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skrltwtch · 4 years ago

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Starving

Prompt: I work at the butcher shop and we've never spoken, but I recognise you from when you come in to buy fresh meat every month. I don't mind keeping the store open a little past closing since you're running late and seem kind of desperate. This may be weird to mention, but did you know your teeth are getting sharper while we talk? (Source in master list)

Word count: 2,782 words

Genre: Feels, supernatural

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Someone had the bloody cheek to enter as I was getting ready to close up shop. Our opening hours were indicated on the door. The door. You couldn’t get any clearer than that. When did schools and parents stop teaching their charges not to enter business premises two minutes before closing time?

It was her.

I could make an exception this time, I suppose. She came in often enough and bought more than enough for me to consider her a regular. And she was a lovely person to deal with; I couldn’t say the same for a decent amount of my other regulars, whose business I accepted with gritted teeth.

‘I’m sorry. I know you’re closing soon. Just — please, I’ll take any cuts of meat you have left. I can pay extra for the trouble,’ she said.

Oh, God, what had I done to earn that kind of impression?

‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine, thank you.’ Her pale skin and quivering form said otherwise. ��I just — I just lost track of time at work. I got here as quickly as I could once I could leave the office. I’m really sorry.’

‘Don’t — it’s okay.’ I packed whatever I had left that would also match the typical volume of her purchases. From the corner of my eye, I saw her pacing up and down the shop, holding herself tightly. Every breath she made reached my ears. She wasn’t fine. Forget small talk then. Just like it wasn’t my business what she did with enough meat to feed a large animal in a day every month, it wasn’t my business why she looked close to falling over.

Maybe it was.

I called her over to the cashier, where approximately four kilogrammes of raw meat awaited her. Despite her stature, she never had any difficulties making it out of the shop with that much in tow. That might not be the case today. She was having a tough time simply getting her wallet out of her bag, and she looked absolutely sickly. Were those … were those tears in her eyes?

I really shouldn’t.

I really should.

‘Hey, are you alright? You don’t look too good,’ I said. Understatement: she appeared to be deteriorating by the second.

‘I’m fine,’ she insisted as she struggled with her wallet this time. I narrowed my eyes at her for a better look at what I thought I saw: her canines extending and swelling into fangs. A cross between a hiccup and a sob squeaked past her throat and into the open.

‘You can come back for payment tomorrow. I can help you with this to your car.’ No, it was now my social responsibility not to let her get behind the wheel. She was barely able to stand. ‘Or I can drop you off at your place … or somewhere nearby if you’re more comfortable with that.’

‘I’m fine,’ she growled.

Literally.

‘Shit, I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to.’

‘It’s … okay …?’ Sorry, my attention was hijacked by the sight of claws, honest-to-God claws, fucking splitting her fingernails open.

She left £100 on the counter and grabbed the parcels I made for her. ‘Please keep the change. You’ve been so kind. I can’t — I can’t come back here anymore.’

I wasn’t given a chance to question why she felt that way. Whatever was plaguing her — and scaring me a little, I had to admit — didn’t give her a chance either to make it out the door, as she’d collapsed not far from the counter. I had no idea how I could even let her walk out alone in the state she was in. I rushed to the phone. ‘I’m calling for help,’ I said.

She got to her hands and knees. That was … encouraging. I think. ‘No, please don’t. You need to go.’ Her voice was distorted and rumbly. Her blouse started to tear across her back, revealing a thin, but growing, layer of … hair. Fur, more like. Not so encouraging anymore.

‘I can’t leave you here alone. What is happening to you?’

She buried her face in her hands — or whatever they were becoming as they stretched and popped. Her feet burst out of her shoes, the same changes happening to them. ‘Don’t laugh.’

‘I promise.’ The rapid decline of her health from when she came in, the physical changes wracking her body, and the animalistic noises she was making drained what I was witnessing dry of any humour. I doubted there was any to begin with. I felt almost like I was seeing something I wasn’t supposed to.

‘Werewolf. I’m a’ — a bark, involuntary, broke up her sentence — ‘werewolf.’

I went to her. Outside, the shades of violet and orange the sky had been awash with were muddling into a dark blue. I ducked my head a little to verify the shape of the moon tonight. None of the passers-by thought to look inside. At this point, I was more worried about someone else becoming privy to her secret than I was about the image of my shop. I didn’t understand how this was happening. It made sense and no sense at the same time.

‘You can stay in the storeroom tonight. You’ll be safe.’

She kept her head down. ‘Your boss? Okay?’ Her speech was strained.

‘I’m the boss of me.’ I knew my decision not to hire extra help would pay off someday. ‘Come on.’

‘Thank you.’

She stood up. I shifted my gaze elsewhere, as tempting as it was to see what a werewolf looked like mid-transformation. I showed her the way to the storeroom. It was due for a cleanup anyway. Her constant twitching and whining next to me didn’t go unnoticed. I took it to mean that she was controlling herself from either changing completely until I was out of her way or hurting me. I could be completely way off base, of course. The only piece of werewolf media I ever consumed was An American Werewolf in London (I was more of a zombie person myself), and … well, from what I’d seen tonight, the filmmakers got the transformation right, I’d say.

She took off what was left of her clothes once she was inside, and her transformation … accelerated. I closed the door to give her privacy — and to drown out the horrific noises. Nothing about the human body should produce what I was hearing. Things went quiet, eventually. I opened the door ever so slightly. ‘I’ll be here all night,’ I said despite not knowing whether she’d know what I was saying, ‘so you won’t be alone.’ I should be safe on this side of the door: the change had stripped her of opposable thumbs. The keyword was ‘should’.

The darkness coupled with her black fur made it impossible for me to see the creature she had become. Did I want to see? I still couldn’t shake off the feeling like I’d been some kind of voyeur; her appearance mattered naught to me, though I’d understand if she thought — she likely did — it would. Then she threw herself against the door, slamming both the actual thing and the door to my maiden glimpse at a real werewolf shut.

She loosed a howl that drove home the point that I had a werewolf in my storeroom. That I had been selling meat to a werewolf for her consumption. That the sweet, cheery petite lady who came in once a month was a werewolf. I wondered, then, if what she was like as a human carried over to her wolf self. If it did, I should be safe, right?

… There it was again: ‘should’.

I went back to what I was doing before what I knew about this world had been violently upended. I thanked God — should I? Did He or did He not exist? — that tomorrow was my day off. I was going to spend it with a good book and minimal to no human contact in the comfort of my living room. Now I was only interested in contemplating my place in the universe. What else was out there? Were any of the people walking past as I went to advertise the shop’s official closure for the day harbouring similar secrets as well?

Baleful whines transcended the door and filled the air. I picked up the parcels she’d dropped. Could she be hungry? It was worth a shot. I unwrapped one parcel. The closer I got to the storeroom, the more charged she got. I never dreamt I’d get to know the extent of damage a werewolf’s claws could do to a door in this lifetime. I threw the slab of meat as deep inside as I could. While she went to examine what it was that I’d left to her mercy, I turned on the lights to benefit us both.

What I got to see at last was ineffective in reeling in my disbelief. Where I’d left a quaking, infirm woman now stood a massive black wolf rending raw meat like paper. Despite looking almost indistinguishable from an ordinary wolf, there was an unsettling quality to her proportions and demeanour that made it hard for me to remember my manners and stop fucking staring. She was … beautifully horrifying and frighteningly stunning all at once. In some sick, twisted way, it made sense that something like her — something like what she’d become — couldn’t have come about naturally.

She turned to look at me, her jaw dripping with blood and her tail … wagging.

I regained control of my senses quickly enough to leave. The slamming of the door failed to mute her whimper at — missing out on her chance at a tasty human? Being alone in the storeroom again? Best I didn’t read too much into it. I fed her the rest of the meat she bought. She refused to eat the last piece, yet she wailed when I left her be.

‘I don’t think I’d taste very good. I’m lean and stringy,’ I said through the crack in the door. ‘And bland, like most English food.’

I didn’t know what to make of the bark that followed my attempt at a witticism.

I felt bad for her. Wolves were social animals, weren’t they? Then again, who’d feel bad for me upon discovering my mutilated body in my shop? No one had attempted to romanticise werewolves like the likes of Anne Rice and the Twilight author had done with vampires, and probably with good reason, as I willed myself to remember how she, a soft-spoken woman an hour ago, devoured almost four kilogrammes of meat in record time. The ending of An American Werewolf in London wasn’t a happy one, for God’s sake! (Maybe I should stop invoking God’s name for now.)

‘Can you understand me?’ I said. ‘Bark … um, bark twice for yes’, so it wouldn’t be a coincidence.

And she did.

Well, fuck me.

I sighed. ‘Are you … are you lonely? Bark twice for yes.’

Silence.

For the longest time, until she barked again, softly, mournfulness plain to hear in the two notes.

✦✧✦✧

My back! G— fuck, my back. How the fuck did I sleep last night?

Right. I slept in a chair outside the storeroom.

I stretched to get rid of the kinks in my back. Yeah, that was it. That was the spot. No, that one. That other one was definitely it. Relief — sweet, glorious relief. How the hell did I even fall asleep in a chair anyway?

‘Hey, you’re awake.’

I turned to the direction of the voice that had no reason to be here at this time of day. Or at all. No one was allowed here but me. Why was I in the shop? Wasn’t today my day off? What happened last night? Why, of all things instead, did I remember not to use God’s name as a synonym for ‘fuck’? I also didn’t remember finding religion last night. I pinched the bridge of my nose. I needed water.

I focused my eyes on the figure in front of me.

It was her.

Oh.

‘Yeah, I am now.’ Without a doubt. ‘How are you?’

She declined my offer to have my seat. My legs demanded that I continue standing to get the blood flowing. ‘I’m fine,’ she said. I could believe her this time. She was wearing one of my aprons over the tattered remnants of her clothes. ‘Thank you for … um.’ Her pause made me think her admission last night was the first time she said those words out loud to someone else. ‘Thank you.’

‘It was nothing. You looked … really sick yesterday’: I took a leaf out of her book

She smiled. ‘It’s okay. You don’t have to be polite. I know what I am.’ Her words were shaded with the same tint of sadness as when she confided in me about her loneliness.

‘No. You — the wolf — you were …’ Tame? She wasn’t an animal. She was … ‘You didn’t hurt — I’m fine.’ I held up both my hands to show her the absence of any marks, and she could very well see I wasn’t missing any limbs. ‘I’m fine,’ I repeated, ‘except for this sudden bout of scrambled egg for brains, but in my defence (or not), this is how I am a fair bit of the time. Who put me in charge of a meat slicer?’

‘You’re very kind. And cute,’ I thought I heard her say under her breath. ‘Thank you. How can I repay you for last night?’

‘You don’t have to. The meat’s on the house, too.’ Nothing to do with what I thought she said. ‘I’ll return you your £100 on the way out.’

‘No. Please. I could’ve done something bad to you.’

‘But you didn’t.’

‘Please. There has to be something I can do for you. I’d feel terrible otherwise.’

I truly wanted nothing from her. I survived a night with a werewolf. That by itself was a fantastic reward. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Well …

‘Were you serious about not coming to my shop anymore?’

‘I … if that’s what you want, I can go elsewhere. If you’re going to tell the other butchers not to sell to me because of what I am, that’s okay, too. I’ll figure something out.’

‘No. G— shit. That’s awful. I’m not —’ Why did she always jump to the worst conclusions about me? ‘No, promise me you’ll come back to my shop. That’s all I ask. And … your name. You’ve been coming here for years, and I don’t even know your name.’ I knew some of my customers’ names — and not necessarily the ones that mattered. Like her. ‘It’s not about the business I get from you, by the way. I don’t care what you are. I don’t know why you are what you are, and I have so many questions, but I do know it’s none of my business. I won’t judge.’

She nodded. ‘Thank you. I promise. I’ll come back. I’ll come back when it’s not the full moon and I didn’t skip lunch because I was too busy with work. And my name’s Eloise.’

‘I’m George.’

‘It’s lovely to meet you, George. Now you know why I buy so much meat on one day of every month. You’re the only person who knows what I am.’

‘I won’t tell anyone. You have my word.’

‘Thank you. I know I’ve said that a lot of times already, but I mean each and every one of them.’ Her eyes roved around the space. ‘I should go now. I have work in a couple of hours at best … or I’m late at worst. And you probably need to get ready, too. You should be opening soon … or I’ve made you late. It’s on your door.’

‘I have the day off today. Great timing, huh? Are you sure you’re good to drive?’

‘Yes, I can definitely manage much better today than I would’ve have yesterday. I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just so hungry …’ She shook her head, expelling a breath signalling disapproval. ‘I’ll return this’ — she yanked at an apron strap — ‘to you tomorrow as well.’

‘Actually … one more thing. So we’re really even.’

‘Yes?’

‘Would you perhaps like to meet for coffee later, please?’ I could only navel-gaze for so long.

She looked taken aback. That and her response, articulated in three softly spoken words — ‘I’d love to’, led me to believe that what she was like as a human did indeed carry over to her wolf self.

#exophilia #terato #werewolf #monster love #monster romance #mine

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emberwritesinsight · 4 years ago

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Marinette and Burdens: a possibly-veering-out-of-canon-territory-meta.

Alright, time to unpack a bit of emotional vulnerability that I've managed to string together from implications that the writers probably didn't even intend because the writers are not interested in Marinette having feelings that are valid and respected.

Disclaimer: the writing is inconsistent and I'm going with a read of Marinette's character that may not fall in line with everything in canon, but I'm fine with that because canon can't even fall in line with itself half the time.

We know, from a line that was played as a joke in the first episode (I know the Bubbler is first in some airings but to be clear, the episode I'm talking about is Stormy Weather), that Marinette has trouble saying "no". She clearly didn't want to babysit, and she seems to have had bad experiences with it in the past. But she says she just "couldn't say no", with a look of guilt on her face.

At the end of the episode she manages to say no to Manon, but an interesting thing to note is that she wouldn't have been refusing Manon by refusing to babysit, she would have been refusing Manon's mother. Now, at the time I assumed this was a side effect of her almost pathological niceness- after all, being kind and accommodating can sometimes slide into being a doormat if taken too far. But combined with the other stuff... Well.

(It should be noted that Marinette seems to have trouble with specifically saying no to services, not in general. She says no to Chat Noir on the regular, so it's an important distinction.

We also know that Marinette usually has no problems with the concept of being Ladybug- any doubts she has are more linked to her doubting her ability to protect people rather than the fact that she is a teenager being expected to carry the weight of the city and the world and that's kind of screwed up when you think about it. Now, the writing reason for this is simple: the show is marketed towards kids, so the hero is someone aged closer to the target audience. But I'm beginning to suspect there's an in-universe reason as well, and then we get to Gamer 2.0.

And OH BOY, does this episode have IMPLICATIONS.

The civilian plot of this episode is, to put it simply, that Marinette has too much on her plate. I'm not even going to TRY to tackle the ending of that episode because I would just start ranting, but suffice it to say, it would've been better if it were about time management.

Marinette's inability to say no to a job is back in full swing in this episode, although it's more implied than stated. She only refuses to a task once she is so loaded that it would be quite literally impossible to take on any more work.

The interesting thing about Marinette's packed schedule compared to say, Adrien's, is that it's implied she took on all that responsibility by choice. The schoolwork was unavoidable, but the t-shirt making? The album cover? Surely those could have been arranged differently.

Marinette is on the brink of collapse in this episode, but still she never gets angry at the people who put this stress on her- not once does she complain about the school giving too much homework, for example.

Look, I'll say it straight right here. I think Marinette has serious issues with knowing how much responsibility she should take on. In general, throughout the series, unless it directly grinds against her moral compass, Marinette is helpful to a fault.

And the strangest thing is, this doesn't seem to be her natural instinct all the time. People forget this, but she was actively arguing with Chloe over the Seat Thing™ in Origins. She actively antagonizes Lila multiple times. She is not universally sweet and accommodating. Which frankly makes this dysfunction of hers even more concerning.

Which brings us to Marinette's relationship with responsibility.

The fact is, Marinette's relationship with responsibility is toxic and it is slowly killing her mental health. She both willingly takes on a ridiculous amount of work and lets people force it on her. She takes on the weight of being Ladybug and keeping it a secret, even though we see that she doesn't like having to lie to her loved ones. Honestly, I would be lashing out at Tikki and later Master Fu for putting her in this position if I were her.

Marinette thinks it is her job to do everything, fix everything. She doesn't refuse or reschedule a job because she's convinced it would genuinely hurt the person she is saying no to. That she would actually be causing harm by prioritizing her comfort and mental health over what other people need her to do.

Now, if you're like me, you're probably reading that that and thinking:

"Wow, if that's really how her brain works, than becoming a superhero, a job where not doing it will literally cost people their lives, whose power is to literally fix everything might not have been good for her mental health."

And you would be 100% right! Because that mindset is super, SUPER unhealthy and I'm convinced being Ladybug made it exponentially worse. And even assuming she wasn't like this pre-series (which I doubt), she definitely is now.

I'm going to be honest, if she was like this pre-series, I don't know why, not for certain. But considering the kinds of teachers Francois DuPont employs, who encourage their students to take responsibility for resolving conflict and setting a good example, I myself have made a few assumptions. But what I do know is that this is some seriously unhealthy, self-destructive shit.

And it is reinforced by EVERYONE.

Tikki, Fu, Ms. Bustier, Chat Noir, EVERYONE expects Marinette to take on more of a burden than she can reasonably handle. And somewhere along the line, Marinette accepted that herself.

"I am the servant hero. It's my job to do this. If I don't, who will? "

The answer to that ending question should obviously be, "a responsible adult". But the ML universe doesn't seem to have those, so.

Marinette is, barring strange writing decisions, a kind and helpful person. And these two objectively good qualities, ESPECIALLY the latter, have been twisted so far by circumstance that it is downright scary. Honestly, I'd say it's only a matter of time before she shatters completely.

Now, this isn't to say this is the only explanation. Marinette's poor time management, for example, could be another symptom of her heavily implied ADHD. But I felt like going the darker route today.

#ml writers salt #just because I take shots at them #who's ready to discuss Marinette's possible dysfunctions? I am!#marinette deserves better #she deserves to have these dysfunctions explored #she deserves to be complicated #she deserves therapy #so so much therapy

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nozomijoestar · 4 years ago

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Cannot get this out my head so just remember what I said about these two becoming more like each other and turn that into an entire piece, if you think abt it they're the same character interpreted two ways as is (tws for one sentence of body horror)

The philosophy of the Trikaya came to mind so I tried to embody it in sections and at times blurring together; my paragraph length is deliberately formatted to show the differences in character, have fun trying to decipher what the paragraph lengths mean for each character mindset

I couldn't decide 100% on what Susumu Hirasawa song fits them best so for now (lyric index) I'm considering Moonlight/Shadow of the Moon, The Master's Mountain, A Strange Night of Omnificence, and Venus

Individually Reina's Hirasawa character song is Day Scanner, Kumiko's is Snow Blind

For non Hirasawa music there’s You by Kazami off the Samurai Champloo ost / Eternal by SCANDAL (lyrics)

Also Yūko is listening to Tupac's Life Goes On & Me Against The World

There was something different. Not a bad thing surely, but different all the same. Was it Kumiko standing straighter than usual? No perhaps it was the way her jaw set while weighing decisions. Maybe it had to do with ease of her touch, or the resolve that could flash like lightening through slow motion at random in her gaze.

Whatever it was and why didn’t change its singularity against all else. It was a difference. The concept sent a chill rippling through her; she imagined a figure being peeled back then rearranged before being resewn. A terrible nausea took her then and her playing faltered. Her fingers may as well have become lead on the trumpet valves. She stopped and lowered her trumpet ever so carefully. Change. Would Kumiko one day forget her sound?

Why had Reina stared at her like that after practice? Was there something in her teeth today? No she couldn't be silly. Reina would never see through her over anything trivial. If you asked Kumiko, that intensity easily took its place as the scariest feeling anyone worth more than five minutes of effort had shown her. But she wasn't saying Reina, or anybody, came off as some pet project! It was just...she couldn't give everybody equal time. There were only so many pieces of herself to split for everyone. There were only so many Kumikos before she burst at the seams. At least, these days there were. She preferred that; she knew what the alternative made her.

If you asked her to rank them though, Reina had a slice so huge it was unfair. Kumiko was sure she knew it too. So why had her eyes grasped her heart? She felt a repeat of the feeling now as it struck her even in memory. She was naked before that stare- like her whole being had unfurled the moment Reina's presence approached. Like she saw herself outside her own body. Like Kumiko could die fulfilled.

Her fingers slid over the cool brass of her euphonium. The way the sensation prickled her skin made the air sharper, let it flow through her touching everything before she exhaled. It didn't come frantic but steady and coaxed.

She brought the mouthpiece to her lips and played. Her eyes closed amid the cicada calls in this familiar nook under the shadow of Kitauji's building. Her feet planted easy on this ground that'd received her sweat and blood without complaint season after season. She played.

She played a note for everything, for every breath gave rise to a memory. High notes lifted joyful moments like bubbles meeting the sky. Low notes spiraled their way up beside them in hesitation, but rising nevertheless. Soon the divide blurred and she no longer knew where the two separated.

Together they soared from her; the music a tapestry woven in on itself over and over. The feeing was older than her, older than anyone she knew living. Notes wandered, whole passages surged endless. The piece that wasn't a piece vibrated her blood. The sound rattled her bones. She played.

Her fingers burned exhaustion asking so much of the euphonium. She didn't dare stop. A little more and it'd take a true shape and-

From everywhere a calm that stood side by side with anticipation washed over her. There came the sound of footsteps. Reina turned the corner eyes widened by a hair and lips barely open. Her cheeks had gone flush coloring her like a human sized red crayon. Seeing her in shock drove Kumiko's mind frantic and buzzing until all she blurted out after scooting backward was-

"Do you have a fever?"

"........I could ask you the same thing. Here."

The water was cold and the bottle sweating condensation. Drinking it melted her adrenaline into lava. Her body aches as if scrubbed raw beneath the heat under her skin. The world spun just for an instant before Reina pressed a second water bottle against her neck.

Kumiko yelped, jumping out her chair and scrambling to keep her euphonium from crashing to the floor. Her shoe trips but in an instant Reina is behind her holding her upright. Water from the bottle Kumiko clutched splashed across their skirts and sleeves. When she registered the cold dripping down her knees the picture of what she'd done snapped into place. Before she could control it her voice stuttered out.

"T-T-thanks. Sorry for the mess."

"It's fine. Come and sit."

She let herself be guided by Reina's hand. When they sat side by side the world became right again. Kumiko still gasped and wheezed as she let Reina's fingers tidy her hair. Over time the motions had graduated from bumbling to meticulous; she couldn't clearly remember a time Reina hadn't been doing this anymore.

"What were you playing? I've never heard it."

The tone to her words made Kumiko's stomach sink a little. It wavered between curiosity and scolding; yet at the same time found itself half smothered by her quiet voice. Had she been at it that long? Her body certainly said more than either could.

"Nothing. Was just free-styling and stuff...practice."

"Practice doesn't almost give you heat stroke."

"Maybe not for you, but if I'm special too now then I have to catch up. If I don't there's no point."

Reina's laugh burst from her clear and free. Kumiko's eyes widened. She knew exactly what was coming. The way Reina's black hair draped down her shoulders, the way this angle teased at her nape, the crinkle of her eyes and wiggling eyebrows as her head was thrown back; everything was Reina, and it emptied her mind. She remained staring with her mouth slack like an idiot when she heard it. Now Reina's voice became love.

"You're awful." 'Don't you know we're already alike?'

Reina had finally deciphered Kumiko's new attitude three days ago. Perhaps. Almost. Maybe. Her hunch was solid. Now she needed proof. She wanted proof so bad her blood boiled. Voices leaked through the band room doors. Picking out Kumiko's laugh was child's play. It had a warm quality she couldn't describe even as it calmed her heart.

She entered and wrestled the surge of emotions she couldn't pick apart coursing through her. Her expression remained flat. Calm. Centered. Reina Kousaka did not roar at the world before an audience.

For whatever reason Kumiko had yet to notice her in their crowd of bandmates. She slowed her steps, kneeled near a wall pretending to search her bag. Kumiko sat with Midori and Hazuki today. Their conversation filled her ears, stoked her irrational fear. That fear which hung over her heavier than a headman's axe. That fear who's tendrils constricted her heart at its leisure.

'You wouldn't abandon me without a word would you?'

Childish, Reina Kousaka!

"That part is so tough. My mom's been putting dinner aside when I come home late."

"You always practice real hard Hazuki. It'll be worth it. That's what Nationals are all about! Don't you think so Kumiko?"

"Lately it sounds like my breath control's gotten stronger. When I play the sound is talking...or something like that. I wanna give it all I've got. So I'm glad we're going for it."

"Who're you now? Reina?"

They giggled even as they complimented her after. It didn't matter, her mind raced. What emotions had coursed now rose to a flood. She felt her heartbeat through her tongue. Pride? Kumiko felt...pride in playing...because of her? At the very least with her as a reason?

"Kousaka what're you doing?"

Yūko loomed over her causing Reina to smack into her pink headphone wire when she turned. She flinched and rubbed her nose. She looked up at her; her mind blanked.

"Checking my things."

"You must have a museum in there to be checking your bag for three minutes straight. You look super weird, what's going on?"

No quips or barbs loaded in response; nor could anything dampen the joy already swirling in her head. Besides, any qualms with Yūko were long outgrown. Why dwell on what was settled? Her body still tingled. Kumiko was proud because of her.

Yūko kept staring in anticipation as the song blaring through her headphones faded into another. Reina noticed that little twist of the mouth she did whenever she got impatient. Reina's lips moved to answer her but Yūko cut her off.

"Fine. You don't have to tell me. It better not divide the band though."

"...It's between me and Kumiko. No one else."

"Oh. In that case uh...if you want to talk to someone..."

Watching Yūko look away and scratch her chin awkwardly made her swallow a laugh. Instead she smiled and nodded. Maybe she should blame her mood but a calmness settled her back into reason. Like a bridge connecting, a hand outstretched, she grasped Yūko's kindness. It was good to be alone, not lonely.

"I will. Thanks."

Nights on Mount Daikichi were more natural for them than breathing. Cloaked in the silver and blue of moonlight they glowed at first glance. Countless lights below lit the city like a map of stars. Like gazing up at the sky on Tanabata to find Orihime and Hikoboshi. The cicadas buzzing filled in their silence that wasn't silence. They held their breath even as they breathed.

"When you think about improving, what does that really mean?"

Reina inched her pinky atop Kumiko's. Kumiko did the same. Her head went back as she watched the sky.

"Hmmm...probably a road. There's a place far away just enough for me to see. I don't know everything it has; I know because of that, chasing it makes me better. I used to think it had to stay straight once I started. Kinda stupid, 'cuz I take turns on it all the time. You?"

Reina paused a moment, face contemplative.

"There are stars. Most despite sitting in the sky are far from the moon. Most burn out. Some fall. Fewer get their chance beside the moon. Their light shines the longest. Their light inspires people."

"Pft hehe, there you go saying stuff like a book character again. That's just like you. Is there any room for the band up there?"

"...Maybe..."

"Is there any room for me?"

Without warning Reina leaned closer; her expression went stern. Her voice faltered though it tried being firm. It was the softest tone Kumiko had heard in her life.

"Don't ask stupid questions."

"Ok. I won't."

Their foreheads touched and the cool breeze turned warm on their skin.

"What do you think of the others then...past and present?"

Kumiko shut her eyes. Aoi. Haruka. Kaori. Natsuki. Shūichi. Nozomi. Mizore. Midori. Hazuki. Yūko...Asuka.

The faces of all who's paths intersected and footsteps left prints as guides, tethers connecting her to the universe, appeared in her mind. Each had drawn on a blank sheet of her soul. They were nowhere near her yet she felt them echo. They were her as she was them.

"Unrivaled under Heaven."

"Now who's talking like a novel character?"

"Cut it out." Kumiko replied through a chuckle.

Their eyes met. Reina smirked but only for a pause. She inched forward, asking a question. Kumiko shut her eyes again.

The kiss was unlike anything before and possibly after. An explosion of sensations though they didn't move a muscle. There was no time to remember it yet each second couldn't be forgotten. Feelings of melting, soaring, absolving, each melded and surpassed bliss. The result transcended any name they could give it. A release.

They pulled away. Both panted for air then examined each other as if for the first time. They no longer looked; they saw. They no longer knew, they understood.

Many questions were on the verge of pouring; instead Kumiko cupped Reina's cheeks and smiled. Her thumbs brushed off the forming tears. She didn't say a word when Reina fell into her arms. She simply rested a hand on her head and held her trembling body.

The moon's brightness peaked. If you asked her, it'd moved a little closer.

#my writing #hibike! euphonium #kumirei

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astro-break · 4 years ago

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Did I spend 3 hours cataloging the new MV outfits instead of studying? Yes. Please don’t question it. Everything is under the cut because its long, there’s really bad quality screenshots, and i went ham on the data analysis :)

General points: - There are three types of outfits in the set. Tucked, Untucked, and Half tucked shirts. Pants are the same as far as I can tell

- All of this is speculative and is in no way fact. Please take the data with a grain of salt, I am horrendous at math and can’t count for shit

- Belts and shoes are reflective and go Kira Kira during lives. Subaru goes crazy over them and has probably already stolen them all

Units

Trickstar - Orange Shoes

Hokuto - Tucked Shirt | Subaru - Untucked Shirt | Mao - Half Tucked Shirt | Makoto - Untucked Shirt

Fine - Peach Shoes

Eichi - Tucked Shirt | Wataru - Untucked Shirt | Yuzuru - Tucked Shirt | Tori - Half Tucked Shirt

Ryuseitai - Red Shoes

Chiaki - Untucked Shirt | Kanata - Tucked Shirt | Tetora - Half Tucked Shirt | Shinobu - Untucked Shirt | Midori - Tucked Shirt

Alkaloid - Teal Shoes

Hiiro - Untucked Shirt | Aira - Untucked Shirt | Tatsumi - Tucked Shirt | Mayoi - Tucked Shirt

Eden - Grey Shoes

Nagisa - Untucked Shirt | Hiyori - Untucked Shirt | Ibara - Untucked Shirt | Jun - Untucked Shirt

2wink - Pink Shoes

Hinata - Half Tucked Shirt | Yuuta - Half Tucked Shirt

Valkyrie - Burgundy Shoes

Shu - Tucked Shirt | Mika - Half Tucked Shirt

Crazy:B - Yellow Shoes

Rinne - Half Tucked Shirt | HiMERU - Tucked Shirt | Kohaku - Tucked Shirt | Niki - Half Tucked Shirt

Undead - Purple Shoes

Rei - Tucked Shirt | Kaoru - Tucked Shirt | Koga - Half Tucked Shirt | Adonis - Half Tucked Shirt

Akatsuki - Burgundy Shoes

Keito - Tucked Shirt | Kuro - Untucked Shirt | Souma - Untucked Shirt

Ra*bits - Teal Shoes

Nazuna - Untucked Shirt | Tomoya - Untucked Shirt | Hajime - Untucked Shirt | Tenma - Untucked Shirt

Knights - Dark Blue Shoes

Leo - Tucked Shirt | Sena - Tucked Shirt | Ritsu - Tucked Shirt | Arashi - Tucked Shirt | Tsukasa - Tucked Shirt

Switch - Green Shoes

Natsume - Tucked Shirt | Tsumugi - Tucked Shirt | Sora - Half Tucked Shirt

MaM - Grey Shoes

Madara - Untucked Shirt

(Do you really need a screenshot? Hes been in like. 90% of the other ones :p)

Jin & Akiomi

Jin - Burgundy Shoes, Untucked Shirt | Akiomi - Dark Blue Shoes, Tucked Shirt

Data:

In General - 51 Idols

Tucked Shirts (41%) - 21 Idols | Untucked Shirts (37%) - 19 Idols | Half Tucked Shirts (22%) - 11 Idols

StarPro - 17 Idols

Tucked Shirts (41%) - 7 Idols | Untucked Shirts (41%) - 7 Idols | Half Tucked Shirts (18%) - 3 Idols

CosPro - 12 Idols

Tucked Shirts (25%) - 3 Idols | Untucked Shirts (33%) - 4 Idols | Half Tucked Shirts (42%) - 5 Idols

RyLin - 11 Idols

Tucked Shirts (27%) - 3 Idols | Untucked Shirts (54%) - 6 Idols | Half Tucked Shirts (19%) - 2 Idols

NewDi - 9 Idols

Tucked Shirts (77%) - 7 Idols | Untucked Shirts (11%) - 1 Idol | Half Tucked Shirts (12%) - 1 Idol

(26%) 4/15 Units ([25%] 4/16 if you count Double Face) have members wearing the same shirt. These units are:

Eden (Untucked), 2wink (Half Tucked), Ra*bits (Untucked), and Knights (Tucked)

(53%) 8/15 Units had the same colored shoes. These units are:

Alkaloid & Ra*bits: Teal Shoes

Valkyrie & Akatsuki & Jin: Burgundy Shoes

Eden & MaM: Grey Shoes

Knights & Akiomi: Dark Blue Shoes

Mini Analysis (that eventually turned into a not so mini analysis)

I think that each character wearing their shirts slightly differently is actually super interesting and shows a little bit of personality for them. Loose shirts are more boyish and athletic, youthful and fun while tucked in shirts give off a more refined and put together appearance. Half tucked just looks lazy in my opinion but also has the best of both worlds, a casual kind of formality.

StarPro having a more or less equal amount of Idols wearing their shirts in all three ways is pretty interesting and really emphasizes the amount of freedom these idols are given based on their agency. It also speaks to how free StarPro units are in relation to other agencies since they are the sole agency without any units who match each other’s shirt wearing tendencies. Everyone’s just kind of everywhere with each unit doing their own thing. Its interesting to note that the only unit in StarPro that doesn’t have all three styles of shirt wearing is Alkaloid. In Mayoi’s own words, Alkaloid is “a newbie who has just made his debut”. Because of they’re new I suspect that they haven’t branched out very much, sticking to the tried and true traditions of idol work that dictates that uniformity with minor deviations is the best for unit outfits. You can totally see it in how they’ve separated themselves into two neat groups: Hiiro with Aira and Tatsumi with Mayoi (yes shippers you can go feral over this fact).

Contrasting StarPro, CosPro has the highest amount of units with matching shirt styles. Eden makes sense since Ibara probably wants the face of the company to look uniform so he made them all wear their shirts the same. Though the decision to leave them untucked leaves me questioning a few things. Do they want to seem more approachable? I guessed before actually seeing the outfits that Eden would either have half tucked or fully tucked shirts mostly because they’re a unit who prioritizes appearances. Having that put together air definitely fits Eden (or at least Adam). 2wink wasn’t a surprise tho. They’re generally a more uniform unit being twins and all. Though again, a bit miffed about the choice for half tucked shirts. While I will freely admit that I don’t read very many Eden or 2wink stories nor have I interacted with them very much, I do think there is merit in being able to understand design choices at a glance. If a 2winkP or an EdenP would like to hazard a guess as to why these two units have shirt wearing styles that doesn’t really fit with my preconceived notions of them please do tell me. But other than that, CosPro is generally really uniform with each unit being more or less balanced. Valkyrie as always has a really strong sense of aesthetics and pairing the half tucked shirt with the tucked shirt was a very good call. Crazy:B, like Alkaloid, is neatly separated into two groups: Rinne with Niki and Kohaku with HiMERU (more shipping fodder for you shippers :p). But contrary to Alkaloid who’s following more conventional idol ideas, i feel like Crazy:B was instructed by Ibara to dress like that. Both to promote the image of unity within CosPro but also to piss Rinne off ww.

I really don’t have much to say on RyLin since I generally don’t like any of the units affiliated with it. I really sorry but I’m pretty indifferent about Ra*bits and Akatsuki. I do have Opinions TM about Undead but that’s for another day. But for now, I will say that Ra*bits all having untucked shirts is very cute and very Ra*bits. The picture perfect image of youth and energy!

Thanks to Knights basically dominating the board with their five person unit all with tucked in pants, the data was skewed way to much into the tucked shirts area wwww. Even if Natsume and Tsumugi didn’t have tucked shirts it would still be the majority wwwww. In all seriousness, tucked in pants is 100% a Knights look and i am living for it. They look so noble even in converse and casual wear. I think Mama having an untucked shirt is also super cute and makes him a lot more huggable. (please refer to the Ra*bits screenshot, its very cute the height difference) Even Sora’s half tucked look is very boyish a cute, very Sora. Honestly each of the agencies’ personalities shone through even through these simple clothes and honestly did a better job of giving me each unit’s personalities at a glance than those 5th Ani outfits did.

Also I have no idea why some units share shoe colors its just a fun thing to point out. Yes I’m pretentious and say burgundy instead of dark red. Shut up. I like burgundy :p

Extra Notes

- None of these bitches are straight, they’re wearing Converse with cuffed pants! Look me in the face and tell me that wearing converse with cuffed pants is a straight thing. Thats right, you can’t.

- The stage was Knights’ Silent Oath bc it’s a stage with 5 people, has nice lighting, and has multiple parts where I can get all 5 people with a large window of time. Also I can stand listening to Silent Oath 12 times while taking screenshots. The other option was Suisei Halation but I found Silent Oath first :p

- This came from me noticing that Rei had purple converse shoes and laughing my ass off about it before going to check out the other units and spiraling from there

- As I was cataloguing this, I made a mental list of who in Enstars deserves to have fangs on their model and who actually does. I’m not posting that today but if you’re interested....

- None of this was edited. None of it.

- I really should have been studying ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ time well wasted

#ensemble stars #enstars #outfit analysis #my post #long post #analysis

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noona-clock · 5 years ago

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The Bartender - Part 4

Genre: Bartender!AU

Pairing: Jinhwan x You (Female!Reader)

Warnings: Mentions of alcohol

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Words: 2,294

You weren’t usually the type to be that nervous about going on a date. Even though you did tend to overthink things, for some reason, going on dates was not one of those things.

I mean, if you really think about it, it was just hanging out with someone. Spending time with someone to see if you were romantically compatible. Not a big deal, really.

But when Jinhwan sent you a text message on Sunday morning with a location and ‘Meet me there at 11?’...

You were nervous.

You still replied back that you would be there at 11 on the dot, but you were nervous about it.

Probably it wasn’t actually nerves, though. It was most likely leftover embarrassment, and you were just slightly dreading seeing him.

But it would be fine. You would get over it.

Hopefully.

When you clicked on the location after he’d sent it, your eyebrows raised in slight surprise when you saw the map was one of a nearby beach. A very small beach with a quaint pier, one you didn’t visit nearly as much as you should.

And you knew at least one restaurant at the pier had received a 100 on their last health inspection, so Jinhwan had stayed true to his word -- a quality you greatly desired in a partner.

So, score one for him.

If you added the score he had previously earned for being so cute, he now had about a 26. Out of what, you had no idea, but he definitely had a 26 for the time being.

At around 10 AM, you started getting ready. Since the weather was pretty warm but the beach could get fairly windy, you opted for a pair of cotton shorts and a striped blouse. You also chose makeup packed with SPF, but you didn’t forget to throw a tube of sunscreen into your bag, either.

And then, once you were all dolled up and ready to go... you went.

As you drove toward the beach, you realized that you were incredibly grateful he had chosen a time fairly early in the day to meet up; if you’d had to wait several more hours before seeing him after that disaster of a Friday night, you probably would’ve made yourself sick. Your stomach was already in knots, and it would’ve been so much worse later on.

Thankfully, you saw Jinhwan sitting on a bench near the parking spots as soon as you pulled in. Just like you were glad you hadn’t had to wait until later to see him, you were now glad you didn’t have to wait for him to arrive. You would really rather just get this over with!

...I mean, not the date. Just the awkwardness of seeing him in person after you’d kissed him like that.

You were... actually... kind of looking forward to the date.

Jinhwan stood from the bench once he realized you were the one driving the car pulling in, and a smile curved his lips when you opened the door and got out.

“Hi,” he greeted as soon as you approached. His hands were casually in his pockets, but his smile gave away that he felt anything but casual about seeing you.

Maybe he could pretend to be casual about it, but you certainly could not. It would eat away at you if you simply pretended like nothing had happened. Your two options were to either avoid seeing Jinhwan altogether or to get it all out in the open, and since you were already on a date with him, you had to opt for the latter.

“Listen,” you began, your voice soft but urgent. “I wasn’t lying when I said I’ve never... kissed anyone like that before. I really haven’t, and I don’t know what came over me. It wasn’t the alcohol, but that was definitely not typical Y/N behavior. I’m really, truly sorry, and I don’t plan on doing anything like that again.”

As you’d spoken, Jinhwan’s smile had transformed into a smirk, and he’d taken a step or two closer to you.

“You don’t?” he asked when you’d finished.

You shook your head.

“That’s too bad,” he chuckled. “I was hoping you’d do something like that again today. And, really, I can’t blame you at all. You shouldn’t be too hard on yourself, either. I’m pretty hard to resist.”

“Wow,” you laughed, raising your eyebrows at him. “So, the whole flirtatious thing is just who you are, then.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Good to know,” you nodded. It was hard to keep the amusement from your face, though, and your grin became even more obvious when Jinhwan winked at you.

“Don’t worry, though. I’m very capable of being a one-woman flirter.”

“Thank god. My biggest worry laid to rest.”

Jinhwan’s sly smirk quickly morphed into a full-on smile, and he laughed softly at you before reaching to take your hand. “Come on,” he chuckled.

“Where are we going?” you asked, your heart doing a little skip when you slipped your hand into his.

“...The beach.” He gestured in front of you and shot you a look like you were a little bit crazy. You’d met him at a beach -- where else would you be going?”

“I know that,” you laughed. “But where? What are we doing?”

Jinhwan pulled you a little closer and pointed at two unattended towels spread on the sand. “You see those?”

“Yes. I have very good eyesight.”

With his brows raised, he turned to you and said, “Those are for us. We’re going to sit on them.”

“...And... do what?”

“Talk.”

“Talk?”

He nodded and gently pulled you toward the beach. “You asked me how I could like someone I barely know, so I want to get to know you. I want you to get to know me.”

Actually... you liked the sound of that.

“And then when we get hungry, we’re going to the pier to get sushi,” he added, smirking at you over his shoulder.

It goes without saying, the sushi restaurant at the pier was one which had received full marks on their health inspection, so you shot him a grin in return.

Even though you’d already given him a score for keeping his word -- just taking you to the pier where at least one restaurant was up to your standards was enough -- you decided to give him another for actually choosing a specific restaurant which fit the bill. So, he was up to 27 now.

Or maybe you should round it out to 30 since he had arrived before you. He’d even set everything up already!

So, yeah. He was definitely at a 30 now.

Once the two of you reached the beach towels he’d laid out, Jinhwan helped you sit down and made sure you were comfortable before sitting down next to you.

And then you just talked.

Normally, you weren’t someone who loved to talk. You preferred to have more deep conversations, and you couldn’t really do that with someone you didn’t know well and weren’t fully comfortable with.

But, somehow, Jinhwan was different.

You started by telling him your life story -- what it had been like growing up, your family, how you’d gotten on the path to working for the city and becoming a health inspector. He told you his, in turn, and you listened intently as he explained his journey with owning a bar.

It was so fascinating -- so interesting and so weird -- to hear about two totally different lives that eventually met up with each other.

After what felt like only ten or fifteen minutes, your stomach began to alert you that it was time to eat. You asked Jinhwan what time it was, and after glancing at his watch, he told you it was half past noon.

Your eyes widened when you realized the two of you had been talking for an hour and a half.

And, you had to admit, you were hesitant to leave. Your conversation had been more than pleasant, and your surroundings currently were so peaceful: the lulling sound of the waves nearby, the warm sun, the somewhat distant sound of seagulls, the smell of ocean salt in the air.

But your stomach was empty, and a plate of sushi was too tempting to stay away from any longer.

When you suggested getting some food, Jinhwan helped you up before collecting the beach towels, shaking out the sand, and folding them up. The pier was close enough to walk, and he took your hand once more as the two of you began to head over to the restaurant.

“I like you like this,” he said after about a minute of comfortable silence.

“Like what?” you asked with a lopsided grin.

“Casual. Comfortable. Not in my bar.”

You laughed softly, and Jinhwan continued, “Don’t get me wrong, I like seeing you while you work. And I like seeing you in my bar. It’s very sexy. But I realized I haven’t ever seen you outside of the bar, and... I like it.”

A warmth spread over your cheeks, and you nodded at him. “I like it, too,” you admitted.

And for those comments, you added another five to his score.

So far, this was shaping up to be a pretty perfect date. You’d had your doubts, to be quite honest, but just sitting and talking on the beach had been wonderful. And now a nice walk to a sushi restaurant? At this point, your lunch could be just mediocre, and you would still label this as the best date you’d ever been on.

In fact, you were pretty sure --

Your thoughts were interrupted by a very loud squawk. You jumped a little, startled by the sudden noise, and before you could look up to see the intruding seagull... you felt something warm and wet land on top of your head.

...Oh. My. God.

You froze, your heart pausing momentarily as you felt whatever it was (yes, you knew exactly what it was, you just didn’t want to admit it yet) start dripping down your hair and onto your shoulder.

“Oh... shit,” Jinhwan said, his eyes wide as he stopped walking and turned to look at you.

“Yeah,” you breathed. “...Literally.”

You truly -- truly -- could not believe that a seagull had just pooped right on top of your head.

You didn’t know whether you wanted to cry with shame or with disgust.

Or both.

Probably both.

When you glanced at Jinhwan, you could tell he was trying not to laugh. And, if you were in his shoes, you knew you would be doing the same thing.

Because objectively speaking, a bird pooping on your date’s head was funny.

But not when it was you.

“Jinhwan!” you whined, closing your eyes so you couldn’t see his face. Hearing him would be bad enough. “It’s not funny!”

“Well,” he sputtered. “It kind of is.”

“It’s not!” But even you could hear the laughter in your voice.

“Here, there’s a water fountain up ahead,” Jinhwan chuckled. “Come on.”

He squeezed your hand and led you up to the sidewalk by the pier, your body barely moving so nothing from your hair could drip down onto your shoulders any more than it already had.. He stopped in front of the water fountain and murmured for you to bend over so your head was under the drinking faucet.

Oh, god, this was humiliating.

Once you positioned your head in the bowl of the water fountain, Jinhwan turned on the faucet, and the cold water began to stream down your hair. You let out a gasp, a shiver running down your spine at the shocking temperature.

But then you felt Jinhwan’s fingers combing through your hair and another type of shiver ran down your spine.

“Okay, you’re right, this is disgusting,” he laughed. “But I was also right because it is funny.”

“You’re not the one with ice water pouring over your head!” you cried, and you quickly closed your eyes when you saw streams of bird poop landing in the water fountain.

“But I am the one touching it,” he retorted. “The cold water and the poop.”

...That was true.

After about a minute, Jinhwan sighed and said, “I think I got it all.” He turned off the water and gently squeezed your hair to get the excess water out.

“Do I still have some on my shirt?” you asked, too afraid to look yourself.

“Yeah, hold on.”

A few moments later, you felt him wiping your shoulder with one of the beach towels. He then nudged you a little, and when you shuffled a few steps away from the fountain, he got another corner of the towel wet and wiped at your shirt some more.

“There,” he said with a nod as he examined you. “Poop-free.”

You had to laugh at that, though you did feel your cheeks burning with embarrassment. “Oh, my god,” you sighed. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault,” he grinned. “Though... are you still up for some sushi?”

You were glad he brought it up because now that you thought about it...

“Actually, there’s a very delicious pizza parlor right next to the sushi restaurant.”

“Sounds perfect.”

Jinhwan ran to take the towels back to his car, and as you stood there waiting, combing your fingers through your hair and hoping it would dry at last halfway decently, you added another two hundred points to his score.

A guy who would rinse bird poop out of your hair? On the first date? And not even complain? And he still wanted to eat lunch with you?

You were actually starting to kick yourself for not agreeing to go out with him sooner.

Part 5

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fantranslatorbychoice · 4 years ago

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Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi Volume 6 Chapter 2- The Village Hidden in Hyakumemomiji** Part 1

T/N: OK Kakuriyo Fam-fans, how are you all doing? Did the last chapter surprise you? Anyways, I wasn't surprised, Odanna-sama always takes Aoi out on a food trip date (dang it, when's my turn lololol even I am tired of eating just white rice at times T_T) so yeah, I guess autumn fruits sound good.

Anways, I sorta started doing a speed run of this chapter because I got too-excited with the date, and I tried letting out this translation as fast as I can, and hopefully by the end of the chapter you'll see why I wanted to speed run this mofo lololol

As always, I mostly didn’t translate a lot of the names of the ayakashi/youkai, as well as the proper nouns because uhm... They’re basically nouns. It’s like how some translated manga are done. Plus it irks me sometimes when everything just gets transliterated, it kills off the vibe. But that’s just me. Links to references at the end of the post.

Also if you like this translation, you can share the link, reblog, but for pete’s sake DO NOT REPOST ELSEWHERE. I worked hard to finish this thing, it’s not like I just Google-translated this whole sh**..

If you need refreshers on what happened, @kakuriyo-translations already had the previous translations. I’ll place a tiny index in this post somewhere, to make that easy. I’m just contributing to this fandom. Also, as previously mentioned in my other post, the 2 seasons of the anime cover volumes 1-5, so if you need a review just rewatch them all. Volume 6 starts here.

P27 "A date with Odanna-sama, huh..." Yesterday's rice cooking events felt like a daze, and I felt that fairly it hasn't sunk in yet, and waking up early just made me realize it. The lovely chirping of the little birds just annoyingly grated my ears. The distinct skin-chilling coldness of autumn is also piercing my body. Incidentally, I'm also a bit nervous. "It's.... It's not a big deal, it's not unusual that I'm going on a date with Odanna-sama. Yeah." We went to Youto and ate offal hotpot, we ate chicken tempura in Gintengai, and in the port of the Southern lands we ate donburi with pickled toppings... No matter how many times Odanna-sama and I went out, why am I nervous after all this time? This is weird. Could it be that I'm going down with an illness? Firstly, I opened the shutters of the veranda, to breathe in the early morning air... "Aoi! Let's go now!" P28 "What the.. It's early! Odanna-sama you're early!" The busy bee that uneasily goes here and there and everywhere and has no free time Odanna-sama has already come here. It seemed that he cut across the inner garden towards the veranda. If so, he must have beavered to get here with incredible flexibility. But I'm still wearing my pajamas! "Speaking of, Odanna-sama.. Are you going out looking like that?" Odanna-sama changed his appearance into a younger one, like what he looked liked before, as a fish monger, and his kimono wasn't spectacular, he just looked like a commoner. "That was fast. The face I usually have in Tenjin-ya is too recognizable. What's more, Aoi is the only one that found me out, now this date isn't fun anymore." "I... I'm sure..." Although, if it's through this appearance I felt a bit nervous too. At any rate, this handsome Odanna-sama may be handsome, but the nobleman aura isn't here. Even Orio-ya's Young Mistress Nene only said that he looked reliable-ish. "But Odanna-sama, in spite of this, even this is way too early for Ayakashi! I haven't even prepared anything yet." "I'll wait for you here while you get ready." "You're not busy? Odanna-sama has some free time?" P29 "It's because it's been a very long time since I had a whole day free. Even though Byakuya has been nagging me to get some break already, I just feel that I mustn't. I may have worked too much during the matter with Orio-ya. That dude Raijuu. It seemed that he used some people from the capitol. One way or another, it smells like that all over." "Smells like that.. All over?" What does that mean? The matter in Orio-ya, the circumstance that accompanied the Southern lands, the ceremony that no one spoke of and secretly kept in the back-burner. The sea that lies in between Tokoyo and Kakuriyo wherein every 100 years an Ayakashi called Umibouzu arrives, a peculiar Ayakashi that is received and welcomed. In that ceremony, Raijuu made a disturbance and I got hindered, but borrowing everyone's strength and cooking the Sea Jewel Appetizers while bearing all that, we were able to entertain and serve the Umibouzu. I know that Odanna-sama worked hard for me, but there were many things that I don't know, could there be more things hidden? That Raijuu, I wonder if he's doing anything else right now? "Hey, Aoi, don't go absent-mindedly prepare when getting ready. Would you want to go out in your sleepwear?" When he said that, him egging me on, I went inside the room to prep up... "No, but what should I wear?" In front of me is the kimono that Odanna-sama gave me, but it's too elegant and it won't fit fruit picking. P30 There's also the blue kimono that I used back in Orio-ya, but it's too summery. "Hm?" I opened the wooden cabinet, and I became aware that there was a kimono that I haven't seen before. It was solidly very autumn, a deep red kimono, and a soft mustard yellow obi. It was laid on top of it. It looks of good quality, but it looks light and simple to wear, it's going to be easy to move in it. "Please use this on your date with Odanna-sama. Matsu, Take, Ume." The letter on it... It's the three Nopperabou sisters usual business! "I'm thankful but.. why is there a feeling of eagerness?" I closed the sliding doors of the veranda and changed clothes. From beyond the sliding doors's side, I could hear Odanna-sama chatting with the palm-top Kappa Chibi, who just came back from taking a morning bath. "Ah.. Ogre-shaaan is heeeere" "Isn't taking a bath in autumn chilly, Chibi?" "Ish not really that coooold. In Utsushiyo, the raging wavesh were mush coldeeeer. Ish eashier in heeere." "Aren't you strong... That can only be expected from Aoi's disciple..." "Yeahhh but my beak ishhh chattering... Ish very very coooold..." P31 "Come here. The ogre-fire will warm you up." It seemed that the seemingly calm and composed but eventually got cold Chibi was warmed up by Odanna-sama's ogre-fire. Somewhat somehow, after changing clothes I attached the flower bud kanzashi in my hair. "The petals have opened up considerably now..." I talked to the petals. Gah, I don't know if talking to the petals is a good thing... My impatience doesn't wane, with regards to the flower has blooming. I wanted to see the flowers open up into a round wheel, but the petals will scatter if it does. "Aoi-shaaaan! I am hungryyyy..." Chibi flungs the sliding door open and enters the room. And speaking of, I haven't made breakfast yet. "Say, Odanna-sama, you want to eat breakfast? We have a lot of cold rice left, we can make some onigiri. We can eat while we're walking." "Aoi's hand-rolled meals? Yes, that sounds good." I have just finished changing clothes, but I already wore my apron and went to the kitchen and made onigiri. I mixed the plum and Hijiki seaweed into the onigiri, and packed a lot of the salmon flakes into the onigiri wrapped in nori. There were also eggs left, so I made them into rolled omelette. P32 There's no dashi, no onions, just plain omelette. I added salt and sugar, and some mayonnaise as a faint flavoring. I cut cucumbers and pickled daikon and skewered them with toothpicks, and added these to the sides. The simple onigiri bento box is now done. I wanted to make some with more variety, but I can't make Odanna-sama wait. Today we're going with "simple is best." I stuffed everything in a box, wrapped it in cloth and brought it out with me. "I'm sorry Odanna-sama. Did you wait long?" Odanna-sama was lying down in the veranda and smoking his pipe, while listening to Chibi's stories about playing in the pond. It was about a crawfish, then about a pond skater. Whatever it was about, it's fine. "Nooo, it's not bad to wait for the new wife as she readies herself. Teehee." "Then what are you so happy about?" Odanna-sama stood up, said "Alright, let's go!" and held out his hand. I bewilderedly took his hand, and got supported as I wore my geta sandals. Along with the kimono I'm still not used to, I felt anxious of tumbling down. "Ahhh... Aoi-shaaan and Ogre-shaaaan, where are you goiiiiing? Take me along tooooo." "Well, that sounded miserly..." Even though he was always playing alone, Chibi always wants to be taken along. P33 "When you want to come with, you can come, Chibi. You'll be eating your favorite grapes." "Grapeshhh..." Chibi jumped from the veranda and onto my back. I realized that he was climbing my back as he went "Heave, ho, heave ho." "Say, Odanna-sama, are we going in the airship again?" "Ah, yes. But this time, we're not boarding one with the Tenjin-ya's crest because we'll be hiding, so we'll use the smaller ships. This time the fruit orchard Hyakumeyama, which lies in the connecting lands of the north and northeast will be our destination. The place has farms and is quiet, and you can go pick and harvest fruits at ease and in all diligence." In a bit as we went off, Odanna-sama brought me to the place where the ship was set in anchor. In that place, the Young Master Ginji-san and the Chief Accountant Byakuya-san were there, and it seems that they were going to see us off. Byakuya is a Hakutaku Ayakashi, and is Tenjin-ya's REAL Second Leader. On one hand where he's holding a fan, looked like he was tapping it on the other hand, and he seems to be in a bad mood. "Odanna-sama, don't go too far for your rest and relaxation at nightfall, it's quite perilous. That dummy Raijuu seems to be somehow releasing his stench from the capitol. Do you understand?" "Byakuya, don't be nervous. I know and I'm already serious about it." "If so, then that's nice. You too, Aoi-kun." P34 "Y.. Yes!" I unconsciously replied to Byakuya when he called my name, and it flew out of my head. "Yugao's income this month is very good, and for that I salute you. Nonetheless, you must not lose focus, try to learn to understand that when you go out, then come back here. Keep in mind that, and while at it, don't trouble Odanna-sama." "Y.. Yes!" I unconsciously bowed. It's better to listen to Byakuya-san's words. "Hey hey Byakuya. It's a rare rest and relaxation day. Don't make Aoi think about work." "Oh, don't worry Odanna-sama. I was just telling her what I intend to do." "Oh, I see." Odanna-sama looked at the clear autumn sky. "Aoi-san, be careful outside, whatever you will be doing. Odanna-sama, leave Tenjin-ya's care to me in your stead." Ginji-san was grinning and side-smiling. He seems to be his usual and formal self. "Ginji, please take care of business. Byakuya, if there's anything contact me." "Yes, I know, Odanna-sama." P35 Ginji-san and Byakuya-san, the two higher-ups in the management team bowed their heads deeply, and as we boarded the airships they sent us off. As the airship was rising into the clear sky, we bathed in the afternoon sunlight on the ship's wooden deck. The sunlight was warm, despite the cold breeze. It was a really good atmosphere. "Ahhh. Odanna-sama, the weather's good. It's great that it's clear." "Yes. That said, let's eat breakfast, Aoi." "That was hasty, Odanna-sama..." Sitting on the ship's deck's benches, we immediately opened the onigiri bento boxes. While in that great mood, the arranged onigiri tastes good. This was yesterday's scattered rice, and yet adding salt in this onigiri changed its taste. More than anything, eating this outside was a good idea. "The omelette is also good. It's simple, but it suits the onigiri." "You think so? A lot of various things are always added and used, but this time I only added a few seasonings. Because the cassowary's egg is wonderful, the onigiri which has a lot of stuff is already good. But because I added mayonnaise to the egg as a subtle flavor, just adding salt makes it mellow, doesn't it?" I was talking about a lot of things, and Odanna-sama was just enjoying his food and smiling. "Teehee. Surely it's because it's hand made by Aoi. It's warm and feels like home." That Odanna-sama that day, he was very friendly and easy to talk to. P36 That person's impression has definitely changed. No, he did not change, he was probably like that as an ogre since the very beginning. I only noticed that he was such, whenever we met, and talked about heavy things. "But really, I thought that it was better if I made more in variety..." Also, instantly,because the opportunities are rare, I thought that if I'm going to do it, I should concentrate on making various bento kinds. Basically, for Odanna-sama I haven't made any food by hand. No, when it comes to those times, I have made more for the other employees than for Odanna-sama. "Don't worry about it. Just do what you usually cook. In those times, aren't the food that you didn't think about much also taste good? It's because in 10 minutes, they’re already delicious." "The food that I.. didn't think much about?" Probably because lately, the food and drinks that I served were continuously served everyday. Before coming to Kakuriyo, Grandpa and I only cooked for ourselves, home-cooked meals. When I came here, it changed because I served food for the Ayakashi. Even though I felt nervous here and there, my skills improved as I kept doing it, and in that time I was able to learn how to cook freely. Because of that, I was able to feed myself and my family.. "Aoi-shaaan, cucumber..." "Oh, sorry Chibi, here you go.." P37 I handed him over the sliced cucumber and pickles stuck on the toothpicks. Then Chibi held those in both hands, and like in a daze started munching and crunching on them. Even though I was nervous early in the morning, I felt comfortable and carefree right now. The evidences are because of me bringing the onigiri and the bento boxes without thinking much.

"Welcome, Tenjin-ya's Odanna-sama. Yugao's Aoi-dono." The smiling face of the owner who greeted us at the entrance of the fruit orchard looks familiar. Once, previously, we met at Gintengai... Could it be.. It's Rokusuke-san, the Rokurokubi. Even in Yugao, we use the fruits from Rokusuke-san's business Mizumakinouen. "Hello, Rokusuke-san." "Aoi-dono, thank you very much for always patronizing our Mizumakinouen's fruits." "Rokusuke-dono, thank you for taking care of us. I am just a commoner today, because we are doing these in secret. You don't have to be so humble." "I understand, Odanna-sama. Today we're only open for half a day, so I think there will be less visitors. Uhm.. Oh, you can see the momiji autumn leaves on the side of the mountain over there." Rokusuke-san stretched his neck towards the mountain to check, and as he moved towards a tree trunk he showed to us the place. P38 "Alright then, please come this way." We finally went inside the fruit orchard. The first portion of the fruit orchard that we went into, was the grape vineyard. "Woooow!" A canopy above our heads hanging like ivy, these drooping, purple grapes look like drops of water seemingly about to burst. They look so fresh, the colors make them look like jewels. The viney canopy allows the autumn sunlight to pierce through, and the gentle air space is filled with a mysterious life force. "This is awesome, Odanna-sama! The grapes are just so impecable!" "The size of each of these grapes are Kakuriyo's biggest and sweetest, the variety is called Daishisui. Lately, Rokusuke-san says that this seedless variety has been selling very well in the market." "For sure.. In Utsushiyo too, I've seen some seedless grapes, I wonder if the skin in these ones are edible too." "The skin isn't edible. But they're easy to peel. Let's go pick some." "Really, they look like Concord grapes, I was thinking of making some grape tarts, I wonder if they're suitable..." The grapes with seeds are really good when used, but how can these seedless grapes be said to be easier to eat, as well as easier to be used for cooking?** T/N. Yeah, I mean, the seedy ones get easier made into jams due to having more pectin, so I agree with you Aoi, I don't know any other use for seedless grapes other than turning them into raisins. The seedy grapes are, in my opinion tastier, juicer, and have more uses. But that's just my opinion lol P39 The grape's main tree is not that tall, and I could easily have fun gathering them. The farm's assistants gave me scissors, and I started to trim the bunches off the trees. These were profoundly heavy, and I was having so much fun gathering them. Store-bought grapes had nothing on these ones. After picking a lot of grapes, I couldn't resist eating one. I was shocked. "Uwahhh! It's very sweet! Odanna-sama, the grapes are very sweet, they're so delicious!" "You tried them right away?" Immediately after I ate one, the fruit's peel was a tad hard-textured, but the grape just burst in my mouth and the juice's rich taste surprised me, it wasn't that sour but the sweetness levels were high. These grapes were picked at ambient temperature, but the taste and texture were still straight up enjoyable. This is a really good product. "Aoi-shaaaan, I want to slurp some grapesh tooooo." "OK, I'll get it." Chibi got hold of a bunch of grapes and hung on one. He went with a grape, and deftly using his beak started peeling off one portion of it, before slurping up and sucking on the juice and munching on it. Chibi holding onto a grape is somehow cute. P40 "Next up are apples. We're going to go buy some to bring home as give-aways for everyone back in Tenjin-ya." "Apples, huh. There are many preservation methods for them, they store up for long time, and many varieties of recipes can be made with them. I want to buy lots for myself too." Hauling the baskets that Rokusuke-san entrusted to us, we went further away to pick some apples. The apple orchards were further inside the premises, away from the grape orchards. The trees were a bit taller than Odanna-sama. All around the trees’ silhouettes, these bore a lot of fruits. "Uwah, they're really very red!" Those apples look so lovely and so tasty. The red color was so deep, and I love the smooth, round shape. Those hanging on the tree look so gorgeous, but I couldn't help but be very interested as to how these will taste. I trimmed one off with scissors, scrubbed the freshy-picked apple's skin and wiped it, and bit into it with haste. While chewing it, the juice's sweetness and sourness spread across my mouth as well as it's strong fragrance. The fruit was crisp and made crunching sounds, as the liquid lightly pulls away. Truly, this were what's called apples. "Are they sweet, Aoi?" "Yes! The insides are sweet, there's hints of sourness, but the flavor is very deep. For sure, this are of Mizumakinouen's best quality. Oh, Odanna-sama, those apples look like they're of a different variety, let's go there, let's go over there!" P41 "Calm down, Aoi..." Odanna-sama accompanied me going here and there. There were so many varieties of apples in the orchard, each one's taste and sweetness were a bit different, and we ended up trying everything. "Hey look, Odanna-sama. Up there on the mountain a bit, there are also more apple trees!" I discovered that on that different place, the were other growing apple trees. Just about all of the trees in the orchard were basically grown in a detached and open portion of a plateau, but when the adjoined mountain is climbed up a little, trees with seemingly fresh apples can be seen. The pink mixed with the saturated red color makes those apples shine brightly. "That's a variety of mountain apples." "Is that different from normal apples?" "Mountain apples are a bit more sour, and the fruits are hard. Up until now, those fruits are entirely inedible, but just sometime ago, Mizumakinouen has started to sell liquor made out of mountain apples. It's still an unknown product but previously, Rokusuke-san brought a bottle to Tenjin-ya, and we tasted some out yesterday. Ginji and I tried it out as we welcomed some guests." "Speaking of that, both of you were tipsy yesterday..." P42 "It's not exactly that much, but it's easy to get drunk." "Whh-at?" Mountain apple liquor. I'm interested but... I have not so good memories about liquors. Sometime ago, I had a very bad experience with the Tengu's secret sake. That has traumatized me until now, and I have never drank and liquor from then on. "Ahaha, your face stiffened. For sure, after drinking that liquor and getting drunk, you'll feel it for two days after drinking, and the next day when you wake up your mood will be better.. On the night before this rest day I drank just one cup, and I felt like my health got better. Mizumakinouen's brand-new product is something that you'll buy again and again." "Odanna-sama, you don't just merely "drink and try it out." "Ginji also likes it, I'll buy some for him as a souvenir." Just saying that, Odanna-sama just floods with elegance. I went up to where the mountain apples were, just to check. The fruits were larger than I thought. I tried biting on it, it was more sour than sweet, and the flesh was harder. "This isn't just for liquors, this can also be used for jams too." When this is boiled down with sugar, the sourness won't easily disappear, and that's a good thing. Even though the small basket on my back was already full, I tossed the mountain apples into the large basket on Odanna-sama's back. P43 Nevertheless... "Odanna-sama, the commoner's look you have now, you really come off as a plebeian. You really look good with that apple basket, you know." "You're starting to tell me that about me looking like a commoner, Aoi?" Even though I said, that, Odanna-sama seems to be ecstatic. "Let's leave this orchard in a bit. Our baskets are already full." "Ehhh? Let's stay for ten more minutes..." In a corner of the fruit orchard, it seems like there's a small hut that has a fire and is making some jam, and Odanna-sama and I started heading over there. Inside Odanna-sama's basket, in front of me, Chibi was scampering about and I could see Chibi playing with some apples. While inside the large pile of apples, he seems to be playing inside a maze. "Chibi, don't play with the apples too much." "OK, I geeet it. I'm a very shmart Ayakashiiiiii, I won't treat theeeshe appleshhh harshhhlyyyy." However, while Chibi was squirming about, an apple rolled and fell off the basket. "Awww, I made one faaallll ouuuuuut." Chibi popped his face out of the basket, and seemingly unashamed of his wreckless behavior stared at the falling apple, while I chased the apple in a panic. P44 That red apple, I was going to use that for jam. I don't want to waste even one! "What the..." The apple instantly vanished. I didn't notice that there was a large hole hidden by the grass, in front of the place where the apple rolled off to. My geta got stuck and snagged back by a tree root, and I fell head-first into the hole were the apple fell off before! "Gyaaaaahhhhhh---" "Aoi?!!" The apples on my back all rolled down and got scattered. This emergency seemed comical but without a doubt is devastating. Everywhere I bumped into hurts. "Aoi-- Aoi--!" "Ohhhh daaarn, thisshh ishhh baaaaad..." As Odanna-sama was calling my name out, it started to sound farther and farther away because of Chibi's insensitive words. Roll.. Roll.. All of the apples loaded in my back started rolling out easily like a conveyor belt as I looked on. P45 "Owwww" On the place where I landed, I was surrounded by a precipice inside the mountain, and all around was a wide place that was full of fluffy fallen leaves. The top of the hole was high, and above the gaps in between the trees, I could only see a bit of the sky. I went and looked around my surroundings, but I couldn't find the hole that I fell from. "Ohh, a red dragonfly!" But in that place, in all of that stillness, there were momiji, fallen autumn leaves. There was a small spring, where the fallen leaves were floating and coloring the water with. Countless red dragonflies were darting over the spring. Red, orange, brown, yellow. Heavily piled and packed and stacked on top of one another in many layers, the fallen leaves superbly look like a carpet. It looked somewhat like a lovely, autumn forest. Looking at these momiji, I consciously remembered an old memory related to grandpa. "Wai.... Odanna-sama... Odanna-sama, ODANNA-SAMA!!!" This is not a time to be a dummy. I loudly called for Odanna-sama, but my voice only echoes and rebounds back into the precipice's walls. It seemed that Odanna-sama is already far away. "Don't tell me.. I've gotten lost in the fruit orchard..." No matter how frequently I got lost in Kakuriyo, I always didn't feel like I was in distress, didn't I...? P46 "Gah, I shouldn't think too much of this..." For the time being, I'll just wait for help to arrive, while I pick up all of the scattered apples around me. All of the apples were fine. Even if some got bruised, there's no problem with eating them. But then that time, I felt like there were scratching sounds behind me, and I was shocked when I turned my head around. "Wh... Who are you?" From inside the forest, with masks that were as red as apples, and bodies each covered in a straw raincoat, a crowd appeared. They surrounded me, and it seemed like they're coming in from everywhere. "It's a human... A human girl.." Whispering in hushed voices, they signalled each other through the eye holes in their masks. Because the wall of the precipice was behind me, I couldn't move at all. "Wh..What is this.. Wait a minute..." The dubious beings started moving smoothly towards me. Could it be that, they're going to feed on me? But within the populace wearing a straw raincoat, a strange branch was pulled out, and they lighted it up, and towards me wafted a smoke that smelled bittersweet, it was an unfamiliar smell. P47 In a moment before I realized it, I have lost consciousness.

I had a dream. It was an old memory, with momiji and apples. In reality, back then I went with grandpa once, to his old residence. I was still an lementary school student then, and for sure it was autumn. I was sure that grandpa visited the Buddhist altar of his deceased mother, we went to this large residence in the outskirts of Tokyo, and I accompanied him. It has been a long time since he visited their family home, and he probably felt a lot of nostalgia. That home reminded me particularly of autumn season, and it seemed that grandpa had so much deep-seated emotions. "Ah, I see.. When autumn comes, this home seemingly turns into an AKIAKANE." "Grandpa, what's an akiakane?" "That's a red dragonfly, Aoi." It seemed like grandpa cut himself off from whoever was living in that home. He particularly didn't mention the place he came from, and it seems that through this I couldn't get to know him better. After a very long time, for such a reason he had no choice but to meet with his mother. P48 However, if I was going to meet my great-grandma, I couldn't instantly do it when she was still alive. Even when that person died, grandpa didn't come to her funeral, and even after that he couldn't bring it upon himself to visit even secretly. The house that we went to was the first and last time that I did, but to be honest, from how I remembered it, it was a really large residence.** Grandpa was such a monk... "I apologize, I had no way to find out, you were already at the verge of death. As expected, the role of head of the household was difficult..." "Nay, mother's death.. Seemed to be from my curse. I am truly sorry about that. You were killed by someone who didn't want to die... A strong person..." "Being someone like the lady of the house, even at your time of death, Shirou made you worry. Let us hurry now to her Buddhist shrine**." A man in the prime of his life, grandpa brought himself into the house's inner room, and in front of us we saw an imposing Buddhist shrine. A curse...? Grandpa's words were spoken in a low and hushed voice, and that time I thought that what I was continuously listening to was mysterious. But then I remembered something, it seemed that there was a deep meaning to it. T/N: At this point, it's easy to see why Shirou was living as a reckless man, he was probably raised in a stiff household, mostly because he was a member of the main family, with his mother as the house head. So he had to conduct his manners most of the time, probably. He loosened up when he got a chance to get away from the house. He was also probably bailed out a lot, which is why he at times becomes happy-go-lucky, or leaves others to clean up his messes. Think of a chaebol's son (son of a rich person lol) being bailed out a lot, and ends up not being able to clean up his messes. Buddhist shrines are tiny cabinet-like altars that contain the photo of the deceased, and they're usually opened up on death anniversaries or new years or whenever there's a day of the dead celebration something, like hungry ghost fest or something. Offerings can be placed in front of the cabinet, along with candles and incense sticks. Again, as this implies that Shirou came from a prominent family, his mother's shrine altar is probably huge AF. P49 "Aoi, come meet your great-grandmother. Mother, this is my granddaughter, Aoi." In front of the large Buddhist shrine, I was introduced to the dead. So many apples with a lovely color were offered, and as a child that left a strong impression on me. The incense stick's fragrance, within the swaying smoke rising up... The red color that was projected looked lovely. I didn't understand how to pay respects to someone that I didn't know. But the blurred vision of grandpa's side profile, up until now I didn't see it, it was a person who was suffering in loneliness... I could only remember it now. "Aoi, wait here for a bit..." After that, grandpa talked to two of his male relatives, and on the tatami floor of the residence, I waited for him. There was a garden connected to the veranda, and red dragonflies were flying in and out, dartingly through the window. I wondered why I was there alone...As I was sitting on the veranda, looking at the evening sky's madder red color, I started to ponder. Everywhere I go my heart always feels wrenched as I always felt that I was an outsider, but staying here in this residence, it didn't feel bad. It's easy for this old house to draw in Ayakashi, but I couldn't feel anything evil. Being guarded somehow, I could remember that place had a sense of calm and peace. P50 I didn't think that there would be anyone visiting or encroaching the confines of that place. "Are you.. A human?" Suddenly, there was someone at the gate. Before I realized it, a young boy was standing beside me. The boy seemed to have orange hair**, I thought that he was a humanoid Ayakashi, and my body stiffened. He's not a human-ish Ayakashi... At best, he is a lower-grade elementary school student. A child. But as I stared at the child in front of me, looking deeper at his essence, his eyes were not those of a child's. "I'm... A human too." I answered with a low voice, and as that child's face remained the same, he nodded over a serving tray that he was carrying. Sliced apples were arranged on a glass plate, and there was a glass of milk on the tray too. "Mommy told me to bring these to you." I humbly took these, and the kid frettedly ran away as if he was escaping. At that moment, he really did acted somewhat like a child. While running, what seemed like a mother's scolding voice called out "Akane, stop running!" T/N: It's not an ayakashi, it's zappy boi Zenitsu wahahaha I have zero regrets and yeah I know Zappy boi had brown hair before getting struck by lightning. But seriously, it seemed that based on the stuff here, Shirou's family can see Ayakashi, as Zappy boi Akane and Aoi can see them, like he did. Honestly, the color-name puns are just too much lololol P51 That kid, his name was Akane. It was the sky's color, and was the name of the red dragonflies. The skin of the sliced apples were made into bunnies** and they looked cute, and I could feel the love of the mother living in that house. Could the child also have eaten this everyday, I wonder. Using the fork beside the apples, I stuck this on the apples and ate them from behind. "Oh, they're sweet." Also, they were cold. These were cooled inside the refrigerator, and the coldness felt good on my throat. Somehow, while drinking the milk and eating the apples, it became a memory I longed for. A child. Yes, a child who had no idea how autumn feels like. I couldn't have it anymore. But whenever I see apples and momiji, I remember that meeting that only happened once.

Boom, boom..... When I woke up, within that pitch blackness was an old banquet hall inside a grotto. T/N: Bunny apples are fun to make and fun to eat, try them out. I think I saw some in Kaicho wa Maid-sama once, but that was ages ago lol P52 A large alter was built, a while ago, in front of me. All around it were countless food offerings. Countless candle flames were lit, flowers and fruits and a pig's head**, deer horns and other stuff were arranged there as offerings too. "Wh... What is this?" In front of me, the drummers were also dancing, they seem to be holding and continuing a ceremony, and these were the mysterious Ayakashi with monkey masks. "Miko-sama" "You have awakened." They were all whispering in a low voice. Miko-sama? "Uhm... Are you.. worshipping me?" Having no idea what was happening, I asked them in a courageous voice. But the gathered Ayakashi that were wearing a straw raincoat and monkey masks, why did they all went "yes, milady, yes milady" and turned around? "Human girl, you are the Kaku-zaru** village's priestess." "You shall save us from calamity..." These Ayakashi called Kaku-zaru, for a while have been worshipping me. I don't feel anymore danger, but this situation has gone nuts. T/N: They got hold of Inosuke's boar head lolol I still have zero regrets Nihongo fun fact, when forming compound words, the first syllable of the second word gets a tenten, which looks like a quotation mark. For example, the word HIDARIGAWA (left side) is made up of 2 words: hidari=left, and kawa=side, and because the syllable KA becomes GA when you add a tenten, KAWA becomes GAWA. Another example, the word for three thousand, SANZEN, is made up of san=three and sen=thousand, but because SA becomes ZA when you add a tenten, SEN becomes ZEN. Which is why I made it KAKUZARU here, there's no furigana in the text so I just assumed that this rule works. I could have just made it into Kakuriyo Monkey but then where's the fun in that lol. I'll probably put shit like this here, so that by the end of however much chapters my body can upload here, we've all learned some tiny Nihongo bits. I'ma gonna drag you all with me bwahahahahaahaa! P53 "Uhm.. I came from a fruit orchard along a mountain. I would want to go back now..." The monkey masks suddenly stared up. The masks had a strong impact on me, and I unconsciously gulped. This has a different atmosphere, compared to when I'm with the usual Ayakashi I have met. In a way, this unexplored region seemed to house a tribe. "You're a Miko." "No, I'm not a Miko, because I'm just a human." I flatly refused them, but they started to gather as they were whispering. "Miko-sama, with our offerings, we are requesting of you. This is our sacrifice..." "Uhm.. Sacrifice?" After saying that, is seemed that they didn't listen. Nevertheless, when they pulled out a rope I was shocked, they were pulling along a handsome, black-haired guy with a long piece of rope... "What the... They tied up Odanna-sama like a slave!" In front of me, surely without a doubt, they have brought along Tenjin-ya's Odanna-sama, the younger version. That appearance doesn't give off his aura of being Tenjin-ya's master, after all, they don't know who it was. B-b-b-b-but, isn't that disrespectful? If the people in Tenjin-ya saw this they'll bring upon a wrath of a sea of fire! P54 Speaking of Odanna-sama, he was restlessly looking around, and once when he found me on the bluish altar, he smiled at me childishly. As expected from someone so composed. It's better to be cheerful. "Miko-sama, we found this person loitering around outside the village." "Please have your way with this sacrifice. We can boil, then roast, then eat him." No no no, a human girl can't eat Ayakashi! "Then quickly untie him! That person is a distinctly emiment man!" "Yes, milady--" While the Kaku-zaru were being told what to do, they unfastened Odanna-sama's ropes. "Hmmmmph. Could it be that when you saw me tied up, you were surprised?" "You don't have a face that looked surprised. Might you have been enjoying yourself? Speaking of, how did you got captured so easily?" "I was looking for you, and I ended up in the Kaku-zaru's village. I thought it was easier to get caught as an adult in order to get in. As a result, I got here. When I met you here, everything went OK." "So it's OK to meet Odanna-sama here.." When the Kaku-zaru saw Odanna-sama and I, they started to talk in hushed voices. They were an eerie bunch. Why on earth did they bring me here, what do they plan to do? "Oh dear..." P55 Odanna-sama hit his hand on his waist, and it transformed as he dispelled it. Normally, people would be surprised and exclaim "It's Tenjin-ya's master!", but, here, the Kaku-zaru only shook their heads questioningly. What the.. They only kept silent and didn't say anything, so Odanna-sama only cleared his throat with an "ahem". "Aoi, this place is the heart of Hyakumeyama. I knew that inside this mountain, there is a hidden village of the Kaku-zaru, but this is the first time I've taken a visit. At any rate, the Kaku-zaru's village is in the territory of the Northern Lands." "Whaaaa-t. So.. We're already in the Northern Lands?" "Now that you mentioned it, yes. But the North-eastern lands were supposed to have a boundary..." Upon hearing loud drumming sounds again, Odanna-sama stared at the ceremony that the Kaku-zaru were performing in front of the large altar. "These Kaku-zaru were from an old era, wherein they were taken here by a Miko, a human priestess, which is now forbidden. Each time a human girl comes here, she becomes a replacement for the Miko, and she becomes worshipped by them." "So in this case, I was kidnapped to become worshipped here?" "But, well, this curiosity is rather odd. No matter how many human girls they worship, if it's against their will, being taken here feels like a punishment. But for this, I wonder what their probable reasons were for moving and leaving the village..." At the same time, the drumming sounds suddenly stopped. The door of the old tomb opened, and an old Kaku-zaru came in. P56 "The respectable elder... Has come!" That person has the longest straw raincoat in the bunch, and somewhat wears a necklace made out of bones, as well as having a mask of an old sleepy monkey. While walking with a cane, he was supported by a Kaku-zaru who was near the offerings, and sat in front of the altar where I was. "Miko-sama, we are the humble descendants in this village. For today, we beseech you." Everyone went "Yes, milady--", and bowed deeply once again. What the heck is going on.. "Uhm.. Respectable elder? What is all this For a while now, you've been saying stuff about worshipping, why on earth is that?" "Brigands from the far north has come to our village, and has looted and plundered." "Bandits?" Odanna-sama and I looked at each other's faces. He suddenly seemed to remember something instantly, and he placed his hand on his chin as he narrowed his eyes. "Bandits came from the far north.. Could it be that, they're the Ozuma gang?" "Odanna-sama, you know of them?" "Yes. They came from the Great Glacial Mountain Range of the Far North, and I've heard stories that in nearly every mountain here and there they were wreaking havoc and violence. But unexpectedly, you're asking for help from the North-eastern lands connected to the mountain of Hyakumeyama?" Aa a Hachiyo of the North-eastern lands, might he have not noticed of their situation? His facial expression suddenly became grave. P57 "Say, what on earth did the bandits do to this village?" After I tried asking, each of the Kaku-zaru started groaning in low voices. It was a bone-chilling sound and it pierced through my body. "We already have become the Ozuma-gang's minions." "Hm, in what way?" "The Ozuma-gang are bandits composed of about 20 individuals that move around. Each one has a jurisdiction over one mountain, as well as a minion that goes in each of the mountains, and like the other mountains we have become under one group that only keeps on increasing." The respectable elder has started to retell the story emotionally. "The day when those brigands came to this village,they broke through everything and pillaged, they violently wounded our villagers. We have no means or ways to retaliate so we just surrendered, and we became under the control of those thugs. After that, those brigands started to enter this village's stronghold, and every night they celebrated in our banquet hall. They just ate all of the village's food in reckless abandon, drank our liquor dry, and became even more violent when drunk. Half of the food we were saving in this village has already been eaten. At this rate we will not even last until winter." "Oh, I see. To summarize, you have been deeply troubled by it." Because of that, they have explained why they have abducted me, and why they were asking help from the gods. "Miko-sama. Please, we beg of you, save us---" The other Kaku-zaru who were also bowing down and worshipping me, also beseeched and prayed. Even though they show signs of just imitating what they think what a god must do, the surrounding atmosphere of desperation made me want to help them, but regarding that, I am just a normal human girl who has no means to easily resolve the issue. P58 "Respectable elder, have you gotten in touch with the Hachiyo of the North?" From here, Odanna-sama asked the question with a commanding voice. The respectable elder raised his face, stared unblinkingly at Odanna-sama's majestic pose. "Oh my.. You, are you not Tenjin-ya's Master?" "Indeed, I am. Finally, you have taken notice of me." "This is a bit too bad, isn't it, Odanna-sama?" After having his fun hiding, then finally being found out, Odanna-sama's face got a bit bored and sullen. But the respectable elder took off his mask, and bowed his head deeply. His monkey face seemed to have remained the same, but there were deeply-etched wrinkles on it, which definitely showed his very old age. The other Kaku-zaru didn't seem to be fazed with Odanna-sama. This was as otherworldy, remotely and as detached to the outside world as it can get. "Please give us your permission, Odanna-sama!" "Oh, do not worry, it's fine. However, the North's Hachiyo.. Can he not do it?" "Yes. We have not received any help from the North's Hachiyo. That is out of the question right now, as the Hachiyo has turned a blind eye on the arrival and movements of the brigands." P59 "I knew it..." "What, how can you say that, Odanna-sama?" I couldn't follow how the conversations flowed. During such times, when called for, a Hachiyo doesn't comply with the wishes of the people of the land? It seems to be like that here, in the Northern Lands. While placing his hand on his jaw, Odanna-sama explained to me the situation. "Apparently, the Northern Lands have a problem in their hands. The other name for this land is called "The Land of Glaciers", and is Kakuriyo's largest land area, and in this land there is a historical giant ice castle. But because the nature of this place is harshly cold, it is undoubtedly the most difficult to live alongside that harshness. The current Hachiyo holds a strong influence as a distinguished Ayakashi, and has been able to create stability within the boundaries of the Northern Lands.. But after countless years, that Hachiyo has succumbed to an illness." Really-- Prior to this, the Southern lands were deeply concerned with handling a unique problem, but even here in the Northern lands they also had problems. "Well,now that the entirety of the land is in chaos, from now on we must strike back at the bandits that have been having their ways in expanding their territories in the mountains here and there. But the Ozuma-gang.. They're an especially powerful bunch. Nonetheless, since I came from the North-eastern Lands which I have control over, I think we can apply some mugwort and moxybust them out." Odanna-sama said all of those standing tall and with a suave look. As if holding on to those words, the Kaku-zaru's elder who was previously losing hope suddenly, and with fire opened his eyes. "We cannot call upon the North's Hachiyo anymore. But can we impose upon the master of Tenjin-ya, along with the Miko-sama? P60 Please, for the sake of our village, make those bandits leave us!" "Ohh. But you kidnapped my new wife who fell inside a hole, isn't that request a bit selfish? And what's more, you also restrained my hands." It's not like that, that was pretty much my own fault, and it's why Odanna-sama's behavior was incomprehensible. "It's a rare chance that we got to enjoy apple-picking, but you have interrupted our date, Aoi and I. If Aoi hated me because of what I did, what then? Hm?" "Odanna-sama, right now you're being too selfish and holding grudges. Moreover, at this point I can't hate you..." "Really, Aoi? If that's the case, do you like me?" "Nah, I don't know." I replied a considerably appropriate answer to Odanna-sama, who was brimming with expectations. With such a frank answer, Odanna-sama felt dejected and with a disheartened look hunched his back and sat alongside the already sitting Kaku-zaru. Well, that was indeed depressing... "Well then, where is the Ozuma-gang right now?" Odanna-sama continued the conversation with a blank face. "They were in a nearby mountain territory yesterday, and tonight they announced that they will be coming here, to eat and feast in the banquet hall." P61 I caught a glimpse of Odanna-sama agreeing and nodding. "Aoi, what do you think we must do?" "Ehh? Me?" Him seeking for my opinion was very unusual. I thought for a bit, and answered in all honesty. "These people, I think it's a pity that the food they have now won't last until after winter.." "Hahaha, as expected of you, you were worried more about their food. Even though my companion was kidnapped to be worshipped, you were still the same, your nature of involving yourself with Ayakashi and their food still came out." "Even if I fell and rolled down a hole and everywhere hurts, I don't think I'm in any other kind of danger." "What the.. You got hurt?! Let me look at you to see if you got bruised--" "Odanna-sama, this isn't the time to talk like that--" This time my words were taken as a harsh reply by Odanna-sama, and despite the conversation getting derailed due to inappropriateness, I returned it to its original traction. Seeing the situation as such, the Kaku-zaru seemed to be perplexed. "Ahem, Well, I am also a Hachiryo. This may be the Northern Lands' problem, but I wouldn't know if the bandits may have brazenly invaded the North-eastern Lands. As such, repelling them from here is my job. I have a deep consideration of Aoi's heart, but I can lend you my hand." P62 "Ohhhhhh.." Hearing Odanna-sama's words, everyone seemed to have more hope, and they raised their voices with relief. "A normal ogre would always back out and retreat, but now you have become Kakuriyo's dark hero!" "My soon-to-be wife wouldn't like that." "You've said that already, why are saying that again?" "There are two chairs for two people on that altar, it somehow vaguely seems to be for a king and queen." "Well, that seems to be a fun situation, isn't it Odanna-sama?" Odanna-sama's reception may have been weird and without familiarity, but I think they were sincere. But... "Alright then. Since you said so, Aoi go back to Tenjin-ya." "Whaaat?" All of a sudden, Odanna-sama commanded me to return! Even though he said "I have consideration for Aoi”! "Wh-- Why? I wanted to help in any way too--" "That's out of the question. Those bandits are armed, and a despicable bunch. Having a human girl's body, you'll be in danger, and that is terrifying--" "So that being the case, Odanna-sama is not in danger?" "What's that? Are you.. Worrying for me?" P63 As Odanna-sama was peeking at my face, his face immediately showed a naughty smile. "I'm an ogre. I am different from the weak Aoi. This time your cooking skills can't resolve it." "Th... That I can understand.." Surely, I wonder if I can't get any stronger. Until now it was different, and I wondered if there's a possibility that I can fight with arms? But.. "But, I was thinking of helping up with the cooking back at the banquet hall..." "Again, when it comes to that you're still planning to cook..." Odanna-sama looked at me with a puzzled look, and I prepared myself. "But.. Ah, I see, there's more, if we add sleeping drugs to their food, when they get sleepy won't it be easier to beat them?" "What?" Hearing a mediocre yet dangerous suggestion, Odanna-sama got startled. Even the Kaku-zaru got shocked and couldn't move. As expected, the tactic was such a cliche. 'What the.. What is this atmosphere? I know it's too common. It's a joke." "No, it was so you, Aoi. I guess, you being Shirou's granddaughter, you thought of that." "You guess?" P64 "No, Aoi you had suffered and fought in so many battlefields that you have become resourcefull all around, that's a housewife!" "What the.. You don't have to follow me around against your own will, Odanna-sama--" I realized that this was much like Grandpa's style, and I saw that I have come so far. "However, this isn't exactly classical, so I don't think that it's diabolical. Yes. The mountain apples that we picked, and when we use the Hyakumeyama momiji branch, we can probably make it good." Despite my cliched suggestion, Odanna-sama seemed to have openly agreed to it. He tapped on my shoulder with his hand, and his face turned into an evil ogre. "Aoi, you can definitely depend on your special skills."

End of Chapter 2, Volume 6. Previous - Chapter 1 Next - Chapter 3

Volume 1 Translations by Kakuriyo-translations

Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4

I translated Volume 1 Chapter 5 here

References:

Wonderful site for the youkai references

Other stuff I used to do this: Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (you can buy here, I’m not sponsored btw). I was about to buy the older edition but then the newer one came out 2013 so I bought that instead. Worth buying since I was able to find nearly all of the words I needed just by stroke pattern alone.

Merriam-Webster's Japanese-English Dictionary (the red-covered 1996 version is apparently out of print right now). This is what I have been using for a very long time, I bought it when I was still a fetus (yes I am old so what lol), and after so many years, when compared to newer editions, I still prefer this one since its entirety is Japanese-English, the English to Japanese gloss are just 16 pages tops, so you get more Japanese words for your buck. But that’s just my opinion, maybe other people prefer the Jap-En x En-Jap IDEK.

Basic online dictionary, Jisho. Knowledge of verb conjugations and other words are necessary since not all have entries.

If you can read Japanese, you can buy the whole set in Amazon Japan, they’re shipping worldwide now, I think.

#kakuriyo no yadomeshi #kakuriyo no yadomeshi light novel #kakuriyo no yadomeshi english fan translations #kakuriyo no yadomeshi volume 6 #kakuriyo no yadomeshi volume 6 chapter 2 #kakuriyo no yadomeshi light novel english fan translation

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edenfalling · 4 years ago

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[Fic] “Between the Saltwater and the Sea-Strand” - Naruto

Summary: Yukiko and Kakashi run an undercover mission in the coastal port of Asase during monsoon season. Rain can make anyone philosophical. Part of the Apartment Manager AU, set after The Guardian in Spite of Herself and before An Unorthodox Pedagogical Approach. (3,515 words) Note: Written for warriordrgnmage, in response to the prompt: Naruto: Hatake Kakashi/Ayakawa Yukiko set in the Way of the Apartment Manager Series Timeline. For the Bingo card: Monsoon. It is also a fill for the genprompt_bingo square monsoon. For obvious reasons, Yukiko and Kakashi are using fake names while undercover. Yukiko is Aoi, and Kakashi is Hyoujin. Also, you may notice that this is gen! See, while I am perfectly cool with people shipping Yukiko with Kakashi, that is 100% never going to become Apartment Manager canon, for many, many reasons. If anyone wants a shippy AU, you are welcome to write it yourself, because I flat-out CANNOT. Seriously, even if I tried, you wouldn't want the results. They would be awful. Trust me on that. --------------------------------------------- Between the Saltwater and the Sea-Strand --------------------------------------------- Kuwa Natsume looked up as Yukiko slung herself in through the office window in a spray of rain, raised one eyebrow, and then looked back down to her account books. "Misplaced your shadow?" "Does anyone have a shadow in this weather?" Yukiko said wryly as she shut the window, reducing the sound of rain from deafening to merely incessant and inescapable. "I thought I was used to rain, but coastal monsoons are something new, yeah?" "We get that a lot from inlanders," Kuwa-san said as she drew a sharp line under a column of numbers and wrote a sum. "You get used to it, and it's easier for shinobi -- you have all that fancy ninpou and whatnot. But in all honesty, Aoi-san, where is your partner? I can't finalize your supply contract without both of your signatures." Yukiko made a face as she combed water out of her black-dyed hair. "Is it that important to be fussy when this is all ninety percent illegal anyway?"

"The more illegal, the more important to nail down all the details," Kuwa-san said. "What court would adjudicate the case if you sign alone and Hyoujin-san decides next week that he won't pay for his share?" Yukiko personally agreed with Kuwa-san's caution, but her cover persona would probably make one further push. So, "Oh, don't worry about him. Hyoujin trusts me completely--" Kuwa-san raised her eyebrow again. "--nearly completely when it comes to contracts. What's the point of having a partner if you can't split your responsibilities?" "I would say partners split focus, not responsibility. If you don't maintain some degree of joint liability, what's to stop one of you from turning on the other?" "Ethics?" Yukiko said with a winning smile, and allowed herself to laugh at Kuwa-san's carefully calculated answering smirk. "Fair enough. Let me look over the terms and I'll drag him over here to pretend he knows how to use a brush sometime before-- when do you close today?" "Six." "Before six. Actually, let's say before five, yeah? He's not that hard to track or sweet-talk if you know what you're doing." Yukiko held out her now-dry hand for the supply contract and wiggled her fingers until Kuwa-san passed it across her desk. She retreated to the broad windowsill and began flicking through the pages. It wasn't complicated, just a dead drop of miscellaneous dry goods in neutral territory that would hopefully establish her and Kakashi as reliable clients and Kuwa-san as a reliable supplier -- a standard way for missing-nin and gray market merchants to feel each other out. If the goods wound up as a cache for a long-term Leaf-nin mission, well, nothing in the contract specified that Yukiko and Kakashi had to be the ones to make the pickup. And their cash was perfectly legitimate Fire Country tender, so as far as Kuwa-san was concerned, there was nothing to worry about. (Yukiko was fairly certain there was nothing to worry about on Konoha's end of the bargain either. Kuwa-san had a rock-solid reputation for following through on her contracts. Nobody survived twenty years in the gray market without either keeping their word almost religiously or spending a fortune on bodyguards, and Kuwa-san barely bothered to pay for warehouse security.) "Where do you source kunai?" she asked as the rain's intensity kicked up a notch, beating against the windowpane in a nearly solid sheet of water. "Wind Country," Kuwa-san said without looking up from her accounts. "Earth Country's metallurgy is better, but the border tariffs aren't usually worth the slight increase in quality. I could change that if you're willing to pay the difference." Yukiko feigned consideration. "I don't care, but Hyoujin can get picky about steel composition. What would the increase be for this number of kunai and senbon?" Kuwa-san named a figure. Yukiko made an exaggerated expression of disgust. "No thanks! He can whine and make do. I'm not paying that much more for what, a half percent less chance of flaws? It's not like anyone expects kunai to last anyway. Use 'em and lose 'em and buy some more, that's what I say. Or steal whatever's left from your targets! That's economy, yeah?" "Officially, I can't encourage any behavior that would reduce my chance to sell you more equipment, Aoi-san. Unofficially? Yes, that's very economical. If only all my clients were equally practical." "Eh, there's all kinds of ways to be practical. What we're good at is mostly spying and killing -- it's more efficient to hire a ninja than do that stuff in-house, yeah? Just like you're good at moving stuff around to where we need it, so it's more efficient to hire you instead of us trying to figure all that stuff out from scratch. It's win-win, is how I see it." Yukiko tapped the papers to shuffle them into a neat pile, then handed them back to Kuwa-san. "That looks fine on my ends. Me and Hyoujin will be back sometime this afternoon to sign and pay the next installment." "It's a pleasure doing business with you, Aoi-san," Kuwa-san said. Yukiko grinned and dove backward out the window, into the pounding rain. --------------- Kakashi was lurking in one of Asase's numerous quayside bars, most of which were run out of the back doors of warehouses and also did a brisk side business in assorted seafood dishes. Rain pelted down on the roof tiles in a clattering racket that Yukiko found personally soothing but professionally irritating -- it was a lot harder to eavesdrop through the constant noise, not to mention the complications it added to genjutsu. She and Kakashi had spent their first night in Asase mutually grousing about the unpredictability of electric ninjutsu in waterlogged conditions and the difficulty of filtering ambient sounds out of illusions. Today Kakashi was sipping a bowl of lobster broth through a long, curved straw that vanished into the deep blue folds of the scarf he'd used to shroud his face. To the casual eye he was staring out an open window toward the rainswept harbor, his oversized gray hood restricting his range of sight and hearing, but Yukiko followed the combined angle of his feet and chopsticks to their targets: a trio of young missing-nin drinking in the far corner, defaced forehead protectors proclaiming their renunciation of Kiri. They were small-time, only a few months out on their own each with barely a name and one line of description in the latest bingo book editions, but anyone willing to go against the Bloody Mist was worth a second look. Whether this particular investigation would conclude in a job offer or an assassination was still up in the air. "Heya, Hyoujin. Thinking of roping in some new blood for larger contracts?" Yukiko asked as she dropped into a seat across from him (back to their targets) and set her ramen down on the unsanded wood of the table. Kakashi shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Three's better than two for flexibility, but more than four on a mission gets awkward without ranks and a chain of command. Nobody who leaves a village wants to go back to those kind of restrictions." Yukiko tilted her hand. "Eh, there's assholes on power trips and there's division of labor -- not necessarily the same thing. I let you take the lead in a fight and you let me take the lead on retrievals. That's just practical, yeah? But we wouldn't throw each other away. Shinobi are tools, sure, but if you don't look out for your teammates, how can you trust they'll look out for you?" Kakashi shrugged again and continued sipping his broth. Targets hear? Yukiko signed under the guise of snapping apart her chopsticks. Yes, Kakashi signed back as he lifted his bowl and drank the last of his broth under the shadow of his hood and scarf. No bite. Yukiko slurped a mouthful of noodles and nicely salted broth. "Grouch. Well, whatever we do for future contracts, today we have to sign off on the supply contract with Kuwa-san. We'll need the goods for that thing in Tea Country and she wants both of our names in writing." "Sign for me," Kakashi said "Tried that. She won't bite." "So fake it. Illusions are your thing, Aoi; pretend I'm there and forge my seal." Yukiko slurped another mouthful of noodles in her best imitation of Naruto's sloppy manners. "Oh, sure. Lying is the best way to establish trust for future contracts, yeah?" "She's a civilian, how would she know?" "Not the point. C'mon, Hyoujin. You won't melt in the rain. Let's go make nice with Kuwa-san and I'll make it real worth your while." She ran the edge of her sandal up the side of Kakashi's shin and gave him her best imitation of her cousin Yura's flirtatious smile. Kakashi twitched. Yukiko slapped the table and let her smile shade into a more genuine grin. "Ha, I win." "Fine. Finish your soup and let's go drown ourselves. Again." "Eh, getting soaked's not that bad. Especially when you've got a partner around to help you peel out of all your soggy clothes and warm up when you get home, yeah?" Kakashi twitched again, then rallied and let a tiny arc of electricity jump between two raised fingers. "And then get wet again?" Yukiko held onto her cover persona by the skin of her teeth. "Now you're talking my language. All right, I'm done. Let's go give a little now so we get more back later." --------------- Signing the contract with Kuwa-san took all of twenty minutes -- half of which was entirely for show, as Kakashi lived up to his cover persona and whined about the kunai quality until Yukiko overruled him -- after which they had the afternoon and evening entirely to themselves and a conveniently established reason to retreat to their rented room and lock themselves inside Yukiko's best privacy genjutsu. "We can't stay longer than another day now that the contract's signed," Kakashi said as he flashed his hands through the seals for a quick and subtle bit of ninjutsu that left their clothes and skin completely dry without spilling any excess heat. "Do you think the targets will be receptive if we approach them openly?" Yukiko shook her head, grimaced at the awkward motion of her still-tangled hair, and began working the tie out of her ponytail. "No chance. I don't know if they'd even be open to a joint mission with Aoi and Hyoujin at this point. Sumire wants security and Kenichi likes profit, but they're still raw enough to see tigers in every other shadow, and Eriko's almost too paranoid to make deals with someone as solid and non-threatening as Kuwa-san. On the bright side, they're wildly unlikely to join up with anyone else." Kakashi slumped back onto the futon with an annoyed set to his eyebrow. "And since they haven't moved against Fire Country assets, there's nothing to justify an assassination without a contract. I hate leaving loose ends." Yukiko dropped down to sit cross-legged beside him, fingers slowly working through her tangles. "Think of it as a guaranteed vacation in a few months. Our agents will send word the next time our trio pass through Asase, Aoi and Hyoujin turn up to sign a new contract with Kuwa-san, and we sound them out for a joint mission. They ought to be the right balance of calmer and hungrier by then, and we'll get a better reading after a week or so of close contact." "Ugh." "Yeah, yeah, talking to people is terrible and scary." Kakashi rolled over onto his stomach and buried his face in his arms, the soft, voluminous fabric of his hood blocking all apparent lines of sight. "Only the living." Yukiko froze, then sighed and flopped onto her back with her arms above her head. "Yeah. The dead talk back just as much, but it's still so much easier." "Sometimes I wonder how many people in Konoha would qualify for a 'Lone Survivor of My Genin Team, Including My Teacher' club," Kakashi said into the futon. "Then I stop wondering because the math is too depressing. But we could start a private chapter just for us." "Sometimes I hate that you trust me enough to say things like that," Yukiko said to the ceiling. "Then I tell myself not to be an idiot, because it means I get to say equally horrible things to you. Like that I'm pretty sure if we recruit our targets, at least one of them will be dead within two years, and I'm not sure that balances the odds that all three of them will die within one year if they keep working as missing-nin. After all, there's always a chance they might retire and start a farm." "Says the woman who got so bored with civilian life she jumped into a chuunin exam the minute Sandaime offered her a chance." "Says the Anbu assassin." Kakashi snorted. "We're all so fucked up." "Yeah." "Might as well be fucked up with other people who understand." "Yeah." They lay in silence for some time, listening to the steady thrum of rain on the roof tiles above. The air was warm and sticky, and the breeze eeling through the open window smelled faintly green beneath the ever-present fish-salt-rot odor of the sea. "Let's accidentally-on-purpose bump into the targets tomorrow morning, buy them breakfast, and float the idea of a joint mission later in the year," Yukiko said eventually. "Might as well plant seeds when the ground is soft." "You pay." "It's all mission funds in the end." "To clarify: you handle all the human interactions. I'll stand behind you and look vaguely menacing so they'll think at least one of us is competent." "To clarify: you'll look vaguely constipated, while I impress them with my social competency. Networking is an important skill for missing-nin." "I object to that assessment." "Which one of us has experience making business deals directly with civilians instead of through the mission office?" Kakashi flicked a gust of wind at her, re-tangling her hair. Yukiko pulled out Aoi's grin as she kicked Kakashi gently in the ankle. "Ninjutsu isn't a valid argument, which means I win. Your forfeit is fixing my hair." "Having teammates and friends is a terrible choice and I should never have made it a second time," Kakashi grumbled, but he sat up and tapped Yukiko's shoulder. "Turn around and hand me your comb." --------------- They hadn't been able to slap any chakra tags on the targets -- Eriko's paranoia was too thorough for even the subtlest of genjutsu threads to make it past her guard longer than a couple hours -- but Yukiko had gotten a decent sense of their chakra signatures over a series of not-quite-encounters during the past week. It helped to have rooms in the same lodging house, of course. Kakashi took first watch, leaving Yukiko to spend the back half of the night with a manual on steam heating systems and the interminable patter of rain. Eventually the sky began to lighten from matte black to flat gray and her spider-light sweep across the building and surrounding streets caught movement from their targets. "Time to go," she said as she stood. Kakashi remained unmoving until she nudged him with her foot, secure that he was actually awake and wouldn't strike her in reflexive defense. "I remember pretending to be a morning person when I was too young to know better," Kakashi grumbled into the futon. "It was a terrible idea then and it's a terrible idea now. Nobody should be awake before the sun is halfway up the sky." "Unfortunately the targets set the schedule," Yukiko said as she tucked her book away into a holding scroll. "Come on, put on your face and let's get to work." Kakashi flicked a minor wind jutsu in her direction as he rolled to his feet, but Yukiko had braided her hair so this time it stayed secure and untangled. "I wonder if I should switch to bulky scarves as an off-duty option. It's easier to eat and drink through the gaps between layers than to yank a mask up and down very fast or while people are looking away, and people have been much less interested in Hyoujin's face than they tend to be in mine." "That's because Hyoujin doesn't have a reputation. There's no glory in pulling down some random missing-nin's scarf." Yukiko grinned at Kakashi's affronted eyebrow and slipped out the window ahead of another wind jutsu. It wasn't hard to find their targets today: apparently Sumire's morning grumpiness had won over Eriko's paranoia and the trio of former Mist-nin were huddled near a breakfast yatai, half-sheltered from the incessant rain, and haggling over prices with the male half of the married couple behind the counter. Yukiko couldn't have asked for a better opening if she'd tried. She eeled her way up to the counter and grinned at the woman scraping down the stove from whatever she'd last been grilling. "Two miso and two fish on rice -- salmon for me, mackerel for my partner," she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder at Kakashi, who was standing, smugly dry, under a wind jutsu shaped into an invisible umbrella. "Oh, and how much extra for nori with the salmon?" The woman named a price. Yukiko rolled her eyes. "I hate bargaining on an empty stomach, so I'll just pay nine tenths of that and we'll all pretend you're not robbing me blind, yeah?" She glanced sideways to where the three young missing-nin were still arguing with the other cook. "I hate listening to arguments on an empty stomach, too, so how about I cover these loudmouths, too? Or at least the difference between what they're willing to pay and what you're asking." "Deal," the man said, interrupting the mockery of persuasion Kenichi was currently attempting. "Pay up and thank the nice lady for making sure I don't turn you away unfed." Eriko slapped her hand over Sumire's wallet. "No. It's poisoned." Yukiko rolled her eyes again. "There's a difference between reasonable caution and paranoia, yeah? I want a peaceful breakfast and our last mission went well, so I'm willing to pay a little extra to smooth things over. It's not like it's that much money. And hey, if it'll make you feel better, consider it a-- a-- Hyoujin, what's the word I want?" "Why would I know? You handle contracts," Kakashi said as he slipped a bite of mackerel through the folds of his scarf. "Ugh, why are we still partners?" "Because I'm very good with knives." "Point!" Yukiko slapped the yatai counter and turned back to the trio of missing-nin. "Anyway, breakfast. You're right that nothing comes free, so let's say that I'm paying for you to consider a joint mission sometime in the future, if me and Hyoujin have a line on a job that needs more than three people and we're kicking around the same market, yeah?" Sumire blinked. Kenichi looked like she'd slapped his face with a whole salmon. Eriko scowled and said, "That's not how contracts work." "Yes it is. It's called a-- a-- it's an option, that's the word! You can ask any of the suppliers in town, they'll tell you. I'm paying for the chance to run a job past you, because anyone who makes it out of Hidden Mist is worth a trial run, yeah? You don't have to accept. You just have to listen. And now I'm done with this conversation because I don't like having arguments on an empty stomach any more than I like listening to them. Don't die, and me and Hyoujin will see you around." She grabbed her rice bowl, her cup of miso, and her disposable bamboo chopsticks and kicked Kakashi's ankle to make him turn around and stop staring creepily at the trio of missing-nin through the folds of his scarf. Bite? she asked in handsign masked by a low-level illusion -- the chakra for which ought to be covered by Kakashi's own completely explicable umbrella jutsu. Maybe, Kakashi signed back, then added aloud, "What do you want to do for our next vacation, if this job goes as well as the last one?" Yukiko shrugged elaborately as she swallowed a mouthful of fish and rice. "Eh, there's worse places than the ocean. And by then, the rain should be over for the year. I like water a lot better when it stays flat on the ground than when it's trying to crawl up my nose and into my ears, yeah?" "That's because you have no imagination," Kakashi drawled. Yukiko considered countering with her own innuendo, but no; they were leaving Asase. They could leave Aoi and Hyoujin behind with the rain and introspection and return to more familiar ground. So she poked Kakashi with her chopsticks instead, and laughed when he neatly dodged the strike. As they walked past Kuwa-san's warehouse, bickering companionably, a watery ray of sun pierced briefly through the clouds over the storm-wracked sea and laid a path west to the green reaches of home. --------------------------------------------- End of Story --------------------------------------------- Well, that took significantly longer than it needed to, but I won in the end. \o/ Also, Kuwa Natsume (from Whose Allegiance Is Ruled by Expedience) is now officially part of Apartment Manager continuity. You're welcome. :D

#liz writes stuff #mini ficlet prompt meme #naruto manga #apartment manager au #ayakawa yukiko #hatake kakashi

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detective-anon · 5 years ago

Text

gift of the jinmo

a gift for elle @minflix! I hope you will accept this humble offering as a sign of my friendship. c is the oc from tip143 (it was too challenging to write around her name).

The juicery was unusually quiet today. It was Sunday morning on a long weekend, which in a college town meant that everyone was either travelling and having fun or sleeping in and lazing around. Only sad, broke college students like Momo and her coworkers were stuck here working at seven-thirty in the morning. They’d had a handful of the regulars come in since opening—some of the athletes, a couple of the frazzled grad students who were mid-dissertation—but otherwise the shop had been mostly empty. Momo rested her chin on her folded arms, slumping over the counter where she sat next to the cash register. Even Jin, who usually took shifts with her, was off today.

Speaking of Jin…she sighed deeply.

“What’s wrong, honey?” C collapsed into a chair, dragging the mop she had been halfheartedly swiping across the floor with her. A faint wet spot began to form underneath it.

“My 100-day anniversary with Jin is coming up, and I don’t know what to get him,” she replied, forlorn. “How do you usually find gifts for Hoseok?”

C sniffed. “Well, you know Hoseok. He’s a closet hypebeast, so whenever there’s a Supreme drop I’ll try to get something for him and just save it for the next time I need to give him a gift.”

“That’s true. You always find the best-quality knockoffs. No one would ever be able to tell they’re not the real deal. I don’t know how you do it.” Both C and her boyfriend Hoseok were great at finding counterfeit luxury goods. Just last week, C had given her and Doyeon matching friendship keychains that were exact Burberry replicas. (She’d gotten really good tips the week before, she’d explained. Momo was happy for her friend but also sad that she hadn’t taken those shifts with her—those keychains had to have cost at least $20 apiece!)

“Ri-ight.” C laughed nervously. “Knockoffs…”

“Anyway,” Momo continued sadly, “I don’t think Jin really cares very much about brands. Even if he did, I don’t think I could afford any luxury items…I just paid rent and my bank account is crying.”

A sudden screech filled the air. They looked over at Jungkook, who had slipped on the puddle left by C’s mop. His eyes were wide as he scrambled upright and looked left and right to see if anyone had seen. C stifled a giggle as she went to help. “Are you alright, Kookie? Maybe you should put some ice on that.”

They disappeared into the kitchen to get ice. Momo sighed again. “I’m a bad girlfriend.”

“You’re not a bad girlfriend.”

Momo jumped, startled. Taehyung had come in from the back, where he had been washing spinach. He’d been uncharacteristically serious and quiet recently, and Momo was worried about him. Even though they bickered often, he was still one of her closest friends, and she didn’t know why he had suddenly started acting so strange.

“You’re a really good girlfriend,” he stated, jaw set. “You’re always taking care of Jin and worrying about him. I’ve never seen him so happy before.”

She paused. “I think Jin takes care of me more. He’s so thoughtful—he even takes shifts on Wednesdays so that he can bring me a smoothie when he picks me up from class on my long days. And I can’t even think of a good gift to get him for our anniversary.”

He blew out a breath and smiled wanly. “You two bring out the best in each other. I don’t think that the gift thing makes you a bad girlfriend. It just means you care enough to want to get him something meaningful.”

“Thanks, Tae. You always know how to make me feel better.” She smiled at him.

He rubbed absentmindedly at his chest. “Don’t you two have that vlog channel together? Why don’t you make him a video?”

“Hmm…that’s actually a great idea!” She gasped. “He spends so much time filming and editing for our videos, so maybe if I learn how to do it I can help him out in the future. But…he also has all the equipment. I don’t even have a camera…”

“I have a camera.” C reemerged from the back, a blank look on her face. “You can borrow it.”

Momo furrowed her brows. “I think I’d need a DSLR or something…”

“Yup, I have one.” She remained expressionless. “I needed it for…a video project. But I can borrow Hoseok’s in the meantime. Since he also…had a…video project.”

“Oh, great!” Momo replied brightly. “Do you think you could show me how to use it, too?”

“Of course,” C replied. “Did you hear that noise? I should go…check on Jungkook in the back!”

She disappeared, leaving Momo alone with Taehyung again.

Momo hesitated. “Tae, are you okay? It seems like something has been bothering you lately. You know that you can talk to me about anything, right?”

An indecipherable look came over his face before he softened. “Everything is fine. I just realized that I did something stupid with the girl I liked, and I’m trying to get over the regret.”

“With Sooyoung? Are you sure it’s not fixable?” She fretted. “It’s not like you haven’t done, er, questionably embarrassing things in front of her before. Maybe Hoseok could talk to her for you.”

He smiled. “It’s okay. I think things worked out the way they were supposed to.”

“Hi everyone! Welcome to the jinmo channel,” Momo said brightly. She and Jin both paused to wave to the camera. “Today is Saturday and we just got off of work.”

There was a loud whoop! from behind them and Jin turned the camera to get C and Hoseok in the frame. Hoseok flashed an easy grin, fiddling with the camera in his hands as C playfully punched his arm, telling him that he was too loud.

“We’re going to go on a double date with these two. Hoseok is helping us film B roll today—thanks, man!” Jin reached a fist backward and Hoseok bumped it with his own. “I didn’t know this until today, but he’s actually done some camera work before!”

Hoseok wiggled his brows. “You might say I have intimate knowledge of amateur videography.”

C made a choking sound. He turned toward her and stepped into her space, tugging her into his chest with one arm and patting her on the back with the other, laughing. She blushed after he whispered something in her ear, melting into him as he leaned down for a quick kiss.

Momo leaned closer to the camera and stuck out her tongue. “They’d be gross if they weren’t so cute together.”

“You say that like you and Jin weren’t cuddling on the streetcar on the way here!” C retorted.

“Guilty.” Jin smiled, raising their intertwined hands into frame for a few seconds. “Anyway, we’re here at the mall,” he turned the camera toward the building façade, “because Momo and I wanted to pick up a few things at MaiDo after lunch.”

“We’re getting sushi!” Momo beamed as they made their way inside.

Hoseok went to put their names on the waiting list. C linked arms with Momo, tugging her away from Jin. “Jin, can you take our OOTD photos?”

Jin let out a dramatic sigh. “Again, I don’t know why you’re always wearing couple outfits with my girlfriend.”

The girls were wearing matching fuzzy cardigans today, and despite his protests, even Jin had to admit that the two of them looked extra soft and cute. His girlfriend looked like a teddy bear, and he had to resist the urge to hug her and not let go.

“You stole her from me!” C whined, clinging closer to Momo.

Jin grumbled, but obligingly put down the camera on a nearby bench in favor of C’s phone, crouching down to take photos as they tried out various poses. C inspected the shots over Jin’s shoulder as Momo walked over to the camera and whispered, “Get you an Instagram boyfriend like that,” holding finger hearts over her eyes.

By the time C had finished editing the chosen photo, their table was ready. Momo set the camera on the ledge next to her, checking the alignment before turning her attention to the menu.

“Should we get a spicy salmon roll to share?” Jin asked.

“Wasn’t your stomach feeling weird a few days ago? Maybe we should skip the spicy…and also the raw fish.” Momo frowned. “We should get one of the baked rolls instead.”

“They’re your favorite, though,” Jin murmured back.

She shrugged, shoulder gently nudging his. “We can always get it another time.”

“Why don’t you just order separate things?” Hoseok asked, confusion evident in his tone.

“Jin always steals bites of my food anyway,” Momo explained.

“Hey! I resemble that remark.” Jin chuckled at his own joke and Momo couldn’t help but join him.

They put in their orders and made silly faces at the camera while waiting for their food to arrive. The rest of lunch passed in fun conversation and laughter, fast-forwarded in the video as an instrumental track played in the background.

After they paid the bill and left the restaurant, the four of them headed to the stationery store. Inside, they checked to make sure no one was looking before Momo skipped down the washi aisle, arms outstretched as she spun in a circle, giggling. When Jin caught up to her, they explained their mission for the day.

“When we posted my desk tour, a couple of people asked about some of the items I showed. The painting above my desk was actually a gift from C!” Momo turned to blow a kiss at C, who was trailing behind them with Hoseok. C caught it in her hand with an exaggerated motion and put it in her pocket. “Her friend Sana painted it, and I love it so much! We’ll put a link to her Instagram in the description so you can check out more of her work and support independent artists.”

“Some people also asked about the star jar on my floating shelf. That actually belongs to Jin! Whenever he has something important coming up, like a presentation or an interview, I fold some stars and add them to the jar for good luck. He had a shoot that week so I took it to fill it up.”

Jin kissed her cheek, the look on his face unbearably fond. “It went well because of you.”

Momo blushed, stammering, “I-it went well because you’re talented! Anyway, since there were a few requests for it, I’ll be making a tutorial on how to fold the stars into a rose shape like the ones in the jar, so today we’re going to buy paper for the video.”

She picked up a sheaf of letter-size patterned stationery and showed it to the camera. “For Jin’s stars, I actually use letter paper so that I can write longer messages inside before cutting them into strips. But for the tutorial, we’ll be using regular star paper. A little wider is better, because we’ll be folding them in half lengthwise.”

“You write messages inside the stars?” Jin asked. “What do they say?”

“Oh, just little things. Good luck wishes, reminders, things like that. Sometimes I write ‘remember to eat’ or ‘don’t drink too much coffee.’” She shrugged, then giggled. “I think last time I wrote one that said, ‘starfish pose: you are the most powerful person in the room.’”

Jin set the camera on a shelf facing away from them, not wanting to record the next moment.

“Thank you,” he whispered, gently pulling her into a hug. She wrapped her arms around his waist, humming as she laid her ear against his chest.

Filming picked up again with Momo holding two packs of star paper in her hands, brow furrowed as she contemplated them. Jin zoomed in to focus on each of them.

“Which one do you think is prettier?” she asked him.

“Hmm…maybe the one on the left.”

“I was thinking that, too. Okay, let’s get this one.” She held it up and waved it toward the camera, putting the other pack back on its hook. “You can buy a cute jar if you want, but I recommend reusing any glass jar you have—it’s environmentally friendly and good for your wallet! For this project, we’ll be using one of our limited edition mason jars from the juicery. We’ll be randomly selecting one of our viewers to send these stars to, so please stay tuned for the tutorial video for info on how to sign up!”

“Before we check out,” Jin said, “I want to go take a look at some pens.”

The camera zoomed in and out at the wide range of pens on display in the next aisle.

“I have a lot of trouble with writer’s block, and there seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to dealing with it: write through it or wait for it to go away. I don’t think either approach is exclusive of the other. I’ve started thinking about it like a muscle that you’ve pulled—you’ve just got to feel it out and see if you can stretch it or if you need to let it rest. And like any other muscle, when it feels fine, you should exercise it so it gets stronger.” He waved his hand dismissively. “All of that to say, I’ve taken up daily journaling recently, and I want to get some new pens.”

He wandered down the aisle, examining his choices carefully.

“Ah-ha!” He exclaimed triumphantly, holding up a package of ink refills. “This is what I wanted. Momo got me a Jigglypuff gel ink pen from Japan that I think takes this refill size. I really like the ink quality from this brand because it comes out smoothly and dries quickly. I usually write in black ink, so I’m going to get this pack instead of the assorted blue and black one.”

They window shopped for a little while longer, looking at puffy stickers, magnets, stuffed animals, and small desk planters. Momo and C squealed over the Gudetama display and pouted at the prices. Hoseok silently picked up the Gudetama plushie that C had been hugging and added it to their basket.

As they stood in line to check out, someone tapped C on the shoulder. “C-cherry? And J-Hope?”

All four of them turned around to see a tall, bashful looking guy in line behind them.

“Lucas!” C’s eyes were wide. “Uhh…how are you?”

“Oh, hey, bigho—oof!” Hoseok winced as C’s elbow made contact with his stomach. “Big guy. Good to see you again.”

“This is so cool! Sorry for last time, I didn’t realize that you two were—wow, and Jin and Momo, too! I’m such a huge fan.” He beamed.

Jin reached over to shake his hand. “You look familiar—didn’t you apply to work at Greenhouse Juicery before?”

“Ah, yeah, but the owner said she wasn’t hiring at the time.” Lucas looked at Jin’s hand in awe, holding on for a bit longer than was perhaps socially acceptable.

“Bummer, man.” Hoseok shook his head. “But I’m sure Boss Juice is also doing well.”

“Oh, you work at Boss Juice?” Momo smiled brightly at him. “That means you’re our number one competition!”

Lucas’s brain was malfunctioning. “C-cute. Yeah, uh, I work there. You should, uh, come check it out sometime. Um…can I get a photo with you all?”

“Sure!” They all huddled together and smiled as the woman behind Lucas helped them take a photo.

“Next!”

“I think that’s us.” Jin said, giving Lucas another smile. “It was nice meeting you.”

“L-likewise!” Lucas replied. “Bye!”

Once they’d gone through the checkout and stood outside, Jin remarked, “It really is weird that you’ve got this famous doppelganger couple out there. Even your names are kind of similar, I mean, J-Hope and Jung Hoseok, and Cherry and—”

“HAH-ha-ha-ha,” C’s stilted laughter interrupts his thought. “I know, right? And since we’ve been appearing on your channel, I wonder if they’re getting mistaken for us, too.”

Realization dawned, and her eyes widened with panic as she grabbed Hoseok’s sleeve. “What if people online think we’re the same people??”

“Oh my gosh!” Momo gasped. “I read a story online just like this! Someone had an evil doppelganger who went around being mean to people and running out on restaurant bills, and she had to pay their bill and got blacklisted from her favorite restaurant!”

“I’m sure we don’t look that alike.” Hoseok said, his relaxed demeanor completely at odds with his girlfriend and Momo’s growing agitation. “What are the odds? Plus, no one’s as pretty as C. Sorry, Momo.”

C blushed, and Momo grinned at her slyly. “I’ll forgive you for that only because you two are so insufferably cute.”

Jin nudged Momo. “I think you’re prettier,” he whispered.

Jin’s phone buzzed three times in rapid succession from its place on the bathroom counter as he pushed his bangs up and back, working hair wax into his roots. He examined his work with a critical eye, giving it one last swipe before turning his attention to the texts that had come in.

Momo <3: Sorry, give me 30 more minutes! I forgot to press cook on the rice cooker. >///<

Momo <3: Looking forward to dinner!! :)

Momo <3: A gift for the best boyfriend ever: https://youtu.be/5tXJDTBbYf4

Curious, he clicked on the link. It loaded an unlisted video on the jinmo channel titled “reasons to stan kim seokjin.”

Chatter filled the air as students headed out of the lecture hall. Momo stopped behind a pillar, lens aimed at the breezeway, where Jin leaned against the wall, scrolling through his phone with one hand and holding Momo’s favorite tumbler in the other.

“How dare he…” she whispered to the camera, “How dare he be so perfect? It makes me want to punch him…in the mouth…softly…with my mouth.”

She giggled. “Doyeon taught me that.”

Onscreen, Momo launched herself at him, and the scene cut to the library.

Jin was journaling, the sleeves of his sweater folded up. The camera panned to Momo’s notebook, where she had written, alongside several doodles of his name, “So handsome when he’s concentrating :(”

When the camera panned back up, the light was dimmer and Jin was asleep, resting his arm and head on top of a stack of books.

“Thank you for keeping me company even when you had a paper due yesterday,” Momo whispered. “I promise I’m actually studying.”

She moved the camera to show her neatly color-coded notes in front of her.

The cheerful interior of the juicery came next.

Momo positioned the camera on the table in front of her as she took her break. There was a long line of customers, but Jin had a smile on his face as he listened patiently to the old woman in front of him, who was having trouble reading the menu. He carefully explained all the options to her, pausing after each one to give her time to think. Namjoon came out of the back office and patted him on the back, opening up a second register.

you are so considerate TT__TT, the caption read.

Next were clips from Hoseok’s “B-roll” from their stationery date: Momo, nestled into Jin’s side on the cable car as he played with her fingers. Jin hugging Momo close at the stationery store. Their intertwined hands swinging back and forth as they walked to the train station. Momo asleep on Jin’s shoulder as he gently covered her with his jacket. Jin lifting Momo onto his back to piggyback her to her apartment.

It cut to an afternoon in Jin’s apartment.

Momo carefully hid the camera on a shelf, angling it to face the tiny kitchenette before stepping back and putting on the apron that Jin had left for her. Jin came out of the bathroom wearing the same apron. She was his sous chef today, peeling potatoes and cutting vegetables as Jin boiled chicken in a stock pot. There wasn’t enough space for both of them at the stove, so once she had finished with her tasks, she sat at the tiny kitchen table, watching as he chopped and stirred and tossed.

“Taste,” he requested softly, blowing on a spoonful of soup before extending it to her. She sipped obligingly and nodded.

“It’s really good.” She kissed his cheek. “Thank you for making lunch.”

Doyeon must have filmed the next segment with her GoPro while they were at the beach.

The three of them were longboarding on the boardwalk, heading toward the ocean. They stopped at the surf shop to rent boards and a locker. The angle shifted as the camera changed hands. Doyeon and Jin were looking out at the water, watching waves break. Jin nodded at something Doyeon said, then reached back to pull his t-shirt up and over his head.

Behind the camera, Momo sighed dreamily. “Wow…I totally have a crush on him.”

She trudged over to them and Doyeon took the camera back, hanging it around her neck.

“Ready to try this out?” Jin grinned.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Momo said.

Doyeon filmed them as they went out on the water together, Momo on Jin’s board. Once they had paddled out far enough, Jin crouched, holding his hands out for Momo’s. Shakily, she stood up with him. They managed to balance as they rode a small wave, but fell right after, laughing and sputtering as they came back up. From where she sat on her own surfboard, Doyeon yelled encouragements at them. They tried a few more times until Momo felt brave enough to try it on her own. Jin stood chest-deep in water next to her as she attempted to balance, holding the board steady when she wobbled. After some small thrills and small spills, she declared that she was ready for a break, heading back to shore. On the water, Jin and Doyeon had paddled farther out and were starting to catch bigger waves.

After a few shots of Jin doing tricks, the video cut to a view of the sun setting over the ocean.

happy 100-day anniversary!

Jin smiled, an almost unbearable warmth in his chest. He tapped back to his text thread with Momo.

On Momo’s kitchen table, her phone vibrated, playing the familiar tune of Jin’s ringtone. She wiped her hands on a dishcloth and answered the phone.

“Hey,” she said breathlessly.

“Thank you for the video. I loved it.” His voice was tender. “There’s something else I want to say to you, but I want to say it in person.”

“Me, too,” she replied quietly. The unspoken words hung warm in the air between them.

After they ate dinner and washed the dishes, Momo settled on the couch, queueing up a movie on her laptop. Beside her, Jin reached for his coat, rummaging through his pocket for something.

“I have a gift for you, too,” he said, handing her a small box.

She lifted the lid to find a folded letter (“Read that later, when I’m not in the room,” Jin requested shyly) and a delicate silver bracelet with a single envelope charm attached.

“Wow, Jin, this is so beautiful.” She breathed, tracing a careful finger across the charm. “Thank you.”

He helped her fasten it before pressing a kiss to the inside of her wrist. Tugging back his sleeve, he showed her the matching bracelet that he was wearing. “It’s not fair that C is the only one who gets to match with you all the time.”

She giggled. “She complains about Hoseok’s style, but the other day I saw her wearing those paint-splattered jeans of his that she hates so much. They’re definitely rubbing off on each other.”

Jin entwined her fingers with his. “What I wanted to say to you on the phone…I know it might be a little early in our relationship…but it feels like the right time to say it.”

He took a steadying breath in. “I love you.”

She blushed. “I love you, too.”

He pressed his smile to hers.

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breanime · 6 years ago

Text

The Curse

Requested by yesixoxo : Hi, can I request a Billy x Reader fix where it’s almost the readers birthday but she’s always had a bad time and he wants to surprise her in a big way and make her happy? Thank you

Warning: mentions of steam, hella fluffy

*gif not mine*

You were standing in the lobby at Anvil, hand clutching the strap of your purse, trying to figure out a way to bring up your birthday with Billy. You’d been dating for 6 months now, and things were definitely serious, but he didn’t really know that you hated your birthday, so, seeing that your birthday was next week… you figured it was time to tell him.

Except you knew he was busy, and he had a lot on his plate, so—this probably wasn’t the best time. You turned on your heels, deciding to talk to him about it tonight, after sex, when you were both more relaxed. Or maybe in the morning, or tomorrow night—or maybe you’d just go to Canada all next week and avoid it all. Or you could—

“Y/N?” Billy’s voice cut off your internal rambling. You turned to see him coming down the stairs, dressed to kill (in more ways than one), and raising an eyebrow at the sight of you. “What’re you doing here?”

“Oh,” you spun around, smiling nervously, “Me? Nothin’. I was just in this part of town, so I figured I’d…”

Laughing, Billy wrapped an arm around your waist and pulled you to him. You felt your face grow warm at the public display of affection, but Billy didn’t so much as glance around him. “I don’t say this a lot, but you’re cute when you lie.”

“Ugh, okay, I came here to talk to you,” you sighed.

He cocked his head to the side. “Am I in trouble?” Asked the CEO of New York’s most lucrative and well-respected security firm who had over 100 confirmed kills under his belt and usually had at least three weapons on his person at any given time.

“No,” you laughed, “I was just… Can we go to your office?”

“That depends,” he said, taking your hand and leading you back up the stairs, “Is this conversation going to end with you bent over my desk, or me with a headache?”

You sighed, rolling your eyes as he let you into his office. He locked the door behind you, and you tuned to him. Best to get it all out now. “I hate my birthday, every year something bad happens, and it’s super disappointing, and I’m used to it—I’m totally cool with the fact that it’s a huge disaster, but it always sucks for my friends and family, and it’ll suck for you, so I just want to tell you now that I’m just gonna fall off the face of the earth on my birthday to spare you the suckiness of it all—”

“Whoa, whoa, wait,” Billy stepped up, putting his hands on your shoulders, “Slow down. Why do you hate your birthday?”

“Shall I count the ways?” You walked past him and leaned back on his desk. “My very first birthday, my Dad left,” you started, “That was my one-year birthday, by the way, not the day of my actual birth. The day of my birth, I had to be resuscitated because I got the umbilical cord stuck around my throat.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah,” you went on, “My 5th birthday I got chicken pox, when I turned 11 I ran into a tree and broke my jaw, when I was 16 I caught my first love cheating on me with my cousin, and I got into a terrible car accident when I turned 19,” you waved your hand in the air, “I got fired in front of the whole office on my 20th birthday, then I got evicted from my first apartment the year after,” you sighed, “I could go on and on, Billy, but my birthday is just terrible. It is every year, and I just wanted to let you know.” You shrugged. “So don’t have expectations for it, okay?”

Billy surveyed you for a second, and you couldn’t read what was going on behind those deep, dark eyes. “May I approach?” He asked, a slight smile on his face.

You chuckled under your breath, opening your arms. “Approach.”

He stepped into your arms, wrapping his around you and pulling you close. “I’m sorry all your birthdays have sucked, baby,” he said into your hair, “I get it, believe me, I do, but… I want to make this one good.” You pulled back at his words, but he put his hands on your hips and kept you close. “In fact, I kind of already had something planned…”

“What?” You pulled away from him. “Billy, no, that day is cursed! Haven’t you been listening?”

“Just,” Billy reached out for you, and pulled you to him again, “Just give me a chance to make it nice, and if it ends up sucking, next year, we’ll ignore your birthday together.” He gave you his version of a pout, making you laugh. “Please?”

“Fine,” you shook your head, still laughing under your breath, “But don’t feel bad when it blows up in your face, it’s the curse of the birthday, not you.”

“Noted,” he leaned down and brushed his lips against yours, making you relax immediately, “Now, I believe there was mention of bending you over my desk?”

A week later, you woke up on the morning of your birthday in Billy’s bed…alone. He’d made a big deal of you spending the night last night, and he’d been extra committed to making sure you were too worn out to leave (wink wink), and then…nothing?

So it was a typical birthday after all.

You got dressed and headed downstairs, and a part of you was still hoping you’d see Billy in the kitchen, making you a special breakfast…but he wasn’t there. You let out another sigh. The one thing you wanted for your birthday was to be with Billy, but he was nowhere to be found. You unlocked your phone, about to call him, and noticed a text from none other than Billy Russo.

Happy birthday, sweetheart. I have a full day planned for us, so I had to run out and get a few things ready. I’ll be home before you know it. I want to let you know that this day is the best day in the year, because it’s the day you were born (and almost choked to death). I know we’ve only been together for six months, but I think you should know that you mean a lot to me. I’m happy to have you in my life, and when you told me you hated your birthday, I took it as a personal challenge. See you soon, baby. Happy birthday.

Great. Now you were standing in the kitchen, barefoot, smiling on your birthday! You weren’t meant to smile on your birthday, damn him! And his text said he had a whole day planned for you… What could that mean? You looked down at your outfit and wondered if it was appropriate for whatever it was he had planned. You were still contemplating changing your outfit when you heard a door close and the distinct sound of Billy’s footsteps.

“Hmmm,” he said, a smile clear in his voice, “I could have sworn there was a beautiful birthday girl in here somewhere.”

“It’s me!” You popped out from around the corner, feeling giddy for some reason.

“Hey!” He greeted you with a smile that put the sun to shame. “Happy birthday, baby!” You both laughed as you ran into his arms, letting him engulf you in a hug that somehow felt like a promise.

“Thanks,” you had your arms around his waist, and you looked up at him with a huge grin on your face. “What’s the plan for today?” You asked, a bit nervous.

Smiling, he leaned over and kissed you on the nose. “We’re gonna take a ride,” was all he said. He took your hand and led you to the door.

“A ride? Where? Should I change? How long will we be gone?”

Billy chuckled, shaking his head a little. “You’re perfect, babe, you look great.” He took you down to the parking garage and opened the car door for you, kissing you as you slid into the passenger seat. He held your hand all the way to where he was taking you, giving you quick kisses whenever he hit a red light—which he seemed to purposefully be running into—and you had to admit… It was a good way to spend your birthday so far. But you knew the curse of your birthday better than anyone, and you were enjoying your time with Billy, but you knew the other shoe was going to be dropping any second now…

“Holy shit,” you sat up, eyes wide, and stared at the restaurant Billy had just pulled up at. It was that brand new, five-star restaurant that you had been gushing about since you’d seen it being built a few months ago. “Billy,” you gasped out, “What are we doing here? It doesn’t open for another three weeks.”

He squeezed your hand in his. “I know,” he said back, “But I had the pleasure of keeping a few ex-cons off the head chef’s ass, so he pulled a few strings and got us a private reservation.”

Your mouth fell open. “A—a private reservation?” You repeated.

Billy kissed you, grinning as he got out. He was still smiling when he opened your door for you, holding your hand as you stepped out. “How do you feel about a private brunch personally catered by the head chef, the owner, and their top staff?” He asked.

You felt tears prick in the corners of your eyes, and you blinked them back, smiling through them. “I… I feel very positively towards that.”

Billy grinned.

The brunch was amazing; the head chef came out and personally welcomed you, and the food was incredible. Billy watched you happily, and you could practically feel the joy coming off of him, which only served to make you happier as well. Once you were finished with your food, the staff brought out an impossibly delicious, gorgeous birthday cake made from the finest ingredients. It practically melted in your mouth. They packed the rest up for you and sent you on your way with kind words and eager birthday wishes. Your face almost hurt with how wide you were smiling, but you couldn’t stop.

“Ready for the next stop?” Billy asked, wearing a smile that matched your own.

“There’s more?” You asked, eyes widening once again.

“Absolutely there’s more,” he answered, “It’s my baby’s birthday!”

The next stop ended up being your favorite boutique. It was high end, high quality stuff, and you usually had to take an entire day off just to be able to window shop there, but today, it was empty.

“Don’t tell me,” you whispered to Billy after being greeted by the owner, “You served with her in Afghanistan? She hired Anvil to deal with the gangsters from Nordstrom?”

Billy chuckled. “I paid her.”

“Ah,” you nodded, “That works, too.”

The owner gave you a tour of the entire boutique, showing you rooms and nooks you’d never even knew about, before handing you and Billy a glass of champagne and bringing you to her workspace, where she showed you her never before seen, brand new designs and GAVE you three bags, a dress with matching pumps, and an armful of coats, blouses, and pants for free.

“You’ll be the first person to showcase these designs,” she said, French accent thick, “Though I’m sure, after today, Mr. Russo will be keeping you…occupied…in doors for a few days.” She winked, turning and leading you back to the main sitting room of the store. “Oh—please feel free to try on any of the lingerie,” she flashed you a wicked smirk, “The fitting rooms are big enough for two, and… Soundproof.”

Well, obviously, you and Billy had to take her up on that—and test the soundproof quality, as well.

By the time you were done…shopping… You were pretty worn out, so Billy—after tipping the store owner generously—took you to your favorite restaurant for dinner. And after that, he said it was time to go home. Tired in the best way, well-fed and happy, you could almost forget about all of the terrible birthdays you’d had until now. Billy was truly making this day magical for you, and you (almost) never wanted it to end.

He held your hand for most of the ride home, only releasing it to check his phone, which he did several times.

You frowned over at him as he pocketed his phone again. The curse of the birthday. “Is everything alright?”

Billy shot you another knee-weakening smile. “Yeah. Did you enjoy your morning?”

“Yes,” you gushed, “Thank you so much, Billy, I never… I can’t believe you did all of this for me.”

“Of course,” he squeezed your hand in his before dropping it to your thigh affectionately, “It’s my girl’s birthday.” He grinned over at you. “So how am I doing so far? Taking the challenge head on?”

“You’re doing amazing, Billy,” you answered, “I can’t thank you enough. This has been the best birthday I’ve ever had,” you put a finger under your chin, “Maybe even the best day I’ve ever had.”

“Well, it’s not over yet,” he promised.

Billy parked the car, opened your door for you, and held your hand as you went back inside. He stopped once you got to the elevator, a small frown on his handsome face. “I gotta make a call,” he said, turning and disappearing around the corner.

You wrung your hands. Was it work? Of course it was. Billy was a busy man, and he’d already wasted half of his day with you. Of course it couldn’t last. You bit your lip, stopping yourself from pouting. You should be grateful—he’d done so, so much for you already, taken so much time out of his schedule… This was already the best birthday you’d had—ever. You needed to stop being greedy.

Billy practically skipped back over to you, a wide smile on his face. “Okay,” he said, sounding a tad bit out of breath, “let’s go up!”

He seemed to be bouncing on the ride up, and once the elevator doors opened, he nearly ripped your arm out with how vigorously he pulled you towards his door. Unlocking it, he held it open and beckoned you inside with a wave of his hand. You stepped in, giving him a curious look…

…and your jaw dropped.

The whole penthouse was covered in rose petals, on the floor, on the table, on the couch, and all of the lights were off. There were candles all over the place, smelling of your favorite scent, and bathing the entire penthouse in a sweet, warm light. On the kitchen table, on top of the petals, was a pile of presents.

You covered your mouth, too shocked and touched to speak, and walked towards them. There were gifts left by your family—probably sent days in advance, which you knew wasn’t their style. That was all Billy. You had envelopes and presents signed by your coworkers—another first—and presents left by Karen, Frank, and Curtis. There were also a few boxes on the table signed by Billy.

He was grinning from ear to ear when you turned to him, taking in your silent shock happily. He opened his arms, and you ran into them, nearly knocking him over.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” you whispered into his shirt, “Thank you so much, Billy.”

“Anytime, sweetheart.” He kissed the top of your head. “Happy birthday.”

“How,” you pulled back a little, staring up at your perfect man, “How did you do this? How did you get all this set up, you were with me all day?”

“I called in the glam squad,” Billy answered, “After we left the boutique, Frankie and Karen came and set all this up for me. I called your family—which was a pain in the ass, if I’m honest—and made sure they got you actual gifts that you’d like and had them shipped a week ago,” he explained. “Do… Do you like it?”

“I love it,” you answered back quickly, “I love it so much, and I loved today, and I love you—” You stopped yourself then, eyes wide. Billy’s eyes matched yours in size, and you closed your eyes, trying to suck the words back into your stupid mouth. The fucking birthday curse strikes again.

You felt Billy’s hard, warm body closer to you, and when you opened your eyes, he was standing over you, staring down at you softly. “I love you, too,” he said, voice barely a whisper, “Damn… It’s your birthday, but you just gave me the best damn gift I could ever ask for.”

You giggled, feeling a lightness take over you that you’d never felt in your life—birthday or otherwise. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Yes, you do,” he said, leaning down and capturing your lips in a soft, slow, passionate kiss that had your toes curling. When he spoke next, his lips were still on yours, and you opened your mouth just a little to try to swallow down his sweet words. “Let me run you a bath, sweetheart,” he said, “and then you can open your last present.”

As much as you wanted to take a bath with Billy, he had set up the perfect mini-spa for you that you enjoyed to the fullest. After your bath, you felt light and airy and soft, and you wandered into the bedroom, smiling once more at the sight of all the rose petals on the bed. “Billy,” you sang, strutting towards the bed in one of the new lingerie sets you’d gotten, “baby, I’m ready for my last present.”

You weren’t sure what else he could have planned for you, how else he could make this day amazing, but you were sure of one thing… Maybe your birthday didn’t have to be so horrible after all. Maybe it could be nice—and you knew, underneath all of the lingering doubt, that Billy would always do whatever it took to make it nice for you…because he loved you. And you loved him. You were taken out of your thoughts when you heard Billy behind you, and—not for the first time that day—your mouth fell open.

Billy, grinning widely, was wearing nothing but a big red bow over his person. He held his arms out, and you moved towards him, circling him like an animal. Your mouth watered as you checked him out. He really was perfect.

“You gotta unwrap your gift, baby,” he grinned, all teeth.

“This,” you sighed out, stepping closer to him and running your hands over the ribbon-covered bulge between his legs, “is the best birthday ever.”

Billy kissed you, and you wrapped your arms around him, wanting—needing—him closer.

“Here’s to many more.”

*******************************************************************************************

I had fun writing this! I wasn’t too sure about it at first, but I got into the little surprises he set up for her. Please let me know what you thought! Thank you!

(Also, the tags haven’t been working for everyone, so every reblog is really appreciated. I’d like as many people as possible to see my work. Thanks, guys!)

TAGLIST: @floralpeaceofmind @delicatelilyflower @dylanobrusso�� @ladyblablabla @banditthewriter @something-tofightfor @starsfragments @blackcoffeeandgreenteaforme @hisgirlwednesdayaddams@fictionwillneverdie @maria-beretta @sadnessxvodka @ymariejp @sunnycolors @moonlightsay @its-all-o-kay @damagelove @keyeluh @itsmylife98 @funerals-with-cake @littlemermaidprobz @teacuplotus @king4thesirens @mrsjaxtellerfan @thebabblingbook @tartelette-aux-fraises @madamrogers @charlylama @iaintnofurry @k-buggz2001 @whitewolfslittlesilverfox @drinix @elanor-of-imladris @blah-blah-fuckit-shit @julliiaaq @holamor @ymariejp@shadowhunterscloset @songtoyou @anabella-baby @heyitslexy @luminex3 @sithskywalkers @carlaangel86@sssilverssserpent @jupiter-blake @binbons-is-theloml @captainblackeyes @importantkidmakerfire @luminex3 @the-blind-assassin-12 @editboutique @suchatinyinfinity @lexxierave @whovianayesha @my-little-dumpster-fire @rhabakoli @thesumofmychoices @saltyshaggymeme

#billy russo x reader #billy russo imagine #billy russo

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theorynexus · 5 years ago

Text

Double Fives are first, today-- or two together-arranged, 55, I should say.

Also, we’re at Meat 30. It would seem Jake, Karkat, and Dave are spending time together, this time.

Oh gosh... I hope Karkat wasn’t made to endure that, considering he supposedly only ever left his house once per year, even if that might be a hyperbole. @w@ His interests and Jake’s are strongly opposed on that from, it would seem. Thus, it might have been bad for deal-making, for reasons of souring Karkat’s mood; regardless, let’s see whether their other interests might align, or some non-detrimental arrangement (for Karkat, but hopefully for Jake too) might be found between them.

Ouch. On the other hand, at least Karkat seems to have (likely) become more comfortable with outward signs of his blood’s color. I doubt he would have failed to realize that it likely gives that impression, even if he originally intended it to be a sign of his closeness with Dave. He almost certainly would have semi-paranoid-ly weighed the pros and cons for his emotional well-being and/or all other consequences involved, and only come to the decision that the suit was acceptable for him to wear after deciding both connotations were acceptable.

Honestly, all things considered, Jake is very much correct. Considering the boost from all his rungs on the escheladder, there’s no way his physical capabilities should be that bad. ... Though Jake’s estimates probably would be wrong for any other sort of being that was traveling with him. I don’t think his expectations are probably all that well gauged to the individuals in his company. It’s not that I think poorly of his intelligence, mind you. It’s just that Jake can be... rather oblivious, sometimes, if memory serves.

Yeah, his judgment is totally based on his own experience. Still, though, even coated in like 5 layers of fur, Karkat shouldn’t be that worn out. At least, from a world-building perspective, this doesn’t contradict the established rule that-- oh, wait, that was ghosts changing to fit the person’s perceptions, not God Tier players’ appearances, wasn’t it? Hmmm.

Yes. Karkat’s diplomatic skills are impeccable. There is absolutely nobody that can beat this guy when it comes to maintaining good relationships and reputations among the important powers of the world--- nobody!

I would suspect that Alt!Calliope is being petty, here, but I think it’s just Karkat being so tired that his coordination has dropped a bit. (Also, this is honestly rather cute, and I appreciate the opportunity to giggle at it.)

Frack, Dave is good at bringing things up in the most awkward way possible. Also, that Karkat only estimates himself as being able to beat 99% of all humans in a “threshecution threshing match” is both quite comical and somewhat sad. ._. One Percent is a whole lot of people.

***facepalms with the greatest of groans*** SHE REALLY SHOULD FRICKING NOT!!! (Internet freedom for all!) That said: GAH, Dave, are you trying to sabotage Karkat’s chances, here? On the other hand: Maybe this propensity for blunt, careless words is one of the reasons that he decided he didn’t want to run for President, himself. If so, good on him, I guess, for knowing himself that well.

( I will say, though, that that was honestly a nice segue, despite the fact that he sortof botched the lead-up to this via his rudeness. Karkat gets a pass, though, because everyone knows he’s crude, and that’s part of the appeal.)

The real question is: Are these campaign dollars as in a certain allocated amount that is allowed for each candidate, or money which was donated to the campaign by those who support them and/or Dave/Karkat? That is a pretty important distinction, politically. Not that either will likely be addressed and/or matter directly to the outcome of the race, probably. Oh, and those adds sound incredibly silly. I am not 100% sure that they will actually in all likelihood be effective, but they sure do sound comic-(sans)-ical. On the other hand: Jake seems to be trying to mentally suppress what’s happening to him, probably due to his feelings toward Jane. Welp. :|

This is a very complicated issue, and for the sake of not offending either side, I shall choose to remain silent on the real world matter at hand, here. On the other hand, I love the way that Karkat is just like, “SHUT UP, ALREADY.” XD

Reminds me of Caliborn. Indeed, that is definitely the reason why such committees are actually put into place (other than the compelling economic reasons incentives). Doesn’t mean that they actually succeed in doing so perfectly, however. It just makes it a grey “I guess maybe they were involved,” regardless of whether the person actually suggested such adds ought go into effect or not. Buuuuut... I’m going to refrain from pushing my promised non-commentary further than that-- and only did comment with this because of its relevance to Jake’s thought process.

It seems that Karkat agrees with my assessment of this matter. Also, Alt!Calliope sure is quite sassy, compared to the grim and highly reserved person I thought she was. I wonder if it’s because she’s been watching essentially television for eons in order to properly understand humanity+maybe the trolls or whatever, or if it’s because she’s doing it on accident, as was my initial guess/impression, as related earlier in my liveblogs.

That’s not the point, Dave. The point is that, for one, it probably makes the audience think of you as irresponsible; secondly, it wastes the most precious resource in politics: the citizens’ limited attention spans; finally, it may actually make the two of you come off as being condescending and/or not having any actual idea what you’re talking about, which would be absolutely horrible for your chances, come election time. While campaigns can indeed turn around in the latter months of election season, first impressions are also very important!

That is a very interesting point/question. And very ironic for him to ask; not that Dave actually can’t be properly understood through his layers of irony-- but rather, while he does indeed have a talent for that, his other qualities obscure it so badly as to make it seem quite unremarkable and hidden. And there Dave goes again, saying “thats basically true [sic.]”. Magnificent. ***will not touch the matter of how straight-forward Dirk is***

... Man. Hopefully, this will serve as a lesson to the both of them. Jake’s reaction is so bloody on the point, though. @w@

I do honestly appreciate that too. Wow, though, he is being surprisingly civil and respectful as a result of this. It shouldn’t honestly be a surprise, considering who Jake is. It’s just... wow. I really appreciate the breath of fresh air.

Yeeeeesss!!!~ <3 I love everything about this that follows! While he can be quite oblivious at times, I have always thought that Jake’s intelligence was top-notch, and I quite appreciate his flexing it, as well as that wonderfully noted breath of FREEDOM whizzing into his sails!

Boooooo!!!~ I really quite appreciate the correct and excellent display of entomological knowledge, here, but DANG, if Dirk isn’t a slimy piece of garbage, sometimes! I mean, my gosh, the sociopathic logic, here. It’s horrific! As for Jake: I am very proud of him, and appreciate his very appropriate question. Everyone should ask the qualities that politicians bring to the table, policy-wise, and their (+ dis-)advantages--- not just how charismatic they are. Of course, such a statement is stating the obvious. ‘s still good to see it in practice. ... Wow, I really love Alt!Calliope’s sass. So much.

HECK YES! :’D

***grooooaaan***

FINALLY, CERTAINTY!!!

Aside from his lack of attraction for her, which says nothing of importance, I do in fact agree with Karkat, here. This is essentially the equivalent of the moment when the United States switched to the Constitution, and the country absolutely needed a Washington. If Adams had actually been elected, instead of getting the second-highest sum of votes, then both the contry and the entire world could have turned out quite differently. I, too, do believe that Crocker could be reasonably said to have a fair chance at acting as a President who doesn’t really shake things up too terribly, and actually manages to set a perfectly fine, perhaps above average standard for Presidents to come. There are, however, certain points in history which require great leaders if things are going to pan out well in the long-term. Crocker just presents far too many potential problems while not offering enough in the way of positives for me to give a strong endorsement of her, despite my desire to see a female president eventually take office in the United States’ equivalent of the station she and Karkat are competing over.

(SUPPORT KARKAT FOR HIS BETTER APPRECIATION OF FUNDAMENTAL PHILOSOPHICAL ORDERS OF IMPORTANCE.)

Yeeeeaaaahhh... She was already quite twisted up (read: pained) inside during the session as a result of her concern for maintaining appearances and manipulating peoples’ perceptions of her, unless my memory is horrible in this particular act of dredging up long-ago readings’ implications, so I could certainly see that growing to be a problem as she grew up. I’d sortof hoped that that would cease to be so much of an issue, after their session was won, considering the rewards involved/gained as a result of that. :/

... Yeah, that is a good deal of whiplash. I am honestly pained.

Dangit, I was so swept up in my spiel about the direct political consequences of that decision/strategy that I forgot to emphasize the very obvious danger of it actually alienating Jake from her!

***sobs*** I am so proud of him! (Though this is not exactly the best reason for choosing one’s political decisions, I can definitely get behind the idea of him striving for independence from that manipulative cur.)

What Dave said, but less profanity-laced! Also: Am I incorrect in remembering that God Tier players past a certain Tier are able to wield any weapon they desire, regardless of whether they have a Kind Abstratus of the appropriate sort in their strife specibus? That could become relevant, some time in the near future.

#Homestuck Spoilers #Homestuck Liveblog #Homestuck Epilogue #Political Theory #Homestuck Analysis

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flyingmustachio · 6 years ago

Text

You know what I think is really important to understand is that we under American Capitalism are kind of gaslit by our poor understanding of history and biology. We assume that we have no right to demand more peace and more freedoms and more pleasure and more joy and more equality since we are living in “the most privileged and comfortable era in all of human history thanks to technology.” How can be so ungrateful and miserable when so few of us suffer and die horribly from the kind of diseases that used to plague mankind? When we have electricity and cars and heat and air conditioning? When we “live more luxuriously than any ancient emperor?”

And to some extent, that’s true. It’s wonderful that so few people die in childbirth or from diseases or injuries when compared to the rest of human history, and it’s wonderful that we are able to have access to such a variety of foods and activities and services. But it’s completely incorrect to assume that because these difficult things were more common in the past that the vast majority of everyone throughout history spent every second of their lives in misery and drudgery and we’re just ungrateful, wussy pricks for feeling dissatisfied and unfulfilled by our comparative material bliss. We assume that society in the Middle Ages or the ancient world were divided into The Rich Few and The Poor Masses, and that if you were among the Poor Masses your life was just misery and toil until you died at 30 of some horrible infection.

But the more I learn about the common people throughout history, the more I realize this simply isn’t true. The average life span was only 30 since so many babies, and mothers and warriors died early. If you lived past your teens in the past, you were just as likely to live to be in your 70′s as today, unless there was a war or famine or plague happening. Most people were farmers, and yes, farm work by hand is very hard, and yes, making everything by hand takes a lot of time so yes, people in the past did a whole lot of work, but here’s the thing - it wasn’t even close to as dehumanizing for most people as work is today. Resting was not demonized. Enjoying yourself and valuing fun and amusement wasn’t seen as childish. Though they worked an hour or so longer than we do on average today, Medieval peasants had more time off than we do, with all of the weeks long religious festivals every year. Naps were normal. And yes, if it was a time of scarcity or famine people suffered horribly, but, like, it wasn’t always a time of scarcity or famine. It was a time of scarcity or famine less often than you probably think.

And if you think about the type of work most people used to do, it was much slower, more self directed, and allowed for much more human connection. If you’re weaving, or making cheese, or tilling a field, you or your small team are in control. You can stop and rest for a short time if you need to. None of these tasks require 100 percent concentration. You can talk to the people around you while you work. You can make friends and tell jokes and stories. You can be connected and productive at the same time. While the work was physically harder than most work today, it was much less mentally taxing or isolating. Especially now when many jobs expect you to be on call all the time or to still answer emails during your off hours. It’s absurd! It’s not normal!

I mean, look at the hobbies people choose nowadays. The things we view as “extra” that people “waste time” on. Hunting. Fishing. Crafts. Hiking. For most people throughout human history, those things WERE your work. And sure there was more pressure back in the day. Like there’s a lot more pressure to actually catch a fish on your fishing trip when if you don’t catch one your family doesn’t eat tonight. But it says something about the nature of our work today that so many people would spend their precious and short free time and spend the money they toiled to earn in order to have the opportunity to do the same things our ancestors considered “work.”

And even the more “passive” hobbies that people see as less productive, like TV and video games are not some new luxury. Stories have been around forever, and they have always been an integral part of what it is to be human and to connect with other humans. Most modern jobs don’t allow for story or connection. You’re busy, mostly alone, all day long. If we can’t tell each other stories while we churn our butter or plow our fields, we’ll watch TV and play video games together on our days off.

I guess my point is that it’s not normal to be this miserable. It’s not normal to hate your job or your life. It’s not normal to feel so isolated and disconnected. That, while we are more physically comfortable on the whole than at any time in history, we actually seem to be considerably LESS mentally comfortable, healthy, and fulfilled than most other times in history, and we’re not wrong or ungrateful for wanting to change that.

Many people blame technology for our lack of connection. They think that the fact that most people spend their time off work watching TV or playing video games to relax and many people prioritize those activities over more direct and authentic quality time spent with family and friends means that TV and video games are inherently addictive and bad and that they and the internet keep us in bubbles, divided from each other. But I think that these technologies aren’t what’s actually to blame, I think it’s how we structure our work. There is only so much time in the day, and we can’t fit in work and human connection, and basic home tasks, and rest and relaxation. I mean think back to how much easier it was to make friends when you were in school. You were at class together, you could do homework together and help each other. The human connection happened at the same time as the work, and you made deep friendships because of all the time you spent together. I imagine the same was true of pre-industrial work. If you’re telling stories while weaving cloth, teaching the beginners and helping each other, the human connection is happening at the same time as the work. I mean it makes sense why so many people today seem to have trouble keeping deep friendships, sleeping enough, or simply getting enough peaceful downtime. There simply isn’t enough time in the day, so something is bound to get left by the wayside in favor of other needs.

I think it’s like how crash diets contribute to binge eating. If you cut out whole categories of food and cut your calories very quickly you are much more likely to lose control and eat much more than you would have in the first place if you had just eaten normally. I think modern Americans only act so “lazy” when they’re outside of work because they are so very overworked and underconnected to begin with. You wouldn’t expect someone who hasn’t slept for a week to be able to just have a regular 8 hour sleep and be back to normal. They’re going to need to sleep long and rest up and recover. One argument against things like Universal Basic Income is “Without the threat of poverty, what will motivate people to be productive? Everyone will just sit around and watch TV for the rest of their lives.” But you can’t expect an entire population who haven’t known real rest and leisure since childhood to just magically know how to distribute their time healthily. They’re going to act really lazy and hedonistic for a while. But eventually they will get bored, and they will realize they feel better and more connected and more fulfilled when they are working on things that interest them. And most of them will find some sort of job again, but this time they’ll actually have the luxury to figure out what they’re actually passionate about and feel fulfilled in their job, which will lead to even more innovation and productivity than before. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but passion and curiosity are the parents of progress. And if some people do turn out to just be lazy to the core? Fine. Let them watch TV forever and be happy! Technology is constantly making our work more efficient while our population continues to rise. There simply aren’t enough jobs to support all of the people we have, and I don’t think people should starve because of that.

#Universal Basic Income #It's not normal to be miserable all the time #Wanting fulfillment is not decadent or unreasonable

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mysterious-prophetess · 6 years ago

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Movie Double feature

Today I saw TWO Movies somewhat back-to-back.

Bumblebee AND Aquaman.

One I’d been anticipating and one I was slightly skeptical about.

So I’m going to do my little post movie write up AS a double feature as well.

So first the overall experiences I had with both and then below a read more, I will get into spoiler territory.

Bumblebee

I will admit I had the bar set low because it’s a Transformer’s movie. Though, I was slightly hopeful because Bee was a bug like he was in the cartoon. And also, Bee is my favorite transformer’s character.

I was right to be hopeful. This movie was thoroughly enjoyable. Not once did I glance at my cellphone. Ok I did but that wasn’t because I was bored.

The pacing could be very quick at times but the human protagonist was actually someone I could give a full damn about. The plot wrapped up nicely and if Michael Bay really wanted, he could reboot the whole franchise and it would work. Easily the best of the....how many are there at this point? Let’s see.....(one google search later) Six. Best of the Six Transformers movies out. Personally, I think Michael bay should just reboot the series.

Aquaman

I didn’t have the bar super high here either but I was hoping for it to be good because of several reasons.

1) I am a HUGE DC fangirl. That’s right I’ll admit it, I prefer DC to Marvel. So, I’d prefer it when DC movies are good.

2) Representation matters.

3) The way they set up Aquaman in Justice League (especially with the Motherbox thing and Mera) intrigued me.

So, how was it? Well, I will say it was not as good as Wonder Woman. However, it was better than all the other current batch DC movies, though. By which I mean the ones that are already out. Which is something it does pain me to admit since I am (at heart) a hardcore Superman fangirl. So, for me current DC movie rankings in quality (in my personal opinion):

Wonder Woman

Aquaman

Justice League

Man of Steel

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (extended cut)

Suicide Squad

The tone flipped back and forth with light and more serious moments here and there. The pacing could be choppy in a few segments and Snyder is back at it again with his choices for editing scenes together. More on that in the spoiler section. But it was also fun and Arthur’s 1000000% done with it was something I could relate to. Yes, it is the standard trope-y King Arthur tale (yeah, pun intended and DC did that too) of good true king versus Bad False King, but it also wasn’t totally stale. The art direction is what really made this movie for me. I loved LOVED how the underwater civilizations looked.

Now time for the spoiler section.

You have been warned. Don’t read if you’ve not seen either.

Bumblebee

Like I said above, I did not enter this film with high expectations of it. I mean, I don’t hate the other Transformers movies. I’ll just admit up front that if I could cut out the human bits from most of the other five films and just have nothing but giant robot fights, I’d be more than good with that. Especially Dark of the Moon. Just give me the giant robot bits and omit the rest please.

Charlie is actually relatable. Especially to me because I’ve had the sucky as fuck job at an amusement park. I won’t say where or when but trust me: working at a theme park is not fun at all. She also has something of an arc in this film that isn’t “get the girl” or whatever Mark Whalberg’s character’s arc was supposed to be in Last Knight (I didn’t see age of extinction but it seemed his arc there was around fatherhood or something). Charlie is also (as a character) charming enough to help carry the film with Bee.

I won’t say the Charlie parts were always 100% good, but definitely good more often than not.

The male human lead (Memo?)...he was just Sam Witwicky 1980′s edition and a little less pathetic.

Bumblebee was adorable in this. I get it was the amnesia but before he lost his voice, it was nice to hear him actually talk and the fact they cast a guy with a young-ish sounding voice was something I really liked since in the cartoon I’m more than fairly certain Bee was a kid or the youngest member of the Autobots. After the amnesia, it also sort of was childlike in his behaviors.

I even liked the Decepticons. They were barely playing nice.

I like that the human military was trying to play them right back.

Best line in the movie was when the John Cena character Agent Burns says something like,

“Should we even trust them, It’s right in their name “Decepticons”“

That was actually a clever thing to have in the film.

Something else I liked was the fact that Optimus Prime, Soundwave, and Ravage were all really close to their cartoon designs, and it looked so much nicer to me.

Bee as a Camaro origin story. It was a nice touch. This skews the canon of the films a little but since it’s in my personal opinion they should just reboot it here and run with this new universe, any continuity issues aren’t that big to me.

Were there times the move just went from 0-CRAZY. Yeah.

Charlie’s family: Borderline abusive at times, and borderline too...much. They weren’t as over the top as the Witwicky’s but that’s not saying much.

The internet already existed in the 80′s for the military as either DARPA or ARPA Net, so that little revelation was stupid.

The bullies who harrass Charlie at that party spot. I’ve never met someone that callus IRL and there is no way the bitchy chick making fun of the fact Charlie’s dad dropped dead wouldn’t have had at least someone aside from Memo and Bee going “Not Cool”

Speaking of that, the whole delinquent thing that they did to rich girl’s house? Funny but not 100% plot relevant. There were other ways to end up with Charlie, Bee, and Memo in a car chase.

E.G. Bee’s trying to cheer Charlie up by going fast or something.

The nod to the other films with Simmons was nice.

A solidly enjoyable film. I do actually recommend it.

Aquaman

Now onto a bigger spiel.

Again, due to DC’s track record for film quality with the current movie universe (and beyond) I did not want to have my hopes up, but I already mentioned why I wanted it to do well above.

The tonal shifts from serious to light to serious again could be (to borrow what my dad said) corny. I like corny, personally, but I get that tonal shifts like this can give others whiplash. Fortunately, they didn’t do this all the time.

What Snyder had them do enough times, however, was editing in flashbacks in the main flow of the story with little warning a la Man of Steel and I didn’t like it then, I don’t like it now.

Sometimes the dialogue could be a bit on the nose and clunky but I did like Arthur’s arc in this film. It was slightly incomplete because part of his arc started in Justice League which was learning how to play nice with other people to do something. Then there was the whole reluctant leader thing. It was done well enough, but having seen it done much better in the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy, I know that attempting this sort of character arc in one film was asking for it to be a little less refined. Which is the result. Yet, despite it relying on a very Arthurian trope of Chosen King with Magic Weapon, it did it well enough that it wasn’t a totally stale thing. The fact he had the magic-trident of King Atlan was something he was actively working to earn throughout the movie. It did actually feel like he had gone through enough of a growth in the film (and part of Justice League) to merit him earning this achievement of his.

The film did drag a little in places but only twice did I just want them to get on with it already.

Black Manta Ray’s origin was interesting in this universe. Arthur did quasi-create this enemy.

On the other hand, I can’t fully feel sympathy for a murderous pirate dying because he tried to kill Arthur and Arthur decided that the man who tried to blow him up wasn’t someone he wanted to save. But that’s because I’m a vindictive bitch.

Arthur, later, realizes that he should have done the right thing all along but too late now. He also realizes the value of mercy because of this so...

Mera’s powers are never fully explained, but I find myself mostly ok with that because I just started calling her a waterbender in my head.

Arhtur and Mera’s relationship evolved semi-organically. They did have chemistry for the most part, but it was almost too cliche at times yet it was fine because it’s the action movie romance cliches that aren’t 100 horrible but it was even at times a little sweet.

So, let’s go over, in detail what I loved about the art direction

Yes, it does look very similar to other underwater cities that I’ve seen in the past in other media, but they also incorporated enough new and nature inspired parts to it that I loved looking at each underwater civilization. The ruins, the tech, the fact things glowed the way they did. That pirate ship air pocket was also a really interesting thing though I kept wondering where Ariel was

I even got that the reason there was water in the Atlantean vehicles was Atlanteans don’t need to worry about things being airtight because they breathe under water.

Later when it was explained that only a handful of Atlanteans can even breath in the atmosphere it made even more sense.

When Volko was training Arthur in his Atlantean skills and stuff started to glow once he went deeper in the water I actually nodded because there is scientific evidence that every living thing does give off small amounts of bioluminesce. Even we humans do, but it’s so faint we can’t perceive it.

I personally think the Atlanteans should have glowed a little too.

The different species of Atlantean were very neat. Especially the “feral” ones. Reminded me of someone crossing a Zora with that creature from Pan’s Labyrinth or that thing from Hellboy 2 that Liz made a deal with to save Hellboy.

Onto other things:

The Karathen. I did not expect her to live up to the hype the movie was building her up to be. I was also pleasantly surprised that it was a “she” during the scene where she is trash-talking Arthur without knowing that he can understand her. Then, later, I found out she is voiced by Julie Andrews.

Also, because the Karathen did make such a huge impact in that final fight two things entered my head.

“RELEASE THE KRAKEN” and

Orm: “I have an army!”

Arthur: “I have a sea monster.”

The Atlantis thrown down was noticed but that got me thinking: Where was the rest of the JL during this. Were they just doing damage control or something after Orm’s little oceanic temper tantrum?

The mid-credits stinger with Mantaray. I knew he wasn’t done because Manta Ray is a major Aquaman villain. I just didn’t think the Atlantis obsessed prof would end up finding him.

I don’t fully get why Nereus would want a war with the surface with Orm in charge, unless he would just strike Orm down later and take his power.

I didn’t get why the fishpeople didn’t just RUN AWAY whenever Arthur showed up with the Karathen AND wielding the Trident of Atlan. All Fish-People Princess would have had to do was say “my people RUN FROM THE MONSTER” And Orm’s armies (and Orm himself) would be so busy fighting a literal sea monster from their worst nightmares that no one could or would have stopped them.

In fact, I am confused as to why there wasn’t mass panic once the Karathen showed up and she started wrecking all the military vehicles. -\( `-`)/-

Arthur’s ability to speak to the aquatic animals was actually built up to be a major ability.

Aquaman’s been made fun of in the past for this, but considering he was able to talk to the Karathen, and control a bunch of apex sea predators (turning them on their masters) it isn’t something to be fully laughed off. Outside the ocean, sure it doesn’t really make a huge difference but that’s where making the Atlanteans tougher than land humans comes in. That too makes actual sense with the reasons as to why this was.

Atlanna’s survival wasn’t really too much of a shock for me. I was half-expecting the Trench-peoples to not be totally savage and actually just have a bad rep.

The Hidden Sea at the Earth’s core bit got an eyebrow quirk. I was half expecting it to be the Caspian Sea....

I would still very much recommend Aquaman.

#aquaman #bumblebee #movie reviews #(ever notice a huge typo 24 hours after posting something? cause I JUST DID)

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