tobiasdrake

[tobiasdrake]

I need you to know that Haruhi-Chan exists, that it's done with the original voice cast, and that the episodes are roughly 5 minutes long.

I have seen four of them, and they are FANTASTIC.

XD Oh my god, that's amazing

[tobiasdrake]

There should be so much! They need to bring her back.

We're in the middle of a Dragon Ball renaissance. Sailor Moon got a remake anime. Ranma 1/2 has a remake anime on Netflix. Fullmetal Alchemist got a second anime to faithfully adapt the manga.

When's it gonna be Haruhi's turn?

I need you to know that Haruhi-Chan exists, that it's done with the original voice cast, and that the episodes are roughly 5 minutes long.

I have seen four of them, and they are FANTASTIC.

XD Oh my god, that's amazing

[tobiasdrake]

There is some precedent for it. "Boyfriend - Girlfriend - Platonic Best Friend of one of them who hates the other one's fucking guts" is a pretty common dynamic in hetero romance stories. It's just that the Best Friend is typically treated the way the third party of a triangle usually is; They're treated as the antagonist for getting in the way of The Ship.

I think it's generally more common for the Third Party character to be a woman who's friends with the Girlfriend character. "Chatty bitches saying shit about me" is a male insecurity that leaks into their writing. But it can also be a bro going, "My dude, that chick is distracting you from our band/sports team/whatever!"

They might be characterized as an asshole who needs to be told off in the end, or as a sympathetic figure who gets a more reconciliatory resolution. In the latter case, they may even get romantically paired off with someone else to "fix" their problem. But they're still treated as an obstacle who needs to make peace with the fact that The Ship comes first, no matter how long they've been friends with the other character.

An aroace deconstruction of this dynamic from the point-of-view of the platonic "triangle third party" would honestly be fascinating.

re: finding platonic explanations for things you cannot even imagine, I'd like to see an aromantic jealousy plot for a change. Character A is seethingly jealous of Character B's love interest but it's not because they're romantically interested in B, it's because they're aro and B is the most important person in their life and this is an unwelcome reminder that they will always come second to a traditional romantic partner in society's eyes and possibly B's as well.

And honestly you don't even need a powerful interpersonal connection to activate Hater Mode. I wasn't that close to any of my middle school classmates and I certainly wasn't interested in them romantically, but I was still so sick of hearing about the boy band guys they had crushes on that I fantasized about Justin Bieber dying in a plane crash. Not my most hinged of moments but idk what to tell you, middle school was a bad time

[tobiasdrake]

It's kinda wild that these exist. Where did they come from? They feel like something fans would throw together for fun but they have the voice cast so they must be an official product.

Someone at the studio must have had a lot of fun making them.

I need you to know that Haruhi-Chan exists, that it's done with the original voice cast, and that the episodes are roughly 5 minutes long.

I have seen four of them, and they are FANTASTIC.

XD Oh my god, that's amazing

[tobiasdrake]

I need you to know that Haruhi-Chan exists, that it's done with the original voice cast, and that the episodes are roughly 5 minutes long.

I have seen four of them, and they are FANTASTIC.

XD Oh my god, that's amazing

[tobiasdrake]

Reading the Land Before Time liveblogs by @pushovermediacritic has me thinking they should do one of those "All Grown Up" sequels where Littlefoot and the others are adults now, living in the Great Valley and teaching about the Beyond.

And there are hijinx and also adult responsibilities and taking care of kids, and multiple references to the Beyond. There's dangerous stuff out in the Beyond.

Late in the movie, Cera's dad has a line like, "Yeah, we used to call it the Mysterious Beyond, but those kids just kept on going out there until it just ran out of mysteries."

[tobiasdrake]

Isekai where Truck-kun gets the Chosen One while they're on their way to a field trip. Just plows into the entire goddamn school bus.

Now in addition to the Chosen One, they have an entire class's worth of the Chosen One's peers and one poor teacher who was chaperoning them all stranded in the other world.

[tobiasdrake]

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy 111 - Speculation

...okay but what about the Invaders, though?

Okay, that one I'm not accepting at face value because by your own admission, it's speculation.

Especially since, and I've noted this before, they aren't very interested in killing us. They want what's in the Defense Room but they do not care if we live or die.

Which doesn't seem to fit the vibe of bloodthirsty exterminators trying to erase mankind.

Also, this speculation fails to explain what the deal is with the Commanders. The Invaders are led by humans using hemoanima, just like we're humans using hemoanima. This is a people-on-people war; The Earth isn't doing it.

I think we need to go back to the drawing board on this one because I don't buy it.

Yeah, no. I don't. I don't trust this.

I trust the World Death stuff. I do believe that what Nigou gave you is a factual summary of the crisis facing our planet and civilization.

I don't trust that the Defense Room contains a magical cure-all and that the Forces of Planet Earth are trying to stop us from saving mankind. That, I trust as far as I can throw Takemaru.

Also there's alien temple structures dotted around the map that we haven't talked about. That's super weird! And doesn't seem like a result of climate change!

I think Nigou (and Nozomi) fed y'all just enough valid information to let you fill in the gaps and believe what you want to believe. That's my takeaway from this.

Eito, don't tell me you're buying into all of this unquestioningly! You're the guy I trust to ask the pertinent questions like "Wait, wasn't that part just your speculation, though?"

No, I feel you, Darumi. I feel you more than the rest of the team. This is a fantastic infodump but we're also all getting suckered into making assumptions.

We still need more information but we've gotten enough information that we don't necessarily feel like we need more. I think I understand now why B-Team was like, "We know enough." We don't. But it's easy to think we do.

THANK YOU IMA

Oh god I feel dirty saying that.

Of course you can't. Thank you, Ima (gyech), for pointing out how incomplete this information still is.

It's fine, Shouma. Just take your time and tell us when you remember things. We're counting on you to fill some of the gaps here.

Now, more than ever, I think our variants in the other universe were present for the destruction of the TRC. I think the Invaders breaching the place was the end of mankind in our home timeline.

Which would gel with the Invaders being the forces of Planet Earth but there's still just too many questions to settle on that as the answer.

Which would probably mean that the Kamukura Hospital that Shouma remembers was in this timeline. That would parse....

I've been thinking of those weird people pods as the means by which we got here from Kamukura. Somehow they transferred our information from the Kamukura pods to the school pods. But if we're hemoanima clones, then those might just be our cloning vats. They created us at Kamukura, then physically shipped us in the pods to the two schools.

Whatever the case, Nozomi knows about it and isn't talking.

You don't even listen to a word Imouto-chan says, do you?

You know, it's actually really appropriate that Darumi suddenly shared an anecdote about being abused by her brother right here in your chapter, isn't it? You think that might mean something, Ima? You think it might have thematic relevance? Hm?

YEAH WHAT HE SAID

YOU TELL HIM, GAKU

Okay, everybody from B-Team needs to shut the fuck up right now because you guys haven't spent enough time with them to know that it's just Ima. You don't need to tar Kako with the same brush. She is being gaslit by an emotional abuser and deserves our empathy.

Yeah. Yeah, this was... This was a lot. Fuck you guys for not telling us sooner and also thank you guys for telling us now. I still think there are many pieces to this puzzle yet uncovered but at least we know a big one.

[tobiasdrake]

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy 110 - Sorry About the Koch Brothers

Day 46 of 100. We're finally here. The exposition of World Death continues.

Climate change. World Death is climate change.

WHOA WHAT

It's Darumi's turn to make flippant references to traumatic backstory this time! DARUMI. EXPLAIN.

So then it moved to Killer Funko Pops. Yeah, gotta admit, that'd be hard to ignore.

Holy shit, Darumi. Do we need to go sit down and unpack all this somewhere?

So, Darumi's self-destructive tendencies and fixation on horror is a product of an abusive home life with a repeat abuser that wouldn't be stopped by the courts.

Yeah, that makes sense. Is it weird that I'm more interested in that than in the climate change allegory? On an emotional level, personal stories always weigh more heavily than the fate of the world. Billions of people are dead but those are just numbers. My bestie's been abused by her brother. ._.

Thus bringing us to the TRC. Assuming we believe this, that makes a lot of sense. And there isn't really any reason not to believe it. The idea that the planet has a lifeforce and will of its own isn't uncommon in Japanese media.

I completely accept this explanation at face value.

It's honestly wild to think of growing up in a box and just... never wondering why we live in a box. We have always lived in the box. We will always live in the box. The box is our natural universe.

That doesn't explain the Undying Flames and the Hemoanima, though. Though I'm still pretty confident the Undying Flames are just that one ghosty boi's Class Weapon.

Kind of unfair that the sparrows and the foxes had to suffer for our misdeeds. Also unfair that all of humanity got tarred with that brush when we know it's the autocrats and capitalists that did it. That's classist.

The Earth is so classist.

There's only one thing that can save us all but the one thing is a giant question mark.

So help me, if the secret of the Defense Room turns out to be the friends we made along the way, I will set Sirei's corpse bucket on fire.

Ladies, ladies. Different people have different tastes and different emotional needs from their fiction. We live in a world where there is a place for all kinds of stories, from positive and uplifting tales of heroism and valor to dark and morbid stories that allow us to experience uncomfortable emotions in a safe environment.

A world where there is a place in the annals of pop culture for Dragon Ball and for Danganronpa. But not for Dragon Ball GT, so Darumi wins this argument anyway.

This feels too rosy and pie-in-the-sky. It can't really be that simple, can it? What could possibly be in that room that is going to just... make World Death go away? A Hallmark card that reads "Sorry about the Koch Brothers" isn't going to cut it.

[tobiasdrake]

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy 109 - World Death

Whew. It's finally over and we're back to FREE TIME. And today I am....

...I am....

I do not remember what I wanted to do with my next block of Free Time. It's been so long. First things first, upgrades. Shouma's new so he must have a third attack he can unlock with points.

"Try to actually attack for once." OMEGA PUNCH DEALS 1 DAMAGE AND INFLICTS STUN ON USER HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This is, of course, obviously meant to synergize with the +1 Attack he gets per enemy that swings on him. It's a way of detonating his stored power without having to spend 100 Voltage on his Ultimate.

In any case, it's Afternoon so we can't Explore. Either Gifting, Hangouts, or Training. Hangouts are good for learning about potential Gifts but I feel like running down the list and just picking based on what I know about people some more. I'm sure there's still a lot of obvious Gifts I haven't exhausted.

This can only be for Kyoshika. Who we can now Gift things to because B-Team are officially on our team finally. Let's do it.

Sure, go right ahead. What you do with your sword to is none of my business. Just don't ask me to officiate.

And that will unlock some new attack levels. We should check out the new levels of training that have unlocked now that B-Team is with us next chance we get.

On to Day 46.

Come on in, Darumi. What's up?

Huh. I might have to switch Morning Darumi to Morning Nozomi if this keeps up. The important thing is that the last syllable doesn't change because they're here to visit me.

...why are you telling me this in private rather than hosting a cafeteria morning meeting? This seems sketchy, Nozomi.

Oh, this is no longer sketchy, Nozomi. My apologies. I completely misinterpreted the purpose of this visit.

Next time, send Morning Darumi around. You're new, so you probably don't know, but she's a super effective messenger. She drops off the invite and then if you don't agree to come, she kills herself right there in your room and flops her body onto your bed. Nobody ever refused after the first time.

Tsubasa did have to do a lot of room cleaning, though. Not because of the blood. Also she might need therapy? But that's a problem for our shell-shocked veteran future selves to worry about. Right now, it's party time! With entrails! Who can earn the high score on the PTSD leaderboard!?

Nozomi's curious about her variant.

Because she knows what that means.

Two days in a row, Kako's just... out here by herself, thinking about her situation.

You've got this, Kako. One foot in front of the other. We'll be here when you're ready.

...why the hell is Tsubasa down on the first floor? War Room's on the third.

XD Tsubasa went to the Cafeteria on accident.

That's fair. You keep right on being the most relatable Ordinary Human Being in the academy, Tsubasa.

That's amazing. Anyways. Game face. World Death.

You tell her, Gaku. That spicy comeback is sure to make her regret her words and deeds.

DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE

Don't you fucking dare tell me that the TRC is on the fucking moon or something.

How did those two words completely blow my entire goddamn mind.

Is the TRC a fucking spaceship? No, that doesn't make sense because how would the Invaders breach the TRC without everyone being pulled into vacuum?

It's a box, but it has to be a box in a terrestrial location, right?

Maybe I'm overthinking this and it's just because we live in a box that we don't know what the rest of the world is like.

Yeah, okay. It's just that we live in a box. Whew. Almost went down a rabbit hole there.

Which is the TRC! Don't scare me like that, Nozomi. You had me legit flashing back on the V3 birdcage.

All the other bunkers failed, I guess. That's what you get for letting Vault-Tec design your apocalypse shelter.

Credit where it's due, it lives up to the name. It's not some external force with plans to bring about global destruction. It's literally just... the world dying.

I don't know how we're supposed to counter that. If the Earth is just dying of natural causes then... Then that's game over, isn't it? All things come to an end at some point. We all have to face our own mortality eventually. Some day the sun will explode. That's just life.

Weird that the naturally occurring death of the planet would involve marauding Care Bears, though. I feel like this isn't everything.

[tobiasdrake]

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy 108 - Mutual Respect

The sentencing is finished. Judge Shouma has spoken and B-Team has been condemned to the worst fate imaginable. So it shall be.

EXCUSE ME WHAT

I mean, Gaku ate the curry. That's not surprising.

BUT YOU KNEW!?!?

YOU KNEW AND YOU MADE US DO ALL THIS ANYWAY!?!?

AND YOU STILL MADE US GO THROUGH ALL THAT ANYWAY

YOU OPPORTUNISTIC PIECE OF--

I told all-a y'all she was playing us for the wager! We have to stop letting authoritative people establish ridiculous rules backed by nothing but vibes!

It was Gaku.

It was Gaku.

You were being unbelievably suspicious, man. You might as well have been wearing a sign on your chest that read "Nom Nom, Tasty Curry".

Also you owe Takemaru like a gazillion puddings.

The worst part isn't even the curry theft. It's the fact that you were going to let Shouma take the fall and drag all of us down with him. You could have come clean at any moment and you just let it play out, let our fates be in the hands of fucking Shouma.

Literally the only reason we survived this is because Takemaru is a fucking positive thinking and self-improvement DEMIGOD.

This is why I fucking bully you, Gaku!

We're really just going to gloss over the fact that Kurara knew Shouma was lying and took advantage of him to play us all like saps. Just going to breeze right past that.

Fine. I guess in the spirit of Shouma's wish on the Dragon Balls, I can let bygones be bygones.

I'm honestly amazed that we're all actually going along with this. We really are coming together as a unit. We don't even mind the fact that Eito is the corniest murderer we've ever met.

I'm honestly amazed that 11/13 of us are actually going along with this. We really are coming together as a unit, and also Ima exists.

Let's all join up with mutual respect and put our hands together. On Ima. As we shove him into a locker as a team.

You too, Kako. We're going to bully your abuser. Want in?

You know, it's honestly amazing that someone who needs to wear a Self-Confidence Tomato can say that with a straight face.

GOOOOO TEAM

Okay, counterclockwise from the top, that's

Eito Takumi Nozomi Tsubasa Yugamu Darumi Takemaru Shouma Gaku Kurara Kyoshika

Some interesting notes about the positioning here, because there's a lot of pairing off going on. Takumi is sandwiched between Eito and Nozomi which makes sense. Takemaru and Shouma are side-by-side, as are Kurara and Kyoshika.

Gaku squeezed in next to Kurara, which seems like a really odd place for him to go given what just happened; However his hand is second from the top so he might just not have had anywhere else to go. Still, it adds fuel to a sneaking suspicion I've had in the back of my mind that we're supposed to be shipping Gaku and Kurara.

Gaku/Kurara and Takemaru/Hiruko have both been giving strong "Writers think this is romantic" vibes for me. Enemies-to-Lovers and all that. Though Kurara/Kyoshika also has a strong sense of "We're supposed to ship this" to it.

As for Takumi, Eito, and Nozomi... I just hope we're not doing "Good (Straight) Shippable" and "Wicked (Gay) Shippable" again, like Chiaki/Hajime/Nagito. I want either both of them to turn out to be conniving pieces of shit or neither.

[tobiasdrake]

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy 107 - The Graceless Losers

Day 45 of 100. Well, this has been a hell of a week and I'm still salty about my missing Free Time but hopefully we'll have more soon. We did a big plot arc and a big battle so we might get some downtime before the next big plot arc?

Or we might jinx ourselves and now we're going to step outside and find out someone mysteriously killed Takemaru. Great.

I didn't know that but I'm not surprised by it. By process of elimination, it should be your storyline next. I doubt we're recovering Moko before we get you and Ima on the field.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I really enjoyed watching the battle out there too.

You can, Kako. Through the power of individual exceptionalism and self-actualization--

No, wait, hang on. I'm reading the wrong script. It was the power of community support and teamwork. Together, we built each other up and made each other strong enough to stand out there shoulder-to-shoulder and watch Tsubasa fight as a team.

Are we still on about that? I thought we settled that. We asked Shouma what the penalty would be and he said "grgle grgle blrrrrrrgh". What more is there to discuss?

Gaku, can't we be the bigger--

...

Wait. Shit. B-Team are the ones with dignity and professionalism. We're the graceless losers.

Sorry, guys. I tried. Consider this a valuable lesson: Never wrestle with a pig. The pig actually enjoys it, case in point Darumi who was literally picking out dog collars for herself a few days ago, while you just end up covered in mud.

I stand by that too. Also, addendum, if he Cloroxes out again about it then we have to just call it square.

This is it. The moment of truth. Right after I take a vibe check. How we feeling, everyone?

KAKO'S FUCKING CRYING BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T GET TO BE COMBAT TEAM

You can do this, Kako. You have the strength inside of you. Who cares what Ima thinks.

Oh cool, Darumi is also a Zero Escape fan. Not just Danganronpa. She's literally talking about Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, the first game in the series.

You know, I would normally say that this is literally why we aren't letting Gaku or Darumi choose the penalty. But actually, Gaku really surprised me a couple days ago when he tried to make the penalty "a few hundred bucks to support my family". That raised him a lot of points in my estimation.

We're still not letting Darumi pick 'cause of how gross it would be, though. It's kind of a shame we can't let Takemaru pick because then I bet the penalty would just be something like "You have to let us participate in Monokuma Workouts from now on."

Which would be really great for team-building, rather than any serious penalty. Aw, man. I kinda want that now.

Alright, Shouma. Let's hear it. THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT FOR THE INEXPLICABLE LOSERS OF THE MOST WINNABLE BET

You wouldn't but your mask would have been absolutely merciless and we both know it, so shush.

THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT, HERE WE GO

Wow, that is brutal. We suck.

You are stone cold, Shouma.

Incidentally, this one isn't a mistranslation. The word here is 仲良く nakayoku which basically means to be on good terms with someone. He's asking them to be friendly and sociable towards us, in contrast to the way they've treated us up to this point.

Also we want to join Monokuma Workouts.

Shouma.

Shouma, tell them to let us into Monokuma Workouts.

That's why I was willing to settle for Gurgle Gurgle! Did we really think Shouma was going to make them all drink toilet water or something? Apparently Gaku did but I don't think the rest of us can possibly be surprised.

Uh-oh, Shouma. Looks like you just made a friend. Don't worry, I doubt she's a hugger.

That one's definitely a hugger, though, so you should probably run.

And I don't need to tell you how much of a not hugger that one is. Pretty sure you're up to speed.

I'm actually curious to know what you would have picked, Tsubasa. It's kind of hard to get a read on you because you're the most Everyday Average Normal Guy in this group. Apart from the Sea Cucumber Stratagem and being God-Queen of the battlefield, I mean. Your personality isn't nearly as aggressively in-your-face as basically everyone else in this unit.

It's true. Just the other day, Darumi and I were arguing about which movie to watch next and it turned into a minor little tiff. And by tiff, I mean a stabbing contest.

In our defense, we were bored and wanted to stab each other anyway, so it worked out. But the important thing is that after we got out of the Revive-o-Matic, we high fived each other and went, "That fucking ruled!" Like friends do.

Also the paranoid part of my brain is making mountains out of molehills about that "next 50 or so days" addendum. She probably just means we're going home on Day 100 but I'm still back here like "What do you know?"

[tobiasdrake]

Musing on the creation myth of the United States. It says a lot to me that. Like.

We whitewash the shit out of our history. We don't like to talk about the Native Americans. They just sort of disappear at a certain point. What happened to them? Who's to say. Maybe aliens. I don't know.

We don't like to talk about slavery. We say slavery was an Original Sin our forefathers inherited from Europe, and we were innocent and naive babies who didn't know any better. But then one day Abraham Lincoln singlehandedly ended slavery worldwide. That is all. That is the complete history of American slavery. Do not look any deeper.

The War of 1812 has basically been decanonized. It wasn't a proud moment of nationalist fervor so you just don't get to know about it.

The Civil War? Oh, that was about states' rights. It was a minor disagreement over how much power the federal government should have over states, a discussion that rages to this day.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave this one speech this one time that ended racism forever. That speech was the beginning and the end of all civil rights movements, and no minority has ever been persecuted since.

There's just.

There's so much of our history that has been doctored to present a favorable impression of our country. It's all propagandized to shit and back to hide the ugly elements from view.

...

But they will tell you to your face that the Revolutionary War was about taxation. We threw their fucking tea in the harbor to protest their taxes. It was about our right to freedom from ever having to pay taxes to a federal government! Nothing else! Just ending taxation! NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!!! GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!!!

And I think that says a lot about the strangehold that capitalist rhetoric has on the American public consciousness, that they haven't rewritten it. That our leaders are proud of it. And that most of us never even question it either.

[tobiasdrake]

The foundational principles of American freedom are a group of slave-owners unironically writing the words "All men are created equal" to explain why they shouldn't have to pay taxes.

It's been paradoxical from the moment it was first spoken and, to this day, we should all be skeptical of anyone who doesn't want us to interrogate it very deeply.

I was thinking about how I have grown to value mandatory voting over a system that allows allegedly more freedom. Because in country, mandatory voting means I just have to send in a ballot. It can be empty or filled with the write in ballot "pickle farts" if I want.

If I go to the voting station all I have to do is get my name checked off. I don't have to vote if I don't want to.

But it means it is much more difficult for the government to try and suppress voters. Because voters have a legal obligation to go to the polls, so you can't restrict them or try tactics to dissuade them.

Voting polls are open long hours with access to food and water being a fairly standard staple. You don't need any form of ID, you have to be given time to go vote in work hours without penalty if you cannot do it after work hours.

Every now and then a politician tries some small way of voter suppression but it isn't as easy. And so I have learned to appreciate it.

But when I googled, out of curiosity, if the USA had ever had anything like that I was met with a barrage of websites talking about freedom and justice and the absolute liberty of Americans. I thought an eagle was going to bust out of the screen.

Going through some of these I noticed they were think tanks connected to billionaires, one of them was funded and created by the Koch brothers.

Gotta love how often the American "freedom" is actually used as a way to further deny actual freedoms, both linguistically and politically.

[tobiasdrake]

like, okay, consent does literally just mean agree. which is what enables this little rhetorical trick. because there's all this cultural emphasis on sexual consent, which is just expressed as consent, a lot of phrases whose intended meanings are "rape is bad" can be taken literally to mean "i should get to agree to everything that happens in my vicinity."

[tobiasdrake]

Jealousy (Choking On Your Alibis) (VII)

Summary: Haruhi waits.  Her phone goes silent.  The player continues to draw.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothi—

Her phone rings.

Brought to you by a discussion @tobiasdrake and I had about what it would look. like if Junko and Haruhi ever met.

Chapter Rating: T. Fic Rating: T.

AO3

previous chapter

The last day of summer break, Haruhi sits in her room, three different baseball games playing on three different television sets in her room, a plan for the school year formulating in her mind.  The games are boring – no aliens or espers or anything like that!  But every now and again, one of the players – just as frustrated with the normalcy of their game as she is – starts drawing in the dirt.  Or talking to a praying mantis sitting on the rim of his cap.  Or making a sand castle.  Then she zooms in.  They could be communicating with an alien!  They have a supernatural connection with the mantis!  They—

Okay, so she doesn’t actually care about the sand castle, because most of them aren’t any good, but one of them looked like a possible alien fortress before Haruhi realized it was just the Sagrada Familia.  Ugh.

Her phone rings just as one of them starts to draw in the dirt again.

Haruhi ignores the phone.  She zooms in on the artwork, trying to determine what kind of language it might be and what effect it might be having on the game.  Or the other games.  Maybe he’s casting some sort of spell on—

Her phone rings again.  It sounds louder this time.  Maybe that’s the spell!  Okay, so she’ll ignore it, and if it rings again while he’s still drawing, then she’ll take that as her cue that the actual spell is the alien contacting her by calling her cell phone through drawing in the dirt.

Haruhi waits.  Her phone goes silent.  The player continues to draw.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothi—

Her phone rings.

Haruhi snatches it up.  “Haruhi Suzumiya, leader of the SOS Brigade!  It took you long enough to—”

“Sorry, Yasuke just left, and I thought—”

“Wait wait wait wait.”  Haruhi looks at the game on her TV.  She scans the players across it, then across the other game, then across the third game.  There’s no Yasuke.  She squints at the player who was drawing, only to find that he’s gotten up and moved to something else.  “Who is this?”

“Junko, duh.  Don’t you read caller ID?”  A pause, then Haruhi imagines Junko grinning.  “Do you even have caller ID?  How do you know if the call’s coming from the house if you don’t—”

“What do you want?”

“I said,” Junko starts, and it’s easy to see her rolling her eyes in annoyance, leaning back in her chair, and propping her sharp heels on top of her desk or counter or something, “Yasuke just left, and I figured the Brigade was probably doing something today—”

“We’re not,” Haruhi snaps at her.  “If we were, I—”

“—wouldn’t have answered your phone, yeah, yeah, got it.”  Junko sighs.

Haruhi’s teeth grit together.  It’s infuriating when Junko cuts her off!  And it’s worse when she completes her sentence!  Like Haruhi couldn’t possibly think of something else to say!  Like she’s…like she’s predictable!  “You’re on penalty!” she barks out.  “For skipping our last meeting!”

“Well, I clearly didn’t think it would be our last meeting.”  Junko yawns.  “What, our Brigade Leader couldn’t think of anything to do today?  How boring.”

“I thought of a lot of things to do!” Haruhi lies.  “Just none of it needed the Brigade!  It was easier to do it by myself!”

A pause.  Then, “So you aren’t bored.”

“No!  I’m busy!”

“Oh.”  The pause is longer this time, just long enough for Haruhi to regret saying that she’s busy, if she regretted anything, which she doesn’t.  Finally, Junko says, “Well, I’ll leave you to it, then.  Have a good day, Haruhi.”