#BUT for now my two main projects at work are both department expo projects for our organization-wide presentation coming up

[occasionalklance]

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[supersoldiersruined-me]

Caelus

A/N: This is my entry (super late yet again) for @ruckystarnes Summer of AUs challenge! And for a lack of inspiration, the titlte is space in latin! loll I had an inital idea when I signed up but this honestly took me so long to grasp and then it just poured out! So here it is, thank you for being so patient love! 💖 Beta: babyboo @eyesfixedonthesun22 Warnings: language, smut, gay sex, mention of blood  Word count: 5714 Prompt: Space AU, Stucky

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“Steve, you jackass! Come back!” There’s no point in yelling twice. Bucky knows. But his best friend is storming towards the recruiting line-up with a mighty will. When they had denied him to join the army, Steve jumped on every last occasion to prove himself.

Not two weeks ago, Stark Industries announced a new advanced project that would allow a select group of candidates to participate in a space camp tryout. They’d be secluded into experimental ships, given some basic training and then experts would monitor their behavior, their reactions to simulated situations. If they made it out alive - and sane - a month later, they’d be taken to Stark’s secret facility and given proper training and instructions. Every boy in New York reached out like little kids given the gift of their lives.

So Bucky is standing there in the busy streets of Brooklyn, arms up in disbelief. The sick boy was going to go against the odds once more. He was a foot shorter than the men around him. Arms frail, and thrown into an asthma attack once he reached the building. Security threatened to keep him out - much to his safety - but Steven Grant Rogers does not back down because of some disability.

“I swear to God,” Bucky mumbles under his breath as he begins to make his way towards the atroupment of testosterone. 

“There’s no reason for me to be doing less than these men!” Comes as a shout out of Steve’s mouth. He’s red and Bucky isn’t sure if it’s the rage or yet another one of his problems surfacing.

“Come on, buddy. Let’s go home,” he tries to reason with him.

“No Buck! Don’t you get it?” Steve turns back to the guard. “I’ll fucking die anyway! Might as well it be doing something important…” His face winces at the thought; he’d never mentioned his illness as something so weighing, so dark.

“Steve…” He brings his hand to his best pal’s shoulder as he tries to comfort him. “Your value isn’t measured with what you can do for the world. You take care of me and that’s plenty.” Steve sighs and accepts defeat.

“Fine,” he looks into Bucky’s eyes, tears of anger filling his own, “I guess we can go.”

They turn towards the street and start walking home. As he looks over his shoulder at the line of people still hoping to get a shot, he sees a strange man scribbling down a notepad, looking at the two of them leave with a smile. Round glasses frame his face, he hasn’t shaved in a week. From his outfit and his demeanor Bucky knows he’s German. He shrugs it off and turns his attention back to his friend, throwing his arm around his neck.

It’s a week later when a knock at the door startles the boys out of their sleep. It must be around three in the morning, as far as Steve can tell. He turns on the lamp on his nightstand and looks over at Bucky in annoyance.

“Jerks,” he whispers as he recalls the nights of torment the kids from the neighbourhood had him endure - it was the reason Bucky had moved in with him.

“Let me take care of it,” the dark haired man replies. 

“Bucky, stop. I can take care of myself.”

“See, the thing is, you don’t have to.” He shakes his shoulder before walking over to the door. There’s a paper taped to it, bright and clear texts surround a pointy, metal ship image. There’s the Stark logo on it, and it makes him shiver in excitement.

“Steve…” He trails. “Get your ass over here.”

He hands him the poster and gives him a minute to read. It begins to tremble in his hands when he reaches the last sentence: “We are glad to announce that you have been selected to participate in an experimental camp supervised by the Stark Industries.”

There’s a place and time for them to be the next day, and they spend the rest of the night getting their luggage ready, along with making up stories and tripping out over the opportunity.

*

The rustic walls of brick have transformed into sterile steel. The floors are made of a plastic-like material - something easy to clean, Steve notices. It would be impossible to reach the ceiling and he’s wondering how they even managed to build this facility anyway. It’s highly distinct from the level of ingenuity of the current construction standards. The white building stands out absurdly in its secluded forest location.

Robots roam around, tacking and bolting steel plates to one another. Prototypes of deadly weapons are hung on the walls as they walk behind a seductive lady to what they presume is the reception. Their stuff, along with themselves, go through metal detectors - something they had only heard of until now - before making their way to a large office.

“Good evening, boy.” There’s a thick accent to the greeting, one that both can easily distinguish. “I hope we haven’t given you too much trouble.”

“Not at all, um...” Bucky begins, words failing him as he’s still processing the amount of discoveries they are about to do. He sighs heavily, his shoulders slumping.

“I’m Dr. Erskine. Responsible of the Biological Enhancement department here at Stark Industries. This here is Lady Carter, she’ll be assisting you on your journey.” The voluptuous woman nods their way and it has them both swallowing hard. She has a confidence they had never witnessed, and it has them nearly humiliating themselves.

“Nice to meet you,” Steve manages to say as he struggles to gain composure. He hopes she doesn’t notice him drying his palms on the back of his pants.

“Likewise,” she says. Her British accent runs a shiver up Bucky’s spine.

“Now, we wouldn’t want to keep you up too late. If you please follow Miss Carter to your assigned pod. We’ll go through the logistics in the morning.” The German man hands them a pair of overalls; nothing flattering, Bucky thinks.

*

It takes only three weeks for the boys to be fully independent, allowing them to be part of the first team to launch the program. Their uniforms along with their tools and weapons get a significant upgrade. They’re already anticipating the look of their new quarters.

“Can’t believe we’re doing this,” Steve mentions.

“Really? After twenty-something attempts I would highly believe that you’d be given a chance,” Bucky answers with a hint of sarcasm. They both laugh until a voice requests them to be at the main quarter in the next ten minutes.

The spaceship is a hundred feet tall or so, its body is quite narrow and it feels pretty sturdy. They gulp nonetheless, this would be for real and they couldn’t just drop out with a snap of their fingers. The team of eight wait by the cabin door, ably putting on their masks and equipment.

“This is it!” Bucky shouts.

“We’ve been working so hard for this. Maybe a few years after this we’ll be able to finally see what Earth looks like from up there.” Doug, who’d been the fittest one of them until he took Bucky under his wing and made him an even bigger beast, contemplates the unimaginable. 

“Remember when just last year they presented the concept of flying cars and it failed. Seems like they were either lying to us or they made phenomenal progress since then…” Bucky remembers his astonishment after the Stark Expo; he was always a fan of progress and technology used for the good of the population. This journey would be an experiment of a life-time.

“Alright everyone settle in.” The German accent demands over the intercom. The small group walks into the ship and find their respective seats. With his wit and quick thinking, Steve was assigned board commander. Bucky was in charge of the combat tactics. It felt like, for once, their lives had meaning and it was an honour to be going through this together.

“‘Til the end of the line.” Steve captures his friend’s hand in his.

“‘Til the end of the line,” Bucky answers. They feel the ship ‘shake off the ground’, and the team howls in enthusiasm. 

Once the orbiting procedures are done, they find their way into their seperate quarters, each sharing rooms in teams of three, except for Bucky and Steve who have the room to just the two of them. They walk to the door as they chit chat. Their smiles fade when the door slides before them and they notice the size of the room.

A large window gives out to a realistic CGI galaxy. The moon roams by slowly and it’s enough to have them holding their breaths, eyes watering at the beauty. 

“Steve,” Bucky whispers. He turns to see his friend nodding at him, his lower lip bitten as he tries to hold in his emotions. “This wouldn’t have happened without your stubborn little head.” 

“You deserve this as much as I do Buck.” They turn around and freeze at the sight of the one king sized bed that sits right in the middle of the room. Around it is a flowy drape they can pull closed - something to keep the sun out as it never sets, they think. At the corner of his eyes, Steve can see Bucky blush. His body shivers, his numerous dreams coming to his mind again.

“Is, um. Is that okay with you?” He asks.

“Yeah. Yeah it’s fine Stevie.” He walks over and sets his bag on a small bench. They begin to set their things in the abundant storage space. Neither of them talk for the next couple of minutes, too shy, perhaps. Too caught in their own fantasies to acknowledge their separate peaks at the one bed as they eyeball the distance that will be left between them.

“I’m exhausted. I’ll hit the showers and be right back.” Bucky is first to say, a foot already out the door.

Steve sheds his clothes, leaving only his briefs on. The sheets are the softest thing he’s ever touched. Everything is plushy and so welcoming. There’s Bucky’s sweatshirt on the left side pillow; he’s tempted to take it and wear it, knowing he’s always cold at night. But he only pulls it close and brings it to his face, feeling the material on his heating cheeks, inhaling the masculinity of his best friend. It’s inevitable he’s growing hard at the thought of being able to smell it directly from his neck. To have his head on his chest. 

His free hand reaches under the band of his briefs, tentatively groping himself to try and relieve some tension. He loses himself in it though, and starts moving and twisting his hand faster. He’s staining his underwear but he doesn’t care. He knows Bucky’s hand would feel much better, much more unforgiving. There’s a pinch in his gut at the thought of teaching him all his sweet spots - or worse even, letting him discover them as he becomes a panting mess on this very bed. 

“Shit,” he whimpers into the balled up sweater. His hips find a slow rhythm to go along his hand movements. His dick is out of its hiding spot by now; he’s big for his frame and he needs the extra room to pump harder. The door opens but he’s too lost to notice. There’s another muffled moan before he hears someone clear their throat.

“Steve, I-”

“Fuck! I’m sorry.” No no no! he thinks. “Buck I didn’t mean-”

“It’s fine Rogers, just... Maybe finish in the bathroom?” He suggests with an uncomfortable smile. He’s scratching his scalp, looking anywhere around the room but the bed. When Steve doesn’t budge, he allows himself to look down. His friend had simply pulled the cover over his head, and he knows Steve is cursing himself for being careless.

“You can keep the hoodie, if you’re cold.” Steve nods no and doesn’t move. “Alright,” he adds before shuffling into his spot. He’s careful to stay along the edge of the bed, enough not to fall off but granting his friend personal space. He closes his eyes and tries to let his mind wander into sleep. It’s no use now that he’s seen his pal touching himself like that. Not that he’d never imagined it - he was much smaller in his mind though. He didn’t sound as heavenly either. Bucky had caught Steve jerking off already, their apartment being quite small for two people, but it was always discreet and he mostly had to spy on him to see anything.

The more he thinks about it, the more each scenario comes out clear. Steve had touched himself whenever they had been close, like when they got back home from the drive-in, or if Bucky walked around shirtless after a rather intense training. Steve had touched himself every time he felt bothered with Bucky’s presence, and fuck if that wasn’t something he’d dreamed about.

He inhales deeply before shifting to face Steve. His hand slowly lifts and comes to rest on his friend’s shoulder, which surprisingly relaxes under his touch rather than tense up. 

“Bucky, it’s late. I’m sorry, okay?” It’s a half plead, half demand as the physical effects of his actions still haven’t dissipated. Bucky knows from the speed of his heart when his Stevie is nervous of agitated. Or in this case aroused.

“No. I’m sorry Steve.” Without turning completely, Steve gives him more of his attention. His silence is enough to note his questioning. “I should’ve realised before.”

“Wh-what do you mean, Buck?”

He answers with his body rather than try to explain his thoughts out loud; Bucky could be the clumsiest person when his mind got hazy. His hand moves to Steve’s chest, and in a swift pull he brings him closer. Close enough to kiss along his shoulder, then up his neck, until his nose tickles the base of his scalp.

“Buck,” Steve shivers.

“Let me. Please Stevie,” he says, his breath warm on the poor boy’s frigid body. When he doesn’t feel a protest, he lowers his hand onto his stomach, takes extra time just under his navel before he ventures under the waistband of his briefs. He’s perfectly hard under his touch, it takes a longer stroke than he anticipated before his thumb can reach the soaked tip. Steve hums deep in his throat. Bucky’s hip jerks forward in response. He’s already a mess and he’s only been touching him for a few seconds.

“Yes,” Steve whimpers. It earns him a soft bite to the shoulder; tender action meant to stifle a moan. “Bucky, don’t hold back.”

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to hear this,” he answers.

He’s got Steve on his stomach as soon as he’s done answering, a low grunt escapes his lips when he kneels over Steve’s legs, admiring the boy’s slender body. He snakes his hands over his shoulders, over his arms. He feels every inch of his skin as if he’d seen it for the first time. It feels new, strange even, to be able to give his pal what he’d always dreamed of; but it’s the best sentiment he’s ever experienced. From the soft moans he can pull from Steve, Bucky knows he’s enjoying this as well. Once the muscles under his touch have gone slack, he proceeds lower, kissing the trail he makes in the valley of his back. Steve jerks his hips up slightly when Bucky’s thumbs come to rest over his back dimples. He’s longing for what’s next; for the frightening act of intimacy.

“Bucky, you don’t-” He’s cut short in his suggestion by the inevitable. He moans Bucky’s name over and over every time his tongue flattens over his puckered hole. Bucky’s at work like a hungry man who’s just discovered the sweetest fruit. He licks and sucks and pokes intently at the flustered mess of man underneath him; and /he’s/ already done for. He’s rock hard in his own boxers at the way he can get Steve to squirm. 

“Ja-james! Ah!” Steve’s got both hands fisting the sheet and his face flat into his pillow. He moves his hips along with the tactful intrusions. There’s a sticky mess already glueing his stomach to the mattress but he doesn’t care. If anything it allows for the lack of friction on his aching dick. “More. Please,” he pants.

He can hear Bucky spit but his rear is already too worn out from the previous actions to feel a thing. There’s a light poke, then a sting as Bucky’s slowly inching two fingers into him. 

“So fucking tight, Stevie. God… You’re going to ruin my cock, aren’t ya?” His words send shivers up their bodies. 

“All yours Buck,” Steve adds before choking on his words when he feels a third finger joining the others. “Always been yours.” With that said, Steve stretches back as best he can and brings a hand to the brunette’s hair. He plays with the curls, eyes fixed on the icy blues and his stomach tightens when Bucky leans into the touch. He moves his hand to his chin and pulls him up so their eyes are leveled.

“Will you let me take care of you now?” Bucky asks and regrets the way he phrased that.

“I can ta-”

“No, punk.” He sighs and closes his eyes. “It’s not about bullies anymore Stevie. I want you to feel wanted. Desired. It always pissed me off to see how the ladies treated you. They don’t know what they’re missing.” There’s a moment of silence while Steve turns around and sits straighter. His brows furrow but he doesn’t argue.

“Bucky, it’s fine. Those girls didn’t really have anything going for me, anyway.”

“So… Will you?” He’s still not looking at Steve. Afraid that maybe this was all he could allow himself to take. He ruined his chance, he thinks. But then Steve’s thumb comes to his chin and he’s forced to look up. The pretty blond is all smiles; the sweet pink on his cheeks warms Bucky’s heart. Steve dives in and crashes his lips to his friend’s. His boyfriend? Lover? He isn’t sure yet but that doesn’t matter for the night. 

“Would that include letting me come before the morning?” There’s a gasp coming from Bucky as the question comes out, but he smiles and nods stupidly at Steve’s confidence. He pounces on him, their lips meeting again in a heated kiss. 

“Only if it’s while I’m fucking that prefect little ass,” he taunts.

“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” Steve answers.

The following nights are spent identically. Several years of hidden feelings are finally being rewarded and the boys know exactly how to make up for lost time. Most of their breaks are spent in their room, in the sauna or in the private lounge each team gets to share alternatively. Between trainings and meals, before, during and after showers. It’s an insatiable feeling to be wanted and taken care of, which never came easily to Steve until the very moment Bucky had his face between his hands and seemed to dwell into his eyes. Everything went on so quickly. Too quickly, perhaps, for Bucky soon found himself feeling guilty. Dirty. To be filling his needs with his favourite boy, while he knows he’s building a really fragile castle around them. To be imagining a life of happiness that had no place to be. Amongst the group, none seem to have caught up on their shenanigans. They were safe. Safe in the confines of this ship until the mission was over and they’d have to go back to being best buddies; friends since playground. It’s a thought that has Bucky’s stomach churning. He’d been glued to bed with a pounding headache for two days, and a raging boner he kept denying Steve. This has to stop, he thinks.

The curtains rush open, startling him out of sleep. Through the bright, manipulated daylight he sees Steve’s silhouette standing in front of their window. 

“What’s up, Stevie?” His voice barely makes it out of him.

“I could ask you the same,” Steve accuses right away. He can hear Bucky fall back into his pillow and grunt.

“Care to explain…”

“You’re unbelievable.” He paces, his hands on his hips. “What’s so hard for you to accept? I thought you realised that we had been hiding these mutual feelings. I thought you were on my side, Buck. You haven’t touched me, haven’t even looked at me in the eyes for a week…”

The anguish in his voice has Bucky up on his feet in a second - he’s ready to lay down his point of view but Steve retorts faster.

“Look around! We’re in a fucking ship that’s meant to be in space, man.” His finger taps the glass behind him. “Everything around us is astonishing progress.”

“Yeah, simulated,” Bucky says.

“But progress nonetheless. Forget what people think. Gosh I wish this thing could take us to the future. Maybe things would have changed…” Bucky takes a step closer and he’s ready to fold. He wants Steve in his arms. Wants to keep his word and hold him tight. He reaches his arms out but quickly retracts when a sharp object flies over his upper arm.

“What the-”

There’s a rush of wind that sends a dozen more pieces their way. The back wall of their room is fractured, smoke coming in from the adjacent room, followed by a muffled scream. The strident screeching of metal makes it hard to focus. Alarms have gone off and an external team is running around, trying to find everyone.

It suddenly becomes hard to breathe but the medics have surged to rescue the guys who were stuck behind the flames. When Bucky turns around to grab onto Steve, he finds him lying on the ground, hands clenching his stomach and he swears that even through all the back-alley fights he’s never seen Steve’s face so contorted. A piece of steel bigger than his hand pokes out of a gash just under his left rib. Bucky knows not to pull it from him. He’d seen the consequences first hand on the field. 

“Don’t move, don’t move.” He’s got a hand on his shoulder and the other beneath his head. There’s a glance around his body before he’s sure he can lift him up. Luckily, Steve’s about half the size of the guys Bucky had to carry in boot camp. He makes sure to keep the wound close to himself, and he heads towards the nearest door, the floor plan of the ship something he knows like the back of his hand.

“I got you Stevie,” Bucky says when he hears him weep.

**

Bucky’s fidgeting on the chair around the corner of two narrow hallways. His arm still burns from the alcohol-drenched bandage someone put on him while he was passed out. He turns to the one on his right. It’s bright from all the fluorescents and much too lifeless to his liking. The same nurse keeps shuffling through the different doors with a pad in hands. His head is about to explode from all the beeping of the life support machines and the aftermath of inhaling so much smoke. Someone at the end of the hall in front of him keeps coughing and Bucky’s throat is suddenly tingling. He’s a moment away from bolting up from his seat when Peggy walks out of the room.

“Barnes.” She has an apologetic look, but she offers a sweet smile. “He’d like to see you.”

There’s a blink before he can react, before blood goes back into his legs and he can head towards her. She reaches for his arm and guides him over, stopping just before the curtain around the bed.

“Now,” she begins. “We’ve had to um… They did someth-”

“He’s fine?” He practically screams.

“Yes. Yes James he is fine.” She takes a step back and stretches her arm to direct him forward. He takes a deep breath, flattens his shirt over himself as a habit and nervously pulls onto the edge of the curtain.

His heart skips a beat when he lays eyes on him. He recognizes the flowy blond hair; he wants to run his hand through it. But he’s taken aback when he gets closer. The under shirt they put on him is about to burst from the width of his shoulders. His jaw, man, his jaw is square and strong, just like the rest of him. He scans him up. Once. Twice. He thinks it’s the illusion of Steve being laid down, but he knows he’s gotten taller. Before he can wonder further a hand comes to his shoulder.

“Stark. What happened?” He asks, not taking his eyes off his friend.

“The infection spread like wildfire. His frail disposition made it impossible for him to surpass this. He needed a little...boost...if I can say so.”

“Well, a boost he got!” Bucky answers a tad enthusiastically. He sees Peggy smirk and his cheeks heat up. “Sorry,” he mouths.

“Yes. Well. We had this experimental serum going around for a while. A project run by Dr. Erskine. It was meant to help soldiers heal faster. Make their ability to bulk up easier. Let’s say we might have dosed up a little on him.”

“Is it permanent?”

“So far.” Peggy joins in.

“Did it... hurt?” There’s a new concern in Bucky’s voice. The same gut wrenching feeling he had whenever he found Steve beat up to the ground. He closes his eyes to keep the imminent tears from spilling out. 

“Did it like a champ,” comes Steve’s voice next.

**

“Steve, listen,” Bucky begins as they walk into their apartment, bags of groceries in arms - the first one since they’ve been back from the mission. He’s walking behind him, still astounded by the two inches Steve has won. Their elbows bump as they walk around in the kitchen - they’ve yet to adjust to the two of them taking a lot of space; the conversation of them moving out into a new place was impending. 

“Bucky, stop. I know you didn’t want to hurt me.” He means it, but Steve continues to set the things away without looking at him.

“I got caught off guard, Stevie. The lady asked the question but the tone in her voice made me uncomfortable. I should have s-”

“Yes. You should have said we were together. But it’s fine,” he adds. Bucky steps up and grabs one of the blonde’s hands. He brings it to his chest, over his heart, and his eyes begin to water when they get lost in his. There’s a synched deep breath before Bucky composes himself.

“I’m sorry.” Steve’s shoulders loosen at the small admission - he watches as Bucky kisses his fingers one by one before leaning into him. His lips come to his neck and Steve can’t help but shiver. The serum surely had enhanced everything.

“Why is it still so hard for you to acknowledge this,” Steve says as he rubs Bucky’s back. “Every time you say ‘friend’ my stomach flinches.” 

“Strict family. It’s been coded into me when I was young. Every time I would hang out with you I’d get deathly stares at the dinner table.” Steve hugs him tighter. Bucky had never mentioned this before. Never said a word about being roughed around as a kid. He feels guilty. A feeling of remorse stikes through him as he recalls the numerous times he asked Bucky to pose for his sketches. Or when he needed a hand climbing somewhere and Bucky would hold onto him /just that way/. He didn’t know that his father was overlooking their every move from his office window. Didn’t know that his own mother was being lectured about their behavior.

“Plus, I still look at you and kind of freak out that I don’t have my little Stevie anymore. But you know… I’m really looking forward to what /this/ Steve can do.” He takes a step back to better look at him. His hands are on his hard chest, making their way onto his shoulders and he can feel Steve relax under his touch. One hand moves up to his nape before settling onto the side of his face; the other has made its way south, tracing every muscle on the way down. 

“How about you knock some sense into me?” Bucky taunts, eyes dark and glimmery. It takes Steve out of his thought - pulls him out quite harshly in fact - but he lets the brunette palm him through the thick fabric of his chinos. 

“But, Buck. We always-”

“I know. But I want to, baby. At least once…” There’s a soft whine along Bucky’s words and Steve melts into his embrace. Their lips stand close, waiting patiently for the right opportunity; though Bucky’s hand has made its way past Steve’s zipper by now. “For once, Stevie...please fuck me.”

It’s beastial. The way Steve picks his lover like he’s not heavier than a pillow. How he has him pinned to the wall by their room - they had finally started sleeping in the same bed, and eventually turned the spare room into a small art studio.

It takes a minute for Bucky’s hand to land onto the door handle, and another second for his mind to command it to turn it open. Steve’s grunt follows when it finally pries wide, allowing them to adventure further. Three steps later, Bucky finds himself thrown onto the stiff mattress, shirt gone missing while strong hands are already working at the button of his pants.

“Don’t break anything, Rogers.” He lifts himself onto his elbows to look down at the brusque man between his legs.

“The only thing I might be breaking is the bed,” he begins, his words muffled as he bites down on his tongue in concentration. He looks up at the headboard. Surely this was the first time they’d be intimate since ‘the change’. It most likely frightens Bucky more than it does Steve. A grin autographs his next words. “We need a new one anyway.” And with that he hooks his fingers into the waistband of both Bucky’s pants and underwear, and glides them off his thighs.

“Always so fucking hard for me,” Steve growls. “No wonder, you had /me/ on my back like that. I could get used to this view.”

“Don’t linger, Stevie.” Bucky’s words are low, but stern. His hips buck in agreement.

“Was I so whiny all the time?” They both chuckle before Bucky swats him on the chest.

“Only when I was balls deep in that fantastic ass,” he answers, both hands on the plump flesh he mentioned. The action causes Steve to grind into him - and he’d be lying if he said that wasn’t the plan all along. Bruises would appear on his shoulders the next day with how hard Steve’s biting down on them.

“I swear to God-" The enhanced man has his prey on his stomach in a flash, barely taking a breath of effort. He reaches forward to present two fingers to Bucky who gladly coats them in a generous amount of saliva. A hum rumbles into his chest when he feels them swipe over his hole, Steve taking his turn in exploring his man. The stretch is new, although Bucky had done this to himself in the past. The sweet tickling feeling of the intrusion is brain numbing. He's not sure he’s going to last. Surely Steve’s new physique could give more than he bargained for.

“Holy shit,” he cries when he feels the head of his dick press against him. They both moan when Steve inches into him with ease until his hips meet with Bucky’s ass and he stops, giving both of them a moment to adjust.

“Never thought it would be this good,” the blond grunts, eyes shut as he focuses on not painting the walls that so tightly envelop him. He pulls out just a tad, before pushing back in and establishing a smooth rhythm. Bucky contorts and mewls beneath him, his eyes go white as they roll to the back of his head.

“Like that, huh?” Steve asks. “I sure as hell fucking like it.”

Bucky can only make faint noises. Steves and ahs and what not escape his lips in the smoothest symphony Steve has ever heard. He’s fucking him relentless, unsure of how he can even get his hips to move this way as he never found himself in this exact position. But he’s going. And going. And he’s loving every moment, so much so that he’s not sure he can ever go back to the old ways. Inevitably him or Bucky would succumb. Both giving and receiving felt amazing, but he’d always be James’ little Stevie.

“You take me so well, fuck,” he adds.

“Ste-eve.”

“I know. Poor little face is all red and hot. You’re so close, love.” The praise comes naturally from Steve, but it seems to have Bucky blushing even more. He bends down and snakes an arm under Bucky so his hand can come around and hook onto his neck. His right knee spreads his legs even further, allowing him to bottom down into him; the head of his cock nudges that sweet spot and as if the words weren’t enough, it has Bucky pulsing and making a mess on the bed.

“Fuck fuck fuck!” He exclaims as he empties himself completely while Steve still pounds into him. He reaches back and grabs his lover by the head to bring him in for a heated kiss. A moment later it’s Steve’s turn to fall over the edge. He groans and shakes as he gives three more thrusts before pulling out and letting his seed splatter over the spent brunette’s back. Hot spurts reach up to his shoulders and onto his cheek. Steve is quick to lean forward and lick him clean.

“So good,” he says.

“Stevie, that’s your own cum,” Bucky replies with a shy smile. Who’d have thought Steven Rogers would be the kinky one.

“Mmm. And?”

“And… I want some.” They both chuckle before Bucky can grab onto the man’s broad shoulders and fetch what he wanted.

[the-canary]

Stargazer - B.B.

Summary: There’s a gala and your dear friend finally decides to do something about your crush – Nat decides to do the same for Bucky as well. .(Modern!Reader/Bucky Barnes)

A/N: this was for the @themaskedwriter challenge. congrats on the people that figured it out! there have been some changes/edits here and there. also, if you want music to accompany the ballroom scenes my dear friend made a playlist!

Feedback is always appreciated.

All Stark Industry employees are welcomed to this year’s fundraiser gala. The event will be held in [...]. Please remember to wear your finest and hide your face so the world will never find you!

--Anthony and Virginia Stark.

“Did you see the email?”

“Yeah, it was a massive email blast. I am sure everyone saw it.”

“You know that’s not what I mean, James.”

“No, I really don’t know what you mean, Nat.”

“So, do you plan on going?”

You frown at the question, giving the email one more glance before turning up to see Sam grinning at you as he took another sip of his coffee. The twinkle in his eyes seemed permanent, but you didn’t want to deal with it, especially with the lack of sleep in the past 48 hours.

“I don’t know, Sam,” you grumble before pointing at the giant machine that was taking up most of the space in your shared lab with one Bruce Banner, though he had left and hopefully knocked out after his own sleepless four-day run, “I’m sort of trying to make this giant machine work before the next Expo.”

It was the complete truth -- you and Bruce had been just one team that was working on a functioning engine for the future Stark Car, but like everyone else you weren’t having any progress. It was the anniversary of the Stark Expo and one Mr. Stark felt it was necessary to finally show some progress and what his father had shown years ago, though there hadn’t much progress at all on the project since them.

“And since it is going to be one of the main attractions,” Sam starts off, playing devil’s advocate with you like always, ”You should consider putting some dedication to that---mppf!”  

Sam lets out a huff an air as you see a certain brunette and redhead walk across your little workspace, heads together and ignoring the rest of the world around them as you let out a little lovesick sigh.

“You can’t seriously think that I could compete against that,” you murmur in utter defeat while staring at Sam for a brief second. You let out a huff of air in annoyance before getting up and going to see what you are going to get for lunch before deciding to pass out in one of the break rooms within the building.

You just weren’t aware that there were two pairs of eyes watching the entire time.   

“They aren’t going to ask each other out, are they?”

“I doubt it.”

“I guess it’s up to us then!”

You end up sleeping straight through the end of the work day after lunch, but instead of going straight back to work the aches flooding your back and neck and realizing that you haven’t changed in a couple of days makes Sam send you back home before you can think of doing anything else. You end up walking towards the subway station when you notice him -- sitting outside of a Starbucks with a drink and computer in front of him, confused but determined about whatever he was doing at the moment.

You and one James Buchanan Barnes had entered in the same department around the same time and while you struggled here and there with your work alongside Bruce Banner, James always seemed to some new idea that he and Dr. Romanoff were working on.

It was lovely and frustrating to see, though you were sure somewhere along the line you--

A familiar redhead soon joins him and your heart deflates for a second. You let out a sigh before taking the stairs down and away from such a sight.

“Don’t worry everything will be under Stark’s credit card.”

“How the hell did you do that?”

“He owes me. Now, time to play fairy godmother to these numbskulls.”

In the following weeks after the announcement of the gala, Sam doesn’t ask you once more if you are going or not, though you hear through the grapevine that both James and Natasha are. For a brief second every once and awhile you get lost in your little daydream of being able to dance with the man -- though you knew it was a faraway dream since you didn’t know how to dance or even approach him if he wasn’t already dating the beautiful genius.

“Hurry!” Dr. Banner’s yell pulls out of your depressing thoughts, as he motions you to get in front of the little console you had set up outside to the control the car.

The little thing stutters once then twice, as Bruce screams from his seat in the car while motioning at you with awkward hand signals what you should be doing next. The engine pops a little bit a smoke before stabilizing completely and hovering in midair.

You and Bruce both scream in delight, as a small group starts to gather around the glass doors of your lab with wide eyes and clapping all around. You swear that you see a flash a blue from the sweater that James had decide to wear today, but you push aside at the sound of Mr. Stark’s exclamation over the sight that his father could never accomplish.

By the end of the day, whether you like it or not you and Dr. Banner are both gala bound.   

Once Sam hears the news, he can’t stop grinning as he makes you go last minute to get a dress because nothing in your closet will do for such an event, he had said so himself. Thus, you spend most of the weekend being dragged around by your best friend to all the high-end dress places in New York, though you aren’t quite sure who is buying and Sam just smiles and tells you not to worry.

“Well, you’re going to turn heads with that one,” Sam finally remarks with a laugh as he makes you twirl.

You end up glancing in the mirror once more with a bright smile and a little laugh, because even though you might be going alone and your crush was with someone else -- you were drinking and eating all you could grab your hands on.

However, before ending the shopping spree -- Sam has one more trip to take with you on the other side of Brooklyn with that large shit-eating grin of his that sends you into high alert. You grab your bags a bit tighter than before as you stop in front of a little red-brick building with the word PSYCHIC painted on the glass.

You frown, unsure what is going on, as Sam laughs.

“What are we doing here?” you can’t help but ask as you wait for someone to appear after Sam has rung the bell on top of the glass table that is filled with candles, chalks, various stones and a little tree that seems to be greeting anyone that comes in. It bothers you just a little, but whatever Sam is planning bothers you even more.

“I know you need a confidence boost,” Sam starts explaining, as you look at him, ”I usually come here when I need something of the sort.”

Your eyebrows shot up for a second at the sound of his awkward laugh and sudden confession, before smiling: “Does it work?”

“It really depends.” he winks at you, as the psychic calling herself Wanda finally comes out to greet Sam and start whatever she has planned for you. ‘

However, the strangest thing out of the hour-long session is when she smiles at you and declares: You’ll meet a fish by a fountain soon.

You aren’t quite so sure where you are supposed to do with that piece of information.

“She’s actually going.  So, what are you going to do about it, Romeo?”

“I really don’t know, Nat.”

The Stark Expo Anniversary Gala is nothing short of beautiful with it being set up near the waterfront where Howard Stark had his own humble beginning and was now home to Stark Industries’ Brooklyn base. High ceiling, bright lights with people dressed to the nines, and some even with masks on, caused you to pause at the entrance for a moment before you feel someone push you just a bit.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going,” the voice behind you states and you swear you stop to see a nervous smiling James, though completely different from his loose hair, sweaters, and lab coat that you have seen him in most of the time.

“It’s all right, I was just trying to prep myself,” you admit bashfully, starting at anything but the man in the dark blue suit that match his eyes with slicked back and a killer smile.

Damn, Romanoff was a lucky woman.

“Do you,” his voice breaks for a second, “Do you need someone to escort you inside? If you want to?”

You have to pause for a moment and actually think about what he is saying, your mouth gaping slightly as you kill the both of you just a bit with your silence, but you end up giving him a small smile.

“Yes, it would help a lot actually,” you end up admitting and you swear his smile grows just a bit more as he places his arm in front of you to hold it.

“Anything for you,” James states with a twinkle in his eyes, as you wrap your arm around his arm and head inside.

In your excitement, you don’t notice the stars and city lights twinkling on a certain surface.

However, as quickly as you get James to yourself for a brief moment, you are pushed as quickly away as Mr. Stark makes you do rounds with Dr. Banner to all the people that are excited to see what you two had in store. You don’t see Sam anywhere throughout the whole night, though he had promised that he would be there, though you were finding yourself meeting a certain set of blue eyes whenever you looked around.

You would smile and James would sometimes smile or laugh, only for you to turn back more bashful than before. Dr. Romanoff wasn’t in the gala either, so you weren’t sure how to feel deep down about the attention you were getting from him tonight.  

And as the demonstrations and speeches moved the evening, you eventually found yourself in front of everyone trying to explain the success of the car and paying special tribute to Back to the Future with the “Science Bros” taking the reins when it becomes too much. The bright lights and millions of questions became too much after everything was said and done, as you found yourself sitting outside beside the fountain and taking deep breaths in order to calm down.

“Hey, hey,” that voice that has been haunting you all night decides to show up once more as you feel a hand over yours and rubbing calm and easy circles on top of it, “Take a deep breathe and count. Only pay attention to my voice.”

You let out a little whimper, it had been the thing that you had been avoiding since meeting him during the employee orientation all those years ago, but here he was playing with your heart when all you wanted to do at the moment was disappear regardless of a successful showing.     

“You’re just making it worse,” you say in a shaky breath as he stops moving. You look at him with the best glare that you can muster, as there is nothing but question in those pretty blues of his, “You shouldn’t do all this if you’re already dating someone else. It’ll give someone the wrong idea.”

“I--” he stutters a bit unsure, “Who am I dating?”

“Dr. Romanoff,” you exclaim pulling your hand away from his and you try to ignore that brief hurt in his eyes, “I know that she isn’t here, but you shouldn’t--”

James gives out a laugh, which angers just a bit more as you get up ready to head back inside before getting your heart bruised any further. However, he pulls you back as you stand face to face.

“I’m not dating Natasha, sweetheart,” your eyes widen at his statement as it appears that there is a switch that goes off in him. James isn’t shy anymore as he leans in a bit more into your personal space. A crooked but rueful smile on his face, as he places one hand on your hip and the other on your cheek.

“In fact, she’s always getting on my case about asking someone out,” he keeps going as you stare at him with wide eyes, as he also states that Natasha never stopped bothering him about his crush -- like Sam did with you.

“W-who do you like?” you let out in one breathe, angry slowly giving away to confusion and anticipation as his thumb grazes your cheek softly.

“I thought it had been obvious that I haven’t been able to keep my eyes off of you the whole damn night,” he breathes out, he leans in a bit more. You let out a sound like a wounded animal at this revelation that makes him laugh.

“And if I said the feeling was mutual?” you state, as he lets out a small, delirious chuckle.

“Then, I’ve gotta make up for lost time and share a dance with you,” James grins as you nod with sudden enthusiasm, “And maybe to a date later on.”

“Yes, yes to both,” you let out your own giggle before you lean in to kiss on the cheek -- an interlude to all that you had planned now that your feelings were set free as he guides you back into the building to share the rest of the night. The fountain and loneliness you had felt for such a long time slowly being forgotten.

James smiles and you realize that the feeling is mutual as you think of Wanda’s words for a brief moment while staring at the dark sky above for such a second before looking at the stars in front of you before heading back inside.  

You’ll meet a fish by a fountain soon.

It’s much later on that you come to find out that James is actually a Pisces.

[themaskedwriter]

Stargazer.

Clues

Mutual pining and modern AU’s are my main things to write.

I enjoy constellations and they tend to be part of most of my stories in some way.

I try my hardest to leave a comment on all the stories that I read.

Summary: There’s a gala and your dear friend finally decides to do something about your crush – Nat decides to do the same for Bucky as well. 

Pairing: Modern!Reader/Bucky Barnes

Warnings: None.

Word Count: ~2.3k

All Stark Industry employees are welcomed to this year’s fundraiser gala. The event will be held in […]. Please remember to wear your finest and hide your face so the world will never find you!

–Anthony and Virginia Stark.

—-

“Did you see the email?”

“Yeah, it was massive email blast. I am sure everyone saw it.”

“You know that’s not what I mean, James.”

“No, I really don’t know what you mean, Nat.”

—-

“So, do you plan on going?”

You frown at the question, giving the email one more glance before turning up to see Sam grinning at you as he took another sip of his coffee. The twinkle in his eye seemed permanent, but you didn’t want to deal with it, especially with the lack of sleep in the past 48 hours.

“I don’t know, Sam,” you grumble before pointing at the giant machine that was taking up most of the space in your shared lab with one Bruce Banner, though he had left and hopefully knocked out after his own sleepless four-day run, “I’m sort of trying to make this giant machine work before the next Expo.”

It was the completely truth – you and Bruce had been just one team that was working on a functioning engine for the future Stark Car, but like everyone else you weren’t having any progress. It was the anniversary of the Stark Expo and one Mr. Stark felt it was necessary to finally show some progress and what his father had shown years ago, though there hadn’t much progress on the project since them.

“And since it is going to be one of the main attractions,” Sam starts off, playing advocate with you like always,”You should consider putting some dedication to that—mppf!”  

Sam lets out a huff an air as you see a certain brunette and redhead walk across your little workspace, heads together and ignoring the rest of the world around them as you let out a little lovesick sigh.

“You can’t seriously think that I could compete against that,” you murmur in utter defeat, while staring at Sam for a brief second. You let out a huff of air in annoyance before getting up and going to see what you are going to get for lunch before deciding to pass out in one of the break rooms within the building.

You just weren’t aware that there were two pairs of eyes watching.  

—–

“They aren’t going to ask each other out, are they?”

“I doubt it.”

“I guess it’s up to us then!”

—–

You end up sleep straight through the end of the work day after lunch, but instead of going straight back to work the aches of flooding your back and neck and realizing that you haven’t changed in a couple of days makes Sam send you back home before you can think of doing anything else. You end up walking towards the subway station, when you notice him – sitting outside of a Starbucks with a drink and computer in front of him, confused but determined about whatever he was doing at the moment.

You and one James Buchanan Barnes had entered in the same department around the same time and while you struggled here and there with your work alongside Bruce Banner, James always seemed to some new idea that him and Dr. Romanoff were working on.

It was lovely and frustrating to see, though you were sure somewhere along the line you–

A familiar redhead soon joins him and your heart deflates for a second. You let out sigh before taking the stairs down and away from such a sight.

—–

“Don’t worry everything will be under Stark’s credit card.”

“How the hell did you do that?”

“He owned me. Now, time to play fairy godmother to these numbskulls.”

���–

In the following weeks after the announcement of the gala, Sam doesn’t ask you once more if you are going or not, though you hear through the grapevine that both James and Natasha are, and for a brief second every once and awhile you get lost in your little daydream of being able to dance with the man – though you knew it was a faraway dream since you didn’t know how to dance or even approach him if he wasn’t already dating the beautiful genius.

“Hurry!” Dr. Banner’s yell pulls out out of your depressing thoughts, as he motions you to get in front of the little console you had set up outside to the control the car.

The little thing stutters once then twice, as Brice screams from his seat in the car, while motioning at you with awkward hand signals what you should be doing next. The engine pops a little bit a smoke before stabilizing completely and hovering in midair.

You and Bruce both scream in delight, as a small group starts to gather around the glass doors of our your lab with wide eyes and clapping all around. You swear that you see a flash a blue from the sweater that James had decide to wear today, but you push aside at the sound of Mr. Stark’s exclamation over the sight that  his father could never accomplish.

By the end of the day, whether you like it or not you and Dr. Banner are both gala bound.  

—–

Once Sam hears the news, he can’t stop grinning as he makes you go last minute to get a dress because nothing in your closet will do for such an event, he had said so himself. Thus, you spend most of the weekend being dragged around by your best friend to all the high-end dress places in New York, though you aren’t quite sure who is buying and Sam just smiles and tell you not to worry.

“Well, you’re going to turn heads with that one,” Sam finally remarks with a laugh as he makes you twirl once then twice.

You end up glancing in the mirror once more with a bright smile and a little laugh, because even though you might be going alone and your crush was with someone else – you were drink and eat all you could grab your hands on.

However, before ending the shopping spree – Sam has one more trip to make with you on the other side of Brooklyn with that large shit-eating grin of his that sends you in high alert. You grab your bags a bit tighter than before as you stop in front of a little red-brick building with the word PSYCHIC painted on the glass.

You frown, unsure what is going on, as Sam laughs.

“What are we doing here?” you can’t help but ask as you wait for someone to appear after Sam had rung the bell on top of the glass table that is filled with candles, chalks, various stones and a little tree that seems to be greeting anyone that comes in. It bothers you just a little, but whatever Sam is planning bothers you even more.

“I know you need a confidence boost,” Sam starts explaining, as you look at him,”I usually come here when I need something of the sort.”

Your eyebrows shot up for a second at the sound of his awkward laugh and sudden confession, before smiling: “Does it work?”

“It really depends.” he winks at you, as the psychic calling herself Wanda finally comes out to greet Sam and start whatever she has planned for you. ‘

However, the strangest thing out of the hour-long session is when she smiles at you and declares: You’ll meet a fish by a fountain soon.

You aren’t quite so sure where you are supposed to do with that piece of information.

—–

“She’s actually going.  So, what are you going to do about it, Romeo?”

“I really don’t know, Nat.” —–

The Stark Expo Anniversary Gala is nothing short of beautiful with it being set up near the waterfront where Howard Stark had started his humble beginning and was now home to Stark Industries’ Brooklyn base. High ceiling, bright lights with people dressed to the nines caused you to pause at the entrance for a moment, before you feel someone push you just a bit.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going,” the voice behind you states and you swear you stop to seeing a nervous smiling James, though completely different from his loose hair, sweaters, and lab coat that you have seen him in most of the time.

“It’s all right, I was just trying to prep myself,” you admit bashfully, starting at anything but the man in the dark blue suit that match his eyes with slicked back and a killer smile.

Damn, Romanoff was a lucky woman.

“Do you,” his voice breaks for a second, “Do you need someone to escort you inside? If you want to?”

You have to pause for a moment and actually think about what he is saying, your mouth gaping slightly as you kill the both of you just a bit with your silence, as you end up giving him a small smile.

“Yes, it would help a lot actually,” you end up admitting and you swear his smile grows just a bit more as he places his arm in front of you to hold it.

“Anything for you,” James states with a twinkle in his eyes, as you wrap your arm around his arm and head inside.

In your excitement, you don’t notice the stars and city lights twinkling on a certain surface.

—–

However, as quickly as you get James to yourself for a brief moment, you are pushed as quickly away as Mr. Stark makes you do rounds with Dr. Banner to all the people that are excited to see what you two had in store. You don’t see Sam anywhere throughout the whole night, though he had promised that he would be there, though you were finding yourself meeting a certain set of blue eyes when you looked around.

You would smile and James would sometimes smile or laugh, only for you to turn back more bashful than before. Dr. Romanoff wasn’t in the gala either, so you weren’t sure how to feel deep down about the attention you were getting from him tonight.  

And as the demonstrations and speeches moved the evening, you eventually found yourself in front of everyone trying to explain the success of the car and paying special tribute to Back to the Future with the “Science Bros” (as the media liked to call them) taking the reins when it becomes too much. The bright lights and millions questions became too much after everything was said and done, as you found yourself sitting outside besides the foundation and taking deep breaths in order to calm down.

“Hey, hey,” that voice that has been haunting you all night decides to show up once more as you feel a hand over yours and rubbing calm and easy circles on top of it, “Take a deep breathe and count. Only pay attention to my voice.”

You let out a little whimper, it had been the thing that you had been avoiding since meeting him during the employee orientation all those years ago, but here he was playing with your heart when all you wanted to do at the moment was disappear regardless of a successful showing.    

“You’re just making it worse,” you say in shaky breath as he stops moving. You look at him with the best glare that you can muster, as there is nothing but question in those pretty blues of his, “You shouldn’t do all this if you’re already dating someone else. It’ll give someone the wrong idea.”

“I–” he stutters a bit unsure, “Who am I dating?”

“Dr. Romanoff,” you exclaim pulling your hand away from his and you try to ignore that brief hurt in his eyes, “I know that she isn’t here, but you shouldn’t–”

James gives out a laugh, which angers just a bit more as you get up ready to head back inside before getting your heart bruised any further. However, he pulls you back as your face to face.

“I’m not dating not, sweetheart,” your eyes widen at his statement as it appears that there is a switch that goes off in him. James isn’t shy anymore as he leans in a bit more into your personal space. A crooked but rueful smile on his face, as he places one hand on your hip and the other on your cheek.

“If fact, she’s always getting on my case about asking someone out,” he keeps going as you stare at him with wide eyes, as he also states that Natasha never stopped bothering him about his crush – like Sam did with you.

“W-who do you like?” you let out in one breathe, angry slowly giving away to confusion and anticipation as his thumb grazes your cheek softly.

“I thought it had been obvious that I haven’t been able to keep my eyes off of you all night,” he breathes out, he leans in a bit more. You let out a sound like a wounded animal at this revelation that makes him laugh just a bit.

“And if I said the feeling was mutual?” you state, as he lets out a small, delirious chuckle.

“Then, I’ve gotta make up for lost time and take share a dance with you,” James grins as you nod in sudden enthusiasm, “And maybe to a date later on.”

“Yes, yes to both,” you let out your own giggle before you lean in to kiss on the cheek – an interlude to all that you had planned now that your feelings were set free as he guides you back into the building to share the rest of the night, the foundation and loneliness you had felt for such a long time slowly being forgotten.

James smiles and you realize that the feeling is mutual as you think of Wanda’s words for a brief moment, while staring at the dark sky above for such a second before looking at the star in front of you.  

You’ll meet a fish by a fountain soon.

It’s much later on that you come to find out that James is actually a Pieces.

[recentanimenews]

Manga Editor Yumi Sukemune on Making Princess Jellyfish and the History of Shojo

Most writing about manga focuses on the artists and writers credited on the covers of the books. But there’s another role that’s indispensable to the creative process for most manga series: the editor. In addition to managing the manga production schedule, editors provide creative guidance for artists, in some cases acting as equal partners in coming up with the storylines and characters of their series.

A year ago at Anime Expo 2017, I sat down with manga editor Yumi Sukemune to chat about her work with Akiko Higashimura, the artist behind the josei (adult women’s manga) series Princess Jellyfish about a group of geeky women living together in a Tokyo apartment complex. But our conversation wandered a bit outside of her day job, revealing an editor with a critical, feminist perspective on the history of shojo (girls’ manga).

Thank you to Ms. Sukemune and Kodansha interpreter Misaki Kido for the interview opportunity, and for their patience as this interview sat in draft form for an entire year. It took a while to get this one out, but I think it was worth it!

First off, how did you get started as a manga editor?

I joined Kodansha 12 years ago right out of college. I’ve been assigned to the Kiss Magazine Editorial Department the entire time. The editor of Attack on Titan joined Kodansha the same year.

What titles have you edited?

Princess Jellyfish and Tokyo Tarareba Girls, which is Higashimura’s follow-up series about 30-something-year-old ladies. It’s like a Tokyo version of Sex and the City. A lot of titles that aren’t published outside of Japan. I always have five to six titles that I’m looking at at any time.

How typical is it for a manga editor to be editing multiple titles at the same time?

It’s pretty common.

What’s the process for how editors are assigned to titles?

For those existing series, there might be editors already assigned to them, but in Japanese companies, people rotate from department to department fairly frequently. So when some editor leaves the department, if the title needs a new editor, then that’s an opportunity where you might get assigned to an existing title.

In my case with Higashimura, there was another editor before me, but then that person left. But besides that, I was already close with Higashimura because we both liked Johnnys idol groups. That was our connection.

So when the previous editor left, because I was pretty personally connected to Higashimura, I became the editor.

Is Higashimura going to do an idol series?

(laughs) She loves K-Pop right now.

Being an editor is a creative role in addition to an administrative one. Is that assignment process partially based on story fit in addition to being good at managing an artist?

There’s no test for it or anything like that, but when you’re being hired into the company, in the interview process, they’re looking at the way you talk, the way you express yourself. The people looking for new hires are picking up those kinds of personality traits. So those are some of the challenging aspects.

In other cases, when you first start to become an editor, you team up with more of a veteran, “sempai,” editor. Then, when they go together to a creator’s house and they have a meeting, the sempai editor will ask you things like, “What would you do in this case of the story?”  You’re on the spot and you have to express what your opinion is.

A lot of the editors love manga of course, but they also study and watch a lot of movies and stuff like that too. There are a lot of movie otaku.

I imagine they read a lot of books too.

Yes.

So in terms of the creativity, of course there’s individuality, but at the same time … being in love with the character, that’s just being a fan. As an editor you have to really think about where the story’s going: beginning, middle, and end. You need to look at it constructively and then put your opinions into those critical perspectives. That’s something that’s expected from an editor. And then, depending on your level of skills in addition to your creativity, you could become a hit-maker editor or not.

The Manga Editing Process

What’s a day in the life of a manga editor like?

My working hours are flexible. Most of the manga artists work at night. So in the morning, a lot of people just watch movies and things like that. Around noon-ish, that’s when we go to work. But then we won’t be able to go back home until the last train.

In terms of shojo manga artists specifically, it’s kind of a one-on-one relationship of manga artist to editor, so as long as we can stay in touch with those artists, we can work from anywhere. We can work from home too.

Regarding Higashimura, she works on so many series at once, but she also has a lot of assistants and they’re kind of set up like a studio. Their schedule usually starts at 11 AM and goes until 7 PM. So in terms of Higashimura, she definitely doesn’t work beyond those hours. She won’t pull all-nighters, she won’t work on weekends. She keeps a work-life balance.

Do a lot of very successful manga artists do that?

It’s not regular at all!

Because it’s set up like a production studio, the main artist Higashimura just does the rough sketches for the story and she also does the penciling. But from there on she actually works with other staff, and they finish her work.

When the artist sets up a production studio-type of setup, then they can actually work on more than just one title at a time. But not too many female artists actually do it like that. Usually if you work with shojo manga artists they’re working with their friends and just barely making the 30 pages each month.

You mentioned in the Kodansha panel earlier that Ms. Higashimura is the most prolific current shojo manga artist. That she has the most titles.

That’s true. She works with all the major publishers.

Speaking of staying in touch with artists, we were looking at your phone before. Could you talk about the process? You two are on LINE sending “names” (rough manuscript drawings) back and forth, right?

(She shows me her LINE message history with Ms. Higashimura.)

Yesterday Higashimura sent a name. I usually just loosely say “I kind of want to see the first draft by this day.”

The name stage is usually very simple. But for her, she makes it very detailed. This one has notes on how to finish these panels for the assistants. So, “Put the shadow on here, on the blue.”

Here’s what I’m saying in these messages: “Sorry about the delay of this post. I think the name is really awesome. I think we can use it just the way it is. Especially the scenes in the past and the scene about grilled fish. You’re actually connecting them indirectly. I think it’s really well done. I am here in LA in the morning. I was in awe for a minute. If you’ve got a continuation of these pages please send it to me.”

What stickers do you use on LINE?

We mostly send photos. Not a lot of stickers.

(She shows another name with red pen marks on it.) This is proofing. I use red pen to mark things.

Princess Jellyfish is a really honest portrayal of fujoshi and otaku culture and social anxiety. What sort of conversations do you two have about telling this kind of story?

She often models these characters off of her real-life friends. There’s a friend of hers who’s into dolls. Also all her assistants are super manga otaku. While they’re working, they’re always chatting, for example, having a funny conversation with different ways to end a sentence. The way they talk is unique. She picks it up while she’s writing. Whenever I meet her or even on LINE, Higashimura mentions, “Oh this funny thing happened.” I say, “That’s really funny, why don’t you write about it?”

Communicating and keeping friendships with people outside of work is one of the main reasons she insists on doing the 11–7 shifts, the work-life-balance. Tokyo Tarareba Girls is really based on all her friends who are editors, who are always bitching about something. It’s like, “I’m working so hard, but I have no boyfriend. What’s going on?” She writes about that.

As her editor, my main job is to figure out what she’s into, what her main focus is right now, and to encourage her, to ask “why don’t you write that into the story?”

Shojo and “Waiting for Men”

In the panel earlier you talked about how shojo has changed. You said it was about waiting for a boy to discover you, and now it’s about girls saying “this is my way of life.” Why do you think that is?

I think the biggest influence was Sailor Moon. I’m 34 now. When I was little, Sailor Moon was a current, ongoing series. Up until the emergence of Sailor Moon, all the manga was really about an average girl being discovered by a boy. That was the classic formula. But as soon as Sailor Moon hit, everything changed into a new generation of girls who had the ability to do what they wanted to do in life.

Around that time in the history of Japan, women were starting to get accepted into regular workplaces. The timing in history might have contributed to the message too.

For those girls who grew up with Sailor Moon and keep that true to their hearts, as they get older they become these really strong women and do things for themselves.

Do you think the cultural shift influenced Sailor Moon? Or the other way around?

Sailor Moon was originally supposed to become an anime by the time it started. There was a project for the anime too, they worked on them together. So instead of waiting for the stories to finish, they actually continued the story at the same pace in manga and anime. Because it was a collaborative project between the artist and the animation studio, it wasn’t really up to the creator herself. The creation came from the anime production team as well.

Princess Jellyfish is josei though, not shojo, right?

Yes. The magazine is a josei magazine, although story-wise, none of them are working, so it’s more in the realm of shojo manga, really. And definitely the style is shojo manga.

How much of what you were describing about shojo applies to josei?

In the josei manga genre, unlike shojo manga, it’s not all pure and fresh. It’s not that kind of puppy love story. But in terms of the main character opening up the door to their own life, it’s actually consistent between both shojo and josei manga.

Was josei already doing that, though?

Even in josei manga back in the day, even though they were working women, the formula of an average woman being discovered by men was still the same. It’s like all the characters are mature adults, but it’s still this bubbly romance.

There’s a series called Tramps Like Us (Kimi wa Pet) in Kiss Magazine. It’s a story about a girl picking her favorite boy and keeping him in her house. The pet is a boy.

That change is interesting. Early shojo manga like the works of the Showa 24 Group weren’t about women waiting for men.

Those series like Rose of Versailles are very eternal, evergreen titles. Those tend to be the formula of the character seeking their own path. Those legendary creators: Keiko Takemiya, Moto Hagio. Series that actually stick around long enough to be classics, they tend to be based on main characters finding their own path. But series that became very popular hits but eventually as time goes became lost and forgotten, those are the ones with the formula where the girl gets discovered by the boy.

I feel like in the 1980s shojo manga went in that direction a bit.

Yes, during the bubble economy. Back in the ’80s during the economic boom, it was all about what kind of relationship can you have as a person. That was the biggest focus.

Keiko Takemiya was told by an editor that a story was not going to be a hit; it was complicated, it should be more romance. But she really felt strongly about writing those kinds of stories. So she created The Poem of Wind and Trees (Kaze to Ki no Uta) from there. It’s a really famous Boys Love manga now.

It really shows how hard it was for those female creators in the ’80s to stand up for what they wanted to write about and to execute their expression and get published.

There have been a lot of fans who have been supportive of creators like Takemiya, but at the time, those fans were a way smaller fraction of fans. But post-Sailor Moon people began to accept and understand and like those formulas too. In terms of The Rose of Versailles, it’s inspired by the sort of “fantasy” admiration toward French culture. So that brought in the audience. It’s not really because of feminism. It’s because France is cool.

But it sounds like Sailor Moon represents more of a true feminist shift.

I think so.

There’s an element of romance in Sailor Moon with Tuxedo Mask but that’s not the focus of the series and that’s not the reason why she’s fighting. She’s also looking out for her teammates and friends.

In the US a lot of fans had a very similar response. Because we didn’t get a lot of female characters with that kind of agency.

Everything is connected. No matter where you’re from you really want to cherish and respect yourself in terms of your personality.

As an editor, I always question the difference between the audiences. Like, the school life in America and Japan is different. Is that something that affects the popularity of manga?

The portrayal of the cool, attractive boys seems to be very different here in the US too. I think that might affect whether a manga series becomes popular overseas, not just in Japan. Series like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, ones set in fantasy-based worlds, are kind of rare in shojo manga. They’re just a fraction, and the rest of the titles are focused on school life and slice-of-life stories.

Even the editors and executives in Japan, they’re thinking that whatever is available here and the shojo manga outside of Japan is just a fraction of the shojo manga that is available.

The High School Formula

Have you edited any of those high school titles before?

I have a series called Love’s Reach. In shojo manga, there are a lot of teacher-student relationships, but elsewhere that’s illegal, right? Love’s Reach is the standard shojo manga formula: school life, always a big event with some emotionally thrilling moments. So if people actually get into these series and accept these kinds of stories then we can introduce a bunch more shojo manga. A lot of the shojo manga that’s available here, like Princess Jellyfish or Nana, is kind of irregular compared to the rest of the shojo manga in Japan.

Is there anything different about editing for one of those school life series versus something more irregular?

For Princess Jellyfish, the creation starts with Higashimura’s inspiration, ideas, and imagination. In terms of things like Love’s Reach, there’s the standard formula and then you put a good talented artist on it. So during the meeting, I say things like “do you want to go on a school trip now?” Like, “this is a good time now.” We have these formulas so you can sort of test the artist to see if they can work creatively with those frameworks and make them their own. That’s how each of the creators’ talents emerge.

Because the history of shojo manga is so long in Japan, there are readers who just want to read a formulaic story. Instead of going into a really fresh story that’s very imaginative, some people just want to read the same old story right before they go to bed after coming back from a long day of work.

In fact, a lot of the digital shojo manga sales in Japan happen after 11 PM. It’s interesting. They probably just buy it and read it and just fall asleep. Maybe right before you’re going to bed and you’re relaxing, you might not want to be introduced to super fresh, super imaginative ideas.

(laughs) The Rose of Versailles is too heavy!

(laughs) I might dream about it or something!

Of course sexy titles and “ero” manga too. Manga that you don’t want to have as a book also sell during nighttime.

It’s important for big publishers to fulfill all these people’s needs. Of course we want to create something new, but we also want to produce something that our audience would want.

Thank you so much for your time!

Manga Editor Yumi Sukemune on Making Princess Jellyfish and the History of Shojo originally appeared on Ani-Gamers on October 2, 2018 at 10:14 PM.

By: Evan Minto

[creativesage]

(via Make Your Next Corporate Offsite a Disruptive Innovation Jam – Innovation Excellence)

By Soren Kaplan

How to transform a boring leadership offsite into an inspiring springboard for the future

I’ve been fortunate to work with thousands of executives from many household names over the past 20 years. There’s one thing just about every company and every leadership team share in common – the annual offsite.

Most offsites focus on building big visions, crafting change management strategies, and aligning around annual plans. Whether I’m brought in as the keynote speaker or asked to design and facilitate an entire event, everyone wants the same thing – to get away from boring meetings and have an engaging experience that delivers tangible results.

I’ve seen a major shift in recent times in these events. Today’s executives want to explore emerging technologies, create cultures of innovation, and discover new business opportunities to drive disruption – rather than sit through the standard ‘talking heads’ session.

A different kind of offsite

A few months ago, I spoke to Jason Sadler, President of Cigna International Markets, a global health service provider and insurer. Jason was planning an offsite meeting for 60 of his most senior executives. The company already has as well-deserved reputation for product and service innovation.  It is a leader in using artificial intelligence for health service apps and is ahead of the curve when it comes to providing support for specialist groups, such as the globally mobile or older people.  Jason was looking to double-down on this culture and show his senior leaders how everyone can innovate.   In Jason’s words: “The health and insurance industries are going through immense disruption, and we need to keep ahead of these dramatic changes. I wanted this offsite meeting to be different.”

Whenever I work with top executives on these type of sessions, I always begin with the end result. What tangible outcomes do we want to achieve? What do we want colleagues to do differently when they come to work the next day?

As Jason said: “We have several initiatives taking place at the moment, but I’m always keen to identify more specific and disruptive ideas which we can pilot across our international regions.”

Great offsite meetings push people’s comfort zones, give them a memorable experience, and jumpstart actions that accelerate business. When planning these type of sessions, I always incorporate four key elements:

Engaging Process and Environment – What type of experience will shift mindsets, stimulate creative thinking, and lead to tangible results?

Disruptive Innovators – Who can we invite to share specific breakthrough innovations that could potentially transform the industry?

External Industry Visionaries – What experts and thought leaders can we talk to about emerging trends and new business models?

Clear Deliverables – What is the measurable outcome of the event?

Here’s how to transform your next offsite into an innovation jam that disrupts business as usual, inspires participants, and leads to real results:

1. Ensure an engaging process and environment

First, we needed to hold the meeting – aptly named “Driving Innovation & Disruption for Sustainable Business Growth” – in the right kind of environment. I reached out to a contact of mine at one of the largest Silicon Valley venture capital firms and innovation accelerators, Plug and Play. The incubator’s innovation center was the perfect venue because it matches up large corporations with start-ups who want to explore partnership opportunities. According to Plug and Play’s Chief Revenue Officer, Michael Olmstead: “Big companies that visit us for startup pitches get incredible insight into emerging technologies and business models that may become the industry disruptors of tomorrow.”

2. Welcome the disruptive innovators

When exploring innovation, companies need to internalize a deep understanding of the rough and tumble process, including the need to fail fast, learn quickly, and become champions of agile change. That’s why we wanted to expose executives to disruptive innovators who could bring the process to life.

We kicked off the two and half day meeting by talking to several startup companies from Plug and Play’s extensive portfolio of companies. The startups were prepped to deliver a 5-minute pitch to the group and share live demos of their products over an extended lunchtime expo. The startups were well versed in various emerging disruptive technologies including blockchain, machine learning, AI, augmented reality, wearables, and peer-to-peer insurance.

Following the pitches and related demos, the Cigna group reconvened in a structured brainstorming session to share what they heard and seen. We began to build our Idea Board with individual opportunities written on pieces of paper, categorized by theme and displayed along the length of the main room.

3. Learn from industry visionaries

We also wanted to learn from senior executives from adjacent companies in the insurance and health care space, who have wrestled with similar challenges as Cigna, and could share their experiences and recommendations. So, we organized two “thought leader panels” focused on best practices in driving disruption. Among the leaders we included were Mike Connor, Chair of the InsurTech Fusion Conference and a top 50 influencer in the insurtech industry; Gary Guthart, CEO of Intuitive Surgical, the leader in remote robotic surgery; and Keith Bigelow, Senior VP and GM of Analytics at GE Healthcare. Quite a line-up!

These were no talking-head sessions. Each panelist gave a 15-minute presentation which was followed by a fierce debate among the panelists and Cigna group. I facilitated the session and helped the group capture insights and opportunities on pieces of paper, which were placed on the Ideas Wall with the earlier output. The panelists listened to the ideas and selected the top three they believed Cigna was best positioned to pursue.

4. Deliver practical results

Busy executives who invest two and a half days in an offsite meeting want something practical and actionable at the end. They want something that will move the needle on what’s most important for them and the company.

The 60 colleagues from Cigna represented heads of country operations and leaders from different departments around the world. From the start, we were intent on creating a portfolio of ideas that could be piloted across Cigna’s diverse markets. We wanted the team to truly embrace and own the ideas.

Cigna’s leadership were no strangers to the Design Thinking process, so we used this concept to generate, theme, prioritize, and select the top opportunities. Because we built out the Idea Wall throughout the session using the startups and thought leaders as a stimulus, everyone understood clearly the 50 or so ideas we lined up in the room, because they had been created and shared along the way.

Teams representing the different geographic regions convened at the end of the second day to each choose an idea they would pitch to the rest of the group on Day Three. We created a “pitch template” to give them a simple structure for their pitches, which covered the idea, value, timing and what the company needed to invest in both time and money. Each pitch had to be delivered in a punchy two-minutes. The teams had an opportunity to trial their pitches to other teams for initial feedback and build on their concept to demonstrate the power of rapid iteration.

On the final day, eight teams delivered quick-fire presentations, and everyone gave their feedback using a process which helped build on the ideas. We used phrases such as “I like…,” “I wish…,” and “How can we…” to create a positive environment. The group established a norm for building-up rather than tearing down ideas – making every idea better in a matter of minutes.

Make Your Next Offsite an Innovation Jam

Cigna embraced their “offsite” with huge energy and enthusiasm. As Jason said: “Successful innovation is not just about big ideas. There are plenty of small ideas that should be nurtured and encouraged. The team learned that everyone is fully empowered to bring up ideas and deliver the best value to our customers.”

Holding an offsite meeting is a major investment by a company and its individual leaders.  I encourage my clients to avoid the traditional talking head events – they can get this anytime by simply reading articles or joining web conferences.

In a time-precious world, offsites provide the opportunity to engage, collaborate, and disrupt the ‘business as usual’ model. Make your next one an innovation jam just like Cigna’s, or you just might find yourself on the wrong end of your own industry’s disruption.

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it at Innovation Excellence.]

***

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Now, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and organizational leaders from other cities and countries who are visiting the San Francisco Bay Area can have access to Silicon Valley companies to learn from their cultures, hiring, leadership and innovation methods. Come join us for a dynamic, unforgettable, and very enjoyable Innovation Tour in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, the East Bay (Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley, and more), in the Wine Country, or on the beautiful, rural Northern California seacoast in Mendocino County, including Fort Bragg, California, where we have worked on business, arts and tourism projects.

At Creative Sage™, we design high impact, customized creativity, innovation, and leadership programs, and we are now offering related tours, events, corporate retreats, and workshops in wonderful urban and rural settings that will spark your imagination — and your team’s — to come up with brilliant ideas and plan how to implement new innovations in services, products, your organization’s business model, operations, or in any other area. We also design programs for specific areas and markets, such as health care and health-related travel.

We use the latest in value-tested creativity and innovation techniques and processes; and we select world-class facilitators and partners to help your organization gain lasting value from your experience working — and playing — with us. Creativity and innovation processes could include design thinking, business model canvas, arts-based, interactive creativity activities, lateral thinking, gamification, World Cafe, or other proven methods.

We also work on workplace culture issues, leadership challenges, handling transitions, and building resilience in organizations and individual clients. You’ll be able to see first-hand how Silicon Valley companies create a culture of creativity and innovation, and you’ll be able to talk with their leaders. We’ll arrange a customized tour for you that addresses your organization’s issues.

We can design additional customized programs and tours for individuals, families, work teams, university students and faculty, including those in undergraduate or graduate entrepreneurship or MBA programs, and other special interest groups, such as the charitable tourism activities.

Join our email list and visit our web site, or call: (510) 845-5510 for more information.

You’ll take away essential, valuable insights that you could not achieve in any other way, while enjoying the experience of a lifetime!

***

[63824peace]

Friday, 14th of october 2005

I'm at Milano this morning, but not Italy's Milano. I'm at the Milano movie theater in Tokyo's Shinjuku district.

The MGS4 trailer will run tomorrow at the 2005 Tokyo Fanta during the special event celebrating the film festival's tenth anniversary. I'm here today to check the MGS4 trailer's video and audio settings. Kojima Productions staff and the promotion staff from Konami are working with me early this morning.

Back in the past we shot a film commercial (in which I acted) for MGS Integral. We did all the work just before the theater opened where the commercial would run. We really had to hurry then. I feel a bit of deja vu from that experience now.

We don't often get the chance to sit inside a movie theater before it has opened. I sat in a spot where I was completely alone, and the vacant theater's ambience engraved itself onto my mind.

I prefer old-fashioned movie theaters like the Milano Theater over newer multi-cinema complexes. If the Angel of Death approached me with the ultimatum, "Where is the most peaceful location for you to spend your last moments?" I would answer either "outer space" or "a vacant movie theater just before it has opened."

I feel a spectrum of deep emotions. My MGS4 trailer will run in the Milano Theater! This building has such a long history. There was a time in 2000 when the MGS2 trailer was shown at the Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival, just like we are running the MGS4 trailer now.

We were in the Pantheon Theater back then. The MGS2 trailer was neither high-definition nor in 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound. It didn't look as good as the films that had run before and after the trailer, which made me really uncomfortable. I felt as though MGS2 itself had been mocked.

We had used MGS2 images straight out of the PS2 hardware. We hadn't shown a pre-rendered CG trailer. Likewise, we are using real-time images straight out of the PS3 hardware now. It still looks poor compared to real movies, but that doesn't matter anymore. I'm delighted that game cinemas are treated with the same respect that films receive when shown at the Tokyo Fanta. Video games have come this far at last!

We adjusted the sound and visual settings and concluded our preparations. Now we only need to wait for show-time.

This is the best environment to get optimal output from our sound equipment. I really want our sound designer to feel the visceral experience of the full power of this work.

Korea's biggest video game expo is G-Star 2005. It will be held this year from November 10 to November 13 in Seoul. They estimate that 100,000 visitors will attend. I expect that G-Star will become as big as E3 (Los Angeles in May), GC (Leipzig in August), and TGS (Tokyo in September). In the future, they will all be known as the world's four biggest video game expos. G-Star has a lot of promise.

We met with delegates from Konami's Asian division about G-Star today. People from UNIANA are here too. (UNIANA is a Korean company that has a partnership with Konami.)

Mr. Youn (UNIANA's CEO) also attended the meeting.

I thought that it was just another in-house meeting, so I kept working after I should have left to attend. I am very sorry that I showed up so late.

Konami and UNIANA will likely collaborate on their booths at G-Star 2005. We are considering the possible directions to take during the expo.

I will probably go to Korea for G-Star. It's a busy time to leave, and I'll need to rearrange my schedule again. Nevertheless, I'm pleased at the possibility of meeting Koreans once more. I'm going to practice speaking Korean... I spoke it quite poorly the last time I was there in February.

I am in Mr. Youn's debt for his hospitality during that February visit. He escorted me through military facilities that normally require special clearance to enter. He also introduced me to many people who are hard to meet so casually.

After the meeting, I thanked Mr. Youn for the Matsutake that he gave me on his last visit to Japan during TGS. I shall see him again in November!

The meeting lasted longer than scheduled, so I had no time for lunch. I won't even be able to go to a bookstore or CD store today. I asked Mrs. Yamanaka to order me a sushi bento. I took care of some mail while I rushed to eat my food.

I have an interview with the new magazine NewWORDS, published by Kadokawa Press. The magazine has a great concept: "Cross-media Observations for Mature Adults." Mr. Yano has brought NewWORDS to life. I have personally wanted a magazine like this to appear for a while.

The generation of authentic Otaku was born in the 1960's and 1970's. They have all aged. They are working members of society, some even have families. They have other social responsibilities too. Despite all that, we continue to live as Otaku through adulthood. We want a magazine to support us as we try to establish ourselves as adult Otaku. Many mature magazines are published to satisfy sexual desires. The generation of adult Otaku still lacks a magazine suited to its tastes.

The interview will run in the first issue of NewWORDS on Friday, November 25.

I don't know why, but Mr. Shida is writing the article. The occasion feels more like a pleasant social meeting than a formal interview.

Mr. Yano says: "Let's keep the meeting going without settling answers for these questions." The interview has taken two hours. We are conducting it in my personal hide-out so we can relax. I speak pleasantly... they listen pleasantly. I feel pleased by my newly discovered self during the interview. I don't feel any apprehension at all.

The words flow naturally... no, not the words, but the feeling comes out of me. I feel as though I am in a counseling therapy session. It's a good interview.

Mr. Yano is one of the few people who truly cares about my physical and mental condition. I think he worries about me even more than the people of Konami and Kojima Productions. He regularly checks my blogs. He frequently emails when I am in a depressed mood. He doesn't write about my poor writing, but rather the blog's emotional qualities.

I take their kindness greedily and draw out the interview. Before I notice, two hours have past.

I'm excited about this magazine. The day's mood can change even under the slightest stroke of happiness.

I settled on a title for Okamura's blog. It will be published at irregular intervals, so it is more like a column than a daily blog.

The title is Confessional Man. It will start sometime next week. It will be hilarious.

Confessional Man won't be like a blog that requires a person's daily attention. It's not scheduled diary. It also isn't intended to show off his compositional prowess or his writing style. The blog is going to be about what Okamura idiosyncratically brings to the nature of the narrative. He chooses when to write, and he writes only when he chooses. His writing is more soulful because of this willfulness. The blog will be nothing less than Okamura's presence.

Okamura will decide his own subjects and writing style.

The theme of the blog is "confession." Sounds interesting, doesn't it? We adjusted the Kojima Productions website to take advantage of this opportunity.

Okamura is one of the original staff members from the Kojima Group's inception. He did the main programming for Policenauts when he was only a rookie. Afterwards he worked on some scripts for television drama series and then directed. Then he helped create Zone of the Enders (ZOE).

ZOE was a great game. Its audience received it warmly and made it popular. However, Okamura was forced to confront the truth of the matter: "A creation requires more than talent to become a reality."

Let's say that the number 0 represents the state of affairs at a project's beginning because 0% of the work is complete. When a person creates out of the absence, he gives birth to 1% of the work. He cannot give birth to his 1% without help: midwives assist him. By midwiving, each supporting person gives birth to his own creation. A sound designer supports the director and creates the special sound effects: he has given birth to his 1% out of his null.

So a lot of people work together to deliver the original creator's 1%, and in the process they give birth to their own 1%. The occasion of the birth of the creator's 1% has now created 10%. And then the 10% turns into 50%! After the promotion and marketing departments chip in, we have a whole 100% of the work required to create a game.

Okamura had delivered a hit video game but the truth tortured him. I decided to send him on an ascetic quest for enlightenment. I mercilessly sent him to the erstwhile EAST division of Konami-Japan. He may have thought that I had abandoned him. I expect that he might even have cursed me.

He devoted himself to the creation of licensed titles for four years. Okamura returned home from his journey this April, the month Kojima Productions was established.

"I'm back at last," he said.

"Welcome back!"

He has grown into a thoughtful and strong-minded man. Something shines inside Okamura that hadn't been there four years before. Without thinking twice, I entrusted both him and Shinta with MGA2.

I made the right decision. You'll see the evidence if you play MGA2. Okamura's journey was not wasted time.

Okamura now reflects upon his journey in his own words. A creator's most essential skill is to recognize and expose his weaknesses. He must have the strength not to surrender himself to the force of his own trauma. True creation only begins after we surrender control of those areas in which we are weak and rely upon the strengths of others. Okamura's "Confessions for Tomorrow" begins.

I took a newly burned copy of Existence into my booth and began checking it. Corrections were made to it yesterday. We are nearing the end. I check the promotional DVD that shows Subsistence and MGA2 while I work. This is the DVD that will run on display in stores.

I went to dinner with the people from Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) to celebrate the 2005 TGS MGS4 Shock. They were Mr. Saoki and other promotional staff members. We went to the restaurant Kiraku-tei, which specializes in charcoal-grilled yakinuki. Kiraku-tai is so popular, they were too backed up for us to even make a reservation!

I told the taxi driver the restaurant's name to give him a general idea of where to go.

I said, "Please take me to Kiraku-tei in the Minami Azabu district." The driver always responds, "Alright, to Kiraku-tei." The restaurant seems to be really famous. This is my first time inside though.

It was delicious. "Gochisou sama deshita!" I will definitely return.

It's already been one month since TGS. Thank you everyone for your effort and your contributions.

The people work with a different company, but I still consider them war buddies who fought hard toward the same goal. As comrades we tasted success together, shared hard times, celebrated, praised each other, and now we can enjoy the tapestry of our shared experiences.

Kojima Productions staff didn't even have time to sleep during TGS.

The staff audio specialist slept in the hallway booth every night to keep watch over the 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound. Kenichiro made two round-trips between Makuhari (where TGS was held) and Yobodashi Camera (a shop in Akihabara) in one night.

The people from SCE were in the same situation. Most of them went without sleep. We were not animated by physical strength. We kept our pace toward the end by willpower alone.

We drew our strength from our desire to succeed at TGS. We could never pull off something so demanding if we had the attitude "We're doing this because it's our job." Mere workplace obligations can't contribute to success like we experienced at TGS.

Everyone felt that we wanted our booth's visitors to enjoy themselves. We had a strong sense of being on a mission to make the video game medium more successful. We did not work as a company or an organization ; we worked as a single unit and as a single person. The future of the video game industry is being tested this year. We should not behave antagonistically. We should move forward together.

We spoke about these things among each other in the evening. We grew livelier and we couldn't end our party with dinner. We had to continue our evening together.

Let's have a night on the town! Onward to the Cosplay Karaoke!

Another long autumn night continues.

[recentanimenews]

Creating the Crunchyroll Expo - An Interview with Director of Events Adam Sheehan

HARK! The first ever Crunchyroll Expo is preparing to blast off later this summer at the Santa Clara Convention Center. And in anticipation of this momentous event focused on anime and the fandom around it, we present an interview with Adam Sheehan, Director of Events for Crunchyroll. Read on and enjoy!

    Crunchyroll News: Hi and please introduce yourself!

Adam Sheehan: Hi and thanks for having me! I’m Adam Sheehan, the Director of Events for Crunchyroll

    First of all, what are some of your favorite anime?

Ranma ½, FLCL, Kare Kano, Eva, Kenshin, FMA, and Serial Experiments Lain are among my all time favorites. For more recent titles I would say Attack on Titan, One Punch Man, Erased, Jo-Jo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Osomatsu.

  Can you talk a bit about your past history with regards to anime events planning?

Absolutely. I’ve been working on or around anime events and conventions for almost 20 years now. I got my start in 1998 when a couple of friends of mine who were running our college anime club with me decided to start a marketing firm to promote local anime events. Our first (and only) client was A-Kon, the largest anime convention in Texas. After college I got my first paying gig in the industry as the Tour and Conventions Manager for a company called Score Entertainment, who put out the Dragon Ball Z collectable card game. I spent the first few years driving an H1 Hummer all around the country covered in DBZ graphics.

  After that I spent over 10 years at FUNimation where I worked on multiple projects including helping to build and run their events and conventions department.  While there I was able to do a lot of fun things from recreated the Ouran High School Host Club host club with cosplayers and the main English dub cast to helping to bringing CLAMP to the US for the first time back at Anime Expo in 2006.

  All this lead me to where I am today at Crunchyroll.

    How do you think anime conventions, and geek cons in general, have evolved over the last few years and what do you think is behind those changes?

  There has been a spike in pop-culture conventions over the last 10 years. Both the demand by fans for such events and the profits around them have created what seems to be a suitable industry on its on. Video game shows like PAX or Blizzcon raised the bar on what a high-end convention could be after E3 struggled back in the 2007 and shows like South by South West saw their interactive track start to out perform their long time headlining music track around the same time.

  Anime cons have grown along with this trend having shown to be one of the largest in average attendance per event of any types of pop culture conventions in North America. The one thing that anime cons haven’t done though over the years is change too much from the core of what we’ve considered an anime convention to be since the early 90s.

  Anime cons are not the only offender here I will add. Comic cons only started to change their format that was built some time in the 70s when Hollywood and overall nerd media content became more main steam some 15 years ago.  This is one of the reasons we wanted to launch something like Crunchyroll Expo. Anime conventions overall are pretty good as they are laid out today. So imagine if we could nudge them forward a bit more and help take them to their next natural evolutionary step. We spent the better part of 2015 and 2016 looking at events like Blizzcon, SXSW, and SDCC to see what they did to change the mold or build an event without the same traditional base that anime cons have.

  The big question is, of course, what will make CRX different from all the other anime cons out there?

  Without giving any of our secret plans away yet I can say that Crunchyroll Expo will have a variety of new takes on some of your favorite things at anime cons. We are not going to change out everything you see at an anime con in 2017. We are looking to put on a great event first and for most and if we try to change too many things all at once we could be removing some of the parts that make anime cons so great in the process.

  I would say to the fans out there who are planning to attend CRX this year to expect to see a different take on things like how panels are set up, our exhibit hall layout, and more curated experiences when it comes to the kinds of events offered during the show. We still know anime fans want to see great guests, buy lots of anime goods, and connect with friends and other fans of anime in real life. We won’t be taking any of this away. If anything, we are looking to enhance them.

    CR is best known as an anime streaming company, but the brand has been involved recently with special events like Anime Movie Night, the Anime Awards, and now CRX. Can you talk a bit about how Crunchyroll is expanding in this direction and what it means for the future?

  When I came on board 2 years ago I could tell Crunchyroll was looking to grow their events presence.  My third day here our CEO of Crunchyroll, Kun Gao, brought up the idea of doing our own convention so I knew there was a want to expand beyond the digital space. In 2016 we changed around a lot of what Crunchyroll had done at conventions in the past with great feedback from the fans. It felt only natural with this kind of momentum to see where we could take things next.

  This lead to events like Anime Movie Night, the Anime Awards, and of course Crunchyroll Expo this year. We also created our ‘Powered by Crunchyroll’ convention program where we work with some of the best anime cons in the country to provide more for our Premium Members. As expected we have a lot of surprises in store for Anime Expo next month but are raising the bar again from what we did last year. Including the premiere of the first 3 episodes of Ancient Magus Bride months before it airs in Japan.

    What was behind the decision to hold the first CRX in Santa Clara? What is the convention center facility like?

  We looked at many different location options when planning where to put Crunchyroll Expo this year. After taking all our options into consideration as well as where a lot of our Premium Members and fans of Crunchyroll are located holding this in Northern California made the most sense. Having Crunchyroll’s home office located in the Bay Area was also a bonus since we feel an affinity to the Bay Area and the anime community around it.

  The Santa Clara Convention Center is a great location. There is more then enough space to hold all the big events and locations we are planning on having like the Exhibit Hall, Artist Alley, and an over 2,000-seat Main Events hall. It also has a lot of lobby space and other areas for activations, gatherings, and smaller high quality engagement points for fans to enjoy.

    Can you give us some idea what the logistics are like in planning an event like this? Especially for a first-time con?

  Our Events team has almost 50 years of combined experience across all of us. None of us though has ever launched a convention so we made what I think was the very wise decision to bring in some experts to help us get Crunchyroll Expo off the ground. After looking at multiple companies we decided to work with LeftField Media who run events like Awesome Con, Five Points Festival, and Anime NYC. They were founded by some of the people who helped launch New York Comic-Con and New York Anime Fest so we feel that we are in good hands with them. 

  The overall planning for the event has been going great since there is a wonderful balance between Crunchyroll having access to great content, guests, and connection with our fans and LeftField knowing how to get the most from everything involved with setting a convention as well as create an event space that attendees will love exploring.

  What can you tell us about the guest lineup?

  I need to keep a lot of this a secret still since we haven’t started announcing guests for Crunchyroll Expo yet.  What I can tell you is that we are looking at a wide array of guests for this year. This includes anime and manga related guests from the US and Japan as well as fan favorite influencers and celebrities that have a love for anime and pop-culture. Stay tuned over the next few months for more details and names to squee about.

    How about special events or con exclusives?

  A lot of big secrets here as well that I can’t yet share. What I can say on the topic of special events is that we will have some spaces that anime fans are familiar with at CRX that will have a different flair or focuse to them than they are use to seeing at other events. This is part of our plan mentioned before to push anime conventions forward.

  I can confirm that we will have convention exclusives. We will have a Crunchyroll Expo merch store of goodies that are made specially just for this year’s event as well as we are planning to have a items in our Crunchyroll booth store in the Exhibit Hall that should be exclusive or brand new for that weekend.

  We also have two VIP ticket options this year that not only give people greater access to events and guests but will also include exclusive merch that only these ticket holders will be able to get.

  What are you personally looking forward to the most at CRX?

  I’m really excited to see how what the fans think of all the different and new things we are bringing to Crunchyroll Expo.  There are some things we think will be a huge hit with people when they see them in person but you don’t know until it actually happens.  I am planning to spend a good amount of just time going around the convention watching people react and engage with different events and activations we have there.

  Where should people go to stay on top of new announcements for CRX?

  They can visit our CRX Blog at http://ift.tt/2t76dhg. We are updating it multiple times a week so be sure to keep checking back. We also have a Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts for Crunchyroll Expo so they can follow us there as well.

  Finally, if you had to describe CRX in one sentence, what would it be?

A forward thinking event focused on entertaining all lovers of anime and the fandom around it.

      By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com