#tbf that's how everyone in his circle was around him

[chirpychipslive]

oh so that's what he's doing here

[farfromstrange]

Ok so just read one of your thots that ended in. The tag “submissive and breedable” and that instantly got me going on my own thot. So I present a concept to follow that one up

Matt’s been working hard. At work, as daredevil in bed. Hard work all the time working for others. Saving them, advocating for them, always putting himself first. He hates asking for things won’t often times (as you’ve said I agree).

So he’s back at it again instantly trying to please and pleasure you which you would normally love getting to have him dom you and pull every bit of pleasure from your body is amazing. But you know he’s been working too hard. And even if you have to force him you will make him take the love and care he deserves

Cue you pushing him back into a chair as he tries to get up. And climbing on top lining up to the spot. “Your going to listen to me. Tonight I want two things. Your obedience and your cum. Do you hear me.” Grinding your ass down into him nipping at his ear as you whisper. Knowing it may shock him normally you wait for his signal to get in control but you know he needs it. And your more then happy to accept both things from him.

You pull so much pleasure from him pushing him aorund when he tries to do anything but sit back and take your love. Holding him down nipping or grabbing at his hands if they try and work too hard your aggressive with it but you know he loves both pleasure and pain that you give him and he’s a whimpering mess by the end both covered and sticky but you want one more “one more my good boy I know. You got a little more in you. Cum deep in me. One more and I promise you can pleasure me too” thay final promise gets him he’s spent but even so blissed out from it all he wants you.

As he finishes and you roll off him equally tired and proud to take care of him he just rolls over cleaning up as much of his cum off you finally begging so sweetly to taste you that you give in and let him still puling at his hair and praising him as he eats you up.

I’ve written a few now but don’t have a Mat nsfw blog so I may just start signing as 🪷

I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME SO LONG! You have really been waiting an eternity, so I tried to do your thot justice. I hope I didn't disappoint you. (Also, definitely saving 🪷 for you in case you ever decide to slide some more thots into my inbox!)

Tbf I thought your scenarios couldn’t get much better than the last few, but I was gravely mistaken. I am spiraling over here. The pictures you put in my head, I–

Honestly, I thought there was not much I could add to this because it’s already juicy enough, but I did end up playing around with it a bit. I hope you don’t mind. 

Pairing: Matt Murdock x afab!Reader (otherwise no gendered pronouns)

Word count: 2.9k

Warnings: Smut, unprotected p in v, creampie, sub!Matt, praise kink, oral f!receiving, and other sexy stuff mentioned above

Smut under the cut. 18+ MINORS DNI!

The pads of his rough fingers rub slow circles over your swollen clit. Your slick walls clench around nothing, and it’s torture every single time his touch on the sensitive bundle of nerves sends shockwaves through your body.

Matt kisses from your lips to your jaw and down your neck. He has been on you ever since he came home from work. Everyone seems to need him lately, and he doesn’t know how or when to stop. It’s work, it’s the city, and it’s you. He’s so busy, he forgets that he isn’t an invincible machine.

In bed, he has been the most loving partner. That never changes. When he has set his mind on something, he finishes it with the utmost care. His performance isn’t your issue, not at all, it’s the fact his performance is centered solely around you that irks you. He puts your pleasure first every night, not allowing himself to come until he’s buried deep inside of you, and even then he holds back. He fucks you into the mattress until you can’t see straight anymore, but only in the way you want him to. 

Every night, he rips countless orgasms from your body, leaving his mark on your skin and inside of you. Sometimes it feels like he sees it as a chore he needs to finish, setting his own needs aside. But not being able to give him back even an ounce of what he is giving you leaves the pleasure with a bitter aftertaste on your tongue. It makes you feel guilty. He’s doing it because he wants to, but Matt doesn’t know how or where to draw the line sometimes. He thinks he wants to do something even though it’s more of a feeling of obligation rather than an actual desire. He has been hurt so many times, you can’t blame him for being who he is, but it’s frustrating when you want to help him out of whatever hole he fell into this time, and he refuses to take your hand. 

So, you need to push him. You need to slap him awake and prove to him that he matters, too. You would never force him to do anything he doesn’t want to do, but he needs a little push from time to time because if you don’t coax him in the right direction, he will run himself dry.   

Matt never asks for what he needs because he can’t allow himself to come first—both in life and in bed—but that selflessness tends to cause more destruction than it does anyone any good, especially him.

He’s back at it again tonight. 

Matt smelled your arousal thick in the air the second he came home from work, his shoulders tense with the stress he had been bottling up for weeks. The scent knocked him right off his feet, your cunt already wet just from the thought of him—of what you are going to do to him—and he instantly started to spiral. 

The soft welcome home kiss you pressed to his lips quickly turned into something more as desperation began to take over, and he once again made it his mission to make you come before he could even take his clothes off.

Tonight though, you won’t let him get so far, no matter how much he tries. And he always tries hard. If Matt Murdock is anything, it is determined. 

You try to break through the haze of pleasure he pulls you under with every stroke of his fingers. It’s like you’re drowning. You’re not in control, but you need to grab a hold of the reins before your plan washes down the drain.

Your body burns brightly as it holds on to that last sliver of self-control. He reads your body like an open book, your curves the Braille he traces with his fingers, and he knows he is doing something right. Your body always betrays you. Your moans, your wetness, and your stiff nipples that are reaching up toward the ceiling are all clear signs that you are enjoying the way he’s touching you, and that spurs him on.

It’s so tough to resist him when he knows exactly how to play your body like a fucking fiddle. He knows how hard to press down on your clit and how fast to move his fingers to get you exactly where he wants you. To make you soak his fingers with your essence so he can lick it off and taste you.

He wants to make you come. He needs to. And him feeling like he needs to is the very thing that makes you snap out of it, finally. 

You grab his wrist. His movements halt instantly, pulling his head away from your neck. “You alright?” he asks. “Did I hurt you?”

The lust in his eyes stems from a need to please. His cock is straining against his slacks, but his shoulders are so tense, you doubt he is enjoying this. Not like you are, at least. For someone who is barely holding on as it is, that must be so exhausting.

“I’m okay,” you whisper. “But you’re not.”

He stiffens. His unfocused eyes move wildly from one side to the other. He tilts his head, listening to your heartbeat, but there is nothing there but pure honesty. 

You know. You always know.

Matt is about to object—pointlessly, may I add—but you push him off of you instead. You flatten your palms against his sturdy chest, urging him to get up. He doesn’t argue, he simply follows. A fog has settled over his senses to the point you consume him.

The puzzled look on his face is replaced by one of surprise when you push him backward rather forcefully toward the chair in the corner of your shared bedroom. 

You take one of the hands flailing helplessly at his side, placing it on your hip. He needs something to hold onto, something to ground him. With the world on fire, every new situation becomes dangerous territory for him, and you don’t want him to stumble into a free fall of overstimulation down a bottomless pit.

Tonight, you want him to use his heightened senses on nothing but you, and for that, he needs to touch you. He needs to know you’re right there and not going anywhere. Only then can he allow himself to lose control. 

“Sweetheart, what’re you–” Matt stumbles over his words, his chest heaving with every labored breath he inhales. 

You place your index fingers against his swollen lips. “Stop.” Your hot cunt hovers dangerously close above his crotch as you straddle him, and he makes a strangled sound in the back of his throat. “Stop focusing on me and let me help you,” you whisper against him. “Please.”

He tastes you in every corner of his mouth when you kiss him. He can feel you in his soul, calloused fingers digging into your hips in an attempt to find something to hold onto to stop himself from falling. But you’re powerful; you’re a dangerous force to reckon with. He can’t say no because the little voice in his head that isn’t wired to self-sabotage his pleasure is calling for him to let go. To let you take over. To let you consume him, swallow him, and never let him go. Matt wants to tie himself to you with the invisible string that has wrapped around his neck like a noose and stay that way, even if it kills him. 

You force his chin up to level his eyes with yours. He can feel your gaze burning holes through his sensitive skin, the scent of burning flesh filling his nostrils but it’s not real. You’re real, and your hands are real, but him burning… that is not real, even when it feels that way.

Before, when you took control, he was still in charge. Secretly. He gave you the reins but he was still pulling from the other side. Because Matt Murdock does not know how to let himself go. Not usually.

When you rode him, he would keep his hands on your thighs as you bounced on his cock. You didn’t mind it. Tonight though, this is far from what you want to happen.

“Tonight I want two things,” you tell him then, nipping at his ear. “Your obedience and your cum. Can you give me that, baby? Can you be good for me and let me take care of you?”

His cue comes in the form of the faintest nod. 

You spend what feels like an eternity riding him, his thick cock buried between your tight, wet walls. Your lips caress his skin with a featherlight touch. The other hand—the one that isn’t busy feeling him stretch you out as you rub your clit with abandon, not wanting him to lift a single finger—roams his chest. You glide your fingers through the sheen of sweat that is glistening on his beautiful, milky skin. You dig your finger into it, and the moan it elicits from him is so delicious. 

He can’t do anything but sit back and take your love. Your punishment. Everything you are willing to give him. You rock back and forth, lifting your hips every so often until only his tip remains inside. It drives him crazy, every inch of him so sensitive from the sheer agony of feeling you around him.

His pulse quickens. You can feel his heart pounding under your hand, his temple pressed against yours as your sweat mingles with the wetness of your cunt and the cum from all the orgasms you have already pulled from him. 

“Please,” he’s begging you, but he isn’t sure what for. 

Matt clings to you, nails dragging over your bare back, lips chasing to catch your nipple. He feels so useless, unable to give you the pleasure he wants because you are so focused on him. So focused on his cock and giving him what he needs. Making him come over and over again, cleaning around him and milking him dry, but never letting up. You turn the pain of overstimulation into pleasure. The world turns quiet under the beating of your heart in his ears, and the scent of you soaking the hairs in his nose to the point he knows he will take you with him to the grave. 

He whimpers. “Please,” again, he pleads and begs. 

You tangle your fingers in his locks, pulling him closer to kiss him. “I know,” you coo. “Just give me one more. Fill me up one more time and I promise, you can make me come as often as you want.”

“You promise?” he chokes out. The soft baritone of his voice wavers, and you dig your teeth into his bottom lip. Copper explodes on your tongue. He moans.  

“I promise,” you repeat. “Come again f’me, baby. I’ve got you.”

He is so spent, but for you, he would steal the stars. All he wants is you. His balls tighten in response to your words, his body chasing yours and the high that threatens to take him under and drown him. You’re every-fucking-where. His hips jerk, but you keep him weighed down right where he is. He’s so painfully hard and full and needy, even though you have tortured him for hours by now. You move once, twice, and even a third time before the wave crashes in. 

You hold him to you, your own body shaking as he fills you up for what feels like the hundredth time. His breath comes in labored spurts, his cum leaking out of you and staining his sturdy thighs with a cocktail of you both. 

His nails move from your back to your ass, anchoring himself to something, anything, to make it through this. His teeth find their way home on your shoulder, biting down just enough to send a thrill of pain straight to your core, and your walls tighten around his overly sensitive cock. He doesn’t let go of you though. His orgasm drags on for an eternity, and he lets it happen. Oh, you’re so proud of him. He hardly ever lets you take care of him like that, fucking him senseless until he can’t think straight anymore—until the world disappears and it’s just the two of you; no responsibilities just sex. 

“That’s it,” you murmur. “Such a good boy. Did so well f’me. I’m so full. Gonna feel you for days.”

Something snaps in his very tired self at your talk. He rolls you off of him. “You promised,” is all he says. 

You blink up at him, tired and satisfied and covered in cum, but oh so proud of the privilege he granted you, seeing him like this and taking care of him. He doesn’t like to be vulnerable unless it’s with you, and even then he is reluctant. He has always been this way, but it would never make you love him any less. 

With a sigh, you spread your legs. “I promised,” you agree. “And you’ve been such a good, good boy. You deserve it.”

His swollen lips travel over your heated skin like dripping wax. The hairs on your body reach toward the ceiling. You gasp, softly, feeling him inch closer to your core, yet taking his time exploring you. Touching you. He’s a man on a mission again, though this time you do not stop him. 

One brush of his lips against your clit, and your back arches toward him. You pull at his hair, falling victim to the force of his silver tongue. In the end, he owns your body, your pleasure, and your orgasms in a way no one could ever live up to, and he always will. 

He is your world, you are his, and if you didn’t have each other, neither of you would no longer have a reason to breathe. 

Matt Murdock (Smut) Tag List: @shouldbestudying41 @theradioactivespidergwen @cheshirecat484 @1988-fiend @acharliecoxedfan @gpenguin666 @linamarr @mcugeekposts @itwasthereaminuteago @norestfortheshelbywicked @yarrystyleeza @littlenerdyravenclaw @etanordoesbullsh1t @thychuvaluswife @harleycao @schneeflocky @imjustcal @pipsqueakkitten @merlinbtch @sya-skies @amberritonicole @ravenclaw617 @pigeonmama @bohemianrhapsody86 @a-girl-has-n0-name @winkev1 @callsign-ember @chittaphonstar @buckyyyismahhlife @trublu2u @xnatyx @zomtart

[4awny]

Sp Study Headcanons that literally nobody somebody asked for:

Kenny:-

actually listens and pays attention in class

but literally cannot study at all if cartman is there

would rather race cars and start fires than study

easily distracted

is kind of 🤷🏼‍♂️ whatever when its exam day

legs spread as far out from the desk as possible

likes to watch other people stress out from the back row

grade? B. people under estimate him

Kyle:-

disgustingly prepared

gets stressed out a lot tho

like when people won't shut up

therefore prefers to study alone

the closer he is to the final exam > the more moody he gets

permanent 😠 face

blames cartman for distracting him

i mean yeah. he does that a lot tbf

is up all night studying despite knowing sleep is just as important

fear of failure maybe?

OK I could go on here

grade? A. predictable. the hard work paid off

Stan:-

doubts himself the whole time

king of procrastination

not completely his fault, always busy doing shit for ppl

thinks he's totally prepared

opens up the first page of the exam paper

immediately forgets everything he ever knew

🤯 lost af

oh wait he does know something

comes out feeling like he let himself down

grade? C. all gd my guy

Cartman:-

this kid will not acknowledge an exam until the day before

then panics like hell

and kyle told him so too

looks over to each friend as if to say HELP ME when everybody opens their paper

obviously no one helps him lol

like? man should have listened

cannot concentrate, thoughts racing, over thinking

leads to inner meltdown

struggles to submit anything worth a pass due to the stress

acts like it was the easiest exam of his life

OK enough lore

grade D. just about.

Butters:-

surprisingly good with numbers

brings a pencil sharpener into the exam hall

and like 4 extra pencils too

is pretty confident

real cocky too. smug is the word

bc he the only mf to actually enjoy exams

looks over at cartman with a 👍🏻

gets a 🖕🏼 in return

grade B+. kid is no dumbass

Craig:-

should probably try harder

doesn't even care about grades

kinda does actually

"let's just get this over with" as he rolls up to the exam hall with his hands in his pockets

😒

pretty average student

writes 'fuck knows' for questions he doesn't know

having good common sense helped him massively

grade? B. nobody knows how he managed it either. mystery

Tweek:-

a lot of pencil tapping

relies on a lot of caffeine

...obviously

sweaty palms

forever looking around at other people

reads the question 10 times

then 10 more times

still doesn't understand so writes nothing.

goes back to the 1st question halfway through

adds ???? next to his answers

doctors handwriting. barely readable.

grade? it's a D. rip

Clyde:-

"test? what test?"

moderately studies...

for the wrong exam

writes notes on his hand before the final

chews gum throughout

It annoys tweek, who can hear it from 14 seats back

always the first to finish

because finishing first means he's better than everyone else

🤡

spends the next half hour doodling circles all over the desk

only cares about the party afterwards anyways

grade?? big fat FAIL

Tolkien:-

actually knows his stuff, bc he covered literally everything

apart from that 1 subject, but he didn't care about it anyway

reads a lot of books, loves literature

sleeps well, eats well

helps his mind combat pre-exam stress

feels pretty confident on exam day, but hides it well

doesn't want his friends to think he's a nerd or anything...

Grade? A+++++. total NERD

[ifreakforicecream]

COD MODERN WAREFARE 3 Predictions

Disclaimer: I have never played the games I am just doing this for my own enjoyment (I don’t have 70$ lying around) I am going off of cutscenes, the wiki and other people’s head cannons. I kind of wanna see how this list plays out once the new missions come. (This barbie has to draft 30 sheets of site analysis for a presentation but is doing this instead) I will probably update this with coloured text as it goes

also, lmao mw3 getting revealed by monster energy drinks has the same energy as the previous installments being revealed by Dorito Chips or when hero movies get early reveals from toy/action figure patents.

Graves does come back but only as an operator for the multiplayer games. Conversely, He could be an illegal arms dealer but in hiding (think MacAfee before they found him). Shepherd has a higher chance of going in that direction in my books. Update: he comes back completely unscathed and going by the new trailer he's siding with Farah and Alex? oooo this gonna get messy (28/7/23).

Price, Laswell, or Gaz dies. Sort of a riff off from the originals I’m guessing the writers are trying to find some form of subversion but this is where it's at (oof)

Farah or Alex dies and neither of them finishes what they started. My money is on Farah tbf.

Gaz dying makes sense in the way that he started with wanting to do right by people when he first met and would probably die that way too. or this being a red herring price jumps in for him and dies and then takes his place which seals his fate as the MC of this installment.

Laswell goes out of the way of aiding a mission when she was expected/advised not to.

Laswell gets a protégé that will replace her in a much later installment. It has a shot at being Gaz man just collects good intel.

more female ops? I like to think COD writes them pretty damn well. (at this point my standards are must pass the Bechdel test. which is not a bad benchmark considering its flaws but not great either)(this is also where I found out the first installment of Twilight passes the Bechdel test. go figure)

Gaz replaces Laswell and Ghost takes Price’s place.

Price dies while killing Makarov. or we get him smoking a cigar as he is introed making it a full-circle moment once more.

Ghost trades bullets with shepherd but only shepherd dies. Many have said the reboot plays it safe so I am going off of that assumption here slightly but ik a lot of og gamers of the previous titles would find that satisfying.

In the wiki, it states that the shadow company is disavowed but that might change. I didn’t check the established title (Like if it was private or public) of such a company but there might be a line of succession here. for what they have in assets it seems too big to be disavowed.

we get a partial face reveal of the ghost. It could be something mundane as smoking or a teasing jump cut. it’s just like barely there.

everyone gets promoted: It happened after the mission in the ghost's origin story. It’s a hefty mission they just survived. I would be surprised if they didn’t. with shepherd gone this swings either way. or gets buried under the rug as it is a mission hidden from the public.

Roach gets in the picture. he also wins the IDGAF wars or is second to Price in that regard.

regional operators? They were all over the place in past titles and with las almas this seems the least farfetched. (hoping for some Indian or Nepalis operators woo)

someone from 141 or affiliated gets kidnapped or “killed” but it’s that “lucky death” situation that COD likes to pull like it did with Alex. This happens towards the end or at a start of a mission season.’

Shepherd is the actual villain and they kill off Makarov pretty quick as a subversion of the original title. Again moot, if you consider the potential monster energy leak his face is in red behind price.

price dies, Gaz finishes the job.

this is more of an anti-prediction: the price isn’t gonna be the main character but the most prominent. (also going by the monster leak) ghost was the last game’s MC I don’t think they were married to his POV all that much even though it played a huge role.

ghost dies, and Soap finishes the job. “you wanna be better than me Johnny” or Johnny dies saving Ghost in the final moment.

Makarov operates the no Russian mission remotely and he acts as a clean nationalistic politician, making him more dangerous and will cause international trouble when apprehending him. (a lot of opposing politicians or figures “fall out of windows” in the process.

The ghost team carries over to Russian soil.

141 gets bigger and possibly with pre-existing operators within the game.

shepherd gets murdered by a more evil boi/girl

ghost’s tattoo design has a canonical refresh/update. The grey fleece jacket comes back.

Soap recovers while Ghost hunts for Shepherd solo. (this happens right after the final mission or the bar scene)

Every now and then a COD title comes out with a new game mechanic or a way to play. In this installment, I am predicting laser sights for night missions.

Heavier lean on digital/informational warfare.

we don’t get much about ghosts. RalphsValve said there might be a spinoff personally I don’t this will ever happen but it’s a tossup considering the original investor report saying mobile makes 40% of revenue but the Microsoft acquisition may change things ( also wonder where product collaborations are at on that investor report probably not that sizable but still worth a look). Conversely, he’s ghostie has become a character favorite and the market landscape has changed drastically in the last 10-20 years and he already has source material. BTW I read that Origin comic That poor fucker can’t catch a break. Brother looked so red-eyed when he hit the tarmac when he met Soap.

[killevru33]

kinda do not like this but i gotta power through to get to the good part of this story UGHH hate being patient even if i am the one writing it.

i have something to admit. idk how tumblr works and i’ve used it for like 4 years now, tbf i only doom scrolled on tumblr oopsie

Chapter 3:

not edited be warned.

I stand beside a vending machine, the lights flashing in my peripheral vision as I focus on the people sparring one another in the distance.

I am decently well versed in how to defend myself; my father had taught me from a young age among other tactics. the thought upsets me but still makes me feel some gratitude towards the man.

Suddenly it hits me, I am in Japan. shouldn’t I be upset from this? It is not as unnerving as I would expect it to be.

“Um, hello?” a soft voice sounds from behind me, startling me I spin on my heels, facing a boy who looks my age. he’s got dark hair and extremely dark eye bags.

“Hello.” I whisper to him.

He shifts on his feet uncomfortably looking past me at the vending machine then back to me.

“Oh, am I in your way?” I ask moving a few steps to the side. Watching as he smiles pulling out some change while he expertly picks out a drink.

The boy stands holding his drink and turning to face me. “Are you new here?”

I ignore the way his voice cracks, looking over to the three people now standing in a circle talking to each other. “I guess yeah” I say mindlessly.

“You guess?” he asks quickly

I eye him from where I am standing watching him struggle to open his can of pop. “Im not to sure honestly, I wasn’t told anything other then I am now to attend school here and that I am supposed to meet my classmates at the courtyard.”

“Ha!’ he cheers finally opening his can of pop, before clearing his throat and rubbing his head with his free hand. He mutters a small apology before continuing, “same here! Gojo senpai kinda left me hanging before introducing me to my new classmates.” I watch as some kind of realization washes over his face. I’m Yuta Okkotsu but you can just call me Yuta!”

I stammer a bit as he bows, coping his movements. Giving him my name in favour.

“I take it you are the new first year, it’s a bit odd Gojo senpai instructed you to meet us here instead of introducing you to us.” Yuta mutters confused.

“He’s supposed to introduce me?” curling my lip I sigh defeated. He cannot honestly want me to view him as my senpai.

Yuta chuckles patting my shoulder. Evidently warmed up to me in the few minutes we have known each other.

“Hey, it’s okay I don’t mind introducing you! Did Gojo senpai give you a student card?” Yuta exclaimed comforting me.

I struggle for a moment contemplating if he is genuinely like this or being fake. I decide on the former the longer I am with him.

“I think maybe...” I mumble remembering I felt something in my pant pocket when I put the phone in it. “This?” I flash the card to him, and he grabs it giving me a nod and walking towards the courtyard. Assuming I am meant to follow him I start in the direction where he goes making sure to slow down to stay behind him.

“Yuta! Took you long enough gosh.” A girl grumbles towards us. “Huh?” we make eye contact, and her face distorts. She doesn’t seem to be please by me.

“Sorry maki but I have a good excuse!” Yuta stops walking, looking back for me. I walk over so that I can stand beside him.

“This is the new first year!!” he gestures his hands to me; he takes a breath to say something, but a panda suddenly grabs my student card that Yuta had been holding-

“Wait what.” I dead pan making everyone look at me.

The panda looks me dead in the eyes “Wha?”

My mouth drops open. “You can talk?!”

“Hey!” The panda shouts pointing to me “that’s rude” it turns around crying. I stand there unmoving utterly confused.

“Oh, this is Panda” Yuta smiles at me “and this is Maki and beside her is Toge Inumaki.”

“Kelp” the boy says in my direction.

Completely ignoring the other two I look back down to the panda who is still crying. “Is your name Panda?”

“Yes” Panda wipes his snout standing up with his chest puffed out.

“Ok.” I mumble mostly confused by the fact someone named a panda, Panda. I try and stay shocked, but it quickly passes as I find it normal in some weird way.

“So, how long have you been a sorcerer?” Panda asks pretending that he was not just sobbing.

“A sorcerer? i’m not.” I tell him.

He takes a step back passing my student card back to Inumaki and Maki. I watch as they both look at me confused then back down at the card.

“What the hell is with these new students.” The girl almost seethes out.

“salmon” I hear the boy mumble.

Confused why he could not have just said yes to her that thought suddenly dying as she appears in front of me, toe to toe. “Special grade 1?” I stare at her confused, backing up from her.

“Special grade 1?” I repeat back to her.

She rolls her eyes at me. “She doesn’t even know what her grade means”

“Then why don’t you explain it to me.” I glare at her becoming annoyed at how little I know about this place.

She smirks “It’s a label to your abilities, it starts at grade 4 to grade 1 then you have special grade 1 then finally special grade sorcerer.”

I am second highest. How did they even give me that rank? “Maybe they just put special grade 1 as a placeholder till they learn my grade” I say under my breath meaning to say that in my head.

“It doesn’t work like that?” the girl tells me condescendingly. I furrow my brows as she stares me down.

finally met Toge and haven’t muttered a word towards him mb MUAH

[twobraincellkentwell]

We Can Always Find The Trouble, We Don't Need No Help.

[A Game Called Revenge]

Part Eight

Series Masterlist Part One.

Summary: "ɪ ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ᴅᴏ ᴀɴʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇ ᴛʀᴏᴜʙʟᴇ. ɪᴛ ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ꜱᴏ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴꜱ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴅᴏ ɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴀʟʟʏ ᴄᴀᴜꜱᴇꜱ ᴛʀᴏᴜʙʟᴇ."

The days before the games are filled with training, trouble and treaties. Always at the hands of District Two. Trouble is something she's always been good at.

Warnings: strictly 18+ due to the nature of content in some of the chapters. I don't think there's any specific chapter warnings this week, but there is the usual mentions of murder and death. Language always.

Word Count: 7.7k

A/N: This is a long one today lads, you're welcome. I was pretty proud of my dialogue in that alliance meeting tbf so.

As always there is a reference in there somewhere and I want to know if you can find my favourite line yet again! :)

The lift doors open into a vast open space with racks of weapons, obstacle courses, weight racks, training mats and a whole bunch of stations catered to the skills of each district. A balcony level runs all around the perimeter of the room, yet it remains empty for the moment. None of the other tributes have arrived yet, which doesn’t surprise Clio as training is scheduled to begin at ten and the time on the large digital clock on the wall shows her that it's just after half past nine. She drags Cato over to the mats, listening to what Enobaria had mentioned earlier about stretching before the other tributes arrive as it will give them more time to show off their skills at each station. Clio knows that she won’t have time to stretch when she enters the arena; it’s unrealistic to pretend there will be time to do anything other than sprint towards the centre of the environment to find her weapon but it doesn’t hurt to prevent injuring herself in training.

With the clock striking ten, the other tributes push open the doors of the training centre, and Clio sees many of them look nervous as they gaze around the room at the various stations. They’ve all been in this position before but with the brand new training facilities she supposes that at least a few of the districts were told to watch everyone carefully before they decide on which skill to focus on. 

Standing up from her position on the mats, she joins the others in surrounding the woman in charge of training as she starts her speech explaining the rules and timeframes. Nothing has changed in the two years since Clio has been in this position, the rules are exactly the same; no fighting with other tributes, lunch will be held down in the basement and the afternoon of the third day will be reserved for private skill demonstrations with the gamemakers.

Once the head trainer finishes her speech, Clio does a slow circle of the room as she waits to assess where each tribute has gone. She takes note that they scatter around, some clustering in small groups, while some remain on their own. Those in groups seem to be guarding the person practising carefully whereas those by themselves watch from the weapon racks. Clio doesn’t really understand why they’re hiding their skills from prying eyes. It’s not like we don’t already know everyone’s skills , she thinks. 

Her eyes catch Finnick speaking to Katniss at a station made for ropes and nets; something that the man is already completely competent with. Making her way over slowly, she overhears him telling her that he’ll show her the most important knot to know in the arena and how to make it. Realising that as annoying as it is to have to admit this to anyone, especially Finnick , she doesn’t know how to make use of any rope were she to have access to and so listening in to their conversation would probably be of use to her. Careful not to draw attention to herself from the woman at the station, she creeps closer only to see Finnick lift a noose in the air. Laughing under her breath she watches him shift the loop over his head, pretending to choke as he feigns tightening it and Katniss scoffs, unamused. 

“Want to take me for a walk?” Finnick asks jokingly. 

“Funny.” Katniss remains unamused while she walks away with a shrug. 

Clio takes the few steps towards Finnick and curls her fingers around the coarse fibres of the rope with a grin. She tugs at the rope, causing Finnick to yield to the playful force as he stumbles forward with a surprised exclamation. “Clio!”

“You asked. I’d be crazy to deny myself the opportunity to walk you like the dog you are.” She shrugs, tugging a second time.

“Why? Get bored of walking Cato?” Finnick laughs.

“Hilarious.” She says, tilting her head to one side playfully as she swings the end of the rope downwards so it falls at the man’s feet before chuckles to herself and walks away.

She decides to head to the knife throwing station, the cold metal table housing an impressive display of knives. As she looks over the selection, Clio notes that the knives are all mostly the same, with very few differences in size and shape, something that an untrained tribute could easily overlook. As she looks ahead she can see that five targets were positioned at the end of the small area.

Picking up the small weapon, the knife feels good in her hand. The long slender silver feels warm, like a light easy weight in her palm. This is when she feels her best, when her mind is clearest. As long as she has a knife in her hand, she feels okay. As long as she can throw it far and fast, she feels good. She lets the knife fly, and smiles as it sinks straight into the centre of the target.

Everyone ignores her most the day as she rarely moves from her position with the knives, simply timing herself on how quickly she can make contact with each of the targets; and only leaving the station momentarily when lunch is called. Each time she finished within seconds but yet she only wished to get quicker, so as soon as her timer is stopped, Clio quickly inspects the accuracy of her throws before retrieving the knives and throwing again. Cashmere and the woman from Nine join her at some point and the three simply enjoy each other’s company as they throw the silver blades. It’s strange , Clio notes, we know that these knives will be aimed at each other in a few days but yet we’re still having fun together. She knows the camaraderie is bizarre, but peculiarly enough she finds that the idea excites her. After a while the two move to other stations, leaving Clio alone with her knives; and removing themselves from the prying eyes of the gamemakers.

Once several training hours have passed after lunch, she turns away. She’s thrown a fair few knives today, so she thinks that this should be enough for the first day of training. Other tributes are beginning to disappear; she watches as Johanna, Blight and the pair from five leave the room together. She rolls her eyes as she watches them. It’s one thing to make allies , she thinks, but the pair from five aren’t a threat to Johanna. Don’t they know they’re going to die, they might even be the cause of each other's deaths - well I doubt five have the capacity to do so much as injure anyone she thinks .  

Districts Eight, Nine and Ten are soft. Weak, she thinks as she watches them clinging to their shallow friendships and quiet conversations while they leave the training centre. Foolish, she concludes, they’ll see that once the games start again, clinging to friendships in the shadows of a deadly arena is one of the most stupid things to do. She pauses for a moment as she realises that soon enough, her own friends will be dead - and likely by her hand. Her pause allows her thoughts to be interrupted by Cashmere.

“Leaving already?” She asks.

“I’ve been here since before training started, some rest won’t kill me now will it?” She responds, but she doesn’t budge yet. She knows that as much as the two have formed a friendship, she needs to show Cashmere that she’s not some inexperienced child, she’s a seasoned killer by now, and she’s here to win. “I’m sure I could wait, what did you have in mind?”

Cashmere beckons her over to two of the wooden stools where Cato and Gloss were engaged in conversation,  “We can go over what we’ve learnt then.”

As she sits down on the stool beside Cato, she raises a brow. “Learnt - from the other tributes?”

Cashmere nods, causing Clio to think how she didn’t exactly gather any information worth having, she doubts that the minimal information she’s picked up from slyly watching the others would be of much use to the pack of careers she’s allied with. “Twelve both kept to themselves again. They haven’t come near the knives so I doubt they can throw to save their lives.”

Gloss’ lip curls. “They’re not as weak as District Twelve usually are, but we need to steer clear of the bow.”

“There'll only be one bow in the arena.” Cato says, looking somewhat smug as he suggests that one of them needs to reach for the bow in the bloodbath. “She won’t be a threat if she doesn’t have her favourite toy.” 

As much as Clio hates to admit it, she privately thinks that Katniss could be a threat without it. Maybe. The two siblings seem to think synchronously as they debate the best way to remove their chances.

“District Six are idiots.” Cashmere says then, “They can’t hide this time. They might team up with Seven though and Johanna is halfway good with an axe. We need to make sure she doesn’t end up with Finnick.”

Clio nods. “So if they ally together, they’re a-”

“A threat.” Cashmere finishes her sentence. “If we can drive them apart or kill one in the bloodbath then we can weaken them.”

Gloss hums thoughtfully at his sister’s idea. “She’s not our main obstacle, but she’s worth taking out before the group can get dangerous. Hopefully Finnick comes to his senses and joins us.”

The two of them smile at her then. Two twin smiles, that makes them look as charming as they are deadly. Clio and Cato communicate wordlessly as they start to stand. “We should probably get going before Enobaria skins us for being late.” Cato tells them.

“We’ll see you tomorrow,” Gloss says before immediately turning back to sister. As the two head to the lift, they can hear the siblings' laughter.

“Come on, I don’t fancy being skinned alive.” 

──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────────── 

The next day, to no one's surprise Clio and Cato are the first ones in the training centre again. Enobaria wasn’t too pleased once she learned that the couple had remained separated at their favoured weapons station, so it was decided over dinner that the two of them should spend the day paired up at as many stations as possible, and to then split up the following morning to gather more information about the tributes. They’ve been instructed to start at their preferred weapons while they’re alone in the training room, before rotating around the other stations to schmooze potential allies.

At nine o’clock they start at their training by making their way over to the swords. Swords are likely the most common weapon in the arena; the two of them are more than certain that at least one sword will be at the back of the cornucopia, especially when they’re Cato’s weapon of choice. A large rack stands at the front of the station, displaying a variety of different blades; ranging from long, broad, curved blades to shorter, thinner, straight blades. Clio stands back for a second and lets Cato approach the dummies first. He grabs a mid-length leaf shaped blade off the rack and swings with ease, slicing up two dummies at once before adjusting his grip in seconds and turning on his feet to behead a dummy to his right. After a few minutes Cato turns to face the woman behind him and gestures to the unused swords still hanging on the rack. 

Clio doesn’t hesitate in taking his advice as she chooses one of the thin swords that she has experience in wielding from her years in the training academy at home. This style of sword is most familiar to her, acting most like a knife to her; thinner, more lightweight and easier for her to control as she swings it through the air. Before she goes to swing, Cato adjusts her grip slightly on the handle; and she listens, she isn’t stupid . Slightly psychotic yes, but not stupid. She shifts her weight onto the balls of her feet and brings the sword up, swinging experimentally towards the dummy’s body. The blade makes contact, slicing through parts of the dummy but not deep enough to cause the head to roll off the shoulders. 

Moving around to stand behind his girlfriend, Cato uses his hands to position Clio’s hips at a thirty-degree angle to her feet and places both of her hands on the sword’s handle to direct the sword’s location to knee height. “Swing upwards towards the chest.” He directs her, as he steps back to watch.

This time the sharp edge splits through the material of the training dummy with much more force, and the diagonal motion causes the torso to collapse in on itself. Wrinkles of surprise appear on Clio’s forehead for a split second as allows herself to feel pride at the way she just sliced open the fake body with a weapon she wouldn’t ordinarily reach for. Turning to face Cato again, the sword is outstretched to her left as she registers his look of approval, though it doesn’t last too long for he’s instructing her to go again. She does.

They head over to knife throwing after they’ve had enough of the swords. As they approach the station their eyes are drawn to the silver metal which sticks up from the floor. The handle of the knife can be easily grabbed as the sharp blade has pierced the concrete floor of the training hall. What fucking moron left a knife like this , she thinks as she tries to remember which tributes last visited the throwing station the day prior. 

“There a reason you left it out like that, angel?” Cato laughs as he glances between the knife embedded in the floor and his girlfriend’s puzzled face.

“Obviously it wasn’t me.” Clio replies, her confusion turning to irritation as she removes the knife from its position and inspects the blade. Great , she thinks, Now I’ve got to go and sharpen it. She decides against it however, as her scan of the dagger shows that it’s still more than salvageable; and she impales it into the dummy at least fifteen feet away.

Clio returns to the rack and releases five more knives from the pegs that precariously hold their weight. Her stance changes almost naturally as she launches the knives in quick succession; using her left hand to sink them in the centre of the target and her right to transfer the next knife to her throwing hand the instant the previous one leaves it. 

Cato can only stare as she repeats her actions again, and again, and again. It’s incredible and quite beautiful, really, the way the knives are wielded and the power such a petite woman has over such a deadly item. He’s snapped out of his daze by Clio’s hand waving in front of his face, a smirk resting on her face as if she knew what he was thinking. “Distracted?” She teases.

“If only you knew what the sight of you with a knife does to me,” he smiles playfully, and she raises her eyebrows at him for a fleeting moment, her brief communication understood once he registers the faintest hint of a smirk on her lips. He goes to move closer to her but is stopped by the tip of a knife against chest. “Trying to kill me already?” He jokes, “you wound me angel.”

She rolls her eyes light-heartedly at him, as he takes the knife from her grasp, “If I wanted you dead, you would be.”

“Oh, I know,” he smiles at her whilst the knife leaves his hand towards the target. And misses. “Shit.”

Clio can’t contain her laughter then, although she’s unsure what she finds more amusing, the fact that Cato , of all people, missed the target entirely or his reaction to his miss. Once she regains her composure she sets up the targets again, a little closer this time as she hands her favourite knife to Cato. He weighs up the dagger in his hand before letting it fly towards the dummy. It hits the target this time, but he doesn’t have anywhere near the accuracy she does. 

“Again,” she directs him as she adjusts the way his fingers wrap around the handle. 

──────────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ────────────

Thirty minutes, and hundreds of bullseyes later, the two hear someone clear their throat from behind them. So enraptured with throwing, they hadn’t realised that the other tributes had entered the room to begin their training. Clio removes her arm from Cato’s as the two stop laughing and turn towards the noise, with their typical charming smiles. 

“Wow, you two really did a number on those dummies.” The voice belongs to Peeta, who smiles as he slowly walks up to their station. What does he want from me? Clio questions herself privately before she remembers that he’s the perfect person to give away twelve’s tactics.

“I find it helps to think of them as the other tributes.” She smirks, as she watches the colour drain from his face and his eyes open in shock. Peeta laughs hesitantly at her comment and she assumes he must feel awkward right now as no words leave his lips.

“Peeta,” She acknowledges him with a small nod, watching as he plucks a knife off of the rack “Do you know how to throw a knife?”

“I’m comfortable handling a knife, but I don’t exactly know how to throw it.”

His honesty shocks Clio, she expected him to lie through his teeth, expected him to try and impress her at her weapons station. Cato recovers from his answer quicker than she does and points towards the knife in his hand, “Go ahead. Try it out.”

Peeta wraps his hand around the knife and smashes it into the target. It doesn’t come close to the centre, but it hits nonetheless. He turns to look at the couple from two again; Clio’s eyebrows are raised while Cato looks impressed. 

“Could be worse.” He jokes, making Clio laugh lightly. Peeta ignores them then, picking up a few of the larger blades and practising some moves with the woman from District Ten.

The brief interaction with Peeta has left her skin feeling itchy. There’s something off about him , she thinks. She’d ended their short conversation feeling unsteady and she needs to hit a dozen more targets with her knife so she could feel normal again. Looking downwards, she searches the table for her favourite knife which is nowhere to be found. “Where the fuck is my knife?” she mumbles to herself as she rummages through the weapons.

“Where’s her knife?” Cato shouts as he towers over the girl from District Ten who moments ago was rehearsing knife stances with Peeta. The woman is startled, flinching at the sudden noise as she stammers that she hasn’t seen the knife. 

Cato doesn’t believe her though and so he continues to interrogate the slender woman on the location of Clio’s knife, pushing her shoulders backwards and yelling for her to return the knife. He threatens her then, telling her she’ll be the first one he gets when they enter the arena before turning his attention to Peeta.

Out of the corner of her eye, Clio sees a small gleam of light reflecting in the lights of the training centre. The light is coming from where Finnick and Johanna stand in the corner of the room, and when she swivels around to face their direction she realises that the glint comes from the sharp edge of her favourite knife as Finnick spins it in the palm of his hand. His eyes meet Johanna’s as he lowers his tone of voice and mocks, “You took her knife.” 

Cato is lunging at the girl now and this time none of the trainers that linger around the stations care enough to separate the two. Everyone around has stopped training, too intrigued in the fight occurring in front of them but with the volume that Cato’s voice had reached Clio found that she couldn’t focus on her own throwing and it’s not as if she could leave - they were instructed to stick together today after all. So instead she harshly grabs Cato’s arm and forcefully drags him to the wall on the other side of the training centre.

“What the fuck was that?” She whispers in case any of the other tributes were listening in, “Threatening the girl from District Ten, way to make you look stupid.”

“She was making you look stupid.” Cato bites back, “I wasn’t just going to stand by and watch her show you up.”

The angry look in Clio’s eyes softens as she registers his words, “We all know she has no chance and besides, Finnick took my knife.”

Cato scowls, looking towards his feet guiltily, “ Finnick?”

“Yes, Finnick” Clio responds, before clearing her throat to make her boyfriend meet her gaze again. “And no, you can’t kill him for it.”

“But-” 

“No.” Clio cuts off his protest, “And I want to kill the girl from ten, okay?”

Cato nods then with a sigh before he pushes himself off the wall so that the two of them could make their way to some of the survival stations. They both won their respective games with force and violence while delegating the survival aspects to the others in their alliances; but they knew that this year they should brush up on their survival skills. Especially with how brutal the new arena would be, given it was a quarter quell, they were not about to die because of a failure of how to cope in a harsh environment.

Heading in the direction of the station dedicated to crafting fish hooks, they found Mags already spending her time creating a ton of hooks from the various materials available. Clio had never seen so many fish hooks in one place before, in the hour they’d been training the elderly woman had managed to produce a large stack of intricately detailed, sturdy hooks. Remembering back to her games, she could remember the girl from four having a knack for making fish hooks but Mags was clearly a natural, despite her age.

The two sat on the bench at the station, carefully not to startle the small, elderly lady whose attention was focused upon knotting some pale twine.

“Would you mind showing us how to make one of these?” Clio asks gently. Mags looks up from her work with a wide smile on her face and nods yes; although they could see the uncertainty in her eyes. It was clear that the District Two tributes were the last people she expected to ask for lessons in fish hooks. Mags reaches for some more twine, handing a few pieces to Clio, and a few to Cato. She then motions for them to watch her as she slowly replicates the steps she’d been following for years. 

As time passes, Clio becomes increasingly frustrated with her inability to create fish hooks. Mags makes it look so easy she thinks, and has to remind herself that if it were an easy skill, it wouldn’t be a station . Knotting her brows, she untangles the mess she’d made of the twine and goes to observe Mags’ movements again when she hears a cheer from beside her.

“Look!” Cato exclaims, holding his creation out in front of her, “I did one.”

Clio tilts her head to one side as she looks at the attempt Cato has made of a fish hook. She’s about to tell him she’s not sure it should look lopsided like that , when Mags’ shakes her head gently and takes the fish hook from his hold. She grabs his hand, showing him where to hold the twine while her fingers make light work of knotting the end below the hook. The three fall silent for a moment before a giggle leaves Clio’s mouth and causes Cato to join her, and for Mags’ shoulders to shake lightly as a silent demonstration of her amusement. Their focus then reverts back to their crafts, the only sounds filling the station being the sighs Clio lets out when she has to start again.

“It’s beautiful,” a voice comes from in front of them. Clio glances up, finding Katniss admiring the elaborate fish hook Mags has just finished creating. Mags simply smiles once more and she waves away the compliment. “I saw you volunteer for that young girl. It was really brave.”

Does she realise that we’re sat here , Clio wonders to herself, or is she just that stupid to think we’re not listening. Mags shakes her head at Katniss, placing her hand over her heart before gently resting her fingers on her braid. Mags beckons the girl to the bench, inviting her to join their station which Clio takes as her cue to leave. She didn’t want to upset Mags by picking a fight at her station. Finishing her first fish hook, Clio stands from the bench. Cato mirrors her movements and the two say their goodbyes to Mags, the elderly woman gesturing for the couple to lean down so that she can softly kiss their checks before they move to find their next station.

They watch the others as they pass the camouflage station. Clio notes that the morphlings haven’t left the station all day. In fact, they haven’t visited any of the other stations throughout the training time; which of course makes it obvious to her, no to everyone, that they planned to approach this year's games the way they approached their own games. Hiding. Cato decides that the both of them should skip this station, and Clio instantly agrees. I haven’t trained my whole life just to hide , she thinks. Beetee and Wiress are attempting to engage Peeta in a discussion about electricity and magnets and force fields. Clio holds back a laugh at his confused expression, before she remembers that she and Cato don’t really have a clue about any of that stuff so she pulls him in their direction in hopes to retain some useful information. 

They don’t get very far, however, until they notice that the entire training gym has gone silent. Flitting her head about the room, Clio catches Cashmere’s gaze and the latter beckons her over as she points to one of the enclosed stations. As they approach the training simulation, it doesn't take long to realise that all the other victors are already there, and all watching Katniss take down the virtual figures of tributes. 

Clio watches carefully as one of the simulated tributes throws a spear in her direction. Katniss swiftly rolls onto one knee to dodge the weapon before releasing her first arrow through the tribute. She then watches as two tall figures run towards the girl bearing swords, and are both promptly destroyed with arrows to the chest. An arrow is then quickly focused on the small figure that throws knives towards her as it runs on the ledge above her. Once the figure has run into range, an arrow connects with the figure, causing it to explode into a shower of pixelated blocks. The display has stunned Clio, not because of Katniss’ ability with a bow, but at how the simulation managed to create virtual figures that replicate the ways in which all four career tributes won their respective games. 

The sound of someone clapping makes her snap her head away from Katniss and towards the noise. It is Wiress who is clapping her, nearly bouncing up and down as she applauds. Beetee can be seen standing beside his district partner, pushing his glasses up his nose while studying Katniss’ behaviour; most likely admiring the way she was able to anticipate the simulation’s move. Finnick stands with Mags and Johanna, all three of them tilting their heads and smiling faintly at her performance. It seems all of the tributes are sizing up the young girl from Twelve. Clio and Cato share looks with each other before making eye contact with Cashmere and Gloss. The four of them shook their heads at each other. There is no way in hell I’m allying with her , Clio thinks as she grits her together. She’s the first one to leave the room, her eyes following Katniss with a glare as she heads upstairs. 

Once they reach their suite, Brutus and Enobaria are nowhere to be seen, likely schmoozing with various sponsors and securing alliances with other mentors. Clio throws herself down on the couch. “You’re not thinking about them, right?”

Cato sits down next to her on the circular pod couch, as he scoffs “The new Capitol darlings? I can’t wait to watch you kill her.”

“She might put up a fight,” Clio laughs as she lays her head on Cato’s legs and waits for Xanthe to serve tonight’s dinner. “And unfortunately they aren’t stupid.”

Cato hums in response, closing his eyes momentarily before he feels a palm slap the back of his head, “Wake up, you stupid fuck.”

His eyes shoot open as he turns to look at Brutus in protest, “Oi what-”

The half laugh that Clio lets out interrupts his complaint, but she too is cut short by Enobaria shoving her legs off the couch and causing her to land on the floor with a scowl, “Hey!”

Brutus and Enobaria don’t wait for them to move, instead they sit at the large table and point at seats beside them for their two tributes. “We have things to discuss.”

When Xanthe leads two avoxes into the dining room to place meals in front of the four who sat eagerly awaiting food, Enobaria turns to Clio with a scowl, “I don’t know what happened down there, but Haymitch had more interaction than us.”

Clio’s lip curls, “God I fucking hate her but she can shoot.”

“I don’t care if she can shoot Clio, why do they want her when you’re proficient in long range weapons?”

“Do I look like I can read minds, Enobaria? We did what you asked of us.” Clio says, stabbing her steak with her knife. She glares at her plate, and when Cato lightly nudges her skin with his foot, her glare shifts directly to his face.

“You’re cheery as usual, Clio.” Brutus jokes, quickly raising his hands in defence when she directs her glare at him.

“Do we have Cashmere and Gloss at least?” Cato interjects, waving his fork around as he speaks. When Enobaria gives him a firm nod, he tries again, “And Finnick?” 

“We’re heading upstairs in an hour.” Enobaria replies, “He mentioned something about a knife.”

Clio huffs as Cato suddenly becomes interested in moving around the food on his plate to look busy. Brutus takes their silence to mean nothing good, and so surprisingly he doesn’t press, changing the topic instead, “Luna told me that you spoke with Mags though, anything useful?”

Cato doesn’t even try to hide the smug smile that graces his face as he makes eye contact with Brutus and announces his new found talent, “I made a fish hook.”

The two stare at him in shock, Enobaria’s head would have rolled off her shoulder if she moved it any faster. They turn to each other and back to Cato a few times before they laugh. Loudly. “You?”

“Hey! I can do things.” Cato protests when they don’t show any signs of stopping their laughter.

“Swords are your thing Cato, not fish hooks.” Brutus can hardly finish his sentence for how much he’s laughing. “I didn’t know there was delicacy under that brash exterior.”

Cato’s cocky smile returns now as he turns to Clio, waiting to see that mischievous glint in her eyes again. “I can be delicate, right Clio?” She snorts then, “I wouldn’t say delicate, maybe gentle when you-”

“Alright. Enough.” Enobaria grimaces as she leans forward in her chair and places her head in her hands. “Thank you Cato. I’ll log that away under information I definitely didn’t need to know.”

It’s the couple’s turn to laugh now, the disgusted looks on their mentors’ faces providing them a source of entertainment, something they’re in desperate need of considering the situation they’ve been forced into. Suddenly, Xanthe gasps as she realises the time, shooing the four of them from the table, out of the suite and into the lift. The ride to the fourth floor is quick, opening out onto the hallway decorated with silver picture frames and a white, wooden door adorned with a teal number, covered in shells and coral. The lift very quickly disappears as they make their way over to the door, and then arriving at the fourth floor once again to allow the quartet from District One to enter the hallway behind them whilst Brutus knocks lightly on the door. They wait in silence for a few minutes until Luna pulls the door open, a wide yet clearly nervous smile on her face as she motions for the group to enter their suite. The large room is furnished with a range of white woods and shining silvers, each a compliment to the plantation teal wallpaper that lays above the white wainscot panelling. Deep blues cover the ceiling, speckled with white to give the illusion of looking out onto the ocean, and matching the blues of the U-shaped sofa that sits in the middle of the living area; adorned with iridescent pearls along the arms. Walking past Luna with a smirk, Clio raises her eyebrows as she takes a seat in the corner of the sofa, crossing her legs underneath her to get comfortable. Cato sits on her right, Brutus and Enobaria to her left whilst the group from One sit in the same arrangement on the other corner. Luna pads into the living area, her footsteps muffled as she makes eye contact with an impatient Topaz who is berating the girl as to the whereabouts of Finnick.

“I’ll go and fetch him from his room,” She tells them, turning back to face them momentarily, “Please try and be quiet, I don’t want to wake Mags.” 

“Has she not told her?” Clio whispers to her mentors, receiving shrugs in response while she notices Cashmere leaning towards Augustus, likely asking the same thing. A moment later, they hear footsteps against the plush carpet, their heads turning towards the sound coming from the bedrooms. Expecting to see Finnick and Luna, they are surprised to see Ven make his way over to the sofas, his footsteps faltering for a second as his eyes widen, taking in the sight curiously while the air crackles with tension as they await his reaction.

“Why- What’s going on?” He stammers slightly, gaze shifting nervously from face to face. “Is this the alliance meeting that Luna organised?”

Clearly he hasn’t been told either, Clio thinks as they all nod slowly. The man doesn’t get a chance to make his opinion known, a scowl curling at the corners of his lips which is quickly replaced by a fake smile when the careers’ heads turn to face Luna who has now re-entered the room. 

“Here he is!” She chirps as she pushes Finnick lightly in front of her, the man sauntering over to sit in the middle portion of the sofa and pulling her down next to him. “Ven, come join us.” She says, patting the empty cushion besides her.

The man shakes his head, “No, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline this time Luna. I’m going to go and check on Mags.”

With that, the man hurries down the corridor and the sound of his door clicking shut fills the silence. “He doesn’t like us very much, huh?” Cato laughs, causing snickers to ripple through the victors on the couch.

The room falls quiet, all four career tributes looking at Finnick as they wait for him to speak. Testing him. “Can you all stop looking at me like I’m a piece of meat or am I the only one that has to prove myself .” He says finally, throwing his hands in the air after Luna gasps. 

The redheaded woman begins to stumble over an apology but it is cut short by a snort from Augustus as laughter quickly fills the room. Clio notes that Luna looks visibly relieved at the decrease in the tension and given that she’s never been in a career alliance meeting as far as she’s aware she wonders if this meeting is more for proving herself than for Finnick.

“To get you up to speed Finnick,” Augustus starts, rising from the couch and pacing the living room as he speaks. “Gloss has been chosen as the leader of the alliance given his experience. I assume you have no problem with this?”

Finnick shakes his head, prompting Enobaria to speak next, “We’ve agreed between us that given how competitive the sponsorship battle will be this year, the money or items will be kept separate between Districts, but of course you are more than willing to split it between you once it arrives.”

Clio watches as Luna leans forward, pulling a sheet of paper and pen from the coffee table and scribbling down lots of information. “Is there a plan for the Cornucopia that we should be aware of?” She asks. Oh so she is learning .

“Of course,” Topaz brags. “The strength of the career alliance depends on the ability to gain control of the Cornucopia and given how vital each of them were to achieving this in their respective games, I have no doubt that this can be accomplished again. But to answer your question Luna. The plan is to find your allies in the countdown, and enter the arena as a team to take out as many of the outliers as quickly as possible.”

“And if he can’t see any of them?”

“Then he should trust that they are more than capable of getting there themselves, just as they will for him.” Brutus reassures her calmly. “Now, let’s talk about how you can eliminate the greatest competition.” 

“Katniss?” Luna questions.

“Yes. Let’s talk about me killing Katniss.” Clio smiles, noticing the uneasy grimace that covers Luna’s features. 

“How about you wait until you’ve killed some people before you start getting selfish.” Topaz accuses, sneering slightly as she crosses her arms over her chest.

Clio heeds the implicit warning in her mentors’ eyes, silently seething as she shrugs, “Fine. How are we getting her?”

“We know from last year that she’ll likely try to avoid you for as long as possible given that you’re really her only competition. There are others that may be an issue to eliminate but none of them are going to be able to get to her. She’s going to watch and wait until the alliance splits up.” Augustus tells them.

“I wouldn’t call killing three out of four of last year’s alliance waiting.” Gloss replies snarkily. Given that Augustus is younger than him, Clio gets the feeling that he tries Gloss’ patience, acting as if you’re above him is a sure fire way to piss him off.

“Ah but she did wait.” Enobaria says, “She spent her time hidden in the woods and only attacked in response. She killed Glimmer because she was forced up the tree, Marvel because he killed the girl from Eleven and our two died because there was no other way out for her. She’s defensive by nature.”

“She won’t be able to kill all four of us if we find her first though.” 

“Unfortunately she won’t go down without a fight. Are you all willing to risk that if she catches you by surprise?” Brutus asks.

“Yes.” All four of them reply with a nod.

“Then we need to discuss the best way to take her out.” Augustus decides, “Given her expertise is a long range weapon we need a way to separate her from the bow and any potential allies.”

“Finnick.” Gloss draws attention to the man in the middle of the sofa. “You’ve had the most interaction with her.”

“She has worryingly good aim.” He replies bluntly.

“Oh thank you Finnick! I never would’ve guessed!” Clio exclaims, glaring at him.

“What do you want me to say Clio?” He asks.

When she continues to glare at him it’s Luna who pipes up, “Between the five of you I think you could, uh, eliminate her in the bloodbath if you’re quick.”

“Now you’re talking.” Cashmere smirks, eyes meeting Clio’s across the couch as they both smile widely at each other.

“She might be good but given that she has no personality, there’s not a chance in hell she’s secured any proper alliances.” Cato laughs, leaning back on the couch and pulling Clio into him by the waist. “If Clio’s getting Katniss, I want to be the one to take Peeta out. For all the bullshit he’s been spouting this last year.”

Surprisingly no one protests at his demand, all humming various forms of agreement until Topaz speaks. “I actually do think he loves her.”

Heads whip towards her. “Even better.” Clio says, “He can watch me kill her before I watch Cato kill him.”

Finnick scoffs, “I somehow don’t think it’s going to be that easy but I admire the confidence, Li.” Clio smiles at him. A genuine smile. Finnick shrugs, “I hope for her sake she doesn’t come up next to you.”

Enobaria’s eyes narrow slightly at Finnick’s words before she brushes it off as just part of his weird humour, his unwavering charm. “So now we’ve decided that you’ll cover as my two will take out the idiots from Twelve in the bloodbath, we should probably talk about the other threats. Johanna. Beetee.”

“Beetee?” Luna questions.

“Yes.” Augustus groans at the redhead. “He’s called Volts for a reason, the quicker he’s taken care of, the lesser the chances of the five of them being electrocuted.”

“Hey Luna?” Clio asks.

“Yes?”

“Do you still have my coin?” Clio bites back a laugh, “I never got to see my answer.”

“Clio!” Luna gasps while the others burst in uncontrollable laughter, Clio leaning her head onto Cato’s chest as she giggles. Even Finnick bites back a smirk while he rises from his seat to grab a coin from the dining table and hands it to Clio while the others recover. Her eyes gleam, a wide smile covering her face as she flicks the coin into the air. Watching the coin fall she catches it and slaps it onto her palm. 

“Heads.” She announces, eyes catching her allies from One’s. “That means we get Nuts and you get Volts.”

“Fine by me.” Gloss replies, pursing his lips slightly.

Clio listens as the four mentors begin to list off Johanna’s strengths and weaknesses, watching out of the corner of her eye as Luna scribbles notes down on her page. “Did you try to get her involved?” She questions them.

“Yes.” Topaz tells her. “She wasn’t interested.”

Shame really , Clio thinks as she shrugs, feigning indifference. She could’ve been usual and she’ll definitely take at least one of us out in the process. I’ll just have to make sure the person she takes out is from One. She listens as Enobaria and Augustus debate over who should get to do the honours of removing her from the equations, finding it weird that Finnick hasn’t once offered to be involved. 

“How about we let Finnick do it?” Cato addresses the group. Bingo, Clio thinks, smiling to herself on how her boyfriend has seemingly read her mind. “He’s not been given anyone and I’d hate to have to carry him to the final six tributes.” His tone is joking but she watches as Finnick’s face falls slightly at the idea. 

“Maybe we can give Finnick someone he isn’t friends with?” Luna asks quietly.

“We’re all friends.” Cashmere says, narrowing her eyes when the redhead fiddles with her fingers in her lap.

“Fine. Finnick can take Volts out.” Cato offers as he looks the man up and down. “I’ll deal with Johanna.” 

“You can help me out with Blight then, Finny. ” Clio demands, enjoying the way the man visibly shudders at the nickname.

“Deal.” Finnick reluctantly agrees before the conversation moves to how they can just track down the likes of Districts Five, Six, Eight and Nine. Eventually the conversation comes to how to naturally dissolve the alliance, something which is clearly worrying Luna if the look on her face is anything to go by.

“Forgive me, I’ve never been involved in this before but doesn’t the alliance usually end when one of you decides to kill the others?” The woman from Four asks, chewing anxiously on her bottom lip. When the other mentors affirm her suspicions she continues, speaking warily as if afraid of their responses. “Then I would like to request that you give Finnick time to leave the alliance when it naturally dissolves.”

“Why?” Clio asks, quirking a brow. “Worried for him now are we?”

“He’s alone.” She responds, “I would like to give him at least a chance to survive, considering that he’s just as valuable to you as you are to him.”

Oh she cannot be serious , Clio thinks. Making demands to us? No one is ever going to accept her proposal. It’s ridiculous. The whole idea of the alliance is that it’s never intended to last, you just have to play your cards right and bide your time until you can take out the other members. “No-” She tries.

“I’m sure that won’t be a problem.” Brutus interrupts her by agreeing to Luna’s demands. “As long as Finnick can promise to offer the same to them.”

“Sure,” he shrugs before standing up and dismissing himself, telling the others he’s heading to bed. 

It’s evident that Luna wants to chase after him but she refrains. Instead she stands from the couch and thanks the others for coming to speak to her, reassuring them that they won’t regret their decision to include Finnick in their alliance. The other mentors take her actions as their cue to leave; Brutus placing a gentle hand on Luna’s shoulder in passing whilst Clio just winks playfully at the girl - hoping to unnerve her - as they all file out of the suite and into the awaiting lift.

Once they bid goodbye to the quartet from One, they enter their own suite and Enobaria dismisses them immediately, not in the mood to see their now impish expressions. She desperately needs to decompress after dealing with that meeting. “Go get some sleep, both of you.”

The two weave around their mentors quickly, making their way towards the hallway as Enobaria sits at the dining table and calls for an Avox to pour her a glass of red wine. 

“ Separately .” Enobaria shouts after them, “You both have gamemakers to impress tomorrow.”

“Fat chance.” Cato snorts and his hand finds Clio’s and he tugs her down the corridor.

[the-acid-pear]

Had a wild and vivid dream it was me with another girl (can't remember who she was, maybe my irl friend? She was blond-ish and spoke little) and we were just, going around hypnotizing other women. Was this sexual in nature? Probably. But we just walked down the streets I in front her a few steps behind me flashing my telephone to them and they'd either get big empty eyes and walk away or just smile and shake their heads like Nah Doesn't Work On Me. It was like Halloween too I think everyone was outside on their front door and some had costumes and shit.

We walked until we reached a mall and inside the mall we got into this, toy shop? Where it was full of ppl many very kinky too. We didn't try hypnotize them but they seemed to be familiarized w whatever we were doing. There was a doll someone was holding up with a massive clit you'd even more up and down I praised it outloud. I wanted to stay here but my friend kept us walking and eventually we found a doll to buy where I also admitted I had a doll kink so this is great which, I mean I fucking guess????? Maybe????????? Not something I'd list up in the top 10 but whatever you say dream Luly. So we went to pay an the prize was 175.000 and I was like ah I don't have that much money :( so I was gonna just steal it but my friend went Nuh Uh ☝️ Wait and then the number became 153.000 so we left jolly. Again didn't give me the chance to hypnotize this one.

We kept walking and we ran into a comic/manga store w a glass full of little figurines and I was like lol wait I want to see if the hypnosis works in any of them (don't know why I thought it would thinking with my dick I guess) but suddenly my friend taps my arm and I see a mall cop stopping everyone telling them to get down and I was like attempting to walk away but my friend grabbed my arm and got on her knees so I followed suit.

He then kept yelling and screaming and I wasn't having fun bc i don't like cops and I also kept doing things you shouldn't probably like searching around in my bag (tbf he had asked for our Visas so I was like well I don't have that but I'd show my id at least in my phone). Also took off all my many rings that for some reason I had.

He then exclaimed that we were everyone going to have to give back what we took in little boxes and leave them under computer desks (guess the mall had a cyber or something) and that's when I got pissed because 153k IS A LOT OF MONEY :/ so i started ranting about how me and my friend might've done other crimes but we paid the prize for what we bought it wasn't stolen so it wasn't fair to get the same treatment and I rambled so much man just not only agreed but started venting and was like complaining about how it's because these people that the mall is coming apart and I looked down and on the ground floor it was abandoned and a cloth circle dirty and dull laid in the middle.

From there he actually took us to his home where we met his wife, a tall and lanky middle aged woman with brown hair held in a bun. She was sweet and cute. He on the other hand was very pale, fat and short. Almost entirely bald except for the sides. Stress definitely aged him more than he was old, he was wrinkly. And he was missing one eye, something that wasn't as noticeable when he was on his uniform.

From here I remember little the house was old and yellowy light brown the wife was gonna cook us a meal we found where to sit and he was just having a breakdown. He clearly wasn't good economically and he couldn't stand to lose this job. His missing eye was really upsetting for him too I remember him saying while covering that side of his face "WHERE'S PORKY'S OTHER EYE?". It was sad a little.

[waglifeornolife]

https://www.tumblr.com/waglifeornolife/747400283834974208/httpswwwtumblrcomwaglifeornolife747399410801

I also just don’t want to end up like either of them in a way because

1)my mum dropped out of nursing school to take care of me as a kid which is nice and all but I always feel bad about that because she brings it up sometimes like honestly I’m so so sorry that I’m the reason you couldn’t reach your dreams

2)my dad is like honestly the weirdest man alive like I genuinely believe that he couldn’t care less about me like I remember when I got my tonsils out and my mum asked him to pick us up from the hospital he and the Ubers were pretty expensive during that time of day I had to take the train to get home whiles I was half loopy which honestly sucked. He never showed up to any of my school plays even when I invited him like I’d always come home after thinking he may have been at work but I find him asleep on the sofa everytime. I gave up gymnastics and swimming even though they were my favourite things in the world and all he could care about was the money he was saving because of it. And now all of a sudden he believes that he has the right to know about my whereabouts and that he has the right to try boss me around. But at the same time I feel bad for him he sleeps all day as if he doesn’t have to work. He doesn’t have any friends because he is not social and I sometimes forget my aunts and uncles are his SIBLINGS because of how awkward he is with them. I mean at least he doesn’t drink a lot anymore(tbf the only reason is that whenever he does but alcohol my mum uses it to clean the toilet😂)

There’s also the fact that my dad is Christian and my mum is Muslim and he’s really trying to force it down my throat and then my mum is saying if I don’t chose a religion soon then she can’t put up with me anymore (whatever that is)

And then whenever I complain to my mum or do something wrong she always links it back to my dad somehow like I’m so sorry you married this dickhead I didn’t forever you to do that infact I tried to set you up with guys almost my entire childhood just so we could get out of here😒

Like as a human being I feel bad for both of them but as their daughter i feel confused ashamed annoyed and lonely in life like I’m drowning and someone just tied rocks to my ankles.

Also this may be a bit off topic but the fact that I have not siblings mad my friends all do (somehow I attack oldest daughters to be friends with me and yet they’re all younger than me 😂😂) like they always talk about how annoying it is to have siblings but at least they have someone to go to if they don’t have any friends like who am I supposed to turn to my mum😂 like she doesn’t even know what happens to me in school in general and I don’t think she cares either. Also I think my friends resent me idk maybe I’m dramatic but idk every time I open my mouth they all just reply in very annoyed tones.. they also always keep secrets from me like not even little things that don’t matter like they keep huge things from me like one of them somehow forgot to tell me that their sister wasn’t in that day because she was winning the league (school league) and one of them showed everyone else her prom dress but me like she said sent it to the group chat but it wasn’t there and I’d be fine with them making a separate group chat if I didn’t also find out that she sent the free to her friend who isn’t even her close circle of friends. I don’t want to cause drama though because GCSEs are coming up and stuff but I’m really starting to get worried that they really and truly hate me and they were like my only people to go to rant about(not in a way where I wouldn’t listen to their stuff or like tel l them everything but it was nice to just tell them stuff) and I feel like I’m losing them I don’t know but it’s really scaring me. Like I also think they do not care anymore, again maybe I’m being dramatic, but like I wasn’t in school for 2weeks because I was super sick and like wasn’t feeling okay mentally and all they said to me when I came in was “you wasted two whole weeks school that’s soo bad.” Like a “we missed you” would’ve been a little nice ya know but maybe I’m just overthinking that and making it all about me and I’m just a selfish only child who doesn’t know how to share attention.

Also one of my friends and I had an argument back in November over her (now) ex because he do wasn’t good for her like he was the worst and I texted her all of that, then she proceeded to let him read the messages and reply to them and be mean to me. THEN she admitted to also taking part in texting some of the mean shit that not only personally attacked me but my family and secrets I told her which also means that guy that I really hate also knows about them. But it was in a way a petty thing to be mad over ig because my friends convinced me of that so we sort have become friends again just so the friend group didn’t fall apart. But honestly I still feels like she holds a grudge against me for telling everyone what she did and them choosing to side with me(even though I said they could be fiends with her and I really didn’t care if they were or were not talking to her because it’s not my place to tell them that.) so I feel like that’s why she doesn’t tell me things and why she also still talks in an angry tone to me and points out literally anything I’ve done whenever I try to correct on something and here our friends to like also side with her no matter how little the thing is)

It’s just I feel alone and it’s the worst time to feel that way as well like there really shouldn’t be a time for me rn to be feeling anything but determined to pass my GCSEs but I genuinely do not know how to feel rn because there’s just soo much in my brain and I don’t know how to tune it down anymore it’s too much and I don’t have room to cry because my mum never lets me shut the door I hate this so much but know i just have to get through the next two years then I can go somewhere (I don’t even know where and with what money) and start fresh and find people who actually care so I don’t have to anonymously ranting on tumblr.

Sorry if this a lot I really am it’s just I’ve been keeping it in and I think it didn’t let Ito if I’d actually lose it

oh baby, this is so horrible! i’m so sorry you have to go through that! if you ever and i mean ever need to talk, you know where to find me 🫶🏼🫶🏼

[coykoii]

Hiii!! :D I’ve been thinking about a certain question circling around my brain and I have to talk to you about it, I thought the ask box would be a nice format for it!

I’d looooove to hear your thoughts about favorite characters from most —> to least and why! I feel like i’ve heard SO many mixed thoughts about literally each and every one of them (like how the fandom is divided in 2 parts, one being - Ryan has no personality, and then the other worshipping the ground he walks on) so it’s really intriguing to hear all about it, especially coming from a writer that does a hell of a good job writing them! <3

hiii lovely!! <33 the ways in which I love to rank things??? So thank you so much for asking me this!! Altho I am quite JUDGY help xxx also I’m just gonna do the counselors lest I end up w all the hacketts at the bottom bar Travis 🤭

9. Jacob

Tbf I don’t dislike any of them! I just like Jacob the least, mainly because if it weren’t for him, everyone would be on their merry way home xxx also his infatuation with Emma just isn’t it for me! his personality also feels v two dimensional aside from a few times near the end or if he turns? but I’ll blame the writers for that TY!! arrogant + desperate + self centered = number 9 for me x

8. Abigail

Honestly I hate to put her this low because she’s just like me 💀 I love that she loves to draw and that she’s artistic and shy but again very two dimensional! Also why is she only in like half the game, I would’ve loved to see more of my girl! It’s like her main point was to develop that romance with Nick and as soon as he’s gone, she’s just a background character? Rude. Give me a reason to care more about these characters, please and ty x

7. Nick

Controversial opinion maybe but I don’t hate Nick! In fact he was my fave until he disappeared on us for half the game 😭 maybe I’m just a sucker for the sweet athletic nerds who can cook? Help. He turned into quite the dick when bitten but i think that goes to show what exactly his insecurities are? Joking about getting all the ladies but then with Abi, it showed how much he hoped that she liked him because he really liked her too and the werewolf bite took that hope and made it negative and aggressive. But aside from that, we barely got anything from him other than the romance and being the poor soul who got cut out too soon XX (the fics of him however are godtier at giving me everything i needed)

6. Max

There is something so endearing about Max! I love that he’s so intuitive and funny with his dry (and sometimes confused) tone xxx also him and Laura have such a healthy relationship, even when they were trapped in the jail cell?? Things I love to see!! Protective, loving, nervous about his future bc he was rejected from college? There’s a personality there! Honestly it just sucked that we saw so little of him :/ give us more max, and not just as a rampaging werewolf trying to kill emma xxxx

5. Ryan

Ryan falling in the middle so true! Every game needs a brooding loner tbh and I think that he definitely has more personality than most of these characters! I like his monotone, I like his one liners, I like that his ass has quite the bank account xxx sometimes he did annoy me though! like him seeing the ww out the window of the radio hut and literally saying nothing? his refusal to be open minded when they were talking to Laura about Chris? sir. he redeemed himself by the end for me though, thank u! now stop playing hard to get and give dylan your phone number—

4. Emma

Emma is honestly so fun for me! I like her snark and her influencer habits amidst a horror game are very entertaining 💀 not to mention how many times she’s been chased and nearly killed during this game? she’s a survivor thank you! her friendship with Abi is sweet and I think they balance each other out really well (aside from the obvious part where she was a bit of an ass for kissing Nick, even if it was some backhanded scheme in her head). she’s smart and doesn’t like seeing people sad (unless ur Jacob so sorry to you) so she’s a winner in my book 😌

3. Laura

Laura being in the top three as she should!! Do love how capable she is of anything that she wants to do. She’s very much a shoot first, ask questions later kinda gal but it’s out of love for her bf and tiredness of being caught up in this shit xxx very smart, very resourceful. plus her wanting to be a vet is so good to me specifically. her and max calling each other honey also gives a big boost of serotonin! all in all, love her, would marry her if she wasn’t taken ty!

2. Kaitlyn

My GIRL. My 5’1 fave xxx Kaitlyn honestly has a dad joke sense of humor and I live for it even if I have to look away 💀 but also she’s so??? good at everything????? ma’am spare some of those shooting and mechanical skills for the rest of your friends bc it felt like she was the only one who knew how to properly do anything. very hot to me as well, not the point but also the point. i like her take charge attitude and i like that she would jump out of a car that’s like 20 feet in the air to save her ass from a werewolf 😌 her and dylan are also the best of friends, I don’t make the rules?? like why not have Ryan kiss them both bc I would xxx final girl so true of her!

1. Dylan

Dylan ‘herd of bears? yeah I’ve heard of bears’ Lenivy as number one, who’s SHOCKED. He’s the most well developed out of all the characters with the most personality and has made me laugh out loud at the dumbest things xxx his dry humor + sarcasm + protectiveness + cleverness with the duality of also doing dumb shit? pure 10/10. I like how seeing both versions of Dylan, the one who got his hand chopped off and the one who remained bitten, didn’t change how much I liked him as a character. Hilarious that i didn’t like him in the beginning of the first playthrough like you fool xxx anyway love him, hope that he’s happy and living his best life and sharing earbuds with Ryan on their way home 😌

[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

Headcanons or a scenario maybe, of the kiridai boys protecting/defending each other? Because people are going to be mean to them and I just want to see them be friends

Right so

actually before i talk about high school, i just wanna say that hara and yamazaki (who in my mind are childhood friends, as you all probably know) have been defending each other for ages

e.g. in middle school, though neither of them were ever bullied, they had a brilliant love/hate relationship, based off the logic that “i can bully you but no one else can”

so imagine that they get in a fight (cause you know hara was always trying to rile zaki up, and middle school zaki had even less self restraint), maybe zaki storms out of the room

some snotty-nosed lil “i wanna be friends with hara” loser dares to mock how ‘badly’ zaki fights, to which hara responds with beating that guy up as well

the two always had each other’s back

tbf that applies to high school kiridai too

in short, the boys just have an instinct to lie for one another - if anyone asks why seto’s missing from a lesson without a reason, etc - but, at the same time, they can never lie to one another, it’s always too obvious

but enough of abstract concepts, the people want real ✨team interactions✨

anyway

realistically, there’s not a lot of situations where they need to protect each other, given that they have a pretty comfortable situation in school

no one has the audacity to try bully them, including the teachers, thanks to Mr Makoto’s lil disciplinary committee making sure that no discipline whatsoever happens

yeah come to think of it, makoto’s the big protector man huh

imagine even daring to bring up that, i dunno, furuhashi threatened to kill a fellow student, at the disciplinary committee meeting

hanamiya sat back on his chair, grinning, like: sorry?

dumb but bold (sticking up for a friend) first year: i have it on very good authority that 2nd year furuhashi kojiro held a knife to my friend’s throat after my friend accidentally bumped into him.

hanamiya: i have it on better authority that that’s bullshit. so, moving on...

first year has no further reply cause one of the older members gives them a very warning look

the best thing about all is this that hanamiya doesn’t even need to threaten people anymore; all the first years get warned by people who’ve previously had associations with hanamiya, and so it goes

let’s summarise a bit:

hanamiya will never defend his buddies to someone else, in the sense that he won’t say anything nice about them (except he probably had to break this rule to explain, to the others, why he was bringing seto onto the team). but he is the constant protector, allowing them to run free as the wind

matsumoto doesn’t tend to say anything positive about his teammates (especially not about hanamiya, which is a bit sneaky - cause he’s also benefiting from the disciplinary committee situation), but, occasionally, if someone in one of his not-basketball circles is criticising them (particularly if they’re criticising zaki), he’ll let out a hmmph or even a “you don’t know what you’re talking about. fuck off”

seto makes everyone sound good in front of their parents. he’s as good as hanamiya when it comes to interacting with people’s parents, except, when hanamiya compliments you to your mother, you know he’s fucking with you. when seto does it, it takes you by surprise. it almost sounds a lil sincere in his gruff way of acknowledging that you don’t suck :’)

zaki is a very intense defender of his teammates, and he can and will get physical. but alas no one really criticises his teammates around him as a result.

the last time it happened, was that a bunch of smart students were walking past him complaining about seto (“i’ve seen him sleeping in lessons so there’s no way he got the top mark for this exam without cheating”) and mr. delinquent zaki, tieless, was already rolling up his sleeves, like “the fuck did you just say?”

then hara’s also a “the fuck did you just say” kinda guy, but in a more sing-songy way, like “hmmm? what was that? maybe i didn’t hear you right but i thought you just said my captain was a talentless fraud.”

this is said whilst approaching two gossiping basketball playing first years (from a different school) from behind, hara popping his head in between theirs, his arms around their shoulders, like

“doesn’t deserve to be a considered an uncrowned king, huh?”

and then, when he walks away, the first year’s probably have bloodied faces

(hara has a heavy dose of imayoshi energy in him - a tentacle nightmare)

furuhashi, finally, is a bit quieter. he’s prefers to walk into people, trip them over, etc, rather than the whole big confrontation

but if he hears someone, perhaps a certain student at the end of the day, walking with his friends, commenting on, for example, how he has ancient literature with hara, and how hara acts so tough but he’s really just a nerd with a shitty dye job

well furu can’t stand for that (:

grabs that guy, shoves him against the wall, pulls his penknife out (yeah furu carries a penknife around with him for pruning and whatnot, the ‘whatnot’ referring to situations like this) and presses it against the guy’s neck

the dude in front of his is shaking, seriously shaking

and furu’s just there with the knife and a completely blank gaze.

when his victim’s eyes go moist, the knife gets pressed a little harder against his neck, and furuhashi says, with absolutely no emotion,

“oh look. you’ve pissed yourself.”

[arhvste]

❝atsumu, kuroo, tsukishima and bokuto playing acnh ❞

miya atsumu

→ first he called the game dumb but he eventually gave in because everyone and their aunts were playing it and he didn’t wanna be left out

→ mf tries so hard for raymond at first

→ he insists it’s just because he can sell him for a lot

→ he really just wants raymond because he lowkey reminds him of osamu

→ anyways this fool doesn’t get raymond but ya know who he does get?

→ pedro

→ atsumu was ✨disgusted✨

→ “a clown?! a fukn clown?! yer jokin me!”

→ “aw don’t cry he fits in so well on your island 😹”

→ “sHUT YER TRAP 😠😠😠”

→ he hated pedro at first and for what?

→ eventually he starts vibing with him though

→ he decides that perhaps... pedro isn’t a bad guy after all

→ so atsumu develops a soft spot for him and begins to favour him over the rest of his mediocre villagers whose names he can’t be bothered to remember

→ ya know whose name he can remeber though?

→ BELLA 😡😠😡😠😡😡😠

→ the name that sparks rage in him

→ atsumu hits his villagers with his net shouting “nice cut g!” as a joke

→ with bella he’s not joking 😐

→ he hits her repeatedly and grins maliciously when she gets angry eventually

→ LOVES shoving her into pitfalls for absolutely no reason

→ cusses her out under his breath

→ writes hate mail to her only to get fustrated when she sends a nice reply about the flowers she saw the other day that reminded her of him

→ honestly bella girl it ain’t worth it, pack your bags and get outta there sis 😔

→ he wants her to get tf off his island because he doesn’t like her but he also kinda wants her to stay because he loves annoying her and making her angry

→ literally goes out of his way to buy the ugliest clothes for her to wear

→ he also has all his villagers address him as “big dick man”

→ pedro is special though 😳

→ pedro is the chosen one who gets to call him “tsumu”

→ JUST PEDRO 😤😾😡

→ literally thinks it’s the funniest thing when his villagers say “hey big dick man! the weather sure is great today isn’t it!”

→ you can hear his cackling from down the hall

→ thinks it’s the peak of comedy

→ oh and you’re not allowed to visit his island on a saturday

→ saturdays are “for the boys”

→ and by that he means he’s just going to buy a ton of matching clothes for him and pedro and talk to him all day until he eventually annoys pedro by accident to which he genuinely gets upset about

→ he doesn’t really bother with the fishing tourneys or bug offs

→ does catch a few though just to make sure he beats bella earns nook miles

→ pretty average island, not too much effort put into it yet

→ atsumu prefers channeling his energy and game time into bullying bella interacting with his villagers

kuroo tetsurō

→ bangs. it. tf. out.

→ literally acts like he doesn’t care about the game but has 395+ hours game time

→ uses the excuse it’s to play with kenma but kuroo actually got into it before kenma had the chance to look at it properly

→ fishing tourney KING

→ has multiple gold trophy’s and built a whole extension just to show them off

→ also treats all his villagers equally

→ he was a bit picky and only wanted cats and dogs on his island though

→ if you’re anything but a cat or a dog, i’m sorry but kuroo will timeskip you tf off of his island

→ has a soft spot for lucky but doesn’t admit it

→ he likes to come across as a “fair dictator of the island”

→ just admit luckys your fav and go oh my god

→ his house is really nice too

→ pretty much paid off all his debt and is financially responsible 😼

→ he will send you money over a few times a week because he claims he’s a good boyfie virtually and realistically

→ LOVES opening the letters from ‘mom’

→ it’s a small detail in the game but it brings kuroo comfort when he opens the letters and sometimes receives gifts from his virtual ‘mom’ 🥺

→ keeps all the letters from her because that’s what he would do if his real mom ever wrote to him

→ he’s a shameless timeskipper

→ “tetsu?? where tf did you get all this the games only been out a week??”

→ “👁👁 idk what you’re talking about baby”

→ the thing that annoys him the most are the fossils

→ HATES the stupid little marks in the ground that appear every day

→ also HATES talking to blathers

→ “spit it out already! i have places to be and villagers to see!”

→ completely ignores blathers’ real name and refers to him as ‘bokuto’

→ because he’s an owl duh

→ and bokuto also talks a lot

→ you thought it was a cute friendship thing at first but took it back when you heard him muttering under his breath

→ “oh my god just analyse the fossils already you himbo bird!”

→ “did you just call blathers a himbo? 😳”

→ “...no? 😳👀”

→ all in all, kuroo’s pretty good at the game

→ you like visiting his island because he has a ton of extra stuff he just gives you

→ “i never want to hear you call me a bad boyfriend again 😐”

→ “okay fine...but oNLY if you give me an ironwood dresser 😏”

tsukishima kei

→ another one who bangs it out

→ doesn’t really care when you point it out though

→ “you’re just jealous your islands a dumping ground compared to mine 🥱”

→ “k-kei 😔”

→ also sprints near where you’re fishing to scare the fish off and be spiteful 💀

→ little shit KNOWS you only need oranges to complete all the fruits on your island

→ he also knows you’re out of nook miles tickets

→ “aw that’s a shame, maybe if you were a bit better at the game you’d find them quicker but good luck! 😀”

→ oranges are his native fruit 😐😑😐

→ eventually he gives you them because you’re relentless and his patience runs thin after a while

→ good at the bug offs

→ pretty good at scorpion/tarantula hunting too

→ convinced spike is in love with him after the amount of scorpions and tarantulas he’s donated to him

→ his fossil exhibition in the museum is completed already

→ when blathers tells him the facts about the dinosaurs he just rolls his eyes

→ “i knew that already you stupid bird 🙄”

→ why’s everyone bullying blathers damn 😿

→ now, he likes henry

→ one of the few villagers he doesn’t bully

→ tsukki doesnt particularly care for majority of his villagers

→ henry has a special place in his heart though

→ maybe it’s because henry isn’t overly perky or he isn’t rude like the cranky villagers which tsukishima doesn’t like

→ henry is just??? so??? nice????

→ he can’t hate him

→ all his villagers have catchphrases that are dumb af

→ tsukki thought he was being clever when he made them but he just looks mean when other people talk to his villagers

→ “good morning i am useless! i love your outfit!”

→ henry gets to call him tsukki though

→ only because he figured out that henry reminds him of yamaguchi

→ that’s the only reason henry’s the exception to his bullying

→ i feel like tsukki has a pretty nice house too

→ he makes a lot of bells from selling scorpions and tarantulas and spare fossils he’s dug up

→ doesn’t really care about the size but has very detailed rooms

→ like all the furniture in his rooms follow a scheme

→ mf never opens his mailbox

→ doesn’t care for what the other “peasants have to say for themselves”

→ terraforming isn’t really his thing tbh

→ doesn’t like how slow the process and be and kinda likes the natural flat land

→ he likes laying down paths though

→ cusses villagers out when they get in the way though

→ full on shoves them and will keep shoving them until they get annoyed just because they’ve annoyed him

→ tsukki doesnt put as much time into the game as kuroo but his island is still pretty good and aesthetically pleasing

→ he just won’t help you make yours look like that 💀

bokuto koutarō

→ weeds. everywhere.

→ get so confused when he’s told he has to pick them all

→ “really? why can’t i just let them grow though i kinda like them 🤩”

→ mf ✨struggles✨ at the first stages

→ “y/n, you know i love you, please give me 30 iron nuggets 🥺💖💞💗”

→ ofc you give them to him because you’re well ahead in the game and don’t need them as much as he does

→ praises you like royalty but then he’s back to begging for materials from you 💀

→ doesn’t pay his debts

→ you’re gonna have to help him out here

→ doesn’t like the idea of having to constantly pay them off

→ like?? he doesn’t want a bigger house so why is this damn raccoon always bothering him to upgrade like leave him and his 2 room house alone 😠

→ has a the same camp bed and lamp from when he first moved out the tent 💀

→ insists he doesn’t need another one because the furniture all functions the same

→ he has a point tbf but his house just isn’t aesthetically pleasing

→ he also hoards stuff

→ common butterfly? yeah bokuto has 37 sitting in his storage

→ doesn’t like letting the bugs go because he “caught them fair and square”

→ you show him how to pay his debts back and then he dedicates a whole room to his stupid bugs 💀

→ loves blathers and celeste just because they’re owls

→ doesn’t care about what they’re wittering on about he loves interacting with them just because they’re the only owls in the game 😐

→ his favourite villager is kid cat

→ literally follows him around and sprints circles around him

→ l o v e s the chaos outside the town hall

→ 2 of his villagers are singing, 3 are running around and 1 is just watching like 🧍🏻‍♀️

→ HYPES his singing villagers tf up

→ “yeah get it bianca! turn it up!!! 🥳🥳”

→ has to match his villagers clothes at least once a week

→ also makes them all refer to him as “the best ace”

→ it boosts his ego a little more each time they say it

→ bokuto actually got raymond out of luck but had no idea who tf he was and just how popular he was

→ lets that mf go without advertising that raymond’s in boxes

→ atsumu screeches when he finds this out eventually

→ bokuto doesn’t care what his villagers look like everyone’s welcome

→ bella should move to bokuto’s island and move from atsumu’s because bokuto will accept her with open arms rather than a net to the head everytime he sees her 😿

→ ALWAYS remembers birthdays for his villagers

→ and always shows up to their birthday parties insisting he’s the life of the party and they’d be bored without him 😹

→ which is true to a certain degree cause the party only really starts when the player arrives

→ bokuto is actually okay at terraforming

→ quickly changes his mind after an hour of building and digging and restarts it all over again

→ he can make his island look pretty good

→ theres just weeds and buried fossils everywhere though 👁👁

→ also forgets his turnips go bad

→ literally the least financially responsible out of them all

→ it’s okay though because you help him and he eventually gets the hang of it

general taglist → @atsumuwoah @bloody-bella @bbymilkbread @miracleboy420 @doggonudez @atsunakaashi @peteunderoos @saturnfarie @toffees-main @zumisace @boosyboo9206 @totorosleaff @27kei

please send an ask to be added / removed from my taglist

ALL CONTENT BELONGS TO @KUROOSKULT ON TUMBLR 2020 PLEASE DO NOT REPOST, CHANGE OR PLAGIARISE

[wizardysseus]

i was thinking about once upon a time (abc) in bed this morning so i decided to write this list

subject to change, since awhile ago i was in the middle of season 6 when they took it off netflix and i never quite got around to picking it back up. i’m gonna finish if it kills me i promise

top 5 things about once upon a time

5. anna frozen

when ouat introduced frozen characters, most fans decided the show had jumped the shark. they were not wrong. however, it was this very thing that allowed the show to be fun again! after an excruciatingly bad season 3 (we will get to that), bringing on anna and elsa literally transported directly from their own unaltered story in cheap ass versions of their unaltered movie costumes allowed the show to let loose and do... basically whatever it wanted. this became the hallmark of the show for those who stuck with it: absolutely not making sense at all, but being fun about it. post-season-three ouat becomes a totally different soap opera from season one, but by god you are never bored.*

personally, the flashback episode where anna annoys rumpelstiltskin and gets the better of him and he’s so fucking mad about it is like top 10 episodes**

4. 2x16 “the miller’s daughter”

this episode is just another personal favorite. it exemplifies what this show was really good at when it was good, and also where everything went wrong. i think cora is a great example of a good ouat villain, i think the twist on the rumpelstiltskin story is great, i think the dramatic beats really work.

...and in typical ouat fashion, cora immediately dies and two more villains we don’t care about at all are introduced. (sonequa forgive me you know i’m in love with you but tamara was nothing. it’s not your fault.) yes we get that great scene of snow aggressively doing archery practice while listening to “bad reputation” but was it worth killing off a compelling villain just as you’d dug into her story?

3. the commitment to regina’s redemption

and lana parrilla in general. i mean i’m gay and she’s hot but the worse the show got, the more acting lana gave it. and this is just speculation, but i think lana is more comfortable with drama than with camp? because regina becomes a much more interesting character as someone conflicted and on the path to redemption than as a villain. and by god, they were gonna redeem regina.

if only she had been gay we really could have had it all.

2. rumpelstiltskin

the sweet spot with rumpelstiltskin for me was seasons one and two when he was unabashedly bastard, there was an attempt to make him sympathetic but nobody except belle actually liked him, you weren’t quite sure how much he knew, he was pulling all the strings, and he was just really fucking weird. it will surprise no one who follows this blog to hear that that is my type of wizard.

1. season one

it’s a good season. it’s a good season. there are some bad things about it, but it was extremely watchable. it was doing fairy tales with occasional disney nods in a (mostly) cohesive fashion. the lore and the magic hadn’t sprawled out of control yet. it had the strongest relationship, imo, between emma and henry, and emma and snow. as for iconic episodes, most of the greats are here, plus sebastian stan as the mad hatter and giancarlo esposito as a series regular. the crowning moment for me is the scene at the end of skin deep, when regina confronts gold in the town jail and he reveals that he remembers his real name (after beating the shit out of belle’s dad with his cane obviously). god. that is some good television.

worst 5 things about once upon a time

5. the adoption politics but everyone knows this one.

4. WASTING the talent

you had the love of my life sonequa martin-green and gave her nothing. you somehow scored oded fehr as jafar and gave him nothing. you had giancarlo esposito and regina literally forgot he existed. i will kill you

3. rumpelstiltskin.

it’s no secret that robert carlyle was acting circles around most of the cast; my opinion is that the showrunners felt that if they committed to either his redemption or his villainy, they would never find someone else with the talent to fill his shoes as bastard wizard. so they flip-flopped on him every half-season, which ruins his story longterm, slowly kills the light in robert’s eyes, and gets reallllllly old. it’s also no secret that my favorite rumpelstiltskin is bastard wizard, but they screwed over belle BIG time in the process and for that i will never forgive them.

also like. the rumpelstiltskin fairy tale is antisemitic to begin with and they did not minimize that by comparing him to a lizard and naming his storybrooke counterpart mr gold. they just. did that.

2. THE FUCKING NEVERLAND ARC GOD IN CHRIIIIIIIIIIIST THAT HALF-SEASON IS EXCRUCIATING

1. captain hook

*it’s my opinion that if you are bored, you’re watching a hook-centric episode. every time i dropped the show and forgot about it for months at a time, it was because i had been in the middle of an episode about hook and just could not get through it. how do i describe all the things i don’t like about what killian hook jones did to the show? with subpoints!

1a. the episode where gold gives him back his hand and he never changes.

**this is actually the same episode i mentioned about anna and, like i said, it’s one of my favorites and not at all boring. look, i’m not pretending this list isn’t subjective as hell.

remember when hook blackmailed mr gold into magically reattaching his hand, which gold has been keeping in a jar, because hook has a date with emma and wants it to go well? but also, gold tells him that if he reattaches his hand with dark magic, it will turn him evil? and then hook spends the episode doing evil things, only for mr gold to tell him “i was just messing with you! the hand was not evil, you gave yourself permission to be evil ;)”

yeah, that’s basically hook’s mo.

1b. episode where emma tells him his brother is lying to him and he learns the exact wrong lesson from this and never changes.

so emma goes to the underworld to get hook back after he dies (while being evil and doing villainous things). they find his brother down there, too, and emma senses that he has a dark secret (because he does) and is lying to them (because he is). but hook always idolized his older brother, so he won't believe her. when emma confronts the brother directly, hook interrupts to rant to her about how he knows what this is ~really all about.

actual dialogue:

HOOK: i don't need proof to know what's really going on here. emma, when are you gonna admit that this isn't really about my brother? EMMA: what else would you think it was about? HOOK: us. you think if you can prove that liam is a villain, then i’ll somehow feel like i was less of one.

who... would EVER come to that conclusion. and why is the lesson he learns at the end “perhaps i do deserve saving after all” (another direct quote), and not “NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU, BECAUSE EMMA WAS LITERALLY RIGHT ABOUT YOUR BROTHER LYING TO EVERYONE”????

1c. the emma dark one arc, where hook never changes.

this would be the arc that leads up to the above underworld arc, and it is deeply dumb, entertaining, and hard to explain. suffice it to say, during this whole arc, killian (along with emma) has all the powers and ~~~Darkness~~~ of the dark one (formerly rumpelstiltskin). unlike emma, he is not aware of this for most of the season. the moment he finally finds out, he turns on emma and goes through with all the revenge plans he’s apparently been holding onto since season two.

it’s supposed to be sympathetic, because emma made this choice for him to be a dark one, which is clearly awful, when he didn’t want it. so i get that. but on the other hand, it is..... boring. because (a) it's nothing we haven't seen him try to do and fail at before, his motivations really aren't that complex. and more importantly, (b) he was the dark one the whole time! the only thing that changed, that made him act evil, was finding out about it. at that point, it's not the ~~~Darkness~~~ making you do evil things. it’s just you. because you’re a dick.

how is this arc resolved? well, he dies. after the underworld arc (which i very much enjoyed tbf), a sizable part of robin hood’s death episode is devoted to people telling emma to slow down and grieve for killian, since at least two arcs have revolved around her inability to let hook go when he is literally dying or dead. (it’s been said a million times but being his girlfriend really sucked the personality out of emma and i miss her.) and in the end he just... comes back anyway. no explanation given; he says it must be a reward from zeus for killing hades... while he and emma make out literally in front of the coffin of robin hood... who actually died fighting hades. killian died half a season before. while he was evil. and emma reverts to tearful girlfriend.

it’s insulting. it’s grating. and it is a Killian Hook Jones Guarantee that his episodes will involve some measure of this.

like, is it more or less the same shtick that the writers kept giving rumpelstiltskin, too? backsliding and screwing over his love interest who gets less and less say in the matter? yes. definitely. the crucial difference is that i, personally, love rumpelstiltskin, while i find hook boring and not self-aware. but clearly i have had a lot of fun complaining about him! again, this is not an objective list.

conclusions

this show ran for 7 years. it got cancelled not because it deserved to, but because no one liked the soft reboot. it was on until 2018.

[bthump]

What do you think about the point in the story we are at now? Would you say you like the direction Miura is going in or not? What are the things you dislike about Berserk as it is now?

lol this is hard to answer because it’s so heavily dependent on what happens next. I think we’re at a point where everything could start coming together in a way that really appeals to me or where everything could just fall apart and I’ll have to accept that this is no longer a story I’m particularly interested in.

Though I am slightly leaning towards the former right now, whether that’s based on real evidence or mostly blind optimism I’m not entirely sure lol.

Basically I think it’ll depend on a) whether Moonlight Boy becomes a major motivational plot point or turns out to be more of a red herring or brief inciting factor in the shift to a new arc, and b) whether Guts and the rpg group overcome the imminent challenge they’ll face thanks to their personal growth and friendship or whether it’ll fuck them up.

But the reasons I’m feeling tentatively optimistic right now are:

all the foreshadowing re Guts losing himself to the armour and wreaking some havok, which has to happen at some point lbr

fetus as the focal point of Casca’s traumatic memories and symbolizing her thorn-covered heart, which to me screams sacrifice material, which would be the only thing that could make it time sharing Griffith’s body interesting to me (ie what happens to Griffith if it’s sacrificed?)

I’m gonna link this post because I’m still mostly feeling the basics of this theory, ie Skull Knight and Elfhelm in cahoots plotting to use the behelit to entrap the godhand, at Guts and Casca’s expense. Plus another possible way for Moonlight Boy to come to nothing is if it’s a manipulation of Danann’s.

I think Guts is purposefully being written as emotionally distanced from the rpg group, which is a good sign for the power of friendship not saving him yet, and there are also aspects of Guts+rpg group that parallel Griffith+Hawks in the golden age (eg Farnese’s feelings for Guts being paralleled to Casca’s feelings for Griffith, Guts gaining followers who compare him to fire, etc) which also gives me hope that tragedy will strike.

Miura’s little bait and switch wrt Guts and Casca’s relationship that honestly felt like gentle mockery of people who wanted them to immediately get together lol. Yk Casca getting sent out in a pretty dress to meet Guts complete with romantic double page spread and having a breakdown, then changing into pants and cutting her hair and saying how much better it is, and not being able to look at Guts now.

Also more recently, Guts at a loss now that he’s brought Casca’s sanity back and it didn’t actually solve any of his issues. “The hell do I do now?” “You have reached the end of your journey. It is not always a happy thing.” I’ve been worried for a while that Guts’ complex issues have been dropped and we’re meant to see him taking Casca to Elfhelm as him genuinely growing past them, and that one moment was such a huge relief when I read it lol. It really suggests to me that this sidequest was always about Guts trying to find a distraction to avoid dealing with his actual issues (fear/trauma, insecurity, love/hate feelings for Griffith, regret, etc), and those are going to make a return sooner rather than later.

Miura implying in interviews that we’re not all that close to the end, so there’ll probably be at least one more arc after Elfhelm, which gives me more hope that this whole rpg arc will lead to some amount of narrative-shaking tragedy and we’ll get some interesting stuff after.

this parallel with the climax of the Millenium Falcon arc and my firm belief that it has to come full circle.

other stuff like complex apostle characters, the lost chapter worldbuilding, schierke suggesting that her elemental guardians are holy see angels alongside implications that holy see angels are the godhand. Basically my hopes for worldbuilding that doesn’t boil down to good spirit world vs evil spirit world.

all the little suggestions that NGriff isn’t as emotionless as he’d like to be that have nothing to do with a demon fetus giving a shit about its parents

So I guess my answer is that I do like the direction I hope Miura’s going in, but there’s also enough counter evidence that I may be wrong about that direction.

So some of the things I dislike about Berserk now are:

Moonlight Boy and the Fear that he will derail everything and the plot will soon revolve around, idk, Guts and Casca trying to free their kid’s soul bringing them closer together or some awful shit like that.

Moonlight Boy and the Fear that Miura is actually going to ignore the absolutely incredible foundation he wrote in the Golden Age to support the hints of Griffith’s current capacity for emotion in favour of pinning it all on a magic baby.

I have some lowkey fears that Guts “bleeding” for Casca is gonna be a thing, largely based on me recently re-reading the scene where Farnese gets upset about everything Guts has done for her while bathing her. Like yk, maybe Casca will remember Guts saving her and warm up to him... tho in all honesty I can’t actually think of an example of Guts being the one to save her post-Eclipse lmao, he fucks it up every time. Maybe when he first put on the armour and killed an apostle in front of her or w/e, yk. Some shit like that. Like I can come up with 50 counter arguments but those only work if you accept the basic premise that Berserk will be good, yk?

The fear that we are meant to understand that Guts has overcome most of his flaws throughout the Millenium Falcon/Fantasia arcs and will get a big moment to demonstrate that and overcome the armour or save Casca or whatever.

And less speculatively and more generally, like many people I’m not a fan of the current art style, I think the larger cast on Guts’ side is causing some poor writing and not helping the pacing issues (and tbh I think Berserk is paced fairly well up until the boat stuff), I don’t like the lighter more comedic tone right now bc I got into Berserk for the grimdark vibe and tragedy and characters succumbing to their fatal flaws and making huge mistakes and I miss that a lot. I’m not saying Berserk can’t be light and funny and campy but I prefer that Black Swordsman or Conviction Arc style where it’s offset by a lot of fucked up shit, or Golden Age style where there’s an underlying sense of dread bc we already know shit’s going to go wrong, yk? If shit does get dark soon I might end up being a lot less critical of the current tone on re-read tbf.

So basically to sum up:

hopes: tragedy, character flaws that haven’t been dealt with yet coming home to roost, Moonlight Boy becomes a non-issue.

fears: power of friendship staves off tragedy, slower gtsca romance, moonbaby affects plot and emotions, guts’ flaws get brushed under the rug instead of fucking him over

I can argue that the former makes a lot more sense than the latter, but I’ve been burned a lot in my life and I know a lot of fans would argue the latter makes more sense than the former so yk, everyone has their biases including me and idk how blinded I am by those biases lol.

Anyway ty for asking!

[sunshine304]

Still slow going so I only managed Eps 19 + 20 – not because I don’t like the show, but because life, you know.

OMG how much Yang Jin wants to fight! He’s so thrilled that even Li Yan thinks he’s stupid. XD

Oh no Xie Yun telling sad tales from his childhood, that he had to beg as a learning experience (!) because he was too soft. And of course he made the best of it. Resourceful guy, even as a kid. But seriously, he laughs all of that shit off. “Ah I lived on the streets for three years, but you know, I learned a lot!” Side-eyeing really hard.

And there is A-Fei’s strong bisexual energy again when it comes to Md Nichang. XD And I’m over here like, yeah same, girl. XD Also awww how she hides behind XY, so embarrassed when Md. Nichang praises her skill; she’s all like, “Noooooo”. *blushes* So cute!

OMG A-Fei! That weird gang that Yang Jin hired turns up at Md. Nichang’s door for debt collecting or issuing the challenge or whatever and A-Fei immediately goes, “Who cares what they want. Just beat them up!“ My queen. XD

Loved them confronting Yang Jin and bluffing their way through it. A-Fei to XY: “We don’t have much ability, but we know how to strike a pose.“ Pfff. XD

I laughed so hard when A-Fei and XY go to rescue Li Yan and she’s running circles around her “kidnappers“, and XY being like, “Do we really still have to save her?“ I mean... And A-Fei looks like she wants to say no, but then again: “Ah well, yeah we have to, sorry.” XD

God Li Yan is so exhausting! If I were Yang Jin I’d thrown her out on the street after an hour or so. XD

Ah Li Sheng and ChuChu interlude!  ChuChu immediately being suspicious of the secret post and being right! She’s the best! And awww Li Sheng compliments her! ♥ (And also, is every stupid secret post in Disha’s pockets?!)

Oh no  my OTP is fighting! T_T A-Fei wants to fight Yang Jin because she cares about the reputation of the South Blade which XY finds stupid, but then he gives up and flounces off with an, “OMG do whatever!“ And how A-Fei tries to bribe him with wine, and THERE’s that scene with him going, “Ahah I sell skill, not my body!“ XD A-Fei is so stubborn here, she even resorts to begging and puppy eyes! XD And XY just can’t stay mad at her and realises that aw shit, she’s determined. And he’s whipped.

Bwahaha XY surrounded by all the girls from the Feather Robe Troupe doting on him and A-Fei trying to ignore them. It was a bit mean when XY said that A-Fei does only care about swords and has no sense for amorous feelings. (Though tbf she hasn’t given much indication that she even understands all his flirting.) At least he noticed that that was a step too far, and he was also right that she was jealous (although I guess she didn’t understand that herself yet).

Chuchu interlude! ♥ I just love her and Li Sheng together (I also loved the throuple, it’s a difficult show shipping wise XD). And oh no Li Sheng getting beaten up because he wants to protect her. T_T

That scene of XY stepping closer and closer to A-Fei and going, “Ah you were jealous, I’m sure you can’t look into my eyes. Is your heart beating faster, hm?“ and A-Fei being like, “Nope I have no problem with this!” until she DOES! XD and panics about it. Also it was an, uhm, interesting way for XY to show her that she doesn’t have the strength to fight Yang Jin just now.

OMG Yang Jin loudly training and keeping Li Yan from sleep. XD She is really a manipulative little bitch and I kinda love her even though she’s so annoying. But how she’s clocked that Yang Jin is just a dumb himbo and that crying works every god damn time. XD YJ is so whipped but also has a heart of gold. When he learns that A-Fei got hurt and that the fight wouldn’t be fair he feels super bad about it.

OMG the meeting of Li Yan with everyone! XD Md. Nichang: *confused but intrigued* How is she related to Li Zheng?  A-Fei: *sigh* Authentic granddaughter. Li Yan: A-Fei where’s my brother? (yeah right A-Fei, where is he? XD) A-Fei: Probably kidnapped to be someone’s son-in-law.  XD XD

That fight was fun! Also it was a really heartfelt moment when A-Fei told Md Nichang that she did it to win her the medicine. Yang Jin was a good loser. He can come back. Also, please appreciate A-Fei’s awesome teal coloured outfit, I’m in love!

[facelessxchurch]

I'm still in awe that Nefarian won that battle tournament thing they played on the SP reddit. Imagine a group of people lackadaisical enough to read this garbage coming to the right conclusion out of nowhere

UGH yeah! That was so frustrating! I mean, I’m happy that Nef got some positive attention for a change, but the write-up of the battles were so unimaginative!

It always was: he wins bc red hand OP. If you’re clever enough you can beat him despite his red hand. It’s powerful, but it still has restrictions in place. Like there can be no barrier between the hand and his victim. Dive behind a wall and the pain cuts off. The red beams seem to be insta-kills, but you can dodge them and stuff like that.

What makes him far more dangerous is how intelligent, unpredictable and versatile he is! I don’t remember that well anymore, but there is an excellent chance I probably compiled this list of Nef’s canon magic bc this pissed me off so much.

For the White Clever VS Nef fight I wrote out all the things he could do to win even if his red hand doesn’t work. What do they do? “haha red hand goes brrr”

Like, why do this tournament/write-up in the first place if you’re going to be lazy about it?

Also, this is probably where this BS opinion comes from, that Nef has to be nerfed bc his hand makes him to OP. Bc they completely overestimate how powerful it is and underestimate pretty much everything else that makes Nef dangerous. Also, looking at all the OP characters SP has, what makes them think Nef is the one that has to be nerfed when fucks like Skulduggery, Valkyrie/Darquesse and Abyssinia are walking around??

Such a fucking mood!

I think it bothers you bc absolutely everyone always drew Mev dark haired (even before I started drawing him, since I used the others art as reference along with the ‘fake-canon’ pic that used to be posted on the wiki (it was a saturated version of this pic btw) that shows up a lot when you google ‘Mevolent’).

That’s not  chivalrous, that’s just really fucking weird tbh. I hate how Landy writes phase 2 Mevolent and I especially hated the entire part in Tahil Na Kurge with Val going full on Mary-Sue. 

Mev did have a few good scenes like how he easily he was fighting the assassins even without his magic and how it confirmed my headcanon about him being an agile fighter instead of a tank, since him wearing leather armour instead of metal had already been implying that. But with Mev it always feels a lot like Landy doesn’t know what route to take with him, leading to a very weird and inconsistent characterization. Honestly? I like how the people in the fandom write Mev a lot more (this excludes those that write him as a r*pist btw).

Be better than Mev and destroy the brain/go sure your overpowered opponent is truly dead. 

Tbf Darquesse had maincharacter plot armour protecting her, otherwise Mev would have accidentally solved the Prime Dimensions main issue for them.

Tbf Mev was probably lying through his teeth about wanting peace, just like I’m pretty sure that Mev was lying in KotW when he said he wanted a Truce with the Resistance. One of the few good things to come out of SoW was that it showed what a tricky and cunning bastard Mev is.

He probably prefers to take those in his way out in ways that cannot be traced back to him and replace them with his own people. Or he just wanted the peace so he can more easily get what he needs to bring his Gods back and let them do the killing instead of having his men die. In book 1 Nef mentioned they want to return their Gods so they can ‘cleanse’ the world and rebuild it in their image or something like that.

(I answer on my Mev blog even slower than I answer here, so if you want a quick answer I wouldn’t recommend it.)

LMAO fat chance. I mean, I’d love to see it, but we both know it’s not gonna happen. We’ll be lucky if Nef doesn’t get ruined further and that’s the best we can hope for tbh.

You most likely will, yes.

WHY DOES THIS FANDOM KEEP CIRCLING BACK TO THE MEV DICK DISCOURSE

I can’t believe it took Landy 14 years to come up with a reason why Nef and Skul hate each other and the reason pretty much just boils down to “they just don’t like each other and it got out of hand bc war”.

I’m extra pissed bc that was the exact question I asked him when I stood before him during the 2016 YALC for which my sorry ass flew to England and he couldn’t give me an answer back then. Instead he then told me that he was planning on releasing a secret on his blog each year on the release date of the last SP book and that that would be one of them. Well, that was a fucking lie.

[gyakutengagotoku]

GS4 vs AJ:AA - Episode 1, Part 1

Look, guys! I’m being productive again! Hooray, it feels exhausting just as I remember it did!

As done before, every post I make will contain differences between the source Japanese and localized English versions of the same game, as well as further details about them, up to the following “To be continued...” screens and eventually the ending credits. As always, there are so many ways the localization can dress up certain lines in the original script to make them into jokes or at least more colorful, so I’m not going to pick out every one. It would take us an eternity longer than my hiatuses to finish otherwise.

To think it took a freakin’ indie game that's like Mafia but with astronauts and tasks to bring me back to the Ace Attorney community and back to my blog’s roots. Is this what they mean by “Circle of Life”? All I know is that I’m constantly running around in circles, both metaphorically and literally.

--

> Court Lobby

<Kristoph> やれやれ。ずいぶんカタくなってる みたいだね。 You look tense, Justice. Wound up tight.

<Apollo> そ。そんなコトないです！ カンゼンに大丈夫ですから、オレ！ W-Wound up, sir? No! I'm loose! I'm fine!

<Kristoph> 声がウラ返ってるよ‥‥ まあ。ムリもないかな。 That screeching noise... Is that your voice? I suppose it's to be expected...

初めての法廷が、殺人事件とは。 まさしく“オドロキ”ってヤツだね。 Your first trial, and it's a homicide. I guess "Justice" doesn't start small, eh?

Enter Apollo's signature "I'm fine!" catchphrase, or as it's originally known, "Daijobu desu!"

In the third box, "ウラ返ってる" from 裏返る (uragaeru) in this context is translated fairly, though it specifically refers to a "crack in falsetto" kind of squeak or screech. (Yes, squeaky Apollo.) Now, it's interesting to note uragaeru in a different context can also mean "to double-cross". To be fair, it's also a common phrase, like being "betrayed" by your own cracking voice, but the foreshadowing power...

In the fourth box, yes, they changed the name puns to suit the localized name. Kirihito (Kristoph) is just saying what a "surprise" it is for his first trial to be a murder case.

>

<???> たしか、きみは‥‥ So, you're...

<Apollo> あ、ハイ！ オレ、大丈夫ですッ！ Fine! I-I'm fine!

<???> ああ‥‥“大丈夫くん”か。 Ah... Mr. Fine, is it?

<Apollo> え。 Uh.

<???> 変わった名前だとは覚えていた。 I did remember you having an odd name.

<Apollo> （さっそく、ゴカイされちまった） (Well, we're off to a great start.)

I'm just putting this here to assure everyone that Nick does first call him "Daijobu-kun".

>

<???> そろそろ時間だ。‥‥行こうか。 It's time. Shall we?

<Apollo> は、はいッ！ Y-Yes, sir!

<Apollo> （‥‥そうさ。 　今は、とにかく集中するんだ） (...OK. I need to focus.)

（オレの‥‥王泥喜　法介の、 　初めての法廷に！） (First trial, here comes Justice!)

I want to comment on how catchy Apollo's other lesser-known catchphrase is. Poor Odoroki doesn't have anything as cool as this.

> Courtroom

<Kristoph> 弁護士は、依頼人の希望を最優先 させなければなりません。 A defense attorney must always cede to his client's wishes.

この王泥喜くんは、依頼人の ご指名なのですよ。 And my client specifically requested Mr. Justice.

<Judge> ふむう‥‥わかりませんな。 Well, of course he wants justice!

現在、最高の弁護士と言われる 牙琉　霧人（がりゅうきりひと）。 But to entrust his case to this greenhorn... Why?

それをさしおいて、 こんなワカモノがねえ‥‥ I do not exaggerate when I say that you're the best defense attorney in town, Mr. Gavin.

<Apollo> （だ、大丈夫。発声練習の量なら、 　先生にも負けないさ！） (OK, so Gavin's got trial experience, fine. But does he have Chords of Steel!?)

I just love this line from Apollo. Perfect timing and delivery. Odoroki's line is good too, though comes off as a tad more innocent: "I-It's fine. When it comes to  vocal training, even Sensei can't beat me!" Though I have to say the image of Kristoph screaming during voice training is too funny to pass up.

> Enter Defendant

<Judge> まことにザンネンです。 This is truly an unfortunate turn of events.

ひさしぶりの対面が、 このようなカタチになるとは。 I'm sorry we had to meet again under these circumstances.

‥‥成歩堂　龍一 （なるほどうりゅういち）くん。 Long time no see, Mr. Wright.

<Phoenix> 忘れてほしいですね、 ムカシのことは。 Let's put the past behind us, shall we?

今のぼくは‥‥そう。 しがないピアニスト、ですから。 These days, I'm merely Phoenix Wright, piano player.

I may have mentioned it before, but I'll make a note here that the Hobohodo meme has its own version in the JP fandom: "ピアニート" (piani-to or pia-NEET), which is portmanteau of pianist and NEET, the most famous of Japanese government welfare programs for the unemployed. It's also slang for "hobo".

>

<Payne> これが、被害者の命を奪った凶器。 ‥‥グレープジュースのボトルです。 This is the weapon that took the victim's life. A bottle of grape juice.

彼のお気に入りで、 いつも飲んでいるようですな。 Grape juice is apparently our defendant's drink of choice.

Many of you already know, but just in case: The localizers never censored Nick's fave drink. It was the JP devs who had to work with such censors back home, but eventually they just kept it as a running gag to put non-alcoholic fruit juices in fancy wine bottles. It wasn't until SoJ when the devs could get away with featuring a bit of alcohol. Their previous game was slapped with a CERO-C (15+) due to graphic images, so Eshiro and co. were pleasantly surprised to see SoJ get the classic CERO-B (12+) again.

Not to mention, very expensive high-quality fancy fruit juices do exist in Japan and can cost way more than your usual middle-grade wines. Japan and their fancy fruit culture and all. (I forget exactly, but I recall there were plenty of group pictures of the devs on their blogs and Twitters over the years where someone had gotten them fancy bottles of fruit juice as Christmas gifts. The memes live on.)

> After 1st testimony, decline tutorial

<Apollo> 先生が出るにはおよびません！ ここは、オレでじゅうぶんッ！ No need for help here, sir! I think I've got this one covered!

<Kristoph> ‥‥“手下”みたいなセリフだね。 大丈夫ですか？ I think you'd better do more than think. You know it, or you do not.

<Apollo> （大丈夫！　 　発声練習は積んできた！） (I'm fine! The Chords of Steel are ready for battle!)

The differences here are subtle enough that I hesitated on including this, but Kirihito straight-up calls out Odoroki: "Sensei, you won't need to step up here. I'm enough for this!" "...Sounds like something someone unreliable would say. Are you going to be fine?"

> Press 4th statement

<Judge> ふむう‥‥ Hmm...

ポーカーといえば、５枚のカードで “役”を作って勝負するゲーム。 As I recall, in poker you make five-card "hands".

たしかに、イカサマが 起こりやすいのでしょう。 I can see how it would be easy to cheat.

<Phoenix> フッ‥‥ “役”を作るゲーム、ねえ‥‥ Heh... Yes. A game of "hands".

<Apollo> ‥‥？ ...?

Now that I find this dialogue again, it's even deeper than I'd ever thought. In both JP and EN, Phoenix's line works just as well as the other despite having different double entendres. In EN, he makes a pun between the poker hands and people's hands; while in JP, the term used is "yaku", which is normally used to refer to hands in a card/mahjong game, but in more general cases, it means "role" or "responsibility". Naturally, in this case, there are a lot of hands and roles being exchanged rather quickly.

This case is dang amazing and I regret forgetting so much of what made it spectacular.

> Press 5th statement

<Phoenix> 賭けていたのは、ただひとつ。 おのれの“プライド”だけだよ。 The only thing at stake in our game... was pride itself.

<Judge> ほほう。 なんだか、カッコイイですな！ Ho ho! Well put, Mr. Wright.

私も“ポーカー”で ヒト勝負したくなってきました。 I've got a mind to play a hand of poker myself...

<Judge> あなたの“有罪”を賭けてッ！ The stakes: your fate!

<Apollo> （“ヒト勝負”感覚で 　決められてたまるかッ！） (Um... Can we get back to the trial now?)

For once, I'm gonna go with Odoroki's line as the cooler one: "(As if we're going to decide this trial like a game of "life-or-death"!)"

> 1st witness, before testimony

<Olga> 逆居　雅香（さかいまさか） ‥‥と申します。 My name... is Olga Orly.

レストラン《ボルハチ》で ウエイトレス‥‥していますの。 I am employed as waitress in Borscht Bowl Club restaurant.

<Judge> しかし‥‥なぜ、カメラを？ Then... why the camera?

<Olga> もちろん、《ボルハチ》ジマンの ボルシチもお運びいたします。 Of course, it is my pride to serve borscht that is naming restaurant.

でも、ワタシ。他にも、いろいろ サービスをいたしますのよ。 But I also perform -- how it is said? Other service.

Just making a note here on how well Olga's lines are written. They really make it obvious that she's "not a native speaker" (for now). While in EN, they just made her English a little broken, in JP, she speaks in a very stiff and formal Japanese, as she is a waitress, but also on the occasion can sound a little off to a native speaker without being broken, per se. She also has a distinct "watashi" among a few other common words that are written in katakana to show a sort of accent.

>

<Payne> さて、証人。 事件当時は、どこに‥‥？ Now, witness. Where were you at the time of the murder?

<Olga> ワタシ、あの部屋にいたんです。 ‥‥《ナラズモの間》。 I was in room. The Hydeout, we call it.

<Apollo> “ならずものま”？ Excuse me? The Hydeout?

<Olga> 伝説のギャング“ナラズモ”が タイホされたというお部屋。 It is room where famous gangster "Badgai" was arrested.

‥‥事件があった小部屋ですの。 Is room where murder took place.

<Apollo> なんだってェェェ！ Whaaaaat!?

<Olga> ‥‥そのビックリしたカオ、 ステキです。 Your look of utter surprise... It is lovely.

あとで法廷の前に 張り出しておきますので‥‥ I will post by courtroom door later for you!

ほしい写真の番号を、みなさま お書きくださいね。 Dah, dah, photos will be numbered, and you will write which ones you want copy of.

Okay, everyone knows how bad/obvious/cringe the name puns can be in Khura'in or certain ones from AAI, but please, does anyone not remember "Badgai" here? (Tbf, I forgot too, so I'm not one to talk...)

Btw, his original name is "Narazumo", literally "ruffian", and it's completely in katakana, which makes me think it's a codename or alias. She also specifies that he was a "gangster", not yakuza as we'd assume. Japanese gangs are a bit closer to gangs that we know of in the West, especially that they're more known for foreign influence to their styles than the much more traditional yakuza.

Also, I'm disappointed there was no Odoroki pun here. Sure, she doesn't know him, so it wouldn't make sense, but still a missed opportunity. Also also, she actually talks to the rest of the court when she says "you", so she's selling photos of Apollo's freakout to everyone. Classy...

> 1st Witness Testimony, press 3rd statement

<Apollo> “ロケット”‥‥？ His "locket"...?

<Olga> あのお客さまにとっては 大切な“お守り”のようでした。 I believe it was good-luck charm, dah?

何度か握りしめながら、 勝負をされていましたから。 He gripped it many times as he played that night.

<Judge> なるほど‥‥大空へ飛び立つ チカラがみなぎるのでしょう。 Yes, he must have felt as though it might carry him to the moon and the stars!

なにしろ《ロケット》ですからな。 Though if it were small enough to fit around his neck, it wouldn't have much lift...

<Apollo> ‥‥あの。ちなみに “ロケット”というのは‥‥ Um... The defense would like a clarification: this is a locket we're talking about?

写真を入れたペンダントのコト、 なんですけどね。 I mean, a pendant with a picture in it, right? Not a "rocket"?

<Judge> 知ってます！ Of course! I knew that!

ロケットのカタチをした アレでしょう。 It was probably a pendant shaped like a rocket. That's why she called it that.

<Apollo> ちがいますよ！ カタチはカンケイないんです No, a locket's a locket! It doesn't matter what shape it is!

<Kristoph> ‥‥深追いしてはいけない。 それが、社会のルールです。 It's considered bad form to poke fun at the hard-of- hearing in our society.

<Apollo> （モヤモヤするなあ） (Hard of hearing, or hard of understanding?)

This entire conversation is just a joke on how "locket" and "rocket" are written the same way in Japanese, and I'm surprised how well it still works in English.

To clarify, Kirihito's line at the end is a bit different: "...Refraining from pursuing a line too far is a well-known rule in our society." "(Doesn't make me feel any better.)"

> After 1st Present, just before new statement added

<Apollo> （ヤレヤレ‥‥ 　慎重すぎるんだよな、先生は） (There's such a thing as thinking too much...)

（イシバシを叩いて 　コワすタイプ？） (This horse is dead, let's stop beating it!)

<Kristoph> 聞こえてますよ、オドロキくん。 There's such a thing as thinking aloud too much, too.

It's conversations like this that make me wonder if characters can actually hear what the MC is saying/whispering or if they're breaking the 4th wall to hear their thoughts. Here, it's even more ambiguous in JP than the usual between Nick and Maya in prior games. Or are they suggesting that even when Apollo is thinking, he's still loud?

> After 2nd Witness Testimony, before cross-exam

<Judge> なるほど‥‥ Ah, how many times have I heard these words:

『むしゃくしゃしてやった。 　今は後悔している』‥‥ "I done it in a fit of anger, Yer Honor, and now I regret what I done".

‥‥の、パターンですな。 ...A common tale, but true.

<Apollo> （成歩堂さんは、ハッキリ言った。 　『７年間、負けたことがない』） (Methinks the judge watches too many old court movies.)

（‥‥この証言には、ゼッタイ 　“何か”あるはずだ！） (Mr. Wright said he hasn't lost in seven years, so this testimony must be wrong!)

I don't usually include entries for examples where the localizers dress up the text from the original, but this one here really bugs me. I'm not sure if it's a reference to some classic film or just a tip of the hat to classic American court drama movies in general.

If someone could help me pinpoint this one, please do.

> Press 2nd statement, press further

<Apollo> チップについて、くわしく 話していただけますか？ Maybe you could explain a bit about these "chips"?

<Olga> そ。そう言われましても‥‥ E-Explain? What is there to be explained?

<Objection!>

<Payne> チップはチップです。 Poker chips are poker chips.

いつまで待っても‥‥ キップにはなりませんぞ！ They're not fish and chips, not a chip off the old block, not a motorcycle cop, not a...

Okay, the "motorcycle cop" bit got me. I swear this was a popculture reference (was it a song? It sounds so familiar), but I don't remember exactly where it was from! Someone plz help.

As for the original script, Auchi makes a silly pun. "[Poker] chips are [poker] chips. No matter how long you wait... they won't become tickets!" (chips = chippu, ticket = kippu)

>

<Apollo> ‥‥はあ。 ...Thanks.

（セッカクだ。 　なにか聞かないとソンだな） (Now that I've pressed her I'd better ask something...)

たとえば‥‥そのチップ。 “円”ですか？　“ドル”ですか？ What are these chips worth? Are they in dollars? Or rubles, even?

<Olga> ‥‥あの。 先ほども申しましたけれど‥‥ ...Nyet. As I have been saying before, it was game, not gambling.

ギャンブルでは ございませんでしたから‥‥ Hard perhaps for capitalist to understand.

<Olga> “１０００点”と “１００点”の２種類。 Two types of chip: 100 points chip and 1,000 points chip.

おカネではございませんの。 It is not money, dah.

<Kristoph> ‥‥オドロキくん。 ...Justice.

<Apollo> はいッ！ Sir!

<Kristoph> 今の証言‥‥ ちょっと、おもしろいですね。 Don't you find her comment... interesting?

<Apollo> え‥‥ In more ways than one, sir.

<Kristoph> 私ならば‥‥そう。 証言に加えていただくところですが。 I'd have it added to her testimony, myself.

As funny as that capitalist line is, it's not found in the source, sorry, guys. Her text in Japanese is very formal, so it takes an extra box just to complete her sentence.

Also, worth to note that Odoroki here mentions yen and dollars, but not rubles, despite the restaurant being Russian-themed. Whether it's writer oversight or just Odoroki being uncultured will remain a mystery.

Lastly, Apollo's last line here makes him seem quite confident, but in the original, he seems just as confused as ever. This is made clearer when Apollo later presses the new statement.

> Press new statement

<Apollo> あの。小さい方が１００点、 大きい方が１０００点‥‥ Um. The small ones are 100, and the big ones 1,000...

で、いいんですよね。やっぱり。 Uh? Right? Right. Of course.

<Payne> フン！　 聞くまでもないでしょう。 Hah! Don't waste our time!

<Apollo> はあ‥‥ *sigh*

‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥‥ ...

<Judge> 終わりですか？　それで。 Is that all?

<Apollo> ええ、まあ。 Um... Yeah. *gulp*

（くそ。牙琉先生のせいで 　ハジをかいちまったぞ‥‥） (Great. Mr. Gavin made me stop her, and now I'm the one who looks dumb.)

<Kristoph> オドロキくん。 Oh, Justice?

<Kristoph> 私にハジをかかせないで もらえますか？ Please try not to embarrass me like that.

<Apollo> え！　オレがですか！ Huh? Who? Me!?

The subtleties of this joke conversation were lost in translation. After Apollo wastes time with that question, he grumbles to himself: "(Damn. Thanks to Garyu-sensei, I've made a fool of myself.)" "Odoroki-kun. Would you please not pin this embarassment on me?" "Huh! Me!?"

> After Present, select "Number of chips"

<Apollo> おかしいのは、チップの枚数‥‥ ですよね、先生？ The odd thing here is the number of chips... Right, Mr. Gavin?

<Kristoph> ‥‥なぜ、私に？ ...Why are you asking me?

<Apollo> その。念のため、というか！ Uh... Just in case?

<Kristoph> ‥‥オドロキくん。 もう少し、キチンと考えましょう。 Justice... It's your case I'm concerned about.

チップなら、写真を見れば すべて、写っています。 If you're wondering about the chips, just look at the photograph. It's all there.

老眼の裁判長さんでも カンタンに数えられますよ。 Even our judge with his failing eyesight could count them.

<Apollo> （‥‥あの裁判長なら、それでも 　まちがえるような気がする‥‥） (That's not the only thing failing the judge.)

Damn, what a burn. Odoroki in the OG script simply went: "(...Knowing this judge, he could get even that wrong...)" which is a fair effort, but not a wildfire level of damage.

> 3rd Witness Testimony, press 4th

<Apollo> 口論の内容は、おぼえてますか？ Do you recall what the men were arguing about?

<Olga> そうですね。たしか‥‥ Dah, I believe so...

被害者サマが『イカサマだッ！』と 叫びましたの。それに対して‥‥ The victim, he shouts, "you are cheater!" and then...

“異議がある”というようなコトを 被告人さまが‥‥ ...the defendant shouts something like, "I have objection!"

<Payne> ‥‥出ましたな。 おトクイの《異議あり！》が。 Shouting objection, eh? Old habits are hard to break!

まったく‥‥ハッタリづくしの 人生ですからな。被告人は。 First he bluffed his way through the courtroom, now he bluffs his way through life!

<Objection!>

<Apollo> しかし！　勝負の結果は、 成歩堂さんが“負けている”！ However! Mr. Wright lost the hand!

むしろ、アヤシイのは、 勝った被害者・浦伏さんでしょう！ That seems to cast the shadow of doubt on Mr. Smith!

<Olga> “イカサマをやった上、 　勝負にも負けた”‥‥ Humiliation from losing even when cheating...

そのクツジョクが、被告人の方の ココロに、火をつけたのですの。 That is what set fire to defendant's heart!

<Judge> ‥‥そして、火のついた 被告人は、どうしたのですかな？ So what did the flaming defendant do next?

Oh my God, as soon as I saw that "異議がある" (igi ga aru) my mind flashed back to those ridiculous Google Translated trailers of Gyakuten Saiban & Kenji on Nico Douga. Imagine if the devs at the time decided to play with Google Translate to see how "異議あり！" would look after switching it from Japanese to English and back. It would be one of the biggest brain plays by a game developer ever... which probably means it wasn't how it went, but it's fun to think about.

Anyway, I also like this snippet of dialogue for the judge's "flaming defendant", clearly alluding to "Phoenix" Wright. In JP, the bit about setting fire to his heart is just a common idiom in the first place, but who knows? “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney” had been selling fast in the West, so they could have been inspired.

> After Present, point out on the cards, examine victim's hand

<Apollo> 裁判長！　見てください！ 被害者のカードには、１枚‥‥ Your Honor! Look at this! One of the victim's cards...

ウラの色がちがうカードが まぎれこんでいますッ！ The back is a different color!

<Payne> え‥‥ええええッ！ Eh...? Ehhhhhh!?

<Olga> そ。そんなバカなッ！ Th-That's impossible!

アタシがシカケたのは、 成歩堂のほうなのに‥‥ But I put that card in Wright's hand...

あッ！ Ack!

<Kristoph> ‥‥今、なんと言いましたか、証人。 ...What was that, Ms. Orly?

<Olga> い‥‥いえ‥‥その。 アタシ‥‥わ、私は、ええと‥‥ No... Ny-Nyet! Er, I merely said, eh... Dah, I have, eek!

It's at this point when Olga's cover is blown, and in JP, it's more obvious because she stammers between using "atashi" vs "watashi". It's not very common to hear beginner Japanese students refer to themselves as the cutesy "atashi", though one who's a bit more well versed in the language or in anime may pick up on it.

> After Phoenix takes over the court, select when the cards were swapped, select "Olga Orly" who swapped them

<Phoenix> たしかに、あのゲームでは赤・青の ２種類のカードを使っていた。 Mixing a card from the wrong deck... when the backs are different colors?

しかし‥‥逆居　雅香は、 カードを配っていた張本人。 Remember that you're talking about Olga Orly... She was the dealer.

‥‥そんなミスを すると思うかい？ Do you really think she would make such a novice mistake?

<Apollo> （まあ‥‥オレでも 　まちがわないだろうな） (Actually, I have trouble imagining even the judge making that mistake.)

This is another case of the localizers dressing it up. Odoroki says here: "(Well... even I wouldn't make such a mistake.)" as if implying that he's the lowest common denominator here, haha!

> Back to Court Lobby

<Phoenix> 人間の思考・感情というものは ‥‥かならず。 Try as they might to conceal it, everyone reveals their true thoughts in the end.

身体から“情報”として 発信されている。 Their body language can become a valuable source of information.

<Apollo> そ。そんなバカな‥‥ You're kidding!

<Phoenix> たとえば。あの証人‥‥ 逆居　雅香を思い出してごらん。 That witness, for instance, Ms. Orly.

<Phoenix> 彼女は、ある証言をするとき‥‥ かならず“首筋をさする”。 She would touch the back of her neck during certain parts of her testimony.

‥‥気がついていたかい？ Did you notice?

<Apollo> い。いえ‥‥ （それどころじゃないよ、フツー） Uh... No. (C'mon, who'd notice that!?)

<Phoenix> “クセ”“コトバ”‥‥ それらが発する情報を読み解くこと。 Words, habits, twitches... It's all information for the reading.

それが、勝負に勝つ “鉄則”だよ、オドロキくん。 That's the secret to winning, Apollo.

まあ‥‥ぼくも“ある人物”に 教わったんだけどね。 Someone taught me, and now, I pass the secret on to you.

It's this quiet moment between the two of them that really parallels with how Mia used to talk with Phoenix, and it's beautifully poetic. And I'd like to note that even Phoenix's speech pattern throughout this convo is quite reminiscent of how Mia talked, but with a bit of Phoenix's own style. Though in that last line, he could possibly have meant Mia, but more likely meant a certain someone with a similar power to Apollo. Ya'll know who I mean, (W)right?

>

<Phoenix> ああ。それから、もうひとつ。 今回の事件だけどね。 Ah, almost forgot. One more thing. About this case...

ぼくはまだ、誰にも “本当のコト”を話してないんだよ。 You should know, I haven't told the truth to anyone yet.

<Apollo> えええええッ！ （や、やっぱり‥‥） Whaaaaaaaa--!? (I knew it!)

<Phoenix> もちろん、“理由”がある。 これからアキラカになるだろう。 I have my reasons, of course. All shall be revealed.

そして、ぼくの作戦には‥‥ きみが必要なんだよ。 And Apollo... I need you to be there, defending me.

きみの“能力”が、ね。 I need your power.

<Apollo> オレの、のうりょく‥‥ （声のデカさ、か‥‥？） My, um, power? (I had no idea my Chords of Steel were that special...)

The translation here is close enough, really, but Odoroki specifically describes it as the "intensity" of his voice and it's only the best answer.

--

Welp, I guess it’s back to the drafting board again and I may make this out as a daily or every-other-daily upload. We’ll see. I assure you, you won’t be waiting until next month, though!