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niadrawsstuff · 1 year

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The Aftermath

*clasps hands together in evilness* ITS DONE ITS FINALLY DONEE!! IT TOOK A FEW DAYS AND A BIT OF PROCRASTINATING BUT ITS DONEE!!!

I’m finally gonna be talking about what happened after “The Winning Side” in the At Your Service au. i was originally gonna write a fic about it, but i thought that would take a while and im still not really good with writing yet so i figured i just infodump instead. There’s still gonna be a bit of dialogue here and there, and i added some drawings too cuz why not. Also, DANG this was longer than i expected-

Without further ado, here it is!!

So obviously since this takes place after Winning Side, Mei and Sandy still get the first ring, albeit without MK. When they reunite with Pigsy, Tang and Wukong, they fill them in about what happened with MK, and of course, they’re all panicked.

3 days have gone by and the gang have put the search for the other rings on hold, not until they have MK back. Mei tried tracking MK on his phone, but nothing.

Ever since Wukong started meditating, he slowly began regaining a bit of what power he had left. He tried to astral project to MK, but no matter how many times he tried, to no avail.

One day however, Wukong started to feel his vision flicker gold.

(Was someone trying to astral project to him? But that would mean-)

A familiar figure began to appear. It began flickering a few times before it stopped and revealed itself, and Wukong couldn’t believe his eyes.. it was MK.

MK was, as expected, not in the best shape to say the least. When he looked up and saw Wukong, he was nearly on the verge of tears.

“…M-Monkey King..?”

Wukong was immediately frantic, immediately started talking to his student, asking if he was ok, did LBD hurt him, etc etc. This caught attention of the whole gang, and they too were frantic, but decide to wait until Wukong was done before they could ask any questions.

“Kid, where are you right now?”

“I-I don’t know. Some kind of cell in a cave, i think. I dont-“

Suddenly, Wukong heard a laugh. A laugh he knew all too well.

MK’s astral projection began fading in and out. Wukong panicked, and began to call out to his student multiple times, but before he knew it, MK was gone.

Before the gang could go up to Wukong, asking him questions about what happened, that same laughter continued. Behind them, a shadow began to form into a familiar monkey. Wukong scowled.

Macaque begins mocking them, telling them that if they want the kid back, then they’ll have to come for him. Wukong lunges towards the shadow in rage, but it disappears before he could reach it.

All of a sudden, Mei’s phone started beeping. She takes it out and sees that MK’s tracker was finally working. They now know where MK was!

Pigsy was skeptical about this, surely it wasn’t that easy? Wukong was skeptical too, but they didnt have any other choice. So Sandy starts the van and they set off towards MK’s location.

—

After what felt like hours, the van finally skidded to a stop to the entrance of a huge cave. The gang decided that Wukong, Mei, Pigsy, and Tang will enter the cave, while Sandy stayed in the van to keep watch.

The plan was simple. Go in, find MK, get out. Sounds easy, right? The 4 exit the van, and off they go into the cave.

They only took a few steps in before the cave began to rumble. The gang quickly moved out of the way before rocks began to fall. The rumbling finally stopped aaandd… yup. The entrance is blocked. Great.

The group decided to continue their search, they’ll figure out how to get out later. They walked throughout the cave, calling out for MK. And for a while, they didnt get a response. Until suddenly,

“HEY!! CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?!”

The group immediately recognized that voice as they sprinted towards where it was coming from. They arrived at what seems to be a cell, and inside the cell.. was MK.

Just like how Wukong saw him last, he was all bruised and messed up, but everybody was absolutely relieved that nothing worse had happened to him.

MK told them that he got off lucky, that the Lady Bone Demon decided to lock him up instead.

Didn’t take long for Mei to whip out her sword, slice the cells open, and immediately pulling MK into a hug. Aaanndd MK earning a small smack in the head. (Mei: Dont pull anything dumb like that again!) MK lets out a half hearted chuckle, beckoning Mei to let him go. (huh, that’s odd? he never refuses a hug)

Pigsy, in dad mode, already rushes over and started asking him if he’s okay. MK pauses at that before giving him a dull warm smile, “I’m fine, dadsy! It’s okay.” The pig huffs in relief, muttering about how he’s gonna make that monkey wannabe pay for kidnapping his kid.

MK then makes eye contact with the king. And for a short moment, everything changed. Instead of him greeting the king, or giving him a small smile, he flashes him a blank look, enough to pierce into the soul, which catches Wukong off guard. It was only for a short moment, before MK turns away when Tang calls for him. His blank look immediately changing into his usual dull smile.

Tang mentions that they probably will have to find another way out, since the entrance to the cave got blocked by the rocks. But MK says that there’s another exit there nearby, he saw while he was getting locked up.

They all got up as MK led the way to the other exit, him passing by Wukong as he did. As soon as they passed each other, Wukong suddenly felt as if a cold aura had brushed him. He gets startled as he frantically looks around, thinking the Lady Bone Demon had snuck up on them. But nothing. Wukong doesn’t wait around any longer as he quickly catches up with the rest of the gang, loosely following behind. He was just finally glad that MK was safe.

However, the blank look he gave him never left him. Wukong shakes his head, “no no, don’t overthink it. he just got taken to the Lady Bone Demon for crying out loud, who knows what she could’ve done to him? he’s safe now, that’s all that matters.” but Wukong still can’t shake the feeling that something was off.

The way MK brushes off the whole capture situation, the way he suddenly felt distant from the group, the cold feeling that never left. Wukong decides that enough was enough, and activates his gold vision and…

…oh my god.

Wukong abruptly stopped in his tracks.

Everyone noticed, and stopped walking as well. Pigsy, Tang and Mei turned to look at him in confusion, while MK still had his back behind the group, not even turning to face them.

“Mr. King?”, the dragon girl says.

No…

“What’s the matter with you?”, Pigsy asks.

No no no n o…

“Monkey King, are you okay? We have to hurry before Macaque-“ Tang begins to say until-

Suddenly, a sinister roar of laughter began to echo throughout the cave. In front of them, the shadows around them began to curl and form. There he was, back again, the Six-Eared Macaque himself. Everyone was startled, as Mei immediately pulls out her dragon sword, scowling. Macaque simply stood there, a good distance between himself and the group. He stands there with a sinister smirk on his face.

No one besides Wukong noticed how MK was the only one who remained unphased throughout Macaque’s entrance.

“Wow, you all actually fell for it. This will make my job so much easier..”

Mei leans to MK and whispers, “C’mon MK, we can take him down! I’ll look for an opening and we can-“

What caught her off guard was how MK, still unphased, began walking away from her. “MK?”

MK ignored her, only taking a few steps before stopping right in front of Macaque.

“I have to admit, MK did a very good job luring you all here, didn’t you kid?”

“..Kid?” Pigsy was the first to speak, “..what’s going on?”

MK gave no answer. He finally turned around, his head hanging low. He looked up, a blank look in his eyes for a small moment. That expression didn’t last, however..

..as MK started to laugh.

What started as a small giggle slowly began to morph into maniacal laughter. The group slowly became horrified, each taking a step back.

They could only watch as MK’s appearance suddenly began to change. (A glamour?)

They watched as MK’s ruined yellow jacket suddenly changed to a traditional blue outfit, a small skull on his neck. His eyes changed from his warm brown to an empty dark blue. MK simply looked at his friends with a cruel smirk on his face, as if he was proud.

Mei’s shock and distraught was quickly replaced by anger as she clenched her sword tighter. “You- What did you do to him? What did you do to MK?!”

“Oh, me? I didn’t do anything. The Lady Bone Demon just thought that your friend here could use some.. fixing.”

Remember child… capture Sun Wukong and bring him to me.. alive.

Out of nowhere, MK’s hands began to surround themselves in ice. Before the gang could register what was happening, he lunges forward.

Que big fight scene. There was a lot of yelling, questions, evil laughing, a tiny bit of crying, just a bunch of angst here and there that im too lazy to write the dialogue for lol.

MK is mostly fighting Wukong, not paying attention to the others. They tried to hold him off, asking what’s gotten into him, only leading to MK pushing them off and continuing the fight with the Monkey King.

At some point, Macaque also joins the battle, summoning shadow clones left and right to try and slow Wukong down. Its kinda back and forth, with Wukong having to avoid MK’s attacks while also dodging Macaque’s attempts at capturing him.

Wukong tries and tries to get MK to come to his senses, telling him that this isn’t him, that whatever the Lady Bone Demon told him wasn’t true, and how he had to snap out of it. MK isn’t having any of it, an evil glee in his eyes, as he continues to attack the Monkey King.

MK tells Wukong how he never felt better. “His Lady” has shown him that he can become more better and stronger without the king’s guidance.

“You never believed in me, did you? I was just someone you tossed the staff to. My Lady showed me just how much of a bad mentor you really are, how I was the wrong successor. She decided to fix me, to become stronger, better. So now Monkey King, let me show you how strong I’ve really become.”

How could Wukong let this happen? If he had just been there for him, none of this would’ve happen. Now his student has become a pawn of the Lady Bone Demon, and it was all his fault. It was all his fault. His fault. h i s fault. H I S F A U L T-

Despite all their efforts to reason with MK, he wouldn’t listen. They needed to find a way out and fast. Tang manages to find an exit out of the cave, which led to Pigsy grabbing Mei and heading for the exit. Mei was stubborn, screaming how they couldn’t leave MK. Pigsy didn’t want to leave him either, but they didn’t have any other choice.

After Pigsy and Mei left, Tang calls out for the Monkey King. Wukong manages to throw MK off him as MK was hit against the wall. Wukong cursed himself under his tongue, he’ll have to apologize for that later. He instantly makes his way towards the exit before Macaque’s shadow clones dropped and piled on him, forbidding him to move. The real Macaque, kneels down in front of the trapped simian.

“There’s no use in fighting Wukong. Surrender, or i’ll bring you to the Lady Bone Demon by force if i have to.”

“Not.. gonna… HAPPEN!”

With a burst of energy, Wukong yells as he manages throws off the shadow clones, throwing off Macaque as well. Wukong wastes no time as he bolts for the exit, and just to make sure they don’t follow him, he aims to block the exit. He punches the wall hard, and in no time the cave began to rumble.

Wukong looks over and sees MK recovering and standing up, and they both shared eye contact with each other. The last thing the Monkey King saw was his student’s face, staring at him with a blank empty look.

The rocks finally came down, blocking the exit. Wukong could only stare at the blocked cave as the dust began to clear.

Not wasting time, Wukong makes his way back to the van where all the other’s were waiting. As soon as he got in, Tang instantly tells Sandy to floor it. Sandy immediately starts the van and sets off.

Sandy drove for a bit until he found a safe location to stop at. He turns to face towards the group, and notices how there’s no MK in sight. He asks what happened and where’s MK, and everyone was… silent. They were all still processing by what just happened, no one knew what to say.

It wasn’t long before Wukong broke the silence. “She.. She got him. The Lady Bone Demon… she got MK.” As Wukong recaps from what happened during the rescue mission, Sandy too was horrified.

In a defeated and dejected tone, Pigsy asks the simian, “So.. what do we do now?” Tang puts him hands around the pig’s shoulders in an attempt to comfort him.

Wukong thinks it over for a moment.

“We stick to our original plan. The sooner we find the rings, the sooner we can defeat the Lady Bone Demon..”

Wukong clenches his fists.

“.. the sooner we can save MK.”

At that, the whole gang agrees. They will get MK back, no matter the cost.

Tang brings out the map and Sandy goes to start the van again. As they all continued their journey, Wukong stood by himself as he looked out the window.

“Hang on tight, bud. I’ll get you out of this mess.”

“I promise.”

#hope you all enjoyed reading this one!!#im not really good with words but i really liked how this turned out #at your service au #monkie kid #lego monkie kid #monkie kid au #monkie kid mk #monkie kid mei #monkie kid pigsy #monkie kid tang #monkie kid sandy #monkie kid wukong #monkie kid macaque #monkie kid season 3 #nia rambles #long post

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dynyamight · 3 years

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I've seen a lot of people do it, so if you are up for it~ Ship your moots!

FINALLY. THE AWAITED LIST OF MOOTS IS COMPLETE. sorry this took forever anon!!

now, this is going to be long & i will try not to overexplain my ship pairings. did i take time to think about each paring? yes. but, will they be serious? no. they are dumb & silly.

let the crack pairings begin <3!!

@dekusneakers x BAKUGOU & TODOROKI now you would think? sneakers in a throuple? how come? mmm simple. i couldn’t choose one for her so she gets both. the more the merrier. besides, she deserves love from both sides, kisses on both cheeks. one begrudgingly smooch & one icy kith. as a deku kin, she’s completely satisfied. you’re welcome

@izusun x AIZAWA & ORCA similarly, i can’t have my bestie here with just ONE babe. so, i thought why don’t we get a fatherly figure & a dad bod to give her all the love she needs. so yes, bestie, you two deserves hugs at both sides of you. a twiggy one & a muscly one. the sun needs some shade, & that shade is these men.

@midnightpirates x SUKUNA he’s a mass murderer !! you can’t— oh, but i can. you see, yanna here hates mahito & guess who was the one to fuck up his shit. ah, that’s right, it was sukuna. two mahito an/tis sitting in a tree <3 it’s the perfect match made in hell.

@goth-himbo-dabi x DOCTOR WHO once again, people might wonder: why not dabi? my answer? it’s because my bby here finds the twiggy men attractive. i know, bummer. & you can’t get any twiggy-er than david tennant & matt smith. but which doctor? all of them.

@minisheku x KAMINARI i see you simp for his dunce face. & honestly, who wouldn’t?? also, i originally put sheepku,, but that’s ,, a bit weird. but, here’s the solution. you OWN a sheepku, with kaminari. ah yes, a modern day family unit. & he can entertain you, as well as be a source of electricity for your drawing tablet !! resources !!

@oyavaski x EN you said he was hot literally in your tags earlier in a reblog. so, i am simply gifting you water to quench your thirst. may you two meet in afo, & fall in love in the subconscious of deku’s mind. will deku feel awks? yeah. but like pfft, he’s so whipped for bkg, he’ll forget you two chilling in the corner of his thoughts.

@okworstie x GOJO & WATARI i never have to look up the gojo tag, like ever. because you’re always plastering his face all over my timeline. & yes, this is a good thing. but, the same applies to watari. i have never even seen bakudiez, or whatever it’s called, but apparently he’s aro, & there’s a moth man, & tape hits post limit thursday’s? yeah just keep both, mimi.

@rrandomtthings x AN/TI as one of fellow loyal, amazing bkdks, i think it’s only fitting that you find true love with a bkdk an/ti. create the banti we seek in our community. the enemies to lovers trope is in your blood, written in your deku genes. so, i dedicate the banti movement with this small offering of a ship. may you find diamonds on the minecraft server & build a diamond cabin.

@believeyourgalaxy x ITADORI you two are such cinnamon rolls !!!! super friendly. super kind. super relatable. & together, you guys can pin over megumi. maybe hopefully, sam can help itadori with his low iq brain to finally get together with megumi. because damn, sam can be like “this is my boyfriend, itadori. & this is itadori’s boyfriend, megumi.”

@wrensknight x SHIRAKUMO i didn’t even know it was oboro birthday, until you not only made a public post about to, but made art for him. cloud boy needs that partner to respect & cherish him entirely. & you just treat him so right?? draw him so good?? i hope you can go cloud watching & then later, ride the clouds with him. till death do you guys uh,, you know,,

@b1m0 x MIDORIYA you can't stand when he gets injured, let alone reckless & trying to save the world, when he should literally be saving his own ass. but, that just means you care about him DEEPLY. plus, you both are wholesome people. obviously two cinnamon rolls make a whole bakery !! & who doesn't want a bakery ?? i sure do! wehjw idk why i brought the point here, but just know you two make sense.

@mysterionrising x RENGOKU & VIGILANTE DEKU it’s that enemies to lovers trope once again !! for someone who wrote him off as annoying the first seconds she met him, kenny sure flipped over to the stan side. ever since then, i can only see kenny when i see rengoku. but, you know who else reminds me of kenny. vigilante deku. it’s super fruity that you have an entire bomb playlist for him. so keep him too !!

@kamishima x KIRISHIMA you are the biggest kiri simp i have ever met. you basically ship kiri with anyone who makes him happy. though, you do have a lot of ships, but with kiri it’s different. & so, i was thinking ‘mmm, if bug ships kiri with so many people?? shouldn’t she ship him with HERSELF?’ boom. suddenly both kiri & bug are happy, with a lovely home. my work here is done.

@ckatsudon x LAW LIET did i dig through your blog. why yes. & you know what i found? reblogs & tags dedicated to L. he’s best boy. he’s precious. he deserves a better end. an end with you. mmhmm !! because if we rewrote death note, where you were light, i think L & light could have been canon. & that also would make you happy. & the rest of the entire world

@drfox-kinnie x UNIKITTY i don’t even know the show, let alone who unikitty is exactly. but, you reblogged a banner, confirming your love for unikitty. & so, i am of course doing you a big favor !! she’s bubbly, friendly, & passionate just like you !! & bestie, while i may not know nothing about her, i know you love her. so, maybe you two platonically have a wonderful time, adventuring with the other wholesome characters !! also,, is she big enough to travel on? if so, look i got you a cat car!!

@midorree x MINACHAKO i ship you with another ship. why? because i can. besides, you are like my moot who is genuinely a head leader of the minachako ship on my timeline, & you have steadily been converting me?? but, i also noticed that mina AND uraraka have stolen your heart, & you have yet to fight them for it back. i hope you three can go into a brawl & see who can grab each other’s hands fastest.

@kiribakuxkacchakolover x HATSUME YOU HAVE IT AS YOUR TITLE HEADER. like you are literally having a billboard that calls mei your cutie patootie. &, you ask, & you shall receive. i hope you two can be the dorkiest nerds together, & ramble for eons & eons. i hope i’m invited to the transformer wedding you two will have <,3

@balaroo x MIRUKO like before, you too have your interest out in the open in your title header. but, you see, miruko is a total babe, with confidence & ego & with this stride that makes even the most alpha male quiver. you would be a total wife to miruko’s girlboss energy & that’s why this ship totally works.

@quix-mix x FREDDY FAZBEAR my precious lil young moot, i dug into your blog & noticed you enjoy the fnaf games. & mmm are you perhaps wanting to cuddle a certain demonic teddy bear? well, i approve. he'll fall in love, head over heels, with your art, he might not possess you right away !! might. but, listen, you always do enjoy the villains (; i gotchu !!

@lonely-rabbit x LANCE you said we’re moots & i agree, we are. however, i have noooo idea what even are your preferences. so, i went digging. & it’s such a coincidence that we bonded over our voltron trauma, & yet you still continue to simp over lance. &, like i don’t blame you !!! he’ll always be dumb baby & so all i ask is that you love him, for our sake. & sanity.

#star responds #THIS TOOK FOREVER STILL #EVEN WITH MY SHORT EXPLANATIONS #but tadaaaa #the moots have now been complied #& ahajsbkssj i HOPE you all like your pairings. even the dumb ones <#I ALREADY KNOW SOME OF YALL WILL LAUGH LMAOO #otherwise if you want to roast me & what my pairing would be. pls feel free to do so #this was so fun omgg thank you anon for this opportunity!!#anon #moots

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simpz-art-stash · 3 years

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A friendship poisoned by bad blood between brothers.

Day 4 - Poison for Starsfic’s prompt list!

Have a lil fic from the rp which inspired these drawings <3

Fang had of course went the same route as she usually did via cloud. Picking up Mei and telling her to wait atop one of the nearby skyscrapers. That she'd stay connected with her via phone call to allow her to listen in just in case. And that she'd call for her help if it felt like backup was needed.

Hopefully that would not end up being needed.

But the closer she approached the peak of the tower, the more her instincts were screaming at her to bail. She could only chalk it up to nerves at that point.

Just seeing his blurry silhouette in the distance waiting for her left her a lil uneasy as she approached.

Red stopped pacing when he caught her approaching. He glared silently at her, trying to look mean. However, the pained look in his eye made the effect more akin to constipation.

"You have 1 minute to convince me I shouldn't just throw you from this roof." He said, hoping she'd be combative and he could explode on her.

"Well you're lively as ever.." Her brows furrowed a little, at least he didn't look like a dead mess inside like she did. Though he did look like he'd been put through a few restless cycles... Stepping off the cloud, her eyes barely glanced around to the garden, her sights set on him. Everything put back as it were as if their little scuffle hadn't happened at all. She stopped a few feet from him, looking just as uncomfortable to be there. "I need you're help. There's something ancient and evil lurking beneath the city working with Spider Queen. And someone told me that you've dealt with it before..." She claimed. "I'm not looking to reforge what we had because I know you're right. That we can't be together...But I was hoping at the very least..that maybe just for this, we could truce?" She looked at him hopefully.

"You're coming to me to help defeat the Spider Queen yet again?? Are you serious!? Are you all REALLY so INCOMPETENT that you cannot just handle her for once!? She's not even that strong of a demon, she just keeps getting lucky!" He snapped. "Why don't you go ask your ole daddy to save the day on this one?? I've got better things to do!" If she would just leave, get angry and run off, he wouldn't have to....

She grimaced at him blowing up at her. Any other day she'd hardly find it all that hurtful to listen to him rage his frustrations into the air about her. But then he had to go and make things personal. And she only barely manged to keep her composure at him throwing her dad into the mix like that. "My dad's missing Red...I can't.." She sighed, crossing her arms as she glared at the ground. "Interesting." A voice of static crackled to life in one of his ears. His father's voice. "Proceed with what we discussed." Red winced at the static in his ear, but tried to pass it off. "Your... dad is missing?" He asked slowly. "UuuuUUGHHH!! FINE! Just... fine, let's sit down, have a drink, and talk it out, Monkey Princess." He waved her to follow over to the table. He reached under and brought out the drink. Rather spicy water, even for him. Ancient and potent looking. He must really feel bad about their break up...

She shot him a glance, almost a little surprised to see him succumb to her words. Honestly thinking he would've told her to just 'get over it' or 'who cares'. This only stoked what little hope she had for them. She breathed out a little, "Thank you.." Before she made her way over with him, sitting herself down opposite to him. Though she'd abstained from drinking for as long as she could, all the stress was just begging her mental status to relax.

He poured the drinks white she was settling, slightly obscured to her when he did. 'Better you than me,' he thought as he dropped in the poison. This was a mantra he'd adopted over the centuries when he started to feel bad about the things he did. This was the first time he didn't quite believe it. He picked up the glasses and handed the poisoned one to her. He sat across from her and took a bigger drink from his than he ever normally would, needing this for courage not to knock the glass from her hands. To her, it would just seem that their falling out was harder on him than he let on.... which was true. Evidenced by him brushing a finger over his old facial scar, something he didn't even realize he did when he was anxious. "So what in the realms could POSSIBLY have you worried about that self-important pestilence infesting the sewers calling herself a queen?" He FINALLY asked.

Though a part of her wanted nothing more than to just drink the night away like it were any other, she knew they had more important business. And considered that through the end of it that maybe it would be better to simply savor what she could of what time they had. Opting for once to speak over her drinking for the first time in a while. "She's working with someone..someone a lot more powerful. An ancient demon with dark magic..." She contemplated aloud, "We think it might've been what gave her the boost she had when she tried to take over the city the first time..but we're not sure." She glanced at him. "You feel it too though don't you? The city has been restless for weeks...something worse is coming." He winced when she didn't immediately start drinking. He did contemplate about the city being restless. "I thought that was just me being a surly bastard." He tilted his head in thought. But now that she mentioned it, yes, for once, it did seem to effect more than just him. He sighed and sat back, swirling his glass, looking bitterly into it. "That would make sense, I suppose. That something bigger than her would be what's allowing her to be more effective at her job than usual." Fang nodded a little, "We've got a name to her but..we're unsure of just how strong she really is. She's managed to put a curse on my brother..an lead my father down a path even I can trace him back to..she calls herself 'The Lady Bone Demon." There was a bit of an avid silence between them before that same gravely tone crackled to life in his ear, "Interrogate her on this enemy." If she wasn't going to off herself then to them then they might as well gain any intel they can on this enemy.

"Lady Bone Demon..." He furrowed his brow, not needing to be prompted by his father one bit on this. "It seems like a familiar name, maybe I've come across her in my research." he shook his head. "But do go on, please." he waved, urging her to divulge everything. "Someone did say that you've dealt with her before. It's why I arranged this meeting in the first place..they claimed that you 'dug' her up from the 'pits of hell.'" She pointed out, not really sure how true it was but she wanted to cover her source as he'd claimed he wanted no part in anything regarding it all. "I'm not pointing you at fault whatsoever, I don't think you'd purposely let someone loose like that just to give them the upper hand...I'm just going on the only lead I have at this point.." She claimed. Red Son's brow furrowed at that, and he wondered how closely his family was listening. It had indeed been the Demon Bull Family to dig up this menace from the depths of the earth. "That's... That sounds like the ancient energy that my father had us dig from the earth... The one that possessed him. The soul reason we blighted our names to team up with the Monkey King and Nyoodle Boy. But we defeated that! Noodle Boy dealt the killing blow!" So he had dealt with it before. "Apparently he didn't finish her like you thought he did, because she's underneath the city working to off us all." Fang stated, "All the signs are there, and this proves it." He shook his head, cursing his father's arrogance under his breath. Not that Red would have done anything different, in fact he was one to help dig the spirit up, proud to help his father in his glorious purpose. However, he was still sore that his father had turned on him and his mother, even if his mother had forgiven DBK. "So now this horrible power that possessed my father, nearly killed me, and already nearly destroyed everything anyone holds dear, is BACK? With the Spider Queen of all people, that DOES explain how that little gnat took the city!" he growled and was on his feet. "So?? What are you doing about it? What sort of measures are you taking to combat this?" She blinked a little in surprise at his sudden boisterous attitude, well at least he was putting his anger towards something more worthwhile instead of taking it out on her. "Weeell..we've got someone currently scoping out the sewers looking for them, in hopes that we'll be able to find out exactly where they are. We've also been looking for any manner of history regarding them, or any relic's that might be of use to us for this specific demon. As well as any other allies..but we haven't had much luck..we're sort of on our own here an I..well can I just be honest with you? I have no idea what the hell I'm doing..." Red had been pacing, but when she got down and honest with him, he stopped. He looked back at her, seeing the scared, vulnerable girl that she didn't let out much to anyone. She'd been working so hard to stop this, and she was floundering, and destined to fail. Maybe it would be kinder of him to end her. Maybe this was for the best. He came back and sat down, nearer to her. "Well. I suppose that..." he sighed. "Dont worry your monkey head about this. I will do everything in my power to stop this demon, then. Not for you!" He quickly amended, remembering his parents listening. "But to avenge my family's honor! Take down anything that thinks it could possibly be greater than the Demon Bull Family! The audacity of this Lady Bonehead." Hus ears were blowing out a tiny bit of steam after his fit of passion. And though it might've made sense to him that it would be best to truce in hopes of taking down such a powerful ancient enemy. His father apparently thought it just as much of a mockery the second time around than the first. Where Red saw logic, Bullking saw the only fleeting chance he had to finally one up his oldest enemy and lose what footing he could to overtaking the city. He didn't need the aid of ANYONE, the Spider Queen had simply gotten the jump on him. But he knew now that was just because of some devious relic. And he wasn't about to tarnish the family name further. So again he had to remind his son who was really making the demands here. "Remember your place child." He warned him, "If you value what little sliver of loyalty you have towards you're family you will do as I say. And follow through with your mission." A small chuckle escaped Fang then, and a tear almost would've escaped her had she not hid it by brushing back her bangs. "That's probably the most relieving thing I've heard all week..." She smiled at him, that glimmer of hope in her eyes in knowing he had her back. Her hand raising her glass to him as a toast, "May we both be victorious in the end." He felt his blood run cold at his dad's chastisement. He knew he wasn't likely to be spared should DBK's wrath overflow. His father had proven time and again that he was more or less expendable. He had a good upbringing, though, and raised his glass to her as well. "May victory smile on the Demon Bull Family." he made as if to drink, but waited to be sure she was drinking first. Then he slammed his drink, standing up. "We'll take it from here. Just rest." he told her, brow twitching in dismay. She took her shot then, her face scrunching a bit at just how strong the after burn of it was before she sighed. "Thanks...I really needed this.." A tired smile stared down at the now empty glass, never the wiser. "I mean it..even if we'll never be able to speak to each other ever again after this. And pretend we hate each other's guts. I'll always cherish those moments spent between us all those years ago...Just so you know..in case something happens to you." She stated her claim, before slowly standing herself upright. "I'll always be here for you man." Oh sure. She was just going to twist the knife in his gut. Curse these goodie two shoes and their sentimentality! And she was outing him more and more to his family! He should have used a stronger poison. What if the alcohol nullified its effects?? "I will genuinely miss you. Forgive me that I don't have your back..." he hunched his shoulders, thinking quickly. His parents didn't have a visual on them, just an audio link, as far as he knew. Before her eyes, he started his agitated pacing yet again. And suddenly, he yanked something out of his ear throwing it to the ground and crushing it under his boot. "I'm so sorry Fang..." She tilted a little at his sudden abruptness to it all, having wondered if he was just getting misty at her being so forward of just how much she'd miss him. But watching his jerking motions prompted a bit of confusion to her. "What're you?-" Then there was a cough that escaped her, and looking back at her would reveal her holding a hand to her throat with a look of discomfort. As if trying to breathe only for further coughing to escape her. "Red?.." She wheezed a little, staring at him with a confused look. He paced a little more, trying to think of anything he could do to stop this. Any antidote. But there wasn't one, that's why they had chosen it. At the cough, he froze. "My father was going to kill me if I didn't--" was all the explanation he offered, before biting down hard on his tongue and turning his back to her. Poisoning was one of his least favorite ways of killing someone. Too personal, too up close. Imprecise and messy. This was DBK's own way of torturing Red, by choosing such a horrible demise. He couldn't look at her, and he turned his back, holding his head up. "I'll take care of things from here. Just rest." he repeated. He tried to look dignified but he was close to throwing up. Further coughing ensued, her fighting just to get any ounce of air in her lungs at that point. Her mind finding it hard to focus on his words but she heard him, and she felt a sharp panic drop in her stomach as a swelling heat rose in her core. "W-what did you-" She tried to get another word in, trying to edge around the table to meet him, but found her limbs betraying her and forcing her to collapse on the ground with a cry. Tears pricked her eyes at the surge of heat that was becoming overbearingly hot within her. Like she'd just eaten a demon pepper, only it was causing her to lose every manner of senses and replace it with pure hellfire. Where all she could do was grip at her chest in agony and let out a wrenching noise as she bellowed out a pleading cry. But that wasn't the only thing that bellowed out of her right then, a plume of red smog began to leak from her nose and mouth. Only furthering her suffering as she choked on it all, unable to breathe in nothing more than the pure rage inducing concoction she'd had forced upon her. A sickened snarl escaped her right then as one of her hands gripped at the ground, clawing at it enough to leave marks buried into the concrete that had forged it. And though her breath was shallow, it warped in comparison to the haunting fury that now laced her breath. "What did you do to me?!!" She screamed. He tried to be cold and cool, aloof the way his mother had taught him to be. A strong man, not a quivering, weak boy. But when he heard her collapse on the ground choking he let out a pained cry of his own, ducking his head and covering his ears. He should have just let his father kill him. It would have been preferable to this! His only friend choking to death behind him. His eyes squeezed shut, causing tears to fall that he hadn't realized even welled up. The last scream made his blood run cold, a particularly horrid sensation for a man so hot. Something was different about her voice at a primal level, and it caused him to spin around to face her. Any pretense he had held before this point was gone, and his face was just that of a sick, scared child. "Fang!" Another pained cry left her curled in on herself as she almost looked like she was having a stroke. But that couldn't of been farther from the truth as a wicked sense of something horrid radiated off of her, like a mix of dark magic and death. A whimper escaped her as her fur began to warp from its pure sunshine blonde to a morbidly dark black, her hands involuntarily flexing in on themselves as she let out a haggard breath. "I trusted you..." It was low, warped and hollow, and through it all somehow she forced herself up onto her knees. If not to just look back at him with a look he'd only seen her wear the first time they'd met when he'd fought for his life and given her that horrid scar of hellfire. A look a pure primal rage.

#my art #my fics #Sun Wu Fang #OctoberMASH #Red Son #LMK #Lego Monkie Kid #ain't no proof readin' on dis BITCH #JUST RAW RP

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skellebonez · 3 years

Text

Smoke, Flasks, and Unfinished Tasks: Chapter 10

AO3 Link!

Chapter 1 Link!, Chapter 2 Link!, Chapter 3 Link!, Chapter 4 Link!, Chapter 5 Link! Chapter 6 Link! Chapter 7 Link! Chapter 8 Link! Chapter 9 Link!

Summary: While the trio and Jin are in the Calabash, the family they left behind try to figure out what to do without falling apart at the seams.

Warnings: Mentions of mouth related injury, self depreciation and negative self talk.

Author’s note: Happy Season 2 premier in a few hours from posting this everyone!

Chapter 10: In The Meantime, Stay With Me

When Iron Fan had said she could get them everything they needed, Pigsy was not expecting that to be a nearly literal statement.

It had taken no time at all for the bull clones to set up a a veritable base of operations for them to use. Long rectangular tables set up and pushed together to make one large enough for DBK to maneuver things on a map, various types of technology that clearly had red Son's handiwork on them around the edges of the map. They used pieces from a mahjong set to mark spots on the map, barring the bonus tiles of seasons and flowers which would be used should they run out of others (and if they did they would allow themselves the worry they were pushing deep down for the moment) and the three dragon tiles. Green for Mei, Red for Red Son, and while Pigsy felt the White tile wasn't the most fitting for MK it was easiest for cohesion.

They had everything laid out in front of them, each location they checked marked off with a numbered suit tile (all bamboo used up first, then moving on to dots, and once those were finished they would use the characters). The 4 winds marked the four major locations they felt needed to be tracked, barring Flower Fruit Mountain as they eliminated the possibility of anyone reaching there outside of PIF, Wukong, and MK themselves: The Bull Family homestead, a temporary place reminiscent of Fiery Cloud Cave just outside the city where they were currently pooling all their resources. Pigsy's Noodles, the obvious place for the trio to go if they managed to escape themselves. The tea shop that the Spider Queen made them aware of.

And one final tile left sitting to the side, ready to be placed should the tea shop lead them somewhere else. They had doubts that the trio would still be there, though did not discount the possibility, since it would be risky to not take them to a secondary location if they knew the Spider Queen had prying eyes. And most everyone who could have pulled this off must have known that to an extent.

Pigsy wished that they could have used some of Red's tech instead of a too large map and mahjong tiles... but most of his tech was locked up tight and none of them really knew how the tech he left with his parents worked anyway. Not even they had a good handle on it, he was the one who typically ran everything when they were all together and he had programmed the operating system to his own needs. While they would have been able to figure that out in time, and Sandy was doing his very best to work out how to unlock some of the devices and would eagerly transfer everything they had on the tables into whatever programs they could access, they knew time was not in their side.

As DBK and PIF and Wukong mulled over who to send to the tea shop and where else they could look if they weren't there, Tang was nose deep in his own phone. Signal was shocking good here, all things considered, and once everything had been established he had started to scroll through social media once again just like he had when the search began. One site, another site, refresh, scroll back up, another site, back to the first, refresh refresh, scroll again.

He hadn't stopped for almost half an hour... and nothing had been found, Pigsy could tell by the shake in his hands and shoulders and the frown on his face.

"Hey," he said softly, reaching out to touch his shoulder. Tang jumped, too immersed in his search and easily startled before he realized who was talking to him. "Come on, I... I don't think we're gonna find anything like that."

"I have to do something, Pigsy," Tang said firmly, refreshing the page he was on once again and grimacing.

There was an edit of the trio someone had posted, a news photo, filtered in bright colors and emoji hearts. "Our Heroes!" laid out on top. Tang almost threw the phone down on the table, just barely managing to slam it down instead and drawing the shocked attention of everyone else as he buried his face in his hands and took a deep calming breath.

Pigsy waved them all off with a frown, and only turned back to Tang when they turned away from them both,

"Tang, this is just makin you upset. You-"

"Have to do something," Tang repeated, shaking his head and looking back up at Pigsy. He looked so tired. They all were, he supposed. "I'm just me. I can and I will help look for them and fight, and you will not be able to stop me, but I can't do... anything else here. I'm not a strategist, I'm not that good with tech, you don't need grunt work done with the Bull Clones around... the best I can do it recite stories about the Monkey King to help us figure out who this could be. And the person who did this might not even be an old enemy!"

"I ain't doin much either," Pigsy rebutted, gesturing over to the unlikely trio of ancient beings across from them. "They may be deferring to me for the final say, but I'm relying on what they tell me to make that choice." He moved, sitting beside the scholar without taking his hand off his shoulder. "So lets distract each other. Work on something else. Maybe whoever did this isn't an old enemy of ours, but maybe they are. Think of anyone who might still be around to hold a grudge and tell me their story."

Tang sat still for a few minutes instead of answering, just leaning into Pigsy and looking down at his shaking hands before they saw the shadow of a Bull Clone fall over the table. Pigsy recognized this one, the only one dressed in attire. A cape to be specific. PIF had introduced him as General Ironclad 2.0, one of the many recommissioned Bull Clones that had to be rebuilt after... The White Bone Spirit.

He placed a tray in front of the duo, two hot cups of tea and two sticks of Tanghulu candied fruit between them (and that was a strange sight, here in this cave, and Pigsy wondered if it was DBK or PIF who had a taste for the treat enough to just have it available like this). Like all the Bull Clones he said nothing, at least nothing that Pigsy or Tang could understand, and bowed before taking his leave.

Pigsy chanced a glance over to the working trio, catching DBK watching them from the corner of his eye. Wukong had a sad smile on his face as he talked while Iron Fan looked... well, he couldn't really tell. She didn't seem annoyed or frustrated, more confused than anything else as she glances up at her husband. DBK gave them a small nod before turning his gaze back to the map.

It was bizarre to him to see them like this. Sun Wukong without his overly enthusiastic smile and laugh or battle roar grimace. Princess Iron Fan without a scowl or a evil smirk of victory and cruelty. The Demon Bull King without his frustration and anger. Now working together for the first time in centuries, possibly ever to his knowledge as he had no idea whether or not Wukong and PIF ever actually did anything together with DBK before he was trapped under that mountain. He... he should have asked the person he once considered to be as close as a brother more about his life before. During the journey they took, before he vanished never to be seen or heard from for 500 years before showing up again just to give the kid he considered his son his mantle.

Maybe... maybe he wouldn't have left if he had.

There was no point dwelling on the past like this, however. Not now. Instead he picked up one of the tea cups and held it in his hands, the warmth not needed in the heat of the cave but still welcome. As welcome as the heat against his shoulder as Tang stayed leaning against him. In time he felt the man move in the same way, holding his own tea cup before taking a sip and sighing.

"You know..." He started slowly, reaching out to take a piece of candied fruit off the stick. The crunch was loud in the quiet of the cave and he spoke with his mouth full. "I have been thinking... Jin and Yin..." He swallowed, frowning. "They shouldn't really be here based on the stories I have learned. The Spider Queen too, I thought for the longest time she died with her sisters, until a few years before meeting her anyway And MK told us about... Macaque." Pigsy frowned deeper at the name, remembering those few days when the Monkie Kid had been run ragged and seemed easy to anger and more eager to please than usual making the tea taste bitter in his mouth. "And he shouldn't be around either. I have my theories, immortality and desires to return to what they were doing before their defeats and all that. But I was wondering..."

Tang paused, sipping his tea before choosing his words carefully.

"Maybe even more of your enemies.... aren't as dead as everyone thought they were?"

Yin scowled. That was the most he could do in his current state. Scowl at the door he was trapped behind.

If he tried he could have probably broken it down. But Princess Jade Face hadn't left. She could have, but he doubted it. She could have done a lot, but every time he tried to guess she hadn't.

He was so stupid...

He hadn't tried to talk his brother out of this arrangement, he hadn't stopped him from making her mad enough to use the smoke, he hadn't thought to check to make sure she was gone when they tried their escape plan.

He could have done so much but hadn't.

He wished his brother was there. It didn't feel right to be alone. They'd been together for as long as he could remember, they were twins after all. Sure, they had spent time apart, but never like this. Not like this. And Yin was cold and alone and Jin wasn't anywhere he could reach.

Yin was alone and he hurt everywhere.

It must have been the smoke itself. It wasn't like a truly hurtful pain, he was able to go about whatever he needed to do. It was a dull pain, like his entire body had been grabbed to harshly and squeezed all over. But he could do what he needed to, like eat. Princess Jade Face had even been "nice" enough to even give him food and water. Good food, surprisingly, meat buns that filled him up nice and good and made his stomach stop aching like it was going to devour him from the inside out.

That made him feel guilty. Jin hadn't eaten as long as he had. He hoped that she hadn't deactivated the part of the Calabash that would trick the person in it into thinking they weren't hungry... or maybe he should hope she had. He didn't like the idea of his brother slowly starving to death while he was filled up with good treats. If he hadn't remembered his brother yelling at him not to let good food go to waste all that time ago, before they managed to open their business and find something they were actually good at, the nausea he felt at that would have made his throat burn.

He wondered if she only fed him to keep him quiet.

It was pointless to think about that right now, though. It was pointless to worry about his brother.

He had to think of a plan. One that had more than two steps. One that actually worked for once in his damned life, one that would actually help them and get them somewhere than hurt and cold and alone and sad and in pain. Unlike all their other plans. Like with Sun Wukong. And MK in the Calabash. The race, though that one was fun.

The only other plan that had ever worked out for them was their job selling tech to other demons, but look where that got them now.

Yin winched as he grit his teeth and pain shot through his upper jaw, reaching up to the spot where one of them was now missing. Jade Face had come in to check on him and found him holding it. He had apparently hit himself hard enough on the way down to knock it out the last time she administered the smoke to his face.

It had already been chipped, weakened from another scrap the twins had gotten into with another demon. Yin wondered if his reflection would make him look like the younger twin he was now, with the gap in his smile.

Yin shook his head, curling in on himself and scowling at the door again.

He was so stupid...

But he would think of a way to get his brother back.

#monkie kid #lego monkie kid #gen fic #whump fic #sfaut #smoke flasks and unfinished tasks #relationship hint but no shipping

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dorizardthewizard · 3 years

Text

The Revival of Akillian: Chapter 11

Prologue / Chapter 10 / Chapter 12

11. SNOW KIDS VERSUS WAMBAS

Located on the edge of the marsh, the Jungle Stadium seems quite primitive from a distance: all in wood, poles and bamboo, covered with large hanging plants, crossed by a walkway formed from vines and flexible rods, accessible only by bridges of vines. Its technical tower, which supports the press and trainer pods, also made of wood, is adorned with a waterfall around which several plants flourish; curious decoration... but make no mistake: like all stadiums in the Galaxy, it is equipped by Technoid: synthetic memory turf filled with sensors, electromagnetic barriers, communication pods, referee terminals at high speeds, impact memory nets, exclusion pods, flying stretchers, giant holographic screens and so on…

In the dressing rooms, rustic but air-conditioned (a very attentive consideration from the Wambas for their guests, who have come from the cold), where a spherical screen suspended from a long bamboo pole shimmers, Aarch’s disconcerted team observe Thran, who is writhing in pain on the bench, hands on his stomach.

- Poor Thran, you really didn’t look at what was on your plate! - notes Micro-Ice.

- Please, don’t remind me… - Thran moans, pale and sweating.

- You have to be really stupid to eat that dirt! - criticizes Sinedd contemptuously.

- They invite us to eat, so we eat, it’s normal! - D’jok retorts. - It’s called politeness. Another thing you know nothing about!

- Tasting it was polite... oh... (Thran grimaces, doubled over) On the other hand, taking more was not a great idea!

- No way! How many times did you eat it?

He painfully raises three fingers.

- Well done, Thran! – scolds Rocket from the middle of the locker room. - You all heard Aarch: we absolutely have to win this match. And for that, we will need everyone!

- You think you can tell me what to do, new guy? - Sinedd barks. - Who do you think you are?

- Let it go, Sinedd! - warns D’jok.

- Thank you but it’s okay, I can defend myself. - assures Rocket.

He glares at Sinedd as if to say, “One more word and I’ll clobber you”, when Ahito wakes up with a start.

- I’ve got it! The Snow Kids!

They all stare at him, confused.

- What, weren’t you looking for a name for the team?

- Yeah, about two days ago! - Micro-Ice smirks. - You’re pretty quick on the uptake, Ahito!

- Yeah, the Snow Kids… I think it sounds good. You take Akillian… the snow, the sports… you put it together… you get the Snow Kids!

- Yeah… - muses D’jok. - It’s not bad at all. So who’s for?

All arms go up - even Thran, who manages to let go of his stomach. Only Sinedd does not participate in the vote.

- Me too, - says Aarch, who had just entered the locker room with Clamp.

- That’s fine with me, - approves the latter.

- You really like it? - Ahito is surprised, happy to have had a good idea.

- Yes, but a name alone is not enough. You also need...

-… beautiful brand-new football kits! - Clamp completes, his arms loaded with said jerseys.

- Oooh! Wow! Awesome!

He puts them on the table, and everyone rushes in to unfold their jerseys. They are blue and white, with two purple stripes on the arms, and the back is decorated with a large white number in a red circle. The same number is printed on the chest, but smaller, at the level of the heart.

- Awesome! – exclaims Ahito excitedly. - These are the same outfits that our players wore in Akillian’s heyday, can you imagine?

- It really does something to you… - sighs Micro-Ice, moved.

D’jok is quick to take off his T-shirt and put on the jersey.

- With this, we’re a real team now: the Snow Kids!

- That, we’ll judge on the pitch. - tempers Aarch.

While the Snow Kids rave about their outfits, Clamp, with a multi-function remote control, activates the spherical screen that displays a 3D football field.

- Alright! These will be your positions. - says Aarch. - Ahito in goal, Thran and Mei in defense, Tia and Rocket in midfield. Finally, the two strikers will be D’jok and Sinedd.

As he indicates each position, miniature figures of the mentioned players appear on the field.

- But what about me, sir? - asks Micro-Ice.

- You will be a substitute.

Sinedd laughs. Aarch turns to him.

- Something wrong, Sinedd?

- Ah! Uh, rhm… no no, nothing at all. Just something stuck in my throat… rh-rhm!

- But sir, I’m feeling on fire today, I swear! - Micro-Ice pleads. - Let me in and I’ll score three goals for you, minimum!

- Listen, Micro-Ice, being part of a team also means respecting the manager’s decisions. So, don’t argue!

- Yes, sir… - sighs Micro-Ice, lowering his head.

His disappointment is painful to see: for a moment, Mei could almost take pity on him.

***

On the pitch and under the burning sun, the waterfall which tumbles down from the top of the technical tower reveals all its usefulness: misted by a judicious ventilation system, it disperses a refreshing spray over the stadium, which prevents players - especially foreigners - from being overcome by the heat before the end of the first half. Another delicate consideration from the Wambas… with its large masts and canvas canopies, the entire stadium evokes a huge sailboat stranded in the middle of the jungle. A puzzling image, reinforced by the standard Technoid equipment: very incongruous in this natural setting, fixed among the wooden constructions using vines and ropes.

- Are you okay? - D’jok asks Thran, as the Snow Kids move to their respective positions.

- Yes, I feel better… hey! They are even more impressive in their outfits!

Team Wamba has just arrived on the pitch. With their large eyes, pointed ears, hands and feet with three clawed fingers, and slender body with fine and powerful musculature, they evoke the elves of ancient legends. Expressing fair play, they greet their young opponents with a small wave of the hand before taking their positions.

- Focus, kick off in a minute! – announces Aarch, leaning over his control screen in the pod reserved for him, where Clamp and Micro-Ice have also taken their places. The latter sulks, sitting on the floor in a corner. He doesn’t even want to see the game: he no longer cares. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0, ticks the countdown on the monitors.

The ball bursts up from the centre, applauded by the crowd, composed mainly of Wambas. D’jok leaps up, but he is no match for Wouwambou, who starts out using the Roar. Haloed with golden sparks, he retrieves the ball in the air - his clawed foot grips it like a hand -, falls back smoothly on the field and whizzes past Tia and Rocket with a series of hyper-fast twirls.

Commenting on this game is Callie Mystic - she seems to have decided to follow the Snow Kids until the end of their journey:

- Let’s go! This is the first friendly game for Akillian’s new team, the Snow Kids. Immediate recovery of the ball by the Wambas, who lead their first offensive. Wouwambou directly evades Tia and Rocket thanks to his flux! He passes to Lun-Zaera who shoots - a shot blocked by a save from Ahito, the young Snow Kids goalkeeper, who immediately throws the ball to his brother Thran. Thran manages to dribble past two Wamba players and passes to Sinedd, Sinedd passes forward to Rocket, but it’s intercepted by the Wambas, who are on the attack!

Rocket, looking for Tia, does not see Lun-Zaera appear in front of him, shrouded in golden flames. He hesitates for a tenth of a second - enough for the fastest player in the Galaxy to steal the ball from him and storm the goal defended by Ahito, who this time has little time to sleep. Lun-Zaera comes across Mei on her way, who practically sticks to her and, with a skillful tackle, manages to deflect her shot: the ball ricochets against the upper bar of the goal. So much the better, because Ahito didn’t see it coming! His brother catches the ball on the fly, kicking it forward. The ball is picked up by a Wamba player perched on the technical bridge: an unconventional but authorized position, as long as his flux has allowed him to leap that far.

- What a game! - marvels Callie, who sees everything from multiple angles in the media pod. – This is far from a simple friendly match. The Wambas are not holding back, they’re imposing their rhythm in this game!

In a superb triple somersault, the Wamba sends the ball to the feet of a teammate marked by Rocket, who passes back to Lun-Zaera, who once again finds Mei in her way, managing to steal the ball from her this time. She passes to Sinedd, who takes advantage of a gap to attempt a forward breakaway, followed by an unmarked D’jok. Very quickly, Sinedd is stopped by two Wamba defenders, but instead of passing to D’jok, tries to dribble past them. He succeeds, only to be immediately tackled by a third who falls from the sky, taking the ball from him with a pirouette.

- What an idiot! – shouts D’jok, raising his arms to the sky.

- Oh dear, what’s going on? Sinedd seems to be refusing to collaborate with D’jok! – comments Callie. - Aarch will have to work on good cohesion in his team! Sinedd loses the ball, the Wambas quickly move up the field towards the opposing goal...

By a succession of highly acrobatic passes, the ball once again reaches the feet of Lun-Zaera, who whirls and shoots - once again, Ahito doesn’t see it coming: the ball is already in the net while he is still leaping.

- Goal!!! - Callie Mystic yells. - Taking advantage of a clumsy initiative from Sinedd, the Wambas have just scored the first goal!

Thunderous ovation from the crowd in the stands, who applaud as much this beautiful attack of their team as the heroic resistance of the young Akillians. In the pod, on the other hand, Aarch is not celebrating at all:

- What the hell are you waiting for? - he yells into his microphone. – Get the ball to Tia!

Each player, with an earpiece, receives the message loud and clear. Right off the throw, Rocket manages to snatch the ball away from an opponent and pass it to Tia on the other end of the field, in a beautiful, arced shot that draws a hum of admiration from the receiving player. Beset by Wouwambou, Tia has no other way out than to pass to Sinedd, who once again attempts a solo breakthrough. A Wamba tackles him, he dodges him with a jump and continues his charge, concentrated, ignoring his teammates - D’jok especially - who nevertheless signal to him. Good players, or wanting to give their goalkeeper a little work, the Wambas let him run...

- Sinedd is in possession of the ball again! - Callie comments. - He manages alone in front of the opposing goal, he shoots… what a masterful save by Bounzoff, the Wamba goalkeeper!

Despite his stoutness, he performs an acrobatic rear wheel kick in front of the net, magnified by a golden fire. The ball goes back to the middle of the field, miraculously intercepted by D’jok who immediately shoots - another save by Bounzoff, in an elegant somersault. Sinedd snatches the ball and shoots again - this time Bounzoff stops it with a hand. Spinning the ball on the tip of his big finger, he shakes a finger at the two breathless and crestfallen Snow Kids attackers.

- Bounzoff is certainly obstinate, - remarks Callie. - He has decided that today the ball will not go into his goal!

- What kind of play is that? - yells Aarch in front of his screen. – Are you playing football, or pinball?

The Wambas decide that this little interlude is over: from a very tight pass from Bounzoff to Wouwambou, they set out again. D’jok and Sinedd quickly retreat to the rescue of their defenders - overwhelmed by the dazzling attack of Wouwambou and Lun-Zaera, who exchange the ball at a remarkable speed, wiping out Tia and Rocket on the spot and confusing poor Thran, who does not know where to step. Sinedd then resorts to his treacherous blow which has done well on Micro-Ice: he dives forward and strikes the calf of Lun-Zaera, who flies into the air and falls on the lawn. Curiously, the terminal referees did not see the fault - perhaps they are rusty from the constant humidity... Wouwambou, who has already recovered the ball, performs a perilous leap over the Snow Kids defenders - the ball goes crashing into the net. Ahito didn’t have time to make the slightest movement to stop him.

- Gooooooal!!! - yells Callie Mystic. - Despite that foul from Sinedd that I thought I saw, but which the Wambas ignored!

- Sinedd, playing like this won’t get you anywhere! - Aarch shouts, pounding his fist on the table. - This goes for the rest of you too. Push forward, damn it!

- We could make a substitution, - suggests Clamp.

- Oh yeah, great idea! - Micro-Ice stands up.

- No, - Aarch refuses. - I want them to find their feet with this setup.

- Still, it was a good idea… - grumbles Micro-Ice, who sits down in his corner.

The match resumes. Rocket takes advantage of having recovered the ball (he does not quite know how) to pass to Tia while shouting at her:

- Go ahead, Tia! Try your luck!

She takes to the ball at her feet... the more she runs, the more she feels this fabulous energy invade her, electrify her, overflow in blue waves. Suddenly, the Wambas seem slower to her: she avoids one, jumps over a second who has attempted a slow tackle, then passes back to Rocket who, immediately after receiving the ball, shoots it back in a beautiful, twisted angle.

- What’s happening? - cries Callie in awe. - Tia seems to be using the Breath of Akillian, it’s incredible! As you can see, dear holo-spectators, it is indeed the Breath that was believed to have disappeared!

Two Wambas try to retrieve the ball in mid-flight, but Tia takes off in a column of blue lightning, followed by Wouwambou all in golden flames, who gazes at her in admiration - the Breath! She has the Breath! - then falls back, letting her shoot... again, Tia, who is nothing but crackling energy, feels her foot swinging off like a powerful pendulum, hitting the ball which shoots towards the Wambas’ goal. This time it is Bounzoff who isn’t fast enough: despite his lightning reflexes, the ball sinks into the net in a splendid shot.

- It’s a gooooal!!! – exclaims Callie Mystic. - The first goal of the young Snow Kids against the skillful Wambas, thanks to a fantastic shot from Tia boosted by the Breath of Akillian! What a feeling, dear holo-spectators!

Delirium in the stands: the audience cheers this goal as if it were their favorite team that had scored it. So are the Wambas...

The Snow Kids jump around, clapping each other on the shoulder and hugging each other. Rocket would love to kiss Tia but he doesn’t dare, and just hugs her briefly - she pulls away immediately. Only Mei and Sinedd do not share the general enthusiasm: both are jealous - for different reasons.

- Woah!! - Micro-Ice also jumps to his feet, after seeing the nice slow-motion action on Clamp’s monitor.

- There! This is exactly how you should be playing! – Aarch finally rejoices.

- The Snow Kids are back in the match, revived at 2-1 after a spectacular goal from Tia, their young prodigy! - declares Callie Mystic.

To resume play, Rocket decides on his own to place Tia as the third attacker. Receiving no comment from Aarch in his earpiece, he assumes that decision is correct. Tia therefore finds herself facing Wouwambou, who looks at her strangely. He is in the grip of a painful internal conflict: on the one hand, a new respect for this player who masters her flux so well, on the other this “contract” with Artegor Nexus, which he must honor... he closes his eyes and clenches his fists. He would like to be a thousand miles from here, still sick on Akillian... and to never have met Artegor Nexus.

The ball shoots up from the center and the match resumes. Very fast, very physical, very acrobatic: this time the Wambas are no longer laughing, they know that they have at least one challenging opponent ahead of them.

- Tia has already recovered the ball and is moving up the field at high speed, she dodges all her Wamba opponents, it’s incredible! - Callie exclaims in wonder.

In fact, this battle comes down rather to a duel between Tia and Rocket on the one hand, Wouwambou and Lun-Zaera on the other, the rest of the players being reduced to the role of extras. Using the Breath sparingly but with unmatched precision, Tia intercepts balls from her adversaries and controls those sent to her by Rocket, who, even if he does not have the Breath, has precision in his shots down to the millimeter. Callie Mystic notices:

- Tia seems unstoppable! Thanks to a one-two with Rocket who returns the ball to her with pinpoint accuracy, she reaches the Wamba penalty area. She is caught by Wouwambou who rushes towards her, also boosted by the Roar…

As Tia takes off for her famous cannon shot, Wouwambou also tears himself off the ground… he hits Tia on the fly, at full power, at full speed. The shock of the two bodies “doped” by their respective fluxes is equivalent, on scale, to an airplane crash in the air. Both crash to the ground, devastated.

- Foul!!! - shouts Callie Mystic. – An unfathomable foul from Wouwambou, captain of the Wambas, renowned for his fair play! What happened to him?

Wouwambou, more solid and muscular than Tia, is just stunned and gets up quickly. Tia, she remains unconscious...

The two teams come running, alarmed. Rocket exchanges a look with Lun-Zaera, from which he reads a reflection of his own dismay. Angrily, D’jok approaches Wouwambou, but is blocked off by Bounzoff who snaps at his confused captain:

- What’s going on?! What’s the matter with you?

- I… I think I had trouble controlling my strength. I am sorry…

The Wambas do not know how to lie, and there is some truth to Wouwambou’s words: this is not how he intended to eliminate Tia; he just wanted to stop her relentless attack, so the Wambas wouldn’t be ridiculed by this newbie kid. He hadn’t thought Tia’s Breath was so powerful, hadn’t calculated that within him the Roar was at its peak, swollen with anguish over his dilemma. Indeed, he didn’t consider any of this... it was unquestionably a foul. A serious foul.

Resigned, he lets himself be taken by the exclusion pod, which will suspend him for five minutes ten meters above the ground. Through its glowing walls, he watches the flying stretcher carry Tia into the locker room... in any case, he feels he has accomplished his mission, to be even with Artegor Nexus. He wishes with all his heart that Tia, this little prodigy, will recover quickly from her injury...

The gong (a real gong, struck by a lavender-dressed servant) strikes half-time, which is timely. The entire Snow Kids team is in the locker room around Tia, still unconscious. Rocket leans over her and strokes her hair...

- Stand back! – orders Clamp. – Give her some space!

D’jok paces up and down, his anger still with him since Bounzoff had prevented him from telling Wouwambou exactly what he thought of him.

- Seriously, I can’t believe it! Such a serious foul in a friendly match, I find that disgraceful, right, sir?!

- Right now, D’jok, our main challenge is to find a way to heal Tia. Without her, the Snow Kids are no more, you understand?

- Don’t worry, I’ll get her back on her feet. - intervenes Dame Simbai, who appears at the locker room door. She walks over to Tia, carrying a bag of herbs and potions over her shoulder. - Dealing with a shock between fluxes is kind of my specialty, isn’t it, Aarch?

- Simbai, you are a blessing. - he smiles, reassured.

#galactik football #the revival of akillian #lets just keep pretending the white haired guy is wouwambou #hmm mei taking pity on micro-ice? i wonder if the author will do anything more with this sinedd-mei-mice thing

8 notes · View notes

chanoyu-to-wa · 3 years

Text

Nampō Roku, Book 6 (13.3; 13.4): a Mukō-ro with the Guests Seated on the Right Side; and, a Mukō-ro with a Board on the Far Side.

13.3) Later, as [shown] here, the the guests’ seats were [moved to] the side [of the room] adjacent to the left seat, and the ro was changed to [that side]¹. With respect to everything else, there are no other differences².

[The writing on the drawing reads: tarai-mizusashi (タライ水指)³; chaire・shiri-bukura (茶入・尻ブクラ)⁴; kono kane in nare-domo, mizusashi ni te kuguri yō ni naru (此カネ陰ナレトモ水サシニテクヽリ陽ニナル)⁵; sore yue hitotsu-mono kaku no gotoki okaruru (夫ユヘ一物如此ヲカルヽ)⁶; kore Kyū no hatsu-mei nari, Jōō mo kanshin to iu-iu (コレ休ノ發明也、紹鷗モ感心ト云〻)⁷.]

13.4) On the far side [of the ro] is a board 2-sun 5-bu [wide] -- here is also the case were [the utensil mat arranged in] this way is also admissible⁸. The way the kane are distributed is the same as before⁹.

[The writing on the drawing reads: bon・chaire (盆・茶入)¹⁰; mizusashi no chiisaki wo oite, chaire in no hitotsu-mono koko ni oku-koto mo ari (水サシノチイサキヲ置テ、茶入陰ノ一ツモノコヽニヲクコトモアリ)¹¹.]

The kaki-ire [書入]:

〇 In general, in the case of the mukō-ro, or on an occasion when [one is using] the furo, even though there are people who [display the chaire] on a small tray as a [yang] hitotsu-mono, or place the chaire by itself [without a tray], these are wrong¹². Even if the chaire is a small piece, one should use a large tray¹³. If the tray crosses several kane, it is the same idea as when the mizusashi [does so]¹⁴.

[However,] using a small tray, or displaying the chaire by itself, should be done [only] when displaying [the chaire] as a yin hitotsu-mono [一ツ物]¹⁵.

_________________________

¹Nochi kaku no gotoku kyaku-tsuki hidari-za ni ro wo naosaruru [後如此客付左座ニ爐ヲナヲサルヽ].

Nochi [後] means afterward, at a later date.

In other words, the setting where the guests were seated on the host's left (adjoining the “right seat,” and where the mukō-ro was cut on the left side of the utensil mat) was the original configuration*. Only later was the room reversed, so that the guests sat on the host's right side (adjacent to the “left seat”), and the mukō-ro was cut on the right side of the utensil mat.

Kyaku-tsuki hidari-za ni ro wo naosaruru [客付き左座に爐を直さるる]: kyaku-tsuki [客付き] means the side (of the utensil mat) on which the guests are seated; hidari-za [左座] refers to the seat of the utensils at the head of the utensil mat, this expression referring the half of the mat facing the host's right side; naosareru [直される] (to use the modern verb form) means to be reformed, corrected, or adjusted.

Thus, this says that the ro was moved to the left seat, which was the side on which the guests were now being seated. This is the configuration that we usually recognize today†. __________ *This orientation derived directly from the o-chanoyu-dana, which was usually located on the right side of the room, originally so that the bowls of tea could be handed to an attendant seated between the mat to which the tana was appended and the entrance to the shoin, who then transported them to the guests seated in the shoin.

At some point -- very possibly in the early sixteenth century in Korea, after the restoration of Buddhism -- rather than carrying the tea out to the shoin to be drunk, or performing the temae at a daisu that was set up within that room, the custom arose whereby the guests went into the tsugi-no-ma, and were served directly from the o-chanoyu-dana.

The reason why I propose that this shift in focus (to the o-chanoyu-dana in the tsugi-no-ma) occurred in Korea (rather than in Japan) is that, when Buddhism was suppressed in Korea in the middle of the fifteenth century, the bronze implements that were used on the daisu are recorded to have been confiscated (and melted down to make ceremonial objects for use in Confucian rituals), while the iron things originally used on the o-chanoyu-dana were apparently ignored (even if left in situ when the temple buildings were razed, usually by burning, iron implements would frequently survive, at least for a certain number of years, whereas anything made of bronze would have been destroyed by the heat). It, therefore, seems that this all happened of necessity: lacking any other way to resume service with the daisu, they made use of what implements they had, and so served tea from the o-chanoyu-dana (or, when that could not be restored, changed to serving sen-cha [煎茶] -- as is also attested in the historical records, including later in the Nampō Roku).

Rikyū would have encountered this kind of thing during his sojourn on the continent, and thus he asserted that the original setting was the mukō-ro -- even though none of this seems to have been done in Japan (since, other than the Ikkō Shū [一向宗] -- and that only to a limited extent -- none of the temples were destroyed, many of these treasures still survive today).

†As has been mentioned before, this reversal of the orientation of the room was effected at the behest of Hideyoshi, so that everything that the host was doing would be readily visible to the shōkyaku (namely, himself). The Tokugawa maintained this preference, for the same reason.

²Ban-ji mu betsu gi nari [萬事無別義ナリ].

Ban-ji [萬事] means everything (literally, the ten-thousand matters).

Betsu gi nashi [別儀なし] (to put the phrase into the Japanese word-order) means that there are no special considerations-- that is, nothing is different (from the way of doing things when the guests were seated on the host's left, and the ro was also cut on that side of the utensil mat).

============================================

³Tarai-mizusashi [タライ水指].

A tarai-mizusashi [盥水指] is a general-purpose bronze basin used as a mizusashi. Usually objects of this sort were around 8-sun in diameter, and several sun deep. As they were not made as storage containers, they usually did not have a fitted lid, and so a wooden lid would have had to be provided.

Pieces of this sort were first used as mizusashi during the sixteenth century. (The photo shows a Chōsen-sawari tarai-mizusashi [朝鮮四分一盥水指] of the sort being discussed to in this entry. This particular tarai measures 8-sun 3-bu in diameter, and it is 2-sun 6-bu deep -- both of which are typical for this type of vessel. As there is not much variation in size or shape, Rikyū’s tarai-mizusashi would have probably looked very similar to what is shown. The rather mottled appearance of the metal is typical of Korean sawari from the early Joseon dynasty, so the only difference would have been the lid -- in Rikyū’s period, only shin-nuri lids were being made.)

While contemporary chanoyu tends to prefer this kind of mizusashi for use during the summer (on the theory that viewing the wide expanse of water will produce a cooling effect on the mind), Rikyū used his on New Year’s Day -- to exhibit the sei-ka-sui [井華水] (the first dawn water drawn in the New Year).

⁴Chaire・shiri-bukura [茶入・尻ブクラ].

The Shiri-bukura chaire [尻膨茶入] was Rikyū's great personal treasure. Though a chaire from the earliest period (and so classified as an ō-meibutsu [大名物] during the Edo period), and of the same size as the Kamakura nasu [鎌倉茄子], it is not perfectly round*, which may be why Rikyū was able to purchase it.

While Rikyū always used this chaire on a red Chinese tray in his last years, in the early days he used it without a tray†, and the episode memorialized here (including Jōō's accompanying praise) seems to have taken place in his youth, before he went to the continent. __________ *The chaire measures 2-sun 2-bu from side to side, but 2-sun 1-bu front to back. This slight imperfection precluded it from being used on a nagabon.

†When Rikyū received this chaire from Jōō, it was accompanied with a Japanese tray that Jōō had made for it (see footnote 7, below). However, Rikyū seems to have used it to serve tea without that tray, as described in this entry; and, eventually, he sold it. The new owner placed it on a red Chinese wakasa-bon [若狹盆] (this is a kind of lacquer technique where the brushstrokes remain visible -- often through the incorporation of a certain amount of inert particulate matter, such as crushed or powdered egg shells, into the lacquer: usually the upper surface of such pieces are red, the bottom is black, and the outer sides are dark green) that was just 2-sun larger than the chaire on all four sides (apparently because its lack of symmetry demanded that it not be placed on a larger tray -- which would “lock” the distance between the chaire and anything located on the far side, while a smaller tray would allow the host to move the tray slightly; the “rough” quality of the lacquer probably was influential in the choice of this tray as well), and when, years later, Rikyū was invited to a chakai at which it was used, he begged the host to allow him to buy it back.

Thus, while the size of the tray allowed Rikyū to use the chaire as if no tray was present, which was an expression of his saku-i [作意], the actual pairing of this chaire with its tray was not. Nevertheless, the result was that Rikyū's version of bon-date [盆立, 盆点, 盆點] became almost identical to his ordinary koicha-temae (and so diverged sharply from Jōō's vision of this same temae), which annoyed many of his contemporaries, and lead to the undercurrent of bad feelings that would burst forth in the aftermath of his seppuku.

⁵Kono kane in nare-domo, mizusashi ni te kuguri yō ni naru [此カネ陰ナレトモ水サシニテクヽリ陽ニナル].

“Even though this kane [on which the chaire rests] is yin, because the mizusashi crosses several [yang] kane, it becomes yang.”

Because the mizusashi crosses two yang kane, and so is yang, anything associated with it* is also yang. Furthermore, the two are counted together as a single yang unit (for the purposes of kane-wari). __________ *In other words, placed 2-sun away from it.

⁶Sore yue hitotsu-mono kaku no gotoki okaruru [夫ユヘ一物如此ヲカルヽ].

“Because of this, an hitotsu-mono [一ツ物] may be rested upon [the kane] in this way.”

The shiri-bukura chaire is placed squarely on the yin-kane, as a hitotsu-mono. However, because of the tarai-mizusashi, the chaire is actually being displayed as a yang hitotsu-mono. This is the point that these notes are intended to emphasize. (It is important for the reader to separate these matters from the fact that the mukō-ro is cut on the right side of the mat, since that has no bearing on the mizusashi and chaire. In a room where the mukō-ro has been cut on the left, with the guests also seated on that side of the room, the arrangement of a tarai-mizusashi and chaire displayed in front as an hitotsu-mono would be the mirror image of what is shown in the sketch*, though all of the rules would be exactly the same.) __________ *Care has to be taken with this statement, however. If, for example, the arrangement is mitsu-gumi [三つ組] -- in addition to the mizusashi and chaire, the chawan is also displayed on the utensil mat -- the chawan is still on the left and the chaire is still on the right.

This is important to remember (at least in so far as Rikyū's actual usages are concerned), because certain modern schools reverse these things as well (placing the chaire on the left and the chawan to its right); but, according to Rikyū, that is wrong.

⁷Kore Kyū no hatsu-mei nari, Jōō mo kanshin to iu-iu [コレ休ノ發明也、紹鷗モ感心ト云〻].

Kyū [休] is the usual abbreviation of Rikyū's name.

Hatsu-mei [發明] means an invention.

Kanshin [感心] means to admire, appreciate, favor. In other words, when Jōō saw how Rikyu arranged the shiri-bukura chaire in front of the tarai-mizusashi, he was deeply impressed.

This episode likely dates from the early days of Rikyū's association with Jōō. As is well known among modern practitioners of chanoyu, Rikyū's family had gone bankrupt; and, as a result, Rikyū was forced to sell his collection of tea utensils -- apparently to Jōō, to whom he had been introduced by Dōchin (seemingly for this purpose). Jōō, as a professional antique dealer, gave Rikyū some other pieces (those in which his other customers were not interested) as a sort of consolation gift, so that he could continue to practice chanoyu thereafter. Among these utensils were the Shiri-bukura chaire and the tarai-mizusashi. The Shiri-bukura, as was mentioned above, was asymmetrical (in consequence of which, rather than a Chinese tray, Jōō had made the matsu-no-ki [松ノ木] tray for it*). Likewise, whereas the tarai had been imported from Korea, and was made of Korean bronze, it was hardly a true mizusashi†.

It was the fact that Rikyū managed to combine these two utensils with each other (and in a way that had never occurred to Jōō), and to do so in a manner that was completely appropriate‡, that won Jōō's admiration and trust. __________ *Though patterned on the Gassan nagabon [月山長盆], this square tray is rather roughly made from pine wood, and then simply rubbed with lacquer (rather than being properly lacquered). Compared with the trays imported from the continent, the matsu-no-ki bon is crude.

It seems that Jōō created this tray because the chaire is irregular (hence the roughness of the tray was desirable, from his point of view); nevertheless, side-to-side, it also shared the size of the Kamakura-nasu (which was not only the most respected chaire, but the one that was used on the Gassan nagabon for the gokushin-temae).

†Tarai of this sort were sometimes used for serving fruit; but sometimes used for washing (including, on occasion, washing the feet), which gives an impure feeling (in addition to the cumbersome size). While the lacquered lid seems to have been in Jōō's style (a flat lid with the handle formed from a semi-circle of metal), it is unclear whether Jōō was responsible for it (or whether it was made for the tarai by Rikyū).

‡The arrangement uses neither utensil in a way that could be considered inappropriately "above" their station; yet the overall effect enhances both. While Jōō had used this chaire on a tray, albeit on a very wabi sort of locally-made piece, Rikyū eschewed to make use of the tray. Yet, by using such a large mizusashi, he made the omission perfectly natural, rather than insulting (the large size of the mizusashi makes the use of a tray of any size impossible; otherwise, doing without it would seem to be repudiating Jōō's decision to provide one).

⁸Mukō ni-sun go-bu ita, kaku no gotoki tōritaru mo ari [向二寸五步板、如此通リタルモアリ].

In this case, rather than just being the width of the ro, the board extends completely across the mat.

Toritaru [通りたる] means to pass or extend across. The board extends completely to the other side of the mat.

This was done only in a room that did not have a tana, and the board could be a sort of substitute for a tana in certain arrangements (though, in the case shown, it has no real impact on this particular display).

For example, the hishaku could be displayed on the right side of the mat (the cup of the hishaku rests on the board, with its handle extending parallel to the heri), with the futaoki placed at the end of the handle, as shown below.

Rikyū is also recorded as having displayed the kōgō on a board of this sort, with the habōki resting on the mat in front of it (oriented parallel to the heri).

In the case shown in the sketch, however, the host would perform the temae without a mizusashi*, bringing out a small mizusashi only at the end of the temae, after which two hishaku of cold water would be added to the kama. __________ *At those points in the temae where it is usual to add cold water to the kama, the host would instead dip a full hishaku of hot water from the kama and hold that above the mouth for several seconds (so it will cool a little), and then pour it back. This will be sufficient to lower the temperature of the kama to the point where the shōfū [松風] sound returns.

This usage actually is derived the way that tea was originally made with the daisu -- in the gokushin-temae the mizusashi is only opened at the end of the temae (after the temmoku and chaire have been cleaned, and put out for the guests to inspect), to provide cold water with which to clean the chasen in the kae-chawan, and refill the kama (actually, this is a token replenishment, primarily intended to keep the kama from overheating -- which is possible when the level of the water it contains becomes too low -- since only two hishaku of cold water are added). At all earlier points in the temae, the shōfū was restored by performing a yu-gaeshi [湯返し] (dipping out a hishaku of hot water and then pouring it back into the kama).

In such instances the ro-temae is, indeed, much closer to the “daisu temae“ (which means the gokushin-temae) than the furo-temae is.

⁹Kane no wari dōzen [カネノワリ同前].

“The way that the kane are divided is as [shown] before.”

============================================

¹⁰Bon・chaire [盆・茶入].

This kind of tray is generically referred to as a kuguri-bon [潜り盆]. While a tray of Jōō's preferred size would suffice, kuguri-bon were often even larger (with trays 1-shaku in diameter being most common).

¹¹Mizusashi no chiisaki wo oite, chaire in no hitotsu-mono koko ni oku-koto mo ari [水サシノチイサキヲ置テ、茶入陰ノ一ツモノコヽニヲクコトモアリ].

“If a small mizusashi is placed [on the mat], a chaire displayed as a yin hitotsu-mono could also be placed here.”

This really has nothing to do with the sketch (and, indeed, looking at the sketch tends to confuse the matter).

The situation alluded to in this note is shown below.

Note that the mizusashi does not come into contact with either of the yang-kane, and the chaire is placed squarely on the yin-kane (making it a yin hitotsu-mono).

The mizusashi is yin, and the chaire is also yin. However, because the chaire is displayed “in association” with the mizusashi, they count together as a single yin unit, for the purposes of kane-wari.

¹²Sōjite mukō-ro mata ha furo no toki, mizusashi nashi no hitotsu-mono chiisaki bon ni nose, mata ha chaire bakari oku hito ari, higa nari [摠而向爐又ハ風爐ノ時、水サシナシノ一ツ物チイサキ盆ニノセ、又ハ茶入ハカリヲク人アリ、ヒカコト也].

This is, structurally, a difficult sentence, since the situation described is being negated by the final phrase.

Sōjite [摠而] is an odd (and certainly unorthodox*) way to write sōjite [惣而 = 総じて]. It is possibly a miscopying for sōjite [惣而] (which is the way this word is usually written in the Nampō Roku).

Mizusashi nashi no hitotsu-mono [水指なしの一つ物] apparently is referring specifically to a chaire that the host intends to display as a yang hitotsu-mono on an occasion when there is no mizusashi (since the final sentence in this kaki-ire specifically allows displaying the chaire by itself, or on a small tray, when it is a yin hitotsu-mono)†.

Chiisaki bon ni nose [小さき盆に載せ] means resting on a small tray. Here, a “small tray” would have to be one that is 4-sun 9-bu across or less, suggesting that this kaki-ire was added during the Edo period (when doing such strange things, in an attempt to be “wabi,” became fashionable in certain circles).

Jōō, who created the chaire-bon, determined that the tray should be 3-sun larger than the chaire in each of the four directions. Rikyū reduced this to 2-sun (which allowed the chaire to be placed beside the chawan as if no tray were present at all). Nevertheless, even smaller trays were occasionally used in the Edo period (when the expression "small tray" was a subject of speculation).

Chaire bakari oku [茶入ばかり置く] means the chaire is placed by itself, directly on the mat.

Higa-koto [僻事] literally means an immoral act, and so, by extension, a grave or shocking mistake. It is, thus, much more forceful than “error.” __________ *The kanji sō [摠] is extremely rare, even in Chinese. In Japanese it is usually read subete [すべて] (though sō is the on-yomi [音読み]), which means whole, everything. It is usually seen only in names today.

†The objection might be to displaying it on the yin-kane as shown in the sketch, though either without the tray, or resting on a tray so small that it does not contact either of the yang-kane, though this is unclear.

¹³Chaire chiisaku to mo, dai-bon wo yō-beshi [茶入チイサクトモ、大盆ヲ用ヘシ].

Dai-bon [大盆], large tray, would mean any tray that is at least large enough that it crosses two yang-kane. By this definition, not only Jōō’s chaire-bon, but also those preferred by Rikyū, would seem to suffice. However, the usual interpretation is that this means something at least as large as the trays preferred by Jōō, and possibly trays that are even larger -- such as trays 1-shaku across.

¹⁴Bon ni te kuguri-koto mizusashi dō-i nari [盆ニテクヽリコト水サシ同意也].

Kuguri-koto [潜り事]: kuguru [潜る] means to pass across. Therefore, kuguri-koto means something that passes across. In other words, the tray should be large enough that it crosses two successive yang-kane, just as an ordinary mizusashi (which usually measure 6-sun in diameter*) does.

Dō-i [同意] is usually used today to mean “to agree with” or “consent.” However, here it is more literally “the same idea.” __________ *Unfortunately, once all of these rules and reasons were forgotten, and chanoyu fell into the purview primarily of young girls and frail old women -- neither of which groups are much inclined to lug a large mizusashi out to the utensil mat at the beginning of the temae -- who were all being taught to perform hakobi-temae [運び手前] as the standard way to serve tea, the size of the mizusashi shrank almost overnight (like a salted slug). Thus, it is sometimes difficult to acquire a mizusashi that will actually cross the two yang-kane, especially when ordering from overseas. Thus, a locally-made piece might be the better option -- at least if one of a suitable size can be found.

¹⁵Chiisaki bon ka mata chaire bakari ha, in no hitotsu-mono iri-yō no toki oku-beki nari [チイサキ盆カ又茶入ハカリハ、陰ノ一ツ物入用ノ時ヲクヘキ也].

In no hitotsu-mono iri-yō no toki oku-beshi [陰の一つ物入用の時置くべき]: in no hitotsu-mono [陰の一つ物] means a yin hitotsu-mono*; iri-yō [入用] means things like need, want, necessity (in other words, on occasions when said utensil must be displayed as an hitotsu-mono, and when it must also be yin according to the kane-wari); oku-beki [置くべき] means “must be placed.” __________ *This is not a specific kind of object, but refers to the case where a utensil (such as a chaire) that is of such high quality that it demands being displayed as an hitotsu-mono (which means that it is centered very carefully on its kane), is used on an occasion (such as at night, or during a memorial service) when it needs to be yin for the kane-wari.

In such a case, the utensil will be associated with a yin-kane. On an ordinary occasion, the same utensil would be displayed on a yang-kane.

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emile-hides · 4 years

Text

YouWatch

This is a conversation topic that came up playing Overwatch last night; What if the Overwatch cast all has YouTube channels?

And while we voiced our opinions and debated to eachother, I feel the need to share all of my own takes as well.

Now, there’s 32 of these assholes so I’ll put it under the cut. Cause it’s long

Ana

Her channel is called “Grandma reacts”

Her viewers send her videos or shows to react to

She likes to have Jack, Gabe, Rein, and Torb on sometimes for some of the funnier videos

Hates daredevil compilations of people on high places with no safety gear

She swears at jump scares

Ashe

Daily vlogs

She calls her viewers part of the gang

BOB is the camera man and the crowd favorite

She mostly just likes to chat about nothing while wandering around the hide out

BOB makes really cool time lapses of them riding her bike down Route 66

Baptiste

Runs an advice channel

Mostly does Q&A live streams

All of his ad revenue goes to local charities and hospitals

People sometimes donate to him and that also goes to charity

There’s a very slim chance he got overnight famous because he’s so pretty

Bastion

One 12 minute video of him playing with Ganymede in Torbjorn’s backyard

Torbjorn recorded it for him

Brigitte

Tried to do a make-up channel

Eventually devolved into a “How to” builder’s channel

Can put together an Ikea bookshelf in 15 minutes without even glancing at the instructions

Ikea furniture speed runs are her most popular videos

D.Va

Canonically already has a gaming channel

Also has a daily vlog channel where she hangs out with Lucio and Junkrat a lot

Takes requests on what games she plays

Despite mainly being an online PvP gamer, she adores playing story games and voice acting

She cried on live stream when she finished Undertale

Doomfist

Runs Talon’s official YouTube channel

All the videos are join Talon adds

Echo

Her channel is a mash

Will play or do any kind of video that’s popular at the moment

There’s three episodes of a Minecraft LP left to die

Seven vlogs all recorded almost 3 months apart

Two animations she made herself

A couple of reaction videos

And a Pachimari unboxing

She has a lot of sponsors

Genji

Also, canonically, has a gaming channel

Sometimes does videos of sick ninja tricks in his backyard

Has the same channel from before his fight with Hanzo, so there’s a 4-5 year gap between two videos

“So my brother tried to kill me” is the first video he makes when he finally comes back

Occasionally makes “Master reacts to (anime)” videos with Zenyatta

Hanzo

The show off channel

It’s mostly just target practice with his bow and arrow Genji recorded for him

90% of his comments are telling him to put a shirt on and cover the nipple

His channel also went dead after he killed Genji

Might start recording and uploaded unscheduled vlogs during his hobo days

Also does movie reviews

Junkrat

If I may defer your attention to this post

Yeah he just runs a demolition channel

Roadhog makes sure the camera doesn’t get damaged

Junkrat really loves the slow motion effect

Lucio

Like Hana, he has two channels

One is his official music channel with music videos and concert clips

The other is also a vlog channel where he hangs out with Hana and Jamie

He’ll also talk about serious issues and his opinions on them on his second channel

McCree

Much like Hanzo, runs a show off channel

His is more popular because he’s straight up a cowboy though

People think it’s a gimmick for the channel. They have no idea he looks and sounds like that all the time

Mei

Has a scientific fact of the day Podcast with Winston

Talks about big issues

Her channel is very kid friendly and she explains things like global warming in a way they can understand

A lot of her videos will be watched by kids in science class

Mercy

“What to do encase of an emergency” tutorial videos

Gives basic medical training, like how to do CPR

Her videos are short and to the point so they can be played in an actual emergency

Genji is usually the person she uses as an example

Moira

Her channel is like Junkrat’s but more contained(?)

She does dangerous shit with chemicals but somehow it always ends wholesomly

The last minute of the video she speaks in a soothing Bob Ross voice as the lab is on fire behind her

The videos typically end with Angella coming back from her break

Orisa

It’s technically Efi’s channel

It’s a vlog to record Orisa’s progress tword becoming Numbani’s protector

Very popular, everyone loves how wholesome Orisa is

The money from the ads goes to fixing whatever Orisa breaks while trying to be helpful

All rude comments are deleted

Pharah

Show off channel

“99 dunks in a row” and such types of videos

They’re typically sped up with relaxing music

Lucio has appeared to play soccer with her a few times

Reaper

As Gabriel Reyes he ran a prank channel around the Overwatch base

He didn’t do any pranks that hurt or scared people though

Just recorded himself eating vanilla pudding out of a mayo jar to get people’s reactions

His favorite people to prank were Jesse and Genji because they had the most over the top reactions

Reinhardt is unprankable

The channel died with the fall of Overwatch

Reinhardt

Advice channel but louder than Baptiste

He’s full of energy in every one of his videos

Calls himself his viewer’s Grandpa

If anyone comes to him for advice on how to handle abuse of any kind he will adopt them on the spot

Also does meme reactions, sometimes has to have Brigitte explain what makes it funny

Has one video where he speaks quietly called “Grandpa reads a bedtime story” and it’s literally just him reading a bedtime story with soft music in the background

Roadhog

Toy unboxings

All of his videos are silent aside from the cute music he puts of them

The only part of him that’s ever on camera are his hands

Sigma

All his videos devolve into rambles about the universe

Other than that his channel doesn’t have a real theme

He tries to explain scientific principals but quickly turns into a shouting mess about the universe and gravity

Moira is the one to stop recording in the middle of his breakdowns

Soldier 76

Use to run a tutorial channel

Gabe called it “Dad Teaches you” and Jack hates that he’s not your father

He teaches you to cook basic meals and do simple repairs on a car

He talks in a very fatherly voice

Begrudgingly, he became his veiwers father

His channel died with Overwatch as well

Sombra

Gaming channel, but hacked

Does glitched speedruns on live stream

Clickbait thumbnails and titles

“How to get 1,000,000,000 free V-Bucks in Fortnite”

Steals kid’s Fortnite accounts

Symmetra

Stim channel

All of her videos focus on satisfying visuals

Someone asked her to do ASMR once and she hated it. The video existed for less than 24 hours

Torbjorn

Like Brigitte, runs a builder channel

It also doubles as a story time channel as he tends to ramble about the good old days

All his videos are 30+ minutes long

Somehow adds “and that’s how I lost my eye” to every story so no one knows how it actually happened

Bastion guest appears in a lot or Torb’s videos but only because he’s bored and wants attention

Tracer

Animated story telling

Makes animations of their missions and her day-to-day life

Thanks to her chronal accelerator animations take half as long

Still only uploads like two videos a month

Widowmaker

Food review videos

Hates everything, nothing gets high marks

Gets view ship cause she’s hot and very snarky

Winston

His channel is exactly like Mei’s

It’s more popular though because he’s a monkey and thus draws kid’s attention better

All of his viewers are elementary school science teachers and their class

Wrecking Ball

Tried to do a builder channel but all the comments were on how cute he is

Hates being called cute so he made his mech say swear words

He’s very popular with little boys

Also loves destruction and may destroy things for fun

“5000lbs wrecking ball VS Junkrat’s house”

Zarya

Vlogs but like... Work out vlogs.

It’s just time lapses of her at the gym

Insanely popular with lesbians for very obvious reasons

Encourages her viewers to take care of themselves and start slow

Blew a kiss at the camera once, became the most used image of her on the internet

Zenyatta

Most of his videos are relaxing music over beautiful visuals he recorded

The other half of his videos are meditation leadings and yoga

He’s also done videos on the omnic crisis and talked in length on his belief for the future

Has one video of him pranking Genji

#Overwatch #Long post #Under the cut #I'm not tagging every character it's literally all of them #I liked writing these down though #Overwatch Youtubers AU

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yueqingyuan · 4 years

Text

I translated the 2ha audio drama Lantern Festival episode! The original audio can be found here:

https://m.missevan.com/sound/1671784

(Text below the cut)

The Husky and his White Cat Shizun Audio Drama Lantern Festival Special

Noon, Nanping Mountain, in the kitchen

Mo Ran opens the door and enters.

Mo Ran: Shizun, let me.

Chu Wanning: (unhappy) It’s not like I don’t know how to make yuanxiao. [T/N: Basically boiled mochi in soup, the Lantern Festival on the 15th of January is called the Yuanxiao Festival in Chinese.]

He rolls dough and makes yuanxiao.

Mo Ran: (gently, with a faint laugh) Of course Shizun knows how, Shizun knows everything.

Mo Ran: Shizun looks so good when he’s looking down, he looks so focused…

Chu Wanning: (displeased) What are you staring at me for!

Mo Ran: (comes back to attention) Ah… Wanning is good-looking.

Chu Wanning: (flustered and angry) You––

Mo Ran: I got lost looking at you.

Chu Wanning: (sighs helplessly) Hurry up, we have to go back to Sichuan after we eat the yuanxiao.

Mo Ran: Mm. Shizun, you have to roll the yuanxiao in flour before you can put them on the counter. And, your yuanxiao are a bit big.

Chu Wanning: (humphs) You’re managing so much. (pauses) Hurry up a bit, or we won’t get to Sisheng Peak before sundown.

Mo Ran: (laughs) I know. Shizun, don’t worry, we’re almost done.

He puts an arm around Chu Wanning’s shoulder and gently presses a kiss to his long hair.

Chu Wanning struggles free.

Chu Wanning: (flustered and angry) You! (sucks in a breath) Stop messing around!

Mo Ran: Shizun, don’t move, you got some flour on your hair.

Mo Ran reaches out, blows away the flour on Chu Wanning’s fringe, then kisses his forehead, putting his arms around him.

Mo Ran: (lightly) Shizun, we’re going back to Sichuan again.

Chu Wanning: When was the last time we went back to Sichuan?

Mo Ran: Did you forget? It was the new year of the millenium, we went to give Xue Meng the newly-forged Longcheng.

Chu Wanning: (sighs) It has indeed been a while, time passes so quickly.

Mo Ran: I don’t want to see Xue Meng at all. Do you know what he’s been calling me in his letters?

Chu Wanning: Mm?

Mo Ran: (gritting his teeth) Mo. Shi. Niang. [T/N: Shiniang is what you’re supposed to call your Shizun’s wife]

Chu Wanning: (laughs)

Mo Ran: (happy) Actually… if he’s going to call me Shiniang then he can call me Shiniang, whatever. If I can be with Shizun, I’ll be happy no matter what Xue Meng calls me. And, if he doesn’t call me this way, would Mengmeng have to call me Saozi? [T/N: Elder brother’s wife]

Chu Wanning: (annoyed) Mo Weiyu! What’s wrong with you?

Mo Ran: Ah… I misspoke.

He holds him tighter and nudges him a bit.

Mo Ran: Shizun, don’t be mad, okay?

Chu Wanning is silent for a while, then buries his face in his chest.

Chu Wanning: I’m not mad. (pauses) Just, a bit nervous.

Chu Wanning: I’m not afraid of what everyone thinks. The things between Mo Ran and I, I could confess to everyone under the heavens. But, I still don’t know how to face Xue Meng.

Mo Ran: (comforts him) Don’t be scared.

He pats Chu Wanning’s shoulder.

Mo Ran: (gently) No matter what, I’ll stay by your side. If Xue Meng makes you unhappy, I’ll beat him up for you.

Chu Wanning: (laughs)

Mo Ran: I think Mengmeng probably sent letters because he misses us.

Chu Wanning: Probably. It really has been a long time since we’ve seen him.

Chu Wanning: Before, every Lantern Festival would always be the liveliest time at Sisheng Peak.

Flashback. The Lantern Festival, Sisheng Peak, a lively time. Fireworks shoot through the air, firecrackers explode.

Disciple 1: (happily) Shidi, come watch the fireworks! (Wow! These fireworks are so beautiful!)

Disciple 2: Shimei, shimei, let’s go watch the fireworks over there!

Disciple 3: Wow, so beautiful!

Child: (laughing in joy) Let’s light some firecrackers!

Mo Ran runs over and hands Chu Wanning a branch of plum blossoms.

Young Mo Ran: (happily) Shizun! Look! Fresh plum blossoms!

Chu Wanning: What are you giving me flowers for?

Young Mo Ran: (embarrassed) I… just…

Chu Wanning turns to leave, Mo Ran catches his sleeve.

Young Mo Ran: Shizun, don’t leave!

Chu Wanning: (slightly annoyed) Mo Weiyu!

Young Mo Ran: Pay attention to me… (pauses) Shizun! Look! Fireworks!

Fireworks burst in midair, the chime of the clock echoes through Sisheng Peak, Chu Wanning and Mo Ran stand in the wind together and admire the sight, welcoming a new day. The fireworks fade and the night gradually grows silent, Sisheng Peak’s disciples trickle away one by one.

Young Mo Ran: Shizun, these flowers froze, they don’t look good anymore. Shizun, you should toss them out, I’ll pick new ones for you tomorrow.

The flashback ends.

Chu Wanning: Ever since that day, Mo Ran would bring me a fresh flower every day, sometimes a plum blossom, sometimes a haitang. Day after day, year after year. Until *that* event happened…

Mo Ran: Shizun, what is it?

Chu Wanning: (coughs awkwardly) Watch the pot, don’t let them burn.

Mo Ran: Shizun, don’t worry, I’m not you, how could I burn something while boiling… uh… they’re done!

He scoops out a bowl of yuanxiao, picks one up, and offers it.

Mo Ran: Shizun, here, open your mouth.

Chu Wanning: (flustered) I can do it myself.

Mo Ran puts the yuanxiao in Chu Wanning’s mouth, and he can only bite down and chew.

Mo Ran: Be careful, it’s hot!

Chu Wanning: (muffled) You––

Mo Ran: Shizun, do you like it?

Chu Wanning: (lightly) Mm.

Mo Ran: I’m so happy. Shizun, we’re finally going back again.

Chu Wanning: I am too. (pauses, then continues quietly) We’re finally going home.

Nanping Mountain, evening.

Mo Ran: Shizun, wait a moment, let me summon my sword.

The sword appears.

Mo Ran: Alright! Let’s go.

They jump onto the sword.

Chu Wanning: Let’s fly.

Mo Ran: Shizun, give me your hand.

Chu Wanning: What are you up to now?

Mo Ran: Your hands are so cold.

He pulls Chu Wanning into his arms and holds him tight.

Mo Ran: (gently) Shizun, you can hold on to me.

Chu Wanning: (annoyed) For what?!

Mo Ran: (comforting him) Shizun…

Chu Wanning: (retorting) I’m not! (fakes calm, sucks in a breath) I’m not afraid of heights!

Mo Ran: Of course. Shizun is not afraid of anything. (laughs) Shizun, close your eyes.

Chu Wanning: You––

Chu Wanning: (awkwardly changes the topic) You fly quite well.

Mo Ran: (embarrassed by the praise) Shizun taught me well.

Chu Wanning: Since when did I teach you how to fly?

Mo Ran: Uh… either way, flying is not that hard! (scratches his head) I remember the first time I flew on a sword, I went hundreds of meters up in the air.

Chu Wanning: That is quite good. Then… (suddenly thinks of something, starts again with a colder tone) Wait… Mo Weiyu. Didn’t you say that the first time you flew on a sword, you could only get a few feet off the ground?

Mo Ran: I… (obediently owns up to it) Shizun, I’m sorry.

Chu Wanning: Forget it… don’t trick me again in the future.

Mo Ran: (laughs) I know.

Sisheng Peak, evening.

Mo Ran: We’re finally here! The sun’s already gone down.

He holds Chu Wanning’s hand.

Mo Ran: Shizun, are you cold?

Chu Wanning: I’m alright. How long has it been since we’ve last seen Xue Meng?

Mo Ran: It’s been a while. The last time we saw him was when we helped him resolve the trouble with the Jieyou scroll, it’s been a couple of months. [T/N: ‘Jieyou’ means ‘to allay sorrow’, this may be a reference to one of the extras I haven’t read?]

Xue Meng: Shizun.

Chu Wanning: Long time no see.

Xue Meng bows respectfully to Chu Wanning, then turns towards Mo Ran.

Mo Ran: Long time no see, Mengmeng.

Xue Meng: You dog.

Mo Ran: (angry) Xue Mengmeng, piss off…

Xue Meng: Shizun, let’s go to the Red Lotus Pavilion.

Chu Wanning: Alright.

Xue Meng: Everything’s still like how it was before, nothing has changed.

They drink in the pavilion on the shore of the lotus pond, the sounds of pouring wine, clinking cups, and drinking. Xue Meng refills Chu Wanning’s cup, then picks up his own cup and takes a sip.

Xue Meng: Shizun, how have you two been?

Chu Wanning: Quite well. You?

Xue Meng: (laughs) Same as usual.

Mo Ran: Xue Mengmeng, are you drunk? Hey, how many fingers is this?

Xue Meng: (drunkenly) Three.

Mo Ran: Who am I?

Xue Meng: You’re a dog!

Mo Ran: Who’s this next to me?

Xue Meng: Immortal-gege.

Chu Wanning: Xue Meng really is drunk. This might be for the best.

Mo Ran: (laughs) Xue Meng is still like this?

Chu Wanning: Shi Mei is doing well. Xue Meng is doing well. Mo Ran and I are doing well too. Everyone is doing well.

After drinking another jug of wine, Xue Meng is really a bit drunk. He begins to sing that tune he hasn’t sung in such a long time.

Xue Meng:

Half my old friends are now ghosts, I can only meet them in today’s drunken state

Wine hidden under the osmanthus tree, we drink, faces creased, temples grey

Daylight shatters in a dream, everyone gone far away, leaving me behind, tears in my eyes

I’d give my remaining life if you could return after you leave

I visit an old friend under the bright moon, lantern light dying our faces red

Phoenix chick cries at the dawn of spring, in the midst of tranquil rivers and mountains

Don’t drink the hidden wine, return to meet with a brother

No need to live this life together, long from afar, lean on the east wind

Xue Meng: Shizun, Ge, do you want to say?

Mo Ran: (a bit reluctant to leave) No, I’ll go with Shizun to Wuchang Town. It’s late, you should rest.

Xue Meng rises and stumbles away. When he pushes open the door of the Red Lotus Pavilion, the old wood creaks.

Xue Meng: (voice hoarse) Shizun, Ge, I’ll always be here. Come back often.

The door closes, and his footsteps draw away. Only the faint sound of his singing can be heard, moving further and further, until it disappears into the dark night.

Xue Meng:

I visit an old friend under the bright moon, lantern light dying our faces red

Phoenix chick cries at the dawn of spring, in the midst of tranquil rivers and mountains

Don’t drink the hidden wine, return to meet with a brother

No need to live this life together, long from afar, lean on the east wind

Wuchang Town, the night of the Lantern Festival, people walking back and forth.

Mo Ran and Chu Wanning walk down the street.

Chu Wanning: It’s so late, why are so many people still out?

Mo Ran: Shizun, you forgot, today is the Shangyuan Festival. There’s the Lantern Festival. [T/N: Shangyuan Festival, another name for the same holiday.]

Chu Wanning: Why have I never seen it before?

Mo Ran: When I was younger, I would always come out with Xue Meng and Shi Mei to see the Lantern Festival. I was always thinking, how could I get Shizun to come see it with me someday? But then… but then I forgot.

Chu Wanning pats his shoulder comfortingly.

Chu Wanning: Don’t worry about it.

Mo Ran: Shizun, then let’s go see the Lantern Festival together every year. I want to make up for all those regrets.

Chu Wanning: Okay.

Mo Ran takes his hand.

Mo Ran: Not just the Lantern Festival, I have many many things I want to do together with Wanning. We will eat together every day, go to many places together, spend many many years in the future together. I was bad to you many times in the past, and I want to make up for every one of them now.

Chu Wanning: Okay. (pauses) I never blamed you.

Mo Ran: I know. Shizun is so good.

Mo Ran: (excited) Shizun, look! Fireworks!

Mo Ran: Shizun, happy Shangyuan Festival. I’m so happy I could come back to Sichuan with you. I want to watch the fireworks with you every year from now on.

Chu Wanning: We will.

Mo Ran: Wanning, I love you.

Taxian-Jun: It’s been another three days, did Wanning miss this Venerable One?

Chu Wanning: (laughs)

Taxian-Jun: (unhappy) It’s only been a few days, and you’ve come back to Sichuan with that Mo-zongshi?

Chu Wanning: (helpless) Why do you always have to compete with yourself?

Taxian-Jun: (humphs) Forget it. It’s the Shangyuan Festival, right?

Chu Wanning: Mm.

Taxian-Jun: Chu Wanning, actually, this Venerable One… missed you a little bit. Really just a little bit.

Chu Wanning: (laughs) Me too.

#2ha #二哈和他的白猫师尊 #2ha audio drama #my translations #audio drama #2ha translations

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brownskinsugarplum76 · 5 years

Text

100 Asks

I was tagged for this by @basementmermaid quite some time ago… 😬 Here are my answers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Real name : something other than Sugarplum. 😉

2. Nickname: Sugarplum

3. Zodiac sign : Aries gang! 🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

4. Male or female? Female

5. Nursery: I was out during the day as a youngun.

6. Primary: nerd time!

7. Secondary: awkward nerd time! 😞

8. Hair color : brown

9. Long or short: medium

10. Loud or quiet: me? It depends on the day and who I'm around.

11. Sweats or jeans : jeans and yoga pants / lycra leggings

12. Phone or camera : phone

13. Health freak? Kind of. I'm on that almond milk / stevia wave, but I still love my chicken fingers and fries… I would love to exercise more, too…

14. Drink or smoke: drink

15. Do you have a crush on someone : yeah…

16. Political orientation: liberal

17. Piercings: just one set of ear piercings

18. Tattoos: one, on my shoulder blade

19. Airplane? I would love to have a ticket to somewhere right now! I do get nervous during takeoff, but I'll deal with it to go on an awesome trip.

20. Car accident? A few. Thankfully no major injuries, no totalled cars. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

21. Fist fight? I fought over a book before I was like 11, but it was more like slapping. That's it.

22. First piercings: ears

23. First best friend: in kindergarten

24. First instrument: I dabbled on a keyboard that my parents bought

25. First award : won a drawing contest with a fire prevention theme in like 2nd grade

26. First crush: celeb was Prince; IRL, 2 boys in middle school

27. First language : English

28. First big vacation: Miami

29. Last person I talked to: a coworker

30. Last person I texted : my SO

31. Last person I watched : didn't really need watching… 🤷🏽‍♀️

32. Last movie I watched : probably Guardians of the Galaxy 2, on TV. Theater was Secret Life of Pets 2.

34. Last song I listened to: Finer Things, J*Davey

35. Last thing I bought : a bunch of snacks from Trader Joe's, including dried chile mango and jerk-flavored plantain chips

36. Last person I hugged: my SO

38. Favorite drinks: water, iced tea, diet cola, rum & Coke, dark rum and ginger ale

39. Favorite clothing: skinny jeans, maxi skirts/dresses, cute athlesiure clothes and shoes

40. Favorite book: just Finished American Gods and really enjoyed it

41. Favorite color: blue, red, pink, purple

42. Favorite flower: Tea roses, tulips, orchids

43. Favorite music: classic rock, R&B, reggae, Afrobeats, electronica

44. Favorite movie : Love Jones, Guardians of the Galaxy 1&2

46. Favorite subjects: English/Creative Writing, Spanish, French, Biology

In the last year, have I…

47: Kissed in the rain? No

48. Celebrated Halloween? Yes

49. Had your heart broken? No 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

50. Went over cell phone minutes? No (but yes on data)

51. Someone questioned your sexual orientation? No

52. Used a weapon? Probably hit someone with something in a joking manner, but not a legit serious injury weapon

53. Breathed fire? If I ate something really spicy… 🤷🏽‍♀️ My mouth was on fire today from Singapore mei fun

54. Had an abortion? No

55. Done something I regretted? Probably, but nothing large scale.

56. Broke a promise? Yes

57. Kept a secret? Yes

58. Pretended to be happy? A little

59. Meet someone who changed my life? Through books, yes

60. Pretended to be sick? Yes 🤷🏽‍♀️

61. Left the country? No.

62. Tried something I normal wouldn't, and liked it? Yes.

63. Cried over the silliest thing? Yes.

64. Ran a mile? Nah.

65. Went to the beach? I think around this time last year? I'm overdue this year.

66. Stayed single? Nah, taken.

Currently:

67. Eating? Nothing.

68. Drinking? Water.

69. Getting ready to: mentally prepare for a trip to the gym today.

70. Listening to: a podcast called The Friend Zone.

71. Plans for tomorrow: work on my fics ; today: gym.

72. Waiting for: the end of the work day. I have nothing left to do!

The future

73. Want kids? Yes.

74. Want to get married? Yes.

75. Careers in mind? Author, independently wealthy 😩😩😩😂😂😂

What's better on a guy or girl:

76. Lips or eyes? Can't decide! Love both.

77. Shorter or taller? Taller

78. Romantic or spontaneous? Both is a dream…

79. Uve stomach or nice arms? Arms

80. Sensitive or loud? Both are useful at different times.

81. Hook-up or relationship? Relationship.

82. Troublemaker or hesitant? Both have their uses.

Have I ever…

83: lost contacts or glasses? Glasses at an amusement park; hate when contacts creep up high on your eye and you have to work them back down.

84. Ran away from home? No.

85. Held a weapon for self defense? No.

86. Killed somebody? No.

87. Broken someone's heart: Yes. 😔

88. Been arrested? No.

Do you believe in…

90. Yourself? More than I used to.

91. Miracles? Yes.

92. Love at first sight? Yes.

93. Heaven? I do believe there's more after this life.

94. Santa Claus? Not for years.

95. Easter bunny? Same, it since I was a kid.

96. Magic? It's is.

97. Is there someone I want to be with right now? Yes.

98. Am I seriously happy with where I am in life? Yes, I think so. There are ways in which I want to improve, but I feel like I'm on the right track and have some general ideas on how to get there.

99. Am I happy with the person I'm with? Yes.

Please consider yourself tagged if you want to do this!

#asked #answered

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winryofresembool · 5 years

Text

Love Can Melt the Ice, ch. 19

Summary: Figure skating time! Part 2.

A/N: I’m not gonna say much this time. I just... really hope you guys will enjoy this one. It’s important. Thank you ♥

Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 pt 1, pt 2, 16, 17, 18

Next chapter: x

Companion pieces (note: these are all post Olympics happenings so reading the main fic first is recommended): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Words:4543 (yup. A monster)

Genre: hmmm.

Warnings: pls have your tooth brushes nearby.

Winry closed her eyes for a moment and peeked through the glass door again. Was she really seeing correctly? Ed? Talking with Mei Chang? Alone, without Al? What was he doing with her? There was no mistaking him, though; she could clearly see his long golden mane, the crutches in his hands and the cast in his left leg.

She knew they hadn’t seen her yet and tried to figure out how to get out of the arena without being noticed. If she just marched out there and asked what was going on, she would probably get to hear a bunch of lies, making the situation even worse. Still, she couldn’t stand behind the door either; people were coming in and out, and she’d get caught staring. She decided to use another exit on the other side of the arena, casting one last look towards the door before biting her lip and turning away.

Had Winry stayed 10 seconds longer, she would have seen Al joining Ed and Mei, giving Mei something as he arrived. Not long after, the group separated, Ed leaving towards the hotel, Al and Mei towards a restaurant. But she didn’t see any of that, so her mind was racing 120 km/hour as she took the longer route to another exit.

One, a small part of her was yelling extremely loud curses in her head, but the rational part of her tried to convince her that what she had just seen meant nothing. Maybe Ed had just been waiting to see her and accidentally bumped into Mei. Winry knew Mei well enough to know she was very familiar with hockey, so maybe she had recognized Ed and wanted to introduce herself. Besides, after the sweet, private moments in her room, would Ed really just ignore all that? That didn’t seem like something he would do.

Winry realized that if she was going to make this, what could be a beginning of a meaningful relationship, work, she had to trust him. And in the end, nothing about the meeting she had witnessed had suggested anything more than a friendly encounter. But still, where had Al been? And why had she smiled so widely at him? And why did all of this have to happen now that she was supposed to focus on her competition and they were going to leave to their home country in only a few days?

When Winry got back into her hotel room, she decided to do what best calmed down her mind; drawing blueprints for her next mechanical project. When she began drawing, she had no idea what she wanted to make, but soon the sketch started to become clearer; it resembled an arm. At first she thought she was unconsciously drawing the exact copy of Ed’s automail arm, but at closer inspection she realized it looked different. It looked more like the person whom she was imagining using it; a flame symbol decorated the top plate, reminding her of his fierce nature. Even though the material she wanted to use for this automail was lighter than the one he was now using, the layers it had made it stronger. She had to admit, she quite liked how it ended up looking.

Just when she was putting away her pencils and erasers, her phone started ringing.

“Granny! Hi! How are you doing?” Winry had been thinking about her grandmother quite a lot for the past few days, so hearing her familiar voice made her feel better.

“I’m doing just fine, dear. But I must say, I am slightly surprised you haven’t called me since the team event. I hope everything’s fine there, though, because it’s not like you to ignore your grandmother.”

“E-everything’s alright! I hope you saw my performance today. Only 0,10 points from the lead!”

“I saw it! You looked wonderful out there. But you don’t sound very convincing, I hope it really is alright.”

“It’s… a long story. Granny, I… like someone.”

“Really? Now that’s a surprise. I thought you are so into your sport you don’t have time for anything else.”

“Yeah… I kinda thought so too. So, do you remember Edward Elric from Resembool? Our ex neighbor?”

“Of course I do! You guys were always at it, fighting with each other all the time, but if someone dared to say a bad word about you, he was always there to defend you.” Pinako smiled at her memory. “Have you seen him there? Doesn’t he play hockey these days?”

“Yes, I have, and he does… You see… He’s kinda the person I like. And I think he likes me too.”

“Oh! Well, if he’s anything like his parents, I’m sure he’s a decent person.”

“He is… Only, today I saw him talking with my rival and… I don’t know what to think about it. I mean, it probably was nothing, but… I got jealous.”

“If he is in his right mind, he doesn’t even look at anyone else when he could have my granddaughter. Don’t worry, Winry. If that bothers you, why don’t you just ask him?”

“I already had one opportunity, but I chickened… And I can’t ask him now because I said we should keep some distance between us until my competition is over.”

“You have put yourself in quite a situation. But my advice is that just talk with him. That way you’ll know what exactly happened.”

“Right. Thanks, granny.”

“No problem.”

After saying her worries aloud, Winry realized how silly they must have sounded. After all, it wasn’t like Ed wasn’t allowed to talk with other girls. That’s why she decided to change the topic: “Hey, listen! I just drew some blueprints for an automail and I’d like you to take a look at it. I’ll send you a photo and you can then tell me your opinion on it!”

The grandmother and granddaughter spent the rest of the evening discussing Winry’s automail, Pinako giving Winry some advice and improvement suggestions and Winry doing the necessary changes. By the end of the evening, she was feeling like herself again, and was already imagining how Ed would react when she’d show him the blueprints.

…

“Next up, performing her free program, Winry Rockbell!”

Winry inhaled and exhaled deeply and shook her limbs to warm the muscles up before finally stepping on the ice. She had thought the previous performances would have calmed her nerves a bit, but as she was waiting for the music to start playing, she realized that this was every bit as hard as it had been earlier. Maybe even harder in a certain sense. The reason for that was sitting in the stands, or at least she assumed he did. For some reason, knowing that he was watching, made this performance more personal.

When Garfiel, who usually made Winry’s choreographies, had suggested her free program would have a romantic theme, Winry hadn’t liked the idea. Romantic love had always been a foreign area to her, and she had never even officially dated anyone even though the reason for that wasn’t the lack of interested people. It was the lack of interesting people. The few times she had been on dates, she had noticed the other person was on a totally different wave length from her, not caring about the same things she did, or asking her out simply because they had recognized her from TV. Sometimes she had wondered if there was something wrong with her, or if she was simply an a-sexual, but she hadn’t gotten answers to her questions until she arrived in the Olympic venue.

Was it love she was feeling towards Ed? Winry had always been one to think that real love didn’t strike anyone that fast, but when she had told Ed she was falling for him, she had meant it. She might not be quite there yet, but she was on her way. The thought of getting to spend more time with him and learn to know him even better excited her. On the other hand, she had felt jealous when she saw Ed with Mei, which was an emotion only familiar to her from her childhood when she had seen her classmates getting hugs and kisses from their parents, and she had only had her grandmother. She knew Ed could be a tough person to handle on his worst days, but somehow, she believed the good days would win them 100-0. If he gave her a chance…

Because of all this, she felt she understood the character she was acting in her performance a lot better now. Earlier, she had often gotten critique for performing the elements cleanly but lacking in the emotion department. The audience would see a robot doing what she was supposed to do, not having any emotional connection with the performance. Now, she wished that she could use her recent experiences to build a believable story that did move something in the audience’s hearts.

She quickly tested that her hair and the bright red dress with a lot of glitter on it (Garfiel’s idea) were where they were supposed to be and finally heard the first sounds of the romantic song starting to play, meaning it was go-time.

The first element in her free program was a triple Lutz – triple toe loop combination. She managed to land it cleanly, but was worried her body language was screaming she didn’t know what to do… If only she’d get the three first jump elements out of the way, then she could breathe a bit. The step sequences and spins had always been more of her thing.

Double Axel. Done! And she felt she would have had enough speed to keep on rotating but decided to not risk it this time. There would be a time and place for a surprise factor later on…

Then came the final jumps of the first half of her performance, a triple Salchow – triple toe loop combination. Unfortunately, Winry had gotten a bit too confident after the double Axel, and she slipped a bit between the jumps, having to cut the rotation short and making it only double toe loop. Not a big loss, considering she still hadn’t fallen or otherwise failed, but it still bummed her for a moment.

She didn’t have time to get stuck on that one slight slip, though, because she already needed to start focusing on the first spin. It was successful, and finally she managed to make herself smile a bit as she moved onto the step sequence. Even though step sequences had always been her favorite part of her programs, she found this particular one challenging because she was supposed to express the happiness of having met someone special. Now she understood that emotion better, though, and the audience oohed and aahed with excitement as they watched her move swiftly, the smile coming from her heart instead of being forced.

…

“How the hell did she do that?” Ed asked as Al and he were watching Winry performing a triple flip – double toe loop – double loop combination. To Ed even one jump was amazing, to perform 3 of them in a row was beyond his understanding.

“It’s called routine, brother, she has practiced that for years,” Al stated. It was really amusing to watch how into Ed could get into this sport he knew nothing about, all because of that young woman who was currently gliding on the ice. If he was honest, Ed was the last person he would have expected to see in such a situation, but it was a nice change, and he could see it was doing good to his brother.

Ed yelled proudly when he saw Winry perform another jump, triple Lutz this time, then turned to look at Al briefly:

“Do you think she has a chance of winning this?”

“It is going well, I don’t see why not. But the competition is tough.”

“Right.”

“Hold on a sec.” Al held his breath for a moment when Winry was in the air again. “That isn’t… yup, it is! Triple Axel!”

Ed didn’t really know what a triple Axel was, or how it differed from the other jumps (he made a mental note to learn more about it later), but it must have been something awesome because the entire audience around him was roaring with excitement.

“W-what?” he asked.

“Brother, you really should do some studying on figure skating… Only a few female skaters have managed to land it successfully in a competition. She did it in the team event here, but I believe that’s when she got hurt… But based on her reactions there were no issues this time! Now she REALLY has a chance of winning!”

Ed focused his attention on Winry’s facial expressions and noticed that she really did seem like a huge weight had fallen from her shoulders as she was performing a choreographic sequence. In fact, her expression looked a lot like the one he had only seen on her face when they had been alone in her room. But why would she…

“Uh, Al? What do you think this performance is about?” he asked suddenly.

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s a love story, she meets someone and shows her love for that person.”

“Really?”

“Definitely.”

Ed felt a blush spreading on his face as he took Al’s words in. Suddenly focusing on the performance felt a bit harder. He did see her jump one last time (Al did say the jump’s name but he missed it) and do the spin combination that finished the routine, but his mind was elsewhere. He would have to tell her about his decision soon.

…

“Congratulations, dear, that was a fantastic performance! I am so proud of you! And that triple Axel? Only you would have had guts to do that again after what happened the last time! But the risk was worth it!”

“Thank you, Garfiel!” Winry said as she hugged her coach. “I felt… I needed to prove myself I could do it even though I would have probably done just fine even with a double Axel… “

“To me it looked like you also did a lot better job portraying the emotions of your character… Is there any specific reason for that?”

“Uhh… nothing you need to know right now… I’ll tell you some other time,” Winry answered awkwardly.

Winry barely had time to take a breath after pulling away from Garfiel when two new sets of arms surrounded her.

“If that isn’t a gold winning performance, I don’t know what is!” Paninya squeeled and Rosé agreed with her.

“Oh, come on, guys, you are not here to celebrate me, you are my rivals!” Winry scolded them. “Now, if you don’t go back to your preparations, I’m gonna kick your asses. And Garfiel, we need to go, they are gonna announce the points any minute now.”

They sat down on their seats, and sure enough, only a few moments later the announcer yelled:

“And Winry Rockbell’s points are… 150,15! Together with the short program, that makes 232,10 points! What an astounding performance! That is her personal best!”

“Wow…” was all Winry could say.

“Winry, my dear… I think a new champion has risen.” Garfiel said next to her.

…

Paninya and Rosé’s turn was soon after, and both succeeded well with their performances. Paninya got her personal best score and Rosé got her seasonal best as well. The two of them were already ready to celebrate Winry’s victory when it was Mei Chang’s turn, and they held their breaths (probably more nervous than Winry herself) as she performed. The audience reacted loudly to her elements and it was clear everything was going according to Mei’s plan.

A few minutes later, her points were announced: 148,5. Together with the short program, that wasn’t enough to top Winry. She couldn’t help but smile a bit, remembering what she had seen the day before. This also Winry really had a chance of winning the entire competition.

The last skater of the night, and Winry’s biggest challenger, was Lan Fan from Xing. She had gotten just slightly better points than Winry in the short program, but she was known to shine in her free programs, so despite Winry’s amazing points, nothing had been decided yet.

As expected, she performed her elements flawlessly, but her jumps were slightly easier than Winry’s, and at least in Garfiel’s opinion she seemed to lack the charm Winry had had on the ice. Winry watched the performance in the dressing room with the other girls, but when she met with Garfiel afterwards, she found him biting his fingernails nervously.

Winry wasn’t sure what she was feeling at that moment. The biggest part of her was relieved it was over; no matter what would happen, she already knew she had done her best and would go home with a medal. However, there was a reason why she was a professional athlete; she did have the competitive side in her, and that side tried to argue with the rational side that said she could be proud of herself, either way. A silver would be a disappointment after such a performance.

Winry’s heart was beating fast when Garfiel took her hand as the announcer started to speak.

“Lan Fan’s points are: 149,10! That means she wins the silver medal, winning her country woman Mei Chang by a point. Our Olympic gold medal winner is… Winry Rockbell from Amestris!!!”

…

“Ed, you gotta go!” Al tried to get him to leave the arena before the rest of the audience would.

“What, I want to congratulate her! Dammit, Al! This is the biggest moment of her career so far and you are telling me to leave?!”

“I mean, she’s gonna have a party, and you can’t go there looking like that! Brother, please!”

“Fine. But if you see her, you’ll tell her that I’ll see her soon, right?”

“Of course! Just go now.”

…

She really was the Olympic champion. When the information sunk in, it seemed like her brain just turned off and she could remember only bits and pieces of what happened afterwards.

There were a lot of hugs. Garfiel, waiting for the points next to her, was obviously the first one to hug her. Rosé, Paninya and Gracia were all waiting for her by the rinkside, giving her quick, tight hugs before she had to go back to the ice to accept her reward. When she joined the other medalists on the ice, they hugged her too, and especially Mei seemed really enthusiastic and happy for her, making Winry a bit confused. Was there something going on she didn’t know about? In that moment, she only wished she could find the person she wanted to hug the most, but scanning the audience with her eyes, she couldn’t find him. One would have thought it would be easy to spot the two golden haired men in the audience, and she knew for fact they had promised to be there, but for some reason she couldn’t find them.

She accepted the flowers and the plush she was given (the actual medal would be given later that day in a special ceremony outside the arena) and after skating a few rounds and thanking the audience, she tried to get into the dressing room to change into something more comfortable. That turned out to be difficult though, with all the passing people wanting to congratulate her and get her first comments, and it took her at least 15 minutes to finally get into her destination.

“You haven’t possibly seen Ed and his brother anywhere?” Winry asked her figure skating team that was already starting the party in the dressing room, popping a bottle of champagne that someone had hidden into the locker.

“No, not a glimpse,” Paninya and Rose answered in unison. Winry started getting anxious. This was such a huge moment for her, and she really wanted all her favorite people to be around.

It took a while before she could leave anywhere because glasses needed to be emptied, speeches given and songs sung. Paninya even threatened to throw Winry into the cold shower like was the habit in the hockey world, but fortunately for Winry, she managed to talk her out of it. Eventually, she managed to sneak out with the excuse that she needed to go back into her hotel room because she had left her party dress there.

Before she would do that, though, she would find out where the hell Edward was. He hadn’t even answered her calls while the other girls had taken Garfiel into the cold shower instead of her. Briefly, she wondered if that meeting with Mei had something to do with this, but quickly pushed that thought aside. Now was not the time for that.

When she got into the hotel hallway that Amestris’ athletes shared, she debated for a long while if she should go and change like she was supposed to, or if she should just march into Ed’s room and let him hear it if he happened to be there. She chose the latter.

“Edward Elric! If you are there, get your ass out right now!” she nearly yelled as she banged his door. She wasn’t actually expecting anyone to be there, so when she heard the sound of the crutches from inside the room, her eyes widened in embarrassment.

“Hi?” Ed opened the door, revealing the black suit and a red tie he was wearing. Winry looked at his outfit with confusion.

“Are you going somewhere?”

She guessed it was too much to ask him to spend this important night with her.

“Aren’t you?” Ed took in the tiny red figure skating dress she was still wearing. Why did she have to look so good in it, he growled in his mind. “I’m not sure that dress is the most appropriate one for a formal party.”

“What are you talking about?” Winry felt she understood less and less about what was going on.

“That you and I are gonna go to your party, what else would I be talking about?”

“I thought… I thought…” Winry couldn’t form a full sentence. He had been thinking about her after all.

“What?” Ed asked, equally confused.

“That you had forgotten. Or didn’t want to go. Or had other plans…”

“And why would you think that?” Ed frowned. He didn’t understand why Winry was acting so weirdly all of a sudden.

“Because I didn’t see you at the arena! And you didn’t answer to my call! And I saw you hanging out with Mei Chang the other day!” she blurted without thinking.

“Again: what? Winry, there’s a good explanation to all of those things. I left the arena early because when it became clear you would win, Al forced me to come back here to clean up because apparently I couldn’t look like an emo at your party. I wouldn’t have wanted to leave. He also promised to let you know I would be waiting here. Which clearly he didn’t. And I didn’t hear your phone call because I was in the shower. And I definitely wasn’t with Mei because I wanted to, but because Al told me to wait with her while he was getting her some flowers or chocolate or who knows what unnecessary… They were gonna go out for a dinner, you see.”

“So… you’re saying all of that was just an unfortunate misunderstanding?”

“Yes, you silly.”

“Great. Of course I would ruin my own party by overthinking things.” Winry sat down on Ed’s bed and covered her face with her hand with embarrassment.

“Hey, don’t be mad at yourself. You couldn’t have known.” Ed sat down next to Winry, setting his crutches down, and took her chin between his thumb and index finger and lifted it, so she was staring right in his eyes.

“But I…” She couldn’t finish her sentence because she noticed the expression on Ed’s face, and it nearly made her knees go weak. She had seen that fierce, determined look a couple of times before, all of them right before they had almost…

Only this time there wasn’t “almost”. Ed hesitated only one moment, deciding this was a now or never situation, and with his free hand he pulled her closer. He moved the hand that had been holding her chin behind her neck, while he was wondering how she would react to what he was about to do. Winry didn’t have time to close her eyes before he pressed his lips against hers, a bit sloppily but firmly, soon finding the right angle to get best access to her lips. Winry couldn’t help but smile into the kiss when her brain finally registered what was happening. He really was kissing her.

All too fast, he pulled away, his heart pounding faster than in a hockey game and his cheeks adorably red. Winry thought she couldn’t have looked much calmer herself. She had imagined this situation so many times in her head, but now that it finally happened, she couldn’t nearly believe it. From that little preview she knew she wanted that to happen again. And last a lot longer.

Finally, her brain recovered enough to be able to form full sentences:

“Hold on. Ed, would you care to explain what this means? Didn’t you say the other day you had promised…”

“Shhh, just listen. I can’t… I can’t promise it’s always gonna be an easy road, but… I want to try.” Winry looked at him expectantly, so he continued: “You have made me see I don’t have to do this alone, and I really owe you a lot for that. You have made me feel happy even though normally I wouldn’t even be able to get out of my bed in this situation.” Winry knew he was referring to his broken leg and the tournament that had ended too early for him. “So that’s really amazing. You just seem to have that weird power. You know, you deserve to be happy, and I… I want to be someone who makes you happy. Equivalent exchange, right?”

“Ed!” she squealed and hugged him so forcefully he almost fell from the bed.

“So, what do you say? Do you want to give me a shot?” he asked nervously.

“Yes, you idiot!”

This time it was her turn to initiate the kiss. It was much longer than the first one, and Ed even allowed his hand to wander on the backside of Winry’s thin dress, feeling the smooth material and causing chills in Winry’s core.

“By the way… Congratulations,” he whispered, leaning his forehead against hers.

“For what?” Winry had nearly forgotten what had happened only a little while ago.

“For winning the Olympic gold, dummy. My girlfriend is world’s best figure skater!” Ed exclaimed proudly.

“Oh… thank you.” Winry blushed and pecked his lips once more.

“So… Will you get your dress changed?” Ed asked with much more confidence when they pulled apart.

“Yes… But if you think I’ll let you watch just because you’re my boyfriend now… well, I dare you to try.”

“You’re feisty. I like that.” Ed snorted and Winry threw a pillow at him.

Ed stayed nicely in his room while Winry went to change, but the whole time both of them had huge smiles on their faces. Somehow, Winry had a feeling she had just won something far more valuable than an Olympic gold.

#edwin #edward elric #winry rockbell #fullmetal alchemist #ice skating au #lcmti #aa i'm so excite #i have wanted to write this a loong time #pls review pls

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funkymeihem-fiction · 6 years

Text

Strange Honey- Chapter 3

It was a strange dream. It hummed in her head and made everything hurt a little, just several frequencies too low and throbbing inside her skull. She was up higher than she should have been, taller than she should have been for some reason. Below her was a shifting, shapeless mass of sunflowers; streaks and smears of green and yellow color that stretched out until they were the horizon. That was where they met the blue of the sky, and shining down upon her was the yellow orb of the sun. It was hot, that sun. It was so hot and she bowed her head against it, but when she looked down, the yellow flowers were all suns too, and they burned as well. The humming got louder and louder and it got hotter and hotter and hotter until she couldn’t stand any more and then-

She woke up just like last time, clammy with nightmare perspiration and limbs clutched together and tangled. Mei had not been sleeping well, the past few nights. It was simply too warm and humid for someone like her, steaming moisture draping over like a blanket that she couldn’t take off. She would wake up covered in dew and sweat, her sheets kicked off around her and her long-abandoned quilt pooled on the floor.

The morning sun streaming in her window promised yet another hot and steamy day, and the screaming of the cicadas starting their songs with the sunrise must have invaded her dreams. Strange, though, that she’d been having that same dream for the past four days. No doubt that it was from her preoccupation with the otherworldly presence that still lingered out in those fields. Her attempts to make contact with it had not gone as planned, and guilt over the incident still bothered her greatly. The unfortunate chicken rotting in that tarp in the hole in that ground was proof of that.

Mr. Rutledge seemed to have written off the missing hen easily enough, at least. Sometimes on farms, animals simply wandered off or died. He remained as inscrutable as ever, and his gruff mannerisms made it hard to tell if he was irked at her or if he was just his usual solemn self. She had no idea if he even suspected her at all, but did not dare bring it up again. She’d already had to lie to him once, and if cornered on the matter she had no idea how she was going to explain that she had accidentally instigated a magical scarecrow murder on poor innocent Penny.

A little more caution was in order when it came to communicating with this thing. The plan with the food offerings hadn’t panned out, so she needed to come up with something different. She was fairly sure that written language of any sort wouldn’t work either, but perhaps pictures would. A drawing pad and a slightly sub-par set of art skills would work there, but first she needed to coax it out of hiding. From there, maybe she could learn if it had a name, or where it was from, or what it was at all? Maybe she could even record herself communicating with this entity and deliver its existence to the rest of the world. The world of academia would certainly be more interested in that than her summer of agricultural study, she bet.

But first she had to find it. It seemed to have a mutual interest in her, at least, even if was still hiding for some reason. It had delivered her glasses and made her its own sickening form of a picnic, but she hadn’t seen evidence of it since. Maybe it was waiting for her, since it had delivered her its last gift and now it was her ‘turn’, so to speak. For all she knew, it was out there hanging on its pole and waiting for her even now.

The problem being that Mr. Rutledge was keeping her busier than ever, and she had a suspicion that he was doing it on purpose. And he seemed to be keeping an eye on her, as well. He happened to wander by at odd moments or could be seen far away watching her, checking on her whereabouts, and kept her close to the house and the hives with an unending amount of chores. And with her grades riding on the man’s whims, she did not dare challenge it.

But she could outsmart it.

Earlier in the week, she’d offered to start cooking more. She claimed to be missing some of the dishes from her home, and said she had wanted to introduce Mr. Rutledge to some of her Xi’an cuisine. Every night had seen her slaving in the kitchen, and true to her word she had come out with dishes that stunned the older man. Mr. Rutledge had become quickly addicted to her stir-fry vegetables, her spiced stews, handmade noodles, and especially her bao. The man could devour stacks of bao like nothing she had ever seen. It had endeared her to him…and it also helped to quickly empty the pantry at top speed.

The grocery run came far quicker than before. And this time, she had given him a list and the directions to an Asian market a few towns away. He had been reluctant at first, but when she showed him the empty spice containers and mournfully went on that she just couldn’t make his favorite bao without them, he had relented even more quickly than she had expected.

She guided him out to his crusty pick-up truck, which heaved and squeaked as it pitched to one side when he hauled his enormous weight into the cab.

“Doubanjiang sauce… black bean paste, right? And what is this?” He gave his list a mystified glance over, holding it delicately between two huge fingers.

“Don’t worry, I’ve written everything down. Just show it to anyone working there, and if they can read English or Hanzi they can help you find it,” she assured him. “My next dish is going to be mapo tofu, I just know you’re going to love it. With dessert bao, you haven’t tried the dessert kind yet! I can even make different flavors to see what you like, and it will be so good with honey. I’m sorry for all the ingredients, but between the Asian market and the regular store you should be able to get it all without much fuss.”

“Mm…” He frowned and tucked the list into a pocket, turning to her. “While I’m gone, you’ll need to care of a few things. You need to do a varroa monitor check on the hives, fresh water change, and make sure hive six has stopped robbing hive two, the buggers. And since I’ll be gone for a bit, you need to feed the goats and pigs, and-”

“I remember, don’t worry. I’ll make sure everything is done, it’ll only be a few hours at most. Bye, Mr. Rutledge!”

“Mmm…” he uttered another low rumble, but shut the door with a rattling slam as the truck started up and began clattering off down the dirt roads, towards the distant main highways.

Mei waved as casually as she could, already heading back into the house as if to start the list of chores…although she’d not told Mr. Rutledge that she had already guessed what he would want her to do to keep her busy, and had done those chores much earlier in the day when she’d concocted this little scheme to get him out of the house. It had run her ragged most of the morning, in between her usual to-do list, but now she was free.

Once more she put together her little supply bag; with her pencils and crayons and notebook, her phone with the camera and recording programs all ready to go, and a sharp kitchen knife…just for sample-taking, of course. The last thing to do was feed the goats and pigs. She paused only to hastily dump buckets of leftovers and slop into their respective pens, leaving the bleating and happy squealing of the animals behind her quickly as she took out across the farm once again. That would tide the beasts over while she did her other set of chores, the far more important ones.

Passing by the hives and gardens, her boots kicked up little puffs of dust as she walked. It hadn’t rained in quite a while, and she could see how the leaves on the plants had begun to yellow and brown, shriveling on the edges and withering away from the harsh sunlight. The gardens had been surviving by them dragging can after can of water to keep the ground moist, but out here, the crops had been suffering. Mr. Rutledge’s farm was too small and sprinkler systems were too expensive (and likely the man was simply too stubborn) so the plants were left to the mercy of nature.

But even Mr. Rutledge had turned his head to the sky a few times and hoped aloud for rain. Thus far, summer had been long and hot and dry, and showed no signs of stopping. She crashed through the rows of dust-covered pumpkins and shriveled corn leaves just as before, out into the field where even the sweetgrass was bowing and shying away from the unrelenting sunlight. That was the only constant around here this summer, was the sun and the scream of insects.

Well, those and…the sunflowers? Cautiously, she made her way through the dried grass, the soft hush-hush of the strands tickling the bare skin of her legs. As she tromped across the field, she could see that the sunflowers were as lush and green as ever. They stood tall in the muggy stillness, cheerful yellow petals open and welcoming the burning light. With a small hop, she could barely manage to see over the tops of the flowers and caught the briefest glimpse of the scarecrow, out on its pole like before. It was here.

She adjusted her glasses nervously before clearing her throat, lifting her voice. “Hello? Hello!”

Pausing after to listen, she heard nothing, so she bent her legs and performed another silly hop. The blip of color and cloth out in the middle of the flowers was gone now. The scarecrow was no longer on its pole.

Steeling herself, she couldn’t help but wring her hands a bit before stalwartly lowering them to her sides, fists still clenched with tension. Her voice cracked a little at first. “H-hello again. I’m sorry I can’t really greet you more properly, but I don’t know your name. Or if you have a name. But I got your um…your message? And I think you were trying to be friendly, right? Just like I was trying to be friendly.”

No answer.

“But you killed Penny, that chicken. And that’s not very friendly. I don’t want you to kill any more chickens, okay? Or anything else. We shouldn’t kill anything. I think it was just a misunderstanding, and I’m not mad. I’m sure you didn’t mean it, but let’s not let it happen again. Okay?”

No answer.

She hoped she wasn’t insulting it somehow, speaking in such a manner. It sounded almost like she was scolding a naughty child…although this naughty child was some sort of supernatural force with a connection to this field and to the insects that she had not figured out, and there was no sign that it understood her at all, yet. Which brought her to her next experiment…

She set down her bag and rummaged through it before pulling out the drawing pad and materials. Holding it up towards the sunflower field and feeling a bit silly as she did so, she flashed a handful of crayons and pencils. “I thought we could try again, though. I’m not sure if you can speak or write, but maybe we can still understand each other! Do you know how to draw? Here, we make markings on the page, like this.”

Fumbling a bit awkwardly, she wedged the pad against her chest and plucked one of her crayons. Despite the odd angle, she managed to draw an almost-passable outline of a sunflower. For posterity, she even grabbed a yellow crayon and scribbled in the petals just in case. Holding it up, she slowly moved it from side to side, as if the whole field was her audience. “See? A flower! Maybe there’s something you want to show me through drawing, so I’m going to put this here…”

She gingerly stepped to the edge of the field, setting the crayons and paper down onto the grass. Quickly retreating back with a little skip, she hurried back a ‘safe’ distance away and waited. But just as before, nothing happened. The cicadas screamed and the sun burned, and that was all. Furrowing her brows, Mei eventually sighed and impatiently threw open her arms. “Can you at least tell me that you’re here? If you won’t talk, can you give me some kind of sign? Please, is anyone there at all!”

This time, there was a response. There was a sudden rattling clatter of leaves within the flowers, like something was moving through them like before; like a shark through water, swift and sharp and cutting through with ease. It wavered on its path, stalks and blossoms rattling as she watched wide-eyed, and then it came to an abrupt halt…in front of where the drawing pad was resting. It was too deep in for her to see anything, but it seemed reluctant to approach still. But…it was there. He was there.

Her eyes widened behind her glasses, taking a few steps back. And for each step away she took, whatever was in amongst the leaves got just a little bit closer, rustling softly. But when she tried taking a step towards it, it backed away. So she stepped back and lifted both hands in surrender.

“It’s okay if you’re shy, that’s okay. Do you want to draw? Maybe you want to draw, but you don’t want to come out?” She tilted her head and leaned to the side to see if she could see anything through the stalks, but found nothing. “Okay, I know! I’m going to walk away, and go around the corn field and then come back. You can just leave me a message if you want. Would that work?” She swept one arm towards said field, sidling away. “I’m going to go, and I’m not going to look back. I promise.”

And that was exactly what she did. Making a little show of turning about on her heel, she strode back the way she had come, through the dry grass and towards the rows of corn. She thought that she could hear rustling behind her, and some part of her desperately wished to turn her head, maybe to see if she could catch a glimpse of it. But she had promised, and other than a little dart of her eyes, she kept her head straight and forward as she passed out of view.

***

He came from between the flowers, watching her go. He thought perhaps that he would follow her, but his eyes were instead drawn to the things on the ground. She had left him the sketch pad and a pile of drawing things, just as she had said.

Bending his long limbs, he crouched amongst the grass, his gloved fingers plucking it up. Such a considerate girl. She had rolled it over to a fresh sheet of paper for him, but he fumbled for the edges of the page, trying not to rip it as he turned it up and over. Backwards, so he could look down at the flower she had drawn just for him, one of his sunflowers.

He looked at it for a while, hunched over and cradling it atop his bent knees as he turned his hand to run his knuckles slowly over the paper. Another sunflower, just for him. From a kind girl. A sweet girl.

Shifting one foot, there was a little clatter as it knocked into the pile of pencils and crayons. How strange they looked; bright and unnatural colors against the dying yellow-brown of the grass. Those blues were not like any blue thing out here, and there were other things like hot pink and chartreuse and cyan, and even the red seemed somehow too red. It was not red like a rose, or a cardinal, or even a nice ripe strawberry. There was only one thing he knew of that was nearly so red as that…and it was-…

…

He was starting to remember.

Cracked leather digits picked up one of the crayons, dragging it across the paper she had already drawn on. The wax left behind trails of color, and some far-off part of him delighted at the result. He flipped the page and continued, scribbling rapidly as he brought blues and blacks and other hues into play. Pictures formed on the pad, just for her. These ones, they were for her.

Not like…the other ones…?

More pictures More pictures for her. He stopped only when her footfalls fell on the dusty little path by the rows of corn. Glancing up, he dropped the crayons into a pile, and carefully set down the sketchpad. She would find them, and be so happy, and it made him happy that she would be happy.

He returned to the darkness beneath the sunflowers.

***

Mei’s eyes were immediately drawn to the place where she had left the sketchpad, and her heart gave a little fluttering leap in her chest. It had been moved from its spot. Wiping sweat from her forehead with one forearm, she bustled forward eagerly, practically running to see what had transpired during her little lap around the next fields. Snatching it up, she smoothed the page down and looked to see what it was trying to communicate…

Her brows furrowed.

It was the picture she had drawn of the sunflower. But the entity had added to it, drawn on top of it. The flower had been given green scribbles for its stalks and leaves, down to a few quick brown lines that was clearly soil. But below that, the ground was had been colored in red, and below the flower there was a large black oval.

What on earth was that supposed to mean? It certainly looked ominous.

She tried flipping to the next page and saw that it had drawn more. The pictures themselves were a bit awkward, almost child-like. The strokes from the crayons and pencils were rough and quick and unpracticed, like it was having trouble somehow.

The first picture must have just been it testing the drawing materials, at least from what she could surmise. It was another big black oval in the center of the page, surrounded by much smaller scribbles of what seemed to be bugs. Bees, mostly, if the combination of yellow and black was any indicator. It had already shown a fondness for insects and bees, which was not surprising.

The next picture was two…things…standing under a blue sky, with a streak of yellow and green behind them, which she guessed was the sunflowers. Again, the ground was red and brown beneath them. But the things themselves were…One was a figure, a human, and when she looked closer she felt that it was supposed to be her. It was lopsided and a bit fat, and her mouth and one of her eyes kind of went upward humorously on one side, but by the glasses and the line of the pin in her bun, it was supposed to be her. She was happy and smiling and holding out one arm with…She wasn’t sure what she was holding there, another red scribble…She was holding something out to the black oval, which was now standing upright beside her on the page.

The next page was a hastily-made depiction of a scarecrow, surrounded by yet another black oval. It wasn’t much more than a half finished collection of lines, but there was a long and rather eerily-drawn skinny body with large gloves and a line for one leg. The face was just a brown circle with a smiling line for the mouth that went past the borders of its own head, and the eyes were two large yellow circles where it had borne the crayon down very, very hard.

She swallowed down a strange feeling, instead making herself turn to the field and put on her own smile once more.

“These are great! I’m so glad we can at least draw together!” she said. “I wish you could tell me what these mean. And if you had a name, too-”

“…I remember.”

Pausing to muse over the drawings again, she had almost a comically delayed reaction time when the voice came from out of the sunflowers. It was low and warped and had a strangely echoing, almost buzzing quality to it. They were words, spoken words. The entity could talk, and it was talking to her.

Doubletaking, she nearly dropped the sketchbook as she jumped back from the edge of the field with a noise of surprise. Her eyes bulged so hard she could almost feel the lenses of her glasses against them, staring in shocked awe at the innocent mess of yellow bless. “Y-you can speak after all? You remember? What do you remember!”

She fumbled with her phone, clicking it on and struggling to scroll to the recording program, even as the unearthly guttural voice sounded again. It emanated from somewhere deeper in the sunflower field, out of view. She couldn’t be sure but…something about its tone, strange as it was, sounded confused, almost pained.

“I remember when.”

She hit the recording button and aimed it at the flowers, hands shaking with nervous excitement. “You remember when what? What are you remembering? Can you tell me?”

There was a long pause with no answer, before the sunflowers suddenly began rattling again. The scarecrow, or whatever it was, moved through them once more…Only this time, it was to go away from her. The stalks and blooms clattered softly behind it, and it headed off deeper into the field. And with the rapid speed at which it moved, it was only a few moments before it was entirely gone.

“Wait! Scarecrow, come back! What do you remember!”

It was no use. The creature showed no signs of returning and had abandoned the scene. Perplexed, she shut off her cameras. Her attempts at communication had gone better than expected, and now she knew that it was able to talk. And apparently, it was able to ‘remember’. But ‘remembering’ seemed to have alarmed it somehow as well, and it had fled before she could get anything more. She had no video evidence, but she did have its drawings.

Gathering up the sketchpad and the rest of her supplies, with the scarecrow’s words still buzzing in her head, she headed back to the house once more.

***

“Good bao.”

“Hm?”

Mr. Rutledge brushed crumbs from his bristled chin with his napkin. “Good bao. That bean paste does make a difference.”

Trying not to seem too distracted, she nodded and took another bite of her own dumpling. “Mmhm, I’m glad you like them. I’ll make the dessert ones too, sometime later this week. Anything thrilling happen in town?”

“No,” he rumbled, “…Did anything happen while I was gone?”

They looked at each other across the table. Mei picked up another dumpling and took a bite, chewing and swallowing before answering.

“Not really. I got everything done and the hives were all mite-free, everything was fine. Here, I’ll clean up.”

He held up a massive hand, grunting as he hefted his enormous bulk up and off his chair. “Leave the dishes for morning, save the hot water. Gonna take a shower.”

“All right.”

Maybe it was her imagination, but were both of them being…maybe a little too polite around each other? Did he suspect her? Was she suspicious of him? Were both of them suspicious of each other and trying to play it off, but just neither of them were very good at it? Was it all completely in her imagination and it was just the man’s usual gruff nature, and she was overreading? It was a bit impossible to tell, but she tried her best to act ‘normal’ as she gathered up the dishes and loaded them into the sink. If she was preoccupied with the haunted scarecrow in a field of flowers that he refused to acknowledge, she couldn’t let on.

Instead, she headed upstairs, past where the drawings were hidden out of sight in her pack. Changing into her pajamas, she took a few deep and calming breaths and settled down onto her bed with her tablet. Maybe she could distract herself for a while with nice normal things; reading e-mails, chatting, funny animal videos, maybe a few crossword puzzles or a rousing game of sudoku…

She lay atop the quilt, a pillow under her chest and her feet swaying slowly in the air as she occupied herself with some matching and memory games. Downstairs, she heard one of the bathroom doors slam, and then the shriek of a rapidly heating pipe somewhere in the walls. The plumbing really was terribly outdated in this house. But then, everything was. There were three separate bathrooms, only two of which worked, and her own bathroom ‘worked’ in that she only ever had boiling hot or icy cold water at a time. It was always a surprise in the morning to see which one she would be getting.

Mr. Rutledge honestly had no need for such a huge farmhouse. No doubt he had inherited the place, from back when farm families had multiple children running about at a time. Or at least, that was the only reason she could think of for such a lonely man living in a farmhouse that had more than five bedrooms. She still wasn’t sure how many rooms there were here. At least it had afforded her what was basically her own private wing of the place. He rarely ventured up the stairs, and even if almost all the door were locked except her bed and bath, it gave her a nice little cove of solitude, this home away from home.

Although it turned out she wasn’t entirely alone, laying on her bed and playing her puzzle games.

There was a faint buzzing around the ceiling, but she ignored it. It sounded like a fly and not a mosquito, at least. The buzzing continued, circling around above her, and started looping around so close to her that eventually she frowned and afforded an irritated glance upward. It was not a fly, but a bee, zooming about clumsily and occasionally tapping itself against the ceiling and windows, as trapped insects often did.

“Oh! Poor thing.” She hefted herself out of her pillows, reaching for her water cup and looking for a piece of paper. Downing the water, she found an old postcard and went to find the bee again, ready to try the old cup trick to trap it and shoo it outside. Searching the ceiling, she saw nothing, and wondered if maybe it had gone for the window.

Another buzzing sound spoke otherwise. Turning about at the noise, she found the bee had taken up a perch on one of the bedposts, fluttering its wings noisily. Frowning a bit, she wielded her cup and paper, moving towards it.

“All right, out you go…”

She paused only when the bee turned on her in an almost accusatory way, and began swaying both front legs at her.

Was the bee…waving at her?

She exhaled loudly. So much for a peaceful evening in. She froze mid-step, then narrowed her eyes at the little insect doubtfully. Lowering her cup trap, she waited and watched. The bee seemed to wait on her too, then began waving at her again. It was definitely waving. Still, just to be sure, she decided it would be polite to at least ask.

“Are you just a bee, or are you…from that scarecrow? Are you one of its? Or, er, his? Is it a he?”

The bee took off with another buzz, and began throwing itself at the door. Tap, tap, tap. Hovering in mid-air, it turned towards her expectantly. Well, that definitely made things a bit more clear. She pulled on her bedroom slippers quickly, opening the door. Turning a lazy circle around her head, the bee took off out the door and she followed.

Out in the hall, past rows of locked doors, she trailed after the little thing to the end of the dimly-lit hall. Only the light from her open bedroom made it this far, but there was nothing of interest here, just more locked doors. But surely the bee had brought her here for a reason? She waited, as the bee seemed to hesitate for some reason…before it rocketed upward suddenly, throwing itself against the ceiling. Tap, tap, tap.

She looked up, and noticed a string that dangled there, attached to an attic door. The bee continued helplessly pattering against the ceiling there. It was entirely clear what it wanted her to do. A magical bee sent by a spooky scarecrow wanted her to break into Mr. Rutledge’s attic. Right. Not at all ominous, that.

Biting her lip, she looked back down the hall. The shriek of the hot water pipes belied that Mr. Rutledge was still in the shower, but maybe the water would drown out the sound of her opening this up? She hoped so. She had to make a decision while there was still hot water. Was this an absolutely terrible idea? Probably. But she’d wanted answers, and she wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by.

She made a little leap, missed, then made another. Her fingers managed to snag the string, and she practically hung from it with her entire body weight before it even budged. With a horridly loud scream of old metal springs and rusted joints, the attic door came crashing down and open. The wooden ladder unfolded before her, coating her with dust. Coughing wildly, she waved the clouds away, only to find that her mysterious bee companion was hovering just a few steps up the ladder, waiting for her.

Thankfully, she’d always been too timid to watch much in the ways of horror movies. But she was fairly sure that in those horror movies, nothing good ever came from sneaking about in strange attics. Especially pitch dark ones.

“Is…Is there a light up there?” She looked to the bee fretfully, who spun in a circle and hovered a little further up towards the attic entry.

She hoped that was a yes. Grabbing onto the ladder, she carefully tested her weight on it and began to ascend. Her nostrils were quickly assailed by an old, sour, mothballs and sawdust sort of smell. For half a moment, she was afraid of the possibility that she might smell something rotting up here. But thankfully it was the odor of any old attic she’d been in before. The square of light of the door was left behind her, reaching blindly out in the darkness. An answering buzzing noise guided her in the right direction, and a moment later her fingertips brushed another string.

Tugging on it, a bare dangling lightbulb lit up the room. It was…an attic. Nothing seemed nefarious, just kind of outdated and disgusting and covered in layers of gray dust. On both sides of her, it was little more than the triangular eaves of the house used for storing boxes and old equipment. No spooky scarecrows or bodies or even a scary mannequin or taxidermied deer head or anything out of the movies. Thank goodness. She did see an antique vacuum, an extremely dirty plastic Christmas tree, some golf clubs, a pile of bed frames, and stacks upon stacks of old boxes.

The bee didn’t seem interested in any of the standard attic junk. It hovered towards one end of the attic and she followed, the floors creaking under her no matter how softly she tried to walk in her slippers. Weaving her way in and out of the stacks, she saw the bee land on a particular box in one dusty pile and turn about in a few circles before it crawled into a gap in the top. Whatever it wanted must have been in there.

She began painstakingly hauling the other boxes off it. Oof. Heavy. One by one, she moved the other junk out of the way, before picking up this equally unassuming box and hurrying back to the light. Unfolding the top, she threw the flaps open to reveal its secrets.

…

Toys?

That was not what she had been expecting. Inside was a collection of old children’s toys. Dust had settled thick on them, but she began rifling through them anyway, trying to find what the bee had been so intent on. There was a teddy bear with a green bow, but it didn’t look nearly as well-loved and battered at the stuffed pig next to it. There was a collection of dinosaurs, wooden blocks, a broken toy horse with three legs, a red plastic water gun, some board games, a few action figures, and-

The bee sat on the edge of some papers at the bottom, waving its front legs at her and walking in circles. With a few careful tugs, she slid the yellowed parchment out from beneath the mess of toys. The bee, shaken loose, buzzed off somewhere else into the attic. The papers were children’s drawings; crayon ones, just like the ones she had seen earlier in the day. Although these ones had a very different owner. The first drawing was of a pink cartoon pig covered in brown scribbled mud. Near the top of the page, written in child’s scrawl, was the name: MAKO RUTLEDGE AGE 4 1/2

Lifting a brow, she began shuffling through the other drawings. They were mostly of animals and people, like any budding child artist drawing things from around the farm. One depicted gray squirrels sitting around a big green tree. More pictures of horses and cows and more bees. There was also a picture of his family, all holding hands and smiling, with clear and very helpful labels. MOM. DAD. MAKO. Another picture depicted a figure sitting in what she was pretty sure was supposed to be a wheelchair, although he was frowning with angry eyebrows. GRAMPA.

Charming, yes. And it certainly humanized Mr. Rutledge a bit more, seeing his childhood drawings and his family. She shuffled around a few more papers…and paused very, very suddenly. Somewhere in the attic, the bee began buzzing again.

Blue clouds in the sky, with yellow and green flowers. Two figures stood in the middle of the page. One was a smiling, squat little round character that she recognized at once from his other drawings. Sure enough, the label above proclaimed him MAKO AGE 4 1/2. But next to him, tall and skinny, with eerily long limbs, was another figure. Its brown glove was holding hands with the child beside it, looming tall above everything else. It had one line for a leg, and a brown circle for a head with a very, very wide smiling line for a mouth, bits of tan and yellow marking the straw coming out of its overalls and sack head. And colored in on its face, were two very bright yellow circles.

It was the scarecrow, drawn by Mr. Rutledge when he had been a young boy. From years and years ago, it was the exact same scarecrow from out in that field earlier today. And even more helpfully, above his head, in Mr. Rutledge’s poor young handwriting, was his label.

JAMIE.

#junkrat #jamison fawkes #mei #mei-ling zhou #roadhog #farmer mako #mako rutledge #scarecrow #scarecrow junkrat #beekeeper mei #fanfiction #writing #farming au #bees #mystery #meihem #meirat #junkmei

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mawichandoodles · 6 years

Text

Beloved Rival (RusAme/AmeRus fanfiction)

My super late gift for @purplepatchwork in the RusAme Secret Santa2017 exchange.

This is my first fanfic EVER. And it’s longer than expected, almost 5k words. I’m a bit nervous, but know I wrote this with all the love. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Patch!

I mixed prompts number 2 and 3 :

“2. Al and Ivan as two rivalling teachers whom all the students secretly ship, whether they find out about this and/or their reaction to it is optional, just go wild.“

“3. Ivan confessing feelings to Alfred while being drunk, can be human or canonverse, Alfred’s reaction is entirely up to you.”

Note: I don't know much about the school system in other countries, so I'm going with what I was used to see during my high school years. I hope it doesn't end up clashing too much with other people's idea of high school.

Note2: English is not my native language, so regardless of research and editing, there may be some errors I’m unable to detect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's Friday afternoon, near the end of the Algebra class, but more importantly, it's the end of the semester. The group is only a few ticks of the clock away from winter break. The only sounds in the classroom come from numb-handed students scribbling on their notebooks, and the mellow humming of the one sitting at the old desk in the front corner.

They are writing a final essay about the content reviewed throughout the semester, what they learned, why it's important, why they liked it, and things like that. Alternatively, they could write a whole manifesto of hate to the teacher, to algebra, or the world in general, if they sowanted. The only things the teacher asked for was eight pages of text, and finished within the hundred minutes of class they had on Fridays, as designated by the group's schedule.

Raivis, sitting in the middle of the front row, looks up at the clock over the whiteboard, a drop of sweat runs down his forehead. He relaxes the grip on his pencil, cue the feel of pins and needles as he stretches his fingers.

"Five minutes," he mutters.

The teacher, seating on his desk in silence, stops humming, along with his calculation of the student's final grades.

"Five minutes!?" A voice echoes from across the room.

A collective gasp and muffled muttering fill the teacher's ears.

Raivis' sight is blocked by a towering figure standing in front of his desk. The figure leans closer, revealing the smiling face of the teacher, Ivan Braginsky.

"Are you done, Mr. Raivis?"

Chills run down the spine of the small student.

"I ju-just... two more left."

Mr. Braginsky kept smiling. He gently places a hand on Raivis' head, and looks him in the eyes.

"The clock doesn't care you're staring at it. Mind your own work, before time runs out, yes?"

Raivis bites his lower lip from the inside, and remains silent. He resumes writing his paper without looking up at the teacher again. Pleased, Mr. Braginsky pats his head and goes on to walk around the classroom, nonchalantly. He happily strokes his red and pink scarf as he walks, the part wrapped around his neck. Not one of Raivis' classmates dare turn their heads towards the teacher.

"Remember this is an optional task you can do, if you want (or need) extra points. Because I don't want failing students. This is my Christmas gift for you. That's why I will take no less than 10 pages of text, as a sign of your appreciation, yes?".

The glasses of the guy sitting left to Raivis fall off his face and on his notebook.

"You said nine!" Says, Toris, who sat in the right corner of the middle row.

"Oh, is that how you say 'eleven' in your native language?" Mr. Braginsky chuckles.

Everyone groans at Toris.

Mr. Braginsky takes the empty seat in the middle of the room, right among his students. He begins talking outloud, tapping his fingers on the desk. No one was sure if he was doing it to distract them away from the last precious minutes they had left or not. He could be testing their ability to focus, to work under pressure, he could just want to ruin their lives (as every teenager thinks about any teacher, ever). They were all too familiar with Mr. Braginsky's subtle "tests" of character. Although they share the sentiment expessed by Mr. Braginsky, they do their best to tune out his voice.

"Uff, it's getting suffocated here." He pulls on his scarf with two fingers. "Who though repurposing a storage room as a classroom was a good idea? Greedy people, trying to save money instead of making more buildings. No wonder you guys call it the 'the Rat Trap', huh?"

A rat trap indeed. Located, next to the chemistry lab, the two rooms were built together in a one-story building, separate but next to the main building for classrooms which blocked whatever sunlight could have gotten through. Thus the room tends to be low, yet suffocating at times. There was barely enough space for fifteen people, and had four 30cm x 30 cm stuck-closed windows on upper walls.

"And the other teachers said 'You should be fine, you have the smallest group'. I'm sure in the next semester, the room distribution will be a total bloodbath. Mr. Jones will fight for the same room I choose, I bet. Regardless I'll make sure we get a better place for us this spring... Yeah, I will be your teacher next year too, hehe." He continues rambling.

The echoes of the ringing bell penetrate the walls of the Rat Trap. As soon as they hear it, most people put their pencils down and start packing their belongings. Some people sight in relief, others from exhaustion. Others shake their hands in the air to relieve the numbness and someone in the back corner starts crying. Meanwhile, Mr. Braginsky gets up and returns to his desk, without sitting down.

"Time's up, turn in your papers. Leave them on my desk here. I'll have them graded by Monday, and I'll send the final grades to you all via e-mail in the evening of the same day."

No matter what face the kids are making at him, with a fatherly smile Mr. Braginsky wishes merry Christmas to each one of them as they leave. One by one, the youths place their essays on the desk, not before stapling the pages together with the teacher's stapler, as they usually did. He put it there for the students after all.

"Brother," mutters Natalya, as she stands in front of Mr. Braginsky, adjusting her white ribbon. "Thank you for your hard work."

She hands a thick bundle of pages to Mr. Braginsky. With a gesture, she insists on him receiving it with his hands, instead of leaving in on the desk. He raises an eyebrow.

"Natalya? You don't need extra points at all. You could have gone home already."

"I wrote you a letter. I don't want you to read anyone else's paper first, it must be that one, okay?"

"Merry Christmas?" Says Mr. Braginsky, patting her sister on the shoulder as she turns to leave.

And so as the teacher begins to pack his belongings too, he notices a girl with pink flowers adorning her head, sitting at the bottom left corner. It is Mei, the youngest sister of Mr. Wang, who also teaches algebra. Hoever she chose not to have a relative as her teacher.

Mr. Braginsky gives her a puzzled look and approaches her. Mei seems to be focused on her notebook, moving her pencil with meticulous dedication. A whole two minutes have passed. By the time Mei raises her head, Mr. Braginsky is sitting next to her, leaning on the desk as he stares at her work with clenched teeth, hidden by a lips-shut smile.

"Don't your eyes get tired of drawing in a place with such bad lighting?"

Mei jumps on her seat and slams her hands on the notebook.

"Mr. B.!" Mei she raises the corners of her mouth in a dubiously successful attempt to sound calm. "You're still here?"

"I am the one locking the classroom door today."

"I didn't mean to make you wait, Mr. B., I'll go home right away."

"Did you take on the final task?" He says, fingers fidgetting, focusing on Mei's small black spot near her chin, probably a pencil graphite stain.

"My grade is fine, as you told me, so I didn't write anything".

"Is it too cold outside or something? Why didn't you leave early, like your friend Lien? Maybe you like my class that much?"

Mei looks down, without moving her hands off the notebook. Several seconds of silence ensue.

"Alright, let me see it."

Mei's eyes widen. Her hands press even more on the notebook.

"But it's nothing," she stutters,

"Yes, so let me see it."

"But..."

Mei sighs, her face turns red and quietly slides her graphite-stained palms away from her work, revealing the semi-realistic unfinished image of two men, suspiciously similar to Mr. Braginsky and Mr. Jones, engaging in what looked like "adult activities". Mr. Braginsky slowly extends his arm to grab the notebook, looking Mei in the eye as if to ask for permission to take it. Mei remains silent. Mr. Braginsky then proceeds to inspect the drawing, now on his hands.

"I have to questions, Miss Wang."

An imaginary knot forms in her stomach. She closes her eyes and folds her arms around her abdomen, anticipating the scariest scolding of her life as if she was preparing to take a fist to the gut. And so she nods in silence.

"Number one: Is that Mr. Jones, tying me up with the candy cane-pattern scarf I got from my grandma?" He inquires, pointing at the goofy scarf he's wearing.

Mei nods again.

"Number two: Did you draw my nose smaller on purpose?"

Mei is unable to hold back her nervousness any longer.

"Mr. B. please the don't tell my brother about this, please don't show it to him! I'm really sorry, I'll accept my punishment but please don't-"

"Shhh Shhh... Can I keep it?" He interrupted.

"Eh?" Mei stopped cold. "Do you... actually like it?" She stuttered.

"Well, no, but I can't let you keep it, much less actually finish it."

"I'm really sorry."

Mr. Braginsky chuckled behind his hand.

"Making a fuzz about this would be a waste of time, right? Just go home and don't draw these things at school. That's my Christmas gift for you, what do you say?"

Mei placed her hand on her chest.

"So, my Christmas gift for you would be letting you keep it?"

Mr. Braginsky chokes on his own breath.

"The gift is not drawing these things at school anymore. Now go, shoo shoo." Mr. Braginsky gestures, still smiling.

"Thank you, thank you so much! Merry Christmas, Mr. B.!" Mei exclaimed. She masterfully ripped the drawing from the notebook without damaging it, handed it back to Mr. Braginsky and hurried to pack everything. She then runs away from the Rat Trap more happy than scared.

Mr. Braginsky is still in the desk next to where Mei was, staring at the confiscated drawing, with narrowed eyes and furrowed brows. The rythmic tapping of his fingers echo across the room. Soon the image blurs as his minds simply wanders off.

"But why with Mr. Jones?" He thinks out loud.

It wasn't that Mr. Jones was a man, just like himself. It was that wether in public or in private, they were seldom "nice" to one another, if ever at all. How did so many kids get the idea that they could "love" each other? He didn't understand. Did Mr. Jones say something he was not aware of? Did they do it as a form of mockery? Could it be they noticed something?

"Because I'm the best teacher ever?"

Startled and holding his breath, Mr. Braginsky folds the sheet of paper with the drawing and places it on his lap to cover it under the desk. He looks up to where the voice came, only to see Mr. Alfred F. Jones, the physics teacher. standing just past the entrance of the room, staring back at him. Mr. Braginsky exhales and shakes his arm in a dismissive "go away" kind of motion.

"Ivan, how's it going? Found anything interesting? Said Mr. Jones, with an intentional, emphasized mispronounctiation of the "I" in "Ivan" as "eye".

"Alf," Ivan greeted him, referencing the extraterrestial protagonist of the eponymous 80's sitcom. "What do you want?"

Alfred goes to Ivan's desk and casually grabs the other's suitcase.

"Do you have, like, a stapler?"

Ivan puts Mei's drawing in the pocket of his coat and returns to his desk. He yanks the suitcase away from Alfred's hands.

"Not for you. Besides, I think I ran out of staples after my kids used it just now." Ivan replied with a dry tone. "And I don't want you to lose it or break it with your clumsy gorilla hands anyway."

Alfred smirks.

"So you're admitting I'm stronger, after all?"

"Clumsy." Ivan replies, walking to the door. Alfred follows him.

"Come on, I forgot mine at home. I need to staple my student's papers!" He begs. "And some other documents too," he mutters.

Ivan stops walking and turns to Alfred.

"Show me the papers and I'll staple them myself."

"Ivan, do you really think I'm gonna break it?"

No response.

"Man, the mug incident was an accident, I'm not asshole enough to break other people's stuff on purpose."

Ivan stepps out of the Rat Trap and closes the door behind him, with Alfred still inside.

"Oh you did break something of mine and it was not just a mug," Ivan replies, making noises with the keychain as to make Alfred think he's going to really lock the door and leave.

Alfred takes a deep breath and exhales. He rubs his temples then folds his arms.

"Then will you come with me to the teacher's lounge? I left them there. I have to present some of those papers real soon. I don't have time to drive home or look for one in a store, you know. I'll treat you to lunch if you want."

Ivan opened the door slowly, only enough to poke his head inside, like a shy little kid.

"I'll help, but I'll choose the meal. I don't want cheap trash-burgers get it?."

"F-- yes!" Alfred cheers and slams the door open. He runs outside, pulling a startled Ivan from the arm.

"Hey I have to lock the door!" Ivan complains. And so Alfred freezes on the spot, almost stumbling on his feet.

"Ah yeah, I forgot. Lock the door, then. It's just that I'm really short on time."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The lingering scent of cheap coffee floats in the air within the teachers lounge. The old coffee machine emmits a buzzing sound that everyone doubts is normal but no ones cares enough to actually check. Ivan and Alfred are sitting in the worn out but strangely comfortable couch next to the teachers' lockers.

Ivan had taken off his scarf, it was neatly folded and put on the couch, next to his lap. Under the beige coat he wears a wine-red turtleneck sweater, so his neck remains covered, as usual. Alfred had rolled up his sleeves and loosened his tie for the sake of comfort.

They two of them were alone in the room as most other teachers usually tried to go home early at this time of the year. There was a small coffee table in front of the couch, where they placed a tall tower of paper sheets Alfred had been passing mini bunches of paper to Ivan, who carefully stapled them together and placed them in the opposite corner of the table. Within minutes they had picked a good rythm of work.

"So, how did your kids do this semester?" Alfred grabs the next bunch of paper sheets and hands it to Ivan after asking.

"Overall a few low grades but no failed students."

"Well my students didn't get anything lower than 80."

"In last week's meeting you complained that 'kids nowadays don't care about science,' I recall? You called them burger-flipping babies then."

"I was mad at the time," Alfred laughs. "And I meant just the neglectful ones... But okay, my kids got nothing lower than 70. There, I said it."

Alfred grabs a thick bunch of documents and sorts them out appropiately. As he inspects them he holds the documents in such a way that the contents can't be seen by Ivan. He gives the next batch to his helper and leaves the rest aside. A single sheet falls off from them and glides unceremoniously until it lands on Ivans feet. Alfred freezes. Ivan picks it up without thinking much of it until he flips the sheet and sees the other side of the page.

A drawing made with blue ink, maybe from a regular pen. The sheet has some tomato sauce stains, it seems. It features cutesy characters holding hands. A blushing, big-nosed character kisses a spectacled character on the cheek. The artstyle looks like what the quiet and mysterious school librarian would call "moe", as Ivan learned during their rare small talk. As "stylized" as the appearance of the characters is, he grimaces when he gets to figure out the character's identities and feels the earlier situation with Mei kind of repeat itself. All within the same hour.

Ivan glances at Alfred with a serious face, without saying anything, holding the cutesy drawing for Alfred to see. Alfred loosens his grip on the next batch of documents so much they fall to the floor. He immediately picks them up and rushes to take the drawing away from the other's hands.

"I confiscated that thing from a student who was not paying attention," he says after clearing his throat.

Ivan looks down on the mess of sheets on Alfred feet and notices at least three other similar drawings lying among the "normal" documents. After shaking his head from side to side, Ivan stands up and stretches his body.

"I'll get myself some coffee," he says, but when he tries to step away, his foot stumbles on the table's leg and the tower of unstapled sheets is collapses and is now everywhere. Alfred snarls and just throws the paper on his hands onto the table, blending in with the rest of the mess.

"Goddamn it, what a great help you turned out to be! Talk about clumsy!"

"It's your fault for being so disorganized!... And having weird things among important documents!"

"Weird things, you say? Well it's NOT my fault you're so delicate you get offended so easily. I bet you doodled things like this yourself when we were in high school."

"I bet you now wish I did!" Ivan raises his voice. He takes his suitcase and is about to rush out of the lounge, when Alfred talks back once more.

"Ivan."

And so he stops, but doesn't turn back to face him.

"Your stapler," Alfred says, holding the tool with a stretched arm, trying to get it to reach Ivan. Even though Ivan is not seeing, so he wouldn't know.

"It's yours now. Merry Fucking Christmas." Ivan grunts and storms out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The asshole forgot his dumb scarf," Alfred muttered to himself. "No way in hell I'm gonna go give it back to him."

More than an hour has passed since Ivan left the teacher's lounge. Alfred is sitting alone in the couch. Four neatly organized piles of documents were placed on the small table in front of him. The stapler sits on his lap as though and he pets it as though it was a living cat. Not too ago he had finished sorting out the last batch of documents, All of them now stapled together. He leans back and beholds the result of his efforts.

The first pile of paper corresponds to his final reports on the class and its members. The second and largest one corresponds to the planned content to review in the next semester. The third one is made of student's graded homework that he couldn't return to them on time. The last one is a collection of assorted documents and other non-school-related curiousities that had found their way into Alfred's current paperwork.

Alfred reached to the fourth pile. He grabbed it hole and placed it on his lap, not before putting his new stapler aside. The pile contained old tests, some postcards, wrinkly notes about past lessons, some letters from his students from years ago, some pictures, and, who would have though, more drawings like the one that sparked the short-lived argument an hour ago.

The cutesy drawing is the sixth drawing featuring him and his coworker that he confiscated during that semester alone. The first time he caught a student drawing or writing such material he was shocked, almost traumatized, he could have said at the time. However, somewhere along the way he began to find it amusing. Now he would only confiscate material and punish the student if it was being used as a distraction during class. Otherwise he'd even joke about it and keep the students guessing. It's not like other coworkers didn't make similar jokes about them from time to time.

Of course Alfred would have never let Ivan know about that guilty pleasure of his. Not after the things he had said in the past, and has come to regret now. But more on that comes later. Now as he beholds his secret collection he wonders, why is he even keeping those dumb doodles around? In his mind, most of them look like specimens of failed human experimentation, begging for the sweet release of death. And yet...

Alfred moves the fourth pile back to the table and rests his hand on the side. His hand lands on the still folded, abandoned candy cane scarf. He slaps it away and it comes undone on the floor. Alfred sighs lets his body collapse on his side onto the couch, like a ragdoll.

His stretched arm hangs from the couch. Before he knows it, he's grabbing the scarf again. He brings it back to himself and strokes the fabric. He starts to knead it back and forth with his fingers, similar to how cats do when they find a comfortable spot for a nap. The scarf is soft and way more fluffy than its appearance would indicate.

And so Alfred digs into his pocket and takes out his cell phone to start texting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A brief vibration comes from Ivan's pocket on his coat. He's at a grocery store, standing in front of a stack full of small potato sacks. He's looking for ingredients for tonight's dinner. The store is very crowded. He hopes the vibration of the phone is not something important enough for him to need to call back.

Ivan takes the phone out, it's just a notification from the app store, a pending update for one of those annoying preinstalled applications that he never uses.

"I thought I turned those off." Once he places his phone back on his pocked, he puts a potato sack in the shopping cart, next to the cabbage, the carrots, and the onions. He turns his head around, making sure there's nothing else around that he might want to take. He clutches his turtle neck, forgetting once again that he left his scarf back at the school. He had an habit of stroking it to keep his hands busy when he was nervous, anxious, or bored. Concluding the assessment of his surroundings, he moves on to the meat and fish section. It didn't take too long for him to find what he needed, but he now he has to wait in a very long queue just so he can pay for the groceries and go home.

So Ivan stands there, advancing mini steps each several minutes. All the while the speakers around the store are emit obnoxious Christmas carol remixes as dictated by modern tradition. In a way he thinks it's kind of nice. To be reminded that there are other things in life to be mad about, other than whatever spurs out of a dumb, old high school c...

"Hey, sir. Your turn for the cashier," Ivan hears someone behind him on the queue say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alfred locked his car and made his way through the parking lot of the mall. Both hands are hidden on the pocket of his jacket to protect them from the cold. He is whistling the Ruldolph the red-nosed reindeer song. He was interrupted when someone called him from several meters behind him.

He turned back. It was almost 5pm and the sun had begun to set a while ago. The sunset glare hurts Alfreds eyes and obscures the figure of the person standing in front of it, calling Alfred. He can't quite make out the words the other person is shouting. As he approaches the figure gets clear enough for him to figure out it's just Ivan. He's next to his car, carrying a grocery bag on each hand. Now that Ivan too, has a clearer sight of Alfred, his neutral expression changes to that of disgust.

"What the hell are you wearing?" Ivan exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" Alfred was confused.

"Don't 'excuse me'. Why the fuck are you wearing my scarf?"

"Oh, that. Welp." Alfred shrugged. "It's warm."

The two of them stood in there for the longest ten seconds ever.

"Are you gonna give it back to me or...?"

Alfred clicked his tongue.

"Of course I will." He ripped the scarf off of himself and threw it at Ivan. "Take your gay-ass scarf."

Ivan catches the garment, making sure none of it is dragged on the ground. One of the bags almost falls off, but he holds them well. He doesn't put the scarf back on. Just keeps it under his arm.

"That says more about you than about me." He replies.

Alfred lowers his head, awkwardly scratches the back of his neck.

"Whatever. So uh, lunch is like, cancelled, I guess? Is dinner ok?"

"I'll cook dinner at home." Ivan says. he taps his foot as he waits for Alfred to leave. Now that he got back his personal property he can carry on with his evening.

"What are you gonna make?" Alfred is still there.

"Shchi."

Alfred squints, lips curled a little bit.

"It's cabbage soup, you uncultured swine."

"Eeew. You know, my pal's restaurant serves the best lasagna ever. He's from Italy, you know."

"Thanks, I know. I'll take my sisters there sometime soon."

Ivan opens his car. He shoves the grocery bags in the front passenger seat and gets inside.

"Okay then why the hell did you shout at me from across the damn parking lot if you are gonna be like this?" Alfred yells from the side of the car, knocking on the front glass.

Ivan lowers his window.

"I just wanted my scarf. Saw a red-pink dot in the distance. I more-less knew it was you. Wondered if you carried it with you, but didn't think you'd be actually wearing it. I may be messed up, but you're a total creep. Just go away."

Ivan turns the keys. The engine sounds like it's going to start but then dies off. Both men's eyes widen and turn their heads to the front of the car. Ivan tries to start the engine again to no avail. Alfred folds his arms, expectant, until Ivan gives up on the tenth failed attempt. Defeated, Ivan leans on the steering wheel, his head presses the honk button. Some bystanders a few cars away begin to direct their attention towards them, but Ivan doesn't care. Alfred leans on the car, laughing histerically.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "This is the kind of day that makes me regret being born." Ivan says as he chops fresh cabbage. The knife gets closer the fingers of his other hand and pokes the side of the thumb. Unsurprised, he leaves the knife and opens the nearest drawer to look for a band-aid.

"Look at it in a different way," says Alfred, who's turned back from him. "You got your scarf back, we managed to take your car for repair so you can have it back within the weekend. You don't need to drive to work for now anyway."

Alfred sniffs and grunts, trying to hold back the tears. "I even gave you a ride back to here, which is an hour away from where we were." He puts aside the onions he's chopping and rushes to get a napkin.

"I even volunteered to chop the onions you ungrateful piece of shit." He wipes his nose so the swearing gets muffled at the end.

"No one asked you to stay for dinner either." Ivan puts on a band-aid and resumes his tasks. "Besides, kids who complain about chores don't get dessert, you know," he jokes. He acknowledges Alfred has a point, though. His mood begins to lighten up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a while they managed to cook a decent cabbage soup. Alfred didn’t waste the opportunity to mock Ivan for eating "grandpa food", despite getting a second helping himself. Alfred was supposed to leave not long after dinner, but a couple of cookies and cups of sbiten later, the two of them are at Ivan's rooftop, simply chatting, gazing the sky at midnight. The roof was slightly angled, with blue flat roof tiles. And a thin layer of snow covered the surface, but none of that bothered them. It was also a one-story house, so they were not quite worried about falling off.

Alfred lies on his back. His arms are folded behind his head as a pillow. Sitting next to him is Ivan, hugging his knees with one arm, and hugging a two thirds-empty bottle of vodka with the other. Ivan tries to lie down on his back too, but is encumbered by another empty bottle behind him. He pushes it away with his free hand. When trying to lie down again. His head lands on the bottle, but he's a bit too drunk to care, he just stays like that. That's going to be his pillow. It is to be noted that while there are two open bottles, Alfred has abstained from taking a sip, knowing that he'll eventually have to drive home.

"You know, I kinda regret not studying Astronomy at all in university," Ivan said, biting the tip of the bottle. In the end he had gone for Computer Science.

"Me too," Alfred replied. "But a degree on Engineering for me wasn't bad at all. Not like I'm doing much with it, though."

Ivan reaches to Alfred and pulls his sleeve slightly to get his attention.

"Your telescope still works?"

"Pfft, that thing's been broken for years," Alfred replies. "I never got rid of it, though. I've been saying I'm 'fixing' it for years, but it's just gathering dust in my basement."

"Why cling onto old stuff, though." Ivan takes a sip of Vodka.

"It's not old stuff until it becomes irrelevant, right?" Alfred turns his body on its side to face Ivan. His head rests on one hand. "We still love space and stuff. Hell, we are gazing at it right now!"

"Yeah, even the other club members called us weird." Ivan gulps down the remaining contents of the bottle. "If you want, I could help you clean your basement after I leave the town."

"Oh that'd be... Wait what?" with furrowed brows, Alfred's eyes widen.

"What?" Ivan doesn't understand the reaction.

"What did you say?"

"I'd help you throw the trash." Ivan shruggs.

"What do you mean you're gonna move out of town?" Alfred drags his own body closer to Ivan.

"I'm thinking of it." Ivan plays with his hair, dodges his gaze. He clasps both hands together, doesn’t elaborate further.

"And your job?"

"Teaching has always been part-time stuff. I'm more established as a programmer now. I'm just waiting for a reply from any of the places I applied into."

"What the- Why didn't you tell me about it?"

Ivan turns his back on Alfred. He hugs the empty bottle of vodka like a teddy bear.

"That matters because...?"

"Then just... why?"

"I really want to get rid of the old stuff myself." Ivan replies with a hand his chest. "You know what I mean?"

Alfred stops making questions. He lies on his back again and sights. His breath is visible in the warm vapor escaping his mouth. His glasses become foggy so he takes them out. And so he finally notices that there's no moon to be seen anywhere in the firmament. But the stars were still there, still, beautful, The location of Ivan's home near the countryside made the precious stars even more visible on the darker environment. Even if visible, a full moon would not outshine them that night. He can almost hear them twinkle, if such a thing existed outside of cartoon sound effects. He turns to Ivan. He is seeing them too. They are reflected on his irises.

Alfred hadn't paid as much attention to space and the stars as he'd have liked after he started university. Even less so after his telescope broke down. It was the telescope Ivan gave him for his birthday, when they were on their high school's Astronomy club. Meeting Ivan again as a teacher in the same school gave both of them a chance to get back to those interests, after having to push them aside in favor of their new duties and obligations.

Though that came only recently. Right now they can to tolerate each other, yet at the time of their first encounter as teachers, after separation during university, Ivan wanted nothing to do with him. It was like their time as two territorial chimps posing as teenage nerds was the only relationship they ever had. As if they had never managed to become best friends before they had to part ways. And it was all his fault, he thought; for as early as that reencounter Alfred realized that just like the stars, Ivan too had become inaccessible after he smashed the telescope with his baseball bat.

"Dude, maybe you should go to bed, you know," Alfred sat up. "I should go home too, I guess."

"I'm not done with this vodka." Ivan declared, lifiting the bottle with force.

Alfred slaps the bottle out of Ivan's hands and it falls off the rooftop. The shrill sound of glass shattering offscreen leaves the state of the ground by the house's entrance to be imagined. Ivan glares at Alfred, a few veins seem to be popping out.

"It was empty anyway. Come on big boy, you drunk."

A grmbly Ivan lifts his arm towards Alfred. Alfred takes his hand and helps him sit up. Ivan stands up on his own, but as soon as he starts showing signs of dizziness Alfred holds him. He makes sure Ivan gets back inside in one piece. All the while Alfred is not even trying to hide that Ivan is a bit too heavy for him. But Alfred would rather place the blame on Ivan being "fat" instead of lack of strength or exhaustion due to the time.

At some point even before they left the rooftop Ivan's body decides without telling anyone that it will stop cooperating altogether. So Alfred has to carry him all the way back to his bedroom as well. Ivan's head and arms are perched onto Alfred's shoulder and the tip of his feet are being dragged on the floor.

"What the hell Ivan? You're effin' fat."

"I'm big boned," Ivan whispers.

"Big-boned my ass!"

Panting and grouching, Alfred grouches and throws Ivan on his bed. His legs are left hanging from the edge of the bed after he falls like the potato sack he bought earlier. He giggles from the slight bouncing on the mattress

"Really? I don't want to see and find out for myself," Ivan talks back and crawls his way into the center of the bed to fit his whole body in.

"Shut up. You're the fat one here."

"Don't worry, Alf. Softer bodies are cute too." Ivan makes squeezing motions with both hands.

"You say the weirdest things when you're wasted." Chuckling, Alfred slaps Ivan's hands then hides them on his pockets.

"Who's wasted?"

"You are wasted."

Ivan shakes his head left to right. Standing next to the bed, Alfred leans close to Ivan.

"Come on, big boy, take off your shoes and go to sleep already." He says, patting the other's large chest. "Let's hope you don't wake up all hung over. I'll lock the doors well and turn off the lights, so don't worry, okay? Good night.

Alfred walks out of the room and closes the door. But Ivan keeps talking, seemingly not realizing Alfred is not there anymore.

"Say, Alfred. We didn't use to be like this. Do you still want us to remain as rivals? Even now?"

The door of the room is thrown open. Alfred knows the best would have been to ignore the other's rambling and leave, but he is overcome by a an impulse even stronger than him. His excuse is that he is just making sure Ivan's really saying what he heard or that he's not asking for help for whatever reason. He just stops and keeps listening, though. He is yet to step back inside.

"When I said I regret not studying Astronomy, I meant it."

Ivan is now lying on his belly. His face rests against a pillow, so his words are muffled, but Alfred is able to make out most of what he's saying with little trouble.

"We've been so childish. And it's my fault we are like this."

Alfred is uncertain about the point Ivan is trying to get to. Maybe is just pointless drunken rambling, but he wants to listen still.

He adjusts his glasses and leans on the doorframe. Ivan turns his body again to face the window next to the bed and curls his body in a ball. Even his wide back begins to look small in Alfred eyes.

"I'm sorry for moving back to Russia instead of going for the University we wanted. I left you alone, and told you confusing, unwanted things too."

Alfred's heart becomes heavy inside his chest, his lips shut tight, curled downwards. He steps inside and returns to Ivan's side. He sits on his bed. Ivan face is still turned away from him.

"Since we met again I've been doing as you told me before I left. But it hurts, you know, going back to this after we got to become friends."

Alfred gets further in the bed and pulls Ivan's shoulder to face him. Ivan looks at him with squinty, glassy eyes. It is uncertain if alcohol is to blame for that.

"Don't touch me," Ivan whines. He languidly throws a pillow to alfred's face. "I'm sorry Alfred but what do you even want anymore? You rejected me then, but won't stop teasing me now."

"Hey Ivan I want to..."

"I don't want to like you anymore. You're too much."

Alfred's heart becomes even heavier. So much his body alone will be crushed under its weight. He allows himself to fall on top of Ivan to wrap his arms around him. His glasses fall off his face and on his hand, but he tosses them away. Ivan lifts both knees together. He wants to curl up again, but is unable to.

"I'm the one who's sorry," said Alfred.

He puts both hands on Alfred's sides, but is hesitant to return the gesture. Alfred buries his face in the gap between Ivan's neck and shoulder. Alfred's cold cheeks against the warmth of his body sends chills down Ivan's spine. The skin underneath his clothes get goosebumps. He closes his eyes.

"I shouldn't have reacted like that when you told me." Alfred muttered to the other's ear.

He clings tightly to Ivan's body. His resistance is waning, but Alfred hugs tighter and tigther as he continues.

"I was a stupid kid just like you. I was confused, and sad... and I got angry."

A knot swells inside Alfred's throat, he jitters, his arms and legs tremble, but he wouldn't stop.

"It was easier to hit you and call you disgusting and a traitor, instead of saying "goodbye" and accepting that maybe... I felt the same for you too."

Alfred's lungs run out of air after saying that. He makes a pause to breathe. Ivan doesn't respond. He opens his watery eyes to see Alfred, but everything is blurry in his eyes and hazy in his head. He can't tell if he's dreaming or not, so he too, wraps his arms tight around the other. He runs his hands back and forth on his back. He wants to confirm he's holding the real deal and not an alcohol-induced hallucination.

"Ivan, I didn't want you to leave... I don't want you to leave again now. I like you too."

And like that, the thoughts weighting down on Alfred's heart escape through the air he exhales. Ivan turns his face in and goes for a kiss. He misses and smooches the corner of the other's lips. Smiling, Alfred cups Ivan's face on one hand and joins their lips properly. And it was all great until Alfred noticed the smell and taste of Vodka and remembered that Ivan was drunk as f...

"Wait wait wait. Stop."

Alfred gets up. Suddenly he doesn't feel as heavy anymore. He picks his glasses from the floor and fixes his jacket.

"No good. Let's... try again when you're sober," He says after clearing his throat. However, Ivan was already passed out.

After realizing Ivan's done for the night, Alfred begins walking in circles around the room at a pace so fast he's almost hopping like a rabit. He feels so energized he might as well do it. He cover his mouth to muffle what would otherwise be uncontrollable squealing.

After the euphoria wears off the events that transpired moments ago sink in completely. In a single day did they just sort out years of buried feelings and childish grudges? Oh boy, no. But they sure had one hell of a start.

Now A stream of questions flooded Alfred's mind. With what had happened, does that mean they are lovers now? Will Ivan even remember what happened? If he doesn't remember, will he tell him and explain what happened? Would Ivan believe him and/or confirm his confession?

He doesn't know if he should feel happy or scared. More importantly, he's thinking whether or not he should stay over tonight. It's not like he doesn't want to go home. However, leaving a drunk person alone is always dangerous, even when they are asleep.

As carefully as he can, Alfred takes off Ivan's shoes and leaves them next to the bed. He turns Ivan's body on its side and puts him on a position to lessen the choking risk in case he gets nauseous; although so far Ivan doesn't show signs of sickness. His breath is calm and follows a normal pace too.

A bit hesitant, Alfred decides to check Ivan's pockets, only so he doesn't crush or damage anything under his weight or when rolling on bed. He takes out Ivan's phone and wallet out of his pants and leaves them on the night table. Ivan didn't seem to have anything on his jacket, but then Alfred pulls out a now wrinkly folded paper sheet. He opens it and the more he examines it the more flustered he becomes. Of all the weird erotic art of them two their students had made, that one was by far the most detailed and realistic-looking as of yet.

He could only wonder where did that thing come from. Leaving the drawing together with the other objects, Alfred goes to pull the thickest blanket he can find out of the closet and covers Ivan with it. He rushes out of the room to lock the house properly, makes a trip to the kitchen, and then returns to Ivan with a tall glass of water, just in case.

Alfred leans close to Ivan and kisses his forehead, an affectionate, loud smooch. He sits on the bed again, close to Ivan's legs. The wisest thing to do for now is to stay there and take care of his beloved rival. At least until he wakes up. Whatever comes next for them they will figure. After a day like that, It's not like he will be able to fall sleep anyway.

The End.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Final note:

Writing this was one hell of a ride. This is my first fanfic ever, and I'm not a very good writer when it comes to prose. But I gave it my best shot, and wrote this with lots of love. I'm sorry if the overall tone or mood is too bittersweet or if the humour is kinda sour. I also hope Ivan and Alfred’s backstory wasn’t too hard or confusing to piece totgether. I'd still say the ending is a happy one, even if there's an air of uncertainty for the future haha.

Thank you for reading and for your god-tier patience, Patch. I love your blog.

#rusame secret santa 2017 #laaaate #purplepatchwork #rusame #amerus #hetalia #aph russia #aph america #hetalia fanfic

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noidsome · 7 years

Text

The big issue with the digimon tri movies, and why you should be pissed too.

I just finished watching the 5th digimon movie, and to put it short, i excpected nothing and im still let down. This is a big negative critique on what ive seen so far from the tri movies, but its also more of a vent for me, because theres something about these movies that really fucking grinds my gears and i feel i finally need to let that out somewhere. Look at this as a sort of....badly written analyctic rant. So far this movie, in short, was as i dreaded, 70% meiko bullshit and 20% kari...which is so fucking insulting i dont even know...but thats why im here.

Now before you assblast me with your stupid crap, please try to understand that as harsh as im writing this, im trying to look at this movie from a critical standpoint, and no im not going to put in the effort to be “nice” about it because if digimon tri can get away with half assing everything about itself, then wont bother. If you cant handle that, move on. If your interested, click the read more and we can begin this shit fest, because i think its about god damn time someone put these mediocre movies in their place.

The pacing.

I dont know about you guys, but to me it feels like these movies, or episodes, are either dragging on forever, or they rush really fast. This movie especially took its sweet ass time to give us 2 whole half an hour scenes of meiko being depressed about her shitty OC digimon, to leave the actual interesting fights and plot to 1 and a half episode, out of 4. Im sorry but i feel like ive been following this fucking story for 6 years, its so fucking slow and it drags on for fucking ever sometimes.

I do understand that its important to establish character interactions, and god damn does this fucking series need some, but sometimes it really stops the action dead in its tracks, and as much as i appriciate the movies giving each character some focus, it goes on for too long. the ending to movie 5 was....well rushed as shit.

But despite all this, its just really frustrating that half the entire series is just them standing around and TALKING...talking talking talking, exposition exposition exposition. It also feels really slow and stagnated sometimes, and the cheesy music in the background of the sad scenes dont really help much. And other times things are glossed over so fast that im standing there wondering if i missed out on something because i accedently blinked. Like how they entered the digital world, only to just suddently fall out of it immediatly after from a big digital gate just like that. Or how meiko just...SUDDENTLY appeared in the digital world with no warning or real reason. huh?? shes here now?? what?? meicoomon is still infected? what?? gennai is back with the dark masters? what where did they come from? why are they following him!? WHAT?? HUH??? HELLO???

im just….frustrated. im frustrated that i have to wait for 6+ months every a new movie comes out, only for the movie to stall for fucking ever and leave the actual OH SHIT moments to the last part, AND END ON A CLIFFHANGER. Its such fucking god damn bait to get us to watch the other movies, its almost INSULTING how incredibly obvious it is. Last movie ended with gennai fucking around and choking meiko. Then, as i saw my fat ass down in the chair, waiting for the big battle, no meicoo just...opened portals and then left with her copy paste army. Oh well so much for that.

Then the digidestined actually FALL OUT OF THE DIGITAL WORLD, and they are right back to standing around and getting chased by the cops...and then they spend THE REST OF THE EPISODES on meikos useless crying and baiting for meichi shipping material. im sorry but was that neccecary? was it neccecary to stop the entire god damn movie just so we could have tai standing there with spaghetti falling out of his pockets? and the mega evolutions for the other digimons felt really rushed too, i had hoped for more build up...but guess i get fuck alll.

The filler.

Now i do enjoy myself a little “filler” once in a while, i wont lie. and i will also not lie when i say that i really enjoyed seeing my boi tais hot nipple-less body. But, again…. DID WE NEED THE FIRST HALF BEING JUST THAT?! i swear to fucking god if you cut out all the filler content from these movies your going to get the entire series down to 5 episodes. Movie 2 was just...filler. fucking filler. i didnt have much issue with movie 3 but they just NEEDED to shove more meiko in..

movie 4 was kind of a bitch to sit trough because the whole damn “plot” made no sense. why was soras digimon the only one who was mad and while the others were just like before? why JUST her? why couldnt the others be like that too? Its just plot convenience at this point. and then it was pretty much just watching tai and matt spew spaghetti out of their pockets and be awkward because sora cant communicate with her friends like a normal person. Honestly it was a little charming at first but it got old pretty quickly…and then dark masters out of nowhere that died as fast as they came on. what a rushed little cameo for that extra nostalgia bait.

Honestly i found myself first liking the character interactions a little once the movies took a break from the action and fighting...but i much more often found myself angrily tapping my foot and going “REEEE MOVE ON.”

The god damn meiko.

Alright you all saw this one coming probably. Now let me just start by saying, i originally didnt mind meiko, or the idea of a new digitestined in the first place. Its welcoming to try and add something new to your otherwise soulless nostalgia cash grab. However we need to look at her from a critical stand point. im not trying to start a hate train, im just going to analyze her for how shes written as a character.

Im sorry to say this guys, but no matter how you look at her, shes a mary sue. Im sorry but all the tropes are there!! but why do i feel this way? heres why:

Her digimon is the sole reason for everything going to shit.

her digimon is in adult stage like gatomon just because.

essentially her digimon is “special”

all the other kids befriended her really fast just because.

everyone likes meiko and nobody seems to have a problem with her

shes the typical “uguu” shy type of girl.

her digimon OF COURSE won the costume contest in movie 2 or 3

leomon finds HER DIGIMON adorable enough to make the others run off... of course….

she cries constantly and does nothing but wine as the others hold her.

She takes up MAJORITY of the screentime for almost all movies. Almost.

POSSIBLY a relationship with the main character, if they actually are baiting us with those scenes in movie 5.

acts and feels like a self-insert OC in a canon universe.

The reason i dont like her is just because im SICK OF HER!! im sick of seeing her fucking face every god damn movie. im sick of the others shoving a friendship speech or talking about her belonging to them for the 700th GOD DAMN TIME, im sick of constantly hearing ME-MEI and MEIKOOOOOO, and im so fucking sick of seeing her sit down and cry or act sad and do NOTHING! shes just THERE TO BE THERE! her “cute little sneezing quirk” wasnt even something they bothered keeping any more. Shes so god damn obnoxious and shallow, and the ENTIRE HALF OF THE 5TH MOVIE WAS SPENT SHOVING MORE FRIENDSHIP SPEECHES IN HER FUCKING HEAD UNTIL SHE NUTTED UP AND STRAIGHT UP TOLD THE OTHERS TO AXE OFF MEICOOMON, while kari got 5 fucking minutes and got posessed or some shit i dont fucking know, does anyone care at this point?!

shes such a god damn self insert its PAINFUL! and ive read plenty of crappy OC digimon fanfiction in my days to be able to tell when someone props their crappy OC in a canon story. IVE DONE IT MYSELF!! its INSULTING that im watching a canon produced digimon FANFICTION more then an actual OVA. If you like her, FINE, but you CANT ignore how incredibly shallow and flawed shes written. This isnt someone “hating female characters” this is someone whos frustrated a shittly written character who is just causing repetitive sob scenes over and over and over. im sorry but have we not gotten enough flashbacks from meiko and her digimon? do we need 4 more in the fifth movie??? WE GET IT! ITS SAD! SHES SAD!! THEY ARE FRIENDS! MOVE ON ALREADY!!

i dont feel bad for her anymore, its just getting repetitive now. She ate up the entire 5th movie and left nothing to kari but the sloppy leftovers at the end, and because she ran off like an idiot to meicoomon she got tai axed off too……………...but i will get to that.

The lack of animation.

The biggest insult, and this is….dare i say…….something coming from an animation student, is the insufferable animation. The first movie is fine, but from thereon, i feel like the quality dropped significantly. and oh boy, dont get me started on the amount of time they just pan a fucking picture instead of animating them doing shit.

im sorry but did i wait 4-6 months for a fucking clipshow? I know that animating is hard, and the animation industry in japan is absolute fucking shit, but come the fuck on guys. i think movie 5 had so many times where they just panned pictures of the digimon fighting, and the kids running. I guess when you put all your budget into overanimating the short action scenes you got, you dont have much left for them to trow a punch outside of that. and i wouldnt mind if they had just bothered not doing it so much. they do it WAY TOO OFTEN!

in the 4th move they didnt even fucking bother drawing the kids wet while they were in the water. no wet droopy hair, no indication the clothing was soaked, nothing. not a god damn fucking detail or anything.

The nostalgia bait

Hey kids, remember the bus in the digital world??? remember the gear desert? remember the house mimi was a princess in?? remember the pink forest? remember seadramon? remember the dark masters???? remember any of that shit!? remember primary village?! YEAH??? REMEMBER ALL THOSE COOL 01 THINGS??? ok cool, anyway moving on.

The lack of personality/soul

one thing im really passionate about is expressions. expressive characters and facial expressions i something i enjoy drawing a lot. in the original digimon, every character was spesifically designed to be its own thing. sure they stank of the 90s, but they wer UNIQUE. Digimon tri has trown all that shit out the window. Now they all look boring as hell. the only unique thing about them now is their hair. take that away, and you get a bunch of similar looking, boring samefaced characters.

the digimon movies are just so fucking SOULLESS! everyone looks so god damn watered down and tame compared to their former selves. everyone wears a school uniform even when they got summer vacation. they even wear school uniforms as they get to the digital world, and they have NO facial expressions. NONE! the way they talk and show emotions is almost nonexistant. even once they are seriously screaming at someone or focusing on something serious, they still have that stale, boring as shit facial expression. stone faced and COLD! its like you dont even care!! seriously its so frustrating to watch sometimes because they are so god damn bland and barely deviate at all from their typical “idle” face.

^count how many fucking times tai makes this face troughout the entire series.

^am i the only one who thinks they looks very..bland and dull here? and this happens way too often.

seriously, watch the movies again and notice just how little the animators bothered giving them any fucking emotions. the screenshots here are just from a few minutes in the new movie.

And dont get me started on how everyone seemed so.........accepting of tais “death” i mean sure they might still be in shock,.....but......why did none of pic under appear????

WHy was everyone so.....noble??? except kari...who got....fucking owned.

and the digimon....most of them are just....comic relief now. i feel like most of them have little personality, but fucking agumon. what the FUCK have they done to agumon!? hes just a walking talking “i like to eat” joke. hes fucking nothinng. an empty boring sack of shit who just talks about food and NOTHING ELSE!! oh and maybe fights sometimes...but seriously.

The BAIT.

The trailers for these movies have made me fall into the bait they put out. But its getting infuriating now. All the trailer bait for movie 5 was just taken form the last 5 minutes of the film. that little teaser we all thought were going to show the dark ocean? yeah that was what….5 seconds at the very last minute of the movie? Hime was the one who went there, and they even rushed that part.

remember when we all tought that tai was the kaiser because the animators thought they copy the excact same hairstyle? remember how they all baited us with the kaiser thinking we were gonna get some 02 action? i sure as FUCK do.

i LOVED the last minutes of the movies. i loved the last half of episode 3 and the entire episode 4… but im so fucking angry that i have to wait 4-6 months for the conclusion to when the movie was JUST GETTING INTERESTING! i fucking hate it!!

The 02 kids, or lack thereof.

Ok honestly ive completely forgotten about them, and i dont understand why they bothered putting them in this movie. and they give us absolutly nothing to go on for ALL of the movies! WHY? WHATS THE POINT?! with this series endless stalling, how can they possibly explain their absence or death or whatever in what little time we have left?! how will they half ass this?! i seriously dont get how they can begin with something so intense, only to give us absolutly nothing till the last movie, IF AT ALL!

Taichis “””””””””””””””””death.”””””””””””””””””

So the fuckers had the BALLS to kill off my boi tai. They actually went there. they fucking killed him off. AND LEFT IT ON A CLIFFHANGER! wow fucking good job guys, you sure got me there. i cant believe tai is fucking dead.

except wait a second here…..tai isnt dead. of course he fucking isnt. i mean come the fuck on, are you really expecting them to kill off their marketig king? the face of all their merc? PLEASE! we all fucking know that hes going to come back. THEY BASICALLY SPOILED THE MOVIES FOR US ALREADY, didnt they say in an interview far back that these movies were whats going to lead everyone up to their careers? so why the fuck would tai die when we know hes going to be an ambassador?

i dont fucking understand why they even bothered with this fake ass death. WE KNOW HES GOING TO COME BACK! im not mad that tai “died,” im mad that they actually bothered making it a cliffhanger, as if we arent going to fucking figure out hes coming back in the next movie. WHATS THE POINT?! Are they going to just shove him off till the last 5 minutes of the last movie? is that it? are they going to do what they did to kari? or are we FINALLY going to see tai resolving his persional issues that have been shoved away to make room for everything else? who knows, who cares at this point?!

The conclusion

Digimon tri was something enjoyable for me to look forward to..but now, its just a bunch of frustrating, medicore, nostalgia cash-grabbing shitfests of movies, and i need to get it out of my system.

Im angry because i have to wait 4-6 months between each movie only to get nothing. im angry that i have to wait 4-6 months for an hour long movie that has actual content thats 20 minutes long. im sick of having my excpectations set to low, only for them to be lowered even more. im sick of seeing meiko basically becoming the main characters as the others are somewhat side characters at this point. im sick of the shit-tier animation quality and the stone-bored dull surprise faces. im sick of wanting this to be good, only to see that the fucking directors and animators arent even fucking trying anymore. Im sad, that the sequel was put in the hands of incompetent fucks who only know digimon trough their most basic character traits, and nothing more.

i do like tri...and im sad to see it go so soon….but part of me wants to get this over with, because if you like it or not, tri isnt a passionate fan sequel. tri is a boring, mediocre cash grab, and im sad it cantt be more then that, and im sad its over soon...

#Digimon tri #digimon adventure tri #rant #digimon #digimon tri spoilers

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