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mieohmy · 3 years

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𝖢𝗈𝗆𝖿𝗈𝗋𝗍 𝟣𝟢𝟣 | 𝖫𝖾𝖾 𝖩𝖾𝗇𝗈

PAIRING: lee jeno x reader

GENRE: angst, fluff, humor, comfort, established relationship au, college au, this rly is just a self indulgent fic kjasdfk

WC: 2.1k

NOTES: slight argument/fighting ?? , cursing

SUMMARY: jeno wants your attention, your comforting presence, your love- he simply wants you.

for the bday boy that i treasure sm! happy birthday to puppy jeno <333

ღ

The phone next to you lies untouched, and practically has been for days- or has it been a week already? I mean, it wasn’t your fault that upcoming finals had been taking you to the depths of hell, and you had no choice but to lock yourself at home to study for a week on end.

Which brings you to day 7? 8? of being holed up in your room all day, memorizing a bazillion tiny printed words and trying to cram as much information as possible in that overworked brain of yours. Getting about 4-5 hours of sleep a day, you couldn’t remember anymore- or even care to remember. Not to mention the added stress that came along with being any normal college student. Wasn’t life just wonderful?

You feel bad for everyone that has tried to contact you over this stressful period in your life (since you completely turned your phone off to eliminate all distractions), but the urge to stop studying completely and just check up on the real world and all its happenings grows stronger. You breathe in -out, constantly chanting ‘self-control’ over and over again in your head. Then your eyes slowly open, and you slap yourself one last time as if to say ‘get it together' before diving back into the books.

Just two more days. Two more days and you can finish and not have to stress about finals until results come out.

At this point, you were surviving off of coffee, tea, random stolen snacks that your boyfriend would bring over from his dorm.

Damn, when’s the last time you had a proper meal? Monday?

And then you frown. What day even is it today? You glance at your calendar and-

Goodness grief, it’s Sunday already.

You almost have a midlife crisis over wasting basically a week doing nothing but sitting at your desk and looking at words, but then again at this point- you’re just over it and want to be done as soon as possible.

But soon, a weird feeling arises after you recall today’s date- like you were forgetting something. You place a hand over your forehead. Was there something important today?

And as if the universe read your mind, the doorbell rings.

A giant wave of confusion washes over you. Was someone supposed to come over today?

-and you just completely wiped it from your mind?

You’re still running through your memories as you walk to the door. No, it's not Chae since she has finals too...

Opening it, you’re not at all expecting who was behind it.

“Jeno-?”

He blinks back at your wide eyes, expression turning concerned, and you rub your temples in exasperation and defeat.

“Oh, did we have a date today or something? I’m so sorry- I totally forgot.”

His eyebrows furrow. “No, I was just supposed to come over to hang out with you....”

“It’s been so long since we last talked, baby. You haven’t responded to any of my texts. What’s going on?” He promptly adds, staring intently at you.

You let out a sigh, and jeno notices your tense shoulders and dark under-eye circles. “I thought you knew. Finals are coming up so I’ve been stuck at home cramming for about a week now actually.”

His frown deepens. “I did know. And still, y/n..” he says in a warning tone.

You know what his voice implies, you’ve heard it plenty of times at this point, but right now you don’t have to energy to listen to his nagging. “ I know, I know. Just- come in, I guess.....”

To be completely honest, you wanted to send jeno back home- there was still a lot more information left to cover and you obviously weren’t in your best condition, but he was the one who actually remembered your ‘date’ and drove to your place, so you would feel even worse making him go all the way back to his dorm.

Jeno easily follows you in, biting the inside of his cheek to hold back any comments while examining your place even though barely anything has changed since he last visited- mostly because there was nothing to change when you were in your room all day.

You walk to the kitchen, getting your boyfriend some water while yawning. Meanwhile, your mind is drifting away, thinking about what topics are left that you have to go over later. “What are we even doing today?”

Jeno plops on your couch, arms behind his head. “I don’t know. A movie?”

You hide your grimace, immediately thinking of how much time would be wasted watching one, or possibly even more if jeno was feeling it. In the one to two hours of a movie, you could be done with chapter two and three-

“Y/n??”

Your head snaps up. “Yes?”

“Are you gonna come over here or just stand there in the kitchen all day?” he teases.

You shake your head to clear the fog and join jeno on the couch. Scrolling through the options, you automatically snuggle up next to him, eyes blearily watching the moving tv screen.

He decides on this one animated film, and you’re too drained to pay attention so you simply nod and let the movie begin. But even though you try your best to focus on the storyline and what’s currently going on, your mind keeps wandering off to other, more boring things- your studies, obviously.

The number of chapters you covered, the slight of chapters you have left, how long you would have to stay up to finish going through your planned amount of information -all the stressful thoughts swirling in your head, and it only exhausts you more.

You let out a sigh, and jeno turns to you. “Are you okay? You’ve been sighing nonstop since we started the movie.”

You clear your throat, biting back a yawn. “Oh- yeah, sorry. I won’t do it anymore.”

Your boyfriend stiffens but doesn’t say anything, attention returning to the flashing screen in front of him.

You did try. You really did. But your eyelids keep drifting shut and your head keeps slowly lolling forward and snapping back up -it’s not until your forehead accidentally knocks against jeno’s chest that he finally speaks up again.

“Y/n. You need to take a break and get some sleep. Now.” His tone is sharp and commanding.

You snap your eyes back open, vision blurry. “No- it’s fine. I’m good, let’s keep watching.”

The immediate switch in the air is scary, jeno swiftly reaching for the remote and pausing the movie to look at you dead straight in the eyes before setting it back down with a loud, clattering noise. “You need to rest. I can tell from how tired you look, and I know you’ve been studying for so long, so why is it that hard to just relax for a little?”

You groan, distress breaking through. “I can’t, okay? You already understand how stressful school is and how important my upcoming tests are. I know you’re just trying to be kind and thoughtful but-“

“But what?” He cuts you off, the frustration he’s been hiding for a while finally revealing itself. “Taking a rest from burning your brain out isn’t going to kill you, y/n.”

Your hands at your side clench and unclench, a wave of emotions overcoming you. “I know that. But I can’t afford to have a break now.” Everything suddenly feels overwhelming, and your voice comes out strained and uncontrolled.

“I’m almost there, jeno. It’s so close, and if I stop now, I’ll feel like a failure.”

He laughs a short and echoing bark. “How do you think I feel? I was trying to brush everything aside and act like it was all fine, but it’s certainly not when you’re like this.”

You falter.

Jeno gets up, making direct eye contact with you even though his body is trembling and his voice is shaky.

“I spent the past week just lying in bed and worrying about you- if you were eating okay and getting enough sleep. I was constantly texting you reminders to take care of yourself, only to find out from your friend that you turned your phone completely off. Do you know how shitty of a person I was feeling? I didn’t want to be a distraction to you because I know how much you care about your grades, but it’s killing me, y/n. I want to be there for you, but instead, I end up feeling like the worst boyfriend in the world.”

He shudders before continuing,

“And then I come here, brushing off all my worries since I was super excited to finally be with you after so long, and then I have to see you in such a bad condition. Barely taking care of yourself, barely even surviving on your own just so you can pass your exams that I know you’ll already do well on no matter what. As your boyfriend who wants to help and be here for you, do you know how much my heart hurts?”

He finishes, but not before wiping away the frustrated tears that appeared in his angry rant.

It takes one beat -two beats, before you immediately spring up, rushing towards jeno and throwing your arms around him.

He accepts it, burying his face into your shoulder and wrapping his arms tightly around your waist.

The guilt courses through your body, and you understand. The consequences of your actions hit you, hard, and you know you deserve it all. Jeno just wants to know that you’re here. You’re here with him.

“I’m really sorry,” you murmur into his hair, “I’m really, really sorry, jeno.”

You hate the fact that you can still feel the slight wetness of his tears soaking through your-technically his- shirt. You pull back, looking straight into his eyes to make sure he knows you’re being genuine.

“I promise to pay more attention to myself, and I promise I won’t ever let it happen again. I won’t shut you out anymore... and you can come over to take care of me whenever you want, okay?”

Jeno slowly nods, and you softly wipe away the corners of his red eyes of any wetness.

He pulls you closer to him again, inhaling your scent one more time, and you finally let yourself go.

After about a minute of just enjoying each other’s warm embrace - one that you feel like you haven’t felt in so long- you allow yourself to smile and pull back just enough to place a kiss on his cheek.

“Was my baby just lonely and missed me too much?” you sing in a soft voice. He lets out a disgruntled noise in response, shaking his head against your body.

But you both know what the answer is.

“C’mon, let’s go to bed.” You tug his arm easily to your room, putting off your studies, at least for today.

“You’re really gonna take a break this time?” Jeno asks, eyeing you carefully.

You grin. “Yes? Besides, I know you’re always down for cuddles.”

You drag him to the bed, taking his arms and wrapping them around your body as exhaustion quickly fills you.

You fight yourself to stay awake as long as you can to enjoy jeno’s presence, but he notices and hugs you even closer if possible, whispering softly, “Go to sleep, baby. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

And before you finally drift off, you sleepily murmur, “I love you, jeno. Like, a lot.”

Even after you fall asleep in his embrace, he stares down at you, softly kissing your forehead.

I love you too.

bonus bc i adore jeno too much :

“Jeno- for the last time, you’re not a bad boyfriend.”

“I know.... but-“

You shut him up with a quick kiss.

“You’re the sweetest.”

Another kiss.

“Funniest.”

Peck.

“Handsomest.”

His ever so growing smile freezes. Jeno looks at you, a surprisingly solemn look on his face.

You raise an eyebrow, confused.

“......even more than Nam joo hyuk?”

Ah. He had to go for the favorite actor.

You swallow, battling an intense internal war before begrudgingly nodding. “Okayyy...fine. You are.”

He crosses his arms. “I’m what?”

You roll your eyes, whining. “I already said it!”

Jeno shakes his head firmly. “Say the whole thing.”

You take a deep breath in, internally apologizing to your beloved actor. “......you, lee -verymuchanannoyingbaby- jeno, are more handsome than Nam joo hyuk.” Your sentence is finished swiftly in one breath, words slurring together. It actually pains you to say that. But it’s good enough for your boyfriend.

Jeno delights in the squeal you let out when he picks you up in his arms to spin you around.

“Fuck yeah- take that, nam joo hyuk!”

ღ

a/n: anyways im going to go hide away and cry over jeno now ^^

#cznnet #kpopscape #nct #nct dream #jeno #nct jeno #jeno x reader #lee jeno x reader #jeno scenarios #jeno imagines #nct dream x reader #nct dream smut #nct dream imagines #nct dream scenarios #nct dream fluff #lee jeno imagines #jeno fluff

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lucemferto · 3 years

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WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT TECHNOBLADE (or A Narrative Analysis of the Dream SMP Doomsday Event) - Script

Heyo! Per request I am posting the script to my video of the same name here on tumblr. I must warn you that just reading the script will probably not give you the full experience, so I would encourage you to watch the video (linked above).

There might also still be a lot of grammatical errors in the text, because I don’t proofread.

Okay, so! I don’t want this to turn into a reaction channel OR a Dream SMP channel for that matter! I am planning on doing a big dumb, way too long analysis video on the Dream SMP which will – at my current pace – come out in five years. I am already way too late on this one.

Spoiler Alert for the Doomsday Event that took place on the 6th of January in the Dream SMP. Surely the worst thing to take place on the 6th of January 2021 … I’m sorry, what’s this about the Capitol?

In case you don’t watch the SMP and need context: The Dream SMP is a Minecraft Multiplayer Server, that, throughout the last year, has transformed from a normal Let’s Play to an ongoing new-media series streamed by multiple high-profile streamers such as Dream, TommyInnit or Technoblade. It comes complete with script – by which I mean loose bullet points – and story events. It has attracted a large fanbase specifically invested in the story and less so in the actual gameplay content. Like I said before, I will probably do a big video on the Dream SMP at some point in the future.

The storyline is long and complicated and trying to explain it all would take up the majority of the video and there are other channels who have already done a much better job than I could ever hope to do, so give them a watch. I’ll try to summarize all that is pertinent to what I will talk about in this video.

Okay, let’s speedrun this summary. Cue the music!

Major Players here are TommyInnit, a founder of the independent nation of L’Manburg, Technoblade, an anarchist who was deep in conflict with L’Manburg, Tubbo, Tommy’s best friend and current president of L’Manburg, and Dream, the ruler of the Kingdom of the Dream SMP (even though he is not the king, but we’re not going to get into that right now). Tommy had in the past been exiled by Tubbo for endangering L’Manburg’s shaky peace with the Dream SMP. Tommy had then teamed up with Technoblade, who was hellbent on destroying L’Manberg after some prior altercations – more on that later.

Tommy and Tubbo came into conflict during a festival set-up to celebrate the friendship between L’Manburg and the Dream SMP. After punching out their feelings, Tommy came to the realization that his friendship with Tubbo was more important than his vendetta against Dream and those who exiled him. Techno took that change of heart badly and teamed up with Dream to destroy L’Manburg … and that’s exactly what happened.

Techno and Dream, with little to no opposition, obliterated L’Manburg with no hope for recovery leaving its inhabitants stranded hopeless and alone.

… And that’s what you missed on Dream SMP!

Okay. So, usually I just put whatever thought slime drips out of my mouth hole into your subscription box. But then I asked myself: “Am I not taking this a largely improvised nonsense story from a bunch of 16–24-year-olds a little too seriously?”. And then I remembered. I’m a pretentious bitch. I made an 18-minute video explaining why the popular commentary YouTuber memeulous is secretly the time travelling Anti-Christ, REASON HAS NO SWAY OVER ME!

So, like the English Major drop-out that I am, I will present you with two theses, which I will then combine into one … supratheses! That word doesn’t exist, I just coined it, it’s mine! I am very smart!

[I know words, I have the best words!]

Thesis #1: The Fandom focuses too much on Character Analysis in Favour of Narrative Analysis

The Dream SMP is truly something special. It is uniquely singular in how it tells a story of this scope through its chosen medium. While there is an overarching script that lays out the plot points of the future, each of the 30+ streamers on the SMP are their own cameraman, director, writer and actor. You cannot watch “the Dream SMP” – if you attempted that, you would be 80 by the time you caught up to the Doomsday Event. You have to choose whom to watch. You have to choose your focal point character.

Because by the way the story is told and consumed – aka in such a compartmentalized fashion; you watch one streamer and get one character’s perspective – it has sort-of unintentionally conditioned fans to look at the SMP and its characters less as one coherent story with messages and themes and more as sports teams they can root for. You’re Team Techno or Team Tubbo or Team Tommy or Team JackManifoldTV (formerly known as Thunder1408) and every other side is in the wrong! It’s like Twilight for a decade old children’s game about virtual Lego!

Okay, I’m exaggerating, but the amount of discourse perpetuated by and revolving around so-called “apologists” – a terrible term that unfortunately has caught on – is really not something that I think is good for how we interact with the story of the Dream SMP.

The Dream SMP is discussed a lot on character-based level, which is, like I said before, hugely advantaged by the way the story is consumed by its audience. With traditional, visual media such as film for example, the audience can be made more aware of what messages the narrative might try to communicate on a narrative level without the need for an explicit narrator to tell you the moral.

As an example, in a movie you could have a smash-cut from the Butcher Army’s discussions about neutralizing the danger Technoblade poses to Techno being nice around villagers or taking care of animals. This would communicate on an extradiegetic level, that the Butcher Army is in the wrong with their assumptions. Alternatively, you could contrast Techno’s declarations that power corrupts and that Tubbo’s administration is cruel with Tubbo choosing not to punish Ranboo for his association with Techno – thus the narrative would communicate that Techno’s view of Tubbo and by extension the government is one-sided and not true to reality.

Stuff like that helps the viewer understanding a story holistically and manages to communicate stuff like themes and morals without having to solely rely on in-character logic and argumentation, which, as Ghostbur put it so eloquently, is comprised of a bunch of unreliable narrators.

Character analysis is great if we want dive deep, if we really want to give a character flavour and understand their motivations. It helps make the universe feel like it is alive, like it’s real. But – and this might be a shocker for you – it’s not real. It’s written. It is construction – and as such, in its construction, it has messages and themes and morals, intentionally or unintentionally.

By being so focused on specific characters and their individual journeys, viewpoints and motivation we really run the risk of not looking at the bigger picture and fail to see what the overarching narrative is actually communicating. And we may also fail to understand how characters might or might not fit into the overarching narrative.

Speaking of which …

Thesis #2: Technoblade experiences very little Meaningfultm Thematic Conflict

Okay, let’s talk about Technoblade. I’m sure I’m not going to get any hate for this one.

I want to preface by saying that I don’t watch Technoblade’s streams; I catch up though clip channels and summaries. I’m mainly watching Tommy, Tubbo and Quackity – which is honestly already more than I can handle – but I want to be clear that while I’ll try to be as even-handed as possible – like I explained previously – the way I consumed the storylines will undoubtedly leave me with some bias.

Also, needless to say, I’m talking about the character Technoblade, not the actual content creator, unless I specifically say so. That should be obvious.

Now, I’m not doing a Technoblade character analysis, because that would be hypocritical of me – seeing how I just bitched about the overwhelming amounts of character analyses in the fandom – but I’ll try my best to summarize what is necessary.

Technoblade’s interesting in that he is a very static character – at least inwardly – he doesn’t change much. He is very steadfast in his beliefs and ideals and has very little introspection. He doesn’t question himself; he doesn’t waver, he is never in a bind about whether what he’s doing is right or wrong. He is very much a parallel to early TommyInnit – who, of course, famously said “I’m always in the right”.

And I want to emphasize that I mean this in no way as a critique of Techno’s character. A static character provides a nice contrast to more dynamic characters and can balance them out. It can also be utilised by the writing as a character flaw – which is what I hope content creator Techno is going for.

Like Techno doesn’t have a lot of empathy in the sense that he is particularly skilled at or interested in trying to see the viewpoints of others. There is never an attempt to reconcile, for example, the goal of the Pogtopians to reclaim L’Manberg and install another administration with his desire for an anarchist society. This is also compounded with his overreliance on violence as the only tactic for conflict resolution – Techno has a whole thesis statement about violence being the only universal language. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote.

And lastly, what really drives this all over the edge, is his all-or-nothing approach when dealing with the enemy – he is not so much eye for an eye as he is – to use another biblical example – you make fun of me for being bald and I’ll sic two bears on you that maul and kill you and 41 other children.

There’s also the open and completely unacknowledged hypocrisy of a self-described anarchist working together with a man that installs and dethrones Kings with his every whim – someone who – and I cannot stress this enough – hits about every box when it comes to the definition of tyrant.

So, what I’m saying is that Technoblade is the Dream SMP equivalent of Dick Chenney. C’mon you know it’s true! He will bomb that freedom into your country whether you want him to or not. That’s some cogent political commentary in the year 2021.

Okay, so now that I’ve outlined his character, what kind of conflicts does Technoblade face. Well, it’s mostly physical or external. He fights a lot whether it’s against Quackity or Sapnap or bodying Karl Jacobs five times in a row. And – with the exception of maybe Sapnap – none of it is challenging. Technoblade is the best PvP-Player on the server – there really isn’t much tension to be had from a purely physical fight.

So, how are these fights supplemented emotionally. Well, internally there is not a lot going on. As I said before, Technoblade isn’t really an introspective character. Even during his shouting match with Tommy there’s not a sense that Technoblade is wavering or unsure of himself in the way that Tommy is. He exposits that one of the reasons, he acts like he does is that he feels dehumanized; that people only use him like a weapon and then discard or even try to neutralize him once he’s no longer useful.

But that is not something that Technoblade has to grapple with – it’s not conflict for him, it’s more conflict for Tommy. Technoblade is self-assured in that he’s a person and not a weapon – it’s almost like there was a character arc there, where Technoblade self-actualizes and breaks away from the people that want to use him. But we didn’t see any of it. Technoblade unleashes the withers; then he goes into retirement because he wants to be, I suppose, and then he returns to violence as a reaction to the Butcher Army. There is a story of vengeance here, but not any conflict about being used. There is never a point where we see Technoblade come to this realization or comes to assert himself.

In season 1 there’s never a push from Pogtopia where the narrative frames them as exploiting Technoblade. He fights with them of his own volition, he gives them weapons and armour of his own volition. Nobody pressured Techno into procuring their inventory for the fight. And in Season 2, he’s the one to approach Tommy about their potential partnership – he is in the position of power here, explicitly not Tommy.

Like, I’m sorry, if this ruffles some feathers, but I really don’t see this arc where Technoblade is being used. There’s a story of misunderstanding and maybe co-dependency – but not of dehumanization. This entire line of thought seems to solely reference that moment, where Tommy says to Sapnap “I have the blade” during one of their wars – which, to base an entire emotional arc around that without any further set-up, is, and I’m sorry to say that, incredibly flimsy.

Okay, so we covered physical and emotional conflict? But what about conflict on the narrative level? Well, that leads me to my suprathesis …

Suprathesis: The Narrative is Unclear on how it treats Technoblade … and that’s Not Good.

Here’s a Hot Take: The narrative of Season 1 treats Technoblade way less sympathetically than that of season 2.

Let me explain. The narrative of Season 1 revolves mostly around Wilbur and Tommy. The emotional fulcrum of the overall narrative is Wilbur’s rise and fall from Grace – and Tommy succeeding him as symbol of L’Manberg’s “special”-ness. Now I will talk about all that more in detail, when I talk about Season 1 of the Dream SMP. So, you’ll just have to go with me on this one for now.

Technoblade, by contrast, doesn’t really have much going on thematically in Season 1. He mostly exists as a sort-of utilitarian character – he is an accessory to make story beats happen. Like him executing Tubbo doesn’t open up any sort of thematic conflict involving him – on a character level it sets up antipathy between him and Tommy and it grants us some insight into how he operates with his violence speech – but on a larger-scale narrative level it really just shows how far Wilbur and Tommy have drifted apart in how they react to the event.

His biggest contribution is during the Season 1 finale, but even there he plays second fiddle to Wilbur. Not just because Wilbur does way more destruction with his explosion than Techno does with his Withers, but also because Wilbur had an emotional and thematic climax to his arc and by extension the entire storyline. Like Techno’s is a cool moment and very epic visual but in terms of thematic relevance, his Theseus-speech is really more set-up for Season 2.

And Season 1 is very unambiguous about L’Manberg being good and Tommy’s ideals ultimately being morally justified – I mean, they have a whole speech about it in the end and it was built-up throughout the entire Season – Techno is cast in a … less than sympathetic light. He is, if not a villain, then definitely an antagonist.

But with Season 2 the narrative is either uninterested in or not very clear on exploring Technoblade’s flaws.

Like ask yourselves: is Technoblade’s character ever consciously challenged by the narrative? Are his actions ultimately shown to not be in the right? Are his beliefs about government and power ever called into question? Are the negative consequences that his actions cause ever shown to be larger than the “good” he does?

I think what exemplifies this the most is how the Butcher Army event played out on December 16th. Now, during that event, the Butcher Army, which was comprised of Tubbo, Quackity, Fundy and Ranboo, managed to apprehend Technoblade, who at that point was living the quiet retirement life, and tried to have him publicly executed – without trial.

Now, smarter people than me have pointed out that the Butcher Army had a bevy of in-character reasons that can justify or explain their actions. And that’s definitely interesting, but as I said before, I want to get away from that and look into how the Butcher Army is treated on a narrative level. Because this is one of the few instances where the otherwise grey-loving Season 2 has some very clear narrative intent when it comes to morality.

The Butcher Army is very deliberately framed as almost cartoonishly corrupt and violent. They very forcefully investigate Philza, mock him and then put him under house arrest – and there’s just no remorse in the script even from normally sympathetic characters like Tubbo.

Compare and contrast with the Tommy-exile scene, which is also an act of moral ambiguity and is treated as such. And things get even worse once the Army arrives at Technoblade’s abode and attack him after he softly tells them that he has left that live behind him. They then proceed to take his horse hostage, mock him and execute him without fair trial – and I haven’t seen it but from live commentary I gathered that Techno really played up the whole softie-schtick before the Butcher Army arrived. I mean, before the big Technoblade vs Quackity fight, Quackity had whole villain monologue for Christ’s sake.

And even afterwards, the Butcher Army really plays up the corrupt angle with Tubbo proposing a festival as a guise to publicly execute someone. And again, I know that on an intradiegetic there’s nuances and it’s not really comparable to the Red Festival, but in combination with what the audience has seen up until that point and with how much it feeds into the already established themes of history repeating itself and becoming like your predecessors, it really does not paint a pretty picture of the Tubbo administration.

You can feel the heavy hand of the script on your shoulder, which is a feat seeing how – as discussed before – that’s not something that can be easily accomplished in this medium.

And that is what I mean when I say that Technoblade is not really challenged by the script and is in this case even emboldened by it. Because after this whole ordeal the thought of Technoblade taking revenge by destroying L’Manberg doesn’t seem like such an extreme response to the viewer – even though in my opinion, it is.

As of right now it is too early to say how the narrative will judge Technoblade’s actions in the future. Will they be framed as extreme but ultimately justified or perpetuating a cycle of ever-escalating vengeance? Will we ever see a government that’s not just at best misguided and at worst completely awful?

Ultimately, I believe and hope that Technoblade will be challenged by the narrative, mostly because a character that cannot, believably, be physically challenged, who doesn’t have any meaningful internal conflict about what he’s doing; and who does come out on the other side having everything he always believed in be proven completely in the right by the narrative, would be incredibly boring. Not just to watch but also to play as.

As it stands now, if the destruction Techno, Phil and Dream inflicted upon L’Manburg is framed as ultimately in the right, I would find it personally a distasteful message to send. I would ultimately say that the “correct” way to counter corruption in government is to completely obliterate the entire country. Like we’re not talking simply disbanding the government – that’s not what Doomsday was – we’re talking complete and utter annihilation. And that would be cynical and depressing. Like, call me a big softie, but even bothsidesing this argument would be bad.

Like, I’m not calling for Technoblade to be transformed into or treated a monster like Dream. But I personally feel like the narrative needs to acknowledge that the Doomsday was something that was taken way too far and that it ultimately brought more harm than good. And Technoblade needs to held accountable by someone who is not a cartoonishly corrupt government-official or who is in conflict with him anyway, like Tommy.

I thought Philza or Ranboo could do that but seeing how their storylines are progressing I don’t believe that will be the case. But who knows, maybe Captain Puffy will come through for us. We stan a Queen.

Conclusion

So, yeah, I made this entire video just to air out my grievances with how one-sided the mode of analysis is in the fandom, because no person actually involved with the production of Dream SMP will ever see this.

But after everything I am cautiously optimistic, that content creator Technoblade knows what he’s doing. He has talked in the past about how his character is a bad guy and he loves his Greek myths. After all what’s more Greek myth than hybris being rewarded with punishment? [Technoblade never dies] That bodes well for him.

Also, this isn’t the video I promised at the end of the last one!

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hetacakes · 4 years

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hitchhiking.

miya twins x fem! reader

snow white au, aka me making fanfics about my own fanfic

in which reader leaves her home in the big apple, the busy city, the whatever you'd like to call it, and takes a trip to a forest, the literal opposite of home. in fact, the two places are so different that in order to get there, a plane ride is preferable over a road trip. after a week, it's time to go home, with souvenirs, of course. leaving with a heavier bag is to be expected, but the empty backpack meant for said souvenirs was a bit too heavy, suspiciously heavy

aka reader just wants to relax and ends up bringing two hitchhiker foxes home

the others aren't included in this one, sorry :( one certain bluebird will make a guest appearance but other than that the storyline is in no way connected to snow white (though i made a few ~allusions~ for the Drama) anyway, i hope you love these annoying foxes as much as i do <3

also this is borderline abo but in my defense i wanted to make them seem more animal-like since they're technically wild animals

warning for cussing because life is hard and osamu hates atsumu

word count: 9,505

You grew up in the suburbs, always just a half hour away from the big, bustling city, where everything is fast paced with streams of people working and struggling to make their dreams come true. So it was no surprise that when you were old enough to move out, you immediately made a home in a rundown, shitty apartment, taking the typical "small apartment, big dreams" approach to life. And it was true, you did have a dream, a big dream. While you could have been anything else: a doctor, a lawyer, a profession that would make your parents happy and keep you reliably comfortable your whole life, you could never picture forcing yourself to work through something that made you unhappy, and so you decided to take the writer path.

It was as if you were meant to be part of the busy metropolis, meant to be the same as everyone else in the crowd: broke, fresh out of uni, and barely paying the rent for a small, crappy apartment. You soon learned that dreaming to reach your dream job, a job where working hours weren't physically and mentally draining but were rather hours of doing what you loved, would only become more than just a dream at the price of your blood, sweat, and tears, just like it did for everyone else.

But after working your ass off and putting two books on store shelves, you were able to end your contract with the sketchy landlord in the shady part of town and move into a nicer, actually livable apartment in a better building with a better landlord in a better neighborhood.

Now when you stepped out of your complex, you were greeted with the refreshing sight of people passing by, the sky a clear blue, with a soft breeze you could feel underneath your windbreaker as it ruffled your hair and rustled your sleeves, the bright red, blue, and yellow fabric almost as bright as the sun overhead. Birds chirped in nearby trees, and if you walked around and looked for a while, you could find a few cats hanging around the sidewalk or hiding behind dumpsters.

It was all you could have ever asked for and more.

But sometimes, city life can be a distraction, and sometimes, you really, really need a change of pace and scenery.

Which brought you to the present, sitting with your legs underneath you on your soft couch, squishing the plush grey throw pillows and balancing your laptop on your thighs. The money you got from your newest releases was in no means enough to call you rich, but it was comfortable enough that costs weren't one of your concerns as you typed a quick Google search. An airline website was open on your screen, and you were browsing through the available tickets, looking for one that would take you to a nice getaway, a small break from the nonstop chaos of your city, which had finally begun to wear you out from the endless stress and sleepless nights.

"Seven day long camp resort in one of the country's most beautiful and idyllic forests," said the advertisement that popped up on the side of your browser. Clicking on it, it took you to a pretty convincing website about Inari Lodge, a tourist attraction in the middle of a forest you had never heard of before. Lists upon lists of hiking trails, forest tours, and crafted souvenir shops caught your eye, and before you knew it you were booking a week's stay in one of their cabins. Sealing the deal and buying your ticket, you sat back and sighed, ready for a vacation.

Two weeks later, it was a few hours before your flight, so obviously you had already packed. Not. You called a friend over to help and keep you company while you packed, and ten minutes later, a familiar brunet walked through the door, ruffling his chocolate brown locks.

"It's nice to see you, Tooru," you greeted, padding closer to him as he opened his arms for a hug. "Your hugs are the best, as always," you smiled up at him, before taking a step back.

"You would have seen me either way; I was just on my way to bother you," he said. "You're taking a trip without me? How will I survive without you?"

"Don't be dramatic, Ruru," you chided, pulling your suitcase onto your bed. "I know for a fact that the week I'm gone is the same week the team you're coaching has tournaments."

"Ugh, don't remind me. They're good kids, but they suck ass," Tooru groaned, flopping next to your suitcase. "Do you have everything you need?"

"You tell me. Check things off," you answered while looking through your closet.

"Oooh, do I get to see your clothes?" Tooru asked suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows.

You rolled your eyes at him. "My shirts and pants, yeah. Everything under that has been packed into this," you said, holding up a medium sized makeup pouch.

"Bummer. Oh well, there's always next time."

"Ruru, stop being dirty."

He grumbled something underneath his breath, low enough that you missed it. "Well, how long is the stay?"

"A week."

"So you need seven sets of clothes?"

"Yeah, assuming I don't pee my pants," you smiled over your shoulder, watching as Oikawa held back a laugh with his hand, a wide smile spread across his face.

"Haha, you got the whole squad laughing. How cold is it there?"

"It's pretty cold, apparently. I'm not surprised, it's farther north than where we live, and it gets pretty chilly here sometimes," you answered, pulling a few sweaters out of your closet, pairing it with random pairs of jeans you grabbed, and passed them to Tooru, who folded and put them in your suitcase.

"Aww, aren't I such husband material? Wait here wifey, I'm gonna get your stuff from the bath," Oikawa winked, throwing up a peace sign at you before he turned and disappeared behind the white door.

"Can you get my toothbrush stuff too? Thank you~," you called after him in a sweet singsong voice.

You glanced at your bookbag, still on your couch, just where you left it. You looked at the scarf in your hands, a large white scarf too bulky to wear, and decided to throw it in there, along with your laptop and charger. You put an extra pair of comfortable boots in a reusable bag, neatly settling it between your clothes. Tooru handed you another bag, and a peek inside showed you your bath and bathroom essentials. You flashed a grateful smile at him, before turning and grabbing the last few items to throw in your bookbag-turned-carry-on, which included your notebook full of your messy brainstorming, a pack of pens, and your phone charger. Zipping your suitcase closed, you pulled up the handle and hung your bag around it.

"Okay, I'm ready. I've got everything, except you," you winked mischievously at Tooru.

"You're flirting! It's not fair," he complained, hand grabbing at his heart, the other draped dramatically over his forehead.

"Guilty as charged," you winked, throwing up a finger heart. "Drive me to the airport?"

"Of course, babe."

You had already checked in your suitcase, got your ticket safely in your hand, and all that was left for you to do was wait an hour or so until boarding. You turned to Tooru, giving him one last hug. "I'm gonna miss you and the others, Ruru," you whispered softly, even though you were only leaving for a week.

Tooru hugged you back, holding you tightly against his chest. He let you go, before taking a step back and pulling his hoodie over his head, his shirt riding up a bit, showing some skin for a split second. "Here, wear this," he said, handing it over to you.

You brightened, smiling like a thousand suns before slipping it on. It was huge on you, and you were almost drowning in the soft, teal blue fabric. He gave you a fond look, his eyes shining in such pure, unadulterated love that it took your breath away for a moment.

"Thank you, Tooru."

"Keep it warm for me, okay?"

"I know, I know, I promise you'll see it when I come back."

He gave you one last hug, short and sweet, before walking away, turning to look back at you one last time. You stood there until the doors slid closed behind his back, a soft smile on your face, before you turned away and walked to your terminal, hoping to kill time either shopping, eating, or sleeping.

You could finally lean back and relax once you were secured in your seat, miles in the air. Boarding and finding your aisle wasn't much of a hassle, thank the gods, and the glass of the plane window was refreshingly cool against the tip of your nose as you peered down at the clouds passing by. You held your bookbag against your chest, looking inside at the empty space in between the few items you did pack into it. Your laptop was safely zipped up in its designated pouch, along with its charger and your notebook, and the pack of pens that had somehow opened inside the pocket, which you had found out earlier as you tried to fish one out but instead pulled the empty cardboard packaging. Your phone charger was the only thing laying on the scarf you threw in there, a makeshift nest for nothing. Well, nothing yet.

You were excited to spend a week in a completely different environment, surrounded by lush forestry and the coos and calls of whatever animals lived there, a place where you're never truly alone, but in a good way. It was a stark contrast from the car fumes in the city air, with the only plant life in a park square and the only sounds are the constant chatter and hum of people and cars finding their destinations. There never once was an hour of silence, and while you had been able to enjoy it as your background noise while writing, it wasn't long until you finally got tired of it. You could've sworn that the city had gotten louder on purpose just to exhaust and stress you out every night, so you were more than ready to finally be able to clear your head and maybe even flesh out an idea or two.

The sound of the intercoms crackling to life made you jolt, holding a hand to the cold imprint on your cheek left from sleeping against the window. The pilot announced that the plane was descending, and you gathered your bag and Tooru's hoodie, bundling them both in your arms.

Truth be told, you were glad to step off the plane. You felt the chill of the outside while walking off the plane through the passenger boarding bridge and stood for a second to put the hoodie back on, humming slightly at Tooru's smell still on the cloth, a nice, sweet but not too sweet scent that made you smile to yourself.

You got lost in thought, so your body was on autopilot when you went to pick up your luggage and almost picked up the wrong suitcase, until the actual owner picked it up first, eyeing you weirdly. With guilty, heated cheeks, you grabbed your suitcase, checked it once, then twice, then three times, and finally hopped into an Uber as fast as you could, hoping that you wouldn't be starting your first day on vacation dying of embarrassment.

You hurriedly thanked the driver for dropping you off, then made your way into a wooden building, the wood a warm oak with a little golden bell that chimed as you walked in. A woman behind the desk smiled at you, and you sighed, happy to have nothing to worry about, now that you were finally there.

"Hello, welcome to Inari Lodge! Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes, please," you said, pulling your luggage close to you. "I reserved a cabin, and I need the keys, right?"

"Of course," she smiled at you, and for a quick second, you thought that she resembled a cat, with black hair and upturned eyes.

"Um, I'm sorry if I'm being intrusive, but are you a mom?"

"Haha, don't worry, you're fine! Yes I am, my name is Kozume Sakura, and I have a son," she answered kindly, and you couldn't help but feel relieved to finally have a good thing to improve your currently-going-badly day.

"Ah, it's just that you seemed familiar to someone I've seen around campus."

"Ah, that would most likely be my son," she said, a sweet smile spreading across her face. "Anyway, here are your keys, and I've written the directions to your cabin right here. Don't hesitate to come and ask me for anything, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," you nodded gratefully, making sure to wave goodbye as you walked out the doors, looking at the map in your hands.

"I can not believe how hard it was to find you," you said to the cabin as you flopped on the bed, tired of having such a conflicting day. You sat up quickly, slapping your cheeks, "No, I won't let a few fuck ups ruin everything for me."

Grabbing your phone, you slipped it into your hoodie pocket as you walked out the door, set on exploring the area.

You decided not to take an official trail, preferring to save them for later, which brought you to an ordinary worn dirt path as you walked aimlessly, taking rights and lefts as you pleased.

A rustling in the bushes lining the trail caught your attention. Just as you walked closer to separate the branches and peek through, a fox fell out of the leaves, as if something had pushed it out. The fox seemed to scowl at whatever had shoved it, before it turned its attention to you.

Before you could think better, you crouched on the ground as you cooed, resting your cheek in your palm. "Hello, cutie fox, how are you?"

The fox stared at you, which was good, because if it started speaking you would've booked it right then and there, but also bad, because you didn't know if it was irritated by your presence. It seemed to look warily at you, not ready to attack, but not fully trusting either.

"Come here, I want to pet you," you crooned, holding out the end of your sentence as you leaned forward against your better judgement, shifting your legs from against your chest to underneath you. Before it could make a decision, however, another fox jumped out of the bushes and straight into your arms, settling happily in your lap. Caught by surprise, you stared, while the first fox yipped at it, jumping forward and pushing it out of your lap. You watched as they tumbled to the ground, rolling as they fought and wrestled.

"Um, okay… I think I'll just go now, bye!" You quipped before turning around and walking steadily back to where you came from, not wanting to get caught up in a wild animal fight.

"Look at what ya did 'Tsumu, why do ya always mess everything up?"

"Me? Me?! You were the one that jumped me!"

"'Cause I didn't recall inviting you to our conversation, dumbass!"

"Yer a fuckin' fox, you can't talk! You're just jealous!"

"So are you! We're twins, shithead!"

And they kept arguing, voices carrying throughout the forest, even as they walked along the path the pretty, perfect, kind, and amazing love of their li— , ahem, the completely normal girl from earlier took, leading to the all too familiar lodge situated at the edge of their forest.

"That was close," you whispered to yourself as you leaned against the door, as if the foxes would be strong enough to bust it open. They hadn't even followed you, as you didn't hear them, and when you glanced behind you, nobody was there.

"Anyway, I guess I should plan out what I'm gonna do here, I don't want this trip to be a waste," you said, opening your suitcase and putting your clothes in the drawers, setting your bathroom essentials on top of it. You grabbed your bookbag from where you had thrown it on the bed and set it on a glass table. You pulled out your notebook and flipped to a blank page, cringing as you passed by page after page of chicken scratch.

"The only reason I can read my own handwriting is because I'm there when it's written," you muttered to yourself as you rummaged for a pen, finding one out of the set of five. You wrote down the days of the week you'd be staying there, with your first official day starting tomorrow, on Tuesday. Your flight back was scheduled for a week later, on Monday. You hummed happily, glad that your timetable worked out so neatly as you wrote down the days of the week, leaving enough space for a bullet list underneath.

On your last day at the lodge, you made sure to make a note to leave at noon at the latest, since your flight was at six in the afternoon, and you wanted to be extra, extra, extra sure that you would not miss it. Ideally, you would be all packed up Sunday night, but knowing you and your procrastinating self, you wrote it down for the day before, even though you knew you would probably be packing the day of, just as you did before.

You made sure to set Saturday as souvenir hunting day, hoping to bring back something for Tooru, a thank you for the help and hoodie.

The foxes you met earlier crossed your mind, but the grumbling of your stomach reminded you to get some dinner and wrap up your day. Holding the map out in front of you, you memorized the directions to a cafe not too far from your cabin, and went on your way.

"Hello, can I get the sandwich of the day with a cinnamon hot chocolate and a slice of pumpkin bread?"

"Of course! Here's your total."

The worker you were pleasantly talking to gave you a small smile before glancing to the side, as if something caught his eye. He pulled a face at whatever he was looking at, and you followed his annoyed gaze to the two foxes you met earlier, playing next to one of the bean bag chairs next to the door, near the window wall of the cafe.

You laughed awkwardly, "Haha, um, is there something wrong?"

He seemed to snap out of giving them the stink eye, profusely apologizing to you as he provided an explanation, "No, no, it's fine, it's just that those two foxes are some of the forest animals that walk around the lodge, except they're the only ones that are more annoying than cute. Some cats and birds and such come by and usually will just sit next to the register, you know, like nice and normal animals, but these foxes seem hellbent on walking around and biting at people's ankles and fighting and making huge messes that they can't clean up because they're damn foxes."

You laughed again, though this time it was genuine. "You seem to have very strong feelings about their mischief," you joked, watching as he relaxed.

"Yeah, but at the end of the day, they're still just foxes, and we make sure all the animals of the forest are safe and sound."

And if the foxes decided to cause more trouble than usual, that was their business, their decision, and not in any way related to the slight dislike of the barista, which was in turn totally not because you got along well with him.

After paying, you made your way to a table in the corner of the windows where the glass met the wall, looking absentmindedly at the visitors and workers walking past, occasionally with a rabbit or bird or other critter.

"I have your hot chocolate and sandwich, and your bread will be in just a moment. Unfortunately, I also brought these two," the barista you were talking to said as he set your food and drink on the table, before glancing at the floor. Just as you were about to lean over and see, two foxes jumped up on the seat across from you, settling themselves on the table, curled up like cats.

You waved him off with a grin, "Oh it's fine, I have a feeling they'll behave."

You took a sip out of your hot chocolate, savoring the warmth it gave you after being in the outside chill. You picked up your sandwich and took a bite, before speaking, "Are you done fighting?"

Both foxes stared at you, and if they were people, you were sure their mouths would be hanging open, dumbfounded and mildly offended as you nonchalantly took another bite, not waiting for them to respond or react.

You reached a hand out while they were frozen and pet the head of the fox nearest to you. It lowered its head slightly, shyly accepting your affection.

"Aww, you're so cute. What's your name?"

Of course, it couldn't speak, but it batted your hand with its left paw. "So cute," you crooned, "Come here?"

Just like before, when the fox was about to walk towards you, the other one jumped at you, and you hurried to wrap your arms around it. You stared at it in your arms, tummy up like a baby.

You rubbed its stomach. "What about you? What's your name?"

He happily raised his right paw, and you held it gently before putting him back on the table, which was good, because the left paw fox was a second away from pouncing on it again. The fox you set down scrambled onto the tabletop, and watched with what you would call betrayed eyes as you carried the other fox into your lap, petting its head lightly.

"It's not your turn," you quipped, focusing your attention on the fox in your lap. "You're so cute, so cute, please be my baby~."

The fox you dumped on the table yipped indignantly at you, and you decided to mess with him. "Oh, you're still here? Well, I guess you're okay…" you trailed off, struggling to keep a poker face as he looked at you with puppy eyes, while the other fox barked out high pitched laughs, which made him get up and get ready to jump.

You pet him between his ears. "I'm just joking. Jeez, you're always at each other's necks," you complained, sitting back and continuing to eat your sandwich.

As if to prove you wrong, the fox in your lap jumped on the table and curled up with the other fox, both of them leaning against each other like close brothers. Coincidentally, the waiter walked by with your pumpkin bread, watching in amazement.

"How did you do that?" he asked, and you just shrugged in response, your attention mostly on your sandwich.

When you finished it, you took another sip of your drink before you tore off two pieces of your bread. You offered it to them as a reward, for finally behaving themselves. They yipped happily in response, content with spending the rest of your time together eating in comfortable silence.

You pulled yourself out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. Embarrassingly, jet lag made you sleep in on Tuesday, your first official day at the lodge, and by the time you woke up, you had nothing to do but eat and jot down some story ideas, none of which stuck to you.

So you made sure to wake up nice and early the next day, dead set on going on at least one trail. You showered and changed into a new pair of jeans and a knit grey sweater. You stood for a moment, debating if you should wear a jacket or Tooru's hoodie over it, but decided against it and deemed the sweater good enough.

Thankfully, it was one of the warmer, sunnier days. You looked down at your map, making your way towards the open lodge outlet, taking note of the small clusters of people milling about, a familiar sight, albeit on a smaller, calmer scale. You looked up at the wooden signs pointing towards various shops, restaurants, and forest attractions. You finally found the one you were looking for, pointing to your right with the word "birdwatch" carved across. When you followed its directions, you came to a small gift shop at the start of a wide, dirt path, imprints of boots and footsteps all over the light brown ground. Walking inside, a small wind chime announced your arrival, twinkling like bird chirps, and the person behind the counter looked up.

"Oh, it's you!" she exclaimed, recognizing your face.

"Hello again! I thought you worked at the reception desk?"

"I'm covering for someone's shift right now, they had finals to take. Are you here for a birdwatch?"

"Spot on," you answered, bringing a hand up to rub the back of your head with a meek smile. Kozume winked at you, before taking out two binoculars from under the desk.

"Well then, let's go!"

"You know, some of these birds remind me of the ones that live near my apartment building," you mentioned, picturing the large cherry blossom tree that stretched its branches past your window. "The birds here are so much more interesting though," you lamented. "The city just has crows and small birds, but here there's robins and warblers and so many more species, with great diversity. It's like the bird version of the people back home."

"I can imagine not many birds want to live near so many humans, but these have all of the forest to themselves. Look, the bird over there, with the blue mohawk, is called an Asian Paradise Flycatcher, and…" she trailed off, continuing your tour of one of the forest trails, before whipping an arm in front of you, exclaiming, "Watch your step!"

You froze with your foot still in the air, watching as the fox you narrowly missed stepping on darted in front of you.

"I'm sorry, he's not really supposed to be here, he has his own trail," Kozume frantically apologized while glaring at the fox, before sighing in relief when you responded with a small laugh.

"It's fine, I've met him before," you reassured while looking around, searching for a certain somebody. "And I learned that he never walks alone…"

To prove your point, the other fox you were well acquainted with joined his brother, running around in front of you.

"Well, the next part of our trail is basically a circle back, so hopefully they run off to where they belong, I don't want you to get in trouble for messing with the animals because of them," Kozume said as you made a left, walking back to the start of the trail.

When you opened the door to the gift shop, two furry animals zipped past your feet, and you already knew who they were before you even saw them.

"Kozume, is it normal for these guys to always hang around here?" you asked, picking up both foxes in your arms, resting them comfortably in your arms.

Kozume turned around to look at you, her hands still in midair, putting away your binoculars. "Actually, no, they do come by once or twice but they never hang around, and we just assumed they don't like people very much since they really only hang out with each other. They've never let anyone pet them…" she stopped mid-sentence as she watched you pet their heads and stomachs with no resistance from the two.

You glanced up. "Huh? Oh, I don't really have a lot of experience with animals, but they're just so cute," you said, before snapping your head up, eyes wide in realization. "Hey, do you have some ribbon or something?"

"Yes! We use them to identify specific birds we keep tabs on, especially ones we just recently nursed back to health," she explained, pulling out a box of ribbons, offering it to you. You set the foxes on the counter, watching Kozume hesitantly reach a hand out to them from the corner of your eye. They protested, but allowed her to pet them when you eyed them. Looking into the box, you fished out two ribbons, one a golden yellow, and the other a nice warm grey.

"May I?" you asked, directing the question to Kozume. The foxes, however, decided you were talking to them and excitedly sat in front of you, pulling each ribbon towards them with their paw.

"I think they said yes," Kozume chuckled, and you took that as your permission to put ribbons on their, er, the forest's foxes. You cooed at them, asking which one would go first. The fox with the yellow ribbon in his mouth nudged your hand with his face, making you smile.

"Which are you, left or right?"

The fox raised its right paw and rubbed his face as your answer, and you kept that in mind while you tied the ribbon around his neck, finishing it off with a nice bow. You did the same to the other fox, who voluntarily shook your hand with his left paw, just in case you forgot. By the time you were done, both foxes were playing on the counter, ribboned bows securely on their necks.

"What if you started working here? The way you can interact with the animals so easily is honestly amazing," Kozume asked, springing the question on you out of the blue.

You jumped, before you began rubbing the back of your head sheepishly, "Ah, I would love to, honestly, but I work as an author, and it's best if I stay relatively close to my publishing company."

Kozume smiled understandingly, "Yeah, I figured. Well, just know that me and the foxes will be missing you hundreds of miles away." Then she brightened, pulling out her phone, "Put your number in, so we can stay in touch, and so I can keep an eye on my son," she winked cheekily as you accepted her offer.

While the two of you were occupied, focused on your conversation, the two foxes stopped playing, standing abruptly and whipping their faces towards you.

Loud crying made you turn away from Kozume and look for the source of the high-pitched whining, popping the question "who's making those crying puppy sounds?" into the air.

Your eyes landed on the foxes, both of which were crying and walking towards you, tugging at your sleeve and rubbing their heads against your arms. Your heart melted, and you turned to Kozume, pity written across your face.

"When I said they would miss you, I didn't think it would be this much…"

"No, you can't come in here! I'll be kicked out if I let you guys in!"

The foxes, still with the ribbons tied perfectly and safely around their necks, were looping around your legs, blocking your entrance to the cabin you've rented. They both looked up at you and cried, their whines catching the attention of some workers and visitors nearby.

"Okay, fine! If I get in trouble, it's your fault," you relented, turning the knob and carefully opening the door, watching as they slipped in, leaving you to shut the smooth oak door quietly behind you as you flipped on the light switch.

The second you let electric light flood the cabin, you realized the foxes were nowhere to be seen. Only mildly worried, since you knew they were at least somewhere inside, you shrugged it off and walked to the dresser, pulling out Tooru's hoodie and some sweatpants, before making your way to the bathroom.

Out of nowhere, a fox came zooming at your feet, eager to come inside with you. This time, you were firm as you said, "I'm going to shower, so you can back off and play around while I'm in the bathroom, alone, with no perverts!"

The grey fox started laughing at the peeping fox, which you realized was the yellow ribboned one. As expected, he launched at his brother, and you took the distraction as an opportunity to step inside the bathroom and shut the door behind you, locking it just to make sure.

Freshly showered, with your comfortable, warm clothes on, you shuffled out of the bathroom, already expecting the foxes right there, having to step over them to make your way to the bed. They jumped up with you, but once the grey fox came close enough to sniff your hoodie, it barked indignantly, biting at the hoodie.

"Hey! This isn't mine, it's Tooru's, so I can't let you destroy it!" you chided, pulling your sleeve away. Apparently you had said the wrong thing, because both foxes started pulling your sleeves together, before you yanked your arms out of their grips.

"Tooru doesn't even smell bad, he smells nice," you said, pulling the hoodie up to smell the familiar scent, the aromas of chocolates and sweets in fresh air, reminding you of the skies back at the city: the smells of bakeries and cafes wafting through the air and birds chirping above you every time you walked down a street. Still, when the foxes continued growling, you reluctantly tugged the sweater off and stayed in just a white t-shirt, an old, stretched out shirt with the print on the front long since faded and gone.

When you plopped back on the bed, the foxes crowded towards you, close enough that if you didn't know better, you'd think that they were trying to get you to forget about Tooru and focus on them. Subconsciously taking a breath, you caught the smell of a forest clearing or meadow, a smell of fresh grass and fresh air and petrichor, which you would expect from foxes that were supposed to stay and play in the forest, but you also noticed slight variations in the scent, obviously coming from either fox.

Yellow ribbon had a scent like honey, with a strong undertone of a woodsy musk, which made you picture drinking tea sweetened with the golden syrup right outside your cabin.

Grey ribbon had a strong campfire scent, the smell of crackling wood and fire and melting chocolate. A scene under a clear night sky surrounding a fire with the aroma of cinnamon in the air came to mind, and you let yourself get lost in thought, your senses being occupied with new scents, sights, and imagery.

If the foxes were human, their faces would surely have the widest, shit-eating grins, smug and satisfied at having you distracted from the minor annoyance from earlier and focused on them, just as they wanted.

You snapped out of it. "You little—, you just want me to give you attention and affection and baby you," you accused, pushing them away from your face. They didn't protest or bark at you, and you figured it was because they knew they were guilty as charged. "Jeez, you're acting like Tooru is a threat or something…"

You heard two big sighs, and blinked in surprise at the foxes as they settled onto the plush white covers. Maybe it was because they were so human-like and made you honestly contemplate whether they could understand you or not, or maybe it was because the only animal you've heard sigh is your mom's dog back at your family home, but whatever it was, it made you think, for a split second, that the foxes were humans turned animals, kind of like the frog prince. But that was stupid, so you shook your head, got up and turned off the lights, opening the curtains but keeping the blinds closed, and settled back into bed as slats of moonlight came from the spaces between the blinds.

The foxes climbed into your arms, and you held them close to you as you fell asleep, telling yourself it was only because you had crossed the line earlier, even though deep down you knew that wasn't the real reason.

You pulled the two fluffy sources of heat closer to you, unwilling to open your eyes and start the day. It's only when the heaters started licking your face that you panicked and freaked out.

High pitched yips made the events of yesterday evening rush back to you, and you rubbed the sleep out of your eyes tiredly, surprised that you had a good night's sleep with two, technically, wild animals.

You scooped the drowsy foxes into your arms before making your way to the big wooden door and pushing it open, setting the foxes on the ground.

"You weren't even supposed to be in there, you know," you said as the foxes tried to get back in, pawing at the door. You shivered, the chill in the air numbing your exposed skin and wrapping around your bare arms, and you hurriedly shooed them away before retreating back inside the warmth of the cabin.

Safely bundled in a sweater from your university under a hoodie, one of your own this time, you joined a group going for the fox trail, wondering if you'd see yours.

Pointedly ignoring how you immediately thought of them as "your" foxes, you listened to the tour guide, an employee you hadn't met yet, talk about how the foxes don't always show on the trail.

"That's a shame, let's just hope for the best," other visitors and families whispered around you, with some of them saying they didn't see that many foxes yesterday, only a few odd ones out here and there. Knowing where they actually were the day before, you stifled a laugh, even as your ears turned red with guilt and embarrassment, before following at the back of the group as they started the trail.

Luckily, you saw a few grey and brown foxes, who seemed like actual normal foxes and not borderline sentient, but around the middle of the trail it was basically deserted.

"Let me try to call them," the guide offered, bringing his hands up to cup his mouth and whistle loudly.

Silence answered, with no signs of anything coming to visit.

The tour guide encouraged the group to call out and whistle, and various whistles and voices rose from the group.

Not wanting to draw attention to yourself, you crouched low, at eye-level with the bushes, and softly called out for two specific foxes, your hello muffled by the rest of the crowd.

You gave up, feeling stupid and unconvinced that your almost-whisper would carry over the noise of the crowd, and sat on the ground, legs folded under you, deciding to wait until the group either got tired or another fox actually showed up for them. Just then, the bushes in front of you started to rustle, and your lovely grey ribboned fox jumped out, immediately crawling into your lap to nuzzle your face.

The people closest to you turned at the noise and noticed you cuddling with him on the ground, and word started spreading throughout the group that someone had successfully lured out a fox.

"Look! There's one running this way!" the ones at the front of the group called, and you looked just in time to see your other fox running towards you, straight past the tour guide and the rest of the group. You smiled fondly at them, before lowering your face to let both of them rub their cheeks against yours.

"Ma'am, could you please not touch the animals?" the tour guide told you timidly, obviously not wanting to reprimand you for being able to actually call out foxes on the designated fox trail, but you understood it was mostly so others didn't start getting any ideas, thinking they had permission.

You nodded sheepishly, lightly putting them on the floor before standing up, wiping the dust off your knees. However, the whole group watched as the foxes looped around your feet, even going so far as to jump up and paw at your thighs.

"Do you work here? You're so good with animals!" a mom in the crowd asked, and you looked at the actual worker, unsure of what to say. He stared back at you with just as much confusion, before shrugging, leaving you to make up a convincing story on the spot.

"Actually, these foxes used to live near me, but I live in a city, so I brought them here so they'd be safer than on the streets," you fibbed, though you gave yourself a pat on the back for how reliable the story was. If anyone really did have to ask, yes, you did live in a city, and yes, you would one hundred percent bring foxes and other animals to a forest or wildlife lodge. Did that really happen? No, but could it? The answer was yes, and you sighed in relief when the mom turned, accepting your answer. You giggled when the tour guide released a breath he didn't even know he was holding, and he continued the trail, sending a discreet wink your way.

You didn't notice the way your foxes growled at that, and if someone had asked you why you had two foxes right at your heels, walking next to you protectively like a pair of guard dogs, you'd blink in confusion, oblivious to the reality of their words.

Before you knew it, it was Saturday, souvenir shopping day. You slung on your bookbag, ready to put some weight in it.

At the lodge's shopping centre, you saw gift shops, clothing shops, and random trinket shops alike. In the gift shop, you found crystal figurines of animals in and around the lodge, and a cute little bird the color of a clear sky caught your eye. For some reason, it reminded you of Tooru, and you couldn't stop yourself from buying it and watching as the cashier wrapped it in paper before setting it in a white velvet box, cushioned and safe. Huh, crystal bird, blue, bluebird. You may have found another nickname for Ruru. You absentmindedly slipped it into your bag, happy to have found what you were looking for so fast and a new nickname.

But stores weren't anything if not eye-catching, and the shelf of plush animals distracted you. The fox plushies, specifically, were so similar to actual foxes that they'd be perfect replacement cuddle buddies for when you went back home to your big city.

But then you felt incredibly embarrassed and childish for that, so you shook your head as you walked out of the shop, ignoring the way that thought stuck in your head like a moth to a lamp.

Still, you found yourself walking through store after store after store. Once you finally snapped out of it, you had just stepped out of the birdwatching souvenir store, all too aware of the set of postcards themed after the various birds you could spot on the trail. You told yourself that the blue mohawk bird on the front was a great reminder of both the trail and Kozume, and made a mental note to get her to write something before you left, lessening your guilt over having bought something almost useless.

By the time you came back to the cabin, your wallet felt significantly lighter while your bookbag was very obviously heavier. You had stuffed the velvet box, postcard deck, two maroon sweaters with "Inari Lodge" printed across the front with the forest's logo, and a large and heavy book about spirits and legendary deities that guard and dwell in the forest. According to the summary on the back, the book was basically a collection of the myths and legends surrounding the forest, including one about people that could transform from animal to person and back again. The cover of the book immediately made you think "grimoire", and you were set on buying it, if not for the stories, then for the aesthetic.

You wondered briefly if it was real as you unclasped the leather string binding the book shut and flipped through yellowed pages with torn edges, looking at all the pictures that looked believable hand drawn and writing in a language you could only understand when you squinted your eyes.

You had wrapped everything in the two sweaters, and then in the white scarf, making sure they were safe and at no risk of being crushed or damaged, especially the crystalline figure.

"Are ya sure she isn't coming back?"

"Yes, 'Tsumu, last I checked she was dropping off her keys to Kozume."

"But she'll be back soon?"

"Yeah no shit, genius, that's why you either get in here with me or stay behind."

"Hey, I'm just makin' sure you're prepared for this y'know, in case you start crying for momma or somethin'."

"Shut yer face and die."

"What do we do now?"

"I don't wanna pay for a ticket, 'Samu."

"Me neither, but we can't hitch a ride in her carry-on anymore, it's going through TSA."

They both leaned against the wall, realizing that they were both stupid and their plan was stupid squared.

Atsumu looked up, the ribbon around his neck moving with him, and he watched you walk into the bathroom, leaving your luggage outside the door. He nudged Osamu, pointing at the bathroom door.

"Nice," he praised.

And if people saw two foxes crawling into a bookbag? It's the airport at three in the alternate airport timeline, who cares.

"My bag is so heavy," you complained, flopping into your assigned seat. It was another window seat, and the view of the land underneath becoming smaller and smaller until it was covered by a sea of clouds made you feel a little better. Still, how did your bag get that heavy? When it was empty, it was literally lightweight, and when you were still shopping, it wasn't that hard to carry it as you went from store to store. You groaned, rolling your shoulder from the pain of carrying the boulder of a bag.

"That's what I get for buying so much," you berated yourself, opening the flap and looking inside. Surprisingly, two fluffy foxes were curled up in there, resting comfortably on your white scarf. For a moment, you thought your foxes had hitched a ride and were coming home with you, but you'd obviously notice that, right? And besides, you did see the stuffed animals in the gift shop.

"I can't believe I actually bought the stuffed foxes just because I'll miss the real ones," you huffed, blushing slightly, as if the foxes were there and could hear you. But the foxes were not there, you had left them at the lodge, so you settled for stroking the faux fur of the stuffed foxes, the silky smooth strands so lifelike that if you didn't know better, you'd think it was real.

"Finally," you gasped, face planting into the soft fluffy white of your blanket. You tugged off Tooru's sweater and folded it neatly, walking out and placing it on your counter, ready to return. You rummaged through your bag, that you had dropped to the floor as soon as you opened the door to your room, and tugged out the scarf from underneath your very suspiciously heavy fox plushies.

You unwrapped the bundle, pulling all your souvenirs out before bunching up the scarf and throwing it into your laundry basket. You set the book and postcard deck on your bookshelf, next to other various books and collectibles you've found over the years, and grabbed the velvet box, feeling its smooth texture against the palm of your hand. You set it on top of the teal hoodie, before changing out of your jeans and shirt into shorts and an oversized tee, boyfriend style.

Ugh, a boyfriend. You've been single for way too long.

"Please let me wake up to a miracle," you prayed, closing your eyes and pulling a serene face, before immediately flopping over and falling asleep.

Of course, you do not expect to wake up cuddled up to a warm chest while listening to someone messing around in your bathroom, the shutting of cupboards and a phone call drifting from the white door.

You laid there, relishing the comfort that came from being flush against someone's side, tucked under their arm.

That's when it hit you that strangers were in your house.

You bolted up, using your hand to choke back the scream bubbling from your throat, not wanting to let either person know you were awake.

You looked down, realizing that you had just left the side of a very handsome and very shirtless man, his eyes slowly opening when he felt the absence of your warmth, showing you his beautiful light brown eyes, getting lost in the gold specs like stars.

You ripped your gaze away from him and moved to swing your legs over the edge of the bed. Unfortunately for you, the mystery man reached up and tugged you back down to him, holding a finger up to his very pink and very kissable and very attract— , wait, no. He held his finger against his lips, shushing you.

"Wait, he's coming out. Stay beside me."

Just as you opened your mouth to retaliate, he had already thrown your white covers over the both of you and looped an arm around you, his hand resting at your waist.

The door to the bathroom opened, and yet another stranger walked out, though it was only him, making the total number of intruders two. He had the same eyes and lips, which were the definition of picture perfect, and he was also lacking in the shirt department. His brows furrowed, and you could already feel the argument starting.

"What the hell do ya think yer doin'?!"

"She prefers me."

"No she doesn't!"

"It's true, right doll?"

Both pairs of identical eyes stared at you, and you started panicking under the pressure.

"I don't even know you! This is literally stranger danger!" you yelled, jumping out of the warmth of both the blanket and the guy in your bed, dodging as his hand reached out to pull you back in.

You pressed your back against the wall, staying as far away from them as possible. You then realized what you were wearing, and tugged your shirt down even further, mentally slapping yourself for wearing shorts that left almost nothing to imagination with a shirt that reached your thighs, which would put you at a disadvantage if you had to fight or flight.

The stranger finally got out of your bed and walked next to the other, but it was only once they were next to each other that you realized they were twins, identical twins. Both had dyed hair, but one was blond while the other had grey hair. Their bangs were parted to opposite sides, so they kind of mirrored each other, which made you shiver.

"Don't ya remember us?"

"Yeah, you liked me better."

As they started bickering, as almost all siblings do, you noticed the two sweaters you bought sitting on the edge of the bed. Snatching them and balling them up in either fist, you threw them at them.

"At least wear these!"

"Those sweaters would eat me alive, but they fit you so well," you sighed, sitting on your legs on your bed, the two still standing in front of you.

As they pulled the cloth over their head, you noticed the ribbons tied around their neck as they popped free from the neckline. You felt your heart sink to your stomach when you realized they were grey and yellow ribbons.

"'s not like we've never slept with you before," yellow ribbon said.

"You even asked me to be your baby," grey ribbon added, catching his twin's elbow in his hand.

"I haven't even been in the city for the past week! I was at the lodge forest thing."

"So were we."

"Yeah, we came from there."

"Then how did you end up here?!"

"We came with ya," yellow ribbon said matter-of-factly while the other shrugged in agreement.

Your breath got caught in your throat as you flipped the flap of your bookbag over, looking at the empty space in dismay.

"Where are my foxes?"

"That's us!" they chorused, identical smirks of pride on their faces, as if being yours was something to show off or brag about.

"They were plushies! People cannot be plushies!"

"No, they were real foxes, and we're real foxes, 'cause they were us."

"Where the hell would I get real foxes?!"

They saw the moment you pieced two and two together, your face turning from one of anxious anger to acceptance as you realized what they were trying to say.

The ribbons. Their colors. The plushies that felt a little too real. That one night in your cabin. The day you fed them in that one cafe.

They were your foxes.

"Yup," grey ribbon nodded his head, and you shut your mouth, not wanting to accidentally say what you were thinking again.

"Why did you come here? You belong in the forest!"

"No, we're your foxes," they said in unison.

"No you aren't," you groaned, covering your face with both your hands.

The two of them had attached themselves to your side, and when you said that, they seemed to get even more annoyed, and so they snuggled even closer to you, an arm slung around your shoulders and around your waist.

"What are your names?" you finally relented, relaxing in their grip.

"Miya Osamu," the one with the grey ribbon said, pulling you closer from the waist.

"Miya Atsumu, the better twin," the one with the yellow ribbon retorted, tugging you back with the arm around your shoulder.

"Stop pushing me around! We barely know each other!"

"Can you stop with that already?" Osamu said, though he had no actual anger or malice behind his words.

"Or do we have to remind you who you belong to?" Atsumu said suggestively, and you braced yourself for whatever mischief he had planned.

In one moment, you were sitting normally in the middle of your bed. In the next, you were back against your headboard, your head on your pillows. And you became a pillow, as Osamu tucked his face in your neck and Atsumu rested his head on your chest.

"We're taking a nap together again whether you like it or not," Osamu said decisively, and you could tell that was that, no arguing.

"At least let me pull those off, it's embarrassing," you complained, your hand drifting up to Atsumu's ribbons.

"No," he said, catching your hand warningly. Something in his voice made you obey immediately. "That's mine."

"Well this is mine too!" you replied heatedly, bringing a hand up and cradling Osamu's head against you. But instead of doing anything or acting out like any normal person would, Osamu started purring, a satisfied grin on his face while you had a look of dismay, your cheeks reddening.

Atsumu glared at him, moving your hand so your arm was wrapped around him, pulling him closer as well. You got the hint and raised your other hand to run your fingers through his hair, leaving you to deal with two purring fox-shifting idiots.

"Fine, you're both mine, I guess," you gave up, fighting back a blush and pretending that statement didn't warm your heart as much as it did.

"And your ours," they chorused happily, and you didn't even try to hide the pink spreading across your cheeks when they rubbed their faces against yours.

"Okay," you said quietly, accepting the fact that them being yours and you being theirs made you feel something happy and content in your chest, something that was dangerously close to love. If you were like them, you were one hundred percent sure you'd start purring, too.

I mean, you did say you wanted a boyfriend, and the universe was kind enough to give you more than what you bargained for.

The sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky with yellow and red while the blues and purples of night crept closer. The clouds were fluffy and lined with silver, their normal white reflecting pink hues.

The last rays of sunlight filtered through a sheer peach curtain, coating everything in gold lighting.

Three people were sleeping soundly on a bed, the white blanket thrown over their tangled legs, breaths even and in sync. Dyed grey hair peeked out from under a chin, and blond hair tickled a collarbone. Natural hair was sprawled out on the white stuffed pillows.

Osamu opened an eye, before raising his head and pressing a soft kiss to the sleeping beauty's lips.

And if he raised a finger to his lips? Well, I can't say what happened next, because my lips are sealed.

oh my GOD did this take forever between writing this and school and the fanart of this (which i’ll post later) i took way longer than i normally would

that being said, i hope you still like it <3

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyū!!#haikyū #miya osamu #miya atsumu #miya twins #haikyuu miya atsumu #haikyuu miya osamu #haikyuu miya twins #snow white au #miya atsumu x reader #miya osamu x reader #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu fanfic #i can't believe i made an au of my own au #fanfic of my own fanfic #fanfic³

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docholligay · 6 years

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Everything I hated about Lesbian Bear Storm

@katrani‘s commission was a little odd this month--she asked that I condense my thoughts on Yuri Kuma Arashi, which she’d heard I’d seen part of. It was a little odd, but I was happy to do it! Warning: None of this is complimentary to the show.

SHOOOOCK! KUMA SHOCK!

Shock is possibly the only realistic reaction to 99% of what goes on in Yuri Kuma Arashi, or, at least, the four episodes I committed myself to before remembering that I have a full and happy life with people who love me, and I don’t have to lash out in self-harm. So it may well be that after ⅓ of the goddamn anime is over, it actually starts to engage with the audience in ways that aren’t “Hey, check out me licking honey off a lily spurting from this girl’s body, in a way that you will be forced to remember is being written by a man constantly and all the time.”

This show is literally about predatory lesbians.

This show is about lesbian bears, who pose as schoolgirls, and literally consume girls. And kill them. By eating them.

And this is “what bears do” and the implications of it AREN’T GREAT and they didn’t think about it, or ask a helpful and honest lesbian, because I cannot imagine anyone with two fucks to rub together would greenlight this sort of thing.

And maybe that’s the trouble. Ikuahara is a man, a legend, and untouchable, and so that leads to ruin, most of the time. He doesn’t give a fuck because he doesn’t have to. He can make whatever her wants and no one is going to tell him no.

At the time, YKA seemed to be the answer to every one of our ineffectual tumblr posts asking why everything was not about lesbians, and in fact, the show helpfully tells you that apparently every woman we meet is (Yuri) and all the bears are also (Yuri) and it also like indicate that school is a (Place) and things are (History) because apparently we have lost the ability to identify things on our own.

I kept waiting for the show to do something with the concept, to tweak the parentheticals so we could see people change, or the definitions of how we see things change, but it never materialized, and I never had the faith in the show that it would.

And that’s the thing. I know Ikuhara can take his time getting running from Utena (Only up to episode 29 pls to not be spoiling!!!) and that gross-ass concepts are a part of some of his larger vision for a story. But by the time I got done with a third of the goddamn show, I WELL KNEW that stuff was happening here. Even in the first episode, the opening story essentially tells you “Utena is dumb about this, we know, wait for it.” Even when the show absolutely squicks the shit out of me AND IT DOES, I trust that it’s going to do something with the broad concepts because...it has.

And YKA never seemed to even dabble in doing anything--it was even more about pushing sexual lines and really bizarre lesbian fetishism than Utena, but it had all the formulaic boredom that Sailor Moon can have. There was always a Yuri Bear Transformation Sequence, for reasons that never fully made sense to me, and then it was just a great deal of plodding along with our main character. Which….you can’t do in a 12 episode anime. I tend to enjoy 12 ep animes more than others because you have to tell a story in an abbreviated fashion. But this never did that. Nothing is ever really revealed in 4 episodes that lends any kind of depth or interest to the storyline or its characters.

There is much more attention and loving detail lavished on the sexual content, up to and including sexual assault. This anime is SATURATED with a man’s hot take on lesbian interactions in a school setting, and it’s exactly as gross as that sentence just made it sound. There’s very little to be had of genuine affection (and the couple that may have had that has one of the girls get killed right off in front) but much to be had of ramming one’s knee between a girl’s legs, crawling on top of her, licking honey off her lily while she’s unconscious (I cannot make this shit up), and other various and sundry acts that read like the personal journal of that one guy whose house you stayed away from a teenage girl, because he looked at you THAT WAY.

And part of the sad and and frustrating thing is that when it is not being disgusting, it is hilariously dumb, so much so that it is TERRIFICALLY QUOTABLE, were you not having to quote an anime that you could not so much as mention to another human being lest they seek out the terrifying and hidden knowledge, opening Pandora’s box and allowing all the sins of the world to fall upon them.

The temptation to introduce myself as Doc Holligay (Yuri) is overwhelming. SHOOOOOCCCKKK! X SHOCK! Is a perfect way to react to anything that is not at all shocking, perfectly carrying over the mocking tone such things deserve. The desire of have and use the “Yuri Approved” gif forever and for all time (and from me! A person who does not respond in gifs to anything, ever!) is painful. But much like the Uranus and Neptune figures from Crystal, beautiful as they were, every time I saw them I would have to be reminded of the thing they came from.

I didn’t watch beyond four episodes, and have zero percent intention of ever doing so, because there are so many better ways I could be spending 4 hours of my life, up to and including underwater basket weaving, which is at least a source of stress relief and will create something functional, which is more than I can say for literally anything happening in this show, but I guarantee you Kureha (Our main girl) ends up fucking a bear, I KNOW this to be true in my senshi heart.

And this is not me being particularly clever. It’s that every single bear who meets her talks about what a ‘lovely smell’ she has, and how badly they want to eat her, because apparently Ikuhara read Twilight and was like “oh shit, this is fucking genius, NANAKO MY NOTEPAD AND HOLD MY CALLS.” So you know that sooner or later, she is going to end up romantically entangled with some bear, probably the tsundere little one named Ginko, who talks about basically nothing BUT eating her, and then will decide not to because true love or something something.

This is despite the fact that literally anyone Kureha has ever cared about in her life has been eaten by a bear, but true sexual assault conquers all. If you’re a bear and you stalk a girl long enough, she will forget every terrible thing that has ever happened to her and go with you instead.

I wish I could say something complementary about the anime, and I suppose the nicest thing I can say about it is that it IS hilariously quotable. Jill and I now occasionally say “Gau gau,” after a sentence (Apparently that is bear accent) and as mentioned, I want to throw the Yuri Approved gif everywhere. But in any part of character or story, I find it lacking. I don’t know why I really care what happens to Kureha, and there’s nothing in her that feels like she’s compellingly responsible for her own problems in the way of say, Utena, or Madoka, where you can be frustrated and interested in their story at the same time. It feels almost UNFINISHED.

I’m not saying this concept could literally never be good or interesting, but I am more than willing to say that Ikuhara seriously fell down here, and it feels like a really amateur effort from a man who wrote the most solid season of Sailor Moon and Utena. I know it doesn’t have to be like this, and it’s frustrating to see someone I know to have potential turn in something so pathetic and lazy and also GROSS.

All in all, I urge anyone reading this to give it a miss. There’s nothing to be gained by watching it, and if someone managed to find deeper meaning in it, you deserve your lit degree more than mine, because I never could get there despite being the queen of spinning literary straw into gold. Whatever you’re hoping to get out of YKA, you are going to be disappointed for, unless what you are hoping is to get a lot of lesbian assault and extremely weird sexual situations, in which case, congratulations, I’m not sure you could do much better.

I probably won’t try anything else by Ikuhara after this--he narrowly toes the line for me in Utena, and it appears time and success has only emboldened him. So I will sit and rewatch Sailor Moon S, and remember that, at one time, he was capable of showing some level of genuine affection between lesbians, making them complex and troubled characters, and not having them assault each other.

That is the sexy way. Shaba-da-doo.

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galaxydawn · 6 years

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Games I played in 2017

*wall of text alert*

· Bakumatsu Rock Ultra Soul (VITA) It was an okay visual novel with likable characters and low-key humor. Not the best choice if you’re looking for a good rhythm game, though.

· Bioshock (PC) The story was kind of weak, especially the ending. But the surprises in store were totally worth experiencing.

· Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (IOS) I know a lot of fans dislike this one, but it was my favorite of the series so far o_o I loved how everything came together in the end, and it made me really like Naruhodo as a character. Plus, I didn’t think the leaps of logic were that bad compared to the previous games.

· Dropsy (PC) It was enjoyable at first. But then the puzzles got really obtuse and that ending was just bizarre.

· Dragon Quest Builders (VITA) It got pretty challenging but it was also really fun! · Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (VITA) Ugh... I guess I did enjoy the puzzle-solving parts, although it would be better if the game didn’t give you hints right away. But the ending didn’t really make sense, and also I was just appalled by how the game treated its female characters :( · The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC Evolution (VITA) This is not only my favorite game that I played this year, but my favorite game of ALL TIME. The story was engaging, the music and sound effects were great, and the characters were very likable- especially Joshua <3 But most of all, the turn-based combat was just unbelievably, ridiculously fun. Will definitely play the sequel someday!

· Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX (3DS) Now THIS is a good rhythm game. I’ve never been drawn to the aesthetics of the regular Miku games, but I can definitely get down with this adorable nendroid style! :3 I’m also glad this game introduced me to a lot of good vocaloid songs.

· Odin Sphere Leifthrasir (VITA) I was enjoying this game quite a bit- the beat-em-up style gameplay was great for stress relief lol. But unfortunately all the bosses at the end took the fun out of it, especially since you need to beat them multiple times. Also, I am NOT a fan of the ending.

· Persona 4 Dancing All Night (VITA) Another good rhythm game, while simultaneously being a good visual novel. It was so nice to revisit these characters and re-witness their friendship :)

· Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS) My friend forced me to play this game since I finally got a 3DS. I enjoyed it for about two months before deciding that was enough. Good, peaceful times.

· Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) I know this game is pretty much worshipped, but I’m so bad at platformers that I found it frustrating rather than fun. I’m proud of myself for finishing it despite the many rage-quits, though.

· Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (PS4) I was really looking forward to this one, but it has nothing but flaws. The combat is mostly button mashing. The camera sucks. It’s super annoying that the enemies keep respawning because you can’t open chests, activate trinities or even change your inventory when they’re around. The story isn’t that good. I’m not even sure if I like the main characters. But still... I can’t hate this game. The power of friendship and the determination to do the right thing showcased by Sora, Goofy and (sometimes) Donald are just too pure. Oh, and BEAST’S LOVE FOR BELLE IS NEXT LEVEL. Basically, the game’s only redeeming quality is its theme, but somehow that’s enough. I guess I’m just a sucker for this stuff :P

· Rhythm Heaven (Wii) It was fun. Nothing much to add. The songs with lyrics are fun to sing at karaoke lol.

Otome games I played in 2017

· Snow Bound Land (PSP) I understand how some people might find this game boring. It’s definitely slow-paced and fairy-tale-esque, but overall I thought it was a nice and enjoyable story. My favorite character was Craes the cutie :3

· Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk (VITA) I hated this game. In fact, I still hate this game. Which is a shame because Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly is my favorite otome game of all time, alongside Amnesia. But this game doesn’t understand the fact that you can’t do whatever you want just because your genre is fantasy. YOU STILL HAVE TO ADHERE TO THE RULES WITHIN YOUR FICTIONAL WORLD. Like, in the ‘true ending’ a character solves this huge problem, but the game doesn’t tell you how he solved it? We’re just supposed to focus on the fact that it was solved and be satisfied because it’s a happy ending? There are so many instances of this, and I’ve never been so insulted as a gamer. Just thinking about this game makes my blood boil. Don’t write fantasy if you can’t world build and then see that world through.

· Amnesia Crowd (VITA) A much more satisfactory fandisc than Amnesia Later. I liked the cute, comical vignettes and the CGs were especially beautiful.

· Abunai Koi no Sousashitsu (PSP) This game should have stayed a mobile game lol. I was actually impressed because the male characters were surprisingly unique and not cliche, but the overall quality was just pitiful, and the storylines weren’t fun to follow. Ogasawara and Kenji are hella cute, though.

· Moshi, Kono Sekai ni Kamisama ga Iru to Suru naraba (VITA) Wow this game is shockingly dark. I enjoyed it as a horror game, but don’t go in expecting a dating sim. I ended up not really liking any of the male characters anyway. On the plus side, I’m interested in Japanese mythology now.

· Beast Master and Prince ~Flower and Snow~ (VITA) Another fandisc. I’m sure I enjoyed it at the time, but it was pretty forgettable.

· Tokyo Yamanote Boys (PSP) This game was a drag. It wasn’t necessarily awful but it wasn’t fun either. They should have made it a full-on comedy game instead of trying to have a serious plot with these ridiculous characters. (Remember: never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.) Surprisingly, my favorites ended up being Takumi and Yuuto. Tetsu was the most my type but his route was way too boring :< I’m just glad I got the PSP games for cheap instead of buying the new Vita version.

Mobile games I enjoyed throughout 2017

· Fire Emblem Heroes I’ve never played Fire Emblem before, but now I definitely want to try it, thanks to this mobage. The gameplay is really fun, and it’s also pretty generous with gacha tickets. I wanted to get Marth because his voice actor is Midorikawa-san, and I finally got him after months :D Before that I was maining Chrom, who’s voiced by Sugita-san. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that both of these characters are quite prominent in the series, because again, I had no idea lol.

· Stand My Heroes It’s mostly an otome game, but the puzzle gameplay is solid. I always skip the story so I don’t know any of the characters’ names, but my favorite is the one voiced by Kakihara-san :)

#gaming #otome games #review

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theironbottomsound · 6 years

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[REVIEW] Corpse Party: Blood Drive - The Finality

Makoto Kendouin has returned with yet another sequel of the Corpse Party series. The sequel known as Corpse Party: Blood Drive serves as the concluding tale of the Heavenly Host saga. New characters, new enemies, and a whole new Heavenly Host Elementary School await the unfortunate souls.

The game now comes with a full 3D rendered characters and environment, as well as new 2D sprites. New mechanics have been introduced which isn’t found in the previous games. Some mechanics also returned to full enhance the player experience.

Corpse Party: Blood Drive follows the story from Book of Shadows’ final chapter (it is highly recommended to play the first two games). Ayumi Shinozaki, stricken with grief and guilt at the loss of her dear friends and her sister, seeks out a way to revive her fallen friends. Armed with the Book of Shadows she found in the Shinozaki estate, Ayumi sets out on a journey to redeem herself and undo everything she’s done. But little did she know, a new curse is rapidly growing within the walls of Heavenly Host.

I tried to be as vague as possible with the synopsis to not spoil the story of the entire game to you. If you have no idea on the story of Corpse Party, I highly suggest you play at least the first game. Blood Drive is not an entry-game for players who are new to the series to pick up.

Story

The game is composed of 10 main chapters as well as 8 extra chapters. This is an upgrade from the previous games who only sort 5 and 8 main chapters respectively. Each chapter will give the players the ability to control certain characters and navigate their way into the halls of Heavenly Host. Ayumi is stricken with guilt at being responsible for the death of her friends: Suzumoto Mayu, Sakurato Morishige, Shishido Yui, and Shinohara Seiko, who all died during the events of the first game. It is said that those who died in Heavenly Host, their existence in the real world will be wiped out. It means that no one would be able to remember them except for the survivors.

New characters were introduced in Blood Drive. While they “may” be new to the main games, most of them have appeared in a spin-off game called Corpse Party: Anthology~ Sachiko’s Hysteric Birthday 2U.

Some of these new characters include Niwa Aiko, an intelligence agent and a student of the Paulownia Academy. As one of the characters who accompanied Ayumi in her journey, she is a cheerful person whose real intention is to extort information with the people around her. Her sister, Niwa Kuon, served as the homeroom teacher for Ayumi’s class into the game.

Another one would be Magari Mizuki, a transfer student from the Paulownia Academy. A girl who’s a part of an occult and has vast knowledge of the Book of Shadows. She helped Ayumi traverse the halls of the school in search for a way to revive her fallen friends.

The game also now sports a new antagonist under the name of Sachi. Sachi roams the halls of Heavenly Host. She poses a grave threat to those unfortunate souls who traverse the halls of the school.

It is also said that Blood Drive a lot of references from the other Corpse Party Media. It references heavily from the first two games, Corpse Party Cemetery0, and the anime OVA, Corpse Party Tortured Souls. If you have any idea on what the story of the mentioned media is, then I do hope you’d immediately get the reference after encountering them in the game.

I’d probably talk more about my insights of the story later in this post.

Gameplay

The gameplay vastly improved compared to the first two games. After the backlash that was Book of Shadows, the devs listened to the cries of fans and reverted back to an adventure-type of game. With the enhanced technology of the Playstation Vita, it gave Team GrisGris, the company responsible for the series, new abilities and mechanics that they can incorporate into the game.

Puzzle-solving has returned from the first game. Players get to solve the puzzle behind the story to unlock new areas, new CGs, and progress into the story. The puzzles have been fairly difficult compared to Blood Covered. Each action of the player will have its consequence whether it is good or bad.

The flashlight mechanic has been introduced to the player in this game. Players can use it in order to navigate the school safely. It comes with battery lifespan so players need to scavenge around for batteries to keep the light going. Upon the fans’ requests, the devs also placed in an “endless battery mode”.

Characters can now move diagonally into the world. This is really helpful when dodging traps, enemies, and other entities inside the school. Phantoms are also incorporated into the game to chase you around the school until you have successfully hid from them or purify them with talismans. This posed a problem because the game lags EVERY TIME a phantom appears. This kinda ruins the overall player experience for lagging on a console. Plus, they can be pretty annoying because they follow you wherever you go.

Graphics

The graphics of this game have improved. Gone were the days of pixel sprites and now comes the age of 3D models in the series. Blood Drive is the second game of the series to ever support 3D models (first being 2013 Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient). While the upgrade from pixel-art to 3D models is good, I think it doesn’t seem to fit well with the overall theme of the game. They looked cute but they’re supposed to be running for their lives, right?

The CGs returned to facilitate better experience for players upon reaching crucial parts of the story. I want to note also that the game is very very brutal. They took the liberty of not putting up CGs or torturing the character models for the sake of narrative execution of the story. This can be their way of “censoring” brutal moments that may deem unfit for their target audience.

Audio

The audio of the franchise is something that I really really enjoyed hearing. Each has been recorded and cued to play at important moments in order to provide the overall atmospheric feel of the current situation in the game. Even if the game doesn’t provide a CGI on some of the brutal murders, you couldn’t help but cringe at what the character is going through with the use of carefully executed sound effects.

The BGM feels great although for me, it doesn’t seem to sit well with the game. BGM now sports more techno-feel at some parts, unfit for a horror game. Kinda ruins the immersion that I have while playing the game. Unlike in the first two games, where the BGM can subtlely provide context on what’s the next thing that would happen, in Blood Drive, it’s almost impossible to decipher what’s next because of how the BGM is played. This isn’t a bad thing since it keeps players in their toes with what’s happening story-wise.

This time around, there are two opening themes that players can listen to. “In the Rain”, sung by Hara Yumi, is played all throughout the first 6 chapters of the game. I couldn’t help but feel that the song reflects Ayumi’s desire to regain her friends from the curse of the school.

The second opening theme is called “Keshin” (Trans: Incarnation) sung by Ayumi’s voice actress, Imai Asami. The song will start to play from Chapter 7 until the final chapter. The song basically reflects Ayumi’s determination and resolve after finding out the truth behind Heavenly Host. Knowing the dangers that she has to face, she steeled herself to face them head on and not run away anymore.

Note: The following below will contain MAJOR SPOILERS to the entire Corpse Party series. If you haven’t had any idea about the overall story of the game, turn away NOW.

Overall Insights

Blood Drive is (in my opinion) the scariest game out of the Corpse Party franchise. I was really scared while playing this game. Aside from the darkened view of the hallways, phantoms will start to chase you out of nowhere and I, as a player, really really hate things that chase you around in horror games. I’m fine with jumpscares just not something that will chase me around.

The story for me feels a bit weird. The inclusion of more depth in the occult-theme of the series kinda threw me off-guard. It kinda became a fantastical thing compared with Blood Covered. Though I’d admit, it was this storyline that gave answers to my questions ever since finishing the first two games. But upon clearing the game’s main story, it just popped out a lot of questions from me once more.

I hated Ayumi ever since the first game. Whiny, crybaby, and disregards other people’s feelings, she was the reason why my favourite character in this series is dead. However, in Blood Drive, I can see the toll of the stress from dealing with black magic have an effect with the blue-haired girl. Having lost her friends in the school, her sister in the Shinozaki estate after her meddling with a forbidden spell, with Naomi’s left eye being damaged because of it. She also tried to deal with everything’s that’s happened on her own so that her friends wouldn’t worry. She became desperate. It turns her into someone who’d trust anyone who has knowledge crucial to Heavenly Host. It was because of her willingness to trust anyone at this point that kickstarted the events of the game.

Her friends, the other survivors of the first game, are all worried about their beloved class-rep. So when they learned that Ayumi went back to Heavenly Host alone in order to atone for her wrongdoings, they took it upon themselves to bring her back to the real world. I felt each of the character’s struggle into thinking of coming back to the place where their friends met their demise once more.

I get to see Ayumi, distressed and emotionally unstable, which was used against her. Her distraught made me easily manipulated by some of the characters to do their goal. I think that Blood Drive expounded more on Ayumi’s character development as she comes to terms with what she has done. Her naiveness paved way for her to be more determined and resolved after going through harsh challenges and emotional stress.

So over the course of this game, I slowly started to like Ayumi. Her coming into terms and doing whatever it takes to bring the dead back to life amazes me. It keeps me on my toes on what’s the next thing that would happen. I was also secretly hoping she’ll be able to revive Seiko and the others and have the happy ending that they all so deserve. For the first time in my playthroughs of the games, I hoped that finally, Ayumi’s desires would see the light.

Aside from Ayumi, my fondness of Yoshiki also grew in this game. It is still clear that he truly cares for Ayumi, even to the point of following her blindly into Heavenly Host. The girl used to brush off his antics and concerns but in the course of Blood Drive, the two of them managed to settle their differences...slightly. Ayumi still brushes off Yoshiki at times but acknowledges his presence more over the course of the game.

As for Heavenly Host itself, my first reaction to it is “what the hell happened in here?!” Red patches of blob are scattered all over the school. Tentacle-like tendrils wrap themselves in doors, preventing entry to those who wish to enter. When they say that the school is currently unstable, I was expecting jumbled dimensions and all but not those tentacle...things. It’s disgusting. It doesn’t help that later in the game, the school will once again change its layout, making it even more disgusting! There’s even a poop-shaped thing in the middle of the room!

Another thing I really loved about this series is that the game leaves what is happening to your imagination. Certain parts of the game do not have anything going on in them but the descriptive narrative and the audio enhances the story for the player. While this may be their way of censoring “brutal” happenings in the story, it is also a way for players to let their imagination run wild as to what is currently happening to the game. If you have a wild imagination then I hope you’d be able to sleep at night.

The phantoms are the only thing that I really hate with the new Heavenly Host. I tend to suck at the hiding mechanic of the game so I mostly avoid places with phantoms lurking around unless I have a talisman for them. They also made my game lag so much every time they spawn, which incites panic to me. The lag is a result of poor optimization on the developers’ end since it happens 100% of the time.

Speaking of development, there was a game-crashing bug that I encountered in between chapters 3 and 4. Upon reaching a certain part of the game, it will crash. This is a known bug in the Japanese release and the developers made a patch to fix it. But I’m not sure if the patch got carried over to the West when they did their localisation.

All in all, Corpse Party: Blood Drive serves as a sick, twisted, but overall the best way to end the Heavenly Host saga once and for all. The ending of Blood Drive has been referenced in Corpse Party 2: Dead Patient. The game is set 5 years after the events of Blood Drive and for those who have seen or played the game, the introduction of the game finally made sense once you’ve completed Blood Drive. I highly highly recommend this title for anyone who is a fan of the horror genre as well as a fan of the Corpse Party series. Setting aside the technology problems, its well-written story and characters will be enough to keep you up at night.

Make sure to play this at night with your headphones on for a much better and thrilling experience!

#game review #corpse party #corpse party blood drive #ayumi shinozaki #book of shadows #corpse party blood covered

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