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#also its v funny to me that you can see very clearly that i switched my sketching brush in the time between these two sketches lol
marcmorrigan · 1 year
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im not gonna make this rebloggable bc its just two unrelated drawings slapped together in layout but like. i put them next to each other to play compare & contrast and ended up HURTING MY OWN FEELINGS... beyond looks even more in love when hes next to L ouch ouch ouch
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ohdudehesflirting · 1 year
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dream & their godly parents
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warnings: blades swords swearing gay shit mentions of kissing and food I think
note: love pjo and nct sooo yeah
마크<3
defo big 3
i think Poseidon is the best match
in chilling in the dream
how he was ok with the cold ass water
ma boi yes.
when he finds out ab being able to control water
(also surprised he can talk w horses)
“whoa dude- what just happened”
“u have powers” “wtf”
also … his spider-sense
very agile in combat
outside the arena……
clumsy somehow??
different story for another day
don't let him near bows and arrows
my guy how did u manage to break 4 bows in the span of 3 minutes
he is clearly as confused as you are
“dude I'm as lost as u”
our Canadian boy<3
런쥔<3
did I make this whole post just to vent ab child-of-athena!renjun
ummm… ofcourse
every sane person would do that right ????
right????
n e gays
very smart
book and street
gives the best advice
very calm…. is……. yeah no one believed that
shouts a lot but outside of libraries
if u disrespect libraries u are done w him
gets lost in thought a lot
lots of spacing out
probably planning his next murder but u didn't hear it from me
very skilled w bow and arrow
with swords….. not so much
very charming in an unexpected way
loves owls bc they remind him of his mom
has read harry potter
avid hater
(has secretly watched the half blood prince 13 times and has a ppt of 40 slides ab why its the best movie)
ace <3
does not care ab sex
제노<3
big 3
100%
he is the one with the most Zeus vibes
or ares maybe
but I don't see him being conflictive
but he is sharp? if that makes sense
(it does not ik)
but yeah
very scary looking
has a reputation for being good at close combat
biggest softie ever
can sometimes control electricity
gets called sparkly fingers by jaem
bc when he's nervous he fidgets w the electricity
gets along w jaemin bc jaemin was very anti-social
and he was a social butterfly with no real friends
they are inseparable now
rumor says they make out sometimes but u didn't hear it from me
bi wife energy but he's the bi wife
동혁<3
an Afrodite kid if I ever saw one
when he arrived to camp
he was the moment
the initial thought was that he was gonna be mean
bc that's how movie logic works
pretty= mean
don't blame me blame Hollywood
but he is an actual ray of sunshine
gets confused a lot w apollo kids
bc ma boi has pipes
gets along w everyone
but is not afraid to stand up for his friends
very extroverted and witty
has a good sense of humor and is street smart
met mark just as they were both discovering their powers
when he is close to a person he can see who they have feelings for
safe to say he saw Jeno and jaem
stuck w mark bc he could relate to him
ended up being soulmates
hyuck is a ray of sunshine
재민<3
hades…
yes
he is powerful and he knows that
likes that he can inspire fear
On the inside he loves romcoms and cries every time he watches the notebook
big softy
tsundere!!
was not close to a lot of people
no one except his brother and sister (irene and yoongi)
they adore each other so much
it's like they have their own language
but he had like o friends so when jeno approached him
he was surprised to say the least
likes being accompanied in silence
haTES small talk
would very much rather talk ab ones purpose on earth
or death too (pun kinda intended
talks ab deep shit w renjun
who he met through jeno
jeno says his coffee order comes from the depths of hell
(funny u say that )
jaem switches their drinks to see the disgusted expression on jeno’s face
(a simps behavior)
천러<3
apollo kid??
yeah
doesn't really fit in w his siblings
bc he has a darker aura
people mistake him for an ares kid
but he loves his siblings and his siblings love him
as an apollo kid he can sing v well
beautiful voice
but kinda shy to sing live
not scared to approach others
but prefers staying in his circle
really likes daggers
and is vv good w them
he trained mark for a bit
and then gave up bc he realized the canadian is helpless w any dagger or bow or anything except swords for a reason
arrived at camp w jisung
been stuck by the hip ever since
I see chenle where is jisung 🤨🤨 oh there he is hi ji
constantly giving each other gifts
fun fact his dagger was a jisung gift when they were finding their preferred weapon
lowkey like each other
they spend time near the auditorium
(word on the street says they make out sometimes but u didn't hear it from me)
i love chenle
지성<3
CHILD OF ARESSSSS
tell me u don't agree🤨
impossible
cute but agile
he is vv shy tho
when he battles completely transforms
extremely talented w swords
when he first picked up one
he felt complete??
idk that's what he told chenle
his sword is made of celestial bronze
takes care of it more than his life
his sword was a gift from his dad
but his dad sent it by chenle
chenle jokes that he is the best gift-giver ever
training and fighting is very therapeutic for him
98% of the time is in the arena when he is not with chenle
trains with the straw dummies when he has a lot on his mind
“training w straw dummies is very mundane so it helps me think”
he is on the younger side out of all the campers
but has more experience than most of them
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themoomoorn · 1 year
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LA SAGA DE BAGUETTE PART UN: LA COULEUR BLEU EST BONNE
Now that I finally have a friggin large screen TV that works, let's get into this Shakespeare in the Park for V-Tubers Edition of Fire Emblem!
As per my previous post, I picked a male Alear and named him Baguette.
Emblème, Engager!
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I'm sure that Timerra is fine and all, but I'm really bothered by these whacky irises her and her brother have, like...why???
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Dimiclaude baby? Dimileth baby? Honestly, at least visually I can see it.
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This model is gross. Also, his tome is literally named "DARKNESS"
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This looks really cool, but it also brings up a recurrent issue I have with FE: The lack of costume inertia. While this is more or less a magical girl transformation Emblem-based costume switch, how cool would it be to see Baguette (Alear) wearing something like this, seeing as it's clearly him fighting in the past?
Also, the battle is direct rip from the Premonition from Awakening. While the appreciation of the prior titles does show far more subtly and nicely later on, this one...is just lazy.
Although
At this time, it's kind of funny to think about - I played Awakening in college 1 (not nursing school) when it was first released back in 2013(!!!). The game is now part of the decade old club. I now know more people, arguably, that did not get their start with Awakening but through another title, and not even necessarily through 3H either (which is something because Awakening is the title that injected new life and interest in FE as a Nintendo property). But the fact that it kickstarted utilizing premonitions and dreams as a way to get the plot running has clearly left its mark.
As the saying goes, what's old is new again.
(For the curious, I got my start with Blazing Blade, and I also played Sacred Stones, but I only jumped on the FE Hyperfixation Train/Rabbit Hole when Awakening came out.)
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The Avatar slathering has an in-universe justification this time, which...actually, it kinda works. We get to see how and why Alear gets the wankery.
This also makes that pre-release interview about Alear's conception funny because they wanted to make them "relatable," which includes not making them nobility/royalty.
The solution? Make them the child of a literal and revered god, of course!
This statement is loaded and utterly moronic, because the franchise has characters like Ike (Lord character who isn't royalty) and Corrin (Avatar character who is royalty). But then again, players likely view themselves as gods of their own world which 3H has proven time and time again with its stupid discourse...
...I never want to hear anybody kavetch about Byleth being wanked over ever again.
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Is it time to load up the woodchipper yet?
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It is my half-displeasure(/s) to report that beneath the Rainbow Bright vomit veneer, many of Engage's characters range from solid to very good. Alear is definitely one such example, and while I still like Byleth more from a story/intrigue perspective, Alear's execution as an avatar-character is far better by virtue of letting them talk.
Heck, I'd say that if you strip away the Avatar bits, Alear would make a decent enough Lord on their own.
Anyway, this little instance of Alear opting to run and showing some fear seeing the Corrupted? It's a great touch. The poor fellow just woke up from a thousand-year nap, after all, and can barely tell his hand from his foot.
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Took me a while to notice that the glowing...blue bits...that show up behind Engaged characters differ depending on either character or class. No matter who Alear is Engaged with, he will always have inverted wings, as he's a dragon. Lumera also has this trait during the one instance where she's Engaged too.
Fliers have right-side up wings, horse riders have literal motor fans propelling them, armored units have spherical shells surrounding them, the backup units (Sword/Lance/Axe Fighters) have floating knight helmet visors, and other infantry units have a trio of weapons floating behind them. Magical units don't seem to have these blue bits.
The only exception to this is Tiki's DLC bracelet, but that's because her Engage gimmick is turning the unit into a literal goddamn dragon, which is pretty hilarious.
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Oh, now you default the Avatar to a female for the tutorials??? I swear to God, IntSys...
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Imma firin my lazer.mp3 (cue dated internet joke)
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It's this screenshot of Alear that showed me that he kinda looks like male Byleth if he were actually charming and not perpetually high/constipated.
I've picked female Avatars for my "main"/content-inspiration runs up to this point, so this is my first time picking the male (Male Shez doesn't count). Gender envy is playing a role in this one, because not only does female Alear have that kind of weird animesque baby face that I dislike, but there's something about how she's presented that doesn't jive with me. I think it's the length of her hair and the fact that you can't change it (I've given my Robins and Corrins short hair when I played as them).
This is rich, coming from me, the web's number 3 female Byleth stan, what with her H-cups and ridiculously cut armor, but I've realized I feel attracted to her as much as I want to be her. Her personality and what happens to her in her story is painfully relatable to me as well - the extreme social awkwardness and painful parallels to neurodivergence. But when she finally starts to emote a bit more, it's more visible than with the male.
Oh wait, I forgot...we're playing Fire Emblem Engage.
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*cue Kill Bill Sirens in the minds of a certain group of fans*
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As we see later, while humans can hear the Emblems when they speak, a dragon's invocation and touch is the only way to actually activate them. That makes sense.
The bit about it something that can only be done every millenium or so...not so much. Feels kind of arbitrary.
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"Oh sweetie, I just made artificial life from nothing. You know, mid-level manager stuff."
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ZIGLUDO-CHAN-SAMA-SENPAI
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Oh look Alear was bad(tm) in the past, Lumera made them good, whooo
They even used the type of fire sound effect you'd probably find on videohive during the cutscene transition.
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WhyTheFuckYouLying.mp4
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To be honest, I'm not sure whether or not this execution of The Ritual Sacrifice of the Emblem Mother(tm) was done well or not, because this is another "celebration (?)" of prior FE Events: Much like how the Premonition scene is lifted from Awakening, this one is a riff of Mikoto's death in Fates.
On one hand...this death was literally advertised in the trailers. We all saw it coming. The scene, as melodramatic as it is, is very well acted in English (I'm sure it's similarly well done in JP, seeing that legendary seiyuu Kotono Mitsuishi voices Lumera). And unlike Mikoto and Corrin's jump from "Corrin being kinda distrustful to Corrin wanting to raze Nohrians to hell in a heartbeat," Lumera and Alear's relationship doesn't quite make the same jump. The whole Shirasagi Throne of Truth(tm) also isn't really a thing here, Lumera's just banking on Alear eventually remembering in due time.
This death also more or less kickstarts the plot, and said plot is picture book-levels of clear: Get the rings, perform the invocations, and kill the Fell Dragon, because if you don't, the world below's gonna drown in a puddle of Corrupted Goo. Boom. Done.
On the other hand, this divine being being done in by wimpy purple lightning comes off worse compared to the humanoid Mikoto shielding Corrin from an explosion and being stabbed by shrapnel in the process. Ouch. The scene also drags on a bit long to the point that it's almost funny.
Also, check out these cape physics!
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And thus ends PART UN of Fire Emblem Engage. Next time, we begin our journey in collecting the Rings of Power from the Rhinemaidens on the doughnut-shaped continent of Lythos. First Stop: NetherFrance - er, Firene.
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flecks-of-stardust · 2 years
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A Quick Ramble About Leif
a hastily thrown together post about how i feel about leif as a character, from the perspective of someone who’s plural
major spoilers for bug fables, especially for the quest Leif’s Request. if you havent gotten past probably around chapter two or three, you’ll want to stay out of this.
also, if you bring plurality discourse onto this post, i will block you on sight. dont even try it.
GOD. okay
tldr: if anything the ending of this quest just solidifies my seeing leif as plural. the rest of this post is just me dissecting why
i think the devs made it very clear that ‘leif’ is actually the body of leif the moth and the cordyceps. tried to anyway, but it definitely came across crystal clear to me. theres an emphasis of the two of them sharing the same body, and they are not the same entity
which is exactly how plurality works? like, literally? i mean its slightly different because the cordyceps has its own body clearly, one that’s embedded into leif’s, but the base concept of ‘two entities sharing one body’ is dead on for plurality. also the part at the end where the cordyceps is specifically talking about itself, switching between ‘i’ and ‘we,’ like thats so specifically a plural thing that i am unable to see leif as anything other than plural
i would probably regard ‘leif’ as their system name, in a way? or the body’s name, in any case, but both of them kind of share the name as well. that can happen anyhow, in some systems where the division between headmates/alters isnt too clear and theyre all kind of part of each other. on the other hand making a totally different system name for them would be really fun ngl
it could also work in the way of the cordyceps being the ‘host’ or main fronter, while leif is dormant. i mean hes technically like. dead. but also yknow
i dunno man. if they are a system it would be one where its vaguely two consciousnesses influencing the actions of whoever is piloting the body, so usually the cordyceps. theyre probably co-con a lot, given what happened in the final fight against the zommoth. or theyre like chronically blurred together, or again, the division between the two of them just isnt really clearly defined. im leaning towards that last one really, since thats in part how my system works too; i cant always tell if its me or V that’s fronting
(also yes, we had a good laugh upon finding out vi’s name. still fucking funny to me lol)
mostly im just happy to have a character who i can explicitly pin as plural based on the canon lore. itd be fun to explore how the two of them would work as a system for sure, and how that works in combat. my headmates constantly backseat pilot, im sure that happens for leif as well askdfgkjkjs
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fa-by · 3 years
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Hi babies and dear Anons 👋🏼🤗 Back with a new 'Q&A' post. Enjoy 🙃
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 and yes, I did. You can find it here, dear: https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/648192029691691008/camren-timeline-tittle-edited.
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Yes, I heard about that rumor, dear Anon, and veeery false.
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I knoooow 😍😍😍 Let's cry in joy and queerness 🥺😭🌈🏳‍🌈
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Yep, dear Anon. And unfortunately for us, they will continue to do so for a veeeery long time 😒🙄😔
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No, dear Anon, I highly doubt it's another duet. They'd be really, but really stupid if they do 🤦🏻‍♀‍
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No, dear Anon, these are just people who want attention. People who have problems in their lives and talk shit about others to feel better. This is just the work of those people who believe in black magic and want to involve as many people as possible to think like them, and if they fail, they attack you because you didn't agree with them and you didn't go to their side. They can get so desperate they even get to the point of, oh I don't know, since you've blocked them, sending an anonymous ask to your girlfriend with a death wish for you:
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The funny thing for me besides thinking that maybe this person believes they're a witch and imagining them with a voodoo doll with a needle in my stomach, is that I was kind to them the first time 🤷🏻‍♀‍ I tried to make them reason, I really tried to meet them halfway, but sometimes that's not enough with people like that.
But anyway. My point is that no, management has nothing to do with it. Thank you for your ask, dear 🤗
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It's okay, dear Anon, don't worry 😄 In last time’s ask you wanted my opinion on the song, right? Well, Not Killin' It Today simply talks about how not every day is a good day. It can happen to all of us not to feel 100%, and Mila says just that. For us girls it can happen even more during or just before the red sea period, if you know what I mean, and indeed, she herself sings “I'm PMSing” = PMS: premenstrual syndrome. If that's why, I think she wrote this song precisely around that period 🤣
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Don't worry, dear, I can understand you, and if I hadn't, we would have found a way to do it. English is not my first language either.
1) Yes, I do think that.
2) (I knew all this) I know she did; she's been doing it for years if that's why because Taylor is one of Camila's mentors. Taylor is what can be defined as the celebrity master with PRs. She’s always done what she was asked to do and she’s always fulfilled her PRs duties of her contracts, and indeed, look where she is now, as well as being a great songwriter. So yeah, who better than her?
Hope you're great too, dear 🤗
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 I'm sorry I'm bad with general questions like this 😅 I'm so much better when I'm asked a more specific question, and usually, when I have something in mind, I write it and create a post with my opinion about it. I'm not kidding about how bad I am at this, believe me. It’s the same thing as when I get the typical “tell me something about yourself” phrase. It's like my brain suddenly switches off 😅🤣 Can you take a look at all my posts from my archive to see which ones I’ve already responded to and maybe come back with a question? I'm really sorry, dear 😖🥺
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I'm sorry but Camila can't stop anything, dear Anon. Not Camila, not Roger, and not even Shoo. I understand your frustration, believe me, I do, but you, and anyone else to which this is still not clear, need to understand that it's a contract. A contract called a relationship contract, and it's a legally binding document. I know it's hard, but the advice I can give you is to ignore the 12-year-old SS and their fantasies, and wait for it to finish without wasting your energy on the bullshit they say. Don't let them get to you and unleash your anger. You make them win this way. Rather, have a laugh at their ignorance.
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Hey dear Anon, I'm good, thanks, and I hope you're doing well too 😊 They broke up for a little while, for about a month before, so more than a breakup I would call it a little break. And to answer the rest of your questions, dear, I'll sum it all up by telling you that when they're not together, or they're on a break, they have a different way of acting than when they're together. And I speak in general. It shows in the way they behave in general. Now it's much harder to see since they're no longer in the group and you could clearly see when it happened, and it’s also hard since the pandemic, but there are patterns. I’ve spent so much time analyzing them that they're quite predictable in my eyes 🤣 Forgive me if I'm not going into details, but these are personal observations that not everyone can agree on, you know? Maybe I'll do it in the future, who knows 🤷🏻‍♀‍ We'll see 😉 Have a good day/night too 😄
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼 and thank you very much 😄 and yes, of course. To answer the rest of your questions, I'll summarize everything by telling you that you have to take into account that I entered the fandom at the Work from Home's time, so they were all just rumors to me initially. Camren themselves were just a rumor to me. I had to search, analyze, and find the proofs on my own to prove to myself which ones were true or not. The first example that comes to mind and that I can give you is the kiss in the van in London that I recently explained in my ‘Inauguration’ post.
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I'm sorry you think this way, dear Anon. I honestly think she doesn't even know. She has said many times that she tries to stay away from social media, and I really believe that. She did it before already, but I'm convinced that she does that even more since she was going through that bad time and she was about to give it all up. Besides, it's known that she doesn't manage her accounts, just as it's known that she doesn't even control how they’re used I would say 90% of the time. I don't know if she'll find out and eventually will say something about it. We don't even know if she has the freedom to do so. So, I'm really sorry you're making a decision based on something she didn't do.
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Hey to you too, dear Anon 😄 Yeah, it's nothing new. I'd already debunked the whole Laucy story with my very first post (https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/648191757219250176/there-is-a-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel), so as far as I'm concerned, she can say what she wants in future podcasts/interviews as well, but she'll never be able to convince me that she's not actually talking about Camila. This was simply a much more chill, fun, with no tears, and no mention of Camila repetition. The first podcast served to plant the seed. We know that Lucy is her main narrative and we know that she will continue to use her for a very long time. I mean, it’s convenient for her. It's the perfect cover for our Mila. But if people want to keep believing they (Laucy) were real, that's honestly their problem 🤣 Let them be convinced of their beliefs, dear, and have a laugh 😉
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Here's the thing……… Yes, to everything you said 🤣 but let me explain why.
1&2) Yes, Laur is like ‘part’ of their contract but for simple narrative, as you yourself said too. If that's why, so are 5H and all the rest of the people who are or have been involved with them. I'll give you an example. You know the bullshit they said about the Austin Mahone tour? That Sunsilk was always isolated in his bus playing guitar? That no one spoke to him outside of Camila when there are actually plenty of videos showing him spending time with the rest of 5H and the other people on the tour too? Certainly none of those people can call him out on that bullshit today and say it wasn't true. They'd blow his cover. They'd make him not credible in the general public's eyes. So everyone needs to be quiet for what they know (that's how it works in that world for every damn thing), and that's Lauren's involvement in their PR. Be quiet. Be quiet and go along with the game. Just as Camila had to during hers with Tymbal.
3) They have to, dear, or all the farces told so far would go to shit for the GP too. 4) 100%, dear Anon, 100% 😏😉 but it must also be said that they'll remain connected forever anyway because of the group.
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Welcome and thank you very much 🤗
1) Everything she's been doing lately leads us to think that the first single for the EP will arrive shortly. I think and hope it will arrive for the summer, but as far as the actual EP is concerned, it will depend on the release of the single. So if the single is out this summer, it's very likely that the EP will follow its course by arriving towards the beginning of autumn. We'll see, dear, we'll see 🤞🏼 🤞🏼 🤞🏼
2) I know that many people get upset and that they're disappointed, and while I too would like her to interact with us more, I also know and understand that it's not just up to her. Although she's much but much freer than before, she still has contracts, people, and patterns to follow.
Take it from someone who's waiting for Rihanna's new album for 5 years 😅🤣 It takes patience, and I have a lot of patience, dear. I fall into the category of those who don't mind waiting simply because I'll always support Lauren.
People forget this: we have to consider ourselves lucky that after what she went through, she decided to pursue with music.
If you love her, if you stan her, then be patient. Stay metaphorically speaking by her side no matter what. That’s what I think, dear Anon.
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Do you mean the first breakup they had that lasted from late November 2014 to late December/very first days of January 2015, or do you mean the bad one that took place in October 2015? But in any case, both of your questions rejoin only one event, dear Anon: the real breakup of the group that happened in mid-October 2015. But answering you more specifically:
1) You can see with your own eyes the videos of the interviews of that period by starting with this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WqOb9qBQ_M&t=11s.
2) Camila’s unofficial departure from the group at the time was the icing on the cake, but you have to consider a lot of things, dear. The fact that they were young. The fact that they were in the spotlight and were being monitored by both fans and management. The fact that they had those same people controlling them and telling them what to do all the time. The fact that they were constantly under pressure. The fact that they couldn't be together freely as a couple. The fact that they were forced to pretend they didn't love each other. The fact that they were forced to do PRs, despite being much lighter than now. I could go on with the list, dear Anon, but I think you get the point. It's a lot of stress and a lot to digest, especially considering how young they were and the environment around them.
Have a nice day too, dear 😄
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Of course I can answer you, dear Anon 😊 So, in my opinion, and always keep in mind that I could be wrong, she told every person in her clique at different times. I think Mila knew about her attraction to girls back in school, but she didn't say anything to anyone because she didn't have a reason to. In the sense that she hasn't had the opportunity to approach another girl and therefore have a reason to tell someone about her queerness. After her first kiss with Lauren on New Year's Eve, I'm willing to bet that the first person she came out to was her mom. Camila's number one best friend is and always has been Sinu, so I can feel it in my bones that she was the first one to know. Oh and, we're in early 2013 here, so Mila was still 15.
After Sinu, there were the girls (DNA) who obviously lived their story with them step by step and therefore I don't think it was a real coming out with them, and her best friends back at home, Sandra and Marielle Guzman (and maybe also Mariana Luna since she was the other one with whom she was very close immediately after the two sisters, but I'm not very convinced of it), and Jenny Runza, who despite being a little younger than Sinu, Mila has always regarded as one of her best friends.
In 2014, when Camren were official, there were more confirmations that led to her automatic coming out with the rest of her clique's friends since the word Camren had already spread around like wildfire for almost two years by then.
At the beginning of 2015, it was the moment when Laur came out to her family, so I strongly believe that that was also Alejandro's moment, although I'm convinced that like the Jaureguis, Ale knew about his daughter all along and that he was even more convinced at X-Factor. Sofi was last on the list simply for a matter of age and I'm talking about 2017. I can't tell you when she told her grandpas. I don't even know if she could have told Norberto because I don't know the kind of relationship she has with him, but Mercedes? Well, abuelita certainly knew this before 2018 because I laugh when I think about the way she looked and talked with Mattress during their PR.
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It's not that simple, dear Anon. You're not considering the fact that they didn't communicate during that time. You're dwelling on only one thing and are not looking at the big picture of their relationship at the time. Okay. Let's do something. Picture a scenario that has nothing to do with Camren.
Picture a couple living together. A couple who often quarrel over even the most trivial things or who don't talk at all because they almost avoid each other. Their relationship is very unstable and they're basically at the end of it. Now picture a conversation between this couple in which the only exchanges spoken in a normal way are by then just daily information such as: “I'll be at work from 8 to 4” - “Okay. Will you come home right after?” - “Yeah, I think so” - and then that person comes home at 6 pm despite the worried calls and messages received.
They're so distant that the person who came home late didn't feel compelled to pick up the phone and tell them about the delay. Probably that person didn't even feel compelled to give an explanation and justify the delay once they got home because they're convinced that their partner doesn't really care and that they're just looking for yet another excuse to argue. That person will have felt even more trapped and suffocated by their partner who was really worried instead, but neither of them tells the other the truth because they're too busy arguing and blaming each other instead of meeting each other halfway and really talking about what they feel and makes them vulnerable. They will surely end up in bed with their backs to each other without saying a word to each other after the fight.
Now look at these phrases from the song itself and put Camren's faces in place of the couple in the example: “With no confrontation, I really wish we could talk about it instead” – “All I need from your side is for you to communicate”. Is it easier for you to understand the dynamic now, dear?
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Hello to you too @camilalauren0327 👋🏼😄 [why can't I ever tag you in posts?]
No, no, no, dear. None of this happens. So. I'd like to start by saying that OCD begins when people misunderstand their own thoughts. We've all had unwelcome and intrusive thoughts at least once in our lives, right? Well, the importance of those thoughts becomes much more intense or sometimes even extreme for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Like, I'll give you a stupid example, okay?
Most of the time I park, I lock the car, and after I’ve taken a couple of steps, I ask myself: “Ma ho chiuso la macchina?” / “Did I lock the car?”. So, I turn around and lock it again with the keys' remote control even though I've already done it, but I do that anyway to be sure and because maybe I really didn't do it because it happened for real. Now. What would a person with OCD do? Most likely they would do like me, and after getting halfway, they would go back again to close it AGAIN. They would do it a couple of times, and most likely, they would do it a third time after they got home. They would leave the house to go lock the car they've already locked five times.
OCD can begin in adolescence, early adulthood, or even childhood. The onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder is typically gradual, but in some cases, it can begin suddenly. Symptoms vary in severity from time to time and this variation may be related to the occurrence of stressful events. Now. Doesn't all this rings a bell for you? No? Okay, let me explain. I'll copy a piece of my ‘Camren Timeline (Tittle edited)’ post for you: “Camila suffers from one of the variants of OCD since she was 8, and despite seeing a therapist since 2013, her OCD was diagnosed at the end of 2015. C also suffers from anxiety, panic attacks, mood disorders, and depression (all linked to her OCD).”
Why did she start suffering from it at the age of 8? Because little Mila moved back and forth between Havana and Mexico City until she was 5, almost 6, right? After that, she moved to Miami with her mom by leaving behind her family, her friends, basically everything she knew, and her dad. Her dad finally managed to rejoin them almost two years later when she was almost 8 years old. Although she had her family with her again, her little mind didn't relax. It didn’t bring peace to her. In fact, that sprang her first OCD symptoms, which gradually worsened and then fully erupted years later in the group.
What triggers OCD? Stressful life events.
Got it now? Were you able to put the pieces together, dear? I've also answered other questions on the same topic here if it may interest you: https://fa-by.tumblr.com/post/648194918161989633/%C9%9F.
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 Don't worry, nobody’s asked me to do it yet.
So, as I think we all know, The Boy was originally titled Care About Me. Ed Sheeran wrote it and gave it to Mila for her self-titled album Camila. Mila almost completely rewrote it (Ed said 90% of it) and lastly discarded it because it didn't fit well with the rest of the songs on the album, and I totally understand that.
Intro:
“Yeah, he's messed up a couple times
But he's my glass of cherry wine
And I drink and I drink 'til I'm drunk off of him
I'm in love
(Ash:) He just hit me up to come over
He said what?”
So. The song begins with Mila trying to justify the boy by saying that even though he made mistakes, she's so into him to get past it. I know she used terms like drunk off of him and in love, but she doesn't mean that she's actually in love with him in this case. Just very into him. She's jokingly explaining the situation because she's talking to Ashlee, her friend, and I don't know about you, but my friends and I often use the term in love to make people laugh and to indicate interest in someone.
Like if we see someone for the first time and they're really hot, or if one of the celebrities we like posts like a selfie, we say “I'm in love”. Or, like, another kind of example: one of my best friends has been dating this guy for a few months, and last week he surprised her with some flowers (which he paid very much by the way) and with dinner just because. Hearing her happiness since she has always had only assholes so far, when she finished telling me everything, I made fun of her by laughing and saying: “Lost in love, huh?”. Not because she's actually in love with him, but because it was such a nice thing and she's into him.
So Mila used those phrases to indicate how much she liked him and not because she was actually in love. Also because if she had really been in love with him, she wouldn't have said she didn't care about him for the rest of the song.
Then ‘Ash’ receives the text, and this leads us to understand that the boy is a player and a cheater.
Verse 1:
“Momma said, ‘Always be kind, girl’ (Girl, what's on your mind?)
But I got something I should say (Say it, girl), uh
Boy, I'm sick and done and tired (There's something on my mind)
I'm not yours to manipulate, uh-huh (Tell him girl, tell hi)”
It explains itself quite well. She can't take it anymore.
Pre-Chorus:
“Oh boy, hold your tongue, I don't want no 'pology
‘Cause we both know you're thinking wit' was under your jeans”
Mila tells him not to waste his breath on justifications derived from his member because she doesn't need them. Tsk, Tsk. Typical male behavior. 80% of their thoughts are formulated based on how and where to put their tool in 🙄
“Sent your friends over to tell them you're missing me”
He even sends his friends to her to try to change her mind, but:
“But I don't care, so tell that boy that I am fine”
But she doesn't care. She doesn't care because she's fine this way. In fact, she's better off without him.
Chorus:
“I don't care about the day he decided to leave
I won't be there when he tells another lie so”
This makes us understand how many times she's had to forgive his bullshit.
“I'm gon' use all of my words for weapons”
We know how lethal words can be.
“'Cause the boy don't care about me, lemme say it again, now, babe
I don't care about the way he thinks it's so sweet (Ah)
All that sugar cone gon' be bad for me tomorrow (Ah)”
He can try to kiss her ass as much as he wants, but she won't change her mind. Talking sweet to try to win her back doesn't work because she doesn't want to deal with a player who lies to her and messes up every time.
“I'm gon' use all of my words for weapons
'Cause the boy don't care about me”
He doesn't really care about her, so it's even useless to her that he tries to fix it.
Verse 2:
“All my girls inside the place now (Say we don't need no man)
No wonder we switch sides sometimes (We got this)”
Camilita, Camilita, Camilita 😏 No wonder many girls prefer other girls, huh?
Switching sides can mean switching sides in the true sense of the word, that is for example going from one side of a room to the other. It can mean changing your mind about something or someone. And, most interesting of all in this case, it can mean switching sides in sexual orientation.
I've said many times that she's a fucking genius, and we know how sneaky she is with her songs. She was really smart at using this hidden meaning because a lot of people took it for granted that she meant the meaning of changing her mind since we girls have this nomination about often changing our minds about something.
“Wipe that good look off your face (Say we got better plans)
Ooh, you better not act surprised (For real)”
Exactly. What would be the point? A lot of guys do that 🙄
Bridge:
“Oh, oh, don't care about me
That's fine with me, babe
You don't care about me
And that's fine with me
Fine with me, fine with me (Don't care about)
It is what I need, oh (That's fine with)
Don't care about, care about
Care about, care about me, oh”
She's fine with it simply because she doesn't care about him either.
Outro:
(Ash:) “Girl, that's old, we're done with that”
Yep. She's definitely done with that/him.
And this is my interpretation, dear Anon 😄 In my opinion, if this song really ended up on the self-titled, it would've been used to give yet another proof of her light, old PR with Michael. People were supposed to remember her last, sure, Jan, flame before meeting the love guru Matrix. It was supposed to be like: “Hey, hey, guys, I'm straight, look! I was with a boy and now with another grandpa one!”.
It's just a different version of the Cinderella song for me: she doesn't need a guy in her life. Don't wrap your head around it too much, dear Anon. There's no deep meaning behind it at all. After all, this song was given to her by her idol, and she certainly couldn't refuse. She changed it in a sassy and fun way, she saw that she couldn't fit it with the others because it wouldn't have made sense, and she then discarded it. The end. She was like: it was funny, but I actually have a story to tell. Bye-bye.
Have a good day too, dear ❤️
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Hello to you too, dear Anon 👋🏼😄 and yes of course I can do both, but for what purpose am I supposed to do All Again? I mean, I can give you my interpretation of that song without any problem, but it wasn't written by them. By none of them five. That's why I'm asking you for what purpose am I supposed to do that. And that should answer your second question as well. Like No Way and many other songs, the girls may have related to them, but they didn't write them. The only songs they wrote, and not alone but with other songwriters, are:
- Me & My Girls, Don't Wanna Dance Alone, and Who Are You for Better Together,
- All in My Head (Flex) for 7/27,
- and for the self-titled album we have Sauced Up: Arlen (+ other songwriters), Make You Mad: Normally (+ other songwriters), Lonely Night: Norminah (+ other songwriters), Messy: Normally (+ other songwriters), and Bridget: Alren (+ other songwriters).
It's like you ask me to give you my interpretation on for example Who Are You. I could do it without a problem, but that song was written by 8 different heads. With the exception of the bridge that we know Lauren wrote, I can't tell you who among Camila, Dinah, Normani, Ally, Julian Bunetta, PJ Bianco, and Nasri Atweh wrote which part. Analyzing a song sung by a single artist/songwriter is completely different because the idea and concept and feelings are based on a single person. The songwriters who co-write the song together with the artist adapt to them, or maybe the idea comes to one of them, but they modify the concept together with the artist based on their personal experience, as happened for example with Consequences.
Now that you know all this, do you still want me to analyze All Again? Let me know 😄
Let's move on to More Than That.
Lauren wrote four songs in 2016, two of them were meant to be for someone else, but one of them, as we all know well, she kept it to herself. She decided to keep More Than That to herself once she modified the original lyrics along with Prince Charlez and SoundzFire, aka Hue Wayne Strother.
Intro:
“M-M-M-Murda”
This small part of the initial effect intro we hear, is simply a shoutout to Murda Beatz, one of the two producers of the song.
Verse 1:
“I see you watching so I walked into your stare
'Cause I ain't in the position to be walking over there”
She's not in the position to go there simply because she's taken, but she likes to be watched. She likes the attention she's receiving, so she puts herself in plain sight so that this person can keep looking at her.
“I got a situation, I can tell you wanna know”
This guy must have wondered: ‘Why if she's looking back at me, then she won't approach me? Is she someone who likes playing hard to get? Is she a teasing sort? Is she waiting for me to go to her? Or maybe she's in a relationship?’ Typical questions you ask yourself in that situation, and Laur summarized them all in one simple sentence.
“How you can take an honest girl and turn her to a …
If I'ma take a gamble, then you better come correct
I need more than them diamonds that you got around your neck
Shit, anybody can flex, my baby do it best
If you come with somethin' better, then we might just take it there”
The stare, the fact that this guy has the money (diamond necklace), the physical appearance, are not enough for her to push her to cheat. Because if she has to take the risk of cheating, these are certainly not the things that would drive her to do it, but she could if he had something better to offer her. [And with that, please keep in mind that Lauren is a very loyal person and that she wouldn't have done it even if this guy had gone with something better]
Pre-Chrous:
“I know I ain't right for tempting you
But I just wanna see what you would do
If I gave you a taste of what I do
Just remember that I don't belong to you”
The fact that she returned his gaze, that she spoke to him and gave him just a little taste, doesn't mean that she’s no longer taken. As I said before, she likes the attention, and although she knows that it's wrong to instigate him, she does it anyway because she's playing with him. “It's kind of more like clowning him” as she said herself.
Chrous:
“You gon' have to come stronger than this liquor
Wanna take me home, better be more convincing
It'll take more than that to get to me
More than that to get your way
Boy, you better come stronger than this liquor
Wanna take me home, better be more convincing
It'll take more than that to get to me
More than that to get your way
I'm stronger than this liquor”
During the approach in which the guy tried to ‘take her home’ for the night, Lauren easily manages to reject him despite being drunk, because her loyalty is stronger than the attraction she may have felt for him and certainly stronger than what she was drinking.
Verse 2:
“If my man notice, there’ll be some issues”
🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
I'm sorry but every time I listen to this part I can literally picture Camila turning into the Incredible Hulk as we've seen many times. And shit, despite her being tiny, Mila can be scary when she's pissed off.
“But take my number down, I just might hit you
No, I'm just playing, I'm so deep in love
But the way you talkin' might just have me actin' up”
Drunken thoughts mixed with attraction/arousal blocked by common sense and loyalty.
“The way you looking at me, boy, I know what's up
I can feel how you feel without even a touch”
Let's not fool ourselves, guys. You too will have felt when a person is ready to jump your bones. To feel it in the air. To perceive it from the way they look at you, talk to you, and yes, even using excuses to innocently touch for example your arm even if the intentions are far from innocent. These kinds of things, whether you're in a relationship or not, whether you're loyal or not, and especially if you're attracted to the person in question, make you feel appreciated. They make you feel good. But:
“But don't think that's gon' make me give it up
Boy, your time is up”
But that doesn't mean, however, that you take action on it. It doesn't mean you give in to temptation. It was nice, but no thanks. Bye-bye.
Outro:
“It'll take more”
It takes more than good looks, money, and fake, shiny people from L.A.
And that's it, dear Anon 🙃 This is just a funny song about a situation that happened in a club, in which Lauren shows her flirtatious side but also her loyal side. It wasn't that good for her image, but I have an explanation for that as well.
Remember how I initially said that Lauren wrote this song to give it to someone else and then decided to keep it for herself after modifying the original lyrics? Well, in my opinion, she ‘decided to keep it’ and was even chosen as a single, simply for the narrative. It was chosen to go along with the fake love square cheating bullshit [Lauren and Ty who cheated on Lucy and Alycia to be together]. People should have believed even more that Lauren was a person capable of cheating, and this song served the purpose.
🤸🏻‍♀‍🤸🏻‍♀‍🤸🏻‍♀‍
Aaand I'm done 😜 I hope I was helpful in this case too 😄 Thank you all for your asks and as usual, know that I'm available for those who have questions, so feel free to ask 😊
Always remember to be kind, to others and to yourselves. Be a good example. Be patient. Be safe and take care of yourselves. Don't let our ship sink. Keep shipping them, but please respectfully 🙏🏼 Sending you virtual love and hugs 🤗🤗🤗 I love you, babies. Always with love, F ❤️
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rogue-durin-16 · 3 years
Text
THINGS NEVER GO AS PLANNED (Part II/VII)
"candy floss"
Summary: After Fred's death, George and Y/n lean on each other to carry on. This wasn't the most brilliant idea, though; George was pretty much in love with the girl, and Y/n— well, she had been dating Fred prior to the Battle of Hogwarts.
Pairing: George Weasley x Reader
Genre: angst
Tags:
Suggested by: @crispykittywitch
Things never go as planned: @sarcasticallywitty15 @beautyschoo1dropout @s1ut4georgeweasley @leovaldez37 @missmulti @weasleywh0r3s
Permanent taglist: @elia-the-bibliophile @randomparanoid @karlthecat15722 @thebutchersdaughtersblog
Warnings: grief, feels, brief mention of Fred x Reader ig?
A/N: I decided to name the parts bc why the fuck not so keep an eye on the titles 👀. This story is based off this convo and these headcanons. If you wanna be tagged in the next parts tell me, and enjoy <3
Prologue :the aftermath
Part I : sleepless nights
Part III: shock therapy
Part IV: wrong name
Part V: the perfect excuse
Part VI: the downfall
Part VII: apart
Epilogue: I still love you
Rogue-durin-16 masterlist
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The moment the last group of customers decided it was time to call it a day and exited the shop, I left the till counter and grabbed my wand from my pocket, instantly turning the sign in the door so it could be read from outside 'closed'.
A sigh escaped my lips as I leaned against the multicolored wooden rail.
I was drained.
The shop helped our minds to get distracted and stray from the grief, yes, but it was also exhausting.
We had been subconsciously overworking ourselves to the point where it was borderline self-destructive.
It didn't help that I was throwing myself into comforting George, either. I could not be blamed for doing that, though; he was broken.
A part of me, the rational one, knew he would pick up the pieces and build himself up again, it would just take a lot of time.
There was another part of me, though, that depressed, drained part, that was beginning to think he would never heal by himself —maybe he wouldn't heal at all— but still held onto the hope that, if I tried hard enough, I would be able to mend what had been broken in him.
A terrible idea, really, because I started to dismiss in its entirety my own miserable, damaged state.
And George, ever the caring, sensible one, would have noticed that; he would have made me realize I was not doing nearly as well as I thought, he would have talked some sense into me, but he wouldn't— he couldn't, because George was lost in an ocean of grief, trying so hard not to drown that he wasn't able to notice I was trying to aid him from my very own sinking boat.
It also seemed to be working; he was more animated, slept more soundly, and his smile was a bit brighter even —at least the one he had for me.
"Rough day?" My eyes, which I didn't know I had closed, fluttered open at George's voice.
"Very."
He walked to me with a tinge of guilt in his face. "You know we can switch places, right?" I had been working as the public face of the shop since we had reopened, and George had taken on the task of doing the paperwork and shippings instead, showing up from time to time to help me and to let people know there was still a Weasley running the business.
I had been the one to suggest this, since I knew George had compromised with reopening only because of me, and he was clearly not ready to put up a sociable, positive attitude for dozens of people every day.
"Nah, it's fine like this." I assured him with a reassuring smile.
He measured me with his eyes for a second; I couldn't really tell if he saw through me or not. "So I was preparing the today's shippings," he rocked a tiny purple basket I quickly recognised in front of me. "I found this in the back of the stockroom."
"Are those—?"
"Candy floss cupcakes, yes." A year and a half ago we had bought five baskets of candy floss cupcakes from Honeydukes per George's request in order to unsuccessfully try and implement them.
"Are they even edible anymore?" I couldn't help but laugh.
"I hope so?" He chuckled too, tearing the film covering the sweets. "Thought we might as well finish them."
My eyes travelled from the basket to him and viceversa before stating, "well I'm hungry so..."
"Same here." He was the first one to pull out a pastel colored cupcake, though he handed it to me. "Wanna get food poisoning together?" Laughing, I gave him a nod as he grabbed his own cupcake. "At the count of three?"
"One"
"Two"
"Three." We said in unison right before taking a bite of our respective madeleines.
I frowned at its surprisingly good flavour. "Am I delirious or are they actually edible?"
"Dunno," he shoved the rest of his cupcake into his mouth with a shrug. "maybe we're just starving."
"Go big or go home, I guess." I finished my cupcake before leaning on the basket to pick another one. My head snapped up with my brow quirked when I heard a soft chuckle. "What?"
"Nothing." George shook his head, motioning at the stairs. "Shall we sit down?" I followed his lead, sitting on the stairs and waiting for him, who had stepped towards the drinks aisle to grab a couple of juice bottles, to do the same.
We stayed there, eating and drinking in a comfortable silence until the basket was empty and our eyelids threatened to shut.
"I think we should head back to the flat." He spoke, leaving the half empty juice aside so he could stretch.
"I'm gonna learn how to cook." I stated, getting up. "We can't get by based on most likely expired sweets and whatever is in the Leaky Cauldron menu."
"Aight." He mimicked my actions, picking up the stuff we left on the stairs. "We will learn the basics tomorrow." He got behind me and began to gently push in the flat's direction. "But now we're gonna get some sleep, miss."
I would be lying if I said my heartbeat didn't pick up when his hands landed on my shoulder blades and made their way to rub both my arms reassuringly.
I would be lying if I denied I leaned back when he did that, letting myself get closer to his chest.
And I would definitely be lying if I said I didn't crave going back to my room so I could cuddle him all night.
One Week Later
"—right in the cauldron, love." I pointed at the cauldron besides me, giving a sweet smile to the kid in front of me, visibly going to be sick thanks to the free sample of Skiving Snackboxes.
"Y/n!" I spun around at the loud calling of my name above the shop's racket. I was able to discern a long, red mane flowing fast towards my position right on time for the owner to wrap her arms around me.
"Glad to see you too, Ginny." I laughed, trying not to lose balance due to her enthusiasm. "How come you're here?" I questioned, pulling away.
"We heard you were open." Harry walked up to me, appearing from behind the girl, "And thought we'd pay a visit to our friends, right?" Ginny nodded, looking around while Harry gave me a quick, yet comforting hug. "Where's George?"
I motioned up to the small office, redirecting the couple's eyes to the second floor. "Doing paperwork—AH!" I jolted when a pair of hands tickled my sides, my head snapping to see the towering ginger standing behind me. "Speaking of the devil."
"I thought I saw Gin through the window," George explained, his hands lingering on my waist for long enough to his sister to stare, before pulling Ginny into a tight hug. "And came down to check if she was distracting my employee."
"You got her all bored here, mate." Harry pointed out, a light joking tone in his voice.
"And you're the one supposed to help with that?" George rolled his eyes dramatically. "Pfft... What a world we live in." With the said, he gave the boy a side hug. I heard Harry murmur an 'We missed you' before they pulled away with a pat on the shoulder.
My gaze landed on the youngest Weasley, whose welled up eyes were trained on her older brother's half smile. I only averted my eyes and waited for her to discreetly wipe away the unspilled tears while Harry and George catched up.
By the letters she had sent me, I reckoned the last time she had been near George, he had been lifeless; seeing a glimpse of who was once one of the most cheerful, funny and charismatic people in her life, was probably poignant to Ginny.
I hadn't realized she had moved closer until I didn't hear her soft voice. "Thank you." I offered her a confused smile, though deep down I knew what she meant.
Two Days Later
George was having one of those days.
We both knew it was coming soon; it had to happen sooner rather than later, since he had been in a surprisingly good mood for almost a week. I suspected seeing Harry and Ginny had brought back the events of the Second of May.
I suggested to close the shop for the day, since he was unable to move out of bed; he refused to do so, but I convinced him to stay in the flat and rest —it was Tuesday, anyway; I wouldn't have to handle many customers.
Due to that, when I saw Hermione, Ron, Bill and Fleur entered the shop, it was understandable that I hadn't become the happiest person in the world.
I greeted them, there were hugs, kisses, and even a joke or two, and when Bill asked about George, I excused him without giving much detail.
They understood.
Fleur was the one to restart the conversation, lightening a bit before requesting a tour for the shop, since she had not yet been there.
It was when we reached the love potions that Hermione, using the fact that Fleur was very much interested in the product, held my hand and pulled me aside.
"So... how are you doing?" The frown in her face, the fact that she was whispering, the squeeze her hand gave mine, let me know she had read me the moment her eyes met mines.
I sighed with a shrug.
"You can tell me." Could I? "No one's asking you to put on a happy face, Y/n." The girl assured me, her eyes digging into mines. "It's not just George, we all lost—" she shook her head at her own words before correcting herself. "you lost him too."
I lost him too.
I bit my lower lip to stop it from quivering.
The memory of Fred's broken smile as his corpse laid on the stretcher, that memory that haunted my dreams, appeared vividly before my eyes.
My lips started to burn with the ghost of that kiss he gave me before we split up, him with Percy and me with George; it hadn't been meant to be a goodbye kiss. It was meant to be a good luck kiss.
I covered my mouth to muffle a sob, and Hermione's arms were quick to be wrapped around me, reassuringly rubbing my back.
GEORGE'S P. O. V.
I saw them entering from Y/n's balcony; I wasn't emotionally ready to face them all at the same time, but when I didn't see them exit, I figured Y/n hadn't been able to dismiss them.
I decided I owed to them all to bite the bullet, so I threw on a shirt and the first trousers I grabbed, cleaned up a bit and left the flat.
With a deep breath, I made it to the second floor and mentally prepared myself to go down to the first one.
As I began to climb down, though, I noticed Hermione and Y/n talking in private, closer than the others to the stairs.
I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but all my senses were automatically focused on Y/n whenever we were in the same room; she just stole me away from reality.
"You lost him too."
Hermione's words visibly triggered something on Y/n.
'Something', as if I didn't know what they had triggered, as if I didn't know what— who was on her mind.
I guess he was always on her mind, though.
What was left of my heart shattered in a million pieces when she broke down to tears —for several reasons—. "I miss him." She whispered in Hermione's shoulder. "I miss him so much."
If I had any tears left, I would have cried my eyes out right there. Had I been so selfish that I had disregarded how she was feeling? So blinded by the light and love and warmth she was constantly giving me that I had forgotten about her grief? Was I that bad of a person, that I would have rather live in the illusion that she had not lost the boy she was dating?
My mind told me I didn't want any of those questions answered.
"George!" As Ron yelled my name in surprise, Hermione and Y/n pulled away, the latter rubbing her eyes while both of my brothers jogged upstairs to hug me. "Ginny told us you're open—"
"But Y/n said you weren't feeling well." Bill finished, squeezing my shoulder. "We only stayed a little longer for Fleur to see the shop."
"Yeah, we'll come back tomorrow," Ron assured me. "So you can rest and..."
My brother's voice sounded further and further with each word; I felt myself drifting off, getting lost in my own mind and gravitating towards the same thought over and over.
She deserves better.
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babysizedfics · 4 years
Note
okok so i dont know if virgil would like it (bc of the separation anxiety) but how does he feel abt peek a boo? i imagine his cgs would make it super fun! like have him on his mama’s lap with his papa in front of him and theyre like “wheres the baby??” and pat covers his eyes “there he is!!” and pat gets all happy and excited to see virgil so v gets all excited which makes pat even mOre excited so v gets lil happy kissies!!!! (can u tell ive been wanting to play peek a boo hdhdj)
I HAD TO SCREAM INTO A PILLOW
I hope you don't mind but i made this into a fic it was essential it was unavoidable i was crying as i wrote this
Title: Peekaboo!
Summary: Logan is a shy new caregiver, Patton learns what separation anxiety is, and Virgil disappears then reappears and is a very confused baby.
Word count: 6,600
Note: Set before the events of Little Accidents, Big Developments (AO3 | tumblr)
Also on AO3
oOo
It had been a somewhat slow day. Roman had been holed up in his room for most of it, rehearsing for an audition that Thomas had landed for the following week. He was working rather relentlessly, though Patton had been sure to request that he at least leave his room for mealtimes - and Logan had outright demanded it when Roman stubbornly refused. After a very speedy lunch, Roman was back in his room and the other three were left to their own devices in the living room.
Quite understandably, Patton had noticed Virgil was much antsier that afternoon. Probably because Roman was constantly talking about how absolutely essential it was that Thomas did not mess up a single line in next week’s audition and that he personally would “enter into a state of devastated mourning should this chance at stardom be killed and dashed across the stage floor”.
That had evidently sent Virgil’s anxiety into a downward spiral. After the fourth shaky sigh in as many minutes from the younger side’s lips, Patton shook his head and twisted on the couch to look at him.
‘Okay, that’s enough,’ Patton said, giving a rare stern look to the boy who was currently pacing the living room floor and looking just about ready to tear his hair out. ‘No more worrying, Stormcloud.’
‘I can’t help it!’ Virgil whispered quite fiercely. His eyes were wide and though they looked in Patton’s direction, it was as if his gaze was fixed a mile in the distance, likely imagining a variation of disastrous scenarios. ‘We could choke or trip or literally do the worst performance ever and Roman would be depressed and then we might not be able to make videos for months because he’s so distraught and what if it was all my fault? What if I was the one to make Thomas mess up and then Roman would hate me and -’
‘Breathe,’ Logan commanded from where he sat in the armchair reading a book.
As if being shaken from a spell, Virgil’s frantic pacing halted and he gasped in a breath.
‘It was not your fault because it has not happened. Roman won’t hate you because even if it did happen, the blame could not fall solely on your shoulders. Everything is going to be all right, Virgil.’
At Logan’s reassuring words, Virgil nodded slightly to himself, his eyes fixed on his feet as he took in steady, though shallow breaths.
Patton bit his lip for a moment in thought. It was obvious that Virgil would not be able to get past this anxiety without a distraction… and what better distraction than being a baby?
With a firm nod to himself that meant Yes, this is definitely the only solution. Not just because I love looking after my baby, of course, Patton switched the TV over from the show he had been watching to Guess How Much I Love You, one of Virgil’s favourite cartoons in littlespace.
As soon as the bright musical score started playing, Virgil and Logan’s gazes both snapped up to the screen. The older one smiled slightly while the younger side’s thumb flew to his mouth in an instant. He began nibbling on his nail as a young child’s voice sang the opening song:
“Dancing through springtime,
Flowers are raised in summer sun,
Catching white snowflakes on your nose,
Running through autumn leaves that float from trees from high,
With a love that is bigger than the sky”
Patton beamed at how Virgil seemed fully enraptured by the animated rabbit and bright flowers on the screen. The moral side happily joined in singing his favourite part of the song, all while gazing at Virgil.
‘Guess how much I love you, guess how much I love you -’ he held his arms out to Virgil in an invitation for a hug ‘- Guess how much I love you!’
‘’M not little,’ Virgil mumbled with a strong blush gracing his cheeks. It was so quiet that Patton wouldn’t be surprised if Logan had not been able to hear it, being slightly further away from them.
‘I know, sweetheart,’ Patton said gently through a smile, knowing that Virgil’s statement wouldn’t be true for very long. His arms remained open. ‘But maybe we can just watch a bit and see if it helps you calm down.’
There was a stiff nod and within a few seconds Virgil had plopped down onto the couch beside Patton, instantly snuggling up to him.
Patton allowed himself a small chuckle as he wrapped his arms around Virgil and pulled him into his lap. Seeing Logan’s proud smile filled him with far more joy than he was currently able to express if he didn’t want to accidentally fling Virgil off of his lap, so he let it fizzle away in his chest with a bright grin. As he settled back to watch the show, he pretended not to notice his baby’s thumb slipping into his mouth.
Needless to say, by the end of the ten-minute episode, Virgil was entirely gone.
‘Papa?’
Patton nearly squealed. He wasn’t quite over his excitement for Virgil’s new nickname for him. ‘Yes, my sweet little fieldmouse?’
‘Peas Minpy?’ Virgil garbled around his thumb, twisting his head to look pleadingly at Patton.
That look… Virgil had no idea what that look did to Patton’s heart. With a firm hand on his chest, Patton said, ‘Okay, baby. Let’s go upstairs and get Minty.’
‘I can fetch them,’ Logan quickly announced from the armchair. Patton watched as he snapped his book shut quite hurriedly, stood, paused for a second as he clearly got a head-rush from standing so fast, then made his way over to them. ‘I’m going to go and get Minty for you, Virgil,’ he explained, leaning down to be eye level with them.
His hand reached forward hesitantly and patted Virgil’s head twice, to which the regressor replied with a giggle and a poke to Logan’s wrist.
Patton fought very hard to contain an adoring smile as Logan’s cheeks flushed before he bustled out of the living room. The logical side was a little awkward in his attempts at physical affection, but they never failed to put a smile on Virgil’s face so Patton could hardly tease him about it. And it wasn’t Logan’s fault that cuddles and kisses didn’t come as naturally to him as they did to Patton. He was trying, and it only made Patton all the more smitten with him.
Feeling his cheeks warm at that thought, Patton quickly busied himself with holding Virgil’s hand (the one that was not currently glued to his chin while he sucked his thumb) and started circling his finger on the little one’s palm. ‘Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear…’
After a short while of singing and tickling and giggling, Logan returned with Minty in tow. One of Virgil’s little baby blankets was slung over his shoulder. At Patton’s raised eyebrow he shrugged it with a short explanation of: ‘Just in case he needs it.’
Virgil snatched his thumb out of his mouth with a muted pop and held his hands out to the soft toy with a whine.
‘Can you remember what word we say when we want something?’ Patton nudged Virgil slightly, though kept him in a firm embrace to make sure the boy didn’t topple off of his lap with his lack of balance.
Virgil’s face turned back to him. He opened his mouth as if ready to say something then frowned and snapped his jaw shut with a pout. Another whine came forth, this time sounding a bit upset.
‘Aww, are you too little, sweetie?’ Patton cooed. Virgil’s head suddenly collapsed onto his shoulder and he heard a sniffle. ‘No, no, it’s okay. It’s all right, baby,’ he hastened to reassure, bringing his hand up to stroke Virgil’s hair soothingly. He really was so sensitive when he was this small, it was difficult to avoid upsetting him. That was one thing that had been difficult to come to terms with when Patton first became Virgil’s caregiver. ‘You’re allowed to be as little as you want.’
The cushion beneath him dipped and he realised the sudden firm warmth pressing against his arm was Logan, who was sitting incredibly close to him. It was difficult not to blush. And so Patton did blush.
‘Virgil, look who has come to see you,’ Logan said so warmly that it melted Patton’s heart.
A curious baby pulled his face off of Patton’s shoulder and all remnants of upset on his features were quickly replaced by sheer happiness. Patton thought it would never get old, seeing Virgil’s eyes sparkle with such rare joy.
A lopsided grin stretched Logan’s lips as he pressed the stuffed dinosaur into the crook of Virgil’s arm. ‘There we are.’
The sweetest little squeak sounded as Virgil sat more upright on Patton’s lap and hugged the toy tightly, burying his face in its fur.
‘So much for not being little,’ Logan murmured lowly by Patton’s ear in an amused tone. The rumble of it resonated right through the moral side’s chest and left him dumbstruck.
‘Yeah,’ Patton breathed, not being able to think of anything much smarter to add.
oOo
Twenty minutes and a couple more episodes of Guess How Much I Love You later, Patton and Virgil (now with a pacifier) were being silly on the carpet. By being silly, they were quite literally just making funny faces at each other and then taking a minute’s break while they calmed down from all of the giggles and aching smiles than ensued.
Logan, being “not one for such tomfoolery”, was back to reading in the armchair. Though Patton had noticed that he was tending to spend more and more time on each page as he cast more and more glances over to the two on the carpet.
It was quite evident that Logan was eager to take care of Virgil, and it was becoming more prominent every day. He was incredibly passionate about the idea when he had first discussed it with Patton nearly a month previously and had been damn near ecstatic when Virgil had agreed to the suggestion. Though, going by his timidity and shy glances when Patton was caring for Virgil around him, it seemed his nerves were getting the better of him. Well, Patton couldn’t have that at all.
‘Oh, you’re such a silly baby!’ Patton chuckled when Virgil scrunched up his face as if he had eaten a lemon slice. ‘Papa’s gonna be right back, sweetheart.’
Without much delay, Patton jumped up with a big smile and ruffled Virgil’s hair, only just noticing that his face had fallen as he walked away. He would be fine, especially with Logan looking after him.
‘Where are you going?!’ Logan practically shrieked, his eyes wide and staring at Patton in disbelief.
Patton couldn’t help but giggle. ‘I’m just going to pee. You can watch Virgil while I’m gone!’ he cried a bit too excitedly if the look of suspicion on Logan’s face was anything to go by. ‘Come on, Lo. You are his other caregiver, aren’t you?’
That seemed to humble Logan as he looked to his lap and fidgeted with his tie. ‘Yes, I - of course.’
As Patton moved out into the hallway he heard Logan sliding off of his chair and talking to Virgil in quiet, gentle tones. He smiled, knowing that Logan truly did have it in him to be a carer, he just needed some encouragement.
Within mere minutes Patton was on his way back to the living room. If he took his bathroom trip quite languidly and chose to use the upstairs bathroom just to have a longer journey, he was sure no-one would have noticed. It was all for a good cause, after all. Though, he began to doubt this reasoning when he became aware of wet sniffles and whimpers and frantic hushes coming from the living room.
‘Logan, is everything okay?’ Patton asked as he pushed the door open.
He was met with the sight of a red-faced, tear-stained Virgil pulling very harshly on his pacifier handle. Logan was knelt beside him, holding his hands out in a placating gesture and looking quite concerned.
It only took a second or so for Patton to drop by Virgil’s side and immediately wrap him in a warm hug. The younger’s crying slowed as he buried his face in Patton’s chest.
‘What happened?’ Patton whispered, looking up at Logan’s bewildered stare.
‘He started crying the minute you left,’ Logan said, his brow furrowed (beautifully), ‘but I could not find any indication of injury or anything in the vicinity that might have caused such a sudden drop in mood.’
‘Oh, sweetheart,’ Patton murmured sadly as he gazed upon his curled up baby, suddenly understanding. He lifted Virgil slightly to bring him into his lap. ‘It’s okay, Lo. Sometimes he does that when I leave him for a bit.’
Just as with every time previously, Virgil’s tears had completely subsided now that he was in Patton’s embrace. Rather than whimpers and sniffles, the only sounds coming from him were the suckling of his pacifier and a small sigh of content.
Logan seemed thrown off by the sudden change. ‘He cries when you leave the room? Is there no suggestion that he could be upset by extraneous variables in these situations?’
‘I don’t know much about “ex-trainer vary balls” but nothing else happens to make him cry.’ Patton tightened his hold around Virgil protectively. ‘He just misses his papa.’
The way Logan’s frown pulled down even more was slightly less cute this time, only because it made Patton worry.
‘Patton, I don’t believe this qualifies as “just missing his papa”. This may be a case of separation anxiety.’
Even as his baby snuggled into him further, Patton felt his heart sink. ‘That doesn’t sound very nice. What is it?’
‘In short, it means that he is aware enough to realise just how dependent he is on you, but not in an old enough headspace to have a solid understanding of object permanence.’ Patton’s confusion must have shown on his face because Logan immediately elaborated, ‘When something leaves his line of sight, he believes it has ceased to exist.’
‘Oh, that can’t be right.’ Patton looked down at the sleepy boy in his lap. ‘No, he must know I’m still gonna come back to him. I always come back to him.’ Purple tendrils of hair parted around his fingertips as he stroked his little one’s head.
‘Allow me to demonstrate,’ Logan said, then picked Minty up from where they had apparently been abandoned on the carpet. ‘Virgil,’ he called, ‘Vee, look over here. Look at Minty.’
With a little snuffle, Virgil lifted his head from Patton’s shoulder. It was noticeable how his eyes sparkled upon seeing his favourite toy. ‘Minpy!’ he squealed in excitement.
‘Aww,’ Patton cooed, unable to hide his adoration for just how sweet his little boy was.
‘Don’t you think he was surprised to see Minty?’ Logan questioned, holding Minty just out of reach from Virgil who was starting to whine as he held his arm out to the toy.
‘Well… I guess so, but that doesn’t mean -’
Minty was suddenly pulled away and hidden behind Logan’s back, completely out of sight. An expression of fake-surprise crossed Logan’s features as he looked at Virgil. ‘Where did Minty go, Vee?’
Watching Virgil’s reaction, Patton was beginning to understand what Logan meant. A mild panic had clouded over Virgil’s eyes and he looked frantically between Patton’s face and Logan’s now empty hand. It wasn’t long before the whimpering started anew.
‘Sweetie, it’s okay,’ Patton murmured, rocking him slightly on his lap. ‘You remember where Minty went, don’t you?’
Wet eyes locked onto his. ‘Gom,’ Virgil whispered forlornly.
‘He’s not gone, baby. See.’ Patton sent a pointed look to Logan, to which the logical side at least had the decency to appear embarrassed by his experiment and pulled Minty back out from behind him.
Virgil gasped through his pacifier, apparently shocked by the toy’s sudden reappearance. He whined and made desperate grabby hands at the toy.
‘There you go, Virgil.’ The toy was pushed into Virgil’s hands and instantly squeezed against his chest in a tight hug. Logan looked back up to Patton a little shyly. ‘I apologise for upsetting him. I had to prove my hypothesis.’
A sigh escaped Patton as he swayed his baby gently. Logan did honestly look remorseful, and he had shown Patton what object permanence was (or more what it wasn’t) so perhaps it was all right. Even if it hadn’t been in a very fun way. ‘So, does he think I… I die when I leave the room?’ he whispered shakily.
‘Not nearly so morbid,’ Logan reassured, actually reaching out to stroke his finger across Virgil’s knuckle. It was a very small act of affection, but Patton appreciated it nonetheless. ‘He does not have the mental capacity to think about anything that he cannot see. When you leave him, he cannot see you and so all he can think about at that moment is your absence, rather than believe you could exist somewhere that is not with him.’
The strangest bittersweet feeling swirled in Patton’s chest. Sure, it was kind of cute that Virgil loved and needed his papa so much that he always wanted to be with him. But Patton couldn’t be with him all the time. He did his best, of course, but he couldn’t exactly go hours without needing to go to the bathroom or fetching something from the cupboard.
‘Can we maybe fix it?’ Patton asked.
That crinkle in between Logan’s eyebrows came forth again and Patton longed to press his lips against it and smooth it out with a kiss. ‘There are simple activities we can do to try to reinforce object permanence. Though given the fact that he is not truly a developing child, I am unsure if they will have any effect on him.’
‘It’s worth a try though, right?’ Patton didn’t want his baby to be needlessly upset if they could help it.
A soft smile stretched Logan’s lips, and it made it quite tricky to remain worried. ‘It’s worth a try.’
And try they did. They really did.
As per Logan’s suggestion, they started with Patton leaving the room for progressively longer bouts of time. Thirty seconds, then one minute, then two minutes, and et cetera. At least, that had been the plan. In practice, it was much more resemblant of ten seconds, Virgil’s distressed whimpering, and Patton dashing back to comfort his baby. Then ten seconds, then Virgil whimpering, then Patton dashing. Ten seconds, whimpering, dashing. All in all, they considered it a failed attempt. (Patton was very glad that Logan didn’t reprimand him for ruining the experiment.) (‘You didn’t ruin anything, Patton.’)
The next activity was hiding objects and showing Virgil that they would always be revealed again. Minty had been the first choice, though Virgil was still rather distressed from their first activity and was clinging onto the toy tightly. The caregivers came to a silent agreement that it would not be fair to take away his comfort item. They instead attempted to hide things from around the room; little trinkets such as a photo frame or one of Roman’s sketchpads he had left lying around.
Virgil at least did not start crying whenever they were hidden behind Logan’s back or under his baby blanket. In fact, he hardly seemed to notice them disappear at all. No matter how much baby-talk and coaxing from Patton and Logan, the regressor did not react to them and only frowned and buried his head against Patton’s chest with a whine that almost resembled a groan of annoyance. Apparently he was entirely uninterested in the activity when it concerned such boring objects.
‘Virgil, look. Roman’s drawings are all gone,’ Logan announced, pulling the blankie over the sketchpad for the fourth time. Patton felt Virgil’s head roll on his chest lazily to look. ‘And now -’ Logan pulled the blanket back with a little gasp, revealing the book, ‘- there they are, they came back!’
‘Wow, would you look at that!’ Patton gasped, shaking Virgil very gently to try to excite him.
A soft grunt sounded before Virgil buried his pouting face in Minty’s tummy.
Both caregivers sighed.
‘Perhaps this activity is too impersonal to interest him,’ Logan mumbled, looking more than a little disheartened.
It wasn’t a surprise, given how passionate Logan was about educational activities. Despite the logical side’s hesitance with being solely responsible for a regressed Virgil, he had displayed plenty of interest in the boy’s wellbeing. Over the past few weeks wherein he had been subject to Virgil’s regression, Logan had had plenty of input in ways Patton could play with him and similarly teach him things that his regressed self had not known before. Patton, in turn, had convinced Logan that he himself partake in the activities too, and hence Virgil’s comfort around him had been gradually growing.
So seeing how disappointed Logan was by Virgil despondence for this activity, Patton absolutely had to do something to remedy it. He just had a fussy baby to get through first.
‘Oh no!’ Patton cried, knowing that it would be enough to get Virgil’s attention. As expected, the baby looked up from his toy still adorning a frown as he suckled his pacifier. ‘Vee, I’ve lost something very important and I can’t find it!’
Virgil’s grumpy expression melted into a worried one and he looked over to Logan. Then he pointed at the other side and whined at Patton.
A giggle worked its way through Patton’s words as he explained, ‘No, I didn’t lose Logan. I can’t find my happy little baby anywhere!’
Shyness replaced Virgil’s confusion as Minty was pulled up to cover most of his face.
‘Is he…’ Patton hummed in thought for a moment, then fluttered his finger under Virgil’s ear, ‘over here?’
A little squeak was muffled behind Minty as Virgil’s eyes crinkled. But, Patton thought in amusement, he still couldn’t see Virgil’s smile, so technically it didn’t count.
‘No?’ Patton gasped, then moved his finger down to wiggle over the sole of Virgil’s socked foot. ‘Is he under there?’
With a strained giggle, Virgil dropped Minty to push at Patton’s hand quite weakly. His dimples were starting to show.
Biting his lip around a grin, Patton released Virgil’s foot but then started circling his finger around in midair teasingly. ‘Oh, I wonder where my happy little one could be.’
‘Papa!’ Virgil called, giggling around his pacifier.
‘Oh my, I think I heard him!’ Patton’s finger started wriggling and moving towards Virgil’s tummy. ‘Could he be in here?’
He slid his finger under Virgil’s shirt and started squiggling over his tummy. Virgil was immediately squirming in his lap, giggling uncontrollably.
‘There’s my happy baby!’ Patton laughed.
For another couple of moments, the room was filled with the sounds of Virgil’s bright laughter and the soft kicks of his feet against the carpet. Then Logan spoke up:
‘Actually, this poses another suggestion.’
Patton twisted in his place, keeping a firm hold on Virgil who was still calming from his giggles. At some point during the tickle attack, Logan had apparently moved back to the armchair. While he was sitting quite stiffly and avoiding Patton’s eyes, there was a slight twist in his lips that suggested he was holding back a smile.
‘What’s that, Loganberry?’
A half-hearted scoff greeted that nickname, though Logan continued regardless. ‘Playing Where’s the baby? - otherwise referred to as Peekaboo - is a commonly used tactic in teaching object permanence in infants.’
‘Oh, how adorable!’ At once, Patton shuffled both him and Virgil to face Logan on the carpet, supporting Virgil in sitting upright. He was eagerly peering over Virgil’s head at Logan. Patton wouldn’t miss this for the world! ‘Whenever you’re ready.’
Logan bridled in his seat a little. ‘I, um… Well, I anticipated that you would want to do it, Patton.’
‘Oh.’ The slump of Patton’s shoulders was probably more noticeable than he would have liked. Was he asking too much of Logan to play a game like that with their baby? The logical side has always been sensitive to looking less than serious. ‘Of course,’ Patton nodded, regretting that his voice sounded strained.
‘Wait, no. I -’ The words stuttered to a halt as Logan closed his eyes and took a deep, likely steadying breath. When his eyes opened again, he looked down at Virgil with a soft, open expression. ‘Shall we play a game, Vee?’
Pride swelled in Patton’s chest.
The weight on his lap shifted as Virgil turned around to look at him. His expression wasn’t too easily read, but Patton knew he was simply seeking affirmation and so he encouraged him. ‘That’ll be fun, won’t it, baby?’
Seemingly satisfied, Virgil turned back to Logan and made a hum of assent.
It would never be spoken aloud, but Patton was quite sure that both he and Logan acknowledged just how awkward the logical side felt in that moment.
With a quiet clearing of his throat, Logan lifted the baby blanket from the floor and held it up in the air in front of him, concealing his face. After a moment, the fabric dropped to his feet to reveal Logan’s face - adorned with a faint blush.
‘Peekaboo,’ he said in an incredibly unfitting monotone.
A wince fought to crumple Patton’s face, but he battled it fiercely. As was to be expected, Virgil did not react much to Logan’s weak exclamation.
‘That did not have the desired effect,’ Logan grumbled, his cheeks a deep shade of pink now.
‘Aw, come on. Maybe you could try again with a bit more, y’know,’ Patton stalled, shrugging his shoulders with a guilty smile, ‘feeling.’
Logan’s eyes darted between Patton’s face, the blanket on the floor, and Virgil. Then he shook his head rapidly and muttered to his lap, ‘This was a silly suggestion. Forgive me.’
Being overcome by a wave of sympathy, Patton offered, ‘Here, why don’t we switch?’
He gripped Virgil tightly and rose from the floor with his baby in his arms. Virgil only had the chance to whine for half a second (he didn’t respond too well to being picked up a lot of the time) before Patton was easing him into Logan’s lap.
‘Uh, Pat - Patton…’ Logan stuttered, going stiff in his seat.
Ignoring the nervous protest, Patton persisted and situated Virgil further back on Logan’s lap so that the regressor leant against Logan’s chest. ‘There we are, sweetheart.’
It was met with a high-pitched whine and one of Virgil’s hands reaching out to him again as he leant forward to chase his papa.
Logan quickly caught Virgil’s shoulders before the boy swayed too far to one side. ‘Are you certain this is all right?’ he asked quite breathlessly. ‘I haven’t held him before, I don’t -’
‘Logan, don’t worry.’ It was almost amusing how wide Logan’s eyes were. Patton sent both of his boys the most comforting smile he had to offer. ‘I’m sure Mommy Logan is plenty capable of holding a baby in his lap.’
Both sides on the couch spoke simultaneously:
‘“Mommy Logan”?’
‘Mama?’
Virgil’s tiny voice filled Patton with such intense awe, he could hardly breathe past the swell of adoration in his chest.
He just smiled and with each hand offered a supportive touch to the two on the couch - a hair stroke for Virgil and a shoulder squeeze for Logan. He directed his next words at Virgil, knowing Logan wouldn’t be able to argue with his baby-talk. ‘Yes, baby. You’ve got a papa already, haven’t you? So now you’ve got a mama too!’
In a somewhat unexpected change of heart, Virgil’s upset at being away from his papa dissipated and he sank back against Logan’s chest quite happily.
Logan’s arms had fallen forward to secure around Virgil much in the same fashion as a seatbelt.
The decision to be so unapologetic and forward about suggesting “Mommy Logan” had been a risky one on Patton’s behalf, though seeing the gentle smile that softened Logan’s face thwarted any lingering doubts he had harboured about it.
‘I suppose that makes sense,’ Logan murmured, absently stroking his thumb over Virgil's shoulder and gazing down at him as if in a trance. ‘I can be Mama Logan.’
Going by Logan’s expression, Patton was sure he recognised the feeling that lay behind it. Patton knew it well; being entranced by the vulnerability and innocence and sweetness of the person who now relied on you to take care of them. It was the feeling of protectiveness. The paternal instinct. It was love.
He did his best not to tear up at seeing it displayed so openly in Logan’s eyes.
‘Okay, baby, are we ready to play?’ His happy tone was only moderately hindered by his tearfulness.
Virgil bounced a little in Logan’s lap (which earned him a surprised chuckle from the logical side) and nodded, squeezing Minty tighter in his hands.
‘Here we go!’ Patton announced, then leaned forward. He covered Virgil’s eyes with the palms of his hands. The confused squeak from Virgil forced Patton to bite his lip to conceal a giggle. After a couple of seconds, he lowered his hands and with a bright smile. ‘Peekaboo!’
There was certainly more of a reaction in comparison to Logan’s monotonous attempt, though it was not exactly the expected one. Where Patton expected to find an excited glimmer in Virgil’s eyes, he only saw confusion and upset.
Undeterred, Patton simply laughed it off. ‘There you are! And now…’ He covered Virgil’s eyes again, slightly concerned at his small whimper. When he lowered his hands and called, ‘Peekaboo!’ again, Virgil outright pouted at him.
‘What’s the matter, baby?’
‘I think he may have sensory issues with you covering his eyes,’ Logan suggested gently.
Patton observed how Virgil had instantly started rubbing at his eyes once Patton’s hands had pulled away from them. ‘Was it a yucky feeling, Vee?’ he asked.
A little nod and whine from the regressor confirmed the suspicion.
‘Aw, honey, I’m sorry,’ Patton cooed, feeling his heart sink with guilt. He had to remind himself to be careful of Virgil’s sensitivities. It was certainly proving to be a learning curve for the touchy-feely father figure.
Logan seemed to have regained some of his usual confidence and spoke without an ounce of hesitation, ‘I suggest you attempt it with his blanket instead.’
Glad for Logan’s to-the-point problem solving, Patton picked the blankie up. The material was unfathomably soft and always calmed Virgil down after he had been subjected to “yucky” textures, so he was sure it would help with their game.
‘All right, let’s try this again. Ready?’ Patton held the blanket taut and dropped it over Virgil’s head. An even louder whimper this time sounded from underneath it and Patton shared a concerned glance with Logan.
‘Papa!’ Virgil called out in panic. His grip on Minty was tight enough that the soft toy bulged between his fingers.
Patton hurriedly lifted the blanket again, ready to exclaim “peekaboo”, but was heartbroken to see Virgil’s eyes glossed over with tears.
Virgil whined as soon as he seemed to notice Patton. He dropped Minty to Logan’s lap so that he could hold his arms out. ‘Papa,’ he whispered, sounding close to tears.
‘Hey, hey, don’t cry, baby,’ Patton soothed, wrapping Virgil in a quick hug (that just so happened to include Logan, seeing as how he was so close behind Virgil). ‘It’s all right, Papa’s here.’
‘This separation anxiety is far more intense than I initially thought.’ Logan sounded troubled. 
It made Patton’s stomach flip. Would Logan want to test it more? Would he say it was bad for Virgil’s mental health? Would he want to separate Patton and Virgil? A sick feeling surged through Patton and he quickly plastered a big grin on his face, pulling back from Virgil despite his baby’s reluctance to let go.
‘No, no, we can do this,’ he assured. ‘Can’t we baby?’
Virgil didn’t seem to know what Patton was asking him, so he only whined and stretched his arms out further towards Patton.
‘It may help if you speak while he is hidden,’ Logan whispered. ‘That way he will still sense your presence.’ He offered a slightly awkward smile. It was beautiful to Patton.
He picked the blanket back up from where he had dropped it to the couch and, as per Logan’s instruction, repeated the game but this time spoke when Virgil was covered by the blanket.
More whines met his ears, though Patton quickly gasped and said, ‘Uh oh, I can’t see little Vee anywhere!’
To his relief (as well as Logan’s, going by the drop of his tense shoulders), Virgil’s whimpering stopped.
‘Papa?’
‘Where’s the baby?’ Patton sang.
A confused coo came from Virgil. It was such an unmistakably babyish sound that the remains of Patton’s concern were overridden by thoughts of My baby is so frickin’ adorable!
Then he snatched the blanket from Virgil’s head with a wide smile. ‘There he is!’
Virgil blinked slowly a couple of times before twisting around to look up at Logan.
The logical side smiled down at him and nodded. ‘You came back,’ he stated simply.
For a moment Patton was unsure of what would happen next. Virgil’s silence could have meant anything from shyness to fear. It could have been followed up by hysterical giggles or heartbreaking sobs.
Instead, Virgil turned back to Patton and mumbled, ‘Bwankie.’
How on Earth Patton had not yet suffered a heart attack from the sheer amount of adorableness coming from his baby, he had no idea.
‘Shall we play with your blankie again?’ Patton asked.
When Virgil nodded, so much pride and happiness filled Patton that it spilt out of him in a joyful giggle.
‘Oh my gosh, okay!’ He bounced on his toes as he lay the blanket over Virgil’s head again. His baby did go slightly rigid upon being left in darkness, but it was quickly remedied: ‘Where’s my little baby?’
Virgil’s body relaxed back into Logan and he shook Mento in his hands with a squeak. With a strong suspicion that his little boy was excited, Patton pulled the blankie away. ‘There he is!’
And it was true! Virgil was smiling behind his paci and flapped Mento in the air in front of him with a giggle. The anxiousness of the previous few minutes had completely disappeared.
‘Logan, he liked it!’ Patton cried, unable to contain how ecstatic he was.
He was a little surprised to catch Logan staring at him with a distant look and a soft smile etched onto his features. With a little start, Logan seemed to catch himself and nodded stiffly.
‘I am glad,’ Logan said and with the hand that wasn’t keeping Virgil secure, he scratched at his cheek. It only drew attention to how rosy it had become. ‘It might be worth keeping it up. Solely for the educational merits, of course,’ he hastened to add.
‘You don’t have to tell me twice,’ Patton laughed and looked back at his baby. ‘Again?’
Virgil bounced a little in Logan’s lap and his dimples sunk in his cheeks. ‘Gen!’
‘Anything for my little stormcloud.’
Virgil was promptly hidden behind the fluffy material. 
‘Oh dear, where did Virgil go?’
The blanket giggled.
Logan chuckled quietly as Patton winked at him. ‘Where’s my itty bitty baby?’
‘Papa, Papa!’
Patton gasped with an exaggerated surprise, ‘Oh my goodness…’ He swept the blanket off of Virgil's head to be met with a very happy baby with fluffed up hair. ‘There he is!’
The sound that came from Virgil could only have been described as a squeal of delight. His face was glowing with joy and he squished Minty against his face. He tended to do that when he was either shy (which he certainly wasn’t at that moment) or when he was so overwhelmed by emotion that he had to hide and process it for a moment. The fact that he was hiding from intense joy, rather than intense fear as usual, was nothing short of heartwarming to Patton.
‘I love you, honey,’ he whispered and leaned down to press a firm kiss onto the top of Virgil’s head.
‘Um, Patton?’ Logan asked quietly.
With a growing embarrassment, Patton realised he had his hands on Logan’s thighs to steady himself in leaning forward. He quickly retracted his hands. ‘Sorry.’
‘No, no, that wasn’t - you can -’ Logan cut himself off by clearing his throat. His eyes darted up to Patton quite hesitantly before they settled on Virgil. His hold on the regressor visibly tightened. ‘I wondered if perhaps I could try playing again.’
Patton had not, in fact, known true pride until that very moment.
‘Gosh, yes, please, of course,’ Patton rambled, instantly crouching down to be eye-level with Virgil. He had to seize this window of opportunity lest Logan shy away. ‘Let’s move you around, sweetheart.’
With a little help from Logan (and a little blushing as Patton’s hand brushed his), they were able to get Virgil to face Logan whilst in his lap. There was only a slight protest when Virgil reached out to hug Patton but couldn’t because of his position, but it was soon brushed over when Patton sat beside Logan so that Virgil could clearly see him. Perhaps the separation anxiety had not been helped so much by the game, but it was fun nonetheless.
‘We’re gonna play with Mama now,’ Patton announced and smiled when Virgil looked expectantly at Logan.
The logical side faltered a bit, though as Patton nudged him slightly with his shoulder he seemed to come out of it. ‘Are you ready to play, Vee?’
The baby nodded and hugged Minty tightly to his chest.
Logan did as Patton had - covering Virgil over with the blanket and immediately wondering aloud, ‘I appear to have lost Virgil. Wherever could he be?’
To Logan’s credit, the performance was far more expressive than his first attempt. It wasn’t quite as resemblant of a children’s TV presenter as Patton’s coos and gasps were, but it was certainly enough to get Virgil smiling, as was quickly revealed when Logan pulled the blanket back with a joyful, ‘There he is!’
They kept at the game for several more minutes, none of them getting bored of the repetition.
It was quite difficult to be bored by Virgil’s squeaky giggles, Patton found. Especially when they were supplemented by Logan’s soothing voice and a grin brighter than Patton knew the logical side would have ever dared to display in any other situation.
By the last round, Virgil was getting sleepy; his laughter was interrupted by quiet yawns (which sent Patton’s heart racing as he questioned how a human being could so closely resemble a kitten).
‘Last one, Stormcloud,’ Patton chuckled as Logan covered the boy with the blanket once more. ‘Then it’s naptime.’
‘Where’s Virgil?’ Logan called. ‘Where’s the baby?’
Virgil’s giggles were quiet, and it was noticeable how he was swaying a lot more now, being too tired to support himself. It was a good thing that Logan refused to release him from his careful hold.
Patton had shuffled further toward the other two as the game went on and now he was fully leaning up against Logan’s side. When they both looked at each other with bright smiles, Patton actually dared to wonder whether Logan’s cheeks really were just flushed from all the laughter, or if maybe Patton wasn’t alone in feeling a spark where their arms touched.
‘Together?’ Logan suggested.
Patton was sure his smile was completely goofy by this point, but he hardly cared.
‘Three…’
Logan smiled. ‘Two…’
‘One…’ Patton pulled the blanket from Virgil’s head.
‘Peekaboo!’ the caregivers said in unison, their happy, sing-song tones identical.
oOo
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startwithbrooklyn · 3 years
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THE GREAT ND REWATCH OF 2021 / SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 // larkspur lane/the whisper box
this post is a double whammy cause they have 2 eps happen in the same day if u can believe it (thats how awful judging timelines in this show is!!)
-"hi josh..." LMAOOOOOOO
-BESS just breaking in lmaooo how many god damn times does bess just shit the bed in this show
-LOVE her frowny face at nancys closet ("my expectations are low" lmfaoooo but this would totally be me)
-"bet she meant it metaphorically" okayyy but then why did lucy say that at all? i feel like theres defo more to this story, combined with josh's cagey behavior (part of which is to get nancy to stop looking into shit d/t him and karen but still)
-"they dont accept visitors unless they're family" .....🙂
-ace "youre really good at that" to bess i fuckin love this friendship with all my heart (also love their talk at the claw mirroring nick & nancys talk in the last ep)
-also PINK AND ORANGE BESS ARE U BLIND (also 1) why tf would nancy own this and 2) where would she wear it??)
-okay wtf is vampire dip
-"boss??" see this is what i meant yesterday about nancy ruining everything for nick/george
-god DAMN she sucks at dealing with this news lmaooo that emotional competency babey + love george literally agrees to help bc she feels bad (AND nicks immediate look of "you just reprimanded me for helping her last ep and i know why youre doing this rn" lmaoooo)
-LOVE george noticing nick "shout out to jean valjean" lmaooo once again nancy would never have noticed/commented on something like that
-"get the hell out of here" was this foreshadowing for an epic dad joke for these two eps? "how do you make holy water? you boil the hell out of it" 😂😂😂😂
-so what i dont get about the whole haunting is the ball + kids' laughter but its all the emphasis on "mr roper" the adult? wtf like what kind of entity is this
-"how did you ever have a solo career??" 😂
-okay amaya's hair is gorgeous here (also "you feel like a snack" ....👀) *ahhh so the reason bess feels so off balance is bc its like a top vs a top scenario
-has anyone who's ever been to prison confirmed this is what it looks like?
-love how ace is the only employee there when they all leave so he had to fucking close the place when he goes
-why does she take the whole file? time constraints? it'd be smarter to take pics + replace it (better sleuthing) but this place is clearly not well run anyway 😂
-so this is a pretty decent cover she invents but theres no way she would get away with it so easily for a real guard
-love how ace recognizes ryan's car (+ is able to find it by driving around)
-"my father wouldnt do anything like that" LMFAOOOOOO SIS WHY ARE U DEFENDING HIM ironically, ace is actually the best person suited to engage w ryan here d/t the car accident + connection with laura being ryans SIL. its a unique set up
-i am fascinated by the concept of priests + holy water being so effective here combined with mcginnis' beliefs and basically nondenominational ghosts/seances etc after that. the show is very clearly big on diversity but definitely steers clear from too much WASP stuff yk? wonder if other stuff from christianity works against the ghosts/demons like taking refuge in a church "holy ground" or using silver etc
-"did this start after the night of sept 10?" *this is where you get the time line for the seance if you didnt know
-this is so fucking funny when u realize that patient sal talks to is actually a ghost so sal really is psycho i guess 😂
-bitchsplain/tall jar of mayonnaise 🙏🏻😌 2gether 4ever
-how did ace get this van? also heart attack when he yells at carson (but then grins at him like a goofball lmaooo)
-"for nancys sake and yours" damn she owes ace big time for all this shit
-"what do we do for 7 minutes?" ...ummm play 7 minutes in heaven lmaooo 👀🥵
-was not expecting ace to look this sexy holding an axe but okay (*ah, its his short sleeve shirt showing his arms. usually hes a sleeves guy)
-"desperate for attention" nancy (from gomber) vs "bc she's starved for attention" patrice --> lucy (and candace also...) we know nancys detective work makes her seem like an attention seeker, but what was lucy doing to make them all think that? she was trying to hide her relationship with ryan, not expose it. unless they just mean the rumors about her?
-so is patrice hiding lucy's "truth" talking about lucy being a whore or lucy being a ghost? what is lucy's secret? did patrice guess she was pregnant or did patrice's somehow garbled mind remember tiffany trying to show patrice the video with lucy on it?
-wonder what captain thom thinks of this stand off w ace lmaooo
-"like you do?" top v top shenanigans
-how awko for carson to talk to karen again like this
-"oh no" ACE 😂
-love how amaya says "be a human" like shes kind of admitting people in rich circles typically arent (^this is an interesting focus in s2 when bess's rich family rejects her, thus making her human again, but nancy embraces her rich fam and experiences subsequent moral struggle which is predicted with the wraith)
-wonder what ryan thinks he could get from the marvins (which he cant get now lmaooo)
-this damn whisper box. so many questions. who named it the whisper box? why are the ropers' old possessions still there? who decided to build a mental hospital on top of it? and patrice! she "hid lucy's secrets" hannah gruen thinks tiffany tried to show patrice video w lucy on it, which patrice then specifically says she hid in the thin mans book. so patrice knows of the thin man? can she see him? does she know he was a ghost/supernatural? she must have a supernatural sense to know about him (unless sal told or some shit) so then when tiffany shows up w/ lucy being supernatural in it patrice hides it to protect her? is this why she is "crazy" kinda like victoria? supernatural elements or ability to sense ghosts makes her unstable? this is why lucy being a ghost/nursery rhyme that she repeats makes patrice worse/"stroke"? how did patrice even get into the whisper box to put the key in the bible and get out without getting trapped? also, her dementia --> lucidity is really fucking off, some people mildly switch like that but usually with dementia they cant even register new shit anymore
-...so did bess take the ride? 👀
-interesting how celia says "your father will be disappointed" but nothing of her own opinion. wonder how much celia truly puts up with to keep everett calm and nonhomicidal
-like george asking nick follow up questions that nancy never really would have asked
🥞🥞🥞(ep13)🥞🥞🥞
-is this bitch just eating a plain pancake with her bare hand?
-"extra case load and excessive volunteering" ugh. nancy's family here are like, gross in how "good" of people they are // unrealistic, trying to paint carson in the best light/ no way ryan could ever compare (but the reality is theyre not that good of people for lying about nancy) **and shes arrogant to think shes better than everyone else ie the only one who truly lives virtuously, thinks she can do no wrong sometimes even tho using sex to cope, breaking and entering, etc is not morally "good" stuff she still thinks she is the only one who doesnt lie and plays fair (like in the pilot she lists everyone else as a suspect but herself- obviously we know she isnt guilty but no one else does. (i mean in theory we really dont, what if nancy was an unreliable narrator and was actually guilty, that would be a hella cool show)its reactions like that where she cant understand why others like the chief suspect her
-ooooh ironic that in the Good Place carson readily agrees to pay her for helping with cases as opposed to s2 in reality
-nick's house has "problems" so why does he need a lawyer? as opposed to an interior designer, plumber, or realtor?
-in the Good Place nick and george realize they are not going to work out after one date. does this failure in the Good Place predict failure in reality, or merely an easier way of figuring out the truth? does this mean that the "opposite" of the Good Place is reality, or only an opinion of what is better? (nancy says "you all like me" as her opinion of them liking her is skewed; does this then only reflect nancys version for what is the "perfect life"?)
-why is bess a hippie??? and love how george curls her hair and wears pink lipstick here
-if this dream is so realistic then why is the one thing it cant conjure smoke? like how random
-love the locket being a key realization bc with things like jewelry you dont notice the weight of them until theyre gone
-"you all like me" in her perfect life nancy means they "like" her objectively/regardless of circumstance even though liking her is still an objective choice (like they "like" her because of other reasons instead of her working at the claw? (like how you make friends with coworkers/people at school every day but after you leave the job/graduate you never speak to them again) and her "thanks for showing up!" as if theyre not doing exactly that in reality 😐like where is she getting this shit? she sort of acknowledges in earlier eps she is hard to like/that she puts mysteries before friends, but also pushing them away to avoid danger like the previous ep "why do u show up" etc
-is it just me or does the inside of nicks "house" look like the drews'?
-nick has a dick scar lmaooooo (or more likely was hit in the balls or smth)
-love how nick + george match their anger in confronting sal 100% on the same level
-so when did ace go back to work after having such a busy day earlier?? lmaooo
-damn father shane is a creep (casting defo hired him for his voice) and how tf did he just poof + escape? and what did he request???
-love bess's white hair bow here 😌+ her jacket, whole outfit on point as usual
-like how bess is right that nancy has to find her way out but thats kind of a nonstarter for a room full of panicked people wanting to help
-in the Good Place theres no bad blood between drews + hudsons bc nancy is really theirs
-"the only one who has the key is you" in the Good Place nancy has the key (smaller picture, to finding out what happened to lucy but bigger picture, post-reveal) but ryan has the clues nancy needs- following the Good Place's mirroring, this just means that in reality ryan will either be completely useless or an active hindrance (but you KNOW this is a dream bc in what universe would ryan remember clues like that 😂)
-so in a perfect universe ryan acknowledges his family's "criminal empire" as opposed to reality where he only makes under cover jabs about disengaging with being an "entitled corrupt legacy criminal" ie finding the bonny scot relics but does nothing about them, etc
-"strippers" 😂
-okay what is nancys obsession w her beanie?? bc her mom made it? "wear beanies do crimes?" idk
-making the call: nancy -unable to make up for lost time/both her mothers had to find out/suffer alone / in the Good Place nancy was able to be with kate while she called, and in reality she had carson; somethig about seeing the mother looking to the daughter for strength in the Good Place instead of the reverse (which is what reality sounded like, kate being strong for nancy through the illness despite the struggle)
-concept: nancy & nick "let's wait out the storm"
-"i believe that you believe it" nick in the Good Place + owen in reality both trust nancy when she says she's seen things (owen's is the teeth) but nick in reality (and not really knowing details) doesnt think much of their "moment" bc it wasnt real (so she had to leave the Good Place to save carson- but if she had known then he wasnt her real dad, would she have stayed to be w nick?)
-stranger - suede james 💙👌🏻
-"really anxious as a kid" v telling bc of her desire to know everything to remain in control of situations like she always does now
-"the medicine or the metaphysics?"/"you cannot beat supernatural with science"
-i love nancy playing with her pinky while saying goodbye 🥺
-"always seek out the truth even if it hurts" this is straight irony bc kate never told nancy anything. like does that include the truth about nancys parentage? they taught her to seek out the truth, but who taught her that the truth is the only thing to live by? ie things dont count anymore like carson and kate straight up raising her is tossed out bc she finds out its not "the truth" like all that work/stress to protect carson + she just drops him? with kate maybe shes just upset thst she spent all that time mourning for someone who lied. and would she do the same to ryan if needed? probably
-bess and ace head tilt 💙
-like how for all the time she spent there nancy only has a subconscious memory of blue curtains
-YESSSSS i LOVEthese beautiful overhead shots of hannah's hands. so out of character for the show lmao but so gorgeous
-i feel like future eps/grand future will be nancy going through the lock boxes to help people who asked hannah for help
-the video is officially dated Aug 22, 2019
-soooooo in the first ep nancy breaks into the hudsons house and finds tiffanys secret drawer w the nail polish and finds the amulet with a note that says "for your protection HG" yet on this video tiffany says she talked to a medium who gave her the amulet sooooo am i just confused? HG is hannah gruen obvi so is the address for the medium what hannah gave her? or was the address on the amulet which nancy dissolved in salt water to see? so how would tiffany know where to go? its chicken and the egg which came first hannah or the medium?
and lastly:
i close these two eps with a thought that everything in this show is sealed in death. all the lies, the imagery, the fake constructs people put up to get by all crumple the second someone dies- all the secrets come clean just like these doors have been unsealed.
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drmedicsgamesurgery · 4 years
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Danganronpa Togami Volume 3 Part 2 (Summary)
Happy new year everyone! What better way to start it off then with a new summary?
Thanks to @enoshima-pyon @shockersalvage​ @jinjojess​ @hopeymchope​ for helping out!
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WARNING: MAJOR DANGANRONPA KIRIGIRI VOLUME 2 SPOILERS AHEAD.
5.
After a while, they switched the helicopter for a train, and they continued their journey to the Netherlands, where the international tribunal is. Shinobu is separated from Byakuya, the Impostor and Kazuya and put in a prison-like-wagon. There are many UN and WHO soldiers guarding it. There, she eavesdrops a conversation between the Impostor, Ibuki Mioda and Gundham Tanaka by using Borges. 
"Hey--the number here is almost the same as the hall of Yokohama Stadium. Ooh, is this where they’re going to hold the New Year’s concert!?” [1] wonders Ibuki. 
"No matter how well these human beings work together, they can't stop the Supreme Overlord of Ice… mwahahahahahaha!"  which came from Gundham.
“Shut up. Because you two are so useless, we ended up being caught by such a boring group like the United Nations.” reprimanded the Imposter.
Shinobu asks herself how many people are working for the Super High School Level Despair, and since Ibuki, Gundham, Sonia and Souda are already working for them, she thinks that maybe her whole class/year has fallen into despair. She then asks herself why the Despair High didn’t ask her to join.
Although this idea is crazy, this reality is so crazy, I think that it is possible the reason is: because I belong to Byakuya-sama. I felt sad for a few seconds, before I thought about it. It didn’t matter. I have my God. Although, I don’t know who their God is, but they can’t be compared to Byakuya Togami.
A soldier brings Shinobu to a luxurious cell room, then leaves.
Fixed bed, fixed sofa, folding table, painting on the wall, good air conditioning... I have no interest in rail travel, it seems to me that this is just a luxurious single cell. After I sat down at one end of the bed, the door was locked. The soldier just gave me a drink, orange juice. I don't know who he regarded me as. I took a sip of orange juice with dissatisfaction. The long-lost water made my stomach irritated, and I found myself hungry. Speaking of which, I haven’t had a decent bite to eat since I was attacked in the Church of Bones. Although I may be irritated by Mishima Yukio, I began to want to drink hot miso soup and eat plum dry rice balls. [2]
Kazuya enters the room, holding a prosthetic arm.
"I’m finally able to be alone with you, my sister, after four years of being alone," he put the right hand on the table and sat down on the sofa. "The train is about to leave, just like our future."
"..."
"From the Czech Republic to the Netherlands will be a long journey. I originally wanted to fly, but we have to go through Germany on the way and they are not willing to give us a flight permit."
"..."
"Please, sister, don't tease me. Just because I wanted to see my sister, I wanted to hear my sister's voice, I worked hard to live up to today."
"...So, you think you have won."
"I’m not that conceited. I’m not the winner yet, but I will win soon."
"Let me see Byakuya-sama."
"That’s a scary thought, how could I allow that? I have to let my sister sit in the special seat to watch my victory... Hehe."
"What's so funny."
"Oh, of course it's funny, having to speak such villainous lines when I am clearly the hero."
"We don't have time to waste like this right now."
Kazuya responds by saying that she shouldn’t worry, now that everyone involved with the World Domination Proclamation have been captured, that she should just sit back and relax.
"You think you have won?" I repeated. "So far, all you’ve done is somehow come back from the dead, and reversed everything.."
"Oh no, I’m not dead. I have hands and feet and heart, but I have no hope."
“Where is Byakuya-sama?” I asked.
“Byakuya Togami, the Despair High School, Class 78, they are all locked up.”
Shinobu thinks that it regrettable that Sakura Oogami was captured, but at the same time if she can move freely there should be a way to get out of this situation.
The train started. The steel dragon started to move slowly, and then the speed gradually increased, as if to show that he was carrying our will, driving forward with violent momentum. The shock from under my butt was unexpectedly comfortable, perhaps because I was too tired and sleep came to me. 
However sleep could not come to her because Kazuya brings her a new prosthetic arm to replace the broken one. Shinobu knows that it’s for the best, so she takes off her shirt and extends her left arm from the elbow to him. 
"Sister... I’m sorry, I have not protected you."
Although the wound has healed, the skin there is very thin. I almost cried out to prevent it Kazuya from seeing it, and quickly said, “It’s not me that you need to apologize to.”
“Who else should I apologize to then, sister?” asks Kazuya. 
“Go and apologize to those you have murdered.”
“Those that I have murdered?”
His tone sounded completely confused. If this were an old-time novel, this sentence may be written with a very unsavory katakana.
Shinobu reminds him of the siblings that he murdered and the villagers that he killed. Kazuya believes that in the world of the Togami Family it’s “kill or be killed” to justify himself. Plus, it was his “big sister” that brought him into that world anyway.
This causes Shinobu to think back about the events of Kuchinashi Village. However, she can’t seem to recall the events clearly, most likely due to her young age. I suddenly had a question: At that time, which hand did I reach out to Kazuya, the left hand or the right hand? As such, she has to ask Kazuya details about it.
Shinobu asks "Do you remember when I saved you in the village?"
"Yes, for me it is a precious memory." he says
"Which hand did I extend to you at that time?"
"Of course, it was the left hand." he said confidently. With that said, Shinobu couldn’t say anything else and let her be at his mercy. After the installation of the prosthetic hand, I moved it a little. Compared with the latest prosthetic hand made by the Togami Conglomerate, it felt more like my own arm.
Kazuya explains to Shinobu his plan to conquer the world. He will spread the Despair Novel even more and make the world fall into chaos. Then he will accuse Byakuya of everything and arrest him. This way he will be acclaimed as the hero who saved the world from the Despair Disease.
Shinobu refused to accept this and declares that as long as her work remains unfinished, she isn’t finished and, by extension, Byakuya Togami will not be finished.
Even if Byakuya loses and disappears from the world, as long as I am writing “Journey Under The Midnight Sun”, Byakuya Togami won’t be finished. I won’t let him be finished.
Kazuya claims she’s just being arrogant and no one would want to read the biography of a “loser”. He asserts that as the main protagonist of this story, he’ll take back everything that was stolen from him and steal everything from everyone else. That way he gets to enjoy the world, while also being the center of it.
“You’re just an ordinary person,” Shinobu says quickly. “You are just a general staff member of the United Nations. They cannot allow you to have the ambition to conquer the world."
“It’s because I am a general staff member of the United Nations that I will arrest Byakua Togami and kill that Imposter who pretended to be Byakuya Togami. Once I eradicate Despair Disease, I will be hailed a hero by the world! Then, once I get the Kudan, I will become Byakuya Togami!”
Shinobu notes that if Kazuya was able to pull this off then it wouldn’t just be empty words. He would have really conquered the world and without the use of the traditional style like territories or nuclear weapons.
But would Kazuya really be able to do this?
Then suddenly, Shinobu feels like she’s being lifted up, as her glass of orange juice flies up in the sky and shatters on the ceiling. 
The next moment, everything around me seemed to be tumbling like a washing machine.
 6.
When I woke up, the whole world was reversed. The bed and sofa in the room were above, and I fell on the ceiling, now the floor.
Shinobu asks Borges what the situation is like and it answers that she was in a coma for three minutes and eleven seconds and she reported a few light injuries. The window of her room is broken and the iron bars covering have been bent from the impact so she is able to get out of the train.
There she sees countless dead soldiers and a group of “Tentacles Soldiers”. They are checking if all the soldiers are dead, and if they find someone who is alive they proceed to kill them. Shinobu looks around and sees the Uragan (#41908870) (which is most likely the cause of the train crash) and Taeko Kanai from the Hasegawa Research Institute.
“It’s no use trying! Resistance is futile! Hand over Byakuya Togami or we’ll keep up our bloodbath!” declares Taeko while playing her guitar atop the Uragan. The Hasegawa Institute seemed to be back...no the Kasamori [3] Drug Manufacturers were back again.
Borges = Search Results #21291600 
Item: Company
Title: "Kasamori Drug Manufacturers"
Was created by Kasamori, founded in the 32nd year of Meiji (1899). Mainly selling professional medical supplies, it merged with Germany's NEO GEHIRN in 1902, becoming the de facto number one in the pharmaceutical industry. After the defeat of the German-Japanese alliance in World War II, the company lost all of its foreign assets and equipment, and later achieved a V-shaped recovery through the manufacture and sale of the red-haired fern tablets 220, which were hailed as “epoch-making anticancer agents”. However, the drug caused many patients to die due to its side effects. The company lost the group lawsuit filed by the patient's family (Red-haired Fern lawsuit, 1998), not only to pay huge compensation, but also to damage the reputation. There are rumors. It is said that the current operating conditions of the company have deteriorated drastically.
Naturally, the WHO/UN soldiers refuse, causing both groups to fight. Kazuya suddenly comes out of the train and reaches to Shinobu. Both come to realize that their attackers are also after the Kudan. She asks him where Byakuya is and he reluctantly tells her that he is in the first wagon, but that the security measures of the train will protect him no matter what.
“A pharmacy actually dares to make life difficult for the WHO, the world is really hopeless. They were probably brought up by dogs, with the way they are acting.” Kazuya says.
“When did you discover Kasamori was posing as the Hasegawa Research Institute?
"What? Sister, what are you talking about?"
"Kasamori is posing at the Hasegawa Research Institute."
Was I the only one to hear about this organization? What is this unspeakable emotion? I remembered that when the classmates in the previous class discussed "Sinking of Japan," [4] I thought they were talking about a very old movie, but soon I found out that they were talking about the remastered version of the movie. Although the plot is the same, it is different from the original version that I am familiar with. Having these almost similar plotlines described to me made me feel like I was transported to some Unreal parallel world. It wasn’t an easy topic for me to handle. For example, it is like an elementary school talent show. When I was performing a children's play at the show, I was about to come on stage. I suddenly found that only the script I had in my hand was different. At that time, I shuddered. 
"Well one thing is clear. It is Kasamori that blocked the road in Germany. Although their name is Kasamori Drug Manufacturers, most of the stockholders are German.”
Shinobu turned around, as to not show her anxiety.
"But aren’t their overseas assets all gone?"
"Just turned underground, and many of the high-ranking officials of Kasamori are now German political figures."
Kazuya explains that Germany likely didn’t give them passage by air, just so that they could stage this train attack on the UN and the WHO to get Byakuya and the Kudan. They will do everything they can in order to obtain the immense power of the Kudan.
"Where is Byakuya-sama?" Shinobu pipes up with.
“You might as well worry about yourself first. Byakuya was handed over to my army, with no problems."
"Where is Byakuya-sama ?"
"Just give it to me..."
"Where is Byakuya-sama?"
"Quit being annoying," Kazuya muttered under his breath. "Byakuya Togami is in the first car."
"I want to save him."
"No need for that, although things have developed to this point, but the physical security measures of the train are impeccable, the windows of the first car are all secured with iron bars, the door is locked from the outside with a padlock, and the outside world can't interfere with the inside."
"I want to save him."
"Are your ears blocked? I said that the safety measures are impeccable, but it’d still be dangerous for you to enter, sister.”
“But I still have to save him. This is the reason why I am alive. I want to look at him, write down his deeds, guarantee his safety. If not, then I will lose the meaning of my existence”
"What a silly fantasy. "
“If you are jealous then you can be quiet.”
“...If my sister must save him, then you mustn't care much for me then.”
“Stop worrying about me.”
Shinobu runs towards the first wagon, but Taeko sees her and several “Tentacles Soldiers” start approaching her.
“Found you, Blue Ink!”
The Uragan comes closer, creating a hole in the ground from the force, and Taeko asks Shinobu to choose between her life and revealing Byakuya’s position. Shinobu asks her about the Hasegawa Research Institute but Taeko has no clue what she’s talking about.
From the attitude of Taeko, she does not seem to be lying about herself. That is to say: she doesn't understand what I am talking about. What I said is very abnormal. I couldn’t believe it…
"Since you aren’t telling us what we need, then you are useless. We don’t have time for playing around anymore, so I will personally send you to hell!!" 
The jet engines began spinning. I was pulling Kazuya’s hand and was going to run behind the carriage to avoid it, but the carriage was blown away like paper.
"You have nowhere to run!"
Taeko’s words are quite right. I can’t find a place to hide. Because of the fierce battles around me, the bullets have now covered the whole area. 
Kazuya then calls all the surviving soldiers and now the two factions are facing each other while the Uragan is coming closer.
Can this be called fighting, isn't it just a matter of ending life without meaning? This is a mutual killing, until one side is the last man standing. A good image of Hell itself.
Then moving so lightly and skillfully, in the sky above such a hellish scene-
“Sorry to keeptcha waiting!!!!~”
Was my brother.
 7.
Suddenly a sightseeing bus jumps from the forest and over the hellish scene. It’s Suzuhiko Ootsuki, first off by singing a small nursery rhyme [5] and then ‘Ai wo Torimodose!!’.[6]
The former SHSL Hitman crashes the bus into the Tentacles Soldiers and the UN Soldiers, killing them and entwining the corpses within it’s wheels. 
"I have to get off at the next stop~! But this all night tour ain’t stopping since the breaks are broken!"
The bus then flew into one of the trains causing a large explosion. It seemed to be filled with gunpowder. Shinobu and Kazuya were blasted into the air by the giant explosion, like puppets whose strings had been cut. But after the crash, Suzuhiko wasn’t in the driver's seat anymore and there was a big hole cut in the bus door.
Then the sound of intermittent screamings stopped the soldiers from fighting and after a few seconds all the soldiers from both parties were on their knees, spilling blood from their necks of their chests. None of them were a match for the former SHSL Hitman.
Suzuhiko seemed to be tired of hide-and-seek, jumped out of the pasture, and rushed over to the Uragan in one breath. He stood in front of Taeko in the blink of an eye. Then everything is over.
"H-hey… "
Taeko spat out her last pitiful sentence, perhaps only because her neck was already cut to her vocal cords. Suzuhiko violently ripped away his knives and the body of Taeko was torn apart. Her hands, feet, internal organs and underwear fell like a ripe fruit from the Uragan. [7]
"Oh... Dahahahaha! I have to say that the gap between talent here is too big."
No one interrupted him because the "Tentacles Soldiers" and the United Nations Soldiers had been completely wiped out.
"Heeey, you can come out now. You are both still alive, right? Let's talk business." Suzuhiko said, with his knife gleaming.
Suzuhiko looks down on Shinobu and Kazuya from the top of the Uragan, then he gets off it and starts walking towards Kazuya and Shinobu. As Suzuhiko puts it they have a “family reunion”, which mostly consists of angry shouting and a recap exposition dump. Kazuya blames Suzuhiko for hindering his job, to which he responds he saved Kazuya's life so it's no good to talk to his big brother that way. He has saved it before and now he has saved it again. 
“I just said that what you did hindered me. I am the captain of the World Health Organization’s Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Committee. I am not who I was four years ago.”
"Are you going to rub your own ass? Oh, Dahahahaha! I’ll wait for you to wear a diaper so you can say that again!"
“I am no longer a child.”
They continue to argue, Suzuhiko bringing up the point that they are not blood related so he didn’t have to save him. 
"Why did you even come to the Czech Republic? Don’t tell me you are after the Kudan, too."
"Nah, I'm not interested in the prophecy your little cow girl, I just accepted the commission to the assassination of Byakuya Togami." 
“Who commissioned you?”
"Do you think I’m really gonna tell you."
"Are you lying, them?" Kazuya said. "You spontaneously came to the Czech Republic and spontaneously blended into this incident."
"Well~ why do you think so?"
"Intuition."
"Intuition alone can't refute someone, Kazuya. It's because of this reason that you were destroyed by that detective in that incident."
"Do you know what happened to that detective? I heard that he is dead, like a dog."
"I'm not interested."
"To tell you the truth, I'm not either. Once I heard Nanamura was dead, my heart didn’t even waver once. It’s really strange to say but, I hate him so much that I can’t ever forgive him." [8]
"It means you haven't let go from the beginning."
“I didn't expect that I actually understood my feelings after so long... Can you understand your own mood?”
"Then now, there is only one purpose for me here. That is to reconcile with you." Suzuhiko said as he jumped off of the Uragan, onto Taeko’s mangled corpse and came over to stand in front of us.
Suzuhiko recites an old japanese saying and continues with, “This is how it is. Our brothers and sisters are all dead, only us are alive. The Togami name can no longer bind us, and the Togami name cannot be the motive for us to fight. So, we should naturally reconcile.”
"Are you serious?"
"Of course."
"Then you are crazy, you just ruin everything."
"Do you really think so, Kazuya? Then you are the crazy one, you destroyed everything."
Shinobu believes that this fight will be the end of the relationship between them all. It will be ruined as both Suzuhiko and Kazuya have ruined her, and she them.
Obviously, if the three of us are together, the destruction will come again, but my brother’s can't understand this. It has always been this way.
Shinobu lashes out at the both of them, saying she will not go back to either of them, as they are no longer Togami’s. Suzuhiko Ootsuki, Orvin Elevator: Both of them are now outsiders to the family.
"What you said is really sad, my dear little sister," Suzuhiko was unmoved. "Our name is not important at all. The relationship between me and you is enough to surpass the name Togami."
"The Togami name is very important. I am a Togami, I am the 'Super High School Level Secretary', belonging to Byakuya-sama only. So I can't really say it’s good to see you again."
"Oh, haha, don't mention the small stuff, let’s forgive and forget, and become as close as we were before all this, sound good?"
"Don't you dare."
It’s Kazuya. Taking a step forward, he let the lightsaber appear on his right hand and stopped in front of our big brother.
"Come on, Kazuya, how could a younger brother be able to beat his older brother? Put away that dangerous thing, and play some easier games. What do you reckon. chess or poker? Or I guess we could play UNO but, with me, well..."
"I want to save my sister, let her get rid of your curse, and use my own strength to do it."
And with that, Kazuya’s lightsaber, shining like a fluorescent lamp, grazed his older brothers throat. However, Suzuhiko continued to smile happily, like some hippie. He screamed, "Oho, guess it’s a change of heart~" He raised his bloodstained knife.
At that moment I heard a sound. A large flame was burning around us, and the fire ignited by the incendiary bomb surrounded us. The heat was almost enough to burn my throat, the crimson-colored [9] fire wall appears around, and the surrounding is covered by a brand new hellish scene. Moreover, this does not seem to be having a positive effect on Kazuya. He looked at the sky with an incredulous look, and screamed "This can’t be-," and Kazuya-
"Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah"
He was shaking.
Borges = Search Results
#90908892
Classification: Symptom
Title: "Flashback"
Post traumatic stress disorder, a mental disorder caused by intense psychological stress due to disasters, accidents, emergencies, etc., causing psychological fake events or the situation which caused the trauma reappearing in the brain and, when the symptoms are severe, it may even cause confusion.
After two fires in Kuchinashi Village and at Touajou Castle, Kazuya was indeed insane. I didn’t know when his sword disappeared, and a shameful liquid flowed out of his eyes and mouth, making him lose the strength to support his body, and he fell on his knees. Kazuya is suffering, but I intend to use this gap to escape. I fully understood my indifference and ran away at the same time. Although it is not clear what happened in the end, there is only one thing I have to do, and that is to go to the first train car where Byakuya-sama is, and that's it.
Shinobu runs to the first wagon of the train, ignoring Suzuhiko who is calling for her. More incediary bombs fell, as she walked to the first car, but it was already burnt to a crsip. She tries to open the door of the wagon, but it’s locked by a padlock. Suzuhiko then steps forward and cuts a hole through the wagon door and Shinobu gets inside.
“Byakuya-sama!”
The train car had been burnt and the heat has reached dangerous levels. I walked quickly, but I couldn't see him anywhere. I thought he might have escaped from another door, but I tried to pull the door, it was locked by another padlock, but Byakuya-sama was gone. Byakuya-sama, Byakuya-sama, Byakuya-sama, Byakuya-sama... I called his name, but never found him. How could this be, he couldn't get out...
At that moment, I heard the roar of an engine. I suddenly had a strong sense of foresight and quickly jumped out of the first train car. I know, I know this, I know what will happen next, and after that too. Then, the Mercedes stopped at the side that I expected, and the window of the driver's seat did not open as I expected.
"Heyyy, rich kid! Need a lift?" [10]
The man in the driver's seat did not know why I looked so happy. "Hey, so where we goin’?"
There was no other choice.
I pulled the rear door and jumped into the Mercedes.
"Coming in!"
"Thank you, my pleasure, Miss."
The Mercedes darted forward as the throttle was pressed. I saw Suzuhiko run over at a frightening speed, but the man in the driver's seat said "BOOM-OFFFFF!"[10], pressed the skull button, and there was a jet engine behind the car increasing our speed. The landscape, the sky, the flames, and my brothers all disappeared in the violent acceleration, and I could not see anything with my dynamic vision or Borges.
While bumping about in the car, my memories felt like they were starting to see the Unreality of this situation.
<CHAPTER 11·End>
Translation Notes:
[1] Yokohama Station s a major interchange railway station in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It is the busiest station in Kanagawa Prefecture and the fifth-busiest in the world as of 2013, serving 760 million passengers a year. 
[2] Kimitake Hiraoka known also under the pen name Yukio Mishima, was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, film director, nationalist, and founder of the Tatenokai. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, but the award went to his countryman Yasunari Kawabata. His works in question here is Apollo’s Cup: a collection of many travel stories by Mishima in Europe, and lots about the food eaten there. Mishima's work is characterized by its luxurious vocabulary and decadent metaphors, its fusion of traditional Japanese and modern Western literary styles, and its obsessive assertions of the unity of beauty, eroticism and death Mishima's personal life was controversial, which makes him still a contested figure today. Ideologically a right wing nationalist, Mishima formed the Tatenokai, an unarmed civilian militia, for the avowed purpose of restoring power to the Japanese Emperor. On November 25, 1970, Mishima and four members of his militia entered a military base in central Tokyo, took the commandant hostage, and attempted to inspire the Japan Self-Defense Forces to overturn Japan's 1947 Constitution. When this was unsuccessful, Mishima committed seppuku.
[3] Wasn't sure if its Kasamori or Kasanori so we just went with Kasamori
[4] Sinking of Japan is a 2006 tokusatsu film directed by Shinji Higuchi. It is an adaptation of the novel Japan Sinks and a remake of the film Tidal Wave, both made in the year 1973.
[5] The title is something like “sitting on the bus” but I can't translate the names of the composer or lyricist, and can't find anything about it online either but it’s probably real.
[6] ‘Ai wo Torimodose!!’ is one of the openings to Fist of the North Star.
[7] RIP Taeko, you will be missed you glorious bastard.
[8] So Kazuya hates Suisei. All the more reason to hate Kazuya lol. Also RIP Suisei, you will be missed you glorious bastard.
[9] It translated as peridot not crimson but I doubt there was enough copper for that to happen.
[10] AAAAAAAA HIROYUKI IS BACK. The exact lines I changed a tiny bit to resemble two of his notable lines from the first book just for clarity. “Do you need a lift young master” and “I pressed it” honestly don’t do his character justice, so they were replaced.
To Be Continued.
https://drmedicsgamesurgery.tumblr.com/GameSurgeryDRTranslations
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moviepower · 4 years
Text
Why do people criticize Jojo Rabbit?
We'd say that this is uncharted territory for distributor Disney, but the company did previously give us their futures face. Hmm. I saw Jojo Rabbit in the best place I could for movies, in my opinion.
For this list, we're looking at why Tyco ITTS 2019 black comedy has proven. So polarizing for critics just to clarify the critical reception thus far has been mostly positive and even watch mojo gave the film a rave review following its TIFF premiere.
Nevertheless, we can definitely see why a movie like this. Wouldn't win audiences over everywhere. Hey Joe, Joe, my old friend. Hi adults. Number 10, the controversial premise. I don't think I can do this last. Of course you can simply by reading it synopsis, you can tell why Jojo rabbit has stirred up so much controversy.
In the midst of world war II, a young German boy named Joe Joe dreams of becoming a Nazi upon learning that his mother has been harboring a Jewish girl in the attic though, Jo Jo begins to reevaluate his outlook on life. I tell them you will be in big trouble throughout this coming of age journey. Our titular character is guided by his imaginary friend.
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Is it worth to watch Jojo Rabbit full movie
Who just so happens to be a flamboyantly incompetent, Adolf Hitler, as inventive as the premises, it was guaranteed to ignite passionate feelings. Critics are unsurprisingly split as to whether the film's premise is inspired or irresponsible. I wish more of our young boys had your blind fanaticism. Okay.
Number nine, how it stacks up to other satires and this world is ruined for everyone and the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way Jojo rabbit. Isn't the first film to satirize Hitler or Nazis 1940 twos to be, or not to be was criticized upon release for its farcical, spin of Nazi occupied Poland.
But today is viewed as a comedy classic. I know you're quite famous in London kernel. They call you concentration camp Earhart. Yes. Yes, we do the concentrating and the poles do the camping Hitler. Technically isn't the protagonist and the great dictator. It's obvious who Charlie Chaplin was parodying. We can learn more about actress playing mother Jojo on Wikipedia.
Arguably the most famous sendup of Nazi Germany is Mel Brooks. The producers. In which two con men put on an intentionally horrible musical entitled springtime for Hitler. Practically a love letter to this own run a week week. Are you kidding display? It's got the close on page four. Some critics are ready to place Jojo rabbit alongside these revolutionary respected comedy.
What do critics write in reviews about Jojo Rabbit?
Others, however, would claim that the film has more in common with the bridge sit-com Hile, honey I'm home, which was so misguided and tasteless that it only lasted one episode. Oh 10 night. You will make an schnitzel. What a joke. You must be real mad at me, honey. I'm a very, very bad Hitler. Number eight, what's going on in the real world right now?
Fuck man. The house, although world war II is in the past. The same, unfortunately can not be said about bigotry. Nowhere was this more apparent than at the 2017 unite the right rally in Charlottesville, which attracted several hate groups, including neo-Nazis. Since prejudice and discrimination remain prevalent in today's world.
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It's obvious why various critics would object to a film that makes light of Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, satire can reflect modern times as well as history in ways that straightforward drama can't. Some might argue that now isn't the right time for a Nazi satire, but others would debate that society needs a movie like Jojo rabbit. A great story about the Irishman is here.
Now more than ever, you're not to nuts. Jojo, tenue kids likes dressing up in front of you. If somebody wants to be part of a club. Number seven, the humor, the best weekend ever.
Soundtrack in the highest level of production
Wow. Your enjoyment of Jojo rabbit will hinder on how hard you laugh. Or of course, if you laugh, the film didn't tickle. Roger Freedman. Funnybone who wrote in his showbiz four one, one review Jojo rabbit is actually borderline antisemitic offensive on many levels and not even funny. Sam Adams of slate couldn't have disagreed more proclaiming for Jojo rabbit comedy.
Isn't a means to minimize, but to analyze wise, to pry at the way, hateful ideologies can be embraced as a comfort and how beneath their promise to. Blame how the world really works is an understanding no more sophisticated than a child's it's time to buy some books. Since humor is subjective, we guess there isn't always going to be a clear line between what's offensively funny and what's just plain offensive.
Oh God. Number six. Jewish jokes. Did you know, Jews can Z to each other's mind. So tell us, you know, who saw one? They could look just like us of Tyco. ITT satire is clearly the Nazis. However, the director who's of Jewish and Maori heritage also pokes fun at Judaism. Hi, well, the real Jordan Rumi was horrified by the audience's reception at the screening he attended.
Writing, you have no idea how it is to be surrounded by thousands of people laughing at jokes, specifically directed at Jews. That being said, Rumi seemed to be in the minority of a group that found the film. Hilarious. As with Borat and South park, many would argue that the humor and Jojo rabbit isn't intended to mock the Jewish faith, but to criticize how ignorant and Semites are a cute number five, the life is beautiful comparison, right?
Jojo Rabbit's reaction to mom's death
Yeah. Critics have stocked a Jojo rabbit up against numerous other films. But life is beautiful. Seems to be the one that's invited the most comparisons this 1997, Italian dromedy also presented world war II through a lighthearted lens, centering on a Jewish man who uses humor and imagination to shield his son from the horrors of the Holocaust. It's interesting what they write about this movie on Amazon.
Well, the film won an Academy award for best foreign language film, and even got nominated for best picture. There were those who found the movies comedic tone, inappropriate. Over two decades later, we will continue to debate if the movie is a life affirming fable or a dated misfire. It's actually eerie how much these two films have in common, especially since both one TIFs peoples choice award.
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That is the strongest thing in the world. Number four, is it shocking enough? I was your age. I had an imaginary friend come in so much stuff even before the first trailer dropped Jojo rabbit was being built up as one of 20 nineteens most controversial movies. Weirdly enough though, some critics have expressed disappointment that the film isn't more shocking.
Well, audiences have arguably gotten more sensitive with time. There are still patrons who crave comedy that pushes the envelope to its limits. It's time to burn some books. Brian Talarico of the Chicago sun times felt Jojo rabbit played it too safe. Writing the final scenes of Jojo rabbit are too easy for a film that needs to be dangerous and daring. 
Are the best scenes already included in the trailer?
Even if the film doesn't go all out with its edgy concept. Seeing Tyco, ITT dresses, Adolf Hitler will be more than enough to make a few jobs drop. What am I going to do? No idea. Going down the house in Glen Winston church one, negotiate number three. It's depiction of Nazis. The playlist Charles romesco took issue with the films, humanization of antisemites writing.
YTT concedes that a good percentage of Nazis really do hold hate in their heart. But maintains that at least some of them aren't you two seem to be getting on. Well, it doesn't seem like a bad cost. How much pain and suffering the Nazis caused many audiences will understandably struggle with this message.
However, if Ron Jones proved anything with his third wave social experiment in 1967, it's that even ordinary people can get swept up in the dangerous ideals of fascism. Likewise, Jojo rabbit poses, a challenging question. If we're not willing to acknowledge the bad and the good in people, how can we ever rid ourselves of prejudice?
Nothing makes sense anymore. Yeah, I know. It's definitely not a good time to be a Nazi. Number two it's message. And mother took me. She's kind me like a person, whatever your thoughts on Jojo rabbit, Tyco ITT clearly wanted to spread an anti hate message. YTT also claims that he started writing the screenplay before Nazis regained relevance in the media.
There's little doubt that why TTS intent was noble, whether or not the final product successfully gets his message across is where critics are split. A doubt of the a V club felt that making fun of Nazi Germany had been done before. Thus taking away from the movies, broader anti hate theme. Peter Howell begged to differ in his Toronto star review writing Taika YTT knocks it out of deer park with the meaningful lunacy of his anti hate satire, which is equal parts.
Adolf Hitler's thread in the movie
Mel Brooks, West Henderson, and  own whimsical brilliance growing up too fast. Ten-year-olds and the celebrating war and talking politics. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified a better latest videos. You'll have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them.
If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications. Number one it's depiction of Hitler. Well, they call me a scared rabbits. Okay. Let's address the giant rabbit in the room. Tyco YTT spends most of his screen time prancing around in a Nazi uniform and toothbrush mustache. If you want, you can read here about preparations for making a movie and other curiosities.
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Without a doubt, YTT, didn't set out to deliver a serious or dignified portrayal of Hitler. Rather YTT aspired to make the fewer look as goofy and idiotic as possible. Oh, . Just painting Hitler as a wacky, even likable buffoon desensitized us to the atrocities. He committed though. Some may say yes while others may argue that it leaves audiences more informed and open-minded.
At the end of the day, everyone is going to have a different opinion of Jojo. Let them say whatever they want. People used to say a lot of nasty things about me. Oh, this guy's a lunatic. Oh, look at that psycho. He's going to get us all killed. Do you agree with our picks, check out this other recent clip from watch mojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
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dylan-o-yumm · 5 years
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Last one!! I promise!! Reader and Nero have this unresolved sexual tension between them and they're so into each other, and reader is jealous of Kyrie (cuz' who isn't?) Because she thinks nero and kyrie are a thing ..??
(Yes sexual tension! The best kind of tension imo lol) Pst… you guys should totally send in some smutty requests. Just don’t give me a big plot cause we all know how carried away I got with plot…
Nero had come seeking aid after he had had a bad run in with some death scissors. You were chilling with Kyrie at your place when he came bursting through the doors, bloodied and tired. He was clutching his side in pain, dripping blood onto your carpet but you didn’t care. Right now, all you were focused on was Nero’s wellbeing. Kyrie ran off to find first aid equipment while you rushed over to the devil hunter, swiftly grabbing his devil bringer and ducking under his arm as you lead him further inside. 
You were calling out to Kyrie, calling her where to find a cloth and some bandages, lowering Nero down into the couch you and the singer were just conversing on. Nero grumbled and protested as you kept him sitting, without even thinking, you grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled it off him with little difficulty. He was covered in his own blood, his shirt you held in your hands was half ripped and stained and would probably be useless now. 
“Girls, I’ll be healed before you know it. Stop fussing over me” Nero groaned when Kyrie came back into the living room, a bowl of water and a cloth in her hands. She ignored his whining as she sat on the floor in front of him and dampened the cloth in the water, bringing it to Nero’s abs and whipping the blood off of him softly and delicately. You stayed plastered on the couch next to Nero, watching what Kyrie was doing. You couldn’t help the jealousy flowing in your veins as you wished it was you touching his bare chest and abs. 
“You need to be more careful, Nero. I don’t think my carpet will survive any more of your blood stains” You smirked, trying not to show just how worried you were about the idea of him possibly not coming here for help next time, fearing he might not be able to make it. Nero glanced over to the front door and saw the large red stains on the floor before shifting his gaze to you with an apologetic cringe.
“Shit, sorry. I’ll help you clean it up” He promises, placing a hand on your thigh and squeezing gently to further prove his apology, only making you tense and shift you eyes off of him to Kyrie who didn’t even seem to be listening or paying attention to the two of you. Nero noticed your reaction, a soft smirk on his face as he slid his hand a little further up your thigh and squeezed slowly and teasingly. He only stopped, ripping his eyes off you when he hissed in pain “Ouch!” He yelped, causing you to giggle, Kyrie apologised sweetly and softly before continuing to wipe the blood away.
You fixed your eyes on what she was doing, admiring Nero’s physic. He had abs, but they weren’t too crazy as if he were a body builder, which you found very attractive. You couldn’t help but notice the soft trail of white hairs disappearing past the waistband of his pants, or the defined v-line that had you imagining all sorts of naughty things as your eyes wandered lower. You swallowed the saliva that had pooled in your mouth, forcing yourself to rip your eyes away no matter how badly you didn’t want to. Your eyes found Nero’s, his intense blue orbs already looking at you, a knowing smirk on his lips.
“You can touch if you want. I don’t bite… Unless you’re into that?” He teased, sending you a wink. You felt your face heat up and you knew you were red, wishing Kyrie would smack some sense into him, but she simply wiped the last bit of blood off him and stood up to go take the bowl into the kitchen to dispose of the bloody water. With her now out of the room, Nero sat up straighter and shifted to the side, so more of his body was facing you, as if showing off his incredible physic. 
“You shouldn’t say things like that in front of Kyrie.” You bow your head so you cant look at his torso any more and also hiding the blush that wouldn’t leave your cheeks. 
“Why not?” Nero asks, genuinely confused as to why Kyrie would be an obstacle for him to dodge. He liked you and he made that obvious, and you clearly liked him, so why would anything or anyone else matter? You scoffed at his reply, deciding to look at him, eyes fluttering to his chest ever so quickly before landing on his eyes. 
“I’m sure she doesn’t want her boyfriend saying such things to another woman” You stated, fully aware of what you were doing, eyeing your friends man, was very wrong. And every time you caught yourself looking at him, you cursed yourself for being so weak and falling for someone that was taken. You knew Kyrie would be so disappointed and mad at you for even thinking the thoughts you did. 
“Oh, so its okay if I say things like that when she’s not around?” Nero smirked, watching you quickly try to correct your words, but only sounded like a blabbering baby. He laughed at your attempts, placing a hand on your shoulder to calm you down. “Relax. We aren’t dating, she’s just a friend. You think I’d start dating her without telling you?” Nero asks, a hint of seriousness in his tone as he asks you, as if he’s appalled that you think he wouldn’t be truthful with you. 
It comes as a shock to you that they aren’t dating, the entire time you knew the two, you figured they were more than friends. The look on your face tells Nero everything, his smirk returning as he brings himself closer to you. You bring your eyes to his, biting your lip to keep from smiling, you cant lie and say this isn’t the best news you’ve ever heard, he’s single and clearly flirting with you, so whats to hold you back now? He leans in closer, making you think he’s going to kiss you, but instead he shifts to the side a little, bringing his lips to your ear.
“Y’know you can touch me… I know you want to” He releases a breathy chuckle as his lips brush against the shell of your ear, sending shivers down your spine. Your eyes instantly hood with lust and your lips part as you let out a shaky breath, wanting nothing more than to pull him on top of you and have a steamy make out on this very couch. However, with Kyrie still in the house, even though you discovered she isn’t Nero’s girlfriend, it would still be rude to kick her out so you can have your way with the devil hunter. 
“We have company…” You whisper back, reaching your hand out to confidently trail down his abs with your pointer finger, stopping where he got cut and pretending you were just curious to see his wound heal up, which was hardly visible now. Nero shivered under your touch, a sound, similar to the purr of a kitten sounding in the back of his throat. He covered up the embarrassing sound by clearing his throat and moving away from you, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. It was funny how suddenly your positions switched, you were cocky and confident and now he was a blushing mess. 
“Don’t worry, Nero. As soon as we’re alone, I’ll touch you all you want” You whispered seductively, watching him squirm before chuckling to yourself. You both sat there waiting for the little singer to leave so you could have some fun of your own… 
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arcaneranger · 5 years
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Final Thoughts - 2018 Long Shows
It’s finally here! I’m so close to being done with 2018 (...mostly. We’ll get to it) that I can taste it, but in the meantime, this list is gonna be weird, because there will be things that were already on other lists since I revised my rules of what should be classified how. This post is specifically for any show that ended in 2018 and lasted longer than 13-ish episodes (including shows that aired a second season during the same year or within six months of finishing the previous one), which means that there’s about as much on it as a usual season of shows, but they all had more time to impress - or disappoint me. I’m doing a better job in recent seasons of getting to everything, but last year there were unfortunately things that I missed (I was burned out in the winter) and just have to leave aside for now because I can’t wait any longer for these lists.
Anyway! As usual, let’s start with what I skipped!
* The Seven Deadly Sins: Revival of the Commandments, The Disastrous Life of Saiki Kusuo S2, Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card, Garo: Vanishing Line, and Mr Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues because I haven’t seen their previous seasons or parent works. (Yes, even Cardcaptor Sakura. Y’all can shoot me later.)
* Hakyuu Hoshin Engi, Beatless, and Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls because by the time I was rounding things up, I hadn’t heard a single positive thing about any of them.
Next comes what I dropped -
WORST OF THE YEAR: Steins;Gate 0 (4/10)
What a fucking mess this show was. Aside from a very noticeable downgrade in production talent from its predecessor, the plot meanders and flirts with maybe actually happening this time before just dropping out again, over and over, to the point where I was perfectly willing to drop it two episodes from the finish line because it was such an insult to fans of the original. (Also, continued disgusting mistreatment of the transgender character.)
Gundam Build Divers (4/10)
Taking the Build series from being a well-written kids show to an averagely-written kids show that hides itself in decent mech designs.
Katana Maidens (4/10)
I remember so little about this show, and granted that I did drop it after one episode almost nine months ago, but what I did remember was that it gave me strong KanColle vibes with laughably inconsistent animation and flat characters. Meh.
Darling in the FRANXX (5/10)
This should probably be lower on the list, but I got out of Darling while the getting was good, sixteen episodes in. I understand that future episodes of the show cemented it as crappy right-wing nonsense in addition to pushing worldbuilding out of its fortieth-story window, but the moment it lost me was much sooner, when the crazy yandere female lead was reduced, almost instantly, to Good Anime Waifu as a reward to the protagonist for going against his friends with his selfish motives.
Persona 5 the Animation (5/10)
In addition to not actually finishing in 2018, Persona 5 just did not give me a single reason to watch it when I’d already finished the source game, with middling-to-bad visuals (thanks to the switch from Production I.G. to A-1 Pictures, and not even the team that created the much better-looking Day Breakers OVA before the game was released in the U.S.) and phoned-in music, which is especially unacceptable in a Persona adaptation. Also, we all absolutely called that the studio couldn’t tell the story of the entire game in just 26 episodes.
Record of Grancrest War (6/10)
There’s people that like this one a lot, but I didn’t see much that interested me in the first two episodes. I’ve heard better things about the manga.
Golden Kamuy (6/10)
I had problems with the first half of Golden Kamuy that the second half simply didn’t fix, and it became difficult for me to keep watching - the show still interrupted almost every fight scene with a dick joke, but still wanted to maintain a serious and occasionally frightening tone - and those things simply don’t go together. It needed to either spend more time being funny, or keep its lowest-common-denominator humor out of the fights.
Next, I have two shows that are (potentially permanently) On Hold, simply because it’s time for me to move on and I don’t have the time or energy to marathon them when the Winter shows are starting to wrap up:
Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, because even though I initially dropped it, I’ve heard a lot of good things since and I want to eventually give it another shot.
Yowamushi Pedal Glory Line, because despite the fact that I still enjoyed the previous season, this one started right in the middle of my burnout and I only heard bad things about it. I’ll get to it eventually, but it’s a shame that this series has been on a clear trend downwards since its revival.
And finally, the stuff I finished!
The Ancient Magus’ Bride (6/10)
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Keep in mind that this is here entirely on the merits of its aesthetic and its side characters - in the end, Ancient Magus’ Bride is a Beauty and the Beast story where the beast gets what he wants without learning to be less of a dick or even apologizing for his clearly wrong actions.
Major 2nd (7/10)
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Always pleased to have even just Good sports shows around, and this one is a very effective reboot of a classic series that’s never made its way stateside (man, the underperformance of Big Windup! really did a lot of damage to this genre in the West). With good character development and a decent second-generation premise, Major 2nd has the potential to be the beginning of a solid baseball story, assuming that it gets a needed followup.
IDOLiSH7 (7/10)
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I dropped IDOLiSH7 when it first aired, and though I wound up enjoying it after I was very strongly urged to revisit it, the problems it started with never quite left it behind - that is, it has an okay cast of characters but doesn’t present even passable performance sequences, and if you’re going to include big song-and-dance numbers, they have to be good, or you may as well just be UtaPri.
ClassicaLoid Season 2 (8/10)
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In 2017, I gave the first season of ClassicaLoid a near-perfect 9/10, and while this season gives us a satisfying conclusion to the story, it does things both a little better than the first, and also not quite as great. It’s story is much more well-integrated over the runtime so it doesn’t happen all at once in a few chunks, and the jokes that work are still absolute genius, but there’s simply too much that doesn’t quite land correctly, and a little too much immature humor, for it to reach the same lofty Hall of Fame heights as the first season. Still, one of the most underrated shows I’ve ever seen.
My Hero Academia Season 3 (8/10)
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God, Izuku in that onesie is too damn cute.
My problems with Hero Academia are frustratingly persistent - the show is at its best when the students are competing with other students, because outside of last season’s Stain (a villain whose motivation is specifically related to the world of MHA), the villains are just not at all compelling and they all seem a little too generic for their own good. I just want Horikoshi to be a little bit less predictable of an author and do a little less reading of the Standard Shounen Playbook. Luckily, when it works, it works magnificently.
March Comes in Like a Lion S2 (8/10)
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March remains director/auteur Akiyuki Shinbo’s most accessible work, and one of his masterpieces, as a well-paced and marvelously moody story of a depressed shogi prodigy learning to be a normal teenager before his youth completely passes him by, and the fantastic characters that surround him with their own complex problems and motivations. I just really, really hope it gets a third season eventually, because this one did not leave off on a satisfying conclusion.
Speaking of which...
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma S3 (9/10)
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It’s almost a shame that My Hero Academia became hugely popular purely based on its accessibility to American audiences, because Food Wars pretty squarely deserves to be the reigning Shonen Jump king - each season has only improved on the previous one, and this one was based entirely on a continuing arc that could only have happened in the universe of this show, Fighting Food Fascism. That being said, it also leaves off right in the middle of the arc (because it had almost caught up to the manga), meaning that we have to hope that it can remain relevant long enough for there to be enough source material for another season. I’ll be crossing my fingers until they snap.
Banana Fish (9/10)
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Yes, this has risen a point since my review, but Banana Fish still deserves to be thought of as both a complete masterwork of crime fiction, being fantastically paced and expertly plotted in the use of its many, many twists, and a work that disappointed the side of me that hoped that, in adapting it into the modern day, MAPPA could have managed to get the author to let them depict what is clearly a queer relationship with the authenticity and legitimacy that it deserved. It’s still amazing, though, and Amazon should be pushing it with their most lavishly-made originals. At least it was the last noitaminA show they’ll get to totally bury.
And, finally, the one you all saw coming.
BEST OF THE YEAR: Lupin the 3rd Part V (10/10)
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Lupin is, quite simply, one of the pinnacles of the medium. A simple idea that can (and did) go in thousands of different directions, handled by highly creative writers and an animation staff that has been knocking it out of the park for years, despite the fact that it is criminally (heh) unrecognized in the West. To put it simply, there’s a very, very good reason that it’s been around since the 70′s.
Okay! All I have left to do is finish Dragon Pilot (waiting on a friend) and we can get the last two lists out of the way! We’re almost done...
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goron-king-darunia · 5 years
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Coffee Soulmate Drabble
Based on this, but reworked to be more articulate and also to avoid piggybacking on a post. Also realized that the prompt was meant to be about what soulmates think when they see each other, not their first words to each other, so I tweaked the premise a bit to fit the reveal I wanted. *~*~*
Emil had waited what felt like eons to finally see his soul mark. Friends from school had mostly gotten theirs already. Marta and Alice got theirs during a schoolyard tussle in middle school. Other classmates had theirs appear during grocery store trips or vacations and spring break. Many more had theirs pop up while messaging someone online for the first time, or just before receiving a response to an online comment. Emil had no such luck. He was still young, of course. Some people didn’t have their soul marks show up until their forties. But he was dying to finally see his. He didn’t want to wait that long. Ever since he was a kid, he’d wanted to find his special someone. A Knight or warrior princess to sweep him off his feet and carry him far, far away from his abusive relatives. Preferably a knight or prince charming of course, but soulmates could be unexpected and Emil wasn’t picky. Alas, here he stood in the Lezareno Coffee Shop, brewing orders and making frappes and getting harangued by customers who “just wanted a plain cup of coffee” and couldn’t bother to even listen to the explanation that there are 30 different blends and they needed to pick one because the procedure is the procedure. His colleague Colette had just finished up ringing up a man with bright red hair and Emil was in awe. The guy looked to be a college student. He was dressed in a pressed white shirt with a bolo tie and some black slacks with a laptop and messenger bag and a perpetually-caffeine-deprived look on his features. Eye-bags, pursed lips, slouched shoulders, grumpy frown. Despite all this, he was a handsome man. His shiny polished loafers were the only thing that really threw Emil off. People his age usually wore tennis shoes, even in nice clothes. They were comfy and they were meant to get dirty so they didn’t require as much upkeep. Loafers were an old-people fashion in this generation. As preppy as the look was, though, his shuffle and slouch were unmistakeably characteristic of a man whose bank of “fucks I give” had basically run empty. Dude had maybe two fucks left at best. Guy clearly just wanted to be left alone to his business. Sadly, that meant that as cute as he was, Emil was going to have to refrain from asking him for his number on break.
While working on a caramel frappuccino for a lady that had just ordered, a wild-looking blond walked in, slapped a bill down on the counter and just said. “Coffee, hot, lots of it. Surprise me with the blend. Make it blonder than me and absolutely saturate that with sugar. Add two espressos shots to it. And can I get a straw?” Colette just nodded and totaled up the amount for their daily blend with a double espresso, extra cream, caramel syrup, and replaced the bill the blond had put on the counter with change and a wrapped plastic straw. “Thanks, you’re amazing.” He added the change to the tip jar and waited by the other end of the counter to pick up his drink. Emil was a bit baffled by this new guy. The boy had very similar features to himself. The exact shades of blond in both their hairs were different but without the side-by-side, you’d never tell. The customer’s eyes were more hazel than green, too, but one would have to look close to notice. Their body builds were a bit different, and this was probably the most prominent detail. Emil had a bit more muscle on him (he spent as much time running away from his home life as possible) and the customer was a bit wiry and lithe but if you really didn’t scrutinize their faces, they’d be able to switch places no problem. A heavy coat, jeans, sunglasses and they’d basically be indistinguishable. The customer’s face was sharper, a bit older looking, more masculine, while Emil’s features were a bit softer and rounder, but at a distance? Yeah. They could be twins. Except for the customer’s fashion sense. Emil, when he wore casualwear, usually wore a nice v-neck in a neutral color, a nice vest or scarf or jacket depending on the weather, and shorts or jeans in a nice cool tone. This customer was decked out in red and black, dark jeans and thigh high boots. He had a gold chain with an angel emblem on it but also a billowing white coat. Emil couldn’t tell if he was a nerd, a counterculture punk, or a dweeb attempting to be edgy. Then again, as he was also a college kid from the looks of things, he might have just thrown on whatever was clean and comfy. Emil couldn’t tell. Emil brewed up the order as Collette finished ringing up another customer. The blond barista placed the cup on the counter just as Collete tapped him on the shoulder. “Can you cover the registers for a quick minute?” Emil nodded, doing as he was told. luckily there was no one in line so he just had to keep an eye on things while he worked on other tasks and prioritize running the register if anyone did show up.
Aster, the aforementioned blond customer with weird fashion sense, was enjoying his hot cup of pure caffeine and sugar, just about to make his way out the door when he felt a faint tingle on the inside of his right wrist. He’d heard the stories. He was excited to know what the first words his soulmate would speak to him were going to be. He’d always dreamed of something like “Hey, hot stuff! Nice ass!” just so he could eternally shame his soulmate for catcalling him or something sweet like “Wow, you look really friendly! Can you help me study this week?” Some kind of college meet-cute that would lead to some wholesome stories for the kids someday. He eagerly rolled up his sleeves. Would it be funny? Heartwarming? Quirky? Flattering? He frowned when he read the small string of words, printed in a tiny serif font along his arm. “Who the hell drinks coffee with a straw?!”
Well that was simply unacceptable! Not only was his soulmate clearly a classless heathen who hated the finer things, but now he was stuck with this stupid soulmate mark! Aster turned around, leaning against the doorframe and eyeing the other patrons suspiciously, angrily sipping his coffee through his straw. As soon as his soulmate uttered those words, he was gonna kick their ass. He glared over the crowd, daring some chuckefuck to stand up and say it to his face. He was going to wreck them so hard he’d ruin the relationship eternally and blow that soulmate mark right off his arm.
Richter twitched, eyes narrowing at the blond beginning to exit and the words began forming in his mind. He didn’t even notice the blond turn to survey the rest of the patrons before he set his own coffee aside and found himself shooting up from his seat, massively offended on behalf of the rest of the sane people in this store. “WHO THE HELL DRINKS COFFEE WITH A STRAW?!” Aster’s head whipped around. You! He thought. I’ll rip you a new one right here! But before he could get the words out he softened immediately. Oh no. He’s hot.
“It’s not even iced coffee!” Richter continued, gesturing wildly at the blond’s absurd setup. “What are you even?! Wh– These cups come with lids with mouth holes you know!? So they don’t spill everywhere and so you can drink on the go!” Richter felt his own wrist tingle and paused.  He was filled with anticipation certain that the barista was going to call him out on that statement. In fact he was praying for it. Because the barista was kinda cute. But no. The words appeared on his wrist moments before they were uttered. 
“The straw cools the coffee off on its way to my mouth hole.” 
Richter cringed. Oh no. Why him? He’s cute, too but WHY HIM?! Why not that cute barista boy?! And why did it have to be these words?! Emil’s head shot up. “Oh dear.” Suddenly both his wrists were tingling. It happened sometimes when someone had two simultaneous soulmates. Some people ended up picking one and letting the other mark fade. Some picked both if they could manage it. Emil had heard stories of as many as four simultaneous soulmates and there were legends of people who’d had even more. Emil glanced around, wondering who they could be. It hit him just as the words faded in on his arms and he locked eyes with the blond customer. Aster called out. “Yo! Barista boy! You can back me up on that, right? Drinking coffee with a straw isn’t weird, yeah?” “Oh, please! For real, you can settle this right now, my friend. Drinking coffee with a straw is barbaric right? Leaving the cup open like that while walking around in public, ready to spill on everyone! The correct way to drink a hot beverage is obviously from a travel mug or ceramic!” Aster and Richter both felt their other wrists tingle and they paused their argument, smiling faintly at the words that appear. “You’re both idiots and you need to stop yelling or my boss is gonna kick you out before I get your numbers.” “Seems like you’re going to be settling more than just this argument, huh?” Richter smiled. “You haven’t even asked him out and you’re expecting him to mediate all our arguments?” Aster sassed the redhead, elbowing him in the chest. “We don’t even know each other’s names!” The three convened at the counter as Colette came back to work the register. “I’m Richter.” The redhead offered his right hand to Emil. “Emil.” The blond flashed his nametag on his apron before shaking Richter’s hand with a smile. “Aster Laker.” The other blond reached out to Emil’s still extended hand for another handshake before reluctantly taking Richters.  Richter entered their names into his phone and they exchanged contacts. “Alright, thanks for that. I’ll text you our numbers, Emil.” His phone pinged as the text was sent. “Anyway, I don’t want to take up too much of your time. You’re working after all. But before I go harass this guy about his habits, can we get your professional barista opinion?” Richter grinned. Emil chuckled. “You’re both wrong. Iced coffee is the only good coffee so drinking a hot coffee any way you want to is wrong.” Aster cackled, nearly spilling his coffee as he doubled over laughing. “I can’t tell if you’re a contrarian or just want to dodge the question. This will be an interesting relationship for sure.” Richter smiled, sipping from the mouthpiece of his cup. “What if I drink my coffee through 25 swizzle sticks glued together?” Aster cackled. “Am I valid?” Emil and Richter just stared at him. “You’re insane.” Richter murmured, though his face was glowing with amusement. “Absolutely bonkers.” Emil laughed. “I’ll let you two know when I’m off. Don’t murder each other before I’m done with my shift, okay?” “No promises.” Richter smiled, walking Aster back to his table
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thenerdparty · 5 years
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Aquaman Review by Tristan Riddell
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I want the record to show that I am not a DCEU "hater" nor am I someone who thinks Marvel is the only way to go. I think there is enough room in the cinema for Marvel, DC, serious superheroes, fun superheroes, and everything in between. I thought Man of Steel was fine but uninspiring, I loved Batman v. Superman Ultimate Edition, Wonder Woman was good but had a mess of a third act, Suicide Squad had so much potential but squandered it, and Justice League? Well, everyone got screwed on that one. All that being said, Aquaman is at the very bottom of that list.
I didn't see this in the theater because Jason Mamoa's Aquaman never wowed me and the trailers did nothing for me. I don't find CGI bombardment entertaining and I knew this was going to be over the top. I'm not harping on CGI, it can be used well to enhance the story like with Mad Max: Fury Road, it can be integrated seamlessly like in modern David Fincher films, and it can be used effectively ala Star Trek and Star Wars. You can have entire CGI worlds and movies that service your story, such as Tron: Legacy or Avatar, but when the quality is inconsistent and it just becomes noise then you are dipping into Transformer Franchise territory. From the trailers of Aquaman, I could tell that it was going to be one long version or multiple versions of the final CGI fight between Black Panther and Killmonger. Sadly, I was correct.
On top of some it looking like a PlayStation 2 game, there were scenes that had no business being greenscreen but were and it took you out of the film. There was a training scene on the beach and no background was real. You're telling me that the filmmakers couldn't drive to the beach, go to an actual dock or film on an actual boat for a movie called Aquaman?  Sidenote: another horrible distraction was the mismatched tone of the score and some of the worst popular music choices I've ever heard in a major motion picture. Also, Temeura Morrison and Nicole Kidman's de-aging looked like they both had botched plastic surgery. This is one area where Marvel remains king among superhero films. However, some aspects were well done: the Trench sequence, Atlantis in general, and the amazing attention to detail with underwater hair. Although I shouldn't have been distracted by all of this while I was watching, I should be immersed by the story. There is a reason this made so much money internationally. The script and dialogue were not even secondary to the visuals. An international audience can go see a spectacle and not worry about reading too many subtitles or hear the horrible delivery. They can relax their mind and watch the underwater neon. Sadly, even though I knew I would have to switch off my higher brain functions, it still wasn't enough.
Story is always king, just like Aquaman at the end of the film. However, this story was more akin to a stable boy than actual royalty. First off, the writing was just pathetic in its myriad of attempts of cohesion. It wasn't funny, it was trying to be funny. It wasn't clever, it was trying to be clever. One example that is minor to the story but sticks out like a sore thumb so intensely it needs to be discussed involves Aquaman and Mera taking refuge in the mouth of a whale. Aquaman makes a passing Pinocchio reference that Mera doesn't understand. The movie moves on except when it doesn't. They are at their next location, horrible music plays, and Mera entertains a little Italian girl with dancing water. Then FOR NO REASON AT ALL the little girl hands Mera a book about Pinnochio and then walks away. Mera now understands Aquaman's reference. That one exchange is the story in a nutshell. A series of unnecessary setups and then self-imposed deliveries with little to no motivation. We see our secondary antagonist murder innocent people and then the movie frames his situation as if we are supposed to feel bad for him and his father. Willem Dafoe trains Arthur after his mother leaves him but then the movie doesn't explain how they met or why he is truly there. Does his father know? Did his mother send Dafoe? Did Dafoe just pop out of the ocean one day and say welcome to Aquaman school? The audience doesn't know, so we're just supposed to go with it and that happens too much. I'm all for a healthy suspension of disbelief, it's a superhero film after all, but don't make me constantly ask who, what, where, when, and why?
You can tell that most of the actors were trying to salvage a poor script by leaning into the dramatic skid but Jason Momoa didn't get the memo and plays it like a children's game show host. He doesn't actually deliver that much dialogue in this movie but when he does the tone is usually opposite of what the scene calls for. I think this mentality is a holdover from the overcorrection in the wake of BVS. The public had such a distaste for the tonality of BVS that it caused the mess that was the Justice League rewrites. That script's brighter sensibility feels tacked on like a word doc with Find and Replace.
It is hard to handle origin stories with any kind of ingenuity today due to the modern superhero audience being inundated with new heroes, old heroes, and countless reboots. They've been done to death so hard that Uncle Ben didn't even get a mention in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Since we've already been introduced to Aquaman, the film chose to intersperse some of the histories via flashback. This was particularly well done visually because the camerawork acted as a natural transition from present day to past. While the setup to these didn't always work, I believe the execution was interesting. For instance, Mera and Aquaman were standing on a ledge about to jump into the ocean and he was reminded of a time when his mentor taught him how to swim at that very spot. The camera encircles them and as it swings we see a younger Aquaman and his mentor. The camera continues to swing and we're back to present day. They jump but it is the younger version we see under the water. It is this type of structure and editing where the film excels. Outside of these moments, the plot was driven mainly by a shocking amount of explosions that were a surprise to the characters as well as the audience. It made me a little gun shy whenever there was a quiet moment because I kept wincing thinking we were going to be thrown back into the thick of it at any second and not be allowed to breathe.
Overall, this film just doesn't work. The pacing is haphazard, the acting is third tier even with top tier actors, the script needed to be completely rewritten, and the above water scenes needed a much more practical approach. Aquaman made more money than any other DCEU movie by $273 million more dollars. In terms of domestic gross, it was beaten only by the cultural phenomenon that is Wonder Woman. It clearly connected and found its audience. That means it's a huge success and it should be applauded for that. It has joined the ranks of some of the biggest box office global hits of all time. Such movies as Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon, Finding Dory, Burton's Alice in Wonderland, 2017's Beauty and the Beast, Zootopia, and Spider-Man 3. Let this be a sober reminder that success does not always translate into quality.
2 stars
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brendancorris · 6 years
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Thundercats Roar thoughts...
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So a friend of mine showed me this trailer a few weeks ago, and for a second I didn’t believe it was real. But, before I get further into my thoughts on this thing everybody else on the internet has already covered, let me go into my history with Thundercats.
Despite never drawing much fan art for the series, Thundercats is a property I love, and one of the biggest parts of my life in my earliest years. Born in ‘86 with three older siblings, I was just in time for the original Thundercats. My family already consisted of die-hard fans, so it was naturally one of the first franchises I got into. From the time I was born to when I was about 4, Masters of the Universe and Thundercats were what it was all about. It wasn’t until ‘89 that I got my first TMNT toy, and about a year later that was literally all I cared about. 
But before my TMNT obsession, there was Thundercats. While I do have many fond memories of watching the show, my most beloved memories of it are simply being a fan. Collecting the action figures, listening to my siblings talk about the show, and playing Thundercats. Not a video game, though. On nights when my Mom was out, my Dad would host He-Man or Thundercats games where he’d be either Skeletor or Mumm-ra, my oldest sister and brother would be She-Ra and He-Man or Lion O and Cheetarah (while my other sister would be... somebody) and I, being the baby, would always get stuck being Orko or Snarf. All us kids would wrestle our dad and beat up on him as he’d try to defeat us. Epic stuff. Some how the younger of my two sisters would usually end up horribly injured after each game, though...
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Simply put, Thundercats was the real deal with my family when I was little. The action was great, the evil beasts were awesome, the toys were a blast, and Cheetarah, along with the He-Man girls, made me feel things my tiny self wasn’t yet ready to feel. 
It wasn’t until I was in high school that I revisited the show, and, honestly, I was surprised how much it held up. Especially considering in high school I was “too cool for everything” yet I still acknowledged its quality. Yes, it was corny in the way all old children's’ shows were at the time (I have nothing but love for that tone, but I can see how it would be hard to digest for later generations), but it still had great, smart, sophisticated writing for its time, amazing animation and artwork, good characters, and one of the most hype intros ever.
In 2011 a reboot was made. This reboot was far darker and more built on political commentary. It was an understandable progression. The fans had grown up, so the franchise did too. While I wasn’t a huge fan, I can respect the quality of the writing, art, and over all work that went into it. It was a sophisticated piece of art. I felt it went a bit too extreme with the tone it was pushing, and as a long time fan of the original, found lots of the changes and design choices hard to digest. But again, it was a good show, and I respect what it attempted to accomplish. 
However, the show was canceled before season 2 could air. This left a lot of fans mad, confused as to whether it was low ratings, low ratings as a result of its switched time slot that was far from ideal, or just a business decision to sacrifice a popular show just to make way for a potentially more popular future show. While I can understand the upset from fans 100%, I didn’t feel it as I wasn’t a regular viewer. 
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So, fast-forward to earlier this month when my friend shows me this trailer. As I said, at first I thought it was a joke, like College Humor or something. Then when the realization sunk in that it was real, I hated it. But, quickly I told myself that I don’t know enough about it yet to fully judge. I haven’t seen an episode. Sure, it looks awful from what I’ve seen, and I can clearly see the “monkey see monkey do” going on here with the copying of other successful modern cartoons. But, again, I haven’t seen it. Before I get into my final thoughts thus far, I need to address the elephant in the room...
...the similarities everybody has seen in this and Teen Titans GO!
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While I wasn’t a die hard or anything, I did watch the entire first two seasons of the original Cartoon Network Teen Titans series when it was new, and I did like it. I thought it was very well-written, well-acted, had great characters, great character development, great stories, and great action. The characters worked off of each other beautifully. However, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I had some issues with it.
UNPOPULAR OPINIONS AHEAD - PREPARE TO HATE ME
Since its release I have always found the art style to look very under-developed and unappealing. It looked like an awkward imbalance of the (already bland in my mind) Justice League cartoon style and a newbie anime style. The best way I can describe it was it resembled the artwork of a junior-high kid who just started drawing anime. Also, I found a lot of the anime-inspired elements to feel forced. When characters would mutate into chibi disasters or tropes like sweat drops scrolling down their faces would happen, it was always a bit cringy and out of place. It felt like it was shoehorned in rather than rightfully fitting in.
But the most notable thing about the show was it was a pretty huge departure from the original DC comics. Gone was the realistic art style of the comics. Now the characters all had big, round heads, twig-like limbs, huge hands and feet, and big anime-eyes. Everything was very simplistic, sharp, and jagged. There was far more comedy, some great, and some that cringy chibi stuff I mentioned. The integration of anime tropes and far more kid humor was a huge departure from the comics. So, basically, despite being a good show, Teen Titans, the show, was a huge departure from its source material.
Then comes Teen Titans GO! and overnight it becomes one of the most hated (and most popular) cartoons of this age. I didn’t quite hate it, but wrote it off as crap without seeing it. It is a shame that the original show was canceled before it got to be finished, but putting fans’ anger towards that aside, the creation of TTG makes perfect sense. The characters proved extremely popular and marketable, largely because how comedic they could be when bouncing off each other (and the original show had been canceled. Continuing a canceled show years later is a difficult task, regrouping the team, dancing through the legal BS, and finding enough staff and people to fund it to be on board, as well as a network to accept it). More simplistic art styles were becoming more popular, and after the post-Adult Swim days, hyper, wacky, odd comedies have become the norm.
To be honest, any time I have seen Teen Titans GO!, which has only been about three episodes or so, I laughed. I don’t care what people say, the show is legitimately funny. Is it the greatest show ever? Not by a long shot. Is it better than the last TT show? Probably not. Is it a shame it exists while the original never finished? Kinda. But is it a bad show? Honestly, no. 
TTG knows exactly what it wants to be and delivers. It may not be the sequel show old fans wanted, but if you put aside the hatred, you’ll see it’s not only a funny cartoon bursting with energy and very well-defined and appealing character designs reminiscent of shows like Dexter’s Lab, but also a huge love letter to the Titans, the last show, and all things DC. It is clearly made by DC fans. I may be biased because I love Weird Al and The Golden Girls, but, man, this is funny right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ICmOMLX3rQ
Admittedly, even the movie trailer looks funny, and I’ll likely see it, despite not really being a fan of the show. Just like the 2011 Thundercats, I see what the TTG team is intending to do, and I appreciate how well they do it, despite not being a regular supporter of it.
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And, well, that brings us back to ‘Roar’. Will I like it? Based on what I’ve seen so far, likely not, but who knows. It could end up being the next Sonic Boom. I do strongly dislike the art direction for Thundercats Roar, and the footage shown thus far did not make me laugh (except Mumm-ra learning about the cats being on Third Earth by reading it in the newspaper. That actually got a chuckle from me). But, as much as my gut is telling me to hate this show, I won’t pass judgment until I’ve at least seen a couple episodes. It’s definitely not the Thundercats I love, but to be honest, I didn’t want a TC reboot. I was fine with it just being as it is. So if somebody’s going to reboot it for a new generation, I’ll be glad to see my favorite franchises get passed down, so long as it is done lovingly. If the show truly is a love letter to the history of the franchise as it claims to be, and if it’s a decently quality product that obvious care went into, I’ll be fine with it.
It would be so easy to tear it apart and hate it, but as I get older I find myself growing more accepting of such change. I’m not EXPECTING to like it, but who knows, I also wasn’t expecting to like Sonic Boom. Basically, so far I’m not digging what I’ve seen, but I’ll keep an open mind and stay hopeful. Here’s hoping they can change my mind with the final product.
The End
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tango-uniformed · 6 years
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Attica! Attica!
This sucks but I like Attica as a neurotic republican politician. Idk how to write Leon being mute or whatever I just gave him a stutter bc...communication. Also I dearly wanted Serena to have a solid place in the cast so I was like, what the hell, she can be on Attica’s staff. Idk if she should have an important position like campaign manager or something but rn she’s just an assistant. Also since this is Attica’s POV Serena is less funny and Leon is idk more caring than he actually is bc she perceives them that way (Serena is actually funny and Leon is actually a dick)
Its funny because I’m pretty sure Attica is going to be the “good guy” on the protagonists side and help them and Milo is going to end up being a terrifying source of trouble for everyone. Also I was like ok and rolled the ethnicity dice and was like the Kings can be Chinese and the surname King was changed by their grandfather from Qing when their family really started grabbing power, and then was like ok Serena’s adopted but she’s of Iranian origin (guess that means Danny is too)
$$$$$
Attica King averaged 4 hours of sleep a night. And that was if she was lucky.
Looking at twitter was giving her heart palpitations, but what was she supposed to do, 5 weeks before the Midterm elections? Her numbers guy said that her district would re-elect her by a large margin-- it was red. It had always been red. It wasn’t like that hippie freak who was running against her had a chance in hell. People in Indiana loved her. People in DC though, where she spent considerably more of her time, hated her guts. The vitriol and fake news that journalists were spewing about her online proved that much.
“I’m gonna kill somebody,” Attica said. It was 7 am. She had already been to the gym, showered, sensibly done her hair and make-up, and put on the kind of suit that said ‘listen to me you dummy’. She brandished her phone at her Chief of Staff. “Do you see what they’re saying about me, Leon? They act like I’m some kind of younger, smarter, Chinese female version of Stalin all because they can’t bully me into voting for their stupid gun regulations. People are out there blowing each other up with their minds! What the fuck am I supposed to do, help get rid of guns and leave every sucker who can’t do magic defenseless?”
Leonard, Attica’s Chief of Staff and younger brother, shrugged helplessly. She liked to think of him as the RFK to her JFK. Without the whole getting shot in the head thing. “G-get off twitter,” he said. He was not partaking in the breakfast that Attica’s assistant picked up for the team. Something about the breakfast pastries and espresso made him bitch about how unhealthy it all was. Leon opted to bring a protein shake instead, which worked out for him. At 6 feet tall and weighing over 200 pounds of muscle, he was often mistaken for her bodyguard if he wasn’t dressed up. He kept his black hair shorn close to his head, which didn’t help either. It made him look like he was the type to rip people apart with his bare hands. “You’re obsessing.”
“Where the fuck is Myers?” she asked. “He’s my communications director. Shouldn’t he be out here, I don’t know, directing? Putting an end to all this fake bullshit.” Attica looked at her phone again, pulling up a particularly offensive tweet. “‘ King is unhinged and desperate, putting the needs of lobbyists in front of the needs of her constituents.’--and this is posted with that terrible picture of me, that unflattering close-up where I had pollen in my eyes so they looked red.” She was gripping her phone so tightly that her knuckles went white. “Now whose fault was that? I didn’t have my eye-drops.”
The only other staff member present, Attica’s personal assistant of 3 years, went bug eyed. This was magnified by her thick lensed glasses. She put up her hands defensively and almost dropped the armful of manila folders she was holding. “That’s not my fault, that picture was from when I took some personal time off.”
“That was when you were vacationing in the mental hospital again and I had to rely on a temp for two weeks and was completely up shit creek without you, Serena, so yes it was completely your fault.”
Serena was in her mid 20’s and pretty in a frazzled, underfed, nerdy way. She had only been hired because she was Iranian or something and Attica had been afraid she looked racist after making some allegedly offensive comments while supporting the President’s drone strikes in the Middle East. As it turned out, Serena was brilliant and had graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in Political Science, an inexplicable Chemistry minor, and a desire to work on the Hill. The only reason Attica hadn’t appointed her to a more important position at this point was due to her unfortunate tendency to eat handfuls of pills whenever life got too stressful.
Attica quickly cycled back to the matter at hand. She poured some coffee, which she knew would only make her keep vibrating. It was her 3rd cup of the day. She felt like a hummingbird. “What am I going to do about these people degrading me online?”
From where he sat on the couch, Leon leaned over to out his face in his hands. Dramatic bitch. “For the last time, remember the first amendment.”
“R-r-remember the f-f-first amendment,” Attica repeated in a high pitched child’s voice, mocking him. She chugged the rest of her coffee and caught Serena staring at her like she had lost her mind. At this rate she was going to going to have a heart attack before she turned 40. “Grandfather would have sent someone after those motherfuckers with a crowbar.”
“G-Grandfather was a monster.”
He was right. But being monstrous was just more effective. Who was that old dead guy who said it was better to be feared than loved? Napoleon?
Attica kept looking at her phone. Too bad people didn’t seem to fear her yet. She could feel the blood pounding in her face. When she was angry, her skin turned very red, blotchy and unattractive. It couldn’t be helped. And what she was reading made her angry. Half of what she was mentioned in was negative. And half of those were violent, threats against her. “Here,” she said, landing on an egregious one. “‘King’s giant tits once again distracting everyone from her cloven hooves lol’. I want this person dragged into the street and shot.”
“Jesus C-Christ, c-c-calm down.” The muscles in Leon’s face tightened. He was gritting his teeth.
“Ma’am, maybe you should put your phone away,” said Serena.
Attica kept reading. “‘The NRA owns King but how would she like it if she got used as target practice’. ‘If I saw (pretend this is an at sign)AtticaKingIN in real life I would punch that bitch in the face.’” She began to breathe faster. Were these people from Indiana? Would they vote? Did they actually hate her? Who were these people? “‘King is part of the GOP gestapo’. ‘(at)AtticaKingIN doesn’t care about gun violence in her own state, vote her out!’ ‘I hate that dumb cunt (at)AtticaKingIN she needs to shut her mouth or suck my dick’. ‘I--”
Leon stood up, snatched Attica’s phone out of her hands, then held it above her head where she couldn’t reach it. Attica punched him in the chest but her brother was a wall of muscle and didn’t seem to feel it.
“Seriously, A, you need to c-calm down,” he told her. Attica punched him again. “I don’t want to know about the threats anyone’s making towards you, it’s upsetting. At 9, that lobbyist who works for Madeline C-Caligaris--”
“Do you want some xanax?” Serena interrupted.
Attica spun around to glare at her. She was aware of how flushed she must look. It was just...she cared so much about what people thought about her. “No,” she said coldly, but breathing heavily. She brushed a strand of hair away from her face. Imagine if Grandfather could see her now. After all, he had wanted Leon to head the family business. Hell, before he died, the old man had even expressed regret for treating their youngest..brother, Milo, like a stray dog. But never her. And Attica had tried so hard for all those years and slaved away just to get his validation… “Do you need a xanax, Serena?”
“I do now,” muttered Serena.
Attica tried to grab her phone one more time, then gave up and sat down.
It wasn’t even 7:15.
She took a deep breath to clear her head. “Ok. Tell me about this lobbyist. Calligaris-- that’s the Proverge exec, right?”
Leon nodded curtly. He put his sister’s phone in his breast pocket and sat down next to her. With a sudden rush of urgency, Attica realized that all he had wanted to do was protect her. How had their roles switched like that? When they were little she constantly made herself torment the kids who picked on him for the way he talked. After 30 years he barely even stuttered anymore. “C-can I get those files from Foster v Proverge, please?” Serena leafed through her armful of papers and presented him with the relevant ones. “Thanks. You read this, A?”
“Let’s work under the assumption that I didn’t.” She had been too busy talking to her numbers guy about the polls the previous night to actually look into anything that would affect her policies.
“Proverge wants to build a factory in your district. Magic distillation for use in their products. 200 new jobs. They c-can’t get approval in Indiana anymore-- they c-can’t get approval from most places these days because of all the lawsuits. People protest.”
Attica rolled her eyes. Liberals. “What lawsuits?”
“From the early 2000’s. Proverge distillation factories in Georgia, Tennessee, and Michigan all attempted to c-cover up widespread negative variant medical symptoms that affected workers who were exposed to thauma-slurry being distilled unsafely.” Leon flipped a few pages of the file. “Mostly c-cosmetic. But there were c-claims that the exposure to the slurry also lead to violent psychological problems and some c-clearly unsafe environmental effects.”
People were so whiny. Attica shrugged. “200 new jobs is more important than a couple honest mistakes the company made. I want to make this happen-- an announcement about job creation could really push my numbers in the polls. If protests become a problem, I’ll just send in the cops to clean them up.” She paused. “Or, I’ll send in Milo.”
Leon looked at her like he was trying to peerinto her soul or something. His broad, honest face was genuinely concerned. What did he see in her face? Did he see the will to do whatever she had to? “He’s g-g-getting worse. You c-can’t keep doing that.”
“The fuck I can.”
“He’s not listening to me anymore.” Leon’s face twisted up. Out of the whole family, he was the only one who treated Milo as more than he was. He allowed their deviant half brother to terrorize everyone as he pleased, just because he felt sorry for the bastard. “He’s go-g-going to screw up.”
The thing about Milo, was that someone had to be holding his leash.
“He’s fine,” Attica said with finality. “Maybe if he fucks up bad enough, he’ll actually learn his lesson.”
Leon stood up, handed her phone back, and walked out of the room without saying another word.
“Are you talking about your creepy little brother again?” asked Serena. She was scurrying around, straightening up the breakfast pastries and exuding her nervous energy. “He makes me uncomfortable.”
Attica massaged her forehead. “Me too,” she said. “Can you get in touch with the Proverge people and make sure they’re on their way?”
“On it.”
She could feel a headache coming on. But getting the credit for creating 200 new jobs... it was worth it. It was even worth dealing with Milo. It was worth it. She could be proud of herself. It was worth it. It would all be worth it.
Wouldn’t it?
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