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neshabeingchildish · 5 years ago

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League of Extraordinary Geniuses || Chapter 8

@verified-dumbass @just-a-j-reallly @kiddangers @poppyville

I hope that everybody has been doing well. This chapter isn’t as long as the previous, but that’s mostly because these have been running together, and I’ve been trying to find stopping points for them. I wanted to fully get through this emotional journey that Charlotte is taking the guys on while she figures some things out and after I have the chance to do that, we’ll get back to the action and premise. This was a little bit of a fun break from some of that, even though it is very much so a Max stress chapter, Max is a person that doesn’t wear his upset on his sleeve.Let me know what you’re thinking. I’ve still got notes, but I’m running out of them. Lol.

The Way I Danced with You

This was possibly the best tea that Chase had ever tasted in his life. Max didn’t order tea. He ordered a smoothie and added in a bunch of things that like… why didn’t he just get dessert? All of the sugar content couldn’t be good for him, plus… He mentioned planning on drinking later. How was he able to keep that physique and excel in hero duties with all of the sweets and alcohol he partook in? Chase didn’t do stuff like that. He made sure that his body was as immaculate as humanly possible. But tea would often be one of his guilty pleasures… Not that tea wasn’t healthy, but he ordered for taste and aroma, not so much the medical or spiritual purposes that Charlotte usually adhered to. He wondered how she was doing with “her guys.” He wondered if their presence at the cottage had made the difference that Max once hoped for with those guys. He wondered what it would be like whenever they reunited…

“Okay, so, we gotta go shopping. Gotta get some Dystopia clothes to wear and some supplies for the robot research. Then, it’s to the library, because there’s an entry way into Charlotte’s lab there and that’s the closest and easiest one to access. I’ve gotta look over the potential genius pool results for minions and get them started on one of my side projects, while I have the down time. Gonna swing through Maxtropolis and check in with Marx and Dougie - you can stay in the car if you need to…”

“I’ll be fine,” Chase said, but even thinking about it made him tense.

Max brushed it off and continued, “Probably will be around lunchtime. So, gonna do that at The Bionic Brothel…”

“Brothel???” Chase repeated, clearly horrified.

“Relax! It’s a soup saloon.” His eyes grew misty as he stared into the distance, “There’s nothing else in the world like their soup selection.” Chase glanced towards where Max was staring off into the distance and this brought him back to the conversation, “And, they’ve got cool soup selections and other stuff too, so even though it’s hot outside, you could still enjoy something. One of the biokids Char plucked from your dad’s island opened it up about a year ago. It’s a bionic owned business with a bionic staff, with the exception of a few regular servers. Hostess is an android… Or was. I don’t know the status of the ones that were living life before this hellstorm…”

Now, it was on both their minds again, but Max found his voice to say, “And after that, check in with Charlotte to see if she needs anything, and if not, head back to the Super Stay to wash up and get ready to go to Dance Off Revolution.”

“What… what is Dance Off Revolution?”

“You really have got to get to Dystopia more often!”

“Something that 16 year old me never could have imagined anyone would ever say…”

“Dance Off Revolution is an underground club where dance crews have battles and soloists try out for crews.”

“Are you suggesting that we try to join a dance crew?” Chase asked, a little bit more excited than he intended to sound, but Max froze and looked at him with equal excitement.

“I wasn’t, but the tone in your question tells me that I was wrong! Hell yeah, we’ll try out for a dance crew!”

Chase smiled, cheerfully, then collected his thoughts, “Wait a minute, we can’t try out for a dance crew. We don’t have time to join a dance crew! We’re only here for a few days or so.”

“You don’t do things JUST TO SAY that you did it?” Max asked incredulously.

“I mean…” Chase smiled brightly again and gushed, “YES!”

“Oh man, I am gonna destroy you on that dance floor!”

Chase furrowed his eyebrows. For some reason, in his mind, they were about to do a thing together, not face off. But at merely the suggestion that Max could defeat him didn’t sour his mood. It made him competitive, “In your dreams Super Kid.”

Max’s eyes grew wide, “It is SO on!” He started mumbling something about, “Thinks he can defeat me in a dance battle? This boy don’t even know Beyonce’s catalog and thinks he can beat me in a…”

“What does Beyonce have to do with dancing?” Chase asked.

Max almost crashed the car, then came to a screeching halt. People were honking their horns as he collected himself. “Tell me… that you just did NOT…”

“We are in the middle of the street…” Chase said, nervously, and mouthed apologies to angrily passing vehicles.

“That’s like asking what Usher has to do with dancing!” Chase narrowed his eyes, not wanting to ask it out loud, but Max read his face, clenched both of his fists and yelled, “YOU’RE WONDERING WHAT USHER HAS TO DO WITH DANCING, AREN’T YOU???” Max shook his head and started driving again, making a very illegal U turn. “Plans are cancelled until further notice. You have to be schooled in the Church of Usher.”

“Is that another Dystopia landmark that the tourists don’t usually hear about.”

Through his teeth, Max chimed, “It is a lifestyle choice.” He turned on an Usher playlist and headed for his friend’s house.

Simone was giggling about Max Thunderman being in her dance studio, in front of the mirrored walls, showing Chase Davenport Usher choreography. It was extremely unexpected and cute. She loved this so much. AND they gave her permission to put any of the clips she recorded on her stories for the Kickbutt Dance Studios Company page. By the time they finished, Chase knew every Usher song with the choreography and was in the best mood that Max had ever seen the guy in. He took a call from Mr. Davenport while Simone and Max talked.

“So… This your new romance prospect?” She wondered.

Max furrowed his eyebrows, “What? Are you joking?”

Simone looked confused, “You asked me to open my studio for you to share Usher with him and danced for hours. You put together a routine for Dance Off Revolution! …If that isn’t a date, then I don’t know what is. Anyways, you like teacup people with bright eyes.”

“SHUT UP! I do not!” He did, but. He already had a teacup person with bright eyes. Charlotte.

Simone laughed and shrugged her shoulders, “I guess…” She looked towards Chase, then said in a lower voice to Max, “Just, be careful around the bionics. I don’t know. He seems nice and all, but they’re… they’ve brought a lot of controversy and contempt into our world.”

Max didn’t expect to defend Chase, but it flowed out naturally. It wasn’t even because he felt connected to him or that they had bonded over dance. He just knew that the things that people thought about Chase were probably misconstrued, after having spent some time with him. “I know that, but he isn’t like that.”

“Kaz seemed to think so,” she said.

“Do you ALL know each other???” Chase asked, coming back over.

“Pretty much,” they both said.

Chase fussed, “And why is Kaz ALWAYS talking to someone about me? Jeesh.”

Simone wasn’t EVEN going to get on that subject. “Look… I know you did a lot for the supers whenever the war started, and as someone who could’ve potentially been slaughtered, that definitely means a lot. I just still take issue with the fact that bionics are comfortable with taking the credit for supers’ successes.”

“The supers have told us that they don’t want your world uncovered,” Chase said. “I guess your buddy Kaz leaves that part out when he’s keeping a personal journal about my life.”

“That was years ago, my dude. People know that we’re here now, and yet bionics are still seen as heroes while we’re seen as freaks. The difference being because you guys are just nonsupes with technology and we were born this way. You can’t remove our abilities and that makes nonsupes dehumanize and demonize us. As someone who knows and works with us and even fought alongside of us, I would think you’d be more vocal about exposing the truth. No other bionic person has the platform that you do.” She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Just something to think about. Personally, I never really wanted to be a hero. I love being stationed in Dystopia. The Defenders do most of the work and I was able to open my own dance studio! So, I’m not insulted on behalf of heroes. I just watched my mom bust her buns to be a hero and never get to let the world know, and now that the world is evolving and slowly making room for supers, I think it’s important that our importance in history and in today’s formation is esteemed, as well.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Chase nodded his head, until Max tried to answer for him. “Well, it’s not really his platform, so he can’t just start making statements about supers.”

“Who’s platform is it?”

“His dad’s.”

“I don’t know his dad.”

“His dad’s in charge. He’s just the poster boy.”

“Wait a minute!” Chase interrupted.

“Say no more. I know how that is. I was the Super President’s daughter coming up. No platform of my own to be found.”

“I have a platform!” Chase insisted.

Max smirked, “Yeah, that Daddy controls. Excuse me, Mr. Davenport…”

“I can put whatever I choose on my platform!” Chase fussed.

“Okay,” Max said, rolling his eyes, then laughed when Chase pouted about things. A few more minutes, and they were finally off to do the things that Max intended to do before. Chase remained pouting. Max drowned out his sighs and groans with more Usher. Chase tried to resist moving along to the music. He couldn’t, but he definitely was able to hold his glare.

By the time they were shopping, he lightened up, but the implication that he couldn’t speak for himself because he represented Davenport Industries would continue to bother him. He picked up the tab, because he knew he had more money than Max did and he did feel like he owed him for being pretty generous with stuff like cooking breakfast and offering beverages and stuff. They would be working together and he had to get used to treating him like a person that he was considerate of. Super Stay was a hotel that supers tended to stay in, though there was other clientele.

They were in the Maximus Suite, and the place had a bionic chamber. Chase was impressed with it. It wasn’t like the one that Charlotte kept for him, but it was pretty good for a hotel. Dystopia was extremely accommodating, now that he was visiting. He didn’t want to tell Max that he had quarters in the city, because Max was pretty comfortable with this arrangement of them being in the same suite and he didn’t want to seem ungrateful or rude.

Once they were cleaned up and changed, they met in the common area of the suite and Max announced, “Sure you’re gonna be alright seeing Marx?”

“I’m not a baby, Max.”

“Okay. Well… it’s closer than the library now, so there first, maybe get soup with Dougie and then the library. He’ll probably wanna look over Char’s robot stuff anyways,” Max said.

As they headed out, Chase wondered, “Are you two like… really close?”

Max thought for a moment, then said, “Well… I think so. Something that my family never really realized about my villainous days was that I was missing something. I thought that there was no way that I could ever be as good a hero as my sister and I had a pet villain to motivate me in other directions. My parents never supported me unless I did something they approved of and well… I felt like I found what I was looking for in Dr. Colosso… and I mean, I ultimately made the right decision but I was so close to the darkness. Douglas went into the darkness and when he came out, he'd lost his family. Sure, he was able to get back in, but he still missed out on so much and can't fix what he's done. I empathize. I didn't go as far as he did, and if I had, who knows? My family might not trust me. It could have gone so much worse. Dougie helps me to remember to be grateful and I help him to have a connection with a son like figure that he can relate to. There's mutual understanding and appreciation that we haven't exactly been able to get from our loved ones that have never did the dance in the darkness that we've done."

Chase didn't want to talk about why he didn't trust Douglas fully or the tension and resentment he still felt, after years of work and trying, but, one thing was still true, "I'm glad he's got someone like that."

“He would trade me for one of his own in a heartbeat,” Max said, with a shrug, though the thought of Douglas ever turning on him shook him deeply. He was around when Colosso died… And honestly… he was the only person who was at all helpful. He… wanted to reanimate him as an android bunny, which no… I didn’t want to do, but I sure appreciated his desire to help me cope.”

“Bunny?” Chase repeated.

“I’ll explain later. Anyway, yeah… Dougie and I are close. He’s basically me, if I was old and lonely.”

“Lonely? With you, Charlotte, and Charlotte’s weird little friend?” Chase asked.

“Wow. You’re just gonna disrespect Schwoz that way? Yes. Even with a few friends, Douglas is still lonely. He doesn’t even get to be fun uncle to Naomi.”

“More and more, it’s sounding like you just hang out with him because you feel bad for him. Scared that you’ll turn out that way?” Chase joked. Now, it was Max’s turn to frown.

“Maybe,” he muttered. Probably, he couldn’t get himself to admit out loud.

“So, you ready to help me to create a whole new Dystopia?”

“I’m ready to watch your back while YOU create a whole new Dystopia.”

“That works!”

Thunderstrike smiled at Charlotte, his mask hiding half of his face, but not the eyes - old school style, as was the case with the heroes of his bloodline. That and a cape. He was ready to be the hero that she needed to do whatever it was she had to do.

Charlotte was it for Max. He’d made that up in his mind before he ever met her. Sure, he’d done this before (with Cheyanne), but with Charlotte, it was different. First off - he apparently was drawn to her, because he admired her in each form she had, not even knowing she was the same person. And then, they became friends, and then he relocated to Dystopia during the height of its crime and then… he felt validation.

She finally was starting to see him for who he was and he’d hoped, for who he could be to her. At that time, she’d been away for over a year and doing a lot. He could tell that she wasn’t as connected to her former partners as before. He could tell that she cared for him, maybe not as much, but enough for it to matter to her… enough for him to matter, for THEM to MATTER!

The Super Stay wasn’t around yet, so he had a cabin on the campsite of the shelter he used to bring supplies for (Henry and Jasper’s shelter), and it was cozy and had every amenity needed, but sometimes, he wanted a bath. It was hard to get used to not soaking before he showered, and Charlotte was staying in the fancy place that Mr. Davenport provided, so whenever he’d mentioned this particular inconvenience, she suggested that he could do that at her place. Most of the time, she was either at work or at Henry and Jasper’s (which she was still calling “home” at the time), so she gave him the extra key and told him to make himself comfortable.

He wasn’t going to impose. He just wanted to soak and think before he showered. Nothing else. Only, whenever he came over to do so, Charlotte was always there, despite having claimed that she was never really there. “Guess I just have bad timing,” he joked.

“Or good timing,” she said, with a bright smile and went to retrieve a pair of pants. She was just wearing panties and a crop top sweatshirt, with her locs tied up in a scarf. She didn’t seem uncomfortable with him seeing her that way, or maybe she presumed that he’d turn his head when he realized that she wasn’t decent… Or maybe, and he didn’t want to presume, but couldn’t help it, maybe she’d wanted him to see her like this. She pulled on the tight fighting, snug leisure pants and headed into her bathroom… where HE was about to go. “So, this is where the towels are,” she told him and he followed her voice, gasped when he saw how wondrous the bathroom looked, before even making it to the walk in linen closet, which was full, not only with towels, but soaps, skin products, dental hygiene supplies, etc, and had a little computer on the side. “This is Madame. If you’ve ever seen the episode of Fly Homes with the Dom, that computer system that he calls Eddy, this is like that, but for here and she isn’t obnoxious. She’ll help you with anything you need to set the tone. Oatmeal, honey, milk, tea, whatever you wanna add to the bath. The pressure of the rinse… All the details. You can program your preferences under your name.” She started showing him how.

It was dope. He stayed for a while, laying in the tub, not realizing how much he’d needed this and also hating the fact that he didn’t have such a fancy set up in his house. He’d have to change that at some point… But, that night, he simply rested and soaked, then showered and whenever he came out, ready to go home, Charlotte was closing her laptop, having just finished all of her assignments, and she smiled at him. “Nightcap?” She wondered.

Of course he wasn’t going to leave. He didn’t plan on staying all night, but as it turned out, back then, it took less liquor to make her worry about him driving. So, after a few drinks and long conversations about their current projects and stuff, she let him sleep on the couch and she went to bed.

They had so many nights like that, the first time that he showed up and she in fact wasn’t there, he was sorely disappointed. He went into the bath, put on an eye mask and soaked, steam coming off of everything.

It was a while before he felt like he heard something and sensed someone there. He pulled off the mask and Charlotte was standing in the doorway, trying to quietly back out. She laughed at herself and shook her head, “Sorry. I didn’t realize that you were in here. I was gonna try to leave unnoticed.”

“No, no… This is your bathroom. Do what ya gotta do.” He put the mask back on and rested against the bath pillow. She bit her lip, but came into the room and sat on the toilet. She turned on some music because, maybe it’d be better if he couldn’t hear her peeing. She noticed his hand tapping the side of the tub to the beat of the music and was relieved when he didn’t react to her extremely loud piss. Like… she was only aware right now how loud it was. Was it ALWAYS that loud? She hugged herself, sighed and let out some gas. She groaned and quickly said, “I am so sorry.” She said it almost under her breath, because finding her voice in the midst of that shame was difficult.

“For being a human with bodily functions?” He asked, from beneath the mask, and then added, “In your own house?”

Usually she’d remind him that this isn’t her house and that whenever her stay here was over the Dom was gonna use it for something else, but that night, she just laughed at herself, cleaned off with the bidet and left the bathroom.

The next time that they were both there, she was now more comfortable with stepping in on him, since she knew that he didn’t care, and she really wanted to do what she needed to do and get out of there. They bumbled around each other for a while, trying to be polite, but also to hurry. Max had an early morning and had to get to sleep. Charlotte had a date for the first time “in ages” with Henry and Jasper. It was controlled chaos and they laughed their way through it, and moved along.

Only�� Charlotte spent the majority of her date thinking about Max and what was happening with them. How comfortable she was getting with someone who wasn’t Henry or Jasper… how… attached she was feeling. Max spent the entire night awake in bed, willing her to be somewhere thinking of him too. That wasn’t to say he believed that could happen, but the possibility of him being the only one who’s night was overtaken by emotions and thoughts just didn’t sit well with him.

After that… they were solid. Neither of them mentioned it for a time, but Charlotte began to stay home more (calling her Davenport property home, by this time) and he began to stay over a lot.

Jasper was upset. He didn’t feel like it was appropriate. “This friendship of yours is going too far,” he’d complained. Only to be overruled by Charlotte’s iconic, “You think that’s the farthest that I, of all people, can go?” and Henry quickly smoothed things over with, “I think it’d be cute. One of these days one of us was bound to like somebody else and want to explore. It’s Charlotte, so the most sensible of us and the one with the most moral fiber. That’s a good start for a relationship soft open.”

Soft open. She didn’t know if she liked that description, but further conversation led them to a conversation about opening up their relationship, but only with open communication about it.

At 21, she didn’t have all of the answers. Even people who lived poly lifestyles and people in open relationships all had their own ways of doing it and she didn’t know which way was right. She was still learning herself at that time and to learn yet ANOTHER man seemed excessive, but it was Max. She knew that things were mutual. She knew that she could do this and she believed that she would enjoy it.

Whenever she next came in to find him in the bath, listening to something vibey - Jhene or Sza or something - eyes shut and head leaned back, she removed what she had on and joined. He stirred, but didn’t visibly panic whenever her toes touched the water. His eyes opened and seeing her settle in, her stared, but didn’t want to ruin whatever was happening, so he didn’t question her and he didn’t say anything. She sorta wished he did, even though she had no explanation for her bold actions. All she did was shift around through the bubbles and find her way to his chest. She laid on him and felt his arms move to wrap her up. He kissed her forehead and they didn’t say anything about it.

When they got out of the bath and he started the shower, she began her skin and hair routine. He got out, teeth were brushed, bodies moisturized, etc. Finally, the silence was broken, when he pointed his thumb and wondered, “Should I go to the couch?” She shook her head, took his hand, and guided him into the bedroom. That was the FIRST night that he slept in her bed.

“I don’t think you’ll end up that way,” Chase broke into his thoughts. “You’re someone who cares about others at this point in your life… I don’t know that I can say Douglas was that way at your age. You turned things around sooner, and made a good difference earlier in life. You’ve got similar feelings about your adolescent stages, but everything else, save maybe poor taste in fashion, is all different. You won’t end up like Douglas. You even have people who love you,” Chase said. He slapped a hand awkwardly on Max’s shoulder, and patted him stiffly.

“Are you trying to open up to me about your true feelings, Bionic Boy?”

Chase scoffed and removed his hand, “As if! I wasn’t even entirely genuine! You’re a lot like Douglas and both of you have terrible wardrobe. And feelings? For you? Gross!” Chase’s flustered stammering made Max laugh. But also, Chase was right. The first time. He wouldn’t end up with work friends and a few flings. He’d be happy someday with somebody who loved him and wanted him. Unfortunately, for Max… Charlotte was it.

#Henry Danger #Lab Rats #The Thundermans #Chasing Thunderbolts Fic #League of Extraordinary Geniuses #LOEG Update #Nesha Fics #Multiverse Fics

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faresramettas · 5 years ago

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share the love con panels

thought i’d write down some interesting answers from the cast (there were many more, but i have a bad memory and i took only a few notes)

first of all, before the panels even started the staff told us not to ask questions about season four, we know they are filming it, but they can’t talk about it. so yeah, our hopes and dreams of an announcement or besse making a surprise appearance (🤡) didn’t come true. they never talked about it, when you mentioned it to them they raised their hands or zipped their mouths or were like “idk what u’re talking about 👀😇😬” so obviously they contractually have to keep their mouths shut. but it’s happening y’all!

the only one who slipped, at the very last panel, was rocco and i was the culprit lol. i asked them if they’d imagined the fandom would support them and fight so hard during the cancellation months and bea said no, seeing our hashtags trending almost every day and receiving so much love was touching and incredible. she made rocco talk (mentioned how “he became saint rocco”) and rocco also said he couldn’t imagine the amount of support, and that “the power is all in your hands, and it was worth it-“ and then realized he spoke too much dhshdhfvk the others side-eyed him and he was like “ops” but we all laughed and moved on.

pietro had a lgbtq+ themed panel with an italian youtuber called shanti. they talked a lot about representation, how it changed for the better in the last 20 years or so, how for example right now there’s attention being given to trans* storylines too, and pietro made some really good points about how a show like skam italia should give hope and a positive representation to a young audience, without unnecessary violence or struggles inserted just for tragedy’s sake. how it may seem that martino lives an “easy” and relatively painless experience coming out and being gay, at least in his season, but young queer people should hope and know that that’s possible for them too. he said that he and filippo are different, and it’s good and precious that they are. we don’t know if filippo is an activist, like pietro is, but sometimes sharing one’s personal experience is enough to help. even if filo is not shown as an activist, he is so aware of his identity, he shares his own experience and point of view with marti and it gives marti courage. and that’s enough. finally, i asked what his favorite lgbtq+ tv shows are and he said queer as folk (he realized he was gay thanks to qaf), he absolutely loved euphoria, and thinks sense8 is a masterpiece (but he didn’t finish it smh). he said elite is just cute (😤) and he also told another fan he finished and loved fleabag!!

i also asked pietro what he, besse, rocco and fede were doing in the carrefour parking lot that night in august and he said that supermarket is open 24h and close to his house and he had to go buy groceries so he caught two birds with one stone, called them up and they drank and ate tramezzini (cold sandwiches, besse got a burrito he said) in the parking lot... and yes, they were organizing the revolution.

fede said what he likes the most about martino is his devotion to the people he loves. what he doesn’t like is how sometimes he shuts out the rest of the world, but it’s a problem he has learned to solve.

rocco said he’s thankful that skam italia has given him more awareness on some topics he used to treat superficially. he also talked about how much he relied on ludo and his research to portray bpd respectfully, and he’s glad that people found themselves represented in nico and that he could help them. it’s the greatest compliment. his eyes shine when he talks about nico, he loves his character so much.

a fan asked what was their favorite line to say. rocco’s is “non è figo il mio tipo?”, greta’s is “gli dei sono immortali”, nicholas’s is “sei frocio?”, pietro’s is “l’acqua solo se mi prende fuoco camera” from season 3, fede said “does it have to be my line? cause i like no zì sbagliato” but for his own it’s “minuto per minuto”. i can’t remember bea’s 😭

greta said the girls tend to stick to the script a lot more than the boys, she said ludovico tersigni literally never says a line how it’s written. nicholas confirmed that the boys (contrabbandieri) tend to improvise more and use the script sort of as a base, and that they piss besse off because he says it looks like they go on set just to goof around and gossip and not to do their jobs lol

i asked nicholas if they ate luchino’s pizza crusts. he said he had like 7 kilos of them because they had to retake that scene many many times, cause they wouldn’t stop laughing, as we can see in the bloopers (he also said it was the most fun scene to shoot) and bessegato would just keep adding mustard, ketchup and mayo on them. he felt sick the day after and “tasted mustard for a week”. fyi, nicholas and luchino are literally the same person. there’s no line between the character and the person, i love him so much. he also said he was having the time of his life in bracciano, with the light summer breeze, while the others were dying in their clothes and blankets.

marti’s spirit animal is the fox, fede’s is a golden retriever (debatable but okay). i think rocco said a cat, greta said besse once told her silvia is a goldfish, bea feels like a tiger but thinks sana is an eagle and i didn’t get the rest cause it was all very confusing lol

federico’s panel on sunday was actually very interesting, he is actually quite eloquent and deep when he wants to. he talked about how he really took the “minuto per minuto” philosophy to heart. how he doesn’t set long-term goals for himself, because he wants the freedom to change. how he chose to study medicine because after high school he knew he wanted to keep studying, and a bit like acting, there’s a fundamental human aspect to it that he’s always been interested in.

a fan reminded him it was marti and nico’s anniversary and he said “how are they celebrating? patatine e marmellata or sushi? in nicco’s new house? have our heroes moved there?” and we were all like Bitch u tell us... ofc he didn’t. but he said he imagines marti and nico celebrating their anniversary at a sushi restaurant in porto fluviale, in ostiense (rome). also, fede says their anniversary is bracciano (dec 1st) and rocco says it’s nel mio letto (nov 1st), i’m afraid we have to go with fede on this one.

i think the best question out of every panel was about marti’s interest in gio: was it real, or was it just a fixation? he said it was real interest, that stayed over the summer too. he and ludo had to find a way to show the shift in martino, and it was hard because they switched seasons and so there was no time for it to be gradually shown. however, where they imagined that shift to happen, is in ep1 when gio sleeps in marti’s bed. marti feels uneasy because of his feelings for him, but at the same time, he is uneasy because of the guilt. when he talks with eva on the phone and sees how giovanni reacts to that, how he’s still so clearly into her, he decides he has to move on from him, and gives up any hope or idea to have a relationship with him.

at rocco and fede’s sunday panel, rocco said he admires federico’s dedication to his work and his professionalism. fede and him bantered and bickered a lot, it was adorable, especially when rocco said some nonsense metaphor and fede was like “basta!” and fede kept asking for more compliments. but the question was about what marti and nico liked the most about each other, and federico said “it’s the kind of love where you like someone so much and you don’t even know why” as in, because you like everything about them, so that was beautiful.

a fan asked if there was any embarrassment between them, they said of course initially there was a lil bit of awkwardness, but they warmed up to each other immediately. one of the very first scenes they shot was an intimate one, rocco said the first kiss they shot was nel mio letto and they’d never rehearsed kissing before. amazing.

fede’s favorite color is blue (nicholas’ too).

rocco and nicholas sat in the crowd at the end of fede’s panel and rocco was like “tell us the story of bambi” and fede called him “er lucertola” and said it all started because of a tossico (junkie/drunk), i love them. nicholas made fun of him for his role in “i cesaroni” but fede said he’s only jealous cause they auditioned for the same role but fede got it, and nicholas has him saved as “andy dei cesaroni” in his phone.

some anecdotes from other moments (m&g, dinners) i found on twitter: federico said when they shot la grotta, there was this whole solemn atmosphere, and then he broke it cause when they finished shooting he realized he had rocco’s snot on his face and he was like “MA CHE CAZZO È, CHE SCHIFO (what the fuck, gross)” and said rocco was always crying on him (i guess referring to the martino e niccolò clip) and rocco was like yes there was a significant exchange of bodily fluids. okay rocchì.

apparently fede likes his beard so much he said he doesn’t recognize himself without it.

some fans adopted two giraffes in the bioparco di roma in their name as a gift!

rocco cried on the phone with bessegato when skam italia was cancelled. we been knew but it hurts to get the confirmation.

maxence and lukas are two rays of sunshine. not an anecdote, but i felt like saying it.

last but not least, rocco, nicholas and fede went absolutely batshit over @crazybee‘s “alt er besse” shirt. their reactions were priceless. rocco and nicholas took pics of them, nicholas was the one who sent them to besse and he reposted it on ig. forever blessed.

#skam italia #share the love con #text

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thisdiscontentedwinter · 5 years ago

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Disco, hi, how r u doing? I got an interesting story to tell about cancel culture. Not the "we should cancel Trump" kind of cancel, I hope we can just feed him to sharks and be done with it. But there's been this tendency of people wanting to watch other others getting dragged thu the mud for the pettiest excuses, especially when those people are more successful than them. They'd just make up stuff or twist reality to do it. It's been a thing on our Internet this side of the cyberwall, too. (1/?

There was this somewhat famous doctor posted that we should give kids more eggs and milk for breakfast instead of what we usually have, for instance, rice soup. It's better for kids' immunity system 'cause eggs and milk have more nutrition. Then he got cancelled for "sucking up to westerners". And then we have this woman who named her kid after her husband's surname got cancelled for anti-feminism. I kid you not. This quarantine has been on and off for almost half a year for us now. (2/3

People are already back to work but the whole thing is not over yet. It's driving everyone crazy. Then there's Internet, you can talk shit about anyone without being responsible. This just gives me flashbacks to the books I read about Cultural Revolution and it scares me. It's just been a few decades. Maybe it's just in our blood that we love to attack people just for the sake of attacking people and feeling like a morally better person. (3/3

DW: I am doing well, anon, and I hope that you are too!

You know, honestly right now I think we’re seeing what the world looks likes when everyone is suffering from cabin fever from being cooped up for too long. We still have the internet, but that’s all some of us have, and everyone is getting way too concerned about other people’s business, and petty nonsense is being amplified a hell of a lot more than it should be.

I don’t know much about the Cultural Revolution, sorry, or at least the mindset of the people when it was occurring, but every sweeping political change always seems to bring out those who feel the need to loudly and proudly state how much better and upright they are than others! I do wonder if we’ll get any sweeping political change this time around because of the coronavirus, or if we’ll all just forget it happened the second it’s over and go back to exactly the way things were.

I hope you and your loved ones stay safe and well!

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sleepycoffins-and-benhargreeves · 4 years ago

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Yes! Steven rilling Andrew up is an daily thing tbh. I loved your observations on the last 3eps of worth it. The sounds they made in the savory pie ep were WILD, get a room (with only one bed lol, classic theme that i enjoy even if it's cliche❤️). Btw do you know this fic called sweet stuff? I rec it, Steven + dress is *chef kiss*. Also off topic i love those AU in which Andrew is a history teacher and Steven is an engineer and both are basically nerd af but in the cutest way possible

Steven, no matter how innocent, is just too naive at times to resist! He does things that are so innocent, and tbh, it sometimes flies by me as well, but Andrew always always notices so tbh, sometimes Steven doesn't even have to try and rile Andrew up lmao bitch gets riled up on his own

And Worth it’s last three ep’s? We all can just clearly see the heart eyes Steven and Andrew give each other. IT’S THAT STRONG. QUARANTINE CAN’T CONTAIN THEM lmao Also, I remember that part with Steven talking about soulmates and such, him calling him and Andrew soulmates and that’s just *sighs dreamily* they truly do love each other that much (PS: I keep forgetting to gif that part, I’ve been so busy recently lol)

AND YES YES, I KNOW THAT FANFIC IT IS FUCKING AMAZING UGHHHHHH ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ It’s one of the few fics I always re-read (most of the fics I reread are either smut or age-regression tbh) Steven is a dress iss sooooo good, especially when he’s in his cute pastel fluffy element. That fanfic was an amazing mixture of fluffy and smutty and goddddd, the author really delivered to us! THEY MADE A MASTERPIECE *chef kiss as well*

AND DID YOU JUST SAY ENGINEER STEVEN!? *whips out a couple of my unfinished fanfics*

If I could direct your lovely attention here Anon lol, I made this promo post before for my Standrew Tenshibyou AU. This one is gonna be long as well and I haven’t finished it yet lmao but a bit of spoiler, Steven is an engineer here and while Andrew, not really a history teacher, is a dietician. I wanted him to have a job that still involves food, but more on research and I decided on this uwu ❤️

tbh, that fanfic doesn’t even have a title yet lmao Can’t decide whether to name it as Angels & Demons or Angel Sanctuary tbh will think of more soon lol

I have another Engineer!Steven, but it’s also in the gothic-horror genre lmao It’s a Doctor Sleep AU, and more of a Stadamdrew rather than just Standrew ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

but hmmmm History teacher Andrew and Engineer Steven is also a very good AU e.e I do love the idea of them being such nerds together e.e Anon, how dare u give me another idea lmaooo THIS IS A VERY GOOD IDEA THO

Okay, so let’s start it off like this:

Shane and Andrew work at the same university, they’re both history teachers so let’s just make this a huge university (idk how it is in America, but my old uni had double professors at times lol). Shane is trying to invite Andrew and Adam to one of their outings because Shane wants his fellow professor to go out and enjoy, he thinks Andrew is too focused on his work needs to loosen up a bit.

Andrew, begrudgingly, finally agrees as long as Adam goes along with him (Adam didn’t need to be persuaded, because he had a very healthy social lifestyle thank you very much).

They meet at this swanky bar where Shane is off to meet his boyfriend Ryan. Ryan, incidentally, brought along his bestfriend Steven who just RECENTLY CAME OUT AS GAY. Ryan is trying to show his bestfriend a good time and maybe *nudge nudge* set him up with someone cute while he’s at it.

OH OH I WANT A LOVE TRIANGLE BETWEEN ADAM AND ANDREW AND STEVEN.

Adam really, only went along cuz he’s actually been pinning on Andrew for a while now, but Andrew hasn’t really noticed because too busy with work duh.

So the three of them meet at the bar and Andrew is actually pretty interested at Steven, he thinks he’s cute, he’s funny, and he has that bubbly personality that draws Andrew in... Too bad he looks like he’s more attracted to Adam though.

Adam flirts a little with Steven and they get along swimmingly well and it only adds to Andrew’s sour mood because hey he’s supposed to be having a good time, but the only guy he’s interested in doesn’t seem to notice him that much

So, the night ends, Adam gets Steven’s number and Andrew is just pissed off

Days pass, Steven and Andrew meet by accident!

Well, not entirely, because Shane actually invited Steven over to his class because he wanted Steven to demonstrate the history of chemicals when it came to the revolution of man and who better to explain chemistry than a chemist himself!

So, Steven asks Andrew if he could help him find Shane because he got lost since the university is big and Andrew, seriously, Steven is cute and Andrew is a decent guy so he helps Steven out and they get to talking and one thing led to another, they’re getting coffee after work hours! Andrew is really not trying to get his hopes up, this is just a simple coffee, Steven just wants to take a break and all that.

So they get coffee, they talk alot, Steven is a big nerd with history as well and Andrew is all the more intrigued with him. Steven explains more the history of chemicals and such, and he’s so passionate and knowledgeable in his field that Andrew just can’t help but listen to him babble on and on about it.

Then, Steven stops, looks at Andrew shyly and says “Sorry, I sometimes get carried away, hope I’m not boring you.”

And Andrew’s all like shaking his head and saying “No, I love listening to you talk.” And Steven gets all blushy and happy and woah, Andrew loves seeing that.

By the end of their coffee “date”, Steven ends up inviting Andrew to a convention. And to both of their surprises, it’s a CAT CONVENTION THAT THEY BOTH PLANNED ON ATTENDING. They both end up showing pictures of their cats, Steven with Simba and Andrew with Riceball and Wellington.

So Andrew is just really charmed, he really likes Steven and he can’t wait for their next ehem, “date”. He’s so excited he tells his bestfriend Adam about it.

Adam, although he did like Steven, has been pinning for Andrew for a long time now. So on the day of the cat convention, both Steven and Andrew meet Adam there as a surprise, Adam ambushed them lmaooo

Adam makes up some bullshit excuse about coming here because he was in the neighborhood and he thought he’d drop by, Andrew is suspicious because why would Adam suddenly come here? What is his ulterior motive here?

So the three of them hang out and Steven is a bit flustered because he likes BOTH Andrew and Adam and this is a bit awkward and there’s some tension here and there so yeah

So the convention ends and they all bid their goodbye’s, and Steven is a tiny bit upset because he wanted to really hang out with Andrew but, he was feeling shy around Adam. Yet at the same time, Adam didn’t really even call him back after that night at the bar.

So lo and behold! Andrew suddenly texts Steven on his way home, he wanted to know if Steven wants to hang out again and this time, maybe just the two of them? Andrew isn’t going to drop the date word yet, he wants to say it face to face cuz he’s that type of guy and Steven happily agrees!

SOOOO THEY GO ON “DATES” , Andrew hasn’t really dropped the date word yet, but Steven is always taking him on so many different places and good restaurants to eat at and the more Andrew spends time with Steven, the more he actually think that he may be falling in love and fuckkkk

wait, I want this to end in Stadamdrew

So, let’s develop Steven and Adam’s relationship this time.

Steven gathers up his courage and contacts Adam, he was planning on just telling Adam that it was nice to see him again after the cat convention. Adam decides to entertain Steven for now and they talk through text and woah, they actually really have a lot in common as well!

Steven is into photography and good books, they also have the same music tastes so they exchange and give recommendations to each other a lot. Steven told Adam that it’s okay if they’re just friends and he just wanted to hang out with him. Adam sees that there’s nothing wrong with giving the guy a chance so they go on book “dates” together and go to music stores and laugh a lot and watch shitty movies together to make fun of and oh

oh no, Adam is actually genuinely starting to like Steven and fuck, this was not how he was intending for this to go but like, Steven is really great and he loves his smile, his laugh, and he is such a smart and talented person and fuckkk Adam got so whipped over Steven that he doesn’t even know why he didn’t bother to call Steven again after that night at the bar!

Meanwhile, Steven is having a crises! Oh no!

He likes both Adam and Andrew and they’re both bestfriends and fuckk!! Okay, he thinks that maybe they’re both just really nice and they aren’t really interested in him but, Steven really likes both of them and gosh, this is not how he wanted things to go down in his life right now

I’m thinking Andrew would make he first more here, like he would officially ask Steven out and Steven would be really ecstatic because like YES!! He does really like Andrew and gosh, he is so so happy to be dating him and they’re both having a great time together and Shane and Ryan keep teasing them and well...

Everything is great, but they both notice that Adam has become really distant and quiet recently. He’s been cancelling on hanging out and he doesn’t really talk to them that much anymore and Andrew is more concerned because Adam is best friend and he’s never seen Adam be like that, not since, he ehem got his heart broken so Andrew wants to make his friend happy again

Steven comes along to help out and they annoy Adam almost every day until Adam SNAPS and he gets pissed at both of them and then all confessions break out that Adam is actually really REALLY happy for them but at the same time he’s really not?! Because he likes both Andrew and Steven, and he’s really been pinning over Andrew for the longest time now and now that he’s seeing both Steven and Andrew together, two guys he really likes, he’s just really sad and jealous and he walks out and Andrew and Steven are stunned.

The boyfriends do a sleepover at Andrew’s place and they talk about it and Andrew realizes that oh fuck he really likes Adam as well and wow, Steven also really likes Adam and he was having a crisis before because he wanted to both date Andrew and Adam and damnnnn

So the ending is basically Steven and Andrew woo-ing Adam to become their boyfriend and it becomes a happy OT3 Stadamdrew ❤️ The End ❤️

jfc this got so long I am so sorry, I am supposed to be updating my fanfic but this happened lmaooooo hope u like it tho anon, this was a wild ride for me XD

#Anonymous #Anonnie #Standrew #holy fuck #this reply got so fucking long #i am so sorry #but u give me such good ideas anon lmao #this fucked me up #i got whippedlashed by this #maybe i should think about writing this one as well #lol #oh #almost forgot to tag this as #Stadamdrew #as well #❤️

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momorabu · 6 years ago

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Ensemble Stars! Event Story - Offering . The Easter of the Undead / Easter (Part 1)

Sorry for the held up as this translation was supposed to be completed last week but I ended up getting a high fever instead and this was being delayed until now ><” (Work and getting back to health was hard D:)

Back on topic, this was a request and since I had yet to read this event story, why not?~ I’m quite fond of UNDEAD too so this was yet another good chance to know more about them, especially when it talks about the past and the era of DEADMANS +W+

Anyway as always, the summary of the story can be found below. Translation may not be 100% accurate due to my poor Japanese skills~

Prologue

The story started with Kaoru making an unexpected visit to the light music club room and was surprised to find that no one was there. He was disappointed as he had made a visit here especially as he was free due to the girl he had planned to go on a date with cancelled out on him. He wondered what he should do since he had specially come to school, and didn’t want to make a u-turn back home.

Suddenly, Rei appeared which ended up giving Kaoru a shock, since Rei was just standing there silently in the room. However, Rei continued to remain silent and ignored Kaoru when he talked to him, which Kaoru remarked that Rei seems scary like that. Rei finally reacted after awhile, and Kaoru wondered whether Rei was still tired after putting in too much effort at the DDD recently. Rei remarked that the DDD was a huge event that caused the school to change after a revolution and thus it was needed for Rei to observe the event closely and to give additional help when required. That actually sounds like a good plan to Kaoru, since he preferred UNDEAD to be in the position of a bystander so that he won’t have to work so hard.

Rei replied that he didn’t want to sweat either, since that would cause his body temperature to increase and makes it as though he was burning under the sun, just like a vampire... Kaoru wondered why Rei kept talking as if he was a vampire as it seems like Rei started to behave and referring as one since last year. He explained that though he was alright with it, he wondered whether fans of Rei from the past would feel bothered about this new personality of his now. That made Rei worried that he might be “unsellable” but Kaoru said that rather than being “unsellable”, Rei had become even more popular now, and that had helped Kaoru to become more popular among the girls.

Kaoru remarked that Rei seems more like a zombie than a vampire now, joking that both types would be fitting for “UNDEAD”, and Rei thanked him for being worried about him. Even though Kaoru said that he had no need to be kind towards male and that the words from his lips were only for ladies, Rei still felt that Kaoru was a kind-hearted guy deep down, and towards such a kind-hearted Kaoru... Rei had a request for him.

He started to get close to Kaoru, which made the latter confused and panicked, being uncomfortable with the closing distance. Rei just sighed and said that though he knew the action he would be doing was frown upon in the public and considered against the moral, he had no choice but to do it. Kaoru felt that Rei was indeed behaving weirdly today, but Rei continued on that he really needs Kaoru to help him as he’s too weak... so even though it’s sudden, Rei wanted to drink Kaoru’s blood.

(This whole entire scenario made me feel like I’m writing a BL story XD)

Kaoru was surprised for a moment but quickly said no. Rei was disappointed but continued to beg Kaoru that there’s no one else that he could go to other than him. That made Kaoru really confused since he had thought that being a vampire was just a personality Rei had thought up and acted as, so he doesn’t understand why Rei was asking to drink his blood suddenly. Rei continued to approach Kaoru silently, which scared Kaoru even more as it seems like Rei was serious about it!?

(I actually really like CG of Kaoru being all panicked like this XDD)

Regeneration: Chapter 1 - 2

At the same time, Adonis and Souma were doing their duty roster at their classroom. Adonis had noticed that Souma has beautiful handwriting as he wrote in the roster diary, and really envied him since he himself could not even write Japanese that well now. He revealed that he’s the one who ended up taking alot of time to sign a signature, and that causes a line to form at his area during their signing event and felt that he had caused trouble for the others. Souma gave a weak smile and told Adonis that he too had caused a line to form at his area too during the signing event, as he started to grind ink before using his brush to sign, and that scene had made Keito and Kuro speechless.

Keito had later told Souma to make sure of “TPO” but Souma doesn’t know what that means, and thus decided to ask Adonis about it. Adonis explained that it’s the abbreviation of “Time, Place, and Occasion”, and the two later on discussed on the need of using abbreviation ^^; Adonis admired Souma that his senior had lectured him about such incidents since he felt that he was being treated like a baby in UNDEAD, revealing that Rei would praise Adonis whenever he noticed something for the unit and would hug and pat him on the head too to comfort him if he realised that Adonis was being ignored for too long. Even though Adonis was thankful to Rei for looking out for him, he felt that he was strong now and didn’t want to be taken care of all the time. He wanted to be someone who could be relied on and could support his comrades when required. This was why Adonis had been increasing his body training recently to gain even more muscles since, for him, strength is muscles. Souma advised Adonis that he needs to be careful not to work out too much as if he gained too many muscles, he would become less and less flexible, and that would be bad if it affects their growth.

As Souma finished up the rest of the diary, the two guys remarked how glad they were to be able to do duty roster with each other as they were being paired together according to their class’s index number, and Souma’s and Adonis’ were very near to each other. Adonis silently thought to himself that he was relieved that he was able to talk normally to Souma. As UNDEAD had gone against the school council twice in both the S1 and DDD, that would mean that Adonis had gone against the two units that Souma had valued alot - Akatsuki and Fine. He felt bad being enemies with Souma and thought that there’s nothing to be helped if he was being hated and scolded by Souma. But Souma had treated him the same just like before, which made Adonis felt bad since he had not apologised for hurting his friend. Just as Adonis was about to talk to Souma about this matter...

Koga appeared! He was wondering whether Adonis was here in the classroom as he had wanted to practise together with him. (What good timing you have chosen to come Koga =w=“)

Souma had found Koga rude for barging in suddenly, complaining that he’s a wild dog, while Koga rebutted that he’s not a dog but a wolf instead. The two started quarrelling, which made Adonis panicked as he hoped the two of them could get along well instead. However, Koga felt that Souma was their enemy and rather than getting along, he would be looking for an opening to bite him by the throat instead, and Souma had felt the same towards Koga too.

Souma had heard from Adonis that there aren’t any activities for UNDEAD today, and thus wondered why there were practices. Adonis was confused too since he had planned to head over to the track and field club for club practices actually. Koga replied that UNDEAD was currently on hiatus from practices as Rei had wanted to take a break for a period of time, but Koga himself wanted to do some self-practices, and thus specially came to Adonis’ class to invite him too. As UNDEAD had “revived” during S1 and DDD, Koga felt that this was a good chance to let the public to remember their name, telling Adonis that this was their chance to start their era and he should not be satisfied in their current state. He had waited for a long time for UNDEAD to be revived, and thus find himself unable to stop until he rushed all the way to the top.

However, noticing that Adonis had a troubled look on his face, Koga was pissed and told him that he won’t force him to come along if Adonis doesn’t want to practise, adding on that he had always been working hard by himself anyway. As Koga was about to leave, Adonis asked him to wait and said that he would be joining him, as he agreed with Koga that this was the start of their era. He realised that he had been obediently taking a break just because he was told so, and felt that what they should do was to practice since it would be waste to stop now that they’re all “warm up”. That made Koga really glad as he remarked that Adonis understood him well and he’s a part of UNDEAD as well.

As Adonis had changed his plans, he informed Souma about it and asked whether that clashes against the school rules. Souma thought and replied that it’s not against the school if the two of them practises by themselves, though the case would be different if they start doing idol activities like a live performance. Koga was determined as he affirmed that they won’t be doing a live performance, as he had promised Rei that UNDEAD won’t perform until all the members had gathered together, as much as Koga wished to stand on stage and sing as much as possible. Adonis smiled and remarked that Koga indeed likes singing very much, to which Koga replied there can’t be any idols who hate singing, and if they do, they’re not considered an idol.

(This is actually quite a cute interaction between the two of them XD)

Souma urged Adonis to go ahead to his practice, even when Adonis insisted to stay till the end to help Souma. Koga realised that Souma doesn’t seem busy at all and wondered whether Akatsuki was on hiatus too just like them. As Akatsuki had not performed at the DDD, Koga dissed Souma that Akatsuki might have decided to hide and cry after being defeated by Trickstar at S1. That pissed Souma off as he warned Koga not to make fun of Akatsuki any further, but that only make Koga taunted him even more as he continued to diss Souma and challenging for a fight instead. Adonis urged both of them to stop quarrelling with each other again, telling them that while Koga was his comrade, Souma was his friend too so he would hate to see both of them fighting with each other, adding on that seeing such a scene pains his heart.

(Aww... Adonis T////T)

Souma decided to let Koga off, giving him a warning not to be so cocky, and reminding him that though a revolution had been made and Yumenosaki Gakuen was gradually changing, the student council, school rules and Akatsuki did not disappear and would still be there. Akatsuki had gone a long way to get to their current position, and though they’ve slipped and fall, Souma was sure that they would be back on their track soon enough.

Regeneration: Chapter 3

After that, Koga had gone to search for a room that they could practice in while Adonis awaited for him. It took him half an hour, and unfortunately, they still ended up with no room since all of them had been booked by others earlier on.

(This is a funny scene where Adonis told Koga that he’s used to waiting as he had always been waiting and hiding in the woods for a half a day when hunting in his hometown. Koga remarked that sometimes Adonis’s life sounds a joke too me.)

And thus, Koga decided that they shall practise at the light music club room for today since Koga had a key to that and could enter it freely as and when he likes. It would also be normal for the room to blast loud music from it since people would just think that they’re doing club activities. Adonis had thought that it would be bad to intrude since they would be disturbing the other members of the light music club, but Koga felt that it’s alright since the others knew that Adonis was his unit mate. He suggested that they could head to the running ground to practice at times in exchange, which is the training area of the track and field club. But Adonis felt that that would cause even more trouble since there are also other clubs which may be using that area, and he worried that the sand flying in the air over there might damage the instrument, as much as a live performance outside was suitable for UNDEAD as it shows their wild side.

This made Koga pondered for a moment on whether they should cover their instruments with plastic bags to protect them but felt that that look doesn’t seem wild nor rock. Even though Adonis seems to know abit about rock now, Koga felt that he still doesn’t know anything about rock at all, and in order for Koga to recognise him as a rocker, he had to at least reach the level of Rei in the past.

Suddenly, they were shocked by the appearance of Kaoru, who had dashed out of the light music club room with a pale face. Kaoru was confused but asked them to get out of the way regardless since he’s returning home. He blamed himself that he should not even have the thought of “practising once in a while” since this was not like him at all, as he now regretted having this though and realised that he doesn’t understand what Rei was trying to do at all.

Adonis stopped Kaoru by grabbing him and telling him that he’s even more intrigued to know what happened after seeing such a commotion, adding on that he would be glad to lend him a hand. Kaoru felt pained and remarked that Adonis was a “big kid” who had quite a strong grip. Adonis cooly replied that he had been training his grip recently as he wanted to get strong, and reminded Kaoru that he’s not a “big kid” but Otogari Adonis instead.

(Kaoru, you really should remember your unit’s mates’ names by now =w=“)

Under Adonis’ tight grip, Kaoru surrendered and requested Adonis to let go of him, saying that girls would misunderstand if they saw markings on his arm. Suddenly, Rei caught up to them and Kaoru immediately shooed him away, calling him a pervert XD Koga was confused on what was happening and told Rei that he as an old man shouldn’t be causing trouble to the youngsters.

Rei was sad and remarked that he had always thought that he was on good terms with Kaoru, but it now all seems like a misunderstanding on his end. Kaoru dissed that even if they’re getting along well, anyone would feel troubled normally if they’re being requested to have their blood sucked by the other party. (I like Kaoru’s diss here XDD)

Koga immediately understood the situation, mumbling that they’ve too busy that he had not realised that it was “this part of the year” again. On Kaoru’s urging, Koga revealed that the same thing happened at around the same time last year, lecturing Rei that of course, everyone is going to run away when he did not explain anything before requesting to suck their blood. Rei finally offered to explain about it, asking Kaoru not to be afraid of him and to return to the clubroom together with them, even promising him that he would definitely do anything to harm him...

Regeneration: Chapter 4 - 5

Back at the light music club room, Rei mentioned about easter, which Kaoru knew what festival it was about, remarking that of course, he remembers all of the festivals since girls would hate it when guys don’t value such important events at all. Rei started to explain that his clan would set up a ceremony during Easter, and that would the next leader of the clan (which is Rei now) would have to suck the blood of the youth who had prepared their harvest of spring. As Rei’s conditioned had worsened after the end of DDD, his clan members had gotten worried about whether there would be a ceremony. Rei knew that his clan members would not give up on not organising a ceremony, so Rei decided to quickly host one just to get them off his back. (And that sounds insulting to Kaoru since it seems that he’s being selected casually just to get this event over and done with XD)

Rei assured Kaoru that even though he had requested Kaoru suddenly because he was sleepy earlier on, after thinking though he still felt that Kaoru was the most suitable. He begged Kaoru with a puppy face whether the latter could let him suck his blood, but Kaoru still rejected him since he felt really disgusted by the thought of it. Rei started fake-crying and assured Kaoru that he won’t be biting him on the throat and sucking him like how it was in the movies, just that he would extract some of his blood to mix with the wine and drink it. But even after thinking through, Kaoru still hated that idea and rejected Rei once again, remarking that he would consider if it’s a girl begging him, but if it’s Rei, he would reject to do it even if Rei pays him money for his blood.

(Poor Rei that he’s being rejected yet again TWT No wonder he’s showing such a sad face... Kaoru, you’re being unexpectedly mean somehow ^^;)

Kaoru tried to change the topic, suggesting that Koga could be one to supply his blood since he likes Rei very much and would be willing to do so. Even though Koga tried to deny he likes Rei, he confessed that he can’t since each person was only allowed to contribute his blood once for the ceremony and he had already contributed his blood at the last ceremony, he’s out of the list of the suitable candidates this time. Rei warned them that if anyone was to contribute their blood more than once on the ceremony, they would die so he would not choose Koga for the ceremony this time.

(Koga looks disappointed somehow though... I guess he really wants to help Rei actually ><”)

Suddenly, Adonis spoke out and suggested that he could be the partner to supply his blood for Rei this time. He pulled apart his uniform to show his neck and told Rei that he wanted to help him to repay his gratitude for Rei taking care of him all this while. Since Adonis doesn’t remember he had participated in this ceremony before, he felt that it should be alright for him to participate this time. He even emphasizes that he’s huge and healthy and thus very suitable for blood donation, requesting Rei to suck his blood as much as he likes. In exchange, Adonis hoped that Rei would stop forcing Kaoru since the latter had expressed dislike for it, remarking that it’s against the moral to force someone violently. (But Koga butt in that going against the moral is just like UNDEAD’s style =w=“)

(Adonis showing off his neck like this is... kind of sexy >////<)

In the end, since Kaoru rejected the idea so much and Adonis had volunteered himself, Rei decided to take up Adonis’ offer. Adonis wondered if Rei would be alright in taking in his blood as the two of them had different blood types. However, as Rei really valued Adonis very much, he doesn’t want to hurt him or injured him since he would need to inject a needle in Adonis to extract out his blood. (Then what about Kaoru? XD) He patted Adonis on the head, thanking him and praising that he’s really a kind-hearted child. But Adonis replied that he doesn’t want to patted on the head since that would ruffled the hairstyle that he had styled and his second elder sister would be mad at him for that XD (This made me curious to see how Adonis looks like when he hasn’t styled up his hair OWO”) The group then talked about Adonis’s sister being a stylist, when Kaoru thought that his whole family seems like they lived in the Amazon or something. (It’s not like they’re living like Tarzans =w=“)

Suddenly, 2wink made an appearance at the club room and remarked how lively it was in there. Hinata noticed that Koga seems to be a bad mood and asked him whether he had gotten into a quarrel with Rei again, which pissed Koga even more as he wanted to beat them up. The twins aren’t afraid of him though, with Yuta even hopping onto Hinata’s shoulder so that they would be taller than Koga~ Koga and Rei realised that the twins were very energetic even though they were being punished by doing volunteer work for breaking the DDD rules, and Koga was even worried about them for a moment. Thanks to Rei and “me” for helping them, they had been coping well and looked forward to resuming idol activities again soon.

Wondering whether there are any idol activities they could do, 2wink asked Rei if they could join UNDEAD, even if it’s an add-on/omake. Rei felt sorry since it felt that he had tarnished 2wink’s reputation at both S1 and DDD, but Hinata assured him that it’s not that and ultimately it was 2wink themselves who had decided to take a gamble and join them in the first place. Besides, Yuta felt that 2wink had yet to have a distinct direction on what kind of unit they would be, though Hinata felt that it was only Yuta who was worried on what kind of idol he should be. Going back to the topic, Hinata hoped that Rei could give them some “reward” for all the work they’ve helped UNDEAD in the past.

All of a sudden, Kaoru interrupted and asked Rei that this was not the time and place to be worried about others since he had his own problem to solve right now which was the ceremony. That made Hinata interested as he asked for more information about it. Rei explained about it and requested everyone to help him, and planned to corporate the ceremony in a collaboration live performance of both UNDEAD and 2wink, since if they wrote an official application for the live show, they could get the student council to sponsor them and helped them to prepare for the live performance, as much as he hates to get his own personal matters involved with his work as an idol. Koga agreed, though he requested Rei to go more into details on how they should do this whole thing, which Rei replied that he had thought that they’re comrades who could work together even if he doesn’t have to translate what he’s thinking to them, adding on that it would be more interesting when one doesn’t know much about the others. (Mysterious aura would be more interesting?~ kind of logic I guess...)

Regeneration: Chapter 6 - 8

Over at the student council room, Keito was busy with his paperwork as usual and Souma was there offering tea for him to take a break. Keito wondered why had he gotten thirsty, and Souma answered him that he had noticed that Keito would usually murmur out in a small voice what he was reading, and this was why he had gotten thirsty easily. This was an old habit of Keito’s, as he remarked that it was his vision that he needs to check every single word and sentence on the paperwork carefully. Even though Eichi had taught him speed reading, Keito, however, felt that that cannot be counted as reading at all. Souma agreed with Keito’s view happily, and Keito asked Souma to come closer to him, just to give him a pat on the head, thanking him for always helping him with matters of the student council even though Souma wasn’t an official member.

(This was such a rare chance that Keito was the one who initiated an action to care for others in a physical way OwO For a moment, I thought I was watching a romance scene when Keito asked Souma to come closer to him >////<)

Keito remarked that even though it was great that the students had gotten more lively as compared to the past in terms of idol activities, this meant that the student council would get even busier with their workload increased by two to three times. He was glad about this situation since in the past it seems that no one was alive in school with most of the students being listless like zombies. Noticing that Souma’s hair has split ends, Keito asked him whether he had felt stressed since this was unlike of Souma who had always made sure that he was perfect. He urged Souma to enjoy himself and go out and play, and though he would like to join him, it would take another two weeks for the matters at the student council to settle.

But Souma shook his head and said that he was already glad to be by Keito’s side and be of help to him, and Keito promised Souma that due to Eichi retreating early at DDD, it caused a less damaging effect, and was sure that Fine and Akatsuki would definitely make a comeback soon. When that happened, it would be even busier than what they’re facing now.

Suddenly, their conversation was stopped by Koga who made an appearance, calling Keito a “kuso megane” as a greeting. Keito dissed Koga that he needs to learn the word “manners” from the dictionary, adding on that perhaps Koga doesn’t even know how to read. That pissed Koga as he threatened to cut off Keito’s poison tongue (These two... How did they even survive being in the same unit in the past I wonder...) Souma immediately wanted to pull out his sword and attacked Koga, but thankfully Keito stopped him and asked Koga what was his intention on coming here, wondering whether Koga was here to laugh at them, teasing that they were crying when the revolution had been made to change the school.

At that moment, Rei stepped in and remarked that they’re getting along well even though they’re quarrelling with each other. Keito remarked that it was rare that Rei would actually move about and make an appearance himself, which Rei calmly replied that of course he would move about since he’s a living thing, and assured Keito that he’s only here to hand in a proposal normally. This actually made Keito felt weird that Rei was doing something normal, even though it was supposed to be normal that Rei, as the leader of UNDEAD to be handing in a proposal.

Now that he knew why Rei was here, Keito now wondered why Koga was here, since there was no need for him to tag along, and dissed that perhaps Koga actually had a leash on himself, being attached to Rei. Koga rebutted that he’s not a dog that was being reared by Rei and answered Keito that he was bothered about something and decided to come along and assured Keito that he won’t cause a commotion or disturb them, and thus hoped Keito would just ignore him instead.

Since UNDEAD had submitted a proposal, Keito decided that he would do his job, by checking it fairly and processed it as per always. He read and realised that the proposal was a collaboration live performance of both UNDEAD and 2wink, and it would be regarding Easter. It was a performance that would fit the current season since Easter was around the corner, and Keito guessed that they’re planning to use this live performance to announce the “revival” of 2wink. Ever since UNDEAD had participated in the S1 event recently, there had been talks around on whether they would be making a comeback, and thus Rei planned to use this live performance to promote the fact that they’re be making an official comeback as UNDEAD. He had also discussed this proposal with “me”, and “I” had given “my” feedback that “I” thought this was a good proposal.

Keito commented that the proposal was actually written really well, which was a breath of fresh air for him since all he had read recently was terribly written proposals, as lots of units had gotten active in school and submitted their proposals.

(Apparently, they were so terribly written that Keito had wanted to tell them to think more before writing XD)

On first glance, it looked like the proposal was alright and it seems like the proposal would be alright to process smoothly. Rei thanked Keito, but Keito cooly replied that he’s just doing his role by processing proposal that should be processed. Rei tried to remember when was the last time he had written a proposal, but Keito told him that in his memory, it doesn’t seem that Rei had written a proposal ever. However, as much as the proposal was alright, Keito noticed a slight problem with it, and that was the theme of the live performance “Easter”. As there are already other units in the school participating in “Easter Night”, Keito was worried that the public would felt sick about yet another Easter theme live performance, even if “Easter Night” was a live performance out of school. Besides, the school had already offered help to that event as a backup because of their students participating in it.

Rei had already known about this event since Switch was the main star of the event and Valkeryie was also involved as well. Since UNDEAD was already in the limelight recently due to them performing at S1 and DDD, Keito worried that the appearance of UNDEAD would outshine Switch and affect their performance, and thus told Rei that they would have to change their proposal so that it won’t be too similar to “Easter Night”. Rei replied that he would think about how to change, as he didn’t want to disturb Natsume’s performance and made him dislike him. He remembered how badly Natsume was affected when the five oddballs’ era had ended, and seeing how Natsume’s thoughts had become twisted after being stepped on, Rei could only sigh and hoped that Natsume could grow up well healthy.

Therefore, Rei suggested that their live performance would be different from the modern style kind of Easter, and instead, it would be closer to the theme of Christians gathering and absorbing the seasons before. That theme was also related to Rei’s clan and the ancient aura of the theme would be more suitable to UNDEAD. Keito knew about this theme as well and understood that Rei wanted to go for this ancient theme that had long been forgotten by most people. This as also something that Akatsuki’s vision, which Rei remarked that they had to learn more from them. Keito actually agreed with Rei’s goal this time and told him that he actually had the urge to want to support UNDEAD. Rei was glad about Keito’s thought and even suggested Akatsuki join them in the performance together. However, Keito replied that unfortunately, he doesn’t have the time or effort to do that right now, but as part of the student council, he would be going to the performance event to look over it and also lending his support in planning and making this event a success.

Rei was glad about Keito supporting him, remarking that since S1 was Trickstar’s chance to shine, and DDD’s was Fine’s, it had been a long time for UNDEAD’s turn. But Keito smirked and said that he would be definitely judging how well Rei would do for the event and declared that he would process Rei’s proposal of Easter event personally himself as the vice president of the student council.

Souma wasn’t pleased with Koga’s appearance but decided to serve him tea nevertheless. Koga accepted the tea but wondered why Souma had decided to stick by Keito since Koga had felt Keito to be a very annoying person. Souma rebutted back that it would be tiring for Koga to be around Rei all the time but later realised that he might have said too much and apologised. Koga too realised that he was the one who had provoked Souma initially and also apologised for snatching Adonis away from Souma when the two of them were happily talking together in the classroom earlier on.

Souma had noticed that Adonis doesn’t seem to be as energetic as he used to in the past, and would look at Souma with a sad expression at times, thus asking Koga whether he knew what Adonis was troubling about recently since Koga was Adonis’ comrade and might know what’s up with him. But Koga only sighed and remarked that he never expected that Adonis could be that sensitive as he looks huge and dense in Koga’s eyes. He guessed that perhaps Adonis was bothered about Souma after beating the student council at both S1 and DDD.

Souma replied that he knew that it was not Adonis’ desire to defeat him over at S1, but Koga replied that since Souma had not told that to Adonis before, the latter might still have this misunderstanding since ultimately he was part of UNDEAD who had defeated Akatsuki. Koga remembered that Adonis doesn’t have many friends when he first arrived in Japan, and always seems lonely by himself, but Koga noticed that Adonis was really happy when he gets to befriend Souma and hoped Souma would always be Adonis’ friend. He later realised that his words sound like Adonis’ caretaker and requested Souma to forget what he had said earlier on XD (Tsundere Koga~ XDD) Souma simply smiled and remarked that wolves were indeed creatures who live in packs.

Remembering that Koga had mentioned that he had come here to the student council room earlier on because he was bothered about something and wondered what is it since Rei was the one being responsible for the proposal instead of Koga. Koga showed a worried face and revealed that he felt that everything was like a dream to him now, seeing how Rei and UNDEAD had gotten active again. He worried that if he looked away for a moment, everything might disappear in front of him, and admitted that he actually felt very unease as much as he was ashamed of this feeling in him. He realised that from the past till now, he still doesn’t understand what Rei was thinking since he suspected that Rei might be planning something in secret even though on the surface he was doing his idol activities normally and talking to Keito normally about the proposal.

Keito came over to them and remarked that as much as they seem to be getting along just fine, he found them disturbing his and Rei’s conversation, and asked them to leave if they’re continuing their conversation. Rei agreed with Keito, asking Koga to return back to the club room to inform the others about the status of the proposal and wait for his news instead. He continued on that in order to fit with the schedules of other dreamfes, their live performance “Easter” would have to be carried out earlier than expected. In order to be well prepared for the event, Rei felt that they would have to start with their practices now starting from the basics. Keito suggested Souma join UNDEAD in their practices too, so as to prevent his skills from getting rusty as Akatsuki hasn’t been active recently.

However, Koga wasn’t pleased with this arrangement, suspecting that Keito and Rei were kicking them out of the student council room just so that they can talk in secret instead. Keito replied coolly them that he’s only saying that since he had felt that Koga was just wasting his time waiting around since he’s not of any use standing around here. In the end, Koga decided to head off with Souma, leaving a word that obviously it seems that they’re an eyesore here. (Koga sounds bitter =w=“)

Souma was initially reluctant to go off by himself since he felt bad being the only one from Akatsuki who gets to practice as much as he knew that he still lacks alot compared to the other members of Akatsuki. Keito assured him that it’s alright, and in fact hoped that he priorities idol activities first before helping Keito with the work at the student council, though it sounds ironic coming from Keito who was always being held up by the student council instead.

And that’s the end of part 1~ Part 2 will start from their past instead so stay tuned~! (I hope I could finish that soon though ^^)

#ensemble stars #event story #undead #translation #summary #otome game #es:event #es:translation

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starrysence · 6 years ago

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Tommy Boy/Romeo? they need more content-spottie ❤️

they definitely need more content!! i will lead a tOMMY BOY/ROMEO REVOLUTION IF I MUST

warnings: talks about depression, also tommy has shitty parents

×××

●aight yall. theyre both pan.

▪romeo makes constant pan puns and tommy is So Done▪"guess you could say we’re…. PANicking about that test in calculus today"▪"youve been spending too much time with race"▪"youre just jealous because i couldve been spending that time with you"▪"you motherfucker,,,,“●romeo wants to cuddle w/ tommy basically any chance he gets because tommy spends a good chunk of every day busy with either school work, his job, or dance▪literally always down for cuddles????▪sometimes tommy is just like "hey wanna watch a movie”▪and ro will LEAP onto the couch so fast it scares tommy and he’ll bury himself in tommy’s arms▪"HELL yes"▪tommy’s highly amused▪through laughter: “ok cool”●tommy does NOT get nearly enough sleep every night and it rlly worries romeo▪they have some ap classes together bc romeo isnt in all ap classes like tommy is▪the latest he’ll have to stay up w/ tommy on a weekend is like?? 1am maybe▪but he gets up like 3 hours later for a drink of water and tommy STILL isnt in bed and he is Worried ▪he’ll find tommy passed out at the table they were working and just sighs▪as much as he’d like to get tommy into bed he tried dragging the boy into the room but he was absolutely exhausted by the time he did▪so he just grabs a blanket and drapes it around tommy and prepares for neck cramp complaints in the morning●tommy gets SUPER dramatic abt his soreness after extended dance classes or rehearsals for shows▪he will absolutely just collapse on the couch the moment he gets to it and start moaning▪"romeoooo im in paaaaaaain"▪after the first couple times romeo just kinda gets used to it and laughs at his drama queen of a bf but helps him ease the soreness●romeo really takes care of tommy the days his depression acts up▪literally cancels everything and stays w/ tommy the whole day▪he doesnt want to nag at tommy too much bc he understands that that can get annoying/overwhelming/etc

▪but time to time he’ll ask tommy if he needs anything or if theres anything he can do to help▪kind of different but ro always always reminds tommy to take his antidepressants ▪tommy will sometimes just spill to romeo about how much it means to him that he’s doing that▪sometimes he starts rambling which leads to apologising which leads to more rambling so romeo will place his hands on tommy’s arms and kiss him rlly soft and quick ▪"its okay, i love you"●tommy’s parents never really supported his love for dance???? at all?▪they wanted him to do something ‘more practical’▪like. he couldnt take dance classes outside of school at all unless he paid for it▪so he kinda just like took up jobs and worked them to pay for lessons and until he saved enough money on the side for a plane ticket and arranged to live w/ an aunt in nyc▪when hes starting to build up a career and a name for himself he gets a call from his parents congratulatjng him on his success▪gets so bitter????? literally tells them off abt the whole thing and then doesnt even wait for a response before he hangs up▪romeo is helping him calm down afterwards and assuring him that he did the right thing●romeo is amazing at photography ▪also at maintaining aesthetics????▪his isntagram account always has such a nice theme tommy loves it▪theres this whole month where ro literally just posts pictures of him and tommy▪mainly to annoy his friends who told him “honestly can you two get any more gross”▪[he took it as a challenge]●so these two dont get a lot of free days to just spend time together, which they absolutely hate▪thank god for ny winters▪sometimes its too snowy so neither of them have to go to class or to work▪they spend the entire day just lounging around with each other ▪so many cuddles. so many kisses. so. many. ●yall know romeo’s thing is more playful flirting so sometimes tommy will crack a dirty joke and this boy’s face will go RED

▪tommy thinks its hilarious and the cutest thing hes ever seen▪"ro,, baby are you ok"▪"n O"▪he cant stop laughing. and romeo only smiles bc he loves hearing tommy’s laugh so much●gotta end this on a soft note cuz yall know how it be;;;;; they 10000% send each other wholesome memes and/or super long and sappy lovey dovey texts▪tommy is Bad With Words so usually he’ll send ro the memes▪sometimes romeo will send tommy 4am texts abt how lucky and in love he is and tommy will see them either a.) as soon as theyre sent bc hes working on stuff or b.) first thing in the morning bc he always checks for texts from romeo after waking up▪they always make him smile! so much!!▪side note ro loves tommy’s smile▪he thinks its the cutest thing ever▪every time tommy smiles ro says “the sun is quaking” and tommy snorts w/ laughter. every time. ▪theyre Soft as Heck yall

×××

aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAA i love them. so much. sndjldvfs i hope u liked these hcs. i would Die for these boys (tbh i’d die for all the newsies what else is new)

-sanj 💕

tag list:

@but-let-us-seize-the-day

@one-candy-cane-please

@suddenly-im-respecsable

@intoomanyfandomstopickaname

@be-more-chill-evan-hansen

@aw-jus-let-em-try

@bencookisagod

@well-the-kids-do-too

@auspicioustarantula

@spot-conlon-king-of-brooklyn

@have-we-got-news-for-you

@not-a-scab

@newsiesgarbage

@pineappapizza

@andthewoildwillknow

@concrete–donuts

@stopthe-presses

@thomasbeingthomas

@i-love-loki-and-sherlock

@maxvanna

[if you want to be added to my tag list, please shoot me an ask or a message letting me know! i’d be happy to add you.]

#newsies #newsies live #newsies 1992 #tommy boy #romeo #romeo newsies #tommy boy/romeo #romeo/tommy boy #romeboy #???#sanj scribbles

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lpsrick237 · 7 years ago

Text

Simon x Markus Fluff Alphabet Head Canon

***In this, I imagine this is after the best ending.

***In this, they made an update so androids can eat, drink, and get drunk.

***I’ve always had a theory that androids could temporarily shut down as a way of “sleeping” so their battery recharges and that’s what happens during cutscenes throughout the game lol

I USED THE TEMPLATE MADE BY @the-darklings BECAUSE I LOVE IT!

A = What do they find attractive about each other? Simon thinks Markus’s eyes, body, and kindness is attractive. Markus thinks Simon’s eyes, hands, and charm is attractive.

B = Do they want a family and why/why not? They don’t have time to think about having a child or children since Markus is the spokesperson for androids and they are in the public eye, but they think kids are cute and would want to try to have a child. They don’t think they could handle multiple kids, especially since they get caught in public a lot.

C = How do they cuddle? They cuddle when they sleep. Markus is always protectively holding Simon against his chest and keeps his hands over Simon’s heart (careful not to hurt him). Simon loves it and likes to play with Markus’s fingers when he doesn’t want to temporarily shut down for the night.

D = What are their dates like? They like to stay home since they’re always out doing things and taking care of others. Simon likes to cook for Markus since he stays home more, but they like to cook together or order out and watch movies they’ve been excited for. On rare occasion, they go out on nature walks or disguise themselves to troll people. They’re dates are sweet and always feel light.

E = “You are my everything. My ___”: They are a couple who are more show than tell when it comes to love (at least in public), but at home Simon always gives Markus pet names and gushes over him. Markus finds it insanely adorable even if he sounds repetitive.

F = When did they know they were in love? Simon knew he was in love at the victory party for winning their freedom. He knew as soon as Markus hugs him and he listens to Markus gush over how joyful he is. Markus, however, was slow to realize he was in love. He realized a few months after the revolution when Simon and him moved in together. He knew he loved Simon when he would be thrilled to lay in bed for hours drawing shapes on Simon’s arms and help him when he feels insecure about his past.

G = Are they gentle? Simon is very gentle. It’s part of his nature to hug people softly and talk in a voice that wouldn’t scare anyone. Markus can be gentle, and likes to be around Simon, but sometimes he feels dominant and/or excited so he ends up hugging a little too hard or yelling out of joy accidentally.

H = How do they like to hold hands? They gently interlock their fingers. Simon always holds onto Markus’s hand especially when he feels scared, and Markus sometimes protectively holds onto Simon’s hand when he gets jealous.

I = What was their first impression? Markus’s first impression of Simon was that of a leader. Markus thought Simon was very tough and quiet until he really started talking to him. Simon’s first impression of Markus was that Markus wanted more freedom and he would be helpful around Jericho, but didn’t really think of him as anyone incredibly special.

J = Do they get jealous? Simon gets jealous but doesn’t stand up for himself. If it’s really bad, he’ll talk to Markus about it. However, Markus gets jealous kind of easily. He is discrete about it and holds Simon’s hand a little tighter and speaks with a slight shift in confidence, but doesn’t make a scene.

K = How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss? Markus initiated the first kiss since Simon was too nervous to. Their kisses are either incredibly soft and feather-light or are really passionate.

L = Who said “I love you” first? Simon said “I love you” first. The only reason they remember is because Simon hadn’t felt that way about someone before and was so confused and frustrated. It was during a rough patch and it strengthened their relationship.

M = What is their favorite memory? Their favorite memory is the day Simon visited Carl for the first time. Markus taught Simon how to play piano and Simon asked for life advice from Carl who was really caring and funny. Carl ended up painting the two as a present on their 6 month anniversary and Simon was so happy to learn more about Markus’s past.

N = Do they spoil each other often? Simon loves spoiling Markus by making food art that Markus loves looking at. Markus loves going all out when they do have date nights. Overall, it isn’t often that they spoil each other but when they do it’s extravagant.

O = What color reminds them of their other have? Simon says pale green because of Markus’s one green eye (and their first date) and Markus says icy blue because of Simon’s eyes (plus it’s Simon’s favorite color).

P = What pet names do they use? Simon uses names like babe and bear; meanwhile, Markus uses names like sweetheart and love. Simon loves making up random pet names every time something goofy and/or memorable happens too.

Q = What is their favorite non-modern thing? Vinyls. They love to listen to vinyls together whether it be in the bedroom or while they’re working. They love talking about vinyls together and the history behind vinyls.

R = What do they like to do on rainy days? On rainy days, they like to listen to vinyls and endlessly talk. Sometimes it’s while they clean the house, sometimes it’s while they’re laying in bed wrapping their arms around the other.

S = How do they cheer each other up? Markus knows immediately when Simon is upset so he cancels any plans for the day and takes care of Simon. Not necessarily like you would a child, but he lays with Simon and tries to tell stupid jokes and talk about Europe to make him feel better. Simon cheers up Markus by letting Markus vent about what he gets upset about and tries to big spoon (even when he fails leaving them in a fit of giggles).

T = What do they like talking about? Simon likes talking about passions, animals, and places around the world. Markus does too, but he likes more personal conversations. Small talk bores Markus so they try not to say simple conversation starters or avoid saying something unless they want a conversation.

U = What helps them relax? They both relax by laying around and thinking alone. They realize that sometimes they need some space or something tense happened and the other needs to cool off. Either way, in the end, they always feel relaxed listening to a vinyl and laying in bed together. Especially when it rains.

V = Do they like showing off? Although Simon doesn’t like showing off, Markus loves to show off Simon (of course without overwhelming him). He loves to hold his hand and talk about Simon’s achievements, even if all he did was call Connor to talk. When Markus is at a party, everyone expects him to gloat about being with Simon and how much he loves him. Of course, he tries to be respectful, but ends up gushing over Simon.

W = When/how/where do they propose? Markus plans to propose when they go on their next vacation so they’re both in the best mood possible. He doesn’t want to do it in a traditional way either. He wants to be in the hotel room getting ready when he says “I think I forgot something” leading to him sliding the ring on Simon’s finger and popping the question. It’s weird, but he wants it to be memorable. Oh and Connor would come in with a party popper if Simon says yes (which he most likely would).

X = What’s their song? Best Day of My Life by American Authors

Y = Do they ever think about marriage/proposing? Simon thinks about marriage but doesn’t like talking about it. He wants to be 100% sure that they want marriage. Markus feels the same but would love to see Simon’s reaction to a quirky proposal.

Z = If they want a pet, what would they get? They would get a small puppy like a Yorkie or a soft hamster. Anything small and fluffy.

#detroit become human #dbh #dbh headcanons #lpsrick237

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jughead-is-canonically-aroace · 3 years ago

Text

I posted 9,160 times in 2021

35 posts created (0.382096069869%)

9125 posts reblogged (99.6179039301%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 260.7 posts.

I added 5,212 tags in 2021

#0 - 297 posts

#jatp - 1154 posts

#art - 1008 posts

#video - 806 posts

#jatp fanart - 371 posts

#alex mercer - 369 posts

#reggie peters - 340 posts

#stories - 302 posts

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Longest Tag: 140 characters

#little floating garlic clove in the middle of my vision that i try to get to line up with real garlic like one of those match the shape game

My Top Posts in 2021

searching for lost Heroes of Olympus fic

i'm trying to find a copy of a fic which has since been deleted off ao3, and the internet archive only has it saved up to the splashpage. i'm hoping someone has a copy downloaded somewhere

the fic is

Don't call me Leo by Trashbag_chan

the summary is

A girl about his age runs past him, her orange dress flailing as she passes, the world stops moving and Leo’s forgets how to breathe. His mother brings him back.

“Mi hijo? Are you okay?” Esperanza asks.

“Yes, but…” Leo pauses, biting his lip.

“Yes?” She smiles at him.

“Can I wear a dress like that girl pretty please?”

Where Leo finds out he's a she

(This was written before The Blood of Olympus came out.)

if you have a copy of this fic, please let me know! this fic was really important to me and i was really disappointed when i went searching for it and it'd been deleted. it'd mean a lot to be able to read it again

25 notes • Posted 2021-09-06 03:32:22 GMT

neil cicierega, fool: sundial is literally about nothing

me, very smart: wrong it is about having adhd

25 notes • Posted 2021-01-13 22:08:00 GMT

thinking about that one night vale quote uhh something like “if we cancelled school for every minor crisis that resulted in a few deaths, why we’d hardly ever leave our homes!”

and like obviously, covid. but also, everyone not sure if they’re supposed to be working during the coup. can you imagine? going to work at your fucking job during the french revolution? walking past some guy getting his head chopped off like “damn that sure is happening, but i gotta speedwalk because i’m already late”

31 notes • Posted 2021-01-11 23:20:23 GMT

Avatar: The Last Airbender Takes Place On A Flat Earth And Here's Why

62 notes • Posted 2021-05-28 21:06:02 GMT

sex? like from jokes?U know that isnt real right?

634 notes • Posted 2021-02-18 17:08:12 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #sex like from jokes being number 1 is very good #shoutout to 0 being a) not a tag i think ive ever used and b) breaking tumblr when i tried to access i #fixed their percentages also #isay #tumblr #tumblr is so broken i had to turn off beta post editor and turn on html post editor to post this #because for a while now new posts have inexplicably been defaulting to a sideblog when i make them #and it all came to a head as my tumblr year in review post insisting on being posted on my sideblog and refusing to give me the dropdown #to change what blog i was posting on #so i had to manually paste the post into a new post here #:))))))))

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hithelleth · 6 years ago

Note

For the top 3 meme, is it okay if I ask about two shows? Revolution and Timeless. Do whichever one you want :)

Of course it’s okay! Thank you! And I’l do both, if you don’t mind. ;)

Revolution:

top 3 favorite characters: Bass, Charlie, Jeremy

top 3 least favorite characters: Strausser, the sentient nano, and the Patriots as a whole

top 3 otps: come on, you know me, Miloe, Marlie, and Charm, and CM2 for good measure (and gratis my weird/unpopular non-canon ones: Bachel, Jeremy/Emma, and Danny/Bass), but mostly just Bass/happiness

top 3 notps: I don’t think I had a NOTP in this show? I mean, I wrote (implications of) even highly fucked up things like Strausser/Mia, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe Julia/Doyle.

top 3 brotps: Ahahahahahaha. *throws self into an abyss* *sobs* Because of course the first thing that came to mind was Miloe, but Miles doesn’t deserve it. Jeremy and Bass as the second doesn’t make me feel much better, either. So, maybe actually functioning BroTPs: Rachel and Aaron, Charlie and Nora (why, yes, this make feel so much better, too; gah I hate Charlie really lost everyone), Maggie and Miles (why did she have to die? She would be good for kicking his ass.)(OMG, and now I remembered all the Rachel/murder weapons and Miles/windows etc. fandom shenanigans.)

top 3 favorite episodes/chapters/scenes/games in series: episodes 1x3, 9, 10 or Jeremy outing Miles as general Matheson, the hallucinated Miloe hug, and ‘Hello, Charlotte’. Whoa, that was easy-peasy, once for a change

top 3 other things u think ppl who like this thing should watch/read/play: Highly recommended for writing team/general feel (+ diversity and all kinds of there awesomeness): Timeless (reasons below, for those who haven’t watched it yet, and let me just say Kripke & co. really learned from their past and majorly improved, but also did some of the usual tricks because otherwise it wouldn’t be Kripke).The 100: for post-apocalyptic storyline and if you want a handful of new favourite characters battling for survival; it’s also better written than Revolution (but certainly not without issues *glares particularity at S2*) and it has 5 seasons with the 6th in the making (although I haven’t yet seen S5, but apparenly all my faves survived it, I think? I’ll get to it, soon-ish. Or eventually.) Sea Patrol to ogle young DL (but do yourselves a favour and stop watching about five minutes before the end 3x01. Or be a masochist like me and watch through all five seasons when by the end only 4 (I think) members of the original crew survive) and I’m sure you can google David’s other shows on your own. :P That’s three already, but I have to add Salvation, because S1 had very Revo feel in all the good ways, but I don’t like S2 that much (although I’ve only watched 4 eps so far. One more thing to catch up to. *sigh*) and Killjoys (although this season has pacing issues (and maybe it’s too different from what it was like in the beginning, IDK.))(And I should probably also mention SPN, but if anyone hasn’t yet seen it, do yourselves a favour and stop watching after S5. *says I, who will most likely fall down the rabbit hole again in a month or so*)

my rating of this media out of 3, with 0 being lowest and 3 being highest: 1.5? Because as much as I love it, I’m the first one to admit it had writing and other issues galore. The first then episodes would get very close to 3, but the rest… *sighs*

Timeless:

top 3 favorite characters: Lucy Preston, Garcia Flynn, Rufus Carlin

top 3 least favorite characters: Carol Preston, Benjamin Cahill, Nicholas Keynes

top 3 otps: Lucy/Flynn/(Wyatt), Rufus/Jiya, Wyatt/Jessica

top 3 notps: I don’t think I had a NoTP here, either. Maybe Lucy/Noah, but we didn’t get to know Noah enough, maybe he was a good guy, in which case I don’t mind it at all.

top 3 brotps: Rufus and Flynn, Denise and Mason, Lucy and Jiya

top 3 favorite episodes/chapters/scenes/games in series: 1x02, 1x16, 2x06

top 3 other things u think ppl who like this thing should watch/read/play: For time travel: maybe Legends of Tomorrow? OUAT (but I stopped watching in s5)? OUATIW (it’s only one season).For history: Miss Fisher’s murder Mysteries? Downton Abby? IDK, there isn’t anything quite like Timeless. (Why was it cancelled?!) Although, if you want a diverse show with a formidable adversary, well balanced plotlines among multiple characters with a sci-fi side, Sense8 comes to mind as maybe the closest. It has also been prematurely cancelled, but we got a finale that gave us a closure and made it a well-rounded show.

my rating of this media out of 3, with 0 being lowest and 3 being highest: (at least 2.5 if not) 3

( Top 3 media ask. )

#wellwhataboutme #ask #answered #NBC Revolution #Timeless

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gabriel-gabdiel · 4 years ago

Text

Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko Chapter 20: Hook, Line, and Sinker

The secret behind the issue between Tomoyuki Yamamoto and Aya Fubuki.

The rest of the chapters of my original story based on a plot from 4chan are available here. Enjoy.

First | Previous | Next

For what it was worth, Tomoyuki "Cherry Boy" Yamamoto found a way to return the favor to (Alternate Universe) Seiko "Amazon Queen" Okamoto for her thoughtful birthday gift to him.

The best birthday gift he ever got. A trailer for a film that didn't exist in his universe. Seen only by him within his reality.

The trailer for Akira Kurosawa's "Ran". The legendary director's (unintentional) version of William Shakespeare's "King Lear".

What he was about to send to Seiko was in a sense his "White Day" gift for her "Valentine's Day" chocolate.

A return gift of gratitude. A downloaded video from YouTube Japan.

"Hey, Cherry Boy. What's this?" she texted him back.

"Just open the file," he texted in return.

She then texted, "Boo. I thought it's a round or two from Pacquiao- Mayweather, but it's just another one of your Kurosawa film trailers!"

Huh. Maybe he should've sent her a Pac-May clip. Maybe later. "I'll just send you video highlights of it or even their future rematch when it happens. Maybe even on your birthday."

"There's gonna a rematch?! Sweet!" she cheered, only to ask, "So what did you send me?"

"Send it to him. To me. The other me," he answered. "I swear to you, Tomoyuki will love it. I know I do."

She watched the whole thing. All one minute and thirteen seconds of it.

"Cherry Boy, you're a genius! This is the best birthday gift for Tomoyuki since, you know, he canceled on our proposed movie date and all."

Ah. Of course.

AU Miku ended up giving AU Tomoyuki the cold shoulder because he liked AU Seiko's present more than hers, so to make it up to the Class Rep, his other self nixed his date with the Amazon Queen.

Another love triangle had formed in another dimension.

At least the other Okamoto had a love triangle to speak of. He was definitely still in the "Friend Zone" (sorry, Miku) with the Amazon Queen in his universe, her proposal for a pity date aside.

The Amazon Queen that didn't love him as much as this other" her did.

"Sorry," he texted back, pushing his disturbing thoughts at the back of his mind. "But you know what they say about love and war."

"Fair enough, but what do I tell Cherry Boy when I send this video to him? He'll have questions for sure!"

Nodding to no one in particular, Yamamoto replied, "Tell him it's the long-lost and extremely rare alternate trailer for Kagemusha starring Katsu Shintaro instead of Nakadai Tatsuya."

***

Keit-AI! Tomoyuki x Seiko

An Anime-Inspired Original Story from 4chan's /a/ Board by Abdiel

Original Idea by Hataki.

The mystery behind Aya will finally be revealed.

Disclaimer: This work may reference copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is believed that this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. All copyrighted material referred to in this work belongs to their respective owners. All rights reserved.

***

Chapter 20: Hook, Line, and Sinker

***

Meanwhile, the Miku Machida in Tomoyuki's universe gave him the opposite of the cold shoulder (A "hot" shoulder? Rubbing shoulders?).

Just like good ol' times, they were again together like white on rice. Talking about Sci-Fi things mixed with cool science facts while walking to class. Again fueling rumors of them being together.

"...Oh, oh, oh! Here's another evidence of the Mandela Effect. Most people remember the Monopoly Man as having no monocle, right? But when you take a look at the box of the board game, he definitely does have a monocle! Spooky, right?" she told him.

Ah, so they were talking about the Mandela Effect again. Misquotes and popular misconceptions mistaken for evidence of parallel worlds and traveling through them.

Except in Tomoyuki's case, the Mandela Effect was all too real.

He patted her head like she was a little kid and smiled at her. "It's very spooky," he said, which made her pout cutely, cross her arms, and turn away from him.

"Don't patronize me!" she said with a harrumph.

Damn, she was so cute when she was annoyed.

Jokingly bullying her was almost worth a taste of the cold shoulder that the (probably jealous) AU Miku was currently giving AU Tomoyuki.

Or maybe he felt like tempting fate for once.

Thankfully, Miku forgot his transgression the next minute, bringing up, "Do you remember how the candy 'KitKat' doesn't have a dash between Kit and Kat? Well, it does! It's actually spelled Kit-Kat"

"Hey, you're right," he said, checking out the nearby snack bar and seeing the Kit-Kat logo having the dash when he remembered otherwise.

She grins. "Amazing, isn't it? I'm telling you, parallel universes exist!"

'You don't have to tell me twice,' he inwardly quipped, taking note that in AU Seiko's universe, it was probably the other way around.

In her universe, KitKat bars probably didn't have dashes and the Monopoly Man most likely didn't have a monocle. Along with other weird things like Michael Jackson, who was brown-skinned, bleaching his skin Caucasian white and having legal issues regarding pedophilia (allegedly).

The old Yamamoto would've been over the moon to have Miku as a best friend, even to the point of fantasizing that they'd somehow end up being more than just friends in the future.

But something changed between them from first year to second year.

That tall, beautiful, athletic, and tomboyish something... or someone... barreled over between them, slinging each of her long arms over their nearest shoulders.

"Hey, Nerds. Still talking about that egghead stuff with the black president guy that's not Obama?"

"It's the Mandela Effect and he's not a president in our universe," reminded Machida. "Here, Mandela died in prison, serving as a symbol of the South African revolution. But so many people wanted him to be president, they all swore he became one. Or maybe it's a memory we had from a different timeline!"

"U-huh. And maybe in a different dimension, Mayweather is a knockout puncher with exciting fights under his belt," the Amazon Queen said, saying the most Seiko thing possible. "I appreciate the man's talent, but boy howdy, am I not looking forward to Mayweather-Pacquiao II."

Tomoyuki then made a mental note to not reveal the actual results of May-Pac to AU Seiko, neglecting to tell her earlier of how initially exciting but ultimately boring the actual fight ended up to be.

The Cherry Boy then averted his gaze from Seiko, the... former object of his affection. The sight of her made his heart ache and long for someone else who was like her but wasn't, making him feel guilty for doing so.

Maybe it was for the best that Okamoto wasn't all that into him after all.

So should he abandon his harebrained scheme to get Seiko and Kazuhito "Yankee" Sugata together, like Megumi Minagata suggested?

Not necessarily.

He'd still do it, but this time expecting a more realistic outcome of either heartbreak or a long-delayed hookup between the childhood sweethearts.

Without unrealistic expectations of the Amazon Queen going for the unlikely third option.

It was the least he could do for the alternate universe counterpart of the girl he loved.

***

Things also went back to normal in Class 2B. Somewhat.

"Hey, New-Half (Trans Woman)," called out Kazuhito (who finally decided to not skip classes) to Seiko.

Okamoto shouted, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A NEW-HALF!?" followed by a smack on his face. "Stupid Furyou-kun!"

Then the rest of the class began hooting and hollering at them for "acting like a married couple" who could help Japan with its population slump.

All talk of a potential pair-up or even love triangle between the Cherry Boy and the Amazon Queen faded once the heartthrob Sugata finally came back with his usual "married couple" shenanigans with Okamoto.

"As if Cherry Boy ever had a chance with the Amazon Queen while the Yankee is around!" was probably their shared sentiment of the situation.

They all just presumed Yamamoto was friendzoned (as usual), although they were hedging their bets that he'd score a pity date or two with their Iincho (Class Rep) at least.

"Please, you two! Stop fighting! Math Class is about to start," pleaded the mousy Class Rep in her usual adorable, bespectacled way that made Tomoyuki fall for her back in first year.

However, rather than scheme on how to get Machida and Sugata closer together to make Okamoto jealous enough to cross her Rubicon and confront her childhood friend about her long dormant feelings with him, the Cherry Boy started doodling and writing something else at the back of a dog-eared, beat-up notebook.

He couldn't stop thinking about Akira Kurosawa's Ran.

He wanted to write more about it. Research about its connection with King Lear even though, according to AU Seiko, it was a coincidental comparison made by western (foreign) media at best.

For the first time in a long while, he felt inspired to go after his passion and hobbies rather than try to appeal to the interests of others in a bid to "belong" in a clique or a long-term relationship with a girl.

For the longest time, he had been trying too hard to fit in with his peers. Only the closest people in his life know about his passion for writing and movies.

Like the glasses-wearing neighborhood girl he ended up being best friends with. Or, lately, both versions of Seiko Okamoto.

When he was under the mistaken belief that the only way he could improve on himself was to get a girlfriend rather than the other way around, he tended to ingratiate himself to whomsoever he attempted to woo.

In the case of his first crush Yukari Goto, he started taking the late train and gave her a hand whenever her klutziness or ditziness got her into trouble.

In the case of Aya Fubuki, he went to dates with her in all sorts of restaurants even to the point of maxing out his allowance and trying to find a job to supplement his dates, only for her to deny the dates ever took place.

In the case of Mana Otonashi, he really should've figured out he was just her plaything all along when she made her own mother tell him to stop calling her. How embarrassing.

In the case of Miku Machida, he got told hard regarding his clinginess and unrealistic expectations as a "Nice Guy". Even after that, their friendship persisted mostly because he absorbed her otaku knowledge like a sponge until he was able to decipher the "foreign language" she spoke whenever they were around each other.

Finally, in the case of his universe's Seiko Okamoto, he tried using AU Seiko's sports knowledge to better relate with her, only for it to backfire since this was info from a parallel world and not their world.

No one wonder people treated him like a doormat with no true friends to speak of. He really was a try-hard poser, wasn't he?

He made up for his lack of personality by attempting to incorporate the interests and quirks of others so that they'd like him better. Whether he was making friends or wooing girlfriends.

It was only with AU Seiko that he felt he could be himself and showcase the cinemaphile nut and wannabe writer he really was. No other woman made him feel comfortable in his skin like she did.

***

As the Cherry Boy put in the finishing touches to the outline of his new personal passion project (researching about what happened to his universe's Ran and writing his own version of the unfinished work with what little info he'd gotten from AU Seiko so far), he found a letter in his bag.

Curious. Who even gave out letters in this day and age of cellphones, email, and chatrooms?

Although it would've been charming if he and AU Okamoto were communicating through transdimensional mailboxes rather than transdimensional keitai (mobile phones). Just like in the South Korean film "Il Mare" (also known as "Siworae") or its Hollywood remake, "The Lake House".

He opened the envelope and then was greeted with the smell of a long-forgotten flowery scent.

He read its contents. The more he read, the more his heart sank to the pit of his stomach. Probably drowning in stomach acid to boot.

Oh shit. Not this again.

Tomoyuki hastily stuffed the letter in his bag, unwilling to humiliate himself in front of Class 2B by cluelessly reading the letter in front of them.

His traumatic experience with Yukari Goto and her mistaken love text to him that was meant for Kazuhito Sugata was still fresh in his mind. Even after all this time.

Speaking of which, Goto's best friend Aya Fubuki was the one who sent him the letter.

The same type of letters she used to slip into his bag or shoe locker when they were freshmen.

The letters she denied giving to him when he confronted her about the dates she swore they never had.

Yeah, he was still kind of sore about that.

What was going on? What was she trying to do?

Miku noticed him and the letter he hid. She was about to ask him about it, but he gave her a begging look to keep things to herself.

Thankfully, his best friend took the hint and turned her attention back to her notebook full of her own doujinshi (self-published fan comics) ideas.

Had she called attention to the letter so that the likes of Matsuda were to read it to the class, the Cherry Boy would've gotten a repeat of the embarrassment he suffered with Yukari that led to him getting his infamous moniker.

He could just imagine the jaw-jacking his classmates would give him right now.

'Oooh! Is that a love letter? Did Cherry Boy get a love letter from the Class 2C Iincho? MASAKA (IMPOSSIBLE)!'

'Hey, hey! Is our own cute li'l Cherry Boy forming his own harem just like his idol, Sugata?'

'Don't be absurd. That's Fubuki from Class 2C. The same girl who publicly called him out on spreading false rumors of them dating. There's no way she'd date that liar's ass now!'

'What is with him and all the class reps he keeps going after? Does he have an iincho fetish or something? He even tried stalking our dear Seito Kaicho (Student Body President) through harassing phone calls!'

'He's such a desperate loser I bet the letter is telling him to leave Fubuki alone!'

Naturally, the last one to speak would've been Matsuda. Still the asshole as always, but he was an asshole with a point.

He sighed. He should let sleeping dogs lie. Leave the mercurial (and probably bipolar) Aya to her own devices. However, maybe she sent him the "love" letter to apologize for her forgetting about the dates they had.

...Yeah right. As if that would ever happen. She at best tolerated him and as little as a few days ago, she hated his guts.

Still, he was curious as to why Fubuki would send him such a letter. Knowing what he knew about her now (as if it was the first time he'd ever met her), it seemed... out of character for her to do this.

Wouldn't she confront him rather than send him a letter? Then again, she couldn't even muster the courage to send Kazuhito himself a love letter, so how much less him?

But Tomoyuki wasn't Sugata though. She'd have no reason to be embarrassed about him. She made it abundantly clear she never had any feelings for him.

'Oh, and I'm supposed to believe that some desperate jerk I barely interacted with who spread rumors that I'm dating him is telling me that Sugata-kun is dating Miku-chan, his latest girlfriend prospect, out of the kindness of his heart? Reeeally now?' was the sentiment she had when Tomoyuki first told him about the Yankee and the Class 2B Rep.

She trusted him as far as she could throw him. They made up eventually when he took a bullet for her, but they at best had a tenuous "acquaintanceship" that could break at the slightest hint of betrayal.

She didn't trust him. She acted like she barely knew him, despite all their dates that she would not acknowledge ever existed.

In fact, Yamamoto was starting to believe that Aya really didn't date him, making him doubt that the dates he had with her were real.

It almost reminded him of his initial situation with AU Seiko, with her calling and confessing her love for him while the real Seiko (correctly) claimed she herself never called him.

What if they—Tomoyuki and Fubuki—were both right? What if he had dates with an alternate universe version of the Class 2C Iincho while the in-universe Aya got the blowback from their rumored budding relationship?

What if he was dating the AU version of Aya all along?

Hell, he should be writing about this plot twist instead of making a script treatment of Ran, to be honest.

Inwardly, he waved the suggestion off, rationalizing that the parallel worlds thing didn't work that way. His heart skipped a beat at the prospect of dating AU Okamoto in the flesh, though.

He'd love it if he could actually figure out how the AU thing really worked.

Nevertheless, his curiosity got the better of him as he decided to meet up on the indicated time and place on the letter after school.

Appearances aside, this was obviously no love letter situation like with Sugata. It wasn't as if Aya was off to confess her love to him or anything.

***

After class, in a meeting place only Tomoyuki and Aya knew about (the Peninsula Bar where they once had Mongolian Barbecue)...

"...I apologize for lying about our dates to our classmates. I was so embarrassed that they found out that I threw you under the bus. If you would be so kind, would you go out with me again?"

That was just about the last thing Yamamoto expected Fubuki to tell him.

But she really did it. She really told him that. The absolute madwoman.

While bowing in apology, no less.

What was going on? Was she high? Was this what Miku meant by tsundere? An insane girl who had the most extreme mood swings possible? 'Bitches be crazy!'

"Wait, wait, wait. Let me get things straight. You intentionally lied to everyone about our dates and now you're asking for another date? And aren't you after Sugata instead of me?" he asked.

"Sugata already rejected me. That ship has sailed." Aya brushed her hair to the side and looked away from Tomoyuki's gaze before bowing her head and looking up at his face with doe eyes. "A-Are you mad at me?"

Unbelievable. It was like he was talking to another person altogether.

Didn't she cheer him on when it came to wooing Seiko and whatnot? What happened to that Aya? Did she forget or was she testing his resolve somehow?

Maybe that AU Aya theory of his wasn't so far off after all. Or maybe it was more of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of scenario.

Was this really the same Aya that AU Seiko described as "earnest"?

Tomoyuki paced around, took a deep breath, and exhaled. He'd handle this like an adult.

"Yeah, I'm upset. But I also realize if you're ashamed to even admit that we dated, then maybe you're not all that into me after all. You did me a favor. You helped me stop acting so desperate for love all this time."

Aya tilted her head and furrowed her eyebrows. "W-What do you mean, Yamamoto-kun? Won't you forgive me at all? Can't we make things work out?" she asked, batting her eyelashes at him.

It was his turn to bow back to Fubuki, remembering how she cheered him on, telling him to go big or go home with wooing Seiko Okamoto.

To no longer be so clingy and halfhearted with his pursuit of girl crushes like in the cases of Yukari, herself, Mana, and Miku. To no longer serve as any girl's doormat.

If she were testing him and his resolve, then this was his answer.

"I accept your apology, Fubuki. But I have to apologize myself. I'm in love with someone else."

He had to be completely honest. Like AU Seiko said, Aya was an earnest kind of girl who responded to actions instead of words and empty promises.

***

He didn't know what to expect after "rejecting" Aya's proposal to date again.

A shrug and a pat on the back on the back would be nice.

He didn't really think she'd take it so badly. After all, she survived Sugata's rejection fine.

Also, he knew she didn't really love him all that much and she had a bigger crush on the Yankee than she ever did him.

So why the heck was she crying?

"H-Hey, calm down!" Tomoyuki said, only to flinch when Aya looked at him with fire from her red eyes. Ah, now this was more like the Class 2C Iincho he knew and "loved" (or rather, tolerated).

She didn't heed his request though, covering her face with her hands and sobbing from behind them.

Well, this was definitely a first for Yamamoto.

Usually, he was the one who felt like crying, being dumped repeatedly by all his pretty not-girlfriends (because according to Matsuda, his standards were unrealistically high for a nondescript guy).

"...W-Was it Seiko? Your class rep? The one that you confessed your love to and I recorded?" she sobbed.

That was weird phrasing. "My class rep Miku friendzoned me a long time ago. Also, didn't you play that recording on Seiko's behalf?"

"Oh right. The recording. That's what I meant. Seiko. The Amazon Queen."

She blinked her tears back and did an inquisitive head-tilt on the Cherry Boy.

"You're in love with the Amazon Queen? You don't have a chance. She's joined to the hip with your Yankee classmate!"

"Sh-Shut up," he said, crossing his arms and turning away. His heart not as indignant as he let on.

Speak of the (she-)devil, Tomoyuki turned his head in time to meet the eyes of Seiko, drinking water across the table away from them.

Eh?

She had the "clever disguise" of wearing shades and a baseball cap indoors. She looked more suspicious than if she didn't have the disguise.

The Amazon Queen then choked on her glass of water and turned away, hiding her face with the menu.

...Wait. What?

***

To stop Aya from crying any further, Tomoyuki appeased her by buying her a late lunch (or was it an early dinner?) that afternoon at the restaurant with what extra cash he made from his part-time job at a convenience store.

He then excused himself to go to the bathroom, eyeing Seiko all the while from behind Aya's back.

To his relief, the Amazon Queen took the hint and soon followed after him rather than wait for him to confront her at her table.

She was quick on the uptake.

"...What are you doing here?" he asked at the hallway leading to the doors to the restrooms.

"I should ask you the same question!" she ping-ponged his question back at him.

"...Aya gave me a letter in my bag, telling me to come here and stuff," he said, his eyes darting away at the taller girl. "What about you?"

"Miku-chin gave me a letter addressed to me, telling me to come here."

"Machida told you about this... meeting?" he asked before wincing at the look Seiko gave him over his own weird phrasing.

"No, the letter is from... Aya, apparently. But Miku got it from her."

"That's... weird. Did Machida read it too?"

"I dunno, Cherry Boy. She just gave it to me because it had my name on it."

"What's the letter doing with her?" Tomoyuki asked. "Did Fubuki want Machida to know about the meeting too? What did the letter say?"

"The letter told me to meet y'all here. I couldn't understand the directions, so I just moseyed along and followed you all the way to this restaurant instead."

"So you stalked me?" Tomoyuki teased Seiko, forgetting for a minute who he was talking to. Her voice reminding him of... someone else from another world.

"'AS IF', YOU IDIOT! Don't flatter yourself!"

Forgetting for a minute who she was talking to as well, the Amazon Queen gut-punched the Cherry Boy as though he were Kazuhito Sugata instead.

"Whoops. Sorry. My hand slipped."

The two stared at each other for a minute then laughed.

Afterwards, Tomoyuki ended up with a coughing fit and Seiko had to slap his back several times to help him recover.

"T-Thanks."

"S'alright. But seriously though, why are you on a date with Aya-chin?"

"Wait, when did this turn into a date? She asked me to come here to tell me something!"

"But you're feeding her right now and she just asked you out." She pointed to her ear. "I overheard."

Yamamoto crossed his arms and smirked. "Ha! Finally, I got a witness. Told'ya we dated! See what I have put up with last year? It was her word against mine that we dated!"

"You really dated?" Seiko couldn't help but repeat. "Oh yeah. That's right. You got a horrible rep because Aya-chin told everyone you were spreading bad rumors about her."

"RIGHT? You just saw Fubuki confess to me and you still don't believe it!" he ranted.

Biting her lip, Okamoto looked at him then at Aya from across the table, eating by herself.

"I dunno, Cherry Boy. She must've had a reason for doing this. Otherwise, this is quite unlike her." She appended, "B-But don't misunderstand! I didn't believe you were spreading lies about her either! Why else would I be friends with you? I just think this is all a big misunderstanding."

He'd normally storm off at this point, having people believe Fubuki over him, but this time around he was inclined to agree.

Unless her tsundere inclinations bordered on being clinically bipolar, the Aya who played his confession to Seiko via cellphone voice recorder was not the same Fubuki whom he suspected gave Okamoto and Machida the heads up on their non-date to ruin their perception of him.

Then, to Tomoyuki's surprise, the Amazon Queen suggested, "Y'know what? Why don't you go on a date with her today anyway?"

"WHAT? Are you crazy? I told her I already have my eyes for someone else!"

Yamamoto looked Seiko in the eyes as he said this, which made both of them look away from each other, blushing afterwards.

Seiko cleared her throat. "No, no. It's not a date-date. Just a fake date to see what Aya-chin is up to."

"A-Are you serious?" asked Tomoyuki. He didn't like where this was going.

***

By the time he returned to their table, Aya had the strangest, hugest (smuggest) grin on her face.

Did she know that Seiko was there, watching them? 'What are you planning, Fubuki?' thought Tomoyuki.

He didn't want to keep up a facade just to ruin Seiko's positive impression of one of Machida's friends, but Fubuki ended up cutting him off the pass.

"Hey, hey! After we're done eating, let's go to the arcades like we used to," she told him, and his plan of coming clean ended then and there, the words of protest dying in his throat.

And long story short, they ended up at a nearby arcade, with Okamoto following them close behind.

What was even going on anymore?

'...Eeeeh.'

Under the watchful gaze of Seiko, Tomoyuki ended up doing what he always did in arcades: Play a fighting game and die at the third stage.

"Dammit," Yamamoto said after the CPU King hit another 10-hit combo on his Eddie Gordo from Tekken insert-sequel-number-here.

So much for Eddie working against even experienced players with just button mashing. The computer A.I. couldn't care less.

Same thing happened with an old Street Fighter III: Third Strike arcade cabinet at the back. Got knocked out fighting Sean with Akuma. He then popped a blister on his left middle finger from jiggling the joystick while mashing buttons all the while.

The only fighting game he could probably beat was Karate Do on the Famicom, and that game sucked. Or Yie Ar Kung Fu. Which also sucked.

By the way, those were games in old cartridges that he got as hand- me-downs from his cousins along with an old Family Computer.

He expected Aya to fare worse than him, only for his ego to take an even worse beating than the characters he played in Tekken and Street Fighter.

Aya had a crowd form behind her as she crushed every challenger she faced off against in Tekken with just one quarter.

Well damn. Who knew that the studious Class Rep of Class 2C was an avid gamer?

Meanwhile, on her part, Seiko decided to bide her time with Dance Dance Revolution. Followed by foozball against a grade schooler. Followed by attempting to wreck the mechanical punch pad on the Sonic Blast Man (a game that measured punching power) cabinet.

Huh. He could've sworn he heard that Taito recalled all cabinets of the punching game due to the injuries it caused or something. Or maybe that was just him misremembering/getting false memories care of the Mandela Effect.

Or maybe it was even possible that in AU Seiko's universe, the game was recalled even though in his own universe, it wasn't. 'Who knows?'

A bead of sweat dripped on Tomoyuki's forehead as Okamoto wandered to a nearby billiards hall just beside the arcade, seemingly forgetting herself and why she went to the arcade in the first place.

'S-Seiko-chan...'

Speaking of people forgetting themselves, Aya stopped her winning streak short, handed her character off to some kid in the crowd to let him play, and grabbed hold of Yamamoto's arm.

Tomoyuki gulped, distracted by the smoothness of the 2C Iincho's skin and the softness of her... chest. "Um, welcome back?"

"Hey, hey! Cherry... I mean, Yamamoto-kun!" she corrected herself, her finger circling around the Cherry Boy's chest. "Can you win me a prize at the claw machine? Pretty please?"

"Er... I-I'll try," Yamamoto said, knowing that he'd fail. Still wondering what Aya's "deal" was.

As he predicted, he was terrible at the claw machine game. Unable to pick up one stuffed bunny or even a Doraemon. It'd be cheaper to buy the doll at a gift shop rather than pick it up through crane.

In the background, Aya cheered him on.

He had doubts in regards to the sincerity of her cheering in light of her betrayal of him, but it sure harkened back to their own dates where she'd do the same thing.

So he kept buying quarters. And trying. And failing. But he had a girl cheering him on, so he didn't mind losing so much.

"You can do it, Yamamoto-kun! Just like ol' times!" Aya told him.

'Ol' times...?' he thought.

From there, the Cherry Boy blinked and remembered how one of their first dates had played out like this.

With him attempting and never getting a doll and Aya (currently the Student Council VP but was once the Student Council Treasurer) laughing at him all the while.

"Oh, for the love of Kami-sama! LET ME, CHERRY BOY!" huffed a reddened, cap-wearing, and shades-sporting Seiko before taking the crane controls and picking up the Doraemon doll herself.

"...." Tomoyuki exclaimed. Silently.

The Amazon Queen handed the doll to Aya, only to realize too late what she'd done. "Er..."

Fubuki bowed at Seiko and said, "Thanks for the help, but I want my date to get me a dolly. Not you, Mister."

"...M-Mister!?" said the tall Amazon Queen with a sneer, her hand cocked back as if to slap the Class 2C Iincho.

"Uh, of course! Coming right up, Fubuki!" said Tomoyuki, who inserted another token only to waste it again by losing immediately. "Dammit."

Unable to help herself, the "disguised" Seiko got a hold of Yamamoto's hands and instructed him how to play the crane game.

"Now listen carefully, Cherry Boy. First, pick your target carefully. You've already played enough to get a feel of the claw, right?"

She then touched his hand, the softness of which surprised him, as she told him, "Try maneuvering the prize into a better position. This machine gives you enough time to position the claw, so take your time."

Tomoyuki gulped as the taller girl got too close to him. The smell of shampoo on her hair and the softness of her hands distracting him. Electrifying him.

Making him long for the softness of another her. A more "untouchable" version of her. From more than just far away.

Aya, on her part, put her hands on her waist and tapped her foot at the pair, sighing and clearing her throat loudly.

But they couldn't hear her. At all. As though they were trapped in another world. Their own universe. With no parallel universe versions of themselves to worry about.

"THERE! Right there, Cherry Boy!" said the Amazon Queen with her heaving chest cushioning Yamamoto's back like a chair's backrest. "Take it! Take it now! It's all yours, baby! Take 'em all!"

They soon formed a crowd of their own, with the guys and the girls blushing at the whole exchange.

Thanks to Seiko's teachings, Tomoyuki got to snag a whole bunch of plush toys in one go. He was about to deliver them en masse unto the slot when he noticed all the eyes on him and how suggestive the Amazon Queen looked with the way she helped wriggle his... joystick.

"AAAH!"

"Hey! Watch out! EEEEK! WATCH IT! KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF!"

There was a crisp slap followed by profuse apologies.

Yamamoto's hand slipped right into Seiko's chest in true harem protagonist fashion, which led to a reflexive, "BAKA FURYOU-KUN (STUPID YANKEE)!" and predictable violence from the Amazon Queen.

"I'm sorry! It's an accident! AN ACCIDENT! OWIE!"

"Ah! Cherry Boy! Sorry! Did I hit you too hard?"

From there, the whole bunch of the stuff toys fell back into the bin rather than out the claw machine's slot.

All except one: An ugly-cute cartoon snail doll that had its tag snagged by the tip of the claw at the last second.

Tomoyuki's reddened face (due to Seiko's handprint on his cheek) turned pale blue in realization. He screwed up in the middle of showing off!

'...Eh? Wait a minute, why was I showing off anyway? And in front of Fubuki, of all people!'

Speaking of Fubuki, she took the snail doll he'd gotten for her, frowning in a way that made it look like she'd just tasted something sour. Or maybe bittersweet.

"...Thank you," she told him.

"Uh, no problem," he answered, scratching his cheek.

He then caught Aya giving the flustered Amazon Queen a quick glance before she gave him a quick peck on the same cheek he just scratched.

Not knowing what else to do, Tomoyuki turned and faced Seiko, who had a slack-jawed expression on her face.

And in the Cherry Boy's heart of hearts, he found himself hoping that it was jealousy that was written all over Okamoto's face.

Even though earlier, her fit of violence was something she did while remembering her real crush and childhood friend, Kazuhito Sugata.

With the cherubic smile of a fallen angel, Aya then whispered to Tomoyuki, "Come with me. I have one last thing I want to do before we end our date," before holding his hand and leading him out of the arcade... to a chorus of cheers by everyone who witnessed the exchange there.

Stupidly, his mind in a haze like the Cherry Boy that he was after being kissed by a girl, he followed right after Fubuki like a lost dog.

He couldn't stop glancing back at the Amazon Queen though, who had slumped down on the floor with the Doraemon doll in her hand, her cap dropping, revealing her (sexy) disheveled hair.

***

Before Tomoyuki realized what was happening, he found himself in front of a hotel.

A love hotel.

From there, his memory became a blur. A whooshing motion blur from a high-speed roller coaster ride.

He could barely make out any details of what was going on, his body going on autopilot.

This wasn't really happening, wasn't it?

Then they were at the front desk of a hotel.

He then found himself paying for a room on that hotel.

With a girl beside him. A cute girl. A beautiful vision of... beauty with hair as long as the day and black as the night. And legs that went on forever.

Granted, she was a girl with an obnoxious personality (or set of personalities), but she was still pretty. And a girl.

What was he talking about again?

Soon, they ended up on an elevator. Then they went to their room with the number indicated on the room keys.

Was this some sort of elaborate prank by Matsuda again? Damn, that bigheaded jock just wouldn't leave him alone, would he?

Wow, the room looked nice. He'd been in hotel rooms before, but only when he and his parents ended up vacationing on some beach resort or had to take short flights to Hokkaido.

Besides, those were airport or resort hotels. Not love hotels.

Did he mention he was staying in a hotel room with a pretty girl? That was a big "first" for him.

After being turned down flat by several girls, he was now about to... Oh baby.

He gulped, his throat suddenly feeling quite dry.

Realizing the implications of the situation, he sat down on the bed and thought things through.

Could it be? Was he finally about to graduate from being a Cherry Boy to a real man?

Wait, why was he with a pretty girl in a hotel room anyway? That was quite unlike him, the Virgin King of Class 2B.

Tomoyuki Yamamoto ending up in a love hotel sounded like a setup to a joke just short of a punch line.

Oh right, he was on a date with Aya. But why though? Why would any girl date him?

Hey, he wasn't that bad with girls. Sure, in his first year alone, he got rejected by not one, not two, not three, but four girls. All of whom belonged in the so-called Sugata Harem in one way or another.

He was a beggar who was a chooser, after all.

But he improved in the end, didn't he? He made friends with Miku Machida, made amends with both Aya Fubuki and Yukari Goto, and even Student Body President Mana Otonashi had started talking to him again.

He wasn't as awkward around women as he was last year. He graduated from the "Nice Guy" mode of thinking with the help of his best friend Miku.

So it was perfectly fine for him to end up in bed with a girl who originally rejected him, right?

He regrouped. He improved. He evolved. So he... deserved this. Right?

Hell, he even had the audacity to try and woo Sugata's childhood friend and the girl whom he was closest with in his harem, Seiko Okamoto.

He wanted the Amazon Queen so bad that, by fate, serendipity, or coincidence, he ended up with the phone number of her AU self.

That was how he was able to learn all about her. Warts and all. From another her from another universe.

Wait.

What the hell was he doing with Aya Fubuki if he was in love with Seiko Okamoto?

"...."

Oh no. Oh nooo. Oh nononono. Oh Kami-sama, what did he just do? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

His hands gripping his hair almost to the point of pulling them out by their roots, Tomoyuki paced around the nice hotel room. That he paid for.

What kind of a thirsty pervert was he?!

He then remembered the last thing Aya told him before he had his epiphany.

"You stay right there. I'm just going to take a shower."

'AAAAAAHHHHH!' he screamed internally, finally noticing the sound of the running water inside the hotel bathroom.

He could've stopped this at any time. He could've said no. But he didn't, and he'd gone past the threshold of refusal.

The point of no return, perhaps?

Wait, he could leave a note and say he had something to do. Uh, like his part-time job or something.

Maybe flaking out on her wasn't the best-laid plans (of mice and men), but... but... he had no other choice!

Also, why was she suddenly enamored over him after all these months she hated him enough to lie about them dating? Was this how tsundere acted? Seemed kind of psychotic to him!

The worst part was that, even if nothing happened to them in the hotel, the fact that he went in a hotel in the first place with her would probably be enough to ruin his chances with Seiko forever!

He was just about to write his note when he heard knocking on the door. Did Aya order room service? He had no money left for that!

Anyway, fingers crossed, he hoped against hope that Okamoto would believe him when he said that he followed Aya by accident into a love hotel and he had no intention of sleeping with her. Kinda.

And so understandably, he fell to the floor butt-first in surprise when he saw that it was Seiko who was on the other side of the door. Like an actor from Vaudeville doing a slapstick standup (or sit-down) routine.

"I-It's not what it looks like. I can explain..." he started, feeling like an unfaithful husband caught red-handed in a hotel room with his mistress by his wife. Even though he had no reason to think that way.

To his surprise, an unusually quiet Okamoto asked him, "So did you two do it already? Did she pop your cherry, Cherry Boy?"

Well now. Nice to see she was blunt like usual.

She then slapped her forehead and mumbled what sounded like curses to herself before apologizing and saying, "Look, it's none of my business. I don't even know what I'm doing here. I'm sorry for bothering you two lovebirds. I'm also sorry for doubting you when you said that you and Aya-chin used to date. Goes to show what I know, right?"

The contrite Amazon Queen bowed at Tomoyuki and started to leave when, by instinct, the Cherry Boy grabbed hold of her arm and said, "Wait. Don't leave. I'm... I'm actually glad you came."

To his surprise, that actually worked. Seiko stayed.

She walked back to the doorway as he noticed for the first time her cap that hid her head full of hair that was usually tied in a ponytail.

She looked positively tomboyish. Heart-achingly so.

"I... I just happened to follow Fubuki back to this hotel," was the explanation he came up with in short notice.

Goddamn, that sounded so stupid. Even though it was true.

He also wanted to say he thought it was a prank, but that sounded even more like a lie than what he just said, even though it was also true.

Why was he being so stupid anyway? It was because he was thinking with his dick! That was why! He followed a girl to a hotel room without question like the naive virgin that he was.

"U-huh. Completely by accident, huh?" Seiko couldn't help but smirk.

"I don't know what I was thinking!" Or so he said, although he knew exactly what he was thinking, and so did Okamoto. "But I haven't slept with Fubuki. At all. Nor do I have any intention to do so."

"Well, why not? This is your big chance, Cherry Boy," Seiko brought up his nickname for emphasis.

"B-Because, like I told her, I'm already in love with someone," he said, his eyes never leaving hers. Unafraid of the implications behind his words.

"So you went to a hotel room with her and paid for it?" was the retort that he waited for Seiko to shoot back at him, but she never said it.

Instead, she stared back him and nodded. "You'd break Miku-chin's heart if you went through with this."

Ugh. Not this again. "No, I'm not in love with Machida! I'm in love with...!"

He then slammed the door in front of the Amazon Queen's face by reflex when he heard the bathroom door open.

AHHH! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

And out came Aya, her skin glowing, her long hair sopping wet, her naked body wrapped in nothing but a towel. A rather short towel, at that.

He ended up with his back against the door, his eyes staring at everything else but Fubuki.

He had never seen a cleaner hotel full of fresh sheets, nicely decorated walls, a flat-screen television set, a refrigerator full of overpriced drinks, and a nice view of the city.

The bed cushion was soft, the pillows were pure stuffing as well, and even the nearby lamp was nice. It... tied up the whole room.

Nothing too fancy, but not bad. It was worth whatever it was that he paid for it. Maybe.

"I'm done with my shower," Fubuki stated the obvious, cat-smiling and batting her half-lidded eyes at the Cherry Boy, her normal personality pretty much doing a one-eighty.

"W-We shouldn't do this," Tomoyuki said, pulling at his collar.

"Do what?" teased the coy Aya, which seemed rather unbecoming of the normally straight-laced Class Rep of Class 2C. "Don't get cold feet on me right now, Yamamoto-kun."

"I-I told you, I'm already in love with someone else!"

"Which is why you followed me all the way to a love hotel and paid for it?" came the retort Yamamoto was waiting for all this time. Fubuki then started playing with her towel. "Maybe I can change your mind...?"

"NOOOOO!"

Not only Yamamoto, but Okamoto screamed that word.

As Aya was about to take off her towel, Tomoyuki attempted to grab it with the intention of putting it back on her.

The door behind him opened, and out (or rather, in) stumbled the Amazon Queen. Right onto the Cherry Boy. Who ended up stumbling himself and accidentally ripping the towel off of Aya's body.

Then, to the chagrin of the pair, they ended up falling on the edge of the bed, making a mess of it, the pillows and bed sheet flying and ending up on the floor along with them.

"EEEEK!" screeched Seiko, grabbing hold of the damp towel in order to cover Tomoyuki's eyes with it. "Don't look, you pervert!" was what the tomboy said even though Aya was the one volunteering to take it off.

"...L-Look, I'm sorry if I led you on! I'm sorry if I came here without thinking! But I mean it when I say I'm in love with someone else!" cried Yamamoto while Okamoto kept pulling the towel over his face and cranking his neck at an odd angle. "OW! Stop that, Amazon Queen!"

However, Seiko suddenly stopped moving, which resulted in the towel slipping from the Cherry Boy's eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut, but his curiosity got the better of him, leading him to take a peek.

There stood Aya in all her naked glory. Or she would've had she not been wearing spats (spandex shorts) to cover up her nether regions. She was still topless though.

And yet something seemed missing from this picture. Fubuki's chest was as flat as a board.

Well, that wasn't unusual. Many Japanese girls were flat as boards themselves. Maybe Fubuki wore padded bras?

But then Tomoyuki's eyes went south of the border and saw something else of note.

A noticeable bulge on Aya's spandex shorts.

What?

No. No way.

Maybe her... (ahem) hair down there was unusually thick. Like an untrimmed hedge. Or even a forest. So that would explain the bump or bulge. Right?

'I mean, it can't possibly be... Nah. Of course not.'

Yamamoto then realized that Seiko was looking at the same thing as he was when he glanced back at her.

He saw eyes of wonder, confusion, and terror. She then asked the Cherry Boy, "Is that a bulge in her...?"

And then Aya began laughing. Or rather, cackling. Like an evil overlord about to go on a monologue.

"I would've preferred that you end up in a compromising position with me, but I guess this will have to do, Yamamoto-kun."

"...W-What?" stuttered Yamamoto, not knowing what was going on.

Thusly the two remained stock-still on the bed as the topless, flat- chested, and... spandex-bulging Fubuki retrieved her cellphone from her purse.

That proved to be a mistake.

And so Aya ended up with a digital photo of a disheveled Seiko sitting atop a damp-faced Tomoyuki beside a messy hotel bed that she took with her cellphone camera.

"A-Aya-chin, w-what's going on?" asked the Amazon Queen in a shaky voice.

"Oh, you haven't figured it out yet?" Aya took off her damp wig, revealing the short dry hair underneath it. "I'm not Aya. I'm her brother, Fubuki Akira."

***

Both Seiko and Tomoyuki stayed in the hotel lobby for a bit, staring blankly into the distance, before they both bid their farewells to each other.

Seiko was the first to leave. Tomoyuki told her to go ahead because needed another minute. Or hour.

He called in sick at his part-time work. He knew he couldn't make it there on time. Nor did he feel like working.

After buying a drink and snack from a vending machine, he went back to the empty hotel room (since it was already paid for) to gather his thoughts. Aya... no, Akira... was long gone by then.

Damn. Wasn't that something?

That was the last thing he expected her... him... to say. It seemed like something out of a movie.

Like Dustin Hoffman's character in "Tootsie". Or Ming-Na Wen's character in "Mulan". Or Jaye Davidson's character in "The Crying Game". Or Hillary Swank's character in "Boys Don't Cry".

Hell, that revelation in the end was very Tootsie-ish in its execution.

On that note, he really felt like crying right then and there.

Akira Fubuki, the younger brother of Aya that, Yamamoto realized, was about the same height and build as her, had admitted to "catfishing" the Cherry Boy when he was in first year high school.

Akira didn't like how, as he put it, Tomoyuki was "stalking" and "bothering" his big sister, so he pulled a prank on him to teach him a lesson.

Which, in retrospect, made a lot of sense.

The rumors. The anger Aya had when Yamamoto kept insisting that they had dated and she was lying about them not dating. The way Aya's personality was completely different from the "Aya" he dated.

Even the fact that Miku received the letter addressed to Seiko could also be explained away by Akira mistaking Seiko for Miku after overhearing the name from his sister.

Everything now had a... not-so-simple explanation. But an explanation nonetheless.

To reiterate, Akira Fubuki pretended to be his sister Aya in order to "catfish" Tomoyuki Yamamoto.

Tomoyuki kept repeating that statement inwardly but he still couldn't wrap his mind around it. Seriously, what the hell?

The funny thing was that both the girl Fubuki and Tomoyuki ended up telling the truth after all.

'So let me get things straight,' thought the Cherry Boy while staring at the TV but not really watching the game show that was on.

Akira specifically put on his sister's clothes to impersonate her and go onto dates with Tomoyuki in her stead. This led to the misunderstanding later on that led to a falling out between Yamamoto and the Elder Fubuki.

Or maybe it wasn't a falling out, because technically, Tomoyuki never really met the real Aya until later on. He'd been dating her brother instead under false pretenses.

Akira also took a photo of him and the Amazon Queen in a rather compromising position in order to... what? Make them, or rather make Tomoyuki, suffer further by having blackmail material on him and the Seiko?

Man, Akira really must hate him go through all that trouble to catfish Yamamoto.

...Right?

Granted, his dedication to pranks aside, it was still embarrassing for Akira to go into drag and pretend to be a girl just to embarrass the Cherry Boy with his big reveal in the hotel.

They must've gone through so many dates. They were so many, in fact, that Yamamoto lost count. He had enough dates with Aya (actually Akira) to presume that they were now boyfriend and girlfriend.

But why did he do it? What the hell did the Cherry Boy do to deserve Akira's wrath and his methodical revenge plot in the first place?

Now that was the million-yen question.

The Friend Zone King couldn't quite buy Akira's excuse that his crossdressing was all for the sake of protecting his sister from him.

Why didn't Akira just allow Aya to reject Tomoyuki outright? Why go through all this trouble?

Come to think of it, didn't Akira already get what he wanted out of Yamamoto last year? The crossdresser ended up making his sister hate the Cherry Boy's guts by impersonating her and going on false dates with him.

What prompted the male Fubuki to bother Tomoyuki again after all this time?

And then it hit the Yamamoto. Of course.

Tomoyuki recently made up with Aya (sort of) when he prevented her from making that ill-timed love confession to Kazuhito Sugata.

Her jealous li'l brother with a siscon (Sister Complex) must've arranged this little revelation at the hotel to destroy the mended fences between Yamamoto and the female Fubuki.

But that backfired and Akira ended up taking the blackmail photograph of Yamamoto and Okamoto as a consolation prize.

Regardless, the twerp got him. He got him hook, line, and sinker.

***

Although Tomoyuki didn't feel like going back to school that Friday, he still went.

Might as well. He wasn't going to solve this mystery staring slack- jawed at his room's ceiling, feeling sorry for himself.

Seiko herself couldn't even look him in the eye that morning, but he didn't let the fact hurt his feelings or anything. He completely understood.

That night they had at the hotel was awkward for everyone involved.

The long weekend that would've let him sort his thoughts and feelings out aside, he had several important things to do that day.

Like apologize to Akira's sister, Aya.

'First thing's first.' He went straight to the entrance of Class-2C, waited for (the real) Aya Fubuki (and her "sidekick" Yukari Goto) to arrive, and bowed down to Aya in apology.

Oh boy, did he get the wrong impression of her. She really wasn't at fault at all for the dating rumors spread about him and her.

Neither was Tomoyuki, but at least now he knew the truth. They were both right about the situation in certain points of view.

The ever-cynical Aya pulled Tomoyuki aside and asked, "Did something happen? What's up with you?"

"I just wanted to apologize," Tomoyuki said, shrugging and avoiding her gaze. "I know I've been doing that a lot lately so it might sound shallow coming from me, but... I really am sorry."

Fubuki then crossed her arms and prodded, "...And?"

Yamamoto cleared his throat. "I was wondering if you know the classroom number of your brother, Akira."

The Class 2C Rep held herself, her arms folded tightly around her chest and wrinkled her nose at the Cherry Boy. "Why?"

"I just want to talk to him, okay?" he said, not knowing (or willing) to broach the subject of catfishing and crossdressing with Akira's big sister.

"But you've never even met..." Aya's eyes widened. "Oh no."

Shit. Did she realize the truth? Did Yamamoto let the cat out of the bag? Would Akira in turn send that compromising photo of him and Seiko to the whole school? Or to Sugata?

Fubuki then unfolded her arms, sighed, and said, "Look, I'll talk to my li'l bro. If he threatened you in any way after seeing that we've mended fences, then I have to apologize on his behalf. He's very protective of me. Please understand."

"I-It's nothing like that, I just want to talk to him!" Tomoyuki protested with a sigh (of relief) of his own before a little birdie in the form of Yukari blabbed, "Well, if that's the case, then Akira-kun belongs to Section 1A."

"...YUKARI-CHAN!" screeched Aya before pulling at the ditzy blonde's twin tails hard.

"OWIE! I'm sowie, Aya-chan!" cried the ditz, reasoning, "But Cherry-kun only wanted to talk to your bro! What's the harm in that?"

"Class 1A, huh?" said the Cherry Boy, scratching his chin. "Right. I guess I'll go talk to him then. Thanks, Goto!"

"Waaait, what for? What did he say to you?" insisted Aya, who began to look more like the Aya of old with her frown and glare.

Tomoyuki raised his arms in surrender and backpedaled. "Nothing bad! I promise! I just want to clear the air with Fubuki Akira! It's not like we're going to end up in a fist fight or something...!'

Serendipitously, Yamamoto ended up literally bumping into his classmate, the Judo Club President and one of the Four Kings of Class 2B, Kanemoto.

Yep. Matsuda's friend Kanemoto. Or Matsuda #2. Or the bishonen (pretty boy) version of Matsuda. That Kanemoto.

"...Fubuki Akira? You're looking for Fubuki Akira? Hahaha! Cherry Boy, are you off to have a rematch with him?" Kanemoto asked, overhearing their conversation.

Yamamoto would've just cowered away from one of his regular bullies had he not taken a double-take at what the Judo Club President said. "Uh, rematch? W-What are you talking about Kanemoto?"

The sneering jock nudged Yamamoto's side. "Aw, come on. Don't be coy. You two got in a slap fight over me back in junior high. You wanted first dibs over yours truly and Fubuki Akira was your love rival."

Tomoyuki stuttered, "W-What the heck are you...?" before he felt a chill in his spine.

"Yamamoto-kun! You're going to have a fist fight over my li'l brother!?"

"AH! Aya-chan! I mean, Fubuki! Of course, I'm not! Don't believe Kanemoto's lies...!" so he said, but a feeling of déjà vu hit him.

And so the puzzle pieces in his mind began to fit. He remembered who Akira was.

This wasn't the first time they met, and he wasn't referring to their fake dates.

***

By some miracle, Tomoyuki Yamamoto got away from Akira Fubuki's protective sister in one piece.

Yamamoto guessed that his wimpy demeanor in the face of Kanemoto's "outlandish" accusations let him off the hook.

For the first time, Aya gave Tomoyuki the benefit of the doubt. She probably reasoned, "Why would the bullied Cherry Boy ever start a fist fight with my li'l bro?"

Ironically, the one time she trusted him was the one time she shouldn't have.

Kanemoto was right. Yamamoto did fight the younger Fubuki brother. And it was over the infamous jock.

No, not because they wanted to win Kanemoto's heart (or at least, as far as Yamamoto was concerned, that wasn't the case).

This stain in Tomoyuki's past was part of the reason why he believed that he completely deserved most of the bullying done to him all this time.

***

To Be Continued...

It's a trap! The trap arc is almost over with. What else is in store for Yamamoto and his Non-Harem? Stay "tuned"!

Farewell, Abdiel

#catfishing #trap #it's a trap #finds a way #keit-ai #keit愛 #tomoyuki x seiko

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back-and-totheleft · 4 years ago

Text

After the Fall

In Oliver Stone’s new film, World Trade Center, a rescue worker stands atop a pile of steaming rubble, planning his descent into the inferno below. “I need a medic up here,” he yells. “Anybody a medic?”

“I used to be a medic,” comes a voice from the darkness.

A tiny figure scrambles up the base of the hill like a large bug. As he passes into the light, we see that it’s Frank Whaley, an actor who got his start with appearances in Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors and JFK.

“My license lapsed,” the figure says. “I had a few bad years. But I’m good.”

Such is the legacy of Stone — a towering figure in modern film who always seems to be wrangling his own personal demons — that it is almost impossible not to read a scene like that autobiographically. A three-time Oscar winner as both writer (Midnight Express) and director (Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July), Stone has spent much of the past dozen years surrounded by controversy or chaos: His satirical tabloid blitzkrieg Natural Born Killers caused novelist John Grisham to accuse him of engendering real-life murders. Nixon, his oddly sympathetic portrait of the ex-president, eluded liberals and conservatives alike. The jumpy, kinetic editing style he employed in the day-for-noir U Turn and the pro-football pageant Any Given Sunday inspired longtime Stone critic Elvis Mitchell to label the latter “the world’s first ADD epic.”

Then the first of two HBO documentaries (Comandante) on Fidel Castro was shelved for being too sympathetic, while a subsequent portrait of Yasser Arafat (Persona Non Grata) saw Stone’s crew fleeing Ramallah four hours before the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian leader’s compound. (A third film, expected to profile either Kim Jong-Il or Saddam Hussein, was canceled.) He has been arrested twice — in 1999 and 2005 — for DUI and possession of marijuana, respectively. During an appearance at HBO’s “Making Movies That Matter” panel at Lincoln Center in October 2001, he allegedly made inflammatory remarks regarding the September 11 attacks, earning him scorn and ridicule in The New Yorker and elsewhere. Most painfully, when Stone, in 2004, finally realized his 20-year obsession to make Alexander, a sweeping history of Alexander the Great filmed on three continents, the film failed to find a domestic audience.

Now comes World Trade Center, a delicate, contained and extremely powerful evocation of our 2001 national trauma, starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña as John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, New York City Port Authority cops who were miraculously excavated from beneath the glowing rubble of Building No. 7. In an odd way, it brings Stone’s career full circle: His first student film, Last Year in Viet Nam, made at NYU in 1970 (for film professor Martin Scorsese), opens with a panorama of southern Manhattan and what would have been the Twin Towers, except that they weren’t completed until January 1972. But in another respect, World Trade Center may be Stone’s most subversive film yet — a rousing, populist, patriotic adventure story that kicks the legs out from under the right-wing criticism marshaled against him. It could prove the ultimate irony that the bête noire of American conservatives — the man who profiled right-wing death squads in Salvador, My Lai–like atrocities in Platoon, hostile takeovers in Wall Street, the anti-war movement in Born on the Fourth of July and, most notably, the fecund proliferation of Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theories in JFK — may find his most enthusiastic audience among the very partisans who have heretofore decried his lifetime of work. As no less a cultural observer than Mel Gibson said of Stone in the 1997 thriller Conspiracy Theory, “He’s a disinformation junkie for them. The fact that he’s still alive says it all. He probably should be dead, but he’s not.”

In person, Stone has an infectious laugh, seems genuinely engaged and takes the full measure of my questions before answering, at which point his ideas often come so fast they seem to be skipping across the surface of the conversation. He’s also the most fun kind of intellectual, in that he perpetually appears to be trying to figure himself out. Briefly a classmate of George W. Bush’s at Yale, he seems — at least on the evidence of our wide-ranging, three-hour discussion — to have absorbed a good deal more of its freshman syllabus. We spoke at his West L.A. editing suite, where he is currently preparing a three-hour, 45-minute DVD-only “road show” version of Alexander, complete with intermission.

L.A. WEEKLY: Where were you on the morning of September 11, 2001?

OLIVER STONE: L.A. Asleep. My wife put the TV on.

And what did you think was happening?

It was sensational. It was exciting. It was horrifying. It reminded me in its barbarity and ferocity of the French Revolution — the tumbrels, heads falling. And I had feelings of anger in me, and vengeance. I had a fight with my son, actually, because he was much more objective about it: “How do you know? Don’t assume anything. You’re acting like the mob.” But there were other feelings as well. You know, I realize I’m an older person; I’ve seen Vietnam and a lot of death and shit. Oklahoma City was horrible. JFK’s assassination. Watergate. The 2000 election. We’ve been through our times of shit in this country, so this was another version.

World Trade Centeris very powerful — emotionally powerful. I had a very visceral reaction to it.I think it’s obviously the film, but it’s also more than the film — it’s the fact that the subject matter is so loaded. If you make a film about fire jumpers, and a fire jumper comes to see it, he’ll say, “Well, you got this part right, you got this part wrong.’?” With this film, we’re all fire jumpers. It’s also very different from a lot of your other films — it’s gentle and contained and quiet. I’m wondering if you had to devise a different approach because the subject matter was so delicate.

I just want to say first that the way I look at myself — it’s not necessarily in the result — but with every film, I really have made an effort to make each one an island unto itself in this little sea that we go around in our ships. And every island has been a destination, a stop for a period of time. I’ve tried to take a different style for every film, because it’s the story that comes first, and the subject dictates the style. Even with something like Natural Born Killers, which seems very stylistic and eccentric, it’s still the content that I think is valid and important. With this film, certain things presented themselves: Obviously, the sensitivities of everyone involved, but ultimately that’s the sky around the project. With JFK, for instance, there were his children to think of, Jackie was still alive, Teddy Kennedy. Blowing his head off in Dealey Plaza didn’t go down well with them either. But there was a bigger story to tell.

Here we were limited by movement, so we worked out a style by which, methodically, the film would go in and out of light: Light would fight with the dark, or rather, light would try to make it up to the dark. Claustrophobia is an issue with a film like this. I did Talk Radio, so I know that feeling of being on one set the whole time. Also, Born on the Fourth of July: That was a very contained movie, in a way, because we had a young man in a wheelchair in the second half, where there’s very little movement. When I read this script, I said, “How do we make this movie watchable? How do we make the tension manageable for a mainstream audience?”

It may surprise a lot of people that you’re not using a lot of shock cuts, moving around inside the frame — what you’ve termed your “cubist” style.

Well, where can you move in a hole? A hole is limited. Finding the right point of view in the hole is crucial.

You once said about Platoon?, “I felt like if I didn’t do it now, I’m going to forget.” We’re five years out from 9/11 now, and there is much public hand-wringing about whether it’s too soon yet to deal with this subject matter.

I think it’s a bogus question. The consequences of that day are far worse today. More people have died since then because of the war on terror. There’s more war, there’s more fear, and there is constitutional breakdown left and right. Have the good sense to go to the psychiatrist quickly. If you’ve been raped, talk to somebody about what that day itself was like before you build up all this armor.

You pursued this film, correct?

Yes. Petitioned. My agent, Bryan Lourd, a man of taste, said to me, “Look, I read this script two weeks ago — it stays with me, it’s emotional. I don’t know if it will make a dime, I don’t know if I can get it financed, but just read it.” So I read it, and I said, “My God, I never thought of this — to do 2001 this way.” I knew [World Trade Center producers] Michael Shamberg and Stacy Sher. But no one would make it; Universal dropped it at the [proposed] budget. I was doing other things, I wasn’t stopping my life. But then it came back around. Paramount was just coming into being [under new management]. We were very lucky, because that new studio energy was coming in, and they wanted to make it so badly that it happened right away.

And did you talk with the producers about politics — if there would be a political viewpoint that informed the story?

There was no room for it, because John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno were not interested in politics, per se. They don’t talk about politics like you and I do. Their lives are not determined by it; they live according to what is given them. So it never entered into the equation. I loved the script [by Andrea Berloff] as it was. I loved the inspiration of the story. So I vowed to stay inside those parameters.

New York is probably the most liberal city in America, and yet the 9/11 attack has been so politicized, its imagery considered so proprietary, that right-wing skepticism has been mounting steadily against you since this project was announced. A story in The New York Times said the film is being strategically marketed to right-wing opinion leaders using the PR firm that advised the Swift Boat Veterans group. It even quoted the conservative National Review Web site as saying, “God Bless Oliver Stone.”

I knew [the studio] was doing grassroots marketing to everybody — Hispanics, cops, firemen, teachers, church groups. I didn’t know that they had hired a specific firm; I found out that day. I’m pleased they like it, because it goes beyond politics.

Could you foresee a left-wing backlash against the film?

If people on the right are responding with their hearts, I’m all for it. But if they’re making it into a political statement, it’s wrong. Those on the left might say, “Oh, this is a simplified context, and these are simplistic working-class values. You’re not showing a wider political context.” Or secondly, that we’re sentimentalizing the event — which would be unfair, because I think there’s a lot of grit there. But this is a populist film. We’ve said that from the beginning. In our hearts, it was a Frank Capra type of movie. And he didn’t necessarily get great notices.

In an odd way, I was reminded of Preston Sturges Hail the Conquering Hero — a wartime comedy that pokes fun at the notion of patriotism and, by extension, patriotic movies but which, by the end, almost subversively, fills you with this patriotic fervor. I’m wondering if you see this as your “Nixon in China” moment: Only the director of Nixon and JFK could get away with a film where the most heroic character is an ex-Marine who consults with his pastor before putting himself in harm’s way.

That character, Dave Karnes, is an unlikely hero. He goes to church — that’s a documented thing; he checks with his pastor in a born-again church before he goes down to Manhattan. He evaded the authorities. Get it done; that’s a Marine thing. I think you can argue that the Marine is an ambivalent character, because at the end of the movie, this sense of vengeance is what fuels the wrong war in Iraq.

But for him it’s the right war.

For him it’s the right war. That’s correct. I think if you really look at JFK or at Nixon, which are the two political films I did uncensored in my career — which is amazing unto itself — JFK is neither right nor left, and was attacked equally by the left, who did not like the Kennedy figure of 1963. It was done in the centrist tradition of American dissent: It questioned government and the authority of government. So I was taken aback that the right made such a big issue out of it. I suppose, because they were in office [when the film came out]. But they had never done that historically. They would have been on the side of the investigation; [Barry] Goldwater may well have been. JFK was not a bunch of fantasies strung together. It involved an enormous amount of research — as much as World Trade Center, if not more.

You could make the same argument about Nixon. You took the dominant political figure in our lifetime and gave him the Shakespearean treatment his life cried out for.

It was a psychological point of view. The right wing thought it was going to be a hatchet job; instead, it made him a human being. Unfortunately, in my career, I have spoken out between films, and that’s what’s gotten confused with the films themselves. I think the focus has been lost. Somewhere along the line, I guess, I said, “Look: I’m a filmmaker, but I’m also John Q. Citizen, and things piss me off. I have a right to say, if people ask me and they’re interested, what I fucking think.” And that’s the line I’ve always gotten in trouble with. It’s always between the films, if you look at the statements I’ve made. There’s nothing in the films themselves, as far as I know, that’s really offensive politically.

How much of the criticism against you do you think is organized for partisan political gain?

I’ve always wondered that — especially in the ’90s, after the JFK situation. You have to wonder: Will it come out one day in a government file? You hear about those programs from the ’50s and the ’60s. I was so grateful that Michael Moore came along. He helped me.

He seems to enjoy it. Maybe it’s the counterpart to how the left treats Charlton Heston.

Charlton Heston once said in an interview, “People like Oliver Stone would never hire me in the new Hollywood.” And I went out of my way on Any Given Sunday to hire him. I loved him. I said, “Forget politics, I love your character.” Political reputation pigeonholes you, and in a society that’s very busy, it’s an easy way to get rid of having to think too much about people and what they’re saying. I’m a dramatist; I’m a humanist. I protest.

There’s one line in World Trade Center — I think we hear it on a TV monitor in an office at the Port Authority — where the announcer says, “. . . the shock of the explosion that was coincidental with the two towers coming down,” and then you move on to something else. Was the suggestion that an unexplained explosion might have accompanied the towers’ demise the one seed of doubt you intentionally planted in an otherwise apolitical movie?

Well, I think that all reality is questionable, as you know. Frankly, I’m not an expert on that at all. And I haven’t pursued it, because I think the consequences of where we are now are far worse. But even if there was a conspiracy, it wouldn’t change where we are now. We’re into another place, where there’s more war, more terror, more bankruptcy, more debt, above all more constitutional breakdown and more fear than ever before. That’s very serious. And we’re on the edge of possibly something bigger and very dangerous. Richard Clarke’s book [Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror], at least, is about a true conspiracy that we know existed, of a small group who took over the government and did it their way — manipulated, created the war. It’s 30 or 40 people, right?

Sy Hersh says it’s 11 guys.

It was a conspiracy, and it was basically at the top. It’s Cheney and Rumsfeld influencing Bush. Cheney and Rumsfeld go back to the Ford administration, and when they got their way, they kicked butt. That’s a great story. But that’s not even all of it. When you’ve got a guy like Representative Pete Hoekstra from Michigan, who was a friend of the Bush administration — who had approved of the Patriot Act, the eavesdropping, the taxes, the bank records, all of it — saying in the press that there’s something worse that he’s pissed off about, because they hadn’t consulted him. Something worse? I mean, all the cards are not on the table, right? This is a big story. And we’re living it. How can you write about it? We’re fucking rocking in the boat. It’s like trying to write a great war novel when you might be going into World War II.

Were you at Yale the same time Bush was?

I was in the same class, yeah. I don’t remember him. I was never in a fraternity. I went twice — I dropped out one year and then went back for half of a second year and dropped out.

But at one point Bush requested to meet you, didn’t he?

Yeah, I met him. It was a political breakfast speech here in California at a club, the Republican right wing. They invited me — they’ve always had fun with me, I don’t know why — and it was a big hotel room and a speech about tough love and justice in Texas. He was governor then, around ’98 or so. I swear, I knew in that room on that day that he was going to be president. There was just no question. He had that confidence, and they adored him. There was an organized love for him. He asked for me to come up to the podium and we had a one-on-one. I was in the Bush spotlight — that thing where he stares at you and he gets to know you a little bit.

Assigns you a nickname.

There was one funny line. He knew I’d been in Vietnam. Actually, I didn’t know he’d been at Yale. He told me he’d been in my class; it was a surprise to me. But then he said he’d had a buddy who had been to Vietnam who’d been killed. “Buddy,” he said. It was funny — it was on his mind, he raised it. And it was the way he looked at me: I just felt like, boy, I bet you he’d rather his buddy had come home than me. But he was very friendly, very charming — a very sociable man.

Have you ever thought about going into politics — running for office? Would you consider doing that in a later part of your life?

Not seriously, no.

Orson Welles wrote a weekly political newspaper column during WWII — he was friends with FDR through Sumner Welles, a distant relative of his and a presidential adviser, and at one point he considered running for the Senate from California or his native Wisconsin.

Politics is about raising money and being popular and shaking a lot of hands and spending a lot of time with people. Those are not my strengths. It would be exhausting and would completely destroy my ability to do what I do.

You were pro-Vietnam before you enlisted in the infantry, right? You were fairly conservative?

Yes.

So we could say that you spent the entire 1960s across the political divide from most of what you’ve now come to stand for?

My story is complicated. I did write a novel about being 19 called A Child’s Night Dream. My parents divorced when I was 14, and being the only child, there was no family to go back to. Basically, going to Vietnam was really throwing myself to the wolves. It was a form of rebellion and suicide.

I’ve read a quote to the effect of “I felt like I had to atone for the act of imagination.” Was it actually the failure of the novel that sent you over the edge?

After I left Yale the second time and finished the novel — I was writing the novel instead of going to class, and that’s why I flunked out — my father was supporting me, and that’s an impossible situation: 19 years old, your father is furious at you for the tuition that he’s lost, and you’re living in his apartment trying to finish a novel. It’s like Jack Kerouac moving back home with his mother. But I really believed in it: I was insane with passion. It was the only thing I had. I had no woman friends in my life. I had nothing to support me beyond that. And when that failed, I went into the Army with the idea of “Let God sort it out, whoever I am.” It’s egregious to think that you can be on the level of Mailer or any of your heroes — Hemingway, or Joyce; I was into Joyce heavily at the time.

Part of the fun of watching someone like you working without a net, from a distance, is charting the rises and falls of your career. And sometimes there are films that don’t hit right, that suffer because of the moment or the context — the sky around it, as you put it. I’m thinking specifically of Nixon, which was a commercial failure, but seems to get more sophisticated every time I see it. Or, more recently, Alexander.

I’ve had three big setbacks, in terms of being completely dismissed: Heaven and Earth, Nixon — by many people, at least — and Alexander. On Alexander, it was just devastating, because in America and England, the numbers were so tough. It wasn’t just that people didn’t like it. It was ridiculed. It was destructive criticism. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world we were connecting, we were among the top 20 films of that year in the foreign market. We did better than four of the five Oscar nominees abroad. It was well respected.

Why didn’t Alexander connect? Do we agree that it didn’t connect with English-speaking audiences?

I like the director’s cut better than the first version, because I had more time to prepare it. And the structure is different. It wasn’t because of the homosexuality — that’s a red herring. The mother’s back story and father’s back story, which are really essential, don’t come in until later. We’re doing a third, expanded version now — we’re going all out. This is not for theatrical; it’s for the people who love the film who want to see more of it. It’s the Cecil B. De Mille treatment — three hours and 45 minutes. What I’m doing is going back and showing the whole thing in its sumptuousness, really going with the concept that it had to be an old-fashioned movie, with an intermission, like a road show. Be a showman, instead of trying to be a responsible filmmaker. Go all out on this one. This is my Apocalypse Now, my De Mille epic. [The first time] I was trying to step up to the plate, so to speak. I should have pulled it back, taken an extra year like Marty did with Gangs of New York. But it would have cost a lot of money.

In Oliver Stone’s America, the documentary included with the DVD box set of your films, you say, “I’ve always admired Alexander because of the momentum and the speed with which he traveled and conquered. In my small metaphoric way, I would say the countries were films, and I moved through them like him . . . he’s striking everywhere. I think it was great. We had a great run. But it’s definitely a new phase.” Is Alexander the figure you most closely identify with?

I am a Method director to a certain degree. I do become part of what I shoot. And I think with Alexander, the perception is of hubris, certainly — “Alexander the Great? Who the fuck is he? He thinks he’s Alexander.” I could see that coming. But I always knew who Oliver Stone was. I never lost track of that. And I made the film humbly, in 94 fucking days on three continents. I ran the crew like I always run the crew. Nothing changed in my habits. I walked in the deserts, we shot in a sandstorm once, and it was the same old Oliver who did Salvador. Hubris is taking 110 days on some stupid comedy. That’s an insult to filmmaking the way I was raised. I’m sticking to NYU principles, and I still do to this day. Movies are a tradition; we didn’t invent it — we take it from somebody else and pass it on.

But with Alexander, you faced a challenge like you’ve never faced before, because no matter how bruising the attacks on JFK and Nixon, your core audience was always still with you. For whatever reason, Alexander failed to connect with an audience.

Yeah. In America.

In America. I don't wish to judge it; this is an empirical observation.

No, it didn't connect. Alexander is the high point of my life, and it always will be. I’m not asking for universal love on that; it’s just impossible. It’s not paced to the American style, nor is he a conventional hero. He’s filled with doubts. But Alexander is a beautiful story, and I think I did him well. I mean, I wouldn’t have released it [otherwise]. But I can’t give up; I would never give up. I would be all wrong in my assessments of myself as I work. You have to hear your own self, follow your own drama, or whatever Thoreau said long ago at Walden Pond. [“Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.”] Alexander was a huge setback for me, and it certainly hurt me in this business. But you have to understand that people have been saying bad things about me for years. I don’t listen; I have to try to keep going.

I don’t want to make specious connections, but you’ve had several high-profile drug arrests in the last few years. Before that, you were making supernihilist films in an edgy, frenetic style. I'm wondering if these are all moving parts of the same phenomenon.

I’ve smoked dope and drunk alcohol most of my life, okay? Getting pulled over and arrested is a fault, it’s a mistake — a wake-up call. I did get busted a couple of times. One was at a roadblock, so it’s not like I was endangering anybody’s life. The other time, I got pulled over by a civilian cop; I was actually busted for driving too slow. And when the tests came back, I was below the intoxication level. Nobody knows that, because it never got published that way. I should get a chauffeur is what I fucking should do. [Laughs.]

But nobody cares if you smoke pot. They care if it affects the work, if it’s part of a larger problem.

Okay, but I don’t feel bad. I got heavier, physically, at certain points, and I think that gives the appearance of degradation, like Jim Morrison. But I did have a pre-diabetic condition through my mother, and I was on too much sugar. Any Given Sunday, I love that movie, but it was more effort than you think — it was like a three-ring circus, to make five football games in five stadiums work. It took so much energy. There were some problems with the crew on that film. So by the end of that movie, my doctor said I was too stressed, and at my age it was dangerous. There were some issues of medications and stuff, no question about it. But sports people love that movie. With Alexander, there’s a fan site where there are people who have seen it 50 times. They go to the sites in Macedon. They love the romanticism of it. So it’s confusing to me. I’ve tried every fucking time to get it right, even if I haven’t been in my best physical shape. I will get it right. Not everyone is going to agree with me, but I’m going to get it right.

With World Trade Center, it's your first time to deal with studio financing in a decade; you look better, healthier. Has your life changed? Is this a new start?

Your story is a journalistic narrative, and it’s a good one, about Oliver coming back after Alexander, and how there’s a change in his life. And I’ve somewhat agreed with it, but I’ve also pointed out that my methods have stayed the same. But it is about your storyline, in a way — about life. If you go to film school, and you think about your career traditionally, you arc up, in the sense that your budgets get bigger, the stars, whatever. There’s a nice arc to a man’s life. You make your better films later — it’s horrible if you’re Orson Welles, if you make your best film first. And Alexander was a chance to do something on another level entirely. So I reached a peak of ambition. And the ambition was perhaps not matched by my execution, although there are points in the execution that do match the ambition, I think. So then it died a metaphoric death. Point of view died with it, as it died when Heaven and Earth came out. That [movie] was a very sensitive side of myself that I loved — it was tender, and the woman was tender. And it was ridiculed and killed, and part of me, you know . . . those feelings were hurt and eradicated for a while. Same thing with Nixon. You want to get rid of the person after you finish. You want to go back to being who you are, but you’re no longer the same person, because your journey has changed.

And part of me did die [with Alexander] — that part that was enamored of “my very important storyline,” end of quote. Me being the storyline. I played it out. I did all my biographical figures. I have no need to be John or Will. I had a need to be Ron Kovic. I had a need to be Alexander. I had a need to be Nixon and Morrison and Garrison. That’s the change. So now I can be myself, maybe. I can be more authentic to myself. I think there was an attraction to go from the past into the contemporary world in its most hellish moment. It’s like I dropped out and I couldn’t get back in, until by going back to 2001, I could come back into this era. I feel liberated, in the sense that, not that it would be next, but I feel I could do a movie about those next five years. Not that I think it’s complete yet — I think there’s a lot going on that we don’t know about in the government. But I think there’s something in the air. I smell it, and I feel fresh again, having done something — my new, 24-hour, humble microcosm of that day. Wherever I go with World Trade Center, it’s going to spin off to wherever I go next.

-Paul Cullum, “After the Fall,” LA Weekly, Aug 9 2006 [x]

#oliver stone #la weekly #World Trade Center #alexander #arrests #dui #drugs #September 11 #politics

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