#my brain is fogging over again so have this before i ghost society at large for x amount of time

[hollowwhisperings]

KH Spec: Identifying The Seven Lights, TL;DR 1/3

an episode of brain fog is coming on so i'mma do a series of Info Dumps so i have these thoughts in order, for future reference, in case i've forgotten them by the time my brain can Brain again.

Princesses of Heart: Key Themes

Dreaming: nature of hearts, proximity to death, imagination & belief. Cursed sleep & living nightmare sequences of SW, Aurora & Kairi; Cinderella's "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes"; Alice dreamed herself to Wonderland; Jasmine's "A Whole Nrw World"; Belle's reading of fairytales

Wishes (stars & magic): "I'm Wishing"; Cinderella wanted a night off; Aurora's birthday; Wonderland; Genie; Kairi was a literal shooting star; Belle's wish to save her father.

To Love & Inspire Love in Others: loyal animal companions, Found Family & "Fairy Godmothers", Redemption, Sacrifice & True Love.

Miracles: Resurrection, Transformation, Dreams Bexoming Reality.

Hoping (freedom): to strongly believe in all the above, against all odds & to be in circumstances that test that 'hope' indefinitely.

Secondary Themes

coming of age (often literally trapped in childhood homes; end up married or crossing a horizon)

water & mirrors (kairi, royal blood, tears, reflections, KH uses water-as-darkness but also water-as-veil)

curiosity for the wider world(s): kindness & interest in others, exploration.

a "prince & pauper" dynamic

pawn-to-queen narrative

"beauty & beast" (light & darkness, magical transformations/redemptions)

"fairy godmothers" (dwarves, genies, grandmothers, actual fairies)

the Heroine's Journey

story parallels that of Sora &/or Riku's

below are Additional Lists that sort of lead to my concluding to the Above Themes, my 2 very confident guesses on New Lights & the beginnings of my disqualifying others.

Notable (& Informative) Non-Lights

Aerith, Radiant Garden & Traverse Town.

Queen Minnie, Disney Town/Castle.

Jane, Deep Jungle.

Ariel, Atlantica.

Sally, Halloween Town.

Wendy, Neverland & London.

Boo, Monstropolis.

Naminé (canonically impossible)

the Dandelions except maybe Ventus (as a substitute or an heir to Kairi)

Riku (heart seen From Space in BBS: Aqua confirms nature of his Light as different from Kairi's)

New Light #4: Tiana

Dreaming: "Almost There", ambition.

Wishes: literal wishing upon star scenes, the firefly & evangeline, plot offilm is a whole de- & re-construction of the entire Disney "Wish Upon A Star" ideology all KHA princesses have thus-far represented.

True Love: parents & Charlotte, inspires Naveen's character development, passion for her craft.

Miracles: magical transformation.

Hope: being ambitious in spite of implied historical accuracy of story setting.

additionally:

star imagery ahoy

new orleans bayou would be super fun to design gameplay with (both city & swamp) & is unlike any world thus far (PotC doesn't count)

enables integration of story & gameplay mechanics (cooking & foraging systems)

P&tF was the last trad. animated Disney film & Nomura is a Disney Nerd (see consistent usr & relevance of Disney's 'Pinnochio')

as above, her film is a love letter to Disney's Animated Canon, just as KH often is: "wish upon a star" is the uniting concept of the seven lights

regardless of where in her own story Tiana is, ir would resonate with where Sora &/or Riku are within their own

the MUSIC

bayou = water = emphasized relevance of kairi (worldbuilding & lore-wise)

New Light #5: Moana

Dreaming: "how far i'll go".

Wishes: heroic quest, sailing past the horizon, stars, her grandma's, stars are an actual plot device.

True Love: inspires Maui' character development & her literal returning of a heart.

Miracles: Resurrection.

Hope: set off on a heroic quest armed with 1 chicken (& a piglet? i forget).

additional reasonings:

exactly parallels the stories of each Destiny Islander, especially Riku & Sora (islanders who dream of sailing beyond their small world to explore beyond it)

enables post-tutorial/non-cutscene gameplay in a Destiny Islands-esque setting (PotC, again, Does Not Count)

easier method of achieving above, gameplay-wise, than attempting Lilo & Stitch's "Hawaii"

similarities in origin would highlight respective emotional journeys & the need to address emotional hurt over physical strength

Ineligible Heroines

animal heroines such as Lady, Maid Marian, Bianca, either princess from A Bug's Life, etc.

Eilonwyn from The Black Cauldron (too young, thematic mismatch),

Violet from The Incredibles (would join the Elsa Club of Riku Parallels)

anyone original to the Once Upon A Time, House of Mouse, Sofia The First, or Kilala manga series.

(that means Elena of Avalar is also, sadly, excluded)

Atlantis may be too alike to Atlantica & Triton's awareness of the Worlds is likely true of Kida, rendering her ineligible.

Kuzco is not pure of heart.

Nemo is a fish & a literal child.

Lilo has Darkness & is also a Literal Child (Alice, at least, has the Victoriana & Role Archetype things rendering her age irrelevant; Kairi was a tween).

Giselle from Enchanted: requires consent of IRL persons to use the likenesses thereof, her Worlds are not very interesting gameplay-wise, she does not resonate with the themes of the KH series at this point of its story.

Leia from Star Wars: IRL likenesses, has Darkness, Star Wars is its own form of multiverse (like the crossover series excluded above), sequel trilogy messed up its own Heroine's Journey by switching heroes & would lead KH audiences astray.

anyone from Marvel except (maybe) Kamala Khan.

Remaining 4?

Merida from Brave seems a toss-up: on the one hand, she fulfils many of these themes to varying degrees (freedom, wisp lights, magical transformation, true love); on the other, Merida rejects many of these same themes. I'm also skeptical on how well her setting would act as a playable World in KH (assuming that the New Lights will feature alongside said worlds: this is a flawed rationale). Merida's narrative arc does not easily align with where Sora or Riku are "at" in their journeys: if we meet her & her world, it won't be as "Sora" or "Riku" but as "Donald&Goofy" or the "Wayfinders&Kairi".

Riley, Inside Out? Cons: non-magical setting; game world of her Mind (playing with un/reality) is too useful for the development of Donald, Goofy & Kairi (wrt Sora) & the concept might evengo Christopher Robin (Sora taking Riley's role) though the latter seems unlikely; meeting Riley after playing around in her head would be Awkward.

Ventus? only as a Substitute due to his purity being artificially inflicted on him.

Naminé? only as someone for Kairi to "pass the torch" to, not possible within the KH3 timeline.

[daughter of Simba & Nala]? Nala was pregnant with her in KH & her story is about reuniting [light & darkness] (romeo & juliet, but lions). cons: timeline??? animal heroine.

[any number of Final Fantasy characters that have not yet featured in the KH series]

Pocahontas-the-character thematically fits almost perfectly... but her film's story is one of the cruelest decisions made by Disney as a company, one that continues to cause harm when allowed to stand uncontested.

the boy scout from Up?

Bruno or Alberto, if Disney/the film's creators are willing to make their film's Subtext into "Text".

i have not seen Encanto nor Coco nor Seeing Red: any of these films may harbour an additional Light for Nomura to borrow... but i doubt that he set up the concept of "New Lights" in KH3 without already having most (if not ALL) of its roster already accounted for.

(Disney DOES let Nomura know about upcoming films but, after Frozen's success changed how it was "allowed" to be used in KH3... i find it more likely that the new roster [of Kairi, Rapunzel, Anna, Tiana & Moana] will find its final 2 additions from Pixar &/or Final Fantasy instead).

i highly suspect that at least 1 of the new 7 lights will be male or non-specifically gendered (Wall-E, for exanple).

[feitansluver]

Two Birds on a Wire (THE PROLOGUE)

a Feitan x Reader series (gender neutral)

Genre: romance, angst, fluff, smidge of violence

Series Summary: If you wish to see the series summary, check out my masterlist (which should be up now, if not just give me 10 mins) which you can access through my pinned navigations post on my blog. It might have a teensy bit of spoilers but nothing too drastic since this is a major wip.

Prologue Summary: This story's beginning takes place before the troupe was even a figment of anyone's imagination. Meteor City is a dangerous place, and many can vouch for me when I say this. The place where good deeds never come truly from the heart, but instead for the chance to get what you wanted from someone else. Here begins the story of how Feitan Portor and Y/n L/n would soon meet, for real this time.

Author's Note: This entire series is inspired by the song "Two Birds" by Regina Spektor. I originally wrote this as a small x reader for a writing sample, but I like it so much, it'll be a series instead. This is going to be a slow burn series. As you can tell from my headcanons, I'm super detailed when it comes to adding backstories. It's even worse w actual stories. I'm not too sure how many chapters this will be but, Please enjoy! reblogs, likes, and constructive criticism is appreciated. Heads up, this will be the shortest 'chapter' of them all, so do be prepared haha. Italicized = Flashbacks!

The aroma of decaying matter engulfed the air like a thick fog, pulling down and wrapping itself around the shiny newcomers to the rather large wasteland of an area. These newcomers weren't wealthy, no, instead, they were here for the ego boost that accompanied the action of them tossing any worthless item that would instantly be scavenged by a poor resident, usually a child since they were small and naturally agile. Well, as agile as they could be growing up eating other's waste. Those bastards with their sickening laughs of arrogance. They'd be frowned upon in a normal society, but here, oh here, this was just what they'd call a Wednesday.

Where exactly is 'here,' you may be asking? To the people passing through, they might've considered it to be hell. Perhaps a dumpster. Hell, they might have even passed through with out even noticing the cries of agony as a mother's child passed away from malnutrition, without noticing the way that no resident seemed to acknowledge anything other than themselves, even the murder of a shopkeep in broad daylight. No, see they're too focused on trying to steal to survive, perhaps even slave away to a more fortunate resident for a chance at life, if you could even call this living. 'Maybe they're just introverted people,' oh how naïve you must be to even succumb to that conclusion. 'Here' there is no such thing as introversion, with this trait, you won't survive for more than 10 minutes.

'Here' is none other than Meteor City.

Coughing could be heard around every corner from the ill, penniless residents who were selling everything in their possession just to survive another miserable day. A feeble attempt truly, it's not as though the medicine was at least 50% likely to cause some sort of change. Nonetheless, Meteor City wasn't too bad, no. Children scurried amongst each other, shouting with smiles upon their somewhat sunken faces as they played along the areas of the city that were truly wastelands. There were no true friends created in Meteor City, but these children have yet to understand.

All except for one. A rather small boy, whether that be from malnutrition or genetics, with black hair and heartless black eyes sat upon an old shipping crate with an uninterested look upon his young face as he watched the children run about. "How pedestrian," was all that came out of his cracked, dehydrated lips. Only an 8-year-old from Meteor would consider playing to be pedestrian. Aside from his shocking attitude, with one glance you could certainly tell he wasn't from here, such 'exotic' features couldn't have been bred in this hellhole. The boy was dressed in what seemed to be traditional Asian clothes, ones that were too big for his figure, all black and seemingly thick yet still lightweight enough to where he wouldn't die from a heat stroke, the word "Feitan" engraved over his left breast. Perhaps this was his name, neither he or the townsfolk new, but it was what they called him when they believed he wasn't looking. He was frequently seen mumbling to himself, and paired with his stone cold gaze, he was deemed "unapproachable" to others, adults and children alike.

"Hey, you!" A call from one of the children pulled Feitan out of his thoughts. The blackette raised his gaze to find another small child before him, taller yes, but no doubt younger, no stranger to his eyes yet not an aly. "My name's Marley. Do you want to play with us?" Feitan rolled his eyes in annoyance and spoke with his broken interpretation of the city's language. "Why would me want t-," He analyzed the other children beside the runt Marley and froze his gaze upon another small child, who was smiling as they spoke to a friend, one he's kept his eye on for a long time.

(Y/n) (L/n).

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2 years ago, Meteor City, 3rd Person Omniscient

The sky boomed a thunderous roar as lighting flashed across the city. Purples and dark ominous grey's colored over the townsfolk as the rushed their preparations for the storm. Adults were sheltering children, even if they didn't know them, most likely with the promise of something in return, while also taking in whatever possessions they needed before the storm's condition worsened.

A 4-year-old child, Y/n, ran about the poorly made streets, hoping to find a place of shelter before it was too late. Of course, since they're small and malnourished, they weren't very efficient, constantly stumbling over their two feet and pausing to catch their balance.

"Please, somebody help me!"

They continued to run through the now damp streets as the rain began to pour violently. Water drenched the poor child as they ran around banging on doors screaming for help, yet still, no one listened. It was almost as though the entire town had become a ghost city.Just as Y/n was about to give up, a hand grabbed their arm harshly and quickly pulled them into a small, dark, poorly-made shack.

Y/n jumped back in surprise with a yelp only to be pushed down by the other party, quite roughly might I add. "Shhh." A firm, seemingly male voice commanded with no other words as he sat beside the younger child. "Are you going to eat me??" Y/n spoke in a panicked tone. "The old lady by the library told me a story about a demon who comes out during horrible storms and eats the children who are wandering the streets." They cried with their arms curled around their legs, staring at the silhouette in fear beside of them.

The strange savior huffed under his breath. Why did he even pull this idiot into his home. Who was he to be providing shelter for others when he could barely take care of himself? God he never hated himself more until that moment. There was no place for some snotty kid, nor did he want to deal with them either. "Me no eat you. you taste bad, too whiny." Was all the boy said, hoping to get the other to take the hint and shut up.

"O-oh. My name's y/n, what's yours?" The 4-year-old spoke, no longer carrying a fearful tone. The older boy rolled his eyes at how naïve and trusting the other was. He didn't bother answering, and in fact, he never said another word to Y/n for the remaining duration of the storm.

Y/n ended up falling asleep after a while from all of the chaos earlier. The silhouette eyed the child beside him before closing his own eyes and leaning his head back against the wall. Soft snoring was all that was heard by the boy, aside from the pouring rain that is. Falling into his thoughts, he began to drift off into a light, alert slumber. Well, he was until he felt a weight hit his left shoulder.

His eyes shot open as he looked to his left with a scowl upon his face. "Idiot pest." He grumbled agitatedly as he noticed Y/n had fallen asleep on his shoulder. As much as he wanted to push them off, he quite enjoyed the quiet he was now receiving. With an annoyed sigh, he closed his own eyes and drifted to his previous light sleep.

When Y/n awoke with a yawn and began to identify their surroundings, they almost screamed in fear and confusion. They jumped up and racked their brain for some sort of explanation. Wait, it was coming to them now: the mystery boy and him providing them shelter. Properly looking at their surroundings, they noticed were still in the shack; however, this time, they were alone. With a quick glance outside, the small child ran out of the shack, patting themselves down to make sure they still had their items in their pockets.

A sigh of relief escaped their lips as they felt everything there. Digging into their pockets to find their last bit of money to buy a bit of food, Y/n noticed there was a folded piece of poorly maintained paper in their pockets. With a confused hum and a head tilt, they unfolded the piece of paper and read in poor grammar and messy writing:

"You owe me, Brat."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

They blackette's face remained in a deapan expression as his own eyes locked back with Marley's "Yes, me play." He spoke emotionlessly as he hopped down from his crate, dusting himself off as he began walking closer to the group of children. A handful of yays, yippees, and downright cries of joy could be heard from the crowd of children as they gathered one more player for their game. "Okay, great. So here's what we're going to play.."

The voices blurred and faded into nothingness as the eight-year-old fell into his cunning mind, his eyes yet again landed on Y/n with his usual piercing gaze. Only difference was that this time, there was a twinge of excitement and malice, lots of malice.

God how he wanted to make them pay. A total troglodyte they were, so ignorant and easily distracted by such trivial things.

You see, Feitan never got back that favor, and he certainly wasn't one to hold back when it came to exploiting others. Especially younger, naïve children who hadn't seen nor understood just how horrific the world could be. How horrific he could make their world be.

Go ahead, call him a monster. It's such a common title for him, he might've even believed it were his own name if it hadn't been for the thread engraved onto his shirt.

Feeling eyes watching them, Y/n turned to face the newer strange boy with their head tilted in confusion. The blackette walked over to the younger child, the two of them standing at the same height. "Hello." Feitan spoke up with a small smile and a friendly wave. It certainly looked realistic and Y/n couldn't feel any malicious intent within the other boy, though if only they knew how fake that smile was. "Hey there! I'm Y/n, what's your name?" The child spoke with a close-eyed smile as they waved in return.

'Oh this was going to be fun.' The boy thought with an inward chuckle of sadism.

Feitan Portor wasn't one to forgive and forget. Hell, he came from Meteor City, the place where every good action was never from the heart but instead the manipulative portion of people's minds. No matter who or what he had to go through,

He was getting back what he owed, and he was expecting it NOW.

[just-mirko]

BINARY  

BNHA HACKER AU - CHAPTER 5

MASTERLIST

Mirko x F!Reader

Warnings: i got carried away. umm a little blood. a little fighting. 

WC: 2.2k

(A/N: this one is dedicated to @sushi044123 thank you for the little message, things like that always make me wanna write more <3)

__

I went to sleep quickly. I woke up early. I slept well. The next day started fine. I made coffee and pondered over the empty desk once more. I was ignorant.

__

             I would have never suspected any change when I stepped out into the halls and began walking to class. While on my way there, I met with Mirko, who was wearing casual yoga pants and a loose tank top. Along with that was a black bomber jacket that adorned her shoulders Her long, flawless platinum hair was pulled into a long brain. Even when put up, her hair reached her waist.

             The hood of the jacket was once again, over her head, and… once again… seemed to be hiding something. Eh never mind maybe shes a catgirl. You can never really judge.

             Soon every student had congregated in the classroom. It was a stark contrast to the nice elegant theme of the main room. Instead, we were in the penthouse at the top of the large building we entered on the first day. The elegant and crisp post-sunrise glow filled the room which was almost fully surrounded glass windows. Maybe only four other skyscrapers challenged the height of the one we were in.

             I walked up to one of the windows, noticing a slight mature difference as the glass was icy cold and on the other side, was covered in a thin layer of mist. Even as someone who isn't afraid of heights, looking down at the world below which was engulfed in a thin layer of grey fog, overcame me with fear. To think that this thin layer of glass would protect me from the bustling world below.

             How strange. We were hidden from society. The outcasts who preferred to be anonymous robin hoods than gaudy and fake heroes. But with 3 of the four walls in this room window, I felt as though I was on display to the whole world. A steel pedestal specially made for all of us.

             After admiring the view, I stole a glance at Mirko. Unlike me, she didn't look at the ground below, but above, up to the clouds which we so very close. They never looked that large from the city floor.

             “Students! You’re finally here!” A chipper and high squeaky voice alerted me. My footsteps were short as I stepped back from the side of the room. The students turned to the short little mouse. Small groups had formed, mostly of 2-3 people awkwardly standing next to each other from a partial distance…

              for that one wooden guy and the blonde. They were standing pretty close-

             “You can all remove your masks now! They were a temporary thing, now that new have completely erased all traces of who you were previous to this school, you are perfectly safe from outsides and other students. As far as the world knows, you currently don't exist.”

             His sweet attitude didn’t deter me from the almost translucent threat in his voice. Hesitantly, people began to take them off and reveal their faces. After about half the classroom had removed theirs, I undid the ribbon that held it to my head and let it fall into my hand. A tingle of cool metal spread on my skin. I placed it on the ground next to my feet and glanced up at my peers.

             Most fit what I expected, they were still strangers, but now I had a chance at remembering them.

             A rush of embarrassment coursed up into my brain when I took the liberty to Look up at Mirko, I traced my gaze over her face and her perfect features while she took me in as well. Our eyes met for a second too long while I drowned in a crimson abyss. My cheeks almost flushed the same shade as her eyes. I turned away and heard her quietly chuckle:

             “cute”

             Now I was red.

             “Now that we have had time to familiarize ourselves to the minimum, I would also like to say the same for quirks!”

             Mirko’s flashed a wide grin, canines showing.

             “You are all now safe to show quirks, as that has also been cleaned from reality.”

             In my peripheral vision was a quick flash of dirty blonde. When I glanced over, Hawks turned his head away, a distant look. I didn’t look away though, and if he was as smart as he acted, he noticed. The daggers I was shooting from my eyes aimed at the briefcase in his hand.

             “So, my little criminal prodigies, though many of you are already masters in your main craft, we want to reach past those horizons-”

             He cleared his throat and redirected my attention to his short stature. With a sigh he continued;

             “Those horizons being combat, tactical, hardware engineering, and friendship! Within the combat course, we will be going over-” I felt a short soft tap on my shoulder. It was Mirko.

             “in tactical we want to utilize your current stren-”

             “Hey, pssst”

             She whispered, but when I turned to her she was still looking ahead to Nezu. Ruby eyes glowing in the ethereal morning light.

             “engineering will be taught for obvious rea-”

             Her hand brushed across mine and my heartbeat quickly spiked. The ghost of her touch remained on the back of my wrist even when she moved. Mirko’s gaze was still stagnant, but in a hushed tone she quietly mumbled,

             “This was in your jacket’s hood”

             Her knuckles bumped into mine once more, though they were more demanding, silently telling me to open my hand. There was a moment of confusion when something extremely soft was placed in my hand. It was light, and there was no weight to it. Soft and light. Closing my fingers around it, I brought it up and looked at it while I was cupped in my grasp.

             A single red feather and a tiny one as that sat in my palm; soft and warm. Hawks. Whatever emotion I was feeling numb all my other senses. Was it fear? Anger? A little confusion. There was some kind of shuffling around me that was dulled by my thoughts. Nezu probably gave the class some kind of directions, as they were talking among themselves. In short sentences and simple words. Surface level stuff.

             Across the classroom, Hawks moved to chat with a tall guy with white hair that fell over his shoulders. He seemed knowingly more anxious now. His hand was fidgeting at his side. He knew I had the feather, but he wasn’t looking at me? Could he feel through them? It would make sense, seeing as he could control them at will.

    ��        Turning the feather in my hand I saw him physically tense up a little bit. Brushing the vane (the soft part of a feather) with one of my fingers, his hand stilled, his actions were choppy as he laughed with the other guy. Oh, he knew what I was doing. I dropped it to the ground and turned to Mirko, a little smile on my face, she had one too. I was about to talk about the feather with her when she shot me a knowing look and a curt shake of her head.

             “What are we doing again?” I sheepishly asked, having zoned out the whole assembly.

             “Pairing up for combat assessments, you're with me.” She playfully nudged my shoulder when I groaned, annoyed.

             When I looked down at my shoes distraughtly I could see the little feather blowing softly away from me in Hawk’s direction. For good measure I stepped on it and crushed it beneath my feet, relishing in the wince I could see him make as he as stretching for warm-ups.

             Mirko at the least seemed amused at what I was doing with Hawks but still wanted to begin training. She was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement.

             “So basically, we get five minutes to spar with any technique we want, no biting, clawing, hair pulling, dirty plays- and then we fight there.”

             She motioned over her shoulder to black mats in the center of the room. The borderline feral look in her eyes makes me feel way to arou-scared to fight her. (Woah there Clarissa this is a family-friendly account).

             “Wait are you s-serious? Fight each other?” I stumbled out. She was a foot taller than me and more fit.

             “Aww c’mon, I’ll go easy on you, whoever is immobile first wins?”

             “I guess.”

             ‘You can do this (y/n)’ I had to say to myself, though it wasn’t that convincing. I've done kickboxing before, so I readied myself into a prep stance. My legs were a little farther apart than my shoulders, and my hands were loose fists in front of my torse. I instinctively bent my knees and began swaying a little to prepare. I wasn’t going to throw the first fight.

             Mirko was turned around, removing her jacket to reveal toned arms that flexed as she placed it on the ground. I gulped.

             “Are you ready Bunny?” She inquired, calmly, even relaxed.

             “Whenever you are” I replied with confidence. I can do this.

             Her hand reached up to the beanie that was sat atop her head. Before touching it though she looked over her shoulder to stare me down. “Are quirks on the table?”

             This was a variable I hadn’t expected, but I wasn’t going to let that phase me.

             “Bet.” I softly smiled and she aggressively smirked.

             “Okay Bunny,” She paused, turning towards me and throwing the hat to the ground,

             “Lets fight”

             Ears sprang up from her perfect hair and she lunged at me with incredible power, her leg aimed right towards my torso. I was shocked by the ears. A rabbit quirk? I didn’t have time to think when she landed a solid kick on the side of my hip.

             Ouch

             Her style of fighting was low and she probably intended to wipe me out, so I would have to aim for her upper body to counter.

             “Oh shiiii-” I quickly dodged to the left, using my arm to block her leg and push it the other direction.

             I tried to get closer and close the gap as she seemed like a mid-distance fighter. Ducking under her swinging leg that was in a circular high kick I tried knocking her to the ground with a punch to her shoulder, that should send her off balance, but she caught my hand and kicked out the back of my legs. My knees hit the floor and I was temporarily stunned. I recovered with a quick little roll the hopped up.

             I faked out a right hook and grabbed her blocking arm, and attempted to get her in a headlock. She was ahead of me though. Once I tried to wrap my arm about her neck-

             A firm grasp settled on my wrist and pried back my hand at an excruciatingly painful angle. I hissed through my teeth and let go, holding my hand which was sharply stinging with pain. A little bit harder and I would have tapped out and forfeited the match.

              Just as I looked back up to attempt to cut my losses and aim for her head, she was running towards me. My legs were thrown out from beneath me and the breath was knocked out of my lungs, making breathing difficult. She sat on my stomach, effectively weighing me down, I couldn't get up anymore. I blindly swung a punch, hoping it would hit something that would give me leverage.

             My fist connected with her upper lip. She didn’t budge from above me though, in fact, she pressed down harder as she sat on my stomach. Each breathe getting more and more labored.

              She pinned me to the ground, one hand holding my arms above me, the other reaching up towards her lip. Red came back on her fingers.

             “Fuck (y/n) that hurt like a bitch.”

             Her grip on my hands tightened to a bruising hold that pushed my wrists together and dug them into the sparring mat. The previous sprain I suffered roared by to life and a groan resonated in my chest. That drew a dry laugh from her, obviously it was painful though. Her hand slammed next to my head, lowering herself a little closer to me. We were both tired and panting. My entire back was throbbing from being so aggressively pushed to the ground.

             She gazed at my face with indistinguishable emotion. Her teeth were barred in a mix between a grimace and a smile. The blood that was smeared beneath her mouth where I had injured her; the red blood matched her wild eyes.

“I win,” She said quietly...

[rutilation]

Does mulching a prisoner of war into shiny little woodchips before burying them alive indefinitely count as a violation of the Geneva Conventions?  Asking for a friend.

(Hi guys, I’m back, and I brought 4,400 words with me.)

First of all, my apologies for the nearly five month wait.  Ever since last spring, I haven’t had much time at all to devote to writing and I’ve only been able to work on this essay in small increments.  And yet, despite the fact that I don’t have the time to do so, this essay somehow turned into a bloated treatise on the failings of gem society.  Truly, I am a slave to my obsessions.

I’ve refrained from reading chapter 80 because I just know that if I do, it will insinuate itself into my brain like a tumor and I won’t be able to concentrate on finishing this essay.  (That said, I did happen to see someone on twitter make a joking reference to third impact in regards to said chapter, so I am certainly Afraid.)  Though my takes may be ice cold by this point, I hope that there are some nuggets of insight to be found in this.  With that said, here are my thoughts on chapters 78 and 79.

While the past two chapters have certainly been…hard to read, I think that their contents have been a long time coming, primarily regarding the parallels between Phos and Kongou, and the uglier undercurrents of gem society reaching their logical conclusion.  (And I gotta say, this display of—for lack of a better term—inhumanity on the part of the gems jives quite well with all the Shirley Jackson I’ve been reading lately. When I get tired of one display of flagrant mob violence, I can quickly flip to another.)  

And then there’s the matter of the gems on the moon…  I remember that when I first got into hnk, which was right around the time when Phos and the others left for the moon, everyone was afraid that Phos would go off the deep end and the gems stuck on the moon would end up as collateral damage in Phos’s quest for vengeance.  But since Ichikawa is too powerful us, she said “what if it was the other way around, and Phos is the one getting thrown under the bus while the moon gems start a death cult?”

So there’s a lot to talk about, but let’s address the earth gems first, because these characters sure do live in a society.  (In order to make my prose more tolerable, I encourage my readership to take a shot every time I write the words “gem society.”)

First of all, I’ve seen a number of people interpret Kongou’s line about the gems forgetting Phos very literally, and assume that the earth gems all have Phos-specific amnesia. I highly doubt this is the case, and he probably just means that Phos is now out of sight and out of mind.

As bleak as the situation is, I think it’s been a long time coming.  From the beginning, one of the major philosophical elements of the story has been how the gems’ desire to give meaning to their long lives has compelled them to create a society in which only those with a concrete purpose have value.  The characters see themselves and each other as instrumentally but not inherently valuable.  With so much of the story focused on how this ethos hurts those individuals who aren’t seen as useful, how much it fosters shame and self-hatred, and how much it makes the gems unable and unwilling to help each other through hardship and depression, it makes sense to me that this inhumane mindset would eventually boil over into something truly cruel, and thus the other shoe has finally dropped.  In a strange way, I have more respect for Rutile’s attitude towards the situation than I do the rest of the earth gems (sans Euclase, who I’ll get to in a moment.)  Rutile is treating Phos like an enemy that must be vanquished, whereas the others are treating Phos as a kid treats their dirty clothes when they don’t want to do laundry—by shoving it in the back of a closet and trying to forget about it.  The former strikes me as less dishonest and dehumanizing than the latter.

Even before chapter 79 made it official, I had a gut feeling that the timetable for figuring out what to do with Phos was nonexistent.  I’ll be generous and assume Cinnabar was being sincere in the moment when they implied that they’d put Phos back together eventually.  But just like how everyone ignored Cinnabar’s suffering because there was no compelling incentive to do anything about it, or how they all turned a blind eye to the Kongou/Lunarian situation for millennia, I figured that Phos would end up as another problem they wouldn’t bother solving. (Regarding Cinnabar, while I hope they’re still on good terms with everyone after the time skip, I would not be the least bit surprised if the earth gems started ostracizing them again once it became apparent that there would be no new attacks from the moon and thus no further reason to tolerate their mercury.)

(Bort, please stick up for them.)

And to be clear, this is a problem that the earth gems are refusing to solve in exchange for a short-term sense of security.  If Phos and Kongou had been allowed to hash things out, and this stalemate hadn’t festered for 220 years, then maybe the moon gems wouldn’t be entertaining the idea of starting that aforementioned death cult.  (Tbh, this mostly applies to 84, Yellow, and Dia, since Cairn has been their own personal death cult since chapter 33.)  Even leaving aside how bad things have gotten already, if this state of affairs had continued to drag on, I think the situation would have gotten very ugly the second Aechmea got tired of waiting.  While playing fruit ninja or whatever with Cairngorm, he says something to the effect of losing a battle here or there isn’t important as long as you win the war in the end, which I’m pretty sure is meant to communicate to the audience that Aechmea is playing the long game.  And since he hasn’t done anything in the interim other than reluctantly and incrementally humor Cairngorm’s pet project, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he’s biding his time specifically for Phos, and that he’s counting on them eventually being reawakened.  In that case, what would have happened if Kongou had been too meek to interfere, and the gems succeeded in getting rid of Phos for good?  If Aechmea eventually gave up on his current scheme, scrapped working with Phos, and came up with a new plan, I’m betting things would quickly devolve into heinous war crimes since he’s only played nice so far in order to keep Phos on his side.

In chapter 78, we get to see two instances of the most common nugget of gem wisdom: only act when you’re guaranteed to succeed, and never take risks.  It been a common refrain, with Antarc, and more subtly, Dia being the only gems aside from Phos to push back against that sentiment.  And to be clear, I’m not saying any one of these iterations necessarily are bad advice, but it’s become increasingly obvious that it’s the only acceptable mode of dealing with problems in gem society.  More on that in a minute.

So, uh, regarding Euclase, here’s an exclusive picture of me, after I’d spent months writing: “Gee, this Euclase character seems pretty shady, but I have faith in Cinnabar, Bort, and Jade to act humanely!’

That said, I think I got at least one aspect of their characterization right in my Euclase-focused essay—that they have a greater comprehension of their mortality than most.  Unlike the other gems, they’re not childishly naïve enough to believe that ignoring their problems will save them; they understand that death is always around the corner, and that the (mostly) tranquil life the gems lead requires constant maintenance.  Simply sliding down the path of least resistance will come back to bite them all in the ass later down the line, and Euclase knows it.  That’s probably why they at least went through the motions of asking Kongou to pray every day for two hundred twenty years.

This is a bit of a tangent, but regarding my earlier point about the gems not commiserating at all, Peridot and Sphene come across as anomalies in that they helped each other through their grief over their lost partners, but that doesn’t seem to happen all that often.  As we see in the aftermath of the winter arc, it seemingly did not occur to any of the gems who had lost friends of their own to try and help Phos through their grief.  And I think it’s likely that they weren’t given much comfort in their hours of need either.  Yellow bottled up their grief, Alex and (presumably) Red Beryl threw themselves into their work to the point of obsession, and Ghost seemed to have largely withdrawn from everyone else.  But none of them really healed or helped anyone else heal.  Despite their society placing a high value on interdependence, the gems are truly alone when they have to reckon with complicated or inconvenient emotions.

It may be hard to remember, but Phos was once influenced by all these toxic mindsets as well.  Recall Phos’s conversation with Benito in chapter two: it implies that Cinnabar did live with the other gems during Phos’s lifetime, recently enough that Phos expects to find them in their room.  From this we can infer that our kindhearted Phos never reached out to the clearly lonely Cinnabar while they were actually around, and didn’t even notice when they left the school for good.  They may have had the potential for kindness from a very young age, but it was only when they were hit with with the stark truth of Cinnabar’s suffering that they snapped out of the fog of apathy that seems to surround the gems.

In fact, it almost seems like the struggle to drag the gems kicking and screaming out of their comfort zone is a macrocosm for what Phos had to grow out of at the beginning of the series.  You’ll recall that once upon a time they were lazy, wanted easy solutions to their problems, and had no faith in their ability to effect change.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that in the eyes of gem society, the problem wasn’t really that Phos was lazy, it’s that their laziness manifested in the wrong ways.  They were supposed to be fastidious and reliable about things like crafting, or fighting, or writing reports, but apathetic towards anything that requires more nuance or imagination than that, kindness or cruelty be damned.

All this is cast into even sharper relief if you think back on the arc with Ventricosus.  She was in far more dire straits than the earth gems are now, and had a compelling incentive to throw Phos under the bus.  But in the end, that wasn’t a line she was willing to cross.  Her final line: “If we’re not willing to change our ways, we’ll end up just like the Lunarians,” seems quite portentous in retrospect.  I don’t think Ichikawa is positing that being immortal makes you a sociopath, otherwise characters like Kongou, Yellow, and Padpa wouldn’t be such cinnamon buns.  But I think she is insinuating that someone who refuses to change is dooming themselves to a state of perpetual immaturity, and that being truly kind requires growing up a bit.  It’s a harder for someone who knows they’ll die one day to remain in a state of arrested development than it is for someone who could indefinitely procrastinate on growing up, and just focus all their mental energy into making paper or whatever for all of eternity.

And this seems as good a point as any to stop harping on gem society and start talking about the gems on the moon, starting with my muse, my most problematic of faves.

I brought up in my chapter 77 essay that Aechmea may not be willing to divulge what he was about to tell Cairn, and that was exactly what happened.  Since he’s only willing to share this mysterious information if he literally would not be around for the fall out, I’m guessing that whatever this secret is, it’s not benign.  And while Cairn has probably put it out of their mind by chapter 79, it’s clear that it’s bugging them before the time skip.  I smell a shocking revelation brewing and I dread to imagine what could possibly top mind-control eyeballs.  Make no mistake, I’ve devoted an embarrassing amount of brainspace the past nine months or so to contemplating what it will look like when the other shoe finally drops for Cairn’s character arc.  (Is there a German word for the ambivalence that arises from wanting to call future plot twists for bragging rights, but not wanting to look like a dipshit if your predictions are wrong?)

Their line from chapter 78 that I alluded to earlier in this essay is rather interesting to me, because although they’re referring to Phos, they might as well be talking about Aechmea.  They exhausted themselves to their breaking point trying to look after someone who didn’t take care of themselves, but they’ve nonetheless latched onto someone who is also seeking self-destruction.  And as I pointed out earlier in this essay, this line also serves as yet another iteration of the defeatist sentiment that the gems often espouse.  But, for a while, it had seemed like Cairn was moving away from that.  The decision Cairn made in chapter 67 was certainly…fraught.  But, one can’t deny that it wasn’t a brave one on their part, to leave behind everything they knew and cared about for a shot at living authentically; the only problem was that they undercut that step forward by returning to their chronic doormat tendencies.  And again in chapter 70, they took a risk by sneaking off to earth knowing that Aechmea would pitch a fit later.  But ever since chapter 75, they’ve been backsliding.  As said chapter pointed out, their wish has shifted from wanting freedom to wanting what amounts to eternal codependency.  I also find it interesting that Cairngorm apparently hasn’t bothered with getting a new name, and is just copying Aechmea’s shtick of going by his title.  They’ve gone from sharing a name with Ghost, to having their own name, to not having a name at all.  In conclusion, my child is a god damned mess.

I know I said I was done talking about gem society, but I guess I’m not.  Going back to what I said in the last paragraph, about Phos not taking care of themselves, that’s been a reoccurring element throughout the series, and in my opinion, it was a significant contributor to the breakdown of Phos’s relationships.  The reason Phos never just tried to make friends with Cinnabar—which is what the latter really wanted, and only focused their efforts on following through on their promise, was because Phos’s self-loathing runs so deep that it doesn’t occur to them that anyone would actually want their company for its own sake. Chapter 14 is the most direct allusion to this in my mind.  Phos clearly wants to talk to Cinnabar, but instead they hide away and mutter that they’d have nothing to say to them.  And as I touched on a moment ago, Phos’s self-destructive tendencies wore down Cairngorm over the course of their partnership.  

But, here’s the thing: Phos’s self-loathing isn’t some immutable part of their nature, it was instilled in them by their society from the moment it became apparent that Phos couldn’t slot neatly into a role.  This is very apparent in the early chapters, in which no one ever misses an opportunity to remind Phos of their uselessness (except Dia, bless their heart.)  Back then, they pretended to not care about it by way of snark and bravado, but in truth, I think it warped their self-perception in an incredibly negative way.  

There’s also something that illustrates this which has been on my mind for a while, but I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about it.  When Phos was trapped by their arms during Antarc’s fateful capture, the insult they yelled at their arms to get them moving is the same one that Bort lobbed at them a few times in volume one.  I usually see different translations of the word between the two scenes, but to my non-Japanese-fluent ears, it sounded like the same word to me when I watched the anime.  It was a striking way of implying that this moment of personal growth had been seeded with something more insidious, that their self-loathing is a taint that has followed them across their many incarnations.  I’m not the first one to point this out, but there’s always been a certain tension within the text regarding Phos’s changes.  On one hand, their courage to change is framed as admirable and heroic, but on the other hand, they’re also hurting themselves because of social pressure to avoid being useless, which is kind of awful.  I think the narrative resolves this tension by making Phos’s quest for validation something which would eventually lead them to try and tear down the status quo that they hurt themselves for in the first place.  

Okay, back to the moon gems.  I’ve reread the part of chapter 79 focused on the moon several times, and it just feels more ominous with each iteration.  What exactly was their idea of administering therapy for Yellow?  Why is Amethyst on board with Cairn’s death bullshit?  Why is Dia okay with it?  Why did they stop fixing the dusted gems?  And most concerning, where are the other three gems—especially Alex who would probably be extremely opposed to halting the gem restoration?  It feels as if there’s something terrible just out of our field of view and chapter 79 is dancing around it.  (But hey, my intuition was wrong about Euclase so maybe when I read chapter 80 Ichikawa will tell me that Alex, Goshe, and Benito were at moon-disneyland the whole time, and that Aechmea is a real swell guy, actually.)

(No, I’m not bitter in the least.)

I also find it interesting that in chapter 79, Cairn is espousing a lot of the same sentiments as poor Yellow, but since they can mask the dysfunction better, they’re treated as an expert rather than a victim.  In reality, both of them are in serious need of a therapist, which is apparently non-existent in the post-post-apocalypse.

And finally, Barbata continues to be the truest audience surrogate.  I find it interesting that he clearly doesn’t approve of all the bullshit going on, while at the same time being too reticent to do anything about it, aside from some side-eyes and passive-aggressive comments.  Perhaps there will be some payoff to this down the line?

At this point, let’s talk about Kongou, because both his actions and his role as a sort of parallel to Phos in the narrative are fascinating.  I think this is the first time in the story that he’s really done something proactive.  I touched on this in a cursory character analysis I did for him, but to reiterate, the impression I got from his at times obtuse and contradictory behavior was that he had completely given up on trying to solve the Lunarian problem long before the series had begun, and that the only thing cutting through his despair and compelling him to get up in the morning and not just “meditate” forever was the prospect of spending a little more time with the people he loves, even knowing that he couldn’t protect them in any way that mattered.  But watching Phos’s struggle reignited a tiny bit of hope in him, enough that he wanted them to succeed in their efforts, but not enough for him to believe that he himself could make a difference.  To me, that seems like the only explanation that accounts for both his obstinacy when Phos directly confronted him along with his casual acceptance of the path Phos has been walking.

So for him to go behind everyone’s back to fix Phos is quite the departure from his usual passivity, and it tells us that he’d rather subject himself and everyone else to Phos’s brand of chaos than endure stasis that comes with their absence.  And it really does seem like the world enters a stasis along with Phos whenever they end up comatose.  Nothing moves forward, and the only thing to mark the passage of time are small deteriorations: Morga and Goshe are captured, and Cairn quietly becomes suicidal, and this time around, Yellow gradually loses their mind, the Admirabilis that Phos tried to spare overcrowd the tiny waterways they were released into, and the gems on the moon stop caring about whether they live or die.

For a while now, various characters both gem and Lunarian have called Phos their hope, or their savior, or some variation thereupon, and with each new iteration, the sentiment feels more and more ironic.  Time and time again, Phos rises to the occasion only to buckle under pressure, their noble intentions haven’t gotten them good results since, like, chapter 10, and everyone who at one point had faith in them is completely done with them.  And at the end of it all, they don’t have it in them to ask Kongou to pray on anyone’s behalf but their own, as if they’ve become so exhausted that they don’t have the energy to be kind anymore.  And just to rub salt in the wound, their ambiguous phrasing makes it unclear whether Phos is asking to Kongou get rid of the Lunarians or themselves.

All of this seems to mirror what Kongou is implied to have gone through.  He was created to save the souls of humanity, but was ill-equipped for the task, and he’s spent god knows how many millennia dogged by his failure to deliver.  Aechmea’s line in chapter 55 about how his human creators didn’t bother to think about what would happen to him after everyone was gone, in my mind, parallels how Phos has been abandoned by the people who once supported them once they became too much of an inconvenience.

So now that these two failed saviors are finally confronting each other with no lies to hide behind, and nothing to get between them, what’s going to happen?  I get the feeling that chapter 80 is going to give us some long awaited catharsis, for better or worse.  (Please Ichikawa, make things a little better for once.)

On a related note, I’m hoping this possible catharsis might clarify something else for me.  For all that the series is steeped in Buddhist symbolism and philosophy, I’ve never been able to tell what Ichikawa actually thinks of Buddhism.  On one hand, the assumptions that life boils down to suffering and that the self is ephemeral and illusory are certainly present, but on the other hand, the characters who lean most heavily on the Buddhist aesthetic are villains, the characters most invested in reaching nirvana are portrayed as…let’s say misguided at best, and as I’ve already noted above, our two would-be Buddhas are chronically ineffectual.  If I had to take a stab at it, I’d guess that the aspect of the philosophy that she takes issue with is the idea of relying on a savior figure and the idea that there exists a nirvana that could save anyone from samsara.  But if the Lunarians’ wish were a complete pipe dream, then Shiro et al wouldn’t have already disappeared?  Unless that was a misdirection and their souls were actually reincarnated?  Idk, I don’t have enough brain cells to parse The Most Viable Interpretation at this juncture in the story.

Lastly, assuming Phos doesn’t ascend to nirvana via pure rage next chapter, I think their next replacement is going to be imminent.  All of Phos’s other changes have been accompanied by death and birth imagery: they lost their legs out at sea, which is where inclusions are said to emerge, they lost their arms and their head at the site of their birth, the time they spent comatose evoked the image of a shrouded corpse in a morgue, their first trip to the moon in which they got their new eye apparently lasted the length of a Buddhist funeral, and now, they’ve literally been buried.  (On a side note, it’s interesting that there’s a lot more death imagery for their later transformations, while their earlier changes alluded to birth.)  I’m not the first person to point this out, but it seems likely to me that Rutile made good on their threat to throw Phos into the ocean, and discarded whatever pieces they were assigned to bury.  And indeed, there seems to be a gaping hole in Phos’s torso.  I still think Padparadscha is the most likely candidate for a replacement—the red stone from the lotus sutra has been alternately described as ruby, carnelian, amber, or coral, and Padparadscha is the closest we have to any of those—but who knows.  Ichikawa might even decide to stop short of all seven treasures in service of some greater thematic purpose.

And with that, this belated essay is finally done.  Except it isn’t.  This is a complete tangent, but I recently looked up the one and only region where gem-quality phosphophyllite was briefly mined, a mountain in the Bolivian Andes called Cerro Rico.  Hundreds of thousands have died there since the 16th century while mining silver, and that figure may be lowballing it, as some scholars think the death toll is actually in the millions.  It is colloquially known as “the Mountain that Eats Men,” and the miners pay tribute to this fellow in hopes of avoiding cave-ins and pockets of toxic gas, but are otherwise doomed to die young from silicosis.  According to a forum post I found belonging to a mineral collector, the mineshaft where all the phosphophyllite came from had to be walled off with a concrete bulkhead because the poisonous gases that accumulated in the tunnel had killed a number of miners.  The idea of gem mining already conjures up images of exploited workers in abject conditions, but I must say that Maneater Mountain exceeded my expectations.

Okay, now I’m actually done.  I’m going to get some sleep on account of the fact that it’s 2 AM, but afterwards I shall read the new chapter and repeat this whole grueling cycle over again, but like, in a timely manner.

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day One Hundred Seventy-One: ID Bracelet ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: The Future is Wild ] [ AO3 Link ]

How odd, to wake for the first time with an empty mind.

Eyes of pale lavender slowly open, fringes of lashes fluttering. Above her is a plane of white - perfectly arranged tiles along a ceiling, broken up intermittently with soft, colorless lights. Her gaze flickers over the sight before she dares to turn her head. With it, the fringe of her hair shifts over her brow. To her right, another marless wall of white. But to the left…

A huge sheet of glass. Peerless. Unscathed. Without a scratch. Beyond it, an empty hallway of the same unfeeling white. Cold. Hard. Lifeless.

For a time, she lets her head rest flat again, considering the ceiling. In her mind are no words - no inner narrative. Just vague inclinations - questions without form, lacking the knowledge to mold them. Where is she? What is she? Why is she?

Then instinct gives her a hint.

Move.

Limbs shift subtly, realized. She has a body? It can move? Her left arm lifts, wobbles, turns and bends. She watches it curiously, flexes fingers, feels the sensation of tightening muscles. Takes everything in with those pale eyes.

“You’re awake.”

The words mean nothing to her, but sound is a new dimension. Back to the glass she looks. There stands...something. It wasn’t there before. It...moves? Is it...her? Like her? Not like her? In her effort to see it more clearly, her torso turns - more body to discover. Like a newborn fawn she struggles to wrangle her fleshy vessel to her whims. As she turns atop the strange cot upon which she’s lying, something moves against her skin. Her hair, her garment, and...a bracelet. She has words for none of them, understanding for none of them. Hands sloppily touch and pull at all she is, all she has. There’s...sensation. She feels it! The gown that hangs to her knees is smooth...but not as smooth as her skin. And the thing that dangles over her wrist...it shines. Silver, metal, save for a small screen that displays symbols, meaningless to her.

To anyone else, it simply reads: B1.

As she watches, the symbols...move! Float across the little screen, changing and flowing. Vitals display, physical information. Current height, weight, body mass index, last sleep cycle, last meal, last waste deposit. Anything and everything that is her.

All the while, outside the glass, the her-is-not-her watches. Patiently. His eyes are not like hers. Dark. Guarded. Not so curious and open about the new world around them.

His eyes have seen much. More than hers. Great things. Terrible things.

He wonders which she will be.

Eventually, she loses interest in the bracelet, and her gown. Combing fingers through her hair, she keeps up the act subconsciously as she again takes in her little room. It’s only ten paces in any direction. Her cot is the only anomaly: a fluid shape up out of the floor, like a stand for a trophy. Her legs dangle off the edge, feet bare over the cool tiles.

Then her eyes return to him.

His garment is different. A coat, white; trousers, black; shirt, red; tie, black. And he has shoes - she can’t see his feet. Nor can she tell what is garment, what is him. What is him?

“Can you hear me?”

Her head tilts.

He knows she doesn’t yet comprehend language, but...all in due time. At least, so far, she seems functional. Motor skills are developing well after so long in suspended animation as she grew. They’ll have to test her full capabilities later. Make sure nothing is deficient or malformed after her accelerated growth...but from a glance, she appears whole. Normal.

Of course...he knows better than to expect perfect results from the prototype. There’s a reason there’s a number beside her project’s initial. There will be more. There will always be more. Tweaks. Improvements. Fixes for bugs and imperfections.

For now, he simply observes.

She stares at him, unblinking. Unnerving how her gaze almost seems to go right through him, but...well, he supposes that’s largely the point. The government isn’t paying his employer millions just to make humans.

They have to be special.

Then, to his surprise, she attempts to stand. Attempts being the key word, as her untested legs quickly give out under the new strain of gravity. He doesn’t react, watching to see what she’ll do. Limbs a mess and back propped against her cot, there’s a curt huff of frustrated breath.

...that was almost cute.

Arms reach for a hold, twisting her torso to reach for the edge. She manages to rise to her knees, still clinging to the cot and observing herself critically. Seems she’s not a fan of her beginning fragility. Then a leg lifts, planting her foot with her knee at a right angle. Good. Push, strain, wobble like a Spring calf. Plant other foot. Hold on to support. Carefully - oh so carefully - let go.

Continue to sway, but...remain upright. Arms stretch out like an acrobat’s pole on a tightrope, lifting and lowering to adjust her balance.

...huh. Impressive.

Tiny shuffling steps turn her back toward the glass. One foot slides, rather than lifts, across the floor, like a child learning to ski. Shift weight, bring forth other foot. Slow, unsteady progress.

And he just...watches. Hands in his pockets. Expression carefully neutral.

After a long minute of travel...she makes it. Braces palms against the glass, which fogs ever so slightly in the chilled laboratory air near her body heat. Watching the phenomenon, her gaze then lifts to his face. Studies it, eyes open and clear, unphased by things like social decorum. Her mind thirsts for knowledge of this world it suddenly finds itself in, and he is the first thing of note in her path.

The first thing like her.

There’s still an eerie feeling as she watches him. He knows what those eyes have been engineered to do: to see through anything, when fed the right biochemical signal. The perfect spy, with both x-ray and binocular vision.

Exactly what they’re being paid to build.

Orochimaru has always sought to push the boundaries of fact and fiction when it comes to human biology. Limits pushed just to see what pushing them does. What happens when those boundaries are broken. The unnatural, perverse things Sasuke has seen while working under the man have been numerous...but this project, at least, has to retain a sense of normalcy.

If a being is to blend into society, it can’t stand out. And while her gaze is troubling, they can always adjust it. She’ll have to prove she can go unseen...while seeing everything.

Lost in his thoughts, Sasuke moves only as she does. Her right hand, attached to her ID bracelet, lifts to press more level to his face, as though longing to touch it. Still the intense stare, head tilting to better her angle of observation.

His own eyes flicker over her face, eventually managing to lock.

She has yet to blink.

Then, subtly...he sees it. Veins along her temples swell, altered brain flipping a switch.

...she’s looking through him. Literally this time.

He just...stands in shock. How did she…? She can’t know how to…?

Eventually, her eyes move aside, slowly scanning the building beyond him. Peeking into crevices, seeing into rooms, peering around corners. As he watches, he can just barely see the shifts in her irises: like a camera lens adjusting focus as she narrows and widens her field of view.

...amazing…

After a sweep, she brings her gaze back to him, veins receding as she lets the phenomenon cease.

Considering her silently, Sasuke then decides to abandon his better judgment. Just for a moment.

Just to see what she’ll do.

Withdrawing a hand from a pocket, he lifts it, slowly. As expected, her eyes snap to the movement. Letting her watch, he then adjusts to let his palm rest on the other side of the six inch thick reinforced glass from hers.

It’s so dainty when compared to his own.

Something...shifts in her expression. Almost like a tinge of sadness. Slowly, her fingers curl to a fist, eyes dropping and suddenly looking miles away.

What he’d give to know what she’s thinking.

Feeling.

Then, the limb slips from the glass completely. She turns to walk away.

“Wait.”

The sound draws her gaze.

The word comes unexpectedly. Unintendedly. Suddenly his throat is dry, watching as she watches him.

His own visual cue is far less subtle than hers. The black iris spins, shifts...turns red. With it, the lavender specter that ghosts over her shell flickers into vision. Echoes of her subtle movements make her seem to shift in slow motion, like afterimages he can watch and predict far faster than any untinkered human.

Her face goes slack with recognition.

He...he is like her…!

Stepping back to him, she palms at the glass, seeming to seek a way through it. But he stoppers her with a gesture. His eyes go dark. He shakes his head.

...she doesn’t understand.

Heaving a sigh, he retreats his hand, shoving it back into his pocket and walking down the hall, the thumps of her palms unheard.

                                                        .oOo.

     So this is...really random xD I'm actually not a big fan of sci fi as a genre - I've always been more of a fantasy kinda person. So tbh I dunno how...well I did this? Since I don't have much to compare it to, lol      Back when I first did this prompt list with original characters, I did something very similar to this, but...it's neat to see how my perceptions have changed, and just overall writing quality. I like this a lot better than that first attempt, but...I guess that's the point!      ANYWAY      So, we have Oro in a lab making fancy modified hoomans! And Hinata, Byakugan 1, has just been woken from stasis for the first time! A bit odd to suddenly exist at like twenty years old. And of course, Sasuke - one of Oro's top assistants - goes to check on her. But it seems even Oro's employees have their quirks :3c      Ngl, I might do more with this in the future. We'll see. I'm not...overly comfortable with writing sci fi since I don't really "know" it very well, but...maybe I'll make an exception here, lol      Buuut for now, I need sleep. I was up all night sick last night and...hoping it doesn't happen again ^^; All that aside though, thanks for reading!