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is0gild · 4 years

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Ice Cream and Fire Oven Pizza - Chapter 17

Pairing: Elsa x Lea/Axel || Side Pairing: Riku x OC

Summary: Modern AU. She's an introvert ball of nerves who works at Ice Palace, a mall food court ice cream shop. He's the outgoing, sassy goofball who works at the Pizza Planet across the way. Hilarity, snark, and fluffy romcom hijinks ensue.

Word Count: 12,131

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

Credit for super friggin’ cute and super friggin’ amazing cover art goes to the super friggin’ talented ky-jane here on tumblr!

Day three of Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really and so far, so good.

Though the thought of this triple date had my inner recluse curling up into the fetal position, I'd manage to convince myself it actually was a good thing when you really thought about it. One, it gave me more practice for trying to do this whole couply… thing I was trying to do. More practice meant I'd eventually, hopefully be more comfortable with it all, as well as less chance for screw-ups in front of my parents when the dreaded but inevitable weekend with them at last came. Two, we were trying to maintain this image of being boyfriend and girlfriend in front of everyone else at the mall. And boyfriends and girlfriends went on dates. What better way to be seen going on said dates than by going out with other actual couples? And three, we couldn't forget about the person the Duke had hired to tail Anna originally and could quite possibly still be keeping tabs on me now. If they were still out there lurking, it was important that they, even more so than anyone else,see me dating.

It was still kind of weird to think about - that an actual, real life PI or whatever had been surveilling me constantly for who knows how long and I'd had no idea. It felt so surreal. Unreal even. But the Duke was absolutely that crazy and I wouldn't put it past him to still have someone keeping an eye on me, looking for any cracks in the story, any slip-ups or mistakes. I'd have to start paying attention more when I was out and about, see if I could figure out who it was, spot any faces that seemed to always show up everywhere I went.

But then, even if I did identify a likely culprit, I would have absolutely no idea what to do with that information once I had it. Even if I marched right up to them and told them their cover had been blown so they may as well scram, the Duke was just insane enough and rich enough to keep hiring new people to do the job instead.

...jeez, I was really starting to sound paranoid now, wasn't I?

With my luck, it'd turn out the Duke no longer had anyone following me after he'd confronted me in the food court.

Best not to think about it too much, because honestly? It'd get me nowhere.

Sighing, I banished the thoughts from my head as I watched the buildings blur past my window from the backseat of Riku's silver Ford Focus. The three of us were on our way to the restaurant now and Lea, Kairi and Sora were going to meet us there. My hand anxiously smoothed out the creases of my outfit - a dark magenta sheath dress with long sleeves and a hemline at the knees. It had a tastefully low v-neckline and a double layered skirt, the top layer made of a shimmering gossamer material. Nice, but nothing too fancy for our "nothing too fancy" date, to use Kairi's words.

Per Lea's request, I'd also worn his leather jacket. It made sense, after all. Nothing screamed "dating" more than one half of a couple wearing their other half's clothes, so it certainly helped maintain the facade. His boy scent still lingered on it, even though he hadn't worn it in a couple of days now, given it had been in my possession. The smell was somehow both soothing and butterflies-in-the-stomach inducing at the same time. It was an odd mix of emotions, to say the least.

I felt a buzz in the jacket's pocket. Pulling out my phone (gosh, it was so weird having one again after going so many weeks without) I checked my notifications to discover I'd received a text.

Well, speak of the devil.

Still cant believe u didnt lemme come pick u up

Shaking my head with a small snort, I tapped out a reply to Lea.

It just made the most logical sense for me to ride with Riku and Rayne since we were all coming from the same place.

Rayne suddenly cried out happily, drawing my attention to her as she clapped and bounced in the front passenger seat. "Ahh, I'm still just so excited for date night! Good food, great company, hot hubby," she slyly pinched Riku's cheek, which he endured with dignity as he drove. "What more could a girl ask for?"

He chuckled as he shifted the car over into the turn lane. "You make it sound like I never take you out."

"You know that's not what I mean!" she playfully smacked his shoulder. "But with the baby on the way, I don't know how many more of these I'll have! This is one of my last chances to enjoy freedom! Jesus take the fucking wheel, hallelujah!"

I felt my phone vibrate in my hand again and I looked down at it.

I know not this logic u spk of

I felt a tiny smile pulling at my mouth as my thumbs typed.

Don't worry about it. Tis beyond your mortal ken.

"I just hope no one's drinking tonight," Riku snerked as I watched those three dots bounce at the bottom of my screen. "Don't need you dancing on any more tables, thank you very much."

"Your face dances on tables!" Rayne shot back, sticking her tongue out at him.

"That doesn't even make any sense."

"You don't even make any sense!"

Rude. Ill have u know I had half a mind 2 drive ovr n get u NEway, logic b damned

My smile turned a touch wicked.

I'm impressed. That's half a mind more than you usually have.

"Here we are!"

My head shot up as I heard the engine shut down. I hadn't even realized we were in a parking lot. I hadn't even realized the vehicle had stopped moving.

As I looked out my window again, I heard Rayne saying, "Have I mentioned how happy I am we're doing this?"

"You may have said something about that once or twice." I could hear the smile in Riku's low voice.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her leaning over towards him, her hand coming up to run slender fingers through his long, ashen strands. "Yeah, but maybe I should show you."

"Maybe you should…"

And that's when I, being the absolute clueless, blissfully naive little fool that I was, chose to turn and fully look at them, just in time to get a front row seat to their little game of tonsil hockey. I blushed, threw up a hand to block my line of sight and made a tiny noise of disgust in my throat. "Ugh! You know you're not the only people in the car, right?"

Rayne pulled away to smirk back at me. "Well, other people can shoo," she flicked a dismissive hand in my direction before grabbing Riku by his collar and yanking him over for a deeper, more passionate kiss. Ding, ding, round two!

Squeaking, I fumbled with my seatbelt until I heard the click release, threw my car door open, stumbled out and slammed it shut behind me with a huff.

Oi, that was the main drawback to this group date plan. We were going to be around actual couples, and actual couples actually, ahem… snogged. Rayne and Riku were going to be bad enough, but let's not forget Sora and Kairi were along for the ride too and I'd seen firsthand how gross those two could be as well. Mark my word, this night was going to have more than its fair share of uncomfortable moments with those four around, being all besotted and smitten and other such rot. But I would survive this and make it through to the other side. Somehow.

Sweeping my braid forward over one shoulder, I glanced up at the building before me now. It bore a colorful banner over its entrance that read Fuente Del Oro. A local, family-owned Mexican restaurant, or so Rayne had told me. I could already tell this was going to be a very different experience from the types of restaurants my ex used to take me to for our dates. Those restaurants had all been about the look, the prestige… you didn't go to any of those places for the food, you went there to be seen, to give off an air of importance. Those places were… dull. Lifeless. This place before me now, on the other hand, was… nice. Colorful. Vibrant and full of character. Not elegant or frilly, but warm and inviting. And the aromas that I could smell coming from it, even all the way out here? Delicious.

I was actually kind of looking forward to this.

Phone still in my grasp, I looked back down at it and frowned.

No message back from Lea yet.

A giggle suddenly echoed out across the parking lot and my eyes snapped towards the source. It didn't take long to spot Kairi a few vehicles over, squirming and laughing in Sora's arms as he hugged her from behind, blowing raspberries against her neck. They were standing with a very familiar redhead who was leaning against a very familiar black muscle car. Said redhead had pulled his hair back into a ponytail again and was dressed in a snug, black tee with a second shirt on underneath, red and black horizontal stripes running down its full-length sleeves. His slim, dark jeans made his already long legs seem even longer and he was sporting his bright red Converse. He had his phone in hand in front of him, but it wasn't the phone he was looking at. Our eyes met and a grin tugged at one corner of his lips.

Suddenly, whatever boldness that I had felt behind the safety of text on the tiny, glowing screen in the palm of my hand had abandoned me and I felt a small pang of anxiety pierce my chest.

But I rallied.

Alright, Elsa, pep talk time. You can do this. You've been mentally and emotionally preparing for this since yesterday. Let him throw at you whatever fluffy, sappy moves he decides to today, all in the name of pretending to be your boyfriend. You can take it.

Shields raised and at full power, captain!

Inhaling and exhaling slowly, I pocketed my mobile and started making my way over to those three. Probably hearing my footsteps against the asphalt, Kairi and Sora looked over at me as I approached and greeted me with waves. I gave them a shy smile and returned the wave as Lea held his phone up, turning the screen towards me and showing the last message I'd sent him as he tsked, "Brutal. You wound me, madame."

I stopped a few feet away from him, my smile twitching wider. "You like it."

"True. What can I say, I've always been a bit of a masochist," he hummed a low chuckle, slipping his phone into the back pocket of his pants. His head tipped to one side and he stared at me for another second, then his eyes crinkled as he stretched a hand out towards me with a soft, "C'mere."

I bit my bottom lip, hesitating for a heartbeat before moving another step forward to take his offered hand.

"Lookit you," he whistled, closing his fingers around mine and leading me into a little twirl. "Digging the look." He then gently pulled me against him, drawing my arms up to hug his neck before slipping his hands beneath the jacket to wrap around my waist, enveloping me in his cinnamon scent. "Didn't get a chance to say it the other day, but my jacket suits you."

I rolled my eyes up at him, doing my best to be impervious to our sudden closeness. I wasn't succeeding. "Not really. It's too big."

"Yes really," he insisted, bowing his head slightly towards mine. "It looks way better on you than it ever did on me."

"Where's Riku and Rayne?" Sora interjected and I turned my head to look at him.

"They-" my words tripped over my tongue as Lea pressed a tender kiss to my temple.

Critical hit, captain! Shields down to thirty percent, but holding!

Ignoring the heat rushing to my face, I did my best to regather my scattered thoughts. "They, uh… they're back in the, uh… the…" Drat, what was the word again? "...car! They're back in the… the car."

Sora pulled a face. "Swapping spit, no doubt."

"Oh-ho, we'll see about that! C'mon, Sora!" Kairi cackled with an evil gleam in her eye, slipping free of her boyfriend's hold to instead grab his hand and pull him behind her as she ran off towards Riku's car.

"Seriously," Lea spoke up again, his voice hushed as I slowly returned my gaze to his. "Pretty sure I've lost all claim to that jacket. It belongs to you now."

My eyelids drooped. "That's not how that works."

"Sure it is." He rested his forehead against mine and I could feel his thumb rubbing light circles against the fabric of my dress just above my hip. "You don't choose a leather jacket, it chooses you. And trust me, that one has definitely picked you over me."

I gave a soft snort. "I'm giving it back to you after tonight."

"Don't you dare," he chided, his breath warming my lips. "You'll hurt the jacket's feelings."

"Stop anthropomorphizing the jacket." I was fighting a smile now.

"Make me," he murmured, something in his voice causing my insides to do that whole warm, fuzzy, squishy thing.

And the academy award for best leading actor in the role of Elsa's boyfriend goes to this guy right here.

But had to say, I thought he might be overdoing it a bit. I mean, Sora and Kairi weren't even around anymore to hear any of this. And if we were being monitored by someone under my great uncle's payroll, they certainly couldn't hear it either. I suppose Lea just… really liked getting into character?

Clearing my throat, I unclasped my hands from behind his neck and shifted them down to his chest in an attempt to push myself free of his grasp as I whispered, "We, ah… should probably go speak to the hostess now."

However, his hold on me didn't loosen, his arms remaining firmly secured around my waist. He didn't say anything, just continued to grin down at me. His eyes became hooded as they flicked down to my lips now, making my heart skip a beat.

What was he-?

A sudden loud yelp ruptured the air around us.

Rayne.

Followed by an annoyed yell of, "Goddamnit, Sora! Kairi!"

And that would be Riku.

The two delinquents in question blurred past us and towards the restaurant's front doors, whooping and snickering and razzing their tongues back at their victims climbing out of the Ford Focus. "We'll grab us a table!" Sora called quickly at the same time Kairi shouted, "See ya inside!" Then they both disappeared through the entrance with Rayne and Riku hot on their heels.

I heard Lea sigh. Or maybe he didn't. It was so soft that it was fully possible that I imagined it. Then he released me, slipping one hand into mine and jerking a thumb towards the restaurant with a lopsided smile, "Shall we?"

I stared at him, feeling the night air cool my warmed face. Then I gave a tentative nod and let him lead me inside.

The others hadn't made it far past the doors and we stepped in to find Riku doling out Sora's punishment: death by a thousand noogies. Sora was smacking his cousin's arm and trying to wriggle free, but to no avail. Apparently Kairi had gotten off with only a warning for she was standing off to one side with Rayne, both cracking up as they watched the boys. I looked past them, taking in the restaurant. Strings of fairy lights hung from the ceiling intermixed with strings of multi-colored papers, each bearing cutouts depicting various imagery. The walls were painted with murals of fantastical, mythical creatures of various shapes and sizes with wings and prismatic fur, feathers and scales. This place was absolutely beautiful.

Once the roughhousing had finally settled down, we all approached the hostess, an extremely tiny, extremely old lady wearing a name tag that read Coco who seemed far more interested in napping than greeting new customers. However, she woke up long enough to squint at her list and find our reservation before calling over a man to seat us. He led us through the restaurant and to a large booth in one of the back corners, leaving menus, chips and salsa on the table before flashing us a warm, genuine smile and saying he'd be back to take our orders in a minute.

I started shrugging out of the jacket, feeling Lea assist me before folding it over his arm and gesturing towards the booth with bow and a, "Lady's first." Smiling at him, I took a seat and scooched towards the middle. Lea wasn't too far behind, sitting close enough for our knees to bump against one another. He tossed the jacket on the back shelf of the booth before draping his arm across the top of the cushioned seat behind my head. Rayne took the spot to my left with Riku of course beside her, and on the other side of Lea sat Kairi and Sora. The waiter came back after giving us a little time to peruse the menus and he gathered our food requests before dashing off again.

"So Ray," Kairi piped up, popping a heavily salsa-laden chip into her mouth, "how's the preggers-life treating you?"

"Really well," she nodded contentedly, one hand going to her tummy. "The jellybean's happy and healthy so far and I've just started barely showing in the past couple weeks. No weird food cravings yet, thank god, but those are supposed to be right around the corner."

Sora leaned forward, propping his chin in both hands and beamed, "Do we know yet if I have a lil nephew or niece on the way?"

"We're cousins, Sora. Nephews and nieces would only be if we were brothers," Riku corrected with a wry curve to his lips.

"We don't know yet," Rayne shook her head, "but I'm about four months along now, so hoping to find out at our next appointment."

Lea had shifted his hand to dangle down so he could idly twiddle my braid between his fingers. I could also sense his gaze on me, causing a bit of a flutter in the pit of my stomach. Reminding myself he was just playing a part and it wasn't real, I resisted the urge to squirm and instead pretended not to notice, directing all my focus into reaching for a chip to dip into the salsa.

"Well whatever the wee monkey turns out to be, you can bet Auntie Kairi and Unkie Sora will be here to shower it with all the love and kisses!" Kairi cooed.

Riku twitched and frowned. "I just said that isn't how it-"

"Shush, hon, they're just teasing you now," Rayne poked his cheek with a laugh before looking back over at Kairi. "And you? How's the new gig over at Mickey's going? You've been there, what? About a week now?"

"Mm-hm! It's been a lot of fun working the jewelry counter. Oh sure, there's the occasional asshole customer, but turns out I'm really good at killing them with kindness."

Riku kicked Sora's foot under the table, "What about you, ya freeloader? Any prospects yet?"

He shrugged with that big smile he seemed to always have permanently glued to his face. Just looking at it was starting to make my cheeks hurt. "Couple of interviews coming up, so we'll see!"

Smirking, Riku said, "Can't wait to hear how you screw them up this time, knucklehead."

"Hey!"

Kairi turned to look our direction now. "So what's new and exciting with you two, hm? Lea, you just had that big test, right?" Silence was her answer as I went for another chip. "Lea? Hello, earth to... ah-ha, there!" She rocketed up to her feet, slamming one hand down on the table and pointing the other right in Lea's face. "Lost puppy look!"

"Hm, what now?" he jolted, his hand jerking away from my braid to lay across the booth backrest once more. "Lost pup-? Bah, I told you already, there's no lost puppy look. You need to get your eyes checked, princess."

She scoffed, plopping heavily back down into her seat and smugly take a sip of her soda. "Please. You were bad at hiding it when you guys were dating in secret, and you're even worse at it now that it's all out in the open."

"What's the deal there anyhow?" Sora cocked his head at me. "There's all sorts of wild rumors flying around the mall, like that you're runaway royalty from some far off country just living off the lam now."

"What?!" I blanched, gawking in disbelief. Doing my best to recover with a tiny, awkward laugh, I hastily said, "No, nothing quite so, ah… dramatic. My parents, they're… well off, to be sure, but certainly not royalty. And not from so far away either. Just Arendelle, which is only about an hour north of here."

Chewing on her straw, Kairi eagerly leaned in closer, "I'd love to hear the story of how you two met!"

I stiffened.

Fudge.

Welp, add that to my ever growing list of things I should have thought about in advance but failed miserably to do so. I fiddled a chip between my fingers as I tucked in my bottom lip. Shoot, what was I supposed to tell her? It's not like I'd gotten any better at lying in the past few days since my visit with Father. In fact, I'd been mostly skirting by since then by dodging questions and letting people fill in the blanks for themselves so I didn't have to. Heart thudding in my chest, I opened my mouth, not quite fully sure yet what was going to come out.

"Last summer," Lea was quicker. "In another city."

"Oh, during that big cross-country road trip you took?" Rayne asked him as she leaned into her husband who slung an arm around her shoulders.

Lea tapped his own nose, "That'd be the one, Raindrop."

Kairi gasped, "You two met in a foreign city? How romantic! That's the dream!"

"You have to leave the country in order for it to be a foreign city," Riku shook his head.

"Cram it, you knew what I meant!"

"It was like one of those scenes straight outta a movie," Lea planted an elbow on the table, rubbing a curled finger over his smirk as he watched me out of the corner of his eye. "There I was, just strolling along minding my own business, smack dab in the middle of a jam-packed city street. But then the crowd parted and there she stood. The most gorgeous creature to ever walk the face of this or any other planet in all the cosmos."

Cue my face turning all new shades of red never before witnessed in the history of human eyesight.

Jeez, laying it on a bit thick there, Lea, don't you think?

"So whatdja do?" Kairi pressed, eyes bright and on the edge of her seat. "Sweep her off her feet right then and there?"

He snerked, "Shit no, I walked headfirst into a lamppost."

I smothered a grin behind my hand as the rest of the table erupted into laughter. Sora reached over to punch him lightly in the arm, "Smooth, ya stud. What city was this anyway?"

"Corona," I was the one to answer, surprising myself. Suddenly self-conscious with all eyes turning to me, I quietly added, "I was there for part of my vacation last year."

"By yourself?" Rayne quirked a dubious eyebrow at me. She knew this story was as made-up as my current relationship status was. I could only assume she was trying to poke holes in order to help us solidify this little tale that was being spun so we'd be more prepared for the next time we had to tell the lie.

The thing is, the best lies have a grain of truth to them. I really had been in Corona last summer. "No, I was taking the trip with Anna. We were actually staying over in Traverse Town, but had planned to visit Corona for the day to enjoy a festival there, since it was only a short train ride away. However, Anna disappeared with a guy before we could go. I'd really been looking forward to this festival though and didn't want to miss it, so I took the train over on my own."

"Wait," Kairi slapped both hands down in front of her, eyes widening. "Are you talking about that big lantern festival they do every year?" At my nod, she squealed. "Lucky! Punzie has shown me pictures in magazines, it looks so goddamn pretty! Oh man, I've always wanted to go! Hint, hint," she shouldered Sora, who just chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

"It was actually right as they were launching the lanterns that I saw her," Lea said, folding his arms atop the table now. "She was wearing this cute sundress. White with a lil diamond patterned hem. Split sleeves that were all flowy. Hair down and dancing in the slight breeze." Wow, he was really selling this. He'd even nailed that whole far away look in his eye, like he was seeing something the rest of us couldn't. "And the way those lanterns lit up her smile as she watched them float up, I knew my lowly mortal self was in the presence of a goddess. Knocked the wind right outta me."

"As did that lamppost," Rayne sniggered.

"As did that lamppost," he agreed with a chuckle.

Totally enthralled now, Kairi breathed, "So what happened next?"

"Yeah, what did happen next?" I grinned over at him, the barest note of a challenge to my tone. To the others, it probably just sounded like I was teasing him since obviously I was already supposed to know this story. But now I was almost as invested as Kairi and was genuinely curious where he'd go with it next.

The corners of his eyes crinkled as he looked over at me and he leaned back, propping his elbows up on the back rim of the booth and once more slipping an arm behind my head. "Well after the lantern bit was over, I watched her get onto her train heading back to Traverse Town. So I did what any self-respecting, red-blooded, utterly bewitched male would do: I followed her."

"Stalker," Riku singsonged.

His wife smacked his leg, "Hush, it's sweet!"

He snorted, eyelids drooping, "Yeah, so sweet, the dumbass left his car behind in Corona."

"Psssh, I just took the train back for it later," Lea brushed off. "Anyway, when I found her on board, I sat across from her and worked up the nerve to strike up a conversation."

Rayne looked at me. "You? Talk to a handsome stranger on a train?" She squinted, repeating for emphasis, "You?"

"Heh… what can I say? He can be very charming," I smiled down at my drink, swirling the ice with my straw.

"Even with all of my roguish charm and devilish good looks though, it wasn't easy," Lea laughed. His hand had drifted down to start toying with my braid again. "But she warmed up to me eventually. By the time we arrived at Traverse Town, I was completely smitten. A total goner. She still needed more convincing though, so I managed to persuade her into joining me for a night out on the town. Luckily for me, Traverse Town has a very active night life that goes on for hours long after most other cities have gone to sleep."

"Yeah? Like what?" Sora burbled out around a mouth full of chips, making Kairi giggle as she put a hand over his face to hide it.

He pursed his lips to one side, looking up at the ceiling, "Oh, nothing too exciting. Few odds and ends here and there though… wandering around a record store… a café with a palm reader… a street poet at one sidewalk corner, a belly dancer at another, some stargazing in a park…" Now he smirked over at me, "A carnival with a kiss at the top of the ferris wheel."

A mock gasp from Rayne, "Scandal! And you with a fiancé, young lady!"

I looked away, suddenly feeling guilty and flustered over something that hadn't even really happened. "...ferris wheels can be very enchanting."

And my streak of helping the lie along while not actually lying myself successfully continues!

"And then, and then?" Kairi insisted impatiently, just eating this whole bit of fiction right up.

He chuckled and shrugged, "Just mostly a lot of meandering the streets and talking. We were out all night and watched the sunrise together. Eventually, she had to go meet up with her sister so they could move on to another city for the next leg of their lil vay-kay. But I didn't let her leave without agreeing to meet with me again in a few months."

Kairi was slackjaw now as she whispered, "And did she?"

"Mm-hm!" he hummed happily. "And from there, we kept meeting up, our little get-togethers getting longer and more frequent over time."

"Then what?" She was relentless.

A wolfish curl tugged at one side of his mouth. "What else? I slowly seduced her until she fell helpless into my bed, hungry for the pleasure only I could give her," he waggled his eyebrows.

Of course I'd chosen that exact second to be taking a sip of my drink. And of course I promptly spluttered and choked on it. "Excuse me?" I coughed, laughing incredulously as I elbowed him in the gut.

He gave a pained grunt, but grinned and snagged my hand before I could retract it, pressing a kiss to my knuckles. "I mean that in the most gentlemanly and respectful way possible, of course," he winked at me before looking back over at Kairi. "From there, I convinced her to run away from her family and ditch her two-bit, loser fiancé to be with me. And the rest, as they say, is history!"

"Wow!" she sighed dreamily, slumping back and fanning herself. Then she blinked, "Wait…" A gasp. "Oh my god! You swore off dating about a year ago, which was last summer! Was it cuz that's when you two met and it was love at first sight?!"

"Huh. The two certainly seem to line up perfectly, don't they?" he chirped. He'd rested my hand back down onto the table, his on top of mine, threading our fingers together.

Our waiter popped up again just then. "Your food will be just another moment. In the meantime, please allow us to entertain you with some music." He then turned, clapped his hands twice and called out, "Miguel!"

Out charged a boy in his early teens wearing a red hoodie and lugging a guitar that was white, etched in swirly patterns, and nearly as big as he was. He flashed us a smile huge enough to rival one of Sora's and without further preamble, started strumming away and singing. The kid was actually really good too!

Kairi clapped in delight and Rayne cooed over how adorable he was. Sora gaped in awe at the boy's obvious talent while Riku just grinned, digging into the chips. As I watched him perform, I couldn't help but feel Lea's eyes on me once more instead of on our little musician. I shifted in my seat, slipping my hand free of his and bringing it up to tuck some bangs behind my ear, hiding the growing warmth I felt in my cheeks behind my fingers.

At this rate, I didn't know how I was going to survive fake dating this guy for the rest of the evening, let alone for two more weeks.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Lea's hand closed around mine, stopping me in my tracks. I glanced over my shoulder at him, then back towards where Rayne and Riku were climbing into their car across the parking lot. "With them?"

"Ahhhnt," he made a buzzer noise, grinning. "Wrong! Would the contestant care to venture another guess?"

I gave him some side-eye, feeling one corner of my lips turn up. "...with you?"

"Bingo!" He started walking towards his car, gently tugging me along with him. "I was already so rudely denied my god-given right as the boyfriend to pick you up from your place. No way am I missing out on giving you a lift over to the movie theater. Same goes for driving you back home later tonight, so better make your peace with it now. It's happening."

I felt my smile twitch a fraction wider as I fell into step beside him. "I suppose being my chauffeur is quite the honor and privilege. Wouldn't want to take that away from you."

"Glad that's settled then," he gave a chipper nod, unlocking the front passenger door of his vehicle and holding it open for me as I got in. As he then jogged over to the driver's side while I buckled in, there was a loud meep meep of a car horn and I looked up just as a hot pink Jeep blurred past where we were parked - Kairi and Sora, it seemed, going on to the cinema ahead of us. I waved at them just as Lea had settled in himself and started the engine.

"So," I began once we were on the road, resting my temple against my knuckles with my elbow propped on the window sill, still grinning as I watched him out of the corner of my eye, "you took a road trip last summer?"

He gave a low hum of confirmation, reaching over to turn down the volume on the rock oldies station coming through the radio. "Decided to have one last big adventure before I really buckled down and started taking school seriously. Did a lil soul searching, that whole shtick."

"Ah." My gaze focused on the road ahead once more and I hesitated for a second, gnawing on my lower lip. "...that was a nice story you told. About how we met."

Lea chuckled, leaving one hand on the wheel while moving the other to lay atop the headrest of my seat. "Liked it, didja?"

"Oh definitely." Now I hid my growing smile behind my hand, trying to keep a straight face. "Though I have to admit, I think I was a bigger fan of the original movie adaptation."

I watched him visibly stiffen. "The…?"

Tapping a curled finger to my chin, I muttered, "What was the title again? Before Sunrise, I believe?"

He snerked, then broke out into a full laugh. "Crap, ya caught me. Yeah, I may have borrowed from the plot there a tad."

"Just a bit," I shook my head at him. "You're lucky Sora and Kairi haven't seen the film."

"Kinda surprised you have," he turned the car down a road that would take us towards the mall. "Pretty sure it's older than you are."

"Nothing wrong with old movies," I shrugged before wrinkling my nose at him slightly with a tiny smile. "Kind of sappy though. Wouldn't have thought that'd be your kind of movie."

Looking my way, he smirked, "What can I say? I'm a sappy guy. And hey, at least I didn't steal everything from that flick."

"True. The stuff before the train was all you."

"You helped," Lea pointed out as he pulled up to a stop sign. He then tapped his index against the steering wheel a couple times. "...outta curiosity, why'd you say Corona? Out of all the other places you must of visited on your trip, what made you pick that city?"

As the car accelerated once more, I tilted my head in thought. "Don't know really… I guess I just felt it would be a nice place to meet someone new in. That'd it make for a good story." I paused, watching some tail lights streak past us. "...the lantern festival really was beautiful. Have you ever seen it?"

Lea shook his head as he glanced up at the rearview before shifting lanes, "Nah. Had plans to on the road trip, but something else came up."

"A shame," I sighed wistfully. "You missed out."

"Wouldn't say that," he murmured, a warm flicker in his eyes. "'Sides, there's always next time."

"Suppose that's true," I nodded. "Nice touch, by the way, describing the dress I was wearing. I think I might even own one that's pretty close to it." Don't think I'd been wearing it in Corona though. But I couldn't really remember. It had been over a year ago after all.

He laughed again, fingers combing his scalp before returning the hand to my seat, now on a spot next to my ear. "Well, I did help you pack your clothes from your old condo just a couple days ago. I probably saw it then."

"Good point." That made sense. It would have been too much of a coincidence if that'd actually been what I'd had on that day. But now… should I be worried that I hadn't really been in that dress? What if someone found out the mismatch in the story? No… no, that was just me overthinking things again. Even if the tale ever reached the ears of the Duke's goon, it's not like they could go back in time to fact check. "Just one more thing now." My eyes narrowed at him, at odds with my grin. "Might want to edit the ending a bit."

"Which part?" he asked a touch too innocently, already turning us into the Dusk Town Center parking lot. "Running away to be with me? Hasn't that been the story all along?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Try a little before that."

Wouldn't have thought it possible to both purse one's lips and smile at the same time, but Lea proved me wrong in that moment. "Hmm… oh! Well, figured wooing you over the course of months sounded more believable, but if you think it works better as weeks or even days, then-"

"No no. Little after that."

"Well then, now you got me stumped cuz I know you just couldn't possibly be talking about the absolute masterpiece that was the slow seducing, helpless bed falling, pleasure hungry part."

A snort. "Why yes, actually, I could be talking about that and in fact am."

"But that's the best part!" he protested, turning to park in a space right next to a familiar Ford Focus. "It's the heart and soul, the very essence of the story! The pièce de résistance, the crowning glory."

With a good natured scoff, I unfastened my seatbelt as the car shuddered into powering down. "Well decrown it because you're dropping that bit."

He lifted his chin slightly and gave a dignified sniff, "I am a storyteller, El. An arteest. You wouldn't ask Leonardo da Vinci to remove the smile from the Mona Lisa."

Well someone had a high opinion of himself. Which honestly came as zero surprise. I fixed him with a dull stare. "Drop it or your jacket gets a giant, sticky stain before the night is out." And with that, I opened my door.

Lea scrambled out of the car and rushed over to join me on my side just as I slammed the door shut behind me. He had the decency to only spend a couple seconds looking mildly miffed at having been denied the opportunity to open and hold the car door for me before his frown melted into a smile once more. "Jeez, blackmail? Never thought you'd stoop so low. But eh," he shrugged, "jacket's black, it'll be fine."

"You're failing to see the big picture here," I crossed my arms as I waited for Rayne and Riku to get out of their own vehicle. My guess was they were probably going for another round of Seven Minutes in Heaven in there. Smirking at Lea, I elaborated, "Because then I'll wash it."

"Egads," he mocked gasp, splaying a hand against his chest, "the horror."

My smirk curled wickedly. "In a washing machine."

As my roomies finally vacated their car (faces flushed, I might add), Lea actually paled. "But it's dry clean only!"

"That's right," I said smugly and turned to walk away. "So nix that line or the jacket gets it."

"You fight dirty," he muttered as he caught up to me, slipping his hand into mine. However, he was grinning.

Huh. That wasn't what I'd been expecting. IE the face of a man who'd just suffered a crippling defeat by my hands.

I narrowed my eyes up at him. "You certainly seem pretty happy about the impending, inevitable demise of your jacket."

Now the grin was joined by a dimple as we walked. "Well, it's just that in order for you to make good on your threat, you have to take my jacket hostage. Meaning you're gonna hafta keep it after all." His head dipped down closer to mine as he swung our hands slightly. "I count that as a win for me."

...well crud.

Score one for Lea there.

Shrieks and giggles suddenly erupted behind us before Sora tore past us towards the mall's entrance with Kairi riding piggyback. Rayne laughed and tugged Riku into a stumble behind her so they could catch up while Lea and I continued to take our time, bringing up the rear.

We made our way through the food court and over to Cinema XIII. The manager with long, silver hair that I'd seen there last time was present again, off to one side where he was setting up a huge cardboard display for the latest Star Wars movie. I watched him scowl and fiddle with the lifesize lightsaber cutouts as our group purchased tickets from a blonde chick with a weird hairdo that kind of resembled antennae. As we'd approached, I could have sworn I'd seen her boredly cleaning her fingernails with a small knife, but there was no sign of the blade by the time we'd reached her register. Perhaps my eyes had just been playing tricks on me.

Tickets for our whodunit comedy flick in hand, we then moved over to concessions which was being worked by that same teen with the emo haircut that I'd also spotted here a couple weeks ago. He hardly glanced up from the book he was reading as Riku and Rayne ordered snacks and drinks from him, Sora waiting in line behind them with Kairi still latched onto his back.

"Alright, whatcha want? My treat," Lea asked as he watched the flat screens hanging behind the counter scroll flashy ads for crisp, buttery popcorn and fizzing, bubbly soda.

I blinked. "What?" Then I frowned at him. "Oh no, not happening. You already paid for dinner despite my multiple protests. I'm not letting you buy me candy too."

We were only fake dating after all, and I wouldn't even want to make a real boyfriend pay for everything!

"But it's my right as-"

I put my finger to his lips, silencing him as my eyelids drooped. "Enough with playing the boyfriend card already. You're having too much fun with that."

He puckered up and planted a tiny peck on my fingertip, sending a small jolt straight to my heart as I quickly jerked my hand back. He chuckled, "Just tell me what your fave candy is."

"Shouldn't you be able to guess?" I arched an eyebrow, stubbornly ignoring the way the tip of my finger still had a slight tingle. "Isn't that like your special gift or whatever?"

"Only with ice cream," he lightly corrected.

"Right," I crinkled my eyes at him. "How's that coming along again?"

His shoulders bobbed up and down. "It's a process."

"My turn!" Sora suddenly proclaimed loudly in front of us, dropping Kairi off his back and spinning around to get behind her.

His girlfriend gasped, "Sora no!"

"Sora yes!" he cackled, jumping onto her back, arms hugging her shoulders tight and legs wrapping around her waist as her hands automatically shifted to grasp beneath his knees. To her credit, she managed to stand for three whole shaky seconds before collapsing beneath her boyfriend's weight into a tangled heap on the floor with him.

Ah, to be young.

Never mind the fact that I was pretty sure I was only like a year older than them.

With a soft snort through my nose, I glanced back at Lea. "Well, while you keep processing, I'm going to go find our seats."

I turned to go, but he pulled me back with the hold he still had on my hand. "C'mon, just lemme buy ya something small," he insisted as he hopped over the Sora/Kairi knot that was still trying to disentangle itself, forcing me to gingerly step over the two of them as well.

Shaking my head with a sigh, I said, "Why won't you just let it go?"

He beamed. "Cuz what schmoopsie-poo wants, schmoopsie-poo gets."

Oh no he didn't.

"Uh-uh, no. Veto. You are not calling me that," I jabbed a finger into his chest.

There was a sly gleam to his eye. "Tell me what candy you want or I won't stop."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Wanna bet?" he flashed a toothy grin as we stepped up to the counter now that my roommates had stepped off to one side, already munching away at their newly purchased sweets. "You'll think you died and went to schmoopsie-poo heaven."

I gave a small huff and looked away. "Small price to pay. Not budging on this."

"Fine. You've forced my hand." He turned his head to the concession worker, slapping his palm down on the countertop and proudly declaring, "I'll have one of everything, my good man!"

"What?! No, no, stop, he's joking," I hastily told the cashier, who froze mid-ringing the order up as he gave us a flat look with the one blue eye not hidden behind bangs. To Lea, I whispered, "What do you think you're doing?"

He shrugged, grin not faltering. "Figure ya gotta like at least one of 'em."

I stared at him. Then my shoulders slumped and I hung my head, grumbling, "...Junior Mints."

"You heard the lady," he chirped to the theatre employee. "And throw in a small popcorn and large Kupo-Kola too please!"

Once the junk food was acquired and paid for, we moved out of the way to join Riku and Rayne as Sora and Kairi bought their own goodies. While we were waiting, I opened up my candy and reached inside, retrieving a minty, chocolate-coated treat and popping it into my mouth.

"Can I have one?" Lea asked beside me.

I gave him a blank look. Then I glanced down at his hands, otherwise occupied with a full soda cup and a bag practically bursting with popcorn. Digging another Junior Mint out and holding it up between us, my gaze met his once more. "Say ahh."

Face brightening, his lips parted wide.

I inserted it into his nostril.

He blinked a couple times, then snorted which had the byproduct of dislodging the Junior Mint. "Okay, guess maybe I deserved that for being a lil pushy about getting you the candy."

"You most certainly did," I said matter-of-factly, eating another one. A pause while I slowly chewed before swallowing and mumbling, "...but thanks for doing it anyway."

"Heh. Don't mention it."

Kairi and Sora rejoined us then, arms piled high with sugary delights. Jeez, all that on top of the gigantic Mexican dinners they'd both devoured less than an hour ago? One had to wonder how the two of them managed to stay so skinny.

It didn't take long for us to locate our theater and when we entered, all the lights were dimmed for the trailers that had already started to play. We quietly found our seats close to the middle of the auditorium and we settled into them, Lea to the right of me and making up one end of our group while Rayne took up my other side, the rest of the gang to her right. It seemed the cinema had recently renovated with new, barely-used cushiony sofa seating, the kind that reclined.

As I pushed the button that popped out the chair's footrest and made myself more comfortable, I caught a glimpse of the others. Half way through a strand of red licorice, Rayne flinched when Riku was suddenly in her face and chomping down on the other end of the candy. Grinning, he took a few more bites, bringing their lips closer together until he could give her a smooch before pulling away, looking quite pleased with himself as she blushed and snerked, giving his shoulder a light shove. Kairi was tossing Milk Duds towards Sora's open, awaiting mouth and rewarding him with little kisses every time he successfully caught one.

Worrying my lower lip between my teeth, I glanced towards Lea out of the corner of my eye as he crunched away on some popcorn. Should we be acting all… couply right now? Like the others were? I mean, it was a dark theater… did we really need to keep the act up in here too? Would anyone really notice? Then again, I'd noticed our friends being all sickeningly cute and I hadn't even been trying to, my eyes had just wandered. So maybe it wasn't such a stretch to consider the two of us were also possibly being observed, even in here.

My gaze flicked down to the armrest I shared with Lea. It was wide enough for both our arms to lay on it side by side, elbows touching. He wasn't holding my hand at the moment, instead just resting his about an inch away from mine. Which, now that I noticed, actually felt a bit weird, oddly enough. I guess I was starting to get used to it. But perhaps I should look at this as an opportunity for some more practice. An exercise in me being the one for once to initiate a display of affection. I seriously couldn't get away with him being the one to start it all the time, right? Surely, I had to act like I liked him too.

Which, to be fair, I kind of did.

Even if it was a secret.

But now I had to wonder how does one go about, ah… what was the term? ...making a move? I'd never had to do it with my ex. I'd never particularly felt the urge, nor had he ever really encouraged me to have more initiative in that area. He'd always been the one to take charge and that seemed to be the way he'd liked it. It seemed to be what was expected of our relationship, by him, by my family, by the world of upper society that I had lived in for so long. But I was no longer in that world. Things were different here. I was different. And I needed to show that to my parents. And one way I could show that was by doing this.

So then… exactly how do I do this?

...well I suppose I could start by moving my hand in the general direction of his. Seemed simple enough… right?

Gulping and holding my breath, I slowly, oh so very slowly started reaching for his hand. As my fingers crept closer, the pounding in my ribcage grew louder and louder. A hairbreadth away from skin contact, I hesitated, what little courage I'd mustered already dwindling. But after a second, my face hardened. I needed to do this. For the sake of Operation Boyfriend But Shh Not Really. For the sake of a continued future free from my parents' control. With a newfound resolve burning in my chest, I pushed on.

My pinky barely brushed against his knuckle.

Nope! No way. Mm-mm, not happening!

I snatched my hand back, blushing furiously.

The blush of a failure. Pathetic.

However the touch, no matter how light and brief, hadn't gone unnoticed. Lea glanced my way, his head tipping slightly. Then he smiled, shifting his popcorn out of his lap over to his right while moving the soda from the cupholder between us to the one on his other side. Then he lifted the armrest separating us, folding it back between our chairs before slinging an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close so my head was pillowed by his chest.

I tensed for several seconds before relaxing against him, clearing my throat and, if possible, blushing even harder.

Well then.

Guess I no longer needed to worry about us not looking couply.

Even if I hadn't been the one to initiate.

...tomorrow. I would do a better job tomorrow.

As the last of the trailers ended and opening credits for the movie began filling the big screen, Lea ducked his head down next to mine. I could feel him grinning against my ear as he whispered, "This boyfriend model comes equipped with all the latest technology, including hilarious movie commentary. Would you like that feature enabled now?"

I leaned my head back a bit as I turned to look him in the eye. He cocked a playful eyebrow at me. Feeling one corner of my lips tug up, I whispered back, "Commentary on."

"You got it."

I was not disappointed.

"Is this really totally necessary?"

"Oh absolutely. Your uncle's spies could be anywhere, ever vigilant and watching at all times."

"Even here? In the parking lot for my own apartment?" I frowned dubiously.

I could feel him nodding against my hair. "Especially here. I'll have you know I've seen at least three cars pass us already, each one more suspicious and shady than the last."

Date night had been a rousing success, if I did say so myself. We'd had a good time with friends, dinner was amazing and delicious, and the movie had been excellent. But as everyone knows, all good dates (even the fake ones) must come to an end. And at the end of every date, some sort of goodnight ritual is often at the very least customary, if not absolutely essential. Traditionally, this usually takes the form of the infamous goodnight kiss. However, since I'd already taken any sort of liplock completely and one hundred percent off the table, Lea had instead opted for a hug.

One… extremely and uncomfortably long hug.

...okay, that was a lie. It wasn't uncomfortable at all. In fact, was actually quite nice. Pleasant, even. Ten out of ten, would recommend.

We stood next to his car at the moment, my apartment building just a few yards away. After he'd parked and we'd both climbed out, he'd pulled my arms up to wrap around his neck, his hands once again finding their way under the leather jacket to encircle my waist, hugging me close as he'd rested his cheek atop my head. And so we had remained for quite some time now.

Kairi and Sora were no longer with us, having parted ways back at the mall, but I could see Rayne and Riku off to one side near their own vehicle, enthusiastically taking part in some cuddle time themselves while they waited for me. Which actually I really appreciated. Without their added presence here, I'd probably be getting a lot more awkward a lot more quickly about The Hug That Would Not End.

That said…

"We've been at this for at least five minutes now. Wouldn't you call that a bit, er.." I shifted my feet, resisting the urge to squirm, "...excessive?"

His hold on me didn't budge. "Gotta be convincing. 'Sides, we're obviously still in the honeymoon period of our relationship. You know, when the couple takes forever and a day telling each other goodbye a thousand times before actually leaving. Otherwise known as the No-You-Hang-Up-First phase."

My brow furrowed. "I thought that was only made-up for TV. Real people don't actually do that, do they?"

"Yup," I felt another nod. "Trust me, I'm an expert. I know these things."

I squinted off into space. "...haven't you only ever done one night stands?"

"Shush, I said trust me on this," he murmured.

And shush I did. I suppose I could look at this as a sort of… endurance training? Get me more used to his hugs so I'd be less awkward about them in public? Make them seem more natural? Yeah, okay. This might be good for me. Let's see how long I could keep this up.

...answer? Not long.

Tentatively trying to pull away, I began, "Alright, maybe we should-"

"One more minute," he insisted, squeezing me tighter and shifting his head down now to instead nuzzle against my neck. His nose was cold and his breath tickled against my skin, making my cheeks warm. Welp, so much for not squirming.

Huh. He really seemed to be taking this whole pretend boyfriend thing very seriously. This was some extreme dedication to the role.

And there my insides went all over again, doing the whole warm, fuzzy, squishy thing. Alright, just breathe. Deep, calming breaths. Remember: Conceal, don't feel.

...maybe just focus on the concealing part. The not feeling part was already a lost cause.

"Ya know," Rayne's voice suddenly piped up nearby, causing me to jump, "maybe you two don't have to say goodnight just yet." Lea straightened up, loosening his grip on me just enough for us both to turn our heads to see she'd joined us. Gracing us with a sly smirk, she said, "I mean, if you want to really drive this date home for any eyes that might be prying, Lea could always, ya know..." her eyebrows bounced as she leaned in closer to whisper conspiratorially, "stay the night."

"What?!" My face erupted into blistering heat, the likes of which would've put the Sahara Desert to utter shame. "N...No! Absolutely not! How could you possibly even-"

She laughed, her finger booping my nose. "Relax, you silly goose. Of course he'd only sleep on the living room sofa! S'not like your grunkle's minion would have x-ray vision into our home."

Oh.

That's what she'd meant.

Well of course that's what she'd meant. It's not like she'd ever really suggest…

Actually, no, this was Rayne we were talking about here. I honestly wouldn't have put it past her.

She elbowed Lea in the arm, "So whaddya say, stud?"

He smiled, removing one hand from my waist to rub at the nape of his neck. "Well, I'd planned on getting some reading done for my classes tonight. But I do have my book bag in the backseat, so I suppose I could just as easily read here on your couch." His gaze shifted back down to mine, "That is of course, as long as you're okay with it!"

My face still recovering from its abrupt and devastating heatwave, I looked down and muttered, "Well, I… I suppose, ah… sure. Okay. I mean, just to keep up appearances… " My eyes flicked back up towards Rayne, "Thanks. I guess that's… actually a pretty good idea."

"Of course it is! I came up with it!" she beamed, planting her fists on her hips and puffing up her chest. Then she turned back to her husband, pressing her lips to his cheek as she linked her arm in his and led him over to the building entrance. Lea at last fully released me, but only long enough to unlock his car and pull out a messenger bag that looked heavy with textbooks. Kicking the door shut, he slung the strap of the bag over his head to hang across his chest before slipping an arm around my shoulders, grinning down at me as we followed the other two inside.

Once in our apartment, he removed the arm while Rayne pulled some spare pillows and bed sheets from the closet, tossing them onto the longest couch for Lea. Then grabbing a water bottle from the fridge, she unscrewed the cap and held her drink up high. "A toast! To Lea's sleepover! May it be the first of many!" she declared before tossing her head back to chug half the bottle.

Riku just snerked, shaking his head while Lea scratched his cheek with a weak chuckle and walked over to drop his bag on the sofa next to the blankets. I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my fingers between my eyebrows with a soft sigh. Still, she had a point. I suppose it was only natural for my "boyfriend" to stay the night with some amount of frequency. Oh gosh, I hope this wouldn't be too much of an imposition on Lea.

As Rayne recapped the water bottle and put it down on the kitchen table, Riku stepped up to her, taking both her hands in his and pressing their foreheads together. "Hon, why don't we head to bed early tonight?" he asked, tone low and eyes hooded.

"Mmm," she breathed him in, smiling up at him through lowered lashes and nodding, "sounds good." As he pulled her towards their bedroom, Rayne glanced back at us. "Good night, you two! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" she winked and waved before disappearing through the door, closing it behind her.

Silence followed. It felt strangely sudden and almost deafening.

I slowly turned to look at Lea.

He looked back, giving me a tiny smile.

That's when it struck me.

This was the first time in two full days I'd been alone with Lea. Like, really alone. Not in public, not where we had to put on the boyfriend-girlfriend act. Even when it'd just been the two of us in his car earlier tonight, even then we'd still had kind of been in the relative safety of pretend date mode. Besides, driving around in a car was completely different from being alone with him here, now, in my apartment late at night. Now that there was no more reason for all the hand holding, forehead kisses, and other little touches, things felt… well I wouldn't exactly say wrong per se, but more felt just kind of… off?

Panic was beginning to set in.

My mind was drawing a total blank.

I… didn't know how to be around him now. Not when we didn't have to fake a relationship anymore.

I'd forgotten how to act normal.

I think he could sense it too. The weirdness that had suddenly popped up out of nowhere. His eyebrows knit together, his gaze shifting about for a couple seconds. Then he opened his mouth to say something.

"Good night!" I loudly blurted out first.

Then I was in my bedroom so fast, you would have thought I'd spontaneously developed the power to teleport.

I slammed the door shut behind me, pressing my spine flat to it, eyes wide and taking shallow breaths through my nose. A few seconds passed where I just forced myself to inhale and exhale slowly a few times, trying to calm down. Then I winced, lightly banging the back of my head against the door.

Good job, Elsa. Way to make things mildly awkward. And for no real reason at all, you useless, hermitic dope!

With a small scowl, I shrugged out of the leather jacket and tossed it onto my bed. Then I unzipped my ankle boots, kicking them off and started pacing the length of my room back and forth, my hands twisting at my braid.

I couldn't just leave things like that. I had to talk to him. I had to toughen up and find an excuse to march my butt back out there. But what excuse?

My feet paused mid step as I glanced around my room for a minute before landing on one of my walls. Not just any wall. The one I shared with Riku's and Rayne's bedroom. Then I lightly tapped one fist into my palm. That's it! I quickly moved to my nightstand, opening the top drawer. Amongst its contents was a plastic baggie of earplugs. Digging out a pair and dropping the bag back into the drawer before closing it again, I then stepped over to my door. I took a second to take a deep breath and gather myself, standing up straighter and flicking my braid back behind me. Then with a firm, determined nod, I turned the knob and pulled, walking back out into the living room.

Lea was sitting on the couch that would be doubling for his bed tonight, arms splayed out wide to either side atop its backrest while he read the textbook that laid open in his lap. He'd pulled his hair out of its ponytail so his crimson locks were once again wild and free and he'd taken off his long-sleeved undershirt, now just wearing the tee.

Looking up at me, he all but leapt up to his feet. "El! Hi! I-" he grunted as the book he'd apparently forgotten was in his lap crashed down hard onto his foot.

I sucked in a tiny breath through my teeth with a frown, taking a step forward and reaching a hand out, "You okay?"

"Fine," he groaned. "I didn't need that toe anyway. It was only holding me back. Just dead weight." He laughed it off as he picked the textbook up off the floor, tossing it behind him onto the cushions before crossing his arms, "So, was there, ah… did you forget something?"

"Yes," I took a little step towards him, then frowned, glancing away. "Well, no…" I started to take a step back before catching myself. Wrong way, dork. "That is to say, sort of… er, I just...hm…" I thrust one fist forward, opening it palm facing up to reveal the earplugs, "Here!"

He stared down at them blankly. Then at me.

"Oh!" I gasped. "Right! Some sort of explanation would probably help." I gave a nervous heh. "So… uh… you know, those two," I gestured with my chin towards my roommates' bedroom door, "well, they just… the look they were giving each other before they went to bed, it's… well, it's a look I'm very familiar with from them. You know the look, the kind that should come with its own Marvin Gaye soundtrack. And those two… when they get going, they can really rattle the old headboard, if you know what I mean." A beat. Then I blanched. "Of course you know what I mean! Right, moving on. So uh… they are not quiet about it and they're definitely not quick. And these walls? They're thin. I'm talking like tissue paper thin. And not even the good Kleenex Deluxe kind of tissue, more like the cruddy, two-bit kind you'd get at the dollar store that just disintegrates if you even so much as breathe on it." Great, now I was just plain babbling. "These walls may as well not even be there for all the sound they block. Or rather, don't block. Then again, if they weren't there, then we'd not only hear but also see-" Wrap it up, girl, wrap it up. "A-Anyway! So just… just take these. You'll thank me later, believe me."

His eyes crinkled and he nodded, plucking them from my hand. "Alright, I'll take your word for it. Thanks."

Good. Okay. Yes, this was going well.

...huh. Though… slight hitch in the plan…

What now? I hadn't exactly thought this far ahead.

Maybe this was enough. I could now just make a graceful exit, leaving things in a better place than where I had previously. Yeah, that sounded good.

I gave him a tight-lipped grin, inching backwards as I pointed towards my room. "Okay then, I think I'll just…" But as I turned, my eyes landed on Rayne's and Riku's door again and I froze and grimaced. "Ah, shoot," I hissed under my breath.

"Problem?" I heard Lea ask behind me.

I shook my head, "I meant to ask Rayne to unzip my dress before she went to bed since the zipper is just where I can't reach and-" I blinked, then glanced over my shoulder at him sheepishly before fully turning to face him. "And why am I even telling you this? Forget I said anything. It's nothing, I'll figure it out."

"I can do it," he tossed the ear plugs onto the coffee table between us before stepping around it.

Waving my hands rapidly back and forth in front of me, I said, "No, it's fine. Really, you don't have to-"

"Don't be silly, just let me help you," he came to stop in front of me.

I tucked in my lower lip. Maybe I was just being silly about this. I mean, what was the big deal? Really? "...o-okay," I sighed, turning my back to him once more and sweeping my braid forward over one shoulder, running my hands down its length a few times. At least my old nemesis, The Blush, had the common courtesy to wait until I was no longer looking at Lea before creeping its way up into my cheeks.

I could sense him taking another step closer to me, could hear his gentle breathing as I felt his fingers undo the clasp at the top of the zipper. One of his fingertips incidentally grazed my skin and I couldn't stop a tiny shiver. Then there was a pause. Like… a long pause. I frowned straight ahead, uncertain. Nothing seemed to be happening. I turned my head slightly, stopping just short of actually being able to look back at him. "...everything okay?"

"Uh… yeah, the uh…" he cleared his throat, "...the stupid thing just got stuck for a sec there, but it's all good now." At last, the sound of the dress unzipping reached my ears. "There ya go, you're all set!"

My hand darted to clutch at the back of my dress, holding it together as I whipped around to face him. My blush? Only seemed to be growing in strength. I started backing away, "Th-thanks… for that. That was really… something. Nice! That was nice. Of you. To do that… for me. I-" I crashed into my door frame and stumbled. "Oops. Heh. Who put that there? Um… anyway…"

And on that eloquent and fully formed note, I dashed into my room, banging the door closed. Then I puffed out a breath, slumping down to sit on the floor as I pinched the bridge of my nose.

Great. Just dandy. I hadn't left things mildly awkward this time. Oh no, I'd only left them mega, ultra, super awkward now. Progress! Superb. Just perfect.

That's it. It's decided. I'm not fit for human contact. I was just going to barricade myself in this room and never come out ever again. Ever. Period. The outside world would be better off without me anyhow. Good bye, people. Hello, sweet sweet solitude. I-

I heard a muffled buzz and my head snapped up. It'd come from Lea's jacket on my bed. I squinted at it for a second. Then it clicked. My phone! I half crawled, half scrabbled over to it, digging into the pocket and pulling it out, swiping the screen.

There was a new text from Lea.

2nite was fun

I blinked, looking over at my door. Then back down at my phone, pursing my lips to one side. My thumbs hovered over the keyboard for a second. Then slowly I began to type.

I thought so too.

I waited as those three little dots hopped in a row.

We shud totes do it again sometime

A huff of amusement escaped through my nose, the tension starting to leave my body.

I'd really like that.

Then I tipped my head to one side, grinning slightly as I tapped away further.

I'm paying next time though.

The dots were dancing on my screen again.

Aight, if u insist. But b warned, Im not a cheap date

Now I actually laughed.

I can live with that.

Perhaps I'd been a bit too hasty. Maybe there was no need to barricade myself in here. Not just yet anyway. I'd hold off for a bit.

At least long enough to see what tomorrow would bring.

Author's Note: Anyone else notice Lea's shirts seem to be getting tighter and tighter every new excuse he has to see Elsa out of his work clothes? I think he's subconsciously putting on a courtship display to present himself as a sexually viable mate xD Ahem, moving on… Fun Fact 1: Fuente Del Oro is a real, Coco-themed restaurant over in Disneyland Park in Paris! Google translate says the name means "Gold Fountain", oooOOooo pretty! I really hope Coco makes it into one of the future KH games eventually! Fun Fact 2: Elsa's dress this chapter is inspired by her purple dress from when she sings Into The Unknown in Frozen 2! Just picture it shorter and more cocktail-dressy. And I know in the movie, that purple dress is a nightgown, but shhh, we'll just forget that part. And the dress Lea described in his "how we met" story? Loosely based on Elsa's Show Yourself dress - again just picture it shorter, more practical and more sundressy xD Also if you haven't heard of it, Before Sunrise is a real movie, not to mention a real SAPPY movie. Kind of slow, but cute. I'd actually never heard of it until I started writing this chapter - saw a gif go by on tumblr of the lead couple from the movie doing something adorable that made me go "oh gosh, that's SO Lea and Elsa!" and had to watch it xD I'm kind of happy it came along when it did though, cuz it gave me inspiration for Lea's "how we met" story :)

Next chapter, what new challenges will Elsa face in her adventures in fake dating? Will she ever be able to work up the courage to initiate a display of affection herself? Just how much of a "not a cheap date" is Lea really? What about his shirts? CAN they get any tighter? Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading, I super duper appreciate it! And an extra BIG thank you to those of you who’ve liked, reblogged, and followed so far, seeing those lil notifications always brings the biggest, goofiest smile to my face!

FIRST CHAPTER || PREVIOUS CHAPTER || NEXT CHAPTER

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meerhummal · 3 years

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No Fans, Empty Stands

Fan’s encouragement affects player performances, every sport is complete with fans, who really make sports mean something

Image via Unsplash

Having an enormous crowd in your support will obviously set you on fire, that’s how important fans are to numerous sports. The noise they create the atmosphere they generate and the coordinated mass mentality of them sometimes is unbelievable, Fans are really crucial part to a football team as Scottish Jock Stein said “Football without fans is noting” is actually a term where a number of players agree with.

Existence of fans change football stadiums into magical places to make the heart sour and also transforms the game. Their engagement, banners, chants, anthems, slogans and reactions to the game truly motivates athletes, In fact players are always prepared to present their best versions in front of them, during a 90 minutes game many ups and downs pass through but fans keep on applauding players in that time, sometimes when the home team is leading and dominating the game it’s really enjoyable for players who try to maintain that rhythm and keep pushing hard to win the game, However if sometimes you’ve conceded a goal and gone behind thinking of a comeback; this is where the fans can raise you up.

A study by the times has shown that home teams score more goals rather than away teams (approximately 37% more) because the home fans expects them to go out and attack and players do fulfil their expectations, Also noted that the referee will probably take decisions in favor of the team who has got a huge and loud crowd backing them. Players always try to find inventive ideas to entertain the audience by showing their agility, magical footwork, spectacular finishing and also “signature moves” after scoring a goal and this is how beautiful football is with fans in the stands.

In an imaginary world the thought is almost impossible for football lovers to watch or play football without fans in a stadium, Meanwhile football associations all around the world had suspended footballing events because of the spread of coronavirus pandemic in Mid-March of 2020, In England all Premier League, EFL, WSL, FAW football and European leagues were postponed till April, in the view of fact that matches played in February and March assisted the spread of COVID-19 as more people contracted coronavirus while attending football matches in stadiums this resulted rise in cases and deaths which later announced utmost caution ought to be applied on reopening of football events, it wasn’t only a peril for fans but players as well in the stadium.

Following stats display the confirmed cases by number of matches played in March:

How pandemic affected football

After a severe first spell of covid-19 football was set to restart in June and all the matches according to the rules and restrictions would be played behind closed doors. It was not what everyone needed but many clubs had already suffered enough financial crisis, a restart was must needed for them but the fans were only bounded to screens and live commentaries to enjoy the relaunch of football.

Coronavirus entirely changed football as new on-pitch rules were applied to the resumption such as 5 substitutions during 90 minutes, no handshakes neither hugs before and after the game, no spitting anywhere, football being sanitized and players weren’t allowed to exchange jerseys after 90 minutes. That’s not it! Rules were also applied off the pitch for players and management like social distancing inside dressing rooms and on benches, sitting in the kit-rooms and on the benches with facemasks on, pre-game and post-match interviews were managed with pyle microphone pole, minimize close contact between all people during pre-match warm-ups and less interaction with match officials and away team players after the game.

It made viewers feel something tedious about the game; things were missing in those 90 minutes, goal celebrations were limited to smiles, usual fist or elbow bumps, fingers pointing sky, knee slides and thumbs-up from face masked substitutes to whoop it up.

Playing without Fans

Image via Las Angeles Times

Crowdless games make you feel like watching training or a showmatch in ground with clear noises of players interacting and guiding each other though “Performing” might be difficult for lads without hearing the roar of thousand fans on first whistle and no one in stands to boost player’s energy in last quarter of the game they have to be self-motivated throughout the game. Football pundits also claim that dearth of fans in stadium might affect player’s focus and even efforts during the game, but yet there are few benefits for players while having no fans around them such as less fear of lose mainly playing in front of public which might help them to play a bit relax because those hundreds of eyes won’t be watching them, it is also helpful for defenders if their team conceded a goal because of a tactical mistake.

The atmosphere when players walk out of the tunnel hanging high-fives of fans for players, emerging colorful smoke and flares in stands, raining splashing beer when goal has been scored, hugging strangers in jollity, jumping on seats, exchanging crisp high-fives between fans was absent somewhere in that adversity. As Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud told ESPN. "It is really strange at first, and then you try to get used to it. It has less charm to play with no fans. Also, the pitch feels much bigger with no fans in the stadium! It is crazy to say because it is the same pitch, but it does feel bigger! But at least the managers are happy because now we can hear easily everything they tell us, even when they don't shout!

It was actually difficult to judge how good the game was with no noise you dribble pass two defenders and produce a wonderful pass, hit the crossbar or score a stunner but it feels like nothing happened! An awkward silence all over the stadium and this is the moment where you realize how vital the presence of fans is.

Watching El Clasico, London derbies, Merseyside derby, rivalries and Champions league football without fans nearly made football lovers cry, recently witnessing the GOAT’s of football Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo competing each other in Champions league after a long period since CR7 left Spanish football (La Liga) was held behind closed doors as well.

Virtual Crowd

Image via gettyimages

After attempts of bringing fans back the governing bodies realized it is a pure danger of contracting the virus again. Here! The idea of fake fans (virtual crowd) was brought in, the art of virtual crowd was landed to upgrade watching experiences for viewers watching from screens and sound option with slogans and continuous buzzing noise which might work for players too.

The British and German broadcasters were first to try it out, the auto made reactions at the key moments of match was just a try to give it an original feel. Fan’s faces on the cardboard cut outs were also previewed, fans were allowed to purchase cardboards and upload their pictures on it through this the stands were filled once again but this time with immobilized fans.

Financial crisis of Football Clubs

Every day passed without fans this season football leagues lost more than a hundred millions resulting damage to both local and national economy, this also affects the employment prospect as hundred thousand plus employer’s duties rely on matchday activities.

Financial troubles to any club is a worst nightmare for its supporters. Due to the outbreak fans weren’t allowed to visit stadiums which clarifies that no amount earned through parking tickets, food and merchandise, additionally no revenue generated from inside stadium sponsorships.

Top flight football club Arsenal has also struggled monetarily firing around 150 staff members during the hard time of pandemic the club was able to pull through and continue because of the sponsorships they had, and many other big names as well handle it with pay cuts of player’s salary.

Houseful stadiums again?

Image via ecnmy.org

After all tough periods in nine months, players and viewers were desperate to see spectators coming back in the stands to cheer respective teams, it means alike victory for government’s fight against coronavirus, although due to the restrictions all football clubs weren’t allowed to bring fans back but some major teams were fortunate enough to have loving fans back.

According to the orders only 2000 spectators were allowed to attend games inside of stadiums, which was on “first come, first served” criteria, covering more than a half of the capacity of stadium.

Fans still have to obey the rules given by the government: Facemasks must be worn while whirling around but not on seats, No away team supporters were allowed, Sanitizing at stations inside the ground, Singing and chanting was allowed but no physical contact, fans cannot confront, social distancing while sitting on seats and strict stewards to look after the fans whoever breaks any rule will be thrown out.

This is for sure the beginning to fill the stands with crowd and catch the joy back once again, at least now when the ball hits the post the crowd reactions will be at that moment, not after few seconds like virtual technology used to have. Through all this situations one thing displayed clearly that how much you train or build yourself, “You still need cheers or people backing you to hit the stage with an astonishing performance”.

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a3tree · 3 years

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1st Anniversary and Exclusive Cards

It’s been a few months since this announcement now!

What would the new original cards be and what would implementing them into the EN server look like? 🤔

I think we’re still a long few months away from getting these cards but I can’t say I’m not excited to see what we get! In order to think about how this will happen in EN server, let’s take a look at how the other servers implemented their own server exclusive cards!

For all of these servers, the cards were usually announced around or tied into the 1st Anniversary event, “3 Cheers for Mankai Company!” (as named in EN, the original name in JPN being “Let’s Bloom! Cheer MANKAI ☆”. As per rule on this blog, I will be referring to it by its EN name and shorten it to “3 Cheers” from here on.) The only server to not have “exclusive” cards from this event was the JPN server, being the main server and already having many cards that have not been distributed outside of Japan through events, collaborations, and album releases.

3 Cheers first ran in the JPN server from January 12th 2018 to January 22nd 2018 to celebrate the 1st Anniversary release of the game (January 27th 2017). This was the first (and only) “Cheer” event (“Support” in JPN), which was unique even to Anniversary events because of the exclusive voting, or “cheer” mechanic. During the event, alongside earning points, you could earn cheers to send to your favorite boys and unlock special badges for them. They also counted as votes towards the character, and the top 10 characters’ vote rankings were posted partway through the event on January 16th, and final rankings were announced February 4th following the event.

The top ten characters got special character goods and the top three characters got “Choice Scout SELECTION” gachas! A Choice Scout is a one time only paid scout with rate ups of previous gacha cards of the specified character! Along with the ten cards from the gacha, you would also receive a “Choice Medal” to exchange for any of these specified character cards at the Trading Post (ex. if you pulled from the Itaru Choice Scout Selection, you would be able to exchange your medal for SSR [Office Worker Santa] Itaru Chigasaki or SR [Don’t Jinx It] Itaru Chigasaki, among other Itaru cards).

In this case, the top 3 characters were Itaru in first, Banri in second, and Misumi in third, so all three of them got Choice Scouts! Itaru’s Choice Scout ran from March 1st to March 5th, Banri’s ran from April 2nd to April 6th, and Misumi’s ran from May 1st to May 4th.

Not only that, but the top ranking character from each troupe were added as the cast to A3!’s first ever Mixed Troupe event, “I Come with the Night.” with Itaru in the starring role, Banri as the co-lead, Misumi as supporting cast A, and Tsumugi as supporting cast B. With this being a performance event, Itaru and Banri also got SSRs drawn by Ryo Fujiwara! This event ran from October 17th 2018 to October 26th 2018.

(Side note: this Anniversary event seemed to be a bit stressful for fans since there were only rewards for half of the cast, and many were disappointed to let down the boys that did not win. This could be one of the reasons that following Anniversary events do not have this character ranking element.)

The next server that held 3 Cheers was the TN server, with the event running from August 15th 2019 to August 25th 2019 to celebrate the 1st Anniversary release of June 2018. (It possibly came a bit late due to other event/gacha scheduling conflicts.) The event ran virtually the same as it did in JPN with the ranking results announced on October 25th. Where this event differs from the JPN version is that it was announced that the top three characters got region exclusive cards to the TN server, with first place Itaru getting an SSR, second place Masumi getting an SR, and third place Misumi getting an R card!

(Funnily enough, the results mirror the midway results from the JPN server, with Itaru, Masumi, and Misumi being the top three.)

The TN exclusive cards were released in the same Choice Scout SELECTION gachas that the JPN version had. These were only obtainable through the Choice Medal at the Trading Post. Misumi’s Choice Scout ran from February 13th to February 18th 2020, Masumi’s ran from March 4th to March 8th, and Itaru’s ran from March 13th to March 17th.

The TN server also got the I Come with the Night event from April 7th to April 16th and all the cards that came with it, despite the featured characters being the winners from the JPN server’s ranking contest (If the winners were to match the TN server’s ranking, the cast would have been Itaru, Misumi, Tsumugi, and Sakyo). This of course makes complete sense as I imagine it would be difficult to implement a full exclusive event for each server, especially with how long it took to release the event story and play in the JPN server and with the differences in scheduling that each event has.

(Side note: the Masumi banner seems to be an error with the colors and flower motif being Itaru’s gerberas rather than Masumi’s violets.)

The CN server was released November 14th 2019 and celebrated its anniversary July 22nd 2020 to August 1st. (It seemed to celebrate the anniversary early in order to preserve story chronologic order because they’re going through events much quicker than the JPN server did.) The ranking of the top ten characters was announced August 3rd 2020. Like the TN server, the top three characters in their rankings got CN server exclusive cards made by the Japanese dev team! The top three were once again Itaru in first place getting an SSR, Masumi in second place getting an SR, and Misumi in third place getting an R card!

The CN server also got a special illustration drawn by Ryo Fujiwara and an exclusive special event PV written by story writer Tom was released online!

The exclusive cards were announced February 8th 2021, as part of their Chinese New Year/Spring Festival campaign! They were once again released in the Choice Scout SELECTION gachas, with Itaru’s, Masumi’s, and Misumi’s Choice Scouts all running February 12th to February 18th. Just like the TN server, these cards were obtainable through Choice Medals exchanged at the Trading Post!

So far, the I Come with the Night event has not dropped in the CN server but it seems likely that it will proceed as a normal event with the JPN ranking cast.

So... what does that mean for the EN server?

The EN server was released October 23rd 2019 and celebrated its Anniversary with the 3 Cheers event running from October 15th to October 25th 2020. The event was nearly identical to every others’ server with the notable distinction of there not being a cheer ranking component to the event. It is unclear why this part was not included into the Anniversary event, (maybe Cybird had difficulty working under COVID restrictions or they wanted to avoid the popularity vote?) so many fans cheered for as many characters as they could rather than pouring all their cheers into their favorite. Around this time, Cybird also released a survey in-game asking fans how they felt about certain elements of the game. Some questions in particular asked what were your top three characters from the game.

Towards the end of the event, Cybird revealed the above announcement that Ryo Fujiwara would be designing “new original cards for the English version scheduled for a 2021 release!” on October 23rd. Since then, there have been no announcements on what these cards will be like, who they are of, how they will be released, etc. But, based on what we know of the other three servers, we can make some educated guesses:

(These guesses are just for fun, please do not believe anything I say to be absolutely true)

So, who will the cards be of?

Since there was no voting announced in the Anniversary event for EN version, I don’t think they will use the Cheer points to determine who gets exclusive cards. This is probably for the best because the cards won’t be determined only by the players who spend the most in-game. However, because the survey asked for players’ top favorite characters, I believe they would use these results to determine the characters who get exclusive cards. This is a much more fair way to “vote” for characters because even F2P players and players who do not use social media were able to vote for their favs, and avoided mass voting because it was accessed through the players’ game.

Another option would be for Cybird or Liber themselves to decide who gets the cards. This doesn’t involve the players so I don’t know if they would actually do this but it’s still a possibility.

The last option would be for them to give new cards for all the characters. This would be the most fair and would probably generate the most money for them if all of them were available for paid gems, but it would definitely be a lot of work for a server that isn’t the main JPN one.

Of these all, using the survey results makes the most sense to me because they specifically asked for your top three characters (I wish I still had screenshots O|￣|_). Once again, it would make sense to eliminate the problems with the cheer rankings. Deciding on their own does not seem like something they would do and as much as I’d love every character to get a pretty new card, I don’t see why the EN server should get special treatment over the CN or the TN ones that only has three each for this event. It’s still a possibility though because the EN server is available across more countries, but I don’t think it reaches more players than the CN or the JPN server. So for now, let’s assume the new cards would go to the most voted characters of the survey.

The hitch to this idea though is mentioning Ryo Fujiwara, the lead character designer of A3! I think they did not draw any of the other exclusive cards, and only contributed to the CN server’s commemorative art. Their art is also only used in SR and SSR cards, I believe. They’ve done album covers that have been redeemed as SR cards in-game and does all of the performance event cards, which are all SSRs. If Cybird are having them draw these cards, these cards would definitely be very special and would most likely not include any R cards. This would mean that these exclusive cards will already be very different from the other servers’ cards.

How will these cards be implemented?

One theory I saw come up is that maybe EN server will have an exclusive performance event like how I Come with the Night was created as a result of the 1st Anniversary. While the fact that Fujiwara-sensei is drawing these cards support that idea because both the gacha and event SSRs would be drawn by them, I don’t know if Cybird has the liberty or capability to add something as major as a whole in-game event. The CN server had an interactive PV hosted on bilibili even though the scenario was written by Tom, the main story writer of A3!, which shows that even semi-canon events in other servers are not usually added to the game outside of the backstage stories of said exclusive cards. It would also be put in the middle of the timeline which would make formatting the server weird (already there have been some oddities from the timeline being off from the release dates of the JPN server) and would have to not further the characters’ development in a way that contradicts whats farther ahead in the timeline. What I love about A3! is that a lot of the interactions and conversations are remembered and referred back to in other cards and event stories so to have a whole event and not furthering the characters and have it not affect the three years the JPN server has on the EN server seems difficult to me. Plus, performance events in particular usually end up voiced and have play songs which I think would be a hassle to have to record for in a server the actors themselves don’t even play. I’d love it if they did and it would explain the wait time for these cards (plus it wouldn’t be too hard to skim over character development anyways since the I-Chu and PSYCHO PASS events were exclusive and I think the I-Chu event at least isn’t even canon?) and maybe it doesn’t even have to be a performance event but I do not think it will go this way.

Until we get more information, I assume that the exclusive cards will be released in the same way that the TN and the CN exclusive cards were by trading in a Choice Medal obtained from the Choice Scout SELECTION gachas. I also assume that the previous survey will decide which characters will get these exclusive cards. If anything, I hope the only difference the EN server gets is that since the cards are designed by Fujiwara-sensei, the cards will all be SRs and SSRs. I’m still unsure completely about the number of cards, but hopefully there will be more of them.

When will we hear more about these cards?

The JPN server concluded 3 Cheers on January 22nd 2018, announced rankings on February 4th, and had character Choice Scouts starting with Itaru in March. The highest voted character from each troupe were featured in I Come with the Night which ran in October. So ranking was announced under two weeks, Scout gachas started the month after, and the Mixed Troupe event ran nine months after the Anniversary.

The TN server concluded 3 Cheers on August 25th 2019, announced rankings on October 25th, and had character Choice Scouts starting with Misumi in February. I Come with the Night ran in April. So ranking was announced two months later, Scout gachas started four months after this announcement, and the Mixed Troupe event ran eight months after the Anniversary.

The CN server concluded 3 Cheers on August 1st 2020, announced rankings on August 3rd, and had character Choice Scouts all starting Febuary 2021. So ranking was announced two days later and Scout gacha started six months after this announcement.

The EN server concluded 3 Cheers on October 25th 2020. It has no rankings as of now (February 20th 2021, four month later) and therefore does not have Choice Scouts yet.

JPN had the shortest amount of time between the end of the Anniversary event and the beginning of Choice Scouts with only about a month in between. However, JPN did not need exclusive cards and did not implement the winners until I Come with the Night nine months later. Meanwhile, even though it took TN server two months to announce ranking results, both TN and CN servers started Choice Scouts six months after the Anniversary event. There’s no ranking in EN, so I can only count from when the event ended and the cards were announced at the end of October. If it were just exclusive cards, I would assume it would take six months like it had the TN and CN servers, which would mean sometime in April. But if they are doing something special with Fujiwara-sensei designing the cards, it would take some time, but not nearly as long as it did for them to come up with a whole new event scenario, so unless the EN version is getting an exclusive event, it should not take nine months which was as long as it took JPN server to get I Come with the Night. So before July.

So, based on all that and assuming scheduling is about the same as it is for all the other servers, we might be seeing these cards sometime between April and July.

What will these cards look like?

The JPN winners were cast members for the I Come with the Night play event, with the play being school themed. The TN cards were boba themed to reflect how boba has nearly become the national icon of Taiwan. The CN cards were Chinese themed with Shanghai and pandas included in the designs, fitting for Chinese New Year.

Basically my answer is I have no idea what EN exclusive cards would look like. The EN server isn’t exclusive to one specific region like the others are. Many different countries are encompassed in the EN server, so it’s difficult to say. But they will definitely be gorgeous with Fujiwara-sensei designing them.

SO WHAT IS THE TLDR???

LONG story short, I’m guessing the EN cards will be added sometime between April and July, via the character Choice Scout SELECTION gachas. They will not be determined by cheers but instead will be cards of the highest voted characters from the survey released around the 1st Anniversary. The number of cards, the rarities, the design motifs, and the characters are still unknown as of now.

I don’t know a lot so this was a pretty long winded way to say “I don’t know” and give the most basic of guesses but seeing the history and predicting based on the data was super fun. I feel that having an approximate date guessed is better than nothing but unfortunately that is about all I can surmise.

Hopefully we’ll hear more about these cards soon! I’ll be keeping my eye out for them in April 😉 Thanks for reading!

#root: I still wonder why Cybird didn’t have the cheer ranking #root: it makes sense to avoid the stress and basically have whale players decide who wins #root: but it’s not like them to stray from popular votes since their ikemen series do those sometimes #root thinks #not confirmed #anniversary event #cards #EN server #TN server #JPN server #CN server #root: look at Itaru generating millions of cheers across three servers...

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morshtalon · 5 years

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Shin Megami Tensei

(Definitely part 3 of a series of posts on the entire franchise)

For the end of MegaTen II, Atlus pulled out all the stops in terms of who you'd meet and what their importance to the lore was. While the ending arguably did leave some room for further escalation, by choosing to continue the story as it was, they'd be agreeing to keep being derivative works in relation to the books that originated their backstory. Sure, it was hardly the case anymore, what with the extreme departures MegaTen II took from the novels, but still. I guess the relative corner the writers got themselves backed into, combined with the clamor to have a more independent franchise on their hands, prompted them to scrap their established continuity and kick off a new one of their own. Whatever the real case was, it was definitely a smart choice, and thus was born Shin Megami Tensei, a way for them to keep their profitable series going. Also probably a much better game than a MegaTen III would have been.

Anyway, with a new continuity, possibilities were endless. They could better retread grounds they had already covered in the previous two games (well, really just MTII, since the first one barely even had anything going on), and expand upon ongoing themes while not having to worry about the usual expectation for a sequel in terms of magnitude and impact. Given that, it's unsurprising that, in comparison to MTII, this game dials things down a notch, relegating most of the more classical power fantasy stuff to the third act and preferring to engage in more character-driven events while leading up to it. None of the final enemies in SMT are as powerful as the ones in MTI and II (in story terms, actual battle stats notwithstanding) and the influence of cosmic forces that would have been enemies fought directly in the titles so far takes on a distant, more psychological approach (for the most part), unable to be challenged by the player. This helps build them as respectable overarching threats, and keeps the setting more subdued and the stakes higher, since it feels like characters are acting under the banner of things so powerful the player shouldn't even think themselves able to scratch them. It's good not to stat things sometimes, and it's quite impressive that they exercised this restraint way back in 1992.

For the demons that ARE fought, though, the artists really put their all into it this time. Even compared to games in the series's near future, I think this is the best looking they would be for a while. I mean, sure, Majin Tensei later on would have more detailed graphics, but I feel the art itself was worse there, with some weird proportions and a lot of palette swaps, while this game keeps things more consistently good overall.

Naturally, one longstanding tradition of the franchise introduced in SMT was the philosophical axis of Law vs. Chaos and the branching story that allowed the player to sit in any one point of the spectrum, with a modified final act depending on your decisions up to a certain point and where in the axis they would leave you once this point is reached. This system was partly a logical progression of the two endings from MTII and partly a way to integrate gameplay significance into what was already the grand point of SMT's storyline. While a good idea on paper and certainly innovative for its time and context, the warring faction-based story meant that as far as the plot is concerned, Law vs. Chaos pertains more to which of the factions you're appeasing with your decisions rather than any particularly lawful or chaotic behavior. There are some things that shift your alignment that have to do with being lawful or chaotic, but those lie mostly outside of the plot, in small actions that only serve to bring things one way or the other on infinitesimal increments and are meant more as an extra level of thought put into the system to label certain actions that were always there. The parallelisms between one faction and the other (i.e. temples that are identical in functionality; quests that consist of killing the other faction's quest-giver or vice-versa), together with certain easily exploitable ways to shift the alignment variable any way you want (so that you can play the game being entirely chaotic up to the crucial point where your alignment is locked, then right before that, exploit the mechanics to bring yourself to Law without having done anything lawful throughout the rest of the game), make the whole alignment system feel arbitrary, or at least the actual coded-in gameplay layer of it. I feel like maybe having only the unrepeatable story decisions actually affect alignment could help mitigate this somewhat. Then again, as I said, the story stuff doesn't feel much like the player being lawful or chaotic, so... I don't know.

Regardless of which path you take, you are going to get into a lot of fights. The game plays basically exactly like MTII, with an overhead top-down overworld and first-person dungeon crawling once you enter an area. This time around, very few areas are safe from enemy encounters, which makes sense since you're mostly just walking around Tokyo and a lot of first-person areas are just sections of the city that are populated (and besides, all of Tokyo is under threat from the demons). It made me realize that it's actually the typical RPG that opts to be nonsensical about the no-monsters-in-towns rule, but I'd be damned if that's not a smart choice on the part of the typical RPG. There are so many random encounters in this game, it's a common occurence for you to get several 1-step fights in a row. When I play an RPG, there's usually a point where I get really bored of always fighting enemies, then I finally escape the dungeon I'm in or go into a town and it's a big relief, like I can finally walk around and talk to people without having to stop dead in my tracks to fight the same enemy I already proved I can beat five hundred times before. Not so much in this game, and you'll definitely be crying out for an Estoma or a Fuma Bell most of the time. If you even know these two things act like repels in Pokémon and realize how useful they are.

If you don't know, however, you're going to need a lot of patience, because once again the game is very easy. Aside from, once again, a difficult earlygame, especially if you didn't put the right stat points into your protagonist (read: vitality and speed), the same basic problems from the previous two games' core concept of walking around and fighting dudes can be found here, but this time guns have ammo. Ammo doesn't actually count how many bullets you have left, it's just an extra thing you can equip that gives your gun attack an extra property such as more damage or a status effect. Thing is, status effects have an absurdly high hit rate in this game, work on most bosses, and there's a type of ammo that causes the "enthralled" status effect, which makes the target attack their own allies. Once you've got your hands on it, the game has been effectively turned into an interactive movie, even easier than the NES ones. Even without it, magic always seems to go before physical attacks, and both lightning and ice spells can stop an enemy for the current turn, so you'll likely always find a way to trivialize encounters within your disposal if you're just playing the game normally, even if you didn't realize it. With good speed, lightning or ice spells at your disposal and some status effect ammo, nothing will ever be able to stop you, no matter how hard they try. Once again, it's a preparations game, and that auto-battle button will get an intense workout this time around. I actually cleared the entire final dungeon under the effect of consecutive Fuma Bells, because of the combined effect a high encounter rate and the knowledge that the bosses could not stop me had on my brain. It's all about knowing which things are actually useful and which aren't, so it's actually just about struggling until the point you figure it out, then blazing through the game's fights half-asleep.

Still, battles notwithstanding, I think the exploration is more masterful than ever this time around. There isn't any significant portion of the game where you're clearly going after McGuffins, the whole story is pretty tightly paced and the balance between open-endedness and plot progression is well kept. There is a clearly evolving status quo for the entire setting of the game, and each time a major change happens new areas are made available while others are locked away. You can feel the effect the events of the narrative are having on the whole scenario, and the progression creates a bit of a disorienting effect as you attempt to find your way to the next significant location (which can and very well may cause you to get hopelessly lost on occasion, but that's part of the experience, I think). It's a pretty admirable blend of elements working together to create a continuous experience. This bleeds over into the characters themselves, who have evolving arcs and, for the most part, continue to be relevant and to have all sorts of crazy things happen to them through the course of the game. Consider it a much more mature attempt to do the sort of character-based revolving scheme that Final Fantasy IV also tried to do.

Overall, this is a game that further plays around with story concept brought over from MTII, experiments somewhat with new ways to go through some of its story beats, and creates a character-based narrative that goes through admirable amounts of change, to the point you can feel the whole cast working through their arcs as things escalate and reach a fever pitch. The gameplay is significantly less refined, though, and, admittedly, even the respectable things in SMT have struggled to stand the test of time, especially when you consider what later SMTs and SMT spinoffs would go on to do. I think this earns the original a 6.5 out of 10, my first non-integer score. It's damn respectable and admirable for 1992, but it has so many outdated things in it that it's hard to actually get oneself into the proper mentality to admire it unless you actually make the conscious decision to play the series in chronological release order. But who would be masochistic enough to do that, right?

#megaten #shin megami tensei #megami tensei #rpg #game #review

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ilovethings-somuch · 6 years

Text

A Surprise Introduction

Steve Rogers x Reader

Anon Requested: “Could I request something where reader is dating Steve, and during age of Ultron, they go to Clints farm and it is revealed that reader has a child, that is also in hiding, that nobody knows about. Steve’s (understandably) upset, and reader explains everything to him and the rest of the team, fluffy ending, maybe with him getting to know the child. Sorry it’s so long and might not make sense 😂 Love your work 💓”

A/N: I just want to say that I loved this request very much and I hope you all can handle the angst and get to the fluff. Also, I couldn’t decide how Clint and the reader fit together, but I would just imagine it as a similar relationship to that of Clint and Natasha.

After Ultron beat us at our own game by unleashing the Hulk, Hill informed us that we shouldn’t go back to the compound. Maria suggested we stay in stealth mode until they can figure out a way to explain what happened and get everyone to calm down a little bit. Tony seemed to agree with her plan and we all accepted that we were going to be stuck in the quinjet for some unknown amount of time. As much as this didn’t sound like the ideal situation, I was quite content to cuddle with Steve even if it also meant sitting against a cold metal wall. I was half asleep, the physical and mental exhaustion of a mission gone wrong finally taking its toll, when I heard Tony ask Clint if he wanted him to take over. Clint declined and I heard something along the lines of “safe house.” That word coming out of anyone else’s mouth would’ve put me at ease, but Clint saying it had a whole different meaning to me. Steve felt me tense up and probably assumed it was just an after effect of the mission. He didn’t say anything, just held me closer to him and used one of his hands to rub my arm in a soothing fashion. Steve had no idea that I thought I knew where Clint was taking us, but god I hoped I was wrong.

I couldn’t fall asleep after that. Even with my aching body from the fight and my aching head from whatever that girl did to me, it wasn’t going to happen. Steve fell asleep next to me, and after a lot of quiet anger, I decided I needed to talk to Clint. I had a whole, calm, intro planned out for how I was going to explain to him that this was a bad idea. But that all went out the window the moment I got to him.

“You better not be taking us where I think you are,” I whispered angrily.

“It’s the only option,” Clint replied automatically as if he was just waiting for me to fight him on this.

“That’s not true. There’s no reason we can’t stay in the air.”

“You saw what happened to Banner down there, you really want to be trapped in this plane with him?”

“You really want to bring him to your home? You really want to share this with all of them?”

“(y/n), I know what you’re scared of, but you have to trust that it’s going to be okay in the end.” I knew Clint was right, but admitting it in that moment seemed impossible and I was seething. I noticed Clint look over his shoulder to where Steve was sleeping before he looked back at me. “He loves you, you know. This is the right thing to do, for all of us.”

Even if I was still upset with how this whole situation was panning out, at least I knew that Clint thought he was doing the right thing for the right reasons. I couldn’t argue with him about it anymore so I went back to where Steve was sleeping and tried to get some sleep myself so that I could at least be semi-rested before I had to take on what the next day held.

We got to the house mid-morning, my favorite time of day on the farm. It was weird to not feel the instant piece I’m used to as I walked up to the house, instead I was a bundle of nerves. Steve was as confused as everyone else and I couldn’t decide if I should play the part of being confused too, or if it was better to just try and be invisible altogether. I was able to hang back a little bit as everyone filed into the living room.

“Guys, this is Sarah,” Clint finished saying as I stepped around the corner into the room.

Steve gave me a confused glance from across the room, but I looked away as he tried to catch my eye.

I heard the rumble of little feet running down the stairs and braced myself for what’s about to come.

“Hi sweetheart, hey buddy!” Clint said as he picked up his daughter and pulled his son into his side

“Those are smaller agents,” Tony assured Thor.

Aiden was a little way behind the two older kids and he stopped in his tracks as he took in all the tall people standing in the room. He looked around for a few moments before he locked eyes with me. All my anxieties about coming here melted away when I saw my little boy. It had been way too long since I was last able to break away and I was shocked by how much he had grown, but I’m pleased to find I’m still able to pick him up when he leaps into my arms with a running start.

“Sorry for barging in on you,” Steve said from behind me in a voice that made me tense all over again.

“Yeah, we would’ve called ahead but we were busy having no idea that you existed,” Tony finished with his usual hint of sarcasm. Clint went into an explanation about how Fury set this up for us when we were recruited. Everyone listened and nodded in understanding, but I could tell I’d have to explain more deeply to Steve when we could get a moment alone.

“Momma, can I show you my drawings?” Aiden interrupted my train of thought and immediately eased the tension in the room, even if I did notice Steve’s hard swallow after the word ‘momma’.

“Yes, of course. I’d love to see them,” I set Aiden back on the ground and he took my hand to lead me to the dining room where the table was covered in arts and crafts supplies. I spent a good portion of the day in there, coloring pictures and playing games with Aiden. Nat joined us along with Clint’s daughter, Lila, and it all seemed so normal that I almost forgot that the rest of the team was there too.

“You know I’m kind of the queen of avoiding feelings, but I think you need to talk to him,” Natasha told me while Aiden and Lila were preoccupied with getting legos from the living room.

“Did you see his face? I don’t know how to come back from this.”

“Did you see how understanding he was when Clint explained?” Natasha countered.

“Yeah, well Clint isn’t his girlfriend,” I replied, expecting that to be the end of the conversation.

“Just trust me on this, please?”

“Fine,” I sighed as Lila and Aiden come back into the room. “Hey, buddy, I have to go talk to Mr. Rogers, do you think you’ll be okay with Aunty Nat?”

Aiden nodded happily before telling me that, “That will give us time to build the coolest ship ever!”

“I can’t wait to see what you come up with,” I told him before kissing his head, and with one final encouraging smile from Natasha, I made my way through the house to find Steve.

I looked out the window and noticed Tony and Steve chopping firewood along the side of the house. I made my way onto the front porch where I found Clint and Cooper measuring pieces of wood and Sarah watching them happily. I stood along the edge of the porch, just watching for a while before Sarah came to my side and pulled me into a hug.

“How’s the baby doing? Nat told me how Natasha is now Nathaniel,” I said with a smile.

“Yeah, she called him a trader, but I can’t say I blame her,” she paused before changing the subject. “Aiden was so happy to see you, and I know this is your job and I get it. But you know he misses you and I can’t even begin to fill the gap of you being away.”

“I know, I miss him constantly. It’s just when Steve and I started dating I didn’t know how to tell him about Aiden so I didn’t know how to take time off to come out here without Steve finding out. But look how well that all worked out for me.” I sighed as I looked across the yard and noticed that Steve wouldn’t even look at me.

“I was just gonna ask Tony if he could take a look at the tractor if you want a chance alone with Steve,” Sarah suggested as she noticed me watching him.

I pressed my lips together in an attempt to regain my composure and gave Sarah a terse nod. She made her way across the yard and broke up a seemingly tense conversation between Tony and Steve.

“Sorry. Mr. Stark, Clint said you wouldn’t mind, but our tractor doesn’t seem to wanna start at all. I thought maybe you might-”

“Yeah I’ll take a look,” Tony agreed and started walking away before calling back to Steve, “Don’t take from my pile.”

As Sarah lead Tony over to the barn, I made my way over to Steve. The hard set of his features didn’t soften when he saw me the way I was used to, and instead, I noticed the clenching of his jaw as he turned back to his woodpile.

“Can we talk?” I asked him when I was close enough for him to hear me.

He opened his mouth quickly but paused before any words actually came out. He seemed to deflate a little bit when he finally looked at me and said, “yeah, okay.”

I led him a little further from the house towards the surrounding trees so that I was sure we’d have some privacy from the rest of the team.

“I know you’re mad at me,” I started but Steve was already shaking his head.

“I’m not mad at you, (y/n).”

“You’re not?” I asked, the whole speech I had prepared going out the window.

“I wouldn’t say I’m happy with you, but I’m not mad.”

“So then, what are you?”

“Hurt, I guess. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was part of the original plan. When Fury asked me and Clint to join, leaving Aiden wasn’t an option and even if I could handle leaving him for periods of time, I knew that me doing this job would put him at risk. Anyone who wants to hurt me could do that by getting to him. And Clint felt the same way, leaving Sarah and the kids was just too risky. So then Fury pitched us this idea of hiding our families away. Nobody would know, not even the team,” I finished my explanation and Steve nodded, but still looks hurt.

“I guess I thought I was more than just another member of the team.”

“Of course you’re more,” I said as I took his hands in mine to make him look at me. “You are so much more, and you don’t know how badly I wanted to tell you. But I got so used to this secret and I got scared that if I told anyone, anyone, I would be putting him at risk. I can’t put him at risk,” the emotions of the day were finally taking their toll on me. Steve noticed immediately and pulled me against his chest. “That’s what I saw. That’s what that girl put in my head. Hydra found him and took him. Steve, I can’t lose him,” I sobbed into his chest and he let me. He let me be angry and sad and when I finally wound down to an occasional whimper, that’s he pulled back to talk to me.

“Nobody’s going to find out about him. It’s just us and you know now that you can trust all of us, right?” He coaxed and I nodded. “Does he, uh, know about us?” Steve asked awkwardly.

“No, but he already loves you as a superhero,” I teased.

“Can I meet him? Even if it isn’t officially as your boyfriend.”

“You want to?” I asked, surprised that he was even interested.

“Of course I want to,” he assured me, looking a little hurt that I would even suggest otherwise.

“I’m sorry,” I rushed through my words. “His dad left us when he found out I was pregnant, so it’s always a bit of a shock when people other than me want to get to know him. I’m a little overprotective,” I said, scrunching my nose in mock disgust.

“I know we haven’t been together all that long, but I hope you know that I never plan on leaving you. It would take a lot more than a kid to scare me away,” he added with a grin.

“I do know, but it’s still nice to hear you say it,” I said with a smile before standing on my toes to kiss him. He kissed me back for some time before we pulled apart and headed back down to the house so I could formally introduce the two men in my life.

“You know, I think that was our first fight,” Steve casually mentioned on our walk back to the house.

“Not much of a fight if you ask me.”

“Maybe, but I think I read somewhere that you’re supposed to have makeup sex after you fight,” Steve said cheekily.

“Oh yeah?” I scoffed. “Remind me after we defeat Ultron and aren’t sleeping in the same room as my son, okay?”

Aiden took to Steve immediately. He wanted to know all about his shield, what it was like in the 40’s, and how he could grow up to be just like Steve. Steve was a natural, even if he was a little hesitant at first. Once Aiden started asking questions no one could get them apart. I got a subtle wink from Natasha as she passed by Aiden’s room where Aiden was showing Steve his action figures. I also got a not-so-subtle thumbs up from Clint when he called us downstairs for dinner.

When everything calmed down for the night and Aiden went to sleep, I took Steve outside to show him my favorite place to look at the stars. I spread out a big blanket and we both laid down on our backs. After pointing out the few constellations I recognized, and getting shown up on my knowledge of our solar system by Steve, I rolled onto my side to face him.

“He really likes you,” I told him.

“I really like him. He’s just like you,” Steve replied with a smile.

“Crazy about Captain America?” I teased with an exaggerated eye roll.

“Funny and smart and kind-” he meant to go on but I stopped him with a kiss.

“Thank you, for making this surprise introduction go a thousand times better than I expected it to.”

“Thank you for trusting me with him, even if you didn’t want to,” he added with a smirk.

“Are you going to make me feel guilty about that forever?” I asked in fake offense.

“Hm, not forever. Maybe a couple years, or months. Depends when you agree to marry me.”

“Marry you?” I asked surprised.

“Yes, (y/n), I want to marry you someday. This is what a want, a wife, some kids, living the quiet life. I really hope you want the same thing or else I just ruined this.”

“No I do, someday.”

“Someday,” he agreed happily and met me in the middle for another kiss.

#Steve Rogers #Steve Rogers fanfiction #Steve Rogers fanfic #Steve Rogers x reader #Steve Rogers/reader #Steve Rogers request #The Avengers #avengers age of ultron #Chris Evans #chris evans fanfiction #Chris Evans fanfic #chris evans x reader #chris evans/reader

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meridianrose · 6 years

Photo

This is a multiday post, under the cut are my entries for Day 1 - 8

Day 1 Why you're participating in Snowflake

Day 2 Favourite memory about fandom (Legend of the Seeker, People's Palace, landcomms)

Day 3 Rec fanworks you did not create (5 x au fics in 5 fandoms)

Day 4 Create a fannish wishlist (more comments for everyone, be nicer, create more, I can haz art pls)

Day 5 Rec a fannish or creative resource (scripts, screencaps and promo pics, image hosting)

Day 6 Leave feedback (I'm always doing the thing)

Day 7 Create a love meme (please leave comments/gifs)

Day 8 Share a piece of canon (Starz shows and how I fell truly in love during S2 moments, Da vinci's Demons, Black Sails)

Day 1 In your own space, talk about why you're participating in Snowflake and, if you’ve participated in the past, how the challenge has affected you. What drew you to it? What did you take away from it? I'm assisting with mod duties this year and this is what I wrote for my introduction there: I've been in fandom a long time. I've seen some good changes and some not so good. Lately in some places there's been a lot of negativity in fandom and overall it seems there's been a steady decline in interaction. For me fandom is about the joy of connecting with other fans, discussing, creating, consuming - and also commenting on fanworks of all kinds. I'm hoping Snowflake Challenge will give us all a positive boost and encourage us to focus on the good and to rediscover the community side of fandom. And because I'm assisting with mod duties I'm seeing a lot more of the content being produced and its amazing and heartwarming to see people sharing their personal stories and how fandom has helped them, talking about their passions, sharing their favourite fandoms and resources and fanworks. It's wonderful to see so many journal entries and activity! Day 2 In your own space, share a favorite memory about fandom: the first time you got into fandom, the last time a fanwork touched your heart, crazy times with fellow fans (whether on-line or off-line), a lovely comment you’ve received or have left for someone. Legend of the Seeker. This is one of my longer and more active fandoms. The peoplespalace was where I felt very welcomed and encouraged and I wrote a lot of fanworks and participated in a lot of the activities there. I miss the Darken/Cara/Rahl family side of the fandom a lot. There was also legendland a landcomm which ran for many years – we even had a reunion battle last year which was nice! I wrote so much fic, made icons and other graphics, even fanvids. I tried to do every challenge where possible. I was on Team Cara for the longest time. Cara, Darken, Zedd were always my favourites ;) Before legendland there was whedonland and again I felt part of something there. It pretty much saved my life a couple of times. These days there's gameofcards and it's fun and I encourage everyone to check it out, but the more specific fandom landcomms seemed to make for more tight-knit teams and I miss them. Day 3 In your own space, post recs for at least three fanworks that you did not create. There are so many things I could rec! But I'll pick 5 AU fics from 5 different fandoms to spread the love a little Side by Side – Cormoran Strike http://archiveofourown.org/works/12036537 Fantasy au that ends in Strike/Robin, highly recommended. Murder – Dark Matter http://archiveofourown.org/works/12000579 College au based around an actual tradition of a game called "murder". As Glory Turns to Dust – Hamilton http://archiveofourown.org/works/11359656 Modern au with magic. Hamilton is cursed to be forgotten, leaving him alone in the world except, briefly, for Jefferson. Warning this is a fantastic fic but a sad ending. There is however a linked sequel by another author to put things right :) Skin Full of Lies – Black Sails http://archiveofourown.org/works/7570540 Soulmate au Silverflint "Every lie your soulmate tells you appears on your skin. Between outward lies, manipulations and stories told the crew John Silver's ink quite quickly takes over most of James' body." a gift fic for me, The Princess' Bodyguard – The Shannara Chronicles http://archiveofourown.org/works/13113129 pre-canon au in which Eretria is Amberle's bodyguard. One-shot but with potential for more, strong hints of Eretria/Amberle Day 4 In your own space, create a fannish wishlist. No limits on size or type of fanwork; just tell us what you’d like to see. Can we please do as most people asked on their fannish wishlist for day 4 and leave more comments? Can we journal more and create more? Can we rediscover the joy of fandom and stop with the "anti" behaviour? Please. More specifically for me, art for fics is always welcome. (I have a transformative work statement at LJ/DW and AO3 and have had translations of my work and podfic which are lovely!) In particular for my sfbb fic Bad Case of Loving You. I've got beautiful artwork for most of my sfbb fics, the DvD fics in particular. For sfbb I provide pinterest boards to help with resources and generally try to help artists out, as I did here. This is a Black Sails modern au medical drama with Silver/Flint/Miranda and Silver&Max and it was a labour of love and I'm still amazed I managed to write the thing. However it seemed to be cursed. My first beta dropped out. My first artist dropped out. My second artist swore they were ready to go then didn't post, then after the fest posted a basic stock photo+text "cover". *sigh* I made my own art in the end, banner and mini picspam for the tumblr promo post but I'm an amateur artist. Day 5 Recommend a fannish or creative resource. Springfield!Springfield! has movie and tv episode scripts. kiss them goodbye has a huge amount of screencap galleries. farfarawaysite has a smaller amount of pictures but tends to have high quality promotional pictures. Cloudinary is the site I'm using for image hosting since the photobucket debacle. Day 6 Leave feedback for a fanwork. Or multiple fanworks. It can be as simple as I liked this to a detailed list of all the things you loved about the fanwork. The key is to leave some sort of feedback. If you've already left feedback in the course of a previous challenge, it totally counts. But you're free to leave more feedback. My new year's resolution last year was to leave a comment on every fanfic, hosted on AO3, over 100 words, that I finished reading. (I needed some parameters; this doesn't mean I didn't leave comments at LJ/DW or on drabbles because I did, on occasion). I did the thing. I read a little less than usual. I noped out of more fics. But the fics I read and finished got a comment. I'm going to try and keep doing that. I've already left comments on some fics this year. My additional resolution for this year is to write down more of my ideas. Having plot ideas or dialogues while showering or in bed is one thing, but if I don't write/type at least the basics up, I forget them partially or entirely when I try to write the thing weeks or months later. Day 7: In your own space, create a love meme for yourself. Let people tell you how amazing and awesome and loveable you really are Come and tell me how amazing I am ;) Seriously though, I'm working on being more positive and telling myself I'm worthwhile, I deserve more, I am achieving more. But it always helps when other people are backing that up. Drop me a gif in the comments if that's easier, gifs are like greeting cards for saying the things we don't know how to otherwise express. Day 8 In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a TV episode, a song, a favourite interview, a book, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. My love of Starz shows seems to kick off in second seasons. For Da Vinci's Demons in S2e04 – starts around here: https://youtu.be/cQi4xjrBmgI?t=11m27s This is the moment I fell in love with younger!hotter!Riario, aka Blake Ritson in a wig, because hair kink. But also the moment I finally liked Lucrezia too, seeing her devotion to her sister. If you want me to like a character, have them adore and protect their little sister, if you want me to hate them, have them throw little sis under the bus. Riario tries to spare both girls, succeeds in saving only one, and his grief is evident as he speaks with a heartbroken Lucrezia. This scene changed how I felt about both Riario and Lucrezia and thus about the show and my fannish involvement. Similarly this humorous moment changed my feelings about Silver and SilverFlint in the opening episode of S2 Black Sails : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIt9u7CkBf0 when Silver completely misunderstands the plan and volunteers for a risky mission. This tumblr post shows what happens next: http://alightabovethearbys.tumblr.com/post/168194826519 It's even better later when they get on board, leading to Flint's exasperated "Well what the fuck did you think was going to happen?" You can see some gifs from all those Silverflint moments in S2 here: http://jolinarofmalkshur.tumblr.com/post/168381696381/john-silver-appreciation-week-day-6-favorite

#snowflakechallenge2018 #black sails #da vinci's demons #fandom #the shannara chronicles #hamilton #strike #legendland #whedonland #peoplespalace #nostalgia #younger hotter riario #silverflint #starz

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imagine-loki · 7 years

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The Powers That Be

TITLE: The Powers That Be CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter Forty-Four

AUTHOR: wolfpawn ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki discovering a hidden mutant when he realises they are at risk of being found by S.H.I.E.L.D. who experiments on mutants, he is the one to help them.

RATING: Teen and Up

"Loki?" Alexia looked around the library for the God, "Are you in here?"

There was no response to her calls, she had seen hardly anyone all day and much to her surprise, she was beginning to miss Diarmaid and his lessons. Of late, her concentration wavered quickly and she found herself not overly bothered by training. At all times she maintained her fox and had played around with other elements as she saw useful, but overall, she was not interested in training, she wished she had him there to motivate her. She was about to leave again when her eye caught a glint on one of the shelves. She walked over to the book in question and pulled it out. It was large, heavy and leather bound, the art on the outside cover was bright and colourful, but the text on it was something she was sure was not one she had ever seen before. She walked over to one of the many large wooden tables that littered the large room and placed the book on it. Her fingers tracing the deep lines in the leather that gave the grooves in which the colours were. Lifting the heavy leather cover, she looked at the art within, frowning as she made an attempt to comprehend it.

"I was not aware your realm still taught you that language," she looked up to see Odin standing close by.

"It's from Earth?"

"Yes, an old race, one of the earliest writers on your realm wrote such things on stones, that after time were put to paper, Celts, I believe you call them."

"They're from Western Europe, Ireland and parts of Britain if I remember correctly."

"Those areas were able to comprehend the magics and sciences not understood there today, and as such were able to write of their findings."

"Why is there something about the elements here?" She asked as she pointed to the page.

Odin took a few more steps towards her, his eye-catching what was on the page in front of her, there were the four elements, drawn and richly coloured, and in the centre, something grey, or perhaps aged black, she could not tell. "It is regarding the great bearer of them, they did not realise it would be a living being, but they knew that there was something that could bear them all, harmonise them, they hoped to someday find a manner in which to do so, if only they knew they were just a few millennia early."

"They would have tried to tie me to a table and kill me too, given the chance."

"I would have thought the Midgardians would have revered a being that would finally place them at the table with the great realms."

"What cannot be controlled by them, can be used against them," she stated, not even looking at him. "What can be used against them, has to be destroyed so it cannot."

"And that is why they are not at the table at present."

Alexia flicked to another page, seeing a large tree with different creatures on it, before turning another and frowning. "What are these?"

"The Titans," Odin explained, not even needing to give the page much of a glance. "Banished, long destroyed beasts that saw no issue with destroying realms for fun."

"They look friendly," She commented sarcastically, her fingers tracing down one creature, it was long and green scaled, with no appendages, only a head and tail.

"That is Jogamandr, and the one thing he was not said to be, is friendly," Odin stated.

"On Earth, there is a story, that that snake, a wolf, your horse and a half dead girl are Loki's children with a giantess." she looked at the snake.

"They are tens of millennia old, that is not possible."

"I did not say it as fact, I said it was a story. The same stories have him and Thor dressing as women to get Thor's hammer back from some enemy by having Thor pretend to be a bride to get it back from I think a dwarf."

Odin frowned, "Do not give them ideas." Alexia gave a small laugh. "Why were you in here looking for Loki?"

The smile fell from her face as she eyed him. "It is no one concerns but his and mine." She responded.

"Loki is not one to put your trust in."

"Loki is the one person that never betrayed my trust. I am aware of your lack of time for the man you effectively adopted. I am aware of what he has done, but I am also aware of what you do not see. I may very well get burned, but I am willing to take a chance on that. I love Loki; and of late, can you not see all he has done that shows how you should instil trust in him once more. He fought as valiantly if not more so than many in your armies. You will be rewarded if you bother to try with him."

"You..." Odin stared at her wide-eyed.

"Yes, I love him, there is kindness in him, but he will never allow you see it, nor do you deserve to with how you treat him at present. Loki is loyal to those who are loyal to him."

"Thor is the loyal one."

"They shared the trait, I think it a product of their rearing, not themselves. Frigga must have been a wonderful woman, I really wish she had been alive when I got here."

Odin swallowed. "My Frigga was the greatest woman to ever live."

"She loved Loki unconditionally, how can you despise something she loved so much?"

"He is the reason she is dead."

"The Dark Elves killed her, not Loki and you know it. I think what the issue is is that you are alone now, and you are bitter that Thor and Loki are both happy and that kills you, but since you are hoping Thor's interest will die of Midgardian old age soon, you are not going to bother yourself too greatly with that, but me, I will outlive you and I am powerful enough to not be threatened by your ‘big bad king’ facade and that kills you a little inside, because pathetic and measly little Loki was not supposed to get someone powerful, he was supposed to get a vapid little maiden who would sit quietly beside him and give him a few brats and for him to be of assistance to your great Thor and not question his role life." Odin stood tall as though to intimidate her.

"You dare speak to me in such a manner, you are getting above yourself girl."

"I am a girl, but I am the girl who can crush anyone who tries to get in the way of what I think is right. You think a gold and ridiculous ornate helmet and a stupid big chair means you can dictate matters of the heart, no one can. I can destroy a world with its own elements, cause it to implode on itself, but I cannot stop caring and love, nor am I stupid enough to try, so follow suit and sit down and hope you get a chance to say 'told you so' because that is the best you will get." she gave a small bow. "Thank you for the education, I doubt you will tell Loki I am looking for him, but if you feel inclined to do so if you meet him, I would be grateful." She stated as she turned and walked away.

"There have been several more sightings." Hill ran into the room, grabbing a remote as she did so and getting everyone to turn to the screen on the wall before going through them. "Fishermen in the Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and going as far North as Spain and Portugal, there are also unidentified objects coming in on their naval and military sonar too." she put pictures on the screen.

All the Avengers could see where dark shadows in the water, in some pictures, a small part of a scaly body could be seen, its appearance similar to the scale that had been brought to them previously.

"Where are they headed?" Rogers asked worriedly.

"North, where, we don't know," Hill explained. "Honestly, we are not sure of how many there even are. So far, it would appear to be five separate entities, but they hardly ever breach the surface so we cannot be sure. It is all a guessing game."

"Have we any idea of sizes?" Banner asked, rising from his chair to get a closer look at the screen.

"No, but we are talking about a minimum of a kilometre long."

"A kilom...are you serious?" Barton stared at the screen. "That's not possible. What the hell is it?"

"Trouble," Stark stated, "We need to get in contact with Thor, he may have seen whatever this thing is before," he joined Banner over looking at the photo's, "Because we are at a loss otherwise."

As the waters rippled and the earth rumbled, the creature that summoned them all waited, he would soon open his eye, and then the mortals would truly know his wrath.

#loki #other #submission #submitted fic #the powers that be #chapter 44 #wolfpawn #discovering #hidden #mutant #risk #S.H.I.E.L.D.#experiments #helps

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kyzer-aqueron · 7 years

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Fandoms - A weird rambling of sorts

Fandoms. A unity of people who share a common like or interest in a game, movie or any other form of media. A way to bring people together under a common banner. Whenever a new series or game amasses popularity suddenly a fandom is born from it. Examples include Mario, Sonic, Star Wars, Megaman, Homestuck, Undertale, Steven Universe, so many different shows, movies and games all filled to the brim with fans who enjoy these art forms in varying degrees. Whats saddening about this is that there will always be those who feel these fandoms are overrated, are childish, or are a form of "Cancer". An interesting word choice to refer to a fandom isnt it? Cancer. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary Cancer is defined as " A malginant tumor of potentially unlimited groth that expands locally by invasion and systemically by metastasis", "An abnormal bodily state marked by tumors", or "Something evil or malignant that spreads destructively". I've seen this word being used quite a lot to describe things people dont enjoy or think are of a lower quality than what they expect. My question for that is: Why? Why do people think that a fandom, generally a place of positive energy, acceptance and understanding is something that is considered canserous? Of course not all fandoms are perfect and there will be arguments and disagreements and even hate amongst fans for differing opinions but why must we go so far to hate in the first place?

The idea that a fandom can be labled as a "cancer" seems a tad preposterous to me since cancer is a life threatening disease. A fandom isnt out to kill anybody or hurt anyone but rather to unite people and show that people have similar interests. The notion that something could cause a person to cringe does make sense but if that is the reaction a person knows that they are going to have then why bother delving into said fandom in the first place? Are they just trying to get their two cents of negativity i or are they just trying to inform the people they dislike something? If thats the case make it more constructive and say "I dont enjoy this form of media and heres why". One does not need to throw negative criticism around to be spiteful. One could easily make a point with their criticisms by being constructive. I bring this up in the wake of the Undertale fandom gaining a bit of a resurgence. As someone who has been a part of the fandom for a while I can say that, while not perfect, Undertale is a thriving and creative community with some of the most unique creations I have ever seen. This is due to the game itself being an enjoyable experience that not only connected with a lot of people but also gave its fans the keys to creating what they wanted by having the games story be that of a multiple universe story. If resets can allow for different possibilites and time lines why not make a universe where characters are reverse personalities, or have them be corrupted and evil, or maybe even have them be children altogether? The possibilites have no limits because the game itself gave no limits to begin with.

It has been almost two years since the game came out and it has certainly faded from the public consciousness as most fandoms tend to do which lead to many people within the fandom leaving or declaring it "dead". Fastforward to E3 of 2017 and suddenly Undertale has a port coming out for the PS4 and the fandom is starting to rise back up again in excitement which is great. Something I noticed, however, was the rather large amounts of comments in a recent video uploaded to Pshattuckproductions called "Axetale" that referred to it as "Cancer" or "Cringe". So an artist, taking time out of their day to write and draw their own universe from a game that allows multiverse theories to flow and then people putting voices and sounds and music to said creative work is considered something destructive? Its something that makes a person reel back in disgust? Then I have a simple solution for that:

Dont. Watch. Or. Read. It.

If you do not enjoy a fanwork or a piece of media that someone else has made then dont interact with it. A person is not obligated to watch and see every piece of fan material made or even enjoy the original source. If you dont like Undertale or its fandoms then dont watch em, play em or read any of the fan literature. If you do like the original source but do not like the fan work then enjoy the original and avoid the fan work. We dont need to push our negative feelings out onto people who are just trying to enjoy things that are being made.

If Undertale, or any fandom, were truly a "Cancer" onto the world then why do so many people enjoy it? Why are so many people invested in the fan-comics, animations, musical covers and other forms of media associated with it? How come we have so many creative individuals who stand alongside their fandoms even when the original source material is at its worst? It is simply for the fact that a fandom is not a disease, nor is the source of those fans either. The definition and use of "Cancer" in today's day and age has been overused and for the wrong reason I believe. Cancer is a life threatening disease, not a group of creative individuals enjoying what they love.

TL:DR - Fandoms are a place of creativity and fun. Sure there are bad moments in them but ultimately they try to do something worthwhile. If you don’t like a fandom or its source just walk away and let people enjoy what they love. Simple.

#rant #rambling #why am I posting this?#i dont even know #just something buzzing in my head #fandoms

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dangolding · 7 years

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Spec Ops: The Line and the fine art of subversion

Every writer has a piece that they never quite got placed with a publication. I wrote this many years ago now when Spec Ops: The Line was first released and showed it to a few friends and editors, but it was never published. Now that the game is five years old, I thought I’d just put it online.

///////////////////////////////

And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there

The first thing you encounter in any videogame is its menu. People generally spend very little time on menus—they are doorways, the thresholds of videogames, ready to set the tone but quick to get out of the way. Despite their importance, they are often relatively disposable for the player, and quickly forgotten. Press Start. Hit A to begin. Now here’s the real game.

But the first thing you notice about Spec Ops: The Line is its menu. It is not here to get out of the way, to be an open door between the player and the ‘real’ game. It is here to make a statement. A dilapidated American flag takes up much of the screen, flying upside-down, either a sign of distress or a deliberate desecration. In the distance sits a Dubai in sandy ruins, the contemporary symbol of capitalist expansion and reach destroyed.

Playing over the top is Jimi Hendrix’s famous 1969 Woodstock performance of “The Star Spangled Banner”. The sonorous, roundly distorted notes signal its arrival half a phrase in; the manic, free-form drumming of Mitch Mitchell barely audible in the background. Already, The Line is in many ways radically different for a standard military-themed videogame. In the place of the usual proud flags and dutiful trumpet calls, The Line populates its menu with complicated and troubling symbols.

Of course, The Line is a deliberate attempt at subversion. Military shooters have long been at the core of the videogames industry (the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, for instance, grossed over $400 million in its first 24 hours on sale late last year), and while sometimes technically innovative and exciting, few of these games have very much to say. Some, like the Modern Warfare franchise, will occasionally look to have the appearance of philosophizing on war, but generally, the most generous conclusion to take from these sorts of games is something like this: War is hell. War is also spectacular. The people who choose to go into it and come out alive are amazing.

It’s in this context that The Line presents itself as a sweeping counter to the traditional claims of the military videogame. It isn’t all just upside-down flags and Jimi Hendrix, either. The game’s plot is for the most part, a fairly reasonable appropriation of the general thrust of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. We follow three soldiers—Sergeant Lugo, Lieutenant Adams, and Captain Martin Walker, the last of whom the player controls—as they journey into a Dubai of the near-future, one that has been destroyed by dust storms. A battalion lead by a Colonel John Konrad (in the game’s most guileless reference to Heart of Darkness) has disappeared in the city, and as we find out, has of course gone rogue.

Throughout your journey to look for survivors, Spec Ops continually throws horrifying experiences directly in the face of the player. Needless, limitless bloodshed, civilian massacres, warcrimes.

But The Line’s most unexpected move is its bold indictment of the player in this context. You did this, the game says. Not us, the designers, not the characters, but you. It’s all your fault.

When Jimi Hendrix performed “The Star Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in 1969, many, if not most onlookers assumed it was an antiwar statement of sorts. Hendrix’s unorthodox performance was not the first controversial appropriation of America’s national anthem (Jose Feliciano had played a folk-ish version a year earlier at a Baseball match, the fallout of which he claimed stalled his career for a number of years), but it was certainly its most violent. Strewn between the heavily distorted, oppressively bland notes of the anthem were Hendrix’s own embellishments. He threw his plectrum up and down the strings, smashed away at the pitch-bending tremolo arm, and deliberately induced piercing feedback.

The fact that most of these embellishments coincided with the lyric, “and the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,” just reinforced the idea that the performance was about the Vietnam War. The rockets’ red glare was being broadcast on television screens every evening in 1969. It was hard not to take it literally. Hendrix’s slides became missiles, his muted strumming became gunfire (much like his later song, “Machine Gun”), his distortion became bombs, destruction, and cries of the innocent. Played into Jimi Hendrix’s guitar were the nightmares of a generation of disillusioned Americans, his instrument an orchestra of national disaster.

Hendrix’s Woodstock performance is often mythologized as a kind of paradigmatic moment of counter-culture appropriation, of culture jamming fifteen years before anyone had thought of using the term ‘culture jamming’. Here was a noble and patriotic song being roughly hewn back into the militaristic fires from whence it came, Hendrix’s bloody tableau mirroring the war of 1812 that served as inspiration for Francis Scott Key’s original poem.

But it’s not usually remarked on that “The Star Spangled Banner” was actually a British song to begin with. The tune was first known as “To Anacreon in Heaven”, and was written by organist John Stafford Smith as a constitutional song for the Anacreontic Society, a British gentlemen’s club dedicated to “wit, harmony, and the god of wine.” Despite the notorious difficulty in singing the Anacreontic melody (one wonders if the Bacchanalian nature of the society made the task even less viable), the tune was a popular fit for a number adaptations (known as contrafactums) at the time, of which “The Star Spangled Banner” was only one. It also served as a vehicle for Robert Paine’s ode, “Adams and Liberty” in the late 18th century, for example.

The themes of appropriation and reappropriation are perhaps the one constant in the life of “The Star Spangled Banner”. Whoever knows what Hendrix meant when he played it at Woodstock. It does seem likely, after all, that there was some kind of protest meant, but if Hendrix saw what happened to Feliciano a year earlier, he’d have good reason not to push it further.

Curiously, Hendrix himself never said that the performance was meant particularly as a protest. In fact, he never really explained the meaning of the performance at all, except for a brief remark at a press conference a few weeks later.

“We play it the way the air is in America today,” Hendrix said. “The air is slightly static, don’t you think?”

One of Spec Ops’ central villains used to write for Rolling Stone. Robert Darden, a bearded, Hawaiian-shirt wearing reporter taunts the player over a city-wide broadcast system for much of the game, earning him the nickname of the ‘Radioman’. He also has pretty good taste in music, and through several key scenes in the game blasts out Deep Purple, Martha and the Vandellas, and The Black Angels.

Having an antagonist like Radioman allows music to come to the fore in The Line. Rock music is often blasted diegetically through the game’s Dubai, sometimes as a complement to the action and sometimes as a counterpoint, but always as a reminder of the foreignness of the American presence in Dubai. The music writes over the Emirati landscape, reminding players that it is American against American in this game, and that Dubai is only present insofar as it is an immutable reminder of America’s foreign entanglements. This is, by and large, a game about America and American culture: whatever the problems are of sequestering Dubai for thematic ends, The Line is not interested in it as much more than an emblem.

In one early sequence that announces the game’s engagement with popular culture, a lengthy firefight is set to Deep Purple’s 1968 hard rock hit, ‘Hush’. In the context of The Line, ‘Hush’ should act as an ironic counterpoint to the action—“Hush, hush, I need her loving,” sings Rod Evans, “But I'm not to blame now.” When Alfonso Cuarón used the same song in his terrifyingly bleak Children of Men, the Los Angeles Times called it “a sly lullaby for a world without babies.” When Spec Ops makes other similar allusions with its music, as with Martha and the Vandellas’ 1965 Motown classic, ‘Nowhere to Run’, the point is clear enough, even erring on overstating things. “Got nowhere to run to, baby,” runs the Holland-Dozier-Holland lyrics as the bullets fly over our protagonists, “Nowhere to hide.”

But right then, in the heat of the Deep Purple battle, the unsettling point is lost in the haze of cover-to-cover sprinting and pop-and-stop shooter mechanics. The lyrics might say one thing, but the cutting backbeat and the powerful bass line says something else entirely. All this shooting, this strategy, this chaos, this music—this is a little bit cool.

“Hey, you guys hear music?” asks one of The Line’s protagonists.

“Who cares?” answers our character. “Just shut up and keep fighting.”

The tension between critical commentary and surface level enjoyment lingers throughout The Line. When, later in the game, a slow-motion escape from a missile blast is set to Verdi’s ‘Dies Irae’, this unease is amplified. Like the Wagner helicopter attack sequence from Apocalypse Now (which was undoubtedly the scene’s inspiration, as the blast comes from a helicopter here, too), The Line runs a real risk of its intended commentary being literally drowned out by a one hundred person orchestra. The ironic juxtaposition of dead white European classical composers with macho violence is subsumed by the grandiloquent power of Verdi and Wagner, a tension that Coppola played with in Apocalypse Now but that has eventually been defeated by Hollywood iconography. Though Wagner-and-the-helicopters has now entered into the pop culture lexicon, how often is it used to invoke the madness and the masculinity of war, as intended? How often is it instead used to illustrate military elegance and the iconographic power of the Vietnam war?

This is the fundamental problem of The Line, one that is clearly reflected in its use of music. Does it matter that the game offers up a heartbreaking critical commentary on war and videogames, if from moment-to-moment, all I can do is enjoy the mayhem? Does it matter that my enemies are screaming at me that I’m a murderer, that their radio chatter becomes increasingly fearful of me as I move forward through their soldiers like some sort of nightmarish Superman, if the game has also been perfectly calibrated to give me pleasure from discharging my weapon into the faces of oncoming, depersonalized enemies?

“Shut up and keep fighting.” The context of that terse comment is one of maintaining control in the heat of battle, of blocking out pain and trauma until later, when it might be safe to reflect on your horrific deeds. Yet it could equally also apply to the naive player, the kind not interested in The Line’s plot but in its thrilling action; not so much a remark on a lack of time as a lack of care. “Shut up and keep fighting.”

Of course, the simple fact that players are not likely to miss The Line’s critique does not automatically mean anything at all. Earlier this year, the Australian army released the Chief of Army’s Reading List for soldiers. Conspicuous on the traditional list were books like Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, while films included the likes of David O. Russell’s Three Kings, Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley and of course, Apocalypse Now.

The presence of these works on such a list appears, at first, to be inexplicable. What use could Catch-22—a book that coined the anti-Vietnam war slogan, “Yossarian Lives!”—have for army bureaucracy? Why would army officials want soldiers to watch a film like Three Kings, a film that tracks three soldiers’ attempts to steal gold in the wake of the first Gulf War, a film that was described by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the defining antiwar films of our time, a scathing and sobering chronicle of U.S. misadventures in the Middle East”?

In commenting on the success of The Hurt Locker at the 2010 Oscars, Slovoj Žižek offers this: “In its very invisibility, ideology is here, more than ever: we are there, with our boys, identifying with their fear and anguish instead of questioning what they are doing there.”

Perhaps it is impossible to make an anti-war film. Perhaps there is always the possibility that despite context and framing, the exhilaration and terror of combat will always translate into romance for some. The strategy for most so-called anti-war films is still one of audience identification: here are innocent characters, thrown into a terrible scenario so beyond the realms of civility that we feel for them even as they commit heinous acts.

Even when characters are allowed some complexity, or are even pushed to become monsters, we can still see glimmers of our own collective guilt, our tortured souls played out within these people. There but for the grace of God, go I. Anti-war films are the best recruitment tool for fascists who still believe in their own soul.

And so it goes with The Line. No matter how hard the game tries in being anti-war, or even just to be a confronting critique of its genre, it never fails to also re-articulate the pleasures of the military videogame. Subversion is frequently too enormous, too clumsy, and too delicate a task to undertake meaningfully. Too much is pulled in too many directions; too many elements left unaltered. For every player who gets The Line’s Joseph Conrad references, another handful will simply find pleasure in the game’s tactical gunfights.

Subversion, especially in a medium as commercial and unwieldy as the videogame, is an imprecise art.

In 2000, the virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani opened a Baseball match between the Giants and the Mets with his own homage to Hendrix’s performance of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, a moment that was in turn recreated in last year’s Moneyball. His version was nearly identical to Hendrix’s, even down to the guitar tone and layering of effects. What was not recreated, however, was the crushing, distorted sounds of machine guns, bombs, and cries of terror. Why, after all, would you bring that sort of subject matter up at a baseball match, a time where national disgraces are usually tactfully concealed behind layers of professional competition?

What Satriani was left with was just a somewhat stylish, metal-cool version of the American national anthem. He played it, the audience stood, some sang along, and most cheered when it was over. Hendrix was back in the patriotic fold, the ambiguous and potentially subversive elements of his performance smoothed over by a modern rock star. There were no rough edges anymore.

Somehow, between 1969 and 2000, the context of playing the anthem on an electric guitar had shifted from disruption to celebration, from national anthem to rock anthem. There’s something telling about the fact that the only videogame to feature Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner” before The Line was Guitar Hero 2.

Look at this page on Answers.com:

The question: “Did Jimi Hendrix mean to dishonor the Star Spangled Banner?”

The answer: “He would never disrespect our country. He played the song that way to honor the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”

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