#my evolution since then.. like its not drastic but it feels pretty obvious

[spacedikut]

starstruck ; spencer reid

pairing: spencer reid (criminal minds) x f!reader

summary:  “Can I request some age gap Spencer x reader. Maybe he’s nervous about approaching her for a relationship bc she’s younger, but he’s so goofy for her it’s he’s in love obvious. Pretty pls 🥺💕” 5222 words

a/n: i didn’t specify ages cause i wasn’t sure what people would be comfortable with so i just mentioned an age gap and leave the rest up to you!! i would happily date someone twice my age but i also have daddy issues so :)

masterlist

The day has finally arrived.

Mollie can call you a nerd all she wants, but you know the second she lays eyes on Derek Morgan or Emily Prentiss she’ll change her tune.

This event has been in the university’s calendar since the beginning of the semester. At least two members of the FBI Behavioural Analysis Unit were promised to give a talk about their department, even taking you through a solved case like an interactive documentary, to encourage students to consider joining the academy post-graduation. There was whispers they’d even stick around after to answer some questions.

Your other friend, Jen, the one that understands your excitement, wrote your names down for tickets immediately. You’ve had a countdown on your phone ever since.

“They’ve announced a last-minute guest,” She beams, just as giddy as you. You’re wasting time at the coffee house near the auditorium, waiting for Mollie to arrive.

“Oh, really? Who?”

“Doctor Spencer Reid.”

You almost drop your cookie in shock and stare at her, pupils blown.

“You’re a big fan?” She smirks.

As nonchalantly as you can, you lean back in your chair, “I’m a fan of his work, yes.”

“Oh, his work?”

“Don’t start.”

“I bet you love his work.”

“He’s well-versed and his papers are super interesting-“

“His papers are super interesting-“

“You are a child.”

Just then, Mollie appears, checking her watch. You wish you could kiss her in thanks for saving you from the teasing that would likely never end. “We’re gonna be late for your morbid seminar if you two don’t stop bickering.”

Jen downs the rest of her drink, you shove the last of the cookie in your mouth. Mollie watches your excitement in amusement – your heart starts pumping, whole body buzzing, the same nervousness you felt when you were a preteen right before your first ever One Direction concert. It’s the kind of nervousness that makes your palms sweaty.

Is it evolution or devolution to go from sweating over One Direction to sweating over FBI profilers?

+++

The seminar goes on for an hour, including the questions people ask throughout. It’s everything you could’ve asked for, entertaining and so, so informative and although you weren’t considering joining the FBI before, suddenly it’s all you can think about. Guest speakers have that affect, don’t they? They make you wonder if you should drastically change everything you’ve been planning.

Even Mollie, who you had to threaten to tag along, ended up enjoying herself. “Maybe I learnt a thing or two,” She’d said, rolling her eyes playfully.

You and your friends are some of the last to leave. There’s quite the bustling outside, which you assume is just post-seminar chatter, but you and Jen falter in your steps when you see the exact profilers that had been onstage several minutes ago in front of you, happily interacting and talking to fellow students.

“Oh, man,” Jen whispers, her and Mollie making eye contact across you. “I have to see if I can talk to Emily.”

Mollie encourages her with a frantic, “Go! Go!” while you’re rooted in place. Mollie jabs you with a pointed nail, “You in there, Y/N? I’m sure you have loads of questions for them-“

You stutter and shake your head, “N-no. I’m good. You can try and hit on Derek, if you want.”

You give a half-attempt at a smile, barely lifting the corners of your lips. Mollie recognises that look. She wants to stay with you, check you’re not too overwhelmed, but you shoo her away and send her towards Derek. You breathe a sigh of relief – you’ve been friends with her long enough that she knows when you need space.

There’s something about seeing people you admire so abruptly that totally throws you for a loop. All you had prepared for was seeing them from afar and subsequently talking about it forever, but nothing beyond that. In some circumstances, it’d be a pleasant surprise, but for someone that struggles around strangers and especially around people as admirable as profilers, you are not mentally prepared for this and have therefore shut down.

But then you see him.

He’s shuffling in place in the corner of the room, close to a large potted plant like it’s his only friend. He’s nibbling his lip as his eyes flutter around, never staying somewhere for longer than a second, looking increasingly uncomfortable.

Why is no one talking to him? He’s Spencer Reid.

There’s a couple of people surrounding Emily, fully entranced by whatever story she’s relaying, another few people around Derek, chortling at a joke he just made. Spencer glances between them and their audiences, and you can’t help but wonder why he isn’t right next to them, chatting away, too.

Does he not want to talk to anyone?

You should talk to him.

No. He probably wants to be alone.

Or what if he doesn’t and no one else is talking to him which means you can have a one-on-one conversation? What about that?

Are you insane?

…

You have to talk to him.

Before you can change your mind, you’re approaching him with a tight grip on the handle of your bag, pushing it higher up your shoulder. He spots you and makes eye contact just as you stop in front of him, and you notice he momentarily tightens his grip on his satchel.

Was this a bad idea?

“Hi,” You breathe, “I’m Y/N. A big fan.”

His eyes widen a fraction, which you don’t understand because why else would you be here, but he smiles nonetheless, “Hi, I’m, uh, Spencer Reid.”

“I know.”

“Yes, you know. That makes sense, because you were in the seminar. I saw you.”

Now you’re shocked. For as long as you can remember you never sit in the centre of a room, where most attention seems to go, so how did he-

“I-I always scan the room I’m in its.. it’s not a creepy thing, I swear. I’m not creepy.”

A laugh escapes you at that, making him visibly relax. “I don’t think you’re creepy. There was just.. a lot of people in there, so I’m surprised you remember my face.” You shrug.

I couldn’t forget such a beautiful face.

You don’t know what happens, but Spencer suddenly tenses up. His back straightens and he looks alarm, stiff.

Did he just think that? What.. why did he think that?

You wonder if you’ve said something wrong, so you try to change the topic.

“I-I have a question, if you don’t mind answering.”

Spencer nods with an of course, and when the question rolls off your tongue, his mind is still reeling from subconsciously calling you beautiful in his head. It’s not untrue, but it feels.. inappropriate. He doesn’t know why. But you are beautiful.

As he scans your face, now much closer than in the auditorium, he realises yeah, you are incredibly beautiful.

You wave a hand in front of his face, “Doctor Reid?”

“Sorry, yes, sorry. What are you studying?”

There’s a light in your eyes that Spencer recognises when you say, “Psychology.”

“Thought so.”

“You probably talk to a lot of psychology students. I-um. I almost went to Caltech,” Spencer raises an eyebrow, "After I read your dissertation, it really inspired me to look into it – your dissertation is incredible, by the way.”

Spencer smiles bashfully, a futile attempt to not allow the grin to overtake his face, and thanks you, “I appreciate it. Actually, I was sixteen when I wrote it.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Your eyes widen, “You’re insane! You’re amazing!”

The praise bursts from you, and his blushing face makes you oddly proud. On the other hand, Spencer feels like you’ve set him alight, his blood pumping loudly in his ears, as he’s unable to tear his eyes away from your smile.

He desperately needs to change the topic.

“To answer your question…”

Derek notices you two interacting across the room. Mollie sees him looking and hums, “Oh, that’s Y/N, my best friend. She really likes Spencer.”

Derek raises an eyebrow, “Looks like he really likes her.”

“Don’t tell her that. She’ll collapse.”

They both watch you for a second, Spencer flailing his arms as he explains, you eagerly adding to his rambling, asking a question here and exclaiming some kind of encouragement there. It’s sweet, Derek thinks.

“Hey..” Mollie begins, a scheming look in her eye, “We’re planning to hang out in the campus bar later. It’s open to all and the drinks are cheap. If you and Emily happen to find yourselves looking for something to do and you drag Spencer along.. I’m sure Y/N would like it.”

“I like the way you think,” Derek says, “I’ll see what I can do.”

+++

“She’s getting hit on. Again.” You giggle, gesturing for Jen to turn around and witness Mollie get your drinks paid for by a random guy.

She’s always been a people person – it’s saved you hundreds on nights out.

All Jen does is glance over her shoulder, scoff, then turn her sceptical eyes to you.

“I saw you and Spencer Reid.” She says, twinkling eyes. She’s trying not to look smug.

“I almost proposed to him.” You joke, taking your drink from Mollie with a mumbled thanks.

“Oh, I bet you did,” She laughs, “You two looked sooo good together.”

“Alright,” You slide a shot to each girl, “I know you’re making fun of me, but I’m taking that compliment and cherishing it. Spencer Reid is cute, what of it?!”

You clink the shot glasses with your friends and down them, all wincing at the taste and giggling at Jen when she takes a gulp of her cocktail to wash away the taste of straight vodka.

“How did talking to Derek and Emily go?”

And then Jen starts chattering away.

You miss the bar door opening behind you, But Mollie notices. She’s been watching the door since they got here, conveniently choosing the table with the best view, just in case some profilers decided to stop by.

Derek catches Mollie’s eye and winks.

“Well I never,” Mollie fakes shock, “Look who just walked through the doors.”

You turn and choke on your drink. Emily and Derek look relax, like they’re home, but Spencer?

He looks just like he did earlier: like there’s a million places he’d rather be.

He’s lost the blazer he was wearing earlier, leaving him in a fitted purple shirt with a matching tie. With the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, you can see his firm hands and the silver watch that rests on his wrist – is it possible for a watch to be sexy? Or maybe it’s just cause he’s sexy?

That shot must be getting to you.

“What the hell are they doing here?” You hiss, a sharp whisper piercing the air as you turn and (terribly) try to hide your face.

But Spencer’s seen you. He spotted you the moment they came in – he recognised your clothes and your hair – and the second he did he turned right back around to exit the bar. Derek’s arm stopped him at his chest, like he does to unsubs, forcefully turning him around and laughing when Spencer tensed up.

“What, Reid? Scared of a pretty girl?” Derek teases, much like he’d been doing since he spoke to you earlier.

“I am scared of college girls, yes. Last time I was in a college bar I was twelve and downed shots of apple juice.”

“What?!” Both Emily and Derek stop short, looks of disbelief at the revelation. “You’ve never mentioned that.”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“We,” Derek places his hands on Spencer’s shoulders, directing him to your table, “Are just gonna have a few drinks and talk to a few people, and then you’re gonna explain that apple juice story in explicit detail- hey ladies!”

Jen and Mollie look overjoyed at the new company, while you stare rigidly with distinctive what the fuck eyes.

“Would you mind if we joined you?” Emily asks, with a sparkling grin that no one could say no to.

“Of course not,” Jen grins, like it’s the most obvious answer.

The empty seat next to you is taken by Spencer (Derek discreetly shoves him) but right before he’s firmly placed on the stool, Emily calls out, “Spence, why don’t you get us some drinks? You still owe us after you lost that game of gin..”

“I didn’t lose.” Spencer huffs indignantly, “You cheated.”

Despite his grunts, he stands to make his way to the bar, but not before-

“Y/N!” Mollie beams, “It’s your turn to get the round, if you’d be so kind.”

You know that look on her face. You hate her, you realise, but you also love her because being alone with Spencer sends a thrill through you.

Alone with Spencer. What the hell are you supposed to say to him?

You follow him to the bar. He leans against it with an awkward smile.

“Hey, Y/N.”

“Hey.”

“It’s uh.. it’s been a long time since we’ve seen eachother.” It’s a half attempt at a joke, followed by instant regret. But then you giggle and everything feels right in the world, even Spencer’s sucky joke.

“It has been a while, Doctor Reid.” You say. The bartender approaches, takes your orders, then you turn to Spencer, “What brings you to a college bar, of all places?”

“Well,” Spencer glances over your shoulder to your table. He makes eye contact with every single person there, all watching you two interact, and they all sharply turn and try to play it off like they’ve been talking casually. Spencer’s brows furrow a little. “Derek said the drinks are cheap and our hotel is only a couple blocks away. I don’t know, maybe Derek likes college girls.”

You laugh again, and Spencer has to take a second to realise you’re not laughing at him but at what he said about Derek. “Yeah, Derek seems like a real ladies man.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it.” Spencer grins, “We once timed him to see how long it would take to get a girls number and he did it in five minutes. And he said he was having a bad day.”

The drinks are placed in front of you. Neither of you notice.

You unconsciously lean closer, saying, “Have you timed it to see how long it takes for a girl to approach him? That’s gotta be, like, maybe ten minutes?”

“Eight minutes and twenty-three seconds.”

“Well damn. Has he always been so…” A hand gestures in the air, looking for the word.

“Promiscuous?”

“I was gonna say free.”

“Free?” Spencer giggles, “That’s very nice of you.”

You shrug, “I don’t judge.” Spencer agrees, and it slips out, “What about you?”

You wish you could shove the words back in your mouth. Even more so when his expression changes. You can’t entirely make out what it is, but even in the dimly lit bar you can see the flush of heat that spreads through his cheeks to his ears.

“Are you asking me if I’m free with the ladies?” He murmurs, suppressing a grin.

You give an awkward laugh, wondering if you’ve overstepped a boundary, “Yeah. But that’s kinda weird to ask, so-“

“I’m so popular with the ladies it puts Derek to shame.”

You can’t hide your surprise. “What? Really?”

Spencer caves. “No. Is it that hard to believe I’m a ladies man?”

“Compared to Derek? Yes.”

Spencer scoffs.

+++

“As adorable as they are, it’s been thirty minutes.” Emily sighs. “I want my drink.”

“They’re bonding,” Jen sends a wistful look, “I’m so proud.”

“I’m guessing Y/N isn’t the most social either?” Derek asks, proudly watching you interact.

“She’s the best, just a little shy sometimes.” She smiles at you, even though you can’t see, “She’s an idiot, but our idiot, you know?”

Both Emily and Derek laugh airily, nodding with a, “Yeah, we know.”

At once, three phones vibrate throughout the bar – Emily, Derek and Spencer. They’re instantly filled with disappointment; Derek can’t watch Spencer attempt to flirt with a girl he’s obviously interested in, Emily still hasn’t got a drink, and Spencer has to leave you and he can’t think of anything worse.

He’s clearly hesitant when he looks at his phone. How does he say goodbye? Does he ask for your number? Would that be weird? That would be weird.

“Uhh…”

You channel every ounce of liquid courage you have in your body and offer, “Would it be weird if I gave you my number? Just.. for anything. Anything at all.”

Spencer nods, a gentle look in his eyes and a smile on his face, “Yeah, I’d like that.”

You mumble an alright, accepting Spencer’s phone and creating a new contact for yourself.

Please text me. You think. Please text me.

+++

He doesn’t text.

It’s been a week. A week. You know how cases are, some take longer than others and some are solved in literal hours, but it’s been a week, Spencer goddamn Reid, so why haven’t you texted me.

That’s when the doubt creeps in. Your friends keep telling you he’ll text, that he’s just busy (“He’s an FBI agent, Y/N. If you start dating you’re gonna have to get used to lapses in contact.” To which you’re too distracted choking at the mention of you two dating), but you can’t help but wonder if he took your number simply so he could leave quicker. He had a case to get to, after all. He had people to save.

Now you feel guilty. You forced your number on him, didn’t you? Oh God, he hates you. He hates you and you forced your number on him and he hasn’t texted you because he’s filing a restraining order against you because he hates you.

Mollie tells you you need a nap.

+++

Spencer spends the time on the jet back from the case staring at your number. He has it memorised, of course, and has had it memorised from the first time he read it, of course, but he can’t bring himself to do anything with it.

All he’s done is change your contact picture from the standard first letter of your name to a cute picture of a frog Garcia sent him. It reminds him of you.

Derek lowers his headphones, “You texted her yet, Pretty Boy?”

“Huh? Uh, no. I don’t think I will.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know,” Spencer shrugs, locking his phone and placing it face down. “I don’t think anything would come from it.”

“Kid,” Derek leans forward, eyebrows furrowed, “You two talked for well over thirty minutes in the middle of a college bar about God knows what. Maybe I’m easy to impress, but that seemed pretty special to me.”

“How is talking in a college bar worth anything?”

“Because you’re Reid, who, most of the time, has to be physically dragged into a bar. You hate talking to strangers about anything other than work. Y/N? A stranger. What did you two talk about?”

“We talked about you a little.”

“Uhuh. About how good I am at my job?”

“God, no,” Spencer scrunches his nose, “We talked about your charm with the ladies.”

Derek falls back in his chair and scoffs, “I’m flattered, but that doesn’t sound like work-talk to me. So you’re comfortable with her. I saw you laughing, so she makes you laugh, too. Sounds pretty great to me.”

Spencer stares. Derek’s right, but..

“So what is it, Reid?”

Spencer licks his lips. “Do you think she’s too young for me?”

Derek rarely looks taken aback, but he does now, “Too young?”

“She’s in college. I’m-I’m-“

“A legal adult. As is she.”

Spencer slumps. “A 2014 Current Population Survey found the average difference for a heterosexual couple is two-point-three years, with the man older than the woman. Even if you double that, that’s still less than me and Y/N-“

“Four years isn’t a lot, Spence,”

“You just.. you don’t think it’s weird?”

“No. Do you?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know.”

Derek’s conviction gives Spencer some reassurance, but he can’t help himself when he thinks that.. maybe.. you’ll find him boring. Most people seem to, with all his statistics and figures and facts, but with the added element of you living it up at college.. how could he compete?

“I think you’re worrying over nothing, Reid. You haven’t even texted her, and you’re already worrying about stuff like age gaps?” Derek crosses his hands and looks at Spencer with determination, “She gave you her number. She initiated it. She knows who you are, so she knows how old you are and it doesn’t seem to make her uncomfortable. So, why should it make you?”

Spencer just grunts.

“Are you worried people will say things?”

“I guess.”

“People always say things. You know that better than anyone. So screw ‘em.”

Spencer feels a smile creep onto his face.

And Derek relaxes. He’s planted the seeds, that Spencer is fretting over nothing, now all he’s got to do is wait for Spencer to let it sink in and allow the flowers to bloom and, next thing you know, Spencer’s gonna have himself the perfect girlfriend.

And Derek will take too much credit for it.

+++

“Heeeeeeeeey my precious Doctor…”

Garcia looks like her hand was caught in the cookie jar.

Spencer’s back straightens. “What did you do?”

She looks embarrassed, fiddling with the fluffy pen in her hand. She smiles awkwardly. “Derek may have told me about a pretty little college student that captured your heart, and then he told me you also haven’t texted her yet, so I did a little digging and…”

“You cyber-stalked Y/N?” Emily asks, casually. JJ seems unphased at the discussion. Does everyone in the office know about you?

“I did. I’m guilty. I’m sorry. I couldn’t resist.” She’s speaking a mile a minute.

Emily spares Spencer a glance, “Did you find anything?”

“Well…”

Concern fills Spencer. “Did something happen?”

“I just found some stuff she’d probably only tell a close friend and I feel really bad about it.” Her shoulders are by her ears as she tries to fold in on herself out of guilt, “But other than that she’s a genuinely sweet girl who volunteers at pet shelters and the college library in her free time and we have really similar music tastes so I think we’d make great friends.”

They all look to Spencer, waiting for his reaction. What? Is he supposed to be surprised that you’re the epitome of perfect? He’s not. He studied you the entire time you spoke.

“She’s also written several incredible papers on child development that I think are revolutionary and I totally emailed them to you because I think you should read them. She’s also a genius.”

Spencer’s hand twitches. He ignores the sudden need to check his email.

It’s silent as they just stare at him. He doesn’t say anything and tries not to react, but he does. They notice how his eyes flicker to his phone, how his leg fidgets, the longing in his eyes.

Emily brushes her hair back calmly and asks, “Hey, Pen, when does Y/N work at the college library?”

Penelope doesn’t catch on at first, casually replying, “Oh, basically every day from five pm onwards. They’re a twenty-four hour library and she combines working and studying.” When she sees Emily pointedly look at Spencer, she goes ohhh.

“Good to know,” Emily nods, “Good to know.”

+++

Spencer finds himself at the college library that night.

He wants to say it was an accident, or that he just happens to know there’s a special edition of a specific book here, but he’d be lying. He read your papers between reports, and found himself having a deep appreciation for the way you write – he wants to ready everything you’ve ever written. Every essay, every note, every formal and informal piece of work you’ve ever done.

He’s already fallen in love with the way you write. He doesn’t think he’s far from falling in love with you.

He wanders around the lower floor of the library. It’s impressive, he must admit, and he’s disappointed in himself for not visiting earlier. There’s students everywhere, but he notices some other people mixed in too – professors, businesspeople, as well as parents with their children.

He feels a little less weird for creeping around now.

Not that’s he’s creeping. He’s just.. there. To see a certain someone under the guise of looking for a book.

He moseys for a while, from the fiction section to the non-fiction to comics to autobiographies. You’re nowhere to be found – not between the rows of books, not working on any of the desks, not at the centre reception desk.

Until you’re suddenly behind him.

“Spencer?”

He jumps, looking up from the book he’s reading. Your voice is as calming and smooth as always.

“Y/N. Hi.”

“Hi,” Your brows are furrowed, but you’re not disappointed by the unexpected visitor. “What are you doing here?”

He lifts the book he’s holding, an Arthur Conan Doyle, giving a light lipped smile. “I’m just looking. I didn’t realise the college library was so plentiful – did you know the oldest library in the world dates from the seventh century BC?”

“I do, actually.” You point to a poster behind him, which displays that exact fact, “I thought dotting facts around the library would be interesting for the kids. They seem to like them.”

“Learning in young children is socially mediated, so good quality learning environments outside of their schools is crucial for children’s development. So, in a way, you’re enriching their lives beyond understanding.”

You’re flattered at his somewhat far-fetched attempt at complimenting you. It makes your heart flutter.

Why didn’t you contact me, you dimwit?

You open your mouth to ask another question, ask if there’s something he needs help finding, when he beats you to it.

With a firm grip, he slams the book he’s reading shut and says, “I’m lying.”

“Oh?”

“I didn’t come here to.. look around. I came here to see you.”

“Oh.”

Spencer doesn’t know what to make of that. You haven’t awkwardly looked away, or stepped back to increase the distance between you. That means something good, right?

“You didn’t text me, so I assumed you weren’t interested.” Your brows twitch, and you back-pedal, “Unless you purposely didn’t text me because you actually weren’t interested and you might be here to see me but for something book-related rather than me-related and I’ve totally humiliated myself.”

“No, no. You’re right. You’re right.” He fiddles with the book in shame, “I should’ve texted you. I just didn’t know what to say and.. Well, it’s stupid.”

Your head jerks a little to the side, something he’s noticed you do a lot, looking patient and too pretty for him to handle. “I’m sure it’s not stupid.”

Spencer thinks back to his conversation with Derek, specifically the reminder that you gave him your number which means you initiated this so yes, you are interested in him.

It’s just.. when he looks at you, he struggles to believe it a little. You’re breath-taking.  

“I’m worried I’ll bore you.” He starts light, easing you into what’s been troubling him. He’s emboldened by the fact you’re clearly frustrated he didn’t text you.

You give him a look of horror, “The first time we met I told you I loved your dissertation on geographic regression. I definitely do not think you’re anything anywhere near boring.”

“Okay,” He nods, “What about our ages?”

You’re confused. “What about it?”

Spencer mirrors your expression. “It doesn’t.. bother you?”

“Does it.. bother you?”

Usually, answering a question with a question is a sign of deflection, a sign of hiding something. However he doesn’t know why, but Spencer trusts you with his life. Maybe not his life. Maybe his heart.

“Does that silence mean yes?”

He shakes his head, “No. It doesn’t bother me. I just worry that, you know, college years are the so-called best years of your life and I don’t want you to regret being with me, someone older than you, and resent me for it, or something-“

“I think you’re getting way in your head, Spence.” You laugh a little, “We haven’t gone on a single date and you’ve convinced yourself of so much already. For the record, no, your age doesn’t bother me in the slightest. It never has and I doubt it ever will. I think you’re the most fascinating and interesting person on this planet, and if anyone is getting bored with anyone I’m pretty confident it’ll be you getting sick of me. And,” You take a breath, “I think I’m old enough to know what I want, who I want, and what I want is you. If you want me, too.”

Spencer shoves the book back into the bookshelf with a satisfying sound, then turns and quickly places a kiss onto your cheek. It’s completely unexpected and, quite frankly, not something you’d expect from Doctor Reid, but you blush and there’s a definite red colour to Spencer’s cheeks, too.

“I will never, ever, get sick of you.” He says, voice small but firm. “But I don’t want you to regret being with me. Promise me you won’t.”

You give him a look that tells him you think he’s ridiculous. “I promise that I won’t regret being with you. I’d like us to last as long as possible, if I can be picky.”

“I’d like that, too.” He murmurs. The thought of you wanting him for as long as possible almost sends him into a frenzy. He wants to kiss you all over.

You stand close and talk quietly for a while, a little more discussion on a possible date that weekend and a constant stream of compliments from you to Spencer and vice versa, before you realise the time.

“I should probably go. I have a paper to finish.” You smile sadly, a tiny pout forming.

“I understand. Do you think I could read it? When you’re done?”

Your eyebrows shoot up, “Do you know how terrifying the idea of the Spencer Reid reading my work is? But yes, anything for you.”

Anything for you. Are you trying to kill him?

You turn to leave, refusing to admit how sad leaving Spencer makes you feel, when you stop, “One more thing.”

Spencer hums. He’s not fully paying attention, praying to whatever Gods exist that killers take a break on the weekend so he can take you out on the sweetest date.

“If age is a sore area for you,” There’s mirth in your eyes and Spencer prepares himself, “Does that mean the nickname old man is off the table?”

His lips purse and move towards his nose as he narrows his eyes, giving you a look of faux annoyance, “I am not an old man.”

“Sounds like you’re sensitive, old man.”

As you walk away, you jokingly blow him a kiss to add insult to injury. His pretend glare lasts until your back is turned and he feels his gaze softening to something akin to love.

Spencer thins if the rest of his life is this, you teasing him with that twinkle in your eye and smile on your face, then life is truly the most beautiful thing.

[aranarumei]

a3! x pokemon: spring troupe

alternatively: i try to approximate a3 characters and their character arcs through pokemon teams

a couple of disclaimers / qualifications (u can skip this): ive been playing pokemon since like. 2007. played all the mainline games in the generation from hoenn all the way up to sun & moon. so… no sword and shield pokemon here. i take inspiration from stuff outside the game, particularly pokemon ranger, pokemon mystery dungeon: explorers of time/darkness/sky, the pokemon adventures manga, and the anime. i don’t play pokémon competitively and these teams probably aren’t that balanced. each team leader gets a starter pokemon because I thought it would be an appropriate piece of theming, and I tried to avoid legendary pokemon because it would feel weird for a bunch of troupe members to just… have legendaries just like that. pokemon are listed in their fully evolved forms because that feels best to me as someone who would fully evolve all their pokemon. so… that’s 5 x 4 x 6 = 120 distinct pokemon from mostly separate evolution lines, with a lot of starters and legendaries excluded… and i added some bonus pokemon for matsukawa and izumi... there are no pictures because that would require too much from me, but I linked the serebii.net page for the pokemon mentioned. I didn’t include any of the rookies—I haven’t finished act 2 yet—so I realize many of my explanations for these characters will be insufficient… but I’ll try my best!

okay? okay. members + their teams under the cut, with explanations

sakuya sakuma

chatot

pretty obvious reasoning here. kamekichi exists and i wanted sakuya to have a pokemon to represent that. oricorio was actually a *super* close second here—its island variants and coloring on some of them are far more similar to kamekichi, and it’s got that performer look since it dances, but chatot gets points for its noted ability to imitate human speech, like kamekichi. perhaps matsukawa has an oricorio? i rather like the idea of that—sakuya w/ a chatot that acts with him, and another oricorio that flits through island variants as a symbol for each troupe. pink for spring, of course.

venusaur

flowers for spring! a grass starter is a must… why didn’t i pick the chikorita / bayleef / meganium line? two big reasons: not only did i have a starter for each leader, i wanted each starter to be from a different generation! so this worked better with that pattern. Additionally, i feel that the bulbasaur line really fits the “blooming” concept of a3: the way it starts with a bulb, then a bud as ivysaur, and finally in full bloom as venusaur? i don’t put much stock in pokedex entries, but I wanted to mention this bit of flavor text that’s in venusaur’s description: “The flower's aroma soothes the emotions of people.” And that’s just… so sakuya, to me. 

cherrim

cherubi is literally just a pack of cherries and then it evolves to cherrim! which covers its face most of the time but under sunlight completely changes form. one of the most drastic transformations I’ve seen, and I used to be obsessed with seeing my cherrim change form when I was younger. I think it fits with how sakuya, while he’s definitely a bright person, is very kind of mild / sweet? but when he’s on stage (under sunlight) he just… absolutely shines. also, flower imagery once again for our main kid. specifically, cherry blossom flower imagery for sakuya. 

lapras

lapras to me just has really… kind energy? it’s been hunted to the point of extinction (though as of sun and moon it’s not anymore) and it likes to carry people across it’s back. I’m particularly fond of the lapras that helps you in pokemon mystery dungeon: explorers of sky. but at the same time, I think lapras has this really sort of like… lonely vibe. I think that there’s something poignant about how… starved for family sakuya is and how he would connect with a lapras who’s also kind but doesn’t really… have anyone else? they’d be a good fit. 

silvally

and here i am! cheating already. tho silvally’s fairly unique (like zoroark) in that it’s got a pre-evolution and all, it’s still a legendary pokemon. i’m going to get emo for a second and explain that in the sun & moon games, there’s this rival character called gladion who’s really emo and has this synthetically created pokemon called type: null. presumably he stole it from his mother i think? long story. But in the pokedex entry, it specifically says that “Although its name was Type: Null at first, the boy who evolved it into this form gave it the name by which it is now known.” which is like… what? what? most emo kid in the world evolves this pokemon and calls it silver ally. like thats very sweet. and type:null evolves into silvally through a friendship mechanism, so I was like… well yeah. I think sakuya would treat silvally the best and most ever and i think it would be funny if he was like oh im just normal and ppl were like “hey kid whats that legendary pokemon doing on your team”

plusle 

pikachu is, of course, classic, but i refuse to be classic. plusle is one of the electric rodent variants that show up every generation—this one, to me, is unique because plusle is most known for being part of a team! Specifically, plusle and minun are two electric mice pokemon who have abilities that are usually suited to being in double battles. it’s very cute and bright, like sakuya, and i think it’s well-suited for the whole “bromance” thing that romeo and julius has ahah. it’s all part of some metaphor abt how they work better as a team and how sakuya thrives on having a friendship / family… yes masumi has a minun. speaking of: that’s six for sakuya, so moving on… 

masumi usui

minun

minun is here for the aforementioned reasons about why sakuya has a plusle, but rather than matching with his personality, it’s at complete odds with how masumi usually acts, which I think adds a kind of refreshing charm to its presence on his team. maybe it’s a sign that he should really be valuing his friends more or something… ahem. the blue color scheme pairs well with masumi as opposed to plusle’s red, and the minus signs match with how he’s a bit more negative as compared to sakuya. what’s more, minun’s stats differ from plusle in that minun has higher defense stats while plusle has higher attack stats. again, fits well with both of them (and it’s noted that minun’s extra defense actually makes it the preferred choice competitively as compared to plusle… which, yeah, all fits).  

hydreigon

oh, wow, look at me and my cool and powerful team… for minun to be the exception, I pretty much went and picked some really menacing, powerful pokemon who’ve got an intimidating sort of cool aura. very similar to masumi’s distance from most people, and I think a high schooler having all of these crazy strong pokemon really just exemplifies how masumi’s like, really talented, at such a young age. a lot of his pokemon are dragon types, because those tend to be really strong, and / or pseudo-legendaries, which is a name given to pokemon with a base stat total over or equal to 600. for context, minun (which is on the weaker side) has a base stat total of 405. hydreigon’s base stat total is 600.

garchomp 

garchomp is seriously… I mean, it’s always been a popular pokemon to use, I think, because it’s a really strong dragon type. another one with base stats equaling 600, too. again, the dark blue matches masumi’s whole aesthetic well like the last one. my experience with garchomp has mostly been being frightened as hell by it because it’s, to me, pokemon champion cynthia’s toughest pokemon by far. 

salamence

three base stat 600s? three dragons? …uh, yeah. they’re all kinda blue, too? though salamence is farthest off from masumi’s blue, haha. but yeah, I think with half your team being dragon pseudo legendaries, that’s pretty crazy strong and intimidating, but it’s also indicative of being pretty stubborn, I think, which masumi definitely is. like… that’s not a lot of team diversity you’ve got going on there, buddy. surely one of them is enough? but no. also, these pseudo-legendaries take a lot of training and leveling to evolve to their final form, so I think it’s fun to think of the in-between before masumi had his fully-leveled up team. also salamance gets so much rep for being one of the evil or rampaging pokemon. let it have some fun!

gallade

the colors don’t match nearly as much (though, ooh, a shiny? that one fits remarkably well… and hey, masumi’s known for being exceptional, right?) but gallade is just one of the coolest pokemon ever, I think. also, the idea of masumi having to train a very weak, hard to level up ralts, which has a pretty low appearance rate in the first place, and needing the 50% chance of getting a male ralts… that’s charming to me. gallade’s also quite polite-looking and cool-looking rather than just looking outright intimidatingly cool. a base stat of 518, which is solid. 

golduck

base stat total of 500. golduck isn’t like… the coolest pokemon, maybe, but I’ve always thought it had a pretty smart look, and hey. it’s blue. I’m also very used to green oak (blue, in localization) having it in the pokemon adventures manga, and he makes all his pokemon look cool, since he’s the cool rival character etc. I very much enjoy his personality in the manga—he’s a lot less asshole-ish and just kind of serious, and after the first arc he's pretty close to red and everything, so I thought any of his pokemon would probably match well with masumi. his golduck was always a helpful part of his team and a smart addition. also, massively funny to think of masumi with a psyduck on his team. 

tsuzuru minagi

unown

okay, this joke practically writes (ha!) itself. it’s hard to think of any writer-related pokemon out there, because, uh, pokemon are not really authors of any kind… psychic pokemon are often said to be intelligent, but that’s not… i mean, that’s not necessarily the kind of character description i’d ascribe to certified “needs a fainting couch” “hot mess” tsuzuru. the pokemon unown is used as ancient script, so I think that’s a pretty neat connection to writing. additionally, the only move unown can learn is hidden power, a base move that can be of any typing depending on your pokemon’s IVs. a quasi-theme I went for when picking potential pokemon for tsuzuru is mutability—I wanted pokemon that had a lot of forms or variants, because I felt it fit the wide variety of genres tsuzuru tackles in his writing? and while unown isn’t at all powerful on it’s own… letters make words, words make stories, and stories are greater than the sum of their parts. you know? can’t decide what letter of unown he’d have. maybe he’d start with t and slowly collect all 26? 

castform

castform changes its shape depending on the weather! mutability strikes again. i think this would also have a quite practical nature, though? like, hey, a pokemon that does actual accurate weather predictions… it’d be helpful for just getting through the day, and with tsuzuru working all those part time jobs, i think it would be a nice, simple, helpful companion. i don’t think tsuzuru’s really all that much of a grand person, so I’ve been trying to pick out simple, not that strong, but still interesting pokemon! all pokemon are interesting, of course. 

jumpluff 

tsuzuru’s flower is a dandelion, and this pokemon has that dandelion fluff thing going on. the 2nd pokemon in this line of evolution, skiploom, has some pokedex entries that suggest that because the flower on its head is sensitive to heat, it can act as a thermometer! another nice bit of practicality in a small, cute, pokemon. with a3’s flower theming, i’m sure to have a lot of grass pokemon on these teams, huh… 

blissey

tsuzuru’s got a lot of siblings so i just had to do an homage to the many, many, nurse joys of the world, often accompanied by a chansey! The evolution line of happiny chansey blissey is actually quite interesting—chansey actually couldn’t evolve in gen i, in gen ii it gained blissey as an evolution, and in gen iv it gained happiny as a pre evolution. also… uh, i think it would be good for tsuzuru’s health to have a pokemon that could look after him. chansey also evolves to blissey through increasing the pokemon’s friendship / happiness stat, which is sweet. blissey’s got the highest base stats for hp out of every other pokemon ever (255, which is also the highest base stat in any stat for any pokemon ever), which… again, a good match for tsuzuru. stay healthy. 

minior

this one is literally for the Vibes and also trying really hard not to give tsuzuru a cat based pokemon so i can make fun of him for sardine search. it’s a cute lil meteor! the core color is even close-ish to tsuzuru’s mint shade! although the core form only appears when it’s low in health… mumble mumble minior drops to its core form when tsuzuru’s overworking himself and finishing a script. and it fits with the mini-theming: minior’s core form can be seven different colors! which all together make up the colors of the rainbow… nice. 

itaru chigasaki

rotom

rotom… literally a fun ghost that likes to inhabit household appliances and stuff. i think it just fits really well with itaru’s love of gaming (mb his rotom possesses his gaming pc for fun etc) and i think itaru’s got this kind of like, really fun, teasing vibe so rotom just seems like such a perfect partner for him to have. also the way that rotom disguises itself in common objects relates to how i think a lot of itaru’s character has to do with putting up a facade + isolating himself from others? which is a theming that follows a lot of his pokemon. i don’t think rotom’s technically a legendary pokemon, but it was a really special pokemon when i was growing up and very unique—you could only get it during a special time and in a special place in pokemon diamond/pearl/platinum, after all. that kind of rarity seems like the kind of pokemon itaru would have, honestly.  

pachirisu

okay, so i said i didn’t know anything about the pokemon competitive scene, but that’s a little bit of a lie… I know about park se-jun’s victory in the 2014 world pokemon championships because he won with a pachirisu on his team! pachirisu! gen iv / sinnoh’s version of its cute electric rodent, and as it turns out, with the specific metagame of that year’s competition and his team composition? an absolute beast on the field. it’s a wonderful pokemon, and i think it’s a good nod to how itaru’s outer appearance is a bit deceiving. also i think he’d appreciate having a pokemon that did so well competitively. let me appeal to his gamer heart <3

electrode

electrode and voltorb basically look like pokeballs and are often mistaken for pokeballs and. ok well one i think thats funny and two the whole “mistaken for something else” disguises masks etc etc. it’s also an electric type which fits with itaru to me. was considering amoonguss since that’s also mistaken for a pokeball but in the year that pachirisu won amoonguss was a really popular pick and pachirisu was like… a smart choice bc it could do a lot of the stuff amoonguss could + it was unconventional so less people could counter against it… so yeah, electrode wins because it’s classic. also voltorb flip was the picross / minesweeper game that heartgold & soulsilver had in place of slot machines so. 

golisopod 

ahah… this one’s a little sad. golisopod is most famously the main pokemon used by the leader of team skull, guzma. it’s got a pretty unique ability—emergency exit—that means that the moment it gets its hp below 50%, it just flees the battle. the ability is more unflatteringly named “wimp out” for the pre-evolution wimpod. uh… so, similar to itaru in that he was planning to quit the spring troupe once he saw how passionate everyone else was about it and felt he couldn’t give that same level of passion… different in that when itaru got hurt, he literally ignored it as much as possible because he loved his troupe That Much and like found his passion for acting… i’m going to go cry now. yeah uh even though it’s slow, golisopod’s a really strong pokemon and i think it would match with itaru well. 

mimikyu

okay so mimikyu’s whole thing is that it’s like, this fearsome ghost that’s terrified so many people and hated by so many people that it shittily disguises itself as a pikachu because hey! pikachu’s well-liked, right? and despite being quiet and mild normally, it’ll resist violently if you try to unmask it. uh. I don’t really need to say any more

clefable

ending this list with a nicer pokemon. clefable’s the full evolution of clefairy, but that’s a stone-based evolution and i like to think it would take quite a while for itaru to evolve his clefairy, if he ever does. i say this because in veilstone city in sinnoh, there’s a slot machine center where if you played for long enough, a clefairy would appear on screen and it would help you get combos and better rewards if you followed its directions. I can only imagine this would help with gacha luck too, haha. 

citron

alolan exeggutor

i thought it’d be good to give citron some special pokemon, since he’s a really unique person, and a regional variant seemed particularly fitting since we know he’s from Somewhere Else. exeggutor is crazy massive and such a… spectacle that it seems perfect for him, you know? a grass dragon type… loud and with literally impossible to ignore presence, just a little left of center… that just seems very citron to me. 

alolan raichu

again with my refusal to pick pikachu… listen, red’s pikachu is simply too iconic to touch, you know? but alolan raichu is very fun! i love the surfer vibe it has, it’s another regional variant, and it’s just… cute and bright. it just matches citron’s vibes! 

shuckle 

shuckle! looks silly, but it’s def and sp.def are not to be trifled with… with setups like trick room, power trick, and power split, there’s a lot of fun things you can do with shuckle that make it really powerful. i think being resilient is a strength of citron’s too… he might seem like he’s pretty carefree, but obviously that’s not all he is. I think a lot of citron’s pokemon would be unique in interesting ways

ninjask & shedninja

so this is an interesting group of two! shedninja is an interesting pokemon in that you obtain it by having a nincada and an empty spot in your party—when nincada evolves, the discarded bug shell becomes shedninja, a pokemon with only 1 hp. it’s very gimmicky—shedninja’s ability, wonder guard, means that unless a move against it is super effective. I think it’s a fun match for citron, and I think he’d keep the ninjask too… the two might seem a bit unsuited for his bright personality, but citron looks like he’s got a lot going on underneath? ninjask’s a really fast pokemon and i feel like it’d just be helpful. 

politoed 

this is the part where i just blatantly say my act 2 predictions. citron just rly seems like he’s on the run from some kind of government or the other…? he also had that one line in alex in wonderland where he was like “fuck monarchy!” so i am firmly on the tentative runaway prince headcanon. politoed is a very friendly, kind of dopey looking creature, and i think it fits the vibes of how nice citron looks, but it also evolves from a specific item called the king’s crown! there’s quite a few other water types that could get that royalty theme across: kingler, kingdra, slowking, which you actually use the same item to get, but those felt a little two obvious and didn’t fit as nicely in aesthetics

closing thoughts: i did not think i’d write this much for just one troupe… sigh. I’ll post the later season troupes + bonus people once I’ve cleaned up their lists and worked out a few pokemon here and there… I hope my explanations were somewhat fun to read! would love to discuss if anyone else has Pokemon Opinions here. please do not give me act 2 spoilers.

[onepunchmiss]

Thoughts on Zombieman as of WC Ch 131 (basically I’m sad)

So, as has been addressed several times now the past couple days (thanks @gottahaveguts and @handlewcaare u feed my brain), Zombieman is straight up Not Having A Good Time Right Now. And so naturally I have been overthinking why he's putting himself in this situation, and maybe a little bit where he could be going.

So with the most recent developments in the webcomic, we get confirmation that Zombieman has not been seen since going to Dr. Genus about his limiter.  As narration pointed out in webcomic ch. 130, Z is not one to cut off contact on his own normally. While they interpret this as him being in danger and in need of rescue, we as readers are fully aware that this is in fact exactly what he did. It’s safe to say that he doesn't want to be found.

And regarding the limiter, I should wonder why he didn't confront Saitama first. As far as we know, Zombieman doesn't know that Saitama's own power is a mystery to himself, so I would have thought that Z being a pretty logical and goal-oriented guy, would consult the guy with the experience of successfully obtaining the exact thing he wants first, directly. Obviously we know this wouldn't get him very far, Genos is the living testament to that, but he doesn't know that.

But no, what does he do instead? He goes straight to a guy who only witnessed that power, a guy who has already himself admitted that it made no sense and effectively broke his will to continue his former research. Genus more or less admitted he didn't know how breaking a limiter was possible the first time Zombieman confronted him, stating it defied all common sense.

And on top of this, we already are very aware that Zombieman is NOT fond of his time at the House of Evolution. Genus recounts earlier that same confrontation that Z went on a rampage to escape the HoE, destroying the facility in the process. Then, over the span of 10 years while finding an identity as an extremely successful S class hero, he had still been tracking and monitoring them with the intention to dismantle the HoE and kill Genus. Alsooo during this confrontation, might I add, is the only time in the series we see him lose his cool and legitimately start straight up yelling with next to no provocation.

Genus was just sitting there with some takoyaki, yet the axe and emotions were raised high.

Zombieman generally appears to be pretty sensitive to the value of human life, and does not like his own humanity being questioned, which presumably stems from him being the product of the HoE's experimentation. While admittedly not as intense as the above image, he's pretty obviously pissed at Amai for accusing him of being a monster at the MA raid meeting. Its a touchy subject.

So it’s safe to say that even though we saw him talk it out with Genus, only sparing him once he was sufficiently convinced the HoE was truly disbanded, Zombieman clearly has a lot of trauma tied to Genus and his experiments. For him to go back to Genus and demand to be experimented on, without even pursuing the first and most obvious lead he has on limiters, and to do so with out telling a single person where he was going, is freaking insane.

Basically, what I’m seeing is the behavior of someone with serious self worth issues culminating in drastic self destructive behavior. He's taking an extreme and reckless route rather than finding positive constructive ways of dealing with any feelings of inadequacy and self doubt, and honestly I'm sure he knows this. This whole thing could hypothetically be a death sentence for him and he's just... throwing himself at it full force, no turning back. To him, he must do everything he can, there is no other option. I mean, let’s not forget this bit.

"Thus, as if he wanted that" Z, pls no

He can, will, and has thrown himself into situations he knows are impossible and could end him- he wont allow any less of himself. And now he’s done it again in Genus's basement. The degree to which his experience in the HoE really affects him isn't well defined, but I think there’s enough evidence to say that it does affect him pretty negatively. Purposefully exposing yourself to trauma/triggers is a legitimate for of self harm, and I get the impression that Zombieman forcing himself to undergo some excruciating process at the hands of the very person responsible for his likely trauma, without telling a single person of his whereabouts, when there are other more obvious courses of action available, is just as much a form of self-punishment as it is him legitimately seeking to improve and grow stronger. Subconscious or not.

I'm worried, because I obviously don’t think he's going to break his limiter. Narratively I have no idea how that could work, it’s just not going to happen. So then... whats next for Zombieman? Whats it going to take for him snap out of this all-or-nothing mentality he's seemingly developed in regards to himself, since his sense of self-preservation is kinda missing? He’s putting himself through all this agony, but how’s he going handle the realization that we can’t achieve his goal? I’m so curious as to what kind of story is One trying to tell with him. There’s a high level of intrigue surrounding his character, and he’s received a good amount of emphasis compared to other S class members we’ve yet to focus on (like Pig God or Watchdog Man) so I’d say he’s about due for some sort or character arc. And now that he’s dabbling in the limiter business, which is like, THE thing of OPM, I dunno, something substantial has to happen with his character next time we see him. 

And I sure hope he comes out the other side of it far better off than where he was going in to it.

[armorsleevedsinglehit]

the huge shippuden music meta

no one asked for this but i’m gonna write it anyway. i’m going to focus primarily on the shippuden soundtrack here, but expect some references to the original series soundtrack as well. also before i begin i know approximately two (2) music so some of my terminology is probably going to be incorrect lol, it’s been a while since college. this is a general shippuden meta but it does focus on the uchiha clan, in particular sasuke and madara.

anyway, to start off, you can pretty easily divide the shippuden soundtrack into a few general categories:

traditional and/or acoustic

electric guitar tracks

some combination of these, plus orchestra hits aplenty

there are a few odd ducks here and there, but no worries, we’ll get to them. and then within these general categories we have a series of recurring character motifs (which can be a bit muddled, because certain themes are used for multiple characters. i assume that naruto (the show) isn’t necessarily scored the way a film would be, and so the directors just slapped whatever dramatic/sad/upbeat music they could find onto a scene, esp if it’s a filler ep, which definitely generates some confusion.) but characters and groups in shippuden DO sort of get their own motifs and themes, so here is my very basic list of those as well:

uzumaki clan and its descendants/allies: “emergence of talents/hyakkaryōran” has a very cool melody towards the end that comes back in “narukami/weeping god” and “shoryu/rising dragon”. we can basically call this the protagonist theme. naruto, sakura, kakashi, jiraiya, most of the konoha 11, and even minato get to claim this one. however, VERY interestingly, narukami is what plays when tobi (as madara) is telling sasuke about the glory days of the uchiha clan... possibly hinting at greater connections between the two clans???????????

akatsuki-related themes: i won’t link a ton of these because they’re super obvious. they’re often full of choir and organ (harkening back to orochimaru’s original series theme); they also tend to be slower. not always, though; look at crimson flames, a slapper if i ever heard one. prime example of akatsuki themes: girei, my FAVORITE bit of the shippuden soundtrack. UGH.

general shippuden themes: things like hurricane suite, heaven-shaking event, etc. most of the first ost goes in here. this category also contains the closest approximation to hashirama’s theme that i could find, experienced many battles and departure to the front lines, which both make me cry lol

there are other fun little motifs and bits and bobs that appear in this soundtrack that i won’t get into here for length (remind me to talk about the angelic herald of death sometime), but it’s a remarkably cohesive piece of work to the point where it gets repetitive sometimes; why are all the super interesting tracks unreleased!!!!??? anyway the purpose of this meta is to attempt to make sense of the way this soundtrack works. we’ll investigate sasuke primarily because i feel that he really ties the whole soundtrack together, and you can extrapolate a lot from the way his theme evolves.

sasuke’s theme (wandering/hyouhaku), yes the dramatic cowboy music theme, is this wonderfully atmospheric track that makes use of the kind of negative space between guitar strums to build up this aura, this Essence of Sasuke. this alone makes it stand apart from other mostly-acoustic pieces on the soundtrack, to me. the whole thing is just humming with this simmering frustration and melancholy and it really gives you a sense of sasuke as this tortured figure who has been severely wronged and experienced the world’s faults firsthand. notably, this version of sasuke’s theme lifts its opening notes (and structure, sorta) from sasuke’s original series theme, which i assume was on purpose. it shows that he’s grown jaded as he got older, i think.

anyway, as the inevitable battle between sasuke and itachi draws closer, we get our first variation on sasuke’s theme: black spot/kokuten. it has the same melody and structure as before, but features heavier guitars, more orchestration, and, in the final bars, notes that previously fell on 1 and 4 but now fall on 1 and 3, which bring a heightened sense of urgency to the whole thing. and more importantly, it ends without resolving itself? it leaves us hanging on this almost call-and-response bit with one wailing guitar after another, before winding the orchestration down and fizzling back down to the level of “wandering.” here we see a sasuke in progress, if you will, working towards a goal that some may find sinister, but he is determined if nothing else, and the instruments match his fervor. it’s roughly analogous to “crimson flames” in terms of intensity, but it’s very distinctly Sasuke.

there are several more variations of sasuke’s theme floating around, but the next one i want to talk about is this one called “sasuke’s ninja way,” apparently, never officially released but relentlessly employed by the anime directors. it takes a more subtle turn than “black spot,” but i don’t see it as a direct sequel to “wandering” for a few different reasons. i think it represents the dilemma sasuke found himself after finally killing itachi and learning the truth about him: the realization that this whole quest for power of his was never really about revenge on one specific person, but rather about reforming the shinobi world as a whole. it’s slower than “black spot,” yet darker, more ominous; it treads the same general path as “wandering” but with added electric guitar, and, notably, choir. recall that choir is often used for themes related to the akatsuki, which i think ties in neatly with sasuke’s motivations at this point. he, like nagato before him, wants to remake the world.

the final iteration of sasuke’s theme, “sasuke’s revolution/junkyousha,” brings it all together. the akatsuki is commonly represented through choir and organ, and this theme starts out with both of these cranked up to the max. this is (pardon the pun) sasuke’s rebirth, if you will. just combine the intensity of “girei,” the anger of “crimson flames,” and the determination of “emergence of talents” and you’re there. seriously: this culmination of sasuke’s character development basically pulls from every single facet of the soundtrack and produces this MASSIVELY rich piece full of anger and rage and hate and fury, while STILL managing to include the twangy guitar bits from “wandering” (which have gone back to 1 and 4!!). we also have someone going ham on a shamisen towards the end of the track, which calls to mind the shamisen solo from “emergence of talents” and other tracks. hinting at an eventual compromise with naruto, possibly?

anyway, i started out this meta trying to find a piece of the soundtrack that could serve as madara’s theme, but i wasn’t sure that one existed. i think the susano’o has a theme, and the uchiha clan has a theme, but....madara just doesn’t?? sure there are unreleased tracks like “legendary uchiha,” but i’d argue that doesn’t really go into his character as much as it just says “watch out for this fucking guy.”

but then i listened to hurricane suite one more time, and i was like HOLY SHIT THIS IS IT. for one thing, it’s long as fuck: this track is a whole journey. it really gives the impression of someone who has lived an impossibly long life and become jaded and cruel and hardened. i realize that the argument could be made that hurricane suite is sasuke’s theme, not madara’s, or that it’s a general shippuden theme and doesn’t represent one character in particular. and yes, i think both of these interpretations are correct. hurricane suite represents what sasuke could POTENTIALLY turn out to be, given his evolution from “wandering” to “black spot” to “sasuke’s ninja way” all the way to “sasuke’s revolution.” hurricane suite warns us that sasuke can (and very well may!) make the same mistakes madara did and end up destroying himself in the process. (the middle of “hurricane suite” GREATLY resembles “wandering.”) and recall that hurricane suite is used in the very first episode of shippuden: the episode where naruto encounters sasuke for the first time, AND- are you ready for this- when madara’s name is dropped for the first time in the series.

this is why i think that, along with it being a general shippuden theme, hurricane suite is also madara’s theme. shippuden as a whole is practically suffocating under the oppressive weight of madara’s presence, right from the very first episode. even before he’s introduced, he is VERY much there. so much of madara’s character is established before he even shows up. we hear so much about him from other characters (kurama, itachi, obito, hashirama), and as such our view of madara changes drastically over the course of the series. and guess what plays when itachi shows sasuke that genjutsu of madara stealing izuna’s eyes?

anyway, in my opinion and in my interpretation of the character, the music fits him perfectly. it starts out all low and choral with these slow ominous drums and deep strings, and this violin comes in that sounds like it’s weeping. we hear something like a heartbeat that grows darker over time, before the music comes to some sort of resolution, an inflection point, and the brass comes in heavy. NOW we’re dealing with the orchestra, three quarters of the way into the song, and we’ve got strings and drums set to a marching pace, more choral chanting, climbing strings and shamisen tumbling down the scales. it sounds like grief!!

and note that yes, this track is used in the very first episode of shippuden, during naruto and sasuke’s first encounter. but it is ALSO used during the scene in hashirama’s flashback when izuna is mortally wounded and madara makes the decision to abandon the clan on the battlefield to take care of him, despite his better judgment and hashirama’s offering of peace. the inflection point in the music represents a very real inflection point in madara’s life: the loss of his last brother. (it always comes back to that, doesn’t it.)

[sichore]

Lack of second releases for The returning Espada? The awesomeness of Unohana "dont mess with the medic" Kenpachi? (her bankai confuses me but still fav captain). and who's ur fav Sternritter? sorry if thats alot or its a mess or both xD

it’s a start!

the lack of second releases or just an actual update on the surviving Espada and other arrancar is a huge missed opportunity. it’s not something I’m angry at Kubo for; there were time and demand constraints, which means cut content, and this has plagued the series from the start. I know Grimmjow and Nel showing up was a big ‘thank you’, as it didn’t really add to the story* and Grimmjow, especially, served no other purpose than fanservice. that said, one pertinent thing about his return was how he partially transformed while chasing Askin. I found that to be a highly relevant detail, along with how the Tres Bestias’ masks had such drastic changes. 

sometimes character designs just change when they’re brought back (see Ulquiorra’s initial appearance to how he appears as the chapters went on), but I like to think that the arrancar were capable of much more than we got to see. Ulquiorra said it himself that he hid his segunda etapa from Aizen (though whether or not Aizen knew regardless is up for debate), and we got other examples of arrancar having nonconventional transformations. the way Cirucci discarding her wings meant she’d never be able to release again; the way Findorr powered up as his mask broke (so presumably, this meant he was capable of accelerated healing??); the way Ggio’s resurrección seemed to be split; and how the Tres Bestias could combine parts of themselves to make a whole new being.

I fully believe there was much more to the arrancar than we got to see and that they were capable of further evolution, particularly in regards to how they release. I know we got to see more of the arrancar than expected because of popularity, though I feel that only applied to a certain few (namely Grimmjow, Ulquiorra, Szayel and Nel). at the same time, I feel like much of their story actually got rewritten and/or cut. There’s several mentions that Soul Society had been keeping track of them for a long time, and for all we know, Aizen perhaps learned of them during the course of his research, and sought them out to build his army based on past data. Their power levels, too, were totally rewritten, as they stopped being a threat by large by the time we got to the FKT battles, which is why they largely sucked, despite the characters involved being cool enough.

I feel like a lot of this hidden lore and power was wrapped up in Baraggan, who was one of the first arrancar Kubo created I believe, and in the lore of the Vasto Lordes in general. but uh yeah. tl;dr: we got robbed of more Segunda Etapa and arrancar lore because of time constraints, and I’m certain they existed.

Unohana’s story reveal was wonderful and one of the highlights of the final arc, hands down. It had been hinted at throughout the series so I know it was a case of Kubo trying to find the right time to slide it in. (He did this with a lot of elements; Shinji had been a concept from the series’ beginning, but Kubo was only able to add him in post-SS) I don’t immediately have much to say about Unohana besides that it’s a shame the reveal came so late, that we didn’t really get to see what she was capable of, and that she ended up being power up fodder for Kenpachi, who spent most of the series as a fanservice character and had plenty of chances to have development. Unohana being fridged for a bullshit reason is one thing I’m legitimately salty about and can’t defend Kubo on because I can’t think of any possible explanation for it.

I may have to come back to the question of favorite Sternritter, because I haven’t reread the arc in full yet. I will say I was delighted with their introduction because introducing that many characters at the end was an obvious show of Kubo’s love for character creation as well as a bit of a FUCK YOU to everyone who says he had too many characters, haha! That said, some of their fights were more drawn out than they needed to be and I don’t feel they were as well-executed as they could have been because, again, time restraints.

But I did love the girl squad and very much want to believe they all in particular survived, instead of just the three. And I also dearly loved Bazz-B, which it’s hard not to because we got his full story. Cang Du and Lille Barro were pretty cool too (though the latter’s fight got really, REALLY wild), but for now Bazz was my fav.

*edit: small addendum to clarify that Nel showing up wasn’t pointless, we just didn’t get to actually see or hear why she was there (to save Harribel; one of many plots put into the novel). Grimmjow, however, I stand by on that his appearance was pretty much fanservice, since we didn’t really get to hear or see of any character growth he had, besides the partial transforming bit.

[freedomforclones]

Animara Chapter 1 The Calm Before

Shena awoke to the sound of thunder outside her tent.

A tear in the damp fabric above had allowed rain drops to fall onto her face. She shouldn't have minded the coldness of the moisture. After all her kind had evolved from the sea. And although they have long since passed the hindrance of only breathing water; for them water was their life and their strength and to despise it should have gone against her very instinct as an aquatic.

Regardless, she still could not help but feel annoyed by the continued disruptive rhythm of the droplets hitting her forehead and interrupting her two hours of sleep.

"Never thought I would be sick of water." she muttered to herself drearily before letting out a long exhausted yawn. Her hand moved across her face to wipe away the frigid water. She stared and played with the small droplets as they traveled down the fingers' of her gloves.

     It had been nearly four years since she had seen the clear oceans surrounding the capital. Five long years of fighting in lands she had never visited, against races she had never met prior to her deployment.

But coming from a military family, she was expected to fulfill her duty to herself and her family name once tyranny unveiled its ugly presence in the world yet again. Especially at the hands of her nations enemies.

She was honored to fight for the monarchy, and besides its not as if she had been raised to do anything but be a soldier anyhow.

So now here she was, in charge of this mess.

     Shena and her men had been ordered to defend a local mountain pass leading to the last jungle province of the monarchy from falling into enemy hands. They just had to hold out until reinforcements arrived. Or so they were told.

Her platoon's camp was located atop a massive elevated mound near a ditch of muddy stone ruins and vines deep within the jungle, that had been destroyed from battles long since passed. It was cold, damp, and it had not stopped raining in months. Everyone was miserable, on both sides.

The enemy had been ordered to take the pass, and had tried and failed nine times before. But they had been repelled desperately by Shena's platoon in each of the previous waves.

They would have just given up and gone home if they were any ordinary mercenaries, for money was the only incentive for their kind usually in this war.

But these were no ordinary mercenaries.

They were facing army ant's. The most destructive and aggressive of all ant races.

Their queen had rented her nomadic warriors cheaply to fight for their neighboring nation, the wealthy Savanna Sovereignty, in another desperate effort to lift her shattered empire out of poverty and return it to it's ancient glory.

'They would never surrender' as Shena sadly knew all to well.

When army ants have a mission tasked by their royal highness, they will complete it through sheer numbers and brutality or die trying. After all they viewed their own lives as worthless, and their mother could always make more to replace her fallen children.The bodies of their dead brothers and sisters had piled up near the pass, and the bugs had actually pushed them together to form a makeshift barrier for cover from Shena's  soldiers.

'The depths some will go to achieve victory.' Shena thought to herself disgusted. But then again maybe she should not have been one to judge another species actions and history given her own ancestry.

She shifted and turned over in her bed trying to get comfortable. Wrapping her thin tail behind her slender body as her head hung carelessly over the side, seeing a distorted reflection in a puddle on the muddy floor. Two black soulless eyes, a long pointed snout and countless  razor-sharp triangular teeth staring right back at her weary face. One might be forgiven for thinking a monster was starring back at them if this is what they saw as a reflection, but for her this was nothing out of the ordinary.

For Shena was a blue shark, and her ancestors had prowled the sea devouring any prey in their path. And although consuming sentient prey species had long been outlawed in most civilized nations, predators still invoke fear and terror as a result of their physical traits. After all that is the role evolution had specially designated for them.

"Excuse me Lieutenant?"

Shena, sensed someone approaching her quarters from outside in the harsh rain. She recognized the gentle voice to who it belonged to as well as the scent of its speaker. She stood upright in her bed and straightened her perfect posture to reply formally.

"Yes Corporal? What have you to report?" she spoke aloud while rubbing her dreary eyes awake.

The soldier poked his helmeted face through the tent soaking wet before replying.

"No sight of the enemy yet ma'm but our sentries will notify us if they spot anything approaching our position." The soldier then paused as if trying to form an elaborate and thoughtful statement.

"On the plus side at least our boys on watch duty tonight are getting an extra bath thanks to the rain, they stink." The soldier chuckled.

'Perhaps not.' Shena thought as she rolled her eyes with a slight lukewarm grin on her face.

"Thank you for the report, you may return to your post" said Shena in a quiet somber tone before she lowered her head back down in front of her.

The soldier saluted and prepared to exit the tent back out into the storm, but stopped abruptly. He slowly turned around to face his superior with a slight conflicted expression under his  helmet.

"Something troubling you ma'm?" the soldier said earnestly to his leader.

Shena hesitated in her response. Not wanting to show any signs of fragility unbecoming of an officer.

"Thank you for the concern corporal, but it's nothing". She lied.

The soldier tilted his head up and down slightly, as if observing his commanding officers whole demeanor, before crossing his arms sternly.

"If its nothing, then why is it your tail is curled up, your head tilted down and your remarkably polished toothy grin absent? Those would be pretty good examples nothing is something if I ever saw, with all due respect ma'm." the soldier replied heartily.

Shena smiled ever so slightly. Had her mood really been that obvious? She raised her head up to face his gentle and compassionate demeanor.

"Nothing gets past you does it?" She said in a warm sarcastic manner.

"No ma'm." the soldier said proudly. "If there's one thing I can notice in the blink of an eye its when morale is low among my comrades and superiors, and it is my self-obligated sworn duty to raise that morale until there isn't a spec of lowness left." He stood quiet for a second before speaking in a more sincere and softhearted tone.

"So, permission to ask what bothering you?"

Shena asked a question, while raising her brow in suspicion of his true incentive.

"Is the only reason you're  asking,  so you can get out of your shift in the rain for a few minutes?" she said aloud in a tone more similar to a mother than an officer.

The soldier hesitated for a few seconds and raised his shoulders slowly giving a nervous smile under his helmet.

"Perhaps....?" he said cautiously and truthfully. "I mean have you seen the rain out there? Its bloody intense this time of.... well always, now that I think of it."

Shena realized there was no use in arguing with him. He really was determined  to get out of both the rain and to talk to her about how she was doing. It was not often she had a good chance to talk to someone about something other than military matters anyway. Plus the company was very welcome even if she still could not decide after all this time knowing him, if she either despised his sense of humor or could not do without it.

"Permission granted Fereen." said Shena warmly. "At ease and take a seat."

"Gladly ma'm and thank you." he replied cheerfully. Fereen entered the old tent and sat down on a stool in the corner facing her bed still drenched while attempting to dry off his bright blue uniform. Shena briefly was amused by his desperate attempt of shaking the water from his boots.

"Even when we lived back home I was never surrounded by this much water!" Fereen exclaimed angrily in response to his heavily soaked misfortune.

There was a brief moment of calm serine stillness between the two of them following his humorous statement. Shena kept trying to keep herself from smiling at Fereen as he kept attempting to make his uniform slightly less doused. The rain and thunder outside the warm confines of the tent the only source of disturbance for an otherwise quiet and peaceful moment.

"Don't get me wrong though, normally I love the rain." He stated aloud cheerily before continuing.

"It hydrates the skin. Provides fresh drinking water without the added bonus of dirt and disease. And it has a nice peaceful sound to it... but too much of a good thing you know? But still I am fascinated by the sheer complexity of rain drops. I mean every single one, is unique!"

"That's snowflakes." Shena corrected with a deadpan tone.

He stopped shaking the water off his vest abruptly and looked up. "Really? I could have sworn it was the same with raindrops." Fereen looked visibly confused, as if discovering drastic life altering information for the first time.

"Eh, the more you know I guess. The point is I like rain most days just not today, enough said." he stated lightheartedly before continuing to dry himself off." Shena rolled her eyes yet again, a habit she had gotten quite used to when discussing with this particular soldier and his conversational topics.

She was taken aback slightly when Fereen took off his helmet.

Shena always had been surprised by how strikingly handsome the soldier looked without the cumbersome armor piece atop his head. His pectoral and dorsal fins had evolved from his ancestors into an ornate proud blue head frill on top his skull, and smaller ones protruding from the sides that resembled frilled ears. His reflective scaled turquoise skin glistening from the light and water.

But by far the most striking thing about him. Was his wings.

Most aquatic races didn't have the ability to fly without using mechanical assistance or a fighter plane. For the sea was most everyone's home in the ocean monarchy, as it had been for thousands of years. Fereen was a part of the few if not the only flying fish species in the world who could have the privilege to call both the sea, land, and sky his domain.

His wings were thin and almost transparent, giving the impression they were delicate. She knew this was not the case and that they were both deceivingly sleek and and strong like their owner. The edges of them had been torn slightly from past incursions but this was not nearly enough needed to distract from their dazzling glossy appearance, especially thanks to the array of colors. Blues, yellows, cyan, and even bright red on the serrated edges all contributed to the incredible display. Shena's own simple head crest and muted skin tones paled in comparison to his lavish features.

"So care to tell me, what's bothering you ma'm?" Fereen said before putting his helmet on the floor to dry. He leaned in closer to better hear her. Shena suddenly snapped back into reality. Shena stared back at him with such an anxious look on her face, that made even him look concerned for a moment.

"We're on our own. The reinforcements should have been here by now." Shena said aloud grievously and hesitantly.

She knew no help was coming.

The camps communication device had been damaged in an earlier attack and their local helmet headsets could not get through the intense storm interference, so there was no way to find out when or even if their promised backup would arrive at all.

They were low on ammo, ordnance, and men. Worst of above all else, all the commanders and captains in the platoon had died in the first three waves. She was the highest rank here  because there were no others left above her in the chain of command to lead what was left of the platoon. She had begun questioning if she had the ability...no competence, required for getting everyone left out of here alive.

 Of the initial two-hundred men in the platoon only seven were left, and most had died when she stepped up to take charge. With their current numbers, the final battle was going to be far too close.

" I don't know if...."

Shena paused and breathed a heavy sigh from her lungs. Desperately trying to be truthful and confident without shutting down in front of him. She pushed her words out of her mouth dejectedly.

"I don't know if we'll survive the final assault."

That was the most agonizing and difficult thing for her to ever have had to say. Not only to her loyal soldier, but also her friend. It was her responsibility to lead these surviving men and women to victory and having to say that to his face hurt more than anything any enemy could ever do to her.

Fereen leaned back in his chair and glanced to the side for a moment, rubbing his chin in a meditative mood, and pondering what to say to his leader. The thunder cracked outside in a loud thunderous echo.  Finally he spoke.

" I don't think we'll die."

There was a slight moment of silence from Fereen as he lowered his head and shoulders briefly. Seeing her friend who was normally so talkative and lighthearted become this subdued and quiet was especially unnerving to Shena, who considered him to be the glimmer of light in the darkness they now found themselves in. The flying fish raised his body back up in his seat and continued.

"We've made it this far with you and me in charge of the others ma'am, we must be doing something right. Otherwise we wouldn't be here talking about the many complexities of rain together right now." he gave a slight smile, but it now had a tint of sadness and concern.

"But we've lost so many men thanks to me." Shena said sadly with as much composure and stockiness as she could muster. Trying not to not show weakness through tears in front of her subordinate.

"Hey, that's not your fault! Fereen said in a distressed manner. Now his playful usual mood was absent entirely, for he knew when it did not belong in the moment. He put his hands on her shoulders. He knocked his stool back carelessly in the process of kneeling down quickly to be eye level with her. His pure alluring blue eyes staring directly into hers.

"You can't blame yourself for the others deaths, they knew the risks. There is no one else in this camp or even the whole world more qualified to lead us than you. You are the most reasonable, intelligent, and disciplined person I've ever met. Sure that makes you a huge stick in the mud sometimes but there is no other soldier who inspires and cares more for our lives instead of her own more deeply than you."

The sound of the rain colliding against the trees and the thundering echo's of the lightning outside, filled the void of the silence that followed for just a brief moment in time.

Shena smiled slowly. She put her left hand on top of his on her shoulder in relief and comfort. She knew her best friend was sincere and could see right through her tough exterior. And that he was right. She had been so conflicted and worried the past few days about their survival, she carelessly had allowed fear, insecurity, and self doubt to slip through the cracks of her mind and replace where courage, confidence, and prowess should always have been in its place as a leader. But no more

She knew who she was, and what she was going to do. They were getting out of here alive, not the raiders.

She slowly breathed a sigh of relief. Purging all her self-doubt and insecurities from her body.

"Thank you Fereen." She said rejuvenated as she slowly stood up atop her feet like the stoic leader she had been trained to be for so many years. "

"Any time ma'am." Fereen gave an understanding warm smile. "We all get all little scarred and doubt ourselves from time to time, even the leaders. I'd be more worried if they didn't to be honest."

Fereen then stood up as well, his full height almost as tall as his leader.

"And remember, I'm always up for a good kick in the tail to get you on your feet again if you ever need it." Fereen then softly nudged her shoulder with his fist as a sign of affection, which he used regularly for all his teammates. Shena shifted her head in slightly and smiled in gratitude for his words of comfort.

The bubbly flying fish then leaned in as if trying to hug and squeeze all the worry and sorrow out of his unusually tall and stoic friend.

"Whoa, Corporal", Shena said in an authoritative tone as she stepped back. A brow sternly raised.

Her soldier suddenly backed away quickly as well. Shifting his arms in acceptance wide apart and above his head, as if he was suspected of concealing contraband.

"Right forgot, not a hugger." Fereen smiled nervously as he rubbed one of his hands across the back of his head frill shyly. Looking down greatly embarrassed by his hasty warmhearted action toward his leader. His teal complexion becoming briefly red-faced.

"Correct." Shena said in a warm sarcastic manner. "You'd have an easier time hugging a porcupine than me."

Fereen Looked back up and let out a devilish smile." Ha! I knew you could crack a joke if you tried!"Fereen exclaimed victoriously, to which Shena replied in the usual appropriate manner.

Another eye roll.

Fereen smiled and nodded up to his lieutenant. He then turned to correct the stool he knocked over upright in its proper position before grabbed his helmet of the floor, all dry. He finally turned back around to face his commanding officer respectfully.

"Will that be all ma'am?"

The flying fish stood at attention and saluted. His posture in perfect form and composition , his triangular wings lowered and folded in accordance with military standards. Any officer would have expected such formality without question. For Shena however..., she was just glad to have had the privilege and joy of having him in her life. And by her side.

She gave a delayed response not wanting the moment to end. But she knew it could not last forever.

"Yes Corporal" She responded in a secure and proud voice. Now back to her normal orderly self.

"That will be all."

Shena saluted back in a similar fashion to him. One that her father had personally instructed in her how to do properly since she was a young child. But it was not just out of professional conduct or discipline for her anymore.

She genuinely respected and cared for Fereen and her soldiers. And this was her way of showing it. She was not just fighting for the monarchy anymore. Shena was fighting so she and all these surviving men and women could escape alive from this nightmare they all had been sworn to endure.

And she would do whatever it took to make that happen. Even die for them if need be.

"Lieutenant!" a cold unfeeling voice erupted as one of the remaining two automaton sentries entered her tent swiftly. Its hard, rusted metal shoulder abruptly pushed into Fereen's, unintentionally knocking him aside slightly.

"They are coming, the final wave of insects!" The perfect, unthinking indigo soldier quickly turned and exited frantically back to its assigned post outside in the rain.

Shena and Fereen glanced at each other slowly. Their relaxed smiles transforming into controlled composure while the sound of thunder echoed through the sky outside ominously.

It was time.

Without thinking Shena stood up and grabbed her bolt action harpoon rifle, sitting upright next to the bed. Already loaded. No need to change into her navy blue and gold officer's uniform, for she had already been sleeping in it.

Fereen donned his ornate helmet, the visor glowing brightly the color of the sky as soon as it hid his face entirely. His friendly face vanishing completely yet again.

The time for small talk between comrades had passed. Now they had to exit the tent yet again to become the soldiers they had been almost every waking moment for the last five years.

Fereen drew his pistol. Flexing his wings anxiously as he stared outside into the rain.

"Those bugs just don't know when to quit. If they did we already would have had them crawling on the run back to that ugly mother of theirs." He paused for a moment while looking outside into the storm.

"And I just finished drying off!" he said angrily.

Shena smiled for the last time as the peaceful moment was coming to end. It was nice to see that her friend was still inside the daunting appearance of the winged warrior in front.

The corporal exited the safe and warm small confines directly outside, before looking back to grab the flap of Shena's tent for her.

Her loyal soldier stood in place in the harsh rain unfazed. Waiting intently until his leader was properly prepared before her departure to lead them all yet again.

As Shena was about to step outside into the cascading strong rain, ready to fight...She stopped.

Shena took a deep breath, excluding all distractions and mental hindrance from her mind, body and soul for the coming battle. Her heart was racing.

The young Lieutenant opened her eyes sharply to see the winged warrior standing in front. Nodding at her in respect wholeheartedly. To which there was no other appropriate response for her to do, but to nod back.

"For the monarchy." Said the corporal with as much warmth and compassion as he could afford to without distracting the concentration of his superior.

She nodded, in an orderly manner and replied to her friend one last time.

"For the Monarchy."

And together, stepped out into the rising storm.

[intomybubble]

so, a3mon update. it's been a few weeks since my last one, not many changes, but more thoughts for this one i guess. uhh this’ll be long, but probably not that interesting...

to start, i made team for misumi's brother, madoka! i didnt end up using any of the pokemon i was initially considering for him (rowlet, azurill, togedamaru) but i still like how it turned out. i had “moody forest pokemon” in mind for him lol.

like how misumi’s name has the same kanji for traingle, madoka’s name has the kanji for circle. i tried my best to find some obvious triangles for misumi, and for madoka, i still wanted him to have round pokemon, but i didn’t want all of them to be obvious or consistent through evolutions. unlike misumi, madoka doesn’t have the same attachment towards his name that his brother has towards his (brought up during the event story for summer’s 7th play). 

the following is actually what i started with so i can see what the pokemon i chose would look like together along with some of their evolutionary stages. some of the round pokemon lost their roundness as they evolved (goomy), while some others got gained rounded features (breloom). and then there’s pineco that turned into a big ol ball (forretress).

moving on... for tasuku, i still feel like there’s something off about his team. i’ve been thinking about adding big, bulky pokemon like steelix or gigalith. i didnt feel so strongly about those pokemon to replace something already on his team, but did end up taking his machoke out for swampert bc of its mega form 

like mega swampert is a big, bulky looking pokemon and mudkip is just really cute. machoke and machamp make me mildly uncomfortable. a previous case of this was for chikage. early on i thought about giving him hypno, but decided against it when i realized it was 5ft 3in and was basically an unclothed yellow man and i was not for that.

next up is itaru. i still needed to fill the 6th slot in his party, and for a while i was considering falinks, but i felt it was too cute for what i’m going for. then i remembered that the haxorus line existed the other day! so the concept for itaru’s team was dark and edgy bc of some of his backstage stories (ex. halloween R card, clockwork N card, oz R card), and what’s edgier than a dragon with battle axes for tusks??

uh so... tenma exists. i’m still having trouble with his team, and his is the last one i have left for mankai. other than charizard, torterra, and flareon idk what other pokemon i like for him. i went with tyrantrum and pyroar bc of his “ore-sama” personality, but i dont think i want to go this direction? for pidgeotto, i thought it’d be a good idea for him to have a flying type to help him when he gets lost. sure he has charizard, but that’s a lot more conspicuous and it’d be a while until his charmander would reach that form.

oh, and something i dislike abt tenma’s team is how ORANGE it turned out (brown is basically dark orange). it really stands out and not in a good way.... like i want some cool looking pokemon for him and ones he wouldn’t be afraid of right off the bat but i think im at the point where im running out of options since i’m really trying not to overlap pokemon between characters (i’ll probably make that a separate post later on). this is annoying... pls i want suggestions

now moving away from mankai, we have godza. for reni, i added on stuntank, vaporeon, and indeedee. i’m not 100% on indeedee, especially since it looks similar to meowstic which i want to keep in. i was also considering crobat since reni has always given me vampire vibes, so i might swap indeedee out for that. otherwise, reni is pretty much finished.

for haruto... i just added in morpeko. for one, it’s color scheme is somewhat similar to haruto’s default outfit. the other thing was how morpeko’s personality changes drastically when hungry, and i thought it was similar to when haruto gets angry and stops acting like “haruto” and goes back to being “gentaro yamada”. he’d probably have to keep a stock of berries somewhere so morpeko wont go nuts when it runs out of snacks, but i also see it being very popular with haruto’s fans.

[dragongirlafro]

List of things I want to see in Pokémon UltraSun and UltraMoon

Sorry i know I’m a little late on this but i mean at this point it’s not like we’ll get a whole lot more info on USUM that will drastically change my hopes.

Pokemon following you: yeah, yeah, I know that this is what everyone and their grandma wants to see in the new games and honestly the more that I think about it the more the chances seem 40/60, but I mean there are literally sprites of every single pokemon created walking and running in the games’ data. if not for this very feature, then why would Game Freak go to all the trouble to make these? (keeping in mind that only a set amount of ‘mons appear in the Poke finder, thus negating the need for them to create all 802 models)

More Pokemon: I myself am not the kind of person who wants brand new pokemon, evolutions, or forms every single game, but I feel that the Alola region could use a few more native Pokemon. And that’s coming from someone who shudders at the thought of a National Pokedex being included in UltraSun/Moon, ‘cause it was honestly a hassle enough completing the Alola Dex. and that was only 300 ‘mons! The day I actually complete the National Pokedex is the day Game Freak stops making new Pokemon. I’m not terribly picky about whether or not we get completely new ‘mons or just ones that were unavailable prior to Poke Bank. Although I definitely wouldn’t mind getting the chance to catch Swablu and Altaria in the new games.

More Alolan forms/Mega Evolutions: This was one of those things where when I first thought about it, I did not want. I was looking at it from the perspective that if any other ‘mons got alolan forms, it would permanently ruin their design for me. But then I put more thought into it and realized that I  actually don’t have a problem with any of the alolan forms that currently exist in terms of design and types.They’re fresh, cool, and quite honestly make a lot of sense. What I realized i had a problem with was “leakers” and whatnot on 4chan who tried to create their own alolan forms by emulating the ones that had already existed, or even worse, absolutely blowing them out of proportion (Because if a Fire type can become an Ice/Fairy type, then surely this Grass type can become a Flying/Ground type, amirite?)(p.s. i crossed out mega evolutions because at this point that ship has sailed and personally they’re not really my cup of tea)

Minor! characters! given! more! spotlight!: I need to know more about characters who didn’t have that much focus in the previous games (and preferably who don’t have that much focus in the anime) I wanna hang out more with my boy Ilima and finally do Mina’s Fairy type trial! I want to hear about what got Kahili into golfing and why she chose Flying types as her go-to ‘mons! Hell, i’d even settle to learn a bit more about Ryuki, even tho he looks like he’s essentially wearing an anime fursuit.      

Less obvious plot/conflict: this is probably the most contoversial of what i’d like to see in UltraSun and UltraMoon. With Sun and Moon being my first ever Pokemon games, I will say that the tone and pacing of the story was executed pretty well, especially for a first timer like me. That being said, however, I will admit that many parts of the story felt ham-fisted and in-your-face. There was literally a part where an Aether guy said “we need you to ‘conveinently dissapear’.” Like, you’re gonna say that Nebby will die if she’s used to rip open a hole between dimensions but you don’t have the balls to threaten to kill an eleven year old? And on the subject of Aether, they were probably the most painfully obvious Pokemon villains since the days of Team Rocket. Like, even with Team Flare, which I personally consider to be one of the worst evil teams, their motives were somewhat ambiguous for the first part of the game. But the Aether Foundation’s intentions and goals were pretty much known to everone on the day that this trailer was released. I get that the argument for this is that pokemon is aimed at children so the villains have to be apparent, but my counter-argument to that would be that the kids got their conspicuous plotline in Sun and Moon and now UltraSun and UltraMoon have the opportunily to appeal to an older, more experienced audience who are able to comprehend and appreciate a more complex story.

MORE MUSIC!!!: the Sun and Moon soundtrack was beautiful and full offence but if you disliked it you have no taste in music whatsoever the seventh generation’s music was the pinnacle of video game music and i cant wait to hear all the remixed themes!!!! Like I mean have you heard the remastered wild battle theme its sooooooo good!!!! I’m most excited for Guzma’s encounter theme, Lusamine’s battle theme, Seafolk Village and the Champion music!

I wanna pass on the question to @thefangirlingcartoongal and @pokemon-trashhh and anyone else who’s as excited for UltraSun and UltraMoon as I am. What are some things that you want to see in the new games?

[sevmeyinkimseyifazla-blog]

15 Reasons Why You Cannot Learn SEO 2019 Well

Getting knowledge of SEO tactics will be helpful when marketing your site. Selecting the most appropriate key phrases is critical for successful SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and it is easy in order to choose the wrong ones through falling into the trap associated with optimization. Lookup engine optimisation, or SEO, is the procedure of enhancing your site's position in search results. Web Marketing SEO, and in specific, Google SEO is the essential. Get into your competitor's URL into the particular SEMRush search bar and you will become provided with a list associated with SEO keywords, with their search positions and traffic. About: Brighton SEO is made up of courses and a one-day search marketing conference. Before this change, the greatest practice was to avoid concealed content at any cost because it wasn't as effective intended for SEO (it was either as well much to crawl for the particular bot in some instances or even given less important by Search engines in others). This is due to the particular fact that you will require contents to be submitted in order to the websites for whom a person are working as an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, when you build the hyperlinks, you will need to supply the profile information, and a person will also have to supply articles for submissions as properly as numerous other types associated with written work. If you've actually searched for something online (and most of us have), a person already know read more regarding SEO than you think a person do. All of us already see this trend within several places, like extremely specific targeting of social ads -- some brands still approach SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and content creation with the one-size-fits all attitude. Something which usually was troubling about 2017, plus as we head into 2018, may be the new wave of agencies merely bolting on SEO since a service without any actual appreciation of structuring site architectures and content for both human beings and search engine understanding. A huge part of SEO is within creating content which is focused towards the keywords that research engines users are searching regarding. Building links could be the big part of your work as an SEO because this plays such a big component in the algorithms used simply by search engines to look intended for the order of their outcomes. Search engines like google through the King Google to supplementary ones like Bing and Askjeeve rank the websites on the particular basis of its SEO. It's due to the fact creating content and ranking this in Google is what SEOs do! SEO solutions look at their links, through where their links are arriving, and what keywords they have got made a decision to optimize for their sites. Hobo UK SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION - A Beginner's Guide (2018) is really a free pdf file ebook you can DOWNLOAD TOTALLY FREE from here (2mb) that will contains my notes about traveling increased organic traffic to the site within Google's guidelines. My conjecture is that the biggest SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trend in 2019 is heading to be Amazon search. TYPES OF SEO Presently there are two major types associated with seo, white hat search motor optimization (the ‘good' kind), plus black hat (the 'not therefore good' kind). Google's always tweaking its research algorithms, so there's no assurance that SEO practices that worked well in the past will maintain working in the future. Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the particular most important marketing considerations upon your studio website. SEO might generate a sufficient return upon investment However, search engines are usually not covered organic search visitors, their algorithms change, and presently there are no guarantees of carried on referrals. A great starting point whenever using keywords for SEO is usually to identify existing pages that will may use some optimization. These are called keywords, plus as you will see, they will are an important part associated with SEO. In fact, this particular will actually hurt your home page's SEO because search engines such as google will recognize it since keyword stuffing - or the particular act of including keywords particularly to rank for that key phrase, rather than to answer the person's question. Just before we begin, one thing a person want to keep in thoughts when using one of the following SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION elements is not to overdo it. You might be enticed to shove a lot associated with keywords onto your pages, yet that is not the objective. 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If you need to find out how I actually actually do it, visit Content Czar for the free gift plus details of could use post marketing and SEOcious to acquire top Google listings. It really is geared towards SEO professionals (in-house and agency), marketing managers, and company owners. But now SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION considers tweets, retweets, Google+ authorship, along with other social signals. Besides position the web site, the SEO team gets fault Client's marketing or product sales team by converting surfers or even visitors into buyers. Because therefore much sharing now takes place on major social media systems, social signals may become simply because important to SEO as period on page, editorial linking, plus content quality. Using social mass media marketing in PA with SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tactics can help boost the website's ranking and popularity. 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Give your own social media profiles an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION boost. 10% of our experts believe that will there's likely to be the lot of focus on cellular in 2019, as older SEOs realize optimizing for desktop will be pointless. White hat SEO is not really just about following guidelines, yet is about ensuring that the particular content the search engines indexes and consequently ranks will be the same content the user will see. On this web page you'll find a list associated with 21 SEO insanely tactical methods that you can use in order to boost your engine rankings. 26% of respondents state email is the digital marketing and advertising channel using the greatest positive effect on revenue; SEO is 2nd (17%), followed by paid research (15%), social media (5%), plus online display advertising (5%). Along with an increased focus on consumer experience, Google has challenged the particular SEO community to pay even more attention to the entire encounter of a website and just how the content interacts with customers, rather than just the simple elements that most optimize towards. While that can not get solved in 2018, we require integrate the SEO group alongside other marketing, both compensated and owned initiatives. For example, a few Blog9T businesses miss the mark along with SEO and images, and nevertheless rank well. Luckily, you can find your personal broken links on site using the particular myriad of Tools available. Ask any SEO services company and they will tell a person that whenever a page will be searched, the major search motors spiders search it through hyperlinks. Effective SEO aims to boost research engine position, user visits, come back visits, and to improve transformation rates, which reflect the figures of visitors who take preferred actions on the site. Wise SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION activities transform your rankings in the particular search engine results page (SERP). This is the supreme goal for ecommerce SEO, plus the traffic those links will certainly bring through will convert with a very high rate.

[jwalskiifinalportflio-blog]

Reflective Narrative

So, over the semester I’ve become more sophisticated as a writer and started taking writing more seriously as well. I’ve become more familiar with writing drafts and not relying so heavily on the first one to be perfect. Some struggles I did have that repeated for a while was writing rhetorically. I still have that struggle. I am not used to writing in this format and it’s very different from what I was taught over the last 18 years of my life.

Starting off with my first piece, my personal narrative. It was so simple yet hard at the same time. I was never asked to write about my life and something in my life that mattered a lot to me. I didn’t realize for a while what “community” I was a part of until my second draft. In my first draft, I just wrote about my life and how I’ve always been about having everything being aesthetically pleasing, like my blog feed or others. After I got feed-back from my peers and how they were interested in the community I was a part of in social media, I realized what my second draft would be about.

My second draft was more focused on the community I was a part of, lengthier, and was changed drastically. While writing my second draft it was much easier and I already had a better idea on what to write though it was hard to just write about the one incident that started my worry about blogger authenticity.

           In my third draft of my narrative, I focused more on my main story and also wrote about other bloggers that have lost authenticity over time such as Alexis Ren. Though I did not spend enough time on my main story, the paper got longer and had a lot of evidence to back up all that I was stating in my paper. The third draft was completely different than my first, even my second and as I did each draft, I got more sophisticated with my writing and definitely did better than I ever have.

           The next assignment I’m choosing to add to my portfolio is my first prompt on my blog. The prompt asked where I like to compose and why. I wrote about the restaurants I love to write in that are in NYC and the parks in NYC that help me with being creative and coming up with more to compose about such as Washington Square Park, and the coziest of all places, my room. I added pictures that I have taken and described all the locations that I hold close to my heart in great detail, trying to make you feel like you are there with me and are feeling all that I felt. I was very proud of this prompt and how I laid out my whole Tumblr blog with this prompt. This prompt was my favorite thing that I composed this semester.

           In my week six blog post I confessed that my personal narrative was a difficult assignment and how I’ve never composed a piece like that. I was very honest and wrote about my concerns of choosing social media as my topic. In this post, I gave a summary on my personal narrative and how blogging is really a community that I have been a part of without realizing it.  I went over my difficulties and jumped into more concerns I have about social media. In this piece, I lost structure a little and kind of just wrote all that was on my mind.

The next paper I chose was my first draft to my rhetorical analysis. This paper was also very difficult for me since I had trouble over the whole semester with writing rhetorically. It’s something that I’ve always heard of but never truly understood. My first draft was more like a summary than anything and needed a lot of revision. In my second draft, I still didn’t really understand the concept still and once I got to my third draft, I really started catching on. After meeting with my professor and asking how I can improve my paper, things changed. In my final draft for my rhetorical analysis, I started writing more about WHY I liked Arthur Chu’s article as opposed the WHAT it was about, which is what I did wrong in both my first and second draft of my rhetorical analysis. I was proud of my final draft because I actually started to understand what I was writing about and why I had to write it the way it was to be written. I chose these three assignments because you can see the evolution of my writing and how it was all composed.

In my week eleven blog post, I was asked to compose a blog post on multimodal writing and projects. I wrote about how over the years, I’ve always done assignments where it was more than just text. I’ve done PowerPoints, videos, websites, etc. that went along with my composition. In this generation, it’s becoming more important and almost necessary since this generation is also about entertainment and not “just text”. I chose this piece because I really have a firsthand experience with all of this.

The next assignment was my research assignment. This assignment was the most time consuming but easiest for myself. In my first draft, I only understood how to do the literature review on my topic of body image issues due to social media. The hardest part about this assignment was finding articles for my specific and rare topic. Social media is still very new and there isn’t much research on its effects on people. I felt like I could do a proper literature review when I only had such a little number of scholarly sources.

My second draft has such a drastic improvement compared to my first draft. I had gotten help on searching for scholarly sources and once I had the sources I needed, my literature review had made an appearance. Writing about each of my sources significance and tying them all together was much easier. I wrote how all my sources came to the same conclusion, there isn’t hardcore evidence but social media causing body image concerns is obvious especially among young females.

In my last draft, I was left very satisfied. I had made minor revisions to my second draft and added more of my thoughts on body image concerns. I also tied in some current events in social media and major, positive and famous women that promote body positivity such as Jennifer Lawrence and Beyoncé.  

For my strategy project, I had made a Tumblr account for body positivity.  I wrote a paper to go with my account to introduce the purpose of my Tumblr and to give my credibility on the topic of social media’s effects on body image concerns for females. I wrote about some research I found and my opinion on the research. I wrote about current events and other topics that are very relevant social media and body shame. On my Tumblr, I re-blogged posts from other accounts that support my paper and re-blogged from accounts that are very positive and are a good platform for people that struggle with body dissatisfaction. I am proud with how my strategy project turned out and it’s one of the projects that went by pretty easy and I didn’t struggle so much with.

One of my last assignments that I want to include is my week seven blog post. This blog post was fun to write because I wrote about how social media can be very informative and has taught me more about global warming better than school has. My writing process was just writing all my thoughts on global warming and how social media teaching me has changed my lifestyle. As I was writing I thought how it changed my life and why, such as me eating less m eating to reduce human carbon emissions and saving water. I really enjoyed writing about something that matters to me that has to do with social media.

My last assignment, I chose to include my week twelve blog post. With this last post, I wrote about how I revise my work and how it relates to Issue seven in “Understanding Rhetoric”. In the process of writing this piece, I looked at the notes I’ve taken throughout reading the issue and wrote about how it related to my revision process and opinions on revising. It was an easy piece to write, after finishing this piece I realized how easy responding to questions and writing them down got. I noticed how my writing changed and how I doubted my writing and opinion less.

Over the course of this semester, I have changed so much especially in my writing and college has changed me for the better. Even though it was difficult in the beginning to write and really write passionately about a community I care about and am a part in. I’m surprised by how much my writing has changed and sophisticated.