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slugtranslation-hypmic · 3 years

Note

Hihihi this is may be a weird question but is your opinion on the main hypmic cast?

In brief:

(Spoiler alert: It was not brief. Stuck under a cut for length)

Ichirou: He's a good kid. I wasn’t super into him at first, as main protagonists very rarely hold my interest, but I appreciate him now for the struggles he goes through and the growth he’s experienced across the series.

Jirou: Jirou is also a good kid in his own way. I didn’t know what to do with him for a while, but now I feel like I understand him too. I don’t think he quite gets what makes Ichirou be as loved as he is, nor does he really understand what makes people love him for who he is. But that’s okay. He’ll get it someday.

Saburou: If you had tasked me as a fourteen year old to create an idealized anime boy sona, I would have come up with someone shockingly similar to Saburou. I’m fond of him. He can be a bit mean at times in a very fourteen way, but deep down, he’s a good kid too. All the BBs are good kids.

Samatoki: I just can’t not make fun of him. His posturing is so ridiculous to me that I am constantly filled with the urge to clown on him. Oh, you think you’re so tough? You think you’re a big tough guy? Well, I’m just a little bastard; what are you going to do about it? But underneath the posturing, I do feel sorry for him and admire his strengths a lot. He’s a good kid too under a very funny exterior.

Juuto: I’m enjoying learning more about him from the BB/MTC+ manga, but I’m a bit surprised at how much of a dick he is even deep down. Still, he has plenty of good qualities too, and I like him in a vague sort of way. I’d throw fruit at him over a fence but wouldn’t put any malice in it.

Riou: What a delightful individual he is. The BB/MTC chapter about him really resonated with me. For a character so outwardly obsessed with the military, Riou has an incredible understanding of the weight of his actions and such a deep appreciation for every living thing. There’s a lot of his depth to his simplicity, and the level of care he exhibits towards everyone is delightful to witness. An absolute favorite among the cast.

Ramuda: Self-recognition through the other (derogatory). In all seriousness, Ramuda’s story arc and actions are great narrative tools for me to examine some things about myself and grow to try to be a better, more considerate person towards myself and others. I want to see him achieve freedom and happiness.

Gentarou: I enjoy Gentarou quite a bit, although I think he gets overshadowed by the other members of Fling Posse at times due to my sheer passion for Dice and Ramuda. He’s my favorite character to translate at the moment, which is apparently heresy among Hypmic translators. More than the sheer fun of writing his witty banter, I find him to be a very intriguing individual, and I’m excited to learn more about him. I want his happiness too.

Dice: Oh, Dice... He’s a really good kid in a way that the BBs could never be. He’s deceptively good, and he does choose to hurt other people and himself in ways that characters like Ichirou don’t. But he also finds the goodness in the oddest places, like a person finding a coin in a cracked sidewalk, and that’s delightful. His narrative is one of the most compelling for me. What a champion of a character.

Jakurai: Wow, what a good foil for Ramuda. Let me bounce narratives off of you like a mirror. I’m slowly learning to find him compelling in his own right, however. This is also a self-recognition through the other (derogatory) scenario, but there’s more of an emphasis on the derogatory part.

Hifumi: A funny little individual bearing a lot of sadness and a whole lot more courage. Like most of Matenrou, I admire him a lot, but I think that Matenrou resonates much more strongly with other people than they do for me, so I prefer to sit back and let other people appreciate them. I think he’s very brave and very fun to read/write.

Doppo: The biggest fucking mood in existence. When you move past the stereotypical aspects, you end up with another character who has a lot of deep flaws but also an incredible amount of courage. I’m excited to see where they go with him, but again, I’ll sit back and let others take the first row here.

Kuukou: Having already drafted Saburou, if you came back to me at age eighteen and asked me to make an idealized anime boy sona, you would probably have ended up with a character astonishingly like Kuukou. He brings me sheer joy. Astonishingly, I feel like Kuukou has exhibited the least growth out of any of the cast, and yet I do not mind a bit. He is the closest to the perfect man I have ever met. I would drop everything to be this dude’s homie if he existed in real life. Just a champion individual.

Juushi: Juushi’s a good kid. I’m very fond of him and like writing him, but much like Matenrou, I feel like he does a lot more for other people than he does for me. Therefore, much of how I work with him is less, “How do I enjoy this character as a reader?” and more “How do I nurture the traits about him that other people love?”

Hitoya: Hitoya strikes me as a damn good person with a lot of heart who sometimes lets his anger drive him a bit too much. He’s also utterly ridiculous, of course, but I try to write him with as much strength as possible to be present behind his words. He honestly seems like a great person to know in real life, not simply as a fictional character, as well.

Sasara: I have to clown on him to assert dominance. Joking aside, I admire the depths of his character and the growth he’s shown over the series. He can be pretty callous at times and goes to odd lengths to get what he wants, but I think he’s now starting to realize how much his actions affect other people. For a while I was really in his camp as a hardcore Sasara lover (back before he was a main cast member - I love writing quirky minor characters), but now I approach him with the idea mentioned above, ie how I can present him for other people.

Roshou: Whenever he’s around the rest of Dotsu Hon, I think he’s kind of an idiot. I mean that in the best way possible. It’s very endearing. Yet moments when he’s on his own are where I think he best shines, and I would love to see more solo material for him. He’s an incredibly good support character, and I admire his passion for his students.

Rei: I really enjoy asshole antagonists, which is why I liked Ramuda for a while before the clone story came up behind me and struck me into the ground with its mighty fists. Now Rei fills this role. I would love to learn more about him and team up with the Buster Bros to pelt him with rotten eggs in a fun bonding activity. I’m sure there is some strong backstory that will absolve him of at least some of his shittiness, but until now, I’m still not excusing his whole abandoning his children thing, not to mention the human trafficking thing he pulled with Ramuda.

Otome: I hate translating her, if only because she and Rei frequently talk about things in extremely vague terms that I have no context for. It’s hard to make her sound idiomatic in English while also not shooting myself in the foot by accidentally filling in the wrong information. But with that aside, she’s okay. I like her, I guess. Her motivations are pretty interesting.

Ichijiku: Ichijiku was written for people who are sexually attracted to women, and I’m not at all, so I 100% approach her in terms of her pull on other people. She’s fun on her own, though, and I’m impressed at her ability to walk in high heels. Her complete disrespect for everyone but Otome brings me no end of entertainment in reading and writing.

Nemu: YOU. Maybe this is some stupid toxic masculinity thing, but I always feel embarrassed speaking affectionately about male characters but not at all about female characters. Therefore Nemu gets all of my loveposting. She’s a wonderful girl! She has such a strong spirit, and I’m completely overjoyed that she’s making her own decisions and becoming her own character defined on her own terms. I want to watch her grow up big and strong. Fuck yes, baby girl! Fuck it up! I’m very proud of her.

#not a translation #asks #hypmic asks

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therealvinelle · 3 years

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You or The Muffin made a post on your dream cast(s), but I’m not really familiar with those references/actors (with the exception of Bowie and Jean Claude Van Damme and Clint Eastwood I think you mentioned). Is there anyone you would choose that’s a little more recent (80s-present)?

Our dream cast.

Our dream voice cast, for those interested.

Fun fact, both those posts were composed together, so yeah we share these opinions. We composed this one together as well.

Keep in mind that this list is... well it's for Twilight as I would make it. Which means that of course we’re casting a Didyme, nevermind that she’s been dead for thousands of years, but Denali who?

And once again we’re disrupting the time-space continuum and casting big name actors you’ve definitely heard about as they were ten, twenty, or thirty years ago.

Alright, so newer and shinier Twilight fancast, this time with a few alternatives because decisions are hard:

Alice: ... Audrey Hepburn.

I'm sorry. I tried. I tried to be modern, but I got to Alice and originally we thought Saoirse Ronan, appearances be damned because Ronan is a great actress, only to realize Ronan should be Renesmée.

So we're back to the dream cast. Audrey Hepburn was a tiny, pixie-like, yet ridiculously beautiful woman. Like Alice, her growth was stunted due to prolonged starvation during the War, so she's the perfect casting in a way no modern Western actress is going to be. She was also an amazing actress, just absolutely magnetic each time she graced the screen. She would be a fantastic Alice.

Aro: A young Tom Cruise.

Cruise is an absurdly beautiful man, and at 173 cm he is the right stature as I could never cast a tall actor for Aro. He's a very good actor, so I'm sure he'd be up for it. Also, he'd look great with chalky petrified vampire makeup on. He'd pull it off. I want to see this.

Optionally: Cate Blanchett

Yes, she's a woman. But that's what acting is all about, you play someone you're not. It's more a thing in theatre than in film that men can play women and women can play men, but I say fuck the rules, we're doing it theatre style. And Blanchett absolutely have that enigmatic, ethereal, otherworldly quality I'd want for Aro.

Bella: A young Sarah Michelle Gellar

Gellar is a petite beauty, she is spunky yet adorable, and very charming, the people of Forks and the Cullens would very believably gravitate towards her. Most importantly she has the acting chops to pull it off. She would portray an amazing Bella.

Caius: Daniel Craig

The man is the right age, he's someone you don't mess with. Craig has perhaps a touch too charismatic, but he's good enough that I'm hopeful he could tune it down.

Carlisle: A young Leonardo DiCaprio

DiCaprio is ridiculously attractive and has a bad case of The Babyface™. Watching him try to convince people that he’s 30 years old and has adult kids would be absolutely hilarious, and very faithful to the books. He’s a talented actor, too, very versatile.

Optionally: David Tennant

Tennant doesn't look the part, he is handsome but handsome in that particular way when flawed features come together handsomely. He does however have the perfect charm, gravitas, and energy for the character, so I think he could make a great Carlisle.

This is where the magic of movie adaptions come in - you’re not going to be able to translate directly from text to screen, that’s impossible. If you embrace that and make some bold choices, you stand to make a truly spectacular adaption. One of the reasons why the Twilight films failed is that they were too faithful to the books while failing to understand the spirit of them, whereas the TV miniseries adaption of His Dark Materials switched a lot of things up and is absolutely amazing for it.

Demetri: Robert Downey Jr.

Ridiculously charismatic and talented actors cast in bit parts and making them shine is a passion of mine.

Didyme: Cate Blanchett

Look, Blanchett had to be in this somehow, and we could think of no one more appropriate. She has too much enigma for Esme, is too womanly for Alice, and once the idea for Didyme was had it was hard to weasel out of.

Cate Blanchett would be convincing as Aro's sister, as a woman who haunts her lover and brother even thousands of years after her passing, an enigmatic and divine woman who can never be forgotten.

Also she's my fancast for her brother, so this works out quite nicely. Why cast someone who merely looks like Aro’s actor when you can just cast the same actor.

Edward: A young Johnny Depp

Very few men are otherworldly beautiful. There are countless handsome men, yes, and many beautiful ones, but Depp has extreme and symmetrical features that come together beautifully. Robert Pattinson does too, for the record, so what makes me prefer Depp is the fact that he is an incredible actor. Pattinson is good, but Depp is the kind of talent who can power through even the worst scripts, give him nothing and he will give you the world. He’s on Al Pacino’s level, this man can salvage anything.

Emmett: Terry Crews

Terry Crews is a mountain of a man, he's massive. He'd nail Emmett's infectious cheer, too. He has a very symmetrical and attractive face that follows the golden ratio beautifully, so I could buy him being a vampire.

Esme: Anne Hathaway ten years ago. Ref one, ref two.

She’s out of this world beautiful and has the perfect Esme aesthetic. Hands down best Esme. The fact that she’s a very good actress helps.

Felix: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

He’s got the physique for the part and would be absolutely menacing.

James: Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt is a character actor who tragically got lost in the blockbuster scene. He’s good, he deserves cool parts. So yeah, Pitt as James. I think he’d be absolutely amazing for the part, it’d be the kind of performance where you can tell the actor was enjoying every second on set.

Jane and Alec: Child Dakota Fanning

Fanning was a good choice for Jane, it's just that she was slightly too old when she was cast (and they made her look even older!) and the screenwriters had written a different character than the one in the books (and not for the better - I’m all for changing things in an adaption! But, well, she was Marvel levels of bad villain). And as Alec is a bit part and supposed to be nearly identical to her, I’d just have Fanning play him as well.

Jasper: Clint Eastwood, every time.

Optionally: feels like blasphemy to even have an “optionally”, but here we are. If you somehow haven’t heard of the guy, then… er. No, sorry, I’ve got nothing. Know that I tried, though.

Marcus: Tom Holland

The man has such babyface, which fits since Marcus is 19.

Just Tom Holland, sitting around, looking young and depressed.

Renata: A young Natalie Portman

Yes, yes, Renata is a bit part, I know that, but this is my Twilight we're casting for so I do what I want.

Portman fits the physical description for Renata, and I find that description to be relevant to her character. She's a teeny tiny woman charged with protecting the most important man in the world, and gifted with intouchability. Portman looks is beautiful enough to fit the bill for a Twilight vampire, and tiny enough to stress the absurdity of this 5′0″ woman being anybody’s bodyguard, nevermind Aro’s.

Renesmée: Child Saoirse Ronan (Though Adult Ronan works too, she’s my cast for the hybrid gremlin period.)

She was an extraordinarily talented child actress, and she’s beautiful while odd-looking. I could absolutely believe I was looking at an otherworldly hybrid when looking at her.

Mostly I think Renesmée is going to be a very hard part for anybody, as the given actor will be portraying one of the most ridiculed characters in recent pop culture. It’ll take major talent to get the audience to care about Renesmée, but I think Ronan, if anybody, could do it.

Rosalie: Margot Robbie ten years ago

She’s out of this world beautiful, and more importantly she’s an incredible actress. She would be incredible for the part.

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phantomchick · 3 years

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Naruto Fic Rec Masterpost!

Adoption by Defenestration; or, A Family Can Be A Fox Demon, Its Jinchuuriki, and Three Dozen Highly-Trained Assassins by elumish Oneshot, Gen, Fluff, child neglect, Naruto gets unofficially adopted by his anbu guards and it’s incredibly cute Summary: He will not be the ANBU who let the jinchuuriki plummet to his death out a fourth story window. Let that be another ANBU’s legacy.

Being Over-Prepared is Impossible (and other mottos) by Pleasedial123 Longfic, Gen, Team Seven, team as family, Bamf Kakashi, Bamf team 7, au, kakashi pov, Complete but part of a three part series and the third part is still ongoing, still highly recommend, what team 7 should have been, Skilled Teacher! Kakashi Summary: In one world, Kakashi awoke, felt grieved at being assigned a team he sees his own in, and he let that grief make him a lazy teacher. He saw himself in Sasuke, Obito in Naruto, and Rin in Sakura. He woke, saw himself in them, and took a large step back, regretting accepting them as his new team. In that world he was quite hands off - merely a watcher because it was so very painful to watch. He saw himself and all his mistakes in this new team of his.

In this world, Kakashi awoke, saw the similarities, and instantly panicked.

He suddenly realised what he had done, passing a team. Kakashi was left scrambling not to repeat old mistakes and regrets. This team would not suffer the fate of his team.

In this world, simply put, Kakashi became a teacher. This is the beginning of a new team seven.

Something in the water by maldoror_gw Oneshot, Gen, Teen and Up for language, hilarious, Tsunade pov, fluff, mild crack, pre-shippuden post naruto,

Summary: "Sakura...what is that man reading?" Tsunade asked in a dangerous voice. Sakura's gaze twitched away from her ex-teacher to her new - and temperamental - mentor. "Erm...a book...written by a...well-respected member of the community...about...romance?" Tsunade noted with passing approval that Sakura was demonstrating both loyalty and quite a lot of imagination in defending her one-time team leader (who was now trying to edge around a pillar to get away from Tsunade's venomous glare).

backslide by blackkat Time travel, time travel fix it, mature, fluff, team seven, m/m, slow build romance, Naruto adopts himself, Uzumaki heritage, bamf Naruto, complete longfic, Summary: Naruto’s friends are gone, his lover is dying, Konoha is destroyed, and Madara’s second return has pushed the entire world to the brink. Hunted and harried, Naruto is sent back in time to upend Madara’s plan before it even starts, and sets about changing everything. Butterfly effect nothing: the world is at stake, and Naruto is hardly about to let it fall to ruin once more. Not while he’s still breathing.

Tobirama Kicks Some Sense Into Konoha by allseer15 Hurt/comfort, whump, emotional whump, time travel, fix it, time travel fix it, The ‘what if Tobirama came to the future saw an orphaned Naruto and adopted the shit out of him’ Fic, Iconique, child neglect, child abandonment, fluff, so much fluff, completed longfic, look I have a weakness for the time travel fix it trope at the best of times but this fic is good even looking at it without focusing on that! Prolonged Tobirama content, Senju lore, senju feels, Summary: The Hidden Leaf Village in Naruto's time seems to have forgotten just why the village was founded and have lost their way. Through a mishap with a hiraishin seal, Tobirama finds himself during Naruto's time and he is having none of this nonsense. His brother may be gone, but he won't stand to have Hashirama's dream trampled so. And if he has to cause a civil war or burn the village down to the ground? Well that depends on how much resistance he meets. All Tobirama does know for certain is that no child will suffer underneath the protection of Konoha and if he has to take them in and care for them himself, then he will.

Hardest of hearts by blackkat Oneshot, Gen, look I really like blackkat’s naruto fic okay, part one of a completed three part series, all three parts are great, Fix its are the best, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix It, Orochimaru redemption story, the sheer shadenfreude of one baddie fucking over another baddie, in this case Danzo, Obito has a ‘bad guy but not that bad of a guy’ solidarity moment with Orochimaru at the start and I loved it so there’s that, featuring a low key constantly horrified at this turn of events Minato,

Summary: Orochimaru gets one more chance. Just maybe, it will be enough to save him—and the entire world as well.

A Snake In the Grass, a Wolf At the Door by blackkat Mature, Completed ten chapter fic, Orochimaru redemption story, Orochimaru/Kakashi’s dad, you read that right, quality Sakumo content, Families of Choice, Humour, Fluff and Angst, somewhat crackish, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, baby Kakashi being a cutie Summary: Orochimaru is on the edge of breaking when someone unexpected pulls him back to solid ground. When the time comes, he returns the favour.

Nukenin by WhisperingDarkness Gen, dimension travel, team seven, team as family, Kakashi actually being a good sensei even when he’s not a sensei at all, possessive kakashi, Team Seven is his team, Kinda Fluffy, Protective Kakashi, the ‘this might as well happen’ adaptability is real, Kakashi adopts team seven and team seven adopts kakashi, even though he’s illegal, 4 chapter fic, marked as complete as author doesn’t plan to continue it, but even taking these chapters as stand alone this fic is great,

Summary: In the sealed scroll he finds a Bingo Book – his own page marking him as an S-class nukenin with flee-on-sight orders. “Ok. That is definitely different.” In his head he blames Naruto – even if his number one unpredictable student had been nowhere near him on this mission. When things go this stupidly impossibly wrong it must somehow be the future Hokage’s fault.

Ear to the Wall by Vodkassassin Ongoing, it’s really really good though! great Kakashi content, Minato is very stressed and I love him, Sickfic, Hurt/Comfort, whump, PTSD’d Kakashi gets to relive his childhood but gets a little bit of a real childhood along the way, ADHD Rin, time travel fix it, look I like what I like and what I like is fix its and time travel apparently, Kakashi adopts Orochimaru before he descends into douchbaggery, Orochimaru Redemption story, everyone is alive, Summary: The Minato-sensei beams at him, and replies, “Kakashi! I’m glad you’re awake,” and, yup, that’s Minato-sensei’s voice. Kakashi falls back down against the bed, closing his eyes. It’s too short of a way down, and he clenches hands that are too tiny and feeble and not his in dog-print sheets he hasn’t owned for decades.

How To Save The World With No One Even Realising by IncompleteSentanc (Erava) Gen, Teen and Up, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, time travel fix it, Canonically Accurate OP Team 7, SuperBadass!Sakura, SuperBadass!Sasuke, SuperBadass!Naruto, RegularBadass!Shikamaru, Canonically Violent Sasuke, Equally Violent Sakura, Saving The World One Murder At A Time, Various Jinchuuriki, Team 7 As Super Villains, Doing Super Villainy Stuff, Like Murder, And Professional Eyeball Removal, Poor Obito, Poor Minato, AKA The Worst Four Months of Minato's Life, And Everyone Else's Too, Dark Humor, Bittersweet Ending, Dark Comedy, Crack treated seriously, completed 3 chapter fic, Well worth the read, Team 7 To The End! Summary: Minato knows at the beginning of the week that it's going to be a hellish one. Mostly because it starts with the kidnapping of one of his two remaining students, only a year after they'd lost the first one. He just doesn't realise at the time that it's not going to be a hellish week - it's going to be hell for quite a bit longer than that. It all starts with Rin's kidnapping, and her subsequent rescue at the hands of a mysteriously appearing, monstrously strong, murderously violent woman. A woman with cotton candy pink hair. It only devolves from there.

Just Killing Time by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling) Gen, Oneshot, Short and Sweet, Classic of The Fandom, Ficlet, Team 7, Kids being Kids, Fluff, Fluff and Humour, Slice of Life, Cute Kids

Summary: After Wave Country and before the chuunin exam, Team 7 kills time while waiting for Kakashi to show up.

there lies a trail of fire behind us by BowAndDagger Gen, Madara is extremely confused but mostly on board, Time Travel au, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bamf Naruto Uzumaki, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Except Zetsu, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fix-It, Founders Era, clan wars era, Pre-Slash, POV Uchiha Madara, the Completed part one of an Ongoing/Incomplete series, completed 4 chapter fic, Summary: As he returns from a mission, Madara makes a strange encounter with an even stranger shinobi. Then, he’s summarily kidnapped to go on a quest to save the world by said weird shinobi. (He absolutely did not choose to follow the stranger on his own free will. He was kidnapped. He did not give chase. He did not.)

A Political Perspective by VJ Riddle / MueraRashaye Ongoing, Possibly (Probably) Discontinued, Teen and Up, Gen, Team 7, training montage deluxe, Konoha is a murder village, Good Teacher! Kakashi, AU, slowly developing into Bamf team 7, Bamf Kakashi, slowly developing into Team as Family, lots of fun ideas, not crack, Minor Spoiler: Zabuza and Haku get x’d before their character development gets its chance to shine in this fic, Sometimes people don’t warn for that in the tags and it can be a dealbreaker in fic for me as I love those two, not a dealbreaker in the case of this fic though! Really good fic so far, kind of verging on dry in places but it always stays fun in the end with lots of interesting elements, I enjoy the character insight from the pov switching, and also how much of a headcase Kakashi is, graphic depictions of violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence,

Summary: Hatake Kakashi was a shinobi, and as a shinobi, the only people who could give him orders were his military superiors. The idea that a Council made up of civilians and peers was under the impression they could give him orders...displeased him. Or: He was ordered to pass Team 7. He was fine with that, until they actually passed.

Integrity by Liz_Starling Oneshot, Gen, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Compliant, Integrity, Child Neglect, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Reflections on Naruto’s inner workings as a person, promises,

Summary: Naruto keeps his word. Some people are loyal to their families. Some, their orders. Naruto is loyal to the only thing he’s been able to count on; the promises he makes.

Foundation (Build It Higher, Bury It Deeper) by RayShippouUchiha Ongoing, BUT EXCELLENT, it made me cry, Naruto feels, 6 chapter fic thus far, Bamf Naruto, Bamf Tsunade, Naruto deserved better, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mature, Team 7, Uzumaki Feels, Abandonment, Tsunade gives Naruto the personal talk he deserved instead of finding out from a chakra imprint when he was dying, so we stan, I love this fic

Summary: It’s just… he’d thought, given his fight against Neji and then his confrontation with Gaara, that someone would finally really acknowledge what he’d done. That beyond Iruka-sensei’s crushing hug and Kakashi-sensei’s absent pat, someone would actually notice that he’d won against both of them.

That he’d beaten a genius on his own and then had battled another jinchūriki to a stand still.

So while he hadn’t really expected to be promoted too he’d still ...

¦ part 1 ¦ part 2 ¦ part 3 ¦

#Naruto #fic rec list #fic recs #naruto fic rec list #fic rec masterpost #naruto fic recs #fanfic recs #team 7 #fic rec list masterpost #naruto fics #Uzumaki Naruto #subject to possible edits in the future #like if i wanna make a part 4 this baby's getting edited #believe it #lol #gen naruto fics

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shoujoinvestigation · 3 years

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Our 2020 Drama Recs

What a year 2020 has been - a time of tumultuous change, anxiety and reflection. During this time, dramas have certainly become a safe space for comfort and entertainment. Fortunately, we’ve also seen more and more quality dramas released in 2020!

As we head into 2021, here are our top 2020 dramas picks:

1. Winter Begonia 鬓边不是海棠红 recommended by Admin JY

The story of two seemingly polar opposite characters in 1930s China - a feisty traditionally-trained Beijing opera star and a wealthy Western-educated businessman in a setting where Western influence meets Chinese traditions. Yet when they finally cross paths, their parallels in fact draw them closer to each other. The main characters shine and sparkle both as independent characters with their own depth, flaws and quirks and with their ever-so-natural chemistry interacting with each other, in what could be the most healthy and balanced relationship dynamic I have ever seen between leads.

Winter Begonia presents brilliantly written three-dimensional, human yet relatable characters growing with each other through a time in history of change and uncertainty, in addition to great acting, beautiful costume design, production value and showcase of Beijing opera. If you are looking for a show with drama, history/culture, comedy, family, action (and tragedy), look no further than Winter Begonia for an entertaining yet reflective story of growth filled with all the *feels*.

2. A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower 摩天大楼 recommended by Admin JL

What’s your idea of a feminist drama? An ensemble of badass, confident female cast kicking ass and bonding with each other? For Horizon Tower, it is to be concealed in a mystery. Two detectives take us through the life of an attractive cafe owner after her death, retracing it through the eyes of people new to her and old ones who had known her well. They all have various things to say about her - each have a different piece of the full picture. What part of the truth do we trust? How do we, or can we judge her? While women are often expected to be the “perfect victim”, Horizon Tower says, the simple truth is, a victim is a victim, and a crime is a crime, regardless the conduct of the victim.

Horizon Tower is a sophisticated, brilliantly written and directed story. It’s fast-paced, compelling as it plays with multiple facets of the truth. There is no simple dichotomy - of black vs white, of women vs men. Instead, it fundamentally embraces the complexity of human nature - which is what makes it feminist. For me, this drama will stay in my heart as one of the most powerful and brilliant feminist stories to exist. In a time of feminist movements, it feels extra important and meaningful for China to have produced such a drama this year. Thank you for being the voice we all needed, Horizon Tower!

Watch the official episodes, subbed, on Youtube.

3. Hyena recommended by Admin JY

Not quite simply a law drama, nor a “badass” law drama turned into a sweet romance drama - Hyena is great for its culmination of confident writing featuring strong and unique characters that break stereotypes, balanced with a refreshing focus on morally ambiguous law cases.

Just as much as the focus was placed on the well-paced and exciting stakes in the legal cases featured, the drama always gave space for the characters’ legit explosive chemistry to shine through and be developed further. While KDramas have been attempting to write “badass” female leads, Jang Geum Ja always stayed true to her anti-hero and morally grey character, with her gaudy, loud masculine style, unscrupulousness and shameless ambition to the end - a truly strong and admirable female lead who may not be fully likable. Yoon Hee Jae as the male lead also deserves praise as a more sensitive and softer portrayal of a privileged and powerful male lead, without ever overshadowing others or overstepping his boundaries.

Even as someone who struggles to watch purely-law/detective dramas, there was much to appreciate and enjoy from this drama, with its quality acting, writing and even memorable OST that can only be fully appreciated by watching.

4. The Bad Kids 隐秘的角落 recommended by Admin JL

This is China’s year of high quality, sophisticated suspense dramas! Alongside Horizon Tower, The Bad Kids is certainly the one which had first carved out that status. Before it was named one of the Best International TV Series of 2020 by Variety, it had already achieved a phenomenal status in China with plenty of good fun memes and incisive meta created.

The success of The Bad Kids, in my opinion, represents creativity and the heart for storytelling triumphing over rigid, spartan censorship. It’s a testament that witty and thoughtful writing is what you need to tell a good story - and even censorship can’t get in the way of this (sometimes). It told a compelling and introspective story threading into moral fallibility while opening up questions to audience about what we perceive and know. This is a rare accomplishment when so many other recent cdrama stories are increasingly sanitised. The auteur-level of directing was vital in shaping the experience as well, down to the quirky selection of music.

So, do you believe in fairytales or reality? :)

5. Brutally Young 十八年後的終極告白 recommended by Admin JY

How far would you go to hide the secrets from your past to protect your present? - that was the simple but solid foundation that this HK Drama delivered.

A group of high school friends are forced to reunite after 18 years to unravel the mystery of a recently discovered corpse, related to their shared pasts. Through this premise, mystery and suspense unfolds as the characters’ complex motivations and hidden pasts are revealed.

Despite the wide ranging cast, many characters are given good depth and personal arcs for development, and even decent romance feels. The pace of the story is also kept tight and remains consistent and realistic throughout. Definitely an unexpected dark horse from TVB’s 2020 lineup, worth checking out!

6. Candle in the Tomb: The Lost Caverns 鬼吹灯之龙岭迷窟 recommended by Admin JL

Okay, after two heavy suspense dramas from me, is there anything more lighthearted to watch? I’m usually not an action/adventure fan, but I’ve been a fan of the remakes of Candle in the Tomb directed by Fei Zhenxiang along with his team, following after the prequel adaptation last year, The Wrath of Time.

This time, we have Pan Yueming as Hu Bayi, forming the Iron Triangle with Pangzi and Shirley, embarking on a tomb-raiding treasure-hunting adventure. Director Fei makes action digestible and fun to watch, on top of the witty script, great character-writing and performance - true to canon (as far as possible). As far as old fans of the franchise and new ones of the drama know, this is the best remake so far. I’m looking forward to the next instalment, The Worm Valley, likely out early 2021!

Watch the official episodes, subbed, on Youtube.

Let us know what your picks for 2020 are!

Written and gifs by Admin JY and Admin JL, unless stated otherwise.

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squintyfist · 3 years

Text

Starlight Comfort

A Round Robin done with @geminibabyhere @supersilversleuth @fanfictiongreenirises @batbirdies @blackroseaki38 @marzue Words: 1,243 Characters: Stephanie Brown & Damian Wayne had to move a sentence or two around to make it flow better

Stephanie turned around in her seat with a huff, shooting a glare at the gremlin behind her.

The gremlin pushed a card into her hands and ran away, leaving her to wonder for a few moments why there was a card with "Sister 💜💚 " written on it.

This was indeed very suspicious. She debated with herself, knowing it would be a bad idea to open it. But who was she kidding, curiosity killed the cat, but the power of eggplant awesomeness would always bring it back.

A cloud of glitter enveloped her the moment she opened it, settling over Steph like a cloud and leaving her spluttering.

She had to admit she was impressed with the glitter surprise, the kid learned from the best after all.

At least it was purple, she thought, clearing it away with her hand to finally see the message inside.

The letter read: "Meet me at the fallen tree near the poolhouse in the Manor's backyard at 23:38 tonight."

Steph glanced at the clock - this left her with exactly three minutes to get there.

The glitter carnage left her covered in uncleanable purple glitter, but she ignored it to rush to the fallen tree near the poolhouse in the Manor's backyard in time.

It wasn’t like she’d never looked like a fool before and if there were shenanigans afoot, Steph wanted a part in them.

She just hoped she wouldn't be the one bamboozled tonight. She would rather be a part of the scheming than a victim of the scheme.

The unrecognizable red drops and scuff marks on the ground worried her a bit, but she pushed it aside to see…

Turned out there was a whole table set up with a telescope to see stars and sweets they both liked.

She carefully scrutinized the setup, suspicious of what the kid had planned.

She looked at the kid who gave her...puppy eyes. Puppy eyes.

Steph sighed, regretting her words even before they flew out of her mouth. "Now what do you want me to do?"

Damian gave her a judging stare, and said, "Stargaze, clearly."

Stephanie squinted back, not entirely convinced. “So, was there a purpose to the glitter bomb? Or was that just for fun?”

"Clearly, if the purpose is unclear to you, then you don't deserve the answer to your question."

Stephanie swung to settle next to Damian, deigning to ignore when he shuffled to sit closer to her (though she did smear some glitter onto his cheek).

Silence then rang between them long enough for Steph to start getting fidgety.

"Hey, you look like an eggplant now", Stephanie said, pointing towards the purple glitter smudged on his cheeks and the glint in his green eyes as she tried to kill the silence. She didn't expect to get the reply of "Very funny, Princess Aubergine."

Steph gasped, "So you were paying attention when I was ranting to you about it!"

Damian scoffed, but his cheeks went just a little pink at the call-out.

Stephanie laughed at his pink cheeks. It was lowkey cute, but also hilarious.

Damian refused to make eye contact with her, instead, staring at the stars as he grumbled, “I have memorized and cataloged all sorts of information, that story is hardly special.”

"Uh-huh, sure." She said, before deciding to let the matter drop. She wouldn't want to tease him too much and then get him in a bad mood before she figured out what, exactly, was going on tonight.

This was fun though as they took turns using the telescope. The knee-length kid looked up at her with a shine and awe in his eyes that was usually reserved for elder siblings whenever kids thought they were doing something very special.

She didn't even try to point out all the constellations she knew, the kid was like a walking encyclopedia of them all; instead, she made up stories about each one, connecting dots in the sky to make shapes that didn't exist, and watching as Damian made his not-quite-a-smile-but-not-the-usual-scowl face.

She was careful not to shift too suddenly—Damian was leaning on her shoulder to look more closely through the telescope, and she didn’t want to startle him away.

"Is—" She heard him start, but he stopped speaking just as quickly. She glanced over and saw that he seemed to be trying to find the right words.

"Is this plan for spending time and doing good things...good?" He asked, not really looking at her but also sending hopeful but hesitant glances her way.

"It is..." she paused for dramatic effect, "...adequate," she said, mocking him and pointing out the uncharacteristic nature of his question both. He scowled in response and looked away in a poor attempt to keep his relieved expression out of sight.

She weighed the pros and cons of giving him a hug, before compromising and brushing her arm against his.

He did that weird >tt< thing and looked away, hiding that not-smile of his, "I'm... glad that this outing has proven to be successful in uplifting your mood." He said, surprising her.

She blinked and a smile spread on her face and Damian looked seriously concerned at that.

"No. That's contagious," he said.

Damian backed away in mock offense while she laughed, drawing her grin out wider till it strained the corners of her mouth.

She decided to take her chances and held her arms out, glitter still coating her as she darted after him. “Come on kiddo, you’re not afraid of little ol’ me, are you?”

"If I hadn't been raised in the League of Assassins and if I hadn't gotten used to your face, then yes, I would have been." He said, but still, he moved to let himself be hugged, surprising Stephanie once again.

When they separated, Damian said, "So my nefarious plan for getting a big sister hug and getting you to hug me worked very well" as he gave a sage nod.

He seemed to be acting...off tonight, as if he were hiding something, Steph thought, playing out everything that had happened so far back through her head. Damian stopped her halfway through with a suspiciously well-timed distraction.

“I—“, Damian paused again, still visibly struggling with saying what he wanted to say, but Steph was nothing if not patient (well, in regards to Damian).

"Yesterday, whilst in the middle of a 'mission' with Jon, I caught a glimpse of an alternate universe... one where…where you-" He didn't seem able to continue, his words halting in his throat no matter how hard he tried to force them out.

It was not difficult for Steph to fill the blank herself but she knew the kid was way affected by it and had no else to talk to. "Must have been boring to not have me around" she commented lightly and Damian nodded his head against her shoulder in response.

She knew he was lying, at least partly, just "a glimpse" wouldn't have been enough to bring him to this. She let it go though, surprised and touched at his uncharacteristically non-emotionally-constipated actions. Dick's teachings must have been wearing off on the kid, or better yet, her own.

She decided to let it go for now, what he currently seemed to need was some quiet quality time.

So that's what they had. Sitting next to each other and watching the stars twinkle in the sky above, taking comfort in each other's alive presence.

#batman fanfiction #stephanie brown #damian wayne #fanfic #fanfiction #bat #tag game #round robin #bat fic #mine #ari babbles #thx for playing with me guys!!

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artificialqueens · 3 years

Text

How Wonderful Life Is (While You're in the World) (Rosnali) - Athena2

Summary: Rosé has the perfect plan for proposing to Denali. If only she could get the plan to work.

A/N: So this idea came into my head and wouldn’t leave until I wrote it! I wish I had the same motivation for my homework honestly. It’s basically pure fluff and a little chaos. Thank you so much to Writ for beta-ing and helping my pull the final scene together. Please leave some feedback if you’d like, I really appreciate it!

Title from Your Song by Elton John.

Rosé has had the ring for two weeks now. The plan, however, she’s had even longer. It’s carefully organized, each step written on the checklist (which Lagoona’s been teasing her for) in Rosé’s prim-and-proper handwriting (which Jan’s been teasing her for since they were kids). But she needs this proposal to be perfect, everything Denali deserves and more. Denali deserves the world, but even with her promotion at the fashion magazine, that’s out of Rosé’s price range, so this has to be special.

She sits with an eye on the door, waiting for Denali to come in and fling her bag on the couch. Then Rosé will spontaneously-but-not-really-spontaneously suggest they go eat at the Thai place where they had their first date. After dinner, she’ll develop a sudden desperate craving for ice cream–hey, she might as well put those old acting classes to good use–and they’ll go on a walk to get said ice cream. But not any walk—a path Rosé created herself, one that takes them to the same ice cream place where chocolate and pistachio sweetened their first kiss, past the art museum where they officially became girlfriends in front of a Monet, and finally into the park where they first met years ago, where Rosé will get down on one knee and pull out the ring burning a hole in her pocket.

A perfect full circle moment, one she knows Denali will love.

Her leg bounces as she waits. She knows Denali will say yes, but this is still a big step, even bigger than moving in together. But that had turned out so well, letting her be around Denali all the time, learning new parts of her girlfriend that she could tuck inside herself. Like how Denali still has a battered Nike shoebox of her old Pokémon cards. How her early rising for skating still lingers, inviting warm sunrise cuddles. How she’s so brave and fearless, yet still shrieks and throws random objects across the room when she sees a spider. It’s a step that let them create a home together, with fluffy blankets on the couch and cheesy photo-booth pictures on the fridge and both their favorite chips in the cupboard. A home in each other, hugs and kisses and support all the time. A step that became amazing, and this one will be even more so.

Until the door flies open and in comes a slightly limping Denali with a scowl on her face.

“Well, today fucking sucked.”

Rosé jumps off the couch, easing Denali’s skating bag off her shoulder. “What happened, baby?”

“First one of my design clients decided they wanted to change their costume right after we settled on the original design. Then this minivan mom screamed at me outside the rink for like ten minutes because I said her kid needed more practice before moving to the next age group. And then I was so distracted from everything I fell on my knee when I was practicing.”

“I’m sorry, Nali.” Rosé winces, one hand steady on Denali’s waist, the other rubbing her back, soothing Denali with gentle touches, reminders that she’s here. “Is it bad?”

“Nah, it’s just a bruise. I’ll put some ice on it and it’ll be fine.” Denali flops down on the couch, leaning back and sighing. “Can we order pizza?”

Rosé’s heart sinks as she realizes the proposal is off for the night. Denali’s stressed and exhausted, clearly not in the mood for having dinner out or going for a walk. Rosé doesn’t blame her, and she isn’t going to push things. Part of her is disappointed, her perfect plan in ruins, no chance of them going to bed giddily planning a wedding. But Denali needs comfort after a bad day, and that’s something Rosé will always love to give her.

“Of course,” Rosé says. “Anything else you need?”

Denali shakes her head. She’s tough, and after some food and sleep, she’ll be ready to take on the world. But that won’t stop Rosé from giving her anything she wants tonight, making sure she always has a soft place to land.

“I’ll order it and get you some ice. You just relax.”

It doesn’t have to be today, Rosé reminds herself as she settles next to Denali, careful not to bump her knee. She’ll just propose another night. Everything is fine. And when Denali falls asleep with her head in Rosé’s lap while Rosé gently strokes her hair, everything really is fine.

—

Rosé waits a few days before her second try, giving the universe time to let out all its bad, proposal-killing vibes. The ring is secure in her nightstand drawer, nestled between her vanilla lotion and melatonin gummies, and Denali is secure in her arms when they wake up. Tonight’s the night. Rosé can feel it.

Until the rain starts.

And not just any rain, but heavy, pouring rain, pounding on the roof and destroying umbrellas. The kind that soaks you through in seconds and leaves you shivering the whole day. No one would want to spend five seconds in that rain, let alone go for a romantic walk in it.

But it’s only morning, and these heavy storms never last. By tonight, the sun will shine and the world will glisten with leftover rainwater. A perfect setting for a proposal.

But when the rain is still screaming down when Rosé leaves work, rattling the windows as she and Denali curl up under a blanket with hot chocolate, she has to give up on this one.

—

Third time’s the charm, everyone says that, so Rosé’s optimistic when Attempt Three rolls around. Hope follows her all day at work, as she arranges photos of models and meets with Michelle to discuss next month’s issue, and there’s a spring in her step when she leaves her desk and strolls to the elevator with Symone.

“I can’t wait to see your layout tomorrow!” Symone says, adjusting her purse and closing the door.

“You mean Friday.”

“Tomorrow is Friday.” Symone’s excitement becomes concern. “You feeling okay?”

“Fine. I’m fine,” Rosé stammers, batting away the hand Symone extends toward her forehead. “I just mixed my days up for a minute.”

Symone nods, and only when they’re both out of the building does Rosé allow herself to exhale, frantically checking the date on her phone and swearing when it confirms that today is, in fact, Thursday. She’s been so focused on this round of the proposal that she missed a day somewhere. Her layout is due at midnight, and even though it’s almost done, she puts so much care into each one there’s no way to do the proposal and the layout tonight without hurting the quality of one of them, and she can’t do that. It’s not fair to give Denali anything less than her full attention, and she can’t submit half-assed work weeks after her promotion either. The proposal will have to wait.

Again.

The hope turns to lead as she drags herself into the apartment, sprawling out at the kitchen table with her laptop, massaging her temples to ward off the looming headache. She doesn’t even hear Denali come in until she drops a kiss on the top of her head.

“Deadline?” Denali guesses.

Rosé sighs, leaning back to chase another kiss, which Denali gives her. “Yeah. I got my days mixed up and it’s due tonight. I’m gonna be here a while. I’m sorry.”

Denali nods in understanding, brushing Rosé’s hair off her face, calming the stress buzzing in her. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll make dinner and then I can keep you company. I have some costume sketches to work on.”

Rosé nods gratefully, heart swelling with love as she returns to her work. She faintly registers Denali moving around the kitchen, swaying and humming whatever her favorite song is this week, until she sets down two plates of grilled cheese.

They eat their sandwiches, and Denali replaces the plates with their floral coffee mugs–pink roses and blue forget-me-nots–a comfortable silence spreading between them as they work. They didn’t need to talk, didn’t need much of anything, but liked knowing the other was there anyway. There’s always been this connection between them, the way they were completely attuned to each other’s moods, knowing when to give space or comfort or talk things through.

“You don’t have to stay, you know,” Rosé says, stretching her back and jumping as it cracks. “You can go to bed.”

“I’m staying,” Denali says, stubborn as always. “Besides, I don’t sleep as good without you, which makes no sense because you’re always kicking me.”

Rosé sneaks glances as Denali works, sketching a blue skating costume. Denali’s been teaching skating lessons for years and started making outfits for clients last summer, and it’s really taken off lately. Rosé loves watching her sketch, the way her tongue curls over her lip, the way her dimples peek out, the way her dark eyes narrow in focus. She’s absolutely beautiful, hair in a messy bun, sweatshirt that Rosé is pretty sure was once hers sloping down to reveal the curve of her shoulder. The woman Rosé’s going to marry. Denali grins as she finishes, and finally catches Rosé staring at her.

“What?” Denali asks.

Ask her, Rosé thinks. Ask her right now. And she almost does, plan be damned. But she doesn’t want it to seem like she’s just blurting it out for the hell of it, like it’s thoughtless. “Nothing,” Rosé says quietly.

“I’m on to you, Rosie,” Denali says.

Rosé’s heart skips a beat. What if Denali found the ring, what if she knows–

“You were just so dazzled by my smile it made you speechless,” Denali says, flashing her dimples again.

Rosé grins, trying not to sigh in relief. “You’re right, baby.”

It’s 11:03 when Rosé sends her layout to Michelle, slumping back in her chair and letting her exhausted eyes slide shut.

“Come on, Rosie. Let’s go to bed.” Denali’s hands help her up, and Rosé leans into her. Denali stayed with her this whole time, refilling her coffee mug and rubbing her shoulders, showing her funny videos she was watching on her phone, letting out soft encouragements when she got frustrated. Rosé knows how lucky she is to have Denali, and she nuzzles against her shoulder.

“Thank you,” she mumbles sleepily. “For stayin’ up with me.”

“Of course.” Denali presses a kiss to her cheek.

They collapse into bed, and Rosé falls asleep with her arms full of love.

—

Attempt Four doesn’t go wrong right away. In fact, everything is fine–no bad work days, no rain, no deadlines.

And then Jan calls.

“What do you mean your sitter cancelled?” Rosé demands into the phone.

“I mean my sitter cancelled. It’s not a difficult statement,” Jan says on the other end.

“And why does this involve me?” Rosé plays dumb, but she already knows where tonight is going, and it doesn’t include a ring.

Jan sighs. “Because Jackie has this work dinner tonight, and I want to be there for her, but we can’t leave the baby. Please, Rosie, pleeeease?”

“All right.”

“You’re a lifesaver!”

Rosé sighs, adding another tally to the failed proposal column.

She tries to make the most of the night, not wanting Denali to suspect anything’s wrong. She’ll know if something is off with Rosé, and Rosé doesn’t want Denali to get suspicious about what’s bothering her, or think she’s hiding something. Well, technically she is hiding something, but not in a bad way. So she happily takes baby Joey from Jan and rocks him slightly, smiling as he smiles. Denali leans over and tickles him, giggling as he giggles, and there’s something about her smile, about the overjoyed the-baby-likes-me gleam in her eyes, that makes her even more adorable.

“I bet I can make him laugh harder than you.” Denali sticks her tongue out to prove her point.

Rosé gives into her competitive side and twists half her mouth up and crosses her eyes, cheering when Joey shrieks with joy.

“All right, that’s enough. You keep making those faces and you’ll scar the kid for life,” Denali mumbles.

Joey sleeps most of the night, but they watch the whole Disney movie anyway, snuggled together, Rosé softly singing in Denali’s ear.

—

Over the next few weeks, Rosé tries, refusing to let the universe take her hope away. She tries again and again, each time thinking that this will finally be it, the day they finally become engaged. The ring glares at her every time she reaches for her melatonin, because as the failures pile up, so do her hours of tossing and turning. Attempt Five is crushed by the dump truck the city brings in to clean the park. Denali catches a cold from one of her skating students and Rosé makes soup and fusses over her on the night of Attempt Six, and when Rosé wakes up sneezing two days later, that’s the end of Attempt Seven. The ice cream shop posts on Instagram that they’re closed for the day due to electrical outages, and Attempt Eight melts away like ice cream in the sun. By this point, Rosé’s tempted to make a damn bingo card for the next thing to go wrong.

“I see I still don’t have a sister-in-law,” Jan says as she enters the apartment, Lagoona trailing behind her.

“Why do you want another sister? You have us.” Lagoona throws an arm around Rosé and flashes Jan a cheesy grin.

“That’s exactly why I want another one.”

Rosé sighs. “This is what I wanted to talk about, actually.”

Jan and Lagoona must sense her seriousness, because their bickering stops, faces attentive like every time Rosé has gone to them for help. They were there when she failed a math test, and when she realized she wanted to kiss girls the way other girls kissed boys, and when she was getting ready for her first date with Denali. They’re always armed with hugs and decent advice and (usually) decent fashion tips, and Rosé loves them for it.

“What’s going on?”

Rosé fidgets with her sleeve. “It’s just–every time I try to propose, something goes wrong. What if …” Rosé pushes on despite the crack in her voice, “what if it’s a sign I shouldn’t propose? That we shouldn’t get married?”

She’s been trying to stay hopeful. She and Denali have been together for four years, after all, and if a few mishaps delayed their proposal, well, they’d get there eventually, and laugh about everything later. But that was about four mishaps ago, and Rosé can’t shake the feeling tightening around her chest that they’ll never get to the laughing-about-it stage, that Denali will never wear the ring. A few mishaps are a coincidence, but how many coincidences can you have until they become something more, something you can’t ignore?

“Don’t even let yourself think that,” Jan says softly.

“Jan’s right, and I’ll probably never say that again, so stop analyzing and listen,” Lagoona says. “You’re trying too hard to make this perfect. Stuff just goes wrong sometimes. It only feels huge because you’re putting so much pressure on yourself.”

“And it doesn’t need to be perfect,” Jan adds. “I know you want to give her the best proposal ever, but Denali knows you love her. She wouldn’t want you to be this stressed. You could propose in a dumpster and she’d say yes.”

Lagoona nods. “Look, your plan is amazing, but maybe it’ll help if you lose the plan and just propose when it feels right. Then you don’t have to cancel it every time the smallest thing goes wrong.”

“But how will I know when it’s right?” Rosé asks. “I don’t want it to seem thoughtless, or disappointing.”

“Nothing you do would be thoughtless, and you’d never disappoint Denali, first of all.” Jan pulls her into a hug. “And honey, I think it already is right. That’s why you bought the ring.”

Rosé nods, every doubt immediately pushed away. Instead of clinging to the plan the way she would cling to her script and run lines over and over at theatre camp, she can let go of the plan, of waiting and waiting for every single factor to be ideal. She loves Denali, and any time to propose to her is the right time. Rosé knows it’s right, just like she knew moving in together was right, just like she knew asking Denali out in the first place was right. Denali has always felt right to Rosé, someone she can show herself and her heart to, and she’ll know when to do it.

—

Rosé has taken to carrying the ring around in her purse, just in case she’s pushing her luck keeping it hidden in the apartment, but also in case the moment hits her while she and Denali are out somewhere. She likes having it close, touching the black velvet box and assuring herself of the promise inside.

Even with her new plan of not having a plan, she still struggles to get the words out. There have been some close calls–a weekend morning half-asleep in bed together, sunlight making Denali’s face gold, or having coffee in a cozy cafe, Denali tilting her head back to laugh at something Rosé said. But she always stumbles over exactly what she wants to say, or hesitates just a second too long, and the moment passes, or Denali moves on to something else.

Tonight, she’s flipping pancakes while Denali tends to the eggs.

“Why do you love breakfast for dinner so much?” Rosé mumbles, dodging Denali as she throws salt and pepper on the eggs like they’ve personally offended her.

“Breakfast food tastes better at night. You’re having a certain food at a time you’re not supposed to have it, so it’s like all sexy and forbidden and shit, and it tastes better. Same rule applies to pizza for breakfast.” Denali shrugs, like it’s common knowledge.

“I’m sorry I asked.” Rosé adds chocolate chips to the pancakes, Denali’s favorite.

They dig in to eat, and Denali jokes that she should make a skating costume based on breakfast foods, with a waffle skirt and ruffles that look like bacon, and Rosé can’t stop laughing, torn somewhere between amusement and horror.

Denali is laughing too, arms swinging around as she pretends to model the garment, her eyes sparkling, and it hits Rosé all at once in that moment. God, I love her so much.

“Marry me,” Rosé says.

Denali stills at once. “What?”

“I–hang on.” Rosé sprints to her purse, digs out the ring, and lowers her knee to the kitchen floor. Her heart throbs in her chest, but a smile from Denali shows she has nothing to worry about. “Denali, I … I had this perfect plan of how to propose to you, but every time I tried, something went wrong and stopped me. But the plan doesn’t matter. You matter. You matter more than anything to me, and this might not be perfect, but it’s you, and you’re always perfect to me. Will you marry me?”

Denali’s eyes glisten with tears. “Of course I’ll marry you, Rosie. I love you so much.”

The ring fits perfectly when Rosé slides it on her finger, and Denali fits perfectly in Rosé’s arms when she pulls her in for a kiss.

“So you did that little speech on the fly, huh?” Denali asks when they pull apart and sit back down.

“I am an improv queen, you know. Got the theatre camp certificate to prove it.” Rosé laughs. “But yeah. Instead of writing what I wanted to say, or thinking too much, I just … said it. And it’s all true, because I love you.”

Denali smiles, reaching out to take Rosé’s hand, stroking her thumb across the back of it. She gets a mischievous glint in her eyes. “So, how many times did you try to do this? I just want to know.”

“I think the official count is eight.” By the time Rosé finishes telling them all, they’re both crying tears of laughter and clutching at sore stomachs, splitting the bottle of champagne they opened.

Denali looks at her after she’s done, and Rosé knows she’s crying for real now.

“You’re not disappointed, are you? The plan was way better, I was gonna–”

“I don’t need to know what the plan was,” Denali says firmly, “because I love the proposal you did. You could never disappoint me, Rosie. Never.” She sniffles. “I’m crying because I just–I can’t believe you tried that hard to do this for me. You’re basically the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”

“I love you,” Rosé says simply, and even if she couldn’t do the perfect proposal, she’s glad Denali knows how much she loves her, how she would do anything for her.

“I love you too,” Denali says. “And who knows? Maybe you’ll get to do that proposal some day after all.”

But Rosé doesn’t care if she does or not. Because she and Denali are getting married.

—

One Month Later

Rosé has a new checklist (which Lagoona’s been teasing her for) in her prim-and-proper handwriting (which Jan’s been teasing her for since they were kids). It’s a notebook, really, stuffed with all the things they have to do for the wedding–check out venues and finalize the guest list and then look at menus and decor and about a hundred other things. But Denali commanded her to leave it home today, because they both need a break.

“Can we get lunch?” Denali asks.

“We didn’t even shop yet.”

“But I’m hungry,” Denali whines.

“Okay, okay.” Denali’s hanger can level a city block, and Rosé knows she needs to get some food in her. “How about that burger place?”

“Too far. We’re only a block from that Thai place, let’s just go there.”

They get to their table just before the lunch rush hits, and Rosé thinks of how she’d been so sweaty before their first date that she had to put on extra deodorant in the bathroom. She’s calm and peaceful now, Denali slurping noodles across from her, their feet brushing without any thought of whether a first date was too early for that.

“I think those noodles gave me heartburn.” Denali rubs her chest as they walk out.

“Maybe it was the fact that you ate a giant bowl of them–”

“Oh, hush, Rosie. Oooh, you know what my mom says cures heartburn? Ice cream!”

Rosé doesn’t think that’s medically accurate, but she’s not going to challenge her future mother-in-law; even if the woman is miles away, her hearing is excellent, and it’s just not worth the risk.

She follows Denali into the ice cream place, helping her sort through all the flavors for her massive cone with extra rainbow sprinkles (‘what kind of lesbian would I be if I didn’t get rainbow sprinkles, Rosie?’ Denali demands, and Rosé gets extra on her strawberry cone too).

“Okay, I officially ate too much.”

“Again, you literally had three scoops of ice cream and a waffle cone.”

“Don’t remind me.” Denali looks slightly green, and Rosé just hopes this day doesn’t involve vomit. “I just gotta–I gotta walk it off,” Denali says, trying to nod convincingly, easing her hands off her stomach.

“If you throw up, please don’t do it on my shoes.”

“Noted.”

As much as Rosé hates barf, she can’t stop keeping a close eye on Denali as they walk, one steady hand on her back in case she needs it. Denali’s taking measured, trying-not-to-throw-up breaths as they walk, Rosé so focused on her that she barely notices where they’re going.

Denali comes to a sudden stop, her breathing back to normal in an instant, and Rosé finally notices they’re in the park.

And then it hits her.

They had Thai food.

They had ice cream.

They went on a walk together.

And now they’re in the park.

“I think you have something to ask me.” Denali grins smugly, but Rosé’s brain is still lagging, trying to piece together how Denali executed the plan perfectly.

“How did you—I never even told you what the original plan was!” Rosé stammers.

Denali’s smile stretches to her ears. “No, but Jan and Lagoona were more than happy to tell me.”

“Those two and their big mouths.” Rosé shakes her head, but she can’t believe how they teamed up with Denali and went through all this so the proposal could happen the way she dreamt.

“Yep. They also said they were gonna hide in the trees and watch, and I think they were joking, but you never know.”

Rosé cackles. She wouldn’t put it past the two of them to abuse the internet and order those fancy camouflage hunting suits to hide in, and when her quick look at the trees reveals nothing, she wonders if they really did.

“You—you really did all this for me,” Rosé says in wonder. “Lunch and ice cream and pretending to be sick so I was distracted and wouldn’t figure it out.”

As much as she told herself things ended up okay, part of her still wanted to do it, express her love the best way she could. She’s always been one for big, meaningful gestures where she could let out the love bursting inside her. And now she gets to, because of Denali.

“You’re not the only actress in the family,” Denali teases. “I know how much the proposal meant to you, Rosie. I wanted you to be able to do it.” Denali slips her ring off and offers it to Rosé. “Go on, ask.”

Rosé takes the ring and carefully gets down on one knee. Her body is warm from the sun and from love, and the words she finally says are a combination of her planned speech from months ago, and everything bursting in her heart right now.

“Denali, the first time we met was right in this park, at the skating rink. I bumped into you, and when I saw you, I was so glad I’m a shitty skater.” She grins. “I’ve never loved anyone like I love you. I love your passion, and your talent, and your kindness. I love you when you’re screaming over video games, and when you’re in your sad blanket burrito, and even when you drink too much coffee and get too hyper. And you love me too, even when I’m grumpy or I won’t stop singing. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I promise that I will never, ever stop loving you, no matter what. Denali, will you marry me?”

“For the second time, yes, I will.”

She slides the ring on Denali’s finger for the second time, and as she pulls Denali in for a kiss, she knows that, plan or no plan, her life as Denali’s wife will be infinitely perfect.

#rpdr fanfiction #s13 #denali foxx #rosé #jan sport #lagoona bloo #rosnali #lesbian au #fluff #athena2 #concrit welcome #submission

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being-worthy · 4 years

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Saturday Home Cinema: Mulan (2020) - A very honest review!

I just had to write this review because Mulan is one of my heroes and I’m a huge fan of the original Disney Mulan (1998). I saw the movie for the first time as a kid when I had trouble feeling integrated and was daily bullied at school. I re-watched it again and again and again until I was able to learn by heart the script and all the songs in German (and later on, even in English). I just saw so much of myself in Mulan (maybe except for the fact that I’m not as beautiful or witty as she is). I too always felt out of place and I couldn’t be my true self and I was never very ladylike either. I also looked up at her and saw her as a role model. Sometimes I thought that if I stared long enough at my reflection in the mirror, it’d show me my true self - and I’m still waiting to this day… Disney’s 1998 version of Mulan was and still is my favourite Disney movie.

> SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!! <

The best thing about this movie is the soundtrack, especially at the end. Christina Aguilera was the right choice to sing Reflection and Loyal Brave True. The goosebumps her voice gives, I can’t even describe how extraordinary her voice is. In the end credits, you can listen to the English version of Reflection as well as the Chinese version (sadly sung by Liu Yifei ¬¬). It’s worth to watch the end credits and listen to the songs.

*My suggestion: Stop whatever you’re doing. Put on some headphones (even better if they’re noise-cancelling), close your eyes, play the song Reflection song (and Loyal Brave True if you feel like it) by Christina Aguilera, no distractions no interruptions, forget about everything and everyone, let the song flow through your ears, mind, heart, body, and soul, and you will feel like you’re Mulan, especially when the drumming gets louder, it’s epically epic! (Sorry for the redundancy but it IS a remarkable song!)

I welcome the idea of wanting to take a classic and do something new, something fresh with it but humanity could’ve gone without this movie and they shouldn’t ask for $35 to watch it on Disney+ and sometimes a classical doesn’t need to be redone. Additionally, I can’t entirely understand what’s going on these past years not only with Disney but Hollywood and all other big movie production companies. It’s either remake of this classic or a 2nd/3rd sequel of a movie that doesn’t actually require a sequel but it’s still done anyway. Why even bother wasting big amounts of money to create a disaster? You’re better of donating that money to charity (or to me lol). The main thing that Disney has been doing lately are remakes of many of our childhood movies Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, among others, and now Mulan. Some have a few good parts in them but they still can’t and never will compare to the original. Why is there no originality and innovation anymore? Have they run out of ideas? Furthermore, let’s be honest people will always compare the remake (either consciously or unconsciously) with the original because there are less than a dozen movies where the remake either was (almost) as good as the original much less better than the original. The movie Mulan (2020) had a massive budget and is the most expensive film made by a female director (Niki Caro), yet how they made it, the battle sequences and CGI effects, etc. they’re all crappy.

Budgets of all Mulan interpretations:

Mulan (1998) - $90 million > Directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook. Made $304.3 million in the box office

Hua Mulan (2009) - $12 million > Directed by Jingle Ma. Sadly, made only $1.8 million in the box office. It deserved more love!

Mulan (2020) - $200 million(!!) > All that budget was a waste!

I’ve seen all three versions. The 1998 version is for everybody and it’s funny and you feel with the characters and the film. Let’s be honest, the granny is one of the best characters, most of us have or had a granny like that in our lives. The 2nd one is a 2-hour long movie, a more mature adaption which illustrates the ugly harsh truth about war and the loss and death it brings with it and that there’s nothing funny or cool about it. This one is not suitable for children. You feel with the characters and their sacrifices and they also develop along the movie. I can only recommend to watch this version if you haven’t. And the latest one is a disgrace.

I’m a bit confused as to what the message of the movie is. On one hand, it tells you shouldn’t hide your inner beauty, you shouldn’t hide who you are, you shouldn’t hide your abilities, you shouldn’t try to hide who you truly are in order to conform to what the world/society wants you to be or who you should be, let your true self shine and be yourself and don’t allow anyone to tell you that you’re inferior just because they think/say you are. This is something powerful and admirable but, on the other hand, at the same time, it tells you that you can only do that if you are the chosen one. Let me explain... In the beginning, we see Mulan as a little girl chasing a chicken up to the roofs of the houses at the village where she lives. Basically, she’s born as a one-woman army (almost deus ex machina) and doesn’t require any further training which is total and utter rubbish. She has all the skills because of her powerful chi (vital life force energy) but has to underplay them because it’s not very ladylike to behave like she wants to and she still underplays them when she trains with the soldiers so as to keep a low profile. Her being so powerful from the beginning makes me feel alienated from her and I can’t empathise with her. It’s also not very realistic, nobody is born with their abilities fully developed. For example, even Bruce Lee had to train hard to get where he got and he wasn’t the only one.

The original version shows us a regular girl, at times clumsy (which is a cliché but we still liked it) and when she’s confronted with new situations, she analyses them and finds a quick canny solution to them. She also has to train her body and mind to get to the peak of her potential and accomplish what nobody else could in her time, and here the character is done from the start of the movie and the only thing she has to do is choose not to hide her chi anymore. This tells us that you don’t have to work hard to achieve your dreams whereas in reality you actually do have to work your butt off!

I’m not a fan of the leading actress they chose for Mulan, aka Liu Yifei, not only because she’s a police brutality supporter according to her controversial tweets a while back - this already makes her unworthy to portray Mulan who is the complete opposite - but also because she didn’t do a good job at depicting this great role. Mulan is a role model for every girl and woman and it’s a massive contradiction if a woman who agrees to the atrocious police methods impersonates her role. What message do we send out to every girl out in the world? In her acting she’s this blank and hollow person through the movie and transmits no emotion whatsoever - not even when she cries. This also makes it difficult for me to identify myself with her. She’s this wooden plank, she is and stays a blank canvas through the whole movie with no growth in her character and it’s frustrating having to see this because the character of Mulan isn’t at all like this. Mulan experiences many emotions from the moment where she makes the decision to enlist so her father doesn’t have to or when she experiences the loss of her comrades or has to kill someone for the first time, etc. she suffers along her journey and all this changes her but you see nothing of it in Liu Yifei’s Mulan.

In the Disney version, there are some crucial moments that are missing in the new one. For instance, the most crucial one is the moment where Mulan decides to go to war. If you remember the animation one, she’s sitting in the rain by the dragon statue and at that moment makes a decision that could kill her or worse bring dishonour to herself and her entire family (including ancestors) which was far worse than death during that time! She gets up, marches to the altar of her ancestors, takes her father’s sword and cuts her hair (I know men had long hair back then too but still), puts on the armour and goes to war. All this while being accompanied by an epic song written by Jerry Goldsmith called Haircut. This is one of the most intense and dramatic moments in the movie and in all Disney movies! You can understand and feel the importance of this decision for the character and you feel the weight of it! In the 2020 one, she takes the sword and the next shot presents her already with the armour on - there’s zero dramatic impact here. That was a great missed opportunity!! By omitting important scenes and their dramatic impacts like this one that are essential to the story and to the characters, to their development and their journey throughout the story and you really need to rely on the original from 1998 to have this context.

The battle scenes are like many modern movies: lots of action, lots of moving (too fast-moving), a few amazing fighting moves and fights but not showed entirely. I at least expected some similar quality, like we’ve seen in films such as Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Tiger & Dragon (2020) to name a few. Sadly, these movies had better fight scenes quality than Mulan which were filmed in high frame rate but over-edited with action that is negatively frenetic and have artificial CGI effects (even the CGI effects in Independence Day were better - I’m watching the movie while writing this). We’re in the 21st century with great advances in technology and movies are given big budgets (particularly Hollywood films), yet despite all this, most movies end up with CGI effects from another era. How come this happens over and over? In this one, we see people running too fast, horses running too fast, and they’re all like a big mass of headless chickens and you don’t know exactly what is happening where. All this fast running, the constant cut and paste of scenes looks all too modern and doesn’t fit the current time period of the movie and it surely doesn’t transmit the way of fighting of that period.

Moreover, we get lots of flashback-lesson learning scenes throughout the movie. This is another fashion in movies lately, playing the film in the present time while at the same time jumping back and forth between flashbacks. It spends a good portion of the movie with these flashbacks. This is not a big issue and admirable per se but when these scenes are insignificant because they’re glossed over and transmitted without zilch emotion, then why even bother to include them in the first instance?

As a last comment, I like the fact that they hired Chinese actors and actresses for the movie (although I don’t know why it had to be in English, I’d have preferred it to be in Chinese, it’s not like we’re allergic to subtitles - unless they’re not done properly), some of them of renewed name, like Gong Li, Rosalind Chao (I loved her in The Joy Luck Club), Jet Li, Donnie Yen (legendary Ip Man), Jason Scott Lee (saw him in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), Tzi Ma but they won’t be able to save the movie even with a great cast like this one.

#disney mulan #disney mulan 2020 #mulan live action #saturday home cinema #boycott mulan #don't watch it #don't watch mulan #don't watch mulan 2020 #disney should be ashamed #honest review #a very honest review #film night #movie night

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darkdevasofdestruction · 4 years

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They Realise They Love You

Risotto Nero

When he realises that he loves you, he’d be stunned - like - no, love isn’t something he should be able to feel, nor should he allow himself something like that.

I mean?

He’s a villain?

The Boss is after him, he could die at any moment, so having a proper love life wouldn’t be something he could have...Right?

But he can’t help how the wheels of fate turn, and now he just sits in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking over and over at his crush.

Her hair looked so nicely today, shining under the Sun. He only wishes he could have played with it.

The smile you had that day, admiring some random flowers. He only wishes he could have picked them up and gifted them to you.

The playful spark in your e/c eyes that shined like gems. He only wishes you’d look at him with the same spark.

Risotto was head over heels with you, with the little things that made you - You.

The problem was that he had no idea how to act on it without endangering you somehow.

You were too good for him, and an Angel like you shouldn’t be around a Devil like him...

But despite what his conscience preaches him all the time, he won’t be able to stop himself from spending more time around you, even though he’d be too awkward to actually say something, until you begin the conversation.

As well as that, he’d leave cute little gifts at your doorstep, signing them as “Metallica”, letting you know that he’s always thinking of you, and at least until he sets his mind straight to actually ask you out, he will continue with the little gestures.

Also, he loves kissing your temple - Gods, he feels like a school boy with an innocent crush on that cute and kind girl in his class, but he can’t help it!

---

Bruno Buccellati

This soft mum isn’t a stranger to love, but even so, at first, he was sure that he loved you just as much as he loves his team mates - Like a family.

Problem is, sure, he loved you like family, only if he was the Dad and you were the Mum in this Family.

It took a bit of nudging from Abbacchio for him to actually realise and act accordingly to his true feelings, but it’s sure to say he didn’t regret it.

While yes, he is the Capo and he has a lot of responsibilities, both with his team, the organisation and within the city, he will always make sure to have spare time for you, to spend quality time together, to take you out on a nice date and so on.

A nice date doesn’t have to mean something fancy, but it can range from a walk on the sandy beach, hand in hand, barefoot, while playing in the water, a cute dinner at the restaurant he’s always at, cuddling together while watching a movie, or even being the best parents and taking care of the Kids...Uhm, his Team, I mean.

If there’s one thing he absolutely adores to do, it’s to hug you while you read together - It’s one way to actually be able to de-stress and put away all the Gang-Star problems, and truly be with you, heart, mind and soul.

He would also love to take you to places with beautiful landscapes and take tons of pictures of you, or both of you together, that he would later develop and either frame, or put in very cute couple albums.

--- Giorno Giovanna

Giorno is the most innocent one out of these guys, and while yes, he knows that he has a crush, he’s also pretty shy in acting towards his feelings.

He can feel his heart racing around you like never before, and his face gets a tint rosier, despite how composed he is, there will still be tints of obvious flustering that Bruno and Abbacchio always seem to catch faster than anyone else.

Abbacchio is always more staright-forward, but Bruno actually pulls Giorno aside and gives him some nice tips and advice on how to deal with everything, and thankfully enough, it’s actually helpful.

Something he loves to do is create flowers with Gold Experience and give them to you, when you least expect.

Bonus points if you let him put the flower in his hair, he will outright melt.

When you’re on a date, he will make sure to create cute and colourful butterflies and dragonflies to go around you, making you look like one of those Disney Princesses, because for him, you truly are a Princess.

He’s attracted to you like flowers are attracted to sunlight - He feels like you make him grow and become a better person, and seeing how sweet and kind you are...Damn, you’re killing him.

If you want and like it, Giorno will let you play with his hair, so have fun. Braid it, brush it, stroke it, do little tails, whatever, as long as you don’t pull too hard and you’re smiling, it’s all fine for him.

But that doesn’t mean that he wouldn’t want to play with your hair too.

--- Abbacchio Leone

Oh boy, oh boy -

This guy loves his tough exterior and would never ever EVER let anyone in.

Ha, what a joke.

There’s already his whole team in his heart, why would caring for another person be bad?

He wants to appear tough and in control of the situation, but once he has a crush, he’s an outright mess.

He will be the embodiment of Windows Shutdown, along with the generic sound playing in the background.

His heart is so soft and damaged, he’s honestly afraid that it will break more and will have no way to mend it even by a little bit.

But perhaps, having you by his side, wouldn’t be too bad.

Honestly, if you praise him, you can literally see ‘Abbacchio.exe stopped working’ written on his forehead, because he will go mind-blank and have no idea how to react.

His team mates will make so much fun of him, but he’ll be lost in his own world, trying to decipher your intentions and words, if they were genuine or not.

All it takes is for you to have him alone one night and hug him tightly, praising him, and he will break down.

If he allowed himself to break down like that, than definitely he sees something in you.

From then on, he will let you listen to music with him, will make you personalised mixtapes for different occasions.

He won’t say it, but he loves having his arm around you when going out. It makes him feel like he won’t lose you like he lost his partner a while ago, and that you are safe with him.

--- Kishibe Rohan

This guy is pretty obvious when he falls in love, since he has no inhibitions nor shame or shyness, so it’s the easiest for him to get to confess.

Of course, he has to be a smug bastard and keep things slow, to have more effect and be more romantic.

He IS a manga artist after all, so things have to be nice, right~?

Rohan would invite you over for tea very often, just chilling together and nobody to annoy you.

Well, apart from Koichi who would randomly stumble in Kishibe’s home and would find you two chatting casually, laughing and smiling at each other.

Rohan would take you out on dates as often as possible, under the pretext that he wants to find inspiration for his manga, but it’s pretty obvious that he just wants to spend time with you.

He will kiss your face a lotttt, especially your nose and forehead since he thinks you make the cutest expressions when he does so.

Also, your giggles are so cute, he just can’t help himself not to vibe.

He will invite you to dance nights a lot, just to have an excuse to walk with you at night, when nobody could bother you, and just enjoy each other’s presence while also being able to admire the stars.

--- Kakyoin Noriaki

This boy is rather shy, compared to everyone else, so while he won’t be so upfront with his crush on you, he will definitely want to find pretexts to spend time with you.

When bored, he would stand under a tree, relaxing, watching the clouds pass by, and when he feels THE vibe, he would whip out his notebook and would smile as he sketches you absent-minded.

He would be so attracted to your kindness and your nurturing personality, that he would find himself gravitating around you without even wanting to (but he definitely does want to).

Since he’s a bit shy, I could imagine him slipping cute little letters in your locker and just chatting through letters with you that way, until he feels brave enough to actually have a proper conversation with you without feeling awkward.

Kakyoin is a huge gamer, so if you’d like to watch him play, or more, if you wanted to play with him, his heart would burst from happiness like never before.

If you didn’t know how to play, he’d be incredibly patient and would teach you every little trick in the game.

If you do know how to play, however, he’d make sure to choose only co-op games because he’s not actually that competitive and he wouldn’t want either of you to feel bad if you or him lost.

If you, by any chance possible, decide to wear something with cherry themes, like a shirt with cherries, a hair clip, a necklace, or even better, matching earrings with him, he’d honestly die, like damn, that’s my girl, we are now Cherry Boy and Cherry Girl.

He’d be so loving and would dote on you a hella lot, just because he loves you so much and wants you to be happy no matter what.

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muthaz-rapapa · 3 years

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HealPre Final Review: Not terrible but not entirely laudable either...

*sigh* Where do I start?

Well, one thing I’m pretty sure of is that COVID definitely affected production somehow. By that, I don’t just mean the show needing to go on hiatus, resulting in a shorter run compared to previous seasons. I’m also talking about any possible changes that might’ve been made to the original narrative, if there was one.

Much like how Suite’s story had to be altered in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami disaster, I believe Heal underwent a similar treatment in response to the pandemic becoming more widespread as 2020 went on.

Especially since it dealt with health and nature, HealPre is probably the season that has come the closest in relevancy to real life events.

Frankly, that can be quite scary because this virus was and is still a fucking nightmare on a massive global scale. From that view, I can understand why the writers/producers would be concerned of the anime hitting too near home. At least for their main demographic’s (children) sake, maybe they were compelled to shift to something lighter and less edgier so that the kids could find some comfort and enjoyment in the midst of the world’s current crisis.

So I can’t fault Toei for that, if that’s really the case. Going through a pandemic is terrifying, infuriating and exhausting and UGH. We could use something that can help ease our worries or momentarily distract us even a little bit.

Though would it have killed them to dedicate one episode to the importance of wearing a mask or washing hands? (-_- ;;)

HOWEVER! Seeing as I am not a fragile child, I’ve still got several (oho~) criticisms to air out before I put this season behind me. This review isn’t particularly scathing but...there is a lot of discontent so you’ve been forewarned.

But first, let’s tediously review what structure means in Precure.

We all know that there are certain things that will forever (?) remain fixed in the series formula.

The plot is always going to be “magical girls fight evil doers threatening to ruin the world”.

There are plot points to indicate story progression but in reality, are put there to correspond with toy releases which are usually marked by these five: introductions, first power up, midseason Cure, second power up, and build-up to the climax + finale.

There is usually a specific message (a theme) to be told with every season and motifs (narrative tools) to aid in getting that across. For HealPre, the theme is “living is fighting” and its motifs are “health” and “nature”.

I left out “animals” b/c 1) it didn’t hold as much significance as the other two did, 2) animals are part of nature anyway and 3) let’s be real, it’s just a synonym for “mascots” which we already get every year. :P

Right. I’m probably forgetting something but for the most part, these are immovable pillars of Precure.

Story, on the other hand, has more variables you can work with.

Story is how you tell the plot, how you convey the message.

Precure, as a tv series, is unarguably carried by its main stars, the Cures. So it only makes sense that a huge percentage of a season’s success owes itself to how much of an impact its characters had on the audience as well as how effective their individual story arcs were as sub-plots tying back to the bigger picture (the message/theme).

Ideally, these arcs would shine the brightest in the filler episodes, where the plot (“good guys vs. bad guys”) is less of a focus so there is more space for personal development and growth.

Also, not all character arcs have to be directly related to the plot but they ought to be written well in order to support the overarching message (the theme).

Now, has HealPre done that? Has each girl’s story demonstrated a good example of what “living is fighting” means?

...nnnnnnyyeeee... look, even I can’t give a straightforward answer on that because while technically they did, by virtue of Nodoka’s observance in ep 44 recounting it as such, there’s also actually not enough to make it feel substantial from a viewer’s standpoint.

At least, that’s what I thought while watching HealPre.

With the exception of Nodoka’s, there was a lot of saying but not much doing to convincingly back the other girls’ arcs up. The fillers themselves were very weak, loosely composed in relation to the motifs and, if I may be so blunt, downright boring that if Nodoka didn’t phrase those episodes as things that counted towards the theme, I probably would put up more of a fight on disagreeing. so shoot me, I’m soft for her :P

And I know that sounds confusing right now but I will elaborate as I continue.

Before that though, to be utterly fair, some seasons keep their respective themes shrouded in vagueness until they’re given a more concrete form in words around the finale. So it’s not like we can do much except make educated guesses on what they really are. Most of the time, we’re just measuring everything against our perception of a standard in the fog. Or maybe that’s just me?

Nevertheless, you can just tell, y’know? By simply watching and observing the whole show, you can tell if the characterization, the development, and the outcome (essentially the content given) really live up to what the season claims is endgame.

So let’s go through that first then. The characters, starting with our lead Cure...

Nodoka being the only Cure in her team to have an arc deserving of the praise “exceptional” should come as a surprise to no one.

She was the most solid in terms of direction on how her story was going to proceed. Out of all the girls, her journey had the greatest connection to the subject “health”, repeatedly delved into it every time the spotlight was on her and fulfilled everything it seemed to promise from her debut in episode 1.

Her struggles on the road to recovery from a long-term illness and the strength she’s drawn from that traumatizing experience as well as her time as Precure did more than establish her as the strongest character in HealPre.

She has also rose to become one of the most memorable Pink Cures in the entire franchise (personally, I rank her in the top 5).

And it’s not hard to see why she’s earned such high regard in a lot of fans’ hearts.

The writers clearly worked a lot on her character composition to the point where she can pretty much embody the theme of “living is fighting” all on her own.

She came into HealPre fresh out of the hospital and full of earnest desire to make the most of her newfound freedom but she also wasn’t without knowledge on what hardship is. From there, she only got stronger, even when she was stumbling and trying to figure things out along the way. She grew more fortified in her beliefs on what it means to be truly live a healthy life.

She bravely defied the ones who attempted to take advantage of her and twist her cause against her. And she learned that taking care of herself is equally as important as wanting others to be safe from harm.

It was never about winning or coming out on top. It was about protecting a fundamental yet precious truth. That one thing any decent human being should never have to concede: the right to live well.

Honestly, Nodoka is absolutely inspiring all around, as a fictional character, a heroine and a normal everyday person.

Everything about her arc went satisfyingly right like it was meant to and the best thing is, we don’t need to question it because we saw how it all happened with our very own eyes.

I sincerely wished I could say the same for the others but sadly, they were just too flawed.

And Pegitan can throw flippers with me all day if he wants but as undeniable as the above statements are about Chiyu, her arc failed to leap over the increasingly mounting disappointment I had with every episode that’s been assigned solely to her.

Two of which weren’t even about Chiyu. One centered on Pegitan’s admiration for his partner and the other focused on her brother, Touji. Which, while nice to give to supporting/secondary characters, is a fat waste of valuable screentime and not what I’m here for.

It also didn’t help that the conflict of her arc (the indecision over choosing between two dreams) started really late in the game and was resolved so quickly within two episodes. There was no time for me to get invested into it, there was no powerful sense of conviction like how Go!Pri or Hugtto handled theirs and really, it just felt like Chiyu was only following what the script dictated for her rather than genuinely awakening to her own competitive passion towards track and field.

It was almost like it didn’t matter. Almost as if the writers procrastinated in thinking up something worthwhile to further her development...but then settled on grabbing an old idea off the shelf without refining it to suit Chiyu when they ran out of time.

This happened similarly with Minami in Go!Pri and Elena in StarPre, both of whom left me angry at how their arcs were executed. Yet theirs don’t compare to how pissed off I am about Chiyu’s. Because while Minami’s took a while to arrive, it wasn’t done poorly and linked back to Go!Pri’s theme well enough. And while Elena’s was over crammed last minute, at least it was unique to her character and had lots of potential ways to play out if they actually started it earlier on in StarPre.

Chiyu’s arc is like a discount version of the former with hardly any of the intriguing qualities of the latter. Sure, she had two early episodes that laid out the two most important aspects of her life (her family inn and her dedication to her sport) but after that, they weren’t brought up again until we were only weeks away from the ending. Y’know, just to fill up episode slots and meet the minimal requirement of saying they did give Chiyu some issue to resolve.

It was not engaging at all.

Furthermore, the fact that her arc had very little to no relation with either “health” or “nature” hurt my appreciation of her character somewhat. I just...don’t think her kind of story really matches with the central topics of HealPre?

...but maybe I’m being bitter about this all wrong and that’s screwing up my rational thinking on this matter.

Because Chiyu’s arc is valid under the logic of the overall theme, I would never say it isn’t. And again, character arcs don’t have to be close to the plot nor is it necessary to employ the “suffering builds character” method to make them interesting.

Chiyu always does her best every day. That’s sufficient argument on why her story does fit within the frame of HealPre’s premise.

Guess I’ll just have to wrangle my resistance into acceptance somehow.

...still, her arc could’ve been done so much better than what we were given. Chiyu at least deserved that much.

Next, Hinata.

Since the beginning, I knew she was gonna be runner-up to Nodoka for having the (for lack of better term atm) “best” arc because it was heavily implied that she has ADHD and therefore, immediately checked off the “health” trait. She was even more obvious about it than Nozomi was.

Difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity, impulsiveness. Hinata didn’t just display all those signs, she also showed how hard it was for her to deal with the downsides to them on a regular basis.

She kept apologizing and put herself down excessively for inconveniencing her friends even though they never blamed her for her condition. Got them annoyed a few times, yes, but didn’t stop them from staying friends with her and definitely didn’t make them hate her either.

Everybody was understanding of Hinata...except Hinata because she always took her failures to heart and considered quitting several times to avoid the crushing dejection of making mistakes over and over again.

She got better, though, and no one could have summed it up more heartwarmingly than Nyatoran with the encouraging words he gave her at the conclusion of her arc.

But it still feels like there’s a huge chunk of development missing between the start and finish. Or rather, it seemed like all of it occurred offscreen and we were only informed later that it did in fact, happen.

To recap, iirc, Hinata had around 5 episodes that focused on her (ep 9, 13, 23, 35 and 40). Ep 18 doesn’t count because that was a Nyatoran-centric filler more than anything.

Ep 9 and 13 did their jobs of introducing and highlighting the details of Hinata’s troubles while also suggesting she will eventually learn to overcome her insecurities. The ones after, though? They pushed those issues to the backseat.

In Ep 23, she had to share the (uneven) spotlight with Asumi. Hinata’s improvements were briefly mentioned but the majority of the ep went to teaching Asumi what “cute” meant and how to get along with puppies. I mean, I get that Asumi recently joined the group and bonding with her was mandatory by tradition. But since each Cure only gets a limited number of eps to herself, it would’ve been more beneficial for Hinata if she didn’t have to split screentime with someone else’s growth schedule.

Ep 35 is slightly better but not by a whole lot. Sure, Natasha was able to reconcile with Elizabeth which was very sweet and heck, it was the goal for that episode. But again, nothing was really done or addressed about Hinata’s main conflict. She tossed it back with the rest of her homework to deal with later. ahaha, a TroPre hint

Then ep 40 came to formally close the curtains on her story and apparently, Hinata screwed up lots of times since...whenever but she picked herself up every time after and kept on trying. Awesome. So WHY didn’t we get to see that?

I’m not asking for the impossible here. I’m not asking for Hinata to be cured or anything miraculous like that. There is treatment available for ADHD but it is not curable.

Also, forcing Hinata to find a way to get better at studying, the thing she struggles with the most, is not the solution either because that would only make her more stressed and anxious over her own disorder.

What I want is to see how she moved from wailing “I can’t do it! I don’t wanna! I’m so scared of failing so why bother?!” to determinedly declaring “So what if I failed 1 or 100 times? So what if I fail another 1000 times? What matters is that I don’t let that stop me!”

That confidence is not something that can be built up overnight. It’s gradual and it takes numerous tries to reach from where Hinata was to where Hinata is now.

Telling me she grew emotionally stronger can only allow me to believe so much. I need to actually witness the changes as well.

If it weren’t for that, Hinata’s arc would have been a lot more impressive. Shame.

Finally............... Asumi.

Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi, Asumi... *sighs & drums fingers*

...she has no arc, ok? Seriously, what story is there to speak of, much less write a hefty analysis on?

A spirit born for the sake of Latte who just went along with the Precure ride because Latte didn’t want to abandon her duty. She made friends with those who aren’t Latte, extended her knowledge and understanding and gained valuable human experience during her stay on Earth. But ultimately, she will always define her entire existence around a puppy.

Nothing is more important than this puppy.

...... to be honest, Asumi not having a storyline isn’t what bothers me. It’s her lack of depth that does.

Hell, even the giant burger she ate had more depth than she did!

Oh, Asumi does have a personality alright. She’s consistently and unfailingly polite, utterly devoted to her raison d’être and in crucial moments, gives pearls of wisdom when the girls are in a pinch. She’s good.

But if that’s all she is, then she’s also painfully dull.

She has nothing to contribute to the discussion of health or nature, despite being created through an element of the Earth so you’d think she’d have an opinion of her own. At least worry about the planet that gave life to her as much as she frets over Latte all the time. But nope.

She shares the exact same face as Teatine’s past Precure partner so you’d think we’d explore that connection to see if it would influence or affect her in any way. But nope.

90% of the time, her role was just being Latte’s constant, fawning satellite.

Not only did that irritate the hell out of me but it just reinforced my stance that this type of character is one of the worst you can ever insert into any narrative.

Because if someone keeps reiterating how much they’re obsessed with this one thing and seldom talks about anything else without bringing their obsession into it... then what’s so special about them on their own?

You’ve practically surrendered the different qualities you could have had for worship of something else. That’s not a fair trade-in.

Asumi’s character is so packed with Latte-related stuff that there’s not much space left for anything that can be considered uniquely Asumi.

I mean, maybe it’s because I can never see myself or any normal person comfortable with living like that.

Living for the sake of being together with the one you love? Okay. But living with your whole universe revolving around that one thing? Making most if not all decisions based on this one thing?

No. That’s absolutely crazy, alright? Nobody with a healthy amount of awareness and self-worth would live like that.

And you can counter that Asumi’s just born like that. That she can’t help her origins because Teatine’s wish to protect her daughter is essentially what brought Asumi into existence so of course, her biggest concern would be Latte. At least, she wasn’t forced into it, right? As long as Asumi chose of her own will to follow Latte, it should be fine, right?

You can even use the fact that Asumi isn’t human. That she’s a spirit and we shouldn’t apply our human standards too strictly to her.

Yea, but those are feeble defenses in the face of her being a good main character, a good main heroine.

There are many ways to make a decent MC. The way Asumi was written proves she certainly does not possess traits that can classify her as true protagonist material. A protagonist has to be more than one amplified feature, which Asumi is not.

For the record, I don’t hate Asumi (she’s not interesting enough to generate a feeling that intense). I'm just severely let down because even if I don’t end up loving the midseason Cure for whatever reason, I can usually count on them to bring something intriguing to the table to dissect and analyze. At least I should find something to care about them.

Didn’t happen with her. :(

Oh god, I’ve been working on this post for days now and I’ve got a headache and with the baton pass happening in less than a few hours as I type this, I just really need to get it done and over with so please forgive me for speeding up through the rest, I’ll try to keep it as coherent as possible. NYARGH! (@_@ ;;)

Mascots.

Would you be surprised to hear that I’m not surprised that they were actually written very well?

Like I said early on, I suspected the return of fairy partnerships were going to improve the mascots’ significance in the story and, well, I was right.

This time, they didn’t just fill in the usual expectations of relaying exposition, serving as the Cures’ transformation devices and looking cute for the merchandise. The Healing Animals had to make progress on their own training to become doctors as well.

And they did through their relationships with their human partners.

It was a refreshing take on the mascot aspect of the series because the friendships felt really symbiotic. When the trainees arrived on Earth, they relied on the girls to help them perform their jobs as well as provide them with shelter, food, the occasional peptalk about their trainee status, etc.

Then as the story continued and they got to know each other better, the mascots were able to return the favor by giving support when the Cures needed it. Rabirin when Nodoka was frightened and confused about how to deal with Daruizen, Pegitan when Chiyu was having trouble choosing between two dreams and Nyatoran who made sure to always lift Hinata’s spirits up when she got upset at herself.

In short, they achieved their objectives of learning what it means to be good doctors by being there for their friends! How wonderful! :D

My memory for Latte is hazy, unfortunately, since she’s coddled by everyone all the time (can’t blame them, she’s friggin’ adorable! <3) but I’ll never forget how she stood firm on the battlefield to see things through, to fight for the Earth like she promised her mother. She started out so babie but showed us all there was enormous bravery behind her cute face and ugh, we should all be very proud of her! <3

The only major issues I had about the mascots were these:

1) Too many irrelevant fillers went to them. They only needed a maximum of two for their entire mascot group.

2) Latte kept getting sick even after she acquired a Precure partner of her own. I was hoping it wouldn’t hurt her as much as it did before Asumi arrived or that she would build up a stronger immunity but noooo, they insisted on torturing the poor pupper! T_T

Villains + Finale Battle

Not a lot needs to be said for the first part. We’ve had mediocre antagonists before. HealPre’s just happened to be extra annoying as they were despicable.

Which is worse because jerks you can just leave in the trash but assholes won’t stop harassing you unless you pummel them into their graves, set fire to their corpses and leave no trace of them behind! >:(

Y’all know who I’m talking about. Opinions on him continue to vary depending on who you talk to and if they’re avid fans of his face or not but whatever. The son of a bitch served his purpose and is dead now. That’s all that matters to me.

Anyway, the King was flat like his two lesser generals. He was neither intimidating nor distinguished enough in the brand of evil to really make us think of him as a serious threat and because of that, it ended up making the boss fight look like any run of the mill boss fight.

I know, they tried so hard with all that shiny animation but it just didn’t have that glorious sense of vindication that previous seasons (or ep 42) gave and I blame it all on this Rumiko Takahashi reject.

Also, this strategy was pretty useless?

They built it up like Earth was gonna sacrifice herself and die or something (she wouldn’t and even if she came close, deus ex machina would’ve kicked in to prevent that and COVID-induced caution too I guess).

But there were no signs of pain (well, that’s a relief) after absorbing Shindoi-ne and they really pissed King Byogen off more than they did any damage with the absorbed byo-gen power.

...so yea, this tactic was just to kill some time and budget, nothing more. Meh.

By the way, did Asumi eject Shindoi-ne’s pathogen out of her body yet or did they just leave it in there to bounce around until it eventually dissolves on its own?

Because that’s eww. I mean, it’s obviously not gonna hurt Asumi they can both relate on hyperfocusing their affection for someone so maybe the compatibility helps :P but still, ewwwww.

Fillers + Underused Motifs

In hindsight, perhaps HealPre didn’t exactly promise the content we I wanted about “health” and “nature” if their objective was to teach that any manner of “fighting” can count towards “living”.

......but fuck you Toei, you’re still cowards! >:/

Fillers will be fillers but it’s always better to try and make some of them as meaningful as possible. And they wasted the opportunity to inform an impressionable audience (during a very crucial period of our time, I must add) on a lot of things related to the HealPre’s motifs. Especially about the environment which for some ridiculous reason, they chose not to touch on for the main stretch of the overall story.

Proper hygiene, good diet plan and sleeping habits, regular exercise (already done by the girls a few times but could use another example), meditation, counseling/therapy (especially for mental health!), etc.

Real life pollution, climate change/global warming (IMPORTANT!!), deforestation, preservation vs conservation, endangered species, recycling, volunteering to clean up your community, etc.

These just came off the top of my head but yes, there’s more and no, I’m not saying that the writers need to cover all of them in extreme detail or replace the slice-of-life episodes.

But they should be able to mesh both serious and light-hearted together in harmony somehow. Like those fillers where the mascots saw people cleaning up littering at the park or that interaction with that arborist who taught them about wild animals and trees when the group went to visit a lake.

For health, maybe let the girls visit patients with chronic illness in the hospital or have them converse with a medical professional on some matter. Particularly if it’s got something to do with mental illness because stigma in Japan on those who are afflicted with such conditions is still prevalent and has caused a number of sad and shocking tragedies that could have otherwise been avoided if people didn’t have such outdated, judgmental mindsets.

That last part might be too dark for a children’s anime but there’s a lot more out there that is doable.

Do that without reducing it into a footnote, Toei. It is so necessary for your target audience to be aware of these issues at the age they are now. You have an almost 20-year old franchise to serve as a very effective platform. Make better use of it if you truly care about the message you’re conveying through your show!

Also, what the fuck.

The last episode was a mess. Why are you only mentioning this now when the season is already over?

This should’ve been brought up months ago!

All the things we could’ve seen the Cures done to protect the Earth without magic.

The excuse of “I didn’t know humans were so horrible!” is a shit one because everybody knows humans are deplorable trash when it comes to abusing the Earth. All the more reason why you have to persistently drill it into people’s heads that they should not be like those who don’t care or choose not to care.

One crack episode isn’t going to cut that.

God, I so want to unsee this ep just so I don’t have to end HealPre on a more sour note than it already was. *big aggrieved sigh*

Lastly (and this really is the end of my long ranting, I promise), the missing undisclosed lore.

There are few Precure seasons without a past lore of its own in the recent years. Is it a wonder, though?

Lore is mysterious and fascinating. If it involves a past Precure, even more so.

Sometimes fans might just hang onto a show because they’re curious about what happened before the main story. We’d never get the full tale of those adventures but at least, it’s fun to imagine the “prequel”.

Also, past Precure are just badass. Fact.

Strangely enough, we didn’t get that for Heal. All we know is that she was called “Fuu” and was very close to Teatine.

Hmm. Probably one of those changes caused by COVID interference cuz I can’t imagine the writers choosing not to tell her past in the original draft.

With all that finally off my chest, I’m ready to part ways with you girls until the next All Stars (Nodoka, I’m gonna miss you so much! T_T)

HealPre wasn’t the worst and it was nowhere near the best that it had the potential to be. But it’s passable. At least for those who loved it even with its flaws, I’m genuinely glad it was good for you.

For those who are thinking about picking it up (although why you would read this spoilery post before watching, I have no idea), if you’re looking for a standard magical girl anime to enjoy casually, then this is a safe pick. If you really want to invest your attention and heart into it, though? Then perhaps it would be in your interest to ask someone who saw it already to help you filter out the episodes that are worth watching. You don’t need to worry about the rest, they’re inconsequential. :P

Ok then! Thanks for reading as always, brave souls who have reached this point.

Stay healthy and safe out there and I’ll see you at the beach next week! Tropic underwater paradise here we coooooommmmmeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! xDDD

#i rage quit two drafts and an outline before i got anywhere with this #now if you'll excuse me i gotta catch up on my workout and play pokemon and eat pho later #and catch up on the ccs manga #livin' the healthy life oh yea~#healin' good precure #cure grace #cure fontaine #cure sparkle #cure earth #hanadera nodoka #sawaizumi chiyu #hiramitsu hinata #fuurin asumi #rabirin #pegitan #nyatoran #latte

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seven-homosexual-dinosaurs · 4 years

Text

That didn’t go as planned

A one-shot set in the “reunions” universe. Mary and Anne get left home alone together and experience some inevitable bonding and bad ideas.

Mary sighed. Of course, of all the queens she had to be stuck with, she was stuck with Anne Boleyn. Well “stuck” might be a bit of an exaggeration. They were simply the only ones in the house, but quite frankly, Mary sure felt like she was stuck with the green queen, and even if she didn’t voice it, Mary had no doubts Boleyn felt the same.

That wasn’t to say the two didn’t get along, not really at least. Things were just... awkward between them. That seemed like a fitting description. Things were just fine when the other queens were there acting as buffers, hell, they’d even ganged up once to annoy Aragon! But when it was just the two of them? Things tended to go south rather quickly.

But here they were, just the two of them. Cleves and Howard had gone to lunch together, bringing Liz with them so that she could spend some quality time with her “aunts”. Parr and Seymour had gone out shopping for whatever things raising two infants required, bringing little Ed and Mae with them. Aragon had gone to hang out with the Ladies, and even though she’d invited both Boleyn and Mary, both had chosen to stay at home, a decision they were both likely regretting. Mary certainly was.

As soon as Aragon had left the house, planting a kiss on Mary’s forehead and jokingly telling Boleyn to stay out of the hospital (Apparently the queens had come home one day to find that Boleyn had landed herself in the hospital after falling out of a tree. She had yet to find out how exactly Boleyn had ended up in a tree, but the queens didn’t know and Boleyn refused to tell), Mary had settled on the couch book in hand.

Parr had given her a list of must-read books written after their deaths, and Mary was currently in the midst of reading JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series. In a different time, Mary would have been most certainly offended by the usage of witchcraft in the books, but now, Mary had to admit, the books were a rather entertaining read.

Movement in the edge of her peripheral vision caught her attention. Looking up, she watched Boleyn stuff her shoes on, not bothering to tie the laces before opening the front door and stepping out, an odd sort of determination on her face.

“Where are you going?”

Boleyn stuck her head through the door. “I’ve got a score to settle with a certain tree. Wish me luck,”

Mary contemplated her words for a moment before being struck with realization.

“The tree you fell out of?”

“Yep,” Boleyn stood at the door, adjusting her sweater. “The other queens aren’t here to stop me, and as the oldest in the house, I’m allowed to do what I want, which means no one can stop me,”

Mary marked her page with a bookmark before closing it. “You’re just gonna fall out again,”

“Bet!”

Mary rolled her eyes. “At least let me come with you,”

At Boleyn’s expression, she elaborated.

“I can call an ambulance when you fall,”

Boleyn scoffed. “Oh ye of little faith,” Still, she waited for Mary to put a hat on as protection against the fall chill and join her at the door before continuing on her path towards the park.

---------------------------

The walk to the park was filled with a tense silence. Mary stuffed her hands in her pockets, awkwardly jogging to keep up with Boleyn’s hurried pace.

“So.... what were you even doing in a tree in the first place?”

Boleyn gave her a quizzical look, prompting her to continue.

“Y’know, when you fell out of the tree?”

Boleyn didn’t answer, and Mary briefly wondered if she had heard her before Boleyn stuck her tongue out at her playfully. “That’s for me to know and you to find out. Except you’re not gonna find out. So I guess that’s just for me to know and for you to not find out,”

Mary rolled her eyes good naturedly. “You are such a child,”

“Says the literal fifteen year old!”

“Funny how I’m only fifteen years old, yet so much more mature than you,”

“Excuse you?”

And so the tension in the air slowly dissipated as the two exchanged jab after jab at each other, laughter filling the air.

---------------------------

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“The best,”

Mary scoffed from where she stood at the base of the tree, eyeing Boleyn skeptically. “Remind exactly what your goal is?”

“I’m gonna climb to the top of the tree,”

“.... That’s it?”

Boleyn sent her a glare.

“No, it’s just- you’re gonna risk another trip to the hospital just to climb a tree?”

“It’s not just to climb a tree!” She exclaimed, “It’s about the grudge I hold against this tree! It’s about teaching this tree not to mess with me!”

Meeting Mary’s incredulous gaze, Boleyn scoffed. “Kids these days,”

Ignoring Mary’s outraged squawk, Boleyn continued up the tree. Mary watched anxiously from the bottom, wincing whenever Boleyn missed a foothold and holding her breath whenever her hand slipped. Not that she’d ever admit it.

Boleyn stopped at a relatively thick branch, sending a thumbs up in Mary’s direction. Mary was pacing at the bottom of the tree, just wishing Boleyn would hurry up and finish up when it happened. Boleyn stepped just a little too close to a pigeon’s nest, something the pigeon didn’t like at all. The bird screeched from where it was lookin for worms on the ground and took off at Boleyn.

“ANNE, LOOK OUT!”

Boleyn’s head swiveled to look at the pigeon, just in time to let out a startled yelp as she tried to step backwards away from the bird, only to land on nothing. Mary let out a scream as she watched Boleyn plummet to the ground, landing with a resounding “oomph”.

She raced to where Anne laid, falling to her knees at her side. “Anne! Anne, are you okay?!”

Anne groaned, lifting her hand to give a thumbs up. Mary gave a relieved sigh, feeling her shoulders drop from their tensed position.

Mary’s head jerked up towards Anne, who had begun making some sort of noise. Worry soon turned to confusion as she realized Anne was laughing. Laughing.

“Um... Am I missing the joke, or are you just concussed?”

Anne laughed harder, prompting more worry from Mary. Again, not that she’d admit it.

Anne turned to face Mary, eyes shining with happiness.

“That’s the first time you’ve called me Anne,”

Mary froze, a slight blush creeping onto her face. Had she? She hadn’t realized, she’d simply called the first thing that came to mind.

“I can stop if you want-”

“No, no it’s fine!” Anne assured her, “Just don’t call me Annie. Only Kat and Cathy are allowed to call me that. Or Jane if she’s having a bad day,”

Mary nodded in understanding. The two stayed there for a while before Mary cleared her throat awkwardly. “Shall we get going then?”

Anne nodded, wincing slightly as she stood up. Meeting Mary’s worried gaze, she gave another thumbs up.

“No broken bones here, just a bruised ego! Also my back. And maybe arms and legs from the branches I hit on my way down. And also- y’know what? Let’s just assume everything’s bruised, ego included,”

Mary snorted, swatting Anne with her arm.

“Hey! I’m injured!”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get home before the queens find out,”

Anne raised her eyebrow at her. “Have I got myself a new partner in crime?”

Mary let out a resounding groan. What on earth had she gotten herself into?

#six the musical #six the kids #six #fanfiction #six fanfiction #six the musical fanfiction #six the kids fanfic #six the kids fanfiction #mary tudor #anne boleyn #the kids are back #tkab

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destiny-smasher · 4 years

Text

“But I can't walk on the path of the right, because I'm wrong.”

So, The Last of Us Part 2 is out. It’s about 25 hours long. I’ve played it. I loved it, but it’s got its flaws. I think the hype buildup was overblown, and I think the zealous hate from the leaks was also overblown. This is a beautifully produced game that is trying to do much more than the typical AAA game tries to do, and in so trying, it’s messier, muddier, and more complicated than its predecessor. I love it for that, despite my issues with how the game ultimately resolves things.

I think Naughty Dog was either intentionally misleading audiences (which, given the marketing, is possible) or perhaps Neil himself has a different concept of the game he directed than what was actually delivered. Despite how it was advertised, The Last of Us Part 2 is not inherently about ‘hate’ or ‘revenge.’ It’s not just a revenge story.

It's a story about empathy, about how human beings and their interactions have layers, and how we are better when we extend blind empathy to others instead of blind hatred. I gotta talk about this. SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE GAME to follow.

Seriously, final warning for SPOILERS.

This game is simply too big, too complex, and has too much going on for me to write a single piece going over everything there is to talk about, but there are some things I need to say that inherently rely on discussing the entire game in a spoiler-filled way.

Let’s start with the most noticeable thing that has hit me over this game’s reception: people like Joel way more than I would’ve expected. SO much of this game’s negative reception seems to be over Joel’s character and the circumstances around his death. I was not at all surprised that he died - I was a bit surprised at when and how he died, in the moment, but even by the end of the next scene, it had washed over me how much sense it made. He died in the same way everyone else dies in this series. He had it coming in the same way anyone else in this world has it coming. He was never a hero. If you truly look at Joel as a ‘hero’ figure but don’t extend that same logic to Ellie and Abby, you do not make sense to me.

I’ve seen a LOT of hate getting thrown at Abby, and frankly, I do not understand it, and if you hate her but do NOT hate Joel or Ellie similarly, then I inherently don’t respect your opinion? You’re being blatantly biased and unreasonable in exactly the way this game is arguing you should not be. Straight up. Get your transphobic jokes the fuck outta here. Get your homophobic takes on Ellie and Dina the fuck outta here. Get your xenophobic complaints about the MUCH more diverse cast of characters in this sequel the fuck outta here. The ONE case where I could see a reasonable thing to be conflicted about is Lev’s character, because they are a transgender kid who gets deadnamed by some NPCs. As a transgender person, I personally found this to just...make sense and feel organic to the world, and none of the actual characters in the narrative with names or roles in the story ever deadname Lev. Lev is fucking precious and I love him, and I think his inclusion adds inherently more to this game than otherwise, despite the understandable conflict some might feel about his backstory. To ME, the fact that all of what Lev goes through and how Yara and Abby do what they can to look for him, that says to me, “protect trans rights” and I am glad it is there. Trans people have to deal with that shit sometimes, I think it’s fine having it be PART of a wider narrative. It doesn’t define Lev’s story, it doesn’t dictate the plot of the game, it’s a spark that sets some events off and I think that adds more than it could potentially take away, as does the overall representation in the game.

Getting back to this element of bias, though, I get that you “went on a journey” with Joel and Ellie in the first game. I get that. But you spend about as much time with Abby in this game as you did with Joel in the first game. And I see a lot of people are SOMEHOW totally fine and chill and cool with Joel going on a murder rampage in the first game, specifically killing at least one man who was specifically trying to save humanity - they cite that Joel is a morally gray person who has done bad things and is trying to become a better person. Sure, cool, OK. And Ellie, sure, ya’ll will think her going on a bloodthristy revenge quest is cool, fine, A-OK, because Joel was murdered. But somehow they are physically incapable of extending that same empathy to Abby, even after the game bends OVER BACKWARD in every reasonable way it could. Why is this? One person tweeted at me the simplistic, reductive idea,

“ I know the sensible thing that naughty dog was aiming at was that we'd feel sorry for abby and eventually grow to like her, but for me I just don't. I loved Joel and I love Ellie. They didn't kill anyone who I loved as a character. Abby did. “

At least they’re being honest with themselves in that they literally missed the entire point of the game. You having personal bias you cannot remove yourself from does not make for “A DEEPLY FLAWED STORY” or whatever the fuck people have been tossing around.

I personally don’t buy any of that bullshit until we get into the final hours of the game during the epilogue, but we’ll get to that.

Everything in the first 20-ish hours of this game felt organic and believable and completely in line with the first game to me, and the fact that ALL OF IT happens as a direct after-effect of Joel’s selfish act at the end of the first game really contextualizes how/why it was called ‘Part 2.’ So honestly, all of this nonsense about this sequel being ‘badly written’ is just...bonkers. I will agree it’s not some master class in writing - neither was the original game. But both games are very similar in writing style, tone, and the world presented is consistent, while character motivations are realistically complicated. Naughty Dog has never been great at plot, but the real quality of their work comes through in how much effort they go to in order to present realistic feeling worlds and characters, and from the environments to the actors to the extra animations on top, I think the details and the context they create are where they shine.

To better understand where I am coming from with this game, let me lay this on you.

During the scene in that basement, when Abby shot Joel in the leg, and Ellie shows up...I realized what was about to happen. Ironically, it was exactly what I had originally predicted was the thing going on WAY back when the game’s reveal trailer was dropped -- that Joel was dead, and was motivating Ellie’s revenge quest. If you’ve read what I have written of Arcadian Rhythms, you will have some idea of my feelings on Joel and Ellie’s relationship -- in short, I think it is complicated, and just as damaging as it is good. That’s real life. That’s how reality is for many relationships, especially ones between parents and their kids, especially in my experience. When I realized Joel was about to be murdered, my feelings and thoughts were not jumping to ‘oh fuck what an asshole I wanna kill these people’ or ‘oh no not Joel’ but rather, my immediate gut thoughts were ‘yupppp Joel kinda deserves this, he literally did this to who knows how many other people, but why are THESE people, specifically, out to get him?’

When Ellie later cites to Dina that there’s ‘no point’ in speculating as to why these people murdered Joel, because it could be for one of many possible reasons, I found that to be interesting -- Ellie herself acknowledging that Joel had fucked over many other people, while still pursuing revenge herself.

I do think the theme of ‘the cycle of violence’ is very core to this game and arguably is its strongest central theme, specifically because violence in wholly integrated into its gameplay. But narratively and structurally, empathy is, I would argue, even more paramount. This game spends about 12 hours of its runtime (so about half of the entire game) actively trying to encourage you to understand, relate with, and empathize with Abby. The developers COULD have had you swapping back and forth between both characters, which might have resulted in better pacing, but I think it would’v taken away from what they were going for. It’s that long, slow burn that makes Abby’s side of the story work, in much the same way the long, slow burn of the first game does what it does, and the way the long, slow burn of Ellie’s revenge quest helps us see just how far gone she is.

But “arghh I hated Ellie she kept making bad decisions that made no sense” some of you say, “they did her DIRTY” some of you say.

No.

Joel did her dirty.

The Fireflies did her dirty.

And it’s this exact concept -- that our actions and choices have consequences and ripple outward beyond what we can initially imagine - that is at the heart of why I think I love this game so much. Most video games depict a pool of water that is either a constant whirlpool, a raging clash of waves, or stone dropped in the middle and the ripples spreading out. The Last of Us Part 2 is more like a series of ripples all happening simultaneously, and not all of them are as apparent or even important, but it’s just...a bunch of ripples all happening all over the place.

And it breaks my heart, during 2020, a year when human rights, systemic racism, a worldwide pandemic, late capitalism, and entire countries submerged in protests because their government is fucking them over...has people shutting off or refusing to turn on their empathy to anyone outside of their bubble. In 2020, when the world needs empathy more than any other year I’ve experienced in my life thus far, a game like this goes SO FAR above and beyond what most games try to do, in a very risky and controversial way, to actively invite its players to fucking STOP AND CONSIDER for a damn moment that there’s more to the world than JUST YOU and what you care about. That your actions have consequences beyond your singular perspective.

Ellie is fueled by rage for a number of reasons, and we don’t even understand all of them until literally the final moments of the game, which I found to be appropriate as it ends on a note of reminding us that there is ALWAYS something we don’t know, something we don’t understand, motivating someone else’s decisions.

Ellie was robbed of agency, of purpose, by both Joel and the Fireflies. Joel robbed both Ellie and the Fireflies of their purpose. And the Fireflies robbed Ellie and Joel of theirs. In return, Ellie is left without purpose, and all she’s really left with is a broken man who desperately wants to be a dad again, to the point that he will murder and lie to hold on to that. Don’t get me wrong - I don’t necessarily hold it against Joel that he murdered people to save Ellie. I will always defend the idea that it was a fucking selfish decision that would realistically lead to consequences. But in the same way Marlene points out to Abby’s dad, ‘What if it was your kid?’ ie ‘What if it was someone you loved?’ I get that, that’s the beauty of how the first game ended. It presents a zero sum game where there is no ‘correct’ choice that everyone can agree on, but in the back of our heads -- and Part 2 actually states this as a point of fact -- we all know Ellie would have CHOSEN to sacrifice herself, had she been asked.

So it was deliciously realistic to me to see Ellie grappling with the frustration, distrust, and anger of Joel having not only robbed that purpose from her, but having lied to her about it. And in the end, it was also wonderfully realistic that part of why she hated Abby so much was that Abby inadvertently robbed her of her chance to try and rebuild and repair that broken relationship.

But here’s the thing, though - the thing I see fucking NO ONE talking about, and I can’t decide if it’s because no one is picking up on it or what.

Both Ellie and Abby are haunted and driven by broken men making selfish choices. Their selfishness keeps both characters kind of locked in to desperately grasping at violent acts to justify a purpose.

Some will play the flashbacks with Joel and will feel warmth and nostalgia and admiration. Some will play the flashbacks with Owen and feel disinterest or disgust because ‘why should I care about these people?’

For me, I couldn’t help bu draw parallels to how both Owen and Joel were men trying to be good, you know, not being specifically evil people, but men who were a bad influence on the women around them, who were great and good and charming and all that until things didn’t go the way they wanted, pushing and prodding with passive digs and pressure to reaffirm their own hopes that despite their mistakes, they’re ‘good men.’ Owen is admittedly much less well developed in this regard, partly because his arc just isn’t as deep or interesting, partly because he didn’t exist in the previous game. But I still could not quite shake it. I grew up with men like Joel and Owen as my father figures, so there’s personal bias there.

I literally had an actual nightmare that woke me up in the middle of the night partway through playing through this game because Joel was in it and I said or did a thing he did not like, and his reaction spooked me awake, in part because I LIVED that growing up. (not murder, but violence, passive aggressive manipulation) I absolutely adore the depth given to Joel’s character, that he has LAYERS to him, and I loved seeing Tommy similarly expanded upon. (him passively prodding at Ellie to try and make good with Joel felt a little manipulative, given that he KNOWS what Joel did; and even his wife’s prodding at Ellie at the game’s outside to ‘make good’ with some old jerk who seems all expectant about being rewarded for basic apologizing, ech)

Last of Us is a horror game, Part 2 even moreso, but it was the feeling of men like Joel who do bad things and then try to justify them after the fact that actually creeped me out more -- all the more creepy because I KNOW Ellie and Abby will give up on better choices to try and ‘do right by them’. I was relieved when Abby began to break free from these old, poor choices, even shortly after making more fo them during her half of the story. This brings me to another fascinating aspect of this game: how Abby’s story is a combination of both Joel’s and Ellie’s.

Dunkey (of all people!) recently praised this game and compared Ellie’s and Abby’s narratives to TLOU1 and Uncharted 4, and I agree with him in a lot of regards, there, but I think what the team was more going for was for Abby’s story to feel like a combination of Joel’s and Ellie’s while simultaneously being directly impacted by Joel and Ellie’s story.

Abby grew up in a military community, even though she expressed an interest in science -- just like Ellie. The death of her father drives her on a quest for revenge -- just like Ellie. She does some horrible shit to people all in the service of trying to protect a kid as some desperate attempt to feel better about all of the bad shit she’s done -- just like Joel. She starts to let herself be empathetic to other people and tries to become a better person because of the kid she takes under her wing -- just like Joel.

In a way, you could argue Part 2′s overall story is kind of repetitious. Ellie’s quest for revenge is a bit too narrow-minded and blind in her rage, and Abby’s story kind of recycles many components we have already seen up until that point. I think what’s there still generally accomplishes what it set out to do: get us to question and try to understand why people do what they do, and consider our own place in that cycle, in those ripples.

I think many aspects of this game that look circumstantial on the surface are not accidents.

I think the recurring imagery of water is an allegory for how we can let rage, anger, and hate drown us. The game’s title starts with a boat drifting in water, and the title changes after the ending to a boat that is beached. The Seattle arc shows a gradually increasing focus on water flooding the environments, culminating in a big rainstorm with crazy waves. The final fight sequence (which tbh I hated but we’ll get to that) takes place literally IN water, involves Ellie trying to drown Abby, and ends with the two of them going separate ways in their boats.

I think it’s no accident that Abby and Ellie’s desire for vengeance is ultimately caused by the same specific moment, and I think it’s interesting that many people seem to skip RIGHT OVER the idea that Ellie feels such a deep sense of rage at Abby killing Joel only because Joel made the decision that caused Abby to kill him in the first place -- and the good and bad that came from that. It’s just a brilliantly complicated web, I think, and that further highlights that none of these characters are inherently good or evil, which is pretty much the entire point of this world in the first place.

I think it’s interesting that both Ellie and Abby grumble insults all of the time over the people they’re killing, and both try to justify their violence with thoughts like “well we’re better then that, we don’t do THOSE kinds of things,” which is, ya know, literally the kinds of mental hoops actual real human beings jump through to justify doing bad shit to each other.

I liked the idea of the trading cards until fairly early on when I found the ‘Dr. Uckmann’ card, which...made me roll my eyes a little at first, until I read the description, which then made me feel more actively uncomfortable than maybe anything else in the entire game, to be quite honest. Partly because it rang of entitled self-importance, but partly because of the reports of Naughty Dog crunch culture.

And on that note, let’s talk about how this game arguably crunched its employees way more than it needed to while simultaneously making its story more bloated than it needed to be.

Don’t get me wrong, I love indulging in more STUFF than it required. I can totally see the appeal of writing extra stuff to a story like because you can, because it’s interesting, because it’s fun to MAKE shit. But when you are a AAA game development studio who is potentially crunching your employees into burnout, maybe a fairly pointless epilogue on top of a game that is already arguably a bit too long in the tooth is...maybe not the best way to go?

On the upside, I enjoyed playing the Santa Barbara location, I loved getting some more Abby/Lev time, I liked seeing Ellie a bit older, I LOVED the scene at the farm with her, Dina, and JJ. I loved the gameplay challenge that was the Rattler’s base. I loved that this game had noticeably larger environments to explore.

But tbh a LOT of content could’ve been cut from this game to make a smoother, better paced experience while simultaneously putting less strain on the developers. I do think the extended flashback sequences focused on non-violent gameplay is important enough to justify itself, but I think a lot of the more violent or unnecessary parts of the game (like the entire sequence on the Seraphite’s island and the Santa Barbara sequence) all feel like...EXTRA? Which on the one hand is great because hot DAMN more beautifully rendered locations, content, etc. but on the other hand I’m not sure it adds as much to justify the real life pain and misery I’m sure some developers went through to create it all, and in a way, it doesn’t quite justify its own existence if we’re being critical.

I get what they were going for with the Seraphites and the WLF but neither group is developed enough to really accomplish the goals of empathy. I think focusing on specific members OF those groups is better, because that is ultimately how real life people break down their walls of bias, -isms, etc. -- they just interact with and befriend people from these groups and realize organically “oh hey we’re all...people, huh.” The game’s attempts at naming NPCs and dogs don’t do much when the game actively rewards you for killing them (speaking of which, I played on Normal and there were way too many items imo, we’ll see how that is on higher difficulties). We could get into the role of violence and gameplay but that’s a WHOLE other can of worms.

But the Rattlers in the final act are even worse. After this entire game of being actively encouraged to empathize with other people from other groups and let yourself consider they aren’t evil, the game just...shoves an objectively worse group of people at you, asks you to murder them, and then...discards the whole thing without a second thought. I found this to be fun from a gameplay perspective (sorry Neil, playing your game actually IS FUN when you put so much work into making the violence fun to engage with) but I found it weird and frustrating from a storytelling perspective, as if the whole thing was an undercooked, unfinished final act that they cobbled together because they just...wanted enemies with helmets and an environment depicting southern California. Hell, tbh I don’t even get why Ellie had to be there other than the developers didn’t think players would be OK just...letting Ellie live a life in peace on a farm or that players would be OK NOT playing as Ellie at the end and letting her beat the shit out of Abby.

I actually LOVED the farm sequence, it felt so...weird for a while. Like you’re just waiting for the hat to drop. And when it does...it’s just PTSD. And that felt right. That felt good, that even though Ellie was spared, after all the shit she did, because she let go and spared Abby in return, she got to live this peaceful life...except life’s not that simple and old scars can still hurt.

I loved when Tommy showed up and we got to see that darker side to him we KNOW has been there this entire time, but Ellie maybe hasn’t been forced to see it. All the way up until this point, I felt I could understand where the characters were coming from and what motivated their decisions.

And then Ellie decided “no, actually, maybe if I throw all of this away I can maybe get rid of this PTSD I got from throwing everything away before.” And then it got worse when after she breaks into this fucking slave house to free people, after she saves Abby and Lev from dying on posts, she STILL wants to fight. ANd Abby’s where I’m at -- that ‘fucking REALLY?’ feeling. I utterly disliked the fight scene in the water. It was the one time in the whole game that actually felt like misery porn to me. I was honestly going into it expecting that maybe Ellie’s stab wound from the trap would cause her to be too weak to fight, and she’d literally drown from bleeding out because of her own unrelenting pursuit of revenge. But nah, we’re put through a pointless, brutal fist/knife fight that...doesn’t really have purpose imo. WHatever you wanted to accomplish here, you could’ve done back in the theater in Seattle. (on that note I LOVED the Ellie boss fight, what a fun gameplay thing and also just tense all around since you really couldn’t tell what was going to happen, but I LOVE that Lev stopped Abby from killing Dina, even though she had every reason to)

I can imagine different versions of the Santa Barbara sequence that offer a more edifying conclusion while still working in the environmental and gameplay components they seemed insistent on working in. It’s the one major portion of the game that, now that I’ve had time to process, I feel the most conflicted about.

Neither Ellie nor Abby “deserve” a happy ending in much the same way Joel didn’t “deserve” a happy ending. This game has no true protagonists or villains (anyone who is presented as a ‘villain’ is minor, and we don’t find out much about them anyway). I think Joel was lucky to get the time he got to live in community once again, to rediscover his humanity (look at all of those flowers they left at his house, this man who fucked over humanity and murdered countless people had a chance to live a few years of peaceful life again), I think Ellie was lucky she got time to even live what she did on that farm with Dina and JJ, and was lucky to still be alive at the end of the story. I think Abby was lucky to have been able to break free from a life of militaristic bullshit and rediscover some of her own lost humanity.

I think a lot of people admire Joel as a hero when it’s clear he was never one.

I think a lot of people admire Ellie and try to idolize her as the smarmy kid she could never permanently exist as.

I think a lot of people hate on Abby for EXISTING (and being a woman -gasp- WITH MUSCLES) and I’m pretty pleased with Laura Bailey getting to play this role (and Ashly Burch getting a supporting role in this game, too, for that matter).

I think The Last of Us is not ‘about Ellie and Joel.’ I think The Last of Us is about humanity, and exploring it through different angle. Sometimes needlessly gritty and dark ones, but Part 2 gave us even more light-hearted, pelasant moments than I could have expected. I think people who look so reductively at this game -- now officially a ‘series’ -- as ‘Joel and Ellie 100x forever’ and literally anything outside of that being bad and a waste of time fundamentally missed the entire purpose of this game, ironically ignoring what it is trying to passionately to convey. I think Naughty Dog’s marketing of the game actively misled people in ways that are rare for the industry, and I do think that is a bit shady - but on the other hand, being misled actively improved my experience with the end product (which is arguably why they did it). I think the way Sony has latched on Joel and Ellie as ‘Playstation Icons’ and encouraged people to buy up TLOU merch depite there not being much TO turn into merchandise says something.

Also? Frankly?

I am SO FUCKING TIRED of “angry sad dad” games.

Like. I loved TLOU 1, I loved the new God of War, etc. etc.

But God of War took basically NO RISKS and had NOTHING TO SAY that countless other pieces of media have said to death. That’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that, I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next. But this game actually has challenging thoughts, complicated things, it is trying to get players to consider, and most everyone I see shitting on the game either hasn’t played it or doesn’t seem interested in games that exist for something beyond making them feel good about themselves? I dunno.

I think at the end of the day, TLOU as an entire series, and specifically the sequel, isn’t about Joel and Ellie, that was just the more focused lens the original game had. For its messier, muddier experience, Part 2 strives for nothing more than many pieces of media have but for something that is still rare in the space of AAA video games.

It takes some risks, it makes some missteps in getting where it goes, for sure, and it’s by no means some holy gift to mankid, but it passionately goes to GREAT lengths to explore and express a fairly simple idea:

empathy is a choice, understanding others is a choice,

and we are all inherently better off when we choose to blindly accept understanding than when we blindly choose hate and violence.

Just because we can’t walk ‘the path of the right,’ and just because ‘we’re wrong’ doesn’t mean we should let the phantoms in our lives continue to keep a hold on our future. Just because someone does some good things doesn’t erase the consequences and ripples of the bad they have done, and just because we do bad things doesn’t mean we can’t do good.

The way to end the cycle of violence is empathy.

It’s simplistic in concept, but if you look around at not just the reception to this game even before people could play it, but just the STATE OF THE WORLD IN 2020, you will see that maybe we still need such basic, simplistic concepts to continue to be explored in big budget media.

#tlou part 2 #tlou #The Last of Us #The Last of Us Part 2

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jinned · 5 years

Text

chromatic | yoongi

chromatic (adj)- relating to or using notes not belonging to the diatonic scale of the key in which a passage is written.

snippet: “Fuck he looks like a sparkly anime boy,”

pairing: Yoongi x female reader ft. best friend Namjoon

genre: RomCom-ish, crack, fluff

rating: pg13

au: college

word count: 4.9k

warnings: some language, some light banter, y/n is queen dumbass

Every time you walk into school you have to resist the urge to shove a pencil into your eye socket.

Damn. That was a little intense...but you can’t mask the truth. You’ve never been good at that....hiding your true feelings that is. It’s just...this school...it’s very clear most of your classmates applied to this school thinking it’ll get them rich and famous quick. They don’t care about the quality of their work. They don’t care about the industry. They just care about the attention and getting their name out there. You see it everyday as you walk through the corridors and in the classrooms. You’ve seen students laugh as they give half assed answers to professors questions. You’ve heard them complain about how boring the classes are and that they should have become doctors or lawyers like their parents wanted. One time you even heard one boy state he thought the purpose of the school was for the students to be in the studio working with “already famous people”. Literally, you groan whenever the thought pops back into your head.

When you initially applied for Dague’s Radio Arts Program, also known as DRAP, you couldn’t stop yourself from jumping around the house. Your parents smiled at you fondly, knowing that being a soundboard technician has always been your dream. Ever since you were little you’d critique almost every song that filled your ears, wondering how it would be to take away the cymbals or adding more synthesizer. You know, the kind of stuff every young kid thinks about when listening to music.

That ambition hasn’t gone away now that you’re in your third semester of your freshman year. It’s just been...clouded a bit.

DRAP is a small school with about two hundred students. So everyone knows everyone here. That being said, you’ve only found one decent human being who’s not trying to get into the industry for fame or fortune. This person genuinely cares about the content they create and want to make the music industry a better place.

And that man is none other than Kim Namjoon. Namjoon has stuck by your side ever since you sat by him on your first day in the fall during basic engineering. Neither of you paid any attention to one another until the teacher asked why everyone decided to attend DRAP and some snobby rich boy stood up and said, “I came to DRAP because it’s the easiest way to be discovered as a singer besides going to YouTube and I just haven’t hit rock bottom like that yet.”

The whole class clapped. Except for you and Namjoon who groaned so loudly it startled you both.

Instant friendship.

The rest is history.

The most entertaining thing about this school and having different morals than the rest of the student body is getting to watch how they interact with one another.

Like today for instance…

“Who’s that?” Namjoon juts his chin towards the swamp of girls crowding in a circle in the courtyard. The sun is shining bright on this rather chill spring day and you’d love nothing more than to go inside, but Namjoon loves to eat in the courtyard. People watching, he says, is the most splendid free entertainment one could enjoy. He continues to chew on his sandwich, his lips smacking together as he cranes his neck to try to get a better look without completely investing his body into the movements.

“What do you mean ‘who’s that’?” You ask annoyedly. Today just really hasn’t been your day and your patience is running thin. Finding out you got a ‘C’ on a project you were pretty proud of hasn’t been able to digest properly yet and when you’re in a bad mood you tend to let that energy project onto those around you. You’re working on it! But still. It happens.

“I mean,” Namjoon continues, unphased by your attitude, “who’s that person that everyone is trying to go up to? Did we get another celebrity guest speaker?”

You put down your juice to look a little more closely. Sure enough, several girls have their phones out, large smiles on their faces, trying to get as close as possible to whoever it is out there.

You grab your phone and log onto Twitter and look up the school’s hashtag to see what the scoop is.

All you see is girls gushing over the cute new guy.

“No one famous,” you sigh and pick your juice back up. “Just another dream boat that decided to join DRAP during the middle of the semester because popularity is clearly more important than education.”

“Ew,” Namjoon scrunches his nose and continues to eat. “I can’t wait until we get our degrees and can get out of here.” “Me too.”

“Do you think we’ll be able to get a job at the same radio station?” He inquires.

“Probably not,” you sigh. It’s definitely not the answer he was hoping for. His shoulders drop down and his gaze turns towards the ground.

“I know it’s not likely. I just hope we can. You’re the only one here that actually cares about the job. And you’re stupid good at it too!”

You laugh and bump your shoulder against his.

“Oh, Joonie. You flatter me so. No one here has your insane rap skills though. Let’s make a deal,” you sit up straight and pivot your body so that you’re facing him better. “I’ll become the best producer slash radio tech as long as I get to work with you when you become a famous rapper. Deal?” You slice your hand forward in handshake position.

He smiles at you and takes your hand gently.

“Deal. Wouldn’t want it any other way.”

You part with Namjoon shortly after your mutual promise sealed with a handshake and head to your next class. You take a seat on the left side of the classroom, middle row, at the end by the wall so you have a place to rest your back against.

This week the professor has been focusing on microphones; which type is the best for this sound, how to properly set them up, expenses, etc. All in all, it’s a very boring topic, but important nonetheless.

You’re begrudgingly pulling out your notebook and pen when loud, fast chatter starts behind you. In comes what you have to assume is the new student that has everyone losing their shit over. You turn around to get a good look before you lose interest and you immediately lock eyes with him. He’s gorgeous. Not gonna lie. The way his dark black hair just barely falls over his eyelids and tickles the tips of his ears has some sort of instant affect on you. It looks so soft, like it would feel heavenly to run your hands through. His button nose is to die for and his thin lips forming a breathtaking smile, no smile has truly compared to this one, hatches a dozen butterflies inside your stomach. And his eyes, oh, gorgeous! The way he softly blinks, his eyelashes barely kissing the tops of his cheeks...

At first, you are done for, smitten, lovestruck, in awe. You want nothing more than to introduce yourself to this dreamboat of a man, climb aboard and set sail towards the sunset.

And then you see how he interacts with all his new adoring fans.

He bats his eyelashes at the girl hanging onto his left elbow and turns his head to wink at the girl on his right. There’s someone behind him combing the back of his hair with a small portable hairbrush while another person rolls a lint roller over his expensive looking white cashmere sweater.

You roll your eyes and turn away. That little crush disappearing real quick.

There’s still five minutes until class starts so to avoid all the unnecessary gushing over this stupidly cute overrated wannabe famous boy, you pop in your headphones and crank up the volume loud enough to mask the background chatter but still quiet enough so that you can hear when the professor walks in through the door by the front of the classroom.

You uncap one of your pens and start to mindlessly write lyrics that come to your mind, taking bits of what you’re hearing from your music and trying to make it your own, a neat little trick Namjoon showed you that helps a lyricist get out of writer’s block. By taking bits of a sentence and expanding it further, or even rephrasing a sentence in a different way, it becomes easier to put your own spin on a song. Namjoon noticed a long time ago that your songwriting abilities were lacking and there was no way he was going to sit there and allow his best friend to struggle this hard.

As you’re jotting down ideas, trying to make sense of your thoughts, you see movement on your right.

Someone has sat down next to you.

“Hey.”

At least, you think that’s what they said. Their voice sounds like they’re underwater- huh, that’s not a bad lyric. You stay focused on your paper and tune in more closely to the music in your ears, hoping they’ll get the clue and leave you alone.

Someone taps your shoulder before pulling your right headphone out of your ear.

“I said, ‘Hey’.”

“Oh you have got to be fucking kidding me,” you swing your body around quickly, restraining yourself from socking this person right in the face.

You’re about to say some very colorful choice words to this person when you stop dead in your tracks when you see it’s the new guy.

Your eyebrows lower in a confused and annoyed expression, eyelids squinting to see if what’s really before you is even real. You sigh and put your headphones back in your ear, returning to your writing exercise, immediately deciding this guy isn’t worth your beautiful angry words. Instead you choose to jot them down on the paper.

A few seconds after you put your headphones back in, your professor scurries in.

Which means you have to take the headphones back out.

“Alright class I hope you studied your notes from this week! We will be having a quiz tomorrow so make sure you come prepared! Today we will be doing a quick little overview-”

“Why did you do that?” The new guy leans in and asks you. He continues to look at the front board, his hands clasped together and resting on the table.

“Do what?” You keep your eyes on the whiteboard upfront as well, following your professors every move. You do your best to look uninterested in this new hot shot of a student, but your brain has blocked out every sound except for his voice. His low, slow talking, beautiful husky voice-

“Why did you put your headphones back in? I was trying to introduce myself to you.”

“Ah. I see I hurt your ego a bit did I?” You smirk and jot down a quick note of what the professor has written on the whiteboard.

‘The Shure SM58 is the ideal microphone to use if you plan on doing a lot of traveling and working at the same time-’

“I’m the new kid in school and everyone keeps paying me a bunch of attention except for you. Why don’t you like me and why do I care that you don’t like me?”

“Listen, kid,” you huff, sending some of your hair flying outward. You turn to look him in the eyes to make sure he hears the message loud and clear. “I do not care about you. I don’t care that you care about me caring about you. You’ve been here for two seconds and you’re butthurt that I didn’t say hey to you. Get over yourself. I’m here to learn.” You raise your eyebrow and jut your chin forward as a way of saying ‘got it?’ and turn back to the whiteboard.

“Oh and don’t go yanking people’s headphones out of their ears. Unless you want to get punched or something.”

“My name is Yoongi.”

“I literally don’t care.” You scoff.

He leaves you alone for the remainder of class. But you can’t help but notice how he looks over at you every five minutes or so.

“I’m telling you, Namjoon. Something has to be mentally wrong with this guy for him to just act this way,” you rest your hands on the back of your head as you and Namjoon walk around campus. You’ve just told him about your little encounter with Yoongi in class yesterday. Namjoon is amused to say the least. But, at the same time, Namjoon being the angel to your devil, tries to make sense of the situation.

“Hey now be nice. He’s probably been doted on his entire life and has never had someone genuinely not give a shit about him before.”

“Well he better get used to it. Cause I will never give a shit about some preppy pretty boy who thinks he has every girl wrapped around his rich delicate little finger,” you clench your fists tightly until you feel the pain from your fingernails digging into your palms and sigh with heavy annoyance before relaxing your hands. “I’m not looking forward to class with him later. Maybe I should just skip it. Or better yet, drop out.”

“Stop being so dramatic! Don’t let one guy ruin your dreams of being the best soundboard tech the world has ever seen!” Namjoon laughs at you and you allow yourself to chuckle with him. “And I know you won’t admit it, but you do give a shit. You give a shit about everyone and that’s why you’re so wound up about this guy.”

Your smile fades. You know you’re being ridiculous with your sudden hatred towards this stranger but it’s just easier to complain. And much more fun.

“Can we please sit down somewhere?” You whine and stomp your feet heavily as if you have rocks in your shoes, choosing to ignore Namjoon’s last statement. “I know our next class got canceled but I’m tired of circling campus.”

“Sure thing. Let’s find a spot in the courtyard.” Namjoon walks ahead of you and turns back when you’re taking too long. “Stop moping!” He laughs and runs back to you to grab your books from your hands. “My goodness you’re really letting this guy get to your head.” “He’s annoying and I officially hate him.”

Namjoon just shakes his head. “It’s physically impossible for you to hate anyone. You can try to be as cynical as you want but you can’t fool me!”

He finds an empty bench quickly and sets your things down on the ground, patting down a spot next to him.

You lay down on your back and instantly swing your arm to cover your eyes from the sun, your feet dangling over the edge as you let out another exasperated sigh.

“Okay. Now what’s wrong?” Namjoon chuckles lowly under his breath. You hear him unzip his backpack, probably going over his class notes like the perfect student he is.

“I can hear him coming,�� you groan. It’s not a lie. You can almost feel the thundering of Forever 21 boots pounding the pavement from across the way, cherry lipgloss is practically wafting through the air. He’s near. You can feel it.

Sure enough, a few seconds later a hoard of girls surrounding Yoongi walk in from the opposite side of the courtyard from where you and Namjoon are sitting. You don’t even bother lifting your arm from your eyes.

“Whoa,” Namjoon stiffles his laughter. “You have, like, a sixth sense or something. Can you predict my future?”

“Shut up, Joon and let me sleep in peace.” The sun beats down on you and the warmness perfectly blankets you. It’s a beautiful day today, a beautiful day to sulk and fall asleep on a bench outside. Totally not like a hobo or anything.

A few moments of peaceful bliss go by and you think you might actually fall asleep when loud laughter and talking gets closer to you.

“Namjoon, please tell me the hoard isn’t coming this way.”

“Sorry, Y/N. But, uh, I think someone wants to talk to you.”

You slowly sit up, your eyes heavy with almost sleep and the bright sun makes you squint your eyes.

And there he is. Walking right towards you.

Yoongi.

He’s carrying a few books in front of his chest, his backpack hanging over one shoulder. A group of at least ten girls surround him, asking for his number, a picture with him, anything they can get. His black hair shines raven blue in the sunlight and the cool breeze picks up his tie from his chest, floating a bit before landing back in place. Leaves start to fall from the trees behind him and you swear everything around him is moving in slow motion.

“Fuck he looks like a sparkly anime boy,” you mutter under your breath.

“He what?” Namjoon almost throws out his neck with how quickly he looks at you, bearing the most confused expression you’ve ever seen.

Before you can think of an excuse, said anime boy stops three feet in front of you.

“Hey,” Yoongi looks right at you and raises his eyebrows up suggestively, a small smirk pulled on his face.

You bite your tongue to refrain from saying anything to him. Your heart is pounding fast and, knowing yourself, you’ll just say something unnecessarily mean to him. Or...unnecessarily nice. And you’d rather not get beaten up by all these girls surrounding him who will, without a doubt, protect him at all costs and stake their claim on him. So you’re stuck in this loop of do you be nice or mean because either option will get you pounded by girls-which, now that you think about it, out of context doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.

Yoongi stares at you. You stare at him. Namjoon looks back and forth between the two of you.

The silence is so awkward you almost dare break it yourself.

Suddenly, well...not so suddenly...Yoongi slowly releases his books from his hands, letting them topple onto the ground with a loud thud. You stare at him harder, confused as ever. He doesn’t break eye contact with you and makes no move to pick them up.

“Oops,” he says slowly and shrugs his arms.

“Okay literally what the fuck is happening right now?” Namjoon asks.

You hold Yoongi’s gaze, completely unable to look away except to look at his books splattered on the ground for a brief moment. But then you look back at him, unsure of what he wants you to do or what kind of gimmick this is.

“This is the part where you pick up my books,” Yoongi finally breaks the silence with a matter of fact tone.

Bewilderedly, you scoff and cross your arms in front of your chest. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll pick up your books, Yoongi!” One of the girls around him squeals and immediately dives down to her knees, gathering up all his books and loose papers into her arms. She’s not the only one though. Every girl around Yoongi drops to the ground and starts reaching in desperation for his stuff as if it’s diamonds instead of paper. The girl who dropped first, and has the most items in her arms, stands up quickly and tries to fix her hair by blowing it back into place.

“Thanks, Chelsea. Can you go to my next class and set them in my spot for me?” Yoongi winks and holds out his backpack for her to take as well, which she eagerly takes with a high pitched squeal.

“My name is Jiae but you can call me Chelsea if you want!” She runs off, the rest of Yoongi’s fanclub running after her, trying to pull books out of her arms so that they too can have the pleasure of carrying something of his.

Yoongi looks back at you and puts his hands on his hips. When he realizes you’re not going to say anything, he throws his hands up in defeat.

“I just did that stupid ‘drop all your books in front of your crush and see if they help you pick them up’ thing and you just stared at me like I was an idiot but joke’s on you because the person who did pick them up is way cuter than you and I. think. I’ll. be. dropping. my. things. around. them. more. often.” Yoongi’s animated staccato tone throws you off and quickly sends you in a fit of giggles as he stands there with his arms crossed and his chin turned up towards the sky.

“You wanted me...to pick up...your books...cause I’m...your WHAT?” You laugh harder, clutching your sides as you double forward.

Yoongi blinks as he watches you, clearly not expecting this reaction and trying desperately to think of something to say.

“Namjoon, let’s get out of here. I don’t feel like going to class today.”

Yoongi’s eyes widen as he watches you stand up and grab your things by Namjoon’s feet.

“But we have a quiz-”

“Yoongi, if you haven’t noticed already, which by the looks of it you haven’t, I’m one of the top students at this school. And if you know anything about Professor Cheong, which...again...seems like you don’t, you can take any missed quiz by the end of the week with a ten percent deduction. I think I’ll be fine missing this one. Have fun with your Sennheisers and AT2020’s,” you laugh and turn away from him, walking back towards the parking lot with Namjoon following closely behind you.

The rest of the evening is spent with you and Namjoon running around town grabbing ice cream from literally every ice cream shop that comes into view and running into random stores to see what’s inside. In total, you’ve hit about five different ice cream shops. Stupid jokes are made, lots of laughter, and endless topics are talked about.

Well, all but one.

Namjoon tried to bring up Yoongi within the first ten minutes of your skipping school adventure, but you immediately hushed him up and resumed to pretend like the whole thing never happened.

Like Yoongi saying you were his crush never happened.

When it starts to get dark, you say goodnight to Namjoon and head home.

And that’s when you allow yourself to remember that what Yoongi said had indeed happened.

The next day at school has you feeling more off than that time you ran headfirst into a light post and gave yourself the worst concussion of your life. You feel it as you walk down the halls trying desperately to focus on Namjoon’s voice and what he’s saying. But nothing seems to stick. You know that he can see you’re not feeling like yourself and you are grateful that he has not brought it up. Instead, he tries to distract you. He makes jokes about the weather and how it’s cold one day and warm the next. He tells you about weird things his parents said at the dinner table last night. Little things that you can hold onto. Or at least try to.

The fact that a boy has you feeling this way makes you unbelievably angry. You’ve known him for two days and you want nothing more than to not give a shit about him. But those twinkling eyes...and that stupid button nose...they have you hooked.

But you’d rather drop out of school and become a nun than admit that you have a crush on the new guy just like every other damn girl on campus.

Crap.

Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. CRAP.

You walk into Professor Cheong’s class ten minutes early and sit in your usual spot. You pull out your notebook and pencils and attempt to do your usual writing exercises. But this time, not even Namjoon’s wisdom can save you from the wrath that is Min Yoongi.

Yes you learned his last name.

And yes you almost allowed yourself to stalk him on social media but on some sheer whim of sanity you were able to control yourself from looking at any of his profiles. Cause everyone knows once you go internet stalking...it’s real.

He’s here. You can hear the adoring girls getting closer and closer. Is he going to sit by you again? What do you do if he does sit by you again? Are you going to be upset if he doesn’t?

Stop thinking about him. Stop thinking about him. Stop thinking about-

“Hey.”

“Hi!-” You try to cut yourself off. But it’s too late. You reply to him immediately.

Dammit.

“She speaks! And doesn’t say anything mean to me! Amazing really,” Yoongi laughs and sets his backpack down on the ground and pulls back the chair that’s two seats away from you, leaving a nice and comfortable spot between the two of you unlike last time.

If only Namjoon was here to block the view.

“You’re here early. Couldn’t get Chelsea to bring your books in for you this time?” You sneer, but it’s a playful sneer. You try to make it seem playful. Hopefully he gets that it’s playful. Please let it seem playful.

Yoongi winces and clenches his fists together for a moment.

Playful sneer did not land.

“I feel really bad about that. I apologized to her. I really did. I don’t know why I acted like that. I guess all the attention got to my head and-” he takes a deep breath and pivots himself so his whole body is facing you. “I’m really sorry, Y/N,” your body freezes and your head shoots up at the mention of your name. “I acted like a complete ass yesterday. I don’t know why but ever since I first saw you...I just got really nervous and just wanted to act really cool.”

“You thought me picking up your books you purposefully dropped on the floor would make you look cool? Or yanking my headphones out of my ear while I try to work on something is you being cool?”

“I know I know it’s dumb. I just wanted it to be like in the TV shows, you know? I wanted to drop my books and you rush to pick them up then I’d kneel down and apologize for being so clumsy then our hands would touch as we reach for the same book and then we’d have this moment where we’d look each other in the eyes and I don’t know. I honestly thought from that first moment I saw you that maybe you felt the same thing I did. I mean, the look on your face was the look I felt on mine so I was just thinking that-”

“Jesus christ, kid slow down! Take a breath!!” Your tone comes out harsher than you intend once again. Yoongi’s head drops low, avoiding your eyes, shoulders sagging in defeat. He nods his head silently and turns his body back towards the front of the classroom.

What the fuck is happening right now? The current most popular kid in school has a crush on you. After barely speaking to you and only attending the school for a few days. What. The. Fuck. And yet...in some odd way...you can’t blame him? You immediately felt this magnetic pull to him the second he walked in the room on his first day. And that feeling hasn’t gone away. You wonder if he stalked your social media or if he had the self control like you did. Or if he thinks about the stuff he said to you and if he would go about it differently. Like you do.

You take a moment to collect your thoughts and take a deep breath, choosing your words carefully. “Yoongi...first off...we’re not in a TV show. You can’t just go up to a girl you’ve never met and expect to seduce her with just a snap of your fingers. It doesn’t work like that. You know nothing about me and yet you have a crush on me?”

He looks over at you with pouty lips and big, irresistible, anime eyes.

Dammit.

“I know all the other girls have been obsessing over you since you stepped foot on campus but...I’m just not like that. I’m here to learn. I don’t care that much about pretty boys to let it overtake my mind,” partially true. “so drop the act. You’ll get along with me better if you just be yourself.”

“Can we start over?” Yoongi smiles and waits for your response.

You can’t help but to smile back at him. You reach out your hand and he firmly grasps it in one of his own in a nice introductory handshake.

“Hey,” you say in a deep mocking voice. “My name is Y/N.”

Yoongi throws his head back in laughter, clutching your hand even tighter. It takes him a second to recompose himself. He bites his bottom lip to stifle his laughter.

He looks you in the eyes and a wave of warmth overcomes you. And, you hate to admit it, his hand in yours...it feels right.

“Hey, Y/N. My name is Yoongi. It’s nice to meet you.”

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linkspooky · 4 years

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Top 10 Danganronpa characters

Normally my motto is “No Heroes, Only Villains.” In general I tend to dislike main characters because a lot of authors take short cuts to have the main character feel important, and end up bending the story around them. Whereas while villains are darker characters overall, because the narrative always frames their actions as bad they are usually far more complex characters with deeper, darker, struggles driving them udnerneath the surface.

The one exception to my rule is Uchikoshi’s Zero Escape series, and Kodaka’s Dangan Ronpa series where I usually end up stanning the protagonist. Due to the fact that the objective of Dangan Ronpa is to inflict as much despair on the protagonist as possible, I can kind of see why this series is the one exception to my rule.

1. Mukuro Ikusaba - “I’m so sorry, Junko. I never really understood what despair was. But it’s going to be all right now. I finally understand. So… I’ll make sure I make you happy, Junko. I’ll make sure I fill you with despair. I’ll save Makoto… I’ll make sure the others don’t die. I’ll let them escape from this place…”

Most of the entries on this list are going to be characters I think have a solid narrative in their game/source material, rather than just picking characters I like. For example I like Tanaka, Mikan, a lot of the characters that fill up the killing game cast are faves however I want to judge them for their arc as a whole. Ikusaba Mukuro is my one exception because she is my absolute favorite character in Dangan Ronpa and she’s one of the most wasted narrative potentials. This likely comes as a result of Dangan Ronpa the original being the worst written game of the three, which lets a lot of its characters including Mukuro go to waste.

Mukuro is a child soldier who’s been trained her entire life. She’s also a victim of sibling abuse, from her only genuine family and the one who loves her. What complicates this is Mukuro is also a bad person, she’s a terrorist who works for despair not because she believes it, but instead to make her sister happy. Mukuro’s lived her entire life to make her sister happy, and her sister loves nothing more than misery despair. You can see where the conflict arises.

Narita’s rendition of Mukuro makes her one of the best characters in Dangan Ronpa. She’s a heartless murderer, but that’s because she has no one in her life except Junko. Of course life is worthless to her she’s never even been shown how to live. When Mukuro is introduced to ideas like love, she’s actually terrified. She’s so scared of other people she considers just talking to people to be worse than taking a shotgun blast to the face. Mukuro’s just so bad at being herself it’s easier to be the doll that Junko plays with. Which is why her turning from despair to hope because of the connections she made with Class 78, and Makoto still believing in her even after she chose to betray them and start the killing game is one of the coolest narrative ideas in Dangan Ronpa. Too bad it only happens in a Ryoga Narita short story.

2. Matsuda Yauske - “Who are you going to report me to? The National Japanese Ugly People Association? That kind of organization would be guilty of discrimination just by existing.”

Matsuda is also a character that could have had greater importance to the series as a whole, but I do think Dangan Ronpa Zero enough to tell his story. Matsuda is an almost perfect protagonist of a tragedy, his heroic qualities are what drag him underneath the surface of the water and cause him to drown. He’s just a kid who wants to protect his childhood friend no matter what the cost. After losing his mother, he made a promise that the two of them were going to spend the rest of their lives taking care of each other and Matsuda does his best to fulfill his end of that promise.

Oh, also that childhood friend is a terrorist trying to destroy the school he is currently attending, and also killing several innocent people and forcing him to hide the bodies. Matsuda is deep down a very good person, but he hides it under his apathetic attitude and his harsh tongue. It shows that good people are perfectly capable of doing bad things. Matsuda knows exactly how wrong his actions are, but he takes them anyway out of desperation. We see him agonize over what he has to do, and then never forgive himself when he does. The rapid deterioration of his mental state because he a doctor, is hurting people, and even hurting the one he loves by protecting her is so compelling. Junko’s claws are already dug so deep into his skin, but he doesn’t want to escape because even with her arms wrapped around her neck at least Junko is still holding onto him.

Matsuda’s a character whose both selfless to an unhealthy extent, and also self-motivated. Junko points this out (helpfully) and his complexity comes from the fact he’s not either or, but both at once. Yes, he’s trying to fix what happened to his mother by fixing Junko’s brain. Yes, he wants to protect Junko because that gives him a place to belong. However, at the same time he is doing all of this because he does genuinely love Junko, and that’s his despair. You can tell despite Ryoko being a Junko who does not care about despair, who is happy go lucky and completely dependant on him like he wants, she chafes him. He can’t stand Ryoko deep down, because he knows Ryoko is not Junko. Matsuda defines him entirely by his use to others and he fell in love with the girl who only knows how to use and manipulate others. It’s a match made in hell.

3. Enoshima Junko - Hope is harmony. A just heart, moving toward the light. That is all. Despair is hope’s polar opposite. It is messy and confusing.

The most hardworking character in any story is the villain. Junko defines Danganronpa, Junko practically is Dangan Ronpa. That being said while her appearances in the main games are fun to read, she really shines as a fave of mine in Dangan Ronpa Zero. This is the few times we get a peek at what’s going on inside of Junko’s head instead of having to view from what she decides to show us on the outside.

Junko’s so fascinating because she’s just too smart for the world around her. Her brain’s not broken, it works a little bit too well. She sees no point in making relationships because everybody around her acts so predictably they might as well be playing roles on a stage. Everyone is reading off of a script without even knowing it.

You get the sense that Junko this amazingly talented girl, idolized, worshipped, loved by all, always in the center of the spotlight, just wants any life that’s not hers. Despite having been handed everything she can’t enjoy a single part of life. She has a very “I’m taking my ball and going home attitude” towards hope, if Junko can’t see the appeal of hope, if she can’t enjoy her school life then no one should be able to.

There’s something viscerally pleasing to read in her desire to break the world around her. If everybody is reading from a script then burn the script. If everyone fits too easily into a box then she should destroy all the boxes. Junko herself is more of a personified Jungian Shadow, meant to drudge up the worst parts of society from the bottom of the ocean and make it float and burn on the surface of the water like long buried oil. However, I also find her character to be unique and compelling, not because she’s a psychopath but rather because she isn’t. Junko is capable of loving people, but she’s so bored that you’re guranteed to be worse off if she likes you, because you’re going to be disected while still alive just to prove you’re a living person and not a doll.

4. Saihara Shuichi - “The only time I can use my detective talent is after someone dies… A detective…can’t save anyone. I’m only useful after it’s already too late.”

Welcome to the I-Like-Dangan-Ronpa protagonists list. Shuichi is my favorite protagonist for a main sereis game, because he’s really the only one who has a strong arc through all six chapters. Makoto is the original danganronpa protagonist, but he’s much more interesting when he’s deconstructed by the other characters around him.

Shuichi’s so interesting as a protagonist because he doesn’t always keep on hoping. In fact he gets scared, he runs away, he lies in his bed for days doing absolutely nothing. Shuichi is just as sensitive of a boy as Makoto is, but that emotinoal sensitivity is a flaw because it makes him fragile. Makoto would never give into despair, but Shuichi does which makes him all the more strong for pulling out of it.

He’s timid, easily gets pushed around by others, what makes Shuichi so appealing is because he’s a terrible main character. The game even highlights this in the protaognist swap, Kaede was too strong, and Shuichi too weak to be a lead. There’s even hatemail in the game that’s like Shuichi sucks bring Kaede back and it’s hilarious. He has none of the strength of normal main characters. In fact he’s a walking bundle of nerves and weaknesses. Despite being a detective he’s not even as great as investigating as Kirigiri, and definitely not as cool. Yet, Shuichi struggles so much for every single step in the way. Most of the Dangan Ronpa games end with We’ll keep on hoping, which is a fine message but also pretty generic. DRV3 has the strongest themes of the series and it ends with Shuichi saying I don’t give a damn about hope, I’m going back to my real life. Which is all the stronger because you find out that Shuichi isn’t special, nor was he even that great of a person, he’s just kind of an creepy anti-social kid that sucked. His improvement feels so great because we’ve seen him accept that past self, but at the same time leave it behind.

5. Akamatsu Kaede “..And that's why we need to expose the mastermind and end this dumb killing game! So we can smile with everyone else!”

Kaede is also another comnentary on Makoto, but instead of passive she’s active. I’ve always called her an aggressive optimist. Makoto will just be very tolerant of other people, be patient with them, listen to them, whereas Kaede wants to be friends and she will beat your tragic backstory out of you if she needs to.

This is once again a case of a great Dangan Ronpa character going to waste, but the protagonist switch gave us Shuichi so while I’m disappointed I can still live with the choice. What I love about Kaede and Shuichi as dual protagonists is how well they compliment one another. Kaede is friendly and social but she’s not necessarily nice or empathic. Shuichi is nice and empathic, but he’s anti-social and too timid to go out and make friends. I like deconstructions of empathy because Shuichi is kind of too empathic, he’s always so concerned with how others feel he lets his own heart get trampled over. Kaede’s the exact opposite, she’ll trample over other people trying to make them happy because she’s just too headstrong.

She’s a version of Makoto where her relentless optimism, her ability to make friends, both of these things are flaws because Kaede doesn’t really understand other people’s struggles the same way Shuichi does. Which is why both of them shine the best when they’re together because as a duo they really don’t get along that much underneath the surface. Kaede is all about trusting everyone, but in the end she takes everything into her own hands. Shuichi acts like he wants everyone to rely on him but at the same time his self esteem is so low that he wants someone else to come and take the responsibility away from him. Which is why their relationship which seems to be perfectly complementary on the surface falls apart. Another thing I love about the two of them is most of the Dangan Ronpa guy/girl investigation duos are basically the girl just giving hints and being perfectly helpful to the guy the entire time, whereas Shuichi and Kaede both lie to each other while pretending they’re each other’s most trusted person.

It’s a really great arc even if I wish Kaede had lived to see the consequences of the two of them falling apart and failing to trust each other rather than dying.

6. Hinata Hajime / Izuru Kamukura “I’m not interested.”

Hinata Hajime is a boring rehash of Naegi Makoto whose only major difference is being slightly more anxious for the first five chapters, and then he becomes one of the most amazing characters in Dangan Ronpa. If you reread SDR2 knowing the Izuru Twist, Hinata’s character becomes a lot more distinct.

The best way I’ve ever heard Hinata described is “Like Makoto, but not genuine about it.” Makoto is just a friendly guy who really likes everyone and really wants to help everyone, he’s kind of simple. Whereas, Hinata wants to be that person really desperately but he can’t. Because Hinata wants to be important. When he helps someone he wants to be relied on. When he makes a friend, he wants them to be an important friend. He wants to be selfless, but he can’t stop thinking about himself for one minute because he’s an anxious mess.

DR3 is bad, but one of the few things it got right was Reserve Course Hinata’s genuine attitude. He seems angry and confrontational, but that’s only because he hates the idea of other people looking down on him. He’s always worried about what other people think of him, so being so confrontational helps him be avoidant. Nobody looks too close if he pretends to have a strong personality.

Hinata is just someone so intensely disatisfied with himself he decided to get a surgery to take his brain out of his head and let him become someone else. Except Hinata can’t escape himself because Koameda is walking around as a walking callout post for him. This is what you look like. This is how you act. This is what you became in your desperation to become special, Komaeda just doesn’t hide it.

7. Fukawa Toko “My theory is that happy people can only write happy, shallow novels.“

Everybody told me to wait until UDG before I judged anything about Toko, but she was one of the few Non-Junko characters that I loved from the first game. What I like about Toko is how ugly, and miserable she is at all times. Toko’s like so unlikable that people generally get along with her split-personality better than her, because even though Jack is a serial killer she’s less difficult to deal with.

Toko’s actually pretty low empathy. She doesn’t feel that much guilt over Jack being a serial killer. She doesn’t see herself in people suffering in front of her, even when they’re literal children who turned to murder because their parents were abusing them so badly she’s like nope, nope, nothing to see here. However that’s the appeal, Toko’s literally had the empathy beaten out of her. The reason she doesn’t feel those things is because she can’t.

Toko’s so obviously broken, she’s a bundle of inferiority complexes and trauma just trying desperately to hide herself together. She’s an obvious victim of bullying, and yet she’ll bully people the second they get close to her. She’s not soft, or nice at all, and will say things to hurt you. Toko responds to ugliness with ugliness. She responds to hatred with hatred. She’s cinderella but she wasn’t able to remain kind when her wicked stepmothers abused her, os she became a serial killer instead. There’s something so raw about a girl cut apart with scissors desperately trying to piece herself back together.

8. Shingetsu Nagisa "D-Don't be stupid! That's not true! I'll be a kid until I die! I would rather die right now than become an adult! Don't you believe me?"

I love all the kids from Ultra Despair girls, but once again Nagisa is my favorite because he has the most developed arc out of all of them. Nagisa is continually acting burdened by everyone around him. He’s always way in over his head, up to his neck in blood and has no idea what to do. He’s also the only one who seems to be consciously aware that they’re doing something bad and trying to justify it to himself.

Nagisa is always overburdening himself, but much like Matsuda he does this because it’s the only way he knows how to function. If he wasn’t useful to everyone around him he would be thrown out. Nagisa continually pushes himself into unhealthier and unhealthier situations.

And the best part about his arc is we get to see him crumble. He has this narrative where everyone always has expectations for him, and being told that nobody expects anything from him is his breaking point. He’s begging people to use him. He descends into a screaming fit and you realize this is a kid who has been used his entire life and thinks being loved is having someone who needs you.

9. “I am not like you. I believe in power. No matter how many I make into victims, even if it means my death, I shall destroy despair. That is my resolve!”

It’s hard to describe why I like Munakata. His confrontation with Makoto is one of my favorite scenes in the series, but out of context Dangan Ronpa dialogue always sounds so ridiculous. Munakata, no we need to kill the concept of despair, we need to kill everyone whose ever even felt sadness. If you disregard how the hope vs despair conflict kind of got ridiculous in DR3, there’s a lot of interesting parts about Munakata’s character.

He’s like a version of Makoto’s character who grew up into someone really unpleasant. He’s trying so hard to be the symbol of hope that Makoto just kind of is on accident. He’s one of the few characters who is a strict idealist that I like, because it shows how much Munakata cares about ideas over justice or hope over people to the point where he ends up being the reason that the people he loved dies.

I like Munakata because he’s a bad person even though he’s fighting for objectively good reasons. He’s such a strict utilitarian he always uses people and has to be in control. He’s terrible to his own close friends. You get the sense that he never really knew either of them. That’s why it’s fun to see him destroy everything with his own hands, and realize after the fact that even when he was nothing left to fight for he has to keep going. Kodaka originally said he was going to die, but he realized making him live at the end with no reason to live was the better option and I agree it was the best possible conclusion to his character.

10. “Because you know I...things like murder, these kinds of abnormal crimes, from the bottom of my heart... LOVE THEM MORE THAN ANYTHING.”

Takumi is a big weirdo and I love him. He’s a unique vigilante killer who kills other serial killers not because of any sense of justice, but rather because he thinks they’re all way too lame and he wants to find a really cool killer that lives up to his standards. Takumi is all about the spectacle of killing.

His brain is so weird that to him the feeling of watching his classmates cut apart with a knife is similiar to the feeling of falling in love. He’s a copycat killer but only because the killers he meet are so incompetent and unmotivated that he has to show them how to do it better.

You get the sense that some part of Takumi is dead inside, because when he’s not killing people he’s lounging around acting like a NEET. He likes murder because the knowledge that death is so close is the only thing that makes him truly feel alive and life worth living to him. Ironically, he’s searching for a way to live in his grim fascination with death. There’s just so many tropes turned on their head and inverted for Takumi to the point where black becomes white and white becomes black that it makes his whole story so fun.

#kaibutsushidousha #spooky speaks #mukuro ikusaba #matsuda yasuke #junko enoshima #shuichi saihara #kaede akamatsu #hinata hajime #fukawa toko #nagisa shingetsu #munakata kyosuke #takumi hijirihara

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dreamcatcherfication · 4 years

Text

The Queens of London Part 3 - My Loneliness is Killing Me

Hello hello hello! Chapter three has arrived, and boy does this one have some developments in it. (I say that like action happens. It doesn’t really). This chapter is mainly exposition and worldbuilding for you all, but there is some good drama throughout and some action in there. Sorry for any spelling/grammatical errors, my dog ate my chromebook.

Writing Masterpost

NOTE: I know historically that Katherine Brandon is Maria de Salinas’s daughter, but for the sake of this story we’re going to pretend that they aren’t related. Otherwise, it would cause a lot of plot holes with Maria’s involvement with the queens that’s just way too hard to work out for how the story is being written.

If anyone wants to send in prompts or requests, my inbox is always open, I love hearing from you all! Here are some prompts and asks if you ever feel like dropping by:

Prompts | More Prompts | The Trifecta of Prompts | Random Asks

Trigger Warnings: Vague mentions of sexual abuse

Part 1 | Part 2

The Queens and their ladies sat around the table listening to what Jane and Joan had gathered on Kat. “She was very uncomfortable,” Jane noted.

“Especially when I called her Brandon,” Joan threw in. “This girl’s hiding something, the only problem is we don’t know what.”

Cathy twirled a pen in her fingers. “Well this certainly complicates things.”

“Why don’t we just confront her on it?” Anne asked.

Maggie nodded along with her. “She can’t lie to all of us.”

“No,” Aragon sighed, “that wouldn’t work. She’d get defensive. If nine suspicious women surrounded you and demanded the truth, would you confess?” Anne let her eyes fall as her suggestion was rejected.

“Why are we talking about Kat as if she’s already a criminal?” Anna asked from her chair. She was leaning on the arm and had her leg up at an angle, a stance she put on to suggest that she had little stake in the conversation. Really, the others knew Anna had a big heart and was willing to intervene on behalf of any of them.

“She’s right,” Jane agreed. “I can keep an eye on her, like you all suggested, but other than that, we leave it be. Kat looks properly like a kid, we shouldn’t treat her like a hardened criminal.”

Cathy sat up and reminded the group, “She does supposedly deal with the Black Market, though.”

“Yes, we can’t forget about that,” Maria affirmed.

Rubbing her forehead, Bessie stood up. “I usually just let you do your thing, but this is dragging on. Let me just do a quick synopsis and then we can go home, kay?” When there was no objection from any of the others, Bessie continued, “Okay. Katherine Brandon, well known for her popular record label and dealings with the Black Market, has never been seen in public. Apparently, that’s because she looks like a seventeen year old. Although we don’t officially know her age, something’s clearly wrong with this whole situation. What I believe we’re all thinking right now is that Katherine Brandon is an alias.”

“Exactly,” Joan pointed at Bessie. “She flinches every time we say her name. Normally I would suggest that means she isn’t Katherine Brandon, but there’s no way anyone else could have gotten ahold of that note. Besides, what random person opens an envelope not addressed to them?”

Agreeing with Joan, Bessie finished the basic rundown. “We can’t directly confront her on this suspicion, but we can have Jane keep an eye on her. There will be no stalking,” she said this directly in Anne’s direction. “And things will continue as planned. Sound good?”

There was unanimous agreement among the group as they disbanded the meeting. As everyone got up, Anne pulled Cathy to the side. “Hey, is it just me or is there something familiar about Kat?”

The journalist frowned. “Not that I could tell. Why ask me?”

Anne shrugged and hid an embarrassed face. “You know the most, I figured if anyone would have any idea, it would be you.”

Giving Anne a kind smile, Cathy clicked her pen. “Well I’ll keep an eye out and tell you if I suddenly recognize her.”

“Thanks Cathy.” Those were the last words the queens exchanged before leaving for the night, set to return at the same time tomorrow.

Making it home, Kat immediately went to her old laptop and worked on getting it running. She had the thing from when she still lived with her father, but after being kicked out she was unable to get anything better. When the screen was properly lit, she typed in Jane Seymour Joan and waited for any information to pop up. First off, she got a bunch of photos of Jane at promotional events with Joan at her side. The two of them looked close, maybe even siblings.

There was an article attached to one of the pictures, so Kat clicked on it and started reading. “Joan Meutas is the co-owner of the Seymour fortune with her close friend Jane Seymour. Okay, so not related,” Kat talked to herself as she read. “The two are rarely seen without the other and they deal with Seymour related activities equally. When asked about allowing Joan to control half of her fortune, Jane said ‘Controlling all that money by myself is for too much power. I trust Joan to handle it far better than I could all alone. We work together and that’s what works best for us.’” Kat couldn’t help but feel her respect for this woman grow.

Moving on, Kat did her best to find the other ladies she had never met. She remembered Jane mentioning the names Maria, Bessie, and Maggie, so she started searching. After no results were yielded from Anne Boleyn Maria and Catherine Parr Maria, Kat struck gold with Aragon News Maria. There wasn’t as much personal stuff on her as there was on Joan, but there was quite a bit of work related information. Maria de Salinas is the close friend of CEO Catherine of Aragon and works beside her as the CFO of Aragon News. It is unclear when the two of them met, but when Catherine inherited her business, Maria was immediately appointed the CFO beside her.

The process continued with Bessie and Maggie. Margaret “Maggie” Lee is the main supplier of alcohol to Boleyn owned bars. While she does not own any alcohol companies, Margaret is known for providing some of the best mixes from different suppliers. Boleyn talks about her in many interviews as, “the best of both worlds. She makes a killer cocktail and she’s the best friend I’ve got…”

The article for Bessie was particularly long, so Kat skimmed it. Elizabeth “Bessie” Blount is the spokesperson for Cleves Fashion. She organizes the company’s events and speaks at press conferences in the place of legendary designer, Anna of Cleves. The two have been close friends for years, Elizabeth even collaborating with the designer on some occasions. There was a period of time where Elizabeth left the company to work for Aragon News, but she quickly quit under mysterious circumstances.

As much information as the articles had provided, Kat couldn’t help but have more questions than she started with. There was so much behind these nine incredible women, and she was hiding herself in their group, pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

Katherine Brandon is the owner of Darkrider Records and is known for writing many Number 1 hits in recent years. She appeared out of nowhere, taking the world by storm with her work and collaborations with rising artists. But perhaps the most interesting thing about Brandon is the lack of pictures of her. In fact, there is not a single confirmed photograph of Katherine Brandon, leading to some wild conspiracies surrounding her. Many claim that they’ve dealt with people under the alias Katherine Brandon in the Black Market, garnering Brandon an infamous reputation in the business world. Another one of the most famous conspiracies surrounding Katherine Brandon is that she is not a singular person, but rather a group of influential people pretending to be the figurehead of the company.

That was certainly quite the character Kat would have to play. Her only grace of good luck was the lack of information on Katherine Brandon. “Why am I doing this,” Kat mumbled under her breath.

The answer came clear as day, even though Kat didn’t want to accept it. Accepting her answer would mean continuing this dangerous lie. But her resolve was breaking down quickly, and Kat couldn’t help but think of her reasons. Backing out would mean her life would go back to the way it was. Playing music to passersby and barely making enough money to afford her dingy apartment. She didn’t even have much of an education, something she desperately wanted. These women had offered money in their note, but that wasn’t what really interested Kat. Of all things, it was because Kat was lonely. She had no one and nothing and slowly but surely it was killing her. This was probably her only chance at doing something worthwhile in her life. She could disappear off the map and never matter at all, or she could help take down a murderous, corrupt politician.

When phrasing it like that, Kat knew she never stood a chance of backing out.

Unfortunately, joining a secret plot to overthrow a wealthy politician did not really have any benefits. Waking up at the crack of dawn to get set up on the street was not something Kat particularly liked doing, but it was necessary if she wanted to make enough money from free music. At first she couldn’t make much money, but quickly Kat learned the trick was the length of time she spent playing, not the quality of the music.

Most of the time people dropped money out of pity, not because they enjoyed the music she played. Kat hated living off of pity money, but no one ever wanted to hire her for a job, leaving her with no choice. The day always started out slow with only a few dollars here and there, but business picked up later on in the day. Kat liked to refer to her music as if it was a real job, using terms like business and customers to make herself feel better about the whole situation.

As the pale morning started to fade and the sun began shining through the clouds, Kat huddled in on herself, obsessively checking her watch that was propped against her guitar case. 7:50. Kat anxiously chewed her lip and strummed the guitar, trying to keep her mind fixed on the music. In the next few minutes, Jane would walk by and for once Kat did not want to be noticed.

“Kat? What’re you doing here?” asked a voice, causing the girl to jump in her seat. Dread and nervousness settled in her stomach, but Kat put on her best facade. The minimal information on Katherine Brandon allowed her to build her character as she wished (Kat was glad she had taken those theatre classes when living with her father), so she tried her act on Jane.

Appearing calculated and confident, Kat glanced down at her instrument and then back at Jane. “Oh this?” Kat commented offhandedly, “I play out in public in order to attract anyone interested in music. You’d be surprised how many talents come by and start singing with the music. How do you think I recruit so many new stars to my label?”

Jane hid her surprise at Kat’s sudden change in demeanor well. The girl was acting completely different than the worried teen the night before, which immediately sent up red flags in Jane’s mind. “How long do you stay out here?”

“Eh, only a couple hours in the morning, I usually go to the company to put in some actual work. Can’t be slacking off.”

Taking note of the vagueness in the word “work”, Jane bobbed her head up and down. Kat was acting exactly how the queens had predicted Katherine Brandon would, something that shouldn’t have been strange. But Kat made a lasting first impression, and to have her do an entire 180 in a single night meant something was up. “I can’t stay for long, Kat, but I’ll be seeing you later tonight.”

Returning to her music, Kat gave a small wave, “Yes Jane, I’ll be there.” With that, Jane walked off and Kat sighed heavily, releasing the tension in her body. While her Katherine Brandon character wasn’t perfected, that portrayal was certainly more believable than the nervous girl Kat had been the night before. Being Katherine Brandon was far better than Kat being herself, and if that’s what it took for Kat to take her first steps into this new world, she would take it in a single leap.

The night came again quickly, Kat’s nerves skyrocketing as the first sign of darkness started creeping into the sky. This time, Kat was more prepared, so she pulled out her cleanest pair of pants and the nicest dress shirt she owned, regardless of the warmth. If she was to impress these women, she needed to dress elegantly while also appearing nonchalant.

Arriving at the closed theatre, Kat moved to open the door like the first night. Before she could grab the handle, someone’s hand wrapped around her mouth and another around her waist, wrestling her away from the door and into the alley beside the theatre. Screeching into the hand, Kat started thrashing in panic, pushing at her captor.

The person made a grunting noise and Kat squirmed, but they kept a tight grip on her waist. Suddenly, Kat was thrown back into the memories of hands on her waist, holding her and touching her. A sob came out of Kat’s mouth as she started to shake, only for her assailant to let her go.

“Kat?” came the soft voice of Anne Boleyn. The bar owner had quieted herself so she couldn’t be heard by anyone other than Kat. “I’m sorry, did I scare you too much?”

Spinning around and lifting her head, Kat realized the person who had attacked her was only Anne, her face heating up with shame as she saw how badly she’d spooked Kat. “Why would you do that?” Kat whispered hoarsely, trying to regain her composure.

Putting her hands in her coat pocket, Anne shrugged. “I was trying to test you, see how well you reacted to being attacked.”

“Yeah, well I’ve never been attacked like that before, so clearly I didn’t do well.” Kat sighed and clenched her fists so Anne could not see the trembling. “Just don’t do it again.”

Anne held her hands up defensively. “Sorry, sorry. You head inside, I’ll be in in a minute.” Kat nodded and moved around Anne and out of the alley. She shot one last glance at Anne before moving inside the theatre to join the other women.

When Anne was sure Kat was gone, she reached in her pocket and pulled out a wallet. Opening it up, Anne began muttering to herself. “Alright Brandon, let’s see what secrets you’re hiding in here.”

#six the musical fanfiction #six the musical fanfic #six the musical fic #six fanfiction #six fanfic #The Queens of London #part three #i'm not going to tag all the queens #because that's just going to get redundant #yes all the titles are based off of song lyrics #i'm trying to be aesthetic #my inbox is always open #ignore all the historical plot holes #especially with Katherine Brandon and Maria

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floof-reppu · 4 years

Text

Aight, so… this is my piece for the BNHA Writer's Fest, written for @ellectric-blue. I wanted to give you the best quality writing I could manage with my knowledge and time crunch, so I chose to write for Yaoyorozu. I've been a little bit preoccupied lately with a lot of family issues since it's that time of year, but nonetheless I was able to pump this out for you just in time. Happy Holidays to you!

Word Count: 2.4k

—

It was getting to be that time of year yet again; Christmas was just around the corner.

Many hours were always dedicated to shopping for friends and loved ones, this year being no exception. You had gotten to know your current friends over the course of the past few months, especially living at the dorms together with them for at least half that time. Going through such hardships together with your classmates solidified your bonds with one another and made this Christmas feel special to you.

The lot of you decided to host your own Secret Santa of sorts, which was fun and all, but you ended up drawing a name you… didn't exactly expect or desire to draw. Momo Yaoyorozu was more than just a fellow classmate or a friend; to you, she was your crush. To say that you were absolutely terrified was an understatement. She was rich beyond measure, something that you couldn't compare to in the slightest.

Yaoyorozu wasn't much of a materialistic girl thankfully, but it was hard to point out her exact interests and put them to heart. As far as she was concerned, she bought things out of habit and would rather better the economy than use her quirk and imbalance it. Maybe she would like something that you made yourself?

Instead of dawdling on the thought, you instead decided it might be nice to learn how to crochet. Homemade gifts were the best, because it shows how much you care, the time dedicated and the overall process being most meticulous. A scarf would look lovely wrapped around Momo's neck (and possibly around your own as well), a winter coat look sounding appeasing to you, and crocheting one couldn't be all that hard… right?

Your time limit made everything all that more stressful, as well as trying to hide the supplies from your fellow classmates, especially Ashido. If she found out, she would have an absolute fit and press for more information, which you couldn't have at all. That's why you did shopping by yourself, picking out the softest yarn at your disposal. The colors you'd chosen were a compliment to her hero costume: crimson and silver. They both look good on her regardless, but you thought it would be nice for a potential outfit.

Smuggling the materials into the dorms without getting caught wasn't as hard as you thought it would be, given that everyone was preoccupied with one thing or another. However… you did catch a glimpse of Yaoyorozu, and— well, she's walking over here now. Shit.

"Oh, Y/N? Everyone was wondering where you had gone!" The smile she had on her face sent butterflies through your stomach. She glanced down at the bag in your hand which you tried your best to hide from plain sight, but was too wide. "You went to the store? What did you buy?"

"Oh, ah… just a few things, nothing special…" You had to get away from her, and quick. Her eyes continually glanced at the bag, which you kept moving around to block from her sight. "Anyways, what are you up to? Not doing any shopping?"

"There's no need! I purchased my present the day I drew a name!" Momo had her hands folded in front of her body oh so characteristically of her as she spoke proudly. Of course she would have purchased something already. "It was quite easy for me to choose for the recipient of my Secret Santa gift."

"Oh… well, I'm still thinking of what to get mine."

"I'm sure whatever it is will be amazing, Y/N. You're such a thoughtful person, and I know whoever receives your present will absolutely cherish and adore it."

There she goes again, saying something so beautiful that it makes your heart melt. She always seemed to know just what to say to put you to ease, but it made you feel even more pressured to make your gift as perfect as possible so she isn't disappointed. Momo seemed to notice the awkward silence you gave her, blushing a bit out of embarrassment.

"I hope I haven't said anything wrong, Y/N."

"Oh, no! Not at all! I'm just thinking about what you said… thank you, Yaoyorozu. I'm going to start working on my gift now."

And with that, you gave her a small wave before going to your dorm room and practically throwing the yarn to the side. She almost caught you red-handed, but thankfully you were able to change the subject quick enough before she had the nerve to peek in your bag.

Opening the lid to your laptop, you searched up a tutorial on how to crochet a scarf, and thank goodness there was one that popped up immediately that seemed to be reliable enough to follow. You almost forgot that you bought the needles as well (because how would you have been able to crochet without the needles). Grabbing all the materials from the bag, you started to work on your hopefully wonderful masterpiece for Momo.

—

Weeks had passed since that fateful day, and with every new talent came bumps in the road. You had failed at least five times trying to make the scarf the way you wanted it to turn out, even while following the tutorial. Yarn was wasted and you even had to make a second trip to the store to purchase even more of it.

But your hard work finally paid off, and in front of you sat your finished creation. Each thread was carefully crocheted together perfectly, and you couldn't wait to present it to your crush. Putting it in a box and wrapping it up, you didn't put your name on it, instead writing Your Secret Santa on the tag. You didn't forget to put Momo's name on it, though.

Going down to the first floor, the tree looked marvelous and grand in the middle of the lobby. Presents were already adorning the underside of the tree, while bulbs and lights alike decorated the branches. A star was placed on the top, shining brightly and looking over you and everyone else. You remember putting it up with your friends vividly, as if it just happened yesterday. Iida and Yaoyorozu did most of the clean up when it came to the decorations, all of them being strung in the same places on the tree. Moving them so it looked nice was a must.

And there she was, Momo Yaoyorozu, dressed in some of the most Christmas-like articles of clothing she owned and sitting alone. Placing your present under the tree, you swiftly took a seat beside her, a blush evident on your cheeks.

"Merry Christmas, Yaoyorozu." She turned to face you as you spoke, a bit surprised since she wasn't really paying attention to the seat beside her before now. She returned your greeting earnestly, eyes closed and a wide grin taking up her face.

"Thank you, Y/N, and a Merry Christmas to you too. Are you excited for the Secret Santa present exchange?"

"Yes, I am. I can't wait for a certain someone to open my gift and hopefully smile just like a kid when they see what it is."

"I see. I'm quite confident that my gift with have that same effect, but I'm not sure… maybe I overdone it?" Momo opened her eyes, and for a second you saw a hint of doubt in her expression. "Gifts aren't always things you should buy, that much is for certain. Sometimes I wish Mother and Father would stop purchasing them and be a tad more creative."

"Do you get the same things every year?"

"Unfortunately so. Clothes are always high on the list as well as the newest technologies, but once in a great while I might receive something completely different."

"Really? Like—"

"Everyone, we are now going to start passing out the Secret Santa presents! Please refrain from opening yours until they are all handed out!" Iida was ever the wise one and cut you off, but for a good reason at that. Both Yaoyorozu and yourself directed your attention to the blue-haired president and his wild hand gestures as he spoke. The raven-haired girl beside you took that as her cue to stand up, dusting off her skirt.

"I apologize, Y/N. It's my duty as the vice president to help Iida with handing out the presents. You wouldn't mind saving my seat though, would you?"

"Of course not, take your time."

In a little less than ten minutes, everyone had their present on their lap. Ashido looked to be the most excited to open hers, while Bakugo glared at his. Your present seemed to be big, but not heavy, so you took it as something that was either a gag or a very expensive item (because everyone knows the smaller the gift the more it costs these days). Yaoyorozu sat down beside you yet again when she was finished, the box you had so precariously wrapped earlier placed on her legs.

"I'm quite curious to see what I've received. It's not on the heavy side, but…" She looked over at your present, the curious side of her lighting up yet again. "Perhaps you have a clue as to what your gift is, Y/N?"

"Not a clue. It looks like it would be something big, but it's so light that it doesn't feel like much." You wanted to shake the box, but you didn't want to break whatever was inside if it was fragile. Trying to keep the attention off of you, your head glanced down at the box in Momo's grasp. "Why don't you open yours first? We can see what each other has gotten that way."

"That is a very smart idea, Y/N. Very well, I'll open mine first."

Her hands went and tugged at the bow you added at the very last minute, pulling it free and making it easier for her to tear off the wrapping paper. She read the tag, a bit confused as to why there wasn't another person's name written. Nevertheless, she tore off the rest of the paper and lifted the lid to the box. Tissue paper covered your creation as well as a card you decided to put in so she knew who it was actually from. Pulling it out, she unfolded the envelope and stared wide-eyed at the card.

Momo Yaoyorozu,

I thought of you when I made this scarf for you with my own hands. Your family spoils you with material possessions, and nothing that comes from the heart. They want to make you happy with whatever you desire, but that's not what Christmas should always be about. It's about giving others heartfelt, thoughtful gifts. I hope you cherish this scarf as much as I cherish the time I spent making this for you. I wouldn't have it any other way.

With much love,

Y/N

You saw tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she read the card. She threw the tissue paper aside and took out your real gift, the one you handmade yourself. The silver accented the crimson perfectly, and she clenched the material in her hands. The tears started to flow like a fountain; that's when you knew that you did the right thing.

"Y/N, I… just can't believe that you spent so much time making this for me. You didn't have to do this—"

"I didn't do this because I had to, I did this because I wanted to. I… meant every word that I wrote on that card, Momo. I love you so much, and I would do anything for you. I wanted to make you smile, because God how I love it when you smile. I messed up a lot of times while I was making that, and even while training and studying I managed to get it done for you in just the nick of time," You paused, catching your breath and chuckling slightly, "but anyways, I hope you like—"

"Like it? Y/N, I absolutely love it. This is the most thoughtful present I've ever received. Thank you from the bottom of my heart," Momo wiped the tears away from her eyes and wrapped the scarf around her neck, her gaze fixed on yours, "so… would you care to open yours now?"

You nodded, prodding carefully at the paper covering your present. Whoever wrapped it used a lot of tape, which wasn't the best idea in a situation like this, so it caused you to take a bit of extra time tearing it off. Finally, it was revealed to you.

The one who had your name was none other than Yaoyorozu herself.

Neither of you expected for it to end up this way, but it was quite the pleasant surprise. You looked at the culprit out of the corner of your eye and opened the box at the same time, revealing a card for you as well.

Y/N,

I know how much you adore the Christmas holiday, as well as books. I myself, as you may already know, enjoy both just as much as you. My gift to you comes from the heart, as I have purchased a book full of Christmas fables for us to enjoy. I would love for us to sit under a blanket together and read it.

This is the most discreet way I could confess my romantic feelings. I would very much love to spend more time with you, as well as… get to know you more than I already do.

Please accept my invitation as well as my feelings.

Momo Yaoyorozu

This was… no way was this happening.

"Y/N…?" Momo sounded worried, her pitch lowering drastically as she met your gaze once again.

"Yes. Yes, Momo, of course I accept your feelings." Now you were the one that was tearing up, grasping the book in your hands and letting the box drop on the ground. "I want this to be the first thing we do together. Tonight."

"I would love to, Y/N."

You spent the rest of the night in the comfort of your own room, Momo and yourself wrapped in a blanket with no worries whatsoever as you took turns reading aloud the many tales. When you were at the last few pages, a blank space was occupying them.

This was where you were going to write your own Christmas Story, with you and Momo as the main characters.

You would never, ever forget this day.

#bnha writers fest #mha x reader #momo x reader #momo yaoyorozu x reader #momo yaoyorozu #mha momo #mha yaoyorozu

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