#reading this over is like. damn op do u do anything other than watch like 5 different animes at the same time

[bronanlynch]

once again it's "what the fuck did I do this week" time

listening (podcast): there was a new episode of Media Club Plus this week. lots of good smart conversations, including Jack saying some incredibly insightful things about the music that I would never have noticed on my own

somehow forgot to mention the all-timer of a Palisade episode from last week, which was somehow completely blown out of the water by the even more all-timer of a Palisade episode that dropped this week. jesus christ. how do they keep doing it like this. the most recent ep is very special to me personally though, on account of how [MAJOR PALISADE EP 29 SPOILERS] my favorite character is back <3 and also everything about Dahlia was perfect to me. I genuinely think it's very good that most of the antagonists this season lean more into the evil of empire as something mundane & bureaucratic in a way that makes it more terrifying. however. I also love to see an antagonist who is evil in the more melodramatic, fucked up & twisted anime villain monologue kind of way

listening (music): the only music I listened to this week was so many anime openings & endings. there are many things that can be said about Persona 5 The Animation and also Persona 5 more generally but the music does slap. I realize this is a basic opinion but Rivers in the Desert is the boss battle music of all time tbh

reading: as usual, same two books as last week. Rule of Wolves briefly gets a lot more fun when other Six of Crows characters show up, reminding me that I would much rather be reading about Kaz than any of these other people. also, I'm once again irritated by the complete lack of worldbuilding around queerness. there are implications that Fjerda doesn't approve of lesbians, which makes sense since they're obsessed with maintaining rigid binary gender roles. but never at any point do we learn shit about like, queer culture anywhere, or what the situation is like in other countries

I'm getting near the end of Water Outlaws, which still fucking rules. the chapters I read this week had a bunch of fun stuff with strategy & siege defenses. and also as usual some sick fight scenes

watching: still keeping up with Bakeoff. I was legitimately surprised that Dan stayed on after his bread was barely edible but I am thrilled for Tasha getting star baker because I love her and everything she makes looks so good. also in general bread week is always one of my favorite because I often find the dessert concepts too sweet for my personal taste but I fucking love bread

forgot to mention that we watched the last episode of the Ahsoka show last week. this is because it was fairly forgettable and I was- well, disappointed is the wrong word because I didn't have any expectations but anyway. the fight choreography was so clunky and had a bunch of weird pauses, and if you're not going to give me good writing you better at least give me cool visuals, so that was unfortunate

watched another three episodes of Hunter x Hunter to keep up with Media Club Plus, and I'm realizing that I was not remembering incorrectly when I thought that I hadn't actually seen this bit because I have no fucking memory of any of this except the scene of Killua ripping a guy's heart out, which I distinctly remember being shown out of context (I started watching HxH with some friends who were already partway through the first arc, and then went back to watch the first few episodes later but I guess never got to where I started)(something pretty significant happened in the first episode I ever saw so I'll know when I get there). anyway. epic highs and lows of this show, Killua rips a guy's heart out of his chest, Gon makes some extremely clever observations, Kurapika is the most character ever, but also there's the transmisogyny

watched a little more Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I love it when the most important part of a space battle is alternating scenes between each faction talking about what they think the other faction's plan is. this is Television to me. also I'm just now realizing that the columns on the bridges of the Imperial ships are actual literal stone columns, which seems wildly impractical but also extra as hell

most of what I watched this week was, as previously mentioned, the Persona 5 anime, because we wanted to watch something that we didn't have to pay much attention to. it's not, like, a good anime (the pacing is wild, they don't do a great job compressing the story of the game into the limited runtime, the art does not look good, they refuse to pass up an opportunity for jiggling tits or an ass close-up, the ending is thematically incoherent because they refuse to commit to any specifics of what "improving society" actually means materially even more than the game does). however. that's not the point. the point is that Persona 5 contains some of my favorite characters of all time, and also we were watching the dub (I'd already seen the sub) specifically to hear Robbie Daymond as Goro Akechi in all his flirty glory and oh boy did he deliver. also the music fucks

because we watched all of P5A we watched significantly less Zeta Gundam. I still love Four very much (rip), and I am amused by the new villain squad of Scirocco, Mouar, and Jerid, even if I find Jerid incredibly uninteresting. like, I genuinely think the show would be better if he had died instead of Lila and we got to have her as the main rival instead. but also I generally wish there were more evil women who stuck around for longer instead of dying almost immediately (or getting completely dropped from the story? not sure what happened to Rosamia tbh but it would be cool if she came back)

playing: I'm now on the final case of Ace Attorney 5. love that it's Athena's turn to be on trial for murder, a very important rite of passage. I am intrigued by whatever Blackquill's deal is but more importantly I want to see Aura again. also I miss Apollo :(

also ran another session of my ongoing Blades in the Dark campaign. they stole a cursed object for a demon, a woman got partially turned into a bird, and one of the player characters got really into celebrity RPF. normal day in Duskwall

making: we started building Miorine so that Suletta can have her wife to keep her company, and were almost immediately thwarted by how annoying the face decals are. so instead here's Suletta watching over her mostly-unassembled wife

drinking: Stormalong's Light of the Sun fucks so hard. it's yuzu & jasmine and both of the flavors come through really well

writing: finished (?) the yuri//vain fic I've been working on but haven't posted it yet for normal reasons of I've stared at it for too long so now I'm convinced it's bad. it's fine, I'll get over that and post it eventually. however I did a lot of writing on other unrelated fics. for example, I continue to be having a normal one about Integrity Friendsatthetable:

also started another Great Ace Attorney fic because I am not immune to the concept of post-canon Kazuma & Maria roommates

[vod-ika]

Clones; A Sociologic Rant

I’m pretty sure I could base a whole sociologic thesis off of this show I have so many thoughts this is LONG.

So the fascinating thing about clones is that over and over it’s emphasised in show that they are considered property/cannon fodder/disposable, and at the same time it’s shown that they understand that claim, and still go so far out of their way to control some kind of their own independence.

I occasionally have a hard time separating show and fanfiction (fuck canon it’s my world now) but even in show, the allusions to modern militaries, the decorating of armor, the personalisations such as accents, names, and specific groups (Domino Squad) all point to an entirely unmitigated, completely developed culture inside the Republic. So this is basically a list of things I’ve seen, wondered about, or headcanoned in TCW.

- I would just LOVE to sit down with Filoni or Lucas and a sociologist and just Talk about how, if this army was real, what all would the Kaminoan’s have programmed in their heads (mental stability, coping mechanisms, stamina, self-preservation instinct, etc,) and how would it work in real-time, on and off the battlefield. What kind of programming went on in those eight to ten developmental years that ensured that loyalty was innate, the knowledge of property was omnipresent, and that they believed they weren’t allowed to own anything? What did they do to them to make sure that they would never want to form an uprising???

- “We are only as good as our weakest link” is repeated in team events endlessly, something that can extend to both skill and health. How deeply engrained are checkups, both mental and physical? I want you to look me in the eye and tell me that day in and day out clones, regardless of rank, are able to listen to and watch brothers die and Not have that affect them.

- Were they programmed with “protect the Jedi” in mind, or was it just, “bam. here is your CO, they outrank you so you have to respect/protect them?”,  and then one of them jumped off a building with no armor and their captain had a heart attack? With the whole “Jedi were peacekeepers now they’re generals” thing I feel like the Senate just took two pieces of a puzzle that don’t actually go together but fit anyways and shoved them together and now they’re just kinda staring at each other like “the fuk u doin here”

- HEALTH. IS SO. IMPORTANT. When you know that any injury severe enough or illness overlooked long enough could result in you being swiftly and carelessly replaced by someone who looks Exactly like you, how much more of an emphasis is put on health, bodily wellbeing, and injury prevention? Clones are human, and while they’re very highly trained, strong humans, they’re still human and skin is skin. (Applying real logic to a cartoon) Seeing clones in things like explosions that they potentially survive, but lose a limb or two always made me sad because, to The Republic/The GAR/ Kamino, what good is a crippled clone? To Kaminoans, their life’s purpose is over and you might as well treat them as a lame horse. Fuck Kamino.

- I just realised something. When most modern soldiers deploy, they deploy with the intent to eventually be replaced because they have served their time wherever they are, and are being replaced by a new wave of soldiers. Clones deploy with the intent to die and be replaced until the battle is won.

- When Marines or Infantrymen or Sailors ship out, they always have duffel bags or those gigantic green laundry bag stuffed with clothes and personal items. Now, we know that clones collect personal items, and assumedly have multiple pairs of blacks (or no sweat glands) but I have yet to see any kind of carrying devices other than crates and small backpacks like for small Hutt babies or explosives. Do they have to leave everything behind when they’re op-hopping to their next planet? Are there barracks left behind that hold the ghosts of personal blankets and magazine clippings? Or is there a mountain of green laundry bags just off-camera?

- Naming culture, good god. So, you’re fresh out of boot, and you’ve got your number still. You’re like, “dope. I’m CT-1234. I’m a GAR mortarman. Go time.” Then, some dickhead is like, nah you’re called Sparkles now lets go prank Gogo and Jazz. Naming is WILD, and I’m mostly drawing from fanfiction for this. Either you’re named for some major or heroic or kickass reason like Tracer or Wolffe or Fireball, or you’re named for the most mundane thing like your number ends with 22, so you’re Twos or there are checkers on your armor so now you’re Check. either way it is a personal choice that Specifically defies the number they were assigned at decanting. Even Dogma had one for fucks sake.

- Painting armor. You know that time had to be taken to sit quietly and detail on that eel, or those lines, or that decal. Did it do anything to better the Republic? Did it win any battles or save any precious Jedi? No, but it happened anyways. People like to discuss why we play video games; there’s no societal, familial, or interpersonal benefit, only benefit to the one playing. There’s no societal, familial, or interpersonal benefit to painting armor, only benefit to the one painting. Fuck Kamino. 

- Vocal inflections! The places they’re deployed affecting their speech patterns! I personally have a wild mashup of regional American accents because of the time I’ve spent traipsing, so how does being deployed planet after planet affect clone speech patterns??? Who rolls their r’s and who doesn’t? Are there transfers from other battalions whose accents are indiscernible because of where they were last deployed? Or ones who just have a whole additional vocabulary of local language? I’m three states away and the Louisiana accent blows my mind. Imagine that, but a whole fucking star system away???

- LINGO. Military lingo, planetary lingo (see above), sign language etc. give me different forms of communication outside Basic, used in both the formal and informal settings. (name calling in ASL/BSL during a briefing, talking about shinies in front of their faces in a language they don’t yet understand, talking about Jedi in front of their faces in a language they don’t understand.) Clones are told all that they are is property but damn if that property isn’t going to be able to talk shit about you to your face.

- To add on... Mando’a???? Is it innate? Is it learned? Did Jango Fett personally sit every clone ever down and teach them how to say Cat and Dog and Yes and No? Does every clone know it, or only those who sought it out? Literally it’s the most impersonal personal thing. “You, a thing who was made for combat, who looks exactly like millions of others, know one language of BILLIONS in the galaxy, purely because the man whose hair we based your genetic makeup off of knows it.” like WHAT

- HELMETS. BEING. SO. VERY. PERSONAL. Everything you see, speak, hear, smell is filtered through that bucket on your head. Are HUDs customisable? Is wearing or touching someone else’s bucket a no-no? Who’s watching telenovelas on guard duty?

- Speaking OF helmets: When your waking hours are constantly covered by your bucket, how do bodily “tells” betray what your face can’t? People acclimate. How common is it to be able to read your brother’s emotions like a fucking book based purely on how squared his hip is in parade rest, or which shoulder is higher than the other at attention?

- Or even just armor. Dude, that is literally the only thing between their skin and certain death by laser bolt. You ever talked to an athlete? And how picky they are about what cleats they wear or what goggles they use, or what percentage Gatorade their water is? We’re incorrigible. Imagine that, but the choice made results in how mobile you are, or how much laser to the shoulder you can stand.

- Time is so fucking short and they all must know that. I think I’ve used the line, “the average lifespan of a clone is measured in months, not years,” and boy does that fucking hit. How do you handle life when you were made to be snuffed out by it?

To conclude, I have many thoughts about the minute details of a working army that is comprised of identical people created, raised, and sent off to die for a war they didn’t start. Sounds a little ridiculous when you say it out loud, but between the show itself, fanart, and fucking fanfiction, it’s a little hard not to attribute human nuances to the show that exemplified my childhood. I’m an adult and it is my very highly specifically adult choice to psychoanalyse this show, and you can bet I’ll throw hands with Disney at any time.

“When my creator cares not how I face death, only that it is for them, how do I use the time death allows me? Cruel is my maker to have given me eyes to see and ears to hear the world, but denied me the chance to explore it. I can only hope that those who follow see what I could not, and that eventually a painting of all the world will be born through the eyes of the many.”

[gryphsdeadbones]

hey from one nd person to another the comic where fm gordon says a slur seems kind of in poor taste. ik ur not intentionally making light of it and tht occurring in fm should be criticized but while you dont make it out to be a good thing making jokes about it and calling him a "slurboy" is kind of questionable? it makes it seem more like a plotpoint and angst rather than the creator of fm genuinely fucking up in the past (and having moved on from it)! i think exploring fm coming to terms with being nd is a good idea but this isnt the best way to do it. if you want me to explain my point more lmk if/when u post this and i will! someone already made a post abt it but it was kinda strongly worded and i wanted to approach you more calmly because i genuinely dont want to call you out or start drama or anything ;-;

first off thank you for being civil and patient with me i appreciate this ask a lot- also this got long- im not in a flying rage or anything when i bold or emphasis text, i just needed it also for my own readability and since im not the best at wording- hopefully this hellsite works and my response is under the cut

i would like to know how is it in poor taste when freemind explicitly gets clocked at the very end for saying it. the entire point of the comic was to show that saying the r slur has existed in his source and is bad

im not sure how much more direct i can get, with the disclaimer/warning list growing longer and longer and out there for a huge sign that says “this au can get dark as fuck and these subject matters are treated seriously/not something to mess around with.” Like yes, there are some jokes in the asks and other comics, but that specific comic is not supposed to be “haha thats funny”. it has a serious tone using a rough sketch style bc i was super tired and wanted to vent

was it just the direct reference to it that just made people uncomfortable? because thats 100% understandable, and i made sure i tagged it appropriately (although admittedly, a little bit late since i thought the filter would catch at least the main thing)

i think what some people somehow got from it is “exploring sensitive content = endorsing said content” which! that is not the intent! i absolutely do not want people saying that word! I don’t want people thinking that is any way okay for this character to say

its more of a damned if i do address it, damned if i dont.

if it never comes up, people are gonna assume that ‘oh this character says slurs and is shit, surely the creator or fan-creator MUST be okay with it and woobifies freemind and absolves him of any mistakes’ or something like that. no. this asshole has an arc and i want to do it right. its serious and i think it shouldn’t be shoved under the rug

and people just. dont want to read for context for whatever reason. theyll start watching it and get taken aback by the slur and start blaming me ‘hey you never warned for this’ when very early on i keep mentioning over and over ‘you dont have to watch it if you dont want to! This has slurs and 2000s internet brand humor/style’ You really dont, I’m not forcing you to watch it- Literally all you need to know is either canon half life or hl/vrai. thats it. fm mostly follows hl1 with very slight changes.

so i had to make something that:

1. warns people who arent aware and dont want to go through my asks or about/warning pages (for whatever reason) and just want to see the art

2. also NOT downplay freemind’s canon assholery. listen, i kinda despise writing mean and cruel characters, theyre hard to do, and a lot of people get shit for doing it wrong or people going “character = author”

i’ve also considered leaving the bubbles blank, but then people could fill it with whatever they want, then blame me for being vague. or they’d fill it in with a different kind of slur that freemind has never used, even if he MIGHT be the type to do that. I needed to explicitly mention that it is ableist slur. There are shitty racist and other problematic jokes, but never those kinds of extreme racial slurs to my knowledge.

Although I do see your point that maybe joking about it outside of the serious stuff might not be the best route. The slurboy jokes are getting stale, and I will try a better way to remind people.

The thing that gets to me is that it feels people are more than ready to defend either Ross Scott or Gordon Freeman the fictonal character himself. I don’t??? really care for Ross Scott, so I don’t know if he’s ever brought it up specifically. I’m not really calling him out or cancelling him. Idc for some white man’s feelings, im only bringing the timeframe of That era and reworking it to fit in This current era.

And I hate to break it to people: Gordon Freeman is a blank slate character, you can project whatever the hell you want on him as long as it’s not freakshit illegal garbage. The machinimas (fm, hl/vrai) do have SOME characterization that I want to nail down. It fucking sucks when characters are ooc, and I’m trying not to do that, even if it means sacrificing some comfort. But still mostly staying in my comfort zone if that makes sense

Now about the callout that I do not want to engage with the op directly:

Honestly im very surprised the comic was called out when i just. thought my stuff is relatively tame on exploring the bad shit canon freemind does. ive seen him in fancontent where they really dont hold back and its still played off as ‘kinda funny’ tone.

I really don’t know if people just want any reason to hate me for whatever reason. That’s fine I guess, I can’t please everyone and they dont have to like me.

But like. isn’t it so much easier for the op of that to block me and the post and move on. Why kick up such a fuss. I can see that thinly veiled death threat of a vague. That’s pretty fucked up- Like holy fucking god, you do not have to like my stuff. I’m not holding you at knifepoint to like my stuff. I’ve specifically made two different tags (one general au, one specific au) if anyone wants to blacklist it for their own reasons I do not need to know. I don’t want to know.

You’re allowed to be uncomfortable. You’re allowed to unfollow/blacklist/block.

However you just don’t go ranting about it for something you horribly misinterpreted. If it bothers you so badly, literally just. drop me a message to clarify. thats it. or save yourself the time and block me.

I’ve blocked the op for both our sakes, but if anyone wants to send this post to them, then thats fine. I don’t want anything to do with them.

I don’t want to link the post and blow it up. I just want shit clarified, dropped and we can move the fuck on with our lives. 

If you’re reading this and don’t know what the post is, please don’t bother. I do not want people going after the op with threats, please keep it civil, I’d prefer if you don’t engage with the post at all on my behalf.

Despite this huge wall of text, I do not want this to be a big deal, so please don’t ask me about the details.

_

As for anon, feel free to dm me either on here or. Maybe on discord if you’d still like to suggest or have something more cleared up. I’m still willing to hear any kind of feedback, and i want to thank you again for being reasonable about this

[foreverwayward]

“Lost in You” Part 1

Jensen Ackles x Reader 

Word Count: 2963

Warnings: none? Possible fluff. Language.

Summary: You and your best friend (Y/BF/N) go to a Supernatural convention. It was supposed to just be a fun day; nothing too crazy. That is...until he saw you. (A/U where Jensen is single.)

“Supernatural” had been the one show with real meaning for you. It was more than something you watched on TV, it was something that helped you through your darkest times. You’d watched it from the very beginning and more times than you care to admit. So, when you had the opportunity to go to a local convention, you jumped at the opportunity.

With your best friend at your side, you sat in the conference room both excited and nervous to see the two guys you loved so dearly from afar for so many years.  The two of you cheered with the roaring crowd as Jensen and Jared made their way on stage. Even from rows away, you could tell they were even better looking than they were on the show. Their ritualistic jump together to start the panel made you love them even more. How could two grown men be so adorable?

The smile that went from ear to ear began to hurt over time as you listened to them joke with each other and answer questions from the audience. Yes, Jared was insanely handsome, but Jensen had had your heart from day one. You didn’t know how you could have such a massive crush on a man you never even met. It was your little secret. Well, between you and your best friend.

“You should ask a question,” Y/BF/N told you as she nudged you.

You chuckled nervously. “What? No way. I’m not doing that.”

“Chicken…” she muttered with a grin.

The rest of the panel was incredible. Jensen and Jared’s humor was exactly as you imagined and their chemistry as brothers was undeniable. But there was no way you could ever talk to them. You knew you would freeze and embarrass yourself beyond measure. At least you got to finally see them in person, and that was more than enough.

You applauded the boys as they said their goodbyes to the crowd and couldn’t help but beam with joy. The whole event was better than you ever imagined. It was the perfect day.

------

Outside the conference room, Y/BF/N smiled mischievously as she snuck up behind you. Taking your shoulders, she guided you through the crowd off to the side.

“Where are we going?” you laughed.

“You’ll see.”

Finally reaching your destination with your sneaky partner, you looked at the sign pointing towards another large room. The sign read: Jensen and Jared Photo Ops.

“Surprise!” she said with a giggle.

“What? We don’t have tickets to get in. Don’t be a dork.”

Whipping something out from her back pocket she held up two tickets while almost jumping up and down excitedly. “I wanted it to be a surprise. I got them for us months ago.”

Your eyes grew twice their size. “Wait. You’re serious?”

“Deadly.” Handing you one of the tickets she squealed. “We’re gonna get to meet them and get pictures with them. I got a photo op of us together with both Jensen and Jared and individual ones with both of them.”

Suddenly, your palms began to sweat. You were going to meet the boys; the Winchesters. Okay, not really the Winchesters, but freaking close enough. How were you going to manage to keep your cool in front of them? Thoughts raced through your head with anxiety. What if you couldn’t talk like a total idiot? What if you tripped in front of them? What if you meet the biggest crush you’ve ever had and you ruin it?

Y/BF/N could see your mind going a million miles an hour and put a hand on your shoulder. “Girl, you got this. Don’t overthink it. Let’s go meet them!”

Hesitantly, you took a deep breath and nodded nervously. “Okay. Okay, let’s do it.”

------

You both had waited in the long and winding line for well over forty minutes. And yet, the entire time you bounced on your heels and fidgeted with your clothes and hair. How were you going to pull yourself together?

“Breathe,” you told yourself.

Taking the last step to finally get in the door, your eyes went straight for the two tall men smiling with their fans and taking playful pictures. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles were less than fifteen feet away and the butterflies in your stomach were starting to make you dizzy.

The closer you got, the more you were both excited and terrified. You leaned into your friend’s ear and whispered, “I don’t think I can do this. I’m gonna make a total fool of myself.”

“Stop it,” Y/BF/N said trying to comfort you. “Just enjoy it. God, they’re hot,” she muttered looking back at them.

This was it, you were next in line. You watched as two girls giggled taking goofy pictures and hugging the guys. You were about to look like a total fangirl just like them and the thought embarrassed the hell out of you. “Get it together, Y/N.”

As Jared and Jensen said goodbye to the two fans, you were waved by security to come over. Jared’s giant smile was so endearing and he welcomed your friend with open arms as she led the way in. He towered over you both and hugged Y/BF/N.

“Hey, I’m Y/BF/N,” she cooly told him.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Jared.” He put a hand on his chest as he introduced himself as if you truly wouldn’t know who he was. Jared was so genuinely sweet and down to earth.

You took a deep breath and mustered up every ounce of courage you had as you walked up to Jared. “Hi. I’m Y/N.”

He flashed that massive smile again and hugged you tight. You finally knew why people joked about his height as your head barely reached his chest.

“Hey, Jensen!” Jared called out.

Jensen was getting a drink of water and was completely oblivious to you and your friend walking in. He turned around at the sound of his name, quickly swallowed his water, and put down the bottle. Jogging back over, he grinned. “Hey, sorry.”

And then it happened; you were starstruck. But it was more than that. It was like staring into the sun. God, Jensen was gorgeous and up close, you realized you’d never seen anymore more attractive. His green eyes reflected the bright lights and his freckles peppered his face.

“This is Y/BF/N, and this is Y/N.”

As Jensen turned to look at you for the first time, his face changed. You couldn’t read what it was, but it was soft, and yet almost surprised. Jensen’s lip curled at each corner and he made his way over to you, never breaking eye contact. “Hi,” he said gruffly with a smile.

“Hi.” The grin on your face probably went from ear to ear, but you didn’t notice.

Jensen seemed to lose all attention to anything else in the room besides you. He locked in on your eyes and face as his tongue shot out over his lip. You loved it when he did that.

He took your hand in his and shook it softly. “It’s really nice to meet you.” Jensen’s hands were massive and made yours feel so small. It was actually kind of a turn on. “Why, uh--why don’t we get a group picture?” Did you sense a bit of nervousness in his voice?

“Absolutely!” Jared agreed as you and Y/BF/N went to stand between them both. You all squeezed in closer together as Jared wrapped his arms around your friend.

“Can I…?” a deep voice nearly growled behind you. The sound sent chills up your spine and you looked up to see Jensen smiling at you.

“Uh--yeah. Of course,” you replied with a shy smirk.

Jensen’s hands snaked around you and he pulled you close. He reached up from behind you and brushed your hair back so his face was closer to yours. The sound of his breathing in your ear, matched with its warmth, almost made you jump.

You tried not to let an audible gulp escape you as you felt your body try not to shake. He was holding you, his hands readjusting your hair.

All four of you began to crack up as Jared told a ridiculous joke. The photographer took the opportunity to snap the candid picture of the boys holding you both, everyone laughing ridiculously.

“Okay!” the photographer started. “How about the two of you?” She pointed to Jared and Y/BF/N and then for them to come front and center.

Jensen’s neck tilted as he motioned for you and him to step aside. As you found the side of the backdrop, he stood close by your side. You could still smell him and it excited you in far too many ways. He smelt so damn good.

“You, uh--” Jensen started as he cleared his throat. “You guys enjoy the convention?”

Trying not to smile too eagerly, you answered, “oh, yeah. Been wanting to come to one of these for years.”

Folding his arms in front of his chest, with an almost flirty look on his face, Jensen leaned closer down to you. “I kinda wish you had.”

Your heart stopped. Was Jensen Ackles flirting with you? No. No, of course not. He’s famous, gorgeous...no way in hell he’d be interested in you.

You tucked your hair behind your ear and bit your lip nervously, and Jensen definitely took notice. You could have sworn you heard a rumble in his chest as he watched you. God, it was sexy.

“Alright! You two are next!” The photographer called you both over and Jensen put his hand on the small of your back to guide you. Every touch of his hand was electric. 

As Jared and Y/BF/N passed you, she gave you a thumbs up with an excited and beaming smile from ear to ear.

“Okay,” he said with a heavy breath and a grin as you found the camera’s center. “Got any ideas for our picture?”

“Uh--” you chuckled. “Not really.”

“You mind if I try something?”

There it was, the gulp in your throat. “Sure…”

Jensen stepped closer to you until you were flush against each other. One of his hands went around your waist and held you, while the other cupped your cheek. If you didn’t know any better, you’d say he looked like he was going to kiss you.

“Holy shit…” you thought to yourself.

“This okay?”

“Huh? Oh--yeah. Yeah.” You got lost in his eyes and they twinkled like green stars. He was too perfect for words and he was just staring back at you with complete contentment.

The camera went off as your hand slipped up to touch the hand on your cheek and he smirked. Neither of you moved for a few seconds after the picture was taken until you both snapped back into reality.

Jensen cleared his throat nervously again and licked his lip. “I think that’s gonna be a good one.” As you turned to grab your purse that you left off to the side, he stepped closer to you again. “Actually, would you mind sending me a copy when you get it?”

“...what?” you asked in surprise.

“Well, I mean...I kinda wanna see how it turned out.” Jensen nodded toward the tables on the other side of the room. “There’s a woman over there named Kelly. She’s getting everyone’s info. You should leave your number; tell her I wanted it.”

“...you want my number?”

He chuckled deep in his chest. “Absolutely. I told you, I need that picture.”

With your heart racing, you could only smile back. “Alright, sure.”

“Awesome.” Jensen waved and yelled, “Kelly!” Once she caught his gaze, he pointed to you and mouthed something in her direction. Jensen then refocused on you. “She’ll take care of it.”

Swoon. “Think before you speak,” you thought. “Sounds good. It was really nice to meet you.”

The biggest smile grew on his face as he looked back at you. “You too, Y/N.” As you began to walk away, he called your name and you spun to face him. “This better not be the last time I see you.”

Your heart lept and your stomach did somersaults. With a calm nod and flirty smile, you coyly replied, “guess we’ll have to wait and see.” That response seemed to have been the right one as he bit his lip before striding back over for the next photo op.

Y/BF/N hurried over to you. “Uh--what just happened? Did you and Jensen actually talk?”

“I think I blacked out actually,” you chuckled. “But...he asked for my phone number.”

Her eyes nearly blew out of control. “What the fuck? Wait...are you serious?”

“Uh-huh.” When she almost squealed, you turned her around to leave and hushed her. “Be cool!”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, you’re right. But, Y/N! Jensen Ackles wants to see you again. What?!”

“I know,” you answered with an excited look.

You went over to the table Jensen had directed you to and the woman you knew to be Kelly gave you a friendly smile. “Jensen said to help you with something and he seemed pretty adamant about it actually.”

How the hell were you supposed to tell this woman that Jensen Ackles asked you to leave him your number? You were going to sound like a crazy stalker.

“He, uh--he said he--” you tried not to stumble over your words and gather your thoughts. “He said to...leave my...phone number with you.”

Kelly gave you a questionable look and then peered over your shoulder to Jensen. When he noticed her doubtful expression, he yelled, “don’t let her leave without getting it!” Jensen smirked again looking over at you and your friend waved back excitedly before you gave her a ‘knock-it-the-hell-off’ look.

“Alright,” Kelly conceded as she handed you a blank paper. “I’ll make sure he gets it.”

Nervously, you wrote your name and number and folded the paper in half before handing it to her. “Thanks.”

You tried not to turn to see him again as to not seem too eager. But when you did, it seemed that every free second he had, he was looking back at you. It took all the willpower you had to actually leave the room with Y/BF/N. It was impossibly hard to walk away from that man.

In the five minutes since you had met him, Jensen had cast his spell on you. And if you were being honest, it was the best high you’ve ever experienced.

------

Back in your hotel room that night, you and Y/BF/N sat on your beds watching TV. Both in your pajamas and cleaned up for the night, you looked at the clock. 11:49 PM. You were exhausted after getting up so early that day, and it was time for you to try and sleep.

“He’s gonna call,” your friend said as you both crawled under the sheets.

You scoffed. “I’m not gonna hold my breath.”

------

The chime on your phone woke you and you picked it up to look at the glowing screen. 1:37 AM. Who the hell would be texting you that late?

Sleepily, you opened the text from an unknown number to read it.

“Hey :)”

It didn’t even cross your tired mind who that could be as you texted back.

“Hi, sorry, who’s this?” you asked.

You watched the immediate bubble showing that the person on the other end was answering.

“You really think I’m not getting a copy of that picture? You’re crazy.”

Sitting up in bed like you had been shocked awake, you held the phone tightly in both hands. Could it really be Jensen texting you?

Before you could respond, another message came through.

“I’m sorry to text you so late. I just got in for the night. Long day.”

“That’s okay. I get it.” You had to think out every word you typed. This wasn’t your day to day text conversation.

“Are you staying in town?”

“Yeah. At the Marriott for the weekend.”

“The one off the main strip?”

“That’s the one.”

“I don’t usually tell people where I’m staying, but you aren’t just people, are you? ;)”

You ‘weren’t just people’? What did that mean? Again, he texted.

“I’m actually in a suite at the Marriott too. There’s a really nice bar on the rooftop that’s open till 3, I think. You wouldn’t wanna get a drink or something, would you?”

Did your heart just stop? Probably. Jensen Ackles just asked you to get a drink together.

Thinking before you typed, you replied, “wanna give me 20 min?”

“It’s a date :)”

...a date? “Oh my god,” you whispered to yourself as you clutched your phone to your chest.

As you sunk into your bed, you immediately remembered you only had twenty minutes to be there. You jumped out of bed and began to look for an outfit in your suitcase.

Your fumbling around woke Y/BF/N and she groaned. “Why are you waking me at this ungodly hour? Do you not want me to like you anymore?”

With a heavy breath, you nearly panted, “he texted me.”

That was all it took and she was up on her feet like she had never fallen asleep. “Holy shit! What did he say?!”

You didn’t have time to explain and tossed her your phone as you looked through your things again. Why did you have such ugly clothes with you? Or was everything going to be ugly when you were trying to go out with Jensen freaking Ackles?

Your friend gasped as she read your conversation. “Okay! Crunch time! I’ll go heat up the curling iron and get your makeup out. You find something sexy but not slutty and hurry your ass up. I’m not letting you miss this! Twenty minutes...let’s go!”

------

“Lost in You” Part 2

Forever Taglist: @gemini0410 @huntersociopathavenger @paintballkid711  @crystallstaircase @love-nakamura @da5haexowin @flamencodiva @salt-n-burn-em-all @spnbaby-67 @sandycub @mrsambroserollinsacklesmgk @akshi8278 @maddiepants @deansenwackles @lauravic @mrsjenniferwinchester @sea040561 @sister-winchesters99 @rosey1981 @titty-teetee @a--1--1--3 @winchestergirl82 @screechingartisancashbailiff @my-proof-is-you @x-waywardaf-x @deans-baby-momma @themoonandotherslikeit @bunnybaby121115

[ctl-yuejie]

all of @howdydowdy‘s most loveliest tags for my fanfic, you are so wonderful i don’t know how i deserved the good luck to find you ;A;

1. #OH MY GOD!!!!!!!#it's here!! i'm gonna lose my whole entire mind!!!!!#well i hope everybody's ready for me to scream about every single installment as it comes out because this is the most important thing now#i didn't even know turnip!ah yuan was gonna be in it THIS IS THE BEST SURPRISE!!!!!#i feel so honored that my tags had anything to do with inspiring this incredible au but this is absolutely so much better#even in this short installment i'm getting such a good feel for the three characters who have made an appearance so far!#excited to see your lwj!!!#'the only thing his viewers enjoyed more than his content were the occasional take-downs Wen Qing was dishing out in the comment section'#ahahaha you are so funny#PLEASE EVERYONE LOOK AT THIS AMAZING FIC! I'M SO EXCITED FOR IT!!!!#i don't know all the things that are gonna happen but i have a general idea and guys it's such a good au#op is so creative and brilliant!!!#the untamed#ah yuan and his two dads will be the death of me#fic#these are a few of my favorite things

2. #second! installment!! time!!!#i feel like i'm a reader in dickensian london waiting for the new chapter to come out in the magazine#except there's less pollution and i don't have to put coal in an oven#why are those my associations with dickensian london? idk don't worry about it#jiang cheng makes an appearance! okay so i have never really understood him but i've been reading a LOT of fic#and i'm starting to get the picture i think#this is like...just the right amount ominous to get me super excited to see what happens next#WYD JC????#also wwx's characterization is just *chef's kiss*#<3 <3 <3 love u op you're too good to me#puns

3. #ohhhh shit everybody lwj is here! things are happening!!!!#i love all the sibling feels lxc gives me always#in every single fic i read he's like 'lwj i found another boy your age please be friends with him i love you so much'#oOoOoO the shoot will be four whole days i wonder what can happen in four days you guys...#like maybe...mister stoic guqin falling in love with disaster farmer man????#STAY TUNED#you know what just occurred to me is that lwj needs an emotion translator#i'm thinking like luther the anger translator for obama in those key & peele sketches#except it's just someone interpreting all of lwj's stoic faces#i mean lxc can read his faces so you'd think he could do it but idk if lxc himself is emotive enough#i'll have to think about it more

4. #this fic is the gift that keeps on giving#slowly introducing new characters...now we're meeting my sweet baby wen ning...i don't deserve this happiness...#also wei wuxian's carefree chaotic energy is just to die for#and what's this? jiang cheng appears on the horizon? narrowing his eyes at a tumbleweed that rolls across his path#his spurs jingling menacingly as he stalks ever closer?#hold on to yer hats cowboys i smell some Plot approaching#the untamed#fic#(okay also 'explosive arts & crafts projects' ahaha you are the best at these descriptions)

5. #oooooooo things are really coming together my dudes...#more jiang cheng content! okay he is really growing on me. grouch with a heart of gold. huge schemer. just wants to make fun of his BIL with#his brother but feels like he has to prioritize his ~responsibilities~#he loves wwx and understands what motivates him and at the same time just wants him to like. chill#the air quotes ahaha#that wwx makes them and that jc hates it#also i think my favorite image from this is the fact that one of the draws of the tv show is that all the cultivator hosts are handsome#which means that when lxc needed someone to cover for him he just went to the producers like#'no worries my little brother is also super hot so he should meet all your requirements'#'is he personable? no. does he speak in complete sentences? also no. but are the viewers gonna go batshit over his face? absofuckinlutely'#and the producers were like 'oh yeah dude say no more'#this is so fun i'm really enjoying these updates!!!

6. #not the city centre itself but a nearby mound#which sounds unusual and ominous#honey you got a big storm comin'#lwj is getting there early...oh fuck the suspense...#also 'either this is just how show business works or no one really knows what they are doing' why not both lwj??#ahaha i am cackling and steepling my fingers imagining how this is all gonna go down#babe i'm glad you decided not to give me spoilers because it is so fun watching things unfold

7. #i'm just imagining the perspective of the film crew showing up and it's a barren wasteland#they're like...wtf kind of establishing shots are we supposed to take of this??#don't worry guys the cutest child on the planet lives here. just get some footage of him frolicking in the turnip fields#the audience will lose their effing minds

8. #i love jc's logic like 'no one can find out about this or it'll be bad for the family. how to accomplish this? better get a film crew'#also i love how he's lowkey bitter that no one wants to interview him AHAHA jc you peach#and he's like 'maybe i'll watch the show. JUST TO MAKE FUN OF WWX FOR NO OTHER REASON'#wow i'm like becoming really fond of this character op!!!

9. #AHAHA love this image of lwj staring after nhs as he traipses down the street#'fancy birds? tf kinda innuendo is that??'#also lwj deciding to wear all white so that people won't approach him ahaha damn where is my equivalent outfit??#MATCHMAKER LXC STRIKES AGAIN!!!!!#did lxc even have to go out of town for real or was it all a setup to get lwj and wwx in the same place??#wouldn't put it past him tbh#lwj is so perfectly taciturn here i love it#and not just because he's not personable or something it's because he's having FEELINGS#also because wwx never shuts up lol#'he is doomed just like before because even this unknown wei wuxian he wants to be close to and find out who he is'#ughughguhgghhghhh how are you finding and pushing all my buttons???#hot DAMN i am HERE for this!!!

10. #i've now read this three times and i love it more every time!#you have such a way with words and i love how you're getting into wwx's head#it can be hard to relate to him with how dense he can be but you make it all seem incredibly plausible and realistic!!#i love him like 'wonder what it would be like to share a hotel room. it's totally normal that i'm thinking about this'#and like. you show how he got there in his thought process and it makes total sense!#also: lwj as eye candy YES EXACTLY#nhs is the perfect choice for a tv interior designer expert. that is SO what he would be doing in a universe with tv about interior design#okay and MOST IMPORTANTLY we have come to the part in the gifset!! this is the best crack that ever caught feels omg ilysm#demonic blood pool WEI YIIIIIIIING#wen ning being all yeah goth guys and blood pools two great tastes that taste great together#i love everything about this and it was so worth the wait. very excited for the next installment!!!

11. #you are LITCHRALLY killing me with this sharp characterization!! how are you nailing all their voices!!!!#nhs just in it for the hashtag drama that's so spot on omg. breaking all the rules HE wrote just so he can torture jc#all 'are you seeing this??? ARE YOU??' poor nhs and jc having to watch these two lovesick fools make googly eyes at each other#for YEARS and not REALIZE it well it's your lucky day mr. fan man because soon the whole world will see this UST and validate you#okay but what i love the most is jc the masochist being so uncomfortable he has to keep turning off the video ahahahaha#wangxian out here romancing so hard that jc needs a barf bag. or therapy. or selective amnesia.#you ever get secondhand mortifying ordeal of being known? that's what's happening for jc here#it's mortifying watching other people experience the ordeal of being known. this is the hardest i have ever related to jc#it's like oh fuck. lwj loves wwx and it's so obvious. oh my god. i'm so embarrassed.#wwx is so gone for lwj and it's right there on his face for anyone to read. i'm in agony.#ALSO 'jiang cheng can feel his head get hot and he drops the phone on the table like it personally betrayed him' THANK U FOR THIS#everything about this is the best and my favorite#ahhh i'm so excited for the next chapters and so glad they're already up so i can read them right now!!!!

12. #lxc shooting lwj pointed looks every time the jiang sect comes up in conversation for the past 13 years!!!!! he would!!!!!!#i love the way you describe wwx through lwj's eyes. the love just shines through#also you are so insightful about his character but what else is new??? you're the character breakdown QUEEN#OH MY GOD AH YUAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111#i am writing these tags as i read or that would have been the first tag it's SO important#i mean my tag isn't important it's incoherent but AH YUAN IS IMPORTANT!!!!!#you really want me to die. you really want me to be all the way murdered.#this image of lwj just standing there with impeccable posture one arm behind his back the other holding a sword in the air randomly#with this squirmy lil bab clutching at his clothes and reaching up on his tiptoes#okay dang i didn't know there was gonna be action! intrigue!! an ambush!!!#this fic really has it all#bamf!wwx and rescuer!lwj#battle couple ftw#NOT TO MENTION DRUNK!LWJ!!! SELF SACRIFICING!LWJ!!!!!#how am i supposed to live knowing lwj Did That#ughghughghgughgh#'at least i made him happy.' at least you made him happy???!?!?!?#just let me live for a second!!!#just one second though then i'm gonna read the next chapter

13. #awwww jiang 'I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOU I'VE JUST BEEN CUTTING ONIONS' cheng gets a tear in his eye#they are...a fambly.....#my man lxc coming thru for the people!! title of my upcoming inspirational children's book: Lan Xichen Takes a Stand#op you made me love jiang cheng. i'm in it now

14. #omg i forgot that you had written this and sent it to me weeks ago so when i read it just now i was like...obviously that's what happened???#i had already just fully incorporated it into my understanding of these characters in my head and forgotten how it got there#so this was the BEST surprise#i can't believe you. putting ah yuan and bunnies in the same chapter because you love drowning me in cute#soft domestic adoptive dad content???? ugh i literally need to lie down and go into a coma.#just a lil coma. to recharge my feels.#i don't know what you could possibly be putting in the 'extra' but i am. vibrating with excitement!!!!#this is one of my favorite fics ever and i'm forever happy that you came up with this amazing idea and executed it so well#I APPRECIATE AND ADORE YOU!!!#HEART EYES EMOJI#these are a few of my favorite things#the untamed#ah yuan and his two dads will be the death of me

15. #OH MY GOD NHS MASTERMINDED ALL OF IT#this is so perfect i'm in awe!!!!#of course he did!!!!#also 'he had been very invested in this romance he had even painted themed fans for this' ahahaha#these schemes! these machinations!! he got lxc out of the way! he put the idea in jc's head! ahhhhh!#mr. fan man

[pestopascal]

the thread

retribution spoilers. hollow ground thinking, more springing off from my own stuff (and linking to some of my other fics). minor chargestep. spoilers. 1.5k

You barely get the call in time, linked from your main office, but you had a feeling something wasn’t quite right. All the reinforced steel in the world couldn’t seem to hide whatever was happening in the building. Concentrated noise, and even as you pull up cameras to check the halls, you don’t have to guess. 

“Yeah?”

“Logan is on her way to see you.”

I can see that, you think, flicking between the elevator and your floor. Tapping her foot erratically in on the metal. You can’t make out what’s in her hands. 

“Mr Ortega? Sir? She’s—she seemed a bit… off.”

“I’ll handle it.”

Out of your chair, through the door. Quickly, quickly. Had to make it to the elevator before Logan stepped off. Before anyone else got the message to appear. Telling yourself to move faster, faster. A small miracle you made it just as the elevator arrives with ding! and you know you should smile. Maybe school your face into something of mild indifference (especially after your last argument, which still makes you wince).

But Logan is waiting for you. That shouldn’t surprise you, with how she holds a file in her hand, brow raised, face impossibly unreadable. You can only think, this isn’t the person you know. And you have never been more thankful she can’t read your mind.

“Logan—”

“Your office.”

She leads the way, long strides ahead. You are exactly four behind her, and she only stops because you still have the key. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Inside.”

The door barely swings, and she’s fishing something from her jacket. If you had to assume anything, with how she waves it in the corners of the room, it’s to sweep for bugs. But the design is sleek, small. Almost unnoticeable had it not been for how she seems too focused on doing a double-check.

“Logan, stop already, it’s secure.”

File on your desk, device tucked away, before she sighs. Runs her hands through her hair. “Sorry, sorry. Where’s your board?”

“Can you please tell me what’s going on, first? Are you in trouble?” You try to cross the room, but she holds her hands up. Stay back.

“I have something to show you.”

The last time she had said something along those lines, it was a very private twenty-four hours tucked away in her apartment. You know this is nothing like that time, as she cracks her knuckles a little too much to be comfortable. 

“It’s over there.”

Logan is nothing if not efficient in how she pulls it out from behind your desk, and waves you out of the way. Safest place was to sit at your desk, and watch her fiddle. And try not to stare at what was in her file while she situated the board front and centre.

You watch, with a frown, as she places one photo in the middle. Smooths her fingers over the edges, until the blutack was nice and flat, before stepping back. Logan blocked your view, and you had to get up from behind your desk to see what it was she had done.

Time slows down. Strange, you think, as you watch her snap the cap off the marker, looping letters over the photo. Easy, as if second nature. Right over where you had swiped off the name only a week earlier, frustrated, dead end.

H O L L O W G R O U N D

Big. Loud. Right over a photo of Logan. And you know it’s Logan, because you remember every little curve and freckle. Wrapping of scars around her temple. Except. Except. This photo was remarkably unblemished compared to the woman before you. 

Same frightening stare, that went on for years. Same mark, just to the left on her chin. Black eyes, darker hair. Scars did not mark the skin in the way they did for Logan, but the resemblance was uncanny.

You don’t understand.

Logan continues to pop, reseal, pop, the cap of the marker. Up down up down. Clicks filling the empty space, as you try to work out what she was showing you. What it meant. There’s nothing really, no threads that connect her, and… Hollow Ground. That was almost unthinkable (so much so, a small part of you considers that it was in front of you, the entire time).

“How… what?”

“I told you about the Farm.”

“Yeah, but that’s—I don’t—” splutter over your words. Farm. Government. Re-gene. A flurry of information that you thought you had known, understood, until Logan had ripped out the rug from underneath you.

And then you realise, Logan wasn’t talking to you. More photos, more threads. Arrows pointing left, right, up. You don’t recognise any of these people, but you watch as Logan circles faces, explains.

“Handler, had a daughter. She got ‘sick’,” emphasis there, making it obvious, giving you another question, “and he was part of a military ops program. Specialised training, y’know.” Hard red line, dragged down to the face once again.

“Farm, right, gave him a bargaining chip. They’d save her life, he had to do a bit of work for her.” 

Another woman, whose face means nothing to you. Nor does the sheet attached with numbers, code. But you have to keep up, you do. You asked for Logan’s help, and you didn’t mean to push so hard until she snapped. 

Had barked at you, even, about leaving her out of it. Until today, when she slapped a folder on your desk, and started pulling all this information out.

“Except they played him, because he’s a dickhead and easy to manipulate — trust me. Shoved his daughter in a tube and started pulling stuff from her, because they’re also dickheads.”

Slap. A photo of what you would consider the ‘tube’. But it was bigger than anything you could’ve imagined. Cords sticking out of it, trailing off somewhere unseen. Blue hue. Body, hanging in the middle. You can’t see much, but your imagination filled out the rest. 

A scribbled name over the top read Walsh, Billie. “Now, she had a pretty good life up until that point. Except for her mum being bumped off, took the hero pill as a teen, estranged from her father. Convenient for her to go missing, because her dad is off the grid, no other known relatives.”

Circle again. Big line back up to the girl’s father. “And he of course starts getting suspicious, because he hasn’t seen his daughter in years.” A pause, and Logan finally looks at you. “Keeping up?”

“Yeah, I think so.” 

Quick nod. “So he wants out, right. Fulfilled five years of his contract. So they up it. Start cloning her.” Another line is drawn far left, and she sticks another photo up. “This guy, Evan, claims to be a doctor or something, gets involved.

“Fucks around a lot. Makes a bunch of failed clones. Good for experiments.” Logan lets those words hang, and you’ve heard her mention it before. Even Chen had seemed mildly put off by how she insisted experiment, not mistake. 

“So, Billie, she’s pretty damn handy with her brain. Telepathy, yeah? Wanted to hear. So of course,” Logan emphasises this, like you should know and be agreeing entirely, “she’s been listening in to all of this. For years. Years.”

There’s another photo put up now. Not of a face, but a location. Hole blown out the side, and you don’t have to squint to see carnage. Your stomach drops, a little. “That’s—”

“Nevada, yeah. I’m not ‘born’ yet by this stage either, technically. Billie ends up escaping, and it’s fucking bedlam. Somehow they didn’t see this coming. Fuckers.” Last kick of a word, not aimed at you. At the faces.

You don’t want to ask the next question. “How… how does this relate to…?” and you motion, quickly. Middle photo. Logan’s face. Hollow Ground’s face. 

“They didn’t stop the program even though they lost their primary source. Got enough out of Billie to keep going for a long ass time. And they did.”

“So you’re…? And she’s…?”

“This guy,” a stab with the marker over the first man’s face. Ignoring you. “Gets stuck training us. I’m pretty sure he was being conditioned because honestly he seemed fine with it all. They did always have music playing in the labs and stuff.”

“Logan, wait, hang on—“ I’m trying to understand, and you push your way in front of her. “How did you know all this?” Where did you find all of this? You want to ask. Was it just laying about? Right in front of you this whole time, it seemed, and you want to kick yourself. 

She looks at you, and you realise just how carefully she was holding it together. Fragmented, like one false move and she would shatter. “Logan?” 

“Let me finish?”

The minute draws out as you stare. You want to hold her. Like an ache, deep in you, to just want—what? Fix things? Move forward? Look back? No, none of that, you know, batting away those thoughts. You just want to hold her, be there for her. That this didn’t change anything.

“Alright.”

But you step aside. Close, and she breathes a little slower, sticking up another photo as she went. Words not as rushed, as she explains. Lines are drawn, arrows pointing in. Circle, around her face, that woman’s face. It doesn’t change anything, you know.

[runningwolf62]

SURPRISE IT’S UPDATE TIME! It’s so bizarre being writing this at the same time Larry is because there’s like this weird overlap, we’re like ships passing in the night he’s finally caught up to my time and now is about to pass me.

Anyway, there’s some lovely art in here and a reference to a blog that actually exists, @ask-potoo-firestar. Art belongs to @lavendersongs, thank you for your amazing contribution to the Warrior Cats fandom and for giving me permission to include references to it in this fanfic.

Beep.

Larry curls up deeper under his blankets.

Beep.

He covers his head with his pillow.

Beep.

Fine, he’ll crawl out of his nest and see what had happened, maybe Nick was in trouble again, that Godot guy seemed to have a grudge against him for something.

u ok?

Only Nick texts like that.

haven’t seen u in few days

u alive?

Larry almost fires something back before thinking better of it, Nick had far too many people around him die to joke about that.

Yeah I’m fine, and you usually don’t see me for awhile.

yeah but u had a rough time

Larry hesitates before deciding to just call Nick. The phone rings a few times before Nick answers.

“Hey Larry,” he greets him, Larry can hear voices in the background, he thinks one is Maya, the other is young and high so probably Pearl.

“Hey Nick,” Larry runs a hand over his jaw, aw gross he’d ended up with that scraggly beard, he never looked good with that, he needed to go shave, “you in a crisis?”

“No?” Nick has the gall to sound offended, “I do not only call you during crisises!”

“Mmm might wanna check you phone bill there Nicky Boy,” Larry teases him, his voice is rough, he should haul himself out of bed and start putting himself back together.

“You want to talk about having a crisis you sound like you’ve been on a bender,” Nick fires back, Larry frowned and groused at him.

“Don’t be an ass Nick, I’ve been taking a week off, chilling and relaxing before I remake myself! You called while I’m still in the cocoon man!”

“That metaphor started strong but you took it somewhere very weird,” Nick replies, Larry laughs roughly.

“Alright, alright, you’re the one who texted me,” Larry points out, wrapping his blanket around him like a cloak to hide his shame from the world and stay warm from the chillier October day. He crossed to his laptop to open his resume, he’d need to update it and he might as well do that while chatting with Nick rather than sit around feeling shitty about it.

He chats with Nick, and Maya and Pearl when they demand a chance to chat with him. He interrogate Nick, or tries, but he doesn’t know what’s up with Godot either, other than he’s got one hell of a caffeine addiction, came out of nowhere and claims to be from hell.

Given half the stories Larry’s heard about Nick’s cases he’s tempted to believe it.

“Maybe you ought to have an exorcism performed,” he teases, he’s on speaker phone now and he’s sure they can hear him typing away as he adds his latest job to the long master list of jobs he’s held, “Maya, Pearl, can you do that?”

“I’d have to exorcise the entire Prosocution’s office!” Maya bemoans, Larry grins as she outlines everything she’d need to do to Nick.

“Maybe you should, it sounds like it has a few too many demons over there even before this guy,” Larry muses, saving his resume and opening Fanfiction.net. His stomach drops and his jokes trail off. There’s several messages from XxWolfDragonxX. Shit, he’d just dropped off the map after talking to the guy daily.

He immediately types a response, assuring the guy some stuff just came up, he got fired from work, etc. but he’s doing alright. He misses a question Nick asked him until he repeats his name.

“Larry.”

“Sorry, what?” He tosses the message to WolfDragon off, his friend is probably off work it’s well after six for him.

“I asked what were you typing?”

Larry glances at his messages and then at his minimized programs. “My resume.”

He refreshed FF.net and got a message from WolfDragon.

Man it’s fine, life happens! It’s just good to hear from you again. I’m sorry for all the shit that keeps happening to you.

Again I’m so sorry, and yeah, it’s just been that kind of year.

Do you have a discord? I have something to show you but I don’t think ff.net will send it.

Oh? Uh yeah actually, one second let me find my ID number.

It takes him longer than he should be tosses the information to Wolfdragon. After a moment he gets a friend request on Discord, from a XxWolfDrgonxX surprising absolutely no one. The avatar is a gray anime wolf with yellow eyes snarling, which also doesn’t surprise Larry though he wonders where it’s from.

However he’s still on the phone with Nick, so he accepts it and turns away from the computer, “so what are you all up to asides from calling me?” He hears Pearl giggle and Maya’s voice in the background, they’re moving away, “how are they Nick?”

“They’re good,” Nick sounds happy and Larry can’t help but hurt even as he’s happy for him.

“We’re probably going to do a few things today before they have to head back,” Nick’s chair creaks audibly, “do you have plans for Halloween?”

“Uh, not really?”

“Do you want to come over to the office and hand out candy with me?”

“People come to your office for candy?”

“Surprisingly yes,” Nick sounds equally baffled by this fact, “so, are you in?”

“Do you want me to bring anything?” Larry asks, glancing at his Discord occasionally, where he can see WolfDragon typing. “Beer, Soda, popcorn and terrible horror movies?”

“Popcorn and let’s go with lighthearted movies,” Nick suggests, and Larry wonders if Pearl will be there. He’ll bring soda then, just in case. That or Nick’s gotten to be more of a scaredy-cat since their last Halloween movie festival.

“Have you seen that one cartoon thing that everyone raves about?” Larry’s seen so much art for it for Inktober so he needs to actually sit down and watch the show obviously is what that means.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Okay, I’ll find it, it’s some kids show but everyone who’s seen it loved it,” Larry sends a quick message to WolfDragon while Nick talks.

You sure are dedicated to your brand.

It’s who I am

Furry.

WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS THAT?!?

That’s Potoo Firestar you fool

I want to hate it but I’m laughing too hard, it’s amazing.

“Larry are you okay?” Nick asks, and Larry can’t answer, he’s wheezing at the damn Potoo Firestar, he cannot believe WolfDragon got his discord just to send him this, and that it’s somehow made him feel so much better.

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” he wheezes, and clicks the link that WolfDragon sends him to this person’s blog, “just saw something funny.”

He hops off the phone with Nick promising to see him on Halloween and bring candy and popcorn and the cartoon he’s seen everyone drawing if he could just remember the name.

He spends the next hour teasing WolfDragon on Discord for his avatar and username, all the while scrolling through this blog, which WolfDragon has dubbed “the only pure Warrior Cats blog”.

It doesn’t take long for him to agree though he does have a few questions.

So I miss all the discourse but I also miss blogs like this?

Listen man, some people are still stuck in the can cats be gay discourse?

Seriously?

Yeah, like sure the Erins just made a mistake making some tortoiseshell cats toms. OR they made several trans icons.

I can’t believe Tigerstar was transphobic.

Firestar made the first call out post

“OP is literally a Transphobe and murderer but go off I guess.”

Scourge: *goes the fuck off *

Listen, he wear dog teeth on his collar he can do what he likes, I’m not gonna be the guy to try and stop him.

Oh you do know they made Scourge and Firestar half-brothers right?

THEY WHAT

Yeah they have the same Dad

Oh shit I’d heard that theory but I thought it was just a fan theory

Nah they confirmed it. Also Tallstar was super gay for him

Like canonly gay or the fandom has shipping goggles glued on

Like so canonly gay that the publisher calls them good friends

What?

One of the authors says Tallstar’s heart always belonged to his Jake, but the publishers say they’re just good friends

What’s better than this, guys being dudes.

You’d probably like Tallstar’s Revenge actually, there’s a lot of your fic in it

Seriously?

Yeah man, like leaving the Clans to discover yourself the themes of forgiveness and parents and family there’s a lot of good stuff in there

I guess I’ll have to read it then.

Yeah, that blog I linked you even did fanart of Jake and Tallstar

Oh my god.

Did you find it?

Not yet, but I’m looking.

FOUND IT!

THAT’S IT

Okay that is gay.

Much like my fic.

Now I gotta man.

He did just lose his job but Larry’s got some money saved from his last paycheck and the commissions. What the hell. He makes a note to buy Tallstar’s Revenge next time he’s at the book store, and gets up.

Thanks for this.

Of course!

Is this the best way to contact you, or should I howl out the window?

Haha

FF.net or Discord works I’ll probably review your fics on FF.net still but we can chat here

Larry grins and tells him he hopes he has a good evening. He needs to clean himself up and try and rejoin society.

He showers, shaves, and pulls himself together. He also draws Wolf as a Potoo and sends that back to WolfDragon which is obviously loved, if the fact he turns his avatar into it was any indication.

-

Larry spends Halloween crashing on Nick’s couch, Maya and Nick fighting over candy while he snags some and occasionally slips a piece or two to Pearl. The kid’s clever and smiles shyly at him every time he does so.

They do settle down to watch the cartoon though Maya grumbles at points about how she wanted to watch the Steel Samurai Halloween Special.

They enjoy Over the Garden Wall though, even if it sends the girls diving to hide behind Nick at one point from the Beast. He lets Nick comfort, while he cleans up some of the trash into the popcorn bowl which he sets to the side, making sure it will not be grabbed by mistake by someone hurrying to give candy to trick-or-treaters.

He’s honestly astonished at the number that turn up at the office, until Nick says he thinks Mia used to hand the candy out, which makes sense. It’s tradition now. And Nick must’ve gotten paid because he’s got the good candy and he’s letting kids take handfuls.

He doesn’t touch that stuff only the bag Nick bought for them to share and the stuff he traded Pearl for because she didn’t like nuts in her candy. Said they got stuck in her teeth which Larry felt was a valid reason to not like them.

He tells himself that means they have protein as he pops a handful in his mouth. While Nick’s busy with some teens at the door and Maya’s tucking Pearl in on the couch he sends a message to WolfDragon.

Happy Halloween.

Technically it’s November, and I didn’t grow up in America

Spoilsport.

WHY ARE YOU AWAKE?

Work

Work can suck my dick, it’s what- oh

It’s six in the morning

You’re going to work

Yup

Listen, I don’t need your sass

It’s not sass I just woke up Writer boy

Don’t you sass Wolfman

Tell me you at least watched terrible werewolf movies in my honor

I did not.

Watched kids cartoons instead.

Warrior Cats Authors

There was an actual child in the room!

Ah what’s being introduced to fear at a young age?

Trauma I believe, and the kid’s had enough of that

You’re a good guy you know that, don’t let people tell you otherwise

“Texting a girlfriend?” Maya’s teasing voice made him jump, she wasn’t peering over his shoulder yet but she might’ve been. She might’ve seen the teasing and… no, she was looking at his face.

“Nah, just a friend,” he shoves his phone back into his pocket, she and Nick are both staring at him intensely now, he’s not sure why but they are.

He swears he sees Nick counting to three but he’s not sure why that happens either. He and Maya share a look, and Larry feels himself tense more.

He looks to Nick, whose eyes pierce him as he looks at Larry, “I thought you said you were taking a break from dating.”

“I am!” Larry insists, careful to keep his voice low, glancing to Pearl because however much they want to interrogate him he knows they’ll kill him if he wakes her.

Nick and Maya look confused again but it’s not his fault they can’t accept that he’s just friends with some people. He’s not even into guys anyway!

He shakes his head and grins at them, “glad to hear you think I have that much game though Nick.”

Maya smothers a laugh, while the edge flows out of Nick’s eyes and a smile takes its place, “you keep getting girls to date you somehow.”

“It’s that I have an artist’s soul,” Larry pulls himself up and rests his hand over his chest, grinning at the two of them.

“I went to art school too you know,” Nick points out, relaxing and smiling.

“And who taught you all those tricks for backgrounds?” Larry fires back, he’s always been the better artist for backgrounds and forms, Nick just had more practice with human anatomy. Nick huffs and shakes his head.

“I showed you how to draw men’s jawlines, ‘cause you only paid attention when the model was female-”

“Nick I’ve accepted my heterosexuality and horndog ways will be my downfall,” he fires back which obviously takes his friend by surprise, Maya too, “hey, I can have some self-awareness you know.” He glances over at Maya, “Nick, Edgey and I are allowed the common sense of one person but we have to share and Edgey came back and took it all from Nick.”

“Excuse me?” Nick looks so genuinely offended and Larry laughs, shoulders shaking.

“You took some back, TSA wouldn’t let him take it all with him.”

Maya’s grinning and apparently not taking sides as he and Nick begin to playfully jab at each other about who has more common sense, and it’s nice to be able to talk about Edgey again without Nick’s anger, to have him laugh as he talks and recounts stories from elementary school to Maya is worth the few bits of his dirty laundry that Nick airs.

They end up on the other couch, Maya curled up on Nick’s one side, Larry on the other; with jackets draped over themselves as make shift blankets.

“Larry?”

“Yeah Nick?”

“Who were you texting earlier,” Nick’s not judgmental now but he is obviously curious, maybe hoping that in his exhaustion Larry will let something slip.

And he does.

“He’s a guy I met online, we talk about like books and stuff. You wouldn’t understand, you nerdy lawyer.”

Nick laughs softly as Larry slumps against him, “that so?”

“It is,” Larry lays his head back against Nick’s shoulder, “very so.”

-

They wake up in various states of aching and trying to hide it, all of them trying to deny they’re getting old while Pearl buzzes around the office. Larry wonders briefly if she’s gotten into the Halloween candy for breakfast.

He checks his phone and there’s a few messages from WolfDragon.

You still there?

Don’t eat too much candy, aren’t you doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Larry only barely manages not to curse in front of Pearl as he realizes that he’s going to have to write his first 1667 words with one hell of a crick in his neck.

[westhoprocklu1984-blog]

An example: if an L cone is excited 80%, and an M cone is excited 20%, the two signals are compared. We assign a negative sign to the L cone, and a positive one to the M cone..8 +.2 is.6, so that color circuit will register as a.6, or 60% redness.. Sweat damage on a vive is like drop damage on a smartphone it happens, a lot, and through user error, not design flaws. Maybe less than ideal design, but not flaws. This girl did a generic snowflake look using blue as her base colour to look like it's cold. I see her bringing attention to things that I don't see a lot of white girls doing. Could she be doing more? Yes. Could I be 완주출장안마 doing more? Yup. And yep! I use the Neutrogena all over my face. It says it for dry skin but it not heavy at all. I like it better than the one for normal/oily skin that one has a fragrance that I find really unpleasant and it didn lock in hydration as well as the one for dry skin. All the buildings are being ripped apart from the winds and the last place to stay and get a meal just shut down a few months ago. You can find plenty of Youtube videos out there of the island and what it looks like now. My favorite is seeing all the government papers strewn about. So, khipu research has made slow progress in the past century. Since the early 1990s, a Harvard anthropologist named Gary Urton has been working 완주출장안마 to decipher what, if anything, the khipus that don't fit the normal mold of accounting devices might mean, collecting a database of over 900 khipu in the process. Urton has discovered that, beyond the position and height of the knots, there are other factors to take into consideration when reading a khipu: the color of the string, the direction the knots are twisted, the type of knots used. Some advice, calm tf down and try not to let 93 cents make you so upset that you dont tip your server well, complain to a manager, and then go and rant to online strangers. OVER 93 CENTS. You are WAYYYYY too worked up over literally less than a dollar. And cramping. And strapped to a metal table with pumps sticking out of my spine that I could see on the x ray screen. And they had to keep inverting the table because my spine wouldn't give enough fluid. Season 1, often seen as fairly weak, does a great job of introducing and developing the characters. Note how much you learn about them and how their actions in season 1 can be felt through the rest of the show. Watch Buffy really decide to BE the Slayer, and you see her grow into a powerful leader over the course of the series.. We have an optional Discord. While it optional, I would recommend joining because it's really hard to communicate on the bulletin board. Our Discord isn too busy, but we do make sure to announce co op starting, redeem codes, etc. /u//VintageContemporary get in here you big old genius. Political and electoral processes through fraud and deceit" apply with equal force to David Brock's corrupt Shareblue troll farmoh damn that quite a claim. Lets look at the evidence that our PhD Redditor has for this claim.In February 2017, Zerohedge published an article that identified Shareblue as a "front group being used by a number of Chinese, Middle Eastern, British, Israeli, Mexican and American special interests to spread anti Trump and anti democratic rhetoric both during the presidential election as well as in its aftermath."Okay so in order to find the truth(!) we need to go deeper Morty.

[an-obligatory-blog]

I’ve known this for quite some time, but I’m just going to post this now since even now, it’s still a very confusing part of P5.

Regarding to the ending split...

... it has plot holes, but it isn’t as major as I initially thought it was.

It was a complex plan, no doubt, and certainly, there had to have been a better way to explain it (ATLUUUUUS). After all, for a good amount of time, I thought the thing is riddled with nonsense, but after being explained by a certain someone on discord and some more thought, some questions has been answered. Oh, and reading Futaba’s dialogue before you go to sleep-- I don’t see many videos of that on it’s own so I suppose that’s part of the reason why it’s confusing.

These a few plot holes that I thought (or others) existed, but didn’t:

- How Akechi got out of the Metaverse (do you remember how you leave the Metaverse?) - How Akechi contacted Shido (u thought he was was underground/in the metaverse? apparently he wasn’t necessarily) - The Metaverse app being activated without alerting Goro (you can use the app without audio input via the search history function (see: the second time Akira and Ryuji entered Kamoshida’s Palace)) - Goro not getting into his rebel outfit after entering the Metaverse (When asked, you can sell out your teammates and/or you confidants, but NOT Akechi. At that moment, Sae didn’t know that Akechi intends to shoot Akira until Akechi had already left the Metaverse. During the duration of the attempted hit, there was no reason for Sae to see Akechi as a threat, either a hitman or a thief)  - How tf Futaba can get a signal from Akechi’s phone (since it had a GPS) and Akira’s phone (GPS and voice messaging) when both Akechi and Sae were supposedly 8 floors underground (They weren’t necessarily. Sae met Akechi w/ the phone right after leaving an elevator. The voice messaging was pre-programmed into Akira’s phone so that it could work in the Metaverse; Futaba OP, pls nerf) 

What wasn’t explained regardless:

- The mess that is Justice Rank 8 (someone told me that it might be a developer’s joke since Morgana commented how it didn’t make sense nor would it make sense for either Morgana or Akira to , which would be shitty cuz that is literally the definition of lazy writing: “Idk what to put here so let him rank up cuz lul”) - How exactly did Sae convince the police that there was a body in the first place? I get forging the death certificate (which should be enough to fool Shido since his ass isn’t getting out of his office chair), but what about everyone else? That doesn’t sound like a feat that could be done by one person. Maybe the grunts anticipated Akira’s death too quickly and assumed that it happened when Sae reported? Eh, even for P5, that relies way too much on incompetence. How Sae managed to 1) drag Akira out without being caught 2) fool the police in regard of a dead body and 3) get away with it all for so long is the worst plot hole you could pull out of this whole plot segment. - SEE EDIT BELOW

Asterisks (*) are used to mark questionable parts that I realized after what Atlus was really trying to do. 

I found Futaba’s extra dialogue during NicoB’s Let’s Play of Persona 5. It’s around the last 10 min of the episode linked below. Couldn’t find a better video, but this is where I found out, so it’ll work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi6wLyeuqws&list=PL5bkYBlFL9xcNUVU5-EcBxdaVVAZM2zX1&index=62

Look at the moment when Akechi and Sae meet. When Sae showed him the phone, Futaba explained later that she bugged the phone (the one belonging to Akira) similarly like with Akechi’s phone. Through that, she remotely activated the Metaverse app to transport the two into the Metaverse. (remember the search history function that was used for Akira’s and Ryuji’s second visit to Kamoshida’s palace? That’s the function that Futaba remotely activated. She didn’t tamper with the magical app itself.)*

So Sae and Akechi are in and they went in opposite directions. Akechi goes in, kills the cognitive guard and cognitive Akira.** Now, here’s where one of the so-called ‘major plothole’ existed. How did Akechi get out? First, let me ask you this, how do leave the Metaverse in the first place? I thought that you just press the app to leave, but apparently, that’s wrong. You have to physically go back the way you came, and that’s why you always have to return to the Palace’s entrance to leave the Palace. This is what Atlus failed to do-- what leaving the Metaverse actually looks like. We saw Akechi’s pictures of the PT appearing/disappearing out of thin air back at Okumura’s palace, but we didn’t see how it really looks like without the red/black circles washing over the screen every time we do it. Apparently, leaving the Metaverse doesn’t involve pressing the app at all-- just going back the way they came. Remember where Sae showed Akechi the phone? That is where they entered, and hence, where they exit. When Akechi was done with his assassination attempt, he goes down the hall, up the elevator (yeah, the guard couldn’t have seen Sae and Akechi conversing, they were on a different floor), and back to where the app was first activated. Once Akechi crossed that point, that’s when he left the Metaverse.

This is when Akechi calls Shido. You see how he calls Shido right in front of an elevator? Yeah, he probably wasn’t 8 floors underground at that point. 

Now, I’m assume you know the general story with Sae, but I’m going to clear this up anyways. Sae received the pre-programmed messages from Akira’s phone, and she followed their instructions to go back to the interrogation room. Once again, she crossed the same point where the app was first activated, thus causing her to exit the Metaverse. She goes down the elevator and towards the room. The GPS installed in Akechi’s phone helped Futaba to time Sae’s entrance because it would be awkward if Sae encountered Akechi mid-assassination. (Futaba would know when Akechi is out of the Metaverse and out of the police station; nothing contradictory of getting a signal by then)

*The problem with this is... even if you use the search history function, the phone still plays it’s voice protocols like normal (”...Beginning navigation” You know the drill.). I don’t recall this ever being mentioned by any of the characters, but you can easily explain this away with “the phone was on silent”. **The cognitions should’ve disappeared similarly like Shadows when they were killed. You can pull any number of BS by using “well maybe Sae’s cognition is different because hurr durr”, but it was never mentioned by the PT to even consider the rate in which cognition disintegrate into nothing nor was there any measures to accommodate for that. This instance is plot convenience at it’s finest.

Now for the sake of clarification, this doesn’t mean that Atlus is suddenly flawless in regards of how they handled this aspect of the story. Aside from what I’ve already stated above, this stuff could’ve been handled better. The search history function was only mentioned offhandedly in the the very, very beginning of Kamoshida’s Palace (before even Shiho attempted suicide) by Ryuji so there is almost no way anyone would remember without looking back. The anime cutscene where Ryuji was smirking “we got ‘em” when he heard about the supposed suicide of the PT leader made no sense. (How would he know that the plan even succeeded???? I know he was being like, “well I toOOOTALLY knew that we were going to succeed” but goddamn, but that sounds like he was acting tough more than anything. That kind of blind confidence shouldn’t be present, even for a character like Ryuji.)

You know what would really help? Seeing a few frames of the inside of the elevator as it goes up and down. Despite hanging out in the background, I barely even noticed it before someone else pointed it out.

A good part of the fandom was impressed by the plan and yes, I do think it’s a clever trick for Atlus to pull on us. However, the more complicated the plan is, the more effort one should put in explaining said plan because, you know, it would be harder for the player to understand. I don’t mean treating the audience like idiots and I understand the concern of dragging the explanation scene out, but man, Atlus was totally off their game when it came to hinting/foreshadowing. Instead of doing off-hand comments about seemingly arbitrary, but relevant aspects of the plan (ex. Futaba’s bug on Akira’s phone, the search history function, etc.) that you can probably catch by your second or third run of the game, Atlus favored getting hung up on whether or not they wanted the traitor to be obvious or not because they seemed to be pretty damn bipolar regarding to that.

I do give them credit for making some information optional (discoverable by talking to Futaba). It makes the scene less draggy and allows people who don’t give two shits to skip the parts they don’t care. I don’t watch many let’s players on the same game, so I can’t conclude if many people actually went out of their way to talk to Futaba and process her words.

And one last note, I don’t think Persona 5 is a bad games by any standard, but I do believe that the writing is the weakest aspect of the game. Style and gameplay seems more polished than the actual story aspects.

I hope this helped for any of you guys out there. Feel free to let me know if you.see any mistakes/seek clarification. It’s 9:30 PM for me, so I hope I didn’t mess up too badly explaining this.

EDIT: It came to me that if the method of leaving the Metaverse is truly just by going back where they came, it raises issues in Shido’s Palace, where the place they started was on the front deck, which, as you guys know, was sinking into the depths by the end. Basically, there’s no winning with P5 plotholes-- no matter how you look at it, there’s an issue.

[mysticdragon3md3]

Reactions to Demon Slayer KNY ep15-26

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5:07 PM 10/8/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep15

I haven't quite decided to drop this series.  And if I watch Haikyuu instead, I'll want to write reactions and read subtitles instead of eat.  So KNY is best for my multitasking.  

5:33 PM 10/8/2020 A much better episode.  

I didn't write notes during because I was eating away from my keyboard.  

Really surprised there wasn't a scene of Zenitsu being told that Nezuko is Tanjiro's sister.  I would have liked to have seen Zenitsu come to the conclusion to be nice to Tanjiro in order to get close to Nezuko.  Such a drastic switch is funny.  And yeah, he *began* this episode with that drastic switch, but didn't it need an explaination?  I mean, I've watched enough anime tropes to know about "getting the older siblings' blessing to date the younger sibling" cliche.  But shouldn't they have explained it?  Or at least explained how Zenitsu is ok with Nezuko being a demon?  I know he's a hardcore girl-chaser, but he's also been mostly established as a coward, especially when it comes to demons.  So shouldn't there have at least been conflict between those 2 sies of himself?  At the least, seeing that play out would have been interesting.  

Felt kind of sorry for Zenitsu when he thought about wanting encouragement.  that's relatable.  But leaving him was the practical thing to do.  And anyway, even if he wanted encouragement, he should be honest with himself about not actually wanting to go into a forest of demons and be glad he got what he actually wanted.  

I'm going to say it.  Inuyasha's Yura of the Hair, Get Backers' Kazuki Fuuchouin, Claymore's Winged Anastasia.  So many of the ways the spider webs threads were used in this episode, other anime have done before.  Seeming like they're floating by standing on threads, puppeting corpses, controlling living people, etc.  I should research spider yokai and see if they originated these specific techniques.  

Oh, and Inosuke has an "animal spacial awareness" power too?  They say "technique", but c'mon, it's a power.  I don't know why I found it so much more acceptable in Naruto, but it just seems too much like a deus ex machina in KNY.  Maybe because Naruto had a lot of screentime to show training in techniques and normalizing that anyone can learn these "powers".  Whereas, KNY had a LOT of time lapse for the actual training montage episodes, and now these "powers" are coming out of seemingly nowhere.  

Ukogi is the sparrow, huh?  

. . .

4:29 PM 10/10/2020 Demon Slayer Kimentsu no Yaiba ep16

WEll, tangling the threads is a good idea, but does that mean the spider demon has kept her threads untangled all the way from her fingertips, through the trees, bushes, and entire forest, WITHOUT getting them tangled?  I mean, is folding over a branch really considered "tangling"?  I thought thread technique characters could manipulate their threads more---at least in other series.  

I was wondering why they stopped attacking just because she snapped their necks, when half the people she was controlling were already corpses, but then I remembered she gave up on their usefulness.  

Really disturbing to see the mother spider so obviously terrified, about to be abused by her husband, while her own children are laughing at her.  

"If I die, I'll be released".  At least someone gets it.  

It's interesting how a lot of the demons have a quick flashback to their human memories right before they die.  I hope that pays off well in the overall story later.  

Tanjiro is sure taking his name misspoken by Inosuke during the previews, pretty well.  That's so refreshing, after so many series where a character completely freaks out then holds a grudge over their name being misremembered by someone that just met them.  I'm so tired of that trope.  It's so nice to see Tanjiro just patiently encouraging Inosuke to try again.  ;u;  Tanjiro continues to be so nice!  ;u;;  He and Nezuko really keep me sticking to this series.

. . .

4:59 PM 10/12/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep17

But if Zenitsu passes out in 15min, then won't he just go unconsciously OP and kill the demon?

So his hair is yellow from lightning?  ok......?  

I have anxiety, depression, and suicidally low self esteem, so I can relate to Zenitsu, but WATCHING scene, after long scene, of a character who does nothing but scream and chase girls is not enjoyable.  I feel bad, constantly wondering why I keep hearing he's a fan-favorite character.  

Isn't saying that the time Gramps spends training Zenitsu is "wasted", the same as saying Gramps is a bad teacher?  Does this guy *really* respect Gramps as a former Hashira?  Sounds pretty disrespectful to me.

Well, it's nice to see the malicious child---enough to laugh at his own mom while she's getitng spousal abuse---get beaten by someone like Zenitsu.  

So is Zenitsu actually a little conscious?  Or is he dreaming?  

I'm sorry I forgot the bird's real name.  Chuntaro will have to do for now.  Chuntaro's crying face was super cute.  

It really hurts to see people picking on Zenitsu, when my anxiety/depression really forces me to identify with him.  And then the moral in the end is "everything is still worthwhile if you just don't give up"?  Sorry.  Not buying it.  If you're suicidal, you've already got the idea that death is an escape from suffering.  So the idea of working hard to survive, just to endure more suffering from your so-called "friends" and appreciating abuse from your "family" just because their abuse is proof of "not abandoning you", really irks me.  

Hang on a second...  This demon isn't overtly hostile.  What?  

Wait.  So this demon will abuse his wife but protect his daughter?  The hell?  And how he's spouting about protecting hsi family?  That's messed up.   . . .

2:44 PM 10/13/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep18

I don't understand.  Every other anime has translated "nisemono" as "fake".  Why is this series/episode translating it as "forged"?  Would it make sense to use "fake"?  There has to be something later in the story where "forged" makes more sense then using "fake".  I hope it comes soon, because it his really perplexing to me.  Right now, the emotional stakes of the fight don't mean anything without referring to a "fake bond".  

I guess the flashbacks aren't just for demosn right before they die.  

Wow.  These nichirin swords are breaking left and right in this episode.  

. . .

10:34 PM 10/14/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep19

By god.  Someone figured out how to get Inosuke to take the time to heal his wounds in the midle of a battleground.  lol  Not bad.  lol  ^o^  

Wow.  All this time I had been hoping Nezuko would help out in this fight since it seemed so many odds were stacked against Tanjiro.  Then shen it actually happens, I had forgotten about it, then WHAM.  Genuine surprise.  ^_^  It's like how I never see Tokugawa protecting Ishida, no matter how many times i see that movie.  lol  

I'm sorry, but the talks between Tanjiro about fundamental philosophies is just too good!  ^o^  Nezuko has a will of her own...Fear is not a family bond...You need to fix that fundamental understanding...  It really helps to hear characters resolute in their belief that Nezuko has her own thoughts, to counteract all the ways this series keeps reducing her:  she can't speak, the hypnosis makes her protect humans vs she herself deciding to have a fervent wish/desire to protect humans, etc.  Need more of this.  Good job.  

Is the blade being held by threads?  It looks like it's not even touching Rui's neck. o.o?

That was good setup for these flashbacks when a character thinks they're going to die.  I liked that the Hashira saving Zenitsu explained that specifically, on top of the series repeatedly showing it with demons and other characters through now.  

This series really likes coming up with secret special techniques out of no where.  lol  I wonder why I put up with it so much with other Shonen anime?  Did they have better setup?  But even though it stands out a bit in KNY, I still roll with it because I love these protagonists and the animation is just SO DAMN GOOD.  

Ooh!  Nezuko doing a Demon Blood Art!  *o*!  Yes!  Agency for Nezuko!  ^o^

Wow.  Haven't seen anyone fight this much with a broken sword since Utena.  ^o^  

. . .

8:09 PM 11/4/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep20

That was a good ep.  

Maybe as long as the characters are cool instead of really pushing for being the comedic characters, then I have absolutely no problems with this series.  

I love how creepy Kouchou is with her friendliness and how sincere her offers probably are.

I already forgot wisteria is poisonous to these demons.  lol  

. . .

5:33 AM 11/6/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep21

Well, this is unusual.  They're showing the ghosts conversing with the oni after they die.  Usually it's jut the flashback, some last reaction to the memory, then the oni dies.  

Once again, I like how empathic Tanijro is.  I forgot that he can literally smell grief.  

Tomioka only *just now* recognized Tanjiro and Nezuko?  lol  

So Tomioka often acts contradictory to what he says?  He's a tsundere?  

Is this going to be the comedy duo for the episode?  Better than Inosuke and Zenitsu.  

I was wondering why Tomioka wasn't explaining earlier that Nezuko

"Kakushi".  Doesn't that mean "spirited away"?  Or maybe just "away"?  

. . .

7:22 AM 11/9/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep22

In other words, they would have been IN SO MUCH TROUBLE if they went ahead and executed him.  lol  

"The fact is that Nezuko has refraine dform devouring humans for more than 2 years, and also that there are 3 people risking their lives for her.  To reject this notion, those who reject it must offer an even more convincing argument."  That's a really good argument.  

Other Hashira have never crossed paths with Kibutsuji before???

By those scares it loosk like Sanemi cuts himself a lot.  

I think she's more angry that he attacked her and Tanjiro though.  More than holding back hunger.  

Aaaaaaaaaand that's end of episode.  

This episode's direction has had SO MUCH "be awed" moments.  The music, the pauses, the slower pace of some reveals, etc.  They really want us to be awed by the Hashira and everything going on.  Sorry, but the ending theme animation sequence and the continuation of this series already proves that everything will end up ok.  But even if I didn't already know a few spoilers, I'm so tired of the whole "be awed" direction.  

All these Hashira are such exaggerated characters, I can feel how much this series is intended for younger audiences.  Suddenly, I'm more able to accept that article mentioning that kindergardeners watch KNY.  (https://soranews24.com/2020/09/07/japanese-schoolgirl-struggles-to-comprehend-the-shocking-truth-that-her-mom-is-kamen-rider/)

. . .

12:30 PM 11/16/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep23

I' expect Nezuko to be more angry about the Hashira beating up Tanjiro, more than any temptation by the blood.  

omg Nezuko is speaking.  

I still think it's more dramatically impactful for Nezuko to solely make the decision herself to not eat humans, vs because of Urokodaki's hypnosis.  

Oh yeah, she's the medical person.  It makes sense for Tanjiro and Nezuko to stay at her house, at least for treatment.  

omg  He still wants to do that right now???  You can get back at the wind Hashira later.  lol  

Tamayo is teh oni doctor, right?  It seems like the Master has a physiological connection to demons, after all.  

Yes, please stop shouting.  I can tell the seiyuu is having a lot of fun, but omg...I don't think I want to see a return of their form of humor.

omg  He's awake.  I thought being asleep would be the only way Inosuke would be so still.  

I feel like the constantly crying Hashira is like a parody of all the Empathy I've been repeatedly praising Tanjiro for.  lol  

1:01 PM 11/16/2020

. . .

6:29 PM 11/20/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep24.   Watched during dinner.  Didn't write reactions.

. . .

9:36 PM 11/21/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep25

9:44 PM 11/21/2020 I can't watch this episode anymore.  After all those stupid commercials, realizing how spoiled I've been by YouTube's skip ad option, my whole body still being sore from day 2 of returning to my pushups/ballet exercises routine,...  Everything is just too annoying.  

This girl training Tanjiro during his rehabiliation is annoying.  Whether she's supposed to act as "teacher" for the training or "medical authority" in thier rehabilitation, it should be her responsibility to get Zenitsu and Inosuke back to rehab training.  Even if it wasn't, I hate this implication that this show is framing this situation as Tanjiro's responsibility!  It's not his responsibility!  His responsibility is to get himself healed!  This girl has no right to seemingly direct her anger at him for failing to get Zenitsu and Inosuke back to rehab training!  And even if she wasn't blaming him, the direction is certainly portraying that implication!!!  Adn Tanjiro is _reapeatedly_ trying to get them back to rehab training, so we have to watch this girl _repeatedly_ seem to blame him for their failures!  This whole thing is stupid.  

And then on top of that, the story is starting to move back towards Zenitsu and Inosuke's perspective, likely to finally reveal why they've been skipping out on rehab training.  But all I can remember is how much worse this series got when they showed up.  How much every scene with them went too long and too annoying.  How I don't want to watch them.  And how much better the series got again when they faded back into the background.  I'm sorry to their fans, but my brother was right (about Zenitsu):  Zenitsu and Inosuke are annoying.  I don't think I like them.  

Previous episode was good though.  All about Tanjiro and Kochou.  

. . .

12:24 PM 11/22/2020 The other day, maybe 2 days ago, I was watching the Kimetsu no Yaiba ep where Tanjiro was struggling to do his full concentration breathing 24hrs a day, and I heard it again: The theme of diligent everyday work.  I'm listening to the One Punch Man opening theme, and that series was very much about that.  Did HeroAca also have that theme?  I doubt it, with all the superpowers.  Then again, it may not have stated it explicitly like KNY or OPM, but it probably *portrayed* it better than them.  

. . .

1:52 PM 12/2/2020   Kimetsu no Yaiba ep25.   2nd try, after Crunchyroll crashed.  

1:56 PM 12/2/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep25

Unfortunately saw note from last time I tried to watch this ep and found it very annoying so I didn't finish it last time.  Maybe now's not a good time to watch an annoying show, while Nanay is giving off ominous vibes.  But I'm so close to finishing off this series/season.  

Ugh.  Oh yeah.  Tsundere.  That's part of why I gave up on this ep last time.  

Again, with the "work hard" theme.  If they're going to go with the "hard work solves everything" theme, that's been going around with series like One Punch Man, then at least be encouraging about it, sparrow.  I'm sorry, but I'm already from the generation/society that has lived with that "hard work ethic solves everything" being told all our lives, but by now has been proven a lie.  People work hard and work hard and the oppressions keeping them back aren't recognized.  Then "just work harder" gets used as a fuckin EXCUSE to ignore those oppressions and blame everyone's positions SOLELY on their individual motivations/ambitions.  I mean, *I'm* lazy and hopeless as all hell---I am Gen X, we're supposed to be nihilistic, after all---but I'm coasting!  Hard work does not deterine everything!  And there have been so many journalism pieces revealing the myth of the "hard work solution" just being used as an excuse to ignore problems and not help people, forgive me if seeing that theme being advocated just makes me cynacle as all hell.  

At least Kocho knows how to encourage people.  

If Shinobu is so angry that Kanao can't think for herself THEN JUST TEACH HER GODDAMNIT.  She's a little kid!  That's what you do with little kids!  omg Why does she bother staying angry after her big sister solved the problem right in front of her.  See?  This is what is so tiring about sticking to comedic cliches (in this case, the prolonged flustered angry ranting), instead of just allowing the writing to follow the logic of the characters.  Like PopCultureDetective advocated, you don't have to follow a genre's cliches, simply for homage, if those cliches just perpetuate negative things.  In this case, annoying nusance behavior for the purposes of obsolete ideas about comedy.  ..then again, this series has already proven that the manga-ka has warped ideas about prolonging annoying behavior as equating "comedy".  

Haganezuka is probably going to kick your ass for breaking your last swords.  Don't be so happy to see him---Yup.  There it is.  

He's probably going to chip the blades with that rock.  This is going to be bad.

At the rate Tanjiro is straining, he's going to need to recover from his rehabilitation.  lol  

LOL Tanjiro just tapped the teacup into place on her head! lol  I'm so glad he didn't just not splash her or completely forfeit the duel.  There's this old martial arts anime cliche about guys losing on purpose or forfeiting a match just because they "don't want to hit a girl".  It comes from old "gentlemanly" ideas, about respecting women because their "delicate" and frankly, before chivalry codes, knights were assholes and women were especially brutalized all the fucking time, so chivalry was needed to counter that.  But in martial arts anime, it repeatedly gets used on female characters who have actually been kicking everyone's asses, including the male protagonist's, for a big part of their screentime.  So it just ends up being really insulting to imply "hey, I'm this big strong dude, simply for being born male, and your sex/gender automatically makes you nothing but weak, so I'm not going to even try to actually win this duel, because anything I do without holding back is going to be too much for you to handle".  And maybe I'm old and have seen this cliche too many times with all my years on me, but I'm tired of it.  Maybe in real life, women still get brutalized much more than men, women still need efforts at consideration directed towards them to counter all the mysogyny, and the average man vs an exactl equal average woman tends to maybe have more muscle mass without trying, but when I watch an anime to see the fantasy of a woman unafraid to take a hit and able to dish it out just as well, you can't just break the immersion by bringing in those real world considerations of chivalry, without being simply demeaning towards that power fantasy female character.  

omg I thought someone would peak out and reveal they spoke for Nezuko.  But I think thee thing I've been griping about should happen, just happened!  Nezuko spoke for hereself.  ;u;  

. . .

12:00 PM 12/3/2020 Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba ep26

Does this mean I have to watch the movie before season 2 is released?  I thought I could just skip the movie.  I hope it gets put on Crunchyroll.  Because AX won't be in-person again for a while.  

[libertarianbarbarian]

The Every-man Candidate

The Every-Man Candidate

  Facts:

-https://www.libertarianism.org/what-is-a-libertarian

           -for the core principles

-https://www.titlemax.com/discovery-center/money-finance/the-wealth-of-u-s-presidents/

 -https://www.usa.gov/branches-of-government

 -https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/george-washington

   OPED WARNING

   The every-man candidate. I know you guys are absolutely sick and tired of hearing me talk about this and that when it comes to “every-man” anything but hear me out now. There’s to it I promise you. Ok so everyone knows that we have Donald Trump in the presidency and he’s probably the closest we’ve had to an everyman the way I’d explain it in recent memory.

           Now what do I mean by every-man candidate you say? No, you fucking don’t, lets be honest you’re sitting there telling me to get to the damn point. Ok, we’ve had billionaires, we’ve had both parties…and some idiots back in the day that wanted to call their party the whigs. There was probably a deep meaningful reason but to me right now that’s like a new party coming out of nowhere calling themselves “the weave”. We had a black president…in MY own opinion he was one of the worst, not the worst if you read my last blog.

           But what I mean by an every-man candidate is something that is something completely different. We’re American for fucks sake. We work hard, we all know we’re American, but then we fight over who’s got the most Irish heritage, because we’re a nation of immigrants, or who’s more of a mut than the other. We started off the revolutionary war with getting aggravated at the country that brought our forefathers here like a bunch of teenagers by chucking their shit in to the ocean and flipping them the bird. We’re only eloquent when we absolutely have to be, but in day to day life we love to laugh about the absolutely most horrible shit because we all know life sucks and there’s nothing you can do about it. And we want to protect it.

           Time and time again, however, we’re told that we have to elect from a selected pool of people that keep running for congress to be president. Now we have a billionaire in office that speaks his mind. Lets be honest, he fucks up, but he doesn’t do it intentionally, he had no fucking clue what the hell he was doing when he ran. He was sick of the establishment. He was going about his normal day to day billionaire life collecting money from all his properties and watching people get screwed over by the government and said “Hey I think I want to change that.” And that’s the closest we can get?

           No, I’m sorry look a little bit further. Trump did open our eyes that we gotta do a little leg work and do our own research so why the hell not. Ummmm, George Washington? No. No fucking way.

           Ok, well lets go down the list. He wasn’t involved with the Boston Tea Party directly, but he was one of the founding fathers. I guess that could be a check, but not an every-man check. Turns out his family owned slaves…uh oh, ok bad start. That was before the revolutionary war, ok so not a good thing by todays standards…back then eh…still immoral to us so lets do a little digging on that one.

           I don’t think owning a slave is a good thing. Bar none. We’re not the only one’s to do it. The Chinese have done it, the middle easterners have done it, westerners have done it. Hell before England got to Africa they were enslaving the Irish, ask me how I know (hint I’m third generation Irish here). So lets talk about context. Was it like “Django Unchained”? Did his slaves get treated bad, oh yeah let me go across the street and talk to one of them. I can’t so I have to do the next best thing, historians. No I’m not going to have sex with one of them! From what I could gather, as best as I could not only did he treat them as amazingly as he could, George Washington worked in the fields with them.

           Yeah he had money to buy slaves…but it was kind of his fathers gig. That’s where most of the slaves came from. He felt bad about the whole thing as a matter of fact. Right before he died, before we even fought the civil war, before England caught off the slave trade George Washington had in his will that when his wife died all his slaves would be freed. Cool, so that isn’t so bad right? Doesn’t seem that bad to me to be honest, not the greatest, but not that bad.

           So ignoring the slave part, we know that George Washington could have sat there in the plantation house with his old man and sipped some southern sweet tea while watching the slaves. But instead he decided to go ahead and pick up a scythe and get at it just as hard as they did as long as they did from as many written down eyewitness reports as I found. George Washington busts his ass for work, that’s American as hell.

           How about empathy? So that’s one of the most underrated things about us Americans. Empathy gets us in to trouble ALL the fucking time, it’s the reason why we end up in foreign wars, and get manipulated by fucked up politicians, ahem Woodrow Wilson. What? I can’t let a dead dog lay. George Washington, though, only married once from what I could tell. Never had any kids, none at all…well none of his own.

           You see he married this one chick named Martha. Insert “Batman V. Superman” reference here. She was a widow, back in the day that made you an outcast. For christ sakes your husband could have died of cancer or measles and as a woman you were socially blamed for his death. All the bullshitery of the 1700’s behind, she had two kids from the man that had died when she was married to him. From what literally every historian says good ol’ Georgey boy here didn’t want any more kids cause he already had two. He viewed the two children Martha came as his own and became a diligent stepfather. You know the kind the crowd coos over on “Jerry Springer” for being a good dad when the other, ahem, “goes out for milk”.

           Ok, hard work, empathy. Both American as fuck. I would add standing up for what you believe in…but come on, do I really god damned have to? Revolutionary War ring any bells here people? How about this one. George Washington is famously known for not wanting to be President. Seriously, he didn’t want the job. To add on top of everything he was pretty much forced in to the role because of the moral fiber he was made of. You know, the good stuff. I’d say that’s kind of a check. So here we’re three checks so far that seem pretty American…and for the most part more every-man than pretty much every other president that we’ve had since him…and that’s 44 others.

           I probably could keep on going about the every-man candidate George Washington was, but I got something else for ya. We’ve come close to having every-man candidates since then. Out of all the presidents we’ve had we’ve actually had some that were just as broke as Washington, if not more. But mysteriously ended up getting more money after the presidency…kind of like Biden, ahem.

           Harry S. Truman, Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson…oh my hate boner is getting even harder now…Chester A Arthur, who in the fuck is that, and James A. Garfield. Those are pretty close to the brokest presidents we’ve had. If you look at them individually though their not all aligned with the every-man, American values that I, and probably you at this point, believe a president should have.

           So what do I think a president should be when it comes to an every man president? Well here, there’s going to be a part two on some of the things that I think would look great in practice as well on paper but I’ll give you a little taste.

           Someone who grew up in the ghetto, or a trailer park. Someone who sincerely had to work in a factory or manufacturing. Farming could do it to, but it’s not like you can’t relate to farmers on a hard days work, maybe not the same type of work but you still have to spend 12 hours or more busting your ass to feed yourself and/or your family. Someone who’s been homeless.

           Haha! I threw you off with that one huh? Well let me clarify that one. I know from experience myself. I’m a veteran for those of you who don’t know. I got out, I didn’t know what the world outside of the military was like when I did get out, so I had to adapt, and adapt quickly. It sucked and I couldn’t do it quick enough. I had a wife and one son at the time. I would like to have someone that knows what it’s like, in office, to sit in a shelter being regimented by a bunch of people that are social workers and that went to school that tell you they know exactly what your experiences are.

           No you don’t and you never will. My experiences are my own. So, Mr. Every-man president lets work together on getting together with the states on smoothing out the process of I don’t know…foodstamps, medicare, Medicaid, and all that other shit. Lets help men get help with getting in to shelters when they have to go to work and make child support too. How does that sound? Being homeless and being among the homeless, or in a trailer park/ ghetto kind of helps you understand that shit better a hell of a lot more than a degree ever will.

           Here’s one for you. I don’t want my every-man candidate to be squeaky clean either. I don’t want him to have a felony. Haha no I don’t want Mr. Murderer in the Whitehouse, only every-man. I want someone that knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the cops so he knows what it’s like to both fear and respect the cops. An absolute every-man. No manipulation, someone that says “I’m sick of this politician shit”, that’s been through hell and genuinely wants to fix shit because he loves this country just as much as you and I do.

[thoughts-of-a-bibleophile]

bit of a rant/review of pokemon the movie i choose you

Ok. Can we talk about the Pokémon movie? It was a beautiful fucking mess.

Why?

Let me preface this by saying I am a huge Pokénerd and am a fan of the games and anime (I haven’t watched it in years but what I have seen recently I enjoyed). Saying that, I also am someone who won’t take “well it’s just a kid’s show/movie, it doesn’t have to be good” as an excuse ever, especially with well-done kid’s movies are coming out every year at this point.

Anyway. if you are curious, for some reason, about my opinion of the latest movie in the Pokémon franchise....continue reading.

Also. SPOILERS BELOW.

So. Like I said previously. It was a beautiful, terrible hot mess.

A h o t mess

Let’s start with why I thought it was terrible (and weed out the butthurt fans right off the bat)

Story wise, there were issues. Since they crammed the entirety of season 1 into it with different characters and picked the best episodes of the season as story points.

Like I would compare it to The Last Airbender movie in how over-stuffed it was in story, since that movie also tried to an entire season into a movie, but I can’t compare them because The Last Airbender movie is actual garbage and this movie is.....not that.

Main complaint is movie length. Why is it so short when it could have been so much longer and filled with more character interaction and development?? I’m not asking for Pixar quality because I’m not expecting Pixar, but if you’re gonna introduce us to new characters and expect us to love them and miss them when they leave, give us a bit more to go on than just snapshots of their journey. Speaking of snapshots, though, I did like that little touch of Verity going through her phone to show the moments they’ve all been together -- clever, time-saving story-telling choice, that.

“No one watches/plays Pokémon for the story/characters” -- WELL I DO. THEY’VE DONE IT IN THE PAST AND MADE A MEMORABLE STORY AND GAME FOR US, SO THEY CAN DO IT AGAIN. Have you even SEEN Pokemon Mewtwo Strikes Back? BECAUSE BOI THERE WERE TEARS AND IT WAS THE BEST.

Just...The reason the other Pokémon movies worked so well/better is because we knew the characters involved aside from Ash. If we’re being introduced to new characters in this movie, give us a reason to care about them.

There was also just very little tension because I knew that they were just highlighting parts of the first season (or so), so whatever problem they had would be worked out by the end. Also, because it’s Pokémon and Ash is an OP MC.

My boi Sorrel tho

I love Sorrel, though. A+ dude. I wish he had more screen time because he's such a cute little bean and I FUCKING CRIED when his Luxray died HGHSJJJJjdee (but does he only have Lucario?? Like I know he was too afraid to love a Pokémon after Luxray, but boy are you seriously going on your own with one mon???)

I was also happy to see that he found Articuno, but WOW these kids are lucky because together they’ve all seen like four legendaries (Entei, Raikou, Suicine, Ho-Oh) in the span of a year (or so?) Some people, apparently, don’t see legendaries EVER and these kids see FOUR? I know it’s because plot but dang.

Verity (like the lake!)

Verity (ha her name is Verity and she's from a region with a lake named Verity lol) kind of just reminded me too much of Misty with her Pokémon being water types. If they were gonna add that little background about her mom, I wish they would have done more with it. Like...explain how she uses water types because her mom loved water types. She uses a Piplup because her mom has an Empoleon. I just wanna know MORE about her. GIVE ME MOREEEE DANG IT

I also def thought they were gonna have her mom as someone we've met in the games/show before, but no. Just random, faceless character we never see/meet.

Angry child Cross who is essentially Kacchan from My Hero

Can we talk about Cross for a second?

Yes, he’s an asshole, but, especially with that little redemption arc, he’s not EVIL. Like I know they needed someone to set off all the bad things, but this boy doesn’t have an evil heart. Just say....like a darkened heart or whatever because if he was evil he wouldn’t get a redemption arc like that. He’s just a proud asshole who believes in strength over friendship.

Honestly, true antagonist is Marshadow because WOW SOMEONE NEEDS TO COOL THEIR JETS. I was also incredibly confused as to if Marshadow was good or bad.... Like they say its a guide and someone who restores the balance or fixes the Ho-Oh feather, which sounds like a good guy, but this little bitch was stirring up all the trouble and ends up being the main villain like good lord what is going on.

The animation, the colors

Damn I forgot how good the battles look. Like DAMN. So much tension for a battle I know Ash is gonna win. So much hype when LITERALLY NO ONE UNDERSTANDS TYPE MATCHUPS LIKE A PIPLUP VS A PIKACHU THE PIKACHU WILL WIN IDIOTS

Ahem. But I'm probably thinking too much like the games and not the show which kind of throws the games out the window so whatever.

But yeah, man, I forgot how beautiful something can be when it goes onto the big screen. Like, the Pokémon anime has always had a certain look, a certain charm to it (yes, even in the Sun and Moon series), but it just looked so great and beautiful and gorgeous and lovely on the screen and I’m honestly excited for it to come out on DVD/BluRay whatever so I can see it again.

Ok...it’s not Your Name or a Ghibli film. But...it’s still a very pretty Pokémon movie and it touches my nostalgic, nerdy heart.

ALL THE NOSTALGIA

You read my complaints above, but I will admit that, while it was a bit ridiculous to cram the entire first season into one movie, I enjoyed that it was a celebration of sorts of the show from its beginning? Which was honestly great. They had all of the best, most memorable moments from the show (the pilot -- obviously, finding Charmander, Bye Bye Butterfree). I was near tears a few times with all the nostalgia, guys.

I wish they had brought back Misty and Brock if they wanted to really really celebrate the first season, but c’est la vie.

AND THEN THAT THEME SONG GAVE ME LEGIT CHILLS. I DON’T CARE THAT IT WAS REMIXED. I HAD CHILLS. GOOSEBUMPS E V E R Y W H E R E.

I saw the theme song remix on YouTube prior to seeing the movie and I felt all the nostalgia then, so you’d think I wouldn’t get chills when I saw it.

Welp, we’d both be wrong then. Because ALL THE CHILLS. ALL THE HYPE FOR THE REST OF THE MOVIE. IT WAS GLORIOUS. (imma put it on repeat after i post this, tbh.)

Other things that don’t really have a place elsewhere

Also, this was pretty much the X-Men days of future past of Pokemon. Tbh. Because, unless this is just AU first season? (I can’t remember if this was confirmed to be just the alternate universe first season), it’s like they’re saying well, here’s the NEW beginning of the show so now we can do whatever we want woo! (Jesus I sound like Kukui)

Speaking of doing whatever they want...

PIKACHU SAID WORDS??? ENGLISH? WHYY???????????? I WAS SO CONFUSED AND WONDERED IF MY SODA HAD BEEN SPIKED

I know they were trying to do the throwback to Mewtwo Returns (BECAUSE WE ALL KNOW THAT WAS ONE OF, IF NOT THE, BEST MOVIES AND SO DOES THE POKÉMON COMPANY) and we all want to remember why we love Ash and Pikachu so much and why THEY care about each other so much. But....that was.......strange. Maybe the Japanese audience liked it more because that seems to be the only opinion they really care about, but I know I wasn’t the only one in the theatre just staring at the screen in confusion asking what the actual f u c k was going on.

Last things

I may have my complaints -- that I’m throwing out into the ether just to get them out of my head -- but that doesn’t mean I disliked it.

It’s still Pokémon and I’m still a fan and everyone will still be fans regardless of any issues with the movie, any story problems, any characters featured (or lack thereof **MISTY AND BROCK).

With its beautiful animation, particularly in the battles, and gorgeous set pieces, because WOW did you say some of the views they had?, it was nice to see Pokémon celebrated with an old story told with a fresh coat of paint.

This movie may not be the best. It may not be Pokemon: The First Movie Mewtwo Strikes Back (honestly, most movies aren’t that, so that might be a bit unfair to say.) But it’s still got that Pokémon charm we all know and love and has some pretty cool characters along the way. It’s definitely something that every Pokémon fan, young or old, new or a veteran, should watch and enjoy. Because, despite its flaws, it reminds you of better times, nostalgic times.

It reminds you of that first time you played the game or watched the show, when your biggest choice was your starter Pokémon and adventure was just outside the door, waiting for you to take the first step.

(Yes, I’m basically saying nostalgia is what powers this movie, but we’re celebrating the 20th anniversary, so of course there will be nostalgia.)

Some fandoms can’t say they’ve been around for over 20 years -- but Pokémon, with its die-hard fans and ever-growing fanbase who will support just about anything that comes out relating to the games/show, can. And the movie understands that. It understands that just about everyone who sees it will put on their hat, grab their Pokémon, and sit in those theatre seats like we’re all excited 10 year olds waiting to go on our own journeys, waiting to revisit the world of Pokémon regardless of how good the movie is. And that, the strength of the fans and the perpetual love of the series, in my opinion, is the greatest strength.

[ryukoishida]

Summer 2017 Watchlist First Taste (Sunday to Wednesday Edition)

Summer is here and so is a new season of anime, woohoo! I was initially super excited about several of the shows, but after watching the first episodes of them, I’m still... somewhat on the fence about them. Still anticipating “Welcome to the Ballroom” and “Project Altair” though!

If you’re looking for something in the spring season to watch, I also wrote some not-so-serious reviews here and here. I’ve actually either dropped or am super behind on most of the shows I wrote about, but I highly recommend “The King’s Avatar/Quan Zhi Gao Shou” (technically a donghua), “The Royal Tutor”, and “Kado: The Right Answer” for a new series to start. 

Listing from shows that have the most potential:

Nana Maru San Batsu (aka. 7O3X) | Fastest Finger First 

A sports anime about quiz shows! It’s actually better than it sounds, I promise (except for that frustratingly cliché panties scene but I think it’s just a one-time gag so I’ll forgive them). The first episode introduces us to protagonist Pidge Koshiyama, who’s a bookworm, is super shy/anxious and has no friends. Upon entering his first year of senior high, he was introduced to the school’s Quiz Circle during club presentations, and he realizes that all the books he’s read as a child and teenager can finally be put to good use because as it turns out, even though he’s slow on the buzzer, he can answer some of the most difficult questions. There’s also the weird/over-enthusiastic megane club president, the takes-quizzes-super-seriously girl whose voice sounds like a young boy (I think the seiyuu is new, so I can’t tell whether she’s just really bad at voice-acting or they just... mis-cast her). The first half is protag intro, blah blah, lots of self narrative, but the second half, which is like a sample quiz show, is quite exciting. I think I like where the show’s going, so I’ll definitely keep watching this.

Knight’s & Magic

If you want to watch giant fighting robots, you might want to give this show a shot, though definitely don’t expect it to be anything like Gundam. Protag Kuroda, who’s obsessed with mecha and is a computer engineer working in modern day Japan, got into a car accident and is reincarnated into this fantasy world in which people can pilot giant robots called Silhouette Knights through magic fuel. I’m hoping the protag will grow up soon cuz I don’t know if I can stand watching a show that’s entirely about a robot-obsessed 12-year-old boy (yes, he’s a boy), even if he is kind of a genius. The plot is nicely paced so far and the action scenes are nicely animated. I don’t really care about any of the characters yet (which is usually a bad sign for me LOL), but we’ll see. 

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun | Cleanliness Boy! Aoyama-kun

Sort of reminds me of “Sakamoto Desu Ga”, but I’m hoping it’ll be better because the gags in “Sakamoto” got boring and repetitive after about 4 episodes in. Aoyama is a genius soccer player who plays for Japan in the U-16 tournament and has lots of passion for the sport; he’s also a bit of a germaphobic and will not come in contact with other players during a game or move around the field when it’s rainy and dirty because eww mud on shoes/clothes, no thanks. Not quite sure whether this will be entirely comedy with some sports elements or an equal mixture of both; I’m hoping it’ll at least have a good plot to go with the laughs. 

Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou | Elegant Youkai Apartment Life

A show about the everyday life of a high school boy who can see spirits and his neighbours living in a creepy-looking though sort of fancy apartment: girl exorcist who kicks butt, author voiced by the ever awesome Ishida Akira, and various other youkai which I’m excited to know more about. Protag also has a best friend (voiced by Nakamura Yuuichi) but I’m... not quite sure about the part he plays in the story yet? But the OP shows many other interesting minor characters as well, and these days, I’m like 99% more invested in minor characters anyway so it’s all fine. 

Isekai Shokudou | Restaurant to Another World

I feel... very, very conflicted about the first episode. I love the premise that it’s about a restaurant that can be linked to different fantasy worlds, so the human chef (with the incredibly boring character design) who’s also the owner of the restaurant is serving creatures of different universes, one of which is a dragon lady who craves his beef stew. You can tell the show is tailored to mostly the male audience; all the attention has been spent on the female characters’ designs and ohmylordy when they start doing the dragon lady’s transformation from her dragon form to her naked human form... the details they put in drawing her body... fucking incredible. The second half of the episode saved itself a little when it introduces the little demon girl who got kicked out of the human city in her world and is starving, so the chef took her in, gave her a warm meal and a job (damn, somebody give ME a nice meal and a job - I wish it was that easy in real life). If they can keep the boobs in check, I’d be willing to keep watching this.

Dive!!

I don’t know why but I was half expecting this new diving anime to be like “Free!” in some ways. Please don’t make that same mistake as I did, or you’ll be sorely disappointed... like I did. It’s such a shame because I love watching diving as a sport (Canada has a few decent divers after all, so I enjoy the diving events during the Olympics), but the first episode already has two big no-nos that personally offended me: a) shitty, wishy-washing middle-schooler protag who has no personality other than his obsession with diving and his diving boyfriend senpai, and b) unnecessary romance with the whole girl likes protag, and protag agrees to go out with her and then proceeds to ignore her but girl never gives up (I’m getting second-hand embarrassment watching it, tbh). It does have two things going for it: a) good animation for the diving scenes, and b) an all-star cast featuring Kaji Yuki as protag, Sakurai Takahiro as protag’s love interest rival/senpai/inspiration, Nakamura Yuuichi, Uchiyama Kouki, Ono Kensho, Aoi Shouta etc etc. Am I gonna keep watching it? You fucking know it. 

Hu Yao Xiao Hong Niang | Fox Spirit Matchmaker

Watched ~15 minutes of the first episode, but it was enough to know that I have negative (not even zero, but negative) interest in this donghua. It’s apparently gotten a decent 7.42 score on MAL (but 2.3/5 on CR), so [shrugs] who knows, maybe it’s just not my cup of tea. Premise: In a world where spirits and humans coexist and can fall in love with each other, there’s a matchmaker service within the spirits realm which can help spirits reconnect with their reincarnated human partners since spirits have a longer life-span. Interesting concept; terrible execution. I got annoyed by the protag; I got annoyed by the little fox girl; I got annoyed by the sexy fox lady. I had to turn that shit off before the half-way point because everything just makes me cringe. Save yourself some time and don’t watch this.