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emmajh97-mumaji · 3 months ago

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MuMaJi’s Postgame TakuRumi Agenda 🩵✨❤️

(AKA 'How I think Takuto Maruki and Rumi would Fall in Love with Each Other All Over Again after the events of Persona 5 Royal')

DISCLAIMER: This is heavily based on my own interpretation of Rumi's character [read more on that here]. Since we don't get very much on her other than hearsay from Maruki, wild speculation is all I'm going off of. So please don't take it personally if this isn't how you interpret Rumi!

I also acknowledge that Maruki ending up with Rumi again sorta goes against his character arc, and the overall message of P5 Royal. I'm not saying this should be canon, I'm just saying it's fun to imagine and makes me happy.

If you don't like it, feel free to stop reading at any point and mosey along! :) Have a great day!

First of all, and most importantly-- Maruki may be toxic, but my interpretation of Rumi is that she is JUST as unhealthily obsessed with him as he is of her. Maruki believes Rumi is too good for him, but that's just his rose-tinted view of her. If Rumi had her own Palace-- she'd have golden statues of Maruki in it. They are perfectly crazy for each other, and that's what makes them great.

(more under cut) [WARNING: LONG READ IS LONG]

PART 1: “Who is my heart waiting for?"

Azathoth may have rewritten Rumi's cognition, but it couldn't rewrite her heart. She LOVED Maruki, she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. That doesn't go away so easily...

Brainwashed Rumi is happy living with her grandparents in the countryside after leaving her life in Tokyo behind, but she can't help but feel like something is missing.

Rumi keeps having recurring dreams of Maruki-- who to her is just a mysterious man in glasses that she recognizes but can't identify. Sometimes it's her carving statues of him that crumble away to dust before she can finish. Sometimes he's a ghost haunting her house that she cannot exorcise. Sometimes he's a siren calling to her and she jumps overboard trying to reach him only to drown. Her heart yearns for something it cannot have.

Rumi tries to fill the hole in her heart with new loves-- dating around with everyone in her rural town. But nothing feels the same. Even after she gets into a serious relationship and accepts a proposal, she can't shake the lingering feeling that something's wrong.

Rumi finally gets some clarity after the Metaverse collapses and Azathoth loses its power over her. She regains nearly all her memories of her long-lost ex-fiance... how much she loved him... and how he left her in the hospital room right before she dissociated from reality. But unfortunately, due to her trauma coming back, Rumi's memories don't return to her clearly. She still can't recall Maruki's name or how to contact him, and it drives her even more insane than the trauma does alone.

After his Palace Collapse/Change of Heart, Maruki does in fact worry about Rumi, if her memories came back, and how she's doing. Unfortunately he's so preoccupied with starting his own life over and finding a new job that he doesn't have time to look into her situation. By the time he finally figures out where she was living and contacts her grandparents-- she's already dealt with her trauma on her own and moved out. He feels bad that he was too late to help, but forces himself to move on.

PART 2: “And Just Like That, My Head Still Takes Me Back”

The fateful day occurs-- Rumi, now back in the Tokyo area, decides to take a cab... and runs into Maruki.

Rumi is elated-- 'THERE HE IS!!' It's like a key has turned and her memories are unlocked. She remembers his name, she remembers everything. She can FINALLY talk to him again! Tell him what's happened! Ask him what's happened to him and, and...

Maruki is mortified. There she is. The woman he failed over and over. The woman he made a pact with the devil and nearly brainwashed the whole world for. The former lover he was terrified to get close to. The pain in his heart he thought he could finally move on from-- and she was sitting right there in his cab. Asking for his phone number and when he's free to meet up.

Maruki tries his best to dodge the questions, but fails. "No, I'm definitely not mistaking you for someone else." "Well my job makes me pretty busy too, but maybe you could at least give me your phone number? Or social media account?" Rumi wasn't going to let him slip away, not this time, not again. Maruki finally relents, and they exchange contact information. They agree to meet at a park that weekend.

When Maruki and Rumi meet on that park bench and tell each other how they've been... they quickly realize that they're both completely different people than the ones they remember. It pushes them apart at first... But the more they talk, the more they realize that they know each other's pain better than anyone else possibly could. They've both been broken by trauma, and they've both picked themselves back up from it multiple times. It might not be the same as before, but there's still something there connecting them.

Rumi explains her plight with her memories. How she missed Maruki for so long, how the faint memory of him haunted her, how much it means to her to finally see him and remember him again.

Hearing this, the guilt overwhelms Maruki. He can't take it anymore... he tells her the truth. The entire truth. Everything-- his cognitive psience research, Azathoth, what really happened that day in the hospital, his ill-intentioned medical practice after losing his research funding, what he did to the world, "...and if it weren't for The Phantom Thieves changing my heart, I never would have realized just how delusional it all was."

Rumi takes a while to process this... in disbelief at first but, after pressing him for details, she finally comes to accept it as true... and when she does...

To say she was disgusted is an understatement. She was furious. she slaps him in the face, "How dare you-!" Leaving Rumi behind on PURPOSE?! Screwing with her memories, making her forget about him, and forcing her into delusional happiness? Invading people's privacy, removing their autonomy, not to mention the medical malpractice against minors-- it went against everything Rumi stood for. Everything she and Maruki used to believe in. This wasn't the man she fell in love with all those years ago!!

Maruki winces and rubs his cheek, "Yeah, I probably deserved that..." She hated him. Good. As she should. It doesn't matter that he had a change of heart, it doesn't matter that he started his life over... he's still Takuto Maruki. The neurotic idiot who screws up everything. Rumi deserved better than him, and she should know that before trying to associate with him again. Hopefully, this would be the end of it.

'It's OVER' Rumi thinks when she gets home. Maruki wasn't just her former fiancé, he was her EX fiancé! She looks forward to never talking to him again.

But... as the days go on, Rumi starts to calm down... and starts to think. She remembers something. That day, when Maruki took her memories, she had said something to him... she had asked him to "Stop this..." that she "wanted to forget". It wasn't a sentiment she agreed with now, but she was in so much pain back then that it was what she wanted. That's when Rumi realizes... Maruki didn't tell her everything. He left out some important details..... damnit, she needed to talk to him again.

'Why does she still need to talk to me?!' Maruki panicked as they met again, this time out front of a cafe. Rumi gives him a serious look, "Why?" "...huh?" "You told me the terrible things you did... but not why you did them. So why? What drove you to mess with people's brains?" "......oh."

Maruki struggles at first, but eventually is able to explain. How he couldn't stand watching people suffer. How he hated the cruelty and unfairness of the world. How he wanted to protect people from it. How he wanted everyone to get the happiness they deserved. How he wanted to be a guiding light that saved them. To save her. To give her what he thought she wanted.

"But that doesn't justify what I did." Maruki finished, resolute that this explanation wouldn't change anything, "Not a day goes by when I don't regret my actions... No matter how noble I thought they were, at the time..."

Hearing all this, Rumi comes to a realization. The person Maruki is describing wasn't him... it was her. Rumi, the always kindhearted girl who helped others before herself to the point of forgetting to eat sometimes. Rumi, the hot-headed girl who insisted the pathetic nerd Maruki grow a spine and take charge for the greater good. Takuto was desperately trying to be this idealized version of the woman he loved, the person he believed Rumi wanted him to be... and in typical Takuto fashion, he fumbled it. Big time.

This man in front of her wasn't just the megalomaniac he had tried to convince her he was. He was also a hopeless romantic corrupted by grief. A neurotic idiot who assumed he had made the most logical plan for the greatest good, and executed it diligently. And now? He knows he screwed up everything and regrets it wholeheartedly. He’s a man who takes accountability so earnestly that he'd rather make pennies as a cab driver than dare stay in some sort of well-paying scientific or medical career. A man who likes to help people in the small ways Rumi often overlooked-- giving you a snack when you're down, or a ride to where you want to go. He was still Takuto Maruki. He was still the man she loved.

Maruki looked at Rumi expecting her to be just as cross with him as before... but is caught off guard by her having a sympathetic smile. ‘...oh no.’

Part 3: “Can We Start Over? Can We Get Closer?”

When Rumi tells him she forgives him for what he did and wants to see him again, Maruki is dumbstruck. Why? How?! It took him so long just to forgive himself and yet she does it just like that! She's illogical, she's being too kind for her own good, she's... amazing. He agrees to see her again. Goddamnit.

Rumi can tell that Maruki won't stop blaming himself, even after she's told him she doesn’t blame him. It's frustrating, and she realizes she's probably going to have to brute-force her way into being his friend again. Challenge accepted.

They spend time at parks, boardwalks, book stores, city landmarks, and coffee shops.

At first they talk about banal things. How Shibusawa and their college friends are doing. How much better the government is without Masayashi Shido. Maruki tells Rumi about how he's taken an interest in music, since he listens to the radio so much during his job. Rumi tells Maruki about how she's taken up flower arranging, and how she posts photos of them online.

Slowly but surely, the discussions get more intimate. Rumi talks about how hard it is to get by every day. Maruki talks about how he's haunted by his regrets. She shares how much she missed him. He asks her why she ever fell in love with someone like him in the first place. Etcetera...

Several times they plan on meeting, or are even in the middle of hanging out, when Rumi's PTSD gets in the way. Dissociative episodes, panic attacks... she's gotten used to them every so often, but has also gotten used to them putting off her friends. Maruki is emotionally intelligent enough to understand what they are... and to give her space without judgement. Rumi tells him she appreciates it, Maruki says it's "no problem". He doesn't realize just how much it means to her. To still be cared for even with her setbacks... it makes her appreciate him even more.

At one point, Rumi is feeling nostalgic and decides to visit the old flower field she and Maruki used to go to in high school. She is surprised to find Maruki there. He admits he frequents this place when he's feeling down. She thinks it's incredibly sweet.

They are close friends, now. Sending 'Good Morning' and 'Good Night' texts to each other every day. Meeting in person at least once a week, if not several times.

Part 4: “Cuz We Belong Together Now, Yeah”

Rumi can't ignore her feelings anymore. She tells Maruki she wants to get closer. She wants to be his girlfriend again.

Rumi confesses, "I don't need anyone, but I want you. I love you, Takuto! All over again." "....." "But you don't love me back, do you...?" "No..." "I knew it." "No, you're wrong." "?" "Rumi, I..." He looks her straight in the eyes, "I never stopped loving you." "?! ...then why-?!" "Because I'm afraid." He admits, "Afraid I'll lose you again..."

Their relationship was going so well, but now it's strained again. Rumi tries to get closer to him, Maruki pushes her away. Rumi tries to be romantic with him, Maruki shuts the conversation down. Rumi concedes and gives Maruki his distance, he frets over her and seeks her affection. Neither of them realize that the other is fantasizing about them while laying in bed at night. It's an agonizing tug-of-war.

Rumi convinces Maruki to let her see his apartment. Maruki relents, and they spend a relaxing day together watching movies and such. Rumi asks to spend the night... Maruki gently refuses, escorting her home.

One day... Maruki's guard breaks. Rumi leans in to kiss him... and he lets her. He even kisses back-- although he is very slow and awkward about it. After the kiss, he's in denial about it even happening-- much to Rumi's frustration.

Another evening, Maruki walks Rumi home, dropping her off at her apartment. She offers to let him spend the night. He declines, and fully intends to head straight home. However, after making it quite a ways, he feels a lump in his throat. 'No... I can't go back, I can't get close to her, I can't... I can't take this, anymore!!' he turns around-!

Rumi is surprised when she opens the door and sees Maruki there, out of breath. "Did you forget something?" "YES." he composes himself, "I- I forgot to give you something." He gently grabs her chin. Rumi feels the butterflies in her stomach as she realizes what he's doing. The kiss is heartfelt-- not held back like before. "...does your offer still stand?" he asks, face flushed. Rumi hooded her eyes, smiling eagerly, "Of course~"

The flood gates open from there, and the two are relentlessly passionate for one another in a way they haven't been since college.

"So you still into weird kinky tentacle stuff like you were back in the day?" Rumi asks nonchalantly as they sit up in bed together. Maruki chuckles nervously, "N-no, not really--" but then he stops. Thinking back to his Persona, Azathoth. He blushes madly, hiding his face in shame, "--okay, maybe a little." Rumi smirks smugly at him, "Called it."

"Oh god it was so embarrassing," Maruki recounts his fight with the Phantom Theives to Rumi, "I was wearing this skin-tight golden body suit-" "Oh?" "It had some armor plating in the front and-- I think a thong in the back?" "A thong, you say?" "I think so? It was very reveali-- why are you smiling at me like that?" Rumi blushes, "No reason~"

One day they go on a date to Le Blanc and the Phantom Thieves are there, having a big reunion. Comedy ensues. "You're the teenagers Takuto told me about?!" "You're Doctor Maruki's ex-fiance?!" "Was. As of right now, I'm his girlfriend again~ 😏" "😮😮😮"

Maruki and Rumi’s relationship continues to have ups and downs, but overall they are very mature about it and are able to work things out and keep things steady.

Part 5: “I’ll Love You for a Thousand More”

After at least a year back together, Rumi asks "...should we get married?" Maruki replies, "Excuse me--" going over to his bookshelf. He comes back with a HUGE binder of papers, slamming it on the table-- 'Wedding Plans'. His glasses glint menacingly. Finally, the time has come. (This man's Palace Ruler uniform was a wedding tuxedo, I like to think he's a Groomzilla lol)

"Aren't you glad that you don't have to get my parent's approval anymore?" Rumi grimly jokes. Maruki gives her a disturbed stare. She coughs awkwardly, forgetting he's more sensitive about it than she is, "...sorry."

In spite of Maruki's fantasies, he and Rumi's budget only allows for a very modest (perhaps even underwhelming) wedding. Rumi fears Maruki might feel bad, but he reassures her that the only thing that matters in the end is that she's there with him.

The nights leading up to and after the wedding are hard on both of them due to their past, but it's especially rough for Maruki. Multiple times he wakes up in the night crying, tightly gripping Rumi and desperately asking her if this is real or just another dream. She reassures him that it's really her and yes that wedding actually happened. It takes time but his brain eventually learns to accept it.

Finally married, the two live a simple honest life together.

Maruki and Rumi both like kids, but due to Rumi's mental health and their meager incomes they decide against having any.

They do, however, enjoy playing an aunt/uncle role to the assorted members of the Phantom Thieves, whenever they cross paths.

Perhaps some sort of Plot goes down and the two wind up in the Metaverse together and have their own adventure with their own personas-- who knows.

Through thick and thin, they listen to and love each other very much.

....and so they lived HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE END!! 👏👏👏

If you've made it this far, thank you! I hope you enjoyed this hypothetical love-rekindled story as much as I enjoyed coming up with it!

Feel free to use this as inspiration for your own TakuRumi fics or art! Do tag me if you make any tho, I wanna see it 👀

Have a wonderful day 🩵❤️🩵❤️

#emmajh97's posts #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #Postgame TakuRumi #Persona 5 Rumi #P5 Rumi #Rumi Hanasaki #Takuto Maruki #TakuRumi #MaRumi #P5 Maruki #Maruki Takuto #fanfic #fan theory #writing

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goldentigerfestival · 4 months ago

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Translated Toriumi and Mamoru's interviews from Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 3 Official Complete Guide!

Tales of Vesperia Role of Yuri Kosuke Toriumi (westernized: Toriumi Kosuke) Major Works: Kurotabo (Nurarihyon no Mago / Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan) Hakuou Series (Saitou Hajime) Naruto + Naruto Shippuuden (Inuzuka Kiba)

Please tell us about Yuri's personality.

T: As someone of the same gender, I admire him and think he's cool.

If you look at the popularity polls, you can see that he's a very popular character.

T: He has a lot of charm because he’s prepared to accept everything and is unwavering. From my perspective as someone of the same gender, he’s really cool and reliable. He’s only 21, though (laughs).

But some of the other main characters in “Tales of” are adults.

T: He’s the oldest in its history, and he doesn’t really seem like the main character. If anything, Flynn seems more like the lead.

Is there anything about Yuri's personality that you would like to change?

It’s perfect, so not really anything. But there are some things I decided on myself, so if we were to do things together, I might think, "let me know."

(Translator note: I believe what he's referring to here is that since he decided on some aspects of Yuri's character himself (more on that below), that when working with others in relation to Yuri, he might want to be checked in with so nothing conflicts. I'm not saying that's 100 percent the case, but that's what it sounds like to me.)

What were your thoughts when it was decided that you would be playing the role for Yuri?

T: I auditioned, but at first, I only had minimal material and it was like, "you can do what you like." So, I did what I thought would work, “and so”, it was decided. For Yuri, it came to me pretty quickly, so I didn’t have trouble creating his character.

(Translator note: Basically, from what he’s saying here, it sounds like they gave him his lines or some sort of other minimal material, then let him voice Yuri’s lines however he felt worked/decided the voice direction largely for himself. In that sense, you could say Toriumi was part of the creation process of the character. He also mentions this in an interview he had in the guidebook for Radiant Mythology 2. This also checks out with his March 2015 Tales of Magazine interview, where the interviewer mentions that Toriumi seems to know/understand Yuri even better than one of the original writers (in this case, Okuda). Toriumi points out that "you sort of soak (the character) in after playing them for so long" (Toriumi had already been playing Yuri actively for years by the point of this interview, hence the "so long"), and that the voice actors (for Vesperia) gave input on their characters and had discussions about character dialogue; so my understanding* is that he was in fact part of the creation process and not “just” a voice actor. Specifying this because he does use the word for “create” in this interview.)

If you were to create a guild in the real world, what kind of guild would you like to create?

T: I think I would make curry. I like curry (laughs). I’d like to compare “my curry” to everyone else’s and run a curry shop.

Lastly, please give a message to all your fans.

T: We were able to do the sequel for Radiant Mythology 2, and I think it’s all due to everyone’s support. I hope you will continue to support Yuri, “Vesperia”, and the “Tales of” series.

~~~

Tales of Vesperia Role of Flynn Mamoru Miyano (westernized: Miyano Mamoru) Major Works: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (Setsuna F. Seiei) Death Note (Yagami Light) Star Driver Shining Tact (Tsunashi Takuto) (Translator note: I'm not familiar with Star Driver, so I apologize if the translation for the character name is incorrect (I'm not sure if it's meant to be Tact, like the series title, or Takuto). My guess is that, if correct, Takuto is a pun on "Tact", as the two are spelled with the same katakana).

Please tell us about Flynn's personality.

M: Flynn's charm is his sincerity and straightforwardness in the pursuit of his goals. Throughout the game, he faced everything without compromising those things, and I think that’s honestly amazing. I want to follow his example.

What are your thoughts about acting out scenes with characters from series other than "Vesperia"?

M: I think it's really exciting when characters from popular long-running series are brought together to tell a story, so I'm happy to be a part of it. The story unfolds in an original world, so it was a lot of fun to see the characters' relationships progress differently than usual.

What did you think when you first found out that it was decided that you'd be playing Flynn?

M: I was very happy to be able to participate in the historic "Tales of" series. I felt like I, too, could also leave my name in its history. We all recorded together for "Vesperia", so our bonds have really deepened. They’re the best! And I'm also happy to be invited to play in an "everyone comes together!" game like this one!

If you were to create a guild in the real world, what kind of guild would you like to create?

M: Military arts for protecting people isn’t my strong suit (laughs), so I’d want to create a guild that’s more calm and fun. I’d like to create a comedy guild that spreads laughter to everyone.

Lastly, please give a message to the fans.

M: There are scenes where he’s carrying out his duties as the captain of the knights, and there are some comical scenes; so I think if you play the game repeatedly, you’ll be able to see Flynn’s charm. It would make me happy if you could enjoy it again and again.

~~~

Translator ending notes:

*Explanation for where I wrote "my understanding" and things like "sounds like", etc: due to these being interviews with real people and not fictional material, I prefer to be very careful in the way I address "facts" spoken by real people, when providing context for their answer(s) using my own words. I am not these people and do not directly speak for them. While this is always the case with interview comments, it's even more the case in translation. I'm simply doing my best to clarify a section here that may bring up the question of "wait, the voice actor helped create the character?" Usually, voice directors handle that sort of thing on the vocal end. In the case of this interview (RM2's book aside), it sounds like Toriumi is basically saying he largely decided voice direction for himself at the behest of the people in charge. That's not to say he did or didn't have any other voice direction, but that he did seem to have a heavy hand in deciding how Yuri was voiced, and that it was largely left to his discretion. While this might sound odd and unfamiliar to a western audience, just remember that this was done in the region of the game's creation. In the west, with Japan made media, the voice actors are dubbing pre-existing material and not working with a blank slate or coming up with ideas for brand new content. So, this is to clarify any potential confusion to that section of the interview. Ultimately, yes, it's fair to say Toriumi had a hand in helping create Yuri. While I can't speak for how common Toriumi's specific scenario is among the industry at large, this simply appears to be the case for his situation.

Lastly, the scanner preferred to remain anonymous.

#GTF Translations #Toriumi Kosuke #Miyano Mamoru #Toriumi Kousuke #Toriumi Kohsuke #Mamoru Miyano #Yuri Lowell #Flynn Scifo #Also to clarify: yes Mamoru is saying that they voiced together in the booth for Vesperia #this has been stated by Mai (Estelle's VA) as well in an interview for one of these books #and has otherwise been stated in other places #Voicing together in the booth all at once is not the norm but they did all do it together for Vesperia

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izurusstuff · 8 months ago

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“Maybe I’m okay with accepting his deal…”

(SPOILERS FOR THIRD SEMESTER OF PERSONA 5 ROYAL!!!)

summary: phantom thief reader (gender neutral) x takuto maruki (but a secret relationship woahhh). yeah this involves guidance counselor x student reader but i’m having the reader be a third year or some sort of teaching assistant because the law and not being morally fucked up is cool!! also this is a bit all over the place so beware

message from izurusstuff: hey guys sorry it’s been crazy 🙏🏼🙏🏼 i’ve been super duper busy with university and i lost all motivation to write outside of academia (boooo, useless writing) but c.ai keeps annoying the hell out of me with “can i ask you a question?” so i decided to say fuck it and do it myself. also my life kinda got turned upside down because a hurricane wiped my hometown off the map so that’s not very fun :((

This all started the day Takuto Maruki was sent to Shujin Academy to console the victims of Suguru Kamoshida. Y/N wasn’t necessarily one of them, but they knew of what was happening since they were assisting some of the extracurricular teachers during that time. Honestly? If it weren’t for the Phantom Thieves, Y/N probably would’ve gone after Kamoshida anyway…

Yet some sort of fate led Y/N to cross the path of the Phantom Thieves— whether it was the work of some cruel deity or sheer bad luck, Y/N figured out the identity of all the Thieves and awakened to their persona after the death of Principal Kobayakawa (they accidentally got drawn in to Okumura’s palace). So when they noticed Dr. Maruki was researching cognitive pscience, Y/N warned the other Thieves. Apparently, Y/N was the last to know. They trusted Maruki wholeheartedly for some reason, which made Y/N even more cold to the poor guidance counsellor…

Then Okumura died. On live television, in front of his only daughter, he became the newest victim of a mental shutdown. Y/N’s trust in the Phantom Thieves went down the drain. Did they really kill Haru’s dad?! Why the HELL would they do that?! He wasn’t the best person, but to execute him in front of his daughter? Who WERE these people that Y/N was working with?

So now, they found comfort in the guidance counsellor they mistrusted at the beginning. Y/N would spend all their free time in the office of the tenured Maruki— and it was the most relaxing thing they experienced. He had snacks, juices, games, beds… everything; obviously he was a good listener too, so that made it easier. But what would never be easy to deal with was Maruki’s approaching departure— he was only contracted to be at Shujin for six months. And to make it worse? Y/N had fallen for him. Hard. But little did Y/N know that he felt the same…

“Takuto…” Y/N murmured, causing him to perk up with his eager brown eyes. And God… that smile… it could melt anyone’s heart…

“Hm? What is it, Y/N?” Maruki responded with a warm tone.

“I’m… going to really miss you. Do you have to leave?”

“I do. I’m so sorry, Y/N. But being a counsellor isn’t my calling… I would gladly renegotiate my contract in order to spend more time with you, but-“ Wait. What? Did Maruki just confess to wanting to spend more time with Y/N?! They remained baffled but pulled him into a close hug nonetheless. Now both of them were blushing with their tears dusting their eyes.

“If I had the chance to change fate so we could have more time together, I absolutely would take it.” Maruki said, pulling them tighter into the embrace while cupping their face. He wiped their tears with the pads of his thumb before leaning into a passionate kiss with them. Ugh. Why couldn’t Y/N have sucked up their disdain for him sooner?! They couldn’t help but blame themself for the reason why they didn’t have more time together; tears fell even faster down Y/N’s cheeks while they reciprocated the kiss— a feeling so great, yet so painful.

“You won’t forget about me here, will you?”

“I could never forget about someone like you, Y/N.”

And that was the last time they had spoken in his office. Of course, they kept in contact while having their love blossom, but it never could replace how much Y/N craved to be held by Maruki again. Yes, he was off doing what he always wanted to, but Y/N couldn’t help how empty it felt without their new lover…

January 1st, 20XX.

While Y/N’s friends got to spend New Years and Christmas with their significant others, they remained lonely in their apartment. Sure, they texted Maruki and video called him multiple times, but it just… didn’t feel the same. So when the new year rolled around, Y/N didn’t feel anything other than the absence of their beloved Maruki.

Until they got a text.

“Hey, my Y/N! <3 I’m outside! I’m not sure whether or not you wanted iced coffee or hot, so I got both!”

It was from Maruki? He wasn’t supposed to be back in Tokyo for at LEAST two more months. Why was he outside? Was this a prank? Y/N rushed outside to see if it was some cruel joke, but it wasn’t. Maruki was in front of them, holding their favorite coffee in his gloved hands. They stared up at him in disbelief for a bit then pulled him in for a kiss. Then another text came in from Y/N’s… friend…? Enemy? What even was he? Not the point. It was Goro Akechi, who they all assumed to be dead since they literally saw his demise in his father’s palace.

“Please tell me you didn’t fall into this false reality too. Someone must be smart enough to tell that something’s off.”

Y/N looked at their phone, then back at Maruki in even more disbelief. This was reality, wasn’t it?

Y/N’s internal question was answered nearly soon after they thought of it— Okumura was nearby with his daughter, Haru.

What had Maruki done?

#persona 5 royal #persona 5 angst #persona 5 fluff #persona 5 au #smt persona #persona #persona 5 #persona 5 x reader #takuto maruki #takuto maruki x reader #phantom thieves #izurusstuff

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frickingnerd · 1 year ago

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we're made for each other

pairing: takuto maruki x gn!reader

summary: you surprise your boyfriend with a marriage proposal!

“what's with all the flowers?” maruki notes, as he enters your shared apartment, after a long day of work. “i– i haven't forgotten an anniversary, have i…?”

you chuckled softly and grabbed your boyfriend's hands, pulling him into the middle of the room, into a heart of rose petals that you had spread.

“not quite~!” you told him, grabbing a tiny box when maruki wasn't looking, before turning back to him. “but… i was thinking… perhaps we could make this an anniversary!”

maruki tore his gaze away from the flowers and looked back at you, tilting his head softly, not quite understanding what you were talking about. though before he could ask about it, you smiled and got down on one knee in front of him. and that's when it finally clicked.

“takuto maruki… will you marry me?”

your boyfriend's jaw dropped and you could see by just looking at him how surprised and overwhelmed he was by the situation. soon, his eyes filled up with tears and he started nodding quickly.

“i– y-yes! yes, i want to marry you!”

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braveryhearted · 1 month ago

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SERE! one of my fellow small fandoms enthusiasts - i come baring late 2025 well wishes but full of the same amount of love that i could bring back in the day! i hope the beginning of this year has been even more kind to you than 2024 has been, and if not i hope that it only goes up from here!

truthfully, the one thing i've always admired about you has been the sheer love you have for your characters. running multiple blogs, especially multiple blogs with multiple different muses when your activity can sometimes drain is so HARD but you more than manage it! with every blog you log into, every muse you take your time to talk about or write, it's clear that you love them as much as you can possibly can. that love extends so deeply into your writing as well, assuring everyone that they will get the best when you reply - and we do! we all do, and that is something you should be more than proud of, sere. you polish off your portrayals with a flourish that makes every reply such a fun piece to read, something that even as a watcher on the dash can make you read again or again, simply because of a punchy line or interesting tune.

you have always been such a sweetheart on the dash as well, someone who is incredibly unafraid to get out there and be so welcoming to people who recently join your fandoms so that they know there is a friendly face. i remember being so, so nervous on my otome blog - thinking that i was going to be the only one writing those muses but then you popped along with yours and everything felt so, so much better. i cannot thank you for that, or the love, you have shown me and many others throughout the years. i hope that 2025 works hard enough to deliver you the same kind multiplied by a tenthold!

I have had this sitting in my inbox for so long but that's because it was so moving to get a great message like this. First, thank you for the late 2025 wishes. It's almost half way in the year. While it could be better, it is somewhat an improvement to 2024, when I got laid off again around this time. It's nice to have a stable job even if the pay isn't the greatest.

Aww, thank you. I try to manage the best I can. Of course, I am more active here now than my Akira ( Joker ) blog and others but I do agree. It takes a lot to juggle multiple ones all at once. I seriously don't know how I can do it. Now I've been adding muses here that I used to have other blogs for so it's been a little easier but I do still have others that I maintain. Thank you for seeing how much work I put into each one. I do love all of the characters I pick up. Well, some is a love-hate like Takuto Maruki but I digress. lol. It's more of a thought processes that I go through with each character as in ways they would act in a canon sense. Except for silly threads when that goes out the window. Haha. I'm glad people like reading what I write because I really do like it when people enjoy my portrayals even though sometimes I struggle to come up with things on the fly. I need a few hours or days to let it really sink all in you know?

That's so great to hear since I personally think some are scared of me so you saying that I am a sweetheart and welcoming is a breath of fresh air to be honest. I am glad that you can see that I'm just a goofy-goober trying their best. Aww, you're welcome. I absolutely love to see others writing otome muses. It makes me smile and I am so glad that people pick up these type of muses because they aren't always made for everyone you know? You're quite welcome. It's nice to know that I helped others along the way. And yes, I hope the remaining year of 2025 is a good one. <3

@truethes

#long post cw #[ just another l. a. devotee. sere ]#truethes #cat cw #really this was so nice to get all those months ago ^o^

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kirino-shindou · 6 months ago

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Hello Guyss! Below I have the chapter one of a TakuRan fanfic I made, hope you like it!!🤍

❗DO NOT RE-UPLOAD MY FANFIC/s ANYWHERE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION❗

⚠️Please bare in mind that this is all FICTIONAL. The charcters mentioned are not by me but from its rightful author.⚠️

Friendship in Question

Chapter 1: Welcome Party

The Raimon team members were excited to welcome back the Earth 11 who saved the galaxy. Just before the day Earth 11 arrives, they prepared a welcome party which was suggested by the managers. Everyone was hassling with the decor, foods, and surprises. But amidst the busy work, they were all happy since their friends were coming back, Kirino was very excited waiting for his childhood bestfriend, Shindou Takuto.

Kirino POV

I can't wait for them to arrive...Shindou, you did an amazing job along with Tenma and the others... I thought as I gazed up the sky. Yesterday, he told me and the others that they successfully saved not only earth but also other parts of the galaxy, I wanted to give them something special for what they have done. What should it be? I mean...I could buy them flowers. Yeah, that's valid. But I think I should give Shindou more than that, he is my childhood friend all.

"Uh...Kirino?" Kirino snapped back to reality as he heard someone say his name. He turned around to see someone who was

visibly having a hard time carrying 3 boxes in their hands which made it quite hard to see their face. "C-could you please help-"

Kirino timingly caught one of the boxes as it slipped off, then he realized that it was Akane.

"Phew...thank goodness you caught it." She sighed.

"Oh! Sorry for reacting a bit late. Here, let me carry that one-" Kirino grabbed a second box from her before speaking "Hey, what's inside these boxes? How could it be so heavy?"

Akane smiled "Midori ordered some fake trophies, statues, decorative lights, balloons and...maybe more?"

Kirino raised a brow "trophies and statues...?"

"Guys!" He heard another voice. It was Midori, followed by Aoi

"Akane, what took you so long?" Midori asked "Anyway, lets go inside! We need more decorations!"

Timeskip

Still Kirino POV

The others had been bantering about the decorations and I couldn't help but smile at the scene. I'm sure Shindou missed this...

I let out a small giggle before focusing on my job once again. It wasn't long until Aoi called out to us.

"I have news, I don't think you'll be able to finish this on time" she said, her head down.

"But why?" Nishiki spoke "I think we do, they are returning tomorrow and we are almost done here"

She sighed. "Thing is...they are arriving today."

"WHAT?!" we all exclaimed.

"They just called me and discovered that they'll be here before 3 in the afternoon." She looked at the clock that was currently at 12.

"Are you kidding me? We won't have enough time!" Kurumada said, face slapping himself.

"We'll just have to decorate as much as we can" I said to them and they nodded.

"So what about the cake?" Taiyou mentioned. Which seemingly made Midori annoyed.

"UGH. They should've made it clearer when they will actually arrive!!"

Timeskip

It was 5 minutes before 3 o'clock and Kirino and the others had finally finished. They were all exhausted. The club looked so much livelier now. Kirino was a bit disappointed to know that he couldn't buy his personal gifts for Earth 11, but was excited and nervous at the same time.

"So I guess now we just wait?" Says Hayami.

Kirino POV

I turned off the lights as time was ticking. Patiently waiting, imagining my bestfriend with Tenma, Kyousuke and the rest of the member's reaction at their suprises once they enter the club. I could feel my heart beating loud and fast and I don't know why. What..what is wrong with me?

I was too distracted that I missed several seconds before looking at the door that had now been surrounded by people, I didn't even notice the lights had turned on. I stood up walking forward, joining the cheers as I saw them. I saw Shindou, smiling happily, his hands were held up high by Akane and Taiyou.

"Shindou...!" I called breathlessly. He finally saw me and his smile grew wider. I hugged him tightly, and he returned it.

#kirino ranmaru #shindou takuto #inazuma eleven go #fanfic

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events-in-the-velvet-room · 1 year ago

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Author Guessing Post!

So for our first annual New Years Community Prompts, we had 6 lovely contributors!

NextTrickAnvils ( @nexttrickanvils )

Ravenoftheskyes ( @ravenoftheskyes )

Oceantoast ( @ocean--toast )

marshie_marshmallow ( @purplespacefairy )

shadow_reader (I don't know your tumblr, please send an ask or DM me so I can add you if you want)

a_salty_alto ( @yusuke-of-valla ) (aka me)

They contributed 11 wonderful works!

All I Want For Christmas is Yu

Nanako wants nothing more than to see her big bro come home for Christmas. But unfortunately, that’s not happening.

But maybe the magic of Christmas can help…?

Countdown

Happy New Years from Toshiro and Takuto!

Cracks in the Stained Glass

Yusuke finds himself in Ueno, staring at that genuinely bright portrait being subjected to the harsh artificial brightness of the spotlight. It feels so hollow here, surrounded by other works of art and gawked at from afar rather than being the quiet fireplace it had been in LeBlanc. Yusuke wonders how long it had been there without him thinking anything more of it than the pedestrians stopping and passingly mentioning its beauty before moving on.

How easily he had fallen into the same blind contentment as Eve. Allowing Maruki to guide his thoughts as far back as October, easing him into the idea that he could be happy being so divorced from the art that inspired his career path like this

glory and gore

The Metaverse is amazing. She can move just as well as- no, even better than Kasumi. Feats that no human could ever actually pull off are possible in this world. She has power running through her veins and she can do anything.

And it’s the one thing that Kasumi doesn’t have.

A Leg Up

The Metaverse starts taking a toll on Ryuji’s leg.

make me feel something

Toshiro meets a strange man at a bar

Oh Captain, My Captain

Toshiro gets bullied into confessing his love for Eri by a 19 year old boy he met two minutes ago.

Operation: First Date

Yosuke wants to ask Labrys out on a date, there were just a couple hurdles for him to get through.

Really bad day in Mementos

A day where things go very, very poorly for the Phantom Thieves.

Prompt:

Characters getting afflicted with some of the weirder SMT status conditions such as Vamp, High, Drunk, Guilt, puppet, etc.

Red Alert!

Rise finally hits the button.

Self (in Approximation to Others)

All she’s ever wanted is to be loved the way that Kasumi has been. The way that’s been afforded to her for just existing in a way that Sumire was never good enough for. Not even good enough, just never enough to deserve.

“I know I don’t say it enough but that’s one of the reasons that I love you, Sumire.”

Her red bangs fall in front of her face and her glasses clang on the tile when she lowers her chin. Her jaw tightens and her hands ball into fists. She thinks she hears Akechi but she can’t understand a thing that he says. “Shut up.”

If you still want to have some fun, you can guess in the comments and tags of this post who contributed what!

Ground rules:

No guessing on the fics themselves, because it'll be awkward if you're wrong.

Be polite! If you don't have anything nice to say, you don't have to say anything at all!

If you can, comment on the fics themselves! They turned out great!

If you don't want to comment, share this post so others can see everyone's hard work

Authors will be revealed next week, so let's start off the year with some fun! Good luck!

#new years community prompts #persona series #persona fic #author guessing post #for the record you get nothing but the satisfaction of being correct if you guess it

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kiaroscuro · 9 months ago

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Warnings: descriptions of violence, major character death

Rating: Mature

Main Pairing: Ren Amamiya / Arsene

Main Tags: post-canon, zombie au, angst, hurt / comfort, road trips

Warning: mentioned MCD (not only Mona this time!)

· · ─────── =^.^= ─────── · ·

Tokyo as a whole is just so full of people -- Ren and Arsene take to the train tracks again, but now that they're past the danger-zone of random flash-floods, everywhere they look, there's people: little communities living side by side, some turning into larger settlements, some forming loose alliances with each other. It's fascinating, to see how many survivors there are just wandering between wards and districts as well, when Ren's been counting them in the single digits for most of their travels before they reached some invisible-seeming border near Shizuoka, and the population started to pick up again.

Ren thinks that the number of people could easily reach Nagoya's settlement, or whatever numbers Tsu-Aki has now, and they're just barely halfway-through Bunkyo. It seems to be a fine line they're walking, between being large groups of the living and large groups of the mutated. The landscape of Tokyo is both familiar and not, many of the buildings broken apart or overrun by nature, green flashing between all of the urban areas, sometimes making Ren gag with the phantom-memory of Takuto. They'd started their journey at dawn with hope in their hearts, and by the time they finally spied the Sunshine 60 skyscraper from Toshima station, it's past noon and Ren's got his gun drawn because around every corner, the meandering footfalls of infected can be heard. They grabbed a pamphlet with information about their goal before continuing onwards, Arsene leafing through it between calmer moments.

It's as nerve-wracking as his days near Osaka had been, where the dead had outnumbered the living by too much to count, and both he and Arsene are tense, this close to their goal. They take out large clusters of mutated on their path, until they start reaching barricades and stakes that are clearly man-made. Ren eyes them suspiciously, noticing the faint agi spells that made the fires flicker on some of them, and carefully walks past them with Arsene, more alert for area-of-effect spells now. Not even the angels had warded their settlement like this...

Though, it is possible that we've simply missed the wards due to how quickly we were noticed. These support spells stretch much further.

Mh. Ren agrees, nimbly stepping around debris that seemed to be placed there on purpose. They're quickly approaching the skyscraper, dodging around around lingering spells and obstacles as if they were in a palace, and it doesn't take them that much longer before they arrive around a corner after which seems to be a stone wall, revealing itself as molten rock and metal fused together, with chicken wire secured on top, about twice as high as Ren. Spikes out of wood and metal both are placed before the wall, and there's a few spaces that might be lookout posts, and Ren has to take a step back to take in the whole structure that turned Sunshine City into a palace.

"...god," Ren exhales, suddenly and inexplicably longing for their little hotel room back in Nagatsugawa. The grip on his handgun tightens, and they glance at each other.

A white flag might just be a good idea, Arsene surmises, glancing down at himself; he's threatening-looking on the best of days, and today's not one of those. "Maybe." Ren agrees. "We have some leftover bandages, right?"

"Oui," Arsene murmurs, quickly magicking them out of one of their shoulder-bags, before he frowns and glances around for something stick-like. They find something that looks like a discarded arrow, quickly turning it into a makeshift flag, before Arsene sticks it out as far around the corner as he can. When nothing fires at it, they carefully step around as well, walking over to one of the little lookouts while constantly waving the bandages. Ren tries calling out, not too loudly, and then--

a head pops out of the lookout, pale lilac hair and a red eye the only thing Ren can make out. "Hello!" The stranger calls out, a shotgun dangling between her fingers as she leans further forward. That's as clear a warning as Ren's ever seen. Arsene frowns, next to him. "Are you guys friendly?"

"Yeah!" Ren calls back. "We're looking for-- Futaba Sakura! We're family! Is she with you?"

She blinks, clearly taken aback, before eyeing them over anew. "...right. What're your names, and more importantly: are you wounded?"

"Amamiya Ren and Arsene Lupin, and we art not! Only superficial scratches!"

She eyes them over, frowning, and Ren knows they look a sight. "...are you a shadow or a persona? And my name's -Erina, by the way," Erina introduced herself, pausing oddly over her name.

"A persona!" Arsene calls back, and Erina's shoulders slump in relief. She tells them that they have follow the barricade around the next corner where one of the entrances is located and they do after her hair disappears from the lookout. Once by the door, they're led through what seems to be a repurposed container unit with multiple windows. A voice tells them to "Wait there!" Some kind of shadow going by Arsene's bristling feathers, and then Erina slips into the room. She's wearing something that looks like it might be a cosplay military coat, fingerless gloves, a red skirt and combat boots rounding out her outfit, looking every inch a fighter. She's smiling at them, thinly.

"Let the mu shuwuu and fuu-ki run a diagnostic and seal your skills for now," she says, and Ren tenses up because that would leave them effectively defenseless.

"Thou've had bad experiences in the past?" Arsene asks, the faint green glow of a navigator-type spell falling over him (and Ren, to a lesser extent). It makes all of the wounds that Arsene's sustained more visible for a blinding moment.

"You could say that," Erina says, dryly. She shifts around, and Ren notices that the eye he assumed hidden by her hair simply... wasn't. "A woman, her child and a barong had arrived a few weeks ago; they claimed to only be 'scratched' and we let them in--"

(Ren flinches.)

"-- needless to say, we lost three people and a shadow that day; one of our best nurses at that." Erina finishes.

He doesn't object to them sealing their abilities anymore.

Once that's over and done with, they're allowed out of the container and into the Sunshine City proper: three skyscrapers with ---

Ren barely has any time to inspect everything, though, because a familiar presence settles at the back of his mind, a soft "Welcome back, leader-unit," echoing through Arsene and him before someone tackles him. Instincts snap into place, and Ren hugs back Futaba even while she's burrowing into his neck with a hiccoughing cry of "Ren!"

"Oh," Ren says, overwhelmed, before he blinks back tears and starts to buckle, strength suddenly leaving him. Necronomicon's tentacles curl around his middle and soften his fall into a controlled sink to the ground-- right, that was Necronomicon's voice earlier--

Arsene's moving towards other approaching figures, four of them, out-of-focus to his blurry vision but distinctly familiar, and they're surrounding the persona and touching him before they double in numbers, and Ren's awash with the phantom-feeling of the hugs of his team while everyone somehow starts piling around him and Arsene.

He's crying now, earnest, a tension leaving him that's been with him ever since the whole world went up in flames, and he hugs Futaba back even fiercer and squeezes his eyes shut when he feels Ryuji's hands on his shoulder and Haru's comforting weight at his back. "...we're back," Ren murmurs, amazed.

"You-- you made it-!" Futaba wails. "I can't believe you, you reckless idiot--"

"Yeah," Ren says, softly. He gets tugged to the side and against Yusuke, and now Makoto's hand is on his shoulder, and Futaba's not let go of him. Ren is buoyed in joy, happy, when he catches a snippet of conversation from the persona, still keyed into their broadband:

--Carm en?

She'sgo ne, mate. Sacri ficedhe rs elf.

Its flavor is distinctly alien because Necronomicon isn't filtering their conversation properly, having forgotten that it had greeted Ren earlier, the mental 'language' much more melodious than one would assume. Ren's used to it after a whole year of thieving, though, and he freezes up, softly detangling himself from Futaba.

"...where's Ann?" He asks, grief already settling into his bones.

The others are silent for a heart-rending moment. "Dead," Makoto says, eyes squeezed shut as if in pain. Ren stares at her in disbelief. "Before-- before we had the barricades... in the beginning. A big group of survivors..." She trails off. Yusuke picks up:

"If it weren't for Panther, myself and twenty-one people would be dead. Carmen erected a wall of flames that burned for hours, both of them on the other side of the conflict." He takes a rattling breath. "...in the end, they burned themselves out, along with over fifty infected. She always believed you would reach us in the end." Yusuke finishes with, and Ren stares, ears ringing, a hand coming up to his collar unconsciously as he looks over to Arsene, whose own grief is trailing down in golden streaks over his mask. Goemon and Kidd have their eyes averted, while Milady is still, and even Necronomicon's dropped lower.

"Oh," Ren says, at a loss for words. Haru sees where he's touching, but even before she can say anything, Ren nods. "Morgana, too. He... his body was so small. It couldn't fight the fever. I-- held him, and then we buried him, and--" Grief chokes up his words. "My parents didn't even-- they didn't even make it out of our hometown, and. And-- I didn't know if we could make it, but sometimes. It was the only thing keeping me going, and I--" he stops, unable to continue as they hug him tighter, the persona also coming closer to the pile, and Ren lets his grief and terror over the past half-year wash over him, tries to forget that a year ago at roughly this time he'd been spending his last few months in Tokyo before leaving for Hasetsu, his friends having just gotten him out of juvie.

"You're-- here now," Futaba says, voice teary. "We're here, you're here, we're all-- all together now, so everything's going to be-- okay. Just you see, Joker, everything's gonna be okay."

First << >> Epiloge

#persona 5 #arsene #ren amamiya #persona #ren x arsene #my writing #fanfic #The Road Home #I'm... so sorry for what I did to Ann and Carmen #It was either them or Yusuke and Goemon #but in the end Ann 'won' the metaphorical coin toss because the image of her and Carmen going out behind a wall of flames was too powerful #I killed both cat-based teammembers sorry

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pearlsephoni · 2 years ago

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Spiking Heartbeats: A Day in the Life

Can also be read on AO3!

Rating: T

Fandom: Haikyuu!!

Relationships: Platonic Karasuno First Years, pre-relationship Tsukkiyama (Tsukishima/Yamaguchi), pre-relationship Kagehina (Kageyama/Hinata)

Characters: Shoyo Hinata, Hitoka Yachi, Tadashi Yamaguchi, Kei Tsukishima, Tobio Kageyama, Original Child Character (Hinata's niece), Minor Original Characters, Asahi Azumane (cameo), Daichi Sawamura (cameo), Natsu Hinata (cameo)

Word Count: 4.8k

Summary: Some years later, the five unlikely friends are respected professors in their fields, known for their dedication to their patients and the learning opportunities they provide to the residents and interns in the hospital. But no matter how busy they get, they still find time to bring some teasing, bickering, and comfort to each other.

A/N: Written as part of a collaborative series with @/r0mantic-era of Haikyuu Hospital Playlist AU fics, featuring the Karasuno first years as the 99s! Originally published on AO3 on April 1st. Further author's notes can be found there.

🩺

Mornings like these are rare for Hitoka. She could wake up and get ready for work at the same time as her boyfriend, get dropped off by him, and have time to spare to get a coffee before her first appointment of the day. Even rarer is the chance to walk into the hospital cafe and see—

"Tobio?"

She's used to the sight of his eyes jerking up from his phone with a look of panic, before he recognizes her and relaxes right back into his blank, accidentally-intimidating expression. "Oh, Yacchan."

"You can't keep looking so scared to talk to people," she laughs as she sits at his little table. "You're going to hurt someone's feelings."

"It's just my face," he mumbles, shoving a bite of omelette into his mouth. "You're here early."

"Mm-hm! Takuto wanted to drop me off today, since we had to get up at the same time!" She begins to take a sip of coffee, only to lower her cup when she notices Kageyama's brows furrowing. "Hey, be nice."

"I didn't say anything!"

"You don't need to!"

With that, Kageyama's features settle into the frown Hitoka knew they'd been resisting. "...I still don't like him."

"Well, I'm glad you and Kei finally have something to agree on," she sighs. "When's your next appointment?"

"Not for a while. I just finished a delivery. What about you?"

Hitoka hums as she looks at her watch. "Oh, shoot! Soon, I should go! See you!"

"Shee yo," Kageyama mumbles around another bite of omelette.

She only gets to the elevator before she hears someone call out, "Yacchan!"

"Hey, Tadashi!" Yamaguchi looks unusually harried, still combing his hair down from its usual tufts. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah! I lost track of time while prepping my lecture, and now I'm almost late for my first appointment."

"Oh, no," Hitoka sighs in sympathy. The elevator arrives, and they slip to the back together, letting nurses and residents fill in the rest of the car. "Would you like some coffee?"

Yamaguchi seamlessly takes her proffered cup, sips at the coffee, and returns it to her hand in the middle of straightening out his lab coat and making sure everything is in the correct pockets. "Oh, by the way, I wanted to talk to you about something I'm working on," he mutters in the quiet of the elevator. "Let me know when you get a free moment."

"Okay!"

The elevator dings at the second floor, and with one more smile, Yamaguchi weaves his way through the slower doctors and jogs down the hallway to his appointment room.

Something about seeing Kageyama be at his leisure while Yamaguchi is blustering around brings a smile to Hitoka's lips. Her smile lingers when she reaches her floor and makes her way to the neurology outpatient hall. "Hello, Mrs. Sakurai! Please, come in with me."

🩺

"Ren-kun, don't you want to feel better? Let's get your shirt up, okay?"

The three-year-old lets out a long whine as he cringes away from the nurse's touch and pins his mother and Tadashi with a pout.

"Goodness," the mother sighs, adjusting her son's big teddy bear in her arms, "I don't know what's gotten into him today."

Tadashi is quiet for a moment, watching the toddler glower at him and biting back a smile, before an idea occurs to him. "Ohhhh, Mr. Bear!" he gasps theatrically. "What's wrong?"

He glances up from the bear to raise his brows at the mother, who thankfully catches on quickly. "Ohhhh, Doctor," she groans in a cartoonishly low voice, "my stomach's been hurting terribly! Can you help?"

"Hmmm, let's see!" Tadashi presses his stethoscope to the teddy's fuzzy belly and declares, "Oh dear, how do you feel now?"

"Oh, Doctor, I feel much better!"

"Wonderful! And what about you, ma'am?" He settles the stethoscope on the back of her hand where she's holding the teddy.

"Doctor! I feel great now!" she gasps in her regular voice.

"Good, good! Now whooooo's next, hm?" Tadashi dramatically looks over at Ren, who beams at him and raises his hand. "It's Ren-kun! C'mere, kiddo, can you lift your shirt for me?"

Once upon a time, Tadashi could barely make it through an appointment without his cheeks burning at the silly things he had to do to get his little patients to cooperate. Now it's just another part of the job, a simple way to make going to the hospital a little less stressful for their young minds.

By the time he's done with appointments, his throat is a touch sore from not only giving lengthy explanations to nervous parents, but also doing a series of silly, exaggerated voices to keep his patients distracted from the severity of their prognoses.

"Goodness, Doctor," the nurse, Sawamura, says with a soft laugh. "No wonder you always need tea after seeing outpatients."

Tadashi shoots him a sheepish grin around his mug of tea. "A small price to pay to make any part of this easier for them."

There aren't many outpatients in pediatrics today, giving him a rare chance to duck upstairs to his office and maybe even have a snack. If Tsukki is feeling generous, he might even have a chance to enjoy some of his expansive collection of sweets, kept secret within their group (though he bemoaned the possibility of Hinata, notorious swiper, helping himself to the sweets drawer).

As though summoned by his wandering thoughts, the elevator doors open to reveal Tsukishima himself, alone and slouched against the back wall with his head leaned back. "Tsukki!"

Tsukishima's eyes flash open, and with a jolt, he pushes himself upright, cheeks just barely rosy in the harsh elevator lighting. "Hey. You done with outpatients already?"

"Yep!" Tadashi can feel a wide, childlike smile pushing at his cheeks as he joins Tsukishima at the back of the car. "What're you doing here? I thought you had the day off?"

Tsukishima groans, eyes sliding shut and head knocking against the wall again. "I had to chew out some interns and make sure the patient could bounce back from their mistake."

Tadashi gives a low whistle. "That bad?"

"Mm." Eyes still closed, Tsukishima tilts towards Tadashi, leaning the slightest bit of weight against him. Tadashi's cheeks immediately tingle with warmth, even though he should be used to it by now. For as long as they've felt physically comfortable in their friendship, this has been Tsukishima's favorite way of silently seeking comfort from Tadashi, and Tadashi only: a silent lean that lets their sides press flush against each other.

The only thing that's changed is Tadashi's feelings towards Tsukishima. Not that Tsukki knows anything about that.

"Are you going home now?" he asks as he leans some weight back, fighting valiantly to keep his voice steady.

"No." Tsukishima slouches even more into Tadashi, until a laugh bursts from him and a tiny smile tugs at Tsukki's lips. "I've got another patient to check on. Then I might go home."

"Well…since you're here…"

Goldenrod eyes blink open over a small, knowing frown. "Yes, you can have some cookies, you little thief. D'you still have the extra key?"

"Yep! Thanks, Tsukki!"

The elevator slides to a stop with a cheery ding, but Tsukishima doesn't say anything until Tadashi has already stepped off and the doors begin shutting. "Don't let Hinata in!"

"He's not in today, relax!" Tadashi wouldn't have let him into Tsukki's office, anyway. Unsupervised snack drawer access was a privilege he enjoyed all on his own. And sometimes with Yachi. But mostly on his own.

🩺

"What's going on?" Kei asks the moment he stepped into the ward, smearing on some hand cleanser.

The resident hurries up, already speaking by the time he reaches Kei’s side. “Doctor, the patient was hooked up to the ECMO, but she developed a pulmonary edema, so we had to intubate her. Her heart was barely beating when we checked her echo.”

Shit. Shiho’s been steadily improving, to the point that they were planning on getting her off of the ECMO and into a general ward. But if she’s regressed this badly… “Does her family know?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good.” That will make explaining the next steps a little easier.

When they approach Shiho’s bed, her mother is hovering over her, carefully tucking blankets around the sleeping 7-year-old. The sight makes Kei’s heart squeeze. It doesn’t matter how many years he works and how thick his skin is—the sight of little bodies dwarfed in hospital beds never gets easier.

He doesn’t know how Yamaguchi does it.

“Excuse me, ma’am. May I have a word?”

Shiho’s mother jolts upright and whirls around to face Kei. “Oh, hello, Doctor! Yes, of course.” The shadows under her eyes have gotten deeper since yesterday, and she seems unsteady on her feet as she follows Kei and the two interns to a quiet corner away from Shiho’s bed. Kei is almost tempted to set a steadying hand under her elbow, but he doesn’t dare.

“Shiho’s heart has worsened, Mrs. Suzui, to the point that she’s developed pulmonary edema,” he says once they come to a stop, never one to beat around the bush. He’s been on the other side of these interactions. He knows all any family member wants is to know how their loved one is doing. “She won’t be able to depend on the ECMO for much longer. An artificial heart would be better, especially in reducing the pressure on her left ventricle. She will need surgery either later today or tomorrow.”

"Oh, god," the mother gasps, eyes wide and wavering with tears. "Doctor, I…I really can't afford to pay for a surgery right now. Could we wait a week? I can get the money in a week! Please, please save her, I don’t…I don’t know what else to do…"

Anger sparks in Kei's chest—not at Shiho's mother, of course not, but at the injustice of it all, the choice between death and bankruptcy. "We really can't wait to operate," he sighs, trying to school his face into a gentler, if not fully reassuring, expression. "But don't worry about the costs, ma'am. The hospital has several welfare programs—we can inform them about your daughter's case, and they will provide you with whatever financial assistance they can." Over his shoulder, he tells Azumane Asahi, one of the interns shadowing him that morning, “You go look into it.”

Shiho’s mother’s face crumples into the tears she's been fighting against so valiantly. "Thank you, Doctor! Thank you so much!" she weeps, dipping into bows with her hands clasped over her chest.

"We're just doing our job, ma'am." He bends into a bow of his own, before looking over his shoulder and frowning at the sight of Azumane still lingering there. "What're you doing? Go call them!"

Azumane jolts, giving a hasty bow and stammering, "R-right!"

Kei keeps an eye on him as he hurries out of the ward while digging his phone out of his pocket. Yeah…that kid has no idea who to call.

Sure enough, when Kei finishes explaining the needed surgery to the patient's mother, he leaves the ward and sees Azumane frantically typing on his phone. He’s a tall, sturdy guy, with long brown hair pulled into a bun and a neatly-trimmed goatee. But he never looks as intimidating as he could, because he’s almost always curled in on himself with doubt and anxiety. He looks positively hunchbacked now.

Kei feels for him. He does. He remembers when Yamaguchi and Yachi were always ten seconds away from a panic attack as interns. But there isn’t time for nerves in this field. The sooner Azumane learns that, the better.

With a sigh, Kei dials the number to the social services office and approaches Azumane. "I'm doing the operation tomorrow, and now I have to call social services. What exactly do you do around here?"

While Azumane stammers an apology, the line connects, and Kei's voice takes on a well-practiced tone of polite pleasantry. "Hello, this is Tsukishima Kei from Cardiothoracic Surgery. We have a pediatric case that needs financial aid, would assistance from the Fly High Fund be possible? Yes, just a moment."

Sharp eye contact is all the warning Kei gives Azumane before he tosses the phone at him and walks away. In his wake, he can hear Azumane beginning explaining the details of the surgery, voice finally steady and sure.

Well…at least he made sure to study the case.

Even though he has nothing else scheduled for the day, he decides to get lunch at the hospital cafe, just in case something else comes up. Better to be a few floors away than have to turn back around on the drive home.

The path from his regular elevator to the cafe takes him past the ER waiting room, an area he usually disregards if he hasn't been specifically called. Today, though, he stumbles mid-step, eyes catching on a terribly familiar mop of ginger hair.

"Shrimp?"

🩺

Shoyo loves his niece. Really, he does. Sure, when Natsu first announced her pregnancy, he was mostly relieved to no longer bear the pressure of providing their mother with a grandchild. But the little girl showed signs of that special Hinata charm from her first burbles, and now, at four years old, she already knows how to best wield her words in a way that even Shoyo has a hard time saying no to.

Sometimes, he wishes he could actually say no. Even if he is the cool, fun uncle, Kasumi really needs to learn how to take no as an answer. Maybe then they wouldn't play tea party every time Shoyo babysat her, costumes and all. And maybe then he wouldn't be standing in the ER waiting room of the hospital he works at with a plastic silver tiara superglued to his head.

“Uncle…Uncle Shoooooo…” He looks down at his pulled hand, and sees Kasumi gazing up at him with big, dark eyes. Her black hair is pulled into pigtails, and she’s still wearing her own gold tiara with gaudy pink jewels. “I’m really sorry!”

“It’s okay, Sumi-chan,” Shoyo sighs with a tired smile. They’ve been through this conversation ten times in the past hour, because the poor thing inherited the trademark Hinata anxiety along with their charisma. “You wanted to help keep the tiara on. Just…there’s a reason Mommy doesn’t let you use that glue.”

“I know.” She pouts and leans into him, her cheek squishing into his arm. “I’m sorry.”

He strokes his free hand over her head as he looks around the dwindling patients in the ER waiting room. It’s not that he thinks he deserves special privileges just because he works here, but really now…how long does it take to find someone to get this tiara off? The superglue will be tricky, especially where the tiara is stuck to his forehead, but it’s nothing this hospital hasn’t handled before.

“Alright, that’s it!” he declares after five more minutes. “C’mon, Sumi-chan, we’re going to find someone to help us!”

His niece brightens immediately, always eager to follow through on a grand plan. Her little legs somehow manage to keep up with his marching steps to the ER, hurrying along with a momentum that nearly flings her forward when Shoyo suddenly stops. “Ow!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Shoyo gasps, gathering her up and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “I just, uh…changed my mind, let’s go back to waiting—”

“Shrimp?”

Shit.

With a wince, Shoyo slowly turns to face the last person he wanted to see like this. “Ah…hey, Four-Eyes. Kasumi, say hello. He’s a friend of mine, but you shouldn’t make friends like him! He’s big and mean!”

Kasumi’s eyes are wide with fear and intrigue as she does a little bow in Shoyo’s arms, missing the sneer Tsukishima sends him. “I’ve met Kasumi before.”

“Kasumi, do you remember Uncle Tsukki?”

Eyes still wide, Kasumi ever-so-slightly shakes her head. Tsukishima can’t do much more than sigh and offer the little girl a bad attempt at a reassuring smile, which immediately slides off his face when his focus shifts back to Shoyo. Jerk. “What’re you doing here? And what’s with the crown? Have you spent too much time with the King?”

“Haha.” He quickly presses another kiss to Kasumi’s cheek when he sees her little face start to crumple with guilt again. “We just had a little…mishap.”

“...Okay?”

Tsukishima’s steady eyes tell Shoyo that he’s not getting away without a proper explanation. “I told Kasumi that her tea-time tiaras don’t fit well on me, so she decided to help…with superglue.”

Pure, unadulterated delight melts across Tsukishima's face. “Holy shi— I mean, oh wow! That was a good idea, Kasumi!”

Kasumi’s guilt is replaced by confusion. “No no no, it wasn’t a good idea, but we know that now, and Sumi-chan won’t do it again, right?” He didn’t speak a moment too soon—her confusion gives way to determination as she gives a hefty nod. “Good girl!”

“Do you want me to call Yacchan?” Tsukishima asks, suppressed laughter clear in his voice. “Maybe she can give you a free psych evaluation after the tiara’s off.”

“Fu—uhhh, don’t be mean, Tsukishima! I’m just going to find someone to get this off quickly, and I’m going to go and enjoy the rest of my precious day off with Sumi! Right?”

“Right!” Shoyo can’t resist it—he simply has to press another kiss to Kasumi’s cheeks when they’re all round from her bright smile.

“Good luck with that,” Tsukishima snorts. His voice only gentles when he addresses Kasumi. “It was nice seeing you again, Kasumi. Make sure you keep your uncle out of trouble.”

It’s a rare sight to see Kasumi nervous to the point of a silent nod. Shoyo knew she had good instincts. Only when Tsukishima walks away does she mumble, “He’s scary.”

“Nah, he just looks like that,” Shoyo laughs. “He’s like Uncle Tobio—a big scary meanie at first, then all sweet when you’re friends!” That…doesn’t apply to Shoyo, but Kasumi doesn’t need to know that.

Her face creases with some confusion. “Uncle Tobio isn’t scary.”

Never mind. Her instincts aren’t that good.

The dreaded run-in with Tsukishima isn’t enough to distract Shoyo from his mission. What does distract him is the sight of Yachi wide-eyed and pointing straight at him. She’s standing next to a hospital bed with an older gentleman laying in it, arm in a sling and bandage on his head. It takes Shoyo a moment to recognize him as a prolific general surgeon who works in a hospital that’s clear across the city. What’s he doing here?

Never mind. “Um. Hi, Yacchan!” Maybe she really can help get the tiara off. Neurosurgery should apply to stuff on the outside of the brain, right?

“Shoyo! Oh my gosh, you’re exactly who I needed to see, can you come here?”

Unfortunately for Shoyo, Yachi is another person he can rarely say no to.

The explanations go by in a blur, something about a liver donor finally coming through for a young man who needs a complex operation, one that only one doctor in the city can reliably carry out. Said doctor had the misfortune of getting into an accident on his way to the hospital, and now they’re left with a liver and a patient and no doctor.

“We can’t wait, otherwise a different hospital will take the liver. Please, Shoyo, we really wouldn’t ask if we had any other choice!”

And now he’s here, in surgical scrubs, washing his hands and trying his best to ignore the itch of the tiara that is still on his head, now covered by a hair net.

“This is ridiculous,” he grumbles to Iwaizumi, the one and only general surgery resident in the entire hospital. “What’s the director going to say? This kind of last-minute change is serious!”

“Dr. Yachi said she already spoke to him and got it approved,” Iwaizumi easily answers.

“What about the patient’s mother? Does she know what’s happening? Someone needs to explain what’s going on and get her consent!”

“Dr. Yachi already knows the mother from a different case and was able to get her to sign the consent form within a few minutes.”

“And the original doctor? I know he’s injured, but still, he must be upset at being switched out so easily.”

“Dr. Yachi got him on board when they saw you in the ER.”

“Will Kasumi be okay? What if Natsu can’t come pick her up on such short notice?”

“Dr. Yachi let her know what happened, she’ll be here in a few hours. Dr. Kageyama offered to keep an eye on her until then.”

Shoyo drops his head back with a prolonged whine, forgetting about the light on his forehead until he hears a soft grunt and looks down to see Iwaizumi shielding his eyes with his clipboard. “God…she got all that done, and still couldn’t get anyone to get this thing off my head. Alright, fine. Let’s do this.”

🩺

Tobio likes Kasumi. Really, he does. She’s the only child who didn’t cringe away from him the first time they met.

That might’ve been because she was practically a newborn when he first saw her, but still. It was nice. She likes volleyball, and as an only child, she already knows how to keep herself somewhat entertained. She even knows how to be quiet while staying occupied, something her uncle still doesn’t know how to do at his big age.

None of that changes the fact that the office of an OB/GYN is not…the ideal place for a four-year-old.

“Um.” He stares at her, and she stares back from where she’s sitting on the office couch, little legs sticking straight out in front of her. Cute. “Do you want some cookies?”

Her solemn face brightens at that as she eagerly nods. “Can I pick?”

“I don’t have a lot, but sure.” He opens his snack drawer and lets her peruse the collection of Oreos and strawberry Meiji and regular Marie. He’s not surprised when she picks the strawberry Meiji, no doubt drawn to their pink packaging. She looks so excited about the cookies that he can’t resist offering, “...Want some milk?”

Some cookies, a Gun Gun yogurt, two pieces of scrap paper, and some markers that Yamaguchi blessedly dropped off between appointments keep Kasumi perfectly happy at the little office coffee table. “Uncle,” she calls after a few minutes of humming.

His chest warms at the familial term. It’s been a while since such a young voice called him that. He’s missed it. “Yeah?”

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Orange,” he answers without thinking. “...Why?”

“It’s a surprise!” she giggles, covering her paper with her arms when Tobio peers over at her. “What’s your favorite animal?”

“A wolf.” A tiny smile tugs at his lips when his answers earns him a serious nod. “Are you…going to draw me an orange wolf?”

“No!” she squeals, laughing as though that’s the funniest thing she’s heard all day. Not likely, considering she’s been with Hinata. “It’s a surprise!”

“Alright, alright.”

It’s surprisingly easy to work with her in the office. Sure, he’s forced to pause his work a few times to listen to a prolonged story about something that happened at school, or a toy she really wants her mom to buy, or a joke that her bestest friend in the whole wide world told her. But it’s impossible to feel very annoyed by her bright voice and brighter smile, especially when it gives him an excuse to pause his paperwork.

He doesn’t notice the time passing until he looks up from his work and sees Kasumi passed out on top of her drawing, orange marker still clutched in her hand.

Tobio doesn’t want kids. He doesn’t, at least not now, especially when he doesn’t have a partner he’d want to raise a kid with. But he’s never felt as tempted as he does when he spends time with Kasumi. The sight of her sweet face squished on her artwork makes his heart feel too big for his chest, and when he carefully slides the marker out of her fist and gathers her up in his arms, the feeling of her nuzzling into his shoulder nearly makes him burst into tears on the spot.

God…he has got to get more sleep.

He gets her settled on the couch, his sweatshirt tucked under her head and his coat draped over her. She’s small enough to fit completely beneath his coat, especially when she lets out a soft huff and curls up even more. He glances at his closed office door to make sure no one will see him, then bends over to press a kiss to her temple and brush her pigtail out of her face.

“...Tobio?”

He jumps and nearly bites his tongue in choking back a curse. There, standing at his door that somehow opened silently, is Yachi, watching him with an amused but kind smile. “...Don’t tell Hinata.”

She laughs at that, careful to not wake up Kasumi. “I wouldn’t dream of it. Natsu will be here soon, do you want me to take Kasumi down to the entrance?”

Tobio stares at the tiny sleeping form almost covered by his coat. “...No, I’ll do it.”

“Okay.” When he looks at her again, Yachi’s smile has mellowed into a terribly sweet and warm little curve. “Are you sure you don’t want me to tell Shoyo?”

“You…can tell him I made sure Natsu picked her up. Not…anything else.” If that tangerine finds out Tobio gave Kasumi a kiss, he will never hear the end about how sweet he is to Kasumi and how mean he still is to Shoyo, and “geez Yama, I thought we had something special!”

He has no idea how true that really is.

Natsu is effusive in her thanks when Tobio hands her off, holding her daughter close as she bows and asks him how she can ever thank him. “It’s nothing,” he reassures her. “Hinata was pulled into an emergency surgery, but Kasumi was great. Made me a drawing and everything.”

That finally makes a smile relax Natsu’s worried features. “Ah, another one for your collection.”

“Yeah. Is there anything else you need?”

“No, we’re all set. Thank you, Tobio-nii, seriously!”

“You don’t have to thank me. I should be thanking you—she wouldn’t have been so easy to look after if you weren’t doing such a great job raising her.”

The praise is a little corny, especially coming from him, but it’s the truth. Tobio could never work in pediatrics like Yamaguchi, but he really does enjoy the times when he gets to hang out with Kasumi, even if it is a little awkward at first. Like her uncle, it never takes her long to make any room warm and comfortable, even at age four.

By the time he returns to his office, it’s about time for him to grab some dinner. But before he leaves, he makes sure to hang his new piece of artwork—a picture of him and a wolf in the woods, which is somehow all orange trees—next to the other three drawings he’s been lucky enough to receive and the few photos he has hung up.

The photos are a small collection of memories—his high school volleyball team, he and the group in their first year of university, and again at their graduation from med school, him as a child with his grandfather, and another photo from graduation, this one with Miwa pulling him down and pressing a kiss to his cheek.

The photo his eyes catch on is the only candid in the bunch: by some stroke of luck and photographic genius, Yachi managed to snap a photo of them playing volleyball. They’re in their work pants and shoes, their sleeves are rolled up, and Hinata’s shirt has one too many buttons undone. It’s clear they got distracted by a volleyball court after a night of work drinks, but besides what they’re wearing, the shot could have been of a V.League match. A ragged volleyball is leaving Tobio’s fingertips mid-jump, and Hinata…he’s flying, body suspended in the perfect spiking posture and hand already swinging for the ball that still hasn’t reached him.

It does reach him. Tobio can remember that much, just like he can remember the slam of the ball on the other side of the court, and the way Hinata leapt into his arms for a victory hug and cheer.

He misses volleyball. He misses the two-on-two matches that they forced Yamaguchi and Tsukishima to agree to, the impromptu lessons he gave to Yachi, the sting of his fingers after a good long game. But most of all, he misses that, the way playing on a team with Hinata makes him feel invincible in a way that is so rare in the medical field.

He wonders if Hinata misses it, too.

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massacre-girlypop · 1 year ago

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Why Dr. Takuto Maruki in P5R is Wrong and Why His “Perfect Reality” is Deeply Upsetting P.2

(This is a continuation of a hyperfixation rant that spoils a great deal of the ending of P5R and addresses mental trauma and therapy in great detail. So please, make sure you know what you’re getting into when reading this. Also, while I have played P5R many, many times and have experienced a pretty hefty amount of my own trauma and suffering in my own life, I’m not an expert on psychology and matters of the mind, so most of the thoughts on his mental state are purely perspective and opinion.)

If you want the rest of this rant, scroll my page and you’ll find it eventually.

The rest of this rant was spawned from an epiphany I had when traversing Futaba’s Palace again (which, if you know me well, you’re aware of my deep emotional connection to Futaba, her story, her experiences, and her entire personality; don’t worry, I’ll explain it in more detail in a future post).

The final nail in the coffin of me actively picking apart the reason why Maruki’s palace was an abomination was the existence of Futaba and the Necronomicon itself (which is Futaba’s persona.

The finality this brings to the truth of my beliefs is that, just as Joker and Crow were opposites of each other, Maruki and Azathoth are the antithesis of Futaba and Necronomicon for the following reasons:

Futaba’s persona’s power is the ability to distinguish the truth from from the lies. She also has the ability to manipulate cognition to work in her favor. Maruki’s works in counter to that in the way of being able to extend his cognition into the world and manipulate the world in his favor while covering the world in what can only be described as an illusion or a “lie” and actualize it as fact, forcing everyone to live in that lie.

Futaba’s and Maruki’s personas both wield tentacles (probably due to the Lovecraftian connection) and function as “vehicles” for their hosts to manifest their wills and desires out of. Not necessarily a deep and complex connection, but it definitely strengthens the metaphor.

Both Palaces manifested not out of a mind of evil, but out of a mind of trauma. Both lost someone dear to them, but sought different solutions. Futaba sought to see the truth behind her mother’s death, while Maruki sought to hide, bottle, and otherwise mask his own pain, so that he could “never be hurt by it again” while disguising it under the face of “she would be happier without me”.

Lovecraft (despite his DEEPLY problematic works due to his truly despicable outlook on life and the people therein) had a theme through the genre of his stories which perpetuated into the future of Cosmic Horror (which, thank god, is nowhere near as problematic). That theme is that nothing is ever as it appears and that monsters lurk everywhere, especially in the places that no one would ever think to look. You would never think your own reality to be a lie that you’re being strangled by or that such a conventionally attractive, easy-going therapist that only ever offers kindness and snacks would turn into a cult leader/world dictator, but here we are.

The Necronomicon, by H.P.’s definition, was the account which was carrying the names of all the “Old Ones” and details as to the means by which they were summoned, essentially branding itself as the deeper knowledge and the way to keep monsters restrained and controlled. Azathoth, as previously mentioned, is the Great Old One of Creation, Change, and Destruction. The weapon of most entities that Lovecraft created was madness or insanity i.e. the loss of one’s ability to control one’s rationality. Sound familiar? If you really think about it, despite Azathoth’s overwhelming amount of power in canon, he is still restrained by the power of the Necronomicon because he cannot spread his influence without the entities restrained by its pages, so as a result, the Necronomicon is the entity that holds Azathoth at bay by imprisoning and subduing his followers.

The brain, by itself, even under amnesia, continues its attempts to help its host body to recover its memories. Most people that suffer amnesia, even though the time varies, eventually rebuild the memories their brain collected across their lives. We saw that with Futaba. Though she did not have amnesia, she was able to recover her own memories of the trauma catalyst and the brain reworked itself from there (added note: the only thing the phantom thieves did in Futaba’s palace was lead her to her own truth. We did not change her heart. We merely helped Futaba fight her own demons. She came in, saw the light, fought, and left of her and her own shadow’s power). Given ample time, I firmly believe that, even if the Phantom Thieves had not stepped in or if we had failed, humanity WOULD NOT HAVE STAYED HAPPY FOREVER IN MARUKI’S REALITY.

THAT would have been the chain reaction event that would eventually drive the world to madness. One person would have recovered their true memories, then another, then another. All progressively shattering out of the rose colored glasses Maruki had dropped over the world and, in seconds, every single person would have caved into madness because they know what reality looks like and seeing all of the lies that we’re too real to be able to mesh their minds with? True and utter chaos. And as I said in my last post, the lid covering the sins that every utopia hides would spill out across the world like a tidal wave. And Maruki, still believing in his cause, would watch his own work shatter and bear sole witness to the world caving to a pain deeper and more profound than even he could possibly imagine.

On a deeper level, lies, no matter how well told they may be or how well concocted the may seem, always cave to the truth. Despite what we may understand, the truth of how events came about always breaks down even the most flawless, infallible lie. That’s how Joker gets acquitted. That’s how everyone shatters out of Maruki’s world. Even though Maruki believed his conceived “perfect” reality, each of our heroes mentions the idea that each of them knew the truth of that reality, but refused to believe it at the time because it was easier to live in a world where none of their problems existed. Yusuke returned to his old master, Madarame. Ryuji returned to the track team that scorned him. Haru returned to her dad who was not only dead, but a greedy CEO. Makoto forgot all of the lessons she learned from the dad who died fighting for what he believed was a just future. Even Futaba, seer of lies herself, forewent the truth, even though she had an incredible catharsis of the growth through learning that trauma and lies do not define how you live your life just because her mom was alive. Which is ignoring the truth and your problems. Which is ignoring your growth. WHICH IS CALLED REGRESSION. You know. As in “Prison of Regression”? YALDABAOTH’S PRISON? Same fly-covered turd, different shiny, gilded platter.

And to bank off of all of this and add even deeper context…

To pick on Joker and Crow a little bit, the reason they oppose each other is because while Crow’s persona can create anger, hatred, and tunnel vision in someone and create a malice towards one’s circumstances or drive them beyond rational thought, people miss what Joker’s capabilities are and why he stands toe to toe with Crow and even stands far above him in my opinion even though no one recognizes it in-game. Joker’s ability is to understand and connect. Joker’s power gives him access to the myriad of personas that sit in the Compendium. Each of them resonates with people that he comes into contact with and, despite it being put forward as the MEANS to connecting with people, that’s not the most important thing it does and that same power is actually the ENDS of his willingness to listen. He doesn’t gain the power to talk to people and connect, it’s from helping them thereby that he gains access to deeper power which then helps him connect, so on and so forth. Lifting them out of unfair circumstances and helping them regain their belief in their own free will. Notice the only thing Joker ever does is talk with confidants and help them weigh their options, only ever occasionally stepping in to change a heart or two and even then, in Mementos, he’s talking to the shadows and helping them see why their actions are causing themselves and other people’s pain. The difference between Crow and Joker is that Crow is so burdened by his own injustice that, as is said in-game, Crow only ever grows two personas. “One for his lies and one for his hatred” while Joker, open to pushing through his own pain and focusing on others rather than himself, gains access to the many and the myriad of personas that his heart was open to accepting and thus gains the power to kill a god of control and a god of actualization.

And even after all those two rivals went through together, even Goro Fucking Akechi. King Lies himself. The guy that built an ENTIRE LIFE off of the lies he told, the people he deceived, and the Pillar of Babel he built himself only to be thrown off of it by his own shadow at the end of his life. Even despite a second chance given by Maruki himself, Akechi rejected the second chance he was given because it would mean that he would never be living as himself. Despite how DEEPLY he would hate speaking the reality of it, Joker taught him that a life living behind a lie was a farce. Living under the thumb of something that could twist his ambitions and force him to regress back behind the fake persona that was Robin Hood? He would, without even a shadow of a doubt, rather have died facing the truth of himself behind that bulkhead instead of living a long and perhaps healthy life as a mere fabrication of what he really was.

Maruki couldn’t understand the TRUE struggle between these two gentlemen. How could he? He only ever thought he did. The true struggle was never about a simple rivalry. It was never about whose persona was better or whose power was more uncompromised or even about the power struggle between the Mysterious Leader of the Phantom Thieves versus the Brilliant Ace Detective. No. It was a friend offering a hand to a person who had gone off the deep end and was festering in deep personal conflict with themselves. And, at the end of that person’s life, the friend finally having the ability to connect with him and help him see how truly profound Joker’s care was for the guy that refused to reach back with any of his honesty. Maruki never understood that. Why not? Because how could the two most bitter of rivals and unlikely of confidants ever have come together in such an honest, pure, and deep seated conflict and yet form the most unbreakable connection that would stick with Joker for the rest of his life as a reminder of what it meant to truly be there for someone no matter how difficult it got or how much they pushed you away without having suffered so much to get where they were in the engine room of that ship. And Maruki was willing to take EVERY. SINGLE. BIT. of that growth and progression away with a single wave of his hand. As great as peace is, true bonds of friendship and mutual love and respect cannot be forged without conflict, suffering, and pain. The most tempered and sturdy swords CANNOT be forged without hours of heat so fervent, it would sear your flesh, and being molded into shape by a hammer.

Problems, struggles, addictions, suffering, and pain all meet at the same mouth of the same river of the human condition. If you do not keep going, leaning on friends and confidants for support and pushing through the inevitable rapids and rocks and waterfalls and deep water that you will slam into, you will start attempting to regress back where you came from. And despite how hard it seems to be ahead of you, it’s much harder to fight against the current along with everything else than to rush where the current will take you and maybe dodge the rocks and rapids if you keep looking where you’re going. And who knows? Rivers branch off. Deltas exist. You can direct your own path easier if you push with the current instead of against it. I’m never saying it will be easy, but fighting a current you can’t control and attempting to regress can take you places you never wanted to go.

Maruki almost learns this lesson too late. He almost gives himself to the next life and succumbs to his self-destructive tendencies and no lesson would ever have been learned. And in the end, when all is said and done, he finally understands. Not on the precipice of his crumbling monument to his anguish, but in the front seat of his own taxi-cab, driving the person that saved his life to wherever he may go next.

It’s okay to start your life over. It’s okay to push the reset button. Life is about mistakes. Every living being makes several every day. All of us stumble on the path to becoming ourselves. The only true error is refusing to grow and learn.

#persona 5 royal #futaba sakura #dr maruki #joker vs crow #hyperfixation rant #i firmly believe this #I firmly disagree with dr maruki #takuto maruki

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cookinguptales · 2 years ago

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Hi burl!! this is my first time catching one of these - if you have time, I'd love to hear what the cards say, but if not it's okay too <3

Hi! I know what you like, and what I like, so how could I pick any deck but the Persona 5 Tarot?

(Six of Pentacles, Death, The Councillor (reversed))

Well... I've had to be a bit creative with this one. Eagle-eyed tarot aficionados might be like "what the fuck is The Councillor" and they would be right. In the rereleases of Persona games, new characters are often added in, and new cards are made up to suit them.

Le Consultant/The Councillor is the card associated with Maruki Takuto. That said, the number given to it is I. The Magician. I did a little bit of digging and found out that this was taken from El Gran Tarot Esotérico, a Spanish deck created in the 1970s that was inspired partially by the Tarot de Marseille. In that deck, Le Consultant replaces The Magician.

I usually use my Rider-Waite-Smith rather than Marseille decks for these readings, but hmm I'll do my best here.

So. We start with the Six of Pentacles. This is a card typically associated with charity, whether giving or receiving. It's the season of giving, and this card usually indicates that some of that is going on. It could be that you find yourself in a positive material position and you can donate generously to charity. It could mean that you find yourself in a more precarious position and you instead need to learn to accept assistance in your time of need yourself. There is a sense of... cycles, I suppose, to this card, and to equivalent exchange.

In other words, there is a sense here that the direction of the money in this situation has no moral judgment attached to it. There are some days when we are lucky and we can give to others. There are other days when we are unlucky and we'll need to receive charity instead. As long as you don't find yourself in a position of always giving or always taking, this card is basically telling you to find your place in the web of exchange right now.

When reversed, it typically means that things are out of whack; you could be giving too much or taking too much, being taken advantage of or taking advantage. That said, the card is currently upright, so things are currently okay.

Next, we have Death. I feel like I say this every time I do these readings, but it's always true. People are scared of this card, but they needn't be. In tarot, Death stands for change. (And in Persona 5, this card represents the hot doctor. So yeah, be not afraid and all that.)

I always like to explain it like this -- there is a death happening here, but a metaphorical one. It is the death of the old to make room for the new. It's like a snake shedding its skin, y'know? It might not have been a bad skin once, but it's no longer serving the snake's needs. You need to discard that skin and lean into the ways that your life is changing now. I can't promise that all changes now will be good... but this card usually indicates that good or bad, they're necessary.

Finally that troublesome Councillor. This card is being specifically tied to The Magician here, so I'll be using that as a starting point. I often say that... y'know, The Magician is usually a positive card. It's about using your own willpower to take your unconscious desires and manifest them in reality. It's about taking hold of your own spiritual power and using it to make your dreams come true. But there's also an element of warning to it at times, particularly when it's reversed, as it is here. There's a sense that you can go too far, or you can use your power for less than savory goals. I think that's probably what's going on in this iteration of the card.

In Maruki, we have a character with exceptional ability to make an illusory world real, and who truly does believe that he's doing the right thing. But The Magician, in its negative traits, can be wildly manipulative, selfish, and deceitful -- and Maruki is. For all that he's trying to help people, he does it in a way that ultimately hurts them.

So... that's where I think they're going with this. The negative aspects of The Magician. And because it's reversed here, I think it's an even more severe issue.

I don't think that this card is an indictment so much as it is a warning. There are a lot of changes going on with Death, and only you can choose what your life will be when the dust settles. The Magician is generally a card about being in tune with your true self and manifesting what you find there. So I think the warning here is not to lose sight of your true self and your true goals while you're trying to manifest your dreams. Not to bring up JKR and all, but never go full Slytherin, y'know?

Overall... I think this is just a spread that's acknowledging that there are a lot of changes going on in your life right now and telling you not to be afraid of them, even if things are financially dicey for a little while. That said, it's also cautioning you to stay true to yourself and not give into the temptation to be underhanded in the service of your desires going forward. (Maybe particularly where loans/charity/income is concerned, see: Six of Pentacles.)

#tarot shenanigans

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ina11rarepair · 2 years ago

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hi my inazuma rarepair is kidou yuuto (go) and oda nobunaga (from history). i think they should be married and look after their son (shindou takuto (from go)). can you please make them some content? please it's just me here. i am the only one. can you see my vision?

we can't exactly see where you're going with this,, /lh /gen 1. Nobunaga and Kidou are from two completely different periods. One is from the 2000s and another is from the 1500s. 2. Nobunaga is an actual historical figure, he's a real person who existed; while Kidou is just a fictional being. It'd just be weird shipping them. Not to mention Nobunaga has a wife (I know he could have had a gay relationship as well, but it's still weird nonetheless) 3. If the Nobunaga you're referring is the one from GO, the same thing still applies. Chrono Stone Oda Nobunaga is still Oda Nobunaga. -🌲, 👛

#admins response

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catch-me-hello · 4 months ago

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Boys Planet, Episode 5: There are still too many people on this show.

The last episode dragged a bit, but this one promises to be dramatic. We learn in the preview that 41 trainees will be eliminated in this episode – 53rd to 93rd place. The last time we had so many trainees eliminated at once was early on in Wild Idol. We’re going to see a lot of tears today.

Those tears might start with my tears of frustration, as we begin with a title card reading, “The group battle between K and G is more fierce than ever.” Okay, can we please stop with the Korea vs. Everyone Else battle? I’ve already given the reasons why this division no longer matches the stated purpose of the show. You don’t appear to be welcoming newcomers to K-pop. You appear to be trying to push them out.

We now open on the dorms. Our trainees wake up and head out, waving at the cameras. They arrive at the practice room and go over their choreo. “We really have to practice to death,” says one trainee. All they can think about is debuting. Another trainee says they practice until they almost throw up.

They write in journals. It must feel strange to be keeping a journal that you know will be shared with the entire viewing audience. I’d have a lot of fun with that if I were a trainee. “Dear Diary, I wish the Star Creators would stop voting for Sung Han Bin. He bites his toenails. We try to get him to stop, but there’s something wrong with him. He scares me. I didn’t even know humans could bend that way. He says he can’t wait to be an idol so he can bite his toenails onstage during concerts. Anyway, time for practice! Bye now!”

We return to our big circular studio from the first two episodes. I’ve missed this set. My favorite set so far is still the K-pop Thunderdome from No Mercy, but I like the vibe and shiny floors of this place, too. The trainees come in and goof around for the cameras, sending love to the Star Creators. They really are adorable.

Everyone is laughing and having fun until the last trainees come in and take their seats. Then the stage door closes, and they know the eliminations are about to start. Smiles drop, hands start fidgeting. Some trainees are silently praying with their hands clasped.

A new Star Master arrives. I don’t know what happened to the old one. This one is Yeo Jin Goo. He’s a famous South Korean actor, and I remember him from when I watched a couple episodes of Hotel Del Luna on Netflix. Good for him. I’m still calling him Star Master. I don’t have time for more names on this show.

He tells us that Star Creators from 176 countries have cast over 52 million votes. The results are based on their votes, as well as the benefit point system the show set up during the first mission that I still don’t understand. The trainee who wins the Number One spot will get the Killing Part in the debut song and a solo song on the debut album.

This elimination process takes up a 3-hour episode, so I’m only going to hit the highlights, and it’s still going to be a lot. I spent a lot of time paging through my previous recaps, trying to remember who most of these trainees are. I’ll try to keep it simple.

While standing on the stage to hear results, a member from Group K reaches out and clasps hands with someone from Group G. It’s a sweet gesture between these two groups that I wish we could see more of on this show.

We get lots of flashbacks over the course of this episode. It helps the show prolong the suspense as well as remind us who a lot of these people are. Let’s get started with the rankings. I’m going to stick to the trainees who I can remember anything about or who rank significantly high. Here are the survivors.

Lee Da Eul ranks 13th. He’s one of the two very first trainees we met on this show, back in the Star Zone.

Takuto ranks 15th. This is God’s Cherub from Group G, the cute, innocent 16 year-old. When he first appeared in Episode 2, the judges gave him zero stars. Today, he’s got glitter in his hair and a seat among the survivors. I love this kid. When he sees some of his friends get eliminated, he starts to cry, and I get teary-eyed right there with him. Takuto is too good for this world.

One thing I really like is when the survivors take their numbered seats, they’re not separated by G or K Group anymore. They’re seated according to their rankings. I hope this is a sign that we won’t separate these groups going forward.

So much of this episode is spent watching the trainees wait in suspense to see if their names will be called. Star Master does the usual K-pop survival show schtick of fake outs, making jokes, and having fun while the trainees have nervous breakdowns. I’ll be a basket case waiting for Jay Chang, Na Kamden, Ricky, Hui, Park Gun, and a few others to be called.

After calling out the first few names, Star Master decides to take a break, since it’s not his future on the line. We get a flashback to all the trainees doing a dance battle. Of course, it’s Group G against Group K. Dance Master Lip J is the emcee. She looks fierce and fabulous, as always. The other two Dance Masters, Choi Young Jun and Back Koo Young, join her as team leaders.

The competition is a nice diversion from the tense atmosphere of the rankings and eliminations, and besides, I live for performances like this, so here’s a whole bunch of screenshots.

Of course, Group K wins. Group G had the best dancers, but Group K wins. Whatever. The show brings in a bunch of food trucks, and everybody stuffs themselves with pizza and other stuff that they probably don’t allow themselves to have as trainees. This dance battle is my favorite part of this episode. Even if Group G got robbed.

Back to the rankings/eliminations. A lot of G Group trainees are making it through. But …

Both Jay Chang and Hui get cut.

I am crushed for Jay. I can’t believe he was eliminated. He has star power, the camera loves him, and he killed it in the EXO battle. I am heartbroken. And confused. How did he not get through when so many less talented people did? And I already knew Hui wouldn’t get through, but I’m really surprised he was cut this soon.

I had to look up Jay Chang and make sure he’s still in the industry. After all, The Cadet from Wild Idol had the same superstar quality and talent, and he’s nowhere to be found when I search for him online. But there’s good news for Jay. He went on to do other survival reality shows and wound up in two groups, One Pact and BDU, and he’s also debuted as a solo artist. He’s hanging in there.

Back to Star Master. Here’s something I missed in the translation. Right now, they are only announcing who made it through to spots 10-51. After this, they will announce who made it into the final 52nd spot, as well as the Top 9. So Jay could still go on to the final group, except I just spoiled it for myself by reading that Jay doesn’t make it into ZeroBaseOne. Why do these shows keep reading results in such all-over-the-place order?

Anyway, 28th-ranked Park Do Ha makes it through, and I immediately feel a migraine coming on. He was one of the zero-star trainees who butchered “My House” by 2pm. He was so terrible, the judges had him do the song again with another terrible trainee just so they could laugh at them. Maybe the Star Creators had the same idea I did to vote for all the worst trainees. Well, I got what I wished for. I’ll keep my dumb ideas to myself next time.

As always in these elimination episodes, I’m struck by what these trainees are going through. Even the survivors sitting in their numbered seats are still struggling with watching the others go through it. And just because they survived this elimination doesn’t mean it’s over. They will still have to compete to take one of the Top 9 slots from the survivors who will be sitting in those seats by the end of this episode.

A few more trainees make it through, and then we get another welcome break. Some of these trainees are sobbing so hard, I’m genuinely afraid we’ll need to call an ambulance.

Star Master shows a video of all the trainees waiting in the same auditorium where they watched the first episode together with Sunmi. They think they’re about to watch dance practice videos. Instead, they get a series of clips called “Surprise Camera.” Basically, we just see pranks and other silly videos featuring the trainees from their weeks of rehearsals.

Back to the rankings and eliminations.

Ricky ranks Number 12 and makes it through. I’m glad about this. He was on Na Kamden’s team for the first mission. Initially, he was one of the jerks who only spoke Chinese in order to shut Kamden out, but as the ringleader Krystian became even more of an jerk, Ricky came around to Kamden’s side and wound up putting together an amazing performance. He deserves this. Plus, it’s good to see another Group G member survive, as long as this show keeps pitting the groups against each other.

Now for Number 31, and it’s Na Kamden! I actually let out a yell of triumph when his name is called. I love that Jay Chang yells in triumph as well. (They came in together as a team.) Krystian has the nerve to hug Kamden and say, “So happy for you.” Krystian, get bent.

I’m relieved that Kamden made it in after everything he’s been through. Although it just occurred to me that I have no idea if he’s any good. He was on Ricky’s team in the song battle, and Ricky stole the show. When he performed with Jay in the first episode, Jay stole the show. Poor Kamden. Well, he did earn three stars and learned to speak up for himself during the whole bullying thing, so I’m still glad he got in. I need to pay more attention next time he’s onstage.

And yes, that picture above is the happiest reaction shot I can get. Kamden is a quiet, somber, reflective type of person. He’s very humble when his name is called and bows in gratitude. He and Jay are polar opposite personalities.

Next up, ranked at Number 37 is … Krystian.

son. of. a. bitch.

The Star Creators saw the same footage of this vampire that I did. What the hell, Star Creators? Did you not recognize him because he’s dyed his hair blonde now? Ugh. Let’s just move on before I chew off my hand in frustration.

Krystian is given a chance to speak, and he opens with, “Yes, hello. I am bad Krystian.” That was unexpected. He says that now that he has won, he wants to spread love and joy. He finishes with, “You can anticipate a new Krystian from this point.”

Well played, you little twerp.

Moving on.

More trainees survive and take their numbered seats. Several are from Group G. They fill out all the seats except for the last place 52 and the Top 9.

Gun Wook is already in tears because his name hasn’t been called, and he thinks it’s over for him. And right after losing Wild Idol.

At this point, we have 22 survivors from Group K, and 18 from Group G. That’s a pretty balanced split. Again, I hope both groups start mixing up the teams going forward.

Now Star Master is announcing Seat #9 first, because these shows swerve around numerical order like Ben Gazzara drives in Road House. Good news – Seats 9 and 10 will be called at the same time, and the two candidates are Jay Chang and Gun Wook. Seat 10 will just miss the Top 9, but that person will still be in the game.

Jay Chang gets the 9th seat, and Gun Wook gets the 10th seat. What a relief that these two are still here, even if I already know what’s going to happen with them. Jay takes his seat in the winner’s circle. Go USA!

Seat #8 goes to Keita, which is also well-deserved. If you remember, his vocals have been blowing the judges away. (He was also in Ciipher with No Mercy’s Seokwon.) So far, that’s two Group G members in the Top 9.

Seat #7 goes to Lee Hoe Taek, which is Hui! He’s not out of the game yet, either.

Seat #6 goes to Kim Gyu Vin. Ummm… (flipping through my notes, dammit there are too many people on this show) Okay, here we go. He danced in his socks in the first episode and won the All-Star. He was the first Korean trainee to get the All-Star. So that’s good.

Seat #5: Zhang Hao. Another Group G member who came in with Ricky. He’s the musical prodigy who played Beethoven on his violin during the first episode and sang a high note so perfectly it brought cheers from the judges. I have a strong feeling he’ll make it to the final group. Of course, I felt that way about Jay Chang, so you should know by now that I have no idea what I’m talking about. Anyway, the other survivors are happy to see him and hug him as he makes his way to the winner’s circle.

Seat #4 goes to Han Yu Jin. He’s the one who’s only been dancing for a year, but you’d never know from how good he is. Everyone in his group got All-Stars in the first episode, which was the first moment I thought the judges might actually be biased towards Group K.

Seat #3: Kim Ji Woong. He’s our former BL actor who initially debuted with INX. He’s been ranking high all season so far, so this isn’t surprising.

Now we have Canadian Group G member Seok Matthew and our top vote-getter Sung Han Bin being called forward to see who gets Seats 1 and 2. These two have actually been friends since before the show and decided to audition together, so it’s really cool that they have made it to the top two seats together. Han Bin leans over to Matthew and says, “We’re always together, and it really makes me feel proud.”

Sung Han Bin gets the Number One seat. He was ranked first in 90 of the countries that voted, which is unreal. He and Matthew take their seats, and it’s a very impressive Top 9.

Oh, wait! We haven’t learned who the last survivor in Seat #52 is! This is a weird place to put that announcement. Instead of ending on a congratulatory high by focusing on our Top 9, we now have to hit the brakes and go back to last place among the survivors, who I’m sure will be thrilled to have the show end with him making his way to the one remaining seat.

Seat #52 goes to Jeong I Chan. Back to my notes. (flip flip flip) I got nothing. I’m sure I must have mentioned this guy somewhere, but again, there are TOO MANY CANDIDATES on this show. So … yay for this guy!

I can tell you one thing about him. He has been through the wringer tonight. He’s watched all these trainees get called before him, and now he gets recognized as the survivor who came in dead last. He does not look happy. This is the face of a man who is about to wait for filming to stop and then go get very, very drunk.

So! We’re done. We end with 41 trainees being eliminated. We have 52 trainees left, that is, if Jeong I Chan is able to crawl out the bottle of Bacardi he’s about to crawl into in time for the next episode. This has been exhausting for all the trainees. They will probably stumble back to the dorms and collapse.

Except for sweet, glitter-haired Takuto, who I’m sure will be doing backflips of joy in the parking lot. Shine on, you sparkly K-pop diamond. See you next episode.

#kpop #recaps #survival reality shows #boys planet #zerobaseone #zb1

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jokertrap-ran · 10 months ago

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[スタオケ] La Corda d'Oro Starlight Orchestra Osakabe Seiji Cast Story Chapter 9 Translation

*Starlight Orchestra Masterlist | Osakabe Seiji’s Personal Masterlist *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Osakabe’s Route Tag will be #Seiji’s Star

Akira: Good work out there.

Akira: Wait… what’s going on? What’s with that insane amount of vegetables?

Seiji: It’s almost as if you’re planning on setting up a stall at the Farmer’s Market.

Takuto: Oh, these are presents! My friend back home who runs a farm with his family said to share it with everyone here.

Souji: Who?

Takuto: The Matsudas. We live in the same neighborhood, so our parents are pretty close. That’s why we get lots of gifts every year.

Takuto: Oh! I just thought of something good.

Takuto: Why don’t you guys come over to my place the next time you drop by Miyazaki? I’ll introduce you to my friend if you do.

▷Choice: I wanna go!

Ginga: Sounds like a great idea. We could hold a Miyazaki live, and it sounds like we’ll be able to get free food during our stay too.

▷Choice: What kind of gift should I bring?

Rei: Wouldn’t something unique to Yokohama do? We could pick out something that could be enjoyed by all ages.

Seiji: …

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

Ginga: Okay! Time for a short break!

Seiji: —Yeah. Tell them that I’ll be there this weekend.

Seiji: …What? Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll be returning alone, of course.

Seiji: Alright. Goodbye.

Seiji: Now then…

Seiji: Can’t say I appreciate you eavesdropping on me, Concertmistress.

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

▷Choice: Sorry…

Seiji: If you’re blanching from getting caught, perhaps you should have refrained from doing it in the first place. Seiji: But it’s fine. I don’t particularly care. I’m guessing that you heard me speaking and found it hard to leave, right?

▷Choice: How’d you know?

Seiji: Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Seiji: Well, it’s fine either way. I wouldn’t talk about things that I’d rather people not hear out in the open like this anyway.

Seiji: I have business back in Mito again, and I was just discussing plans over the phone.

▷Choice: I want to go with you

Seiji: Sorry, but that’s not on the table.

▷Choice: Were you planning on returning with someone?

Seiji: You heard? I should applaud you for your sharp hearing. No wonder you’re the Concertmistress here.

Seiji: The guys back home thought that I’d be bringing you along for the ride again, but I’ve corrected them otherwise.

▷Choice: So I can’t go with you this time?

Seiji: Glad to see that you’re quick on the uptake.

Seiji: I've let you through the gates of the Osakabe family home, which would have been otherwise closed to you, let you interact with the members of my family, and even allowed you to attend a traditional event of ours.

Seiji: I'm sure your curious little mind has already been satisfied, yes?

Seiji: Let's end it off here, shall we? There shall be no more study tours from now on.

▷Choice: Why so suddenly?

Seiji: Sudden? Not at all. I've planned to draw a line somewhere from the very beginning.

▷Choice: I wasn't doing it out of curiosity…

Seiji: Really? You seemed to be doing it all purely for fun in my eyes.

Seiji: Do you remember the time people tried picking a fight with you because of your connection to me?

Seiji: That incident had been of little to no concern due to the insignificance of the people involved. But that may not be the case, should there be a next time.

Seiji: I have to always consider the possibility of the worst-case scenario happening. That's the reality of the world I live in.

Seiji: Hmph. Looks like those gears in your head aren't quite turning…

Seiji: I suppose that's just how ordinary folk are.

Seiji: The different perspectives we have are more than enough proof that we live in entirely different worlds… on different sides of a coin.

▷Choice: We aren't that different

Seiji: We are. Think about it for a moment, will you?

Seiji: Visiting Akabane’s or your home holds a different connotation from visiting mine.

Seiji: After listening to his story, I came to a realization— never have I once considered inviting a friend over to my house.

Seiji: Such a thought had never once crossed my mind, ever. This is why I'm fundamentally different from all of you.

Seiji: I'm sure you understand, (L/n)-san. We have to redraw this line now, for each other's sake.

▷Choice: No

Seiji: You're persistent. Why do you care that much?

▷Choice: You're an important member of the Starlight Orchestra

Seiji: That, I am. Nothing more and nothing less. So, why are you digging your heels in?

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

I thought back to the events that had transpired in Mito

I had fun spending time with Osakabe and the people of the Kiryu Clan.

It's too late for me to turn my back on them now despite knowing that we're from different worlds.

Seiji: Bound by fate, in life or in death — A promise that we will be together even after we pass from this realm, remaining on the same lotus flower as we await reincarnation…

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘��♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

▷Choice: We're bound by fate, in life or in death

Seiji: …! You…

Seiji: What a fierce look you have on your face… one fitting for the mistress of the house.

Seiji: You sure do say some strange things. I can almost see the lotus netsuke you once held, despite it being non-existent at the moment.

Seiji: …Let's continue this conversation another day. This break is too short to be dealing with a stubborn “ane-san”.

Seiji: Come on, then. Let's head back to the hall. Time for you to return to being the Starlight Orchestra’s Concertmistress.

☆ ━━━━━━━ ∘◦♬Seiji’s Star♬◦∘ ━━━━━━━ ☆

Previous Part: (Chapter 8) Next Part: (Chapter 10)

#金色のコルダ #スターライトオーケストラ #スタオケ #Starlight Orchestra #Otome #Translations #Kiniro no Corda #La Corda d'Oro Starlight Orchestra #Osakabe Seiji #刑部斉士 #Seiji's Star #itou kentarou #伊藤健太郎

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