#our ‘main boss’ was my bad (not bad) boss’ mentor. so he sticks up for him REGARDLESS.

[bubmyg]

here’s the other thing.

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others.  We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox.  Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better.  Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all.  Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually.  However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular.  Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive.  I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64.  I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return.  I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies. 

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story.  I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars.  Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky.  Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it.  An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.  

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault.  Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure.  Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault.  This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids.  We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma.  We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma.  That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him.  While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels.  If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels.  Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are.  But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.  

- Revise the scene with Tricky.  I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done.  And why is he suddenly king now?  Did his parents die?  He seems not affected by this at all?  Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it.  Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big.  As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out.  Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously.  And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved.  I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again.  I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive.  This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids.  I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that.  Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask?  I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”.  Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest?  I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off?  They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back.  Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing.  Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning?  Or maybe back in Katina?  And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force.  It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival.  Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen?  I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission.  I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.  

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals.  Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies.  While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well.  While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray.  Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”.  As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion.  Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there).  But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this.  He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids.  Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo?  Are they safe somewhere else?  Where do they go?  How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs.  A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me.  While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out.  I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be.  “But why, Amalia?  Why are you disappointed by that?”  1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes.  2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy.  And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures.  Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later?  Where were the Krazoa in all of this?  Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers?  It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much.  Which I mean, sure.  Family, kiddo game.  I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant.  As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins.  Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations.  Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast.  Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened).  I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it.  I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria.  Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault.  Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible.  It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it.  Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion.  Why?  Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level.  Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team.  Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria.  The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short.  It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware.  I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place?  I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic?  Also where is my revised Adventures music?  Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t? 

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign.  I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints.  I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign.  Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels.  Self-explanatory.  Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.  

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points.  I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers.  It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good.  Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly.  I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it.  And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault.  But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot.  For variety’s sake.  

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind.  So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future.  I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading!  Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s?  Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

[azaleakamellia]

how to read research paper effectively 📚

I'm hitting the backed-up reading list that I've accumulated in my Zotero. It's annoying and you procrastinate the task of reading as much as possible when you're in that potato phase. I am demotivated, bored, constantly tired, and feel like devoting myself to reading storybooks for life. If I can get paid for all the hours I sleep every time I feel like signing out from life, I could be making a decent living. But, too bad, I don't.

I do not endorse any products or review anything since I feel like, to each, your own. So, I'm not going to tell you what works best or how some tips can magically fix your life. I am lucky that I have an incredible academic supervisor, a flexible boss at work, a very academic-oriented sibling, and a supportive squad of friends. Even with all that, I am still depressed. So, if you're down on the low at the moment, you're not alone. But when you have made a promise, you will look like a total flake if you don't deliver. So, you gotta move your ass anyway, right?

I just started reading papers again and it was so hard. Two weeks go by without me making any progress...just stuck on one paper and not retaining a single piece of information at all. All that forehead and nothing...nothing sticks. So you can say that I am hating life right now. But, today...I manage to reach some sort of compromise with myself and it starts to feel good. So, I would like to share it with you guys who could be struggling to get the engine started as well.

🎯 Literature Review Catalog

My supervisor is an awesome human being. He's the manager/cheerleader/mentor/Allfather/Captain America/Britney Spears to my lackluster academic history. He had been keeping tabs on me despite my intermittent anxious mood that swings like a freaking metronome, so you can say that he practically keeps my boat afloat at this unprecedented time. For our proposal writing (there's a whole army of us that he's supervising), he shared something valuable. The 'Literature Review Catalog'.

Yes. It's an Excel Sheet. Nothing fancy with very normal columns that indicates the papers/resource you've read. Looks simple and useful. The columns are populated as follows:

Year: The year of publication.

Author: Short author list.

Country (Study Area): The areas that are being studied in this research. If you're an Earth Science student like me, you can narrow it down to countries. But I think overall, countries are the most general part of discriminating different studies.

Main Keyword: I create my own keywords to develop my own system of comprehension. But I do create a column for the keywords found in the paper itself.

Issue & Objectives: You can find this information from the Abstract and Introduction part of the paper.

Proposed Method: This can be found in the Results section but I usually scan through the Methodology to add in more information when I do second round scanning of the paper.

Findings & Conclusions: I add in more notes on information that is new to me here in addition to the conclusion. New information can be extracted when you do another once-over of the paper and a conclusion can be obtained from the Conclusion section.

Reference: You can find references that are relevant to your studies from this paper! So why not? Right?

But, it's the laborious work that comes with it that turns my stomach. It scares the hell out of me despite any motivational speech I give myself. But it can all make sense when you pair it with the following method 👇🏻👇🏻👇🏻

🎯 How To Read A Paper Quickly & Effectively | Easy Research Reading Technique

This is the gem my sister told me about yesterday. I brushed it off since it stresses me out to see people sharing their speed-reading techniques, study tips, and how to ace all the subjects in the world or how to get a 4.0 GPA. It really isn't the good people's fault and I blame it on my constantly anxious self. I don't even know what's wrong with me, so...it's not them. It's me. But, here, we're gonna work on 'me'. So, give this 10 minutes video a watch. It's worth it because Dr. Amina Yonis really knows what she's talking about and what's even better, she really is an advocate for effective reading/studying. It's short enough for you to maintain your attention span and you will learn how to actually 'evaluate' your reading materials; are they worth the second shot at reading? Is there any added value to it?

To summarize, what you should look out for:

Title: Read the title and find the keywords

Abstract: Lookout for the results and methods in a simple sentence

Introduction: Read the first and last paragraphs. Most of the time, the first paragraph highlights the satellite view of the crisis and the last paragraph zooms straight for the objective.

Results: Pay attention to the headings since that more or less highlights what was it that they find. If there aren't any headings, try looking at them by paragraph. Scan them through.

Conclusion: This summarizes everything in the research paper.

After the 'Conclusion', you may feel like it is an info/findings that you've already expected or grasped, and you may just proceed and read other new ones in your pile. But if you need to dive deeper, jump to the 'Results' again for the key figures or results and limitations.

So ...

How do you go about reading this and what has it got to do with the 'Literature Review Catalog'? Well, using this efficient reading method and taking out the notes into the columns will help you condense all the important information and helps you stop re-reading constantly the details that are not paramount to your study.

🎯 Forest App

To amp up and see if it was effective, I actually timed myself with the 'Forest App'. I have been estranged from it since my potato phase, but now, it's back to being that BFF I need. It took 10 minutes to go through all the steps and if the paper isn't heavy-laden, 5 minutes to fill it into the 'Literature Review Catalog'. I manage to think and ask questions in my head as I fill in the columns and I believe that's the most important part of the effective reading that we need as someone who's jumping into a very dynamic environment of scrutinizing existing work. You can use any sort of timer to actually give a sense of urgency to your work - it does help to a certain extent. So, if you intend to have fun creating a forest of pretty trees while making good of your focus time, check out this video!

🎯 Reference Manager

And please please please, organize/record your references responsibly using reference management software. Some swears by Mendeley, or the good ol' EndNote. There's also Flowcite and Citationsy. Use them. Don't download those papers indiscriminately without recording the details that can help you sync them straight to your word processor using viable plugins. I personally use Zotero. It comes with a Chrome plugin and Microsoft Word plugin that you can download separately. It's compatible with Linux and iOS operating system. I used to park my work at Mendeley, but I find Zotero more powerful and flexible enough to use and it actually helps me to make the effort to remember what I actually downloaded rather than rely on the convenience of going back and forth to cloud storage. And it's open-source. So, try it out to create an organized library.

To all the aspiring scholars out there, when you win, we all win. Share your phase and troubles with the #studyblr or here with me. Emotional support is important and if the internet does not give you peace of mind, sign out and unplug. It's ok. When you're ready to work, reach out to anyone you think will respond positively and want to help you succeed. We can't all do things alone. So, start that power-up playlist and start working!

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 248: Internships II: THE MENTORING

Previously on BnHA: Endeavor asked Deku and Kacchan to give him the rundown on their character arcs, and Izuku said that he was trying to master his new definitely-not-a-second-quirk quirk, while Katsuki explained that he was trying to find “what he lacks” because he is going for 100% completion in his redemption arc and will accept nothing less! Gotta finish all those sidequests! Anyway so Endeavor was surprisingly into the whole mentoring thing for both of them, but then his own son was all “dad I’ve got something to say too” and Endeavor was like “oh shit” and Shouto was like “I still don’t like you as a person or a father and I only came here to learn flashfire from you!” and fandom was like “HOLY SHIT RIP THAT MAN HAD A FAMILY” and Shouto was like “YEAH I KNOW THAT’S THE WHOLE PROBLEM.” Anyways then they went on a walk, and Endeavor told the boys to try and take down a villain faster than him before the end of the winter break.

Today on BnHA: Endeavor and the Rowdyruff Boys take to the streets and fight some crime. Endeavor spends a lot of time giving the youths advice about how not to be so fucking slow, and even though he’s a bit of an ass about it, he makes some strong points about how a split second can mean the difference between life and death in a hero’s line of work. Anyway so he tells Shouto and Kacchan to work on storing up their power and releasing it all at once, and he tells Deku to work on making his Air Force as automatic as his Full Cowl is. They all sit around and munch on some bread, Deku does a bit of monologuing, and then we cut to ONE WEEK LATER and FUYUMI WANTS TO INVITE ALL THREE OF THE BOYS TO A FAMILY DINNER!? Motherfucker why does the last fucking panel have more exciting content than the rest of the chapter combined. Well anyways, at least we’ve got that to look forward to.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

YESSSS IT’S MY GIRLS

is this a new dragon form for Ryuukyuu? it seems like something in between her big ol’ Smaug form and her human form? or maybe this is just forced perspective making her seem smaller than she actually is here. anyways she kicks ass as always and still want to see her breathe some fire

I just realized everyone on this team can fly? except maybe Hadou? but I seem to recall her hovering over some bad guys when using her powers a while back though. I really don’t remember much about her quirk; I’m glad the anime will be getting up to that soon, because actually seeing it in motion will probably help it to stick more in my memory

(ETA: she can release her shockwaves from her feet to levitate! everyone on this team can fly confirmed! well Tsuyu can’t, but her quirk is basically an offshoot Spider-Man brand so it’s close enough.)

moving on! looks like we’re getting some DEKU INNER MONOLOGUE

okay, several things that I like about this before we continue:

look how fucking comic-booky this is. the main character parkouring through the city streets, thinking Deep Thoughts in square boxes? pretty sure this is the first page of every single comic book ever made and I LOVE IT

that metaphor about learning to walk when everyone else was already focused on where they were going to run. god I love me a good metaphor. though Deku, you were technically 15 when All Might actually gave you the quirk. that’s not on you though, that’s on Horikoshi who I’m sure has already realized the error by this point and is probably kicking himself and will write a 10,000 word apology in the volume omake

the fact that SIXQUIRKS!! IS FINALLY BEING ACKNOWLEDGED AS A THING AGAIN OMG. I’ve only waited like 5 million years for more of this, so pardon me if I lose my fucking shit depending on where this is all headed. omg. this stupid manga

anyway!

they seem to have stumbled upon a game of Mario Kart in progress. at least I’m pretty sure this is a Mario Kart character. actually it might be Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog

so now Endeavor is MERCILESSLY CUTTING OFF HIS PATH WITH A WALL OF FLAME forcing him to abandon his bike if he doesn’t want to die a fiery death!

Endeavor truly does not give a fuck! not that All Might was any better, punching huge dents in the hoods of cars and shit. the moral of this story is, don’t be a villain. just don’t. because the number one heroes will fuck you uuuuuuup

now Endeavor is yawning and looking over his shoulder at Kacchan and Deku all, “oh you guys were there too?” but not really but basically though

(ETA: oh my god I just noticed the “hit-and-runner” part. have the people in this town never heard of brakes? do they know that red means stop?? also does Endeavor really spend the majority of his day just flying around dealing with traffic violations. I guess technically it’s still New Year’s, so it’s probably a slow day and also everyone is probably drunk.)

god you kids are so slow. it’s because you’re on that social media all the time! and watching all that MTV. kids these days don’t play outside in the fresh air anymore! back in my day!! anyways tough luck you young whippersnappers

Kacchan is grumping that he’s at a disadvantage because of the temperature. I forgot all about that

hey Kacchan I think your best friend has something he wants to tell you there

loool

OF COURSE HE REALIZED but uh, go ahead and spill it anyway if you want. but he definitely did realize. whatever it is that you’re about to tell him

so Shouto says that Endeavor is propelling himself by shooting flames from his feet, and that it’s probably a compressed version of the “jet burn” technique he used in Kyushu. you know, the one he used to fly, and Hawks was all “Endeavor you can fly!?” and Endeavor was all “this isn’t flying, this is falling with style” and we all rolled our eyes

anyway guys. if this is the beginning of Shouto finally learning to fly as well, I will get up and do some kind of happy dance, I don’t even know. do you even know how long I’ve wanted this. PLEASE

lol so Kacchan is all “okay I actually did know that, are you telling me you only just figured that out now” aaaaand yeah. I wasn’t gonna say it, but. Shouto how many times did you sit there and watch Endeavor blast off before you finally said “oh my GOD he’s BLASTING OFF!” sob. IT’S ALL THAT MTV AND AVOCADO TOAST! that noise isn’t even real music! get off your phone and have an actual conversation!

Shouto is so handsome and so good at accepting criticism. what an all-star. please start flying around soon my little Canadian flag

so now Endeavor is blasting off again and sassily hinting at which direction he’s flying off to next. “there’s a major street in that direction”

so now they’re taking off after him

that’s an interesting way of saying that he’s setting the whole town on fire. how do the people in Endeavor’s territory all manage with their daily commute? “almost there boss be there in five... oh hold up... Main Street’s blocked off by a raging inferno, I’ll call you back”

Endeavor says that heroes must be able to do “anything and everything” on their own, which is a curious thing to say in this manga which has time and time again made a point of demonstrating how teamwork gets the job done! I’m not sure I agree with this, Endeavor!

though I guess he just means they need to be able to handle it all if necessary. but I mean, sometimes that’s just not possible. using his own example of Kyushu, there’s no way he would have been able to handle the Hijinks Noumu while protecting all the citizens and fighting off all the other cannon fodder noumus all at the same time. I’m not even sure All Might would have been able to do that. maybe this is an example of how Endeavor still doesn’t have all of this hero stuff figured out yet

lol oh my god

Endeavor that was like four chapters ago, why are you only now bringing this up. act your age

OH SNAP GUYS HE’S MENTORING BAKUGOU. AND BY MENTORING I MEAN PICKING A FIGHT OH MY GOD

DON’T MIND ME I’M JUST WATCHING THIS OLD GRUMP TEACH THIS NEW YOUNG UPSTART JUST LIKE TOMMY LEE JONES IN MEN IN BLACK OMGGGG

so Kacchan is again saying that he needs more time in the winter, but like. Kacchan that’s not like you to make excuses. are you just going to hibernate for three months out of every year and only save people when it’s warm out?? or what

and Endeavor’s saying the same thing

oh shit y’all he’s getting real with them now

oh shit

by the way how fucking dangerous is this town, jesus. supposing that Endeavor wasn’t out here on patrol, what would be the daily casualty rate? first we had that glass guy rampaging downtown earlier, then that motorcyle guy who probably hit a dozen people, and now Tommy and Gina here nearly get run over by a speeding truck. what is this, Gotham City

anyway now Endeavor is saying TodoBaku rights so I’ll shut up

BECAUSE SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME KACCHAN THAT’S WHY! now hush!!

Shouto’s asking if this is related to him learning flashfire, because lest we forget, he’s here for ONE REASON and ONE REASON ONLY lol

so Endeavor says the two of them have to learn how to store up their energy and release it, and how to “condense” their power

you guys I am super hyped about this. not only because BEST FRIENDS PART TWO: THE FRIENDENING!!, but also because this will be the first time Kacchan has gotten a physical power-up in like, ever. (well, AP Shot I guess, but shh.) if he and Shouto are not both flying by the end of this arc then what even is the point!

anyway so Endeavor’s telling them all this technical shit about what to do, blah blah blah, but the short version is they need to be able to go from zero to sixty instantaneously, and release all the stored-up firepower focused into one single point, and to practice doing that until it’s second nature to them

omfg Deku’s so excited

BECAUSE HE HEARTS YOU KACCHAN lol this isn’t anything new, don’t be so shocked. ACCEPT HIS LOVE

though come to think, that really is impressive even for Deku that he knows about that particular technique, because Kacchan created AP Shot back when Deku was supposed to be developing his own ENTIRELY NEW FIGHTING STYLE, which you would think wouldn’t have left him with much time to spare to also keep tabs on his rival and write down his every move. so is his Big Hero Brain just that good, or is this chapter also promoting BakuDeku rights in addition to TodoBaku rights? you decide! but you already know which one I think it is lol

so now Endeavor is giving some bonus mentoring to Shouto

(ETA: why is Kacchan the only one who actually eats his lunch sitting down. these weirdos.)

you guys I love Shouto so much but does he really need it broken down for him to this degree? “son, you know all the things you do to control your right side? try doing those things to control your left.” Shouto: “!!!!” all those video games and participation trophies have fried his brain! too much Instagram! this new generation is going to the dogs

now Endeavor is turning his attention to Deku! but I’m more focused on the fact that they’re eating lunch, because my priorities are just like that

like lol, check out this panel of Deku talking with his mouth full

whole chapter was worth it just for this. boy you’re gonna get crumbs all over your super suit

Endeavor’s asking if Deku can raise his power level subconsciously, and he says he can for Full Cowl, but not for Air Force

so he says the first thing Deku should do is learn to control Air Force subconsciously, and forget about the Bloop for now

and Deku is all “what about parallel thinking” but more importantly, LOOK AT THIS

CAN I JUST GET A WHOLE CHAPTER OF EVERYONE EATING BREAD. LOOK AT THOSE CHUBBY CHEEKS. THIS IS AMAZING

Endeavor says a big part of parallel thinking is being able to do it without consciously thinking about it, and damn he’s right

IT’S ALL ABOUT THAT INSTINCT! also how does he know the man is yawning? you can see him from up there?? DOES HE JUST KNOW EVERYTHING

and he says that once Deku can do two things at once subconsciously, he just needs to add one more thing. damn, he really managed to break it down so that even this chronic overanalyzer can understand the concept

practice, practice, practice until it’s second nature. solid fucking advice

hey everyone Kacchan is still eating. just a PSA

that’s one for the family album. my handsome boy

okay like. it’s a nice speech, but we get it already dude. you can stop talking now and we can move on to something new

so then there’s some more Deku monologuing, pretty much the same stuff he was saying at the start of the chapter, and then Endeavor hits us with this little bait and switch gem

like, the first part sounded almost comforting, and then PSYCH!!!! but I guess he’s just trying to get them all fired up

(ETA: and like, just a few chapters ago we established how the success of these three kids is actually CRITICAL TO THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE WORLD, APPARENTLY. so yeah this is a total bluff. deep down he’s actually sweating and thinking “holy shit they better not fail.”)

and Deku’s finishing up his monologue by saying his maximum speed is doing things one by one. well that’s fine. so now will there finally be a segue?

YAYYYY

OH SHIT YOU GUYS!!!

are we gonna finally get into that TODODRAMA I have my popcorn ready to go!

lmao “and he’s even got friends with him, right?!” ah Fuyu you are the best. she’s so happy Shouto has finally found himself some good pals

OH MY GODDDDDD

HEY WHAT THE FUCK!!!

YOU SON OF A BITCH!! TWO THIRTEEN PAGE CHAPTERS IN A ROW, AND YOU FUCKING END WITH “NEXT TIME, IT’S A TODOBAKUDEKU DINNER AT THE HOUSE OF DRAMA!” AND THEN YOU HIT US WITH THIS. NEXT TIME I’LL JUST HAND YOU A KNIFE AND YOU CAN JUST STAB ME DIRECTLY IN THE CHEST TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR YOU, YOU BASTARD. WHAT AM I GONNA DO FOR THESE NEXT TWO WEEKS WHILE I WAIT FOR THIS CHAPTER OF EVERYONE SITTING AROUND AND EATING BREAD WHILE FUYU PRESUMABLY TELLS THEM THE STORY OF “THERE ACTUALLY USED TO BE A FOURTH KID BUT WE DON’T TALK ABOUT HIM ANYMORE BUT WE WILL NOW!” BECAUSE THEY GODDAMN BETTER

sob. this chapter was basically just a thirteen page trailer for the real meat of this arc. some nice mentoring did occur, I’ll give them that, and I very much enjoyed it. but I’m tired of feeling like we’re just treading water waiting to get to the next big thing! surely all of the set-up is finally done now, right? everyone has their goals established now, we’ve had a mini-time-jump and school is about to start again, and we’ve done our preliminary testing of all of the TodoBakuDeku dynamics and confirmed that all components are firing on all cylinders. basically what I’m saying is we are good to go! ready to get off of this bench! GO AHEAD AND PUT US IN, COACH

anyway guys so here’s a list of what I want to happen at this dinner:

Shouto being all “this is my sister Fuyumi” and Kacchan and Deku being all “COME AGAIN?” because they legitimately thought he was an only child

Fuyu chuckling about how Kacchan reminds her of her dad, and both Kacchan and Endeavor being grossly offended by this

Deku and Kacchan spotting a family photo on the mantel, and Shouto explaining “yeah, that’s my mom, and my brother Natsuo... AND... MY OTHER BROTHER, TOUYA” and then the camera rapid-fire pans to Fuyu and Endeavor and Shouto’s SUPER AWKWARD EXPRESSIONS, before ZOOMING IN ON THE PHOTO OF TOUYA, AND BOY DOES HE LOOK FAMILIAR OH MY GOODNESS

Deku and Kacchan eyeing each other all “holy shit wtf did we get ourselves into” as it begins to dawn on them that they wouldn’t have enough time to unpack all of this even if they had an entire crew of movers on the job. not even Marie Kondo could clean all this shit up. GOOD FUCKING LUCK BOYS

so yeah! lots to look forward to! so I’ll try and be patient. at least we’ve got the anime to keep us all occupied. who’d’ve thought the Basement arc would one day be our salvation. life sure is funny

[letarasstuff]

What makes you beautiful

Author’s note: So yeah, this is my first fanfiction here on tumblr. I hope you enjoy it :)

Summary: Lea is an intern at the Jeffersonian. She meets Finn Abernathy and makes friends with him really fast. But what happens, when she realizes, how wrong she is treated by her boyfriend?

Warnings: Abusive boyfriend, so don’t read it, when you are sensitive to this subject. Language, i think? And bad grammar, English isn’t my first language, so please tell me any errors in it!

3211 words, I am sorry

As a kid, whose parents often fought before they got a divorce, you learn to be scared of seeing other people argue or having an argument yourself.

Now I am a teenager working as an intern, or squintern as Booth likes to call us, at the Jeffersonian. I visit my mother every two weeks for a weekend in Maryland.

So being someone, who despises fighting, your worst ‘enemy’ are relationships. Like, when your partner does things, leaving their socks and underwear all over the house for example, you tell them to stop that in a gentle way to avoid any confrontation.

Maybe you are lucky and your significant other stops leaving their crap everywhere. I wasn't that lucky. My boyfriend screamed at me, saying I only want to change him and that I was invading his private space. From now on every time I ask him to do something nicely, he lashes out on my.

Sometimes, when he is angry or pissed already, Leo slaps or kicks me. I know, it sounds stupid to not break up with him, but I love him and he loves me. We are a good team. I do the chores as soon I get home from school or the Jeffersonian and he teaches me to be the best version of myself.

After a rather exhausting day at school, I am called by Dr Brennan to assist her on a case. It’s an investigation from the FBI. The victim was found in a burnt down warehouse. Now they need us to confirm or to deny, if it is a murder or not in order to do further searches.

After sliding my badge down the security check I go on the platform. I’m greeted by Angela immediately. “Hey Sweetie. Nice to see you. I hope you are still in school”, says she and gives me a hug. Laughing I respond: “No, I didn’t drop out since the last time we saw each other, that was like three days ago?”

Then I put on some latex gloves and bid a “Hello Dr Brennan” to my mentor.

But there is also someone I don’t know yet. “Hello Miss Smith. I’m glad you could make it. This is Mr Finn Abernathy, another intern. I need both of your opinions on this case. The corpse is burnt down to the bone and any evidence is most certainly destroyed. I am not sure if we can find anything at all.”

Then Dr B turns to the guy with the baseball cap, which has the Jeffersonian logo on it, and introduces me: “This is Lea Smith. Although she is still in school and only 17 years old, she has a magnificent knowledge on anthropology.” With a kind smile Finn sticks his hand out for me and speaks: “Good day, Miss Smith. It’s really a pleasure to meet you.”

Well the boy got quite a nice accent. “Why thank you. I really look forward to work with you, Mr Abernathy. Also please call me Lea. I’m barely 17 years old and it's making me feel like I'm at least 30.” Before he has the chance to answer our mentor interferes. After all we got a case to solve!

After many hours of running tests and examining bones, Dr Brennan sent me home. Thankful I say goodbye to everyone just wanting to get finally home.

“How do you get home?” asks Finn concerned. “I take the next bus. We are in Washington DC. Here comes the bus to my neighborhood every 20 minutes in the night”, I answer. Shaking his head he begins to peel himself out of the blue jacket. “There is no way I let you go all by yourself. We are in Washington DC. A young good looking lady like you are as safe as my money in 2009. I drive you home.”

After a while sitting in uncomfortable silence Finn speaks up: “So you are still going to school? Isn’t it a bit too stressful? I mean, Dr B has some tough standards. But at the same time your grates aren’t allowed to drop, are they?”

Looking down to my fidgeting fingers in my lap I answer: “Well a part-time job as a waitress would be much easier. But I need a place, where I have to use my knowledge and mind. It’s like a big puzzle you have to solve. Everywhere are pieces, you just have to find them. Also school is quite easy for me. My biggest problem actually is time. Now it’s 2 a.m. and I have to finish an essay for English in seven hours. So sleep is a sweet thing I have to treasure like a pirate a golden coin, Mr Abernathy.” “That was well said”, he smiles, ”And please call me Finn. It feels off for me to be called Mr by someone, who just told me to stop calling them Miss.”

Now, that the ice is broken, we talk about everything and nothing actually. 20 minutes later we are at my apartment complex. While getting my seat belt off, I turn to my new coworker: “Well thank you for driving me out here. You really didn’t have to do this.” He just waves it off: “I insist. It was really a pleasure talking to you. So go and finish that essay. It’s going to be as amazing as you. And please go to bed as soon as possible. We all need a good

sleep, even you. Sleep tight!” After an awkward hug like thing I step out of the car and open the door to go to my apartment. Before I close the door I wave Finn goodbye.

With a huge smile plastered on my face I open the door to my sweet home. It’s a cozy little apartment I share with my boyfriend. After my parent’s divorce I moved in here with my dad, while my mom went to her new girlfriend in Maryland. When I was 16 my dad wanted us to move back to Germany. He and mom originally are from there. But I wasn’t too pleased with his decision. I had a job as an intern for THE Dr Brennan, a nice school, a few friends and my boyfriend here in the US. In the end he moved out and my boyfriend in. So I kinda life on my own, the big dream of every teenage girl.

Trying to avoid any loud noises I tiptoe in the kitchen. After closing the door silently, I turn on the light. Then I see Leo, my beloved boyfriend, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee. He looks beyond pissed.

“Where were you for fucks sake?!” he asks. Every syllable is pure anger and hatred. That will not end good for me.

“i-i-i was at the lab. Th-they n-needed me for a c-case.” My whole body is shaking in fear. While getting up Leo nearly screams: “And what were you thinking, when you didn’t say something about that to me? I was worried sick!”

Suddenly he pushes me. I fall on the floor, my head banging against the table leg. Leo grabs my hair, throwing my head up violently. I try not to cry.

“I-I am s-sor-sorry”, I sob. But the man just snorts: “I don’t believe that. You know, I don’t want to punish you. But if you wanna be the best version of yourself you have to learn from your mistakes.” With that he slaps my the face and let go of my hair. Forcefully I meet the cold white tiles of the kitchen floor. Then my boyfriend goes away. I hear his footsteps in the hallway and a door opening and closing. He is in the bedroom now.

A tear slips from my eyes finding its way my cheek down. My head is pounding. A few minutes later I get up carefully. Everything spins for a few seconds, but I regain my composure and get my backpack from the hallway. With a massive headache and a hurting heart I finish this essay.

It’s needless to say, that I didn’t get much sleep last night. When my homework was finally done, I had to think about the things I did wrong. Leo’s punishment has to be a lesson for me, therefore I have to analyze my behavior and do it better next time.

While sitting alone in the cafeteria during lunchtime eating an apple, my phone rings: “Smith” “Hello Miss Smith. It’s Dr Brennan. We have a new lead on the victim’s identity. Please come to the Jeffersonian as soon as possible.” Oh well, seems like my next free afternoon isn’t going to be today.

After the conversation with my kind of boss ended, I call Leo. “Hey Sweetheart”, he greets me.

I love this boy so much. “Hey Baby”, I answer breathlessly, “I just wanted to let you know, that I have to go to work right after school again today.” Anxiously I wait for his opinion. “Okay, Sweetheart. But make sure you are home by 10.” Happily I thank him.

A few awfully long periods later I finally am able to leave the hell called school. Not much later I arrive at the Jeffersonian.

“There you are”, Dr Brennan says when I get on the platform. “I’m sorry, but I had a quiz in sixth period.” Then we continue our destiny.

Yes, working with dead bodies is a destiny in my opinion. You have to be born to be able to do this. You must be prepared for anything mentally.

“Hey, I’m sorry I’m late. My granny needed help with her computer, stating she deleted the internet. It’s a lot more difficult to calm down an 80 year old woman than a bag full of puppies”, explains Finn himself.

Dr B nods: “It’s okay, Mr Abernathy. Family is more important than anything else. Please watch it that this doesn’t get to be a routine. You aren’t getting paid for nothing.” Finn takes this advice with gratitude.

“Hey Lea. How went the essay?” he asks me while putting latex gloves on. With a genuine smile I answer: “Thank you for asking. My teacher was very pleased with the presentation of the main problems from George Orwell’s 1984.” My coworker responds with a: “I’m happy to hear that.”

Suddenly I feel like I’ve been struck with a lighting. “I have an idea!” And then I’m on my way off of the platform to Hodgins’ lab.

“Hey Little One! Long time no see, he?” he greets me. I say: “Hello Bug Man! Can you do me a favor?”

Half an hour later Brennan and Booth are out to get the suspect. While waiting for news I sit in the lounge doing my homework. You gotta take every chance you get to do them.

“Oh, what’s that?” Startled by a voice I turn around. “Oh, it’s just you, Finn. Sorry, I’m a very jumpy person”, I explain myself after being reassured, that this voice is from someone, who isn’t going to hurt me. Then I look at what I wrote.

“Oh, that’s just for biology. It’s not that difficult, just something with osmosis and so.” “That’s not what I meant. It makes no sense to me. It isn’t English, is it?” he asks interested.

Then I know Finn is talking about: “Ah, it’s some good old German. I was born in Boston though. My parents moved to the US like 25 years ago. So I still learned their mother tongue. It’s quite important to them that I don’t forget their origin. And now I’m writing this paper in German at first for my mother. Her vocabulary isn’t good enough in specific areas, her knowledge on the other hand is very impressive. So I let her read it and then translate the whole thing in English, her notes indeed.”

The young man has a look of astonishment on his face. “Wow. That’s so cool. Maybe you can teach me some German and something about the culture over there. I can pay you back in showing how to speak with the coolest southern accent the world has ever witnessed!” “Well, hack my legs off and call my shorty. We have a deal!”

Weeks go by and Finn and I become great friends. We tell each other almost everything. He even visits me in school or waits for me so we can do something afterwards. Leo never does something like this with me.

We know each other like the back of our hands. There is one thing I don’t tell Finn though: What happens in my apartment.

Slowly but surely I realize that everything, that is going on in there, is wrong. When my now best friend told me about his past, especially his stepfather, I began to think.

Finn shows me on so many ways, that imperfection is that, what makes you beautiful. He makes me believe I’m already enough. And when I make a mistake, it’s fine. That’s what makes all of us human.

When I finally conclude this construct of beauty, I lay awake next to Leo. I already feel the bruises forming on my body. In this night I don’t get a wink of sleep.

Now that I know the “truth”, I am embarrassed. How dumb am I? Thinking that this guy loves me and keeps hurting me to make me perfect is nuts. It is paradox.

But am I too deep in this mess to get out? Isn’t it too late now? Is this how I am going to live until I am gray and old? Do I want that?

The next few days I distance myself from everyone. I try to spend as little time as possible at the Jeffersonian by saying that I have too much school work or I am sick. Right now I am too ashamed to look anybody in the eyes there. I’m considered as a genius, but I am too stupid to figure out something so simple sooner?

It’s like the third week in a row, that I bailed out on Dr Brennan with the excuse, that I’m sick. This time it isn’t even a lie. My dear boyfriend thought I don’t give him enough attention. So he locked me out on the balcony in the middle of winter. Now I have a fever of like 39° C (102,2° F for you Americans), a massive headache and the worst cold I ever experienced in my short life in general.

Now the 20 years old man is at work, where he has to watch over the same machines on a monitor. So it’s nothing exhausting he is doing for a living. That is why I’m confused when the doorbell rings. I abandon my project for history and open the door. Before I get the chance to register who it is, I have to sneeze. “Oh well, that is a nice greeting. God shall bless you and your poor soul”, says Finn with a look of pity on his face.

“Haha, thank you, Dork. Come in or else I freeze my guts off out here.” I lead him into my apartment. Then I realize something. “May you excuse me, now the nice warmth is gone and I need a hoodie. This way goes to the kitchen. Make yourself comfortable.” And then I bolt for the bedroom.

Now see, I didn’t expect any visits from anyone. So I can go around my habitat without worrying about my bruises. When I’m out I make sure to cover them somehow.

Dressed in a Jeffersonian sweatshirt I go back into the kitchen. When my coworker sees me, he smiles: “Oh there you are. Hold on, is that mine?” With a blush on my face I scratch my neck and respond: “Maybe? I can’t help it, but it’s really comfy.” I finish with a shrug.

Laughing Finn assures me, that I am allowed to keep it. He wanted to ask Cam for a new one anyway. “But my visit actually has another reason than just checking up on you”, the young man tells me while I prepare a cup of tea for the both of us. “And the real reason may be what?” I want to know curiously. Sighing Finn explains: “You distant yourself from us. I thought it was only me, who had this feeling. But yesterday I talked about it with the whole team. Booth misses the ‘only other normal person in the lab’. Cam and Hodgins think, that something bad happened and are so close to emerge into that door to get you out of an emergency. Sweets tells us all the time, that you shut yourself out and that this means nothing good. Angela is ready to kick someone’s ass, if they hurt you. Even Dr B is in need of your comments and ideas while working. We all are worried about you. Please let us finally know what the hell is happening. Why aren’t you answering any of our phone calls? Why aren’t you showing up at the Jeffersonian? You are needed there. Without your person the whole lab is kind of unbalanced like a drunk man on his way home from a pub.” His eyes looks pleadingly into mine.

I couldn’t answer any calls, because Leo has my phone. In his pure rage of not getting enough attention, he took my phone and isn’t willing to give it back to me any time soon.

And that is when realization hits me completely.

Leo doesn’t just hurt me, he controls me. Every move I make I'm watched by him. It’s like living with a personal Big Brother.

I don’t wanna be controlled anymore. I’m sick of not being able to do what I want. I want to be in charge of myself again.

Finally I do the right thing.

I lock eyes with Finn. Without saying anything I roll up the arms of the hoodie, revealing a spectrum of colors.

While waiting for his reaction, tears start to form in my eyes and stream down my cheeks.

Gasping he looks at my injuries. From the dark bruises to the fresh wounds and the healed scars. Lightly he traces along them with his fingers, trying to not hurt me any more. I don’t move. I just show him my greatest act of trust. I trust him with my darkest secret.

Now Finn is crying too. Between sobs he hugs me and whispers into my ear: “I’m so so so sorry, Lea. I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that crazy shit immediately. Nobody deserves to be treated like this, especially you. I promise.”

And he keeps it. After this Finn takes me to the Jeffersonian, where I get an all check up. With the evidence, that is collected, Caroline builds a case against Leo.

It doesn’t matter what’s going to happen. It doesn’t matter how long Leo goes to jail, if he goes there at all. The only important thing to me now is the support I get from my colleagues – my family – who help me every step I take.

[outworldxwasomi]

Muwaji Mwisho

//Pt 2 of Idi Drabble

Pt 1 here

Couple Years Later

Only one hut still remained at the Kwanzaa tribe kamp, housing the last members of the tribe. Hasani, Jabari, Idi and his older brother Benzi. Jabari and Hasani stood while Idi sat in the only chair in the hut. Benzi stood at his left holding a brown pygmy goat which was his pet Gypsy.

“I’ll do it, I will end Kotal rule over outworld.” Idi said.

“You're mad.” Hasani protested, shaking his head.

“Yeah but I'm not going to sit around and let him put our race into extinction.” Idi knew Hasani didn’t like the idea but he wasn’t changing his mind about it.

“We are nowhere near extinct.” Benzi snickered, petting Gypsy as she starts to yell.

“He took out three tribes in the span of two days. His army grows and our numbers dwindle.” Hasani looks at Benzi in disbelief, stating the obvious.

“I still cannot believe he killed the woman and children too, here I thought he was a righteous ruler.” Jabari says in hush tone.

“RIghteous in his eyes.” Benzi shrugged then looks down at his brother. “Make sure you pluck out his eyes, for Baraka.”

“I think we need to think this through. We need to think about the other tribes, the children are in danger.” Hasani steps forward, raising his voice. Idi stands up from his chair, and stretched.

“Do what you need to do, I'm leaving tonight, come sunrise Kotal head will be on the edge of my blade.” Idi said, he wasn’t backing down.

“Please reconsider this.” Hasani pleaded. 

Jabari steps forward and puts a hand on Hasani shoulder only to get it shrugged off.  “Don’t stop him, if anyone can get close enough to Kotal undetected its Idi. Not like we got anything left to lose.” He says in a matter of fact tone. 

“Repeat that Jabari, but say it more slowly so it will go through your thick skull.” Hasani snapped at Jabari who seemed unphased. 

“He’s not going alone, me and Benzi will be there with him if anything goes wrong, will get him out.” Jabari points out. 

Hasani gave Jabari a look that just oozed hate before turning his attention to his mate. “Idi you're smarter than this, please come with me to Earthrealm with the others. Will be safe there.”

“Baraka died because I failed to fight back. I was looking right at the man who was responsible for his death and simply walked away with my life. I owe Baraka my life, I need to right the wrong I have made even if it kills me.” Idi motions for Jabari to stand down, noticing the large tark looked ready to punch Hasani. 

“The carriage is ready.” A voice called from outside the hut. Jabari leaves the hut which was best for the time being. Idi walked up to Hasani who had a hard time looking down at him. Grumbling under his breath, the taller tark finally got the nerve to look down at his mate. 

“You sure?” Hasani cupped the side of Idi face, letting his thumbs trace over the outer teeth. Idi didn’t say anything, just nodded his head slowly. “Just promise you will be careful, there is no shame in fleeing.”

“Of course but fleeing isn’t in my blood remember.” Idi purred as Hasani leans in to press his forehead against his. “You still have a job to do, promise you will go and not come after me.”

“What?” Hasani raised his head, eyes wide in shock. 

“Promise me you won't come after me. You wait for me to come to you.”

“I can not promise that.” 

“As your Kiongozi, that’s a direct order.” 

“Basha.” Hasani growled, pulling Idi into a tight hug. “Nakupenda Idi.” 

“Nakupenda Hasani.”

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

Two osh-tekk guards walked through the palace garden, one of them were talking about some food they ate earlier and how they wanted to eat some more. The two guards were so lost in their own conversation, they were unaware of the large figure walking up behind them. The last words spoken was the name of a fruit, both heads were sliced just below the jawline. 

“Shit.” Jabari cursed as he reached out to grab the dead osh-tekk’s by the arms to keep them from crashing to the ground. Huffing as he carefully lowered them to the ground instead. Idi and Benzi come around the corner, glancing at the dead bodies before giving Jabari a cold glare. “I killed them, job done.”

“Just stick to the plan Jabari, once I get up to the main chamber balcony you two wait for my signal.” Idi walks over the bodies towards the palace wall. Benzi watched his little brother climb the wall when a loud snap caught his attention. He looks back to see Jabari munching down on an osh-tekk arm. 

“My brother is climbing to his possible death and your eating, really?” Benzi snatched the arm from Jabari grasp and smacks him across the face with the severed limb. Jabari stood up, easily standing over Benzi by a good foot. “We need to get moving, throw them in the bushes.” Benzi calmly says as he takes a bite from the arm, walking off. Jabari snarled, glancing up to the palace walls to see Idi climb onto the balcony. A look of concern flashed in his red eyes as Idi disappeared from his view. 

“Be careful up there Idi.” Jabari whispers. 

For a century in a half, Idi has perfected the craft of stealth to the point that he could rival Reptile. And he didn’t have the ability to go invisible like the zattarren, that was saying something. Still, Idi knew that even the slightest bit of self-boasting can break one concentration. Good to have confidence, just don’t let it take over as his mentor Baraka told him many times. Idi learned that real quick after being put on his ass a couple of times. 

“You have a good night now boss.” 

“You do the same Erron.” 

Idi pressed up against the wall at the first sound, still as a statue as he trained his hearing to pick every single sound from the shallow breaths to the jingle from the Mercenary boots. He recognized that sound from anywhere and if he wasn’t mistaken, the merc called those spurs. Why wear something that could alert everyone around you was beyond him, then again Idi didn't know Erron well enough to question it. 

A few minutes of silence passed as Idi waited for the right moment. Just as he was about to make a move he hears footsteps coming straight towards him. Idi side steps away from the entrance, blending in with the shadows as much as possible. His golden eyes narrowed as what looked like a large black cat stepped out onto the balcony. 

‘When the fuck did he get a cat?’ Idi thought to himself as he watched the large Jaguar stroll along the balcony, it’s dark fur glistening under the moonlight. Its back was facing Idi as it sniffed at the air, pausing with a hiss. Idi clenched his teeth, holding his breath as the Jaguar turned its head then slowly turned its body around. A pair of bright glowing blue eyes stared directly at the dark shadow that Idi was currently standing in.

Idi slowly extended his right arm-blade, the metal sliding was inaudible, completely silent as it slides out his arm. Crouching down, Idi braced himself as the large cat continued to stare in his direction. This was just a little bump in the plan, he could easily take out the Jaguar and move onto the real target. He just needed to get the cat close enough to strike. 

A small clicking sound was heard, making the cat turns its head towards the doorway before running back inside. Idi quickly retracts his arm-blade and stood upright, the cat was out of the way for now. With light steps, Idi makes his way towards the doorway, peering around the corner to take a look inside. Kotal bedchambers was rather bare, save for the osh-tekk decor and sitting furniture set in the middle of the large space. Not a single light source was present as the room was blanketed in darkness. Not that it was a problem for Idi since tarkatans can naturally see in the dark. 

Lowering himself to the floor, Idi crawled across the floor on all fours, making his way to the closest object which was the back of a sofa. He peers over the edge to see the Jaguar was curled up on the cushions, purring as it slept. For a pet, it was really bad at guarding. Then again the cat probably didn’t sense him as a threat or it was just really dense. A little voice in the recesses of Idi mind was telling him to kill the cat now but he chose to ignore it. Aslong as the cat didn’t interfere with his goal, it wasn’t his problem. 

He crouched behind the sofa once more and looks around, spotting the large bed surrounded by a thin curtain in the left corner of the chambers. Idi moves across the floor towards the edge of the bed. He sniffs the air and froze, something was off. He could smell Kotal scent, it was all over the bed but something else was there as well. It was sweet, like perfume, a familiar perfume at that. Not one to dwell on minor things, Idi moves around to the left side of the bed and pulls the curtain aside to find the bed empty. 

If he wasn’t in bed then where the hell was he?

Confused, Idi pulled at the blankets just to be sure. Nobody was in the bed, nothing. A small mewl to his left got his attention, Idi looks over to see the large cat sitting beside him. Just sitting back on its haunches, staring up at him with those glowing blue eyes. 

Glowing…

Blue…

In a blink of an eye, Idi lashed at the Jaguar with his right arm-blade fully extended. His wide swipe hit nothing but air as the large cat jumped back with a growl. Why didn’t he sense it before, his senses must have been off for him to miss such a glaring clue. Golden yellow eyes locked onto the large cat, Idi carefully watched the Jaguar sit back on its haunches and lick its left paw. 

Kotal was taunting him, making him into a fool. He knew Idi was out there on the balcony as soon as Erron left. He transformed into his cat form and stepped out to check, sure enough, Idi was out on the balcony. What the tark didn’t know that Kotal had a power that was given to him by his gods long ago. He just didn’t use it often since he didn’t feel the need to. He expected Idi to figure him out sooner but then again, he was a tark with on a mission. The fact that Idi was able to get this far was impressive, it's probably why kotal felt the need to not attack right away. 

Snapping his teeth, Idi jumped at Kotal, tackling the large cat as if its claws wouldn’t do him any harm. Kotal jaguar form was a few pounds heavier than Idi, making it easy for Kotal pin the tark on its pack with a paw to his neck. Kotal raised his other paw, ready to strike Idi across the face only to get met with a fist to the snout, knocking him off which sent him crashing into a nearby table. A large vase that was atop the table fell to the floor and shattered. 

The noise alerted the guards outside of Kotal bedchambers, a small group of 6 osh-tekk warriors came rushing into the room to see the tarkatan wrestling a large black cat. At first, they were confused by the cat until one of them remembered it was their emperor. Not sure what to do, the guards just stood there watching the fight unfold. 

It was closely contested fight with Idi gaining the upper hand. Aside from the claw marks littering his chest and arms. His teeth and claws dripping with blood and fur, his blades were retracted since Idi didn’t think to use them yet. Kotal dark fur was turning red, soaked in his blood as he got bitten and scratched by the tarkatan. His guards wondered why he didn’t change back yet, one of them even shouting for their leader to change back and end the tark life. 

“What in the?” Erron ran in to see the fight. Not thinking twice, he whips out his pistol and aims at Idi head only to stop as Kotal jumped in front of him and roared in his direction. “Boss?” Erron lowers his gun, looking downright confused. Kotal looks back at Idi who was barely standing, panting and coughing up blood. 

Idi dropped to one knee and lowered his head. “Kill me, now.” 

“Alright.” Erron steps forward, raising his gun. Once again he was stopped by Kotal grabbing his arm and pulling it down. Kotal finally transformed back to his human form, naked and covered in fresh wounds. “Uh boss?” Erron kept his eyes upwards, face turning red as he realized Kotal was indeed naked. 

“Idi, do you really wish to die here?” Kotal voice still held that loud strong baritone, even in pain. “You do not have to die here, your life does not have to end here.”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Idi spat out, raising his head to glare up at Kotal. “You been slaughtering my people like cattle, why hesitate to kill me, another tarkatan?” 

“No more tarkatans have to die.” Kotal steps forward, holding out his right hand toward Idi. ”Pledge your allegiance to me Idi, and you have my word that no more tarkatans have to die.”

Idi stared at the hand, not saying a word just breathing. He stayed silent for what seemed like a long while, Kotal moved closer bringing his hand to Idi shoulder only for the tarkatan to snap down on his forearm. Like a pitbull, Idi latched onto Kotal arm and digs his claws into the bicep. Kotal shouts, raising his arm then slammed Idi headfirst into the ground. Idi still hung on, his grip still strong. 

“Boss,” Erron called out, ready to interfere. Kotal stomps on Idi right leg, snapping it at the knee. Still, Idi would not let go, even worse his arm-blades fully extended and pierced Kotal shoulder. Kotal pressed his foot down on Idi chest and yanked upwards. Idi body went motionless as the top of his head was ripped from the jaw bone. Kotal looks at his arm, the top half of Idi teeth buried deep in his flesh as his the life in his eyes slowly faded. Grabbing the top of th head, Kotal pulls the teeth from his arm and holds the top half of Idi head up. 

“Such wasted potential.” Kotal drops the head next to Idi corpse. “Put his body on display as a sign, all tarkatans of outworld are sentenced to death, no surrender.”

[hamaon]

IN DEPTH FANDOM QUESTIONS: Final Fantasy VII

 WHO WANTS TO READ 3000+ WORDS WORTH OF THIS STUFF

Top 5 favourite characters: Cloud’s story is very impressive for a 90s JRPG protagonist, and the glimpses of personality you get over the course of the game and towards the end especially are divine;I gave my heart to AVALANCHE early on, a moment of silence for all those who died so young;the image I have of Elmyra is a lot groovier than what there actually is in the game, but I’m hanging on to it;Tifa won me over just by her battle animations, and from these modest origins it grew and grew;

Nanaki is so serious, and also a baby.

Other characters you like: The bravest pilot-in-training who could. I believe in you, little guy.

Least favourite characters: “The hidden optional characters”, is what I was going to say, but I like Yuffie much better than Vincent. I actively dislike her character design (what is even going on there), but she’s vengeful and proud. All the characters in this game are more enjoyable if you highlight their unsavory qualities.

Vincent, though, is a miss. An unfortunate combination of things that I don’t care about. His main contribution to the story is giving more insight on Hojo and Sephiroth (and the Turks, I guess), but what I’d like to know more about are things to do with Gast, the Ancients, and Aerith’s involvement, and he has nothing to do with that. Also, Shinra by itself just isn’t interesting to me, it’s their involvement with the main characters (especially in the first areas of the game) that is fun, and again Vincent misses out.

There’s also the fact that- if there’s one mythological being that I couldn’t care less about, it’s vampires, and he shares a lot of the aesthetics, and- I don’t like using him in battle. The only time I used him during my first playthrough was when the party first crosses the mountains past Nibelheim, and taking him to the boss battle at end of the dungeon was a bad idea. It liked fire, and Vincent’s monster form whatever-beast liked producing said fire, and one thing led to another.

I love his theme, I guess, but I don’t even think of it as his theme. It’s the theme of the basement of the Shinra mansion and its fantastic, creepymonsters.

Also, Aerith, but more on that later.

Otps: I’m into Cloud/Tifa, but less for the chemistry and more for narrative reasons. I just think it makes a good story? Watching them dance around their memories of their shared past is the true heart of the game, for me.

I like that it’s romantic on Tifa’s part, but when you go back to the beginning of the game, once you know what sorts of questions the characters have been holding back on… how much of it is romantic on Tifa’s part, again?

I like that it isn’t romantic on Cloud’s part… until you get to the Lifestream, and the cause of this mess and the most honest truth at the core of it all was just a little boy crushing on the popular girl next door.

I like the idea of them deciding to stick together, the two survivors, now that they can admit out loud that they never really even knew each other.

I like how, with all of his regrets and failures, Cloud never did fail her.

(And I kind of like that the underdog in the triangle got the guy, in the end.)

I used to be passionately into Aerith/Tifa, early on – her interactions with Tifa are the best I liked Aerith – but I’ve let go of it, since. It’s okay to enjoy relationships without making them romantic, past me.

Not sure whether this is is an “otp “or a “notp” thing, or something else entirely, but I‘ve become very attached to the idea of Cid/no one as of late. Maybe the plot circumstances forcing him and Shera to stay separated helps them realize that it’s healthier this way. I want Cid to be grouchy and middle-aged and difficult to deal with on his airship, with his loyal crew and no romantic interest ever again.

And honestly, I’d be all for an AU where Cloud derails the plot by running off with some random AVALANCHE member in the early Midgar portion of the game. Jessie is the best candidate. Let Cloud and Jessie elope.

Notps: Cloud/Sephiroth. Aerith/Cloud as a reciprocal thing, because I enjoy their interactions better if Aerith isn’t serious about him (Cloud -> Aerith is fine, though).

Favourite friendships: Barret and Tifa. It was framed more as “Barret supports Tifa”, but I imagine that Tifa used to babysit Marlene quite a bit when AVALANCHE was smaller, so it evens out somewhat. They have a lot of shared history between just the two of them.

Aerith and Tifa. And listen, this isn’t pretty, but I want to think that they didn’t like each other that much, at first, even if it didn’t show – because why would they be rude towardseach other? Why wouldn’t they want to rescue innocent people? Maybe Aerith is a bit dismissive towards Tifa, unconsciously. Overrules her on things, without thought. I want Tifa putting up appearances that she enjoys Aerith’s company more than she really does, when really at times she makes her uneasy in ugly, jealous ways. All of that beingsomething they are already correcting themselves on come Kalm, quietly. On the way towards the chocobo farm you can see them walking together more often than not, and it continues that way until Aerith skedaddles.

Cloud and Yuffie. I just think that the detail of the shared motion sickness is nice and genuine. And in general, Cloud is yanked around by the story so much, it’s nice that he has someone he can be a mentor figure to. Good for the both of them.

Favourite family: Cloud’s, painfully unexplored as it was. It would benefit the game if there was just a touch more about Cloud’s mother. Just one more little scene, late in the game, to underline that she was loved, and that she’s gone, and that he doesn’t want to talk about it.

Favourite episodes: The entire Lifestream sequence where player-Tifa finally gets some answers to questions that have been left hanging since the first five minutes of the game.

Actually no, the entire game starting from where Cloud starts unraveling at the Noozupooru and the title of player character bounces back between a couple of party members as you’re putting the story together, culminating in the Lifestream sequence. But especially the Lifestream sequence.

Favourite season/book/movie: Original game? I think I liked the short animation thingy, Last Order, when I saw it ~ten years ago, but I can’t be assed to rewatch it now.

Favourite quotes: Any, as long as it comes with rustic typos in it. Absolutely beautiful.

Best musical moment: “Overworld“, as I had originally written down, like Tina’s theme, is a beautiful epic that encompasses all the highs and the lows of the narrative, but having listened to it for way too long while watching my friend play the game I’m in the “can’t stand” part of my cyclical relationship with the song. So let’s talk about Cid’s theme instead!

My first exposure to Cid’s theme was in the form of a background midi on a friend’s angelfire page, and I had no idea where the song was from. The file that I eventually managed to download on my computer was named something to the effect of ff7-cid, which told me nothing. No one in my family played video games.

As I said, I downloaded song. I used some .mid-to-sheet-music converter software on our computer to make it playable and printed it out. It wasn’t made for piano (and I definitely wasn’t good enough at notation to make an arrangement of my own), so I’d just follow along the notes as I put the midi on. I never did learn to play it. I never got a group together to try to play it – there’s nothing impressive about this story.

Fast forward several years, and I played the game. At that point it had been a long time since I had listened to the original midi, but I still remembered that I had built something way more epic around the song than what actually went down in the game. Not that Cid’s quest for the skies isn’t impressive, but it had sounded like something that would play during a last stand type of scene at the end of a story. My bad.

It’s still an impressive piece.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: You lose control of the main character! That’s pretty metal?

When it really disappointed you: My introduction to the game was Advent Children, which I don’t think I had many strong feelings about? But I saw people online mourning the death of Aerith’s character (made even worse by Crisis Core) and how she was supposed to have been amazing in the game. So I played the game expecting something truly spectacular and… well, FF7 doesn’t have bad writing, I don’t think, but the characters definitely need you to meet them halfway before you can truly appreciate their potential. And Aerith mostly just hit on Cloud, so I was unwilling to even try. Disappointing, in the truest sense of the word.

I have a history of hating most Final Fantasy romance, and most of the characters doing most of the romance-inclined things. Edge hits on Rydia? Shit character. Locke hits on Celes? Shit character. Rinoa hits on Squall? Shit character (okay originally I liked her for that and only started hating her later in the game, adding her to the list here isn’t fair). Zidane hits on Garnet? Shit character. Yuna hitting on Tidus initially made me label her as a shit character as well, and I can actually pinpoint the very line of dialogue that made me stop thinking of her that way, but my main point is that in the beginning of FF10, I hated Yuna.

Anyway, I like to think that every time Aerith is hitting on Cloud, she’s joking! Because that’s what the root of my disinterest in engaging with her can be traced back to! Most of my headcanons are about Aerith, honestly. I make kind of half-hearted efforts to like her, occasionally, but I need to do it on my own terms – in order to enjoy her character, I need to be able to own her character. Otherwise I’m in a situation where I don’t care for the character much, and every time people point out some feature about them that makes them “perfect”, the bitterness increases. The “I was pretty neutral on this character, but everyone talking about how they’re the best thing ever made me loathe them” feeling. Yeah.

Saddest moment: I’m currentlythinking about the Nibelheim flashback where Cloud just plain refuses to talk about his mother and that’s a sad moment, isn’t it?

Most well done character death: Rufus went out gloriously. The whole scene with the multiple delayed laser beams whose projections you had to keep track of was magnificent, plus a corrupt corporation sacrificing everything for the greater good was pretty nice. Redemption in death.

Glad he wasn’t retconned into having survived or anything, that’d just ruin everything.

Favourite guest star: Cid had his moment in the spotlight, before slinking back into the shadows until XII?

Favourite cast member: Character, okay. Tifa, probably. A bunch of neutral to positive character traits, distinct nostalgia in the character theme, some half-assed writing, best animations in battle, a role that was fantastically spot-on in unravelling the main character’s labyrinthine headspace.

It’s less who Tifa is as a character, and more the good vibes surrounding her role in the story and some of the aesthetic decisions that went into creating the character. I mean, she’s a female monk. Just give her a version of the AC outfit that isn’t all black and stillhas the suspenders.

Character you wish was still alive: Nanaki’s mom.

One thing you hope really happens: Nanaki’s mom becomes an actual character in the remake. She completely drops out of everyone’s consciousness once it turns out that the Dad was the Important One. You have this rare heroic mother who is remembered for her feats in battle, only for her to disappear from the story completely. I’d like for Nanaki to remember them together. Wasn’t she supposed to have been something of a role model for him, before?

Most shocking twist: When the nameless Shinra grunt took off his helmet.

I keep thinking back to that gifset of that scene with the caption “that’s what Final Fantasy VII is all about, Charlie Brown“, and. Yeah.

When did you start watching/reading?: After Advent Children came out.

Best animal/creature: I have so many feelings about that one house in the Sector 7 slums. Primarily ”how“ and “why“. And “rocket launchers”.

Everything inside the sunken Gelnika is super cool, too. As is the Ruby Weapon, or however you capitalize that. Ruby WEAPON.

Favourite location: First visit to Nibelheim, if I’m being honest. Basement of Gold Saucer, if I’m not.

Trope you wish they would stop using: Will they?? Or… won’t they?? Let’s drag this love triangle shit on f o r e v e r.

Like please, FF10 was the best because they settled the will they won’t they thing pretty early on, just let this matter be resolved so we can have some development in some direction, please. Let him get on with his relationship with Tifa so we can have some real progress, let him break it off for real, just do something. As long as it isn’t ”he’s hung on Aerith forever“, because that goes directly against the development at the end of the game. Give him a new love interest, if you don’t want to piss anyone specific off, just stop beating this horse, it’s been dead for twenty years.

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: That’s what Final Fantasy VII is all about, Charlie Brown.

Funniest moments: When I was playing the game with a friend, and she triggered the bug where you don’t get portable save point in your inventory, and we only noticed halfway through the final dungeon. We still beat the game without any save slots. It’s not a very difficult game.

Couple you would like to see: please just fuckign Cloud/Jessie.

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: Anyway, I’d like it if there were more female characters in the party, with more varied roles. Any of the main party members besides Barret, Reeve and Vincent could have been female, I think (I like Barret as a father, and Reeve is such a late reveal that it wouldn’t serve the intended purpose. And Vincent is optional). Cid, Nanaki, someone new? Cloud? Maybe Jessie could survive?

Actually, unpopular (?) opinion time, somewhat related, hang with me here, but I don’t think Tifa being ancillary to Cloud’s story is a bad thing at all. He’s the main character, his story is the most important story of the game, and her story supplements his story beautifully. The problem is that after the first disc, she’s the only active female character of any real importance. That’s where her propping up Cloud starts becoming a problem.

More female characters.

Favourite outfit: I love Aerith’s design, it’s spectacular. At first glance all you can see is pink, but it’s super practical, and plain, too. Some of it is probably because that’s how the game is designed in general, no one is very decorated, but still, Tifa wears earrings.

A simple dress, practical shoes. A plain bow, crude metal bracelets, and some random string around her neck. It’s like she just picked one up one day and went, why the hell not? That’s actually something I do when I’m cleaning and find pieces of string or broken rubber bands. Just tie them wherever, arm, neck, around my head.

It’s my headcanon that her dress was originally white, but it was washed with something red (that seems to be her color, no?) and was accidentally dyed in the process.

The short jacket is my favorite. I like the idea that she’d go for that big-shouldered look in other outfits, too. It looks so weird. I love it.

Favourite item: All materia. The ‘all’ materia.

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: Nothing official aside from the game itself. A couple of art prints. There’s one with Nanaki with his cubs looking over the ruins of Midgar that I need to get framed at some point, if I have the money.

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: AVALANCHE all the way. The concept of bitter eco-terrorists is something that resonates closely with so much of my youth.

Most boring plotline: A lot of Barret’s stuff could have had better focus, unfortunately. Tying things back to Marlene & Elmyra & the working class more would have been appreciated.

Most laughably bad moment: I can’t decide between the kidnapping of Elena and Yuffie in Wutai, and the cannon-top slapdown between a corporate executive and a lifetime martial artist. It’s a horrible tie.

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: So much is centered around the Nibelheim flashbacks, let’s pick something else.

Cid’s Rocket Town flashback is pretty good, it makes you feel the frustration, and it manages to humanize him at the same time. Also, it isn’t a montage info-dump flashback, which FF7 falls victim to, occasionally.

Most layered character: Much of the plot is about putting different aspects of Cloud back together, sometimes more than figuratively, so, Cloud.

Most one dimensional character: Palmer. You know, because he gets run over by a… truck…

Scariest moment: The Shinra tower, after you escape from the jail. There have been just enough uncomfortable elements shown to you beforehand. There was something unnatural in that tank earlier, but it’s gone now. The soundtrack turned Silent Hill all of a sudden. Maybe you could receive comfort from the masses, now that you are facing a shared enemy of a new, strange caliber. The tower was bustling with life just moments ago.

But where is everyone.

Grossest moment: Cid yelling at Shera. Shut up, shut up, shut up.

Best looking male: Once you get past all the associations you have with white/silver-haired men in Japanese media, and the fact that it’s Sephiroth, Sephiroth is quite pleasing to the eye. The boob window is nice. Looks strong without being overbearing.

But at the end of the day, it’s still…. Sephiroth.

Best looking female: Everyone is a pile of polygons, but in my mind’s eye I always imagine Ifalna as a breathtaking beauty.

Who you’re crushing on (if any): no.

Favourite cast moment: I don’t keep up with creator commentary. I like to live dangerously.

Favourite transportation: All chocobos are beautiful in their own way. Incidentally, nothing that came after the original game counts as canon to me, and Cloud became a chocobo rancher near Corel. He goes snowboarding with Yuffie, sometimes, when she’s visiting and he’s trying to catch rare breeds in the mountains.

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): Midgar, as a whole. The dirty neon lights hiding eco-terrorists and secret flowerbeds. The ruins in the epilogue, when you end the game unsure whether most of the player characters even survived Holy. It just feels like a lot of love went into creating Midgar.

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: I was discussing Cid’s small pre-final dungeon Loveless monologue with The Friend Who Played Through My Copy Of Final Fantasy VII, and we came to the conclusion that we couldn’t come to a conclusion. It’s just… vague. Is it talking about dying? Who/what is supposed to work as a parallel to this play?Is it just a bad translation?

While we’re at this sort of thing, let’s talk about sequel stuff! and how Zack is what finally ties all the loose ends back together. About Cloud. About Aerith. He’s an explanation and a motivator, and from a story perspective, unimportant as a character with motivations of his own. Ultimately it doesn’t matter why he did what he did, only that he did them. He should never have been in the spotlight. In Final Fantasy VII, Zack would never have been in the spotlight.

Moreover, he’s gone. Aerith, the one who’d most benefit from having some answers, is gone. And it was fine that way.

Best promo: Uh. The FF4 flash ads with ostriches in them.

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: Nibelheim.

[lilithspice]

Inquisitors Notes: File 9475839 Name: Eveline 'Scarlette' Novianna

(Safe for work, Implied relationship, implied sexual relationship, Warhammer 40k, angst)

I came under the possession of young Scarlette on the planet on Scintala, a bustling hive world. Born to a noble family that dealt in exports and trading cargo, the Novianna family were well known by both the Inquisition and the Rogue Traders. From the details I have been able to pull Scarlette was the youngest of four children born into the family, and as fate would have it quite the rebellious child, often finding herself scolded by her middle bother, Naveen, for the trouble she caused. She expressed to me when we first met that she did not care much for her noble heritage for anymore more than the weight it may carry in the future. Regardless due to the nature of her meddling in her fathers business she found upon her sixteenth birthday she was faced with a suitor for her to marry. As one who has dealt with the headstrong young woman I can attest to her free will, and therefore her obvious disagreement to the situation she was faced with. This, as far as I can tell, was the breaking point for her father who instead came up with a different plan to get rid of his youngest daughter.

When a Rogue Trader vessel came into port on the planet a meeting was held between her father and the Captain, and young Scarlette was told she would be shipped off to work on the vessel as a way to bring honor to her family name (and possibly get rid of the troublesome child). From here when I prompted her to tell me more about her family life she seemed to hesitate, inquiring whether it was indeed necessary and expressing that she did not have many fond memories of her time on Scintala. I noted at this time she had a shard of glass that she turned over in her fingers and asked why she carried the odd item around. She then proceeded to tell me that the night she was told she would be leaving her home world she flew into a rage and smashed one of the stained-glass windows in her room, prompting Naveen to enter and attempt to calm her. As follows is a transcript of the conversation:

S: I was pretty frakkin angry at them all, honestly. I: Why? S: As much as I hated being highborn and having no real worth to my family, it was still my home at the time and I didn’t want to go. I: You said that you broke a window, if I recall? S: Yeah, in hindsight mother was probably pretty angry that I did that. My brother came in when he heard the noise and was worried I had hurt myself. I: You expressed a great companionship with your brother, is that correct? S: Yes, well...not really. It was that I just got along better with Naveen than the other two. Octavius was an ass-kisser, always the first one to run to father when he found out I had done something wrong, and Magnus was the eldest, so in hindsight he thought everyone was out to steal his inheritance. I: So you were closer to Naveen than the others, that’s fair. S: He was more lenient with me but he was so happy for me when he heard I was leaving. After he fixed my hand up he gave me a shard of the glass window to take with me. I: Why would he have done that? S: He told me it was so I could remember where I came from. So I never forgot to come back eventually...I’ve never seen any of my brothers cry before but Nav' cried on the day I left for the Rogue Trader ship. I: Did you ever return to visit? S: No.

Scarlett’s tone shifted greatly when our topic turned to that of the Rouge Trader vessel, she often laughed and told stories about her time on the ship and it would seem that she had much fonder memories than on her home world. She told me that while the Rogue Trader Captain was a little eclectic in his mannerisms, she warmed to him quickly. She expressed then that she didn’t actually serve on the main ship, but rather one of its sisters. There she told me the Captain was a friendly, fatherly type figure to his crew. Her expression often grew warm when talking of him, if a little forlorn. Perhaps a bitter-sweet nostalgia? Scarlette then proceeded to tell me that once she was on the ship the captain asked for her name and when she responded with her birth name, Evaline, was told that was not to be her name any more and was prompted to give a new one. Confused, she told me she had pulled at a strand of her hair, confused, and gazed at the fiery red lock for a moment before responding with the name Scarlette. It would make sense now to me why she prefers to use that name as opposed to her birth name. She has expressed on numerous occasions that she feels her true family was that of the crew of the Rogue Trader fleet, as in her eyes they treated her more as kin than her true family ever did. When prompted to tell me more about her time before being hired for the Inquisition she grew animated, often grinning wildly and gesturing about to make her point. She informed me that she put under a sort of general test and that the information that it had produced apparently dedicated that she would be a Seeker. For those reading this record who are unaware of what a seeker is they are required to uphold the law and rules of the ship and settle any disputes that may have arisen between members. They are also in charge of investigating any suspicious circumstances that may arise on said vessel if the situation were to arise. It is here again that I defer to the transcript to give a better understanding of Scarlette:

I: I take it you enjoyed your new position? S: Very much so! Lupus was an amazing mentor, I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher! I: I take it you are referring to Lieutenant Lupus Vilmar, the ships head seeker? S: Mhmm! He was the one who first showed me around the ship and introduced me to everyone. I'll admit at first I was a little scared of him, ya know, with the scars and tattoos and all that.

(Lieutenant Vilmar was indeed a heavily scarred and tattooed veteran seeker)

I: Did you enjoy your job? S: Not at first, I didn’t like having to boss people around and Lupus would tell me off when I did something wrong but it wasn’t like at home where I felt bad. I actually wanted to get better when he told me what I did wrong and how to fix it. I really hope he is doing well... I: Of course. Is there anyone else remarkable that sticks out in your mind from the ship?

(It was here that Scarlette seemed to become quite sullen and thoughtful, flicking the box of lho sticks around in her hand)

S: I had a best friend while I was on the ship. A real smart ass of a guy, his name was Gaius, he was a guard. I: An unusual choice for a friend. S: Maybe, but he was always kind to me. Kicked my ass when we sparred enough to make me not want to any more and he never really held my heritage against me like some of the others did. For lack of another term Gaius was your typical meat-head. You could talk to him all day about guns and work out regimes but the minute I tried to explain how and why I ended up on the ship he kind of just looked dazed and confused and told me to use smaller words. He was always good to me though, a really good friend. I: You seem dis-hearted by this? S: Not by Gaius' manner, no. I'd grown quite accustomed to spending my free time with the lug of a man to...appreciate what he could do, smart mouth and teasing aside. He always did his job above and beyond. I'm just...remembering how we parted and I don’t want to.

(It would seem Scarlette was possibly holding back on some of the more private notions of her relationship, not wishing to disclose them for whatever reason.)

S: I found out there was a parasitic brain worm infesting the ship. I took it upon myself to investigate and see if it could be stopped and who was possibly infected. I: I bold intuitive move. Didn't you tell your commanding officer? S: I didn’t know if he had been infected, and I had no idea if this thing had some kind of hive mind – that could have possibly blown my investigation away immediately. Ironic as it was but I discovered that one of the key signs of being infected was a drastic change in attitude and sadly that was what Gaius was displaying. I: Perhaps he was having a bad day. S: Perhaps, Inquisitor, but I couldn’t take that risk. I: Then what did you do to resolve the problem? S:...I shot him while he slept, sir. I: In his bunk? With everyone else liable to walk in? S: Uh...no sir. In my room, my bed. I had a private room as an officer... I: … S: Please don’t ask, Inquisitor.

(I conceded the point, my suspicions proving true at this juncture and didn’t feel the need to press any further on the matter.)

I: Then please, do continue, Scarlette. S: I went to to captain after that to report my findings and report on Gaius' death, only to find him in a similar state...so I shot him too. I: You shot the captain of your own ship? S: Dead.

(It was at this point she grew noticeably upset and toyed with both her hat that he had placed in her lap and the lho box she held.)

I: Your fiddling. S: I'm sorry Inquisitor. These are the only things I have left to remember them by. I: A hat and a lho box? S: Mhmm... I confiscated Gaius' lho box before the rest of his possessions were incinerated and was given the captains hat as an old superstition. I: Explain. S: We had stopped the fleet in order to further the investigation and we found out that once the queen worm was killed, the others simply died off with no repercussions. When the Rogue Trader captain heard about how I had killed the captain of my ship he told me it was an old Rogue Trader superstition that the person who had killed the captain had to take their hat. It seemed rude of me to refuse at that point, and he was such a good man... I: But if the brain worms queen was killed when you shot the captain down dead then there was no need to kill your guard friend. S: That’s true, but that fact was not discovered until later, I had to take the precaution since I had no idea how the parasite spread or why. I regret the fact that I had to kill him but I know it was necessary for the well-being of all those on the ship. I had to make my priorities clear. I: I applaud your tenacity and dedication to your job, Scarlette, you did very well. S: I don't want to be thanked for killing my own men, sir.

It was at this point the young redhead seemed to exude some sort of authority, obviously I was not effected but I could easily see how others could be. An understanding silence fell between me and the acolyte I was interviewing, as we both collected our thoughts. Of course I already knew about the brain worms; the Rogue Trader captain used that as one of the prime examples of why she would make such a good acolyte. I must admit he was right in this case, she seemed exactly like what I could have asked for in a subordinate.

[End of transcript]

(I also do commissions - feel free to shoot me a message if your interested!)

[makeste]

KHR 061: Feelings All Up in My Daily Life Arc

If for some reason you ever ask me what my favorite Daily Life chapter is, and I tell you I don’t have one, you should know that I am straight up lying, because I do and it’s this:

This was requested by @gokudirt! This is also the last of the chapter requests, but seeing as it takes place right before the start of the Kokuyou arc, I’m thinking I might just continue the reviews chronologically from here. At least until I finally tire of doing this (which could be a good long while from now).

Anyway, let’s discuss Target 61, which started me on a path of being obsessed with Gokudera Hayato for the rest of my life.

Before we get to the actual chapter, I want to take a moment to appreciate that title page up there, because I think it’s the first time Amano successfully achieved what she was so obviously trying to do from the very start, which is to make Gokudera’s hair sexy. It’s not at peak sexiness yet, but it’s come so, so far from his intro nearly 60 chapters ago. I attribute this to him finally turning fourteen. We all know thirteen is a very awkward age.

Unfortunately the change is not quiiite permanent just yet, as we can observe on the very next page.

The thing is, I feel like she’s getting better at drawing him from side angles, but from directly front-on it’s a whole different story. His hair is still doing the thing where the back parts stick out awkwardly at extreme pointy angles, and also his bangs hang down way too straight and rigidly, like they’re one big sticking-together blob, instead of being all soft and ~wispy-looking~ the way they get to be later on.

I, a fully grown adult woman who apparently has nothing better to do than to analyze Gokudera’s hair and rant about it for multiple paragraphs, can actually tell you the exact moment when that transformation finally becomes permanent and perfect, and it’s right at the very start of the Future arc, immediately after TYL!Gokudera poofs back into normal Gokudera. It’s like Amano drew TYL!Gokudera’s hairstyle, and then suddenly everything just clicked about what the teenage version’s hair was always meant to be. It’s a beautiful thing. Haha, this chapter recap is going to be waaaay too long and very singularly focused, isn’t it.

Suddenly some thugs appear, because I guess they just wanted to get their asses kicked by the future Vongola Tenth’s right hand man!

Firstly, “as if there weren’t already this heat” is SUCH a July 2018 mood, so thank you, Gokudera.

Second, he’s really fucking violent here and I kind of adore it. He’s so often a glutton for punishment that it’s sort of nice on those rare occasions where he gets to kick ass himself. Especially here where it gets really physical with elbows and knees and the whole business! Usually this kind of brutality is Hibari’s domain.

Anyway, it turns out they were sent by Dino!

STILL SO HANDSOME. How come there were never any problems with his hair??

At any rate, Dino has some “good news” for Gokudera. (FYI those aren’t just any quotation marks--those are full blown sarcastic air quotes.) Now that he’s fourteen (ALL GROWN UP), the Ninth has apparently decided to promote him and put him in charge of a bunch of casinos. That makes so much sense! And he asked Dino to tell Gokudera because Dino is basically an honorary Vongola. That part actually does make sense. Does anyone really think of the Cavallone as a separate family? Pretty sure no one is raising their hand.

What great news! Oh but there’s just one small thing; the job is in Italy! Which, aside from probably not being Gokudera’s favorite place in the world for a multitude of other reasons, is also notably NOT where Tsuna is.

This is followed by one of my favorite Gokudera moments in the entire series.

Okay let’s press pause and engage rant mode.

So as we all know (I assume? Unless you’ve never actually read this chapter, in which case go do it! because it’s great and I love it!!), this whole thing is actually some kind of fucked-up loyalty test that the Ninth came up with, because for some reason he was suspicious of Gokudera and whether or not he’d actually stay devoted to Tsuna. So they figured they’d offer him a token power position, and see if he’d take them up on it, even if it meant abandoning his boss!

Here’s why that’s the most ludicrous fucking thing anyone has ever tried to do in this entire series.

SERIOUSLY? YOU NEEDED TO TEST GOKUDERA GODDAMN HAYATO’S GODDAMN LOYALTY TO THE GODDAMN TENTH? HAVE YOU EVER MET GOKUDERA?? PLEASE SPEND TWO FUCKING MINUTES WITH HIM AND THEN COME BACK AND APOLOGIZE TO ME ON YOUR KNEES FOR WASTING ALL OUR FUCKING TIME.

But okay, for some reason the Ninth has inexplicably become an outrageously bad judge of character. So fine, let’s test Gokudera’s loyalty. Except that

HE PASSES THE TEST ALMOST BEFORE THEY CAN EVEN GIVE HIM THE TEST TO BEGIN WITH.

Seriously. “Gokudera here’s a promotion for you but you’ll have to leave Tsuna and go to Ital—” “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THE ONE I FOLLOW IS THE TENTH NOT THE NINTH, IF IT’S GOING TO BE LIKE THIS THEN I’M NOT GONNA DO IT.” Dino, your response should be, “Well, shit, okay then,” and then you walk off and tell the Ninth what an asshole he was to even fucking try this.

But instead!!!

So Gokudera already passed the test, which is all about being loyal to Tsuna, but Dino tries to guilt him by insisting that staying is selfish, and leaving is actually the best way to serve Tsuna? What kind of damned-if-you-do bullshit is this? We’re trying to see how loyal you are, so we’ll tell you how to be loyal, but if you listen to us you will actually fail the test. What the fuck kind of fucking logic…

Anyway, lacking any other type of mentor figure (because Shamal is a fucking deadbeat), Gokudera goes to talk to Reborn about it.

WTF WHO’S THIS RANDO—

REBORN-SAN YOU APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE

Things I will never get tired of: this fucking gag.

So Gokudera explains his problems, but he frames them in such a way so as to make it seem like he’s worried that Tsuna won’t be able to get along without him, when of course it’s really the exact fucking opposite. Reborn is exactly as helpful as you would expect Reborn to be.

Having just savagely murdering Gokudera’s hopes and dreams, Reborn proceeds to set a challenge for him.

Hahaha. Okay, so. On the surface, this seems really fucking harsh, and kind of like Reborn is trolling the ever-loving shit out of Gokudera in this chapter just for giggles. However, I don’t think that’s what’s actually going on. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

So Gokudera accepts this challenge like the sweet delusional child he is, and goes to visit Tsuna.

Tsuna’s just so fucking thrilled to see him.

Gokudera’s wavelength: ~~~~~~

Tsuna’s wavelength:

                                            ~~~~~~

DO YOU GET IT THE WAVELENGTHS ARE DIFFERENT Critical lack of communication and understanding between these two kids who are trying to be best friends but neither of them has the slightest fucking clue how to do it. That’s all I’m saying.

This is something that’s better suited for an essay, so I’ll leave it alone for now, but it’s just interesting to note the contrasts in how they think of each other at this stage in their friendship.

They sit in Tsuna’s room and Tsuna drops moods for all to enjoy.

Pictured above: every thirteen-year-old since the beginning of time.

Gokudera has a stars-in-eyes moment of thinking Tsuna is about to ask him for help, buuuut

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF SOMEONE WHO’S FULLY AWARE THAT HE’S FUCKING OVER HIS FUTURE SELF, AND DOESN’T GIVE A DAMN.

Tsuna continues his mood marathon by freaking out at the sudden appearance of a cockroach!

Gokudera gets ready to BLOW THAT SHIT UP (you don’t fuck around with roaches okay)

But Tsuna ignores this completely and calls his mom because of course he does. What else are moms even there for?

Next, Maman calls Tsuna for help moving the couch. You can see where this is going.

…Okay, I was trying to hold off on essaying about this until the end, but this in particular is the perfect example of what this chapter is trying to get at (and outright says later on). Tsuna and Gokudera occupy different positions in each other’s minds, and right now, these feelings don’t line up. Gokudera thinks of Tsuna as his boss—someone above him. But Tsuna does not think of Gokudera as his subordinate (someone below him). He thinks of him as his friend! An equal!

But unlike Gokudera, Tsuna is actually aware of this dissonance between them. After all, Gokudera makes no secret of the fact that he worships Tsuna. And because Tsuna doesn’t like it, he goes out of his way not to actually treat Gokudera like a subordinate. Therefore, he doesn’t ask Gokudera to do menial tasks for him like killing a bug or moving the couch. If they actually were more like normal friends, he probably wouldn’t hesitate! But since Gokudera constantly treats him like a boss as it is, the last thing Tsuna wants to do is actively encourage it and actually start bossing Gokudera around in any sort of way.

This is something Gokudera just doesn’t get, and I’m 100% sure is one of the main reasons why Reborn came up with this challenge for him to begin with. Because if these two are ever going to learn to understand each other better, Gokudera needs to realize this for himself.

Anyway.

Next up, Lambo haphazardly endangers someone’s life again because that is basically his sole function in the entire Daily Life arc. Long story short, he blows up a telephone pole, which proceeds to fall over, nearly killing Tsuna in the process. Fortunately, Gokudera is there to save the—

Well. He tried.

Anyway, once this is all over, and Gokudera apologizes, Tsuna finally asks him what’s wrong, because of course he was able to tell because he’s the best, TSUNA I LOVE YOU. So Gokudera tells him all about the promotion.

Tsuna acts fucking thrilled and over the moon for him and insists on throwing a party to congratulate him, and I’m sorry but I have to stop and rant AGAIN, because Amano packed so many feelings into this simple little chapter, and I don’t have any more room in my closet to put them!! So I’m just going to vomit them all over my blog s-sigh.

This.

is.

all.

fake.

Tsuna is not thrilled to hear that Gokudera is going back to Italy. He is not actually happy. But he pretends to be happy, for Gokudera’s sake. Whoa there, HOLD THE FUCK UP because LOOK AT THIS SUPER SNEAKY CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THAT JUST DIVEBOMBED IN OUT OF NOWHERE.

So Tsuna has gone from being terrified of Gokudera, to genuinely thinking of him as a friend! To the point where not only is he upset to learn that he might be leaving, but he’s also conscious enough of Gokudera’s own feelings to pretend that he’s not upset and to try and support Gokudera as much as possible.

And maybe that doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but it is, because if you go back to some of the earlier chapters and look at their relationship, it’s so fucking different from this. The only emotion Tsuna ever seems to show around Gokudera in the early chapters is “stressed.” There is literally a chapter dedicated to making fun of the fact that all Gokudera ever does is stress Tsuna out and all Tsuna ever does is complain about it.

Fast-forward to here, where Tsuna has become completely accepting of Gokudera’s weird behavior and just rolls with it, because underneath that initially scary layer of “wacky, destructive, overly-devoted Gokudera” is a solid core of “Gokudera who is my friend.” They’ve known each other for a year and a half now, and Gokudera has always been there for Tsuna no matter what—even when that commitment only ends up causing more trouble—and Tsuna has finally come to appreciate it. And it’s about damn time too, because Gokudera Hayatos don’t just grow on trees! KEEP APPRECIATING HIM, TSUNA. You lucky bastard.

Sob so where was I oh my god. Okay so Gokudera gets a ton of warm fuzzies from this and decides that he really will go to Italy, for Tsuna’s sake. Because remember, Dino is a fucking liar.

So Gokudera runs off! BUT SUDDENLY he realizes he left his lighter at Tsuna’s house. How convenient! And at this very same moment, Reborn abruptly decides to initiate a conversation with Tsuna all about how much he really does appreciate Gokudera as a friend and doesn’t actually want him to leave. ALSO CONVENIENT.

Except I don’t think for one second this is a coincidence, and in fact, I fully believe that Reborn actually stole Gokudera’s lighter, waited for him to realize it and come back, and then purposely went and got Tsuna monologuing at exactly the right moment for Gokudera to “accidentally” overhear it. Yep.

Am I giving Reborn too much credit here? Maybe. But then again, maybe not, because it’s Reborn, and if you don’t think he’s playing the long game with Tsuna’s future right hand man just as much as he is with Tsuna himself, then you may just be underestimating him.

Anyway, so we then get a page or two of Tsuna blabbing about his complicated Gokudera feelings, but since I already essayed about them above, I will spare you the rehash.

Gokudera overhears it and has a Moment of Feels and decides he will stay in Japan because Tsuna wants him there, as his friend, and to Tsuna that’s more important than Gokudera serving him in Italy as just his subordinate.

If you don’t think that’s exactly what Reborn fucking planned, then clearly we are not reading this series with the same conspiracy goggles.

The next day, a wild Yamamoto appears (wow it’s so weird how you run into people at the airport don’t you think that’s weird), all set to go on a trip to Italy with Dino, because Gokudera told him that was a thing that was happening, so obviously Yamamoto believed him because WHY WOULD GOKUDERA EVER LIE.

This is adorable, and while you may think it was kind of dumb of Yamamoto to actually pack his bags and everything, you have to consider that it’s impossible for anyone to actually say no to that face. Which was probably his back-up plan, AND IT FUCKING WORKED, too.

Dino is happy that Gokudera didn’t come, and Reborn pops up and they have a very disturbing conversation about how there was a plot to murder this innocent child if he actually did fall for their fucked up bait-and-switch, and even though Dino says he would have secretly helped Gokudera escape if it came to that, I still kind of want to punch him in his handsome face, just a little bit.

But Reborn knew all along it wouldn’t happen.

Because he’s the master fucking manipulator raising the splendid tenth generation of the Vongola, and we’re all just here to watch him do his thing

Finally this chapter ends, on two note-perfect moments.

This may honestly be my favorite line in the series.

And words can’t express how much I love the fact that Dino, faced with the prospect of turning down Yamamoto’s innocently smiling face, decided it would be easier and less taxing on his soul to just actually fly him out to Italy for a nice vacation. I wonder how many times Takeshi has pulled this kind of bullshit with his dad. I wonder if anyone has ever turned him down for anything, if it comes to that. Dino, you done been played.