#or even that there's stuff i missed! details i didnt consider

[catboygirljoker]

Free Pass Ask to talk about In Depth Luxu Analysis in case of no one sending in the right question to go off with

ok! here's my ~1600 word post about That One Scene At The End Of Dark Road. grins smilingly.

You know the one. Right after we see Baldr easily kill most of the cast of the game, right after a boss fight against him, right after we witness firsthand how powerful he is, we see a flashback of him confronting Bragi with the intention of killing him. And Bragi just...casually flicks his keyblade out of his hand. Bragi fully knows what Baldr's actual deal is, knows that Baldr has killed people, and is completely unthreatened by him. For good reason, it would seem!

So, Luxu's a badass, obviously. He made the big villain of the game into a jobber. And I think that's certainly one of the purposes of the scene. Luxu is about to be one of the primary antagonists of the franchise, and this sets him up to be very powerful!

...But I don't think it's the purpose of the scene. That is, I don't think that's the entire story. Because there are a couple questions left by this scene.

What happens at the end, there, when Baldr runs up to him and attacks him? And why doesn't Bragi reappear until long after Baldr is already dead?

I think we can piece together at least part of an answer.

In the earlier montage where Baldr says he killed everyone, we see a brief scene of Baldr slamming Bragi down onto an island in the Underworld. I assumed that this was a visual representation of Baldr lying and claiming he had killed Bragi when he didn't. But Bragi is the only character in this montage who we don't see die on screen. I believe we're meant to understand that this scene actually happened, and that this is what immediately follows the Luxu reveal cutscene.

Which seems contradictory with Bragi being such a badass, right? Was Bragi disarming Baldr a fluke? The thing is, when Baldr attacks Bragi at the end of the cutscene, Bragi is completely off guard and unprepared for the attack. We already know that Luxu can misjudge people/situations, to his own downfall.

Consider in Dream Drop when he seems to fully believe Sora will join the Real Organization XIII, or Days when he's unthreatened by Xion right up until she knocks him out and leaves, or Re:Mind when he finds out Luxord decided not to simply obey orders without question this time. So him being defeated by Baldr doesn't necessarily mean Luxu is weak if Bragi was defeated due to hubris.

(As a side note—I do think that this would be part of the reason the cutscene cuts off when it does. Luxu still needs to be a threatening villain in the upcoming games, so the audience has to have a strong impression of how threatening he is. We get the full cutscene of Luxu being cool and powerful, and only little glimpses of the fate he meets directly afterwards.)

I think what happened is Bragi sauntered off all cocky and smug, not believing Baldr would attack him. Then Baldr attacked him, and Bragi, realizing what a threat Baldr actually was, pulled a trick we've already seen Luxu pull before. (Seemingly so well that Hades himself is fooled.)

Baldr believed he killed Bragi and saw no reason to be like, "yeah, and also Bragi said some weird mysterious stuff I didn't understand, but the point is that he's dead, too."

Now for the question of why Bragi didn't reappear until long after everybody else was dead. If he's such a badass, surely he could have helped stop Baldr and saved lives. Why didn't he?

From here, I can really only speculate. In my view, there are a few options:

Luxu didn't care about his classmates and left them to die as soon as he realized what a threat Baldr was.

This is...possible, but not very interesting to me. It's the option that results in the least emotional complexity. I think it's most interesting to read Bragi in Dark Road as the second-to-last step on Luxu's downward spiral, rather than just another point on a straight line—that his personality as we see him in the current-day games is informed by the trauma of him losing all of his friends to an opponent he could have stopped but didn't.

Also, maybe this isn't very convincing as evidence, but in his appearance in the graveyard, Bragi's attitude isn't smug or mischievous, it's somber, possibly remorseful. If we were meant to understand that he didn't care about his dead classmates, we'd get, like, a smug grin or something.

So the other options assume that he did care about his classmates:

Luxu sincerely cared about his classmates, and wanted to help them, but was injured so badly in his fight with Baldr that he was physically unable to come to their rescue.

Like I said, I think this is more probable and more compelling than if he didn't care at all. And there's potential tragedy in him trying his best and still failing, or having the best intentions and being unable to follow through on them, for sure. However, in general, I'm more interested in characters failing because of the mistakes they make and the flaws they have, rather than failing due to chance or unavoidable circumstance.

Also...we already know Luxu is the kind of person to stand by and allow terrible things to happen without doing anything to stop it. We know he has been specifically instructed to do so. I think it's more interesting and more consistent with his character if he could have saved his classmates and stopped Baldr, but didn't.

This last option, then, is my favorite, and in my own writing would be the interpretation I go with:

Luxu sincerely cared about his classmates and had the power and strength to protect them from Baldr but, through his own decisions or inaction, still let them die.

Luxu's classmates were all children or barely adults, younger than him by perhaps centuries. But he hung out with them. Actively participated in conversation with them, asked them questions, joked around with them. He seemed to like them. They were his friends. And he let them die.

There's variety in the potential specifics. Maybe Bragi fled and hid until everything was over just to save himself. Maybe he grit his teeth and made the conscious decision to do so; maybe he was motivated by pure animal fear for his life. In either case, he still had a role to carry out, after all. A role that, as I mentioned, has already required him to stand by and allow people to die. If he could swallow the keyblade war, he could swallow the events of Dark Road.

Maybe he believed he had an excuse to run away. In his confrontation with Baldr, Bragi says Xehanort is onto Baldr, and seems to believe Xehanort would be able to stop him. This is before Baldr attacks and seemingly defeats Bragi, but maybe even after that, Bragi still really believed in Xehanort, and believed he could let Xehanort do the rest—misjudging Xehanort's ability to stop Baldr before any more death could occur.

If you wanna get really angsty with it, maybe Bragi did try to save his friends. Maybe he rushed to the scene of Baldr's next murder and saw children with keyblades fighting for their lives, heard the clash of metal on metal, and was suddenly immobilized by the voice of his Master telling him to watch. And by the time he was able to overcome this trauma response, it was already too late.

Whatever the specifics would be of why he left his friends to die, I'm aware that this is the option that casts him in the worst light. If he didn't help them because he didn't care about them, then he's just a coldhearted villain and we can't expect much better from him. If he cared about his classmates and tried his best to help them but failed, then he's a sweet goodboy and uncomplicatedly sympathetic. If he, for any reason, decided not to try to save his friends from a powerful entity that has killed and will kill again, then he's pathetic, morally repugnant, a weakling or a fool or a coward or a combination of the three.

But I like when characters are flawed and stories are messy! I like that, even before you get to the events of Dark Road, Luxu is a messy, complicated, but still sympathetic character! Many of my other favorite Kingdom Hearts characters are messy and complicated in ways that I feel get frustratingly flattened by the fandom. I'm Team Messy and Complicated forever. I hope the games keep making Luxu even worse and more sympathetic and more tragic.

anyway thats my post i hope you liked it haha whee! i once again had to keep deleting detours and tangents about like. redemption arc flags, riku/terra/luxu parallels, luxu/MoM and luxu/xehanort parallels. but they were just that, tangents, and quite a lot of them were more headcanony/watsonian/speculative than i usually like to go with my Analysis. in any case thankyou for coming with me on this journey

[bluestarjay]

Spoilers for lord of the mysteries anime ‼️‼️ Here are my thoughts and feelings thus far:

(Btw I could just be a dumbass who didnt pay enough attention to what was happening or I'm just stupid and didn't grasp it all, Im entirely unfamiliar with the franchise i just started watching the anime with my brother and I'm really enjoying it despite it all 😓😓), but I just finished episode 5 of Lord of the Mysteries and Klein is so much better than me bc he deadass went from being a Chinese gamer guy who worked a corporate job in modern times and woke up a white man in a fantasy England covered in blood with a gun next to him and after immediately freaking tf out bc theres blood everywhere and a fucking gun he just accepts the situation???

He's like, ah yes, I've transmigrated, probably due to the luck enhancing ritual i tried. Strange shit but I suppose I'll just have to manage!! Like what?? I feel like all things considered, he accepted his situation so quickly??

Like he went from trains and cars and computers to fuckin horse drawn carriages and accepted it?? I dont recall him saying anything at all abt missing modern technology, unless i missed it bc of how,, busy,, the anime is. Like he hides the gun from Melissa and is immediately like, 'ok... well I'm Klein now and this is what I have to do' like bro doesn't care at all that he's been reincarnated into some guy's body?? Like valid reaction to the blood and gun and all the beyonder shit but nothing at all about the time period he's in??

He doesn't miss his phone at all?? His friends, his family?? I mean obviously his goal is to get back to earth but hes so,, nonchalant abt it,, he's not homesick at all???

If I were him I'd be screaming and crying and panicking bc wdym I'd have to live in what's basically a fantasy version of 18th-19th century Europe,,, That sounds fucking awful??? Bro just decided to fuck around and find out and play god as soon as he realized what was happening lmaooo

He seems to keep jumping into things without a full understanding of how they work and he's just learning as he goes. When he decided to go with the seer path bro didnt even really know what it meant but Roselle thought it was a good path and he said, yeah, checks out, imma do that one. In the gray fog realm place he didn't know wtf a beyonder was but Justice brought it up and he just let The Hanged Man talk about it and let them worship him as a kind of god bc he thought that was a good way of gaining useful information about this world 😭😭😭 like I don't blame him he's really clever and that was a smart way of going about it but it's kinda crazy to me that they didn't question it at all??

They're like, 'woah, you must be the god of this realm, can you tell me how to become a beyonder' but he doesn't know jack shit abt it and mr Hanged Man didn't hesitate to answer it himself, like if Klein *was* a god, surely he wouldve been able to answer the question himself, right?? Does that make sense?? He *just* so happened to have been spared by Hanged Man deciding to explain it himself, thus informing Klein of what it meant to be a beyonder and how to become one and wtv yk??

They didn't like verify his godhood or anything 😭😭 well, I suppose that mightve come off as a bit rude to assume that the 'god' theyre talking to isnt a real god, but also, in a world full of like, dark magic demon creatures or whatever, shouldn't they have tried to check if the Fool was a veritable god? Maybe im just thinking too much of it.

I'm well aware that the anime is really popular bc of the art style and animation, and that the only area it really lacks in is pace. Like the novels and stuff have a lot more information and the anime is very fast paced and confusing, and while I think plot wise I understand it pretty well, at least at surface level, those deeper details, especially surrounding transmigration and Klein's like, inner thoughts or personality or whatever are def lacking. Do the novels have a better inner voice for Klein surrounding his feelings about transmigration? Like does it talk about homesickness or anything? My brother is much more of an anime nerd than I am, so he's the one who really keeps up with stuff surrounding popularity and reviews and that sort of thing. He's unfamiliar with the franchise as well but he's certainly more familiar with it than I am lol.

[alithejjellyfish]

When i listen to podcasts i often miss a lot of stuff, maybe bc engilsh is not my first language or maybe bc i listen just to enjoy it and don’t pay attention to a lot of details, so when i listened to Hymns for the road up to ep 19 i didnt even get that there could be a 5th person and to get what happened in that episode i needed to read other peoples theories, so now i have been relistening to the whole podcast and here are all the mentions about 5th person („Clay”?) i found up to episode 7 (propably still missed some):

- ep 2 - Joan saying that „5 is a big group”

- ep2 - when asked if they made up the term „unclaimed” - „no… we heard it from somone… i dobt remeber who”

-ep2 - „where did u guys get champagne” „don’t remeber, one of us picked it up at some point” - one of them but noobody there remebers (i mean could be just durning summer or soemthing like that so they dont acually remeber but could be the 5th person aswell)

- ep5 - while talking about what they need to get - „wasn’t there something else? We were talking about it… not me, but someone was”

- ep6 - „i dobt remeber i think somone thought them to me” - copper when asked how she knows the signs of somwhere better - and that somone who thought them must have done it after the world changed so somone was with her before the party have got together

- ep7 - „why do you sit in a middle anyway?” „dobt know, too much stuff on the other side” - if there were four of them nobody would have to sit in the middle (driver, passanger, and 2 backseats). Amber says thers too much stuff but that doesbt sound convincing, if it was just stuff it would be more comfortable to put them in the middle, and why would Copper need to mobe to let Amber out

- ep 7 - „i dobt know, i think somone told me” - (about cats beeing the only animals not affected by the chamge) - again hinting about somone else who was with them after the world has changed

- also in one of the episodes following ep 19 Silver is suprised that they are considered a leader, but we see Silver kinda as the leader from the begining so it shouldnt be suprising unless Silver didnt used to be a leader the 5th person was,

I will update this when i relisten to the rest and i really need to pay more attention while listening to podcast bc i alays enjoy them so much but them i end up so confused with what is going on and get complytly lost 😭 but common i cannot be the only one like that

[spiralstereo]

I don’t know much about canon Mephiles, but the way you talk about them fascinates me. Care to share more? (For the ask game)

i willfrag you into mephiles fan hell. join us join us /silly also glad to know that our ramblings arent just incomprehensible ... & are intriguing to someone other then me !! sothank tou ... anywai ... onto the ask game

mephiles in canon is kinda ... boring & complicated at the same time - 06 was not good & it REALLY didnt do them justice ... or anyone justice really. but they are an interesting character to me - i do look at their canon counterpart in comparison to mine & think that they couldve been so much more , but there are alot of things to consider comparing the two

they are essentially two different characters at this point. different motives , different backgrounds , different everything. the canon mephiles is not as big & bad as ours & its because theyre from an E10+ RATED GAME

our entire interpretation of sonic the hedgehog as a series / franchise is WILDLY DIFFERENT. i just honestly call it a rewrite at this point. but the story still follows the main events & main games but its INTENDED for a mature audience

so. how do i feel about our interpretation of mephiles. mephistopheles. pointe even. i think they are fucking awful horrible - completely irredeemable but i LOVE THEM FOR IT. they are so open about it - they are not subtle in any way. they will make their business very clear but also not give you any details - they will tell you what they want & give you no warning for how they'll go about it & what they'll do. they hurt people & destroy things for the love of the game. theyre power hungry & they WANT - & they will do whatever it takes to get it. so yea. i love them alot i've fleshed out so much for them. 10/10 love this guy

for the second question ... i dont know if i genuinely. like actually ship anyone with them. just because of their nature i dont see them genuinely giving a shit about anyone !! i mean they have been married & divorced - but the only reason they actually do that shit - fusion deity stuff ykyk (solaris , etc.) is for power. they want to feel whole. they feel empty. something is missing

i have like ... crack ships ? i dont know what to call them exactly but i classify them as crack ships. but like mephiles & blaze (does anyone know yet) or mazin & mephiles (does anyone know / remember her. we swear we've shown / talked about our interpretation of her. shes an antagonist in our rewrite - specifically cd). i don't actually ship anyone with them but those two are funny to me & like. one or two other people. because i have not fully explained it to tumblr so. who knows /silly

same goes for non romantic OTP. nothing nice about them please kill them

unpopular opinion ... ohhh boy. might come off as controversial or smth but. not really related to ... them exactly ? but. i think 06 would have been alot better if. sega cut all that stuff with solenna & elise. the archduke & stuff. i dont know if its just me but i dont like elise. like at all. i also think they should have NEVER been able to split a deity like that especially solaris - & even if they tried they would have been eviscerated

i still have solenna existing in our rewrite / interpretation but it is not important or crucial to any of the main story. or any of the story really. its mentioned & it exists - but yea. also they arent humans. i believe humans (WITH THE EXCEPTION OF IVO !!!) make things really complicated & just really messy for the sonic in-canon universe. please just have mobian governments & military forces

for the last one ... i think mephiles killing sonic just for him to come back was kinda pointless. like yes they are capable but i think if you wanted to really show just how no-joke this guy is. let whoever they killed STAY DEAD. again i just dont rlly like elise & i also understand its an e10+ game but i am. myself. unfortunately i am myself

anywai. hope you didnt die reading & comprehending it. i hope nobody did. smiles

[castlebyersafterdark]

went on a mini interview rewatch spree after you posted that finn alpha clip. my secondhand brsment handling skills have improved a lot since being in this fandom haha

but i noticed that even when younger, finn and noah seemed to pay a lot of attention to each other. remembering details about the other's lives, being supportive of their work and interests, even finn doing accurate impressions of noah for endearing or comic reasons. you can tell by the way they looked at each other there was always a fascination, maybe it was grating when they were younger because there was the threat that they just might actually like each other.

i just think they've got lots of time for each other. which is really special and sincere. i wonder too if the opposite is true for millie in a way - i dont think there's any beef, but she doesnt seem to have a lot of time or sincerity in so many of their public appearances. she's on to the next question often. maybe she simply didnt have time for press itself. but i remember even before i was in the fandom i saw a puppy interview where she doesnt even know what noah is studying/going to study at college, and then seemed quite dismissive of it. it really struck me as odd that a close friend, let alone a best friend, wouldnt have known that.

You know, as much as we joke about it and analyze it, I think over exposure and getting used to certain antics is making certain types of features and videos easier to tolerate? Proud of myself for watching a concert clip and only clenching my teeth and not feeling my face heat up. You know what I love?? The segments where there was a question posed, it flashes on the screen, and then the cast member or members get into it there. Less of an awkward dialogue. I think a lot of it relies on how awkward and unnatural the conversation sounds like with so many bad interviewers. Or me not liking talk show hosts. I've found it's less what say Finn or Noah are doing of their own accord - more the situation or segment style that doesn't vibe. Love this stuff though, the human behavior and analysis stuff. Self reflection. It's fun for me, I'll admit.

I don't know. Well, I do know actually. One day I'll do my bid "hits and misses" / "entertaining / excruciating" review of interview and promo watching adventure.

To the meat of the ask: they really were quite in tune to what the other was doing or saying! Noah has this thing where he always seems to directly stare at the person who's speaking. Maybe not stare, but he watches the speaker. Finn avoids eye contact a lot, more anxious. I think that'll be something I'm going to analyze. Body language to each other in comparison to different people if more cast are involved in a segment.

But they certainly have each other down. Finn brings Noah up when he's not there, Noah mentions very specific things about Finn. It's noticeable, it's great. Noah especially seems to hoard info about the people around him. I think he cones avross not like someone who does, but it's true. He's an observer, seems a little like a people pleaser, definitely sensitive and thoughtful. Look at him writing personalized letters or cards for the entire cast at film wrap.

That is so weird Millie didn't even know what he was going to college for?? Hmm. I think that's simply how some people are though. Everything is surface level. Guarded. And that's that. Noah absolutely would be more the one in that friendship who makes time, gives cognitive consideration. There's some friends you hang out with and have a super fun time, can even consider them to be a best friend - but it's not mentally or emotionally deep. That's true. Every relationship is different...

[alexin-wonderlust]

Day 2 - Japan Blog - 8 February 2024

Disneyland

I promise this blog wont be as lengthy but I really wanted to share my tips about hot to get in to Japan; today we are off to Disneyland. Let's get it off the bat, first thing, straight to the good stuff. Starting the day with a Squeeze Squeeze (my favourite Orange Juice, it is the most pulpiest juice ever, it's like biting into an orange) we started the commute to Disneyland. 

Now; I wanted to get there early -- I didnt think ropedrop was necessary but apparently it was. I missed out on the Space Mountain priority pass AND the Enchanted Tales with Belle priority pass (the one you have to pay for...) I was actually blown away. The amount of planning I did; and that still wasnt enough to anticipate the crowd that was the day we attended. I managed to sweet talk one of the lovely Cast Members at Space Mountain and she gave me a Switch Rider Pass, arigato -- so I could come back and use that at a later time (just like a fast pass). Ben didnt want one because he isnt a "ride guy". Fair enough, but SPACE MOUNTAIN IS AMAZING -- if you are a ride guy and want to try something awesome, please give it a go. You wont regret. 

After being sad and chucking a tantrum about not being able to go on the ONE RIDE I SO BADLY WANTED TO RIDE... I was satiated with a cute pink Mickey beanie and Ben got the matching glasses (because Valentines Day is next week!!) and then we went on to Toontown to see the bits of the park we missed last time. 

This is my sixth visit to Tokyo Disneyland and while there have been some changes -- It's so nice to see it back to "normal" since COVID. When we visited in November 22, there was so much magic missing and there still is; ahem -- single riders line, paper maps... just to name a few. But there are also some good changes and the merch is back to being fun and cute. I really enjoyed shopping at Disneyland a lot more this time than I did in 2022. 

(Bring back single riders lines and paper maps because I need it!)

Ben got to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride which I have been raving about for years (it was closed for refurb last time) and we even got to have a beer before hand -- Since when can you drink beer in Disneyland!? This is new and I like it! Also, seeing snow (albeit dirty piles, I dont care!!) in the park is SO GOOD -- I had fun doing a squish!

For dinner, we settled on the Queen of Hearts Banquet which -- of course, was mediocre at best. But, I mean. Its a counter meal, it is easy, fun and the theming is cute. Although my phone battery was starting to deplete and the charge bank I brought with me turned out to be a pile of trash. 

Here's a TIP! If you are going to be spending the day out and about -- PLEASE CONSIDER BRINGING A FULLY CHARGED BATTERY BANK.

If you cant, there are some options; but Disneyland struggled to meet our needs and here's why.

-The charge spots are in Japanese. No issue, except I need my phone to translate and that drains battery.

-You need an APP to hire a battery bank. This is also in japanese and you cant translate it.

-You have to scan the QR code 3 or 4 times which means people are hanging around in the area, which is ANNOYING because therye in the way and you're stressing out because of the next point...

-It doesnt accept any other payment method except CREDIT CARD. Not debit card, not paypal linked to a credit card, not apple pay. It has to be "enter your CREDIT card details" to make a payment.

This was very frustrating because by the time I had located the charge spot; tried about 3 times; downloaded the app, created an account, tried to link my debit card, paypal, etc... my battery is now on 2%. EEP! 

HOW TO FIX; I went to the HOME STORE next to the American Waffle Co near the Main Street and they sell battery packs for approximately 2900YEN. Which was about $30AUD. This thing was amazing. It had enough charge to fill both ben and my phone to at least 60% and get us through until back to the hotel. Thank you Disney! :)

I wanted to keep this short so I will just say the next things in dot point form:

-Minnies Funderland promo is super cute but the girls hogged the picture spots and there were massive line ups for the special foods all day.

-Got some super cute pictures at Golden Hour at the castle. 

-Ben got his sherrif pin for winning the Shooting Gallery and getting 10 shots in a row!

-Rides we went on were Space Mountain, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean

-The electrical parade is amazing but its TOO COLD -- the fireworks were bloody pitiful. Sorry, but they suck.

Then we start the long trek through the crowd back to the hotel (this is why I prefer to stay onsite when I go to Disneyland... its just easier for a hotel thats not much more expensive...!)

On the way back we found a supermarket and I stocked up on some "healthier" options; like a banana and I organised myself a bath and a face mask for my first relaxation, pamper session. One of my favourite things to do in Japan. While I was in the bath; Ben went to the 7/11 and they had an onigiri which has now plagued my brain -- pork and wasabi. I need more and I need them all.

[expired-blueberries]

hi i was the reboot massacre anon. it wasnt only you there were a couple people i was responding to. thank you for answering though!! youve got some interesting insights (i mean this genuinely)

im gonna be real i forgot a lot of details because it's been a While since i gave up. i had like a vague memory of starting to like the rich kid villain but then feeling like that stopped and didnt end up going much anywhere? i guess that mustve been "starting to get more backstory but then he didnt show up again forever."

also i worded the kevin and albedo thing badly: i did like new kevin for the most part actually, he was interesting. i was more disappointed about lack of albedo, since he was one of my absolute favorites. that one is on me for just clinging to old continuity.

but there are a lot of new designs i like too. most of the blue energy fused versions of aliens were really cool, as were kevin's corrupted/upgraded versions, and even that steampunk xlr8 that was only in like one episode. im not just like Unilaterally Hating Things That Are New theres a lot of neat stuff in the reboot

i dont think most of my complaints are with old vs new continuity. my biggest issues were just feeling like theres a lot of inconsequential filler, flat characters, and confusing or lacking motivations. to me, most episodes felt like EITHER the writers/producers didnt respect the characters/world enough to fully think through the logic of what characters are doing or what impact they have on the worldbuilding (my initial lizard-brain emotional reaction), OR theyre being forced to churn out so MANY episodes one after another that they dont have time to give "minor details" as much thought (my later conclusion after thinking on it). but maybe this gets better in later seasons though! thats why i was thinking i might try again.

in particular, the way you describe ben's reaction to the knight (i remember there being the beginnings of a new knight villain) is interesting to me, even if max's reaction is odd. because the fact that ben shows panic at all feels like more character depth than i ever saw in the early eps. like thats interesting to me because theyre really considering the consequences of how an actual ten year old (or anyone really!!) might actually react to someone powerful so easily and repeatedly swatting him aside. even original ben didnt get to be afraid very often. makes the characters feel more real if they can have negative reactions to things.

Aww, hey anon, great to see you again! Hope you're doing well~

Sadly, you're right that Billy (rich kid villain) didn't show up much again after he started getting insights into his backstory. Even when he did, any forward progress he could've made was quickly torn away from him. I can think of at least two times he could've had some character growth, and, indeed, even HAD character growth, only for said growth to then be rescinded for the end-of-episode gag. He pretty much ended the series the same as he started it, which is a total tragedy. I hope if the reboot timeline is continued in the future that they make him a full-fledged friend of the Tennysons, but I also doubt it'll happen  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I also totally get what you mean by missing Albedo! He's such a cool guy, and I think the reboot could've done something really fascinating with him if they added him to the cast. I'm not sure if it would've been something good, necessarily, but definitely interesting all the same. Personally, I'm okay with him not being in the reboot (despite how much I like him), just because I really enjoyed the cast that we already had, and I'd be worried that we would have to get rid of one character just to add Albedo. But I definitely get wishing he were in the reboot! I've seen a lot of fanart of him in the reboot style, because a lot of people feel the same as you!

I agree with the complaints about inconsequential filler. Unfortunately, the reboot is stuffed to the brim with it. I guess that's what happens when you only have ten minutes and an episodic cartoon style to tell a story... sadly, you have to spend most of that time doing absolutely nothing new. I'm glad that your conclusion is different than your original perspective, though! From what I've seen of the crew that worked on the show, it seems like a lot of them really respect the franchise and enjoyed the characters (Kelly Turnbull in particular has had the best tweets talking about it IMO). I definitely understand the initial kneejerk reaction of thinking that they disrespected the franchise and didn't care about the story, especially in the shock of moving from the prime timeline to the reboot timeline, but I'm glad you moved on from that thought! For a lot of prime timeline fans who tried reboot and dropped it, it seems like that initial kneejerk reaction is what stopped a lot of them, so I totally get it.

Although I disagree with thinking the characters are flat and have confusing or lacking motivations, I also understand where you get that idea from. The episode format (ten minutes long, mostly just jokes and action sequences for a large amount of the show) definitely doesn't do it any favor, and a lot of the time the only time you can get actual character depth is when you're least expecting it, or else in a special/movie. That's definitely one of the downsides of reboot. Some of the characters, like Max, are pretty one-dimensional, too, I'm sad to say. Kids cartoons nowadays often seem to dumb-down the adults, which is tragic.

Ultimately, I think a lot of the depth of reboot comes from having to do a bit of deeper thinking on your own, rather than just accepting what the reboot gives you. Like, yeah, Billy seems pretty flat on the surface, but then you have to think about how dismissive his parents are, how it seems like there's nobody in the world who truly cares about him, and how it's obvious deep down that he genuinely wants friendship but is never allowed to get it, and he's pretty interesting. Or, Charmcaster just seems like some kid who ran away from home to live out her witchy dreams, but then you look a little deeper and realize she was being groomed and predated upon by a being that was centuries old and only using her as a battery, and suddenly her vitriol at the world starts to make sense. A lot of the depth, you have to connect dots to find it. It's there! But it's hidden. Personally, I enjoy doing that sort of deep searching. It's in my nature to overthink everything. But I definitely understand why you might not have noticed it on first watch, especially if you didn't watch the right episodes.

I think you are pretty correct on your later deduction, that they don't have enough time to give the little details attention thanks to the sheer amount of episodes they had to put out. They make a pretty good big picture, but the small picture does lack, unfortunately.

If I could be so bold as to suggest what to watch? If you find that you really can't sit through the entire reboot, but you really do want to see why some people (like me) sing its praises so highly, I suggest you skip almost the entirety of the first season, picking up on the season finale (Omni-Tricked parts 1-4). From there, season finales, specials, and the movie are good to watch. I also suggest all of the Forever Knight episodes, because every episode with him in it that I can remember furthers the plot of his arc. I would also watch the Michael Morningstar episodes. Not all Kevin episodes are necessary to watch, but I find they're almost always some of the most enjoyable, so I suggest just watching all of them. Charmcaster episodes are usually pretty good. I personally like the Billy episodes, but like we've already discussed, his character doesn't really go anywhere permanently, always losing its gains by the end of the episode. Episodes with Phil are usually pretty good, or at least okay, and I'm pretty sure at least a few of them advance the plot or hint at backstory. Really, I've seen at least two posts on two different social media sites about plot-based episodes of the reboot to watch, so if you looked it up on Google, you could probably find them and have a better idea of what to watch!

Honestly, the thing a lot of people don't realize about reboot, is that it actually does a pretty fantastic job (imho) of handling serious topics and the characters negative emotions. That episode with the Knight is one example, but if you want another example, then I'll humbly point you to the Ben 10,010 special. In said special, we see Ben in the future as a washed up and burnt out hero, living a solitary life away from all friends and family. This is the future that he eventually ends up at after all his years of heroics, and I think it's the most realistic; what person could grow up normal after being forced to become a hero so young? After living through unimaginable horrors? After having the very universe itself thrust onto their shoulders? In the end, my greatest complaints with that special is that we don't see future Kevin as a human, we don't see Glitch in his humanoid form, and Ben does the loathsome "gains a lot of weight while depressed but he loses it all at the end to show that he actually is all better now!" trope. But this special and that episode aren't the only ones we see the characters deal with negative emotions! I know Gwen has an episode where she handles feeling unappreciated and uncared for, and Ben actually has another episode featuring the Knight where he deals with negative emotions like not being trusted by his family and not being listened to. On its face, reboot doesn't look like it would ever handle these topics, but it does, and I think it does a pretty great job of it! They're usually resolved pretty quickly, but what can you expect from a ten minute long episodic series?

Haha, sorry again for the word spam, but yeah! Like I said before, I totally understand if you try reboot again and still end up not liking it. It isn't for everybody, and that's totally okay! That said, I hope that if you DO end up giving it another chance, you enjoy it! Who knows, stranger things have happened, right? Like an alien watch falling to Earth and giving a random ten year old the power to shapeshift

[prettysaurusrex]

i miss how you made me smile, i miss how we could talk to each other for hours without actually saying anything, i miss our late night texts, i miss our "i like you a lot", i miss the feeling we had at the beginning when we couldnt say what we wanted to say and we had to be careful with words, i miss the times you blocked me at the beginning but eventually came back to me, i miss your voice, i miss watching you streaming, i miss those streams where i could watch you reacting to everything i was texting you, i miss our small details for each other, i miss your reactions, i miss the little silly things we made ours, i miss the pain we endured twice because even though it was ending, you were there, i miss being able to complain about everything and you would laugh and make me smile again, i miss you waiting for me to come home to play and text, i miss you taking pics of yourself, i miss the push and pull we had until we expressed each other what we felt, i miss the flame we had, i miss the sync we had, i miss my perfect timing to make you smile and stay out of your complicated mind, i miss everything about you, i miss the times you helped me with my new account, i miss comforting you, i miss you needing me, i miss you loving me, i miss everything, i miss the whole us, i miss every part of our story, i miss the bad and good times, i miss being able to tell you anything, i miss asking for your opinion and advice, i miss the feeling that you were close to me physically even in such distance....

Im missing you right now, at fucking 2:50am, alone in my room and with my mind, typing stuff here you will probably never see, i dont blame or hate you, it is just i dont know what to do anymore, nothing brings me joy and i even have doubts about buying that old car i told you about, im not in the mood for anything, my life is going forward fast and i havent even lived it neither im living it.

I wish you could have waited some months more, i feel like you only saw one path and you focused on it so much that you didnt consider other solutions or options in case something went slightly wrong or different. Maybe it was my fault for not being more talkative and thoughtful, maybe both of us could have insisted to consider everything and alternative ways to everything.

Maybe not blocking me was a better option because i dont think this is helping at all but i hope it works for you even though i really doubt it is, blocking doesnt stop me or you thinking about each other. You coming back is also so complex, we would have to work on eveything again to see if we could work and be like we used to but again, you cant overcome your fears and concerns for me and i really understand how difficult that debate is for you.

I actually wish and hope you manage to move on but at the same time i dont want you to and i hate myself for being like this. I have a constant war between heart and mind, it is like i accept you arent coming back but at the same time i think no no no no, shes coming back. Not having you is destroying me and if you return and i have you, you wont be mine and that will also destroy me too.

I will be happy for you but i know that happiness wont overcome my sadness and i dont think i ll be strong enough to be like that, i ll probably crumble when i see im not the one with you. Im very afraid of having you and im very afraid of not having you. I dont want to ruin your life

Well, good night, i ll try to get some rest or find something to watch. All my thoughts could be better expressed with you also texting me but its not possible

[hauntedtotem]

i had such a good dream and I woke up right before I was about to kill this guy 💔

(it's ok it was deserved)

It starts out with me back in 6th grade at 11 yrs old again, but I have my adult brain and all my memories still so I'm like. "Fuck this I'm not doing schoolwork all over again/not gonna sit here and be belittled and talked down to bc everyone thinks I'm a kid" so I leave my English class, one of the teachers i didnt like starts following me because, y'know, kids can't just walk out of school- I'm taking all these extra hallways and doors that don't exist irl, telling her im an adult and trying to lose her.

Whatever, boring stuff- then I hear other teachers talking about a special field trip my class won to [redacted location] where they'll get to fly in a helicopter. And I get a final destination vision where the helicopter crashes (but everyone is fine), so I'm like. Perfect, I can take some money, go on this field trip, and escape during the commotion so I don't have to relive 6th grade.

I wasn't eligible to go but snuck on the train anyways, and the ticket guy on the train was also the operator for this helicopter thing we were doing? He asks for my ticket, I give him a crumpled up carnival ticket I found in my pocket and he's pissed, but we're already at the location so what're you gonna do, that's all I got.

Apparently because I wasn't supposed to be on this trip and no one back home knew where I was, I was reported missing and had to hide my identity. This guy was speaking outloud to our group saying if any of us are a runway then we're "selfish little bastards that deserve to suffer."

Guy was super angry about it, idk.

I sneak onto the copter, and for some reason the city was like Venice and had rivers and waterways everywhere, and one of my classmates is saying it's the river styx and freaking out about all the bodies floating down. I didn't see dead bodies, just regular people swimming around in tubes. so I was like, "dude I think that's just a lazy river". But he was adamant they were corpses/souls in anguish, (and considering the events later on in the dream his perception was probably right, but it looked normal to me?)

So, copter crashes like in the vision, I had an umbrella to shield from the shattered glass of the front window. My classmates are perfectly fine, I escape the wreckage in the commotion. I go to this other area next to the crash site with a piranha infested lake, and the angry ticket guy's stuff is there, which I throw into the lake and let it get eaten by the piranha because the guy was an asshole and yelled at me for the whole trip.

Then I swim across while the fish are distracted, there's this big marble alter on the other side. It's like a cathedral-style mausoleum or something? I hoist myself out of the lake, entering this alter.

I hear the ticket guy across the lake, pissed about his stuff being thrown in and he's talking to my coach (who was chaperoning our field trip) about how he was going to kill me, with great detail and very enthusiastically.

I can hear this all the way from inside this weird little occult place I entered, the inside is grimy and only contains this small square hole, that was a chute to somewhere. He knows I'm there, and I hear him all giddy about how he gets to throw me down the chute.

So im like, what's in the chute?? So I jump down myself, and it's like a straight drop into a body pit. It's so clogged up with the amount of corpses in there, so you don't even make it to the pit, you just get stuck in the chute and starve while being forced to lay in decomp with hundreds of rotting bodies under you, and you can't climb back out. Guy has been throwing kids down here for who knows how long.

So I'm pissed now, because this dude was going to kill what he thought was an 11 yr old child, just because I didn't pay for a train fair and threw his man-purse in a lake. And he's clearly a serial child murderer from how many bodies he had stacked in this little sacrificial pit- I assume because the location it had to be some sort of ritualistic cult thing? And maybe tied into the river styx thing going on outside idk.

Little does he know, I'm not actually a small human child, so my body contorts, limbs bending at all sorts of angles to climb out of the chute, and i hide in the rafters while he gets to the alter and walks in.

He walks in laughing, thinking he's about to kill some defenseless kid, but I'm right above him in the rafters ready to scare the shit out of him and throw his ass down the chute myself. Im sitting up there looking like an uncanny edit of the Russian Sleep Experiment animatronic, doing a worse version of the grudge crawl like:

And I am soo ready to see his reaction, and get revenge for all those victims. And then I wake up before I can even show off that I'm not human :(((

[summerlycoris]

Bingo.

Like, I remember Chazington and Quinnamon both making videos about 'What if Vanny was an Afton fangirl?' (Though I'd argue those vids were more analysis, based off what was common thought/ what was known at the time.)

And Chazingtons vid?

His main case was he wanted Vanny to be the main villain. One of his main gripes was her lack of screen time and story presense. He didn't want Afton (or the Mimic- who he just considered to be Afton again) to come back- he wanted Vanny to be the main villain.

Like, he recommended her to be a serial killer fangirl. Because he figured that would allow for Afton to not come back. And would give Vanny more focus.

"At this point, I just don't like it being William Afton again. But hey- it's setting up a new villain at least (...)"

If Vanessa had got more time? More emphasis in the story? A actual boss battle? If burntrap wasnt the final boss and presumed canon ending in the basement at the time?

He probably wouldve been more on board for what he called "mind control shit." Because it wouldn't have been shit.

Quinnamon's vid?

He's not the biggest fan of the way the franchise has headed after HW in general. Like above he complains that Vanny isn't easily recognisable as the main villain in sb- all the other threats are in the game more often.

"This character was hyped up as the main villain for this game for over a year."

He misunderstood some stuff from hw, but analysed the trailers for sb pretty well. And from what I've seen of peoples reactions to them, this was what a lot of people got from the trailers- Vanny's going to be an important villain, she may or may not be related to Vanessa, and Vanessa's going to be the heroine, at least helping Gregory to escape. Like I put in my tags above- he gets confused about Patient 46 and think's theyre Vanny, instead of GGY.

You could be uncharitable snd be like 'he doesnt know anything about these games and he's talking about them like he does' but like. These errors are the same errors a casual fan will likely make, and HAVE made. Before GGY released, how many people considered 'Patient 46= Gregory' to be the most likely option? How many people have played HW? How many people have played SB? How many have read ALL the books? (I havent read all the books. I havent beaten hw.)

Versus how many people have watched Markiplier play hw, and sb? And listened to Matpat saying Gregory and Vanessa are robots without realizing theyre missing something?

Anyway I'm getting off topic. He uses these misunderstandings of the story as his basis for why he's suggesting Vanny as a William Afton obsessed fangirl.

I don't agree with his take, but I can see how he got there. If the story of sb had been written better, he may have come to different conclusions.

Like. Both these vids were released before Ruin. Before all the pizzaplex books came out. Before HW2. Both vids understand that the villian of sb is supposed to be the Mimic, but none really respect it as an antagonist- seeing it as Afton again, a cop out. These vids came out before we had proof that sb's developement was hell- that Scott hadn't commmunicated vital information with steel wool.

At this point I think I'm just circling a point without being able to make it so I'm gonna stop here.

Edit- fuck i forgot the AR emails. How many casual fans played AR? And would they have found the emails even if they had- didnt some of the latest ones showing Ness spreading the pizzaplex virus only get added in properly just before the game shut down? I remember to get the story for them off the wiki, I had to alternate between reading released emails, and 'scrapped' (iirc) emails.

And like, even people who AREN'T casual fans screw up details/analysis. Vanessa never worked at Silver Parasol games. But this trips people up a LOT. Tape girl says "I hope the next developement team finds this." She also mentions a buyout, and how a new developement studio wants to pick up the game. She also mentions how she wouldn't know the next person listening to these tapes- Vanessa's part of an unnamed (possibly Fazent, like how Disney has a in house game studio) game developement studio. Plus, she wasnt listed as a Silver Parasol employee on that scrapped website mockup- but Dale and Jeremy were, along with two other women, one of who could be tape girl.

I’m so very tired

[violentdevotion]

for my poetry class last semester we had to write an elegy and the way the class was formatted was youd submit the poem on Sunday and by Wednesday you needed to have read, analysed and had notes and questions on everyone's poem. And I was bricking it the entire seminar because I was the last person to submit one id be the last to get feedback. And then someone starts the discussion and says thats 'its very clear that you miss her' and then everyone else starts using she/her, and then my lecturer says 'the way you describe her, or him, it doesn't matter.' Except it did matter cos the first stanza specified the gender of the subject. So it became very clear that they didn't read it properly if they were confused on pronouns. Anyway I stopped putting effort into that class 🤪

[mayullla]

Hello

I hope you're doing great and having a good day

May i request Albedo🍀🦋?

I hope i didnt miss anything

-thank you very much

Title: Momentary Paradise

Character(s): Albedo (Genshin Impact) Summary: He always had this dream of you long before he could even open his eyes. Your arms was like a paradise to him in those moments but he wanted it to be forever. Warnings/tags: Yandere themes, fem!reader, reader is 'similar' to Albedo~

[ - A little present~! Event - Closed - ]

Albedo always had this dream that never left his mind. It was long before he was able to open his eyes and see the world and walk with two feet.

When he was still inside a vial sleeping ever so soundly.

Was it a dream or not he wasn't sure, sometimes he would dream of it again, when he was so tired after a long day's work or when he felt the world was too heavy for him to burden. Your voice was soft and gentle, hands holding him ever so gently. The soft warmth that wrapped around him, he could not forget.

It was a kind of momentary paradise for him. As every day he hoped to see you again as he close his eyes, disappointed when he wasn't able to and the sun rise.

Yet with each passing day, his dreams become blurry of you. Each day he feels like a small detail fades to nothing, a blurred mess that he didn't want it to be. He never forgot, yet the fear of forgetting made him scared as he wondered if he did. Your eyes were clear in his mind yet at the same time so hard to grasp.

He remembers each and every single detail of what you look like, shown on the portrait he was slowly painting as if to put every single detail of you within it. To case it that he might forget, that these thoughts would one time eat him alive.

Every strand of hair, eyelash, the memories of your eyes and your skin were still vivid in his mind. The warm touch of your care. Patiently he painted every single detail but inside his heart he was impatient. His creator Gold didn't know who you were, raising her eyebrow in interest at his words when he told you who you were.

Pausing he took a step back to admire his work. He could not help but feel a little disappointed as he looked at the drawing. What oil paint could not make was natural heat, what it could not make was movement nor could it make sounds.

Not yours.

Instead of continuing tho, he placed his paintbrush down cleaning his hand from the paint and chalk. He heard the sounds of the steps and voices familiar to him one that belonged to the soft-spoken Sucrose and the high pitch Paimon. He assumed that the traveler was there too as they and Paimon were almost never apart.

"Albedo we are back from our travel! We also ran into Sucrose while heading up the mountain." The high-pitched voice of Paimon called out his name. Glancing at the portrait for a moment he left the room to greet the visitors and who he considers as friends.

"Albedo here are the materials that you asked for! Paimon and Traveller had a hard time finding half of this stuff so the pay better be good." Paimons placed her hands on her waist, with a pout narrowing her eyes at him.

"I don't know how you managed to find out where so many of these materials are and how to find them otherwise the traveler and I would be running in circles getting nothing done."

Albedo greeted the traveler taking the bag that he had asked them to store the ingredients when they found them. What was once light and with empty compartments now was heavy. Checking if they have found everything that he asked he looked at Paimon and smiled at her.

"Do not worry Paimon. I made sure to pay extra for all your troubles." Albedo chuckled as he watched Paimon perk up, her eyes excited.

"You better! After traveling the desert and climbing the highest mountains I want to eat the most delicious food of all of Teyvat now! I want to eat sweet madame, chicken-mushroom skewer, and fisherman's toast!" Paimon nodded smiling happily at the thought of the money that would soon be used to fill her stomach. While the traveller could not help but sigh at her antics still a small smile on their lips as they tease their little companion.

Albedo chuckled, grabbing a bag filled with mora he handed them their commission fee. "Thanks again for procuring this for me. With this, my experiment would be able to make some progress." Albedo told them.

Paimon tilts her head at what he said, curious as to why he would need such rare materials for research "If you don't mind me asking. What are you experimenting to need so many rare materials?" Paimon asked leaning a little more forward.

"Hmmm, I am afraid that I can't say. This is rather personal for me so it would be hard to say. Sorry, Paimon." Albedo apologized, to which Paimon quickly waved her hands "Don't worry about it, I was just curious that is all. If you don't wanna say anything, you don't have to!" Paimon told him, waving her hand at him.

After some tea and catching up the traveler and Paimon started to head down the mountain not before offering Albedo if he wanted to join them. "You sure you don't want to join us? We are gonna eat a ton of delicious food, join us! More the merrier!" Paimon flew a little higher excited at the thought of food again (the snacks were nice but not enough for her) but Albedo shook his head.

"Thank Paimon, but with the materials now here I want to get everything started."

"All right, well see yeah Albedo! Message us when you need help again or just wanna hang out!"

Albedo watched them head down the mountain till he could no longer see them before he started heading up the mountain with the materials on hand, a narrow and dangerous road he walked higher and higher up the mountain till he reached a small cave that no one knows about...

... all except him.

Walking in he walked towards a blank wall, he moved steps that he had memorized a long time ago and at the last step, pulling a lever hidden behind a wall of ice the wall groaned and rumbled. What was once a wall now showed a pathway.

After waiting for a little while when all the rumbling stopped Albedo walked in before the wall closed again. Walking in the dark, the place brightened by the flickers of torches. He reached deep within the cave, and there stand a woman silently sleeping in a casket.

Surrounded her were flowers that wither slower than normal flowers, reaching the casket Albedo examined the flowers before placing the bag of materials that he had gotten from the traveler and Paimon. "I should change the flowers soon, they are starting to brown around the edges."

Walking closer he looked at you, your eyes closed as if you were really sleeping.

However, there was no pulse. There was no movement.

You looked like a timeless doll, beautiful and fragile, so well taken care of. Raising his hand he touched your face cold as ice. "I am back..." Abedo whispered softly, examining your skin... even cold looked real.

"I was finally able to acquire all the remaining materials needed." Albedo continued to whisper softly, softly rubbing your cheek and slipping his hand down to your neck where there was a yellow diamond just like his on the center of your neck.

Just a little bit more, and you would finally wake up and all the experiments he had done for years would be worth it. Just a little bit more and you would look at him with those lovely eyes and laugh in that soft gentle voice in his arms.

This time you and he would be together forever instead of a short paradise.

[pinktoonie]

Haven't seen anyone talk about this so I will because to me it seems like the biggest obstacle in Rei and Kazuki's relationship and an important through line in the show.

Here comes a long, unpolished post.

As far as Miri goes, the family unit has been established and the two dads are settling in and relaxing into their roles almost a year into having Miri. Ep 7, 8, and 9 established that Kazuki, Rei, and Miri in that order respectively are in this family thing for life 100%.

But we still have 4 episodes left.

Obviously angst is coming, but along with that, Kazuki and Rei still need to address this barrier between them.

Listen to me. These lines from episode 3 have been nagging me since they were first said. They're IMPORTANT.

"I won't ask."

"I wouldn't tell."

The context here is Rei and Kazuki talking about their pasts. Whenever Kazuki brings up a tidbit about his past, Rei will agree if it also applies to him, but he will not elaborate, and Kazuki won't ask him to. Kazuki knows the gist about Rei's family. Who they are and what they do. He doesn't know how badly Rei was/is treated. He can see the scars. I doubt he's ever brought them up though.

"I won't ask."

"I wouldn't tell."

It's a constant in their relationship. But this lack of communication is problematic for two people who have decided to spend their lives together and raise a child.

Here's another example from episode 8

Rei here is bleeding from his forearm. The show even has him pose in a way to show us that it's clearly within Kazuki's line of sight.

But Kazuki doesn't ask. Because Rei wouldn't tell.

However concerned he may be, he doesn't bring it up. He doesn't know where Rei was that night or why he's injured. He can assume it had something to do with his family, which should be worrying in itself. Kazuki is endlessly patient and understanding, but that's not fair to him.

The show even makes it a point to bring this issue up again in the same episode:

So where do we go from here?

There will need to be a moment in the show, where Kazuki WILL ask, and Rei WILL tell.

Or Rei will just open up on his own without prompting. What Rei will tell Kazuki, we don't know, but it'll be something that matters. Something important.

What could it be?

My predictions:

Rei opens up about his past abuse in detail to Kazuki to fully make him understand what his father is capable of (because of the upcoming danger)

Kazuki gives Rei some sort of ultimatum, which results in Rei admitting something, whether that's "I love you", "I need you", or some sort of confirmation that he has no intention of leaving Kazuki's side, not just Miri.

They just have a moment where they open up to each other just because they're simply changing and comfortable enough to talk about the past now. "You didnt matter much to me" is the closest we've gotten.

A "what are we?" convo.

Regardless of the reason, narratively it will have to happen before Rei and Kazuki can move forward with their relationship, whatever that entails. But this lack of communication and vulnerability with each other is what's holding them back.

Lastly, this may be completely unrelated because the show is set in Japan but still caught my eye.

"I won't ask."

"I wouldn't tell."

Sounds a hell of a lot like the old, "Don't ask, don't tell" policy in the USA, which basically stated that non heterosexual members of the military must keep their damn mouth shut about their sexuality. No openly queer people.

Which if we apply it to Rei and Kazuki's unclear partnership... Fitting.

And also considering Rei's homophobic ass speech about carrying on the family and Kazuki sullying Rei's blood (which literally implies he thinks they're sleeping together because the only way to "sully blood" is through sexually transmitted infections), seems like the organization might've also had a sort of, don't ask don't tell policy.

I'm sure I've missed stuff, but these are the points that have been stuck in my brain. All in all, whatever this important thing that Rei will tell Kazuki is, it'll be the catalyst for taking their relationship to the next level of "partnership."

[cattyanon]

Sonic and Knuckles role swap AU (sorry it took awhile, i had difficulties and am currently trying not to fall asleep and fuck up this post if I haven't)

Okay so I thought real hard about it and the most changes are in relation to Sonic. To be fair I don't exactly have an official backstory to work with. Anyways I'll give a quick rundown on personality changes of Knuckles and then we'll dive into Sonic stuff.

Knuckles personality changes:

-Much more outgoing

-Doesnt jump to conclusions as much.

-Just generally not as hotheaded and gruff tbh??

Sonic personality changes:

-More closed off.

-Not as cheery.

-Not as confident.

-Suspicious of everyone and everything. Mostly at the start.

-Isn't very hopeful due to backstory reasons.

-Will quickly jump to conclusions if it seems like his friends and/or family are in danger. Also due to backstory reasons.

-Isnt as expressive. (Does this count??)

NOW FOR (eventually angsty) BACKSTORY TIME.

Sonic lives with his tribe on Angel Island, where any contact with the outside/below world is forbidden.

His Uncle Chuck (who will play an important role in Sonic's life) had never liked the rule. He didnt broadcast it but he definitely wasnt subtle. One day he tells Sonic, not wanting him to think he might've died, that he's going to be leaving. He explains that he'd been secretly and slowly working on a project (a plane but he doesn't know that's the name for it yet) for a while. Testing with smaller models first, he eventually built up to making a big version. A flying machine, he called it. A way to go and explore the below world.

Naturally Sonic had begged to be taken with. He wanted to see the below world too!

Uncle Chuck told him he couldn't come with. Sonic was much too young and he still had family and friends that would miss him dearly. Sonic wouldn't relent though, eventually forcing Uncle Chuck to come up with a compromise.

They could send each other letters by Flicky. Since Sonic had a bunch of Flicky friends it wasn't hard to convince them. With his affinity for the wind he could totally guide them back to the island. Plus they'd get to see some of the below world, isn't that just cool?!

So after going over some more details he eventually leaves. Sonic is really sad about it and realizes too late that he should've asked what to tell the tribe. Luckily for Sonic, Uncle Chuck having already thought about it, he left some letters explaining his decision.

Not long after word gets around about Uncle Chuck's departure, Sonic becomes an outcast in multiple ways.

What Chuck did was considered taboo and, due to being a small and tightknit community, everyone knew how close Sonic was to him. And Sonic still seemed to care about Chuck even though he'd committed a sin. If it weren't for the fact he was child, the adults probably wouldn't have been very understanding and let it slide.

Kids on the other hand weren't as understanding. They relentlessly bullied him. Unfortunately the adults didn't really care. While they might not have punished him they certainly weren't very fond of him anymore. Where he had once been considered the most promising warrior they had and was the pride of his tribe, he was now shunned by everyone but his family. An outcast.

Sonic became reclusive and depressed, which then increased tenfold when "the incident" took place.

He had been reading and then writing a reply letter to Uncle Chuck near the place they said their goodbyes. A secret place that was farthest away from the community. A place far away from what would happen to his tribe that day...

Sonic came back to a massacre.

Everyone was dead. He had scoured the entire island in hopes of finding anyone alive to no avail.

He was alone now. The last of his tribe.

And the only one could fulfill his tribe's sacred duty to guard the Emeralds.

One by one and day by day, he managed to make an entire graveyard for his tribe. It was a horrid and daunting task that took him months but he couldn't stand to see the corpses every day while guarding the altar.

Sonic became a shell of his former self. He felt so hollow now, all he really did was guard the altar. Thankfully his animal companions were there. If it weren't for them he might've truly lost himself. But no matter how hard they tried nothing would be able to fill the hole in his heart.

Years go by and eventually Sonic has fully dedicated himself to guarding. He doesn't read or write to Uncle Chuck anymore. Doesn't go on long runs or take his time during them. Being traumatized and having nobody to talk to causes him to go mute.

Then Robotnik, Knuckles, and Miles came to his island...

I tried so hard to type what happens next with parlt, which Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails but.I can't decide on anything right now. Although i will share what I do know with a small sentence cause I'm literally starting fall asleep. Keep pressing random letters. Anyways here's the angst tidbit:

Sonic sees the plane they came in and he recognizes it as his Uncle Chuck's. He jumps to the conclusion they stole it and probably hurt his Uncle Chuck to do so.

[cynettic]

I just read Kitsune reader x yan Scaramouche's fic, may I have gotten hooked on it? and of course, it's just perfect and that's why I'm here to lose a part two with nsfw, thank you in advance and understand if you refuse:3

Link to Part 1

Summary - Taking you captive, Scaramouche continues to see you as a pillar of support. Coming back home to have you there, always. Even if it meant chaining you up.

Pairings - F!Kitsune!Reader x Yan!Scaramouche

Warnings - Smut, slight noncon ( I tried to make it as consensual as possible but its difficult with yandere themes ), fingering, electricity play

Rating - NSFW

Penpal - Ahhh I'm actually beginning to get attached to this series, might end up writing a couple more posts with different hc and stuff. I hope you liked the post though, have a great day <3

A/N - The literal definition of the ‘stoic cruel boy who’s mean to everyone but you.’ Oh well, Scaramouche is ooc af, but I did change a few things in his backstory so its supposed to make sense for this story ;) Also- since we dont know Scaramouche’s actual name, I have the reader still… yknow, call him Scaramouche. Which is kinda weird cause its his harbinger name but oh well. Also, credit to @cycletr4in for proofreading it ;3

Taglist - @cursedraiden

Stay with Me pt.2

Scaramouche was a gentle captor.

In contrast to piercing eyes and harsh stares when it came to others, he had a soft spot for you. Like the ice that encased him whole melted at your touch, craving for the warmth only you could give him. For your arms around him, to play pretend and imagine he were a child, free, fearless, unbound. A child in your arms, safe and protected.

But you were held hostage, which meant that the chains around your wrists and legs held you down and secured you. Like you were bound to one spot like you’d always been, except this time you didn't have a choice.

You weren't waiting for the Kitsune Saiguu.

Hell, you didn't even have your vision.

This brought on resentment for the dark haired boy. You hated him, you despised him for holding you down under his own judgment. But at the same time, all you saw in him was a child, a little kid who hadn't had the time to grow up. The one who refused to do so because it was his only way to survive in the type of world he lived in. Hide behind that same facade he developed as a kid, snide remarks and unrelenting cruelty.

Just to come back to your arms, sobbing because he was still that child. Sobbing because he was still hurt. Sobbing because you were still his beacon of light, of hope.

He depended on you.

And as much as you built up harsh words to use against him, they dissolved in your mouth when you saw him. His vulnerability that he saved for you and you only. A deep part of you cared for him, a little too much.

Gentle fingers brushed through the locks of Scaramouche’s hair, twirling it around and playing with the strands. It was smooth, a small detail no one would have the chance to notice from the distance he put around himself and others. A quiet hum left his lips as he leaned against your chest, eyes fluttering closed against the soothing feeling of you against him.

The lavish silk sheets were soft against your skin, pillow pushing your form to sit up. Just enough to have Scaramouche in your arms, knees on either side of his body as his head rested under your chin. His chest rose and descended, almost on beat with yours, if not just a tad slower.

You hoped he wouldn't hear the way your heart thrummed against your chest.

Warmth, his body flushed against yours, the luxury of a bed and the small candlelight on your bedside. Different from what you’d grown into just on the side of the trail, sitting for decades. Or with your time with the Kitsune Saiguu, it was never this warm, never this gentle.

But this warmth ended at your beating heart, furiously blazing. Sending an urge of adrenaline through your body, whispering ‘run’ through your veins. A primal urge that would've had your hands around Scaramouche’s neck, till he was wrangling and dead.

Till you could escape.

Hand slowly sliding down his jawline, you let your gentle fingers ghost along the soft skin of his neck. Claws outstretched and ready, sharp and pointed with a deadly intent to kill. You could end him so quickly, overturn his trust and make an escape. You deserved it, you deserved freedom. Not a delusional boy who thought himself protector against someone who’s lived decades more than him.

Jolting at the sensation of a soft grip on your wrist, you watched with idle fascination as he simply cupped your wrist in his hold. Not stopping you, not restraining you, he simply brought your hand to his face. To his lips where he pressed the softest of kisses into your palm. So heartfelt and genuine that all you could do was freeze, not even considering clawing his face.

“I love you.”

You both stayed in that position for a few moments more, silence cradling the tension that slowly dissipated from your body. Forlorn eyes watching as he shift the angle of your wrist to kiss your fingertips. He wasn't waiting for an answer, basking in these soft moments where he could hide in your hold. Like a child, forced to grow up too quickly, yearning back for his foolish naivety, yearning for the childhood he missed.

You were that childhood.

Which is why he clung to you so dearly, showed expressions he didnt know he could make, hold you captive under the impression that it was ‘right.’ What he was doing was okay.

Claws retracted, you pursued your lips, holding back the tears of frustration that burned at your eyes. You hated him, hated him for the chains on your wrists, for the disappearance of your vision that you’d given so much value to. Hated him for the warmth he still made you feel.

You hated him.

You felt like a housewife in some respects. Not with the cleaning and cooking part, and of course no children were part of the equation. But in terms of support, you stayed rooted to that room, loose chains too strong for you to break or tug holding you down. Window was too far, and you were stuck moving around the bed and the desk that sat just a little farther away.

Attempts at having your vision back or more freedom in movement had been discussed with Scaramouche, but as childlike and free as he acted with you, he was not an idiot.

“I don’t plan on underestimating you,” was his answer, head resting on the plush of your chest. “You’re strong, always were. But I have to take extremes to make sure you don’t get hurt, some people out there are stronger than you.”

You wanted to point out that there were a ton of people stronger than him as well, but you kept your mouth shut. “Can I at least see the house? I’ve been cooped up here for so long…”

And he cant say no to such an innocent request as that right?

So he unlocks the chains, the vision at his side reminding you that he was strong. You solely knew that he’d been tough as a kid, and under the intensive training he’d seemed to endure, he was much much stronger. You werent willing to give it a go and lose his trust just yet.

Not like he really trusted you anyways-

At the very least, you’d hoped to get some sort of blueprint of the house, and all you’d received was confusion and your mind making up that the house itself was a maze.

“Didnt we… just pass through here?”

Glancing at the obvious frustration on your face, Scaramouche chuckled, pulling your arm through the hallways you swear you’d seen three times prior. “Nope, most of the hallways look pretty similar. The house wasn't built for dumbasses.”

You flashed him a look and were about to make some snideish rebuttal before you saw the smirk. You knew what he was doing, trying to comfort you with casual arguments you both used to have. Consisting of you telling him to work on his people skills, and him calling you a lazy ass. Of course you missed it, but you also knew you couldn't go back to it.

And then there was the issue when you learned that he was a harbinger.

A scene you didnt want to replay in your head, when a maid burst into your room, Scaramouche acting a tad more intimate. He had an awful tendency to do that, hug your waist and press his face against the crook of your neck. Press gentle kisses down the length of your shoulder that had you shuddering. You weren't used to intimacy, and considering you’d watched him grow up, it was just weird.

Stuttering, the maid had demanded that he was requested by the Tsarista. You’d seen the fear in her eyes when Scaramouche slowly turned to her, seen the unshakable immobility of standing under his gaze.

“Do not enter.” He said, “It’s on the door.”

That was the first time you’d seen Scaramouche kill.

You hoped it’d be the last.

But you’d seen death before, so much death in the time of the Kitsune Saiguu. And for a few seconds, you found yourself fearless as you yanked against the chains, yelling at his figure at the doorway.

“Tsarista?” You snarled, standing just a few feet away from him. His hand on the girls neck, clenching around the pretty skin of hers. Disgusted, the chains that held you back from closing the gap and throwing the girl away from him were impossible to overcome. “Why the hell does she need you?!”

‘Let go,’ you wanted to say. ‘Let her go, she’s going to die.’

It worked, because the ironclad grip was gone, the maid tumbling to the ground lifelessly. You’d been too late, and now her blood was on his hands, your hands. This was your fault and you had half the self control not to thrash against the chains with sharp claws, hands on his neck.

The hard steel gaze vanished in an instant, and like he’d regained his senses, he took a few steps to you. Hands clenching to fists before loosening to fingertips brushing against his palms. Confusion, regret and guilt clouded his features like a child waiting to be reprimanded. You didn't back away, stood firm and fierce when standing and keeping a tough front.

You wanted to cry.

“Its… its a long story.” He finally stated to your question, and when you didnt budge, he took a deep breath. In control again, he closed the distance between the two of you, “I’m sorry.” And that same thrum of electricity jolted through your body, sending you into a spiral of the girls lifeless eyes and Scaramouche’s childlike eyes. Till everything went black.

You woke up with the body gone. Scaramouche was gone as well.

You learned that Scaramouche liked to have things his way. Which meant that he was always in control, always had control of every situation.

Even in those short stretches of vulnerability when he rested in your arms, he still held something over you. And you had to adapt, shift for his wishes, coddle him and stay as his beacon. Because he was stronger, and even if you’d find some way to escape, he would find you.

It was odd, and you slowly let go of the image of him as a child, you knew he was a lot older. He’d probably reached the age your body was stuck in, and with every sweet kiss he pressed to your lips, you knew he saw you as some sort of lover. But as someone who wasn't in control, you simply had to play along, just until you found some way to make your escape.

Without killing him.

_-_-_-_-_

“Strip.”

Laying on one side of the bed, your eyes jolted open at the commanding voice. Slowly, you sat up, eyeing the dim figure at the doorway. Without the help of a candle or the moonlight at the window, you could distinguish Scaramouche at the doorway, taking off the large headpiece as he flung it to the ground.

“Excuse me…?” Your voice was soft, rusty after an evening nap.

“I’ll make you feel good,” was his only answer. Slowly making his way to the bedside till he could properly face you. His eyes were soft, but there was an odd sort of determination that you hadnt seen before. You held back his stare, confusion lacing your features when he suddenly started pulling off loose decorations that hung on his clothes. Just till he unlaced the vest and slid off his shirt. “Don’t worry.” But you didnt know quite what he meant until he leaned further to you, catching you off guard.

So you yelped when his hands suddenly slammed down on your shoulders, shifting you to have access to the buttons of your top layer. He was quick when undoing them, simply swatting away at your hands when you protested and tried to pull him away. Throwing it to the edge of the room when he was done, you could only thrash in horror when he undid your trousers just as quickly, pulling them down before you could grab them back up.

“Scaramouche? Hey-”

And then he threw you down on the bed, exposing you in your undergarments in the cool air of the room. Shivers crept up your spine and bristled across your skin, and before you could curl up to at the very least hide away, you felt a tug at your chains. Fear finally settled in when you saw Scaramouche attach the chain to the bedpost, until your hand was lifted up and he began to do the same to the other.

“Wait wait wait, stop and explain what you’re-”

Only then did he pause from what he was doing, slowly looking down to properly face you. His eyes slid up and down your body, and he took a step towards you. “I’ll make you feel good,” were his only words, and you were forced to take them as all he was planning on giving you. Only when he sat on the bed next to you did you realize what he meant, hand settling on your shoulder, waiting.

“Alright,” you said slowly. Painfully, the words bit your tongue, but you were merciless against someone who had control against the situation. You could say no and you knew Scaramouche would stop, he was gentle to you and you only. And even if he’d been firm just before, you knew that he’d still stop if you asked him to.

A part of you felt thrilled to have that power over him.

Another part of you just wanted to escape.

But you didnt have any hope to do so unless you were willing too give him everything. Because he expected everything and would do anything in his power to obtain it. You’d let him fiddle around with this delusion, thinking that he had control. Until he didnt.

Which is why you didnt flinch when his hand gently slid up your stomach, cold against the warmth you’d had under the blankets. Rubbing gingerly against your skin and drawing smooth shapes over before he slowly slid over your body. His eyes seemed to glint under the darkness of the room, lust filled and wanting.

You didnt shift uncomfortably, you pretended to be that doll he expected you to be.

Just staring up at him as he slowly leaned down to kiss you. His lips felt like snowflakes on a winters day, idly swaying side to side to catch one in your mouth. Jolting like electricity when they melted into your touch, red and swollen when he pulled back. You now vividly felt every touch, as if a current flowed and static jittered in the places he briefly brushed his fingertips.

“You always take such good care of me,” he breathed, lips slowly drifting down your chin. Just past your jawline and right on your neck. The space between your head and shoulder, a soft vulnerable spot that had your lips humming at the affectionate pressure. “Its my turn to take care of you.”

And then his lips were everywhere, collarbone, shoulders, cleavage. Just until his teeth were tugging off your bra, face nuzzled in between both breasts. Both of his hands now resided on your hips, grabbing both thighs to hold them up and against him. You could feel him hard, pressing so close to your heated core.

You managed to keep your reactions in check.

Just until he slowly grinded against you, mouth on your breasts as he again pecked the soft mounds, molding his lips against them as if he could remember the texture, memorize the feel. It was just to that point that mindless sounds slipped past your lips, turning to gasps when his hands on your thighs suddenly buzzed, and static rushed in. Your legs felt weak, entire body thrumming in response to the electricity he sent jolting.

He was using his vision.

The realization was numb against his lips on your breasts, hands slowly stroking the skin of your sides, travelling up. He hovered over you for mere seconds before mashing his lips against you once more, different. He was no longer gentle, and it was with the contact on your tail that you lost all control. When he gently moved it out of the way, backing up.

You were a mess.

Not that you tried to be, you’d been doing your best not to enjoy his touch. But it was hard when your core heated up so fast, mashing both legs together in hopes he wouldn't notice. You knew he would, any action beyond that was just you trying to save your dignity.

He sat there like he was enjoying the sight, the first time you’d seen him actually portray any visual confirmation of satisfaction towards the chains. He’d drink dry any ounce of control you gave him, and it was impossible not to give him it all when you were visionless and vulnerable.

But the dignity you struggled so hard to keep shattered when his hands brushed against your inner thigh.

Fingers slowly made their way to the padded fabric of your undergarments, two digits rubbing the area slowly with expertise. You bit your lip, muffling any groan of anticipation, hiding the way your hips tried to rock back into the gesture. Desperate, oh so desperate. Hiding back the whimpers as he slowly quickened the pace of his fingers against your garments. “Archons Y/n,” he murmured. “I haven't even put anything in and you’re already a squirming mess.”

“Shut u-up,” was all you managed, trying to shift away from the pressure against your clit. But his other hand was on your hip, holding in place. You could only watch and press your thighs tightly together as he slowly slid down your panties, resuming hovering over you. Distracting you with kisses, his fingers gently stroked your core, two fingers slowly sliding into your cunt using your juices.

He was gentle when pumping both fingers in and out, too slow when you thrust your hips to meet his fingers, pleading for him to go faster. But he liked hearing your cries, slowing down when you begged, quickening when you whined and just lay there, taking it.

You shuddered the first time electricity jolted from his digits.

It was when he had three fingers that he sent the static up your body, back arching with such intensity that it even had him chuckling. “Oh? You like it that much?” And then it is like something buzzed against your body, fingers vibrating against your clit as your thighs tightened around his hand. So much that you thought you’d crush it, but it didn't matter, not with the electrifying feeling against your body. It felt so odd, so overwhelmingly good that it had your legs sliding up and down the bedside, toes curling as the static grew and you fell paralyzed to his touch.

It didn't take long with his fingers thrusting in and out of you to cum. Moaning mess when he gave you the time to breathe, teeth biting your bottom lip and then mashing against yours. Your eyes grew fuzzy and most happened in a haze, and all you knew the entire time was that you’d given yourself to him, and that it felt good. You couldn't see the childlike wonder in his eyes anymore, not the need of a beacon or of support. No, the look he shared was feral, the smile tinting his lips almost scary. But it felt too good to care, and you let yourself enjoy his ministrations.

He pulled out and suddenly his own shorts were undone, boxers thrown to the side of the room just like all your other clothing. You didn't see how big he was, just felt his hard shaft against your throbbing cunt, pussy dripping and legs open wide and tired after your first go at it.

You expected him to be gentle like he’d been with his fingers. But he pressed the tip against your core, and in one full motion he was in. Teeth grinding against each other, you held back a scream, shock coursing through your body, overwhelmed with pain and discomfort. It hurt. But it was quickly overshadowed by his movements as he slid in and out of you, slow when pulling his hips back, and rocking himself completely inside you each time. A pattern that let you catch your breath and lose it all the same. Like he was continuously having a go at hitting the deepest parts of you, pulling back before fully thrusting into you and sending waves of pleasure and pain alike.

It was expected, but you couldnt hear yourself.

Not with your mind trapped in a haze of how he felt, body still buzzing after how he’d pulsed his vision through you. And now you were at the mercy of his member, hips swaying along with his, no energy for you to rock with him and try to push him deeper.

Archons, you didn't even think he could go deeper.

But you were proven wrong again and again as he kept the steady pace, hands clawing at your ass and hips. Stabilizing himself and trying to press himself against you, as far as he could go. Slowly, his hands drifted up to your hair, playing with the soft sensation of your furry ears. Pinching and rubbing, fingers coaxing the back of them like a massage. So gentle, but it paled in comparison to the harsh treatment of his dick.

You came first, gripping the chain with your hands in an attempt to stay stable. Walls clenching around him one last time before you got your release, your moans turning into cries when he continued to thrust into you. Your body felt numb, all nerves centred on the way he pounded into you, chasing his own release.

When he did, he pressed his head into your chest, his own breaths heavy with pleasure. Not pulling out, you could only lay there helplessly as his seed filled you, warm in contrast to the electricity he’d shot up your body just earlier. He didnt pull out, and laying in your chest, your heavy breathing didnt stop until he was asleep, collapsing on you and using you as support yet again.

Taking only a minute later to regain control of your senses, you shifted uncontrollably at his member inside of you, sending waves of pleasure every time you moved. Your wrists were restrained and you were stuck in this position till morning.

Achingly, you looked down at the boy, wondering how you would ever manage to escape.

[gayfanservice]

I've come to place upon you a request.

Consider, reader who's like a fairy and Tsukishima or maybe Bokuto? Catches them by chance and is like I thought fairies were girls and readers like ha no.

Little shit reader and the such ya know

Also hi it's the same Mel from the Tsukishima request but I had to move accs and stuff cuz t*mblrs a bitch

BRUH- I didnt even notice😭 it’s like an upgrade lmao- anyways you’re a regular now 🙃 (No Refunds 🖐😒)

Tsukishima the bitch, reader the little shit. A perfect romance story if you ask me. I took a different approach for this one to see how it goes

*********

Kei walked from isle to isle, his hand running across all different books of age, color, size, and texture. The library was died at this time of night, only out of the house because of a fight he had with his mother. ‘Lucky,’ He thought, ‘A library that’s open twenty-four seven.’ It was huge, the isles seemed to go on forever. The headphones he wore were playing music loud enough to be heard from outside, drowning out everything around him as he mindlessly walked the isles. His fingers roamed the books as he walked, feeling the vibration of a soft thud coming from behind. He turned to see a complete black book on the floor, looking around and seeing no one set off his nerves.

He walked over to the book, crouching as he picked it up and seeing the caked on dust. He blew as much as he could off, seeing a faint design in it as he wiped the rest off. The gold engraving design had swirls around the edges, all entangling like vines to the middle where a gold humanoid creature with pointy wings sat. Kei stood up, looking for the empty spot where the book was. ‘That’s strange,’ There wasn’t a single book missing from the shelf, every book touching one another. He looked at the book before looking up, the tall shelf confirming that even if it did come from the top shelf there was no way he’d get it back up.

He shrugged before walking out of the shelf maze, finding a nice study desk with a swivel chair and plopping down, dust flying everywhere as he coughed. He opened the book, the first page in a language he never saw before. The next had the same text, but it looked like someone had this book before him. There was words in his language with arrows pointing to certain words, like someone was trying to figure out the language. He flipped a couple more pages, seeing there was more words pointing to the foreign language. He got to the halfway point when a loose, folded up page popped up between the papers, somehow as white as if it was newly bought.

Kei picked up the folded paper, the softness surprising him. He unfolded it, seeing a more detailed version of the words that were translated. He set it aside as he flipped through the book, getting to the end of the book where a piece of paper was taped to the inside of the cover. He carefully un-taped it, not damaging the book or paper.

“The language of magic, a mystical thing, it is. I was always into fairytales, ever since my pa’ decided it would be a good idea to show me it. He showed me how to speak it, how to be it, how to eat it. We saw everything a child could only dream of- unicorns, dragons, princes and princesses- stuff you didn’t even know existed! Flying whales, plants that are alive, beautiful animal hybrids! We saw it all together, but dad didn’t like it, so he-” Kei wasn’t here to hear some story. He skipped down to the bottom of it, “-this book makes it all happen! If I can just remember how to read it. It’s been so long I only remember a couple words and phrases, but I want to go back. I need to go back. It’s happy there,”

A book that makes magic real? Kei quietly laughed to himself as he put the papers back inside the book. He walked away from the desk with the intention of leaving the book there for the old librarian to figure out what to do, but he couldn’t. He walked back to the desk and picked up the book, ‘It’s for the laughs,’ He told himself, ‘It’s not real, you’re just bored.’ He walked towards the librarian’s desk, the old lady behind it looking at other weird looking books. She looked up as Kei approached her, startling him as he noticed she was blind. Her eyes followed his movement. He set the book down in front of her, watching as she picked it up and scanned it, a smile on her face. “You be careful, dear. The magic is not to be played with.”

Kei looked at her with his normal resting face, mentally shitting his pants as she blind lady stared straight through his soul. “Um, yeah.” He took the book from her, her smile returning as she waved him off. He walked out of the strange library, feeling the woman staring at him even after he closed the door. He felt the eyes all the way home.

——————

Four months. Four bloody months it took him to decipher the language with the help of the paper he has and Wikipedia about fairytale creatures he could find. He sat at his desk, papers upon papers scattered everywhere, clipped up on his walls and around his bed. ‘I’m doing this,’ He thought, ‘I’m actually doing this.’ Even he couldn’t believe he was really about to try some fairytale bullshit he found in a strange library. He cleaned up a space on his floor, taking a marker and drawing a circle with vine-like tendrils forming a spiral in the middle. He put different types of herbs around the circle, holding the book in one hand and following the diagram and instructions he made himself. It was time.

He held the book in one hand while the other held a stick of poison ivy with the leaves still attached, mentally cringing at him self for going so far to test a silly little book. ‘A silly, stupid, little book.’ He chanted the words, drawing the herbs in sync with the vine-tendril things with the stick. After the chant and every herb drawn to the middle, he tore the leaves off of the stick, taking a lighter of his desk, hesitating for a second before closing his eyes and setting fire to them, quickly tossing them into the middle. The fire sparked high, touching his roof as it changed to all sorts of colors, shapes dancing around his room as noises bounce into every crevice it could. Kei covered his ears and closed his eyes, falling to his knees.

The noises stopped as the room went pitch black, opening his eyes and taking out his phone he turned the the flashlight on and found his way to the light switch and flicked it. Nothing happened. He tried again, and again. He started to panic before, “MOM!” He heard his older brother. ‘Shit!’ He better clean up fast.

——————

He wasn’t caught, thankfully, but he was pretty pissed he wasted four months and an entire weekend and only got a cool light show. ‘It wasn’t even cool,’ It was. He just wont admit it. He walked to school on Monday with Tadashi, forgetting about everything. They stopped for a brief moment when Tadashi spotted an alley cat and wanted to pet it. He got up and started walking, Kei going to follow before tripping and falling face force into the concrete. “Tsukki?! Are you okay?!” Tadashi crouched by his friend as he helped him up. Once Kei got to his knees he went to put his right foot under him to get up, only to find it was tugging on his other foot, ‘Are you shitting me?’

He maneuvered himself to sit in his ass and low-and-behold, his shoe laces were tied up together. “Um, Tsukki, did you tie your shoelaces together?” Tadashi asked, the confusion in his voice was so clear Kei could probably see the deepest part of the ocean if it was water. “Why would you ask me that? Of course I didn’t!” Kei angrily untied his shoelaces, tying them up in their respected places before they continued their walk.

——————

“Wow, Tsukishima! Are you alright?” Kōshi walked up to him, seeing his scratched up face, “His shoelaces were tied together!” “Shut up, Yamaguchi.” “Sorry, Tsukki,” Kōshi looked confused, “So you fell out of your house and didn’t bother going back inside to clean your face?” He put a hand on his hip, looking at Kei with a Really? look. “Actually it happened on the way to school,” “Yamaguchi, shut up.” “Sorry, Tsukki.” Shōyō bounced over, “WOW! I didn’t know you liked to put tiny braids in your hair, Salty-shima!” He pointed to the back of Kei’s head, Tadashi looking and seeing three tiny braids in Kei’s hair. “What?!” Oh, he was pissed now, “Those weren’t there earlier,” Tadashi mumbled to himself.

Kei rubbed his hair to take out the braids, his already messy hair getting messier. “Um, Tsukishima, maybe you should go home.” Daichi walked over after witnessing everything, “I’m perfectly fine, captain.” His teeth clenched as he spoke. “Go home.”

——————

He saw the alley cat from earlier, cleaning itself as Kei walked up to pet it. It took one look at him before hissing, startling him as it ran away. ‘Okay, animals never liked me anyway. This is normal.’ He wasn’t even halfway home when it started raining, having nothing but his bag to try to stop getting soaked. He ran the rest, hoping to make it home before it really started pouring. Opening the front door he took off his shoes, throwing them where ever as he stumbled through the house, passing his brother who was on the couch. “Why’re you home? Didn’t you just leave?” Kei just walked past him, deciding that he needed a nap.

He opened his bedroom door, dropping his bag as he stumbled back into the wall as he looked at the circle with the spiral design burned into the middle of his floor. “Kei? Are you okay?” He heard from downstairs, he cursed, “I’m fine, just dropped something!” He didn’t wait for a reply as he grabbed his bag and slammed the door shut. This wasn’t here yesterday, why is it here now? He looked around in a panic, something was here. He paused, calming himself down and collecting his thoughts. Without warning he slapped the air, feeling something against his palm and hearing a small THUD come from the wall. He looked as colorful particles appeared, revealing the body of a small, young boy.

“Owwww, ow ow ow ow! What the hell?!” He sat up from his upside-down position, rubbing his head. Kei immediately recognized the pointy ears and transparent wings. “It worked…” He whispered to himself, “Of course it fuckin’ worked! You punched me into a wall!” The small being complained as it stood up, his pointy ears in a downward position, “Not that, you’re real. An actual fairy. I made a fairy.” He stared at the tiny being before looking down at his chest, “Although, I thought fairies were girls…” He mumbled, “Well sorry to burst your bubble, Mister Anger Issues, but most fairies don’t have genders, much less genitalia. And you didn’t make me! You just transported me.”

The fairy sat on his desk, his bare feet swinging. “What? I thought this was supposed to transport me,” “Yeeaahh, you kinda-maybe-a-lot fucked up the wording, so now you’re stuck with me until you figure out how to transport me back!” His wings fluttered, “How do you fly with such small wings?” He stared at them as the fairy kept fluttering them, “It’s like a bee,”

“It’s wings are too small to get it’s fat body off the ground?” The fairy looked at Kei in disgust, “Okay, rude.”

*********

I cant tell if I liked how this turned out