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#each character... i rest my case ur honor
violexides · 2 years
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HI HI HI OMG YOU FINISHED THE ACE ATTORNEY TRILOGY FUCK YEAHHHH THAT GAME IS ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT EVER!!!!!!! TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS!!!! WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CASES? WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE WRIGHTWORTH MOMENT? WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS? THOUGHTS ON BISEXUAL DISASTER INCREDIBLY LOVABLE MAIN CHARACTER PHOENIX WRIGHT?
HEY LOG okay i have to answer quick cos i got somewhere to be in 10 min BUT!!! bro i was so excited to see that u were watching AA too like!!!! we nearly finished it in the same time area that's crazy :o
OKAY YEAH YEHA YEAH OKAY!!!!!!! FAVE CASES obviously all the last cases bc AA slays with ending the games on such a cool note, i'm also pretty fond of turnabout:reunion WHICH DOES NOT GET THE REP IT DESERVES!!!! Such a huge fan of turnabout reunion fr i think it's so fascinating it's such a mindfuck and it's so COOL!!!!
FAVE WRIGHTWORTH MOMENTS my friend you wound me by making me pick... the part in the last case where Edgeworth says "I leave the rest in your capable hands... partner" which is what Iris had told him but also the usage of partner is so important to me, it's a term of endearment but it also describes the way that him and Wright are, that the two of them have this companionship and have been in each other's lives for that long that of course they're partners, maybe not lovers yet maybe not boyfriends but partners is a term that fits so right. also that parallel with iris was super cool. other moments I liked was Edgeworth realizing the work it takes to be a defense attorney and the toll it must have on Phoenix, and also just the urgency when he found out Phoenix was injured. ur honor they're friends <3 and also in love. yk
FAVE CHARACTERS okay i'm excluding the main crew bc that goes without saying but. I love Lana Skye, Adrian Andrews, Desirée Delite, Godot, and Iris! I really connect with Lana Skye for a LOT of reasons, Adrian is just.... my girlfriend and i also relate to her LOL. Desirée is such a fun character and just makes me happy. Godot made me burst into tears several times yesterday so one could say i'm a fan. and i think Iris is just... a fascinating fascinating character
MASSIVE FAN OF PHOENIX WRIGHT: BISEXUAL DISASTER!!! Talked to my sibling abt this but phoenix wright is such a good protagonist like. he's both relatable but also distinctive and also capable but also not perfect and i think that's what makes him so endearing and so easy to get in the mindset of. he loves his friends and believes so deeply in everyone and he's sarcastic but also an idealist and he just. he's reckless and caring and smart and he's so important to me <3
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matsubrokq · 3 years
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anyways the recent hatred of hxh and haikyuu is strangely contained to tiktok and only started within the last few months and my research concludes that 1)misogyny 2)weird elitist individuality complexes 3)homophobia
#hxh and haikyuu started getting popular among ‘normie’ teenage girls and now its suddenly ‘mid’#coming from someone who has both snk and naruto in their top 10 like BRO UR ASKING FOR IT#no nuance november i guess#like not even a year ago hxh and haikyuu were regarded as like... top 5 anime ever for anyone who watched and read them ????? and suddenly#theyre popular among teenage girls + the gay undertones of volleyball are now widely known so straight dbz snk fans think its ‘mid’ ????????#talk to anyone in 2015 hxh was considered a fucking masterpiece. the haikyuu manga was legitimately top 3 and s2 was easily every single#persons favorite fall 2015 anime like ???? im confused#something: gets popular#weird straight guys: lol i never ljked it anyway the writings so bad remember just bc u enjoyed it that doesnt mean its good#like the new hot take on tiktok is that hxh and haikyuu are fun to watch but that doesnt make it good#like there are people legitimately saying the writing of hxh and haikyuu is bad ??#HUH ??????? HXH ???? HAIKYUUU???? FURUDATE ???? BAD WRITING ????#brb genuinely going into real isolation chamber bc im losing braincells as we speak#hxh isnt even enjoyable to watch half the time i feel like im studying philosophy of nen and should be taking notes soo ?? invalid#anyway haikyuu is genuinely one of the greatest mangas every produced GENUINELY both the paneling/writing/magnitude and individuality of#each character... i rest my case ur honor#sometimes things that are popular.... are good#ko.txt
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savrenim · 3 years
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i am running thru ur tumblr to find ONE POST to cite for tvtropes, and i agree so hard with the soulmate stuff. what if my soulmate is an awful abuser, i want the choice to NOT be with them without some painful physical consequence or loss of perception if i don't date them just because the universe said we were "meant to be"... plus if it's just a magic thing it "feels" more justified in-universe that soulmates exist and less like an ass pull so you could justify getting 2 characters together
oH gods this is something that I have SO many feelings about that probably is slightly informed by my own orientation and preferences, but. feelings. this got long so it's going under the cut
so there are three and a half major things that I have a problem with in terms of general soulmate tropes that are "there is one person who is your perfect romantic partner" (which to be fair I've seen a number of soulmate AUs do that trope with the addendum "although it only applies to a certain percentage of the population / not everyone has soulmates / everyone has soulmates but not everyone has SUPER PERFECT ROMANTIC soulmates" which at least somewhat avoids the statistic inevitability of abusive soulmates if combined with Fate Can See The Future And So Your Fated Soulmate Just Won't Be) and these complaints aren't even from the "I'm poly where's my poly rep" kind of place which is a whole 'nother bag of worms, but let's go:
1. I aggressively believe that love is a choice. Love is something that is built, not predetermined before you meet someone. There might be initial compatibility aspects going down when you first meet someone, but, like. statistically there are more than seven and a half billion people on this planet. If there is only a single person perfectly meant for you, again, statistically, you are not going to meet them, I've seen the figure thrown that on average a person will meet on the order 10,000 people in their lifetime but let's even go 100,000, you will meet 0.001% of the world's population. Unless you think some sort of divine coincidence or fate is guiding you to a soulmate which throws free will out the window and then I can't help you but, like. discarding the math, I think it is actively harmful to a relationship to believe that it can be sustained on chemistry or predetermined 'but we're perfect for each other' alone. It requires work. You choose who is in your life, you choose who stays in your life, you choose who you want to be important to you based on what they contribute to your life and what you contribute to theirs.
(I am assuming this ask is at least partially in reaction to my soulmate post, which actually the fic in question, a buried and a burning flame, has since gone up. I highly recommend reading Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard first, but besides the setup for arson wizards that alas is never used because the fire mage with a soulmate in question is Responsible, I decided to both tackle 'okay soulmarks trope too let's throw it in', which leads to the not-really-a-spoiler passage that appears fairly early on about actually the full layout (albeit with less detail on the 'yeah for mages it just helps ground their magic, nothing romantic about it' part) of my Soulmate Rules:
Soulmates existed, both in the Empire of Astandalas and across the Wide Seas. They just worked slightly differently in Vangavaye-ve than the rest of the worlds.
The rest of the Empire seemed to view soulmates as a monolith. From what Cliopher had been able to glean, the tradition was grounded in their magic. Magi had soulmates, or rather, magic-workers would each have a soulmate. Cliopher wasn't clear if all magic-workers had a soulmate, or if magic-workers simply could have one, but there was always a mage in soulmate pairs, and it was always a pair. There were no marks, no visible signs involved, as soulmates were something that were sensed with magic. They were permanent, intrinsic, and to be recognized immediately.
To Wide Sea Islanders, soulmates were a choice.
The soul-marks, lana and lani-voa, would appear the first time you touched someone that you had chosen to love, with the full knowledge that you loved them. Cliopher had the marks of his mother and father, his sisters, Basil and Dimiter, Bertie and Ghilly. His skin was covered lovingly with the colors of his love, marks that he had gotten used to concealing with long sleeves in Astandalas when he had gotten tired of the constant staring at his 'primitive tattoos'.
Buru Tovo had been the only one to give him lani-voa, a greater mark of the soul. The pattern, with its thick lines and twisting design in a deep blue, extended over the entirety of his left arm and shoulder. They were the dances of his family pressed onto his skin, and he had traced them over with reverent and feather-light touch for months after he had received them. A lani-voa marked someone who had changed your life for the better in a deep and irrevocable way. It was a great honor to have even one.
And now, with the gold stretching up his right arm, new patterns that he didn't recognize stretching up from a handprint of pure gold that was expanding the longer he held that first contact with Tor—
now he had two.
(Buru Tovo is Cliopher's great uncle, for context. In fact, everyone listed there is either a familial or platonic relationship, with a single relationship that used to be romantic but settled into platonic.))
so. yeah. Love is a choice! The Biggest Of Moods! any soulmate lore that undermines that is a Bad Message, in my opinion.
The emphasis also on platonic soulmates leads into my second point:
2. I have found in my life that platonic relationships that I have are and have always been as important if not moreso than the romantic relationships. the emphasis of a single romantic relationship as the most important relationship that you can be in maybe fits for some people, but as a generalization to absolutely everyone I think is toxic and harmful. and not just for aro people! I'm not aro, but I would be miserable to write off my friends as Less Important And Meaningful to me than my parter, whom I love with all my heart! (I've actually ended up in my life settling into what I call the red/blue/gold system for 'relationships that I treat with the importance that society treats romantic relationships', but that's a personal thing). The standard soulmate trope tends to really solidly deliver the thesis of "there is a single romantic relationship that is the single most important relationship in your life" and I just think that's a very bad thesis.
3. Finally, I think the emphasis on permanent/forever is a harmful one for relationships in general. People change. you drift closer to people or further away from them. you move, they move, your schedules change, your interests change, your life changes. if you are living with a romantic partner you're going to keep seeing each other every day, but that doesn't stop you from changing as a person, which means see Point 1 Love Is A Choice; but even if you choose to remain together, you are probably eventually going to Ship Of Theseus your entire relationship. I think it is an important message that if that happens and it is no longer a relationship that is as deeply positive as it once was in your life, you don't...have to keep it out of loyalty to what it once was.
It's okay for people to drift out of your life that were once the most important person in your life. It doesn't invalidate how important and meaningful that relationship used to be, and it isn't a betrayal to let yourself and them and your relationships change and evolve. The idea that something has to be forever for it to matter I think is the idea about soulmates that I disagree with the most. Probably because that was the hardest lesson for me to learn as a kid and a teenager, and the life lesson that I am proudest for learning.
3.5 your point 'plus if it's just a magic thing it "feels" more justified in-universe that soulmates exist' is exactly on the nose, literally I am unable to write anything without attempting to write down a universal theory of everything for How The World Works. if something soulmate-wise is going down even if it never appears on the page you bet your ass I have either figured out the general cosmology and theology of "are there gods or divine forces who have instituted this policy? if so, why? what purpose does it serve", or in the case of abaabf which already has such interesting magic rules in the original canon of "is there an evolutionary reason for soulmates to exist" which I don't go tracing out full evolutionary biology for a fic necessarily mostly because I would want the full evolutionary biology in canon to make sure mine is compliant enough but that sure as hell does translate to "if soulmates exist and it's not for the reason of Because Godlike Beings Said So, there better be a practical purpose". I find at least long-form soulmate fics (ie things With Plot and a Developed Setting that aren't just "let's do a ficlet with this well-known trope") that Do Not Feel Like They've At Least Thought About Why Soulmates Happen To Exist hurt my soul. which I think slightly intersects with my "I hate it when the rules of the universe/ laws of physics are human-centric" instead of "the base rules which were not designed for humans came first, and how the human world works arose in reaction to them" and. yeah. consistent desire to know at least for myself why things are set up the way that they're set up which gods ifmlam is wild and completely bullshit and pulls from quantum multiverse philosophy I started writing that thing when I was like. eighteen? nineteen? but at least it's there so I can be consistent.
as a caveat for everything above: I don't actually think that fiction, fanfiction in particular, needs to perfectly reflect what A Good Relationship or A Good Message About Relationships should be. it is a very human desire in a chaotic and confusing world to want a simple, absolute, binary thing to hold onto. fiction is a place for escapism or wish fulfillment or even exploring things that you wouldn't actually want in real life, I think that the movement in fandom/fiction that all of the messaging in your story should match the advice you'd give for a real-life setup is a bad and harmful one. mostly my opinions on soulmates and hence desire to do inversions of the soulmate trope in my fic and things like the red/blue/gold system and heavy emphasis on platonic relationships in original work that I'm writing is about a desire to see representation for me and the things I love and find important and my sort of relationships in the stories that are a big part of my life. but I am really glad that in doing so I seem to have struck a chord in other people, who maybe want to see the same thing!
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miaxeu · 4 years
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      though the mist might prevent some from seeing it, MIA STOEGER is actually a descendent of DIONYSUS. it’s still a question of whether or not the TWENTY-ONE year old MYTHOLOGICAL STUDIES MAJOR from LOS ANGELES, USA has taken after HER godly parent completely, but the demigod is still known to be quite CHARISMATIC & DUPLICITOUS. 
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( y’all dont deserve this real messy intro but im workin w half a bwain cell at 4am so i beg thee 4 mercy. nywyy im the excited new girl who’s hella pumped to meet all ur charas : katya ! feel free to hop in my ims to plot or drop a like and i’ll hop in urs ! x  )
POWERS
natural acting abilities — her ma’s a hollywoo agent so she started actin real early & now shes a big shot actress. there r more deetz on her career below !
chlorokinesis — it wasnt as natural as acting n she only started working on it when she turned 13 n started going to camps. b4 she just noticed shes good w plants but it wasnt super crazy or nything. its p good now tho ! shes prioritizing vine binding and manipulation 4 the self defense bc awards r cool n all but they dont rlly protecc from monsters ykwim 
levitation — shes trying her best ur honor
alcokinesis  — she cant conjure it or anything, she’s just immune to it ffff
BIO POINTS — cw: drug use ( full biography here )
her mom raised her by herself bc dionysus the party god was out of the picture immediately. she never told mia she’s a demigod & it was always just “ wow ur so talented ” or “ aww u got a green thumb ! ” but when she saw him claim 13 y/o mia by placing a weird hologram over her head while she slept, she knew she had to spill da beanz & tell her kid
ofc mia thought her mom was jus playing sum weird acting exercise w her bc her powers r so lowkey she could highkey just be a Mortal but insert sad whistle, the realizashun & the claiming meant heightened monster threat !! so yea ,,, one ended up chasing her a couple days later rip 
aside from the trauma, mia was ok. mostly bc she ended up cryin for dionysus like any child would n lo & behold he came & helped !!! as he should. nywy she made sure to go to summer camps every year after that but mostly just for protection purposes
she lowkey rlly hates this whole god business esp now that shes grown lmfao deadass thinks she got a bad deal bc life threats arent sexy !!! went to eonia eventually bc its Too Much Man. she just wants to go back to work and her life w the mortals w/o worryin for her life. would deadass fade her father if she could. may or may not be majoring in greek mythology to figure out the logistics of it all out of spite, who knows !
PERSONALITY
not ! a Drama Queen  —  dont get me wrong, shes hella Extra in the way she moves n acts sorta like shes always bein captured on film. is quick-witted & playful & can be a huge tease/flirt if she feels like it, but miss her w Real Feelings ! totally not sentimental. srsly she will try to rationalize away everything and is just,.,., not good w it. so soz folks, we just keepin it breezy here
ugh, she’s an Actress — aka she can act like she cares tho ! shes very much into keeping ppl on her good side. shes friendly n palatable to everyone bc its how shes been trained & while it doesnt seem fake, its def diff when its genuine
The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known —  lemme circle back to the first one, ok so shes good w emotions but only in theory. does intense character work with her roles so she thinks that counts as her having eq when rlly shes just emotionally stunted, projecting n repressing like an idiot
blonde, skinny, rich, & a lil bit of a Bitch — shes only a bitch inwardly or to ppl she trusts enuff to let in on the gossip. if anyone full on opposes her or becomes real emotional, then this lil diva will rear its superiority complex head n snap a lil. will most probably do it v underhandedly n w a smile but it will be Brutal
girls just wanna have FUN ! — shes the child of da party god, so ofc she a true party girl. officially off the rails when she parties. inhibitions ? we dk her. can be insensitive in that case bc smtms its truly no strings attached, tis all abt the fun. likes company a lot & it doesnt even have 2 be loud or particularly abt her, she just likes having people around n the escapism of it all. will make friends with everyone n make sure they have a jolly fun time guaranteed at dionysus parties 
Work Hard, Play Hard — real responsible when it comes to work and commitments and if she trusts/likes u enough, she’ll give it 2 u straight, no bs. def thinks Calling Out is an act of love but maybe does it a lil too harshly smtms. v much into efficiency, sentiments be damned. not the feely words type. will sit next to u or party w u or even pay 4 ur therapist if u need sum1 to talk to. she will Be There while u work thru it, so long as u dont expect her to change n be all emotional n stuff
if she seems a lil contradictory thats bc she kinda is. tis the good ol nurture vs nature. her ma’s a real no nonsense chick n her pops is a frat guy drama geek greek god whos rlly into cottagecore so u get this lil blonde bitch whos sorta teetering on the edges
OTHER INFO  — cw: drug use ( full headcanons here )
re her career, she achieved pegot status when she was 18 aka she truly b dat bitch. shes not super mainstream famous tho, more like indie sweetheart, film snobs/critics fave typa gal. if ya want a trajectory she started w baby commercials then a sitcom from 4-10 ( think modern fam’s lily ) then it was off to the big screen & the stage ! 
mia has a lil bit of a drug habit. its not abusive or dependent, but it is a staple whenever shes parties bc alcohol is useless 2 her. started a lil young too bc hollywoo. primarily uppers/hallucinogens. she smokes weed a lil more liberally but the rest is mostly just an on occasion thing ( which, ngl, is a still a lil problematic when u party a lot rip )
after she got claimed, mia ended up going to demigod camps in a lot of diff places n countries, depending on where production would take her. there was never an established place, more like wherever was nearest when they wrapped up shooting bc monsters afoot n wutnot  
she was always homeschooled but she still managed to go to a prom and homecoming bc party is life. that makes eonia uni p much her first chance at having a normal educational environment & experience and even then its anything but. still tho this is her moment !!! im lit rally begging her to get a personality that isnt her internally rolling her eyes going “ its not that deep ”
might put up a bio/stats page if im feelin sxc but i wud jus like the records to show that mia stoeger is a bi sxc babe bc me ? write a het ? no grassy ass.
POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS — cw: drug use ( full connections here )
omg danny devito i love ur work ! 
,,, p self explanatory sdkjfs sum1 who loves her work ! it can be lowkey/highkey fangirl to a civil admiration
OR alternatively, y/m can Not Be a fan of her work. they might think the storyline of the projects she takes on r too out of touch n highbrow yada yada yada, but yes, we love to see either of it ! 
summer camp sweetheart !  
someone she met when at camp when they were teens ? doesnt matter in what country/city, but mia was only visiting so it was truly a one summer romance typa thing. bc she was younger, im thinkin 13-17 or w/e she was probably sweeter n a lot more emotional then. was it either’s first puppy love ? first kiss ? first “ relationship ? ” idk, do yk ? truly, so many possibilities. nothin set in stone just hmu bub 
summer camp pals ! 
p much the same as above but make it Platonic
party buddies !
or druggie pals. either way works but she wud luv it if theyre both xoxo
friends w benefits !
most probably ( but not limited to ) sum1 she met at a party skdjhsjk is it exclusive ? is any1 starting to develop feelings ? im down 4 nthing n evrything
alexa play true friend by hannah montana !
give mia her college bestie ! her confidant who knows her feels and can call each other out viciously with no ounce of resentment. we stan the friendships !
omg i love ur skirt !
that is the ugliest effing skirt i've ever seen. lmao basically sum1 mia pretends to like or acts civil w but rlly ,,,, Cannot Stand for w/e rzn   
im p much braindead rn but those are just sum ideas !!! ofc the usual staples like the pals, enemies, wutnots are also v welcome we love to see it. if u also have a wc that u think mia would fit in, id luv to know more ! there are also a couple more detailed ones here, but pls feel free to shoot me a msg n we can get 2 plotting x 
( * wipes brow * how did i type so much n say so little rip. mia is also a completely new muse so pls b patient n if i fuq up from time to time, pretend u do not see >.< nywy thnx 4 readin, sweets ! feel free to hmu here or at discord if ya wanna <3333 )
FULL INFO  ||  EONIA TASKS 
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marchivists · 4 years
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not the place to fall in love: chapter one
read on ao3! [i didn’t format anything below the “keep reading”, so it’ll probably be easier to read on ao3]
Iwaizumi was stuck, perhaps perpetually, on level fifteen of Candy Crush.
Once, as a child, he’d dedicated an entire afternoon to climbing an unclimbable tree in his backyard. He’d grown quite a bit since then and a lot had changed, but the addicting taste of chasing a difficult victory bubbled in his stomach now just as it had under that tall tree so many years ago. The stakes were higher than they probably seemed from the outside; Iwaizumi’s honor waited at the finish line and his pride danced around the colorful screen, following his finger as it swiped left and right, up and down.
He’d had an audience that afternoon by the tree and he had the same one now. Oikawa leaned against Iwaizumi’s side, head resting on his shoulder. He seemed to understand how much rode on Iwaizumi’s performance; he oohed and aahed over each move, offering words of encouragement and advice which Iwaizumi would rather have done without.
Though Iwaizumi didn’t realize it in any way that he could express with words, a bubble of sorts had formed around the pair, as it often did when they were together. Passerbys skirted around it without consciously deciding to do so, as if they too understood on some unspeakable level that Oikawa and Iwaizumi, or more accurately, OikawaandIwaizumi, lived slightly apart from everyone else. Outside the borders of the bubble, the airport waiting area produced airport noises. Hidden speakers made booming announcements, feet clicked and clacked towards unknown destinations, babies voiced their dislike for the whole business of airports, and adults coughed and sniffed as they waited for time to pass and flights to arrive. Oikawa and Iwaizumi had claimed a corner of the airport waiting area, opting to relax picnic-style on the floor instead of in two of the many empty chairs nearby.
Iwaizumi made one final swipe before slumping against the wall in despair. You failed! flashed across his phone in bright colors.
“Ah well,” Oikawa sighed, giving Iwaizumi two pats on the shoulder. He slunk down too, crossing his legs and resting folded hands on his lap. “I’m pretty sure only old people are good at that game anyway.”
Iwaizumi glared. “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“No, no. Just an observation. I can try again though if consolation is what you’re looking for.”
“Go for it.”
“Gimme a minute,” Oikawa looked up at the ceiling as though his thoughts were stuck to the plaster. “Alright. I’m pretty sure old people are terrible at Candy Crush.”
“I think you’re missing the point.”
“On the contrary, I’ve found the point. See, I’ve always suspected my Iwa-chan was secretly a grumpy old man in disguise,” he sighed dismissively, as though the thought was almost too disheartening to address. “I just wish you would have told me beforehand. Your tickets would have been so much cheaper.”
“I think sitting here has made you stupider than usual.” Iwaizumi elbowed his setter, and, ignoring Oikawa’s protests at being treated so unfairly, moved to put his phone in his pocket. He hoped the turn of his shoulder was enough to hide his blush at being called “my Iwa-chan,” or that, at the very least, Oikawa had lost at least fifty percent of his perceptive abilities after being trapped in an airport with no stimulation for so long.
Iwaizumi had always loved airports. They were big, loud, and full of hope and potential: the kind of place that, as a kid, you’d long to sprint through at full speed without consequences.
Oikawa had always hated them. Iwaizumi could see that hatred now that neither of them were distracted. It bled from the way Oikawa scanned the crowd of unfamiliar faces around them, the way his rigid shoulders and stone-statue-posture screamed I am untouchable. It was obviously convincing, as anyone searching for spaces to camp out on the floor scurried elsewhere when their eyes reached Oikawa’s proud, rigid form. The fear and hatred made Iwaizumi want to grab Oikawa’s hand, but for the moment he wasn’t sure if the untouchable part applied to best friends or not.
He checked his watch. They had an hour or so before their flight would be ready to board. Despite his aversion to the place, Oikawa had insisted on arriving unnaturally early, and Iwaizumi had complied with minimal complaint.
Oikawa mirrored Iwaizumi and glanced at his own watch. “Do you think we’ll be late?”
Iwaizumi rolled his eyes. “Only if it takes us an hour to walk ten meters.”
Oikawa huffed. Iwaizumi took out his phone again.
For the next fifteen minutes, their bubble was uncharacteristically quiet. Iwaizumi resisted the urge to perform a victory dance after reaching level sixteen. An incoming text momentarily stopped him from lining up five purple gummies.
From: you know who it is
         iwa-chan~~
Iwaizumi swiped the notification away and watched with satisfaction as the five gummies disappeared. Level seventeen.
From: you know who it is
    i can see ur phone from here :3 congrats on leveling up, old man iwa-chan
Iwaizumi flipped Oikawa off without taking his eyes from his screen, missing the strained smile he received in return. There was more silence. Level eighteen, then one more. Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two. He reached level thirty before receiving another text.
From: you know who it is
            you know, there’s an 86% chance we’ll both die if the plane crashes
That got his attention. He turned to look at Oikawa, who sat scrolling through his phone, expression casual and bored, as though he’d run out of things to like on Instagram and was most definitely not worrying about dying in a plane crash.
Iwaizumi had prepared for this moment. Oikawa’s anxiety was a vigilant companion; it never took a day off and spent most of its time searching for something new to latch onto which it could then suck the rationality and safety out of. In the past, it had made the setter afraid of coughing fits, books with an odd number of pages, eating out in public places, opened drawers, and rooms with too many people in them. Comparatively, flying was an easy thing to demonize. To ward off any excess fear, Iwaizumi had scoured over research and data on plane safety, committing them to memory in case they were needed. He’d tried to put himself in Oikawa’s shoes, tried to image how anxiety would twist the safety of air travel into something horrible. He had imagined dramatic explosions, smoke pouring out of engines and catching flame. He had armed himself with information contradicting these imaginings, just in case Oikawa needed it. He opened his mouth to say something about how their chances of dying were one in seven million when his phone, practically forgotten in his hands, dinged again.
From: you know who it is
      maybe we should go home. lol
Iwaizumi put his phone away. He scooted away from the wall until they sat close together, knees touching. He poked the setter’s leg. “Oikawa.”
Oikawa continued staring down at his phone.
Iwaizumi sighed. “Tell me the stats for getting into your school. For getting into the volleyball program there.”
Oikawa shrugged dismissively, like someone who hates bragging but can’t tell the truth without unwittingly doing so. The movement made Iwaizumi want to headbutt him.
“Only three percent of the applicants get in, remember? Three percent.”
“I know that.”
“Then tell me, why should we go home when our chances of dying are dozens of decimal points below that percentage?”
Oikawa looked up and his eyes were wide with questions he probably didn’t want answered.
Aren’t you scared, too? Yes, Iwaizumi wanted to respond, but not of the same things you are.
What if they just send me back? What’s the point?
Iwaizumi’s own eyes were impenetrable and knowing. He stared back, hoping he managed to get his own silent message across. You are amazing. You deserve this chance.
A few long seconds passed before Oikawa broke their staring contest, eyes jumping over stranger’s faces, presumably to see if anyone had noticed his sudden break in character. “I suppose I can endure the devastatingly long flight. Even though it will be practically unbearable sitting next to a brute like yourself.”
“Good.” Iwaizumi cleared his throat and moved back to his original spot. He looked Oikawa over, relaxing at the way his posture was no longer screaming as much as it was talking. The setter waved to a baby sitting with its mother a few feet away and earned tiny smiles from both parties in return, mother and child hopelessly charmed by his easy smile and fluid movements.
Iwaizumi was charmed, too, and had always been. He was amazed by Oikawa’s ability to quickly recover from anything, to go from scrambling to find purchase in reality to storming forward with quick, confident steps. For the second time that day Iwaizumi felt the urge to take his hand.
He stopped himself, running his hand through his hair to chase the feeling away. He’d sworn to himself, and to Hanamaki and Matsukawa, that he would not come back to Japan without confessing someway, somehow. A crowded airport didn’t seem like the proper place and right before a fifteen-hour flight didn’t seem like the right time.
He didn’t expect the feelings to be reciprocated. They’d been best friends for so long that it almost felt impossible to make the trek from platonic intimacy to the romantic kinds without falling off the edge somewhere in-between. Besides, Oikawa had received so many confessions from so many people, each much better than Iwaizumi in every respect. And he had rejected each one with a sad, polite smile and a few empathetic words of kindness. It’s the moments after that Iwaizumi feared the most, the switch from being someone Oikawa didn’t have to handle with intentional delicacy to someone on the receiving end of pity and a false smile. The gap the truth might create between them, the spacing out of OikawaandIwaizumi, made him want to run home and crawl between the sheets of his bed and never come out again. But, Iwaizumi Hajime hated cowards and liars more than most anything and he had felt like both for far too long. In a way, he imagined spilling his feelings would work like a sort of redemption. He could reclaim his dignity, live without fear, and push Oikawa Tooru away forever. He hoped to minimize the force and longevity of the last part with distance and time; perhaps, with thousands of miles between them, Iwaizumi could move on or Oikawa could learn to live and forget and things would return to normal. Maybe. Hopefully. Whatever the outcome, Iwaizumi would not let Oikawa go without telling him everything. As long as he didn’t have to sit next to his rejector for fifteen miserable hours, everything would be fine. Probably.
Minutes ticked by in comfortable silence and Iwaizumi reached level thirty-one. Oikawa stood, stretched, and announced his decision to mark the momentous occasion with a trip to the bathroom.
Iwaizumi slid a red jellybean to the right. “I’ll watch our stuff.”
“No, no,” Oikawa hummed, pulling Iwaizumi’s phone from his hands and putting it in the pocket of his jeans. “You have to come with me, Iwa-chan. It’s boring doing it alone.”
“Do you think you could sound more perverted if you tried?”
Oikawa stuck out his tongue. “So immature,” he held out a hand to pull Iwaizumi up and dragged him over to the woman with the baby. “Excuse me, do you mind watching our stuff for a moment?”
The woman assured them she could and the baby babbled pleasantly in agreement.
For reasons only his heart could explain, Iwaizumi allowed himself to be pulled across the airport into the bathroom. He only half listened to Oikawa’s chatter as they went, hearing bits and pieces about the memes Hanamaki kept sending him, and doesn’t that lady right there look ridiculous in those clown shoes? Iwaizumi focused most of his attention on the firm warmth of Oikawa’s hand in his own, the way stranger’s eyes glanced over them and flashed with assumptions Iwaizumi could only wish were true. And then, too suddenly for Iwaizumi to keep up with, Oikawa stopped moving.
Iwaizumi collided into him with a grunt. He moved to get a good look at Oikawa’s face, scold and insult primed on the tip of his tongue, just to balk at the painful grimace he found there. He followed Oikawa’s shell-shocked gaze to see Ushijima Wakatoshi standing in front of one of the urinals, doing what one does in a bathroom. His gaze was firmly settled downwards and their entranced hadn’t seemed to break his concentration. Iwaizumi blinked a few times to prove his eyes were really seeing what they said they were before turning to try to share a silent conversation with Oikawa, to ask what the hell? and set up a game plan.
Should they confront him, tease the shit out of him (no pun intended)? Should they walk out and go about their day, knowing that, at any moment, they could run into the second most repulsive person on the planet? Should they pull down his pants and leave him stranded, alone in the bright white airport bathroom? But Oikawa was staring at Ushijima and seemed too busy having a silent conversation with himself to worry about Iwaizumi.
The next few seconds moved like solidified grease making its way into the trash: very slowly, with moments of gag inducing repulsion and general disgust. Finally, Ushijima zipped up his pants. Oikawa tensed, squeezing Iwaizumi’s wrist. He was trying to communicate something, surely, but Iwaizumi wasn’t given enough time to decipher the message before Oikawa flew into action, turning around sharply. Iwaizumi stumbled over his feet, shoes squeaking as Oikawa practically pulled him out of the door. Oikawa flipped the light switch just as they hit the exit and the bathroom flooded with black.
“Holy shit,” Iwaizumi hissed as the door closed behind him, leaving Ushijima trapped in the dark.
Oikawa continued to pull him forward, heading in the direction of their belongings. His voice was hoarse with nerves and conspiracy. “What the fuck, Iwa-chan?”
There had existed an unspoken truth between them that the airport represented a doorway to another universe. When they’d bought their plane tickets and printed boarding passes, they’d solidified the plan to leave their old world behind in favor of something new and unknown. When they’d stepped foot in the airport, they’d left the past waiting at the doorway. And when they finally boarded the plane, the world they’d shared together for so long would disappear like leaves scattering in the wind. Despite the existence of this truth, a piece of their past seemed to have crossed the threshold with them. And it was not a piece either of them would have chosen to pack in their carry-ons.
They arrived back at their luggage in record time. Oikawa sat up their suitcases, forming a barrier between them and the rest of the airport. He squatted behind it, only the top of his head visible as he scanned the waiting area. Iwaizumi joined him just as Ushijima walked out of the bathroom.
“He’s hideous,” Oikawa whispered. Iwaizumi nodded in agreement. They watched with horror as Ushijima made his way towards them, closer and closer to the bubble they’d created.
“Holy shit,” Oikawa wheezed. The shocking boyish-ness of the sound pulled all the dramatic tension from the air. Oikawa’s eyes shone with delight and repulsion. “Iwa-chan, oh my god. Look, look! He’s wearing crocs.”
Iwaizumi looked and saw that it was so. The shoes, bright purple, looked out of place in the stainless-steel backdrop of the airport.
“Holy shit,” Iwaizumi breathed. Oikawa couldn’t, or wouldn’t, stop wheezing, and Iwaizumi felt compelled to cover the setter’s mouth with his hands as Ushijima sat in a seat only feet away from their hiding spot. Iwaizumi stared at Oikawa and Oikawa, trapped in place behind Iwaizumi’s hands, was forced to stare back.
“What do we do?” Iwaizumi whispered. Oikawa shrugged. “He’s right there.”
Oikawa made some muffled attempts at forming words behind Iwaizumi’s hand before Iwaizumi set him free. “We could go get some plastic knives from the cafeteria. There are plenty of places to hide a body in an airport. Probably.”
“You’re a really shitty guy, you know that right?,” Iwaizumi chastised, voice slipping from a whisper back to it’s normal volume. Oikawa, returning the favor from earlier, used both hands to cover Iwaizumi’s mouth with a loud shush! Iwaizumi licked them in retaliation. Oikawa screeched as he pulled his hands back to furiously wipe them on his pants.
The arrival of a third party popped the bubble. Ushijima’s form towered over them. “Oikawa.”
Iwaizumi and Oikawa shared a look. Yikes.
“Ushiwaka-chan,” Oikawa replied, voice cool and detached. Teenage, boyish, silly Oikawa had waved sayonara and disappeared in half a second, leaving confident, collected, not-a-genius Oikawa in his place. He did not dignify Ushijima’s arrival by getting up, but instead fell back on his hands and looked up, like a beachgoer relaxing in the sand and staring with distaste at the hot sky above. He waited in silence, inviting Ushijima to continue.
Ushijima looked between the pair for a moment before clearing his throat. “I would refrain from using the restroom. The lights do not work.”
“Or maybe you just really suck at going to the bathroom,” Oikawa sneered, voice laced with so much poison it almost seemed as though he was wielding a dagger instead of a flimsy, pitiful excuse of an insult.
Ushijima stared. “I don’t think that is the case.”
For another long, uncomfortable eternity, the three shared the same air in dumb silence. To Iwaizumi, it seemed like Oikawa was drawing Ushijima into a silent dueling match and was waiting for his opponent to make the next move. It also seemed like Ushijima had no clue he was a participant in any kind of match, nor that there was a need to host one in the first place. When enough time had passed for Iwaizumi’s legs to start cramping, Ushijima nodded a sudden goodbye and left.
The pair sat in stunned quiet for a moment before Iwaizumi looked Oikawa over and rolled his eyes. “Real smooth, captain.”
Oikawa sucked in a breath of fast, disapproving air. “I pity the person,” he started, standing up and offering Iwaizumi his hand. His posture screamed I am a weapon. Do not touch. “who has to sit next to that on a plane.”
Iwaizumi grabbed Oikawa’s hand without question. “And you thought you had it rough sitting next to me.”
12 notes · View notes
advernia · 4 years
Text
around june of last year, i decided to revive my writing blog as one of the many potential stress-relief methods i could think of.... i didn’t think i’d be able to keep it active for long since work + family duties keep me preoccupied most of the time, but eyyy!!! so far i haven’t lost the motivation to keep going back to this blog, and i even managed to keep it afloat for half a year!!! amazing!!! (•̀o•́)ง
and now here we are halfway through 2020!!! it’s waaaay overdue but here’s a big T H A N K  Y O U  V E R Y  M U C H ! ! ! to everyone and anyone who dropped by this blog last year + all them likes, comments, reblogs...... please know that i’m still i n c r e d i b l y grateful for the support & interest in the content i’ve posted up!!!! tbh my activity’s still hella sporadic so it’s really amazing for me that i even gained new followers.... i’m very honored to have all of you stick around my blog despite my irregularity!!!!!!!! (༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ)
it’s also overdue, but i slowly managed and finally cleaned up the blog like i’ve been meaning to do + changed the blog name to match my ao3 handle for consistency!!! i make no promises to be super active... but i’m sure that i still want to continue writing & keep this blog alive!!!! 
again, thank you all for your time + reading my works!!!!!!  ∩( ´∀` )∩ work commentary on the rest of my works last year follows under the cut!
oct 1 // hero’s journey
a drabble on blanc + oliver about the alices... now that i think of it, calling the first alice first alice is kinda funny considering that alice is really her name... or is it? 
i do hope blanc’s route talks about her a bit, haha! i mean, i wish cybird remembers that they’ve been dropping the occasional background tidbits about her... like for example, her pocketwatch (that she gave to blanc eventually) having a magic crystal engraved into it.... her potentially leaving a fucking globe in the black army’s possession (like... wow... u fell with that thing????????)....
plus, i just find it interesting that she was remembered by cradle as a heck of a troublemaker lol! it also makes you wonder who among the main cast met her, blanc aside... though it’s not stated when exactly she fell into cradle, so maybe only blanc had the opportunity of meeting her...
so does blanc speak of her fondly bc she’s a woman, or is there something else??? has he been frequently visiting the land of reason pre-game??? has he found the first alice’s antique shop / met her again??? does he still try to figure out the reason why there’s a magic crystal engraved into the first alice’s pocketwatch????? hmmmmm......
on another note, it would be hilarious if cybird pulls a peter pan 2......... since we can’t pull off a mother-daughter relationship like wendy & jane’s, what if alice the second is somehow actually related to the first alice?? and while she’s completely different from her predecessor, blanc finds himself falling for alice the second........ just like he fell for the first alice? drama!
that’s just a random thought but kidding aside, i do hope blanc’s route is hella interesting bc i think he’s our mr. exposition for knowing more about cradle itself lol
oct 1 // fair (?) ladies & phony (?) enchanters
a result of going manic a few days after seeing harr’s trailer + route release.... ahaHAHA I’M STILL WILLING TO PLAY UR ROUTE IN JP HARR (if i actually had time to sit down and translate gET REKT)
i liked writing these drabbles and i think they’re cute but tbh they did nothing to ease my curiosity about harr’s route.... if anything else, it became even w o r s e  haha........................
if i think of blanc to have a cradle-centric route, i do hope harr’s route is magic tower-centric! naturally it will be since he’s got history there, but i hope a lot of my questions about the magic tower will be answered.....
will harr’s perspective of the magic tower be in the eyes of a test subject or a disciple???? he was scouted by the magic tower, but it wasn’t stated what he was doing exactly..... going by hints + loki’s & zero’s routes, it’s more of him being a disciple, so there’s bound to be guilt.......
hopefully alice’s characterization in his route is good + we get a fun group dynamic with loki!!! their potential.... the most(?) notorious criminal of cradle, a sought after test subject, and that one girl who nullifies all magic; a renegade trio lurking around the forbidden forest.... what an odd bunch!
oct 4 // god is a five minute hymn
a religious themed fic with lancelot & alice - tbh i don’t even know why religion was the first thing that came into mind when liz and i were talking about cultural differences, lol.
on that note though! i personally like thinking that if ever cradle had a semblance of a religion, it would be polytheistic & nature-centric, and not strictly practiced - the stratocracy of both territories i’d like to think makes it harder for religion to have a voice, much less have one that is practiced by the general population. the only thing general about it is that the religion centers or has magic crystals as an important factor... or something. yeah.
that aside, i think i specifically chose lancelot in this piece for the sole reason that his canonically stated lack of common sense, in my opinion, gives him the curiosity of a child sometimes - there’s no sense of malice or doubt, just the pure innocence of wanting to know something....... religion does that to kids, especially when introduced to it at first.
rereading the fic makes me think of the instances where when faced with dire or unsettling situations, people turn to faith as a life line.... well, i’m not sure if i had that subconsciously in mind when writing alice, but that does give a spin to it....
oct 6 // flow like the river nile
a spontaneous red army-centric fic! it certainly turned out better than i expected... i liked the formatting i used for this one!
if cybird can give us more about the pre-game suitors it would be great, tbh! and while the stuff about them in school is interesting, i’d like to see more about when they assumed their positions + combat scenes! the neutrals are special cases, but knowing more about their living conditions + daily lives is also a treat...
i was thinking of adding one last snippet about lancelot in the eyes of the reds, but i scrapped it out and switched it to alice & lancelot’s conversation about duty - it could’ve worked better if i stuck to using the what is your duty? question, but i scrapped it eventually too. ah well. it does look good enough as it is. 
oct 7 // seeking out phantoms
a mandatory(???) odd one out aka content that’s not ikerev, haha! i missed fe:a all of a sudden...
i never got around to writing properly for this fandom tho, what a shame - i’ve got some bits of pieces in my drafts that looked interesting and easy enough to pick up, and this was one of them.
robin investigating more of their plegian heritage could’ve been a good subplot tbh... i still wish there was something like a paralogue or dlc about it, bc honestly the valm arc goes a bit slow until you get to the future past revelations. ah well.
and gaius bc first husband for the win.... not like i actually had the guts to marry anyone else in my other save files lololol
nov 7 // push me off a bridge (to catch me as i fall)
my longest project of 2019, holy shit! i didn’t know i still had it in me to write something past 10k... i need more of that motivation + energy....
there’s nothing much to say about this since i blabbed about everything in the post-reading notes, but as much as i fought myself to get this done, i really enjoyed writing a long fic again! hopefully i can get myself to write another one this year...
nov 18 // beloved, beloved, let me be clear
18 sentences on zero & alice + macross frontier references! man, when i really got to the point about the earrings i was thinking of sheryl a lot....
kept it in sentences cause i didn’t have enough time to put up a decent ficlet! but i really wanted to get my screaming out of my system....... i used to do sentences + three word sentences challenges before, and doing one again was pretty fun!
but really.... zero’s route kept me happy for days???? their buildup + dynamic was something i was totally w e a k for, no joke..... thank gods the collection event was going on, bc i really made good use of my stocked chapter tickets lolol!
i was especially excited come the ball scene, and that cg..... a h a h a.... i need more of those pretty cgs where i can see alice’s face + costume change....... 
nov 20 // coloring inside the lines
jonah + alice + makeup!!!! tbh this was really fun, i enjoyed writing this one - if i remember, this was a fic that i managed to continuously work on the day i thought it up!
jonah may not be my best boy but tbh i find writing him very easy - i guess it’s because i’m very fond of characters like him!!! those uptight nobles who are as prideful as hell but can definitely live up to their name + are more capable than their bragging suggests... idk if there’s a general trope name for these doods, but i especially like analyzing their motivations + convictions!!!
i liked how i ended it, but i apparently i made an actual ending that’s now a snippet in my drafts - jonah & alice head to the ball, and somewhere along some bystanders’ flow of conversation someone drops a comment about jonah’s lips looking... quite more luscious than usual, lolol. so t h i r s t y. upon hearing this, alice can’t seem to stop smiling for some reason..... 
nov 27 // blue fields, verdant skies
a practice drabble set centric on a ray/alice development that i liked so much i made it into a series - plus, it’s black army content and honestly i need to write more of them! my red army bias is showing whoooooops
it’s a feudal + arranged marriage au, with the latter... being quite spontaneous. it’s those types of marriages where neither have even met - not even once - only to face each other come the wedding... so it’s a given that audiences from both parties are rather curious how this will turn out.
since i had the theme of fate in mind, ray was the automatic pick for the male lead. the rest of the black army is a given and for kicks, i added dean and dalim! i actually want to write about them + mousse, but since i’m still unsure on their characterizations i’ve been holding them off.... but i gave in anyway.....
alice is again named for word count convenience purposes since it’s in actual 100 words aka drabble form! i have planned scenes + an ending already in mind, but going there is pretty hard bc.... i still have to write the scenes in between + resist temptation to expand further on other scenes, haha....
initially i was planning to keep it updated here as well, but any more updates of this are on ao3 instead! the formatting looks better there instead of my blog tbh, and it also gives it a sort of muted tone to the story that works with me!
this is also the 31st fic in this blog, marking an end of the challenge liz bestowed to me lolol - since i brought this blog back to life around june, i was dared that by the end of the year, i should’ve posted more than 15 fics to add up to the initial 15 i had already posted before, thus the numbers on my fics back then.... now that i actually succeeded, i can stop counting lololol!!!! tho hopefully i can still be pretty active this year....
dec 22 // duck, duck, bullet
oliver & fenrir on guns... this probably wins as the most spontaneous idea i had on my head - tbh, i wasn’t even sure where i was going with it at first! but i’m sure i was suddenly thinking about that one detective conan movie.... then it became kid!oliver with a gun.....
i wonder if he tests the bullets at night, when he’s in adult form.... then again, kid!oliver with a gun still works.... say that because he’s a genius inventor, he made some models to serve as his shooting targets.... but another thought that amuses me more is.... blanc does the bullet testing for him!?
lololol i already thought about blanc being oliver’s live target, but i also find blanc with a gun very interesting.......... i mean, blanc certainly doesn’t look like he can fight, but who knows??? i mean, mousse is the former ace of hearts, but i still can’t imagine him fighting..... appearances can be deceiving....
the two aside, i wonder how fenrir even met oliver and got him working on his bullets........ was it through blanc or other connections???? how long have they been seller and buyer???? does anyone else commission anything from oliver?????? hmmmm.....
dec 23 // terms of surrender
i’ve been told by liz + luci + other friends that i needed to practice writing more.... cheesy fluff. i’m not sure if this sirius/alice piece counts, lol. in fact, i think it’s my definition of fluff i see here - and it translates to not exactly fluffy at all!
tho if you want me to be honest about it - when i write suitor/alice stuff, how alice was characterized in the suitor’s route is still my basis for how i’ll write her, and sirius’ alice................ haha......... i think she’s the alice that’s honestly easy to write but i choose to avoid.......... 
i don’t dislike the sirius/alice dynamic per se, tho. i do find it cute, especially if cybird stops emphasizing the issue of maturity in the relationship on alice’s side. i understand - i really do - that it’s a potential issue in the relationship, but...... that’s not the only problem you can possibly have as time passes, right?????
on another note, it’s funny that only sirius gets to be harped about the maturity due to age difference issue - setting aside blanc, who heavens know how old he is, lancelot’s 29 and since alice is presumed to be around ray + fenrir’s age, you could say that she’s 24 or even 23 to be safe.... so that makes a 5 / 6 years difference but it’s never brought up, lol. but i guess it’s because unlike lancelot, the black army’s been making sirius’ age a running gag....
anyway, this piece is pretty decent! i was thinking of something along the lines of mornings between a “married couple”.... there were two scenarios i had in mind, and i opted to write this one out first.... maybe i’ll have the second one posted up here another day.
dec 28 // a chain of black thrones
pre-game!sirius & ray and bc i was thinking a lot about the previous chosen, the former jack of spades!!! i wonder if the armies have a set age for retirement lolol... it would be awesome if there was still a chosen who’s already past his 50s or something, haha!
since sirius was constantly badgered to take on the role of king, i was also wondering about how long the black army was ‘king-less’... i mean, if the tension between both armies was really as great as they say, having no king puts the black army at a precarious position... i also thought that ‘nah, maybe there was a king or something but maybe the black army didn’t like him or something so they insisted that sirius take it instead’ but sirius’ 1st anniv. epilogue says otherwise - there really was a period that the black army had no king, wow. how the heck did they deal with that???? surely the red army saw this as a display of vulnerability....
can the black army’s chosen choose to leave their posts when they feel like it??? when they’re defeated by a challenger, what happens to them - a demotion, or do they serve under the ‘new’ chosen??? does the black army’s chosen change constantly because of their meritocracy + challenger system??? like, how do they deal with that, and do they announce their changes in chosen each council meeting??? each new question just snowballed my curiosity, whoops...
there were so many angles i thought of but i decided to settle for addressing the king-less state of the black army... through the eyes of a veteran who’s probably served many kings throughout his time of service as part of the black army’s chosen.
i gave this jack of spades character a name, actually - garret folner. maybe someday i’ll write him again, bc i actually enjoyed thinking about the present + past chosen interactions - maybe i’d think about that for the red army, but this time i find the black army’s side more interesting for this situation.
dec 29 // steadfast tin soldier
a zero/alice piece for zeroweek - i was about to post pt. 1 as a standalone, but then i just thought about how.... zero bought alice a gown.... but never got to dance with her at the day of the ball..... so i rushed to add pt. 2 haha!
with the addition of pt. 2 it looks cut short tho - i did think of putting a scene in between, but no good ideas came into mind bc i was too fascinated with the dancing scene... i swear at some point i will find myself writing a fic or a part of a fic that’s a dance scene for the rest of the ikerev suitors + alice....
this is the kind of fluff i live for, actually... i’m totally fine with the steamy content cybird throws during events + bonus stories, but if i were to be honest i say.... where’s my non-sexual intimacy????? the simple, wholesome stuff?????????????????
man, i feel hilarious for typing that out..... but well, i guess it’s a matter of different strokes for different folks, lol!
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fcundwings-archive2 · 4 years
Note
Sons of Anarchy - Erica/Juice - Juice Ortiz
fandom/ship/character + accepting + @queencfwolves​
001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:
Favorite character: opie winston
Least Favorite character: tara knowles
5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): opie/lyla, chibs/juice, tig/venus, tig/kozik, tig/gemma
Character I find most attractive: jax teller
Character I would marry: juice ortiz
Character I would be best friends with: lyla winston
a random thought: lyla deserved better, everybody can Fight me on this
An unpopular opinion: jax should’ve stayed with wendy 🤷‍♀️
My Canon OTP: opie/lyla
My Non-canon OTP: chibs/juice
Most Badass Character: jax teller, unfortunately
Most Epic Villain: galen o’shay
Pairing I am not a fan of: i ship basically every canon thing? but the ship i just...really don’t care about is jax/tara like ya they’re cute but i’m just...indifferent [unless it’s kasee and sam’s jax/tara, then it’s the Cutest thing and i love it]
Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): tara. she was so good in s1 and okay in the others but in s5 and s6, it just really went to shit and i know it’s to fulfill the hamlet bullshit but still....come on
Favourite Friendship: tig/kozik
Character I most identify with: probably juice? idk, i don’t really see myself in any of them 😂
Character I wish I could be: ha...none
002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:
When I started shipping them: whenever u were like ‘what if they were friends in queens’ i was done
My thoughts: look i’m just really mad this isn’t canon because erica is so goddamn important to juice and it’s genuinely extremely DIFFICULT writing verses for juice where erica doesn’t exist 
What makes me happy about them: they just love each other so fucking much ??? despite everything they’ve been through ??? and honestly that’s the kind of love we all need in our life
What makes me sad about them: the whole thing with nicky and erica’s bf like....u idiots the love of ur life is RIGHT THERE and ur both fucking it up 
Things done in fanfic that annoys me: i....don’t think there’s any fanfics for them 😂 but i would absolutely write some if i was better at writing fics
Things I look for in fanfic: n/a
My wishlist: i think we’ve covered pretty much all of it already tbh 
Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: nobody ???????
My happily ever after for them: after juice is released from prison, they get married and tig walks erica down the aisle and chibs is juice’s best man and lyla or tessa is erica’s maid of honor and then they go on a lil honeymoon and then they have the twins and adopt apple and juice is accepted back into the club and the club gets out of guns so juice doesn’t get arrested anymore and they just Live their best lives as one huge family with the rest of samcro 
003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:
How I feel about this character: he’s a goddamn angel that deserved better
Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: fuck. uh, erica, chibs, tig, happy, wendy, anna hart (jundlcndwastes), romana harris (romxna), bella ortega (belissimae), shay strickland (shxyme), ravenna astrape (diiavola), nicky to an extent, trinity ashby, i could probably put aside my feelings on chibs/juice to plot out a ship with kerrianne, i def lowkey ship him with tara don’t @ me
My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: if we’re just talking about CANON and not personal ships, then hands down chibs.
My unpopular opinion about this character: he....kinda did deserve to die. as much as i love him and as much as i wanted him to have a happy ending, he was a rat, he did kill miles in cold blood, he did cover for the murder of their president’s old lady. there was no saving him. he did it all to himself and rats have to die, unfortunately. but i do think he did want to die at that point, you can just See it in his eyes as tully is stabbing him. he’s not shocked, he’s not hurt, he’s not begging for mercy or forgiveness or trying to back out of it; he’s accepted it. it’s exactly what he’d been wanting since season 4. 
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: i wish him and chibs got together i wish he’d gotten the chance to redeem himself. a chance to explain why he did what he did, that it didn’t matter anyways because the rico case was dropped, because then maybe he never would’ve had to cover for gemma
Favorite friendship for this character: canonically speaking, chibs without a doubt.
My crossover ship: juice/erica reyes, clearly 
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girlbookwrm · 5 years
Text
AVENGERS: CIVIL WAR
THE MIGHTY PRE ENDGAME REWATCH
it took us two entire days to watch this, back in whenever we were watching this. I’ve got a Bundle of Papers here in front of me, and the CW Bundle is by far the thickest, and that’s with minimal salt content.
Speaking of Salt: The Roommate and I had to approach this as an Avengers movie. Because otherwise the salt levels in this would be toxic, possibly fatal. Even so, ppl with high cholesterol be warned
LET’S DO THIS
1991!
Winter Soldier: 
what is this
what is this please
dat beef tho
what is this op sec
honestly
NO mask
SHINY FUCKOFF ARM just HANGING OUT
CCTV???
~ooooooo he’s a ghooooooooooooost~
he’s got an extremely dedicated and very harried cleanup crew is what he’s got
OH! OLD LOGO ILU!!!
LAGOS!!
The Roommate: That’s a lot of sugar
i ain’t judging
what, you think her powers run on optimism?
is there an accent? is there not? Shroedinger’s accent.
droney the drone
sam’s lil sky roomba
i love him
guhhhh this scene every line shows character and growth and i just *clenches fist*
did
did falcon just throw steve
just yeeted him at the enemy?
god i love that
also: has steve bulked up since TWS?
that’s also on Sam, yeah?
CUT THE CHEEEEECCCCK
is this fucking NEUROTOXIN? STEVE WHERE’S UR MASK?
Steve, throwing himself into a room full of an unknown poison gas without a mask: I bet i can survive this
Bucky, in Bucharest: *breaks whatever he’s holding without knowing why*
god i love sam
“I don’t work like that no more” Means ?????????????
PARKOUR NAT
is also BRUNCH MOM NAT
“both grunting” is always one of my favorite subtitles
2 white boys fighting in the middle of the street like it’s a video game
god someone took the murder strut to heart wow that is some. that is some something that’s for sure.
give me even one (1) heterosexual explanation for "your pal your buddy your bucky"
there’s no way that bucky ever said this, right? this is just Rumlow fucking with steve, and the screenwriters fucking with us
because IN CASE YOU WERE NOT IN THIS FANDOM IN 2016, WE ALL THOUGHT CAP WOULD DIE IN THIS MOVIE
WE WERE SO SURE
wow i wonder if that will be relevant to anyone’s emotions here in the year of our lordt 2019
anyway, what bucky actually said was:
“please tell rogers... that he’s a big dumb dildo and he should wear a gas mask and also a parachute.”
listen i love this opening scene but also wanda is not at all responsible for this explosion and the fact that they act like she is undermines my ability to suspend my disbelief.
DIGITAL ENYOUTHENMENT ALERT
also, tony the fact that you are using your literal dead mom as an actual therapist is
wow
BARF feels right to me
too real, tony
it’s too real
how ARE you getting around the strings and taxes tho
Also can i say that i actually love that Pepper’s absence is this profoundly important to the story. The hole where pepper should be is a huge part of this story and i like that. i like that a lot.
WOW THAT EXTRA IS LIKE A MASHUP OF NAT AND WANDA. SHE IS THE GENERIC MARVEL WHITE LADY
more a+ visual storytelling with the elevator
I’m just so mad that they blame wanda and play that straight?
all they had to do was outright acknowledge one (1) time that the media is picking on her because she’s a woman/a foreigner
imagine that speech coming from nat instead of steve
though i do love Steve’s pep talk
again. give me one (1) heterosexual explanation
though why not have Steve say “they’re just bullies, you did the right thing” and hearken back to smolsteeb
The Roommate: Remember how i was mad at his Oscars Velvet Blazer? I am also mad at this sweater.... it looks... so soft... i don’t know if i want it on him or off him... just wanna tuch....... and wear..........?”
Vision’s Ascot is. Something else man.
The Roommate: Why is ross secretary of state?
Me: Why is Trump President
Me: I bet Ross is vegan
the roommate, who has vegan-related trauma: UUUUGGGHHHHHHHH
Nat's reaction to vigilantes: Bitch please. she is Unbothered.
you don’t have to show us footage we’ve got the ptsd nightmares
400 pages in 3 days
[tired american sighing]
we honestly can’t even criticize this plot point anymore just
[my longest and most american sigh]
CLEVELAND!!!
hail hydra continues to be the Most Terrible last words
but WHY does ross have the congressional medal of honor
do you know how HARD it is to get one of those????
yeesh
sassy black friends sassing at each other
is definitely a
thing that is happening rn
Vision: Well Actually
no one cares, vis
ok like
a kid is dead but
3.6 is an okay GPA
maybe all my friends are overachievers
maybe it’s just because most of them are women but like
it’s an okay GPA
i’d have 8000% more respect for Tony if he was more upfront like “look this is on me” especially here
are we supposed to be picking all this up as subtext, actually?
because i know that this movie ALSO had a Troubled Youth ala ant man
and i really do appreciate the Russos for relying on a smart audience but there’s a lot going on
and it’s very obvious to me that they had to shift gears 18,000 times in the script writing phase
so like, you’ve got old man vet steve
but it’s painfully obvious that he missed vietnam right?
like
it’s painfully obvious
and he’s v egotistical and self righteous too 
it IS a battle of the egos
and no one is right
except natasha
Steve: i have to go
me: mood
LONDON!!!!
oh god
oh god no
steve god no steve oh god
gfhskfdjjjksjdjjhrrrrhrhhrhfhh [wailing and rending of garments]
Re Peggy’s age:
SURPRISE IT’S ACTUALLY PLAUSIBLE
so the True Hallmark of a Cap Movie is Peggy telling steve what to do.
so weird to have that in an avengers movie
i do love this. GOOD BRO NAT CONTENT
Um. is vision a minor? is wanda?
again, nat is the only Correct one here
stay together guys
it might be
reeeeeeaaaaally important in 
*checks watch*
two years’ time.
~hug~
VIENNA!!!!!
CHAD WICK! CHAD! WICK! CHAD! WICK!
god i love the xhosa in this
There is a level of worldbuilding in this that we p much only get from the russos/markus&mcfeely. i mean -- internal consistency worldbuilding? if that makes sense? we get a lot of visual worldbuilding in black panther, but this is distinctly different and hard to articulate and it has to do with the way they approach things and how they assume audience intelligence
it just works for me
oh no chadwick boseman don’t be cry
Sharon deserves better
than being cockblocked by her own aunt
and also sam wilson (who also deserves better)
cryptid!bucky
Nat did you get that suit from jenny agutter?
LA Brunch Mom Nat
mah girl
she’s just so tired
steve (bless him) is just so exhausting
couples date sam and steve dressed to match
“at the gym”??? really? the arm is... a bit of a giveaway
i do feel bad for zemo in this one specific case
russian IS hard
how. did he get that in there?
Soft Plumboy Bucky
BEEF
Captain’s Log: Buck’s place is a shithole
Sergeant’s Log: Steve’s face is pretty
surprise bitch
“That’s Smart, Good Strategy” is an excellent phrase to use in everyday conversation in order to weed out who Knows and who Doesn’t.
What i have learned from civil war: 
Captain America is a projectile weapon
further query:
did bucky ever hurl small steve at assailants?
Bucky: *punts steve down an alley*
Steve, 90 lbs of rage at 90 mph: GET WRECKED
Bucky’s got big tommy wiseau cryptid energy here
And now there’s a cat
bucky:
Tumblr media
I love this vampire running and also bucky’s thighs
Steve Rogers: Excuse me sir I need to commandeer this vehicle. YEET.
Bucky Barnes: Excuse me sir I need to commandeer this vehicle. YOINK.
Bucky and Steve: Wrecking your morning commute since 2014
WAR MACHINE!!!
god vis has the biggest dorkiest crush
so vis are you a child prodigy? or? what?
The Roommate, a cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure: vis have you eaten anything between CW and IW?
Me, sinnamon roll, not to be trusted: *dying* *thinking about how Vision’s got schroedinger’s dick. does it exist? does it not exist? who knows.*
Me: Y. Yes. I th. think he has. eaten something. between now and. and IW. something.
The Roommate: *betrayed look*
Me: DEEP FRIED KEBAB MAYBE? I DON’T KNOW.
The Roommate: *is so disappointed*
BERLIN!!!!!!
Bucky is. So tired. Let him rest.
fucking up the morning commute again i see
u like cats??
I love the ratio of overkill:ineffectiveness with this glass box they put him in.
why did tony  bring these fancy pens
the time spent explaining them could’ve been spent doing literally anything else
*i still don’t understand the accords*
GOD STEVE WANTS TO BE AN UNCLE SO BAD
“my fault”
there it is
“truth is i don’t want to stop”
THERE it is
“i thought the accords could split the difference”
THERE IT IS
"no, i don’t.”
THERE IT IS
“IT’S INTERNMENT.”
THERE! IT! IS!
gah.
wanda’s accent et al -- MAKE IT EXPLICIT MARVEL YOU COWARDS
no but really what are the accords
here followed a 20-30 minute convo about the accords
basically the summing up was:
Nat is 100% Right Ross is 100% Wrong Everyone Else is In A Grey Area
look this is actually a really good avengers movie
but
this is a moment when the back catalogue works against them because this conversation is so -- it implies a lot of friendly interactions between these two. they seem to have a relationship
but i keep looking at all the other movies they’ve interacted in like
BITCH WHERE? WHERE IS THE TONYSTEVE FRIENDSHIP? WHERE???
i am anticipating this will cause me A Grief later
The Roommate, looking at Steve in his Grey Shirt and Jacket: Damn, sir. Stop wearing clothes.
“BIRD COSTUME???”
“j a m e s”
big holt talking to rosa vibes there
“I don’t wanna talk about it.”
A VAST AND MIGHTY MOOD
Zemo’s plan is so ridiculous i genuinely don’t have time to get into it i still have two pages of notes to get through holy shit.
this fight scene. does things. for me.
hhhHNNNNHGH BEEFSTEAK
(oh tony left with no suit? growth dot gif)
THIGHS
T H I G H S ! ! ! !
CHADWICK!
Sam out here, serving looks, casually modeling
B I C E P S ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
TOO SEXY! *crashes helicopter*
I need twelve more scenes of steve and bucky faffing about in the water.
A more effective restraint than the custom made bucky bottle
(BRIEF 1991)
haaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAa biceps u stop that
Is Tony having a heart attack???
he has no concept of how to treat children because he never was one oh no i gave myself a sad feeling
QUEENS!!!!!!!
“I’m having a big fight in a parking lot with my superhero friends better go pick up a child as backup.” - tony stark
tony he doesn’t have a passport and if he understood what was happening he would not be on your side
Now That’s What I Call Vigilantism.
Why are you bringing a CHILD to a gun fight
Tony’s face, to me, suggests that he knows EXACTLY what he’s doing
also? it’s painfully obvious to me that these scenes were copypasted in late stage when they finally found out that yes they would have the rights to spiderman lol
for some reason they don’t feel the need to tell is that this is avengers compound in 400 point font
i’m so lost
where are we?
without the 400 point font i can only assume we are on mars
THAT’s a fine way to greet YOUR FATHER, WANDA
hawkeye is in fact the team lynchpin
is it
ugh
is it because they listen to him but he listens to natasha
ugh
i bet it is
UUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH
Vision: I have been FALLING! for THIRTY MINUTES!
“i know someone who does”
i’m confused by the cut here, because it seems to imply that Sharon, deliberately or inadvertently, rats them out to natasha?
Birds and raccoons do not get along
steve
steve no
steve
ur timing is shit steve
Scott Lang might be the best thing in this movie
well except for Dat Bone Structure
CUT THE CHEEEEEECK
*costume change in a parking lot to the yakkety sax soundtrack*
Thinking about the coming battle i am forced to concede that Iron Man Has A Point?
“do you really want to punch your way out of this?”
Steve: I ALWAYS wanna punch my way out
god scott’s such a fukkin nerd
tiny quibble but Scott “got punched by hope van dyne” lang would never say that to the black heckin widow
“gimmick”
um
people in falcon houses shouldn’t throw spider stones, samuel
wanda
those cars belong to people
oh god iron man has a point
LET’S GO LESBIANS! COME ON LESBIANS LET’S GO
*catfight sounds*
“then why did you run?”
dude you attacked me in a catsuit
Tony’s true superpower is that he knows steve, that’s how spiderbabby gets the upper hand
althought god
Tony was pre-gaslighting peter
he was pilotlighting peter
*my longest UGH yet*
“Queens?” “Brooklyn”
MAXIMUM NEW YORK ACHIEVED
ant man is the MVP
hmmmmmm “we don’t trade lives” HMMMMMMMMM
why did that truck explode
also *omg iron man has a point*
tony tedward stark how did you not know how old this child was
also peter stop pretending you don’t know what Empire Strikes Back, AT-ATs and Hoth are.
why doesn’t Vis get more flack for this
hey. hey tony. you know what sam is? A MEDIC. maybe let him LOOK AT YER FRIEND THERE instead of SHOOTING HIM IN THE FACE.
zemo’s plan is noooooonseeeeennnnnnsssse
guh these two beautiful men emoting in different directions KILL ME
this doctor is just like “yup there’s a giant purple robot here seems legit”
natasha is the only one who’s 100% right
did... did the russos kill themselves in this movie? did they cast themselves as dead extras? was this a statement of some kind?
HOW did ross get the congressional medal of honor. H O W.
“you read it”
NO ONE READ IT, IT’S 400 PAGES
tony this is Some Nonsense
ffflslkds he’s taking one of Nat’s guns KILL ME
one (1) heterosexual explanation.
rode back in a freezer truck
got pneumonia
already had pneumonia
and you blew three whole dollars on some slut
(seriously. gimme one. i’m waiting.)
srsly tho, whether you ship it or not, these two are old marrieds
the red star looks weird on his beefcake arm. did they forget to scale it up?
KITTY
listen zemo is just really turned on by cam and he didn’t mean to say that and that’s the most relateable thing he’s done so far.
It’s not just that bucky killed his mom. it’s that bucky killed his mom AND STEVE KEPT IT FROM HIM.
life alert a senior citizen has fallen
T'Challa, observing this White Nonsense™: I truly should... check myself. Before! I wreck myself.
agism is what it is
god this bit
steve dropping the shield
look at him
he is Stick A Fork In Him D O N E
Rhodey really deserves better than this? He deserves development showing the evolution of his opinion between here and IW
i wish we could get more of him grappling with this
that said
gosh wouldn’t it fucking suck if Cap and Bucky got relegated to End Credit scenes in their own got damn movie to make room for Iron Man to emote at his buddy his pal his rhodey?
*looks directly into the camera like i’m on the office.*
Anyway.
Steve rogers: getting the last word in every argument since 1918.
“from the bottom of my heart: My Bad.”
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halvatir · 6 years
Note
Hello mizu! Its okay if you're too busy/don't want to do it but could you do the more detailed character ask for flanel and randel? Curious anon here, have a good day!
hey there anon, hoping you’re having a good day too ( ᐛ )و - are you talking about this ask??? i’m not sure what you’re talking about but bless these kinds of tumblr blogs, here u go
btw the likes/dislikes are in reference to my interpretations for them, the fav/least fav moment are in reference in-game since y’know… these guys don’t exactly have ‘moments’ minus… idk, whoever the devs decide to feature in the updates (゜▽゜;)
flamel (… flanel lol i thought u were referring to another chara)
what i like about them: perfectly self-aware of himself: knows what his strengths + capabilities are and also his weaknesses + flaws, along with his morals + ideals + character. nope, any form of psychological bullshit won’t work on him. he’s absolutely aware of what he’s capable of doing and he’s not in denial about his shortcomings at all… what he does with that knowledge and what he plans to do about it is more of the question.
what i dislike about them: while flamel has a condescending air about him, he actually does not look down on people and he acknowledges others’ capabilities + character, even if they’re better than his own. that’s the problem: he knows or at least he has a general idea of a person’s capabilities + character, and what he dislikes the most is if it is not put to good use. without mercy, he can really say stinging observations about one’s failures and fears straight to their faces - the worst part is? it hurts, bc it’s true. he’s insensitive, but you can’t exactly deny his words either.
favorite moment: when i get his card lol bc i really like his card art??? not the mvp + biochemist one, the regular one - like… daMN??? i dig, he probably has the best regular card among the bio mobs imo
least favorite moment: ??? have u fought this fucker in-game??? no??? lucky u then, cecil’s still the queen bitch but mAN is flamel also a pain to fight, the last time i played ended up with my party dying partially bc of him and his clones
a situation with this character that i want to see explored more: not exactly a situation but his backstory??? or okay, something with his family - i know he’s nicholas flamel’s son but what about his mom? or what if: his parents announce that he’s about to have a sibling like??? what, i’m like around my 20s already then u tell me i’m gonna be an older bro i am questioning ur nightly activities??? cue a much needed slap from his mom lol
an interesting au for this character: lol i’d probably like to see flamel in a soulmate au where he feels the same emotions his partner does like wow he’s really irritated at it at first bc really why is this person so damned emotional / feel so much but eventually he’s able to compartmentalize his partner’s emotions from his own and he also takes note of the emotions his partner experiences in a journal daily, complete with time frames/lines??? that’s sort of sweet??? it also becomes a habit for him to look at the journal at the end of the day and think of reasons why his partner may have felt this way at each of the recorded times??? what’s funny tho is that despite the fact that he’s been taking note of his partner’s emotions for so long (probably middle school up to college?), he’s never gotten the urge to discover who his soulmate is, or to try find said person. sorry soulmate, you’re the one who’s gonna take initiative.
a crossover: top of my head, probably a fullmetal alchemist one lol - he’s probably some big shot alchemist then surprise surprise, one of his transmutation attempts fucked up him up pretty badly leading him to the gate of truth. he wakes up feeling ‘empty’ only to figure out that somehow his parts of him have taken the form of homonculi… and not just any kind of homonculi - they introduce themselves as a part of him, the sins in him that has made him the man he was today. they even call him father and take different human forms (lol, aka they take the form of his floormates, take a pick who represents each sin) - the revelation is in his travels tho while he’s trying to get to the homonculi, is that flamel himself embodies a sin, the seventh sin that completes all of them (try guessing what, lol). ooooh, this could probably be good if i actually fix this but yeah, there u go, it goes somewhere along those lines.
otp: none, actually. 
other ships: kathryne // trentini
brotp: randel // alphoccio
notp: lady tanee hahAHAHA jk no seriously idk just ignore my first entry pls it was supposed to be a joke… maybe…
assortment of headcanons
surprise bitch, he’s the best chef in the biolabs but he ain’t gonna cook for anybody but himself - the only time he isn’t hung up on precise measurements + time is when he’s cooking
has a pair of reading glasses, uses them often and keeps them stored away neatly in his desk complete with a wipe - he always makes sure there’s adequate lighting + his reading glasses are present when he reads stuff, he sure cares for his eyes a lot
he… surprisingly follows a lot of good health practices - he always takes 15 - 20 min break if he’s been doing something for a straight hour (patrol + battles are exempted), drinks 8 glasses of water daily, sleeps early, etc.
his hands are always gloved - takes ‘em off only when he’s about to sleep. his right hand is pristine but his left hand has a strangely shaped burn mark that runs diagonally across his palm - it looks old.
he looks prim and proper but honestly his room is nuts - what’s more confusing is that he isn’t bothered by his room’s state at all + he knows exactly where his stuff is when he needs it, like… dude… how do u even know where to find ur shit in a warzone called ur room, teach me ur ways master
randel (oooh this is new)
what i like about them: he’s a very resolute yet flexible person: definitely not the type of person who’d go second-guessing on his decisions or would waver in times of crisis, but he’s not also the person who’d insist on pushing on with the initial goal/objective when difficulties or contradictions arise - he takes in the present situation + other factors & encountered facts and weighs them against the supposed goal/objective. from there he determines what he thinks would be the best course of action to take, and it takes him only a short time to do so even under pressure.
what i dislike about them: true to his class, he’s too self-sacrificing??? which is like… dude c’mon it’s probably an honor for the crusader line to die in the act of protecting others but still if u die, who’s going to protect those who can’t protect themselves? like yeah, he understands that too but he’s more inclined to believe that it’s better for him to be left behind/sacrificed/die in exchange for the lives of the majority. well - it’s either he’s that self-sacrificing or sadly, when weighed against the lives of the people he must protect, he doesn’t place that much value on his own life.
favorite moment: the feel when u don’t get his attention, seriously. pls let me sneak about ur floor in peace - i swear i went to church so pls stop with the grand + holy crosses
least favorite moment: fighting him is torture bc if rms data is right, 478,745 hp, man - he has the longest hp out of his floormates… and that’s just a regular randel… the paladin one has 3,870,000 and the mvp one a whopping 6,870,000… since his life is that fucking long, say goodbye to trying not to be mobbed by the other ghosts bc ur still busy trying to kill him, damn
a situation with this character that i want to see explored more: same like flamel, knowing his backstory would be A+ but… hmm, maybe something way back like his origins story or something, the story of why and what made him decide to be a swordsman/crusader. y’know, that’s if we’re assuming that he’s not from a family line of swordsmen/crusaders or something. idk, sometimes the thing is with characters who are in line with a faith/ideal is that i’m interested in what made them devote their lives to that certain faith/ideal in the first place.
an interesting au for this character: oooh, just… idk, a modern au where he suddenly ends up taking care of the bio2 kids who are orphans. he’s never mentioned it to anyone, not even to the people of his workplace who happen to be his friends/co-workers like for 4 years already. therein lies the problem: his friends on separate occasions have seen him with at least 2 or 1 of the kids. they all know randel isn’t married. the hair colors (cenia and laurell) + other features don’t match up. some distinctly heard a kid call him dad/daddy/father (see: wickebine, armaia, the rest respectively). conclusion: it’s either a) he’s babysitting as a part time job bc goddamn rekenber’s a cheap son of a bitch that won’t give him a raise, b) those kids are his cousins or something and are probably so fond of him that they see him as a father figure, or c) illegitimate chiLDREN FROM SOME ONE NIGHT STANDS ALRIIIGHT SCANDAL IN THE OFFICE. chaos ensues even before poor randel has a chance to explain himself.
a crossover: lol, idk… a shingeki one maybe where randel’s probably the head of the survey corps, watching over our fated trio (probably flamel/celia/chen for his floor, bio2&3′s are a mix&match). for some time, the trio don’t see him but strangely enough when the trio get old enough to join the corps, they discover that randel is considered a scum and a traitor to humanity by all three army regiments (survey, garrison, & military) which is strange bc randel is very well known and respected by humanity within the walls, wow. when the trio get deeper into his case, it turns out that randel vehemently fought against a group of scientists that were looking for human subjects for the ‘sake of saving humanity by using present resources’ - the three of them were seen as part of those potential resources and were eyed upon by the scientists were they were already young, along with other people from different parts of the walls (the other bio mobs). what happened to randel, however, is left in the air… was he even still alive, or had something important happened leading him to be branded as the traitor of humanity? politics, religion, science, drama, and titans (removers maybe lol) ensue.
otp: again, no solid one.
other ships: ????? surprising revelation is that i don’t exactly ship randel romantically, wow even i just discovered that now
brotp: his floormates - although honestly i think that one way or another, randel could be on everyone’s good side once they just get around to talking, probably
notp: zealotus oKAAAAY no seriously pls make me stop placing random mobs in this section
assortment of headcanons:
very, very religiously open + tolerant. he shows a lot of interest on other faiths and is knowledgeable even of various religious practices asides from his own. of course, he’s still steadfastly loyal to what he believes in first and foremost, but he feels no need to impart his beliefs to those who don’t / are reluctant to believe. he isn’t the type you’d see to be preaching about his faith either, that is unless you ask.
in line with the hc above, his tolerance also extends to people and their character + personalities, but he isn’t too tolerant to the point that he’d rationalize questionable actions + motives. he may have the patience of a saint, but no one’s so sure if they want to see him snap / test his patience to see what makes him tick. throwing bullshit about his faith doesn’t work on him, actually.
he’s pretty crafty - he pretty much taught himself other ways to help people, from practical stuff like sewing to more complicated stuff like woodwork + metal works, wow. he’s basically the ideal useful guy in survival crises… minus the fact that he can’t cook that well lol
he has the worst drinking tolerance among the bio3 + bio4 residents - the sign that he’s drunk is when his face shows more expression than usual + his posture breaks (the paladin randel card art lol). nobody knows bc damn son, he has a pretty good poker face and he can hold it for a really long time
... the only reason he grew his hair long is bc of a promise to his mother. he vowed that if ever he was to fall in love (and it was reciprocated) / find the person he would devote his life to, that would be the only time he would cut his hair, and his mother would do the honors... but... yeah... wow, i made myself feel sad
this was a lot of fun - thanks a lot for the ask anon, and i welcome your curiosity anytime! ( ^∇^) i’m always in for a distraction from work lol
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andreaphobia · 7 years
Text
fic: love is just another game for two. (SHINO & YAMAGI)
Characters: Shino/Yamagi, Eugene, Mikazuki, Akihiro, Orga
Fandom: Mobile Suit Gundam IRON-BLOODED ORPHANS
Wordcount: ~4500
Summary: Shino gets hooked on an MMO, and one day he meets a mage who may or may not be the cute guy from the dining hall.
Notes:
For @skyfireflies, who got me to watch this show in the first place. Also, my first Gundams ever! Hooray!
Also on AO3, if you prefer.
*
So when Shino comes slouching into class on Monday morning, puffy-eyed and bleary, Eugene doesn't even need to ask why—but that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it, either.
“I'm gonna give Orga a piece of my mind,” he mutters, as Shino collapses heavily into the seat next to him.
“Ah?” Shino yawns, scratching an unkempt chin. “Why’s that?”
“Because he got you into that damn game, that’s why! And now you’re up all night playing it, you fall asleep in lecture and then you beg for my notes, and I’m telling you now, if you want me to be your private tutor, you better start coughing up cold hard cash for the privilege, 'cause it don’t come free.”
“Oh, come on,” Shino says, grinning apologetically. “You’re being dramatic. I don’t play half as much as Mika, anyway.” Which was true; Mika had hit level cap weeks ago, and God only knew what he kept himself busy with to while he was waiting for everyone else to catch up.
(To be fair, Eugene knew this because he was also playing Art of War Online—but at least he had some self control.)
“Besides, I wasn’t up late last night just playing. I was talking to someone.”
Suspicious, Eugene narrows his eyes. “In game, you mean?”
“Well... yeah.” Shino grins again. “They were nice. Real friendly-like.”
To this, Eugene can only put his face in his hands. “I can’t believe you’re even trying to pick up girls in a video game.”
“Hey, I don’t appreciate that! I think we had a real connection, you know?” Shino seems to reflect on this for a moment. “Besides, I don’t even know if it was a girl. Their character was a guy, at least.”
“Dude, they’re probably more likely to be a guy if they have a female avatar,” Eugene scoffs. “Do you know anything about online games?”
“Guess not,” Shino says cheerfully, “but at least I'm making friends!”
Eugene is about to retort when the professor comes bumbling into the room, hitting the pause button on their conversation, and soon Shino is out like a light, snoring gently with his head lolling on his seat back. He rouses himself occasionally, just long enough to jot down a couple of formulas or a tidbit of knowledge, before passing out again, and proceeds in this fashion until the bell rings at the end of the period.
As Eugene tucks his books and notes away, Shino stretches, smacking his lips noisily and giving his head a little shake. He crams his stuff unceremoniously into his backpack, and beams at Eugene.
“Up for lunch?”
Eugene grins at him. “Yeah, if it’s on you.”
“Tightass,” Shino grumbles. He pulls out his wallet and peers into it as if that proves something, but Eugene only rolls his eyes; since meals at the dormitory dining hall are paid for on a point system, he’s not feeling much sympathy.
“Nah,” he says, as he follows Shino out of the lecture hall. “I’m just resourceful, that’s all.”
*
At the dining hall, Shino picks up a plate of three eggs, four sausages, and a steaming great heap of baked beans. Eugene, sensible as usual, has a complete meal from the Chinese food stall; rice, chicken, some wilted vegetables on the side. Healthy, Shino thinks—unless you’re trying to bulk up, in which case he’d consider it anemic, plain and simple.
“You sure you don’t want some more protein with that meal?” Eugene says mildly, glancing at Shino’s breakfast-themed abomination as they pay for their food. (In exchange for access to Eugene’s notes, Shino is bankrolling the entire meal with his point card.)
“Eh.” Immune to sarcasm, Shino glances down at his overloaded plate. “I think this’ll tide me over till dinner.”
They pass through the checkout line together, heading out into the hall proper. Scanning over the crowd of heads parked at various tables, Eugene spots who he’s looking for.
“Hey, Orga and the others are over there.”
Unfortunately for him, Shino’s not listening. Halfway through trying to figure out where the group Eugene mentioned is sitting, he gets distracted by the sight of something that’s very high on the short list of things that he finds interesting at the moment.
“Ohhh, is that Art of War Online?”
The blonde boy Shino’s addressing stops dead, fork halfway to his mouth. He’s wearing a look reminiscent of a caged animal. In front of him is a tablet, resting on a stand and playing what looks like someone’s live stream of a game.
“It is, isn’t it?” Shino says proudly. (He knows something about that now, after all.) “It’s fun, huh?”
“Um,” the boy says, immediately going red. He looks vaguely familiar; Shino thinks he must have seen him around the dorms, once or twice. The most striking thing about him is the length of his bangs. Shino wonders how he can see through that curtain of hair. (Nice eyes, though.)
He’s just on the verge of following that interesting chain of thought wherever it may lead when Eugene pops up, having finally noticed that he’s wandered astray. “You’re bugging strangers about that damn game now? Give it a rest.” He nods to the boy. “Sorry. Don’t mind my friend, he’s a frickin’ dumbass.“
“We should play together sometime,” Shino says brightly, as Eugene starts dragging him away. The boy does not respond; he’s staring intently at his hands resting in his lap, bright red all the way to the backs of his ears. Kinda cute, actually.
Once they’re out of earshot of the kid, Eugene finally releases his arm and lets him walk on his own.
“‘samatter with you? Don’t bother people when they’re eating.”
Shino beams. “I’m just making friends!”
“You didn’t even ask for his name.”
“Oh, you’re right!” He’s about to turn back and ask when Eugene seizes his arm again, with an exasperated grin.
“I don’t think so.” He steers Shino firmly over to the table where Orga, Mika, and Akihiro are already seated, and strong-arms him into a chair. “Give the poor guy a break.”
“Okay, okay.” Shino laughs, putting his hands up in surrender.
Akihiro’s looking between the two of them with interest. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, you know...” Eugene mutters, plopping down into his own chair. “Just Shino things.”
Mika, who barely seemed to have noticed they’d arrived, finally looks up from his plate. Mouth full of food and still chewing, he asks, “So, when are you guys getting to 60? It’s boring being the only one.”
*
At the end of the day, after class and several abortive attempts to do homework, Shino gives in to the siren call and logs on to the game. (Another good thing: Eugene is out doing honor society crap, so he’s not around to give Shino any grief about this.)
It’s gratifying to hear the loading screen music, but it still takes way too long for him to get into the game; he’s got to look into getting something better than a potato to play it on.
The first thing he does when he finally loads in is check his friends list to see who’s around. Akihiro’s online, but currently in a dungeon, according to his status; Shino kindly decides not to bother him. Mika, surprisingly, is not—then again, it’s almost dinner time, so maybe not that surprising after all. The only thing that boy loves as much as dominating everyone at video games is eating.
And then there’s—Shino’s stomach does a weird little flip when he sees this—his new friend, in an area pretty near him. Which makes sense, since they were just playing together the night before, but is also really convenient.
He’s just wondering how desperate it would seem to message the guy when the problem is solved for him. A whisper appears in his chat box, followed by a party invitation.
<Newt> Want to party up? <shinon> yeah!
There’s a little bit of logistical back-and-forth after he accepts the invite, but eventually they decide to meet up at Goldshire, and venture out from there. Even though they’d had a time of it last night, Shino’s still surprised by how easy the conversation flows; this guy—or girl—is really easy to get along with. (Let’s say guy for now, Shino decides, going by the avatar; if only to make his internal monologue less confusing to himself.)
It shouldn’t surprise him they get along, though, considering the circumstances of their meeting. He’d been neck-deep in kobolds at the bottom of Fargodeep mine and was mentally steeling himself for his demise when this mage just appeared out of nowhere, saving his ass with a couple of well-timed fireballs. But then all the heat was on the mage, and just as he was about to be overwhelmed, Shino got ‘em back with some good ol’ healing holy light. And you know, maybe this is just Shino being sentimental, but personally he thinks it’s hard to save each other’s butts at the bottom of a cave and not become friends. That kind of thing is a real bonding experience!
So anyway, they get to questing together, and everything’s going smoothly—as much as it can, anyway, considering he’s only been playing for a few weeks and is still learning the ropes, leading to occasional disasters like pulling way too many monsters at the same time, then proceeding to fall off a cliff in the process of trying to escape them. But Newt’s real patient with him; in fact—and Shino hopes he can be forgiven for thinking this, but—he's acting kind of... cute. Lots of jumping around, throwing up a little music note emote every time they kill something. Even through a video game, the cheer is infectious.
<shinon> u seem like ur in a good mood :)
The mage stops prancing around long enough to reply,
<Newt> yeah, kinda, actually! Something awesome happened to me today!
Shino smiles at his screen, and then, quite laboriously, types back.
<shinon> wanna tell me abt it?
Art of War doesn’t have a particularly good emote system, yet Shino is amazed by the expressiveness of what happens next. The mage turns abruptly to look at his character, and then steps back and forth a few times, making movements that Shino can only describe as fidgeting.
<Newt> OK, but... promise you won’t laugh? <shinon> dont worry, i can barely type ‘lol’ <Newt> ;) <Newt> OK, so... I know this is gonna sound really silly, but... the guy I like talked to me today!!
Shino’s eyes immediately fixate on that line.
“The guy you like, huh...?” he muses. (It’s too bad Eugene isn’t there, ‘cause he’d be interested to know how this affects the odds on Newt’s true identity.)
Oblivious to whatever Shino might be thinking, Newt is standing stock still, busy typing up a storm.
<Newt> I was just sitting by myself watching someone’s stream when he came up and started talking to me about Art of War! And OK, I think I must have looked really dumb because I couldn’t say anything back to him, but ahhh he’s just so nice!! <Newt> He probably doesn’t even remember this but there was this one time some guys were bothering me in the street outside my dorm and he and his friends scared them off, and he just looked SO COOL!
Shino reads through this small wall of text, and actually his first thought is, well, sounds like a friendly chap!
His second thought is, Hmmm.
Come to think of it, he had thought the boy at the dining hall looked familiar. And yes, he vaguely recalls now a time when Mika and Akihiro and him were coming back from the gym late at night, found some kid getting pushed around by jerks and scared ‘em off... but... could it be?
While he’s busy digesting all of this, Newt appears to take his silence the wrong way.
<Newt> Omg, I’m sorry, I’m just babbling on and on, this is probably boring you... <shinon> na, i was just thinking that sounds rly sweet <shinon> so, r u going to ask him out?
Newt, the character, starts fidgeting again. So cute, Shino thinks.
<Newt> No, I couldn’t possibly... I’m too shy... <Newt> But maybe someday <shinon> u know what they say <shinon> u miss 100 % of the shots u dont take <Newt> Thanks ;) <Newt> crap, my roommate wants to get dinner, I g2g. Can you get back to town by yourself? <shinon> no sweat buddy <shinon> cu l8r <Newt> See you!
With Newt gone, Shino leans back in his chair and stares at the ceiling.
Well... shit.
*
Whatever Eugene had been expecting on his return to their shared dorm room, it certainly wasn’t this.
“So,” he says, once Shino has finished talking and gesticulating wildly. “Let me get this straight. You think that that kid you were accosting in the dining hall the other day, and your new virtual-reality best friend, are the same person?”
He’s skeptical, and who can blame him? Not that this puts a damper on Shino's enthusiasm; if anything it only seems to encourage him.
“Yeah, pretty much,” he says brightly. “Why?”
Eugene squints at him.
“This is just an excuse for you to bother that kid more, isn’t it?”
“No!” Shino pauses. “But now that you mention it, actually—”
“Look, I know you’re not a math genius, but what do you think the odds of that are? Like, one in a thousand? One in a million? Even if he does play, what makes you think you guys are on the same server?”
“Man, I dunno!” Clearly frustrated by Eugene’s superior logic, Shino throws himself back onto his bed. “Why’d Orga make Tekkadan on this server, anyway?”
“It—” Eugene sputters. “Well, it’s—okay, fine, I forgot that it’s the official server for people from our school until a second ago, but—still! That makes the odds, like, one in a hundred at best.”
“One in a hundred, huh?” Shino appears to be giving this some serious thought; from his expression, Eugene can tell that that doesn’t sound half bad to him. “I’d take those odds.”
Eugene throws his hands up in disgust. “Remind me never to put you in charge of my bank account.”
“Hey, it’s your loss,” says Shino, waggling his eyebrows. (Eugene ignores this entirely.)
“Anyway, so let’s say you’re right and it really is the same guy. So what?”
Once again, Shino has to give this thought, but this answer seems to come easier than the last one.
“I just wanna get to know him, man. That’s not a bad thing, is it?”
“No, but—” Eugene wavers; he’s not sure if Shino’s potential love life is something he ought to be commenting on, but... “Didn’t he say he likes you...?” he ventures.
This makes no discernible impression on Shino. “Yeah, and?”
“And... I mean...” For a few more moments, Eugene falters, and then decides that maybe the best course of action is to just let it go. There’s no changing Shino’s mind once it’s made up, after all. “Look, just... be nice to him, okay?”
“I’m nice!” Shino insists. “I’m a nice guy, you don’t even have to worry about that. Like, what could go wrong?”
Probably best not to answer that, Eugene thinks. Well, at least Shino won’t be able to complain he didn’t warn him.
*
It takes Shino a while to find the kid, elusive as he is, but he happens to be passing by the library one day when he spots a certain mop of blonde hair, bent over a textbook that’s thick enough to kill a man with. When he lifts it up to turn a page, Shino can just barely make out the title on the cover: Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics, it says.
Jesus. Well, as long as the guy doesn’t expect him to know any of that as a prerequisite, Shino figures he’s golden. So he rolls right up, barely mindful of the fact that it’s a library, stops by the table the kid’s sitting at, and when he looks up, gives him a big ol’ ear-to-ear grin.
“Hi! We met the other day—well, kinda—but I wanted to introduce myself properly.” He sticks out a hand. “I’m Norba Shino, but you can just call me Shino. Everyone does.”
“I know,” says the boy in a small voice.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.” To Shino’s great surprise and gratitude, the boy only hesitates a moment before shaking his hand. “Yamagi Gilmerton.”
“Yamagi, huh...?” Shino nods, quite seriously; names are a serious business, after all. “Sorry about the other day, I’m just really excited about this game. Started playing a couple weeks ago and I’m totally hooked!”
Yamagi is watching him with an inscrutable expression, all the more so because Shino can only see one of his eyes. As far as Shino can tell, though, Yamagi doesn’t look annoyed or bored, so in his opinion, things are going just swell.
“...It’s okay.”
There, he said it’s okay! How you like that, Eugene? Shino says in his head, triumphantly. He doesn’t gloat for too long, though, since Yamagi is looking at him expectantly.
“So, are you on—what’s it called—Dark Iron? That’s the server everyone from our school is at, right?”
“...Yeah.”
Shino grins. “Great! So we could play together sometime, right?” At this point he also takes care to turn on what one ex-girlfriend called a ‘killer set of puppy-dog eyes’, making Yamagi go beet red again. Totally adorable.
“...Sure.”
“Awesome. Lend me a pen, I’ll give you my character name.”
From inside a backpack bulging with books and notes, Yamagi locates a pen which he holds out hesitantly. Shino takes it, and also seizes Yamagi’s hand—ignoring the little gasp of surprise that this causes—and writes his screen name across Yamagi’s palm, in big block letters. Then he pushes both hand and the pen back to Yamagi.
“OK, so you can use this to find me, right?”
However, Yamagi isn’t listening, and Shino realizes that something’s not right. Instead of—say—nodding, which would probably have been Shino’s preferred response, Yamagi is staring at the letters reading SHINON scrawled across his palm, shock and horror written all over his face.
“Uh... Yamagi?” Shino tries.
The next moment is a blur. Yamagi seizes his bag and his book and promptly legs it out of there, very nearly overturning his chair as he does so.
“Hey—wait!”
Shino attempts to go after him, but then actually overturns a chair in the process, which trips someone else holding a stack of books in their arms, all of which go flying. By the time he’s disentangled himself from this mess, picked up all the books, and apologized to everyone (including the incensed librarian), Yamagi is long gone.
Later, as the sun is setting and he’s standing outside the library alone, Shino says a couple of choice swear words, loud enough to startle a few nearby pigeons. He doesn’t really have a clue what the hell’s going on, but looking at it logically, chances are that it has to do with... whatever Eugene was waffling on about earlier.
Damn it. He hates it when Eugene is right. Well, maybe he can just apologize for whatever it is he did later, in game. Surely Yamagi doesn’t hold grudges forever, right?
*
However, Yamagi doesn’t show up in Art of War that night, nor the next. A couple of days go by, and though Shino tries to play on his own, he finds that it isn’t half as fun without his questing partner. This leads us into the present: Eugene bent over homework at his desk and trying to block Shino out, until finally, he snaps.
“Stop moaning,” he scolds, as Shino’s rolling around in his bed whining. “You’re driving me nuts.”
“Can’t help it,” Shino mutters. “Sooooo bored. Wanna play Art of War.”
“So play already.”
“I don’t wanna play if Yamagi’s not there!”
“Yamagi?” Something clicks into place. “Oh, you mean that kid from the other day?” Shino doesn’t answer, which he takes to mean ‘yes’. “Isn’t he still playing?”
“I’unno.” Shino sounds sullen; from long experience, Eugene knows this is never a good sign.
“Did you scare him off?”
“No!” A pause. “Maybe. Not intentionally, though!”
Eugene puts down his pencil, sighing. Relationship advice is not his forte, and yet, here they are. “I told you to be nice, man.”
“I was nice!” Then, more doubtful, he adds, “At least, I think I was.”
Eugene can’t help himself; he sighs out loud. It’s hard to believe he needs to walk Shino through every step of this.
“Yeah,” he says, patiently, “but he likes you, right? And you rejected him.”
“I didn’t reject him! I said we should totally play together, and then I gave him my character’s name, and then he freaked the fuck out and ran off! Look...” Shino trails off, sounding dejected. “I don’t even know, man.”
“Dude, of course he freaked out. He spent like an hour gushing about his crush, TO his crush. Can you not see how embarrassing that might be?”
This all seems like it’s coming as news to Shino, but he at least gives it some thought. Finally: “I guess,” he says, in a reluctant tone of voice. “But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I think it’s cute.”
If Eugene rolls his eyes any harder, they’re gonna fall right out of their sockets. “OK, then go ask him out already so I don’t have to listen to your whining. I have stuff to do.”
“Maybe I will!” Shino rolls himself out of bed in a huff, going to the door.
Well, Eugene thinks, as it slams shut behind him, either way, at least I’ll get some peace and quiet for a while.
*
If he’d thought it was hard locating Yamagi the first time around, the second nearly kills him. OK, that’s melodramatic, but even though he likes exercise it’s still a pain in the ass to be running all over campus trying to spot him in the crowd. After a few fruitless days of this, Eugene takes pity on him and gives him some advice—try looking in common areas or at the dining hall, he says, places he has to pass through no matter what. And it’s good advice, but all the same, nearly a week goes by with neither hide nor hair of Yamagi, by which time Shino is basically dying from Art of War withdrawal.
And just when he thinks he can’t take anymore—when he’s honest-to-God starting to think he should quit the game because it just ain’t worth it anymore—that’s when a knock comes at the door to his room.
“Nnngh,” Shino moans half-heartedly, face down in his pillow on his bed. “Go ‘way.”
The knock comes again, more insistent. Grumbling, Shino gets up, and goes to open it.
When he does, Yamagi is there.
Shino stares at him for a moment. The relief he’s feeling is almost palpable; it washes all the tension out of once, and he feels himself smiling the first real smile he’s had on his face for days.
Still, it won’t do to be scaring him off again, so he tries to sound casual when he says, “Hey, man, I’ve been looking all over for you! Are you okay? You haven’t logged on in a week, I was worried!”
Yamagi only shrugs, refusing to meet Shino’s eyes. There’s a strange, closed-off look on his face. He’s quiet for a moment, and then sucks in a deep breath and starts speaking, maybe a little too loud for how close they are.
“I’m sorry about—about everything. I know you’re probably weirded out by the things I said, and... I’m... sorry... about them.”
He stops there, as though in the middle of a thought, and his eyes are half-shut, almost like he’s expecting Shino to lash out. Which is such a crazy idea that Shino doesn’t even know what to do about it, except try and change his mind.
“Nah, not really,” he says, easily. “I mean—it’s cool, right?”
Yamagi blinks once, very slowly.
“What do you mean... ‘it’s cool’?”
“Just what it sounds like. It’s cool, man! I don’t mind.”
“But...” Yamagi looks slightly bewildered. “Don’t you? I mean... that was you the whole time, right?”
“Yeah, that was me.” Shino chuckles. “How come you didn’t realize that, huh? I even named my character after myself!”
Yamagi goes red. “Well, who—who puts their real name in their screen name these days? What about stranger danger, huh?!”
“Strangers are just friends you haven’t met yet!” Shino beams. “Besides, I couldn’t think of a good name. It’s hard, okay?”
For a moment Yamagi looks like he wants to laugh, but also like he’s simultaneously on the verge of tears.
“But I typed all that stupid crap about you!”
Shino holds up his hands disarmingly. “No, it was cute! Seriously, it’s fine.”
“But—” By now, he’s almost shouting. “But I like you, Shino!”
“Yeah, I like you too!”
In sheer frustration, Yamagi runs his hands back through his own hair, mussing it up until it looks quite wild.
“No—listen to me! I mean—like like. I don’t just—”  
“I know what you meant,” Shino says.
This simple sentence is apparently enough to leave Yamagi speechless, and given that he’s not shouting anymore, Shino seizes the chance to speak.
“I’m—what’s that you call it? Oh yeah! I swing both ways, man. I mean, people are just people, right? So it’s all good. Let’s just keep playing, okay?”
“But—”
“No buts!” Shino scratches his chin, thoughtful for a moment. Then he reaches out, brushing Yamagi’s hair back out of his eyes so they can really see each other. “And let’s get dinner sometime too, okay?” He grins. “Just you and me.”
Yamagi just stands there, closing and opening his mouth without a word as he tries to process all of this. Then, as though he barely dares to believe it, he asks, “Are you asking me out on a date?”
“Well, that’s the idea!” Sheepish, Shino grins. “But I’ve never asked a dude out before, so... maybe I’m doing it wrong?”
“...No.”
And Yamagi’s eyes are watery, but he starts to laugh, which is such a relief for Shino. Laughing Yamagi beats crying Yamagi any day. Smiling, he ruffles Yamagi’s hair.
“So, dinner? Yay, nay...?”
Suddenly embarrassed by his own tears, Yamagi scrubs his eyes dry, and then turns his face up to Shino. “Yes, I accept,” he says firmly.
“Oh, that was fast,” Shino teases.
“You miss all of the shots you don’t take,” Yamagi says, and smiles a little. “Someone who sucks at typing told me that, once.” Then he thrusts his chin out, almost impertinently, like he’s daring Shino to do something about it. “Well?” he demands. “Aren’t you going to take responsibility for all this?”
Shino swallows, but grins, too. “Oh yeah,” he says, with feeling. “You bet.”
After all, he’s always liked a challenge.
22 notes · View notes
onlyaburrito · 7 years
Text
This is the longest dream of my life sorry
I got on a train idk where I was going but I was excited about it. I ended up making a friends with a couple other passengers bc there were only about 10 people on the train and they were all around my age. At one point I did something that upset one of them (I can’t remember what it was) and even though I apologized they were super mad. After a while of chilling with my new pals, one of their boyfriends comes up to me (his name was AXEL CAN U BELIEVE THAT) and he starts yelling at me and swinging fists. My friends were shocked and just stood around for a lil bit before intervening. Bc of that incident half of the passengers were in a different area from me and my friends, except for the gf of axel but I understood her reasoning. The train stopped right outside of a town, not at a station, and hysteria took over the minds of the passengers as they were convinced BY THAT DOUCHEBAG AXEL that there was a virus loose in the city that turns people into insects. My first reaction was to play along with it for a bit, but soon realized that it needs to stop before it gets out of control. But, Being someone that has ‘wronged two members of the group,’ no one believed me that it was bullshit. Everyone grabbed weapons, mostly old pipes and broomsticks, and created little hideout rooms on the train to sleep in. I just stayed in a seating area with a pipe below one of the seats in case one of the others tried to attack me. Axel and his lady, having shown testosterone filled angry dominance and control over the situation, took a full room and built a full size bed inside. They had little lights strung up the walls and it actually looked pretty cool. The other /less important/ passengers built their bunks similarly to mine except most had overhead protection made of wood, blankets, or some other material that shouldn’t be on a train but is anyway. Hours after building preparing ourselves for our new life on the train, I pull out a small camera to document whatever was about to go down. You know, for security and artistic purposes. Whatever. Later we we’re in a l conference area and axel was at the front going over plans of attack if someone infected boards the train, supply collection, and ground rules about entering his cabin. The kid couldn’t have been older than 22 years old and acted as if he had been in the army since birth. He was scary. I was terrified of him and he already didn’t like me, and I wasn’t even sure why. When it came time to go out and get supplies I was left in the train bc axel didn’t trust me to not run off and do something stupid. And also bc i have 0 upper body strength and if something went wrong I’d just end up being dead weight. He had a point there. So I was left on the train with about 5 other people, including his gf. I kept forgetting her name at the time but I’m p sure her name is asia. She was a smallish girl with blue hair and glasses. The looks of a girl that loves tumblr but the personality of someone that spends too much time outside. Among the others were nameless individuals with very different personalities and styles. Who could forget Terrified Ginger Kid, Smarty Pants Glasses Girl, Alternative Rock Punk Chick, and Axels Leftover Henchman With No Social Skills At All. A good bunch of kids. While the ground team was out robbing a Costco I decided there was no better time than now to do a lil bit of interviewing with the passengers. You know, for my art project. I asked them how they were doing, if they were armed, and if they actually believe they’re in danger of being attacked by an undead insect person. They all seemed pretty scared and ill prepared for any fighting. I stated to think maybe I was the crazy one, and society had actually fallen and we were some of the lucky few to have been contained in travel at the time. Axel and his bad boys arrived back at the train with a bunch of useless college boy supplies. You got ur beer and chips and shit like that. Stuff that wouldn’t be that much of use if we were on the brink of death, as he says we are. — Days had passed and we were still on this train. Having no power sources we all had to turn off all our electronics to save them for an opportunity to make contact with someone for help. We sat in a dark conference room all day barely talking to each other. Axel walked out of his room carrying a golden pipe that he claimed was his staff. He walked over to me and hit me in the neck. I was just like “what the FUCK” and he said “stay away from Asia. I don’t want you messing around with her.” I responded “me messing around with ur girl should be the least of your problems right now, considering the situation were in.” He lunged at me one last time then backed off. I left the room and documented what had just happened. You know, to use against him in a Court Of Law bc he’s crazy and holding me and everyone else in a train against our will. Where was the conductor even at? Did they just disappear? Who cares at this point. Everyone in the group was afraid to talk to me now, except for Asia. God knows why she would still talk to me. Scared ginger boy was especially afraid, leaving the room each time I’d enter. Really broke my heart. I love scared ginger boys. —– The next day Smart Glasses Girl was missing. This was troubling bc she was one of the few people aboard the train that I saw as at least moderately sane. No one seemed to notice though, she was just a nameless background character in our story. I documented her disappearance and grabbed a few stashed electronics to try and contact her. After a few failed attempts contact was made and I finally found out for sure that the virus wasn’t real, and axel was essentially kidnapping us all to start some kind of post-apocalyptic-with-no-apocalypse- society. I had to get out. I assume the people that went with axel to gather supplies are either too stupid to realize nothing was happening, or were in on it from the start. That doesn’t explain the disappearance of the conductor, unless he’s in on it too. In that case this is some kind of conspiracy and someone in my half of the group is wanted by /someone/. But which one of us? And by who are they wanted? I couldn’t leave until I figured it out. My security art project depends on it. A story with no ending is useless. I asked Glasses Girl to do some research on every passenger for me and apologized for her not having a name. She said it was ok and started doing her research and said she should be ready with the information by the next morning. I deleted everything we had said to each other after documenting it, and turned off the phone I was using and put it back where I found it. —– Axel walked into the conference room holding his staff and said that a few people had gone missing. He only noticed because they were His people that followed him blindly. Having no other choice, he told Scared Ginger Boy to stay with Asia as the rest of us went out for supplies. He said he wanted someone a little more capable of defending themselves and others to protect his precious lady, but he wouldn’t Dare leave her alone with me. I have no idea why he was convinced something was going on between us, we were just pals and I have respect for relationships, even if I hate their partner. Having the revelation of how abusive he must be to her shocked me. I couldn’t believe I didn’t see it sooner. He treated her as a trophy instead of a human being. —– Once we got out of the train, Axel developed a bad Australian accent and told us to follow him closely. I of course, documented the excursion. Because if I died during all this I want some found footage movie to be made in my honor. And to show how crazy this dude is. We walked through what appeared to be an abandoned town and found a house with no one inside. I stayed outside to 'keep watch’ as the others went in and grabbed stuff. I felt ok with this bc I technically wasn’t robbing someone’s house, only standing outside and recording the crime through the windows. That made it ok. After a little while they all ran out of the house screaming. Apparently they spotted a roach on the floor and risked coming in contact with the virus. How did he convince these people of this? WHERE is the conductor? —– When we arrived back at our train commune, Ginger Boy was nowhere to be found. Asia said he had freaked out and ran outside. As some of the others looked for him, I got the phone I’d used the day before to contact Smarty Pants. She said she didn’t find anything of interest on anyone. As I was about to send her another message, axel walked in and grabbed the phone and smashed it with his pipe. What a dickhead. He told me to go back to the conference room or he’d smash my face in next. Nice! —– In the days that followed, more and more people went missing. It got down to just four people. Axel, Asia, me, and a kid with terrifying eyes. I think his name started with an S? Salamander? Idk but that’s good enough. Scary eyed Salamander boy had something off about him. Some kind of bad vibe. The type of kid to beat someone up for looking at him wrong. The type of kid to blindly follow orders. The perfect army recruit. Axel walked into the room, wielding his staff as usual, and sat down. Just then, we heard voices outside the train. He jumped up and told us all to hide and that he’d handle whatever it was. He opened the train door and someone yelled “hey!” He closed the door and ran back to where we all were hiding and told us to grab weapons. The voice could still be heard outside asking “What are you doing in there? How long has this train been sitting here? Do you need help?” The door opened and the guy walked in. Axel ran right at him and hit him in the head with his precious pipe and the dude fell to the floor unconscious. Nice! —– I decided that this had gone on long enough. Not only had this kid held us in here, but he also assaulted and essentially kidnapped this other dude too. He was tied up in a storage room. It was night time and the others were sleeping so I decided to go let him out and leave the train. I approached the door and prepared the makeshift knife to release him. Just then axel and lil salamander ran up to me and started beating me with pipes. Then I woke up the end
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