#with harumi no less?? she just GOT HERE leave her alone!

[laismoura-art]

Me: *enter Tumblr*

The posts: OMG Harumi SUCKS! I HATE HER SO MUCH! OMG KUAI LIANG IS TERRIBLE! OMG I HATE MK! HATE! HATE! HATE!

Me:

Me: I'll come back later😑

My latest bios make me sad:

[criminalspacebros]

corruption, part 1 - space au

Y’all wanted to see how Jay corrupted Cole? Well, wallah! Part 1! AHAH.

Quick summary/notes: This is all after Kai and Nya hunted them down, if you hadn’t noticed. They, and Lloyd and Garmadon, needed their help to stop Harumi and steal something back from her that she stole from them: one of the items, a white, diamond shaped gem. Harumi is dangerous. She’s cold, witty, and manipulative, and has found a way to use Jay for her benefits after an incident when he got left behind on a mission. Here, Cole finds Jay to take him back, but is a little too late.

He was hiding behind a tower of boxes when Cole had came for him. He wasn’t quite sure how his friend had found him, but he did, and that was all that mattered.

Jay switched positions onto his knees, but just before he could stand, Harumi’s voice nagged back at him. Whatever that witch did to him, he hated it. And he sure hoped that her voice wasn’t going to stick around any longer.

What do you think you’re doing? You can’t just leave. I need you. Do you understand?

“I have to go…” Jay whispered under his breath, glancing up at Cole.

The fugitive smiled down at him, hastily taking hold of Jay’s hand and yanking him to his feet. All at once, he was pulled in for a hug by his boyfriend. “I missed you so much.”

Jay brought his arms up in return, wrapping them around Cole as he buried his face in his chest. “I’m so sorry. Please, just, don’t ever leave me again, I-”

Jay pulled away gently, a smile tickling his face. “Hey, it’s not your fault. If I hadn’t gone back, I wouldn’t have gotten left behind.”

“But I could have, should have checked. And then Kai, he didn’t want to go back… I just wanted so badly to get out of there, ugh, I… I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Yeah, safe,” the space pirate muttered softly as Cole pulled Jay’s head against his chest again.

As much as Cole wanted to enjoy the moment, he pulled away, running a hand down Jay’s arm until, intertwining his fingers with Jay. “We have to get out of here. Pixal and Nya are waiting for us at the docks. Jay we have to go.”

Do you really want to go back with him, to them?

“Yes. I- I mean, yeah, we have to go.”

With a smile, Cole started to run, this time making sure to keep Jay right by his side.

You’re only going to mess things up, again.

Jay clenched his teeth, shutting his eyes as he tried to block out Harumi’s voice.

Jay.

No.

Jay.

No.

JAY… I thought you wanted to fix things.

Jay shook his head, taking deep breaths. Heavens, was he sick and tired of hearing Harumi’s voice in his head. He wanted it to stop.

We can start right now if you want. We can show Cole the truth. You and me. We can fix him.

Jay’s eye glued to Cole’s determined features, watching as he desperately searched for a way out.

That gem in your pocket. That’s all it takes. Look at him. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. But we can show him what to do. You want to help him, don’t you?

Suddenly, the two of them came to a stop, Cole looking around breathlessly. He didn’t let go of Jay’s hand when he reached for his earpiece. Jay gaped. Was he going to call for help? Please, call for help, he pleaded.

Jay, trust me when I say that we can fix everything. We can set things right. We can-

Without a second to lose, Jay tore his hand away from Cole’s, taking a couple steps back in fear. “No! Stop!”

Cole lowered his hand, turning to Jay slowly. “Jay?”

“I can’t leave! It’s all in my head!” Jay dug his hands in his hair fearfully, refusing to make eye contact with Cole.

“What’s all in your head?” Cole took a step forward causing Jay to take one back. “Jay? Jay, come on. Look at me. You have to tell me what’s going on.”

You don’t have to tell him anything.

“It’s-”

You will not tell him anything!

Jay threw a hand over his mouth, tears swelling up in his eyes.

With that, Cole marched right up to Jay, grabbing him by the arms and rooting him to the ground. Jay was scared. He was frightened.

Cole’s eyes swam with fear, his arms shaking. Jay could feel it. “Jay you’re scaring me.”

“Stop it! You have to get away!”

“Why? Jay just talk to me!”

He won’t leave you.

“Stop it! He will leave!”

Cole’s grip slackened. “What?”

I told you, Jay. But you never listen. You have to fix him. You want him to leave you alone? We can make it happen.

“Jay, I’m not leaving. Not without you.”

Jay pulled away from Cole, slipping a hand under his cloak.

Yes. Do it. You have to.

A gasp left Cole when Jay pulled out his hand to reveal the white diamond shaped gem.

“You found it…” Cole looked to Jay. His eyes couldn’t believe it. The gem was real. And Jay had found it. Kai and Nya weren’t lying after all. “You found the gem… Jay, you found it! You- We have to take it back.”

There he goes. He’s doing it again. He won’t listen to you, Jay. This gem is your only option.

“This isn’t my only option. He can leave.”

Cole backed away, terrified of what he had just heard. “Who are you talking to?”

It’s no use, Jay. You have to use it.

Jay looked away, struggling to ignore Harumi’s voice. “No, I don’t!”

Cole’s expression fell. He held an arm out to Jay but the pirate only waved it off, taking two other steps back. “Jay, cut it out… What’s wrong with you?”

You don’t need this constant prying. He’s making it worse. He can all be perfect if you just listen to me.

Jay fought Harumi in his head. And while he wanted Cole to stay away, the fugitive wouldn’t let up. He kept inching closer, causing Jay’s thoughts to spiral out of control and lose himself in it all.

Look at him, Jay. He only wants to help, but he can help if you just listen to me and use it.

Jay held the diamond close to him, hugging it. “I won’t. I can’t. I can’t do this.”

“Jay, just please talk to me.”

Ugh, this again. Shut him up already.

“Cole, stop!”

Cole’s blood ran cold at the sound of Jay’s voice and he froze dead in his tracks.

He’s making it worse.

“You’re making it worse.” Jay ran his fingers over the gem, as he listened to Harumi’s words infiltrate his thoughts.

“I don’t understand. Jay, we’re in this together.”

Make him understand.

Jay held the gem out, one hand over the top, another underneath. He squared his shoulders, brows drawing nearer.

One last time, Cole said to himself. He’d try one more time.

“This is all my fault,” Cole muttered, dropping his hands to his side.

Jay’s shoulders relaxed, and he lowered his arms slowly. Cole continued on. “I should have came back for you. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have listened to Kai, or Pixal, or Nya, or anyone. I don’t know what Harumi did to you, or what’s going on, but I should have came back. And, I missed you so much… but now you’re here and, and I guess I should be happy…”

He’s weak. You can make him stronger. Make him perfect.

“... But something went wrong and it’s all my fault…” Cole continued to talk, but his voice drifted into nothingness as Harumi’s voice grew louder.

You want his pain to go away, don’t you?

Harumi was right. Jay didn’t want Cole hurting this way. If he could just forget the whole thing didn’t happen. If he could just wash away the pain.

The pain…

“I only want you here, with me, you.”

Jay held out the gem in front of him…

At last, Harumi, in the flesh, stepped out of the shadows and stood proudly behind Jay.

“Do it. Make him hurt less. He’ll thank you for it,” she whispered into his ear, flashing Cole a sly grin the second he looked up.

A sharp cry of his name came out too late the second Jay twisted the two halves of the gem out of place.

A dark cloud overcame the two of them. Jay gasped for air and he waved the clouds away, violently coughing.

As the clouds cleared, Jay’s eye fell on his friend, his partner, on the ground on his knees.

Jay’s heard a ringing in his ears as he saw himself running towards Cole, the gem coming to a crash on the hard ground. He fell to the ground, cradling Cole tightly as tears flowed down his cheeks.

He was hiding behind a tower of boxes when Cole had came for him. The only problem, Cole had been too little, to late.

And now, it was all his fault.

[sibillascribbles08]

Been writing some clone verse nonsense might as well dump it here

A little bit from after Toby gets the realm crystal put in his arm

    Ronin was close to panicking. Harumi and E were both already out looking. Ronin just came back from one round trip. Wherever the kid was, even Pyrite couldn’t pick up a scent trail. 

    Where did Toby go? Where was he? It wasn’t normal for him to go out without telling someone, not since he was little. Had something bad happened recently? No. At least nothing Ronin noticed. What if he missed something? What if Toby was dealing with a bunch of shit and he never even knew? 

    It wasn’t just him, he knew Dareth was just as nervous, though he showed it less. He paced around, trying to keep busy with chores as a distraction. Ronin wanted to ease his nerves but at this point he had nothing to offer.

    When the entrance to the bar opened–indicated by a classic bell ring–Ronin sprinted down the stairs. He did consider it could just be Harumi or E, but his hopes were answered. Toby stood there, eyes fixed on the floor. 

    “Toby.” Ronin rushed over to him and pulled his kid into his arms. “Are you okay? Where the hell were you?” He pulled Toby back a bit to look him over. There didn’t seem to be any obvious injuries. 

    He didn’t get to look for long. Dareth rushed up next to him, almost shoving Ronin aside as he did his own inspection. 

    “I’m fine.” Toby finally spoke and brushed Dareth’s hands back. 

    Dareth snatched his wrist and pulled it out. Only now did Ronin notice the thin trails of red. Was he bleeding? A closer look showed what almost looked like glass shards embedded in his skin, thin purple lines drawn between them. 

    Dareth gestured to it, obviously trying to ask what it was.

    So Ronin verbalized it. “What happened? Is that glass?” He took Toby’s arm this time to get a closer look. 

    Toby gave a pained noise and wrenched his arm back. “No, it’s the realm crystal.” 

    “The–” The hair on Ronin’s neck stood on end. “What the hell? Did someone do that to you?” His jaw clenched, but he tried to keep his temper under control until he had all the facts. Still, that didn’t keep his brain from trying to jump to conclusions. Someone hurt Toby. Someone hurt his son. He’d put them in the ground. 

    “I did.” Toby mumbled.

    His anger diffused in a flash, replaced with confusion. “What? What are you talking about?”

    Another pained noise. He wasn’t looking either of them in the eye. “I went to see Ruta. I stole it and went to see Ruta.” 

    Dareth stumbled back, likely intentional to show his shock. Then his hands were moving, although he paused and snapped his fingers to make sure Toby was paying attention. 

    “Why go see her?” Dareth’s signing was frantic. “She’s dangerous.” 

    Toby shrugged. “Cause I knew she could help me.” 

    “Help you do what?” Ronin put his hands on his hips.

    “Help me get back… to where I came from.” 

    Ronin’s throat went dry. His mind tried to hard to put all of this together. Toby wanted to go back? There? To that god awful place?

    “Why?” He had to ask. “Toby, what the hell is going on?” 

    Toby gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, likely trying not to cry but the moisture already showed on his eyes when he blinked. “I don’t… I’m sorry.” He sniffed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to leave without saying something but I…” He choked back a sob. 

    Dareth pulled him into a hug, holding him tight. Toby returned the gesture. Ronin considered joining in, but he left the two for now. The conversation wasn’t done. 

    After a few moments Toby calmed down, at least enough to talk again as he kept rubbing at his eyes. 

    “I… I didn’t think about it at the time, but last month was my sixteenth birthday.” 

    Ronin frowned. “Yeah?” 

    “Max was…” Toby took a long shaky breath. “Max was about that age when he… when…” 

    It felt like something was gripping Ronin’s heart, squeezing it, trying to make it shatter. 

    “He fell apart.” Toby sputtered. “He was the oldest, oldest any clone kid got. And he still… so there’s no… there’s no way I’ll last much longer right?” 

    “Don’t say that.” The words left Ronin’s mouth before he could think about what to say. His brain was stumbling over the fear that struck him. “Come on kid, you lasted this long right? Who’s to say you won’t last longer?” 

    Toby shook his head. “No one can say anything. Even the clone labs couldn’t predict when it would happen or why. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.” He looked at his arm, flexing his fingers for a moment. There were stones in his knuckles. 

    “So, what?” Ronin’s voice cracked. “Why go back to that awful place?” 

    “Because I–” Toby finally looked up at him and seemed to lose his voice. His eyes were so wide, so scared. Hell, Ronin hadn’t seen him this scared in years. “Because I’ll probably fall apart anyway right?” He tried to laugh. “So shouldn’t I… Wouldn’t it be better if I tried to at least do something.” 

    Dareth waved his hands to interrupt. “That’s a suicide mission.” 

    Toby tried to laugh again. The sound alone just made Ronin’s chest ache more. “Maybe.” 

    “No.” Ronin gripped Toby’s shoulders. “I’m not letting you do that.”

    “I’m already a goner.” 

    “You don’t know that!” Ronin shouted. “And even if…” His throat went tight. He didn’t want to admit this. “Even if you’re right, what is this supposed to do? What do you plan to do when you get there?” 

    “Something.” Toby argued. “I have to do something. Free more kids. Destroy some machines. Maybe find some way to put an end to it.” 

    “You’re just a kid.” 

    “So were the ninja, apparently!” Toby wrenched himself free. “They beat up the overlord twice in this universe. And a bunch of snakes. And ghosts. And all kinds of other shit! Why wouldn’t I be able to do something?” 

    Ronin grabbed him again. “Toby I’m not letting you do this. I won’t.” His voice was cracking again, but he couldn’t let himself cry. Not just yet. “Even if your clock is ticking I don’t want to sit here wondering for the rest of my life if I could have at least spent one more day with you. You’re my son and I love you.” 

    Dareth gave a firm nod in agreement. 

    Toby looked between the two of them, eyes welling up again. Dareth must have read his expression, because he moved closer just as Toby collapsed into their arms. Ronin hugged him as tight as he could. 

    “I love you too.” Toby said between sobs. “I wish I could just stay here but I can’t.” 

    “Yes you can.” Ronin argued. 

    “You need to let me go.”

    “Don’t say that.” Ronin tightened his grip even more. “Don’t ask me to do that, Toby.” 

    Because he wouldn’t. Not in that sense. Not ever. 

    Toby took a deep breath. Once again his tears were calming down. 

    “I’m sorry.” His son said. “But I wasn’t asking.” 

    Ronin didn’t get to ask what that meant. Toby’s palm slammed into his chin. The pain in his jaw caused him to loosen his grip. Damn it, kid still retained his self defense lessons a little too well.

    He’s not sure how he wrestled out of Dareth’s grip, but the kid sprinted around them, toward the stairs. Ronin ignored the ache in his teeth as he ran after him.

    “Toby?” He shouted. “Toby don’t. Don’t do this.” 

    “I’m sorry.” His son’s tone made it clear he was still crying. “But thank you both, for everything.” 

    “Toby?” Ronin begged his legs to move faster. Faster. Not fast enough. Toby shoved his arm forward, toward a wall. The area around it shifted, warped, Ronin couldn’t quite make out what was on the other side. 

    Toby ran through it. The distortion vanished before Ronin could reach it and he found himself crashing into the wall. Ache in his jaw, now sharp pain in his nose. He didn’t care. He slammed his fist against the wall once, twice. 

    “Come back.” Ronin’s voice shook. Who was he even talking to. Toby or the portal? “Come back, come back, please come back.” 

    The hand on his shoulder made him jerk around. Dareth stood there, looking frightened but not nearly as panicked. 

    “He’s gone.” Ronin sputtered. “Dareth, he’s gone.” 

    Dareth nodded. 

    “We have to– We have to get him back we–” What the hell were they supposed to do? They didn’t have a way to open a portal. Not even Ruta did at this point with the realm crystal in Toby’s hand. The oni queen? No, she could only travel between realms not universes. 

    It didn’t matter. They had to do something. 

    “We need to get help.” Ronin moved for the stairs. “There has to be someone who can–”

    Once again Dareth’s hand was on his shoulder, convincing him to turn around. The man was shaking his head.

    “What do you mean no?” Ronin shouted. “Dareth he just–He ran into his old universe. The one that tortured him. If we leave him there he’s going to die.” 

    Dareth shook his head again. Ronin almost screamed until he noticed his husband’s expression. His gaze was down, fixed on the floor, eyes empty. 

    “We can’t just give up.” Ronin softened his tone. “Dareth, we can’t. He’s our kid, we can’t just–” 

    Dareth removed his hand from Ronin’s shoulder to sign. “There’s nothing we can do from here Ronin. Just wait and hope he comes back.” 

    “Don’t you get it?” His voice was cracking again, tears at the corners of his eyes. “He doesn’t plan on coming back.” 

    Dareth didn’t answer that. His gaze just moved to the floor again. 

    Ronin shook his head and once again moved to the stairs. “I can’t. I can’t just stand here and do nothing. I won’t.” 

    Dareth jerked him back, wrapping his arms around him this time. 

Ronin tried to wrench himself free. “Let go! I have to– Ruta, the oni queen, someone. Someone has to know what to do.” 

His husband tightened his grip. 

“Dareth let go. I won’t just leave him there. I won’t let him just die out there alone I won’t–” 

His voice broke at that realization, along with everything else. He would have collapsed if Dareth hadn’t been holding onto him. Still, his husband followed him down, and Ronin turned enough to hide his face in his shoulder as he sobbed. 

Toby was gone. Ran directly into the jaws of death because the kid believed there was no other outcome. He ran in there to face it all by himself. He knew the kid was capable but all Ronin could picture was that terrified expression on his face, all those times the kid would wake up from nightmares that left him screaming, the rare times he recounted what would happen when a kid fell apart. 

And Ronin promised. He promised the kid if that happened he’d be there. That he wouldn’t let him suffer through it alone. 

Now he couldn’t keep that promise. 

Whatever had been gripping his heart earlier succeeded. Everything felt hollow. At this point he couldn’t even move. All he could do was keep sobbing into Dareth’s shoulder.

[fictionerd]

GOOD. TO. SEE. YOU. FRIENDS!!!

Here we are! The first post of Summer Season 2018 and we’ll be covering Planet With. This series is released on Sundays and can be watched on Crunchyroll. 

Okay, so let’s cover what we learn from the first two episodes of Planet With.

In episode one we’re introduced to Souya, a young amnesiac who dreams of horrifying giant draconic creature attacking a city and some one flying off to confront it. See it’s shit like this that causes dragons to have a bad reputation. Seriously I can’t believe these assholes who go around burning whatever the hell they want just because they can breath fire. If it weren’t for them dimensional travel wouldn’t be such a daunting prospect for me. I never know when some one is going to have a traumatic flashback and attack me all because some scaley clown got it into their head to “burninate” something.

Sorry, I’m digressing again. After waking up from his ptsdream Souya prepares to have a normal breakfast with his perfectly normal housemates of a large cat-person and green-haired maid. 

Oh wait... My bad. See I’m used to hanging out with a Teddy-Bear whisperer with the ability to access the life’s memory of a version of herself in any given universe, an elf who ONLY exists in the metaverse of the Akashic Record, and most recently a shadow-monster who spent three months pretending to be Swole-Bear. There was also that time I tried to hang out with a copy of a video game character, but we’re not considering that canon anymore. At least not entirely for legal reasons. Oh! There’s also the British man who tears holes in dimensions to fight against “unfair fates” who I’m apparently hosting a podcast with now? My point being that to me the above image is perfectly normal. To most anyone else this is probably at least a three on the Sir Memery WTF chart.

After finishing his veggie breakfast Souya sets off for school complaining about wanting to eat some meat where he bumps into his class rep whose name he has forgotten. You’d think this is just an excuse to set up Tsundere vibes with her, but no it’s far FAR worse than that. See her name is: Kagaratamaha? [wrong buzzer] Hakatamagara? [wrong buzzer] Ta-ka-ma-ga-ha-ra? [Correct Tone] 

So Nickname Pending is worried about Souya and how he doesn’t make friends at his new school. This is because she knows what it’s like to be the new kid, and has apparently never watched an anime in her life so she doesn’t quite grasp the concept of “Leave the mysterious blue-haired transfer alone”.

Side Note: This character’s introduction marks the first time I’ve ever gotten a Japanese pun without some one explaining it to me. So allow me to ruin it for you all by explaining it. She offers Souya some of her Hamburger Steak to which he replies with tears of join “Megane-sama” which she mishears as “Megami-sama” and sheepishly replies that she doesn’t think she’s a goddess before immediately realizing what he’d actually said. This leads into the reveal of her actual name which I refuse to ever use the entirety of again because I honestly don’t think the joke is that funny.

Later that day Souya’s shounen receptors begin to tingle as he picks up on the impending conflict of the story. A UFO is sighted offshore headed towards the city. When the air-force is deployed to deal with the object (Picture in header) they find themselves the victim of some strange joyous delusion and leave the object alone. it’s only when seven strange people, apparently psychics of some kind, utilize their powers to confront it is it stopped. We see one of these people enter the object through a “Weak Point” and have his own delusion.

See, his mother was killed in a fire when he was a little boy causing him to become a firefighter. The UFO hits his brain with a delusion of child him being held back from the blaze by a firefighter only for that firefighter to turn out to be adult him. Adult Firefighter Psychic dude runs into the fire, saves his mom, and the two of them walk through the cherry blossoms as he sorts through all the pent up regrets he has about not being able to save her when he was a kid. Only after we’ve conveniently gotten to know this character’s defining trauma does his squad get through to him and break the delusion, then he uses his Psychic Golem Powers to wreck the hell out of the UFO causing it and copies of it that had appeared around the world to disappear all at once. The same can be said for the Psychics who all blast off to separate places to avoid the fate of E.T. one presumes

While all this was going on Souya got a call from Ginko (That’s green-haired maid lady for those not following the series who also don’t care about spoilers). She tells Souya that he has to defeat “it”, but contrary to what everyone in the audience thinks it turns out that “it” refers to one of the Psychics and not the UFO thing. After Ex-Firefighter current world-saver exits the bushes onto a highway he encounters Souya the cat-man and Ginko. Souya is sporting a mask and being basically lead by the nose at the behest of Catman and Ginko. Now hold onto your seats because this is where shit gets REALLY weird. 

Catman swallows Souya turning into a mech in the process that Souya is now piloting. They get into a fight with Firefighter dude who summons up his psychic golem thing. After fumbling around at Ginko’s direction Souya manages to pilot the Catmech to victory over Psychic Fireman and retrieves a vial of star-shaped dust that is the “source of his power”. At which point I’m lead to believe that Souya recovered his memories because he shouts at Firefighter to tell his friends that Souya is going to kick their collective asses. This is presumably because he believes them to be behind his ptsdream.

After the credits roll we see a scene where a guy I can only describe a scruffy Alder from Pokemon Gen 5 says ominously that Firefighter dude had been taken out.

So, before even watching episode two I can already hands-down predict that this guy is the Draconic asshole from Souya’s ptsdream. Not sure how everything fits together but my working theory is that Souya’s from another planet that Earth governments or some shadowy organization somehow invaded and stole something from. Souya is a sleeper agent and the “Peas” balloon things are meant to lure out those in possession of the Stolen Macguffin or whatever.

There we have Episode One. Please excuse me now while I go watch Episode Two. Well... I mean you can just keep reading by the time this goes up but... BRB!

[Approximately 30min later]

Well my theory from about two paragraphs ago is up in smoke as soon as the opening scenes of this episode roll in and further dashed upon the rocks by Ginko later in the episode. All things in their proper order.

So Torai (That’s firefighter-guy’s name btw) makes his report to dragon-man about his encounter with Soya and company. The other six Psychic warriors all make jabs at him as though he died even when he’s sitting right there in an example of a gag that is legit funny unlike Tara’s name from last episode. While we’re talking about the exposition meeting may I just say that I feel BETRAYED!

See Dragon CEO guy is as nerdy as I AM! He’s the one who found out that the enemy force is called Nebula. He called the giant abominations “Nebula Weapons” gives Soya and Company the name Nebula Soldiers, and what does he call the Psychic Golems his crew uses to fight? Psychokinetic Mega-God Photon Armor. If I didn’t know better I’d think my pops made him from the same mold as me no less. Oh, and their little world-saving club? It’s the Citizens' Safety Center Special Defense Section: "Grand Paladin". I’m in tears, people, this is a Draconid after my own heart.

So, the “Grand Paladin” peeps implement the buddy system in case they run into Soya again. Meanwhile Soya’s having a sulk because apparently Ginko and “Sensei” dragged him to Earth to be their soldier. He goes out on a walk in Iron Clogs (I’m guessing this is a joke I’m not getting). On the run he meets up with Torai who just happens to have purchased a bunch of meat buns from a convenience store. They have a conversation because Torai is a nice guy (that’s a legit nice guy not the version that’s been turned into a derogatory term by certain groups online). See Torai, while out looking for his attacker couldn’t help noticing what he thought was a middle-schooler sitting on a random bench crying and came over to see if there was anything he could do to help.

He gives Soya a bun they chat for a bit with Soya desperately trying both not to give away who he really is as well as to eat the bun because dammit he just wants some MEAT for once! All of a sudden the evacuation alarm is sounded because this wonderful abomination has appeared off shore.

Nebula really needs to consult a different artist about their designs. I personally recommend @dashfox1artwork. 

Robin: Shamelessly plugging your internet friends are we dragon-boy? 

Fic: If you’re not going to show up and fight keep your mouth shut Shadow-bear. I’m just doing my part to show that not all Dragons are assholes. Robin: Whatever you say.

So, the six remaining Psycho-God pilots attack the Ugly Bacon Idol and the pink-haired girl of the team, Miu, is the one to enter the core. The hallucination she sees is of her beating her friend Harumi (Pilot of the Bear-armor) at apparently a Judo competition. We find out that Miu has always just wanted to be strong, and we also learn that she IS strong being able to break through the illusion of the Nebula Weapon with relative ease and destroy the thing. It’s at this point that I should mention that a message has flashed before each of the characters who take one of these things out. In Miu’s case the message was “It’s okay to be weak”. For Torai in episode one the message was “I forgive you” presumably preying on his regrets about his mom.

After Piggy McHideous is dispatched the group separates into its pairs and as we expected Soya and Co target the pair with a member who just fought a battle, but let’s back up for a second because there’s some exposition from Ginko during the fight with the Baconator that needs addressing.

She reveals to Soya that Nebula is indeed the name of the group they work for, but there are multiple faction. Ginko and “Sensei” are with the “Pacifist Faction” whereas the Monuments to terrible design sense that have been popping up in the harbor belong to the “Sealing Faction”. Basically think of this as political parties. One wants to prevent humanity from rising up against them one day by brutally suppressing their ability to advance and keep them in a state of complacency, while the other just wants to take away any dangerous toys that humanity might come up with and hope that they can “guide” humanity onto the path of “Love” rather than “Power”.

Hmmm one group bent on maintaining their personal status quo at the cost of anyone else and another that wants to control precisely what power the general populace has access to in order to “guide” them on the “right path”? I wonder where I’ve heard that one before?

Sorry about that. The Writer is coming through me a little strongly there. Point is that Ginko is using Soya to enact social and ideological control... I MEAN to take away the magical stardust that allows the Psycho-God Pilots to do their thing... yeah. Back to the proper progress of the episode: Soya once again pilots his cat-mecha-sensei to fight against Miu and Harumi. It is a pretty fun fight, but all things must go as has been foretold. So after being on the ropes for most of the conflict Soya turns everything around at the last second with a miracle uppercut against the Bunny-god armor. As Miu is falling back to Earth Ginko appears and grabs the stardust vial away from her. Apparently Ginko can just Mary Poppins herself to wherever she pleases? They all land and Ginko’s like “That’s all for today”, but Soya’s having none of it. He’s ready to take the fight to Bear-mech too when all the other Psycho-Pilots show up including CEO Dragonface to say “Checkmate”, and that’s where our story concludes for now.

Y’know I’m coming more and more around to the opinion that we should be routing for “Grand Paladin” here rather than the lady influencing Soya or the massive, faceless organization that wants to turn us all into Proles from 1984. I mean, yeah, they do have the snake-eyed dude. They meet in what appears to be some sort of board room, and the writing seems to indicate that they’re the “Antagonists” if not the villains, but so far they don’t seem to be anything but a collection of well-intentioned if somewhat zany people. Even the big CEO-type with the intimidating presence, as was discussed earlier, is a lovable and hammy goofball. 

I love any series that makes its antagonists human. Granted cartoonish villainy and even edgelordiness has its place in stories, but when you can make your antagonists and especially your villains feel human and relatable it just rings home that nobody is the villain in their own story. Everyone has reasons for what they do. They may not have excuses or justifications, but they all have reasons.

For instance, I have a reason for breaking my own rules here by reading my political views into the story.

[pauses for dramatic effect]

Yes, yes I’m sure you’re all very shocked at this revelation. I mean I was so subtle about it (/s). My reason is that when I went back and really thought about what the “Sealing” and “Pacifist” factions of Nebula stood for I (and this is really the nerd behind The Nerd speaking) couldn’t help but see parallels to some of the more distasteful extremes of Conservative and Liberal politics at work. Both sides seek to impose their morality upon others. While one does so by attempting to keep people complacent with the status quo, the other does it by appealing to the rebellious nature inherent in people and channeling it into “causes”.They use guilt and peer pressure to convince people that their way of thinking is correct and I absolutely cannot stand seeing it happen. Especially when they prey upon others using causes that need legitimate champions! 

The goals of the “Pacifist” faction are arguably “good”. They are part of a group that has watched humanity evolve and they only want the best for us. They “keep their involvement to a minimum”, but at the end of the day they’re doing the same thing that the “Sealing” faction is doing. They’re enforcing their own will on humanity by taking away humanity’s means to fight against them, or anyone for that matter.

In the anime this is likely because the “Pacifist” faction is short-sighted and hasn’t stopped to consider what will happen to humanity when they take away the only weapon they have against the “Sealing” faction, but in reality? In reality groups like the “Pacifist” Faction either are themselves or contain an element that wants the people they’re disarming to become reliant upon them for what they need. They take away that person’s own weapons and replace them with their own. They dictate the rules of battle and push you to come to them for aid and defense. They accrue personal power and influence at the cost of their followers’ freedom of thought.

These are important things to think about and be on the lookout for, and it’s an issue that is very prevalent in my own life and dealings online. So those are my reasons for why I read political allegory into the factions of Planet With. Now am I justified for doing this when I so often decry others for “reading shit that isn’t there into stories”? No, of course I’m not. Or rather I’m not justified using that argument against people who dropped a show as a result of what they read into it. 

I’m not going to lie. I’m inexperienced with expressing views on creative work online, and am overly sensitive to certain things. I’m just as flawed as anybody else. It’s hard for me to understand when people see “bullshit” in something that I didn’t see. It’s hard for me to accept some one calling a show (particularly one I like) “Garbage” when really it’s just not clicking with them. I know that I’ve been guilty of calling a show “Garbage” in my time, but it’s a term I hope to avoid moving forward. I want to live up to my professed belief that there is good to be found in all fiction, even the “bad” fiction. Part of that is accepting the responsibility I tell others they need to accept. To practice what I preach.

If I’m determined that the Audience has just as important a role in creating art as the Authors then I need to learn to accept the interpretations of my fellow audience members, and to feel free to express my own interpretations of things.

[stops to take a break and slide back into character]

Wow... That ended up being a lot heavier than I imagined. What a way to kick off the summer season! There’s more to come but for now I need a break, and the writer could probably use a nap.

Until next post keep talking fiction, friends! I’ll see you soon

[kwamiwayzz]

citttrrruuuussssss

I don’t see enough of the meta when it comes to citrus so I decided to ask myself these questions after copying and pasting them from another blog cause why not >.> 

And I may be low key still trying to ignore my responsibilities

–

Main ship <3 Yuzu x Mei (i dont even think they have an actual ship name) 

I’m gonna cut it at a certain point cause I realized how much I was rambling 

• When or if I started shipping it:

Ah...surprisingly I didn’t start shipping these two until a few months ago. I’ve been following the manga since the day it came out and I’ve always liked them but I never actively “shipped” them or anything. Even though I went all “YeSSSSS” when they started dating in chapter 16, I was still just more of a casual fan.

There are a few reasons I can think of to why I was drawn into shipping them (finally...) was that I somewhat got back into yuri over the summer after watching a clip from Fate Kaleid.......*cough* anyway...and started going back on dynasty-scans to see what kinds of new yuris have been made huehuehue. Long story short I shortly got back into MadoHomu and Yuzu x Mei, and saw the latter ship as the “less angsty” version and went on from there 

The other reason I got super into them was that the latest few chapters, and remembering chapter 24, was that I really started to notice how Mei became less cold and closed-off from Yuzu. And seeing her blush and be all nervous around her was just..... <3 <3 <3~~~~~~

Oh and this one comic by smxmuffinpeddling made me laugh (and still makes me laugh) so it spiraled from there. They are a blessing to Citrus. 

• My thoughts:

I tend to gravitate towards ships that have that dark/light dynamic. I’m cliche and I have a weakness for ships that have the aloof dark haired girl who’s usually looked up to or very popular fall in love with the ditzy, but kind and optimistic light haired girl and vice versa (see: Chikane/Himeko, MadoHomu, Diakko {to an extent}) Not exactly opposites attract, but I found their interactions funny when they initially hated each other and whenever I read the manga in retrospect in my head I’m all, “honey you two have no idea” 

i like ships where i can see a little of myself in both characters 

• What makes me happy about them:

I understand that the pseudo-incest thing can turn some people off from the pairing but in this story I feel like it’s justified enough that pretty much the whole fandom is cool with it. Yuzu and Mei didn’t grow up together nor are they blood related, but taking the “they’re not related by blood” justification out of the way while the kiss that Mei stole from Yuzu is what led to Yuzu developing feelings for her step-sister, Yuzu already started showing some sort of attraction in chapter 1 when Mei hugged her to just to get her cellphone. So, kiss or no kiss, Yuzu probably would’ve developed a crush on Mei regardless. As for Mei, the step-sister thing forced the seemingly-opposite girls to interact and it’s what led to Yuzu finding out all these things about Mei and help her with her issues. So, I think the fact that Yuzu would go great lengths for her is what would lead her to falling for her.

I really like how Yuzu doesn’t give up on Mei despite Mei always having to push her step-sister away. As much as I love Yuzu and do relate with her on a spiritual level, I do relate with Mei a lot (despite some friends saying I’m more like Yuzu lol). Anyone else who would try to get close with Mei would either get tired of her for being so closed-off and eventually just give up on her. I like the fact that Yuzu does see a lot of the good in Mei that she can’t see in herself. The whole dynamic of the closed-off, pessimistic, sometimes brooding person with the open, optimistic, never-gives-up person is a common dynamic I’ve seen everywhere and I happen to be one of those people that really do like it (at least if done right to an extent or I relate on a certain level) and also reminds me of sasuke and naruto despite never shipping that *cough* but anyway...

Plus, I remember smxmuffinpeddling mentioning this in the tags of one of their fics, but I really do like how both of them put in a lot of work to make their relationship work. Yeah, sure it seemed like Yuzu was doing all the work in the beginning, but as soon as Mei began to open up and trust Yuzu more, she does try to put in genuine effort in maintaining their relationship (using Yuzu’s notebook as a perfect date template, when she talked with Yuzu in chapter 24 that their relationship has nothing to do with other people’s opinions, asked Harumi for advice on how to start a conversation with Yuzu in the vol. 7 extra, being open to Yuzu’s offer of the one kiss a day thing, and i wish to see many more things~)

• What makes me sad about them:

Need I explain...

*Sigh* as much I love these two, I just want them to interact more with words. Like have more casual conversations. It could be the mundane things or about any problems or issues they could be having. I live for healthy communication, and I feel like Yuzu and Mei are still working up to that.

• Things done in art/fic that annoys me:

So...finding actual fan content of these two, let alone for Citrus in general is like treading through the Sahara fucking Desert 

I haven’t really found anything concrete in art/fic that annoy me...yet but the most I’ll say is making both of them unreasonably OOC. This fandom is pretty small despite citrus apparently being a super popular yuri manga (I really didn’t know that until recently) so OOCness isn’t too much of a problem. I used to be heavily into the Frozen fandom so of course when you have a larger fandom you’re going to have a crap ton of fan interpretations and lots of AUs that either don’t fit or drive the characters being written about to be OOC.

• Things I look for in art/fic:

Lots of fluff cause we don’t get enough of it in the manga TT_TT 

If it’s just them talking or having a date or something mundane that allows them to get to know each other more then sign me the fuck up. I like seeing fics that go into Mei’s perspective and I’m also a huge fan of content that really showcases the support they have for one another because feels~

In fact here’s some fics I’ve read that show some of this stuff I’ve mentioned: 

citrus schtuffs by angel0wonder (literally anything written by smx/angel0wonder bless them)

 Citrus - A Compilation by mikotyzini

The Adventures of Mei and Yuzu by mikotyzini 

Citrus: Fantasies by epitomeodisaster (i literally don’t remember if i read this one but so far it has what i mentioned earlier)

Sweet and Sour by Cynical-Banshee (words cannot describe how much I love the writing style and characterization of Mei and Yuzu in this fic, it has almost everything I’m looking for that the manga doesn’t have enough of...and chapter 5...*dies*) 

that’s all i can think of for now, but despite low numbers of content most of the stuff ive come across so far is pretty good 

• Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

For Yuzu, I wanna say Harumin only because they’re best friends and she’s always got Yuzu’s back and stuff and I know some people in the fandom already highkey ship them...however (yeah I’m gonna be one of those people ^^;), in the story I feel like it would be a bit cheap having Harumi secretly have feelings/fall for her best friend because while I was used to the yuri cliches when I first read the manga, I personally feel like the story is already far in Yuzu and Mei’s relationship that adding more unnecessary third party drama would kinda be tiresome to me. That’s not saying I’m not open to it. If Saburouta does something new or different with the whole “best friend is in love with main protagonist” cliche that I’ve seen in other yuri like Strawberry Panic, then I wouldn’t mind reading it. 

For Mei...this is gonna sound like a weird answer, but I’d probably go with Matsuri. Part of the reason just being that they do kinda share some similarities together (being alone most of their life, sometimes clinging to the one person they feel like they can trust a.k.a Yuzu), but I’m also bad at explaining shit so I’ll probably just leave it at that :P 

• My happily ever after for them:

THEY HAVE A KID (i think i came up with a concept for them having a son in my head but i never drew it...yet) 

and they live in a cozy apartment together. Mei being self-conscious about her parenting skills and Yuzu always reassuring her that she’ll be fine and she’ll support her in everything she’s having trouble with if Mei has no fucking clue how to show love and affection to a child, let alone her own. The girl already took awhile trying open up and show her love to Yuzu, so this would be a challenge lol 

Yuzu trying to reassure their kid that while his mother is pretty stubborn and has a hard time expressing her feelings, she loves them both very much <3~

• What is their favorite non-sexual activity?: 

TALKING/COMMUNICATION (wait that’s my favourite lol) 

I’m assuming that once they’re deep in their relationship, just sitting down and talking about the mundane things whether it’s about their day or ranting about whatever, would be something they would find relaxing. In the end, they’re still learning more about each other (and I fucking love that) 

oh and trying new things with each other. Yuzu would be the one dragging Mei to try out something they’ve never done before (I can’t think of any right now), Mei would probably be super competitive when it comes to getting the skill down in whatever they’re doing but of course Yuzu would tell her she doesn’t need to get so worked up and should just let loose and have fun