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wovenstarlight · 4 years

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YWBK update: chapter 25 + liner notes

yesterday will be kinder has updated! you can read chapter 25 here, or start from the beginning here

okay, on to notes and commentary! first time i’m doing these, let’s hope this works out. commentary under the cut to save people’s dashes

Hamin laughs. “Given how bad you are at not being suspicious, that’s understandable.” “Oh, come on, I’m not that bad.” Hamin screws up his whole face in a squint. “Okay, so maybe I’m a little bad.”

this part was really funny to me when i wrote it because i was like “hmm reasons for DHM to understand why HHJ wouldn’t work in the guild” and then i was like Wait. Their Whole First Meeting, Dude. DHM was lowkey convinced for the longest time that HHJ was like, on the run from the KR version of the mafia, and got plastic surgery to look like his little brothers, and is possibly in some sort of witness protection program??? or something??? how else does he not have cops on his ass this man is so suspicious all the time

“I don’t think… They said the dungeons were, like, different worlds? Did they find people there?”

mafia theory second place. dungeon theory first place

“Like, humans? Um. No, no humans.” “So then you can’t be from there. Okay.”

dungeon theory shot down. mafia theory back in the running

“Hey,” he says cautiously. “I’m— I’m gonna go get us some water, okay? Why don’t you… take a minute.” “Okay.” “The bathroom is over there, if you need it.” “Okay. Thank you.”

after four years working alongside a guy you start to notice when he’s feeling a little out of it and needs a bit of a break... but as JHW mentions later you also learn to be a little subtle about giving him one

jung heewon What’s with your typing? It reads like Jihye’s [HYJ]’s fine. Very energetic Too energetic? He’s going to burn out. How do I make him calm down

Epic Burnout Man makes a reappearance! when translating sclass one of the things that makes me want to shake HYJ most is his habit of constantly adding things to his to-do list while he already has 1 billion things on his plate. and all the time he’s whining about “UGH there’s SO MUCH WORK to do” No One Asked You To Do It

Anyway. the point is. HYJ isn’t about to be beat by HHJ at Developing Issues 😔

jung heewon I haven’t spoken to him directly about this because if he’s anything like you he’ll take it as an insult You wtf whts tht supposed 2 mean quit typing jung heewon Better not say shit, mr “No, I can’t take days off and cater to my interests or go out with friends or on a date, I’m too busy taking care of the kids and making sure their needs are met, no I don’t care that there are thousands of people out there balancing personal enjoyment and romance and work AND kids at the same time, are you suggesting I be a BAD GUARDIAN to MY KIDS?”

see above re: not being too direct with pointing out when HHJ’s having Issues because he doesn’t react well

You wht but our eyes r fine jung heewon Even if having glasses doesn’t run in the family, you should still get him checked, just in case

top 10 funny time travel moments: referring to you and your past self as “us” (our = my eyes are fine), but other people think you mean “our family” (our eyes are fine = no family history of long/shortsightedness)

Also. Sooyoung-ie says hi [Attachment: 20XX1213_144516.jpg]

ok no lie this was one of the parts that pissed me off the most, even though it’s Literally One Line, because. i love chat exchanges. i really do. when done right they’re a lot of fun to read. But Do You Know How Long It Took Me To Figure Out A Calendar For The Events In This Fic. now everything’s TIMED i have to count HOW MANY DAYS IT’S BEEN since XY event so i can CORRECTLY NUMBER the FILE ATTACHMENTS!!! this sucks!!! it took me fucking forever to pin down a timeline just so i could write this chapter plus the few before and after it!!!!

anyway i gave up when i reached year. i just put 20XX. fuck it. we are running on fairy tail time now. (actually i think that’s XXnumber number? XX76? or was it X796. something like that. Who cares i stopped watching fairy tail forever ago)

Fuck it! Hamin will understand!! “If you Awaken you should come work with me,” Han Hyunjae says all in a rush.

“HAMIN WILL UNDERSTAND” => he literally was cool with me giving zero context for half a dozen absolute balls to the wall nonsense bullshit things i’ve done before. he’ll be fine with this too. dog_in_burning_house_this_is_fine.png

“You already know about the guilds, those are going to be for dungeon Hunters, but I was thinking of forming something like an independent group of contractors. Awakened people with skills that aren’t useful for combat, but that might… that will be generally useful. It’d be you and me, and maybe one other guy I met recently. Probably more in the future.”

given that HHJ has no idea currently that peace exists (i’m so sorry baby i’ll find a way to shoehorn you in soon i miss you so much) he’s got no intentions to start a kiseungsu business yet! he mostly wants to live quietly while just acting as a manager for other Awakening-related services, like YMW’s forge and DHM’s tracking service, along with the information exchange/lowkey spy ring that he’s planning on setting up with JHW and the bar. since HYH is fine associating with him in this timeline, HHJ’s thinking he can get a foot in the door that way, then eventually spread out into dealings with most major guild leaders

RIP to this plan. you were well-made but you will not last long.

“Please, I can’t tell you how I know that, I really can’t, it’d put me and my brothers in danger if it got out. But—” “No need.” Hamin looks slightly alarmed, and Han Hyunjae feels himself settle at the obvious concern in his eyes.

MAFIA THEORY RAPIDLY RISING TO PROMINENCE??? THIS IS NOT HOW DO HAMIN WANTED HIS GUESS CONFIRMED

“I spoke to the Task Force Head and she said that there’s been discussion about hosting a meeting for the nearby high-rankers, where they’ll announce the guild proposal and see who else is interested in trying it out.”

“they’ll announce” i’m sorry king 💔 you deserved a nap

(OH ALSO FUN FACT choi eunyoung is a canon character, not an OC of mine! she appears in uhhh i think late 140s? 150s? something like that)

“I think there’s… probably only one other S-rank who’s Awakened right now?”

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehhehe

Hamin beams. “No, they’re doing great! Spookie’s taken really well to the new housing situation, but I think Spots might miss the store…”

shoutout to @daemonic-dawn for letting me borrow a pet name, love u king. i had a much longer ramble about pet names here but i finished typing and realized it was all entirely off topic so i removed it for convenience

Hyunjae makes an annoyed noise in the back of his throat. “Don’t— I mean.” He huffs, visibly taking a deep breath, and Yoojin frowns reflexively. [...] “Is everything alright?” Yoojin kind of wants to be annoyed at his tone on principle, but he forces his shoulders to relax, matching Hyunjae’s posture. Though he can’t stop himself from being a little short when he answers.

things the brothers have learned in four years living together: getting confrontational often leads to arguments that just fizzle out anyway, so it’s way fucking easier to consciously tone down their combativeness in advance when talking to each other about things they have problems with, instead of screaming their heads off and then having to calm yoohyun down afterwards to boot

“I guess. Whatever.” Yoojin slumps. “Can I…” “Hm?” Hyunjae blinks at Yoojin as he gestures to the spot on the bed beside him, then jolts. “Oh! Yeah, sure, c’mere.” He opens his arms, and Yoojin goes over and flumps on the bed, head in Hyunjae’s lap. Almost immediately, Hyunjae starts stroking fingers through his hair, and Yoojin relaxes into the touch, listening as Hyunjae continues speaking.

cuddles 🥺🥺🥺 sorry i don’t have any other commentary here just. cuddles. extremely and overwhelmingly comforting for a man who spent the better part of 8 years(?) with no major positive relationships, and a kid who spent 12 years of early life basically abandoned by his parents. you had best bet they gave up on not hugging each other 1 year into this whole mess

Yoojin hums in acknowledgement. It’s not like he’d ever let himself get hurt; he has too many responsibilities to his family and friends. If he wants to be good enough to keep up, he can’t afford to fuck up like that. But… hyung will worry if he keeps working so hard. He can slow down a little for him.

Problems disorder man when will you stop. the way he sees “getting hurt” as an inconvenience and an obstacle to his duties rather than a danger to himself. the way he doesn’t really care if he himself gets hurt, but if it’ll worry his family, then it’s a no-no. it’s just. wow. i know i wrote this but i hate him

“Not really. I talk to Myeongwoo about it sometimes.” “Ah, right, Myeongwoo.”

haha gays

“Don’t be weird about him,” Yoojin warns[...]. “I won’t, promise.”

if the “i won’t” line had a dialogue tag it’d be “Han Hyunjae lied”

“Is Eunwoo still in his relationship?” “Mhm, happy as ever. Apparently they’re trying long-distance, now that Eunwoo’s gone off to university abroad.”

three guesses for who eunwoo’s dating and you won’t need the first two

Hyunjae raises his hands like he’s going to deny the accusations levelled against him, so Yoojin seizes him by the collar and shakes him until he cries for mercy

oh my o/rv ass struggled so bad with not writing “shakes him like a man betrayed” here. it killed me not to. but in the end i prevailed (against, uh, myself. don’t think about it too hard.)

“Jeez, okay, he’s an F-rank!” “Eh?! Then why—” “He’s also got an SS-rank potential skill,” Hyunjae admits[...].

play-by-play of this scene because god if i draw any scene in this fic it would be this one just for the sheer hysterical nature of HYJ’s reaction:

YOOJIN: I HATE YOU WHAT THE FUCK WHY. TELL ME HIS RANK

HYUNJAE: HE’S AN F

YOOJIN: WHAT? WHAT THE FUCK?

HYUNJAE: he’s also got an SS-rank skill,

YOOJIN:

#star.txt #work: yesterday will be kinder #writing commentary #my writing #making impulse decisions today. very tired. godonight i hope you enjoy but also you'll have to enjoy without me

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artificialqueens · 4 years

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Girl I Met On The Internet, 2/? (Crystal x Gigi) - Strawberry

a/n: aaaa i’m so glad everyone liked the first chapter! i think this story will end up staying focused on gigi and crystal for the most part, but there is some (one sided) jankie in this chapter if you’re into that! also: just in case no one got the reference, the nickname crystal gives gigi, ‘georgia rose’,comes from the 1d lyrics “Said her name was georgia rose, and her daddy was a dentist” from their song ‘best song ever’!

gigi: are u okay :( ily crystal

crystal: yeah i just got picked on by this cheerleader that doesnt like me

Technically, she wasn’t lying. Crystal didn’t think it was too bad, considering she really only ever saw Dahlia in history class, but she still made it her mission to make that 45 minutes rough for Crystal whenever possible. This time it was pushing all of Crystal’s belongings off of her desk while she was leaving.

gigi: fuck. im sorry.

crystal: it’s fine dskjdshjgkjf i wish all cheerleaders could take notes from you and jan

gigi: yaaas me and jan invented being nice

gigi: but i was wondering if maybe you could teach me about one direction later tonight?

Crystal had tried to convince the group earlier in the week that One Direction was the best boy band ever, and had only managed to get Jan to agree. She was glad that Gigi had finally come to her senses.

crystal: finally changing your mind? amazayn!

gigi: i regret asking now. take that pun back to 2011!!!!

The rest of the day went as normal. The chat was pretty active, but eventually died down at the end of the school day. Everyone seemed to have plans; Jan was studying, Jaida was going out to hang with friends, Nicky was sleeping, and Heidi was starting a new challenge on the Sims. It appeared to be just her and Gigi, alone in the group chat.

Crystal decided to message Gigi privately, not wanting the rest of the girls to see her go into full stan mode. If someone asked Crystal about her interests, she could go hours before thinking of stopping herself.

crystal: ok miss gigi are you ready for your 1d crash course?

Crystal told Gigi everything she wanted to know and even more. A history of how they got together, way too much information on each of the five boys, telling her the best songs on each album, and making sure that Gigi knew ‘Midnight Memories’ was their best album.

gigi: but ur @ is dedicated to made in the am?? fraud!

crystal: HELPFDFHBJ

crystal: mmcrystal sounds weird… like no thanks

gigi: that was very interesting.. i’ll def listen to midnight memories in the morning <3

crystal: YAY! gigi 1d stan finally

gigi: no promises! :)

Crystal didn’t respond to that, not really knowing what to talk about now. Having a group of friends helped her be less awkward, but it definitely didn’t fix that problem completely.

gigi: do u wanna play 21 questions or something?? to get to know eachother better???

Of course, Crystal jumped at the chance to get to know the other girl better. It started very innocently, asking about favorite colors and foods. Gigi quickly changed that.

gigi: uhh… have u ever kissed a girl?

crystal: sadly no.. my state is full of straight people

gigi: same.. ur turn

crystal: this feels awkward to ask but uhhh….

As soon as she hits send, she instantly regrets it. She backtracks what she had originally typed, desperately trying to come up with another question. Crystal was not able to think of anything else.

gigi: ????

“I guess I’ll have to do it,” Crystal says, talking to absolutely no one. She types it out again, looking away from her phone as she blindly tried to hit the send button, like it would help her situation be any less flustering for her.

crystal: how long have you and nicky been dating?

Would Gigi find it weird that she asked? Gigi was the one who brought up kissing girls, not Crystal, so it would be fine. Right?

gigi: CRYSTAL WHATBDGNHSDMFD

gigi: nicky and i are not dating omg im single

gigi: she’s like my sister. plus i would never do long distance

Crystal was so embarrassed. She was relieved this conversation was taking place through a screen, so Gigi wouldn’t see her blushing face.

She was pleased that she was wrong about the two girls, but Gigi’s answer was upsetting to her.

They asked a few more personal questions before Gigi started asking Crystal would you rather questions instead. Crystal’s favorite out of them was if she would rather get a mullet or dress like a clown every day for the rest of her high school career. The answer was both, obviously.

They spent the rest of the night sending each other stupid questions, giggling to themselves. The later it got, the more Gigi would flirt with her. At least Crystal thought it was flirting.

gigi: it’s really late and i have a test tomorrow so im gonna go to sleep. goodnight, babe

Gigi always would say ‘goodnight, bitch’, and this made Crystal even more confused. The ongoing joke that lesbians had the hardest time telling if a girl is into them or not was one of Crystal’s favorites, but now she couldn’t help but wonder if that was exactly what was happening to her. There was obviously a connection between them, but it was unclear to Crystal if it was just platonic.

It didn’t hit her until later that night, while she was trying to fall asleep, but Crystal wasn’t entirely sure where Gigi lived. She knew they were in the same time zone, but wasn’t sure what state she was in. It was totally possible that Gigi lived in Missouri, but Crystal highly doubted it. Though Gigi obviously trusted Crystal enough to want to play 21 questions with her, she was still very private, and Crystal wasn’t too sure if Gigi would tell her what state she was in.

Crystal fell asleep thinking about her highly unrealistic perfect world, where Gigi lived in Missouri and where Crystal wasn’t just another Nicky.

Crystal got onto Twitter right after waking up the next morning, ready to ask Gigi if she happened to live in Missouri, but quickly got distracted with a very interesting conversation going on in the group chat.

jan!: now i may not be gay but i’m in love with a woman… 2 words jackie

jaida: i- that’s only one word

jan!: fuck

heidi: the way i can’t tell if you’re joking or not

jan!: the way i don’t think i am joking

gigi: YAAS about time u admitted that u like her

crystal: hold on i thought jan was straight?? who’s jackie???

nicky: do you really think a straight person would hang out with us?

crystal: good point

jan!: I AM STRAIGHT! i think? i don’t know i’m so confused.

heidi: jackie is jan’s local @ crystal

gigi: jan be like: im straight.

gigi: but also jan is like: wow jackie is so pretty and she’s so funny and smart i’m going to fail geometry so she can tutor me but no homo!

heidi: the delusion janice has…

jaida: not to be serious but if you think you like jackie, you probably aren’t straight baby. everyone else hush and let her talk

nicky: ^^ yeah jan what happened

jan!: first of all i did not fail geometry i just said we should study together so we did!!! and have been for months! but last night i couldn’t focus at all bc she’s so pretty all i wanted to do was k*ss her out of nowhere

In a way, Crystal could definitely relate. Gigi wasn’t her local, she still didn’t know what the girl looked like, but she still kind of wanted to kiss her. She couldn’t focus on anything besides Gigi sometimes, not like she would ever admit it.

All of the girls had sent many comforting messages addressed to Jan, saying that it was okay, and she has all the time she needs to figure out her feelings. Afterwards, everyone had gone back to being playful. Gigi also tried to convince her to make a move on Jackie, which Jan refused.

gigi: if u talk to her u guys can get married <3

crystal: gigi you’re so stupid i love it

jan!: omg did someone say stupid love??? stream!

gigi: crystal back me up :(

crystal: i might’ve found out who jackie is only 10 minutes ago but i will cry if jan doesn’t talk to her right now

jan!: better start crying bc i dont think i can even look at her now

jaida: that’s not saying much at all. you cried the other day bc gigi sent a pic of her dog

crystal: I AM A NANCY STAN FIRST AND A HUMAN SECOND!!

Crystal knew she looked like an idiot, walking to her locker with her eyes glued to her phone and a dopey smile on her face but she couldn’t care less.

The day actually went well for Crystal. The highlight of her day was finding out that the story she wrote for her creative writing class had gotten the highest grade out of everyone in the class, earning her a piece of candy.

crystal: just got candy and a 99% on my story for class… i truly have the mind of a mastermind

jaida: beauty and intelligence in one combined!

Navigating through the halls was much more difficult when your eyes are glued to your phone, but replying to a meme Jaida sent seemed much more appealing to Crystal than getting to her seventh period without worrying about bumping into someone. And bumping into someone, she did.

“What the actual fuck, weirdo?” Dahlia yelped, looking extremely offended, “Get off of your sad, cracked phone and watch where your dumb ass is going.”

Crystal just stared at her, frozen in fear. Dahlia taunted her daily, but this was very different from how she usually acts towards her. It was quite terrifying.

“I swear to God, if you ever look at me, let alone fucking touch me again-” She continued, but before she could finish her statement, she was interrupted by her friend, Georgina running over and pulling her away.

Crystal didn’t think Georgina shared Dahlia's hatred for her, and Crystal didn’t hate Georgina either. Georgina actually seemed very sweet besides the fact that she had never bothered to step in on the rare occasion Dahlia happened to target Crystal outside of class.

“Can you please leave her alone? We don’t have time for this.” Georgina groaned, looking back at Crystal, flashing her a quick smile, before turning around to escort Dahlia to what Crystal assumed was cheerleading practice.

“But she bumped into me!” Dahlia whined, not used to being interrupted like this.

“Really? Wow, funny. I don’t care.”

Once they were out of sight, Crystal was alone again. She pulled out her phone and went to check if anyone had said anything else in the chat; just Jan freaking out, because Jackie had smiled at her in the hallway.

heidi: everyone say i if you think jan should stop being a baby and ask jackie out

jaida: i

crystal: i

jan!: WTF

jan!: friendship ended with heidi, jaida and crystal. now nicky and gigi are my best friends

jaida: they would say i too if they were online and you know that

jan!: i don’t need friends! they disappoint me!

Crystal decided to not use her phone while she was walking home, not wanting to have a repeat of the Dahlia situation. Her after school routine changed a lot in the past week, making a rule to not check Twitter before completing her homework. Her Twitter addiction was getting worse, but since it was also causing her to be more productive with doing her homework, she saw no issues with it. Once she had finished, she picked up her phone to see that Gigi had messaged her less than a minute ago.

gigi: hey clown :) im done w practice

crystal: WHY AM I A CLOWNDFSHDM

gigi: u just have clown energy. i cant and wont explain

crystal: honestly yeah i see it but can i at least be your clown wife or something

gigi: yeah <3 hey clown wife! i listened to most of midnight memories and it was really good! my fave song is u and i

If that’s not love, then what is? If that’s not friendship, then what is? Crystal had never been able to get anyone to listen to anything she recommended, ever. She was filled with glee, double tapping the message to heart it. It meant a lot to her.

crystal: YAYAYAYAYA im so glad but it looks so ugly when you spell it like that

gigi: my fave song you and i* >:(

crystal: better

gigi: if i have to stop spelling it as u to make you not divorce me i will

Crystal knew deep down it was just a joke, but it made her heart race. The feeling she got every time Gigi would flirt with her was very unfamiliar, but very nice. It didn’t help that Crystal thought ‘You and I’ was one of the most romantic songs One Direction had, she couldn’t help but make the fact Gigi liked it out of all of the other songs into something it was not.

This reminded her of her late night thoughts. She had completely forgotten to ask Gigi where she lived, but the idea didn’t seem the greatest now that she was fully awake. She was still curious though, so against her better judgement she asked, without a segway or anything.

crystal: i forgot to ask but what state do you live in? asking for science

gigi: oh i live in missouri

crystal: omg me too

gigi: i don’t wanna reveal where but this is amazing.. maybe we won’t have to break the distance at all <3

Pleased that she somehow got an answer, Crystal changed the conversation into a discussion of ‘Midnight Memories’, and if Gigi agreed with the opinions Crystal had shared the night before. She did, for the most part and before they knew it, it was time for Gigi to go sleep. Had they really talked all evening?

gigi: i have to get up early so i need to go to sleep but im really glad jan added u to the gc

crystal: and im happy you asked me about one direction!

gigi: me too. ur cute when ur passionate. i hope we can continue to grow closer

crystal: i’d like that.

gigi: goodnight, my clown :)

crystal: goodnight, georgia rose

gigi: U DID NOT

gigi: my full name isnt even georgia and dad isnt even a dentist but i’ll allow it bc i know u think u invented comedy

gigi: ok gn now <33 luv u

crystal: gn!!! sleep well

Crystal wanted them to stay like this forever.

#rpdr fanfiction #gigi goode #crystal methyd #jan sport #jaida essence hall #heidi n closet #nicky doll #dahlia sin #crygi #lesbian au #high school au #social media au #girl i met on the internet #strawberry #submission #s12

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hashtagartistlife · 4 years

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Kudos to them, that argument is at least interesting, if I remember right in SS arc Ichigo actually never says he will "protect" Rukia but always said he wanted/will save her. It's peculiar how he instead says that Rukia "protected" him (like his mom did) and that saving Rukia stopped his rain (the endless july Rain after his mom death). It's funny how a kanji used for Masaki gets used as "evidence" for IH but Ichigo/Rukia/Masaki actual paralles don't, but I see where they're coming from 1

when I was younger I thought “ichigo wants to protect but Rukia doesn’t want to be proteced” while Inoue was there just for that you know, “she totally wants to be protected by him” so maybe she is better for him, only to see how disastrous Ichigo’s need to protect combined with Inoue selfish want to be protected ended up being, a total nightmare. In my defence tho I was such a little naive girl when I first thought that LoL I saw they didn’t work basically right after thinking such a thing 2

when Ichigo says that to Inoue tho is right after Rukia said that if he is scared of not being able to “protect” (yeah with that kanj) his friends he has to get stornger and swear to protect them and basically did just what Rukia said and Inoue was the only one avaible at school. After Grim hurts Rukia, Ichigo says he isn’t able to “protect” anyone. In HM Rukia says she didn’t go there to be “protected” by him (she knows he wants to protect her without him saying anything) it also doesn’t help 3

for context, this ask was in reference to this post here

great points anon i agree with everything you said, in particular:

‘ichigo wants to protect, inoue wants to be protected’

isn’t it funny how ihers like to use that as an argument, but at the same time one of their main made-up titles for ih is ‘sword and shield’ like inoue in any way, shape or form ever protects him. Like, inoue doesn’t get to do both. Inoue has to pick one. She either wants to be protected by kkun and make him out to be some fantasy prince, or she gets to protect kkun and put her money where her goddamn mouth is.

For argument’s sake, let’s say inoue picks the former. she wants to be protected. Ichigo wants to protect. perfect, right? absolutely the fuck not. destructive tendencies aside, let’s look at who ichigo wants to protect the most as a kid: his mom. his mom, who, in ichigo’s own words, always protects him. ichigo wants to protect everyone, but he wants to protect those who protect him the MOST. and so, if inoue picks the former, she doesn’t get to be top of his protection list.

I think a part of inoue knows this, instinctively. that’s why she tries so hard to be the one to protect him. The sad part is that she never succeeds. Not once. not when it mattered. You think ichigo’s asshole move in tybw arc when he thinks inoue’s shield didn’t work was just put in their for funsies? No. That thought was OOC for ichigo, who, despite his other flaws, cares very much about his friends. That should not have been his first thought when he sees inoue bleeding on the ground. That line was there to highlight that, even this far down the track, even THIS late into the endgame, inoue can’t protect him. inoue fails. no great power up of love. not for ih. the best she gets to do is restore his sword, and even that, she has to team up with tsukishima. TSUKISHIMA. Her final proof of her great love for kkun, and she has to share the moment with Tsukishima, the most irrelevant side character of all time who just happened to be swinging by with op powers. God, the disrespect. Ichigo doesn’t even thank her for it. doesn’t even LOOK at her. The absolute fucking L that is truly blows my mind.

Also, hot take, but: ichigo promising orihime that he’ll protect her next time in the HM arc is not about orihime. Not in the slightest. It’s his promise to himself, that he will definitely protect everyone next time. Orihime just happened to be the recipient of it, because of course she is the one that ichigo feels most guilty about having put in the line of fire: unlike chad, unlike tatsuki, orihime is not a fighter. Of course ichigo is most sorry for having put her in danger, because in his mind, she is not capable of facing up to it. Basically, Orihime is only receiving that promise as a representative of Ichigo’s ‘people I want to protect’ group, because in his eyes she’s one of the weakest people in that group. Also, I guess she was probably the most convenient person that Rukia could drag ichigo too, seeing as how chad is often elusive and solitary and rukia isn’t friends with tatsuki so it’d be weird.

anyway, once again, great take anon, please look forward to my protection meta which I am currently in the process of writing which will address these points in more depth, have a great day!

#replies #bleach #bleach meta #fangirl life

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auspiciousinformant · 4 years

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Core Character Ranking - No Straight Roads

At this point with the game having been out for well over four and a half months, I figure that with having a small piece of fiction under my belt, and with the fandom having cooled down from the initial release but still hot enough for content to steadily be coming out from the fanbase, now is a good time for me to share my thoughts on No Straight Roads - rather, what I call the Core Characters of No Straight Roads.

I call them this because they are the collective protagonist main characters and antagonistic bosses - not filling up one bucket or another quite satisfactory. I might even make this into a series if anyone cares enough to hear my thoughts on other pieces of fiction. If you’re interested, continue below the line.

Oh, also, spoilers for No Straight Roads if you still care about that.

Disclaimer before continuing onwards - I’ve never actually played No Straight Roads! I’m not exactly a person with enough wealth to throw at my own interests and hobbies, but I feel I’ve absorbed enough through culture osmosis, 100% walkthroughs of the game, and other people’s interpretations of the game to be able to make my own informed opinions on the characters.

Also, this isn’t a “bosses” ranking list - this is a character ranking list. Meaning that individuals are going to be ranked rather than the whole. For example, Sayu will be divided into the four members behind Sayu (hereafter refered to as “Team Sayu”) as well as Sayu herself. This also means I won’t fully go on the gameplay mechanics as I don’t have enough experience with it to make a fully informed decision. I will talk about what I’ve seen though.

With that in mind, we’ll be starting as all of these lists usually do, from the bottom ranking to the top: ________________________________________________________________ 20. Eve

Now, this may come as a shock, but I absolutely despise divas. Eve was entertaining enough, but through her videos she was only relatable and likable to me before she and Zuke broke up. Mostly because I could relate with her self-loathing and her found happiness.

Still... setting someone’s hair on fire? And then being confused as to why that happened? Then completely blaming the victim and using that mistake as fuel to shut out any other potential kindred relationship for the future? I’ve seen people who do that; it’s pathetic at best and annoying to see at worst. Thankfully, due to Zuke, she does eventually come around.

Her music and boss fight are interesting enough I suppose. I like how the perspective changes and I adore when you have to switch over to Mayday and it becomes a fully chaotic mess of limbs, doubt, hatred, and rage. I live for that chaotic aesthetic.

Otherwise, she’s just... the weakest character to me in No Straight Roads.

Maybe she’ll Eve-ntually earn my respect in supplementary materials. ________________________________________________________________ 19. Sofa

The first member of Team Sayu I’m mentioning and he’s this low on the list. Ouch. Not to say that I hate him, the hate started and ended with Eve - he, along with the others don’t really have much of a personality canonically that I can see to judge him on. But in terms of his design, I’ve never been much of a fan of “overweight and silly” outside of Doctor Eggman/

Do not take this the wrong way. I am in NO way fatshaming ANYONE.

I just have never liked that design in fictional characters. See Hifumi Yamada from “Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc” for more on what I mean

Still, he’s a core member of Team Sayu and from the fanfiction I’ve read he’s one of the better characters to write with. Maybe if we got a spinoff or other related materials, he’d go up a few numbers in rank, but as it stands, he’s the weakest of the group.

Sofa-r so good, let’s move on before these puns go too far. ________________________________________________________________ 18. Mayday Yeah. I’m not a huge fan of Mayday herself. Hotheaded protagonists are fine here and there, but she’s so hot-headed I’m surprised that she didn’t have the fire aesthetic as well. I guess with it all being taken by Tatiana, they could only give her a warm color scheme so it wasn’t redundant.

Her gameplay seems fine, if a bit basic. The heavy hitter is also a hothead, who could guess. I kinda like how someone as scrawny and small as her also has the biggest heart and temper. Also the gags that come from her relating to the other bosses are hysterical and make for good protagonist material. Still, outside of her interaction with DK West, Zuke, and Team Sayu, as well as the very end of the game, there’s a lack of enough “heroic” traits that makes Mayday fall flat from just shy of ranking higher.

I don’t have a clever pun, joke, or one-liner for Mayday, so let’s go to the next person in my list. ________________________________________________________________ 17. DJ Subatomic Supernova I have never really liked disco or dance music at the best of times, but I love space. So what happens when you mix something I feel lukewarm to, something I absolutely adore, and combine it with a trait about a person I absolutely also despise?

You get space helmet man who likes fresh ice cream and goes on for minutes about how great he is and how everyone else around him are plebeians - not knowing how pretentious the stage name “Subatomic Supernova” is.

If I had made this list when I had first seen No Straight Roads, he’d be only just ahead of Eve just because I dislike her so much more than I hate egotism of DJ Subatomic Supernova. But he’s now gone higher on the list since he’s grown on me thanks to the fandom and me realizing the game is parodying the stereotypes and the industry of music. Also, Zuke’s drum solo is AMAZING with the EDM version of DJ SS’s theme. He’s even gone so far as to become half of my second favorite paring in the NSR fandom!

Shine on, you funky space man. ________________________________________________________________

16. DK West Ewah! Older of the two brothers by age, younger of the two by maturity. I absolutely love this goofball. His shadow powers are absolutely amazing to watch and while I normally don’t like rap outside of Eminem (and even then only select tracks), he grew on me a lot. He’s so unique and the culture he’s based on from what I understand was researched with a lot of respect and care.

I’ve heard (and seen) that the third fight ramps up the difficulty way too much, but considering that Mayday is attempting to repair a broken household, it makes sense it’d be such a heavy undertaking from a gameplay and story point.

Also DK West Encounter 1 is a smash hit, telling us everything we really need to know between DK West and Zuke while being an absolutely great song that reminds me of Epic Rap Battles of History for anyone that remembers that.

He overshadows his previous competition by a large margin, and I can’t wait to see more of him if that’s possible. ________________________________________________________________ 15. Yinu’s Mom As the real mastermind behind Yinu’s position in NSR, it suddenly makes so much sense as to why a literal child is in such a strict EDM hierarchy like NSR. What keeps her from going above and beyond this ranking isn’t anything more than just the pressure she puts on Yinu to perform. During the fight, and what I can only presume also happens outside of concerts in the universe of No Straight Roads, it seems like she entirely forgets the reason Yinu keeps playing the piano in the first place.

However, I am a huge sucker for family dynamics, and her stopping her assault due to the memories that Yinu was able to drag out of her through the broken piano by playing Heart of the Prodigy is enough to almost enough for me to reach the level of emotional catharsis as the ending of Pixar’s “Inside Out” did for me. And the way she shielded Yinu when they were falling, the gasp of fear that she might not survive the fall - just pure, amazing storytelling through “show, don’t tell”.

I will say, the more morbid part of me that enjoys things like Danganronpa, Your Turn To Die, and Nonary Games, had the thought of “if it weren’t for the fact that Mayday and Zuke also fell from that height and survived (and that this game is meant for younger audiences), Yinu would have became an orphan.”

Mother of the Year award goes to Yinu’s mom for being the most realistic, sympathetic, non-dead mom in fiction. ________________________________________________________________ 14. Yinu I love classical music, but I don’t really like children. Yinu is an exception to my general dislike of children. The promotion that was released before the game was a little eye-rolling, but it was also funny. Fortunately, in the game, Yinu is so much more mature and interesting than the promotional material lead us to believe. The way the piano plays plays in the base version of VS Yinu conveys just how talented she is at nine years old. It’s a shame that it slowly gets covered up by the EDM version as the battle goes on.

But her reasoning for playing the piano, through the photos you get from Yinu’s backstory is all the more reason to respect this literal child. She turned the loss of her music teacher and father into a shining passion for music. The piano being the very memento of her deceased dad - looking at the photos and then realizing what you did in shattering her piano creates a fantastic retroactive look at just how destructive Bunkbed Junction’s revolution really is to people.

We’re not even half-way down the list, and yet we already have great characters like this, so let’s keep looking. ________________________________________________________________ 13. Dodo There’s been a huge gap since the last Team Sayu member. So what makes Dodo so great compared to Sofa? Well, the deep voice that comes from the scrawny, blue man is funny to me. It caught me off-guard the first time I heard it and had me giggling for hours afterwards after I paused the video to regain my composure.

That, and mocap work is hard work. On top of that, though he’s mostly not the face everyone remembers when fans think of Sayu, it takes a lot of talent and self-confidence to dance like a cutesy mermaid despite being a male, at least in my opinion. So I see him as having high confidence, but also being like Zuke in the “chill and mostly quiet” department.

There’s not much else for me to say, since most of Team Sayu doesn’t have blatantly obvious character traits. So let’s move on. ________________________________________________________________ 12. Sayu Sayu herself is... well, not real. It’s like trying to judge any number of the Vocaloid/UTAU voice banks. Sure you can place any number of personalities and messages into it, but in reality she’s just been built as a “cutsie, wootsie, pink mermaid” idol.

Still, the personality that Team Sayu gives her is fantastic. Her fight is annoying, and lackluster even to watch, but her song is amazing in all of its forms, even if for me the vaporwave version is the least effective of all of them - and Analog Aquatics is the BEST lead-up song to it, even ahead of Heart of the Prodigy.

Hatsune Miku? Who’s that? I only see Sayu as the best Vocaloid. ________________________________________________________________ 11. Remi Technically the creator of Sayu in the first place and her designer, Remi seems to be the “all according to plan” type. To think that his passion for art would lead to a career such as NSR, and a close-knit friend group like Team Sayu. It’s something that I’m sure that every artist has had as their goal at one point or another.

I highly respect anyone with the ability to put their artwork out in public, both in real life and as a character. Even so, there are characters I like even beyond Remi, and once again, we don’t have much to go off of for him outside of the very few times we see him in Sayu’s battle.

Almost all of Team Sayu has been covered at this point - heck, even Sayu herself has already been covered. So where’s Tila you ask? Well, we’ll get to that, but not for a while. ________________________________________________________________ 10. Tatiana “Kul Fyra” Qwartz From the very moment we first hear her voice, we can tell she’s all business and order. When we watch all of NSR reject the rock music outright and listen to Tatiana’s speech afterwards? How she seems to disregard her artists own safety and prioritizing undermining Bunkbed Junction’s efforts just because she can’t bear to remember her old bandmates? Wonderfully selfish for a heartbroken character.

Also, for those who hate her time-oriented powers and how weakly linked they are to Tatiana herself? Consider this: She’s almost 50 years old by the time Bunkbed Junction starts their revolution. She’s lived long enough to be anyone in the cast’s mom - probably even old enough to be Team Sayu and Yinu’s grandma. She has only seen a progressive march of time erode at everything she ever loved and cared about.

The blazing passion within her is brought back to her through Bunkbed Junction’s actions, but through a reversal of time and a reflection of her memories. Bunkbed Junction literally shatters the world view that she constructed for herself to ignore the regret and pain that had been slowly eating her up inside without her ever even having fully realized it in the first phase. By the time Tatiana reverts back to using her Kul Fyra form, she’s trying so hard to list any number of reasons to ignore her past and focus on what little time she actually has left to work on the future.

This was a bit of a longer explanation and reasoning, but for a character as amazing and symbolically complex as Tatiana, she absolutely deserves it. And as you’ll see for the next character, this is only a fraction of my love for the characters of No Straight Roads. ________________________________________________________________9. Neon J And here we start with my absolutely favorite characters, the ones I not only enjoy reading and writing about, but that in canon I can wholeheartedly accept them for who they are, flaws and all.

My grandpa was in the navy, and to make a long story short there were some complicated things that happened that required me to live with both him and my grandma when I was really little. So already there’s something that I can latch onto and adore. Even with how cringy Neon J is at the end with him attempting to try to give an epic war hero speech, my grandpa can be the same way sometimes, and that’s okay. They kind of act similarly outside of that as well.

His design is so sleek and smooth, and sometimes I forget that he’s actually a cyborg, unlike his sons boyband creations. Normally I hate the military, war, and what it all represents at a cynical level, but when it’s portrayed in a way like No Straight Roads did for Neon J and 1010, it reminds me of the people who actually join to serve their country and the people in it, despite how few in their countries actually deserve their respect.

And yeah, I can already hear the “blah blah fiction is poorly portraying law enforcement/the military because ect ect”. I disagree. Think of it this way: Neon J is a fun example of what a leader in a military unit is. Not only that, he’s extremely loyal and willing to do what it takes to get the job done - including having a program inside 1010 that makes them explode when they fail to generate the requisite fan praise that’s likely required to keep 1010 merchandise flying off of the shelves and thus prove to the other NSR artists that even robot boybands can be used to help Vinyl City; AND use said robot boyband as weapons to fight off any threats - internal or external.

Also think about what he had to go through to become a cyborg. That means he likely had to replace everything that’s on the surface - imagine what he needed to replace underneath all of that metal. How much of his original body is left? How badly did the war he was involved in hurt him? How many comrades did he lose to try to recreate that feel in a boyband? Aren’t the implications of that so much more grand than the surface level “radar head man is bad representation of military people because he’s silly and ineffective at his job”. Furthermore, tell me of a person in the real world who lost so much of their body they literally had to become a cyborg that has a literal radar for a head.

On top of all of that he’s the second half of my second favorite pairing. Not that is has any major bearing on how great Neon J already is. Is it silly that Neon J tries to give a huge speech at the end when we know Bunkbed Junction is just trying to get to Tatiana? Yes. But it’s fun.

I salute the No Straight Roads team for creating such an amazing character . ________________________________________________________________8. Blue 1010 Robot | Purl-Hew Ah yes, now we start getting to what’s taking up most of the top 10 slots. Kind of funny that not all of the 1010 members are going into the top 5 slots with how much I ranted and raved about Neon J. But I have characters I like way more than most of the 1010 band members.

And yes, I’ll bring this up now since we’re actually talking about 1010, that will apply to all the members of 1010 so I don’t have to repeat myself: I already know that they’re meant to parody boy bands, pop bands, and how similar all of them are and ect ect ect. That doesn’t stop me from going “hee hoo pretty boys” at fictional characters. And, yes, I know they don’t canonically have names, but I’m going with what’s been accepted across the fandom. Also all of their body types are the same: I like them alot. They’re tall, in monochrome (hah, chrome), and the way they bob to the beat in their battle is fantastic and shows they are powered by music as much as any machine is in the universe of No Straight Roads.

Starting off with my least favorite of them, Purl-Hew just reminds me of Garnet from “Steven Universe”, which is not a bad thing. It’s just that outside of what we learn of Garnet, she’s a character I often forget exists. I think it’s honestly the shades and the blue, more square-like hair that makes me draw the comparison. Purl-Hew strikes me as the “cool” one. The one that recites his poetry in coffee shops and is the sensitive boy with a cold exterior. You know the kind of person I’m talking about.

Other than that, I like the 1010 branding on the side of his head. I normally don’t like hairstyles like that, but somehow with how it flows and how non-obnoxious it is, I actually find myself liking the hairstyle. Also coupled with the fact that I see him as the second eldest of all five of them, who likely cemented an identity for himself before the others, makes me like his entirety even more.

A cool dude deserves a cool transition, but since this isn’t a video, a line break will have to do. ________________________________________________________________7. Red 1010 Robot | Zimelu Zimelu is one of the ones that strikes me as the one that’s borderline trying to break free from the rest of the band and become his own artist. The mowhawk, the color red, even to what he’s likely supposed to represent in-universe. Many see him as having anger issues, and considering what 1010 is about coupled with, again the hair style and his color, yeah I can see why.

But I also see him having a somewhat tsundere side. Not overtly fully tusndere as “I-It’s not like I like you or anything!” but more of a “Hey, I got you [insert favorite food] to eat. Don’t read too much into it.” while looking off to the side to avoid seeing your reaction just because he’s not sure if he can handle the thought of him possibly being wrong and then seeing you be disappointed kind of tsundere.

I don’t see a lot of peices of work exploring this concept, and I’d love to see more of it - or heck, even other personality traits that could be lying under the rebellious design of him.

I see him as the middle child of the group, which could also add to the rebellious personality and anger issues. Not sure if anyone agrees with me on this though. ________________________________________________________________6. Yellow 1010 Robot | Haym Okay, so this is a bit weird. Haym is my second least favorite in terms of design, but third favorite because he’s supposed to be the sunny, shy, and sweet one. I see him as the second youngest of all of the 1010 members. Old enough to have experience and understand his purpose, but young enough to retain that childhood-like innocence and sweetness.

I think he’s content about his place in 1010. It’s not that he would slack off or anything, but he’d be the most comfortable with his identity out of all five of them, even years down the line. Where Purl-Hew has to upkeep his identity, Haym is fine just being who he is and happy that the crowd accepts him for who he is.

Also him saying “even your lips, which form that raaaaadiant smile~” made me smile like an idiot and my heart flutter when I first saw him - and don’t even get me started on his pose when he was saying that. So that probably has at least some bearing on his placement in this list. ________________________________________________________________5. Green 1010 Robot | Eloni Haym was weird for me to admit I still don’t fully like his design, but Eloni’s design is actually worse for me. I still don’t like the fact he looks like you could hang him on a Christmas tree or a keychain and not be out of place there. But as I learned more - especially the part where in-universe he’s the least-liked because he’s the prankster type, my heart melted for the guy.

While I myself am not a prankster or a fan of prankster types, sympathetic characters that are generally unliked in-universe for something minor or not their fault is something that will always get me to love a character. There’s also a lot of great fanfiction out there for Eloni, playing with the idea of jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, and the resulting love and support that inevitably follows from a strong supporting family.

Also, I see him as the youngest, and likely the one who thought it’d be a good idea to give everyone reindeer heads for the Christmas event instead of whatever was originally planned. The fans probably loved it anyways, even better than what was originally planned, but never knew it was Eloni’s messing around that gave them the toy-soldier-with-reindeer-heads 1010.

Second best 1010 boy deserves to be in the top 5 for all of this and more. ________________________________________________________________4. Tila Tila? You mean the one girl who only goes “pyun” a few times? The only one of Team Sayu that has any voice lines that are more than sobs, grunts, tremoring fear, and sounds of triumph?

Yes. That character. You want to know why?

First, lets start with her design. She wears an oversized hoodie and glasses - already two things I can relate to. The color contrast is just perfect between her hair, skin, and hoodie. Her design alone to me screams “high-functioning introvert”.

Her one line? Going “pyun” a few times? Absolutely adorable. I wanted to hear her say more lines, and the delivery of them being so uncertain filtered through a microphone to not come out that way as Sayu? She is definitely the shy one of the four of them. Also let’s not forget she’s Sayu’s voice actress in universe. Meaning that VS Sayu is something that Tila is singing.

Also, in the background material for Sayu, she’s the one that apologizes for using Remi’s art for one of her songs, and starts the collaboration with all four members of Team Sayu. It’s her story we follow. Not any of the other four members, though Remi does actually say something.

Though we don’t get much else of her, which prevents her from taking a spot in my top 3 picks, if we got just a little bit more from her, I’d definitely bump her to 3rd, maybe even let her take 1st. As it stands, compared to the rest of Team Sayu and Sayu herself, top 5 is nothing to sneeze at. ________________________________________________________________3. Kliff “No one like’s Kliff! He’s evil and bad!”

I mostly disagree with that statement, politely of course. Does no one like him? Seems that way in the fandom, but I like him. Is he evil? Yes, most certainly. Is he “bad”? Well, what’s the context of bad in this case? A bad plot-twist? A bad character? A bad guide? Not really. Well, except for the last part, possibly, but even then he’s still serviceable.

I mean take into context that Tatiana is Kul Fyra. On a first viewing, after having fought so many people after first meeting Kliff, most people would have forgotten that he, like Mayday, also likes Kul Fyra and was even there for her concerts. People who have insane memory would remember it, but for the rest of us, it probably came as a shock that Kliff would send a satellite into the NSR tower.

But he’s a fan that put Kul Fyra on a pillar, just like Mayday. He’d hoped that rock artists would get her back into rock music, to reignite the fire in her, so that he could enjoy her music again. He even says that he’s still her fan. He questions Tatiana “did my loyalty mean nothing to you?”.

And while yes, she didn’t technically owe him anything, the way that Tatiana shoots Kliff down so coldly after all of his attempts and his waiting - after she shut herself away from any potential future differing opinions and banning rock so she couldn’t remember the heartache - he snaps.

I’m not saying that Kliff was right, or that his reaction was fully justified. But imagine him saying he’ll be the strategic planner of NSR - after all, it was thanks to him that Mayday and Zuke got as far as they did. They knew what was coming ahead of time due to his advice. Mayday and Zuke would just be figureheads. It would be entirely realistic, and not make Kliff entirely evil.

Still, with all the hypotheticals out of the way, having an entirely selfish twist villain like Kliff was amazing. When you go through the entire story knowing how it will end on a second playthrough, suddenly his motives and what he says makes so much more sense.

I want to see (or maybe someday I’ll write) a redemption arc for Kliff. He’s not so fargone that I’d write him off as another villain for the sake of evil, but it would take actual work and effort. It’s something I look forwards to seeing in the far future.

Though he is also fun to see as an antagonist in all of these stories I read about him. ________________________________________________________________2. Zuke On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d rank Zuke an 11. From his design, to his animations, to his background, his voice, his lines - everything is an 11/10 for me.

Starting with design again, normally I’d dislike the major contrast such a saturated green against a saturated blue. But there’s other bits in Zuke’s design - his red eyes, the fact that his clothing is a good neutral base to draw away from the chaos of colors of his head - only to lead back into what looks like ultra-comfortable blue-and-green flannel with dark blue flats? It all screams the perfect chill dude to hang out with.

His personality matches too. He’s laid-back, wise, rational, humble, and kind. Almost the perfect man in every way. Though he has his limits, especially when it comes to DK West, and he’s not always the most intelligent at times. Sometimes he takes a minute to put two-and-two together, especially when he’s under pressure and nervous.

And his drumsticks being used as a walking cane when he’s not battling, admitting that it’s NSR property - recognizing that NSR itself is not bad, it just needs change. He doesn’t generally talk smack unless, again, it’s DK West. He probably says less than Mayday does out of the two, but I wasn’t counting. I was just thankful that he was talking at all, attempting to be the voice of reason in situations, telling Eve he was wrong for leaving so suddenly (even though he’s not at fault for his hair being set on fire), reconciling with DK West after Mayday gets them to talk about their feelings to each other - he experiences the most growth over the longest period of time.

In fact, it feels like we’re witnessing Zuke’s entire story through the eyes of Mayday. Sure, Mayday has a stake in the conflict, and a small bit of growth, but none nearly so much as the jolly green giant between them. Heck, he’s so good that he made DJ Subatomic Supernova’s music actually sound good.

If this wasn’t enough, he’s also one half of my favorite pairing. Where’s the other half? Where he belongs of course. ________________________________________________________________1. White 1010 Robot | Rin Look guys, my favorite character of No Straight Roads is finally here. Let me be the ideal fan and give him my utmost attention.

ATTENTION!

Hoo boy have I been waiting to talk about Rin! His design is the one that I love the most despite how simple and obviously pandering it is. I mean come on, he’s got the kind of hairstyle that just screams “typical emo/scene/goth/pop leader” without the sweeping bit of hair in front of the eye like Haym’s or other emo/scene/goth hair styles. He has no unique colors to himself (white and black are technically not colors). Heck, as a robot meant to parody pop/boybands, he technically should be the most bland and uninteresting part of 1010.

But that’s where you’d be wrong. Rin is the one who leads the flirting attempt against Mayday. Rin is the one who is focused on the most of all the 1010 members when the cutscenes play. Rin is the one who’s talking the most in the promotional video for 1010 and No Straight Roads. Even though Zimelu takes up most of the spot in the in-game photo op, Rin is the second most noticable. In the “wefies” the 1010 members make in the promotional video, Rin is front and center.

Rin is the poster child. Meaning he has the most mounting on him of all the members of 1010. And this can manifest in any number of interesting character traits. I’ve already written an (as of posting this review) three chapter fanfic on Rin and his dynamic with not only the other half of my favorite pairing, but also his dynamic with Neon J, and how both Zuke and Neon J view Rin - through what I perceive how Rin actually feels and acts when he’s not on stage.

I could probably do an entire 20 minute review on why Rin is the single-best character of No Straight Roads, both in and out of canon, but I don’t have the tools for it. And as a side note, the guitar solo that Mayday can play over the song is the single-best of all the guitar solos, the second being the one against Yinu - and that deep passion for 1010 is reflected well in the guitar solo.

Zuke may be an 11/10, but Rin is a perfect 10/10 - and I wouldn’t have it any other way . ________________________________________________________________Afterwords Finally, after an entire 4 hours of writing, I’d like to hear your thoughts on all of this, if you’ve made it this far.

What did you agree and disagree with? Feel free to comment if you want.

As for me, I think I’ll continue to browse the work of the fandom, keep an ear out for any future updates or sequels, and rock on with the amazing soundtrack of No Straight Roads jamming loudly in my ears.

Rock on fellow No Straight Roads fans! Or whatever genre you prefer to listen to.

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elanska · 5 years

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Miss Not So Sidekick - chapter 87

our chapter opened with the head librarian (his name kinda long, so we'll call him important reminder) said he's waiting for someone from the magic tower to do maintenance for the recently bought CCTV orb today. Arwin, smiling briliantly, speaks out that it will be him. Latte reconfirms, and important reminder - upon seeing that brilliant sparkles of beauty and grace, quickly prostrate himself while having nosebleed.

Latte, already used to her hubby's forbidden charms capturing the hearts of everyone (and their grandma, and probably their little dog too) just smile and comment the obvious "I think he's your fan' (no duh! detective!Latte). Arwin just, "ah, the usual" (we want to say he's arrogant, but damn he's pretty!)

(also, uh, I can't picture the jealousy!are you cheating on me-drama once they get married. Pretty girls will be like, take one glance at her hubby, prostrating themselves upon this unearthly beauty and Latte goes, 'yeah, familiar sight'; and Arwin goes 'indeed') ***ABSOLUTELY NOBODY DARES TO APPROACH LATTE TO FLIRT IF THEY STILL VALUE THEIR LIVES***)

important reminder dashed to get the CCTV orb but Arwin is not the Lord of magician's tower just for the pretty face, he directly summoned the orb and grin like, veereee sadistically about what awaits the true culprit. Apawn and inside jobs like 'oh god! we're screwed!!' (serve you right! you bitches! how dare you to try to entrap our cute latte! and you inside jobs! how dare you besmirch our image of librarian being the keeper of multiple dimension within books and being secretly master assassin, you know, like crossover between doctor strange and john wick....but this girl dared to sully that reputation just because threatened/bribed by some silly noble girl??? GRAAAAAA!!!). Latte, the good girl she is feeling bad for those two (wut? butbutbut Latte, girl...), so she try to appeal to her hubby....

hmm? it's not? eh, Latte pointing out that since Arwin is came to the library to CCTV's maintenance, shouldn't he, like, can skip the hassle and just pointed out the culprit? (eh, like, in original novel? so tower's finance going down isn't because Latte getting bishot for free?) (I would also pointed out that in original novel, Arwin is, like, flinging the culprit all over the library, while in Latte's route, he's pretty calm. Well, he's playing around with Latte....maybe he's like big dog who have much playing/exercising to be not aggressive? or maybe he'll just playing with Latte first and then proceed to wreck the culprit afterwards? I meant, Ibelin with her goody-goody girl act should goes 'oh noes, please spare the culprit live, my good sir' or something like that right?)

oops, getting distracted. anyway, Latte pointed out that Arwin can instantly known the culprit (thanks to the CCTV. Or probably in original Ibelin's route, Arwin probably just stalking her around from the start so he can tell immediately about the culprit. am still doesn't give up about relation about Latte and tower's finance, guys....though, if this fantasy setting, the magicians should just do a guild quest or something, seriously, are you magicians or shopkeeper?). Where was I? oh yeah, Arwin should know immediately how to recognize the culprit, yet he goes 'are you the culprit, dear customer?' and goofing around with the investigation. Arwin just laughed and admitted that he's just standby and enjoying the whole show because he thought it was 1. funny and 2. he's curious about Latte's reaction, and kinda surprised that Latte is like, very calm, and not getting flustered.

Latte is like, getting flustered? over a stupid, shoddy plot? (ooof burnt ya there Peridot). If there's recording, Latte's alibi will be quickly proven, and she can also have her household provide testimony for her. Apawn quickly crumbled and start to confess that she's threatened to do so (really? you seem having no conscience at all when framing Latte, what's with the finger pointing and smug face?! GRAAAA!!) and that she would be killed if she didn't complied.

People asked who ordering her, and Apawn said she didn't know, they're wearing cloak and the carriage is covered in black fabric........but! she can see Garnet emblem between the fabric gap! People are shocketh! and Kenneth (oh he's still here, hey don't be rude to mah friend Kenneth, okay, but he's so quiet that we tended to forget he's still here, also quite strange he didn't fussed over Ibelin and keep standing in front of Latte. that's because mah friend is still accused just like, 15 second ago, you know? Fine, fine). okay, so Kenneth said, are you trying to lie again? Apawn crying and swearing it's the truth. People are fussing over about this shocking revelation (meanwhile, I'm questioning myself why the hell you are hellbent on following instruction from someone you didn't even know . If it's the powerful Garnett family that threatened you, then sure, you might get afraid of crossing them and then just do the task. But someone you didn't know just strolled at you and then ordered you to do something and you just do it? I meant, if my boss asking me to lent him money to buy lunch because he forgot his wallet, sure, I'll do that. but if a stranger come to me in restaurant and say 'hey you, your boss and I just eating together and we forgot our wallet. foot our bill.' - I'll at least called my boss first to ensure this is not a scam. Or is the Garnet family reputation so tarnished that people just go 'oh yeah, totally a Garnet style' and just done it anyway? (but the mob on the library fussing on how 'are you sure?' 'need to investigate blahblah'). Wait, they don’t outrightly said IMPOSSIBRU! what's wrong with the Garnet? do they frequently do this kind of thing often?)

On the other side, Latte start monologuing how Peridot's true objective isn't framing Latte nor offing Ibelin-by-falling-bookshelves, but by open investigation for her involvement so Peridot can play victim and aggressively try to prove her innocence. AND I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY SHE WOULD DO THAT???? I meant, why? why do you need to entrap yourself so you can be crying 'I've been framed! I've been framed!' (perhaps so if she trying to hurt Ibelin again in the future, she will use this case as reference? Like? 'ehhh, somebody trying to frame me /again/?' this is the scary girl that like, trying to get 3 birds with one stone (Latte getting framed and became her follower out of fear, Ibelin getting hurt, and Peridot getting suspicion immunity on the future). Her plot for ensnare Latte quickly unravels tho since it's so messy and Latte has quite an alibi (though it was because of CCTV orbs. Hmmmmm, the Ectrie household might be not much of alibi since they could accused of defending her impartially, but the /rumor/ will drag Latte down regardless (ooooh, so this is rumor attack from noble lady fights)

Arwin (again, asserting his closeness to Latte by whispering close to her. Ha! take take that ma friend Kenneth!) asking how does Latte feels to suddenly got revelation that her case is actually part of bigger conspiracy with ominous shadow looming *DUNDUNDUN* Latte plays it cool, bro. Arwin asks aren't you scared? she shrugged that she doesn't have reason to be scared because she's not the actual target anyway. HUH WHAT

oh yeah, forgot that in Peridot's eyes, Ibelin is still the female lead *snicker snicker* ****Wait, don't laugh, us, it's better for Peridot thinking that way**** so her trying to frame Latte maybe just as an afterthought. The most important thing is to make Ibelin having accident and then Peridot will play victim? (no, sorry, Latte, we're still confused, but we'll trust your word on this). Excited Arwin is cute tho.

Arwin listening to Latte's explanation about how Peridot will likely denying her involvement by making the trap (her crest) very obvious in the first place (she can making various excuse how somebody borrowing her carriage or some criminal plagiarized the crest to implicate her, Important thing is that she's being framed! framed! I tell you! - eh does she meant that she wanted the 'some criminal plagiarize my family crest so whatever vile doing done in the future by some criminal plagiarize my family crest is unrelated to me?' Ohhhh???? OHHHHHHHHH!!!! ss...so that's why she want to get 'caught' on this first offense! de....detective Latte! *worship*).

Arwin makes a comment how he's surprised that Latte is sharper than he thought. Latte is haha, how stupid have you been seeing me till now then?

and Arwin, responded. *we facepalmed*

#miss not so sidekick #arwin x latte #arwin hebrim #latte ectrie #kenneth von esbande #peridot garnet

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mystech-master · 5 years

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Ragna in the other BBTAG worlds

I asked a while ago for ideas as to where Ragna could end up post-CF as his “retirement” world, I’ve gotten like 3 suggestions; Bleach (mainly to pair him with Kukaku Shiba, but given everything else happening in that world he’ll have no chill there), Animal Crossing, and Mario Galaxy (on the Comet Observatory with Rosalina and the Lumas)

but today, I want to take a look at how he’d fare living in the worlds presented to us in BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle. Just for the hell of it:

Long post bellow

Persona: if Ragna were to end up living in the Persona world thing might be difficult at first, he grew up in the middle of nowhere and the woods and lived in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future, so there will be a bit of a culture shock. But if Akihiko can run around shirtless then this world will be fine with someone like Ragna. I think he might end up working with the Shadow Operatives, hey he was raised to fight so may as well put his supernatural power and fighting ability to use against the Shadows right? I mean the Kirijo group managed to make an identity for Aigis when she attended Gekkoukan High in P3, so they could make Ragna have an identity. Since the dude has Son Goku levels of education I ‘d find it funny if Mitsuru put his ass through some kind of education program or something. I mean it is never too late to get an education and I’m sure there are many real-life examples of people who couldn’t go to school for some reason or another. Also, I’ve said this before, Ragna might give of serious “Shinjiro” vibes to the Shadow Operatives, so they might be able to navigate his personality a bit better. Mitsuru can be the cool-headed one w/o being a bitch like Rachel, Akihiko would make a good sparring partner, he’ll treat Aigis and Labrys right since he treats the Murakumos like people, Yukari is pretty normal compared to most of them and can also get annoyed by their antics so Ragna might like her (he enjoys the company of average/normal people since they aren’t too zany for his tastes), Ken is pretty mature for his age, but Junpei might get on his nerves. But also, if Ragna enters around P4 Arena time, then if he stays there a few years he could be present for the Persona 5 story, and THAT would be a fun setting to play in with Ragna.

Under Night In-Birth: it being a modern world won’t be too much of an issue, like with Persona there’ll be some culture shock but lots of the people there are also kind of weirdoes. If he ends up with the main good guys (Hyde, Linne, Waldstein, and Vatista) we can just add another guy bumming around Hyde’s house. Helping train Hyde, spar with Wald, cook for Linne (give her actual good food and she’ll be worshiping you I bet), and Vatista May remind him of Lambda so he’d be chill around her. But another idea could be him being a mercenary like Gordeau, like maybe the two becoming friendly rivals or something (I just liked how chill he was with Ragna in BBTAG’s story oka, sue me). Also, I could totally see Hilda trying to recruit Ragna into Amnesia because she hears about him being the SS-Class criminal trying to take down the keepers of the order of his world, much like how she is trying to do to Licht Kreis, she tries to get a little flirty with him, but Ragna declines b/c 1. When he was taking on the N.O.L. he was doing it for revenge, Hilda is just doing it for shits and giggles (10 points to whoever gets that reference), 2. Ragna can totally sense danger coming to from this chick, and 3. the dude is at least smart enough not to stick his dick in crazy. He and Merkava would have an interesting conversation, Merkava being a beast with a man within, and Ragna being a man with a beast within.

RWBY: Okay this might depend on where in the timeline he’s put (Pre-Volume 3 like in BBTAG, or Pre-Volume 6 like what I’ve been thinking of), but let’s stick with the Beacon arc-like in BBTAG. The current state of the world is: Cinder and her team are in disguise as Haven students, Roman is arrested, everyone thinks the threat is gone and that the Breach was the big plan, but the Ozluminati know better and are just trying to keep the peace. Ragna is a very aggressive person and easily angered, not a good thing when dealing with Grimm, which are attracted to negative emotions. Also, may I remind you that the Grimm have no souls, and thus are immune to Ragna's Soul Eater power drive which is partially what has allowed him to be such a dangerous threat in his world. In fact, his power is WAY more suitable for fighting people, considering the Huntsmen and Huntresses powers come from their Aura which comes from their soul. Like, he just grabs them and watches that Aura meter just drop FAST. Also, I’m not sure if he’d even be able to gain Aura and a Semblance himself with the Azure Grimoire also fucking his soul up. Ironwood might just say to kill/imprison this guy before he becomes a threat while Ozpin might try and be a bit more diplomatic if he at least hears about his nicer exploits (maybe from Ruby). And no, I do not know how his Soul Eater power could be used on the Maiden Powers or Ozpin’s reincarnating soul. MAYBE it could be used to kill Salem by consuming HER immortal soul instead of just physically killing her, but I do not know if it could be used to rip the Maiden Powers out of their hosts. He and Qrow might talk about their shitty lives but when Qrow offers him a drink Ragna declines b.c Ragna’s Azure Grimoire healing factor also works on toxins (seen in the Variable Heart manga where he shrugs of Shiori’s poison), also I think Ragna views Alchohol as a bitch’s way of dealing with problems. A fight between him and Raven would be interesting also, like them giving each other lectures about family: Ragna giving Raven shit for abandoning Yang (who I assume he might bond with), while Raven says that he has no right to talk about family considering the state of HIS.

There’s probably a lot more that could happen but I can’t think of anything else atm.

I’ll be skipping Arcana Heart since A. I barely know jack fuck about that series (the second game isn't even localized), B. the main powerset in that game seems to only go to girls, which leads to C. there are NO male characters, not even side NPCs, so Ragna would stick out WAY too much.

Senran Kagura: Much like Arcana Heart I don’t know much but I looked through character descriptions and some basic plot summaries here and there (mostly from TVTropes so please forgive me if I fuck something up, which I will) , so I at least get the BASIC gist of things going on. The only place I could think of Ragna going is him looking after or palling around with the Homura Crimson Squad. He isn’t one to join some big organization (the Good Ninja side won’t accept him after his MASSIVE body count in his world, and the Hebijo guys are way too intense), and depending on the timeline he could either help protect the Crimson Squad from the Hebijo team out to kill them for deserting, or he also likes to be independent and train/fight his own way. He could help Homura train for her next fight with her rival Asuka (plus she’ll be a fan of his meat cooking). He might try to get Yomi to add some more variety to her food instead of bean sprouts (cue fight). Hikage might freak him out since she looks like almost a female Hazama/Terumi, but she also struggles with socializing and likes to cook for her friends so after the initial awkwardness they might get along. Mirai hates being ignored so this might cause some annoyance to Ragna, but she’s also a bully victim. I could see him being annoyed by her but then later sees her getting picked on and his big-brother instinct kicks in and he helps, then they gain a sort of understanding. Haruka is the real beast here, the dominatrix sadist scientist who wants to make people her dolls, so Ragna might need to step up a bit to keep her under control (like I said I only know the bare minimum, she might not actually be that bad post-character development but I don’t know). Finally, just for the sake of it, I’m not too sure where on the power scale Ragna would fall in the SK universe. The most powerful person there is Sayuri/Jasmine, with I think Rin and Daidōji both sharing the second strongest spot. I’ll say Ragna is around Daidōji and Rin’s level because Sayuri/Jasmine would most likely be like Jubei level. Also because the power scaling in Blazblue is absurd so comparing the Shinobi (of whom only a few have unique powers) to the Blazblue cast (who have magical weapons and reality-fucking powers) is kind of unfair, plus it gives Ragna a sort of cap so he won’t be too unstoppable in this world. Finally, not too keen on shipping. I’ve been using the “half your age plus seven” rule of dating so to not make things weird, Ragna is 22 in my HC and the minimum age is 18 (lots of people say once your over 18 you can date whoever you want that’s older, but........no), but while a few girls in SK are 18 they are still in high school (the birthdays and ages don’t match up with their school years, and that angers me) so.....no, he just has a big brother instinct for the Crimson Squad.

I’ll also skip Akatsuki Blitzkampf b/c A. Like Arcana Heart above I barely know the story, and B. What little I have seen of the story isn’t.......much. Story Isn’t exactly a big factor in this series.

Lemme know what you guys think Ragna would get up to in these other worlds. I might add to this if another series is added to BBTAG.

#ragna the bloodedge #persona #persona 3 #persona 4 #p4 #p3 #persona 4 arena #p4a #persona 4 arena ultimax #p4au #under night in-birth #uni #rwby #senran kagura #arcana heart #bbtag #blazblue cross tag battle

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youreallyshouldtalkmore · 6 years

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50 Ways to Stress_ Part 4

This takes place after Book 2: The Lion and His Lamb though you don’t necessarily have to read that story to understand this on. Though there are references to things that have happened previously in this series.

Summary: One of Shuri experiments goes horribly wrong and chaos ensues. And Prince N’Jadaka is right in the center of it….

As usual you can see all the parts listed for this series, along with other fanfics in my Black Panther Masterlist.

Disclaimer: Nothing really, Erik will be Erik so use of the N-word. And I wouldn’t read this at work, as I find it funny and you probably don’t want to burst into laughter and have everyone looking at you like you done lost it. lol

Already established Erik/Reader with T’Challa/Nakia

Part 4:

You had gotten through One Punch Man, pretty quickly and you thought it wasn’t bad. The android blond haired was cute which set off another round of arguments with Erik. Then you stared a DBZ marathon. This lasted for two days until Erik was becoming bored again, especially since he was relegated to that room.

In an effort to keep them calm, you managed to convince a few Dora to accompany a group of him at a time to walk around and exercise their legs. Group 1 and 2 went pretty smoothly.

However Group 3 were walking around until all of a sudden they exchanged mischievous smirks and all darted away scattering in different directions. The Dora Milaje had to split up to chase them.

This was why T’Challa was in the middle of a sentence when the doors to the throne room opened with a bang shifting the room into high alert.

Okoye jumped in front of T’challa, Nakia and Queen Mother. The Dora Miljae who was supposed to be guarding the door were nowhere to be found.

Three Erik’s stood and the one in the middle came marching into the room.

“Yo! I heard a meeting was going on! And no one invited me?” He cried.

T’Challa blinked. Even almost a week later, he never could get used to the high pitch voice coming from his cousin. Okoye stood tense next to him, eyes trained on the princes. She nodded subtly at the Dora Miljae around the room. Even if he was of royal blood, she would still be careful.

They tensed as suddenly a few more Erik’s came running into the room skidding to a stop with the Dora behind them. Barely a second went by before another few more Eriks came running it also with guards and Dora behind them.

“Good work, boys!” The lead Erik grinned.

The Erik’s saluted saucily. “Good idea, boss.” one said.

T’Challa realized this was the one of the rare times that even the Dora Milaje looked stressed. He held up his hand signalling them to fall back.

“Prince N’Jadaka, is there something wrong?” T’Challa asked.

“Aside from being on lockdown you mean?” Erik asked.

“Forgive me, I know it’s been trying. Shuri assures me it will be any day now.” the King replied.

“That don’t mean I gotta live in one room. Do you know what I have to put up with?” Erik jerked his thumb backwards. The other Erik’s began walking around touching and poking things.

“Please be patience….”

“About all out. Now, what we talking about and what is this meeting about and why ya’ll didn’t invite me?” Erik snapped.

T’Challa kept his voice calm as he answered, “It’s not a meeting that you would find interesting, N’Jadaka.”

Erik crossed his arms much like a child, even if he was one at the moment. “And how’d you know? Huh? Did you ask me?”

“You wish to talk about fruit distribution?” T’Challa asked lightly. It took everything in him to keep the laughter at bay.

Erik stilled and the other Erik’s did as well. “You mean were the mangos are going?”

T’Challa nodded, “Among other things, yes.”

“What?! You don’t think I can figure out how to get mangos from point A to point B?” Erik sniffed.

“I like mangos!” a voice piped up.

“Shut up!” snapped Erik.

“I once had to move a shipment around Iraq and you don’t think I can manage some mangos?” Erik asked glowering.

“We know of your capabilities, cousin.” T’Challa said softly trying to soothe potential ruffled feathers.

It had the opposite effect.

“Are you patronizing me, cuz?” He shook his fist, “You better watch yourself because I won’t be this size forever!”

“Forgive me that is not my intent. You seem to indicate quite strongly that you didn't want to be involved unless it was more of a military nature.”

“Oh, so now you calling me stupid.” Erik growled.

T’Challa was fast losing his diplomacy. How was it that little Killmonger and company was worse than one Killmonger? He was going to need some help at this rate and the only person who ever seemed to have an handle on him was you.

He glanced at Okoye, hoping she would get the message in his eyes. This was not going very well. Okoye caught the eye of Ayo and nodded her head. Ayo inclined her head before darting out of the room.

Entering the assigned room she saw many Erik milling about, some playing games, others crowd around the TV watching DBZ, others wrestling and so forth. She spotted you on curled on a duvet seemingly asleep. How managed to fall asleep with the noise was beyond her. She could hear them as she turned into the hallway the room was in.

She stood over you. She hated to wake you as you seemed to be asleep but she reached down and shook your shoulder, “My Princess…..”

You sleepily batted it away, mumbling.

Ayo shook you again and called out louder.

You grumbled and hit the hand again. Eventually Ayo had to practically yell and she step back as you woke up sitting straight up.

“What?” you barked unnecessarily but not at anyone in particular.

Your hair was all out of sorts and the stress of the past week was fast wearing on you. Your almost crazed eyes took a look around and finding nothing out of place except the Dora next to you.

“Oh, Ayo…..can I help you?” you asked lowering your voice.

Ayo nodded, “The King requests your presence.”

You nodded and stood up.

“Stay here, N’Jadakas.” You said looking around the room.

“We’re getting bored!” one whined.

“I’ll think of something okay.” You coached.

Passing two Dora you murmured, “Watch em.”

You followed Ayo out of the room and down the hallway, “May I know what this is about?”

“It seem that some of the Princes are in the throne room.” she relayed.

“What how?” You asked stopping in your tracks, “Wait that group didn’t come back from their walk?”

“No, it seems they managed to split up and give us a good chase.”

You groaned and the two of you picked up your pace, finally entering the throne room to see what you believed was absolutely chaos. The lead Erik was currently yelling at T’Challa bout mangos, some of the Erik’s were fighting each other, while others were currently bothering the Elders in various ways.

One was trying to get Ramonda’s attention who was trying to ignore him. “Hey, Auntie!! Ant.Tie! I know you ain’t deaf up there!”

The King looked pinched like the limit of his diplomacy was being tested while Okoye gripped her spear tighter than normal. Nakia just looked overwhelmed for once.

It took you a moment to process all of this before walking further into the throne room.

“N’Jadaka..ss….what are you doing?” you asked lightly.

Amidst the chaos, the lead one turns to you. He points at T’Challa and you purse your lips. He looked just like a child throwing a temper tantrum. “He don’t think I can move mangos!!”

You would have busted out laughing except you had experience a growing headache in the last day.

You only asked lightly, “Mangos?” You held up your hand, “Never mind. Why don’t we leave and let the council do….council things…..?”

You rarely had to sit in a council meeting so you weren’t as privy to the things that are usually discussed.

“They are mangos, baby girl. Mangos.” Erik snapped, “This guy don’t think I can handle it.”

You gave a bright smile, “Why don’t we go eat, huh? I’m sure I can find a hamhock somewhere, some greens. Oooh, would you like me to bake you a cake?”

You swore there was a snort somewhere but you only continued to smile.

“I am not 5 years old!” Erik snapped.

Even Erik winced at his own statement as you just gave him a meaningful look. He snapped, “Don’t think I don’t know what you are doing? You just substituted ice cream for a hamhock!”

“I like both!”

Erik whirled around and socked the nearest one of him. Never mind that that Erik wasn’t the Erik that said it. Fights broke out among the Eriks and the room rose to a deafening noise. The Dora Miljae were tense as they watched.

You however, managed to breath your eyes fluttering. You raised and hand to your temples and started massaging it. T’Challa watched you in concern. He hadn’t seen you in a few days but in the space of those days you looked worse than he ever saw you.

You on the other hand, had your eyes closed and was trying to find your center calm. Bu the hammer in your head wasn’t letting up and the noise was not helping. Suddenly something in you snapped and you lost it completely.

“I need some instant shut up!!” You screamed your eyes snapping open.

Everything in the room froze, including all the Erik in their fighting positions. The King himself froze on his throne, his eyes wide as he gazed at you. Nakia and Ramonda blinked. Even the Elders were staring at you. It was an absolute shock for those in the room to hear you scream. Since knowing you, no one had had heard your voice reach that decibel before. All eyes were on you but you didn’t feel it.

You were glaring at your husbands, your dark eyes were blazing as you snapped, “I want all of you to single file out of here before I really lose my temper! Step too, one two three...”

“Who the heck you think you yelling at?” Erik growled.

“Ahh-ahh…” you snapped glaring down at him, “Until you can get some bass in your voice, I don’t wanna hear it.”

Erik took a step forward but the effect was lost as he had to almost lean back to glare up at you. “Just wait until I get back to my normal size!”

“What? Whatchu gonna do, huh? Nothin. Nut.Thin.” You enunciated, “Matta fact the carnival is closed until further notice. Check it!”

T’Challa blinked. What carnival were you talking about? The two of you didn’t have any plans to go anywhere that he knew of. He risked a glance at Nakia and Queen Mother, both of which looked a bit confused. If Shuri was here, she’d probably know. That might have been another slang that was lost on him. Glancing at the council members their expressions had returned to their normal shield as they watched the drama unfold.

“Baby girl….” Erik growled, “I know you ain’t crazy. This ain’t my fault.”

“I don’t give a dang!” You snapped.

T’Challa eyebrow shot up of its own accord.

Erik shifted, “Y/N…”

“I ain’t finna hear it!. How’z gonna help ya case, eh?” You placed your hands a few inches above your head, “You can’t even ride the rides unless you this tall.”

T’Challa couldn’t help but to look at your hand. That was about the height of his cousin….

Suddenly the light bulb clicked in T’Challa head and he struggled not to cough or make a sound. He glanced at Nakia who seemed to have caught on. However, his mother still looked like she was confused.

“I know you just didn’t put me on lockdown” Erik cried.

“Locked down, locked up, locked sideways….whatevas….” you snorted before snapping “Just get your butt...butts outta here.”

Erik glared up at you and you glared down at him. “You know I ain’t gonna be this size forever.”

You purposely leaned forward, “Your point? I don’t mind going to the carnival next year this time. I’m patient, I can wait...how about you?”

T’Challa saw his cousin twitched before suddenly he leaned over and the crowd of himself in the room all seemed to converse with each other. Finally they stopped and glared at you.

“Aight fine! Be that way!” the lead Erik snapped before spinning on his heel and walking towards the door. The others followed suit all of them glowering and muttering at they walked out.

“I wanna see how long you even last!” Erik hollered.

“Longer than you, that’s for sure!” You yelled back.

Once the last Erik disappeared through the door, silence stretched a long moment.

Finally you turned around your face composed as if what happened didn’t happen at all.

Holding out both hands palms up you spoke your voice level as it always is, “My King, My Queen, Queen Mother, Elders….forgive the intrusion. I will endeavor to make sure this doesn’t happen a second time.”

“What carnival where you talking about going to, my dear?” Ramonda asked.

You purse your lips and blinked rapidly. “Uhhh……”

“Mother….I think that the Princess should be allowed to go and make sure the Prince..ss….don’t get into further trouble.” T’Challa interjected smoothly.

Taking that as your cue you bowed to them once more after Ramonda nodded. As you turned you swore you heard a snicker from Nakia as you walked out the room.

T’Challa caught Ayo’s eye and nodded to the door. Taking the hint, Ayo dipped her head before following you out. When she exited the room, she could see you leaning on the wall with your forehead at the end of the hallway.

“Princess, are you okay?” she asked as she came to your side.

“Yeah, I’m fine…..” You sighed.

Ayo wasn’t sure what to make of your stance. She cocked her head, “Are you certain you don’t require assistance?” she asked.

“Can you commit a murder for me?” you asked.

Ayo raised an eyebrow, “Are you threatened in any way?”

You shook your head.

“Then may I inquire as the nature of this kill?”

“What is the legal term for killing one’s husband?”

“ Mariticide.....”

You blinked and slowly turned your head, so it was still on wall to look at her. “I’m slightly disturbed you know that.” You gaze at her another moment before turning your head so you were looking down at your feet.

The two of you stood for a long moment. Ayo was still confused as to whether you were alright or not.

“Are you looking for something?” she finally questioned.

You turned your head at her. She noticed your crazed wide-eyed look, “I’m trying to find the pieces of my dignity!”

Pushing off the wall you cried, “I'm so bloody embarrassed!! This boy got me all stressed.” You started gesturing wildly and being quite dramatic, “I don’t like to get stressed. You see what happens when I get stressed. I lose my bloody mind!!”

With that said you turned the corner and began walking down the hall without waiting to see if she was following.

A small smile quirked on Ayo’s lips.

Ahh, so that’s what it was.

Everyone knew that you were easily embarrassed and very shy. The fact that you raised your voice would become topic of conversation for while.

The calm, introverted but slight quirky Princess of Wakanda yelling?

Ahh, yes...that would be cannon fodder.

#black panther #black panther fanfiction #killmonger x reader

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iloveyoupittsburghpirates-blog · 6 years

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It’s Time To Move Forward, Pittsburgh Pirates

My Dearest Pittsburgh Pirates,

Sorry for the delay on this letter. I was out of town for the long weekend and didn’t have the chance to get it to you. This week was more of the same. While it’s hard to be too upset anymore, because it’s over and you are already looking forward to next year, you still performed below expectations. Facing two playoff caliber teams is never easy especially on the road so I wasn’t terribly surprised when you lost two out of three to both the Cardinals and Braves. Your offense has still been terribly lacking with only eleven runs scored in those six games. You opened it up a bit yesterday beating the Reds 5-1 though you didn’t even pull ahead until late in the game and that was only because of the two people who currently have the best OPS on your team: Gregory Polanco and Adam Frazier. Yes, Adam Frazier. That’s due in part to his 4 for 4 day with three RBI’s, a homer, and he finished a triple short of the cycle. You want a stat I bet you never thought you would see at the beginning of the season? Adam Frazier currently has as many homers as Josh Bell with eight a piece. While that’s a positive sign for the re-emergence of Frazier, it also goes to show you how disappointing of a season Bell has put together. This is where we learn who is a viable option for next season and what needs to be addressed. If you happen to win some games in the process, I wouldn’t be mad about it.

You made a couple of surprise moves this weekend before the waiver trade deadline expired. Adeiny Hechavarria, who you recently acquired, was dealt to the Yankees. That’s not terribly surprising given that you are out of the hunt and you want to give Kevin Newman the opportunity to start every day. The more surprising move was dealing David Freese to the Dodgers and most likely ending his tenure with you. I was under the assumption that you would pick up Freese’s six million dollar option this offseason after how disappointing Colin Moran has played. There’s still a small chance the Dodgers could not pick up the option, he could become a free agent, and you could resign him but that seems very unlikely. With Freese gone, you are in a position now where Colin Moran is your only third baseman. Start him the rest of the season. I’m fine with that to see if he somehow explodes. He CAN’T be your only option there for next season. He has a 0.5 WAR in 371 at bats. That’s not remotely good enough to start. Ke’Bryan Hayes had dominant week in Double-A and could be your everyday starting third baseman in a year or two but you have a window now where you can’t afford to waste a year. Signing someone like a Mike Moustakas, Jed Lowrie, or Asdrubal Cabrera is a short term investment that you need to make this offseason. With how bad Bell has been at first, you can’t afford to go into next season with two corner infield spots that could be total duds in the lineup. You have money so go spend it.

Trevor Williams is on a historic pace right now. He pitched another 6 2/3 scoreless innings yesterday giving him a 0.74 ERA since the All Star break. The record for lowest ERA after the All Star break was set by Jake Arrieta in 2015 with a 0.75 ERA. You remember that season? He dominated you in the Wildcard game and you haven’t had a winning season since? I thought that might jog your memory. Williams has been unstoppable mixing different pitches at different speeds and placing them perfectly. He now holds a 3.16 ERA for the season and has solidified himself as a starter in this rotation next year. There has been a lot of criticism about your ability to develop pitchers with Gerrit Cole leaving and becoming a Cy Young candidate and even Tyler Glasnow looked great again this weekend going seven strong innings. Those criticisms are extremely valid but you also have to give credit when it’s due. Williams (3.16 ERA, 1.18 WHIP) and Taillon (3.45 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) have put together terrific seasons and if you are going to solely blame the Pirates for not developing the others, which again is valid, then you also need to credit them when pitchers do well. I’m not saying there isn’t a potentially huge issue with your pitcher development. We will have a better idea of the severity once Mitch Keller is ready to be promoted. I just think these are two instances that have seemed to work out very well and it needs to be recognized.

Since you have basically been eliminated from the playoff picture, Kevin Newman has been playing almost everyday at shortstop. It hasn’t gone very well. Newman made a devastating error that helped lose you the game on Saturday. He’s also shown no signs of life at the plate batting .121 with a .346 OPS. It’s only been 33 at bats so it’s hard to truly judge him on that small of a sample size. The problem is he had terrible splits in the minors versus righties with only a .705 OPS. When he faces a lefty, it’s .866 which is good but that makes him a platoon player, not a starter. Newman can be the backup SS next year and get some starts against lefties. You can also sub him in for Frazier late in games if he ends up being your starting 2B next year, which seems likely. You can’t go into next season planning for him to be your everyday shortstop. You just can’t. Even though you traded Hechavarria, you could still bring him back as a free agent. That should be your worst case scenario if you can’t find a better bat on the free agent market. Newman can be your backup middle infielder next year and I’m fine with that. But nothing more.

This week is much easier than the last two because you are playing two last place teams. You finish out the series with Cincinnati at PNC Park today and tomorrow. You have a day off Thursday before the Miami Marlins come to town. It’s the last month of the season and you are out of the playoff picture. Time to play the young guys to see what they have but it’s also smart to limit the starting pitchers. Guys like Musgrove, Taillon, and Williams have already exceeded their innings pitched total from years past. The last thing you want is one of these guys getting hurt for a totally unnecessary reason. Nick Kingham started for Nova on Sunday who had to deal with a family matter. Kingham should basically be used as a sixth starter for this month in order to limit the others. Overall, your rosters have expanded so there’s no reason for anyone to get overplayed at this point. The only thing that matters now is for the younger guys to get some development time and to keep everyone healthy. Go have fun and try to get better as a team. Then this offseason I hope you will open your checkbook to get better as a team. Have a good week and talk to you next weekend!

Looking Ahead To The Future,

Brad

P.S. stands for playing still which I’m referring to a couple former Buccos. Cutch’s mediocre season in San Francisco was cut short when he was traded to the New York Yankees this week where another prominent former Pirate, Neil Walker, now resides. I happened to be in Oakland yesterday to watch the A’s play the Yankees so I got to see them in person. Walker struck out in a big situation and Cutch had one hit, stole a base, and scored in the loss. It was funny to see them on the field together again playing for a contender. Just thought I’d mention it…

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safitheartist · 7 years

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Reboot season 2 episodes rated part 1

Here is my verdict for the episodes so far,

of the episodes aired I only haven't seen 'Can I keep it'. I'm spliting this into several parts because this is getting too lengthy.

Anyway:

Out to launch: 9/10

The Tennyson family observes the launch of a experimental space plane, however as Vilgax takes control over it Ben has to team up with his idol pilot McCabe as Gwen and Max try to help him by hacking into the ships controls.

This episode is action packed, funny and gives us more clues to Max's mysterious past. The character of McCabe is enjoyable if not as memorable as other newly introduced characters.

Battle at Biggie Box: 8/10

Ben drags his family to a giant sale at store chain called Biggie Box, hoping to obtain the super rare Sumo Slamer play set. However, Billy Billions is also after the playset. Ben, being desperate to beat Billy, ends up hurting the feelings of his friend Simon.

This episode doesn't give us subtle plot development like the last one but it gives Ben some more character development, has some very funny visual gags and slapstick and references every former retail employe would appreciate. I didn't come to care about Simon and his brother all that much when they appeared in season 1 and every reference to Gwen's stupid crushes in season 1 makes me want to punch someone. It's a fun episode but not a must watch.

Bon Voyage: 8/10

As the Tennyson family boards a brand new ship made to replace the old SS Pettigrew Ben finds himself fight both Steam Smythe and sea sickness as our steam punk enthusiast just can't seem to let go of the past.

This episode is a bit of a mixed bag. The humor is really great and I find it admirable that a show doesn't go the "technology is evil and progress is bad" route, however I think they kind of used the wrong example. Most people nowadays board steam boats because it's something gimicky or out of curiousity so there is infact still a valid market for those kind of boats despite their short commings. I would like to see a show for once awknowledge that the past and the future aren't necessarly rivals to one another. However with it's well paced humor, neat action scenes and intruigent hints twoards Steam Smythe's potential origin this episodes elevates itself from it's short commings.

Mayhem in Mascot: 7/10

As Ben and Gwen attempt to get a picture with every storefront Mascot failed yet again, due to Ben's staling. Ben helps Gwen take a picture with the last woden mascot, Yawk the bear. However as the mascots come to live Ben amd Gwen soon realize things are more complicated then they seem.

...this episode is strange. I mean I liked the song, it's a neat parody and it's nice to see them make fun of the randomly breaking into song trope.... Lenny is a neat character(he was the guy who kinda looked like Kevin in the leaks)....and Ben being the skeptical for once instead of Gwen was a nice idea. But the twist was predictable, Gwen's behaviour was a bit too naive, there isn't really any explanation for the other Mascots and this whole episode is a bit too random for my taste.

Screamcatcher: 8/10

A visit to the dentist goes south when Hex shows up and kidnaps Ben into a world made out of Ben's fears.

The premise is creative. Using a dentist of all people to show there are more people with interesting advantures was a really neat idea. The way Ben solves his predicament is a bit on the nose but it's subverted enough to be interesting. Hex's eternal hell would be a booring dead end desk job and honestly mood.

Vote Zambozo: 9.5/10

Team Ten all have to contribute their individual skills as Zambozo hypnotizes a town with a fake election campaine so Acid Breath, Toe Nail and Fright Wig can rob the local bank. As Gwen and Max take care of Zambozo, Ben takes on the circus freak trio.

I already made a indepth post about this episode. There are a lot of things one can like about this episode from it's dense world building to the character progression. It's also really neat to see the contrast this Gwen has to season 1 Gwen, they are doing her justice at last.

Animorphosis: 9.5/10:

As Ben sets out to find a real fosile to out shine his cousin he gets ambushed by Animo and VILGAX! However as the later betrays Animo and takes over his mutant animals Ben and Animo have to close a uneasy aliance.

Okay this episode is MAJOR! I honestly was shocked and would suggest you watch it for yourself. The only thing holding is back was a lack of Gwen in my opinion...I am biased okay!

The 11th alien part 1 and 2: 9.8/10

As Ben discovers a new alien in his watch Vilgax shows up to warn our heros about this particular alien's powers. Ben after innitially rejecting Vilgax's "help" starts to notice strange happenings whenever he uses said alien. Was he telling the truth? Could Ben cause serious harm with his omnitrix? Ben is put into a difficult possition as he has to decide weather it is better to potentially destroy the earth or surrender the omnitrix to Vilgax.

These episodes are really neat. It again shows Vilgax as the manipulative villan he always has been. It gives Ben serious character struggles and puts his relationship with Gwen and the significants of their friendship into the foreground. The twist at the end wasn't that hard to guess but still fun seen executed and you can see in later episodes that this had a longlasting effect on Ben's character. The only thing holding it back is one or two awkwardly cut scenes.

#ben 10 #ben 10 reboot

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authenticaussie · 7 years

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Maybe MarcoSabo for send a ship????

who’s the werewolf and who’s the hunter

Marco again as the werewolf bc like…………….wb fammmmmm wb fam are Totally this rock’n’roiling pack of messy & dumb werewolves and he’s long-suffering but in an endlessly fond and adoring way, and like?? Imagine Sabo being raised by hunter!parents and knowing that what they tell him is wrong but also like they’re his parents, who is he to question them, how can he question them when he’s never known any different, when the werewolves he’s seen have been vicious and angry and cruel and tried to kill his best friend-

Marco who protects Haruta, who’s the smallest and the newest shift and they’re all so proud of her and he’s the one that’s closest to a goddamn dire wolf, what sort of beast of legend would he be if the only tale to his name was I let my younger sister die? But Also Sabo’s never seen one of them protect anyone before and he’s like whaaat the Heck is this even a werewofl (and then sudden half-clothed man and sabo’s like ashjdfg yep he is very much a werewolf) and like!! Haruta growling and trying to get sabo to stay away but sabo has a gun and marco’s telling her to run and then because he knows she won’t run telling her to get help, and she whines but?? Does so?? And Sabo is just. What the Fuckity is going On Here and demanding to know wtf marco was doing and also jfc he keeps forgetting—(well, repressing,) that…the werewolves aren’t just wolves. They’re human under there, too….and it’s awkward talking to a wolf you just shot but he can’t shoot it(him) again. And so they talk and marco’s growling at him and being like if you go after haruta I’ll rip your throat out and sabo’s like look you’re gonna have some problems w/ that????

who’s the mermaid and who’s the fisherman

Sabo’s a marine biologist studying the effect of pollution on coral and marine life coughcoughhe’s also totally a really aggressive protester who does a Lot of shit like exposing corruption and infractions of environmental law and Marco’s the mermaid!! Sabo, while diving, accidentally snaps a picture of his tail and is like woah I’ve never seen that before…And then he’s like!!! RARE FISH MEANS WE CAN GET THIS CORAL PATCH DECLARED A PROTECTED ENVIRONMENT AND THEY CAN’T BUILD AN OIL SITE HERE. And so he goes diving heaps to try and catch sight of this fish again. And like?? random stuff also keeps happening around him?? Like, some of his notes are put in the wrong spot, and he’s sure he put them down by the table why are they now near the stern?? Why’s his sunglasses/cap missing??? where’s his left flipper??? And it all comes to a head when he looses his camera overboard while they’re sailing to a new patch to dive and he’s like !!! no!!!! Bc they can’t really get another out here and like?? Koala’s got one, but it’s hers, and it’s also technically the spare, and even if he could use it his was…It was his, and it was one of the first things he bought for himself and it’s…Sentimental

Anyway when they go diving he finds it perched on the reef and in the camera memory there’s a picture of this guy looking super shocked and heavily illuminated by the flash and holy shitting fuck the dude has a tail.

Following those photos are also really gorgeous ones of fish and coral and stuff, but Sabo’s more preoccupied with THE UNDERWATER DUDE WITH A TAIL

who’s the witch and who’s the familiar

Again shapeshifting birb!marco as the familiar but Sabo is much better than ace at magic/practicing and is much more fascinated than ace is by the concept of magic so a lot of marco/sabo witch/famillair is sabo blowing stuff up/doing stuff he isn’t meant to and Marco being like whY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THIS THING I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO??

“It looked fun!!!/I was curious!!!”

who’s the barista and who’s the coffee addict

They’re both coffee addicts but Marco would Totally be a barista and like no-one knows how much coffee he drinks every day bc well who knows if he’s filled up the cup again or if it’s the same cup from this morning?? (it’s totally been filled up at least 7-10 times) and Sabo is this Perpetually Exhausted young man who is like?? doing a ridiculous amount of work, people are like how have you not keeled over and d i e d yet and sabo’s like *raises coffee, looking at it vaguely like it is his god, absolutely exhausted,* “how can I die when there is still such beauty in this world??” and everyone think he’s being pretentious/talking about something actually beautiful but marco’s seen him confusedly mumbling to his laptop/coffee cup when it’s empty and bemoaning his loneliness bc how could coffee, coffee!!! of all things, leave him. Marco just gets into the habit of making sure Sabo gets a new coffee before his runs out, and also that sabo leaves the cafe rather than staying there for 24 hours in a state of absolute exhausted delirium.

who’s the professor and who’s the TA

Sabo would be TA!!! Like I can see him being a professor but I can also see him just like, angrily colour-coding marco’s schedule and organising so much shit and marco’s vaguely annoyed because he knew what was going on and now it’s this fucking rainbow riot in his notebook and oh god sabo’s following him around and taking notes on how marco interacts w/ others and teaches and offers hints and has little stars next to things he thinks are Good and—-

sabo’s bringing him coffee at 4am Sabo is a God

who’s the knight and who’s the prince(ss)

Marco’s the knight and Sabo’s the prince!! Kind of. He’s a noble and he’s set to marry the princess but he sure as fuck doesn’t want too and he totally sneaks off and disguises himself as a pauper/doesn’t introduce himself to marco properly and marco’s like oh are you one of the new guards from the Outlooks’ place?? don’t worry abt being late I know some of the other knights are dickheads and like making sure the newbies get lost. And sabo’s just like uhhhhhh yeeeep that’s me, guard in training, t o t a l l y

Accidentally introduces himself as sabo as is like SURE DOES GET CONFUSING AT THE OUTLOOK HOME, BEING THE SECOND SABO. HAHA. HAH. Marco totally ends up figuring it out, mainly because when Sabo is confronted with things that look interesting but he knows nothing about he is curious and inquisitive to a degree that he cannot hide, and he gets curious/confused about so many things that don’t make sense, like sword smithing and break times/shifts and training regimens and what you need to study to be a knight, but like?? I don’t think Marco would make a big deal out of it. Like….he’d be shocked, and confused, and be like hooooly shit and maybe act a little weirder/stiffer around Sabo because he’s like this dude is going to be my boss some day I should really really really not find him adorable and funny and clever but also?? He totally figures out why Sabo hid it from him and why he did what he did- because there was so much freedom in curiosity, in being able to see something new, in being somewhere where people didn’t know you. And like, Sabo’s parents totally discouraged him asking questions, so like?? Marco not only permitting it but encouraging it??? Sabo loves that.

who’s the teacher and who’s the single parent

Marco is the eternally tired and utterly adored/adoring single parent that dotes on his kids and also has several thousand siblings who also get referred to as various mom/dad/uncle/auntie/sister/brother titles and Sabo-the-only-child is like oh my god I’m So confused. He later finds out that Marco is basically just helicopter mom to all of these orphan/abandoned kids and that the wb fam is the Best foster home/orphanage system in town and all the adults are trained to deal w/ the different issues the kids might have, and support tf out of them, and Marco usually gets??? problem kids??? Or ones who need a lot of attention and to be the only kid?? Bc Marco can handle one kid, and can honestly be kind of suffocating in his affection/worry later on in the kid’s life, but he’s still?? Dude he’s raised for 40 other siblings he Knows how to Control the House. And sab’s just…super impressed and they talk about what marco’s current kid needs and sabo works harder at his job bc like!!! damn,,,marco’s inspiring w/ how much he cares……

who’s the writer and who’s the editor

Either Sabo or Marco would make good editors!!! Sabo can be a perfectionist and is very stubborn when it comes to learning things he’s interested in (sometimes I’d like to see like….or I mean, something I’d like to see more of??? Is like, his dream was to write a book or every place he’d ever been and all the people and have a great adventure, and just?? I wish I could see more of how that would affect him in aus where he doesn’t loose his memory, BUT. DIGRESSION.) I think that while both would write, Sabo would write to a vicarious, excessive degree. Fantasy novels, travel books, food reviews, short stories, poems! Everything, and constantly. Marco is his harried and amazed editor who’s always like sabo before you start your 29873th novel what about novel 29872 and Sabo’s like,,,,,,,,,,,,,,#sweats

I can see him primarily writing travel books and huge adventure novels. Massive and intricate and delightful and !! they’re just super good. They can be a bit hard to read, bc they get a bit dense and complicated, but he’s a super smart and captivating writer, and though he errs too far into description (Marco one time sent him back a manuscript with two chapters circled and only the comment ‘sigh’ because they’d been two chapters on the history of some people who lived on a mountain who only came up once) he’s enjoyable and clever and his books are so interesting.

#aussie's anons #ask aussie #zali #ahh my favourite is the mer one tbqh like #darn i have a scene in mind for that one which is fun #also famillair au sniggers #laughs @ myself in a vaguely depreciative tone bc i was like why do these take so long #welluhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh it's bc you're writing miniture essays u dumb dumb #marsab #marcosabo #sabomarco #sabmar #that looks weird

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professor-maka · 8 years

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Trouble

This is a (VERY LATE) holiday fic for my non-fandom writing group SS, flutterby_cupcake_26 on AO3.

It’s SoMa. It’s sweet, sad, and sappy. I hope you find some enjoyment even if it’s not your fandom or pairing, and I’m so so so sorry for being the worst latest SS EVAH!

Thanks go to @sahdah for the eyes, the film suggestion, and also for doing a silly awesome thing when we talked about no shave November.

Sahdah’s no shave November post can be found here.

Read on AO3 or FFN.

—

Fuck no shave November, that’s all he has to say. Fuck no shave November, fuck Black Star for goading him into that ridiculousness, and most of all, fuck Maka for being so damned earnest, and so damned cute when she’s so damned earnest that he never has the heart to say no when it actually matters to her. Not that he really denies her anything much ever.

No, really, fuck Maka. He wishes. Which is probably the reason he’s in this mess. Well, more like sappy, gross, sentimental feelings. Refer back to that whole generally-forgets-the-word-no-when-she’s-around thing.

The girl is definitely trouble.

With an exaggerated sigh, Soul scowls at his own face in the mirror. Yeah, alright, he’s got a nice, full, white beard since he’d been too lazy to shave it off right away. And his usual mop of white hair under the silly red velvet cap. And a soft red suit now stuffed at the belly. So maybe he can pass for pop culture Santa, except the whole red eyes and mouth full of oddly sharp teeth that make him look more like Satan than Santa–hey, only a few letters off, really.

He grimaces at his own reflection, and actually, that’s better than the scowl that would surely send kids screaming for the hills. Makes him look just that bit less like the devil posing as jolly old Saint Nick.

“So are you coming out?” A voice calls from the other side of the dressing room door. Is he? No. Definitely no. Being seen in public this way, even in a lame costume shop smack in the middle of a run down strip mall, is surely some form of social suicide, good bye cool, goodbye dignity, goodbye self-respect.

“Yeah, whatever,” he says instead with another exaggerated sigh, his inability to say no to the girl on the other side of the door biting him in the ass for the umpteenth time this month alone.

Taking that last step to the door, Soul twists the knob and haltingly swings it open.

Ah, there she stands, his reason for the season, his cruel, cruel mistress, leaned so casually against the wall that he might be looking for new jeans rather than sealing his social suicide. Not that he’s ever been much for people. Goodbye, cruel world!

“Oh my god, Soul, you look–you look–”

Her grin is stretched so wide across her face that he’s sure it has to hurt, green eyes sparkling, and his heart does loop de loops in his chest cavity. Yes, Maka is trouble and he is in trouble, as usual.

“–Ridiculous?” Soul says before she can, the scowl firmly back in place in spite of the way her smile does funny things to his insides.

“I was going to say ‘adorable,’ but just at the moment, with that sour puss, you look like you want to maim me.”

Well, he sort of does. Not maim, but mark, maybe. Touch definitely. Then again, he always wants that with her, the unobtainable, so that’s easy enough to tamp down on. No, even more than that, just at the moment Soul wants to wither and die, or maybe disappear, anything to diminish the humiliation he feels as two teen girls trying on some sort of skimpy elf get ups come out from another dressing room and start giggling his way.

“Whatever.” He shrugs as Maka glares at the girls, and unlike his scowl, that sends them scampering back into their dressing room. Go figure.

“I told you this wouldn’t work–can we go now?”

“It’ll work if you can refrain from glaring at the world for a whole hour of your life.” She saunters up and puts a hand on his chest, stroking the material of the fuzzy red coat. Maka herself has donned an elf costume–short festive dress, pigtails, ears. She looks adorable. His scowl softens considerably at her proximity.

“Doubtful.” Soul offers her a flat stare.

“Do it for the kids?”

This earns her an eyeroll even if he knows she knows that yes, he is a marshmallow on the inside, and yes, he would indeed humiliate himself to make sick kids smile even if no one else on the planet but her might realize that. Well, maybe Wes, but he’s not here to back her claim.

“Then do it for the reward?”

“Reward?” He’s already going to do it and they both damn well know it, but hell, may as well get something for the trouble and complete loss of cool.

“Mmm hmmm,” she hums and smiles sweetly. “I’ll bake your favorite cookies.”

Maka’s a good baker and pretty much never bakes. His stomach rumbles at the thought. “It’s a start,” he mutters.

“And…” Her hand continues to stroke at the material of the red coat.

“And?”

“I’ll let you pick the movie tonight. Any movie, and I won’t say a word. Or retaliate.”

Well, that’s also something. It’s not his turn, and even when it is, if Soul picks something he knows Maka won’t like, she will pick the worst historical romance bullshit she can find the week after. There’s only so much coy flirting he can take, really, and the trite classical scores always give him childhood flashbacks he could do without.

“Getting warmer,” the concession is grumbled.

“And, I’ll rub your back while we watch the movie.”

Ding ding ding we have a winner! Movie, cookies, and backrub with Maka. She’s hit the trifecta, and fuck it all if that sly smile doesn’t say she knows it.

Well, then.

“Fine, you win,” he grumble-sighs, and it’s only half for show because while he dreads the next hour, he has an evening of bliss ahead of him.

In the end, Soul supposes, an hour of Santa suit purgatory is a small price to pay.

—

A motorcycle ride later and they’re at the hospital where Maka volunteers, picking up service hours to brighten up her med school applications.

At least riding through town as Santa on the bike with a cute elf plastered to his back had been cool. Sort of.

She gets off the motorcycle, long leg swinging over, then grins his way, eyes bright, holding out her hand expectantly after he himself gets off to put down the kickstand.

Fuck that smile is trouble. It never bodes well, makes him weak kneed, weak willed, stupid.

Still, as Maka drags him into the building, her hand warm in his, Soul thinks it’s probably worth it to earn that smile–and especially for cookies and back rubs. Adjusting the pillow in his suit as they roll up to the first room slated for a visit from Kris Kringle himself, having mostly avoided notice on the way up, he figures how bad can it be? He’s never minded kids. They’re snotty and gross, sure, but also innocent. They tend to bring out his more protective side–as long as they aren’t trying to share their snot hands with him.

Of course, the fact they’ll expect close contact–hugs and lap sitting–had slipped his mind. The first little girl, recovering from heart surgery, offers him a sloppy wet cheek kiss after gushing about how much she wants a puppy. The kid is wide eyed and adorable, so Soul manages not to cringe and wipes his cheek only when she’s not looking.

Maka’s smile, soft and approving, is worth a bit of slobber.

It goes pretty much like that for the next thirty minutes, lots of little hands and excited faces and kids recovering from ailments of various severity.

Really, Soul had expected worse, so when one of the little turds–a kid recovering from a tonsillectomy of all things–manages to rack him in the balls as he leaps onto his lap unexpectedly, the fact an involuntary grimace sends the sandy haired little boy screaming hoarsely from the room about demon Santa isn’t exactly shocking. Soul is actually surprised that he hasn’t terrified more than one–but then, he’s managed to keep a tight lipped smile in place most of the visit.

He does feel a little bad about scaring a kid. Or maybe a lot bad. The sympathetic squeeze of his hand Maka offers just after helps, though, and he makes the rest of his rounds even more careful to keep his teeth out of sight. No need to give the poor things nightmares.

Feeling pretty good about the whole thing even with the humiliation of sporting a cheesy red suit, he reaches the last few rooms, the last few kids who signed up for a visit with Santa today. This one is in the cancer ward, and as the concept of kids with cancer slams into him, suddenly, being born a partial albino with unnaturally sharp teeth doesn’t seem so bad.

Most of the kids have a good prognosis, at least. Most of them will likely live.

It’s when he gets to the last room, the sickest kid, that it hurts.

The kid is devoid of any hair, and Soul isn’t sure if they’re a boy or a girl with a name like Jade, not that it matters.

Looking up with tired brown eyes as Santa and his elf enter, the kid manages a weary smile.

“Santa, you came!” they gasp, voice high and raspy. “Mama said you would but I wasn’t sure because it’s not Christmas yet, but you came!”

“Course I came,” Soul says gruffly, hand moving half up to ruffle non existent hair before lowering again sheepishly. “Couldn’t let down someone at the top of my nice list.”

“Really?” Deep brown eyes go wide.

“Really really,” Soul confirms, and feels Maka squeeze the hand she’s been holding for three rooms straight. She gives him a loaded look as the child continues to stare in wonder. “So, what would you like for Christmas this year, little one?”

“That’s easy” The kid’s face lights up. “I just want to get better! You can do that, right Santa?”

A punch to the gut would have hurt less. “I–I mean–”

“Santa will do everything he can to help!” Maka cuts in, voice too high, too cheerful. “But since you’ve been so good, is there anything else you’d like?”

A vigorous nod does nothing to alleviate the clenching fist that holds his heart. He can’t breathe. “Uh huh. A pony. So I can ride when I’m better!”

He feels a hard squeeze to his hand, so he stammers out, “I’ll–see what I can do. Anything else?”

The kid blinks, possibly awed at so much choice.”Maybe a 3DS for until I’m better?”

Managing a nod and a tight smile, Soul reaches down to pat the kid’s shoulder. “Sounds like a good list. I’ll do my best.”

After a hug, they leave the room, and as they do, midway through the hall, Soul tugs Maka to a stop.

“Do ya think–” he licks too dry lips. “I mean, kid will be okay, right?”

“I–” she squeezes the hand she still hasn’t let go, shakes her head. “It doesn’t look good, but it could happen. And–seeing you–seeing Santa–hope is a big part of healing. You did a good thing, Soul.”

Maybe. Sure doesn’t feel like it just now. Internally, he resolves to talk to Maka later about connecting with the parents, maybe call his own parents if money is an object. He can’t cure cancer, but the other shit could happen.

He may not be the real Santa, but he isn’t Satan either. This much, he can do.

Soul’s heart is heavy, full, as they mount the bike for home.

—

Back at their apartment, he stares in the mirror again, hardly recognizing himself. After over a month with fur on his face, the clean shave is foreign and slightly itchy, but removing the hair had felt cleansing. Nearly cathartic. He feels lighter without it, even if his eyes are shadowed and maybe a little haunted.

Blinking away the heaviness, Soul is lured from the bathroom by the smell of heaven. Cookies and back rubs await and the world looks a shade brighter, though darkness still looms in his mood like a storm cloud.

Soon enough, he’s in trouble again.

To Maka’s shock, Soul decides on a romcom, something he generally avoids when it’s his pick as a matter of principle because, in truth, he doesn’t really mind them–it’s just completely uncool to admit it.

Selecting something called Love, Rosie that pops up first in in the romance section, he shrugs off Maka’s skepticism.

“Was a rough day, okay? We could both use a laugh.”

That’s true enough, but only part of it. The other, bigger part, is that lately, for whatever reason, Maka gets more clingy and touchy during rom coms and he really could use the closeness just about now. It hadn’t always been that way, and sometimes Soul wonders what the change means, but he figures he’s definitely trying to read too much into it. Best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Movie queued, cookies out, and Maka positioned slightly behind him for optimal back exposure, they begin to watch.

As the movie rolls on, Soul has to cringe just a little. He hadn’t realized this movie is about a pair of best friends who are in love but neither knows how the other feels. It’s a bit too close for comfort for him, but since Maka doesn’t share the same affinity, it should be alright. He’s used to suffering in silence.

It really is painful to watch, but it’s also soothing on another level. Cookies are delicious, and Maka rubs his back a good quarter of the flick as they watch before casually snuggling against him. Soul could almost trick himself into believing they’re together and not just best friends. It’s nice, being close, as it’s always nice. Though–sometimes, it’s more than nice, and he has to will down the thrill that runs through him bring together with her this way when it doesn’t mean the same thing to her. The way she rubs his chest absently as they watch is distracting.

The movie is like watching his own heart bleed out on the table. Fortunately, it eventually ends better than it ever will for him. Not that he’s allowed to stew, not with Maka of the brain and the thoughts at his side. After the couple in the film go through years of running, of pinning, of not being able to get it together until they finally do only to consummate the whole thing (thankfully) offstage, Maka murmur-asks mid way through staring blankly at the credits, “I wonder if it ever happens that way?”

She’s probably talking to herself, but it makes his pulse quicken.

“I think it can,” Soul responds, and she lifts her head from his chest, fingers stilling then clutching the fabric of his shirt.

“Really?” Her brow furrows. “Because I always figured if two people are friends for so long and they both have feelings, it would have to come out much sooner–really come out. I mean, they were friends so long, how did they not realize it? Why would they run? I’d think, if it weren’t a movie, it would probably be one sided, and that’s why it never went anywhere.”

“Could be,” he admits. “Or could be they’re just both really good at hiding. Remember Kim and Jackie?”

“I suppose,” Maka sighs. “But life’s too short to hide for so long.” Soul knows her well enough to know she’s remembering that little boy, remembering all the kids who might not live long enough for love to ever be possible.

He swallows thickly. It feels like they’re on a precipice and he doesn’t exactly understand it because Maka is Maka. She’s not hiding, surely, because she never hides from anything. Maybe it’s his precipice, the moment he loses her, he thinks, as fear stirs in his heart. Fear of losing her in his silence as she eventually finds someone and grows beyond him–fear of losing her if he speaks because he is unworthy.

Panic could last hours but she doesn’t let it. “I’m tired of hiding, Soul.”

What?

Hiding… from what?

His heart thunders in his chest as she sits straighter, pauses the movie, wide green eyes seeking him with mere inches between them.

“What are you–hiding from?” he manages, feeling faint, body flashing hot, palms slicking rapidly.

“My feelings. And his, maybe.”

His–Soul’s heart crashes and burns in an instant. Not yours.

Still, if Maka feels that way–fuck–the way she looks at him now, shy and bold and waiting, hope springs eternal. He quashes it down as always. It’s not for him, clearly, but if it’s for someone–he can’t be selfish, can he? Can’t keep her from happiness if it rests at her fingertips?

Another thick swallow and Soul chokes out the words that could murder his heart.

“You should tell him.” His voice is more steady than it has any right to be. “Hell,” he keeps going, words pouring out because he feels like his world is falling apart at the thought of her gone, but he’s not quite selfish enough to stop it, so it’s now or never–he doesn’t know if he’ll have the courage to push her towards another twice. “Tell him tonight. We already finished the movie so you fulfilled your end of the bargain. You can go and–tell him now.”

So caught up in his own pain, his own push to get her through, Soul doesn’t immediately notice that her face has fallen, but it has, that tiny crease of frustration between her brows calling to him to smooth it with his thumb in gentle circles, though he doesn’t, doesn’t have the right to cross that line.

“I’m trying,” Maka huffs out, half under her breath, looking up at him from under her bangs. “He’s just not listening. Or maybe he just–doesn’t feel the same way.”

At first, the words flow over him like so much water, too many implications to catch a single drop, but then his mind works, struggling to break the surface, reeling as he does.

Oh. Oh. Shit. Shit.

“I–” he stammers, heart about to break from his chest, hammering faster than his body can possibly contain. “I mean–he–he does.” As her brow furrows more deeply, he quickly adds, “feel that way, I mean. About–about her.”

Soul is drowning in fear elation her, has no idea what comes next, but he might have known if his head were clear. Maka being Maka looks at him, eyes wide before going strong and clear with resolve as she sits straighter, leans closer, leans so close that their foreheads touch when she breathes out, “Soul, can I kiss you?”

Words fail, so he just leans himself, closes the distance, and their lips meet.

Maka Maka Maka. Is kissing him. Has feelings for him. Is now sliding onto his lap to straddle him, to tangle her hands in his hair, to dart her tongue across his lips, then inside, sliding against his.

Oh god, the few sad kisses he’s shared with others had been nothing like this, nothing nothing nothing.

The gross saliva of near strangers was unpleasant, but this is Maka and he can’t get enough of her tongue.

His confusion is only momentary as she eventually pulls away, panting, forehead resting against his again as her eyes search his.

“You really–feel this way?” she manages. Soul definitely feels some kind of way, a lot of ways, really, as the beating of his heart, the elated haze wrapped around his mind, and the stiffness in his pants can all attest.

“Yeah, have for–a long time. Since junior year.”

“Of col–” she begins, but he cuts it short.

“Of high school.”

“Oh.” Maka flushes. “Uh, me too.”

It clicks then. Suddenly and forcefully–they are so stupid.

“Prom?” Soul raises his eyebrows, memory hitting him like a freight truck.

“Prom,” she agrees with a sheepish smile.

He gets it because that was also his moment, dancing with her, feeling like it was just where he was supposed to be. Knowing, suddenly, that the dreams weren’t just dreams and what he felt for her–that constant affection–had changed, evolved, grown. Looking down at her, so close, so beautiful, so Maka, getting swept up in the music and her wide green eyes and nearly kissing her, feeling like she was about to kiss him, only he’d thought he was being gross, reading what wasn’t there, crossing a line. Soul had pulled away and their lives went on.

Until now. Until only just now. Another year of high school, the past three of college, that’s how long it had taken.

“You wanted to kiss me.”

“I thought you were going to kiss me. And I realized I wanted you to. And then when you didn’t–I figured I had read what wasn’t there and I just–” Maka bites her lip. “Ignored it.”

“I wanted to kiss you,” Soul admits. “Was just–afraid you didn’t want me to.”

“Well, I did,” she sounds frustrated.

“I know that now,” he says softly.

“Well, then, do something about it.”

So he does, and she does, and the romcom is long forgotten as they make up for lost time, realizing all the while that it really can happen that way, and life’s too short not to roll with it when it finally, finally does.

#proma writes #soul x maka #holiday fic #soul eater fanfic #soul eater fic #soma fic #ahhhhh I hope this is okay!

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artificialqueens · 5 years

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Character development 2 (Branjie)- dexx-ss

A/N: Hi, hello, how are ya?

Sooooooo, first of all, thank you so so much for all the love :) I was so happy seeing you guys wanted another part <3 and here it is… if you enjoy this one also there might be a 3 one coming real soon ;) enjoy xx

BROOKE

When Brooke woke up the first thing she saw was just an empty spot next to her. After closing her eyes again Brooke played through all of her memories from last night. Did Vanessa really come to her place or was that just a dream? Brookes world spun around a little and then she was forced to open her eyes again because the alarm went off. “Jesus fuck” she murmured while turning the alarm off and without looking around she got up and went to take a shower. Everything about this morning was different.

Usually when Brooke wakes up the person she spends the night with is still at her house. she takes a shower not focusing on the fact that there is someone in her bedroom. When she gets out of the shower there is a high chance that the person has left and when they have not she just waits for them to wake up and when they start leaving says “we should do this again sometimes” (she doesn’t mean it, she just says it for good measure) and watches the other person leave. But not this time. Brooke hoped into the shower and just stood there for a solid minute. Not moving. Just thinking. About Vanessa.

As she stepped out of the shower she hoped that she would see Vanessa just laying in the bed, not like all the other times when she’d hoped the person was gone. But Vanessa wasn’t, she had left and B truly wished she hadn’t.

Brooked owned a dance studio and lucky for her she didn’t have any classes today but she still had to go in and do some paperwork. On her way there she called her best friend Nina “Hey girl wanna grab dinner tonight?” , “Ummm… sure? What happened? Did the booty call not leave again?”. Brooke rolled her eyes “No I just wanna have dinner with my best friend,” she took a deep breath “and I also have some hookup gossip.”. Nina just laughed and let her know that she will meet her when she will get off work.

VANESSA

Vanessa worked as a personal assistant for a designer. She was already like fifteen minutes late so V was ready to get her ass beaten. “Guurl ain’t you lucky today?” Ariel said as Vanjie stepped in. “What?” Vanjie looked around all confused. “Oh Raja isn’t in yet,” Ariel smiled “so you can sit and tell me why you were late. Cause like that only happens when you fucking someone or when you drink too much.” Vanjie rolled her eyes and sat next to Ariel placing two coffees next to her. “Well, I went to a party yesterday,”, “who the fuck goes to a party in the middle of the week?” V pointed a finger at herself “Anyways… and there was this one girl” Ariel let out an excited squeak “Don’t get too excited, she has a reputation of being very anti-relationships, but yeah I went to her place and you know- we did things- ya know, and yeah,” Ariel just excitedly nodded her head to Vanjies story. As Ariel was about to start asking questions Raja stepped in and V shot up taking the coffees mouthing bye to her friend. She felt kinda guilty with the thought that she already said too much to Ariel.

Vanjies day was busy following Raja from meeting to meeting and bringing her launch and dinner, picking up stuff for her (basically her every day). When she was heading home she realized she hadn’t thought of Brooke once. Although she was checking her phone awful lot(waiting for B to text but telling herself she was just looking at the time). At one point Raja said that she is looking at her phone like she killed her rich husband and is eagerly waiting for the police to call. But now leaving work Brooke was everything she could think about.

As Vanessa stepped into her home she was greeted by Akeria, which really wasn’t a surprise to Vanessa because she spent more time at her and Silks place than she did at her own home. “So Brooke huh?” Akeria said with a smirk. “Silk, bitch, the fuck?” Vanjie said while taking her heels off. “So if Silky hadn’t told me- you wouldn’t have told me?”, “No! It’s not polite to kiss and tell,” Vanessa said walking into the kitchen and getting herself a glass of wine. “But, hoe, did she text you tho?” Silky asked when Vanessa got back to the living room. Vanjie shook her head looking at her wine glass “But maybe it’s for better, you know,” Vanjie took a sip of her wine “but she had a different vibe than all the others.”. Vanessa couldn’t really explain how Brooke made her feel. It was something else. She just couldn’t put her finger on it. Every time she thought of Brooke running her fingers through Vanjies hair, or the soft touch of Brookes’ lips on hers or even the way she smiled at Vanessa, V would feel so warm inside and couldn’t hold back a smile.

Vanjie had just been staring at the wall for solid five minutes trying to sort out her thoughts. She was a mess inside but hold her calm on the outside. “Girl, you okay?” A’keria asked sitting down next to Vanessa to what the girl just nodded. “Yeah, you know… actually no, I am feeling the feeling where you don’t know what the fuck you are feeling” A’keria smiled at V “Vanj you fall too fast and then crash too hard, you need to stop”. Vanessa just rolled her eyes and continued the night catching up with A’kerias and Silkys life dramas.

Vanessa hugged A’keria goodbye and went to her room. Layed on her bed and looked up to the white ceiling. Her mind usually was going 100 miles per hour but this time it was going twice as fast. “Bitch, you need to go to sleep,” she said to herself. But how could she when every time she closed her eyes she saw the blonde girl she only had known for a day. Finally, she felt herself drifting to sleep when she heard her phone buzz.

BROOKE

It was around six when Nina finally met up with Brooke. Nina was a very observant person and very good at reading body language so she immediately noticed that something was off with Brooke. “Spill it,” Nina said with a smile “How was the party?”, “It was something” Brooke smiled shyly and buried her face into the menu. “Brooke, what is going on?” Nina said lowering Brookes menu from her face. Brooke took a huge sigh and told Nina about Vanessa. Firstly she told her about how V ran into her and how she then saw her outside and invited Vanessa to her place. But then she started talking about Vanessa. About her gorgeous body, about her beautiful dimples, her hair, her eyes. Her fucking smile. How funny and sweet she was. How happy Brooke felt around her. How she wanted more and more and more. How she woke up wishing Vanessa was laying next to her. They were interrupted by the waiter who wanted to take their orders. After the waiter left Nina grinned widely, she hadn’t said anything until this point “You have a crush on that Vanessa, my dear.” , “Stop being ridiculous” Brooke said, knowing full well that Nina was right. “You are talking about her like Aladdin talked about Jasmine,” Brooke just raised an eyebrow for Ninas Disney reference “meaning you are literally in love with her, Brooke Lynn Hytes.” Brooke laughed “Okay that is a strong word, maybe crushing a little bit but definitely not in love,”. Nina smiled softly “I think you should call or text her.”, “I would if I had her number.” Their food came and they continued talking about other things.

As Brooke got home she was greeted by Henry at the door. She went into her bedroom to slip into something more comfortable when she saw paper crumbles on the floor. She picked one of the bigger pieces up and it read ‘nessa xx’ she immediately realized that V had probably left her number and now her cats had completely destroyed it. “Fuck,” she yelled out “I love you guys but honestly you’ll be the death of me.” Brooke collected the pieces of paper and saw that the phone number wasn’t destroyed. Should she call her? Text her? No! Yes. Maybe? She took her phone and called Nina instead.

“I have her number,”

“Text her then!”

“You think?”

“Fuck yes, you know what the cost of not following your heart is?”

“Ummm… ”

“Spending the rest of your life wishing you had.”

“Oh god, you are so corny. But okay I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Bye!”

“Bah-bye”

Brooke didn’t know how to do this because she had never done this. She can’t just ask her out, right? Not how it works. Or is it? She sent the message and tossed her phone across the bed. Now all she had to do was wait for the text message ding.

#rpdr fanfiction #brooke lynn hytes #vanessa vanjie mateo #branjie #silky nutmeg ganache #akeria davenport #nina west #lesbian au #character development #dexx ss #submission #s11

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courage-a-word-of-justice · 8 years

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Morose Mononokean 3 – 13 (FINAL) | Nanbaka 19 | ACCA 5...and anime from 2016, ranked.

(Morose Mononokean ep 3)

LOL, the kaomoji scroll.

Hopefully your handwriting won’t be illegible, Fusshi.

The Japanese place a lot of emphasis on independence, hence th errand running comment.

It’s so threatening to get pointed at with a stick.

I didn’t quite get the “five years again?” joke, but the jokes were going pretty rapid fire there. I might’ve just missed one and that’s OK. *shrugs*

Technically Ashiya lied when he said “you don’t have to believe me” because she believed him in the end…kinda sorta…?

Oh, to grandstand means to be showy. I don’t think I solidified that into my brain until just then.

Are those weeds or onions?

…Oops, not onions at all. Close enough (since they’re blub plants), though.

Where’s your dad, Ashiya?

Zenko’s not crying, you’re crying, I’m crying. Everyone’s crying!

…Oh, that’s the punchline of the joke…but Abeno’s scary when he’s really angry.

(ep 4)

I think even lil’ Fuzzy nods in the OP near the end.

The d and b thumbs are very inventive in regards to kaomoji. I like inventiveness.

Exhibit A of how Comic Sans ruins a mood, CR subbers.

So that’s Abeno’s writing (and not Comic Sans)?

Ashiya and Abeno have really creepy eyes on the eyecatch.

Shizuku means “water droplet” IIRC.

Ashiya, Super Sentai!...or something like that.

The Fuzzy Ashiya knows has 3 tails. This one only has one.

Ashiya, getting coerced into deals he can’t handle. *sigh*

(ep 5)

Fuzzy’s basically a Pokémon now.

What happened to Abeno’s jar?

Where I am, there’s three arms to the government: the legislative arm, the judicial arm and the executive arm. This show must run off a lot of the same principles.

Fuzzy seems vaguely unimpressed when Ashiya learns he doesn’t have to die.

How is that communicating with a fuzzball? Sad life for Abeno-san.

The sad thing about Abeno is that he’s very grumpy. While that does make him basically a male tsundere, his grumpiness isn’t something everyone can live with. Rippou (Legislator) included.

(ep 6)

The Ring? Like a horror movie? (This is the last of the Mononokean episodes I’ve seen before, so it’s not a horror movie, but I had to make the joke while I was at it.)

Fuzzy looks like an offering to the ancestors there on that cushion.

The Mononokean went “If you’d followed my instructions [yada yada yada] but…” Note the “but” – that wasn’t in the translation.

Where does Abeno sleep?

Fuzzy wrapped up is like a fuzzy sushi roll. I wouldn’t like to eat a fuzzy sushi roll, though.

Edo = old Tokyo…so are all Edoites (or whatever you call them) meant to be non-honorific users?

Manjiro must’ve been easy to draw if this were in the source material. However, since this is obviously a CGI Manjiro, it must’ve been easier to animate than, say, Fuzzy. (Apparently fur is hard to get right in CGI.)

“15 whole minutes”…hardly anything impressive…LOL.

Ashiya will never give you up, he’ll never let you down, he’ll never run around and desert you…

Even Fuzzy’s sweating up a storm just thinking about how to return the ring.

Ow. Getting headbutted by an eel is not the way to go.

The salve on Fuzzy looked like a box for a frame or two.

The irony of an eel shop with an eel youkai…

(ep 7)

It’s fresh impressions from here on out.

Butterflies don’t fly like that…

Since middle school is years 7 – 9…okay…Ashiya is that childish? *laughs awkwardly*

I just realised this show doesn’t do flashbacks very well.

I saw a grave in the back that said “Abe Family Grave”. It’s not the kanji for Abeno, though.

Don’t be so proud of your status as a hide and seek veteran, Ashiya.

“Yoko” is the word for a fox spirit. it’s why, in Tactics, the fox spirit is called Youko. Even I knew that much and Ashiya didn’t, LOL.

Oh right! Abeno calls Fuzzy “hairball”.

Abeno is 15?! I’m absolutely positively flipping out!...Abeno and Ashiya look like they’re 17!

(ep 8)

I thought something was up with the subs. Turns out “Haruitsuki” was spelt wrong.

Remember “–sama” is of more respect than “–san”.

I think Mr Chips from Eldlive was like this critter. Gets drunk on green tea.

Tsundere flying green youkai. That’s probably better than an annoying, possibly tsundere fairy (<- reference to One Wish They Never Wanted).

Benkei? I’ve never heard anyone yell “Benkei!” when they stubbed their toe. I get that it’s Standing Benkei though.

Aww. Even if it’s a youkai proposal, it’s so sweet…

(ep 9)

How do you spell “dispirited”? Two Ss? One?

Dangit, Ashiya would do well in job interviews…

The eyecatches always look unnecessarily dramatic, don’t they?

Does Abeno’s question about amateurs include Ashiya?

Abeno must’ve gotten a “Don’t come near my daughter again!” sort of thing a lot.

Fuzzy’s body went “boomph!” when he jumped on to Ashiya’s shoulder.

Fuzzy absolutely fails at rolling on balls, LOL.

(ep 10)

Why did I think of “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” when it came to large!Yahiko?

The title of this episode is “deku”, like Boku no Hero Academia Deku.

Rakugan.

How did the eyecatch manage to put shojo sparkles on Nobou and turn him into something that’s vaguely appealing (in a handsome sense)? It must be the magic of the shojo sparkles…Also, henohenomoheji scarecrow.

“Phantasmagoria” aka “fantasy” or “illusion”.

Wow, basically this show is an ethics lesson…

Who knew a mutant scarecrow could cause such a heartfelt story? Also, please stop hitting yourself with a potato.

(ep 11)

I don’t think I’ve seen the character for “purple” being read as shi before.

Stop using Fuzzy as a shield for your words, Ashiya.

Fuzzy jumped on to Zenko’s head. It’s kinda funny to see Fuzzy acting like a Swablu.

Fuzzy with a leaf hat is aesthetically pleasing. It soothes the soul. (Uh, hey. Come to think of it, Mononokean’s a lot like the works I’ve done on Honeyfeed, eh? Light comedy and a lotta drama.)

I keep stumbling upon spoilers for shows I’m not caught up on, this show included. So I technically knew about Yahiko and never mentioned it, and I’m going “oh no” here because I know what will happen to Ashiya…

Tomori. That was the name from the spoilers…oh no!!!

Fuzzy looks particularly round in the eyecatch.

Apparently Ashiya began as a doodle in the margin of Kiri Wazawa’s sketchbook, but he became the protag of Morose Mononokean. That’s the ultimate upgrade in life for a character, eh?

Abeno’s logic…I get it, but I guess it was played for hilarity. Well, it worked. Really well.

A 9-11. I thought it was funny at first, but now it’s scary and solemn.

Simultaneous equations? I want nothing to do with them anymore.

Come to think of it, Aoi may have been a woman due to the woman’s cloak.

(ep 12)

Oh? A sister? I’ve haven’t seen her in the show yet. I wanna see her.

One of the lil’ pine cones is sleeping. It’s strangely adorable.

(ep 13)

Yahiko’s so spoilt by Zenko.

*squints at Ashiya’s book* Oh hey. I haven’t done this in years! Yeah, that sort of stuff is “first year of high school” stuff, but speaking from experience as an advanced maths student, I have a skewed perspective of what “normal maths” is for a year level. Add that to the fact Japan has the idea that they have to push their geniuses to the limit by being ahead of their years (sometimes going up to one year ahead of the “usual” standard) and…yeah.

From the lip reading, the word could’ve been tera (Buddhist temple) or jinja (Shinto shrine). Knowing how Zenko is built off the ideas of Buddhism anyway, it’s tera.

Well, out of sight, out of mind, as they say.

Abeno looks like such a bad boy in that eyecatch, it’s hilarious.

Seriously, how does Nobou talk with no mouth?!

I thought the hand was Yahiko. Turns out it was Abeno.

Fuzzy looks downright ill when Ashiya’s scared.

A boss normally doesn’t bow his head to his subordinates, let alone call them “lord” (dono), which is the highest type of honorific one can give to a person.

See, the kaomoji scroll really is fun. If someone could make one for me, I’d love to play with it for a little bit. Maybe you could make a (computer?) program that could function mostly the same way…huh. That’s a good idea, actually.

Notice the Mononokean uses “watashi”. I guess it doesn’t have much of a gender anyway.

Nice hat, Ashiya. (LOL.)

Welp, that’s the final episode of all my 2016 anime. I moved the top 10 anime of 2016 to the bottom of this post for the surprise factor, but knowing my reactions to the anime means you can’t be too surprised by the results.

(Nanbaka 19)

Honey’s still on arrow mode.

The scream. It’s like a horror movie, but so funny because it overlays the OP.

The sparkles actually helped viewers see something for once.

Rokuriki. So that’s the guard’s name. It has “six” in it.

Deer hook swords. I’m not quite familiar with them but they look cool.

I only just realised, but they left Nico behind in the supervisor’s office.

The rubble is so beautifully rendered.

What was Jyugo doing behind the pots? Something for humour, I suppose, because I laughed.

“Hachiman” can mean 80000.

Kawaisouni… translates to “unfortunate” or “how unfortunate” but I probably wouldn’t peg it as “poor baby!” like the subbers did. It’s probably the tone Uno used that caused them to sub it the way they did.

Here we go again with this Jyugo comeback from episode 1…

It’s around the part where Upa’s trash talking Hachiman that you can identify Upa’s VA is Yuu Kobayashi (SGRS’s Konatsu’s VA). Even Nico is voiced by a dude and yet Upa is not.

(ACCA 5)

Seriously, this blue haired guy (Magie) reminds me of Japan from Hetalia. Must be the haircut.

How does a guy not remember toast? Probably because this is of Japanese origin, where rice and fish are more common than bread.

I still think his name should be Gene Otus.

CGI fits flawlessly into this style, and if you’ve been around these parts long enough, you know I don’t like obvious CGI.

Dowa Travel.

Hotel Akevitt. They have some weird names in this show.

Reindeer…? I’m not very good at identifying deer vs reindeer.

I heard you like wheat bread, so I put some wheat bread in ACCA to keep you happy, Jean. (insert more memes about wheat bread here)

Lotta really likes walnuts, eh?

Crow/Nino’s a free agent hired by Grossular, right?

Ah. I get it. Lotta’ll keep an eye on Nino for Jean.

Isn’t a sandpiper a bird?

Oh. So that’s why Grossular has such long hair.

Lilium’s bro? Gotta remember him for later.

Grossular’s an older Kyosuke Kuga, LOL.

Anime of 2016, Ranked

Since I have 17 entries this year and it took a lot of shuffling to get right, I’ve decided to show my entire 2016 rankings. Only shows I saw in their entirety at least once over in 2016 (with the exceptions of D Gray Man Hallow and Morose Mononokean, which are applicable through the simulcast commentary process but were only watched to episode 6 before 2016′s end, and fall anime, which due to being AFK at 2016′s end were unfinshable until 2017), and had at least one new seasonal entry in 2016, apply:

17. Prince of Stride Alternative

16. Mr Osomatsu s2

15. D Gray Man Hallow

14. Kiznaiver

13. Morose Mononokean

12. Nanbaka s1: can’t talk about this yet because its s2’s not finished!

11. Classicaloid s1: can’t talk about this yet because it′s not finished!

10. Flip Flappers: The art style and fight scenes really make this a show worth watching. However, it did get somewhat confusing at the end so that’s where most of the drop in the rankings comes from.

9. ReLIFE: While the themes were pertinent and the art style on point, it was a bit plain and there wasn’t much of an explanation as to why the pills work (even if that isn’t Yoake or An’s role). I guess I’m still used to it living in the shadow of Detective Conan, after all.

8. Boueibu s2: This was a step up from s1, but unfortunately there were prime contenders this year that knocked it out of higher places. Also the fact that it does seem more rushed than s1 due to the time constraints does give it a bit of a toll.

7. Bungou Stray Dogs (overall): 2 seasons makes this show stand out as a strong one, especially near the end when it really hits its stride. The fact light novel stories took up up to 4 episodes did make me worried, but the fans definitely have more than enough material to work with as a result, right?

6. Yuri on Ice: I don’t mind the off model in this one if it means the good stuff can come with it, but the fandom is quite intimidating and it was a “show of the year” in ways some people now consider to be a negative thing, so it did suffer a bit from that. I give it merit for the things it does well, but it’s not the saviour of anime the talk of the town can make it out to be.

5. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi: Stunning visuals, a Sayuri ED and good thrills with well executed cliffhangers. My only gripe with this one was the very end, but you’ll have to see the relevant posts for why that is.

4. Boku no Hero Academia s1: Even if it is repetitive, it rises above (Plus Ultra!) to become something more than just a fusion of East and West like I always try to strive for. It’s an emblem and it’s definitely something Horikoshi should be proud of after what happened to Barrage and Oumagadoki Zoo.

3. Sakamoto Desu Ga: This show also managed to go above its repetitive trappings with inventiveness and humour. The fact it’s also touching at exactly the right points shows you why Takamatsu is one of my favourite directors.

2. ConRevo s2: Colourful and politically striking as always, ConRevo was one of the shows I always looked forward to watching, even if it meant staying up past midnight to document things on the wiki. Even if I’m not that fond of the Urobuchi episode, this show managed to reach awesome highs without losing the fans it got from s1.

1. SGRS: With a soundtrack that brings you to the past, humour that can make you laugh no matter how many times you watch it and visuals to wow even the most serious of artists, you can tell SGRS is a labour of love in every aspect. Its second season has already surpassed its predecessor in only 4 or 5 episodes, so...only time will tell whether anything can challenge SGRS for the throne.

Total:

winter 4

spring 5 (incl. Bungou Stray Dogs s1)

summer 4

fall 5 (incl. Bungou Stray Dogs s2)

#simulcast commentary #anime #winter 2016 anime #spring 2016 anime #summer 2016 anime #fall 2016 anime #2016 anime #ACCA #Chesarka watches ACCA #acca 13-ku kansatsu-ka #nanbaka #nanbaka the numbers #nanbaka - the numbers #Chesarka watches Nanbaka #the morose mononokean #fukigen na mononokean #Chesarka watches Fukigen na Mononokean

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a-skyfull-of-starz · 4 years

Text

A picture is worth a thousand words

@aspergerhero gave me the following prompt: For your Tumblr Collections on AO3 : Can you do a Tae x Gin with the prompts « photo » and « camera », and, well, this happened. It probably isn’t what you had in mind, so yeah, sorry about that. <_> (Sorry also that it’s so late, I was being repatriated last week, and that took up a lot of my time). Also also, this is only part one. I will write more and post more, once I’ve figured out where I’m going with this.

.....

“Well well, this is very indulgent, isn’t it?” Gintoki poked a pinkie into his ear. “We already have a manga, an anime and two live-action movies, and now we’re going to have Tumblr blog post written about us too? You sure you don’t want to do something a little more relevant? Like Dragon B*ll Z?” He withdrew the finger, examined whatever was stuck to the tip and blew it away. “You haven’t watched it yet?” The finger now found its way into a nostril. “Let me tell you, it has influenced our culture to such an extent, old grannies are saying ‘remember the time before G*ku?’. The lead has fabulous hair and loves food…a lot like me I guess. And no other show would have you watch fifteen episodes to see the outcome of a battle.” His hand was now inserted into his kimono as he scratched his chest. “You still want to write about us? Won’t your readers who are expecting a M*ss Effect post or a Shingeki no Ky*jin post be disappointed with reading about Gintama? Oh, well if you have a small following, I suppose that is exactly on par for Gintama. But I can’t promise that you won’t be disappointed by what you end up writing. Ah, you’re used to that too? Are you sure you aren’t actually a Gintama writer? They’re always disappointed.”

“Good morning,” a voice called from inside the flat.

“That’ll be our straight man,” Gintoki said. “Come on, it’s time to get to work.”

It was indeed Shinpachi at the front door. “Good morning Gin-san,” Shinpachi said, in the process of removing his sandals.

“Good morning,” Gintoki said. “I see you brought a guest. To what do we owe this pleasure, Onee-san?”

“You’re older than me,” Tae grumbled.

“Right, so I guess I’m the Onii-san in this scenario,” Gintoki agreed.

Tae gave a grim smile and Gintoki supressed a shiver. “Oi Four-Eyes, did you bring my sukonbu?” Kagura called from the living room, where she was eating her fourth bowl of rice.

“If you don’t have the money to buy sukonbu, what makes you think I do?” Shinpachi sighed, flopping onto the couch opposite the younger girl.

“I’ll kill you in your sleep,” Kagura said mildly.

“Now Kagura, you know young ladies shouldn’t make threats like that,” Tae said, still smiling. “If you do, it won’t be a surprise when it happens.”

“Right, sorry Boss,” Kagura said. “I won’t kill you in your sleep, Shinpachi.” She gave Tae an exaggerated wink and mouthed ‘I so will.’ Tae gave her a giant thumbs up in return.

“You’re my sister, shouldn’t you be protecting me?” Shinpachi squawked.

“Nahnah, your sister likes me better,” Kagura gloated.

Shinpachi slumped. “Yes, but you don’t have to say it,” he said.

“Don’t worry Patsuan, since the dawn of time, older sisters have killed their younger brothers,” Gintoki said comfortingly. “That’s why it’s better to be an only child.”

“It’s not as if I had a lot of choice in the matter,” Shinpachi said grumpily. “Say, Gin-san, who are all these people?”

“Your older sister Shimura Tae, Kagura the Yato that adopted us, and the giant dog named Sadaharu which was also adopted by Kagura,” Gintoki said. “My name is Sakata Gintoki, leader of the Yorozuya. The word ‘yorozuya’ means jack-of-all-trades or odd jobs. Basically, I will do anything for money.”

“I don’t mean like that and you don’t need to give so much exposition in one go,” Shinpachi said. “We are being read, no? And this isn’t a manga, the readers can’t exactly see us.”

“Tumblr blog post,” Gintoki explained, flopping into his seat behind his desk. “Some chick who named herself after a Coldplay song received a prompt and she decided to write this.”

“This is in English; will Westerners understand our humour?” Shinpachi wondered.

“Probably not the references, but they have straight-man-funny-man humour as well,” Gintoki said, once again digging in his nose. “Just look at the Two Ronnies.”

“That isn’t exactly the pinnacle of good Western humour,” Shinpachi said.

“Can we please get started?” Kagura asked loudly. “Edo’s Next Top Model is on in two hours.”

“Right,” Shinpachi said. “My sister is actually here as a client.”

Gintoki appeared to be raising an eyebrow. “That’s surprising,” he said. “I thought you hated me.”

“Oh I do,” Tae answered. “That doesn’t mean you haven’t been occasionally useful to me.”

“Compliment me some more,” Gintoki said. “So how can we help?”

Tae reached into her kimono and pulled out a photograph. She handed it to Gintoki. It was a photo of her, taken apparently from a long distance (judging by the grainy quality) and without her consent (she appeared to be mid-sneeze).

“And?” Gintoki asked. “I’ve always known you’re too unattractive to be taken as a bride.”

“This was left on my doorstep this morning,” Tae said, clamping a hand down hard on Gintoki’s shoulder. “And if you don’t stop insulting me, I’ll take my business elsewhere.”

“Ow ok I’m sorry stop,” Gintoki winced. Tae released her grip. “I don’t see what’s so odd about this,” he said, rubbing his shoulder. “We all know you have a stalker.”

“The Gorilla didn’t do this,” Tae said.

“And you’re so sure of this because…?” Gintoki asked.

“It’s not his style,” Tae said. “Yes, he may break into my house, hide under my kotatsu, steal my underwear and harass me at work, but-“

“Yes I see, taking photos of you from a distance and then leaving them on your doorstep is totally beneath him,” Gintoki finished sarcastically.

“Maybe it’s a different gorilla,” Kagura suggested.

“Don’t be stupid, there’s no way we could get away with repeating the same joke over and over again,” Gintoki said.

“I don’t see why not, it’s gotten us this far,” Shinpachi said reasonably. “Heck, it’s what made the Goons famous.”

“Stop name-dropping ancient British comedy groups, no one is going to understand those references,” Gintoki said. “Wait, why am I being the straight man here? Shinpachi, you need to get your act together.”

“Ah, forgive me,” Shinpachi said shamefacedly.

“Well, there’s only one thing for it,” Gintoki said. “Before we discount the Gorilla completely, we ought to clear him from our list of suspects. Onee-san, you’d better be aware that this is going to cost you.”

“Don’t I get a family discount?” Tae asked. “Also, you’re still older than me.”

“You’re not my sister, are you?” Gintoki asked. “Come on, if we’re clever, this can be dragged out into a multi-chapter affair.”

....

And it will be dragged out into a multi-chapter affair, given that I have no clue where I’m going with this (sorry Gin-san). But anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this. Look forward to the next one, where the Yorozuya and Tae go to the Shinsengumi to confront Kondou, and Tae gets another threatening photo (probably called Hell Hath no Fury like a Woman Scorned). Kono bangumi wa goran no suponsa no teikyou de okurishimasu.

#gintama #sakata gintoki #shimura shinpachi #kagura #shimura otae #textpost #fourth wall breaks #part one

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