#i used the default dark urge because vibes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

frauleinandry · 5 months

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okay, so this is my promised extremely spoilery tactica review, where I'm going to focus more on the story/characters as opposed to pure gameplay! check my review tag for the spoiler-free gameplay post, and don't click on the read more if you don't want endgame spoilers.

in terms of story, i'd generally urge persona 5 fans who like tactics games to check it out, as it doesn't fall into a lot of the pitfalls people expected it to. maybe wait for a sale though, since uh... i have no idea what atlus was thinking slapping a pricetag like that on it.

as much as i love the artstyle and how much personality it portrays, visually basing tactica's visuals on the Q games meant people went into it with very certain expectations (or didn't go into it at all), which I think really, really hurt the overall reception of the game. it's a pity, since a) the art is fun, and b) like I said in my prior post, tactica is really, really fun, and pretty well written to boot. unfortunately, people assumed by default that p5t would have a cop-out ending where everything was forgotten, the phantom thieves would be reduced to caricatures of themselves, and there'd be no references to canon because atlus is allergic to spoilers in sequel games.

absolutely none of those things are true, however - in fact, unlike the Q games, tactica wouldn't have felt jarring if it used canon-typical visuals. while the Q games go to some dark places, on the whole, they're comedic in tone, while tactica is fairly sombre throughout, with most of the hijinks saved for the optional 'talk' segments.

there were also a lot of people who weren't interested in touching tactica since it wasn't a crossover, and let's be real - if it wasn't for that, the Q games... aren't super appealing. upon playing it, however, it's clear the gameplay wouldn't have worked if it was a 3/4/5 crossover - it's very heavily based on persona 5 exclusive elements such as stealth, cover, and guns.

moving away from the sad but necessary this-isn't-persona-Q-three-and-that's-a-good-thing discussion, and onto tactica itself, I was pleasantly surprised with how the P5 cast and canon in general was treated!

the vibes at the start of the game are surprisingly bleak - everyone's upset that joker is leaving soon, the pts are still shaking off maruki's reality, and the whole reason p5t happens is explicitly due to the fallout caused by shido's confession!! admittedly, i do think there should have been a few more main-game plot points specifically referenced as opposed to just alluded to, such as wakaba's death and haru's situation with sugimura, but on the whole, p5t fits into the general persona 5 narrative.

in terms of the thieves, while I'm a bit sad (if unsurprised) none of them get any real character development, I'm happy with how they were implemented. ryuji isn't reduced solely to being the butt of the joke - in fact, he's instrumental in turning toshiro's mindset around. futaba and morgana get some great moments too - like, morgana compliments ryuji during his stint as the navigator, something I wished happened in the main game!

while I do think ryuji, morgana, and futaba shine the most, haru and yusuke also have some great moments. ironically, this is the only p5 game where makoto is kinda sidelined, but given how much focus she gets in p5/strikers, i'm not too upset by that. i am a bit more upset by the fact that ann's pretty much a non-entity though.

in terms of tactica's specific story and not persona 5 stuff in general, it's good!! admittedly, most of the twists were fairly predictable, but the game is pretty frank from the get-go that the thieves are stuck in toshiro's cognitive world, which is a blessed relief. toshiro in general is just a fantastic character - his character development was so good, and as much as I love zenkichi, toshiro does the whole sad-pathetic-man to genuine-hero thing even better.

the kingdoms are an excellent dive into our favourite politician's psyche, and their use of metaphors to depict his life/relationships/trauma is really well done. i saw someone say p5t is an excellent persona 4 game, and they're right. i thought yoshiki and the second kingdom in particular were handled well - i think most people have unfortunately encountered parents/people like that.

I also think it's super fascinating how the game delves into the theme of how sentient cognitions are/can be. when I was thinking about what else atlus could do with persona 4/5 styled psyche worlds a while back, that was one of the ideas I conjured, and I'm glad to see that angle explored. like... erina doesn't feel like a fully fleshed-out human being ala toshiro, which is very fitting given she's essentially his persona, but her emotions are still treated as full and valid.

in terms of themes, I also like how tactica pretty bluntly states that standing up for the right thing can just absolutely screw you over and achieve nothing in general, but it's still worth doing regardless. it's a particularly resonant point to make given how the world has been over the last few years.

now, while this has primarily been a positive review, I do think tactica's story has some faults. the big thing is the pacing - while the first two kingdoms feel like they're roughly the right length, the third one feels pretty underdeveloped in general. like... the actual kingdom itself has no/little substance and is solely focused on toshiro flashbacks. i think it really could have been split into two kingdoms - one which was a tyrannical school led by nakabachi, and another which combines the station/hell aspects ruled by shadow toshiro.

i know some people have issues with the existence of salmael, but honestly, there needed to be some supernatural element to explain why the heck everyone ended up in toshiro's cognition. compared to some of the gods in the persona franchise, he's not the worst by a longshot.

anyway, i think that's all i've got to say right now - i'll post another one of these once i'm finished with the DLC!

#persona 5 #p5 tactica #p5t #review tag

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ultrakatua · 55 minutes

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Act 2 trainwreck

Nearing the end and let's get real, nothing is fine.

It's been screw ups after screw ups, admitedly sometimes on purpose, but still.

(They're unwell)

Starting off with the loss of Last Light Inn right off the bat!

Dammon and Consellor Florrick are part of the people you have to kill. Bad news for Wyll I'm pretty sure. Karlach didn't make it past Act 1 so Dammon only hurts my soul.

You don't fight Alfira, Rolan or anyone that's typically inside. But they still die.

Rolan leaves a disk behind with a message for his siblings...

"If you see this message it's because I died. Such is fate, life goes on."

(I'm mentally unwell)

Malus Thorm will make a comment about the Volo eye, which is super neat. I managed to kill the other two with only persuasion checks because Bard is hilarious.

Moving on to the Mausoleum, where the mistake starts with me entering Yurgir's room through the bottom (where the chest is), thus never talking with him.

But don't you worry, I still aggro'ed his kitty cat and, therefore, all his goddamn army. Except they were all on the top floor, and all my guys below them. Yes it was as awful as you can imagine.

Yurgir went to the House of Hope without sharing a word with us, but it's funny he still calls you "little rabbit" during the fight lol Is that a Devil thing??

One thing we did on purpose, was to kill Aylin because my friend wanted to see Dark Justiciar Shadowheart. To be honest I'm unsure we could have changed her mind anyway because we literally never used her and her approval was very low.

Turns out you can still lift the Shadow Curse without Light Last Inn, because you can just Speak with the dead with Art Cullagh, so that's at least one thing we could do right (and one thing I got out the Necromancy of Thay before I lost it forever lmao).

Probably because of the Isobel fiasco from earlier, everyone was hostile by default in Moonrise Towers. It was thus impossible to rescue Minthara (in jail, but hostile as well) though we did only knock her off...

We tried to infiltrate the Towers going through the exterior, but still aggroed Marcus and friends through the wall (??) and had to make a tactical retreat. At this point we said fuck it we ball and went through the main doors lol

We rescued Rolan's siblings and oh, isn't it cute how they have map conversation about him saving the day? :) :) (I had no dialog to tell them he's dead so we'll see their reaction in act 3 I guess)

I open a random door and surprise motherfucker, it's fucking KETHERIC THORM and all my guys are four turns behind me!

It went well

Then everything went to utter shit

No sign whatsoever of Isobel. Where the hell is she????

Gale is not suicidal anymore at the very least but I'm still afraid he'll try to take one for the team... Because his current mindset is pretty much "fuck Mystra and I don't want to die, but if she asked me to do this it's because there's literally no other way".

ngl I'm fine living with my mistakes but I will save scum if he kills himself. Mainly because I don't want a premature ending, but still. I feel wayyyy too bad for him. Also can we talk about how if you ask him to kiss you, he goes for the cheek??? Dork.

I'm still sure if we make it to act 3, Gale will obliterate me for the Raphael shenanigans I'm about to pull... But apparently it's possible to crownblock Raphael at the last minute? So I may try that.

Honestly I love Raphael but he's such an ass it's very difficult for me to commit to giving him the crown. He's got such a strong "I MUST humiliate this man" vibe to him that's hard to ignore. I just have this urge in me to go for the kneecaps (but I'm not killing him that's for sure).

Gameplay wise, I'm having a lot of fun. Bard's been scaling well on higher levels and I just learnt the beauty that is Banishing Smite. I'll probably do the last two levels as Fighter for the action surge and self heal.

People will have you believe Wizard is a nuke class, but it's mostly a jack-of-all-trades and I'm all here for that. I can imagine how good it is on higher difficulties for the versatility alone. But you kind of have to know what you'll fight beforehand to prepare. Gale can actually take some punishment with a good shield and the magical armor.

Bonus: my smitten Tav so at least one thing is good in this world (the convo destroyed me though)

MFW "Practiced tongue"

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #it's actually 'all gloom all doom' gale #katua plays bg3

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ciitrinitas · 8 months

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baldur's gate 3.

100+ hours later, and i survived baldur's gate 3. it partly took me so goddamn long to finish because i got to the end of act 2 on my first character...only to find out it wasn't just me and that minthara is likely bugged (or has an insane amount of cut content, but i'm on hopium here). so i decided to restart on a second character as the dark urge to complete the story on whilst i await a minthara fix.

so, yeah. that was a choice i made! 🫠

to preface, however, while bg3 isn't a game i'm keeling over in sheer love for or a new favorite for me, i had a fucking blast playing it. any flaws or personal issues with the game aside, it is genuinely a ton of fun and full of shit to do.

long, scattered thoughts below the cut.

"huh, i wonder why there's so much grumpiness about the ending." ohhhh. i get you all now. the lack of ending cards or epilogues or any kind really stings when it's such a standard for wrpgs of this type. the main plot lost momentum for me early on when the urgency and desperation surrounding the tadpole infection slowed down, so i was vibing well enough with the ending until the lack of any epilogue hit. that is a weird oversight for a game like this and a sequel to games like bg1-2 and spiritually following games like dao.

biggest plot complaint with the ending: i choose to free orpheus because it's what my girl lae'zel wanted, so move aside, squid. in response, the emperor...skedaddled to join the fucking netherbrain????? what. i don't remotely understand this. did i miss some stuff about the emperor's motivations...? regardless, this was a bit of whiplash for me before i popped orpheus out then left him with no choice but to...abruptly turn into a mind flayer because...sorry, but my beautiful boy's skin isn't going to be sacrificed...nor karlach's despite her offer...and gale shut up about the damn nuke.

on villain side, i was disappointed with how little we saw the chosen. ketheric is introduced for a single scene earlier in act 2, but we only see orin and gortash by the end of it and then they aren't as present in act 3 as i would have hoped. ketheric is...fine (imo, i found his voice delivery kind of flat), and i appreciate the hammy glory that is aylin, so thanks for bringing isobel back, i guess. orin's design slaps, and her va's performance makes what could have been a too-much script really work. she's a bit more interesting if you're playing dark urge and have that backstory connection with her. gortash...i got a little caught up in shipping him with my dark urge half-elf boy in that coronation scene because of what good old murder pals the two used to be! but gortash gets killed by the netherbrain just because even if you side with him, so eh. better to let karlach have her revenge on his shady ass.

on my first character, i was initially set on romancing shadowheart until i learned about minthara and then was wildly divided between them. then i met minthara in person and next thing i knew, i had slaughtered refugees and druids and was married. 😌❤️ it really broke my heart a little to learn that she is (HAS TO BE) bugged when i turned my entire playthrough on its side to nab her. no regrets because she is easily one of my favorite characters, but a bummer. the crazy hot cultist lady exterior drew me in, but it was her intriguing character on the interior that got me to stay.

if it weren't for the whole "violently slaughtering the grove" thing being necessary to get minthara (unless you go out of your way to not do things or glitch it afaik), she'd be my default pick over halsin all the time, every time. halsin is deeply boring to me. he talks about nature...and then some more about nature...and more about nature. jaheira is more involved in the main plot than him, so an odd choice to cram a second druid in when he's much duller than minthara or jaheira.

jaheira, jaheira, jaheira! oooh, i adore jaheira! i'm familiar with bg1-2, so i knew the basic deets in jaheira. i really hope larian wrote her as a natural extension to her classic self because while i planned to play bg1-2 eventually, the urge is now truly powerful because jaheeeeeeeiiiiiira, my beloved. cool hot older woman who is just so good. that she partly has some batman in her with her four adopted kids is adorable... her house is so cute... that she has a keepsake from khalid, too... i want jaheira to be happy. 😭

UNLIKE ASTARION. look. i was pleasantly neutral with his ass until after visiting jaheira's home, he thought he could make a catty remark about jaheira being a horrible mother. i'm happy his final appearance in the good end of the game is him sprinting away as he burns and screams in the sun and gale weirdly comments that this will probs be the last time they all see him. fucking bizarre writing choice, but a victory for me. don't be mean to jaheira!! (in all seriousness, astarion is a perfectly fine character with solid writing. he isn't the type i tend to latch onto, and i was salty when he made such a bitchy comment about jaheira.)

gale gave me my favorite line in the game. if you're slutting it up, mr. wizard can hit you with one of those ultimatum conversations. if you pick to simple leave without a word, he says you are being a very cone of cold. i keep subjecting xofi to references to this. it's my favorite line. gloriously dweeby, and gloriously wizard-y. oh, gale. i can tell you don't have friends that aren't your magical flying cat, a very old man, and uh...your divine ex, i guess. he's like you transplanted a bard's personality into a wizard. he was fun to have around!

lae'zel...my abrasive darling. you know what, i'm glad she's inspiring "discourse" (aka "women wasn't 100% nice to me :(((") because it exposes the weaklings. if lae'zel is too mean for you, then thank you for letting us know. we must cull you so that we won't waste resources on you. the winter is harsh, and only those warmed by good taste will be able to endure. i'm happy for where my ending had her: orpheus went mind flayer and then i politely knifed him when he asked, so lae'zel was asked to carry on his torch in inciting her people against vlaakith's tyranny.

shadowheart is my meow meow. the eight-or-so hours of early access that i played two years ago had her as my favorite by the end and that was carried over into the full release. she and minthara are the favorites. my only real quibble with shadowheart's arc is that binary dnd god morality does not spark joy for me. worship of shar being so bluntly evil took me out of a bit. nice to see viconia, though!

i...honestly forgot wyll until a second ago. there's an interesting conceit to him, but he's woefully dull. he and halsin are just boring. i feel kind of bad that i'm so bored by wyll. there's a missing bite from him that i vaguely recall from early access. i get that the devs wanted a companion that is, like, good, but oh, wyll, buddy...idk what the hell they did to your writing.

minsc isn't a terribly deep character, but he's enjoyable when i view him as a charming addition to jaheira. i'm going to try and get him earlier in future playthroughs because i nabbed him terribly close to the end on this one. orz

karlach...i think here arc was my favorite of all the cast. in act 3, i had swapped lae'zel out for her for a bit and lae'zel ended up kidnapped by orin, so my defaulat party just ended up shifting to gale, shadowheart, and karlach. i'm pretty happy it ended up this way. i ran into some interesting conversations for her, and her reactions to things like my dark urge signing raphael's contract surprised me in their passion. she's effective at keeping up her cheer until the latter end of act 3 when the unfairness and shittiness of her situation come to head in some gorgeously acted scenes. her fury and despair at the tragedy someone else thrust her into is really fucking good. i'm not even mad about her ending. it can feel odd in the greater context of bg3, but for my tastes, i was fucking there for her having to pick between dying or return to live in a place she loathes.

this is a "era has personal preferences that don't align with the game's goals" thing, but i kind of wish the dark urge was the protagonist. i like even customizable mcs to have a bit of an arc built in despite that impacting the scope of roleplaying lmao. the dark urge stuff had me wishing there was more than what is present, though. i wanted it to be dug into deeper, but i did still like what is there. the temple of bhaal was really fucking good, and i love that the dark urge turns out to be the architect of the absolutist cult.

#era.txt #bg3 spoilers ///#2023 media

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hopeswriting · 4 years

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FANDOM: Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

EVENT: Flufftober 2020

PROMPT: Breakfast in Bed

AUTHOR: @hopeswriting

RATING: G

PAIRING: Adult!Verde & Adult!Fon

SUMMARY:

Verde is sick and Fon brings him his breakfast in bed to be nice.

WORDS: 915 (BONUS: 1502)

Fon releases a burst of Storm flames through Verde’s room, then two more before he takes a step in. He’s not fool enough to think he disabled every devices set up by Verde though, but it’ll have to do.

He puts the tray on the bedside table, and turns on the lamp.

Verde is hidden under the blanket, doesn’t move, breathes evenly as if sleeping. Fon kicks the bed.

“Don’t make me knock you out to actually get you to sleep. Hand them over.”

Verde plays dead. Fon flares his flames and he bursts out of the blanket, his skin pale, his stubble unkempt, with dark bags under his eyes, and his hair in a total disarray.

He throws his phone at him.

“The others too.”

Verde rummages under the blanket and throws a couple of more phones, gives up two laptops from under the pillows, and a third one from a secret place in the headboard.

“Your watch too.”

Verde glares at him throughout the whole process of throwing his watch at him, aiming for it to go straight through his skull if the force—and the flames—he used is anything to go by.

Fon rolls his eyes.

He fries the devices one by one with his flames, and slips in the bed. He releases one last burst of Storm flames through the mattress and the bed frame to disable the last of hidden devices.

“Be glad I'm leaving you your glasses. And speaking of them, you didn’t even take them off. How much of an idiot do you think I am?”

“A lifetime wouldn’t be enough for me to answer you.”

Fon plays deaf out of the sheer generosity of his heart. He picks up the tray, and holds it still on his lap the time for Verde to settle against the headboard too.

“How do you feel today?”

“Perfectly fine. And I have things to do, so I would like it if you could release me already.”

“You’re sick. Science told us that, or are you going to deny it? Here, try some bread.”

Verde slaps the slice of bread from his hands. “And whose fault is that? Who’s the idiot who infected me?”

“Yes, because you live such a healthy life Verde. I can’t possibly imagine how else you could have gotten sick.”

“I’m the smartest man in the world.” Fon slumps against the headboard and starts munching on the bread. “I could single-handedly bring society into a new age, a society you’re part of, but here I am.”

“Single-handedly? That’s quite rude to all your fellows competent scientists.”

“You’re right, actually. They might even contribute more than me, as I’m certain they’re not being forcefully bed-ridden as we’re talking.”

“Are you going to just keep talking?” Fon holds a spoonful to his mouth. “Here, try some soup then. I don’t want you to go on a coughing fit on me again.”

Verde drinks his soup obediently, and oh, he does plan to keep talking then? God forbid.

“Where’s Reborn when you need him?”

“On a job.”

“Where’s Luce? She can’t possibly agree with this.”

Fon scoffs. “Luce can’t save you now. She said she won’t take a step in the mansion again before we’re all proven to be in perfect health.”

Verde grumbles, and mumbles, and mutters, kicking his feet—kicking Fon’s feet, and on purpose, Fon is sure.

He slumps against him, rests his head on his shoulder, so obviously sick Fon can’t believe they managed to debate on the fact so many times already.

“You’re all incompetent.”

“For the record, Viper proposed to attach you to the bed until you’re healed, and I’m the only one who stood against that. So you might want to show some gratefulness sometimes soon.”

“You’re all incompetent, brainless, primitive, and a total waste of space.”

“You want some yogurt?”

“You’re all so incompetent, brainless, primitive, and a total waste of space, and—”

Fon shoves the spoonful of yogurt into his mouth. Verde spits it out right back on the tray.

Fon musters all the patience he can.

Was it him that also stood against Lal when she proposed to daze him in Rain flames? What an unwise man he was then.

“This is disgusting Verde.”

“That was incredibly rude. I was talking.”

Fon smiles, with teeth. “I’m listening.”

“Well, as I was saying, you’re all so incompetent, brainless, primitive, and a total waste of space, and I hate you all.” He pushes his glasses back up his nose, smirking smugly. “That’s all.”

Fon crushes the spoon in his fist, stabs it in the tray. He grabs his chin.

“You listen to me well. You will play nice with me from now on, or I will stop playing nice with you and make this whole recovery so much worse than you could imagine. You’ll never be afraid of anything more than falling sick ever again, because every time you’ll catch the symptoms I’ll come haunt you in your dreams like the most frightening omen of death.” He leans his forehead against his, and brushes their noses together tenderly. “Rightfully so. Did we understand each other?”

Verde blinks slowly, a sharp focus shining in his green eyes. “Interesting. I feel unreasonably turned on right now.”

Fon raises his eyebrow. “What’s so unreasonable about that?” He headbutts him lightly, and settles against the headboard again so Verde can rest his head back on his shoulder. “Now be reasonable and finish your soup sagely.”

BONUS:

I headcanon Fon as a sweetheart at heart who can and will go feral if needed, but let’s go with just Feral!Fon instead.

That’s just who he is at his core, his default state, just completely feral, Take No Shit and Give No Fuck, very indulgent to his every desire, 24/7.

Now of course he learned all about being mannered, and harmless/trustworthy looking, and sweet, and restrained because it is needed for the job sometimes, and he can play the part flawlessly, but even then sometimes he just can’t bother.

Just… No, You Live In A Society And I Intend To Break Every Last One Of Its Rules!Fon, you know?

Fon being an actual Storm à la Gokudera, but so much worse (or so much better I guess, depending on how you see it asdfgh).

And so when he meets with the other Arcobaleno, he kind of just sets the tone for all their future interactions.

------

He meets with the Arcobaleno at the meeting of the Chosen Seven, and his vibes instantly rub Reborn’s, Verde’s, Lal’s and Luce’s the wrong way.

On the other hand Skull and Viper decide to love him, and it’s the birth of such a chaotic trio, Reborn can only be jealous and admiring.

(And he can’t help but side with them whenever it’s time to face consequences, because he just can’t let such a harbinger of chaos being censored.)

------

Reborn takes one look at Fon and immediately feels so deeply offended and challenged. “I can see you’re a little shit who likes to be a pain in the ass with the people you care about, but this is my role and there can be only one of us.”

Fon takes one look at Reborn and goes “We could have been such a wonderful team, but I can see you like to be the only one in control and I don’t like being told what to do, so you will have to go down.”

It’s not even an hour in the mansion on their first day, and Fon tries to rip Reborn’s smirk off of his face, and pluck his smug black eyes, and cut off his sliver tongued all with his bare hands, because “No, sorry, I’m Take No Shit Give No Fuck!Fon, so you’ll just have to be your insufferable self with someone else.”

It’s their first fight of many more to come.

------

Luce has none of their bullshit. She is pregnant, and she can’t believe she even needs to point it out because “Hello, can’t you see this big belly of mine? You will behave or god help you.”

She straight up uses her flames on them to daze them whenever they’re about to lash out on each other too much.

Not in a way where she’s forcing her flames on them or crossing boundaries of course, but just enough they don’t want to risk losing their own limbs if they were to power through her flames.

And when she really can give no fuck either, she just straight up… fakes some kind of help-my-pregnancy-is-going-wrong induced attack.

She just collapses on the ground, wailing, her arms tight around her belly, fake tears rolling on her face, begging like she’s being murdered in the worst of way.

The others are losing their mind other this because “What if one day it’s for real??? And what if we’re too late because we wasted time thinking it wasn’t?????? You can’t keep doing this, we’re begging you to stop.”

And Luce looks them straight in the eye and goes “Well maybe it’s time for you to act like adults who are actually adulting like they should.”

And then they all laugh because “What kind of unrealistic demand is that? Woah, you’re so hilarious Luce, who knew.”

(They just start doing it behind Luce’s back like little kids being naughty and not wanting their parents to catch them.)

------

Skull takes absolutely none of their shits either and it puzzles them all because “Uhmm, excuse you? You’re a civilian?? And we’re literally the Strongest people in the world???”

And he’s like “What, like it’s hard???”

(And it really doesn’t look like it’s hard for him, and it makes them lose their mind like nothing else ever did.)

Now Skull isn’t BAMF in this, and didn’t learn to use his flames in any significant way before meeting them, but he simply has the highest amount of flames and can go on for the longest time.

(And he’s actually very high on the list of the ones whose flames have the most raw power.)

Skull just retreats in what he calls his Cocoon whenever they want to try anything.

He surrounds himself with thick, dense (and powerful) amount of Cloud flames—the others swear they could actually cut like butter—, and chills in the middle of it until they tire themselves trying to push through.

(And then when they grow out of their urge to bully/take advantage of their “weakest” link, and they actual have a healthy relationship with him, he uses his Cocoon to avoid any consequences whenever he messes with them.)

Fon loves trying to break through his Cocoon. Fon is the best at trying to break through his Cocoon. Fon gets worryingly better and better at trying to break through his Cocoon.

Skull asks for proper flames trying from Viper and Lal because hell no, he doesn’t want to find out what will happen once Fon actually breaks through.

------

Verde never regretted his intelligence more than now he has to be around these people because of it.

And it’s actually saying all that needs to be said because he actually never regretted his intelligence even once in his life before.

He takes it upon himself to be the bigger person, and just ignores them and lets them to their devices. He fully expects the favor to be returned.

The favor is not returned.

Mostly because the others always want him to help them with their new childish plan of the day, or playing referee, or tacking side.

But also they’d be simply heartbroken to have to play favorites, and so they simply have to mess with him too.

And even then Verde takes it and bears with it because he’s the Smartest Man in the World, and he has other things of utmost importance to do, thank you very much.

But he’s just a man at the end of the day, and always snap at them eventually.

It’s always the most interesting weeks to live in the mansion when he does.

------

Lal just wants some predictability in this godforsaken house. She wants to have landmarks, a routine to fall back to.

Is that too much to ask? Apparently. Is it going to stop her? It will not.

If the others aren’t willing to cooperate with her, she simply will make them do it anyway. This is a treat.

She falls in a master-and-their-pet type of relationship with them, and the others find it funny because “What, you want to train us? Good luck with that.”

It’s a lot less funny when they go “Hold on, this isn’t right, is it actually working???”

Lal finds it cute they bothered doubting her skills to begin with. One of her jobs is literally to teach people to look death in the eye and tell it to fuck off, but they thought they??? were??? going to be a challenge????

She thinks the fuck not.<3

Her team ups with Luce or Verde (or both) are feared by the others.

------

Viper is there for the sheer chaos of it all. It would be Reborn’s role but he’s too busy competing with Fon, so it’s Viper’s instead.

They’re in it for the blackmail and information gathering too. Nothing like people lashing out when you want them to be their most open selves.<3

But they’re not neutral at all, on the contrary. They’re the wild card.

Some days they want the brand of chaos that will specifically piss off Reborn, so they team up with Fon and Skull.

Some days they want the brand of chaos that will piss off everyone else but them, so they team up with Reborn.

Some days they want a brand of chaos that is organized, so they team up with Lal and Luce.

Some days they don’t want to deal with any kind of chaos at all, so they team up with Verde.

The others treat them cautiously in this regard, and they love it. They love it even more when they dig a knife in their back and abruptly switch sides lol.

They absolutely do favorites too. (Fon/Skull and, surprisingly, Verde.)

------

And you know, I’m a big Polyamory!Arcobaleno shipper but I strongly feel in this one they’re just strongly and intimately platonic.

Just, you know, Arcobaleno as Family. The Arcobaleno bonding together by giving each other the childhood they never had.

And maybe they don’t deserve it, but I love them so much so they need to have this anyway.<3

This verse was a lot of fun to flesh out a bit! If it spoke to you too, maybe we can talk together about this? I’d love to!

Thank you for reading! Any and all review are appreciated ^^.

#katekyo hitman reborn #khr #khr fanfic #flufftober 2020 #khr fon #khr verde #breakfast in bed #verde & fon #one day i w i l l write the feral unhiged ruthless fon we all need and deserve #even if you don't know it yet<3 #and verde is just an absolute unbearable little shit whenever he's sick #the others find it out the hard way lol

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fmdjaewonarchive · 3 years

Text

► run away.

date(s): december 2020 mentions of: n/a word count: +/- 1.7k words (+/- 1k words w/ lyrics on songwriting, +/- 700 words on the composition) warnings: mentions of anxiety and general mental health problems details: full lyrics and full composition verification for run away, 2/3 verifications for jaewon’s upcoming album escapism. jaewon tries to prove he’s capable of writing music that’s worthy of the titletrack status and in doing so tries to branch out from what he’s used to, blending together what he knows works for him uncharted territory. all in all, things could have gone worse (a/n: i don’t know shit about composing pls take all of this with a grain of salt.)

by default, park jaewon is a creature of habit, prefers to find one set way to do things that works for him and deviate as little as possible from that. he likes certainty and avoiding unnecessary risk, anything to leave as little room for error as possible. making mistake might be a learning experience but not with how dead terrified jaewon is of doing things wrong, how he doesn’t know how to face failure without it determining his entire sense of selfworth.

songwriting is no different from that. most of the time jaewon writes, it’s structurally planned, deadlines and expectations to be met firmly in place, his work method like clockwork, almost mechanical. it doesn’t sound very profound, it definitely doesn��t suit the mental image most people have of the turbulent, disordered creative process of a real artist. not like jaewon can bring himself to care about whether or not his songwriting methods are deemed deep or profound enough in the eyes of other people, he had better things to care about.

like the album dimensions wanted him to write on short notice.

not that jaewon is complaining, everything but, getting his creative freedom back, it has been a long grueling process to get to this point but he is on a bit of a time crunch here. ‘our songs’ has only ended a mere couple of days ago but with a tentative release date of late winter to early spring, jaewon has his work cut out for him.

in such a time crunch, it makes sense to stick to his usual routine, go with what he is used to.

except jaewon doesn’t.

maybe ‘our songs’ has him feeling experimental for once, maybe he doesn’t want to risk falling victim to not only old habits but also old pitfalls, he’s not really sure what it is but for once, he starts with the lyrics.

that shouldn’t be very remarkable, not for most artists, but jaewon has already religiously stuck to his order of first creating an instrumental and then fitting his lyrical content to it rather than the other way around, starting from zero on that is quite the step, for him at least.

this song, it’s supposed to be title track material, to set the tone for the entire album straight away. if he gets this right by both his own standards and dimensions’, he gets to more or less free range on crafting this album to his liking. and to jaewon, lyrical content has always outweighed sound, as nice as a good beat is, it’s the content of a song that he identifies with, that he feels proudest of.

so writing a song about a breakup doesn’t seem evident.

run away, back off from me run away, far away from me

because that’s what it seems to shape up to be at first glance when he starts writing, themes of heartache, putting distance between yourself and your lover because as much as it might hurt on short notice, it will be the better option long term. and maybe it’s about that too, life isn’t clear cut one thing or the other so why should music be.

but it isn’t primarily that.

because the urge to run away isn’t an unfamiliar sensation to jaewon, it’s the thrum of anxiety under his skin, the voice in the back of his mind keeping him hyper aware of how awful of a person he is, how he fails those around him.

at the end of the day, that’s what he wants to run away from most.

if there is anyone he wants to take as much distance from as possible, it’s himself.

go away so you get out of my sight let me forget everything from your name to your face so that when I’m looking for you while i’m drunk i can’t recognize you even when you are right up close i will give up while i am looking

so maybe it is a break-up song. it’s undoubtedly a break-up song. but not about breaking off from other people.

it’s cutting ties with his past self, who he has been, with the years bitterness that have culminated in hurtful habits and patterns.

i will run away first along the torn shapes before sadness will take place and harden up i’ll run away

he’s not broken away from them completely yet. park jaewon would never have to gal to call himself a good person, it would be a bald-faced lie. but even he has to admit that there has been progress.

he might not be there yet but it’s something. that gets to be said as well right? it’s been a gruelling process so far, he gets to celebrate the small victories.

it reminds him of when he wrote ‘rebirth’ for his first album, almost two years ago at this point. back then, ‘rebirth’ had been a starting point, the turn around to doing better. sure, he wasn’t at the finish yet but he had moved forward, that was something.

something is good, a lot better than he has gotten a lot of previous years.

that in itself made it worthy of its own song really.

you’ve gone a long way into thin air the sun has gone down without looking back even once

finishing the first draft feels like a burden relieved, a weight taken off his shoulder as he has gained the perspective to reflect back on what has been.

his flaws are still plenty, he could never deny that. jaewon doubts he’ll ever grow out of all of them, some parts carved into his personality that he doubts he’ll ever be able to take them out.

but for now he’s still moving forward, still growing and everyone past scar healed over is one, one step closer to finding some semblance of peace within himself, within his own person.

all he has to do is keep running.

---------------

with a rough draft of the lyrics done, he still needs an instrumental and for that, he trades the comfort of his home studio for one of the more richly equipped ones in the dimensions headquarters. it feels a bit silly to make a distinction but jaewon always prefered writing from home and composing from within the company building, both surroundings better tailored to a different part of the creative process. or well in his experience at least.

it takes some fumbling, the kind of awkward stumble that comes with deviating from old habits and making up a plan as one goes. matching melody to lyrics rather than words to melody are most definitely not the same thing but just reversed, jaewon quickly learns the hard way, especially not in a rap track where really, the flow can make or break the whole thing.

so it’s a bit of a struggle, the first few hours fiddling around with sounds and beats that ultimately lead to nothing, that turns out he doesn’t know how to mold to his lyrics in a way that leaves him satisfied.

but like with most things in life, there is a learning curve. with every bit he scraps, he comes closer to the sound he’s actually searching for.

and jaewon makes a genuine effort to branch out, try something new for a change. much like his lyrics, his usual composing also falls victim to sticking too closely to what he’s familiar with, deep, muted sounds to convey the somber undertone of his lyrics, a slow drawl to instrumental, mainly focussing on drums and bass lines, moody and dark.

so this time, his instruments of choice are synths. different types of synths at different points, trying his best to branch out, create an instrumental that’s fun and surprisingly at all turns but in essence, when one dumbs it down, the main theme is truly just… synths.

that’s not a bad thing, it is breaching out of his comfort zone for sure. funnily enough, the more he works on it, the more the instrumental reminds him of something that could have been on his previous album. ironic, considering jaewon spent the better part of the year loathing ‘love language’ with every fiber of his being.

looking back on it with a fresh perspective, jaewon has to admit that while he didn’t like the music for himself, far too flashy and corny. but in terms of playing around with the composition and production, whoever had worked on that album (jaewon doesn’t know, it sure wasn’t him) was a lot more creative than he was.

surely he can do something like that on his own devices as well right? surely he can branch out from his typical song structure and prove he’s grown as a composer.

the bounce of the synths and the bass has a cosmic feel to it, the flow of the song twisting at every turn where sections bleed into another with bells and trinkets attached to the transitions.

for added effect, jaewon records the whistling curling around the edges of the verses that ties them to an end before shifting into the chorus himself, by the time he’s done putting them through editing it doesn’t sound all that human anymore, morphed into something more surreal sounding, blending into that not-quite terrestrial vibe that seems to arch over the song.

the drop in the chorus is hardly creative, jaewon doubts a beat drop can still be at this point but it does add to the immersion of the song, like getting your head dunked in a bath of ice water, stripping down on the whimsical rhythm patterns laced through the verses and stripping down to raw desperation of the song, the harrowing undertone of running for your life.

he adds bits and pieces like that, layer by layer, until the song itself sounds just as meticulously thought out as the lyrics rather than just a bare structure built underneath them.

when he gives the draft a final reason before sending it off to the creative department, jaewon can’t help but think he never created something that sounds so complete before.

#fmdverification #*:･ﾟ♛– «filled with all these empty moments» // solos.#//only one left thank the fucking heavens #anxiety tw #mental health tw #«escapism // era.»

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idiosyncrasy-at-its-finest · 3 years

Text

I want a vibe

this tab has been open on my computer for so long... last edit was Nov. 1... I planned on proofreading or even just rereading before uploading but... idk, these are my thoughts. I don’t need to censor, refine, edit myself. these are my thoughts and a part of who I am– or at least discovering who I could be... it’s now Nov. 17, 2020. clearly I’ve dwelled on this topic for a while, but only with it hanging like an apparition in the back of my mind.

Something about writing directly on tumblr makes me feel so… wow, she’s a writer and can’t put the feeling into words. I feel like there’s more purpose and intent to it. I don’t quite feel more professional, but I…

I know there’s this thing called synesthesia. Here is Wikipedia’s definition: perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. I used to want it. It’s a cool idea, to have so many things invading your senses. But not invading, just… popping in to say hi!

Cognitive. Maybe. I associate certain things with very specific mental images. Typing directly into tumblr has me feeling like I’ve got wide-rimmed, bookish glasses resting on my nose. The middle’s broken, but’s been poorly stuck together with a piece of old tape, the edges sticky with fuzz. My hair’s in a messy bun and in the afternoon sun it’s glowing a light chestnut, hues of red streaking through. I’m in a big sweater and there’s a cup of peppermint tea beside. It’s hot. I only drink cold tea because my tongue is very sensitive.

But I’m writing in google docs right now because I’m in class. And I don’t quite want the people behind to see I’m on tumblr. Not that I’m embarrassed, but I’m not proud either. It exists, and it’s mine and I don’t need anyone else’s thoughts on it because it’s not for anyone else. Just for me.

I want a vibe. I’ve been getting into Corpse Husband’s stuff recently– but not his original scary content. I’m too much of a chicken for that. And even in seventh grade I started listening to panic! and fall out boy more often. Twenty one pilots too. Eighth grade was when MCR joined the mix. And even when I was little, I wanted to be called “it” because I didn’t like the stereotypes associated with being a girl, but I didn’t want to be a gross boy.

I always pictured myself as some sort of hardened youth. She wears flannel, swears a bit too much, hard exterior but a good friend, kind of detached. And no, I don’t swear, and I only own one piece of flannel. I am sort of detached, but more so hyper, silly, tangential… occasionally detached. So when the default me that people see is a bubbly and fun girl, I feel almost mean pulling out the side of myself that I feel a bit more comfortable in. The cheerful me is not a fake version, I am completely and fully a child at heart, and I love to have fun. But, I’m also mean and I like to tease people. I’m somewhat physical, but I never hit any of my female friends and when I moved at the end of sixth grade, suddenly I didn’t have many male friends. Now, when the urge comes to punch someone– however teasingly– I can’t. Because then my female friends’ feelings will be hurt.

My current fashion sense is comfortable. It’s not trying at all. It’s jean shorts and a top. Loose jeans and a top (but I live near the equator, so I only wear jeans on rainy days in this year-round-summer climate).

Anyway. Corpse. I found myself wanting black nail polish.

It’s Saturday now, the next day. I’m not in class. I’m still writing on this doc.

Anyway. Corpse. Black nail polish. But I don’t want to get into that, because using nail polish implies I put effort into my appearance, I cared about what color my nails would be for some aesthetic appeal. I want to wear combat boots because I’ve always thought that the laced up shoes, clunky and powerful, looked… cool. I want to be cool– my version of cool. But then combat boots would look nice with fishnet-clad legs leading into them. And then some type of corset, some chokers, dark eyeliner, and suddenly, yes, mom, it is a phase.

But I also want baggy jeans and tight tees for the simplest way to be comfortable and to flatter my figure. I like wearing skirts, because they’re typically more high waisted, and the area of my torso that cinches in is much higher above my waist. But I manspread a lot and am never careful when sitting or jumping. I want to emphasize how fun and kind I am. I want silly earrings and bright tees with motivational quotes on them, and either mom jeans or a cute skirt, or maybe high waisted shorts. A faded light blue.

I want what I wear to have some meaning and to reflect my personality, but I can’t even figure out what that is. I know people say you can be a ‘baddie’ and a soft girl, dress how you are and show off the multitudes of your identity, but it’s strange to me. To think one day I might go out with a ponytail, sweatpants, and a black tank, and the next, I’m going out wearing ripped lace up boots, black jeans, and heavy makeup (though I don’t wear makeup and I don’t intend to).

This isn’t very poetic, nor is it doing the best job explaining my feelings, but I don’t know how I feel. I also just don’t want to invest much time into altering my appearance.

Hi I’m back! It’s the next day. Clearly a lot of thought is being put into this. Not this the writing, but this the concept. Idea. A lot of people will comment– on youtube, instagram, twitter– things like “Corpse’s vibe: (followed by dark emojis, chains, wilting roses) Corpse’s personality: (insert cute flowers, blushes, pink hearts)”. And it got me thinking. If this whole identity crisis and vibe dilemma was spurred on by Corpse (it’d taken deep root in my mind previously, but I just sort of ignored it due to the amount of effort it would take to deal with it), then why not… be like Corpse? I can keep my personality and just… express the other parts of myself in other ways.

Yes. But then the issue would be buying corsets and explaining them to my mom. Or asking my mom to buy them. And then having my mom see me in them. And then wear them outside. Oh my gosh. What about my dad?

A somewhat joking end to this, but… I don’t know. I think I’d feel confident in stompy boots and black lace up dresses (not lace itself, I don’t like how itchy it is), but I’d also feel… not like myself. And I’m motivated enough to go ahead and make that myself, so. For now. Maybe when I go to college, I’ll collect a diverse wardrobe. Dress up at home. And then occasionally go out once I’m thinking less about what I wear and more about how what I wear makes me feel.

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syncopatedid · 5 years

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Kazetsuyo Novel Translation: Excerpt from Chapter 4: Track Meet

(Pages 170-173):

As the Tokyo Sports U track meet drew close, Kakeru’s mood was steadily rising in anticipation.

It’s been a while since he had competed in a real race. But even though Kakeru was confident he had covered his training very thoroughly, his mind would start to wander every night before falling asleep: Would running into a former acquaintance unsettle him and affect his concentration during the race? Had his race instincts gotten dull that he’d miscalculate his strategies? Could his time record which had gained him much attention back on his high school track team even pass for a college-level standard?

As soon as he closed his eyes, negative thoughts would surface one after another. Restless, Kakeru threw his blanket aside and sat up on his futon.

Suppressing his urge to immediately get out of bed to go jogging, he adjusted his breathing in the darkness of his room.

“Be patient… be patient…” Kakeru told himself.

Don’t think about anything else. Just picture yourself running. Feel the movement of your muscles throughout your body. Keep moving forward…

Rekindling that fire, his doubts evaporated into thin air. Like Nira waiting to be taken for its walks, Kakeru was feeling eager again.

Aside from practice, Kakeru was also properly attending his lectures at the university. Kiyose had rationalised that “one cannot possibly produce results in running if they can’t even fulfil their credits”, but because Kakeru was fully committed to his training, he had been repeatedly turning down invites to mixers and gatherings. As for Chikusei-so’s other occupants, they were making a concerted effort to hit the qualifying time as well; as soon as school was done for the day, they would all head back to the apartment without delay to work on their runs.

So it didn’t take long before word of their activity started to spread—not only was the shopping street abuzz with chatter, even the students at the university got to talking: “It seems that those guys from that run-down apartment are training very hard for a race.”

The day before the Tokyo Sports U track meet, Kakeru had asked a favour of a friend who was in the same foreign language studies class to answer roll call on his behalf.

“What, you’re taking a break tomorrow, Kurahara?”

"I’ll be running in the track meet, so…”

“Ah… speaking of that, I hear you’re aiming for the marathon, right?”

“It’s not a marathon…”

The ekiden is what I’m aiming for, and tomorrow’s track meet is the 5000-metre run, Kakeru thought to himself, but did not bother to clarify.

Kakeru had come to realise a fact when he started university, that those who have no ties to track and field wouldn’t know the difference between a marathon and an ekiden. And when it came to the track meet, some would even look surprised and laugh it off as a joke. “5000 metres? Isn’t that just running in circles around the track?” they’d tease, as if it were some sort of bizarre ritual.

To Kakeru, track is life. To most others, however, a track meet is just another boring race.

The truth was a harsh reality, but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel a little complacent.

I guess not everyone can understand how big a deal it is and why we’ve been training so hard every day…

Hence with the present conversation, Kakeru was able to smile and casually gloss over the details.

“Well… think of it as a condensed version of a marathon. Anyway, I’m counting on you, thanks.”

“Just leave it to me! Go get ‘em, champ!”

His friend had the sincerest expression on his face. Even though he might not understand Kakeru’s ambitions, Kakeru could tell he was cheering him on from the bottom of his heart.

That night, Kakeru could barely fall asleep. His rest was shallow, and his mind, sharp and alert. This is fine, Kakeru thought as he drifted in and out of sleep, sensing the last of his lingering doubts dissipating. After tonight, his transformation will be complete, and his body and mind will be in a state that is ready to run.

He was feeling it—that feeling he had pretended he’d forgotten all this time—his fighting spirit before a race.

————————————————–

Footnotes:

- And Kakeru’s uni friend makes his cameo! I’ve mentioned in this post before, I was really quite heartened to read that Kakeru seems to have other friends aside from the Aotake squad (he does get invited along to mixers and parties after all), so I do read novel Kakeru as someone who’s less emo than anime! Kakeru, and radiates a kind of “sports jock” vibe that draws people to him even if he’s not exactly proactive at making friends. Besides, he was asking this friend to help him tell a white lie, so I guess that takes a certain level of established trust?

The exact word they used in the original was “Yuujin” (友情), which is a formal word for “friend”, but even though this friend isn’t written as a “Nakama” (仲間) or even has a name to his credit, I do feel the choice of words over “classmate”( クラスメイト ) or “acquaintance”（知り合い… which, btw, was the word used in this excerpt in reference to Sakaki), hints that this guy could still be a good friend despite them not being on a first-name basis. I am reminded of the “Yuujin” in Natsume Yuujinchou and I draw the impression from Takashi’s close friendships with his normie friends, despite all of them still addressing one another by their family names. So let me just have this nice little headcanon that Kakeru sees this friend the same way as well, okay? :*)

- I’m also pretty delighted to learn that Kakeru takes a class in foreign language studies! Since he’s in the Sociology department, I would assume the guy could be taking (cross-faculty?) modules from the linguistics department that are relevant to his area of study, maybe Language & Culture? The question is, are we talking foreign languages in general, or is his module more focused on a particular language? If it’s the latter, my headcanon would default to the English language, since that seems like the most “useful” language for a Japanese to study, and Kakeru feels like the type who would opt for practical subjects that would be more applicable to the working world, compared to say, maybe Haiji or Akane, who might have deeper appreciation for languages as lit majors (or maybe Kakeru does appreciate them to a small extent, but they are secondary compared to his overwhelming love for track, idk.) But anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself here cuz the modules you take as a first-year are mostly introduction modules and are pretty rudimentary, lol. Freshman year is still the honeymoon period, you know.

- p.s: Haiji says to attend your lectures properly so you can win all the races, m’kay? #ThisHasBeenAPSA

#kaze novel translations #Kaze novel things #Kazetsuyo #Kaze ga tsuyoku fuiteiru #Run with the wind #Kakeru Kurahara #Woke up this morning and screamed at my grammar #Finally some *quality content* lololol #One backlog down and sdfghjk to go #I may or may not be just a tad bit over-invested in my imaginary son's education

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ryqoshay · 6 years

Text

Happy Life: Angelic Game

Primary Pairing: YohaRiko Words: ~2.8k Rating: K AU: Angelic? Time Frame: First day of Riko’s 2nd and Yohane’s 1st year of college Story Arc: Stand Alone

List of all HL scenes

Author’s Note: Writing Revelations and My Angel got me thinking about scenes that might lead up well to them. This is the first resulting scene.

Ughn… what a day… Riko sighed as she got off the train and started walking toward her apartment. First, she had missed her train in the morning so she was late for her first class. Then, she had foolishly answered a trick question of one of her professors, embarrassing herself in front of the class. Next, her class right before lunch had gone over its scheduled time, leaving her with little time to eat.

It was also then that she realized she had forgotten her lunch on the counter. However, her saving grace was that Yoshiko had found it on her way out and brought it to her. And even though she still had to shove it down before her next class, it had been a small oasis of happiness in the midst of the chaos. After that…

Riko continued to a mental replay of her dismal first day of the new term. She was tired, both physically and mentally. She was tired of dealing with people. She was tired of dealing with crowds. All she wanted to do was curl up on the couch with one of her favorite manga books and forget the rest of the world existed.

“Welcome home, Riri!” An excited voice called from within the apartment as Riko opened the door. A moment later, a blue-haired bundle of energy bounded around the corner.

“Hey, Yocchan.” Riko felt a smile turn up the edges of her lips and some of her tension eased at the warm greeting.

“I was just about to send you a message on LINE to see if you had plans for dinner.”

“I’ll get things started in a moment.”

“Are you sure?” Yoshiko tilted her head as concern tinged her voice. “You look kinda tired.”

“I’ll be fine. Cooking will help take my mind off things.”

“Not a good day?”

“Could have been better.” Riko decided not to go into full detail. “How was yours?”

“Let it be known that on this darkest of days,” The fallen angel began to announce with pride as she held her signature gesture up to her eye “Yohane’s fate may have become entwined with some wonderfully wicked little demons.”

Riko chuckled. “Let me guess, in your drama class?”

“Of course! Where better to find them?”

“It’s good to hear that you’re making friends.”

“But you aren’t?” The hint of concern returned.

“I’m still in touch with the friends I made last year. We’ll see how things go this year, but that was only the first day.” Riko shrugged. “And if nothing else, I can still come here and see you.”

“True.” Yoshiko nodded. “Anyway, a new game was released in one of my favorite series, and I just put the disk in when you came in, so I’m going to get back to that. Let me know if you change your mind and want help with making dinner.”

“Will do. Thanks, Yocchan.”

Yoshiko displayed a wide and toothy grin before heading back to the living room.

“Dinner is ready!” Riko called.

“Smells delicious.” Yoshiko replied, appearing quickly, almost as if magically summoned. She took her seat and clapped her hands together. “Itadakimasu!” She declared happily before holding out her plate.

Riko laughed lightly at her roommate’s enthusiasm as she ladled out a serving to her.

Yoshiko’s chopsticks snapped up an impressive portion and shoved it into her mouth. “Mmmm!” She hummed merrily. “It is even more delicious than it smelled!” She took another bite. “Had Yohane known the mortal realm held such delicacies, surely she would have fallen sooner.”

“Alright, now you’re just being dramatic.” Riko shook her head, though she couldn’t shake the smile she had, even if she had wanted to do so.

“But it is really good, Riri.” Yoshiko insisted. “Try it for yourself!” She held out her chopsticks.

Riko blinked. “I have my…” She realized the younger girl wasn’t paying attention to her attempted protest as she moved her chopsticks closer. Fine, whatever. She leaned forward and accepted the offer.

Wha…?

Riko resisted the urge to recoil as the tofu hit her tongue. Why was it so salty? And did she taste vinegar as well? Had the recipe even called for vinegar?

“Good, isn’t it?” Yoshiko said with a smile. “Riri is a good cook.”

Well, it wasn’t bad, per se, but it definitely was not what Riko had expected. Should she admit this fact to Yoshiko? She tried to think about what she might have done wrong as she chewed.

“It’s not bad.” Riko decided to admit after swallowing. “But I think I can do better.”

“Anything more delicious might end up becoming sinful.” Yoshiko said with a warning tone. “Riri had best be careful lest she fall.” She smirked. “Unless, of course, that’s what Riri wants.”

“I doubt I’m in danger of falling just yet.” Riko replied, taking the first bite from her own plate and deciding it was tolerable enough to finish. “But thanks for the compliment.” At least the younger girl seemed to be enjoying herself, despite whatever mistake had apparently been made. “So, Yocchan,” she decided to change the subject “tell me more about this drama class you decided to take.”

“Oh!” Yoshiko perked up even more. “Well, you see…”

The two girls continued to chat as they finished their meal. Then, since Riko had cooked, Yoshiko insisted she clean up, though Riko still helped a little. Finally, they both made their way to the living room.

“Ahhh…” Yoshiko sighed as she took a spot on the couch. “Yohane may have committed a deadly sin and overindulged a little.” She patted her belly and grinned. “But perhaps she can be forgiven as Riri prepared such a divine dish.”

“I’m glad you liked it.” Riko smiled as she sat down on the other side of the couch and opened her book.

“Mmm…” Yoshiko hummed as she put on her headphones and unpaused her game.

A moment later, Riko looked up from her manga. Something that sounded like swords clashing had caught her attention. Sure enough, Yoshiko was in the middle of an intense battle against a group she assumed were bandits or some sort of outlaws. Riko watched as the other girl deftly dodged their strikes before slipping behind one to deliver a devastating blow. The fight concluded with Yoshiko as the victor and shortly after, a cutscene began. Though Riko could read the subtitles on the screen, she found herself straining to hear the voices coming out the tiny speakers of Yoshiko’s headphones.

“Yocchan…”

“Mmm?” The blue-haired girl paused the game. “What’s up, Riri?” She asked, turning to the redhead.

“Would you mind, uhm…”

“Oh, sorry. I know these are cheap,” she indicated the headphones “so there’s probably some sound leakage. I can turn it down.”

“No, that’s not it.” Riko shook her head. “Actually, I was wondering if you would mind switching the sound to the TV?”

Yoshiko blinked. “Well, I can, but I was trying to avoid distracting you, Riri.”

“It’s not distracting.” Riko set her book down on the end table. “In fact, that scene looked interesting, so I’d like to watch for a bit, if you don’t mind. And I’d like to hear the voices better for the next one.”

Yoshiko stared at Riko for a moment before a smile crossed her lips. “Alright.” She pulled the cord for the headset.

“So, would you mind filling me in with what I’ve missed?”

“Why don’t I just start a new game?”

“Oh, no, you don’t have to go that far…”

“I was going to soon anyway.” Yoshiko explained. “I was just playing through the tutorial to see if I might like the new class they introduced, but I definitely prefer the one I’ve used in all of the other games. I’d’ve finished that fight a lot easier if I was playing my normal class. Plus the opening cinematic is awesome and gives a good summary of the last few games so even people new to the series can just start playing without feeling completely lost. And Riri is kinda like a new player, so, yeah.”

“You’re sure you don’t mind?”

“Not at all.” Yoshiko grinned as she quit out to the main menu. “And if you want, you can help me design my character.”

“Design?”

“Yup. See?”

“You can play as a woman?”

“Uh-huh.” Yoshiko nodded as she made the selection. “I was just playing as a guy earlier because I didn’t want to bother with this part for a character I probably wasn’t going to keep, so I just took the default. But I usually play female characters because they get the best outfits.”

“They do?”

“Yeah, like, uhm…” Yoshiko reached for her phone. “I saved a shot of one of my favorites from the last game because I want to try to make it someday.” She found the picture and turned the screen to Riko.

“It’s lovely… but… how does that even work?”

“I dunno.” Yoshiko admitted with a shrug. “I’ll find out when I design it.”

“How do you fight in it?”

“No idea.”

“Would that even be comfortable?”

“Dunno. But it looks awesome.”

“I suppose…”

“Anyway, this game has even better graphics and according to the advertising, there are even more outfits that can be unlocked than in the last game.” Yoshiko grinned. “I can’t wait to see them. Ooo, how about this color for the hair?”

“It looks like your hair color.”

“Exactly.” Yoshiko grinned. “Seems fitting of a fallen angel.”

“They made a fallen angel class?” Riko raised an eyebrow.

“No, no, silly Riri.” Yoshiko laughed. “However, there is an angelic race. Sadly, they haven’t made it available as a playable one yet. Anyway, I’ll be playing a subrace of elf that was exiled from the high elves, so they kinda have the fallen vibe going for them. Oh, and she’ll be a warlock, and so she’ll have a bunch of magic spells powered by darkness and chaos and whatnot, which would of course be appropriate for a fallen angel.”

“So you’ve figured out a way to make your own version of a fallen angel in this game.”

“Pretty much.”

“Is that why you like it so much?”

“Well, it’s a nice bonus.” Yoshiko admitted. “But it is still a really fun game with an awesome story. Anyway, here is the initial setup.” She pointed to the screen. “How does she look? Anything you want me to change? Don’t worry about the outfit just yet, that’s just what we start with. I’ll find something better soon.”

Riko studied the character on screen for a moment. “It… I mean she… really looks like you…” She found herself impressed with the level of detail and how well Yoshiko had manipulated the settings to create what she wanted. And if she was to be entirely honest, the character was kind of cute. Almost as cute as the girl she represented. “Except she’s missing…”

“Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, even with all of the hairstyle choices they programed in, they neglected to include a conduit.”

“Conduit?”

Yoshiko reached up to tap her bun. “The conduit through which a fallen angel draws her powers.”

“Ah…”

“So, on to the intro.” Yoshiko accepted the settings. “If you have any questions, just ask. Oh, and say, Riri, you know romance type stuff, right?”

“I… wha?” Where did that question come from?

“Pretty much all of the companions have optional romance side quests.” Yoshiko explained, pausing the scene so they wouldn’t miss anything. “Your actions through the game and your conversations with them affect how they feel about you, and if you do things right, you can choose one, or more, as romantic partners.” She smirked. “I’m willing to bet you’ll like some of those cutscenes, Riri, considering your tastes.” She jutted a thumb in the direction of the bookshelf that held some of Riko’s manga collection.

Riko felt herself blush a bit.

“Anyway, I’ve never been good at those things, so I’ve always just skipped them, but there is one companion in this game that I’d really like to get and make my partner if I can. So, maybe Riri can use her knowledge of romance type stuff to help?”

“Maybe…” Riko had to admit the concept sounded interesting. She hadn’t expected a fantasy adventure type game to have romantic subplots and found herself curious how they might play out.

“She appears in the intro.” Yoshiko unpaused the game again. “I’ll point her out.”

“Alright.”

The intro began to describe a war-torn world with multiple races, factions, kingdoms and empires. It touched on the various alliances that had formed and fallen apart over the years and the friction that existed between… well, pretty much everyone. While at first glance, it felt like the typical setup for an action-packed adventure game, Riko had the feeling there was a lot of passion that went into the world building of the project.

“There she is!” Yoshiko suddenly said as a crimson-haired woman appeared on the screen.

Riko shifted her attention to the character. Strange. Other than the hair color, she looked rather similar to all of the other characters; nothing really set her apart from… oh… Suddenly, a pair of brilliant white wings sprouted from the woman’s back and in a flurry of flaps and feathers, she was borne aloft.

“Oooo, she’s so cool!” Yoshiko practically squealed with delight. “I wish you could play as someone from her race, but I can understand why they didn’t implement it; the whole thing about being able to fly would probably be game breaking early on. Still, they did include it in some of her side quests. Apparently, she carries you, but you get to control the flight. Oooo… I can’t wait to get her as a companion! The beta testers were talking about how difficult it is to gain rep with her, but they were pretty sure there was some sort of hidden bonus if you played as a female character, so I have that at least. And with Riri’s help, Yohane might even be able to make her my partner!”

Riko couldn’t help smiling as Yoshiko’s excitement began to feel a little contagious. Once the opening cinematic had concluded, Yoshiko proved her earlier point by completing the tutorial fight in less than half the time of her first run and moved on to new parts of the game. But despite Riko finding herself enjoying the bits of plot scattered between battles, she quickly realized she was far more interested in watching the girl playing than the game itself. The way she carefully considered her speech options, or how she gleefully dispatched dozens of lesser foes with her spells, or how intensely she concentrated during tougher boss battles, it was all fascinating. Who knew video games were this interesting, or more specifically, watching someone play them?

Riko felt a yawn come up and was unable to contain it. She glanced at her phone. When had it become so late? Had she really been that lost in watching Yoshiko play her game? Not that really minded, it had been quite an entertaining experience.

“Yocchan.”

“Mmm?”

“I’m going to go get ready for bed. I didn’t realize…” Riko was interrupted by another yawn “the time. And I have class in the morning.”

“Alright, just let me save…. and… there.” The game returned to the main menu.

“Oh, you don’t have to stop playing. I didn’t mean…”

“It’s fine. Did you like watching?”

“I did.” Riko nodded.

“Then Yohane doesn’t mind waiting for Riri before playing again so nothing important is missed.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup.” Yoshiko grinned. “I have plenty of other games I can play when you’re not available. Plus, I’m really hoping Riri can help me with that companion. I hope she is introduced soon. If she was an optional companion and not introduced during the main story, I would have hoped someone would have said something online by now…”

“Alright.” Riko returned the smile before getting up to go take her bath. “Oh.” She paused and turned back to her roommate. “Thank you, Yocchan.”

“Hm?” The younger girl tilted her head questioningly.

“For an enjoyable evening. I needed that after today.”

“It is a fallen angel’s duty to ensure the well-being and happiness of her little demons.” Yoshiko held up her signature gesture.

“Right. Of course. Anyway, I’ll be out in a bit and you can have your turn.”

“Alright.”

Riko continued to smile as she stepped into the bathroom and began to fill the tub. Even in their short time living together, Yoshiko continued to prove herself a good choice in roommates. Riko wondered if the younger girl realized the effect she had. For someone claiming to be a fallen angel with dismal luck, she maintained a fairly positive energy that filled the apartment with a welcoming aura. And because of that, during the last week or so, Riko had felt something she hadn’t felt since moving out of her parents.

Riko eased herself into the water and sighed contently. She felt relaxed. She felt happy. She felt at home.

Author’s Note Continued: So, yeah... Yohane is taking a drama class now. That idea came to me literally as I reached that point in writing the scene. But I like it and it has already given me more ideas to play with for future scenes. I can see her combining assignments from both drama and design classes by designing costumes for a play. I can see her convincing Riko to play the piano in the orchestra for a play. I can even go further into the timeline and see her helping out at a local theater after she opens her shop; designing costumes, taking minor roles here and there, and still wrangling Riko in for some fun as well.

Also, the working title for this scene was Home, but as I ended up getting carried away with the part about Yohane’s game, I changed it. Perhaps later I will write a different scene with another way that Yohane makes Riko feel at home in the apartment they share. Or maybe I’ll flip it and show how Riko makes Yohane feel at home. As always, I’ll see where my µ’s muse takes me.

And on the topic of feeling at home and being comfortable and such, this scene is the first of what I hope to be several that touch on the ideas I mentioned in my set of Unsent love letters. For example, in Riko’s letter, she mentions being grateful for Yohane’s unusual tastes, so I wanted to show Yohane enjoying one of Riko’s mistakes. Riko also mentions watching Yohane get excited playing video games, thus what ended up being the central theme in this scene. And finally, the aura and energy that Yohane brings to the apartment. I’d like to extrapolate out some stuff from the other main letters as well at some point to showcase what Maki loves about Nico, what Nico loves about Maki and what Yohane loves about Riko.

Finally, I’m not exactly sure what game Yohane is playing. Maybe some sort of mix of Skyrim, Dragon Age and the like. It’s a fantasy game. It has swords and sorcery. Definitely has elves and dwarves and gnomes and trolls and orcs. Probably a dragon or two or three. And an angel companion who I may or may not get around to naming... would it be too blatant to name her Sakura?

#YohaRiko #YoshiRiko #Sakurauchi Riko #Tsushima Yohane #Love Live Sunshine #Happy Life #fanfic #Tsushima Yoshiko

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seven-oomen · 4 years

Photo

First, I swear I’ll explain about the picture in a minute.

Next, it’s totally okay, I understand completely. I, too, am prone to being a total space cadet sometimes. My top skills are remembering/thinking of things when I’m in no position to act on them (composing review questions while at work, thinking of phone call I forgot to make while driving, realizing I didn’t show my mom the sonogram my friend sent me right as I fall asleep, etc.) Really, I’m just happy finding others to talk about this stuff with who seem to appreciate and enjoy it as much as I do. :D

Omg, I’m SO EXCITED to see the necklace turn up, however that happens! And as someone who 90% of the time also uses drinkware featuring superheroes and other nerdery for their alcohol, I very much approve Derek’s choices, whether it makes it into the story or not. I also enjoyed both versions of the chapter flashback, but the first was definitely more “Oh My…”, and the redo more straight up fluffy and adorable.

And I love all that stuff in the ideas tag! With Corey there’s so much potential stuff that can be done with someone with those types of powers. I admit I don’t know too much about exactly how his are supposed to work. his powers are due to genetics and not outside forces in this, could it perhaps be connected to how Gerard has been able to do some of the things he’s done? (Could the wolves track him while invisible in the show?) And oh, my God, that is a total Moon Moon moment (resisting the urge to make a comment about why Ian was trying to fit a ball in his mouth). I choose to believe that Noah and Chris coordinated to trick Peter into doing that and managing to get it on camera. They threaten to make it part of the family Christmas card. Peter only agrees if they make it so that all the pictures used embarrass everyone equally. Which is where some of the BTS type stuff could come in. (My lord, they are all such dorks. I mean, I follow Ian, Linden, JR, and Hoechlin on Insta and or Twitter, so we been knew, really, but still. XD ) And I’m all for any plot points or incidents that allow Lydia to showcase just how awesome she truly is. Also, I will never turn down an idea that involves puppy piles and cuddle puddles. I’ve been in this fandom too damn long not to have developed a deep-seated love for damaged characters getting the affection and comfort they deserve.

I’m so glad you’re enjoying the examples of my often questionable musical tastes. ;D I think I first heard that song on an anime music video (for LOVELESS I think, of all things), and I was just like “well this is catchy as hell”. As someone whose musical tastes are all over the gd place, I like to imagine they all have some genre that they’re secretly a fan of but don’t want to admit to because it might clash with their grunge-y punk image (the other two totally know anyway.) Speculatively I’d say boy bands for Peter, bubblegum pop/pop-punk for Chris, and classic (read: dad) rock for Noah, but I welcome other opinions.

And jsyk, it really makes me happy to know that my reviews are helpful for more than just story ideas. Which partially brings me to the picture I’ve attached. I work in a pet supply store, and the item on the right is a dog toy we carry and every time I look at it, all I can think of is how much it reminds me of Deucalion. Like, I can’t not see it at this point. And nobody I work with would have the slightest idea what I’m talking about, so I finally made this so that I could share it those that might get why it’s so funny to me. So here it is. And if you are still in need of things for distractions, here is a list of some random incidents that have (mostly) occurred at my work in the last few days:

1) Someone left a 4 Iron in one of our shopping carts along the far wall of the store. We have no clue where it came from, we aren’t anywhere near any kind of golf or sporting goods store. (I checked and there was no sign of blood on it, so no one was ditching a weapon on us or something.)

2) I walked into our warehouse and asked “why does it smell like sparklers in here?”, saw a coworker standing looking out the back door, and walked over to see that there was a car on fire about a block away in another parking lot. (The fire department was already on scene putting it out, it looked like it started near the front driver’s side tire?)

3) A child ate one of the fancy dog treats we have on display (luckily that one is mainly yoghurt and peppermint extract), and then try to drink from the fountain we have set up for any dogs that come in. I don’t think mom ever noticed.

4) We now carry a special, highly filtered, and ph-balanced (and overpriced) bottled cat water (no really), that seems simultaneously like a brilliant idea (because UTIs), but also somehow one of the whitest things I’ve ever seen (and I say this as a white person who grew up basically middle-class).

5) One of the smoke alarms in my apartment started doing the dead battery warning beep at around midnight Sunday night. I unfortunately was out of the size I needed to replace it, so I just popped out the one that was in it. Turns out it’s also hardwired, so that did nothing. It beeped the entire night. I would have gotten worried about my neighbors, but they had one that they let beep for like a week back in Feb, so I decided I didn’t care. When I stopped to buy a replacement I also ended up buying two bags of candy with the justification that they were on sale and I might need them for the next chapter.

6) Our pet bathing area re-opened, which meant we finally got a visit from one of my fave canine customers. His name is Jax, he’s an American Akita, and he is a gigantic, sweet, bear of a dog. Seriously, he comes to about my hip (I’m right around 5'4), weighs around 190lbs, and is a beautiful dark brown/black brindle all over. He is also one of the most calm, chill dogs I have ever met (he’s been coming in for years), and I love to watch other people react to seeing him for the first time.

7) While searching around my music files and Spotify for suggestions, I got distracted and ended up treating my neighbors to an impromptu concert that consisted mostly of 00s divas and 60s bubblegum pop (oddly, a lot of Herman’s Hermits and Ohio Express has a very similar vibe to Bowling for Soup, to me at least), because I had headphones in, and didn’t realize I’d started singing along for…a while. I did consider apologizing for that, at least, but ultimately decided to just ignore that it happened.

Anyway, I hope you are feeling a bit better now, and that some of the weirdness that is my life at least provides some entertainment. And that the therapy session at least feels like something you think will help in the long run, even if it sucks massively right now. I’m so proud of you for going, and sticking with it (I know so many who need to who don’t, for whatever reason). It is hard, and exhausting, and I am always awed by those that are determined to see it through. (Sorry if any of that comes across weird. My automatic supportive defaults tend to be humor and awkward sincerity, and I always worry that one will come across as the other and vice versa. Social anxiety is a hell of a drug.) So, I’m gonna go ahead and wrap up the verbal flailing for now, please enjoy whenever you see this tomorrow (I think? I’m terrible about keeping track of that sort of thing. Also, how is most of Europe just one time zone?! …anyway…)

Ok, I need to find out where I can get that crocodile/Alligator. for uh, for Mo...

Yeah for Mo.

(It’s for me, I would totally buy a dog toy if I thought it looked adorable.)

I definitely toned that scene down, though I kept some necessary exposition where Chris thinks on what happened between them. Might include some teenage raunchiness later, as someone pointed out to me, Peter would definitely be like that, as would Noah (probably). Chris would definitely be more reserved, he barely got a sex education aside from abstinence. ( Because I don’t see Gerard as the type of person who’d give his son the talk, honestly.)

And as someone who also drinks alcohol in superhero or Halloween glasses and mugs, I had to throw Derek’s very mature choice in there. Batman mug stays XD

I’ll admit, that was exactly what I was thinking with Corey’s power and how I could use it in the story. So I’m curious to see where I’ll go with it eventually, but yeah, that’s on my idea list.

.. must resist Ian & JR ballsy jokes.. you are not twelve Ben.

I am.

I really am. A twelve-year-old in a twenty-nine-year-old body.

I bet Ian wanted to prove what he could fit in there. He wanted to show some ballsy moves. It’s practice for-

Okay, I’ll stop.

And they are the biggest dorks, I follow Ian, JR, Colton, and Holland on and my lord, they’re such dorks. Definitely following Linden now too though. hehe.

I can see them trying that trick with Jackson, Malia, Ben, and Scott as well. Scott just falls face first and tries to fit a tennis ball into his mouth. Ben just looks at the tennis ball, figures that ain’t gonna fit and balances it on his face instead. Malia opens her mouth, notices the camera coming out, and just poses while smiling at the camera. Jackson though pretends to not understand what he has to do until Chris shows him how it’s done and then Jackson quickly points to Chris and while Noah films it laughing his ass off.

They make an awesome Christmas card with all of them doing something with that tennis ball.

Speculatively I’d say boy bands for Peter, bubblegum pop/pop-punk for Chris, and classic (read: dad) rock for Noah, but I welcome other opinions.

SO MUCH YES.

Also, Nickelback for Chris & Never gonna give you up. They're guilty pleasures. I would also like to suggest for Peter, either the Spice girls or like the Vengaboys. Gets him going but only when he’s alone at home and he’s wearing headphones. Because God forbids someone else hears it too. And I kinda wanna say Baby Metal for Noah. Idk seems like that might fit him and it’s hilarious to think about. Some headcanons don’t need to make sense.

Also, just for shits and giggles.

Caramelldansen in English and Swedish.

Makes these dads (and Melissa and Derek) move and dance around the new house like crazy, Ben joins in, because of the funny voices.

The teenagers are mortified.

MORTIFIED.

This made me so happy,

I feel like that’s basically toddler behavior. Also, Ben did this at some point. One hundred percent. He walked into the pet section at a store and started eating the dog treats. Chris didn’t notice, Peter did, asked him about it and went; well, it’s probably not toxic for him, so whatever. He did film it. Noah and Chris yelled at him.

That is the whitest shit I’ve ever heard. And yes I’m white too from lower middle class. But still...

But maybe that’s because I live in a country where I can drink tap water so that’s what Mo gets in his fountain.

And your stories made me smile my friend, every single one. <3 thank you for sharing these.

I wish I had funny ones really. Only one I can think of is some of my customers I run into as a tech support guy.

Customer calls me to tell me they don’t have internet. I ask, “Where’s your modem and how is it plugged into the network?”

Customer: It’s still in the box I received it in.. it’s wireless..”

Me:

Cue ten-minute argument on how it’s not wireless like that and how he needs to install his modem... yeah. People and technology...

But anyway, I’ll stop rambling now because it’s 1 am here and I need to go to sleep again.

1 am is in the Amsterdam/Berlin timezone where I live in.

That is 6 pm in NYC

And 4 pm in California.

So I am 7-9 hours ahead of the US, to give you an idea about timezones.

#ben says stuff #once upon a time comments #once upon a time scene ideas #submission

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