went unspoken and what made you guys so in sync in the first place. So, you break off his unrecoverable attachments and continue with what you have to do. Both of you speak nothing as you begin shifting through your cabinets of prosthetic parts, labelled under ‘Boothill’. Usually, he is all chatter when he stops by, either badgering you to finally fix his Synthessia Beacon he utterly despises (and you kept intact out of pettiness), or striking up a conversation about whatever he uncovered during his solo missions. You don’t blame his quiet solemness today, but it doesn’t make it any less unnerving, like the silence isn’t meant to be here. You were the first to break it.

“You’re lucky my shipment for spares arrived in time,” You state, walking over to him. By ‘shipment’ you meant whatever passing rangers happened to drop off at your doorstep after successful thefts at IPC warehouses. It’s laughable for you to think of IPC packages arriving at your doorstep in the middle of nowhere, a mailman ready for you to sign the papers.

“Lucky me,” He drawls out sarcastically, and you take a moment to flick his forehead. “What the fudge, Doc!”

You ignore his annoyed exclamation, hiding your growing smile behind hunched shoulders as you begin screwing on his replacement ankles.

“I can fix, some of the more critical parts,” You gesture vaguely to his legs. “But the rewiring is the real issue here. Luckily, I’ve sanitised the tubes already.”

He stiffens for a moment, his eyes unfocused as he looks up at you with furrowed eyebrows and a frown.

“You’re putting me to sleep?” He asks, void of his usual attitude and you hesitate. You knew Boothill hated being forcibly rebooted and put to sleep. You aren’t sure what he dreams of, but whenever it’s over he’ll keep his gaze away from you, and reels at your every attempt to approach him, even for a checkup. You sympathised with him, and you’ve grown to hate it as much as he did. Unfortunately, right now it’s necessary. With his mainstream wiring damaged beyond repair, you need to replace them and you can’t have him awake during the process and potentially damage the framework.

“I’m sorry,” You mean it but he looks as if he couldn’t hear you, his eyes now fixed on a random oil stain on the floor.

“Be fast with it, ‘kay?” He mumbles and you nod. You reach over and trace the synthetic skin of his neck, where the bumps of his skin reveal his power button. You’ve already memorised just about every inch of his body from all the times you’ve spent with him, working on him. Yet, you take the selfish moment to let your gloved fingers caress the spot, almost in a lover’s embrace. He’s looking at you the entire time and finally your eyes meet his. There is a moment’s breath of a pause before he flashes you a toothy smile and you swiftly press the button. The corners of his lips drop in an instant, his eyelids falling shut and his body going limp. He’ll never know how the sight of him like this made you want to throw up yourself. You aren’t sure what happened to you, ever since the damn bandit came into your life and the path you had planned for yourself suddenly became tainted with sporadic visits and bellied laughter from a scratchy voice. You used to be colder. It’s what being a calculating scientist made you. Yet, Boothill, his justice that he goes on about, they all muddled your senses to the point that the idea of him being taken from you in one irreversible swoop made bile rise to your throat. He’ll never know those, because you need him to maintain his image of you; a cool-headed robotician whose nerves he always manages to get on.

You carry his unmoving figure over your shoulder and you don’t register your body’s complaints of his weight. There were things more painful than this, you think as you zip him into one of the prepared tubes. As preserving liquid fills the metal cylinder, you catch your image in the reflective glass. Have you always been this tired?

Another two months go by when you next see Boothill.

His last visit, which had been a critical one, had finished with little commotion. After reprogramming his hardware and forging the rest of his broken pieces, he was back in prime shape and left with nothing more than a “thanks”. His radio silence almost made you wonder if he resented you for his forced shutdown, and you try not to pay it much thought as you busy yourself with any unfinished project you could get your hands on.

That is, until an uneventful afternoon when your door is kicked open and you sit up with your first instinct to yell your complaints. Boothill strides in and your striking words dispel before they leave your lips.

“Oh,” You can only reply dumbly, and his grin somehow widens.

“Knew you’d be holed up in here, Doc,” He dares to sass, resting a hand on his hip as he surveys the packaged food on your desk, and the bags under your eyes. You click your teeth.

“Broke something again?” You wearily ask him, plopping yourself back into your spinning chair and giving him a quick scan.

“Do I gotta be broken to visit?” He poses it as a question but doesn’t listen to your answer as he drops himself onto your springy couch, feet kicked up like the ill-mannered guest he is.

“I don’t have time to waste on you,” You scoff, rolling your eyes as you turn back to the radio you had been taking apart.

“I got food.”

You asked him if he wanted something to drink.

For a man who couldn’t get drunk, Boothill adored his alcohol. You think he rides off the placebo effect of drinking, but choose not to comment since he’s finally decided to stop being so hot-and-cold with you and instead animatedly reciting his encounter with The Swarm.

“Most annoyin’ fudgin’ shirtbags I’ve had ta’ fight,” He snarls, before downing the rest of the bottle in his hand. It’s his third one. “Kept on multiplying no matter how many holes I put in ‘em.”

Despite your off-record status as a Galaxy Ranger, your areas of expertise stayed within the confines of machinery and weapons, with you never having even touched a gun in your life. From the stories, you couldn’t have been more grateful for the fact.

“How fast do you think they regenerate?” You question, resting your chin on the palm of your hand. He thinks.

“Around every few seconds,” He answers and raises a brow at you. “Why?”

“For next time,” You uncross your legs. “If I can increase the speed of your reloading, you can probably kill them before they have the chance to regenerate back.”

Usually, your new ideas for him would be met with enthusiasm, whereby he’d test his limits by suggesting his own upgrades which you’d either agree to or shut down. Much to your surprise, he tilts his head back and lets out a low groan.

“Seriously, all you got is work in that noggin’ of yours,” He comments, giving you a flat look and you splutter immediately in defence.

“But you are talking about work, too!” You retort and he laughs loudly, leaning on the backrest of the couch as if he knows something you don’t.

“I’m telling ya’ something about myself. Now you gotta too,” He explains and it gives you pause, turning your head to stare at him with incredulity.

“What is this, twenty questions?” You joke but he shrugs nonchalantly.

“Sure.”

“I think I’m a pretty open book,” Your gesture vaguely around your small and unkempt home shrouded in darkness with nothing but the straining blue light of your computer. “This is my whole life, right in front of you.”

“It ain’t,” He refutes immediately and you frown at him, not sure what’s going on with him tonight. “Unless you tellin’ me you’ve lived like this since you were born, then it ain’t your whole darn life.”

It’s the invitation you’ve always secretly prayed for. That someone will look at your dishevelled self and the mess you lie in, and say you were more than that. Boothill, of all people, is giving you the chance. Yet, your hands feel clammy as you press them together and suddenly the cyborg beside you is hard to look at.

“Why would it matter?” You ask him sincerely, missing your usual condescension. There is a brief silence before he continues.

“‘Cause I feel like it does,” He confesses, voice dropping lower as if he’s speaking into the world something only you and he should know of. “‘Cause I’ve been thinkin’ of how ya’ keep savin’ my behind, and how fudgin’ weird it is I don’t know anythin’ about ya’.”

You look at him, really look at him, and he meets you back with a defiant stare of your own. For a second, something crosses his eyes and you lose instantly, sucking in a sharp breath.

“You will think of me less.”

“Not possible,” He instantly hits back.

You fall back onto the uncomfortable scratchy fabric of your sofa, and your stare meets your dull, tilled ceiling. You reminisce about when grey was replaced with expensively painted beige, and the seat underneath you used to be a mahogany brown chair. In front of you had been a projection board, equations scribbled hastily across the screen. Your graded test paper sits in your book bag, perfect mark as usual. You think back to how far you’ve fallen from grace.

“Okay,” You say, “And you’ll tell me about yourself too. No enemies, no battles, just you.”

Something crosses his expression, but he agrees anyway. You will learn of his vendetta, of his anger and grief, of the daughter he never could have seen grow up. He will learn of you as Icarus, the one who reached too close to the sun and condemned themself to the ground. After the drinks have finished pouring, he will leave as if nothing had happened, announcing the next date for his visit. There is a silent agreement in the air that night.

You both were not good at living. And you have officially breached the line of co-workers.

[bitchesofostwick]

i have decided to add some propaganda for each option for those unaware.

princess leia: or, GENERAL LEIA ORGANA to you. yells at and belittles her own father in front of his boss. also says "into the garbage chute, flyboy" to her future love interest. literally within the same movie. accomplished royal, diplomat, and general. also must have arms of steel to do her hair like that every day.

sadie adler: an excellent subversion of the western trope where a widower goes on a revenge ride to serve justice for his dead wife. but better. she wears the pants. she shoots the pew pew. she has a cutscene where she stabs a man's hand right into the bar he's sitting at because he won't cooperate with her. she's everything to me.

cullen rutherford: a POLARIZING SPECIMEN as we know. excels at fantasy chess, does not excel at fantasy poker. loves dogs. he's been through hell. he's put others through hell. he's a golden example that it's never too late to be a better person than you used to be. i care him.

sam coe: SEE YOU, SPACE COWBOY. he calls you "darlin'." the quest reward for successfully romancing him is a fucking matching cowboy hat. if you marry him, the three wedding guests are his ex-wife with whom he had a messy messy divorce because she's a workaholic and also jealous of his closeness with their daughter(??), his dad who he hates for trying to force him to live up to the family legacy, and his daughter to whom you were responsible for telling about your relationship with her dad because he was too scared to. i'm obsessed with this man.

gale dekarios: your first interaction with him, ever, can be slapping his hand. if you so choose. he loves cats and wine. his ex-girlfriend might be a goddess but he'll love you even more. he has a Bisexual Earring. he balls too close to the sun (or doesn't. only YOU can prevent gale ascension forest fires).

nick valentine: robot daddy. i need a tv series that's just columbo but nick valentine. stephen russell if you're out there i just want to say thank you for serving android cunt.

megara: SHE HAS WEAK ANKLES (not really but still). SHE HAS THE BEST SONG. SHE GETS TO WHIP HER PONYTAIL INTO A HIMBO'S FACE. that same himbo chose her over immortality! over being a demi-god! which he still basically gets in the end anyway but he would've thrown it all away for meg!! susan egan gave us everything with this performance!

rowlf the dog: he's a dog that plays blues on the piano idrk what else to say

beatrice: the original enemies to lovers girl. she doesn't get to eat claudio's heart in the marketplace, but she certainly EATS. she packs more passion and anger and pain and love than any other shakespeare character. in my humble opinion. she's funny. she's scary. she's fucking livid. i love her.

tagged by @pinayelf and @star--nymph thank you loves! tagging @vakarians-babe @isayashai @captastra @captaintiny @vvakarians @thecoffeerain @murderspice

[nath-ambermoon-00]

Some RC9GN theory/opinion/headcanon, but the lower you go, the heavier it gets :p

[additional warning: Broken English... I've tried my best to translate it correctly :') ]

• Is there any "Theresa Julian are siblings" truther here? I have a little headcanon to you :D

Julian often borrows Theresa's eyeliner without her permission, which irritates her

And maybe one of them is a year older, it's up to you, which one is older

• Okay, if Ward Swordsmith (the swordman in "Sword Quest") makes a sword for the Ninja, is he also immortal like The Creep? (The Cowboy)

• They purposely made Randy out of character in season two so he could easily be controlled by Chaos Pearl in Winner Takes Ball

I guess due to his weakness in holding himself back, he easily fell under the control of the ball... Like the peddler in "Julian Birthday Surprise" lesson

• Okay, a clip a few weeks ago i saw a clip about Randy being a killer machine and... I just realized he's always aiming the head.... Isn't that scary?—he always attacking a robot but still

And yes, his five year version... When he confidently says he wants to chop off Marci's head- 💀

• Long text go brrr :p. Also still related to season two Randy

It's just an opinion but it looks like Randy's mind was break in season two because of Howard's bad influence in season one, or after Mastermind of Disastermind

That's why he became greedy and use other people more often. Even though in season one he never did anything like that

I mean yeah... In Weinerman Tested Cunningham Approved, he might be able to use more than just asking for a guarantee from the McPeepers, But noooo, he's not, not like in season two, especially in McCluckerbusters—I have a grudge on this episode

Oh yeah, i forgot i bringing back the "A beast may wound your body but an evil friend will wound your mind" thing from the hidden quote in ep one... Looks like this quote is really trying to warn him about Howard? And the result is S2 Randy because he also doesn't pay much attention for it

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

Any guesses as to what Rantaro's talent could be?

IM SO GLAD YOU SENT THIS ASK ANON I just got to his body discovery and I need a distraction. I have a few!! This set is ordered from least to most likely:

No ultimate talent: unlikely that they would hype this guy’s talent up for a whole game only for him to not have one without any foreshadowing, but still possible. I think this would most likely be the case in one of my end game theories where none of them are actually ultimates and it’s all fake.. somehow…. Though at this point I’ve mostly put aside that theory for a couple reasons (one big one being that Kiibo is very much a robot, can’t really fake that with memory manipulation)

Ultimate navigator: This one’s another weak guess, I think. He’s very perceptive and good at reading people, so maybe that translates to navigating open seas? Or otherwise difficult to map places? Also, he has what looks like a big compass on his sweater, what’s that about? I also used to think that his necklace was a Boatswain which I now know is not the case. Regardless, if he is the ultimate navigator, I’m picturing him as a ship captain.

Ultimate soldier: I haven’t seen the inside of Rantaro’s lab yet, but the outside of his lab, the door, haunts me constantly. It has a lot of violent warlike imagery (dark red colour, weapons and barbed wire, etc). Also, his necklace IS A little dagger, which also fits. I’m not too sure about this one since Mukuro is already the ultimate soldier, but if Shuichi AND Kyoko can both be the ultimate detective I think it could still work. Who knows, maybe Rantaro was part of Fenrir lol

Ultimate (bounty) hunter: THIS is what I actually think Rantaro’s talent is. And I do mean this as Human hunter, not animals. I have a somewhat elaborate endgame theory relating to this. In short: the other 15 ultimates grouped together to save the world from the incoming apocalypse (project gopher) but failed. The outside world became a wasteland, and the remaining public blamed them and wanted vengeance against them for their failure, starting the ultimate hunt. At the head of the ultimate hunt was Rantaro, and ultimate himself who felt the same guilt as the rest and decided to track down everyone involved in project gopher and capture them before also turning himself in. The 15 ultimates run for a while but end up surrendering to Rantaro and the ultimate hunt, and as punishment for their failure they are all put into a killing game with their memories wiped. Rantaro is either put in also as punishment or alternatively as a warden (alternate title, Ultimate Warden) to watch over the killing game, like a mastermind who was never hiding to begin with. But the monokubs fucked up the memory wipe so bad he also got caught in it and didn’t care to correct it cause it made it all more interesting anyways.

I really like this idea, though there’s a few problems. He seems genuinely nice in chapter 1, especially in his free time events. He is really worried that his talent could make everyone else hate him (though this might just make this all more tragic). I think he had good intentions but might have been corrupted somehow. Also, on a meta level, this is fairly similar to Maki’s talent, and although there’s been overlap like this before (Kyoko and Shuichi, or English Hifumi and Toko for example) bounty hunter and assassin or just barely not the same thing, so I don’t know.

Here’s some more that I thought of, mostly as jokes:

Ultimate gamer: he really liked danganronpa 1 and 2, that’s why he’s so aware of what’s going on in the prologue

Ultimate eboy: just look at him

Ultimate influencer: just look at him

Ultimate fisherman: idk what to tell you I joked about this one time and now every time I think about water-based or water-adjacent activities I think about Rantaro

Ultimate cowboy: he sometimes speaks with a slightly noticeable southern accent?

Ultimate amnesiac: he’s very good at this

Ultimate older brother: He’s so nice, calm, and collected (at least on the surface) and I really found his free time events relaxing. I also know from outside sources that he has sisters. I love hanging out with him. I miss him everyday (UNLESS HES ACTUALLY STILL ALIVE?? 🤔🤔）

[orinviasjournal]

I haven't talked about it but I genuinely liked it better than stormblood, I was kinda afraid that it'd be--well I don't mind if it's serious but I'm glad the story isn't always serious sometimes thanks to the bubbly characters like lamaty'i n even koana's gap moe was nice.

I love that Koana does like lamaty'i n treat her like his sister, i love that he's not the serious cold hearted, i love that he cares about his family.

I love that Lamaty'i is a sunshine character, the funny cheerful protag that she is who will get hurt and learn more about the world, I love that she is not stubborn-stubborn-tee hee, she's stubborn but she learns and she actually puts effort on being better, i love that we get to see her feeling and expressing her worries.

I know lots of people say she's such an anime protag, I kinda agree and disagree at one point, maybe it's because I rarely watch anime anymore, but the way Lamaty'i expresses her worry feels much better than a protag who suffers alone and improving out of nowhere from a flashback scene.

Lamaty'i can fight, she has always been able to fight, she's not weak. I'm glad that she was able to defeat Bakool Ja Ja on her first fight, like goddamn man her mentor was Gulool Ja Ja himself. She was just clouded with doubts n think that Bakool Ja Ja is going to be a difficult fighting opponent.

Perhaps there was also a slight hope in me to see them get along with Zoraal Ja, there was a part of me that Zoraal Ja was similar to Koana where he deeply cares for his family despite the cold attitude towards his siblings. Ofc it was shattered where Krile said she felt an intense killing intense from Zoraal Ja. But I guess I can sort of see it, the burden of being the first son, the burden of being the miracle son from two headed mamool ja, the expectation from his people, the pressure to make yourself look worthy. It's too much and he refused to confide with anyone else, because that's what he expect people to see him to be, like he got this mindset he's a royal firstborn he can't rely on anyone else, he have to show people that he is strong all by himself.

I haven't played all the yellow quest so I most likely I missed something that explains more about his behaviour

Sphene, I thought she's going to be a white lotus character. Idk why. But it bugs me a little even after she did something so awful she's still acting all....what's the word...kinda like white lotus but not white lotus, I guess it's because she's programmed to be so nice and kind, it bugs me. Perhaps it's cus she's sort of like a robot who has messed up emotions.

Also not gonna lie tho, when they said we're going to find the city of gold, I was expecting some jumanji type ah vibe n the buildings similar to the orbonne monastery XD n i thought solution 9 is just like an arcade game or something, we got teleported inside an arcade game, but apparently not XD

My fav place in game gotta be the pelupelu village i forgot what it's called. Urqopacha is pretty, I've never been to places like that, I didn't know that it can snow it that kind of place and they have cactus still.

The other place I like is solution 9, reminds me so much of good ol pso2 but much better. I wish we have in game concerts like pso2 that would give temporary exp boost or drops. Oh and I love Shale. *sigh* I wish we get to see more of her, the same way i wish we get to see more of Zero.

Another place I like gotta be Yak T'el, I love the forest, especially the glowy blue birds lol, it's such a pretty place and it reminds me of raktika, I love dense forest where the sunlight could barely penetrate the trees.

I love the music in Shaaloani lol it's chill but it doesn't make you feel too sleepy n it makes you feel like a cool cowboy lol. I definitely love M2 raid music too wwww it's stuck in my brain now

18/08/2024

wow

I actually love it

[adultswim2021]

Cowboy Bebop #21: “Boogie Woogie Feng Shui” | March 20, 1999 | S01E21 Adult Swim premiere: November 12, 2001 - 12:00AM

Some dude manipulates his daughter and the big robot arm guy (I am not even joking about not being able to remember his name. Like, I know I called him Tex as a joke, but for all I know it’s not a joke and that’s actually it? But I meant it as a joke that one time so I don’t wanna keep calling him that because I try not to repeat jokes. But is it Tex) into harnessing the power of Feng Shui and a magic rock into creating a portal so he can just pop up on a screen like the dead dog from Nathan For You and say “so sorry I died”. 

Pretty weak one in my opinion. I guess it’s neat seeing that huge dude befriend a young woman, so you can imagine him just like, completely splitting her in half if you know what I mean. Sometimes you just wanna see that. Uh, they are just friends in this by the way so you’ll really have to use your imagination. Which is why I didn’t like this

[x0401x]

Febri Talk Interview with Jin (Complete)

Commissioned by the lovely @sodasexual​ again!

Part 1: overwhelmed by the power of friendship in “The☆Doraemons: Kaitou Dorapan no Chousenjou!”

Musician and creator Jin has been bringing countless topical works to the world, including “Kagerou Project”. In the first part of this serial interview, we had him talk about a work from the series “The☆Doraemons”, which he experienced in his childhood and continued to be influenced by for a long time.

A work that unexpectedly became one of the origins of “Kagerou Project”.

——Jin-san, we would like to ask you about anime shows that have had an influence on you, following in order from your infancy onwards, so would the first one be “The☆Doraemons: Kaitou Dorapan no Chousenjou!” (hereon, “The☆Doraemons”), which came out in the year 1997?

Jin: That’s right. I watched this one in the theaters when I was either 7 or 8 years old. It’s an animation short that was screened together with “Doraemon: Nobita no Neji-maki Toshi Bounen-ki”, and it had one hell of an impact on me. At the time, I was living in an isolated island in Hokkaido called Rishiri Island, so just getting to watch a movie was quite a spectacle in itself (laughs). Actually, not many animes were broadcasted in Rishiri Island to begin with. There were few channels, and other than that, they aired those black-and-white period dramas in cable TV, I guess.

——No, I think that last one is a stretch (laughs). Did you watch “Doraemon” because you liked it from the start?

Jin: I liked it a lot. But the so-called “The☆Doraemons” is a spin-off about six friends of different colors. If I were to talk about the contents of “Kaitou Dorapan” in a summarized way, it’s the story of the Doraemons receiving a letter of challenge from an mysterious enemy called Dorapan, then completely getting caught into his trap and falling into a pinch... And, surprisingly, Doraemon isn’t active at all in this movie (laughs).

——Aah, it’s a work where the Doraemon friends are the main characters, right?

Jin: That’s right. A duo that didn’t have much popularity among the friends, Dora-med III and Dora-rinho, were set as the main characters in this one (laughs). Of course, I didn’t go watch it thinking that Doraemon would participate actively, but he almost doesn’t do anything. Instead, we were shown these two, who are something like sub-characters, in a big scuffle. But when it ended, I began to really like Dora-med III and Dora-rinho.

——Ahaha. So you totally got into it.

Jin: They had something called a “Friendship Telephone Card”, which was introduced as a key item, and this “friendship” thing made the back of my nose sting – that was the kind of feeling I got from it. Dorapan, the one who plays the role of villain in this movie, attempts to take control of robots from all over the world using the power of the Doraemons’ Friendship Telephone Card. However, there’s actually a mastermind behind the scenes, and one heroine is taken hostage, so Dorapan is doing bad deeds because he has no choice. We find this out in the middle of the movie, and at that moment, Dora-rinho goes, “I see; so that’s what was going on” and voluntarily tries to sacrifice himself. By believing in self-sacrificing friendship, everyone was able to reach a happy ending. That kind of storyline was truly wonderful... To tell you the truth, the initial motif of Kagerou Project (hereon “KagePro”) was this movie.

Making KagePro out of wanting to create his own “Doraemons”.

——Eeh, is that so!?

Jin: I created KagePro because I wanted to write about friendship, or rather, I wanted to make my own “Doraemons”. I started KagePro when I was about 20 years old, as I was vaguely beginning to realize that friendship apparently doesn’t exist at that point in life (laughs). Also, same goes to music, of course, but among the books I was reading back then, quite a lot of them had cynical views. Although these stories were my own taste, I also had the impression that there was a generational trend in them, like “people shouldn’t look at this if they’re dumb” and “those who understand this thing are admirable”. Therefore, I did my best to pretend to be like that at first, but I gradually grew tired of it...

——Ahaha. You were getting out of breath.

Jin: That’s right. So, when I looked back, I thought, “I do like ‘Kaitou Dorapan’ after all”. Therefore, if I was going to make something by myself, I decided to use it as the theme. In that sense, amongst the things I watched in my childhood, this work was a turning point. After watching it in the theater for the first time, I watched it over and over again as rental video, and because of this, I even now remember the moments when the sound effects come in.

——Generation-wise, you’re precisely from the generation of “The☆Doraemons”.

Jin: Yeah, spot-on. Also, the Doraemons from “The☆Doraemons” are comical and cute, but on the other hand, they show us that they are extremely strong-willed characters. Moreover, the Doraemons are rich in individuality – as in, everyone is irregular and there are some characters that make you go, “Isn’t that a problem?” amongst them. For example, the wolf Dora-nichov can’t speak human language (laughs).

——I see! Thinking that way, I feel like I can see the points in common with KagePro.

Jin: Also, all of them are purely good guys. The fact that they’re all good people and only have one enemy is pretty awesome. I believe that this kind of thing has an influence on the KagePro series as a whole.

Part 2: paralyzed by the hardboiled worldview of “Cowboy Bebop”.

In the second part of this interview series, where we ask Jin about anime works that influenced him, we have “Cowboy Bebop”, a masterpiece still loved by many fans even now. Here, Jin, who works as both a musician and creator, discusses thoroughly about the appeal of it.

Learning the attitude and stance for creating things.

——You talked about how not many animes were aired in your homeland, but did you keep watching anime after that?

Jin: If you mean watching on TV, anime was what I enjoyed most. However, the shows on broadcast were limited, so when it comes to series that left an impression on me, it would be things like “Card Captor Sakura”, which I used to watch with my little sister. “Kinnikuman” was also re-aired and I liked it a lot. As expected, I was weak to “friendship” (laughs). When they were fighting for the throne or whatever, man, I cried, for real. This happened around the time I was in grade school, but when I got into middle school, I stopped watching anime entirely.

——And when you came back to it, it was right on time for...

Jin: For the series that I pointed out as second in line, “Cowboy Bebop”. Because my father had made up his mind to get his hands on a satellite television called SKY Perfect TV! I think he probably wanted to watch Discovery Channel, but back then, he also included Animax in the contract. And, by sheer coincidence, a re-run of “Cowboy Bebop” began right at that timing, around 2004 or 2005, I guess. I was a middle schooler then, and there were lots of CMs that went like, “Broadcast begins on X day of X month!” together with that opening theme by Kanno Youko-san.

——So that’s what caught your interest.

Jin: There was also the fact I’d been disconnected from anime for a while, so I watched the first episode not knowing anything. And the contents weren’t aimed at children at all (laughs). Dude sprayed an eye-drop drug into his eyes, went, “UWAH—!” and died, like.

——Ahaha. It was a shock.

Jin: “Cowboy Bebop” was my first time coming in contact with a hardboiled worldview. I was like, “What’s this? It’s so cool”. Until then, I had this impression that “anime was made for kids”, but for the first time, I felt like I was watching a drama. Plus, the story was interesting, so I was super hooked as I watched it, and while doing so, the episode “Jamming with Edward” (episode 9) had an impact on me.

——Satou Dai-san was the one who wrote the script for it, right? You later came to work together with Satou-san in “LISTENERS”.

Jin: That’s right. It was such an impact that it had me thinking, “You wouldn’t be able to do that in a TV drama”. And so, this ninth episode had me completely addicted to it, and in the end, I watched it up to the finale. Later on, when I began my own creations, I noticed that what I was doing overlapped with “Cowboy Bebop”, and when this happened, I realized I was doing something quite risky (laughs). To top it off, just when I thought, “There must be lots of animes like that out there”, there was surprisingly none.

The coolness of affirming that KagePro has both pop and hardcore songs and that this is what it is about!

——Ahaha. Did “Cowboy Bebop” have any influence on you? For example, on the music side...

Jin: Hmm... if you put it that way, maybe not (laughs). Only in the variety aspect of the narrative, as people call it. Each one of the 26 episodes has wholly different colors, so to say. They felt like a gashapon from which you couldn’t tell what was coming out next.

——Like, although there were episodes where they threw in comedy to their hearts contentment, there were also episodes that showed vigorous action.

Jin: When I think about it, there are also episodes that go through a simple approach by way of genres that even I would know. I think the creators must’ve had a lot of fun when making them. So when it comes to what influenced me, it I think it was the variation of songs. I think there probably aren’t that many composers like me, who make songs one by one and have no idea what song to write next.

——As in, you do it while intentionally deciding to change the tone and genre?

Jin: Rather than that, I guess it happens naturally. I was always the type who doesn’t listen to the same genre all the time – it’s like, “Today is rock day; tomorrow is punk day”. I believe it’s possible that “Cowboy Bebop” made me think this kind of feeling was valid. The themes also don’t have to be consistent, and even if you turn upside-down the things that you had been asserting in a previous episode, their value and meaning will still hold. Moreover, I didn’t think that the people who made “Cowboy Bebop” had to plan this stuff up in their heads and study about it so that they could put it to action. It just so happened that when they drew out the things they like and lined them up, it turned out the way it did.

——So they didn’t do it while aiming for that, but rather, it turned out to have a sense of variety to it when it was finished.

Jin: And I think it’s amazing because it validates itself with that. So I guess being able to say all we have to say is what actually matters (laughs). If I were to affirm, “This is what KagePro is about!”, then that’d be pretty much it. Even though there are both pop and hardcore songs in KagePro, nobody can say, “That doesn’t feel like KagePro”. That’s why I think that the coolness of proudly declaring, “That’s what it is!” is something I learned from Bebop. Like, “This is what’s cool”. It feels like, on my own accord, I accepted something that was like a stance to be taken when you create these kinds of things.

Part 3: obsessing over “Tokyo Godfathers”, which had developments where one couldn’t predict what lay ahead.

This is the third part of the interview series where the creator Jin talks about works that influenced him. Here, he discusses about a hidden masterpiece from the director Kon Satoshi, which also had a great influence on “Kagerou Project” and which he encountered during his vocational school years, while living a wasteful life.

——The third work is “Tokyo Godfathers” by Director Kon Satoshi, but when was it that you watched it?

Jin: It was during my vocational school years. After graduating from high school, I attended a vocational music school located in Sapporo, but my upperclassmen from that school taught me many bad ways of having fun (laughs). I used to buy lots of sick equipment. Then, obviously, I’d run out of money, so I worked to death in part-time jobs, and well, lived a wasteful life (laughs), but during that time, a friend from my class lent me a DVD of “Hidamari Sketch”. At first, I told him, “Nah, I’m not too into this kinda stuff”, but when I took it home and watched it, I wailed aloud.

——Ahaha.

Jin: That’s why I asked Asumi Kana-san (who voices Yuno) to play KagePro’s main heroine... Anyhow, “Hidamari Sketch” became the cue for me to start watching anime again. And Director Kon Satoshi was from Sapporo, so it was probably being featured in a video shop. “Tokyo Godfathers” is a 2003 movie, but I saw it in the video in 2008 or 2009.

——What piqued your interest about it?

Jin: It was tremendously well-done and fun, and on top of that, it was sharp – a work like no other up until then, I thought. A dramatic production with parallel storylines focusing on different characters is incorporated within the span of about an hour and half as if it weren’t enough. During that same time, there were also works by Mitani Kouki-san and Isaka Koutarou-san’s “Golden Slumber” was being made into live action, so I believe that the so-called multi-protagonist story kind of approach was being used in all sorts of places. But even among them, “Tokyo Godfathers” was outstandingly interesting. “Where the heck is this story heading to?” You can’t tell at all until the end. Three homeless people pick up a baby on Christmas night and try to take her to her mother, but as the story goes on, it gets to a climax like, “Does she even have a mother in the first place?”. Plus, we find out that the person who they thought to be the mother and handed the baby over to is actually someone who kidnapped her from a hospital. The story just keeps changing over and over.

As the story progresses, the characters’ pasts become visible. It was interesting that the past and present were firmly bound together.

——We can’t predict what comes next at all, huh?

Jin: So, the topic will go back to KagePro now: when I thought of writing a novel, first of all, I decided that I “wanted to do a multi-protagonist story”. To make a story like the one from “The☆Doraemons” into a multi-protagonist story. Back then, I really liked the type of novels that went on in first person – such as works by Isaka-san or Morimi Tomihiko-san, and also Yonezawa Honobu-san.

——I see, I see.

Jin: On the other hand, “Tokyo Godfathers” is structured so that the characters’ pasts can be seen more and more as the story progresses. As if the story progresses with the past mini-arcs as the main focus. Like, “Person A and Person B were actually parent and child!” – it was interesting that the past and the present were bound together so firmly. Moreover, the developments go on at an incredible speed, and there’s a proper catharsis at the end. Also, all the characters that show up in it have rich facial expressions.

——To begin with, the fact that the three main characters are homeless is a twist.

Jin: In the first place, it starts with the main heroine spitting onto people in the streets from a rooftop (laughs). I really like those sharp-edged points of it too. “Tokyo Godfathers” has a content that can be written even if the protagonists were parent and child from an ordinary household. But through making the protagonists homeless, it became extremely vivid.

——It’s as if it turns them into down-to-earth characters and gives you a sensation that they connect with the audience’s “present”.

Jin: If I were to speak of other words by Director Kon Satoshi, I also think that “Paprika” and “Sennen Joyuu” are amazing. But on the other hand, I end up thinking, “They’re so wonderful”. As in, “Awesome, aren’t they? I don’t get them very well, though” (laughs). But “Tokyo Godfathers” is a candid form of entertainment that even an idiot like me can instantly get hooked on. The fact that I indeed want to keep doing entertainment resides strongly inside me.

——Listening to you talk like this, Jin-san, it makes me think that the books you read and movies you watched because you liked them reflect straightforwardly in your own manner of expressing yourself.

Jin: I myself think that I’m usually straightforward (laughs). Rather than “I want it to be seen like this” or “I want people to think of it like that”, I prioritize “I want to do this” and “this is fun”, so to say. By multiplying “The☆Doraemons” to “Tokyo Godfathers”, it turned into “Kagerou Project” (laughs). I feel like that’s my foundation.

[ow-anteater]

For the niche ask game, Doomfist and Cowboy man (and/or Bastion if you wish to indulge me in my robot brainrot)

Questions from here

What a lovely assortment of characters! Though it is one behemoth of a post comign up be warned

Doom

a song that reminds me of them - Strangely enough, Gold Dust Woman by Fleetwood Mac has immense Doom energy to me. Both as a song I think he'd dig and as just a 'yeah that's somehow about Akande'

what they smell like - this motherfucker is decked out in cologne costing more than your rent on the daily. He's one of the two people world wide who keeps up with perfume trends. He smells almost infuriatingly well

an otp - Mmmmm no one really? Except maybe Reaper???

a notp - I don't see him shipped all that much so I've yet to be confronted with something that was just a comically bad idea

favorite platonic/familial relationships - 'Talon but it's a fucked up found family' is the only trope that matters. Akande and his trash kid Sombra whomst he loves very much my beloved

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with - Don't know if this is very against general fanon, but I'm weak to Doom being funny?? He's so smart and quick witted and it's so lovely when he gets to be both sharp and menacing and really funny in his own way

the position they sleep in - big headcanon that this man is bad at going to sleep. He will pass out in a chair or on a couch any day before just going to bed

a crossover au i’d love to see them in - Something like Pacific Rim maybe? Big monsters, hopeful appocalypse, him getting faced with the fact he'll have to work together to save the world?? Sounds good to me

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn - I am not immune to Talon Doomfist

Cowboy

a song that reminds me of them - When I Leave by Parker Millsap will always and forever be a [name redacted] song in my mind. It's simple and damned but hopeful about your own damnation

what they smell like - Bad 

an otp - I am so obsessed with McBap it’s not even funny. They’d bond, they’d hang out. They’d see the best parts of themselves reflected in the other, they’re perfect and I need the fandom to catch on yesterday

a notp - at this point McHanzo is toeing the line between ‘ship I’m just tired of’ and ‘full on notp get it away from me’ ... it is 100% only because of the fandom around it rather than anything inherent to the ship tho, but still - as soon as they drop the new name I’m rewriting all my old McHanzo fics to be either bapzo or mcbap sfdcdsk

favorite platonic/familial relationships - The golden trio being gentle with him is my biggest weakness. I need them to be gentle with him, awkward and tenative in exactly where those relations fall between friends, coworkers and something aching and parental. Esepcially with Ana lately, I’d love to see them get more time together

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with - I’m going to keep it real, I’m not saying more controversial stuff after the McHanzo denial

the position they sleep in - Flat on his stomach and he will buck off any duvet or cover during the night

a crossover au i’d love to see them in - it would be fun to play the ‘cyber-cowboy’ angle even harder, a Bladerunner au mayhaps

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn - Riverboat my beloved

Bastion

a song that reminds me of them - on vibes alone, I think Bastion themelves would love Down to the River to Pray, simplistic and beautiful

what they smell like - metallic and overwhelmingly warm. I genuinelt think the omnics run really hot and you can smell that

an otp - don’t ship the robot baby maybe???

a notp - don’t ship the robot baby maybe???

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with - My Bastion isn’t quite as childish as a lot of the fandom makes them? I also like when they’re distinctly non-human instead of their behavior borrowing from a human toddler

the position they sleep in - My HC is that omnics decide when they go into down mode, so it just depends on what pose they were holding when they did

a crossover au i’d love to see them in - it’s striaghtforward but wall-e would be fun. Let them be surrounded by other robots and just go wild

your favorite outfit they’ve ever worn - I’m basic and Overgrown is the only Bastion skin that there is

[abusivelittlebunny]

Now I'm thinking of Logan calling Donald "Kentucky Fried Cunt/Bitchass/Fuckface/etc" as an insult lmao you know he'll use his southern Belle ass as his main target for remarks, like "Come here, you country cunt!" Or "Let me get my hands on you and I'll give you a red neck you little bitch." But you know if Donald puts on that silly cowboy hat with the boots and the belt and promises to show Logan just how he rides the mechanic bull, YOU KNOW Logan will shut the fuck up and let his fully hard dick do the talking instead. He can't not get a stiffy after when Donald plays up his accent even further and why am I now thinking of Donald as a waitress in a southern diner calling Logan sugar and honeybunch and giving Laura milkshakes on the house and offering Logan different kinds of pie and then saying "But if you want to dip your tongue into something real sweet just meet me in the back, big boy," and then laughing at Logan's bright red face. But Logan WILL take him up on his offer and take him to the rodeo...

Also I already got a good idea of how Donald lost his hand in a tragic accident that changed his worldview and gave him severe ptsd and his stump is the one thing he's truly sensitive about and won't let anyone touch it until Logan and Laura come along. He does say he's enhanced by his robotic hand and it is more powerful than his flesh and bone one but if it gets crushed or shot up and he can't use it he starts spiraling and feeling useless and weak and broken and his tough guy persona can melt away very quickly. There are very few fics in the Fandom but 3 that are from the same author all have Donald self harming his stump, biting it to the point of breaking the bone and I actually really love that idea that this is like his deeply hidden secret that he doesn't want to show anyone because it makes him feel pathetic but he can't stop biting it when he's feeling down and Logan has to calm him down and kiss it better and reassure him that he's not a broken toy, that he's still beautiful and strong and his baby until Donald crumbles and cries and wraps himself around Logan's tightly to be comforted finally 💖

[imagine-overwatch-heroes]

Thistles and Weeds

Pairing: McCree x Reader (She/Her) Rating: Teen and up Audiences Word Count: 3194 Summary:  Soldier 76 pulls you off an upcoming mission and you stay in Gibraltar - just like the infamous Jesse McCree. Supposedly you can't stand the cowboy, but there's more to it than that.

Bored, you balanced the pen on your hand, barely listening as the commander explained the situation and assigned the roles for the upcoming mission. The briefing was more boring than usual and if Soldier:76 wasn't such a strict commander you would have put your boots on the table and leaned back. But woe betide the one who messed with the mysterious commander, then there was usually house arrest and so much punishment work that you were busy for the next three weeks. "Am I boring you?" Everyone suddenly stared at you, and you looked up from your playfulness with the pencil, scrutinized the annoyed faces around you, and froze at the impatient, angry aura of Soldier:76. "Not, Sir!" you replied and looked forward to the screen. The tactical advance for the mission was recorded there and you tried to make sense of it, but without much success. Which of those little arrows were you again? "All right, you're out," growled Soldier:76 and made a sweeping hand movement. "I'll take Tracer instead." "What?!" you shouted angrily and jumped up from your chair. "I have been looking forward to this action for weeks! I've been stuck in this stuffy base for ages-" "Silence!!", thundered your Commander and you immediately fell silent, but gnashed your teeth furiously. "If you feel like the briefing is unworthy of you, then you will not come. Dismissed." You stared at him for a moment, opened your mouth in protest - but denied yourself the biting answers. He was your superior, your commander, and an objection would be disrespectful and have serious consequences. "Yes, Sir." you rumbled and turned around and disappeared from the conference room under the gaze of the other agents. Anger bubbled in your stomach as you stepped to the elevator. You banged your fist violently on the button and waited for the doors to open. You just did a fantastic job, there was an interesting mission and you were stuck here in Gibraltar! To make matters worse, the base was virtually deserted, as almost all of the other agents were in the field. Only Tracer, Mercy, Hanzo and McCree were still there and now Tracer would take part in this mission instead of you. It made your blood boil. The elevator door opened and you stared into a familiar face, even if it wasn't necessarily your best friend. "Hanzo, hello." you greeted the archer with a friendly nod, but he just raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms as you entered the elevator. "You are angry." he remarked softly and you rolled your eyes next to him. Why were the Shimada brothers so good at reading people?   "76 took me off the mission." you murmured softly and Hanzo snorted an amused snort. He knew about your temperament and your disinterest in the conferences and briefings. It wasn't the first time you had messed up a mission before it even started. "So you'll be alone with McCree all week." he said with a hint of gloating in his voice. "I hope that the base is still standing when I get back." "Wait, what?", you dug in, suddenly wide awake at his words. "You're leaving too?!" He nodded. "Genji asked for some help with the operation in Brazil." he replied. "I have accepted." "But- You can't leave me alone with this idiot cowboy!" you begged immediately, tugging at his sleeve. "Hanzo, please! This badly aiming poncho idiot is-" "Is what, exactly?" The door to the elevator had opened and you saw the hat, the poncho and the crooked grin. Your voice must have been too loud, because Jesse McCree had overheard everything. He looked at you, seemed to want you to finish the sentence. You pulled the corners of your mouth down and moaned in annoyance, while Hanzo could hardly resist a quiet laugh. Your tiffs with McCree were all too familiar to everyone in the base, you were really like cat and mouse. He loved to tease and your huge ego collided with his almost daily. Several times it had ended in fisticuffs, and in the end, you always ended up sitting with Mercy in pairs, getting patched up and scolded by her loud and clear. At times it had become so bad that Soldier:76 could no longer assign you to a mission together. Sure, it was unprofessional - but Jesse McCree was the biggest pain on the planet! "Oh, he's a really lousy shot, and even with a plastic pistol I'd have him on the mat in less than two minutes." you finally finished your sentence, and McCree snorted mockingly, one hand on his Peacekeeper. "Try it." he replied, and Hanzo immediately slid between the two of you, one hand on your shoulder and one on McCree's chest. "Enough." he said emphatically, giving the cowboy a challenging look. "Jesse, I thought we were going to train. But if you'd rather argue with her--" "You'd better teach that cowboy something else," you hissed and looked at the dirty poncho disparagingly. "Or he'll hurt himself on his next ride!" "Is that the best you can do?" he growled in return and tapped his hat. "Real weak - even for you, sweetheart." You immediately wanted to reply to the 'sweetheart', but Hanzo already pushed Jesse to the shooting range and you had no choice but to give him the middle finger and go to your quarters with an angry growl stuck in your throat.

"A real tomboy, huh?", Jesse asked as he looked at you and Hanzo turned his eyes on his friend. "If you like her so much, why do you wind her up like that all the time?" the archer asked, entering the code to the shooting range on the control panel of the door. Jesse, on the other hand, was still staring down the hall, almost as if he hoped you'd come back and throw more insults at his head. "You know very well she's very hot-headed." "Yup, she really is," the cowboy agreed and followed Hanzo to the training area, which was located under the base and was used much more often by Hanzo than by Jesse McCree. "And a real beauty, too." Hanzo gave him a quick glance out of the corner of his eye and put on his gloves, running his fingers over the string of his bow. "You should be nicer to her," he said softly, tensing the bowstring a few times, pulling his arm back and staying in that position to warm up his muscles. "She has no idea that the badly aiming poncho idiot gets a watery mouth when he thinks of her." "Hah, you got me there!" Jesse confessed and pulled his revolver out of the holster, took a quick look inside and nodded contentedly. "She's a real eye-catcher, that girl." Hanzo didn't answer, but instead pulled an arrow out of his quiver and tensed the string, held his breath - and hit the mark. The easy-to-repair training robots were not real enemies, but they were enough to warm up. Hanzo took another arrow and hit the next head shot perfectly, as well as the third and fourth. Jesse watched the whole thing silently, took a puff from his cigar every now and then, and seemed to be a little lost in thought. "The mission scheduled for the day after tomorrow," Hanzo suddenly said, looking at his friend with a mischievous smile. "Soldier:76 has grounded her." "No way!" it fell from McCree's lips and he stared at the archer in amazement. So would you stay here at the base? While the otherwise eternally bouncing tracers and D.Va were also in the field? "I guess she was messing with the commander again," Hanzo continued, watching as Jesse straightened his hat and threw the poncho over his shoulder, holding the revolver in place. "The day just keeps getting better and better..." the cowboy murmured, and he took aim, held his breath for a split second - and fired. Two, three, four and five robots disintegrated into a pile of scrap metal, while Jesse gloated over the coming days. Oh, this would be such fun!

Two days later, you were sitting in the evening sun of Gibraltar in a bad mood, trying not to get too upset about the mosquitoes and the stuffy weather. The base was actually emptier than ever before and you tried with all means not to let your anger get the upper hand. Instead of sitting around here, you could be on your way to Italy right now - but no, you had to be stuck in that dusty sea of cliffs and caustic encounters with the cowboy. McCree was even more annoying than usual, now that Hanzo had left the base as well and apparently he was bored. The fitting of his new prosthetic arm kept him here with you, otherwise he would probably have flown to Italy instead of Tracer with Soldier:76, Winston, Reinhardt and some other agents. "Hey, beautiful." Speak of the devil. You heard the deep, smoky voice and the metallic clang of spurs behind you, and yet you didn't even bother to look up. "What do you want?" you asked coolly, but Jesse didn't let your dismissive manner get in the way, stopped beside you and took a deep puff of his cigar to blow the smoke into the evening sun. "Hanzo is not here" he replied. "I could use a substitute partner for practice." "Usually they have to drag you to the shooting range with force." "Come on, sweetheart, don't leave me hanging." he tried again and your stomach lurched once more at the nicknames he gave you. "Sweetheart", "Beauty" and "Love". This cursed, tempting cowboy would drive you out of your mind again! You'd love to sink your fingers into that brown hair and have him above you while he whispered naughty things in your ear in a dark voice... "Get lost," you growled instead and crossed your arms in front of your chest. You would never give in to temptation, especially not this man! He looked at every woman with growing enthusiasm, whistling appreciatively when she had a nice rack, and that pissed you off for a long time. If he was looking for a bed bunny after all, you were not to be had for that! "Do I have to beg on my knees before you?" Finally you looked up to him and under the shadow of the brim of your hat you saw two brown eyes looking at you with a provocative look. As theatrically as possible you groaned and held out your hand to him, which he immediately took and pulled you up from the ground. "Half an hour." you agreed. "Because I can't bear you any longer!"

"Welcome." Athena greeted both of you at the shooting range and on one of the monitors your statistics from last time appeared. "The usual setup, Agent?" "No, Athena, thank you," you replied to the AI, looking at your training partner. "Standard, please." "Of course." the pleasant voice of the program was heard over the training area. Life came into the little robots and they began to roam around, ignoring you. "A special setup, huh?" McCree asked teasingly, and you waved aside, not wanting to tell him that you were planning on doing target practice at every opportunity. "Let's see what you can do," you said, leaning against the wall behind you. You didn't mean to start, no. If the cowboy wanted to practice, then he should start! "Hold this." To your great amazement you got the red poncho pressed into your arms and you looked at McCree, who in his tight black shirt pulled the gun out of the holster. On such hot days he didn't wear his bulletproof breastplate and the black shirt emphasized his muscular stature, letting you swallow briefly against your dry mouth. Damn sexy cowboy! "You don't have to undress right away," you hissed angrily and although you wanted to sound as annoyed as possible, your voice was much higher than usual. A quick sideways glance from brown eyes silenced you and you watched his movements closely. He lifted his Peacekeeper up and you saw him narrow his eyes for a moment, finally emptying all six chambers in one seemingly single, flowing movement. Six robots collapsed, McCree tilted his head and made his neck crack slightly. You had seen his extraordinary ability Deadeye several times before and yet, it impressed you every time. You could call him a bad shooter as often as you wanted, Jesse McCree always hit his target. The drinking, smoking cowboy with the silly hat and spurs on his boots was an impressive man whether you liked it or not. But you certainly wouldn't rub that fact in his face! "Your turn, beautiful." He threw his revolver at you and surprised you stumbled forward, the poncho in your arms and with noisiness you caught his gun. He nodded invitingly to the new group of robots that were just making their way in through one of the flaps to the workshop. "It's way too heavy for me!" you growled and threw his poncho at McCree in return, and he put it aside, but shook his head at your statement. "Nonsense." he replied, and just as you were putting new bullets into the chambers, he stepped behind you and looked over your shoulder. The smell of tobacco and the cowboy himself beguiled you for a fraction of a second and you took a step forward to escape from his immediate vicinity. "I'll show you." Shocked, you flinched as you felt a cold hand on your left shoulder and his real, warm hand gripped your wrist to lift the revolver. "You know I don't work with these bulky, heavy weapons," you muttered, concentrating all your efforts not to blush and keeping your pulse under control. He was much too close to you, you could feel his body heat and feel his breath on the sensitive skin of your neck. "Doesn't mean you can't handle it, huh?" you heard the smoky voice in your ear and his upper body pressed against your back. He lifted your right arm a little, corrected the position of your shoulder a little, and finally leaned completely against you to secure your stance from the recoil. "Aim well over the rear sight, you have no sight here." "I know...!", you hissed irritably and tried to concentrate on your target, but it was quite difficult to aim when hard muscles were pressing against your back. "You're way too tense, why don't you relax your shoulders?" "Shut up!" You pulled the trigger and wow! - this fucking heavy gun had a tremendous recoil! Your second shot even missed the target and a deep growl in your chest expressed your frustration about it. You rarely missed, but Peacekeeper was far too heavy for your untrained hands. Your weapons were all riffles like Soldier's:76, there was not such a powerful recoil as McCree's choice of weapon. A third shot was fired and you were glad that his right hand stabilized your shoulder. Distracting or not, his upper body caught you and you didn't have to take an evasive step back. "It's fun, isn't it?" you heard him ask and you almost looked up at him with an approving smile, but just in time you made the smile disappear and shrugged your shoulders. Stay cool. "I have to admit, it's quite entertaining," you replied bored in a playful way, but he didn't buy it. McCree leaned down a little over your shoulder and the tips of his hair tickled your cheek. He was too close, it was way too close! "Jesse!," you growled and turned from his grip instantly. "Jesse?," he asked immediately, and the rough, dark laugh sent a pleasant goose bump down your neck. "You've never called me that before, dear." "Yes, I- Ah...", you tried to find words and talk your way out, because the sexy cowboy was unfortunately right: You had never called him by his first name before, it just sounded too familiar and not hostile enough for your everyday dances. "Don't crowd me." "What, you don't mind a little help with the shooting?" Again he came a step closer and you looked at him suspiciously, pressed the revolver into his hands and turned your head away, trying to rebuff him as hard as possible. "Or was it for any other reason?" Jesse McCree was a charmer with a silver tongue, he always knew exactly what to say to either freak you out or leave you speechless. You were a seasoned Overwatch agent, a tough woman who could get her way - but when the cowboy got that close to you, your knees went soft like butter. "Jesse McCree-!" you started a little rant. You took a step towards him and nudged his chest in anger, while he looked at you with just two amused sparkling eyes. "Are you suggesting that I'm really attracted to a complete idiot like you?" He silenced you by leaning the last piece towards you, bending down and his right hand grabbing your neck. He kissed you, pulled you to him and after the first second of the shock you put your hands against his chest to push him away from you. "Jesse-!," you shouted outraged, but he shook his head and nipped your protest in the bud with another kiss. That damned, tempting cowboy actually dared to kiss you just like that - and then he was so damn good at it, it was enough to drive you crazy! The stubble of his beard scratched slightly at your skin and you tasted the cold smoke of his cigars, but that hardly bothered you, because even if you deliberately denied it: you wanted Jesse McCree to kiss you. You wanted to feel his hand on your neck, how he pulled you a little closer to his upper body and that the kiss became more and more erratic and unstable with every second. It wasn't until a faint gasp came over your lips that you realized what it all meant and you leaned back and escaped his lips. "Sweet as honey..." he growled softly and in return he received a light slap on the shoulder from you. "What, it's true!" "Idiot." you muttered and rolled your eyes. He snorted, pressed a kiss on the corner of your mouth and grabbed your waist with his left arm to pull you a little closer. You let it happen, and yet your thoughts turned over; What was there between you? What was the reason why he kept getting on your nerves so much? "May I be your idiot then?" he asked, and he leaned down, kissed your neck, and his free hand played with a strand of your hair. Good question, did you agree inside. Was that it then? Was he your not so badly aiming, poncho-wearing idiot cowboy? "Let's see how long I can stand you," you muttered with wildly pounding hearts and your stomach made a backward somersault at the thought that this show-off man seemed to like you very much.