#cookies for the person who can guess where I got that dialogue from

[randomingoftherandomness]

Young elder Yue decides he wants to marry Yuanzhi, but he has no idea how to propose

A/N: Okay, so, I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who was raised in a semi-traditional Chinese family. That means that if Elder Yue wants to make a proposal for Yuanzhi, he has to go through his elders.

Which is Shangjue.

:D

--

Elder Yue primly folds his hands on his lap and spies the way Gong Shangjue follows the motion with his eyes. He would like to say that the unease that prickles under his skin was more in line with the nerves he keeps well hidden, but he was never a good liar. Especially not when it came to things about Yuanzhi.

The same Yuanzhi who is sitting next to his Gege, sneaking looks at him which he does his best to return with small smiles of his own.

"If you two could refrain from making eyes at each other, I'd be ever so grateful."

Elder Yue feels a lightning bolt of pins and needles sparking up his spine, and has to bite down on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from bursting out with a laugh. A quick glance at Shangjue calms him a little because all the man is doing is taking a sip of his tea.

"I--"

"I know why you're here, Elder Yue," Shangjue says, cutting through with a slow drawl. "I do not need an oracle to divine why you'd be here sitting at my table today."

Yuanzhi huffs, pouting as he grips at Shangjue's sleeve. "Ge..."

"I'm not making things difficult for him, didi, I'm merely pointing out the truth." Jerking a thumb at the pile of gifts being piled up at their foyer, Shangjue scoffs. "Or am I meant to take that as anything less than the intended proposal it is supposed to be?"

"Ge," Yuanzhi sputters, going scarlet to the tips of his ears that he is almost maroon. It's such an endearing sight and it is made even more sweeter when Yuanzhi turns to meet his gaze, smiling shyly.

"You're Yuanzhi's most precious person," Elder Yue says. Sitting up, he smiles, warmth glowing from deep in his chest when Yuanzhi's eyes sheen over with unshed tears. "All the gifts I've brought today is only a small drop in the ocean of my regard and thanks to you for raising him to be the man he is today."

Steeling himself, he looks over to Gong Shangjue. "And it's true. You're not wrong in believing that I'm here to ask for Yuanzhi's hand in marriage."

Gong Shangjue merely smiles. It's not an unpleasant smile. If anything, it's a smile that softens the sharper edges of his face. But it does put Elder Yue in his spot.

"You do realise that things like this are usually done by a third party?"

"I..."

"Which is all to say," Shangjue chuckles, eyes crinkling with amusement. "You really should be asking Elder Xue to intercede on your behalf and to negotiate the terms of the dowry."

Elder Yue jolts upright. "Anything you want, I'm willing to give!"

Shangjue laughs a little at his eagerness. "That may be the case, but we should do everything according to norms and customs. This is about Yuanzhi's marriage after all." Going a little sombre, he turns to Yuanzhi by his side. Taking his didi's hand between his own, he sighs. "Who am I to stand between two hearts that were meant to be as one?"

Yuanzhi's bottom lip wobbles. Whispering, he squeezes at Shangjue's hand in his. "Gege, I really do love him."

"I know," Shangjue sighs. "I know that. Which is why I have one request for you Elder Yue."

Meeting his gaze, Elder Yue does not flinch under the full weight of his focus. "If one day you find that Yuanzhi's beauty has faded, or feel like his talents no longer benefit you and if ever love is no longer enough for you to sustain a happy life together, I only ask that you return my most precious person back to me. Return him to me hale and whole. I do not ask for anything else."

At those words, Elder Yue feels a tense knot in his shoulders loosen a little. Unable to keep the calm facade on his face, he feels his lips curve in a smile, one that grows at the way Shangjue is reaching up to gently wipe away Yuanzhi's tears.

The bond between the two brothers has always been strong and Elder Yue can only hope that in time, Shangjue can see that he is the right person to take care of Yuanzhi too.

"That won't ever happen," Elder Yue says. Lifting the teapot to refill Shangjue's cup and Yuanzhi's too, he continues with a soft gaze to Yuanzhi. "Because I love Yuanzhi as Yuanzhi."

Shangjue nods approvingly. Gently taking his cup of tea, he drains it all in one go. "Good. That's good."

[officialgleamstar]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

thank u for the tag @cerealmonster15 :] sorry for forcing you into tagging me and then FORGETTING TO DO IT ONCE I GOT OFF WORK but insomnia is killing me tonight sooo tag game time :3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

127 fics on my account, and then 130 anonymous fics, and two? maybe three? orphaned fics lol

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

826,251! getting close to 1 mil... maybe that should be a writing goal for this year :0

3. What fandoms do you write for?

currently its oxventure all the way down, baby bfdjgfdhhj i have a few dndads fics im still working on though, and i have an aftg fic im working on for an event right now as well! i need to... make sure i finish that on time, actually

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

they aaare mostly anonymous LOL but! for fics i list, these ones. the way that three of these are from 2017 and 2018... i know that makes sense because theyve had more time to accumulate kudos and also are for more popular fandoms but :') man 1. Cleaning Up - Haikyuu!! - 908 kudos 2. heart under your sleeve - 3rd Life - 616 kudos 3. four am - All For the Game - 502 kudos 4. his soul - Empires SMP, 3rd Life - 391 kudos 5. "Are you dense, or do you just not know how to say no?" - All For the Game - 288 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments?

yes i do!!! im bad at it, but i do :D

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

just like cereal, i dont write much angst, but probably you know i love you, right? or these feelings, they're not gone :0

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

most of my fics are disgustingly sweet and sappy so its hard to judge

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i have a few times but not enough to be a trend, lol

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

yeah lol if i cant write pet play and/or breeding kink i wither up and die. who said that

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

just once! (can you kiss me more) absolutely beloved

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

two times that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yeah lol someone translated a handful of my old rpf fics into russian :]

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yeah, but never a finished fic

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

you simply cannot make me choose. you cant make me choose. please.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Divorced Dad Rock Mix you are everything to me but chapter 3 thru 6 are probably never seeing the light of day

16. What are your writing strengths?

im really good at telling a compelling story in a very small amount of word :] also, SPEED WRITING. i can write very quickly when i put my mind to it!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

im so awful at ending fics just absolutely dogshit at it

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

its . writing dialogue in another language, i guess? lol its fine

19. First fandom you wrote for?

pokemon or harry potter i think. maybe my little pony or minecraft. or world of warcraft but i think that was later? id have to dig through my deviantart and i dont feel like it lol

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

god that is a hard question to answer, i love all of my fics a lot bfdgfjhdbghjd i think... the first fic to come to mind was, naturally, my beloved your love is tried and true-blue. normscary <333 AND my glennry soulmate fic as well, so where do we begin? hmmm... the johnny spells thing comes from a very personal space, and its a fic that i thought about for literal years, so its very near and dear to me in that sense as well. and on our dates, it's never daytime is a super self-indulgent fic that i reread a lot because its so perfectly targeted at myself lol same thing for fall (back) in and i love mine, mine, mine for more recent examples. uh. okay thats a lot of rambling LOL those i guess :3

tagging: hmmmmm @bidoofenergy and @cookies-over-yonder i think!!! have fun guys

[beepborpdoodledorp]

Okie-dokie. I just spent the past four hours of my life binge-watching cutscenes of barely-moving PNGs from a gacha game about talking cookies like it was a goddamn cinematic masterpiece. So now I guess I’m gonna talk about it.

Bloody hell, does Devsis know how to do fanservice. And on top of that, write a story about religious and political corruption with...actual nuance. In an E for Everyone gacha game about talking cookies. 

Seriously, the amount of shit they managed to shove into Chapters 2 and 3 of Cookie Odyssey just blows me away. And not only the fact they put it in, but made it work. Religious corruption! Political disputes! Cults! Blackmailing! Embezzlement! Family pressure! Figuring out your adoptive father is a good-for-nothing piece of shit! All in a game about, once again, talking cookies.

I adored how story-rich Cookie Odyssey was, and more so how much Cookie Odyssey fleshed out its characters so well. The personality is oozing off every single character, especially Wildberry and Crunchy Chip and even goddamn Gingerbrave somehow, who is like, the most utterly bland an E-rated game protagonist can get. Wildberry and Crunchy Chip are easily two of my favorite Cookies now, which is weird considering I started off being mildly annoyed by their inclusion considering it was just after Carrow’s introduction, who essentially played the same role as they did. I even got invested in Espresso and Madeleine, somehow, where as before I found them boring at best and irritating at worst. Cookie Odyssey just gave them so much more character to the point I actually found them pretty likeable. Even Madeleine’s dumb himbo-ness became more of a quirk than an annoyance to me.

What I find funny about CRK is how their characters tend to be made from very cookie-cutter (pun intended) character archetypes and yet the situations they’re put in and their relationships with other characters makes them likeable or at least interesting enough for them to stand out. Crunchy Chip and Wildberry, for example, are both very common tropes - the hot-head with a weak spot and the stern bodyguard, for example, but their dynamics with other characters and especially the dynamic between the two of them makes them actually engaging. 

Also, Cookie Odyssey actually managed to surprise me with who the antagonist ended up being. I had way too many guesses as to where they were going, though I wasn’t exactly expecting it to end up in a ‘who dunnit’ situation where they were essentially making half of the entire Council suspicious by Chapter 2. By the time they were setting up Canelé Cookie as the obvious culprit, my three suspicions were either A. they were going to play her straight as an obvious antagonist (which I found weird considering how much of a non-entity she was before that point), B. she was going to be an obvious red herring, or C. she was working with multiple of the other members. Which...I guess A and B both managed to be correct and incorrect at the same time? Mille-feuille and Custard were also very obvious possible antagonists, but what ended up surprising me was that they weren’t working together. I was totally expecting the three of them to had schemed together, not be it so that every member of the Council is essentially trying to sabotage each other at once. So, against all odds, Cookie Odyssey actually managed to surprise me with who the antagonists ended up being.

Also, I’m glad Clotted Cream wasn’t the antagonist, or at least didn’t intentionally act maliciously. He grew on me a lot.

I will say that Day 4 of Chapter 3 wasn’t...great, in my opinion, especially after the information bombshell that was Day 3. DE’s attack felt underwhelming, especially with the reveal she was just an illusion, and the Ancients arriving didn’t feel forced, just anticlimactic. They just kinda...popped into existence. And the dialogue in Day 4 was probably the weakest, too - no conversation actually felt like it was actually going anywhere, just repeating the same things over and over. The Cookies of Darkness were definitely the highlight of Day 4, especially with Licorice nonchalantly mentioning that ‘oh yeah, Affogato’s here now!’ And Affogato’s such a joy to watch and definitely one of my favorite antagonists, so there are no complaints from me there. Though I will say, it was nice seeing the residents of the Republic actually act like normal people would if the sky turned red and a bunch of eldritch horrors started appearing out of nowhere to violently massacre your city. 

Ultimately, however, the best part was Black Raisin’s sudden appearance on Day 2 to save everyone’s sorry ass. There can never be enough Black Raisin.

Also Caviar Cookie supremacy 

[bottlesandcats]

Algorithims? 👀👀

Thanks for the ask, Liv! This is my attempt at a one-shot, and practicing with scaling back the dialogue and trying to write a faster-paced story, bc if you’ve ever read my other story (Liv I know you have lol) then you know I tend to be incredibly wordy and very dialogue heavy. So far it’s been somewhat successful. I’ve been actively working on this one while trying to clear the brain fog around Good Investments, and I’m really enjoying where it’s going so far.

It veers somewhat away from the original TFATWS story but only in small ways.

Anyway, enjoy this snippet!

~~~~~~~

As they pull away from the Bartons’, Sam feels conflicted. While he enjoyed catching up with Clint and meeting his family, he feels like he also had to face some hard truths about what it really means to do the hero thing full-time. The cost is high, in a lot of ways. Not just the physical and mental tolls it takes on your body, but what it does to those closest to you. Sam got a taste of that when Karli had threatened Sarah and the boys, and the thought of how that could’ve easily gone south still wakes him up in the middle of the night. And now he’s looking for a relationship, which brings another person into the mix. 

So what is he supposed to do? His choices are either to spend the rest of his life alone or the rest of his life in constant fear for his family. Are these really his options?

He’s so deep in his own head that he doesn’t notice Bucky staring at him, at first. It’s not until he feels the gentle weight of a metal hand resting lightly on his forearm that he shakes himself out of it. 

“Hey,” Bucky says softly. “You okay over there? You’re unusually quiet.” He’s smirking but Sam can see the worry in his bright blue eyes. 

“Naw I’m good,” he lies. “Just a little tired from the weekend.”

Bucky nods and drops it, reaching over to fiddle with the radio. Sam takes the opportunity to watch him out of the corner of his eye. Bucky’s hair is loose, but swept back from his face so it’s resting in waves on his shoulders, and he’s wearing a maroon sweater that Sam suspects might be his, but he’s not quite sure. Right now he’s got his tongue between his teeth, as he focuses on listening to each station for a few seconds before frowning and turning the dial to the next one. He finally settles on something, some oldies station (naturally) that’s already starting to fuzz in the background; they’ll probably lose it within the hour. 

“Hey,” he says again. “Do you mind if we swing through Queens on our way back?”

Sam throws a confused glance his way; there’s no “swinging through” anyplace in New York City. Everything is two hours out of the way easily. “What for?”

“The kid’s there, Parker. I feel like we should check in on him, make sure he’s okay.” 

Sam is a little taken aback by the request. Bucky’s never once mentioned Peter and he wonders what prompted the idea of visiting him. But if Bucky is looking to reach out to other people, who is Sam to stop him? And honestly, it’s probably a good idea. From the sounds of it, Parker really stepped into some shit recently and his face has been splattered all over the news, some headlines good and others…not so much.

“Uh, sure, that’s fine. I think our docket is still pretty clear for the next couple of days so we can make a stop. Can I ask why the sudden interest, though?”

Bucky lifts his vibranium shoulder in a shrug, looks out the window. “I guess…I guess I just know what it’s like when everyone thinks you're the villain.” He turns back to Sam but his face is unreadable.

They spend a day in Queens, hanging out with Peter. They sit at his scuffed kitchen table, eating oatmeal cookies fresh out of the oven, and listen as he tells them about the whole shitshow with Mysterio, how he was framed and that the FBI has been sniffing around his door now wanting answers. Basically, everyone knows who Spider-Man is now, and everyone wants a piece. 

Sam’s heart aches for the kid. He knows that feeling of losing someone so important to you, someone who’s practically your North Star. He glances over at Bucky who gives a nod, a silent understanding between the two of them. They can’t leave Peter adrift like this; he’s just a fucking kid. 

Before they leave, Bucky hands Peter a scrap of paper with his cell number written down.

“You call us, kid, if you ever need anything. I’ll have Sam fly our asses up here, pronto.”

Peter gives a watery smile and stares at the paper like a lifeline. “Th-thanks Sergeant Barnes. That means a lot.”

Sam claps him on the shoulder, gives it a little squeeze. “Don’t let it swallow you up, man; the hero thing. You’re still young, don’t forget to be a teenager.”

The kid nods. “I uh…I gotta girlfriend now. MJ.”

Sam glances at Bucky over Peter’s head; Bucky’s looking at him intently, like he’s got something on his mind but Sam isn’t sure what it is. He turns away, back to Peter.

“That’s real great, Pete.”

[stigmatvm]

kinda agree with that anon, like i dont like unfollowing ppl but you continue to make it hard not to want to seeing your threats for callout posting which is NEVEER okay no matter who or what you don't like. you need to stop and reevaluate the occ posts you make man srsly chill

im going to put this in the most polite way i possibly can: that is the weakest stance on anything ive ever heard. you make no argument and your use of an anonymous persona only makes me think you want me to be quiet more than you want to engage with me.

Talk to me as a person and really think about what I'm saying before you climb in here to spinelessly regurgitate some vague phrase about callouts. What even is a callout, in your definition? Is it attached to a name? Is it a vague? Must the person see it? What is the burden of proof? When is a personal boundary a callout? I only see callouts as large, widely-spread warnings with evidence attached. That is my definition. My rules are a boundary, and me saying someone violated my rules is not a callout, it is a statement of fact.

"callout posting is never okay" right, okay, i understand that petty fallouts are hardly anyone's business. I can usually discern fairly quickly if a callout was put together for a personal vendetta, because I'm a grown adult, and I have enough sense to pay it no mind. You'd be surprised how often I mediate things among my friends and acquaintances. but i would imagine "someone who enjoys and/or condones putting simulated children in sexual positions and is entirely willing to disregard the boundaries of people who may have trauma directly related to that" is someone useful to have a community warning for, actually. And, once again-- if you do something publicly and bring it to someone who is not okay with it, what do you expect? To be given a cookie and shown the door?

i got this same kind of thing back when i talked about being groomed or tried to talk about older rpers acting inappropriately with me. guess what! the anti-callout culture has not, actually, improved social interaction OR safety in the rpc. instead, people refuse to confront things directly and say what they mean, coming to these conclusions that all problems are entirely individual and mean absolutely nothing for the community at large, which is ridiculous. It's very obvious and has been for well over a decade that it's not just one or two bad actors, and while I would never accuse the community of crawling with pedophiles, all it takes is a few people who are willing to look away from the red flags of ONE to put a child in danger.

the idea that all callouts are childish, petty spats is one that is perpetrated on the idea that anyone going public with something is an attention-seeker or faker, when going public (or even just to someone's dms, god forbid!) is a frightening, daunting task. And believe me, I've been in communities that were callout happy, where adults took advantage of my teenage, post-cult tendency to follow a mob, and I was even on the receiving end of one myself. However, to ascribe that to every person who speaks publicly on such matters proves that you are entirely unwilling to critically read what is put in front of you, and out of fear of being challenged or or out of fear of challenging anything, you want a way to delineate the "good" warnings from the "bad" warnings, the "good" victims from the "bad" victims.

Find your stance on these things and stick to it. The facts of a case can be material or immaterial. We are in a community focused around writing, I am going to go into these things giving you the respect and good faith analysis I expect in return. Dialogue is key.

There are children in this community. There are traumatized people in this community. The tolerance of intolerable behavior only puts vulnerable people at risk. I am not going to make that risk welcome on my blog, both for myself and others. You may find my behavior incendiary, but I would rather be incendiary and firm than accidentally open the door for a friend of mine to be taken advantage of, triggered, or harmed in any other way.

i will also note i have never actually yet namedropped anyone, i have simply made it very clear i intend to enforce my rules, and that people who follow me thinking they either are an exception or that i won't notice are very impolite, which is a very nice way of saying it.

If you want to get rid of callouts, stop tolerating pedophilia and pedophilic-adjacent behavior. There is no outside force that has proven itself to be capable of divine intervention. Notably, in a recent March 2022 court case, tumblr was even cited by pedophile groups as being a place where it was "easy to get content". The community has to take care of itself and take care of each other. you may prioritize roleplay over people's safety, but I don't, and I'm going to make that very clear.

Why is your anger directed at me? why not the people who continue to flounce into people's circles regardless of what their rules say? if it is a nonissue to you, say that. Say what part of my fundamental argument you disagree with. Don't hide behind declarations of decorum, because no proper forum of discussion functions in this non-confrontational, denialist way outside of very specific groups that aren't exactly known for their communication skills.

You are angry at me because confrontation is uncomfortable, especially when you have to confront the idea that something accepted as "part of the internet" can be challenged. The default should not be "writes smut of children". I don't see how my indignation is outrageous in comparison to what I talk against.

[shipskicksandgiggles]

miscellaneous dialogue prompts

“Hey, when was this movie made?” “The 80s, why?” “Oh I thought it was made 40 years ago.” “...I don’t know how to tell you this, but the 80s were 40 years ago.”

“Are you watching Jim Carrey’s Grinch?” “Yeah what, how did you-” “Don’t ask. Move over, I'm watching with you.”

“Wait, who raised him? Doesn’t he have parents?” “Yeah, the two women from the party.” “Two women-” “They’re lesbians.” “Okay.”

“Look, I might be stupid.” “Why didn’t you expect that a cop themed doughnut shop would support cops?” “I thought it was satire.”

*sliding into the room* “WAS THAT EWAN MCGREGOR?” “HOW DID- WHERE-WHAT?” “THAT’S MY OBI-WAN KENOBI BABY.”

“Please stop baking bread.” “No.”

“Are you mad at me?” “No, I’m mad at the dishes.” “Is it because I called your hobby stupid?” “Yes it’s because you called my hobby stupid.”

“I pulled every short straw in the gene pool.” “Untrue. You have good hair.” “Thanks, that doesn’t help my broken brain.”

“My therapist thinks I have ADHD.” “Pfft, I could have told you that.” “What?”

“Hey, I have a law question.” “You have more years of experience as an adult, why are you asking me?” “You tend to know shit like this. So in theory-”

“What kind of weirdass pen is this?” “That is a sonic screwdriver.”

“Are you watching a movie about lesbians?” “Yeah, you said it was good.” “Fair enough.”

“Can you please ask your kids to stop bullying me?” “It’s funny!”

“Hey I bought you chocolate milk.” “Thanks, I appreciate it. You know what I’d appreciate more?” “What?” “You with your pants on.” “I don’t want to put pants on.” “It is 6pm and still light out, go put your pants on.”

“I was gonna get a pride sign for the front yard, but the corporate logos make it ugly.” “Ah, yes. Rainbow capitalism strikes again.”

“I’m sorry, I just think your name sounds fake. Is it a nickname from something?” “I mean that is my name, but it’s also used as a nickname for _____.” “Oh, I thought it was going to be something like ________.” “... Buddy I’m about to make your night, but that’s my contact name in my friend’s phone.”

“I ALMOST GOT ATTACKED BY ANOTHER GOOSE. ANOTHER FUCKING GOOSE.”

“Hello, you denied that way too fast, wanna tell me something or…”

“Would you fuck an alien?” “I wouldn’t fuck a person to be completely honest with you.”

“Ma’am… is that a guinea pig?”

“Whatever you’re about to do, don’t even think about it.” “I’m so sorry.”

“I know what a diaphragm breath is, I was a band kid in middle school.”

“Do you drive a Jeep?” “Do I look like the type of person who would drive a Jeep?”

“This tastes like bubble gum medicine.” “I’m going to kick you out because now you’ve ruined it for me.”

“I will give you one guess as to what you forgot to do.”

“How was I not the one that started gay drama at the family dinner? I’M THE GAY ONE.”

“What’s the fucking… garbage cookie? Dumpster cookie?” “Compost cookie?” “COMPOST COOKIE.”

“So I forgot to tell everyone except for like two people that I was getting a tattoo and I’ve gotten yelled at so much this week.”

“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t mean to make my files bisexual themed?”

“Hey, how’s it going?” “Oh god, what do you want?” “Can you come out and help me carry a ladder please?”

[tvitr]

uwu I don’t make the ruwules

(Okay fine, reasons/opinions below the cut but be warned! I won’t be holding back on game or book spoilers. Or rambling. This got longer than I anticipated lol)

BETTER IN THE BOOK

Eis “Fireman Sam” Glover: I don’t know what the game was trying to do with this one. I guess he gets overwhelmed by the fire and loses his composure or gets scared or... something?  Also why did he not bring a hose. Or a mask.  This is why so many reviewers thought Wonderworld was a metaphor for purgatory and all the inhabitants are dead I swear. Who cares, the book handled it a lot better. I wouldn’t say it’s perfect, but there’s definitely a good idea here with some interesting themes. The gist is that he feels ashamed following his captain’s orders to retreat during a serious blaze, which his colleagues disobeyed, and his colleagues are later hailed as heroes by the press.  Is Balan the Book trying to take on toxic masculinity...? How brave. Tl;dr, the book conveyed the story a Hell of lot better than the game. Honestly I’m surprised this is the only one.

BETTER IN THE GAME

Haoyu “Airplane Boi” Chang: So the book tried waaaay too hard to draw a parallel between Haoyu and Fiona (aka, Dolphin Girl) to the point that they both share a similar backstory, in that they had a hobby which led to a near-fatal accident and now they’re too traumatised to resume said hobby. And that’s not a bad thing per se but... “near fatal accident” was already Fiona’s backstory. We didn’t need a duplicate. And this is more personal preference, but I kinda liked Haoyu’s story in the game anyway. His failure at building a functioning aeroplane out of crap he found in his garage is endearingly funny in the game, and the resolution of him taking time out to sit down and study before building anything is a nice spin on the whole “if at first you don’t succeed” theme the chapter wanted. 

Sana “Bird Lady” Hudson: So the book decided they didn’t want to make Cal an angry sore loser so guess what? They made Sana an angry misanthrope. Wonderful. Okay maybe that’s harsh, but she definitely came off as very bitter and unsympathetic in the book. Like there’s a scene at the end where she harasses a firefighter and tries to steal a fire engine because they’re working on a building fire and not supervising her park. That’s not a character you wanna root for. That’s a Karen. The game had a better plot thread and resolution to her story rather than a boring cookie-cutter “humans vs. nature grrrr humans are so evil” story, like the game story here had a bit more depth to it and approached the topic more maturely than the book did. Which is ironic considering how hilariously edgy the book gets sometimes, but I guess throwing a few smashed eggs and frozen bird skeletons into your story doesn’t mean anything if you’re still going to paint such a black-and-white narrative.

Iben “Frozen Elsa” Bia: This story didn’t need dialogue. Like... we don’t need her to justify why she’s upset her parents are dead because we’d already assume that. They’re her parents! Of course we’d assume she’d be upset! They died! Simultaneously! That’s horrible! WE DON’T NEED HER TO EXPLAIN THIS! Also her dialogue in the book was... pretty terrible, not gonna lie. Like if you’re gonna insist on dialogue at least make it gOOD. I’m actually planning on just reviewing her book scene so I can fully articulate just how bad it is anyway, so stay tuned for that mess lol.

FINE IN BOTH

I mean there’s not really too much to say here but anyways:

Jose/”The Farmer” having a family in the book gives him a bit more depth, even if we never hear from them again after his backstory dump.

Fiona/”Dolphin Girl” almost drowns in a slightly different way, with a dolphin straight up pulling her mask off rather than knocking it out of her mouth, and the book also goes more into detail about her love for diving and dolphins. Also the book ships her and Haoyu like. So hard. Like they never shut up about how similar they are or what they other’s doing or if the other’s okay or not. By the end of it I was expecting them to just start making out in front of everyone, they’re that obsessed with each other. And it would be funny if they didn’t use this to wreck Haoyu’s backstory like I mentioned earlier.

Yuri/”Bug Kid”/”Is that a Pokémon reference?” is now being kinda bullied for liking bugs, which yeah gives her more depth and reason to be upset but I also kinda related to her just being that One Kid with interests that nobody else had. But it’s not as bad as some of the other changes, so I can let it slide.

Atillio/Clown and Bruce/Old Man are the same, nothing to say here.

Lucy/”The Artist” is a total drama queen but then again so are Art People so I can let it slide. I did like them changing her problem from “artist’s block” (seriously?) to her feeling too under pressure to create masterpieces, unless that’s what the game was aiming for? Oh who cares.

JUST A BIG MESS

Cass “Dead Cat Girl” Milligan: This is a weird one because the story is the same between the game and book (though the book mentions she witnessed a more severe car accident rather than a speeding car which she assumes kills the cat, and the cat isn’t even her cat, it’s a stray) but the story itself is... flawed. According to the book, they wanted to convey the idea that running away from the accident was irresponsible, and she just needed to look back and she’d see her cat is okay, but the game kind of makes it look more like Balan turned back time to save her cat, and the book mentions a serious car crash which I don’t think anyone would willingly return to. I feel there’s a better way to convey this idea of being responsible for your pets, like say her cat escapes from the house and gets lost, and her resolution is going out and properly looking for it. That’s a more effective (and natural) way to relay that message, especially as they weren’t going to commit to the idea of grieving a lost pet.

I’M CONFLICTED

Cal “Chess Daddy” Suresh: God this was a tough call. On one hand Cal’s game backstory is one of the ones most YouTube players single out as the weakest backstory in the game. He’s just “that guy who lost one game of chess”. Being right before Iben’s level certainly doesn’t help. I could honestly write a separate post about how bad the story placements are in this game but that’s too long for here.  On the other hand, I still... kinda like it? Like I like this idea of him being a sore loser with a bad temper who needs to learn some humility, sure it’s not as serious as “I almost drowned” or “my parents are dead” but one of the few good things about the game is that it balanced “serious” stories with “benign” ones, if that makes sense. HOWEVER His book scene is... probably one of the best written in the whole book. Which isn’t saying much, but it felt like it hit the intended degree of darkness that the rest of the book was trying to hit. One of my main issues with the book is how much it edged up everyone’s backstory, which doesn’t sound bad but when you have 12 characters with edgy backstories to sit through, it starts to feel like a 14 year old's first attempt at writing an angsty fanfiction very quickly. And yes, Cal’s story is dark and angsty but it felt like the perfect balance of dark and angsty. Or as perfect as the book can get. Like even Balan’s annoying rhyming dialogue sounded good for the tone of the scene. Man maybe I should just do a review of both his backstories in a bigger post.  Obviously I could be biased because I’m a sucker for chess aesthetics and dark skinned men with long permed hair so I’m just putting more thought into him but still.

[millennialneopian]

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Festival of Neggs, The End?

Damn Reddit! (Not really.) I should know better than to head over there in the midst of an event, but my groggy brain couldn’t relay the messages quickly enough.

The final clue! I’ve only completed one of his quests, but I know the Brain Tree when I see it.

Fucking gross! But finally a story.

I skipped all of the possible screenshots up to this point. Oops. Not to ruin the mood, but I cannot get over the grammatical issues in the dialogue for this festival. It’s not just me, right? Has TNT never heard of a comma? And it’s so weird, because I feel like I’ve completely missed another story elsewhere. Who the fuck is Tippens? Is he from something previous that I missed in my absence? Why would I think it’s a mysterious petpet when they were just talking about a Kougra? (Even though that is clearly the answer.) I cannot be the only person who is lost as an easter negg for this whole thing. But I digress...

Okay, this got a pop from me, because I can only assume it’s referring to the recent storytelling competition regarding the Unidentified Petpetpet. That’s good.

Well, aren’t you a cute little bastard.

O-ho! Man, look at those beauties. I have to admit that I’m a bigger fan of the original paint job than the other two. I think it would pair well with a Mutant Acara, something I’d like down the line.

Had one last chance at another stamp, but I got my third teapot set. At least the Talpidat is adorable!

And that’s... it? I guess tomorrow is technically the end once all the prizes are claimed, so I’ll reserve any final comments for then. Meanwhile: sorry, social Talpidat, you’re hanging out in the SDB.

Odds and Ends

Another Fruit Machine win!

Yay. I was so damn close to the third cheops.

The second time I’ve won this from the Mysterious Negg Cave! A cool 70K.

Thank you, O Great Turmaculus. The healing springs literally did that earlier today.

Lab Ray and ZYDP

Nothing exciting on the main, but I managed to zap a Relic Hissi on a poorly-named pound find from a while ago! Honestly, if I correctly recall, that pet was a stuck pet and was one of the longest stuck pets on the page I was viewing. I hope she finds a good home! Relic is a very neat color.

But now that I’m finished with her, I can move onto the ZYDP forums! Legit excited. I named all the pending pets, and I hope those who end up getting them like the names.

NeoCash

In preparation(?) for the above, I finally caved: I purchased 10 additional pet slots. The saving grace is that it was used with credit card rewards, so I didn’t actually spend any of my money on it. I’m officially tired of spinning my wheels and hoping for a Lupe zap on one of my pets, so I opened the flood gates to transfer one of the ZYDP pets to my main so I can zap twice as many. Folks on Reddit have been posting a lot of stuck pets with solid names; I think that’s where I’ll go after I work through the ones I’ve created. It’s mindboggling how many stuck pets there are. I legitimately don’t understand how they get stuck and how these folks find them.

But! All of this is to also say that I have leftover NC and can buy faerie quest fortune cookies. Dude. Stay the fuck tuned because if I can snag one that grants me a FFQ, I’ll shit.

... I wrote the above 10 minutes ago. I have no willpower.

1/9! I NEED FIRE JUG (please)

Is that Maraquan Draik on the horizon? Maybe! One thing I know for sure: if Food Club and/or I sell my repriced shop items, that Baby Lupe will be making his debut soon. I can start poking around DTI to get him ready to roll.

[feralphoenix]

HOWMST BELL THE CAT? - A treatise on one aspect of how the Pale King sealed the Radiance

sup hollow knight fandom, i’m back with the picante takes again after having Noticed A Thing.

as with my previous essays i’ll put this guy up on dreamwidth later for accessibility purposes, since my layout text may be too small for high-res pc users. i will attach that in a reblog at a later point.

CONTENT WARNINGS FOR TONIGHT’S PROGRAM: This essay discusses canon-typical body horror and bodily boundary violations, with some side mentions of colonialism.

all game screencaps are mine. the screencap of the wiki is from the “developer notes” (style guide) section of the “cut content” page.

ALSO: if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of this particular part of hollow knight worldbuilding/lore is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay, ty

HOWMST BELL THE CAT? - A treatise on one aspect of how the Pale King sealed the Radiance

We understand more or less how the Pale King’s plan was supposed to work. Stuff Radiance into a no-thoughts-head-empty and silent Pure Vessel to trap, isolate, and silence her, both putting an end to the Infection and killing her for good. Stick that vessel in the Black Egg, which harnesses Void BS to both keep the vessel alive indefinitely and to cover Hallownest (and its neighbors) in a time-defying stasis so that the Pale King could successfully hoard his favorite shiny FOREVER, threatened by nothing. Then put a seal on the Black Egg to prevent anyone from getting inside and harming said vessel while it’s strung up and helpless. And THEN, put protective seals on the anchors (the Dreamers) to the Black Egg seal to protect them from any external harm: The stasis means the Dreamers won't die of old age or starvation.

All in all, a pretty foolproof plan!

...except that the Dreamers are still vulnerable to having their minds breached with the moths’ magic... and the Pale King failed to take into account that his Pure Vessel was a person actually and the amount of toxic stress his training/upbringing put on them made them REALLY POORLY SUITED FOR THEIR JOB... and also that killing 99% of his million children and turning the Abyss into a landfill for baby corpses would take enough of an emotional toll on his wife and #1 enabler the White Lady that she would walk out on him, ensuring he’d only ever have one shot at this whole deal...

Basically it’s the sort of plan that an emotionally constipated, low-empathy sort of guy who pours all his points into INT and has a big fat zero for WIS might think is foolproof. It has big holes in it that the Pale King did not consider to be big holes until he got owned by the various consequences of his actions and fell down said big holes, making the shocked pikachu face all the while. Rip in die, my guy.

Anyway, there’s a lot of incidental information scattered about the game that gives us more insight into the stages of TPK’s plan. Looking at Monomon’s notes in the Archive suggests that she was probably involved in designing the Black Egg; the hidden room in the Weavers’ den points to their being the ones to blueprint the Dreamer seal; the White Palace’s hidden rooms reveal both TPK’s morbid fascination with the Void and his mea culpa wrt his motives and the Path of Pain is certainly suggestive of a lot of things. The White Lady tells us straight out that she walked out on the Pale King because she wanted no part in a second vessel batch, but how TPK didn’t handle that is only revealed via map design and some incidental dialogue from the Old Stag.

This stuff presents us with, if not a full picture, then at least a decent connect-the-dots of certain aspects of crater politics and Pale Court drama at the time, and how exactly TPK’s plan came together.

But there is still one glaring question that these cookie crumbs do not provide us an answer to:

Who shall bell the cat?

How did TPK et al manage to stuff Radiance into Hollow in the first place?

This is the subject of a lot of memes and jokes within the fandom because it's so absurd. Radiance fuckin hates that dude! She’s probably gonna be pretty wary of him considering how he stole her people in the first place! And considering the anti-colonialism slant of the writing - beyond the general sympathetic view Team Cherry gives of each indigenous bug society, Seer makes it very clear that Radiance has very good reason to take violent action against Hallownest - the answer is probably not something like “she’s just that stupid” or “she rolled a crit fail”.

Well... I have an idea of how TPK managed to get Radiance in there. It raises about as many questions as it answers, mind, but it may be someplace to start.

[desc: the hollow knight's entry in the hunter’s journal. top text/ghost’s comment reads: “Fully grown Vessel, carrying the plague’s heart within its body.” bottom text/hunter’s comment says: “The old King of Hallownest... he must have been desperate to save his crumbling little world. The sacrifices he imposed on others... all for nothing.”]

Here we have Hollow’s bestiary entry. Most of what we’re concerned with here is the top text, which says the seal has literally trapped Radiance inside their body. (First of all, ew, TPK.)

We already knew Radiance is literally actually inside Hollow, though: The Infection is leaking out of their body, and to get to fight Radiance, Ghost has to go traipsing into their sibling’s mind. So what’s significant about that here?

[desc: screencap of the outside of the black egg temple, post-infected crossroads. there are large infection blobs in the foreground and background, connected to each other by veins that come from inside the temple.]

The infection blobs are weird and get weirder if you kill enough Lightseeds for the Hunter to tell you their origin story, i.e. that the literal actual sun has been having a very long bad day and cried a lot, and some of the liquid coalesced into living flesh, and some of that living flesh took on a mind of its own to become Lightseeds. (Hollow Knight is a WILD place.)

Lightseeds are Radiance’s accidental children and share a lot of her traits: They are harmless creatures that try to avoid conflict if possible but if pushed will get creative and find ways to fight regardless of their physical limitations. (For the Lightseeds this involves hiding inside Broken Vessel’s corpse and puppeting it around to try to stab you.) They even have her same distinctive yell. And according to the Hunter, they’re born from the infection blobs. These enemies only ever appear in the Ancient Basin, which both Radiance and the Void have ransacked, and in the Infected Crossroads.

The infection blobs are connected to and sort of a weird extension of Radiance because the Infection itself is sort of a weird extension of Radiance. In the game’s internal style guide Team Cherry explains that the Infection started as an accident, not her original intention but what happened when Hallownest tried to block her out.

[desc: screencap from the wiki of style notes attached to seer that describe a sketch of radiance’s finalized backstory. text reads: “The moth tribe were (perhaps) descended from Radiance. However, the King convinced them somehow to seal Radiance away. I guess so he could rule Hallownest with his singular vision, as a god/monarch with no other gods. The moths sealed Radiance away by forgetting about her. Hallownest was born and flourished. However, the memory of Radiance lingered (eg [sic] the statue at hallownest’s crown) and soon she began to reappear in dreams and starting [sic] exerting influence. The King and the bugs of Hallownest resisted this memory/power and it started to manifest as the Infection. Thus the first attempt to seal Radiance failed, and the King had to try another method - the Vessel.” emphasis mine.]

Some fans have posited the blobs as deposits of pupa juice, but given Team Cherry's description of the Infection’s origins I don’t know how likely that is. Since the Void also sticks its squamous tentacles into things via veiny looking things and the Nightmare’s Heart has similar veiny nonsense in the Nightmare Realm, I wonder if it isn’t just a Meddly God Shit thing in general.

Whatever the case, the blobs are very much connected to/a part of Radiance.

And when you’re hanging around them, you will notice two things: They pulse like they’re part of a circulatory system, and you can hear Radiance's heartbeat emanating from them.

[desc: screencap of the game’s title screen with the infected menu theme in use: a glowing orange ball at the center of a lot of black tendony webbing.]

Let’s also think of the Infected menu theme, which you unlock after getting either of the endings where Ghost takes over from Hollow and absorbs Radiance out of them. Ghost is infected and then sealed inside the Black Egg in Hollow's place. It’s suggested by the animation’s staging that Radiance briefly struggles to get out of Ghost after absorbed but is ultimately stuck in them, at which point the seal is reestablished.

If you haven’t used the Infected menu theme yourself, the... interesting thing about it is that it moves organically. The light ball expands and contracts - y’know, sort of like a living organ - and so does the black webby stuff around it.

Also, Radiance’s heartbeat is included in the theme's ambiance.

[desc: hollow’s bestiary entry again]

To cut to the chase, this part of Hollow’s bestiary entry that says “the plague’s heart”? I don’t think that’s just Ghost/Team Cherry being poetic. I think there’s a good chance it’s LITERAL.

I think TPK is the sort of person who could cram a native woman’s literal living beating heart inside his own child’s body so they can use it as... say, a focus to absorb and trap her mind/spirit inside their body, too. Mr. No Cost Too Great is capable of a lot in the name of keeping other people’s claws off his Big Shiny kingdom. This is kind of his whole brand.

But also, like, yuck.

This fits the worldbuilding too; generally speaking Hollow Knight is Body Horror City. Also there’s the case of Grimm: While he and Radiance are loose counterparts at best with WILDLY disparate outlooks and ethoses, his existence serves as precedent that a Higher Being’s heart specifically can be separate from the rest of them.

As I said before, though, this DOES raise as many questions as it answers. If this is another piece in the puzzle of how TPK belled the cat, we’re now left wondering how he got Radiance’s heart to use as Hollow's focus to begin with.

We know he has access to the Dream Realm because that’s ultimately where he hid when Hollow’s seal failed, but who did he send to do the stealing and how did they get away with it? (TPK certainly wouldn’t have gone; his own life’s the one cost too great for him to willingly pay.) Was Radiance’s heart separate from her like the Nightmare’s Heart, or was it a part of her body? (I think the latter is more likely just from her personality; Grimm’s hidden heart makes sense because of how he keeps even his own servants at arm’s length emotionally, whereas Radiance is all heart all the time. I think this makes more sense with their equal opposites schtick too. But this would make for a WAY riskier mission.)

I can imagine all kinds of possibilities. None of them are definitive, but the thing they have in common is that they are all Awful... and how on-brand that is for Hollow Knight as a whole is, maybe, the most persuasive argument for It’s Literally Actually Her Real Physical Heart there could be.

[akria23]

I highly doubt DSN will get anything but a happy ending. I guess they could, but honestly, it would be wildly out of left field I don’t think they could justify it in the remaining episodes. DSN has established a pattern of setting up a conflict and then showing them working through it together. Not a huge blowout angst that results in a season where the main characters started ou together and broke up.

If anything, I actually think the series will deal with Fiat reconciling with his family. BL’s are not terribly subtle about foreshadowing, and no one can tell me Fiat and Leo’s parents conversation about fixing their relationship before the end is not exactly what’s going to happen.

Exactly. For me like I said it would just be very jarring to have a ‘sad’ or open ending but I also understand that some of the people feel otherwise because they feel like the big angst moments are still to come & they don’t see how big angst can be resolved quick when the end is near. But I also feel some ppl want a open ending because it sets up a better chance of a S2.

I feel like an unresolved ending would contradict not only the set up but the tone they’ve set for Leo & Fiat so far. I think every before they got together romantic they still have a concept of trying to deal with things when they could see the other was unhappy. I feel like that only leveled up once they started dating because the things they were forced to compartmentalize and deal with on their own so the other wouldn’t know they had romantic inclinations disappeared which left them able to be more open when handling their conflicts.

I haven’t seen episode 7 yet so I have seen the parents arrival but yeah that’s where it feels like it’s going. I’m more sure about that on the dad front than the moms but since they only shrouded her in the mystery vibe for me it’s hard to speak to her personal intent because they haven’t really presented her in any light one way or the other. Her intent can be good or bad but the culture usually likes to present ‘familial’ even when it comes to parents who are toxic and I don’t like that. So, I haven’t been keen on that storyline ever since they first presented the dad in the light of ‘strict parent who just can’t get it right’ - because that alone kinda clued where they were taking him. Maybe if they given the relationship more presentation in the series I could get invested but right now it just feels like another storyline where a parent affect led their child development & identity in bad ways (mentally & emotionally) but it’s okay because he stuck around and raised him financially 😒. Like no, there’s more to raising a human than opening your wallet & putting a roof over their head. Personally I don’t know if I buy into the concept of a toxic relationship that’s lasted for childhood into adulthood & has built resentment, abandonment issues, & mistrust can be ‘restored’ def without years of work & conscious effort.

So I hate when shows just glare over it as this ‘one conversation - I’m sorry- ok all’s forgiven & we’re great now’ type of thing. I prefer more depth and I could be wrong but I don’t think I’m gonna get that with DSN. I know some people would say ‘well this is about Leo & Fiat not Fiats parents’ but actually a large part of the reason Leo & Fiat are Leo & Fiat is because of how Fiats parents actions affected his life & self identity. His cling to Leo is born out of the abandonment that came from his parents. The story is character driven that’s why his parents are a part of the storyline because they are a huge part of his start & what he has to overcome. I just with they would’ve delved into it differently. I feel like they set the father up to not be seen as that bad way too early and have away that whole set up.

I’ve said before but I’m still surprised they waited to do the family stuff at the very end. I’m hoping this new episode sheds light to is there a reason behind that decision or it’s just how the cookie crumbled. To have Leo’s parents near to the end makes sense but not so much Fiats for me. Right now I think it’s just a fall for the setup. It’s harder to have the tone of ‘conflict resolution’ when there’s too much drama stretching through several episodes instead they placed it in the background and mentioned it ever so often to foreshadow it’s presence.

But yeah I agree with you - there’s no way that’s not where they’re going after laying down the dialogue the way they have.

[sir-beingmyself]

♟🔮🌙🧩?

Fav seasons, source stuff, non-humans, and sys name

Sys name is Brimstone Trident :D Not really bt system or collective or anything, it’s just, we’re a trident on cool fire xd

I think it’d be easier to tell ya who *isn’t* non-human, because when you’ve never felt like a person it’s hard to identify 😅 The dudes name is Aleksander and fuck-- I think it’s soon his 1 year anniversary of fucking off into the abyss xddd Somewhere jan and feb last year-- fuck it’s been a long time

Or ig we got Lisa? She doesn’t really, do the whole “relating to humans” thing though, and I think she had a virgin mary birth?? I don’t remember her source very well xdd *SO* take that into account how you will

We’ve got cookies, we’ve got demons, horses, robots, vampires, things with humans shapes that inherently identify with their non-human shape, doodles, a whole ass color-- Human people who identify as human people is not something you find here xddd

I should’ve added the seasons thing into the don’t list but i mustve missed it ._.

Cause of those previously mentioned complications I’m gonna just, make a sys wide guess as someone as host has met most ppl xd Being probably fall, lotta spooky boys around here and liking the other seasons would probably be a surprise compared to it

And lastly, source stuff, under keep reading cause this might get long .-.

I’m just letting the ones who want to talk come and talk and I can’t see if there’s a queue xddd

uhhhhhhhhhhhhh ig ill just, label them? xcc -- I’ll try to avoid any dialogue or we’ll be here for decades

Lyce - I have nothing for you other than appreciate my fucking wife. She’s Raven and we’ve been married for years.

Ah shit how many years o.o

Nvm it’s 6 we’ve been married for 6

We don’t have any grand memories it’s just if we’re talking source stuff then we’re technically in each others sources, and she’s the best source memory I’ve ever got

I’m being told I’m being overly positive clearly I haven’t done a good enough job being a wife to her

Retina / Iris (co-written) - O o o o o o o o source!!!! Ok so tldr me and retina are the twins from terraria, but it gets *crazier*

Lowkey just ignore that we’re one of those “human shapes that id w their non-human shape” and just act like we’re robots

Ok so yknow big wall guy? He used to be a mechanical scientist-- pfffffft if i know what he was actually up to all *I* know is that he created pretty much all of us bosses except for a small few-- but the dude did a big oopsie!! a big fucky wucky!! My guess is he tried to combine robot and flesh and something went a bit screwy and now he became the wall!! Which *sucks* but at least Kye kept us safe EoC

Rat - Wanna know a disaster? *Me*

What would you do if you were both 40 and 14, lived both in an irradiated wasteland but also on the moon and *on top of that* had a wife and a child that you both saw die? 

Only some of us get source memories, even fewer get weird ones, but not all of us can keep to a single consistent timeline

Which i mean I dont have an issue shits fine i barely think of it, it’d only be a problem if I met my wife or kid again which uh... hm... maybe I shouldnt tempt fate

T3chza - Speaking of single timelines, Rat’s got what, 3? If I don’t have a dozen I’d be shocked.

Fusion of Techno and Phil, with every possible combination under the sun + some additional ones.

Being husbands, being siblings, being father/son, being comrades, being war criminals, being good friends.   Mind you, all of these have the added variation of if I’m fused in my memories or if I’m separate.

I’m also one who very easily has my source adjusted to outside stimuli, both the coolest and strangest variation is where I’m turned into a hoglin and phil cares for me, and vice versa where he turns into a crow and techno (clarification I ID more with Techno side than Phil even though they’re both integral to me)

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 108

And we are somewhat caught up!  My queue has run out at least, and I’m astoundingly glad it has, because now I get to thank a bunch of people who have just detonated my inbox with love, and kept me going.

Before I get into the gratitude: If, at any point, a comment a character makes does not make sense, please let me know. Send an ask, even on anon, because I am well aware that everything in my brain does not get a chance to make it in the story (example: Charly’s triangle comment here, and the fact that Noah’s dialogue in the beginning has an actual translation…)

First, shoutouts to @charlylimph-blog​, @baelpenrose​, and @quantumizedinsanity​ for the characters in this chapter and for being very, VERY dear friends to me.  A global pandemic and nationwide protests, along with a job change and a major move, have done nothing to hurt friendships that are already cross-country from each other.

Annnnd to everyone who has been blowing up my notes with likes and reblogs: @dierotenixe(hang in there! i PROMISE!), @iamverypotato​,@itscryptifssil, @steadynightninja​, @thepalemarcher, @feral-possums-in-the-bog​, @26fancyraptors​(MISSED YOU!), @werewolf2578​ (we don’t talk enough, how are you!?), @experimentalspades​, @odd-dream-worlds​, @duchess-katala03​, @pineapplewitchboi​, @dark-choclat-cupcake, @littleshydragon​, and all the others. 

I held my breath, bracing for what I knew was coming. Nothing came after several minutes, to my surprise.  I slowly lifted my head and opened my eyes, focusing on drawing deep, even breaths. Maybe he got bored and wandered off.  Maybe he had mercy on me….

Yeah. And maybe Grey is making genetically modified fish that fly.

Slowly, carefully, I grabbed my fork and lifted a bite of pie to my mouth.  A glance at Charly showed a serious expression, nothing given away. Damnit. I knew she could see Arthur behind me, I was hoping for a telltale giggle, or a warning glance, something.  Right when a traitorous voice of reason spoke up belatedly to point out that Charly was never serious…

“You really will adopt anyone, won’t you?” Arthur asked as he came around to take the chair Jokul had just vacated.

Fuuuuuck…. Busted. “I didn’t adopt him!” I tried to argue. “I actually made a very concerted effort to avoid that!”

Unceremoniously, he snagged Charly’s pot pie, only to have his hand held at fork-point until he let go.  Without even acknowledging the lunch-standoff, he leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms. “You tried to ‘avoid’ it by foisting him off on Zach Khan, your… nephew, thing, and his girlfriend. Still adoption-adjacent.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to interact with him.”

“Uh huh. And how will you explain to poor Hannah that dear Ivan’s partner isn’t invited to Insert Winter Holiday dinner, hmmm?”

“I hate you.”

“Lies and deceit,” he rebutted calmly. “You adopted me first. Before anyyyyone on this ship. I daresay you’re quite fond of me.”

I scowled at him, shoving my remaining lunch in his direction. “Here, before you start poaching this direction.”

An eyebrow arched in the general direction of my fish pie. “That looks suspiciously like dairy.  You wound me.” Grabbing my fork, he poked at the lumps of meat. “I would have thought you would be at least a little subtle in any assassination attempts. Have I taught you nothing?”

“Of course you taught me something,” I cooed, jokingly, while I patted his arm. “The fastest way to a man’s heart is six inches of steel through the ribs, slight upward angle.  Cyanide smells like bitter almonds, so always use shortbread cookies to administer it. Three pounds of pressure will tear off a human ear, and even a three year old can bite through fingers,” I recited. “Also, the pie is dairy-free, surprisingly. The ‘cream’ is silken tofu and aquafaba, turns out.”

Charly was choking with laughter, while Arthur finally smiled at me. “See, I told you that you love me,” he gloated before scooping up a scallop and some crust. As soon as he started chewing, his expression changed from one of amusement to something strikingly similar to Mac when I flick water in his face.

“Scallops,” I explained. “I had the same reaction.”

“Heathens,” he managed around the mouthful.  After he swallowed it, he gave the dish a considering look. “Not bad per se, but… There is no fish in this fish pie. What is aquafaba?”

“Chicpea juice.  Usually it’s used as an egg substitute.  I guess they used it for consistency here.”

Charly leaned forward, narrowly avoiding landing an elbow in her lunch. “And how can you tell that’s what’s in there?”

Glancing over at his student, Arthur shrugged. “She has a point. This,” he poked at the sauce, “looks like heavy cream.”

“Tastes kind of nutty, though,” I explained. “Anyway, enough about food. What brings you down here?”

“Galactic Core Curriculum,” he explained. “That’s the excuse anyway. Alistair - Cthulu damn his soul - told me you were eating lunch here after fifteen minutes of questioning. Tyche told me Charly was with you, so I figured lunch with you, lunch with one of my favorite students, plus I can kill two errands with one meal.” Charly stared at him like he had lost his mind, but he ignored her. “When I arrived - lo! What to my wondering eyes should appear, than a certain former cult leader harassing said friend and student! What person could resist such a temptation.” Deflating dramatically, he scowled at me. “Imagine my delight to hear you giving him relationship advice,” he intoned flatly.

“I got him to go away,” I pointed out.

“Before I managed even one strike in a highly one-sided battle of wits.“

“Mr. Farro,” Charly cut off, glaring for all she was worth. “Jokull came in peace, he leaves in peace.”

“Oh, he would have left in pieces. His ego anyway.”

“Fucking triangles, I swear,” Charly muttered, attacking her lunch with renewed violence.

“Anyway,” I forged ahead. “Jokul was here for fifteen, twenty minutes. You had your chance.”

He glanced away with a cough. “I… may have been resisting the urge to vomit.”

“Arthur.”

“Relationship advice is… not in my skillset,” he admitted. “Tell you your partner is abusive? Can spot a mile a way.  Great for getting people out of bad relationships, with concierge crowbar service if necessary. Not great for saving them.”

“Crowbar? Really?”

“You know, for prying people out of bad situations?” He genuinely looked confused, so I left that one alone.

“For what it’s worth, Jokull wanted to talk to you about what he’s going through right now,” Charly added.

“Why in any galaxy…”

I had to laugh at that one. “Everyone treats him poorly,” I shrugged before giving Arthur a pointed look. “He’s having a rough time right now, feels like he has no one to talk to except Ivan, and thought you would have some insight into that kind of thing.”

“What part of this,” he gestured to himself with a fork, “implies anything remotely close to wanting people to like me and therefore actually knowing how to accomplish that.”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer,” I muttered. 

Giving me a hard, thoughtful look, Arthur’s entire demeanor changed. “Ah… On a more serious note, though… yeah.  I don’t get why people not liking you is a problem, but you’ve told me before it’s something that bothers you, so it’s feasible it bothers other people.  I’ll make a point not to make it worse.”

Clearing my throat, I pushed the conversation on to the next topic. “You mentioned two errands earlier. One for me, one for Charly?”

“Right.” The relief to be changing topics was palpable. “For you, Councillor, Galactic Core is almost finished. Eino is already considering other ongoing-education programs, and you’re going to need to start scouting educators again.  That late-twentieth through contemporary Terran history course? Big support-base, turns out.”

“You wouldn’t tell me this without a reason,” I pointed out. “And you’re a History teacher. Volunteering?”

“I want it done right,” he admitted. “The idea being bounced around isn’t for a requirement that everyone take the course. Not at the same time, anyway.  History-focused educators only, approved curriculum.”

“Approved?” I asked. “By whom?”

“A committee,” he shrugged. “Eino, obviously. Xiomara, with her background - which, by the way, is ridiculous - “

“We know, we know,” Charly and I groaned.

After glancing between us for a moment, Arthur continued. “And me.”

“Why you?” I asked. “No offense, just trying to understand.”

“No offense taken, I’ll explain that part later, but I promise it’s for a legitimate reason. The point is, Eino and his committee approve the curriculum and number of slots. You and Tyche make the decisions for who is allotted where.”

“Fair point,” I conceded.

“Fine. The area of history I focused on for my Master’s degree has an important component that ties a lot together and makes revisionism harder - wait. What?” I could almost hear the gears squealing as they ground to a halt. “Did you just say yes?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“That was… disturbingly easy,” he gave me a skeptical look.  When all I did was grin, he slowly turned to Charly. “As for you, I wanted to talk to you about the assignment that’s due next Friday.”

“I already turned it in,” she pointed out.

“Which is what I wanted to talk to you about. It’s a week and a half early.”

“Right….” she nodded slowly. “And I made sure it met all the criteria on the syllabus.  Plus I had three different people proofread it.”

“All of which is admirable, and it would be considered a very well-done assignment,” he admitted. “If you didn’t have an extra week and a half left to make it even better.”

“Mr. Farro….”

“You aren’t in trouble, in any way shape or form,” he reassured her. “But I know you are capable of doing better than the assignment you already gave me.  I wanted to offer you a deal.”

“What kind of deal?” Charly asked suspiciously. “This isn’t illegal, is it?”

“What? No…” he sputtered. “Illegal!?”

“Gotta be sure,” she nodded sincerely.  I was reasonably certain she was giving him a hard time, but it was still hilarious to watch.

Shaking his head, Arthur did his best to recover. “The deal is this: if you stick with the assignment you already sent me, I’ll grade it as it stands. But. If you re-do it and hand it in on the original due date, you’ll be eligible for extra credit for your extra effort.”

“But I still get the grade on the one you already have, either way?” she asked skeptically.

“I’ve already graded it, and you won’t get a worse grade if you re-do it,” he promised. 

“I’ll think about it,” she hedged carefully. “That paper was a lot of work.”

“That’s fair,” he nodded. “What if you sent me an audio recording, instead? No extra writing.”

“I can do that,” she agreed, sticking out her hand. After Arthur shook it, she glanced at the time. “Shit. I gotta go. Sophia, don’t be late back to work, okay? Tyche won’t care, but Alistair may stop letting me have extra marshmallows in my cocoa when I come by your office.”

After she left, I gave Arthur a very serious look.  He tried to ignore it, but after about five solid minutes of The Squint, he caved. “For the love of… She’s smart, okay? You know, I know it. The paper she handed in a week and a half early was much more insightful than anyone else in the class.  They were assigned a research paper on the underlying causes of the breakdown in relations between the Ekomari and Shalt-kri’i.  Everyone focused on political ideologies, trade resources, navigational route control.  Standard causes for war, from a Terran perspective. Do you know what Charly Harper wrote her paper about?”

“Food?” I asked, going out on a limb.

“So close! Cultural differences, plain and simple. Ekomari are vaguely mammalian, and their diet consists of native arthropods. Guess what Shalt-kri’i look like?”

“You’re kidding me…”

“Not even slightly.  And! To add insult to injury, in a very close to literal sense, Shalt-kri’i greet each other as friends by spreading their appendages, a lot like a hug.  Whereas Ekomari show aggression by… standing up on their hindmost appendages and spreading the rest to look bigger.”

“And no one caught this before?”

“Not on the Ark, no.” He spread his arms wide. “No one even considered it.  Sure, the rest are good points, and they did make everything worse, more than likely, but the start?  She nailed it.”

“Then why have her re-write the assignment?” I was honestly confused at this point.

“The way she wrote it, I could tell she wasn’t confident about the answer at all.” He looked about as frustrated as I had ever seen him. “You get her talking about engineering, or pranks, she knows she knows what she is talking about. I want her to know that she is just as right about this as she was about that.”

Hard to believe that this was the same man whose office I had marched into, out for a pound of flesh and the blood besides, because the same woman we were discussing left his class in tears and begged me not to make her go back.  However…

“Honestly?” I ventured. “I want to hear this recording when she hands it in. I’m really curious about this.”

“You think she’ll write it?”

“Pfft,” I scoffed. “I know she will. You gave her a challenge where she can’t lose, but stands a lot to gain. I just hope you’re ready for that sound file.”

“I honestly can’t wait,” he smirked.

<< Prev   Masterlist  Next >>

[writing-gifts]

we ain’t in kansas anymore ch. 01 (bruno x gn!reader)

chapter 02

Summary: After being dragged into the middle of a fight, there’s no way for you to return back to your norm. You have no choice but to get used to your new environment while dealing with language barriers, homesickness, and trying to tiptoe around the organized crime of Naples. And maybe, just maybe you can find a way back home in the process.

-----

A/N: There’s going to be a 2nd part for this AU for the 100+ followers milestone but I wanted to write out the outline of the 1st part into an actual chapter first.

I added a good amount to and changed a few things from the outline so if you’ve already seen it I would recommend still reading this. 

(btw i put 202X instead of 2020 because I didn’t wanna date the story so specifically, at least not yet)

Dialogue in Italian is “Italicized like this”

-----

You have no idea what's going on. One second you were opening your bedroom door, and the next, you lost your balance and fell. But the fall was way longer than reasonable.

Now this random stranger has his arm wrapped around you and a knife to your neck. He's yelling in a language you don't understand at a man with a bob cut, standing a couple of feet away. He doesn’t look very bothered by the situation though.

Even though you might not understand what’s being said, you’re pretty sure if he gets any closer you're in trouble. But this has to be a dream.

You begin moving in your captor’s grasp undaunted by the weapon which is enough to distract him. He glances at you, his grip growing tighter as he adds more force to the knife. You stop struggling when you feel the stinging caused from the blade pressing into your skin. But suddenly he yells, the pain becomes much more intense, and then you’re not being held anymore.

Confused, you look down and see a severed arm at your feet and end up falling on your ass in shock. Your fingertips brush against something when you bring them to your sides and you look over to see another arm holding a knife laying next to you.

You yelp, bring your legs close to you and cover your eyes.

While chanting 'wake up' under your breath, you hear someone say something. It makes you flinch but you still peek through your fingers. Seeing a pair of legs so close to you makes you scoot away instinctively and you end up bumping against something. A shiver runs up your back but you force yourself to look up at the man instead of what’s behind you.

He says something else to you, maybe in an attempt to calm you down--it was hard to tell--but, of course, you have no idea what it means.

Still guarded, you reply, "Uhhh, sorry but I don't understand?"

His eyes widen slightly. A look of uncertainty shows on his face just for a moment before he says something else. You tilt your head and just stare at him while he stands there, but then he points to the opening of the alley. Oh.

You consider the hand he holds out to you. You weren't completely sure if you were actually dreaming anymore, so were you really going to follow him? And where would you go by yourself if you decided not to?

The man patiently waits as you mull this over while looking at his hand and then him.

Even though you were still conflicted, you decide to grab his hand and he helps you up. He then pulls out a flip phone--you hadn’t seen one of those in a long while--and makes a call. You dust off yourself while looking over at him.

You're surprised you didn’t notice his white patterned suit until now. What’s with all the zippers?

You touch your neck unconsciously and immediately yank it away from the pain. Your fingertips are covered in blood so you do your best to ignore the pain and wipe the rest of it off your neck, but you just end up smearing it instead. You’re getting ready to wipe at the cut with your clothes instead when a piece of light cloth is held out in front of you by the Zipper Man.

“Oh thanks…” You accept it although you felt a little bad knowing you were about to ruin it. You dab it around your neck trying to feel out the cut without making the pain worse but your neck felt unscathed. Which made no sense since there was so much blood.

You couldn’t be bothered trying to figure out what was happening though, so you finish cleaning up the blood and put the cloth in your pocket. Once the man sees you’re done, he starts walking out of the alleyway and you follow a bit behind him.

"Where are we going?...Wait nevermind." You shake your head. The question slipped out before you remembered he wouldn't understand.

He throws you a curious look and not knowing what else to do, you return an awkward smile.

The both of you walk in silence for some time after that before it’s broken by a yell.

“Buccellati! Everyone is taken care of and I didn’t find anyone else suspicious on the radar." He looks at you. "Who is that?"

"I'm not completely sure but I think the bastard I was fighting could teleport people from other locations, maybe even out of the country because they don't seem to understand any Italian. They aren’t a stand user either.” Zipper Man explains.

After that exchange, the boy looks at you with a shocked expression.

You simply stare back. "...W-What?"

The boy starts talking rapidly at you. “So you can’t understand me? Where are you from? Do you only know English?" He clears his throat and spouts off something in accented English.

You stare at him like a deer in headlights but not only from all the questions. "Is...Is that from a rap song? You probably shouldn’t say that. It’s kinda inappropriate..." You tilt your head and raise a brow. "How old are you anyway?"

“The only thing I really understood was ‘rap song’! Do you really not understand any Italian?”

“Ahhh this is so weird! I really must not be dreaming cause it sounds like you're speaking legit Italian and I don’t know any!” You huff and slide your hands down your face.

“Narancia,” Zipper Man looks at the boy, “Leave them alone. Fugo’s going to meet us at Libeccio. He knows how to speak English.” 

He starts walking again. You follow him as the boy--who you guess was Narancia--comes up beside you and keeps asking you questions you don’t understand at all. But you try your best to reply. Maybe you two are having a somewhat coherent conversation…

After about 10 minutes, you enter a restaurant. An employee immediately greets the three of you and you smile politely. They led you all to a table in a different, empty room of the restaurant.

A menu is put in front of you but you shake your head. You went a bit crazy with your midnight snack before you ended up here and honestly you were too stressed to eat right now. Actually why were you all here anyways?

You and the boy continue your barely-conversation. But after listening to him ramble for a while, you hold up a finger so he quiets down.

"What's your name? Is it Narancia?" you ask.

"Are you guessing my name? Cause you just said it!" He points to himself, "I'm Narancia!"

"Narancia..."

You didn't think he could smile any harder than he was now. “Yea!”

You grin a little. So you did guess right.

You then turn towards the Zipper Man looking at him expectantly. "Your name?"

“Bruno Buccellati,” he says.

You're pretty sure that’s a type of cookie. Did he just bring up sweets for no reason?

“Bruno….B-Buccellati?”

He nods his head. “That’s correct.”

Is that a legit last name?

You let it go and point at yourself. "I’m ___."

You give a thumbs up when they both repeat your name back to you.

“Buccellati.”

You turn at the new voice and you can't help feeling caught off guard. Bruno definitely had unique clothes but this person took the cake. You couldn't help thinking of green swiss cheese.

“Fugo, sorry to call you out so late, but this is the person I was talking about. Can you be a translator for us,” Bruno asks.

“Of course.”

The Cheese Boy turns to you. “Hello, I’m Fugo Pannacotta, but you can just call me Fugo, and I’m going to be translating what you say from here on out.”

You smile. Finally something you could understand! “Awesome! I’m ___ and I have no idea what’s going on or how I got here!”

“They said they don’t know what’s going on or how they got here,” Fugo translates and goes back to you. “Where exactly are you from?”

You answer and pause before speaking again. “I’m in Italy right? It sounds like you all are speaking Italian.”

This talking back and forth and translating goes on for a while and you learn a couple things.

First, that something really weird and supernatural is going on. Bruno said it was called a ‘stand ability’--they’re like superpowers you guess.

Next you had accidentally gotten dragged into some mafia crap. You didn’t know you could be this unlucky.

“We’re in the mafia,” Fugo tells you matter-of-factly.

You gawk at him. “Mafia!?” Your voice goes up an octave. “N-No way…I mean yea sure gangs still exist everywhere, but isn’t this all a bit too obvious?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, it’s 202X! I think you'd have to be more tactful right? You wouldn't tell someone like me so quickly.”

Fugo looks at you like you're crazy.

Your brows furrow slightly. “What?”

“You said it was 202X. It’s 2002,” Fugo corrects you.

“But...huh? It was 202X this morning!”

“What are you talking about?”

"No, what are you talking about?"

“What's going on?” Bruno asks.

“They said it was 202X.”

Bruno and Narancia throw you strange looks next.

You huff. “What!?”

The next 15 minutes consist of you trying to accept the fact that you aren’t in your own time anymore.

The three mafiosos watch you pace back and forth in the room. Well two of them were. Narancia was too busy stuffing his face.

Fugo sighs, slightly annoyed, "Can you please sit down."

“How am I going to get back home?” you mutter to yourself. You didn't even hear him.

You could just fly back home on a plane but your family wouldn't recognize you since you were much younger at the moment…

You stop pacing, a terrible realization hitting you.

You look at Bruno and Fugo and  ignore their questioning looks as you stare at their eccentric attire. You weren't exactly a fashion connoisseur but this seemed a bit much even for 2002. And on top of that, you’d never seen a mafia man wearing such loud clothing in any depictions or photos of them.

You begin pacing again.

...Were you even in the same reality? What if you weren’t supposed to exist here? Did your family not exist here?

From Bruno and Fugo's reactions, it must not be impossible for these superpow--stands to transport people from across thousands of miles. So maybe there could be ones that could transport people from even further! Maybe galaxies… even realities? Were there even limits to these things?

You turn towards the table to speak but can't help stuttering. “H-Hey...um is there like someone who can send me back where I came from? Like that guy from before! Is he even s-still alive? Can he send me b-back?”

Fugo’s pitying look is enough to answer your question.

“Nevermind, I uh…” You trail off and sit back down to stare at the tablecloth.

You sigh. “Fugo, this is just a guess but I think there's a chance I might not even be in my own world. Just a weird feeling.”

He looks at you for a moment before he tells Bruno and Narancia what you said. You tune them out though. They seem to be getting into something else anyway.

You unconsciously grab at your pocket and feel something--your phone. You're about to pull it out but then an idea hits you.

If you were still in your own world you should be able to call your dad. He hasn’t changed his number since forever!

“Guys, I need a calling card!” Narancia jumps from your outburst.

You need to call your dad, then you’ll know if you should start crying or not.

You stand up from your seat, set on leaving. “Somebody, come with me. We need to-” Your stomach growls. Loud.

Narancia laughs. “Holy crap what was that?!”

Bruno calmly calls over a waiter. “Tell them to sit down Fugo. We’ll take the next steps after they eat.”

Fugo starts to speak but you shake your head and cut him off. "No, I can't eat like this! Please let's just go now..."

Fugo doesn't move though. Nobody moves. The waiter awkwardly stands there staring at you. You feel a bit like a kid throwing a tantrum, mainly because you suddenly felt like crying.

"___?" Narancia speaks up.

You realize that being stubborn wouldn't get you anywhere, so you sigh and sit down. And when Bruno asks what you want to eat, you just wave your hand. You didn't care.

-----

chapter 02

[spookyrobbins]

dialogue game part #i lost count

1) "what's up with cardio surgeons and their obsession with cutting people's hair?" (tedzona shenanigans)

2) "I'm in an on call room crying my eyes out because I can't stop missing you. But you're not mine to miss anymore, are you?"

3) "and that's how I learned what ghosting is"

4) "you definitely have a type"

5) "I want to Skype Teddy"

"Arizona it's 4 AM in Germany, leave Teddy alone"

6) "why don't you two tell Sofia the story of how you managed to get banned from the local pool?"

7) "remember that picture I sent you?"

"the scan room one?"

"yeah, Bailey almost caught me taking it"

8) "what's going on with you?"

"I think I ate poisoned cookies"

9) "I get cravings when I'm on my period"

10)"you've never witnessed Arizona on pain meds? then you're in for a good time"

11) "that's my high school diary? where did you find it!?"

1) "what's up with cardio surgeons and their obsession with cutting people's hair?" (tedzona shenanigans)

“Okay, so nobody panic.”

“Teddy, do not start sentences with ‘nobody panic’ when you’re babysitting our daughter.”

“Right, yeah, no, that makes sense. I shouldn’t have started with that.”

“Teddy, what happened? Are you at the hospital?”

“Did you put me on speakerphone?”

“No, I thought I’d just fill Callie on the way to the hospital- yes, of course, I put it on speakerphone you led with ‘nobody panic’.”

“Fair enough.”

“Teddy, talk.”

“So, Sofia may or may not have managed to get some gum out of my purse and then she got it in her hair and I sort of panicked and may have cut her hair and then it was uneven, so I tried to fix it but uh, it’s not great, I’ll pay for her haircut or whatever-”

“Why didn’t you just use peanut butter?”

“Gee, Callie, where were you 45 minutes ago when your kid was losing her tiny mind?”

“We’ll be home in 20. It’ll be fine, Teddy. It’s just hair.”

“... so what’s up with cardio surgeons and their obsession with cutting other people’s hair?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Cristina cut my hair once and if her skills are anything to go by, our poor baby is gonna look a mess. Her poor, beautiful hair, ruined by a cardio surgeon. You’d think all that delicate work would… are you even listening?”

“Um, no, I was flagging down our waiter so we could go deal with the two children.”

2) "I'm in an on call room crying my eyes out because I can't stop missing you. But you're not mine to miss anymore, are you?"

“Oh crap, sorry, I didn’t think anyone was-”

“Arizona?”

“Callie? … um, is everything okay?”

“Hm, oh, yeah, everything’s great.”

“Are you sure? I mean, you don’t have to… I should go…”

“I see you!”

“Sorry?”

“Bailey had this whole speech about who I want cheering next to me and I see you and now I’m in an on-call room crying my eyes out because I can’t stop missing you, can’t stop loving you. But you’re not mine to miss anymore, are you? You’re just… I don’t know, so fine and normal and encouraging and I don’t even think you care-”

“I don’t care? I don’t care? You’re the one with a girlfriend. You’re the one who’s moved on. You told me I suffocated you, that we both needed to be free. So I let you go, Callie. I let you go and I miss you all the time, but you’re really not mine to miss anymore. You have Penny and you moved on and you’re happy and I made you unhappy for so long, the least I can do is step back and let you move on without having to worry about me and my feelings. So, no, Callie, I’m not fine and I care so much it hurts, like it is a physical ache in my chest that never quite goes away.”

“What?”

“I don’t think I can move on from you. I don’t think I can ever love someone else like I love you.”

“You love me?”

“Callie-”

“No, no, I swear to God, Arizona, if you walk out that door… You said you love me!”

“What do you want from me?”

“I want you to stop… stop protecting me, stop trying to be a good man in a storm, just stop. I want you to actually tell me what you feel, what you’re thinking.”

“I don’t-”

“Please, Arizona.”

“What do you want me to say? That I love you. That I’ve been in love with you for years and I know I’m probably the worst person in the world for you and I don’t want to be selfish but I love you and it hurts and I don’t know what to do anymore. Because I want you to be happy, but I want you to be happy with me and every, every time I see you with someone else, it’s like a little more of me dies and it hurts and I am so tired of being in pain all the time. Because loving someone shouldn’t feel like dying, but loving you and knowing that I always, only ever hurt you, make you miserable, it makes it hard to breathe sometimes and I can’t… I should go… I’m sorry.”

“Wait, Arizona- Damn it.”

3) "and that's how I learned what ghosting is"

“And that’s how I learned what ghosting is. Did you like my presentation?”

“Sof, I think you’re presentation is supposed to be on the history of Halloween in Ireland, not on ghosts.”

“Ghosting, Mommy.”

“I don’t think that word means what you think it does.”

“And what does it mean, Arizona?”

“Stop laughing, Calliope. Just say ghosts, Sofia, not ghosting. Ghosting is something else. Something that immature adults do.”

“That doesn’t make any sense, isn’t ghosting the verb of ghosts? So if a ghost was doing ghost-y things, they’re ghosting.”

“That is technically right, I think.”

“No, it isn’t, Callie, and you know it, honestly. Sof, how about we re-work your presentation and Mama will go pick up dinner?”

“Pizza?”

“Yes, and she’ll even get the really good kind-”

“That’s like ten blocks away, c’mon, Arizona.”

“Shouldn’t’ve laughed.”

4) "you definitely have a type"

“So… that was Eliza Minnick… interesting.”

“Yep. Interesting.”

“What speciality is Carina Deluca again?”

“OB, why?”

“You definitely have a type.”

“I do not.”

“Um, yes, you kinda do. Brunette, kinda intense, speaks another language, doctors. Ortho, apparently. I suppose Carina was an outlier.”

“Oh shut up. Erica Hahn is blonde and well, she’s a bitch and I’m not, so maybe you just like blondes. Mark was blonde.”

“Okay, so we both have a type. But yours is way more specific.”

“Ugh, fine, I guess you’re right. You’re the hottest though.”

“Aw, thanks, babe. You’re not too bad yourself. Ow! Don’t pinch me, Arizona!”

5) "I want to Skype Teddy"

"Arizona it's 4 AM in Germany, leave Teddy alone"

(if there was no plane crash, but teddy still left)

“I need to call Teddy.”

“Arizona, it is 4 AM in Germany. Leave Teddy alone. She needs to sleep.”

“No, no, you don’t understand-”

“Of course, I don’t-”

“She said that I couldn’t skate the entire length of the hospital, she said it was impossible, but I was right and I did it-”

“And you managed to sprain your wrist and now you can’t operate for 4 weeks-”

“It’ll be good for Karev. I’m still calling Teddy. She owes me 20 bucks. But we’re not telling her about my wrist, okay?”

“Yes, dear.”

“Shh, it’s ringing.”

6) "why don't you two tell Sofia the story of how you managed to get banned from the local pool?"

“Why don’t you two tell Sofia the story of how you managed to get banned from the local pool?”

“Seriously, Torres?”

“Calliope.”

“No, no, I think you should have to tell our daughter.”

“It was Mark’s fault-”

“It was Robbins’ fault-”

“You pushed me first!”

“And then you pulled me in!”

“Pfft, I thought you’d be stronger, Mark. And anyway, you were the one who started flirting with that woman, even though she had a very obvious wedding band tan and then when her husband punched you, what was I supposed to do? Let some dude kick your ass?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, fine then, Calliope, next time Mark is getting his ass kicked, I’ll just let him.”

“You didn’t have to make the guy cry, Blondie.”

“You’re just sore because I managed to kick his ass while you were curled up on the ground protecting the Sloan nose.”

“It’s a good nose!”

[magentasky234]

Gregory Edgeworth Week 2021- Day 6: Pretend

This is a continuation of the story from Day 4. Some of the cookies have been stolen, so Miles runs a mock investigation to find out. Anything in square brackets is action dialogue for Miles.

Gregory Edgeworth Week is run by @digitalstowaway!

Miles walked into the kitchen to see the packet of biscuits from last night empty and on the floor. He checked the bin to see if they were in there. No biscuits were inside the bin.

"Father! Come quick!" he called. Instantly after he had said those works, he heard footsteps quickly approaching.

"Son, are you alright?" Gregory asked as he opened the door. Pess stepped inside the room.

"I don't know who, but one of you ate the rest of last night's defense attorney's biscuits!" Miles informed them both, "These biscuits weren't binned, we need to investigate!"

"Trying to find out who did is definitely a good idea.' Gregory agreed, "If we pretend this is like the investigation stage of my cases, we can find out the culprit that much easier."

"Father, you can be my assistant, and Pess can be the biscuit crumbs forensics team." Miles told the others.

"That's ok with me." Gregory nodded, likely excited to see Miles figure things out. Pess simply barked in agreement at Miles' statement.

Investigation start

"First, I think we should investigate the table." Gregory suggested.

"Good thinking my assistant." Miles congratulated Gregory, "Let's check the table."

They walked over to the table and began to search for clues.

"I won't rest until I've inspected every suspicious nook and cranny..." Miles thought to himself.

He first took notice of a few stray crumbs on the table.

"Whoever left these crumbs here was either in a hurry or didn't bother to tidy up." he thought aloud.

["Crumbs left by a lazy person or someone in a hurry" added to Logic.]

["Pile of crumbs jotted down in my notepad."]

"Look..." Gregory gestured over to some other crumbs on the table, "Those crumbs seem to be leading somewhere."

"So they are..." Miles noted, "The trail seems to be leading off the table to the left."

["Crumbs leading off the table to the left" added to Logic.]

["Crumbs near table edge" jotted in my notepad.]

"This area is done." Miles confirmed after having one last look at the table.

"Next, I think we should look at the box and crumbs on the floor." Gregory said to Miles. "Sure, let's look." Miles agreed, walking over to the box.

He then knelt down next to the box.

["I won't rest until I've investigated every nook and cranny."]

Miles picked up the box.

["Box added to Evidence."]

"I will now examine this box." Miles proclaimed, picking up the box. First, he decided to investigate the wrapper.

"This wrapper is way more torn than before!" he exclaimed. After another quick look at the wrapper, Miles was ready to move onto the box itself.

"The box was face down when I picked it up." he explained, "Something must've happened for it to be in this condition."

[Biscuit box lying face down added to Logic.]

"Hmmm... there are even more crumbs over there..." Gregory voiced his thoughts, looking at some crumbs on the ground. Miles looked over at the crumbs.

"These crumbs are near the table.... Maybe this is a clue." Miles voiced his thoughts.

[Crumbs near the table added to Logic.]

[Logic]

["Crumbs leading off the table to the left"] +  [Crumbs near the table]

"It appears the crumbs on the floor had fallen off the table." Miles spoke, "The crumbs on the table and the crumbs on the floor line up, so it can't be just chance!"

["Crumbs fell off the table" added to Logic.]

[All entries about crumbs updated ]

["Crumbs fell off the table"] + [Biscuit box lying face down"]

"The crumbs might've fallen out when this box was knocked to the floor!" Miles theorised, "The box is close enough to the crumbs for that to have happened!"

["Biscuit Box" and entries about crumbs updated.]

"Fantastic work!" Gregory congratulated.

"Thank you my assistant." Miles smiled.

He concentrated on an area coloured down at the floor.

"Hmm... there's important information I can see here..." Miles thought.

[Deduce]

"Eureka!" Miles exclaimed, "Looking at the floor, I can tell that a person ate these biscuits!"

"Interesting." Gregory nodded, "How did you come to that conclusions."

"If Pess saw crumbs she wanted to eat, they would be gone by now... but they're still here!" Miles explained, "Plus Pess can't reach the counter, so a person must've done all this!"

"That's some fantastic if I say so myself." Gregory said to his son, "Your mind is really sharp."

"Why thank you, my assistant." Miles thanked.

Miles looked shyly up at his father.

"I need your testimony of last night." Miles asked him, looking down at his own feet. "Can you do that for me please?"

"Of course." Gregory smiled, "You don't need to worry about asking."

[Witness Testimony]

"Late last night, I left the biscuits on the table before I went to my room."

"Not long after I went to my room,

got a text from my assistant, Raymond Shields, asking to pick up a law book of mine to study from."

"I texted him back, telling him to come and get it quietly as you were asleep."

"I also told him that felt tired, and that I would stay in my room unless he needed help."

"He texted me back reassuring he could manage on his own."

"He came over and got the book, and I heard something fall as he was searching, but I was too tired to pay it any mind."

Miles went the testimony in this mind to figure out what he wanted to press.

"I will now run a quick cross examination."

["I texted him back, telling him to come and get it quietly as you were asleep."]

"So I was asleep when that happened." Miles confirmed.

["He came over and got the book, and I heard something fall as he was searching, but I was too tired to pay it any mind."]

"What did the falling item sound like?" Miles questioned.

"It was rather light if I remember." Gregory recalled, "It was too light to be one of my heavy law books."

"I see..." Miles trailed off.

"Something there sounded interesting, I need to find out more about it."

[Present Biscuit Box on "He came over and got the book, and I heard something fall as he was searching, but I was too tired to pay it any mind."]

"Take That!"

"Do you think it could've been Raymond who knocked the biscuit box over?" Miles asked.

"Ngooooh!" Gregory exclaimed, "It's rather likely."

"So you agree." Miles smirked.

"Yes, but it definitely makes disappointed that my assistant is a possible food thief." Gregory admitted, "He has a day off, so I could ring him to get him to come over and talk to you if you'd like."

"Excellent thinking assistant!" Miles grinned, "Please ring him!"

[Gregory's Testimony jotted down in my notepad.]

Gregory rang Raymond, who then arrived 20 minutes later.

"Hello Miles!" Raymond greeted, followed by Pess, who was sniffing curiously at him.

"I have a few questions to ask you." Miles told him, cutting straight the point, "Father said you were here last night. What did you do at that time?"

[Witness Testimony]

"I came here to pick up a law book of your father's to study."

"I accidentally dropped a book at one point."

"After that, I left the house and went home."

"Hmm..." Miles thought.

["I accidentally dropped a book at one point."]

"Please describe what the book sounded like when it fell." Miles requested.

"It was a loud thud, probably loud enough to concern your father."

"Ok..." Miles said.

"Something there sounded interesting, I need to find out more about it."

[Present Gregory's Testimony on ""I accidentally dropped a book at one point."]

"Objection!"

"Gregory's Testimony said that the object was too light to be one of his heavy law books." Miles rebutted, "A law book never fell down in the first place!"

"Gah!" Ray shouted taken aback, "Why are you interrogating me?"

"Because you might be the one who are our defense attorney's biscuits!" Miles yelled back.

"O-oh..." Raymond sighed, "I admit that I actually knocked over those biscuits, but I still didn't eat them."

"Looks like I'm going to have to do this the hard way." Miles thought to himself.

[Logic Chess]

"He's still lying about something, I know it!"

"I need to get the truth out of him!

[Two chess pieces float behind Raymond]

["Why were you by the biscuits in the first place?"]

["Why is Pess smelling your jacket?"]

"Raymond, why were you by the biscuits?"

"Because I was curious about what biscuits there were."

[Did you intentionally touch the biscuits?"]

[Wait and see.]

"You intentionally touched the biscuits on the table, didn't you?"

[One chess piece spins]

"Gah! Yes I did, I wanted a closer look."

["Did your parents ever teach you to touch with your eyes and not your hands?"]

["Wait and see."]

"You shouldn't touch other people's belongings, you should know that by now!"

"I know that, like I said, I just wanted to see what they looked like!"

[If you know, not tho touch them, you shouldn't touch them.]

[Wait and see.]

"If you really did want to just see it, you wouldn't have touched it!"

[One chess piece breaks]

"Gah!"

["Why were you by the biscuits in the first place?"]

["Why is Pess smelling your jacket?"]

"Raymond, why is Pess smelling your jacket?"

"Because I'm wearing nice clean clothes today I guess?"

["But why is there a stain on your shirt?"]

["Wait and see."]

"I don't think you're wearing a clean shirt. There's something bright red and sticky on it."

[The chess piece spins]

"Gah! It's blood from where I accidentally cut myself from cooking last night!"

["Blood doesn't look like that!"]

["Wait and see."]

"I've accidentally cut my finger in school cooking before, blood isn't as bright and sticky as that stain."

[The chess piece breaks]

"Gahhhhhhh! Fine, I admit it, I did eat those biscuits!"

"It was easy to get him to tell the truth... and with that, it's checkmate."

[Logic Chess Complete]

"Miles that was fantastic!" Gregory cheered, "You really are like a little lawyer!"

"Raymond, why would you do this?" Miles asked him angrily.

"Raymond, you need to apologise, we were looking forward to eating those biscuits."

"I'm sorry!" Raymond apologised, "They looked too good to eat!"

"They may look good to eat, but you shouldn't eat things that aren't yours without permission." Gregory lectured, "You only needed to have asked and I would've let you have one."

"I'm sorry..." Raymond apologised.

"Just don't do it again, or I'll make you pay for my food when we go Signal Samurai merch shopping next!"

THE END.

[dokidokivisual]

Gochiusa BLOOM episode 8 impressions

Previously: 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1

Here we go, the long awaited Rize episode is upon us. She’s been rather sidelined this season, aside from maybe the marathon episode with Chiya. But now it’s finally her time to shine!

I didn’t have much time to write this review, due to various circumstances, but I hope it’s still worth reading.

The episode opens with Rize waking up Cocoa while imitating Chino’s voice and manners, such as calling her Cocoa-san. This scene is reminiscent of the post-credits scene from season 1 episode 12, although it has been implied Chino wakes up Cocoa all the time. The rabbit Cocoa sleeps with has been given to her by Chino at the end of Dear My Sister OVA, but it was Rize who helped Chino make it.

Rize had a fight with her father about her wanting to become an elementary school teacher, and stayed over at Rabbit House. She seems to think neither her father nor even Cocoa and Chino take her seriously. To be fair, it kind of comes out of a left field. The justification for it (which is revealed later) is also rather silly, as Chimame aren’t even elementary schoolers. It’s interesting to see if the manga will ever get to the point where Rize is teaching a class because I don’t think there have been any elementary schools introduced yet or any character who attends or teaches in one.

Rize herself also has some doubts about it, since she worries she will come out as too strict (and called a ”demon sergeant”, which is a callback to Dear My Sister where she took command over Chimame-tai), although Rize has become considerably more gentle since the events of DMS. Cocoa volunteers to become Rize’s teacher to show her how it’s done, but ends up making Rize do all the work while she just lazes about.

By the way, the book Cocoa is reading in this scene is called “Caffeine Fighter” which was mentioned before as one of Aoyama’s works based on Sharo, and this is the first time we see (although in very low resolution) what the lead character is supposed to look like.

Chino takes over the job, although it seems she just wants help with her homework (the book is labeled as “Mathematics, 3rd grade of middle school” and this particular lesson concerns the quadratic function and its graph). Rize uses her rabbit stamp on Cocoa and then on Chino for solving their tasks, and finds out that it’s a very good motivation.

One thing that western viewers might overlook is the prevalence of stamps in the Japanese daily life. Instead of signing legally binding documents, you’re supposed to stamp it with an officially registered personal seal called hanko. Things like stamp rallies are popular and you can often get a visitor stamp in various temples and train stations. So the fact that Rize carries a stamp with herself at all times is not at all unusual.

Next, Rize’s signature dish, napolitan pasta, makes an appearance. In the episode 6 review I lamented that Rize’s pasta never showed up, but now we can finally see what it’s all about. By the way, despite its name, this dish is actually Japanese in origin, and was inspired by American military rations, which makes it quite fitting for Rize. Cocoa uses the Italian word buono to describe the pasta, which means “good”.

During the bathtime, the stamps easily wash off, so Rize gives Cocoa and Chino stamp cards, just like to Chiya in episode 5. Not aware of this, Cocoa and Chino think this signifies their special bond. However shortly after, Cocoa boasts about it to Chiya at school, and realizes that not only Chiya has it, but also Maya and Megu. In the manga Cocoa and Chino confront Rize about it directly after, but the anime sandwiches another chapter in between.

Like I mentioned in the episode preview, chapters 2 and 7 from the volume 6 of the manga share a similar theme of studying, so it’s not surprising they were unified into one episode. Interestingly the chapter 7 is titled “Sweet Skip Step” which shares with the title of the episode “Stamp, Sleep, Study, Smile” the pattern of words starting with the Japanese syllable ‘su’. Another episode sharing this property is season 2 episode 8 titled “Sneaking Stalking Stalker Story”.

This second part of the episode is more Chimame-focused, and brings up the concept of juku, or “cram school”, which are very widespread in Japan. This is a small private school that students visit after their public school classes in preparation for the exams. Of course the way it’s portrayed in the episode is just regular tutoring, so you wouldn’t know the difference.

Anyway, Cocoa has opened a juku in Rabbit House and is now sporting lab coat and glasses look. Megu attends the “school” and we learn that the reason why she wants to go to Rize’s school is because her mother went there too. Cocoa asks if that’s really her own decision, and we later learn Megu isn’t really sure about that. Immediately after, Megu’s phone rings notifying her that she needs to “transfer to another classroom”, and Rize’s comment implies that Cocoa hasn’t really even started teaching yet. In the manga there’s a 1 hour gap between the Cocoa/Megu conversation and her going to another class, and Megu thanks Cocoa for her lesson.

The next class is Japanese literature taught by Chiya (she calls it 国語 “national language” which implies that the show is really set in Japan, or at least a Japanese-speaking country). Megu is impressed by how seriously Chino takes her studies, and how she strives to excel both in school and at her job just like Chiya and other high school characters (it was previously mentioned that Chino’s grades aren’t very good). However Chiya gets distracted and decides to spy on Sharo, who is teaching Maya at the time. It seems Sharo’s house isn’t very soundproof at all and they easily get discovered.

Maya isn’t sure about being able to pass the scholarship student exam and asked Sharo to help her, as Sharo has also passed this exam in the past. Sharo is eating some strange foodstuff that I thought was onigiri, but looks more like a cookie wrapped in nori for some reason.

Anyway, Chimame get invited by Rize to “onsen pool” but they think Rize is going to scold them for not taking their studies seriously. Meanwhile Rize’s dad is calling Takahiro to make him convince Rize to come back. Apparently during the war, Takahiro’s skill was persuasion, while Rize’s dad’s special technique was rushing into action like Leeroy Jenkins.

The “onsen pool” which previously appeared twice in season 1 is largely based on hot spring baths of Budapest, which I had visited last year. This scene is used to develop Megu’s character, specifically her insecurities and sense of inferiority towards Chino and Maya. It doesn’t help that Maya and Chino are jealous of her body and call her fat. Then, Maya and Chino decide to compete in swimming, suggested by Chino, who in the manga almost drowned during a hiking trip and that was her motivation to get better at swimming. In the anime (season 2 episode 11) she didn’t really drown so she just says she likes swimming now for some reason.

Anyway, Megu can’t keep up with them (both metaphorically and literally) and this time drowns even in the anime adaptation. However this scene was also altered from the manga, in the manga it’s implied that Maya and Chino drag her out while Rize comes too late and Maya calls her slow. But in anime, Rize is the one who saves Megu and is roundly praised by Chimame-tai.

The next scene parallels the one from season 1 episode 10 where Chimame-tai name was officially established, after Rize outruns them to Rabbit House. This time Chimame already got used to the name (which means something like “blood blister” in Japanese), so they’re ok with being called this forever if they win.

When Rize comes back, Cocoa (who held a grudge for so long that you might’ve forgotten about it with how fast-paced this episode is) kabedons Rize and asks for explanation for the whole stamp card business. However it turns out to be just a prank and an excuse for Rize to have a home cooked dinner with everyone. Rize’s accomplishments in previous episodes are also brought up, and she gets another round of praise. And then everyone gets lots of stamps.

Rize gets a stamp too when she’s asleep. This scene was in general modified quite heavily compared to the manga, to better fit with the rest of the episode I guess. One scene that was cut was Cocoa and Chino discovering Rize’s notes about their food preferences and regular guests of Rabbit House. Also, the phone conversation between Rize’s dad and Takahiro was the last panel in this chapter so Rize’s situation with her dad was never resolved.

The anime adaptation does provide a resolution in the form of a cinematic car scene with a tense dialogue between Rize and her father. Cars are very rare in Gochiusa universe and the last time we saw one (season 2 episode 10) it also belonged to Rize’s family. Rize’s father is driving an Audi R8 with plate number TO-526, which might refer to his voice actor Touchi Hiroki who was born on May 26.

The car eventually stops on the bridge, which is basically a metaphor for reconciliation (i.e. “building bridges”) and the color scheme changes from red to blue, as Rize’s father eventually apologises to her and Rize gives him a stamp of approval. And so concludes the 8th episode of Gochiusa BLOOM, which finally gave Rize the recognition she deserves. I guess we’ll see if she can reach her goal of becoming a teacher in the future manga chapters. And there’s still four more BLOOM episodes to watch!