#and its LONG LASTING like usually thats a very short lived affair for me but like

[scalpelsister]

anyways i need to be humanely euthanized <3

[subasekabang]

Joshua’s 6-Step Plan to Becoming a Vampire, Chapter 5

Author: Matt

Rating: T

Word Count: 7600; this chapter- 2131

Pairings/Characters: Josh/Neku, side Shiki/Eri; Joshua, Neku, Rhyme, Beat, Shiki, Eri

Warnings: Vampires, Blood

Summary: Joshua Decides to take over a coven cause he's bored. As you do.

Author’s Note: Chapter 6 will be posted on my Ao3 (ForCollective) after the Bang is over.

Chapter 5

Backstab Part of the Coven

Joshua walked into the house carrying the package and few cleaning supplies he had been asked to pick up. A few months ago, if you had told him he would have friends and actually be running errands for them, he wouldn't have believed you; yet here he was doing exactly that. Kicking the door shut behind himself, he flicked on the hall light. The house was eerily quiet. There were no voices, no footsteps, no music. It was still early evening, but at this point, normally someone would be awake. Setting the package and bag aside, he crept into the living room. Empty, devoid of any life or intelligence. Even the plant that normally sat near the window was gone. Though, there were some very odd decorations up.

   A few paper bats hung from the ceiling at various points, held up by string and tape. A couple of balloons were stuck here and there to the walls, attempting to escape the tape holding them. Besides that, the room was normal, though devoid of life. Backing away he noticed a couple streamers hanging beside the door frame. Were they throwing a party?

   Joshua headed towards the dining room. Was that giggling? Suspicious, he reached out and flicked the switch, only for the light to almost blind him as everyone popped out of their various hiding places, shouting ���surprise!” except Neku, who was sat at the table, not hiding at all. Instead he blew one of those unrolling noise makers with a very bored expression on his face.

   “Oh Neku, you couldn't even pretend to be excited for my party?” Joshua was not sure why he was being surprised. There was a 'Happy Birthday' banner hung up on the wall opposite him with little bats stuck beside it. Balloons and streamers were again stuck up with seemingly no thought put into placement. The house plant that had originally been in the living room was in the corner. Its only purpose being there was apparently for Beat to hide behind. Said boy nearly knocking it over in his attempt to get out from corner.

   “No. It’s too early for excitement,” he responded, letting the noise maker fall to his lap. He didn't seem to bothered by the device as it rolled off his legs and onto the floor, becoming the tripping hazard it had always wished to be.

   “What do you think? Were you surprised? I bet you didn't expect this.” Eri seemed to be excited enough for both Neku and her, so maybe it made up for it.

   “Seeing as my birthday isn't for another three months, I can say I was quite surprised.” It was a perfect plan. The best way to make sure the person in question didn't expect a surprise birthday party was obviously to hold it nowhere near their birthday.

   “It’s your vampire birthday. We all talked and agreed you could finally join us,” Rhyme piped up, walking from behind the table. She was fairly short, and only her head and neck were visible above it. She took a seat at the table beside Neku, smiling at him.

   “After all, he has been very good, hasn't he Neku?” She added after a moment, nudging the other boy lightly.

   “Depends on your definition of 'good'.” Close enough as far as Joshua was concerned. He had been very well behaved for him. Which was definitely a low bar, though he wouldn't admit that out loud. He didn’t want to be seen publicly agreeing with Neku.

   Joshua was subjected to many tortures for the next couple of hours. Forced to pin a tail on a donkey, wear a silly pointed hat, beat a poor, innocent papier-mâché bat with a stick ‘till it burst, sending little trinkets spilling out instead of candy. It was quite an ordeal, he barely survived it all.

Finally, his last trial came about; a small cake was set in front of him, decorated with little icing bats around the sides. Two number shaped candles were stuck in the top, making the number fifteen. Joshua was only fifteen, the thought then occurring to him he would never get to find out what sixteen would be like. Probably for the best though. He had yet to get his teenage acne and he was running out of teenage years for it to appear.

   He stared at the tiny flickering flames as everyone around him chanted the birthday song, staring him down. It was almost like some demonic ritual, and they hadn't even gotten to the killing him part yet. This was just the human getting older part. He took a moment to reflect on his life ‘till that point. It hadn't been great. Then he moved to what he should wish for, and if would count, since it wasn't even his birthday. Technically, he was about to get what he had been hoping for after the party, so wishing for vampirism would be a waste of a perfectly good wish. The chanting ceased and everyone stared at him expectantly. Taking a deep breath, he blew out the candles without making a wish. He didn't want to disappoint everyone.

   “What did you wish for?” Shiki asked.

   “Can't tell. It won't come true. You don't want to ruin my birthday wish do you?” He grinned and brushed that annoying lock of hair from his face, to behind his ear. It quickly fell back down into place. It never listened, much like the rest of Joshua. Shiki puffed her cheeks at being denied, knowing the non-existent wish but quickly dropped it, hurrying to grab him a knife to cut his cake.

   He ate the cake as everyone argued over music and joked with each other. This was his last meal, he realised. He had been hoping for something better than a cheap store-bought cake. Where had they even gotten this stuff without asking him for it? Maybe those mysterious other helpers that never seemed to be around when he was. Maybe when he became a full member of their coven he would finally get to figure that out. Or maybe they were only messing with him about the whole sunlight hurts thing and they were fine to go out on their own, instead just preferring to send Joshua. That was something he would do if he were a vampire that could go in sunlight. But then again, the others were probably to nice for such deception.

   After he ate people began to disperse, Rhyme and Shiki chatting to other as they tidied up from the party. Joshua didn't bother helping,instead sitting at the table beside Neku staring intently at a painting on the wall, a single bat dangling in front of it. How long had it taken them to cut out all these bats?

   “Hey Neku, show Josh to his room?”

Neku stood up and motioned for Joshua to follow him.

   “I thought we were moving?” He said as Neku led him down the hall.

   “Yeah, next week. Thats seven days from now.”

   “I am well aware of how many days are in a week, Neku. As well has how many weeks are in a year.”

Neku ignored him as they walked up the stairway to the second floor.

   “It’s fifty-two.”

Neku again ignored him. It didn't bother him though. At this point he kinda expected it. The storage room had been cleared out and inside was a bed, fresh blankets were neatly folded on the end of the mattress.

   “Me and Beat cleaned this up for you, yesterday. You're welcome.”

   “I don't recall thanking you. After all, with your arms, Beat obviously did most of the work.”

   “Are you calling me weak?”

   “Very good Neku! I am glad you can understand plain English.” Joshua grinned at him and Neku rolled his eyes. He stayed in the door as Joshua entered the room looking around at the plain walls. There was no point in doing anything fancy with the room for now, what with the move so close. He would need to get his things moved here though, so he supposed he would have to live with a bunch of boxes piled in his room for a couple days.

   “I'm glad you’re staying, Josh.”

Joshua turned to stare at Neku, who avoided his gaze. Joshua didn't say anything and Neku quickly turned and hurried back into the hall and out of sight.

   Shiki, being the only one of the group who currently had her license, drove with Joshua over to his home in a car they apparently had access to, but never used? It hadn’t ever been there when he got things from the garage though, one of the mysterious other helpers that may or may not exist must own it. His parents, as usual, were not around. He wondered how long it would take them to notice he was gone.

   He pointed to the couple boxes he had packed, and one bag. Shiki grabbed the bag and one of the boxes, and he took the smaller one. She struggled slightly with the bag, it being a bit large for her, but managed to manoeuvre her way outside anyway. Joshua following close behind. He moved much slower then her, not used to such physical labour.

   “What about the rest of your stuff?” she asked when she realised he had locked the door to his home instead of going back in, shoving the key into the mailbox minus keychain.

   “This is all I want. They can keep the rest.” He had mostly only had it to fill space. Therefore, he did not want to put much effort into actually dragging it around with him. He could get new things if the empty space bothered him that much but he doubted it would.

   “Alright, if you're sure.” She seemed unsure but didn't push the matter further.

   Back at home he readied himself. It wasn't the grand affair he had expected. Neku had bit him, a fairly normal occurrence now. It was annoying at best; after the initial bite he barely felt it. After a few seconds he pulled away and handed Joshua a small glass with a dark red liquid inside that he had brought into the room with him.

   “That’ s vampire blood. Drink up,” he said, pushing the glass toward Joshua, who carefully sniffed it and scrunched his face up. It didn't smell good. In fact it smelled like something he wanted nowhere near his taste buds.

   “Its blood Josh, just drink it already.”

   “It smells low quality,” he said jokingly, staring down into the liquid again, suddenly far less sure of his choice. Not for any reason other than he wasn't sure about tasting blood. He had been assured blood tasted better after he turned, but the first time it would taste normal. The same as it would if he had just decided to drink some random person's blood. He wasn't sure why he would do that, or who had decided to try that to know that for a fact, but that was the issue he was facing at that moment; having a mouthful of the horrible drink.

   “It’s my blood,” Neku stated, sounding annoyed. It was the most common tone Joshua ever heard from him. He still wasn't sure if he sounded like that all the time or only when Joshua was around. He really had no way to find out though, so he preferred to think that it was just him. So that he was special to Neku in a way, a very annoying way, but still.

   “That just confirms it.”

Neku went to retaliate to that, but Joshua didn't catch what he said, instead putting the glass to his mouth and tossing his head back to drink the whole thing in one go. Making a noise of disgust at the taste lingering in his mouth, he shuddered.

   “Ugh, take it away,” he said shoving the glass into Neku’s hand.

   “You're on my last nerve, you know that?”

   “Always, dear.” he giggled and Neku stood to leave.

   “You're not gonna stay and keep me company while I die?” Joshua said. While he wouldn't mind it, he didn't expect the other to actually stay, and was therefore joking.

   “Did you want me to?”

Joshua froze. He hadn't expected that response. He had expected to be told he was able to look after himself. It was different here though, wasn't it? He wasn't on his own anymore.

   “I think so,” he said, and settled back onto the bed, Neku coming to sit beside him.

It was certainly weird having friends.

[drink-n-watch]

Welcome back everyone to my Psycho Pass watch-a-long with Matt! I’m surprised by how few bloggers seem to be watching this series but that’s o.k. Small parties are the funnest! Also, my week has been a killer so I don’t want to go to some huge party! Next week is gruesome too but after that, it should ease up – YAY! So how has your week been Matt?

I’ve been a bit unwell but I’m sure the people who come to read this aren’t interested in the details of my health, on with the review!

I’ll be honest with you guys, I really didn’t take as many notes as I usually do so I may skip over some things but here are the things that stood out to me.

I loved that bank fraud and market manipulation in the form of a manufactured housing bubble was the initial crime. And explained in such detail as well. It was amazing! Financial crimes in Psycho Pass is something I really hope they explore more. Because people’s relationship with money, especially in a society that has no poverty, is probably quite different than their relationship with violent crimes. I wonder what it does to their hues! What did you think Matt?

It’s funny I was watching these parts thinking “man, the writer of this series must have just discovered about the 2012 financial crisis and housing collapse in the US and felt compelled to write about it… either that or they’d just watched ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘The Big Short’.” Not a bad thing, of course, it was very interesting and conveyed well, just a little bit obvious. There were also mentions of election fraud and manipulations…it was a pretty topical episode.

At one point, we see Arata jumping around rooftop with a cord tied to him, as Kei is infiltrating the criminals’ stronghold. That action sequence was spellbinding. I really enjoyed it. How about you?

I loved it, simple yet immaculately choreographed and executed parkour.

So the white colour crime got wrapped up quickly but rather gruesomely and just as Kei and Arata are chasing after the main criminals, bam, familiar faces. We get a Ginoza and Kogami (reunited again!) double whammy cameo. I recognized them both instantly and my heart did that little nostalgia squeezy thing. And I do love seeing them but I’m not sure how I feel about the constant callbacks. They feel a little “fanservicy”. I think I would have been happy with a glimpse of Akane and then let this be its own story.

It’s gotta be hard for a series that’s got so many ardent fans to both please them with enough call-backs to the things they liked about the first season while simultaneously introducing the new. I’ve been fine with it up to this point, but I don’t think they need to go as hard about the call-backs going forward.

Also, I must say, there were a few moments during this sequence and the conversation with Mika afterwards where I think I really missed something because I have not seen season 2. Did you know that Nobu and Ko were working as partners again and for Foreign Affairs at that? They don’t seem to be latent criminals (or at least are not being treated as such). Have we ever seen that blonde before? They kept making cryptic references to Akane as if she was an urban legend…Cause all of this came as a confusing surprise to me.

I have an absolutely terrible memory so unfortunately you’re asking the wrong person. I barely recognized them as returning characters until the show spelled it out for me (yeah, yeah I know I’m pretty bad at this).

Having wrapped up their first case, the second half of the episode switched to a new one. Investigating a supposed suicide. The hotel staff that discovered the body as well as any witness had their Psycho Pass deteriorate and are now probably stressed out because of that and I realize that Sybil is just the ultimate victim blamer. Something bad happened to you, better not let it get you down – or else!

That’s always been my number one complaint (maybe) about the Sybil system in general, the idea that innocent bystanders can get their hue deteriorated to such an extent just by witnessing something–hardly seems fair–but I guess that’s the point this series has always been making.

I got to say, I still feel like the mind trace is a bit of a gimmick. Not necessarily a bad one and I enjoyed it in this episode a lot more than in the last, in fact, I wished it had lasted a bit longer, but nevertheless, it feels awfully convenient.

I still like it, I think it’s unfair to judge the quirks and abilities of people who see the world differently than the lay person, maybe there are people like this in our real world and we don’t hear about them because their abilities like ‘absolute empathy’ are things that aren’t measurable by modern science. I don’t find his abilities to be cheaty any more than a character who has a genius intellect, it’s just something they can do better than everyone else. 

I’d just like to say, I’m only judging it as a narrative device. As a character trait I like it. But I find that so far it does take something away from the investigation aspect as the long hard job of gathering clues and making deductions basically wrapped up in 2 minutes instead and in a way where the audience isn’t given a chance to figure out the mystery along with the character because everything is just given in direct exposition.

I mean sure I guess that’s a concern but I’ve never been one to try and be smarter than the show I’m watching. I’m just happy for it to unfold however the writer wants it to unfold, if that means me solving the crime before the characters do and feeling smug about it then so be it but if that means me being stupid too then thats okay too.

Really? Trying to figure out who the killer is has always been one of my favourite things about mysteries! I’m pretty sure authors pride themselves on leaving just enough clues for people to figure it out but presenting them in a way where we don’t think of it right away because we get wrapped up in the story! Even when I do figure it out though, I doubt it makes me smarter or even anywhere near as smart as the writer. Creating a mystery is way harder. Besides, I’m wrong most of the time but its fun trying, you know? I wouldn’t people who enjoy trying to solve puzzles are doing it to feel smug. I just think they like puzzles. Maybe I’m being naive.

Seeing the history of the idol Karina and how every step of her path was dictated by Sybil in a parallel with the Sybil approved man vs machine MMA fight that ends with shouts to the glory of the system, was a bit of a shock. I never got to see much of everyday life in the Psycho Pass universe but what I remember is fairly normal, very peaceful and full of holograms. That was the brilliance of the system. There was no need to make the population obedient either through force or propaganda because they were perfectly content. Sybil’s control was through comfort and safety.

This was a much more obvious and forceful depiction of a rather stereotypical dystopia and I think it makes the story a little weaker.

I’ve always felt the Tokyo of the ‘Psycho Pass’ series was incredibly dystopic, to me it’s a world that on the surface looks like a law-abiding peaceful place but is run by a system that’s so counter-human that everybody is living on edge–always afraid of something going wrong or seeing something horrible that might cloud their hue. The revelation of a character being almost raised by Sybil to be a perfect personality and then later become a politician seemed very in-line with what this universe has shown. Sybil works by controlling everyone, even down to what’s popular, who’s famous and who’s in power.

On the other hand, Karina seems like a wonderful potential antagonist. Honestly, I got excited but the little of the character we did get to see. I was even a bit bummed out when the episode ended. And it took me by surprise which is impressive considering these guys are double the length I’m used to.

She was great, wasn’t she? The idea that she’s almost like a Moriarty-esque equal to Arata’s Sherlock is going to be something that I really want to see a lot more of!

I know I nitpick and point out aspects I enjoy less. I did like the latter half considerably more than the first in this episode. But all in all, I am really liking the start of Psycho Pass season 3. I can’t wait till the next episode. Had it been available, I would have watched it right away. What are your thoughts so far Matt?

I agree, the second-half of the episode had a lot more going for it overall and is looking to push this show in a lot more interesting directions especially as politics are going to be involved. One thing I didn’t get to mention in last week’s review but is still exceedingly relevant here is how glad I am that these episodes are all double-length the normal anime length. The added time helps this show greatly as it allows you to fully immerse yourself in this world and allows for a lot more information to be imparted in one go. To binge watchers this’ll be hardly noteworthy but in watching week to week it helps. Overall I think I liked this episode even more than the first episode and if things continue along at this quality we could have some stiff competition to the first seasons’ crown.

Psycho Pass s3 ep2 – The Hand Off Welcome back everyone to my Psycho Pass watch-a-long with Matt! I’m surprised by how few bloggers seem to be watching this series but that’s o.k.