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mypoisonedvine · 4 years ago

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Love, Theoretically | Sebastian Stan x reader (Chapter 4)

(Chapter 1) (Chapter 2) (Chapter 3)

series summary: having lost your husband, sister, and best friend all to the same extramarital affair, you ran away to a secluded villa in the Hungarian countryside to write and get a little time away from the life you’d left behind. you were only looking for peace and perhaps some inspiration for your novel, but instead you found an unlikely connection with the immigrant repairman– even though the two of you don’t speak the same language.

word count: 2.5k

warnings: some awkwardness, and almost-nudity, and a sex scene but not the kind you’re expecting (lol) just fluff y’all!

moodboard and inspiration credit to @evnscvll

Mrs. Alberti asking you for the rent made you realize a month had passed. You couldn’t tell if it had gone by quickly or slowly; a little of both, perhaps.

You pulled the finished page from your typewriter and placed it in the stack. You were finally done with the first chapter; pretty good for a month of time to work, incredible for how distracted you’d been. Still, as you flipped through the pages you’d worked on, you appreciated that this was simply the very beginning of a very early draft. You realized you should probably write the ending next, as that was usually how you handled a mystery like this, but you were compelled to try a different method this time and see if you could get the first draft done chronologically. You got the sense that this story wasn’t going to end the way you’d thought it would when you’d started it...

Your evening jog took a new path this time, one which happened to run right past the smaller cottage that Mrs. Alberti inhabited. You noticed her windows were open— as they should be on a day as nice as this— and for a second you glanced and saw someone inside…

Wait, is that… Arnold Schwarzenegger?

With a chuckle, you realized that you were seeing the TV. As you ran further ahead, the angle changed to show it was Sebastian sitting on the end of her bed and watching it. She’d mentioned that she was going out for groceries today… was he just hanging out in there to get some TV time, or was he taking a break from something he’d been doing for her?

This pressing question needed answers ASAP. The only solution now was to go inside and talk to him, of course.

His eyes stayed glued on the screen even as you stepped into the house and pushed open the creaky old door to the bedroom. Seeing the TV again, you realized that this wasn’t just any old Arnold Schwarzenegger movie— it was the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

“Are you watching Terminator?” you asked with incredulous joy, and he finally turned around.

“Da!” he beamed. “Terminatorul,” he explained, pointing to the television. “Ma voi intoarce,” he mimicked in a deep voice.

“I’ll be back!” you translated as you realized he was quoting the most iconic line, sitting down next to him on the foot of the bed and watching the movie as well.

It was dubbed in Romanian— technically you couldn’t tell that it was Romanian just by hearing it, but you could tell based on how entranced Sebastian was by it; he must’ve understood what was going on. The best part was that you understood it too, based mainly on context clues and your vague memory of the movie. Being able to share something with him was unexpectedly gratifying.

He was over halfway in, and you were trying to figure out what was going on now; this scene was all a conversation, so it was all lost on you. Sarah Connor and what’s-his-face talking about something, presumably about how her son was the future leader of the resistance against the machines. You realized that this was a sort of strange movie. And why was the guy shirtless for seemingly no reason? No wonder Sebastian likes this movie, this guy must be his role model, you thought as you chuckled to yourself.

Okay, they weren’t talking anymore… they were kissing. That’s fine— good for them right? It’s not weird to watch this right next to Sebastian… although it is weird that they’re still kissing...

Oh god. This movie has a sex scene? Why didn’t you remember this part?

You cleared your throat and avoided looking at him. But that just meant you were staring down the screen, and didn’t that make it seem like you were really into Linda Hamilton getting sensually railed? So you glanced to him to break the tension and nope, that definitely made it worse as you both suddenly made eye contact and then instantly looked away. Your heart was racing for no particularly good reason, and your palms were all sweaty— just in time for his hand to brush against yours. You didn’t want to jerk away for fear of seeming flighty. Nothing wrong with the side of his hand touching yours, right?

Well, a lot of things were wrong with it, specifically the way that it was making your breaths short and the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, but you didn’t want him to know any of that so you stayed still.

It seemed to go on forever, and it would’ve been laughably cheesy if you were with anyone else. Normally, you had no trouble at all laughing with Sebastian, but this was different.

“Această parte este... interesantă…” Sebastian mumbled.

“I didn’t realize it was going to go on this long,” you replied, scratching the back of your neck. “It’s probably good to break the silen— oh shit, that’s a boob!” you gasped. “They can show this on TV?!”

Sebastian laughed a bit, apparently noticing how your change in tone conveniently coincided with the nip-slip.

Just a few more minutes of excruciating awkwardness and it was over; you both let out a not-so-subtle sigh of relief when it ended.

“I thought it would never end,” you chuckled nervously.

“Nu fi gelos, ea nu este nimic în comparație cu tine,” he replied, still looking at you even though you were looking anywhere but back at him. You weren’t sure you’d ever be able to look him in the eye again after that— not that it had ever been easy for you. But now that he was staring at you it felt even weirder to not look back. So you did, just for a second, only to be startled by the sound of the bedroom door opening.

You jumped up from the bed, and Sebastian turned as well.

“Oh!” Mrs. Alberti gasped. “I didn’t expect to see… both of you in here.”

“Ți-am răsturnat salteaua și ți-am schimbat așternutul,” Sebastian offered as he jumped up, motioning to the bed quickly. What could he possibly mean by that?

“We were just watching some TV,” you explained.

“Uh huh,” Mrs. Alberti smiled. “Well, Sebastian, that’ll be all, thank you,” she dismissed him with a smile and a little bow.

“Mulțumesc. Bună seara,” Sebastian bowed in return, nodding at you before scurrying out of the room. You started to leave as well, but Mrs. Alberti stopped you with a hand on your shoulder.

“Sweetheart, were you two really just watching TV?” she asked quietly, eyebrow raised in question.

“Um, yeah…” you replied, confused.

“Then why did you both jump up like I was interrupting something important? Seriously, I was concerned you were in the middle of ruining the sheets he’d just put on for me.”

You choked but broke into an awkward grin. “Uh, I’m not sure. I guess you just startled us.”

“Yes, well, it’s my room, so you maybe shouldn’t be so surprised when I show up there next time. You two have the whole house to yourselves, not sure why you had to come all the way over here—”

“Mrs. Alberti, really, it’s not like that,” you assured.

She squinted as she leaned in closer, examining your face. With her incredibly short stature, she had to pull you down towards her to get a better look. “Hmph,” she frowned suddenly, “I don’t think you’re lying. Honestly? I sort of wish you were.”

“Wh— why?” you stammered.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, “I suppose I thought you two would make a handsome couple.”

“Yeah, well, he’d be doing most of the heavy lifting in that department,” you chuckled.

“You speak poorly of yourself too often,” she frowned again, slapping you on the shoulder. “You’re perfectly deserving of someone like Sebastian.”

“Well, that’s sort of irrelevant, isn’t it? We don’t even speak the same language,” you reminded her firmly.

“Did you and your ex-husband speak the same language?”

You stopped, straightening up and looking back at her with wide eyes.

“I’m old,” she explained with a glimmer in her eye, “but I’m not stupid. And I’m sorry that you’re going through that.”

“Um, thank you,” you mumbled, still shell shocked from her deduction and from hearing someone refer to your husband as your ex-husband for the first time. You figured you should get into that habit soon, but it was difficult to imagine. Even as much as you’d loved being here so far, part of you imagined that it was just a vacation, and soon you’d go home and go back to the life you’d had. Of course you would go back home someday, it wasn’t like you were moving to the Hungarian countryside, but the home you’d be going back to was going to be entirely unrecognizable to you. “And, to answer your question,” you continued, “of course my hu— ex-husband spoke English…”

Mrs. Alberti laughed, but in a sad way. It was the saddest you’d seen her since you’d arrived, even more than when she’d told you about Mr. Alberti’s passing. “Sweetheart,” she sighed, “obviously you both spoke English. But I don’t think you spoke the same language at all.”

You furrowed your brows as you pondered that. You’d known what she meant the first time she said it, but you hadn’t allowed yourself to accept it. Mostly because it made you immediately realize that she was right about your marriage. If only she’d thought to tell you before it had ended the way it did.

“Goodnight,” she smiled, stepping past you as you left her room, and her house, and stepped into the night.

You usually worked in your room, but it was feeling a little extra musty this morning so you decided to haul your typewriter to the lakeside and work in the sunshine and fresh air. You could’ve asked Sebastian to lift it for you, but frankly, you'd been hoping to avoid Sebastian as he had been the biggest barrier to your writing progress so far. And yet, with your luck, of course he would appear— and not to garden or hammer or do anything like that, but simply to bring you coffee.

"Cafea," he smiled as he offered you the mug.

You accepted it with a smile of your own, although you wondered if he could tell you were nervous. "Thank you—”

You were cut off by him lifting your empty mug from this morning, which had been holding down all of your completed pages. The wind inconveniently picked up at that moment, and instantly the pages were swept into the air and right towards the lake.

"Shit!" you yelped as you lept up, pushing him aside to run to the pier. Still, you couldn't even get close to catching any of them, and watched helplessly as they fell into the water.

You felt yourself be shoved away and didn't realize until he was in the water that it was Sebastian, diving past you to swim after your papers.

"No, don't— it's not worth it!” you called out, but he ignored you, paddling ahead with all the determination and speed of a professional swimmer— maybe he was one before he did this, you wouldn’t know. You chewed your nails and felt horrifically guilty for all the work he was doing, and with a burst of foreign courage, you found yourself shirking your cardigan and shirt to join him. Maybe he didn’t mind getting his clothes wet with dirty lake water, but you did.

As you shimmied your skirt down, he looked back at you and his eyes went a little wide. When you woke up this morning, you had no intentions of stripping in front of Sebastian, let alone near-skinny dipping with him, but then again, you hadn’t planned on half your novel blowing away either.

You tossed your clothes aside and took one last stabilizing breath before diving in.

“Fuck, it’s cold!” you screeched once your head was back above the surface, and you heard him laughing. You weren’t particularly in a laughing mood as you tried to grab the soaked papers around you.

“Arăți ca o pisică care a căzut în cadă,” he chuckled as he swam closer again, holding a ball of wet parchment in his hand and grabbing a few more on the way.

After fishing a few final pages out of the reeds, the two of you awkwardly walked up to the shore. Now that you were in your underwear with the wind blowing on you, you were jealous of his wet clothes which, while doing almost nothing, did at least shield him from the elements.

You dashed into the cottage side-by-side, like kids racing down the street— though really it was just a matter of self preservation. When you did make it inside, you started to lay the papers flat on the table to at least start the drying process; you hadn’t even realized he’d left the room until he came back and wrapped a fluffy towel around you, giving you one of those gentle smiles that made your heart just melt.

“Thank you,” you mumbled, noticing the way his hands rested on your shoulders longer than they needed to. Even through the terrycloth his hands felt strong, and warm, and his touch made you shiver in a way totally irrelevant to the cold.

“Cu plăcere,” he replied.

“It’s a shame you can’t understand me,” you sighed. Only as you said it aloud did you realize that he did understand you; sure, he didn’t understand the words you were speaking, but, in a way no one else had before, he understood you. Somehow.

“Nu vorbesc engleza, dar înțeleg limba iubirii,” he spoke softly, nearly a whisper. “Și cred că înțelegeți și voi asta.”

Even with no idea what he was saying, the way that he was looking at you said even more. You wanted to kiss him more than you'd wanted anything in a long time, but even in that wretchedly perfect moment you knew it wasn't worth the trouble. First of all, you couldn't be sure that he felt anywhere near the same way about you. Secondly, even if he did, this was exactly the wrong time— and place, now that you thought about it— to be starting something. Thirdly, he probably didn't want to start something at all! He was just a nice young man who did exceptionally stupid things in order to make you happy. That's normal handyman stuff, right?

'Odd jobs,' that's what Mrs. Alberti had said he did for her, and for you by extension as a guest in her place.

"Cafea?" Sebastian offered you, stepping back towards the kitchen.

"Yes, thank you," you nodded quickly, smiling at him. He smiled back and carded his fingers through his damp hair before disappearing into the kitchen to start a fresh pot.

Odd jobs indeed.

#sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan fluff #sebastian stan au #sebastian stan x y/n #sebastian stan fanfic

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accio-victuuri · 4 years ago

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A Love Story in 3 parts.

Disclaimer : Everything is fake. Or is it? 👀

Why the month of June is always very interesting. basically an excuse to try making a timeline of 1 month spanning three years before I attempt to do the 2017-2020 timeline. the keyword there is ATTEMPT.

﹌﹌Part I: June 2018 ﹌﹌

This is a popular guess on the month that they actually got together— as far as acknowledging that they’re NOT bros. Keep in mind that these two supposedly first met on 3/14/2017 with no interactions or even eye contact ( as per Web). After that, they meet again 4/2018 as CQL started shooting.

That’s two months of interaction. We have different timelines in our head with them, so you can interpret this as A.) they hit it off really quickly that’s why it only took a little time for their feelings to go THERE. B.) they are lying liars who lie and have been in contact from 2017-2018.

• 6.2.2018 - Shooting of LWJ and WWX in the rain. • 6.3.2018 - Produce 101 Performance! Yes, the same one where GG was a mentor and they acted like they didn’t know each other. Famous for moments such as:

Glancing at each other even if separated by people. + Sharing an earpiece. GG smiling while watching Web Dance.

Here is the whole episode

• 6.3.2018 - TTXS episode airing where Web gives love clues, where he says it depends on how he feels. Also that when he’s 40, he wants a kid and a dog.

• 6.9.2018 - GG’s interview with him showing how much of a Libra he is.

• 6.10.2018 - TTXS episode airing where Cheng Xiao is a guest and she proceeds to be Web’s good bro by exposing him ; saying he’s a Monk.

• 6.11.2018 - Interview with Popular highlight, Web mentions GG for the first time while looking THIS good. The Audacity. Honestly. 🤦🏻‍♀‍

He talked about how long GG’s lines are compared to him, especially when they highlight it on their script books.

• 6.14.2018 - Shooting of Cold Pond Cave scene ; Then clinging to each other amidst the cold water. If you watched the new BTS from fansites, there is a 🔞scene here. Pertaining to the M*gnum W*ng.

• 6.16.2018 - Shooting guns at each other and dancing to Black Pink’s Ddu Ddu.

• { VERY IMPORTANT DATE} 6.18.2018 is when they shot this scene. GG is looking all wet, with mud on his face but Web just says he still looks handsome with no make up on. Also, CAN WE TAKE A SECOND AND WEEP at how GG looks at Web here. His eyes. Wow. He clearly adores Web at this point.

• They also shot WWX handing Zongzi to LWJ.

• Later that day, they ate together. They were photographed by paps who thought Web was going out with a girl. The produced and director of CQL was also there.

• GG then posted this on Weibo on 20:18 “love you yibo” as a greeting for the Festival. Web took the picture, according to me. I’m the curtain.

• 6.19.2018 - The next day, Web is photographed at the airport with the same clothes. This is also the first appearance of his white Nike Bag. He had to go and film an episode of Happy Camp.

AND OUR BOI WAS ABSOLUTELY GLOWING IN THAT EPISODE. Watch it english subbed here.

• 6.22.2018 - a supposedly important day too as they cued 622 a couple of times. This is a good read on that.

﹌﹌ Part II: June 2019 ﹌﹌

• 6.1.2019 - GG interview with cosmo where he sings Kepler. • 6.2.2019 - Web attending Yuehua family concert • 6.15.2019 - Web in extreme youth press conference wearing a questionable spongebob shirt.

• {VERY IMPORTANT DATE} 6.19.2019 - First appearance of Web’s ox head necklace via a picture of him in an airport, at Chongqing.

• 6.19.2019 - GG posts an ad for Qeelin on his instagram account. ( which is now non existent since it was hacked incase you didn’t know). Qeelin Bo is significant to BJYX, you can check it on my jewelry post.

• 6.21-6.22 2019 - Web posted himself practicing skateboard.

• 6.25.2019 - They both posted on their Weibo about their joint Bazaar Magazine cover. This was re-released and became bazaar’s #1 e-magazine issue.

• 6.27.2019 - They both post about the premiere of CQL! 💚❤️

• 6.28.2019 - Web posts himself as LWJ, saying rabbits are cute.

• 6.30.2019 - Web attends Yuehua annual party as Spiderman (into the spider verse).

﹌﹌ Part III: June 2020 ﹌﹌

• 6.5.20 - GG posts after a long time of silence with a picture of blue sky. Captioning it with : “Blue skies and white clouds, what do you see?” more on the significance of blue sky and white clouds with BYX here. • 6.9.20 - XZ studio posts a video about GG’s daily life, giving us a glimpse of what he was doing. • 6.12.20 - We finally get a selfie from GG! He mentions on his caption that his hair is getting long. There is a CPN on this that the shirt he is wearing is a couple shirt from trasher which matches Web’s. Also, as people match the scenery posts on this, it matches with Web’s filming locations.

• 6.13.20 - GG Douyin update, making orange juice like a pro. CPN on this is that the place he is filming at is pretty similar to Web’s house. But let’s not go there.

• 6.18.20 - Another artwork post from GG.

• 6.20.20 - Himalaya releases a CF for their new endorser, Wang Yibis. THIS CF ANS EVERYTHING ABOUT IT KILLED US. Starting with Web’s post, “Some words, even if I don’t say it, u guys will know. This is our tacit understanding. Love is like this. Accompanying everyday.”

and this parallel, >>

• 6.21.20 - Web video doing an Ollie (skateboard trick). People were speculating where he actually is on this one. most probably just him enjoying his down time and probably Lele taking that video. • 6.25.20 - GG posts an artwork of zongzi along with an actual one for dragon boat festival. People have analyzed the little drawings and noted one looks like him & the other as Web.

• AND FINALLY, this year’s Dragon Boat Festival gave way to the crazy fake rumor of them getting “engaged” + buying a house and car. When this came out, it was such a sweet fanfic— but with how the fake rumors becoming true lately— this is now very scary 👀.

CPN is that they spent this year’s Dragon boat festival together because of this clue. (Let me copy my own post) -->>

This started with GG’s post and the background being compared to one of Web’s cast-mate, Wang Hao Xuan.

What gets me is the caption saying, “stuff that happens at work is a secret”. / “someone became super talkative while eating zongzi” What? Why? Who do we know is quiet but becomes really talkative when with his GG? WANG YIBIS.

Post-shoot, The director attended SDOC 3 finals too! To support Web. Plus Web’s message for the wrap was sweet. I felt like they really took care of him and will not say anything that will bring him down.

@p-h03n1-x - added a few more details on the posts particularly : Web’s popular highlight interview, video of DD almost going to GG’s care and heading back to trailer together.

BONUS THROWBACK 6.1.2017.

Both of them posted selfies on that day, talking about 6/1 but there’s no event to celebrate on China on that day.

@choke-and-dye added an explanation for these:

AND THAT’S IT <3 If you made it this far, Thank you. old time bxgs won’t see anything new in this post (probably) but I hope you still enjoyed it. Let’s see what happens on June 2021 and onwards. :)) Also, if it takes this long just to create one month, how long with it be for their whole timeline so far. LOL. T.T

EDITED 11/10/2020 4:28 AM

#yizhan #bjyx

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shoushatohaisha · 6 years ago

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report: haikyuu!! summer week day 3 (karasuno, fukkatsu!!)

previously: day 1 (shoen) day 2 (itadaki no keshiki)

guests: shouri, naoki, shou, acchan

it's been really interesting to see how each screening has a different flavor depending on the show and the guests. for example, the first two shows were very much influenced by the interaction between the audience and the screened content, while the first act of this event was not so much a screening of "karasuno, fukkatsu!" as it was a live-action show of "kondou shouri, fukkatsu!" like. oh my god. I THOUGHT KENTA WAS BAD ABOUT REENACTING CHOREO at least he stayed seated half the time, shouri was straight up diving and rolling across the stage for every single one of nekoma's matches plus some of his white coat scenes as well. because if you put him in front of an audience this is just what happens.

BUT I DIGRESS. let us begin at the beginning.

first let me apologize for the fact that the first act will be light on shou and acchan because i was way up front, meaning i could only watch one half of the stage at a time, and it was real hard to watch anything other than The Kondou Shouri Hour. but more about them in the second act and aftertalk!!! ...also, i'm not gonna lie, i did not absorb a lot of the first five minutes or so because i was like, entranced by naoki's face. good lord that man has cheekbones. ANYWAY.

shouri: tbh this is the first time i've had a script to MC an event… honestly, who needs it. (tosses the clipboard over his shoulder)

he also mentioned he was at the screening the night before to figure out how this whole cheering thing worked, WHICH WOULD EXPLAIN THE PART WHERE RYOUTAROU AND JUSTIN WERE CLEARLY LAUGHING AT SOMEONE IN THE WINGS fldajfkldjf i thought at the time it was juudai and sonde, or maybe that kenta was there again (…i mean, he was, lol), but i bet it was shouri.

so then it was time for cheering practice. nice kill, nice receive, jump serve… shouri: oh and then when someone gets a point, cheer for them. you know like, I-I ZO, KU-RO-O, O-TO-KO-MA-E (roughly "NICE, KUROO, YOU'RE THE MAN") naoki: LOL WASN'T THAT YOUR CHEER IN HIGH SCHOOL shouri: yes :D shouri: ii zo, shouri, otokomae!! naoki: oh my god shouri: …let's do it now :D naoki: WE REALLY DON'T HAVE TO shouri: (already backing up for a run up) naoki: ok. cheer for kuroo, ok. shouri: no, for shouri :D naoki: ……………. shouri: (runs up and does a massive jump spike) audience: I-I ZO, SHO-U-RI, O-TO-KO-MA-E!! sound tech: (WHISTLE BLOWS)

to explain the whistle thing – so each night when the cast got too far off track or were going too long, a ref's whistle would sound. the previous two nights, it happened once or twice. how many times did shouri get whistled off? A LOT.

of course we practiced the datekou cheers as well! shouri: datekou, please show them how to do it acchan: but i mean, in the actual show, nekoma-san did this part, right shouri: right!! we did!! in the white coats acchan: so we'd like to leave it to you now ok thank you :) shouri: ...wait

(in the end they both did it.)

they then cued up the next screen… which was the entire datekou vs karasuno rap. XD shou: look. the rap is long and complicated, it's tiring, i'm sure it would be tough to do the whole thing. but even if you can't. everyone just please be sure to do sakunami's line. "funk it block." naoki: and yamaguchi's. shoubu no wakareMEEEE.

then shouri started explaining the special cheers/moves he thought up that he wanted us to do flfjaf;djkfdf. when nekoma sway back back and forth to their theme he wanted us to wave our thundersticks in time. "I THOUGHT THIS UP A MONTH AGO," he said proudly. "I WAS REALLY EXCITED FOR THIS EVENT!!!"

shouri: and here's another one i thought up a month ago shouri: in the manga there's a cheer that goes ike ike nekoma, right. so this is what i want us to do -- shouri: ike ike nekoma, nyan nyanya nyanyanyan! (waves cat paws) sound tech: (WHISTLE)

as before we ended by chanting ose ose nekoma / go go datekou except this time after about two seconds shouri and shou were like, yelling out at the top of their lungs running around the stage while naoki maded increasingly desperate whistling motions toward the sound booth. shouri: let's do it again! naoki: ISN'T THIS ENOUGH shouri: IM THE MC I MAKE THE RULES naoki: kansai people are terrifying. shouri: (super thick kansaiben) I'LL DO ANYTHING FOR A LAUGH

(and that, incidentally, is the difference between what shouri and kenta were doing w/r/t choreo -- you get the impression that this is probably how kenta watches these shows at home whereas put shouri in front of an audience, even if that audience is two people, and he can't help but perform. his and takato's consistently over the top ad libs suddenly make so much sense…)

all this, and the actual screening hadn't even started. deep breaths.

tonight the audience started calling out "furudate haruichi!" "worry-san!" "nakayashiki-kun!" when their names appeared on screen just like they were some of the players, it was cute. XD also even though kiyoko wasn't yet physically present, every time she "appeared" off stage the audience swooned "KIYOKO-SAAAAN".

so for the opening, of course they came out and did their own parts (props to acchan and shou for how well synced they were with the screen, their timing was super impressive) but then they all took turns doing not just a little bit of the rest but EVERYONE else's. iirc shouri was oikawa, naoki was iwa-chan, shouri was daichi, naoki was suga, shou was asahi, acchan was tanaka and ennoshita (the timing broke down a little bit here XD), naoki was takechan, shouri was ukai, naoki was kageyama, and shouri was hinata.

it was funny because like, when they first start doing other characters naoki was like, laughing at himself, still a little self-conscious but by the time he ran out to do kageyama's jump he was super into it and getting huge amounts of air lol. that was sort of the pattern of the night, naoki was clearly enjoying himself and excited in a normal person way but then kept getting dragged into increasingly weird shit by shouri and by the end would be like FINE LET'S GO LET'S DO IT.

as previously mentioned this resulted in them reenacting the vast majority of nekoma's choreo in full, in the center of the stage. flips and rolls and dives and all. shouri also kept forgetting this was not, like, a concert or something and would literally be bouncing up and down waving his thundersticks when he wasn't actively dancing. but then he got all embarrassed during kuroo's "that sparkling stage…!" speech and walked off stage... but BARELY, he was hovering so close in the wings that i could still see him ahaha. the closest he could physically force himself to actually leaving the spotlight. XD in contrast, naoki was so embarrassed during his first couple lines/closeup that he tied his nekoma towel around his face, walked off stage, and didn't come back for a full minute. hee.

shouri also made naoki leave the stage with him so that they could walk back on for nekoma's pre-match entrance, this time with shouri wearing his jacket specifically so he could reenact the dramatic toss and catch, which he then intentionally dropped a la the DVD blooper roll, as naoki took hinata's role of pointing at it in shock.

naoki was also apparently the "voice" of kiyoko behind the "tobe!" flag, shouri was very excited to make sure we knew that. OH for the first scene between kuroo and kenma, SHOU came out as kenma with shouri trailing after him measuring the height difference between the two of them and making exaggerated confused faces. and after nekoma waved goodbye and left the stage after the practice match was over, naoki also waved goodbye and walked off but shouri was so caught up in watching that he didn't notice naoki was gone for at least a minute and then did a huge doubletake at the empty chair. XD

last but not least, for the kurotsukki fans out there, i know you're reading this, during the practice montage at the end of act 1 shouri acted out tsukki's bit standing there tossing a volleyball with one hand like :|, and his attempt at a bored tsukki expression was hilarious, shouri's face just doesn't do that naturally. XD

so while the first act was like a show on stage we were watching, the second act was, of all the screenings so far, the most like an actual proper call-and-response cheering event. first was the tokonami match, of course, and honestly the biggest compliment to how well and effectively this match was staged is that there was zero snark – instead, i heard several people sniffling -- and the applause after ikejiri walked off stage went on for a long, long time.

but then the datekou match had so much for the audience to do! there was a LOT of cheering and chanting to take part in, and of course acchan and shou acted out big scenes like aone and futakuchi's "lock ON", the big blocks, "TEPPEKI DA" etc. by the end acchan was just on his feet making frustrated faces when he got blocked out ahaha. but this is the part that felt closest to actually being part of the student cheering squad at a volleyball game… if part of the cheers were a rap.

(at some point shouri and naoki came back on stage as well, and to be fair to them, for a split second when they came out again i was like OH NO LET THE DATEKOU KIDS HAVE THEIR CHANCE TO SHINE but while shouri did get very into reenacting their choreo he stayed off to the side and didn't distract from the main characters. thanks kondou-kun. XD

daichi: like [iwaizumi] said, datekou are really strong acchan: ^__^ (nod) suga: three months ago their iron wall totally destroyed us acchan: ^____^ (nodnod) suga: to be honest, we still haven't wiped out the fear from that time acchan: ^________^ (nodnodnod)

my favorite part about datekou, though, was at the end, when we got our first real emotional casualties of summer week. so first, aone's handshake with hinata also got a really, really long ovation, and shou started to look super emotional. then the datekou third years' retirement scene happened. because i know kimura atsushi, i was locked on (heh) to him from the moment it began, and was therefore able to watch in real time as his mouth slowly turned down and his face crumpled and his eyes glinted with tears. then when moniwa started talking about how next year's iron wall would be even stronger, he suddenly stood up and just nodded emphatically at every line but couldn't even smile. acchan i love u.

another sweet thing was that during that scene, the final "we played… we played volleyball!" scene with the losers, shou just took a long, slow look around the audience with this really gentle expression and later in the aftertalk he said he could see people crying and that he was really touched and grateful.

so, speaking of the aftertalk!

shouri and naoki also talked about aiia closing and how it felt kind of destined that it was where they had both their haikyuu debut and now their last haikyuu event. naoki: appearing as members of the cheering squad. shouri: as the ensemble cast. naoki: shouri, you were definitely the loudest person here. shouri: because i'm the MC!

they dragged-slash-complimented shou for his scary aone face. "yeah, i'm kind of scared by myself when i see the recording tbh because it's not like i could SEE myself when i was made up on stage." acchan: but off stage he's really nice!! naoki: yeah, you always gave off this kind of sweet idiotic air in the dressing room. shou: …actually… something like that happened today…

and then he explained how during the scene when aone is blocked out by hinata and lands with a thump back on stage, he reenacted it today… and when he landed in a crouch, his pants tore. XDD CUE EVERYONE DUCKING BEHIND HIM AND LIFTING UP THE SHIRT TIED AROUND HIS WAIST TO CHECK OUT THE TEAR AND FALL AROUND LAUGHING like literally naoki was lying on the stage paralyzed with laughter. shouri kindly demonstrated to us exactly where and how large the tear was, thanks shouri. "lucky i wore a shirt around my waist today!" shou said.

acchan also explained how he and shou did different variations on the "lock ON" on asahi, so of course shouri made them demonstrate – and they did one in which futakuchi tries to push aone's arm down, it pops back up, and futakuchi then walks his fingers cutesily up aone's arm as he says "yamenasai!"

then naoki told us about how during the scene when hinata spikes with his eyes open, one day takeru came up to him and said super seriously, "what's the deal with hinata closing his eyes? don't you normally spike with your eyes open?" naoki explained there was a line about how he hits with his eyes closed earlier, to which takeru replied, "i didn't hear anything about that, idk what you're talking about" and that was when naoki realized he was speaking as yaku. "i get staying in character but he WENT OUT OF HIS WAY TO ASK ME ABOUT IT."

speaking of, shouri also said that the show was just around the time the volume with the nekoma third years' backstory came out so that if you watch the full stage recording you'll see kuroo and yaku squabbling and kai trying to break them up in the background and such.

then, another takeru story, for one particular scene when the nekoma cast was holding up the iron wall it was always incredibly hot, because they'd already worked themselves into a sweat during their actual match as nekoma, then they'd have to put on these long white coats, so it was unbearable… and then on top of that, takeru would come over and like. squish up next to him. and it would be even MORE hot. so naoki would be like, "pssst get away from me" and takeru would just sit crouch there dead still staring straight ahead. "i got SO MAD AT HIM."

so that’s why today takeru was tweeting "…what did shouri and naoki say about me." XD

finally, their final messages! that's when shou said the bit i mentioned earlier about how moving it was to see the fans' reaction, and added "I'M DEFINITELY COMING BACK i mean i don't know if that's actually possible BUT I DEFINITELY WELL." acchan fell all over his own words and then was like I CAN'T PUT HOW GRATEFUL I AM INTO WORDS i love haikyuu bye. naoki said how how grateful he is that his first and last experiences at aiia were both, specifically, "karasuno, fukkatsu." and shouri just talked about how WOW HAIKYUU'S AMAZING WORRY KINOSHITA IS AMAZING. (naoki: just pretend he's an alien or something, ok guys?) and then, also, that he owes his career to the show basically and is super grateful and proud to have been involved.

OH, AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST -- the sound tech got the last laugh on shouri. they thanked us for coming and bowed... and then the credits music didn't start like it did for everyone else, they had to start singing it themselves – "da da DAH da da da DAH da da da DAH da da da dah" while shouri yelled at the sound booth "HEY, DON'T PUNISH ME" until the tech took pity on them and cued up the music. then shouri purposely "tripped" and fell going off stage, naoki held back shou and acchan from going back to help him, and they got whistled off one last time. XD

…the end. jesus that was a lot, how the hell are we going to get through shinka no natsu as led by shouri, we're all gonna die.

tonight: shousha to haisha………………. pray 4 me. see you tomorrow!!

#engeki haikyuu #hyper projection engeki haikyuu!!#haisute #kondou shouri #takeshi naoki #arai shou #kimura atsushi #LENGTH WARNING #kondou shouri warning #event report #haikyuu summer week

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cardcaptorcoconut · 7 years ago

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Sakura Fest 2018

Sorry it took so long to write this up! I’m finally on a proper “weekend” break for the first time in nearly 2 months (thank god for comp days!) so this is my first chance to really sit down and write up the rundown of Sakura Fes 2018. It’s been a few weeks since the event happened, but I typed up a bunch of notes that night to make sure I remembered as much as possible. :)

This post is really long and text heavy, so apologies in advance! Also, please keep in mind for those of you who have not caught up to the halfway point in the anime that there are heavy spoilers for the first half of the season.

For the Japanese rundown of with some additional photos during the event, there is a link here with some.

[EDIT] There were mispellings for Saori Hayami’s name. I’ve fixed it now.

This year’s Sakura Fes was held at Maihama Amphitheater, right next door to Tokyo Disneyland. It’s so close by you can hear and see the park rides. This was a much larger venue than last year’s event at Rune Kodaira Hall (total capacity in the large hall there is 1,229 people vs Maihama Amphitheater’s 2,170) and much more centralized in Tokyo. As with last year, there were two performances - the afternoon one and the evening one.

Tickets for the event really blew me away this time around. I didn’t win the lottery tickets early on, but waited for the general ones to go on sale. The morning they did, tickets for BOTH events FULLY sold out within only 10 minutes! I tried to get tickets for the afternoon event, but they disappeared just as I was buying them. Luckily, I snatched up ones for the evening event this time (and am SUPER glad that I did!).

#1) Before the Event

Even though I was going to the later one, a good friend of mine in Tokyo had lucked out and gotten herself a lottery ticket for the early show, so I met up with her before it started. I loitered around outside with her until it was time for her session to start.

There were TONS of people waiting around for the goods for the evening show to go on sale, and apparently a lot of stuff had sold out quickly for the early show.

I waited where I thought we were supposed to line up for a bit, but then someone with a megaphone instructed that everyone for the evening session’s goods line needed to form a different line elsewhere - it was almost like a stampede getting to where we needed to go! I managed to get sort of close to the front of the line somehow, but even so by the time I got into to buy goods, some stuff was already sold out!

Here are a few photos of the venue, goods, lobby, & how everything looked on the day:

List of goods on sale:

The line for entry wrapped around the building:

Kero-chan flower arrangement from Good Smile Company!:

Easter Display:

Fanmail boxes for Aya Hisakawa, Junko Iwao, and Sakura Tange:

After wandering around and taking as many pics as I could, I made my way inside (my seat was in the very, very back of G Block in the theater).

#2) Event Intro & Cast Introductions

The stage itself looked like this from where I was sitting. Take note of the location of the magic circle on stage:

Once everyone had settled in for the event itself, the lights dimmed and the stadium made an announcement about the rules (no photography, filming, etc, so unfortunately I don’t have any photos or videos for this reason aside from the ones above).

Then suddenly, from where Sakura’s Clear Card magic circle was shining on the stage, the floor sunk down and opened up leaving a huge hole where it was. It rose back up seconds later with the life-sized Kero and Suppie mascots dressed up on it. Suppie had on a pair of bunny rabbit ears on his head (Kero did not). Behind them, they had a whiteboard about Easter (much like they do in the Kero-chan Explains It All segments at the end of every episode).

As always, Kero (voiced live by Aya Hisakawa) greeted everyone with "Konanachiwa!!” After getting the audience to do it back, they dove into an explanation about Easter. Unlike Halloween, Easter is not a commonly celebrated holiday in Japan even in the secular sense (Easter Bunny, egg hunts, etc), and the majority of Japanese people don’t know what it’s about. Kero started by explaining that Easter is a Christian holiday and is about resurrection and coming back to life. He started going deep into the religious origins of the holiday, but Suppie held up a sign saying “Don’t give such complicated explanations!!”

Kero gave up and said that if the religious meaning of the holiday is too complicated for everyone to understand, then there is a secular meaning too. He said that the Clear Card Arc is the resurrection of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, which is why they chose to hold the event as “Sakura and her Friends’ Happy Easter” this year. He also explained that bunnies and eggs are a motif of the holiday and that’s why Suppie was wearing rabbit ears. Kero said that it was time for the event to begin and they both waved as the big monitor above cued up.

The platform they were on descended below again as Maaya Sakamoto’s “Clear” and the opening visuals for Clear Card Arc started playing. As the opening credits progressed, the platform rose back up and all of the CCS cast members participating in the event were on it this time:

Sakura Tange (Sakura Kinomoto)

Junko Iwao (Tomoyo Daidouji)

Aya Hisakawa (Kero)

Motoko Kumai (Syaoran Li)

Megumi Ogata (Yukito Tsukishiro / Yue)

Minori Suzuki (Akiho Shinomoto)

Natsuki Hanae (Yuna D. Kaito)

Everyone waved at the audience and as the theme ended and the platform stabilized, they walked back to the main stage area, but didn’t take their seats just yet. The emcee came out at this point and went through a brief introduction of each cast member. They were in this order from left to right on the stage: Ogata-san, Kumai-san, Hisakawa-san, Tange-san, Iwao-san, Suzuki-san, Hanae-san. [Note: I can’t remember if Kumai-san and Hisakawa-san were sitting in this format, but if not they were switched seats - everyone else was for sure sitting like this.]

The emcee brought up that this year’s theme is Easter again and did another explanation of it for the audience. She said again that it’s originally a Christian holiday, but that in Japanese it’s known as 復活祭 (”Resurrection Festival”) and they wanted to use it because CCS came back too.

At that point, everyone went to sit down in the chairs provided and the emcee gave each staff a chance to introduce themselves. During Tange-san’s turn, she said when they were downstairs before the platform rose up earlier, the Kero-chan mascot was dancing to Clear and was a pro at it. Apparently it was really cute and she really wished she could’ve recorded it (which reminded me of the Cherryblossom viewing chapter with The Record). Hanae-san’s intro was the funniest to me - he said he had a yakiniku bento for lunch and was super energized for the evening show, lol!

This was where it became apparent that the evening show was the “fun one” of the two: After the yakiniku bento comment, Hanae-san said よろしく (”I’m in your care”) to the audience in Kaito’s voice and made a point to sound “sexy.” Everyone laughed but around the same time Suzuki-san was readjusting herself on her seat cushion and sort of absentmindedly said 気持ちいい (”That feels nice”). As soon as she said that everyone in the audience started laughing super hard because it was so unexpected. She immediately got flustered and apologized and said “No, no no! I meant the chair is really comfortable and soft!! That’s all...!!” and laughed with everyone.

#3) Question Time

“How did you feel about Sakura and Syaoran’s reunion?”

As everyone was seated, the emcee opened up for question time. It started off with the question asking how Tange-san and Kumai-san felt acting out the very first SyaoSaku scene of the new series - the cherryblossom reunion. The question showed up on the monitor and then they played a clip of the scene (and said that the clip was only played at the evening show - slightly different from earlier).

Tange-san said she was shy about it from the very beginning when she had to record it. Kumai-san mentioned that during the recording session, she was nothing but happy with how it was written and how they performed it. However, having the scene itself played in front of SO MANY people that day was embarrassing.

The cast on a whole then examined Sakura and Syaoran’s dialogue in that scene. The main part they looked at was when Sakura said she had so many things to tell Syaoran, and he reciprocated that he did too. They the looked at the following exchange in particular:

Sakura: 教えてね！全部！(”Tell me everything!” - The word 教える can be translated as either “Tell” or “Teach” meaning-wise) Syaoran: ああ。(”Yeah.”)

Ogata-san out of NO WHERE, turns to Kumai-san and goes “So I’ve gotta ask, but... What do you mean by 'Yeah' in response to 'I will teach you everything'? What is this 'EVERYTHING' you’re gunna teach her?” The cast and audience lost it again laughing.

Kumai-san got shy and couldn’t answer fully, but goes "Well uh... yeah... you'll have to ask that to CLAMP..." and the cast reminded us again that because we we’re at the evening event they were being goofy and making suggestive jokes like this that they couldn’t at the more “family oriented” afternoon event.

“Tomoyo records lots of personal moments.”

The next scene they examined was where Tomoyo appeared in the SxS scene above recording their reunion, and then in their date episode just before they entered the aquarium (the “This is my best shot!” scene).

The question this time was directed at Iwao-san, asking if she thought that Tomoyo’s recording sessions were growing in scale and becoming more extensive. She replied that “Yes, they are. It’s because (she sees) the love growing (between Sakura and Syaoran) and wants to capture it along with their happiest moments.”

I think it was Ogata-san who jumped back in saying something along the lines of “I wonder just HOW MUCH (of their love) you’ll get to record, heh heh heh...” and everyone lost it again. I was kind of surprised at how much they were implying, haha!

“Have Kero and Touya finally acknowledged Syaoran?”

The next question was whether or not Kero and Touya finally recognize Syaoran as someone who is an ally and cares about Sakura. They played clips of the scene where Kero and Tomoyo were skyping during the date episode, and during the “ruined date” scene where Syaoran retrieved the soggy bento and Touya looked at him and sighed.

Hisakawa-san said that before, Kero would always say things like “You wanna go, brat!?” and try to pick fights with him, but now whenever he says “brat” there’s some love and affection in it. They went on to say that Touya has also started to recognize him a bit and that neither he nor Kero do as much as they used to in protecting Sakura anymore. I read this as meaning it’s not that they don’t want to, but they realize that they have extra help in Syaoran now.

They said that Yukito, Yue, and Touya don’t do as much anymore, but Tange-san said that no matter what everyone helps "Sakura” and that makes her happy. But the reason they don’t do as much now is because “Sakura” has grown up and is more adult.

Something interesting got brought up here with regards to the voice recording sessions - the scenes are recorded in A and B parts separately. Meaning that some of the cast who are in scenes together will record their lines, but don’t know what happened with the other casts’ parts in previous or simultaneously occurring scenes.

Ogata-san said that sometimes when recording their B part, they say to each other “Jeez, what on earth did they do in the A part!?”. It then got brought up that they are close to the end of recording for the anime and they sort of gave the impression they know how things will be finishing up. It was not clear and they avoided mentioning if this “wrap up” was just for the “season” or if there would be any more series to follow.

“Have Syaoran’s techniques stopped working?”

The next clip was from Episode 12 where they caught the Hail card. It was when Syaoran’s fire technique didn’t work and he had to use his other “secret” power to stop the card.

They asked Kumai-san what exactly it was that happened there, but she replied that it’s too much of a spoiler and that they’re not really sure themselves. It seemed like maybe the cast DOES know and just can’t say it because of non-disclosure.

When she was asked, she simply said “I’m not sure if it’s okay for me to say... but I think we have like 3-4 episodes left to record?” Tange-san jumped in signaling "Nooo!” with her arms and corrected Kumai-san saying that they had “several” episodes more to go at that point.

“Is Yue an “Agokui” Type?”

[顎クイ “Agokui”: Suddenly lifting someone’s face by their chin in an aggressive, yet sometimes romantic fashion]

Ogata-san talked about how she has played many "cool type / handsome guy” characters in the past. They then played the scene where Yue says to Sakura “Tell me anything that happens, even if it’s something small” and touches her chin.

She said that during this scene and others, she was just acting it out naturally and how she thought would be a normal back-and-forth between them. However, some of the lines that would just come out without thinking were deemed as not appropriate by the directors. She said that the way she acted the lines came out naturally because as a woman acting out a male role, she was just saying what seemed appropriate and not thinking of what “male feelings” might be like in this situation.

For example, at the end of one of the Facetime/Skype sessions with Sakura, she would say おやすみ (”Goodnight”) as Yue. After about 2 or so times of this, the directors pulled her aside and commented that “It’s a little suggestive saying ‘goodnight’ like that to a middle schooler...”

As such, she had to tweak how she replied in that scene. She went on to say that she talked about it with Tomokazu Seki (Touya) as well on how they needed to act in certain scenes.

Apparently even at the Sakura Fes event, the staff was instructed not to ad-lib dialog anymore. Hisakawa-san had done it at last year’s event and they were warned not to do it as much this year, but overall ad-libbing was too much fun and it’s something the audience audience enjoyed, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Who are the new characters?”

The next topic up was the new characters: Akiho and Kaito. The scenes they played were Akiho’s self-introduction at the school and her competing against Syaoran in badminton. They also showed the scene where Sakura and Tomoyo come over to her house and meet Kaito for the first time.

Suzuki-san and Hanae-san talked about how it felt to record their lines. Suzuki-san in particular said that during the badminton scene, Kumai-san helped her match up the timing by playing air badminton with her in the recording booth.

They also talked about how Hanae-san constantly keeps reassuring everyone Kaito’s not a suspicious guy. He said everyone suspects him and that the cast had asked everyone at the afternoon event what their opinions were. Everyone reacted that they think he’s definitely shady.

Suzuki-san said that even SHE thought that and when she was acting out Akiho’s lines, the directors told her she had too much doubt in her voice. The instructed her to reassess and act her lines out in a more Akiho-like way - that she loves him and thinks he’s a really good person, even if Suzuki-san herself doesn’t think that.

Hanae-san chimed back in and emphatically goes “But I am a good person!!!” and tried to convince everyone again.

“The new Key, new Magic Spell, and new Wand...!?”

The last scene they put up on the monitors was Sakura releasing the new key into the sealing staff and using her new spell. Cue a shameless plug for the new Takara Tomy Clear Card wand toy that has voice recordings from Tange-san.

The cast collectively was like “YES, TAKARA TOMY EVERYONE. OF COURSE” and I got the impression they were a bit sarcastic like they had to advertise it as part of their job, but were a little like “Yeah, we know this isn’t what you’re here for, lol.”

They brought out the wand and had Tange-san use it. She asked the audience to say the “Release!” chant along with her and said if we did that maybe some magic would happen. When we all said “Release!” together, the stage platform opened up again. She asked us to help her seal the stage back up and everyone repeated the sealing chant together. Upon shouting “Secure!”, the stage went back to normal.

After this, the emcee made the annoucement for the “Sakura Hoeeee” Mori Arts Center Gallery Exhibition in Roppongi Hills later this year in October. They asked everyone to please look forward to the event.

Apparently, this is where the live stream ended for the afternoon event, though there was no live stream for the evening event.

#4) Live Cast Voice Acting Performance

Now it was time for a live voice performance from the cast. The emcee explained that the story would be how Sakura and her friends spend Easter Sunday (that very day). What surprised me the most for this was that for the sake of the performance, all of the characters seemed to know each other and of each other’s existence. This meant that Kero was interacting in scenes with Akiho and Kaito.

Sakura spoke first and was humming along while doing something in the kitchen. Tomoyo chimed in asking what she was up to. Sakura replied that she and Akiho were making eggs/omelettes because that’s what’s done on Easter.

Akiho said she wasn’t good at cooking, but wanted to try her best. On hearing this, Tomoyo said that she wanted to record them cooking and Sakura gave a loud “Hoeee..."

Sakura asked Akiho to go and get the eggs out of the fridge, but when Akiho opened it they were no where to be found. Everyone panicked a little bit, but then Kero appeared. He said “Well did you know that on Easter people like to hide eggs! So all we need to do is go find them.”

Kaito said “Let’s go look" and Yukito agreed with him. The whole group then traveled all over the world looking for the eggs! They ended up in a strange place... EASTER ISLAND!

Syaoran remarked saying “What is this place?” when they saw the monoliths on the island, so Kaito jumped in explaining that these were the Moai of Easter Island. Kero then explained that the Moai were mysterious carved figures shrouded in mystery.

But the group couldn’t find any eggs on the island, so they moved on. The next place they appeared was somewhere they initially thought must be “far away” from Japan. They thought that it must be overseas, but then found it out it was the “Land of Dreams” - AKA Disneyland right next door! They decided to split up and look for the eggs.

Sakura and Syaoran were paired off and while looking around and each found a matching egg. Their eggs’ image was shown on the monitor and were green with pink designs. Together they made a pair.

Syaoran once again saw some helpless foreign tourists and whipped out his English skills again. (Kumai-san has really mastered the “Do you need any help?” line lmao). He also said “The cat is in Disney Sea” in English. Sakura went CRAZY about the English and was like “Syaoran-kun, what did you say!?” so Syaoran ad-libbed and said “Ahh… well if I do a direct translation… I said 'There’s a cat in the Land of Dreams” (which was a reference to Geratoni - a plush stuffed cat of Tokyo Disney’s Duffy & Friends collection.)

Sakura was impressed and begged him to teach her English again. They had basically the same exchange as the date episode and he said “I'll try, but I don’t know if I can teach you anything useful...” to which she responded that she already remembered the word for “cat” so it was okay. As always, Tomoyo suddenly popped out of nowhere recording them and they got embarrassed.

The scene switched to Kero and... Yue! Yue was in full form and searching for eggs too! He said he could search better in this form and was doing it to assist his mistress. Kero remarked that “Well it's true that in Disneyland, people will just think you’re cosplaying someone, so I guess it’s fine. But wait! I should be in my true form too! I will change now into my--”

Yue cuts him off saying “Don’t you dare! If you do, you'll draw too much attention and you'll get petted and hugged and kicked by all of the children here!!” Kero was like “Ahh... oh man... you’re right... Maaan, but I would look so cool if I did!!”

The scene changed again, this time to Akiho and Kaito. They were searching for eggs on their own and she thanked him for helping her. Kaito said that he was “just happy that you seem to be having a good time with everyone.” All of the sudden they both stopped and said “What on earth is that??”

Akiho and Kaito had discovered the BIG GIANT EGG...

While the cast had been performing, a larger than life egg shaped... thing(!!) had risen up out of the rising platform floor again.

Everyone approached the egg and were like “Whoa! You could make a HUGE omelette with this!” However, the egg was so big that they couldn’t take it back home. So Kero said "Well one thing that is done on Easter is egg decorating! We should all decorate it...”

Then they temporarily stopped the voice acting session and the whole cast moved up to the egg. It turns out that it was a giant egg shaped whiteboard. Right next to it on the platform was a cart with lots of markers, cherryblossom petal shaped stickers, and decorative balled up tissue paper. The emcee explained the cast were going to be given 3 minutes to decorate the egg and the started playing a little tune while we watched them bustle about. But in the end they had so much fun that they went a bit over time!

One of them dropped their mic during the decorating session, but I couldn’t see who it was. Everyone jumped though, haha.

Hisakawa-san and Tange-san drew two Suppie faces: One was regular Suppie, and one was “evil Suppie.” They said that without knowing it, they had both drawn Kero at the afternoon session, so during the break between the two they decided to do Suppie for the evening session.

The cast drew a Momo, a random crab using cherryblossom petals for claws, happy faces, a cherryblossom tree, and a panda. But the best part was that they also wrote a few inappropriate things!

Hanae-san wrote 真実の愛 (“True love”) and Suzuki-san wrote right beneath it 夜だから (“Because it’s night time”). And - echoing what she’d said earlier about how saying “goodnight” was inappropriate - Ogata-san wrote おやすみ (“Goodnight”) in really big letters.

Regarding the panda, Hanae-san said he drew it because he was wearing a panda pin. Everyone had asked him at lunch why he was wearing that and the reason was really cute. He said he was confused about what Easter was and thought that it was a holiday where any animals would be appropriate, so he wore a panda instead of a rabbit.

After that, they all returned to the main stage to resume the voice acting performance. A staff member wheeled the egg off and put it on the side of the stage.

Sakura and her friends were all happy as they finished decorating the egg. I think Syaoran said “Where do you even display an egg this big?” but no one knew the answer.

Then Kero said part of the Easter tradition was that God would choose whichever designed egg was the best and grant the person who designed it a wish. That wish would come true. Everyone reacted saying “Oh wow, really???” (I was sitting there thinking thinking “wtf that doesn’t sound right...”), but then Yukito spoke up saying “I’ve never heard that.” Kaito joined in saying the same thing.

Kero laughed nervously and said “Ahaha... I’ve been found out...” indicating he had made it all up. Tomoyo said he was just like Yamazaki lying to them like that. But in the end, they all had a nice time decorating the egg and doing the Easter egg hunt.

(I don’t fully remember how this came about, but) there was a part where Yukito said to Sakura that she was very adorable and she reacted by saying “Hanya--n!!” (I was hoping Syaoran would react somehow, but he didn’t so I guess he is very secure with their relationship now ♡). They then said they should take a photo with the egg to commemorate the day.

There was a pause again in the session and the emcee announced that the cast would be taking a photo with the audience from the stage. Since it was a huge amphitheater, they were taking 3 or so shots - left, center, and right side of the seating area. They said that anyone who was shy and didn’t want to be in the photo could cover up their face.

Center stage was first, then the left side, then the right side. After that, they finished up the voice acting portion of the night:

The scene changed back to the Kinomoto residence. Everyone had gone home for the evening and it was just Sakura and Kero.

Sakura said there had been a lot of tough things that happened earlier, but that it had been a fun day. She said “Oh, I even forgot we were supposed to make eggs today!”

Kero replied saying “What? You couldn’t find the eggs? But, I’d taken them out of the fridge earlier and I put them back...”

Sakura raised her voice and said “WHAT!?” and Kero replied “Yeah, they’re right here...” revealing that they’d been hidden in the fridge the whole time.

Sakura then ad-libbed in Kansai-ben and said ケロちゃん！！！なんでやねん！？！(“Kero-chan, what the hell!?”)

The cast finished up at that point and thanked everyone for watching. Then they said “You gave us an Easter photo together with you, so we will give you a present also!”

Suddenly, tons of paper stickers/notes from the cast began falling from the ceiling! I think they were egg shaped, but it was hard to tell because I was in the very back. They fell into the audience and a few lucky people got them. Some people rushed out of their seats to get the ones that had fallen into the aisles.

Some of the “gifts” fell onto the stage too, so Ogata-san and Tange-san helped pick them up and give them out to people in the audience. Ogata-san was really awesome and shouted out “Are there any little Sakura-chans in here!?” and called for any kids present to come up and get the stickers. One very happy little girl came running up and received one directly from Ogata-san. After that, she asked if there was anyone present who had been at both the afternoon and evening performances (I think there might have been a couple people).

After handing the remaining gifts out, all of the seiyuu thanked the audience again and left the stage together.

#5) Live Musical Performances

Maaya Sakamoto

Next, they introduced a special video message from Maaya Sakamoto on screen, who unfortunately couldn’t be at the event because it overlapped with her own international tour dates. In the message, she said she was so happy to sing “Clear” as the theme song.

The show runners gave her the theme of “clear things” for her to use for direction when writing her song. She explained that the word “clear” has multiple meanings: “transparent” or "definite and precise” or "to succeed with a goal”, so she wanted to write a song with all of these meanings rolled into one.

She let us know that she was so happy to be part of CCS again and although she wasn’t there, her colleague Saori Hayami was and would be joining us as the representative today.

Saori Hayami

The emcee came out with Hayami-san and said that as the second half of the season would be starting the next week, it was time to pass the baton over to the new OP and ED singers.

Hayami-san explained that everyone has little things that shine in their hearts and are like “Jewelry of the Heart.” After her explanation, she gave a live performance of the “Jewelry” ED.

To be honest (and I hate to say this), but I didn’t think that Hayami-san was very energetic in her performance. She seemed a little lacking in enthusiasm and just walked one circle around the stage, but as always the song itself was very nice.

While she performed, they played clips of the anime on the screen and showed the Jewelry ED clips as well. At the very, very end, they FINALLY revealed what Sakura had seen on her smartphone at the end of the ED (where she’s showing Tomoyo and Kero and they all smile): It was the “photo” they just took earlier that day on April 1st -- the official artwork for Sakura Fes this year.

The text message she had gotten read “Thank you for taking a photo with us!”

When the performance ended, the emcee came back out and thanked her. She reiterated that they were “passing the baton from next week.”

Kiyono Yasuno

Kiyono Yasuno and Minori Suzuki came out on stage. Suzuki-san had changed her clothes from earlier to red outfit and yellow shoes. The emcee introduced each of them and they talked about CCS and what they liked about it.

Yasuno-san said she’s watched CCS for a really long time. The very first time was when she was really young and her grandpa watched it with her. To her, it was like a dream being chosen to sing the new OP and that this was her first single.

The emcee asked who they thought was “cool / good-looking” from the series. Hayami-san said that she thought Yukito and Eriol were attractive. Yasuno-san had watched the CCS syndication in elementary school too and was the same age as Sakura through it. Because of that, she thought Syaoran was the coolest guy. Suzuki-san also thought the same.

Hayami-san then “passed the baton” and they left the stage to let Yasuno-san perform Rocket Beat.

It was my first time (and all of the audience’s too) to hear Rocket Beat and right away I thought it was an awesome song. It really seemed fitting for CCS. In addition, Yasuno-san was super energetic and gave a very spirited performance. She was actively all over the stage. As before, her performance was also synced up with scenes from recent anime episodes.

When she finished, Suzuki-san came back on stage and the figuratively “passed the baton” again.

Minori Suzuki

Suzuki-san is in charge of the new ED “Rewind” and also gave a really awesome performance. The song was super cute and (as everyone knows by now) clock themed.

She did motions of the clock while performing, syncing up with the “Tick Tock, Tick Tock” lyrics. More clips from the series played, but nothing new to that point.

#6) Closing Out the Event

When Suzuki-san finished her song, the whole cast came back out on stage. The staff then wheeled out a birthday cake again in front of Tange-san - just like last year. Once again, the audience sang Happy Birthday to Sakura and Tange-san blew out the candles.

They talked about what birthday this would be for Sakura, and Tange-san confirmed that this would be Sakura’s 13th birthday. She then said “These past 20 years – Ahhh! I mean... it’s been 20 years but Sakura’s not 20! She’s definitely 13!” and laughed.

They showed an image of the cake on screen and it was the one that was currently being sold by Animate. They then said it was time to close out the event and the audience started groaning, so the emcee had to apologize for how “short” the event was.

Everyone said their goodbyes, starting with Yasuno-san. She said it was a dream come true to sing the theme song for an anime she had loved so much as a child and that exactly one year ago on April 1st she had started her singing career. She promoted her first single (a mini album came out just before this).

Hayami-san said her Thank You’s next for everyone enjoying Jewelry.

Hanae-san was third, saying “I will do my best, and from here on it’s going to be Akiho Akiho Akiho taking center stage!”

In response, Suzuki-san said “I will do my best and so will Kaito-san! I’ve loved this anime so much! Last year at this time, I was wondering ‘who is going to play Akiho’ and never thought that it would be me!!” She said she feels so lucky to be both a seiyuu and the singer of the second ED for the series.

Ogata-san was next, but was caught off guard and sort of spaced out. But she said thank you to everyone for all their support. She said that at last year’s Sakura Fes, they found out really soon after it ended there would be another one this year. So she shouted out to all of us “that means THERE SHOULD BE ANOTHER ONE NEXT YEAR RIGHT (EVENT SPONSORS)??”. She said that even in this industry, it’s super rare for the whole cast to come back for a show’s reboot and that really demonstrates how beloved CCS is.

She passed the mic to Kumai-san - who was also spaced out and wasn’t paying attention again. But she also said thank you to everyone.

Next was Iwao-san who said thank you and did a mini-voice over of Tomoyo saying 超絶によかったですわ！(“It was absolutely fantastic!”).

Hisakawa-san was next, and like Ogata-san, she said that last year she got a call about a week or so after Sakura Fes ended asking her to save the date for this one. She said “I mean, after today, I’m sure that just a few days will pass and then I'm sure I'll get another call… Hahaha! You guys want another one right!?” and everyone cheered.

Finally, it was Tange-san’s turn and she said they almost made it through the whole thing without a "Kero-chan Check.” At last year’s event, they always seemed to come out of nowhere and no one ever knew when to expect it. She begged Hisakawa-san to do one and Hisakawa-san laughed. She got a bit shy and was like “For real???” but in the end shouted “KERO-CHAN CHEEECK!” as Kero. Tange-san then thanked everyone for their support and for loving Cardcaptor Sakura. She hopes everyone will continue to love it in the future and bowed.

The cast came out into the circle stage to say one final goodbye and then they waved and departed the stage from both sides of the main stage. The emcee left last after deep bow. The Jewelry ED came on the big screen and played through to the end.

After the song finished, the Kero and Suppie mascots once again rose out of the platform floor. BOTH of them were wearing rabbit ears this time. Kero-chan started to talk about how awesome it was that he grew another pair of ears too.

Suppie had a new card this time that read “Just say what you have to say!” so Kero started talking at super-sonic speed thanking the cast and staff in batches:

The singers

The companies that made it possible

The seiyuu

And said thanks to all of us for watching him be awesome every week

He said to tune in next week for the start of the second half of the season, and also to keep watching him be so awesome in the Kero-chan’s Corner segments. Suppie violently shook the sign!! lol!

Then gave one last “thank you” to the audience and brought the event to a close, saying “We definitely kicked up even more of a fuss than ‘some place’ that’s right next door” (again, Tokyo Disney lol).

The platform lowered, bringing them back down underneath the stage, and just as they disappeared there was another final “Kero-chan cheeeeck!” shouted. The lights went off and then came back on with the ending announcements.

As I was leaving, I made a friend who was a big fan of Suzuki-san from when she was in Macross and had only just recently started watching CCS because of her. This fan had only seen Clear Card Arc so far, so I said to definitely watch the rest of the series!

I hope if there’s another Sakura Fes next year, I’ll have the chance to go again. :)

以上、さくらフェス2018の報告でした！(That’s all folks!)

#cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #cardcaptor sakura clear card arc #card captor sakura clear card arc #clear card arc #sakura festa 2018 #sakura fest 2018 #sakura fes 2018 #sakura festival 2018 #sakura tange #junko iwao #aya hisakawa #motoko kumai #megumi ogata #minori suzuki #natsuki hanae #maaya sakamoto #saori hayami #kiyono yasuno

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steamishot · 5 years ago

Text

End of July

i think i’ll be starting my period sometime in the next 24 hours. my friend who i am synced with just started hers this morning. tomorrow, i am using a sick day to go to to dentist. my dentist is in san gabriel- a 20 minute drive east of my home. in the past, i would only take a half day, but then i thought, why am i stressing and rushing myself to go to work when i have all these sick hours. even more so when there’s not much pending at work. so, i plan on going to the dentist in the morning, having lunch in the area, then coming home and painting my living room and kitchen. my dad asked one of his home depot contacts to come work for us lol. i’ll be taping and painting along with him tomorrow so the job gets done faster. just came back from home depot earlier and bought two gallons of shiny luster paint- the same shade and sheen as my room. i also bought a darker grey to paint the borders for contrast. hopefully it looks good. a few weeks ago, our gallon full of coins got topped off. my mom would sit and individually package the coins into the sleeves banks provide whenever we wanted to exchange the coins for cash- this would take her nearly half a day. not sure why we never used coinstar before, but we finally did it. i learned that its an 11% fee if you exchange the coins for cash, but there is no fee when you exchange for a gift card. so, with one gallon full of coins, we got about $350 total- i put about half on a home depot gift card, and half on an amazon gift card. it was funny/so coincidental today that our total came out to be exactly 2 dollars less of our home depot gift card (my dad also had things to buy and we weren’t computing the costs).

events this past weekend: friend’s going away party. she received a scholarship from fullbright- which is a prestigious academic award to represent the US in international affairs. i didn’t realize how honorable it was til today and previously saw it as another “teach english abroad” opportunity. we ate at roe seafood in long beach. i thought the food was pretty bomb- i’d give it a 7/10. however, the more i ate of my scallop porcini pasta- the more water i had to drink. taste wise it was definitely there, but the cheese/carb combo was so damn heavy. i liked the group and it felt easy/natural to socialize (also because i was sitting in between my good friends b and s). in my last blog, i was venting about b, but i realize in the grand scheme of things- the little things i get annoyed by don’t matter. she continued to do the things i got ticked off by over text, but instead of getting irritated, i tried to teach myself to be loving and forgiving and think- she’s not me, i’m not her, don’t think that what i think is the “right” way of doing things is actually right. we had a nice time together that night. good vibes throughout.

watched lion king with my mom, grandma, bro and wife. i went into the movie having low expectations due to what everyone else was saying, but i enjoyed it. the fact that we got to live through seeing the cartoon version in 1994 to seeing it full in CGI in 2019 is incredible. i love the storyline of lion king. the scene where mufasa dies always gets me. i had to hold back tears during the emotional parts of the movie lol.

matt’s free time is decreasing and decreasing. he now has to work 6 days a week. he’s at work before i wake up, and still at work after i’m off work. on a GOOD day, he’ll only be at the hospital for about 13 hours, on a bad day, maybe 16 :(. he also has to study outside of work as they have monthly exams. saturday was his one day off during the week and it was kinda sad lol. he has one day to catch up on sleep and he’s too tired to do anything else. he tells me that he doesn’t have time to drink water at work, let alone use the restroom. his lunch consists of downing a soylent. his hospital is severely understaffed and he is doing nurses’ duties (drawing blood, patient care taking). he normally calls me right after he gets off work. i get to talk to him for about an hour or so, while he’s prepping dinner and eating. he then goes shower and gets ready to sleep and i get to see him again for a few minutes before he sleeps. i feel lucky that i’m the one he wants to talk to and see every day. i hope i brighten up his day, as he keeps saying he’s “dying” lol. when he didn’t match into a residency program, he was depressed. now that he’s in residency, it’s also depressing (but at least there is an end in sight). apparently the second and third year residents are super jaded and negative. i wouldn’t be surprised if he became like that in a year lol. on saturday, he called me right before i was going to shower. so i told him that i’ll call him back afterwards. as i got out of the shower, i saw a message from him saying - take your time, i’m gonna go shower too. so i took my time and started getting ready for the going away dinner. he called me 10-15 later and was like “you didn’t call me back!” there was something so satisfying about him being needy and clingy LOL. he’s naturally an independent cerebral person so i love it when he is needy.

saturday night at like 1am, i got a random text from L asking me about relationship stuff. coincidentally, i couldn’t sleep cus your girl would have been dead asleep by 11 any other day. i’m happy that she felt comfortable enough to reach out to me and share her feelings. i learned that we both are perfectionistic, have unrealistically high expectations, and are quite sensitive. she cares a lot about how others/her friends perceive her relationship. she shared with me an instance where her bf came off a bit rude to her in front of her friends and she felt “very disappointed” in him. if i place myself in her shoes, i can understand why she felt hurt. and if its an reoccurring thing, then i’m sure the pain is stronger. however, being “very disappointed” in your partner for being human is stressful for both you and them because you set unrealistic standards for the relationship. she wasn’t able to let it go and gave the incident more attention than it needed. from hearing her story, i basically saw my problems in someone else. it makes me realize how silly and crazy i am sometimes in making mountains out of molehills. i used to think that it was good to have high standards for your partner, and i often felt disappointed by my last partner. i think it reflected more on myself than him- my needs weren’t being met, i wasn’t happy in the relationship, i stayed with an incompatible partner, etc. having “high” standards is only valuable if the standards are attainable and something that can be worked towards.

i feel very happy with my current partner. being away from him for almost two months now has allowed me time to reflect on us and myself. i’m way more forgiving with the distance, and considerate about his new schedule and circumstance. in my last relationship, i started seeing the flaws around 8/9 month mark. and if i was smart and experienced enough, i would have realized those were dealbreakers (because in the end, i broke up with him for the same reasons). coming up on 9 months with matt, i feel secure and that our issues are small issues. we’re able to get along and have similar values and ideals.

his words can sometimes come off harsh but i’ve gotten used to it and actually really appreciate him being honest and constructive with me. a week or so before he left, i was hanging out in his room. i forgot what we were talking about before but he said, “you would be much much prettier if you worked out. not that you don’t look good now, but you would look better if you worked out.” i was a little bothered by that at first, but realized he is 100% correct. i never paid attention to my body much before- but skinny fat is not a good look or feel. my bikini pics in hawaii were meh lol i was flabby, weak and out of shape. i started working out recently with dumbbells and find it so fun- more efficient work out than without any equipment. working out also helps my face maintain its shape. i realized in the past months my face started looking more bloated and fat. i’ve even received comments from two of my older friends - “you got fatter. but just in your face.” i was never mindful of how my diet and exercise routine affected how i looked. which is really dumb as a human lol. i kinda wish i was more athletic when i was younger because i’m almost just starting from scratch now. however, i am grateful that i was at least somewhat active (hiking here and there, walking, leisurely workouts) in the last few years. so, he helped me gain weight to be at a normal range (this is the heaviest i’ve been my whole life). now it’s my job to tone myself. i’ve been saying this for some time, but i’m getting more cognizant about fitness which will help the consistency.

throughout our time together, he’s only lost his patience/raised his voice a little twice during arguments. the last time he did actually helped so much in putting me in my place. he is very smart and makes pretty good arguments sometimes haha. the last time, it made me realize that it’s better to nourish my relationship rather than bring drama into it. since then, i’ve thought twice about bringing up small issues that i can learn to let go. i love that he pushes and inspires me to be better and to be hardworking. and i’m glad i’m pretty receptive to his ideas.

i read old conversations with my past partner today. it was super cringy. i come off as cold, inquisitive, and serious and he comes off as immature, emotional and uninterested in my thoughts. even reading through our messages now i felt the frustration i felt when i was talking to him then. i felt i was always trying to change him into the person i wanted him to become. i saw the potential but i didnt see the person he was. to me, he was gross, trashy and had many insecurities. the more separated i am from it, the more i am disgusted with myself for choosing that lol. however, i am grateful for what he taught me, which was what attracted me to him in the first place- how to be intimate emotionally and physically, how to talk about feelings, how to communicate, how to talk about more difficult subjects, how to bring up issues, how to understand what i’m feeling, etc.

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