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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Shadow Into Light (Lena Retrospective): Friendship Hates Magic! (Commission by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! And welcome, and to some of you welcome back to Shadow Into Light, my fully paid for but gladly done Lena retrospective, covering everyone’s faviorite lesbian emo shadow’s personal jounrey through all three seasons and some brucey bonuses.

So this time we pick up in mid-season 2.. yes MID season 2. Though for once taking so long to adress things had valid reasons. It dosen’t make the 8 month wait for Lena to return and for Violet to show up, her concept art having been shown off shortly before Shadow War aired during San Diego Comic Con, any less aggravating, especially since the episode did air overseas before that but never leaked anywhere properly. So I knew she’d be okay but not HOW.

As I said though.. they had their reasons. The episode was set for episode 8 in production order, right behind whatever Happened to Della Duck? which answered the other big cliffhanger from season 1, Della’s exile on the moon. So while this episode was back in the queue, along with Della’s, which had to wait till after the christmas episode to air because said episode takes place before it. So waiting on this episode was fair on the crew’s part even knowing it was a hiatus.

It ended up getting pushed back by a week once the episodes started airing.. but as outlined last time, THIS TIME Disney actually moved it for good reason instead of just doing so because shut up. See the problem with moving episodes around in season 2.. is Della’s return. Several episodes that in theory could’ve easily been pushed back instead of this one, Depths of Cousin Fethry, Treasure of the Found Lamp... couldn’t because they take place BEFORE Della came back and it’d be weird to air them after. One features Donald, the other dosen’t but still lacks Della and it’d be weird if it did> While this episode takes place before Della comes back or was at least meant to, no one appears in person, and Beakly mentoning “the boys and scrooge” at the bin could simply be her forgetting Della’s a part of things for a second. It’s not entirely in character, but it’s much easier than explaning why Della’s not there and Donald is.

They also moved one episode ahead of this.. but it’s one I approve of. See from episode 7 onward the episodes were aired in week long duckbombs, woo-ooo. I I don’t fault disney for it or the reason I suspect they had for doing this: while it wasn’t the intended way of airing, they likely did this airing style to get shows on Disney Plus quicker for it’s debut and given they’ve sunk a LOT of money into the streaming service and it’s a key part of their future, I can’t blame them for wanting the entire series thus far on the platform at launch. It’s one of if not their most popular show at the moment. They wanted it front and center.

So this one took an extra week to air, and an extra day as they aired raiders of the doomsday vault right after Della’s return in “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!”.. which is also not a bad move. Fans wanted more of Della and her bonding with the kids, I wanted more of that so while the wait was grumble inducing, it was worth the tradeoff to get more of this character and her bonding with Dewey.. and let’s face it Glomgold. You know what i’m about at this point.

So there were delays but not the mind boggling ones that reshuffled the season last time and by next season there’d be zero reshuffling with both holiday episodes designed to go anywhere. So with the history and the agonizing wait out of the way join me under the cut as a snark knight returns, a new fan faviorite debuts and Beakly gets sucked into Launchpad’s awful fandom.

We open our story at the Duckburg Library. Man I fucking miss the library. I mean you can go by apointment and what not but I also have library card debt and stuff, and it’s just not the same.

Anyways naturally Webby is going there to research the Shadow Realm in hopes of finding something to bring Lena back. Last week was “Children’s Card Games, Dark Magic and You! by Professor Yugi Moto which while enlightening got her nowhere. Next up is “Shadow Games on Motorcycles!: How a Crimson Dragon defeated a giant Shadow Monster and brought the dead back and I helped by Doctor Yusei Fudo”.

But that one’s not in yet so she instead goes to the Librarian to get another book.. and it’s Quackfaster! Horay! As for why she’s working two jobs, she’s saving up for a retirement condo in BIRDDDBAAADDOOOSSSSS. I had to type it that way it’s ape law.

But her next book “I Went there and it Sucked, My Time in the Shadow Realm by Mayor of New Jersey Joey Wheeler” is taken by “another strange little girl”. Quackfaster, you chase people around with a scimitar. Just accept your the weird one and live with it like me. You’ll be happier that way.

And so we finally meet Violet whose introduced pitch perfectly. Webby gives out her usual “Hi I”m Webby”.. and Violet simply holds a finger up, finishes her page and gives a simple “Yes?” It demonstrates her quite nature, her love of reading and her lack of social skills all in one fell swoop. The ensuing dead language off is also pretty damn adorable reminding me of that scene from “Lisa’s Wedding” where she and Hugh fight over a book and reading it before making out.. minus the making out because these are children, no one wants that, and Webby is taken. .and even then again children. Most we get is an innocent peck and some blushing.

So Violet, finding out Webby needs it and is researching the arcane too offers to research together tonight, bringing a sleeping bag just in case it goes on long... to Lena’s unheard objections as she’s rattled by the break in her normal routine with Webby, and the possibility of Webby falling for someone else. I mean this i framed as a friendship thing... but you can only say “friend” so many times in a work before you sound like a retired grandma in denial about their granddaughter.

Later at the Mansion, Beakley is enjoying a nice quiet afternoon to herself. Turns out once a month Scrooge has “Binventory Day” where he and the boys catalogue the bin for hours giving her a night to herself and Webby. Webby loudly interuppts the peace as is Cartoon Law, but Beakley is pleased Webby is getting back on the friendship horse.

Bentina ends up ruining it a bit though by bringing up her previous slumber party disasters... which even Lena at her most jealous admits were her fault and only agrees to in the hopes Webby’s going to cancel. Instead Webby decides to make this the most normal sleepover ever! The one where her new friend is coming to specifically help her with magic.

Bentina tries to back her grandaughter/daughter down from this insane logic, but Webby does, if innocently clap back well to her being the one to give her “Be yourself” advice. “I’m not like you Granny, I need to have friends”

And while Webby quickly flees after Beakley tries to deny it.. she’s not wrong. She has exactly one friend who she works for and no social life to speak of.. and as far as I can tell she’s fine this way. Beakley is happy with her work and raising Webby and has someone to talk to in Scrooge. She has everything she needs, while Webby is a social butterfly.. a socially inept social butterfly. She needs people and loves meeting new people and needs friends and not just her family. One’s an introvert the other’s an extrovert. I’m both at times, and before you ask why yes it is a living nightmare thank you so much for asking. I get where both are coming from. And Beakley clearly had friends at one point it’s just a long war with FOWL and a sudden granddaughter probably whittled it down to just Scrooge. It’s okay to be yourself.

So this is where the plotlines split off, so as usual, i’m splitting the up.

Launchpad and Beakley in Getting To Know You And Getting Sucked INto Your Strange and Lovely Fandom

So Beakley naturally cries out “name one person I don’t get along with.. and in walks Launchpad , Nature’s Perfect Himbo, having destroyed the gate and at least being honest he probably will again. Why he’s here when the boys and Scrooge are all gone?

But I don’t care as this subplot is just.. a nonstop delight. Starting with Beakly inviting Launchpad to sup with her.. which just confuses him. Look Bentina you have to use small words.. it’s a miracle he gets up in the morning, dreses himself and hasn’t died in a tragic gasoline fight accident. You have to know your audience. Still funny.

And “not knowing your audience” continues as Beakly serves them pea soup but Launchpad is intimidated by the spoons and while she does offer to help instead tries to use all of them then a straw and then falls facedown in his soup. And this is the SECOND TIME Beakly’s left someone living at the mansion to die. I mean that’s not a lot but it��s still weird it happened twice.

Finally they sit quitely, Beakly reading the Scarlet Pimpernell, and Launchpad doing a coloring book. And besides the odd couple energy what I really like about this subplot.. is that it fleshes Beakly out> This is one of her ONLY plots in the entire goddamn series, yes really. 70 episodes and she only got five spotlight episodes/plots. But it does at least show her off: her upperclass pedigree we really don’t see often, showing that while she applied to the job as maid out of necisity she knows her stuff, her love of classic literature and her being out of touch with the common person. It’s not a ton but it’s more than ninja butler or “stop having fun with your kids della and be a parent”. I mean she wasn’t wrong but she could’ve been nicer about it given the circumstances.

So Launchpad, given Beakley’s never shown any interest in him as a person before, assumes she’s going to fire him and was just softening him up. I mean Scrooge himself outright said he never would and if he did he’d do it to your face, hard as it’d be. But that aside, he’s fine with getting to know her once he knows that no he’s not being fired she just wanted to hang out, he’s everyone’s friend. But naturally an upperclash british former super spy and a dumb as a bucket with a heart of gold pilot have nothing in common, not even aircraft as “plane go up, plane crash going down’ is about the extent of his actual knowledge on aircraft that isn’t instinct or dumb luck.

He does manage to break the ice though, mistaking her book for a Darkwing Duck book and deciding to show her the show since it might be something they have in common. At first she’s as unintuhsed as you’d expect a british lady who never watches the telly watching a 90′s kids show would be.. but by the end she’s gotten all the way into it.

It’s really endearing, showning that two vastly diffrent people with nothing can common can be brought together by something as simple and glorious as liking the same show. I’ve had it happen with me. She naturally is all for filiming his fanscript after the finale provides no answers, being the one to suggest it and the two end the episode shooting it with her in full darkwing duck cosplay. I’ts a cute and entertaining subplot and a nice contrast to the main plot which while not super dark, does have a fog of tension over it. Speaking of which.

Webby, Lena and Violet: In Two’s Company, Three Accidently Creates Monsters That Nearly Take Your Girlfriend Off Into The Shadowy Abyss So the slumber party gets underway with Webby shooing away Duckworth after clearing out her room to greet Violet herself and violet having brought pie... a great callback to an earlier joke where Webby wondered if pie was normal at a sleepover. No but it should be. So Webby welcomes her in to her totally normal room devoid of anything. Nothing suspicious about that.

So Violet tries to get her into research, specifically Tulpas, an actual magical concept, a mental construct of some kind created out of desire, imagination or what have you. Gee I wonder if that will come into play this episode. Webby.. wants to play baggle or what have you or do makeovers and drags Violet along to do the second thing after Violet asks about Magica. Lena then finds something glowing in Violet’s bag...specifically, her old amulet, cracked but still working and flowing with Magica’s power.

Lena assumes Violet is Magica and goes to warn Webby only to find her HORRIBLY MUTATED! Naturally it’s a misdirect, as it turns out Violet is just REALLY good at special effects makeup. It’s something I honestly forgot about her... i’m betting one of her dad’s is an effects artist. Just saying that’d be neat. But Webby gives the “i’m normal really even though I live in a giant mansion with my dad I don’t know is my dad and my grandma whose actually my adopted mom” game away by pointing out the demon’s fang is crooked and Violet is curious and heads to Webby’s room finding a picture from said demon. He signed it and everything. Good man that Rakshaka.

Webby is worried Violet will be freaked out by all the weird but nope, she enjoys it. And it’s not a suprise: violet is actively researching the shadow dimension. Why WOULD she be scared off. The conflict was in Webby’s head all along.. and partly out of PTSD, but we’ll get to that. Webby still tries to get her to baggle but they settle on ancient rune dice baggle and summoning some spirits. Lena scoffs.. until it actually works. It does make sense though: As we’ll see in her last starring role, Lena is kinda like Wanda Maximoff: she has an extreme amount of power but she has no idea how to use it and is simply making up most of her magic as she goes along or took magica’s lead. But the spell means Lena can touch the dice so she spells out don’t trust her.. but forgets she’s dealing with two nerds who love unlocking puzzles and assume the message is on the dice themselves.

Webby and Violet decide they need more clarity and resume the seance.. which summons mysterious white shadow creatures Lena saw before.. .some now taking Magica’s shape. And Lena’s panicked “Oh not again” says it all. So Lena tries the tried and true bedsheet ghost cliche, grumbling about it but showing up as a ghost without any abillity to speak or talk to webby dosen’t do anything and Violet tackles the sheet before deciding to grab the amulet to dispiate the spirit.. only for Lena to show up for a breif second before she does show making the panicked child look incredibly supscious.

Webby naturally tackles and interrogates Violet wanting the full story. And it turns out the big secret is.. Violet is entirely normal. Nothing to do with Magica, no possesions or secretly being her or a minon of hers... she was just a logic obsessed 12 year old who thought magic was a myth.. until the Shadow War proved “Nope it’s real everything you know is wrong. Up is down black is white and short is long”. She just happened to be close to the bin and found the amulet when the remains of the staff fell near her and compacted back into it.

It’s a brilliant reveal. See first watch around your genuinely unsure if Violet is a real person or not.. unless you went in knowing she is, but semantics. Point is most first time viewers didn’t know she’d be a beloved member of the supporting cast and didn’t know what to expect. But looking back... it makes no sense. If Magica had the amulet.. why would she need to infiltrate the mansion. Revenge? Possibly but she’d want Scrooge there too. Even being evil on her own Violet had valid opportunity to pilfer Webby’s magical items, she has an entire box of magic rocks right there and then simply zap her with the amulet. But she didn’t.. because Violet is a person. When she DOES use it she’s utterly terrified, and we can see her breathing heavy, scared.. something Magica has NEVER been of Lena. To Violet it was just a ghost. Webby hadn’t told her about lena and any information she had about her was second hand from newspapers and the like.

Webby is sympathetic, as Violet’s feeling of being sheltered from this greater world naturally resonates and while Lena is still supscious, having reincorperated, it’s clear Webby trusts violet and simply dosen’t want to loose another friend to magic. Here trying to hide it now takes another tone.. she knows Lena was behind it.. but is so afraid of it consuming violet the way it did Lena, she forgets almost ALL of the weird magic stuff in sleepovers was magica’s manipulation, and that Lena died because her creator was a monster, not because of magic. Magic is not inherently good or bad, it just is, and that will come back as a theme in a few episodes. It allowed Magica to ravage the town and kill Lena.. but it allowed Lena to exist in the first place and while the terrible events with Magica clearly shook her.. it also shook violet out of her complacency and got her to research a world she never would’ve considered. Good can come from bad.

And it’s with this in mind that Violet.. does not give up. She’s stayed in her box enough.. and now she knows the spirit is a friendly one.. she figures they can bring Lena BACK using the amulet. After all it was lena’s and the source of her powers.. it might be the key to reiviving her. And while Lena, if invisibly as always, remarks it’s dangerous.. Webby, with no hesitation agrees to get her girlfriend back. It’s risky sure.. but what Lena hasn’t gotten is she’s WORTH the list. She’s so full of self loathing from both her manupations of webby and Magica’s gaslighting and abuse that she can’t see herself being worth anything even as Webby spent MONTHS trying to save her, clearly still loves her, and only didn’t want violet getting hurt because she misses her. Webby still loves and needs her for who Lena is.. Lena just can’t it and it hurts to think about that.

So the girls once again try to summon Lena and it starts to work.. but also summons the Tulpa’s back... this time taking Magica’s form and causing a suspcious lena to panic.. and suck both of them into the shadow realm. We get the reunion we’ve been waiting for as Webby tackle hugs her happily.

But it’s soon cut short as Lena still thinks Violet is just manipulating Webby, lying to her and that “she’s mine!”

For the record Joss Whedon sucks, not taking that out on Anthony Stewart Head or the guys who actually wrote the episode. Moving on.

I feel Lena’s jealousy comes from the aformentioned self loathing, mixed with a life of having to live just to surivive at the beck and call of a throughly awful person who didn’t consider her a sentient being worthy of anything especially love. She can’t fathom anyone else loving Webby the way she does because she feels once webby has anyone else.. she won’t need her. It’s toxic and wrong.. but it’s easy to see why that’d happen when sh’es only had one healthy relationship. She barely knows the boys, Beakly only grew to tolerate her and she was only friends with Scrooge for like.. a minute. Webby is the only person she knows, loves and trusts and she just can’t risk loosing that and can’t convince herself to share.

In a realistic scenario Lena would have to simply learn to trust and let her girlfriend have other relationshps and that hogging her all to herself is inhernetly toxic and bad. And while she still does we’re talking about a living pile of shadows smooching a clone, so yeah instead the tulpas come out and drag her off..and take Lena’s form. While Lena tries to blame Violet, Violet has absolutley none of that and makes Lena see the hard truth: Lena is so worried about being forgotten, she created the tulpas by accidnet. As I said her power is raw and unfocused.. so she didn’t do it on purpose nor did she realize how toxic she was being. This finally snaps Lena back to reality, and see Violet geniunely cares about Webby and any ulterior motives were just in her head, so the two agree to work together, using a similar chant to the one from Jaws to destroy the Tulpas and save Webby.

So the shadow realm is disapated and our trio are returned to the human world.. but Lena, not being part of it and no longer having a tether.. starts to disolve, with a really heartbreaking scene of Webby holding her hand, as does violet. But.. then a miracle happens. Since the Bracelet was Lena’s link to Webby, and to her own magic, with it and the amulet close by.. both swirl around Lena, and the power of love.. for a new friend and a first love... revivies her. Mist parts.. and we get one heartwarming sign that after all this time “I’m back?!” Lena is confused.. but once again part of this plane of reality. She’s free and WEbby triumphanthly hugs her with Violet joining in. By letting go of her hate.. Lena returned to who she loved. They also run into the end of the other subplot and Launchpad’s casual hey lena is just great.

So our heroes are reunited and doing horror makeup and I really love Webby’s updo here and wish more works fan nd otherwise used it. WE get a final fakeout as Lena seemingly disovles and Violet reveals herself as magica.. only for it to be a prank and Webby to just be glad the love of her life and her new best friend get a long. We get one last hearwarming image and we close out.. with Lena finally having what she always wanted freedom. And while she may not know it yet in accepting violet.. she’s finally found family. More on that in a few weeks.

Final Thoughts: This episode is excellent. It’s not the best of the Lena arc, that comes next and it does drag once or twice.. but overall it’s a really great character piece, with a nice ballance betwen the tense main plot and the funny and goofy subplot. It adds more to Lena’s character, finally brings her back, while giving us a new and throughly fascenating new character to rave about in Violet, as well as giving Webby her own personal squad. It’s a great episode.. and only leads to a better one. But we’ll get to that in a week or so. First we have a bit of a detour and my plug.

If you liked this review, follow for more, spread it around, and join my patreon. It’s almost time for new patreons to pay up and if you hit my stretch goal i’ll review a darkwing duck episode next month and every month! We’re just five bucks away people! And if you’d like to just comission a review directly it’s just 5 bucks an episode and avaliable via my dms, ask or discord.

Next Time on Shadow Into Light: We take a break from the last two Lena episodes to go to one of her sources as we head back to Ducktales 87 with Magica’s Shadow War! I know almost nothing going in so... Shadow betrayals and stuff? Yay?

Tommorow: It’s Fenton’s birthday! And since i’ve done a LOT of ducktales recently and can’t do super ducktales till I hit my next stretch goal at 25 bucks, we’re going back to ST Canard at long last for Gizmoducks second apperance.. which can’t possibly be worse than the first so i’m excited. Let’s get dangerous tommorow!

#lena sabrewing #webby vanderquack #ducktales #weblena #violet sabrewing #shadow into light #friendship hates magic #great title by the way #bentina beakley #launchpad mcquack #darkwing duck

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chiseler · 3 years

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Kazan, Covid, Etc. -- Another Amazing Letter from Composer David Amram

Dear Daniel:

Thank for this nice message, to help fill the first day of the New Year with some POSITIVE ENERGY!

I'm so happy that you could see The Arrangement.

It was based on Elia Kazan's book of his own life story, describing his struggles in reconciling his Old World/New World identities.

If someone could interview me, I can rap out a whole article in 35 minutes TOPS (in sentences and paragraphs) as I have told the stories to friends numerous times since 1969 about all the adventures getting the mistrustful but GREAT traditional musicians from Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Morocco into the recording studio with symphony players and even having to have the musicians ask Kazan for his driver’s licence o prove it was really him since they couldn't believe he would come to the Egyptian Gardens on 8th Ave with me to hear them. And how he prepared a banquet of Middle Eastern food and bottles of Retzina wine at the recording studio before we played a note and paid them in fresh 100 dollar bills BEFORE we began recording.

He explained to me hat he understood how they felt because as a child he had come here with his family as immigrants and remembered the mistrust that every one just off the boat felt!

I am so swamped and such a slow typist, it would take me a week to write it all up, and…. I am swamped, working on my fourth book, a new commission and over 200 e-mails to answer and re-scheduling 20+ concerts which were postponed during to Covid

BUT….You know how much I love Chiseler and all you do so let's find a way to do it!

I can speak on my cell or on ZOOM

The past few months have been a crash course in dealing with the unknown and finding a way to survive and appreciate being alive when so many friends aren't that fortunate. Being forced off the merry-go-round makes us all think and re-think about what we are doing in our lives and why we are doing it. I have had a chance the last few months to have enough time to realize that we are all just like a group of good natured moths floating around a great outdoor lamp, hoping not to get stuck on any nearby flypaper as we circle about, hoping to get some of that holy light to shine on us.

i finally realized that the only way to deal with this addiction is to develop your OWN inner light, become your own version of that lamp yourself, and shine it on all our other fellow moths so that they can do the same for all their friends and family.

Last March, I was really psyched up up to hear my latest piece Global Suite for Winds, Brass and Percussion, where its world premiere was scheduled to take place in December of 2020 at Harvard. The university had commissioned me to compose it and had invited me to be there for the premiere, which was a kick=off for a whole week-long series of events in Boston, all to celebrate my BIG 90th .

Since I couldn't even get into Harvard when I applied in 1948, it was a real thrill to be commissioned by them to compose this piece.

I was in the home stretch of completing the final movement last March (three months ahead of my deadline for the first rehearsal) when I heard the news that Cyrus the Virus was taking over the world and that all concerts and public events were either being cancelled or postponed for EVERYBODY!. Suddenly all 13 events scheduled to take place over the USA and overseas celebrating my upcoming 90th were either postponed, rescheduled or were in limbo!!

When people asked me how I felt about that, I reminded them that when Miles Davis created his masterful 1959 album Kind of Blue, he named one of his great songs So What.

I also mentioned that Robert Frost said, at the end of his life that he finally understood what life was all about . He said…."In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on."

And as my favorite Scottish 18th Century jazz poet Robert Burns said "the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry "

So we have to count and share our blessings and remember the old prayer veahavta lereacha kamocha (from from Levitcus 19:1819:18), which tells us to love your neighbor as you love yourself (as well as your own family and friends.).

Every major religion in the world has a form of this prayer as a fundamental for how we should behave towards one another….. and it's FREE advice!!!!

Because this way of living has no price tag, that doesn't mean that this advise is worthless

Like most ancient forms of wisdom which have survived for 1000s of years because they WORK, this simple prayer is PRICELESS!!

So you don't need a badge, a secret handshake, a Guru with a limo, a psychiatrist or a dope dealer to feel good!

This prayer is the basis for what we call The Golden Rule.

Recently I spoke to Sonny Rollins on the phone.We have known one another since 1955 when I was playing with Mingus and are the same age. I asked him if he was o.k. up in Woodstock, since he can't play anymore and is housebound

He said he was fine, but that all of us were so fixated on the Virus that we forgot about the Golden Rule and that we should devote ourselves to following it each day as our number one priority!! "That's all I think about" he said."We are all just here for a while and then turn to dust. But the spirit lasts forever"

So we all have to all find a way to use this time in a constructive way rather than freaking out with desires of returning to the old AB-NORMAL. The rallying cry of Full Greed Ahead is now on hold, and we are all now forced to slow down a little.

In spite of all the current craziness, the new year of 2021 will be a NEW BEGINNING, just like Phoenix rising from the ashes!!

Cyrus the Virus will soon be in the same solitary basement broom closet along with our now FORMER EX=Shyster-in-Chief.

We can soon all celebrate that they can both finally be ignored as has-beens, stored in the back of the broom closet of the Museum of the Deservedly Forgotten

We can all take a deep breath and on New Years Eve sing a verse of Woody Guthrie's classic farewell song "So long it's been good to know ya'

I told my daughter Adira that since I couldn't get a MacArthur Grant in order to be able to sit at home and compose music day and night, I now am the recipient of the highly coveted Cyrus the Virus Composer's Grant and can sit at home and write music day and night . And I didn't even need to apply for this. So if we stay the course….in 200 years …..EVERYTHING WILL BE COOL!!!

In the meantime, let's enjoy every precious second of life.

Our best days are yet to come!!!!

With big hugs (properly social distancing, I send you and your wife, Ratso and his wife and the great Natalia and all her friends wishes for fun celebrating of ALL of the Holidays…….. (Hannukka, Christmas, Kwanza, Ramadan, New Years, Martin Luther King Day, Chinese New Year, Puerto Rico Emancipation Day, Lincoln's Birthday.St Patrick's Day, Armenian International Womens Day, and Billy Holiday herself!)

Until our paths cross again,

Naches and Nachos

David (STILL a promising young composer,

in spite of my speedometer assigning me

to becoming a Nonagenarian) ...

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ankyouweek · 7 years

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The link we share - Part 2

((Submitted for the Big Bang event))

Rating: General Audience

Characters: Sugaya Sosuke, Mimura Kouki ; minor appearances of other characters

Relationships: Sugaya/Mimura ; mentions of other relationships

When Sugaya woke up in the early morning at the sound of someone rummaging through his kitchen, it took him a moment to understand what was wrong.

There was a problem, that much he was sure, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint it through the mist of slumber. He was awake, and according to the hour on his phone, this was a disagreement in itself, but he felt like that wasn’t exactly what troubled him.

It eventually came to his mind that the noise, discreet but too audible to ignore, wasn’t normal. Was there someone else ? He hoped that wasn’t a robber. He was quite comfortable, rolled up in his warm blanket, he didn’t want to deal with this kind of problem. Were this belonging that worth getting up ?

In the middle of his considerations, the clatter of something metallic falling on the floor resonated, followed by a soft “Crap”.

Wait. He knew this voice.

Oh, that’s right. Mimura. Staying here. He did recall something like that. No robber, then.

Eventually, he got up, not without difficulties, and joined his friend in the kitchen.

“Good morning.” Sugaya greeted sleepily.

“Good morning. Did I woke you up ?

-Not at all.” A yawn interrupted him before he could ask a question. “Having trouble finding what you want ?

-A bit, but it’s no longer a problem. I thought you would get up later, so I was looking for something to cover your breakfast.

-My breakfast ?” He asked sheepishly.

To be honest, it’s been a while since the last time Sugaya ate a proper breakfast, probably last time he slept at his parents’ house. He woke up too late to bother with it most of the time, and after living alone for so long, cooking became an hassle more often than not. Thinking of meals, preparing the ingredients, watching the dishes… There was nobody to judge him if he spared himself the effort, and convenience stores bentos were quite well-thought and cheap enough, and having noodle cups sometimes couldn’t hurt. Out of consideration for the late Korosensei’s advices, he tried to prepare himself something at least once every two days, even if it was a simple curry or sandwiches, but doing that as soon as he woke up ? That was too much. Nakamura once suggested, over the phone, that she send him some cereal boxes as an alternative -‘Seriously, I don’t know what we don’t eat this stuff in Japan, they have so many flavors overseas !’-, but he preferred an empty stomach to the idea of the sugary treat.

The meal he had in front of him could hardly be called impressive. Outside of the rice, straight of the cooker, a few bits of rehydrated seaweed and tofu swam in a miso soup he knew was instant. The pickled plum and half-moon slices of radish were from the convenience store, and there was no meat or fish besides the egg roll. According to the standards of Japanese breakfast, this wasn’t really much.

Nevertheless, Sugaya appreciated the intention. He wouldn’t even have thought about it if Mimura didn’t think about preparing a part for him, and the act was superficial, but he felt like the day started at least a little better than he was used to.

…Something was missing, though.

He ignored the already seated Mimura who raised an eyebrow at his attention when seeing him go to the fridge.

As the plan was for him to live there for two weeks, he had brought with him, among other things, some perishables products he would rather not expired once back at his home. Due to that, the small polystyrene containers that Sugaya sought were pushed far away to the back of the fridge. Maybe it was an intentional move : when Mimura saw what his friend brought back at the table, he used a rather horrified tone.

“You aren’t going to eat that ?

-It’s not poisonous, you know ? There are even people that eat it without liking it, just for the health benefits.

-It’s nattō.” He insisted on the word as if it was an argument. “Anything that smells like that can’t be good for the body.

-Actually, it doesn’t smell that much anymore those last years. Something to with different practices.” He recalled an article explaining the lack of ammoniac gas in recent packaging, but to be honest, he didn’t memorise much of it.

“It better not, or I’m not letting you eat that at the same table as me.” Mimura’s face was so serious, Sugaya almost chuckled at it.

“You would kick me out of my own kitchen ?

-…Maybe not. But I would be very tempted.” Admitting defeat, he switched subjects. “By the way, I will probably come home late tonight, so don’t wait for me for dinner.

-I figured it would be the case. Don’t worry, I’m used to eating late.” Sugaya started his meal after a quick “Thanks for the food” and took a few sips of soup. “I will probably finish another painting in the afternoon, if I send the photos and participation fees today, I might go buy some groceries while going out to the post bin. Do you need anything ?

-No, I’m fine, thank you. Weren’t you supposed to make two more paintings ?

-I could actually send just one work, but this exhibition is well known, and I don’t know when will be the next time I can participate to another one.”

Nowadays, Sugaya had enough of a reputation for him to not spend so much time on promoting his work, and he started to have recurring clients, but this was still an unreliable source of income, and he also wanted to create and sell personal works, independent of commissions. He could, eventually, ask to be in an art gallery, but those etablissements would take more than half the money from the sales. Exhibitions were a safer bet, provided his work was judged good enough to be chosen, and for that at least he didn’t worry much.

“Alright, good luck for finishing then. Do you need money for shopping ?

-No need, I’m not buying a lot anyways.” He didn’t have a car, so he couldn’t transport much groceries in one go. “Maybe next time.

-Alright, don’t hesitate to ask. The paids for last week have been delayed due to budget problems, but I have some cash on hand.”

Sugaya blinked a few seconds before remembering that Mimura’s job was paid to the week and not the month.

“Don’t worry, I will tell you if I need anything.”

–

The following days went around peacefully. Sugaya would return to bed pretty much as soon as he was alone in the house, and the morning hours he didn’t sleep through were spent slowly, without him getting much done be it in the way of house chores or professional work, relegated to the afternoon.

While the deadline for the exposition had passed, it was far from his only one ; he had put his other jobs on the side, knowing their own time limits were far away enough to concentrate on the imminent one. He should probably be happy to get as much work, and in a way he was : other artists his age were rarely as lucky, as he could tell from his acquaintances he kept from art school. Still, he wished he could get a break, especially knowing that, sooner or later, a month would come where he would wish for any job opportunity. Even after getting used to the irregularity of his job offers, it was stressful.

As a compromise, Sugaya went on walks daily, a sketchbook and a pen on him, under the pretense of ‘seeking new material’. Sitting all day in front of his supplies wasn’t good his creativity, after all, sketching buildings and bystanders, installed on a public bench could help refuel it, or at least make sure to train his basic skills of perspective and anatomy. Still, he couldn’t get out of his idea the idea that he was just searching for an excuse to procrastinate, and that he would eventually fall back on the same situation of having too much work to do at the last minute. That made it hard to enjoy fully his moments outside.

Thankfully the evenings distracted him from his problems, and he looked forward those moments where he and Mimura would share how their day went or chitchat while washing the dishes.

Sugaya had, early in the week, mentioned never having seen one of the drama shows in which Kayano had participated. This, apparently, was considered a terrible crime ; as ‘punishment’, after he and Mimura each took their evening bath, they both installed themselves on the couch to watch a few episodes of a show in which the actress starred as the lead role. A good drama, surely, not that he would be too aware of that ; his focus scattered easily when he had to sit without something to occupy his hands. But Mimura seemed to have a lot of positives things to say on it at least, making a profusion of comments, be they on the quality of a music, an anecdote he heard on the production or how a line reference one of the actors’ precedent roles. The man was clearly so passionate about it, illustrating some of his statements with hand moves, the blanket he covered himself with falling from his shoulders. Now that was interesting to watch.

Those kind of mundane moments were… pleasant. Something he could get used to. He was aware he was probably only thinking that because he had yet to experience the drawbacks of cohabitation ; were this situation lasting too long, he he would probably start to be bothered. For a few days, though ? It was nice.

And, honestly, he would accept more annoyances, if it allowed him to ride along on car travels. Definitely more enjoyable than wasting 3 hours in public transportations just to visit a friend.

‘Enjoyable’ might not be the most suitable term, actually. Usure was showing on the second-hand vehicle, and the seats proved themselves slightly uncomfy. Nonetheless, the heater permitted him to doze off peacefully on the sound full of the static the radio sputtered.

“You should think about buying a new coat.” Mimura said after a few dozen minutes of driving silent.

“…Why the sudden advice ?”

It’s not like Sugaya couldn’t understand where the idea came from. The days were becoming chillier, that was a fact he noticed during his daily walks outside. He just couldn’t see why was this pointed out now.

“You’re sniffing a lot today. Well, not a lot, but enough for it to be notable. You don’t have a cold, do you ?

-I don’t think so ? I didn’t notice I was sniffing more than usual, either.

-Anyway, be careful. I know it’s hard to find clothes your size without ordering online, but at least wear a scarf and some gloves instead of pulling your sleeves.

-It’s hard to draw with gloves, though.

-And it’s even harder to draw while sick.” He then softened his voice. “Sorry, it’s just… There are more people getting ill lately, and you can be a little careless with those things, I don’t want you to catch something serious.”

Sugaya didn’t respond. He appreciated the worry ; at the same time, he wanted to argue on the use of ‘careless’, but he knew this wasn’t a groundless accusation. There were many things he didn’t take time to think about, and he had to admit his health hadn’t always been his priority, especially since art school.

Still, he felt that Mimura was unnecessarily fussy about it. It would be really unpleasant if he were to fall ill, but it would be unlikely for it to be truly serious to the point of seeing a doctor. Or talk to Takebayashi over the phone, at least, a less costly alternative.

He wondered if this difference in concern was in part due to their jobs. For Sugaya, being sick could potentially bring all kind of complications due to deadlines but nothing he never had been able to handle. For Mimura, however, one person sick in his team could make the whole organisation very messy, especially when a replacement couldn’t be found. A few days of work missed had a different kind of value on such a big production, when this much money and so many people were involved. At least, that’s what the artist supposed.

Or maybe it was the other way, maybe this kind of worry was one of the many things that was why Mimura was made for this job in the first place. Even when they were boys, he thought his friend seemed more socially attuned. It wasn’t that Sugaya himself didn’t care about others ; he was more than happy to help those who asked, and liked to think he was a nice person. But sometimes, he didn’t take into consideration how his actions could impact those around him. Like how, years ago, drawing on the blackboard during two lessons would bother the students who would have to clean it before the teacher came. How drawing fellow students in detail could make them uncomfortable when they discovered it. The things that made his obsession for art not just, according to teachers, an obstacle in studying, but put on him the image of a troublemaker.

“I can’t find a place to park. You don’t mind walking a bit ?

-If I say no, will you carry me ?” Mimura rolled his eyes at the remark.

“I could stop in front of the entrance and let you get out of the car, if you don’t mind going alone while I search for a place.

-Oh. I would like that, actually.

-Alright. You remember the apartment’s number ?

-Yes, don’t worry about that.”

It wasn’t Sugaya’s first visit to Isogai’s place. Ever since he helped repainting his living quarters as the guy moved in, the number of times he came here could be counted on one hand. It left on him an impression of warmth, a welcoming place similar to its owner.

However, that wasn’t why Sugaya remembered so easily the flat’s number. Third floor, apartment thirteen. No one who lived through the moon explosion could forget such a number combination, similar to the memorable date. Especially not those who took part in a just a memorable assassination a year later.

-That’s right, there were so many children who never saw that slightly odd crescent moon nowadays. What a weird thought.-

Isogai had thought it amusing. That he would be reminded of one of the best adult influence in his life, when his family was essentially moving away from his father’s presence, abandoning his old apartment.

‘If it was only for me, I would not have been able to move, but the heating problems are bad for my mother’s health… My sibling, too, I kinda want them to each have their own room… They try to hide that they want to bring friends home, you know ? They didn’t tell me, but I guess they’re afraid of their reactions. If I can spare them to be bullied at school, then even that expense isn’t much.’

Such an ikemen, to do so much for his family…

The one that opened the door of the place for Sugaya wasn’t, however, a member of the household. Well, no, he was, in his own way ?

“Hello,” greeted Maehara, “nice to see you. Did you ditch Mimura on the way ?

-Hello. Nah, I don’t want to go back by my own means. He’s just trying to find a place to park.” He promptly removed his shoes while talking, looking at all the pairs already there. He was far from the first to come.“How are you ?

-A bit busy right now, I’m trying to make sure Isogai relax for his birthday, but he keep wanting to help me. What about you ? You seems to be sniffing, do you-

-I’m fine, it’s okay.” Maehara too ? He hoped he wouldn’t hear about it all day. “Is everyone already here ?” The event was supposed to be strictly between alumnus from class E, and Isogai’s family left the apartment till evening.

“Not yet. Seems like Nakamura and Kataoka are still overseas too, and Karma is… well, himself. He will probably show up later, though, even him wouldn’t miss this.” He went to the same university as Isogai, and the both of them had gotten rather friendly. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to verify something in the kitchen before Isogai decides to go take care of it himself.

-Sure, do you need an hand ?

-It’s fine, it’s fine, just make yourself comfortable !”

As they walked from the entrance to the living room, Maehara left his side to slip through the people, most of them turning their head at the new guest. Sugaya waved at them without approaching, searching through the groups the ones he was the most familiar with. Okajima was talking rather enthusiastically at Itona in a side of the room, all under the careful eye of Chiba. Probably. In his presence at least. The man still grew wide bangs that hide a good part of his face, and only the shape of his mouth let other guess that whatever was being said, he would rather be listening to something else. Sugaya had a vague idea what the conversation could be about ; he rather preferred to leave them be, and sought someone else.

Thankfully, he found an acceptable target alone near a table full of drinks. Kimura smiled at him as he saw him move toward him. However, as soon as the artist was near, his face twisted into an expression of worry as he noticed something.

“You’re ill.” He said without even greeting him.

“…I’m not. Probably.” Sugaya sighed, well aware of the problem.

There have been one constant through the entire life of Kimura: if he came into contact with someone having a cold, then it was certain he would catch it. Hardly a winter passed without him getting ill - and it would last him almost till spring, when it would then be the turn of pollen allergies. Yes, he truly was unfortunate, and so became very cautious of everyone with a nose a little too red, with sneezes a little too frequent.

Sugaya thought about teasing him, but he knew how much that sucked to spend months coughing with a runny nose, and reluctantly went to meddle with another group. When it came to friends he was close with, out of those present, Fuwa was always agreeable, especially now that she stopped trying to get him to become a mangaka ; it was natural then for him to intrude on the discussion she was having with three other women.

“-even with all the work they do, some are still expected to do house chores, you know ? A fair share of them continue to be mangaka while having an happy family life on the side, but there’s a lot of retirement too !

-No, I understand that part, I’m not saying there’s no pressure from others, I’m just saying that’s marriage itself isn’t such a negative experience.” Whatever was the subject of the discussion, Hara seemed quite passionate about it. Kanzaki, however, was content enough with listening, and was the first to notice the addition to the group.

“Good afternoon, Sugaya-san.

-Oh, hi Sugaya, didn’t see you there !” The others interrupted themselves to greet him. “How are you, you seems-

-I’m fine, thank you.” He replied immediately, suspecting the incoming observation to be what he heard already multiple times in a row. “What were you talking about ?

-We were discussing the- wait, it’s better to let Hayami tell you the news.” Hara turned her head to the silent woman, a smile on her lips.

“…Me and Chiba are getting married.” Hayami told the information quite casually, far from the excitement one could expect from such an announcement.

“Oh ? Congrats. That’s… surprising.”

Because the two former snipers of the class maintained a close bond, and Hayami encouraged Chiba to found his own company and worked with him, the relationship between those two was sometimes joked about. But they had denied previously being a couple, saying the dates they went together were awkward, and the way they acted toward each other just felt too professional. Even now, while announcing such an event, Hayami didn’t even use Chiba’s given name.

“Well, our parents were getting pushy about an arranged marriage and neither of us wanted to met a bunch of strangers til they’re satisfied. Plus, it’s quite advantageous legally, and it’s cheaper to just live together.

-…So it’s just pragmatism ?

-Not ‘just’,” corrected Fuwa, “this might be the smartest reason, I would be tempted to do the same… My parents, too, they keep saying a woman after her 25 is just leftovers and I should start thinking about building a family… Seriously, what’s wrong with concentrating on my job ?-They’re just worried about you.” Hara declared. “They’re probably afraid that you won’t be able to find someone decent if you don’t search now. Even I, sometimes I’m worried for some of you, you know ? Kanzaki, for example, you have such bad luck with men, what if you end up married to someone who turns out to be awful ?

-I appreciate that you’re worrying for my sake, but please don’t.” Kanzaki gently smiled. “I don’t plan to marry any man for now.

-What about Kayano ?” asked Fuwa. “I mean, you see her a lot, you must have talked about it with her. She must also prioritize her career, right ?” Kanzaki nodded.“Kayano-chan is working hard, and it would be really tough for her to marry.” Sugaya was surprised at the choice of suffixes, coming from Kanzaki. Rather than weakening, the friendship between the two women truly had grown, but he hadn’t suspected to that point.

“That’s a shame.” Hara sighed. “It can’t be helped when having such a demanding work, and I understand that being nagged by your families doesn’t help having a good opinion on marriage, but it can be a beautiful experience, you know ?” Her eyes fell on the ring on her left hand.“It’s easy for you to say that,” Fuwa replied, “you planned to be the perfect wife since Kunugigaoka. And even then, you didn’t stop your job to be a housewife, now did you ?

-I had planned to, but… knowing all that’s left to do and how everyone at the company pile up the overtime hours, I can’t feel at peace leaving them alone…

-As expected of Hara-san.” Sugaya couldn’t help but smile at her personality, as did everyone in the group -even Fuwa, who looked slightly exasperated.

He thought for an instant that he missed an occasion to tease her on her married status, but he was too used to her old family name, it came unconsciously even after multiple years. It just was too confusing to call her ‘Yoshida-san’ when the name only brought her husband in mind. Thinking about it, he could hardly see himself call Hayami as ‘Chiba-san’, either.

…It didn’t help that those name changes made him conscious of how much time had flown compared to their teenage years.

“What about you, Sugaya ? Not planning on getting married yet ?” Hara asked.

-Err, that’s not something I really thought about.”

He had been there for the wedding of some relatives, or even Hara’s, but it never crossed his mind as a thing he could happen to him. Even as an aunt teased him on when will it be his turn, as his sister wore the white dress, he just thought he would see when he… when he thought it would be time for him to consider the possibility, maybe ? It was for the distant future, shapeless and blurry, and so not something to linger on.

“Could it be, your parents never talked to you about it ?” Kanzaki wondered.

“No ? It might be thanks to my sis, they were worried enough with her case. She once came home with her ‘long-time boyfriend’, a guy she never told us about, and married him like, two months later. So I guess they must be relieved I’m taking my time.

-Even so, at your age… That’s surprising they don’t mind.” A sigh escaped her lips. “That, or I’m too used to the elders of the nursing home being invasive of my life.

-No, I think it’s unusual too.” Fuwa replied. “You’re lucky, I wish it was as easy for me. Maybe I should marry someone out of convenience too, but I like being independent…

-You might have to make compromises sometimes, but there are advantages to being married, too.” Hara argued, though her voice was gentle. “For example, it’s nice to have someone near you to take care of you when you’re feeling down.

-…You don’t need to be married for that, though.” Hayami mentioned.

“That’s true, good friends are here for that too. Especially the motherly ones like a certain someone.” Kanzaki smiled at Hara, whose cheeks turned slightly pink.

Sugaya was glad for those last remarks. He liked the reassurance in the implied knowledge of those sentences ; that the 28 of them, the whole group of former assassins, would be there for each other when they needed it. He liked knowing that this feeling was mutual, that their bond was still as important as it was in the past, and that he could count on them if he ever got in trouble.

…Not that he planned to.

Of course.

Remembering his thoughts he had two days ago, Sugaya couldn’t help but think he almost deserved it.

When he felt warm and tired yesterday, he hadn’t been that worried. He had just hoped he had wrongly guessed the reason for this problem. But, as he was now covered in sweat, unable to leave the bed, he had to admit.

Despite all the warnings, he still got a cold.

Of course.

He didn’t felt he had been really careless, though. Maybe. Or it was already too late when everyone asked him about his health. It was hard to ponder about it in detail. His mind was already used to wandering on something else when he stuck too long on the same thing, but now that he got a fever… He was unable to focus on anything.

Yet he wasn’t able to sleep. Maybe because he was too uncomfortable, the blanket sticking to his skin, too hot, or because he had already slept for so many hours. It was useless to try, no matter how much he wished for it, bored as he was.

Being sick really sucked.

On his night table, the screen of his phone, tilted due to the lamp placed behind, regularly lit up and down as Ritsu periodically checked on him. She had tried to distract him with some music, and it might had worked for a while. That is, until some weird songs came up. Something Chiba had handed him. An indie Japanese punk band. Something like that. His head still hurt from it.

Trying to read would be even worse. The book by his side was left unread since forever. The picture of Dorian Gray. He had borrowed it from Hazama, who spoiled him gleefully with a 'I’m warning you though, the artist die at the end’. How was he supposed to read it knowing that ? And unlike what he had thought from the summary, it had little to do with painting. How sad.

He had nothing else to do but look at the ceiling. He couldn’t work. He couldn’t bore itself to sleep.

…He wished Mimura was there.

The man had told him this morning he would try to get home early today. Sugaya had thought his friend might try to tease him for falling ill, or at least show some annoyance as he didn’t hesitate to do in such situation. Yet, nothing. Just firmly pushed him to go get some rest. According to Ritsu, he had already asked multiple times during the day for the state of the artist.

It would have been nice to call him, even if Sugaya knew better than interrupt him at work. He wanted to be a little selfish and have the other’s attention for himself. Let him speak over the phone of everything and nothing at the same time, just to hear his voice till his eyelids closed by themselves.

It was strange, in a way. If Mimura hadn’t spent those last days here, he probably wouldn’t have such thoughts. Being reminded how enjoyable could it be to live with someone can make someone less tolerant to solitude, was it this sort of feeling ? Ha, probably not. It was hard to keep a continuous line of thoughts while sick, so he couldn’t come up with any other possibility, but that couldn’t be it.

That couldn’t be the case, because Sugaya would soon be alone once again.

That could absolutely not be the case, because then… when life will go back to its usual…

…He would feel really lonely, wouldn’t he…?

Cold.

There was something cool and humid against his forehead. Refreshing. What was…? When he touched it with his fingertips, it had the texture of a towel, yet it’s as if it was just covering something harder.

A washcloth…?

“Slept well ?”

As he opened his eyes, Sugaya turned his head to the unused side of his bed, toward the familiar voice. Mimura was sitting on the floor, a pile of papers in his hands, with the giant sketchbook the artist usually kept on his bed now installed against the wall. Tidying up the room, probably. Because he had tendencies toward waking up in the middle of the night with a brilliant idea that couldn’t wait morning, Sugaya had accumulated doodles after doodles, that he didn’t always stored away once morning came ; as he didn’t move much while sleeping, the mess that spread even over the blanket didn’t bother him much.

“Wait…You’re home ? …What hour it is ?

-It’s already past ten. I’ve been here for a while.” He could almost hear the hint of a laughter in the man’s voice. Even though he had so much trouble falling asleep, to think this would happen… “How do you feel ? You think you could eat ? I prepared some rice porridge.

-I’m not really hungry.” He sat down, taking the washcloth to look at its content - cube of ice, unsurprisingly. “I can try to eat a bit though.

-It would be better for you to recover, yes. I will bring you a bowl. Do you need a tray ?

-No need to bring me anything, I can-

-stay in bed, as should any sick person.

-I’ve already been in bed all day, I can still get up for a meal. And a bath, I kinda need that with all the sweat.” Sugaya complained. “Besides, I was thinking… we could still watch an episode tonight ? Like usual ?

-Alright, alright, you win. Ah, but we don’t need to be in front of the TV to watch anything - especially if you’re going to fall asleep midway.

-What you’re suggesting, then ?”

The suggestion, as it turned out, was to use Mimura’s computer, the laptop between them at knee level as they were sitting on the bed. In the pitch-black room, the dimmed-out screen played the same episode as they watched yesterday, as Sugaya only remembered somehow half of it - and wasn’t more successful this time, to be honest. The moments where Kayano- where Haruna Mase appeared stuck out from her acting, bringing chills to her former comrade as her face conveyed emotions he could barely understand from the pieces of context he had.

He didn’t mind how the story didn’t make any sense for him - as long as he wasn’t required to actively participate and didn’t get an headache from the display of colors and sounds, he would have watched pretty much anything. Having someone by his side, and doing something together. That’s what he had longed for during the whole day.

It’s only as the end credits rolled that he noticed how Mimura was asleep, despite being still seated, the blanket under him and his arms crossed on his chest.

He must have been really tired. There was no way he wasn’t, given his work. But he accepted to stay awake a bit later, or at least intended to, just to spend some time with Sugaya. The man appreciated the gesture.

Gently, he tapped him on the shoulder, till his friend woke up, blinking as he was remembering where he was.

“Slept well ?” Sugaya smirked at being able to return the question he was asked some hours ago, even if the sentence was too common for Mimura to link the two events in his drowsy state.

“Only a bit.” Even his voice was full of sleepiness, the words half-muttered. “Sorry. Didn’t meant to.

-No problem, it’s fine.”

Neither of them moved, both of them watching the computer, now showing its screen saver- a black and white illustration from some recent drama show. Sugaya didn’t want to put an end to the night, not when he knew that another set of hours wide awake awaited him ; and Mimura was probably too sluggish to feel like standing up.

“…Your bed is comfy.

-Probably more than the couch anyways.

-Pfft, right. Next time I need to borrow a futon instead, my back will thank me for that.

-Is it that uncomfortable ?

-It’s… okay. But I wouldn’t exchange it for a proper bed.”

They fell back into silence, but they couldn’t only drag the moment for so long. Eventually, Mimura would need to go to sleep - even if that was on the couch, it would still be appreciated to survive the long day of work tomorrow.

Yet, Sugaya couldn’t bring himself to push him. Even if it was only to listen to his breathing, feeling his weight stopping the blanket from being pulled, the warmth in the space between them… It eased him. The presence near him was comfortable.

After a few minutes, he suggested.

“Sleep with me.

-…I’m sorry, what…?

-Sleep in my bed.

-No, the bed part I could guess, it’s the… no, nevermind. You really mean sleeping, right ?

-Well, if you’re up for a deep philosophical conversation I wouldn’t mind, but I don’t recommend it.

-Right. What I was thinking. But… you’re serious ?

-I waited for you a whole day, is it that weird that I want you to stay with me ?

-You…”

Mimura didn’t complete his sentence, instead pondering the situation. After a few minutes without a word, Sugaya even wondered whether he felt asleep again, but then came an answer.

“Alright. For this night.

-Great. Do you need a blanket for yourself, or…?

-Unless you can’t share, I’m not getting up for a blanket.

-Haha, fine.” He let the man settle in a more comfortable position, before finally telling him. “Good night, Mimura.

-Good night.”

#Fic #Main #submission #Ansatsu Kyoushitsu #Assassination Classroom

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drtanstravels · 4 years

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Note: This post was written over the course of many months, beginning on Friday, May 3, 2019. To document as accurately as possible the entire excruciating process, I just kept adding more and more to it as events unfolded. I was initially going to cover both our experiences with buying and selling an apartment in Singapore, however, as we encountered seemingly perpetual red tape, endless delays, and the process as a whole dragged on, this piece got painfully long so I decided to edit into two separate parts, thus far resulting in this still rather lengthy first chapter solely about selling our apartment. Enjoy.

We decided quite a while ago to buy a new apartment and, despite how long it has taken, we initially thought it would be a lengthier process, because the plan was to also keep our current place and rent it out. If we sell our current apartment, we achieve our goals about two years earlier and don’t have to deal with the stress that coincides with being landlords, however, that doesn’t free us of the burden of dealing with real estate agents. The bulk of these people in Singapore are just awful, plain and simple. Okay, we initially encountered a couple while selling that weren’t too bad and the pair that ultimately got the job done were fantastic. I have previously written about what we went through to simply rent an apartment in New York City, but selling one and buying another in Singapore isn’t a whole lot of fun, either. So, what makes dealing with the bulk of Singaporean real estate agents so bad? Well, there are the obvious lies and deception that come hand-in-hand with making major secondhand purchases, but it’s usually used car dealers who get the bad rap, however, as you keep reading, particularly when I’ve finished writing the next chapter about buying an apartment, you’ll learn that the word “room” can mean almost anything to a Singaporean estate agent. Then there are the endless personal questions and comments that these awkward, giggling, little socially-stunted people make that have absolutely nothing to do with them or the process of buying or selling a house. Add to this them ignoring all regular communal time constraints when calling or messaging you, and you’ll be pulling your hair out within days.

Anna initially put our house on the market on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 and I was originally going to begin writing this piece when the entire process was completed, but in under two weeks I had accrued so many weird anecdotes and tidbits that I felt I was going to forget some nugget of gold that had occured during this entire course of action. Instead, I compiled the stories that took place as they happened instead of just putting them into the notes on my phone, until this entire debacle was completed. As you will find out, we painfully tolerated some real estate agents when we were looking at apartments to buy, which was almost immediately after we had put our place on the market. However, the only way these people can get any worse is when you have something of which they know they can make a nice little commission, the standard market rate in Singapore being 2%. When Anna first listed our place for sale she used my phone number as the main point of contact. Now, here I sit, writing this portion over two weeks later on Friday, May 10, 2019 and I have kept my phone on silent the entire time due to the constant calls and messages from real estate agents that were late to the party, yet still want a piece of the action. Here’s an example of one I received yesterday:

So much to decipher there; is his or her name Adnic? Anna told me that PN stands for PropNex, “Singapore’s largest listed real estate agency,” but why would I want this person coming over on a Saturday morning when each entire week spent dealing with these people leads to a big Friday night being required in order to de-stress and unwind? And who the hell is this Angie to whom they wish to speak? Anyway, Anna had dinner with some of her family on the Wednesday, the day after listing the property, and her auntie has bought and sold many apartments in Singapore, as well as overseas, so she gave Anna some advice and also listed our place in Singapore’s national daily newspaper, The Straits Times. Needless to say my phone blew up the next day and these people are like the hybrid of a vulture and a leech. My day consisted of just constant calls and messages, the calls mostly impossible to understand speed-mumbling and the messages indecipherable and full of typos, the example above being par for the course. Some would call four or five times in a row, hoping to get an answer, others would send a followup message just minutes after their initial message just to see if I had received it, because they still hadn’t heard back from me yet. In fact, one of them even sent me a bunch of articles about himself, some of them in Mandarin and from almost four years prior:

His mother definitely has this on the fridge

You know he has this framed somewhere

Anna was home when the phone first started ringing and it was her suggestion that I should ignore the calls and just respond to messages, which suited me fine. Still, real estate agents here want exclusive rights to your apartment, meaning that they can be the only person to market it, but we didn’t want that so Anna and myself had to devise a standard response to each of these messages that I was receiving in order to find the agents that were at least attempting to be legit. This is what Anna came up with and saved it in the notes in my phone so I just had to copy and paste the the top portion as a reply to each message:

Hi, in order for us to authorise you as our agent;

Please advise if you are an exclusive agent or can do open market, and

What is your lowest commission rate?

In the interest of convenience, please continue to communicate via message/WhatsApp.

(If they say non-exclusive and can offer a rate in writing of 2% or less, we can send them the pics and unit no.

Asking price $XXX,XXX)

I was copying and pasting this reply so frequently that I made the mistake of copying the entire thing, including the section in brackets, and sending it to a couple of agents before realising my mistake and quickly deleting it. If we received the answer from an agent as outlined in the underlined section that was intended for my eyes only, they would then receive the following message:

Thanks for your interest, we will be free to let you view our apartment and take photos on Tuesday or Thursday, 1-5pm. Please SMS to confirm viewing.

It was all getting a bit much and we would need to clean up before people viewed our apartment the following week so I went out shopping to get some of the supplies we would need. While I was out I received a phone call and figured it would just be Anna so I answered without looking. It turned out to be one of the vulture-leeches, he was in the area and wanted to speak to us personally. I told him I would be home in 30 minutes and he agreed to meet me at our place for what I assumed was an opportunity to have a look through the apartment and get some pictures early. Nope, he just wanted to give me his spiel on letting him have exclusive rights to the apartment, however, he did raise some good points. I let him know that Anna is the main breadwinner and decision maker in this process so it would be best if he spoke to her, but he’d need to wait until she returned home from work. He hung out alone at the nearby shopping mall until Anna was home and then went through his exclusivity speech again to Anna, pointing out that open market sale wasn’t an option for him, he only does exclusive sales. We said we would talk over his offer, which had its pros and cons, and then get back to him, but after discussing it we decided against his offer of exclusivity. He messaged me the following night, Friday, to ask if we had talked about it, and this was where I learnt two valuable lessons about him and most other real estate agents trying to sell properties:

He was full of shit.

He truly couldn’t care less what time he contacted me.

Despite previously saying that he only does exclusive sales, he had no problem with trying to sell on the open market when he realised we wouldn’t use him otherwise. Also, he would continue to hassle me the entire weekend, going as far as messaging me at 11:00pm on Sunday night! Here are some of the highlights of what I continued to receive over the course of the weekend, check out the times of some of them:

Desperation is a stinky cologne! I wouldn’t even message my own parents that late on a Sunday night, and you can see that there is a deleted message toward the end, because this guy was pissing me off so badly that I initially responded a little less diplomatically so Anna ultimately wrote that final reply. Still, when someone tries to point out that you don’t appreciate being contacted on that day or at that time, it takes a special kind of stupid to reply to the message. On a later occasion he texted me at 3:30am, beginning his message with an apology for contacting me at that time, but he was worried he’d forget what he wanted to ask me if he waited. Just write it down and inquire later in our agreed upon timeframe!

Monday was just as stressful, constantly dealing with real estate agents’ phone calls and messages, as well as cleaning up the place, trying to rearrange the clutter. I also cooked dinner that night and accidentally knocked a bottle of olive oil off our extremely small bench, smashing it on the ground and covering the floor with oil and shards of glass. To make matters worse, we had run out of floor cleaner so after I finished picking up as much broken glass as I could find without slipping over, I had to find a place that sold floor cleaner at 9:30pm and mop the house, putting me in a rather bad mood that ultimately scared the dog.

Tuesday was finally here and I started getting our place into the best shape I could quite early. Nobody was supposed to arrive until 1:00pm, however, the first agent showed up at 12:30pm and complained about why I hadn’t finished cleaning and that I wasn’t ready for him. I politely reminded him that I wasn’t expecting anyone for at least another 30 minutes, but he just told me he could give me tips on tidying and then started to unplug all of our devices and rearrange our furniture until I put a stop to that. He said our apartment needed to look “less cluttered, less lived in,” so I then passive-aggressively explained to him that, unfortunately for him, we still do live in it and the reason we are selling is that, although we love our current apartment, we have just outgrown it and the place simply isn’t big enough, there isn’t space for everything, but we’ll need to continue to live there until it is sold and achieving that is his role in the whole situation. It’s a nice apartment at a decent price in a highly-sought after part of town, if he can’t sell it, maybe he should try another line of work. Anyway, he spent the next hour filming our property and taking photos, not letting me in the same room as him and not allowing any of the agents that came at the correct time to enter the apartment, instead forcing them to stand in the stairwell in the heat. He even whined that out house is too dark and I need to find a way to make it lighter, especially the bedroom. Yes, that’s because we sleep in there, not use it as a photo-booth, and it’s kind of ironic that he described the place as “bright” in his video. He was an obnoxious douche and was more than a little liberal with the truth, but the video he put together (which is no longer available) wasn’t too bad and if he one day allows me to teach him pronunciation, grammar, and sentence structure, I may just take some of his decluttering tips.

Many more real estate agents arrived over the course of the day, most of them polite, some quite critical, and pretty much all of them trying to make the same jokes and starting the same conversations; “How’s the weather up there?” and, “Have you eaten?” were all questions I had to answer multiple times, as was making up excuses for where Anna was and that’s where I made my biggest faux pas. The agents always try to get personal information out of you, especially about income, which is none of their business when we’re using them to sell our apartment. There was no problem with me telling any agents that I’m a freelance writer, but Anna didn’t want any of them knowing what she does for a living, because they might try to lowball us on our place if they knew she was a surgeon. The first time an agent asked where she worked, I kind of panicked, leading to this exchange:

Agent: “So, where is your wife?” Me: “At work.” Agent: “Oh, where does she work?” Me: “Near the hospital.” Agent: “Oh, what does she do, is she a nurse? A doctor?” Me (kind of panicking): “Canteen.”

It didn’t help that Anna used to do pole dancing for exercise a few years ago and we still have the pole in our house. “So, is your wife a dancer, too?” she asked in a very judging manner. Yes, now this particular real estate agent thinks that I’m married to a stripper that also needs to work in a hospital canteen during the day to make ends meet. Another agent asked if the pole was to hold the ceiling up and could it be removed. God, some of them are dumb, we live on the third floor of a four-storey building, I’d be equally worried for the people that live above us if that were the case!

It’s now the first week of June, 2019 and we’ve had some agents bring people to check out our apartment. We’ve had around 10 different potential buyers look through, but it only seems to be the same two or three real estate agents out of all of the ones marketing it that are getting the people in. Our apartment clearly has an industrial design, however, one of the first agents who showed people through described it as “countrysides look.” Firstly, I don’t think the word ‘countryside’ can be pluralised and secondly, a countryside design would be the complete opposite of industrial. When I hear “countryside” I picture lace curtains, doilies, vases of flowers, floorboards, that type of thing, not exposed bricks and beams to go with the mostly cement floor. He also told the people that we had vinyl flooring in the living room when that portion is clearly marble, one of the only remaining original features of the entire apartment from before we renovated it when we first purchased the place seven years ago. Was he even trying? The agent who made the video of our house, a film that was apparently based on a true story, contacted me on Friday, June 7 to tell me that he had some people who wanted to look through our apartment the following day and was wondering if our place had two bathrooms. It took all of my energy to refrain from telling him that the answer is in that stupid little movie that he made and instead told him it has only one. He then asked how many bathrooms our neighbour’s place had! I wouldn’t recognise my neighbours if I saw them in the street, let alone know how many toilets they have, but I assume it would be the same amount as us, as all of the apartments in our building were built with an identical floor-plan. He also asked what time on Saturday suited me best so I told him 3:00pm, but on Saturday morning I received a message saying that he would see me at 2:30, half an hour earlier again, but at least he told me this time, unlike the day he made his home movie. Before long it was 2:20pm and my stomach was starting to cramp, I had to go to our only bathroom urgently, but I was also worried that he may arrive earlier than the agreed upon time again, on this occasion while I was in a rather compromising situation. Fortunately, I managed to complete my business quickly with enough time remaining for the aroma to adequately dissipate and the viewing went off without a hitch, however, the agent had grown a really bad moustache since we had last met.

When you’re looking at spending every cent you have on an apartment, there is an endless list of questions you could ask — Does the traffic get noisy? How much hot water does the current tank give? Have any murders ever been committed there? For some reason though, we kept getting asked the same two questions time and time again from potential buyers;

Which direction does the apartment face?

What race are our neighbours?

The second question seems to be a real selling point in Singapore and the potential buyers asking this are always relieved to find out that our neighbours are all Singaporean-Chinese. People here can be a tad biased at times and I still have no idea why, but many in this country don’t want to live anywhere near members of particular races or nationalities. I’m sure, though, that they wouldn’t have any problems with the eccentric, old Singaporean-Chinese guy that lives behind us who usually wears nothing but a faded old towel or sometimes his clothes on backwards, meditating outside on mouldy, discarded office furniture, testicles swaying in the breeze, surrounded by a fort of more hanging towels, as well as having banana peels, clam shells, and other meticulously arranged, but ultimately unusable food items drying on the ground outside his apartment full of clutter, trash, and plastic bags. His joint is constantly infested with rats and they are always running around the general vicinity of his apartment, but he’s fine:

A visit from some government officials while resplendent in a faded towel, as seen from our kitchen window

Maybe he got in a fight with the rats and they kicked him out on this particular night

The irony is that his place is worth a fortune!

From his point of view

I really wish I had a marker at the time to draw a moustache

Today is Monday, July 29, 2019 and we’ve had quite a few people look at our apartment, but no official offers, the main complaint being that, despite being listed as a “walk-up” apartment, it doesn’t have an elevator, some viewers even perplexed at this exclusion, because climbing two small flights of stairs is just too much effort for many. Why bother even looking at it at all? We also realised that it has been the same four or five agents getting people to look at our apartment and they suggested that we get the agents that haven’t done anything to take their listings down from property websites to avoid saturation, which isn’t a bad idea. This morning I sent those agents the following message:

Hi _____,

My wife and I own the property you have listed at 20 Tiong Bahru Rd. I am writing to request that, due to a complete lack of viewers, that you cease to list our property. This is not open to negotiation.

Thank you, Tim Abel

Most of them just did it and replied to let me know, which was appreciated, but one decided to call me and try to weasel his way out of it, which went something like this:

Agent: “Good day, sir, in reference to your message, what I’ve been doing is collating all of the offers on your property in order to ascertain what –” Me: “YOU HAVEN’T BROUGHT A SINGLE PERSON TO OUR PLACE IN THREE MONTHS, TAKE THE LISTING DOWN!” *click*

These guys are terrified of complaints that will damage their reputation so almost immediately after I hung up on him I received a text message that said:

Hi tim.will abide. Apologise n tks

I think that translates into “Hi, Tim, I will take the listing down as per your request. Apologies and thank you.”

Fast forward to what is now mid-December, 2019 and we’re still sitting here, waiting to sell our apartment. We ended up going with one of the female agents as an exclusive agent and she initially brought a reasonable amount of people around to our place to have a look, but even her interest waned over time to the point where she didn’t even have our place listed toward the end. Fortunately her contracted period as our exclusive agent expired. We did receive a couple of offers, but they were either quite low or rescinded after the people who made them opted for a different apartment. We ultimately chose to go with a pair of other agents at the recommendation of a friend who was able to sell her place quite quickly, instead of going through all of this hassle. To try to make the process go even smoother with these guys, I went on a crazy decluttering spree, spending many hours of many days going through certain areas of the apartment and just throwing stuff out, much to the behest of my lower back. Anna chipped in on the day the agents came to take photos and videos, managing to throw out five shopping bags full of old shoes alone, as well as several boxes of books. This cleaning process resulted in us finding some items we had completely forgotten about or didn’t even know we had. A good example is that we can never find a pen that works when we need one, yet I found three unused and rather expensive pens still in their boxes that were gifts at some of Anna’s conferences. The absolute highlight for me though, had to be two books Anna wrote in primary school, the first when she was about seven years old, detailing her family’s trip to California with interesting tidbits such as finding her cousin’s bra, her friend playing with it, and then putting it on her soft-toys. The other book was a mystery about a kidnapping and ransom, written when she was roughly eleven or so:

Anna’s artistic abilities haven’t really evolved

This might help explain why we watch so much Law & Order: SVU

As a result of all of this cleaning and carrying so many loads of heavy items down to the bins downstairs, I was barely been able to stand upright properly for a few days, plus all of the dust that had been stirred up as a result had us constantly sneezing, but it did feel nice having less crap around the place. As a result I wasn’t looking forward to the whole moving process, but that wouldn’t happening anytime soon.

The agents came around on Saturday, December 13, 2019, took their photos and videos, as well as sat down and had a chat to us, these guys actually asking questions and showing a genuine interest, so that was a good sign. They also informed us that this time of year isn’t a good one for the housing market so it probably wouldn’t be until January or February until we hear anything, but an online virtual walkthrough of our place was still put up on their website on Monday, December 15, 2019. From Saturday, January 4, 2020 we had a steady flow of viewers for our house and it wasn’t just people who were bored on the weekend and had decided to spend it snooping through other people’s apartments, these ones seemed genuinely interested in purchasing, and by Tuesday, January 21, 2020 we had accepted an offer and sold our place! What nobody else could achieve in eight months, our new agents pulled off in one, a month that happened to include the Christmas and New Year period, as well as being just prior to Chinese New Year. Pretty impressive.

This now left us with the headache of dealing with banking procedures and bureaucracy in order to finalise the sale of our apartment, as well as sort out the place we wanted to buy and it was the second one that would prove the most frustrating, but that’s a story for next time. Stay tuned for the story, whenever it is eventually finalised, that coincided directly with this one; The Hell That We Experienced In The Real Estate Process In Singapore — Buying.

Boy, that was nine months of fun Note: This post was written over the course of many months, beginning on Friday, May 3, 2019.

#agents #apartments #buying #hdb #property #real estate

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