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plaguedocboi · 1 year

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We all love the beach, right? I sure do. Where the sea meets the land is a magical place. It is the overlap of two very different worlds; our sunny, sandy, beautiful home and the alien waves that beckon you into the inhospitable wilderness of the ocean. When crossing that foam-fringed boundary, one must remember that you are no longer in your world. You are entering the sea, and the sea is vast and dark and dangerous. It is more untamed than the wildest jungle and full of creatures that can kill you in a hundred different gruesome ways. Every wave whispers to you that you do not belong here, you may only visit for a brief time if you want to leave with your life. Hold tight to the warm sunlit sand that fringes the barrier of this place, or you may never see it again. Welcome to the beach. Enter at your own risk.

1. Tamarama beach, Australia

This is know as both the smallest and the most dangerous beach in NSW. There is a permanent rip current that runs along the rocky northern shore, but at any given time there could be more hidden in the surf. Large waves break just a little ways offshore, posing a hazard to swimmers but an attraction for surfers. Although there are rarely deaths here, lifeguards have to rescue multiple people a day. Interestingly, this beach is only around sometimes! Occasionally all the sand will wash away and all that’s left is a rocky outcrop. There’s no way to be certain when the beach will come back or how big it will be or what it might look like. I guess it never gets boring to visit.

2. Isle of Ré, France

This island is not the only place you can go to see square waves, but it is one of the places most famous for this strange phenomenon. This is called a cross sea, and occurs when two opposing wave patterns intersect. Although this is certainly a tourist attraction, it is best to observe from a distance, as cross seas can be very dangerous to both ships and swimmers. Cross seas can cause powerful rip currents and walls of water up to 10 feet high, rolling ships and dragging people underwater. (As a side note, my mother thought I had made up cross seas as a freaky supernatural event in my book. Unfortunately, I did not.)

3. Dumas Beach, India

This is supposedly one of the most haunted places in India. Although this beach is full of tourists during the daytime, no one remains after dark, for fear that they will become the next ghost to wander the sand. Apparently, this beach was once used as a burial ground, and said to be black due to the human ashes mixed in. At night, people report hearing voices and seeing apparitions, and even dogs behave strangely once the sun goes down. There have also been multiple unexplained disappearances and at least one recorded death. Whether you believe in ghosts or not, there definitely seems to be something eerie happening on this beach.

4. Morecambe Bay, UK

This is an interesting one, as it’s not technically the water that’s dangerous. The ground is. This estuary features extreme tides, with the water level dropping and rising up to 32 feet twice a day. This exposes an expanse of mud flats and channels which are composed of loose, wet material that can absolutely suck you in and trap you. If this happens when the tide is coming in, it can quickly turn deadly. This has happened many times going back through history, including one incident in 2004 where 23 people died. Yes, all at the same time. No, I don’t want to delve into that incident too deeply in this list as it’s extremely horrifying and tragic. Feel free to research it yourself.

5. Monastery Beach, Oregon

This has earned its nickname “mortuary beach” by being extremely dangerous. Over 30 people have died here, including people who weren’t even in the water. In 2015, a woman walking along the beach was dragged in by a wave and drowned. The beach has multiple factors that make it so deadly, including a steep drop off, unpredictable waves, and strong undertows. This beach isn’t even safe to walk on. I um. Don’t like that.

6. Hanakapiai Beach, Hawaii

Despite its beauty, this Hawaiian beach is not recommended for swimming except for expert surfers. During the summer, this beach is a popular place for hiking, sunbathing and sightseeing, but during the winter the sand is washed away and the waves crash against the cliffs directly. Even in the relatively safe summer months, this beach has no barrier reef to break up the strong waves and powerful currents, which leads to a dangerous situation where swimmers can quickly be swept out into the open ocean and drown. At least 30 people have died here, and 15 of the bodies have never been recovered.

7. Lake Michigan. Just, all of it.

Despite all the Great Lakes being somewhat terrifying, Michigan takes the title of the most dangerous lake in the country. Yearly, Lake Michigan has more drownings than all four other Great Lakes combined. The reason that Michigan is especially hazardous is that, well, it’s kind of weirdly shaped. Thanks to its 300+ miles of uninterrupted parallel shorelines running north-south, it forms huge waves and strong riptides and long shore currents. It is also a question of numbers; Lake Michigan has more public beaches and large population centers than the other Great Lakes. All in all, a recipe for disaster.

8. Playa Zipolite, Mexico

This is also called the “beach of the dead”, so it’s inclusion on this list seems pretty self-explanatory. These waters have strong undercurrents that rotate in a circular pattern, either pushing you into shore or pulling you out to sea. There is a pervasive rumor that 50 people drown at this beach a year, although this is… somewhat exaggerated. In fact, very few people drown at this beach these days, as it has actually gotten less dangerous over the years. There used to be a steep drop-off that would catch people by surprise, but due to several severe storms in the early 2000s, the beach has eroded back and now gently slopes down instead. Although very few people die at this beach nowadays, multiple rescues are performed every day due to the dangerous currents.

9. Cyclops, Australia

This is a particular type of wave that forms off the coast of Esperance, Australia, as the sea floor rapidly goes from deep, open water to a very very shallow reef. It is… unsettling. The longer I look at it, the weirder it gets. It’s like an ai generated image. I couldn’t even pick one picture of it so I made you a collage.

It is considered one of the most dangerous surf spots in the world, and can only be accessed by boat. To quote pacific surf dot com, “the reason the wave is dangerous is because it does not act like any other wave in the world. It engulfs itself due to the massive change in the ocean floor when the wave rolls up.”

10. Nazare, Portugal

This area of Portugal is home to some of the biggest waves in the world. Just offshore is an underwater canyon, plunging down to 16,000 ft deep. This allows large, fast deep-water waves to move into shore unimpeded, and when they hit the shallows close to shore all the water gets suddenly pushed up, resulting in waves up to 80 ft tall. I think the picture speaks for itself in this case. Probably best to not get in the water if you see that shit.

That was fun, wasn’t it? Before I go, let me end this on a different note than the rest of my lists; some actual advice for if you should you ever decide to visit these beaches (or any beach, really). Rip currents are incredibly strong (believe me, I know) but very narrow currents that run perpendicular to shore. To get out of a rip current, swim parallel to shore. Trying to fight the current will just tire you out and eventually leave you exhausted and way the fuck out in the ocean, which is typically when you die. Swimming parallel to shore will get you out of the current, and once you’re free you can swim back in at your leisure. And, just in general, never fight the sea. The sea will win.

#water rating #bathophobia #thalassophobia #long post

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merakiui · 4 months

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Helloooo! I’d like to order a flower bouquet + strawberry ice cream from the misc. menu as well as some lemon squares + custard donuts from the midnight menu for Scaramouche <3

yandere!scaramouche x (gender neutral) reader cw: yandere, nsfw, dub-con, unhealthy behaviors/relationship, friends with benefits, forced pregnancy/baby-trapping (no pronouns; reader has a pussy), modern college au note - thank you for checking in, dearest guest! enjoy your order! [lunar love hotel]

You’re writing a paper.

Sitting at your desk, scrolling through clothes online, you wonder if your meager paycheck will cover the shipping costs. This is all research. Research that is very necessary in the paper-drafting process, of course! You click on an outfit just as Scaramouche looks up from his phone.

Correction. You’re trying to write a paper.

“Great progress. I can really see the thought you put into this.”

“I’m envisioning it as we speak.”

“Yeah? Doesn’t seem to be getting you anywhere.” He sets his phone down and leans closer. “Last I checked you’re not writing about clothes.”

“Last I checked,” you say, mocking him, “I didn’t ask for commentary. Don’t you have anything better to do?”

A smug smile sharpens on his face. “I can think of a few things.”

Groaning, you shove him away. “No way. Not today.”

“Why not? It didn’t seem to bother you that last time when we did it before your lecture. You were so out of it you didn’t want me to leave you alone. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

“Not my fault I was tired! Don’t tell me you’ve never said and done stupid things when you’re running on three hours of sleep.”

“Not once,” he declares, looking quite proud. As if it’s some grand achievement. Does he want an award? “And even if I was, I wouldn’t be reduced to sugary, sappy putty.”

“I called you ‘sweetheart’ once by mistake. Get over it.”

Scaramouche rests his elbow on the desk, his cheek in his hand. “I don’t think I want to.”

Shutting your laptop, you turn in your chair to face him. “And I don’t think I want to fuck you today.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Oh, you’re gonna do all the work?”

“That’s the plan. Be grateful I’m so good to you,” he teases, leaning closer and closer until—

You block your lips before he can capture them. “I really can’t today. Paper aside, I don’t have any protection and I’m not on birth control right now.”

“It doesn’t have to be inside.” He sits back in his chair, exuding casual confidence. “Unless you want to risk it.”

You try to put enough ice in your glare, but it melts quickly. You really shouldn’t. It’s not a safe day. You really, really shouldn’t…

Scaramouche raises a brow, waiting for your reply.

Despite everything, you’re wheedled into it anyway. You’re not even sure what you want. Is it yes or no? It’s been months since you fell into this arrangement with him—the campus’s infamous lone wolf who goes out of his way to make himself unapproachable. Or, according to your friends, he’s more of a lonely stray cat in need of a friend. Scaramouche had scoffed when you told him that.

Your friends are idiots, he said with a scowl. It only made him look even more like a grumpy cat in need of companionship. Not that you’d ever tell him that. It would only serve to stoke the flames of his ire.

But right now, looking up at him while he ruts into you, sweat sticking in all the right places, his hair falling over his eyes, you’re inclined to agree with that observation. There’s a depth to his gaze that draws you in, a sad glimmer hiding behind the ardor. There’s never been any attachment outside of the bedroom. You’re not even sure if he considers you a friend.

Still, you wonder…

“Scara, do you—” You cut yourself off with a startled gasp, your nails curling into his shoulders. He’s holding you down by your hips, fucking into you like the world’s about to end. “S-Slow down. Wait, I—aah—oh!”

He sucks in a staggered breath through grit teeth, his jaw set firmly. “You’re never going to leave me.”

Your brain stalls out, and suddenly you’re not sure how to respond. He doesn’t lessen the brutal pace at which he thrusts, so you’re forced to piece together a half-coherent answer amidst your groans.

“N-Not anytime soon—mmh… Why? What’s up?”

Scaramouche lifts his head from your neck. A strange smile turns the corners of his lips up. “It’s not a question. I wasn’t giving you a choice.”

You blink back at him, lust-drunk and dazed. The horror edges in, slow and steady like invasive rot. It isn’t until he’s pinning your legs up by your ears to force you into another position that the implication finally catches up to you. You claw at his back with weak strokes, babbling futile protests against his mouth. In response, his cock throbs inside of you, pressed so deep in this position you fear the repercussions. He kisses you with much the same force, insistent on driving you into the mattress—on pinning you here until you finally submit. Until the last of your resolve withers away, stamped out and replaced with something agreeable.

“Even if you wanted to,” he says around a shaky laugh, seeming positively deranged, “you couldn’t.”

You think you should be worried, but you’re so stunned with this development that your brain can’t keep up. Embarrassingly, you cum with a strangled sort of cry, your pussy clenching tight. He hisses through his teeth, fucks you through the high of your orgasm, and then falls with you, his own climax fast like a flash.

You’re panting in the aftermath. What just happened?

Scaramouche keeps you plugged with his cock for as long as he possibly can before he’s sliding out, flaccid and spent. For now, you suspect, for there will certainly be more later if your wits aren’t about you by then.

“Pill,” you mumble, voice hoarse from crying. You shake him, hoping he’ll climb off of you and get to it. “Scaraaa…”

Oddly, for someone who never shows any vulnerability, he clings. “We’ve got time. I’ll get it. Don’t worry.”

You don’t believe him. Not when his hand strays to your stomach. His palm brushes over the area once. He sighs, wholly satisfied.

“We’ve got time…”

Nine months of it, in fact. But that goes unspoken. If not today, there’s always tomorrow. You know he won’t rest until then. Neither will you. Your heart is too big, too soft, for that lonely stray cat, and part of you wonders if he knows that.

#yandere genshin impact #yandere genshin impact x reader #yandere scaramouche #yandere scaramouche x reader #n/sfw #tw: dubcon #tw: forced pregnancy #tw: babytrapping #lunar love hotel 2023

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hunnythebee · 1 year

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Jealousy

Recent events between Phee and Tech have you feeling... well to put it bluntly, have you feeling jealous.

2.4k words - first person - gender neutral

Tags: Reader x Tech, GN Reader (let me know if I used anything gender specific and I will edit it out), Jealous!Reader, Best Friend!Hunter, mild spoilers for Season 2 Episode 13, pining, angst, fluff, love confessions, kissing

I would like to preface this by stating for the record, I am in no way against the direction they are going with Tech and Phee. I love that they are leading toward a canon romance (or at the very least hinting at it). However, posts made by people voicing their own opinions have inspired me to write this because I've never written a jealous!reader before and it sounded fun. Now that that’s out of the way, enjoy!

I had been cordial, friendly even with Phee. She was decent… for a pirate. Not that we had been much better in recent times, so who was I to judge? But what had me sucking at my teeth while I glared from my seat behind Tech was the way she was touching him. So familiar. And this nickname she had for him always made my stomach twist. ‘Brown eyes.’ How creative of her. I shouldn’t be so mad at her. She was going to help us afterall. Stars I just… I can’t figure out why she rubs the wrong way so hard.

I was silent as the dead the whole trip to wherever she was taking us. I hadn’t realized I was clenching my jaw until it unclenched. My whole mouth fell slack at the sight of this small island civilization. Beautiful blue waters surrounded a mountain dotted with small white huts. It looked so peaceful, so serene. Tech landed the Maurauder at the peak of the mountain, where there stood a tall tree and an even taller temple-like structure. As I stepped out of the ship the warm sun hit my skin and I sighed in relief. My seething anger melted away from me almost instantly.

A man, whom Phee referred to as Shep appeared on the platform, along with a young girl. She hugged the man, which made my anger melt even more. Maybe this was her husband and child? Maybe she’s just really friendly by nature. Then I overheard Wrecker make a joking comment towards Tech.

“Looks like you’ve got some competition.” He nudged Tech with his elbow to emphasize the remark. I bit my cheek and rolled my eyes, a gesture Hunter couldn’t help but notice. I relaxed a little when I took notice of Tech’s utter confusion towards Wrecker’s remark as he lowered his datapad. Phee then introduced Shep to us as the mayor of this island, Pabu, and his daughter Lyanna. Phee proceeded to list us off by name, Omega, myself, Hunter, Wrecker, and then Tech. My anger flared back up just a little when she saved Tech’s name for last, but I quickly attempted to stomp out the internal flame. Hunter was giving me a side eye, which meant I wasn’t quick enough about it.

After the introductions were made, Shep invited us all to eat with them at his home. As we were leaving the platform, Phee stated that she would catch up. Tech lingered behind the group, she said something to him and left. He turned around smiling and proceeded to catch up. I noticed his grin and his body language when they were talking, and I felt twinge. It wasn’t anger or hatred. This was something else entirely. I was so lost in thought I hadn’t realized that I was becoming a straggler, lingering so far behind the group that I couldn’t hear what any of them were saying. It didn’t matter. My heart pounded in my ears and I could feel a lump forming in my throat. I didn’t want to feel like this, not when everyone else was so happy. Yet here I was, turning green with jealousy. Worse yet, I couldn’t understand why. I turned my head to look out at the water as I walked, hoping the view would calm me as it had before. I was so focused that I didn’t notice Hunter blocking my path until it was too late.

I would have walked square into his chest if he hadn’t grabbed me by the shoulder with a gentle, yet firm hand. The contact startled me and I let out a small yell and clutched my chest.

“Hunter! You nerf-herder nearly gave me a heart attack,” I exclaimed.

He was silent for a moment and then responded with a simple, “Your heart’s fine. Your head is what I’m concerned about.”

I tried to feign confusion. I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I was hoping if I acted dumb he wouldn’t pry. As usual, it didn’t work. He shouted up to the rest of the group that we would catch up in a minute, then turned his attention back to me.

“Talk to me. What’s going on? You’ve been off all day.” He was looking at me with that sincere concerned look he gets, and I knew I couldn’t hide what was bothering me. I sighed and fell against the wall to my right.

“It’s… Phee.” I started, struggling to get the words out.

“I figured out that much,” he stood in front of me, folding his arms over his chest. “The question is why does she make you so angry?”

I froze. My heart dropped into my stomach. I knew why. I had figured it out moments before the collision with Hunter. I wasn’t ready to say yet. Not fully.

“Because…” I hesitated, looking everywhere but Hunter’s eyes.

“Because?” He echoed.

I sighed heavily. I couldn’t say it. I physically couldn’t make the words take form, despite them being right on the tip of my tongue. I was struggling and he could tell. He stepped closer to me and I felt a caloused hand touch my cheek carefully. I finally let myself look at him. He had this knowing look on his face.

“Do you need me to say it for you?” He asked. I bit my lip and shook my head in agreement. There was no way of knowing if he actually knew what was running through my mind, but it did always kind of feel like he could read minds sometimes.

“You’re in love with Tech.”

He stated it so easily. Like it wasn’t the most planet shattering phrase in the galaxy. Tears welled in my eyes and I whispered a barely audible, “Yes.”

Hunter pulled me into a tight hug as the tears began to fall, and then the verbal floodgates released.

“I can’t stand it, Hunter. Seeing the two of them together. She’s always flirting with him. Touching him or calling ‘Brown Eyes.” What kind of kriffing nickname is that anyways? ‘Brown Eyes’? You all have brown eyes! At least be more original than that! But that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is the way he looks at her. He would never look at me like that…”

“That you’ve seen…” Hunter mutters under his breath. I pull away and stare at him with a furrowed brow.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned.

“Nothing. I think you should talk to Tech. Tell him how you feel. If he feels the same then you can stop feeling so jealous. If he doesn’t… then at least you have closure.” He grabs my shoulder one last time and gives it a squeeze. “Think about it over dinner, okay?”

“Okay…” I responded.

I gathered myself and we headed toward the home of the Mayor. Dinner felt… long. Scratch that. It felt like an eternity. Phee was her usual self, and Tech seemed to actually be enjoying it. I felt sick. I couldn’t eat anymore. I stood up from the table abruptly and excused myself. I wasn’t sure where I was going to go, but I needed to get away from there. I decided to go back to the ship. I raced up the steps as fast as my legs would carry me. I don’t even think I was halfway there before I got winded and had to stop for breath. I felt far enough away that I could at least take my time now. I decided to take a break to watch the sunset, hoping that it would make me feel better. It was sort of working to calm my nerves, until I heard my name being called by a familiar voice. I turned my head to catch a glimpse of Tech, running up the steps towards me. His long legs carried him up two or three steps at a time. My heart raced and I panicked. I couldn’t face him like this. I turned quickly from him and began sprinting back up the steps, with him in tow and gaining. I was already exhausted from booking it up the steps before and my endurance was nothing compared to a clone’s, so it was a given that he was going to eventually catch up to me. I at least managed to get to the landing second to the top before he got to me. He caught my hand in his and my heart leapt inside my chest.

He was breathing hard from the exertion, “What…is…going…on?” He spoke, panting between his words.

“Just…leave…me…alone.” I panted back. I pulled my hand from his, despite wanting to keep it there forever. I tried to move to continue my climb, but I was too slow. His hands pressed into my shoulders and shoved me against the wall. My eyes widened at the show of brute force he was exhibiting. It wasn’t like him to use his strength like this. I had almost forgotten that, despite his differing physique, he was meant to be as strong as any other clone. There was escaping now, but I could still refuse to look in his eyes. If I did, I was sure I would break.

“Why are you running from me?” He still sounded exhausted, but his voice was like music to me. I sighed deeply and looked up at the sky, anything but his eyes. He lowered his head and continued to speak.

“Hunter…said I should be the one to come after you,” he admitted.

“That mud-scuffer…” I muttered.

Tech laughed, it was dry and tired, but it gave me chills. I was breaking already and I wasn’t even looking at him.

“Why didn’t he want me to catch you? Why are you running? And why… why won’t you look at me?” I could hear pain in his voice. I didn’t want to cause him pain. That was the last thing I wanted. I bit into my lower lip and finally met his stare. His eyes were filled with worry. He was looking straight into mine and I felt it. I was breaking. There was nothing stopping it.

“Please…” I pleaded with him in one last feeble attempt. “Please Tech… don’t.”

“I know something is wrong…” He ignored my pleas. “You can tell me anything. You know that.”

He was right. I am usually so open with him, so why should this be any different. Just tell him how I feel, be rejected and move on. Like Hunter said.

“I…” I start, but lose my train of thought when I look into his eyes. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the wall. Just say it already.

“I love you.”

My heart was pounding so loudly I wasn’t sure if he had responded and I couldn’t hear him, or if he was being unusually silent. I couldn’t bear to look at him. I didn’t want to see his eyes, the look of betrayal over my confession. Or the confusion. I couldn’t take it. I just wanted him to tell me doesn’t feel the same way so this could all be over. Finally I felt movement, his hands left my shoulders. I still didn’t dare look at him, keeping my eyes shut tight and my head against the wall. Still nothing from him. Maybe he left. I finally decided to open my eyes, to see if he truly had just walked away. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

He was standing in front of me, looking magnificent with the sunset behind him. His hands were limp at his sides. I took my time working my way to his eyes. Wanting to avoid the moment for just a little longer. His mouth hung open slightly in shock. Finally I made it to his eyes, but they didn’t have the look I had been expecting. There was shock, which was to be expected, but something else. Something… contemplative.

“Tech, I–” I began, but the moment I spoke he moved in towards me. His hands found my neck and jaw, much softer than Hunter’s were, and fitting there perfectly as if they were made to hold me. Tech’s body was pressed completely against mine, with one of his legs tucked between mine. His face wasn’t even an inch from mine, as he nuzzled my nose with his own. My breath hitched in my throat as he spoke. His voice was still familiar, but the tone was foreign. He spoke low and with a heat I had never heard come from him before.

“Say it again,” he requested.

“I– I love you, Tech,” I confessed once more, as I leaned into his hand. And then his lips were on mine. Soft and gentle, patiently waiting for me to confirm that this action was okay. I kissed him back, pressing into him and reveling in this moment. He hummed happily and deepened the kiss. We continued like this till the sun had set completely. Finally we broke apart for air and he pressed his forehead to mine.

I needed to hear him say the words. So I leaned back, wanting to see him say it. Then I breathlessly asked, “Do you love me?”

“Emotions are a complex concept, and I don’t fully believe that words can be utilized to sum up one's feelings at any given point. But… if I had to put a word to what I am feeling, then… yes. Love is about as close to explaining how I feel about you.” He responded, making even that absurdly roundabout ‘yes’ sound sexy.

I laughed, “I wouldn’t have expected you to say you love me in any other way.”

“Am I truly that predictable?” He looked a little offended.

“Hmm… occasionally.” I responded. “For example, I didn’t know what to expect from you when I confessed. But I do know what you’re going to say next.”

“Do you now?” He cocked his head in amusement.

“Mmhm. You’re going to say we should head back before the others begin to worry,” I replied.

His eyes widened slightly, “How did yo–”

“I know you,” I shrugged, grabbing him by the arm. “So, let’s head back. There’s plenty of time for… this, later.”

He blushed a little at the thought, and agreed to head back down to the Mayor’s home. I finally felt at ease. I hope the rest of the night is more relaxing.

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king-mera · 2 years

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I've seen some really good analysis on Nope but one thing I haven't seen yet is commentary on Jean Jacket's design. As somebody who loves movie monsters and the symbolism in Peele's work, I wanted to give my thoughts:

Jean Jacket initially looks like a stereotypical UFO, a grey flying saucer with a hole in the bottom. However, when seen closely from below, the texture and shape resembles an iris and pupil. OJ figures this out and knows not to look at it directly or it will feel threatened and attack, much like Earth animals. Jupe believes Jean Jacket is a ship harboring alien visitors he calls "viewers".

Additionally, the layers further inside the hole form a square shape that looks more like the aperture of an old fashioned camera. A camera can also be called a "viewer".

Not related to Jean Jacket directly, but Jupe's hat happens to be shaped like it. As if the creature has already taken his mind.

Unlike the traditional conspiracy theories about UFOs, Jean Jacket is not a ship being piloted by space-faring scientists. It has no interest in studying or understanding what it sucks up. Instead, it devours them (in a horrifically painful sounding way, I might add) then spits them out.

Not only that, but am I the only one who noticed the way it sucks people into the sky looks like how the credits sequence at the end of a movie scrolls up? All the cast and crew of Jupe's show get eaten up much like the cast and crew of movies often get exploited and forgotten. (The credits of Nope have a rusty orange background that gradually fade to a deeper shade of red. Possibly representing the blood of all the characters Jean Jacket ate. I admit I couldn't sit through all the credits so I could be wrong on this or missing something.)

Also the regular audience attending the show gets eaten too... Nobody is safe.

When Jean Jacket unfurls and reveals it's true form, it looks like a cluster of billowing screens and film strips.

It has yet another eye/mouth that made of green flaps that open and close. I'm guessing the opening and closing movement could be like a camera shutter and the green colour could be a reference to green screens.

With all this together, Jean Jacket seems to represent the film industry as a whole, and the predatory nature of Hollywood exploiting people. One thing is missing, though. Where's the projector? Jean Jacket emits no light or glow. It never beams people up in a ray of light like one would expect a UFO. In fact, it darkens the environment by shutting off electricity and causing lights to stop working. It doesn't exist to create or share, it only consumes. That's it! I could be reaching on a lot of these, but I had to write them down. I thought the creature design was superb in how it played with audience expectations. Another thing I want to say is I'm glad they didn't give it pointy teeth, or any teeth at all. It's method of killing prey via suffocation is MUCH scarier.

#nope #spoilers #nope spoilers #nope movie #jordan peele #dex don't look #watching this was especially meta since my local theater is UFO themed #it has a big ship on the roof lol

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letters-to-rosie · 7 months

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other Arcane questions for thought

(just saying I don't need these to be answered in the show, but these are things I'm genuinely curious about and are fun for the purposes of using the show as a site from which we can do political critique, because I'm a nerd who does this for fun and thinks about this stuff for fanfic; speaking of that feel free to steal any of these questions for fic purposes lol)

(also I put some questions on the end of this post)

so, like, what does Heimerdinger think of the whole mining colonies thing? he's been around since the start of the city; was he for establishing them or against? how does all this square with his personal code of ethics?

and on that note, why does he seem so ignorant about Zaun? why is the council so ignorant about Zaun in general when it's literally right there? has the council always been this way?

how did the great houses become great? did they do something? did they have a lot of money like Mel's family? is it a combo? has anyone ever lost great house status? if so, how?

Piltover becomes a global shipping lane. who do they ship to most and why?

how did Vander start his bar? what kind of booze do they have? what do Zaunites have available to ferment? are they getting everything imported?

is Piltover in charge of all the ports? ship trade seems like a big deal, which makes sense given the location. who's in charge of ports on the Zaun side if there are any? (again I'm asking why the council is so ignorant lmao)

who owns the mines? are we doing mercantile capitalism or like private enterprise capitalism?

what do they even make with the stuff from the mines? what are they mining? I have so many questions about the mines

we know the council members have staff because of Jayce. how easy is it to become a member of the staff? are they all nepotism jobs lol?

I'm just so curious about how Silco's political development goes down. he has very obvious reasons for not liking Piltover lol but I wanna know what his "hey this sucks" moment was (love fics that go into this sort of thing for any of the characters)

do other countries in the world know about the situation in Zaun under Piltovan control? do any of them oppose it on moral grounds? (would be really fun for an OC fic)

big one: we see child labor is pretty common in the setting, not only through Silco's factory but also Ekko being a child worker. what's going on with all that? do they have schools? is there an apprenticeship system? is it just regular child labor lmao

also do they have therapists because Jayce sure needed one when he almost got banished and then immediately jumped to taking his life like has anyone invented psychiatry yet

why are Noxian spirits an illegal import what the hell did they put in there (or is it like an economic protectionist thing which could be possible but more boring than the "Noxians have weird booze" thesis)

#arcane #arcane meta #never mind apparently I am doing a historical materialist analysis of the setting and it is very fun lol #gonna need to go into more detail in the future

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shortmexicangirl · 11 months

Text

graphical representation of how songs on Speak Now (Taylor's Version) correspond to different miraculous ships/characters because YEAHHHH DATA!!!

full breakdown of each song and their corresponding category under the cut!

mine - feligami

“You learn my secrets and you figure out why I'm guarded / You say we’ll never make our parents mistakes”

sparks fly - marichat (in elation)

“Kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain”

back to december - first half of s5 ladynoir

“You gave me roses and I left them there to die”

speak now - adrienette (in emotion)

“Horrified looks from everyone in the room / But I'm only lookin' at you”

dear john - adrien @ gabriel agreste (gabriel agreste SUCKS #1)

“Well, maybe it's me and my blind optimism to blame / Or maybe it's you and your sick need to give love and take it away”

mean - marinette @ gabriel agreste (in pretension specifically) (gabriel agreste SUCKS #2)

“All you are is mean / And a liar, and pathetic / And alone in life, and mean / And mean, and mean, and mean”

story of us - s4 ladynoir

“A simple complication / Miscommunications lead to fall out / So many things that I wish you knew / So many walls up I can't break through”

never grow up – emilie @ adrien

“You got nothing to regret / I'd give all I have, honey / If you could stay like that”

enchanted — love square

“These are the words I held back / As I was leaving too soon / I was enchanted to meet you / Please, don't be in love with someone else”

better than revenge — marinette @ lila

"She's not a saint and she's not what you think, she's an actress"

innocent — ladybug (in strike back)

“Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days? / Always a bigger bed to crawl into / Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything / And everybody believed in you?”

haunted — ladynoir (post chat blanc)

“I'm holding my breath / Won't lose you again / Something's made your eyes go cold”

last kiss — ok… i’ve always said this song is ladynoir because i miss them and i’m biased but post revolution it’s gotta be adrienette

“I do recall now the smell of the rain / Fresh on the pavement, I ran off the plane / That July ninth, the beat of your heart / It jumps through your shirt / I can still feel your arms”

long live — ladynoir (always but especially in revolution)

“Long live all the mountains we moved / I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you / I was screaming, "Long live that look on your face" / And bring on all the pretenders I’m not afraid”

ours — adrienette

“I love the riddles that you speak / And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos / Will be ignored, 'cause my heart is yours”

superman — ladrien (adrien’s pov) (these specific lyrics are LITERALLY that chat blanc ladrien scene)

“I'm lovestruck and looking out the window / Don't forget, don't forget where I'll be / Right here, wishing the flowers were from you / Wishing the card was from you”

electric touch — adrienette (post kwami’s choice)

marinettes pov: “Just the first time ever hangin' out with you tonight / I've got my money on things goin' badly / Got a history of stories ending sadly / Still hoping that the fire won't burn me / Just one time” adriens pov: “I've been left in the rain, lost and pining / I'm tryin' hard not to look like I'm trying / ‘Cause every time I tried hard for love, it fell apart”

when emma falls in love - marinette dupain-cheng

“When Emma falls in love, she paces the floor / Closes the blinds and locks the door / When Emma falls in love, she calls up her mom / Jokes about the ways that this one could go wrong / She waits and takes her time / 'Cause Little Miss Sunshine always thinks it's gonna rain"

i can see you — feligami

“I've been watchin' you for ages / And I spend my time tryin' not to feel it / But what would you do if I went to touch you now? / What would you do if they never found us out?”

castles crumbling — ladybug (in strike back)

“And I feel like my castle's crumbling down / And I watch all my bridges burn to the ground / And you don't want to know me, I will just let you down / You don't wanna know me now”

foolish one —adrigami (kagami’s pov)

“Cause you got her on your arm and me in the wings / I'll get your longing glances, but she'll get your ring / And you will say you had the best of intentions / And maybe I will finally learn my lesson”

timeless — love square

“We would have been timeless / Cause I believe that we were supposed to find this / So, even in a different life, you still would've been mine”

ok and i'm DONE! join me next time i try to push my taylor x miraculous agenda on you all

#miraculous ladybug #taylor swift #love square #taylor swift x miraculous

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stevesjockstrap · 7 months

Note

send me a ship and one of these and i'll write a mini fic #17 for steddie?

things you said that i wish you hadn’t… (thank you! 😘)

Steve reached over to push down on Eddie’s bouncing knee under the table. It was making his head pound, or that could’ve been his clenched jaw from forcing himself to not go off on his dad.

“I just don’t understand where I went wrong. You were supposed to be-”

“He can be whatever he wants to be,” Eddie spat, holding eye contact with Steve’s dad as they glared at each other.

“Eds, don’t-” he started, about to say it’s not worth it because nothing would sink into his parents’ minds about this.

“No, Steve. This is all fucked. They show up out of nowhere after months? How many concussions have you had? Do they care? They think parenting is a roof over your head and a limitless credit card and then they get to control your life? Fuck that. That’s not love. I lo-” Eddie sucked in a breath and turned wide eyes back to Steve. Seeming to find the courage he needed, he squared his shoulders and looked back at his father. “I love him more than the both of you ever could.”

They all stared at each other and Steve held his breath. This had been sort of a laugh at first, when his parents had appeared back in the house and demanded they have a family dinner. He had called Robin in a panic, hoping she could come take some of the heat off of him. But she’d been stuck with her own family. She suggested he call Eddie. That had been an interesting phone call but Eddie had agreed and here they were. Eddie confessing his fake love to his parents. It had to be fake, right? Just something to mess with his parents? But he sure looked and sounded sincere…

Eddie turned his head back to him and gave him an unsure eyebrow raise. Steve just gave him a small smile, totally thrown but trying not to break character if this was the route they were going down.

Dinner wrapped up soon after that, his parents looking shellshocked and Steve feeling more confused than ever.

Eddie pulled him into the kitchen and he hissed at him, “What was that?”

He smiled sheepishly at him, grabbing his hair to hide behind like he did when he was embarrassed. All of his cocky attitude gone. Steve held his breath.

“I- oh man, I mean. Can we pretend it was just to piss off that bag of dicks? We can do that, um, if you want. Just pretend I didn’t-”

“Was it the truth?” Steve tried to keep his voice even.

Eddie squeezed his eyes shut and nodded a couple times. “I’m sorry. I know you’re already dealing with a lot with these assholes in town and I’m not trying to add to that, I promise. And I know I don’t deserve you and you could do so much better than me-”

“Woah, hey, what?” Steve stepped forward to pull Eddie’s hands and hair from his face so he could see him. “Don’t say that. Look at me. You really feel that way? Do I make you feel that way? Like you’re not super hot and funny and talented and like the best listener ever and you’re so good with the kids- mmph!”

Eddie pulled back from his lips to look at him for a moment and Steve cupped his jaw, slotting them together and met him in a more gentle kiss. Eddie sighed into him and he felt both of their bodies relax into each other. Hands circled his waist and he angled his head to get even closer.

They pulled back with a combined gasp a few moments later when the front door shut solidly.

“Well that worked even better than I thought.”

🖤

Do the thing

#mine #steddie #answered #steve harrington #eddie munson #Steve/eddie #I always end up with pre relationships or getting together minifics?#rocknrollsalad #thanks dude ❣️#filled request

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flaresanimedump · 8 months

Text

Fukuzawa and Ranpo romantic themes essay **Updated May 2024**

ALRIGHT here we go

The story thus far:

Well HERE IT COMES.

First off y'all are focusing too much on Fukuzawa. Sorry but if you look to Fukuzawa only Fukuzawa/cats has merit. Even with FukuMori it's Mori we get 90% of the ship content from (silver fox?? Can you not hit on him for FIVE SECONDS MORI-)

You have to look at RANPO. And so we will, mostly, in this response.

Now I did say "themes" first so you're all gonna have to deal with me doing both. I’m just gonna lead with the thing that I see the behavior in the og tweet with the most:

Antis almost never fail to say "father and son" in their captions when they post screenshots of this anthology chapter.

As the translator of this anthology I will tell you it's not father and son. It's tsundere boyfriend.

How is this tsundere?!: “I’m not worried about you, baka, I just don’t ever want to see you sick—play sick nurse for you again!! So take better care of yourself!! Here’s a snack!! Feel better or else!!” + this phrase "I never thought I'd hear such caring words from you" is your basic tsundere trope template in JP.

Why does that mean it’s romantic?!: Tsundere behavior is mostly reserved for love interests – particularly this bit.

He’s just offering him a snack!!: Look at the shojo background in every panel. Look at the sparkles. Look at them setting the fluffy lovey-dovey mood. Look at Fukuzawa’s saying he’ll take them to his heart. You can hear the “Kyaaaa, Yukichi-kun was so close!!!” if you listen carefully.

But- but- FATHER AND SON!!: you may now see why it took a Fukuran shipper to translate this 4 years after it was released, despite the scanlation boom over covid ;)

But that’s an anthology! It’s not really canon!

Moving right along then, this is Bones only, but:

Seeing color because you meet someone is literally the basis of an entire subset of soulmate AUs.

I bookmarked two romance quotes in the last 6 hours that center on romantic love bringing color into someone’s life. This is an extremely common romantic trope and I still can’t believe Bones went there in Origins. a. “But Nova!” they cry, “lots of parents say their children bring color into their lives!!” True!! And you’ve just said why this isn’t the same! Fukuzawa brought color to RANPO’s life, not the other way around. This is why I say to look to Ranpo for this ship!

Well Bones sucks!

There are about 104 examples of “Unbroken Vigil” on TV tropes. Exactly two of them are children waiting by their parents, and they’re both from live action film. This trope, across all categories of media, is absolutely owned by romantic couples. Notably in the anime and fanon sections there are no examples of family members doing this. I won’t say there aren’t any anywhere, though. JJK exists. But that’s a good example of how different Ranpo’s reaction is from the usual “caretaker is in the hospital” mood – sure Yuuji’s sad when his grandpa dies, but he’s gonna be ok. Ranpo’s, as Yosano says, devastated. Ranpo’s devastation fits squarely in the romantic box for this one boys.

Point of reference: Fukuzawa

I’m gonna hit two points at once in this section:

Ranpo’s kneeling to Fukuchi here but he has no loyalty to Fukuchi. He’s kneeling out of loyalty to Fukuzawa, so in truth he’s kneeling to Fukuzawa’s will. He’s acting as Fukuzawa’s knight. Even if we pretend King and Lionheart wasn’t a fandom phenomena for years, this isn’t a parent-child thing. Ranpo is steadfastly faithful to his king.

But lo?? Ranpo’s a lying liar. He’ll face away from the president under exactly one condition: Fukuzawa’s life is hanging in the balance. Then he’ll go against the only thing he himself has said he’s willing to stand for. This is not how the parent-child trope works. The parent says “live for me, I’ll die for the greater good” and the child cries and the parent dies. It’s like. The most common movie plotline in the universe when adults' parents are in movies.

Instead Ranpo actually does something that another stated romantic couple in this series does.

Goes apeshit on the threat.

Then later he’s not even remorseful. He tells Fukuzawa they did it and eats a bunch of cake without a care in the world after. He’d do it again and we know it.* So his moral compass isn’t to follow the president, it’s actually to follow him up to his own good and then burn the entire city down if it’ll keep him alive. This is really the most damning of Ranpo behaviors that screams of something more than familial affection.

Fukuzawa’s lines when he's poisoned are “we must not fight the port mafia. My life isn't important, protect this city (from the inevitable damage the fighting will do).”

Ranpo’s argument to disobey him is that the port mafia will start taking their families hostage to get them to give Fukuzawa up. “And if that happens, even the detective agency will be forced to give in.” His argument isn’t even “our friends will be in danger,” it’s “if we don’t fight we'll have let them kill President Fukuzawa.” Which, you know, Fukuzawa already said was preferable to fighting.

So this whole argument is literally that ship meme: “I will sacrifice myself to save everyone.” / “I will sacrifice anyone to save you.”

*Ranpo’s near-complete lack of punishment for this is a subtle sign of Fukuzawa’s bias too but this is already too long.

Shirushi

Or the 4th season's opening song. This has not been easy I tell you WHAT most of the translations for this song’s lyrics leave something to be desired and song lyrics are hard to understand. Anyway, we have Shirushi, which Luck Life's vocalist said was about Ranpo and Fukuzawa. And it’s. Well I wouldn’t exactly call it a love song because it’s bigger with “you gave me a reason to live” as one of the recurring lyrics. But the song’s got more lyrics about wanting/wishing/pleading to stay together: “I want to stay here // please, let’s just stay here // I want you and I to continue” and them being together, the “here” in question, is called “the place where [my] heart belongs.” It’s so sweet aaaaaa and it most definitely sounds like a love song.

"I will be his shield"

Here we have the rare Fukuzawa point.

Ok can I skip explaining this it’s very very obvious and I already went over one of these things.

Normal thought process: I should keep an eye on this kid. Fukuzawa thought process: I will become his shield, his sword, his shelter, to allow his magnificent mind freedom to work its magic--

Two halves of one whole

This is a weak ass point but I always found it thematically contradictory to the father/son interpretation, particularly when it comes right on the heels of a certain line fancops like to reference.

At the beginning of Origins Fukuzawa literally parkours across a room, backflips and everything, shocking the guy with all the papers with his mad skills. And Fukuzawa thinks “What? Why? That wasn’t impressive.”

He’s hinted to be the physical counterpart of Ranpo’s hyper competence. I.E., Ranpo is the one-of-a-kind mind and Fukuzawa is the one-of-a-kind body. Together they become unstoppable.

This implies a bond that won’t end?? But parent & child plotlines always have a theme of the child growing up and moving on. Atsushi and the orphanage director, though they’re fucked up, personified it. But they’ve clearly established that Fukuzawa and Ranpo are two halves of one whole and neither of them are planning to separate at any point. What’s Ranpo gonna do, go become a regular cop?? This just doesn’t suit a father and son dynamic.

Jealousy

Alright this next part will take some effort but FIRST we must all agree there’s romantic tension between Fukuchi and Fukuzawa. When I initially drafted this the finale had not come out, but we STILL had this going on:

Ok, so we also have the finale and we know Fukuzawa has some Strong Feelings for Fukuchi too. And Ranpo friggin' hates it.

I don’t aim to eradicate the platonic reading of Fukuran or anything, Fukuzawa and Ranpo are cute together no matter what! So this does smack of a teenager mad about having a stepdad taking all their mom’s time. But I cycle back to what Fukuchi cites as the focal point of Ranpo’s jealousy for the other easy interpretation.

The only time in my life I’ve thought “Aw I wish we’d met sooner :/” and felt a little envy towards someone's high school friends was with someone I was dating. I’d never think anything to this effect about a family member, certainly not enough to get violently jealous of their old friends or, heaven forbid, significant others.

What Ranpo is wishing for here is to have known Fukuzawa longer than Fukuchi, which could not happen if he was Fukuzawa's son. Fukuzawa was too young to have children when he met Fukuchi. So Ranpo's jealousy doesn't seem strictly platonic.

Praise

I will never understand how anyone sees the praise scene and thinks it’s normal father-son behavior. Teenagers wouldn't wouldn’t be caught dead doing this. Adults are far beyond it. Ranpo’s 26. Yes he likes candy and can’t ride the train, but the trains in Japan are WORSE than driving and neither of these behaviors mean he's a literal child. He has a driver’s license and investigates corpses for a living. He’s an adult.

This is a textbook praise kink.

Update: We got NEW STUFF WHOO

First I need to explain all of Japanese to you! Kidding, but we are gonna talk about second person pronouns. If you're not already aware, Japanese has well over 15 words for "I." Similarly, there are also 10+ words for "you." That being said, "you" is often seen as too direct and therefore all of these words can be seen as rude (you're supposed to use the other person's name with an honorific or their title, i.e. Fukuzawa-san, Shachou). You can use "you" for advertisements where the "you" is very general, OR with friends/lovers/etc.

OK we're gonna look at 2 of these pronouns now:

あなた(Anata) is a common second-person pronoun. This is the one that comes up in advertisements. It's semi-formal, though rude in certain contexts. As already stated, Anata is mostly used with people you're already close or familiar with (some examples in BSD include Kyoka to Atsushi and Akutagawa, between Haruno and Naomi, and Ango to Dazai) but can be used with strangers you're not close with and/or people you're a little irritated by (examples: Atsushi to Kouyou and Fitzgerald, Poe to Yosano). You are NOT supposed to use Anata with superiors. Historically, however, Anata once had another use: as a term of endearment between married couples. Generally the wife might call her husband this. This doesn't happen much though!! Only in certain contexts, which I'll get into. Don't go telling people Anata is a romantic pronoun because of this essay, it's not. Mostly.

お前(Omae) is rude! Ok it's not that rude, but it's a tough guy "you." This is often used when people are annoyed with the "you" in question, i.e. Kunikida scolding Dazai for drowning/being broke, "Dazai! Omae-" like that. Like Anata, this can be used by guys who know each other well/are good friends. Also like Anata, historically, it once had another use: as a term of endearment between married couples. Generally the husband might call his wife this. This is older than the endearment use of Anata and far less common now. It was explained to me as being a bit like saying "my woman." But once again this is rare!! It doesn't mean that now! Don't go expecting it to be romantic all the time because it almost never is!! Except--

Except that Fukuzawa uses very old language, because he's named after a guy whose heyday was the 1860s. That's plenty long enough ago to use Omae as a term of endearment. In fact there are only two characters who he calls Omae, one of whom is Fukuchi:

HOWEVER, while this proves Fukuzawa only uses it with people he's extremely close to, Fukuchi uses Omae back. I could make a joke about the two dudes who would be gay if they could just work out which one should bottom but this is a Fukuran essay so you can use your imagination for that. I'll move on to the other person he uses Omae with:

Ranpo, of course! But you see... Ranpo rarely calls Fukuzawa anything other than Fukuzawa-san or Shachou. Except he did at the end of the anime:

WE GOT AN ANATA FOLKS. Ranpo doesn't call anybody else Anata. He goes for Kimi mainly. Yet here he whips out Anata for Fukuzawa who, if he was looking at Fukuzawa as his superior, he should never refer to as Anata. So not only do we get confirmation that their relationship isn't just boss and employee, we get THE OMAE+ANATA SET. This isn't definitive cannonizing content of course - as I've said multiple times, these both mean something different now - but it's strongly suggestive. And speaking of suggestive,

Word of god

If you were ever worried that Asagiri might frown on the ship, or that he doesn't know about it, or that he didn't intend for a shippy interpretation at all, you can put all those fears to rest. In January 2024 Asagiri held a panel at the Kochi Museum of Literature and the Fukuran fans were WELL FED. Asagiri was asked half a dozen questions about Ranpo and Fukuzawa, but the most fun answer was when he was about Ranpo and Fukuchi. Rough translation below:

Q. Can you expand on the relationship between Ranpo and Fukuchi?

A. To put it in a slightly misleading way, Ranpo views Fukuchi as his rival in love*. They are enemies in a love triangle. Fukuchi doesn't agree.

*YES this word means romantic love.

Yes it's a joke but it's basically carte blanch to ship it to your heart's content, Asagiri knows you're there and winks at you in his interviews. AND it's also Kafka Asagiri saying that Ranpo sees himself in a love triangle with Fukuchi and Fukuzawa. So. You know. Just a small (major) win for the Fukuran fans there!

--End of new info--

But what about-

Now, I did mention the line I know all the antis are getting ready to comment with, and I just don’t think this would be complete without the inflammatory “well actually” section. There have been many a tweet saying “Fukuzawa says he sees Ranpo as his son!”

Actually, he never does. They're explicitly called partners/buddies, however.

NOVA IT’S RIGHT HERE!!

Bad news kids: this isn’t an exact translation. It’s very sweet and all but that’s not what the Japanese actually says.

This line is closer to “I have a child in my care for my own reasons, too.” He didn’t say Ranpo was HIS child, there’s no possessive grammar here (heh no の). I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone argue that Fukuzawa didn’t see him as a child when he was, you know, a child, but the series doesn’t take place when Ranpo is a child. Also I don’t see how that has anything to do with Ranpo’s feelings at the time.

Well that’s semantics, Fukuchi says it too!! See??

This 1) is Fukuchi who has about 1000 reasons to be a fukuran anti that have nothing to do with ages and 2) isn’t a direct translation of the Japanese text either. It says “little favorite” in Japanese, and that’s it! “Little favorite” just sounds weird in English so the translators used a common phrase that people generally DON’T and SHOULDN’T use for their own kids (imagine if everyone knew you liked one of your actual kids better than the rest D:). I have it on good authority that the official Italian doesn’t say “favorite son” and I know the Japanese doesn’t, so this line is not cannon.

Well how about this!!!

I’m not really sure why this is referenced when it’s clearly the center of the chapter’s joke – the point is that Ranpo ISN’T 5, he just acts that way.

Plus I can throw this panel back from the same WaN chapter as an argument:

“Ranpo’s grown so handsome” or if you prefer, “Ranpo looks so virile now...” – rare simp Fukuzawa.

Well you can’t possibly deny this!!!

Congratulations, this is the only one with any merit! What it fails to do is prove Fukuzawa said it or remove any of the stuff already mentioned here. Ranpo could very much be in love with Fukuzawa. This line in origins is narration, not dialogue or thought, and it isn’t carried through in the narrative so it’s relatively easy to view it as a joke. The same book christens them “Tantei [Sou]jin,” same sou as in “[sou]koku,” with kanji meaning “Detective duo/detective twins/double detectives/detective partners” though I’ve also found it to mean something very near “equals.” The kanji are ‘subtitled’ as "Detective buddies” in English (katakana) in the Japanese book. All this throws multiple wrenches in the idea that they’re broadly viewed as parent and child or even as having a significant power imbalance between them.

Which brings me to my final point: none of this proves anything definitively! There’s plenty of material for both interpretations. The entire point of engaging with media is to develop your own interpretation and have fun with it. But freaking out and screaming your headcanon when a scene hits you as slightly different than that headcanon is very much screaming at the sky. Lord knows I’ve seen these four arguments enough times that if they were going to convince me of anything they already would have, and Asagiri sure can’t hear you.

I think everyone who doesn’t think this could be romantic at least from Ranpo’s side expects that romantic imagery/themes for this ship can only appear from Fukuzawa, and only if it’s predatory? Like as long as I don’t whip out a canon image like this

they’ll say “I would definitely do that with my parent” to every argument even if in reality they never, ever would.

I did recently see someone saying "why would Ranpo even like Fukuzawa, he's 30!" and listen, I can't help you there. I've had crushes on actors twice my age since I was 10, it's ingrained in my wiring. A sexy badboy bodyguard who declares himself to be at your service AND buys you food will never not be hot to me.

"What's attractive about Fukuzawa" requires another essay, however, so this is where I leave it. Obviously much of this is open to interpretation, but I don’t see people making skk posts that just say “BESTIES BESTIES BESTIES” or “BOYFRIENDS BOYFRIENDS BOYFRIENDS” ya feel. It’s always on panels like the ones I brought up, because people do recognize a romantic slant when they see one. You don’t learn to detect that from media, you learn it from living long before you start caring about morality politics in shipping. Thus I interpret the screaming very much as LALALALALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU-

P.S. actually I do want to add one final note because I know what the fancops will say even if they take all this at face value: Grooming refers to “actions deliberately undertaken to befriend and establish an emotional connection with a child, to lower the child’s inhibitions in preparation for sexual activity.”

Dating someone you knew when you were underage does not equal grooming. Grooming is a purposeful crime. “Even if they’re dating now that’s grooming!” incorrect! Please do not only listen to your friends about the law, they may also tell you a cop has to tell you if they're a cop (they do not) or any number of other very wrong things. Google is free.

#long post #fukuran #ranfuku #tantei soujin #I COULD HAVE DONE MORE #yes the ayabram didn't particularly age well #but everyone ELSE thought she was his wife too lol #analysis #ppl can rb and add stuff they think is romantic if they want <3

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levitatingbiscuits · 1 year

Note

Do you hve any fav superbat fic recs? Any fics with the trope u talked about recently (bruce tryna charm a slightly bewildered clark)

that particular dynamic is kind of rare, but i just checked my bookmarks and i have a LOT more fic recs that kind of sort of have it than initially anticipated lmao

first up, anything by mithen on ao3 is god tier. they are the definitive superbat writer and have been for over a decade. they wrote both the first superbat fic i ever read (interview with a batman) as well as my favorite superbat fic of all time (heroes of the squared circle). but all of their superbat fics are great, and there are a lot to choose from!

I also really like susiecarter's superbat stuff because she is fantastic at writing "awkwardly trying to make friends" bruce (who is often also pining for clark), which i deeply enjoy.

takes one to know one (the love square) by soetry is a SUPER adorable, very funny fic where supes and bats are besties but (unbeknownst to them) each nursing an embarrassing crush on each other's civilian identities. seeing batman stiltedly interact with cheeky intrepid reporter clark, who is totally unintimidated by him, was great.

The Salmon Incident by CoffioCake is another hilarious love square where batman gets very jealous of superman's growing crush on his new boss, which he whines to his bff about often and at length. of course, he doesn't know that clark's new boss is bruce wayne.

Satisfaction Brought It Back is an adorable fic where bruce gets magically turned into a cat, and who do we know who rescues cats out of trees? initially, bruce does not like supes at all, so it's great to watch him slowly warm up despite himself due to clark's inherent lovability. of course, once he turns human again, clark is not as fond of bruce as bruce is of him, but bruce is gonna make sure it doesn't stay that way for long ;)

Favorite Strangers is set in the DCU before Superman's resurrection. Batman is tortured by guilt and regret, naturally, and ends up dimension hopping to a lighter and softer comic setting where the Justice League is in its heyday and Superman and Batman are best friends (and maybe more). Lots of great angst as Bruce grapples with this vision of how things should have been, falls ever harder for Clark, and deals with his alternate self, who is PISSED that a version of himself hurt Superman.

Learning to Fly is a superbat beauty and the beast au where Clark wanders into a horrific bat monster's mansion in an attempt to escape his odious bald suitor. then the bat monster starts trying to woo him.

On the Half Shell is probably the closest to the dynamic I was talking about. Lois dumps Clark, Bruce jumps at the chance to seduce him Brucie-style, but things go wrong when Clark assumes they're having casual rebound sex and Bruce gets utterly thrown off his rhythm and predictably reacts in the worst way possible because he sucks at communication. Then he has to try to make amends for acting like, well, himself lmao

There are tons of other enjoyable superbat fics in my bookmarks as well, if you're willing to brave them! They don't even slightly have the specific dynamic you're looking for but they're still great. Of the two of them, Clark is my blorbo, so most of my bookmarks have dynamics that are not the typical "superman is in love with batman and tries to win him over" that you often see for this ship. at the very least, they tend to go in depth on clark as a character, which is unfortunately rare :(

#superbat #fic rec #anonymous #fanfiction recommendation

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quadrantadvisor · 3 months

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What if I scripted Stephanie Meyer's "The Host" into a TV show, and I kept all the rad as fuck sci-fi concepts and the messaging about human love and resilience, but I removed all the nasty bioessentialism and openly advocating for teen girls to date adult men. What then?

Probably would keep the focus on Wanda and Melanie's relationship, rather than the love square/jealousy plot. I never liked how after Melanie started "fading" in the book she basically became a nothing character. Also the way she completely lost all sense of self and/or rationality whenever her dude was around was uh. Dumb.

Also the cast of the human survivors are so potentially interesting, but we never spend any time with them. They could have sub-plots! We could get to know them! The funeral scene of that one guy would be way more emotionally effective if he like. Actually had a character before dying.

We're keeping all the alien species as they were described, like the telepathic underwater plants, or the polar bears with hand blades, or the bats who communicate entirely by singing. Also benevolent parasitic communism. That's good as is.

But yeah every scene with Jared or Ian needs to be at least slightly reworked, so we can get them to the level of "flawed yet compelling" instead of "irredeemable assholes". And we're aging Melanie up a few years, that's going to solve a lot of our problems from the get go.

Uncle Jeb and Jamie are mostly good, they can stay. And the basic plotline of the human characters being rightfully terrified of Wanderer because of what her species has done to the human race, but as a result mistreating her, since there's no way for her to adequately communicate she's not a threat to them, and then slowly learning to accept and to trust. Honestly that slaps. I love when characters get the shit beat out of them because of Circumstances. I love when people who think that they have to be enemies, because they have every reason to be, because not only are they on opposing sides but they have actively harmed one another already, decide to become family instead. Favorite storyline, has the same vibes as that one ATLA fanfic where Zuko's taken captive on a water tribe ship, y'all know what I'm talking about [you likely do not know what I am talking about].

Basically The Host would be one of my favorite books ever if it didn't suck so bad. Also no one ever cared about the movie adaptation. A TV show could be so kickass. Thank you for attending my ted talk.

#i was looking through my drafts #it is mostly unfinished fandom rants #this one was already done though #why didn't i post it? presumably i was embarassed to be talking about stephanie meyer's the host #as i probably should be #also i dont know how to tag it because it's half negative #meh oh well #i will do my worst #stephanie meyer #stephanie meyer's the host #smeyer the host #oh also apparently twilight is getting a tv show???????#so maybe this is even relevant???????????????#stephanie meyer negative

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afterthefeast · 1 month

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ep 3 rewatch

it’s been done to death but the fact that goodsir is the one who prevents silna from getting the charms she needed is so juicy. man despite your best intentions your hands are bloody from the start eh?

also hartnell & silna is a really good interaction because like, he’s really quite kind and respectful, be puts some supper in and gives condolences for her father but it doesn’t ultimately matter. i think it’s an example of how no matter how good their intentions are or how kind they may be the crew cannot do the right thing because they just have this insurmountable epistemological barrier by virtue of having been raised to buy into empire.

now that i’ve remembered who he is it’s possible de voeux is my most hated character in this show

also throwing silna’s father down the ice hole just. so cartoonishly evil.

obsessed with how consistently miserable meals on the erebus are shown to be. obviously this one is sad for good reason because gore isn’t there but it does paint a picture of a truly soul-sucking working environment. just deeply awkward for everybody involved.

also interesting to read the body language in franklin’s flashback to his officers chatting back in london. fitzjames is halfway out of the circle but leaning in pretty much how someone slightly left out of the school friendgroup would act (foreshadowing that he’s out of his depth and overcompensates socially?) and gore is the centre of attention (tallies with the impression that gore was pretty universally popular and does suggest to me that his early death really sent things downhill on erebus morale wise).

honestly jane franklin is so interesting to me. love that she’s a bit of a lady macbeth in some ways despite next episode pointing out that she also thinks her husband is a bit of an idiot.

mandatory religious service sir john u fucking square

the fact that franklin refuses crozier’s rescue plan right after we’re shown he had no rescue plan in the first place — motivated primarily by vanity. “i will not lose another man” is not his motivation surely. hilarious that he accuses crozier of vanity because of this as well. something deeply paternalistic about the whole speech too - franklin saying he takes some (but not all!) responsibility for crozier’s shortcomings as a captain. something about how everything crozier is is because of sir john, who is retroactively taking credit for moulding his whole personality, except for his flaws which are inherent to crozier, indelible failures. ALSO actually this is completely the imperial mindset like straight up. british imperial policy in africa (in contrast to french) focused very much on like, emphasising difference between indigenous people and the british administration. they would educate “able” colonised people in the british system but they would never be british (the french response, also evil, was just to say that everyone was now french what a gift). like, the attitude of, we will make you, as much as we can, a good imperial citizen, all of your achievements will be because we gave you that opportunity, but also you will never truly be one of us because you will always be Other and therefore wrong. very franklin & crozier in that scene.

the irony of course is that, the above said, in a limited sense franklin isn’t wrong — crozier’s tendency to isolate himself is actively detrimental.

also fitzjames’ obvious eavesdropping is really funny especially considering that it was not necessary. dundy was also listening in but managed to get away but fj just sort of freezes? very secondary mean girl behaviour of him

ok interesting that blanky & crozier assume little would refuse to disobey sir john and send off the search parties. also “there’s a spare captain on erebus”, fun thirty second foreshadowing. but also good example of how crozier is like…idk his self-sacrifical tendencies are obviously ultimately completely thwarted, and also not at all the best for his ship

DIGGLE WAS THE COOK??? ok craaaazy that he ended up in cannibalism kitchen then

IRVING WATERCOLOUR SPEECH. best moment of this whole fucking show. again really interesting that hickey has initially really misread the situation and it is worse than he thought it was BUT it’s also so funny how much he is clearly enjoying playing the repentant sinner. kind of into it methinks. also “you’re in the world’s best place for it” [“repairing” yourself] and “god sees you, mr hickey. here, more than anywhere” OKAYY.

DIVORCE!!!!! <3333

“to think you were such a good wife to me, all this months” hmmmmm

RAT SPEECH okay putting a pin in this speech because i am too tired to fully go through it but there’s a lot there about like. idk general human/animal stuff, also “rats devouring each other to make more rats” kind of a thesis statement maybe?

“just ask jopson” classic messy bitch jopson

“he sees something in me” / “he doesn’t see you at all” — “a man like me will do anything to be seen” / “that is not how i see you” yet another parallel between hickey & billy and crozier & fitzjames. which could mean anything

“educate this creature as to the dominion of the empire and the will of the lord behind it” well.

honestly goodsir trying to figure out how to arrange the leg will always be famous

little & dundy honestly looking straight up suicidal about fitzjames’ excessive grief. yet another erebus awkward workplace moment.

#not much here because im tired tbh #so a lot of this is just quotes i liked #also. look. i try not to focus on him too much at the expense of other analysis but i am a parody of myself and. well #fitzjames is special to me #i just love when brunette men have problems and issues and it renders then a little pathetic (gale. mulder. various doctors. aloth. corvo)#i could go on #bonus points if they have a certain gender sais quoi #the terror

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feathers-blown-in-the-wind · 1 year

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A Gorizilla analysis through the Spiderman lens : Why Ladrien is a genius subversion of the Peter/Gwen (and civilian/superhero) ship

Or way too many words of me explaining why Ladrien is good damnit

While the show seems dedicated to use every side of the love square but Ladrien this season, I do sincerely believe Ladrien has one of the most fascinating dynamic I've seen in superhero media.

So here is an analysis of one of their most iconic moment :

THE GORIZILLA SCENE

The scene is crafted to remind the viewer of one of the most well-known tropes in the superhero genre: the love interest is captured by a villain. It's also a very interesting deconstruction of that trope and I will attempt to explain how below.

It's no secret that Spiderman was an inspiration for Ladybug and I'd argue this scene is reminiscent of it in a lot of ways. In the comics and most adaptations, there is one particular use of that kidnapping trope that comes to mind: the death of Gwen Stacy by the hand of the Green Goblin. Now how does that relate to the Ladrien scene? Let's see.

1. Hawkmoth (and Gabriel) as The Green Goblin : a father's gamble

Most people have at least a vague idea of who the Green Goblin is, and that particular inspiration is probably the most obvious between Spiderman and Ladybug: their nemesis is the father of one of their best friends. Which as both of them will realise, sucks a lot.

Now the Green Goblin setup in ML differs from the comics. At the time of the "Gwen Stacy's death" scene, Hawkmoth and Ladybug have no idea who the other is, whereas the Green Goblin and Spiderman are very well aware. This whole situation is a pure coincidence in classic ml fashion, where secret identities are everywhere and get tangled with each other A LOT. There's a reason the two facts people recognize as typical Miraculous are the love square and Hawkmoth's identity: it is a core part of the series, especially in early season 2, right after the audience learned of that fact.

Their identities being unknown to the other doesn't prevent the scene from working, it instead subverts it. It decides to deconstruct this popular trope: Gabriel has no idea that his son is special to Ladybug, but Adrien matters to him personally. You could argue the Gorizilla scene is an AU where the Green Goblin decides to kidnap Harry instead of Gwen (his own son over the love interest) but it would be missing the point of Miraculous "chassé-croisé d'identités". Here Adrien is both Harry, son of a super-villain, and Gwen, Ladybug's love interest, and it's what makes the scene so poignant. The scene is as much about testing how far Gabriel is willing to endanger his son as it is about if Ladybug can save him.

Adrien being directly involved isn't something Gabriel wants at all but he figures he can use it. You could argue this is the first moment in which Gabriel decides no questions asked to involve his son, and for good reason: confirming if Adrien is Chat Noir, his nemesis' partner. Gorizilla and Style Queen are some of the most humanizing moments Gabriel gets. The two moments where he almost lost Adrien, and the two moments where he wonders how far he can go to bring back his wife, wonders if he is willing to put the last thing he has left in danger on a gamble. This time he gambles: if Chat Noir truly is his son, he'll save himself. If he isn't, Ladybug will.

Adrien is missing, and his bodyguard is deeply upset: it's a perfect akuma setup, and the perfect opportunity to fight and potentially de-mask one of his enemies. Two birds one stone as they say. Unknowingly, Gabriel even strikes a third bird with this move : Ladybug's crush is captured.

2. Maribug as Peter Parker and Adrien as Gwen Stacy : the impossible romance

Gwen Stacy is a character that has been adapted and modified a lot. Sometimes made one with Mary Jane — Spider-Man's other well-known love interest — she is however remembered by one scene: her death (or at the very least her fall). For most people anyway. Now that sounds harsh and I don't believe it to be quite this clear cut: Gwen is very loveable during her life, and it's exactly the reason why her death is what we remember most. Her murder is a gut punch to the viewer and to Peter both because we love her as much as Peter does.

Gwen is Peter's "one that got away", the love of his life that he absolutely can't be with (be it to protect her or because she's already dead): something that Adrien is more and more becoming for Marinette as the show goes on. So is Chat Noir, but Chat Noir is a point I will adress later on.

'Truth' confirms the idea that Marinette having a civilian boyfriend is a bad, terrible idea. To add to this lesson, there are many events in the show that adress why Adrien specifically is someone she is so attached to that she does stupid things. In Volpina, Ladybug almost gives up her Miraculous when she thinks that Adrien is in danger (again another instance where the "love interest in danger" trope is used for Ladrien). In the Christmas special, she gets someone akumatised over Adrien being missing. Desperada's whole plot is about how Ladrien makes them both act dumb and against what they should do. In Chat Blanc she is forced to backtrack on her confession to Adrien - the first one to actually go through - in order to save the world. The season 3 finale was kickstarted in part by her feelings for Adrien and her jealousy towards Kagami. The season 4 finale ended the way it did because she trusted who she thought was Adrien. So far it seems that in season 5 Marinette will take all of these lessons to heart: being close and in love with Adrien is bad for her job as hero. (I haven't watched Kwami's choice yet but from what I know of it, it certainly seems to agree)

There is an evident pattern in the show regarding Ladrien's future : as long as Ladybug and Hawkmoth exist, Adrien has to stay a fantasy, an unreachable relationship that Ladybug can't have, just like Gwen is to Peter. Which seems rather fitting for a romance between the son of a supervilain and Paris' Heroine.

Now the fall in Gorizilla is another example of this phenomenon, but it is a very specific one. For the first time, Adrien's safety is directly in danger. And we, as the audience, know it. Where Volpina and Santa Claws were fake-outs to freak out only Ladybug, here WE are in the same boat. We know Adrien is really there and falling to his certain death. And more importantly: we know Chat Noir isn't coming to save him.

3. The subversion : Adrien as Chat Noir (the importance of trust and agency)

Now here comes the real genius of the scene to me (the genius of the Ladrien dynamic and the love square in general really) : we know Adrien is Chat Noir. We know that Adrien isn't as defenseless as Gwen, or as far removed from the conflict as Harry is. Something that neither Ladybug nor Gabriel know. Adrien isn't an innocent bystander pulled into the conflict by his father and his crush: Adrien is Ladybug's partner and Gabriel's enemy.

We know Adrien is more than capable of saving himself because Gabriel is right: his son is a superhero. However just like our favorite blond boy reinforces to Plagg, saving himself by transforming would be a pretty terrible idea. We're left hoping that it doesn't come to that, and yet it's hard to know how they can avoid it.

The audience is well aware that no matter what happens, Adrien won't die permanently : but thanks to the 'Miraculous Ladybug', that doesn't mean Adrien can't die at all. Sure it would be very unlikely to show his dead body or anything in a kids show, but Chat Noir has definitely 'died' before. And the more the scene advances, the more you're left to wonder how the heroes could win without Adrien exposing his identity. And while Chat Blanc hadn't happened yet, we have a vague idea of the consequences this revelation could have based on our interactions with other superheroes media. Given the very specific game of identity going on, Gabriel confirming his theory would make the plot go way faster than expected (and might just end the show).

We know two things given the show's genre:

Adrien really can't be revealing his identity this early on (it would be kept for a finale or a two parter surely)

Ladybug will win the fight in the end

Whether the situation resolves itself before or after Adrien face-planted on the floor is up in the air. His death being only temporary won't change much on how the audience feels because Adrien is just as loveable as Gwen is. Him dying is the last thing we want since we love him as much as Marinette does and the stakes for the episode are therefore raised.

Now the consequences are all clear but I'd want to circle back to the beginning : how did we end up in this situation ?

In the original comics, Gwen is an absolute damsel in this situation : she's unconscious for pretty much the entire scene and basically gets yeeted off the rooftop. Adrien's situation is very different though and it circles back to one of the most important themes in the show: trust.

If anything, the closest description of the gorizilla scene is a giant trust fall. Gabriel, however willing he is to endanger Adrien, doesn't throw him off the building: he actually attempts to protect Adrien by keeping him with his bodyguard. Now how does Adrien fall then ? That's the thing: he doesn't. Adrien doesn't fall, Adrien jumps. As Ladybug arrives on the roof, she asks him to trust her. And as her secret crush or as Gabriels' son, he doesn't have any reason to do so this willingly. Except Adrien isn't just that: Adrien is Chat Noir. And Chat Noir always trusts Ladybug.

In this scene, Adrien keeps his agency, something Gwen (or most civilian love interests really) isn't usually allowed. There is a lot to be said about the Gwen death scene and some of the inherent sexism that existed in the comics (which is unnavoidable given the time period). Heck even the newer movies, who put a lot of efforts into making MJ a 'feminist' character didn't completely drop the damsel trope (it being inherently a good or bad thing is too nuanced a topic to discuss here). There is however one instance I know of in a Spiderman media where the 'someone I love is falling' is also a trust fall : the 2018 ps4 video game. Now why do I bring that up? Interestingly enough, this video game presents Mary Jane as Spiderman's partner. We can even play as her in some missions ! Now that dynamic sounds very familiar. Video game Mary Jane, just like Adrien, puts a great deal of trust in her partner. And it pays off !

Trust is a fundamental aspect of the love square, and most 'damsel in distress' situations showcase that heavily. Ladynoir trust each other through and through, even when they don't have their own mask on. Adrien is Chat Noir and his lady just told him to jump, to trust her. So he does.

Gabriel is completely panicked because he didn't want that. He doesn't want Adrien falling to his certain death and he sure as hell doesn't trust Ladybug to save him. Gabriel can't understand why his son would and yet Adrien did.

Even Ladybug herself gambles heavily in this scene, hoping against all hopes that her partner will come to save Adrien, trusting that he'll be there, as he always is for her.

Ladrien subverts most damsel in distress trope by virtue of Adrien keeping his agency in them. Adrien is still Chat Noir even when he drops the mask. Adrien chooses time and time again to trust Ladybug, to keep on hoping. And she never disappoints, in clear contrast to Gabriel who keeps on disappointing his son. Trust is a core theme of Miraculous, in both romantic and platonic relationships, and an area in which Marinette and Gabriel really show their differences: Adrien's trust in Ladybug is earned and deserved, whereas Gabriel constantly abuses it.

4. Now what ? An attempt at discussing Season 5 and the 'reverse love square'

Season 5 really puts an emphasis on the trust theme, with almost every Gabriel/Adrien scene being filled with manipulation, while Ladynoir reinforces the importance of trust, no matter how their romantic feelings might evolve. Adrienette follows a similar theme, with Marinette becoming Adrien's confidant, trusting her with his deeper feelings in a way he only did with Plagg (and arguably Ladybug) before.

Adrien might be Marinette's one that got away, but Marinette is undoubtly where Adrien's happy ending lies.

Ultimately, the biggest obstacle to Adrienette is Marinette herself: once she lets herself trust Adrien, their relationship will be smooth sailing (if Gabriel doesn't put his ugly nose where it doesn't belong that is). Interestingly enough, that's what Ladybug has to do in Strikeback, both with Adrien (the real one this time) and with Chat Noir.

The love square plays constantly with the angst, and yet we know the fluff will come eventually. Adrienette is basically the happy version of Gwen/Stacy, an updated version where the damsel becomes the partner, where the happy ending will come one day, as long as they both power through. And it's honestly the best way to describe how Ladybug and Spiderman differs: Peter's ending is rarely happy (seriously half of the comics have the worst endings ever) whereas Marinette's journey, hopeless as it can seem, will lead to happiness eventually.

There are thousands of ways in which the show could get there though, many of which are criticised by at least some part of the fandom for one reason or another. The beginning of the season has flip-flopped a lot between Adrienette and Ladynoir, with Marichat fans finally getting their long awaited 'square reversal'. But where does that leave Ladrien ?

Well according to most: nowhere (despite Marichat being the most popular side, even back when it was unrequited but I digress). There's a lot of hints that the reversal might not be as clear cut as some fans believe, but ultimately, until we get a Ladrien scene in Season 5, it will be complicated to truly settle the debate once and for all.

However, I like to believe that Ladrien will never be an inconsequential relationship: the trust between them will never disappear (I'd argue it's getting stronger than ever), and a love as deep as they had won't vanish that easily, no matter how much they may want to move on. There's still a lot of stories that could be told with Ladrien.

A reprise of the Gorizilla scene would be fascinating for example, and truly showcase how far we've come.

With his slow descent into full blown villainy, would Season 5 Gabriel let Adrien die, and with him the last sliver of a potential reconciliation and redemption ?

How would Ladybug react to Adrien's life being put in danger now ? Season 1 Ladybug almost gave up her Miraculous, but I wonder how a Season 5 one would react: would she trust Adrien to save himself ? Especially if this hypothetical scene happens post reveal.

Would Adrien take a gamble and transform despite the risks ?

There's a lot of different ways this situation could end and I'd be disappointed if they don't use it again.

Since the 'Hawkmoth is Gabriel' reveal, Ladrien has been anticipated to be at the core of his demise, and I still believe it will be the case. By then, the reveal will have blurred the lines, but I have no doubt that Adrien (as Hawkmoth's son) and Ladybug (as his nemesis) will matter most: ultimately, they're the ones that Gabriel cares about, and the finale will surely place them at the forefront, as the ending of the Agreste arc and Gabriel's final confrontation with the Guardian.

In the end, Marichat is the fun and chaotic side that sometimes delves deeper, Ladynoir is the workplace relationship based on complete trust, Adrienette is their teenage first love with all the awkwardness that comes with it, and Ladrien is the one that connects best to the plot: the Love Square is a mix of all of them, and something else entirely and I firmly believe that any analysis of their relationship that aims to do more than breach the surface needs to take a look at all of them and that certainly includes Ladrien, be it requited or platonic.

Now I'm certainly no expert and everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I believe that Ladrien still has a lot of things to offer, even now, perhaps especially so.

(Also for every Spiderman fan out there, don't hesitate to correct me on anything I may have said wrong here, I've never actually read the comics myself so my knowledge is mostly second hand and vague memories of the diverse movies.)

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moonsquaremars · 4 months

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I've had an extremely turbulant emotional life, which I can attribute to many different astrological aspects + placements I have.

It's been strange coming to discover as I get older how much of my world is inside my head, though. How many times I've assumed something, had meltdowns, only to later find out 90% of it was in my own head.

Moon square mars, like my blog suggests. My other blog was sunsextilemoon, but after tumblr flagged my account for adult content, I figured it was best to start over so I could still have reach.

Moon square mars makes one passionate and headstrong. I read that it is similar to the relationship between Cancer and Aries. Cancer, the emotionally nurturing, sensitive, going head to head with the impulsive and self expressive Aries. Aries was always one of my least favorite signs. My sun is in cancer, and moon in virgo. I've always been surrounded by Saggitarius, that's my favorite sign. But I always saw aries as childish and insensitive. I had a roommate, coworker, and someone who has become a best friend who is an aries. So my aries prejudice has been tamed a bit.

I would attribute my intense anger problems to my moon square mars. I don't struggle with it so much anymore, but as a kid, if somebody accidentally hurt me, I would come back at them twice as hard. Like ruthless. I also constantly struggle, on a day to day basis, with this inner conflict between what I 'feel' like I need to do, vs what I want to do. I usually let want win. Sometimes I can get too lost in my feelings, I guess because of my 12th house sun.

Moon Square Pluto.

This aspect I think gets me in a lot of trouble. It's not intentional, of course. But I definitely feel the emotional block. I will be fine, things will be going alright, then out of nowhere, a wave will come and completely knock me off balance. I'll get so overwhelmed and almost hysterical. Sometimes just super moody. and then when it's over, I'm like, what the hell happened? there doesn't seem to be a concrete cause or trigger. It just happens. I'm 27 and it still just happens.

The 12th house placement I think is a blessing and a curse. I sense the strangest of things, and have spiritual gifts. but I've been to the psych ward more times than I can count, and my daddy a crackhead who is also a 12th house sun. I love him of course, but the 12th house energy is obvious. His house has a feeling of being a hut on a deserted island, yet it's in the middle of a subdivision surrounded by other houses. He just gives me tom hanks castaway vibes, even when he's surrounded by society.

I take various drugs and medications to help tame my turbulant emotions and achieve my goals. I do weed often, because it helps with my temper. I'm also extremely impatient. I feel like weed puts me in touch with my moon. You'd think that'd be a good thing, but when your moon squares your mars and your pluto, it can cause some problems.

I also have Sun Square Saturn, which quite honestly, is a PAINFUL placement.

I've had terrible, terrible, terrible depression for most of my life. Completely sucks the life out of me. Apparently saturn can deplete the energy of the sun, and I get depleted baby.

I went to a church service on time, and the preacher said something about "misery being a ship that needs to set sail, instead of being avoided" and that really healed me. I feel like I got so scared of my depression, my own mind and thoughts, I would run around manicly just doing WHATEVER I could so I would not feel that way anymore. I was so scared of it. But sometimes you just have to sit with yourself and your emotions, and grit your teeth.

In all I feel like my sun sextile my moon really saves me. It gives a balanced personality, since the ego and the emotional nature are in such harmony. It's funny because my dad, close friends, and boyfriends almost always have sun trine moon. My little sister also has sun sextile moon. If it weren't for this, I'd probably be much worse off...

#12th house #moon square pluto #moon square mars #sun square saturn #sun in 12th #sun sextile moon #astrology notes #astrology blog #astrology

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artsycervidae · 2 days

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Moksha: Chapter 15, Danno Intermission Pt 1

A flashback chapter: Jin, Junko, and Nobutoshi set off on a quest to defeat one of the Twelve Kizuki.

Word Count: 6.2k

Be sure to check the trigger list.

FIVE YEARS AGO

The saltwater wind stung Nobutoshi's face as he stared out towards the sea barge, the ghost town behind him. He saw a storm brewing on the horizon beyond the artificial island, and it rumbled as it headed their way. Seventeen-year-old Junko waded out a couple strides into the water, raising a hand to obscure the light glinting off its surface. "How do the ships look?" she asked.

"Almost all of them are sunk," he told her, "but not all. It's the smaller ones." Just their luck: the Kakushi brigade already loathed inefficiency in demonic lairs. Nothing made them huffier than repetitive, unnecessary trips.

The barge existed as a perfect square mirage in the water, never moving closer nor further, never losing itself to the current. Nobutoshi saw the island as a black hole sucking in at the space and time all around it, the color and shape of the ocean swirling around an unnatural drain. The corpses of sea crafts hung from it like morbid charms on a necklace.

"It looks like we'll have to split up into three groups," she went on, "in the boats we have on our side. There's only a couple more for the Kakushi, and they're nowhere big enough to carry back the dead and injured."

Nobutoshi grimaced. "Well... I suppose multiple small boats is better than sharing the three." And then, for his own sanity, he asked, "Can you sense it, too?"

"I can." Junko sloshed her way back to land, standing in front of him. "That tugging feeling behind the naval. That's killing intent, alright... have you ever felt it call like this?"

"Never." No wonder ships had been sent to the floating enigma, loaded with resources and explorers who figured that the trip back would take the same amount of time. "The surviving crows reported that the vessels made it out there, but that they were either attacked or sank before they returned to the mainland," Nobutoshi remembered. "The boats nearly made it halfway before the sun fell on them."

"There's time or space distortion at work, or so it appears... I bet you that's a passive Blood Art, of the highest tier. I wonder why they didn't turn back at that point," Junko murmured. "Either way there was going to be a bloodbath. At least on the barge they had a fighting chance."

"Maybe." The messenger birds had returned with a variety of stories: Entire nocturnal vessels would vanish, as if an angry god had simply picked it out of the water. Sometimes the ships were destroyed in the water by a single missile piercing the hull, leaving humans to sink or swim, but ultimately to drown, unable to outpace the demon's draw. Not that the battles in the village were any less gruesome...

The two stared at the anomaly, and Nobutoshi resisted the urge to reach for her hand, somehow sensing her nerves. He worried over it too. "Do you think that they went with the first expedition team?"

"They could have," Junko hesitated. "Maybe they went with the second team. Either way, that's thirty Slayers' worth of blood. And the demon doesn't even need to come to land for it." She sighed heavily and added, "We're only twelve Slayers, and while that includes two Hashira, morale is still pretty low. It takes time to get the people we need down here, and the damn monster has been using it like a buffet line." She muttered under her breath and slogged herself back towards town. Nobutoshi cast another glance to their destination before turning his back on it, following the woman he loved through the empty town.

Whether the doors and windows were devastated or not, every single home was scraped empty. The only evidence that people had once inhabited this place were the belongings and blood left behind... as well as the remnants that nobody else could glimpse: the shades that wandered and meandered, lost between worlds. Nobutoshi had already seen enough during their initial inspection: now he kept his eyes down so that he couldn't recognize the fingernails glimmering like foil confetti within gauge marks, the half-eaten intestines haphazardly stretched across streets like morbid banners, the smears of bloody tracks where bodies had been picked at and dragged. He blatantly ignored the heavy atmosphere wafting from each and every building, drenched with the handprints belonging to the dead. There wasn't anything he could do about it now.

He tried not to think of Hinata, who would have wandered into the houses for forensic reasons, who would inevitably feel attached to the house and its former inhabitants. They would have taken it personally and tried to figure out what kind of demon would do things the way they did. 'They would have been whispering it all in Junko's ear,' Nobutoshi dismissed, 'distracting her.' He kept his eyes on the Foliage Hashira's back.

The worst part was knowing that not everyone taken had been dead, and that ships were set off in the morning to rescue stranded hostages. No matter how early sailors left, how the weather favored, or how swiftly the current carried, they would not return before the sun set. The funeral parade would all begin again. And all the Slayer Corps could do was send more people and hope their surviving crows went on to seek help, until today.

As pitifully small as their force was, they were the reinforcements. It had to stop here, before things got worse.

The two neared the building that had been appropriated as temporary shelter, other Slayers walking around, trading reports, checking the houses for survivors, or standing by. They bowed and nodded to the Hashira and tsuguko, their conversations trailing or softening for the superior officers to pass them by through the open doors. It was just the two of them in the war room. A map had been spread out on the table during their last meeting and it awaited them, already pinned down with little tiles and flags that decorated Japan in intricate chess patterns-- the movement of the Demon Corps, tactically investigating and eliminating potential demon hot spots. Trying to sniff out the trail of Kibutsuji Muzan: when he had been here, whether it was him or a subordinate, and where he would go next.

Junko sat first, exhaling as she rotated her joints and rolled her head along her shoulders. Her company, meanwhile, stopped in front of the open window that framed the floating demon den. Nobutoshi could keep up appearances, but gruesome thoughts kept spilling to the forefront of his mind, filling his mind with uncertainy. So he had to ask. "Do you think--" and he caught those words behind his teeth, just barely changing his mind.

"Do I think what?" Junko urged, eyes lazily following him, and Nobutoshi decided to come out with it.

"Do you think Hinata is dead?" He dared to wonder, as unthinkable such a future would be. His heart trembled at the possibility made real; he couldn't stop thinking of the decision he made a week ago to send Hinata to the barge in place or Junko. Seven whole days. Five to four of which they had been on the barge, maybe. It felt naive not to assume the worst. The battle hadn't even begun, but the bleak fate of their friend hung over him.

"Oniinata? Dead?" Junko cracked a smile then, as if they hadn't seen all the signs in town. "Not a chance." The lightness of their nickname made her declaration genuine, as though the third wheel were only down the road rather than missing in that isolated lair.

"Can you feel them?"

"No," she said carefully, "but they know better than to die on us. I'd kill them if they even considered it."

Nobutoshi appreciated her attempts to make him laugh, but he wasn't in as malleable a mood. He settled his weight next to her and tried again for comfort. His hand reached to hers in her lap, and she turned her palm upward for him to grasp. He scooted closer so that their legs touched, tempted to graze his cheek against hers, but resisted that urge. "When we find them again, we should tell them," he suggested. "About us."

"Maybe," she said less warmly than before. "Maybe we wait until they're in their hospital bed, so that we can outrun them if they get jealous."

"As if they've never been jealous over you before," Nobutoshi said, and Junko looked at him as though he had missed the point entirely.

"You can be so obtuse and cruel sometimes," she said, "and it's hard to tell if you do that intentionally."

Before clarifications could be exchanged, the two felt an atmospheric change and drew back into their respective personal space. Hinata hadn't been told about the blossoming relationship between their peers; so it went without saying that Jin also went uninformed. The Mist Hashira rolled into the room, silent as foreboding fog, and the two were careful to seem as though they had only been waiting for him, feigning interest with much less distracting things such as the battle ahead of them.

"No survivors," he confirmed. "We're on our own."

"Is it that bad?" Junko asked. "Do we have any time to wait for reinforcements?"

"Doubt it," the man said, taking his own place at the head of the table. With excruciating consideration, he went on, "Our best hope is that survivors remain on the barge." That was not what Nobutoshi wanted to hear. It wasn't what he wanted to imagine for Hinata and so many others who fought valiantly to be useful, whose final moments had to mean something. He did not want to see their bloated remains-- if anything did remain-- when he closed his eyes at night. None of this was shared with his father, who may have looked on such weakness with reconsideration. Nobu kept his mouth shut and his eyes on the map.

"Report?" Jin asked, sighing as if the lack of living bodies were more an inconvenience than a massacre.

"There are a handful of boats remaining," Nobutoshi informed. "Enough for us to cross and a couple more for when the second wave arrives. We've determined that there are multiple Demon Arts at work on the barge, meaning a potential Kizuki among them."

Jin looked at Junko for this confirmation, to Nobutoshi's disappointment. But the Foliage Hashira was looking out the window to that far-off speck. Nobutoshi went on. "From the witness accounts and evidence, this is what we know: there's at least one demon with aquatic abilities capable of sinking ships. There's another that controls the demonic seabirds and destroys ships; it is probably the culprit behind the nightly raids." He glanced to Junko, still distracted, and added, "Junko thinks that the pull everyone is feeling is another Blood Demon Art. Something that changes the space between here and there, likely altering time within its reach as well. It makes it so that people are drawn in with no means of escape."

"And what does that determine?" Jin asked, more to test Nobu's knowledge than for clarity.

Nobutoshi didn't know what else he was supposed to say. "All signs point to Kizuki activity," he admitted, hindsight adding salt to his wounded confidence.

Jin watched Nobutoshi with an indispensable judgment. "And?"

Another nervous glance to the distracted Junko. Nobutoshi chewed the inside of his cheek in thought-- but whatever he was meant to conclude was left unsaid. His father sighed, disappointed. "Status on the storm?" Jin asked, bored with his son's assessment, but accepting it for what it was.

"It's coming," Nobutoshi said, bereft in the mounting bad news. "If we leave now, the storm will hit us while we're out there facing the demons. But if we put off the attack, the darkness will extend night by a couple hours, ultimately giving the enemy the advantage."

Jin folded his arms and closed his eyes in thought. Nobutoshi tried not to read too far into this gesture: it was the typical body language of an old-timer, but he couldn't unsee the image of his father's immense dissatisfaction. If only Nobutoshi had made the right call a week ago, none of those Slayers would have died and the situation wouldn't look so bleary.

"Hashimoto?" Jin asked.

"Uh huh," Junko said, as if that were a sensible reply. "Uh huh!" She stood suddenly, looking wildly around before her eyes fell upon Nobutoshi. She reached for his sleeve almost breathlessly. "I need you."

Both Ishikawa men sat, blinking in mutual stunned silence for a moment. Perhaps Nobu would have responded positively, "I reciprocate this sentiment, but this isn't the time, Junko," if she wasn't already pulling him to his feet, nearly stumbling over her own in that haste to drag him to the window. She pointed out and asked, "Do you see that?"

Nobutoshi glanced to her erratically gesturing finger before he abided. He squinted and shook his head. "I don't--"

And there, against the harsh orange sunset, was a flickering light of some reflective surface.

"It's them." It took him seconds to realize what she meant. The pinging off of one another, a transmitter and a receiver. "It's them! Quick! Translate it, I'll write it down," she commanded, disappearing from his peripheral vision to find something to record with.

"Translate?" Nobutoshi echoed, just as the pattern of light struck some familiar note. An insomniac memory resurfaced to his mind.

Jin had followed after them, a wrinkled brow and pursed lips displaying his distaste. He watched Junko as Junko watched Nobu as Nobu watched a single light stare back at them. He squinted and focused and strained. The light winked a messy, half-asleep cypher of slumber party nights; so minute a detail and from so far away. Only his family's Sight could have found it, and only a loved one could have parsed the intimate edges of its pointed message.

"It's fast," he told her. "Really fast. I don't know if I can get it right."

"Just give me everything," Junko requested and Nobutoshi obliged. The rhythm was like a dying heartbeat, repeating itself multiple times in rapid succession. Nobutoshi read aloud until the sun fell behind the buildings, extinguishing most of their available light. Overall, it couldn't have been more than two minutes. The message may as well have been lost in a rip tide.

By the time Nobutoshi turned back to the dim room, rubbing the ache away from his eyes, Junko had slapped the paper down on the table. In her messy handwriting, the message was scrawled and scratched and puzzled out. "I've got most of it!" She declared as both Jin and Nobutoshi leaned over each of her shoulders to read her work.

Little-One. Fight. Tonight. Little-One. Four into One. Danger. Many Danger. One-many, mashed together like its own word, One Water. Big-Eat, mushed together again, Two Air. Crows die. No crows. One Island. Metal-Glass, another created word, Four into Little-One. Belly. Kill Four. Kill Little-One. Fight. Tonight, and then the message repeated until it had flickered out.

Both Mist Breathers looked to Junko, who only stared longingly across the water. "We've kept Oniinata waiting long enough," she declared. "It's time we go help them."

"What does it mean?" Jin asked, unimpressed with the limited vocabulary and its repetition. Or maybe just testing them.

"It's a report," Junko explained deliriously. "They're still alive. They've stayed alive somehow to spy on the demons! And now we have our intel. We know what's coming."

Junko, though half the Mist Hashira's age, didn't look to him for approval or permission. She was the one who led them out to the other nine Slayers, all hopeful faces turning to their leaders. She announced the night raid: the Corps was looking for five demons total, not including the minions. "The amemasu and the flock leader are our biggest concerns," she said, seemingly pulling this information from thin air. "The sea monster will attack our boats and there are two airborne demons-- one of them being the commander of the flock. We expect they'll attack us while we're out at sea, right before the storm hits. If they slow us down, then we'll also be at the mercy of nature. But if we can force our way to the barge, we can weather out the storm while fighting the remaining demons. There's a sentry there, which makes for four lesser demons.

"And the final demon," she concluded, "is the Lower Rank One." Many Slayers went rigid and a couple stifled noises into their hands. At this point in the body count, it was only confirmation. "We can find it at the center of the barge, furthest from sunlight. On the boats, we will be split up into three groups and reorganize once we've arrived at the barge, where our informant will better explain the situation.

"Any questions?"

A hand rose, belonging to a stern-faced girl with an underbite. One of the few who hadn't immediately despaired. One of the many who had a shadow clinging to her arm and a chip on her shoulder. "You just said informant," she pointed out. "What does that mean?"

"We have a survivor on the barge," Junko stated. "All this information we have received from a trustworthy source."

"From the barge?" the girl asked with disbelief, her obsidian eyes sharpening. "How do you know this isn't a trap?" This concern rippled through the small group.

"Because it's from someone I would stake my life on," Junko declared. "I would know them in this life and the next. They risked dying to get us this information, and I'll die if it means trusting them."

The Slayers looked to Nobutoshi and his Hashira. They offered no corrections and no contradictions. Silence announced their decision: to trust the available information, though the concept chilled their followers to the bone. The enemy was powerful, gorged on The Demon King's blood, but it was a threat that one of their own kind-- a mere human-- could evade for days. Someone who their leaders would rely upon so steadily. It wasn't morale, per se, but it was a mild comfort at the very least.

The Hashira duo led the group to the ocean with Nobutoshi humbly taking up the caboose, all three helping organize the groups and taking position at the bow of their assigned boats. It was his father's vessel that advanced into the chopping waters first. The sky darkened as they drew closer, their only lights the glowing lanterns that one Slayer on each boat held. The stars and moon were blanketed by the coming squall, the moisture sticking just above the water and obscuring them with its hazy reach. The storm clapped its thunder in merry entertainment at the carnage to come.

During this timeless sailing, it almost seemed that the tension was unwarranted. Every jostle of the boat was due to the sea, every bump coming from an arm or leg meant to stabilize. Nobutoshi hadn't sensed the leviathan until it breached the black, glassy surface of the water with an earth-shattering wham! closing its massive sword-toothed mouth around his father's boat and diving into the darkness. For that crystal clear moment, the Mist tsuguko saw it-- eel-like, with a long body that rippled soundlessly in the water. Where the smooth ridge of its head ought to be was an entire human torso, bare save for scales and gills, effeminate and otherworldly-- morbidly beautiful. It twisted, armless and desperate, trapped beneath its own rubbery skin. The demon's main mouth stretched across the human-esque figure's lower half, as if its narrow pelvis bones naturally transitioned into the cruel sharp-toothed maw. Then it was gone, diving into the water, spiraling and curling into inky depths.

Jin landed soundly behind Nobutoshi in a whoosh! of mist, apparently having narrowly abandoned ship on time to save himself. Their boat rocked and swayed; Junko prevented hers from tipping by slamming her foot down on its other side, her passengers emitting a simultaneous "woah!" As expected, she jumped into action and swept her arm out, sword glistening forest-floor green. "Everyone, stay calm, be ready to defend," she announced, "Two members overboard! Coming on the port side-- you two, get off your asses, haul them out of the water before it comes back! I'll protect us!"

On cue, two heads broke the surface of the water, reaching for their friends who provided safety.

"Now! Devour them! Eat them all!" a grating, crackling voice split the air. From the barge arose a swarm, which rapidly grew into a flock of demonic seabirds. Parodic gulls, pelicans, herons-- a variety of unimaginable creatures, aviary yet alien, flying faster than the wind itself, descended on the sailors.

Junko watched them come as a cloud of bat-like fangs, claws, and stingers. Her sword cut the atmosphere.

"Foliage Breathing Third Form," she inhaled. In a gasping moment, Junko wove a path through and between the birds, her sword singing, thwip, shnk, shwa, thnk!, and she was suddenly on the boat again, legs akimbo to balance herself on the narrow ledge. "Falling Leaf Storm." And a good number of the minions simply fell apart into chunks and plummeted into the water.

Her reach, however, was still limited to her boat's proximity, and the sea beast's attack had pushed her further from her companions. The swarm fell upon the Mist boat, yanking soldiers overboard before beating and harassing their heads below the surface. Nobutoshi sliced through the demonic creatures, but the numbers of their foes never slowed. Even with his father's sword snipping past his face now and again, they were struggling. The boats were splintering from the strain of so many people moving and adjusting-- more Slayers being picked away, losing their balance and falling. Overboard victims pawed for safety, and others tried to scoop them up between assaults before any further damage could be done.

Nobutoshi saw the sleek gliding of something far bigger behind the flittering nuisances, making out its distinctive silhouette against the night sky and estimating its height. 'Their controller.' He raised his sword to it with a flourish.

"I see it," Jin announced. And he directed his sword down to the water. "With me. Hashimoto! The sky."

Nobutoshi didn't need to be told what to do. It was obvious, there was no other way to reach the barge. "Keep your shit together! Direct our boat to the island," Junko bellowed as Nobutoshi rotated the sword grip in his hands. The amemasu was still coming-- he could see it circling, preparing, and then arching itself to missile up into their numbers again. As he moved into the Fifth Form, he felt his power multiply and disperse, a single powerful mass of vapor that exploded out with a single breath. His father moved in a mirror image on the other side of the bow. The beast came for them-- practically served itself on a platter.

The creature hefted from the water to destroy their boat and sank either side of its mouth right into their blades. Their parallel Sea of Clouds and Haze neatly sheared through its blubberous armor and stalwart bones. The demon had little opportunity to regret its mistake as it sank back into the water, its massive shadow easing into darkness.

At that same time, the demon-birds hailed down onto the boats, diving into the natural and artificial mist. Junko's swordplay forced another mass extinction, their ribboned bodies falling in wet plops and smacks. But their master had stayed back, and Junko landed soundly onto the boat again as the demon screeched, and though Nobu couldn't be sure, it sounded a lot like "Unagiko!" Without all the distracting bird-servants, Nobutoshi could make out the demon, even against the blackened sky. It looked significantly more human than the leviathan: its arms were feathered, its cheeks and jowls saggy as though its face had been stretched out. While its legs appeared human-like, the joints were inverted, and its toes raked the air as talons. It was as though someone made a human out of clay, and tried to turn that human into a pelican.

"Damn cockroaches! Pests!" The pelican screeched at them as it retreated, sensing the turning tides.

Though the swordsmen had survived the initial assault, there was no victory to be felt. The two remaining boats docked at the barge at a steeper cost than anticipated. Three had been lost to the beast and another three to drowning. Only two of the bodies had been retrieved. Down to half their forces, with all three subordinates injured, Nobutoshi did his best to manage their pain and damage. Ever since the Final Selection, he had made a point to bring first aid and always listened to Kakushi when they diagnosed and treated; but he was by no means an alternative to proper care. He had to avert his eyes from a particular warrior-- the skeptical girl, whose sword was an electric yellow, her half-pecked eye dangled from a delicate cord. There was no saving the organ and there were no screams pried from her lips when Nobutoshi amputated it, caring for her the best he could under these circumstances.

"The storm is rolling in," Junko hollered over the howling. "Yuri, you should stay back and guard the bodies."

The one-eyed skeptic-- Yuri-- jutted out her chin, further pronouncing her underbite. "With all due respect, Hashira, there is no way I'm hanging behind." And although the pain had to be excruciating and persistent, she stood with her head high. "Where's this informant?"

An odd number of eyes settled on Junko. She didn't waver, "There's still three demons left. We haven't seen the other flying one, and there's the sentry to worry about. Our helper is probably initiating combat as we speak."

"On their own?" Yuri voiced her doubt.

"Yes," Junko asserted.

Leading the charge as an untouchable beacon felt different than Nobutoshi expected. He had always revered Junko for how incredible she seemed, how she heralded victories and gratitudes and fables. But now, looking at the battered Slayers in their care, glimpsing the bodies hidden beneath a scavenged tarp... he could see the chasm that naturally existed between the common folk and the elite. He could see them hesitate and recognize how the piles of bodies gave their superiors a foot-up in the overall war. And all it would cost was their short, miserable life.

Junko must have sensed Nobu's apprehension: her hand pressed into the center of his back, nails digging a gentle circle of comfort. 'We can do this,' she seemed to remind him with a flickering, dampened smile. They had no choice but to continue; there was no way back, after all.

"The maze is dangerous," Jin interrupted. "Pair up. Spread out. Watch each other's backs." Nails extracted from Nobu's back like removing shrapnel-- he wanted her to stay, but she had that jaw set, that hand cupped on her katana, and her eyes on the indigo clouds overhead. Instead, she strayed over to one of their subordinates. Jin had already selected his Slayer and set off, his nameless partner scuttling after him, leaving all others to their devices. Nobutoshi drifted toward Yuri, her remaining eye glazed with fatigue.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

"Takahashi Yuri," bless her steady and formal tone.

"Alright, Takahashi. Let's look for survivors and those last three demons."

They found no evidence of survivors. Not even bodies. That was the horrifying thing about a seasoned demon's territory: the simultaneous excess and lack of death. New demons left behind carcasses and bones, their newfound appetite still rudimentary if maddening. Meanwhile, the splintered corridors and rusted tunnels were littered only with shells, wharf insects, roaming crustaceans, and the occasional rat scurrying for safety. Jin had called the place a maze. Indeed, the barge seemed to hold numerous tunnels, catwalks, and metal panels. These structures held no practical importance. The tunnels fed into each other, out into the open water, and into dead ends. The catwalks were precarious, rotting, and noisy. The metal panels were bizarre, nonsensical landmarks. The walls reached up to six meters tall, and there were few routes to safely climb them. It was less a barge and more a demented vivarium, something pretending to be a barge.

Nobutoshi paused at a fork that split into three different directions, examining the dents and scratches at about eye level on the nearest turn, recognizing it as a pattern. He wondered if anyone else had noticed it... he glanced back to Yuri, who raised an eyebrow when he gestured to their left. "This way."

As they explored, the rain fell on them in sheets, preceded by a stampede of fat droplets sweeping overhead. Yuri grumbled, readjusting her hold on her katana. "Can't see a damn thing in this rain."

"I can. Keep following me."

"You're reading the walls, aren't you? Why? What's on there?"

"I don't know." It wasn't a total lie. The markings weren't of any alphabet, but held intelligent significance to him. An arrow was too obvious a sign-- it had been Junko's idea to create a coded marking to help reinforcements from getting lost, a lesson learned in previous missions. A mindless scribble, at first glance, but it actually mapped out a path. Nobutoshi's careful eye had seen the pattern of the scratched wall, determining his way. Nobutoshi couldn't imagine Hinata broadcasting their activity so openly-- not unless they had intended for this to somehow help others. Nobutoshi didn't know where the map led... yet.

The duo turned a corner and Nobutoshi froze. The sensation that struck him still was not unfamiliar, but manifested as a churning of the guts. Yuri bumped into his back and her free arm propped itself on him to right herself. "Wh--"

"Stay back," Nobutoshi whispered, first pushing her gently before thumbing his sword and from its sheath again. Lightning cracked overhead, and she could see it then. The light reflected off the metal floor and wall panels-- a shadow had been cast that, if nothing were truly there, wouldn't have existed. He unsheathed his blade, Yuri followed suit--

The creature jerked its body, charging them down and closing the distance in a fractal second. Nobutoshi warily put himself between the monster and Yuri, uncertain of her depth perception, but Yuri had been faster.

"Thunder Breathing First Form: Thunderclap and Flash!"

C-CRACK!

The hall exploded with blinding brilliance, Yuri suddenly on the other side of the demon, her sword instantaneously split in two a few centimeters from the handle. Flabbergasted, she looked back with her mouth agape as the yellow nichirin spiraled through the darkness, bouncing off the wall and rattling to a rest. The demon paused and laughed at this, and it was a horribly human sound. As it stood between them, raising itself to a whopping three meter height, Nobutoshi tried to assess their foe.

The scales that reflected its surroundings served as camouflage and armor-- it was armor, he realized, when the demon turned its helmeted head this way and that. It looked strange and moved stiffly as if there were limited flexibility above the shoulders. The dō-maru was old yet new, like a giant warrior had stepped out of the early Edo period and into their time. When the creature slouched, the armor moved with it like skin. Its claws nearly touched the ground, their hands twisted into three long naginata-like ends. These 'fingers' raked through the ground, tearing through the metal sheet like it was merely paper.

"I can't believe you killed Unagiko with something as weak as that," the demon bellowed, voice competing with the raging storm. "Who are we supposed to replace her with now? Some pathetic cockroaches?" It hadn't stopped watching them-- deciding whether to kill the unarmed or to handle the only remaining threat. "Hmmm... I pick... you!"

Then the demon charged, Nobutoshi as a target. It dropped to all fours in the grotesque mimicry of a bloodthirsty pangolin, and the screeching of its claws destroying the walkway could have burst his eardrums. Nobu defended himself-- trying not to allow his sword to be hit in some unsavory angle, desperate to reunite with the Slayer he was responsible for.

The thing was covered in those scales, even the helmet had flap-like layers covering its neck, apparently too powerful for the likes of Yuri to behead. Nobu could try, but if he failed, that would spell their doom. He took too long to consider. The demon was pushing him back, closing in--

It reared, preparing for a brutal blow, and through the onslaught of reflecting raindrops, Nobutoshi discerned the irregular dots across the demon's bust. As if something had been smudged over the skin, or imbedded through its neck and face. He recognized the shape and size of these marks. 'Nichirin swords, broken off into its head,' he realized with horror. Perhaps there was no way of slicing the demon's head off, but the armor could still be punctured.

And so Nobutoshi struck true with his First Form, impaling the demon right as it dared to fall on him-- through its throat, past the collarbone, into its ribcage. The beast howled, gurgling incoherent fury, and thrashed. Nobutoshi held on for all his worth-- tried to yank the sword free, but the demon suddenly barreled away. Right towards Yuri, but thankfully, she had the sense to throw herself to the side. The beast didn't slow for her and Nobutoshi lost sight of her mid-recovery, scrambling to her feet to give chase. She fell behind the endless corners as Nobutoshi held on for dear life, his vulnerable body bouncing between the floor and the demon's unyielding chest.

The rushing rainfall numbed his face. He felt bones fracture and muscles bruise, tried to minimize the hurt by becoming weightless in his movements; his body recalled how it was to fight something much stronger and faster than him: 'Junko was right. I have such noodle arms compared to hers.' The soft recollection of her lectures struck a tonal dissonance, a warmth in the face of death by dragging.

The pangolin-demon screamed, energized by seemingly nothing at all. That 'nothing' struck from above and ahead, and Nobutoshi's body was nearly crushed beneath the demon's mass, saved only by instinct. He threw himself, skidding through shallow water, his drenched haori heavy on his shoulders. The abandoned sword and an anguished holler projected from the demon's neck, but its mysterious assailant had evaded its parrying jabs and slashes, leaping and skipping out of reach.

"You," the demon accused, "Aguri! Get lost, you runt!"

Aguri never ceased to be a blur, triangle-leaping out of reach even when the antique samurai reared up and rammed those naginata nails into their predicted path. The bipedal 'runt' landed on the demon's shoulders instead, raised a nichirin blade, and pierced it down into the creature's open mouth to the hilt. With a yank, they snapped their blade off into the creature's face.

But then they were caught-- swiped by another wild swing of those claws. Their body flew, slammed into the wall, and slid to the ground, legs twitching, stunned. The demon stomped toward their unmoving form. "Die for me already," the samurai commanded almost fondly, its mouth healing around the imbedded blade.

'You're the cockroach,' Nobutoshi thought. The spiteful reply brought him back to his body, which had gotten up from its sprawled position and run to assist his savior, leaning into the mist, his footfalls evanescent. With a hard jump, he flew under the demon's raised arm, snatched the protruding sword handle, and sliced hard-- the imbedded blades perforating the insides of the demon's massive throat twisted, jostled, and fell to the floor in a gush of gore. The demon collapsed, the metal walkway thrumming as the rain washed its remains away. Nobutoshi rolled away and found his footing, lifting his head to this 'Aguri'--

-- finding the broken end of their nichirin sword pressed against his throat. Nobutoshi looked at them.

Hinata's unfocused eyes stared back into Nobutoshi's dark face with equal disbelief, their shoulders and head twitching in shock as they waited for the full-body tremors of ego death to subside. It wasn't until Nobutoshi was eye-to-eye with them that he realized he had not really believed he would see them again: invoking their name to Junko had been akin to praying to the deceased. But here they were, a revenant, armed with broken-bladed handles tucked and tied into their uniform with strips of some scavenged cloth. They had made artificial spikes as an extra deterrent for hungry demons. The makeshift dagger in their hand certainly wasn't theirs-- it glimmered black against Nobutoshi's skin, leering and not trusting anyone but its wielder.

"Hinata," Nobu murmured, throat moving against the cold metal.

The spell had broken. Hinata's mercurial eyes flashed and they exhaled, a life brought back to them by virtue of a name. They shivered again-- this time letting their wounds get the better of them, their arms fell and they leaned back against the wall to favor their left leg. "Nobu," they breathed, "It's you. It's really you."

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