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tres-spades-hotel · 3 years

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Can I request a kbtbb x SCM crossover where Leon falls for Eisuke's MC. Leon is just the same as he was in his S1 but he slowly starts developing feelings for MC. However, she is completely loyal to Eisuke. Can we get some twist and turns and a happy ending for Eisuke. I will be grateful if you could do it. By the way, Thanks for other beautiful stories that you have written.

KBTBB x SCM

A Lion’s Attempt at Love

LEON’S POV, PALACE IN THE HEAVENS, THE THRONE ROOM

I can’t believe this is happening.

‘And, therefore, the six of you will be sharing the mansion with these humans for three days. I’m sure you will have plenty of fun,’ he says, with that annoyingly knowing smile of his.

‘This is ridiculous, we’ve already opened up that place for the goddess, and now we have to open it up for an entire cluster of goldfish? Absolutely not,’ I retaliate but the trickster on the throne stares at me; the corners of his lips turn up into an even more annoying smirk.

‘It won’t kill you. Run along now, they’re waiting for you all,’ he says, and a bright light envelopes us. The warmth of it doesn’t reach my heart, it just irritates me further.

Opening my eyes, five men sit at the luxury couches of the main room. One in particular, with brown hair, sits in my spot in the middle. His arms outstretch against the top of the couch while a young woman sits beside him, fidgeting nervously with her thumbs.

Karno turns around as we appear, and he smiles at me.

‘Hey, did the King tell you?’ he asks. The heads of the goldfish look up with curiosity.

‘Yeah, he did that bastard-hey! Don’t touch that!’ the scorpion marches over to a blonde-haired goldfish holding a Punishments document.

‘Oops, guess the work is off limits,’ he says as Scorpio snatches back the piece.

‘Um, let’s all just calm down and talk. My name is Mitsunari Baba! You may call me ‘Baba’, ‘Mitchy’, or ‘Mitsunari’ if you want,’ the man in the black hat says with such joy it almost makes me want to actually turn him into a goldfish.

‘How about I call you ‘idiot’ instead?’ Scorpio says, huffing away to the chair in the corner.

I step forward further into the room, amused. ‘I didn’t realise you were in the habit of calling yourself out like that. I wouldn’t be trying so hard to annoy you if I knew,’ I respond, and with some sort of sick delight, watch the fumes rush out his ears in anger.

‘You stupid lion, shut up!’ he shouts back.

I sit down and cross my legs. ‘He’s a scorpion so he’s all bark and poison with no bite,’ I reply.

‘Why you-‘ he attempts to pounce but Dui and the fish hold him back.

‘Scorpio, stop!’ Dui says.

‘Um, let’s sit down. Vega, Altair, will you both provide us with some tea?’ Hue says, lightly pushing them out the door.

‘Here, I’ll introduce the others. Next to me is Ota Kisaki. The sleepy looking one is Mamoru Kishi, the scary looking one is Soryu Oh and the pretentious looking one is Eisuke Ichinomiya. The lovely lady sitting next to Eisuke is Vivian Grier, Eisuke’s fiancée.’

‘It’s nice to meet you all and we apologise for our King’s disturbance in your lives,’ Hue says. The six goldfish look at each other with wary looks.

‘It’s fine. Our lives were becoming boring anyway. At least we can pass the time with this,’ the man named Eisuke says. There’s a powerful glint in his eyes which I recognise in myself.

‘So no harm done! And all of you?’ the red suit goldfish says.

‘Well, I’ve already introduced myself. The one shouting murder and terror is Scorpio, the god of Scorpio, he’s the Vice Minister of the Department of Punishments; next to him is Dui, the god of Gemini and that is Ichthys, the god of Pisces. They are part of the Department of Punishments in the Heavens.’

The scorpion huffs away in distaste while Dui and Ichthys smile and wave.

‘This is gonna be fun!’ the fish says.

‘Ichy! You can’t do anything while they’re here,’ Dui frowns at him.

‘What does that mean?’ the older looking goldfish asks. His sleepy demeanor reminds me of Aigo.

‘Nothing!’

‘He’s a prankster,’ Scorpio answers with a scowl. Three out of six frown in disapproval while the other three seem to accept this fact.

‘How much harm can you do, pranking people?’ the blonde one asks.

‘He blew up the palace once,’ Hue answered indifferently. Their eyes widen.

‘By the way, who names their child, Scorpio?’ he asks again.

‘The King,’ the six of us reply, causing Scorpio to crinkle his face in disgust.

‘All I suggest is that you be careful. The one who answered is Huedhaut, the god of Aquarius; over there is Teorus, the god of Taurus and this,’ he points to me, ‘is Leon, the god of Leo, the Chief Minister of the Department of Wishes,’ Karno says it with such pride it nearly makes me smile.

‘It’s nice to meet you all,’ Hue says.

‘Hello!’ Teo also says.

Everyone turns towards me as I look up. I somehow lock eyes with the woman, but she quickly averts her gaze with a faint blush on her cheeks.

‘Leo,’ Karno whispers.

‘You want me to introduce myself? They’re just goldfish,’ I say, continuing to stare at her.

‘Goldfish?’

‘All humans are the same to us, just as all goldfish look the same and flock to beings more powerful than they are,’ I answer.

‘What nonsense. What about variability? Individuality?’ the dark-haired ‘scary looking one’ says with a frown.

‘Doesn’t matter. You’re all the same,’ I repeat, and he scowls at me as if I’m the only one who believes it. Everyone in the Heavens does.

‘I don’t care what happens during this week,’ the man sitting next to her suddenly begins, ‘there’s only one rule you will abide by,’

‘Oh ho, giving gods orders? You must be special,’ I say.

‘Yes, I am,’ he smirks and crosses his arms. ‘And you will follow this rule until we leave: my fiancée is off limits.’

‘Eisuke!’ she exclaims, for the first time she has been here.

‘You should listen to him, Eisuke always has his way, with gods or humans,’ the dark-haired man says. All the other humans nod furiously in agreement.

‘I believe that rule applies to the sex fiends in the room,’ Hue points out, looking at Teo and I specifically.

‘Me? I haven’t done anything yet!’ Teo protests.

‘As if I would bother pursuing a human, let alone a woman like her,’ I say. Her face scrunches at my insult.

‘Good, then we’ll have no problems living together,’ he says, taking out a rectangular piece of technology and begins tapping away at it.

Vega and Altair finally return with tea. The woman stands up and hurries over to them, taking the tray of teacups out of Altair’s hands.

‘Oh, thank you, but I can-‘ Altair begins.

‘No, it’s okay. It’s my job to provide refreshments,’ she says, placing the tray onto the coffee table.

‘Really?’ Vega asks. The god children look up at the woman with sparkles in their eyes.

‘Yes, I work at the hotel my fiancé owns as a maid,’ she answers, smiling with pride.

‘Wow, that’s so cool! What kind of things do you do?’ Vega asks with excitement. The woman casually talks and pours the tea as if she had been doing it for years.

‘Well, I work with other maids to tend to our guests who stay at the hotel. I clean the rooms they stay in by changing the bed sheets, dusting, and replenishing amenities,’ she takes the teacups and starts handing them out, ‘that means I replace all the empty bottles and towels and other things the guests use which we supply.’

She hands me a cup and our fingers touch briefly.

‘I also have an extra job as a maid, which is to clean the penthouse where us six live in the hotel,’ she continues, handing a cup to Karno who smiles a ‘thank you’ to her which she returns.

‘That’s a ‘very important people’ area for those who pay enough money to live in luxury,’ she says.

‘Oh, so you consider yourself a ‘very important people’?’ I interrupt with a question. She briefly looks at me but then shrugs her shoulders.

‘Not really. I’m pretty normal actually.’

‘Don’t be so modest, Vivian. You’re the only one who managed to squeeze herself into Boss’ little heart,’ the man named ‘Baba’ says. His knowing smile reminds me of a certain trickster King.

‘And you’re the only one who can manage being around this lot,’ the sleepy one named ‘Mamoru’ adds. He suddenly yawns. ‘Hey, there any beds to sleep in? I’m tired.’

‘You’re always tired,’ the dark-haired man, Soryu, says.

‘Shut up, it’s been a busy day!’

‘No it hasn’t. We’ve been to see the King and that’s it,’ Soryu argues.

‘You think any of this is normal?’

‘That’s enough.’ Eisuke orders.

‘Haha, they sort of remind me of you and Scorpio, Leo,’ Karno laughs, and I scowl at him.

‘Don’t you compare me to a pair of clownfish,’ I reply. I watch the woman sit next to her fiancé, smiling.

‘Hey!’

‘Pair of clownfish? Please, don’t group me in with them,’ Soryu says with frowning eyebrows.

‘We actually like to call these four the peanut gallery,’ Eisuke tells us.

‘Makes sense,’ Scorpio says, pushing a stack of documents onto Ichthys. ‘Will you hurry up and finish these already? Zig has been waiting for these!’

‘I’m sorry, I was going to do them but then the King called us to see him!’ Ichthys protests but is dragged away by Scorpio.

‘It’s nice to meet you all,’ Dui quickly says before rushing out to follow.

‘Hue, show the humans the guest rooms in the mansion,’ I order, and he nods in response. ‘But first,’

Everyone looks at me as I stand up and saunter over to the woman. She looks up and slowly stands up to face me.

‘You will work in this mansion as my maidservant.’

THE NEXT DAY

LEON’S POV, THE GOD’S MANSION, HIS CHAMBERS, 9AM

A knock at the door wakes me from my daze. I snap my fingers and the doors open.

‘Um, hello?’ Vivian asks, slowly walking into my room.

‘Open the curtains,’ I order her and lie back down.

‘Okay,’ I hear her respond. She shuffles across the room and soon the sunlight fills my bedroom, dispelling the darkness. I sit up and watch as she does the same to the other set of windows.

‘Do gods sleep?’ she asks.

‘Recreationally we can, but it’s not a requirement. What’s that?’ I ask, seeing a tray of tea and biscuits on the table.

‘Well, it’s morning. I figured you would order me to get you breakfast,’ she answers, pouring tea into the cup.

‘Gods don’t eat either,’ I say.

‘But you can, recreationally, right?’ she answers, looking back at me with a smile. She places the cup down as I stand behind her.

‘Do you need anything else?’ she asks. When she turns around, she jumps back but the back of her legs hit the chair. My finger lifts her chin up so that I can take a look at her face. A faint blush graces her skin. For a moment, she’s completely dazzled by my presence but that fades quick. Her small hand wraps around my wrist and pushes it away.

‘Oh? Don’t want to be touched by a god?’ I ask.

‘No. I only want to be touched by the man I love most in this world,’ she responds and pushes past me to leave.

‘Love doesn’t mean anything. You’ll come back to me begging for pleasure,’ I say with a smirk on my face, but it fades when I see pity in her eyes as she turns around.

‘How does a god who grants wishes to humans not understand how important love is? I really feel sorry for you if you don’t believe love means anything.’ Vivian walks away, leaving me with cooling tea and annoyance.

I continued working with Karno looking over my shoulder, but I couldn’t concentrate. Her words echoed in my mind and the way she looked at me didn’t fade. Love is based off of nothing but need. And I don’t need it. I’ve seen love destroy many gods in my life: my mother and father, Hue and Clotho and then Aigo with that goddess Phione. Men like Teo and Tauxolouve, even that sex fiend Partheno, play games and have as many goddess’ as they want because they don’t see love romantically either. Love has messed all of us up in some ways.

VIVIAN’S POV, THE MANSION COURTYARD, 13PM

I don’t know why Eisuke agreed to my being a maidservant to Leon. I guess he’ll tell me eventually. As soon as I left his room, I leaned against the wall to take a breath. He stood so close to me, and I could feel his warmth and powerful aura. But it didn’t make me feel the same way Eisuke does when he’s beside me. Eisuke makes me feel safe and loved, Leon makes me feel cornered, like prey.

‘Vivian, hand me that document,’ Eisuke asks, holding out his hand while staring at his laptop. The outside breeze cools me down as I pick up the piece of paper.

‘Here you go,’ I say. Eisuke looks up at me and narrows his eyes.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing. I was just thinking about how beautiful the courtyard is,’ I answer, sitting down opposite him. Eisuke continues to stare at me. I sigh, knowing that I can’t hide anything from him.

‘Okay, Leon came onto me and failed in the morning, that’s it,’ I answer.

Eisuke scowls at my answer but then he leans back into the chair and folds his arms across his broad chest and raises an eyebrow. ‘He failed?’

‘I told him that I love you and only want to be touched by you,’ I respond, but I feel my face heat up in embarrassment.

‘Good, but you still need to be careful around him,’ he orders which I nod in agreement. He leans in again and rests his elbows on the table.

‘Eisuke, can I say something?’

‘What?’

‘He sort of reminds me of you. Now hear me out,’ I begin, holding out my hands to stop him from interrupting. ‘I know that we’ve only been here for a day but from this one interaction I’ve had with him, Leon is as confident and sexy as you are. You are both so sure of yourselves and in your abilities.’

‘But? There’s more,’ Eisuke presses on, leaning over the table.

‘He said that love isn’t important. I guess it reminded me of back when we first met,’ I finish, running my fingers over the grooves in the table.

‘He’s wrong, you taught me that.’ Eisuke takes my hand in his and runs his thumb over my engagement rings. His touch fills me with warmth, so I place my hand over his and smile. Eisuke takes my other hand and pulls me to sit on his lap.

LEON’S POV, THE MANSION COURTYARD, 13:30PM

Instead of snapping my fingers to cause the sound of bells in her head, I decided to go out looking for her in a vain attempt to avoid Karno and Hue. As I open the doors to the garden, I hear faint giggling. Walking further into the yard, I see her sitting on his lap, with his back to me. She gives him fleeting, playful kisses and her sweet voice echoes in the empty space.

Why did I just think ‘sweet’ voice?

I shake my head and saunter into the middle of the garden.

‘You two are quite a shameless pair of goldfish,’ I begin, but I feel myself raising an eyebrow when neither attempt to move from their position.

‘Pfft, then you don’t know me very well,’ he answers.

‘I don’t “get to know” goldfish of any kind.’

‘You wouldn’t because you don’t bother yourself in knowing about us as humans, but you do care about our particular brand of entertainment,’ he argues which makes me huff in response.

‘Your fiancée is my maidservant,’ I point out which causes her to stand up. Vivian folds her hands over each other and smiles at me with a business-like expression, different to the lovable-wife I watched a few moments ago.

‘Did you need anything? I didn’t hear any bells ringing,’ she asks.

‘That’s because I didn’t.’ I turn around and leave them to their ‘love’. As soon as I walk back into the foyer, Karno comes out of the dining room.

‘There you are, I’ve been looking for you everywhere,’ he says. ‘You need to read and sign these otherwise we can’t file our year’s work in the department.’

I feel my face crinkle at the thought of paperwork and turn around to the main doors.

‘Leo, you can’t run away from me, not unless you want to make me cry, which would be terribly wrong of you,’ Karno continues, putting a firm hold on my right shoulder. ‘Come on. Humans have this saying you know, it’s called-‘

‘Work first, play later,’ I finish for him. We head up the staircase into the hallway.

‘Exactly! Look, I know lions sleep for 20 hours a day, but you can’t blow off your work when they need your particular signature,’ Karno says, handing me a folder.

‘Okay, I get, I understand your point. Can you stop talking now?’ I tell him, turning the corner.

‘I saw you outside talking to the humans, Eisuke and Vivian. What were you telling them?’ he asks.

‘Nothing, I caught them kissing and decided to embarrass them,’ I answer.

‘And?’

‘They weren’t.’

‘Many humans of their stature aren’t embarrassed to be physically intimate in public. You know the gods aren’t any different in that regard,’ Karno says.

‘I know. I wanted to see what her reaction was. She seemed like the nervous, wouldn’t-want-to-be-exposed-in-public type but she hardly reacted when I called them shameless,’ I say.

‘Wow. I guess she must be used to it,’ Karno says. He pats me on the back and continues walking down the hall. I stand outside my bedroom doors, thinking about her face when she was laughing and smiling, happy. It made me feel, something.

THE DAY AFTER THAT

LEON’S POV, HIS BEDROOM, 4PM

When my power to give pleasure came about when I was young, my mother hid me away from the heavens to prevent any ‘accidents’ but they always brought me out to parties and social gatherings to show off how powerful they’re only son was becoming. She didn’t even raise me, the servants of our household did. They couldn’t love me because-

‘Leon? I brought you some tea,’ Vivian’s voice pushes through my closed doors. The images of my childhood fade as I sit up on my bed.

‘Um, Leon?’ her voice pushes through again, hesitating. I rub away my past off my face and snap my fingers. The doors creek open, revealing her standing with a tray. The evening sun’s rays holds her figure in a basking glow of gold. She smiles at me and walks in. The shadows on the floor creep up towards her, threatening to plunge her into darkness. For some reason, I nearly jump out of bed.

‘Are you okay? What happened?’ she asks, slightly disturbed at my behaviour. Like I am.

‘I’m fine.’ I sit down at the small table. ‘Join me,’ I order, and she looks at me briefly. Her eyes seem to search mine for a clue of my motives. Hers are a normal shade of brown. No stars, no flecks in the pupil, Vivian has regular human eyes but somehow, I see something other than love and pity and excitement as she looks at me.

She finally shrugs her shoulders and sits down opposite me, pouring herself and I, a cup of tea.

‘Are you always comfortable being intimate with him?’ I ask suddenly, after taking a sip.

‘We’ve been together for years. I wasn’t at first, but that’s only because I had never been with a man like Eisuke before. I got used to it and now I enjoy it,’ she answers.

‘Only with him?’ I ask again. She smirks at me before drinking a sip of tea.

‘Yes, only with Eisuke. I guess you’re the type to take what you want and leave straight after?’ she asks in return. Vivian places the tea down and leans back into the chair, crossing her legs in the process.

‘Goddesses throw themselves at me because of my powers,’ I say in response.

‘The ability to give pleasure, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is that why you asked about me in the morning? About giving me pleasure?’ she asks.

‘I was curious. Human’s act based on needs.’

‘My needs are being met, there’s no doubt about that,’ she says, laughing.

‘Oh?’

‘Believe me. You know, Eisuke was like you when I first met him,’ she says, changing the subject. Her finger slowly traces the curve of the lip of the cup.

‘A god?’

‘Ha, very funny. No, a man who had everything he could ever want in his life, but no one to love him. He didn’t think love was necessary either,’ she continues. Her eyes glaze over in reminiscence.

‘Until he met you?’

‘I suppose so. By the way, is it okay if I use the kitchen here to cook for dinner?’

‘You really like to jump, don’t you? Fine, I assume it’s because the others like to eat ‘cooked’ meals rather than magically appearing ones,’ I say.

‘That is true actually. Thanks! Anything in particular you want?’ she asks.

‘I’m a god,’ I reply.

‘Yeah, yeah. That doesn’t mean you don’t eat, ever,’ she says, waving her hands in dismissal.

‘Meatballs,’ I mumble.

‘You like meatballs? Beef scrunched up into a ball and cooked in sauce?’

‘Don’t mock me. I said what I said. Now go away, I have work to do,’ I say.

‘Work being, laying in your bed?’ she asks, her lips slowly curve up into a familiar smile.

‘Ha, ha, very funny.’

LEON’S POV, HALLWAYS OF THE MANSION, 7PM

The smell of cooking fills the entire mansion. As I walk down the hallway to the main room, I turn the corner to see the others standing outside the dining room. Hue notices me and waves me over.

‘What’s going on?’

‘It smells so good. Do you think they’ll share the food?’ Ichyths asks.

‘We could ask,’ Dui suggests.

‘Do they look like the kind of humans who share?’ the scorpion walks up to us.

‘They seemed pretty nice,’ Teo says.

‘You’re probably better off asking the woman who’s cooking the meals,’ Hue says.

‘That’s right,’ her voice echoes out of the room. When I open the doors, Vivian is laying the table with plates. She looks at us as she places a fork down.

‘I think I made enough for everyone,’ she says.

‘Ah, I was wondering why we had to wait so long. You made some for the gods as well?’ Eisuke’s voice suddenly sounds from behind us.

The rest of the humans arrive and begin sitting down as if they have lived here for years. Before her fiancé can sit down at the head of the table, I take his spot. I look up to see him scowling at me.

��You live in our building, you live here by our rules.’

His eyebrows furrow but he doesn’t respond. Instead, Eisuke walks to the other end of the table and sits directly opposite me.

‘Vivian,’ he says, and she picks up a spoon.

‘Vivian,’ I say, and she turns around. ‘Before you are his fiancé, you’re my maidservant.’ I gesture to the plate of meatballs by me with my chin. I lean back casually as I watch the wrinkles in his face deepen. In my peripheral view, everyone’s eyes switch back and forth between Eisuke and I, but I don’t look away from his gaze. After a few moments of silence, she places the spoon down slowly and speaks up.

‘Everyone can sit down and serve themselves with whatever they like.’

As soon as she walks past me, I open my mouth. ‘Choosing the middle ground doesn’t make you a saint.’

‘Being a god doesn’t make you all powerful,’ she fires back. ‘I control my own actions, regardless of my “employment” anywhere.’ Vivian heads into the kitchen.

‘Is it just me, or did it get really hot in here all of a sudden?’

‘Shut up!’

THE NIGHT BEFORE

LEON’S POV, HIS SECRET GARDEN, 8PM

Since the dinner, I’ve been doing all I can to annoy Vivian and Eisuke. But it seems all I’ve done is bring them together even more. He seems to trust her to protect herself from me.

As I walk downstairs, she comes out from a doorway at the bottom of the foyer. We make eye contact, and she looks at me curiously. I simply pass her and open the door revealing a black darkness.

‘Um, Leon?’ she asks, hesitating.

‘Follow me if you’re up for it,’ I say, and walk through. The scene changes to a field on Earth. Similar to the one in the Heavens, its calming nature lets me breath. A rustling of petals and grass tell me she did follow.

‘Curiosity kills the cat, you know?’ I speak. Gentle footsteps creep up towards me.

‘Good thing I’m not a cat then,’ she replies, standing beside me.

‘No, you’re a goldfish,’ I answer back and turn my head to face her. I see her smile and look down. Vivian slowly lowers herself to sit down on the ground and she tugs on the hem of my jacket.

‘Gods don’t-‘

‘Oh, shut up and sit down,’ she says in a playful manner.

‘Fine.’ We sit there, watching the moon and the lake for what felt like a lifetime.

AN HOUR LATER

Leon doesn’t like to kiss, which is stupid because kissing is great!

Teo’s words echo in my mind over and over. We have been sitting for a while and talking and arguing about gods, humans, and just life in general. Right now, she’s trying to humiliate me by suggesting I believe in love.

‘If you don’t want a woman to kiss you, then it doesn’t mean you believe love is unimportant, it means that you do feel that love is important and you’re afraid to take a chance to be loved and give love.’

‘That’s ridiculous,’ I reply.

‘Sure, you can deny it all you want, but it’s true. You’ve been deprived of physical and emotional love. And now, you have begun craving it, in me.’ She sighs and stands up, smoothing down the crinkles in her dress. ‘I can’t give you what you want, whether you’re a god or not.’

‘I don’t want anything from you,’ I begin, and stand up.

‘Oh, shut up! You and I both know I’m right!’ she shouts. ‘I love Eisuke, with all my heart and I’m sure there’s someone out there for you. You never know, maybe you’ve met her already or maybe she’s just not born yet. You are a god, after all. You’ve got an eternity to find her, but she’s not me, and never will be.’

The next thing I know, I’m holding her in my arms. Trying to will her into staying. She feels small in my arms. No, she feels perfect in my arms. Her body shakes with nerves, so I rub her back to calm her down. Vivian sighs from frustration and I feel her arms reluctantly wrap around my torso. Her warmth fills me as the breeze rustles the flowers on the ground.

‘Leon,’ she begins to say.

‘I know.’ I abruptly pull away and quickly snap my fingers. The scenery changes to the empty courtyard of the mansion. ‘Thank you,’ I say. Turning, I leave her ‘love’ behind.

THE NEXT MORNING

LEON’S POV, OUTSIDE THE MANSION ENTRANCE, 9AM

‘Okay Boss, I’ve put all the suitcases into the back,’ Baba says.

‘Kishi! Why are you stretching your entire body out? We can’t sit inside now!’

‘You stupid slacker, move over!’

‘Hey! Don’t push!’

The four humans argue and push inside the vehicle while Eisuke pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

‘They somehow get dumber as time moves on,’ I say, moving to stand next to him.

‘They were always dumb,’ he replies, chuckling. ‘Hey! Stop squealing and get in!’ he shouts to them. Vivian finishes hugging the little godchildren and stands up. Vega suddenly runs over to us and hugs Eisuke, wrapping her little arms around his waist. I raise my eyebrow while his hands hover in hesitation before beginning to pat her head awkwardly.

‘I’ll miss you, Mr Eisuke!’ she says, leaning her chin up to look at him. He looks away shyly before patting her head again.

‘You know where to find me if you continue to miss me,’ he answers.

‘She’ll be too busy for that,’ I say.

‘Lord Leon! You’re so mean!’ she cries out at me before turning back to him. ‘Thank you for playing with me, Mr Eisuke!’ Vega squeezes him tight before running off inside the mansion with a furiously blushing face.

‘I think she has a new crush. That’s too bad for you, Leon,’ Hue says with a smirk and turns to follow her inside with Altair and the others.

I roll my eyes and face Eisuke. His thin lips slowly curl up into a smirk.

‘She belongs to me,’ he says.

‘Pfft, she certainly knows what she wants,’ I respond, glancing at the beautiful figure leaning against the vehicle with crossed arms and interest. She begins to smile at me.

‘I’ll be watching,’ I say.

‘Well, I hope you enjoy what you see,’ he chuckles.

‘Make her happy. Even more than you already do. And yes, this is a direct order from a god,’ I demand with a smirk on my face.

He looks at me for a moment, then he holds out his hand. My hand takes his in a firm grasp and shake it.

‘I will.’ For the first time since I met him, Eisuke genuinely smiles at me. He heads for the limo and Vivian quickly takes his place in front of me. She bites the corner of her lip and looks down at my feet before looking up again.

‘I didn’t mean to make you think-‘ she begins.

‘You didn’t,’ I interrupt. Vivian gives me a lopsided smile.

‘Well, to be honest, I had fun as your maidservant,’ she says.

‘Even though most of the time you gave me attitude? Don’t forget, you’re still a goldfish,’ I reply.

‘It wasn’t … all the time, I made you meatballs!’ she points out but we both smile knowing how ridiculous the argument is.

‘I think I’ll stick to making my own by snapping my fingers,’ I answer.

‘Didn’t like ‘em?’

‘They were of adequate quality, for a human, to a god’s tastes,’ I answer.

‘Funny. Leon, I wanted to ask a favour,’ she says. When I say nothing, she sighs, preparing herself for it.

‘You grant wishes for everyone. Who grants your wishes?’ she asks.

‘I do, for myself.’ I answer, but I know that’s not the question or answer she needs.

‘Then, I wish for you, that you find a happiness you genuinely enjoy in your life,’ she says, looking me in the eyes. I hear a faint intake of breath from myself as soon as she says those words. Hope fills her plain brown eyes.

‘That’s-‘

‘A ridiculous wish? Maybe. But I hope you fulfil it, for your own sake.’ Vivian smiles and winks at me before turning around. I watch her go and fall into the arms of the man she loves most in this world.

#kissed by the baddest bidder eisuke #kissed by the baddest bidder #star crossed myth leon #star crossed myth #scm leon #kbtbb eisuke #eisuke ichinomiya

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steve0discusses · 3 years

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S5 Ep12: Brand New Mokuba Just Dropped

My tumblr has decided that it can’t save drafts again. Which sure is a problem I keep having but no one else seems to have...but were back. Back and ready to talk about cards.

First off, lets address the best thing about this episode, it’s the return of The A Team animation team! Dunno if it’s the same ones that did the seasons before, but it is a pretty good team this episode, so there’s lots of that to look forward to. Everyone is now 2 feet taller (Kaiba is 4 feet taller) and there’s just some really nice shots going on. It’s not as shiny as other seasons, which makes me think it might be a different team or a different studio using a different method (you don’t really see them playing with line weights anymore which makes it seem like a different method to me) but still--it’s a nicer looking episode today.

So we start off this episode with Seto begging us all to forget the hell that just happened and just get on with it. Of course, no one’s gonna do that, because yo, what just happened was kind of weird.

And because there’s only like...I dunno...maybe 2 episodes left in this arc? (kind of a quick arc, honestly) Leon decides to do a complete personality reversal. Although, it’s really hard to do a reversal when you didn’t have a personality in the first place...so I guess this more Leon showing us A personality--and I’ll take it.

He’s a little jackass now, but it’s youknow...still Leon so it’s not really that bad. Like we deal with Seto on the reg, so I feel like Leon as a jackass is just like...well that’s just how you play cards in this universe.

Everyone speculates whether or not Seto actually did a crime, and a SURPRISING number of them said he did not! Weird! But hey...I’ve gone over a billion times before, their memory is like when you throw popcorn into the ocean--it just fffzt’s and then it’s gone.

Roland was THIS close to actually saving Kaiba corp a huge hassle for once. This Close, Roland. You almost did it.

(read more under the cut)

I love that Roland has decided to give all these teens maybe the uncoolest nicknames in the entire world, and the teens have not made any indication whether they do or do not appreciate their alliteration nicknames.

But despite the fact that although Roland uses these opportunities behind the microphone to embarrass them just SO MUCH, the Kaibas still persist in having him introduce most of the matches. It makes it feel like the Kaibas freakin love this. They love his Dad jokes. I cannot tell if they are like “yes, please embarrass my friends.” of it they’re like “yes. Roland that was so cool. Yeah Leaping Leon. Good one! You’re so cool!” Because they don’t know what fun is.

Also, look what I see in the sky.

Truly a sign that they have overcome their trauma of seasons 2-3.

Or maybe they had a lot of blimps laying around and this is a completely unrelated blimp? Either way, I’m glad they can still handle the sight of a blimp.

And then, just out of nowhere, Mokuba hit puberty.

Which I mean, it was inevitable. It was going to happen some day. Luckily, we will be getting a new Mokuba this episode to make up for the fact that this one has done A Flirt and it was probably a completely innocent turn of phrase he has no idea is a double entendre but do the writers know that?

And while we ruminate the decisions there, lets bask in the glory of purple staircase.

This is such a purple staircase!

On another, identical staircase walks Leon, who gets to have a discussion with Zigfried, who probably just stood next to the wall and just chameleon’ed in here without getting caught cuz coincidentally this staircase dresses like him.

Freakin Mai?

Anyway, lets start this duel where like...I dunno, it’s a little late to start stealing souls, but maybe Leon will do a stab? (He will not)

So glad the storyboarder is back to kind of flex. I don’t normally see Roland drawn with this much attention. Look at him go. That’s the stance a grown man takes when he’s ready to embarrass a bunch of teens.

Kaiba writes a speech introducing himself, or Roland just kinda made up a speech as if Kaiba hadn’t asked him to do that. Either way it’s kind of a big way to talk yourself up--but he is trying to talk up the theme park so people will actually like...go. So it makes sense.

Also what is this nonsense where people worldwide are watching a theme park opening match? Card culture is so weird because we’ve noticed in other seasons there are people that don’t play cards, and I feel like they’re not watching this for fun. It’s like when I watch news unfold--they’re watching to see if they have to raid the toilet paper aisle and the canned goods again to prepare for yet another onslaught of card nonsense.

Legit Mokuba was like “Look at my bro. Look at how he gave up dueling to throw this nice tourney for everyone!” and it’s like...Mokuba...he just dueled...Mokuba...he’s putting all the profits directly in your pockets this is hardly a martyr up here.

Seto Kaiba decided to inform the world that he would have won if he was actually playing and that was sure a statement he made after losing to Yugi like...3 times now? Several times.

Everyone else converses how Leon’s acting weird. I don’t know why they care all of a sudden, because no one acts normal playing this game, but the plot desires them to care.

Which is when we find out...

...the new Mokuba...

That’s right. He was a Mokuba the whole time. For once we haven’t abducted Mokuba, instead...we have too many Mokubas.

This Mokuba even has hella long hair, too. I imagine if Mokuba proper had a ponytail it would probably look just like this but black. It would have been just--so good if he whipped off that ribbon and shook out his hair and it fluffed into a horrible Mokuba mess, but you know, that’s one of the many reasons why I don’t write for this series. That and I was like in high School when this came out.

(Please admire Kaiba’s head of Security who looks like he’s about to drop a poop out of terror. It’s a really small detail, but I appreciate that the storyboarder had him kind of antsy in the background)

Seto insists that the only one to beat Yugi Muto will be himself and it’s like...I know. That’s why I keep expecting someone to get stabbed by this tiny purple haired Mokuba. But instead, Leon’s too busy feeling mad that he’s not necessarily playing the game for fun.

But he’s still playing the game though? so I feel like Yami doesn’t have many stones to throw here. Leon hasn’t even cheated yet. (As if Yami isn’t cheating basically all the time by being 2 people in one body)

I can’t BELIEVE this show would throw that at me after the number of times I have seen Yami Muto nearly murder other people (and sometimes literally do a murder) out of revenge. Yami is basically a revenge god...like...show...what? It’s season 5, I thought we’ve basically cemented this in. Occasionally the show will just be all “card games are supposed to be fun though!!!” and it’s like...these are the last children on Earth who are playing card games for fun.

If anything, it should be Leon lecturing them on how to have fun. They just murdered a Great Leviathan with cards. Before that they were dealing with Noah, with Marik, with Pegasus, with Bakura. The times that Yugi has just played a game for fun has been...This Arc.

So maybe Yami is just begging himself to have fun for once. Maybe he’s just mad that he can’t play a single tournament without someone getting possessed? Maybe his frustrations really aren’t about little Leaping Leon, and more to do with Yami sick and tired of being a protagonist.

But, youknow, it’s not an anime, unless the protagonist hypocritically can get away with every sin out there and everyone else gets punished for it. So lets find out just how far Leon fell from fun-having grace with a flashback.

This Belle cosplayer went off in like...one of the most hilariously bad accents I’ve heard in a while, it was just so much, I’ll probably cap it because lolol.

But since Leon wasn’t actually in line to inherit the company, he has to sort of hole up in his room for his entire childhood. It’s kinda weird, since we can’t assume that Zigfried will either a.) live forever or b.) have or adopt or raise children in any capacity. But they’re pretty sure Zigfried will live forever, and in this universe--maybe.

Also, I’m really not sure why they have to dress like it’s 1890, but they sure are. The Victorian era just never left the Von Schroeder house. Like these women are wearing corsets to be in that dress, and you can’t BUY a corset to match this type of dress, you have to make your own, and I know, because in Quarantine, I got really into historical sewing videos.

I can’t believe I spent an entire year watching historical sewing videos. Holy crap. I don’t even sew.

But then again...Seto is kind of drawn like he wears a corset...so maybe people are still wearing them in the Yugioh universe? Maybe that’s how their fashion just works?

Guys...I analyze Yugioh fashion a lot but the fact that the Edwardians never freakin left this worldly plane is just...that’s canon to Yugioh. I really just want to sit back and analyze Yugioh fashion with a moodboard and try to connect all the dots logically as if they aren’t just one-off jokes, but I don’t know how I’d fit that on this post.

And like, one of y’all brought up in a comment in the last post that what’s neat about this arc is we are seeing Zigfried as what Seto would have been like if he hadn’t like...gotten cursed by Yugi Muto. So, going off that idea, I think it’s kinda fun that Zigfried’s outfit is a bit of a younger take on Pegasus’ whole look with the wrist lace and a fusion of Gozaburos look of wearing a cravat with a smoking coat. It’s fun to imagine that this is what Seto’s inner gremlin dresses like (which...now I think about it...was a thing from S1 where Yami defeated a Seto gremlin but...I don't remember much about it) Of course, Seto would also be hella dead if he hadn’t gone through the Yugi cycle, but it’s still a fun road to think about.

Plus, when we go down that road, it really makes this arc look even more like it’s just about Seto Kaiba’s therapy sesh to recover from the last several seasons that he’s accidentally (or intentionally??) invited the entire world to watch and that’s very funny to me.

Bro has informed me you can make a deck out of Jerry but could not show me any receipts.

...I mean that is Dartz right?

Like I know all the characters have cards of themselves IRL and all the characters are also based on cards that were made before they were on TV (with the exception of our main cast that was...youknow, a horror manga) but like...

...what’s up, Dartz?

Anyway, our little Mokuba decides to sneak out the house and run around the world at the ripe ol age of ... what I’m guessing is like 10-12, and is pretty sure he can just get away with that. Luckily, the crimes he’s committing are exactly the type of crimes that Zigfried needs.

(Pretty sure their Dad died or is incapacitated but OK, dub, go ahead and pretend that plot point didn’t go down last episode.)

Also, I’m really glad we got a good storyboarder for this part who was like “Zigfried looks...like that?” and still managed to make this character design really work this episode. In some parts they even gave Zigfried those wide Marik Eyes that are kind of ubiquitous with Yugioh. It just needs the right hands to draw it, and then any amount of...this outfit...can work.

So, just like when we met Mokuba in S1, he’s gonna do a duel on Yugi to save his family and probably also like Mokuba, not give a damn for how this game is supposed to be played. Luckily, this time Pharaoh doesn’t have any star chips lying around for this kid to just run around and steal before booking it out the back gate.

Yugi over there with his twitter-brand hot-takes, not knowing the difference between actual brainwashing and blackmail/family pressure.

(WHY IS MAI HERE?)

Look at that hatching!

Ah this is the 00′s content I’m here for! Check out the soft brush! The dodge and burn! Ah! Man this sure was an era of computer art! and stuff like this cost a lot of money to make and it looked ... like this!

Now I’m pretty sure we can make art that looks this dated on like...a free phone app.

PS please do not ever shade your art like this. This is what you don’t do. Do not do this. I will shed a single tear shaped like the Photoshop symbols for dodge and burn.

Also...guys...

next episode is Ep 13. Every season so far this show has been like “we’re normal, everything is normal” getting us complacent until exactly Ep 13, when everything gets really effed up. So...

will that happen? Will they continue this tradition into S5 or has it been a coincidence until now? Excited to find out.

Anyway, if you just got here, this is the link to read these from the beginning in chrono order:

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#ygo #yugioh #yu gi oh #S5 #Ep12 #yugi muto #leon von schroeder #good because I forgot his other last name #zigfried von schroeder #seto kaiba #mokuba kaiba #roland #joey wheeler #tea gardner #the others who didn't say or do anything so I probably shouldn't tag them #Can't believe how quickly this arc is wrapping up

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witchofinterest · 3 years

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what's "Go!"

that’s my titans (2018) groupchat gay straight alliance au! the title comes from the cartoon teen titans go.

that’s pretty much all there is to it. the characters don’t parallel with how their introduced on the show bc i didn’t want to do that. i guess i’m gonna try to do a humorized plots?? like s1 is abt finding out abt ravens dad? ans s2 is abt them being terrorized by their teacher who oversees the club, slade wilson. (i’m gonna use the episode plots too! just not in order!) also i know garth is dead bir i added him anyway and make jokes abt it.

here’s a snippet!

RavenRoth: how did you find out Donna?

FallOfTroy: My penpal sent me a photo of his mom. Thank you Roy Harper.

FlyingGrayson: I found out I liked men via my penpal as well .. that program is an ally.

FallOfTroy: Do they still do that?

RavenRoth: I never had a penpal.

FallOfTroy: Homophobic. anyway, what we're the rest of your gay awakenings?

Koriand'r: Halle Berry in the x-men movies

HawkHall: I'm straight, but I wouldn't be for Ryan Reynolds

FallOfTroy: once again, Boring

RavenRoth: Elvira, I think

Lad: Wentworth Miller in Prisonbreak

FlyingGrayson: You okay Lad?

Lad: Don't call me that, but yeah.

HawkHall: Prisonbreak?

Lad: Dont be homophobic Hank.

FallOfTroy: Yeah!

HawkHall: I wasn't being!

FlyingGrayson: Henry, we don't tolerate homophobia in this chat.

HawkHall: I am being Set Up!

Koriand'r: That's what they all say.

FallOfTroy: lock! him! up!

FlyingGrayson: I sentence you to a ten minute timeout

*FlyingGrayson removed HawkHall*

Dove: I love watching justice.

#Go!#idk if this gonna be as funny/fun to anyone else but i am having a lot of fun writing it!#thank you for asking!

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immortalled · 3 years

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Live reactions to S3E5 of Misfits below because... I dunno, slapping it all under a cut is probably less annoying lol. :’>

- Is it bad that the opening scene made me think of Jamie? Jamie and Seth look like that could’ve been buds. Like a biker gang or something.

- I find it really interesting that Kelly, even with a guy like Seth, is still putting up walls and giving him the aloof act. I appreciate the consistency (rare in Misfits lol) but aw man, it is kinda sad, isn’t it? I get it, though. Poor thing. I think Seth/Kelly is a little left field but I do hope she has a happy ending with this one. Kelly deserves happiness and so does Seth.

- I keep telling myself not to compare Rudy and Nathan but omg... the little awkward lean against the support beam... Nathan does that when Simon catches him and Alisha spying on him. And then the two condom thing... I know I’m being ridiculous here and they aren’t the same character at all, but I’m gonna have to make a parallels gif set. I just know it. I can feel it. It has to happen. It was awkward at first because I missed Nathan, but the more I see of Rudy, the more I like him. He’s grown on me.

- I feel like production value went way up during this season.

- EXCUSE ME??? WHO??? TELLS THEIR GIRLFRIEND, WHO IS IN A COMA, THAT YOU’RE LEAVING THEM? YO, DUDE, I KNOW IT’S HARD TO SEE HER LIKE THAT BUT C’MON. You!! Don’t know!!!!!!! That she can’t hear you!!!!!! Maybe she can!! YOU CAN’T! oml

- I like how Kelly’s first response to seeing a patient in trouble is to calmly and slowly walk into the room to ask them if they’re okay (when they clearly can’t speak because even if they weren’t in a coma, they do have a tube down their throat) instead of immediately finding a nurse or pressing the alert button.

- Wait this hurts.

- LOL I... really love how Simon just deals with Rudy’s weird stories. That’s cute.

- O h? Is that grafitti some Bad Wolf-esque foreshadowing? 👀

- Wow. Lauren Socha is such a good actress??? What the heck. I’m gonna have to watch her in something else. I need to know if she has range.

- ...This isn’t mean, I love Kelly’s shape, but there’s no way Kelly can fit in Jen’s clothes.

- Not a fan of this weird tension that happens occasionally between Curtis and Simon. I think it’s IC for Simon to be a little jealous, I like that he still has his insecurities, but it’s a little annoying when it’s directed toward Curtis. I dunno. I guess it’s fair given that he’s the ex, but I don’t like it.

- Kelly looks great in a leather jacket.

- OOOH gosh. Sometimes, man... sometimes Simon gives this look and does this thing with his body language that’s just SO scary.

- ...As much as I dislike Curtis’ power, I think Alisha’s has to be my least favorite of the new powers. I wish Simon would use his foresight more, too.

- Something about Simon watching Freaky Friday is really funny to me.

- How many times are these idiots gonna have to sneak out bodies. They’re professionals at this point.

- Bahahaha Shaun is so nonchalant. Random coma patient in the communtiy centre? Just another day. I love him.

- WAIT NO SHAUN NO WAIT NO!!!

- NO?????????????????????????????????? NO?? NO!

- I’m not gonna think about the legal issues with what’s-his-face pulling the plug instead of a nurse. Or like... how they’re gonna explain that Jen’s body is there at the community centre. Or how the gang is gonna get away with security footage of them stealing a body from the hospital (which there would have to be, there’s no way they didn’t get caught on camera). I can’t go full clown. This is Misfits. 🤡

- Also I totally thought they were going to grab an animal or something off the street and then give it to the boyfriend or parents or something to take care of so Jen could live on at least for a while longer as something else than die. I don’t know why I thought that. It just felt like it’d be on brand. Don’t @ me LOL. (I’m glad I was wrong; I think it’s a much nobler end for Jen to own up to what she did and have her goodbye.)

- That is totally some Bad Wolf-esque forshadowing. And clearly slapped on in post!

Final thoughts:

Not a bad episode. I liked it well enough. It was entertaining and this one got a few laughs (for some reason Seth saying “Hi” and Rudy going feral at him got me). I don’t have too much to say about it, really, it’s a pretty standard episode. So far I think Peter’s episode is still my favorite just for the more superhero-y hijinks, but this ep had some really nice protective Simon moments and I really enjoyed Seth. The music was pretty good, but the Misfits soundtrack is always killer.

I hate that my only big note is a complaint, but... I’m finding it really hard to connect with the characters this season, even the OGs. I get bursts of it, primarily with Simon and Rudy, but overall something just feels wrong. No one except maybe Curtis feels OOC and yet? Something about the characters is off. It feels like I’m looking at an alternate universe where everything is the same except for some itty bitty detail and I can’t place what it is. And before anyone says it, no it’s not because Nathan isn’t there lol. He was the heart of the series for me, but I don’t think his absence is what feels wrong. It’s definitely something about the writing or within the remaining characters themselves.

I? Almost want to say that it’s an issue of the gang not feeling like a family anymore? They don’t feel as close. I know Misfits has always primarily been about hijinks and outrageous plots, but I almost wanna say that S1 and S2 had more focus on character relationships than S3 so far? We get a little more into the nitty gritty of Alisha’s relationships with Simon, Rudy, and Curtis (even though her “problem” with Curtis in E2 made no sense) but besides that... it just doesn’t feel like we’re getting the meat that we did in S1 and 2. Granted, that is two seasons versus one.

Oh yeah. And RIP Shaun. I knew he was gonna die but I didn’t expect it so soon. That sucks. I think that his death would have been sadder if the show hadn’t exposed his grosser aspects, like how he creeps on girls and... he’s just kind of a skeevy perv. Which, I know most of the male characters in this show are perverts to some degree, but it works better for everyone else because they have some redeeming qualities that make them more endearing and their faults more palatable. Shaun doesn’t quite have the endearment factor to pad out how uncomfortable he was in E2 and E4 (making him into a villain for E4 was a bad move too). I think if he had shown just a hint of really caring about the gang, even privately, then maybe I’d be sadder. Oh well. He’s still the best probation worker. I’ll miss him.

Anyway, anyway. Enough complaining. One last good thing: Rudy continues to grow on me. I am so intrigued by how he handles his split (how his splits handle each other?). I feel like I need to come up with a better term. But that’ll do for now. I really, really hope that Overman doesn’t just sweep all those issues under the rug. It seems like he did that with Rudy and Alisha’s relationship (which is a bummer!) and I think it’d be so cool for Rudy to either find peace with that inner conflict or at least be able to better cope with Rudy One and Rudy Too so they’re not always squabbling. Love Rudy, though. Him and Nathan would’ve butted heads to be the funny one, I think, but good friends after a while. Oh, the terror those two could have caused...

#out of immortality [ooc];#spark watches misfits [liveblogging];

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harringtonheartache · 5 years

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Daybreak | Part Two

Part Three

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Lab Escapee! Reader?

Summary: Part two of this fic. A less eventful chapter but a necessary one! Next part will be super fun n’ cute (-:

Word Count: 2,900+

Warning(s): Cussing

A/N: Here ya go! P.S. When I described Steve’s room I took from what little we saw of it in S1 + added some details of my own. I included the The Smiths poster because their debut album came out around the time of ST (1984) and I love their music & would like to think Steve would enjoy it too. & yes Queen and Joy Division are based on my own music taste as well.

“Okay, so this is my room,” he told her as he welcomed her into his bedroom with grand exclamation. “You can have my bed, I don’t mind the floor,” he said as he gathered a spare pillow and blanket from his closet. They were folded nicely, the work of his mother most likely. Disregardful of their neat composure, he tossed the bedding to the floor. She stared at her proposed sleeping arrangement for the night. His bed was double in size compared to what she was used to, presumably offering greater comfort as well. “I promise the sheets are clean,” he spoke up at her apparent reluctance. Her head moved swiftly in his direction, and he stood with a look of utmost sincerity. “Okay,” she told him. She wanted to thank him again, but did not allow herself when his attention fell from her and he went about setting up his own bed for the night.

She climbed on top of the surrendered piece of furniture, feeling the cushioned fabric beneath her as she did so. Her assumptions were correct, it was much nicer than her bunk at the lab.

“So tomorrow I have to go to school,” Steve said, bringing up a topic of conversation that needed discussing before they could sleep.

“School?”

“Yeah, it’s where people go to learn. I have to leave at 7 in the morning, and you can’t come with me, but I will be back by 3.” The panic returned. As much as she thought herself someone to take comfort in solitude, she knew herself someone to fear such a thing in unfamiliar environments.

“You’re leaving?”

“Yeah, but I’ll be back. You can sleep the entire time I’m gone if you want, I won’t be that long. But you have to stay in this room. My mom will be home and she can’t know you’re here, remember?”

There were too many holes in the plan. “What if she comes upstairs?” Upstairs was supposed to be her hideaway.

“Um,” Steve returned to a place of deep consideration and planning. “Here,” he said. He moved the upper half of his body forward, partially abandoning his makeshift bed to reach underneath the one 009 sat upon. His hands emerged with a few belongings: a sweatshirt, one shoe, and an old backpack. He tossed these forgotten items in the direction of his closet, although they fell short of full entry.

“If you hear anyone come upstairs, hide under here,” he spoke again, confidence in his own scheme restored.

She gave him an inquisitive look. “Under the bed?” she questioned.

“Yes. I would tell you to hide in the closet but if she comes into my room she is probably putting clothes away in there. So, if you hear anything just go under the bed. There’s lots of room, it’s not that bad, and you probably won’t even have to. My mom doesn’t come in my room that much.” That much. To her, that sounded like a game of chance she didn’t care to participate in, but she complied nonetheless as she was grateful for anywhere to hide.

“Okay, under the bed.”

A procedure ready to be followed, spoken and memorized through one conversation.

“Oh, shit,” Steve exclaimed softly, mostly to himself. Standing from his place on the floor, he moved to find the door handle. With a small click, he locked it. The girl watched this action as he performed it much to her consternation. He began to settle himself again but was not able to completely do so without noticing her concern. “Oh, I-,” he started, “I’m not locking you in, I just don’t want my parents walking in here while we’re asleep. You can just turn that small lock on the knob to the right and it will unlock.” He explained this, his tone benevolent. She was appreciative of this clarification, and filed his thoughtful instructions away in her head for possible future reference. A smile was offered in response.

A few minutes passed, the lights no longer illuminating the entire room. Steve’s thoughtful nature did not end with the door lock however, as he left his desk lamp on to rid the girl of any worries pure darkness may have brought. They laid in their respective beds, 009 tucked under Steve’s own comforter that smelled pleasantly of him. It was a strange occurrence for her - sleeping in a bed that smelled of someone else. The scent became comforting; it served as a reminder that she was not sleeping in the same bed she had been in all of one night ago. She was not at the lab. “Hey, Steve?” she was ready to give him the thank-you she intended to give him earlier. He didn’t pause long before offering her a small hmm? to let her know he was listening, but long enough to take recognition of her first use of his name.

“Thank you”.

---

“Shit, where the hell- Are you kidding me I just- shit.” Steve’s thoughts dropped out of his mouth, loudly enough to wake up 009. She sat up quickly, a small gasp leaving her mouth; a gasp she hoped Steve didn’t hear once she realized where she was. Terror was still engraved into her mind, and it would take more than one night of sleeping safely for her to rid herself of this feeling. It had become her daily ritual to fear whomever she would face first thing in the morning.

“Oh, hey. Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you up. Have you seen my- what the hell am I saying no you haven’t seen my backp- wait it’s in the car. Right?” He now spoke with a whisper to his tone. As opposed to last night, they were not entirely alone anymore. His parents were now home, and he couldn’t be heard talking to a person they weren’t supposed to know was there.

“Hey yesterday - in the car - did you happen to see a backpack in there?” She blinked a few times in substitution for a response. She had not yet fully returned to Steve’s bedroom from her state of sleep, or from her morning delusion that landed her momentarily in the lab. “I- I don’t know,” She now responded, but her answer did not help him any more than her silence had.

“Shit, well, I hope it’s in there.” He gave up on his bedroom search and now passed his attention to the task of putting on his shoes. “I’ll be back in a few hours, by 3:00, okay? There's a clock on my nightstand so you will know what time it is. And uh, remember your hiding spot if you hear anyone coming upstairs.” He told her these things with quickness to his words. She heard every one though, and chose to say “okay,” when she realized he was focused on tying his shoes and would not see her nod her head ‘yes’.

He now stood from the place he had been crouching on the floor. “I’ll see you soon, okay?” He seemed averse to leaving her sitting neatly atop his bed. For a second he pondered who would be more questioning: his mother after finding her in his bedroom, or Hawkins High’s staff and students if they saw her following him through a day of school like a service dog. While the second option allowed him to stay by her side, number one presented itself as the best choice if she were to be discovered. This time she nodded to his farewell, an addition of her own voice leaving a “goodbye” at the gesture’s tail end. He smiled at her, a comforting gesture. Opening the door, he slid his body between the small area of room he left open for his departure. He did not even chance fully opening the door, for someone could be in the hallway. Her responsive smile faded as the door drew closed, and she sat unmoving where he had left her.

While he had originally told her that she could sleep the entire time he was away, she now thought that to be a bad idea since the conversation of someone walking in on her. Why couldn’t she just lock the door? She guessed it would arise too many questions, or just be entered anyway (using a key) without the repellent of a sleeping boy behind it. His family was polite enough not to disturb a resting person. The idea of family sat at the top of her mind, asking her who she could claim to be her own. She refused to answer that question, even to her own brain, recognizing the truth was not a single person. Instead she glanced to his nightstand, where his promised clock sat. 7:09 it read. She thought of getting up to explore his bedroom, the concept of privacy something she was without experience with, but told herself that she shouldn’t move. Moving produced sound, and she didn’t want to have to retreat to the underside of the bed she laid upon.

She settled on exploring with her eyes. His room was simple, the bed she sat upon was the centerpiece. The walls were covered with a white plaid wallpaper, and the curtains that hung in front of the window were patterned to match. The sun was already poking through the blinds, but she did not wish to close the curtains and mask the pale light. On the wall to her left was a poster that read The Smiths. Centered underneath it was a dresser, various items scattered across the top - a hair comb, a few tapes with names like Queen and Joy Division scribbled with slanted writing across the front, and a silver stereo to play said tapes on. She pulled the comforter up to her nose and sank a little - making sure that she could still see the gap under the door that provided half an inch of sight into the hallway. That half inch was going to be watched carefully, as if it could really give her significant insight as to what was going on through to the other side of it. She knew that if someone were to walk in right now, she would be fully visible, but tucked under the covers she still felt safer. Maybe part of it was that reassuring scent of the comforter.

---

2:32. The lock was still climbing to 3, but was now only 28 minutes away. Having abandoned the heat of the covers, the hiding girl who had remained in Steve’s bedroom all day sat cross-legged where she had slept that night. Twenty-eight minutes left, meaning that seven hours and thirty-two minutes had passed where she had not been disturbed. A soft beat: feet on carpeted stairs. A sound perhaps easy to miss if you were not waiting to hear it all day. Number nine heard it, and moved from her place on his bed for the first time that day. She pressed herself onto the floor quickly, using her hands to push herself under the bedskirt of the mattress frame. The sound came to a stop, soon replaced by the noise of a creaking door. She swore the door had not been that loud when Steve had left his morning. Becoming suddenly aware of her breathe, she began to hold it in her lungs. She doesn’t come into my room that much. Steve’s promise was now disproven, or perhaps today was the occurrence that had prohibited him from telling her that his mother did not come into his room at all.

Her hands were pressed to the floor in front of her, sure to be imprinted with marks of the carpet’s texture when she drew them away. She heard another door slide open - the closet. She mentally thanked Steve for choosing her hiding spot with consideration. How long would his mother be? The underside of a bed was no place to stay for the remaining 28 minutes. Perhaps it was closer to 25 now. From under the bed, she scooted backwards until her feet touched the wall. She wanted to be as far away as possible from the woman who threatened her discovery. Her discovery and likely return to the lab. More footsteps were heard now, but these were quick and heavy, someone besides his mom. They entered the room with haste, and the sound of the door hitting the back of Steve’s bedroom wall made 009 flinch. Was it his dad, was he home too? Under the bed, the girl closed her eyes. She had already stopped breathing and hoped that eliminating her sense of sight would somehow eliminate theirs too. A voice broke from the panicked entry. “Mom, hey! What-a- what are you doing?” It was Steve. Home 24 minutes early.

“I was just putting some stuff from downstairs back in your room, why? Is everything okay?” the voice without a face questioned. “Yeah! Yeah everything’s fine, I just have this uh-” Steve stumbled over his own words, trying to spit them out quickly so that he could check the underneath of his bed for the person he worried greatly about. The room looked just how he had left it, aside from her absence. For a second he questioned whether she was under the bed or gone completely. “I have this project I have to finish for tomorrow and I really need to hurry.” A weak lie, he would admit that, but one fitting of a teenager, and one his mother would eat up without question. “Okay, I’ll get out of your hair,” she told him. With that last sentence, the soft beat of her steps resumed as she left the room. The door closed again - most likely Steve’s doing considering the amount of force recognizably used to do so. 009 did not move from under the bed, even with her confident suspicion that he was now the only person besides her in the room. “Nine?” he asked in a whisper, a whisper even softer than the one he had utilized this morning. He bent down, lifting the bedskirt a little too rapidly for her comfort. She flinched again. He sighed. “Oh thank fuck, are you okay?” She turned her head to him, meeting his eye with a look of unease. “It’s safe now,” he told her. He reached out a hand, offering her removal from her place of concealment. She took it; an act of trust in the person who eliminated the threat. She was pulled from the narrow opening beneath the bed frame, her feet leaving their place against the wall. Now she was able to stand, and let out her own sigh once she did.

“I’m so sorry, I came home as soon as possible. The traffic in the parking lot was just really bad and- I’m sorry I really didn’t think she would come up here.” He finished his hurried apology, getting it out quickly as if she would retreat back into her place of hiding if he were not fast enough. He turned around to pick up the plate he had abandoned atop his set of drawers during his panic. “Here, I brought you another sandwich,” he told her. The sound of glass leaving a wooden surface rang in the air as he lifted it to give to her. He smiled at her, a look of sincere apology. Her own face dropped the slightly hostile expression and picked up a smile of her own. “Thank you,” she said.

They both sat on his bed now, herself tearing the sandwich into smaller bites and him offering her conversation after hours of silence and seclusion. His explanation of his day fell to a conclusion. Hearing of a normal teenager’s life was both compelling and saddening to Nine. “Do you want to go out?” he decided to present her with a question. “Like to the store? We can buy you some things. You know, like necessities. Your own toothbrush, deodorant, things like that?” An afternoon out of his bedroom, appealing at first thought, but dangerous after a second. “What if someone sees me? They’re probably looking for me, it’s too unsafe,” she reminded him. It was like he had forgotten she was a fugitive. His expression abandoned delight and met dissatisfaction. “Shit,” his response was simple. They sat for another moment, her fingers fiddling with the crust of the wheat bread. “Wait,” he told her. He returned to the place where his mother had been earlier, peering into his closet. He removed from inside a hat, one with a thick brim. “You can wear this! I also have a pair of sunglasses in my car, they will cover your face. Plus you will be in my clothes so nobody will recognize you, right?” His tone was hopeful again. A promise he couldn’t make, but one he was confident in.

She pondered his proposal. It was not the best, certainly, but it was also one that her strong desire to leave the house made hard to shoot down. A hat and sunglasses. Was that all it would really take to keep her safe? Her eyes looked over the hat, studying the object she considered putting her complete faith in to protect her identity. Her eyes then traveled to Steve’s face. It wore a look of both longing and optimism. It made her trust him and his stupid plan a little bit more. “Okay,” she spoke up. “Let’s go.” The underside of her teeth met her bottom lip and she pulled it in to present him with a close-mouthed smile. He returned one, and added a laugh. He took a few paces forward, and extended his hand that held the hat. He watched her face, careful to only make contact if she was comfortable. Gently, he placed the hat on top of her head and smiled down at her. “I don’t even recognize you,” he told her jokingly.

#steve harrington reader insert #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington fic #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington #steve x reader #st3 #ST fic #stranger things fic #stranger things #stranger things requests #steve harrington series #mike wheeler #dustin henderson #SCOOPS TROOP #robin #steve

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thegreenmeridian · 4 years

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Star Trek Discovery thoughts so far:

It feels slightly too well polished to me. Like more effort in general is being put into everything and it takes itself more seriously so moments of shittiness are jarring, whereas in old school Trek shittiness is fun and part of the experience.

Idk a lot of plots and character development feel kinda rushed in a way you don’t really get in OG trek or shows like X-Files that space stuff out over multiple seasons and monster-of-the-week.

Like compare the DS9 overarching plot to S1 and the 4 episodes of S2 of Discovery I’ve seen so far. Shit’s packed together so closely that the plot twists seem to come out of nowhere and without letting me get attached to the characters enough to be properly impacted.

Wow that romance plot in S1 really just came out of fucking nowhere huh. And in retrospect it seems like it only existed to make the Klingon spy reveal more dramatic rather than actually serving the narrative at all. Absolutely should have slow-burned that. You can’t go from “I’ve never been in love” to full on romance that quickly with a barely developed new character without it feeling rushed as fuck. Drag that out, let me see her come to terms with her emotions, let me learn more about him. And actually show the romance, cause I wasn’t even entirely sure they were full on dating until the Klingon reveal episode anyway.

And two big ass reveals in one episode? Wtf is that about? Lorca is a bad guy after some barely-there foreshadowing. And Tyler is also a bad guy after barely-there foreshadowing. And those things are unrelated. And Lorca just straight up dies with frankly very little time spent exploring his motivations and then boom forgotten.

And then I get a bit of one episode where Tyler and L’Rell are actually interacting and now I’m supposed to feel emotions at their separation and baby?

And of course OG trek all had episodes that did this, but stories like that work in self contained episode chunks. It feels like they’re trying to do long-form storytelling ala HBO but without nearly as much flesh. Episodic or two-parter stories stretched out over long periods without any extra meat or reason to get properly invested. Or cramming stories that need more time into a single episode and trimming off all the meat.

Gimme three or four episodes of Tyler and L’Rell on Klingon as a subplot, build up their relationship so the baby reveal becomes a proper tragedy and a compelling motivation. Remind me who Vok is before making me have to search my memory when Tyler’s big reveal happens. Give the reveal its own episode and time to breathe and make an impact without overlapping it with the Lorca reveal and shortchanging both.

And I dunno, have Lorca live. That could have absolutely been a “camera zooms in on the corpse, hand twitches, cut to end credits” moment to have him come back later as a villain. Or have a few more episodes of him as the villain before killing him. I was relatively attached to him, his ending felt unfulfilling. I can’t help but compare it to the TOS episode The Enterprise Incident, and how compelling the Romulan Captain and his subordinate were as characters despite only seeing them for one episode, and how beautifully the tactical game between him and Kirk played out. I would have liked to have seen Lorca get that, at least. Give me a few episodes of him being a worthy foe, let me see his betrayed crew deal with the knowledge they have to kill him. Having Georgiou toss him in a mushroom pit for a betrayal the viewers have zero investment in felt like a really abrupt and meaningless end. Especially after a really sudden reveal. Having that play out for a bit longer so the viewer can see his motives but not Michael would have been really interesting.

And like, Mirror Georgiou is great and all but I had like 1 episode and a voice recording of Regular Georgiou. I am not hugely attached to her and the dichotomy between the versions isn’t noticeable. Even a few flashbacks or something would have helped me get properly attached to MG. She is otherwise a compelling villain/antihero, but Michael’s anguish would be more real if the viewer got to see more of RG.

I guess my main note is that I’m frustrated. There’s a lot of good elements here but like... it just isn’t getting sewn together properly, and as a show it seems to demand more scrutiny than old Trek. Comedic relief Ferengi episodes, 30s gangster planets, and Riker’s slut shirts let me give old Trek more leeway, and the nature of primarily episodic storytelling is that fuckery with one plot only annoys me for one episode. Something high budget, high effort, and season based has a higher bar to clear and I dunno if this is quite clearing it for me.

It’s also kind of missing the comedy woven into old Trek. Like there’s been a couple instances of the Saurian guy sneezing and complaining of having 6 nasal passages, those got a giggle, but Harry Mudd was kinda... eh. And there’s been very limited humour outside of that. I don’t think it has to be a laugh a minute or anything but part of what made old Trek great was the sense of humour. Bits of light to balance the dark. This feels... not quite fully gritty/grimdark/HBO but still lacking something of the originals.

I am enjoying Michael as a character a lot, at least. And Saru is quality. Some of the others feel a bit cardboard-cut-out though. Like, you know how CBS procedurals are all basically constructed of a selection of “types”? This seems to be doing the same thing. Honestly I got higher standards for secondary characters now anyway because of The Terror but still.

I’m wondering if maybe I just don’t vibe with Bryan Fuller stuff in general, because I couldn’t get through more than two episodes of Pushing Daisies and Hannibal didn’t grab me at all. I did like the two DS9 episodes he did but I never really managed to get into Voyager at all and he wrote a lot for that so idk.

Ima still keep watching it though. I promised a mate I’d give it a chance in exchange for him watching The Terror and I’m unemployed so fuck it, why not?

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kurogabae · 4 years

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TSUBASA: TRAINWRECK CHRONICLES

And Why Bee Train Are Officially Being Labeled, By Me, As The Boomers Of Animation

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 -- Part 4

[Slim Shady’s “Guess Who’s Back” plays in the distance, muffled but threatening]

Look, I know I usually have something to say at the start of these, but honestly? Let’s just go because we’re starting knee-deep in some bullshit.

Tsarastora (yes... fucking AGAIN):

Well, it didn’t take long for us to return to the land of the walking Not Dead Anymore. Rumor has it that Bee Train was ordered to retcon the S1 finale immediately because who do you think you are to break one of CLAMP’s cardinal rules like that?!? But I’ve never seen any proof of exactly what went down about this plot. But I’m forced to believe Ohkawa materialized behind the director one day and threatened to eat his spine or some shit.

Anyway. We’re here. Again. And for some reason this is where they decide to have Sakura give Yuuko her White Day gift? Instead of in Piffle? Where she made it? With Tomoyo?

Stop stealing my moments Bee Train. It’s like you’re the crew who edited CCS for America back in the day and tried to market it towards boys so you pushed Syaoran as the main character and tried to remove all romance. Let Sakura have friends! Let her interact with people and have a story! LET HER BE BI!!!

So Yuuko has a dress and Fai makes a joke about being in heaven because the place is so pretty and Kurogane says not to, quote, “say such unlucky things” and it’s moments like this that make you wonder if they Knew and just didn’t care about Fai’s past or if they really were just as in the dark as the rest of us. I flip flop a lot between the two.

Either way, now the dads are talking about the kids and how brave Syaoran is (why the bullshit in Piffle prompted this I do not know but whatever I guess?) and basically just about how badly they want them to succeed but without just saying it. Meanwhile Sakura is telling Syaoran about her latest memory and I could not for the life of me tell you which one it was and I refuse to go check. The important thing here is that the lazy animation trick that has given Mokona the power of flight is back and she’s hovering around the gang now. Not sitting on shoulders or anything. Just... flying around like she’s Kero. This is fine. I guess.

And then, after what has to be like a solid half hour of just dicking around Mokona Very Suddenly senses a feather. Why so suddenly? Because they wanted to get everything else out of the way first and it was convenient. No other reason. The feather isn’t moving. Neither are they really. She just decides to turn her sensors on now? IDK. Maybe she needs a tune up.

They find the feather not far away just casually sitting inside a rock and everyone but Kurogane is like “Yay! Easy find! Go us!” because apparently no one can learn anything in this anime about what those fucking feathers do. Spoilers: it’s not a rock, it’s a dragon.

[Kurogane voice]: kin

The dragon fucks off and here we come to a Thing. Now, Kurogane is ready to slaughter this thing and wear its bones basically. He is Ready to Fight in a real way. I found that odd and really didn’t care for it. In Hanshin he seems in awe of Celes when it appears to him and even though it’s mostly fanon that Kurogane respects and likes dragons that makes sense. His family’s guardian was a dragon, his sword was modeled after a dragon. His whole motif is dragons! Why is he so ready to kill this one? Does it not count if it’s not a Nihon dragon? Does only Ginryuu get respect? It just feels bad???

But none of that matters because guess what! Dragon shaped as it might be, the thing is a demon? At least, that’s what they’re calling it. Sometimes. Fai says demon, Syaoran says dragon. They don’t.... agree on the term? Shut up. It’s a dragon.

So they soon realize that they are back in Should Be Very Dead-ville and oh no everyone is going to die again unless we get this OTHER feather because if one feather can buy us a month of living surely one more will fix our deaths forever right? ....right? (On a side note; Fai makes a comment about how weird it is that two feathers fell in the same world while he’s from Celes and knows damn well he found two and is unaware of a third!!!)

Either way the family is gonna help because, you know. Feather. If memory serves, the dragon is hiding in a lake, so what does Kurogane (who is now in charge because of course) have them do? They set the lake on fucking fire. And it delights him. It do not, however, delight the dragon, who, understandably, goes apeshit. Luckily, no one dies and they just hack off the horn that the feather was stuck in. And then they... take it to God again because wow they really do think this will work. Sakura, honey, I know how sweet you are but it only got them one month last time. What good will this do?

The answer is no good!

God basically tells them it’s tough tits, the month long visitation was all they could manage and no matter how many super powered magic bird parts they bring the dead are dead and that’s that. Which sucks for those villagers but haha, bummer for FAi to have to hear. Again. After watching Sakura wish someone to life with a mere piece of her soul. Again. Wonder how that felt. (Short post about Kurogane and Fai’s possible feelings here.)

So to end the episode, Sakura gets her feather back and then the family leaves town but sticks around on the outskirts to watch everyone fucking die again like some sick ass fuckers!!!

I’m not even going to talk about the stupid memory she gets with papa!Clow and learning about how death is a Thing via her dead pet bunny. It happens. It’s inorganic. I hate it. Shut up Clow.

The episode is over and I’ll leave you with this to heal your souls.

I am a simple woman.

Portoria:

WE’RE ON A BOAT MOTHA FUCKER!

If you’re too young to recognize that joke, click the link for... an experience. Wear headphones. Everyone else, please join me in this not-a-Wind-Waker-AU.

We’re gonna skip all of my bad sailor jokes and focus for a minute on Kurogane’s Sinbad cosplay here because yes good hello I am easily distracted.

Anyway, the captain is this world’s version of Koryo’s shitty Ryanban and Kurogane and Fai have a moment to wax philosophical about whether or not souls are inherently good or evil, which is fine and I would hardly mention if, while they were doing this, the “camera” wasn’t stood still on an image of Syaoran and Sakura just... smiling at each other while the dads spoke. Like the kids aren’t even doing anything, they’re just smiling. It’s weird. It’s also almost like accidental foreshadowing because HAHA THOSE ARE CLONES! But I’m not gonna go into it for the sake of this joke.

On the ship everyone has to work, Kurogane is terrorizing his new shipmates into compliance under his leadership, Fai and Sakura are cooking fish, and Syaoran is in the engine room with a child version of Fujitaka AKA his father. Understandably, Syaoran is Feeling Emotions, not that the animation is any indicator of this. He also calls a ten year old daddy so things are going great.

Now yes, Syaoran must miss his father terribly, not only has he been dead for who knows how long exactly (anywhere upwards of 5 years possibly) but Syaoran is far from home without any pictures or familiarity to remind him of Fujitaka, and now he’s got some savant elementary schooler who is an AU version of his dad basically sharing his deepest hopes and dreams. It’s a weird episode. Oh, and there is no feather, but Mokona is sweet as can be and stays so Syaoran can get to know this version of Fujitaka. Which honestly seems more like a punishment than anything to me, but hey.

Also, there’s a sea monster. And a haunted island. And something that sounds suspiciously like Piedmon from Digimon.

Syaoran and Fujitaka get stranded on the island after getting yeeted overboard and the captain telling the rest of the family that his ancestors forbid people from going to the island is enough to stop a rescue mission? Like. Kurogane AND Sakura are sitting there, letting nothing happen. This is fine. Everything is fine.

And it kinda is because the island if filled with old shit and Syaoran is geeking out like a kid surrounded by his special interest would be expected to.

In the end, the creepy laughter was wind, the island isn’t haunted, the family tries to row out to save Syaoran and a sea monster is on screen for all of 30 seconds. This episode was boring. Dull. It wasn’t even particularly angsty because Bee Train has no concept of emotional DEPTH!! Their expressions and emotions are as flat as Fai’s ass and as dry as Clow’s deserts. This could have been a very moving and fascinating filler episode, but Bee Train remains in capable of doing ANYTHING AT ALL EVER! I’m bored. This is boring.

At least Sakura looked cute in her little sailor outfit.

The next episode is “A Date With a Wizard” and that shitshow is getting its own post. Peace.

PART 1 – PART 2 – PART 3 -- Part 4

#my meta #tsubasa trainwreck chronicles #TRC #tsubasa chronicle #CLAMP #i am filled with an undying and unrestrained hate for all things

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tanoraqui · 5 years

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Eldritch Terrors of The Magnus Archive as rated by me, now finished with season two (sequel post to). Cut for length.

The Eye: 10/10. I still know where my bread is buttered. Incidentally, when they held that Intervention and Elias gave Jon the CCV tapes like “maybe these will finally reassure you”, it was the equivalent of it my dog half-destroyed my backpack while rooting around it it for food and I pulled her away and gave her a stern talking to and then a sandwich, like “maybe this will stop you from being hungry.” Jon is a knowledge beagle. Side note: kind of took my suggestion for a performer who finds themselves Watched with that newswoman, but not quite as I’d wanted.

The Stranger: 7/10. Notsha was pretty good. I quite liked the taxidermy (same flowery smell as Sarah the noise tech from Melanie’s hospital ep, so her origin is settled, ish! Look forward to seeing her again.) More importantly, I remembered that one of the scariest nightmares I’ve ever had involved me coming home to signs that there had been an intruder in the house and finding that they’d made nearly perfect copies of all my stuffed animals and left them on the bed with the real ones - like they’d meant to replace them but didn’t have the time, maybe. And I could tell which ones were real, were loved and mine, and which were soulless copies with colors just slightly off and eyes slightly duller, but I knew, looking at them all, that no one else would be able to tell. And that’s the Stranger all over, isn’t it? The NotThem specifically - except instead of replacing the semi-imaginary friends you have slept with every night of your life, whose presence is an eternal reliable soft warm hug and whom you named one by one and gave personalities like pieces of your very self, it goes for, like, your cousin. Good concept, amateur execution relative to the terror my young mind cooked up in the wake of a Winnie-the-Pooh episode with alternate, evil New Jerseyean versions of Tigger, Piglet, and Pooh.

The Distortion: 9/10. Points for being the first entity to utilize the internet, and just...consistently being peak Cheshire Cat. I fucking love Michael every time he appears, even when what he’s doing is fucking with people just to see what happens (and, please note the title “Liar”: definitely wanted Jon to meet Leitner and definitely has an angle other than For The Lulz here. But it might be, well, upside-down and inside-out and twisted like a broken elbow relative to anyone else’s angle, so possibly we don’t even need to worry about it! Possibly.

The Flesh: 6/10. Solid, reliable performance from the cannibalism crowd this season, and connection with boneturners confirmed. MEAT IS ME.

The Slaughter: 9/10 god i just love Melanie King so much, okay. “It was like once I’d seen that there was a path to stray from, I couldn’t unsee it, and I couldn’t ignore the call from the woods all around.” Actually that’s more Eye, probably - 7/10 to the Slaughter, I wish we had more but also there may be only so much you can do with mindless bloodthirst; 15/10 to Melanie King, embodiment of “’[X]’s haunted’ ‘What?’ *cocks pistol, walking out* ‘[X]’s haunted.’” Also, I spent most of “Grifter’s Bone” thinking it was probably the Stranger but when the woman turned out to have mauled a neighbor and then herself with a hammer, I gasped, “Slaughter!” delightedly. Music of war!

The Web: 7/10. Won this season’s award for creepiness, I think? Annabelle Cane is clutch, y’all. Also, the grudge match with Desolation over Hilltop House is fun. ALSO, who the HELL is Adulard Dekker; I met him in a fic or two also and I have questions?? Anyway, shoutout to the Web for frequently reining the others in, actually - spiders killing worms, binding the NotThem...agreeing by uneasy truce to help raise Desolation’s...whatever exactly Agnes Montague is...

The Desolation: 6/10. Most interesting by far is that the Desolation/Cult of the Lightless Flame is the only beings we’ve seen using I would call “sympathetic magic” - whatever they were doing with those pictures of Gertrude + her hairs in that Scottish grove, some ritual with Agnes and spiders once her tree fell. TMA doesn’t seem to have much of a “magic system”, but this indicates...something with rules.

The Lonely: 6/10. Points for most interesting and long-term - both in practice and effect - destruction of a single human’s psyche, in “Personal Space.” That’s craftmanship, that is. Pretty boring season otherwise, aside from Peter showing up to lose a bet on whether a man would survive a brush with the Buried.

The Buried: 5/10. I dunno, it’s still just not doin’ it too much for me. I do love how I can’t figure out if Katerina Gorka is lying about her experience on the train or if she just...hasn’t noticed that she’s definitely become some sort of dirt-shedding avatar of death underground.

The Darkness: 3/10. Weak! Showing! Who CAN’T make the tunnels underneath an ancient church crypt creepy? Oh, wow, you also killed a handful of police officers and a guy in jail who nearly....god, I so desperately want to know exactly what Robert Montauk was trying to do. Raynard implied that he’d tried to kill the Darkness? Ballsy.

The Vast: 9/10. So, when I wrote that obviously autobiographical bit in the s1 ratings, I was really just remembering “Freefall”, which didn’t describe the Vast much like that at all. I listened back at “Page Turner”, the first Leitner, which was Vast, and it had some similarities that might have been bouncing around my subconscious...but the reason I checked back was that “Literary Heights” had a lot of similarities to the autobiographical bit I wrote, which I wrote BEFORE listening to that episode at ALL...9/10 because that’s actually the most unnerved I’ve been all podcast.

The Corruption: 4/10. Weak too, tbh, particularly relative to the magnificent Jane Prentiss. Introduced, I think, though, the concept of objects that can be wards (John Snow’s syringe) instead of harbringers, which is very interesting. Concept: Corruption episode based on rotting food, please? At a fancy restaurant or at a dump or just in someone’s house, everything going bad...maybe a dig somewhere at how much supermarkets just throw away...

The Hunt: 5/10. Vampires still neat. More to the point: Me, standing outside Jonathan Sims (the reality one)’s house at 2am, blasting Schubert’s “Erlkonig” from a boombox while shouting: GIVE! ME! WILD! HUNT! GIVE!! ME!! WILD!! HUNT!!

The End: 5/10. Did, uh. Did Mary Keay kill and partially flay her own son, binding his uneasy ghost to a page made from his own skin, and then give that page to Gertrude as a weird passive-aggressive present. I guess that book might be Flesh instead, but it seems more End and I just have to ask. Nobody should answer, but between scattered spoilers and what episodes I’ve heard, this is...an impression I have formed... The End didn’t do much at all but it always has decent credit just for being The End.

#tma #the magnus archives #in this post: a boombox. the music of war. 'jon is a knowledge beagle'. more about my relationship with stuffed animals #than you probably wanted to know #(SOME stuffed animals. MY stuffed animals. not ALL stuffed animals.)#(though of course i would defend any stuffed animal in the world with my very life)

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ncfan-1 · 5 years

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ncfan listens to The Magnus Archives: S1 EP124, ‘Left Hanging’

We’re going right into the statement this time, and we’re treated to the return of Simon Fairchild! S4 has been all about the return of past characters so far.

- I really like it when we get statements about the Vast. We don’t get those quite as much in comparison to some of the other Powers, so it’s nice to see it every once in a while.

-I often feel myself leaving my body at great heights, so I can relate to Jennings here.

- The Vast is very random, and Simon Fairchild, to my mind, reflects that pretty well. The only thing that connects all of the people he interacts with is that they’re all human. I can’t decide what it is with him, if he’s a thrill seeker looking for a rush and the normal people who get caught up in his business are just collateral damage, or if he just loves the Vast and being a part of it so much that he thinks he’s doing a good thing for the people he introduces to aspects of it. He doesn’t feel malicious—at least, he doesn’t feel like someone who intends to hurt other people, knowing that their reactions to what they experience will almost certainly be terror. He’s like Michael Crew, in that he seems to love the Vast far more than he fears it, and is so far gone from humanity that he no longer grasps why other people wouldn’t love it, too. I wonder if that’s something specific to avatars of the Vast, or if all avatars are capable of reaching that state of mind. (Jon might wanna watch himself.)

- Anyways, this is a story about the cable car ride from hell, so let’s get back to that.

- Simon Fairchild is pretty spry for his age. Then again, so was Maxwell Raynor (who I’ll believe is dead when I see a body), so I guess being not-properly-human must really slow your aging—internally, at least, since they’re both described as looking pretty decrepit.

- Fairchild really seems to like giving people more than they bargained for. It a little like certain websites’ ad algorithms. “Oh, you looked at this thing one time? Okay, it’ll be all you can see in our ad windows for the next month!”

- Death-defying old man jumps out of cable car; news at eleven. I really, really doubt he’s dead; I think he just jumped into the Vast for a little vacation. Though I like the alternate theory that Fairchild was the thing that climbed up the cable car and sat on top of it so it could snatch the driver.

- Mist isn’t something I would have thought to associate with the Vast. The Vast, I’ve always associated with wide, open, empty spaces (Though obviously not completely empty, given the creatures of immense size that live in the Vast—and what we saw this week). Places where you can see how big they are and how small you are by comparison all too clearly.

- Does the cable car not have seat belts? I feel like that would be a safety requirement.

- I wonder what the thing climbing up the cable must have looked like, for Jennings’s mother to scream immediately upon seeing it. I feel like all the monsters we see in this series (sans obviously never-human things like the mannequins) are some flavor of Was Once a Man. So if it isn’t Fairchild, true form revealed, maybe it’s some other devotee of the Vast, ready to claim another life for its master.

- ‘Long, gray, and completely inhuman’ does put me in mind of a desiccated corpse, which is what Simon Fairchild, based on his probable date of birth, ought to be, so I don’t know. And ‘Knock knock knock’ makes me think of him, too; that sort of terrible playfulness seems just like him.

- After the statement, Jon struggles to process, well, a lot of things. I think he sees himself in Simon Fairchild, and doesn’t like it. We have another parallel/foil for Jon in this episode, and for the first time, it’s the villain of the piece. The thing is, given what he was getting up to in America, Jon may have already been some people’s Simon Fairchild. He doesn’t get a sense of euphoria from using compulsion, at least I don’t think he does, but he does it because it’s expedient, and I suspect the people he uses it on respond with just the same amount of fear as Fairchild’s fears. We often call “evil” what we don’t want to see ourselves in.

- “I do not think I ever wish to meet him.” Jon’s probably going to meet him this season, isn’t he?

- Jon is having his second (after the beginning of S3) wakeup call to the fact that burning bridges is not the way to go. I suppose I should give him some credit for finally realizing that compelling people to tell them what you want to know doesn’t do anything good for you in the long run, but… But. The problem is, as Jon himself acknowledged last episode, he never put much effort into building bridges in the first place, and trying to form closer bonds now that he’s done so much to alienate his coworkers and their own trauma has driven them further away is going to be hard. It’s hard to band together to protect each other and safeguard the world when you’re in such a situation. Isolated. Which I’m sure just has Peter Lukas jumping for joy.

I hope Jon doesn’t look at the task of winning back his coworkers’ trust and just freeze up. It’d be easy to freeze up, because winning Melanie’s trust may genuinely be beyond him at this point, Basira’s going to be a hard sell, and I think Jon may have a bit of a hard time getting even Martin to come around, based on what we’re about to see. But it’s worth the effort. I don’t think these guys are going to be able to stop the Watcher’s Crown from going ahead. I really don’t. But if they manage to be a cohesive unit, they’ll at least be well-situated to start looking into ways to reverse or mitigate the effects.

- Martin… clearly has a timeshare in the Lonely.

- Jon, the tone you took with “working for Lukas” is not likely to get Martin to open up with you. It’s really not.

- “It’s complicated.”

- Martin is being kept busy if he can’t even work on his poetry, isn’t he?

- Martin just sounds worn down. Poor guy. And he doesn’t exactly seem surprised that Jon’s back, so yeah, I really think he has a timeshare in the Lonely.

#ncfan listens to The Magnus Archives #The Magnus Archives

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ravenvsfox · 6 years

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Hey Meghan. Have you seen season 7 of Voltron yet? I'm seeing a lot of mixed reviews. I watched it and was disappointed in some ways (though not surprised), and a little bored at parts (parts of it reminded me of the politics of Order of the Phoenix), and I loved some other parts. Cosmo for MVP this season. But what was your take (if you watched it)?

Okay holy shit!!! I literally just finished it this instant right now and I have many many thoughts if you’ll indulge me

(obviously there will be spoilers below so uhhh....... watch out)

Firstly I want to be clear that like everyone’s critiques of this season?? beyond valid. so absolutely justified.

I’m mostly disheartened to my bones that the writers think they exist in a creative vacuum that’s somehow out of reach of the bury your gays trope, and that they assumed hyping up a two dimensional gay character destined for death would be.... okay

“here’s a dead gay man that we did not mourn for nor care about plEASE clap”

plus I don’t like.. care about allurance and I thought it was boring and unnecessary lol but like it is what it is and I’m not surprised by it

I think their relationship scans the same way that Aang and Katara’s did in atla, you know? like they’re together bc they’re both..... there.... blue and pink, boy likes girl, girl gives in eventually (when OBVIOUSLY zuko would’ve been a better and more interesting match for katara 👀👀)

making allura a blushing schoolgirl who’s like.. forgotten lotor I guess?? weird. making keith seem straight??? curveball. homophobic

All that said though? I love love loved this season I thought it was hopeful and rallying and emotional and connective

Here are some of my favourite things!

- Shiro and Keith’s brotherhood is such a key emotional force and seeing a vulnerable furious rebel find himself a family and a purpose all at once was SO effective

- Keith is a superb leader, like. everything about him is beyond s1 keith’s wildest dreams. He fosters emotional connections and commands respect, he’s a mama’s boy and a deeply awkward friend as well as being the utter coolest and thinking so quickly on his feet that he’s a blur my dude

- the war feels like a war!! there are such interesting stakes, military proficiency with a healthy dollop of alienness and magic, quirky pilot personalities, interpersonal drama, and endurance of human spirit. When it’s the Earth on the chopping block everything seems more frantic and flawed and personal

- I totally get what you mean about kinda boring politics, but it actually felt the most compelling to me of any season’s shop talk, maybe because there were familiar faces on home turf, and we got to see the way the Holts or Iverson or Veronica worked through their fear and hope

- I loved that there was some lost time, I love that people grew up and grew apart, the implications of time flushing out years and lives from the resistance instantaneously

- now like.. the paladins are unquestionably soldiers, saviours, legends, and they’re also kids who will never really know how old they are?? like they’ve suffered all of this loss and blinked in and out of existence, and when they face Earth again, both they and their home are unrecognizable, and everyone is struggling but also more capable than they ever thought possible

- Hunk is the bravest gd kid and he got to actually hear and feel and understand that (Keith is so fatally honest and wildly action-driven that I think it was critical that he was the one to tell Hunk his worth as a soldier). He has incredible ideas and unshakeable heart and he went from relating to Romelle to relating to Keith? like from poking fun at his own fear to understanding that bravery and terror are two sides of the same coin

- Allura wrestling malfunctioning technology to the floor and gifting altean tech and being metal as fuck but also embodying this steady kind of gentleness?? unreal. give her more interesting lines.

- I heart Coran, my alien kiwi dad

- all of them being vulnerable and sleepy and bored and confused, roadtripping and participating in a game show and spiralling out into hallucinations in space. interesting arcs for interesting kiddos

- Pidge is a child in the war of a lifetime and we got to see her vulnerability and brilliance coexisting in the same scenes. When she leapt out to hug her mom with all four limbs and when the Atlas was under attack and she like whimpered ‘dad?’ she was so so young we really weren’t allowed to forget it

- Cosmo (Kosmo??) you’re absolutely right, a true MVP, head and shoulders above the rest of the animal sidekicks, my apologies to mademoiselle kaltenecker. That scene where lance guides keith & pidge through guarded terrain and they teleport around on the back of a wolf? TIGHT as HELL

- everything about lance, everything everything

- the way he always stands up for his friends first, before anyone else, with that determined mouth of his, “don’t you touch her”, the way he thinks mixed heritage and leadership are the future, the singleminded tenderness for and reliance on keith as “team leader” even though it makes him second in command

- his pristine marksmanship, the focus and seriousness and planning, his ease in battle scenarios, slapping down a shield in front of Veronica to free his arms for fighting or swinging out a rifle to cover Keith’s back, the way war looks on him

- and the way it isn’t all of him!! his gnawing worry for his family, the way you can see him shrug off his trauma when he sees them again, how much kids and animals adore him, his willingness to die for his cause or his sister or his people, self sacrificing over and over again without hesitation, looking so sad and grave when no one’s looking

- his strength at Keith’s side, their constant fizzing energy in battle, their trust in each other, turning their bayards in tandem and creating magic together, voting each other out of purgatory

- (calling him the dumb one is patently untrue and pretty shitty in general lol)

- Veronica? exactly perfect. strong and annoyed and fierce. The only person who makes sense to be lance’s sister, so exasperated and kind and willing to die

- Shiro’s gorgeous character design, his blinding strength, (like..... he shouldn’t have to be this strong and he should’ve gotten big gay married and never been hurt again but) his expression when he finds himself at the helm of a sinking ship and the sheer grit that allows him to win anyway

- his victory is (as always) borne from his generosity for the people he loves and always always believes in

- the last episode?? the coalition of survivors, Shiro’s rousing speech, the sweeping music, the way everyone looked at ruin and division and got immediately to work? hurts. exactly the right emotional punch.

- unity, shiro says. unity, the universe echoes.

#my appreciation personally outweighs my critiques but if it doesn't for you that's totally cool #voltron #vld #voltron season 7 #vld spoilers #not books #fairytalesmakeyoustrong #ask

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porchwood · 6 years

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THG Reread: Interesting Tidbits from Ch 1

Disclaimer: I’ve never taken part in any official THG reread/discussion and I essentially read the book in isolation, so anything I say in these posts may well have been discussed and dismissed years ago.

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must have had bad dreams and crawled in with our mother.

I find it interesting that Prim leaves Katniss to find comfort with their mother, especially since Katniss seems to see herself as Prim’s sole protector and provider. Are Prim and Mrs. Everdeen closer than Katniss realizes (having such an abrasive relationship with her mother as she does) or is it simply that Mom will always be Mom and in a moment of terror most children prefer the embrace of their mother over a sibling?

Also: sleeping directly on a rough canvas-covered mattress? Are bed sheets are that great a luxury in the Seam? :(

I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots. Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I pull on trousers…

So she gets out of bed and puts on her boots, then her trousers... So...girl’s a firefighter, right? :D

(Sorry for the crummy pics. Apparently the Tumblr presence of the Emergency! fandom is microscopic at best - I guess that happens with a ‘70s show :P - so these are screenshots I made from the S1 DVD, because yes, I’m that big of an Emergency! fangirl and you can never have too much Johnny Gage!)

It gives “girl on fire” a whole new meaning!! ;D

All merriment aside, we know that fire was a constant danger in the Seam, with its “old wooden homes embedded with coal dust,” so it’s entirely possible that residents slept with trousers and boots in readiness at the bedside, to be stepped into at a moment’s notice for a rapid escape if needed.

I…tuck my long dark braid up into a cap…

This has been discussed in previous rereads so it really isn’t news, but I’d love to see more Katniss-in-a-cap popping up in fics and fanart. THG opens in summertime and she’s still wearing the cap, so it was definitely a staple of her wardrobe! (And it brings us a little closer to the girl-disguised-as-a-boy trope, which is one of my all-time faves! :D)

(Behold this adorable @ghtlovesthg rendering!)

Our part of District 12, nicknamed the Seam, is usually crawling with coal miners heading out to the morning shift at this hour…

Somehow I had always (erroneously) assumed that there was just one twelve-hour shift that all the miners worked (ex. 6am-6pm). Since artificial light would be required inside the mines anyway, I suppose they could work around the clock with no regard to the sun and stars. Folks who live in/near coal mining communities: do they generally operate 24 hours a day or is there some arbitrary cut-off point in the evening? (I’m sorry I’m so ignorant about this!)

Most of the Peacekeepers turn a blind eye to the few of us who hunt…

Has anyone else figured out who these mysterious additional hunters are??

I watch as Gale pulls out his knife and slices the bread. He could be my brother. Straight black hair, olive skin, we even have the same gray eyes. But we’re not related, at least not closely.

First off: it truly befuddles me that Katniss’s hair color is stated on page 8 of THG (though, interestingly, never explicitly afterward) and yet it’s unusual - maybe even rare - to find fanart or even fics that depict her with black hair. Why is that? I was in love with her long black hair from moment one (truly black hair is unique, at least in my part of the world, and so striking to boot) so I probably belabor it a bit in my own writing, but it’s such an exquisite feature, why would you not?

Secondly: “He could be my brother.” That feels significant, and not merely in the “we look alike” sense. I’ve been working on a post about how Gale came into Katniss’s life in a very significant fashion after her beloved father’s death and she was drawn to him because of certain (I would venture to say striking) commonalities, but as I was wrapping it up last night (and sharing various details with my favorite sounding-board @ghtlovesthg), I realized there was a whole - vitally important - flipside to my theory that absolutely cannot be overlooked. So I might not get that finished till we’re on CF or even MJ. (No spoilers just in case someone pips me at the post - pun inadvertent ;) - but I think it’s pretty cool!)

And thirdly, because I can’t resist: I headcanon that Gale and Katniss are cousins through their great-great-grandfather (Galen Greenbrier, if anyone cares :D), who had two daughters (Aisling and Elspeth), who each had a daughter (Wren and Ashpet), who had Hazelle and Jack (Mr. Everdeen), who begat Gale and Katniss, respectively. Ergo: related but “not closely,” per canon. :)

With both of us hunting daily…

I’d always thought Gale and Katniss only hunted a few times a week, with Sundays being their largest haul/best trading day. (“Usually we devote all of Sunday to stocking up for the week.”) I know Twelve is an unusually permissive district at this point in time, but if two Seam kids were sneaking back and forth under the fence every single day and (forgive me) flaunting the fact by selling game in town (and when did they do this? before school, after, both?), surely, inevitably, the Peacekeepers would have been obliged to do something about it. Or were there some trips where Gale and Katniss only brought back enough for their own families, making their illegal activities not quite so blatant?

Cross-referencing with Catching Fire, I find Katniss saying, “Back when we were in school, we had time in the afternoons to check the lines and hunt and gather and still get back to town to trade” - exactly what time did they get out of school and how late were they doing these trades (not to mention, when did anyone get homework done)?? - but she also says it’s “an hour-and-a-half trek” just to check the snare line. I guess it isn’t impossible, but it seems a much more extensive (and time-consuming!) arrangement than I would have thought they could get by with, even in Twelve.

We easily trade six of the fish for good bread…

Like the rest of you, I’m trying to figure out who’s selling this “good bread” at the Hob. For some odd reason, at one point I thought maybe the bakery’s day-olds were sold there, à la:

They could potentially sell said day-olds at less of a discount than merchant clientele would demand but the reduced prices would be low enough for some Seam clientele to afford, and of course, even day-old bakery bread would be superior to homemade tessera bread (and therefore: “good bread”).

I’m not sure where I got the “bakery outlet” idea (I think it was all the early canonverse fics where Katniss ran into Peeta in the Hob, so I figured he was running a day-olds stall or something) but having been away from it for awhile, I actually kind of like it! :)

You become eligible for the reaping the day you turn twelve.

I’m going to wax exceedingly about reaping ages in another post, but for the moment: I presume this rule means that anyone who turns twelve between reaping days becomes eligible for the subsequent reaping, correct? So if we arbitrarily set the reaping at, say, June 1, someone whose birthday is on June 2 wouldn’t be eligible till the following year. (Which would be especially terrible for your 18-yr-old reaping: being a day away from 19 and freedom, of a sort, but still having to go through one last reaping.) Now I think of it, it’s possible Career districts took advantage of this. Highly invested parents in a Career district could have planned their pregnancies with the intent of a late summer birth (i.e., a month or two after reaping day) so the resulting children would have the advantage of extra months up on other tributes in their same age group.

On the flipside of this: Prim, whose birthday is in late May, would be an especially young tribute, since she’s only just turned twelve (think school kids with summer birthdays who don’t turn the “right age” for their grade till 1-3 months after school is out), and similarly Katniss, whose birthday is May 8, would be on the young side of the group of sixteens.

“Pretty dress,” says Gale.

Madge shoots him a look, trying to see if it’s a genuine compliment or if he’s just being ironic. It is a pretty dress, but she would never be wearing it ordinarily. She presses her lips together and then smiles. “Well, if I end up going to the Capitol, I want to look nice, don’t I?”

Now it’s Gale’s turn to be confused. Does she mean it? Or is she messing with him? I’m guessing the second.

Gaaah, so much going on here! I can’t decide if I want to make a proper Gadge post, so in the meantime, here’s some food for thought:

1) Why does Gale remark on her dress? Really - give me suggestions, because I’ve been turning it over in my head. If it’s meant to be ironic and she gives him sarcasm in reply (as seems to be the quintessential Gadge dynamic :D), it’s odd that he would be confused and not have a volley/riposte/etc of his own on deck. I mean, Katniss doesn’t seem to know (or at least, doesn’t clarify in her narration) whether or not it’s a compliment -

2) Which is interesting, because she guesses straightaway that Madge is “messing with him” in reply. ;)

3) Gale gives Madge what outwardly seems like a compliment and this is what ensues. One might surmise they’ve done this before... :D I mean, if there was no precedent, Madge would’ve just said “thank you” and exchanged money for berries. Since the mayor is such a valuable customer (being one of very few who can afford their asking price for strawberries), it’s interesting that Gale would antagonize Madge and risk losing the strawberry trade - not to mention bringing up the subject of tesserae at the mayor’s back door on reaping day! Does he take similar potshots at other merchants or is it just Madge? Is he irked (even threatened) by Katniss’s friendship with Madge? (I love that Katniss immediately defends Madge in the face of Gale’s tesserae rant. ♡) Does he feel like he can sound off at her (with impunity) because she’s Katniss’s friend? Or is he secretly crazy about her and resigned to the fact that he’ll never get her but the reminders of the impassable gap between them still incense him? Sorry, my hand slipped there for a sec. ;)

Gale knows his anger at Madge is misdirected.

I didn’t recall this line from previous reading and it just makes me happy. :)

To my surprise, my mother has laid out one of her own lovely dresses for me. A soft blue thing with matching shoes. [...] For a while I was so angry, I wouldn’t allow her to do anything for me. And this is something special. Her clothes from her past are very precious to her.

I’d never caught the “matching shoes” bit before! Do you suppose Katniss means dyed [blue] to match/covered with matching fabric (so that’s what they do at the shoe shop!) or simply that they go well with the dress? And if she means that the shoes literally match the dress: is this a particularly special dress (hence particularly special shoes) or is it customary for merchant girls to order shoes to match their dresses?

And further: why this year? It doesn’t sound like Mrs. Everdeen has offered one of her apothecary-era dresses before, which could have been due to Katniss’s repeated rebuffs, but still: why offer one of those very precious dresses this year? Did she have a feeling about this reaping? Or is she starting to see Katniss as a young woman, not just an angry, resourceful child? (Coupled with the fact that she subsequently puts Katniss’s hair up, the latter makes a lot of sense.)

On a sidenote: Has anyone written meta on the significance/usage of braids in Twelve? (Notwithstanding WTM: Ch 13 and all that Mellark bridal braids/braid coils/engagement hairpin business.) Ex. Does a girl "graduate” from pigtails to a single braid around puberty and then to a crown braid as a young woman/wife, or does she/her mother simply style it however she feels on any given day? I’m just now realizing that I consistently picture reaping day!Prim in pigtails because of the film, but it doesn’t state in the text how her hair is styled, so it might be in a single braid or held back at the temples with a clip or even worn loose.

The square’s surrounded by shops, and on public market days, especially if there’s good weather, it has a holiday feel to it.

I’m really curious about “public market days,” since the Hob seems to be Twelve’s primary market - or at least, has become so in fanon - but Katniss makes a clear distinction between them (“Make only polite small talk in the public market. Discuss little more than trades at the Hob, which is the black market where I make most of my money”). Is this public market like a farmer’s market or a craft fair - or a bit of both? Is it simply the “merchant version” of the Hob? How often are they held? Who gets to sell at this market, and what sort of wares are we talking about? (Is it just merchants bringing their product outside, like a sidewalk sale?) Does the Capitol/Justice Building collect a fee from everyone wanting a stall/booth/table?

Edit: While looking up details for a different post, I found this passage:

Gale and I went to the market on the square so that I could buy dress materials [for Prim].

So apparently they sold fabric and notions in the public market? (Not at, say, a mercantile/general store?) I’m wholly confused now!

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stacks-reviews · 6 years

Text

New Releases 11/7/17

Happy New Release Day!

In Books --Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Volume 4 by Haruko Kumota “After Sukeroku’s expulsion, Kikuhiko’s path to stardom seems clear, but the idea of inheriting the Yakumo name is a cold comfort. Sukeroku, disgraced, makes the heartbreaking decision to put his art aside and take responsibility for his new relationship with Miyokichi. As years pass and distance grows, Kikuhiko decides it’s up to him to bring his friend back to the theater. His determination takes him to the country, where Sukeroku now lives with his spirited young daughter. Kikuhiko is ready to stay as long as he needs to convince Sukeroku, but old wounds may come back to haunt them both.”

I haven’t had a chance to pick up volume 3 yet because we did not get a copy in where I work. And I haven’t had a chance to order it yet either.

--Fantastic Beasts Illustrated Edition When I first head about this illustrated edition I thought it was going to be of the movie Fantastic Beasts so I wasn’t very interested in this one. But it turns out it is for all of the creatures mentioned throughout the HP universe. Now I really want this one. Just not sure when I’ll be able to.

--My Hero Academia Volume 10 by Kohei Horikoshi “The League of Villains has kidnapped Bakugo, and the resulting negative publicity has thrown U.A. into a huge uproar. With the public’s trust in heroes threatened, the faculty convenes to figure out what to do. But Midoriya and the students of Class 1-A have plans of their own - an operation to rescue Bakugo that could get them thrown out of school.”

Picking up right where volume 9 ended. Midoriya and his crew try to take back Bakugo but fail. And a few pro heroes are lost in the conflict. After their recovery in the hospital some of Class 1-A devise a plan to legally (meaning without using their powers) to try and save Bakugo. Which sounds like a bad idea all around.

It’s a really good volume that ends on an evil cliffhanger. I need volume 11 but that won’t be out till 2/6/18.

--Perfect Shadow by Brent Weeks “Gaelan Starfire is a careful, quiet, simple farmer. He’s also an immortal, peerless in the arts of war. Over the centuries, he’s worn many faces to hide his gift, but he is a man ill-fit for obscurity.

When Gaelan must take a job hunting down the world’s finest assassins for the beautiful courtesan and crime lord Gwinvere Kirena what he finds may destroy everything he’s ever believed in.”

I HAVE BEEN WAITING YEARS FOR THIS MOMENT. I love Brent Week’s Night Angel Trilogy so when I heard there was a prequel novella I was pretty excited. Until I noticed it was ebook only; after a brief limited printing run that I found out much later on. But after waiting and waiting, it is back in print. Right when I was about to break down and buy it digitally. I am ecstatic to finally have it to go with the others. Now I just wish I had the trilogy in hardcover. I just have them in the mass market paperback box set.

It includes the novella Perfect Shadow and a Night Angel short called I, Night Angel.

--Renegades by Marissa Meyer “The Renegades are a syndicate of prodigies - humans with extraordinary abilities - who emerged from the ruins of a crumbled society and established peace and order where chaos reigned. As champions of justice, they remain a symbol of hope and courage to everyone...except the villains they once overthrew.Nova has a reason to hate the Renegades, and she is on a mission for vengeance. As she gets closer to her target, she meets Adrian, a Renegade boy who believes in justice - and in Nova. But Nova's allegiance is to a villain who has the power to end them both.“

From the author of the Lunar Chronicles series comes a new series. I really like the Lunar Chronicles. I recommend it a lot at work. Though I still need to finish it. Cress (book 3) has been sitting on my shelf for a little while but I’ve been trying to focus on the arcs I have. And have been failing. Anyway, I really like her other series and am excited to try out a new series by her.

--Twinkle Star Volume 4 by Natsuki Takaya “The second semester of school is starting, and Chihiro's kinder attitude toward Sakuya is making her heart race! When he recommends her a book to read, she's positively overjoyed. But on the way home from a night of stargazing with the Star Appreciation Club, Chihiro suddenly approaches her! What does he want to talk about...?”

After this just one more volume of this series should remain. I still haven’t had time to go past volume 1 of this series. I’ve had to put a lot of series on hold while I tried to cut back during the second half of this year. I will pick it back up again someday. Hopefully by next year.

In Movies/TV Shows --Cheer Boys “Catch an exciting new take on the high-flying team sport, inspired by a real all-male squad in Japan. When Haruki Bando and his friend Kazuma leave judo martial arts, no one would have guessed they would turn to cheerleading! Rocking the college campus with a killer routine, these amateurs manage to draw in a crowd and enough new members to compete in regionals.”

I started streaming this on Funimation during its season. I watched about half before I got into another gaming kick and haven’t picked it up again yet. I did like what I saw of it but it probably isn’t my favorite sports series. But I think it is still worth checking out.

--Project Ito: Genocidal Organ “In Genocidal Organ, while developed countries rely on advanced surveillance to free them from the threat of terrorism, other nations are plagued by genocide within their own borders. Strangely, these massacres all link back to one American by the name of John Paul. Special agent Clavis Shepherd is sent to capture the target, but nothing can prepare this soldier—or the world—for the truth behind humanity’s darkness.”

The third and final Project Ito film. At least for now. I have been waiting on this one ever since the films were announced. I did watch Empire of Corpses and enjoyed it. Though I need to rewatch it soon because when I first watched it I was exhausted from work and kept having to rewind cause I kept nodding off for a few minutes at a time. I finally picked up Harmony a few months back but haven’t had time to start it yet.

--Revolutionary Girl Utena Set 2 “Utena and Anthy have become close during their time as roommates. So when Anthy casually mentions she has a brother, Utena can’t help but feel shocked. She thought she knew Anthy, but the longer she and Anthy are friends, the more she discovers she doesn’t know. What other secrets could Anthy be keeping? However, Utena won’t have time to dwell upon such matters. A new group of duelists has emerged from the shadows. These new challengers wear black rose signets and also seek revolution, but their methods are different than those of Ohtori’s Student Council. They don’t wish to possess Rose Bride. They are want kill her.”

Set 2 of the 20th Anniversary is now out. Contains episodes 13-24 of this great series. I have only seen it once all the way through. It is one of those series that you’ll have to watch over and over to get all the references and to catch all the imagery it contains.

--Westworld S1 “Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, explore a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged without consequence.”

Season 1 of this series is out today. I don’t have the channel that it is on so I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet. I’ve heard nothing but great things about so I can’t wait to try it out sometime. Though I would like to watch the movie it is based on before I try out the show. I have heard the soundtrack before because we used to have it as an in-store-play where I work. It is an awesome soundtrack. It was a staff favorite and we played it a lot.

--Your Name “Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives until they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This occurrence happens randomly, and they must adjust their lives around each other. Yet, somehow, it works. They build a connection by leaving notes for one another until they wish to finally meet. But something stronger than distance may keep them apart.”

Was very disappointed when this came out in theaters because it never came anywhere close to where I live. I don’t think it played anywhere in my state for that matter. I did pick up a copy because I want to know if it really is worth the hype. I haven’t watched it yet because I decided to wait till my friend and I could get together to watch it together.

There is a standard version (DVD and a combo pack) as well as an LE. The LE, “contains two-piece double-sided collectible chipboard box with rainbow holographic finish.” Like what they did for Death Parade’s LE. Which both are nice but makes me nervous that it would fall out if I picked it up wrong. It also comes with a 60 page art booklet, an art digipack, and a two disc OST. The second OST is shorter. It has five songs; if I remember correctly, that are sung in English by RADWIMPS.

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