#the old one got a few notes since she appeared in the anime and i hate looking at it lol...

[meion]

redrew an old pic of tade :3

[diamondzart]

I know Toy Story 4 is not really loved by the masses, but I can’t help admitting that I’m that person who loves it just as much as the trilogy. I was really excited about it back in 2019 and even had a little bit of hyperfixation on it. I really adore the concept of lost toys who live on their own. As much as Woody’s choice in the end was unexpected, I think it opened big possibilities for post-canon ideas. Like this one! I decided to design his possible appearance after a couple of years of living outside with Bo. Description under the cut!

I noticed what was missing from those few fanarts on events after the end of Toy Story 4 that I found on the internet. Bo Peep is all so cool and fancy with her hook, raincoat and all sorts of useful thingies that she carries with her, and Woody is just clean and unscathed, as if he just yesterday got out of a dry and warm room. Naaah he wouldn’t stay like this for long 😆

Because what is lost toy’s life? Dirt, unforeseen damage and the need to periodically fight off stray animals. Moreover, we already know that Woody has a tendency to get into troubles. Moreover, he is a rag doll — that is, more than Bo is vulnerable to problems like unstable humidity, getting stuck somewhere with his limbs and getting attacked by cats / dogs / raccoons / whatever else they can encounter. He should become as hardcore as Bo after a couple of years, because otherwise there is no way to survive in this world.

The “raincoat” is of nylon, most likely cut out parts of an umbrella that someone conveniently lost in the park during stormy weather. The trick is that it’s waterproof, since when you are made out of natural fabric, it's important not to get wet as much as possible. Moreover, Woody is quite old, and he should be concerned about the condition of his fabric if he does not want to literally fall apart after a couple of years of such adventures.

The holster is used as a pocket for small things, here it’s used for matches and paper clips, which can be useful in different situations. For matches, a striking surface from a matchbox is attached to the outer side of the right boot. This will allow to quickly light a match by yanking a foot down while holding match to it and thus minimize extra full-body movements, which can be useful in an emergency situation. I think that this can be effective not only for lighting up spaces, but also for scaring away animals, especially small ones like rats.

The hook is a pencil and a fishhook with a broken tip, strapped with duct tape. Basically an analogue of Bo’s hook but made from improvised materials. As we have already seen in her example, it is an excellent utility for crossing various obstacles and, if necessary, for self-defense.

Stitches and scuffs. Both Bo Peep's arms were broken off and are taped back. That means, free living involves the regular risk of losing limbs. Even in an antique store, Woody got his foot stuck somewhere several times, which suggests that either himself or with the help of some stray animal he lost one or another limb and had to sew it back on his own or with Bo’s assistance. He will have to overcome his fear of being broken and accept this as a new part of his existence.

These were general notes on this sketch! Perhaps I will continue to develop this idea in order to find some new interesting solutions.

[mythosidhesdollhouse]

Shibajuku Anime: Akira (Pt. 2 - The Review)

The nitty-gritty breakdown promised in Pt. 1. This post was an absolute drag to work on, but I'm glad to report I did at least find a few nice things to say. Precious few.

This is such a hilarious joke where do I even begin--

Alright friends and enemies, let's get this over with--

Cursory overview of the packaging: Forgot to take a closeup of the front before I removed her from the box, but it doesn't matter much since she's pretty accurate to the stock photos aside from her hair being several shades lighter than I was expecting (my first grievance).

Vague but threatening, bordering on nonsensical. Sounds like it was written by Chat GPT.

The array of blinding whiteness we discussed at length previously. (and no I will not collect you all, indeed I will be deeply shocked if the other three dolls in this line ever see the light of day)

Okay enough of that, let's get into the actual DOLL. For better or worse I am somewhat surprised to report this appears to be an entirely new sculpt. Not just the head, the body as well. The new one was clearly modeled after the original, but there are enough minor differences to convince me they made completely new molds for most if not all of the parts.

The face has the most obvious differences. The first thing I noticed when handling her is that the material Akira's head is made from is softer than Yoko's. Her cheeks are more rounded and less angular, her nose and mouth are smaller, and her eyes are smaller and more forward facing. The eye chips and lashes appear to be the same material that was used on the previous dolls, but the design of the iris and pupil have changed drastically, and combine with the overall revision of the makeup to give the new dolls what I suppose they thought was a more 'anime' look. Personally I prefer the wider, colored brows and glitter eyeshadow seen on Yoko, but I think Akira's stronger cheek blushing is an improvement on the old look.

The differences in the face sculpts are even more apparent in profile. Overall I think I actually prefer the new face. It's like a revised and updated version of the first draft we got on the original dolls.

Might as well drop a word about the hair while we're discussing the head. They appear to both have the same fiber--either very low end nylon or poly, I admit I'm not well versed enough to tell the difference--but Akira's rooting is much sparser than Yoko's.

At first glance not much to note about the new body appearance-wise, but upon closer examination we find the elbow and knee joints are cut differently, and the material(s) they are made from are not the same. While Yoko's entire body appears to be made from the same shiny hard vinyl throughout, Akira's torso and legs are made from a matte vinyl, while her hands and arms are rubbery and slightly pliable.

Akira's hands are smaller than Yoko's, and her arms are slightly slimmer.

Same hilariously tiny feet. If you check the backs of their knees you can see how the joints aren't quite the same.

Ok the sigh has returned. We're getting to the point that really bummed me out. You may have noticed the staining on Akira's arms in some of the earlier photos. Let's take a closer look.

The marks go all the way around on both arms. I suspect the blame for this lies in equal parts on the rubbery plastic her arms are made from, and the absolute shit material of her dress. OMG THIS EFFING DRESS. Sure it looks fine--Nice basic lolita silhouette, cute graphic elements, plenty of lace and ribbon trim--but the material it's made from is just nasty (and no not in a good way like Ms. Jackson). It's....crispy? Crunchy? Honestly the only way I can think to describe it is cheap, plasticky paper. It doesn't feel like fabric at all, and it's easily the worst tactile experience I can remember having with a doll garment. If you are sensitive to abrasive textures trust me you do not want to touch this thing. It made me physically cringe. And on top of all that unpleasantness, it's not even colorfast!

Her other pieces are fine. Shoes are fine, socks are fine, headband is actually better quality than anything else here and is the only thing that redeems the ensemble for me. With all her kit on Akira is decently cute enough to hang out with the other dolls I have on display at the moment, as long as I don't have to touch her.

Yoko's outfit is relatively simple by comparison, but it's made from NORMAL, soft, non-crunchy fabric, has some nice lace and metallic details on the skirt, and features the iconic Shibajuku cat socks, which are this brand's greatest (only) contribution to the wider doll community. Best of all, NO STAINS. Yoko has been wearing these pieces for eight, nine years? I've never bothered to redress her. Not a single mark on her. Call me crazy, but I'll happily take simplicity over a more elaborate design made with poor quality material that actively harms the doll.

That's it! I've run out of things to say. I got Akira with a $5 discount code Walmart sent me for posting a review of another doll, and I still feel like I overpaid. I don't hate her--you all know I love weird looking dolls, and for all their flaws I find these girls rather sweet (if derpy)--but I am just plain old mad at all the corners Hunter Toys obviously cut to make these dolls as cheaply as possible. It's an insult to their customers and their dolls.

[mariyekos]

For those of you (like me!) who missed it, there was a Behind the Scenes video released for the first Devil May Cry Netflix Anime back in November 2023, which includes a few scenes that aren't in either the old or new trailer!

This is where we got the shots of the female character who might(?) be Lady but didn't appear in the trailers. It's also where we got shots of a fight that doesn't appear in the latest trailer...unless it's an old version that's since been changed. Putting some screenshots and thoughts below the cut!

"Lady", or the Woman in the Behind the Scenes Video

Above: 1) Dante and the woman running on a rooftop, 2) The woman falls off rooftop, Dante sprints to the ground past her, 3) The woman continues falling and Dante gets prepped to catch her (note: there's something on the right that at first I thought might be Kalina-Ann, but on re-watches looks like a broken pipe).

My thought is that this could be Lady because it mirrors their encounters in DMC3 to an extent. The first shot makes me think of running through the library during her fight. The second and third shot of her falling and Dante catching her is reminiscent of when she fell off the Temen-ni-gru and Dante caught her (by the leg).

However...I hope it's not Lady, because other than the hairstyle, she doesn't look like Lady to me. This DMC is clearly going for a more modern aesthetic than DMC3 (and most of the DMCs, with 5 having the most "modern" look in terms of the city), but this woman's outfit reads very techo-futuristic to me and I would rather not have Lady dress like that. It just doesn't feel very Lady-like to me, y'know? That and I just think it was cool when Lady decided to shoot Dante and save herself when falling in DMC3. Please don't damsel in distress her like this :(

(Related: While I know the real reason Lady dresses like she does is that it's cute/hot, I like to HC that she typically doesn't wear armor because she needs to be able to move, and she figures any demon who'll be able to hurt her will be strong enough to make it through armor anyway so she might as well something mobile and comfortable.)

Now I will say, this woman doesn’t have the Kalina-Ann on her, just two pistols(?), so one possible story-line I’m thinking of is that this is Lady, but in a point early in the story where she’s working for some mercenaries or some sort of group to establish herself while she’s hunting Arkham. Then, later on she might split from them and don something more akin to her usual outfits while she runs around with the Kalina-Ann we all know and love. Another option is that this plain isn’t Lady. That’s my ideal.

Another reason why I’d like if this isn’t Lady is that I really do enjoy the young/schoolgirl aesthetic Lady has going in the original DMC3 and DMC3 Manga, because it sells just how messed up Arkham and his actions are. The scene of a teenager being the one to end her father's life and crying over him feels so much more chilling than it would if she was, say, 25. Lady’s a teenager who’s had her mother and her life stolen from her, and that’s tragic. This woman doesn’t read like a teen to me. And while Dante also reads as a little older and anime is notorious for making 17 year olds look 30 and 30 year olds look 17, that doesn’t eliminate the fact that I think an older looking Lady would lower the impact of certain scenes, even if the show says she’s 16. I like when Lady is younger than Dante, because Dante’s this teenager who’s so irresponsible, but then in comes Lady who’s even younger but seems to have it together…until eventualy you come face to face with the idea that oh, oh boy, this is all terrible and no one should be having to deal with this, Arkham what have you done (both with essentially orphaning Lady and partnering with the teenage Vergil (and screwing over the teenage Dante) as part of his evil plan. Which Vergil agrees to and helps with, so he's far from innocent, but still).

Comparison between Behind the Scenes and the New Trailer

It's also possible that the show might've changed aesthetics a bit between the previous trailer and this one.

See these shots from the new trailer (which I will refer to as NT)? I wonder if they're updated variants of this scene from the Behind the Scenes (BtS) video below.

Now I'll admit this is kind of a stretch. Buuuuut I'm going to stretch to make it anyway. In both scenes, Dante is being attacked by a group of humans. Yes, he fights humans across different media, but if the DMC anime is mostly Dante vs a bunch of humans with human weapons, I'm going to be very bored, so that's why I'm hoping this is just storyboard vs Final version of a scene. And yes, I know that's a lot of work to redo...but maybe reception was bad and they pivoted, and that's part of why we went a year without any news.

Other big things: the arcade cabinets.

I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be Dante's shop in both shots, and again, if Dante gets jumped by a bunch of humans in his shop multiple times, I'm going to be upset/bored because really? That's such a basic thing to reuse. Please don't do that. Thus I'm banking on the BtS version being the original idea, with the NT version being what the animators/director pivoted to.

And the thing I caught onto before I noticed the arcade cabinets: the guy(s) on the floor.

Again, it's entirely possible these are different scenes. A guy getting knocked out is one of the most basic things in any show that includes any kind of fighting. But...if they were redoing a scene, why not keep a few of the elements like the guy(s) Dante has knocked out? Are we going to have multiple scenes of people jumping Dante in his shop, Dante knocking them out, and the shop being partially destroyed? Seems excessive.

Lastly, these two shots:

Now the Rebellion thing is deeeeefinitely a stretch. The other stuff I mentioned in regards to this two scenes is stuff I'm pretty sure of Rebellion nah, especially since it doesn't come right after the other scenes in the BtS video (which are all together), whereas all the shots I included of the NT are in sequence. But the reason I included it is because it feels like a very good establishing shot of Dante, where they might have initially wanted to have him fight some people and pull up Rebellion on its own, but later changed their mind to having the zoom happen mid-fight. The way the walls are messed up in the BtS video makes me think that shot's in Dante's shop, and as I've said a million times before, I think it would be boring/lazy to repeat the same events in the same place.

Closing Thoughts

If the fight scenes above ARE the older and newer versions of the same scene, this does give me some hopes that if the woman in the top shots is meant to be Lady, they might've gone back and fixed up her design to make her more Lady-like. I don't want techno-futuristic outfits. I want someone who's in more traditional combat gear or otherwise at least in more cloth. The thing I love about Lady is how she looks like a teenager whose life veered off the road into the realm of demon hunting, and I think the whole "high school uniform paired with guns and belts and so on" does a great job of visually expressing that.

I will say that the military does seem to get involved at some point due to some shots of a gatling gun, armored truck, and missile, and the guys in the BtS video look more military than the mercenary types of the NT, so they still could be two different fights... but I hope not. The modern tech stuff doesn't feel very DMC to me. I want to keep the spirit of the games, even if we go for new things. (And yes, I know the military shows up in DMC5, but they're there for all of two minutes so if they do show up in the Netflix DMC, I hope they're only there for a short while.)

If you've made it to the end, thank you for reading! If you want to see me break down the new trailer, I made a post about it here.

[annie-creates]

The biggest star

Pairing: Queen Ravenna x reader

Genre: fluff

Words: 1500

Note: It's another International Women's Day so let's celerate with something a little different this time, I got inspired by the Pearl's quote. There's not many Ravenna fics being written so I hope you'll like this one.

With the early morning sunrise you got out of bed ready to feed the few animals you took care of at your parents’ farm and prepare the dough for a fresh loaf of bread. Every morning started like this, ever since you could remember. You took care of your responsibilities and duties, cleaning around the house or taking care of some gardening. Your mother prepared all the goods you were going to be selling at the town market that day and your father tended to the fields and cattle.

“Don’t forget to get all the fresh eggs.” Your mom reminded you as you prepared today’s commodities.

“Yes mother.” You nod, no matter how old she had a habit of reminding you of everything, just to be sure.

The road to the town square was bumpy as always but lucky enough you didn’t live far away enough to encounter any robbers or muggers. There was a stall by stall, your neighbors selling baked pastries or meat. Your family’s business was more in eggs, milk and vegetables. You helped reach, pack and hand over packets amongst packets of goods, happy that today is gonna be a good day for your business. With the money you make you’ll buy other things you weren’t able to provide for yourself like flour or leaven.

“Mother, can I go take a look around?” You begged tired of standing in one place all day.

“Fine, but don’t take too long.” She waved you off.

Your eyes sparkled with joy and you took off exploring the town you knew all too well already. Back when you used to go to school you traveled here by foot almost daily, but since you turned thirteen you were tied up at the farm with work. You’ve learnt to read and count, but there wasn’t much more needed in your life. You lived day by day identical to the previous one and it was incredibly tiring to you. You wanted to see more of this world. Live in all the places the merchants who sometimes visited your town told everyone about.

As you neared a group of women with one of the queen’s guards in the middle, the gathering peaked your interest. It was known that queen Ravenna wasn’t one to visit around or get out of her castle too often, and the same was true for her guard. Sure, some of the lower ranked soldiers always overlooked gatherings like this, but this man’s uniform proved he was ranked much higher and was one of the closest to the queen, so his appearance was certainly unusual.

“Slowly, ladies, you all can take your chance tomorrow.” He commanded the crowd giving out some instruction slips. “Here, you, take one too.”

He pushed a pamphlet in your hand as soon as you got close enough to be within his reach. Reading the few lines written on there, you learned that the queen is looking for a handful of new maids and ladies fitting at the court to keep her company. Could this be the chance you’ve been waiting for? All the ladies chatted around you about how interesting and undeniable chance this was. One that comes only once in life. That got you convinced, even if they didn’t choose you in the end, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself knowing you passed on such a chance.

When you got home that evening, you prepared dinner with a bit more enthusiasm and ate faster than anyone has ever seen you do before, ready for this day to end so the next one can begin. You took care of braiding your hair before going to bed to have some pretty waves in the morning, cleaning your face and brushing your teeth extra good. As you went to bed, you took a moment to pray to the universe.

“Please lord, make me the biggest star the world has ever known. So that I make it far, far away from this place.” You didn’t know what star you wanted to be, but as far as it got you a different life, you didn’t care.

You could hardly sleep from the excitement for the next day, rising even before the sun could and running around your chores the fastest and best you could. You got out your best dress you only used for weddings, funerals and church visits, hoping it would be good enough for the queen. Will you get to meet her? From what you heard her grace and beauty was like no other, and her magnificence preceded her. Ready for breakfast and to get to the part of town stated at the pamphlet in time, you arrive at the table.

“And where are you going off to in your best dress?” your mother wondered.

“There’s a selection for queen’s escort today in town, I thought I’d give it a shot.” You admitted unsure of your parents’ reaction.

“Queen’s escort? You?” she scoffed. “You better not slack on your duties because of this nonsense.”

“Of course not mother.” You didn’t expect your family to be supportive of your goals but it still stinged.

When you finally arrived at the town hall where the choosing was taking place, there were some more guards and other officiants. You’ve learnt they are the ones responsible for the first selection, picking only a few of the dozens of girls who auditioned to come to the castle and start learning all the tasks that come with living along the queen. Some would be then chosen as maids, some would find themselves amongst chefs or seamstresses and only a few would get the chance to become the queen’s escort. Or you could fail completely and they’ll send you back home as fast as you came.

As they picked and chose what girls to take with them and who to turn down, the lucky ones squealed with happiness and the other ones cried. When it came to your turn, two of the men examined you with eagle eye, finally deciding to let you pass. A big rock fell off your heart so hard it must have been heard through the hall. You were in. You were gonna come to the castle and learn to become one of queen’s closest people. You couldn’t believe your luck. As you stepped in their carriage and let it take you towards your new destiny, you hoped to not let anyone down, especially yourself.

As you arrived at the castle and got settled in crowded rooms for servants and valets, another harsh regime started. You spent days and weeks learning and observing all the different tasks performed around the place. Every night you went to sleep exhausted and every morning you had to get up with a smile on your face. But as some of the girls started falling off your hard endeavor started to pay off. After a few weeks you started learning around the queen, your first meeting being unforgettable.

“Good morning.” She greeted you from her throne and you all bowed low. “I see we have some great adepts here. I hope you all will raise to the occasion and become wonderful.”

She was fierce and strong, that much was evident. All the stories of her beauty fell short as she looked like the embodiment of an angel to you. It was a moment you couldn’t get out of your head for a long time and every time your training got hard, you reminded yourself that this is exactly what you’re going through all this for. To serve the queen however she pleases. Her charm and grace hardly left your mind and with every meeting you worshipped her more and more. You were so smitten with her character and glamor you felt like you could hardly breath sometimes.

After two months spent with the queen you all were finally done with your training ready to become permanent residents of the castle. You hoped and prayed wherever they assigned you you’d get to meet her at least sometime. Only being in her company would make you eternally grateful. You didn’t know if you could live it the same place knowing she could be right behind the wall yet never seeing her really. Some of the girls who became your friends over the time were sent to the kitchen, some became maids and charladies. There it was again, the stone on your heart hoping to not be sent home after all your efforts, hard work and dedication.

“And you.” The queen herself stood in front of you in all her beauty. “How would you like becoming my personal escort?”

Your eyes lit up with her offer, hardly believing what your ears were hearing. Little did you know your infatuation with her impressed her and she too enjoyed your particular company. This was going to be the start of a wonderful future for you both.

“Yes, my queen.” You bowed to Ravenna stepping towards your new exciting life.

[cocomintcat]

Hazbin Hotel x Seraph! Reader (platonic)

Info and get to know her

My first small oc idea that I'm making an x reader type deal! Info:

Reader: angel name Eliora, fallen name (y/n) || 150 years old? (aka 15 in human years ?? I'm guessing cuz Charlie presents like a 20 year old while being 200+ ) aka child seraph that is smaller than emily and around a few inches shorter than lucifer || blended Blush on the cheeks and nose, little heart nose

Angel form looks: gold halos around her neck, wrists and ankles along with above her head, eye on her collarbone area and one on the back of her hands, pastel/soft colors for this form, dress is a flowy yet comfortable gown with ballet flats || 6 wings from her head, can transfer them to be bigger wings on her back

Fallen: horns sprout from her forhead like Charlie and lucifer (because she's not acclimated properly to hell she can't hide them) || her gold halos are now black and slightly broken/bent) || she now has a heart tipped demon tail || more red colors but still light, colors darken with anger/negative emotions || main outfit is an sweetheart topped a-line dress with a black headpiece with an attached veil (your imagination to what you want the headpiece to be), for shoes she has simple black heels over some black tights || has both set of her wings (head and back) showing most of the time, her head wings act like ears now moving to her emotions

More notes: sweet, innocent but not necessarily naive (she knows things but is more innocent as inexperienced), shy, kind, sometimes there's not a thought behind those eyes (innocent puppy look), affectionate, can fight only to protect others, She is aroace (because I am and I said so)

Likes: chocolate, Saf, animals, Lucifer and Charlie, red and purple, lemon rasberry soda, hugs, seeing those she cares for happy

Dislikes: cruelty, unfair punishment, pure evil, the dark, being alone, the cold, others crying, herself crying in front of others, burdening others

Readers angel pet: a small seraph (just an eye with wings, basically acts like a bird + a puppy) named Saf (short name for a small seraph, get it, I'm not sorry)

Eliora is known as God's little princess, she's favored among the elders as she is very innocent, Adam likes her too (takes on older brother role). Though everyone thinks she's too sympathetic towards sinners and hellborns (alongside lucifer).

The fall, it wasn't really a fall as much as it was banishment. She got wrongly accused by a jealous winner who wanted to rise in ranks, she befriended Eliora only to betray her and frame her. Unfortunately no one believed Eliora's innocence even with proof that she was (fearing she had become too much like lucifer). She was banished to hell, she can't become too demonic since her sin wasn't true nor actually done that's why it lightly affects her appearance but the longer in hell she is her body will change to adjust.

When she was sent, Lucifer witnessed it, immediately taking her under his wing. He gave her the name (y/n) to help her try to move on. After a while of taking care of her he let's Charlie know of her existence. Of course this becomes found family and well you get it... It's a new adventure of reader joining the Magnes family to bring sinners to redemption!!

I'll do a more indepth Prologue but for know this is your summary and info to know!!

Spoiler-ish but the dynamics I plan:

Heaven

Adam- older brother

God- "bio" dad type feel (daddy issues anyone)

Lute- kinda mean cousin but cares deeply about you

Sarah- motherly friend

Emily- 100% big sister vibes

Bia (bee-uh) treh (tre-ey)- BFF (not for long)

Hell

Lucifer- adoptive dad that made everything better (actually her brother but acts more like a dad to her)

Charlie- she adopted (y/n) no choices allowed you are her sister now anyone who hurts you gets a first or second death (she's also technically ur niece but is that really a big deal?)

Vaggie- sister in law to the rescue (she knew you in heaven and is pissed for you)

Angel dust- big brother (he treats you like Molly ain't gonna let anyone forcefully take your innocents)

Husker- same as angel but more of a 2nd father figure (he got claws that he will use)

Alastor- weird uncle that becomes like a distant father figure (he trying to avoid soft spots but it seem you happen to remind him a bit of his mother [in the loving kindness sense])

Sir pentious- Weird cousin that is also weirdly a younger siblings that's actually older than you (immature older person with mature and caring younger)

Nifty- she is like a young aunt that acts like your older sister in a weird way and we love it

Rosie- Mom (need I say more lol)

Cherrybomb- your her Lil sister and she is going to bring you into all the chaos

(That's all I can remember atm I'll add more later)

Hopefully I feel motivated to do the prologue and parts soon (struggling rn)

[sirfrancisvarney]

So as the show is halfway through, and before episode four drops, I've tried to put together and organize all the information I've gathered so far.

In 2005 (18 years ago), Anders Lund found Tsalal station. Raymond Clark joins. The shots of the website don't show when everyone else joins, but some of them join within the next few years. The source of Tsalal's funding is hidden by several shell companies that link back to Tuttle United.

Seven years ago (or possibly earlier), in 2016, Annie Kowtok insists on joining her friend on her visit to Tsalal station, and immediately starts a relationship with Clark. This behavior is apparently unusual for her. Did she go to Tsalal specifically to meet Clark? Why keep it a secret? Also in 2016, Clark bought a trailer. It's assumed this was used to meet Annie K in secret.

Next year, sometime in spring 2017, Oliver Tagaq left Tsalal for reasons unknown. In April, Annie is killed. She records herself, clearly frightened and afraid of getting caught, on her smartphone in what appears to be an ice cave, saying, "I found it. It's here. I found it, I found it. My name is Annie Kowtok. If anything happens to me please--" she's pulled away from the camera and she is heard screaming. The camera view at the end is on the skeleton of some marine animal encased in ice.

On April 18, Annie's body is found. She was stabbed 32 times with a star-shaped instrument, ribs and teeth broken. She was kicked after her death and her tongue was cut out. Four days later, on April 22, Clark gets a spiral tattoo that match's Annie's. I don't know how long it takes to arrange getting a tattoo, so I don't know if he already had plans to get it, or if he got it because of Annie's murder.

Time passes. At some point, Clark turns the trailer into a shrine of some sort for Annie. The mannequin in the bed is wearing her cardigan, and there are baby dolls and children's toys placed around it, possibly a reference to her role as a midwife.

Clark covers his research notes with writing, including repeated phrases and words such as "her eyes her face," "I can hear her coming/moving outside," "cold," "dark," and "her fingers." It's unknown when this behavior started.

Fast forward to the end of 2023. A few weeks before the show starts, Clark's behavior becomes noticeably stranger. At some point before December 17, he obtains Annie's smartphone, which appears to have video of her last moments, and he is assumed to have acquired her tongue. He could have gotten these at the time of Annie's death, or at any point since. If he didn't take Annie's tongue himself, maybe getting them caused his mental instability to get worse?

On December 17, the last sunset of the year, a hunter watches as a herd of caribou get spooked from an unknown stimulus, and flee. It's unknown if this is connected to the events of the series, or merely meant to be symbolic. On the same day, the water in the villages goes bad, for reasons unknown. The mine is blamed. Also on December 17, the scientists at Tsalal are living their lives, relaxing in the evening, doing chores. Anders Lund is going over old data on a whiteboard (no spiral is visible on his forehead). Molina is filming himself making a sandwich, when he sees Clark, shaking or shivering. Part of Clark's hair is dyed blue, and where his hair touched the parka, the dye has transferred. He has clearly been outside in the snow. When Molina asks if he's ok, Clark turns and says "she's awake," which is immediately followed by a power outage that also affects Molina's smartphone.

On December 22, the delivery guy arrives and finds the place empty. A figure moves inhumanly fast through one corridor, but no other sign of life is present. The TV is playing "Twist and Shout" in repeat. He finds Annie's tongue on the floor underneath a table (several feet away from where Clark had been standing) and calls the police.

The next day, Rose finds the bodies of the scientists. They are frozen together, almost completely buried in the ice, bodies twisted in agony. They are naked, with burnt corneas and blood from their ears. Some have scratched their eyes out or bit themselves. Lund has Annie's spiral drawn on his forehead. Somehow, he is also still alive. (I don't know if this is important, but Danvers had to brush snow away to see the spiral, but Rose knew about it and told Navarro. Maybe it was more visible when she found the bodies and snow covered it before the police arrived, maybe Travis told her.) The scientists's clothes were found folded neatly near the corpsicle. The shoes look like indoor slippers, and it's likely that the clothes match what they were all wearing the night of December 17. A single handprint was taken from one shoe. It appears to be missing part of the ring and pinky fingers on the right hand (or they just couldn't get the print of those fingers).

Lund wakes briefly. He tells Danvers and Navarro, and I quote, "we woke her. She's awake. And now she's out. She's out there in the ice. She came for us in the dark."

Those are all the relevant facts concerning the main murder case (to my knowledge) as of episode three. I suppose I could have included a picture of Annie's stab wounds, but I couldn't make any kind of pattern out of them, or take a guess at what the weapon was. There's also the snow Navarro hit in the first episode, but I couldn't tell what it is, or if it's anything more than dirt and snow piled on the road. Personally, they do not suggest a microbial origin or cause. Diseases take time to infect, and they don't progress in everyone at exactly the same rate. The scientists were found together, practically climbing over each other. They died at almost exactly the same time, apparently in abject panic. I don't think a disease can kill that precisely. How did Clark avoid getting infected, since he lived with them all? Plus, whatever happened to them happened shortly after the power outage, since Molina' left his sandwich behind. One would assume he meant to eat it, since he went through the trouble to make it. The death of the scientists, the power outage, and the water going bad are all too closely linked in time to be unrelated. I wish I had a map of Ennis. I'd like to see how close these are in physical distance.

I also don't think there are any real clues to be found in the website. Their bios look about like what you'd get if you asked someone to come up with backgrounds for people studying ancient microorganisms in glacial ice. Plus, I think most of the scientists are ultimately going to be unimportant as individuals. Out of all eight men, Lund and Clark are the only ones focused on by the narrative. When interviewed, the cleaning ladies only mentioned Lund (yelled at them for touching his stuff) and Clark (his crying, probably over the brutal unsolved murder of his girlfriend kept them from being able to clean his room) by name. Lund survived (for a while, at least). Clark is missing and is closely connected with Annie's case. Oliver Tagaq mentioned Lund by name when he learned the scientists were dead. (On a side note, I really wish Danvers and Navarro (mostly Danvers) hadn't been so hostile when questioning him. They might have gotten more information from him if they hadn't gone at it like assholes. Granted, that's practically an impossible task for Danvers.) The rest, sadly, don't seem to be important. They are effectively ignored and dismissed, much like how they ignored the cleaning ladies.

So what could have happened on December 17, and how is it tied to Annie's murder? Honestly, I don't know yet. I'm not sure there's enough information given to answer those questions. Lund's speech and the way the scientists died suggest a supernatural explanation, but other details surrounding their murder seem to suggest more prosaic, human causes. There's no sign of a struggle at the station, but maybe someone cleaned up after themselves. The way part of the note at the bottom of the whiteboard is erased looks unusual, like it could have happened accidentally. Maybe someone got knocked against it, or their coat brushed against the board when they were writing the message. It's also possible the murderer was able to make them all leave without a fight. The power had just gone out, so maybe they all gathered together to put it back on? Where's the circuit breaker or generator for the station? Maybe that's where the actual crime scene is. The folded clothes feel like something you'd make a person do right before you execute them, sort of like making your victim dig their own grave. It could also have the opposite motivation: I could see a person not in full possession of their faculties (like Clark, or maybe one of the cleaning ladies in a fugue state) instinctively trying to straighten things up. Both feel like very human actions.

Finally, who is "she"? Is that even the right question? When did "she" wake up? The scientists didn't seem to be doing anything that would trigger her awakening on the 17th, so it must have happened before. I wish I knew more about what made Clark's mental illness ramp up in the weeks before sunset. It feels like there could be an important clue there. Too bad Clark is missing and anyone else who could answer the question is dead.

[burdsandwurds]

with the exception of a couple of camping trips in as many years, when i go bird watching i don't like to drive more than a few hours away from home. i'm not as young as i used to be (time is linear after all) and driving more than three or four hours takes a lot out of me these days. i'm tempted to make an exception for next year though.

ever since i first came across them in cincinnati, i have fallen in love with the common wall lizard. i know they're an introduced species but i find them to be absolutely gorgeous animals and i have been particularly blessed to find them in my own neighborhood. they're pretty charming little things and once they get used to you hanging around with a camera from time to time, they're a lot less likely to run away when they see you coming. as a result not only do i spend time out and about in my own neighborhood admiring them, i found myself in the habit of keeping an eye on observations on inaturalist as well.

a couple of years back there was an observation of one all the way north up in a park in novi, michigan. it piqued my curiosity a bit because a) that's pretty far north of cincinnati and b) with the exception of a few sightings in the dayton area there hasn't been any between here and michigan. if i had to guess, it was either a one off observation of an animal that got transported that far north or someone made an observation but made a mistake in placing the location. i'll also note that the lizard appears to be gravid in the photo and that it's also the only observation ever made by that particular user.

for the longest while i figured it was a case of a mistaken location, or at the very least, if the location was accurate it wouldn't be worth the trip to drive up to michigan on the one off chance that there are more wall lizards there. so i just chalked it up as something interesting, but not worth looking into. the other day though i came across this observation in waterford township, michigan, just a stone's throw north from the first sighting. now i'm starting to think that there really might be an established population of wall lizards in michigan now. i went back to the original first observation and took a look at the satellite image for the location and found a few areas where i pretty much can guarantee that if there are wall lizards there, they can be quickly and easily found.

wall lizards love rocky areas and there's a whole shore area that looks to be nothing but rocks.

there also appears to be some public buildings in the park as well and wall lizards tend to congregate in and around the cracks in the foundations of buildings.

so now that i think that there's more than a hint of a population in michigan and now that i've taken a good look at the surrounding area of where the first sighting was, i'm halfway confident that if i make the trip up there i will find myself some lizards.

the only thing is it's a ten hour plus, over five hundred mile trek to head up there. so while i'm incredibly tempted to make the trip next year to see if i can find myself some lizards, i honestly don't know if i have the time or the energy to travel that far (certainly not alone). so tonight when the wife and i have some free time, i think we'll look into the area and see if there are other places worth checking out and maybe turn it into an overnight couple's trip for us. if we can find a dog friendly hotel where we can take our old fur baby with us, that would be even better. if she doesn't feel up to it, i might be able to rope one of my guy friends into coming along. i'll tell them it's a quest so that they'll actually be interested. us men are game for almost anything if you call it a 'quest' or 'adventure.' i just have to find a way to justify the trip.

[lorehead]

Hello! I hope you’re having a good day ^^ I was hoping to hear some headcanons on how you think Gojo, Megumi and Tsumiki function as a family unit? Gojo was literally like a teen dad to two kids — 🥀

:O yessss I get brainworms from these three, thank you for the first request!!

SLIGHT SPOILER WARNINGS FOR TOJI FUSHIGURO, Anime only’s beware. And [monkey covering eyes emoji] this is all set before Tsumiki's coma

Ok, before we get into everything I want to take a moment to think about what Tsumiki was going through this whole time.

Girl got a step dad and step brother, a baby Megumi, who she wasn’t related to by blood. Her step dad is constantly disappearing for long periods of time. His new wife, Tsumiki’s mom, is someone we don’t know much about in canon. What we do know is that both she and Toji “disappeared” a year before Gojo took them in.

Tsumiki is described to be kind, but she was most definitely wary at first. She spends a year raising her little brother, probably stressing about their finances and having to figure out how to pick up the slack as an elementary student, and suddenly her younger brother appears with a strange man (teen!) who’s offering to adopt them. 

Tsumiki’s kindness is not naivety, she’s looking out for her little brother and Gojo is VERY suspicious looking. 

Since Toji wasn’t the definition of stable, she probably has some issues with feeling secure in her living arrangement

Onto the actual family dynamic and HCs!! Mostly Tsumiki-centric towards the end because she deserves the world

Gojo is trying to give Megumi a childhood and treats him very sillily, while Megumi is trying in his own subtle way to look after Tsumiki, and Tsumiki is still trying to figure out who the fuck the strange young grandpa is in their house and how to look after her brother. 

I imagine the two kids had a bit of food insecurity after the year alone, so Gojo had to figure out how to prove to them that they were safe and he wasn’t leaving. This was difficult, considering his schedule of missions and getting his teaching license

The schedule of that first year was a mess, with making sure that the siblings had their needs met and that Gojo wasn’t traumatizing them even more. Yaga probably gifted him parenting manuals on more than a few occasions. Gojo always made a show of destroying them a few weeks later, but not after ‘referencing’ them. He can be prideful, but his old teacher still gives advice and reminisces about his daughter through the situation

Gojo struggled, quietly, when he didn’t know what the hell he was doing as a dad. (un)luckily for him, Tsumiki and Megumi didn’t know what to do with a dad either. Their relationship leans more towards weird uncle or older brother on some days, but it works out best that way. While Gojo is their legal guardian and dad, he isn’t trying to exert control over them. This is immensely relieving to the two kids, who had gotten used to trying to be responsible. Now, they could stay independent but have someone to fall back on (once the two weren’t as wary of him, that is). Having a neglectful parent doesn't allow for you to trust adults so easily

Tsumiki worries a lot about Megumi, even though he doesn’t accept her care, and tries to do a ton of little things to show her care. Packed lunches, little notes, making sure he’s asleep before she goes to bed- these are a few of the things she did in their year alone and when Gojo moved in with them. 

Megumi takes it all for granted at times, never showing her the same confessions of his care, but every crudely drawn animal and “Have a good day!” note is saved in an empty shoebox in his closet. Tsumiki doesn't know about it, but she still writes them for him up until she starts high school and has to focus on studying

One of the first things Tsumiki did once Gojo proved he not only was going to stay, but cared, was make him a basic lunch like hers and Megumi’s. There was no note, but he showed it off to Shoko at the school and bragged to Utahime (“This really proves how not only am I the strongest sorcerer but the best teacher as well! To have received a gift before you-” “Why are you calling me for this?!?”)

Definitely buys multiples of whatever the kids said they liked. Gojo wants to prove to them that they’re secure and is fumbling around with how to care for them. (“Hey Tsumiki-chan! I remember you said you liked strawberries-” “What am I going to do with ten packages?!?!”)

Gojo’s very much the type to show up to school events and be far too excited- festivals, any sports or theater performances the Fushiguros might be a part of, he’s there front and center with snacks and a glittery sign. He says it’s to embarrass them when Megumi yells at him, but the reality is that the kids are happy to spot his white hair in the crowd. Showing up isn’t something their parents often did, and Gojo himself probably had a peculiar upbringing. This is his way of giving them what they never had and being part of something he didn’t have growing up

Megumi is easy to make fun of, but Tsumiki rolls with every attempt to make her embarrassed. She finds everything sweet- Gojo could buy her the most horrendous looking sweater and she’d be happy he was thinking of her (once she became less wary, that is)

Unbothered queen. Tsumiki can be a little prankster though, after she feels like she’s not the one in charge. Bedazzling phone cases, rearranging furniture, and other harmless things she can do to make the others surprised and confused. Has definitely covered someone’s room in post-its, she deserves a little mischief as a treat.

Megumi puts on airs of hating Gojo and brushing off Tsumiki, but he cares in his own ways. Every action someone takes should be reciprocated, after all. When Gojo goes out and buys groceries, Megumi sets aside dinner for him if he doesn’t eat with them. While Tsumiki stays out late with friends, Megumi stays awake in his room until she comes back. And if he hears any of their classmates saying bad things, well….

His sister doesn’t like that he fights, but he never instigates. He’s just checking them when they run their mouths too much.

But of course, when she leans in to give him a side hug his arms stay by his side.

They receive all their money from the Tokyo School, ✨politics✨, but Tsumiki felt bad and got a job when she entered High School. It was her attempt to gain back a bit of autonomy and control of their situation, though Gojo and Megumi both tried to talk her out of it. Sometimes they swing by just to see her. Megumi, who comes by at the end of her shifts if it’s late to walk (lead) her home, and Gojo, who uses her work as an excuse to get junk food and shitty sweets.

Tsumiki sometimes takes the stuff that’s about to be thrown out home for Gojo, who looks at her as if she gave him gold.

She's his one tie back into the world Jujutsu Sorcerer's are meant to protect. A non-sorcerer, who can't even see curses, and that makes them both a bit protective. Megumi has probably left one of his spiritual dogs with her if he felt there was something in their area, and Tsumiki would be blind to the big dog laying his head on her lap.

While Gojo ruffles Megumi’s sea urchin hair, he helps tie up Tsumiki’s. He figured out how to braid it when she was in middle school and still buys cute hair clips as souvenirs.

Gojo has embarrassing photos of both of them, usually taken when they were napping or unaware, which he likes to show on a few occasions. As revenge, the two siblings got a horrible photo of him framed for his birthday.

A picture of Gojo wearing a horrific animal onesie, standing in the kitchen at night and watching the microwave, with his body half turned towards whoever was taking the picture. Body blurred and eyes glowing, the photo is in a frame that has stickers and rhinestones all over it. It’s framed in their entrance hall, with a  picture of Tsumiki asleep in a face mask and another shot of Megumi getting sprayed with a hose by Gojo. 

They all cringe at their shots but don’t move them. 

Every parent-teacher meeting that they’ve had has gone horribly. At first, Tsumiki would try and attend for Megumi. If a teacher refused to allow her then they had to deal with Gojo, who would either act like a 12 year old if the teacher was an ass or play nice if he deemed them nice. In the end, the schools decided Tsumiki was the only normal one of their unit.

Gojo, at her meetings, would feel a bit odd. After all, she wouldn't ever be part of their world of curses and sorcery. Still, he encouraged her studies and was very supportive in her decision to pursue social sciences in university

Chores are divided by who can do what. Gojo's infrequent schedule means he can't be relied on to cook every meal, Tsumiki's studies and work had her missing many dinners, and Megumi would often be doing his own thing. Gojo and Tsumiki both agreed to do weekly meals together, as well as a chaotic shared breakfast every morning since they departed at the same times. Gojo would cook breakfast, usually something traditional that he grew up with, while Tsumiki made lunches. Megumi would do all the dishes, without prompting.

Overall, they care about each other with varying degrees of comfort in showing it. Gojo tries to supply every material thing they need, Megumi tries to protect them when he can, and Tsumiki just wants them to both know someone care.

Gojo's own upbringing meant he had to learn about himself before learning to take care of the two siblings. Tsumiki had issues with fully trusting adults to care about her after her adolescence, which spawned an interest for psychology/sociology and a need to amek sure her brother could always trust her. She and Gojo see eachother more on equal footing, while Megumi is squarely in 'little sibling' territory.

Megumi, with his dad's semi-frequent flings and disappearing acts, is more comfortable with Gojo's teasing than Tsumiki's kindness. He can bark and bite but doesn't quite know how to deal with her sincerity.

In case you couldn't tell, I have feelings about Tsumiki's character. Sorry for the long post! If you want more specifically Gojo Teen Dad HCs I can do those :)

[niittinaatti]

@loominggaia ocs (kinda)

I have some Looming Gaia OCs, though I should note that most of these are actually old characters created for other stuff that I just started imagining in the LG universe. I don’t have much of a story for them, they’re just a couple families living in Drifter’s Hollow.

Firstly the Vrinsa family, a blended roshava-elf family.

Molsa Vrinsa, roshava woman whose family moved here from Serkel. She’s smart and pretty serious and doesn’t like nonsense, and not as athletic as roshava usually are. She has twin kids, Noros and Satara, a little younger than Isaac appears to be. She’s divorced from their dad because they just didn’t get along.

Noros, Molsa’s son. He’s kind of a dumbass and is willing to do pretty much anything you dare him to do, to the point that Satara jokes that he’s a goblin whose true name is “I dare you”. He’s got a few scars and injuries from doing stupid things, like when a girl he had a crush on told him to kiss a wild raccoon (or something similar they have in the area, not sure) or when Satara dared him to hold the knife towards himself while whittling (very serious issue) and when he meets someone new, he always tries to impress them by talking about how he got in a knife fight with evil bandits or something. Which is hard because the whole village knows what a dumbass he is and are likely to correct him. Is trying hard to be less stupid now.

Satara, Noros’ twin sister. She’s pretty grumpy and cynical and not very sociable. Most of the time she just helps Valma and Lijen’s family with farming, reads the like 3 books they have at home for the gillionth time, or watches her brother’s shenanigans. But she’s a pretty good singer and sometimes sings in Lahja’s band (see below), though not much because she doesn’t like being around a lot of people. One time the audience started clapping to the song and she got angry and stopped singing to tell them to stop, so now they have to make posters (drawn by Noros, who’s pretty good at drawing actually) with DON’T CLAP DURING PERFORMANCE in big letters

Cresti, Molsa’s new elven husband. He’s from Mogdir, his wife died from illness when Valeria was little, but he���s gotten over it pretty well and is happy with Molsa. He’s almost annoyingly friendly and cheerful. Likes painting and painted big flowers and stuff on Molsa’s house. Noros and Satara at first were annoyed by him, but now they like him more since they realized that he’s a lot nicer than their bio dad.

Valeria, Cresti’s daughter, around the same age as Azadora. Besties with Aino (see below), and similarly annoyingly friendly as her dad. She loves animals but not the “gross” or “mean” ones like rats or snakes, and since her dad is Mogdiri, he tells her that bugs aren’t animals, and she doesn’t like those either. Satara sometimes tells her gross animal facts to freak her out, but she gets along well enough with her new siblings.

There’s also a family of centaurs. I don’t have accurate drawings for them yet and it might take a while, but here’s some info:

Valma and Lijen, a centaur couple living in the hollow. They’re vegetable farmers and have a bunch of chickens too, and a lot of kids. They’ve lived in the Hollow for quite long, before most of the others moved in.

Valma is magical and knows curative and botanical magic, she’s kinda inspired by Easter witches that are a thing in some countries. She’s albino but wears colorful clothing to compensate. She hates violence and kinda wishes the FGG would move out because they keep attracting enemies.

Lijen also dislikes unnecessary violence, but is willing to rough someone up if he needs to, and often goes hunting too.

They have seven kids:

Taru, their oldest daughter. She brews mild alcoholic drinks and sells them, and is kinda passive-aggressive towards Itchy’s whiskey, like “our drinks are totally legal and won’t kill you unlike some people’s drinks!!” She also likes sports and often plays with others.

Emilia, second daughter. She’s helping her parents with farming and is good with textile work. She’s a bit harder to adapt to new concepts than most of the family, like the foreigner's clothes or Jeimos’ gender identity, but is trying to get better with that.

Lahja, around the same age as Noros and Satara. She likes fishing, and has a girlfriend named Vidia in Woodborne, they have sort of a band along with Satara. Thinks Satara is cool and had a crush on her at one point, but gave up when Satara made it clear she doesn’t want a relationship.

Veeti, around Frederick’s age. When he was younger, he thought Freddie was a cool kid and tried to bully the other kids too, but couldn’t bring himself to get nearly as bad as him and eventually gave up on that. He likes baking and runs a mini bakery.

Miska, around Tomato’s age. He’s albino like his mom, and also hates violence, but he’s more of a scaredy-cat. He doesn’t do well with new people and finds the mercenaries a bit scary, but is better with younger kids and animals. Frederick bullied him a lot so he’s not good with older kids either.

Aino, second youngest daughter. She’s a girly girl and having a princess phase. She hangs out with Valeria a lot, and likes music and often hangs around the musical FGGs (Alaine, Glenvar, Jeimos, and Mr. Ocean) hoping they’ll teach her to play something.

Marja, their youngest daughter. She’s a cheery kid and thinks vampires are cool. Stalks Zeffer a little because she suspects he’s still a vampire, but her family tries to keep her away from him.

Bonus facts about Dr. Awesomeness (A bit sillier and not that “realistic” OC but I still like her)

-She was born from a rock concert in an unusually iron-free area in Zareen. She had her amphora turned into a sick guitar too instead of lyre

-She’s around 6’11” ft tall, shorter than normal minervae, and is self-conscious about it. Not that anybody else cares because she’s probably never met a “real” minervae in person and she’s taller than most people anyway. Also she’s pretty young, only around 100 years old

-She doesn’t have a Tome of Infinity, and just writes stuff down in a bunch of notebooks she has laying around. It makes her harder to kill tho.

-She’s alloaro (feels sexual attraction but not romantic). It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact she’s evil, she's perfectly capable of being a loving (platonic) partner to somebody, as long as they don’t worry about the Zareenite prisoners that she keeps in the basement for testing chemical weapons on.

The goggles stay on during sex

[magnolix]

The Road Home | a kny isekai { 1 }

Synopsis: Once upon a time, you were just a normal girl taking a normal trip with your normal friends. But one day, after a shrine offering gone wrong, you find yourself in Taishō-era Japan.

+ warnings: gn!reader, adhd!reader, insomniac!reader, cursing, violence, mentions of nudity, mention of trauma, pain (inflicted/received), weapons, mentions of taking sleeping medication, mentions of taking medication,

+ word count: 4.2k

+ categories: gn/m, gn/f (partially), isekai, fanfiction

+ hashira, hashira family, kagaya ubuyashiki, kamaboko squad, made up slayers

✩ author's note: this fic is heavily inspired by @kingkyoujurou's "Another Era, Another Universe". please go give it a read because without them I wouldn't have any idea of what I'm doing

chapters: one, two, three, four, five

Compared to others, you had a good life. You were almost done with college, you had a loving family, and you lived in a cute little town in the countryside. But today was different, today, you and your friends were traveling through Japan. And as much as you wanted to go and keep exploring, the sun was setting, and you couldn't risk the wrath of all your friends.

"Come on, just two more stores! I can see a ramen store right there!" You whined as you and your friends all walked into the hotel lobby. They all laughed as you got into the elevator with them.

"Come on Y/n, we went across half of the entire city. That's a lot of walking!" One of them said as she yawned. "Besides, you almost went bankrupt, it's day two and you've already spent two-thirds of your spending." Another commented, wrapping his arm around you to lean on.

You sighed as the elevator doors opened up with a ding. The four of you begrudgingly all walked down. But, nevertheless, you steeled yourself, grabbed your raincoat, your hiking boots, your bag filled with all of your necessities, and your old froggy umbrella. You smiled as you took in a deep breath and opened the door.

You made sure to lock your door and pull against the handle a few times just in case before you took your shoes off. The rest of your friends all undressed as you looked at your phone to see what you had done.

"Maiden Road, raccoon cafe, anime store, maid cafe, oh!" "What is it?" "We missed that shrine near the forest! Can we go now? They say it's best at night!" "Hell no! It's gonna start raining soon and I don't wanna get swept away!" Your other friend said as she let her hair down and snatched up a towel.

You hummed to yourself as you thought about what you all would do tomorrow. But the promise of the shrine visit was killing you. You wanted to see it, no, you NEEDED to see it. You looked back at your friends. You were still in your clothes and had the location up on your phone but you had to come up with a good excuse. After a few minutes, finally, one appeared.

"I'm gonna go downstairs to the little convenience store and buy some food. I'll be back in a second!" Your friends all waved you off as you grabbed your hotel key and made your way downstairs and hailed a taxi. This was gonna be fun.

Ever since you were little, you had always wanted to go to Japan. The food, the culture, the colors, and the people. Anything and everything made you so excited. But most importantly, you wanted to see the shrines. Of all the books you read about Japan, they always mentioned the unique and mystical shrines dotted across the country. And you were gonna try your damndest to visit every single one, no matter what it took.

You paid the driver and got out near a street lamp so you could get your barrings. You slowly began to follow your map which led you through a massive, and eerily quiet, forest. The lack of noise creeped you out and made you wish you had your headphones.

Finally, after what felt like hours, you spotted a paper lantern with the kanji "参道" on it. You followed it until it led to one lantern after another and then, in all of its glory, was the shrine. It was a tall pillar of white stone that was surrounded by smaller statues and beautiful wisteria trees. Each flower was a beautiful purple and seemed to almost glow in the moonlight.

You sighed and took a moment to catch your breath, silencing your phone and rolling up your sleeves. You walked up, bowed, clapped your hands twice, and went to reach for your--

oh,

oh no,

"HOW DO I NOT HAVE ANY COINS?" Your scream caused a stir in the forest. You panicked and patted down all your pockets. Surely you had at least one 10 yen coin, but none were found. "I can't turn back. I'm not gonna turn back." You thought about what you could offer. Paper money wouldn't be okay, nor your credit card, and then you thought about a different offering.

You walked over and pulled off a wisteria flower. You knew it was wrong and not the right offer, but you were desperate. You placed it down and yawned. You were more than ready to go back to the hotel and get some sleep, but you still had one more thing to take care of.

As you turned your heel to walk out, a twig snapped somewhere in the dark forest. How cliche, You thought to yourself. You scrambled to get your phone and turn on your flashlight but it was knocked out of your hand by a hand full of claws. You looked up and were face to face with a...a...

"HOLY SHIT IT HAS TEETH!" Your fight-or-flight instinct kicked it, and you chose flight. You ran into the forest, not caring about staying on the path, you just needed to get away. You ran past trees, jumped over rocks, and eventually tripped over a large root before landing on your face. The creature grew closer, breathing heavily and making noises like a wild animal. You turned over to meet your fate, but before you could, sleep clouded your vision and a moment later, you were out.

・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.・。.・゜✭・

As you started to stir, you could hear voices and a soft, flickering noise. You opened your eyes expecting to be surrounded by your friends and hospital equipment but instead were surrounded by empty beds, a few strangers, and the stench of old bandages. Your nose stung from the smell alone. You did your best to sit up but felt a pair of tiny hands push you back down.

“No no no! You need to stay down Miss L/n!” The little girl whined. She looked as if she was going to pass out, her little worried expression was precious. But that still begged the question…

“How do you know my name?” “Oh no, Miss L/n have you forgotten?” “And who are you?” “I-I’m Terauchi, don’t you remember? I work with Nakahara-chan and Takada-chan. Oh no, do you really not remember?” Terauchi looked as if she were about to cry. All of the others in the room looked at you with concern. Some even looked with pity. Could these be your friends? Did you just wake up from a coma? Have you been living in Japan the entire time? Was life a simulation? You did your best to remain calm but couldn’t.

Terauchi ran out of the room and came back with two others who you could only assume were Nakahara and Takada, following behind was a slightly older girl with big blue eyes and short hair. She walked over and held your hand as your breathing returned.

What felt like only a few minutes ago, you had been running for your life in a forest from some sort of thing. And now, you’re waking up in a whole new world surrounded by people you didn’t recognize. Even worse, these people somehow knew you. You needed to calm down.

You took in a deep breath as the girls around you all smiled and let you take your time. You did what you could to calm down as your heartbeat slowed and your pulse went to normal. Terauchi hugged you while she and the other little girls left, leaving behind the older girl.

“Can you really not remember anything?” Her voice was surprisingly stern for someone so young. Like a mom but…teenier.

“No, I can’t. And who are you?” “Aoi, and you’re in the butterfly mansion.” “That’s a weird name.”

Aoi groaned and reached into her apron, pulled out a small paper bag, opened it, poured out some medicine into a small cup next to you, and mixed it thoroughly before handing it back. “Drink this three times a day, morning, noon, and night. Don’t move around too much, you’re still too weak to be walking. And for the love of God if you need help just shout and someone will come.” As you drank, your eyes wandered around the room.

It was large enough to fit at least 8 patients but small enough to still be manageable. It was bright as well. All of the windows were wide open letting in a nice, cool breeze. The smell of the gravel and the sound of the trees reminded you of your home. You managed to take a deep breath as Aoi gave you a nod and left.

After that, it took you a while to realize this was no dream. Actual weeks went by. So much so that you had to start training. You had only ever picked up a sword to do cosplay or just to drool over the idea of having a big piece of metal in your hands, but this was new. This was going to be your life now. You were a demon slayer, more specifically a Kanoe, just like one of the other inhabitants of the mansion. Her name was Kanao from what you remembered. This meant two very important things.

First and foremost, this was not your first injury. You had been here before, fighting demons and kicking ass. Secondly, it meant that you had survived. Somehow, you and your dumbass self had survived a dozen or more demons, multiple times. However…

It also sucked.

The others around you that you had come to learn were your friends all started to leave you out of sessions. Your memory loss wasn’t enough to prove to them that you weren’t the same person they thought you were. You were left to figure out what you could do on your own. And, surprisingly, you were able to figure a little out. You learned how to block and how to swing. That was it. Just enough so you could defend yourself and run like hell away.

But even if you had learned a lot, you still had the issue of going back to the butterfly mansion at the end of the day to sleep in a room that wasn’t yours. Your phone was gone and you were slowly going insane. Plus the infinite amount of books you could find wasn’t gonna be enough for you.

But finally, after a few weeks of training and getting yourself back together, another one of the demon slayers approached you. He seemed excited as he approached you in the hallway.

“L/n! L/n! Guess what?” “Hmm?”

You struggled to remember his name before pronouncing it slowly. “Ez..ume…right?” The boy’s eyes lit up and nodded. A smile appeared on both of your faces as you listened.

“We’re heading to Swordsmith Village! We’re finally gonna get our Nichirin blades!” You raised one of your eyebrows in confusion.

“Don’t we already have swords?” “The training ones? No! Those are wooden, they could never kill a demon.” He hit the back of your head in a friendly manner. “Come on, L/n, you need to keep up.”

You let out a chuckle and rubbed your head. “Well, when do we leave?” “Before daybreak, tomorrow. Your crow should be here any minute to give you more info.” Ezume looked back down the hall at a smaller group of slayers who were waving for him to join. He smiled and waved at you before running over to join them before they all disappeared further into the mansion.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, your crow arrived practically screaming at you about your mission. As it did, you took your uniform off and cleaned it up for tomorrow. You left your room to go and eat before you and Ezume chatted for a bit; even going outside to practice your skills before you both parted ways.

The moon above you glowed in the middle of the night sky as you finally entered your room. Your face was washed, your uniform was cleaned, and even your crow was fast asleep. You pulled the covers up and held them close as the sounds of crickets and the trees waved. Yet, you couldn’t sleep. Usually, you have the option of taking some meds to help you out. But now you were forced to lay awake as the moon’s glow filled your room.

Hours went by and you continued to lay awake in your room. You didn’t have a clock but considering how late or early it was you got up and readied your uniform. But you couldn’t help but hear the faint noise of conflict a few doors down. You walked over and pushed open your door before sneaking off and creeping down the hallway. The two voices were entirely different. The first one was soft and gentle with a sad undertone, a female’s voice. The second was husky and filled with anger. A male voice.

As you approached a corner you paused and stuck your ear out to listen to the two.

“Please, Y/n just needs more time. I’m sure that they’ll be back to their duties very soon.” “You don’t understand, they’ve never been like this. Ever! Something happened in Akigawa \valley, something bad.” You could feel the house shake as you heard what sounded like a punch to the wall. “They’re practically a different person!” “Y/n has been learning, they’re getting better. It’s a memory issue--” “Repeating it to me won’t change my mind Shinobu! They had enough skills to become a Hashira!”

You let out a small yawn, it was barely above a whisper but somehow caught the attention of the two. You felt a big hand grab your wrist and pull you into the light. The man holding your wrist was tall and had white, spiky hair and surprisingly pretty, pale purple eyes. The other was more familiar to you, Shinobu, the head of the mansion. A little ravenette with purple eyes and short hair. She frowned at seeing you listening in but instead walked over and pulled the man away.

“Sanemi, that’s enough. You’re hurting them.” Shinobu smiled at you as she looked over at you. “You’re healing, that’s good! Are you excited to go to the village?” You nodded at her words only to get shouted at by Sanemi.

“Don’t speak to them as if they’re a child, they’re a demon slayer. They’re practically a Hashira--” “I am a Kanoe and I fucking enjoy it!” You said with a strange sense of pride. You stared the white-haired hashira dead in the eyes as a sadistic smile crept onto his face. He grabbed your collar and lifted you up with ease. His eyes burned red like burning hot daggers.

“What did you just say? Did a weakling just speak back to me? I must have misjudged you, maybe you aren’t ready to be a Hashira. Maybe you’re dead meat.” “And maybe you’re a bitch.” You could feel your heart racing as you said those words. A sick comeback you would only think of in the shower, you couldn’t wait to tell the others. If you were still alive at that point.

“Why I outta--” “Caw! Wake up, wake up! Caw! You must leave for Swordsmith village!”

Your crow screamed from your room as you heard several others wake up and scurry to get their uniforms on. Shinobu separated you from Sanemi before you fell down, bowed to both of them, and ran to your room, putting on your uniform and getting a small bag ready. You followed your crow out to the gates of the grand estate where you met up with the others and set off on your journey.

“Hey L/n, you don’t look so good, are you-” “Later, Ezume. Later."

.・。.・゜☂・.・☽・゜・。.・。.・゜☂・.・☽・゜・。.・。.・゜☂・

The trek to the village had been long and rough. You all had tried to stay happy and kept morale up but it was no use. The mountains you had to climb over, the valleys you had to walk through, and the stupid paths you kept getting lost on made you want to rip your hair out. Sure, it had been pretty, there were birds and stuff but it was still almost a full day of traveling.

So by the time that you arrived at the village with your company in tow, you were ready to rest. The entrance was a tall group of houses that led to a long narrow road. The sound of clanging metal and the scent of steam was almost too much for you but you went on. The others all seemed to have a designated location to go to. Some of the smiths opened their doors and gave them their blades almost immediately. Others welcomed them with open arms and offered them food and drink. Ezume walked to a small house and was led in to go and see his swordsmith, leaving you alone to stand awkwardly for all to see.

You walked around the rows of buildings, listening to the sounds of laughter and work mixed together. The smell of sake and steam drifted through the air making your nose twitch, you never really enjoyed alcohol. And as you rounded the corner, you felt an oddly familiar hand touch your shoulder.

“Y/n! It is very good to see you! How are you?” Standing next to you was a tall man in a clown mask, you hopped back a bit as you didn’t recognize him. He tilted his head and lowered himself, holding up his hands in a friendly manner. “Y/n? Are you okay?”

“Ah- Uhm..” “L/n lost their memory!” Ezume shouted as he walked up to you, at his hip was a long sheath which you assumed held his new sword. “They what?” The man shouted in a rageful voice. He looked between you and Ezume. “When did this happen? Was it a demon? Where is your sword?”

You put your hands over your ears as the man went on, expressing not just anger about what had happened to you, but also anger about his swords. Some of the other villagers had to practically come out and hold him back while he calmed down. As he did, another stranger appeared. He was much older, and frailer too.

“Ah, young L/n,” He said with a bow “I see that you have come for your blade, yes?” “Yes sir?” You offered him a weak smile, he let out a soft chortle and walked over to the screaming ball of rage. 

“Hotaru, you are an esteemed sword maker, please act as such.”

“Yes, Chief Tecchin.” Hotaru managed to calm himself down, stand up and took your hand to lead you to his home. He opened up the sliding doors and you were met with the sight of a busy workspace. A barrel of water, a large anvil, and several sticks of Dango everywhere, both clean and unfinished. He let your hand go and reached up to a tall shelf before pulling down a long, elegant blade.

Your eyes sparkled as you looked at it. It was long and completely black with a unique hilt. It was a lavender-colored oval-shaped hilt with a dark purple rim, on the top was a detailed etching of a familiar-looking tree next to what looked like a statue of sorts. Hotaru took a moment to admire his work before carefully handing you the blade. You took it with a grateful bow of your head before holding it in both hands. As you did, the blade began to take a beautiful greyish-pink and purple color, much like the trees that had surrounded the master’s estate when you had visited last. 

“The handle is a mixture of wisteria and cork as per your request. I understand that your hands tend to sweat during battle so the cork will be able to absorb the residue until you clean it next.” Hotaru reached over and pointed at the hilt and opened his hands as if asking for it. You gave it to him and he reached into his pocket to pull out a long piece of fabric. He set the sword down and tied the fabric across the hilt in a unique pattern before handing it back to you once more. “Try holding it.”

Because of how it had been wrapped, the blade fitted perfectly into your hands with ease, familiar and comforting ease. You stood up and twirled it around a bit, smiling and laughing like an idiot the whole time. Hotaru cleaning enjoyed seeing his work admired.

“Welp, that does it for us. I’m delighted to have seen you and hope your memory returns.” Hotaru gave you a nod as you gathered yourself and walked out, offering him a wave before walking toward the rest of the slayers.

“Yep, me too…”

.・。.・゜❋・.・⍋・゜・。.・。.・゜❋・.・⍋・゜・。.・。.・゜❋

Darkness had fallen faster than anticipated forcing the slayers to run. They still had a while before they were close to the roads but that wasn’t their main worry. Their main worry as of now was surviving, and Y/n wasn’t helping. So, with blades held tight and their minds focused on getting the hell back to the butterfly mansion, they ran as fast as they could through the tall brush, unable to see if they were heading the right way.

Darkness had fallen faster than anticipated forcing the slayers to run. They still had a while before they were close to the roads but that wasn’t their main worry. Their main worry as of now was surviving, and Y/n wasn’t helping. So, with blades held tight and their minds focused on getting the hell back to the butterfly mansion, they ran as fast as they could through the tall brush, unable to see if they were heading the right way.

“Keep going, I think I see a clearing up ahead!” Shouted Ayako, one of the others in the group of five. Sure enough, she was right. Just ahead you could see a small space surrounded by massive trees. You pulled your shit together and ran up to the open space, looking back and watching for both the others to see if anything was chasing you.

Ezume was last to follow, heaving and collapsing once he made it to the clearing. Ayako was having none of it. She kicked his side, forcing him up.

“We need to keep going,” Ayako shouted. “We need to take a break!” Ezume shouted back. “We need to get our bearings.” Yelled another. “We NEED to Shut the fuck up!” You screamed. The others went dead silent as you listened to the forest. This felt all too similar to something else.

The moon was in the middle of the sky and the forest was eerily quiet. You held up a finger to your mouth, having the others quiet down and taking up defensive positions as Ezume got himself up as well. The lack of noise creeped you out and made you wish you had your headphones. Headphones… Headphones.

“What’s the nearest landmark to us right now?” “What?” “Ayako, listen to me, where are we?” “The uh- the valley.” “WHICH FUCKING VALLEY?” “DON’T SHOUT AT ME!”

“Akigawa!” Ezume screamed as he looked around frantically. “Why? What’s wrong?” His question was answered by a twig snapping and a clicking of some hollowed mouth sounded out from the dark forest. You turned to face your enemy. A tall and gangly demon with long limbs and a tongue hanging loosely from its mouth. Its eyes were glossy as if it had been blinded and its body was covered in sparse hairs and battle scars. You went dead quiet, moving ever so closer to your group and whispering as quietly as you could.

“Everyone, don’t panic. I think it can’t see us so whatever you do, don’t-” "HOLY SHIT IT HAS TEETH!"

Your fight or flight kicked it, and you chose flight. You ran into the forest with your comrades, not caring about staying on the path or out of danger, you just needed to get away. You ran past trees, jumped over rocks, and eventually tripped over a rock before landing on your back. A loud crack broke some of the silence and you felt your leg come undone. The footsteps grew closer, breathing heavily and making noises like a wild animal. You turned over to meet your fate, not sure if you were ready to die or not.

You could hear the others running past as you locked your sight on the demon. It approached slowly, sticking its long arms out and waving them like it was using a cane. You had an advantage this time and a good one at that. Your fight or flight kicked it yet again, and this time, you chose to fight.

You managed to get up and got into a battle stance, doing your best to remove as much weight from your broken leg as possible as you held your sword, took a deep breath, and listened to what was around you.

Silence.

Heavy footsteps.

Distant screams.

And a strange sense of power coursing through your body.

You opened your eyes and spoke quietly.

“Wisteria Breathing. First Form: First Spring.” Your body lunged forward and you side-slashed the demon from the right to the left at an angle, taking its head off with a satisfying and clean cut. The demon fell to its knees, turning into ash.

You let your guard down for a moment, stumbling back and falling down, your injury getting worse as you landed on your ass. You let yourself roll onto your back and let out a deep and heavy sigh as the night air washed over you.

“sleep now, young one”

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✩ author's note pt2: HOLY CARP! FOUR THOUSAND WORDS! I guys, it's ya girl, Magnolix. I first off want to say thank you to everyone who's supported me, liked, commented, reblogged, and all of that stuff. It means the world to me ♡ In the future, I'll be doing smaller stories as well as continuing this larger story. I've never written Isekai before so this had been fun. I hope you all enjoyed this fic and I'll see ya later,

~Ciao

[legitimatesatanspawn]

Sudden question popped in my head: "How old is Gran Torino?"

Dude looks like he's supposed to be 80 or 90 yet he's spry even for anime fighting heavy setting old people.

Note a lot of this is gonna be riddled with a few assumptions based on character design and general character tropes as related to demeanor. The rest is applying math to known or estimated ages.

Also some minor spoilers due to some flashback sequence images used for reference but nothing major.

Now since this is anime and across many many MANY different anime and manga the original artist or artist team tend to make character visual ages weird. I joke semi-often that kids look like teenagers, teenagers look like adults, young adults look like grizzled 40/50 year olds, and anyone past that look like they're in their 90s... unless you have a character who looks like a child. There's also even odds of the "child" being just that or actually being secretly immortal or 200+ years old.

So its possible that Torino's actually younger than he seems (shit ages you and we know he went through it). It'd also play in to his little prank/joke that he's a senile old man. I know people who look older than they really are due to one reason or another (usually stress) and I know some people in my mother's side of the family tend to look younger for whatever reason. (Some of us joke about having a portrait in the attic.)

But first: All Might is like what, 50? 60? We know he has an active career that's lasted long enough to make everyone else feel like he'll always be there. We also know he got OFA, attended U.A. (and presumably graduated), and then Toshinori got shipped off to America for his safety and to put a whole ocean between him and All Might. And since Gran Torino looked very tall at that time that means that we have a fully grown adult there (adding in to that "old people shrink in the wash" height joke thing).

All Might was dressed in a middle school uniform when he first met Nana so that means he would've been between 12 and 15 when Nana was shown talking about him to Sorahiko after Kid Toshi's dream and drive won her over. Now he's TALL but that doesn't mean anything since I remember a couple boys in 4th grade towering over our teachers so he could be a very gangly one. But to make the Izuku parallels more strong we can say that the first meeting he had with Nana was when he was around 14 or 15.

But the only thing we can really know is that Torino would have to be at least 20-ish to have a pro hero license. Dude has the attitude of someone who's been around the block a bit so let's add in another 5 years for experience as that would be long enough to know the field. That said the characters we know best from canon with similar attitudes are in their early 30s or late 30s.

So that'd make him 30-something to Kid Toshi's 14.

But there's another character I can use as a benchmark for his age: Nana's son Kotaro. 32 when he died, when Tenko (at the time) was around 5-6. Tomura is 20 by canon's start, where All Might would presumably be in his 50s. Now I always assumed Kotaro was around 5 when Nana gave him up for his safety as that is generally the age when things go start to shit for characters in the setting. It'd also give Kotaro stronger memories of Nana and better awareness of who she was (a hero) and why his kids wanting to be heroes like her set him off (not that he seemed to need a reason with his apparent temper).

So if Kotaro is 32 when Tenko was 5/6, the man would have been 47 by the time Tomura appeared in canon. All Might - assuming he's in his 50s - would've met Nana when Kotaro was... well, if All Might is 59 at the series start then Kotaro would've been 3, if All Might is 55 then 7, if he's 51 then 11.

You know what? All Might at 55 sounds fair. Kotaro being 7 at that time also means the loss would've been still fairly fresh, explain a lot about how the letter was phrased, and possibly be part of why Torino was a bit leery of Nana picking a kid. All this without it being too close to her unintentionally replacing her son with another around his age.

Series Start Ages: All Might, 55. Kotaro, 45/46. Tomura, 18/19. Izuku, 14-ish/15-ish.

1-A Start ages: All Might, 56/57. Kotaro, 47. Tomura, 20. Izuku, 16.

So assuming all this... Torino could be around 72 to 77 by the time All Might first meets Izuku.

... you can see how crazy I'm making myself trying to make sense of the timeline.

[thetypedwriter]

Remarkably Bright Creatures Book Review

Remarkably Bright Creatures Book Review by Shelby Van Pelt

I’ve known forever that I love character-focused stories. 

However, I’ve also realized after reading this book that in order for me to love these kinds of stories, the characters have to be good. 

Unfortunately, Remarkably Bright Creatures, a debut novel from Shelby Van Pelt, doesn’t fulfill this requirement. 

The story has a simple premise and switches off between the two main characters, a young man with a chip on his shoulder by the title of Cameron and an old Swedish woman named Tova.

Other characters have random, interspersed chapters, but the only other character or…animal of note that dominates a few POV’s is a giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus McSquiddles. 

Marcellus is by far the most interesting character in the book and the novel would have been ten times better overall if more—and longer—chapters were told by Marcellus.

Incredibly intelligent and observant, Marcellus figures out the plot of the novel halfway through the book, frustratingly earlier than Tova or Cameron, who are dim-witted beyond belief. 

The plot revolves around Tova’s son, Erik, who disappeared thirty years prior when he

was 18-years-old. Tova never got over this disappearance and it only punctuated her loneliness following the death of her beloved husband.

Since losing both of her family members, Tova lives by herself and is afflicted with loneliness, but stubbornly refuses the emotional comfort of the friends around her, instead opting to live in a retirement home far away that would remove her from Sowell Bay, her home of many years. 

Cameron’s whole character can be boiled down to this: annoying. Because his mother is a drug addict who left him as a child, Cameron’s whole life has been in shambles.

He can’t keep a job, a girlfriend, or save up any money. Instead of blaming himself and his choices, he condemns everyone around him and refuses to take any accountability for his actions or where they have led him. 

Cameron finds himself in Sowell Bay looking for his father with only a cockamie idea of who the man might be and some borrowed money from his aunt in his pocket.

Solely due to the kindness of the people in the community does Cameron manage to not live on the streets and go hungry, but he still decides to bitch about his circumstances to everyone and anyone. 

The “mystery” surrounding Tova’s son Erik only gets deeper with Cameron’s appearance, whose mother knew Erik back in high school and may have had to do something with Erik's “drowning”. 

The plot of this book is paltry and not that interesting. It’s laughably easy to put together as a reader that Cameron, and by extension his mother, are tied to Erik and Tova, and yet Cameron and Tova themselves can’t put two and two together until the end of the novel for...reasons.

And yet a captive octopus has no issues solving the so-called “riddle”.

The majority of the book instead focuses on Tova’s realization that she is growing old and has no one to support her. Meanwhile, Cameron slowly, slowly, mind-numbingly slowly recognizes that he is in control of his own life and the actions he takes. 

Honestly, if the whole book was told from Marcellus’ POV this would be a much better book. 

I love slice-of-life stories that focus on characters and their emotional depths. However, Cameron and Tova did not deliver whatsoever on this front.

Cameron’s inability to recognize his own faults wasn’t fun or entertaining to read about and Tova’s staunch coldness made it hard to sympathize and connect with her. 

The pacing of the book was at a molasses speed with next to nothing happening for most chapters other than infinitesimal character growth that I didn’t find interesting to begin with. 

I had such high hopes for this book after hearing from several people that it was an enjoyable read. So much so that I recommended it for my fiance’s Thanksgiving book club. It was even nominated on Goodreads for 2022’s Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction and Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel.

I…don’t understand how such a nothingburger novel could earn such high favor and acclaim. And as I’ve said over and over again, I adore character-driven stories. I prefer them, in fact. 

They just need to have good characters. 

Recommendation: Read a summary on Goodreads of the “mystery” of Tova’s son and then only read Marcellus’ chapters. They’re the only chapters worth consuming.

Score: 4/10

[adarkrainbow]

As I am working on a d’Aulnoy fairytale right now, I want to take some times to explain a very basic thing that one needs to get with her way of writing fairytales.

Which is the reason why d’Aulnoy was so loved and famous throughout the 18th and 19th century, before dropping of the face of the earth for the 20th, and why people often have a hard time entering or appreciating her fairytale work despite it being fundamental to the world of fairytales. Which also explains why Perrault eclipsed her.

People got used and expected to a “folkloric fairytale” format. This comes from the Brothers Grimm, who popularized the idea and concept that fairytales had to be these short, folkloric-feeling, simple but efficient stories. The huge collections of “folk tales” and “folkloric fairytales” that arose between the 19th and 20th century didn’t help the feeling. This led to the concept of fairytales as stories short and concise enough that they can be summarized in a few pages for little children to read while they fall asleep.

Of the two “founders” of the French fairytale, Perrault’s stories are those that are the closest to the “Grimm style”. He wrote short, efficient, simple stories, that can easily be summarized, and try to imitate the style of “folktales told during evenings by the side of the fireplace”. (In fact this is also why so many people oversaw the literary aspect of Perrault’s tales, simplifying them by removing all the additional things he placed in, such as the double-entendres, the little jokes or the various wordplays). But it has to be noted that Perrault was an exception, and his style was not the most common or popular one during the “French fairytale era”. Everybody wrote like madame d’Aulnoy.

And what was madame d’Aulnoy’s style? A novel style. She wrote her fairytales like novel - or rather fantasy novellas.

Madame d’Aulnoy did everything people do not expect from fairytales. She didn’t leave people’s appearance to the readers but gave long, flowery, detailled descriptions. She didn’t leave the characters as flat entities with just one trait or one goal - she explored in all her tales the thoughts, feelings and various vices and flaws of each characters, and took care to always explain why a character did this thing rather than another. And she actually wrote full dialogues, instead of having the characters speak in bare, iconic lines. 

You know when nowadays people take a fairytale and expend it into a full YA novel or fantasy story? That’s what madame d’Aulnoy originally did. And that’s why people started to reject her fairytales. They thought of them as too long, too complex, too convoluted, with too many descriptions and too many dialogues that make it feel like the story is over-stretched. It is the feeling that I had myself when I first discovered her tales - and even today, I still consider that some of the parts of her stories are too stretched, repetitive or could be cut down.

But that’s because she wrote as people wrote in her time - late 17th century France. We were at the era of “river-novels” (roman-fleuve”) where a good novel had to take at least five books worth of main plots and subplots, and where everything had to be said. Once you get in the mindset “I will be reading an old-fashioned novel”, and once you get used to the style of 17th century novels, you suddenly get into the story. The Grimm and Perrault stories kind of conditioned people’s minds to a “short attention span” when it comes to fairytale narratives. But once you get past this, the d’Aulnoy stories suddenly open themselves to you with all the wonders, marvels and horrors you would expect from a typical fairytale: fairies, good and bad, and wizards, good and bad, and dragons, and talking animals, and giants, and weird curses, and metamorphosis, and magical items, and wondrous castles, and creepy underworlds, and brutal murders, and all that. In fact, you tend to get more than what you bargained for since madame d’Aulnoy love to make her stories have various “arcs” inside of them and plot twists, resulting in a lot of magical things and items being thrown in each of them. 

(I do have to add that it is all probably harder for an English-speaker because I have seen some of the English translations of d’Aulnoy and wow, they’re really a handful. Basically what I got from these translations is that they tried to stay faithful to the style and wording of d’Aulnoy... but as a result didn’t realize they were drowning the meaning, joke and essence of wonders and horrors into a lot of antiquated words and complex sentences.)

[stitchlingbelle]

Watching Halo Season 2, Episode 1

Here we go again! Things I’ve picked up from discussions leading up to this season: we’re starting off with a pretty major timeskip, The Fall of Reach is coming and is going to SUCK, bargain-bin Spartans are going to be invented, there’s a guy named Ackerson and he’s a weasel. Let’s be about it!

Cold open—it looks like the procedure to remove Cortana. Who’s crying? John? Cortana? The combined entity they became? (Is this a Tuvix situation?)

And since this is where the timeskip happens, I’ll go ahead and register my biggest complaint now. It’s actually the same complaint I had last season: rushing this into so few episodes is a mistake. In a show with room to breathe, the Cortana!Chief thing should have been a MINIMUM of three episodes: one where we see what that person is like, one about separating them, one about the repercussions. Minimum. Instead, it’s an entire arc about the one of the most impactful things that happens to John in his adult life… and it’s handwaved away in a timeskip to get back to the action. What an absolute waste.

After our cold open, we slam into a disorienting bit where it takes me too long to sort out when and where we are and what Silver Team’s status is. Riz is with them, and everyone’s voices have lost the flatness, so I’m assuming we’re all pellet-free now. (A moment later this is confirmed when Riz asks Vannak about his as if he’s the last holdout. He WATCHES NATURE DOCUMENTARIES NOW. “Animals ‘n stuff.” Oh, my heart.) Not sure exactly where Master Chief’s at emotionally, he seems distracted. They’re attempting to evacuate a civilian population before the planet gets glassed and it’s not going well.

Marines are not getting through to the leaders���is this another opposition planet or just full of stubborn people? (Also, one of the marines is called Shepard—is that a name I should know? Or wait, is that one of the Mass Effect guys?) Hey, it’s the mystical old woman from the trailer! She tries to spar verbally with Master Chief and he doesn’t respond. You need to make Kai the face of the party, bro, her Charisma score is way higher than yours.

Some marines are missing, so Master Chief goes off to retrieve them. Or should I say up, as in up a sheer cliff face, allowing Vannak to drop cool facts about the Nubian Ibex and I would like to adopt him now. Chief finds them after a brief friendly-fire incident. They explain they’re a comms team. “I could tell by your aim.” Ouch.

Aaaaand RIP the smart one who didn’t want to move. This ‘out of the fog’ stuff is some horror-movie shit right here. Wait, the Covenant have personal cloaking devices now? Don’t like that. Chief needs one of those glowing blades, they seem very useful. Verbatim from my notes at this point: “It’s nice they only attack one at a time. OR NOT F*CK” as the VERY EFFECTIVE shot with all the blades lighting up around them happened.

I was trying to figure out how John was going to get out of this (my guess was Sudden Kai Appearance) when the Covenant guys all just… vanished? Why? And again, just a second later I got to write OH SHIT GLASSING. Turns out that’s why.

He manages to save just the one marine and heads back to the rendezvous point, just in time to catch a Foretelling of Doom from the mystical old lady before she goes to commit suicide. Huh, I thought she’d last longer.

Aaaand shower scene, lol. You’re not beating the ‘Master Cheeks’ rep like this, buddy.

Debrief—as a side note, Kai’s colorful hair is gone, which makes me very sad. Also, congrats to the FX department on making Riz’s scars truly gnarly looking. (And thanks to the showrunners for not chickening out and giving her ‘pretty girl scars’ or something.) Anyway, a bunch of other planets also got glassed while they were gone, including Madrigal.

Another pause for a broader point here—I don’t like that. I realize that Kwan was widely disliked by Old Guard fans last season, but the point of her storyline seemed to be that the planet itself was important. I don’t like the idea that they backpeddled so severely in response—stand by your creative choices! And again, given the import of the planet last season, glassing it in a timeskip is a poor storytelling move. (Also, you’d think the Covenant would be a little warier of glassing planets they KNOW have connections to the Halo, at least until they’ve really, really thoroughly checked them out… but I digress.)

Back to the debrief. John is trying to convince Keyes and the team that something’s up with how the Covenant behaved on Sanctuary, but Keyes at the very least isn’t buying it. Some rando appears—oh, it’s Ackerson, who ATBNL says is a weasel. He’s certainly living up to his rep immediately. My baby Kai clocks it right off: “Sir, if I may, who the hell is this guy?” LOL. Apparently, he’s Halsey’s replacement. Mostly this makes sense, but where’s Miranda? Did she resign? Is she being punished for her association to Halsey? Keyes seems to have escaped that... (Ackerson specifically references Halsey’s own consequences and there’s a very awkward look at Keyes, lol.)

Ackerson’s speechifying and it’s pretty clear he’s mostly here to flex by showing he can drop in on them like this. He calls each member of the team by name(+number) and makes it clear he knows their records, but he only calls John “Master Chief”, which I found a little odd. There’s an ominous little exchange about the Spartans’ importance to the public: “They feel safe.” “Are they?” And finally after he leaves, Kai pushes Keyes for a bit more of an explanation. “He’s the boss,” Keyes says shortly. He doesn’t make it sound like a good thing.

Hey, it’s Rubble! Wtf is this? A slave auction? A fighting ring? Wtf, Soren, I thought better of you. (I am perhaps naïve.) Apparently it’s a “2 years’ indentured service” auction. This is how they’re absorbing some of the refugees from Madrigal (and possibly other places? Idk) This redhead (Felix?) says he’s got a line on how to find Halsey. I think Soren’s biting, even though he’s playing it cool. What does Laera think of all this?

Meanwhile in Ackerson’s office, the surviving comms tech—Perez—is being debriefed when John drops by to try and convince Ackerson of his concerns. John and Perez share a look, and possibly a flashback, of the Fog Fight. John gets a little chatty trying to draw Ackerson out with their shared combat experience. Ackerson gets weird about things, asking about hallucinations and John’s mental state. Did Perez and the others not see what John saw? Yikes, if so. Or is Ackerson just playing some political game? Blowing the Master Chief off and flexing his power over him is stupid if he wants the Master Chief’s cooperation. And I have to believe he needs it at least a little—surely he rises or falls on the Spartans’ performance, just as Halsey and Parangosky did?

Back on Rubble, Kessler is in a toy Master Chief helmet with a little toy Spartan. (The props department must have been delighted to get to just go to Target and pick that up, lol.) (Also, there’s a lot going on with your choices there, Soren…) Kessler’s upset over something. Soren puts his foot in it with Laera, and she calls him out on it, bless her. I love you, Laera. Laera tells Soren they need to get the hell out of Dodge, and I think Soren should listen. But I don’t think he will.

Perez gets a medal (while *two* shirtless Spartan dudes watch it on TV, welcome Vannak *eyeroll*). She looks deeply uncomfortable. Another Spartan team, Cobalt, comes in—hey, there ARE more of them! (Are all their names metals in this timeline?) Aaaand they are weirdly hostile to Silver Team, apparently on account of… Silver Team having taken their pellets out? That is deeply weird. First of all, how are they CAPABLE of being weirdly hostile over the pellet issue if they still have their own pellets? And secondly, how is it that Silver Team cared about all these revelations about Halsey and their shared pasts and the other Spartans just… don’t? Or am I missing something here? Cobalt’s headed out on a mission that sounds eerily like the doomed comms team’s Fog Fight. John tries to give them a heads up.

He also goes straight to Ackerson and tries to get HIM to give Cobalt Team a heads up. Ackerson is again weird and very hostile. He distrusts John’s report because of the Sangheili just leaving bit, and blows off John’s very reasonable request to warn Cobalt that something weird may be up. Again, I don’t understand Ackerson’s game here. It would have cost him nothing to agree to John’s face—or honestly, even to pass on his concerns, which really do amount to nothing more than “watch out for something hinky”.

Rubble again. Soren’s prepping to head out and he and Kessler chat. Kessler’s worried about a monster, Soren refuses to reassure him completely, which Kes, like any smart kid, immediately clocks. The whole scene is just dripping in THIS IS BAD foreshadowing. Soren’s crew has Felix the redhead, but they’re confused that Soren’s coming along to check out his tip?

John is trying to be all stealthy in a hoodie out in the city, which suddenly looks 75% less Solarpunk Utopia and 75% more Cyberpunk than when we saw it with Makee. Parangosky meets up with him—he doesn’t seem to be expecting her specifically, so what did he expect? Did she resign or was she discharged (or court-martialled?) What power does she still have to help? Who are her allies? Good on John for having grown enough to attempt to negotiate, but that exchange—  “What will you give me?” “I’ll believe you.”—was killer. She absolutely has his number there.

On Soren’s ship, Felix is telling the full version of his tip about Halsey, and WHAM, we come out into a debris field with a destroyed ship. Soren’s dragging Felix along, the kid’s chatty and nervous. The microgravity effects are pretty good, well thought-out. Felix will not shut up and is putting his foot in it. Ooooh, pressurized door in a vacuum issues! I love this show. Crap, it was all a set up. Soren’s arrested. Who’s going to tell Laera and Kessler? What will Laera do?

John’s (still? Back?) undercover, going to… what looks like a futuristic phonesex establishment? … to pretend he’s talking to Cortana. God, this scene was sad. They packed what, again, should have been an arc into about three sentences and a choice of medium/location. As I said last season, they do a brilliant job fitting everything in with clever and efficient writing. Finally he has another Fog Fight Flashback, this time with Makee?

And we wrap up with mixed flashes—John, Laera and Kessler getting the news that Soren “died”, and Kessler running off to see… Kwan, hiding in one of the caves of Rubble.

Wow, there's a lot going on here! I can't wait to see what's next.

[idsfantasy]

Summary:

At one year old, Vash knew he aged faster than humans, and had tried to come to terms with the fact that he would probably die well before any of the humans he met.

He didn't anticipate just how wrong that assessment was.

Vash knew that, as Independents, he and Kni were different from humans. Like any Plant, they had gates (though Vash still hadn’t figured out how to use his, if he even could at all), and had special markings that only appeared under certain kinds of light or when using their powers to talk to other Plants. It just so happened that, according to Rem, the twins looked and acted like they were relatively normal, eight year-old, human children.

Which, of course, was part of the whole ‘different from humans’ deal given the two were only a year old.

Not that it bothered Vash much. He’d heard about human infants from Rem, and he was more than happy that he could actually understand and enjoy the life he was living. He couldn’t imagine having to eat just mushy baby food for so long! He might actually understand Kni’s dislike of eating if they had to do that.

But even if Kni teased Vash for not acting like a Plant, it wasn’t as though Vash didn’t know he was one. It just didn’t really feel like it mattered.

At least it didn’t until one night at dinner, Kni looked up from his largely untouched plate, and asked, “Rem, since we age faster than humans, how long are we going to live?”

“I don’t know, Kni,” Rem said. “Dependent Plants have longer lifespans than humans-”

“But you said we’ve been growing faster than humans,” Kni interrupted, “and the dependent Plants don’t seem to age at all.”

As the implication of Kni’s statement set in, Vash felt his fork slide from his grasp and clatter to his plate. Eyes wide, Vash whipped his head up from his meal to face Rem, who inhaled sharply, her smile strained and fading.

“I don’t know,” she said again. “The only real reference for long-term Plant aging we have are the dependent Plants, but-”

“But we’re different from them, and the bulbs keep them alive! What if being independent is why we’re growing so much?” Kni said, and Vash could hear the note of worry in his voice. “Are we just going to age fast forever until we die in a few years?”

“Wait, what if we never get to see the planet? What if we die before we can even wake anyone up?” Vash’s voice cracked as he added his questions to his brother’s, his heart pounding faster and faster as thoughts of the future flew through his mind. “And what about you? If we don’t stop aging fast, we’ll die, and you’ll be alone-”

“Oh, boys…” Rem quickly stood from her seat, made her way around the small table to stand behind the two Independents, who immediately turned to face her as she rested a hand on each of their shoulders. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I promise, it’s going to be okay. Sometimes…sometimes even humans don’t live as long as others, but that doesn’t mean that the time they do have isn’t precious. No matter if you live as long as a human or less, your lives have meaning. Don’t ever doubt that.”

Then, Rem pulled both Vash and Kni into a tight hug, but not before Vash saw the start of tears in her eyes.

After that conversation, Vash had consigned himself to the fact that he and his brother likely weren’t going to live as long as the humans on the ship.

And then they discovered Tesla.

And then there was The Fall.

And then Vash was found by the crew of Ship 3. 

A member of the crew, Luida, recognized him as an Independent (though she was the only one who seemed to know what that was), and Vash was locked in a cell by a crew that didn’t know what to do with him. He didn’t know what to do with himself either. He didn’t eat, except for when the hunger got too fierce, and marked the days that went by on the wall. Ticking down the days to where his rapid aging may end his life before the hunger or the humans did.

Vash had spent nearly a third of his life in the cell before he was able to earn their trust by saving one of the Plants, and finally Vash knew that he had a purpose. He couldn’t generate electricity, or water, or food, or any other useful resource, but he could at least make sure his sisters were healthy enough to do it in his stead. He started helping other crashed ships with their Plants, and the crew of Ship 3 became something like a family. 

Then his role in The Fall was discovered and Vash ran. He found Kni, only to lose him once again, along with his left arm. A left arm that Brad, the very man whose accusation of betrayal caused Vash to run, replaced as an apology.

“It’s a bit clunky, but it should work as a temporary solution. Just let me know if it has any issues,” Brad said as he watched Vash flex the fingers of the prosthetic. “We’ll need to replace it in the next few months after all, what with you sprouting up like a weed any time we look away.”

Vash let out a soft laugh at that. “Guess I’ve hit my growth spurt.”

“You only just hit it now?” Brad scoffed and shook his head. “What do you call the last two years then?”

Vash looked down at the new arm and felt his smile dim slightly. He didn’t like to think about his age. When it was just him, Rem, and Kni (Knives?), it wasn’t as though Vash had any other kids to look to as a reference other than his twin, who was growing up at the same rapid pace as him. 

Now, at Home, there were human children out of cryosleep. Not many, but enough to where Vash was very aware of how he went from being something close to their peer to something nearly adult before any of them hit puberty. Sure, his aging was apparently slowing down, something Luida confirmed from what she remembered about Independents, but in spite of whatever relief he felt at knowing he wasn’t going to be dead in a few years from his body’s aging, he still felt the separation.

As an Independent, and one that had human needs at that, he was already too human to be a proper Plant, but his aging made it clear that he was too much of a Plant to be human either. The kids didn’t mind too much when playing with him, less than the teenagers who knew he was a little kid only a couple years ago did anyway, but it made something in Vash’s stomach twist. He knew that the only people actually his age on the ship were barely grown up enough to start preschooling, but whenever one of the kids he’d been playing hide and seek with only a year ago started treating him differently because he looked older than he used to, Vash felt as though it created another layer of distance between them. 

“You’ve got a point there,” Vash finally said before the pause could get too long. He looked back up at Brad, making sure to fix his smile more firmly on his face. 

“Of course I do,” Brad said with a smirk, though…was that a hint of concern in his expression? “Anyway, we’ll get you fitted for a new one in a couple months. I should be able to figure out some of what works and what doesn’t by then. Can’t have you go telling people I made you that thing only for it to not work. That would be bad for my reputation.”

“Of course,” Vash said, his smile becoming a bit more genuine.

By the time Vash turned six, he was taller than most of the humans he met, and the majority of the people he ran into recognized him as and treated him like a full grown adult. A young one, sure, and he’d overheard plenty of comments about his childishness, but in his defense, the other kids his age were much more childish than he was.

In any case, he looked like an adult, acted (mostly) like an adult, and could handle himself on his own. As such, rather than having Brad take time away from important projects at Home to chaperone Vash on his trips to heal the Plants, Vash began making the journeys between crash sites and budding towns on his own. He still stopped by Home occasionally, but as he met more and more people in more and more places, the gaps between his visits grew longer and longer. 

With how much traveling he was doing, it was understandable that he hadn’t really noticed. It wasn’t as though he kept track of time, as he was mostly busy trying to get to dying Plants before Kni did, and with him not staying in one place for long, it wasn’t as though Vash had any long-term references to compare himself to.

Because of this, Vash didn’t notice just how much his aging had slowed until he returned Home and realized that the same kids he’d played with when he’d first been let out of the cell weren’t kids anymore.

In fact, they looked older than him.

“Vash, is everything okay?” Luida asked when she noticed him standing frozen in the hall, watching one of his former playmates walk by. 

Luida herself was showing signs of aging, something Vash hadn’t really paid much attention to with how he wasn’t often around to notice in the first place. Vash had expected that he would look older than her by the time her hair started to go grey. 

Vash turned to face her and asked, “How long has it been since The Fall?”

“It’s been about twenty-seven years,” Luida replied, though her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, highlighting the wrinkles Vash could see beginning to form on her forehead. “Why do you ask?”

Vash inhaled sharply, and looked over at his reflection in the clean metal of the ship walls. Maybe it was because he was similar enough to humans in how he looked and acted, but when he’d found out his aging had slowed, he had assumed that it would eventually just reach human levels. Looking at himself now though, his face looking just the same as it had when he’d turned six years old, he realized that he never should have assumed that to be the case.

A dependent Plant’s maximum natural lifespan wasn’t completely known. They could be pushed beyond their limit, causing their energy to dry up, but even then Vash knew that every Plant on this planet was well over 200 years old. He knew that Plants lived much, much longer than humans.

Vash was different from the dependent Plants, but maybe Vash wasn’t different in this.

Maybe Vash wasn’t going to die before the humans he’d come to consider family. They’d die decades, maybe centuries, before him.

“Vash!”

Vash flinched away from the sudden pressure on his shoulder, and his head whipped around to face Luida. He processed her outstretched hand and concerned expression the same instant he realized just how heavily he was breathing. 

Vash took a deep breath and forced a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”

Luida’s concern remained, though she lowered her hand and smiled back at him. “That’s alright, Vash. But why did you ask how long it’s been? Is there something bothering you?”

Vash didn’t bother to hide his frown, and looked back down the hall. If his suspicions were correct, Vash could be around for decades, centuries beyond any human’s natural lifespan. He loved his sisters, but he couldn’t connect with them the same way he could connect with humans, he was too Independent for that, and Kni…

Kni wanted to destroy humanity, and Vash just couldn’t go along with that. Life was precious, human and Plant. No one had the right to determine who should live or die. Kni however, clearly disagreed. Kni caused the ships to crash, mercilessly killed the humans he considered a plague, and while Vash hadn’t caught him in the act, he had heard of Plants going missing from some developing towns shortly before he arrived to help his sisters who were in pain, dooming the towns to deterioration. Bodies sliced to pieces were left in the kidnapper’s wake, and Vash couldn’t think of anyone other than Kni who would do something like that. Kni was the only living being on this planet who could perfectly relate to Vash, but also he couldn’t relate at all.

Vash had taken some degree of solace in his connections to humanity, but in time, the people he loved would be gone. He had already lost Rem, and it had nearly torn him apart. How could he possibly handle centuries worth of this?

“Vash, please,” Luida’s voice cut through his thoughts and Vash snapped back to reality. She had moved to stand in front of Vash, both hands placed firmly on his shoulders. He wondered when she had done that. “Please, let me help you.”

It was then that Vash noticed he was crying. Blinking furiously, he hastily scrubbed the moisture from his face and broke eye contact with the older woman.

“Vash, please tell me what’s wrong,” Luida insisted, her voice brimming with worry.

Vash took a deep breath. “I don’t think…I don’t think I’m aging at all anymore.”

Luida’s eyes widened in realization, and the pressure from her hands on Vash’s shoulders let up slightly. “Oh.”

Without thinking, Vash found his hands curling over hers, the added pressure on his shoulders anchoring him and his thoughts. He returned her gaze and took a shuddering breath as his train of thought threatened to spiral into worst case scenarios, centuries into a lonely, empty future.

“What if I have the lifespan of a dependent Plant?” Vash whispered, and he felt the burn of tears behind his eyes start up again. “I don’t want to die early, but I can’t…I don’t know if I can handle outliving anyone else.”

He didn’t have to mention who he’d already lost for Luida to understand. The crew of the former Ship 3 may have survived The Fall, but she’d had a knack for empathizing with others as long as Vash had known her, and Luida was well aware of how much Rem meant to the Independent. She had seen just how badly it had shattered him, and had eventually helped him pick up the pieces.

Melancholy moved over the older woman’s face, though it wasn’t long before it was accompanied by resolve. “I have been considering making use of cryosleep, partly because it would allow me to work on my projects with the flora over a longer scope of time without having to worry about dying of old age before they can grow. If I did, I would leave instructions for the others to wake me up if I’m asleep when you come by. While I can’t speak for Brad, I’d be surprised if he wasn’t willing to do the same. It would have its limits, but do you think that would help?”

Vash stared at her, eyes wide as he processed Luida’s words. “You would do that?”

Luida smiled. “I suggested it, didn’t I?”

Then her grip on Vash loosened. Vash instinctively leaned forward, chasing the touch as her hands pulled away, but he didn’t have time to second guess his body’s movement as he quickly found himself pulled into a firm hug. After a brief pause, Vash slowly, but tightly wrapped his arms around Luida in return, bending down slightly to bury his face in her hair as his tears fell and his breaths heaved into sobs.

“I’m sorry,” Vash gasped, though he couldn’t bring himself to let go of her. “I shouldn’t ask you to-”

“Vash, no,” Luida murmured, her voice soothing his fraying nerves as she held him tighter. “You don’t need to apologize for this.”

Vash disagreed. If Luida did use cryosleep to match his lifespan more closely, she’d just be joining him in leaving the people she knew behind if they didn’t do the same. She would outlive her friends. Her children. All for the sake of a broken Independent who couldn’t bear to be alone.

But Vash didn’t say any of that out loud. He couldn’t deny her that choice, just as he couldn’t deny the relief he felt because of it. So instead, Vash buried the guilt beside the rest, and let himself cry in Luida’s embrace.