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hq-lovin · 4 years

Note

heyo bean!!! could you do hcs where you’re bokuto, kuroo, yaku, and noya’s best friend/childhood friend?? thank you!! -✨

bokuto, kuroo, noya as bffs

heyoooo!! I’m sorry I didn’t do Yaku since I didn’t have any inspiration 😔 but I hope you enjoy the ones I did!

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➣ pairing : bokuto/reader kuroo/reader noya/reader

➣ headcannons

➣ warning : slight manga spoilers on noya,

gif @volleygifs | @houseofkarasuno | @flowerymoments

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kōtarō bokuto

Being besties with Bokuto is so much fun, being CHILDHOOD besties? Amazing. You’re probably used to all of the crazy antics and are desensitized to it.

You, Bokuto and Akaashi all hangout together and it’s basically just babysitting Bokuto half of the time and making sure he doesn’t die.

I feel like Bokuto’s just adopting introverted mom friends left and right so you’re probably gonna get thrown in the mix.

Being Bokuto’s bestie is an adventure, he’s a very chaotic baby who needs attention 24/7 and has unlimited supplies of energy.

You guys probably go on like 72627 adventures a day because he has an attention span of a chimpanzee.

Things like amusement parks, anything he can climb on, and children’s playgrounds are right up his alley.

“Bo you’re scaring the kids.”

“Nah they love me! Isn’t that right Timmy?”

“Bokuto he’s crying.”

Yes he accidentally scares off children because he gets too excited and wants to play with them, not realizing he’s this 6ft horned owl that’s climbing on the monkey bars.

He also does the crazy shit, like he will go swimming in that river. Yes right now, now hold his shirt as he strips into his underwear.

You have to help him not get into trouble by doing stupid things like that.

But don’t underestimate him, he has your back and will fight anyone who insults you on the spot. You and Akaashi have to hold him back.

“The hell did you say? That’s my best friend you’re talking about. No, no say it again.”

“Bokuto it’s fine—”

“FucK it uPp!!” “Konoha stOP.”

If you won’t let him fight anyone the he’s 150% taking you to an arcade and doing those punchy thingies, where you punch it and it shows your score.

He’s honestly your ride or die BFF, you know that meme where the guy wore booty shorts in a bathroom bc his friend needed sweatpants for a test? Yeah, that’s him.

“Bo I need your sweatpants so go hide in the bathroom with my shorts.”

“Aight.”

He just cares about you 🥺 he loves you a lot and no one gets to make fun of his awesome bestie.

tetsuro kuroo

Roasting wars. Roasting wars. Roasting wars. Roasting wars. Roasting wars. Roasting wars. Roasting wars. Roasting wars. Roasting—

“God, you looked like an idiot.”

“You’re calling me an idiot? Have you heard your dumb speech?”

“Excuse me? That speech’s for Kenma!”

“Kenma looks like he wants to die every time he hears it!”

This little shit is the most savage bestie you could have, y’all roast each other every single fucking day. Yaku and Kai are t i r e d.

Honestly, y’all are so mean to each other people actually think you guys hate each other, like the very first time Kai met you, he was more scared of you two than Kuroo and Yaku.

Oh my gosh, you guys are the biggest gossip buddies, have you seen him?? He’s the biggest volleyball gossip.

“Did you hear about Ushiwaka?”

“What? No? What happened?”

“Okay, so basically...”

If you were friends with him when you were younger there’s a good chance that you were friends with Kenma as well, so that’s fun.

Kenma’s honestly so done with the both of you 😳 he’s tired man, he just wants to play his video games in peace 😔

Most of the times when you guys hang out it’s just you recording Kuroo while he does the craziest shit.

He really does care about you though, even if most of the time he’s roasting you, he’s 100% all for fighting someone who disrespected you.

Or alternative choice:

You both go off on the person who was a jerk and they suffer in insults and roasts.

yū nishinoya

Nishinoya is such a bold, and adventurous character you just KNOW being friends with him would be the best.

You’d get him to do the wildest things, and he’d pull through 😳 don’t underestimate him. Just because he’s short doesn’t mean he won’t climb that 287272 ft tree.

You also helped him with all of his fears by daring him to do a bunch of crazy shit, followed by him yelling at you that he wasn’t sacred.

I mean,, his grandpa helped too

But this dude is so much fun to be around, like if you tell him you wanted to do something he’s already on to it.

“Noya where’re we going?”

“Skydiving, why?”

“I— WHAT”

He’d look at you with a confused stare and just tilt his head all innocent like: “did you not want to or??”

“I thought you wanted to go skydiving?”

“I meant in the future!”

Oh how the turns have tabled. He only smirks and practically drags you to the place where he forces you to skydive.

When you ask him why he tells you this:

“This was revenge for all the things you made me do when we’re like 8!”

“I- 😳”

After that he drags you to more fun adventures, like one time you him and Tanaka went out for milkshakes at 4 am in the morning, and then went to Daichi’s house to see if he was awake.

You, Tanaka, and Noya all share 1 braincell and lost it when Daichi whooped your asses.

Also another ride or die bff, and will throw hands at anyone who has beef with you.

Like, bby boi is short but it takes you, Tanaka and Daichi to stop him from fighting someone who said your hair looked w a c k.

“Say that again! Do it I dare you! See what happens I-”

Also protective over you, any person who tries to flirt with you has to go through Nishinoya because he’s not letting some douche bag asshat date his bestie 😊

And when the person breaks your heart, you already know he’s gonna throw hands.

“Let me at them! You can’t just do that to Y/n!”

“Noya stop oh my god!”

Once he calms down, he’s gonna raid the grocery store for the ice cream, candy, chocolate, because that’s what Kiyoko said to get.

God, he’s just an awesome bestie.

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pepperful-qt · 4 years

Note

hi can i pls get Anything abt mr. ryunnosuke tanaka 🥺

omg yes 🥺 love my man Ryu. I ended up doing hcs for this bc I had so many ideas lol

warnings: mentions of nosebleed

strangers->friends->crush w/ Tanaka Ryuunosuke

so you "meet" on the train. you've just started additional test prep classes before and after school and it happens to line up with the times of his morning and evening practices :0

he thinks you look familiar but also he thinks you're cute 👉👈 so you catch him staring a few times and he tries to play it cool

see: fails to play it cool like he'll start whistling or lean against a pole and slip falling into another patron 🤦‍♀️ which makes you smile bc aw & it breaks the intimidating impression he gives off

so one time during winter otw to school you notice him sniffling a bunch and then his nose starts bleeding bc of the dry air ;) hey plot convenience

and bc you were watching him you immediately pull a bunch of tissues out of your bag and shove them in his face

Tanaka broke uh oh

stuttering mess poor bby this is not how he wanted any first conversation to go smh just says the most ridiculous things in a very loud voice

you laugh at his flustered state bc it juxtaposed how he looks so much and oop he died

he finds out you go to karasuno too and you're a second year like him and he's like oH that's why you looked familiar

so you tell him about the extra classes you're taking and he's like 0.0 bc o shit that means you're smart

you end up walking to school from the train stop together yk and he's surprised how easy it is to talk to you?? Like don't get me wrong he's still stumbling over every other word and saying dumb shit and lowkey hiding his blush behind the tissues bc omfg a girl is having a conversation with him

once vb comes up he turns into Cocky Ryu™ talking abt how he's a starter and a wing spiker which is the coolest position and other bragging stuff like that

and you find it refreshing to talk to someone like him bc you're mostly stuck with academic types first thing in the morning and his energy is just so,,much in a good way tho

and he's actually funny. and a dork. and you did not expect this😳 it's also entertaining to see how quick he switches from braggart badass to flustered mess at the most random things you say dirty minded ryu hello

Then at school you part ways and Tanaka goes over to the lil second year squad who are lit rally 👁️👄👁️

Nishi: "rYUUUU??!? Whomst?!??!" yk

and his poor brain finally processes and he is non functioning

you hear screaming in the distance

so you guys actually talk after that ! Mostly you tbh bc sometimes he feels too dumb to talk to you, but he doesn't let it get to him, mental stability king that he is, so he just enjoys being around you. Also likes to watch your mouth move bc he's just like that lets be honest here

Tanaka be talking about you all the time tho. Like his teammates actually want to strangle him whoops. Not like it's the first time he's had a girl obsession but like once he's done thirsting (yk it's true) he starts talking about your personality with the same enthusiasm and his teammates are 👀⁉️

meanwhile you mention him to your friends and they tell you all these rumors and stories about how he's a gang and a delinquent and all that and internally you're just: "that guy? the one that couldn't form a sentence or stop blushing when I gave him a tissue and nerds out over volleyball? that guy?? sounds fake but ok"

Then after encouragement/begging from Ennoshita he asks you (aka screams) to help him study, then immediately tacks on a "andtheothersecondyearsontheteam I mean only if you want to actually imma jump off the train now"

"Tanaka no it's moving. Also I'd love to"

You are the queen. They all love you. Nishi worships you, Ennoshita is grateful for your very existence bc even if you're not academically savvy you still know lots about studying materials and exam stuff from your classes! and they actually listen when a girl tells them

meanwhile Tanaka is a weird combo of smug, flustered, and 😍

anytime you express any doubt in yourself or your future/talent/etc Tanaka immediately turns into Hype Man Tanaka ™

negativity?? insecurity?? who are they??? the concept that you are any less than perfect INCONCEIVABLE

sidenote Tanaka would be the best hype man in haikyuu change my mind

even though he's not always the best with words (he'll apologize for that) his sincerity and genuine lovebelief in you is enough 😌

oop yea you got a crush you realize that now

one time after you were talking about your horrible day on the train home and like usual, he bashes anyone who made it worse and gets mad or sad or whatever with you before cheering you up like normal

and then you give him a kiss on the cheek😳 "Thanks Ryu"

TanakaRyuunosuke.exe has stopped working. Hard reset required.

LIKE his heart is so tender and his brain didn't even comprehend that you could feel that way?? But what if it was a kind gesture?? Nothing more??

cue Overthinking Tanaka™

and he misses his freaking train stop poor bby

can barely function around you anymore 😔🥺 lowkey you feel bad bc maybe you overstepped and he didn't like you that way? you knew he liked their manager etc so now you're overthinking aaaa

then one day he says it

"Y/N!!! I like you a lot!! If we go to nationals I'm taking you on a date!!!!"

you: 👁️👄👁️

also you: "yesomfg I believe in u" (yall the type of couple that hypes each other i-)

and we all know how that bet goes😌

***

this is so long omfg I don't know how to add a read more on mobile rip

I rlly should've written this as a scenario but o well 💕 I hope you liked it!

#i love this dork sm 😍😭#tanaka ryuunosuke #tanaka headcanons #tanaka ryuunosuke x reader #haikyuu #haikyuu writing #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu!!#haikyuu imagine #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #karasuno

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emberbent · 4 years

Photo

Book 2: Air | Chapter 4: Bending Embers

“Idiot,” Yanyu scoffed. She was a mean-faced woman of indeterminate old age; though she wore civilian clothing, her long, gray queue and sharp, precise movements gave her away as having had Dai Li training. She cast a disgusted sneer at the Avatar, who was held fast to a chair with hand-shaped cuffs made of unforgiving stone, entranced. “I can’t believe she fell for it.”

“I can’t either,” the Org lackey grunted. He sat beside the chair on the floor, taking a rest with his arms curled around his bent knees. He’d lit the fireplace to stave off the chilly late-autumn draft that had swept into the room. “Name’s Nobu, by the way.”

“Can’t say I really give a damn what your name is,” Yanyu replied airily. Then, with more force: “You know what I’m here for.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Nobu rolled his eyes. “Hang on a sec.” He yanked his radio out of its holster on his belt and held it up to his mouth. “Agent Tanaka to Command. Avatar has been captured and is ready for transfer, over.”

The response was immediate. “Very good. See that she is brought to me in one piece. Over.”

“Wilco. Over and out,” Nobu said into his radio. Hauling himself up into a standing position, he twisted a couple times to the left and right, cracking his spine. “Man… I’m getting too old for this.”

“Oh, please,” Yanyu spat. “Don’t talk to me about being old. I want my money.”

Nobu stood firm. “You know the deal. We get her transferred, and then you get your cut.”

Yanyu rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Then she looked again at the pacified Avatar, eyes open but unseeing, face still. She produced from the inside of her robe pocket a little vial of thick, black liquid. “Let me give her more of this before we take her.”

“What is that?” Nobu inquired, squinting at the substance.

Yanyu uncapped the vial and, with a hard curling of her fingers, removed the sludge and let it hover in the air for a few seconds. “Insurance,” she smirked. “Gave her some of this when she was a kid just in case. This’ll help her stay nice and quiet on the trip.”

With a slow, tight twist of her hand, she propelled the wobbling blob toward Shinza.

“Open,” Yanyu instructed.

She obeyed. The sludge brushed her bottom lip.

Hey. Hey! Wake up! shouted a familiar voice in Shinza’s mind.

Her hand twitched.

“Hurry!” hissed Nobu. “She’s coming out of it.”

Shinza! Wake the fuck up, you’re in trouble!

“No she’s not,” Yanyu replied arrogantly. “Shinza… you are a good, quiet girl.”

Korra’s palm was hot and hard as it struck Shinza’s face. “Wake! Up!”

Shinza bolted upright, dazed, as she found herself in the spirit room with Korra. “What…?”

“You have to wake up,” Korra urged. “It was a trap. The Org and some bitch named Yanyu are kidnapping you. Get up.”

Slowly, stupidly, Shinza looked at her hands, her arms. Realization dawned on her. As if piped in through an old-time intercom system, a voice came to her: “You are a good, quiet girl…”

She was awake now.

“I can help you, but you have to fight. Ready?” Korra urged.

On the physical plane, Shinza’s eyes shot open, glowing white with the force of Korra’s guidance. A howling wind kicked up around her, throwing furniture around the room as if it was all made of paper. The earthen cuffs crumbled away and she stood up from the chair.

“I am no such thing,” Shinza bellowed; the wind was deafening, but her voice rang out above it, bolstered by Korra’s voice layered behind it. With a sharp jab, she shot a blast of fire at Yanyu’s head.

Yanyu swiftly ducked and rolled, grounding herself in a solid horse stance and sending her foot downward, hard. The cement slab beneath their feet broke into shards like brittle candy, shredding the carpet above it; Yanyu directed the shards inward, aiming to capture Shinza’s legs. Narrowly, Shinza leapt upward on a current of air, the cement scraping at the leather of her boots. Behind her, Nobu snuck up and wrapped his arm around her neck, cutting off her airflow with the crook of his elbow. Flailing, Shinza kicked both legs out high, striking Yanyu in the jaw in an attempt to wriggle free. Nobu flexed his bicep. Shinza saw stars. He snared her wrists behind her back and wrestled her to the ground, stomach to the earth with his knee hard on her back.

“Stop fighting!” Yanyu commanded over the cutting wind. Gesturing with her hands, she summoned the crumbled earthen cuffs; they reformed and flew toward Shinza, stony fingers curling--

Shinza uttered a deafening howl. The gale picked up with sudden, ferocious force and sent Yanyu and Nobu both across the room in different directions, their bodies thudding against the walls. She got to her feet. Nobu, fazed and angry, bolted upright and lunged for her. In a split second, Shinza’s eyes went to the fireplace. Her hand shot out, summoning the smoldering embers forward. Then she thrust her fist at Nobu, sending them into his eyes.

Nobu screamed, clutching at his face and falling to his knees. The smell of charred flesh permeated the room.

Behind her, Yanyu drove her bony knuckles into Shinza’s spine. Once, twice, but before she could land the third blow, Shinza whirled around, catching Yanyu’s arm in her grasp and twisting until she heard a loud pop. Yanyu yowled defiantly, her hard green stare daring her to continue. Shinza yanked her other arm forward, gripping it hard and twisting at the shoulder so Yanyu couldn’t move.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Yanyu growled.

Shinza snapped her arm with a nauseating crack. “You will never block anyone’s bending again.”

In the recesses of her mind, Korra whooped and hollered triumphantly, and then slipped away. The white glow receded from Shinza’s eyes, and the gale subsided. The room was in shambles. Yanyu lie passed out on the floor, and Nobu crouched near the crooked bed, wailing, blinded, burned.

“Why? Why would you do this?!” Nobu cried.

Shinza sank to her knees near him. “Would you really have let me go if I’d asked politely? I don’t think so. I don’t believe you would have reasoned with me.”

“The Avatar is not reasonable,” Nobu argued miserably. “You’ve proven that today.”

“I’m sorry you see it that way.”

“I don’t see anything now because of you!” he spat viciously, lunging at her in rage but toppling, unwilling to remove his hands from his blistered face. He sobbed. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way. I was supposed to turn you in, collect my bonus, and retire.”

Shinza studied him. Greying at the temples; muscled, but he probably had to work harder to stay fit than he used to. Maybe he had a wife and grown kids. This was just a job to him - one with a good pension, by the sound of it. Nothing personal.

“What do you really think of the Organization?” Shinza inquired. “Of the Avatar?”

“I don’t know,” Nobu sniffed. “I don’t care anymore. Leave me alone.”

Shinza’s gaze narrowed on him. Was he really letting her go? “Okay then. I’m walking away.”

“Go. Get a head start before I change my mind. Just know the big man won’t be pleased when you don’t arrive. He’ll send out another crew, a better one, and they won’t treat you well.”

“That’s fair,” she said. Then she turned for the door, stepping carefully over Yanyu’s prone body and opening the door. With one foot over the threshold, she turned back. “By the way, the healers in Republic City are top notch. They’ll fix you up.”

Nobu scoffed. Shinza stepped into the chilly air, sticking her thumb and index finger into her mouth to whistle for Xia. But before she could make a sound, the ground rumbled beneath her feet. Shinza turned back to see the pointy end of a shard of concrete leveled at her face. Yanyu directed it with her feet and sent it forward. Shinza ducked, but the corner of the block caught her shoulder, ripping her clothes and the skin beneath it. An ugly black bruise began to form immediately. Shinza growled furiously, cocking her fist--

A plume of sweltering flame blasted through the doorway, missing Shinza but engulfing Yanyu, as Xia drove relentlessly forward into the building, arching upward in a loop like a roller coaster once she’d cleared it and doubling back to reign more fire.

“Shit,” Shinza murmured. The inn began to burn around her. “Oh, fuck.”

Xia made another loop and slowed down just enough for Shinza to throw herself onto her back. Before she knew it, they were speeding into the air as the inn was consumed by flames. In the distance, she heard police sirens.

Reeling, Shinza clung tightly to the dragon. She’d managed, just barely, to wriggle out of her own kidnapping, but she’d had to physically maim two people to do it. Her dragon had just committed murder by arson. The Organization, she knew, would be out for blood. She could already see the propaganda flyers littering the streets of towns across the globe: Avatar brutally murders her opposers.

The visceral feel of Yanyu’s limbs snapping in her hands pulsed in her head like a sick heartbeat. The stench of Nobu’s charred flesh was embedded in her clothes - a smell she’d never be able to wash out.

Clinging tightly to Xia’s back, she planted her palm firmly onto the slick, scarlet scales, closing her eyes and communicating with gratitude: I couldn’t have gotten out of that without you.

_______

They touched down in a town a comfortable distance away from Gaoling. Shinza parted with Xia, wearily found another inn, checked in, and immediately collapsed on the bed. Though she slept hard, she dreamed a familiar dream: black sludge oozed out in sticky tendrils from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. But this time, she let it flow, watching it collect itself into a neat blob and flow back into its little glass bottle.

In the morning, she felt as if she’d been hit by a Satobus. Bleary-eyed and sore, she made her way to the bathroom, noting the ugly blue bruise and the throbbing, bloody scrape on her shoulder. Her reflection stared back at her, hollow-eyed, pallid. Her freckled face was framed by a tangle of dark hair. There were no mirrors in the Eastern Air Temple; with the exception of the pond in the early, tranquil morning, she hadn’t seen herself in months. Shinza scarcely recognized the woman she saw. In her own mahogany eyes, she saw exhaustion, anger, sadness, and what Shinza could only describe as freedom. Though she smoke and char from the inn in Gaoling still clung to her skin, and though she could still hear Yanyu’s yowling and the snapping of her bones, she felt as if a great weight had been lifted from her. Carefully, she cleaned the wound on her shoulder and bathed. She’d lost her bag, she realized with a sigh, and reluctantly slipped back into the soiled and torn clothes she’d arrived in.

Then, with a growling stomach, she went out in search of food. A block down from the inn was a noodle house; Shinza stopped in and slipped into a booth. A waiter came by to attend to her - a young man with a tapestry of tattoos covering both arms.

“Morning,” he greeted, clearly pretending not to notice the state of her clothes. She had a feeling he wasn’t one to judge. “What can I get you?”

“House special, please,” she replied. The young man bowed and returned momentarily with a steaming bowl of fresh noodles drowning in fragrant broth. Her stomach rumbled again as she unsheathed her chopsticks.

“Anything else I can get for you?” he inquired.

“Actually,” Shinza paused, studying his tattoos as surreptitiously as she could. “Will you tell me where you got your ink?”

“Pretty sick, huh?” He took a moment to admire the intricate, colorful designs on his skin. “Old man Guo hooked me up. He does it old-style with a poker, not metalbending. He’s over on Shi Street and Main.”

“Thanks,” Shinza replied, and tucked into her noodles.

_______

Shi and Main was a short walk. Guo’s place would have been all but invisible to those not looking for it, save for the wooden sign that had fallen off its little hooks on the awning and sat leaning against the outside of the storefront. Shinza entered and found a man - old, indeed - perched on a stool behind the counter, apparently asleep.

“Excuse me,” she said. “Are you Guo?”

As if he’d been awake the whole time, he smiled brightly, toothlessly. “Oh, yes, that’s me. How may I help you?”

Shinza peered at all the artwork that lined the walls, some of it on old-style parchment scrolls, some on paper. Not a measure of wall was without a drawing or a painting. Spirits, beasts, curvaceous women, and poems in elegant calligraphy abounded.

“I’d like a tattoo,” she said. “A big one.”

With the enthusiasm of a child, Guo stepped off his stool and hobbled around the front counter. “What strikes your fancy?” he inquired in his thin, airy voice. His cloudy eyes traveled over the torn fabric of her shoulder.

“Don’t ask,” Shinza said flatly. Guo met her gaze and winked. Then she rolled up the sleeve on her opposite arm. “Are you familiar with the red dragons of the Island of the Sun Warriors?”

The process took nearly eleven hours, but meditating with Lo Sang for months on end had prepared her both for the wait and for the pain. The pain was intense and prolonged and entrancing; once Guo had sunk the inked needle into her skin for the last time, he carefully and reverently cleaned her skin and gestured for her to take a look in the full-length mirror nearby.

The tattoo consisted of strict, uniform linework and painstaking, meticulous shadow stippling in pure black ink. It started at her clavicle, where the likeness of Xia’s head breathed fire toward Shinza’s heart; the dragon’s body extended down the entire length and surface of her arm, ending with the detail of Xia’s tail wrapping delicately around her fingers, over her scars.

“It suits you,” Guo said, admiring his work. “Your spirit companion will be quite proud.”

“How do you know I know this dragon?” Shinza inquired casually.

Guo peered up at her and offered another toothless smile. “We have long awaited your return, Avatar,” he whispered. “Go in peace.”

Guo refused to accept the last of her money, claiming no payment was greater than to be allowed to tattoo her. Shinza cast him one last inquisitive look before closing the door behind her and whistling for her dragon.

_______

@chromecutie @hetapeep41 @jaymzbush @newyorkerqueen @my-remedy-is-euphoria

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silenthillmutual · 5 years

Text

pride week - day 5 - AU free-for-all so this AU is a crossover because when i first looked at the prompt i was like half-asleep and thought it said crossover. whoops.

He’s coming to the conclusion that Kiyotaka’s family is just fucking weird. He’s still not exactly sure what their relationship status is, since they’ve only been on like two and a half dates that might have not even been dates and nothing between them seems to have actually changed - but even speaking as a best friend, it was just really fucking bizarre

The other sections of the bake sale that did not have an entire bottle’s worth of food coloring dumped into the mix did exceedingly well, letting them schedule trips to meet up and hang out with the GSAs from other colelges in the area. It was a neat little idea Makoto and Kiyotaka had come up with on their own time that also kinda made Mondo want to punch himself in the face.

It mostly just starts with this: he thinks he has competition.

The reason he thinks this is because Leon tells him he does. They’re meeting with MU in a bowling alley that’s somewhere in between both schools and while it’s not the only GSA in the area, it is the only one available or interested in reaching out to them. And the gaggle of students who pick to play against them in a four-on-four match just happens to consist of three rough looking boys and one chick.

Striek one. It’s not exactly a secret that Taka has a type, and that type is punks. (Well, and Makoto; but he’s everybody’s type, so he doesn’t count.) He’s never said out loud that he finds that kinda thing appealing, but Hifumi’s Halloween Theme suggestion, “Book of Eibon” (which earned him the group name moniker Anime Trash) really took. People dressed as whatever they found most attractive - or in Hifumi’s and Chihiro’s cases, the kind of aesthetic they really dug.

Hifumi’s magical girl outfit was absolutely outstanding. They really did have to give him that.

...where was he? Right. Taka had shown up to the party in all secondhand clothes, studded belt and motorcycle boots and fake piercings, pleather jacket over an embroidered white vest covered in safety pins. It sure as shit left an impression.

And it was such a goddamn come-on. he’d thought before then that Taka’s staring was judgmental and had a hard time stringing two words together at the implication that he was staring because he was attracted to Mondo.

Not that Mondo was the only punk in the group. Tanaka flushed and tried to hide beneath his scarf, realizing too late he didn’t have it included in the regal get-up he came dressed in. And Leon said to Mondo, “If I wasn’t straight, I’d so hit that.”

Leon figured out pretty quickly that he wasn’t straight, and also that Taka was way off limits.

Mondo’s been trying to figure out how to take a more direct approach, since Taka’s misconstrued all his flirting as friendliness. Which - okay, yeah. He’s kind of learned along the way that he might also be in love with the guy platonically, too. he is the best friend, in terms of quality, that Mondo’s ever had, and he doesn’t plan on that shit changing just ‘cause he wants to add hand-holding into the mix.

So strike two is this: Ishimaru seems to actually know the guy in too much purple who practically launches himself at him. They embrace in a tight hug, and that smug asshole has his hairstyle too. Rude. Utterly, unbelievably rude.

The guy introduces himself as Josuke. He looks like he might be a couple years older than them, with pretty blue eyes. He’s the president of the MU GSA, which he does not hesitate to tell Kiyotaka, “I love what you did with the name, dude. Very kewl.”

Kewl. Like he’s fucking twelve and it’s the nineties.

Taka blushes like he does when he’s embarrassed or flattered and it takes a lot for Mondo not to slug the guy. He’s really only distracted from Kiyotaka’s refusal of the credit by the guy with the little ponytail and two-toned grey hair saying to him “Hey, man, nice mods,” referring to his jacket.

He’s kind of forgotten about it. He doesn’t wear the longer coat he had in high school anymore because yeah, he’s not in high school anymore, thank you very much Daiya. “Uh, thanks,” he says, but the shorter one with the kinda silvery blonde hair is smirking at it, mouthing the words Crazy Diamonds under his breath. Like it’s some kind of joke.

“I’m Okuyasu,” he says, and nudges the blonde so hard the guy almost falls over. “Shit, sorry - this is Koichi.”

“Right,” he says, not liking the look of private joking between the two of them. “I’m Mondo.”

“I’m Leon,” Leon all but shouts, almost crawling on Mondo’s back to extend his hand to the two boys and - of course, of fucking course - the girl with the knee-length black hair. “And you are?”

“Yukako,” she says, and Mondo’s never before heard someone say their own name with such deep and intense hatred.

There’s not a single thing about these people he trusts. The guys might seem nice, but he’s always hated the feeling that people are laughing at him. And that girl? She looks like she’s ready to commit murder.

At least the jackass in the purple-and-yellow shirt is done taking up Kiyotaka’s time, only that Kiyotaka looks kind of embarrassed now. He’s not sure if that’s better or worse than his flustered face. But he punches in their names on the board to distract himself, and Josuke comes up to Mondo and sits so close their knees are touching. “So,” he says, “You’re his kyoudai, huh?”

“Kyoudai?” Okuyasu says. “Man, how come we can’t get cool nicknames like that?”

“Yes, please start calling each other bro. That won’t get irritating at all,” Yukako snipes from where she’s sitting.

“Yukako, come on,” Koichi says, turning to look back at her. “You promised you’d be nice today.”

She looks torn, but sighs, and Mondo thinks he hears her mutter “Only for you.”

“Dude,” Leon says, “You gotta teach me.”

One thing Mondo can say about the kids from MU is that, except for Yukako, they suck at bowling. And that does make him feel a little better, if only in a shallow way.��

It’s kind of irritating, and that irritation must be obvious to everyone involved, because Kiyotaka has tried his best to keep Mondo and Josuke separated. Leon’s pretty chill, and Makoto can make friends with everyone, but it just seems strange to Mondo that he spent so long trying to get on friendly terms with Taka only for some other guy - a complete stranger from a different school to just undermine that -

Makoto pats his shoulder, like the way you’d pet a dog to soothe it. “Calm down, Mondo,” he says. “He’s just being friendly.”

Maybe he is. Mondo can accept that there exists, somewhere, a possibility that Josuke is just a nice guy, like a punk version of Makoto, but he’s gotten so deep in his own sense of insecurity and paranoia that every time Josuke so much as talks at him or is friendly with Kiyotaka...

Well, it feels like he’s being mocked.

He might be a little jealous.

And when Taka leaves to head out to the bathroom, he might call Josuke’s hair stupid.

Koichi, for whatever that’s worth, and Okuyasu and he goddamn swear Yukako’s hair all jump in to restrain Josuke from throwing punches. Leon slaps his arm at the same time Makoto smacks his head, both of them shouting some variant of “You have the same hair!” and the end result is the five of them tell the two of them to go resolve their differences by the snack bar, and work something out fast before Taka comes back and panics.

“I don’t get what your issue with me is,” Josuke says, hands in the air. “We picked this group to go up against because Taka said you were cool. Now you’re just acting like Rohan used to, and I didn’t even burn your house down!”

Confusion mixes with anger as he says, with feeling, “What?!”

“Never mind!” Josuke snaps. “Just - whatever your problem with me is, just say it, man. Quit giving me dirty looks. It’s making Kiyo upset.”

KIYO?! Mondo hits the counter with a little too much force and says “That’s my goddamn problem!” And before Josuke can give him some other ridiculous pet name he says “We’re like - we’re - we’re kind of - !” Jesus. Jesus Christ, why can’t he just get the fuckin’ words out? “I’m inta him!”

“Yeah, and?” Josuke asks.

“And you’re fuckin’ flirting with him! Of course I got a damn issue with you!” Josuke looks blindsided for a couple seconds, and then he bursts into laughter. “And then you go an’ do this shit, shovin’ it in my face!”

“Dude!” Josuke has the audacity to put his hand on Mondo’s shoulder, ignoring every time Mondo tries to throw it off. For someone as thin as Josuke looks, he’s unfairly strong. “Dude. I am not flirting with him. That’s so gross.”

Two-faced bastard! “You got a fuckin’ problem with my friend?!”

“Dude. He’s my cousin.”

“Yer - what?” Mondo blinks, all his pent up energy dissipating in the shock. “Then - then what the fuck were you sayin’ ta him to make ‘im blush?”

“I’m teasing him about you, ya dweeb.” He snorts. “God. No. I’m not flirting with my fuckin’ cousin. And even if we weren’t related, I’m not gonna hit on some guy in front of my boyfriends.”

“Oh.” He’s...totally deflated now. And feels like an asshole. “Uh...” Great. “I’m sorry fer bein’ such an asshole,” he grumbles.

Josuke lets it slide rather easily, shrugging it off. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve had worse interactions.”

Mondo still rubs the back of his head, anxiously, and he’s still not all that comfortable with Josuke’s smirk. “Gotta say,” he admits, “I never woulda thought the two of you were related. Ya don’t exactly look alike.”

Josuke shoves his hands in his pockets and leans back against the counter. “Well, it’s not by blood or anything. His dad married my ne- uh, I mean, my uncle -” Was he just going to say nephew? “But we take family very seriously, and we’re...kind of a large family.”

For a second, he looks almost depressed by his own statement, eyes kind of foggy, lips pulled down and staring at his boyfriends with some kind of intense anxiety. He sighs, and slaps Mondo on the back. “Let’s just get back to the game, ‘kay? I think Taka’ll be happier when we get along.”

He feels like he missed something, but says “Sure, okay,” following Josuke back to their seats.

Whatever it is that’s on his mind, it’s either passed or he’s hidden it by the time they’ve reached their friends. Josuke reacts to Kiyotaka’s suspicious glare by ruffling his hair. “So, Kiyo -”

“Don’t call me that,” he groans.

And Josuke ignores him. “A former delinquent with a bad temper, huh? I bet your stepdad’s gonna love that.”

Kiyotaka lets out a scream, and drops the bowling ball to the floor. Mondo tries to pretend he doesn’t see something faintly pink and blue grabbing it just before it hits the ground.

#nori talks #danganronpa #ishimondo #nori writes #fanfic #jjba #josuke/okuyasu/koichi implied #they're both vague aus in addition to a crossover...#icarus.docx #mine

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medea10 · 5 years

Text

My Review of Zombieland Saga

#anime review #zombieland saga #kotaro tatsumi #sakura minamoto #lily hoshikawa #saki nikaido #junko konno #tae yamada #yugiri #ai mizuno

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haikyuu-writes · 6 years

Note

HI ITS MEEEE! May i request a scenario where the vball team is taking turns kissing Kageyama’s future s/o’s cheek just to get him to confess? Thank youuu! 💙

HEEYYY it’s my first ask!!! thank u so much for sending this in ❤️ i hoped i did this cute request some justice ;;

It was no big deal. No, it wasn’t. Just a simple loving gesture between two friends. Yeah, that was it.

Kageyama huffed angrily as he gulped down from his water bottle. He stared at the sight far off from him, his blue eyes taking in every little detail. His mind went over every single rational and reasonable explanation for the scene that just happened. He then tracked back to the beginnings of this afternoon.

“Yo, Hinata!”

Kageyama’s head turned to the source of the voice and there you were, standing by the gymnasium doors awkwardly. But still adorable. Kageyama didn’t mull over that last bit too much; he was starting to think it more and more which was just too dangerous. No, no. This was a simple crush. Just that.

Hinata bounced over to you. “[Name]-chan! What brings you over here? Are you here to see me do some awesome spikes?”, he excitedly exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

You giggled at his cheeriness. “I brought over these”, you reached your hand out to him, fingers clasped over his notebooks. “You forgot them on your desk. Again. You know we have a quiz tomorrow, right?” You gently reminded the boy. Hinata grumbled in shame. Of course, the idiot had forgotten and if it weren’t for you, he probably would have gotten another zero.

“Thanks for bringing this and reminding me, [Name]-chan!” He exclaimed.

“Okay, no problem. I’ll get going now!” You started to step back, when Hinata grabbed your wrist. “Wait, why don’t you watch us for a bit? I’ll show you a cool new move of mine!”

You seemed to ponder over the idea, and eventually gave in. “Alright, I’ll stay for a little while but only if your captain and coach say it’s okay!”

Hinata nodded excitedly. “It’ll be alright! You’ve already helped us so many times, you’re like a manager now anyway!”, he replied. Which was true, Kageyama thought. You were friends with Yachi, and she employed your help making onigiri for the boys whenever they had serious practice matches. And being friends with Yachi also meant lending notes to the ‘freshman idiot duo’, as Tsukishima oh-so-kindly put. He amazingly passed that English test because of your organized reviewers. On top of that, you also had a fondness for volleyball as you played it yourself a few times and gave your input to Kiyoko about taking down data on combinations and future opponents whenever needed. Not to mention, your energy jived with Tanaka and Nishinoya and you even started giving cool nicknames to their moves.

But the onigiris were probably the most memorable part. Kageyama smiled in memory of the first time he tasted them. Because that may have been the point where his “oh, they’re really pretty” thoughts that often gathered in class turned to “oh, they’re really adorable and kind and cute and fun” thoughts that gathered in all known times of the day.

Kageyama watched as Hinata walked over to where Daichi and Ukai-sensei stood. After a few minutes of explanation, he got permission and turned to you to give a big thumbs-up. You then walked over to where Yachi and Kiyoko were, getting nearer to him by the second.

“Hi, Kageyama!” You greeted him. He stilled for a second. “Hey, [Name]-san.”

“I’ll be here to watch you guys for a bit! Hope that’s okay?” You smiled at him. He quickly turned away, trying to hide the inevitable blush in his cheeks. “Sure. Do what you want.” He walked away, his hands clutching the ball too hard. Oh god, now he sounded too cold. He mentally hit himself, already practicing how his future conversations with you would and should go.

From the other side of the gym, orange-colored eyes observed the scenario. Hinata sighed. Oh, how his stupidly rigid setter needed some serious help in the love department. And with this, a brilliant idea popped into his head. He turned to the gray-haired male beside him and tapped him on the shoulder. “Neh, Suga-san..”

Practice started soon after and Kageyama pushed his thoughts of you away. He breathed in and let his concentration fill his mind with game play. Three hours passed by in a blur and soon after, they were taking down the nets and gathering the balls littered on the court.

“That was amazing, Nishinoya-senpai! I thought the match was over, for sure!” You excitedly stated. Nishinoya hummed, smiling widely. “You flatter me, my dear kouhai! But what Guardian Deity am I if I couldn’t save that?” He laughed out loud.

Kageyama bit down a smile as he watched you play along with his senpais.

“Oh, yeah, [Name]-san.” Sugawara approached you and Nishinoya. “I was meaning to ask you if you could make some onigiri for us again? We’re going to Dateko in a few days for a match and we could use some of your snacks!”

You nodded. “Of course, Suga-senpai! I’d be honored!” You huffed your chest out in pride and gave him a thumbs-up.

Kageyama was too busy staring at just how cute that little action was to notice Suga’s sly smile with Hinata.

“Yeay, thank you!” Sugawara exclaimed and quickly, he bent down and kissed you on the cheek.

Wait.

Did that just..

Kageyama froze in shock. Did his senpai really just… kiss.. you?!

Your eyes widened, mouth slightly open as the feeling of Sugawara’s lips remained on your cheek moments after the incident passed. “Hey, Suga-san! What are you doing?!” Nishinoya and Tanaka yelled. Sugawara chuckled. “It was to thank [Name]-chan for always being so supportive of us!” His eyes then quickly filled with worry as he looked over at you. You had been quiet after all this time. “Ah, but was that too forward of me?! Did I offend you, [Name]-san?! I’m so sorry!!!”

You shook your head. “No, senpai! I was just shocked, that’s all. Besides, I didn’t really mind it. It was cute!” You giggled, a wide smile appearing on your face.

“Then, would you mind if I did that, [Name]-chan?!” Nishinoya asked curiously.

You pursed your lips in thought. “Hmm, not really~” You chuckled as Nishinoya whooped in joy.

Kageyama’s lips soured down into a frown unconsciously. He wiped off his sweat, and without a word to the rest of the team teasing you, he left the gym, grabbed his things in the locker room and went home.

And if that sight wasn’t enough to torment him, what happened the next days was just pure and utter torture.

“The new Volleyball magazine?! Sweet! Thank you, [Name]-chan!” *Kiss*.

“Thanks for helping me with receiving practice, [Name]-chan! I’ll treat you to ice cream later!” *Kiss*.

“You saved my life with those Japanese literature reviewers, [Name]! I even got a 23/30! Thank you!” *Kiss.*

“As expected, your onigiris are the best!” *Kiss.*

“Hey, [Name]-san. Thanks for always helping Shimizu with the notes. We owe you one.” *Kiss.*

And if Tanaka, Nishinoya, Hinata, Suga and even Daichi weren’t driving him insane enough, that bastard Tsukishima just had to join in!

“[Name]-san. Thanks for the towels.” *Kiss.*

And it was a kiss to the forehead too! It had been cute as hell, and Kageyama hated himself for even admitting to that.

After practice ended that night, Kageyama angrily grabbed his things and made a dash for the locker room again. He stomped down the stairs and walked towards the school gates. He was too busy wrapped in his own thoughts to hear that you called out to him.

“KA-GE-YA-MA!” You hit him on the shoulder, running up beside him.

“WHAT?!” He turned to the person who even dared to touch him at this moment. But he quickly apologized when he saw it was you. “Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else.”

“Are you mad at me or something, Kageyama?” You asked directly.

“N-no.. Why would you ask that?” He replied, his voice lowering down.

“Well, whenever I’m at your practices, you’re the only one who doesn’t talk to me, which is weird because we’re classmates! I thought we were friends!” You pouted, glaring at him.

“I’m not mad at you..” He grumbled.

“Then why have you been avoiding me?”

Kageyama grew silent, not really knowing what to say. “I don’t know, you seemed happy with the others, anyway.. Especially with that kiss thing…” His voice was barely a whisper now, as if he both wanted and did not want you to hear him.

“Yeah, but you’re my friend too! And that’s just a stupid thing we do for fun!”

“But still.. it’s your cheeks.. and they’re kisses..”

You stopped in your tracks. “Hold on.” You grabbed him by the hem of his shirt. “Are you… jealous?”

Kageyama froze. Oh, shit.

“I’m not!!” He insisted loudly, glaring at you. “What dumbass would get jealous over that?”

“Hoooo, if you say so~” You ended the conversation with that, and walked out the school with him uneventfully.

Minutes had passed by uneventfully but Kageyama’s mind was working into overdrive. Here he was, walking home alone with you in the evening and you were standing way too close that his hands kept on brushing against yours. The metals in your keychains chimed with every step you took and the scent of your perfume wafted into the air and oh god, all the details were too much for him! It would have been heaven any other time if it were the past month or before, but every single kiss that had happened since the incident with Suga kept on replaying in his mind instead. Every ‘thank you’ that led to lips landing on your skin..

And he knew. That he couldn’t possibly ignore all the little pangs his heart sent his way for each kiss anymore.

I can’t believe I’m saying this.

“W-what if I was..?” He softly said, reddening by the second. His blue eyes were downcast, hands stuffed into his pockets in shyness and his shoulders hunched a little too tense.

“What?”

“What if I was jealous..?”

In that moment, your lips broke into a smile. “..I’d be really happy, then.”

He looked up in surprise and his eyes met yours. “What..?”

You laughed softly. “And here I thought you hated me because you kept ignoring me. Aaaah, Kageyama, you meanie~” You hid your face in your hands.

Kageyama couldn’t believe it. All this time, you liked him back?

He reached out and slowly pried your hands off your face. He bent down and looked at you straight. “Does this mean… I can tell the others to back off now?” He asked.

Your eyes darted to the side, lips pursed in a smile, before looking back up to him. “Yes.”

“Good.” He kissed you on the lips, and the harsh memories of the past days quickly faded away. All he could remember at this moment now was the feeling of your lips on his.

“WOO-HOO! FINALLY, BAKAYAMA!” Hinata’s loud voice shattered the good mood and Kageyama glared at the boy who bounced over to the two of you. “It has been a good ten days, [Name]!” He grinned at you.

You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. “What?”

“Took you long enough, Kageyama. We were starting to get worried you’d never get jealous enough to do something about your crush.” Sugawara supplied, walking up to you with the other members of the club. They all had similar mischievous smiles.

As the realization of the truth set in, you laughed out loud. “All that was because of him?” You pointed to the guy standing beside you. Kageyama was frozen, jaw dropped in disbelief.

Hinata came up to him and slapped him on the back. “But at least, Suga-san stole [Name]-chan’s cheek kiss first, right?!” He grinned widely. And with that, Kageyama was brought back to reality in an instant. Not to everyone’s surprise, the wing spiker nursed a lump on his head for the next week. But what was a bruise after all, when he just became the best romantic mastermind in Karasuno?

and there u have it!! our tall bb birb deserves sum good ass kisses now hehe

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyuu imagine #haikyuu!! imagine #kageyama tobio #kageyama

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dokidokikusoge · 6 years

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TOp TeN GaMes of 2017 The Official Only List Forever I Can’t Believe I GOt Teleported To Another World As A PIece of ChiCken MEat

Hi.

It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? Well it’s that time of the year again, which means I get to write out a list of ten video games that I thought were awesome in the year 2017. Despite being busy translating and editing video game text for work, I somehow found time to finish approximately 30x more games this year. In the name of research. Or something.

Boy oh boy has there been a whole lot of good games. Everything from massive AAA titles to tiny little indie darlings. Free experiments and expensive 150 hour adventures across time and space.

This is not an objective list, but it is 100% the absolute truth and all other lists are full of shit. Fuck those lists. Fuck my list. FUCK THE POPO.

Let’s rock.

For what it’s worth, there are a TON of other games I adored this year that didn’t end up making the list. Titles I’m still playing like Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey, or Fire Emblem Echoes (amazing localization). Just because they’re not on this list doesn’t mean they aren’t every bit as fun. This was a packed year.

10. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

I’m cheating.

I have not beaten Xenoblade Chronicles 2 yet. I’m 85 hours in and on chapter 7, but I have not beaten the game. I desperately wanted to include it on this list, and quite frankly, would have put it much closer to the bottom. It’s just that good. However, I figured it’d be unfair to do so considering I haven’t even come close to seeing the end credits.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the best big budget PS2/Dreamcast JRPG that never saw the light of day until now.

That’s about the best compliment I can afford it.

9. Gravity Rush 2

So the original Gravity Rush was one of my favorite games the year it first released for the Vita. Despite the load times and some of the muddy visuals, I found Kat’s bizarre tale of gravity bending madness to be equal parts charming and dark. Coupled with the legendary Kohei Tanaka’s score, I couldn’t help but be dazzled by her ability to travel through the air like a rocket. I spent years waiting for a sequel that would wrap up her story. I’m glad I got one.

It has its issues (the quest design and some of the pacing), but Gravity Rush 2 is still mostly everything I wanted from the end of Kat’s story. Beautiful world design crossed with fun traversal, an amazing soundtrack, and a whimsical little cast of characters means that even almost a full year removed from its release, I still think back fondly on the game.

See you around, Kat. Thanks for all the fish.

8. Resident Evil 7

It’s so good to have you back, babe. I missed the shit out of you.

I used to be one of the biggest Resident Evil fans this side of the east coast. I’ll never forget Christmas Day many years ago, when I opened up two boxes to find a Playstation console and a copy of Resident Evil 2 (and no memory card WHOOPS). But since then, things have taken a turn for the worse. I enjoyed Resident Evil 5 for what it was, but it was starting to feel like something else entirely.

And then Resident Evil 6 happened, and I couldn’t get more than a few hours in before getting angry.

Yet somehow Capcom managed to win me back. Somehow Resident Evil 7 reminded me of what I used to love about the series. It certainly didn’t hurt that I played the entire thing in VR and loved every second of it.

Bring on RE8.

7. The Evil Within 2

And the award for most improved sequel goes to... The Evil Within 2. A wonderful surprise and return to form for producer Shinji Mikami and his team. If you like good survival horror, this will be your jam. Fixes every single issue with the original game, at least in my opinion.

Bethesda dropped the ball on marketing this game, but don’t let that stop you from experiencing one helluva time.

6. New DanganRonpa V3

The less said about this one the better. Try to go in blank if you can.

Some people aren’t fond of the direction this one takes. I don’t think it could have gone any other way. The perfect way to end this franchise, should this truly be the end.

5. The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III

But Elliot, how is this game not higher on your list!?

The answer is actually simple. I’ve stopped really approaching each entry of the series as independent games. They’re just chapters in one larger saga. No single game is my favorite. The series as a whole is my favorite.

Cold Steel III cut me deep. The game takes the format of the original CS, improves on it, and then shakes things up to the point where you’re not even sure where you’re standing anymore. I can’t count how many times I screamed at fellow series fans, shook by what had just taken place. This series continues to blow my mind time and time again, and the wait for Cold Steel IV couldn’t possibly feel any longer than it does right now.

4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I don’t like 3D Zelda games. Let’s just get that out there. I never liked Ocarina of Time. I never liked Majora’s Mask. I enjoyed Wind Waker the most out of the bunch (but still nowhere close to my love for the 2D games). I hated Twilight Princess and I had zero interest in Skyward Sword and its motion controls.

I also don’t like open world games very much.

A 3D open world Zelda game? Well now you’re talking my language...?

Any other year and this would have been an easy number one. Too bad that 2017 is packed with killers.

I can’t wait to go back and play the DLC.

3. PUBG

Man, what a surprise. I haven’t been THIS into a realistic multiplayer shooter since my days of playing Call of Duty 4 endlessly during its beta test on the 360.

To be honest, I’m not even sure if it’s the game I’m in love with so much as it’s the moments with friends I’ve gotten to experience within the game. I only ever play in team matches, but every single round is like some dumb action movie starring me and my pals, and even when things go poorly, they typically go poorly in the stupidest way humanly possible. I’ve played so many hours of PUBG that I’m scared to check the exact number.

I want to play this game with every single one of my friends. It’s that kind of experience.

2. Dragon Quest XI

I think the funniest thing about Dragon Quest XI’s place on this list is that in any other year, this shouldn’t have been close. That just goes to show you how absurd 2017 has been for video games.

The less said about the journey of DQXI the better. All I’ll say is that it is simultaneously the perfect jumping point for franchise newcomers while also being the most beautiful, glorious love letter to those who have been there since the beginning. This is quite possibly one of my favorite games of all time, and if you manage to make it to the true end without being at least a little bit moved, you might not have a soul.

You might be an android or something.

Wait a sec.

1. NieR: Automata

Was there ever any questioning this? What else is there to write about this game that people much smarter than me haven’t already? It’s oppressive, it’s suffocating, it’s joyous, it’s hopeful, it’s hopeless, it’s crushing, it’s tear-inducing, it’s a breath of air after emerging from deep within the water. NieR: Automata is a very special game, made by an extremely talented group of men and women who should have been recognized for their talents a long, long time ago.

Much time has passed since Drakengard, that bizarre and kind of terrible but fascinating PS2 game, first hit shelves and got dumped on. But now, finally, Yoko Taro and his close collaborators are finally getting the chance to step out into the light.

Thanks, 2017.

#GOTY #Still Alive #Nier Automata #DanganRonpa #Zelda #Dragon Quest #PUBG #Gravity Rush 2 #Sen no Kiseki #The Evil Within 2 #Resident Evil 7 #Xenoblade Chronicles 2

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remade-jimintensify · 7 years

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TAG MASTERPOST

so i had to do quite some tags and here i finally am doing them. srsly, you don’t have to look at this. even when you are tagged. it’s rlly long and i am .. not rlly interesting ;_; also, i thank everyone who tagged me and sorry that i only am doing this now whoops :’)) oh right, feel free to do any tag you like, you don’t have to do all and you don’t have to post them all at once like me so yeah just :3 have fun, i guess :]

I TAG @flowerchildchim @hoseokxx @aegyongi @ssaipeo @chimppup @strawberryjamjimin @vcute @minhollydays @agustdia @jinsasleep @overthemoonjoon @fairyseok @jimin1004 @xbaangtanx @kyuokie @rninyoonqi @turtlenecktaetae @yoonblebells @zuanshi @carameljkook @pjungkook @qtaes @hobipd @taesflower @joonphases @thisspringday @taedboy @slutlingar @mochikissme @mochikotae @chan-yoongi @sugaswagdaddy @fluffyliontae @extrajungkookie @sugamel @wintrychim @thoughtssilent @poofyyoongi

get to know me

tagged by @sugamel @taedboy @overthemoonjoon @slutlingar @sugaswagdaddy @omojinyounghobi @mochikotae @chan-yoongi @fluffyliontae @extrajungkookie @hoseokxx and @qtaes rules: tag 20 followers you’d like to know better

(had to add some questions for this one, because i got tagged in two tags that were pretty similar >.> lmao)

nickname: kiwi, kiki, kyrosh, kiwei, pure angel :))) jk, everyone says i’m liviing in denial so i guess i shld just accept this and move on :3, fruki but tbh everyone calls me kyra lmao :]

gender: female

zodiac sign: aries

height: 160 cm (sth like 5′2″)

hogwart’s house: slytherin

favorite color: i just rlly love colors in general :3

song stuck in your head: treat you better by shawn mendes

time right now: 5pm

average hours of sleep: six

lucky number: none, what even is luck lmao

last thing i googled: the weather lol

blankets i sleep with: one, but it’s so fluffy (someone come n cuddle)

favorite bands: too many but for kpop it’s (obviously) bangtan, got7, mamamoo, monsta x and all of the others i’m posting :3

dream trip: mm.. canada, korea, japan,

wearing right now: oversized burgundy sweater, black sweats

age of blog: two yrs but i only post bangtan since one and a few months

following: 200 sth

posts: .. coughs sth like 30k

what i post about: kpop, pups and kitties, too much personal shit lol

when did my blog reach its peak: /shrugs/ tbh lmao ;;

last movie watched: mm.. kick ass 2 but not rlly so i’m going with the wind rises

last tv show you watched: grey’s anatomy

do you have any other blogs? my main (taehyung1e)

do you get asks regularly? mm.. not .. really? sometimes? idk :3

why did you choose your url? jimin’s intense :3

pokemon team: i was team mystery lol but this game was.. yikes

favorite characters: aomine daiki, levi ackerman, tanaka ryunosuke (probably), ace and so many more, srsly ;; (only animes lol, whoops)

dream job: a rich bitch

no hallyu tag!

tagged by @agustdia

10 groups/artists you like besides Kpop/liked before Kpop:

pierce the veil

bmth

fall out boy

the neighbourhood

panic! at the disco // brendon urie

thirty seconds to mars

papa roach

hands like houses

one ok rock

set it off

10 favorite non-kpop songs:

keep your eyes open - needtobreathe

bullet train - stephen swartz

no parallels - hands like houses

blasphemy - bmth

hero - skillet

surrender - billy talent

light up - thousand foot krutch

falling away from me - korn

texas is forever - pierce the veil

if you can’t hang - sleeping with sirens

srsly i just put my music on shuffle because nope, there is no way imma choose my top 10. :3

10 favorite movies:

spirited away

lilo & stitch

kingsman

cry baby

tangled

dracula untold

maze runner

how to train your dragon (1 and 2)

every old disney movie tbh, rip

hercules (just because)

i literally have no favs, so idk man

10 favorite tv shows, including anime & cartoons:

buffy the vampire slayer

kyoukai no kanata

dexter (but only the first six or so seasons)

zankyou no terror

orange is the new black

haikyuu

yuri on ice

kim possible

ano hana

toradora

10 favorite manga/comics:

gangsta

hirunaka no ryuusei

horimiya

ao haru ride

ookami shoujo to kuro ouji

endou-kun no jikken note

19 days

kirakira no hibi

soul eater

tamen de gushi

10 things you enjoyed before kpop/enjoy besides kpop, that won’t fit in the lists above:

photography

astrology

books

greek mythology

video games

design

writing poems and stories

museums

flower studies

astronomy

ten tag

tagged by @sugamel last movie you watched: kingsman

last song you listened to: very nice - seventeen

last show you watched: dexter

last book you read?: another day

last thing you ate?: crackers :3

if you could be anywhere in the world right now where would you be: idk.. somewhere where.. i can cuddle with .. someone.

when would you time travel to: either the 70s or 80s or the date i’m done with school, lol

first thing you would do with lottery money: traveling or helping poor countries maybe

character you would hang out with for a day? umm.. aomine :3 from knb

time right now: 4pm

the ‘or’ tag (idk how else to call it tbh lmao)

tagged by @thisspringday

build a snowman with v OR have a snowball fight with j-hope

get coffee with suga OR get ice cream with suga

go to the cinema with jimin OR the amusement park with jungkook

do a dance cover with j-hope OR sing a duet with jin

kiss rap monster OR cuddle suga

babysit with jimin AND dogsit with v

meet j-hope’s family OR have v meet your family

film a commercial with j-hope OR film a sketch with v

hug jimin OR hold hands with jungkook

go to paris with jin OR go to london with suga

film a drama with jin OR do a photo shoot with rap monster

attend an award show with rap monster OR wear couple t-shirts at the airport with jungkook

spend a lazy day with suga OR explore a city with j-hope

fall asleep next to jimin OR wake up next to jungkook

make up a silly rap with v OR a silly choreography with jin

have a fun picnic with j-hope OR a fancy date with jin

have jungkook serenade you OR have v sing you to sleep

have a dance party with j-hope OR sing karaoke with suga

go camping with jimin and v OR go to the beach with rap monster and suga

cook with jin OR bake a cake with jimin

have a sleepover with the hyung line OR a birthday party with the maknae line

celebrate halloween with jungkook, suga, v and j-hope OR christmas with rap monster, jimin and j-hope

i decided to not do the nsfw stuff because i am tired, lmao ;;

alphabet tag

tagged by @hoseokxx @overthemoonjoon @pjungkook @yoon-v and @ssaipeo

A - Age: seventeen B - Biggest fear: not being enough, getting more anxieties C - Current time: 6:48pm D - Drink you last had: water E - Easiest person(s) to talk to: friends on tumblr and my mom F - Favorite song: mm.. i don’t have a favorite but i guess, but shape of you is rlly rlly nice to me and maybe also blackbear songs, like, recently :] G - Grossest memory: the spider in the bathtub, fck i almost fainted H - Horror yes or horror no: uhm, no I - In love: with jeon jeongguk J - Jealous of people: .. i am just a rlly jealous person, i’m sick fml K - Killed someone: wish i cld kill my classmates :) L - Love at first sight or should I walk by again: should i walk by again M - Middle name: it would be natalie, but my mom decided to just not N - Number of siblings: two half siblings O - One wish: i want to see my online friends just once, or at least one P - Person you called last: probably my mom Q - Question you’re always asked: are you (really) okay? rip R - Reason to smile: bangtan, my cats, some.. one most likely S - Song you last sang: dearly departed by marianas trench T - Time you woke up: 8:30am U - Underwear color: rn? white and nude V - Vacation destination: i rlly want to go to canada, kraków, seoul or busan, tokyo, scandinavia, back to italy or spain W - Worst habit: not drinking enough, procrastination X - X-rays had: teeth Y - Your favourite food: food is my fav in general, don’t make me choose Z - Zodiac sign: aries

first letter of your name - tag (idek fam)

tagged by @yoon-v rules: answer the questions with the first letter of your name, then tag 10 people. If the person who tagged you has the same initial, you must use different answers. you cannot use the same word twice.

What is your name? - kyra

A four letter word? - knee

A boy’s name? - kyle

An occupation? - kitchen assistant

Something you wear? - knit sweater

A color? - khaki

A food? - kidney beans

Something you find in the bathroom? - knob???

A place? - kraków

A reason for being late? - killing :)

Something you shout? - kaWAII! (idek)

A movie title? - kick ass

Something you drink? - kakao (= hot cocoa in german hah!)

An animal? - koala

A type of car? - kia

Title of a song? - king for a day by ptv

eleven random facts

tagged by @chan-yoongi  rules: tell your followers 11 random facts about yourself, and tag 11 people in return! tag backs are allowed, but you mustn’t repeat any of the facts you mentioned previously. the facts can be absolutely anything! Whatever springs to mind! let’s get started!

i have two cats who own my ass, pretty much

i used to not like the color yellow but now i have a yellow sweater and it looks hella cute

i’m in love with jeon jeongguk

i love finding out about new things

i’m super interested in astrology and astronomy

my favorite sound is probably water and when people talk me to sleep

i love the smell of sunscreen sososo much

i have family all over the world - brazil, germany, france, africa, spain, america, austria and so on

i’m pretty average

i really wanna call my friends i know from tumblr but i am soso shy, but yeah.. just hearing their voices wld make me really happy

my hands are small but my feet are kinda big ://///

fave kpop songs of 2016

tagged by @fluffyliontae @chan-yoongi and @sugamel

no particular order, ofc. how cld i ever decide, lmao :3

stuck - monsta x

lie - pjm, bangtan

wings - bangtan

save me - bangtan

why so lonely - wonder girls

hate - 4minute

shut up and groove - heize & dean

lucky one - exo

check in - hiphop unit, svt

fire truck - nct 127

fxxk it - bigbang

whistle - blackpink

body - mino

very, very, very - i.o.i

galaxy - ladies’ code

love me do - vixx

7th sense - nct u

bonnie & clyde - dean

21 - dean

a few years later - block b

and probably more, heh

url tag (kpop edition)

tagged by @strawberryjamjimin rules: spell out your url with kpop songs and tag ten people

j ump - bangtan i need u - bangtan m ad city - nct 127 i like it - sistar n ow - trouble maker t respass - monsta x e ureka - zico & zion.t n o make up - zion.t s ave me - bangtan i ‘m not sorry - dean & dok2 f anfare - sf9 y olo - madtown

kpop tag

tagged by @extrajungkookie

who was your first female bias? - either LE from exid or hyuna from 4minute (/sobs cuz not anymore), i’m not sure though.. >.>

who was your first male bias? - jeon jeongguk, look at this loyal bub right here /points at myself

who are your current biases? (other than the ones above) - well, as ults i guess jeongguk (which is quite obvious, hello) and jimin aaaand.. well every single girl of mamamoo, don’t make me choose, bye.

in the entire kpop industry who is closest to your ideal type? - tbh, probably taehyung? he is just sweet and energetic and he loves dogs and art and he is aesthetic and idk, i just rlly rlly love him :/

have you ever attended any kpop concert/fan meeting/fansign? - /waves gbye/ NO

if yes, which group/artist? how was the experience? - :)

which group/artist would you like to see live? - bangtan babes ;; and dean tbrh (way more, but these two are like rlly high, prob the highest)

how did you get into kpop? - .. :) my lovely friends got me into that

who are your otps? - every bangtan ship (except for yoonmin, although they are hella cute. i just don’t read them), markson, yugkook, 2hoseok, chanmin, chanbaek, chansoo, yoonhyun, uhmm... more probably? but yeah :3 OH! jeongguk x svt, lolol (esp mingyu, my bby ;;)

when did u start to ship them? - uhm.. jikook since the first second tbh lmao and the others just.. came like that. i think my second bangtan ship was taegi and it was rlly rlly soon after i started shipping jikook. :3

what is your favorite fanfic genre? - fluff, lots of plot with good smut, uhm.. gore tbrh but there is not that much of it :/ angst, when i rlly wanna cry ;; lmao

what is your favorite music genre? - everything except for the good old german schlager, and techno lmao ;; i probably don’t like death metal either tbh ;;

on shuffle (kpop edition)

tagged by @rninyoonqi @mochikotae @sugamel and @chan-yoongi rules: put your music library on shuffle and list down the first 10 songs and tag 10 people.

lost - bangtan

married to the msuic - shinee

begin - bangtan (jeongguk)

let me know - bangtan

black - cover by jung min & daeho

you think - girls’ generation

bae bae - bigbang

okey dokey - zico & mino

come back home - 2ne1

what 2 do - dean

kpop - firsts

tagged by @mochikotae @slutlingar and @hoseokxx rules: list five or ten of your favorite kpop boy / girl groups. put your first bias of each group and the name of the mv you first saw them in.

bangtan - first bias: jeongguk; first mv: dope or i need u

got7 - first bias: jackson and mark; first mv: just right

exo - first bias: kyungsoo; first mv: call me baby

mamamoo - first bias: hwasa; first mv: um oh ah yeah

seventeen - first bias: mingyu; first mv: adore u

monsta x - first bias: jooheon; first mv: trespass

bigbang - first bias: seungri; first mv: fantastic baby

b.a.p - first bias: yongguk; first mv: one shot

wonder girls - first bias: yubin; first mv: so hot

blackpink - first bias: lisa; first mv: whistle

five things tag

tagged by @hoseokxx and @chan-yoongi

5 things you’ll find in my bag

phone

wallet

earphones

glasses cloth

water

5 things you’ll find in my bedroom

bed (!)

photos, a lot

albums

books

school stuff

5 things I’ve always wanted to do in my life

travel a lot

visit a bangtan concert

improve writing

learn about new things

stop procrastination

5 things I’m currently into

bangtan (obv)

writing

photoshop (i’m still learning, bear with me ;;)

astrology

tv shows

5 things on my to-do list:

finish homework

read demian

go out more

start studying for a levels

... secret :3

5 things people may not know about me:

secret :3

i’m not doing so well

i’m honestly such an open book its sad

i have a problem with ppl leaving me behind

i am the epitome of jealousy

random k-pop

tagged by @sugamel rules: go to this website: www.random.org/lists/ and pick 15 of your bias/faves.

mum/dad: mingyu

sibling: jooheon

grandma/grandad: jackson

haunts you: hani hIGHKEY FANGIRLING

boyfriend/girlfriend: yongguk i’m ded

your ex: mino lordY

your bestfriend: joy

proposed to you: solar

your boss: jeongguk .. /coughs i wanna be his secretary

random person you meet at a bar: minho

rival: taeyang

first kiss: chanyeol OK IM OFFICIALLY DED LMAO

drunk and singing karaoke: hyuk o m g, he is such a loser ://

played 7 minutes in heaven with: kyungsoo .. listen.. his.. liPS

gave you your favourite dessert: jimin

#tagged #abt me #FINALLY DID THIS WOW #FFS

17 notes · View notes

sunbrights · 7 years

Text

dvd commentary: viewfinder

(For anon, because I also have a special place in my heart for "viewfinder", and I wanted to talk about it more.

This isn't going to go on AO3, for a few reasons that I'll spare you guys from getting into, but I know that Tumblr isn't very kind to long text posts. If this is a pain to read let me know and I'll try to find another alternative!

I hope you guys enjoy!)

I originally wanted to write "viewfinder" as the first of a series of quickfics exploring friendships that have a lot of potential, in my opinion, but don't get a lot of screentime for whatever reason. I really enjoy both Peko and Mahiru as characters, though, and the longer I went the more I wanted to do a deeper dive, which is how it came to be what is now.

(I still want to do something similar to what I was originally planning, though I don't think they'll be quickfics anymore; probably longer oneshots like this one. I do have another fic planned in the same vein that's intended to be a sort of companion to "viewfinder," though that might be a while out.)

Essentially, I was interested first by the fact that Peko mentions Mahiru a few times in her FTEs, which leaves open the possibility for them to be friends even if it's never looked at explicitly in the main game. There are a lot of peppered references to both Peko's and Mahiru's FTEs in here as a result of that (which may or may not have already been obvious). Second, I was interested in the impact on Peko of having to kill her, outside of the consequences for herself and Fuyuhiko in the context of the killing game, especially if the two of them had been friends beforehand. Striking a balance between those two concepts, tonally, was really tough, but in the end I decided I didn't want to leave either one of them out.

Nitty gritty commentary under the cut!

** **

Koizumi has taken at least four photographs of her since they arrived on the island. One was a group photo, taken the first day; the other three were taken covertly, when she thought Peko wasn’t aware. (Peko cannot afford not to be aware.)

I really agonized over how many photos Mahiru would reasonably have taken at this point. I think this number (and the one later, when Mahiru shows Peko all of them) changed at least five or six times. Why?? I have no idea. Weird hang ups in editing hell.

She does the same with the others, with similar frequency; most of them rarely notice, if ever. Peko allows it because she sees no reason not to, but she does consider the possibility of Koizumi having goals beyond a few candid photographs.

(She brings this up to the young master, and he rolls his eyes.

“Koizumi’s a fucking goody-goody,” he says, feet kicked up on the edge of his desk. “She’s not worth worrying about. If it bugs you, tell her to knock it off. Otherwise, I don’t give a shit what she does.”)

The next time Koizumi takes a photo of her, Peko is out splitting coconuts on the beach. It starts out as just her, Mioda, and a handful of others, but once they start shouting about the quality of the coconut juice, it isn’t long before the rest of the class begins to file in.

This section was tough to get right, and a lot of it ended up getting cut; I almost ended up cutting the whole section (I did a couple times, I think), but I'm glad I was eventually able to get it where I wanted it. The coconut special event in particular felt like a good starting place to me because it's the earliest point that we see Peko bonding and socializing with the others, even if she didn't really intend to.

At one point Souda, Hinata, and Mioda hold six coconuts out in a line; Peko slices through all of them in a single swing, and hears the familiar snap of Koizumi’s shutter behind her.

The others all whoop as the tops of the coconuts hit the sand. Koizumi rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling even as she steps back. When they start handing out the remaining shells, Peko brings one over to her.

“I was wondering,” she says, after Koizumi has taken the first sip of her juice, “would it be all right for me to see that photo?”

“The one I just took of you? Sure, if you want.” Koizumi pulls on the strap of her camera to swing it back up towards her. It looks unwieldy to hold in one hand, but she does it without much effort at all. “Don’t worry, you look really cool in it.”

The digital display of the camera is grainy and cluttered with functional symbols, but the most important parts of the image are clear. Peko discovers that she isn’t the subject of the photo, as she’d assumed— instead, she is the dynamic foreground to the actual subjects: Souda, Hinata, and Mioda, their hands held out and their faces lit up in varying degrees of awe, fear, and delight. The line of Peko’s shoulders and the draw of her blade act as a frame for the smiles of her classmates.

(Peko can also tell that her form is off: she’s holding her right shoulder too high, and it caused the cut in the final coconut to be uneven. It’s hardly Koizumi’s fault, but having such laziness immortalized will bother her for days.)

“What do you think?”

“It’s... surprising.”

“‘Surprising’?” Koizumi draws the word out. It’s the wrong one, going by the way her brows pinch together. She twists the camera back towards herself to squint at the display. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Peko struggles to elaborate. It’s difficult to find the words to describe something when she isn’t certain of what it is in the first place. “It could have simply captured the trick they asked me to perform,” she decides on, “but instead it captures the feelings of everyone involved.” She hesitates, then clarifies: “I like it.”

Peko's much better than Hajime at giving the kind of feedback Mahiru likes to hear. She's a thoughtful character in general, but I also think she'd be familiar with what helpful feedback sounds like, sort of a counterpoint to her own criticism of herself above.

Koizumi looks up at her, eyebrows lifting. “Yeah.” She smiles, and it’s easy and friendly. “Yeah, that’s it exactly, actually. Thank you.”

Mahiru's smiles get mentioned a lot in this story, which is intentional; Peko's hyperawareness of them is meant to play into her own self-consciousness over struggling with smiling herself.

“You’re welcome,” Peko says, even if she doesn’t understand what she has to be thanked for. Koizumi seems pleased regardless, and she leans over to show Peko the other photos she’d taken so far.

There’s no harm in letting her keep taking them, she decides.

They have lunch together, sometimes. Both she and Koizumi tend to eat earlier than the others, so the hotel restaurant is often empty; on the days when neither of them are away doing other things, they sit out on the balcony and Koizumi shows her the photos she’d taken that morning.

“You know, I actually had something I wanted to talk to you about,” Koizumi says one day, dimming a photo of Togami and his spread of breakfast from her camera’s display. She pulls a small, squat album out of her camera bag and lays it out on the table between them. “Here. These are all the pictures I’ve taken of you so far.”

By Peko’s tally, Koizumi has taken six photos of her: the four she’d already been aware of, the one of her slicing the coconuts, and an additional group photo since.

In this album, there are eight.

I feel like a talent like Mahiru's has to be multifaceted; she's creatively and technically talented, obviously, but she also has to be adept enough to physically take photographs in a way that captures moments without imparting an observer effect.

That, and I think it creates a point of commonality between Peko's talent and Mahiru's (Peko being constantly aware of herself and her surroundings vs Mahiru separating herself from her surroundings in order to document them) that helps make them peers, in a backwards sort of way.

“I feel like I must be getting something wrong,” Koizumi says. She leans her chin on one hand, and the puff of her sigh scatters her bangs. “No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get the right shot of you.”

Peko touches the edge of a photo of herself leaning on the hotel restaurant’s railing. She tries to remember when it possibly could have been taken. “I don’t understand.”

“Well… Okay, look at this one.” Koizumi taps her nail against one of the group shots on the page: all eight girls standing together, smudged with chocolate and flour. “You had fun that day, right? At least, I thought you did.”

“Yes,” Peko answers. She studies the photo, trying to understand the flaw. The form is excellent and the colors are bright; it’s everything one would expect from Koizumi’s talent. “I… enjoy baking, sometimes. It was a welcome distraction.”

I like the idea of Peko enjoying cooking, especially baking, in spite of her not liking sweets. (The logic being that it's something fun she can do, and the results can be shared with people she cares about to make them happy, too.) Y'all probably can probably see that cropping up in a few stories of mine.

“But you’re the only one not smiling in the picture.” Koizumi flips the pages of her album back and forth. “See? You’re not smiling in any of them. This one kind of comes close,” she touches an image of Peko sitting together with Tanaka and Mioda while the Four Dark Devas of Destruction explore a sand castle, “but I’m not sure it counts. You look happy, but you’re not really smiling.”

This is the first reference to a FTE, specifically Peko's third one:

PEKO: Mahiru told me that... I'm the only one who doesn't smile for her pictures.

Oh. It’s about that. Peko closes her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “It wasn’t my intention to ruin your photos.” If Koizumi’s goal is to capture moments of positivity in their circumstances, it makes sense that Peko wouldn’t fit into that vision. “If you’d rather I avoid being in them from now on, I understand.”

“What?” Peko feels Koizumi’s hand clasp around her wrist. When she opens her eyes, Koizumi has her other hand splayed out over the open page of the album. “No, no. That’s not what I’m saying at all, Peko-chan. I just thought... maybe there are other times when you’re having more fun, you know? Maybe I should take pictures of you then instead.”

I think ultimately Mahiru's photos celebrate mundane joy in her friends' lives; I don't think she'd want them to be a source of anxiety for anyone, especially not a friend.

Even through Koizumi’s fingers, Peko can see how the photos of her don’t fit in well with the ones on the opposite page. There is a clear interruption in the theme of the collection. Looking again, she doesn’t know how she didn’t notice it the first time.

“It isn’t that,” she says. “Smiling can be… a challenge, for me. It may be more efficient for you to focus on the others.”

“Oh.” Koizumi’s forehead creases in what Peko assumes is a combination of sympathy and confusion. “Well, that’s okay. It’s not really about the smiles themselves, anyway. It’s more… whether or not you’re happy in the moment.” She smiles then, one that’s small and apologetic, and for a moment Peko can’t fathom it ever being that easy. “So don’t worry about it. Okay?”

Peko says, “I’ll try,” and means it.

She still thinks about it for the rest of the afternoon.

Koizumi takes fewer photos in the days after Hanamura’s execution. It’s understandable; there aren’t many causes for any of them to be smiling in that aftermath. She spends most of her mornings and afternoons out away from the others, but when Peko asks to see the photos, she declines. (“I’ve never been proud of my landscapes,” she admits. “It always feels like there’s something missing.”)

Little crossover tidbit: Natsumi preferring to take pictures of nature in "by the claw of dragon" is a reference to my headcanon here that Mahiru doesn't enjoy it much.

The next time she arrives at the hotel restaurant early enough for lunch, she’s the brightest Peko has seen her in days.

“Peko-chan! Look, I have a surprise for you.”

She slides onto the opposite bench and sets her lunch aside, an afterthought. “I was right, I think.” She unzips one of the outside pockets of her camera bag to produce a photo, newly printed. “I just needed to get the right shot of you.”

Having said the above re: Mahiru not wanting her photos to be a source of anxiety for people, I do think that she would keep trying, and that she probably would have been one of the best people (next to Hajime) to help Peko get past her mental blocks.

Peko doesn’t understand. She’d only been practicing with Hinata for a couple days, and his comedic timing leaves much to be desired. “Is that…?”

“It sure is.” Koizumi’s smile is proud and eager. “Here, see for yourself.”

She slides the photo across the table, and Peko draws it toward herself with the tip of her finger, careful not to smudge.

It’s a picture of her from earlier that morning. Her, and the young master.

“What do you know, right? I was so worried he was going to ruin it.” Koizumi sets her chin in both hands, and Peko can see the way her smile flattens out sardonically. “But it turns out even Kuzuryuu can take a nice picture every now and then.”

It is a nice picture. The angle is high, and neither she nor the young master have noticed the camera; Koizumi must have taken it from the restaurant stairs. She vaguely remembers the moment: she’d passed him on her way out of the hotel, and had only paused to say good morning. She remembers him, half turned towards her with his hands in his pockets, his shoulders and his smile relaxed. In Koizumi’s photo, she smiles back.

His singular order from the very first day had been to maintain the illusion that they were only classmates. They look it, in this picture. He’d be satisfied with it, she thinks.

Not sure how obvious this is, but the picture described here is intended to be the one Fuyuhiko mentions during chapter 5, if you talk to him in the hotel restaurant before going to the ruins with Sonia.

FUYUHIKO: It's the first time... I've seen a photo of Peko and me where we look like equals... FUYUHIKO: Tch, Mahiru... When the hell did she even take this photo?

“Sorry,” Koizumi says, after a moment. Her voice is gentler, and when Peko looks up her brows have drawn together, concerned. Oh. She’d misinterpreted Peko’s silence as offense. “I didn’t mean to— just be careful, Peko-chan, okay? I know you’re trying to help him and all, but that guy is bad news. You shouldn’t get involved with him.”

I figure that if anyone would have picked up on the fact that Peko is the one constantly "bumping into" Fuyuhiko and ferrying information back and forth to him, it would be Mahiru.

“He is… abrasive,” Peko allows. (She has rehearsed this answer in her head many times.) Koizumi’s brows disappear behind her bangs. “We shouldn’t let our guard down. But I think with time he might be open to cooperation.”

“Peko-chan.” Koizumi’s voice is still gentle, but has dropped low enough to not quite be called a whisper; it borderlines on conspiratorial. She chooses every word with careful deliberation. “This is the only picture I’ve been able to take of you smiling, even a little bit. Ever. Okay?”

Peko wills herself not to react, even as she feels her face and fingertips go cold. If she has in any way compromised—

“I’m not going to pretend I get it. Because I swear to every god there is, I don’t.” Her smile turns lopsided and embarrassed, and all at once Peko understands the sort of assumption she’s made. Her cold cheeks suddenly flush warm. “Seriously. That guy? Really?”

She has not rehearsed an answer for this.

Something in her expression must balk, because Koizumi holds both hands up, defensive. “No, it’s okay. I’m not going to ask, just—” She bites her lip, and Peko sees the way she rehearses her words in her head. “A guy like that, the kind of world he comes from? He’s not ever going to change. He’s too wrapped up in himself and his image to bother. Maybe he’s not dangerous yet, but he’s definitely not worth your time. Or anybody else’s, for that matter.”

Combine the above with how aggressively Mahiru and Fuyuhiko butt heads right out of the gate, and I ended up with this conversation. Mahiru wants Peko to be happy, but she also doesn't want her getting caught up with someone she sees as unreliable, self-absorbed, and dangerous. The friction that comes from that in Peko and Mahiru's friendship is inevitable, in my opinion, especially since Mahiru doesn't have all the context.

“We are in a dire situation,” Peko hears herself say. “Our only hope of success is through cooperation.”

Koizumi’s expression twists. “No, no. I know. You’re right.” She turns the photo on the table back toward her, and looks at that instead of at Peko. “But you have to admit, he’s not exactly falling over himself to cooperate with us, either.”

The young master wouldn’t disagree. Peko only shakes her head.

“I’m just saying, as a friend? You don’t need to bend over backwards to help someone who obviously doesn’t want it.” Koizumi picks the photo up by the corner, and is careful not to bend it when she puts it back in her bag. She zips the pocket closed with more force than she needs to. “Let him deal with his own problems.”

And a little dramatic irony, for flavor.

She is wrong, in more ways than she’ll ever understand.

That morning, the young master knocks on her door first.

Not pictured: me grappling with the timeline of chapter 2 to make any of this work, after I realized just how short it is between Fuyuhiko playing Twilight Syndrome and Mahiru's death. Say what you want about his yakuza talents, my boy can crank out a revenge plot like it's a frickin' office memo.

The photos must have been taken in the heat of the moment, but their composition is still stark and harshly beautiful. The framing of Natsumi-sama’s blood-spattered corpse makes excellent use of the rule of thirds.

Peko says, “Koizumi,” before the young master has had a chance to say anything at all.

When he throws the open envelope across the length of her cottage, the rest of the photos spill and scatter across her floor like fallen leaves.

Peko offers to be the one to deliver the message, but the young master insists he do it himself. She watches the mailbox instead, to ensure his message is heard and understood.

By noon, the mailbox is empty.

Koizumi doesn’t respond immediately. It’s understandable; if the young master doesn’t remember the incident, it’s unlikely she does, either. Peko watches for her anyway, and late in the afternoon, Koizumi sits on the deck of her cottage with the largest of her photo albums in her lap.

Peko knows it to be the one with the final prints of her photos, after she’s had time to crop and color balance them. Her face is lined with concentration and stress, less like reminiscing and more like personal critique, but Peko has made enough threats in her lifetime to see the fear around every edge, in the shakiness of Koizumi’s muscles and the tightness of her mouth.

If you've read some of my other stuff, you might have seen that I like to write in very, very close third person. That makes communicating the arcs of characters who aren't the POV character (through the filter of the POV character) a fun challenge for me, and this is a good example of me trying to do that with Mahiru. I wanted to highlight the point after Mahiru has seen the pictures but before she's played Twilight Syndrome, when she must have recognized the pictures as hers but been shocked and afraid by the contents. Peko interprets it a little differently.

The message has both been heard and understood.

That confirmed, there is no reason for Peko to interact with her any further, now that she’s been identified as an enemy of the Kuzuryuu Clan. Clearly, Peko has made a grave error in underestimating her as a potential threat; any further mistakes would only exacerbate the damage.

However, since arriving on the island the young master has had only one, singular request.

This is intended to be the first conflict between Peko's duty as a "tool" and the new friendships she's been making -- she uses her duty as an excuse to keep hanging out with Mahiru, right after she points out to herself that she shouldn't.

Peko holds out her hand to get Koizumi’s attention.

“I wasn’t back in time for lunch today,” she explains. “Could I look at your photos with you now instead?”

Koizumi still smiles, even if it’s thin. “Yeah. Here, come sit with me.”

Ordinarily, Koizumi is happy enough to talk through her photographs while Peko observes, the whens and whats more than the hows and whys. (“My work needs to speak for itself,” Koizumi had said, the one time Peko had asked, “If I have to explain it, then I didn’t do my job right.”) Today they sit in silence while she pages through the album, one by one.

Many of these final prints are ones that Peko has yet to see. Owari and Nidai, bloodied and grinning, grasping each other’s forearms. Saionji with two packets of gummy bears flared out in front of her face like twin fans. Souda with a screwdriver in one hand and Nanami’s Gamegirl in the other, and Nanami sitting beside him, reaching for it with both hands. Hanamura in the hotel kitchen, flipping flapjacks in a pan while Mioda cheers in the background.

You might have noticed by now that I had a lot of fun coming up with different scenarios for Mahiru's photos in this fic. I was always a little sad we didn't get to see more of them!

(There is exactly one picture of Koizumi herself, where she isn’t in a group. The photo isn’t candid, but she doesn’t look prepared, and the framing is sloppy. When Koizumi reaches it in the album, she’s quick to turn the page.)

This is intended to be the picture Hajime takes of her in her final FTE:

MAHIRU: So... I was thinking about taking at least one shot of myself while I'm on this island. MAHIRU: The me... who's here like this...

“I know that it’s not the most groundbreaking subject matter ever,” Koizumi says eventually, “but that’s fine. People don’t need their lives to be groundbreaking, or dramatic, or- or tragic for there to be beauty in them. You know?”

She turns the page, and her fingers land on a photograph of Hinata caught mid-sentence, his mouth open too wide and his eyes halfway through blinking. It makes her smile, a real one that isn’t pained or forced. For that moment, the lines of stress and fear on her face smooth out into nothing.

And again, this is intended to be the photo Mahiru takes of Hajime in her first FTE:

MAHIRU: Well, I guess this is good enough. Yep, that sure is a dumb-looking face.

“Yes,” Peko answers. “I think so.”

Koizumi’s allotted time runs out. The young master is not inclined to give her more.

More evidence of me playing fast and loose with said unreal ch 2 timeline.

This whole section actually wasn't in the original draft of this story, and I waffled a lot on whether or not I should include it; I wanted Fuyuhiko's influence to be felt, but I didn't actually want to include him in the story itself too much. In the end I decided I needed it to bridge the arc I wanted for Peko in the story, which I'll get into in a minute.

“I’ll go with you,” Peko tells him, when they’re alone.

“No.” He’s bent over his desk, which is neat and nearly empty now that Koizumi has the photographs. All that’s left are the letters he’s just written, folded and stacked and ready to set a plan in motion. He won’t look at her. “No. Your plans aren’t changing, okay? Go- go do your thing with the girls. I’ll be done before then anyway.”

That is not an option. She can’t agree, so she doesn’t.

“I’m going to talk to her,” he goes on. His voice trembles under the weight of all his anger and anxiety. “And if that bitch has something to answer for, she’ll fucking answer for it. That’s the only thing I can do, right? That’s what Natsumi deserves.”

Peko hears it, the way his resolve doesn’t shore up the way he wants it to. There are fractures in his certainty of what he’s been taught, and every day they get a little wider; his heart is too big and beats too strongly for them not to. He struggles with it, but there is strength in struggle, not shame.

One of the remaining blank sheets of paper crumples under his left hand. He hears the fractures too, but they sound different to him than they do to her.

There is so much weighing him down.

She wants to take it away from him, or at least help him shoulder the burden. But Koizumi’s philosophies, Hinata’s advice and encouragement— all of it fails her in the moment, when it matters the most. She remembers when they were small and cold and lost in the mountains, how his face had pinched with fear and tears, how she’d failed him then, too.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was interested in Peko and Mahiru's FTEs, especially in the larger context of the main plot. If you WERE to finish Peko's FTEs before the, uh, cutoff point, for example, her later ones would necessarily need to fall around/during all the behind-the-scenes fuckery happening in chapter 2. So, with that in mind, here's this from her fourth FTE:

PEKO: Mahiru showed me her photos the other day. They were filled with images of smiling faces. PEKO: I don't know how else to say this, but... they were very nice photos. I learned that smiles give people power. [ ... ] PEKO: If I had been able to smile and tell him that everything was going to be okay, even if it was a lie... PEKO: I might've been able to take away his fear.

The other piece of this is the fact that Peko wants to protect Fuyuhiko, but she doesn't do it by stopping him from killing Mahiru, which would protect everyone. In this story, I wanted to open the door to the possibility that Peko may have wanted to try and convince him away from it, through her interactions with Mahiru and Hajime and the others, but struggled with it because of the nature of her "role." In my mind, this is the point where that door shuts again, and she falls back on what she knows.

She says, “Young master—” but he’s already standing.

“Don’t call me that. Just- go, all right? I don’t have a lot of time.” He tucks the letters into the inside pocket of his jacket. “We’ll talk when it’s done.”

"I don't have a lot of time" was an inside joke with myself about how dumb the timeline of ch 2 is. That shit really got to me, y'all.

Koizumi is pale that morning. It makes her concealer too dark against her skin, and when she lowers her head shadows still steal into the bags under her eyes. Her hands shake when she waves at Peko from across the pool.

“Morning, Peko-chan.” Koizumi breathes in deeply, for no reason Peko can see except to steady her voice. “You’re still going to the beach with everyone today, right?”

Peko nods.

“That’s good.” Koizumi nods, too. She keeps nodding, and looks down at her hands. “I’m glad. It sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun.”

Mahiru is in a pretty dark place at this point, but her priority (like it is with Mikan and Ibuki) is still that her friends are happy and have fun. There's always tomorrow, right?

“You won’t be coming with us?”

Peko knows the answer. She asks the question anyway, because she must. Because as much as she feels for Koizumi’s position, the young master’s safety comes first, and his will comes second. There is no choice to be made.

Again: she wants to protect him, but going against his wishes to do that isn't an option. The rest of this is intended to be Peko turning to fully embrace the "tool" mentality she thinks she's supposed to have after slipping from it.

“No. I’m sorry, I wish I could.” She is hugging her arms close to herself. Her fingers tighten around her elbows until the skin under her nails turns white. “I just... I have something I need to take care of. But you should go have fun, okay?”

“You’ll be missed,” Peko tells her. It isn’t a lie, except by omission, but she still feels like something has been wedged deep beneath her sternum. “We’ll take photos. For your record.”

Peko's not talking about the beach trip. In case anybody wasn't sure.

“I’d like that. Thanks.” Even now, even with all this, Koizumi is still able to smile. For all her practicing, Peko is sure she’s learned nothing at all. “Have you seen Ibuki-chan anywhere?”

In the end, Koizumi never sees her approach. It’s a stroke of luck Peko doesn’t deserve, but the outcome would not have changed regardless. She will protect who she must protect. Kill who she must kill. If she can do nothing else, she can do that.

The young master reaches for his weapon, and she is there.

There was originally a transitive verb in the second clause of this sentence (I forget exactly how I phrased it) that didn't get changed to what it is now ("she is there") until the final edit. Ultimately I changed it because I wanted to emphasize Peko's attempt to take agency away from herself, especially in the context of the narrative she pushes in the trial later.

#this was actually quicker to do than i expected #so i think i'll also do one for shelf sea #since that got requested too #it feels a little like drawing back the curtain to show you guys the patchwork mess underneath tho #nerve wracking!!#i hope this is sort of what you were looking for anon!#dvd commentaries #meta thoughts #not a fic

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gigapoodle · 7 years

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My Big Ass Long Necessary Rant Post Comparing Persona 3 and 4

Literally the most indulgent shit ever I just beat P4 and I gotta talk about it turn your eyes away unless you care for some reason

Things Persona 4 Did Better Than Persona 3

-The Social Links, oh MAN they were so much better in this game. Persona 3 had some pretty mediocre Links (Tanaka and that one fat cult kid immediately come to mind, also the student club kid who was obsessed with the cigarette). I don’t think any of the links were bad at all? Hell even the ones that I thought were gonna go sour (the Nurse one started off rough) ended up taking a really interesting turn. I also think that P3 relied too much on Social Links for random people I don’t care about, whereas so many of the SLs in P4 were already established, like Nanako and Dojima, all of the investigation friends (seriously P3, why couldn’t I SL Akihiko or Junpei?? What the hell???). It was just so much more rewarding in the end and I loved all of them.

-To add on to the point above without making the paragraph too long; I like how all of your friends were INVOLVED in the plot before you even get to do their SL. The whole Shadow Self thing was so clever and made the characters so much more interesting. Like Kanji? SO interesting. Struggling with concepts of masculinity and his own self image, and you know all of this BEFORE you even start the SL, so when you do get around to it it is much more interesting and fleshed out. I’m so happy about all of this

-The whole Romance thing. P3 handled it terribly. Apparently in P3 I wanted to date everyone (no choice on just being friends!) and if I talked to too many girls it would screw up the whole system. In P4 everybody still wants to fuck you but at least it doesn’t screw up my other SL links thank God (but I would like it if I didn’t have to be romantically interested in every girl plz and thank you)

-THANK GOD I COULD CONTROL MY TEAM LIKE HOLY SHIT....thank GOD. Now they actually felt like super strong teammates with something on the line rather than robots who I hoped wouldn’t do something fucking stupid. (I’m pretty sure Junpei killed himself literally 10 times during the Nyx fight and I couldnt’ do anything but watch.)

-P4 protag was still the most powerful member of the team but wasn’t blatantly OP like P3 protag

-Being able to look at what the fuck my skills actually did was a godsend (like I remember the difference between Masukukaja and Marakukaja, jesus)

-Social events were generally funnier and better. I laughed like 10x more in this game than in P3. (God bless Kanji and Yosuke tbh)

-The individualized dungeons were much more fun to go through. Tartarus becomes a fucking drag around level 150, but jumping from a sauna to a strip club to an underground secret base? LOVE IT

-Music was generally catchier and I found myself humming along too it way too often

-Way more save points, thank GOD (although they did screw me over at one point so this isn’t that much of a bonus)

-I like that when Rise couldn’t scan the enemy for weaknesses, I just had to figure them out on my own. Made the dungeons enjoyably harder. I also appreciate that healing spells cost less in this game, considering how much you need them.

-Having the after-battle reward be basically ONLY personas was a smart move. The addiction of the Tarot Card Bonus/Drawback was a super neat feature as well that I absolutely loved.

-Rise got on my nerves much less as an announcer lady than Fuuka. (Teddie was the worst though. Thank god we only had him for a little while.)

Things Persona 3 Did Better Than Persona 4:

-Even though P4 made a huge improvement with the battle system by allowing you to control your teammates, P3 had a vastly better battle system imo. The three different physical attacks (Slash/Strike/Pierce or whatever) made physical attacks actually feel lie they matter. P4′s system was way too watered down and as a consequence I never used Light/Dark ONCE and it felt a little too easy.

-Better pacing. There were set dates for when I had to finish dungeons of Tartarus, and I could do whatever I wanted during those times. Afternoons were always free for SLs since exploration was at night. In P4, the fact that dungeon crawling took up an entire afternoon on top of the fact that I never really knew when the fog was gonna settle in made it hard for me to plan out everything. (I ended up having a lot of unfished SLs in P4 which pisses me off.) (P4 tries to make up for this by moving some SLs into the evening but it wasn’t enough.)

-Much better ending. Once you found out who the killer was for P4, everything just felt anticlimatic. His boss battle wasn’t even that bad. And then he turns out to be the opening battle for some weird God eye that I don’t give a shit about. It felt like nothing was really at stake and it was just weird. But P3? You knew your damn destiny. The world was gonna end and you literally had no hope but you fought anyways. The entire MONTH leading up to that felt so somber and powerful. Climbing up the stairs on that final day to battle the Strega members and then finally, Nyx (in a boss battle that took a HOUR AND A HALF on top of some cool symbolic shit where the protagonist literally dies) it as just...something, man. And then everyone meets on the roof as you die, like...it’s so neat. P4 felt like they were trying to live up to that while still keeping the wacky cartoony vibe and it didn’t work out.

-The theme was much stronger in this game, and holy shit was it powerful. I get that P4′s whole thing was discovering the True Self, but it doesn’t really tie into the ending imo, nor the murder mystery shit. P3′s theme of Death is much more powerful and well written in the story. Everyone in this game has had at least ONE person die in their life, and seeing how everyone copes with it is sooo interesting. And dealing with the futile fact that everyone dies eventually with Nyx like....so fucking cool. And to top it all off, YOU die. The P4 protag doesn’t discover shit about himself (maybe in Golden? idk). Very very cool

-Evokers are way way way cooler than some fog glasses.

-Music was much better in this game. It was so damn unique. And it worked! It was weird and kinda glitchy at times but it worked so damn well!

-More on the battle system - I’m really sad they took away group member healing in P4 because that was so helpful. I’m also sad they took away general healing of everything whenever you went back to the base of Tartarus. That made it so much easier to grind and just get through Tartarus. Forcing me to only heal SP by paying the fox a shitton of money (and man this is the first RPG I’ve played in a while where money was actually on shortage and a problem) made it suck. It took away precious time from SLs that I needed.

Things They Both Need To Work On:

-Is Japan just super fucky about social issues? It was way worse in P3 but man do I feel played over by P4. Like the whole Kanji thing, CLEARLY his Shadow stuff was alluding to him possibly being gay, but they pull the rug under form you at the last second and throw that out the window. Same with Naoto - there was literally DIALOGUE about how she wanted to be a man but they threw that away too! Why??! They gotta stop skirting around these things. Also why are all of the dudes so pervy in these games? Junpei and Yosuke sucked about that, both games HAD to have a weird men-accidentally-walking-in-on-bathing-girls scene (P3 literally had a MINIGAME baed on it ffs). Also they are really mean about fat people in these games and always make them the butt of the joke. Stop it Persona

-This Good Ending/Bad Ending shit. WAY worse in Persona 4 but P3 still had it. I think that’s part of the reason why P4′s ending was eh? because even though you face the final boss, of course there’s a TRUE ending where you face ACTUAL God instead of EYEBALL God. Ugh. Also they made it way way WAY too easy to get the Bad Ending in P4. Like you literally have to use a guide not to get the Bad Ending. At least P3 made it very obvious how not to get the Bad Ending and they didn’t do any of that true ending bullshit.... (I guess they kinda did with The Answer but THE POINT IS STOP WITH THESE MULTIPLE-HOUR ENDINGS GOD)

-Please give me female friendships where they don’t end in fucking. It complicates things so much and makes me feel weird.

Overall Verdict:

I like them both equally and cannot place one over the other. Persona 3 felt more cohesive and satisfying but Persona 4 had a better cast and was arguably more enjoyable. I think that P3 will always have a special place in my heart since it was my first Persona game and it just fucking blew me away, on top of the fact that it took me about 4 months to complete whereas Persona 4 took me like 3 weeks (whoops). I think that Persona 4 tried to tackle too much (murder mystery while also keeping their whole ‘facing god and humanity’s fragility and flaws’ thing) whereas Persona 3 arguably did too little at times. But in the end this game is probably now my 2nd favorite series (behind Fire Emblem) and you can bet your sweet ass I’m getting P5 literally the moment it comes out. I’m almost salivating over it. I’ve already got PQ and P4A to tide me over while I wait so!

#this got long fast #I just love these games holy crap!!!#persona 3 #persona 4

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