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not-majestic-bluenicorn · 3 years

Text

Crescent || Chapter 6

Fandom(s): ATEEZ

AU: Treasure Hunters

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

Relationship: Everyone x Everyone, Established Hongjoong x Yunho

Language: English

Status: Ongoing

Chapter WC: 3,455 words

Warnings: Character Death, Stabbing, Fighting, Blood, Aliens, War, Funerals, Kidnapping, Attempted Kidnapping, Mentions of Child Abuse / Child Work, Explosions, Murder Attempt, Robbery, Homeless/Runaway Character, more will be added.

Chapter Warnings: Robbery, Homeless/Runaway Character, Mentions of Abuse

Summary:

"Hey can I ask you a favor?" Yunho raised an eyebrow at Yeosang's question.

"I don't think you're in any position to be asking favors." Yunho scoffed, but paid attention anyway.

"Would you consider not handing me in?" Yeosang knew that was to ask a lot, but he might as well try.

"You have no shame, do you?" Yunho had to laugh, slightly taken aback by the bold question.

"Shame can only draw you back, and I try to only go forward." Yeosang shrugged, it was worth the attempt.

AO3

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Tagged: @angel0taiyo

San had left Jongho with Yeosang at the main deck while he left to explain the situation to Hwanwoong, who was in charge at the moment. The crew was just sort of staring at him while they focused on their own stuff, and Yeosang felt like a circus attraction. Of course, none of the normal crew members had expected something like that to happen. The soldiers, on the other hand, were all on high alert thinking maybe someone had figured out their true identities.

Jongho noticed none of this as he kept a close eye on Yeosang, observing him with curiosity as Yeosang sighed repeatedly, letting him know he was not very happy with this situation. He was sitting on the floor of the deck, hands tied behind his back being crushed by his back as he leaned on the rail of the deck. It was uncomfortable. Plus, he really just didn't want to be tied up like that.

"So... Why our ship?" Jongho asked finally, tired of only observing Yeosang as if he could get the information through some sort of telepathy.

"It's a very expensive model, only someone with fortune and power would be able to acquire it," Yeosang explained, not even looking at Jongho. His voice held a hint of annoyance. "Plus it looks brand new, either it is new or they pay a lot for maintenance."

Jongho hummed in agreement. He had also thought something similar when he had first seen the ship he would be working on. He had spent his whole life near ships, repairing them and building them, so he could recognize an expensive ship when he saw one. The difference was that he was not looking to steal anything when he first boarded it, and hadn't even thought much about who Captain Hongjoong was.

"And why are you stealing?" Jongho asked again.

"There are only two reasons why someone steals, they are either in need or they covet something, which one do you think I fall on?" Yeosang scoffed, getting a little on edge by the questions. Jongho didn't seem to be fazed.

"I'd say the first one," Jongho replied after thinking it over for a few seconds. Yeosang's eyes widened slightly and Jongho noticed. "Well, you felt a little weak when I was restraining you before, have you been eating properly? Plus... You don't look like a bad person." Jongho shrugged.

Yeosang stared at him for a few seconds before sighing and looking away. It was embarrassing, how a complete stranger could look straight through him and still be kind despite what he had tried to do. Truth be told, Yeosang didn't like stealing that much, he was just desperate. Sure, there was a certain thrill to it that he appreciated, but there were surely other better ways to feel like that, right? He just needed to get out of that planet.

"Will you tell me your name?" Jongho asked again. His voice was soft, like he had realized the change in Yeosang's demeanor.

"Kang Yeosang," Yeosang replied, voice small.

At that moment, Hongjoon, Yunho and Siyeon returned to the ship. Hwanwoong reported to them immediately, summarizing what San had told him about the situation. Hongjoong cursed under his breath and locked eyes on the prisoner, approaching him without hesitation. Jongho looked away as he did, he had never seen the Captain so serious and threatening.

As soon as he was close enough, Hongjoong grabbed Yeosang by the collar and hoisted him up, causing him to yelp. Jongho gasped next to him, this being the first time he saw his captain do anything remotely aggressive. Yeosang coughed slightly and looked at Hongjoong with a defying glare, not willing to back down even with his hands tied behind his back.

"Who else was with you?" Hongjoong asked, not wasting time.

"Other homeless people, I don't really know their names." Yeosang replied, voice hard and steady. The glint of something in Hongjoong's eyes when he said the word homeless didn't escape his eyes.

"How many came into this ship?" Hongjoong asked next.

"Only me." Yeosang didn't dare look away. Hongjoong did, however, as he confirmed this answer with the rest of the crew, who had already checked the ship for other potential stowaways.

"Did you take anything?" Hongjoong looked back at Yeosang, who still didn't seem to want to back down.

"He didn't." Jongho spoke this time, surprising both Yeosang and Hongjoong. "We found him shortly after he got in through the propellers' maintenance door, he couldn't have gone anywhere before we found him."

Hongjoong looked Yeosang in the eye, looking for something that would give him away as something more than a petty attempt of a burglar. When he didn't find it, he let go of his collar and turned to walk away. Yunho stopped him, if only to ask him for permission to conduct his own little interrogation.

"Just don't be too hard on him," Hongjoong warned, walking back to his quarters to discuss with Siyeon and San what to do about the fuel.

Despite the warning, Yunho took Yeosang to the hold, the most isolated area of the ship. They didn't really have any shipment of importance, and instead stored their non-perishable supplies there. He sat Yeosang down on a simple wooden share and then sat in front of him, face void of expression. Yeosang observed his surroundings and took a mental note on how no one would hear him scream if he did.

"What is your full name?" Yunho began with a simple question.

"Kang Yeosang." He answered easily. It didn't matter if he tried to keep his identity secret since he had already told Jongho anyway.

"Were you born here?" Yunho was testing him, seeing how much he was willing to share.

"Yes, I've lived here my whole life." Yeosang wasn't going to back down easily, though. He had walked into the wolves' den and he was going to own it up. If he got intimidated at that point, then what did that make him?

"Family?"

"Only my mother," Yeosang tensed up, this was crossing a territory he didn't like. "I don't see how that matters, though."

"Does she know you've become a wanted burglar?" Yunho raised an eyebrow. "Kang Yeosang, I heard your name whispered around the streets earlier."

"I don't think she would care if she knew." Yeosang scoffed. It was true, his mother probably wouldn't care. She had never cared about anyone else but his father, even though Yeosang had tried to be there for her even when his father had left. It hurt, but it was the truth. "Don't try to pull the 'your mother would be so disappointed if she knew' card, it won't work on me."

"Oh, I wasn't going to," Yunho chuckled. "Let's be real, that rarely ever works."

"Then why are you asking?" Yeosang was growing exasperated. The questioning seemed to be going nowhere and it was so slow he felt like losing his mind.

"I have my reasons," Yunho shrugged. "I want to know who I'm going to turn with the guards before I do so."

Yeosang seemed to freeze at this, his mask of bravery falling apart for a few seconds before his surprised expression turned into one of rage. He wasn't stupid, of course he had suspected they would turn him in with the police, but they had kept him around for so long he had started hoping that wouldn't happen. Yunho seemed slightly surprised at the change in his demeanor.

"Why are you so angry?" Yunho asked. "You're the one who tried to steal from us, it is only fair."

Yeosang closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The man in front of him was right. It was only reasonable that they turned him in, the guards had been looking for him anyway, but he couldn't help but feel angry. The other homeless people had been right, he had been crazy for trying to get into a ship that wasn't even a part of their original plans. He had been ambitious, but beyond that, he had been a fool for following his instincts.

"Not gonna answer that? Fair enough." Yunho clicked his tongue. "Why The Crescent, why this ship?"

"'Cuz I felt like stealing from this ship, okay?" Yeosang bit back, too pissed to even care about being proper. "I already told the Jongho guy that only someone rich and with power could afford a ship like this, especially one so new or so well maintained."

"So you have no idea who is on board his ship?" Yunho pressed further. Yeosang would have thought it was weird if he wasn't too mad at himself for his stupidity.

"If I knew I wouldn't be here would I? Everyone here is too well trained to be a good target of a simple burglar like me." Yeosang groaned, remembering how San had stood in front of him, posture perfect and calculated. "Pretty sure that San guy would have killed me if Jongho hadn't stopped him."

Yeosang raised his head, showing Yunho the faint trace of blood on it that had formed after the encounter with San. He could feel the dry blood uncomfortably clinging to his skin, but tried to not think too much about it. Yunho observed it with sharp eyes before nodding. He was a little bit surprised about San; he was cold, sure, but he had never exhibited knowledge on sword fighting. He would have to ask him about it later.

"Then you're nothing but a petty burglar caught in the act, got it." Yunho seemed satisfied with his answers and stood up to leave.

"Ouch," Yeosang chuckled, the insult getting to him a bit. "Hey can I ask you a favor?" Yunho raised an eyebrow.

"I don't think you're in any position to be asking favors." Yunho scoffed, but paid attention anyway.

"Would you consider not handing me in?" Yeosang knew that was to ask a lot, but he might as well try.

"You have no shame, do you?" Yunho had to laugh, slightly taken aback by the bold question.

"Shame can only draw you back, and I try to only go forward." Yeosang shrugged, immediately wincing slightly. His arms were starting to get numb from having them tied behind his back for so long.

"I'll send someone to look over you," Yunho replied instead, leaving the room.

Only after Yunho left, did the name of the ship sink into Yeosang's mind, making him gasp. What was going on?

Yunho went to join Hongjoong and the rest at the quarters after asking Mingi to look over Yeosang while he informed their Captain about it. When he arrived, it seemed like the issue regarding the fuel had been solved already, as Siyeon was taking Hwanwoong with her to go negotiate for it. Hongjoong briefed him about it, explaining to him that they had opted to buy enough to go to another planet and then refilling the tank completely over there.

"How did the questioning go? You didn't do anything to him, did you?" Hongjoong asked. His tone was a bit playful but Yunho could tell he was tense.

"I didn't do anything more to him than San or Jongho did." Yunho raised his hands defensively, excusing himself.

"San and Jongho?" Hongjoong raised an eyebrow, slightly worried. Only he would worry about the health of a burglar trying to steal from his very own ship.

"Yes, apparently San prickled him with the tip of his sword, there was a little bit of blood, but nothing much." Yunho explained simply, hoping the lighthearted tone would help calm him.

"San? That's unexpected..." Hongjoong mumbled.

"I agree, he does look scary sometimes but he still doesn't seem the type to do something like that." Yunho shrugged. "Anyway, we should go hand him over to the guards."

"Not yet," Hongjoong shook his head.

"What? Why not?" Yunho was surprised, he had thought they would be done with this quickly.

"I'm just not sure about it yet..." Hongjoong's voice grew quiet, like he was trying to hide something, but Yunho knew him too well.

"You're worried about his homeless status, right?" Yunho sighed. "Hongjoong, he tried to steal from you, that's a crime-"

"He tried to steal from me because he has the need to, which is very different!" Hongjoong protested, not willing to back down. "And who created that need? My family, Yunho."

"I understand where you are going, but I don't think this is where your sympathy should be going to..." Yunho's voice was soft, placating, he didn't want to anger Hongjoong.

"To whom should it go then? He's my people, and I don't feel comfortable turning him in when it is partially my fault that this happened in the first place." Hongjoong crossed his arms over his chest and Yunho groaned.

He knew Hongjoong was right and it exasperated him, because it would be far easier to just turn Yeosang in and keep Hongjoong safe like that. What if Yeosang wasn't who he said he was? What if he was trying to bring them harm? But Hongjoong didn't like to go the easy way, he liked to do what was right, like his brother had taught him, and even though it was obnoxious at times, Yunho loved him for it.

"Fine," Yunho conceded, sighing. "What will you do then?"

"I don't know yet, but I'll figure it out." Hongjoong smiled, walking over to hug Yunho. "Thank you, I love you."

"I love you too."

Wooyoung had spent most of that day going in and out of consciousness, trying to figure out what time it was wherever the crew was at the moment to see if he could catch them in their dreams. He hadn't managed to meet with anyone so far, but sleeping with the necklace provided an interesting experience. He had his first prophetic dream again, but this time with way more clarity and details.

He prepared to fall asleep again. He wasn't even tired, but eating dinner had helped make him feel sleepy. Plus, trusting himself to the necklace actually helped, almost like it lured him to sleep by itself. Wooyoung settled under the covers and closed his eyes. His breathing slowed down little by little, until eventually he couldn't hold any clear thoughts in his mind. The last thing he thought of before waking up in the dream realm was Yeosang.

When he opened his eyes, Wooyoung found himself in an old house. It was made of wood, and the floor creaked slightly when he began walking. At first, there was only the sound of his steps and of water flowing outside the home. He peaked through a window and found himself in a little town built around canals and with buildings so tall they covered most of the sky from where he was.

As he went further into the house, he noticed the sound of crying. The voice was high-pitched, but the crying itself was subdued and constant. When he tried to find where the crying was coming from, he heard Yeosang's voice speak to the crying person, trying to calm them down. Soon Wooyoung realized that the crying was coming from Yeosang's mother. He followed the voices until he was right outside of the room, observing.

"Mom, it's alright," Yeosang repeated, trying to get his mother to stand up from the floor. "Stop drinking, and stop crying about dad, it's not worth i-"

He was silenced by a slap. Wooyoung gasped, covering his mouth with both hands. Yeosang looked at him briefly but didn't say anything. The sound of the slap had been so deafening that for a second he hadn't been able to hear anything else but the echo of it. Yeosang's right cheek turned red almost immediately, resenting the hit, and in his eyes Wooyoung could see a mix of anger and sadness.

"Mom-" He began again, but the woman just wailed harder, hitting him on the chest repeatedly. "Mom, stop it."

But the woman just wouldn't stop. Sighing, Yeosang grabbed her arms and pulled her up delicately, hugging her tightly until she stopped trying to resist and just cried herself to exhaustion. When she was done, Yeosang guided her to her room and then returned to where Wooyoung was, still frozen on the frame of the door.

"So this is a dream?" Yeosang asked. His right cheek had begun to swell, and Wooyoung couldn't stop looking at it.

"Yes..." Wooyoung nodded. Seeing Yeosang like this, when in his previous dream he had been so confident, hurt him.

"That's good, it would be a shame to discover I didn't have the courage to leave..." Yeosang sighed, approaching Wooyoung, who looked shaken. "I'm okay, it's just a dream, silly." He smiled, but Wooyoung shook his head.

"Can I...?" He extended his hand towards Yeosang's cheek, who looked at him with curiosity, but nodded anyway.

Wooyoung placed his hand softly on Yeosang's cheek. The latter winced slightly upon the contact and closed his eyes, but Wooyoung shushed him softly as he focused on altering Yeosang's dream self, reducing the swelling until it was no more. He was so focused on tending to Yeosang that he didn't realize when the other opened his eyes and openly stared at him until their eyes locked.

"Ah, sorry." Wooyoung went to pull his hand away, but Yeosang grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

"It's okay, your hand feels really cool," Yeosang nuzzled his cheek against Wooyoung's hand, closing his eyes and sighing in relief. "Thank you."

"It's nothing..." Wooyoung mumbled, eyes trained on Yeosang.

A few minutes later, Yeosang had guided him outside of the house and had invited Wooyoung to sit next to him on the little deck they had outside the house, feet dangling over the water. They stayed in silence for a moment. Wooyoung focused on taking in the image of Yeosang's hometown, curiosity filling him as he wondered where Yeosang was from and how the place he had grown up in was like. As he wondered all of this in silence, Yeosang spoke.

"I found the ship you showed me," his voice was small, like he was unsure. "At least I think I did..."

"Really?" Wooyoung's voice came out louder than he had intended, a product of his excitement.

"Yes, The Crescent, they're anchored at my town right now..." Yeosang explained, but Wooyoung sensed something was wrong.

"But...?"

"But I am not on good terms with them...?" Yeosang chuckled, he was uncomfortable.

"How so? Have you met the crew before?" Wooyoung asked, turning to face him. Yeosang mumbled something but he couldn't catch it. "What was that?" Yeosang sighed.

"I tried to steal from their ship." Yeosang repeated, loud and clear this time.

"Oh..." Wooyoung said. "That is not what I was expecting."

"I can see that..." Yeosang groaned.

"Why?"

"Just because?" He didn't want to explain his reasoning all over again, especially not to Wooyoung, who probably had already a bad impression of him. "I didn't know it was the ship you told me to look for at first, I probably wouldn't have done that if I had known."

"Probably?" Wooyoung raised his eyebrows, and Yeosang winced. "Where are you right now?"

"In their hold, sleeping with my hands tied to my back..." Yeosang explained, and Wooyoung looked horrified. This was not how he expected his future boyfriends to treat each other. "It's not too bad, really, they've been really kind. The guy they left me with, Mingi, is quite sweet." Yeosang smiled, shrugging it off.

"And what will they do with you?" Wooyoung asked, hurried.

"Probably hand me over to the guards, I'll be prosecuted under charges of serial robbery and get out in a few years, maybe." Yeosang listed.

"Serial robbery?!" Wooyoung yelled this time, surprising Yeosang.

"I'm... sorry?" Yeosang looked sheepish, like he was genuinely sorry but didn't know how to properly apologize or react.

"You better be," Wooyoung stood up, grabbing his necklace.

"What are you doing?" Yeosang stood up right after him, slightly panicked.

"Well, the omen or whatever won't work if you're in jail, so I'm going to get your freedom back." Wooyoung huffed, focusing all of his attention on the necklace.

"H-How? You're just a dream? A figment of my imagination?" Yeosang asked, genuinely confused. Wooyoung glared at him and he immediately shut up, only then realizing Wooyoung was probably more than 'just a dream'.

"I'm gonna go see the captain of the ship." Wooyoung stated. His mind focused on Hongjoong, on his name and his face, on what Wooyoung had felt the first time he had dreamed about him.

"What?" Yeosang tried to ask, but Wooyoung was already gone.

#kwritersworldnet #kdiarynet #8makes1teamnet #kpopscape #ateez #ateez fanfic #ateez fic #ateez fanfiction #atz #kpop #kpop fanfic #kpop fic #kpop fanfiction #crescent #bluenicorn writes

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frillyfacefics · 5 years

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The Knight’s Pet - Chapter 3

Fandom: Star Wars Rating: Explicit Relationships: Kylo Ren/Clan Techie, Kylo Ren/Armitage Hux (secondary) Warnings: Unhealthy Relationships, Abusive Relationships, Threats of Rape/Non-Con, Non-Consensual Touching, Slavery, Body Horror (specifically eye-related body horror), Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm Chapter: 3/14

Also on AO3

Read the first chapter

Techie makes the acquaintance of another Knight, and wishes he hadn’t.

She waved for him to follow her as they walked up the spiral walkway again. When they entered the regular hallways, Techie allowed himself to have a little look around while he followed Krel. He hadn't really been paying attention earlier, but now that he did, he noticed that the walls weren't just dark, like he'd thought earlier when he had only looked at them from the corner of his eyes, but that they were covered in paintings. There were paintings of monsters, paintings of planets, paintings of humans and aliens, some of them just standing there, others engaging in one kind of action or another, fighting, debating, looking at each other. They were all strangely stylized, drawn in only the most basic of shapes, but still clear, and the strength and nearly supernatural intensity of the pictures made a shiver run down Techie's spine. As they came around a corner, there was a picture of a giant, black star ship that seemed to stretch from one end of the hall to the other. Or at least, he thought it was a star ship. Though, when he looked ahead at the other end of the hallway, it nearly looked as if the ship had... eyes.

But he didn't get to really investigate this, as Krel stopped in front of a door and triggered the opening mechanism without as much as a buzz.

The room in front of them was a lot more like what Techie was used to. There was no strange stone ceiling, and no pillars growing out of the ground. The room was still dark, with black cut stone lining the floor and maps and strange pictures covering the walls. It seemed to be a kind of living room; there were a few shelves filled with packs of flimsi, data tapes, and things that Techie couldn't really describe, and a computer console on one side of the room. The other was dominated by a large, round table with a round bench closing it in to three fourths. Two people were sitting at that table, and both looked up as Krel came towards them. They were wearing variations of Krel’s black fabric-and-leather ensemble. Both of them were human, as far as Techie could say, though the large, broad-shouldered man was so hairy that he easily could have been part of an alien race that Techie just didn't know. He had a thick, brown beard and brown, curly hair that he had put into a ponytail that didn't look as if it would survive very long. His eyebrows looked like small mammals that were sleeping on his face, and more hair was poking out of the collar and the sleeves of his shirt.

He had the same yellow eyes as Krel, and for some reason they gave Techie a feeling of dread.

The other human was a woman of average height, with a kind of wiry, muscular built that reminded him of quite a few women he had known in the MaMa clan. Her eyes were brown, and her short hair dark blond, and he would have been surprised by how absolutely unremarkable she looked, if she hadn't looked at him with such a look of utter contempt as he had rarely seen before.

"I'm going to leave before I get lice," she hissed and stood from the bench. "At least he doesn't stink anymore," she muttered as she passed Krel. Techie was kind of surprised that she hadn't bumped her shoulder into Krel's, so angry did she look.

Krel looked after her as she walked through the door, frowning.

"Well, that was Lady Kull, just so you know," she told Techie without looking at him, then she sat down on the bench where the other woman had just been sitting. "And this is Lord Kolka. Have you ordered the food already?" She switched her attention to the other man mid-sentence, leaving Techie standing rather awkwardly in front of the table.

The man nodded, his strange yellow eyes never leaving Techie for a second. "It should be here any moment. What are you doing there, standing around like an etiquette droid? Sit down."

He patted the space on the bench next to him, on the opposite site from Krel. Techie didn't really want to sit so close to this man, but he still did as he had been told, trying to quench the queasy feeling in his stomach. Where the danger he felt coming from Krel was subtle, until it wasn't, this man radiated it. He was nearly twice as broad as Techie, and he could see the bulging of his biceps through the thin fabric of his shirt. He made sure to leave about a foot between the two of them, just enough space that it wouldn't appear as if he was disobeying a direct order, but he could still feel the heat that was coming off him, as if his body burned hotter than that of ordinary humans.

Techie nearly jumped when a hairy paw of a hand came down on his thigh.

"I hope you're hungry. I ordered twice as much as I usually do."

His voice was dark and booming, and he suddenly recognized it as the voice of the person who had been defending Krel earlier. He looked at the woman he considered his master, seeking some kind of guidance how to react to the strange man's intensity, but Krel had pulled out a little pouch he hadn't noticed had been hanging off her belt and was taking out something that looked like flat bread. Krel seemed to notice his look, but she seemed to think he was looking at her because of the bread.

"Oh, I always bring my own food wherever I go. I make it myself, too. Human food's not as rich in nutrients, you see." She started to nibble on a piece of the white, nearly greyish bread when the door opened again. One of the black-clad, half-masked servants came into the room, carrying a large, flat container. She put the container down on the table in front of them and then pressed a button in the middle of the top of it. The lid started to recede towards the edges of the container, until it had turned into a large tablet filled with mountains of steaming hot food. The smell that hit Techie damn near made him drool –it had been a long time since he had had meat, or vegetables that weren't cooked into oblivion or preserved until they tasted like nothing but salt, and here were more meat and vegetable dishes than he could have eaten in a week, plus bread, noodles, and a whole lot of stuff he couldn't identify. He was so mesmerized by the huge display of food that he jumped when somebody put a plate and utensils in front of him, and then a cup. He looked up to see another servant pour water into his cup, while the other one put down a large serving ladle next to the tablet, bowed, and left the room.

The second servant vanished soon after her, and the door slid shut again. Kolka took Techie's plate - which made panic well up in him again for a second, until he saw that he was putting food on it. A lot of food. He set it down before Techie again only when it was absolutely impossible to get more food onto the plate.

"Enjoy. You don't look like you've had a lot of nutritious food lately."

Techie blushed a little at that, though he didn't know if it really was supposed to be an insult or just an innocent remark. After all, he knew that he wasn't exactly the most healthy-looking person around, no matter how many times Krel would tell him that he was pretty.

He looked down on his plate, trying to decide what he should try first. He was not used to this kind of variety. Of course, he hadn't actually been hungry a lot in the time he had spent by MaMa - everybody in MaMa's gang ate the same, and the same amounts, though some people had had double privileges. But even with a normal ration, he'd always had enough. But that had been grub, grey food that had tasted as dull as it had looked, completely incomparable to this.

He finally decided on a little glazed cube of meat, and slowly, reverently lifted the fork to his mouth. When his lips closed around his bite, he malfunctioned - or at least, it felt as if he was malfunctioning. His eyes gave a helpless, disoriented whirr before they fell shut as the taste exploded in his mouth, pleasure shooting through his face and down his back, tingling the skin from the tip of his head to the soles of his feet.

He started chewing as in trance. If his tear ducts hadn't been fucked up, he was sure that he'd have been crying.

He swallowed, and his hand shot to his mouth, as if he couldn't believe what had just happened.

"Fuck..." he muttered as he opened his eyes again.

Kolka and Krel were both staring at him.

It took him a second to process this fact, with the taste of that meat still lingering on his tongue, but when he understood what had just happened, and that both of them had been watching him, were still watching him, the blood rushed to his face with the same speed as the pleasure that had flushed his body just a second ago.

"Uhm," he made, not sure what to say, and then covered his eyes with his hand so he wouldn't have to see the two of them. What the fuck had he been thinking???

Nothing, to be honest; he hadn't been thinking, just feeling, tasting, enjoying...

"Stars," Kolka muttered, then there was a hand at his wrist and his face was naked again. Kolka was grinning at him, giving his wrist a gentle squeeze.

"So, do you like the food?"

Krel let out an explosive peal of laughter at that, then she slapped Techie's back, which hurt quite a bit even though it seemed to be meant in a friendly way.

"You are so wrecking sweet", she cooed, then she ruffled his freshly washed hair. "If you make that face when you're coming, I might have to rethink the whole 'Not into humans' thing, to be honest."

Techie covered his face with his other hand. "I'm so sorry," he whimpered "I just... I-I was just surprised..." He really didn't want her to rethink anything to be honest; just why was he so stupid? Why couldn't he ever control himself?

Kolka snorted and let go of his wrist, petting his hand. "It's perfectly alright. We have some really, really good cooks here. Even though some people don't appreciate them." He raised his eyebrows at Krel, who just shrugged and popped another piece of her greyish bread into her mouth. He turned back to Techie and picked up the fork he had dropped next to the plate at some point, pressed it into his hand.

"Come on, keep eating. You might not be as surprised by the second bite as by the first, but the other things on your plate are pretty good too."

Suddenly he was leaning closer, and the hand that had just touched his own ran up farther, fingers tickling the inside of his elbow, then it was at his shoulder and running down his back.

"I do insist that you finish the plate," Kolka said lowly, and Techie nearly choked as cold, new, unexpected fear cut through the heat of his embarrassment. "Are you going to do that for me?" That hand was at his hip now, squeezing him through his new trousers. "Say 'yes, my lord'."

Suddenly, he wasn't hungry anymore. He stared at Kolka openly for just a second, before all of his instincts kicked back in and he lowered his head, nodding. "Yes, my lord," he whispered.

He saw the disapproving look Krel was giving Kolka from the corner of his eyes, but it didn't really matter right now. He had been given an order, the kind that had bad consequences if he didn't follow it - he knew the kind, he had grown up with it - and he did not want to face the consequences.

At least the hand vanished from his hips after a second squeeze.

But by the stars, the food was still so good... Every bite was a surprise, and even while he was still feeling Kolka's menacing heat beside him, he couldn't help the warmth that filled him as he kept eating bite after bite of meat, noodles, vegetables... He wouldn't have been able to tell what he was eating, to be honest, but the textures and aromas mesmerized him, coaxed little sighs out of him that he did his best to push down, though the other two were eating now as well and didn't seem to be giving him so much attention anymore. He could still feel Kolka's eyes on him every once in a while, but he tried to ignore him as well as he could. The order had been to eat it all, and at the moment that didn't seem to be such a difficult thing to do. He started by trying every different kind of food on his plate first, then he began to combine different flavors, try different sequences, wondering how it was that salty and sweet tasted so good together, or how the slight sting of a spicy piece of meat became so delicious when he paired it with one of the starchy yellow cubes on his plate. It was like discovering a whole new dimension of eating, as if what he had been doing up to now had been a completely different thing, as if he had only now found out what food was supposed to be, and he happily dove into his explorations.

But nothing as good as this would last, and he should have known that. He soon found that he wasn't feeling hungry anymore, and that he would like to stop eating. But that was not an option - his order had been very clear, and he would not disobey, not on his first day here, not when his new masters were so much more powerful than anybody he had ever seen. The more power somebody had, the worse they reacted to being disobeyed, after all. So he kept eating, alternatively trying to stuff the food down as fast as possible and slowing down to a crawl while he tried to force another bite into his stomach, which was now transitioning from a simple full feeling to a definite queasiness. He kept eating; he got to half his plate, to a fourth, to a fifth; he felt his stomach bulge, then he felt the first cramps; he took bite after bite while every bite before seemed to claw at his chest, while his stomach started hurting so badly that he could hardly sit straight. His face was hot, and he felt a familiar tingle at the back of his throat, a bright panic that didn't sit in his head, like usual, but in his neck, pulling down over his chest and his stomach and clawing into his flesh with every bite he forced down.

The last bite was the same kind of meat he had eaten at the beginning, and he was sure he had never tasted anything so disgusting. His stomach was hurting so badly, and he was still fighting against the cramps. He had to keep the food down... He had to be good... He had to be good...

Suddenly there was a hand on his shoulder, but it was small and soft and cool. He looked over to Krel, who was looking at him with a quizzical frown, as if she didn't understand what he had just done, and why he was basically writhing in pain. He cast Kolka a quick look; yes, he definitely knew what he had done.

That small, cool hand ran up and down his back.

"Here," she said and broke off a piece of her strange greyish bread. "This is going to help. Eat."

He frowned, but still took the piece of bread. How would eating more help his stomach cramps? But he was too distracted to think about it for too long, and too desperate to get rid of this pain, so he took the piece of bread and popped it into his mouth.

He had been wrong earlier. That last bite of meat had not been the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted. He did not know what exactly he tasted when he bit down on that piece of bread, but it was so vile, so horrible, that his stomach immediately started to empty itself into his mouth. He clasped one hand over his mouth and jumped from the bench, his body working on autopilot, trying to get away, get somewhere save, while he tried to keep himself from spewing. He didn't get far, but at least he managed to reach the corner so he wouldn't get anything on the two masters, before he broke and vomited the entire, huge plate of food onto the floor. He hardly noticed the warm hands that pulled his hair back behind his ears and held it out of his face.

Only when the last dry heaves had stopped and he was standing there, doubled over and breathing hard, did he notice the person behind him. New panic struck him as he pulled away with a start and stumbled towards the side, away from where he had soiled Lord Kolka's room, just far enough to the door that he noticed what he was trying to do and instead fell to his knees before his traitorous body could make him run away. He had done something horrible, indescribably nasty in the private room of one of his masters, and he knew that he needed to be punished. His brain was racing a mile a minute, jumping from excuses to pleas to self-recrimination to disgust with himself. Eventually, he didn't manage to get anything out, and so he just cowered on the floor, his head between his shoulders, a little ball of absolute mortification and panic.

"Hey," came Kolka's voice, though a lot softer than before. He could feel him kneeling down in front of him, but when he reflexively tried to jerk away a hand on his arm kept him there, and then the same warm fingers that had held back his hair ran over his head, his neck, his cheek, lifted his face up.

"Poor thing," he said with a frown that nearly - nearly - looked genuine. "That was a very cruel trick Krel played on you."

He pulled him to his feet and led him back to the table, where he handed him his forgotten glass of water. Eager to get rid of the acrid taste in his mouth, Techie emptied it in one go.

"That wasn't a trick, though," Krel said, arms crossed in front of her chest, frowning. "Whenever my stomach hurts, I hurl too. I mean, you do feel better now, don't you?"

Kolka had refilled his glass, and Techie took another little sip while he let his awareness slip down his body. He had been too panicked to notice it before, but yes - the ache was gone, and even though he still felt a little queasy and weak as a newborn, he didn't feel like he was about to die anymore.

He did nearly throw up again when he saw Krel take a huge bite out of that horribly disgusting bread of hers.

"H-how can you eat that?" he murmured, extremely curious but also extremely afraid of doing yet another thing wrong. But really, how could she eat something that just tasted so absolutely disgusting - like an unholy mixture of rancid meat and mold and earth.

"Chagrians don't have tastebuds," Kolka answered the question for her as he sat down again. "At least not the adult ones. I think your podlings do?"

"They do, yes. Though they're still not really picky. You just feed them raw meat and they're good." Krel took another bite.

Techie wanted to ask her if she had known how disgusting it was - but he was pretty sure she had, since she had fed it to him to make him vomit, apparently. He didn't know what to think about that. Lord Kolka had been undoubtedly cruel - he didn't doubt for one second that he had ordered him to eat all that to make him miserable - but there was no glee in Krel's face, just a little bit of worry. Had she really thought she was helping him?

Well, to be honest, she had helped him. He was feeling a lot better now, as a matter of fact. And apparently Kolka was not planning to punish him for vomiting in his corner...

Techie was just about to sit down again when both of the other two suddenly tensed. They lifted their heads in the air as if they were hearing something, then they both nodded in unison.

"Looks like you're going to meet Sizzly now. Master Kylo just called us for the debriefing," Krel said as she stood up, stuffing the last bit of bread into her mouth and swallowing it with hardly a chew.

Techie swallowed, glad that hardly any of the taste had stayed, though he was sure he was still smelling of vomit. "Who... who exactly..." he began, but fell silent again immediately. His gumption seemed to have run out by now.

"Sizzly is the head tech," Krel said as she opened the door and waited for Kolka and Techie to follow her outside. They walked through the painted hallways again, but not in the direction where the bow of the huge painted space ship was looming. He really wanted to know if it had eyes or if he had just been imagining things...

"Her workshop is also the security center of the Temple, so you'll likely be around her a lot. She's a bit rough around the edges, but don't worry, I'm sure the two of you will get along squeakingly." She grinned at that last bit, and Techie wondered if that was some kind of slang he didn't know - didn't you usually say 'splendidly' or 'great'?

They walked into a part of the Temple that had less bombastic wall paintings, and instead a lot more doors and metal floors instead of rock. They passed a few droids and two technicians who cast them brief glances from behind their goggles. They stopped at a door at the end of one of the hallways and Krel opened the door with her handprint.

"Hey Sizzly," she called cheerfully when she stepped into the room. "I think you’ll have to take a look at Kedesh's helmet, I think his vocoder's busted. Haven't heard a single word from him during the whole mission."

Techie just stepped into the room when a wrench came flying towards them. Techie immediately froze and would likely have been hit by the slightly off-trajectory wrench, but Krel's hand snapped up and she caught it as if it was nothing. She let it fall with a loud clatter and a grin, then walked farther into the room, motioning Techie to come with her.

"You really need to learn how to aim," she said, though Techie couldn't see who she was saying it to. A bulky droid was set up in the middle of a large room that had a wall of control screens on the one and a large, cluttered workbench on the other side. A clanking noise was coming from the deactivated droid, and then a noise that sounded like grunting. Krel motioned to him again and walked around the droid. Techie followed her obediently.

A small, hairy person was sitting behind the droid, working on some cables, ignoring them diligently, though Techie seemed to hear muttering coming from them.

"Sizzly," Krel said, a little louder this time. "This is Techie. You're to find some work for him. He did security at the complex we went to today."

Another grunting sound, then a strange, rough voice that Techie couldn't identify as male or female. "I don't need any more people working for me. We're full."

Something in Techie bristled, and it wasn't just the pang he felt at hearing that he 'wasn't needed.' The only techs he had known in his life had been slaves; that was just how it worked where he was from, so a tech disagreeing with a free person just wasn't a thing that was done. And Krel might be cruel in her own, inconsiderate way, but seeing her disrespected like that made something in his stomach turn.

But Krel just rolled her eyes and tapped the small person's leg with the tip of her boot. "It's Kylo's orders. He's good, you'll like him, I promise. His protocols found us far faster than they usually do at that kind of places." She lowered her voice a little. "Even despite your cloaking work."

Now the small person let go of the cables they had been working on, and turned around. Techie couldn't help jerking back a little. He didn’t quite know what he had expected, but he definitely hadn’t expected this very hairy person in goggles, with a pushed-in face and a round, big snout like a pig.

The pig person seemed to notice his look. "What's the matter, red?" she asked, looking him up and down. "Never seen an Ugnaught?"

"N.... No... I'm s-sorry..." Techie stuttered out, mortified. If he had to work with - or for - this person, then he had really just made a great first expression, hadn't he?

"Anyway, we'll leave him with you. You'll find something to do with him, I'm sure," Krel said, then she walked towards the door, where Kolka was waiting for her. "Play nice now, you two."

Techie looked on helplessly as the door closed behind the two of them, leaving him alone with this strange little person who turned around and resumed their work on the droid. No matter how afraid he was of more incidents like the vomiting thing, he still felt like he knew Krel to some degree now - he definitely knew her better than anybody else here - and he didn't want to be left all alone. Especially not with somebody who didn't seem to want anything to do with him.

Since Sizzly didn't seem to be interested in saying anything to him, he slunk back into a corner by the security screens. He let his eyes run over them for a while, trying to make sense of the symbols and the layout, but finally he just started staring off into space, wondering what was going to become of him. What if there really was no work for him here? What would they do to him? What would happen if he turned out not to be useful after all?

"Are you planning to play statue all day? If not, get me that wrench. I need it."

Techie's gaze shot back to Sizzly, who was still not looking at him. He scrambled to get to the door where the wrench was lying and picked it up before he went back and knelt down next to the Ugnaught to give it to them.

They took it without looking and started to screw some things in.

"I threw it because Lady Krel's been making that fucking joke ever since I asked if I shouldn't put a vocoder into Lord Kedesh's helmet when I first came here." They grunted again and put the wrench down. "Get me that laser knife on the workbench, the two inch one."

Techie jumped back to his feet and rushed over to the workbench, searching through the chaos there for a second before he found what they had asked for. He brought it back, and this time Sizzly grunted when they took it, and it nearly sounded like a 'thanks'.

"B-but..." He cleared his throat. If he was going to work with this person, he had to be able to speak with them. "What's wrong about that? I-isn't a helmet without a vocoder kind of..."

"He's mute, that's why. Went crazy one day and cut half his jaw clean off."

Techie couldn't help but stare again. "He... what?"

"You live here long enough and nothing they do is really strange anymore," the Ugnaught answered, then they finally turned to him and took off their goggles. Their eyes were small and beady, and they looked him over critically. Techie still couldn't tell if they were female or male, even with the goggles off.

"What kind of asshole made your bionics?" they asked, grunting again. "That's hands-down the worst work I've seen since my junkyard days."

Techie felt a blush coming on. "Uhm..." He looked at the droid, trying to get the flush under control. "I don't really know... I didn't ask for them, exactly."

Sizzly grunted again, then pulled the goggles back down. "So, is your name really 'Techie'? Really?"

He shrugged slightly. "That's what I've been called. It was 'boy' before, so that's kind of an improvement..."

"That tattoo is also pretty fucking ugly," Sizzly said as they finished realigning a part of the droid's inside.

Techie flushed again. "I'm sorry..."

Sizzly grunted, then they looked at him again. "It's 'she', by the way. Most Ugnaughts go by 'he' when they're talking in common, but I don't, so remember that. Just so you know."

He frowned slightly at that. "What do you mean, 'go by'?"

"I mean that this whole gender thing is a lot different with us than with you tall naked monkeys, and we don't have words like 'she' or 'he' in our own language." She carefully closed the panel inside the droid she had been working on. "Most of you people think we look like 'he's, which is absolute bullshit. I mean, you don't look like a 'he' and still you are, right? So, I'm 'she'. It's that simple."

"Alright," Techie said, though being told he didn't really look male did sting a bit. He had always felt like a boy, even despite his obvious differences and his admittedly soft and annoyingly hairless face. But he was pretty sure that she hadn't really meant anything by it, so he decided not to think about it too much.

Sizzly was now connecting a new conductor end to the burned out wire she had been working with earlier. “So, tell me what kind of work you’ve done before. If I have to find you work, I’ll need to know what you can do.”

#star wars fanfiction #clan techie #kylo ren #clan techie/kylo ren #the knights pet

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jgfiles · 7 years

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Re-watching Joker Game: Ep 7 Code Name: Cerberus

So, as I proposed a re-watching, here I go continuing on doing the re-watching. Hopefully someone else will join! ^_-

Also, hopefully there’s someone out there that read all this stuff… as I know it’s pretty long… shame on me for analyzing things too in deep…

Mind you, what follows are my ramblings over Ep 7, comprehensive of my impression on how the frames were structured and so on with some occasional reference to the other Joker Game media.

Also, for personal comfort, I’ll use the characters’ names even if the anime hasn’t stated them yet. In short, as this is a re-watching and not a first watching, you’ll also get a telling that’s mixed with my knowledge of the future. Consider yourself warned.

Last but not least, many apologies for posting this so late but real life kept me rather busy this month…

And now, let’s start.

So yes, like in the previous episode I starts with the preview for this episode that was in Ep 6.

Now, we’re again in whatever place the previews take place.

Anyway in this preview we’ve Amari and Hatano.

Amari is folding a paper as he asks if there wasn’t an artist, a painter to be specific, who compared life to an ocean voyage.

Hatano answers quoting something “You start rowing from a small stream, enjoy the peaceful scenery, endure the wind, survive the storms,” while Amari keeps on folding the paper until he has obtained a boat. Then Amari finishes the quote for Hatano, “And flow into the ocean. What awaits beyond is boundless freedom,” before blowing on the ship causing it to fly away from his hand.

Sorry but I wasn’t able to find the painter who said the quote Hatano and Amari are referencing. If someone has more info I would love to hear them.

The preview is a reference to how the next episode will take place on a boat… but it can be seen also as a reference to how Amari will technically leave D Agency and move to Hawaii to take care of little Emma… because that’s what truly happened in the end even though the whole fandom, Miwa Shiro included, prefers to think he came back to D Agency with Emma. But well, we love Amari and we don’t want to lose him.

This is sadly the only interaction we see in the Joker Game anime between Amari and Hatano (in the manga they interact a little more).

And now let’s dig into the episode.

The episode opens up in a rather dramatic way.

As ‘Tōryaku’ [韜略 River] play in the background the scene opens showing us that there’s fire and people tied in the middle of it. Some of them seem dead already. One though is on his knees, panting hard, blood dripping from his side. There’s someone in front of him and it’s probably that someone who orders to plant explosives in the ship’s hold, twice the standard amount.

The wounded guy raises his head at this, eyes widening in shock.

Next we see is that the one speaking is a German, clearly recognizable due to the iron cross he’s wearing.

The one next to him asks about what to do in regards to the ship’s crew. We see that there are people still alive, closed in the engine room of what is likely a boat, banging on a door and asking to be left out…

…and soldiers outside the door keeping their arms raised against it so as to make sure they won’t manage to come out.

Anyway the German in charge comments that, as their information said, they had the instructions so they won’t let evidence behind, implying they would kill everyone. As the panting guy screams him to stop he raises his gun with a grin and, as the screen becomes black we hear a shoot, a clear hint that the panting guy was killed.

Now… Ep 7 has an awesome colouring, one of the best through JG. The fire is beautifully bright and I love how the room gets an orange tinge due to it.

But hum… back to the rest. This bit lasted exactly 32 seconds but it had a high dramatic value. At first we don’t really see the Germans, we’re just shown their victims. The bound people who’re either dead or unconscious, the bleeding sailor on his knees (to make things simpler I’ll tell you he’s Raymond Grane, even if we’ll discover this much, much later), the horror on his face as the German imply they’ll kill everyone, the crew begging to be left free.

We catch glimpses of German soldiers to show us that they’re actually in control of all those lives. The soldier who asks about the crew when they’re about to blow up the ship, the soldiers who’re guarding the door so the crew can’t escape. They’re the ones in power… but they’re actually not really acting, they’re just there, like objects. While what they’re doing is cruel and horrible… they don’t seem to either get pleasure or displeasure doing it. The question about what to do with the crew is said in a neutral tone, as some sort of clarification on the orders. In short, they’re represented as people who’s just there to obey orders regardless.

The one who’s really in power is the German officer… and that one came clearly out as a jerk.

It’s meaningful how his face isn’t showed until he gets the chance to express what sort of jerk he is.

We know he ordered to use twice the standard amount of explosive so as to make sure the ship will blow up… but we can assume he too is being a puppet obeying to orders. When asked about the crew… he sounds almost concerned… but it’s actually a mocking tone. When we finally see his face we hear him ordering what to do in regard to the crew. His order implies they all have to die and, once he gives it, he grins.

He’s not doing this in the impersonal manner of someone following orders. He’s enjoying it. He also grins again when he shoots at Raymond.

He has a very small role with few sentences, but it’s clear it’s not a good guy.

While JG often paints the Germans as jerks, in this case this is an interesting choice because that German was actually not being the ‘real cause’ due to which everyone died. It’ll turn out it’s McCloud, an Englishman like them, Raymond’s friend, who sold them out to get information.

Those people’s lives to him weren’t that important. So, even if the German is a jerk for enjoying what he’s doing… how much horrible McCloud is at backstabbing those people knowing the Germans would have very likely killed them all? Civilians, one of whom his friend?

It helps to make more understandable why Synthia’s hate, who should have been directed to the Germans who were actually the ones who physically killed her husband, actually turned on McCloud, the family friend who pretended to share her pain when, in truth, he sent her husband to death.

It’s 1940, they’re at war, the Germans are enemies from which they shouldn’t expect mercy… but McCloud was an Englishman and a friend. And caused Raymond’s death just the same. And no, it wasn’t to save English lives. It was so that he would look cooler. But let’s go back to the story.

Oh, not too sure if someone is interested but when the German guy raised his arm we could see his rank insignia and they label him as a Oberleutnant, the highest lieutenant officer rank in the armed forces of Germany. Among the voice actors he’s just labeled asドイツ海軍士官 (Doitsu kaigun shikan) which means “German Navy Officer”. No reference to his ranking is made. Personally I was expecting him to have a higher ranking (he even seems older than Bauer or Sakuma) but maybe it’s just me.

BTW Raymond Grane, according to the ranking on his hat and sleeve is a first mate (or chief officer or chief mate, do your pick, all those names work). Amari too will confirm this, later on.

‘Kikan’ [機関 Agency] starts and we gets Amari telling us the usual shortened version of the explanation of what D Agency is.

Then this ends and we get…

…the opening. Which is the same as usual. Amari is the forth spy that appears in it and we see him smoking and then smiling at the camera. If he does something at the end of it… well, I didn’t realize it (maybe he’s the one who smiles? I’m not sure though…).

Anyway the opening ends and we resume with ‘Joker Game’.

‘Yōkō’ [陽光 Sunshine] begins to play and we start… with a big cruiser boat, the Tokimaru (朱鷺丸).

The ship is currently sailing close enough to see some islands (which will turn out to be the Hawaii) so the passengers are on the bridge watching them. The ship’s captain confirms that they’re the Hawaii and that they should be docking in Honululu in three hours.

The contrast with what happened on another ship in the scene prior to the opening is staggering and it’s even increased by colours. While, due to the fire, the previous scene had a marked yellow, orange and red tinge, here the predominant colour are the blue of the sky and the sea and the white of the boat and of the sailors’ clothes, of the deckchairs and, of the clothes of someone who’s sitting on a deckchair (though, to be honest, they’ve a pale yellow and not a perfect white).

Anyway the first mate goes and ask that person if he’s not going to enjoy the view like the others. We can’t see that person face at first then he moves and… well, hello Amari!

Amari is dressed quite differently from usual and not because he’s not wearing his usual grey suit. In fact, we can see that instead than a tie he has a bow tie and instead than a fedora he has a pork pie hat, braces instead than a belt and no waistcoast. Maybe he’s meant to look dressed with an American flair since the ship is traveling from San Francisco to Japan (with a stop to Hawaii)?

Oh well, it’s not really a problem.

Amari claims he’s a little preoccupied… and then we’re shown what is tormenting him. A crossword puzzle. Before wondering if Amari is that obsessed with crossword puzzles or prone to worry over minor things give him a moment.

He starts asking help to the sailor in order to end the crossword puzzle... and that’s our clue. The D Agency boys were so very knowledgeable that it’s weird that Amari would be stumped on a crossword puzzle… for answers that a normal sailor can give him.

Well, to be honest the sailor can only give him an answer as he gets stumped as well at the next word. Anyway, as the two of them are talking, they hear a woman screaming “No! Stop! Stay!” in English, our clue that she’s English.

As the woman screams we don’t see her face, just her mouth…

…and then we’re shown the shadow of a small dog, a Scottish terrier, running in between the legs of the passengers.

The dog then turns a corner and appears close to where Amari and the First Mate are and runs past them and away from a woman, holding a child in her arms and now leaning against a wall.

Though the woman is far from Amari and the First Mate and much closer to the other passengers, none of them move to check on her, just Amari and the First Mate… which is, in my opinion, a bit weak. Amari is the first to reach for her and ask her what’s wrong. She claims a dog ran out of nowhere and startled her daughter, then put the little girl down. Now… maybe it’s a subbing problem but the one who seemed freaked out was the mother, not the little girl which seems weird.

Sure, later it’ll turn out the woman is actually lying but the lie is pitiful in itself as it would have worked better if she had said the dog startled HER.

Anyway, Amari bend down and asks the little girl to come with him. In present time it would be very weird for a stranger to do this but it seems back then it wasn’t a big deal. The little girl though is shy and moves closer to her mother. At this Amari whistles and causes dolphins to start jumping out of the water.

Now… I wonder if this is possible as dolphins aren’t trained dogs but well, let’s let this slide.

‘Sakura haru’ [桜春 Spring of cherry blossoms] starts playing as the little girl, Emma, is delighted that dolphin have appeared. This time Amari asks her if she feels like going to see the dolphins together and she accepts, allowing him to pick her up. Amari winks at the mother, who smiles at him and, after turning to the first mate likely hinting at how he entrusts the mother to him, carries the little girl to see the dolphins asking her what’s her name, to which she replies ‘Emma’.

Yeah, as many pointed out, in present time the whole thing feels weird as mothers shouldn’t entrust their little daughters to random strangers but whose were other times.

The mother seems to feel sick again (as I’ve said before either the subs messed up or the whole my daughter was startled doesn’t really work well as she’s the one who basically is feeling sick…) so the first mate asks her if she would like to return to her room, to which she replies she’ll be fine if she’ll rest a bit.

Meanwhile Emma is counting the dolphins jumping out of the water…

…and it’s surprised when, after counting five, she can’t see them anymore so she asks Amari where they went… to which he offers back to their home… which… hum… again is a bit weak as he could have whistled again and make them appear again, if it’s that what he did the first time. Emma wants then to know where’s their house, to which he has no answer.

Overall it’s a very pretty scene.

Emma’s mother, Synthia, joins them, thanks Amari, claims she feels better and gets Emma back. Emma is happy to go in her mother’s arms…

…and, other her mother’s prompting, thanks Amari, who replied it was a pleasure.

Now… in the book Emma was around 2. In the anime she looks older, around 4, and she can walk, but she will be mostly carried around in people’s arms which is a bit weird.

Still, Emma comes out as a loveable and cute child.

It’s also worth to note that Ep 7 is possibly the most visually pretty episode of Joker Game, both in terms of colours, composition of the images and effects.

I’ve mentioned how beautiful it was the fire in the intro scene but the sea is also awesome, both when we see the dolphins underwater, in which they use a wonderful effect to express the water refraction…

…or when it’s just in the background with the waves moving on its surface.

The characters are usually not static, which further proves the care used to animate this. Overall it’s definitely one of the most visually nice to watch if not the nicest.

We’re shown the ship continuing on its cruise, but it’s just a quick glance to help us smoothly accept the transition from a scene to the other. The Tokimaru won’t definitely be shown as often and with the same care as the Asia Express. On a sidenote the Tokumaru very likely is a fictional ship based on the Japanese ocean liners owned by Nippon Yusen Kaisha. Although the anime changed things a little, in the novel, this story was partially based on something that happened to the Asamamaru, so, very likely, the Asamamaru is the model for the Tokimaru.

However, since the whole thing was a diplomatic incident and a complex one, the anime preferred to change things a little and have a fictional boat (also the incident took place on January so, if they wanted this episode to take place in summer, they had to change things).

Anyway, due to all this, JG likely didn’t feel like the Tokimaru deserved the same attention that Asia Express got.

Back to the story and to Amari who tries to get back to his crossword puzzle to find a man peering at it curiously.

The man explains he was passing by and couldn’t help but be attracted by it. It’s very nice how they handled his body language.

Anyway he introduces himself as Jeffrey Morgan, someone who runs a small trading company in San Francisco. Amari presents himself as Osamu Utsumi, a Japanese engineer. As he’s giving out a fake name it’s clear that Amari is on mission.

Morgan admits he can’t walk away from a crossword puzzle…

…and Amari claims it’s perfect as ‘he’d like to borrow his knowledge for a bit’. It’s not so hard to guess Amari isn’t just as obsessed with crossword puzzles but he has ulterior motives for his invitation.

Anyway the two sits down.

The next we see as two glasses filled with what looks like sparkling white wine.

They’re relevant but the problem is ‘how had they gotten there?’. The two had apparently just sat down and yet there’s already wine served for them… which wasn’t there moments before, when they met (just look at the previous pictures and you’ll see no glasses on the table) and the one in the glasses is not just ordinary wine… not mentioning they won’t touch it for a while so they clearly hadn’t ordered it because they were thirsthy.

This is fundamentally the weakest point of all the episode… but we’ll discuss about it later on. Amari in the meantime is reading clues while Morgan is giving him the answers.

Amari then reads a definition “Variations, six letters,” and if we pay attention to his expression it’s not casual anymore and his eyes are kept in the shadows even if they’re looking at Morgan.

Even if it’s not overly obvious it’s a visual clue Amari is up on something. The other reacts with surprise at the definition then gives the answer. ‘Enigma’. Due to Amari’s confusion, Morgan explains that Enigma is also the name of one of composer Elgar’s masterpieces. Turns out that in the piece there are various still unsolved riddles and this helps Amari to switch the discussion on another unsolvable mystery, the encryptions made with the Enigma machine Germans are using.

Amari starts to sing praises of the Enigma machine and Morgan also adds some info about how the German Army improved it. Amari then claims that the movements of the German U-boats that had Enigma-encrypted orders would be completely unpredictable and this pushes Morgan to challenge that statement claiming that any form of encryption can be broken as long as one has a little hint.

Morgan is thinking that, if they were to have a message whose text they know, encrypted with an Enigma machine, comparing the two would give them clues… which is basically how the Rosetta Stone helped people to decrypt hieroglyphic scripts.

At this point Amari reveals his true face. He praises Morgan for being a really smart man in an amused tone then explains that since the Japanese Navy is also developing encryption machines based on the Enigma technology…

…they can’t let him slip inside Japan by pretending to be an American.

Please, note this as well. Amari says that Jeffrey Mordan is claiming to be American. It’ll get relevant later on.

Morgan is surprised, Amari rolls the newspaper and claims Morgan’s true name is Louis McCloud, whose codename in his country intelligence agency is “The Prof”.

Morgan, or better McCloud, bends on himself, as if defeated and claims that Amari is “Cerberus” before pulling out a blade that he kept hidden under the leg of his pants and using it to attack Amari.

While the movement is really plastic… well, it also seems pretty unnatural. The Settei book shows the first draft for that scene and that one looked a lot more natural even if maybe less spectacular.

Anyway Amari blocks the knife with ease using the newspaper…

…and presses his fingers against McCloud’s neck claiming he could use fingernails to cut his carotid artery…

…and here I’ll admit I’m not really knowledgeable enough to tell if this is possible or not as I’ve never tried killing people with fingers (on a sidenote how sharp Amari’s fingernails are?).

More likely though, he’s planning to kill him not by cutting his artery but by pressuring it so as to cause a vagal inhibition which can kill you really quickly. Either that or he’s bluffing… though, of course, claiming he’ll cut the artery with his fingers is way cooler than claiming he’ll cause a vagal inhibition so maybe they changed things on purpose.

McCloud gives up (probably understanding that Amari isn’t out to kill him and therefore he isn’t Cerberus) and Amari catches his chance to toss the knife in the sea.

McCloud starts questioning Amari on how he could recognize him since he undertook a huge amount of plastic surgery.

Amari explains he had only few bits of random intel on him like how he’s unable to ignore crossword puzzles and how the clues in the crossword puzzle were also tailored for McCloud. Still Amari claims that, despite the plastic surgery he could recognize McCloud even without the crossword puzzle because several of his facial features matched the picture he had as, like fingerprints, there are some things unique to each individual (we’ll discover later he’s talking about McCloud’s ear shape).

Now… okay, I don’t really get the plan here. Amari can force McCloud to disembark on Honululu and not get in Japan… but what after this? McCloud can always try using the next boat to reach Japan since Amari isn’t going to kill him. Wouldn’t be better to let him reach Japan and then arrest him there?

Unless part of the plan got cut due to time reasons this bit feels confusing.

However at this point the discussion between the two is interrupted. A ship is appearing.

‘Keiryaku’ [計略 Strategy] starts playing as people think the ship might be a Japanese one, then it turns out it’s not. What’s worse the ship shoots a cannonball close to the Tokimaru, causing the people on board to panic.

Allow me a second to praise how each passenger has a different face.

After firing the shoot we can see they have the English flag and that are raising another flag that means “Stop your vessel at once”.

McCloud confirms for us that the ship is from the Royal Navy in case we didn’t recognize the flag.

Behind him we can see people panicking and escaping. It’s worth to point out that, back then Japan and England weren’t at war yet. But we’ll discuss about this in a while.

McCloud feels confident, claiming he had fun playing with Utsumi’s (Amari’s) crossword puzzle and then, claiming this is a goodbye, picks up one of the previously mentioned glasses and drinks from it.

A music starts playing but I can’t recognize it. Sorry about it. Anyway as soon as McCloud drinks he starts to feel sick, drops the glass, begins to claim that Utsumi is Cerb… then dies.

‘ Seion’ [静穏 Quiet] starts playing.

The scene switches and we go back to the Greater East Asia Cultural Society. It’s clearly a flashback in which Yūki is handing Amari the current case. Yūki taks to him about Louis McCloud, showing him photos of the man…

… and telling Amari the man was hired by the SIS during WW1, working on decrypting German communications. He hads the man has changed his face and plans to travel from America to Japan. As Amari reads the documents at an amazing speed, Yūki tells him not to let McCloud set foot in Japan… and so this confirm my confusion. Even if Amari were to cause the man to disembark at Honululu what would stop him from coming in Japan with the next boat? And why McCloud felt relief when he saw the English boat? Amari had told him his purpose was to stop him from coming to Japan and, apparently, McCloud had figured out Amari wasn’t after his blood so even if he were to leave with the Royal Navy McCloud would still not manage to go to Japan and Amari would have won just the same.

Definitely there’s something missing in the plan but I’ve no idea what it is.

Meanwhile, as Amari stares at McCloud’s photo he says ‘Garderning plan’ and this is confusing because that’s the first time we hear about it, and we might think it’s Yūki’s plan for McCloud, not McCloud’s plan.

Sure, it was probably meant to hint at how Amari got info on what McCloud did that caused Synthia’s husband’s death but, right now it feels a bit random. But well, if that was the plan it wasn’t bad as an idea… only I fear it’s too distant and obscure to help people connect the dots at a first watch.

We’re back to the ships. Small boats are moving from the English ship to the Tokimaru.

Meanwhile the captain of the Tokimaru is questioning Utsumi (Amari) about Morgan (McCloud). Amari insists he just met him on the ship and so he didn’t know him and asks the cause of his death. The First Mate tells him it was due to cyanide poisoning. Hum… I’m not sure it’s a smart idea to give out info to Amari as he should be suspected but now I can finally rant about how the glasses were a problem.

In the Anime the glasses appeared on the table after Amari and McCloud started doing the crossword puzzle. They contain what is apparently the same drink. Now, as they contained apparently the same drink and McCloud picked up one at random, this means BOTH were poisoned. However we see no one coming close to them and poisoning them.

This should mean that poison was already inside them when they were delivered… but when they were delivered?

This is unknown. They weren’t on the table before Amari met Synthia and they aren’t on it when he goes back to his crossword puzzle and sees McCloud staring at it. They’ll just appear after Amari and McCloud sat down and started doing the crossword puzzle.

In order to deliver the cyanide the assassin should have seen them sitting down together, and then either poison both the drinks they ordered, or send them poisoned drinks with an excuse.

I’m saying ‘send them’ because the assassin apparently didn’t deliver them personally or Amari would have recognized that person (SPOILER AHEAD: the assassin is Synthia so if she had delivered them personally Amari would have suspected her way sooner). The problem however here is ‘how did she poison the drinks without being noticed by the one carrying them?’ and why no one checked from where the poisoned drink came from?

In the original version this story was pretty long, and even cut in two parts so it’s possible that this is all due to the anime having to cut too many things. Sure is the mystery part gets incredibly weak, which is a pity.

Anyway, back to the story, Amari thinks at McCloud’s dying words and figures that McCloud was targeted by someone whose codename was “Cerberus”.

The scene switch and we’re on the bridge of the ship. The English sailors have come aboard and the Tokimaru’s captain is protesting for what they’re doing, claiming they’re violating international law.

The English captain says he’s there to retrieve Jeffrey Morgan, an ENGLISHMAN who’s being held prisoner on a stateless vessel. Now, remember how McCloud was pretending Jeffrey Morgan was an AMERICAN? Yes, it’s a mess, especially because it’s totally random. Why should they want to retrieve him and even blow HALF of his cover (that he’s not American but not which his true name is) when the plan was for him to infiltrate in Japan? Or is McCloud trying to act on his own again? Or is he deserting England? Who knows?

In truth the whole thing is due to an anime change. In the novel the situation was based on what is called the Asamamaru Incident.

In fact in the novel the British wanted to get not Jeffrey Morgan but the Germans who were aboard the ship so they couldn’t return to Germany and then join the German Army. Yes, the whole thing was in direct violation of Japan’s neutrality and international law.

This is what basically happened to the Asamamaru and it’s something that worsened the anti-British sentiment in Japan.

The Anime makers admitted they found this too complicate of a side plot thread and preferred to change it. Personally I don’t think the idea is so bright as it gets even more confusing and random, though maybe it’s a tamer approach to the whole incident.

Anyway the English side claims they’ve permission of the American for conducting unannounced investigation on suspicious ships… which might be why they were presented very close to Hawaii. Maybe the idea is that they’re in American waters so the English abuse isn’t as bad as it originally was.

The English captain still comes out as a jerk but the Japanese captain is in trouble due to Morgan being dead.

Meanwhile the First Mate sees that Synthia, Emma’s mother and the woman who felt sick at the beginning, is on the bridge and goes to check how she’s feeling.

As he does so, he reveals that the woman’s surname is ‘Grane’. Amari has a revelation at this…

…and picks the passenger roaster. On it S. Grane and her daughter E. Grane are listed as traveling with a pet dog, Frate.

This causes Amari to figure out that the woman lied when she said the dog scared her as the dog was HER dog.

Amari whistles and calls Frate (in English because he’s an English dog…. ^_-). Frate arrives in a run and jumps in Utsumi’s arms. Evidently he’s not a shy or wary dog. Now… maybe there’s a reason for the whole thing (maybe due to some boat rule pet animals has to be left free to wander on the bridge?), but leaving Frate free to wander on the boat was pretty silly. Though it seems the meeting between Synthia and Amari in the novel didn’t happen as shown in the anime, so maybe in the novel the dog was left free for a purpose.

Anyway Amari claims he can explain Morgan’s death but needs a little time first. The two captains agree.

Let me point out for a moment how beautiful the sea is now that sunset is slowly coming…

…before telling you that Amari turns to Synthia…

…who lowers her head as ‘Aitō’ [哀悼 Apologies] starts playing.

The scene switches, Amari and Synthia are talking. Emma is asleep in her mother’s arms, which is convenient but weird as she was fully awake moments before.

Amari asks Synthia if she’s Cerberus. She doesn’t reply.

Amari claims that Frate isn’t like Cerberus but pulls out a photo from his collar and asks Synthia to explain it. In the photo there are McCloud before the plastic surgery and a sailor. The sailor is the one who died at the beginning of the episode, Raymond Grane.

Synthia turns her head away but Amari insists and asks her how did she know it was him. She admits she figured out as soon as she saw him due to the shape of his ears.

Remember? Amari talked about facial features that are unique. Those are the ears.

Synthia now explains how Emma felt ill after they left the port so, when she finally felt better Synthia started searching for McCloud’s ears. She saw him but also saw Frate, first at his feet, then running toward her, so she panicked because that photo was hidden in his collar.

Again, on the overall it’s weak. The real danger wasn’t the photo that was hardly visible, it was McCloud recognizing Frate or her or Emma. And yelling should have attracted his attention. Actually it was weird it didn’t as well as it’s weird she let Frate wander around when he had such a compromising document that caused her to panic.

Amari asked her why, since she completed her task, she didn’t get rid of the photo. Synthia replies that this is the most handsome photo she has of Raymond, her husband and Emma’s father… and even this the explanation is weak. All she had to do was to cut the McCloud part and keep Raymond.

Of course we can speculate that Synthia isn’t in the best mental state. She just betrayed her country to Germany (which physically killed her husband) to personally kill the man who caused the Germans to kill her husband, dragging along her small daughter and her dog. She also had admitted she spent all the days staring to that photo so as to memorize the shape of McCloud’s ears. There’s enough to suspect her mental sanity at the moment so it might make sense she’s not seeing such a simple solution. Synthia is full with hate for McCloud, evidently she’s not thinking straight.

‘Hifū [悲風 Sorrowful wind] starts playing.

Anyway Synthia says that now that she had killed McCloud she has no regrets. She doesn’t look exactly overjoyed or in peace though.

Amari tells us about how a German merchant raider sunk the English cargo on which Raymond Grane was the first mate. Remember how he said Gardening Plan when he was with Yūki? Those words were likely meant to explain this scene.

Anyway a flashback starts in which Synthia remembers the mourning ceremony for her husband, how McCloud joined her pretending to comfort her…

…how, searching for Emma, she ended up on overhearing what McCloud did, which was his Gardening plan, which seems to break her.

Personally I find the whole thing a bit dumb as the one talking with McCloud is basically yelling about a SIS plan that caused an English Cargo to be sunk.

True, there’s no one outside but someone could overhear… as it actually happens.

(On a sidenote can I praise again JG for its care in the details and for how pretty everything is? Look at the colour on the wooden door, they didn’t just paint it all of the same colour, they painted it so that it seems there’s paint over it and that part of it is coming away.)

With this Synthia’s tale ends.

Amari then explains what happened afterward, how the German Navy used Enigma to encrypt the stolen orders and telegraph it to friendly troops, how the English intercepted that transmission and tried comparing the two messages. How this also caused McCloud to end up disavowed by the SIS.

Synthia is surprised he could know so many things, figuring there are mysteries in his life too.

She then admits she became a German spy to get her revenge so she’s ready to consequences but, when she watches Emma, she doesn’t know anymore what she lived for or what she should have lived for.

Emma makes a timely wake up and asks her what’s wrong.

Amari asks Emma if she wants to see the dolphins again. Emma agrees but the subtle message is for Synthia. Amari fundamentally volunteered to take care of Emma from now on.

‘Kansō’ [歓送 Farewell] starts playing.

Synthia agrees…

… and Amari walks away with Emma and Frate.

Next we see a scene of a man raising Emma, Frate jumping around them.

It might be hard to figure it out but that man isn’t Amari but Raymond, whom, in the novel was described as resembling Utsumi Osamu. Hence when Synthia entrusted Emma to Amari she sort of had the feeling to entrust her to her husband.

Synthia whispers a goodbye to Emma before standing up and consigning herself to the officers.

Amari and Emma are watching the sea but no dolphin is in sight so Emma asks if they’re taking a nap.

Amari claims they’ll see them tomorrow and Emma agrees, saying they’ll do it with her mother. Amari tells Frate he can come (see them as well) then, staring at the horizon wonders to his situation of now having to take care of Emma and Frate then decides it’ll work out somehow.

On the table we see the crossword puzzle. In it the word ‘life’ is bolded.

Hum… maybe it was better if it was ‘live’ but well, we get the message just the same.

And with this the episode ends.

Ending theme.

Overall this episode is visually beautiful and the drama behind the story is one of the best but… the mystery part is a mess. Even if some things can be excused there are still plot holes. Sure, it can be they’re due to the story being cut left and right but… well, it’s a pity.

The best one can do is to watch it for the story, which is lovely, and not for the mystery, which, for once, is the weakest point of the plot.

Oh, as you might have noticed this time I didn’t pause much to describe scenes visually as there were almost no special visual shoots. It doesn’t mean they were bad, everything was really, really pretty, but we didn’t have neither smart nor subtly meaningful shots. So, beyond saying that something is very aesthetically pleasing there wasn’t much to say about the visual.

Maybe the only thing that’s noteworthy is that there are a good amount of close up and "Italian shot" or Extreme Close Up in which only the character’s eyes are visible to better express the feelings of said character but that’s not that out of ordinary in anime.

And this was Joker Game Ep 7. Thank you to everyone who was brave and patient enough to sit through my long, long ramblings for the whole episode. I hope other people will feel like sharing what they had observed while watching it!

#Joker Game #Amari #Utsumi Osamu #Emma Grane #Synthia Grane #Joker Game ReWatching #Raymond Grane #Louis McCloud #Jeffrey Morgan #Hara #Yuasa #Yuuki #JG Code Name Cerberus #Joker Game Anime

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i-am-gaylocked · 7 years

Text

You know what makes me really pissed right now?

On platforms other than tumblr there are loads of people joking about how the fandom is going crazy now because The Kiss™ didn’t happen.

NO.

Fuck you. That’s not why we’re angry.

Of course a kiss would have been awesome, but personally I never believed it to happen anyway, and I would have even lived happily ever after with less Johnlock scenes than we got in the end, even though I ship them like crazy - if only the rest of the plot would have made some sort of sense.

You wanna know what’s bothering me about the (supposedly) final problem?

1. Moriarty was hyped up as the ultimate villain for three seasons and frankly, almost everyone loved him. The creators themselves made such a big fuss about him - only to have him replaced by another supervillain out of nowhere. Moriarty was the ultimate mystery and his reveal was basically “actually he’s just a maniac sidekick executing Eurus’ plans who was kinda bored with living anyway so he killed himself just for the fun of it”. I know they made it hard for themselves to have a truly mind-blowing plot twist with Moriarty since they’ve been stirring his story up for more than two years and expectations were high, but this was anticlimactic and disappointing on a new level.

2. I don’t know much about storytelling, but I do sense that this was bad. For the last three seasons, there have always been subtle and not-so-subtle hints as towards what is going to happen next. Everything was connected and logical to follow and quite frankly, this unique way of building up a plot was one of the things that made me fall in love with this show. Compared to what we have experienced in former episodes, this whole fourth season was utter bullshit. Sure, the basic storyline was connected with the other seasons, but only superficially; most of the “"plot twists”“ happened out of nowhere and made the whole series feel very estranged all of a sudden. E.g., in TRF Moriarty said “Have you worked out what it is yet? The final problem? I did tell you… But did you listen?” - Typical Mofftiss style would have been that some very inconspicious Moriarty line somehow hinted at him pairing up with Sherlock’s unknown sister to “play a game” or destroy Sherlock or seek revenge or whatever. But nothing, NOTHING prepared us for this, although this subtle preparation was what made the show so amazing, which is why this season feels like total nonsense.

3. Eurus’ hyper intelligence was over the top. At the beginning, Sherlock was introduced to us as the ultimate mastermind and we all admired his genius. Then Moriarty entered with a similar, though very psychotic level of genius and we were like “ah, two masterminds battling each other, that’s cool”. Then it turned out that Mycroft is actually even smarter and quicker than Sherlock and everyone was like “well… He’s the older brother, there’s rivalry, he’s gotta feel superior in some way, that’s fine, still kinda fun” and it showed us the borders of Sherlock’s intelligence and made him appear more human, all fine and good. I also get that Eurus kind of reflected that even Mycroft is not the all-knowing, stone-faced, flawless, mature older brother and the ultimate version of smart. But continuously adding more characters to the “flawed mastermind” stack where every new one outsmarts the others feels very cheap and uninnovative. First Moriarty was said to be one of those minds that happens once every few centuries, then Mycroft supposedly straight up Fucked Him Over™ (although he actually didn’t in the end, i know), and then there’s suddenly Eurus out of nowhere and wait she’s even smarter than the rest of them?? Sorry sirs, I’m not buying this.

4. In S3, everything was hinting at Mary having some sort of connection with Moriarty (and we still don’t know how she got into Magnussen’s office that easily because I don’t think she proposed to Janine as well). When Mary’s A.G.R.A background was revealed, I thought it was kinda fucky and far-fetched; I’ve been waiting for the big Mary reveal in TFP. Instead, her conflict apparently counted as solved in T6T and she was turned into a lovable goofball who just so happens to posthumously send old DVD recordings of herself over to Baker Street to whisper sweet nothings to both John an Sherlock so that everyone forgets that she shot Sherlock with the intention to kill him, then drugged him again and overall just manipulated John an Sherlock all the time? Mary is a great, twisted character and I do believe that she’s able to feel love for both boys, but that ending was not her. They were trying to find poetic final words and they didn’t have anyone to give them to but the ex-assassin who murdered her husband’s best friend and lied and lied to her oh-so-beloved John? I don’t think so fuckers.

5. Normally, at the end of a movie (/episode) the viewer should be able to distinguish between such things as imagined/hallucinated locations, events and conversations and what happened in the ‘real world’ of that world. Now, this might have something to do with the fact that English isn’t my first language, but after TFP I’m still a bit clueless about how some scenes were connected and what was actually happening and what wasn’t. (I never had problems like that during the old episodes though, including TAB, which was also really fucky and inception-y.)

6. The Molly scene was hurtful as fuck, and not in a movie-typical, good way. There’s a grown woman who just can’t and can’t get over her crush: Mofftiss’ level of extending this idea always appeared a bit forced to me anyway, but that is neither here nor there now. This scene was emotional abuse, heartbreaking and humiliating and most of all, it was so, so useless. Wow, Sherlock was a dick to Molly once again and this time it broke her completely. This doesn’t help us understand Sherlock’s troubled mind any further nor does it advance the plot in any way, it just crashes another character straight into a brick wall because why the fuck not. (Loo did a great job in this scene tho, probz for that.)

7. I’m still not over how fucking cheap Eurus’ little horror game was. “Let’s lock a few people in one room and make them shoot each other, nonono listen to me this has never been done before because in our show the villain and his victims are related isn’t this awesome?” Wow yeah, truly groundbreaking. What a witty, unique idea. The only good thing about this was that Sian truly was great at pulling of four different roles in a very convincing fashion, credit where credit is due.

8. You don’t say stuff like “It’s making a funny face… I think I’ll put a hole in it” and then reveal that the so-called hole was nothing but a tranquilizer, seriously, where’s the classic Mofftiss genius style in that?

9. The plot and the plot twists of this episode (and the whole season 4 for that matter) were lazy and mainstream compared to BBC Sherlock’s usual standards. I used to love this series for its many-layered stories and characters, but here we have classic Hollywood horror and classic Hollywood psycho villain well beyond any boundaries of normality. Of course I’m not opposed to this kind of stories, but it’s common, you can find stuff like that everywhere. BBC Sherlock used to have a really special, unique way of storytelling and most of it got killed for the sake of cheap ass mistery overload and mainstream horror games.

10. Personally, I can begrudgingly accept the ending that we got, aka “open for interpretation”. If you still want to ignore the gayness that is screaming you in the face, go ahead and call it bro!parentlock, I don’t care. But what I do care about is the line “It doesn’t matter who you are”. I believe that it was never meant to be offensive or hurtful, but this version of Sherlock was introduced to us as gay (or bi or pan or whatever, but at least in some way sexually interested in the same sex). If Mofftiss were too scared to actually pull through with it or simply didn’t want to, that’s fine, I understand. But then don’t just go ahead and tell us that it doesn’t matter anyway. Because it does matter. I feel like these men fail to grasp the power they have over us and therefore didn’t see how hurtful this line was, but it did hurt people. Lots of people. Many of us had actual mental breakdowns because of this line. I know it was never meant to mean that much (or it wasn’t meant to be understood differently), but if you have a general understanding of the concept of fandom (Mofftiss sure have it), then you usually understand that there are sensitive topics that can be triggering and should be expressed with caution.

11. Where’s the big Mycroft reveal? All these adressings towards his physical health. How the hell were they implying that he fucked up in dealing with his psychotic sister?

12. I still don’t get the point of Irene if they were neither letting them meet again nor cutting her out permanently. She’s been a recurring thought of Sherlock since ASIB, but in TFP it was just like “Nah it’s not her she’s married idgaf about her anymore anyway bye” Like?? Dramatic flow? is where exactly here??

13. We still don’t know how Sherlock survived the fall. Just sayin’.

14. Yeah john totally cut his metal chains that forced him onto the bottom of the well with a fucking rope and he didn’t even need help for that matter he just pulled himself out of the water by his own hair Munchhausen style I THINK THE FUCK NOT FOLKS

15. No one will ever convince me that they actually jumped out of an upstairs window to escape an explosion and got away without a single scratch. That’s just bullshit.

16. An umbrella that’s also a sword that’s also a gun that’s also not functioning? Yeah, kinda funny, but also really stupid and not at all up to the standards of the usual witty humour of BBC Sherlock.

17. “Sherlock’s in love but who with?” in combination with the “i love you” scene were used to bait us all to start another war between straight!Sherlock and gay!Sherlock supporters in order to make sure as many people as possible would turn in, but the reveal behind this line was utterly disappointing. This was a humiliating and just not cool™ move.

18. They’re not seriously trying to tell us that Eurus, while having an extreme mental and emotional breakdown, built a fake cell in the garden of her old childhood house because Drama™?

19. General conclusion: This whole story of everything being connected and leading back to Moriarty and Sherlock’s childhood just deflated like a big gay balloon full of anticipation. They’ve been talking about this story forever, but the great opportunities it offered were not only ignored, but stuffed into a fucking meat grinder and mashed up into cheap boring mainstream moviemaking.

Also, I still think everything about this season is shady as fuck and I don’t accept a word of it and from now on I’m just gonna mark it down as another victim of 2016. Thank and bye

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