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cadybear420 · 4 months

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Cadybear's Reviews- High School Story (OG Trilogy)

Welcome to the third official Cadybear's Reviews post! Today I'll be talking about the OG High School Story trilogy, which (to the surprise of absolutely no one) I have ranked on the "Diamond Tier" at 10 stars out of a possible 10.

Everyone and their dog who knows me knows that this is my favorite Choices series of all time. And even that bias aside, I can in good faith consider this one of Choices’ best-made series too.

Buckle up bitches, this is gonna be a long one. But I’ll try to keep it as concise as I can and break it up into each of the aspects that make the series so great.

First, the MC.

I do genuinely consider them among Choices’ best MCs. Probably unpopular opinion, but them being a blank slate works heavily in their favor, as it allows their character to be more flexible to what kind of character and story routes the player wants for them. You have different kinds of options in how you respond to things, a lot of which do have a significant impact on the actual story outcomes. The MC is a sort of an audience-surrogate character, but in a way that takes advantage of the interactive story medium and allows them to be proactive in the story, rather than making them bland or obnoxious or passive and then passing that off as self-insertable like a lot of modern stories try to do.

Although there can be some noticeable traits reminiscent of a Mary Sue type character, they’re very minimal and never overbearing. The story rarely if ever makes a big deal of MC being popular, rather than turning them into some OP god/goddess where everyone else just blindly worships the very air they breathe. For the most part, being popular and winning hoco/GoH/prom are simply just bonus things for the MC rather than the crux of their entire character.

Yeah, they can initially seem “too perfect”, but they’re really only perfect if you make them that way. You can make them do things like slip Koh’s secret to Isa, treat the incoming Hearst kids poorly, or be shit at their activity. You even get a few more gray decisions such as whether or not to turn in Myra or who to side with during the basketball game. And most of them do have consequential outcomes. Maybe not as major as the outcomes of stories like ILS or TH:M, but enough that they do significantly alter the story experience. I legitimately have so many different routes and versions of the MC I wanna try out in this series.

Second, all of the supporting/side characters.

Along with ES, ILITW, and TH:M, OG HSS is one of few stories where having a large cast is handled well and benefits the story more than harms it. Although the high school environment can be a bit cliquey and some of the characters are based off of typical high school stereotypes, they each feel like their own unique individual person and there’s even a lot of subversion of the stereotypes they’re based on. The jocks aren’t all just meatheaded alpha males; the cheerleaders aren’t all just snobby mean girls; the nerds, despite being more sidelined, aren’t pathetic losers; and each of the LIs have some depth to their supposed high school stereotype traits.

Aiden and Michael are my two most favorite LIs of all time. Aiden’s route especially is really genuine and earned and develops at a good pace, and I could probably make a separate post just about him alone. But really, all the LIs have some amazing growth arcs. And they, as well as all the side characters, are overall just interesting, down-to-earth, and memorable characters. Julian, Payton, Mia, Frank, Myra, Jade, and the rest all feel like distinct characters that I feel like I have actual reasons to give a damn about. Lest we forget the non-student characters. Characters like MC’s dad and Principal Hughs are especially iconic too, and give the story its own extra warmth and just that little touch of campiness.

Even the antagonists were pretty compelling– although they maybe weren’t all the most common or realistic kinds of antagonists, the conflicts they created still felt believable and threatening, and they were utilized in their roles relatively well. Brian, Zoe, Isa, Max, and Kara are all characters where I can actually care about what they do.

Third, the extracurricular activity system.

This technically goes hand-in-hand with the MC, but it’s a big part of why this series is so immersive and God-tier for me that it deserves its own section too. There are quite a handful of choices in this series that have an impact on the story, but this one is by far the strongest one and it gives the story and MC a lot of flexibility and variance.

Each book, you can choose sports, band, or cheer, and it gives you a very different experience of the story. Book 1 gives you a different conflict for each activity. Book 2, you don’t really get involved in your activity much, but it does affect how you may experience Isa’s reign and how characters will respond to which stances you take. Book 3 has pretty much the same base conflict in each activity, but the characters are all different enough that it does feel pretty distinct.

Not to mention that the different activities can give extra scenes with certain LIs. Romancing Aiden as a jock is still pretty damn good and I love it, but romancing Aiden as a band kid hits so much differently. You get extra interactions with him, a few more opportunities to score romance points, and you can feel this bit of extra connection between him and your MC. There’s a scene during the band concert where just before you play his song, they say that “you see a glint in his eyes that you haven’t seen before”, and after you finish playing it you see “his eyes gleam with pride”.

Bonus points also for sports and cheer both being open to both m!MC and f!MC; getting to be a female football jock is very euphoric for me. Although I’d have loved more female jock rep and male cheerleader rep besides MC, Emma in Book 1 if you do the football route, Jade, Kieran, and one or two one-offs, it’s still incredibly enjoyable. Especially with how un-sensationalized it is– the jock guys on the team don’t pathologize or patronize or tokenize my f!jock MC– they just treat her as yet another normal part of the team. Which is how it should be. I haven’t done a male cheerleader MC route yet but I think it’s fair to assume that the same applies there.

Obviously, this is probably not realistic to how most high school sports would work, but who gives a shit? It’s still believable and still makes the experience much more unique and enjoyable. In fact, nowadays there are some people advocating for sports to have a similar system to wrestling weight classes instead of gender/sex-based divisions, so if anything, this is kind of ahead of its time. To quote Caleb Mitchell, “If you’ve got the speed, who cares if you’re a guy or a girl?”

Fourth, the storylines themselves.

They’re not super emotionally deep or realistic stories, but that’s okay. They’re really fun and engaging, and if anything, that’s why they work so well. They’re able to think outside the box for what can be done within the high school setting. So we get situations that are fun and exciting and escapist, but never get overly absurd or juvenile or feel cheap in their conflicts, and are made to feel grounded with characters that are very down-to-earth and human.

It’s a very idealized high school experience for sure, but it’s not without humanity or conflict and challenges, and overall it does feel organic. It makes you actually want to attend that high school, which is a pretty damn good accomplishment considering IRL high school more often than not is a traumatic experience for a lot of us. HSS is basically “high school but if it were actually good”.

A lot of the conflicts are seemingly basic high school drama, but we see how it can have a very real influence on the characters and their personal struggles. Such as how band in-fighting and a screwed up half-time performance basically sends Aiden into a near breakdown over his fear of failure and strive for perfection in music. Or how the Ollie the Tiger statue being vandalized is deeply upsetting to Michael due to Berry being the one high school that was the most welcoming to him and his desire to preserve that. Or how people’s low energy for homecoming causes Maria to get frustrated and eventually snap from struggling with her leadership roles. Even if these situations are unrealistic to your average high school, it sure as hell is believable. Sometimes, it’s those seemingly small or petty issues that can be taking the biggest tolls on us.

Fifth, no smut scenes.

I mean, it makes sense, since I don’t think it would go down well for PB if they wrote smut of under-18 characters. But as someone who does not like how PB writes smut, I’m fine with that. Even if these guys were 18+, I wouldn’t want PB’s mediocre formulaic-ass smut writing to ruin the LI scenes, especially since characters like Aiden and Michael are my all-time favorites of Choices LIs.

Granted the 30 diamond scenes we do get aren’t exactly immune to being formulaic either (I swear to God if they make my MC sit in Michael’s lap one more goddamn time instead of the other way around I will actually die on the spot), but it’s a lot less… glaring here. And frankly, I prefer it that way. Leave the NSFW bits (if any) of their relationships up to interpretation.

Sixth, its relevance to its past installment, AKA the original High School Story mobile game.

For the most part, I think it bridges pretty well with HSS Prime. I actually played Choices HSS before I heard about and downloaded the Prime game, and even then, I found all of the returning Prime characters like Julian, Mia, Ezra, Payton, Koh, etc. to be really memorable. Even Nishan and Sakura, who barely had relevance in the trilogy, were endearing to me. Hence going into the Prime game was like delving into the HSS lore and getting “The Origin Story” of the seniors and the school.

Heck, I’d even say some of the characters– Julian, Mia, Koh, and Sakura in particular– got a bit of upgrade in Choices, being more mature from how they were in Prime. Honest to God, stuff like Julian’s over-machoness and Mia’s snobbishness could get pretty grating in Prime. While the Prime versions were obviously all more fleshed-out characters, seeing them the way they are in Choices is sort of like seeing how far they’ve come from how they were in Prime. Which I think is a pretty neat way for us to see them off as they’re about to graduate.

Returning for a second HSS playthrough after playing a fair amount of the Prime game, I was later able to notice all the Easter Eggs that showed up in the OG trilogy- Wes and Autumn’s history, Koh’s relationship with her grandma, Koh’s love for buffalo wings, etc. They were able to keep the two very connected, while still allowing OG to be able to stand on its own two feet.

I also love how they make it so that the switch from the old MC and cast to the new MC and cast feels justified. The writers knew that taking HSS to Choices would need to be welcoming to both old and new fans, and to try and make the Choices trilogy continue the story of the Prime MC probably would have made that a bit more difficult. So they write off the Prime MC as having graduated the year prior and sort of set up the implication that the new cast was being “passed down the torch to unify Berry and take on Hearst”. Which works because it maintains some grounded relevance to the HSS franchise, but doesn’t alienate the fans who are new to HSS.

It’s not perfect and it did have its shortcomings, but for the most part, it did feel like it was truly a part of HSS.

Of course, the trilogy as a whole isn’t without its flaws. There are actually quite a handful of problems ranging from minor nitpicky general Choices problems to a couple that are pretty glaring. I think I’m gonna make a separate post for that, so stay tuned for “Everything right and wrong with each of the HSS Books”. But for the most part, they don’t really bring down the series all that much.

Overall, I definitely consider this one of the best Choices series. It’s fun, escapist, immersive, a lot of your choices actually fucking matter, and it’s a good continuation of the HSS franchise.

#choices stories you play #choices #choices game #choices stories we play fandom #high school story #choices stories we play #hss #choices hss #choices high school story #cadybear's choices reviews

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medea10 · 2 years

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My Review of Princess Sara

And now I return for more World Masterpiece Theater.

Today’s classic is something I’m somewhat familiar with. The series is loosely based on the novel titled, “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. There were several adaptations for film and television throughout the past several decades including a Shirley Temple film in the late 1930’s, an Americanized version in the 90s, and about a bajillion Filipino adaptations. The one I’m most familiar with was the one that came out in 1995. I remember this film very well as it was played a lot in my youth and as an adult, I would come across it from time to time on HBO or some other station playing it. It was fine and all, but I knew that this film took artistic liberties and changed around a lot from the novel.

After watching several of these World Masterpiece Theater animes, I’ve come to realize that these series are pretty damn accurate when it comes to capturing the original source material. I mean yes, Les Mis took a lot of liberties to remove several characters from being killed off, but it was still top tier best version. All of these animes have to take a few liberties as they are all G-Rated. But they’re still very good nevertheless. I was curious about this particular story for the longest time and thought it was high-time I sit down and watch the anime version.

Sara Crewe and her father arrive in London from India. Back home, Sara was treated a lot like a princess and she acted like one. Not the bad kind, the Princess Diana kind, she’s a sweetheart. Sara is about to be admitted to a boarding school, Miss Minchin’s all-girl’s boarding school that is! Once at school, Sara was beloved by most of the students and praised by teachers due to her academic skills. On top of which, her father is loaded! Yeah, her father is in the diamond business back in India and so he has enough money to keep her daughter happy.

Unfortunately, when Sara’s father dies news also comes that the family is bankrupt leaving Sara without a penny to her name. Surely Miss Minchin will care for the poor orphan girl, right? Ha, I already know this story. Miss Minchin strips Sara of her education, clothes, and housing. Even though she tossed around the idea of casting the orphaned girl to the streets, Miss Minchin takes pity on the girl. Sara will live in a cold attic and work as a scullery maid. Sara is to do as she’s told by her higher-ups, never talk with the other students, and must work until she pays off her debts to Miss Minchin.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: As I’ve mentioned in the past, only a few of the World Masterpiece Theater animes were dubbed into English. And this was one of them…sorta! Our good friends at Animax did one. And if you’re unfamiliar, this is the company from Southeast Asia that dubs anime into English. And if that still doesn’t ring a bell, look up the Cardcaptor Sakura dub and you’ve got your answer. As usual, this anime has made its way across the globe to many different countries and territories. Apparently, it was a big hit in the Philippines. So much so that there’s a plethora of memes surrounding this one series! As for the cast, it’s a mixture of veteran voice actors that are still voicing today, lesser-known voices, and one-timers. And as this is a part of the World Masterpiece Theater collection, some voice actors here were heard in other works throughout the years like Naoko Watanabe and Eiko Yamada. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

*Sara is played by Sumi Shimamoto (known for Okita’s sister on Gintama, Kanata on Lucky Star, Ishizu on YGO, and Flora on Berserk 2016)

*Becky is played by Teiyuu Ichiryuusai (known for Masao on Crayon Shin-chan)

*Miss Minchin is played by Taeko Nakanishi

DISLIKED CHARACTERS: Oh-ho-ho, I knew going in that I was going to hate two specific characters! Those two are Lavinia and Miss Minchin. Though when I watched the movie, it was more of a hatred for Miss Minchin overall and Lavinia was a passing thought. Has this anime changed my thoughts on these two?

Right from the starting gate, they are both detestable and will continue to be that.

Lavinia is a snot-nosed brat who gets jealous every time Sara gets attention from the teachers. But the greatest injustice done to Lavinia was that Miss Minchin took Lavinia’s role of class rep and gave it to Sara. So the bitch was butt-hurt. But when Sara’s father died and she loses her wealth, Lavinia showed absolutely no sadness. In fact, she was the only person in the room smiling. What a bitch! And when Sara became a scullery maid for the seminary, Lavinia made sure to screw around with Sara by any means necessary. She gets a kick from making the poor girl suffer or get yelled at. Seriously, every time you see this snot-nosed brat glare at Sara I’m screaming, “JUST LEAVE THE POOR GIRL ALONE!”

Thank God there was a second of peace. Lavinia’s father learned that Sara was once a student but is now a scullery maid and Lavinia being so insistent that Sara become her personal maid. He slapped the freckles off that bitch’s face. Give that father a cash prize and a trophy! Mind you I said one second of peace. The next episode she was right back giving Sara (and Becky) a hard time. Lavinia does so much to Sara that I can’t believe Sara managed to remain civil throughout the entire ordeal.

And as for Miss Minchin, she’s had it out for Sara from minute one. But because her father was wealthy, she decided to use Sara to show off to high society people. And the brewing point for Miss Minchin to vow vengeance against Sara was because Sara hid the fact that she was fluent in French. The audacity of this bitch! But again, because of Sara’s father, she sucked up. Miss Minchin’s true colors came out in front of Sara when it’s learned of her father’s death and failed diamond business. No pity on the girl who just lost everything. She was ready to throw her out on the street, but was begged by others to keep her as a maid.

Miss Minchin would be terrible to Sara. She physically abused her, starved her, forced her to live in unlivable conditions, and had the other workers (Molly and James) work her like a slave. One of the worst moments was when Sara got severely ill. Never mind pushing Sara to the point of illness, this woman had to think for a moment to get a credible doctor to look at her. She got the cheapest, drunkest doctor they could find who misdiagnosed her. Miss Minchin even thought about sending Sara to a sanitorium if this persists. Bitch, I can’t even with you! At least in this version, Miss Minchin never sent the police on Sara. Of the three versions to this story I’ve watched, I think this Miss Minchin was the cruelest. Only because we do witness her slapping Sara several times!

SHIPPING: I know I shouldn’t be shipping anyone with anybody. Most of the people in this story are young. VERY YOUNG! As for the adults, there were no romantic interests for anyone here. It’s plainly clear that Miss Minchin is going to die a spinster. None of the teachers had secret relationships with some guy like in the Shirley Temple version. And Miss Amelia didn’t run off with the milk man like in the 1995 version! None of that went down in this adaptation.

With that said…

Peter x Sara is cute! I would support the hell out of this even though it probably isn’t canon.

ACCURATE OR NOT: So let’s see if Princess Sara really stacks up to the novel “A Little Princess”.

*Oh-ho-ho, time to nail my childhood to a wall. As you know, I’m well familiar with the 1995 rendition of A Little Princess. If you’re like me and know this film from start to finish, get ready to have the balloon pop. Becky’s not black. The story takes place in London, not New York City. The story really takes place in the late 1800s, not World War I times. Ralph Crewe didn’t leave his daughter to fight in a war. And finally the most important fact, Ralph Crewe remains dead. Most of the things I mentioned here were used correctly in this adaptation.

*There are some new characters added to the series. And quite frankly, I’m not entirely sure who these people are. Except for the animals! With the exception of Ram Dass’s monkey, I don’t think Miss Minchin’s cat Cesar nor the family of rats exist.

*Most things in this anime are pretty accurate to the original source. But there’s a good chance that most of the episodes were either fabricated or stretched out to fit the running time. You know, fillers! Call me crazy, but I don’t think the book had chapters involving a Halloween party. Same goes for that episode where Amelia opens up to Sara about her past with her sister.

*It is unknown how long this experience for Sara lasts anime-wise. In the book, Sara’s time at Miss Minchin’s seminary was approximately 2 years. The way I see it, I don’t think Sara was a scullery maid for more than a year in the anime. If she were, we would have probably gotten an episode of Sara celebrating her first birthday without her father.

ENDING: Around episode 30, the home next to Miss Minchin’s seminary was sold to a gentleman from India named Mr. Carrisford. He was able to survive a gnarly bout with Jungle Fever, although now he’s confined to a wheel chair. But Mr. Carrisford has an overwhelming sense of guilt due to how things went down in India. See, he convinced his long-time friend to go into business with him involving a diamond mine. But the friend died from his Jungle Fever, leaving behind a daughter and a whole legal battle involving bankruptcy.

In case you’re not keeping up, Mr. Carrisford’s friend is Ralph Crewe, Sara’s father. Sara is just several feet from the gentleman who can save her from the living hell of Miss Minchin’s seminary.

But Medea, we’ve got over 15 episodes left!

Correct, dipshit! Mr. Carrisford doesn’t remember a lot, probably due to the Jungle Fever. He doesn’t remember Ralph’s daughter’s name. And he forgot where Sara was sent for her education. In fact, he was way off. Mr. Carrisford had his friend travel by boat to France in search for this girl. So I’m sitting here episode-after-episode screaming at the screen, “SHE’S RIGHT THERE, YOU IDIOT”. But because of Sara’s friendship with Ram Dass (Carrisford’s caretaker), he saw to it to repay Sara for her kindness. Ram Dass would spend days and nights going to the attic to give Sara warm blankets, clothes, and food. Sara thought it was a magic spell or a guardian angel looking out for her. It wasn’t long before Miss Minchin saw these special items in the attic and threw Sara out to sleep in a horse stable.

Things only get worse from here when one night the stable catches on fire and Sara almost burned to death. And then she gets blamed by Miss Minchin for starting the fire! This is the one and only time I’ve ever seen Sara stand up to Miss Minchin as she was not at fault. I know it’d be asking too much to have Sara tell Miss Minchin to fuck off, but this was big for Sara to stand up for herself. In actuality, Lottie accidentally dropped a candle when she was scared by (you guessed it) Lavinia and her friends. But no, Miss Minchin jumped to every wrong conclusion and threw Sara out of the seminary. Fortunately, Sara was taken in by Peter and his family and she was even able to get a job like many of the other children in the area.

Sara’s going to be a little match girl!

This anime hurts to watch. This anime hurts a lot.

Thankfully Sara’s stint as a little match girl was short-lived as Miss Amelia came looking for her and brought her back to the seminary. The only reason behind that is because there was a big care package addressed to Sara. Miss Minchin made it very clear that she still despises Sara. But Minchin flips her light-switch when she sees the care package contained beautiful clothing and such. Because she thought Sara was being watched by a wealthy and anonymous family member, she allows Sara to live in the attic and attend classes instead of doing chores with Becky. She goes back to kissing her ass. Again, the audacity of this bitch!

Moving back to Mr. Carrisford’s dilemma! He sent his solicitor to France in search of Ralph Crewe’s daughter. He returned with no such luck of a daughter. Then, they decide to hone their search to right here in England because this is where Ralph was from. Thankfully, fate intervened before they start another grand search as Sara came by the home to return Ram Dass’s monkey. Here it is, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Sara meeting Mr. Carrisford! He learns Sara knows some Hindu and grew up in India. He put 2+2 together and realized the girl from next door he’s been secretly helping was really Ralph Crewe’s daughter all along!

When Miss Minchin went next door to retrieve Sara, she was in for the shock of her life. Carrisford is going to adopt Sara. The diamond mine that was rumored to be a bust, was really fortuitous. Sara’s debts are wiped away. Not only is she inheritor to her father’s share, but she will also obtain Carrisford’s share when he passes (he has no heir of his own). And to top it off, he knows about the abuse of Sara so Sara is going to live next door instead of a creaky attic. You know, it’s not nice to kick people while their down. But fuck that, this bitch has needed a royal-ass beat down since episode one. Time for Miss Minchin’s sister to have her say!

MISS AMELIA: Throughout these 40-odd episodes, she is seen as the submissive sister, doing whatever Miss Minchin says. Amelia just stands there looking concerned every, single, fucking episode and does fucking nothing! She sees Sara suffering in silence with a smile on her face and says nothing to her sister. She even goes a step beyond that by begging Sara to forgive her sister several episodes prior to this very moment. We do get some light shed on Miss Minchin and Amelia’s past about how Miss Minchin worked odd jobs to take care of Amelia due to lack of parents. Not sure if this is really true or not, so I’m leaving it off my accuracy list. When Miss Minchin returns to the seminary and tells her sister what went down with Mr. Carrisford, Miss Amelia let her sister have it.

It was a long-time coming and I can understand a person like Amelia letting loose. Some people hold it in for so long until they’re filled to the top and explode. I’m one of those people, so again, I can relate in a way. Amelia spent this whole time contemplating whether to speak up about Sara’s abuse by her own sister or to shut up and do what her sister says. Hearing about Mr. Carrisford taking Sara snapped Amelia and she had a total breakdown. And all I can say is, “Bravo”! Amelia was absolutely right and I’m glad Miss Minchin heard it. It was all her fault. And if the seminary closes because people hear about Sara’s abuse, it’ll be all her fault.

BACK TO THE CONCLUSION: Fortunately for Miss Minchin, Sara is kind and forgiving. She had Mr. Carrisford give a sizable donation to Miss Minchin’s seminary. Miss Minchin was a notorious penny-pincher, so this should settle her. Sara gets quite the happy ending as she gets to live with Mr. Carrisford and still go to school. She has Becky become her personal maid. All of Sara’s belongings that were taken away when Ralph died are returned to her on Christmas. A little starving girl she helped early in the series has a happy ending as well. And we end with Sara and her new family go back to India. It’s for 4 months to settle things on the Crewe estate, but she’ll be back.

At least when she comes back, Lavinia won’t be there. Good riddance! At least they come to some sort of truce.

No matter what version of A Little Princess you watch, it’s always going to be a tough watch. Because of the size of this series, it can sometimes be too hard to watch. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good story where a character takes on adversity and struggles. But there comes a time when struggle just becomes borderline torture-porn. You know those stories where the hero has to go through so much pain and agony and eventually get some sort of satisfied conclusion. The anime The Rising of the Shield Hero and the movie Precious comes to mind. Thank God Sara never had to endure what Precious did. Still bad though! At least with the movie adaptations to Princess Sara, we only watch Sara’s struggles for like, what, an hour or maybe less. This is over 30 episodes of watching this girl get abused. That’s 23 minutes per episode, mind you! Not just from Miss Minchin, but the cooks and one smarmy brat who has a vendetta. All the while, you’re telling yourself, “Dude, you know this story and it’s going to get better”. But it’s not an easy watch! There are scenes where you just wish they’d leave Sara alone or just wish for things to get better.

Is this my favorite adaptations of A Little Princess? Hmm…I don’t know! I really liked this version of the story, but I still have an attachment to the 1995 film. Granted, the animation is always a bit of a drawback when it comes to these animes. But I have to cut some slack as this was mid-1980s here. If you were a fan of this story, whether you saw the 1995 film, the Shirley Temple film, or any of the other adaptations out there, I give a recommendation. Track this down and give it a watch.

Okay Randomizer-kun, I’m giving you another shot. Please don’t give me an obscure hentai to watch in place of this.

Oh thank God, another Nippon animation!

#anime review #a little princess #princess sara #sara crewe #ralph crewe #miss minchin #becky #amelia minchin #lavinia herbert #peter #a little princess sara

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hellzabeth · 3 years

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i have opinions about The Prince of Egypt musical adaption and you’re going to listen to them: An Essay

So, quick disclaimer: The Prince of Egypt is one of my favourite movies of all time. The casting, the music, the animation, I think it’s one of the top-tier movies that have ever been made. I went into seeing the London West End production of PoE with a full expectation that nothing I saw on stage would ever live up to how much I love the movie. I was fully aware there are plenty of limitations to what can be shown live on a stage with human actors and props.

That being said, I was enormously disappointed with how the whole thing was handled.

The Good

Now before I launch into a whole tirade of what I didn’t like about the production, it does behoove me to say what I think they did do well.  

The casting of the role of Moses was done fantastically, as was Miriam, Tzipporah, and Yocheved. The swings and the ensemble were really engaged and well placed, going through lots of quick changes to go from Hebrews to Egyptians to Midianites and back. 

The two Egyptian queens, wifes of Seti and Ramses, are actually given names, lines, and character beyond being simply tacked onto their respective kings. We get to see how they feel about the events happening around them, and there’s even a scene where Ramses meets his wife and courts her, whereas in the movie, she stands in the background and says nothing. This is one of the areas I was hoping the musical, which would naturally have a longer run-time, would expand on, and I was pleased to see the opportunity was taken.

Light projections on enormous curtains were used to very good effect, taking us instantly inside the walls of the palace and then out to the desert.  

Over all, the work was really put in to be engaging and emotional, and the orchestra really worked to deliver the right musical beats. 

One of two stand out scenes as being done very well was the opening “Deliver Us”, which included a bone-chilling moment of Egyptians separating a mother and her baby, with her screams as she’s dragged off-stage, and the blood on the guard’s sword. It really brings home the fear as Yocheved tries to lead Aaron and Miriam to the river with her, not to mention Yocheved’s actress nailed the lullaby.  

The second was at the other end of the show, “When You Believe” was beautifully performed by the whole cast, though it was somewhat stunted by what came before...

The Bad

Oh boy.

So the main problem with this show is not the music, not the staging, not even that sometimes the ensemble was a little off-beat (the lai-lai-lai section in Though Heaven’s Eyes comes to mind). Any mistakes there can all be forgiven, since sometimes things just happen in live performance, someone’s a bit off or something’s just not possible to do on the budget allotted.  

The problem is in the script.

The Prince of Egypt movie is a story that stands not only on the shoulders of its fantastic music and visuals, but also on its emotive retelling and portrayal of the characters within - mainly Moses and Ramses. And while the stage musical does spend a lot of time with the two mains, it neglects two other, incredibly important characters.

Pharaoh Seti, and God.  

In the movie, Seti strikes an intimidating figure. He is old, hardened, and wise in the ways of ruling his kingdom - and is voiced by Patrick Stewart, who brings his A-game to the role. Both Moses and Ramses admire him and look up to him immensely as young men, and the relationship he has with both of them deeply informs their characters as the story progresses. It’s from Seti that Moses learns that taking responsibility for your actions is the respectable thing to do (and later, the true horror of having your idol turn out to be not what you think), and it’s from Seti that Ramses takes a huge inferiority complex.

There are two lines that Seti gets in the movie, one spoken to Moses, and one to Ramses. These two lines define Moses and Ramses’ actions later on in the story:

To Ramses - “One weak link can break the chain of a mighty dynasty!” To Moses - “Oh my son... they were only slaves.”

Guess which two lines are absent from the musical?

One Weak Link is turned into an upbeat song, rather than shouted at a terrified and cowed young Ramses. Instead of being openly a traumatic, internalised moment of negative character development for Ramses, it’s treated as a general philosophy that Seti passes down to his son. Instead of a judgement that is hung over Ramses’ head like a sword of Damocles, lingering in his mind through the whole story and coming up in a shouted argument with Moses later, it’s said and then moved on from.  

The “they were only slaves” comment, on the other hand, is absent entirely. This changes Moses’ relationship with Seti enormously, as well as his relationship with the Hebrew people. Upon finding the mural depicting the killing of the slave children, Moses is appropriately horrified, and Seti shows up to comfort him and defend his terrible actions. Moses leaves this interaction... and then sings about how this is indeed all he ever wanted! He has no moment of horrific realisation that his father thinks of the slaves as lesser, as lives that can be thrown away. This means that the scene where he kills the guard doesn’t lead into a discussion of morality with Ramses as he runs away, but rather Moses breaking down about his heritage as though it’s a negative, instead of something he’s realised is just as valuable as his life as an Egyptian. Instead of Moses being shown as having a strong moral core that protests against the idea of any life being lesser, he bemoans his Hebrew blood loudly, and makes little mention of the man he killed. His issue that causes him to run away is being adopted, rather than his guilt that he’s a murderer, and nothing Ramses can say will change it.

Later on, we don’t see Ramses express this opinion either (in the movie - M:”Seti’s hands bore the blood of thousands of children!” R:“Hah, slaves!” M:“My people!”) so it seems the core reasoning for the necessity of the extremes God had to go to in order to convince Ramses to let the Hebrews go is completely gone.

Which leads us into God Himself, as a character.  

God is a tricky topic in general. He is hard to talk about as a concept and as a character, and even harder to depict in a way that won’t offend someone. The Prince of Egypt movie always struck me as a very good depiction of the Old Testament God - vengeful and strong-willed, commanding and yet nurturing, capable of great mercy and great cruelty in one fell swoop. God is incredibly present in the story, a character in and of Himself, speaking with Moses rather than simply commanding him. The conversation at the Burning Bush is bone-chillingly beautiful. Moses is allowed to question, he’s allowed to enquire, he’s allowed to express how he feels about God’s choice, and God is given the chance to respond (and reprimand, and comfort).

In the musical, the Burning Bush scene lasts all of two minutes, during which God (the ensemble cast, acting as one moving flame, speaking in unison) monologues to Moses, and Moses is not given room to question, talk to, or build a relationship with God. Later on, once some of the plagues have gotten underway, Moses rails against God, flinches in his resolve, and tries to back out... and God says nothing. It’s Miriam and the spirit of Yocheved that convince Moses to keep going. As a character, God is nearly absent. Even when it comes to calling upon the Plagues, or parting the Red Sea, God’s voice is absent. Moses does not pray. He does not even use the staff that God encouraged him to pick up as a symbol of his becoming a shepherd of the Hebrews out of Egypt.  

It’s these little changes, these little absences of such vital lines and presences, that ends up changing the whole vibe of the show. Seti is more like a dad than an emotionally distant authority figure, and God is more like an emotionally distant authority figure than a character at all. Ultimately, the whole feeling that one is left with at the end…

The Ugly

… is that the script doesn’t like God, or religion in general.

A bold statement to make, considering the source material is one of the central biblical stories in EVERY Abrahamic religion. Moses as a figure is considered so important and close to god, that The Prince of Egypt, even with its sensitive portrayal, cannot be aired in a number of Islamic states, because it’s considered disrespectful to depict any of the prophets, especially an important one like Moses. Moses is arguably the MOST important prophet in the Jewish canon.

However, I haven’t highlighted one of the most noticeable script changes - the elevation of Hotep, the high priest, to main antagonist.

In the original movie, Hotep is a secondary villain, a crony to the Pharaohs, bumbling and snide and two-faced. He and his fellow priest Hoy are there primarily to juxtapose how charlatans can control power through flattery and slight of hand, reassuring Ramses that Moses’ miracles are merely magic the same as what they can do. They even get a whole villain song, “Playing With The Big Boys” which is a lovely deconstruction of lyrics vs visuals, where while the priests boast that their gods and magic are much more powerful, in the background the staff, transformed into a snake by god, devours and defeats the priests’ snake handily. The takeaway from the song is that God’s power is true, and doesn’t need theatrics.

It’s a good little nugget of wordless world building. And it is completely absent from the stage musical, with only a vague reference to the chant of all the gods names.

Hoy is gone, and Hotep is the only priest. He actively speaks out against the Pharaoh, boasts about having all the power, and is played as bombastic and proud. He’s a wildly different character, even threatening Ramses at one point. In the end, it’s shown that Ramses won’t let the Hebrews go not because he has inherited his father Seti’s cruel attitude towards the lives he considers beneath him, but because he is being actively bullied by the priest, and will lose his power and credibility if he doesn’t do as he’s told. Ramses is even given a whole song about how little power he really has. The script desperately wants us to feel sorry for Ramses’ position and hate the unrepentantly, cartoonishly evil priest.

That’s another matter as well - a LOT of time is dedicated to making the Egyptians more human and sympathetic, portraying them as largely ignorant of the suffering beneath them, rather than actively participating in slavery. Characters speak out of turn without regard for formality and class, even to the royal family. They are casual, chummy even. And this would be fine - in fact, it’s good to have that sort of third dimension to characters, even ones who are doing reprehensible things, to show the total normalcy and banality of evil - if it were not for the fact they still include a completely open-and-shut case of evil right next to them.

Hotep has no redeeming features. And on the other side, God is barely present, certainly not in a relatable context. Moses has several lines about how cruel and unnecessary God’s plagues are - and you know what, in this version, they are unnecessary! Ramses is not the stone-hearted ruler that his movie counterpart is, he has no baggage over being a potential failure, because it was never really given to him in the same way! By taking away Ramses’ threatening nature, numbers like the Plagues lose half their appeal, as the back-and-forth ‘you who I called brother’ lines between Moses and Ramses are completely absent. Moses is faithless, and is less torn between the horror of what he’s doing and the necessity of it for the freedom of his people, and more left scrabbling for meaning that he doesn’t find. And the only thing hanging over Ramses is Hotep nit-picking everything he does and threatening him, which is considerably less compelling than the script seems to think it is.

This is best exemplified at the end, when all the issues come to a head. The angel of Death comes and takes the Egyptian first borns (which was actually a well done scene), and the Hebrews leave to a rousing rendition of When You Believe. But then we cut to Ramses and Hotep, with Hotep openly threatening to revolt against the Pharaoh - whom was believed, especially by the priesthood, to be a living god! Hotep is so devoid of redeeming features he cannot even be trusted to stand by his beliefs! - unless Ramses agrees to chase after the Hebrews. Reluctantly, Ramses is badgered into the attempt.

Back with the Hebrews, Moses parts the Red Sea… not with his faith, not by praying to God for another miracle, not even by using his staff as in the most famous scene of the movie… but by holding out his hand and demanding the ‘magic’ work. Setting aside the disrespect of Abrahamic religions to call one of the most famous miracles “magic” (and my oh my, if there was a fundamentalist of any religion in the audience they might have gasped to hear it), it again belittles the work of God, and puts all the onus on Moses, not as a conduit for God’s work, but as the worker himself. Then, the Egyptians arrive in pursuit, lead by Hotep, not Ramses. Moses sends the Hebrews through first, lead by Miriam, and stays behind with Tzipporah… to offer his life in penance to Ramses! The script has completely stripped both Ramses and Moses of their convictions towards their causes, and Moses cannot even stand by his decision to lead his people.

Then, in a moment of jarring melodrama, Moses has a sudden vision that Ramses, his brother, will one day be called Ramses the Great (an actual historical Pharaoh who reigned 1279-1213 BCE). There is no historical evidence that this was the Ramses that ruled over the Hebrews (there are 11 Pharaohs called Ramses through the history of Ancient Egypt), and maybe if the scene was acted a little better, it wouldn’t have been so sudden or jarring. Even more jarring, is that then Hotep arrives with the rest of the army, and Ramses refuses to lead the charge into the parted sea. Hotep does so himself, and is the one to have the final dramatic moment, being crushed under the water.

The Takeaway

After watching the show, I’m afraid I could never recommend it as either a play, an adaption, or even as a faithful retelling of a bible story. Its character drama isn’t compelling enough to be good as a standalone play, with it two main characters declawed and their core motivations reduced to a squabble between brothers rather than a grand interplay between two cultures and ideas and trauma handed down from their father. As an adaption of the movie it’s upsettingly bad, with grand numbers like the Plagues rendered piecemeal and fan favourites like Playing With The Big Boys missing entirely. As a retelling of the bible story, it’s insulting, completely cutting God out of the equation, taking no opportunity to reintroduce Aaron as an important character (which he was, in the bible, as Moses was a notoriously bad public speaker, with a stutter, and Aaron often interpreted for him) and more importantly, completely erasing God’s influence from the narrative.

I don’t know who this show was… for, in that case. If it wasn’t for drama lovers, movie fans, or people of the faith, then who the hell was it for? Why change such a critically acclaimed and well-beloved story? Why take away all these defining moments? If you wanted to tell a story about how religion is the true evil, how God can command people to do terrible things, and how those who uphold organised religion like Hotep are unrepentant, one-dimensional monsters… why would you tell that through the Prince of Egypt?

Underwhelming at best, infuriating at worst… just watch the movie. Or read Exodus. At least the Bible’s free.

#the prince of egypt #the prince of egypt musical #PoE #review #essay

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shinonometrash · 3 years

Text

💕🍄The 12 Days of Ayumu 🍄💕

JULY 17TH!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYUMU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AYUMU 😭💕😭💕😭💕 Doing all this translating has done nothing except make me miss him even more 😭 But!!! Today is the big day!! And so we have the thing I’ve been saving for last!!!! The absolutely cutest Ayumu story I think I’ve ever read !!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I wanted to cry when I read it it was so sweet I love him so much sdfgnkjkjnfg

I was a lot more creative with translating this story to make it sound more fun and natural, since I’m finally getting comfortable enough to start doing that, I really hope you guys enjoy it !!

it’s pretty long, so I’m putting it under a readmore

Ayumu Shinonome: Happy Birthday ♡

technically this story is about Ayumu celebrating our birthday, rather than about celebrating his, but...

In the S ward is one of the most popular downtown areas in Tokyo.

2PM —

Middle schooler: Hey, look at that guy over there

Middle schooler 2: Oh my gosh, yeah!

Middle schooler: He’s a host, don’t you think?

Middle schooler 2: He’s definitely a host!

(…No, you’re wrong.)

(I’m just wearing a formal suit.)

Middle schooler: Eek…this is the first time I’ve seen a host in real life!

Middle schooler 2: I guess that’s the norm around here, we are in Tokyo after all!

Thanks to the middle school students who seem to be in the middle of a field trip, I now see the passersby struggling to contain their laughter.

(This couldn’t get any worse. Ugh, this sucks.)

(Really. I was already reluctant enough to do this as is…)

Speaking of which—

MC: Ayumuuuu~!

At last, the reason for all of this torture has arrived.

MC: Sorry! Did I keep you waitin-…

MC: !!!

(Uh…is she okay?)

MC: Ayumu, you…you look…so hot…

MC: Ahh, you look amazing!!

Ayumu: Dummy!! Keep your voice down!

(If she says something like that too loudly…)

Middle schooler: Oh no, look! He’s got a customer…

Middle schooler 2: She must be a huge regular…

Ayumu: …gah, come on, let’s go.

MC: Huh? Already?

MC: I haven’t changed into my pumps yet…

Ayumu: It’s fine, come on! Hurry up!

MC: Ahh, hold up! I came all this way so at least let me put my arm around yours…

MC: Gahh, slow down! You’re walking way too fast!

MC: Ayuumuuuuuu!

This all started about two weeks ago.

MC: Ayumu! Look! This is what I was talking about!

Ayumu: Eh…? Scary…

Fresh out of the bath, my girlfriend suddenly plops down on the ground.

Ayumu: …What

Ayumu: Don’t tell me you broke my limited edition Tyrannosaurus mug…

MC: No, no, that’s not it!

MC: It has to do with this year’s KappaMC Birthday Celebration!

Ayumu: Gross

Ayumu: You’re creating your own birthday celebration…?

MC: It’s a great idea, isn’t it!

MC: I see this kind of thing a lot on social media!

Ayumu: Even so, you’re not supposed to post that about yourself

Ayumu: That sort of tag is made by enthusiastic fans…

MC: Well then, I’ll ask you to do it, Ayumu! Since you should be my biggest fan!

MC: Pleaaase do it with me~?

MC: Take me on a date in a formal suit please!

Nonsense, I thought. At the time.

However, at a later date…

Toru: Ahh~ This seems to be real popular these days! Suit men

Ayumu: …what?

Toru: If you search anywhere on social media sites, you’ll get tons of hits~

Toru: Guys uploading selfies in suits

…I don’t get it.

What’s so fun about showing off a suit?

(Although, she did say something the other day about wanting to go on a date with me in a formal suit..)

Ayumu: Frivolous. Completely.

Toru: Noo, you just need to choose the right place to go!

Toru: Shall the Great Toru offer you some guidance~?

Ayumu: No thanks. There’s no way that’s ever happening…

Toru: Hm, well I don’t know what kind of person your partner is, but—

Toru: Sometimes it’s important to spice things up a bit so that you don’t fall into a rut!

Ayumu: …

Toru: Again, I really have noo idea who your partner is buuuut

Toru: I think women who like that sort of thing would be really happy~

Ayumu: …

(…bah. He’s probably right.)

(She does seem like she’d like that sort of thing…)

That’s why I decided to title it “The Extraordinary Production”

I end up regretting this as soon as we start stage one—meeting up downtown.

(Ah, well, at least I won’t feel as out of place at the next stage.)

Yes, and the next stage is—

MC: Look! Look! Ayumu! The view outside is sooooooo pretty!!

Ayumu: Ah, I see.

(Naturally. We are on the 38th floor.)

By the way, the seats here are filled almost full.

Of them, about half are reservations.

MC: Whoaaa, did you see?? This afternoon tea set!!

MC: The tea stand! It has five tiers! Five!!

Ayumu: Ah, I see.

MC: Hey, at least act more surprised!

MC: Fives tiers? This is the first time, for me at least, that I’ve ever seen anything like this!

(…yeah, I suppose it would be)

I say this because—

Toru: How’s this place look?

Toru: “Enjoy some luxury afternoon tea on the top floor of a high rise tower”

Toru: Whoa, the tea stand, it’s got five tiers!

Ayumu: Ah, I see.

Toru: Ugh, what kind of response was that!

Toru: Are you even listening?? The tea stand has five tears!!

Toru: Isn’t that alone pretty much a win right there?

Ayumu: I don’t get it.

Toru: In a date, it’s either a win or a loss…

Soma: But doesn’t it seem likely that it would make his date happy?

Ayumu: !

Soma: Women who are particular about food will also care about how many tiers of sweets there are, will they not?

Soma: Glutto-no, women who eat everything with enthusiasm,

Soma: I think they would be very pleased with a five tiered tea stand.

Ayumu: Haa…

MC: What should I do?? My heart is beating so fast, I’m so excited…

MC: I don’t think I’ll be able to eat all five tiers…

Ayumu: If it’s you, you’ll be fine.

Ayumu: …since you’re a glutton.

MC: Huh? What did you just say right now…?

Ayumu: Nothing, don’t worry about it.

Seeing the waiter passing by, I raise my hand to get their attention.

Waiter: Did you decide what you would like to order?

Ayumu: The afternoon tea set for two people, please.

Ayumu: The original black tea blend.

Waiter: Understood, thank you.

As soon as the waiter walks away, I purposely sigh dramatically.

Ayumu: So noisy

MC: Wha-…I didn’t even sa-

Ayumu: Your stare

Ayumu: It feels like you’re trying to stare into my soul or something since a while ago.

MC: …hey, b-but that….

MC: I mean! I can’t help it…

MC: You just look way too amazing today, it’s like my eyes are being sucked in…

Ayumu: …

(…what is she even saying, this girl)

Ayumu: This isn’t the first time you’ve seen me like this though, is it? In a suit?

MC: That’s true, but…today is special…

MC: You wore the suit for me, didn’t you?

MC: That automatically makes you look, like, 30% hotter!

MC: I’m just so happy, I can’t stop looking at you

Ayumu: ….I see.

There was a strange pause before I replied.

Probably because I was remembering the advice that Toru gave me.

Toru: You definitely need to be sure to always compliment your date’s outfit~

Ayumu: …wha?

Toru: Well, if you’re wearing a formal suit

Toru: Then your date should also be in formal wear, right?

Ayumu: that…well…

Toru: And so, you need to be sure to give your date lots of compliments!

Toru: Cause girls always put several times more effort into things like their makeup and hairstyle!

Ayumu: No, no, she doesn’t have me beat there

Ayumu: If we’re talking hairstyle, it’s definitely me…

Toru: Bah, well, saying things like “that looks great on you” or “you look pretty” is always a safe bet

Toru: And then…

Ayumu: You don’t—

MC: “I don’t”?

—“you don’t look too bad yourself, either”

That’s it. All I have to do is use what she said as an opportunity to compliment her back.

(So, come on. Say it.)

(Just light and natural.)

(Sound genuine about it…)

Ayumu: You don’t—

MC: Ah!!

Suddenly, my girlfriend jumps out of her chair as if remembering something.

MC: Sorry, is it okay if I go to the restroom for real quick?

MC: It’s…my shoes, I’m still wearing my sneakers

Ayumu: …

MC: No, I know already, you don’t have to tell me

MC: “You should’ve just worn your pumps from the beginning”

MC: That’s what you were about to say, right?

MC: But these shoes don’t quite fit right…

MC: “It’ll be fine if just change into them right before I meet up with Ayumu”…is what I had told myself

Ayumu: …

MC: I’ll just change into them real quick!!

Ayumu: …

(…This sucks.)

I just let a perfect chance that I’ll probably never see again slip by.

(No, it’s fine though.)

(It’s not like I absolutely HAVE to give her a compliment.)

That was just Toru’s opinion.

She didn’t specifically ask me to do it, or anything.

And so, from there, while I’m with my girl…

MC: Ahh, that was so delicious!

MC: The cake and the scones and the tea, they were all the best! Ayumu: …

MC: Oh, and the clotted cream too!

MC: It was the first time I’ve ever had it but it went surprisingly well with the scones~

MC: I wonder if they sell it at that other shop…

(…this is it.)

Her head is probably full of the afternoon tea we just had.

I want to make her happy…more than anything.

(But it’s impossible to compliment her when things are like this.)

I’ll just start by making a statement about what she’s wearing, but it’ll have a compliment at the end.

“I noticed your dress has lace on top of the turquoise fabric. It’s not bad.

“Those pumps must not be comfortable to wear. But they go nicely with the dress.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you wear this much makeup. It looks nice.”

(I’m psyching myself up too much, aren’t I?)

I guess it just goes to show how much I’ve been looking forward to this day, though.

MC: So where are we going next?

Ayumu: Anywhere is fine, as long as it only takes about an hour.

MC: Hm? What does that mean?

Ayumu: This.

I pull two tickets out of the breast pocket of my suit.

MC: Whaa…the opera??

Ayumu: It’s in about an hour from now. So we can’t go unless we go at that time.

(The idea wasn’t mine, though.)

Yes, this idea…

Toru: Hmm, what other places would be good to wear a formal suit to…

Toru: What about a luxury brand store?

Ayumu: Huh?

Toru: If you wear a businesswear vs a formal suit to a shop, the staff will treat you differently, right?

Toru: Because they’ll be acting even more polite to you

Toru: There’s no doubt that your date will feel like a celebrity!

Toru: Right, Goto?

Goto: Don’t touch me, I’m not responding to that.

Toru: And after you can take her to a fancy restaurant inside a hotel or a bar with a gorgeous night view!

Toru: Sure it might be a little cliche sounding, but it’ll certainly be something out of the ordinary that you won’t forget!

Toru: Hey, Gotooo!

Goto: Look, even if you touch me, I’m still not going to respo-

???: Aww, aren’t you guys sweet

Toru: …huh?

Tsugaru: Don’t you know this is the perfect time to go watch the opera?

Ayumu: ..……good afternoon. How long have you been there?

Tsugaru: Now that hardly matters, does it?

Tsugaru: More importantly, if you’re going to put all that effort into a date, you should go to the opera.

Tsugaru: It’s like a date specifically meant for formal wear, is it not~?

Tsugaru: Hmmm, but…

Tsugaru: It’s possible the person you’re planning to take on a date doesn’t understand the opera, though.

Ayumu: …I should first confirm whether that’s true or not, though

Ayumu: Hey, have you ever watched the opera?

MC: Uhhhh, that’s…

MC: Well, I’ve seen Phantom of the Opera…

Ayumu: That’s not the same thing

Ayumu: That’s just a musical.

MC: …well of course I know that much!

MC: So, this is a first

MC: It’ll be my “first time”!

Ayumu: Wait…do you hear that—

MC: I want my first time to be with you, Ayumu!

MC: So please, take my opera virginity—!

???: Ahhh!!

A sudden scream drowns out her playful chattering.

Woman: A purse snatcher…!!

Woman: Somebody, please! My bag!

(Seriously? A purse snatcher?)

Before I get a chance to confirm, she jumps into action.

She starts chasing the purse snatcher.

(Dummy! What is she doing??)

Purse snatcher: Damn it…!

The criminal escapes to the back alley at the end of the road. Of course, my girl isn’t the type to give up so easily.

MC: Stop right there!

While she chases after the purse snatcher, I enter the next alley.

If the criminal turns the corner here, I’m pretty sure I can cut him off.

Sure enough—

(…he came.)

MC: Ayumu!

Purse snatcher: Shit…!

I’m in front of the criminal, blocking his path, while she’s at his back. He turns around and rushes at her.

Purse snatcher: Move it!

MC: Just who do you think you are!!

Her next move is quite something. As the criminal charges at her, she swiftly grabs his right hand, twisting it behind his back and shoving him to the ground, planting her body weight on his back.

Purse snatcher: Ouch! Ow ow ow!

From there, we hand over the criminal to the authorities and all live happily ever after—

Or not.

MC: The interrogation took longer than I expected…

Ayumu: Yeah, it did

MC: But if we leave now we should be able to just barely make it in time…

???: Oh my gosh, look at her

I hear a whisper from a woman passing by.

Woman: Yikes, look at her, did she get into a fight?

Woman 2: Maybe she fell? There’s a hole in her stockings

The innocent exchange seems to have reached her ears.

MC: Oh…

There’s no denying that she looks beat up right now.

Her dress is dirty and the knees of her stockings have holes in them.

(Of course.)

(She had to straddle the criminal on the ground to secure him.)

However, her stockings aren’t the only thing that tore.

MC: I-I’m sorry, I’lll go change them right away…

Ayumu: The lace

MC: Huh?

Ayumu: The lace part on your dress, too

MC: !

Ayumu: Did it get caught on something? Like a nail?

Ayumu: When you were chasing after the purse snatcher

MC: …ah, yeah…

Seems I probably guessed right.

MC: I’m so sorry, I’ll go change into a new outfit…

MC: Ah…but, the time…

Ayumu: …

MC: Please just wait a second…I’ll figure it out someway or another…

MC: To change…I’ll just, I’ll go buy some new clothes…

Ayumu: It’s fine, the way it is now

Strangely, the words seem to just flow out of my mouth on their own accord

Ayumu: You don’t look bad

MC: Uhh…?

Ayumu: It doesn’t look bad, does it? How you look right now

It’s still the outfit she put so much effort into, just a bit worn out now.

Either way, it’s still very ‘KappaMC’-like.

(Really, it’s not bad.)

I run my hands through her messy hair to smooth it out.

She looks up at me, confused.

MC: Um…Ayumu…?

Ayumu: Let’s go

MC: Wait, I can’t go to the opera looking like this…

Ayumu: We’re not. Going to the opera, that is.

MC: What! No! Don’t say that!

MC: You already bought the tickets and everything…

Ayumu: Don’t worry about it, really, it’s okay.

Just a slight change in schedule.

Truthfully, I had planned on bringing her ‘here’ after the opera, anyway.

(Ah, but this timing actually isn’t bad at all, it works out well.)

Ayumu: Aren’t you coming?

MC: But…I look like a mess…

Ayumu: You look fine, don’t worry about it

Ayumu: I rented out the place

MC: Rented out??

MC: Here??

Startled, she looks around at the surroundings.

(Ah, well, it makes sense. Reacting that way.)

If I was in her position, I’d probably react the same way,

Ayumu: Your hand.

MC: Sorry?

Ayumu: Your left hand. Give it to me.

MC: Oh, um, alright…

I grabbed her nervously outstretched hand and led her to middle of the stairs.

(Finally.)

Now we just need to stand here for five more seconds.

Honestly, this is the most nerve wracking part of the whole day.

(But, well, it’s her birthday.)

(And it’s special.)

Ayumu: 3…2…1…

At the exact moment I point, balloons float up into the sky.

MC: Balloons??!

She watches as the balloons float upwards, eyes wide in surprise.

I use her distraction as an opportunity to pick up the bouquet I had hidden.

Ayumu: Happy birthday

Her mouth falls open wide in shock.

Yeah. It really isn’t like me to do this sort of thing.

But, the one who thought of this surprise, make no mistake, was me. I came up with it.

(This is a once in a year occasion, after all.)

(And I thought she would like it, if I did this.)

Ayumu: So? What do you think?

MC: … Ayumu: MC?

No reply.

(Uhh, what’s the status here?)

(Maybe I messed up…)

MC: A-a…yu…

(Ah-yoo…?)

MC: A-yu-muuuuu…!!

(Whoa wait just a-)

Ayumu: Oof

Sniffling, she throws her arms around me.

MC: I-I…j-just…nnnf, I’m…I’m so, nnnnff, so happy…I, nnnf, love it…s..so much..!!

MC: T-th…! This…surprise, nnnf, it…it’s…!!!

Ayumu: …

MC: P-plea…zz…please sta…stay with, nnnf, with me…fore…forever, nnnf…!!

Ayumu: …dummy.

Ayumu: I can’t understand what you’re saying.

That’s a lie.

Truthfully, I understand perfectly what she’s saying.

(“Stay with me.”)

I’ll stay with you, for the rest of our lives.

In return, don’t ever let go of me.

I did something today that I never would’ve even dreamed of doing before, all because you’ve changed me.

Ayumu: Happy birthday

MC: T-thank you…

Ayumu: So, what shall we do from here?

First, I have a room for us to stay at.

But after we check in, we can spend our time however we’d like until dinner time.

(Ah, no, but before that we need to change.)

(As you’d imagine, going to the restaurant looking like this would be…)

MC: …iss…

Ayumu: Hm?

MC: Kiss…I want to kiss you…

MC: From here on…with you, forever…

Ayumu: …

Ayumu: …dummy

I was asking about later today, but…

Is she asking for a kiss with a runny nose and a tear soaked face?

There’s a lot of things I want to say to that, but—

(Ah, well, it’s her birthday…)

Her lips taste salty, as expected.

But…I don’t hate it. Maybe I’ve gone crazy too.

MC: Thank you…

As we pulled away from the kiss she sniffled loudly.

MC: I, um, I feel like I’m dreaming…

MC: My head feels all fuzzy…

Ah, I see.

MC: I’m gonna…just you wait…!

MC: Next time it’s your birthday, I’m gonna think of an amazing surprise…!

Ayumu: No need to.

I have nothing but a bad feeling about that.

Ayumu: Seriously, don’t. Hard pass.

MC: …hmph, meanie!

MC: If this is how you feel, now I’m DEFINITELY going to plan something!!!

MC: Like making dinosaur balloons, or dinosaur 3D pancakes, or…

MC: Maybe I’ll rent out a whole museum…

MC: Mmph, mmm…

It’s really not necessary. Coming up with some sort of surprise.

(If you’re here with me.)

As long as you stay here next to me—

If we can kiss like this, then that’s enough for me.

-The End-

Isn’t that CG gorgeous??? And wasn’t that story soooo frickin adorable??? sbkhgkjadbf I have so many feelings about this 😭💕😭💕

And thank you so so so so sooo much to @world-a-to-z!! Like I’d mentioned at the start, I was never part of the Peach fanclub because I only started reading Ayumu’s stories almost exactly a year ago now. And so, I didn’t have access to this story. So what did this absolutely wonderful person do?? Transcribe this entire story in Japanese!!!! And then was kind enough to send it to me, along with the screenshots of the backgrounds (which were pretty necessary for all the scene changes, I think) and the CG, so that I could translate it. So please give her a HUGE HUGE thank you for making basically almost the entirety of this birthday celebration possible!!! 💕💕💕

Thank you guys so much for celebrating with me! I hope everyone had a lot of fun!!! I can’t wait to actually sleep again now...I spent sooo much time doing all these translations whoops ><

In case you missed a day, or want to reread anything, you’ll find links to all the posted content here!

#the 12 days of ayumu #ayumu's birthday celebration #happy birthday shinonome #ayumu shinonome #hlitf shinonome #hlitf ayumu #hlitf #her love in the force #my trash translations #love 365 #shinonome ayumu #voltage romance games #voltage otome #otome #東雲歩

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bae-science · 3 years

Text

it’s t-t-t-t-time for another newt bae-science fic rec extravabonanza! same rules, same boys, same bullshit! let’s get into it:

a beginning; a second chance by @dykesword

other newt and i have a long and intricate ritualistic battle to become the alpha newt, but i gotta give credit where it’s due. if you like to annotate your books for fun, this fic will give you a looooong comment you’ll want to write, and for good reason! there’s a lot of really well done metaphor and character detail in here, while still keeping a very soft, melancholy but with a hopeful edge tone. and also, like, the care and detail in which newt’s mental state in the aftermath of the precursors’ abuse is depicted is so so good, and delightful to read

husbandly duties by @kingeiszler

i am soooo biased with this one bc technically it was made for me but GODDAMN it’s good. this shit has everything: gottlieb trio sibling dynamics, vanessa in giant femme earrings, hermann yearning, newt and karla infodumping together, newt’s terrible and accurate gaydar, gay crime, the newmann dynamic and why it works boiled down to its bare essentials, pride and prejudice glasses touch, and neon green acrylics. required reading for the vanessaverse

Say That Again by @robertfrobisherslover

WOOF. if you like mutual pining and lack of communication from men with rocks for their emotional processing centers, and guncle (gay uncle) newt and hermann and KILLER artsy sex scenes, and themes of words unsaid in a story about LANGUAGE..... oogoogogoogouhufug. the writing style is clear and well paced, i LOVE little mako’s scene she’s such a cutie, and there’s like. a line. that’s a play on the whole “it’s always been you” trope. that lives in my mind rent free forever.

speak right to my heart without saying a word by @thekaidonovskys

i’m just gonna paste the comment i left on it here, because that sums up what is so absolutely incredible about this fic the best:

so sometimes you stumble on a piece of fiction that you add to your little collection of stuff you would show a person if you wanted them to understand a part of you that you can't quite explain eloquently, or it would take too long, etc etc, and i've never really found something like that for my autism until now, which, like, poggers. and i'll be as straight up as i can while still being the biggest lesbian in the great state of ohio (not a hard feat but alan invented computers so i love continuing on the autistic tradition of being a living miracle), the chameleon effect hit me like a mack truck. catholic school in the deep south is the most potent and effective form of ABA therapy imaginable :/. so sometimes i wonder what i would be like if i didn't have such a strong ability to pass, and here's where we finally get to the part of this comment where i just vomit compliments at you: you nailed it. you got it. i don't know if you're on the spectrum, but either way, well fucking done. trauma therapy research talks a lot about healing fantasies, which are fantasies, usually in the form of daydreams, that abused/neglected/traumatized/etc people create that directly address a struggle they have and take the form of a scenario in which that struggle is helped in some way. it could be an abusive parent repenting and showering them with the love they never had, or someone finding them during a panic attack and somehow knowing how best to comfort them without having to ask, or being intimate with someone and having a scar or physical deformity they've been shamed for be given attention and care. and i think you have created the ultimate perfect healing fantasy for autistic people, or at least those with """"high functioning"""" autism. it has a character who is visibly and undeniably on the spectrum having the pain and trauma going through life like that causes being acknowledged and validated, they are purposefully paid attention to because person b genuinely likes them and wants to understand and respect who they are and how they function in the world, and thus get The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known as well as the eventual rewards of being loved, person b makes a genuine effort to help teach them social skills in a way they can understand and learn through and is there for them when these skills are being practiced, their space and boundaries are respected but they aren't infantilized or thought of as an emotionless robot, and they receive love and comfort on their own terms not despite of but because of who they are, even specifically being asked not to change the way they are because that way is lovable. they are openly desired. writing is my fucking JOB and it's still difficult to put into words how much you got 100000% right about the dream with this fic. i have been in the EXACT and i mean EXACT same situation as hermann when he asked newt if it was his personality itself that made people not like him, because i deadass made a spreadsheet of all my personality attributes i thought could be preventing me from making friends in college, and then asked my fellow nd friend to see if there was anything i was missing. so i guess what i'm trying to say is that this amazing, and i'm bookmarking it and putting it on my next fic rec post, and maybe one day way way in the future if i ever get a partner i want to explain the whole autism thing to, i'm gonna have them read this.

The Facts With Newton Geiszler, PhD by what_alchemy (NSFW)

storytime: i read this fic a few years ago, completely forgot the title and author, and ended up thinking about the part where hermann admits to having fucked a trailer hitch when he was a teenager, at least once a week. last november, i say to my friend samara on twitter, head of the BSHCU (buttslut hermann cinematic universe), hey this seems like something you’d have read, do you remember a fic where... and samara says FUCK i do know what you’re talking about lemme find it. so if the fact that i have been looking for this fic for like, two years, and that it contains a moment so iconic all i had to say is, “hermann says he fucked a trailer hitch” and she IMMEDIATELY knew what i was talking about, does not convince you to read this... go back to catholic school i guess.

Feeling Blue by TempusPetrichor

fics where newt goes back to work as a biologist, especially a xenobiologist, post pru are really interesting, and usually have something neat to say about recovery, how it isn’t linear, how it often involves us returning to things we love for comfort, etc. this one sure does! some good emotional and physical h/c, LOVE the use of the ghost drift, and it’s always fun to see post pru fics use dialogue very obviously taken from dbt, trauma-specific therapeutical texts, and anything that shows the author has experience with, or did their research on, ptsd therapies.

You’re Everyone That Ever Cared by KlavierWrites

you know a fic is good when it’s an only 9k slowburn and still manages to reach infinite regress levels of are you fucking KIDDING GO TO THERAPY. newt “acts of service” geiszler may have a little misplaced misogyny due to his broken woman-centric gaydar. as a treat. the fucking. post-drift scene where hermann subtextually screams “LOOK IN OUR BRAINS YOU FUCK I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU I JUST HAVE AUTISM AND CAREER IN STEM DISORDER” is soooooo. god just hermann in general in that scene is great. if you like classic mid 2010s era newmann, ghost drift romance, and good ole mutual pining, this is a treat.

Baby, You're Hotter than my Bunsen Burner by SkySongMA

moronosexual hermann representation is something that can actually be so personal

Times of Stress by RadioMoth

the boys are processinggggggg. man what a good, quick and powerful punch to the gut. if you like post-pr1 catharsis and physical h/c, AND are the one friend that likes to comment at the end of the movie that hey newt got beat the fuck UP, check this one out.

black tea by @faggotcas

okay first of all, god fucking tier url, lee. second of all, food as a love language is my SHIT. i love the very slow relationship development here, where you see them making a genuine effort to get along and that in turn leading to feelings reigniting. it’s such a sweet little moment of a fic, with a nice atmosphere and tone to fit it

now here’s the part where i usually drop my latest fic, but i haven’t written one this month because i’ve been busy launching an audio drama! you can find it here, it’ll be right up your alley if you like cryptids and gay scientists and enemies to lovers and good ole americana, but since this is a newmann post, i’m gonna recommend the pacific rim audio drama duology i did a while back! part one is called conversations from the brink, and it’s a little slice of the pr3 we better fucking get from streaming that godawful looking anime. love and lesbians to everyone ❤️

#pacific rim #pac rim #mine #newmann #pacific rim uprising #fic rec

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detective-giggles · 3 years

Text

Simply Delicious

A Barisi ficlet for the Archive’s rule of three challenge. The prompt words are: stack of books, salted caramel sauce, pushing.

Barisi’s relationship told through food they share. Warnings: none; except for the food talk.

Word count: 1686

1. “Hey, Barba.” Sonny paused in the doorway, juggling two deli sandwich boxes and a cardboard carrier with two coffees. He had a messenger bag slung across his body and he was dressed down, in jeans and a hoodie. “I brought some dinner and caffeine reinforcements,” he explained needlessly, holding up the food.

Rafael watched in silence as Sonny crossed the room in half a dozen long strides, placing their dinner on the conference table, and then dropped his bag into the empty chair next to the one he was going to occupy. Rafael nodded absently, distracted by the detective. He was always surprised at how young Sonny looked when he was in casual clothes, despite the silvery strands of hair that threatened to betray him. “What? Did I spill?” Sonny looked down and brushed at the front of his sweatshirt.

“Huh? No, I, uh, sorry, I guess I just needed the break more than I thought.”

Sonny flashed a smile that was all dimples and Rafael wondered if his eyes always sparkled so blue. “Well get over here, then. We’ll eat and you can take a little break.” Sonny pushed both boxes over. “I didn’t know what you wanted, but you can pick which one you want and I can eat the other.”

Rafael paused in front of the sandwiches. “They both look good.”

Sonny laughed. “Good thing I had them cut in half then, huh?” Sonny took half of each sandwich, piling them on a napkin and Rafael did the same.

“How much do I owe you for dinner?”

Sonny waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about it, you’re doing me a favor.”

Rafael snorted. “You’re giving up your Friday night to help me research. For a case you weren’t even involved in. I think you’re doing me the favor.”

Sonny shrugged. “Yeah, well... law school.”

“How’s that going, anyway?” Rafael asked, taking a large bite from one of the sandwiches.

“Um, good. It’s harder than I thought, with work.” Sonny shrugged. “But it’s almost over.”

Rafael ate while Sonny talked and Rafael found himself intrigued by the younger man’s stories. Sonny’s voice was hypnotic, even with that accent. They talked long after the sandwiches were gone and Rafael actually found himself disappointed when Sonny tossed his garbage in the bin and reached across the table, pulling over the large stack of books so they could both reach.

“Do we have a plan?”

Rafael looked at the mound of motions wrapped in bright blue and rubbed his temple. “I suppose burning these and running away to Cabo is off the table?”

Sonny chuckled, “yeah, probably.”

“Teamwork, then?”

Sonny smiled, “I think that’ll work.”

2. “I’m not one to turn down coffee. Ever. But this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said I’d buy you a drink to celebrate.” Rafael looked around the small, local coffee shop Sonny had suggested.

“Hey, Barba!” Sonny smiled brightly. “I, uh, actually I’m on call so I can’t drink tonight.”

“Okay, well first, we’re not at work, so you don’t have to call me ‘Barba’. And we could have done this a different night.”

“Nah. Then the excitement would have been gone.” Sonny bounced on his toes once, then again, but stopped abruptly when Rafael chuckled. Sonny usually had energy to burn anyway, but he’d been riding the high of the adrenaline rush since this morning when he found out he’d passed the bar. And then Rafael had suggested hanging out, just the two of them, to celebrate and Sonny thought he was going burst.

“Go grab the table over there and I’ll get your drink. What are you having?”

“Oh, uh, my usual. They’ll know.” Sonny waved a hand at the blonde behind the counter before hurrying over to the last open table in a corner of the shop.

Sonny spent a few minutes responding to texts, offering congratulations or condolences to classmates. Rafael joined him quickly, carrying two coffees, and a plate with a large slice of the shop’s specialty cheesecake, topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a generous drizzle of salted caramel sauce.

“Thank you, Rafael.” Rafael handed him a fork and they each took a bite, marveling over how delicious the dessert was. It was rich and decadent - the perfect celebratory treat for Sonny’s victory.

“So, how does it feel?” Rafael took a sip of his coffee and leaned in, bracing his forearms on the table.

“Good! I mean, I can’t believe it. The past few months, all I have been able to think about are the questions I didn’t know. I still kind of feel like I’m dreaming, you know?”

Rafael laughed and reached out, gently pinching Sonny on his wrist. “Still think you’re dreaming?” He asked, his hand lingering, touching Sonny’s forearm.

Sonny looked down. Rafael’s hand was soft and warm, and Sonny ached to know how it would feel on the rest of his skin. He swallowed hard and nodded. “Kinda. This is, um, definitely too good to be true.”

Rafael rubbed the back of Sonny’s hand with his thumb. “Well, let’s just see about that.”

3. Rafael opened his eyes slowly and squinted against the bright sunlight, slightly disoriented. The sheets were rough on his bare skin and the mattress was slightly lumpy. It took a few moments for him to realize he was at Sonny’s place. This wasn’t the first time they had slept together, of course, but it was the first time they had spent the night together. It had been a long time since Rafael had shared a bed and slept tangled up in someone else - and he had to admit, he didn’t hate it.

Rafael rolled over, expecting to feel the firm body of the detective next to him, and was disappointed to realize he was alone. He flopped back onto his back and tucked his arm behind his head. He wanted to call Sonny back to bed so he could spend all day cocooned in the other man’s warmth. But he could smell bacon and, more importantly, coffee, so he knew Sonny wouldn’t be joining him anytime soon.

Rafael climbed out of bed, trying to find his clothes strewn about Sonny’s not-quite-messy bedroom. He located everything except his shirt, which he realized was probably still on Sonny’s couch, before heading into the bathroom. Sonny had left him a towel and toothbrush on the counter. Although he didn’t shower, he brushed his teeth and washed his face and headed out to join Sonny in the kitchen.

His shirt was where he expected and he grunted a quiet greeting as he slipped it over his head.

“Hey, Sleepyhead.”

“Are you always this cheery at seven in the morning?”

Sonny laughed, “Unfortunately yes. I grew up with three sisters and one bathroom. I learned very quickly that I needed to get in there first and the habit stuck. But here. Your own cup of cheer.” Sonny handed him a large mug of coffee and silently turned back to dicing his potatoes.

“Thanks.” Rafael sipped his drink, cradling the mug in both hands. He sat on a barstool, watching Sonny intently. He chopped efficiently, and Rafael marveled at the uniform cubes of starch, all perfectly bite-sized.

“Wanna help?” Sonny asked, rolling over another potato. “I mean, you don’t have to,” he added when Rafael hesitated. It wasn’t that he couldn’t cook, per se, it was just that he was a little clumsy with a knife and he didn’t want to spend his Saturday in the Emergency Room getting stitches.

“I shouldn’t handle anything sharp until after my second cup of coffee.” He murmured, sipping again.

Sonny chuckled as he scooped up a handful of potatoes and tossed them in the skillet. He pulled a batch of bacon out of the pan, laying the slices on a paper towel-covered plate before adding a few more slices to the pan.

“You’re really not a morning person, are you?” Sonny leaned on the counter and draped an arm across Rafael’s shoulders. Rafael grunted again and Sonny laughed, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Tell you what; stay awake a little longer, we’ll have breakfast and then we’ll go back to bed.”

“Back to bed?”

“Yes. We can stay there all day.” Rafael didn’t say anything, but he savored his coffee and smiled.

4. “Don’t. Sonny, please,” Rafael pleaded softly. “I’m begging you.”

Sonny just chuckled as he put one hand in his pocket and slipped the other around Rafael’s waist, pulling him in close. The pair smiled as they took their obligatory pictures behind their three-tiered monstrosity and then Rafael stepped back, shooting another desperate look at his husband. Of all the wedding traditions, this was shaping up to be Rafael’s least favorite.

Sonny grinned playfully and his eyes twinkled with mischief as he grabbed the knife off the table. Rafael rolled his eyes and sighed and put his hand over Sonny’s, helping him cut a neat slice of cake from the middle tier. Sonny put the cake on a plate and took half, pushing the plate towards Rafael. He turned and smiled for another picture, oblivious as Rafael scooped up an obscene amount of buttercream in his fingers.

Sonny turned back. “I love you,” he murmured, reaching out to offer Rafael his bite of cake. Rafael did the same, his hand hovering near his husband’s face. Sonny obediently dropped the cake in Rafael’s mouth, careful not to get any crumbs on his suit, then grinned. Of course, he had no intentions of smashing wedding cake in his husband's face, but the threat of it was too fun to ignore.

“I love you, too.” An almost wicked smile crossed Rafael’s face as Sonny leaned in for his bite. Rafael caught him off-guard and, before he could react, managed to smear frosting on Sonny’s nose, lips, and chin.

Sonny paused, stunned. “I should have seen that coming, huh?”

“Oh yeah.” Rafael smiled, clearly pleased with himself.

“Sneaky, sneaky. Is that really how we’re starting our marriage?”

Rafael nodded and wiped at Sonny’s face with a napkin. “Happily ever after.”

Taglist: @itsjustmyfantasyroom @moderateshouting

#barisi #rafael barba #sonny carisi jr #food #coffee...all the coffee #fluff #barisi archive challenge rule of three

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96thdayofrage · 3 years

Text

A five-day course of molnupiravir, the new medicine being hailed as a “huge advance” in the treatment of Covid-19, costs $17.74 to produce, according to a report issued last week by drug pricing experts at the Harvard School of Public Health and King’s College Hospital in London. Merck is charging the U.S. government $712 for the same amount of medicine, or 40 times the price.

Last Friday’s announcement that the new medicine cut the risk of hospitalization among clinical trial participants with moderate or mild illness in half could have huge implications for the course of the coronavirus pandemic. Because it’s a pill — as opposed to monoclonal antibodies, a comparable antiviral treatment that is administered intravenously — molnupiravir is expected to be more widely used and, hopefully, will cut the death rate. In the first 29 days of the trial, no deaths were reported among the 385 patients who received the drug, while eight of the people who received a placebo died, according to the statement put out by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, the two companies that are jointly launching it.

In addition to having huge implications for health, the pill could bring staggering profits to both Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. A small Miami-based company, Ridgeback licensed the medicine from Emory University in 2020 and two months later sold the worldwide rights to the drug to Merck for an undisclosed sum. Although Ridgeback remains involved in the development of the drug, some have described the deal as “flipping.”

Like the vast majority of medicines on the market, molnupiravir — which was originally investigated as a possible treatment for Venezuelan equine encephalitis — was developed using government funds. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency, a division of the Department of Defense, provided more than $10 million of funding in 2013 and 2015 to Emory University, as research done by the nonprofit Knowledge Ecology International has revealed. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, also provided Emory with more than $19 million in additional grants.

Yet only Merck and Ridgeback will reap the profits from the new antiviral, which according to Quartz could bring in as much as $7 billion by the end of this year. After the announcement of the encouraging clinical trial results on Friday, Merck’s stock price climbed, while stock prices of some vaccine makers sagged. Despite its initial investment, the U.S. government seems to be facing a steep markup in prices. In June, the government signed a $1.2 billion contract with Merck to supply 1.7 million courses of the medication at the $712 price. The transaction is due to take place as soon as molnupiravir receives emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.

Reasonable Terms

Good government advocates are pointing out that because federal agencies spent at least $29 million on the drug’s development, the government has the obligation to ensure that the medicine is affordable. “The public funded this drug, and therefore the public has some rights, including the rights you have it available under reasonable terms,” said Luis Gil Abinader, senior researcher at Knowledge Ecology International.

In an interview on CNBC, Ridgeback co-founder Wendy Holman noted that the company asked for but “never got government funding” to help manufacture molnupiravir. A whistleblower complaint filed by Rick Bright, the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, in May 2020, described Ridgeback’s unsuccessful efforts “to secure approximately $100 million” from BARDA to develop the drug as a Covid-19 treatment. The company’s press release about the study results also noted that “since licensed by Ridgeback, all funds used for the development of molnupiravir have been provided by Merck and by Wayne and Wendy Holman of Ridgeback.”

Abinader was critical of Ridgeback’s failure to acknowledge the government’s initial investment in the drug before the company acquired it. “What they want to do, apparently, is to shape the narrative about who paid for the development of this drug in order to avoid demands from the public to make it available at reasonable prices,” he said.

In an emailed response to questions submitted to Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for this article, Davidson Goldin wrote, “Ridgeback has never received any government funding for molnupiravir and self-funded the development of this medicine for treating SARS-CoV-2 when the government did not provide financial support.” Merck did not respond to inquiries about this article.

No Strings Attached

Merck has promised to make molnupiravir accessible around the world and has already entered into licensing agreements with five Indian companies that manufacture generic drugs. “Merck has committed to providing timely access to molnupiravir globally, if it is authorized or approved, and plans to implement a tiered pricing approach based on World Bank country income criteria to reflect countries’ relative ability to finance their health response to the pandemic,” the company said in its announcement of the trial results on Friday. Indian companies are planning to price the drug at less than $12 for a five-day course, according to recent reports.

In the U.S., and likely in many upper-middle-income and all high-income countries, the price will be determined by the market. Noting that the treatment may be offered to people who are not yet severely sick with Covid-19, health advocates fear that will mean some in these countries will not be able to afford the new drug. “Offering someone a $700 treatment when they don’t yet feel that ill is going to mean that a lot of people are not going to take it,” said Dzintars Gotham, a physician at King’s College Hospital in London and a co-author of the report on the pricing of molnupiravir. According to the report, pricing molnupiravir at $19.99 would allow a company a 10 percent profit margin.

Melissa Barber, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the report on molnupiravir, said that, while its pricing is not as extreme as that of some other drugs, it will likely still place the antiviral out of reach of some who could benefit from it. “If you can’t afford medicine because it’s 1,000 times more than you can afford, or because it’s 100 times more than you can afford, it doesn’t matter,” said Barber. “Those are both bad.”

Barber and Gotham acknowledge that the $17.74 cost of producing a five-day course of the antiviral pills is an estimate but said that the algorithm they used, and have employed to estimate the production costs for hundreds of drugs, tends to result in overestimates in the long run.

Meanwhile, the prices that private companies charge for drugs tend to go up rather than down. “For all these deals that have happened for therapeutics or vaccines, the price has only increased as uncertainty has decreased,” she said. “One price is given and then, for the next sale, the price goes up. The price went up for other drugs and vaccines, so I would be very surprised if this price didn’t go up, too.”

The pricing differential should be grounds to demand a better price under the Bayh-Dole Act, according to Knowledge Ecology International’s Abinader. Bayh-Dole, passed in 1980, regulates the transfer of federally funded inventions into commercial property and allows the government to “march in” and suspend the use of patents that were developed with government funding if it determines that the products are excessively priced.

“The pressure for march-in rights around this drug is going to be huge,” predicted Abinader, who suggested that the government could use the law to lower the price of molnupiravir. “When the Biden administration negotiates another supply agreement with Merck, they should probably leverage those rights in order to get a better price,” he said.

According to Gotham, who is based in London, the short story of molnupiravir already sums up the best and the worst of the U.S. pharmaceutical system. “It’s a great coup that the American government funded some scientists to develop antivirals,” he said. “The great tragedy is that, after their great success, they just gave it away to private industry with apparently no strings attached.”

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sasuhinasno1fan · 3 years

Text

Hero Deku meets Singer Shouto

Hi @ire-mired, I’m your secret santa for the @bnhagiftexchange. Sorry you had to wait so long for this. I hope you enjoy this, it was really hard to pick between the ships and I hope the story was good. It’s more pre-relationship but it just worked out. I thought since I was doing singer!Shouto, I thought it’d be cool to have Quirkless Hero!Izuku as well. There’s a little easter egg from the todoshindeku story ‘Heroics and Other Things That Don’t Require Superheros’ by @thenarator if you’re interested. I hope you enjoy!

Izuku climbed out of the town car. He still felt weird about being carted around like this. Even when he was in civilian clothes, he tended to use his high air pressured shoes to hop around everywhere. Which of course is half of where all those bunny comments came from but it was easier. Public transport got crowded when they realised the quirkless hero Deku was on the same train or bus as them.

But he could keep his comments about it to himself today. Today was special.

“Deku, welcome! We can’t thank you enough for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come today.” The man waiting by the door said, once the hero was close enough. He was in a suit and seemed perfectly put together but he didn’t reek of ‘I’m-to-good-for-everyone’.

“Of course I made time. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“The kids will be so happy their favourite hero came. You have no idea how much they look up to you.”

“That makes me very happy to hear. Shall we get started?” Izuku asked.

“Of course, right this way. And thank you again for taking the back entrance. We’re all for press taking interest in our cause, but they tend to be a bit overzealous. We handpicked a few to be inside with us. Thank you for the recommendations.”

“My pleasure.”

Izuku walked through the community centre, wishing once again this existed when he was a kid. He was born quirkless, part of the 1%. Growing up had been horrible. Bullied by his best friend (who eventually apologized and was once again on good terms with), treated horribly by prejudice teachers and neighbours, feeling like a burden to his mother, who didn’t know how to encourage him. He’d even been told by his idol All Might he couldn’t be a hero, the one thing he wanted more than anything in the world. He was surprised to later find out, that same day he met the famed hero and found out his secret, to also find out he’d once been quirkless.

“I had forgotten what it was like to wish for something as simple as someone telling me I could. I’m sorry that I couldn’t be the one to tell you that when you needed to hear it.”

All Might – Yagi Toshinori, had offered him his quirk, but in that split second, all Izuku could think of was, ‘what if I can tell someone they can be a hero?’. He’d been quirkless his whole life and it felt like if he said yes, he’d forget where he came from and everything, he faced years later. So he turned down the quirk. When he explained his reasoning, Toshinori smiled.

“Yes, I think we deserve a hero who can prove quirks aren’t everything. Would you still take my offer on helping you get ready for the exams?”

Years later, he’d made it, the first quirkless hero. He still got slander and got yelled at by bigoted people for ‘putting ideas into people’s heads’ but he felt proud of himself. He’d been put into the General Studies class and met Shinsou Hitoshi, a guy with what people considered a villain’s quirk. Together, they proved to everyone that their quirks, or lack thereof, wouldn’t make them unfit heroes. After 3 years with dealing with the League of Villains, internships and general high school drama, he and Hitoshi opened up their agency, with a few of their other class and school mates, Underdog Agency. Name being a tiny bit misleading for those who didn’t know the heroes behind it, but it fit them to a T.

Now whenever he was asked, and he could fit it in between patrols, paperwork and general heroing, he’d go to talks about quirkless kids, charity events, visit schools, anything he could to help lower the stigmatism of quirkless people and to give them a bit of hope. They could be whatever they wanted to be, no matter what anyone said.

This event, was a fundraising event held a community centre geared towards people without quirks. There was a performance stage that was live streamed, mixed in with a silent auction and him, Deku talking with all the kids and visiting people. Just his name alone was bringing in money for the centre. The main gathering area was filled with kids, who’s attention was all on a stage with bright lights all focused on one person.

Split red and white hair, enchanting dual eyes and the grace of season dancer with the voice of an angel. God, he could hear Hitoshi teasing him already.

“I didn’t know Shouto would be here.” He said, trying to sound nonchalant. He didn’t think he sold it but thankfully, the director didn’t know him well enough to guess what he was thinking.

“Well a decent number of our kids unfortunately deal with abusive households or family members. We’ve only just started getting to help these kids so they aren’t forced to be subjected to a quirk heavy view in placing them in new homes or even helping them. Shouto has always been an advocate for helping kids from abusive households, no matter what their quirk or lack thereof. A few kids had written him letters and he apparently rearranged his whole schedule to be here tonight. If you’d like, we’d be more than willing to introduce you to him?”

Introduce him to the guy whose songs have been working as encouragement since his second year after he debuted? It was like a dream come true.

“Sure.”

_____________

Shouto didn’t like heroes. Well, to be more accurate, he didn’t like top tier heroes. They got away with whatever they wanted and nothing could be changed. It didn’t matter that the small burst of courage that came over his sister to film his father’s ‘training’ and upload it had exposed the Number 2 hero and the corrupt Hero’s Commission, things didn’t change. The Commission might be scrutinized by the public, but he refused to believe they’d actually stick to their promise of being better.

It was easy to lose himself in the world of singing. His mother did it a lot, still did. After his father was gone, finally gone, he felt lost. He could have been a hero; prove he’d be better than his father but the idea of following in his footsteps filled him with so much dread. He didn’t attend school for a whole semester, trying to figure out what to do with his life. They moved closer to the countryside, away from the public eye and he’d been helping out at a local festival, lending his voice to one of the dance performances when the lady came up to him. She was on vacation with her friends but she couldn’t shut off her work brain after hearing him sing.

“An idol?” Fuyumi had asked in confusion, trying to wrap her head around the whole thing. “Shouto?”

“His voice is amazing. He’d be a trainee for a while and if the company thinks he can make it, he’d debut. How far he’ll go would be up to him, fans and the company but he’d learn so many skills as a trainee. Just think about it. You wouldn’t have to go there until next month for the monthly meeting with new recruits.”

And he did think about it. A lot. It had been his mother who eventually helped him decide. Even while still in the hospital in the city, after his father’s arrest he finally convinced himself to see his mother. She still loved him and always would.

“Would you want to sing?” she had asked.

“I guess? I’ve been doing it more often. But if I do this, what if he sees and he tries to come after me?”

“Shouto,” she said calmly. Her, the one who was still hurt from everything she had to endure from the person she called a husband. “He’s never going to come after you. you have a chance to do something you want to do. But it’s up to you. I know it’s been hard to figure out where you want to go from here, but remember, you can make your choice now. So, do you want to sing?”

So he decided to at least become a trainee. Moving back to the city was scary. He had to convince himself that his dad wasn’t going to come swoping in and lock him away. The Commission had been dragging their feet in offering any sort of support, which made him dislike them even more, even in the new era of it. But being a trainee made it easy to forget it. If he worked harder than everyone, it wasn’t because he was forced, it was because he wanted to. His siblings would still drag him away from practise if it was getting to be too much. He learned to dance and found he was good at it. He learned to speak different languages. He learned how to make friends, enemies and everything in between.

So when they said he would debut, he agreed, because right there on the stage, was what felt right to him. That still didn’t mean he liked heroes.

With his advocacy to kids in abusive homes, he met a lot of heroes who’d show up to support or even PR related. Very few of them did he actual end up liking, having to keep a smile on in front of kids, but letting his blank face take hold if the ones he didn’t like tried talking to him privately. When he heard there was a hero coming to this charity event for quirkless kids, he couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Bring a hero in a room full of kids who didn’t have quirks of their own? That outta be good.

He was focused on signing the books and sheets the kids passed to him that he almost didn’t see the director of the charity wave him over. Standing next to him had to be the hero, judging from his green suit and metal face guard that sat around his neck. He did notice the shoes he was wearing, red high tops. Thing was, he’d seen the same pair of shoes, in different colours, on the feet of the kids. Why would a hero wear a brand of shoes made for quirkless people?

“Shouto, I’d like to introduce you to our hero celebrity for the night, Deku. Deku, our celebrity performer, Shouto.”

“Nice to meet you.” the hero Deku said, bright smile on his face. At least it looked genuine.

“Pleasure.”

“Oh my gosh! It’s the Quirkless Hero Deku!” one of the kids shouted and before they knew it, they were surrounded by kids, most of them trying to hang off the tall hero.

Quirkless Hero? He’d never heard of him, but then again, he tended to ignore heroes in general. But at least the kids wouldn’t feel awkward with a hero flexing their quirk when they had none.

“Shouto, did you see? Deku came!” one of the younger girls said, hanging off his arm. “He’s quirkless just like us. He has a lot of support items and he’s really smart! He was able to create a plan to take down that huge crime ring, did you hear about that?”

He’d been living in a recording studio around then so not really, but he nodded anyway. The kids seemed excited and the guy seemed genuine, so clearly, he must not be that bad. He watched him talk to the kids, a huge smile on his face, answering questions just as quickly as they were thrown at him.

Shouto didn’t like top tier heroes, but it seemed that Deku wasn’t that bad. He hoped he didn’t disappoint.

_________________

Talking with the kids kept his spirits up when having to talk to adults, some of whom had some annoying backhanded comments to make about quirkless people. It was annoying some were only giving money to make themselves look better but he’d rather put up with comments then have the kids get no support and live with life just as bad as he used to have it. Shame Hitoshi couldn’t come, people tended to forget when they got full of themselves how easy it was for Hitoshi to take control and make them do things. Only minor, he was a hero after all, but then again, who didn’t have a short fuse for annoying people?

“Excuse me,” a voice interrupted. It was Shouto. His shirt had been unbuttoned a bit after his performance and his clothes were rumpled from all the kids who’d been hanging off of him. “Do you mind if I steal Deku?”

“Ah. I have to ask; you have such a powerful quirk? Why waste it singing around on stage?” one of the doners, who’d also been giving well disguised scathing comments about quirkless people – Izuku really wanted to punch him, or at least throw him out – asked.

“Maybe because unlike some people, I don’t have to flaunt my quirk to be liked. Excuse us.” Shouto said, before pulling Izuku away. “Asshole.” He muttered, loud enough for Izuku to hear.

“I was pretty close to punching him myself. Downside to doing these events, some of those guys slip through and you have to remind yourself that their money helps make the kids’ lives better.”

Shouto had pulled them to a less populated area of the room and took a seat on the floor. There were seats nearby but the dual haired singer seemed quite at home on the floor, so he sat next to him, keeping a decent distance between them. he had been able to keep his fanboying down – Toshinori would be so proud – and he didn’t want to mess up now.

“I have to admit, I was surprised to hear there was a quirkless hero. When I heard a hero was coming, all I could think was that some oversized ego UA graduate was just gonna flaunt their quirk and make some of these kids feel bad.”

“Well, some heroes have less flashy quirks, would that of been so bad?” he wasn’t insulted that Shouto never heard of him. The agency wasn’t as big as some of the others, Hitoshi worked mostly underground and even though he was good, people still liked to disregard him as a hero due to the lack of his quirk. He didn’t care. He graduated from Class A of UA, made an agency right out of school and worked with bigger heroes on missions they needed his help with. The people who mattered noticed him and he was helping kids like him to believe they could do anything.

“I guess. To be honest, I’m not a fan of heroes. I know with how much that’s being given by some of these people, they’d have to bring in a big hero but also be sensitive to the kids. How have I never heard of you?”

Izuku scratched the back of his head. “I’m 8 on the ranking list? Most of the time they tend to ignore me since I’m quirkless. A lot of people still think I shouldn’t do this without a quirk.”

Shouto looked surprised. “You’re in the top 10 and they think you shouldn’t be doing this? What are they idiots?”

“Well, I was taught by the former Number 1 and I’ve seen the pressure it puts on people, so as long as the people who matter know I’m there to protect them, that’s all that matters.”

Shouto hummed thoughtfully. “Kinda like me and singing, I guess. The guy was right, I do have a pretty powerful quirk but…” he trailed off, like he didn’t know how to word what he said next. “I didn’t want to be a hero. I wanted to be something else. So I decided to sing.”

“I know.” It kinda came out of him without permission, but Izuku was known for just going with it once he started something. “You debuted during my second year. Surprisingly, things got a lot more intense during second year, this coming from a graduate of a class singled out by the League. Your songs gave me a boost to keep pushing forward. So, I wanted to say thank you. I know you didn’t sing to you know, do that, but I’m glad you decided to do it.”

Before Shouto could open his mouth, a group of kids came rushing over, jumping on the two adults.

“Shouto, can we braid your hair? It’s so long! You said we could do it later since you had to perform.”

“Deku, is it true you wanted to look like a bunny?”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” Izuku asked out loud.

“Because your hood has ears.” The child answered matter-of-factly.

“It’s supposed to be All Might’s hair.” He muttered before deciding to distract them by asking the kids their favourite things to do. The girls who came over had already made quick work ok tying up his hair with a random bag of hairties.

“Fan of All Might?” Shouto asked around the working hands. He seemed completely at ease with his head being moved around every two seconds

“Well, he was quirkless for most of his life. I found that out when I first met him and that’s what helped me decide to really try and be a hero without a quirk.”

“That’s why he’s our favourite!” one of the kids said, making himself quite at home on Izuku’s lap.

“Well I hope I can still inspire you guys to go after your dreams. Just know even if it seems like no one does, I believe in you guys. Always will.”

That statement did lead to all the kids jumping on him in happiness, sending him tumbling back. He saw Shouto smiling down at him, still looking amazing with his messy hair.

_______________

The silent auction was coming to an end and he and Deku had been asked to announce the winners. To keep the kids from distracting them, they waited in a small office not far from the main area.

“So, what does Japan’s first quirkless hero when he’s not advocating for quirkless people?” Shouto asked, shaking his head as he pulled out all the messy braids.

“when I’m not heroing? My best friend Hitoshi takes me to all these cat cafes and I take the chance to try out all the match au late they have. I remember I had this amazing one on I-Island. I’ve been trying to find one just as good since.”

“Well, the ones they have at the café at my company’s building are pretty good. You should come by.” The singer took in the hero’s surprised face. He wasn’t into heroes, but this one was one of the decent ones, even a really good one. “remind me to give you my number later and when you have time, I can show you. plus, their cakes are to die for.”

“Shouto, Deku, we’re ready for you.” the director called before the hero could give an answer.

The singer sent a smile over his shoulder, enjoying how red the hero had become. He did get Deku’s number by the end of the night, plus his name.

Izuku. Hmm, maybe he’d get to call him that more often.

#bnha gift exchange #quirkless hero deku #singer shouto #pre tododeku #shouto never went to ua

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duckprintspress · 3 years

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I'm confused about the scoring system. It was said on the website that people were scored (numerically) and yet someone with much higher scores than I got didn't get accepted nor was offered the mentoring/beta/get to know discord.

I can't help but feel there is an error here. Is there a way to explain this?

Hi anon!

So there are a few things going on here, and I’ll try to explain them all.

Thing the First:

The scores on the rubrics are raw scores. Once we really got down-and-dirty with rating things, and I did some data analysis, I discovered that some of our raters were being a bit more generous than others. By the time we were done with all the scoring, there was nearly a 2 point split between the most generous and least generous scorer, on average. This was clearly a fairness issue - if one writer got our three most generous raters, and a second writer got our three least generous raters, even if they submitted identical stories, the second writer would get a lower rating. Rather than leave things like that, I did some research on statistical models that would standardize our ratings.

Basically, with the help of an excel algorithm (the “STANDARDIZE” function), we calculated the average that each rater gave, and that rater’s deviation from the mean (standard deviation), and plugged that in to convert their ratings from the 0 to 20 scale to a different, standard scale - which ran roughly from -2.5 to positive 2.5. What the standardization really did was - for each rater, whatever score they personally gave on average was 0 (so, if rater one’s average score was a 15...that was standardized to zero. And if rater two’s average score was 10...that was also standardized to zero. So now instead of comparing apples to oranges, we were comparing apples to apples). Then, if they rated a fic 1 standard deviation above or below their average, that became a 1 or a -1. If they rated it 2 standard deviations above or below their average, that became a 2 or a -2. And so on. This ensured that all of the stories were rated on the same scale and everyone was treated equally - standardization of test scores erased the differences caused by some people rating more strictly.

So, if you and your friends are comparing rubrics (which you’re welcome to do!) and you noticed that some of you did better, numerically, but had different outcomes, that’s likely a factor - one of you may have had more generous or more strict readers.

(Here’s some more information on how Standardization, here’s the very basics...there are other forms of standardizing, such as fitting folks to a bell curve, or curving the entire score, but those were not suited to our needs)

Thing the Second:

The top 20 authors, statistically adjusted for fairness, were invited to contribute to Add Magic to Taste. As it turned out, these top 20 DID roughly correlate to our top 20 by raw scores; comparing the two rankings, there are only two people out of the top 20 who wouldn’t have made it based on raw scores but did when their scores were adjusted to be standardized against the same scale.

The next 20 authors (ranked 21 to 40, when statistically adjusted for fairness) were also invited to Discord, and we’ve also invited them to potentially be involved in a second anthology. Depending on how many of them say yes, we may be able to open that opportunity up a bit more, but we’re not sure yet. Two of these people, by raw score, would have made the top 20, and three of these people, by raw score, would not have made the top 40. However, again, when we standardized the data to reflect the differences in rater strictness, these were the results.

That leaves another 62 people, who had various ratings all below those top 40. Some of them had a raw score fairly similar to their standardized score...and some of them didn’t. For example - my wife was an applicant to this, and she gave me permission to use her numbers for this example. By raw average? My wife came in 49th. However, one of her raters was someone who USUALLY rated very high, and gave hers a (relatively, compared to that person’s usual hig haverage) low score - when that was adjusted statistically, it caused my wife’s fic to plummet to 64th, because even though the raw number itself wasn’t bad, it was statistically well outside the norm for that rater. So, believe me when I say - these standardizations can make a big difference. If you, or anyone reading this, would like, I’m willing to send you what your standardized scores were (while still maintaining reviewer anonymity). I was originally thinking of adding them to the rubrics but doing so would have been a lot of work, and so I passed - next time we do this, they’ll probably be on there.

Thing the Third:

Often, what separated a fic that succeeded from a fic that didn’t was the range of raters scores. For example, the fic that ended up with the highest rating (by both calculations) wasn’t anyone’s favorite fic - but all three readers thought it was solid, and that was enough. My personal favorite fic? Didn’t even hit the Top 20. What often happened was -

Top fics: either all three people liked it pretty well, or one to two people adored it and the other person or people liked it well enough.

Second tier fics: either all three people thought it was okay, or one person loved it and two people were fairly meh about it.

Middle-range fics: either all three people thought it was average, or one person loved it and two people didn’t like it, or two people thought it was pretty good but one person hated it.

Lower quartile fics: either all three people didn’t think the fic was “up to snuff,” or one or two readers really hated it while a third thought it was average.

This isn’t universal, of course - but a fic that had one really high rating could easily do worse than a fic that had three so-so ratings, because...that’s how averages work. And that’s also why we had three readers for each - to try to even out some of the differences that would arise if someone had an extreme reaction to a fic that others didn’t. Obviously, it’s not a flawless system - no system was flawless - but with the resources and manpower we had, we thought this was a fair way to handle things, and we truly did our best. As soon as we broke 20 applications, we were never going to be able to accept everyone, and so we strived to create a transparent system that treated all of our applicants equally.

Thing the Fourth:

Now, in addition to the “why might scores be higher/lower” aspect of your question, there’s the aspect of “getting the Discord invite.” Now, the top 40 folks got Discord invites automatically, and those offers were based solely on the rating they received.

The other Discord invites that we sent out were not based on ratings alone! Just like we had a “reader subjective feelings” category on the rubric, when we’d finished rating all the stories, we were left with a conundrum - all of us had fics we liked that didn’t make the top 40. Maybe it was that “one person love it and two people didn’t like it” permutations. Maybe it was that all of us thought it was “good” but not “great.” Maybe some aspect of the story caught our eye. Based on our reactions, and the fics we saw that we wished had made it, we selected people to get invites. Those Discord invites were sent out based solely on subjective criteria.

Yes, we worried about doing this. Yes, we went back and forth about doing it at all. But in the end, what we decided was - we didn’t want to give Discord invites to everyone, because there were plenty of people we didn’t think their writing was quite ready yet - mentoring is an intensive prospect, and one for which we won’t get paid up front and might possibly never get paid, and while this all looks wonderful from the outside please do remember that we’re running a business - one that I’ve been working my ass off on for more than four months and have yet to earn enough to draw a single paycheck. So inviting everyone was never in the cards. And on the other hand, if we chose to give invites to no one, that would mean potentially having some people that caught our eye “slip through the cracks.” What if they got too discouraged to reapply? What if we missed the chance to work with them, after they’d impressed us?

To use an analogy - we saw something in everyone who applied, but in some it was “this is an uncut diamond, and we aren’t in the position to take it from raw to finished,” and in others it was, “this is a diamond with a crack, or a flaw, or a rough spot...and we think if we put in the work, we can get it to perfection.” And our verdict on the uncut diamonds isn’t, “this is uncut and it will never be cut,” it’s, “all of these diamonds have spent years honing themselves and working hard to strive for flawlessness, and but some are clearly farther along that journey than others. Once these uncut diamonds have shaped more of their rough edges themselves, we hope they’ll come back when they are ALSO only one flaw from perfection, and work with us then!”

There was no way for us to win, and there was also no fair way to distribute invites based solely on the raw scores, or even based solely on standardized scores, because some of the scores were sometimes not reflective our actual opinions of the writing. For example - if someone wrote a grammatically perfect story, with a compelling use of language, but the plot and characters were inaccessible to us because it required fandom knowledge we didn’t have, that might have scored very poorly, but we have every reason to think that if they’d chosen a different work that was more accessible they’d have done much better. Or, as another example - if someone’s writing was really sloppy, because of a lack of editing or possibly because English isn’t their native language - but they have a skill for creating characters, or setting a scene, or had excellent pacing - then again, they could have ended up with a score that didn’t reflect the actual potential that we saw in their work - using our judgement and expertise.

So, flat out - yes, there are inequalities in how the Discord invites were distributed to the 62 people who didn’t make the cut for either anthology. And yes, we agonized over whether to give them out at all. And no, I won’t swear that we always made the right choices - we were going by the one story submitted to us, and we had to use our best judgement based on what we were presented - what each applicant chose to submit. In the end, we invited the people who - regardless of their score - we personally thought were the closest to being sellable - in the sense of, “probably only missing one piece that would help with to get them from ‘didn’t make it’ to ‘now we’re talking.” And I truly, truly wish that we could have everyone. But if we spend all our time mentoring people, then we won’t have time for doing any of the other aspects of this business. We are not a writing school. We are a book publisher. This ISN’T just fandom, and I DO have to think about what is sellable and what isn’t, because in the end...I’m trying to make money, and pay my staff, and give our authors the highest royalties possible, and, and, and.

As a further note on this topic? We are still issuing new Discord invites, based on e-mail conversations we’re having with people. Several people who didn’t initially get those invites? Have now gotten them. It just depends on how people are responding to us, and the conversations we’re having, and lots of other factors.

And, as I tried to say in the post I put up earlier today about notifications: even the people who didn’t get invites have potential. Every single writer who applied has potential. All of you, even if you struggled with multiple areas, had some aspect in which you shined. In a perfect world, we would help you all. But this isn’t a perfect world, and I don’t have the hours in the day to bring up the people who aren’t already close, and I’m sorry about that. So, please, please - if you didn’t make it, don’t be discouraged, and don’t give up. You’re the only one who can tell your stories - if you don’t do it, no one else will. Find fandom friends who will give you honest critique. Learn to read your own writing with a critical eye. Track down stories that really speak to you, and read them like a writer - to see how the original writer put them together, and deliberately emulate what you thought worked. There are many, many ways to improve writing craft, and if ya’ll want to be published, either with us or with anyone, we strongly encourage you to examine whichever ones appeal to you and work for you.

There’s isn’t a single person who applied who couldn’t, one day, be published by Duck Prints Press.

We were never going to make everyone happy, however much we hate making people sad.

We did our best to make as many people as possible happy, while also doing what we feel to be best for Duck Prints Press.

If we hurt you - we’re sorry. We said in the application process that we’d be giving honest feedback, and we’ve never made a secret of the fact that this is a business and our goal is to publish books that sell - nor did we pretend that we’d be able to take more than 20, but we were so impressed by the quality of what we received that we did everything we could think of to open the doors to more folks, while still maintaining the core integrity of our business model. That means we have to narrow the pool; we can’t just take everyone, especially now, when we’re so small and new. Our desire to take as many people as possible is why anyone who wasn’t in the top 20 got an invite, and why we planned an entire second anthology on the fly, instead of no one below the top 20 getting anything except a rejection letter.

Now, as a final thing - it IS possible we made a mistake. We’ve spotted one big one already, and we’re working with that author to rectify the situation. If you truly believe we made a mistake, please e-mail us, and we can look into it. Our email is info @ duckprintspress dot com.

Sorry this got long - but I figured, if one person wondered this, others too, and as we have since day one - our goal is to be transparent, and so I thought it better to answer more thoroughly rather than less.

#duck prints press #add magic to taste #unforth replies #god i hope this didn't end up coming across as defensive #i've been working ten hours straight on anthology stuff and i'm exhausted #Anonymous

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sugarmaplewings-fics · 4 years

Text

Deep Blue Fantasy Part Six

Pairing: Merman!Tamaki Amajiki x Fem!reader

Warnings: Some angst and hopelessness, otherwise none

Author’s Note:

This is quite likely my favorite part of the story! Even though it’s a little on the shorter side, it’s really top tier for me. We got some tooth-rotting fluff up in here (Sugar’s going to give you some cavities (*≧m≦*) ) and then some lovely angst (cri).

I’ll leave this for you and run. I hope you like it! This will all come to its thrilling conclusion on the ninth! I’m happy with how it’s been received here!

Love you!

-Sugar

✤✤✤✤✤

{Pt. 1} {Pt. 2} {Pt. 3} {Pt. 4} {Pt. 5} {Pt. 6} {Pt. 7}

くコ:彡くコ:彡くコ:彡くコ:彡

Another week passed. A whole week of Tamaki falling more and more in love with you.

Everyone at the chateau had taken notice of her highness's mysterious new best friend, often seen giggling with one another while you walked through the halls.

You had helped Tamaki come up with a good story this time, which happened to work much better than letting him nod along to anyone trying to play twenty questions to learn more about him. As far as the staff was concerned, Tamaki was a foreigner from far away lands who couldn't speak the island tongue. You however, just so happened to speak the language he did know, and that was why he couldn't respond to anyone other than you.

On the topic of language, both you and Tamaki spent hours in your study together. You taught him everything you could about the human world (including how to read, which he was picking up quite well), while he told you tales of merpeople history and culture, teaching you sign language along the way. Tamaki couldn't help but be impressed with how quickly you learned the motions for each word and phrase. Every time you were able to hold a short conversation with him, a tiny fire of pride glowed just a little brighter in his chest.

His time alone with you, however, soon drew to a close. One morning, you shook him awake with an eager gleam in your eye.

"He's coming today!" you excitedly whispered to him, referring to your father.

You'd been ecstatic since the day before after learning he was on schedule to come back to Milrich, which was the island you were staying at for the time being. You were in one of your favorite dresses, (F/C) skirts softly swishing around your legs. Tamaki noticed that your hair was done differently today, and he had to admit, it looked really nice.

You decided that today would be a good time to take him around town, showing him the shop stands and letting him greet some of the townspeople. Tamaki was nervous at first, clinging to your side at all times and doing little more than offering small waves to people. You made sure to keep him distanced enough so that you wouldn't have to explain why he couldn't hold a conversation, but he enjoyed seeing the sights of the town all the same.

Something was really starting to bother him, though. The people around you treated you with so much respect. Some of them even did an odd sort of bending over for you when you passed by. A sick feeling began to churn in his stomach. It had to just be him overthinking things, right? But the way you lived looked so different from these other humans he saw. Did you have more money? You mentioned your father owning the islands. That had to be it.

Tamaki gnawed on his lip. If you were rich, what would that mean for your interest in him? He wasn't by any means an important merman. He wouldn't have anything to offer if you were to get together. Would your father accept him? He must be the one with the money. Why hadn't Tamaki worried about this more? Why hadn't he asked you earlier about what you were? He was so focused on himself and the fact that he was a merman, he'd barely had time to ask what a princess was.

A sound interrupted Tamaki's thoughts, leaving him little time to try and guess what it was or what it meant before you excitedly gasped and grabbed his hand. Brianne, who had been accompanying you both a few paces away hurried to attempt to keep up with the both of you as you sprinted in the direction of the shore. Tamaki saw an impressive ship docked at the end of an extensive boardwalk; planks leading out into dark waters. He noticed how the boat rocked, pushed and pulled by the waves constantly slapping its sides.

A middle-aged man stood at the bottom of a ramp, surrounded by a small crowd of people. He resembled you, or, maybe Tamaki should say you resembled him. From your face to your build to your hair, this man was undeniably your father.

"Daddy!" You broke off from Tamaki's hand and tore down the wooden dock in his direction.

At the sound of your voice, he looked up, eyes twinkling as he caught sight of you. He was only able to take a few steps toward you before you leapt into his arms, hugging yourself into his large chest.

Tamaki stood by himself at the end of the pier, watching your interactions. Most of your exchanged words were swallowed by distance and the sound of waves slapping against the support posts anchoring the dock. He startled when Brianne finally caught up, panting slightly as she brushed past him and continued her way down the pier, lifting her skirts from the path of her legs.

You were still speaking amiably with your father when she approached the two of you, doing one of those odd bending over things before her own mouth began to move in what Tamaki assumed was welcome for your father.

Her arrival seemed to distract you enough from your father to look around, catching sight of Tamaki still standing awkwardly on shore. You waved at him, then bit your lip as you waited for Brianne to finish talking.

When she finally did, you latched onto your father's arm, pulling him much like you did to Tamaki down the boardwalk, however, you went much slower.

"Father, there's someone I'd like you to meet," Tamaki heard you say as you approached.

He looked up from you and met Tamaki's eyes. He was too far away to determine what color they were, but Tamaki could tell they weren't quite the same hue as yours. They looked tired and worn, but warm and friendly all the same.

"This is Tamaki," you introduced. "He's a castaway from a shipwreck who washed ashore last week. He's been staying with me since."

Your father glanced between you and Tamaki for a moment, finally sizing up the boy before him. After a slightly awkward moment of silence, he offered his hand, which by now Tamaki knew he was supposed to shake. His hand was large and, much like yours, warm in his grasp.

"It's nice to meet you, young lad," your father said, still gripping Tamaki's hand. It didn't seem harsh, merely firm, possibly threatening. "Haven't been too much trouble for my daughter now, have you?"

Out of habit, Tamaki opened his mouth to answer, but stopped himself before he could make a legitimate attempt.

"You see," you spoke up for him, "Tamaki doesn't speak our tongue. He's foreign. Luckily it was among the many languages I have been practicing, so we have been able to communicate."

"Really now? Which one?"

You swallowed, quickly scanning through your mind for a plausible language that your father didn't speak. You named it, and he merely nodded, finally releasing Tamaki's hand.

"He's a very interesting person, father," you continued, holding onto your king's arm as you and his entourage began to make your way back to the chateau. "I have had many opportunities to learn from him. He's very interesting to listen to." You glanced across the way to share a smile with Tamaki, which he appreciated.

"I assume you've been keeping up with your studies as well?" your father asked with a slightly teasing smile.

"She has," Brianne piped up. "Quite nicely too, even with her new little friend who she's running around with at all hours of the day."

No one in the group was able to miss the color donning both yours and Tamaki's cheeks at her statement.

Your father merely smiled down at the both of you, catching your gaze with his warm eyes. "I'm glad you have a friend, (Y/N)."

You smiled softly at the grass below you. "I missed you, father."

"And I missed you, princess."

"The whole town has been awaiting your return," Brianne spoke again. "We should have something in celebration. A dance, perhaps?"

Tamaki wasn't quite certain what a dance was, but from the way you perked up it sounded like it was something to be excited about.

"Oh, daddy, we haven't had one in so long! It'll be wonderful!"

Tamaki suddenly noticed Brianne eyeing him a bit slyly, catching his gaze for a second before innocently roving her glance back ahead. He was clearly missing something, yet again. This was starting to get a bit annoying, having to wait before he could ask you every question he had in private.

"A dance it will be then," your father said. "We'll open the chateau grounds and the entire village will be invited."

You removed your arm from his in order to clap your hands together. "Oh, I'm so excited!"

...

What is a dance?

Tamaki hadn't been able to corner you all afternoon. You spent nearly all day with or around your father, which Tamaki more than understood. But there was no denying that without you, it was difficult to function in your world. What with his anxiety, it was a bit nice to not have just anyone trying to talk with him, but it was still a little unnerving when some of the chateau workers just stared at him from across the room, sometimes whispering amongst themselves. And while he thoroughly enjoyed every moment he spent with you, dependence wasn't his scene either.

So that's how he found himself holed up in his room, alone, having finally escaped the bustle of your chateau. It only seemed busier now that your father was here again, where Tamaki had been used to calm, quiet, nearly empty stone walls.

An hour or so later, you poked your head in to find him sprawled face down on his bed, trying to come up with ways to make a relationship between the two of you work. That is, if you were interested. And if Tamaki could finally just come out and tell you how he felt. Sometimes he found his own lip curling in frustration with himself. Why did he have to make it so hard on him?

"Tamaki?" Your sweet voice saying his name, just like the music that so easily lulled its way into his heart. "You doing okay?"

Tamaki lifted himself up so he could sit on the edge of the bed, and you joined him without hesitation. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just . . . a lot of people."

You tentatively placed a hand on his knee, making the raven haired boy's heart jump. "I'm sorry. It might be like this for another day or so until everything settles. I'll try to make time for you until then, okay?"

"Sure."

Your hand gave his knee the lightest of squeezes before pulling back to rest on your lap. "Are you excited for the dance?"

Tamaki bit his lip, relieved to finally be able to have the question that had been on his mind all day answered. "What's a dance?"

"Ah, you must not have them," you said. Tamaki could appreciate how understanding you were with him, never talking down to him like he was dumb. "They're parties. With food and music and dancing—"

"Oh, we do have those."

"So you'll accompany me?" you asked, allowing heat to spread a bit on your cheeks.

"What do you mean?"

Your blush intensified a little more. "You know. You can take people to these things and they can be your dance partner for the night . . . . Would you like to be mine?"

Tamaki's pulse quickened. "Of course! I'd love to. It's just, I've never really been to many parties or anything . . . ."

"And you probably don't know how to dance either. At least, not with human legs."

Tamaki shook his head.

"Come on." You stood, walking him to the door. You glanced around the hall before leaving his room, making your way all the way down to the door to the outside.

The sun had long since set, and the sky had been painted over with a heavy inky darkness. Tamaki couldn't help but take a moment to gaze up at the thousands of stars that were scattered outside the atmosphere. You'd taken him outside at night once a few days ago, pointing out constellations that had been illustrated in one of your books, spending hours together just looking at them as you talked.

He still found himself fascinated with them, only shaken from his trance by a light tug you'd given to his arm. "This way," you whispered. Tamaki didn't know why you were whispering, but there was something about the action that just seemed appropriate now.

You led him to an open area of grass, fringed by small trees on one side. The night sky was in full view all around, moonlight softly pooling onto every surface for miles. Tamaki could see you just well enough to truly appreciate your beauty, eyes running from your kind face to your sweet curves.

Without him scarcely being able to register it, you were suddenly so close to him; chest to chest in the middle of the clearing. His breath caught in his throat at your proximity, craving it and fearing it all at once.

"I'm going to teach you how to dance," you said, your voice low in the still night air. I'm Renasha Bliss—

You gently guided his arms and hands to their positions, your own heart suddenly feeling flighty at his butterfly touch. Once he was secured, you settled your own hands and began to explain to him some of the basics.

"Now move with me, and keep loose. There will be music with a tempo, so you'll have that to follow, but for now, let's just go—" You began to guide his movements, your feet gliding with his over the soft grass. "One two three, one two three, one two three—" Your voice remained soft, concentrating on keeping your motions fluid to provide an example for Tamaki.

Every now and then, fireflies would be awakened by your feet, humming into the air and creating a light show all your own. Tamaki watched as their glow shone in your eyes, unable to take his own off them. They went so deep, and he loved every detail about their color, even from what little he could make out in the dark.

You kept whispering one two three, one two three, until you felt Tamaki begin to relax into your hold, letting his own legs guide him relatively smoothly with yours.

"Look at that," you paused in your chanting to beam at him. "You're a natural."

The two of you kept going, your count eventually replaced by gentle humming. Tamaki closed his eyes and let the music flow into his ears, guided only by your warm touch and the silent continuation of one two three he'd started in his head.

"Spin me," you whispered.

Tamaki blinked his eyes open enough to watch as you broke apart from him momentarily, still grasping his hand. He'd seen this spin done countless times back home, so he was familiar with the action of lifting his arm over your head as you spun slowly beneath him, skirts swishing around your calves.

A soft laugh tumbled from your lips as he pulled you back into him. You hadn't had a dance partner in years, and never had it truly felt this way. Tamaki and you fell back into the three-step, notes still leaking from your throat as you recalled a dance you had watched your mother perform with your father when you were young.

Encased in the spotlight of moonbeams, with insects your only orchestra, the whole moment was nothing but magical. You couldn't keep the smile off your face if you tried, and you even noticed Tamaki letting go of his normally tense demeanor and softly grinning at you as well.

"Spin me again," you whispered giddily, having picked up the pace of your inaudible one two three's.

Tamaki happily obliged, watching as you dipped under his arm and held your position away from him for a second, only to come back into his chest. Except, you suddenly didn't quite feel like dancing anymore. He stilled as he held you in his arms, pressing you close to his chest.

Your breathing quickened as he looked into your eyes, indigo hues boring into your own (E/C) depths. Your lips parted ever so slightly in awe of him, which he quickly noticed, breaking the gaze to stare at your full pillows.

Your breaths intermingling was the only sign to you that you were drawing ever closer, unable to look or move away, completely spellbound by the man before you who was not quite of this world.

Otherworldly, you thought, your hand lightly running from his shoulder to the back of his neck, already applying pressure to the base in order to pull him in further. That's what he was. That's how you felt. In this unbreakable moment, where time had slowed and the earth had stopped spinning.

A breath. "Tamaki."

The whispered sound of his name made his gaze snap to your eyes again.

"Are you sure?" you asked, voice breathy behind your lips.

"About what?" Tamaki whispered back, caught up in your intense gaze.

"Taking me as your princess," you said, so close in his face the tips of your noses nearly brushed up against each other.

Princess. The word nearly sent a chill down his spine. What did it mean? The question had been gnawing at the back of his mind from the first day he'd been here, yet he'd never had the courage to ask it. But you were so close, so tantalizingly close, and he didn't want anything more to keep itself wedged between you.

Without a second thought, Tamaki parted his lips. "Actually, there's another question I haven't asked. It's been bothering me for a while."

"Oh?"

"I, uh . . . I don't actually know what a princess is."

Your eyes widened. "You—you don't know?"

Tamaki flinched, the spellbound moment he'd been caught in suddenly crashing down around him. He'd insulted you, he was certain. This was why he hadn't asked in the first place. He already regretted the words that had fallen from his tongue, wishing he could suck them back in again, go back to seconds before, when you were dancing, when you were finally about to kiss—

"Do you—do you not have princesses?" you asked in disbelief. "No monarchy?"

Monarchy. The simple word made his blood run cold, feeling rushing from his face. You were . . . royalty? This whole time?

"I—there's the emperor and the empress," he stammered out, suddenly unable to meet your gaze. "But we've never had—I've never heard of—I didn't know—"

Your eyebrows creased in worry at his crumbling face. "Tamaki are you okay?"

"You're—you're royalty," he finally said, his world momentarily pausing in its spiraling descent around him.

He couldn't miss how your face suddenly fell. You looked so . . . disappointed, almost betrayed. How could Tamaki have messed up so bad?

"Yes." Your voice was distant as you answered.

That was all he needed. He had to go. He couldn't bear to see you, to have you see him.

Tamaki spun around and began to run off in the direction of the sea. His feet pounded against the grass, nearly flying over the surface of the ground. He'd been to this path so many times before in the week he'd lived with you, so the journey was no difficult or unfamiliar one.

For the first time since he'd gotten his legs, Tamaki truly couldn't breathe. He had to get away, he just had to. Never before had he felt so foolish, so embarrassed. You were royalty? And he thought he had a chance? He should have known. The moment he'd laid eyes on your perfect face, the second he'd heard your beautiful voice, been touched by your gentle caring hands, you were more than he could ever deserve, and Tamaki should have known not to convince himself that you could ever love him back.

It all made sense; your home that was bigger than everyone else's, the people who seemed so eager to answer to every beck and call, everything from the way you carried yourself to the delicate circlet that always wrapped around your head.

You had status. You had money. You had power. You had no business being with someone as lowly as a merman like him.

His feet hit sand and the sound of the sea crashed into his ears. He ran into the waves, not caring that they were cold, not caring that they were so strong they could throw him against a rock and he could die. He only cared that it was wet and it was home and it was away.

Tamaki fought the opposing force, nearly screaming in frustration as a wave pushed him back towards shore, silently begging him to go back. Its pleas fell on deaf ears, and Tamaki focused all his energy on surging forward until he was up to his neck in the salty water. He yanked the shell necklace over his head and tossed it away, angry at how he'd once held so much hope in it. He thought it would set him free, not destroy his life. He threw it somewhere behind him, incapable of thinking of consequences for his actions.

He started to feel funny, his body beginning to reconstruct itself much like it had so many days before. This transformation was faster and far less painful, but Tamaki still stumbled forward, his face colliding with an oncoming wave as his legs started to fuse together. He held his breath and buried his arms in the sand to hold himself under the violent waters, waiting for his tail to reform and his gills to come back. Finally it was complete, and he pushed himself off the seafloor, pumping his powerful tail in the direction of home.

Home.

He couldn't go back. What would Mirio think?

Tamaki frantically whipped between the black rocks that jutted from the waves, hoping to fight off the strong watery forces in his moments of adrenaline. Soon, he surpassed the location where he had leaned against the rocks to watch you, experiencing what a human was for the first time. He passed where he'd grown legs and nearly drowned, claimed and spat out by the sea which had been his home. Finally he was where he'd last parted ways with Mirio, right before he'd started on this long, chaotic journey.

Tamaki floated still in the water, finally letting himself stop. His arms wrapped around himself, physically trying to keep himself from falling apart more than he already had.

He hadn't been submerged in the ocean for so long, it felt surreal. The weightlessness, the cold, the darkness. For the first time, none of it was comforting. He already missed the sun and the grass and the air and your wonderful face—

You. He had been a fool. A fool in love. An idiot infatuated by a fantasy, a fantasy where the two of you could be together, no matter who you were or where you came from.

Tamaki felt himself sinking. He didn't care. He kept his elbows to his chest and his face in his hands as his surroundings got colder and darker. The crushing feeling in his chest was worse than any water pressure he'd ever experienced.

His caudal fins brushed sand, and he soon found himself lying on the seafloor. He couldn't move for now. It was almost as if there wasn't a thought in his mind other than his own self-hatred.

What was it you said humans did? Cry? That's what Tamaki felt like doing. Except he couldn't. He wasn't a human anymore. His dreams had come to an end, and now he was little more than alone in the vast blue darkness that had once been his home.

...

To be continued . . . .

くコ:彡くコ:彡くコ:彡くコ:彡

[Part Seven]

Author's Note:

Whoof, that was heavy.

Sorry this one was a little shorter than the others but oh well, variety I guess ('−｀) ﾝ. Don't worry, I promise there will be a happy ending!

Thanks again for reading! Love you guys!

-Sugar

Taglist:

@inumorph @engel-hageshii @good-so @krissy189 @milkteeboba @pansexual-potterhead @ure-a-sunflower @xeina @kingtamakimurder @basicaegyo @iiminibattlehero @pyrofanatic @sokkasangel @xoxopam4

#tamaki #amajiki #tamaki amajiki #mermaki #tamaki bnha #tamaki amajiki bnha #tamaki mha #tamaki amajiki mha #tamaki x reader #tamaki amajiki x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #reader insert #deepbluefantasy #sugar fics

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onf-headcanons · 3 years

Text

ONF IN PSYCHO PASS AU (part 1)

Setting : angst, murder (influenced mass murder), futuristic society, you can read the introduction post prior reading this AU headcanon (for a better understanding cos some keywords will be slightly difficult for non anime audiences)

And warning long post and shipping hinting (I wont write it over explicit but if you are anime audience you can get the hint of which character I based so its suggestive should you integrated anime counterpart to ONF couterpart) if you are uncomfortable with that just kindly ignore it. Only adding it not just because to follow original series but also for the AU/headcanon storyline conflict purposes

Theme song (if you really want to)

Opening : The Realist by ONF

Ending : FLOWER by XIA Junsu ft Tablo

*Special recommend (from original anime) :

Abnormalize by Ling Toshite Sigure (season 1)

Namae no nai Kaibutsu by Egoist (season 1)

Below is the known situation when the story starts in Yuto's POV

Yuto - Inspector

Changyoon - Inspector

Hyojin - Enforcer

Jaeyoung - Enforcer

Minkyun - Analyst

Seungjun & Minseok - dead

And again sorry if its messy (Cos mainly I just want this AU to exist and making it to a birthday gift for myself XD)

The whole structure is followed the anime,but I will fast paced-ify to focus on main storyline. Also I will tweak my words/wordings to a more simpler format so that I wont cause you all headache.

1-1

(loosely based from episode 1 and 2)

Its first day for Yuto joining CID as an Inspector, he is under Changyoon. Changyoon, who has already read the profile of his new subordinate/partner, lets Yuto to omit the self introduction as they head off to crime scene at a second tier city nearby.

(He is the first foreigner in the team? why not?)

Before they left, Minkyun comes over to hand Changyoon a briefcase mentioning that there is bit of queue. Yuto thanked Minkyun in a hurry.

On the way, Changyoon guided Yuto to login into system with Dominator gun, just coldly confirmed with Yuto if he knows how to use it. Once Yuto got everything checked, Changyoon went back to his silent mode.

They need to hunt down a man who has escaped (same reason as anime or whatever reason you felt convenient).

At the place its rainy and its already night, Inspectors arrived along with another wagon/van where Enforcers are inside. Yuto thought they are back ups, which is not entirely wrong.

Changyoon shortly briefs Yuto about Enforcers. Quote, " Those inside are beings where their Psycho Pass readings are not of accepted range". Its more like Changyoon is trying to set Yuto a mindset that don't think Enforcers as an ally/ same being as us.

As the door of wagon opens, 2 Enforcers steps out, they noticed new member standing beside Changyoon. Due to documentation's wording and Changyoon's words, Yuto thought Enforcers would be people who looks menacing and tough, those by 1 glance you could immediately tell they are used to be/potentially to be psychopathic criminal...

But to Yuto surprise, both Enforcers in suits looks pretty like decent normal person, just like him. One with red hair who is slightly shorter and another with black who is taller.

Both Enforcers approaches to Changyoon with smiley face. While Changyoon just look at him expressionless. The one in red hair with a friendly tone goes, " Glad you are not working alone now Changyoon." But Changyoon only just give him the "Whatever you say" look. And the Enforcer with red hair seems to used to Changyoon's coldness.

Meanwhile, the Enforcer with black hair approaches Yuto to introduce himself and his colleague. He is Jaeyoung while the other one is Hyojin. Yuto responded politely. And Hyojin smiles at Yuto brightly to the extent Yuto slightly questions if looks really are deceiving? Then just how scary these decent looking person's Psycho Pass were when they are actually friendly?

But Yuto's distracted thought was pulled back to reality when Changyoon starts to brief on team missions. Hyojin is assigned to Yuto while Jaeyoung follows Changyoon instead.

While searching for the escaped criminal by checking the area's alleys and back alleys, Hyojin being friendly and tried giving Yuto mental security by offering to answer his doubts because he was once a rookie like him too. Yuto being the good student, has go through documents and manuals so he does not have much questions, but only worry on if he could do good on practical events.

Hyojin's advise was those manuals and what Yuto has learnt prior joining only serve as a guide and reference, so better don't over rely as case by case are all different. However, Hyojin ensures him by saying. "Don't worry, it is us Enforcers who do dirty work. for most of the times"

Out of curiousity, (and with Hyojin's permission) Yuto armed Dominator gun towards Hyojin to check/confirm on Hyojin's Psycho Pass. And it is higher than society acceptance range. Seeing the truth, Yuto inhales a bit of air, he could not help think and compare Hyojin to those physical attributes/vibes gave of by criminals he seen from TV.

Jaeyoung's voice could be heard via bluetooth earphones, mentioning he and Changyoon has found the criminal but the criminal has escaped towards Yuto and Hyojin's direction, along with a hostage. Jaeyoung and Changyoon are now attending the abandoned hostage. (Initially there are 2)

Changyoon approves of Enforcer to shoot should situation calls for that move.

As Jaeyoung's sentence finishes, the criminal dashes out from the corner and Hyojin immediately rushes in front of Yuto with Dominator armed and ready, his friendly vibe are gone and totally different, his emitting aura that are spiking with alert and defense mode.

Since the place they are standing is a dead end, for sure the criminal will back off and escape again. And before Yuto could make a quick decision, Hyojin fires precisely at criminal with Lethal Eliminator mode. It all happens too quick but Yuto grasps the situation fast enough to rush towards the hostage.

As Yuto gotten the hostage in his arm, he softly tries to calm the hostage down. But while doing it, he could the red haired Enforcer behind him coldly requesting Yuto to move away from the hostage.

Yuto immediately understood that the extermination of criminal in front of hostage's presence moments ago triggered the raise of Psycho Pass of the hostage, and now the hostage's stress level is high enough for Dominator and system to see the hostage as threat to fire. One relieving point was, Hyojin's gun is not in Lethal Eliminator mode, so Yuto could tell that there is not really a necessary for Hyojin to fire just yet.

"Wait, ..." Yuto tries to convince Hyojin but the hostage took the opportunity to run. Hyojin chases the hostage and yells at Yuto to catch up.

And Hyojin informs the others through bluetooth that the hostage's Crime Coefficent has went up.

Yuto, wants to change the situation, hurriedly stands up and followed Hyojin. While running and convincing Hyojin that the hostage is only a victim of crime, Yuto realised the object he is holding and quickly plans.

As Hyojin chases the hostage to another dead end, the hostage start to break down and cry as they noticed its dead end. Their stress level are not coming down and they clearly knew what fate lies ahead as the police is chasing them.

Seeing that, Yuto know he cannot wait to explain or persuade Hyojin, so instead of firing at the hostage, Yuto paralyses Hyojin from behind using Dominator trying to save the hostage. The hostage calms down seeing the possibility to not being executed/treated as a criminal.

When Changyoon and Jaeyoung arrives to the spot, they are confused if the hostage assaulted Hyojin. And Changyoon checked the hostage's Crime Coefficient, it is now back to normal. However, as procedure for victim of crime to get treatment and assessment, Changyoon still fires at the hostage to paralyses them.

Hyojin and the hostage are to be hospitalized for the time being. And since Yuto confessed that Hyojin was not assaulted by hostage but paralyzed by Yuto's Dominator, Changyoon demanded a report from him to explain his actions.

The next day Yuto woke up worried if he had ruined his career by the first day. Feeling apologetic, he goes to the hospital to check up on Hyojin after settling a case with Jaeyoung, and he has to oversee the victim to be sent to hospital.

Jaeyoung reminded Yuto that its the same hospital Hyojin and yesterday hostage were in. Yuto then Jaeyoung to return to van while he will check on Hyojin quickly.

Hyojin, who is now numb and paralyzed, lying on the bed with his eyes open, staring at the ceiling and walls blankly.

Hyojin's hunch made him asked Yuto what was Changyoon's response towards Yuto's actions. And Yuto told him the truth that he will need to submit a report. Hyojin only laughs at Changyoon for being a stuborn head and stiff, just like old times.

"Have you done the report then?" Hyojin asks, Yuto only shakes his head replying that he does not know how to start and what to write.

Hyojin, with a playful tone, teased that should Yuto did not paralyzed him, he could write the report on his behalf as a welcome to the team gift, but since he is now paralyzed, Yuto will need to do it on his own.

Yuto felt a bit bad about that, but Hyojin assures him that Hyojin can let it slide should Yuto buy him lunch once he discharged.

"HAHA, should Changyoon ever finds out you drop by to check on me, he might sulk even more." Hyojin mutters in a playful but weary tone.

"Eh?" Yuto gets a little panicked, "Inspectors should not visit or come contact with Enforcers after office hours?"

Hyojin denies Yuto's speculation and mentioned that he does not blame Yuto for what happened, and asks Yuto to check the hostage as well, hoping the hostage can control their stress level well so that they can discharge soon. And Hyojin also jokingly say that hope the hostage won't bump into him in the future, even though unlikely since Enforcer lived a very controlled life.

"Don't be intimidated by Changyoon, give him a bit of time to get used to your presence. Also keep in mind he means no harm." Hyojin adds

Yuto could tell Hyojin is not someone that cold and mean. And he starts to smile back a little again.

Yuto feel like asking if Hyojin and Changyoon knows each other way back, but he had to do that the next time because he still has a report to submit.

Yuto then starts his life adapting and learning how things operating in CID, he is a quick learner so Changyoon is quite content about it. Not long after, he assigned Yuto to head off to crime scene inspection with Jaeyoung while waiting for Hyojin to discharge.

1-2

(loosely based on episode 2 and 3 but I omitted most details of the crime case)

Yuto and Jaeyoung are working on a night time shift. The monitoring system alerts them of a potential area stress level rising/ potential target stress level rising so they had to head out.

As Yuto is still a bit inexperienced, Jaeyoung was the one who identified the target. After handling potential threat target, Jaeyoung talked about him being Enforcer for a long time, even longer than Hyojin and telling Yuto not to feel bad about it because experience will grow as time pass.

And also Jaeyoung hinted that it is also because he is "different" than Yuto, thats why he can intuitively know by first glance when someone's looks fishy.

Yuto felt inexperience is just sugar coating his incapability, and that thought shows on his face. So Jaeyoung told him that : " Don't think that you are useless for the time being. "

"Enforcers can't walk around outside without an accompanying Inspector. Your job is also to monitor Enforcers too, so that they won't slack off escape or cause society trouble. Even if that's all you can do for now, that is all you need to do." Jaeyoung continues.

That did not leave a good after taste for Yuto even it is the truth.

As days pass, Yuto did good handling on cases now as he gets the hang of it. Jaeyoung sees leading quality budding in Yuto and sometimes praises Yuto in front of Changyoon. And even with Minkyun, they both teased Changyoon to soften up a little so that he would stop scaring Yuto.

Yuto and Minkyun did to have a bit of get to know each other time when Changyoon and Jaeyoung head out to patrol. Yuto and Minkyun are back up support.

its lunchtime and Minkyun invited Yuto for lunch. So they get know each other for a bit.

Minkyun was glad to have Yuto joining the team because Changyoon and Hyojin are both quite uptight. But Yuto said he did not see Hyojin as the strict character. Minkyun laugh it off by saying that is because Yuto did not know Hyojin long enough.

It later surprised Minkyun that Yuto actually Sibyl system's judgement/assessment towards Yuto, were exceedingly excel. He got A ranking for a number of ministries and agencies and a couple of companies.

Minkyun exclaims as he nearly choked on his food : "Seriously,then why CID?"

Yuto repies him with a wearily smile while handing him a glass of water : "I think that was because for all other jobs there were at least 1 or 2 people beside me that got the same ranking."

"And I was the only one who got an A ranking for the Bureau. Out of 500 students in whole country." Yuto continues while Minkyun looking at him unbelievingly.

"So you just come over thinking there might be something you can do here?" Minkyun makes a guess and Yuto nods.

"That was incredibly amazing Yuto, even if it was assessed and chosen by the system for you, " Minkyun exclaims for the second time. "You could've chosen any kind of life!"

Yuto again can only nod at Minkyun's words, knowing that most people can did not have the luxury like he does. For most people, judged by the system only get to live the lifestyle set by the system and has to follow it . And he, Mizuguchi Yuto gets to choose. Which explains Minkyun's reaction to Yuto's experience.

"You know there are people who get identified as potential criminal at young age and never get to live a happy life ever since." Minkyun murmurs but Yuto did not get to catch it.

When Yuto asks for a repeat, Minkyun just brush it off saying Yuto's experience is so out of the world and he wish he could live as Yuto for once in a lifetime.

The lunch session ends as Changyoon and Jaeyoung notify them that the patrolling team is heading back to office and there are some evidence that need Minkyun's help to analysis.

(slight time skip in between, case of episode 3 happened. Changyoon critiqued on Yuto for being naive to put trust on Enforcers and Yuto gets to know that Hyojin is super reliable even though sometimes reckless. And this is where Yuto starts to look up to Hyojin.)

This happened later back in office when Yuto was out delivering documents to other department and Jaeyoung brought up topic of Yuto catch up really fast when he is handing his report to Changyoon. Hyojin is at his desk, doing paperwork.

They all know Changyoon well enough that Changyoon does not hate Yuto but only dislike the fact that Yuto sees Enforcers as a colleague and maybe even equal as human being. In Changyoon's point of view, naive and innocent. Which in Hyojin's point of view, Changyoon's stereotype is childishly selfish.

"Everyone starts as a rookie though." says Minkyun "But he is fast learner."

Hyojin, adds comment that Yuto is still a bit naive but with Changyoon giving the best guidance, Yuto will excel and might be the best Inspectors ever to exist.

"I mean, you know that better than we do right? You are the one who went through Yuto's profile." Hyojin's tone sound confident about Yuto's capability.

Changyoon is scanning Jaeyoung's report and he raise his gaze so that his eyes met Hyojin's gaze. He is not happy that an Enforcer backs up and siding a newbie.

"That's if he understands what a fool he is to treat Enforcers like a human being." Changyoon stares at Hyojin with a bit of anger in his eyes while saying this. "As long as he still does that, I don't see him qualify as a sensible and independent Inspector just yet."

"Same goes to you, Minkyun." Changyoon adds. "I don't get it why you can even get so awfully comfy with him."

Minkyun and Jaeyoung's face went soulless when Changyoon finishes his words.

The room went into grim silence instantly, and Hyojin's smiling expression changes to a straight face and he did not back off from Changyoon's words.

"Hey, I know you hate me but don't lash it out towards Minkyun." Hyojin retorts. "Keep in mind that you are the head of the team, and behave like one."

"And you think I wanted to be the head of the team to begin with?" Changyoon responds immediately and he puts down Jaeyoung's document on table with a thud, making the aura even tenser.

Minkyun want to say something to ease the situation but Jaeyoung pulls Minkyun's arm to stop him.

Coincidentally, the office door opens and Yuto steps in, he has returned from his errands. His seniors quickly act like nothing has happened and return to their work. But it did not fool Yuto for he could feel there is tension in the air.

Yuto's instinct knows best that it is better to act like nothing happened because he realized he does not understand a whole lot about his colleagues.

1-3

(loosely based on episode 4 and 5. Timeline is episode 4 and 5, but I will keep it simple.)

The team has to find culprit behind a murder case. It is found out that the victim was a member of a virtual community, and the account activity is still active until recently. But since the corpse already been some time, the team have perfect reason to doubt that maybe there is someone pretending to be the victim.

Even though it is not like that in the anime, I will tweak a bit here. Yuto has to take the role to "infiltrate" into community (potential enemy quarters) because most users are Japanese. Yuto managed to get some information. And the team comes up with a plan to catch their potential target/suspect.

The plan did not go well, and the suspect escapes. But little did the team know, that the whole case of this murder is not as easy/plain as it seems. It was just the beginning of a larger happening that will shake their lives.

Changyoon and Jaeyoung head out for another potential suspect's residence but returned fruitless. With Minkyun's data, Hyojin raised a possibility that maybe the murder is in the virtual community.

Luckily for the team, even though took a while but thanks to Hyojin's observant trait along with Minkyun's provided data+search of database, they are able to pinpoint the identity of murderer. Changyoon and Jaeyoung as Team A while Yuto and Hyojin as team B.

The criminal flees but Team B is able to wound the target badly. Team A chases, and then only to find the criminal has their Psycho Pass is contaminated badly compared to the first statistic number shown in the team's Dominator. The target is executed on spot as per instruction of Sibyl system.

The case was settled like that and no one ever got a clue how deep the water was.

After several team ups (including this one) with Hyojin, Yuto finally realizes that he might have been a tad naive and he is amazed how Enforcers are able to grasp what the target is thinking and able to foresee target actions.

Maybe when Yuto is taking a breather, Changyoon whofinally soften up a bit towards Yuto after the amount of time working together, comforts the junior that he did good recently but he should just simply fulfill duties as an Inspector so that things wont be overly complicated for Yuto. And for another time, Changyoon advised Yuto to draw a borderline with Enforcers, but not in a harsh tone, more of a pure advise.

"I am advising you based on experience." Changyoon says. " I could not stop him, so I thought I might prevent you to be like him."

Yuto just go by his hunch and ask the reason Changyoon draw that borderline and wishes other people to follow suit. Then Changyoon reveals that he has lost a few colleagues who are also his friends during his days in CID.

All loss are painful for him but none is more painful when his former head of division/chief of team,

Someone Changyoon used to look up to, who also used to be an excelled and brilliant Inspector "falls from grace" after the loss of their mutual friends.

" I don't want you to make the same mistake." Changyoon mutters out his words towards Yuto. He was expressionless when he says that but his worried eyes were exactly what made Yuto empath and felt Changyoon's pain

And the next reveal gives Yuto a shock but the puzzles finally fits together, "It was Hyojin."

"What?" and that's the only word Yuto exhales out of disbelief.

Changyoon let out a sigh and briefly explains, "He lost his brother and his best friend one after another. His brother was executed while his best friend which is also our former colleague, committed suicide."

Yuto only listens to Changyoon quietly, and unconsciously holding his breath. Hyojin? Who would have thought someone who is bright and kind towards Yuto has gone through such tragedy?

"Wait,..." Yuto found a point where he is in doubt. "You mentioned Hyojin's brother is executed, not murdered..."

Changyoon's slightly frowns and averts Yuto's gaze. "Yes, that is exactly what I meant. His brother was executed by the system. And his best friend watched that happened then later committed suicide a few weeks after the funeral."

The details of the story only emerged a bit but it is already complicating enough. Looking at Yuto's perplexed expression, Changyoon gave Yuto 2 files document's number for Yuto to look up to.

"I hope that from reading the file you can understand my point." Changyoon give a light pat on Yuto's shoulder before he continues, "I do understand that no one is a 100 percent saint. But, I do believe that you can choose not to fall by stepping away from all temptations. I kept my stance but he did not. He failed us, Me, his brother and his best friend."

Before Changyoon left, he advised Yuto not to stay up too late as they need to be early tomorrow.

The moment Yuto reached his apartment, he logs into the Bureau's database and search for the file Changyoon mentioned.

Just by the title Yuto knew instantly it was the terror attack happened 2 years ago. But since the intricate details of Hyojin's brother was not in newspapers, this is a record filed in ministry without publicly published but can only access by CID.

Yuto has complicated thoughts, he knew once he clicked into it, he will never view Hyojin and Changyoon the same again.

But the phrase of "His brother was executed by the system. And his best friend watched that happened then later committed suicide" repeats in Yuto's head. And it gave Yuto the motivation to click on the file.

To be continued in part 2... will upload soon (I have to split because its too long)

#onf #psycho pass au #onf headcanon #onf imagines #onf hyojin #onf j-us #onf e-tion #onf wyatt #onf mk #onf u #kim hyojin #lee seungjun #lee changyoon #shim jaeyoung #park minkyun #mizuguchi yuto #onf headcanons #onf scenarios #scheduled

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starsailorstories · 3 years

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In other news I finally finished the long, wild, aristocratic-nonsense-fraught history of altamai

The first officially-sanctioned superatmospheric settlement on Altamai broke ground in the year 2190 of the ninth Taregan cycle, and her first official citizens arrived just under a (Taregan) decade later, after a long and dangerous building process largely carried out by the indentured and indebted of the ancient city-state of Solreg. In this early period, the population was scattered between “legitimate” landing sites, fly-by-night towns, and nomadic groups. The planet was a frontier: land changed hands via sword and seduction; criminals held territory with no trouble but the occasional vigilante; and vigilantes operated however they saw fit for good or ill, living in their starships and chasing bounties across the foggy plains.

The supposed descendants of the original Captain-Queens who settled Tarega had long had an informal international council, which became formal in the early years of Altamaian habitation. Gradually, national lines began to be drawn--most of the wars had already been fought, and there was a period of non-violent, albeit not necessarily just, claims and concessions. By virtue of the ancestry of their leadership, the Oghai, Saiven, Solrega, Nadega, Avesian, and Faellran peoples emerged as major powers.

In an oathing ceremony performed at request by a praeceptor-trained priestess, these seven world leaders would become (in addition to the queenly titles most of them brought from their homeworld) the Avesian Maximatas--to this day, the highest offices of Basillan nobility outside the royal family, passed down in a continuous line for over 600,000 planetary years. Here they swore to be mothers to the planet, to care for all of her inhabitants and follow the will of the goddesses. The language of the oath would later become a rallying point for commoners seeking accountability for their rulers, although ruling classes in the Binary have always had the kind of accountability problem that only revolution really solves.

Anyway, for holding to a vow of such profound importance, the priestess exacted a high price--she asked that if, as had been discussed, they chose a High Queen for the planet, it be her own country’s queen, Athaema Seflioma of Aves. They technically could have refused this request, but it would have been, to use the proper terminology, a Whole Thing. To turn down the bargain of a priestess and an oracle, and one sanctioned by the holy city, would be seen as akin to disrespect for the goddesses if it got out that it had happened, and wouldn’t start the new seat of power off on a popular foot. And so, in 10230 19th cycle, High Queen Athaema was crowned by her peers and sisters, and immediately got down to business setting up a royal court designed to serve the entire Sol Jenya system, planning and constructing ten state-of-the-art “civilized” cities to centralize industry and government in the various population centers, placing unaffiliated frontier towns under the jurisdiction of local landed gentry, and bearing over 2,000 children, her successor Aviana among them.

The crackdown on unaffiliated settlements was indiscriminate--lumping peaceful, self-sufficient villages established by poor colonies seeking freedom from the abuses of the feudal system in with organized-crime strongholds rife with violence and exploitation. The decree was presented with a spin that basically guaranteed its popularity with those who had no firsthand experience with the situation--without the care of the nobility, the court instructed its messengers to say, fly-by-nights were vulnerable to extreme poverty and plagued by thieves. A select few hard-luck stories were treated with highly public charity, and the project is still widely understood as a benevolent one by Basilean citizens at the time of the story. In reality, many fly-by-night towns were happy, prosperous, and most concerningly, egalitarian; and these fought tooth and nail to remain free until they could fight no longer. The far left wing of Basilean opinion remembers as martyrs a handful who went down swinging to the last girl standing. During Aviana’s comparably unremarkable reign, others simply vanished into the mists, operating in such secrecy that only the archaeological record attests to their existence. Fairly recently at the time of the story, a colony was discovered who had been living in self-imposed isolation for so long that they had developed a unique dialect of the Solrega Aundell language, a unique projection style adapted to their low-visibility home in the Tonevan cloud forest, and even a few subtle but distinct physical adaptations.

As the 23rd cycle drew to a close, Athaema’s granddaughter Ouriama died suddenly before she could produce an heir. Although an assassination was suspected, no proof was uncovered, and it remains an unsolved mystery and system-wide legend. The crown passed to her wife’s colony (and to another of the seven powers) in Faellra, where a new mother had just been born who could inherit it, and the guardian of this new queen, Analemma Olaean, jumped at the opportunity to make her ward Daemarima the best-connected and most legally powerful High Queen yet. This unwittingly made her a prime suspect in the previous Queen’s death, but from the international council’s centralizing perspective, it was all worth it. High Queen Daemarima commissioned the construction of Standard Altamaian, a single lingua franca for the planet, less than a turn (not that they measured turns back then, but it’s a good way to describe a period that feels like ‘a quarter year or so’ in astraea lifespans) after her coronation. In the ninth year of the twenty-fifth cycle, the planetary government financed the implementation of the new language in schools and other institutions, and in a more sinister move, outlawed the speaking of local languages in a handful of key centers of resistance to the hierarchy.

The Olaen dynasty lasted six cycles, during which interstellar exploration flourished in this new era of semi-forced international unity. Worlds in the ante-dome and outer disk were “discovered” by Altamaian newcomers on the regular and treated like matrona gifts in potentia for the various queens and aristocrats, although the era of outright invasions was still long to come. A sailor named Via suddenly appeared claiming to have lived on isolated, well-defended Esmrrrder for nearly thirty planetary years, and told tales of an advanced civilization perched high on its planet’s abundant mountains. The dream of crossing the vacuum between galaxies was already being heavily discussed as well, but before an expedition could be mounted, Daemarima’s great-great granddaughter married a commoner and abdicated the throne to her sister Leiliora, who would bring their dynasty to an abrupt end when she challenged Sastiena Fortefemen to a duel in defense of her sister’s honor and lost, dying that same night of an infection from a wound on her side. The Fortefemens had merely accepted the Queen’s challenge, but they stepped obligingly into the power vacuum and proceeded to rule the planet for longer than any other family, effectively controlling a throne they won in a sword fight for like 30,000 years. This is basically all you need to know about the Fortefemens.

It was early in her reign that Sastiena’s former ward Deracoura--named for the scriptural “protector” of the Taregan desert wayfinders--reached out to the leaders of the various Basillan-controlled worlds, as well as those of Sitheria, to spearhead the first intergalactic exploration mission. As you know from my broader historical overview of the Seven Suns, this expedition went in search of sapient life and returned with the first Cadrian delegation, who toured the cities of Ovaiakon, Solrega Nova, Neroka, and Alegia. It was on Altamai that the initial commoner-owned shipyard was founded via Cadrian investment and began exporting to the Maculata (as well as importing from the Elorican asteroid fields) and providing a colony-estate-esque setup for workers who viewed the Cadrian-style wage system with suspicion. As it turned out, providing the bare minimum was more profitable, at the time, than paying workers in flexible currency, and it had the added appeal of letting owners of capital basically act and live like nobility.

Within the next two cycles, the business interests of commoners continued to grow, and the Union of Commons was formed to protect those interests. They published a manifesto expressing their belief in the right of landholders of low birth to govern their own lands--basically a “hey, we have money, so why don’t we also have power?” directed at the High Court and the nobility. Practically in response, nonroyal nobility from every clan and country began clamoring for international lawmaking power as well. They formed a planet-wide legislative council of their own, and while they declared no hostility to the royal tier of society, they asked no permission from them either. In the middle of all this, while en route from a visit with the Council of Emperors far across the intergalactic sea, Queen Deracoura unhelpfully died.

Trying to please everyone, keep the peace, and maybe punish her insubordinate maximatas just a LITTLE bit, her heir Felixania Fortefemen ordered the creation of the High Parliament, which included representation from the nobility of each nation as well as for gentry of common birth. She still had the final say on everything no matter what, and it led to the creation of a lengthy court season that allowed the royal family to keep their nobles under close scrutiny, so in a way it was a devil’s bargain.

In this era, there were clashes of interest between a variety of Basillan and Cadrian notables. In space and even on-planet, business owners enforced their deals like crime bosses and crime bosses did a steady trade. In a climate where the penalty for a breach of contract could be a village burned to the ground, the nobility increasingly styled themselves as the protectors of the people, loyalties strengthened, and divisions grew. Among the common people, favor was split between the common capitalist class--who seemed to offer freedom from the whims of the nobility by offering a relatively secure income, as well as representing the promise of moving up in the world; and the old aristocratic families, who represented tradition, family loyalty (Altamaian nobles overwhelmingly ruled over their own historic colonies and their offshoots, meaning their peasants were all actually related to them--providing, to be fair, accountability that later Basilean aristocratic rule would lack) and a kind of symbolic cultural function--still today conservative Altamaians take the tack that the gentle Great Ladies suffer for their sake and must be defended from (in modern times largely imaginary) outside threats. The nobility was more broadly fractured, with favorites of the one-nation queens and the High Queen defending them stridently while others feared their unchecked power would leave the ancient families destitute to be overrun by the nouvelle riche. Just outside the metropolis of Solrega Nova, a shipbuilding-business billionaire bought a castle, noted for its beauty, built by the Celetorias--an original-lander colony--and announced plans to demolish it to build a complex of vitruvol foundries, giving the entire planet something to throw down about for five seasons straight (she eventually chickened out).

Just as these ideological tensions were reaching a fever pitch, Felixania and High Queen Esthardine of Glasmiri announced that their scionettes were betrothed--an unprecedented consolidation of power in a single household. The marriage of Delianae Fortefemen and Celafina Vividel was the event of the cycle whether you were for the high court or against it: three of the planet’s titled first daughters lost their crowns in duels that day, and three more lost their lives. Scholars took to the streets to warn the peasantry while by and large the peasantry took to the public houses to toast the beautiful young princesses who after all looked so smitten in their official portrait. It was the middle of fiber harvest season in a good market year; people were exhausted and ready for a show.

Following her mother’s death, Delianae laid low (letting the nobility handle urgent matters themselves) until all but the most paranoid aristocrats practically forgot about her, focusing on well-received local historical projects such as the restoration of the first Aivuran temple and a modernized housing for the shrine where the Avesian Maximatas took their oath. Behind the scenes, she reached arrangements with multiple once-hostile Cadrian interests and secured a substantial income from intergalactic trade which was primarily socked away for the use of her daughter Deracoura (styled as Deracoura the second, or sometimes, when she was really feelin’ it, the third).

Early in her reign, under the guidance of her elder sisters, Deracoura II established the highly profitable Fila Fenaeta swarm, a specialized, state-of-the-art vapor-harvesting operation set amongst the young stars of a resource-rich nebula. While the floating settlement started small, it was destined to grow into a veritable nation of employees of the crown. Almost immediately there was conflict over working conditions in this deep-void environment and the protection of the residents’ few rights as peasant-class planetary citizens (which were still meant to be upheld by the law despite their distance from home, but were not always, particularly with regards to due process in criminal trials and oversight of tribute apportionment--it was common practice for representatives of the nobility to embezzle a great deal of something valuable from a peasant colony and then disappear on a fast spaceship, leaving them on the hook to explain to their rarely-sympathetic lady where all the product went). Repeated uprisings were quelled through mass evictions that displaced families in far-flung space--often with inadequate supplies to get much of anywhere--and forced many to live as outlaws deep in the clouds, gaining the area a reputation as impoverished and dangerous. Dia “Acutri” (Altamaian: sharp-eyed) filia Senema, a second-born mother exiled by her noble sisters, founded a multigenerational pirate colony there that still persists at the time of the story.

The unrest was ultimately no hindrance to the prosperity of the Altamaian throne, and Deracoura continued with zeal the illumination of the galaxy (and beyond) to Basillan and Sitherian travelers that her great-great-grandmother had begun, opening trade routes in the ante-dome that would go on to gradually rob entire cultures blind. The deep roots of the Hyperian empire lead to things sown by the Fortefemens, even if they would later consider themselves rivals.

For two generations now, the narrative that the Old Ways had died with Deracoura I and been buried with the creation of the parliament had been kept at the top of the political toolbox, but no one had used it quite as Siderina Hyperia did from the beginning. With Altamai becoming increasingly inhospitable to its peasantry with the ongoing consolidation of wealth, her appeals to a kind of populist escapism--complemented by her position at the helm of the construction of the Rings and in guardianship of the heir to a little-known but prosperous landed colony--struck a chord with those who saw their planet’s new capitalist class as inadequate caretakers. While she never made any rhetorical attack on the High Queen, she took the angle that the enfeebled royal line now needed to be taken in hand for its own good. With her beautiful ward Estartina, she would revitalize the noble matriarchy of old and lead it to a glittering future in the Rings.

Siderina’s wholesome public image hid the mind of a shrewd general. Weeks after the Rings were announced complete, she commanded her knights to such a decisive victory against the royal guard that she was famously allowed to walk in and kill the old queen (Deracoura II’s daughter Athaema) with a small ivory dagger. In the aftermath she announced that she had acted to protect her world and avenge its integrity, claiming that the Fortefemens had sold information to a hostile Cadrian interest. This may or may not have been true--evidence did materialize here and there, albeit a bit conveniently--but the story was mainly believable because assertions of overfriendliness with Maculatan enemies were not a new thing for the dynasty, and a large segment of the public was willing to accept it.

Siderina was tried for her regicide in a number of courts, but, by slipping names in the elderly queen’s ear, she had rallied those with judicial power on Altamai mostly to her support, and was never convicted of anything. While the coup had certainly not been a formal duel, the transfer of power was adopted mainly on the strength of the precedent set by the Fortefemens. While Glasmiri was a center of popular resistance, the thrones of the two worlds were still heavily tied together for economic reasons, and the Vividel line remained effectively in Altamai’s thrall. When the Sitherian Archpraeceptor objected to the matter of Estartina’s coronation, Siderina had her ousted, either bribing or threatening practically every organization of priestesses in central Ovaiakon. All of this occurred in the space of two planetary decades--a blink in astraea reckoning. In the twelfth turn of the Rings, Estartina Hyperia was crowned not with the traditional Avesian coronel but with what would come to be called The Diadem of The Empress of the Seven Suns.

At the time of the story, almost two hundred quinturns later, Altamai--the Motherworld of the Basileans, as it is called by the aula--is a place of extremes even beyond its dramatic terrain and climate. Below the cloud line, it is an industrial powerhouse where thousands live in sprawling underground complexes and spend their workdays extracting rapidly depleting natural resources. Above, the last children of the old nobility rehearse the motions of the ancient ways between the pink cloud-carpet and the blue sky. In this dreamlike setting, heavy security, subtle propaganda, and armies of carefully vetted servants work to evoke the memory of a utopia that never existed, tailored to the political predilections and aesthetic whims of the Last Great Ladies. The granddaughter and heir of the deposed high queen, who escaped the coup with her governess as a young child, remains in exile far away in the Perseus Cluster, dreaming, as the old Royalist battle hymn goes, of double sunlight on plumafore fields.

#sweet chariot #planets - altamai #worldbuilding

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atasteforsuicidal · 4 years

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Mini Prompt Challenge

I have been gifted the knowledge of a random word generator. I decided it makes an excellent one word prompt.

The challenge?

Generate FIVE random words.

Make a short story (10 sentences or less) based on those words.

Then tag 5 people.

And here we go!

Tagged by @primeemeraldheiress ♥♥♥♥

I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be one single piece using all 5 words or not?? So I just went with how everyone else was doing it.

trigger warnings for implied character death and for the general Awful Things surrounding Jason’s death, resurrection, training, and return to Gotham.

fire

It feels like liquid fire running through his veins, and Jason nearly bites clean through his tongue to keep from screaming. He's not sure immunity is worth it - not to the multitude of painfully obscure poisons Talia had insisted upon adding to the training regime.

He'd suggested as much once, early on, and she had touched his cheek and made a sympathetic little noise in the back of her throat.

"This may well save your life one day, habibi," she'd told him, and Jason had resigned himself to just another painful experience in a life already filled with so many.

After all, he'd lost count of all the ways life could hurt him long before he'd died.

surround

Jason comes to with his ears ringing and his throat and lungs burning as he chokes on smoke. He can feel the trickle of blood still dripping from the wound across his neck, and laughs even as tears pour from his eyes.

Of course.

Of course Bruce wouldn't choose him.

He lies there, lets the smoke and rubble continue to surround him, and wonders if it's really worth it to move. He's failed, all that training gone up in smoke just as his life had the first time around.

And it would make a killer of the Bat, wouldn't it? Because he knows, deep in his soul, that Bruce isn't coming back for him, that he'll make a priority of hauling the Joker back to Arkham before he even stops to consider Jason buried under the rubble. He almost hates to miss the fallout when the ME identifies his body; it will have to be glorious.

He closes his eyes, and exhales.

cigarette

Jason doesn't smoke cigarettes anymore.

It's such a strange thing to notice, to really hone in on, as Dick tracks the Red Hood's movement. At present, he's at a bit of a stalemate with the family, no longer hunting them, but still doing things his way, still crossing their paths as if he wants nothing more than to rise to the top ranks of their rogue gallery.

He mows down the bigger players like they're nothing, but seems to pick and choose the lower-tiered thugs whom he marks for death. It tells Dick that his Jason is still in there, somewhere, because when Dick bothers to look - unlike Bruce - every single murdered thug has some kind of past as a sexual predator or child abuser.

Bruce wants him in Arkham, and the thought sets Dick's teeth on edge; he doesn't think Jason is crazy - only terrified. Only hurt, and traumatized, and in need of someone in his corner. Dick isn't sure he deserves to be that person.

All that stress, all that pain and anxiety, and, still, Jason doesn't smoke anymore.

Dick wonders why.

compliance

Jason appears to struggle, for a moment, under the weight of his sword, arms quivering as he keeps it raised high and ready to strike. Dick keeps his escrima sticks raised and at the ready, and stares at the young man he'd thought lost to him.

"Jason," he says, desperation racing through every inch of his body, "Little Wing, we don't have to fight."

Jason twitches slightly, his gaze skittering across Dick's face before it returns to staring just slightly past him. The sword in his grip shakes.

Ra's steps forward, fingers trailing deftly down Jason's spine in a proprietary fashion that makes Dick's skin crawl.

"Take a deep breath, and clear your mind," Ra's murmurs to him, and Jason's breath stutters, "Remember your training. Remember, compliance will be rewarded."

It's like nothing Dick has ever seen before, the way Jason's eyes seem to go lifeless, the way his breathing seems to ease so much that Dick can no longer make out the rise and fall of his chest.

Everything feels as if it's been suspended in the space of one heartbeat and the next; then, Jason brings his sword down.

folk music

It starts as a joke, as Jason complaining that he needs a goddamn vacation, but it grows out of his control faster than he can contain it. Roy latches on with both hands, always eager to give Jason what he calls "normal human experiences" and Kori is happy to do anything, so long as it's with them.

Jason isn't sure what town they're even passing through when they come across the folk festival and Kori begs them to stop and explore for a while. Roy, being Roy, gives in, and Jason wants to hate them for being so smitten with one another, but he can't bring himself to do it.

He expects it when Kori grabs his hand and drags him and Roy both from stall to stall, investigating different home-baked treats and craft-brews, handwoven baskets and beautifully dyed linens. But when night finally falls, and Kori is spinning in circles to the folk music being performed live, he isn't expecting the way Roy slides in behind him while they watch, the way Roy's hands settle on his hips - his chin, on his shoulder - and his breath hitches against his own will.

The kiss Roy presses to his neck is barely there, but Jason feels it like a brand against his skin. When he shudders, Roy only holds him closer, his chest warm against Jason's back, and Jason...

Jason remembers, quite suddenly, what it's like to feel loved.

Tagging: @kiseiakhun @garpie64 @nick-writes @elareine and @crimsonfeatheredraven

#writing #jason todd #dick grayson #bruce wayne #joyfire #batfam fics

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ibelieveinharrystyles · 4 years

Text

Chapter Ten: Make A Wish

Forever? Masterlist

5th July 2017 Ashley woke up to the sound of Daisy babbling away happily in her cot, the sooner she could get a two bedroom flat the better. She climbed out of bed, greeting Daisy with a massive smile, “Hello birthday girl how are you?” She asked, lifting her out of the cot, getting a babble of random sounds back, she had recently learnt to say ‘mama’, something she had been overusing extensively. “Shall we have a special birthday breakfast? How about some pancakes?” Ashley asked Daisy as she took her through to the kitchen, resulting in an excited clap from Daisy as she put her in the safety of her highchair. She turned on the radio, hearing the familiar sound of Roman’s voice, understanding that Ashley was a single parent he offered to host the show on his own for the day to allow Ashley and Daisy to spend some quality time together. “Shall we listen to some of Uncle Harry’s music?” She asked Daisy as she weighed out the necessary ingredients for pancakes.

“Yeah! Yeah!” Daisy cried from her high chair, before Ashley began playing some classic One Direction out of the speakers in the kitchen.

London was in the middle of one of those heatwaves, the ones where one week it would be chucking it down with rain, and the next it's uncomfortably hot, For this reason Ashley thought it best to travel by bus, rather than subjecting herself and Daisy to the heat of the London Underground. Daisy seemed content though, she was sat on the seat beside Ashley, looking out of the window as they went past all the big monuments and crowds of people, Ashley spotted a heavily pregnant lady sat across from them, reminding her how unbearable she had found being pregnant with Daisy during the sweltering heat of summer, “How far gone are you? If you don’t mind me asking?” She asked the lady.

“Thirty seven weeks, if he doesn’t grow up to be a footballer these kicks will be wasted.” she told Ashley.

“Oh wow, I thought it was difficult carrying this one through summer, but she was born six weeks early.” Ashley replied.

“Oh goodness, how old is she?” She asked.

“It’s her first birthday today, we’re on our way to her uncle’s house for a birthday picnic.” Ashley explained.

“Oh you’re off the radio aren’t you? I listen to the breakfast show every morning, I think it’s wonderful.” She told Ashley.

“Thank you, I’m glad you enjoy it, as you can probably imagine, getting to work in the mornings after getting this little lady ready can be a struggle, but we make it work.”

When Ashley first mentioned to Harry that she wanted to organise some sort of birthday celebration for Daisy he jumped at the chance to host it, even though the guests only consisted of Anne, Gemma and Linda, he still wanted to pull out all the stops, Ashley’s knock on the door was answered almost instantly by Harry, a massive smile upon his face, like he had just won the lottery, “Hello birthday girl!” He cried, stretching his arms up in the air, which in turn made Daisy smile from ear to ear, Ashley passed Daisy to him, knowing how much she idolised her uncle, he led them both into the kitchen that had been decorated with an impressive jungle theme, green balloons in a vast variety of colours and sizes littered the high ceiling. Whilst on the island in the middle of the kitchen a two tier vanilla and chocolate birthday cake was sat, decorated with figures of jungle animals, also on the island were bowls of crisps and plates of Daisy’s favourite snacks.

“You didn’t have to do all of this H, she would’ve been fine with a cake from tesco and a bag of chocolate buttons.” Ashley sighed as Harry showed Daisy all the toy jungle animals.

“I wanted to, it looks like I’ll be on tour for her birthday next year, and my favourite little lady deserves spoiling.” Harry insisted.

Gemma, Anne and Linda had all arrived shortly after Ashley and Daisy and now the celebrations were in full swing, everyone was sat around the island snacking on the crisps and biscuits Harry had laid out. “Presents! Let’s do presents!” Harry declared, before disappearing and returning with several parcels wrapped in obnoxiously pink wrapping paper.

“Anyone would think Uncle Harry wanted to be your favourite,” Gemma said to Daisy who was currently sitting on her lap.

“I already am her favourite,” Harry informed Gemma, before miming tossing his hair, he placed the parcels on the table for Daisy, and with the help of her Auntie Gemma she unwrapped them one by one, Harry being Harry had gone all out, the presents ranged from a giraffe teddy to a pair of mini old skool vans, which Harry insisted were a necessity. Gemma treated her to a set of insanely soft pyjamas and a toy elephant, whilst Anne bought her a set of story books and Linda gave her a new dressing gown that looked like a giraffe.

“Thank you so much, all of you, these are such lovely presents, you’re a lucky lady aren’t you Daisy? What do you say to everyone?” Ashley said to Daisy.

“Ta!” she exclaimed, resulting in a mixture of sighs and claps from everyone sitting around the table.

“I’ve got you one more present,” Harry handed Ashley a green envelope, Ashley opened it hesitantly, inside was a picture from London Zoo, “Before I leave for tour, I’ve booked us a tour of London Zoo after they close, so that Daisy can see all the animals properly, and we won’t have to worry about the hassle from photographers and all that.”

“You’re a proper softie Styles,” Ashley said, moving round the island and wrapping her arms around him, “Thank you for all of this.”

After indulging in slices of Daisy’s birthday cake everyone agreed a walk across Hampstead Heath was necessary, Harry carried Daisy on his shoulders, who seemed to be having way too much fun playing with her uncle’s hair. Anne and Linda strolled behind, chatting about their children, and the adults they had become, whilst Gemma and Ashley walked side by side, “He loves her doesn’t he?” Ashley whispered softly.

“He’d do anything for her, they have the purest little friendship.” Gemma told her.

“I don’t know what I’d be doing if it weren’t for Harry, Daisy and I would’ve spent today watching all the Madagascar movies whilst eating our way through a chocolate cake, but he’s made this day so memorable for her.” Ashley replied as they all found a seat underneath a big tree to provide them with shade.

“You alright up there munchkin?” Ashley asked Daisy, gently stroking her cheek.

“I should probably get Daisy home soon, it's nearly her bedtime.” Ashley sighed, the sun was beginning to set over the heath, a golden glow dancing on all their bodies, the heath was pretty empty except for a few families and couples who were either enjoying the infrequent summer weather or taking their dogs for a well needed walk. Ashley hadn’t really clocked it at first, but there was a distinctive figure hovering by a tree across from them, being friends with Harry for as long as she had, she learnt to shrug off people loitering near them, assuming they were either a fan or a photographer. But when she caught a glimpse of this person again she realised she did in fact know them, “What the fuck,” she whispered under her breath, quiet enough that Daisy wouldn’t hear, but loud enough that Harry did hear, he glanced in the same direction as Ashley, realising what she had seen. Ashley stood up without saying a word and walked towards him.

“Well if it isn’t Harry Styles’ favourite baby mama,” He slurred, taking a swig of what must have been his fifth or so can of beer.

“What the fuck are you doing here Matt?” Ashley asked him, pushing him back.

“I just wanna see my daughter.” He told her, leaning against the tree.

“No, that’s not happening,” Ashley told him bitterly.

“Why? You scared I’ll see she actually has an uncanny resemblance to that prick over there?”

“Harry is not her dad!” Ashley told him.

“Well then why can’t I see her?”

“You lost the right to see her the day you told me you didn’t want anything to do with her, you know she was born six weeks early? She was kept in an incubator because she was too small, except you wouldn’t know that because you weren’t there, so excuse me for not wanting you to have anything to do with her.”

“Are you alright?” Ashley turned to see Harry, he had left Daisy in the capable care of Anne.

“Here’s your knight in shining armour coming to your rescue,” Matt slurred.

“I’m fine Harry, can you take Daisy back to yours? I don’t want her seeing this.” Ashley asked him.

“I’m not leaving you with him Ash.” Harry replied.

“How long did it take you mate?” Matt asked him.

“What are you on about?” Harry responded,

“To get her into bed? Didn’t take me too long if I’m honest-” Harry tried to swing a punch at him, but Ashley was quick to hold him back, pressing both her hands against his chest.

“H, he isn’t worth it.” She soothed, cupping his face with one hand, so as to make him look her in the eye, whilst still holding him back with the other.

“If you try and approach Ashley or Daisy again, you will be hearing from my lawyers, do you understand?” Harry asked him sternly.

“I get you big man, I’m not sticking around to deal with you and your emotional baggage.”

The group had now returned back to Harry’s house, Gemma, Linda and Anne were entertaining Daisy with cartoons in the living room, “You didn’t have to step in like that H,” Ashley whispered as she poured him a cup of tea.

“He was out of order.” Harry insisted as he took his mug of tea, “I wasn’t just going to stand there whilst he talked about you like that.”

“He’s not wrong though is he? I didn’t have to sleep with him that night, I just did anyway.” Ashley said, fiddling with the lid on the milk bottle.

“Just because you slept with him that doesn’t make you easy, you think I haven’t slept with people I regret?” Harry replied.

“It’s different for you, a man sleeps with twenty girls and he’s a lad, a girl sleeps with five men and she’s a slag.”

“You know I don’t think that don’t you?” Harry assured her.

“I know, because you are a gooden, and one day when Daisy brings a boy home I want him to be as good as you, and I think by having a positive male role model in her life like you, she will learn that she deserves someone who if she asks for the world will give her the universe.” Ashley told him.

“Is that you saying you think I am boyfriend material?” Harry grinned.

“Don’t push it Styles.”

#harry styles imagine #harry styles best friend fic #one shot #blurb #harry styles blurb #harry styles fanfic #fanart #treat people with kindness #harry styles #harry styles imagineharry styles instsgrsm #one direction #harry #harry styles imagines #harry styles fanfiction #best friend harry

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lesbianmarth · 4 years

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it’s been a while since i posted about aa but i just finished soj in its entirety tonight. here’s my new list so far

i still have to give thoughts on cases 4 5 and dlc so that’ll be under a cut. spoilers!

6-4: this was such a filler case, almost shamefully so. i don’t know why they thought they could manage to do this in the 4th case when every game with 5 cases has been pretty consistent about making the 4th case plot relevant, sometimes literally just a preamble to case 5. so yeah i think this one was kinda ass

the two things it had going for it: one, athena. in 6-2 i actually got confused about why i ever liked her, because in that case she felt like she was just acting the part of the Peppy Teen Girl With a Rowdy Streak that makes up almost every assistant character. But then as SOON as she started bantering with Simon in 6-4 i was like “oh, THAT’S why i liked her!” was nice to take control of her again.

two, uendo toneido. while i don’t think you can say the DID was portrayed with quite the necessary respect or kindness, it was handled better than i’ve seen other media handle it-- at least it’s not completely demonized. other people have written more on that in better detail so i’m not really the judge, but the basic point is that this witness was mad fun to read, and even the dumb jokes like the changing number of floor cushions were entertaining. thus why this case is in the “hard carried by one side character” tier.

especially since there was like nothing else going on. no connection to the main plot, only two other characters besides uendo, and for some reason the clown tits girl was here instead of the magic show case (and to be honest, she wasn’t enjoyable for me even BEFORE she did the standard aa female villain thing and changed her speech pattern as soon as she fell under suspicion). just a weird, nothing case stuck right around the point aa games usually enter endgame. And especially weird because...

6-5 part 1: inexplicably there are two separate cases in the final chapter and each gets one day of investigation and trial. such a weird setup, and it really shouldn’t work... but i think it kinda barely does. barely. it would still have been better to split it into case 4 and case 5 though.

i have a hard time articulating much on the first case bc it sort of blends together for me. the main thing is that the concept of it being a civil case where apollo and phoenix face off is really good. it was a good change of pace, even though you knew it was gonna be a murder somehow anyway. sarge was reasonably nice, i guess, paul atishon had some good animations and quirks (my favorite being when he tries to just walk away from the stand to avoid answering a question), and the logic of the actual murder was good enough.

but i especially got those strong “oh this is a FINAL case!” vibes during the segment in the cave, and that added so much to it even if not much of it was relevant in the first half of the case. the adventure feel reminded me of some of the (out of context bc i still havent played it) scenes i know from 3-5, which is a good association to invoke imo. and it did a lot to give apollo and dhurke time to bond.

speaking of which, dhurke, holy shit. what a KING. i don’t think i’ve ever liked a dad character in ace attorney this much. he’s so genuine and like down to earth that it’s impossible not to start liking him and believe how much he cares for his sons. the bit where he rescued apollo from the cave flood... i felt it in my heart

6-5 part 2: let me just get this out of the way: ga’ran sucks. her design after she goes full evil is so bad, she’s so malicious that it’s immediately obvious she’s going to be the culprit, her breakdown is ridiculous and just embarrassing to watch, and inga had already established way more charisma as a villain when he did the “those were orders of execution actually” bit in 6-3. with that said,

i actually liked it for the most part. the spirit channeling stuff was excellent imo-- they probably use it to similar or greater effect in 3-5 but as someone who again has not played that, i was surprised and almost impressed by how well it was applied. maya was relevant for something! it feels like it’s been ages!

rayfa was a little underutilized, i think-- her moment of determination where she stops letting ga’ran have control over her was alright but it fell flat bc it didn’t have any weight during the moment. i kept hoping she would like, wordlessly take of her shawl and do the little verbal preamble to the divination seance while ga’ran kept yelling at her to stop, but no, the script can’t be good like that, i guess. and since she didn’t get to be the investigation assistant for long, none of her charm in that role carried through.

but DHURKE!! oh my god! in a game almost devoid of emotional impact, his involvement in this case really hit. the way they painstakingly animated his death, the scene where he makes a promise with maya, and then the weight of knowing in hindsight that everything he did in the first part of the case was after he’d already died and just wanted to see his son again before passing on for real....... it hurt. i felt something during that section. this case would also be hard carried by him if not for the fact that i really liked the murder bits.

amara was good too--liked how they made her suspiciously serene and accentuated it with the lightning strikes to make her look like a hidden murderer character about to reveal herself, only to walk it back and confirm she was being forced to act that way. i thought it worked. nahyuta was boring though, i’m sorry-- i get the motivation with having to be a bastard bc his sister and mom were basically held hostage, but the only time i found him compelling in that mess was the bit where he removed his one fingerless glove and revealed he still has the dragon tattoo. that was it. athena was also completely unused the whole case (not even a single mood matrix? really?) and trucy one again went without any role of importance.

the ending also... yknow, a friend said they had to end it this way bc they never figured out what they were going to do with apollo (since following up on what they started in aa4 clearly wasn’t an option???) and just threw him on a bus to get rid of him. i agree with that-- he really feels thrown to the side, and with that i think trucy’s officially stranded with no hope of any character advancement. and the way they ended the game with phoenix and lamiroir deciding “yeah, maybe NOW we should finally tell those two they’re related” honestly felt insulting lol

but maybe the dlc case will let things go out on a high note...?!

6-6: it was okay.

it would’ve worked pretty well as a filler case in an older aa-- honestly i think it’d be one of the better filler cases, certainly worth replacing the shitty ones like 2-3 or 3-3 or, hey, 6-4. but whether i’d say it was worth paying for... eh.

the time travel conceit was done well enough, i think. the way they tied it back to sorin and pierce’s backstories was nice, and the twist about having two receptions was good, although they needed to treat that as a real twist with much more gravity. when the truth comes out it just feels like “oh of course that’s what happened” rather than a big surprise worthy of the Confessing the Truth theme. it’s sort of important because the case becomes a lot less interesting when you take out the time travel element.

far as characters are concerned, i think they needed more side characters to sell the whole thing-- another sprocket family member or another servant of the household. it felt a little limited-- sorin and pierce are pretty good witnesses and i like their quirks and their secrets, but the only alive woman (ellen) has very few traits and no connection to the deeper story of the case, so she falls really flat. the old aa characters didn’t add much- maya and edgeworth were just there for fanservice, ema didn’t get to do much other than acknowledge for the first time in years that she’s a big edgeworth fan, and larry is annoying as hell like he always is.

and oh my god i actually forgot while i was writing that, how they put in athena and trucy but only used them for brief slapstick where trucy would try to set athena on fire and shit. again-- no mood matrix? couldn’t even try once to fit those two characters into something?

i did like pierce’s transformation into his surgeon form though-- that was really cool. loved him doing surgery on a robot, taking xrays of the lawyers, and his breakdown was fantastic-- he would make a really good culprit if they didn’t whiff the last bit of pathos at the end. i don’t think he should’ve been aiming for revenge on sorin; it would have hurt much more if he was still loyal to the guy and never intended for him to be in danger, but the final “why’d you do it?” talk in the trial just felt flat and one-note, much like the one in 6-4.

... so that’s spirit of justice! not a super positive experience but i’m happy to say it’s done. as much as i want to go and replay dgs, i think when i do go back to ace attorney i’ll be replaying the trilogy for the first time since high school

#ace attorney #aa playthrough

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