#tochi thoughts

[tochimo0]

I WAS READING THE FUCKING NUTTIEST MOST GUT WRENCHING BUT I GET HOW YOU FEEL FANFICS ON AO3 AND I WAKE UP AT THE CRACK ASS OF DAWN FOR IT TO BE

D

O

W

N

Give me my delulu BACK the weed isn't ENOUGH

[beesgav]

was trying to think of something to draw for a strawpage and literally the only thought I had was "tochiro" so.

[stormruff]

ALL ABOUT MY OC:

author's notes on pink

Name actually: Nicodorium D. Akane.

current age: 22

She's Shanks adopted daugther, and is part of the Redhair Pirates. extremely loyal to Shanks.

biologically the daughter of a vice-admiral.

She was born on an island in the East Blue.

She is part of the lost group "elementals"

I created this "race", I don't know how to call this, but basically this Group, can control a basically element, water, wind, fire and land, and in each sea (East Blue, North Blue, South Blue, West Blue) there is an elemental island.

And in them the devil fruits of each element probably originated primarily. (Mera Mera no mi, Kaze Kaze no mi, Mizu Mizu no mi and Tochi Tochi no mi) and whoever is born on one of these islands can control a certain element (example: if you are born on the island of fire, you control fire and speak with spirite of fire.)

location of the elemental islands:

Water island, South Blue.

Flame island, North Blue.

Land Island:

West Blue. Wind Island: East Blue.

These islands were hunted by the world government, for helping pirates and for having a relationship with the Poneglyphs. three islands were exterminated, leaving only the one in East Blue.

The name of the island she lived on was Kazemandia. only pirates knew about the island. That's why the world government sent Akane's parents to infiltrate the island for six years. Akane was born on this island, so she is an elemental. She had a lot of potential, and from the moment she learned to speak she heard the voice of the wind. she learned archery from her parents and to play the flute from the natives.

At the time, her parents were navy captains under orders from Admiral Sengoku. when the time was right they issued the Buster Call. Several vice admirals were called, including, at the time, Vice Admiral Kizaru.

Akane fled the village, going to the coast and hiding among the rocks, she thought her parents had died.

She looked through the crack at a man dressed in a navy robe, along with two other marines.

Her parents.

They went to the navy ship, and a yellow light appeared, decimating the entire village.

Luckily, the place she hid was not hit, but she could see the island in flames, her parents kill the people who welcomed them. You didn't move for three days straight. She was hungry, thirsty, with heatstroke, she will die in some days. When she feels a cold hand on your forehead and nothing after this... she was rescued for Shanks and his crew, As he already been in the Pirate King's ship, he knows all about that island, as Gol D. Roger had already been in Kazemandia, years ago.

Heyy I"m gonna make a post telling this story 'bout Akane meeting the red Haired pirates and Uta <333333

Her personality:

She is so educated (Shanks teach her omgg) even with the enemies, in marine she reffers to him based in his patent (Adimiral Aokiji, Fleet Adimiral Sengoku/Akainu, Vice Adimiral Garp) always when she talked, the only people she's dirrespect is her biological father, Kizaru and Teach.

She absolutely loves greeted fish (especialy if it was made by Lucky Roux)

She calls Red Haired pirates officals to Uncles (Uncle Yasopp, Uncle Beck, Uncle Hongo) except Monster.

She calls Rayleigh and Shakky like this.

She has three types of haki, but the most advanced is observation haki. (she's a shooter, Yasopp's apprentice, omggg)

Despite being super polite, she has very short patience. (Shanks sees Buggy in her)

she has a pet eagle. A female. her name is Komodoro.

she and Monster fight A LOT, and when it's not Akane who's fighting with him, it's Komodoro.

She is a very powerful archer, she uses Haki in the post-timeskip to coat her arrows but in the pre-timeskip she had arrows coated in Kairoseki.

One of her weapons (in addition to the bow) is a transverse flute, and she is a great flutist, with the flute she can create super strong wind waves, and shape them however she wants.

She can imitate the power of almost all paramecia-type Devil Fruits (almost like Katakuri does with his Devil Fruit, ).

She learns very quickly, in the middle of a battle, for example, she can imitate an attack in a matter of seconds. (she learned how to use Kamusari, the move originating from Gol D. Roger that Shanks used to stop Kid's attack)

I'm going to release a one-shot of her with Ace. I don't know when but I'll do it.

[smilingperformer]

Oh I highly recommend reading this interview translation on Serebii forums, it's got some really good insight on Kabu's role and how the VA, Hiroki Tochi, came to understand the role.

Esp. this bit has me wheezing aksfjhfhsj.

Q: Was there anything you found especially important or were especially attentive of when playing the character in order to get this appeal across to the audience, or was there anything the sound director told you that left a particular impression on you? And do you feel any of this is unique to Pokémon? Tochi: One thing that's very unique to Pokémon characters is the way they call out the name of moves. As I said earlier, I initially thought Kabu was supposed to be a really stern person, and since he is so skilled as a Pokémon Trainer he's able to serve as a Gym Leader, I figured he should sound really intense and forceful when he instructs his Partner Pokémon to use moves. However, when I tried playing him like that in the initial test recording, the sound director went "Kabu isn't supposed to be a professional killer, you know..." and the entire room broke out in laughter. Apparently I had gone way overboard (laughs).

[sagerodbomb-n-co]

Hey! I've been seeing your blog around (since you're in a similar space as someone I follow) and I've been pretty interested! I'm a magician with some shapeshifting magic that I like to use to learn and experience what it's like to be different species than my normal one (cat), cause a LOT of them are really cool.

Main question: What's it like to be a bomb? Are there, like, any dangers to it? Conversely, what are some cool things about it? Really interested to hear; if it sounds nice, I may consider giving it a go!

- Max

(OC owned by @sweetaplle, also the person i've seen you around with is kidnaps-you cause my gimmick blog @bad-gimmick-thief is one of the people living there)

Hey Hey! Well life as a bomb is really cool I'd say, Not really many dangers, explosion isn't exactly a risk, Mostly we're unharmed and it takes a LOT of instability to make it actually hurt or even lethal. Other than that, Its mainly upsides, If youre fine with having four fingers and people being kinda unnerved when you first meet them

Who would have thought, people are unnerved when you're a sentient explosive

In terms of benefits... The basic stuff is that you're (usually) metallic, Able to survive without oxygen (Like underwater and such), and of course you theres gimmicks with each kind of bombfolk you are.

We've got Cartoon bombs, Like myself, Mines like Umi and Tochi, Grenades like Ant and Maira, And other miscellaneous explosives like Molly, who is a molotov. Each comes with its own gimmick, I have some cartoon logic applied to me, Umi and Tochi being sea and landmines are proficient with water and land respectively, Mai being a flashbang lets out a flash when startled, Molly, Being made of glass, can repair herself passively and is translucent

But, Hey, Its up to you, I'm always down to have some more bombfolk around, Just Be sure to express yourself in your form though! If its an explosive a bombfolk can form from it, So don't copy one of us directly if your heart speaks more to a different kind of explosive!

[shadynightly]

2, 9, 14, and 20 for end of year asks!

2. Album of the year?

That's definitely a tie between Monarch of Monsters by Vylet pony and ABSOLUTE HEARTBREAK by khai dreams! Monarch of Monsters came out last month and I had to listen through 2 times to truly vibe with it all but my god it's so incredibly raw and felt to intense to listen through with all the context of the last half of the album. Highly recommend and my favorite track would have to either Pest or Survivor's Guilt but I love almost every single song. ABSOLUTE HEARTBREAK was an album I picked up last year and truly listened through this year and every song on it is incredibly catchy and makes me think of my OC Roxanne, especially since i've gotten back into Final Fantasy 14 this past month or so. Favorite track would be Rats! I have a lot of music thoughts now that I realize it :P 9. Best month for you this year? Definitely October! OC-tober, finally settling in to my house after the move, my birthday and halloween! Overall a really nice time for me and I had a lot of fun! 14. Favorite book you read this year? Beasts Made of Night by Tochi Onyebuchi!! It has such interesting world building and a fascinating magic system I was enthralled! Highly recommend it :D 20. What's something you learned this year? Hmm, I had to think on this one for a bit but I learned more about myself through my OCs and how long I've had them. I have memory issues and have a hard time recalling some parts of my life but some of my OCs were made during those parts of my life. So it feels like I'm learning more through them about the person I was. It's interesting!

[gutsrighteye]

"Dear Bri, I'm not great at this sort of thing but here goes nothing: This year will mark our sixth year together and in my mind this will be the six happiest years of my entire life. You are special because you somehow manage to make any situation a great time. You are my best friend, my love and the single most important part of my life. I am going to dedicate my life to keeping you happy, loved, and content. Even if that means scratching your back for 30 minutes straight.

I hope you see the small tokens of my appreciation for you and know that I would give you much more if possible. But also keep in mind that these material things don't come close to how I really feel, I just thought that you would appreciate them teehee.

I write this and with Tochi next to me I feel almost like we're at the point where we need a family of our own. I think that will happen sooner than you think. Let's continue to spend our time together til we look like the old people emojis.

Love, Josh P.S. I wrote this on the moleskin you got me."

Valentine love letter from my love to me. I quite literally cannot stop crying.

[mikurulucky]

Welp. I made a playlist for my nerdy blorbo! It might be updated periodically, but here's what I got so far!

We got some synthwave, some songs Tochi would sing in a karaoke box, and some that I thought kinda fit his vibe. ^w^

｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡ Soul of the Arcadia [currently has 29 songs, may add to it later] ｡☆✼★━━━━━━━━━━━━★✼☆｡

[acebirdofprey]

Time to rewatch star wars.

I will be writing down my thoughts as I go along. First up:

I love the classic yellow writing into a shot of a planet, the planet the main character is on.

R2-D2 and C3-PO who doesn't love them.

The Orgianl corriodor secne, I love it.

VADER!!!!!!

Secret message, hell yeah.

Also Princess Leia - how I didn't know I was gay before I have no idea she always was my favourite.

I love how Leia is seen weak at first until towards the middle of the film.

'Fowl stench'

'you are a traitor and part of the rebel allience. TAKE HER AWAY!' One of my favourite lines.

Going sepreate ways, a bad idea.

That's no transport

'Look sir a droid' - dang they are idiots.

LUKE! My tattoine boy!

I love Lukes hair in ANH. He should have kept it how it is. Din wouls have gone feral.

Do you think Owen would remeber 3PO or not. He would have gone 'Fuck not his droid again'.

'I was going to tochie station to pick up some power converters' - and you never will.

R2 is a murder now.

'Help me Obi-wan Kenobi. You're my ownly hope.' - Classic, amazing, beatuiful - That one was directed to leia.

Owen realy be like 'who is this obi-wan? An old drug dealer like your father.' And Luke belived him.

Look at the sun's Luke. That's right look staright into them. I LOVE THAT SHOT.

R2-D2 proffesional of running away into danger.

Luke now is not the time to sleep.

What a powerful man. Waving his arms in the air like he just doesn't care.

I would have triped down that hill.

The origanl Hello There.

'Of course I know him he's me.'

C3-PO is dramatic.

THE CLONE WARS - where you meet your husband Obi-wan. He's probely out shopping right now.

THE LIGHTSABER!!!!!!!!

Luke you idoit don't look at it like that, you may acidently sab your eye out.

It is in everyone Luke. That's what the force is/

Served you mean severd his limbs.

LUKE SHE IS YOUR SISTER!!!!!

Yes go with him Luke don't go home, it will be the begining of a long line of trauma and I don't want that for my sunshine boy.

bye bye senate

Don't make fun of your boss.

MANIPUATION.

NO LUKE DON'T GO HOME.

MY SUNSHINE BOY. MY SWEET PRECIOUS BOY. I'M SORRY YOU HAD TO SEE THAT.

'These are't the driods you're looking for'

CHEWIEE

Gambling is not good for my sunshine boy.

Han shot first.

Yeah R2 watch your language.

Spy's are everywhere.

Jaba in CGI!! I have the special editions on DVD.

Han is in dedt and will be for a while.

BOBA FETT! BOBA FETT! BOBA FETT! BOBA FETT!

Blast them.

What a peice of junk

dramatic music that turns into a melody.

'Recognised your foal stech when I was brought on board' reminds me of hannibal when he insultes Will's colone.

DANTOOINE!!!!!!!

Bail is obvisoly still alive with Fox and Breha as the heads of the allience.

Oldman thinks friend is dead when he is really off planet with wife banging the oldman's husbands brother who is thought to be dead.

I love Han and his sas.

Obi-wan is probely laughing because Han has the force not luck

Classic Jedi traning.

I'm suprised there is no bodies floating around in the space.

'That's no moon.'

Very bad. I would think so.

Didn't you fight in two wars mr 'alternatives to fighting'

FACT: The meinelimun falcon was built not far from where my mum grew up.

That is a slow lift.

Vader is agitaed - it's funny to see the helemet move this his head but nothing else it sort of boops around.

FACT: David Prowse who is the body of darth vader lived a 20 minute drive from where I live.

Well those compartments were convient.

Han and Luke could have been making out down there - just saying.

On star tours when the driod is going through baggage in the queue, it says TK-421 why aren't you at your post.

Wookies they look cuddly but turns out they are dangerous.

Money, money, money - that is all Han can think about.

Do you think Obi-wan had to learn to sow to get the prefect fiting jedi robes?

I think the mouse droids are cute.

My sunshine boy can't see a thing.

'How are you?' - That whole bit is why I love Han in the origianl trilogoy, Luke is still my favourite.

'Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?'

'I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you.' - Look at this cinimon role!!!! My sunshine boy has seen to much darkness in the world.

Leia is a badass and I love her.

Trach compactor.

LUKE!!!!

It's not that deep is it.

Tell your number to the world - you may need to change it after.

That Poor trooper who hit his head.

Their not dying.

big walking carpet out of my way

I would have fallen off that, that doesn't mean Obi-wan has skill. I'm just very clumsy.

Luke's hair is perfect again and he just happened to bring his clothes with him.

yes spilt up that's always a great plan.

Of course you conviently have a graplaing hook.

Luke is so sweet throught the whole trilogy but is pure cinimon role in ANH.

The classic lightsaber fight.

He just disapreaed.

Vader is probely like WTF where did he go?

'BEN'

RUN LUKE! RUN MY PRECIOUS SUNSHINE BOY!

it's like space invaders with the guns.

That small ship can be a big danger.

Thank you Mads Mikkleson for that weakness.

Should be easy if you have the force and grew up on Tattoine.

Why don't the empire just use hyperspace to get to the rebal base?

I think Luke really considered leaving with Han but decided not to becuase he wanted to help everyone.

Leia is like 'the guy we both like is an idiot'

Luke can suddenly understand binary.

Yavin IV is my dream planet to live on, it's green and has loads of history.

RED 5 - it's the best of course.

Luke is like are you sure?

Uncle Kenobi to the rescue.

Here comes vader.

Tarkin is in denial - I would be gatting out of there if I could.

Vader is picking them off quite quickly.

Luke in the trench run on his own.

'Use the force Luke.'

That music is perfection.

I love the whole score of the movie.

R2!!

This is cutting it close Luke.

Han to the rescue!

Ping Pong with Vader's ship.

What a great shot.

And in the nick of time as well.

Luke honey, my sunshine boy, your twink is showing.

The hug between all 3 of them.

R2 will be fine.

Big event.

Luke is in Han's clothes.

I loev the jacket but it is quite big on my boy, it makes him even cuter.

Where is Luke's briad.

R2 is all shinny.

Chewie is probely complaining about not having a medal.

I love this star wars 9/10.

ESB will be the next on.

Let me know if you want to be tagged when I bring these out.

[daikaiju-chaos]

So, no (proper) reference sheet for her, yet. Originally I made her for an art challenge between a friend and I, and then I thought over her design a bit before suddenly coming up with ideas for her to be a side character.

Tochi Noko, a tubby tsuchinoko lamia. Yes, she can double jump (somehow).

[tochimo0]

I just realized how ballistic I go for men .... But like very specific men ..... Huh. Hmmmmmmmmmm

[tumblasha]

what's in a name?

having thoughts about my name and its variations, so i'm gonna compile a list of all my names throughout the years~ dasha: my legal name, shoutout to my parents for searching "cool names" on the internet back in 2002 dash: first given to me by my one-sided high school sapphic crush / bff, now has become my "internet name" and a part of the "dash n ash" duo w one of my irls :) ash: first "internet name" i gave myself, now is a stereotypical internet trans youth name (foreshadowing for whatever my gender is now) alex, xan, xander: following "ash" as "internet names" i gave myself (also stereotypical trans names :cry:) but based on my middle name (alexandra) dashi, duwushi: given to me by my next 5E, cute but give me flashbacks to Creepy Super Senior that i used to talk to as a frosh lol, no bad flashbacks when K calls me by them tho <3 dashita: "dasha" + spanish diminutive "-ita", given to me by older family members. my grandparents still call me this :,) tochi: what my dad calls me, googled it and apparently it's also an animal similar to an armadillo?? likely random noises dashus: what my mom calls me, for sure just random noises dosh: basically how my name is pronounced in english but without the second "a", using an "o" in the spelling bc this is how my hs friends w a lighter southern accent would pronounce it daasha: every time a schoolteacher in south louisiana (sola) called out my name they always dragged out that nasal "a" delilah: given to me by the old cellist harry in the sola community orchestra, is endearing to me but i won't think too much about it in case it's problematic dashac: pronounced "duh-SHACK", given to me by the boy i was crushing on senior yr of hs. i was filling out the college email form during class and he just kept repeating it. alternate universe where i'm not a simp and dasha is my kerb... -a: current twitter display name, based on the girlies named "la-a" (pronounced "ladasha") from my hometown in sola

[salamanderinspace]

Sci fi tbr

Here's my sci fi tbr so far. This is the genre I'm most likely to look at first. Pretty broad range of stuff here though.

Falling in Love with Hominids - Nalo Hopkinson (science fiction, lgbt, short stories) Cats in Space (and Other Places) edited by Bill Fawcett Dawn by Octavia butler (tentacles?) The Planet Savers - Marion Zimmer Bradley (science fiction) Ursula K. Leguin - Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, The Word for World is Forest, Four Ways to Forgiveness Artemis - Andy Weir (sci fi, author of The Martian) Audrey Niffeneger - The Time Traveler's Wife (SFF adjacent) Walk to the End of the World - Suzy Mckee Charnas (feminist) Orbital by Samantha Harvey Rosewater - Tade Thompson On the Edge of Gone - Corinne Duyvis (ya, lgbt, autism) Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg (science fiction) Sam J. miller - Blackfish City (lgbt) Fred hoyle the black cloud - classic sci fi The Sparrow (1996) by Mary Doria Russell Emily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven (SFF adjacent) Kazuo Ishiguro - The Buried Giant (SFF adjacent) Nine Princes in Amber (The Chronicles of Amber #1) - Roger Zelazny E. Saxey - lost in the archives (short stories) Delirium (Delirium #1) - Lauren Oliver (sci fi, romance, YA) Grass - Sheri Tepper dark matter - blake crouch Partials (Partials Sequence #1) - Dan Wells (ya sci fi) Unwind - Neil Shusterman (YA dystopia, really good premise) Warm Worlds and Otherwise - James Tiptree Jr., Robert Silverberg (science fiction) Titan (Gaea Trilogy #1) - John Varley (sci fi) Wanderers - Chuck Wendig The Seep - Chana Porter (science fiction, lgbt) Mandelbrot the Magnifficent - Liz Ziemska (historical, literary) Sorry Please Thank You - Charles Yu (sci fi, short stories) Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner (science fiction) Starfish (Rifters #1) - Peter Watts (sci fi) Tell the Machine Goodnight - Katie Willaims (novel, thoughtful sci fi) Blackout (All Clear #1) - Connie Willis (sci fi) A Dream of Wessex - Christopher Priest (science fiction) The End of the Ocean (Klimakvartetten #2) - Maja Lunde (science fiction) Vessel - Lisa Nichols (hard sci fi, thriller) Alien Sex (sci fi anthology) - Ellen Datlow Shattered Minds - Laura Lam (lgbt sci fi) Riot Baby - Tochi Onyebuchi (science fiction) Vagabonds - Hao Jingfang, Ken Liu (science fiction) The Lightest Object in the Universe - Kimi Eiselle The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson (Three Californias Trilogy, dystopian sci fi) Empire Star - Samuel R. Delany (science fiction) John Chu - the water that falls on you from nowhere (a short story, LGBT) How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse - k. Eason More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera (ya lgbt) Suicide Club - Rachel Heng (science fiction) The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe - Kij Johnson (horror) Bone dance - Emma Bull (&) The Farm - Joanne Ramos (&) K.M. Szpara - docile (LGBT, romance, &) The Businessman - Thomas Disch (humor) 334 - Thomas M. Disch Salvation Day - Kali Wallace The Abyss Surrounds Us - Emily Skrutskie (ya lgbt) Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie The weird : a compendium of strange and dark stories - edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (short stories) Where You Linger & Other Stories - Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam - (short stories, some horror)

[mykimi2]

改めて考えながらとちあいか🍓を食べてみた。身がしっかりしてて甘さとジューシイさはそこまでなくても酸味が少ないのが好みらしい。とちあいか🍓美味しい😋

I thought about it again and tried the tochi-aika🍓.

[thequietmanno1]

TheLreads, Vigilantes ch 102, Replies Part 1

1) “This week was a bit too tiresome, getting back to work and I had to handle all on my own as my usual crew was out in other sites, so I didn’t had a chance to properly liveblog, and the free time I had I mostly read that goddamn 100 girlfriends manga. I don’t have regrets but that’s not the point here.”- This is also known as “the Manga Hole effect”. Once you enter the rabbit hole, you find all your free time is dedicated to it. And like a warren, there’s multiple different holes you can find that have a chance of sucking you in for days. 2) “Oh so there’s Midnight, she’s inside the hospital rather than in the front lines where we could be using her right now. She’s protecting Pop personally, and she better be, because here he comes…”- If we only have one actual pro hero on site, it’s best to have them right next to the priority target,, though how effective Midnight’s gas would be against Nomura is a toss-up. On the one hand, as his powers rely on oxygen intake during a rest period, filling a room with gas is a guaranteed counter, but if he’s fast enough to move through the fumes without taking a breath, then it’s useless. Basically, it comes down to others to force him back whilst she creates a disadvantageous environment for him. (Vigilantes ch 101) 3) “Eyyyy- look at that, McBee showed up to the party for real? What a surprise? And even more reasons for Midnight to be on the frontlines throwing her sleep gas around, but, sure, let us wait and see.”-Midnight’s exactly where she needs to be to best save Pop at a moment’s notice- inside a confined room where her sleeping gas is most effective- and also because Nomura’s speed means that just because he’s in front of the Hospital now, he won’t be in the next 5 seconds from their perspective.

4) “McBee why do you being dramatic and giving a sign to them with your hand? You can control them telepathically, can’t you? You really can’t help not being unnecessarily extra even when there’s no one watching, can you?”- I mean, he does have an audience of Tochi, Rapt and the miscellaneous police officers in the outside of the building, but even that’s just an excuse. Nomura here to put on a performance, and unlike his action hero script, this time he’s playing a horror movie monster on a rampage. 5) “McBee are you seriously leaving your goddamn army waiting outside rather than taking them with you? Honestly, sometimes I understand why you never won a single match so far.”- Not only would they slow him down inside the cramped, tight rooms of the hospital, but they also deter anybody else from entering lest they explode, as well as acting as sentries warning him out outside interference from the entrance. Not to mention, he also needs to move fast before more heroes from the outside come in to investigate the blackout and run the risk of ruining the operation. 6) “You say that like there’s even a problem. To McBee those are only disposable pawns, and besides, if they bring the hospital down on top of Pop then that takes care of their problem.”- True, but it’s not a guarantee that collapsing the building will kill her, and it’d bring more attention down on Nomura is there’s multiple casualties in a terrorist bombing as opposed to one. Not to mention this is first and foremost, a challenge to Nomura alone to see how he performs in this circumstance.

7) “Huh… Alright, now that I can understand, thank you for the explanation O'Clock Tulpa of emotional support. Still, it’s not like McBee even has that much brainpower normally anyway, we’ve seen it first hand.”- Nomura needed to spare as much of his limited RAM processing power as possible for this phase of the mission.

8) “how many fucking phases you even get my man”- As many as he thought sounded cool for the operation. Koichi’s interference is probably gonna turn this in something like  “Phase 5.3” as we go steadily off-script. 9) “Oh, look, it’s Phelps and the blue boy group, lovely, like they can even do something here besides slowly him down for half a second.”- Actually, that’s Soga and Koichi’s job, blunting the efficiency of his overclock speed so he can’t dodge well enough when Phelps goes for the kneecapping. 10) “Hopefully the rubber bullets manage to hit their target, ey Phelps?”- It’s an all-lead buffet this time. Even comes with an extra portion of machine-gun ammo.

11) “Soga. You can see by the spiked hair of bastardness, it is soga.

So, someone managed to find a sniper rifle among Knuckles’ toys it seems”- That, or if we wanna get even more hypocritical, Phelps loaned Soga a machine gun from the police. We’ve seen the super-powers at work in ordinary folks, I don’t doubt the police with weak Quirks make up for it with bigger firepower. 12) “How dare you offend the name of the greatest officer that ever existed, Puto? I’ll let you know that he’ll cut his salary in protest for this”- I do kinda wish he’d had our own Gumshoe, somebody who was willing to work with “the enemy” in order to achieve a greater good and wasn’t exactly the brightest around, making it easier for the vigilantes to gain aid from him even when under orders not to do so. 13) “No Soga goddammit you’re just delaying the inevitable just let us see McBee McDying already”- This is the closest we’re getting to Izuku’s split-second strategizing mid-fight, so we’ll have to make do with it. 14) ““loves to play dress-up”

lol. lmao even”- Soga calls em like he sees em.

15) “No you ain’t sorry, but keep going, I want to see what the genius plan is”- “Shoot him until he stops moving”. That’s it, that’s the plan. 16) “Snipe? with a sub-machine gun like that from such a distance? Yeah sure Phelps, it’s not like you have training with guns or something”- Doesn’t need to if all Soga’s aiming for it so be a noisy distraction. That said, the fact that he was able to aim the bullets roughly around the same corridor area from across the street indicates that Soga has had some experience with ballistics, presumably self-taught with Knuckle’s arsenal. 17) "Look phelps, I think that activating his quirk isn’t the best of ideas, considering that he can kill all of you waaaaay before he needs to stop to recharge

A shot at his head would at least make him waste some time regenerating, that would give you a better chance.”- All they need to do is get him to activate his speed perception from the initial barrage- then comes Koichi’s turn to lay on an additional burst of firepower when Nomura’s not expecting it and running out of time to keep his speed up. Furthermore, the bullets are all concentrated in the hallway between both parties, so Nomura would have to unnecessarily risk himself dodging the shots to close the distance when he can just arrogantly wait the suppression fire out – which is exactly what they were counting on him to do 18) “…

You guys are acting so stupidly while trying to play by the rules that I’m starting to root for McBee here.”- There is something to be said for Knuckle’s utter disregard of the rulebook when it came to getting hero work done. Although, from what I gather, if Soga thought he was a good enough shot to hit Nomura, he’d go for it, so it’s still just mainly Phelps who wants to avoid getting the civilian’s hands dirty.

19) “Yeah Soga I’m pretty sure you’re gonna hit someone doing that. Unless that was part of your plan all along… sneaky bastard”- We can plausibly say that anybody Soga hits here could be filed under ”it was an accident”, police or villain alike.

(Vigilantes ch 54)

20) “Afterwards we’ll need to sit down and talk a little bit about being laxer with people that act like Vigilantes, because I’d say that using personal connections with pro heroes would constitute a big no-no, since you had no way to know if he would be available or not. He could’ve been saving other people Phelps, would’ve you asked him to let them die so your sister would live? Is that it Phelps? Is that it? Interesting Phelps… very interesting…”-Well, I guess him somewhat accepting Soga’s aid in fighting off No:6 here is probably due to him realising he needs to loosen up his standards a little to see justice done this night, though it’s a little ironic that he ended up loosening his standards with Soga, of all people. 

(Vigilantes ch 95)

21) “Oh… you…

Yeah, I forgot you were also here. Still guarding the front door, totally not acting like vigilantes? 

Also, cooperating with the authorities? They are civilians Midnight, that intel he mentioned is all he can do, wouldn’t want them to, you know, act like vigilantes.”- Well, on the one hand, Soga just opened fire with a machine gun straight into a hospital, but on the other, he did so with Phelps’ blessing, so does that still count as Vigilante activity, or do we file it underneath “cooperating with the authorities”?

(Vigilantes ch 101) 22) “Hope those aren’t rubber bullets you’re shooting.

I still haven’t let go of that one.”- As we can see in slo-mo, this time Phelps very decisively didn’t come packing non-lethal rounds in defence of the hospital.

23) “Hopefully you know what you’re doing Phelps. Rhetorical question, I know you don’t know.”- Ok, but does Nomuraknow that Phelps doesn’t know what he’s doing? Perhaps it’s like to make like Nick, and bluff our way to victory. @thelreads

[tigger8900]

Goliath, by Tochi Onyebuchi

⭐⭐⭐⭐

It's just a few short decades from now and humanity has moved on from Earth to the stars, leaving those without the means to pick up the pieces planetside. Even as those with privilege begin to colonize space, the people left behind — largely Black and brown — defy their poisoned environment and crumbling infrastructure, banding together to create safe havens. And then the colonists, those who'd once fled, began to return, seeking new experiences and a return to authentic living back on Earth. Featuring an ensemble cast, this novel seeks to explore not just the Earth's demise, but also the story of what comes next…and who stands to inherit that future.

I've often said that speculative fiction is very much of the time it's written. Accordingly, this novel, begun in the mid-2010s and published in early 2022, is very much of our times. And yes, it is very political. How could it not be, with themes including eco crises, mass incarceration, white supremacy, class and racial privilege, healthcare inequality, police brutality, white flight, and gentrification? The job of good speculative fiction is to use a fictional narrative to illuminate something of our own time and place, and in that regard this book is stellar.

The book's biggest strength — its varied cast of characters, painting a picture of the future through several distinct narratives — unfortunately also contributes to its biggest weakness. This is due to the way the story is told, with the narratives fragmented and presented non-linearly. While I believe my sense of the whole is complete, or near enough, I'd honestly struggle to tell you, start to finish, what precisely befell each character in the story. There's nothing quite like seeing a character pop up in a scene and having to pause, confused, and think to yourself: "I thought he was dead by now!" I'm not sure that reading it again would help. I think I'd likely have to break out the index cards and start laying the plot out down the hallway to make complete sense of it. Honestly, some kind of dates on the sections would have helped, but that would have ruined the near-future feel of the disaster so I understand why the author left them out.

I also have to mention that this book frequently calls upon Christian themes, ones that go beyond the David and Goliath reference. It's not terribly surprising, given the historical role of spiritual leaders in community organizing, but based on what blurb you read it's easy to get caught off guard. I will say that the book was never preachy, so this is certainly the better kind of Christian-inspired fiction, but if you're someone who avoids such references for whatever reason you might want to give this title a pass.

On a similar note, there's something about the gay couple in this story that gave me pause. Specifically, it's that the only gay couples are among the colonizers. All of the people who'd been left behind on Earth were depicted, as far as I could tell, pursuing exclusively cis-het relationships. I know I'm prone to paranoid reading when Christianity and queerness meet, so I've spent a fair bit of time turning this over in my mind before I sat down to write this, to try to be as fair as possible about a book that, overall, I enjoyed. Ultimately, I don't see any evidence that the author was attempting to make a point by writing it this way. I'm not mad about it. But that doesn't mean that this doesn't have the potential to be disturbing to some readers, so I wanted to mention it.

Last, but not least…do the horses die? Mild spoilers ahead, stop reading now if you don't want! A handful of wild horses are rescued and adopted as community livestock. These horses later die in a stable fire. Their demise is not narrated in detail, but it's made clear that they don't survive.