#well i think some of the places johann talked about could be but also hes johann and the shows arent technically canon to the movies

[saturnniidae]

I'm pretty sure that's just a semi-popular head canon based off the various locations where vikings were. Like, it could technically be anywhere from the general areas of norway to scotland to greenland, etc.

Honestly, other than Hiccup saying 'Icelandic cod' I'm pretty there's like no confirmation of any real world locations in the movie's universe. Especially considering the time period is just vaguely 'viking age' which was like anywhere from 800 - 1050 AD (this is from memory, don't quote me on that), though I think once they did put a year in one of the 'viking-dragon games' vignettes they did for the 2010 Olympics, can't remember what it was though (also those probably aren't really canon).

Anyways, this plus the substantial historical inaccuracies is why there's so many popular headcanons about it. I supposed httyd could even be considered high fantasy in the sense it might just take place in its own, illogical and made up world (rather than just in the past + dragons) for all we know.

so like. berk is canonically in norway isn't it?

like it's not any other nordic country it's specifically norway, right?

[akimoroll]

the day you said goodnight

yoichi nagumo (sakamoto days) x afab!reader—wc 2.1k—read on ao3

tags—married couple. domestic fluff. angst. false pregnancies. disease. death. hurt/no comfort.

this is me procrastinating the last(?) chapter of the other fic lmao

on loop while writing this: clair de lune - johann debussy┊the day you said goodnight - hale┊only - lee hi┊A POTION FOR LOVE - AURORA (mostly this one)

“Are you killing people again?”

“What? No!” He chuckled, placing a hand over your own, “Why’d you ask?”

You searched his face before speaking, “Your eyes look tired lately.”

He gave your hand a little nudge, “I’ve been working late nights, remember?” He reassured you and went back to eating dinner.

You continue yours as well. After a few spoonfuls and glass clinkings, “By the way, I think I’m pregnant this time,” you announced.

“Is that so?” His voice turned muffled after stuffing his face with rice, “you feeling nauseous again?”

You leaned back to your chair, pondering, “Yeah, my period is late too. I’ll take a test first thing tomorrow,” you smiled at him with sparkles in your eyes.

He nodded as he returned a smile to you.

The two of you had been actively trying to conceive a child ever since he retired from his life as an assassin, settling down and moving far away from his previous life. Routine check-ups had become a regular occurrence. However, despite your attempts, he always refused to let you speak to the doctor, claiming he “didn't want to stress you out”.

Nonetheless, you trusted Yoichi wholeheartedly, your husband and the only person whom you hold dear to your heart, the one who saved you from the people who put you through an unspeakable kind of hell. And although it wasn’t his responsibility to look after you—considering you were a miscalculation in that specific assignment—he couldn’t help it. This decision led him to foster a friendship with you that eventually blossomed into love.

All he asked of you was that you would take good care of yourself and religiously follow the regimen of pills the doctor prescribed to ensure your health.

Initially, he began working remotely to assist you at home, until he took all the responsibilities around the house. He started learning to cook healthier meals and then for some odd reason, he began putting labels on things around the house. He also took out all the things from the overhead shelves, built another so he could lower them down to make everything accessible for you. You protested at first: I’m not senile, I’m trying to be a mother! And he would laugh as he embraced you from the back, saying: I know and I’m trying to be a good husband… and father.

He noticed your complaints on nights you couldn’t sleep, prompting him to install blackout curtains and switching the mattress into something softer. He took you for walks to lessen your afternoon naps. Being in the countryside, you were closer to nature, helping you both to relax and be away from the city’s anxiety-inducing hustle and bustle.

And on days you couldn’t go out, he would play board games with you or watch movies in the living room, or sit in comfortable silence and read a book on the balcony that was seated above the garden that he learned to meticulously tend so he could make flowers bloom for you. And when he would piss you off from his incessant teasing the night before, he would sneakily pick flowers and put it on your nightstand while you’re still asleep, hoping it would soften your mood and make you forgive him; maybe even laugh about it together over tea.

However, marriage isn’t all bliss and serenity. There were times that doubts began to nag at your mind, suspicions arise that he might be hiding something. There were nights where he was convinced you were peacefully asleep, and you would catch sight of him crying alone in the living room. And everytime you attempted to talk to him about it over breakfast, he would always come up with a stupid excuse like: I was watching a movie.

Being intimate wasn’t such a big deal until he started lacking initiative and on days you yearned for his touch, he would decline saying that you should rest instead. And then you’d ask, how am I supposed to get pregnant like this? He was always sweet about it as he wrapped his strong arms around you, telling you: let’s focus on keeping you healthy first, alright?

Why? Is there something wrong with me? Are you not telling me something?

No, you’re perfect—he would always say with the sweetest tone of voice—I just don’t want you to experience complications when the baby arrives, that’s all. And he would kiss you so tenderly and you would always believe him.

But you noticed the hospital visits started becoming a little too frequent and you were clueless and in the dark, causing you to feel uneasiness. And when you asked him about it he said, “You told me you were having trouble breathing, right?”

“Yeah, I did say that,” you nodded, trying to recall it.

“I’m sure it’s nothing. Don’t worry,” he reassured, placing a hand on your lap and the other on the steering wheel as he kept his eyes on the road.

Frequent hospital visits turned into a full on hospital stay, causing you more distress. But he made sure to make everything feel familiar by bringing things from your house to your hospital room. However, everything still felt so confusing for you—all his answers were vague, making it difficult for you to piece it together.

“Why am I here? Am I giving birth already?” You worriedly asked as you watched him saunter around the room, making the place homey for you, “I don’t feel pain at all. I don’t even have a baby bump yet. Please, I wanna go home,” you continued.

“Hey, it’s okay,” he cooed as he glanced at you for a moment before continuing, “This is so we can make sure that you’re being taken care of closely.”

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I kept asking and asking and you never answered properly,” you voiced out in distress.

“I already–” he paused and walked over to you, sitting beside you on the bed, your hands in his, “I’m sorry. You don’t have to worry about a thing, alright?” He comforted you.

Reluctantly, you nod. But in your head, you knew he was hiding something. You had noticed a new watchful patience in him every time you had something to say. The changes in him made you brave to ask the real questions on his next visit.

“So which one is it?”

He looked over his shoulder for a moment before putting freshly picked flowers on the vase, “Which one is what?”

Taking a deep breath, you asked, “Are you killing again?”

He paused and went over to you, attempting to hold you but you pulled away. It had gotten annoying how he had been treating you like a child lately, “Or are you cheating on me?”

You could almost see the resignation in him as he closed his eyes, trying his best to maintain his composure, “Darling, you sleep a lot these days. I’m always with you.”

“You keep lying to me,” you hissed, “And why are you calling me darling? You never call me that, ever.”

“Listen, I got everything under control. I told you worrying isn’t good for you. Don’t you trust me?” He pleaded and you could see his tears welling up.

But you couldn’t feel anything other than betrayal, having been in the dark for so long and still in the shadows, you deadpanned, “No, I don’t trust you anymore. Please get out. I want to rest.”

That was the first time you had witnessed him breakdown before your eyes leaving you more confused than sorry. Because why was he the one crying when you were the one being lied to?

Asking yourself: Is he tired of me?

Every time he made a visit, the same tedious conversation kept replaying, as if the man you had fallen in love with was fading right in front of your eyes with each passing moment. A disconnect between you began to settle in—it seemed as if he was a complete stranger now, and the pain felt like no other.

///

You strolled in silence along the tranquil garden located within the hospital’s vicinity and despite the lovely weather and the flowers blooming around you, you couldn’t shake off the overwhelming sadness surrounding your situation. You began sharing your sentiments to the medical personnel attending to you, “I miss home.”

After walking around for a few minutes, you settled under the shade of a large aged tree and noticed an elderly man, likely in his sixties, sitting while holding a familiar book. He offered a warm smile in your direction as you sat a few inches from him on an old wooden bench.

“Have you read this one?” He abruptly asked.

You looked at the cover briefly, “I think so, yes.”

“This is my wife’s. They say if you read someone’s favorite book, it could help you understand them better.”

You chuckled, “That might be true. Is your wife here too?”

“She is. We almost live here now,” he joked.

“Your wife is quite lucky, mister. My husband doesn’t visit me anymore. He’s probably out there tired of me. He told me I was always asleep… but I never sleep.” you softly said with eyes far away.

The old man looked at you with a gloomy expression before flashing a gentle smile and kindly offered, "I’ll be your visitor, if you don’t mind, of course."

And he did visit you. He would bring books from his wife’s library and read them to you as you fell asleep to the sound of his voice. His most captivating stories were about his younger years with his best pals, you could tell he loved them dearly. He would challenge you to guess his former profession based on his tales alone, promising a reward if you guessed correctly (you never did).

Playing cards and board games was his thing too. He was hilarious, you had to suppress your laugh most of the time because it started to hurt when it’s too much. But laughter wasn't the only thing you held back in his presence, but tears as well when he finally spoke about his wife—the woman he claimed to have loved the most. He spoke of her with so much fondness yet in a distant and melancholic manner, saying that she was an angel who had unconditionally loved a troubled man like himself. And when you asked him what he meant by "a man like him", he simply smiled somberly in response.

You were puzzled with his words because he seemed to be a wholesome and cheerful man. And despite his age, he possessed striking good looks. Avoiding any prying questions, you instead expressed appreciation for him despite not having known him for so long, you found a friend and a father in him, telling him you’ve never met yours.

After listening to you, he shared a bittersweet smile before quickly shifting to a playful expression, telling you, "Hey, you've got something on your hair."

His hand extended and gently brushed the side of your face before reappearing in front of you, holding a freshly picked flower, a sakurasou, delicately pinched between his tattooed fingers.

Huh?

You both chuckled as he handed it to you. When you glanced up to him, you were certain you caught a fleeting glimpse of your husband’s face. Your smile gradually dropped as your breathing began increasingly labored.

“What’s wrong? Are you alright?” He asked softly with concern, his voice sounded distorted in your ears.

Before you could reply, you felt a stab like pain in your chest, slowly spreading through your neck and jaw. A blur of movement caught your attention as he bolted out of the room to ask for help. Soon after, the door swung open as your husband came rushing towards you. He held your wrinkled hand, telling you: Stay with me. It’s going to be okay.

His voice continually echoed apologies along with desperate I love yous, and you wish you could say it back and ask, where were you? I was waiting for you. I missed you so much. I was wrong for ever doubting you. However, everything was starting to slow down around you as you step in and out of consciousness, feeling extreme fatigue and sluggish all of a sudden.

Your husband's grip was abruptly severed as medical staff swarmed around you, the chaos overwhelming your senses. The only thing you could discern was the old man’s cry and pleading. As you began to feel the curtains of life closing in, you couldn’t help but realize that you missed the chance to tell the elderly man how grateful you are for helping you see your husband’s boundless love and the depth of his devotion for you.

You didn’t even ask for his name.

Or did you? You couldn’t remember.

Oh, wait. You did.

He had a pretty name.

His name was Yoichi too.

the floral language of sakurasou or japanese primrose is “desire” and “long-lasting love“. it also implies first love, youthful love, and longing.

[nanoa1foryou]

Notes and translations for Johannes' interview on Gogin Kantabaari with Veronica Verho, 30.8.2023, released with video 5.6.2024

"Who do you think is Ylivoimainen as a person?"

Johannes answered the host, Gogi himself. His reasoning was that Gogi had just had a child and was back to work for the first time now. "You have slept 5 minutes per night and you pretend to be interested in our things, so you are ylivoimainen."

If you had to go on a dating show, which one would you go on?

The first thing Johannes threw out was Love Island because they had just talked about it (Veronica hosted it). He stated his reason as getting to go to Spain with Veronica. Gogi then threw out the bachelor as an option, and promptly agreed that most of Finland would be trying to get in if Johannes was the bachelor. Veronica agreed. Johannes gave it a maybe. Then Gogi suggested Married at first sight. Johannes thought it'd be interesting and "What would be the worst that could happen?" Ex on the beach was a hard no, though this sparked some discussion about how silly the behind the scenes might be for those intros where they walk out of the water.

Gogi asked about Kuumaa's insane tour schedule.

Johannes talked a bit about the wild variety of venues and shows, taking for example the difference between playing Ruisrock to playing something like Eura with a couple hundred people and the backstage is a backyard with a bird's nest in it. He said that those small venues can be better sometimes. Johannes also mentioned that in the biggest venues (like 20k people) the volume of people can trigger a bit of a self preservation mode on, to where you can't really think of the people because it's too much. Also going back to Ruisrock, Johannes mentioned a moment he had with Jonttu backstage, trying to grab just a small break from everything going on. He quoted an emotional Jonttu from that moment: "Now there's maybe... quite... quite a lot." This summed up the feeling quite well.

Does it go to your head?

"Wise people have said that it goes to your head for everyone if there is opportunity. But then how that manifests, i don't know." Johannes talked about how he tries to remember that just because they're at the center of attention, they're no more special or important than anyone else. He said he hopes the fame hasn't gone to his head. Johannes also mentioned that not being alone helps. With the band they can call out each other for it.

"Weirdest thing some follower or someone has done?"

Johannes: "As the first thing that comes to my mind... The first thing that comes to my mind is, yesterday I opened a video, where some assumed-man* films themself and then takes off their pants, and so. That was like, I wasn't expecting it. On Instagram it just says someone sent you a video. And in that kind of a scrolling mode you just go 'there's... that. Okay. Hi.' This happened yesterday, so I'm sure something weirder has happened." Gogi: "What would be weirder than that?" Johannes: "I've understood that that is unfortunately common for example for women, that you for example get a lot of dickpics."

*Assumed-man (and assumed-woman) is a common expression in Finland. You don't know someone's exact gender, but for the sake of communication and simplicity you would refer to them as a man/woman.

They played a game where Gogi would read a statement and they'd answer whether it fits them or not.

Gogi: "I often feel that pain of loss. Johannes does?" Johannes: "Have you heard our songs for example?" Also admitted to breaking and entering a public place (an outdoor pool, the same for all of them) Statement was: "You cover your device camera when watching adult entertainment". Johannes answered no, because who cares enough to hack someone's camera for that, especially considering what globally hackers are actually spending their time on. "I'm a drop in the ocean at that point" "I don't (road rage). I think I maybe cause it sometimes." - "No, I have a Vespa, and I assume I have privileges." "I'll just say this. I was on my way here to your bar. Two car lanes that are moving absolutely nowhere. When you just go between them, nothing beats the feeling." Discussion then moved on to farts: "Do you think that in that situation- I've spent 80 days in the summer with them in a closed bus -that I'd want to (smell that)."

Gogi then brought up Johannes' demeanour and appearance (serene hipster from Kallio, in Gogi's words):

When asked how he is when he's angry, Johannes admitted to being annoying and passive aggressive. Johannes also noted that he got the Vespa as early as he could (15), and it was pointless as far as actually needing it goes. He lived across the street from his school, but he would still drive it there just to feel and look cool. He doesn't know where he got the idea to get it from, but that it most likely was an image thing. After this, him and Gogi discussed picking up habits and doing things because they make your life feel like a movie (like having an espresso and a cigarette on a balcony). Johannes said he is very prone to influences on things like that.

And finally, in the happy hour section of the show, the two contestants must come up with the silver lining on bad situations or unpleasant things.

Johannes came up with the silverlining for if you have gonorrhea, you'll be richer for the experience. For erectile dysfunction, he came up with the silver lining that it would certainly push you to self reflect "What is the purpose of an erection in life?" Also, both him and Veronica really really struggled to come up with a singular good thing about the far right (Veronica finally answered that you could write a good song about it). The final bad thing was nuclear weapons, and Johannes' reaction was literally just to turn to Gogi and go "Bro..."

In the end, Johannes lost that competition and pouted about it. As a punishment he had to read the outro card of the show

[crystallizedkingdoms]

TAZ NC: Forget

Avi’s memory fails for the first time.

wc: 1,210

you can also read this on ao3 <3

my first fic for @taznovembercelebration. twirls hair. I’m most likely gonna be veryyyy inconsistent (aiming for Sunday, Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays but no prommy) and very likely gonna be pretty johavi centric so well theres that. but it’s okay it’s gonna be very fun yayy!!! yippeee! Enjoy 💖💖💖

Memory falters on the third anniversary of the Day of Story and Song. 

Avi’s memory was far, far too good on the first anniversary. Every single memory seemed to plague his mind that first night, his voice stuck in the cracks of his broken heart that no amount of drink could fill. The second anniversary went much, much better, as Magnus dragged him out of the house to enjoy the musical festivities celebrated all in Johann’s— his  Johann’s— honour.

When the third anniversary comes around, Avi’s in his home, but there is no drink in sight. The living room window is open, sunbeams and symphonies from a nearby celebration fill the house with music and life. Avi hums along to every note, all of it memorized so deeply he’s convinced that each piece has been etched into his soul. Avi sits down on his chair closest to the window and lets his eyes rest. The afternoon festivals tend to be a little too happy than what Avi is ready for, so instead he waits by the window, listening to the sounds of bards trying their best to match Johann’s greatness.

Avi’s hums verberate in his chest. He follows along with one piece, the closest to him, and matches along with every note possible. This piece, oh how popular it’s gotten, is one that Johann had written after Magic Brian had died. The rumours surrounding the piece have been strange, and it was one of the first things to make him laugh in his first year of depression.

“…Can you believe they think it’s some secret love song you had for him?” Avi whispers. To nobody, to somebody, but not to everybody. “It’s a little funny, honestly. I’m not mad. You’ve written plenty enough cheesy love songs for him that I can actually make fun of you for. No need to make up another one.”

It’s kind of an embarrassing habit, Avi knows. Gods forbid anyone, especially Magnus, heard that he still falls into this little spell of talking to a lover who’s no longer here. Avi wouldn’t hear the end of it. That’s why he reserves it for quiet days like these. Alone and loving.

Avi strains his ears and listens. One, two, three… there! “Hah. They always fail on that one, you know? Yeah, you probably know. You probably get pissed about it all the time up there. Maybe, just maybe, you didn’t have to show off all the time, even in your intimate compositions.” It’s a silly jab, he knows that Johann wasn’t necessarily showing off. He was just that good, in private and in public. There was no need to pretend he wasn’t.

Still, Avi loves to poke fun at him and the performers. That connection, however frail, is easy and hard to forget. I mean, come on, it’s impossible to forget their banter from back then. It’s Avi’s own little form of song, something so unique to them that he remembers it like the back of his hand. Johann says something serious, Avi teases something about the way it was said or why Johann said it, and Johann would quip back. 

Avi tries to imagine what Johann would say in response. 

Not my fault they can’t reach my fucking level. 

Wow. That sounds… weirdly mean. No, no, Johann wasn’t that rude. How silly.

I wasn’t showing off, dude. And it was barely intimate. 

Ugh, no. Johann didn’t sound like that. He didn’t sound like that at all. Did he?

Avi feels his heart pound in his chest. 

Hah, right. I think it cements my place as the best violinist ever. These guys can’t match my level if they tried, 

That felt more right, but the voice in his head didn’t match. Johann’s voice was deeper than that? But, no, it wasn’t too deep. And it couldn’t have been that monotone, right? 

Avi’s eyes open and he straightens up on his seat. The music from the outside world becomes loud, far too loud, and suddenly he doesn’t want to hear it. He can’t hear it. How could he stand to hear it, when he’s struggling to hear his boyfriend’s voice clear in his mind? Why couldn’t he remember what Johann really sounded like?

Avi. His own name. Avi would remember what Johann saying his name would sound like, right? Avi, Avi, Avi, Johann would always say his name like that, under his breath, like it’s the most important word in the world. Avi imagines it in his head, and he thinks that’s it. That’s Johann’s voice. No need to worry, he’s still there. Avi hasn’t forgotten Johann.

…but the inkling of doubt clouds Avi’s mind like a familiar static.

Avi stumbles out of his chair. He reaches and shuts the window closed again, and suddenly, the thought of ever opening them makes him feel sick. Avi casts away any thoughts of music or festivities and he tries to focus only on Johann, Johann, Johann as his hands search his living room. His brain scrambles to pick up each and every memory of Johann, searching deep for the memory of voice. Yet every memory sounds slightly different. Some sound completely stranger to him. Some sound almost like a parody of what Johann must have sounded like.

Avi opens the junk drawer of a console table. His hand dives into the garbage of years well-lived until his fingers grasp a smooth, round object. He picks it up with trembling hands. Shortly after the Day of Story and Song, Lucas Miller had created small copies of a device that recorded the knowledge sent out by the Voidfish. Including the bard’s final inspiration. 

He had sworn off of using it during that second year, after he listened to it nonstop during his first year of pain. Avi wonders how terrible of a mistake he has made. Avi clicks the button right in the middle and his pounding heartbeat roars in his ears so loud that he worries he won’t hear Johann’s words. But they shine through. They always do. 

“You’re going to have to fight. And… you’re gonna win!” Johann’s voice pierces through the silent room. Avi’s breath hitches in his throat. He has a low voice, as Avi remembered, but has it always been as deep as that? His voice is passionate, as all were on that fateful day, but even then his distinctive flat tone gives him away. The voice is so familiar, yet jarringly surprising to hear.

How could Avi forget Johann’s voice?

“Oh, Johann,” Avi cracks. Tears swell up in his eyes with no second to recuperate. He presses the button once again, and he listens to Johann’s voice. His heart aches to remember every single little inflection in every syllable, every tone, until Avi could never forget it again. How could he forget it? When all that Johann ever asked for was to be remembered, his boyfriend can’t even fulfill that only three fucking years later— 

Avi pulls the device to his chest and sobs. “Johann,” Avi cries out. Repeating his name and pressing that button over and over and over and over again. Until it drowns out any piece of music in remembrance of Johann that plays outside. Until memory falters, and an obsession relapses.

[tytarax2]

May I have some of my request, if you can write Miko Chen X Reader [Y/N] in ballroom dance at the Super League Gala or Night Celebration Palace ✨🙈

Life Update: I started a creative writing course as college sapped all my remaining imagination

Anyway

This sounds promising

And also gave me cavities... way too sweet for me

In any case, enjoy.

The Super League Gala was in full swing, the grand ballroom buzzing with excitement. Players and their partners mingled, chatting and laughing under the soft glow of chandeliers. You and Miko Chen, the star of Nakama FC, stood at the edge of the dance floor, taking it all in.

Miko, in a sharp tuxedo, looked effortlessly cool. He nudged you playfully. "You ready to show these guys how it's done?"

You rolled your eyes but smiled. "Let's see if you can keep up."

The orchestra struck up a lively tune, and Miko led you onto the dance floor. He took your hand and placed his other hand on your waist, pulling you close. As you started to move, the rhythm of the music seemed to sync with your steps.

"I don't think I've ever seen you in a tux before," you teased, looking up at him.

He grinned. "First time for everything. And you clean up pretty well yourself."

You both laughed, moving in time with the music. Around you, other couples joined in, but it felt like you and Miko were in your own little world. The dance was more about having fun than perfecting every step, and Miko's relaxed demeanor made it easy to just enjoy the moment.

"Think you’ll win any award?" you asked, as he spun you around.

"Who knows?" he said with a shrug, but there was a confident spark in his eyes. "But having you here is already a win for me."

Before you could respond, the music stopped, and the host took the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to announce the winners of tonight's awards!"

Everyone hushed, turning their attention to the stage. Miko squeezed your hand, a silent exchange of excitement and nerves.

The host began, "For the Golden Boot, the winner is… Shakes from Supa Strikas!"

The room exploded in applause. Shakes made his way to the stage, a wide grin on his face as he accepted the award. Miko clapped along, a proud look in his eyes.

"And now, for the Most Respectful Player in the Field… Miko Chen of Nakama FC!"

Miko’s face lit up, and he turned to you, pulling you into a quick hug. "Looks like I did it."

"Congrats," you said, smiling. "You deserve it."

As Miko walked to the stage to accept his award, the host continued to list off other winners. "Congratulations to Johann Uber for Best Defender, Skarra for Best Midfielder, and John J Johnson Jr. for Best..."

Miko thanked his team and fans, and then looked directly at you. "And to my partner," he said, his voice steady. "Thanks for always having my back."

As the applause died down, the music started again. Miko returned to you, award in hand. "So, where were we?"

"Dancing, I think," you said, taking his hand.

He pulled you back onto the floor, and you resumed your casual rhythm, the two of you laughing and talking as you moved. The night was a mix of celebration and relief, the kind of moment that felt both significant and perfectly ordinary.

-

The night drew to a close, and you found yourself outside the grand venue, waiting for your car. The air was cool and crisp, a gentle reminder that the evening was nearly over. Miko stood beside you, his arm around your shoulders, the weight of the award in his other hand.

Shakes, still beaming from his Golden Boot win, approached with a friendly wave. "Hey, Miko! Congratulations, man. Most respectful player, huh? You’ve always been a class act."

Miko grinned. "Thanks, Shakes. And congrats to you too. Golden Boot is no small feat." Then, some others joined the conversation.

It was a rare, relaxed moment where you could all just be yourselves, no pressure, no competition—just friends enjoying each other's company.

Your car finally pulled up, and you exchanged farewells with everyone. As you settled into the back seat, Miko leaned over and kissed your forehead. "Ready to go home?"

"Absolutely," you replied, leaning into him. "Tonight was perfect."

Masterlist

[amielbjacobs]

Shield and Sword Liveblog

This was the point where I discovered that the english translation had cut out a bunch of stuff from the Russian original, so I went back to check a few scenes in the Russian:

He could not act otherwise either. His duty was to be where it was most dangerous to be a man.

This is such a good line to me - maybe it seems obvious, but it's so much the thing that Seventeen Moments refuses to admit. Even tho this book came first it almost feels like a deconstruction of Seventeen Moments.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's a conversation that is like 4 lines of dialogue in the translation, and it's Johann talking up the Nazi victory to a German cab driver

whose 3 sons just died working in Reichsmarshall Goering's mines

and Johann's like "We will crush the weak and degenerate Slavs"

and the cab driver is like lmao good luck with that, Nazi

Johann: "I don't lose hope." Driver: "The Russians will help you do that."

Johann: "You are an old soldier, I see? Did you fight in the First World War?" Driver: "Yes. I reached the Urals." Johann: [surprised] "Well! You're a hero!" Driver: "Have you ever worked as a lumberjack?" Johann: "No." Driver: "Well, never mind, the Russians will teach us. They taught us how to cut down trees in the Urals. They didn't cut it all down during the First World War, but left some for the Second. There are plenty of forests there, enough for everyone."

I love the unmitigated despair of this conversation. And the way Johann's disguise as a Nazi makes him unable to have the natural human reaction to this. Johann is secretly encouraged by this encounter because he's like "Not all of the Germans are Nazis!"

But for me, as a reader, I am also focusing on the way that this driver isn't like "Well, maybe the Russians will liberate the country before too many more men die," he's like, "Soon the Russians will invade and make us all work as slave labor doing the kind of hard physical labor that killed my sons." And I don't think Johann gets that. I can't tell if the author does or doesn't.

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Aleksandr Belov, being young, did not have the chance to observe the NEP. He knew about this period only from books and movies. Therefore, probably, his idea of ​​Marszałkowska during the German occupation of Warsaw as a NEP den did not quite correspond to reality. But the disdainful expression on his face, the arrogant attitude towards various kinds of traders were quite consistent with the behavior and manners of the German occupiers.

this is cute to me, and they kind of fucked this up in the translation

instead of "as a NEP den" it says "as a black-marketeers' paradise," and that just fucks up the whole paragraph. It means something completely different, and it doesn't make sense.

Dietrich was unable to report the reasons for the delay because the captain had had a falling out with his driver, a handsome fellow with a capricious, weak-willed mouth, and had now made peace with him, and he had no time for Weiss. Kurt, Dietrich's driver, was packing the captain's things, and the captain was fussily helping him, apparently very pleased that the reconciliation had taken place. He told Weiss to get ready for the trip, and Kurt would go with them: he, Dietrich, could not stand loneliness...

More really sad Dietrich stuff.

The asphalt ended, they drove onto a country road, the car began to sway from side to side, several times it got stuck in deep puddles. Johann suggested that Kurt take over from him at the wheel. And when Kurt moved to the back seat, Dietrich moved there with him.

Damn. Good for them. I mean not really because they're Nazis but you know what I mean.

Realizing that it was a badge number on the prisoner's jacket, Johann found it quite quickly. The same as everyone else here. Nothing special about him. His face is bluish and swollen, his ears are round and wide, he's stooped. The only thing that's bald is his right eyebrow, because of the scar. “Not good for us, too old,” Johann declared dryly. "He's not even thirty. They all look like old men here." Johann, experiencing a frantic tension of spiritual forces, looked into their eyes, but his gaze met only a glassy, ​​dead flicker of eyes that seemed not to see him and did not want to see him. He did not exist for these people - that is what their looks meant. He did not exist - and that was all. He was nothing to them. Nothing in a gray uniform. Nothing, whose voice they would obey just as they would the voice of a loudspeaker.

This last paragraph is cut way down in the translation, and I think that's a shame - I think it's really compelling for Johann to look into these people's eyes and realize that he is just another Nazi to them, and to really feel the moral weight of that.

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Lansdorf, the old guy who Johann is always giving massages to, is apparently in trouble with the Nazi Party for expressing the unforgivably liberal opinion that not all Jews should be killed, just most of them

“We Germans,” Landsdorf reasoned, “are endowed with the ability to master all forms of state obedience to perfection. The instinct of discipline and blind obedience is unusually developed in us. These are necessary qualities for an intelligence officer, but we lack the artistry that the French and the Slavs possess. Especially the Slavs – they have the traits of realistic fantasy. It is no accident that it was the Russians who gifted humanity with Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov. And the audacity! They carried out this revolution, damn it!”

it's embarrassing when American books do this shit and it's embarrassing when Russian books do it. If you're sitting down writing a scene where an officer from an enemy agent goes against his own ideology to talk up how sexy and big-dicked and smart the author's nationality is - stop and look at what you're doing! This is embarrassing! Have some self respect!

But Weiss did not know how closely Landsdorf was watching him. It was in this young corporal serving him that he found the artistry that the German intelligence officers so lacked. He had subtly noticed this artistry when Johann read aloud to him a boring French novel. Johann had an almost unconscious gift for transformation. And he, very subtly modulating his voice, conveyed the intonations, tonality, manner of pronunciation of those characters whose long monologues he read to the experienced, most important German intelligence officer, dozing in the bathtub, who had served the Kaiser, Hindenburg, and Hitler with equal devotion - as, incidentally, did the entire generalship of the Third Reich.

lmao. Landsorf wants to fuck him so bad.

Weiss talked to the commandants, listened to their complaints, lamentations, and reasoning. The complaints were almost the same everywhere. The administration was forced to provide camp containers not only for prisoners of war, but also for the elimination of excess eaters in the "liberated territories." Shootings were too wasteful a measure: they consumed a significant amount of ammunition needed by the front, but, unfortunately, only large concentration camps were equipped with capital destruction equipment. And all the commandants expressed sympathy for the Abwehr: yes, it was very difficult to find reliable material here! Johann was amazed that the Sonderführers did not even remember the faces of those prisoners who worked for the Germans - they distinguished them only by numbers. It was some kind of incomprehensibly dull indifference, sometimes even good-natured, similar to the attitude towards animals in a slaughterhouse. Among the camp administrations, there were often beasts in human guise, inventively and tirelessly inventing sophisticated tortures - they were considered enthusiastic but useful eccentrics. However, mass actions required organizational and economic skills. And those who possessed such skills were valued more than sadists who did not sufficiently contribute to the main thing - the planned killing of prisoners. And this side of the camps' activities was strictly controlled.

Initially I was just like "this depiction of the Third Reich is less miserable to read than other Soviet novels, regardless of how accurate it is." But now I'm starting to feel like its depiction of Nazi Germany is in fact fairly accurate and insightful, at least as regards the ideological and psychological stuff. There's definitely some weird superhero-type pulp-type heroics from the protagonists which kind of kills the accuracy, but I like the way this book depicts both the banality of evil and the core place of anti-semitism in Nazi ideology. I feel like there's a nasty tendency in American media to reduce Nazism to a sort of generic ultimate evil, and in Russian media to reduce Nazism to an ultimately anti-Russian evil, and both of those really shy away from the specific and specifically anti-semitic character of Nazi atrocities.

And he, preventing such sabotage, is now fulfilling, perhaps, the most glorious Chekist duty: he is saving people. He is saving their honor, their good name.

[press X to doubt]

The first Chekist emblem depicts a sword and a shield. Yes, the Chekist strikes the enemy with a punishing sword, but he is given a shield not to defend himself, but to protect all Soviet people. This is what the chekist Dzerzhinsky told him. "The shield is your communist heart, and nothing will protect a Soviet person from trouble as reliably as the pure heart of a communist." Well, Johann wanted to destroy the traitors, the werewolves he had identified here, to kill them himself. The miner had probably already removed that "rabbit" in the experimental camp, maybe not with his own hands: they had a large underground organization there. But was finding out who was hiding under number 740014, was finding the miner less important than identifying the traitor? Now Johann would report him to the Center, and the miner's family would learn that the missing husband and father was worthy of great respect, and would be proud of him.

one of the things Johann keeps doing is reporting back to the Centre about POWs who are still trying to stick it to Nazi Germany while imprisoned - and I believe the implication is that this will save them from the reprisals faced by Soviet POWs in the USSR after the war

Or at least Johann believes it will? we've seen a couple of situations where Johann puts his faith blindly in the NKVD and Stalin and the author comments on how the NKVD/Stalin is not living up to his standards

so it's not always 100% clear that Johann's propagandizing is to be taken at face value

god! I want to put him in a jar and shake him

Sometimes everything around him began to seem like a fantastic delirium to Johann, like the dreams of a madman. Here he is playing skat with his peers at a table covered with a clean tablecloth, drinking beer. They tell him about their childhood, about their parents, dreaming that the war would end soon so they could return home. They joke, play the accordion, sing. And then one of them gets up and, regretfully announcing that it is time for him to go on duty, puts on a cap, hangs a machine gun around his neck, takes a stick or a whip and goes to the camp to beat, torture, kill. And he, Alexander Belov, waves goodbye to this murderer, smiles affably, writes down the field post office number so that they can correspond in a friendly manner later, and loudly regrets that such a good guy is leaving the company.

Johann is losing his shit and I'm living for it

Alexander Belov is Johann's real name, idk if I mentioned that before.

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Extended Hitler POV scene here. The Brits cut this one out and you know what? They were right. God Save the Queen, the Brits know that no book was ever improved by a hitler POV scene.

WHY are Soviet novels like this

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The annals of the intelligence services of capitalist countries contain boastful reports of rapid operations that could be considered simple plagiarism: wash them of blood and dirt - and you have before you an old picaresque novel. The only difference is that its characters are completely devoid of vivid imagination and are reduced to the level of petty executors of a plan unknown to them.

wow

bold words from a man currently writing a pulpy spy thriller

Descriptions of such action-packed operations can be found in the catalogs of all the intelligence services in the world; it is quite entertaining reading. But the mission that fell to Johann Weiss was devoid of fireworks brilliance. Not a blitz tournament with predetermined moves, but the greatest test of the spiritual strength of convictions, moral concepts, the ability not to lose faith even in those people who have been deprived of their homeland and honor, whose conscience is bloodied - this is what lay ahead of him, this is what awaited him.

This book is the closest tonally to James Bond compared to other Soviet spy novels, so I think Kozhevnikov has some nerve being like "REAL men don't do action packed adventure."

John le Carre is also up on his high horse about this, but his protagonists aren't hot, action-ready men who are good at everything who everyone wants to fuck. It sounds hollow coming from Kozhevnikov. This is a pulp thriller novel, just accept that you're writing a pulp thriller novel.

The school was attended by various people, mostly carefully selected scum, who had proven themselves to the enemy by their baseness and despicable cowardice. Johann could not even mentally compare them with those prisoners of war who, in the same conditions that killed everything human in a person, remained Soviet people, preserved their dignity and showed the greatest heroism that remained unknown. They heroically fought for the continuation of existence - not for the sake of saving their lives, but in order to remain Soviet people until their death, without submitting, and to confirm their immortality by death itself. And others are carrion. And hatred for these living dead burned in Johann. He had to suppress his hatred and at the same time not give in to condescending pity for those who became victims of their own weakness. And more than once he recalled the words of Felix Dzerzhinsky: “A person can only sympathize with public misfortune if he sympathizes with some specific misfortune of each individual person…” Of course, among these traitors there are probably simply unfortunate people who meekly succumbed to circumstances, unable to find the strength to resist. So, will he sympathize with slugs? But doesn't the shield of the Motherland also extend over those who have lost everything, but have not lost it hopelessly and can still be returned to the Motherland? And the Motherland has handed this shield to him, Johann Weiss. It is incomparably more difficult to wield a shield here than a punishing sword, but he must learn this, so as not to irrevocably surrender to the enemy those who have been defeated, but can still rise if a saving hand is extended to them. But will he have enough strength, determination to help, to keep a man hanging on the edge of the abyss from a final fall!

So this is the part where the story actually starts to grapple with the fact that Johann is passing judgement over these starving people in death camps - that he is judging them for being traitors to the USSR while at the same time, in his guise as a Nazi, threatening to kill, torture, and starve them if they don't become traitors to the USSR.

He belonged to that generation of Soviet youths whose hearts were scorched by the events in Spain, on whom the tragic battles of the Spanish Republicans and the International Brigades with the fascist phalanxes of Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler left an indelible mark, and gave rise to an unshakable determination to devote their lives to the fight against fascism, to defeat it, and to destroy it. Alexander Belov chose a selfless path and abandoned the scientific field, although he probably could have achieved something under the kind guidance of Academician Linev. With strict puritanism, he prepared himself for the chosen goal. But, having abandoned much, he denied himself the right to be lenient to those who, in the pre-storm, tense time, for one reason or another, avoided mobilizing their will. Such features of his views were formed under the influence of ideas about the qualities that, in his opinion, a Chekist should have. This obsession, a high consciousness of duty helped him overcome in his character traits that he considered elements of psychological disorganization. And he pulled himself together, subordinating everything to his will, purposeful, aimed at one thing - to fulfill his duty to the Motherland as best as possible. Yes, Belov had considered himself sufficiently armed until now. But the type of work that lay before him in the fascist reconnaissance and sabotage "Vali's headquarters" plunged him into confusion. He had to deal not with the Nazis, but with their accomplices, who were his former compatriots. Each of them is invisibly overgrown with a tragic and dirty crust of meanness and cowardice. How can one penetrate this crust into other people's souls and patiently and impartially check whether the core has rotted or has only turned black on top, like blood on a human wound? After all, one can restore faith in life to such people only by forcing them to once again take the path of struggle that they have renounced.

I like that we're trying to grapple with the moral ambiguity here. I especially like the idea that Johann/Alexander is a guy who was raised in a time and in a profession that delivered him an entirely black and white view of the world, but who is now being forced to grapple with moral ambiguity.

But there's also a moralistic, preachy tone here which I find repugnant. As if Johann is a priest looking at these starving, bedraggled, traumatized men and being like "I have to figure out which ones of these have lost their faith in Jesus, and which ones are going to go to Hell!" How can you demand faith in anything in such a situation? How can you demand anything of such people who have already had everything taken away from them?

Ugh.

I do wonder if we're going to revisit this theme later when Johann has to reckon with his affection for his boyfriend old best friend Heinrich, a genuine Nazi who becomes repentant.

This man, probably like other outstanding professionals, major figures in German intelligence, was consumed by vanity. He longed to develop an unprecedented operation, to surpass the most famous intelligence services in the art of cunning. To become famous in this field, to become a universally recognized catcher of souls, to immortalize himself, to forever inscribe his name in the history of secret wars. All of Landsdorf's thoughts were focused on this unknown operation, which he was sure would one day make him famous. And he felt happy only at night, when he could shake off all the bothersome worries of everyday life and, in the silence, sweetly ponder the endless options, the cunning moves of this operation, and anticipate the triumph that awaited him. This was the case at night, and during the day, by the will of unfair fate, he had to do petty work.

If you like this type of guy, you will love my novel . . .

Like many young men of his generation, Johann was accustomed to thinking that there were only class enemies, with an assortment of obvious signs, recognized more than once in the struggle - signs as obvious as birthmarks. Yes, there were such, with these clearly defined signs. And with them everything was simple and obvious, and the consciousness of this obviousness freed him from the painful need to explain their betrayal to himself. But there were others - those who could not be brought under the familiar rubric that relieved the consciousness. This means that there is something else hidden, which is made up of the sum of moral traits that are embodied in the peculiarities of character. The iron of conviction does not grow together with the spiritual fat of selfishness. Submission to circumstances deprives a person of will, he is not able to rise up against them and not commit treason.

I kind of love this, even tho it is still sanctimonious

but he's being forced to face the idea that not all traitors are inhuman scum

"And, you will notice, very few of them ask about the form of remuneration. At first I thought it suspicious. But then I became convinced that they were so absorbed in morbidly sensitive memories of their past that they were incapable not only of taking a sober, everyday interest in their future, but even of clearly assessing their present, advantageous position in comparison with that of their compatriots in our concentration camps."

^ this is a Nazi talking, but all of this talk about remuneration is weird. There's this, and there was also an earlier scene where Johann was kind of judging some of the prisoners for asking about remuneration. I'm really confused why anyone would think that they would be getting paid here. These are prisoners in death camps, being recruited to work by Nazi officers. No one in that situation is under any delusions, surely, about the nature of the exchange: your "remuneration" is that you might not get gassed like everyone else. They shouldn't be asking "Will I get new privileges after the war?" they should be asking "What guarantee do I have that you will continue to let me live after the war?"

I could understand like, an anti-Soviet partisan expecting the Germans to pay him or give him a cushy job after the war - it would be stupid, but I mean, people are stupid sometimes - but these people have just been in death camps.

It's weird. It's not that Kozhevnikov doesn't know or believe how terrible the conditions were in these camps, because he talks about it at length. But it's like he keeps forgetting it whenever it's not directly on-screen.

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this Nazi is lecturing about how non-Russian peoples will never defy the Soviet Union

and I both think this is stupid and propagandistic

and also think it's annoying to put it in a book which

as far as I can tell

has like 0 non-Russian soviets in it

Maybe some of these people are Ukrainian or Belarusian, but if so it's not really made explicit

Even tho it started out in Latvia

Jesus christ there's so much of this

A huge quantity of the stuff cut is just bullshit, just absolute bullshit

but occasionally there's some real gems

Each cadet was asked to write an essay on the topic “Why I am an enemy of Soviet power” during the next lesson. On the one hand, this essay was supposed to become a kind of promissory note, a pledge of a soul sold to enemies, and on the other hand, it provided material for research.

this bolded line was cut and I think it's really nice

Here's a line from one of the Soviet POWs who Johann is recruiting to work under him, as an NKVD double agent.

"You're a good guy." He paused and added: "I didn't really respect your lot before. But now I see what kind of people you have: party-made." He grinned: "Now we're all Chekists here against the fascists. Regular and non-regular, but Chekists."

This is patriotic bullshit but I do kind of love it. I also like that we get to see a former dissident as a hero here.

In the show it's even more explicit about what "your lot" means: "You know, once I did not like your NKVD very much," is what the subtitles say. I like that.

The head of the school camp was a prisoner of war nicknamed "Titmouse" - heavy, flabby, extremely domineering and mercilessly demanding of the cadets. During the First World War, he was captured by the Germans. In 1930, while part of a Soviet trade delegation (he had an assignment to buy dyes for textile production), he remained in Germany. He received assistance from the White Guard center, and reported to the Gestapo on pro-Soviet emigrants. Abandoned as an agent to the Soviet Union, he chickened out. He squandered the money in restaurants and carousing. Recalled back, he was put in a concentration camp, where he reported on imprisoned German communists, gaining their trust by posing as a Soviet citizen captured by the Gestapo. He failed. From the camp, he was taken into the Abwehr as an expert on Russian affairs. He was found to be ignorant. He became a translator. He married a streetwalker. He was expelled from the Abwehr for such an indecent marriage. He lived on his wife's income. When his wife ended up in a special hospital, he worked as a doorman at a night hotel. He came to the Soviet embassy. Somehow he managed to deceive them. They took pity on him and allowed him to return. Called up to the Red Army in July 1941, he defected to the Germans.

jesus christ, this guy has one hell of a backstory

this is like. a bit character.

the translators were right, there is a lot of flab to this story

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I don't know how accurate it is exactly, but I really enjoy the emphasis on the tension between the elitist and populist parts of the Nazi movement and how each Nazi character is given a specific disposition towards this ideological divide

it makes the Nazi characters much, much more interesting to read than the ones in Seventeen Moments

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There's a long subplot here about how Dietrichs really wants a Soviet POW with a missing leg that he can send into the USSR on a mission, and he's decided that in the absence of an existing disabled person, he'll just cut the legs off whatever Soviet POW he can get. I encountered this plotline first in the TV show, with bad subtitles, then in the abridged translated version, and then finally in the full google translated version.

In the TV show, I got confused and thought Dietrichs was proposing to cut the leg off a German soldier, which struck me as just an absurd plot point to introduce. But in the translated English book, it was a lot more clear to me that he was always planning to do this to a Soviet POW - which makes more sense, because he's a racist fuckwad who doesn't think Slavs are real people. It still feels kind of abrupt, though. in the original version, it's more expanded into this sort of pseudo-satire of this absurd Nazi who is both a clown and a monster, who is way too proud of this stupid-ass idea. So it does make sense in the original, it just suffered from the way it was delivered to me.

Also, even the other Nazis think he's stupid.

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We got our second canonically gay character here, AND she's not a real Nazi. I mean, she's a Nazi collaborator who tortures other prisoners for the Nazis, but like I said, I do not feel super comfortable judging concentration camp prisoners for collaborating.

There was a special person for [the purpose of torturing people] - who proudly called herself Inga Ratmirova, but also answered to the name Nyurka - stocky, broad-shouldered, with a plump upturned bottom pulled into breeches, short-cropped hair, with an even fringe on a low forehead and teeth turned brown from smoking. She had masculine manners and masculine habits. A professional criminal, a great connoisseur of prison and camp customs, she submitted a petition while still in prison asking to be sent to the front and was sent to a military unit as a medical orderly. And when she was captured, German soldiers found many wristwatches, cigarette cases, and crumpled wads of money in her medical bag.

. . . admittedly, she's also a rapist:

The women arriving from the occupied areas already had experience in collaborating with the Germans and in establishing connections with them, and they had not lost their physical health. Therefore, they resolutely rebuffed Nyurka when she tried to show some of her specific inclinations, but some of the girls, exhausted and weakened by torture and interrogation in the Gestapo prisons, she, pretending to look after them with care, forced to give in to her.

But listen . . . she's not bad, she's just written that way. I could fix her . . .

I am not using trigger warnings here because there's SO MUCH dark stuff in this book, but the next excerpt is really dark:

Captain Clara Kaufman herself was distinguished by her highly moral behavior, despite the fact that, thanks to her hygienic lifestyle, she looked very youthful and no one could say that this woman was over forty. And the uniform suited her figure, and her sharp-nosed, bird-like face was fresh, and there was not a single wrinkle on her high neck. […] Nyurka's vicious inclinations aroused in her a natural feeling of disgust. But, in her soul, fearing this sometimes furious criminal capable of anything, Captain Aufbaum limited her protests about the indecent behavior of her deputy for political affairs by persecuting with cold and harsh hatred the cadets who enjoyed Nyurka's favor. For the slightest offense, she sent them to a concentration camp. And if the offense was serious, she sent them to an SS unit located near the school. This unit carried out liquidation operations in the area of ​​the garbage dump, around which were placed pillars with the inscription "Forbidden zone", common for places where executions were carried out.

So Nyurka's superior officer is sending all of her girlfriends to the death camp. I was a little afraid that the story might try to make Captain Aufbaum into a sympathetic character, but, thank god, the novel seems almost as repulsed by her as I am.

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GOD there's more INTERMINABLE SCENES WITH HITLER'S HIGH COMMAND

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"Femininity for a female agent has two sides — positive and negative. The first is bait. The second — using this bait, the agent can get so carried away that she will turn it into an end in itself, forgetting why she uses her appearance as bait. In civilized countries — I exclude Russia from this number — in addition to the corrupt women of a certain profession, there are men who have dedicated themselves to the same kind of activity. We use them only in Western directions. As for these Eastern agents of ours, we do not reproach you for the excessively high percentage of suicides among them. Among the male contingent, there are also such incidents."

This is a Nazi agent talking about the use of sex in spying . . . I think this is another reference to homosexuality? "There are men who have dedicated themselves to the same kind of activity." Because if it was talking about men who seduce women, I don't see why the book would go out of their way to say it doesn't work on Russians. I don't think Vadim Kozhevnikov suffers from the delusion that Russian men are less horny than either Western men or Russian women.

This book really is a lot like James Bond - it's darker in tone, but it's otherwise very close. Including: action scenes, protagonist who gets the shit kicked out of him at every opportunity but is still the special-est boy, political views that are both repellent and more nuanced than you expected, and, of course, gay villains

[strange-anni]

So let's talk about Nancys room shall we?

In this scene in S1E3 Eleven explores the Wheelers house and then walks into Nancys room. So let us look at some of the things we find there and draw some tentative conclusions.

The first thing we see is a poster with what appears to be a big animal printed on it on Nancys door. At first glance it is not entirely clear what it is exactly but looking closer it seems to be a cat. It's rather abstract though. Like it's a not fully formed cat. Just the image of it. Plus they seem to have three colors. Red, orange and white (and possibly black). This makes it likely that this is a female cat. Male calicos do exist but are extremely rare (1 in 3000).

Next we see a small pin board on Nancys desk with with what reads like “Nemo”? Can this be right? Surely it's “Memo” isn't it?

More cat symbolism here. There is porcelain figure of a kitten directly next to the bed.

Plus there are two pillows. A pink one and blue one with the latter being slightly more in the front. This can have several meanings. First it could represent heterosexuality or heteronormativity if we go with traditional gender color coding. A pink one and a blue one belong together in bed. As far as we can tell this seems to be true for Nancy as she seems to be straight. It could also represent her having s*x with Steve. It was the first time for her. I will come back to this later.

Even more kitten symbolism here. This time it's two kittens on the side a of a musical box.

The song that is played is called “Wiegenlied” (“Cradle song”) and is also known as “Guten Abend, gut' Nacht” (“Good evening, good night”) It's very popular song to be used in music boxes.

Listen to it here

Johannes Brahms wrote the composition in 1868 but it is based on a poem first published in 1808 which itself was based on an old german poem from the Middle Ages. Nowadays it is one of the if not the most well known lullabys in Germany. When Brahms wrote the song he dedicated it to his friend Bertha Faber to celebrate the birth of her second son.

However the poem the first verse is based on was originally not meant to be a children's lullaby although that is what it's now known for. It's a general love poem not specifically meant for children. (It only got that association with children songs because of it's title and because it was placed into a collection with other children songs in “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” (“The boy's magical horn”) in 1808)

A quote by Brahms himself supports this as he wrote in a letter to the Fabers.

“Mrs. Bertha will understand that I wrote the song only for her little one; however she will also agree with me that as she sings Hans to sleep, her husband will sing to her, mumbling a love song.”

The first verse reads as follows:

In this case the roses are meant to be a protective cover. The cloves (And I want you to know that the word “Näglein” although in this case meant as cloves also holds kind of a double meaning as Näglein is also a diminutive of the word “Nagel” which translates to “nail”) are meant to be second protective layer as their essential oils are supposed to keep vermin and germs away. The last two lines are also often misunderstood especially by children as they would think that it is god will alone whether they wake up the next morning or not. That's not what it means though as it's supposed to be a more broadly believe that the future is in gods hands.

Later on Brahms also wrote a composition for the second verse which was published in 1849 by Georg Scherer. I don't have much to say about this other than the fact that his verse gives the whole song a much more Christmassy feel to it. The lines are pretty self-explanatory

Sources: German and English Wiki pages

That is the whole pinboard above her desk and there is much to discover. First we get a confirmation that that the “Nemo” we saw in the beginning is indeed “Memo” instead although it still looks like Nemo due to the “e” covering part of the “M”.

Next the pin board is covered with lots of photos and other things but there are also white and pink ribbons. They are placed in such a manner that it almost looks like a grid or possibly bars? Like prison bars? I will also go a step further and assume that the white/pink color combination could represent femininity like I assume the two pillows on her bed could stand for masculinity and femininity (or a man and a woman). However in the way that these ribbons are placed (like bars) it almost makes it look like they are caging something inside. Something that's desperate to come out as I don't think it's a coincidence that the photos which catch your eye the most and which are placed above the white/pink ribbons are the ones in which Nancy's wearing blue. In one of them she even almost looks like a boy.

I also want to give some attention to the photo in to left corner. It's showing us young Barb dressed as a clown and young Nancy dressed like a bunny. There are many characters in the series associated with bunnies. Holly for example, little Janes room in Terrys house has lots of bunny imagery or later on Henry Creel. Jonathan too but for him this is a bad memory as he was forced to kill a rabbit by his father on his 10th birthday. Nancy in this case is not just associated with bunnies. She literally is one although that seems to be a thing from the past. In S4 when her mother shows her Mr. Rabbit one of her old plushies she decides against keeping it as he will be loved more in another home.

Oh and of cause, she does seem to think the blue and yellow should get together. I know what ya'll are thinking but I don't think this is about byler only. More likely is that it is meant in a broader manner such as both ends of the spectrum should come together.

I've already marked this in the picture above but I do find the saying interesting. From what we can see here it reads “You are part of the problem” but that's not what it says in it's entirety. It is really hard to see but I think in it's entirety it reads “If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem” That of cause raises the question, what solution for what problem exactly?

This one is eerie. As my screenshot is not the best please look at this post from bobokhan. What we see here is a cake which reads “Happy birthday Virgina We love you” at least as far as I can tell. This of cause is reminiscent of another person called Virgina who we've only seen much later in the fourth season. If and what these two have in common I do not know.

Tentative Conclusions

It is interesting to see that Nancy seems to surrounded by cat imagery. None of these seem to be a fully grown though, if you don't count the more abstract one which I won't since this is also in instance of a cat that is not a full image of one. What I think this means is that there is a potential there for Nancy to either become one or acquire some cat characteristics. This however has not yet come to pass (from a standpoint of season 1) although it may come to pass later. At this point in time she is a “Nemo” (Nobody.) A bit of a blank slate in this regard.

Furthermore there is the imagery of the blue and pink pillows on the bed as well as the white and pink ribbons on the pin board. I think these images refer mostly to sexuality and gender. Like the pink and white ribbons are reminiscent of (prison) bars trying to hold back a more masculine version or attitude behind them. Although this prison of femininity (white and pink) is not fully capable of holding it back. In regards to the pillows I still think it may depict Nancy being straight but as she is more associated with blue she is the one that blue pillow represents which in turn means she does have more dominant tendencies as the blue pillow is slightly in the front.

Last but not least there is the lullaby in the music box which in reference to Nancy alone does not make a whole lot of sense. This imagery does not reflect her at all. However it is still important as we see El listening to it for bit while seeming to get a bit distressed as if the song were about to trigger a memory but then doesn't. It's almost like it still means something to her which she is not comfortable with.

Interestingly enough at the end of season 4 we see El in the exact colors which are seemingly holding Nancy back here. El's wearing a white shirt with a pink border on the sleeves. Apparently these colors are not a prison to El. Instead she seems to embrace them.

[irisviel101]

Question for Beyblade Metal: if you could have given the Star Fragments to previous characters instead making new characters, who would it been and why?

Hi!

Good question. I've never considered this before but it's a really neat idea. Thanks for the ask!

Edit: This ended up being a loooong since I decided that some of the story beats didn't work with the character changed so I basically rewrote Metal Fury. Sorry for the long response and for straying so much from the topic, but I felt that it was relevant sicne I can't just change the major characters without it affecting the plot at least a little.

I would keep Gingka, Kyoya and Ryuuga/Kenta's Star Fragments the same since their arcs played out well enough that I can't imagine anyone taking their places.

For the winter Star Fragment, the two main candidates I can think of are Masamune and Benkei (Monoceros and Taurus). I am tempted to say Masamune but I think it would be great for Benkei's arc too, and Masamune will be the red herring just like he was in canon. It would give Benkei a way to compete with the main crew of Metal Fury and show how far he's come since his introduction in the first season.

Another reason is that all the seasonal bladers have their constellations best seen in the second months of their respective seasons, except for Kenta which is third. This symbolizes that they are the second generation of legendary bladers — the first being the ones from history — and Kenta is a third generation since he received his Star Fragment from Ryuuga. Similarly, Taurus is also best seen in January, same as Orion, while Monoceros is best seen in Februrary. Masamune would be a better pick from a meta perspective if there was a third generation of legendary bladers.

Anyway, it would be the last Star Fragment to be awakened in the season; I would play up Benkei's insecurities starting from the Tag Team Tournament arc and that would be the thing to hold him back for the majority of the season, despite all his efforts, until the Better Island Tournament. I dunno who I would choose to be his opponent in the finals — maybe Kenta for old times' sake or Masamune since either would boil down to who is the legendary blader amongst them. The one I'm leaning towards the most, though, is Kyoya. It would be so thematically appropriate, since Benkei has always been Kyoya's number one supporter and he's the one Benkei feels the need to prove himself to the most. I don't remember if Kyoya is there in canon or not, but if he isn't, I would just place his return earlier. But more on that later.

Regardless, this would be the time for Benkei to overcome his feelings of having fallen behind the rest of the group and that would help him awaken the Star Fragment.

Since King won't exist in this AU, Masakune can have his breakdown moment with someone from Team Dungeon or Gingka.

As for the solar system bladers, well, that's a less obvious choice. Also, most of the new characters have a reference to their planet in their beys. Jupiter and Saturn are the Roman names of Zeus and Kronos in mythology which are also the names of Dynamis and Aguma's beys respectively. Mars is the Roman name of the Greek god of war, Ares, and King's Bey is called Variares and is also called the "Sword of the Gods" in canon myths. Not to mention their personalities but I'll talk about them separately.

Since Yuki wouldn't exist in this AU, there needs to be a different way for everyone to learn about Johannes, but honestly, the start isn't that much different. Pegasus and Leone evolve the same way, Madoka and Benkei recall the night they got their Start Fragments and Gingka and Ryo make the connection to the Koma Village legend. At first, they don't really take any action on it but they do keep an eye out for any strange occurrences in the news and tell everyone they know to do the same.

(Because of this delay, Yuu and Tsubasa are able to leave on their training journey together with only words of caution from Ryo and Hikaru)

Then, Johannes attacks Gingka to try and steal Pegasus. He fails but manages to escape, and the gang decide that he could be a danger to other people as well so they search for him. They eventually find him and overhead him talking to Pluto and discover the Nemesis cult through that instead.

Then they discover the island where they find Ryuuga and things play out similar to canon except there's no Yuuki, so they only discover one legendary instead of two. Kenta begins to consider leaving the group but he stops because he isn't sure if following Ryuuga is a wise option since he could probably leave him to die somewhere and succeed.

Fast forward to the Tag Team tournament and since Yuuki isn't here to be Gingka's partner, Kenta gets to do that instead. Except Gingka does pretty much all the work with his new bey, further reinforcing Kenya's feeling of uselessness, much like Benkei. Their first battle is Da Shan and Chi Yun instead of Chao Xin and Mei Mei.

Instead of the Beylin Fist not existing at all, I decided to make them antagonists for this one arc. So Aguma still exists and is still insanely powerful, so he eventually gets to the semifinals where he has to fight Chao Xin and Mei Mei. This battle helps Chao Xin awaken his Star Fragment and become the legendary blader of Saturn.

The reason I chose Chao Xin is because in astrology Saturn is associated with obligation, structure, rules and ambition to name a few (according to Google, correct me if I'm wrong). These values define Aguma's character in Metal Fury but in Chao Xin's case, it would be less about him learning these things and more about reinforcing the lessons he has learned in the previous season and showing how much he has grown since them.

Because Aguma wouldn't have a Star Fragment, the Beylin Fist would lose, but Chao Xin would extend an olive branch to dissolve this centuries long feud anyway, saying that they aren't their ancestors and they don't deserve to be ostracized for something they personally didn't do, to show how much he has grown and matured since his introduction in Metal Masters.

Virgo would becomes Scythe Virgo since, you know, Saturn is the Roman name of Kronos and Kronos usually has a scythe. (Totally not me being lazy with the bey designs, definitely not.)

Moving on to the Destroyer Dome arc. Since there's no King, the legend of Variares would be just used to explain Destroyer's origins since it was modeled after Variares. Also, in this version, Julian would also be participating in the Destoryer Dome as he would be among the people who aided financially for the stadium's construction. And instead of first going to Italy or wherever else they went, and they go straight to America.

(Sadly for Gingka, they still don't get to participate).

So we get to re-meet Team Dungeon, Tsubasa and Yuu — who is sulking because he didn't get a last minute free pass from the WBBA since he's not their employee and using him to find a legendary blader would technically be child exploitation and why would they bother with that when Tsubasa is right there with his already great past record as their special agent? — the Eonis guy still exists, King does not (I feel the worst for this one) and Team Lovushka and Team Garcia are there too.

The first round goes pretty much the same, except Julian is there to contrast how the Garcias didn't change from the second season, although it is acknowledged that their poverty is an actual issue and they're not being evil for the sake of being evil. They're trying to survive; it's just that they're trying to screw everyone else over in the process. Maybe Julian even decides to take a chance on them and gives Argo a job — the only Garcia he can legally hire since the rest are below 18 imo. I chose Julian for this since they worked together in the past so Julian should know why they do what they do and after he almost lost all his wealth, he should be able to at least sympathise with them. Anyway, the Garcias need a better conclusion than canon.

Onto rounds two. Since King doesn't exist and Jigsaw is not interested in fighting at all, Masamune and Lera throw hands instead since they missed their chance to battle in the World Championships in Metal Masters (also so that the tiny rivalry they were beginning to form actually goes somewhere, even if it isn't in this season). Julian realizes that they're not just competing but also trying to find the Star Fragment, so he remains neutral for a whole, further spurring on Lera and Masamune's fight since they just want something done already. That is, until they decide that Jigsaw is being way too smug and decide to team up to take him down a peg. Similar to canon, Jigsaw obliterates everyone except Julian and Masamune.

The final round is where it gets interesting. Jigsaw eliminates Zeo and Toby, and goes into hiding. This annoys Julian since he believes that a battle needs to be fought valiantly with one's full strength, regardless of who your opponent is. We get a few flashbacks to Julian's battle with Da Shan in Metal Masters to show that this is where those feelings originate from. These strong feelings awaken his Star Fragment and Julian pretty much destroys Jigsaw easily.

Sicne Variares is modeled after the mythology Ares, with, you know, attack and defense modes symbolizing a sword and shield, Destroyer's new design would be similar to Variares. The Fusion Wheel would have a different name though, idk, maybe something like Paladin Destroyer or Knight Destroyer to fit with Julian's emperor theme.

Then, Tsubasa, Masamune and Julian have a battle royale. Masamune gets defeated, the stadium breaks and we get the hamster wheel scene with Tsubasa ans Julian instead. Instead of an exposition about Julian's past, we get a flashback to their first meeting aka the Dark Power shenanigans, and they talk about how far they've come since then and that they finally got to battle all out in a tournament after all, bringing closure to that arc as well.

The reason I chose Julian this time is because the planet Mars is associated with strength, passion, valor, energy, etc which are qualities Julian shows as well even if they aren't always apparent. His arc, much like Chao Xin, is more about reinforcing his previous growth than changing anything about him now.

Planet Jupiter is associated with protection (I'm saying this based on Google, correct me if I'm wrong). In Roman Mythology, Jupiter was considered a protective deity as well. We see this with Dynamis being the guardian of his temple and I think it parallels Hyoma being the guardian of Koma Village. In my version, Koma Village would play an important role in the protagonists learning what the hell is even going on since that's considered to be the origin of beyblade itself. Not to mention, it would help flesh out the location a bit more, since we only saw the areas surround the village in Metal Fusion but not the actual village itself.

I picture it starting with Mist Mountain, even though there is no Dynamis. Similar to canon, there would be various traps in the mountain to prevent intruders from reaching the temple at the top and it would essentially be a race between the protagonists and the antagonists to reach the top. Once they do get to the top, they find ancient scripts in a language so archaic that it's almost impossible to decipher. Johannes's group steal the tablet and get away with it, but Madoka manages to snap a picture of it before. Gingka finds the script a bit familiar and makes the connection to Koma Village, so the gang heads there while giving Hyoma and Hokuto a heads up to start looking for clues.

Once they gets there, we get a brief reintroduction to Hyoma since it's been ages, and then the characters would start searching for clues in Koma Village's library. We would also see the village more populated since the people decided that it's safe to return now that Ryuuga and Doji have been defeated and a whole year has passed without any similar incidence.

Meanwhile, Doji — without showing his face on-screen — would make the connection to Koma Village sicne he invaded that place twice and probably did extensive research beforehand. So Johannes, Pluto and Cygnus would make their way to the village as well and start attacking the place, demanding that they give him the information or he would destroy the place. The gang tries to stop him while Hokuto continues to search for information, but they aren't powerful enoguh to defeat Pluto just yet.

Eventually, seeing the place he's worked so hard to protect being threatened and attacked like this again makes Hyoma snap and his desire to protect everyone makes the Star Fragment awaken and he manages to defeat Pluto with his newly evolved Aries.

I decided to just give Aries Jupiter's Fusion Wheel since the four metal balls in the Jade Fusion Wheel are supposed to represent the rings of planet Jupiter, which have four components. So Rock Aries turns into Jade Aries.

After this, Hyoma decides that they need more information on how the legend went down to see if they can learn anything else, but Hokuto tells Hyoma to leave that to him and to train with his new bey instead sicne he believes that the enemy will only get stronger and stronger from here on out.

(Alos, since there's no magical vision of their ancestors, they have no clue what the planetary legendary bladers are supposed to look like.)

For the next one, the candidate I have in mind is a bit out of the way, but hear me out. Mercury is associated with communication, rationality, adaptability, variability and thinking. It's no wonder that Yuki is the legendary blader of Mercury in canon, even without considering that Mercury in Roman mythology is the messenger of the gods and guess what is Yuki's main role in Metal Fury?

Anyway, the person I chose to replace Yuki with is Sora. I imagine that he would appear in Beyster Island as a competitor. He would eventually get to fight Kenta in the tournament and we would see flashbacks of Kenta teaching Sora way back in Meral Fusion. Sora would defeat Kenta, showing how far he has come since then.

While preparing to leave, Kenta would run into Gingka and they would have a conversation about why Kenta left, similar to canon. I feel bad about removing the Gingka vs Kenta fight sicne it was such a good battle, but I think they're close enough friends that they can come to an understanding even without that. Besides, it's been a long time since we've seen Sora so this fight would serve to not only show his growth but also to reintroduce him as a character.

Then, Sora would fight Gingka. Finally, after all this time, he would get to fight his role model. Sora would way more analytical and adaptable now, having built up on the foundation Kenta gave him in Metal Fusion. So, while it wouldn't be as apparent as Yuki, he would still fit the values mentioned above.

I think Gingka would win this fight since showing up out of nowhere and defeating Kenta and Gingka would be a bit much. Not to mention, it would show Sora that no matter how far he has come, he still has something higher to strive towards. However, he would awaken his Star Fragment during this fight.

Since Anubis's Fusion Wheel is modeled after Vulcan, which was a planet proposed to exist in Mercury and the Sun but was later disproved, I would make Sora's Pegasus evolve into Mercury Pegasus. I would get rid of the stripes in the design since they remind me of Anubis, and I would make the shape less like a feather give it a bit more rounder and flowy design as a nod to the element mercury which is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Lastly, for Venus, I would choose Yuu. Venus is often associated with love (platonic or romantic) , relationships, harmony, beauty and the urge to sympathize with and unite with others. In canon, the themes of friendships and relationships were explored with Tithi well enough, but I feel like they could just as easily be explored with Yuu. Not only is he someone who sees something wonderful in almost anything but he is also able to easily sympathize with and befriend others, even managing to befriend Doji to a certain extent.

I have no clue how he would awaken his Star Fragment though. I think that Doji would take a more proactive role this time around, mostly because it's Yuu and he wants to mess with his head almost as much as he wants to mess with Ryuuga. Doji would probably be searching for the last fragment too, since they have literally only one and that is the one Nemesis got, so finding that last fragment is doubly important. He would run into Yuu and Tsubasa by chance and decide to mess with Yuu a bit because Fiji's thw actual worst. Tsubasa tries to fight him off while Yuu recovers from the whiplash of seeing him alive, but Doji's gotten much stronger since then and Tsubasa is struggling. I think Doji mocking what little understanding they used to have back in Metal Fusion would be enough to snap the Star Fragment into action. Flame Libra becomes Death Libra, because I think the complicated bey design suits Yuu since we all know how tactical he can be when he wants. (Seriously, just look at the wiki page. That Fusion Wheel is way more complex than I thought.)

Doji would eventually retreat once Yuu becaomes the legendary blader of Venus, because he knows that he has ruined aby chances he might have had of recruiting Yuu to their side, not that Yuu is stupid enough to fall for that a second time nor would he just abandon his friends for a guy like Doji.

I imagine that, since none of the legendary bladers side with the Nemesis cult this time, they would have some time to actually plan things since the cult wouldn't have the other Star Fragments to accelerate Nemesis's revival. They would, however, make the legendary balders fight the fodder enemies to gather energy for Nemesis once the protagonists do decide to attack their fortress. There would only be one battle since they would have had the time to actually plan stuff instead of speed running the preparation phase of the invasion. Ryuuga dies, Kenta gets the Star Fragment and they all play a role in the final battle instead of it being just Gingka eith the power of the whole world on his side.

Damn, this turned out longer than I thought it would. Sorry for basically writing out a fanfiction, but I figured that I should go forward with how things would change if I did change the main characters. Sorry!

[quincyhorst]

FFI Euro B Coaches - Gretchen Löw (Brockenborg 🐉)

Gretchen descends of Johann Löw, a famous trainer that brought many Euro Frontier cups to Germany. Or at least, with the adult team. Junior high football isn't his specialty... Nor his interest. Although she was forced to be around his training sessions since childhood, Gretchen preferred to work as a caregiver once she grew up. Mostly oriented around those with special needs.

That seemed to be her life, till the sudden menace of Alius Academy and the kidnapping of an important japanese political figure shook the entire world. With soccer being turned into a weapon, the countries closest to Japan (Australia and Korea) entered in panic and were forced to improve their local junior high soccer skills faster than ever. (Or you thought that Jean Baker stopping most S2 hissatsus was because of plot convenience?).

Even if Europe was in a better place, the fear of the "weak" Japan (and Asia) falling to these "aliens" penetrated deep into some guvernamental powers. As such, many countries started their own soccer-improvement methods as a "just in case" type plan. In Germany this manifested with Operation Sicherung, a secret plot that meant special training for the most qualified junior high players of the country... And with that, it meant "protecting them" in a specialized base located within the Brocken mountains. Being forced to cooperate, Johann's struggle with the german youth was so bad he had decided to call his daughter in secret to help him over. Despite her own worries and the implications of the project, Gretchen decided to accept.

Originally, her intention was to be a "bridge" between her father's soccer knowledge and the children choosen for O.S, but soon enough she proved herself to be a better Junior High coach than him. The secret behind her success was mainly on her past as a teacher, fitting well with her caring and nurting personality, knowing perfectly the weakness of each child and finding a way to use it for the better. But she also had a strict side, being able to see things with logic and creating sucessful strategies in base on harsh yet understandable choices. This meant keeping emotions and logic separate, making her look colder than what it actually seemed. Truth is, her heart breaks easily when she sees her players upset.

Operation Sicherung lasted for only a while, as it got suspended once the Aliea menace was over. Nonetheless, the mark that Gretchen left both in the program's operators and in the kids she trained had been so great, that when the Euro League was announced the German Soccer Asocciation did not even hestiate on making her Brockenborg's coach instead. She was surprised by the sudden change of tides in life, but by that point there was no turning back.

I think that out of the EuroB coaches, she has the best relationship with her players. Her participation in O.S gave her prior time to study what she could about each BB member and what they could struggle with during both tournaments. But not only about soccer skills; but also about their own personal struggles. This is why she often employs special training methods for some, or her atitude is different with others.

Best example I can give is with the german captain himself. Upon finding out Jonas' being originally from Poland, Gretchen decided to start using her (so and so) polish language skills as to communicate better with him. Of course, german is still used between the two, but Polish is a perfect secret code within captain and coach (Or as a way for Jonas to vent anything to her). I like the idea that Pollack himself is quite happy with Gretchen's efforts to communicate, so in return he tries to help her understand the polish language better (better than having to rely on tiny dictionaries), or talk about his homeland's culture. 🥺

It is to say that at the end of the day, Gretchen was still a soccer rookie that kept learning as both the league and FFI went on. And despite all the effort she put in, unfortunately it wasn't enough for Brockenborg to pass the group stage. Nonetheless for a first-time coach, her road as a coach is still very appreciated by the german populace, and so her future endeavors. Who says she can't keep coaching after the FFI!? Besides junior high boy teams, she could also try luck for the upcoming female-only competitions, too 👀

[roskirambles]

(Archive) Animated movie of the day: Fantasia (1940)

Originally posted: January 4th, 2022 Walter Elias Disney, a controversial man in life and legacy. A businessman at heart, selling an illusion to audiences he so called magic, and tried to hide many of his lesser traits and allegiances throughout his life. Nonetheless, if there's one thing I can actually admire about the man is that he respected animation as a medium, and this is reflected in one of his passion projects: the unprecedented masterpiece that is Fantasia.

A joint work between the Walt Disney company, professional critic Deems Taylor as the Master of Ceremonies and Leopold Stokowski in the direction of the Philadelphia Orchestra, this anthology of classical music with animation of different styles and flavors ranges from abstract and surreal imagery, to the whimsical, frightening and sublime when it comes to the more defined storytelling of other segments. Music from Bach, Tchaikovsky, Dukas, Stravinsky, Bethooven, Ponchielli and Mussorgksy is featured, each as their own dedicated short, along with a small intermission where a sound track is given characterization.

The end result is a highly varied compilation of shorts with both subtle and stark differences in art direction, and a very experimental approach to what animation is about. In many, many ways it was impressively ahead of it's time, which only makes it's dissapointing performance at the box office back in the day all the more saddening.

This isn't to say everything about it is timeless or feels contemporary. While still a remarkable achievement of animation, where just short of 80 years later it's still engrossing and impressive, instances like the now cut character of Sunflower in the Pastoral Symphony segment reflect the ugly, racist side of American culture at the time. There's other less insulting but still dated bits, like how Taylor claims nobody performs the Nutcracker ballet anymore. Yeah, right. Even so, for any animation enthusiast it's a must watch.

Honestly, this movie gives so much to talk about for an animation enthusiast. I think it warrants writing some thoughts about each segment.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor(Johann Sebastian Bach): A powerful musical piece to start, but visually speaking it's not the strongest opening. While I do appreciate(immensely I might add) that Disney did NOT go for the stereotyped scary imagery associated with this piece but instead something more sublime (given the dynamic range the toccata actually offers), the abstract imagery doesn't necessarily lend anything substantial to the music, even when it goes from dark places to the very heavens. That is, when the animation actually starts, since a not so small segment of the short is the performers shot in silhouette. Stokowski's arrangement of the piece isn't the most evocative version of this musical milestone either.

Still, on a technical level, the animation is remarkable, and given the significant shifts in the musical structure they did what they could.

---

Nutcracker suite(Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky): While the narrative is less abstract, it's certainly not very defined either. The animation, however, is much more evocative and beautiful to look at, with soft movements of ballet like quality; all too fitting for the piece.

Given it is associated to a narrative that is already well defined, the animators pretty much gave themselves a challenge by pursuing a significantly different direction that, while still using imagery related to fairies, it has a focus entirely put on the beauty of nature. Giving flowers and mushrooms alike anthropomorphic qualities but also allowing them to just move at the pace of the wind, the effects animation here is as stunning as it is educational for any aspiring animator. Colorful and soft, it's just a visual delight.

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The Sorcerer's Apprentice(Paul Dukas): By far the most popular and well known segment of the film, this short based on a poem from Goethe puts Mickey Mouse in the role of said apprentice under the guide of Yen Sid(subtle reference right there). The irony of the impressionist piece being the first one to get a proper narrative aside, this short is still as charming as ever was.

While the effects animation isn't any less remarkable(in fact, my hat goes off for all those involved in the water animation of this segment), the pressence of Mickey Mouse and the broom make the character animation be the star of the show this time, and it still holds up. It goes all the way to show the power of well composed body language that you can follow the story even without Taylor's prior introduction.

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Rite of the Spring(Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky): A piece from the only composer that was still alive to see the film(who also GREATLY disliked the interpretation of his piece, calling the performance execrable) this is a valiant effort of wordless stoytelling with creatures of minimal anthropomorphic qualities.

While Taylor's introduction already hammers in the era in which this was made(he has to tiptoe around calling scientific observations "facts" to not get flak from conservative Christians), the representation of dinosaurs is anachronistic and dated as well, so is the vagueness of what destroyed them(the crater of the meteor that caused their mass extinction wasn't discovered until 1978).

Still. the segment creates genuine feelings of menace from the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the effects animation is still remarkable(special mention goes to the magma and the smoke, even though fire doesn't look quite right in some shots). It does what it sets to do in presenting the power of nature.

--- Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack: The brief jazz number by the orchestra is nice, and honestly, the Sound track is pretty adorable for a non descriptive collection of shapes. It's also impressive how they managed to give different sounds visual abstract equivalents.

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Pastoral Symphony(Ludwig van Beethoven): The only part of Disney's Movie canon to feature female nudity along with the Night on Bald Mountain segment(at least until later rereleases), it's whimsical depiction of Greek Mythology still manages to be more accurate to the source material than future endeavors of the company such as Hercules, humorously enough. The greek gods weren't nice people, and this segment has some fun with that(remember kids, Zeus is a jerk). The extremely simple love story between the centaurs is still wholesome though, and the imagery is very creative.

The animation complexity of this short lead to some small animation errors but you're not gonna notice if you're not looking for them. It also has in my opinion the most beautiful backgrounds of the film, rivalled only by some segments of the naturalistic beauty of the Nutcracker Suite.

--- Dance of the Hours(Amilcare Ponchielli): Charmingly innocent in a way that it's not seen very often anymore, it uses it's ballet roots in a fairly literal fashion by making a ballet number with different species of animals representing different hours of the day. The body language of these animals is just brilliant, they're expressive, carry a well defined movement to each one(that isn't realistic but definitely distinctive) and there's something inherently comical about how they dance, even when they do it effectively.

Honestly given the premise of the ballet this is the one short where I'd have gone abstract. I can't complain though, since the humorous gags and silly imagery just make it a sincerely funny experience, albeit not the most remarkable among the anthology(plus, female ostriches don't have the black and white plumage, but let's not get too nitpicky here).

--- Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria(Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky/ Franz Peter Schubert): Try to act surprised when I tell you the spooky segment is my favorite part of the movie. At the same time, however, I think it's warranted in this case. Horror is not something animation was known for back in the day. Even if movies like Pinocchio had some remarkably dark imagery, the medium in general was being pushed towards this kid oriented market, so this short was in many ways daring. And the end result both hits the mark with the fear and also happens to deliver one of the more complete narratives in the film. It's not just about the spooks, but the catharsis afterwards.

Chernabog(or as it is referred by Taylor, Satan himself) has such a commanding presence it's overwhelming. Even if you don't find him scary you WILL remember his face, full of wickedness and evil(Vladimir Tytla's animation of the character is one of the biggest achievements in the entire film, which is saying something). The imagery is adequately hellish as well, thanks to a masterful art direction that brings the shadows of Walpurgis night to life. The use of experimental animation techniques helped as well, with the ghosts requiring some clever use of distorted mirrors to create. And the release from the nightmare with the Ave Maria, which was the most demanding shot for the animators at the time(and not just on this project but maybe in animation as a whole at that point)? The perfect cap for a movie that made history for good reason.

So yeah, that's Fantasia. Man, that was a long one.

[colorfuldreamsmkg]

The Putrid Scent of Rafflesia | Kanji Mochizuki | 2-4 | RE: Swan, Alibis, Crystals, Accusations | ATTN: Johann

“First of all, I’d like to make note of some things. I am still uncertain about how useful checking the crystals is. We don’t have a point of comparison when it comes to Johann’s balance prior to the murder. Like I said, we can’t reference the amount of Crystals he had prior to Takuma’s death and all conclusions we could draw from the amount he has are pure speculation.

To answer your question, Sonny, the two times I was with Johann in an investigation group, I didn’t see him buy from the Gacha. If it brings y’all peace of mind, I have 295 crystals. I think I’ve used the 5+1 gacha once or twice and have also bought the charger thingy” he’s not good with technology, he doesn’t know what it’s called “so I can sleep inside my SEKAI since my phone’s battery doesn’t last very long. However, even the amount of crystals Johann has is flimsy as evidence. For all we know, he could have spent them bringing art supplies from the outside or some other thing. That, and…”

Kanji stopped to think for a sec, trying to figure out an explanation.

“I dunno. If it’s possible to use another’s phone to go to their respective SEKAI, it could be possible to purchase stuff from the store using a phone that’s not your own? Cuz, if that’s the case, verifying the crystals becomes pointless. I mean, Takuma’s phone was presumably available to be used by the killer. If we already suspect the killer used it to go to OTR’s SEKAI to dispose of evidence, something like that doesn’t seem impossible”

That out of the way, he continues with his line of reasoning. He’s been trying very hard to make sense of this case. Especially because he really, really wants to believe in Johann’s innocence. He’s one of the first people he could call a friend in this place. The hardships with language, the chats they’ve shared, the promises they made… Kanji wants to believe in him, that is why he doubts.

Next up is the… Feathered elephant in the room. Swan and his odd declarations. Kanji turns to María Dolores and offers a sympathetic smile.

“Thanks to the way you kept track of time, I think I managed to piece out what Swan is trying to say. I am very grateful, María Dolores. Keeping track of time is a really good habit to have, ain’t it?” Even if the last time they talked didn’t precisely end in friendly terms, not in bad terms either but that’s besides the point, Kanji doesn’t hesitate to express his gratitude. 

In reality, he feels grateful for everyone's conjoined effort to solve this case. But he feels like she of all people needs to hear kind words the most at this very moment. Back to business. Kanji crosses his arms, back to fully concentrating as he reviews what has been said up until this point.

“From what we’ve heard from everyone’s accounts, Swan wasn’t lyin’. I’ve not frequented ConCar’s SEKAI, so I’m not sure how it works, but… Cecile mentioned being woken up by the sound of birds. In the Cave SEKAI we all got stuff that traces back to us, a Cherry Blossom for me, Crows for Suzie, a Radical Wolf Statue for Crimson. I assume it could be the same for you guys, so the birds check out for Swan, he must have been in the SEKAI.

By the sound of it, he appeared in the infirmary around 7:00 AM if we go off what we heard from Cecile since she saw him in the cafeteria as well as other people. It’s also worth noting the infirmary probably didn’t smell like chemicals when he first appeared. He was smellin' them like crazy when we first entered the crime scene but no one reported Swan acting funny while he was in the kitchen.

Another thing that stood out to me is that the infirmary was uninhabited when he appeared according to him. That means Jed must have been kicked out of his SEKAI somewhere after 7:00 AM.

Continuing with Maria Dolores’ report, Swan was in the kitchen up until 7:50 AM. In that regard, Swan is right in the fact he’s unaccounted for between 7:50 AM and 8:30 AM which is when she saw him enter the Library. Ever since, he was always surrounded by people up until we found the body. I would know cuz he and I stayed in the library until Clarabell and Erika rushed in.

I don’t know if a lethal death trap could be set up within the span of 40 minutes, but from what we’ve discussed, something like that sounds very unlikely. That time frame, while odd, still seems unrelated to the case. Even more so when we remember Erika appeared in the performance hall at 11:45 AM. It smelled like chemicals accordin’ to her, but there was no death trap set up at the time.” With the way Swan spoke about it all, it sounded like he wasn’t taking the trial seriously. Kanji squints at him, a challenging tone in his voice. “No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t sound like you were involved, Swan.”

Kanji holds the acute expression for just a little longer before turning his attention elsewhere. To the rest of the group specifically.

“I know I’ve been talkin’ for a while, but… I’d also like to review something that I don’t think has been talked about enough. Our alibis! Specifically, I’d like to start discarding suspects. I think Inazuma and Sonny are clear since they spent a good chunk of time together; Ozzy’s also likely on the clear since he spent most of the day surrounded by other people; Cecile and María Dolores are also discarded for,” he clears his throat, “obvious reasons; I’m not certain about Lau Fei and Crimson, since they haven’t shared their alibis yet, but according to Lau Fei they were together during the time of the death

Jed was asleep in the infirmary after being kicked out of his SEKAI at some point, around 11:00 AM, Emile paid a visit and stayed until 12:30, the time where Clarabell entered the Infirmary and came out at 13:30; I also spent most of the day surrounded by others except from 6 to 9 AM because I was in the SEKAI, ever since I’ve been surrounded by people. Concretely, I stuck around in the library, many people came in and out, but me and Swan were together until we discovered the body alongside the girls.”

Kanji clears his throat. His explanation continues.

“So far, I think me, Swan, Inazuma, Sonny, Ozzy, Cecile, Maria Dolores and Emile are clear; the alibis I’m not sure about are Witch’s, Erika’s, Lau Fei’s, Crimson’s, Suzie’s, Clarabell’s, Pellonia’s and Jed’s… However, we still have some clarity and some details that don’t match with what we know so far. As such, the weakest alibi is… Johan’s.”

Kanji gives a wordless nod to Erika. Its meaning is hard to interpret due to Kanji's external expression, though knowing him his intent must be coated in some flavor of camaraderie. The long awaited answer to his question finally arrived.

Now, time to start piecing everything together.

(CW: Suicide mention)

“Knowing that y’all found Johann after the investigation started makes it very clear to me that he attempted to commit suicide after the body discovery announcement. This makes everything Johann did even more suspicious. I think… During breakfast, after receiving the notification on his phone at 7:58 AM, Johann took the gloves from the kitchen, went to his locker and picked up everything he needed to set his plan in motion. 

We got no clue what he was up to between that time and 11:45 AM, when everything was possibly ready to go for the kill according to Erika’s account, since by that time the chemical smell was already there. In other words, within the span between 7:58 AM and 11:45 AM, Johann was up to God knows what. He was most likely not at the crime scene at 9:00 AM, though, cuz that’s when I appeared in the performance hall, which was empty at the time and I didn’t pick up on any funny smell.”

Kanji takes a deep breath. A small pause is needed. He has been talking for a while now, sharing his thoughts, what he has been able to pick up from what everyone has said so far… It’s a little funny. It all reminds him of a floral arrangement. He takes different flowers and, by combining them, he creates something new. Something with new meaning. 

“That time frame, if I recall correctly, has no trouble coinciding with the timeframe where Emile visited Jed. Somewhere around 11 AM. I think… Maybe Jedidiah was Johann’s original target since he spotted Jed in a vulnerable position, sleeping in the library? But, maybe, he backed away after hearing someone was near and tried to cover the attempted murder by letting the sink open. After that, he went to the performance hall and started setting everything up. Specifically, he used thinner paint to create the fumes.”

It isn’t hard to believe someone would target Jed. A man reaps what he sows, he supposes.

“As someone who handles that kind of substance often, he probably knew that shit can mess you up real quick. That is why he came prepared with a respirator, not because he wanted to ensure the safety of his doll, but because he was waitin’ for his victim to walk in amidst the smell of thinner. Everything was ready, he was just waiting for a victim. And that… Just so happened to be Takuma.

He likely prepared something to drop the thinner on whoever walked by the door, that’d explain why Takuma’s hair was a different color and why his face was burnt as well. While Takuma was disoriented, Johann forced him to drink the thinner which caused Takuma to start suffocating, grabbing his own neck as he gasped for air, until he died. Then, Johann used Takuma’s phone to go and dispose of some evidence in OTR’s SEKAI, where Bar Miku spotted him but couldn’t make out who he was.

Once Johann got rid of everything, he returned to the real world where he prepared to commit suicide… Until Cecile, Witch and Erika found him and prevented him from dying. And the only way all of this is possible… Is if the suicide attempt happened after the body was found, once you knew for sure the motive had ended and your sister was safe and not at 11:45 like you initially said.”

It is done. He has finally, formally accused Johann. The man standing next to him. Kanji’s expression is not one of anger nor disappointment. His face only transmits…

“So, let me ask again… Was it you, Johann?”

His face transmits a profound sadness.

[findetdeutschland]

Art

Germany not only has beautiful landscapes and wonderous festivals, but there is also a large art culture surrounding the country that it is difficult to not know of at least one musician/author/artist that was originally from Deutschland or surrounding German speaking areas. Support of the arts is also something that the government is also focused on maintaining since the 1800’s. There are hundreds of theaters in Germany, and finding a local symphony orchestra isn’t something incredibly difficult to do. Now I don’t think I could even barely scratch the surface of all the influential, talented individuals that came from Germany. I can however give you some more information about a couple of the most well-known people that originated from Germany.

Starting off, we’re going to talk about Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm. You may have heard of the Brothers Grimm before or maybe you’ve heard of some of their tales, especially if you enjoy Disney content. They brothers were born in 1785-86 and were the oldest siblings in their family of six children. These boys ended up taking care of their family when both of their parents passed, and both attended University of Marburg studying law. Jacob ended up working in Paris doing legal research and ended up working as a librarian to King Jérôme of Westphalia then an auditeur in the highest court in France until Napoleon’s defeat. After returning to Hessian service, he travelled to Paris to retrieve stolen art and literature that were taken from Prussia and Hesse. Wilhelm started around this time at a library is Kassel and Jacob eventually joined him at, and from this point on did the brothers focus on literature and research into it. They began collecting different folk literature, songs, and poetry and accumulated them all into a collection that contained over 200 short stories and called it Kinder und Hausmärchen. This book is what we know today as the Grimm Brother’s tales that include stories like Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood. The brothers also accomplished quite a bit more involving philosophy, teaching at an university and were even exiled from the country they lived because of their political beliefs. If you would like to get a more thorough deep dive, I highly suggest giving my link to Britannica a look at the beginning of the paragraph.

Another influential person to come from Germany is a name you might also be familiar with, and that is Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was born in 1685 and was born into a long line of musicians. His father is credited for teaching Bach the violin, however both of his parents ended up passing away when Johann was only ten years old. After they died, he ended up learning how to play the organ by his brother, and furthered his musical education after he was accepted into a school in Lüneburg. He continued his education and became a violinist/organist for Duke Johann Ernst for a short while. Then he bounced around as an organist for multiple different churches, but really wanted to get out there and continue to listen/learn more music from different places. After clashing with a few different churches, he returned to the duke’s court and ended writing some music that is still heard today like “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”. A few years later, Bach tried to leave the duke for a musical position for Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, and Duke Ernst imprisoned for a couple months for it. He didn’t want to let him go, but eventually was released. During his time for the prince, he was able to focus on his music writing and shifted gears into a more orchestra concerto. This continued for a few years until the prince married someone who didn’t enjoy music. Prince Leopold ended up dissolving Bach’s orchestra officially in 1723. He then went back to a church in Leipzig and performed as well as taught music to others. This didn’t stop his music writing all the way until his passing in 1750. Bach was an incredibly accomplished man, and also wrote a few books during his lifespan. I wasn’t able to cover all the details in his life, however you can check out more information in the link above.

[crystallizedkingdoms]

The Wordless One

Lucas doesn’t know why Johann’s memory is affected differently. He swears.

wc: 2,027

The Birds in this fic are: ████ & ███ (Twins), ██ (Lover), ████ (Protector), Lucas Miller (Lonely Journal-Keeper), ████ (Peacemaker)

day 7 of @johann-appreciation-week! thank you to @avijohann for the amazing art. I can’t believe it’s the final day! I’m so glad I could participate this year. can’t wait for the next :’)

I don’t know what happened, I swear.

Please, trust me when I say I really don’t know what happened. There are a million reasons that I cannot possibly calculate that can explain why Johann is having such an adverse reaction to Fisher’s erasure when the others aren’t. There are a million reasons why he hasn’t spoken a single word since I found him lying next to ████ after the erasure. There’s a million reasons I can’t find him a home like I have with the others. There’s… there’s…

Oh, I don’t know. I hate it just as much as anyone else would that I don’t know why this is happening to him. I wish it wasn’t. Johann was never the loudest person, his voice never filled the room incessantly like ████’s did, but it is so fucking weird that he doesn’t say a single thing anymore. Not even when I prod and poke at him, or when I bother him with all the little arguments I used to bug him with. Landing procedures, retrieval missions, how to file paperwork, how to brew the best coffee, who should clean our desks, worst musical composers across the planes we’ve visited nothing nothing nothing gets him to talk.

It’s hard enough, having ██ on the loose while also having to take care of Johann. It’s a suffocating rock and hard place to be between. Of course it had to be those two. They’re the inseparable pairs that I have separated. Have to continue to separate, because I know ██ is going to figure out that I haven’t placed Johann anywhere and he’s going to come crawling back to me. A highly annoying block in my road to saving the world.

Would it… would it be easier to leave Johann off somewhere? Even if he can’t speak, he— he can still walk. He eats when I tell him to. He’s not as dexterous as he used to be, he moves slow and he’s tripped enough times on his Robe that I’ve had to hide it away, but… it’s still survivable. And— and he’ll be off my hands! ██ will find him, but he doesn’t have access to Fisher. He couldn’t fix whatever’s happening to Johann… but he would take care of him. Better than I can do.

It’s… unnervingly cruel. Looking at him as I write this down, I don’t know how well this can go. Johann is barely moving, his ears flop down more than a half-elf’s normally should, and though I’ve found no evidence of a fever, he keeps holding his hand up to his forehead. I don’t know if I can be sure someone else doesn’t get to him before ██. Maybe I can attach some tracking device to Johann, something to keep tabs on him, make sure he doesn’t get hurt.

Yeah… yeah, yeah. That sounds good. I’ll get to working on that right away.

—

I couldn't do it. 

How could I have done it? I tried, I did, and I hate that I even tried it. I didn’t even leave Johann for a whole five hours before I rushed back to pick him up. Nothing happened to him. Some people looked at him weird, some guy got in his face when Johann stared at him for too long, but he didn’t get hurt. It was me, I just couldn’t keep my eyes off of his little point in my tracker, I couldn’t stop worrying about what would happen to him, I—

I couldn’t stop thinking about how I could fix him.

It’s not— It is wrong. It’s wrong it’s wrong it’s wrong I know exactly what I’m doing. I know why I’m fretting about him when I’m not fretting about ████, ██████, even ██████, my own mother. It’s not that I’m not worried about them, I have visited my mom, I have visited ████, but I can’t just visit Johann. Especially if ██ gets to him.

I need to figure out if I can fix Johann. I can’t leave a project of mine, failed.

I’m not— I’m not saying that Johann’s a project, no, no no. He’s not an experiment, that’s not what this is. I just want to right the single fixable wrong in this mess I’ve made. I don’t want to prove anything else. That’s not what this is. I won’t let myself turn it into that, I promise.

…Right now, Johann is attempting to clean my desk. I don’t know why, I swear. I didn’t tell him to. I didn’t— I didn’t tell him, I don’t know why that has his attention, I don’t know. Hold on.

—

Nothing’s working.

Not a single fucking thing is working.

I have run multiple tests on Johann, as much as I can with these limited amounts of resources, and there is nothing physically wrong with him. He can make noises— I found out he can say his name when prompted, but absolutely nothing else— he’s eating well, his sleep schedule is actually better than it was when he was normal. His balance is still a little off, and he keeps picking at his fingers, but otherwise he’s in perfect health.

I thought I had fixed it all when I realized it couldn’t have been physical. When I started trying to jog Johann’s memory, the ones I was so sure I hadn’t touched. I made him repeat his name, over and over and over, using it to communicate. He’s still monotonous, as he usually was, but he’s starting to use tone again and that’s all I can hope for when it comes to speaking. So I tried something else. Something that should have been easier.

I gave Johann his violin. I watched as he held it in a way I would never have expected him to. Limp in his hands, his grip awkward and strained, I couldn’t even get him to hold it in the proper position. It got to a point I couldn’t leave it in his arms in good faith. I took it from his hands carefully, and he stared at me with empty eyes.

I tried again. Multiple times throughout multiple days. I brought out his other instruments. Johann acted even more clueless around them, looking over them so clumsily and inquisitively that he almost snapped the strings of his lyre. If he can’t figure out his music, the thing he dedicated his entire life to, what he loved more than leading our mission (he barely even wanted to be called Captain, he much preferred being called Maestro despite the entire ███ hating that their star astronaut wanted to be called that stupid unique title), then… fuck, what’s left of him?

I… I don’t know what happened, I swear. I don’t know where to go from here. I can’t just stop, but if it’s impossible to figure out…

I need a drink.

—

██ knows.

I knew I should have put up that ward earlier. I didn’t know he would use my own creations against me— I need to adjust the mechanism of the fusebox, so a soul can only be taken in and not voluntarily joined. What a flaw in my blueprints, I should’ve accounted for the undead using it against—

That doesn’t matter right now, Lucas, holy shit! ██ knows.

I saw him, in that shitty prototype body, somehow my detection didn’t go off and he was kneeling hovering right in front of Johann, who only stared blankly at the strange robot in front of him. I heard ██ plead, his voice staticky from my terrible audio system I made on the fly, trying to communicate with Johann, and quickly realizing he wasn’t understanding. Wasn’t even responding.

██ only realized I was there when Johann got up from his bed and ran to hide behind me.

I tried to subdue him, I swear. I grabbed the metal pipe on the nearby desk and swung it hard on the robot I had spent so long making to keep him there. So I could talk to him. But no, he’s the one who blew his own fuse to eject himself from the body. He’s the one who attacked me. I don’t think he wanted to kill me. I don’t think he’s like that. But, I mean, he got so so so close until…

Until Johann swung at him with my pipe.

It didn’t hit. Of course it didn’t, a lich isn’t affected by blunt attacks like that. But it made ██ stop moving and get off of me. He stared at Johann, and though he had no eyes to speak of, I just… I just know what they would’ve looked like. Confused. Scared. Pained.

I should’ve captured him. I should’ve gotten him trapped, hurt, anything, but I was too late. He reached to try and take Johann’s hand, but when Johann backed up behind me again, he didn’t waste a second. He must’ve seen me reaching for my device because he left without a single word.

██ knows, and that leaves me a dead man walking.

—

I… lie. A lot.

Even when nobody's watching. Even when nobody’s hearing. Even when nobody’s reading.

It’s a habit I’ve gained even before joining the ███. I lied more than I should have even during the mission. I got a lot better, but near the end, when we landed in this world and I saw the horrible damage we were doing with our own creations…

Well, I picked it up again.

I’ve been lying to myself. And by extension, I’ve been lying to Johann. I realized this when I chided Johann for staring at the new bard Seeker’s violin and trying to grab it. I said I didn’t know what got into him as I apologized to the Seeker. 

I thought maybe if I lied to myself, I would forget. Like the memory of my own horrible mishap would melt into Fisher’s galaxy eventually. It never did. And reading back on my old notes, I recognize how insanely stupid I sound. It’s embarrassing, really, how I thought that was convincing. I even added “I swear” to every single lie I told. What loser does that?

…How was I supposed to know, though? How was I supposed to sort through the dozens of papers on our shared desk? How was I supposed to know that, mixed in with my journals of our mission, Johann had stored all his musical compositions? Every single one, even the ones from back home, because even when we initially thought it was just two months, he couldn’t bear the thought of going to a whole new planar system without his music. “They are me, and I am them,” he told me once. I laughed in his face when he said that.

But he was right. Somehow, in some way, every composition held pieces of him. Johann spread his entire existence throughout his compositions. And when we shared our desk, the late nights doused in black coffee and brainstorming, our life’s work were intertwined. They were cluttered on our desk. Desperately needing some reorganizing.

And I threw it all in Fisher the Voidfish’s tank, hurried and rushed, because I could hear my mom coming down the hall when I only had the main journal in.

Now look at him. Johann is… empty. He helps around the Bureau, leading people to the Voidfish. He sits near the Voidfish all the time now. At first, it would sing to him, prod at his location in its tank, begging for the food he could lovingly create for it back during the mission. But eventually, it gave up, once it noticed it was going nowhere. Johann looked at it with tired eyes all the same, the awe that once filled him when looking at its beautiful structure all but gone.

And��� now it’s gone. All because of me. But I have the Bureau now. A whole organization to myself, dedicated to finding our Relics. When I have them all, my plan will finally be put into place, and the world will be safe. Then, the chase will be over. I can gather everyone back, ██ included, and we could be together. Johann will get his memories back. It’ll all be okay.

I can fix everything. I swear by it.

[masterofdemise]

for the Bingo oh I wonder what your thoughts on Pluto >:3c wanna enable you to talk about him ehe >:D

I've done him before but since it's a new bingo and the last one was from awhile ago, I thought I would do it again.

I could have technically scratched off more of the boxes but I decided not to because that would be too many circles.

Since I don't feel like doing anything productive, I'll actually go through every single box that isn't repeated.

(Edit: Removed color coding but it was unintentional because tumblr just removed it for some reason :/ Don’t know how to add it back now so it’s stuck with just bolded text)

Everyone but me is wrong about them <3: Not enough people think about him for me to disagree with others so I can happily not check this box. I also haven't heard other people's head canons for him so I can't say whether or not they are wrong.

I'm obsessed with their character arc: What character arc :'(

They got done dirty by fans: There are some works that I've seen that make Pluto the absolute worse human being on the planet and as much as it makes me sad, it's also understandable since he doesn't get much characterization in the first place.

They got done dirty by the creators/Not enough screen time/Wasted Potential: This one is obvious and needs no explanation.

Too much screen time/Overrated: You would have to be tripping on stairs to think he had too much screen time or was overrated. Pluto has like what, less than ten fans including me and a lot of them have disappeared from the Beyblade fandom since then :(

Adoption Papers: If I could steal him and make him my OC I would.

I am constantly going insane: I mean anyone following me can see it for themselves lol

They work better as part of a dynamic: Pluto doesn't exactly have much of a "dynamic" because of how little he appears and the fact he's always in the temple. One of the headcanon/story things I like to personally add myself is the rivalry between Pluto and Dynamis. It sort of makes sense considering they are opposites in sorts of ways. I wish Beyblade did more with them.

The popular ships for them suck: I've seen only three ship pairings for Pluto and it's Johannes, Rago, and Dynamis. As you can tell, I prefer Johannes but I can see Dynamis being one as well(there were some really cute Pluto Dynamis fics on pixiv that were really wholesome). I'm not personally a fan of the Rago ship but I'm not going to freak out if someone likes it (I don't know how to feel about Pluto being with someone who can step on him like a bug :/ )

Constantly listening to songs holding them like a paint swatch: I do this with every character I'm obsessed with(mostly with my OCs only but Pluto is fancy enough to get this treatment).

I want to study them like a cockroach: He's so mysterious and unusual. Like, so many questions can be asked about him. How old is he even? Is he like every other character and has dead parents? Did he even really do that much behind the scenes of Dark Nebula and Hades Inc. or did he sit in his temple all day? I want to know.

What's wrong with them (affectionate): He's so stupid and I love him for it.

What's wrong with him (derogatory): I was about to check this one off but most of the time when I make fun of him, it's only cause I think he's the goofiest lil' guy. I couldn't actually hate him.

I would never want to meet them: I'm such a boring person irl I don't see why we would have a reason to oppose one another.

They've never done anything wrong in their life <3: He's probably done many things wrong(He's the leader of a doomsday cult) but I'm always one for villain characters so it's okay :3

My opinions would be received by most fans as akin to hitting a wasp's nest with a baseball bat: I've had a good experience in the Beyblade fandom so far and haven't encountered that many weirdos(yet) but unfortunately I have had some experiences where people were kind of rude to me about liking Pluto so unfortunately I do have to check this box. (I will clarify that the person did apologize but still. It has made me rethink how much art I really want to upload of him at times)

This is the best character in the work: I mean I love Pluto and he's my favourite character ever but is he the best character in the work? Yes and no. No because as you know he barely does anything. There are many other characters that are objectively better(imo I love Dashan, Ryutaro, and everyone in Team Dungeon)

I like them but I don't really think about them much: Yea sometimes I wish I could not think about them much but that clearly isn't the case.

I don't really have much to say about them: I have too much to say about them. I'm using every fiber in my body to not put him in literally everything.

I actively dislike them: No.

Biting and killing and maiming them and death and violence: He has already died twice. He doesn't need to die more times. I was about to jokingly check this box but it made me a bit sad so I didn't.

[avengers-age-of-fanfics]

just for you, honeybee (4/?)

pairings: steve rogers x fem!reader (platonic), bucky barnes x fem!reader

warnings: characters death, swearing, flirting with colonel phillips, guns, plane crash

word count: 4,327

a/n: holy crap this one is long! i really enjoyed writing this chapter just because i got to watch CA:TFA all over again and i cried like a little baby. hope you guys enjoy this! btw, next chapter is going to be very short - probably the shortest one yet, just a heads up!

“Johann Schmidt belongs in a bughouse,” Colonel Phillips started, “he thinks he’s a god and he’s willing to blow up half the world to prove it, starting with the U.S.A.”

You tensed up next to Steve as Howard moved behind you, taking a seat to your right, “Schmidt’s working with powers beyond our capabilities. He gets across the Atlantic, he will wipe out the entire Eastern Seaboard in an hour.”

Peggy’s eyes met yours before they drifted to Steve who tossed a pile of papers on the table in front of him. One of the Howling Commandos spoke up, “how much time we got?”

Colonel Phillips sorted through some files, “according to my new best friend, under 24 hours.”

You spoke up, “where is he now?”

The Colonel presented the group with a photo, “Hydra’s last base is here. In the Alps, 500 feet below the surface.”

Another Howling Commando spoke up, “so what are we supposed to do? I mean, it’s not like we can just knock on the front door.”

“Why not?” And just like that, Steve captured everyone’s attention in the room, including yours. You knew this was going to be a suicide mission, especially if he continued with this idea, “that’s exactly what we’re gonna do.”

Everyone looked at Steve with wide eyes, except for you and Peggy. Schmidt was in for a rude awakening.

-

Grabbing a motorcycle alongside Steve, the two of you headed into the snowy forest towards the base. Glancing over at Steve, you noticed he kept the design on the shield, joy sparking in your chest, “you kept it!”

Steve barely heard you over the sound of the motorcycles but he smiled, “not too shabby for your first Captain America design.”

You chuckled, about to respond until you glanced back, seeing six motorcycles behind you, “we got company, Cap!”

Quickly swerving back and forth to avoid whatever-the-hell they were shooting at you, Cap glanced back once more before he pushed a button on the pad attached to his motorcycle, two hooks with strings attached latching onto two trees. Right away, two guys on motorcycles failed to avoid the trap, sending them flying forward.

Cap yelled over to you, “get next to me!”

Speeding up a bit on your bike, you ended up next to Steve as he pressed another button, fire immediately covering two of the cyclists. You gave Steve a look, “that was so badass!”

On your left, you saw two Hydra motorcycles race ahead of you before you looked to Steve, “I got an idea! Move quickly!” Racing ahead, you quickly picked a pin from their motorcycles, making sure Steve was nowhere near them. Looking back, you sent a smirk his way as he sped up next to you, hearing and feeling the explosion of the motorcycles.

Riding towards the base, a tank was placed right before the entrance. Steve yelled, “stay right behind me,” just as the tank started shooting at you. Racing behind Cap, you both saw the tank explode as Steve shot at it from his motorcycle, riding up the cement barrier of the base.

Jumping over the barriers with your bikes, both you and Steve were met with Hydra soldiers with guns pointed right at you. Continuing your ride, you saw Steve jump off his, watching it explode the first wall of the base. Riding through the base, you quickly took down any soldier in your way, shooting them with your new best friend – StG 44.

Running a few fellas over with your bike, you looked over at Steve who was taking multiple soldiers down with the shield. Turning your attention back towards the fight, you continued to take down more men – but you noticed their numbers were growing bigger by the second.

In a spare glance, you turned to Steve who was now surrounded by two men holding flamethrowers, making it unable for him to move. You came to a stop, noticing a line of men pointing their guns at you. With a sigh, you hopped off your bike – but not before shooting one more guy by your feet.

You saw Cap look around for you worriedly until he met your eyes; you nodded at him, telling him to not put up a fight, at least not yet. He nodded back, allowing the Hydra soldiers to take both your weapons and leading you down the halls of the base and into a room that had it not hold one of the world’s most dangerous men, you’d say it had a beautiful view.

You and Steve stopped side-by-side with the Hydra soldiers as Johann Schmidt started talking, “arrogance may not be a uniquely American trait, but I must say, you do it better than anybody.”

This was not what you expected Johann Schmidt to look like.

He glanced at you, ��seems you have no limits, Captain, bringing a woman into this.”

You glared at the red-faced monster, “I came here on my own accord, just to clarify, Schmidt.”

Johann hummed as he turned away from you, “however, even you have limits as to what you can do, Captain. Or did Erskine tell you otherwise?”

Steve spoke up beside you, “he told me you were insane.”

Schmidt seemed unsurprised, looking down to the floor and back to Steve, “ah…he resented my genius and tried to deny what was rightfully mine. But he gave you everything. So, what made you so special?”

Steve chuckled, “nothin’. I’m just a kid from Brooklyn.”

Schmidt turned to you, “how about you, little one? What makes you so special?”

You swallowed thickly, “good looks?”

You nor Steve really aren’t sure what exactly set Johann off, but a switch had flipped, and his face grew into a frown before he slapped you across the face twice, doing the same to Cap while also kneeing him in the stomach. Both you and Steve were put on your knees as all three of you breathed heavily.

With a slight grin, Steve looked up at Johann, “I can do this all day.”

Johann was not amused, “oh, of course you can, of course.” He paused before he continued, pulling a gun out from the side of his uniform, “but unfortunately, I am on a tight schedule.” He pointed the gun to Steve’s head just as the Howling Commandos began to zip line towards the base.

You growled towards Schmidt, “so are we.”

Once Schmidt realized what was happening, you and Steve quickly grabbed the guards behind you, pulling them in front as Johann fired his gun at them, their bodies disappearing in thin air. You gave Steve a look as the Howling Commandos flew in through the windows, firing at the enemy as Schmidt took off.

Quickly getting up off your feet, you scurried towards the hall where Schmidt took off, a Howling Commando yelling behind you, “Rogers! You might need this!”

Hearing the shield pass through the air, you knew Steve caught it as he yelled back, “thanks,” then hearing his footsteps take after yours.

Hydra troops marched down the halls of the base, guns ready to fire at any moment. With your heightened sense of hearing, you knew the rest of the platoon was taking over the Hydra base, gunfire slowly taking over your senses. Explosions filled the base as smoke and fire entered your senses; Steve ran beside you, sensing the same things.

You saw Schmidt turn down a corridor, yelling over to Steve, “this way!” Quickly, Schmidt retaliated, sending bolts of his gun your way, making you narrowly avoid being disintegrated. Steve ran beside you, shield blocking the gunfire as you chased after the madman.

With a lucky throw, Steve threw the shield, catching it between metal doors where Schmidt narrowly escaped. Cap let out a sigh, rushing towards the shield as you quirked an eyebrow, “lucky throw?”

Before he could answer, a Hydra Agent came around the corner with two flamethrowers, making Steve push you against the wall as he ran opposite of you; you both were trapped as fire encapsulated your vision. Glancing towards the fire welder, you tried coming up with a plan before, lo and behold, Peggy Carter shot at the man, his flaming body falling to the ground.

Both you and Steve looked around the corner, spotting Peggy as soldiers ran by; Steve smirked at Peg, “you’re late.”

Your eyes shifted towards the ceiling as you tried to avoid the awkward moment; Peggy spoke up, “weren’t you about to –“ Steve nodded, “right, yeah – y/n.” With that, you and Steve took off towards the door where the shield held its place. Grabbing your hand, Steve pulled the shield and quickly took off.

You spotted men from the 107th shooting at the giant airship, Hydra agents lying about the floor. Turning to Steve, who was a few steps behind you, you nodded your head, “we got a problem.” The ship’s engines had already started, and it seemed Schmidt was, understandably, in a rush to complete his plan. The ship turned, wheels screeching against the floor as you and Cap slowed down, watching it slowly make its way to the exit.

Steve glanced around, watching as Hydra forces and your own fought one another. With a nod towards you, both you and Steve took off, running headfirst into battle, making sure to avoid trouble along the way; that, and, well, Steve also wanted to get some hits in.

You noticed where Cap was headed as you two ran in battle, “how do you plan on fitting us both on that?”

Steve glanced back at you, “think you can hold on, kid?”

You grumbled, “yeah! But I’m literally older than you by like, 4 months…”

Quickly, Steve jumped over huddled bodies until he reached a box of supplies lying right beneath a chain; with a jump, Steve latched onto the chain as you skipped a step, latching onto his waist mid-flight. Reaching a safe zone, you jumped first, meeting Steve in a mid-run as you headed towards the ship Johann Schmidt was currently about to fly.

You and Steve ran beside one another, pushing to reach Schmidt even as fire from the engines burnt your face. You yelled over to Steve, “c’mon, Steve! We’re – we’re almost there!” Your last sentence turned into a scream, your body yelling at you for pushing itself to the limits.

The fans from the ship sped up as you and Steve struggled to catch up with Schmidt, your hopes slowly fading as he seemed to get further and further away. Steve pulled you to a slow jog, about to crash until Peggy Carter and Colonel Phillips pulled up beside you in one of Schmidt’s cars.

Colonel Phillips yelled at you both, “get in!” Before you even settled down beside the Colonel and Steve beside Peggy, you took off, hair flying behind you. You turned to the Colonel with a smirk on your face, “nice ride, Phillips!”

The Colonel glanced a look at you as he sped up, “figured I might keep this once we’re done here!” You let out a laugh that soon died off as you recognized the light from the sun and a runway – right where Schmidt currently was.

You looked to the Colonel, a worried look on your face, as he pressed a button beside the steering wheel; right away, the car you were seated in blasted off, hair wildly being thrown behind you as the Colonel grasped onto the wheel. You held onto the door handle, eyes wide as you were reaching the ship, “remind me to never drive with you again, Colonel!”

With shaky legs, you began standing up as Steve did the same mid-ride, reaching the back end of the ship. You and Steve yelled to the Colonel, “keep it steady!”

Peggy shouted over the sounds of the ship and car engines, “wait!” Steve looked back to Peggy as she pulled him into a kiss.

You looked to the Colonel with a shrug; he shook his head at you, “I ain’t kissin’ you!” You gave a laugh as you blew him a kiss, leaning on the hood of the car to avoid getting chopped up by the propellers on the ship. Steve followed right behind you, shield meeting the propellers only once, sparks flying.

You glanced at Steve quickly before you jumped towards the ship’s wheel, grabbing onto the metal support beam as Steve flew right below you, catching onto the lasting part of the wheel. Looking down, you tried steadying your breath as you realized how high up you were; grasping Steve’s hand, you pulled him up alongside you as the wheel you two stood on was slowly pulled into the ship.

With a shaky hand, you reached into your shirt and grabbed Bucky’s dog tags, holding them tight against your scolding skin, even though it was blistering cold in the Alps.

Once inside the lower level of the ship, you and Steve quietly made your way along the metal floors, looking below you as you saw a horrifying sight; bombs with names of major cities written on them, including Chicago and New York.

With a slight gasp, you turned to Steve who looked just as distraught as you were. As his eyes met the New York bomb, footsteps echoed above you, Hydra agents making their ways across the metal landings. With stealth, Steve jumped up, grabbing onto the railing, and kicking an agent over the ledge. Jumping just as high, you landed on the landing and met with the remaining three agents.

With a slight run, you met one agent halfway as he immediately threw a punch your way. You narrowly avoided it, ducking to the side and elbowing him in the face, hearing a nice crunch beneath your elbow. Steve made his way around you, kicking another agent in the chest as he flew backwards. Kicking your opponent over the ledge, you grabbed a knife holstered onto your thigh and threw it at the third and final agent running away, hiding him in the back of the neck; with a grunt, he fell against the side of the landing.

Somehow, Steve’s agent escaped during a quick moment of distraction, climbing on top of the Chicago bomb. Cap ran towards the control panel, pressing the red escape button before the poor guy could even make it inside the capsule, hearing him scream as he fell thousands of feet.

You took a quick breath, “I don’t feel guilty about that…is that bad?”

Steve shrugged, “I – I don’t think so…no, yeah, no, definitely not.”

Less than a second later, two Hydra agents ambushed you and Steve, punching you in the side as you let out a grunt. Avoiding another punch, you grabbed a knife from your thigh and stabbed your opponent in the chest, flipping him over just for good measure. Steve had already disposed of his guy as you kicked yours down towards the opening where Steve’s own guy had just gone down.

You wiped off the blood from your knife on your suit as Steve grimaced, “what, waste a perfectly good knife? Sorry I don’t have a shield, Stevie.”

Steve just shivered, “that’s just…gross, y/n.”

You rolled your eyes, “so overdramatic. C’mon, let’s go.”

Before you could continue on within the ship, however, Steve and you heard someone get into one of the bombs, closing the lid. Steve immediately jumped onto the window, another agent jumping on top of him. Without thinking, you threw your knife at the agent, hitting him in the shoulder as the bomb, along with Steve on it, dropped into the sky.

You screamed, “Steve! No – no!”

Grabbing at your hair, you held back tears as you watched Steve fly around, narrowly avoiding the tiny ship’s propellers. With careful steps, you saw the scene unfold as the agent you had stabbed was shoved into the propellers, blood flowing from the sky; you gagged, “jesus, Steve – that was disgusting.”

Stepping away from the platform, you trusted Steve and continued your way through the ship, trying to find Schmidt. Grabbing Cap’s shield from where it had been discarded before the bomb was dropped, you made your way to the cockpit where you realized it was quiet – too quiet.

At some point, you felt the ship shake and loud bangs filled the air as you hoped it was Steve – back in one piece. Slowly walking down the stairs, the shield protecting you, you quietly walked upon the metal grates of the ship until reaching the pilot’s seat; leaning to the side, you realized Schmidt was no longer there.

“What the –“ Before you could finish, you heard the sounds of a gun preparing to fire, and in a split second, you used the shield to protect yourself from Schmidt’s laser, the shot hitting the window of the ship.

Harsh winds forced itself into the ship, your hair blowing wildly as Schmidt stood before you, “you don’t give up, do you? Where’s Mr. Rogers, little one?”

Just then, Steve decided to make his grand entrance as you glared at Schmidt, “kids from Brooklyn aren’t exactly known for givin’ up, Johann.” With a flick of your arm, you threw the shield to Steve as Schmidt fired, forcing you to jump to the side. Steve caught the shield, blocking another hit from Schmidt’s laser as it hit the window again.

Cap ran towards Schmidt, blocking more hits as he fought with the red-skulled man, avoiding yet also receiving some hits. Once Cap was kicked to the ground, you jumped behind Schmidt, kicking his hind legs and kneeing his lower spine, hearing him grunt in pain in response. Steve stood up, pushing Schmidt against a wall before being slammed to the ground.

You ran towards Johann, arm going around his neck, choking him as he tried grabbing at anything for leverage. With a quick glance to the table lying in the middle of the room, glowing blue, you threw yourself on top of it, pulling Schmidt with you and onto the floor. Steve had then pulled Schmidt up, hitting him with his shield until Schmidt fought back, hitting Cap with his own weapon before Steve headbutted him.

Steve leaned back before he grabbed onto Schmidt’s uniform, throwing him towards the pilot seat, sparks immediately flying through the air. With a yell, you realized the ship was tipped downwards, heading straight towards, what looked like, an icy landscape. Flying to the ceiling alongside Schmidt and Steve, you flew towards Johann, punching him in the stomach as he did you, trying to gain some type of balance.

As the three of you fought in the air, you gave your best kicks and punches, watching Steve be thrown to the side of the ship. In the short time, Schmidt flew over and pulled up the steering stick of the ship, pressing a few buttons as you all three fell to the floor, the ship back to normal altitude.

Landing on the metal grates harshly, you groaned as Steve stood up, pulling you alongside him as he held his shield in front of you both. Schmidt turned towards you, gun in hand as he stumbled down the stairs, “you could have the power of the gods! Both of you!”

Schmidt shot towards you and Steve as you ducked, feeling the heat of the gunfire pass over your head, “yet you wear a flag on your chest, and think you fight a battle of nations!” He kept firing at you, Steve pulling you along as Schmidt continued, “I have seen the future, Captain, little one! There are no flags!”

Another shot fired over your head as Steve analyzed his next steps, yelling back, “not my future!” Leaping forward, Steve rolled and protected himself from another shot from Schmidt as you kneeled by the side, ready to step in.

With a grunt, Steve threw the shield at Johann, forcing him to hit the glowing table, the item inside slowly coming out of its container. You narrowed your eyes, “what the hell is that?” Its bright light captured your attention as Schmidt stood beside it, “what have you done?”

The bright blue box was now outside its container, off to the side from the force of Johann’s body; Schmidt grabbed it, and after a few seconds, bright lights flew around the ship and the universe seemed to open up above him. Your brain could not comprehend what you were seeing – millions of stars and planets littered the space above as Schmidt stood below, arms beside him as he looked up.

Slowly, Schmidt’s body began to deteriorate, his screams of pain echoing throughout the ship, rainbow flashes coloring your vision as both you and Steve looked away. Then, in a split second, the blue cube fell to the ground and Schmidt was gone.

You looked at Cap, “what…what just happened?”

Steve shook his head, leaning down to grab his shield before nodding towards the pilot’s seat, “we gotta figure this out.”

Sitting beside him as co-pilot, you turned on the radio as Steve tried to figure out how exactly to land the aircraft. He looked down at the map, noticing the ship was on its way to New York. Looking at one another, you pressed on the intercom button beside you, “come in! This is y/n l/n, alongside Captain Rogers. Do you read me?”

Right away, someone responded, “Y/N, L/N, what is your –“

Quickly, Peggy interrupted him, “y/n! Is that you? Is Steve with you? Are you both alright?”

You sighed at the sound of Peggy’s voice as Steve smiled, “Peggy! Schmidt’s dead and – and –“

Peggy calmed you down, “what about the plane?”

You looked to Steve for help as he talked for you, “that’s a little bit tougher to explain.” You raised an eyebrow at Steve as you grasped onto Bucky’s dog tags around your neck, trying to help the conversation. Peggy continued, “give me your coordinates, I’ll find you a safe landing site.”

With solemn eyes, you looked at Steve who was trying his best to possibly fix something, anything, “there’s not gonna be a safe landing…but I can try and force it down.”

Peggy stumbled, “I – I’ll get Howard on the line. He’ll know what to do.”

Steve shouted back, “there’s not enough time. This thing’s moving too fast and it’s heading for New York.”

The sky ahead of you looked beautiful. It was orange, mixed with bits of yellow and blue. Your nose had grown quite cold and your hair whipped your face as you still grasped onto the dog tags.

Steve breathed heavily, “I gotta put her in the water.”

You knew this was coming. You just knew it.

Peggy responded, “please, don’t do this. We have time. We can work it out.”

You called out to Peggy, “Peg…we’re in the middle of nowhere. If we wait any longer, a lot of people are going to die.” Steve glanced at you with worry in his eyes; you nodded to him as he continued, “Peggy… this is our choice. We’re okay.”

Steve reached into his pocket, pulling out a compass with a picture of Peg in the middle of it, placing it on one of the meters. With a grunt, Steve pushed the level down, the airship leaning towards the ocean in no time. You looked at Steve, your heart racing as tears raced your cheeks; not in fear, but in sadness.

Sadness that you never got to have your dance with Bucky at your wedding, nor see his smile once again or feel his lips against your own. You wouldn’t get to hear his gravelly voice in the morning right after a good night’s sleep, or get to hold his hand as he pulled you along at fairs. You wouldn’t be able to smell him or feel his hair against your fingertips as he cuddled into your chest. You wouldn’t be able to be with him before you died.

The altitude was dropping fast and Steve continued to look at the picture of Peggy, the sun glaring in his eyes, “Peggy?”

With a whisper, Peggy responded, “I’m here.”

Steve stared at the glaciers that were coming into view, “I’m gonna need a rain check on that dance.”

Your lips quivered as the glaciers came closer and closer to you. Peggy let her tears fall as she whispered back, “all right. A week, next Saturday, at the Stork Club. And I expect you there, too, y/n. You hear me?”

You and Steve let out a breath as Steve responded, “you got it.” Steve reached beside himself and grabbed for your hand, holding it tightly. The tears came faster as did the glaciers and the cold water.

Peggy continued, “8 o’clock on the dot. Don’t you dare be late. You two understand?”

You swallowed, tears clouding your vision, “yes ma’am.”

Steve stared at the oncoming landscape, “you know, I still don’t know how to dance.”

Peggy whispered as Steve’s hand gripped yours tight, “I’ll show you how. Just be there.”

Steve had his own tears running down his cheeks as you sobbed quietly, hand gripping his tight, “we’ll have the band play something slow.”

Steve turned back towards you, eyes sad as he saw your cheeks, “I am so sorry, honeybee. I’m so sorry.”

With your remaining hand, you held onto Bucky’s dog tags tightly, alongside Steve’s hand, as he turned back to the radio, “I’d hate to step on your…”

The last thing you saw was your James Barnes standing right in front of you, arms wide as he yelled, “my honeybee! There she is – looking gorgeous as ever, honey.” With a kiss to your lips, it almost felt real as you responded, “hi, Jamie.”

honeybee taglist:

@clownerlyluv @ginger-swag-rapunzel

[athys-obelia]

summary: no one's evil au lmfaooo but make it pt. 2

character/s: anastacius de alger obelia, claude de alger obelia, athanasia de alger obelia, jennette de alger obelia

and here's part 1 <3

oh my god okay. okay. so.

ana, claude, athy and jennette - they go on a LOT of vacations

claude complains every single time but anastacius pulls his trump card and sends athy and jettie BOTH after him

u think he's strong enough to say no after that? lmao jokes

and their vacations always go this way:

jennette: isn't this scenery just gorgeous, uncle

claude: indeed it is. and...quiet

jennette: ...too quiet

[cut to anastacius in the distance, fighting a bear as athy cheers him on]

athy + anastacius, hands down the most chaotic pairing yes i will not be taking criticism

they have tea in ana's palace everyday, just the two of them, they're so poised and picture perfect through the entire thing everyone thinks it's just the emperor giving profound advice to his heir

it's actually them deadass scheming,,, ana has no qualms discussing everything from court gossip to military tactics, both of which she's so on top of all the time

if anyone shit talks jennette or claude, this tea party is where their slow and agonizing demise is planned out to the dot

[true story - count sivan once made the fatal mistake of expressing his favour for athy as the next empress, dissing jennette by comparing her to athy sm which inevitably sparked a debate that ranked the princesses. a week after athy's sources informed her of the kindling behind this new debate, the count's sudden divorce became the talk of the town, and the man's business faced bankruptcy all of a sudden. the sivans still haven't recovered.)

athy n jennette were actually allowed to visit kiel in arlanta a few times, except it was too dark at their first arrival, postponing the meeting to the next morning

buttt then jettie can't sleep and she decides on a midnight snack run (their hotel doesn't really have the maids the palace does, but oh well. she's left the palace w lucas n athy plenty of times)

felix tags along btw, he knows this trip is important to the girls since they're leaving the palace without their Overprotective Papas™ for the first time and want some sense of independence, but... she's just so smol n he couldn't bear it if anything happens so he just shadows her

she totally knows he's there

n e ways so there's a juice place right beside their hotel which she aims for, but when jennette reaches it, it's closed

and out of nowhere, a voice addresses her - "hey you, do you come here a lot?" she nearly jumps out of her skin at the brunette, relaxing when she sees he's literally a kid around her age and not a murderer lmfaoo "me neither," he continues without waiting for her, pouting at the closed sign, before he asks for her name and whether she's new in arlanta

she confirms that yes, she's only visiting, and refuses to tell the stranger her name, still feeling strange at being addressed as 'you' for the first time (well, minus lucas, but he was like her brother and had the emotional capacity of a teaspoon, so)

he eyes her. "you're so weird. i've never seen a girl out so late before, and alone too. are you stupid?"

(felix has his sword out at this point)

she's flushing now and has no idea why she's still out here, but then this stranger kid apparently senses her mood and tells her the best ice cream store in arlanta is not too far away

(he also explains he knows someone who's starts doing weird things when she's hungry as well, and tries to defend that ice cream is actually a healthy midnight snack, "you can just take a healthy flavour like strawberry or mango, mangos are healthy,,right"💀️💀)

so jettie has travelled all the way from obelia, she loves her papa but he would have a heart attack if he found out she was ever awake this late?? yeah bc she's never getting this chance again, jennette accepts the offer

the stranger boy seems to be taking the whole "i'm not telling you my name," thing like a joke, and asks what he should call her since 'you' was getting boring

she goes with "lady j" and like a knight, the boy becomes "sir c"

(felix is on the verge of committing a crime - the princesses can only have one knight, after all)

they walk as the the boy navigates the streets in the dark, and she asks whether he's from the academy, seeing his uniform

"of course i am! you could probably tell bc i look so smart, right?"

she snorts. "yeah, that."

she also comes to know that this guy,,,well he might as well be a tourist? she's out here asking stuff like "oh where's the statue of lady alphia?" or "aren't we really close to the museum where they keep the first emperor's sword?" and he goes "lady do i look like your brochure?? but if you turn right from here there's a cool arcade and across the street from there is the best street food vendor you'll ever eat from."

well at least mans had his priorities straight 😌

"so can you take this off?" he asks, pointing towards her dress once they've neared the store

um???????? sir tf????????????

anyways jettie has been living with lucas n her dad farr too long to not take this the wrong way?? "...no?"

the boy raises an eyebrow "look, it looks like an expensive cloak but i promise i'll return it, alright? i gotta hide my uniform."

ohhhhhhh. 😳.

so she unfastens the cloak and because he's kinda just staring at it cluelessly (he can't even tie his shoelaces fight me), jennette sighs and moves the clothing over his shoulder, fastening it in place at his neck

he's literally a tomato when she looks back up and realises that yes, we are way too close rn

bc she's ana's daughter, jennette by default cannot function when she's flustered. so she kinda stumbles backwards like a fish out of water (years of princess training n etiquette? where art thou??) and 'sir c' has to grab her forearm so she doesn't bump into the pillar behind her smfh

the shopkeep is definitely suspicious of this pair that's definitely too young to be out so late, but chalks it down to his sleeplessness

they escape the store with the ice cream before the shopkeep can ask any questions, and 'sir c' escorts jennette back to her hotel. he climbs onto the roof of the building, helping her up as well

(felix wishes he had a magic stone to capture this moment, this is the first time he's seen jennette become such fast friends with someone)

she stands on the roof (it hurts her butt so she doesn't wanna sit)

"my sister would be so jealous right now," jennette murmurs, "she told me her ideal first date would be either a picnic or something like a moonlit walk. we're having like a moonlit picnic."

it's silent for a few seconds the boy speaks up, "is this a date?"

oh-

oh.

"i mean- i didn't- i don't- uh."

give her some time lmfao she's loading

"i don't really mind that," he tells her, and she thinks she might just walk off the roof in her embarrassment - who just says something like that?? "you're probably feeling really lucky right now, right?"

jennette: ✊😔

he does look pretty in the moonlight, she admits to herself, listening as he excitedly tells her about his siblings at home and how she should send an offering to the gods since they gave her the good fortune to be on a date with the most good looking one of all four of them

in turn, she tells him about how she spent her childhood away from her amazing dad and had gotten closer to him recently, about her sharp-witted uncle, her sister and friends

(the 'friends' section includes felix and he's melting)

she smiles - it's almost as if, at finding out he treasures his family just as much as she does, they've gotten a bit closer

and he tries to listen. jennette had guessed that his temperament was somewhat like her dad's - her dad didn't know how to listen, always making his opinion known before anything else, though she supposes as emperor he could do that

'sir c', on the other hand, tried his best, his blue eyes focused on her as he almost burst from the unsaid words he was holding back, trying to let her finish. the sight was an odd mix of sad and insanely adorable that she couldn't help but let him tell her about everything he couldn't hold in

sensing she could pass out from her exhaustion nearly half an hour later, and 'sir c' escorts her to her window and helps her sneak in bc "what sort of knight would i be otherwise?!"

(felix can't stop shaking the entire night)

the next morning, jennette's heart is pounding as kiel shows her, athy and felix across campus - the chance is low, but still...

"ezekiel!" comes a voice, and the four watch as a turquoise haired boy waves down the alpheus heir "are these the guests you mentioned?"

kiel introduces the trio to johannes vastia before asking, "where's cabel?"

"at the training grounds, he asked if you could bring everyone there so he could show them around there."

"... they're my guests though?"

athy is quick to befriend johannes (i mean she and his sister are practically the same person, so) and at the grounds, jennette's blood runs cold

(so does felix's)

the brunette doesn't notice her at first, arguing with johannes about something as kiel introduces him as cabel ernst

jennette is hyperventilating?? actually back up is this girl even breathing??

cabel ernst from kiel's letters? the 'loud and obnoxious cabel ernst', who gradually turned into 'my acquaintance cabel ernst', then 'hardworking, passionate cabel ernst', and finally 'my friend cabel'?

she'd actually rather admired this slow build of respect between her friend and the ernst boy, and had even expressed her interest to meet him

"this is the first daughter of his highness prince claude de alger obelia, princess athanasia-" cabel mock salutes the princess before his mouth forms an 'o' and he remembers to bow, "-and here's the emperor's only daughter, her highness princess je-"

andddd his eyes widen comically "-hey, lady, it's you?"

yeah jettie is on the brink of literal death - her entire face reddens as this...cabel, grins at her

she watches as he glances behind her, "and you're the guy who was following us - sup?"

felix flinches "...you knew...?"

cabel shrugs. "i mean you do kinda suck ass at the whole subtle thing."

"don't say it like that," jennette retorts, "felix was trying his best."

"princess 😭😭 you knew as well?"

"uhhhh no?"

athy + kiel in a corner: 👁️👄👁️

they watch as cabel's eyes widen all of a sudden and he just,,,runs away

...🐦...🐦...🐦...

yeah well anyway he comes rushing back a few minutes later, a piece of cloth in his hand "...*huff* here *huff*...you go."

athy totally flips out "jennette is that your CLOAK???!??"

"uhhhhh no?"

"um do you realise uncle would literally wage war at this."

and as if it would make everything better,

"i washed it," cabel offers with a grin

"you didn't," the vastia heir deadpans

"i mean, johan helped a little bit."

kiel smiles murderously at the pair. "johan, did you know cabel took the princess out?"

"wait, you're a PRINCESS??"

your honour they aren't very smart

so the group orders some coffee (milk for cabel smfh) to find out what happened, cabel mentions "date" and everything goes to shit again lmfao

kiel and felix scheme against poor cabel while athy n johan get over that stage pretty quick ("listen. MY sister will be living with ME after the marriage and if your friend wants to be with her he'll have to come with us to obelia." and johan's just like "fine by me ✌️😊") and start planning the wedding

cabel + jennette dip n sneak out of the academy again to get the juice they couldn't the night before bc shit is getting awkward here

on another note, our uncle cius' musical intelligence is actually very high - he can probably play more instruments than i can name tbh, but he feels most comfortable singing and i shit you not, this man has straight up an angel's voice

(didn't like singing in front of others coz he was secretly a nerd and only knew old love songs with deep lyrics, athy found out and educated him)

jennette tends to have nightmares often, most often regarding their family - she's seen her father murder her uncle for the throne, and vice versa, athy admitting her affections towards jennette were a front to get the position of crown princess, her uncle killing her to solidify athy's claim, etc - her family is her everything, so despite however many times these horrible scenes play before her, she's left sobbing uncontrollably

and on these nights, she leaves for her father's room, who holds her close and sings her to sleep

also lucas n jennette are like sibling duo# 1,,, jettie is an active lucathy shipper even though he denies it sm - like their dynamic is just peaceful walks in the gardens as she watches the plants n lucas shi talks the nobility and kiel

claude and athy have a thing for each other's sleeping on each other? idk it's weird

athy once fell asleep on the couch while reading with him, and claude moved her head onto his lap so she wouldn't be uncomfy sitting - well, she woke up to his hand absentmindedly raking through her hair and it was just so soothing that whenever she's tired and he's working or reading, she just plops her head on his lap and zzzz

and claude wondered what was up with that, so she proposed they switch roles and he felt so awkward trying to lay down in front of her lmao

obviously athy noticed and she just started reading, thinking he might be more comfortable if her attention isn't on him completely - she ended up reading out loud while playing with his collar and he just,,,passed out

also anastacius has definitely pulled jennette aside regarding the issue of his heir at some point - she had been hesitant at first before admitting she wouldn't like to be the empress at all

i know we'd all love to see empress!jettie and her sister duchess!athy ruling the court, but i really really really can't see her wanting the title?

so thus start athy's empress lessons, but holy shit her teacher is mean

like this man makes me want to bash his face in?? so he doesn't like the idea of athy becoming empress over jennette at all, all bc of both hers and claude's mothers being commoners

he has one of those long ass sticks that you use in presentation to point at stuff?? idk but basically mans has athy name every region, its lords and their vassals during their first lesson

the first time she gets one wrong, she's too shocked as the stick meets the delicate skin of her forearm to react

now the thing is, wmmap!athy would probably stand up against this bc her dad is the emperor and she's his only heir, but i imagine with anastacius' social nature he holds many parties / balls where she's probably heard claude's mom + diana slander and it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to be self conscious abt it (now she's the emperor's heir while jennette, 100% royal + noble blood, is right there which probably makes her feel even less legitimate)

so she endures it, the light marks on her arms as well as the taunts of his she's too smart to not understand - perhaps this is the price to be accepted in jennette's place?

and honestly, no one really notices until at breakfast a few weeks in, where jennette mentions how her dresses are still so modest when sleeveless dresses were more in fashion - ana is suspicious because athy is always on top of these things, societal trends and such, and claude is sus from the way she hesitates slightly in her answer, "i haven't had the time lately, i suppose"

the lesson after focuses on ettiquete since everyone knows she's good at politics and such already, but now tears of frustration are pooling in her eyes because what the hell?? this guy had made an opinion of her long before he even met her, so anything she did would be wrong in his eyes

he gives her a sinister smile, "tired, princess?"

"no," she insists, keeping her voice level. he's about to spout some other nonsense, when anastacius enters the room, taking a seat across from her

anastacius watches quietly as athy answers the teacher's questions in her "public" voice. he watches as her usually cheery disposition is replaced by something far more...dead, despite the front she puts on for him. he's soundless as she hesitates in her answers where she normally would've been louder, more confident. he stops watching in silence when his niece flinches at the sight of the stick

oh.

he interrupts her lesson, not missing the way she winces almost imperceptibly when he grabs ahold of her arm, announcing, "we're going."

he just- it's just that that was the moment he knew for sure - the sight of his niece emotionally disheveled for the first time reminds him too much of how his own brother had once been, and he'd... he'd promised he wouldn't let anyone hurt his family anymore

he ends up taking her to the port with some of his advisors to welcome some royal guests, insisting that she would learn better from experience rather than books - but the guest delegation gets so boring that he sneaks her out of the meeting n they end up in the streets

now athy has no idea where they are, but apparently her uncle does?? ana has his hand on her head as he navigates the streets of the capitol as if he comes here everyday, using magic to casually disguise the two of them

in the meantime?

felix is at the port trying to cover for them smfh, he makes up this huge story about how the great wise emperor wanted to familiarize his heir with the locals, understand her subjects, yada yada

back at the palace prince claude is currently dragging a man by his collar and only upon jennette's insistence does he throw him in prison rather than literally kill him

(jettie visits him later in prison to give the guy a piece of her mind, after felix's visit he's sporting a few noticable bruises and the prisoner is practically unrecognizable once lucas visits)

back to athy + ana, they end up stuffing themselves with some super good street food as anastacius confesses that yes, he has definitely been sneaking out of the palace ever since he was a lil kid

athy almost mentions that she, lucas n jettie sneak out too but that might give him a heart attack, so

"it's so pretty, uncle cius," she says, gesturing towards the necklace he holds up. once he's paid for it, anastacius fists the necklace, opening it to reveal the jewel pendant - now imbued with his magic and replaced with gold lettering of the word athanasia

and she realises that yes, that's what both him and her dad have called her all her life, haven't they?

"you're my heir, athanasia," he uncle tells her with a small smile, "i am proud of that."

getting teary, she tells him, "i'm really proud of you too, uncle cius," triggering a very flustered + blushy anastacius

this mans craves validation - not from the sycophantic nobility, or the obsequious concubines he'd dismissed all those years ago, but from the family he thought he'd neither have nor deserve

and just the acknowledgement is so large for athy - he wants her as his heir, not because she's his niece, but bc he trusts her to look after his hard work after him??? - yeah she's totally bawling her eyes out

anastacius magics her a handkerchief but my mans magic isn't that strong?? lmao he's used up so much by now that the 'handkerchief' turns out to be some scratchy tissues

awkward amirite

nope! athy laughs at that, offering him a sip of her drink as she magics another straw and a proper handkerchief lmfaoo

n e ways so when they return, everyone's shocked to learn that the crown heir, princess athanasia will actually be joining the official circles as anastacius' temporary aid - he doesn't wanna entrust her to anyone but family, and decides that the best way to learn is by his side

(she's so confused bc lucas doesn't normally bat an eyelash when she wears the prettiest gowns, but he deadass can't look her in the eyes when she's in her aid uniform - it's more like a suit than it is a dress)

yes lucas women in suits >>>>>

everyone is STUNNED when at dinner, claude proposes they leave on vacation??

anastacius is just not having it?? like no, this is not my brother, and he throws a grape at claude to check if it's a clone or sum (¿¿how does that work??)

anyays so he ain't no felix, ana's aim is ass and it hits jettie instead

mans nearly gets on his knees to apologise

long story short everyone preps for vacation, but by some aCCiDeNt claude n athy end up at a different destination than jettie n ana, when she suggests returning to the palace to regroup, mans deadass sulks

"so you wouldn't like to spend this time with your father, despite barely visiting my office for weeks?"

o-oh

so at their return, the nobility starts pestering everyone that the princesses aren't independent enough, yada yada idc so to quell this annoyance, to the girls' joy, they get to move into emerald palace together, while claude and ana stay in the ruby and main palaces respectively

literally emerald palace becomes such a cool place to be in since it's the residence of the only decent people in this family, the brothers spend hours going through the requests of maids who want to be transferred

it's such a busy time because of athy joining the court and jettie starting her studies as well - naturally, since she isn't becoming empress, she'll be getting the duchy claude + athy were to be given in the beginning

speaking of futures, jettie's interest in plants and cooking has definitely branched out into herbs

claude notices her tending to a small garden during his visit to athy and even gives her a few tips (he had been studying medical since he was a kid, and picked it up again when athy was born and the empire stablised somewhat)

this soon becomes a routinely thing, and he actually starts reading up on some herbs and even orders a few for her prospering garden

after a month of her learning from books, claude proposes adding a medic as one of her teachers, and turns out his hunch was right?? she's excelling at medicine and they keep it between themselves for the time being

it doesn't last long though, bc they're on a hunting trip when ana injures his leg

and !! this girl istg, she gets to cleaning and wrapping the wound without blinking an eye, as if it's the most natural thing ever, and claude is just smirking while athy and anastacius and literally everyone else: 🌟💞✨jettie✨💞🌟

literal tears coming out of anastacius' eyes "how come my daughter is smarter than me😭💅"

claude: that's not a very high standard, brother

anastacius: ✨suddenly i'm an only child✨

behold, the people in charge of running an empire everyone 👏👏👏

even though jennette is claude's (unofficial) student and athy is her uncle's heir, they both ask their dads to the debutante

yes athy does dance with lucas, anastacius sent him an invitation even though he wasn't a noble (he's an active match maker 😌) and nobody dared question the emperor's special guest

at the end of the night, kiel gives jettie a letter from arlanta - it's an invitation to the academy during holidays, from a certain brunette

when she brings up the subject, felix lets out a squeak and literally everyone goes silent 😭😭

athy n kiel are just out here DARING him to spill them beans

but anastacius takes on look at his excited lil kid and decides that yups, she's going to get everything she wants

a/n: i literally don't know how many parts this should have lmaoo but y'all made it this far!! thanks for reading i hope you liked it<3