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squadron-of-damned · 2 years

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A dime for your thoughts, try to explain the entire vK fan-family as if I'm a stranger. Also pls tell me about random headcanons you have for each and every member (if you wanna).

alright, have a seat. i don't have presentation panels, because I am too lazy for that. maybe eventually.

At some point in history (around 1860) a savvy Austrian entrepreneur Erster Bauer decided to take his trade up to the next level and travelled to Japan where he had many adventures nobody back in Europe would ever, including getting almost killed by local wildlife and promptly rescued by a member of the Asogi swordsmanship tradition. This impressed our guy so much that he wanted to show it the Japanese way and went fully "Hey, what's your sword called? My family will bear its name forever!" Europe has a long tradition of inventing names and terms by misspelling the old ones, so our merchant-adventurer went down in history as the first ever von Karma, causing several geographers trying to pinpoint Karma on the map.

So the entire von Karma family is this one guys fault, but he hadn't fucked up yet.

Erster von Karma, as the dude was called, got moderately wealthy in his business and upon his return to Europe he figured he's had enough of adventure for three lifetimes and he started a family. Since he was a bit of megalomaniac ass, his wife didn't really stay around, but he got to keep the only child that survived into adulthood: Frieda.

Frieda von Karma was a daughter of many expectations and pushed limits. Born 1893 she had managed to finish her art studies in Vienna before the WW1 managed to rolled around. She had moved from Austria to the newly founded Germany (Bavaria specifically) after the first war where she opened an art gallery (which served as her home) and worked as a renowned art critic. The gallery did not survive the Nazi party and its successor did not get as famous or profitable, nevertheless Frieda managed to set her family well off financially for generations. What is today known as the Gallery Hall in the house features mostly her artwork, most prominent being the row of portraits of family members.

She married Bernard von Karma (because the man could not pass up the opportunity to get a "von" in his name), a civic engineer who had taken it upon himself to improve their home as much as possible. His combined love for secret passages and "alternative approach" to electricity grounding had effectively booby trapped the entire mansion, which resulted in a) the subsequent generations of von Karmalings to be extremely and acutely aware of their surrounding at any given time, b) no burglary attempt at the von Karma estate had ever been successful, there is even a record from 1938 of a thief who called for help and promised to surrender to the police if he was safely led out of the house.

Their oldest son Herman von Karma was raised very strictly and "shaped to perfection", as Frieda had no lesser expectations of her children than she had of herself. He was sent to study abroad, first in Great Britain, later to the United States, and he had never truly returned to his home country, as he remained across the Atlantic as a part of the diplomatic ensemble. In fact he frequently described his brief visits to Germany as being a stranger in his homeland. He was rather a temperamental man and the several politically motivated assassination attempts on his life did absolutely nothing to ease his growing paranoia. He was quite the shot, reportedly, and several wannabe assailants learned the hard way that he knew a lot both about anatomy and how to wield an improvised melee weapon. The bodies had been found many years later after his death during the garden renovations of the von Karma mansion in the US.

Their younger son Siegfried von Karma seemed to be the promising exemplary child much like his older brother, but where Herman studied at Oxford, Siegfried studied at Aberdeen and became far too influenced by the style of Scottish Highlanders. His love of fencing and finished studies of natural sciences made him a valued police investigator. After sustaining severe injuries he was forcibly retired and he returned to Germany, where his retirement did not apply. There he teamed up with forensic expert Saikoll Edgich and they later published a comprehensive overview of their co-joined investigative methodologies in the Psychology of Murder and the Murder of Psychology which proceeded to be of great help to many people who had to solve a homicide without much tangible evidence, although it had never made it to become a textbook. Its authors, however, had a growing resentment between which resulted in an ugly confrontation which Edgich by an accident did not survive. Due to Siegfried’s less uptight and more free-minded nature causing him to clash with his mother Frieda harshly in later years, he and his family lived in a separate wing at the von Karma estate, known also as the Thistle Wing. After his mother’s death it was him who cared for the estate as who, as Herman rarely visited.

Herman somehow found the time to marry and produce three children, but he had very little time to actually raise them. For that reason his oldest son Friedrich von Karma spent his early years under the iron hand of his grandmother Frieda. In his mid-teens when he was “no longer to be such trouble” he was moved to live with his father in the US, which he thought would be a relief. He was wrong. For details, though, you should ask @infamouslydorky, because ultimately she is the idea-parent of Friedrich. What’s for certain is that Friedrich became a career politician, probably partially inspired and partially pressured into by his father, and that his hair is absolutely everywhere, since he has so much of it. He did not marry and does not have any children (that he knows of).

Friedrich’s younger brother Manfred von Karma was also brought up in Germany by Frieda and had the unfortunate trait of not appreciating standing mdoel to her, so he was the less favoured child. As such he got compared to his uncle Siegfried a lot, which culminated in his decision to also pursue a career in law, ultimately making him the most feared prosecutor both in the United States and the half of Europe he deemed worthy of visit. In the long term his instilled perfectionism lead to only his wife Ilona von Karma being able to put up with him, and also to him killing a defense attorney who broke his perfect trial streak by securing him a court penalty. Being the epitome of mental health, he also took care of (though did not adopt) said attorney’s orphaned son, and had a bullet in his right shoulder for 15 years, which eventually got him convicted of the murder he had committed. The entire family prefers not to talk about the whole incident.

Griselda von Karma is the youngest of Herman’s children, and unlike her brothers she had never really spent any time under her father’s influence, so she turned to be Frieda’s perfect granddaughter. Appreciative of arts of all kind, she was mostly drawn towards books. Gaining Masters in history at the mature age of 14 she began a successful career as an archivist and well renowned book critic. She added the extensive library to the von Karma estate, though a large part of it contains rare and prized books, therefore being off limits to majority of the people, family included. She has failed to have children, because she hates loud noises.

Wolfgang von Karma is the older son of Siegfried (if you remember him) and adored his grandmother’s art greatly. Unfortunately his Father was the family’s black sheep, so he did not get introduced to the secret world of oil pains and temperas, so he turned towards photography. He is, technically, a studied chemist, but besides developing his photographs he had never really worked in any field resembling chemistry at all. His brief adventure with textile dyes at university introduced him to the Weber sisters at the textile factory, who in turn introduced him to punch cards which set off his entire career as one of the pioneers programmers. He married the youngest of the Weber triplets Nadele von Karma, but he’s kept a close relationship with her sisters too. With their help he keeps the the large pack of various dogs, making it very easy for little von Karmalings to get a puppy. He has a reputation of being uncharacteristically easy-going for being a von Karma

His younger and more ambitious brother is Markov von Karma in whom is dangerously combined Frieda’s over-achieving perfectionist upbringing and Siegfried’s love to fight. From early on he’s sat on career of an investigative journalist, first couple of years he had followed his father alongside his investigations, eventually he eloped across the world on his own. He also frequently participates in fencing and swordsmanship competition, although he had be banned from several of them for his conviction that he had gotten from Siegfried that a good swordsman is the alive one, not the one that refuses to hit his opponent with a chair. Markov keeps minimal contact with his family and adamantly refuses to show up to any family gatherings. The von Karmas know he is alive only because of the meticulously arriving birthday postcards, the occasional article signed MvK, and the rare call from Wolfgang who uses his younger brother instead of Wikipedia. He has married his editor Edith Vin Korek for tax benefits and healthcare insurance. Despite Edith living in Los Angeles where the US family estate is, they’ve managed to keep the marriage secret (or rather they did not bother informing anyone).

Manfred’s oldest daughter, Helena von Karma, spent the first five years of her life with her mother in Germany where Ilona cared for Frieda to whom age had not been kind. After Frieda’s passing they both returned to the States, where Mafred tried and subsequently failed to be a present and attentive father. Helena expressed her wish to study law in Germany, thus returning to the family estate once again which was now in the far more liberate care of Siegfried who deliberately ignored Aurelia’s desire for upkeeping his mother’s restrictions. Upon passing her bar exam at the age of sixteen, Helena continued to practide law as a prosecutor in Germany, Austria, and eventually Switzerland where she married her court rival Arnborg Prouvele-von Karma. Upon the birth of their first child they agreed to raise the girl as far away from family shenanigans as possible and moved to Canada, which ultimately turned out not to be far enough.

Leonore von Karma is Manfred’s second daughter. you tell me, Ly, what’s going on with Leonore, because I’ve gotten kinda lost. However, she is the first fortunate child not to meet Frieda von Karma and her fierce pervasive perfectionism, so she might have gotten a breather.

The youngest of Manfred’s children is Franziska von Karma, who unlike her older siblings had the luxury of spending her early childhood years with her father, but at the cost of her mother’s passing within her 3rd year of life. Much like Helena she was a law prodigy and followed her father’s footsteps to become a prosecutor. She studied international distance courses and passed her bar exams in Germany at 13 years of age. Since that was where she lived (now without father) over the course of her studies, her pre-teens were overseen by Griselda and Siegfried, who for an unfathomable reason thought that gifting a 9 years old girl with weapons was a good idea, and it is a miracle that she settled for crop and whip and not a flail. After the shocking conviction of her father, Franziska had spent a very self-destructive year trying to prove herself better then everyone, especially her (supposedly deceased) adopted brother, and after that went on a little soul-searching work-trip across the world. Now she works closely with Interpol and is doing her very best not to turn into another iteration of her aunt or great-grandmother.

Gandulf von Karma is Wolfgang’s only son who has never had any ambition to travel. He graduated suma cum laude physics and engineering at 17 and got himself promptly hired as an assistant at German Aerospace Center. In addition to that he’s used to serve as a consultant for several sci-fi productions, but he quickly abandoned that line of work when he found out that it meant talking to “actual people” and not just engineers. Most of his free time he spends helping his three mums with training the dogs for competitions. At some point in his life he’s gotten married to Katzcherine von Karma and even had children with her, but he has no idea how or when that happened. Both parties are quite certain it was an accident, thus they divorced fairly soon after someone reminded them it was an option.

Nikolle von Karma is so far the only daughter of Helena. While she is decided to also become a lawyer, she isn’t so sure about being a prosecutor, but she keeps her options open, because auntie Franziska has made a very good impression. She is currently living in Canada with her parents and is trying to soften up her mother to also let her have a whip. So far it seems that her two dogs Unicorn and Bigger Phoenix will have to do to protect her.

Ilse von Karma is the Gandulf’s firstborn. Her promising early earned degree in several languages is used solely to yell responsibility even into those members of family who pretended not to understand German and English. With grandfather Siegfried being of advanced age, Griselda attempting to claim the role of the iron ruling matriarch, and Gundalf barely being aware where he left his shoes, it is now Ilse who is de facto running the estate.

Jörgun von Karma is Gandulf’s second child. His plan is to become a politician. Being too young for it at the moment, he is chasing a politology degree, and also every skirt he sees. He also pursues classical ballroom dancing and has already won several competitions.

Youngest of Gandulf’s children is Gretchen von Karma who is living in the childhood fantasy of being a princess and is playing a matchmaker to everyone she meets.

with this I’ve exhausted the list. Headcanons some other day, this is too long already

#von karma fan family

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dustofthedailylife · 2 years

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Just found this [picrew] on insta with the prompt to create the anime male version of yourself. And I thought it was kinda cool!

Feel free to participate and tag someone, no pressure though ❤️

Also why do I low-key look like Thoma with glasses? HELP 😂

Tagging: @hiraya-rawr @the-travelling-witch @ainescribe @polalcee + whoever else wants to participate.

#picrew #reblog game #I straight up look like Thoma and that kinda scares me #Given the fact I also love Japan and am from Germany and would have a pyro vision according to some quiz...#I'm just female Thoma omg #is it appropriate to say that I would date me #because I totally would #also kind of makes me want to be an anime guy now

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askaceattorney · 3 years

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Dear Asexual-Deesasters,

Mod Edgeworth:

If you want to know the answer to that question, go to this link.

Dear Skibot99,

Co-Mod: I’m fairly certain it was The Mod, but I don’t know for sure. He actually had another one before it, made from an old Ace Attorney musical animation. I haven’t been able to locate that video, unfortunately, but here’s the old banner:

Ah... Those were good days. Good days.

Dear Dawsongfg,

Co-Mod: It’s fine. Besides, it won’t be too long before those letters are accepted, so maybe we’ll hold onto them until that time.

Dear skibot99 again,

Mod Edgeworth: The Lost Turnabout hands down. All logic is thrown out the window the moment Phoenix had amnesia. It’s clear the Judge knew something was wrong with Phoenix, so why didn’t he call for a recess or check on Phoenix? Not to mention Wellington was annoying. He’s probably the only character I would be hesitant to play as when answering letters, if only because he was so unbearable.

As for Turnabout Ablaze, I do agree that it is a drag to get through in the end, though the entire game of AAI was boring, aside from the game mechanics. As a case by itself, I wouldn’t put it as my least favorite, if only because I did get some funny parts out of it. It also contributed to the overall story, whereas The Lost Turnabout could just be taken out and it wouldn’t effect the overarching plot.

Co-Mod: I’d probably have to go with Turnabout Big Top. I honestly couldn’t figure out the part where you have to present Max’s poster without consulting a walkthrough. Why couldn’t we just present Max himself? Besides that, the ending was largely underwhelming -- the murder weapon was hidden under Acro’s blanket the entire time, but instead of seeing a screenshot of it there, we just have to imagine it. Maybe it was a filler case, but that was no excuse for it to end so poorly. Not to mention one of the witnesses was a literal puppet.

It’s hard truth, Trilo. Live with it.

Dear skibot99 and Anonymous,

Mod Edgeworth: I… think I heard from her when the localization of DGS was announced? I know Mod Kristoph and Mod Maya introduced themselves when I came into the group. There’s a third person, but I only heard from her once. As for what’s going on with her… I don’t know.

As for the flooding the inbox, it’s fine. I won’t promise a letter or two won’t be deleted, but we may make an exception and I’d hardly consider 4-5 different letters flooding the inbox. However, I do highly suggest lowering your letter sending to no more than three a day to prevent deletion of your letters. The only time I’d say your letters are flooding the inbox is when you’re sending 10-20 of them, especially of the same letter, and we have to scroll down for a while to get to the next letter. We will only choose three out of that pile and delete the rest.

And yes, we do have a few that send us 10-20 of the same letter to multiple characters in the span of five minutes. Geez.

Co-Mod: Mod Paups has had to remain absent for personal reasons, and sadly, has recently communicated to me that she wishes to leave the blog entirely. Thanks for all you’ve contributed to this blog, Mod Paups, and best of luck in whatever you do next!

(Referenced Letter)

Dear mungeondaster,

Mod Edgeworth: Since I answered this one, I shall answer your letter.

(^ Why do I always use this sprite? ^) Actually, the localization never specified if Manfred Von Karma was born in Germany or not. In fact, we never knew the German part until Justice For All when Franziska Von Karma was stated to have flown all the way from Germany. It never specifies any reason for this and fans were quick to jump to the conclusion that it means the Von Karma family were German, which… isn’t entirely true? Manfred Von Karma never said he lived in Germany and, for all we know, Franziska could’ve lived in Germany to study law or something.

Now, the OG does give us more specific detail on this, being why I answered this the way I did. In the OG, both Von Karma’s were born Japanese, but lived in America or at least have an estate there. It specified that they were originally born in Japan, which would be translated to LA, California in the localization. While using the OG canon isn’t normal here, I will use it, if the localization doesn’t specify things. In this case, it never specified if the Von Karma’s were born in Germany or if Manfred Von Karma lived in America. Since he had to wait out the Statue of Limitations for DL-6, we can assume he lived in LA for 15 years or more. That means he’s American.

I am still getting the hang of writing letters, but I try to stick to canon as much as possible. If you believe we’ve made an error in our letters, feel free to let us know, but also show proof, if we go against canon. We’ll be sure the letter is sent to the right mod or else fix it.

Dear Bluedragoncody,

Mod Edgeworth: I... don’t know how to feel about that.

Also, I accidentally deleted your previous letter before this one when trying to post it on here. I’m so sorry about that. If you could remember it, would you send it again?

Co-Mod: I’ll just respond to this with an old classic:

Dear Aceattorneyismyjam,

Mod Edgeworth: I-I’m not a pro! I accidentally deleted an important mod question from bluedragoncody, because of my inexperience. Oof! Again, so sorry!

Granted, I am good with digital art and writing essays, but I’m still trying to get the hang of being a mod here. Believe me, I do get corrected on several mistakes I do here. I can’t really call myself a pro just yet. I’ve only just started becoming a mod here last month lol

Dear Dahlia,

Mod Edgeworth: I thank you for your support of this blog and my essay. Manfred Von Karma is also my favorite villain and someone I do feel is underestimated as a one dimensional villain. I think people hate him so much, because of how he ruined Miles Edgeworth’s life without looking at the bigger picture. They focus on the bad things with their black colored glasses without dissecting Manfred Von Karma’s character as a whole.

One thing I love about this blog, even before becoming a mod, is that no one here ever portrayed Manfred Von Karma as the one dimensional villain. He can be snappy at times, but as proven in many of our previous letters, he’s also portrayed as being calm when threatened, polite at times and absolutely loves his wife and children. Yes, he’s a terrible person, but that’s what makes him so interesting. He’s a bad, evil person that does good things from time to time. It doesn’t justify any of his horrible deeds, murder included, but it does make him human.

Co-Mod: I’m...going to assume you’re a different Dahlia. (I’m grabbing a Magatama of Parting just in case, though. I’m sure you can understand.)

Anyway, thanks for being such a loyal follower! This blog’s been through a lot of changes since it began, and since I joined it back in 2017, so I’m glad it’s still a good source of enjoyment for you. I’ve seen all sorts of cringe by now, by the way (some of which I wrote myself), so don’t worry about it.

I’m also glad that the characters still sound like themselves and not like us. The hilarious personalities and quirks given to them by Capcom’s writers, as well as the humanity in so many of them, make them easy to relate to, and thus fairly easy to mimic. I may have said something like this before, but I see myself in a lot of them -- in Athena’s fear of inadequacy, in Apollo’s desire for justice in a world where it’s hard to find, in Sebastian’s confusion about where to go next after his world falls apart, and possibly even in the von Karmas’ desire for perfection. I of course identify with their positive feelings as well -- Phoenix’s smugness when he gets things right, Athena’s joy after pulling off a victory in court, Adrian’s pride after her self-confidence is restored, etc. -- but there’s something about the struggles they face that make them easier to relate to, on top of being that much more awesome in the end.

Unfortunately, I can’t promise anything about this blog continuing on in perpetuity. For one thing, I don’t plan on being around forever (I’m fairly certain the other Mods don’t, either), and for that matter, there’s also no telling how long Tumblr will be around. All I can promise is that I’ll give my best while I’m here, and that the love from you and everyone else who shares it here is sure to be what keeps us going. Thank you for your contribution!

Dear TurqouiseJavelin,

Mod Edgeworth: Hm... not bad ideas. Though, we mods choose our own mod names under the condition that it doesn’t match anyone else’s mod name.

Co-Mod: What Mod Edgeworth said. Choosing the name “Mod Athena” may or may not increase your chances of being hired, though. *wink, wink*

Dear Anonymous,

Mod Edgeworth: Actually, Gregory was stated in the Autopsy to have died by a gunshot. However, you do bring up something interesting. If Gregory Edgeworth realized he was dead and last remembered Robert Hammond strangling him, he wouldn’t think “I died by the shot of a gun.” Since the Detectives weren’t aware that victim had died unconscious, they’d assume the victim would recall being shot and killed. This makes me wonder if Gregory Edgeworth was channeled, but never brought to court to be cross-examined.

There are still holes, but I do like your aspect on DL-6.

Co-Mod: Dang... No matter how many times you come back to this game, there’s always something new to think about. I honestly hadn’t considered those details about Yanni Yogi’s trial. Your explanation makes the most sense to me, but there’s one other possibility regarding Gregory’s testimony -- he may have chosen to lie about who murdered him in order to protect his son from a murder charge. That’s all open to interpretation, of course, so your guess is as good as ours.

It’s a good thing we’re not actual defense attorneys, huh?

-The Mods

#asexual deesasters #skibot99 #dawsongfg #mungeondaster #bluedragoncody #aceattorneyismyjam #young and vain #Anonymous #Mod Post #Mod Edgeworth #Co Mod

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and-then-there-were-n0ne · 3 years

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George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism

Somewhere or other Byron makes use of the French word longeur, and remarks in passing that though in England we happen not to have the word, we have the thing in considerable profusion. In the same way, there is a habit of mind which is now so widespread that it affects our thinking on nearly every subject, but which has not yet been given a name. As the nearest existing equivalent I have chosen the word ‘nationalism’, but it will be seen in a moment that I am not using it in quite the ordinary sense, if only because the emotion I am speaking about does not always attach itself to what is called a nation – that is, a single race or a geographical area. It can attach itself to a church or a class, or it may work in a merely negative sense, against something or other and without the need for any positive object of loyalty.

By ‘nationalism’ I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’. But secondly – and this is much more important – I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.

Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Both words are normally used in so vague a way that any definition is liable to be challenged, but one must draw a distinction between them, since two different and even opposing ideas are involved. By ‘patriotism’ I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality. [...]

It does not necessarily mean loyalty to a government or a country, still less to one’s own country, and it is not even strictly necessary that the units in which it deals should actually exist. To name a few obvious examples, Jewry, Islam, Christendom, the Proletariat and the White Race are all of them objects of passionate nationalistic feeling: but their existence can be seriously questioned, and there is no definition of any one of them that would be universally accepted.

It is also worth emphasizing once again that nationalist feeling can be purely negative. There are, for example, Trotskyists who have become simply enemies of the U.S.S.R. without developing a corresponding loyalty to any other unit. When one grasps the implications of this, the nature of what I mean by nationalism becomes a good deal clearer. A nationalist is one who thinks solely, or mainly, in terms of competitive prestige. He may be a positive or a negative nationalist – that is, he may use his mental energy either in boosting or in denigrating – but at any rate his thoughts always turn on victories, defeats, triumphs and humiliations. He sees history, especially contemporary history, as the endless rise and decline of great power units, and every event that happens seems to him a demonstration that his own side is on the up-grade and some hated rival is on the down-grade. But finally, it is important not to confuse nationalism with mere worship of success. The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him. Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception. Every nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also – since he is conscious of serving something bigger than himself – unshakeably certain of being in the right.

Now that I have given this lengthy definition, I think it will be admitted that the habit of mind I am talking about is widespread among the English intelligentsia, and more widespread there than among the mass of the people. For those who feel deeply about contemporary politics, certain topics have become so infected by considerations of prestige that a genuinely rational approach to them is almost impossible. [...] And there are whole strings of kindred questions to which you can only get an honest answer from someone who is indifferent to the whole subject involved, and whose opinion on it is probably worthless in any case. Hence, partly, the remarkable failure in our time of political and military prediction. It is curious to reflect that out of all the ‘experts’ of all the schools, there was not a single one who was able to foresee so likely an event as the Russo-German Pact of 1939. And when news of the Pact broke, the most wildly divergent explanations were of it were given, and predictions were made which were falsified almost immediately, being based in nearly every case not on a study of probabilities but on a desire to make the U.S.S.R. seem good or bad, strong or weak.

Political or military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties. And aesthetic judgements, especially literary judgements, are often corrupted in the same way as political ones. It would be difficult for an Indian nationalist to enjoy reading Kipling or for a Conservative to see merit in Mayakovsky, and there is always a temptation to claim that any book whose tendency one disagrees with must be a bad book from a literary point of view. People of strongly nationalistic outlook often perform this sleight of hand without being conscious of dishonesty. [...]

Obviously there are considerable resemblances between political Catholicism, as exemplified by Chesterton, and Communism. So there are between either of these and for instance Scottish nationalism, Zionism, Antisemitism or Trotskyism. It would be an oversimplification to say that all forms of nationalism are the same, even in their mental atmosphere, but there are certain rules that hold good in all cases. The following are the principal characteristics of nationalist thought:

Obsession. As nearly as possible, no nationalist ever thinks, talks, or writes about anything except the superiority of his own power unit. It is difficult if not impossible for any nationalist to conceal his allegiance. The smallest slur upon his own unit, or any implied praise of a rival organization, fills him with uneasiness which he can only relieve by making some sharp retort. If the chosen unit is an actual country, such as Ireland or India, he will generally claim superiority for it not only in military power and political virtue, but in art, literature, sport, structure of the language, the physical beauty of the inhabitants, and perhaps even in climate, scenery and cooking. He will show great sensitiveness about such things as the correct display of flags, relative size of headlines and the order in which different countries are named. Nomenclature plays a very important part in nationalist thought. Countries which have won their independence or gone through a nationalist revolution usually change their names, and any country or other unit round which strong feelings revolve is likely to have several names, each of them carrying a different implication. The two sides of the Spanish Civil War had between them nine or ten names expressing different degrees of love and hatred. Some of these names (e.g. ‘Patriots’ for Franco-supporters, or ‘Loyalists’ for Government-supporters) were frankly question-begging, and there was no single one of them which the two rival factions could have agreed to use. All nationalists consider it a duty to spread their own language to the detriment of rival languages. [...] Nationalist thought often gives the impression of being tinged by belief in sympathetic magic – a belief which probably comes out in the widespread custom of burning political enemies in effigy, or using pictures of them as targets in shooting galleries.

Instability. The intensity with which they are held does not prevent nationalist loyalties from being transferable. To begin with, as I have pointed out already, they can be and often are fastened upon some foreign country. One quite commonly finds that great national leaders, or the founders of nationalist movements, do not even belong to the country they have glorified. Sometimes they are outright foreigners, or more often they come from peripheral areas where nationality is doubtful. Examples are Stalin, Hitler, Napoleon, de Valera, Disraeli, Poincaré, Beaverbrook. The Pan-German movement was in part the creation of an Englishman, Houston Chamberlain. For the past fifty or a hundred years, transferred nationalism has been a common phenomenon among literary intellectuals. With Lafcadio Hearne the transference was to Japan, with Carlyle and many others of his time to Germany, and in our own age it is usually to Russia. But the peculiarly interesting fact is that re-transference is also possible. A country or other unit which has been worshipped for years may suddenly become detestable, and some other object of affection may take its place with almost no interval. In the first version of H. G. Wells’s Outline of History, and others of his writings about that time, one finds the United States praised almost as extravagantly as Russia is praised by Communists today: yet within a few years this uncritical admiration had turned into hostility. The bigoted Communist who changes in a space of weeks, or even of days, into an equally bigoted Trotskyist is a common spectacle. In continental Europe Fascist movements were largely recruited from among Communists, and the opposite process may well happen within the next few years. What remains constant in the nationalist is his own state of mind: the object of his feelings is changeable, and may be imaginary. But for an intellectual, transference has an important function which I have already mentioned shortly in connection with Chesterton. It makes it possible for him to be much more nationalistic – more vulgar, more silly, more malignant, more dishonest – than he could ever be on behalf of his native country, or any unit of which he had real knowledge. When one sees the slavish or boastful rubbish that is written about Stalin, the Red army, etc. by fairly intelligent and sensitive people, one realizes that this is only possible because some kind of dislocation has taken place. In societies such as ours, it is unusual for anyone describable as an intellectual to feel a very deep attachment to his own country. Public opinion – that is, the section of public opinion of which he as an intellectual is aware – will not allow him to do so. Most of the people surrounding him are sceptical and disaffected, and he may adopt the same attitude from imitativeness or sheer cowardice: in that case he will have abandoned the form of nationalism that lies nearest to hand without getting any closer to a genuinely internationalist outlook. He still feels the need for a Fatherland, and it is natural to look for one somewhere abroad. Having found it, he can wallow unrestrainedly in exactly those emotions from which he believes that he has emancipated himself. God, the King, the Empire, the Union Jack – all the overthrown idols can reappear under different names, and because they are not recognized for what they are they can be worshipped with a good conscience. Transferred nationalism, like the use of scapegoats, is a way of attaining salvation without altering one’s conduct.

Indifference to Reality. All nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts. A British Tory will defend self-determination in Europe and oppose it in India with no feeling of inconsistency. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage – torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians – which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by ‘our’ side. The Liberal News Chronicle published, as an example of shocking barbarity, photographs of Russians hanged by the Germans, and then a year or two later published with warm approval almost exactly similar photographs of Germans hanged by the Russians. It is the same with historical events. [...] If one looks back over the past quarter of a century, one finds that there was hardly a single year when atrocity stories were not being reported from some part of the world: and yet in not one single case were these atrocities – in Spain, Russia, China, Hungary, Mexico, Amritsar, Smyrna – believed in and disapproved of by the English intelligentsia as a whole. Whether such deeds were reprehensible, or even whether they happened, was always decided according to political predilection. The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. For quite six years the English admirers of Hitler contrived not to learn of the existence of Dachau and Buchenwald. And those who are loudest in denouncing the German concentration camps are often quite unaware, or only very dimly aware, that there are also concentration camps in Russia. Huge events like the Ukraine famine of 1933, involving the deaths of millions of people, have actually escaped the attention of the majority of English russophiles. Many English people have heard almost nothing about the extermination of German and Polish Jews during the present war. Their own antisemitism has caused this vast crime to bounce off their consciousness. In nationalist thought there are facts which are both true and untrue, known and unknown. A known fact may be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter into logical processes, or on the other hand it may enter into every calculation and yet never be admitted as a fact, even in one’s own mind. Every nationalist is haunted by the belief that the past can be altered. He spends part of his time in a fantasy world in which things happen as they should – in which, for example, the Spanish Armada was a success or the Russian Revolution was crushed in 1918 – and he will transfer fragments of this world to the history books whenever possible. Much of the propagandist writing of our time amounts to plain forgery. Material facts are suppressed, dates altered, quotations removed from their context and doctored so as to change their meaning. Events which, it is felt, ought not to have happened are left unmentioned and ultimately denied. In 1927 Chiang Kai-Shek boiled hundreds of Communists alive, and yet within ten years he had become one of the heroes of the Left. The re-alignment of world politics had brought him into the anti-Fascist camp, and so it was felt that the boiling of the Communists ‘didn’t count’, or perhaps had not happened. The primary aim of propaganda is, of course, to influence contemporary opinion, but those who rewrite history do probably believe with part of their minds that they are actually thrusting facts into the past. When one considers the elaborate forgeries that have been committed in order to show that Trotsky did not play a valuable part in the Russian civil war, it is difficult to feel that the people responsible are merely lying. More probably they feel that their own version was what happened in the sight of God, and that one is justified in rearranging the records accordingly. Indifference to objective truth is encouraged by the sealing-off of one part of the world from another, which makes it harder and harder to discover what is actually happening. There can often be a genuine doubt about the most enormous events. For example, it is impossible to calculate within millions, perhaps even tens of millions, the number of deaths caused by the present war. The calamities that are constantly being reported – battles, massacres, famines, revolutions – tend to inspire in the average person a feeling of unreality. One has no way of verifying the facts, one is not even fully certain that they have happened, and one is always presented with totally different interpretations from different sources. What were the rights and wrongs of the Warsaw rising of August 1944? Is it true about the German gas ovens in Poland? Who was really to blame for the Bengal famine? Probably the truth is discoverable, but the facts will be so dishonestly set forth in almost any newspaper that the ordinary reader can be forgiven either for swallowing lies or failing to form an opinion. The general uncertainty as to what is really happening makes it easier to cling to lunatic beliefs. Since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakable fact can be impudently denied. Moreover, although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge, the nationalist is often somewhat uninterested in what happens in the real world. What he wants is to feel that his own unit is getting the better of some other unit, and he can more easily do this by scoring off an adversary than by examining the facts to see whether they support him. All nationalist controversy is at the debating-society level. It is always entirely inconclusive, since each contestant invariably believes himself to have won the victory. Some nationalists are not far from schizophrenia, living quite happily amid dreams of power and conquest which have no connexion with the physical world.

[...] If one harbours anywhere in one’s mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, although in a sense known to be true, are inadmissible. Here are just a few examples. I list below five types of nationalist, and against each I append a fact which it is impossible for that type of nationalist to accept, even in his secret thoughts:

British Tory. Britain will come out of this war with reduced power and prestige.

Communist. If she had not been aided by Britain and America, Russia would have been defeated by Germany.

Irish Nationalist. Eire can only remain independent because of British protection.

Trotskyist. The Stalin régime is accepted by the Russian masses.

Pacifist. Those who ‘abjure’ violence can only do so because others are committing violence on their behalf.

All of these facts are grossly obvious if one’s emotions do not happen to be involved: but to the kind of person named in each case they are also intolerable, and so they have to be denied, and false theories constructed upon their denial. I come back to the astonishing failure of military prediction in the present war. It is, I think, true to say that the intelligentsia have been more wrong about the progress of the war than the common people, and that they were more swayed by partisan feelings. The average intellectual of the Left believed, for instance, that the war was lost in 1940, that the Germans were bound to overrun Egypt in 1942, that the Japanese would never be driven out of the lands they had conquered, and that the Anglo-American bombing offensive was making no impression on Germany. He could believe these things because his hatred for the British ruling class forbade him to admit that British plans could succeed. There is no limit to the follies that can be swallowed if one is under the influence of feelings of this kind. I have heard it confidently stated, for instance, that the American troops had been brought to Europe not to fight the Germans but to crush an English revolution. One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool. [...] The point is that as soon as fear, hatred, jealousy and power worship are involved, the sense of reality becomes unhinged. And, as I have pointed out already, the sense of right and wrong becomes unhinged also. There is no crime, absolutely none, that cannot be condoned when ‘our’ side commits it. Even if one does not deny that the crime has happened, even if one knows that it is exactly the same crime as one has condemned in some other case, even if one admits in an intellectual sense that it is unjustified – still one cannot feel that it is wrong. Loyalty is involved, and so pity ceases to function.

The reason for the rise and spread of nationalism is far too big a question to be raised here. [...] It can be plausibly argued, for instance – it is even probably true – that patriotism is an inoculation against nationalism, that monarchy is a guard against dictatorship, and that organized religion is a guard against superstition. Or again, it can be argued that no unbiased outlook is possible, that all creeds and causes involve the same lies, follies, and barbarities; and this is often advanced as a reason for keeping out of politics altogether. I do not accept this argument, if only because in the modern world no one describable as an intellectual can keep out of politics in the sense of not caring about them. I think one must engage in politics – using the word in a wide sense – and that one must have preferences: that is, one must recognize that some causes are objectively better than others, even if they are advanced by equally bad means. As for the nationalistic loves and hatreds that I have spoken of, they are part of the make-up of most of us, whether we like it or not. Whether it is possible to get rid of them I do not know, but I do believe that it is possible to struggle against them, and that this is essentially a moral effort. It is a question first of all of discovering what one really is, what one’s own feelings really are, and then of making allowance for the inevitable bias. If you hate and fear Russia, if you are jealous of the wealth and power of America, if you despise Jews, if you have a sentiment of inferiority towards the British ruling class, you cannot get rid of those feelings simply by taking thought. But you can at least recognize that you have them, and prevent them from contaminating your mental processes. The emotional urges which are inescapable, and are perhaps even necessary to political action, should be able to exist side by side with an acceptance of reality. But this, I repeat, needs a moral effort, and contemporary English literature, so far as it is alive at all to the major issues of our time, shows how few of us are prepared to make it.

#George Orwell #nationalism

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terradisirene · 4 years

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Recently I saw an essay about how Hima’s portrayal of the Italy brothers was racist and xenophobic, in addition to being poor and one dimensional, and I couldn’t agree less.

Link to google docs version

Also although I prefer Romano I honestly think North Italy is a interesting and well developed character although that is easy to miss for some. Both of them are developed and shown wonderfully in canon and I continue to be eager to see more. In this essay I will show why I believe their portrayals are well done and how they are accurate to the situation in Italy as well as to it’s history and culture (That being said if you prefer a different interpretation that’s fine, there can be many different narratives)

North Italy does seem at first glance to be more talented, kind, and politically inclined. However this is not the entire story. Likewise Romano seems more rude and undesirable, but this is not everything in canon regarding him. In one strip Romano is noted to have a good deal of potential by Prussia and Germany, showing that he can be hard working and talented if he makes the effort. In the strip where Romano goes to America he also is quite confident in his cooking talents which America is actually impressed by. In another strip America even calls his cooking the best, and Romano himself is in later decades proud of his cooking, showing that yes he is good at things, and yes he is talented.

The problem is is that Romano does not have to motivation often to use his talents and work ethic. There are many reasons for this that Himaruya both states and alludes to. Firstly Himaruya states that being owned by various powers had a negative effect on Romano and that mismanagement by his rulers lead him to seem lazy since their mismanaged ruling rubbed off on him. Basically political control, corruption , and mismanagement stymied south Italy’s growth, which is true depending on the era and time period and true regarding modern day. Also in one strip after Romano makes an effort to work hard, but all his efforts come to nothing and he eventually grows resigned. I believe this is a reflection of the fact that there is an attitude among some south Italians of resignation towards politicians and things improving for themselves, such as shown in the song La Citta di Pulcinella (translation). Himaruya also touches on this when he notes the harmful affect the Mafia has on south Italy in his notes and even laments that fact.

Basically Romano has the potential to be just as good as north Italy but is unable to be because of historical circumstances and due to the harmful effect of corruption. Romano’s rudeness and lack of evident kindness and cynical worldview is also a result of this as he has been at the mercy of the mafia both in real life and in canon. Hima notes his cynicism is due to the harmful effects of the mafia and how they have hurt him . Romano in my opinion has reason to be rude, he has reason to be unkind, he has reason to be cynical, the mafia continues to be a serious issue and was even worse in the past, and thus his world view has been affected by how he has suffered at their hands. He also has to deal with the fact that he feels he is compared to north Italy, and openly feels and says he is not good enough or talented enough compared to him. This is based in reality. The north is often seen as better than the south and indeed it is more wealthy, does have better infrastructure, x does have more industry and renown and Romano is clearly sour because of this. Himaruya showing someone reacting negatively towards adverse circumstances i think is not a negative stereotype but just showing the harmful effects of the situation of the south. Romano is not totally unkind either. Despite their conflicts he does care about his brother, he often shows a lot concern for Spain and worries about him, he is kind to women generally , and has some nations he is friendly with like Japan Netherlands and Belgium . So in sum hima does not show Romano as unkind, but as a complex being who can be both kind and unkind like many people.

The south is seen as a land of little opportunity, dirty, unclean and full of crime by the north that is true, however sadly that perception has some perception in reality. For example many southerners leave the south to find work up north and stay there. This even happens to one of the protagonists of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels and it is seen as escaping Naples to make a better life for herself while the other protagonist stays stuck in Naples, stunted by the lack of opportunity and male oppression that she struggles against all her life. Naples also sadly has a serious trash problem as does Rome, there is even a facebook page titled “Rome is disgusting” in Italian showing the trash problems of Rome. The mafia also dumps toxic waste around Naples, leading to high rates of sickness and cancer in the population compared to other parts of Italy due to the fact that the toxic waste seeps into the ground water and the plants grown around the area.

Romano feels interior to North Italy and seems so at first glance because that is a reflection of the sad situation of the divide between north and south. However again note I said ‘at first glance’, because while many write off the south at first glance there is a richness and beautify behind that with its rich culture and the beauty of it’s people, as there is with Romano, which I note with his hidden and subtle kindness in canon .

Romano’s Arabic blood and darker appearance is due the fact that Arabs from north Africa invaded Sicily, ruled there for about two hundred years, and left a lasting cultural legacy behind there. It makes sense he has Arabic blood, as well as the fact that some, though not all, southern Italians do have a darker complexation (some also have red hair, blonde hair, hazel eyes, or blue eyes, due to Norman influence too). However that doesn’t mean they are poc (in Italy persone di colore is used instead) and even though Romano does have some Arabic blood frankly he would not be seen as non white in Italy. I don’t really think it’s right to bring up a poc argument in regards to him given that. In addition to that Italy also has a problem regarding xenophobia and racism in regards to African immigrants and Romani and many suffer and are marginalized there, something Romano would not experience in that regard. Romano is also noted to have a “Darker” nature, but this is again because of the mafia. He is affected and blighted by them, it’s not a reference to his coloring but to his cynicism and how they have drained him and his people of the prosperity they could have had otherwise. He is also noted to be “dirtier” not in the sense of being messy or unclean but in how his image looks, and the expressions he makes, this is a reference to the south’s rougher and more intense nature. It’s often said that the more south you go, the more intense and more of the nature of Italy you get and indeed the south of Italy is often said to be a love it or hate it place.

There is also additional canon reasons for Romano’s bitterness and darker personality like how he feels Rome favored north Italy (There may be historical reasons for this but I am limiting this essay to what is stated openly or alluded to more obviously in canon) and how he seems to feel haunted by his legacy. And as for other nations favoring North Italy over him, some do not like Spain and Belgium, and the the fact that some seem to is also sadly reflective of reality as many people only pay attention to or visit the north of Italy, neglecting or avoiding the south and only looking at the cities of Venice, Florence and Milan and not Palermo, Naples, or Caligari.

While the two brothers did not meet in Rome’s lifetime there is no indication this lasted until the Italian wars during the 1500′s portrayed in the canon strips . In fact during Spain’s rule of south Italy shortly after Romano is shown mentioning he is going to travel to visit his brother so they clearly had met by this point. Due to the nature of canon himaruya jumps across time periods often and so we do not always see everything that occurs within or before a certain time period. Sometimes he returns later, and sometimes he does not, though he could in the future. As for North Italy’s reactions to his struggles people have different reactions to hard situations, and that is not wrong, not everyone will struggle in the same way. It’s not something that indicates a lack of character but just a personality facet. Not everything has to contribute to development and that doesn’t mean a uninteresting or uncomplex character. Some people are simply affected differently by traumatic events. That being said I find it interesting he seems to hold a deep fear of angering others as well as some fear of abandonment .

We will turn to North Italy again. Yes he is cute, but that is not all his character is. He is far more than that. He is kind , he is intelligent , he is noted to be good at business, he is also fashionable and knows how to get what he wants out of people, he also can be a bit vulgar sometimes. He also was good at warfare when he was a child, and if one looks into the time period of the strips it seems he lessens in his ability the longer he is under Austria’s domain. He is also good at art, he is good at cooking, and he is even also not exactly the nicest person .

I have noticed that many people miss this but sometimes he is actually a little sneaky and mean . This is most evident with Romano actually. In one of their first appearances together when Romano asks Italy to complement him Italy outright refuses, backs away, and as a result makes Romano cry more than he had before and he flies off. In another comic Italy goes up to Romano, seems surprised he is working, and Romano is visibly hurt by this, he also seems to even doubt Romano’s ability to even do so, offering to do work for him which Romano is bothered by . Finally Italy has been shown to get outright angry at Romano at times, in one drawing he is yelling at Romano over the Venice independence referendum, saying Romano doesn’t want him around anyways . While North Italy does love his brother he clearly is not the nicest person to him at times which does little to motivate Romano to do much of anything, and sadly North Italy does not treat him as a equal really given how condescending he can sometimes be. He also is a little rude to Japan at times, like when they are in the bath, sort of hinting he thinks Japan has a small dick. In addition to this he is pretty sneaky and sometimes even flirty in regards to Germany and is able to really get Germany to do whatever he wants, though this is more evident in World Stars .

As for everyone liking him in the past he and Turkey were antagonistic, with Turkey stating he hated kids as a result of him (And Greece), and Austria was often angry and frustrated with him. In modern times Belarus has shown aggression to him when he tried to feel her chest and was visibly angry with good reason to be. The other girls didn’t allow him to do so either, but all had various reactions. From Monaco and Belgium not taking him seriously and gloating over their superior gambling and waffles respectively to Wy giving him rather done look and telling him to buzz off, to Taiwan being upset and telling him off, Vietnam having none of it and glaring at him, to the most surprising of them all, Ukraine openly flirting with him and giving him a seductive gaze he is a little intimidated by . His relationships are clearly not predictable but are interesting and fun to see and clearly not everyone thinks he is cute or is willing to put up with him especially the girls ironically. Switzerland too shows little tolerance for Italy’s antics, but is willing to spend time him civilly as long as he behaves himself , Russia too has gotten impatient with him at times, and so has Japan. And as for France he’s a interesting case, since at times he can be brotherly towards Italy but at the same time is also willing to tell him off, like when he actually hit him for asking for the Mona Lisa back. People like Italy, but not everyone does and even those who like him don’t like him all the time.

Frankly I think their characters make perfect sense. Romano’s anger and resentment is rooted in many things. In how people compare him and his brother, on his brother’s lackluster treatment of him, in the oppressions of the mafia, the years of being ruled over by other nations, and by poverty, neglect, and corrupt politics. North Italy for his part is frustrated by Romano and often doesn’t understand him and thinks his brother his weighing him down, though he fails to see how he is also contributing to his brother’s resignation and lack of self worth. He instead tries to work hard and do his best, while sucking up to others and making himself seem charming and pleasing to get what he wants and not make others angry at him. In fact he seems to have a deep and pressing fear of others being angry at him.

In sum I think canon does a good job with both of their characters. It shows them in a humorous nature in accordance with the genre of the strips while still leaving room for character complexity along with historical and cultural references and allusions, as well as reflecting both aspects of the historical and modern situation of north and south Italy depending on what time period the strip is set. Romano is shown to be rude, difficult, sometimes violent, and darker, however these are only traits that come as a result of the abandonment of Rome, the poverty and corruption of his land, and the malign influence and harm of the mafia affecting him. In addition to this he is also sometimes kind, fun loving, emotional, sensitive, a hard worker when he tries to be, is shown to be a talented cook, someone with a good deal of potential, and someone who has people who like him like Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Japan. On the other hand Italy is shown to yes, be kind and cute, but canon also shows him to be flirty, sneaky, angry, resentful, intelligent, and even a little rude at times. Many people like him, but not all do, for example Belarus, or many do not like him all the time and show impatience with him like Wy, France, Romano, and Switzerland. The difficulties he has experienced have not affected him in the same way they have Romano but that’s to be expected, for the two did not go though the same things and it’s only normal for people to have different reactions to trauma, some handling it better than others. This does not denote a lack of character complexity or development but just a different kind of person and temperament. I think that this shows that both Italy and Romano are interesting and complex characters and that himaruya in my opinion has done his work and research in trying to develop them and do strips for them. He does not indulge in colorism or xenophobia but merely seeks to show the good and bad of both sides of Italy and the complex reality of the south today and in history which has it’s bad and good points.

As a side note in Valentino strip is unfinished and Germany and Italy never discuss their respective feelings or misunderstandings and Italy is less uncomfortable and more confused and worried that Germany is angry at him.

#hetalia #aph romano #aph south italy #hws romano #hws south italy #(i'll be back soon btw just revamping some blogs)

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timeaftersometime · 4 years

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How do to think Pure would have been different had Sara lived? Do you think she could have given up her Pearl (since mermaids can kinda sorta live without bc of Luchia)? I would have loved to see Sara making amends and helping to rebuild her kingdom, Kaito and Gaito getting to have an actual relationship, and Seria getting to meet Sara!

Wow I gave a thought to this and it turns out this thought just branches out into so many rabbit holes that I’m not sure if I can completely answer your question, but I’ll try!

From your ask, I gather that you assume that Gaito would live as well. I’m also going to assume here that Sara would still follow Gaito even if they had lived. Aqua Regina did note in the final episode of the first season that Sara’s duty is to save Gaito’s soul. Which means that even if she lived, it is possible that she still would need a successor in Seira. Seira would be still too young to lead a rebuilding of the Indian Ocean Kingdom, so I don’t think we would see much of that in Pure anyway, even if Sara had lived.

Even so, everything would be very different. A few reasons summed up here: 1) Taro probably would not have left Japan, 2) Sara would be the one taking care of Seira rather than Luchia, 3) all the Mermaid Princesses will be present.

1) Taro probably would not have left Japan

A bit of context here: I am making a few assumptions here for the canonical story. The biggest one is that someone had to break it to Taro that Sara is gone. Through the events of the finale in Season 1, Taro was mostly unconscious after his brief reunion with Sara, right before the final battle. The evidence is that Sara bid farewell to Taro while he was still unconscious on the back of Hippo.

Had Taro been unsure if Sara was still alive or not, he might have returned to India out of desperation just for that chance to see her again where they met. (small headcanon: Taro and Sara met at Rama’s Bridge in Tamil Nadu. Where else but a bridge that Suvannamaccha the Mermaid Princess disrupted?)

But it is more likely that either Luchia, Hanon, or Rina had to gently break the news to him. After composing himself, he would then decide to further study music in Germany in order to let his inner melody flow, as a tribute to Sara.

Now, assuming that Gaito’s castle still sunk anyway, but not into the deepest depths of the ocean floor, the location of Gaito and Sara would still be off the east coast of Japan. When Taro wakes from the ordeal, he would still ask about Sara’s whereabouts. Luchia, Hanon, and Rina would still have to break bad news to him, but something quite different: that Sara has chosen Gaito over Taro. But the key difference is that Sara lives.

It is possible that Taro could have wished Sara well in his heart and continued to pursue music. But I think it is more likely still that he would stay in Japan, constantly looking out to sea as long as his mermaid princess was still alive.

Which brings me to the fact that we would have seen how Taro and Hanon would both had to learn how to let go at the same time. Nagisa would still appear as part of the story, and Taro would still gift Hanon his music score. But with Taro’s constant presence (and Sara’s choosing of Gaito), Hanon would be more determined than ever to win Taro’s heart. Taro would then have to constantly gently reject and refuse Hanon’s advances, and maybe set Nagisa and Hanon up. (which he kinda did already, even if he was far away in Germany)

Sara would resurface every now and then, and Taro will then have to struggle with practicing what he preaches. He would have kept telling Hanon to move on from him, but likewise, Sara would have had to give him similar advice that he would have to follow.

Which reminds me, I haven’t even talked about Sara proper yet. 😅

2) Sara would be the one taking care of Seira rather than Luchia

This is interesting because we go into the details of what exactly is the relationship between Sara and Seira. Generally, we’ve been considering Seira and Sara as two separate mermaids, two separate souls. However, Hippo noted all the way in Episode 1 that “Pearls are an element of mermaids”, or even more specifically, “真珠わ人魚の分身” (lit: pearls are a “clone”/”alter ego” of mermaids). This suggests that while it is definitely possible that mermaids can be alive without their pearls, they would also be incomplete without them. Which means to say, that the pearls contain an essential identity inseparable from the mermaids who possesses them.

This raises the question of the Orange Mermaid Princess’ Pearl: if Sara is still lives, can Seira be born? Which leads us to think about something even more interesting: can we consider Seira as a reincarnation of Sara? And there’s even more: do the Mermaid Princesses have friendships that lasts beyond lifetimes, reincarnation after reincarnation?

This is of course, assuming that every mermaid owns a pearl that they keep in their shell necklace. But, if we assume that the pearl is more like a Crown Jewel for each kingdom, then perhaps it is possible for Seira to be born at the will of Sara’s abdication being approved by Aqua Regina.

Even so, I cannot imagine the relationship between Sara and Seira to be anything but profoundly deep and intimate. Even if we allow for the fact that the ownership of the pearl can be transferred when the previous owner is still alive, there is a sense that Sara is at once Seira’s mother and other self. Sara has so much to teach Seira about the beauty of the Indian Ocean Kingdom and all her culture. But consequently that means that Seira will spend more of her time in the Panthalassa Palace with Sara and Gaito. It would be nice to see Gaito’s humane side for once, responding to the antics of a kid. At some point, Seira would surface, not only to experience the human world but also to socialise and meet with the other Mermaid Princesses. Which brings me to:

3) All the Mermaid Princesses will be present.

The power of the seven Mermaid Princesses have been shown to be invincible when they are combined. Michel would be somewhat less threatening, even though he is still as powerful. Seira would have been protected during her birth in the Indian Ocean, considering the fact that Sara could have more easily gathered all the Mermaid Princesses to witness and protect the birth of Seira together if she was alive.

If Michel was successful in absorbing Seira’s power though, Sara would have been the caretaker of Seira’s pearl, which would have been even more interesting to see what Sara might confess to Seira in their private moments alone in the subconscious realm.

Other stuff:

It would have been interesting to see how Kaito and Gaito interact as brothers, but also at the same time they were both brought up in vastly different environments; it would take a lot of communication for them to kindle a sense of brotherhood. If Sara had lived, I would also be keen to see how she would make amends to Coco, and perhaps a couple of episodes following the duo as they explore the human world.

Thank you so much for the ask, anon! This was such a fun rabbit hole to dig into. 😆

#mermaid melody #pichi pichi pitch #sara #seira #mitsuki tarou #asks #theories #hoshou hanon

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a-very-fond-farewell · 4 years

Text

The forbidden crack! Untamed prompts: 16/?

FMA AU meets “The Wind Rises” AU : “I still remember every day”

[crazy idea #1: if you are familiar with FMA: Brotherhood (superior in every way) you probably are too young or too smart to remember the original 2003 FMA clusterfuck series but i’m neither young nor smart so here is my take on one of my favorite animated movies of all times “The Conqueror of Shamballa” BUT the story doesn’t start in 1923 Germany but somewhere around 1923 Japan. If you are familiar with this movie and the 2003 series you will know Ed Elric has moved from London to Munich and started living there frequently interacting with a family of rocket scientists (sounds crazy if you are only knowledgeable with FMA: B, but… trust me). So i thought, “what if our protagonist (in this case WWX) travels from China to Japan to work on some airplanes instead?”]

[crazy idea #2: “The Wind Rises” from Ghibli is set in that historical period right? so what if we make transmigrated WWX work his engineering magic on some aircrafts before any conflict can actually take place? precisely between the end of the Taisho period (1912-1926) and the beginning of the Showa period (1926-1989), when the desire for innovation and the new technological advancements could be implemented while at peace.]

[obviously, this is just a prompt, and I don’t feel particularly comfortable with creating fantasy storylines so intertwined with actual historical events, especially if these events caused the suffering of many and belong to a culture that is not mine to describe with the potential risk of offending its values and legacy. also, fandom should be fun and if you love angst maybe this is not the prompt for you. on the other hand I thought of how much i love movies like “Porco Rosso”, set somewhat really fucking close to where I live while describing a fun and lighthearted narrative even if it’s dealing with historical and political events that are still fresh and painful in our collective memory nowadays. Maybe it is possible to write something easy and fun while, at the same time, setting it in a time of great difficulties without hurting anyone. Maybe I’m not the person for that (after all, this is just a prompt), but if you want to explore a similar plot you are encouraged to tag me bc I would really like to know your take on the matter. and if I happen to offend anyone I will properly apologize and take responsibility.]

[the title is from L’Arc-en-Ciel’s song “Lost Heaven”, which still makes me cry to this day]

When Wei WuXian wakes up after the core transplant surgery, the first thing he realizes is that he should be awake. Wen Qing insisted on the fact that he had to keep himself awake and conscious for the entirety of the procedure, otherwise he would have suffered from extreme backlash and so would have Jiang Cheng. But here he is, waking up from slumber after who know how many days. In front of a figure in white he doesn’t recognize. Everything is blurry in his periphery, as if he’s inhabiting two bodies at the same time. His every move heavy and his speech sluggish.

The person in white turns the moment Wei WuXian realizes he’s standing in the middle of nowhere, in the space between realities.

“Where am I?”, he asks, trying to make out the features of the person in front of him, their long white hair, the silver lining of their robes.

“You’re here to pay a price.”, the other answers, their voice a mere whisper. Barely louder than the crisp little noises the pins and jewelry adorning their hair and neck are making as the person approaches him slowly.

“A price for what?”

“Before losing consciousness, you wished for your brother to be saved no matter what.”

“Is… is Jiang Cheng safe?”

“He’s dying because you fell asleep.”, the other announces, sending shivers down Wei WuXian’s spine, dread sitting in the middle of his chest, “You cannot wake up, the damage is done. But if you enter this door you will be able to save him. Your body in this world will die, the core will not share two owners at once and your brother will be the only one able to use it from now on.”

Wei WuXian doesn’t have time to feel pain, determination painting him in vibrant colors in that white realm of silence and void. He turns as the person in white gestures him to do so and he finds a door so big it could rival with one of the gates of Koi Tower. Engraved on its surface are myriads of characters reminding him of something ancient and forbidden. Something so dark and dangerous not even cultivators as knowledgeable as Lan QiRen would be able to understand, let alone encourage learning about.

“What will i find on the other side?”, he wonders, watching as the gates slowly open in front of him, a warm wind spiraling upwards and messing his hair.

A kiss from the underworld.

Is this the day I die, he doesn’t ask.

“Another world.”, the woman in white and silver answers honestly.

Wei WuXian doesn’t have time to recognize her that he is dragged inside by a thousands of spirits with eyes for mouths and teeth for hands.

Mere months have passed since he woke up in a body similar to his original one, but completely different from his own at the same time. He’s still seventeen, but cannot rely on cultivation anymore. The brand scar he received in the cave of the Tortoise of Slaughter is nowhere to be seen. His mother and father welcomed him back in their arms, crying over his bedridden body thanking the heavens for saving their only son from typhoid fever. He knew deep down those were not his true parents, that Cange Sanren had a different name on top of that and that their actual son’s soul was probably the sacrificial lamb paid on the altar of Wei WuXian’s greed to save his only brother. He knew this since day one, yet he was too tired to say anything at the time. He woke up in a small village in the Hubei Province under the Republic of China, established twelve years prior. A reality almost identical to his own, but stripped of any power of the cultivation world.

However, now things have changed and his parents have died a second time, the fever and starvation taking them in their sleep one at a time. But not before his mother could send a desperate letter to an old acquaintance of hers asking them to take their son “Wei Ying” out of the country and save him from harm. After accepting her proposition, the Chinese diplomat Jiang Fenmiang has invited Wei Ying to live with him and their family in Tokyo, where he’s working in order to strengthen and acquiesce the relations between the two countries after a period of tension and grievances.

As he travels on what he understands to be called a “train”, Wei WuXian takes notes over the many technological advancements this new era has brought to humanity. Such as the ferry he has taken to travel overseas and now the locomotive taking him to Tokyo. The pain of losing his parents for the second time is still fresh, as is the memory of the past few months living alone on the streets chased by rabid dogs. His body is still weak after surviving the fever and his lungs and digestive system are forever compromised, but he wants to meet Jiang Chen and YanLi a second time in this new world. Feeling guilty for leaving them in a world ruled by the Qishan Wen clan, the only thing he can do is to atone in this new life and protect them in this reality. He takes a brief moment to himself as he looks up from his notes and sees a man approaching from the first class carriage of the train.

Initially Wei WuXian doesn’t regard the stranger with anything but a polite nod, some of his notes flying away from his journal as he adjusts himself on the platform at the end of his car. He sprints up to try to catch them... before the stranger could grab them for him and give them back.

It’s then that Wei WuXian recognizes the man, an older version of Lan Zhan from the one he remembers, dressed in modern clothing and shorter hair. He’s just another double, a copy of the original he used to know. Just like his mother and father, just like the Jiang family he’s going to meet soon. No recognition comes from the other-Lan Zhan, yet Wei WuXian lets himself stare for longer than necessary as he thanks the man.

A single tear rolls down his cheek as an earthquake shakes the train and destroys everything around them in that day of September 1923.

[details down below]

1923:

(WWX is 17)

the train stops and all the passengers survive, but they are scared and don’t know how to reach Tokyo safely by foot. Some officers guide them to the nearest road and help them walk for a while before they have to leave for the capital in an attempt to contain the flames of the many fires caused by the earthquake.

Lan Zhan’s double has the same name and features, but is now twenty-five and was supposed to arrive in Tokyo to meet with his brother, Lan Huan’s double. He’s a little more cheerful than what WWX remembers and he also decides to stick with the younger man all the way to Tokyo. After glancing at WWX’s notes earlier, in fact, double!LanZhan recognizes him as someone from his same country and reasons they should feel safer traveling together for a little while more.

given that trying to explain his situation to double!LanZhan would be useless, WWX simply agrees and shoves down any temptation to tell him all about Gusu and the cave and how much he wishes he could go back to his original world. They walk all the way to Tokyo talking quietly: they are surrounded by strangers, WWX doesn’t know much Japanese to begin with and he doesn’t want to be recognized as a foreigner.

uncle Jiang, along with some clothes to travel more comfortably, has sent him enough money to travel and direction to reach his home. The only thing WWX hopes is that nobody was injured in the earthquake and that no more waves can reach them before he can join them. What an unfortunate time to arrive. Aunt Yu would probably hate him in this reality too just because of that.

but as he trails behind double!LanZhan and enters Tokyo, WWX feels as if hell has found its way into the world, flames everywhere and nowhere to go. In the midst of chaos, however, double!LanZhan tries to keep him from fainting or shaking, talking about all the things he and his brother wish to work on as architects working for the government. Yet, WWX senses how worried he is for his twin brother and pities him as he tries to calm down, marveling at how much this version of Lan Zhan can talk. They walk towards the Jiang household as double!LanZhan chats about the university he’s supposed to work for the following month, wondering if it’s still intact after the catastrophe.

they reach the elegant house without any more troubles, relief spreading through their hearts as they notice it has endured little to no damage. Uncle Jiang scurries over them and immediately recognizes WWX bc of how much he resembles his mother and the man dotes on him from then on. He thanks double!LanZhan profusely, ignoring the resentful glances coming from his wife and the curious ones from his daughter. A kid roughly the same age as WWX approaches and takes the other’s only suitcase: a scowl on his face and hurry in his steps, telling WWX to keep up because “the world is crashing down if he hadn’t noticed”.

WWX doesn’t have time to properly thank double!LanZhan that he is urged inside by his new family.

1927:

(WWX is 21)

given the connections the Jiang family has in both countries, WWX and his step siblings are able to enjoy benefits others may only dream of, but the government is wary of foreigners and they need to act as good guests. This angers and stresses Jiang Cheng, his temper even worse than what WWX remembers, and he is even more rebellious than his new stepbrother. It’s WWX who needs to tone down the other’s snark at times, reminding him they cannot do as they please and that, even if others are jealous of their grades in university and overall position, they are still living in difficult times.

WWX knows this Jiang Cheng is a double ant that everything feels like a dream and nothing matters anymore, but if he pretends hard energy maybe he can stop feeling guilty for leaving his dear ones behind. But acknowledging this Jiang Cheng as the real one feels wrong and sometimes WWX distances himself from him, keeping his secrets for himself.

however, double!JiangCheng has seen his brother scream in his dreams, even waking him up in the middle of the night just to shake him from his horrible nightmares. Sometimes Wei Ying watches him in his sleep, when he hasn’t yet realized double!JiangCheng is awake, as checks for his breath. Other times he pressed a hand to his abdomen, as if checking for scars or injuries. He doesn’t know what it means, but he is willing to wait for the other to come around and they’ll him himself.

their sister YanLi has figured a way to be useful in a country wary of foreigners by studying to become a doctor and save lives. Their father is currently struggling at work because of the increasing tensions between the two countries and their mother keeps to herself in spite of everything.

WWX’s health deteriorates after he starts working, their supervisor suggesting him and his brother to keep a low profile just not to attract any unwanted attention on their family. Their work as engineers can convince the higher-ups to keep them close in case war were to strike again. But Jiang Cheng feels bad for working for a country constantly threatening his parent’s home country over mining rights and land ownership. He may love working on new aircrafts and test his limits, but he’s against using his energy and drive for appease someone else’s greed.

WWX, for the first time in his life, feels second to his brother, admiring his ability to distinguish from right and wrong while he himself cannot even tell dreams and reality apart. With a weakened body and a mind filled with memories of a world that doesn’t even exists, WWX convinces himself he’s in hell and this life is the punishment for being too greedy himself.

1929:

(WWX is 23, double!LWJ is 30)

tension is too strong for them to live in Tokyo, with Uncle Jiang forced to work for the government and scramble for solutions in order to keep his family safe in a secluded location in the mountains, in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. There, the elites enjoys the last days of peaceful times they will not see again for years to come.

WWX feels drained, dreaming of people he will either never see again or see every single day in the faces of strangers. Jiang Cheng convinces him to talk, even if only to ease his pain, but WWX cannot bring himself to reveal the whole truth. The only thing he feels like to share is that he has visions of another world and that maybe reincarnation is not as far fetched as it seems.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t really believe him, but he supports him and together with YanLi they try to make Wei Ying relax during their vacation on the mountains.

there, out of nowhere, WWX meets double!LanZhan and his brother: they meet on top of a hill as the wind rises and some of the two brothers’ musical scores fly away. WWX and his stepbrother catch them and bring them back as YanLi approaches the two musicians.

this time, WWX notice immediately something is wrong. Double!LanZhan is far less cheerful than what he remembers from their first encounter, while his brother seems to have lost his vision, music being his only comfort. The group exchanges pleasantries with the twins on top of the hill, until rain forces them all to seek refuge under some trees. WWX watches double!LanZhan closely and realizes these years apart must have been tough on him. He asks if double!LanHuan has lost his sight after the earthquake and the only thing double!LanZhan is able to do is nod, his eyes filled with tears.

Would it be so bad to befriend this other-LanZhan? Is it right for WWX to start a new life in hell with someone so compassionate and kind? Maybe that would be okay in the end, maybe they can be good friends and survive this world that is wary of them simply because of the greed of human kind. Then why does it feel wrong to let himself be loved by these people? Why does it feel like he’s betraying the ones he has left behind?

during their vacation, the two families get closer and they enjoy each other’s company. They talk in Japanese to not be stared by the other patrons and WWX wonders what happened in his world. If the Wens have crumbled down. If their name is synonymous with hatred and greed. If this is how any refugee would feel, isolated from the rest of the country while desperately trying to hold onto any familiar face and memory at hand.

Jiang Cheng doesn’t like to talk in another language and fear others might look down on him and seldom attracts attention by causing mayhem. But YanLi and even double!LanHuan help him come down from his stubborn antics and take him to long walks to calm down. This way, WWX and double!LanZhan are frequently left alone, because Wei Ying cannot walk for too long without feeling exhausted and so the other keeps him company.

since double!LanZhan is so under the weather and quiet, WWX takes it upon himself to entertain him and he spends their days chatting about the things he misses from home, what he would like to do if he were to live somewhere else, they airplanes he would like to make. He doesn’t talk about how much me misses flying on a sword, or how the wind fills under his clothes up in the air, or how much he would have loved to hold onto Lan Zhan among the stars at night.

WWX cries in front of double!LanZhan without noticing one day, missing the days at the Cloud Recesses when they were classmates and he used to pester the other boy. And only now, only now he understands what it was, what he wanted to convey with his antics. How much he wanted the other to notice him and pay attention to him. But the one rubbing a comforting hand up and down his spine now is not his Lan Zhan. Even if he’s just as kind and compassionate, just as quiet and brilliant, just as hurt and lonely.

they share a kiss under the trees of a meadow one afternoon and WWX feels like he’s either betraying the real Lan Zhan or this gentle young man who’s never done anything bad in his entire life. And he doesn’t know why double!LanZhan is crying as well as they kiss, but he’s too afraid to ask.

the following day Uncle Jiang calls the rest of his family back home and the Jiang siblings say their goodbyes to the twins hiding alone with their uncle on the mountain. Promising to meet each other again soon, even if WWX knows that’s most likely nothing but a well intentioned lie given the hardships they’re bound to face.

1930:

Lan Zhan:

(WWX is 24, double!LWJ is 31)

after meeting with the Jiang family, the twins try to retrieve their life as usual the moment they return in Tokyo for the winter. Their uncle notices double!LanZhan’s distress over departing from the young men he had met there, but his inquiry is fruitless since his nephew refuses to speak. The old man has noticed some changes in the younger twin over the course of a couple of years or so: his frequent migraines and tiredness, his laborious efforts to speak as if feverish and confused, his nights interrupted by nightmares more often than not.

even his brother has noticed the difference despite losing his vision in the fire at the imperial university seven years prior. His cheerful spirit is gone, his steps alternate different rhythms at times, and even his accent often doesn’t sound familiar to him. In his younger brother’s words “it’s almost as if two of me are residing in a single body”. But Lan Huan doesn’t know what to make of it, wishing he could look his brother in the eyes and see the truth for himself.

double!LanZhan, on the other hand, feels split in half ever since he has kissed Wei Ying. He remembers that day because his body has moved on its own, half of his mind lost in Wei Ying’s grey eyes while the other half (his own half) was trying to understand why the sudden urge to hold the boy tighter in his arms. He felt like someone had possessed him for those brief, stolen moments in time before leaving his body altogether the second Wei Ying has run away from him in the meadow.

unable to find an answer, feverish and tired with a migraine splitting his brain in half, double!LanZhan wanders around Tokyo trying to remember where the Jiang residence was. His feet walking him towards Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng’s room in the evening one day. Wei Ying is alone, sitting down by a table covered in drawings. Mesmerized, double!LanZhan watches from the window as Wei Ying traces the lines of faces and places, over an over again, as if he doesn’t want to forget what his imagination has shown him that night.

seeing what is depicted on the table, double!LanZhan’s migraine worsens and he collapses in the back garden, snow piling up on him. Wei Ying immediately notices and brings him inside, covering him in quilts to keep him warm. But Wei Ying is the warmest of all, his embrace like a balsam over double!LanZhan’s pulsing head as the younger tries to keep him warm by rubbing his arms over and over.

suddenly his head doesn’t hurt anymore and he can finally, finally let go. Let the other half take his place for now, just for a little while, as he takes a small nap in Wei Ying’s arms.

when he wakes up, Lan Zhan cries all of his tears.

he was finally able to reach Wei Ying, his Wei Ying, who was trapped in another world. The one Lan Zhan has been looking for ever since the end of the Sunshot Campaign, ever since Jiang Cheng himself told him of his demise. The one Lan Zhan was able to reach only after sacrificing his golden core to the immortal turned goddes BaoShan Sanren in front of a gate born from the efforts of some past demonic cultivator.

for two years he had tried to make his way through the veil between realities, his consciousness exhausted as if he had been swimming for far too long. The other-him, the man who shared his name and face, hosting his soul at the expenses of his own body for over two years. All because of Lan Zhan’s grief and greed, all because a goddess had promised him he could be reunited with the love of his life. But at what cost... at what cost indeed.

since two souls cannot reside in a single body, one of them had to die in order for Lan Zhan to meet his Wei Ying again. The moment WWX sees the other cry, he immediately recognizes him and tries to console him for the loss of his “other”. But LWJ cannot seem to feel any relief as he falls asleep once more in his arms.

Jiang Cheng:

Jiang Cheng enters the room and is baffled to find one of the twins in there, but seeing his brother crying over the man he decides to help them instead of calling the servants. Things are turning ugly in town for people like them and he doesn’t trust anyone anymore since YanLi got married and started working for the hospital, leaving the brothers alone.

in tears, Wei Ying tells him everything: of his dreams of another world, of the one he was destined to meet, of Lan Zhan finally remembering who he really was. He’s still fixated on this “past life” thing, uh? Jiang Cheng doesn’t really understand, but he knows the two man has grown fond of each other the previous summer and doesn’t really envy their fate.

he watches over them as they fall asleep in each other’s arms, having promised them to keep the servants from knowing about Lan Zhan’s presence in their house. That’s when he comes up with a plan and calls Lan Huan on the phone, briefly telling him that “his brother Lan Zhan has made a choice and that he cannot stay in Tokyo anymore”.

Lan Huan asks Jiang Cheng if his brother is there, to which the other only says “yes”. Is he with Wei Ying? Yes. Are they in love? Yes. Do they need to hide? “I can manage that for them.”

They meet the following morning at dawn, outside of Lan XiChen’s house to not attract the attention of the Jiang servants. Jiang Cheng will escort the two lovebirds to a cottage somewhere in the countryside, far away from society. When Lan Huan will succeed in convincing Lan QiRen to follow him there, they will receive them and arrange something.

Jiang Cheng May not believe his brother, but he knows things are getting dangerous in the country, especially for foreigners like them. Let alone someone like Wei Ying and his lover.

Wei WuXian:

While Lan Zhan is still feverish, Jiang Cheng and WWX take the train with the older man to the countryside. WWX feels bad for leaving, but Lan Zhan needs to rest away from the modern world for a while and he himself doesn’t feel well at all. Not with his lungs giving up on him any time he has to stiffen a cough and swallow his own blood with every breath. His weakened body may have caught something in the last few months, but he will not give up on Lan Zhan now.

They reach the cottage and Jiang Cheng immediately sends a letter to his sister, apologizing for what he’s about to do. They only have to wait a week for Lan Huan and Lan QiRen to arrive, but in the meantime Lan Zhan has regained enough energy to eat and stand up on his own. WWX asks him what is going on, and LWJ tells him that he’s currently trying to hold onto this body while simultaneously ruling over his original body in Gusu. He doesn’t want to fade away, but he fears slipping out of reach and leave WWX behind a second time.

when Lan QiRen sees them, he cannot deny what is in front of him: someone who is merely pretending to be his nephew greets him with a stoic face as he announces his intention to marry a man. Despite the initial shock, when Lan Huan has asked him to take him in the middle of nowhere in the countryside in winter, Lan QiRen has accepted to indulge him knowing Lan Zhan must have had something to do with it. But this in front of him is definitely not his nephew and this realization hurts more then knowing he is in love with a man.

Lan Huan, on the other hand, knows from his voice this is not his brother but cannot explain why. He’s filled with grief at the thought and not even his uncle can comfort him, the older man himself in pain for a loss he cannot comprehend.

WWX asks them to indulge them just this time, feeling like his life is getting closer and closer to its end, not knowing what else to do. Jiang Cheng comforts the two men as he tries to explain his reasons, that nobody will let them have even an ounce of joy in the world they’re forced to live in and that, if things will end up getting worse in the end, at least they’ll have this memory to look back to. He feels like a war is approaching, and no one can know what kind of world will greet them at the end of it.

Lan Zhan:

the day of his wedding he’s very nervous, having asked their hosts to simplify the traditional ceremony given the fact that Wei Ying and he are both men and there are no actual guest attending. They bow to the heavens and the earth, to their families, and then to each other. Their clothes are far less expensive or appropriate from the nuptial red they would have worn under different circumstances, yet Lan Zhan has never felt more adorned and rich, basking in Wei Ying’s love.

they spend their first night together whispering sweet nothings in each other’s ears, tired and happy as they have never been before.

Wei WuXian:

they stay at the cottage for months, receiving news from the outside world every now and then from Jiang Cheng and Lan Huan. He suspects his brother is keeping something to himself, ignoring his questions over the political situation altogether, but he doesn’t insist.

LWJ tells him stories of the Sunshot Campaign, of how he tried to save the weak, the women, the children and the innocent of the Wen Clan against the rest of the cultivation world. Of how he found a way to summon BaoShan Sanren through some scrolls he had found in Burial Mounds, where he thought WWX’s soul might have disappeared to. Of how he hadn’t even been able to say goodbye to his brother and the people he had saved in Yiling before signing a contract with the immortal.

WWX’s lungs are giving up on him but he tries to keep LWJ from noticing. YanLi comes to meet them one day and makes sure to cry for her brother only when they are finally alone, sensing his intention to keep his husband from knowing the truth. He knows LWJ cannot possibly keep holding onto two bodies at the same time: waking up in Yiling the moment he falls asleep in the cottage; then waking up with Wei Ying every morning the moment he falls asleep in Burial Mounds where he has decided to hide. Without a golden core, for as strong as someone like LWJ can be, he would die if he keeps crossing the veil, the gate between the two worlds.

the day after YanLi has left them alone, WWX spends his last day with his husband, making sure everything is perfect. he also sends letters to his family and thanks them for loving him. he extends his best wishes to the people who worked alongside him, helping him bring to fruition his dream to fly in the sky once more... even if he has never flown in this lifetime.

he’s very happy with his husband and wants to commit every second they spend together to heart. They make love for the last time before they both fall asleep together and dream of home.

he whispers “I wish you good luck” before falling asleep.

Lan Zhan:

he wakes up the next day and Wei Ying is gone. His body cold in his arms.

mad with grief, unable to believe a life without WWX can or should exist, he cries over his husband’s body and wishes he could die.

Lan Huan and Lan QiRen happen to visit that day and find him crestfallen and asking to be left alone to die. But they help him bury the body instead and take care of him. Lan QiRen suddenly feels terrible at the thought of leaving this boy all alone, whether he’s actually his nephew or not. Lan Huan convinces his brother to eat and rest, holding him for as long as it takes for him to calm down.

the following day, as the younger twin wakes up, he asks Lan Huan why they’re in a cottage in the countryside and what happened while he was asleep.

the actual LWJ, by falling asleep, not willing to wake up in a world where WWX doesn’t exists anymore, has allowed double!LanZhan to regain complete control over the body in the cottage. The twin wasn’t dead, just dormant, waiting for LWJ to let go of his body on his own.

waking up in the Burial Mounds, however, with no golden core and no Wei Ying is worse than anything LWJ has ever experienced. Having to survive WWX’s death not one, but two times is too much to handle... but a small kid has found his place in his arms while LWJ was sleeping. His beloved A-Yuan, one of the few Wen children he was able to save from the Lanling Jin’s clutches after the Sunshot Campaign.

as he takes in the sight of the child he considers his own, peacefully sleeping in his bed, LWJ finds the strength to say “just another day”. And then another and another and another again.

13 years later:

Mo XuanYu sacrifices his body for WWX and the first thing Wei Ying does in his new body is to ask the Lan juniors to bring him to Hanguan Jun.

but Lan Zhan is already there, following the juniors around after managing to reforming a golden core in just a little over ten years all on his own. The first thing he says to Wei Ying is “I still remember every day.”

and they begin to travel together for the rest of their life.

Now I need a fucking tissue.

[as you can see very little “conquering another world” type of quest because I didn’t like to think too hard. This is more like “what if before transmigrating WWX and LWJ lived somewhere else and got married?” But then I had to make it sad, uh? Fuck.]

[also, demonic-cultivator!LWJ anyone?]

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #wangxian #mo dao zu shi #the forbidden crack! untamed prompts #mdzs/au: manga/anime inspired #mdzs/au: fma #mdzs/au: ghibli #mdzs/au: modern

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glorifiedsnickersbar · 4 years

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Farthest North

BY: DatFandomGirl1 -| A CountryHumans AU |- \\A few things before we start: 1: The tallest countries are USSR and Third Reich, this is due to the fear of them that grew while they were in power (Or their egos if you want a good laugh) - also for the story’s sake. 2: Provinces, States or Territories are children unless forced to grow up or decide to become a country. 3: The CountryHumans live in their own dimension, but can go between their world and the human world via a ring, which is decorated buy their respective flag. Only the owner of the ring can use it. It can take them anywhere as long as they can think of an adjective that can directly connect to that person/place/thing. 4: Humans can go to the CountryHuman world but only stay for a few minutes before fading back into their own world. 5: There are some historical inaccuracies which will be marked with this symbol (!), the correct information will be given below the chapter. 5: Translations of foreign words (Not English) will be at the bottom of each chapter, please forgive me if some are not accurate, I am only beginning to learn German and am mostly using Google translate for lack of bilingual and/or foreign friends. 6: I describe USSR as a corrupted Russian Empire, considering both were brutal and absolutely horrid. Please enjoy the story! It is by no means meant to make fun of, offend or call out any one race, nationality or government, and does not represent the opinions of any one people.

I will be updating once a week.

--- Chapter 1 -- You Have Mail

Word count: 1063

America, Russia, Japan, China, Poland, Australia - so many countries, a big world it is, out there. Dangerous, sometimes cruel, unruly and painful. America knew it when he separated from his father's hierarchy, but it was better than being treated like an uncared for adopted child. He knew the story of Les Misérables. He declared that he would never treat his children as such, those being the States. He cared for each and every one of them, though what he called "business" often took him away. He wasn't a total flop of a father, he'd visit every single one of his precious kids... at least, that's what he thought.

"Has anyone seen America?" Canada questioned those who were already eating at the table, their current meeting place being chosen by Russia: a bar.

"Someone came by with a letter," announced Japan, her smile showing how oblivious she was at the fact America took the time to answer something like that. Get togethers like this usually made him ignore matters that needed his attention, "Said something about an estate."

Canada nodded, and sat in the empty seat, knowing the star clad patriot would simply steal Russia's.

The happy country came back, dumping Russia from his chair, as Canada predicted, and sat down, the letter no where to be seen.

"How's it popping 'Cans?" He asked with a wide smile, glasses hiding his eyes.

"Not to bad," he answered, "Japan said something about a letter?"

"Oh, yeah," he blew a raspberry, "Some prank, nothing serious."

Oh how wrong he was.

The group, consisting of America, Japan, Canada, Russia and Germany, broke their "meeting" after Russia decided to go for a third bottle of hard liquor, dragging him to Germany's car, who decided he would drive him home. Japan announced that she had some business with another trade partner, so she left the group after another ten minutes of babble. Then the five became two, brothers 'till the end, walking down the sidewalk since they had nothing else to do.

"How are the States?" Canada asked, genuinely curious. America had been spending a bit more time with them lately.

"They're great," he chuckled, "Delaware just celebrated her 232nd birthday! She's so cute. I was able to get Japan to make dolls that resembled the two men on her flag!"

The country was so proud of his first state, glad that she would never grow up, unless she decided to become a country, that is... but that wouldn't happen, he takes care of all of his children, daughters and sons, so they all remained with the size and somewhat the mindset of children.

"How's Arizona? I hear she's had quite the wake up call with the sudden cold snap." Canada inquired, making America laugh.

"Oh dear, it's 90 instead of 190, whatever will she do?" He laughed, the poor girl claimed she was freezing to death in these winter months.

The two walked in a comfortable silence for awhile. The air was clear, a perfect Pennsylvania afternoon. The little tike was probably somewhere playing in the dirt, or helping some of the Amish folk with their work. He loved to help, always eager to get down in the dirt or play with the farm animals. Pennsylvania was an animal lover for sure, not as crazy a lover as Australia, nowhere close, considering these were mostly domesticated animals, but his love for nature showed most definitely. The birds chirped, sending a witty air toward the two countries, who laughed when an orange tabby ran by, trying to catch whatever species of bird its eyes were on. The colder dirt road before them ran for miles, unpaved until it reached the city, several miles away. Amish country was so natural, practically untouched. No electricity, cars, WiFi. Nothing of the sort. So relaxing.

"So... what was the letter about exactly?" Canada dared interrupt the soft sound of breezing silence.

"It was a declaration of independence," he shrugged, "It was from one of my states, I don't think it said which, but I haven't felt anything nagging at me, and my 50 hasn't turned to 49. It's a joke, all my kids love me!"

So sure. Yes, all his children loved him, but he didn't love them equally.

"I think we need to get going..." Canada looked at his phone, finding it to be later than he intended to stay out, "We have a world meeting, remember?"

America groaned. He hated those. Always so boring, they never needed him around anyway.

"Want me to drop you off at your house?" He sighed, bringing out a ring with his flag engraved into it.

"No, thank you," Canada smiled, bringing out a ring with his own flag engraved, "I remembered my key this time."

The two smiled at each other, and America gave a playful salute before throwing the ring on the ground, Canada mimicking the action, and they left through the worm hole, each stepping into their living room.

Yawning, America decided that now would be the time to clean up the party mess. Hats laid strewn around, party poppers littered the floor, and a half eaten birthday cake slice was still on the coffee table. He chuckled, remembering how his little Delaware was so surprised when the lights came on. He was glad that the CountryHumans were able to have their own private world, or else the humans would have complained about noise. His neighbors complained anyway, of course.

If you looked outside you'd see a world like any other, a small city, population: 195 (not including states or territories). America's mansion held all of his children, though they were currently in the human world having the time of their lives. He remembered his father's palace, Britain, a powerful country, in his time anyway. Now all that's ever really talked about is the royal family, nothing that determined the life or death of another country.

Finishing what cleaning he wanted to do, the man looked at his watch. Time to go. America took hold of his ring again, and with one simple thought, threw it on the ground, stepping into the grand meeting room. When the worm hole closed, he picked up his ring, stashing it into his pocket. He dawned a lazy smile below his signature sunglasses, until he saw who stood in the middle of the circular seating area.

"Alaska?"

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starshinegoblin · 5 years

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In Your Arms

So, I wanted something soft but also kind of sad. So here’s to the moment in Walking Into Your Love au, where Jin Ling goes to Paris after Jingyi’s parents abandon him. @ruensroad - Thanks for listening to my idea! :D

He’s stupid. He’s so freaking stupid. He should have known this would happen. Yesterday was too good to be true. How could he have missed the signs? Wasn’t being twenty three too old to be falling for the same tricks?

Jingyi took a deep breath trying to dampen down the wave of anger but also stave off the rising panic. His hands already slightly shaking. He was in a whole different country. Thirteen hours by flight away from home. He closed his eyes leaning back to let his head hit the hotel room headboard. His parents were supposed to fly him back home and now...

“Sir?” The reception desk man’s voice cuts through his thoughts.

“That’ll be all thank you.” Jingyi replied with a crack in his voice, before ending the call. He tossed the cordless phone onto the bed beside him. He pulled his legs up to his chest while his hands moved to cradle his face. He let out a shuddering breath before dropping his hands. He started breathing in and out just like Dr. Ziyi had taught him during their sessions. This was not the place to have a panic attack.

After what felt like an hour of just breathing and meditating, Jingyi opened his eyes and started thinking. He needed to get back home but how? He didn’t bring the funds with him to be able to fly home because he thought they were taking him home. His next option was the most obvious. Suzhui. He knew that his best friend and many ways brother, would be more than happy to buy a ticket home. But that also meant Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji finding out. He loved them both and knew they loved him, but Wei Wuxian would be on an overprotective warpath.

He bit his lip as he thought of Jin Ling. He let himself flop onto his side with an exasperated sigh. It would be embarrassing but how could this situation not be? They were supposed to be friends and for everything that's happened between him. The man has never judged him. But this was weak. A weakness that only his adoptive family knew about. Jingyi drew his knees in. Letting him know about this was truly opening his heart to the man he’d come to adore and desire.

“I shou-” Jingyi started rationalizing out loud till his phone started ringing. He reached over seeing that it was in fact Jin Ling.

“Hey-“

“You missed our video chat this morning. Fairy and I got worried.”

“No, I was just..” he paused wondering how to word what had happened.

Oh, I’m sorry I worried you both, but here I am just freaking out because I let my parents fool me again. I let them talk me into a family vacation only to leave me in a different country. When I could have stayed home and spent the week with you and Fairy.

“Jingyi?” Jin Ling called to him stirring him from his internal tirade.

“Yes…”

“Have you eaten yet?” Jin Ling asked, his tone soft.

“No…” Jingyi answered honestly.

“Then I want you to get up and take a shower. There’s this cafe that has the best chausson aux pommes and they’ll have the tea that you like.” Jin Ling stated. Jingyi could feel the other smiling as he spoke.

“Is that some kind of snail? Wait... you’ve been here?” Jingyi tried to joke but found himself wincing. Of course the man would have been to Paris. He’s the CEO of Koi Tower Industries. They have a branch here.

“Yes, when I was in high school. I spent a year there. My jiujiu thought it would be a good experience for me since I wanted to run the company.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, hold on a second,” Jin Ling said before the line went silent that made Jingyi check to see if the other had hung up for how long he waited. “Sorry about that. Now, get up and go take a shower.”

“How do you know that I’ve not already done that?”

“Because you would have called us afterwards. Remember?”

Jingyi pouted but also blushed. He couldn’t believe that he’d gotten so predictable that Jin Ling noticed. Well of course he would notice. Jin Ling was more perceptive than he was normally given credit for.

“Jingyi get into the shower.” Jin Ling pushed again.

“What’s the rush it’s not like your…” he paused as it dawned on him why he kept pushing for him to get dressed. He quickly sat up. “...are you here? Oh my god, please tell me you’re not here because of me?”

“I was craving chausson aux pommes.” Jing Ling chuckled.

“You’re not serious.” Jingyi asked, his tone incredulous.

“I’ve gone to Japan for less.”

“For what?”

“You’ll have to be dressed and ready to have breakfast with me to find out.” Jin Ling answered before hanging up. Jingyi sat there on his bed staring at his phone with his mouth gaping like a fish. He was like that for a few minutes before he got another text reminding him to shower.

Jin Ling grinned as he laid the phone down on his desk in his office. He turned to look out at the view from his window. The view being one of the reasons he loved being at this branch. Memories of the past coming to him. He’d had a good time here and would be forever grateful to his jiujiu letting him come to this country.

His phone gave off a bird’s tweeting sound. He reached for his phone seeing that it was an alert from Jingyi’s mother’s account. She was tweeting about some church in Germany. He rolled his eyes unfollowing her. Since he no longer needed to follow her account to see when they’d abandon Jingyi again. This would be the last time he’d let this happen.

He was glad that he’d heard Sizhui’s dad ranting to his husband about Jingyi’s parent’s habit of abandoning him. No matter the place. When he’d joined them for dinner the night before Jingyi’s flight. Wei Wuxian had vented that he was worried about the trip. That maybe they should go with him just in case.

That’s when he made the decision to use his own jet to fly ahead to Paris after he’d taken Jingyi home. He wasn’t going to let him be stranded. Plus he knew that Jingyi’s parents had told Jingyi they’d use their private plan to bring him back to visit Lan Qiren from Sizhui. So, that night he told Jingyi that he’d be wrapped up in back to back meetings while he was gone. He’d felt guilty for lying at first but now he knew what he did was right. He looked up as Rayne stepped into his office breaking him from his thoughts. A folder in her hand.

“Is everything ready?” He asked hand extending to take the folder.

“Yes, sir.” She answered.

“Good.”

The two of them had a good breakfast together at the cafe. Jin Ling had looked really good when he’d arrived. His hair down and in a braid over his shoulder. The brown leather jacket over his white t-shirt and dark wash jeans with converses. The most dressed down he’d seen him in a while. He realized that he mostly seen the man in suits or gym clothes from going to the gym with his jiujiu or evening runs.

After breakfast, Jin Ling had taken him all over Paris sightseeing. It’d been fun but he knew it would have been even better if Fairy could have been with them. Which made him message Sizhui, who said he was the one watching the beautiful puppy while they were gone.

“I’m so tired.” Jingyi yawned hours later, standing in front of his hotel room with Jin Ling. He’d honestly had a great day despite how it started. Jin Ling had given him the perfect distraction and treated him to great food all day.

“Well then go inside and get some sleep. I have some more places to show you tomorrow.” Jin Ling smiled tiredly at him.

“Where are you staying?” Jingyi asked as it suddenly dawned on him Jin Ling had mentioned earlier.

“I’m staying in the suite at the-“

“Don’t you dare say branch office. That’s just sad, A-Ling” Jingyi frowned with a sigh.

“It’s just—“ Jin Ling stuttered at the nickname.

“Across town and it’s almost midnight. You’re not going to drive across town to sleep at your work place. Just stay here with me. The bed is big enough for the both of us.“ Jingyi offered giving him, his best version of puppy eyes as he opened the door. A look he’d noticed worked on Jin Ling from him sometimes. He gripped Jin Ling’s wrist pulling him into the room before the other could turn for the elevators.

“I’ll take the couch.”

“Bed.” Jingyi countered pointing to the king sized bed that looked like it could sleep four people. “We are adults not animals.”

“So what’s your excuse for sleeping on mine in my office at home?” Jin Ling asked, eyebrows raised playful in curiosity.

“Oh you mean the cloud like crafted lounging place?” Jingyi asked, grinning because they both know the answer.

“Yes.”

“Simple. Because it actually comfortable. That thing is not comfy. Speaking from someone who knows.” Jingyi answered giving the couch a disgusted look.

“Whatever, I think you need some sleep.” Jin Ling chuckled “Don’t you normally go to sleep around nine?”

“Oh shush.” Jingyi playfully snapped as he went to the drawers of the dresser pulling out a pair of extra pajama pants and soft t-shirt to sleep in. He handed them to Jin Ling to be able to change into. So he wouldn’t have to sleep in his clothes he’d worn today. “Here, if you want to take a shower.”

“Thanks”. Jin Ling said taking off his jacket, tossing over the arm of the couch before taking the clothes.

He was perched on the edge of the bed flipping through the channels when Jin Ling stepped out of the bathroom. His felt his mouth run dry. Jin Ling had his hands up in his hair with the towel drying it. He was shirtless wearing the navy drawstring cotton pajama pants. Though, his golden eyes focused on purple the blooming lotus on his left sun kissed pec.

“Uh the shirt didn’t fit.” Jin Ling said bringing his attention back to Jin Ling’s face,”So I left it in there for you.”

“T-thanks.” Jingyi said snapping his mouth shut before tossing the remote on the bed.

“Enjoy your bath.” Jin Ling called after him as he headed into the bathroom to shower. If he took a little longer than necessary he wasn’t going to explain himself.

When he finally emerged from the shower. Jin Ling had the television turned off, the curtains drawn, and laying on the side of the bed not directly underneath the vent. Jingyi watched the slow rise and fall of his chest. So, he assumed the other was asleep.

He was wrong.

“Are just going to stand there or are you going to come to bed?” Jin Ling asked, tone sluggish like he was about to actually fall asleep.

“Uh...Yeah.” Jingyi said, stumbling over his words as he headed to his side of the bed. He laid down on his side with his back facing Jin Ling. Just as he got comfortable and about to fall asleep when his phone vibrated. He opened his eyes to see the phone screen was lit up. Jingyi reached out grabbing his phone to check out who it was.

The joy of the day slipping away like sand in an hourglass. The notification was from his mother’s instagram account. She was updating her account with pictures of her’s and his father’s vacation spots. And she posted a photo that she tagged him in. However, he wasn’t in the photo. He’d been cropped out and a filter with a frame added to hide it. Jingyi’s throat tightened as his heart ached with an all too familiar pain. He tossed his phone back onto his nightstand. Not caring when it slid off falling to the plush carpet floor. He rolled onto his back letting out a shuddering sigh as he stared up at the ceiling. Jingyi shut his eyes when he felt the familiar burn of tears threatening to form.

“What’s wrong?” Jin Ling asked making Jingyi jump. Jingyi didn’t realize how close that the other man was. He opened his eyes, turning his head to find out that Jin Ling was an arms length away.

“N-nothing.” He replied,trying to keep the cracking out his voice, but he knew that he’d failed when he heard Jin Ling huff in disbelief.

“What can I do?” Jin Ling asked sounding more awake than before.

“Can I have a hug?” Jingyi asked after a few minutes of internal debate.

Instead of answering him, Jin Ling moved closer before moving an arm over Jingyi’s stomach. Jin Ling gripped his side rolling him towards him. Jingyi allowed himself to the movement so that he was facing the other man. That same arm wrapping around him. He didn’t want to look the other in the eye. So he leaned down tucking his face into the crook of Jin Ling’s neck and shoulder as he wrapped an arm around Jin ling’s waist. Jin Ling pulled him closer leaving no space between.

The scent of his soap on Jin Ling’s warm skin and Jin Ling’s hand gently rubbing his back lulling him to sleep before he can even thank him. Jin Ling smiled feeling the other fall asleep in his arms. He pressed a soft kiss to the top of Jingyi’s head before adjusting his arm to keep him close as he too let himself go to sleep.

#walking into your heart au #jinyi #Jingyi always deserves better from his parents #jin ling #lan jingyi #wei Sizhui #the untamed #Sorry if there are any errors #I just hope that you enjoy it!

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therookieking412 · 5 years

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Friday Spin Class II

Alright let’s get into it.

Fair warning, this is a theory, a very far-fetched theory but one I kind of enjoy. In my last Friday Spin Class, I made a slight mention to Paulo and I am going to be writing an essay about him, however not the typical character analysis I have been promising, oh no. This is a theory I have cooked up about Paulo, Drosselmeyer, Fakir and Rue, buckle your seat belts, you ready?

Paulo is Fakir’s uncle.

Crazy, right? Well, not to crazy, I’ve scraped together some evidence that will hopefully bring some of you into my favor, or it may just not be strong enough proof for some of you, but here we go!

First, let’s talk about the Drosselmeyer family tree, specifically the one Autor made.

There are three rules he has made up for his tree, first: that descendants are connected through a line, if anyone doesn’t have children, the spot under their name is left bare, and if someone had a child, but they died or disappeared, they are crossed off with an X.

I will not acknowledge the dotted lines because those are either uncertainties or Autor’s personally theories about who some of the most recent generation are and how he’s connected.

Drosselmeyer is at the top, he has three children - the middle children having no children themselves - we’ll just follow the line of the youngest, since that’s Fakir’s line. This child had two themselves, the eldest had two children, the eldest had two children, Fakir’s aunt/uncle and then his father (and as we all know, Rue was taken by the crows).

Now all this is to show that Fakir does have an uncle/aunt, so this isn’t entirely out of nowhere, ‘kay.

I’m not sure why Autor has Rue listed first before Fakir, but that might have just been a mistake.

That does lead to my next bit of evidence - why Fakir went to Charon, the family friend, instead of his next closest relative.

Out of all the characters on Princess Tutu, Paulo is the only one that is apart of a traveling troupe, meaning he can’t stay in one place to give a child a good home.

It’s possible that Paulo wasn’t even there when any of this happened, when Fakir was born, when Rue was, and when she was taken, when their parents died, that he was away with his troupe writing ballets, and given that Kinkan is kind of trapped, it wouldn’t be easy to communicate with the outside world, no matter how advanced or modern the world is.

This is the first time Paulo has come back to his hometown.

Also why come to Kinkan? How would he have found out about it?

It’s a small, strange little town, and obviously people can walk in and find it, “Was mom always an India Rhinoceros?” but what business does this bring? If you’re going to Germany with your ballet troupe, you’re going to Berlin, not some backwater town.

And yes, Kinkan does have a ballet academy that seems rather prestigious, so maybe in the ballet world there’s Kinkan is a more respectable town. But I doubt it.

Next, I want to talk about his face.

Like full offence, but that’s the exact same nose.

And my friend made the excellent point that that’s just the stereotype they have for white men in Japan.

(Not to mention their eyes; they’re both this weird bubble eye shape.)

This guy’s nose is slimmer than both Paulo’s and Drosselmeyer’s, and it’s hard to tell here, but it’s not the straight nose both Paulo and Drosselmeyer sport.

And Charon’s nose is perfect, look at it, ugh. I love big noses.

Three of these noses are different noses, and two are the same.

Maybe a coincidence, I don’t know, I mean Fakir has a regular anime nose, but Drosselmeyer telling Fakir that he looks like a younger version of Drosselmeyer sounds like a bold faced lie when I see Paulo and Drosselmeyer next to each other.

I also realize that Paulo would be fourth generation, so unless every single kid got that nose (except Fakir) it might not be the strong connection I think it is.

Now, let’s move on to what I think is the main event.

Paulo realizes his wife is upset, and he knows how to comfort her.

In my previous essay, I made it known that Paulamoni is stepping into the wrong role.

And what, pray tell is Paulo’s dream?

“Sure, there are some dreams that can’t come true, but there is no rule that says you can have one dream. My dream is this: to enthrall people all over the world with your dancing. And to do that, I even thought up the perfect program for you.”

Not saying he’s a story spinner… but your boy’s a story spinner.

Okay, so let’s consider this logically, in my very first essay, I stated that the story spinners don’t start stories themselves, but stories happen, and it’s their job to finish them, the start of a story is a happy accident.

Paulamoni’s perfect program has already started, this is the beginning of her story, her program, she has found her role and now Paulo with finish it for her, create for her a ballet and let her be the main character.

So, the way, let’s say a novel, and a ballet are written are very different, a novel contains more words and uses those only to captivate an audience, while a program would have music, and stage directions, steps to take, etc.

But, both are a story, but written and ended by someone.

Whatever her program is, it will still be a story, just like the Prince and the Raven is a story, just like what Fakir writes for Ahiru is a story.

Paulo is a story spinner, and Fakir has an uncle, out of both of them, Paulo looks a lot more like Drosselmeyer than Fakir ever has (thank you, Fakir’s mom), so whether Paulo is related to Fakir or not, if he is but from a different one of Drosselmeyer’s kids, or if he’s just his own story spinner, unrelated to all of this, these are the facts, presented to us by the show, I don’t think it’s so far fetched to string it all together.

(Also, Paulo and Paulamoni definitely don’t want kids, and that’s fine, it’s also probably why they didn’t fight for custody over Fakir.)

So… ta-da.

Don’t kill me.

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theabandonedones · 5 years

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GET TO KNOW THE BLOGGER.

Can be used for RP and non-RP blogs to get to know a bit about the person behind the screen!

tagged by: no one, i snagged it from @marudeinu tagging: do crime

1. FIRST NAME: Kerri

2. STRANGE FACT ABOUT YOURSELF:

I have more stuffed animals than my nephew and I will never change.

My first tattoo was a friday the 13th sale line tattoo of a cat in a pumpkin and I regret nothings

I’m obsessed (literally) with planners / stationery / etc

3. TOP THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE ON A PERSON:

Eyes are always the first thing I’m drawn to. It’s not a color thing, but interesting eyes that are fun to stare into? A+

Jawlines. I’m a slut for a nice jawline.

I really like slender fingers? Dainty hands man, they’re so nice.

4. A FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOREVER AND NOT GET BORED OF: Salad! I love salad so much, and you can do so much with it!!!

5. A FOOD YOU HATE: I honestly can’t stand cranberry sauce, my guy

6. GUILTY PLEASURE: I’m not really guilty of any of my pleasures, but I’ll say, I’m a fan of M/LP: friendship is m/agic, and no I don’t regret it. It’s the show that got me into voice acting.

7. WHAT DO YOU SLEEP IN: leggings or pj pants, and a tank top (or no shirt)

8. SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS OR FLINGS: Serious! Like my relationships right now! I’m too emotional for flings - always have been. I support fling-havers with all my heart, but I am a soft romantic who can’t handle that

9. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN THE PAST AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU AND WHAT WOULD IT BE: I’m a firm believer that a lot of things shape who we are, so, as much as I would love not to be a traumatized wreck, part of me would always worry that I’d be drastically different if not for the experiences I’ve had. But honestly... I’d have said ‘I love you’ to my mom more, I think. Just... There’s a few regrets I have, surrounding our relationship.

10. ARE YOU AN AFFECTIONATE PERSON: I am a very verbally affectionate person. I love hyping people up, I love pet names and the like. That said, I’m really... bad. With physical affection. With most people, at most times.

11. A MOVIE YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN: The! Princess! Bride!

12. FAVORITE BOOK: Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

13. YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE: Okay ignoring the fact that it wouldn’t be humane and I’d never do it, I’d love an otter (babies!!!) or any sort of wild cat. But that’s... not a thing, because animals need to have their natural environment. Pets-wise, I really really want reptiles (snek!) and I want a dog, I’ve missed having a dog.

14. TOP FIVE FICTIONAL SHIPS: Oh no, uhm... Okay I can’t rank my ships so these are just 5 that I like, not my ‘top 5′, I’m bad at picking favorites.

Kara.suma x Gakuho (Assassin.ation Classroom)

William x Sebastian (Kurosh.itsuji)

Ta/maki x Ky/oya (OHS.HC)

Aluca.rd x Walter (Hellsi.ng)

Spiderm/an x Dea/dpool

15. PIE OR CAKE: Cake.

16. FAVORITE SCENT: Vanilla, especially vanilla spice where the sweet is split by something else!!!

17. CELEBRITY CRUSH: Boyd Holbrook

18. IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: EVERYWHERE LET ME TRAVEL DAMMIT, but like also, Alaska, Japan, Germany, and Italy.

19. INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT: Introvert / Ambivert

20. DO YOU SCARE EASILY: I AM A BABY PLEASE DO NOT STARTLE - I had nightmares after watching Zombie Land in high school, I used to have a zombie survival poster but I had to take it down because the zombies on it kept spooking me at night, I am a baby.

21. IPHONE OR ANDROID: Android. Apple is a shitty, company change my mind

22. DO YOU PLAY ANY VIDEO GAMES: Ye! Currently obsessed with:

Pokemon (Always)

Animal Crossing (Always)

Slime Rancher (Always)

Skyrim (Again)

God of War (Again)

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS:

Get my dental / healthcare in order

Get Ray’s healthcare in order

College

If there’s anything left after all of that, house, get one and pay it off, and then use anything left to make additions, and invest/ save the rest

25. FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU HATE: Uhhh see I’m head over heels for a lot of hated characters, because I’m trash. I’ll list Min*ta from BNH/A, given he’s the literal worst.

26. FANDOM THAT YOU WERE ONCE A PART OF BUT AREN’T ANY LONGER: Attack on Titan / SNK - I used to write in the RPC, but the RPC is toxic and the creator is disgusting so! Out we go!

#⌈ ᴬ ᴳᵒᵈ ᴬᵐᵒᶰᵍ ᵀʰᵉᶤʳ ᴾᵉᵒᵖˡᵉ ⋮ OOC ⌋#long post //#munday //

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rickyriddle · 5 years

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Shutou Suzu analysis

Hello everyone! Been a while since I did a AnR analysis huh, well here I am, back for some analyzing. This time the character I’ll analyze is everyone’s favourite grandma, Shutou Suzu! This analysis will be kinda a challenge for me, since unlike other AnR characters I can’t base my analysis on a mental disorder, and analyzing through a disorder is mainly my specialty. But I’m gonna do my best! I wanted to make a Kouko analyzing at first but I kinda got requested to make a Suzu analysis. Okay, now is time to start the analysis. Get ready for an analysis about I believe one of the most interesting AnR characters.

Let’s start by talking about Suzu’s backstory. Suzu is estimated to be born during the Meiji Restoration era (1868 to 1912), so she is over 100 years old. Let’s say that the series happened the same year the anime aired (2014), Suzu would be between 102 and 146 years old. But since a lot of people think AnR happened in a more futuristic setting, she could be even much older than that. In the past, she used to be close to a man named Takeo, who she described as her precious person. People assumed he was her lover. Their birthday was only one day apart and he was one year younger, so they often joked about the fact they will never have the same age. This became ironic when Suzu developed her illness, the Highlander Syndrome. Since she couldn’t age anymore, Takeo became older than her, and eventually left Suzu for another woman. Suzu eventually learned about her disorder and that with modern medicine, there was no cure. Now, the consequences of her illness are different between the official translation and the fan translation, so I need to talk about both of them.

In the fan translation, it’s said that her illness prevents her body to age and collapse. Which means Suzu is totally immortal, she can’t die of old age. In the official translation, it’s said that her body can’t temporarily age, but that when she’ll reach a critical point she’ll suddenly and quickly aged. Both outcomes are horrible and tragic in their own way, but not the same way. For the fan translation, Suzu’s fate is to always outlive everyone she loves, condemning her to solitude. In the official translation, Suzu’s fate is to temporarily outlive those she loves, before being eventually instantly killed by her illness in a pretty gruesome way (her flesh breaks down immediately). I don’t know for sure which one is the right translation. Personally, I think the fan translation one is the correct one, because in KnR epilogue Kouko said “I’ll definitely outlive you so you won’t be alone anymore” and it makes me feel like Suzu really can’t die, well not naturally, otherwise if she could Kouko’s statement wouldn’t have felt so impossible. But this analysis is not to debate about it, in both cases to outlive people she loves, but in one she also had the stress of suddenly dying of a flesh break down.

Before going further, I want to discuss Suzu’s personality before Class Black. As a regular teenager, she was showed to be pretty normal, a little bit frivolous, more into entertainment then intellectual activities. She didn’t seem particularly smart, nor dumb, her intelligence seemed pretty average. She was also shown to be kind of playful, and even childish. Really different from the Suzu we know during Class Black. Later in her life, she’s showed to become more and more jaded when people tell her happy birthday, since she was still looking young and people kept leaving her behind. When she learned the truth, that she was sick, she looked really desperate and sadden, she even I think cried over it. So she used to be really sensitive, which she isn’t really anymore.

Before continuing with Suzu’s current personality, let’s talk a little bit about the context of her past. Suzu lost one of the most important people for her, not because he died (well, he eventually did, but that’s not the point), but because he abandoned her for another woman. Being abandoned by someone she loved and trust must have been really painful, especially since even though she didn’t know about her illness, Suzu must have known she was different. And more and more people commented at her birthday how young she looks, reminding her how different she was, how abnormal she is, which made her birthday, usually the happiest day of a year, a cruel reminder of her difference and of her past lover’s abandon. And then it became worst when she discovered that she had the Highlander Syndrome, which confirms to her that not only she’ll never be normal, but she's condemned to always outlive people she loves and ending up alone (or having a sudden and gruesome death). This must have put her on so much stress and despair. So she continued her life, knowing her rather tragic fate, with as her only hope to eventually have a cure for her illness.

But there’s not only her personal experience as context. Let’s not forget that Suzu was born into a totally different time, with different values and morals. The Meiji Restoration era was when Japan restored practical imperial rules, when Japan was still an Empire. It was an era with a lot of changes going on, primarily Japan stopped being an isolated feudal society. So it was starting to be less military-minded when Suzu was born and more modern. Then it was the Taishou era, who’s described as the time of the liberal movement known as the "Taishō democracy". But then, it was the showa era. A really military-driven era where Japan moved into political totalitarianism, ultranationalism and fascism. This is also when the 2 World Wars happened. It’s also the era where Japan transform into a democracy with a constitutional monarch. So Suzu lived through those two wars and which Japan participated for the second one as allies for Nazi Germany. And the Second Sino-Japanese War also happened during this era. Suzu when through so many changes, she was exposed to many ideologies, to war, political changes. She probably had to adapt to all those changes, even if she didn’t necessarily condone them. All of this shaped her as the person she became later.

Now that we when through some context, we can talk about Suzu’s current self. In AnR, she showed to be a really knowledgeable person, quite wise, calm, and pretty intelligent, and somewhat cunning. Those are traits that her younger self didn’t have, and a result of her long life. All of that she went through made her this way. She experienced so many political and ideology changes, which made her knowledgable and wise. And this knowledge and wiseness are what contributed to her current intelligence. She wasn’t really smart during her young day, but her current self is. So her intelligence isn’t nature, it’s nurture. She developed it through her incredible life experience. Suzu is also quite calm as a person. She barely never show intense emotions. I believe that after all the stress and despair she went through, Suzu became kind of jaded, or emotionally numb. Like if after everything she went through she was so emotionally exhausted that her emotions became numb. But Suzu still has emotions, they are just less intense now. Two things that cause emotional responses from her are Kouko and her condition. Suzu can be really enthusiastic and even playful when she’s with Kouko. And when Nio made a comment about how being immortal would be cool, Suzu became pretty gloomy (anime only). So I believe Suzu can only be really emotional when it comes to someone she likes or her illness. And I think that Suzu did experience distress about being different and abnormal at some point, but that it eventually faded away since she had matured. Right now, rather than feeling bad about this, she’s more focus in finding a cure so she can finally be normal and die. She also seems to value hard work over luck.

Which brings us to another topic. Suzu during Class Black. Suzu joined Class Black with the wish of finding a cure so she can finally age and die normally. She immediately took an interest in Kouko, her roommate, and she often informed her classmates about certain details, like Sumireko’s family and Otoya being a serial killer. She was enough knowledgable to know that, but in Otoya’s case, it’s not only that. She correctly guessed that Otoya was Jack the Ripper of the 21st Century, which is more than just knowledge. She was able to analyze her behaviour and determined her true nature, and associate her to an infamous serial killer. So we can add analyst to the list of Suzu’s skills. After Kouko’s expulsion, Suzu became the class representative. She had some interesting moment with her classmates, especially Hitsugi.

One was a foreshadowing of how old Suzu actually is, and that despite how old she was, even herself couldn’t perfectly guess what kind of person someone was (tho judging by how she guess Otoya’s true nature I would say she pretty good). It gave her a more serious and a little bit dark vibe.

The other show that Suzu isn’t insensitive to romance. She does find Tokaku and Haru cute together, and talked about how she finds Romeo & Juliet (and by extension Chitaru and Hitsugi) beautiful because it’s first love. I think it’s because it reminded her of her past, of Takeo who maybe was her first love and it did end tragically, at least for her. Suzu is sensitive when it comes to young love, especially first love, since it reminds her of herself and Takeo. It makes her nostalgic and also melancholic, something I discuss in my anr disorders analysis.

Before going there, let’s take time to talk about Suzu’s interest. The series shows that she’s really into bath and like to use bath salt (apparently bath bomb in the official translation, which makes it so funny given the fact she uses bombs). She’s also into stretching. Both could be because her body weakens due to her old age and she needs to ease the pain and strengthen it. So those two hobbies would be a cause of her illness. Suzu is really knowledgable in flowers, especially their meaning, and even in her young days, she liked flower. But her long life gives her more knowledge about this subject. Suzu is also into games, especially shogi (Japanese chess), and maybe cards game. But shogi is special to her. After all, it’s Takeo who taught her shogi. This game reminds her of him, it makes her nostalgic, and even melancholic. She even keeps dreaming about him and her past with him. No matter how long it was, she’ll keep thinking about him, and shogi represents her nostalgia and melancholia, both caused by her immortality. In a way, all her interests are a cause of her illness.

Right, we were talking about Suzu during Class Black. Suzu tried to kill Haru on her birthday by putting a bomb necklace around her neck, a gift she received from Kouko. But instead of instantly killing Haru by making the bomb exploded, she decided to turn her assassination attempt into a somewhat fair game. She set a death trap that could have got Tokaku killed, but even if they lost the last card, Suzu talked about her past, revealing an important clue: Takeo’s birthday. And she reminded them of it after they lost the card. Haru understood this clue and won the game. Despite still having time, Suzu decided to give up.

And that will bring us to a more headcanon part of this analysis. Is Suzu truly an assassin? I already talk about it in one of my analysis, The meaning of assassin in AnR, check it if you haven’t yet. So, Suzu is indeed considered as an assassin during her time at Class Black because she agreed to do an assassination attempt. But what about her before Class Black, in her everyday life? I highly doubt she’s an actual assassin. Nothing in her backstory suggests that she’s one. Then, how did she get into Class Black? My theory is that she’s an acquaintance of Yuri. They met in the past for an unknown reason, and Yuri learned about the Highlander Syndrome. Given Suzu’s skills, she considered that she could be a strong opponent for Haru and decided to invite her to Class Black. It’s somewhat implied in KnR that they could be old acquaintance, even if it was more of a joke. And it wouldn’t be the first time someone managed to get into Class Black because they know Yuri. Remember Sumireko? It’s implied that Yuri was her teacher when she was a child (Sumireko called her Yuri-sensei). And Yuri invited her to Class Black when she was still a kid. I highly doubt that Sumireko was an assassin when she was that age. So it proves that not only you don’t need to be an actual assassin to be invited, but that knowing Yuri can get you into Class Black. So my theory about Suzu knowing Yuri and being invited because of that is a possibility.

Another thing that makes me doubt Suzu is an actual assassin, her behaviour during her assassination attempts. She could have killed Haru so easily, she had so many chances to just make the bomb explode. But she didn’t. And it makes me think that she simply couldn’t. She can’t kill someone out of cold-blood, because she’s not an actual killer. She never killed before. And killing for someone who hasn’t been trained or doesn’t lack empathy is really hard. So she made it a game as a way to distance herself from the act of killing, she gave Haru chances to survive so she wouldn’t feel like she’s actually killing her. If Haru dies, it’s Haru’s fault for losing, not hers. I even wonder if she actually wanted to kill Haru. Suzu does want her wish to be granted, but maybe she does have second thoughts about killing to have it. Maybe she gave this clue about Takeo’s birthday because, in the end, she didn’t want Haru to die. But that’s mainly speculation. But I’m convinced that Suzu’s main reason to make it a game was because she was simply not an actual killer.

Now let’s talk about how I personally view Suzu. To me, she’s the most neutral character in the show. Unlike others, her wish isn’t to help someone, obey to an organization, or simply to harm others. Her wish is 100% for herself. She’s not someone who would help or hurt someone unless it benefits her. Even though I do think that deep down, she’s a good person, I feel like she’s more a morally grey person. She’s over 100 years old, she when through stuff most people would never experience, someone like her as a different outlook on life than others. She still put an innocent girl through a death game and even seemed to enjoy it in a way, and she nearly caused Tokaku’s death. Suzu is capable of cruelty, but only if it serves her goal. But she’s also capable of kindness and genuine sympathy, especially towards Kouko, like after the main series she took care of an injured Kouko. So I would say Suzu is neither good or bad, but neutral. After losing people she loved and being abandoned, it’s possible Suzu lost interest in others and started to only think about herself, valued her desire over those of others, and even consider herself different due to her immortality. But if she remains with Kouko, she might become a better person and re-learned to care for someone else other than herself.

This brings us to another point I would like to discuss about Suzu: her relationship with Kouko. Kouko is the person Suzu was the closest to during Class Black. Even though Suzu was relatively friendly and polite to her classmates, she also felt a little bit distant from them. Suzu knows that everyone she gets close to will outlive her, it happened to her so many times, so she probably doesn’t want to get too close to not go through this pain again. She condemns herself to solitude to not suffer anymore. But she seems to make an exception for Kouko. But why? The first time interaction we saw between them was during their introduction. Kouko declared herself leader of everything and it’s at this exact moment that Suzu showed interest in her. Seems like Suzu has a type: bossy and assertive people. I think that at first, Suzu was intrigued by Kouko. And since they were roommate she felt the need to at least get a little bit closer to her. I think that what makes her want to be with Kouko is how intelligent Kouko is. Suzu being herself pretty smart, she was able to bond intellectually with Kouko. Kouko is really mature for her age so Suzu doesn’t feel like she’s a child, making it easier for her to bond with her. Suzu agreed with Kouko’s wish (to quit her assassin job), and I think that perhaps she doesn’t feel like it’s right for her to be an assassin, and maybe if give her a new form of respect towards Kouko to want to take control over her life and choose for herself. In KnR, Suzu describe Kouko as diligent, but clumsy (which makes her want to protect her) and with a dark past (which makes her want to comfort her), Suzu is able to sympathize with Kouko’s past, because she knows how it feels to lose someone she loved and feel responsible for it. They may have really different past, they can still relate to that. Suzu also describes Kouko as adorable, so her attraction to her is a mix of her personality and physical appearance.

Speaking of KnR, let’s talk about Suzu’s portrayal in this series. In KnR Suzu is shown to be a little bit perverted. She checked Kouko’s panties and pretty much act as a voyeur with her, and given the fact Suzu is over 100 years old and Kouko a teenager, it’s kinda creepy. It felt like she’s a perverted old lady. Like I do think it was only for comedic purpose, but I still view KnR as mainly canon. So I have to take this scene into consideration. I don’t think it’s a big part of Suzu’s overall personality, but I feel like it’s important to acknowledge that Suzu is the type of person who would check young girls’ underwear and spy on them.

I think I’ll stop here. In conclusion, Suzu is a knowledgeable, wise and smart person due to her life experience, she’s mainly a neutral person who works to serve her own goal, but she does have a good side, especially towards Kouko. Her old age and immortality gave her a different outlook on life which makes her morally gray. In my opinion, Suzu is one of the most complex and interesting characters in AnR and I wish there was more content about her, I feel like there’s so much more to explore about her. That’s gonna be all for my analysis, don’t hesitate to tell me your thoughts, and thanks for reading!

#akuma no riddle #riddle story of devil #anr #suzu shutou #shutou suzu #suzukou #suzu x kouko #ricky talk #analysis

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sebeth · 6 years

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Giant-Size X-Men

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

Extra Spoiler Warning for the Deadly Genesis miniseries and Wolverine: Origins

Giant-Size X-Men #1, “Second Genesis, ” by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum.

Winzeldorf, Germany – Kurt Wagner flees from a mob of crazed villagers.

“Perhaps things would be simpler – safer – if I had stayed with Der Jahrmarkt but the life of a carnival freak is not for me – not for Kurt Wagner! Let them come if they must – let them try to kill me! At least if I die, it will be as a man!”

The villagers overwhelm Kurt. Kurt is able to teleport so I’m not sure why he wasn’t able to escape the villagers. Perhaps he exhausted himself from earlier teleportations? Didn’t Kurt have around a mile-range with teleportation jumps in the early days? That should have given Kurt quite the head-start in the chase. You would have to be very determined to chase – on foot - an individual that has that much of a lead.

Why was Kurt wandering the town in his circus outfit? Wouldn’t civilian clothes be more inconspicuous?

“I only came among them to learn yet all I’ve learned thus far are the ways of blind, unreasoning violence!”

Was Kurt testing humanity’s reaction to his appearance? If so, the townspeople failed.

Kurt dives into the crowd and brawls with everyone – which quickly turns against him.

The crowd freezes right before they stake Kurt. Enter Charles Xavier: “You are a mutant, Kurt. I can help you find your true potential.”

“Can you help me be normal?”

“After tonight’s misfortune, Kurt – would you truly want to be?”

“Perhaps not. I only want to be a whole Kurt Wagner! If you can make me that, teacher…I will go with you.”

It’s easy for the Professor to dismiss “being normal”, it’s not so easy if you have blue skin, pointed ears, fangs, glowing yellow eyes, a tail, and three fingers per hand.

I had “Savages” from Pocahontas and “March of the Witch-Hunters” from Wicked going through my head as I read this scene.

Quebec, Canada: Wolverine meets with Charles Xavier at a secluded military installation. Xavier informs Wolverine that he “has a need of mutants – a desperate need!” Wolverine jumps at the chance to “get out from under the red tape and rigmarole”.

A military-official objects to Wolverine’s resignation: “The government has invested a great deal of time and money turning you into what you are now...you haven’t heard the last of this!”

Foreshadowing!

Nashville, Tennessee: The Professor recruits Sean Cassidy, the Banshee, to the X-Men.

Can’t a man watch the Grand Ol’ Opry in peace?

Sean comments “Twill be nice to tread the straight and narrow for a change.” A reference to Banshee’s time in Factor Three. At least I think I’m remembering the group’s name correctly.

Kenya, East Africa: Villagers entreat “Ororo, Great Goddess of the Storm, come unto us and ease our burden!”

“I am here, my children. What do you wish of me?”

The villagers offer to sacrifice goats and chickens if she ends the drought and brings rain. Storm agrees to do “as they plead”.

Cue a rainstorm.

Xavier congratulates Ororo on her beautiful display.

“Wh – Who are you? What business have you in Ororo’s land…an…offer? What have you to offer a goddess?”

Ororo agrees to leave with the Professor after he offers her “the world”

Ororo’s debut isn’t very flattering to her character. The arrogance is off the charts. Ororo knows she isn’t a goddess – she’s an orphaned street rat – but she’s referring to villagers much older than her as children and claiming the territory as “Ororo’s land”. Why do the villagers have to approach her to end the drought – if she’s acting as a caretaker she should have produced rain before it reached drought levels – instead it appears that she’s on an egotistical power trip. To top it off, Ororo ditches “her land” as soon as she’s offered a better deal! No wonder Dr. Doom’s attracted to Storm!

Osaka, Japan: The Professor recruits Sunfire to the X-Men.

Lake Baikal, Siberia: Peter Rasputin rescues his unnamed sister (Illayna) from a runaway tractor. Xavier would like Peter to come to America. Peter asks his parents what he should do. Peter’s father responds: “Do as your heart tells you, my son. It will not betray you…Dosvidanya, Peter. Our love goes with you… We are already proud of you.”

The Extraordinary X-Men series has a scene where Illanya reminds Peter that their father made him sleep in the barn like an animal. It never rang true to me. Granted, the Rasputin parents don’t have much onscreen time but it didn’t seem true to their characters. Peter’s debut scene clearly shows the love the Rasputins have for their son – he definitely wasn’t sleeping in the barn. Peter also transforms in front of the village and no one even batted an eye – so I’m throwing the Extraordinary X-Men scene out of canon!

Giant-Sized X-Men #1 was published in the midst of the Cold War/Red Scare – it was rather gutsy to make one of the new characters a Russian hero – and one that didn’t have to do a heel/face turn or redeem himself from his Communist leanings.

Camp Verde, Arizona: “John Proudstar does not like the reservation. He does not like to watch the old ones, sitting slumped against their doorsteps, dreaming dreams of glory long gone. John Proudstar is an Apache – and he is ashamed of his people.”

John chases down a bull and wrestles it to the ground: “There, horned one – do you see? There is still a man among the Apache!”

Yeah, take that, poor bull!

Xavier approaches John to join the X-men. John’s not impressed: “You’ve got five seconds to vamoose, white-eyes…The white man needs me? That’s tough! I owe him nothing but the grief he’s given my people!”

Xavier implies John’s a coward causing John to change his mind and join the team.

John Proudstar isn’t a likable character. Unfortunately, John’s never allowed to develop past the angry young man/proud warrior stereotype.

Charles muses to himself: “But will you – will any of you X-Men be equal to the task that lies before you? Or will you carry the world down into ruin?”

Let’s talk Deadly Genesis. The mini-series retconned the events of Second Genesis. We discover Professor Xavier launched a rescue operation before he assembled the members of the Giant-Sized X-Men team. The team consisted of four foster children of Moira MacTaggert: Vulcan, Darwin, Petra, and Sway.

The four were total newbies whose only training consisted of psychic training by Professor Xavier. The four believed they had trained for months for this rescue mission but had only received hours of training. The four manage to rescue Cyclops, put him on the jet, and send him back to Westchester. The four attempts to rescue the others but are annihilated. Scott witnesses the massacre from the jet. Xavier erases the memory of the rescue attempt from Scott’s mind – along with the fact that Vulcan is his younger brother.

Some don’t like the Deadly Genesis revelations as they are not flattering to the Professor. Let’s be honest, the Professor was never a great man. In the original run, he had creepy thoughts about Jean (his underage student) and faked his death to his students. No, having Changeling replace him during his “death” doesn’t make it better. Not to mention all the times he bailed on his “life’s mission”.

If we include the events of Deadly Genesis, the Professor responds the massacre of newbies by composing a team that’s mainly newbies! Clearly, Xavier’s intelligence is overrated.

Let’s check the members’ resumes:

Kurt: Performs in a circus, runs from villagers

Peter: Farms

John: Chases bulls, whines

Ororo: Lounges in a chair, accepts villager’s offerings, makes rain storms

Sunfire has very limited experience.

Banshee and Wolverine are well-trained and very experienced. I’m not sure if Xavier is aware of the depth of Logan’s experience – to be fair, neither is Logan at this point.

Wolverine and Banshee are the only logical selections to send after the captured X-Men. The original team had more powerful members – Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman, Havok, Polaris – and were captured. I don’t know how the Professor expects this team to do better. Did it never occur to Xavier to call the Avengers or Fantastic Four and see if they could help?

Back to Giant-Sized X-Men:

Westchester, New York:

The team assembles at the school. Peter and Ororo love their costumes. It’s implied Professor X designed the costumes. I wonder if Peter ever wondered why his costume didn’t have material on the sides of his chest/abdomen. Ororo should have many questions about her costume – for starters, why am I half-naked and the rest of the men are fully clothed – or 75% clothed in Peter’s case? And why are Peter’s boots mid-thigh length? Peter will be a brawler – I can’t imagine that would be comfortable to run in. And what’s with the pointed shoulder pads – to stab someone in the eye?

Did John Proudstar add the feathered headband to his costume as a sign of his heritage? Did Professor X throw it in? Would John resent it as a stereotype or appreciate the nod to his culture?

For the record, Dave Cockrum is one of my favorite artists and few can top his character designs. Storm’s original costume and the Imperial Guard designs are a few of my favorite Cockrum designs.

Professor Xavier introduces the group to Cyclops. Scott recaps the events that led to the recruitment drive: Professor Xavier detects a new mutant presence on the island of Krakoa in the South Pacific. Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel, Polaris, and Havok travel to the island. It’s mentioned that Beast isn’t available for this mission – this is around the time he was working for the Brand Corporation. The group lands on Krakoa but are ambushed. Scott regains consciousness, realizes he’s unable to fire his optic blasts, and retreats to the mansion. Scott’s powers return at the mansion but with increased intensity.

Did Scott retain his power up? Or was this forgotten and never mentioned again. Did the other imprisoned X-men receive power-ups? If not, why was Scott the only one?

Sunfire decides he doesn’t wants to be part of the rescue mission: “I do not even like my fellow mutants! I certainly will not risk my life to help them!”

I’m sure the feelings mutual. However, Sunfire changes his mind and rejoins the group mid-flight.

We discover in Wolverine: Origins, Logan attempted to leave the team. In fact, he had only joined under Romulus’s orders. However, Xavier performed some mind-magic and changed Logan’s mind.

Is the Professor also behind Sunfire’s mood swings? Or behind Storm’s sudden decision to leave “her land”?

While not flattering for the Professor, it would actually be better for Ororo. Otherwise, her exit from Africa reads as “screw this, I’ve found something better and shinier.” Not very Goddess-like.

The X-Men arrive at the island. Scott splits the group into pairs: Cyclops/Thunderbird, Sunfire/Nightcrawler, Storm/Colossus, and Banshee/Wolverine. Sunfire objects to pairing up with Nightcrawler. Wolverine complains about Banshee’s sonic powers. Enhanced hearing has many drawbacks! Peter leaps out of the airplane causing Storm to panic: “You fool, you cannot fly!” Peter responds “Of course not, but I can land with the best of them!”

Scott gets the brunt of Proudstar’s attitude: “Yes sir, General One-Eye Sir! I just hope you’re not leading me into another Little Big Horn! It’d be just my luck to be the first Indian massacred by….”

Can we nominate Scott for sainthood? He had to deal with Wolverine, Thunderbird, and Sunfire and didn’t kill any of them.

Scott and Proudstar find a temple as do Storm and Colossus.

“John Proudstar has never much liked the jungle”.

One small line but it merits mention. Is John’s dislike of the jungle a personality quirk or does he have an actual reason? Giant-Size X-Men was published in 1975 – the same year the Vietnam War ended. Was John drafted and did he serve in Vietnam? If he did, it would have added another layer to John’s character and his bitterness with the “man” and the United States government.

Banshee and Wolverine battle giant crabs and reach the temple. Nightcrawler and Sunfire battle golden birds and snark at each other: “I begin to think the mutant community is no more hospitable than the human…” The duo also reach the temple.

The group find the original X-Men inside the temple. Angel warns that it’s a trap and the new mutant is the island itself.

The group battles Krakoa, the “island that walks like a man”. Professor X mentally joins the battle. Storm, Polaris, Havok, and Cyclops team up to deliver the final blow. The X-Men retreat as the island breaks apart.

The issue ends with Angel asking “What are we going to do with thirteen X-Men?”

Krakoa could have used more fleshing out – is it a mutant that turned into an island or a mutated island? What exactly are its abilities? As it is, it’s relegated to a plot device – and a boring one at that.

Poor Scott didn’t even realize his entire future could be summed up in this issue: a lifetime of mutants questioning every command and mouthing off at every opportunity. Poor Scott had to deal with Thunderbird, Wolverine, Sunfire, and Havok this issue.

The recruitment scenes were the best part of the issue. You could tell Banshee and Sunfire had previously appeared in the X-Men series as their recruitment only took one to two panels. Wolverine had made an appearance in the Hulk, also written by Len Wein, so he had a bit more panel time. Storm, Nightcralwer, Colossus, and Thunderbird’s recruitment received more page time as they were completely new creations. The battle with Krakoa was “meh”. Krakoa doesn’t become fun until he joins the Jean Grey school decades later.

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am-molloy · 5 years

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20 Facts About Me: A.M. Molloy

Hello everyone! Welcome back (or to) my blog.

Today I thought I would share with you all 15 random facts that you may or may not know about me. These factoids may not have to with my writing life, but they’ll help you understand who I am as a person. So! Let’s take a dive into my life.

If you didn't know this already, I have a cat named Sorren. She is my soul-kitty and the love of my life. We’ve barely been apart the 11 years she’s been in my life. I wasn’t going to accept any job abroad unless I could bring her.

I love to travel. In fact, my first big travel was to a summer camp in China when I was 15, way back in 2004.

So far, I’ve been to (in order), China, America, Japan ( x3 ), Korea, (x3 ), Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Being Canadian, I’ve obviously been to Canada, though I haven’t travelled as much within my own country. I do plan on visiting more countries soon, but for now, I’m planning another return visit to Japan for my upcoming summer vacation.

I am a 2nd-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, although it’s been a few years since I practiced due to financial issues. I would love to practice again, especially as I live in Korea now, but now is not the right time for me. I still have all my equipment and remember most of my forms so perhaps someday!

Side note, back in the day when I did practice, I used to go to competitions and would usually win first or second place. Usually first for forms and second for sparing. I rarely got lower and if I did it was for sparing. Forms were my strong suit.

I used to be an animator. I went to an art school studying animation and graphics and working in my field after graduation. Though if I’m being honest, I was never the best at animation. Still, art was more my thing. So when I worked for Contendo, I eventually gravitated towards mostly audio work and eventually becoming their Senior Audio Editor. I still do art, but it’s now for fun rather work. And let’s be honest, the art I did for Contendo isn’t what you would have expected me to be doing. At Contendo we made training videos for oil and gas companies.

Below is my super old demo reel, and I have improved since 2009 But this is to just show you what I used to do. I was by far the best but I enjoyed doing it all the same.

Note: The video is from my old YouTube channel from college. I do not use that channel anymore. If you want to see more up to date videos and life in Korea, check out my actual YouTube channel: Canadian Abroad: A.M. Molloy.

I have a total of 11 tattoos! (So far). Below is a slideshow from my very first tattoo (the tribal dragon when I was 17) to my latest, number eleven done this year in Korea (Sorren).

I am fluent in English, French, Spanish and I can speak intermediate Japanese (taught myself) and beginner Korean (also teaching myself).

My dad is French (from Quebec) so I learned English and French growing up in my household. I majored in Spanish at university and spent a semester in Spain as an exchange student.

I used to do a lot of cosplay, but I haven’t done so in years. I haven’t cosplayed very much and I reused the same cosplay for many cons (and halloween costumes) but I still enjoyed doing it all the same. I can’t sew so I always had help making them. I still appreciate a good cosplay from other cosplayers.

I love photography, though I’m still learning. I’m far from good but I’m getting better every day. I mostly take iPhone photography shots because I don’t always lug around my Nikon D3200. Honestly, with a bit of practice, anyone can make iPhone pictures turn out great. Featured below are a few of my favourite shots taken with my iPhone 8.

I have a wall of all my shots but my favourite will always be of my best friend, Leila, holding the Polaroid picture I just took of her. The picture of her holding the picture (INCEPTION) was also another iPhone shot.

I made my own language/culture because reasons. Mostly RP though. The language is called Hikaran and is spoken by a race on the planet Spira. I go into full length on said language and people in a previous blog post, so please, go ahead and check it out!

Admittedly, I made most of this up during math class in high school. It’s safe to say I’m not very good at math.

Anyway, instead of going into full detail here (because it’s in the blog post), I’ll just leave this popular Hikaran saying here:

While on exchange to Spain back in the summer of 2016, I met and shook hands with the queen of Spain in what I call a happy accident. One day I was walking around my school and taking a stroll around town and I noticed a blocked road a crowd starting to form where there usually isn’t. So, naturally, I had to get up front to see what was going to happen. Turns out the queen of Spain was in town and she took time to shake hands with people and I got lucky enough to be one of them. Moral of the story: when you see a tent or a barricade and people starting to gather where there usually isn’t, get up front because awesome things are gonna happen. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture with her, but I do, however, have a picture of her. (Pictured above).

Back in high school, when it was time for graduation photos, we were told we could bring an item, like a soccer ball or baseball bat, if we wanted for our pictures. Being the cat-obsessed weird person that I am, I legit brought my cat, Marbles (AKA Mibs) in a duffle bag (it was open) to school for my picture. Needless to say, I was the talk of the school for bringing a cat haha. I lived super close to my school so I took my picture and brought her straight home. She hated going to school but was a good girl and took an amazing picture.

I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Literally grew up with it. I was in the 6th grade reading the first three books because that’s all that was published at the time. When the first Harry Potter movie came out, I’ll never forget the experience. It was amazing and I loved every bit of it.

PS: I’m a proud Gryffindor. I also have many friends from all of the houses, but most of them are from Slytherin.

I grew with Pokemon. I was around when it was all first released and Pokemon Red was my first ever game I owned to go with the first ever consul I opened, Nintendo Colour. I buy every game, still collect cards, and I used to watch the anime. Pokemon will always have a special place in my heart.

My new all time favourite game is Life is Strange all other games in said franchise. THAT GAME IS MY LIFE, YO. I mean, if you noticed on fact number 5 that one of my tattoos is Life is Strange themed.

My favourite author is Rachel Vincent.

Literally, anything she writes is golden to me.

My favourite series of hers will always be the Soul Screamers series. I still can’t believe how she ended that series. Love it! I just get so invested in each world that she creates that I feel like I’m right there with the characters and I don’t know what to do with my life when I finish each book.

If you love reading, I highly recommend checking her out.

The origin of my author name: A.M. Molloy is basically the initials to my given name, Alex Molloy. However, in person, I prefer to be called Mina. Mina is my Korean name and to be honest, I was never fond of Alex. Since I live in Korea, everyone here calls me Mina. It makes me happy to hear people call me Mina. :3

My novel is in its third round of edits and beta reader stage. One of my beta readers created SOUTH’s very first meme! I’m so in love with it that I’m sharing it here.

So, my university had this mini ball pit kept in the student center. Once during a society meeting at my university, my friend and I decided to completely organize the ball pit into a rainbow. It literally took us forty-five mins straight but we did it! And then no one wanted to sit in the ball bit for like a week because they didn’t want to mess it up so we had to mess it up again so people would use it again.

During my second visit to Japan, I had the pleasure to meet a real sumo wrestler. It was an honour. I wish I could have seen an actual match but this was still awesome all the same.

I loved volunteering at my university for many things, but my favourite was being an NSO Leader. My last year at uni I had the privilege to be on the best team, Yellow Team, and had the most amazing crew. It was truly the best experience. I loved helping all the newcomers to UPEI and I would do it again in a heartbeat if I was still in school.

Well, you’ve made it this far! Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about me. For now, this concludes my new post, 20 facts about me.

Take care.

— Mina (A.M. Molloy)

#FAQ #Ramdom Facts #Author

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adoseofyukiya · 6 years

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Always (my sunshine)

This will be a countdown fic for my precious Kise Ryouta’s birthday! The idea was taken from this prompt. Thank you, @trash-by-vouge for the beautiful prompts! I read the prompts and the desire to write just overtook me.

Bye bye, Amend. You’ll just have to wait in line for now.

It’s Aokise ofc. What else could it be? Prompt #13: in a letter

This one is for my beloved Ate Roch, @vanilladaydreams22!!! This isn’t one of your choices but I hope you’ll like it anyway~ I did promise that I’ll give you the next fic I write that isn’t angst. This isn’t. At least I don’t think so?

This is also my first time posting a full story here. Check out my ao3 account for more of my works.

It’s that time of the year yet again. A time for celebration and gifts. A time to be thankful and happy for another year in his life. And another year for them. Yet Ryouta can’t help but let out a big sigh. He doesn’t feel like celebrating at all. In fact celebrating is so far in his mind right now.

Thousands of miles up in the air, flying away from home instead of towards it. “Must’ve been quite a bummer, senpai.” Ryouta heard his co-pilot, Sakuraba Souta speak beside him upon seeing the discontent in his face.

“Yeah, it was supposed to be my birthday yet I’m on my way flying away from my family,” replied Ryouta as he fiddled in the controls continually checking the flight parameters. Multitasking has been honed into Ryouta for as long as he could remember. And becoming a pilot has only sharpened this skill even more.

“I did try to plead with the boss not to call you up. I know just how much you’ve been looking forward to this day.” His co-pilot’s voice was colored with sympathy and apology. Sakuraba has been working with him for almost two years already ever since the younger one’s arrival in the company and they’ve been paired to fly for almost just as long. Ryouta’s last long-drawn flight for Germany was also accompanied by Sakuraba and he has been talking the younger one’s ear off with his plans for his upcoming birthday. And Sakuraba with his infinite patience and steady friendship, bless him, have been quite a help in curbing his longing for his husband. The ring in Ryouta’s left finger glinted beautifully as if sensing its owner’s thoughts. His husband. Aomine Daiki. Daiki was nice enough to drive Ryouta to the airport wishing him a cheerful ‘happy birthday’ even though he knew that he was just as disappointed as he was if not even more.

Just remembering about the derailed plans were almost enough to compel Ryouta to shout in exasperation. Only years of training and professionalism prevented him from throwing a tantrum when he was called in for duty.

“It can’t be helped, I guess. It’s not Ukaji-kun’s fault that he caught a cold.You must be worried about him, too,” replied Ryouta but his disappointment was still very much evident in his voice. It was not a secret in the company that two of their most eligible pilots were actually seeing one another.

“I am but I’m sure he’ll manage. For now senpai will just have to think about how much Aomine-san will spoil you once you finally get back.” Sakuraba stated in an attempt to cheer his senpai up.

“Spioil me, huh?” Ryouta smiled at the thought. “You’re right, Souta-kun. Thank you.”

And the rest of the flight was obviously spent in a much lighter mood.

Glancing at his wristwatch, Ryouta saw that it was only 8PM in the evening which meant that his birthday was already over back in Japan. Ryouta was almost compelled to give his husband a ring just to hear his voice but knowing that difference in time zones and just how much the other needed the rest. It was Daiki’s long awaited vacation after all, the season was just finished with a straight win for their team. He deserved it and more. And Ryouta wasn’t there to pamper him instead. He visibly shook his head to dispel the depressing thoughts as he headed to the shower of his hotel room.

Fresh out of the shower, Ryouta was clad in his sleeping wear and was about to simply nod off the disappointing day when he noticed the display in the table facing the beautiful scenery of an evening Paris.

There was a bottle of wine and a bouquet of tulips beside it which were obviously absent just before he went to shower. Curious, Ryouta went to the table to take a closer look. Aside from the wine and the flowers, a letter was nestled between them waiting to be noticed. Ryouta sat down absentmindedly far too curious about the letter.

For the sunshine of my life. Ryouta read the scripted writing in the envelope. He was unable to control the smile that bloomed in his face, for there was only one person he knew that addressed him that way.

Ryouta had to take a deep breath to calm his rapidly beating heart and the wide smile in his face.

Sunshine,

I first met you when I was thirteen. And I’d be lying if I told you that I already knew that the rest of my life will be spent side by side with the idiot that followed me like a puppy and looked at me like I was the one that hung the stars in the evening sky. No, I didn’t knew it back then but I do now and I can’t help but laugh on just how much our situation were reversed right now. To the point that sometimes I’d want you to see yourself in my eyes because for me it wasn’t simply the stars that you hung in the sky. It was you that gave the colors to my whole world. The reason why I wake up every day is simply to share it with you. Just like what I always call you, you really are my own personal sunshine.

I can’t help but cringe in reading whatever this is that I’ve written but I know that the smile and happiness it’d give you will be more than enough as compensation.

Twenty eight years ago, this piece of sunshine on earth was born and my whole being is bursting with thankfulness for it. And three years ago, I was blessed to legally declare to the world that this person is mine and mine alone. I know it was never a necessity for the two of us, for we already were more than sure on what we feel for one another but the world demanded it and I’m not the one to complain. I get to legally call you, Aomine Ryouta after all.

Love, I will spend the rest of my life sharing the happiness that you’ve given me and it’s too much that forever isn’t enough. Well, neither one of us believes in forever anyways. So let’s settle for always, okay?

Happy birthday, love. And happy anniversary.

Always yours,

Daiki

Ryouta was sobbing right out by the time he finished reading the letter. He quietly folded the letter and reached for his phone dialling a number that he knew by heart. The call was picked up on its third ring.

“Took you long enough,” Daiki’s gruff voice answered on the other end accompanied by a yawn. “I was almost ready to shut down here. Did you like my surprise, love?”

But Ryouta didn’t reply. He was too busy controlling his emotions and keeping his tears at bay to which he was proving to be unsuccessful.

“You crybaby.” Ryouta heard Daiki say on the phone full of fondness in his voice. “It’s supposed to make you smile, love. Not to make you bawl like a baby.”

“I am,” Ryouta choked out in between his sobs. “I am happy, Daiki. So much. I love you, too.”

“I didn’t even said it yet.” Daiki heard Ryouta continue sniffling but he was glad that he has calmed down enough to talk.

“You did. The whole letter was obviously screaming it out loud. I heard it loud and clear.” This time Daiki could almost see the smile that Ryouta wore on that beautiful face of his.

“Yeah,” Daiki quietly replied his voice would be choked with emotions if he said anything more. His heart was overflowing with love for his sunshine and he badly want him to be able to touch him and whisper to him everything he wrote in that damned letter and more no matter how cringe worthy they were.

“I miss you,” whispered Ryouta with a voice full of longing.

“18 hours more, love.” Daiki whispered back as if afraid for the world to hear their confessions to one another.

“It’s too long.”

“I know. I think so too. But I’ll be here. Waiting.”

“And I’ll come running back. To your side.” Ryouta poured all the love he felt for his husband as he uttered the word. “Always.”

And he clearly heard the reciprocated emotions in the whisper, “Always.”

Happy birthday my baby~ Since he’s born on June (btw, I’m also a June baby~) and it’s usually a month for weddings I guess it’s fitting for them to be married on his birthday. The OC’s were taken from the awesome Kusabi Keri-sensei’s manga, Seifuku wo Matoeba, Umaku Uso ga Tsuketa no ni. They are also pilots there so it’s very fitting though they are OOC here. This is also my first established!AoKise~ So happy!

#happy birthday kise ryouta #happy birthday my baby #prompt fic #birthday countdown #aokise #aokise fic #birthday fic #for my ate roch #for vanilladaydreams22 #one shot #first fic on tumblr #kise ryouta #aomine daiki #on tumblr #cj writes

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