lovingastory

[lovingastory]

Sakura collaboration story

Back in 2020, Kadokawa published a volume titled Sakura collaboration, which included a number of short stories (more like drabbles, really) related to several light novel series, including The Slayers. "Cherry blossoms" (sakura) was the common theme.

I recently got my hands on one copy of the volume, and the story Hajime Kanzaka wrote for The Slayers (set sometime after novel 17 and paired with a lovely illustration by Araizumi of Lina and Gourry under a cherry tree, which has been circulating on its own for a while) is so cute and quietly poetic that I thought it was a shame not to share it with everyone. So under the cut you can find my tentative translation.

It looked like falling snow.

It filled up the sky, filled up our field of vision – swaying, drifting white, white, white.

Except, it wasn’t cold. If anything, it reminded of warmth, perhaps simply because it was warm, or perhaps because there was also some red among all the dancing, falling white.

The open blossoms fell among the lined trees, splendid, and ephemeral at the same time.  

“Wow,” I couldn’t help but say in admiration, unconsciously stopping as soon as I fixed my eyes on that spectacle.  

“Amazing,” commented Gourry, my travel companion. He stopped too, enthralled by the dancing blossoms. “Say, Lina, what kind of flowers are those?”

“Dunno. I’ve never seen them back where we come from,” I replied.

A little while before, for a number of reasons, Gourry and I had been sent away to an unknown, faraway land. We’d found ourselves under this sky as we were trying and get back where we came from, on a clueless and unsuccessful journey.

I’d travelled here and there in the land I used to live in before, but I’d never seen those flowers. Meaning they probably only blossomed here.

“Cherry blossoms!” The girl called Ran, who’d become our travel companion ever since we got here, suddenly blurted out, in a strange voice.

She often used weird expressions, which, according to her, were in her hometown’s dialect.

“Huh? What, now?”

“The name of the flowers – cherry blossoms.”

“Ah. They are called ‘cherry blossoms’.” I looked at them again.

The mountains stretching out in front of us were green. However, at their foot, the colors of what appeared to be ‘cherry blossoms’ trees lining along the highway formed a long streak of white, continuing as far as we could see.

The fact that they were only along the highway and not on the mountains made me think that they hadn’t grown naturally, and had been planted. But why on earth were hundreds – heck, thousands of trees planted like that?

“To have grown so many trees… must have been some sophisticated and eccentric king or lord!”

“Wrong!”

“What’s wrong?”

“It wasn’t a king who grew them, just one common person.”

“Huh?!” As the meaning of her words struck me, I couldn’t help but raise my voice. “Wait, wait, wait! A single person, growing these many trees on their own? That shouldn’t be possible!”

“They were not on their own.”

“Didn’t you just say it was just one person?”

“After they’d started working hard to grow them, the people around here came to help too.”

“… Right.” Her way of expressing things was always a bit confusing.   

“Still, why did those people feel the need to grow that many trees? Are their fruits edible, by any chance?”

It wasn’t elegant of Gourry to ask, but truth is, it did happen sometimes that trees that bore edible fruits were planted along highways, in order to lower the chance of travelers collapsing from hunger or thirst.

When asked that, Ran furrowed her brow. “Mmm… they do bear fruits and those fruits are edible, but… they are not that good?”

Judging by her words, she had tried them before. Perhaps, they were extremely bitter or sour.

Gourry, probably anticipating that he, too, wouldn’t enjoy the taste, wore a dejected expression. “Not good? Why, getting plenty of delicious fruit like that would have been perfect…”

“What are you talking about?” I said, still enthralled by the white. “This scene itself is perfect, isn’t it?” A particularly strong gust of wind made the petals dance.

“Perhaps, the person who started to plant the trees did it because he wanted to see something like this, too.”

That one scope. Perhaps, he’d kept on with that one scope in mind. Perhaps, that person had seen something like this in his past, and burned with desire for seeing it again.

Perhaps, the people around that person had been moved by that love and enthusiasm, and decided to lend a hand.

The earth-moving passion and effort of one person, stirring up other people… that wasn’t common, but it did happen, sometimes. And as a result…

… as a result, now, we were in that place, surrounded by blooming white.

Perhaps, one day, Gourry and I would be back where we came from, far away from there. And still, we wouldn’t forget the scene we’d seen that day.

The three of us stopped there for a while yet, surrounded by dancing flowers.

#slayers #the slayers #lina inverse #gourry gabriev #ran #slayers novels #lina x gourry #gourry x lina

[lovingastory]

Favourite Romantic Tropes [¼] - The Big Damn Kiss

“Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.” — Grandpa, The Princess Bride

#love this #lina inverse #gourry gabriev #lina x gourry #slayers #the slayers #dw #nine x rose #parallels

[lovingastory]

Does that make any sense? — Yeah.

BIG LITTLE LIES | 1x01 “Somebody’s Dead”

#I still need to watch this #I enjoyed the book

[lovingastory]

anyway female characters get to be cunning and selfish and opportunistic too. y’all say you want strong female characters but the moment they show any kind of agency you crucify them while the male characters who show those same traits in the same media are excused or woobified. masculine characters get to be conflicted and self serving while we ascribe them hidden depths but god forbid a woman do something that’s not completely pure or altruistic for five goddamn seconds. 

#and then you have Lina Inverse #who is cunning and selfish and opportunistic and still weirdly loved by 90% of the fandom #we are a good fandom #slayers #the slayers #lina inverse

[lovingastory]

cannot stop thinking about how good the fabrication of consent in squid game was… like yeah, the participants consent! over and over, from agreeing to the slapping game to ringing up the number of their own accord to meeting at the location to signing a separate sheet once more upon arrival… they can even disband the game if the majority decrees it. but this is all performative. because of course they’ll agree - of course they’ll come back.

the second episode is even all about addressing this ‘consent’, and that potential audience superiority: “so why don’t they just leave???? if they can??? why did they even do all this to start with?? it’s so extreme, to do all that just for money, i would never”

because, the show says, look at what they’re returning to. look at the life that’s offered as their alternative. debt up to their ears, money-brokers beating them up, poverty at its worst. do you see? do you see how yeah, joining that game is optional, but it’s optional in the sense of choosing to be stabbed or shot: theres consent, but not actual desire. that theres agreement, but under exploitation. there’s a reason only poor people are chosen to compete and it’s so obvious but i fucking love how the show handles it and addresses any audience superiority anyway

#squid game

[lovingastory]

AO3

#the slayers #slayers #not artober but still so good

[lovingastory]

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) dir. Rob Reiner, written by Nora Ephron

#when harry met sally

[lovingastory]

Jung Ho Yeon as Kang Sae Byeok / “No. 067”  in Squid Game 오징어 게임 (2021) — dir. Hwang Dong Hyuk

#I'm in love #squid game #squid game spoilers

[lovingastory]

“We’re on the same side now. We at least need to know each other’s names to build a bit of trust.”

#squid game #squid game spoilers #ish

[lovingastory]

Squid Game | Episode 1: “Red Light, Green Light”

#I fell victim to the hype #but I actually liked this a lot #squid game

[lovingastory]

#some I already knew but this is useful #reblogging for future reference

[lovingastory]

I was born ninety seconds before Nell, but she was always my big sister.

#the haunting of hill house

[lovingastory]

25% is better than 0%. trying a little is better than not trying at all. eating a protein bar is better than nothing. using dry shampoo is better than not showering. cleaning one section of your room or house is better than not cleaning any of it. writing a paragraph of your essay is better than not starting it. whatever you can manage today is okay. you can try again tomorrow. little steps are to be proud of.

[lovingastory]

#good omens

[lovingastory]

I'm awfully late but I wanted to try @slayersweek 's Artober challenge. I loved the songs concept! Sadly I don't have much time to draw lately so I'll probably skip a lot of days but I really want to do this. <3

This is number 1, Get Along. I love the song and I love that despite the odds these three became good friends.

Sorry for the bad quality, I don't have a scanner right now.

#slayers #the slayers

[lovingastory]

For @slayersweek Slayers Artober prompt number 4, Midnight Blue. Oh look that's a background!

#the slayers #slayers #I'm loving all the goodies artober brings

[lovingastory]

I hope I find someone that loves me the same way Stephen Colbert loves his wife ❤️ ❤️ ❤️