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butterflymar · 3 years

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DAY 2: FAVORITE BL DRAMA

I have quite a few... I can’t choose just one so bare with me lol

Life Senjou No Bokura

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: One day after school, the serious Ito and the child-like Nishi meet by chance, as each endeavors to remain walking on the sidewalk`s white line. As time goes by, Ito recognizes he is drawn to Nishi in a way that is new to him. Nishi, for his part, is frustrated that they only get to meet on the sidewalk. Ito decides to act upon his feelings and kisses a surprised Nishi, who agrees they need to walk side by side for a change. The sparks between them are undeniable as their relationship blossoms in high school, survives the college years, and matures into adulthood. A deeply moving work that bears witness to loving partners, whose unchanging feelings must co-exist within a world of changing realities.

My Personal Thoughts: I already wrote a review for this so I am going to re-share some of those thoughts here. This is one that I have watched countless times already. They went by the manga for mostly all of the episodes and I appreciated seeing that. They gave more context for certain details that may have been lost while reading the manga and translated it to screen. I think they depicted the age gaps well too. For 4 episodes only, I feel that they did a great job including the most important aspects. Actually now that I think of it, I would have loved to see more of them in their early 20s depicted on screen because that was like one of there honeymoon phases and I’m a hopeless romantic lol but that’s just a personal preference not complaining. Also, the show stopped at age 40 and they could have gone on throughout there entire lives but I understand why they chose not too. The manga is great as well!!! I think that the main actors depicted beautiful true love very well. They had amazing chemistry. Japanese BL’s have that special spark about them that I love. I also loved that it showed there relationship from high school till there later years. I don’t see that a lot with BL’s. They usually just stick to one time period. The aspect about them being connected by a line in relation to there love was a nice touch as well. I am glad that it has a happy ending as well. This is a pretty quick one to watch and a great one at that!!! If you haven’t watched it yet, I would highly recommend it!!!

I Told Sunset About You

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Teh and Oh-aew were best friends until a boyhood line of reasoning turned them into rivals. Years later as they're preparing for university admissions, both pursuing interests in the field of Communication Arts, the two meet in a Chinese language class. Their reunion awakens complicated and unstable feelings.

My Personal Thoughts: Same as above, I already wrote a review for this so I am going to re-share some of those thoughts here. This is DEFINITELY one of my top BL shows of the year 2020. This is such a beautiful masterpiece of a show!!! I remember when the preview trailer first came out… I was already hooked!!! I was on the lookout for it and it did not disappoint me one bit when it finally started. I looked forward to seeing it every week. It made me feel all of the emotions. I was up here sitting in my room crying over everything. I don’t think any other BL has made me this emotional before in my life. The two lead actors really DELIVERED!!! I could feel every single stare, every single body movement, and every single touch. You could cut the TENSION with a knife!!! No one couldn’t tell me that there wasn’t a magnetic true love between these two. I know this sounds cliche but it's like they were destined to be together from when they were childhood friends. Also, I would love to see them in future projects!!! The cinematography in this show is TOP FREAKIN NOTCH!!! Every single scene is just so beautifully shot. The cinematography alone makes me want to cry lol I saw somewhere that someone said the filming of the show reminded them of an indie film and I totally agree!!! The writing and directing on this show was impeccable to me!!! No cringy dialogue and every single line served its purpose well. This is movie grade writing. I also wanted to quickly just say that I loved the attention and callback to details throughout like with the tutoring book that Teh made for Oh-aew that was left empty by the end of episode 4, the flower that was supposed to be colored the same as Tan’s garment but Teh colored it red because he was thinking of Oh-aew, the rubbing of Oh-aew’s back when he sniffles, the references to Teh’s favorite actor, and the use of Chinese phrases to get meaning across. I could go on and on but wow I just loved how they really connected all of the details throughout. I can’t wait for Season 2!!!

Theory of Love

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Third is a filmology major and a member of the Savage Team along with his best friends Two, Bone, and Khai, but he has a secret. Third has been secretly in love with Khai for years. For three years, he has kept his secret love in his heart, silently supporting and loving Khai while knowing there is absolutely no future between them since Khai is as straight as a streetlight pole and also an absolute player. To make matters worse, Khai has a "no dating friends" policy. How long can Third love Khai silently while watching Khai bring a different girl home every night? Third has tried to see Khai as just a friend. But has failed time and time again. Because as easy as it is to fall in love, to stop is just as hard. Maybe even harder. That is until Third learns a secret that breaks his heart completely. But when Third decides to stop, Khai decides to start.

My Personal Thoughts: As sad as this show can make me feel at times, I love rewatching it. I still to this day think that it is one of the most well written BL’s that I have seen. Everything flows nicely and everything connects. Your not left wondering how you got from point A to point B. I thought the show had great character development especially when it came to Khai’s character towards the end of series. I know a lot of people had mixed feelings about his character due to how careless and dare I say stupid he acted at times but if he can make the audience hate him that much as a character... I would say he is doing something right!!! Gun’s acting never fails to amaze me!!! He really is one of the best actors I have seen. I know he had to be drained from all of that crying that he did throughout the show though lol It just goes to show that when you truly love someone you can’t just stop what you are feeling inside that easily no matter how the other person feels about you or treats you. As the old saying goes, love is blind. I also loved the friend group as well and Two and Bones side stories with the teacher and crush from school. They added to the shows greatness and didn’t take away from it. The friendship dynamics throughout the show was I feel something that really kept me engaged. The cast acted well together. There was no awkwardness or hesitation. I feel everyone bought there best for this drama. They incorporated the movie references so cleverly and I love how the title of each episode was the title of a real romance film. Just the overall theme of film was very intriguing to me. This drama left me filled with heartache and a rollercoaster of emotions but the ending is worth it!!!

HIStory3: Make Our Days Count

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: At first glance, high schoolers Xiang Hao Ting and Yu Xi Gu appear to be polar opposites: While Xiang Hao Ting is an outgoing, hot-headed extravert and some-time bully, Yu Xi Gu prefers to keep a low profile and focus on his schoolwork. They seem bound for totally different futures – the bookish Yu Xi Gu looks destined for academic success, while life is just a long popularity contest for Xiang Hao Ting. But a quirk of fate – and a crucial intervention by a female schoolmate – results in the two young men’s paths crossing. But there is more to both young men than first meets the eye. Xiang Hao Ting was not always this way. He started out as a perfect student until he discovered the joys of going off the rails. And Yu Xi Gu has a reason for being so aloof and studious: His parents died in a traffic accident while he was younger, and he is being fostered by his aunt. As such, he works hard to get good grades in an effort to win a scholarship and ease the financial burden on his relatives. Yu Xi Gu also works part-time at a convenience store, where his manager Liu Zhi Gang has developed a crush on a man he has met at the gym. Back at school, meanwhile, Yu Xi Gu and Xiang Hao Ting find themselves drawn together, and passions ignite. The former notices that he has the unique ability to bring Yu Xi Gu out of his shell – and becomes intent on melting his cold-as-ice exterior. What will happen when their two worlds collide? And can love be the catalyst that helps bring these two unlikely students together – as their high school days draw to a close?

My Personal Thoughts: I will stand by this notion for all of my days but this show is one of the best shows I have seen PERIOD!!! Not even best BL shows I have seen but just in general. It highkey saddens me that it is rated at an 8.1 right now on MyDramaList due to how it ended when other than that... it’s a top notch show. This was one that I watched as it was airing and I would get excited to see it every week. My clown self should have known by the title “Make Our Days Count” that some mess was about to occur but I didn’t pick up on it. Now, I just disregard the last episode (WE DON’T KNOW HER!!!). You can just tell that they had a great budget for this series. The production was on point. It had great cinematography, great storylines, and it felt realistic too. The main couples acting was OFF THE CHARTS AMAZING. I loved the whole opposites attract thing going on. Although the show was set in high school... it almost didn’t feel like it nor did it have those typical clichés going on. I liked how it dealt with topic of LGBTQ+ acceptance as well. I wasn’t so sure about the side couples relationship at first but I grew to love them as time went on. One last thing I wanted to point out was that even though I am always looking for a happy ending... I learned from this show that not everyone can get a happy ending. That’s not how life works sadly. In real life, there have been a lot of people who were truly in love and lost there partners tragically. Although it may be hard to accept the outcome, it is something that happens in real life. This is a drama that you appreciate even more as time goes on. It truly is a gem of a series!!!

TharnType

Synopsis According to MyDramaList: Type Thiwat is a handsome freshman with a passion for football and spicy food. Although he’s a friendly boy, he hates gay people because, in his childhood, he was molested by a man. His life turns upside down when the new academic year of college brings along a charismatic roommate, Tharn Kirigun. Tharn is a gorgeous, compassionate music major, who is also openly gay. When Type learns this, he is determined to make Tharn leave the dorm, as he won't live with a gay person. Tharn is equally determined not to give into Type's homophobic tantrums. With a gay guy and a homophobic guy that have to share a small space together for the rest of the year — what can possibly be the outcome of their story? Hatred? Or maybe love?

My Personal Thoughts: *Goes to hide in a corner* I know this drama is problematic and controversial as hell but it’s like a train wreck that you can’t turn away from. What truly carries the show I feel is the chemistry between MewGulf. I don’t think I would have enjoyed the series as much if other actors were cast in those roles. They just exude confidence, passion, love, and lust. In terms of the storyline, I found it to be a chaotic occurrence of situations where I just had to know what was going to go on next. Everything that occurred had me intrigued for the next episode and so on and so forth. I loved Type’s character development. One quick thing I want to touch on was I know there were a lot of problematic things that happened which I will touch on at a later date but one thing I wish people were more understanding of was Type’s outbursts, thoughts, and feelings in certain situations. He was a victim of sexual assault so I felt the way he handled certain things was in response to what he had gone through as child and I think some viewers kind of missed that and were almost too harsh on him. Everyone processes and deals with trauma differently. This show went through so many twists and turns and I honestly lived for it especially the shocker towards the end of the series. I didn’t see that one coming at all!!! Despite all of its flaws, this show still holds a special place in my heart.

Honorable Mention:

Cherry Magic: As of today, this show has 4 episodes left and I think I am just going to come out and say that THIS IS MY FAVORITE BL OF THE YEAR!!! It’s a beautiful Japanese BL and I rewatch the old episodes while I wait for new ones to come out alot. It’s such a fluffy, heartwarming, and precious Bl series!!! I love it to pieces!!!

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smileybokuto · 3 years

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Cherry Soda | Chapter Three | secret love confessions

Chapter: secret love confessions

wc: 1.3k

warnings: light jealousy

a/n: I love writing Tendo speaking. He brings me joy no cap. Also Sugawara is so freaking cute!

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“Oh Toshi and I aren’t dating, we are just childhood friends.” Y/n laughs as their cheeks warm at this attractive guy in front of them. Standing at the entrance staring at Y/n and Sugawara was Ushijima and Tendo. “Would you like to go on a date with me then!” Sugawara suddenly bowed in front of Y/n startling them. “Looks like someones got the hots for our dear Y/n…” Tendo muses as Ushijimas’ fists tightened. Tendo’s curiosity peaks as he bows forward with his head cocked looking at Ushijima. “Are you mayhaps…jea- lous?” his fingers framing his face as he asks. “Jealous?” Ushijima looks over to Tendo. “You know the feeling where you are upset someone is stealing Y/n away from you.” “But Y/n doesn’t belong to me…” “That isn’t-” Looking over to Ushijima, Tendo sighed and shook his head. “ Never mind.”

Meanwhile, Sugawara was waiting for Y/n to respond. “Um… Sugawara…” Y/n started to laugh which left Sugawara confused and nervously laughing as well. “I’m sorry. It’s just you took me by surprise.” “Suga! We need to go!” A young man with short black hair shouted, waving him over with an amused and worried face. “Ahh! Daichi just a minute!” “Oh I’m sorry I’m taking a long time to answer your question.” Y/n scratched the back of their head and smiled. “Why not.” “Really?! That's a relief!” Suga smiled up at the sky and looked back at Y/n. “Suga!” “Oh right! Sorry I have to go,” Suga started to turn to walk away. “Wait!” Y/n says grabbing the sleeve of his shirt and laughs. “I need your number silly.” “Oh,” a red tint spread across his cheeks as he shuffled to get his phone out of his pocket. “Here you go.” Y/n put their number into his phone as they waved him off.

Ushijima and Tendo watched as Y/n waved him off and started to walk over to them. “I guess things went well,” Tendo sings. “What do you mean?” Ushijima is now studying Y/n. “Well Y/n is smiling, Ushiwaka. And they are practically skipping.” Tendo jokes. “Tch.” Ushijima clicks his tongue in annoyance. Y/n approached them grinning like the Cheshire cat. “What happened? “He asked me out,” Y/n giggled. “He was quite cute about it too. It took me by surprise.” Y/n dreamily sighs. “Tch,” Ushijima clicks his tongue again. While Y/n starts to gush about Sugawara. Ushijima starts to grow more and more annoyed hearing about the grey haired setter. Y/n didn’t notice but Tendo did and a look of concern passed over his face for a second. “Manga cafe?”Tendo asks. “Yeah!” Y/n cheers. “I think I’m going to head home.” Ushijima sighs running his hand over his face. “Are you okay, Toshi?” “Yeah, I’m just…” He looked at Y/n and sighed. “I’m just tired. I’ll see you two tomorrow.” “Okay…” Y/n says feeling uneasy about the reason. “Get rid of your green little friend Ushiwaka-kun.” Tendo whispers next to him. “Uhh, green friend?” “Don’t worry about it.” He sighs. “I’ll come by and visit when I head home, okay.” “Okay.” Ushijima nods.

As Ushijima walked home he kept flashing back to Y/n and Sugawara in the courtyard. He kept clenching his fist and sighing. “Why do I feel like I’m going to lose Y/n,” Ushijima groans while talking to himself. “What is so special about him? He didn’t even play that long. Tch.” He groans, continuing to mumble while walking home trying to figure out why he was so upset. As he approached his house his mother came to the door to greet him surprised Y/n wasn’t with him. “Where’s Y/n?” She mused patting his shoulder. “Manga cafe.” Ushijima glares at his mother annoyed by her presence. “Did I do something to upset you dear?” A tone of concern laced Mrs. Ushijimas’ voice. “No, I just seem to be in a bad mood, mother. I’ll be in my room if you need me.” “Okay, dear.” A worried look plasters Mrs. Ushijimas’ face as she watches her son slump into his room.

While at the Manga Cafe Tendo and Y/n have been talking about how cool all the new manga shelves were. “So…” “Tendo if you have something to say to me, please just say it.” y/n chuckles. “Do you really like that setter guy?” “He seems sweet and everyone at Karasuno seems to be interesting. I don’t know if I like him but I am intrigued.” “What about our miracle boy~” he hums. “He seemed off,” Y/n nods. “No no no ~” Tendo nudges Y/n with his shoulder. “Do you like our Miracle Boy Wakaaatoshi~” “Tendo, he’s my best friend.” “Yeah but you two are already basically married.” Y/n rolls there eyes at him and scoffs. “So when are you making chocolate for me, Tendo.” “Changing the topic huh,” Tendo arches his eyebrow and chuckles. “Fine but you’ve got to answer that question eventually.” “Okay whatever.”

When they where younger Ushijima and Y/n would always sit by the window and wish on the stars for all the thing they wanted. So as Ushijima sat there again he made a silent wish for Y/n to always be with him. He had this sinking feeling like Y/n was no longer going to be there forever. He looked over to the clock and he wondered how it could only be 6:42 when it felt so much later. Ushijima heard a light creak, one he knew all too well. He immediately stood up and opened his bedroom door and looked down the hallway to see Y/n taking their shoes off.

“Welcome home.”

“Oh my- You scared me!” Y/n laughs.

“You scare too easily.”

“No you turned off the hall light I thought everyone was asleep,” Y/n puffs out there cheeks reminding Ushijima of a squirrel with it’s mouth stuffed with acorns. A smile smile forms on Ushijima’s face.

“We didn’t turn off the light. The bulb broke, we need to replace it.”

“Ah you should have told me. I was at the store I could have picked one up.”

“No need hun and welcome home.” A voice from the distance said.

“Glad to be back.” Y/n muses.

“Hey hun, that son of my has been bitter all day so just let me know and I’ll kick him for you.” Ushijima’s mother chuckled making her way down the hall to greet Y/n.

“I have not.” Ushijima pouts.

“Have too, he didn’t even give me a hug when he came home.” Mrs. Ushijima says feigning hurt. As Y/n comes in and hugs her.

“Wow how rude.

“I know right! Are you staying over tonight?”

“I can’t tonight my parents are back today so i’m going to see them before they leave again.”

“Okay dear.” Mrs. Ushijima nods as Ushijima moves out of the door frame to let you in. “Now you two have fun. Don’t stay up too late.”

“Of course,” Y/n nods.

“Y/n is the one who always stays up late.” Ushijima rolls his eyes as he says this.

“The lies,” Y/n gasps and Mrs. Ushijima laughs.

“Okay loves good night.”

Y/n sits down on the mattress and dumps out the plastic bag from the convenience store. Y/n picked up a Cherry soda and handed the Peach soda to Ushijima whe sat next to them flicking on the tv.

“Let’s watch the volleyball game between the Jackals and Adlers,” Y/n says holding a strawberry twizzler tapping it against Ushijimas’ mouth. Ushijima nods flipping to the game channel and taking the twizzler into his mouth.

“Did you have fun with Tendo?”

“Yes, of course. We missed you though.”

PING.

Y/n looked down at their phone to see a text from Sugawara and a giant smile plastered across their face making Ushijima’s uneasiness intensify.

Hi Y/n~

It’s Sugawara! I just wanted to say good night and sleep well.

#haikyuu!!#haikyū!!#ushijima #wakatoshi ushijima #akaashi #bokuto #akaashi x reader #keiji akaashi #multi fiction story #story #smau #osamu #suna smau #osamu smau #atsumu x reader

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secretpeachtea · 4 years

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Onigiri Miya Tidbits Ch 2

Title: the duplicate

Genre: gen fic, reader insert

Word Count: 3.1k

Summary: Onigiri Miya is now hiring and you just happen to be the right person for the job. The business has been gaining popularity since its grand opening, and many customers travel from different cities just to have a bite of Miya Osamu’s delicious recipes. You did expect some craziness from working in food services, but what you didn’t expect was to be bombarded with frequent tomfoolery from a bunch of attractive volleyball players during your shifts.

disclaimer: manga spoilers

A/N: I know the twins (or anyone from Hyogo for that matter) have a very specific accent, but I have a bit of trouble translating that into my writing, so I hope you guys can still use and hear that accent when you read their dialogue!

Previous///Next

It’s been a little over a week since you’ve started working at Onigiri Miya, and thankfully, things have been going well. There have only been a handful of problematic customers, but you were able to handle them quite efficiently, much to Osamu’s satisfaction. You’ve even been able to get acquainted with your boss much more since it’s only the two of you working long shifts together. You can definitely say that things have been working out really well at your job.

Today is another typical day for you as you walk towards the entrance of the shop, ready to start another day of work. You had actually left your apartment a lot earlier than usual, so you were a bit surprised to see that the door was already unlocked since Osamu usually arrives on the dot. You’re a little concerned that you might’ve jumbled up your alarm this morning and was actually late, but your phone displayed the right time. Not wanting to prolong your anxiety, you slide open the door and meet an unexpected sight.

Sitting at the counter is a man who looks like a carbon copy of your boss but with blonde hair. He’s sporting a mustard-colored tracksuit and is carrying a confident aura.

“Miya-san?”

The stranger looks up and makes eye contact with you. There’s a brief air of silence before he breaks out into a wide grin. “Oh! Hey, new girl!”

Not knowing how to respond, you just lift your hand awkwardly. “Um...hi?”

“I heard from a friend of mine that ‘Samu hired a new worker.” The blonde runs a hand through his hair. “Didn’t think you’d be such a cutie though.”

Before you even had time to react, your boss walked out of the storage room with a bag of rice on top of his shoulder. “‘Sumu, you got rice all over your chin.”

Miya Atsumu flushes red from embarrassment and proceeds to grab a napkin to clean his face. Now that you’re paying more attention to your surroundings, you notice that there’s an empty plate on top of the counter and you can assume that Osamu gave him food prior to your arrival.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that this is your brother.” You shrug off your jacket as you walk further into the building and address Osamu casually.

“What gave it away? The nose or the ears?” Osamu jokingly teases as he shoves the bag of rice off his shoulders to one of the lower shelves.

“You never told me you had a twin,” you respond with an equally playful tone.

“Never asked.”

You briefly glance to check the clock on the wall. “You’re here pretty early. Did I miss something?”

Your boss shook his head as he straightened up. He then pointed towards his brother who was just watching you two converse with intrigued eyes. “Nah. He’s here to eat something before practice and wouldn’t stop nagging me to make him something, which is why I’m here earlier than I should be, sleep deprived and all.”

“Sounds like you had a rough morning,” you laughed.

“Um, hello? I’m still here,” Atsumu interjected with a slightly sassy tone. “By the way, I didn’t catch your name, and your boss kept telling me to figure it out myself.”

You take a mental note at how petty your boss could be with his brother and stifle a laugh. “It’s (Surname) (Name).”

The corners of Atsumu’s mouth lifted upward. “Glad I could finally put a name to your face, (Name)-chan.”

Okay, you were definitely not used to someone calling you by your first name in such a casual manner, so you couldn’t stop yourself from getting a bit flustered. This did not go unnoticed by both twins, their eyes taking in the pink tint on your cheeks.

Not wanting to expose yourself any more than you already have, you look away and head towards the back room. “I’m just gonna go get ready really quick!”

Once you’ve put your things down and secured the apron around your waist, you walked back to the main room. The brothers have occupied themselves with other things in the meantime. Atsumu is scrolling through his phone with a bored expression, while Osamu is prepping the display case to get ready to open soon. You figured you should stay productive too and make your way to the fridge. You peek inside through the glass door and notice that there’s a shortage in beverages.

“Miya-”

You’re at a loss of words when both brothers set their gazes on you once again.

“Atsumu’s fine by me, sweetheart.” The blonde man smirks at your conflicted expression.

“Stop flirting with my employee. And, she wasn’t talking to you, you scrub.” Osamu sighed and brushed his hands on his thighs before turning his body to face you. “What’s up?”

“I think we forgot to pick up some drinks yesterday.” You pointed towards the bare shelves in the fridge. There were a couple green teas and carbonated drinks, but it definitely wasn’t enough to last the rest of the day. The last thing you’d want to do is disappoint any of the customers.

“Ah, shoot. You’re right. I was supposed to take care of that last night.” Your boss looks up at the clock and sees that there’s still some time before you have to open. “I’ll head out and bring those in really quick. You think you can babysit this guy for a bit?”

“Hey! I’m not a little kid!”

“Yup! Leave it to me!”

“Woah, woah! Hold up now!”

Completely ignoring his brother’s protests, Osamu leaves the shop in your hands to bring in the drinks from a convenience store a couple blocks down. This left you and Atsumu in each other’s company for the time being. Not really having much to do until the drinks come in, you just position yourself in front of the register as usual, checking to see if everything is set up correctly. Atsumu seems to take this as his cue to have a one-on-one chat with you.

“So, what’d you do to get the job? Bribe? Save a life? Cast a spell?”

You tilt your head in confusion and blink once. “Huh? What do you mean?”

Atsumu raises his arms in emphasis. “‘Samu doesn’t just let anyone work here. This place is practically his child. Protects it at all costs. It’s the reason why it’s just been him for so long even though it can get pretty busy around here”

“Oh, uh, I just applied and he accepted me.” You would be lying if you said that you weren’t surprised when you found out that he was the only other worker when you got the job.

“Interesting…”

Feeling a bit uncomfortable over how Atsumu was practically trying to analyze you and borderline interrogate you, you try to switch topics. “Seems like you know your brother pretty well.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of inevitable when we share the same face. Although, I personally think I am the more good-looking twin.”

You sweatdropped. “Well, despite the way you look, you guys are definitely different in a lot of ways.”

“For sure! Sometimes we can be complete opposites!” Atsumu nods his head in agreement.

“Does that mean you’re a bad cook?” You take this opportunity to tease the blonde, but start to regret it after you see a competitive glint in his eyes.

“No way! I’m a great man in the kitchen! Just watch! I’m gonna whip up an onigiri that’s on par with that fool!” Atsumu stands up from his stool and marches over to the other side of the counter.

“That’s probably not a good ide-”

“Relax! I got this!” Famous last words.

As soon as Atsumu was in reach of anything on the work space, all hell broke loose. As he placed some sticky rice into his hands, his elbow knocked over an entire container of sesame seeds, while his other arm ripped a couple sheets of nori* during his attempt to catch the tumbling seeds. A couple eggs fell out of a carton that Osamu had left aside due to the ruckus, painting the floors with yolk, and somehow the rice on Atsumu’s palm had ended up splattering onto his chin.

You watched everything unfold with distressed shock. “What are you doing?! Are you trying to get me fired?!”

“I didn’t mean to do that, I swear!” The clumsy man just furrowed his brows as he frantically tried to stop anything else from going wrong. Trying your best to calm him down and avoid making more of a mess, you closed the distance between you and held onto his forearms.

“Hey, calm down, or you might trigger something else. Let’s just clean this quickly before your brother comes back or we’re both good as dead.”

That surely got Atsumu’s attention and the two of you quickly began to clean up the mess. You grabbed the nearest cleaning cloth, while he took a hold of the trash can. In just a matter of minutes, the workstation was already starting to look as neat as it was before. If it wasn’t such a ridiculous situation, you could honestly say that you and him were a pretty good team when faced with Osamu’s potential wrath.

It wasn’t until you were finished sanitizing the counter space did you notice the pieces of rice that were stuck on Atsumu’s face. “Hey, you still have some rice on your face.”

“Again?” He tries to wipe off his face with a napkin like he did before, while he occasionally asks you if he got everything. You point out the ones he misses, but he keeps missing one rice grain on the corner of his mouth.

Feeling a bit impatient, you lean towards Atsumu and he stiffens his movements. “Here, let me help. Hold still.”

You cup his cheek with your fingers to make sure he doesn’t move. Using your other hand, you gently remove the last rice piece, your fingers lightly brushing over his bottom lip unintentionally. Atsumu just stays completely quiet as you do wonders to his poor heart. He even unconsciously leans into your touch, but you’re too focused on the task at hand to notice.

“Got it.” You give him a triumphant smile, but falter as you notice Atsumu’s expression which held a certain softness to it with something else you can’t quite pinpoint.

Atsumu snaps out of his trance when you let go of his cheek and his entire face heats up, red crawling up to the tips of his ears. You pull away and discard the rice into the trash.

“T-t-thanks.”

Atsumu quickly turns his back towards you and wipes a small smudge on one of the containers, willing his heart to calm down from its fast beating. You think he’s acting a bit strange, but brush it off for now.

The only thing left to clean was the sticky floor. You’re about to mop up the egg remnants when you hear a voice call for your name at the front of the restaurant. “Hey, (Surname)-san! Can you open the door? My hands are kind of full.”

You and Atsumu look at each other with wide eyes, both realizing that you haven’t finished cleaning and Osamu was right outside the door. You hunch over and Atsumu mirrors you. Cue the furious whispering.

“What do we do?!”

“What do you mean, what do we do?! We gotta scrub the floor clean until he sees it!”

“But, he’s right outside!”

“Well you better figure something out, ‘cause if I don’t open that door right now, he’s gonna get suspicious!”

With that, you straightened up and made your way to the entrance, making sure to take your time with each step. You hear quite a bit of shuffling behind you but choose to pray that everything will work out. Once you reach the door, you slide it open for Osamu to enter. He was holding three boxes of drinks, the bulging veins in his arms indicated how heavy they were.

“You sure took your sweet time.”

You laughed nervously. “Sorry about that. I was in the back room.”

When the two of you walk back to the counter, the blonde is nowhere to be seen. Thankfully, it seems like he was able to get everything done. The floor was spotless, maybe even a little too clean.

Suddenly you hear the bathroom door slam shut and turn your head towards the sound. Atsumu is walking out with slightly wet sleeves, so you assume that he just washed his hands.

“You’re still here?” Osamu just gives his brother a blank look as he places the drinks down next to the fridge. “Don’t you have to go to practice soon?”

The other twin just shrugs his shoulders. “Eh. Not for like another hour.”

“Then, why the hell did you make me wake up so early to make you food?” One of Osamu’s eyes started twitching.

“I was hungry.”

“Die.”

Ignoring his brother’s bitterness, Atsumu sat at one of the stools near you and leaned his head against his arm. “(Name)-chan, you should try my favorite onigiri flavor!”

Your eyes light up at the mention of the first onigiri your boss made you. “Oh! The Minced Tuna and Spring Onion one right?”

Atsumu looked a bit surprised. “Yeah...how’d you know?”

“Your brother let me try it about a week ago after my shift.”

“Wait,” the man in front of you paused for a moment before a realization hit him. “You’re the reason why I had to eat cereal for dinner that one time?!”

You’re a bit stunned for a moment and direct your next question to Osamu who’s not even trying to hide his smirk. “I thought you said he’d get takeout?”

“Not my fault. This idiot dropped his wallet in the toilet and couldn’t remember where he kept his credit card.” Your boss just casually crosses his arms. “Turns out I conveniently forgot my wallet at the shop that day too.”

“Yeah, you made up for that today, you scrub,” Atsumu scoffs. You just watch the petty banter between the twins, discreetly enjoying their strange way of communicating.

Their conversation was interrupted when Atsumu’s phone vibrated indicating an incoming message. He checks his phone and quietly reads its contents before abruptly standing from his position and stretching. “Well, this was nice and all, but Bo-kun is asking for some extra spiking practice, so I’m gonna head out. I’ll be back soon, (Name)-chan, so don’t miss me too much!”

As Atsumu pocketed his phone, he leaned against the counter where you stood and held out a fist. “I had fun today.”

You laughed softly with a small smile on your face and reciprocated the fist bump. “See you around, Atsumu-san.”

The blonde just waved an arm at his brother, who couldn’t care less, and left without another word. Although, Osamu did nod his head in acknowledgement.

You didn’t think you’d have to deal with so much drama before the shop even opened, but at least you got to meet the brother with good taste.

Today had been another successful day at work. There were quite a few customers and all of the onigiri sold out by closing time. You stretched your arms to relieve some of the tension from standing in the same position all day. Osamu seemed to be doing the same as he rolled his shoulders back and forth.

There was a lingering question that you’ve wanted to ask him since this morning. “Just out of curiosity, is your brother a volleyball player too?”

“Yeah. Do you remember that owl-looking guy from last week? They’re on the same team.”

“Oh, so that’s why you were pretty familiar with him.”

Osamu nodded his head. “I’m surprised the whole team hasn’t come in yet. They frequent this place since it’s convenient and has decent prices. You’ll probably meet all of them pretty soon.”

You just hummed at his words.You were ready to start sweeping and moved your arm in the direction of the broom.

“My turn to ask, then.” Osamu stated. “What’d you guys talk about while I was gone this morning?”

You hand froze in the air. “With Atsumu-san?”

“The one and only.”

“Oh...um…” You tried to think of something to cover up any suspicions Osamu may have, but he was already on to you.

“He did something stupid.”

You looked at your boss in the eye and sheepishly laughed. Might as well just tell him the truth. “Maybe crack some eggs and ruin some rice?”

Osamu sighed. “I figured. I did think it was a little weird when I saw the trash half full when we hadn’t even opened yet. There was also a very conveniently placed newspaper at the very top covered in yolk. Not to mention the eggs shells tangled in the mop.”

You silently cursed at Atsumu’s carelessness, but didn’t hold it against him since you both were in a rush to get everything clean. Before you had the chance to defend yourself, Osamu spoke up once again.

“Glad you told me the truth though, or I might’ve fired you.”

Panic. You are struck with panic at the mention of possibly getting fired. Your mind reels with everything that could possibly go wrong in your life if you were to lose this job, but Osamu’s amused laugh cuts off your thoughts.

“I’m just messing with you. I know how insufferable ‘Tsumu can be when he sets his mind to something.” He pats your head lightly. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on letting you go so easily.”

“Thanks, Miya-san.” You silently let out a small sigh of relief. There’s a short pause as the two of you just stand in place facing each other. Osamu looks a bit tense and turns his head away to look at the fake plant on the counter to his right.

“...Osamu.”

You pause with bewilderment and look up to catch his eyes. “...what?”

He moves his arm to rub his neck and avoids your gaze. “You can call me Osamu.”

You hesitate a bit and take in Osamu’s shy attitude. “But, you’re my boss…?”

“I wouldn’t mind if you called me by my first name. P-plus my brother shows up way more than he should, so it’ll probably get confusing,” He quickly rationalized, but his red cheeks said otherwise.

At this point, you’re both a bit flustered. In any other situation, something like this probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but this conversation seems oddly intimate.

“O-okay. Then, you can call me by my first name too, O-Osamu...san”

“Sound good, (Name)-san.”

Nori = the seaweed stuff

A/N: I know this is supposed to be a gen fic, but I couldn’t help but add in a bit of fluff when it involves the twins

#haikyuu #onigiri miya #onigiri miya tidbits #secretpeachtea #osamu #atsumu

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merryfortune · 3 years

Text

Gachaplum

Written for 100ships Challenge on Dreamwidth

Prompt #77 Plum

Ship: Rocksaltshipping | Kureha/Spectre

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS

Word Count: 2,143

Rating: G

Warnings: No Warnings Apply

Tags: Fluff, Self Indulgen, Inspired by a Tweet

“Are you enjoying your drink?” Spectre asked conversationally.

“Yep.” Kureha chirped around her straw.

The drink in question was a tropical iced tea with strawberry bursties as the bottom. It was sharply sweet, right to the core of her teeth, and that’s exactly how Kureha liked it. However it, in combination with the empty tote bag Spectre was carting around, was a horrible omen to Kureha. Her boba tea had been the only non-necessary treat that Spectre had bought for either of them and clearly he meant for impulse purchases, otherwise he wouldn’t have brought a bag.

But Kureha, with a little bit of dread and unuttered complaint, supposed that’s the kind of guy Spectre was. He was very mission oriented and put his organisation above himself. Today’s mission was grocery shopping, as mundane as that sounded but since Spectre and the others could be at sea for weeks on end, grocery shopping was huge and important. So, even though Spectre was empty handed right now, he had already spent big at the restaurant they had visited earlier and before that, at the luxury grocery shop they went to where they bought in bulk and would have it delivered to the docks for the Lieutenants to unpack.

And Kureha had been lucky enough to tag along since this was a somewhat rare opportunity for her and Spectre to hang out in real life. But what was the point of hanging out if they weren’t doing anything special? Kureha agaonised, maybe it was her fault for assuming it would be a date. Then again, they also had a fancy lunch together so maybe it was a date. This was too confusing, Kureha scolded herself. Besides, it's not like she wasn’t enjoying herself. She really was and that was probably the main thing but she wanted Spectre to enjoy himself too.

They had a delicious lunch at a Thai restaurant that had excellent decor and a wide range of food. They ordered a plate of their favourites each yet somehow ended up sharing their meals and soft drinks anyway. It had been wonderful, even if Kureha got a runny nose afterwards and that was a little bit embarrassing but Spectre didn’t bring it up, thankfully - except to rib her that even how she blew her nose was cute. Then, once they had had their lunch, it was time to get to business and Spectre had a very long shopping list.

He took her to a grocery shop inside of a mall with a celebrity level atmosphere. It was stocked with items and brands that Kureha had never heard of because they were so, so, so expensive and yet, he handpicked what he needed from them without so much as a blink at the price tag. Though, he did assure her that he and the other Knights had already budgeted to a tee so there was nothing to worry about. He was in and out rather swiftly, hardly looking at all the things that Kureha was certainly dawdling out and once he was done, he had his things whisked off and taken to be shipped off within the hour by truck.

With the shopping done, they had begun to exit the mall where Kureha had gotten thirsty and she had a keen eye for spotting cute and quirky shops that sold even cuter and quirkier drinks. Spectre had been more than happy to pay for her boba tea, even though she offered and it was very sweet of him but did make Kureha feel a little guilty since, again, that one drink had been the only splurge Spectre had allowed himself and it wasn’t even for him.

Now they were just sort of wandering along, making light conversation whilst Kureha finished her drink. They were sort of on the look out for a tram line or bus that would put them on a route where Spectre could drop off Kureha close to home and then continue back to the mariner but it was difficult since their homes were such polar opposites to another. Though, given that Kureha wasn’t quite ready to end this not quite and maybe it actually was a date-date, it was something of a blessing in disguise so they got to take in the sights of this precinct.

There were all sorts of pretty and intriguing buildings, the paths were lovely and well kempt without a nary crack or dip. The road was fairly busy with cars, taxis, and buses but it was the sidewalks which were busier with people coming to and fro. It was almost overwhelming with all the interesting things to see and do but even so, Kureha kept her eyes peeled for something - anything - that might just serve to prolong the inevitable and then she saw it: a bookshop.

Out of nowhere, to Spectre at least, Kureha grabbed his arm and tugged on it. He pulled back and twisted round to scold Kureha, a scowl on his face but Kureha was already prepared with the best puppy dog eyes she could plead with.

“I want to check out that bookshop, please.” she begged.

Spectre’s scowl softed, “That sounds fine.”

“Yay.” Kureha smiled.

Kureha pointed out the bookshop that she had spotted and Spectre escorted her there. Although, once inside the pristinely white doors, they sort of split off. Not that Kureha minded, that was sort of her plan. Spectre was a bookworm, albeit an incredibly fussy one, so maybe he would find something in here to read and even buy for himself whilst Kureha was mostly killing time. Mainly by trying to covertly stalk Spectre from the manga section whilst he investigated the language arts section a few rows of books over.

She held her breath, whilst trying her best not to get distracted by the latest volumes of a few series of manga that she had been keeping up with, as Spectre pulled out various books… only to all but immediately put them back once he was done looking at their backs. It was a little bit disappointing. Kureha sighed and her eyes downcast to a shiny new volume of her favourite manga but if Spectre refused to buy things for himself, so would she so she scuttled in closer to Spectre again across the floor of the bookshelf.

“See anything interesting?” Kureha asked.

“I’m considering learning French or Spanish as a hobby but I’m not sure which would best extend my current literacy skills so I think I’ll do more research before branching out from bilingualism to multilingualism.” Spectre replied.

“Fair enough.” Kureha murmured.

“Are you ready to go?” Spectre asked. “You seem equally empty handed as me.”

“I saw a few things but nah.” Kureha shrugged.

“Understandable,” Spectre said, “well, would you like to keep going on our way home?”

Kureha fidgetted, “Yeah, that’s fine.” she murmured.

Spectre made an odd expression but it was only the briefest flicker, Kureha was lucky to have caught it. Regardless, they did move on and left the book shop, unsuccessful on all fronts. Maybe their date had just run its course in the most uneventful way possible.

As they walked, Spectre checked his phone and noticed that they should be getting close to a good spot where it would be easy for them to find public transport to suit both their needs. At least according to the maps app that he was looking at, anyway so he had his fingers crossed that it ought to be somewhat helpful even if it wasn’t entirely accurate or true to life. Kureha smiled and agreed. At least she would have part of a bus trip left to spend with Spectre before woosh.

Back to video calls and texts as their only form of contact. It was nice, Kureha didn’t mean to complain, she did genuinely enjoy getting photographs of how Spectre’s plants were going and sending him back the homework she was struggling with but quality time was nicer. At the very least, Kureha wanted a memento of what little quality time they did get and a receipt from a Thai restaurant hardly counted.

Then, once more, in a complete stroke of luck, Kureha’s eye was caught by something that she saw. Not the building - it was just a generic convenience store - but by what adorned it: gachapon machines. Her face split into a huge grin and once more, Kureha grabbed Spectre’s arm and tugged on it.

“Yes?” Spectre said through gritted teeth at Kureha’s prompt.

“I want to use the lucky dip machines. Please, please, please: look, this one has plushies for that virtual pet game I like.” Kureha begged, clutching Spectre’s arm desperately, and her hazelly-green eyes were sparkling so how on Earth was Spectre meant to resist all of that?

The answer, of course, was that he couldn’t. Though, he did give a long suffering sigh, he did let Kureha pull him aside as she used the gachapon machine that she saw outside the convenience store that they had been passing by.

“Would you like me to give you some loose change?” Spectre asked as he stood next to it, trying to look like a mature adult whilst his girlfriend was very much happy to enjoy her childish side.

“No, I’m right, I’ve got it covered.” Kureha said as she dug out her wallet from her handbag. She put in more than enough coins for herself and for Spectre, too. If he refused to treat himself then Kureha was going to force whatever thing she got from it.

She turned the crank a handful of times and heard the plastic balls rattle inside deep within the machine. Kureha smiled as she waited for the internal mechaninations to stop and then she opened up the flap. She grinned as she held onto both lucky dips that she had bought.

“Here you go, you can have this one.” Kureha said as she forced Spectre to take one of them.

Spectre made an unamused expression as he let Kureha put an orange-coloured plastic ball in his hand, “And what am I meant to do with this?”

“Open it and let’s see.” Kureha replied and she demonstrated, as though Spectre didn’t already know how to open a gachapon.

She struggled, a little bit, but eventually got the two halves of her purple plastic ball to split open. She squealed in joy as she unveiled her mystery toy. It had a keyring so she threaded her finger through it and swirled the toy itself off her finger. The little plushie that she had won took the form of a felt, anthropomorphic plum with American style cartoon features adorned with a stitched on ribbon bow.

“This is Plum and she’s my favourite of the virtual fruit pets.” Kureha said.

Somewhere in the back of Spectre’s mind, that did ring a bell. Kureha might have sent screenshots to him of her virtual pet habit and an animated cartoon plum may have been one of them. So, his expression of bemusement faded and turned to surrender. He opened up his gachapon too but Kureha was way more excited than him regarding it.

“I got…” Spectre idly commentated and was mildly surprised by his lucky dip. “I got Plum, too.”

“Wow, what’re the odds?” Kureha laughed.

Spectre’s eyes flicked to the poster plastered to the inside of the gachapon machine that displayed which possible toy was possible to win, “Well, it looks like there are seven characters and we got two, so it was likely a one in fourteen chance assuming all the characters are present in equal measure inside the machine.” he said.

“I didn’t mean it literally.” Kureha laughed even harder.

Spectre smiled a small smile and began to inspect his plush Plum. He thought it was kind of ugly, to be honest, but if Kureha liked it then he could perhaps entertain some fondness for it. The felt was a bit too coarse for his liking.

“I’ll be sure to look after this.” Spectre murmured.

Kureha blinked and her heart fluttered, “Really?” she exclaimed softly.

“Of course,” Spectre said, “it's a precious gift from my precious Kureha. I will treasure it.” He put his own finger through the keyring at the top of the small toy’s head and then put his hand on Kureha’s shoulder, the toy bumping between them. Spectre leaned in and kissed Kureha’s forehead. “I promise to treasure it.” His words brushed over Kureha’s skin like a flower’s petal.

Kureha’s face went bright red upon being kissed, “I’ll treasure mine too.” she eked out in a tiny voice.

“That goes without saying, my silly darling.” Spectre replied and he pulled back. “Come on, we’ve had a long date already, don’t you think? Aren’t you ready to go home yet?”

“I’m ready now.” Kureha said, smiling huge and holding onto her little toy.

#100ships challenge #writing tag #rocksaltshipping #yumejoshi

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derireo · 4 years

Text

a3! as part-timers

I FINALLY FINISHED IT AGAIN. Thank you all for being patient with me because I really liked these headcanons and Tumblr just decided to delete them all <3

WARNING: rookie Chikage Utsuki will be included! (this means spoilers for Act 5 are present throughout).

It's canon that Sakuya works with Misumi, but I have no clue as to what their jobs are. Let's safely assume that Sakuya works at a cafe! His bright disposition and cheerful smile is bound to put a smile on customer's face, but he's a little clumsy when it comes to making drinks so his co-workers always tell him to stick to the cash register. It suits him anyways, being able to talk to different people of different walks of life. He mostly works in the mornings, only after he manages to get Masumi to school on time. He is a customer favourite no doubt, and he brings in a lot of tips for all of the workers to share! Many of the children that come by love him, and especially teachers who are running late to work deem him the sunshine in their life.

Masumi would work at a music shop. Not to be obvious or anything, but music is possibly one of the only constants in his life and he grew a deep bond with it while staying alone at home for most of his life. So when he manages to get a job at shop in inside Veludo Mall, he's ecstatic. Although he gets to spend less time in the dorm (which means less time with the Director), Masumi absolutely loves perusing the endless aisles of music cds, vinyl records, posters, and so much more. He's also very diligent at his job, organizing things perfectly and on time and even helping out customers even though he doesn't really want to. His coworkers grow so fond of him to the point that they let him listen to his own music while doing his job, headphones on while he reorganizes things on the shelves.

I don't really know what part-time job Citron would have, but I know he hangs around the Veludo markets a lot. He's there all the time, helping out the lovely ladies at their food stalls by actively advertising their products of the day and even charming young couples into buying some trinkets at another stall. His charm is very effective, smile so dazzling and eyes so hypnotizing that you can't help but follow him towards a stall where they're selling handmade mochi or fresh produce. This is all volunteering though, Citron doesn't get paid with money. What he does get paid with is lots of hugs and groceries to bring home to the dorm-- much to the delight of Izumi and Omi! Citron's so popular at the markets that he receives a greeting from every single stall while he passes by. And he never leaves empty handed!

Tsuzuru tends to boast about the countless number of part-time jobs he's had. From gas station worker, to waiter, to library work, he has done a lot of things. I don't really think it's something to brag about because if I had that many jobs I would probably d-word. But working at Mankai as a playwright, that's already his dream come true. I don't think he'd want to work anywhere else when he's writing stories and bringing them to life like he has always wanted and it makes me happy to see that he's living out his dream. If anything, if he does work a part-time job, it's probably to get extra money to spend on his younger and older brothers since he's such a family man. And because his stories bring so much attention to Mankai, Sakyo compensates Tsuzuru very generously.

Gaming is Itaru's part-time job. Taruchi is a mysterious persona who is crazy good at video games and has a soothing voice. The kick is that nobody knows what he looks like and Itaru would like to keep it that way. He's a popular streamer and Let's Player so there's no doubt that he is raking in a lot of cash. How he finds time to juggle an office job, Mankai, and streaming is beyond me, but it is absolutely impressive because despite how lazy he seems to be, he is a diligent worker who is very good at entertaining people. Plus, nobody knowing what his face looks like brings in a lot of intrigue and fans. Itaru always baits his fans that just maybe he'll reveal his face to them, but never does. Everyone loves his teasing and Itaru loves messing with people. One of the top streamers on his platform and he's proud of it. The appearance of Banri's NEO also helps a lot with bringing in viewers. (The extra money he makes is donated to the Mankai fund box)

Not gonna lie, but with Chikage being a spy as well as an office worker, I don't think he has enough time to have another job on top of that. As we saw in Act 5, he worked tirelessly on his computer, rarely sleeping. Being a spy is hard work, and now that he realizes that Hisoka may not have betrayed the organization, he now has to work to keep Hisoka's location hidden from enemies. Can you imagine being an office worker tho.... could never be me. Sry Chikage and Itaru lmfao but that sounds painful. Anyways, if Chikage isn't actively working for the organization and isn't posting on his curry blog, maybe he's doing tech support? He's always sitting at his computer so he might as well you know lmfaoo

"I'm too famous to work a part-time job" he says while at the same time applying to work at a bonsai shop. Who are you kidding, Tenma? Also pretty sure the owners don't really care so he gets the job right away since they're in desperate need of help. Tenma acts kind of bratty as it is his first time having a job that isn't acting, but he gets knocked down a few pegs when he has to carry around heavy bags of soil and nutrients for the bonsai trees. Eventually, he comes to love his job, seeing the owners as part of his family as they take great care of him while he works at their shop. Unfortunately, there will still be those fans who will watch him as he works at the bonsai shop, but Tenma uses it to his advantage, saying that if they want to look a little more, they're going to have to buy a bonsai tree. The owners are like ??? wtf tenma ??? but inevitably, it brings in a lot of business;;;

Yuki would definitely work at a boutique as an apprentice!! Working with different types of fabric and body shapes and frills, god, what a dream come true for him! Sure, making costumes for Mankai is one thing, but those are costumes, not actual clothes you would wear outside on the daily. His skill in clothes is amazing and it amazes his mentor who watches on proudly as Yuki sews something gorgeous every single time he comes to help. And Yuki absolutely loves being there too, getting to work on normal every day people who aren't huge hulking men that manage to ruin their measurements every time Yuki makes something for them. Plus, using this experience from his apprenticeship helps him a lot if he so chooses to go to a school for fashion. I'm rooting for you, Yuki!

Working at a manga store, Muku is absolutely in love. He's already in the Library Committee at school so might as well work somewhere book related, right? The boy was lucky to get the job at his favourite manga shop at the mall, and he doesn't even need to wear a uniform! As long as he wears his employee lanyard and name tag, he is all good to go! Being surrounded with his favourite book series and figurines and posters alike is very exciting for Muku, and he works extremely well with customers who need help looking for recommendations or gifts. His enthusiasm charms everyone he talks to and he becomes a customer and workplace favourite after a couple of days. His avid hobby of reading manga is apparent to everyone he comes across, and when he meets another customer who is just as dedicated to manga as he, they have long talks while Muku convinces them to buy more books.

Kazunari would definitely work at an arts store. Cliche, I know, but he wouldn't want to be anywhere else! Michaels would be a good place to start, but knowing how great he is at aesthetics, I think a paint store would do him well too. Both places would mostly have university students as their workers anyways so Kazunari would fit in right away! Popular with customers due to his enthusiasm with art, Kazunari gets a lot of requests for help when choosing certain pigments and wallpapers for bedrooms and large scale art projects. His knowledge with the subject of art is deep and wide, so he is able to answer any questions thrown his way. He is so loved at his job that when he eventually quits to achieve bigger things, they throw a party for him and all promise to visit and watch his next play!

It's canon that Misumi is a freelancer, which means he works any type of odd job and never sticks to one for too long. The job that he has kept the longest is the cafe one where he's with Sakuya. He actually helped Sakuya get this job at the first place, and when they work together, they're a force to be reckoned with! They bring in a lot of tips together and since Misumi is so quick on his feet and speedy with his hands, there's never a line up for drinks. Everything goes out the door just as fast as they had come in and his co-workers love him for it. He is also very popular for his fanged tooth and eye crinkling smile! Many regulars give him triangles as their tips! And if Misumi isn't working at the cafe, he's helping out as a mover because he's quick and strong (like we saw in HaGT), or he is helping out the local mailman. Because the mailman is growing older in age, Misumi takes it upon himself to help him deliver the rest of the mail so that the sweet old man can go home early. Misumi is always seen running around the neighbourhood with the mailbag!

I know this will sound weird, but I think Banri would fare well as a tutor. Knowing that he can just flip through a textbook once and immediately know what to do, I think it would do everyone good if he helped tutor those who struggle. Although I bash Banri a lot (as a joke) I am still able to see that he cares very much for others. He has rarely struggled in his life and clearly doesn't understand the hardships of the other members when they can't seem to do this or that, so he does his best to put himself in their shoes so he knows what he can do to help others who are struggling much the same. So Tsumugi helps him get a tutoring gig, and he hits it off right away. It's impressive really, how he's able to help students understand concepts they once thought they would never be able to get and it makes Banri happy. Banri is someone who wishes to help others-- he even says that he wants to help Mankai grow by bringing back the knowledge he learns at Veludo Arts. And I don't think he'd need the money, so he donates most of it to the Mankai funds.

Is it cliche of me to put Juza in a bakery? You know, sweets, confectionaries. BREAD. God, knowing how Juza grew up with a loving mom who almost always baked sweets for him and Kumon makes me want to cry. I love them so much. Anyways, he'd be a little clumsy in the back kitchen so I think he would just stick to decorating pastries and mini cakes and all that. It's a very curious thing to watch as a customer, a young, mean looking man scrunching his eyebrows as he puts a smiley face on a cupcake. It's cute. There's also another part of me that wants to see him work as an apprentice for shūji, or traditional Japanese calligraphy. Knowing that Juza studied it when he was younger (and that's why his signature is nice), it would definitely be pretty cool for him to do scrolls and stuff. It's a tough job though, considering the art of Japanese calligraphy is an important thing, and every stroke and word you write counts. It's a beautiful art form though, and Juza could make a pretty penny out of commissions.

After learning about journalling from Izumi, Taichi most definitely applied to work at a stationary shop. He's a bit clumsy with it, but he's got the spirit and that's all that matters! Strangely enough, this is one of the rare times where he isn't actively vying for attention, but for some reason he gets it a lot here. It's not like he minds or anything, but please, ladies, quiet down ^^; He is a favourite in the workplace though since he's so energetic and is always eager to help out customers; especially the old grandmas who are looking for gifts to give their grandchildren. The old ladies love him too, and they pamper him a lot much to his bashful enjoyment. And since his coworkers know that he loves journalling so much, they give him a lot of extra stock to bring home so that he can share it with Izumi and Omi! On a less serious note, he'd probably do public dance battles outside with his friends to get a quick buck.

Man... Omi would work at a bakery too. Most likely he would work with Juza because that would make sense, and both of their presences at the bakery shop would attract a lot of attention. Two, hulking dudes working at a bakery shop? Count me in pls. He'd be the one working at the back kitchen, baking everything and such. I would have also liked to put him in a restaurant, but considering that you can't become a sous chef or even a head chef until years later (due to the hierarchy and training), I don't think I want him to do that. He's already studying to become a business major after all so it would be difficult to juggle two separate things to study for. He would also work great as a photographer, but he doesn't do any taxing jobs unless it's for Mankai or very close friends. His friends always pay him too much, but they insist he keeps the money (which he puts into Mankai funds) and as compensation from Sakyo, the older man lets Omi indulge in buying expensive ingredients for that night's dinner.

Why is Sakyo working so hard? I'm getting worried. He works as Mankai's accountant and is part of the Yakuza; those are already two stressful things to work for. He has so much to do and there's always a lot of plate considering he manages a lot of Mankai with Matsukawa and Izumi, and on top of that he always acts as Mankai's Papa, Accountant, and Grumpy Old Man at the End of the Street. And when he isn't doing anything at Mankai, Patriarch Izumida calls him in for a task to do at Ginsenkai or the area they patrol. He also owns a freakin' diner that is under Ginsenkai's care like?? wtf Sakyo. He works so hard, spends tireless days to help keep Mankai afloat and it makes my heart hurty </3 Sakyo was my first crush so I can't help but worry a little and he's my comfort character whenever I'm way too engrossed at looking at Omi's huge bahonkerz so pls... Sakyo take care of urself I'm begging. Also most of the money he earns goes to his family, and the rest is for Mankai's funds.

Tsumugi on the other hand would stay as a tutor since it's canon! Sure, he has a bit of competition now that he's helped Banri enter the tutoring scene, but he's still got his loyal students to take care of. He is a very diligent worker and is very smart so working out problems is nothing too hard for him. He cares for each and every student he has, writing personalized study outlines for them as well as keeping notes on them with what they're struggling on, what they're excelling at, and even takes notes on their study habits and how long their attention lasts for until they need to take a break. Tsumugi makes sure that he is teaching his students properly and cares for them a lot. If not tutoring, he is helping at the local Veludo flower boutique and is very popular there. He helps create a lot of bouquets with deep meanings, but sometimes those bouquets he makes are gifting to him right after, lmao

Ugh as for Tasuku, knowing how good he is at fixing things, he would be great at an electronics store or a mechanics shop. He has a natural talent at fixing things and I can only assume it's because as a child, he really loved tinkering with items that were laying around the house. Plus, knowing that he has an older brother, he probably had a lot of Gundam sets laying around that sparked his interest in building things. You've seen him fix a lot of things right? To his motorcycle, his car, the television, my heart, omfg he can do it all like wtf. He becomes so skilled at fixing cars that he somehow acquires the skill to soup them up too?? When did those big ass rims get there? Where the hell did those damn hydraulics come from? That sort of thing. God he would look so sexy in a classic Ford Mustang </3 On the other hand, I think he would be great at becoming an acting coach. He might give Yuzo a run for his money.

It's canon that Hisoka has a job, but no one really knows what it is I think. I believe he would be a mattress tester! Remember that backstage story with the All Male Lap Pillow Competition or whatever? Hisoka is basically a connoisseur at all things soft and comfortable because he chose Izumi's lap as the most comfortable. He said it was so soft (god I wish I were him) that he could fall asleep and he did!!! Absolutely amazing. With his picky sleeping choices, Hisoka is able to tell whether this or that mattress prototype is good to go or needs some working on. The benefits to this job is that he gets to sleep a lot too because of course, they need to see if the mattress is good enough to sleep on!! Of course he gets paid in money, but since his managers know that he loves marshmallows, they pay him in that too.

Does Homare really need a part-time job? He's basically a renowned writer, it's just that Mankai seems ignorant to the fact. Tsuzuru and Muku has found a whole bunch of his books in the library for goodness sake so of course he's making mad bank! In HaGT he had a business meeting with a publisher/editor so you can't really tell me that he isn't good at his job because if he's having international meetings?? UHM. Of course he's famous literally what is he at Mankai for? The Found Family??? GOD OF COURSE you can stay Homare I love you so much. But seriously, he is super rich, and because he loves Mankai so much, he helps out and chips in to fill the Mankai funds so that they can stay afloat.

And here we have Azuma. I am not going to lie, but I am very protective over Azuma when it comes to his part-time job. Azuma was lonely for a huge chunk of life, unable to fill the void where his family used to sit in his heart. So he picked up skincare, and then he picked up cuddling/escort. His job in the past was full of false security and fake love that would never seal the cracks in his body, but when he found Mankai, something was different. He felt like he belonged somewhere. Especially after Nocturnality, it's obvious that Azuma has finally found his home. So I don't want him to go back to his cuddling/escort job;;; but if he wants to work again, I think being a skincare consultant would be really good! Since his skin is so flawless, many customers would flock to him for advice and the best products to use. His gentle voice and soothing caress as he rubs cream into his customer's skin is hypnotizing, and he shares his skincare routine with anyone who is willing to spend the time, effort, and money into making their skin look pretty like his.

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beneaththetangles · 3 years

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Reader’s Corner: Bofuri, The Catlords’ Manservant, and Chasing After Aoi Koshiba

Love Me, Love Me Not, Vol. 8

Love Me, Love Me Not is a simple story. The characters are basic, and though they have their struggles—as do all teenagers—theirs are not overly complicated. The obstacles they face are moderate, and growth feels attainable and realistic. I think that’s part of what makes this series special—it doesn’t overreach in any category. Io Sakisaka has settled into a comfortable, appealing tale where 95% of the focus is on the four major characters, and it plays out well for most of the volumes, this one included, as Christmas nears and Rio and Yuna start their relationship together, while Inui and Akari remain somehow both connected and distant. With the former couple now dating, the spotlight is on the latter, and Sakisaka lovingly and patiently develops their story with an authenticity that is marked by the best chapters in this series, while using a Christmas setting, the stress of arguing parents, and the expectations and dreams of impending adulthood to create both romance and nuance in the characters’ growth, particularly for Inui, who after eight volumes receives the fuller development he deserves and is a mystery no more—just in time, perhaps, to receive the love of a girl who’s become more mature and ready to give love than she even realizes. ~ Twwk

Love Me, Love Me Not is published by Viz.*

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense, Vol. 1

I loved the Bofuri anime that aired last year, so I was eager to try the light novel. It is…exactly what you’d expect if you’ve seen the series. Maple’s friend talked her into buying a new VRMMORPG, but then the friend gets grounded and Maple winds up starting the game on her own. Through a series of stupid and/or brilliant choices, she ends up creating an insanely OP character. Silliness and adventure ensue. In contrast to the many stories that put a dark spin on the concept of the VRMMORPG, Bofuri is a lighthearted romp through the game’s fantasy world. The light novel does explain a few things better than the anime does, but in return, you lose the visuals, which I tend to find especially beneficial for a highly comedic story like this one. Of course, the greatest flaw of this book is that it doesn’t include the unfathomably adorable flying turtle, Syrup. I can only hope Syrup shows up in volume two! If you’re only going to do one—either watch the anime or read the light novel—I’d recommend the anime. But since I loved the series, and the novel is giving me details I missed there, I think I’ll happily continue with the next volume. ~ JeskaiAngel

Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, so I’ll Max Out My Defense is published by Yen Press.*

I’m the Catlords’ Manservant, Vol. 1

Different than I expected in that it felt more like a slice-of-life but in a SCHOOL setting, volume one of I’m the Catlords’ Manservant was an interesting read! It follows the indigent Yukihara as he’s given room and board by shape-shifting cats in return for being their servant. With that setup, I also expected more shenanigans at the house, and while I felt a little disappointed in that regard, this is still a captivating starting volume. The mangaka does an excellent job of introducing readers to each of the cats and making their personalities shine (Susumu is by my favorite and would say Miyako would be a close second, while Akira has something fishy about him, especially given things that happen near the volume’s end). I was fairly surprised at how loving Yukihara is towards everyone given the circumstances, but I think that is probably why he is a hero you find yourself drawn to because despite NOT being happy about his circumstances—I felt bad for him more than once—he still wants everyone to be happy. I was unsure if I would want to continue this series, but I feel this is a good one to continue now that everyone has been introduced. The ending is a chilly cliffhanger that also had me glued to the page and wishing volume two was already available. ~ Laura A. Grace

I’m the Catlords’ Manservant, vol. 1, is published by Yen Press.*

The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya (Haruhi Suzumiya, Vol. 8)

Not all Haruhi Suzumiya novels are created equal—some are more meaningful, some are more complicated, some are funnier, and some are more plain, that last of which unfortunately applies to The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya. With a first half ensconced in a daily life / school club story, with the student council finally cracking down on the SOS Brigade and the group coming together to avoid losing the literary club classroom by putting together a publication, everything seems to come to a standstill, including, unfortunately, character growth and the story at large. There are some interesting bits here, though, including the unusual and perhaps troubling piece that Nagator writes and Kyon’s cute “love story,” but the better portion of the novel is the second-half investigation of a frightened dog caused by perhaps the next supernatural entity in the universe—a ghost. More “classic” in how it involves mystery and sci-fi, continuing to propel the franchise forward, it helps balance out the more soporific first half, though regardless, Haruhi fans will enjoy reading more about their favorite club from the narrative voice of Kyon, who brings life to even the more tepid stories in the franchise. ~ Twwk

The Indignation of Haruhi Suzumiya is published by Yen Press.*

And Yet, You Are So Sweet, Vol. 1

While I felt slightly frustrated in the beginning due to desiring a little more depth to Kisaragi (I also didn’t like how she kept calling herself ugly), I found that I really enjoyed volume one of And Yet, You Are So Sweet, which was, well, very sweet! I’m a huge fan of the trope where popular boy becomes friends with said unpopular girl and a romance begins to unfold. The manga introduces this in a unique way; I wouldn’t say I find reading the same trope boring (it’s my favorite for a reason), it felt creative and had me especially engaged in this volume. It probably didn’t help that Chigira is one of my favorite kind of male heroes: quiet, sort of “out of it,” athletic, and a kind person once you get to know him. I was bummed when the manga ended because it was fairly fast-paced and found myself getting caught up in these characters lives. It seems like there are quite a few after school activities, and I enjoyed them as settings for a variety of situations (especially the library!). I LOVED the ending, too, but that cliffhanger had me groaning. I’ll just have to wait to see what happens next, and am excited to read more! ~ Laura A. Grace

And Yet, You Are So Sweet, vol. 1, is published by Kodansha.*

Golden Japanesque: A Splendid Yokohama Romance, Vol. 1

An absolutely fantastic volume, I did indeed felt “swept away” in this unfolding Yokohama romance! Maria, a young woman who dislikes her appearance, is instantly a character my heart went out to. And while I don’t think the potential object of her romance, Rintarou, is a bully, I do think he’s a major tease. On top of his teasing, Maria’s mother is the WORST (The last time I reallyyyyy disliked a parent in a manga was Kazehaya’s father in Kimi ni Todoke)! She is harsh and cruel, using words that bring her daughter down and which don’t show any kind of love towards her. I strongly dislike her and am thankful that Rintarou (and Maria’s grandmother!) is there to spread some love into Maria’s heart. While I wouldn’t say I was expecting a “fluffy” read when I first started, I was fairly surprised at some of the topics that are presented, including prejudice (even within family), lack of self-confidence, loneliness, and a near-assault (Thankfully someone intervened on that last one!). I think as a result, these more consequential events made Golden Japanesque: A Splendid Yokohama Romance a very heart-stirring and relatable story and helped lead to a very strong first volume. I’m super eager to keep reading this series and hope there are wonderful things in store for Maria! ~ Laura A. Grace

Golden Japanesque: A Splendid Yokohama Romance is published by Yen Press.*

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, Vol. 1

The intrigue at the center of Chasing After Aoi Koshiba is why don’t the two main characters—the beautiful and popular Sahoko and the athletic, confident, titular Aoi, get together? The initial chapter shows Sahoko and others after several years have passed, establishing that she and Aoi have lost touch, before diving into their high school days when earlier, desperate to maintain a high level of popularity after being a “side character” during middle school, falls quick and hard for the latter, whom she admires for displaying the authenticity she lacks. Shown from Sahoko’s perspective, the early chapters of this yuri romance are at once funny and romantic, capturing well the awkwardness and energy of youth, and feature a protagonist whose inner monologue is quite captivating. Sahoko’s desperation for Instagram likes and passing comments about her beauty could become annoying, but instead she comes across as both self-aware and sweet, the type of character whom the audience is excited to see as she matures, while the archetype tomboy Aoi is fleshed out with surprising energy. The two are joined by an intriguing group of supporting characters, and all are drawn in a sharp and beautiful style—as pretty as any series I’ve seen. The artwork by FLY is stunning. And altogether, that leads to an exciting opening volume of what could be a special, special series. ~ Twwk

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba, is published by Kodansha.*

Your Lie in April, Vol. 11

I have finished my reread of Your Lie in April! The final volume hit me like an emotional truck. It deals with Kaori’s surgery, the aftermath, and the finale of Kosei’s amazing musical performance. I’ll mostly avoid spoilers for those who haven’t read it, but I’ll also note a few things. First, this manga is gorgeous and facilitated the wonderful journey as I reread it. Second, the emotions it evokes with the art, characters, and story are top notch. Third, the language used in the manga by the characters feels more like actual angsty teenagers than in the anime, which upped it a little bit, making it closer to a Dawson’s Creek level of pretentiousness. And finally, the concluding volume puts some lovely touches on characterization, with Kosei seeing Kaori’s flaws, but loving her anyway, and with this volume also showing all the people touched by both characters throughout the story (and their lives). This series isn’t perfect, but it is wonderful for exactly what it is—an emotional series following Kosei’s musical journey to work through his own grief. You are intended to feel these emotions as you read this series, and on that front, it succeeds brilliantly. Sorry…I think it just got dusty in here while I’m writing this conclusion… ~ MDMRN

Your Lie in April is published by Kodansha.

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Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

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severeblizzardlady · 4 years

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Isekai in the Time of QuarantinePart 4

Jin Bubiagawara/Twice

[Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]

Warnings for: Spoilers, Swearing, Jin

Dedicated to the people who’re sticking around for this. I do appreciate it, and I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves and having some fun now and then!

It took all of two days for Jin to warm up to you. It wasn’t quite the fastest bond you’d made (that honor went to your bestie from high school--5 minutes in homeroom), but it was quick enough that you were surprised. You’d imagined gaining his trust would take days on end, putting your energy behind every act of kindness you could think of that would keep him from wanting to kill you.

In reality, you let him sleep on the sofa, made him breakfast and dinner (he was on his own for lunch because of work), picked up some clothes for him, and allowed him to do whatever he wanted. As long as it wouldn’t end with you both getting arrested. (He wasn’t thrilled about that, but a line had to be drawn somewhere.) You’d been too tired after work each day to do anymore. You’d wanted to, but....

Just two whole days. And then you woke up on that third day and he was making breakfast for you in his Twice costume. Damn if that bodysuit didn’t accentuate everything. It was by far the best thing you’d ever woken up to.

Not that you weren’t concerned. You were. And you were still on edge. Because, yeah, you liked Jin. And Jin in his Twice costume had to mean that he trusted you at least a little. Maybe. But he was also a villain you’d (maybe) somehow dragged into your world. You hadn’t been able to find anything online about this sort of thing.

What were you supposed to do?

---

“I’m back.” You pushed open the door with your back, arms not quite as full of groceries if they might’ve been at any other time. Because you’d been kicked out of the store closest to you, you’d been forced to hunt down the next closest place. Which meant having to memorize the bus schedule. And walking. So much walking.

Jin was fiddling with something on the couch as you set the groceries on the table. You paused. He had his mask on as well as the coat you’d gotten him. (You’d been worried because you had to order it online, but it fit him surprisingly well--then again, he did know his body measurements.)

“Um, everything okay?” A knot settled in your stomach when he slowly stood up, his back still towards you. Was this it then? It’d been a week and a half now, and neither of you were any closer to a solution. He must’ve reached his limit.

There were a number of ways he could do it, end you. They all flashed through your head.

You’d already told your parents they didn’t need to come get you. Some quick, bullshit story about your “friend” Jin who you knew from school and had been working on his Master’s degree only for the university and his work study to close, leaving him without money or a place to stay. Wasn’t this awesome? Now you didn’t have to worry about anyone trying to break in.

No one would know, except maybe your damn landlady who kept hitting on Jin whenever he stepped outside. But, God, she’d be next wouldn’t she. He’d--

“J-Jin?”

He turned around. There was a lump under his jacket. His hands were cradled under it, as though he was holding his stomach. “I’m pregnant, and I think the baby’s coming.” He said simply.

You looked at him. Then you looked at his stomach, “What’s in your jacket?” When it squirmed suddenly, you jumped backward, “Jin, what is that?”

“I told you I’m pregnant!” He insisted, and then he opened his jacket further before moving his hands and the thing further up his chest. “And the baby’s coming!”

What the fuck. Were you dying tonight or what?

All you could do was watch as Jin moaned--definitely not imagining him moaning like that for any other reason, oh no, definitely not--and lifted his hands until a little pink nose appeared from the opening of his coat. And then a pair of white paws. And then a tiny black head with little pointed ears. Until you were staring at a little tuxedo kitten meowing at you from the confines of Jin’s coat.

“It’s a boy!” Jin cheered, “Let’s name him Dabi, honey.”

A second passed. Then another. Then--

“Hold on,” You started digging through your purse. “Don’t move. I need a picture of this.” You ended up taking several. (Jin was used to it by this point, you didn’t need to really ask anymore.) Once you were satisfied, you asked, “Did you steal that cat?”

“No way!” Jin made an X with both hands, causing the newly named Dabi to squeal and almost fall back into Jin’s coat before Jin caught him again. “I birthed him--you were there!” His left hand, the free one, started waving, and he huffed. “Not now, lefty. Daddy and I are talking about our darling new baby!”

If I’m “Daddy,” does that make him “Mommy”? Oh, awesome, now you were imagining him as a fifties housewife, pearls and all. You snorted, nearly choking on the laugh that threatened to escape. Although--nope, no, your brain needed to be clean for just one minute. “Can I hold our son then?”

You could feel the way he was beaming at you as he handed little Dabi over (hopefully the real Dabi would never find out). It made you grin as well as you cradled your “son.” Where Jin had found the cat, you weren’t quite sure, but it was friendly enough. As soon as you held him, the little dear climbed onto your shoulder, body vibrating as he purred against your ear. His fur was super soft too, like petting a cloud.

Oh well, you’d always wanted a pet around. “I can’t believe you got a cat and set everything up,” You smiled at Jin.

He blinked, “Set up?”

Um. “You know, the litter box and the food and--you didn’t get that stuff.”

Jin was silent, right hand still wrapped tightly around his left. You weren’t quite sure what he was thinking, but you had a pretty good idea (Jin always hated letting people down after all). Smiling, you handed Dabi back over. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll run out and grab what we’ll need.” Stepping towards the door, you hesitated. Then you turned back around and gave Jin’s arm a quick squeeze. It was the first time you’d brought yourself to touch him. To actually touch him beyond accidentally brushing against him. “I’ll be right back!”

---

By the second day, Jin had understood why he’d been brought to your world.

On the surface, you were normal. Just an average, goody-two-shoes, upstanding citizen. You woke up, worked yourself to the bone, and then you’d go for a walk or eat or read. In his world, Jin wouldn’t have spared you another glance.

“...wake up, get in line and be miserable and terrified like the rest of us!”

You weren’t happy. Not just because of the sickness that forced you to stay in your home a majority of the time. You weren’t happy because you were trying to force yourself to be normal.

He could hear it every time you talked to yourself. The way you sighed after a video meeting with your boss. You were trying to force yourself to fit the box your society had shoved you into. You wanted to be “normal.” You wanted to be accepted on their terms. Who else but Jin could understand that feeling of utter loneliness?

Really, you were just like him. No. If anything you envied him. He’d seen your social media after all.

There wasn’t much else for him to do while you worked besides smoke, watch TV, and wander around until you went looking for him (because you were concerned about him, weren’t you? Afraid he’d leave you alone again to suffer). You felt bad for him that second day. He could see it in the way you fiddled with your utensils, glancing at him before looking to the door or back into your room. Once you’d cleaned up to begin work, you’d gone to your room, only to come back with your laptop.

“I just put the password in, so you’ll be able to use it. If you want, I mean.” You’d said, moving from one foot to the other. (You were too cute, even cuter than Toga. Maybe? No, yeah, you were.)

He’d typed in his own name in the search engine, just to see what appeared. And there he was, just like you’d said. (You’d told him about the story, how the story focused on the green-haired kid Toga liked, the one who wanted to be just another shitty hero.)

There were pictures of him. His weight (Rude!), his height, his past, all of it was there for the world to see. He closed out of the page, not wanting to see any more.

It was disgusting, it was crushing, it was interesting, it was exciting. If he could see how the “story” went, he could tell the others. Help them succeed. Hero society would fall, and his friends could have the lives they always wanted.

And then he’d gone to type something. Couldn’t remember what. It didn’t matter though. Because something came up in the search bar, an account you’d frequented, he’d thought. The link ended with something along the lines of “My boy.”

So he’d clicked on it.

It was your profile. A picture of your window (the one in your room that looked like it had prison bars across it) was the account picture. And then...then there were pictures of him.

Gross, holy shit, what a creep, oh that’s a nice picture! They were from the manga, black and white renderings of himself smattered throughout your profile. He’d been so busy looking at them all--in disgust, fear, intrigue, confusion, wonder--that he hadn’t noticed the captions until he landed on one that sent a thrill through him.

He was on his knees in the picture, arms hanging limply at his sides, covered in blood and sweat. And there were more copies of him--the day he’d used Double on himself to fight the Meta Liberation Army. You’d written one sentence for the caption: “So proud of my boy right now.”

There was a buzzing in his head, his leg had started acting up--We’re not splitting, I’m here, you’re here, we’re all here now!--but he couldn’t stop scrolling back. Couldn’t stop himself from going back and rereading all of your captions.

“Twice is best boy; haters can fight me.”

“Look at him strike that Vogue pose while Skeptic looks like he’s constipated. Rock it, Jin, you funky magical girl!”

“God, he looks so proud of himself making that clone of Rappa. I can just imagine he was doing jazz hands. Someone get my baby a bouquet. He deserves them (and the world)!”

At that moment, he’d heard you talking to your boss in the other room on yet another conference call.Your confession came back to him: “I was going to bed...thinking about how lonely I was.”

You were too used to the toxicity of society that you couldn’t see it was trying to kill you from the inside out. Smothering the person you wanted to be. So he’d take care of it. Your feeling like an outsider, he’d get rid of it. And when you both found a way home finally, he’d bring you along. Away from the judgments of your parents and that creepy lady who kept hitting on him (Ew) and into the Paranormal Liberation Front (Yay!), where you’d finally be able to live as yourself.

Just like he swore he’d help Hawks, he’d make sure you were free. You’d be right there beside him and the others while the world of heroes got reduced to rubble.

#jin bubaigawara #twice bnha #jin bubaigawara x reader #twice bnha x reader #This is like twice as long as my usual chapter #where'd the cat come from?#I know and i'm not telling #jin honey that's not how this works

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crimsonblackrose · 4 years

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I’m officially reunited with about 90% of my things. It’s weird. Very very weird but I feel like there’s some stable ground beneath my feet. It just feels nice to not be living out of a suitcase that’s mostly business professional clothing and be reunited with comfy college t-shirts. I’ve gone through all of my stuff, mostly organized it, and set up a bookcase. As a lifelong bookworm and someone who went to college for writing, I have a lot of books. And I haven’t read all of those books. So I decided books I haven’t read or don’t remember reading will go on the bookcase. The rest will stay in their boxes.

My plan when I was expecting to come home pre-pandemic was to frequent the library but try and focus on the books I haven’t read yet that I own. I figured if there were things I desperately wanted to read that I couldn’t get at the library I’d get it for my e-reader or maybe at the store after getting a job. But then the pandemic happened and our library has only recently opened so e-reader and my TBR bookcase should get me through for a while. (Plus I can always grab something off of my aunt or uncle’s bookshelves if I need to branch out. They’ve already given me recommendations.)

The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri by Dante Alighieri. This book is too big to fit on the shelves so it’s chilling at the top with my Korean Count of Monte Cristo musical book. This is one of my Dad’s books that he gave me when he moved. I’m sure I missed more that are in a box in the basement. I organized but I have lot of books so I know I missed things.f

So buckle up here’s all the books on my bookcase in no particular order. Shelf #!.

The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula K. Le Guin is a staple author for fantasy and I thought for sure I’d read this but I wasn’t 100% sure so I grabbed it anyway.

Monsterkind by Taylor C. I kickstarted this a long time ago and it’s one of the things in my boxes that I didn’t realize I had because I’m pretty sure it arrived while I was in Korea. I’ve sadly missed the cut off for book two but am pretty excited to jump into this.

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel. I don’t know when or where I got it but looking at the tag line I can see why I found it intriguing “The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein” sounds fun.

And Another thing… Douglas Adams Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Part six of Three by Eoin Colfer. Fun fact when I was in elementary through high school I read everything Eoin Colfer I could get my hands on and I loved The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy and everything I’ve read by Douglas Adams so this was a no brainer. Though I haven’t read it because I guess I don’t know what it is.Aa sequel? A prequel? Something in between? No idea, it’ll be a fun adventure.

What You Don’t Know About Men by Michael Burke. This is one of those books where I’m just staring at it wondering where it came from and why I have it. It is signed and after deep diving my own Instagram it’s a book from college. But whether I met the author at an event, something I was volunteering for or at school is beyond me.

Gramarye City by Paul Revere Lester. This is another signed book, but I’m pretty sure it’s self published since there was nothing about it on Goodreads. Could be wrong. But this one I don’t know if it’s from high school writer’s club or what since it, like the last one references my own writing and cheers me on in the note with the signing.

Fiery Dark Secret by Emma Bown Meyer this one is also signed but doesn’t reference my own writing or any sort of cheering me on so who knows. I’m going to assume this is from a library event where the authors came and signed their books from when I was in high school.

Hush Girls by Emily Hansen. Another signed book. You could guess that I don’t read books I get signed but in this case this came out this year and it’s one of the few books I’ve recently purchased. Emily Hansen was one of my cohorts and I try my best to support my cohorts.

Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones, did I get this book because it was recommended reading in college or because it looks cool or was it gifted to me? No clue.

Zombies vs Unicorns. This is a collection of short stories about Zombies versus Unicorns. So each author picked a team and wrote a story to try and grab the reader to their side and some of my favorite authors are in this collection and it’s just super cool looking so I’m greatly looking forward to reading it.

Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris, oh this book hasn’t been read out of pure spite. My department in college had this thing where we had to go and attend “literary” events and then write about them as part of our grade. The problem being there were plenty of literary events for people over the age of 21. So many readings and events that our teachers recommended did not work for those of us under the age of 21 who weren’t allowed in the bars. For one of these my friend said that a famous author had an event at Borders (RIP) on the other end of the city from where we lived. So a small group of us went all the way out to that Borders realized we weren’t early enough to sit in on the discussion which was then sold out and our best and final bet was to get a number for the book signing. So we did that and got dinner nearby. My friends had books but I had nothing to get signed. This book was one of the few ones out and on sale so I bought it and then spent the many hours left waiting in that line reading manga.

Here’s the thing. Kudos to David Sedaris’s work ethic. He’s one of those authors who will stay until everyone in line goes through as long as the place is willing to stay open. Which is super cool. But for me, a college kid who was utterly exhausted and had never even heard of the author before, showed up at 3am after waiting in line for ages to learn Mr. Sedaris either requests a joke or gives you a joke when he meets you. I really really just wanted to get the book signed so I could go back to my dorm and sleep and then write up my journal entry for class. I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. And my humor isn’t really okay with cancer jokes at any time let alone 3am. So I haven’t read this book. It’s been on my shelves for ages, moved from dorm room to dorm room to boxes and forgotten. But it’s signed. And even though I’m still very bitter I’m willing to give it a shot. But I don’t have high hopes.

Listen to the Echos, The Ray Bradbury Interviews by Sam Weller, to continue with the books I’m bitter about and have been putting off reading. This book is also signed and the signing is the part that I’m a little bitter about. Again backstory time. So there’s two things you should know. One is that my school would host some pretty cool events from time to time with dinners and what not with authors or other people in the arts and one of my best college friends and her family went to this school fancy dinner at, I believe, the school’s President’s home and they very sweetly got me this book. What kills me on the inside is the signing.

Lauren!

A gift from the —– family!

Live Forever!

Sam Weller

Now you might be like well it is a gift, right? True. But the kicker. The painful kicker was that Sam Weller was my teacher. I was in his Ray Bradbury class at the time this was signed. I spent an entire semester learning about what made Ray Bradbury who he was and how his short stories and works created a ripple effect that gave us so many beloved movies, stories and idioms we have today. I loved that class. I planned to get this book myself and get it signed because I enjoyed it and the teacher so much. And this is the equivalent of getting “Have a great summer” in your yearbook. Now to be real, he probably didn’t put two and two together and at some point, I could’ve tried to get it re-signed but I didn’t. I should’ve, I wish I did. Because I remember laughing about it and taking the book to class but I chickened out. I think, in all honesty, it has to do with teachers who make huge impacts on you and then forgetting who you are when you’re not in class with them. My college departmental advisor just completely forgot who I was when I went to visit after graduating. I get it. I do, but it sure does sting.

Breverton’s Nautical Curiosities by Terry Breverton which is a delightful book about nautical things, another passion of mine from growing up. I’ve never sat down and read it but I’ve flipped through it many a time.

Feeding Hannibal a Connoisseur’s Cookbook by Janice Poon. I loved this TV show and I’m forever in awe of Janice Poon and how she made the food look appetizing but also vaguely human (gross, very gross) while also edible for the cast. I bought this in Korea at the Seoul Comic Con and brought it home.

Healing Herbal Teas: A Complete Guid to Making Delicious, Healthful Beverages by Brigitte Mars, A.H.G. I don’t know if you know this but I love tea. I’m warming up to coffee in the same way I am to booze, as long as I don’t taste it we’re good. But with tea I’m obsessed. This was a gift. I haven’t set about reading it but I am curious about it.

Onto shelf #2

East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I’m not sure if other majors have this but my department while I was there was pretty obsessed with this book. Not teacher’s necessarily but my cohorts talked about it a lot and said they loved it or talked about how it shaped them. So I bought it. Don’t know why since one of the go-to books that drew a lot of students to our school and department because the teacher worked there creeped me out but hey, willing to give this massive book a try.

The Revenge of the Shadow King by Derek Benz and J.S. Lewis. This is a book that’s been on my shelf a long time. Probably since around when it came out in 2005 that I just kept putting off reading even though I knew I wanted to read it. I’m a sucker for fantasy novels with fey or even a twisty dark vibe to them.

Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev. I’m going to be honest, bought this book because of the cover. It was a pretty art style with faeries of some kind.

The Magicina of Hoad by Margaret Mahy, for a paperback this book is super shiny. Not sure if that’s why I got it or because anything genre tended to grab my attention in high school.

Timeline by Michael Crichton. In my first year of college, my group of friends and I had a secret Santa and the person who had me didn’t have a clue what to get me except books. So he decided to do one of my favorite things ever which was to get me some books that were his favorites. This is one of them that I hadn’t gotten around to reading yet.

Procession of the Dead by Darren Shan. I’ve been saving this one. I spent most of high school and college devouring any nightmarish adventure Darren Shan concocted. The Thin Executioner is still one of my favorites despite being so ghastly. This one though I remember spotting at the store and going “how dare no one tell me he’d come out with a new book?” And grabbing it. However after living overseas so long I’m sure I’m behind on a lot of books and authors I used to keep up to date on before.

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel: The Sorceress, The Necromancer and the Magician by Michael Scott. You may remember I’ve read the first in this series and did not enjoy it. But I heard from some other readers that the series gets better and since I have these three books as hard backs which aren’t cheap I’m determined to read them and give them a shot before…probably donating them.

Lost in Space by Ben Tanser. My college hosted a literary event every year while I was there called Story Week. They invited authors and publishers and agents to celebrate books and share what they knew and it was free. As a person who volunteered for it several times it means I’m not sure if I bought all the books I own or if I just got some of the books and this is one of them. I know the publisher was big with our school, our teachers and faculty loved Curbside Splendor, but again I don’t know. This isn’t signed so I think it’s a case of I got it to better understand the publisher and then didn’t get around to reading it because I had big paper’s due like every other day and required reading as well as job and club responsibilities. How I got any fun reading done is beyond me.

The Old Neighborhood by Bill Hillmann is one that I’m kind of embarrassed I didn’t read before now. It’s signed and the author came to class to talk to us about his work because he was good friends with our teacher. He seemed pretty cool and still does. He usually does the Running of the Bulls in Spain and actually got pretty injured one year and made international news.

Where’d you go, Bernadette by Maria Semple. I got this book for free as part of “World Book Night U.S. April 23, 2014” which is pretty cool but I did not read it when I think I was supposed to. Nearly over 6 years late on that one. Sorry World Book Night.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I don’t know about this one. Did I get it because movies were being adapted of Ayn Rand’s work? Did I get it because people were talking about it? Did I get it just out of curiosity because her work is so polarising and pretty much as hated as Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey were within my cohort? Was it on a list of books to read? Not a clue. I’ve read Atlas Shrugged since and looking at the size of this book it’s going to be a long journey of tiny print.

The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett. My local public library when I was growing up would participate in a book event where they’d pick a book and then everyone could sign up for that book and they’d host events related to it. Like a big massive book club. Chicago did it too with Neverwhere and many others. I signed up, got the book and then…didn’t read it.

The Princess and the Pirates: The Timelight Stone by Mio Chizuru. This book is a library book. A high school library book that they stamped with rejected and removed all the stuff on it. I assume I got this from a book sale of our library getting rid of books or the librarian just told me she was getting rid of books and since I was working there during my free periods repairing books. The bonus I guess of being a constant presence. It looks like manga but it’s actually a novel, so it’ll be interesting.

Emerald Death by Bill Craig I’m not 100% certain but I’m pretty sure this was from my childhood public library again. It’s signed and I think it was from one of the author events.

The Best of Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet this is like Lost in Space. I bought this so I could better understand the publication because my genre teachers were full of praise for Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and honestly loved the style. But got too busy to read it. I’m sure I have another collection or two for a different publisher in my boxes somewhere but that can wait. I’ve never really been one to read anthologies or collections of short stories so these types of books usually fall a bit on my TBR list. But I should read them.

Push and The Kid by Sapphire. Both of these are signed and were from a literary event while I was in college through the Harold Washington Library. I think I attended an interview at the library where she discussed her work. From what I remember I know these books aren’t going to be the happiest so I am pretty sure that’s why I’ve set them aside.

The final shelf time.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. I borrowed this book in high school from my dad because we were supposed to read it in English and then…never did. I don’t know why. We probably we got too busy in the other books we were supposed to read that we also never finished. Like Julius Ceaser by Shakespeare that we just stopped reading after he died. So, thank you, Dad, for letting me keep it along with all the others.

The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles, this book is pretty beaten up but I always grab classics even if 70% of the time I hate them. This was probably for a class, quite possibly the most frustrating class I ever took, or I found it cheap somewhere.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo I picked this up in Paris. Pretty sure I read some copy of this in high school in French and I’ve seen the musical in Korean and the movie version as well as the old film of the musical my French teacher had…but we’ll see how I remember it as I go with the translated English.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo. I also got this in Paris. I’ve never read it but after learning about how it single handedly saved Notre Dame I feel like I have to.

Redwall: The Rogue Crew by Brian Jacques. This is the last book Brain Jacques wrote that was published posthumously. I loved Redwall so much and I’m pretty sure I’ve read almost every novel Brian Jacques wrote. When he died I was heartbroken and I got the book but just couldn’t bring myself to read it.

Artemis Fowl the Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer, I loved the Artemis Fowl series when I was younger and I really want to jump into this book which is book 7 in the series but I think I’m going to have to go back through my boxes and find the rest of them before reading book seven. It’s been waaaayyyy too long.

The Faeman Quest by Herbie Brennan is another series I absolutely adored when I was younger. Again it’s another where it’s been so long I’ll probably have to re-read the previous books in The Faerie Wars Chronicles to fully understand what’s going on here.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Up to this point I was fairly good at reading all of Neil Gaiman’s works. And attending any event he had in Chicago. This one I remember going to with a bunch of friends at the Music Box theater and then staying up late with them to get it signed. It was a fun event but I was saving it to read later since it’s a small book.

Silas Marner by George Eliot not sure where this one came from but I haven’t read it so here it is. I recognize the title though but don’t know why.

A Confusion of Princes by Garth Nix. I love books by Garth Nix he’s one of those authors in Zombies vs Unicorns but I haven’t gotten around to reading this one or even finishing the series of his I started and loved when I was younger. (I don’t like things to end)

Swords of Riverside by Ellen Kushner. This has harlequin romance vibes from the cover but also older fantasy/historical novel vibes. Don’t know where I got it or why but it’ll be interesting for sure. Very curious to see which it falls into or if just the long hair blown back by invisible wind on the male character was just for fun.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, middle school/high school me might not have jumped on the Uglies train whenever one else did but I apparently went ahead and got this book by the author. (Fun fact he’s also in Zombies vs Unicorns). I assume I grabbed it because of the familiar author name and the steampunk vibe of the cover.

Seven Sorcerers by Caro King has a spooky-looking cover with magic vibes, my go to when I was younger.

Changeling by Delia Sherman, when I tell you any sort of fantasy fey adventure or magic novel usually ended up on my shelf just because it fell into that category I’m not joking. This cover is kinda creepy and weird but I can see why I got it because of the title. Oh boy.

These are the books that I plan to read for the most part of the rest of this year. Mixing in e-books and maybe some old ones. There are more books on my bookcase but those are reference or books I’ve read but didn’t remember until I started making this list and realized I had. I also have several books that I didn’t realize were book 6 of a series where I haven’t read or own book one through five. So that’s going to require being set aside until I can check books out from the library. (I’m putting it off because I’m trying to figure out how to renew my library card that’s been inactive for over 5 years during a pandemic)

Anyway wish me luck.

What are some books you’ve had on your shelf for a long time and haven’t gotten rid of but also haven’t read yet?

TBR Bookcase tour I'm officially reunited with about 90% of my things. It's weird. Very very weird but I feel like there's some stable ground beneath my feet.

#adventuring bibliophile #books #tbr #to be read #long post

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feitclub · 4 years

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In The Cards

It all started with James Bond, the arbiter of worldliness and all things cool when I was just a kid stuck in suburbia. The movies were frequently shown on TV and I made it a point to watch them all over and over again. One of my early favorites was Live and Let Die: the theme song kicked ass, it was Roger Moore's first film so he would never look more handsome, and the movie was full of straight-up magic. The bad guys have a fortune teller on their side, and she can seemingly see everything James Bond will do, even from a great distance. The key to her abilities, aside from her being a virgin (which Bond *ahem* takes care of) was her use of tarot cards. Drawing randomly from this special deck of cards, she could literally see the past, the present, and the future.

I had never heard of tarot cards before but I knew I wanted them. I could not have been older than 12.

When I got my hands on a deck, likely from a book store at the mall, there was an instant level of disappointment. The tarot cards in the Live and Let Die had a very specific look to them, and I had presumed that was just how all tarot cards would look. The deck which I bought (received? I don't remember if my parents were in on this) looked different. All the cards were there, but the art I had expected was not. The biggest difference that stood out to me was the "Death" card: in Live and Let Die that card has a super badass drawing of Death-incarnate wearing a suit of armor while riding a Pale Horse as all manner of human beings knelt or simply fell before him. In my deck, Death looked like a cartoon skeleton without clothes or a horse as he literally reaped the grass with a scythe. I am not here to judge aesthetics, but if you see something in a movie and you end up buying something else, especially as a kid, that's not going to sit right.

(I have tried to use modern search engine tools to discover what kind of deck I had: it was easy to figure out that Live and Let Die used a kind of Rider-Waite-Smith deck, but I think I might have ended up with a variant on a Marseilles deck - exactly which variant, I could not say)

Artistically it was a let down but the appeal of the tarot cards only increased as I learned more about them. First, I discovered that the deck was huge with 78 different cards: the big-picture cards that were featured in the film with names like "The Lovers" and "The Fool" were part of the Major Arcana, but there was also a full set of Minor Arcana which resembled playing cards: four suits, lots of numbers, and several face cards. Secondly, every card had two different "readings," depending on which direction the card faced when drawn.

78 cards, all with two different meanings, meant memorization. As a kid, I was all about memorization. In elementary school my friend Sasha and I tried to memorize the Periodic Table and I think we made it to the lanthanides. When I discovered the joy of watching professional sports, I made a point of memorizing all the teams - by division - in all four major sports leagues. Then I started memorizing the championship winners (and the runners-up) of each major sports league for the last ten years...then the last 20. These tarot cards were going to be my new thing, I could feel it.

I started carrying the cards with me wherever I went. As a kid in school this was easy since I always had a backpack on so the size of the cards meant nothing. Sasha and I (we had watched Live and Let Die together, so this became a team obsession) each had our own deck and we both would take turns drawing cards and looking them up in the little booklet that came in the box. I can remember taking them with us on a school trip to Boston and when we weren't in awe of the historical sights (do I need to tell you we were both nerds?) we kept up our tarot studies while walking around town. On one occasion, just as we drew a card and the booklet said it meant "danger," a car honked its horn at us. We were walking in the middle of the street! Clearly, the magic was real.

The tiny booklet also included a recommended layout when "reading" the cards. The lady in the movie just turned them over one at a time and everything made sense to her, but instead these instructions had us laying out ten different cards in a pattern where each card has a different relationship to the reader. Today I can tell you this pattern is called a "celtic cross" and it is only one of many, many shapes and patterns that can be used, but preteen me did not have that information. I had clear directions: to read the cards I had to flip over ten of them and explain them all.

Before I knew it, before either of us were really ready to be doing anything like this, I remember both of us became tarot card readers at our synagogue for a Purim festival. At the time I didn't think anything was weird, but in hindsight I am impressed that no one raised an objection to kids bringing such a thing into the synagogue so we could be fortune tellers. I should say that we were members of a Reform Temple and I cannot recall ever hearing words like "blasphemy" or "occult" used by our rabbi or anyone else in authority; it stood in contrast to all those self-described Christians I would see on TV who were mad about evolution being taught in schools, talking animals existing as characters in children's books, or anything else we might read in a Chick Tract (which come to think of it, we also discovered around this time while riding Metro-North trains into New York City).

My tarot reading habit did not last; Sasha and I had a falling out of sorts and other things just became more important than these strange cards. My deck sat on a shelf in my room for years until I moved out of my childhood home. I cannot say for certain but it more than likely did not leave with me. But my curiosity surrounding the tarot would linger in my mind and resurface soon enough just as my next big obsession would come along and reveal itself to be tarot-adjacent: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

When I discovered JoJo via a fan-subtitled bootleg VHS in the late 1990s, I had no idea the six episodes of anime I just saw covered only one small part of an ongoing (to this day!) manga. The story, as presented on the tape, started in the middle of the action. A lot of it did not make sense, but I latched onto one element right away: every character had superpowers which were embodied - literally - in a spiritual version of themselves on screen and all these alter-egos had tarot-related names: Star Platinum. Hierophant Green. THE WORLD. There wasn't much connection between the card names and the powers they possessed, but it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. If I had still owned a deck I might have started imagining other powers for the other cards not shown on screen (not knowing that they were all represented in some fashion in the original manga).

Leap forward another - gosh, twenty years? - and my tarot fascination never really went away. When I see a Kickstarter or an Etsy page for a new take on tarot cards, I often take a peek at what ideas are on display. A lot of them are just...porn-y. Some are cute. But I'm old(er) now, I don't have the raw enthusiasm I did when I was in 7th grade and the prospect of magic playing cards just made perfect sense. I see daily horoscopes on Japanese TV which I recognize aren't "real," how could I scoff at one kind of fortune telling and then pick up a deck of tarot cards?

Except...who cares if it's "real." What does it matter if these cards are, ultimately, a random assortment of quality art? It's been three entire decades since I first saw them and I'm still deeply intrigued. Part of being old(er) is coming to terms with your own tastes and biases; I no longer need to apologize or feel shame for liking old pop songs or macho action movies and if I've always had a feeling that tarot cards are cool, that feeling is correct.

There's also the feeling that I know so little about tarot cards that I cannot possibly pass judgement on people who use them. I recently started testing a Body Positivity mobile app that uses tarot cards as a means to spark self-reflection and, well, body positivity. The tarot cards in the app are not "real," they're not even physical. They're just drawings on a screen. But the drawings are nice, and if flipping a virtual card over can have a real impact on my own mind, who's to say what flipping real cards over could do?

Even though I felt a need to write all this down, I'm not actually seeking permission here. I already made up my mind and bought a brand-new deck of tarot cards. It's here, next to me. I’ve opened them. I try to draw a few cards whenever I have a chance, but I don't know where this reignited interest will take me. Will I start memorizing them all, again? Will I have another car-honking-its-horn-at-me moment? Maybe I'll just enjoy them aesthetically (they are very nice-looking if I may say so). I don't know what will come next any more than these cards do, but I know I like having them here and I want to know more. At the very least, tarot cards have already taught me an important lesson: I know better than to try and read them while walking in the middle of the road.

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#writing #tarot cards #1980s #jojo's bizarre adventure #memories

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ichika27 · 4 years

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Winter 2020: Episode 1

I decided to check out some anime that came out for this season. I’m still not sure if I’ll be watching their entire series so I’m not gonna do the post reacts like I do with ‘Mairimashita! Iruma-kun’ so either I’ll do this kind of thing every week after seeing the episodes of each or would just post an individual overall reaction about each series after they finish or if I ever decide to drop them. I’ll be trying that ‘3 episode’ rule thing everyone does to make it easier for me.

First of all, Madoka Magica: Magia Record.

A ‘Madoka Magica’ spin-off based on the mobile game with brand new characters but the original cast would show up later on, too. The first episode is fun and interesting already with the mystery surrounding the main character’s wish she’d forgotten about and the girl appearing in everyone’s dreams. The feel of the first episode is kind of different from how I felt while watching the original series and not in a bad way. I think I would follow the entire series just because I loved ‘Madoka Magica’.

Next is Bofuri: I Don’t Wanna Get Hurt So I’ll Max Out My Defense.

About a girl named Kaede who isn’t really a gamer but was convinced by a friend to play her first VRMMO. Since she doesn’t like pain, she decided her first weapon would be a shield and that she’d put all of her starting stat points (and every point she’d earn from there on) into increasing her defenses. It proved to be a good idea when she gets achievements that make her stronger. It’s another ‘MC is OP’ but this isn’t isekai and the main character is female which is nice. Not sure if this will have a harem since male versions of this type of stories end up that way.

That said, despite the things I feel about how OP characters in stories like these are created, at least there’s a reason for how it happens to Kaede with many of the achievements being reachable by any player if they’ve played long enough and have good weapons and experience and it’s just Kaede’s defense is strong enough to help her reach those faster.

The Case Files of Jeweler Richard

Nice guy Seiji saves a guy named Richard one night and find out the latter is a jeweler. He asks Richard to appraise his grandma’s ring and this unravels the mystery behind it and Seiji’s grandma. Richard ends up hiring Seiji to work for him and his Jewelry Store.

I like the characters, the art style is good, and there’s hints of bromance that makes me wanna ship the main characters BUT I tried out this show because of the ‘Case Files’ part of the title. To me, if a detective/mystery show isn’t as fun or as good as ‘Detective Conan’ then I’d probably get bored of it and drop it. I can’t really say much about the first episode so I’ll see the next one to find out if this is worth watching to the end.

Socerous Stabber Orphen (2020)

I didn’t see this coming but an anime I watched when I was younger got a remake. The story was enjoyable so I had planned to check this out since I saw the trailer. It’s about a mage named Orphen whose trying to get his friend Azalie to turn back from being a dragon after she got herself cursed. The art is kinda similar to current anime which makes me miss the old art style (he looked better in the old one but everyone else feel like they got cuter). I also really, really miss the OP of the old one ‘Ai, Just on my Love’ as it felt like it fits the magic/badass feeling of the story.

Anyways, the first episode is way different from the old one (sorry if I’m doing comparisons) but here, Orphen meets his companions differently and Majic isn’t even his apprentice yet. The way he meets Claiomh is also different that it didn’t start out with a misunderstanding although this time. This also shows us Orphen’s backstory from the start unlike in the original series where it’s kind of like a spoiler. This first episode isn’t as interesting as the older one but hopefully, it gets there later on.

Toilet Bound Hanako-kun

Kept seeing this guy when playing mudae on Discord and I thought he looked cute and the title of the manga he came from is interesting and looked it up only to find out it’s getting an anime lol. I was planning on seeing this one, too and the first episode was cute and fun to watch! It certainly feels the same way it felt when I watched Iruma-kun. I’m also intrigued by ‘Seven Mystery’ stuff as it’s been a small plot/arc in some stories but this one is gonna have it as it’s actual story.

In this, a girl named Nene hears about the school’s 7th mystery and sought it out as it’s rumored to grant wishes. She meets the ghost ‘Hanako’ who, after several events gets bound to her to help her out of a curse in exchange for her being his helper. It’s really cute and I already ship them XD

Hatena Illusion

Kana comes from a family of famous magicians and secretly, of thieves. She’s very excited to see her childhood friend Makoto again as the latter would be living with them only for her excitement to be shattered once she realizes she has been mistaken all these years as Makoto isn’t a girl but a boy. Makoto on the other hand is happy to see Kana again whom he nicknamed ‘Hatena’ (but is surprised that she now dislikes him) and will also be an apprentice to Kana’s father which is something he’s always wanted.

This is like, romance with a magical girl transformation in it and all that. I think the art is cute and it seems like fun but Kana is uh... kinda annoying? I mean, she’s the one who misunderstood everything and it’s not like Makoto lied to her but she proceeds to insult him, nearly had him kicked out of the house when he had just arrived (she was thankfully persuaded not to), and is just mean to him and in the end wanted to steal something from him that was from her mom saying ‘She wants to help her mother’ and stuff when she’s just being petty. I’ll give this 3 episodes and if I still don’t feel it, I’ll drop this.

Lastly, A Destructive God Sits Next to Me.

Koyuki just wants a peaceful life but unfortunately for him, he’s classmates with chuunibyou Hanadori who wouldn’t stop bothering him as Hanadori thinks that Koyuki is also ‘reincarnated’ like he is. Determined to not let Hanadori’s antics ruin his life and his education, Koyuki strives to ignore the weirdness happening around him but he still ends up reacting and usually getting mad at the chuunibyou.

I wanted to watch this when I heard of it months ago - cute guys that look like I can ship them and the story seemed fun. Also, I needed something after the ending of ‘Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy’ (still waiting for that ova...) and this seems perfect. Although this reminds me more of ‘Tonari no Seki-kun’ with the whole ‘MC tries to concentrate on studying but can’t ignore their classmate with the strange hobbies’.

The first episode is really funny for me so that’s good. It’s also got that secondhand embarrassment cringe comedy but surprisingly, it’s for the main character and not the chuunibyou (I feel so sorry for Koyuki). Unlike in Chuubyou, the other characters in this show either thinks Hanadori is annoying or weird. To be honest, as much as I’d like not to feel this way, Hanadori is kind of annoying. Hopefully either he gets better or he just ends up growing on me before episode 3 finishes or I may drop this. I mean, no matter how funny it is, annoying characters still kinda get to me.

Like I said, I have a lot on my plate now compared to the mere 3 last season and I’m still watching Iruma-kun as it’s still ongoing. Will I watch these all until the end or will I be dropping some? We’ll find out...

#anime #winter 2020 #magia record #bofuri #case files of jeweler richard #jibaku shounen hanako kun #hatena illusion #sorcerous stabber orphen #a destructive god sits next to me #sana_post

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appleflavoredkitkats · 4 years

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sweeney todd manila review

okay, just a heads up, i don’t know much about sweeney todd outside of this production and of what little bits i’ve heard of the other productions, so this won’t be the most professional review. i watched the show on the twentieth of october and i believe the whole cast was there.

btw, this is gonna be really messy bc i still have lots of stuff to do so i’m speed typing this review out KDDLJF.

(hello, @thegirlisuedtobe, this is for you! sorry if this is very late, i was really busy!)

- the set is phenomenal. before the show started, there was the sound of rain while smoke scattered across the stage. it really gave off a very eerie vibe to the show, even if it hasn’t started, and i give huge props to the set designers for setting the tone of the musical!

- here’s what amazed me the most about the set-- FLOATING CARS. there were cars hanging up on strings and just... wow. absolutely breathtaking. there was also an upperstage that was build particularly for this musical which was also well done as well. on stage left, there was this platform in particular that intrigued me because it was slanted and only had a railing that could possibly reach below your thigh. it was risky, i might say, and because of that, huge appreciation to the cast because they were able to maneuver themselves on that platform without slipping or injuring themselves.

- another interesting prop which i’m sure many of you have seen in promos was the red car that both mrs lovett and sweeney todd used. in my opinion, at first glance, the car looked cool, but there were some pros and cons.

- pros of the car: the car gave some kind of edginess to the musical. the main characters rode the car into the stage as their introduction and it really left a good impact! additionally, i loved the way how they moved the car around. all transitions were so smooth and commendable and i praise the designer who thought of all of these up.

- cons of the car: it was awkward when the setting was at the bakery of mrs lovett. the car represented the second floor of the building and the chair of sweeney’s barbershop merely rested on top of the car. it was... kinda confusing at first, especially when it is really up to the audience on how they want to interpret the murders that occurred on the car (more on that later). additionally, the car served as a weird divider to the shop, the bakehouse, and the barbershop, and honestly, they should’ve placed the barbershop on the upperstage instead of on top of the car. (gurl, when i say i was confused, i say i was confused.)

- the keep your cellphone message was really funny to me but... kinda long? like it was so unnecessarily long that i was confused whether the show started or not. i also thought they were checking the set since there was many props littered around. but when they eventually get to the point of things, it was really, really funny, so i commend them for adding this small comedic scene just for audience members to stop taking photos.

- the singing of the cast was phenomenal! these people are just... so great, and it was definitely the highlight of the show.

- now... here’s where i get a little bit iffy-- the costumes. i don’t really know what to say because the costumes seem... laughable. but not in a good way. it seems like they wanted to modernize the costumes which is understandable but at some cases, it kinda fails?

- pros of costume: mrs lovett and pirelli really have the costumes which i loved. lea salonga did not look like herself but my god, did her costume stand out from the rest. and pirelli, on the other hand, had a cape that wooshed around a lot alongside a skirt, and boio, did nyoy volante nail this costume well. the modernizing costume thing didn’t really work with the others besides these two. other modernized costumes that look passable were tobias’ costume and some of the ensemble. (also, jonas fogg wore a denim jacket with a junji ito screencap on the back of it? uh, okay, i love junji ito but why is his manga featured here...)

- cons of costume: oh boy. sweeney todd’s costume was... eh. jeans, really? out of everything they could’ve given to sweeney fucking todd, they gave him a polo under a denim jacket under a blazer and jeans? then there’s the mess that is johanna’s costume design. girl, the designer probably went to an sm sale and decided to just shove anything they found in the department store into their cart. johanna’s dress was. eh. her wig? eh. the costumes didn’t snatch my wig but i’ll let them snatch my wig just so that they can replace whatever the heck johanna has on her head. additionally, not all costumes were modernized... which is like... what? the ensemble who had victorian era-esque costumes looked fine! they even could’ve given sweeney todd one of their costumes because it looked much better than the denim outfit they gave sweeney. it’s just quite... odd to see a mix of modernized costumes and oldstyle costumes mix all together because they lowkey clash with one another.

- okay, let’s move on to the actors themselves. let’s start of with lea salonga-- oh my god, she is a legend. she easily adapted into being mrs lovett and that is so commendable especially when she isn’t used to playing an insane role like that. her mrs lovett had consistent, chaotic energy which i admired and she really was the one to eye whenever you see her in a scene.

- jett pangan was great but he isn’t as consistent as lea when he portrayed his character. sweeney todd was insane, he is angery, he is chaotic but jett pangan portrayed him as stoic and silent in some parts. i really enjoyed his more insane side during little priest but i wished he kept it throughout the whole performance. what i did like about him is his voice is just so, so great. his vibratos were so good y’all, his singing in general makes up for everything. additionally, when sweeney gets emotional, he did a really good job portraying a sadder and more depressed kind of sweeney, almost like he was having some existential crisis on stage. (he really looked like he was regretting life choices during by the sea and the ending, it was actually kind of amusing).

- now, luigi quesada, an underrated actor from this production. god... he was just so consistent and energetic and an absolutely great actor. he really portrayed a pure soft boi through tobias and when he started to become insane, he portrayed that shift of character so fucking well. the shift of character was my absolute favorite thing because, in my opinion, it is the scariest thing that’s happened in sweeney todd. tobias was a pure, innocent child who wanted nothing more but to have a smol job and serve others nicely and then, bam, when he saw the corpses, something snapped in his head and it was so horrific to witness his change. additionally, luigi had such a cheerful singing voice which embodied the character well and accustomed to both the innocent and insane side of tobias.

- nyoy volante was another great treasure in this. he wasn’t as seen since his character died midway through but his stage presence is so great. he was so flamboyant while also being very comedic, using his costume to emphasize the comedy. also, he didn’t die immediately when he got attacked by sweeney, and he did portray the struggling pirelli so, so well.

- gerald santos was... okay. he has a great singing voice, they all do, so i tend to judge how good they are based from their acting. gerald was really good at portraying a panicky anthony who was desperate for johanna. his character was really consistent and i like that! my main issue with gerald is at some times, his diction isn’t too great. i know that some filipinos (even me) would struggle pronouncing words in english, but if you’re an actor who’s worked on many musicals in english, i expect a lot from you. i think he had a really thick filipino/tagalog accent and mixed with a really mediocre british accent, it wasn’t too... understandable. i couldn’t understand most of his dialogue and because he can’t do accents well, his acting becomes affected.

- mikkie volante’s voice is so fucking beautiful, how do you even sing that high and make it look easy? anyways, she portrayed a very frightful johanna very well, and i can’t believe how much the costume and wig really affects my perception of the character. it’s just... i can’t take her seriously if she looks... like that. okay, enough about the costumes-- her johanna felt scared and i felt that, but when she fell in love with anthony, she was desperate, and i fuckin loved it. being isolated for your entire life will leave you desperate for affection and mikkie fucking nailed it!

- andrew fernando was so-so as the judge. he wasn’t... creepy, or disturbing. his character is disgusting and so close-minded but i never felt any eerie vibes from him. i also think the costume he had was restricting him from doing anything because he had layers upon layers of clothing and when he began whipping himself, he looked like he struggled a lot to sing and do the actions (the costumes for this production is just so off in general it’s a bit offensive). there wasn’t much stage presence from him and i just wanted him to act a bit filthier.

- arman ferrer as the beadle was a trip. he portrays the character as so dumb and i loved it, it’s just the idiotic energy really cracks me up. additionally, his singing, oh my word, his singing is so good. he hits high notes like it was no problem and it was jawdropping. there was not much to say besides his fuckin costume was whack why did he wear that-- but overall, he was pretty solid!

- ima castro was good! she portrayed a crazy beggar woman which was so chaotic and funny and just fucking bonkers and i loved the energy she had! the only thing i note is that, at times, her voice would stop and i’m not sure if it was intentional or not? even if it wasn’t, it actually added to her character rather than brought her down.

- ensemble was... phenomenal. ignoring the costumes for the hundredth time, i love the ensemble so much because they don’t get enough credit yet they nail it every time they get into a production. their acting during the asylum scene? iconic. their accents? iconic. everything was so iconic.

- now, imma just say a few points in the show that i remembered which is worthy enough to tell yall of.

- here i’ll explain how the murders work. it’s kinda... weird. the execution was inconsistent and i remembered three ways on how they were able to kill and cook their victims. firstly, the murder with pirelli is the only one of its kind. sweeney sliced his throat and threw him into the driver’s seat of the car which was confusing considering how the other murders took place. the second kind of murder and the more common one is when sweeney sliced someone’s throat, the victim would walk off the car and walk into mrs lovett’s oven by themselves. i’m assuming that with pirelli, they didn’t bake him yet so they just hid him in some kind of box or crate somewhere. the third kind applied to the judge and the beggar woman wherein when they killed them, it was implied that they were brought to the bakehouse and not burnt.

- here’s my interpretation of how the murders go. in the original, the bakehouse was the basement, but here, i assume since they claim it’s a “bakehouse”, there’s a secret compartment in the barbershop that brings dead bodies directly into the oven. i’m guessing that with judge turpin and the beggar woman, the oven was not on so they were just... brought there? it’s really, really confusing and i wished they cleared it up so i won’t keep wondering about what is where and how things work. i do think that the victims walking into the oven is really genius because it was a perfect mix of comedy and eeriness which i really commend.

- i liked the way they portrayed the streets in this. they used the upper stage and it really clears up where each scenery is set! it isn’t like the bakery and barbershop wherein the set is confusing, it was much better than that. when mrs lovett and sweeney walked up to pirelli’s barbershop, the scenery was so interesting because they walk from above and look down at them. i really, really liked it.

- additionally, the sprays tobias advertised were cleaning sprays found in ace hardware store, that’s funny. also, the only time their haggard wigs would be effective is when tobias used it and nothing else. (i’ve seen better wigs in beautiful, where did those wigs go?)

- the way they portrayed johanna’s place was so, so good. johanna’s room would be atop the upper stage and, ugh, it’s just so well put-together. this whole set was the work of god and no one can convince me otherwise.

- the lighting was great but the sound design was a bit off for me. the electrocution noises were smart to use but i thought it was a bit too loud? like it was really off-putting. i wished they added gross sloshing noises when they were handling the body parts just to add give a better effect when mrs lovett was holding actual intestines and organs.

- the opening of act 2 was hilarious and one of the more intriguing parts of this musical. pangan��s voice? spectacular. lea’s look of distress whilst serving pies? hilarious. the ensemble? god’s gift to mankind. it was so comedic because sweeney is calmly singing about johanna whilst he slices throats and the victims, in a daze, just walk into an oven while mrs lovett’s expression just screams, “yea, that’s life.”

- i can’t believe. they used handkerchiefs to express what a wig is during the asylum scene. like............ really. where are the leftover wigs from beautiful???

- also, it was weird to me that johanna was the one who shot jonas fogg. it was kinda badass of her and perhaps portrayed her character to become more brave but i still kinda thought it was ooc? (ALSO DEAN ROSEN IS GREAT I LOVE HIM HE POSTS CAT STUFF ON IG AND THATS ALL HE DOES)

- okay someone clarify with me because i initially thought tobias escaped the bakehouse, hence why they went looking for him, but they said it was locked from the outside and i’m left confused why they left in the first place...?

- btw whenever lea speaks, i become more of a lesbian, thanks lea salonga.

- when the plot twist was revealed and mrs lovett and sweeney were slow dancing, that was a theatrical experience. god, just... mrs lovett with the most fearful look in her face as sweeney slowly moves her into the oven is so iconic and that has to be one of the more chilling scenes in the musical. then, once sweeney kills her off, she holds the beggar lady close to him and he looks absolutely mournful.

- AND THEN TOBIAS FUCKING COMES BACK AND GIVES THE BIGGEST CHILLS EVER. will i ever stop talking about how good tobias was written/how good luigi quesada is? probably not.

- anyways, tldr; sweeney todd was beyond average but wasn’t perfect, the costumes were. eh. the singing was perfect, the SET was amazing, lea salonga, nyoy volante, and luigi quesada own my heart, and philippine theatre really needs better wig suppliers, someone please donate your wigs to them.

#sweeney todd #sweeney todd manila #i know i will get backlash but whatevs #mrs lovett #lea salonga #jett pangan

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stories-by-rie · 4 years

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37 Apollo and Hades

Lucas tried as silently as possible to rip out the new paper from his exercise book. Still, some heads turned around to the boy who was cause of the only noise in the classroom. He looked at some of them, shrugging his shoulders and grinning foolishly. They actually were supposed to read in their textbooks, something about poetry. But Lucas knew all of them already. He loved poetry. As a conclusion, he was extremely bored. Instead he chose to do something productive, which was in his case sketching.

His notebooks were filled with flowers, music sheets, drawings, landscapes in summer and much more. But his favourite piece of art was Melas. Melas was another boy in his class. Without doubt, he was rather of the weirder kind. Maybe someone you wouldn’t ultimately notice. His black hair hung deep in his face, his skin pale, his eyes dark. He never talked much, he wasn’t really good at anything and his name was funny too. In other words: He seemed to be the exact opposite of Lucas.

Lucas had golden blonde hair, his skin was as if kissed by the sun. He was especially good in literature and arts, but since he considered the phenomena behind numbers an art too, he also was class best in maths and science. He was part of the school infirmary, of theatre class and sports. Not to mention, he was also in the student council and constantly surrounded by his friends of which he had plenty.

Both boys couldn’t have been more different from each other, what might have been the reason why they had never spoken to each other since they met in high school. The years passed and the less Lucas seemed to know about Melas, the more intriguing of a mystery he became to him. He loved painting his portrait, sketching his perfect features that no one else seemed to notice.

Usually he folded those papers carefully, put it deep into his school bag, so no one would see. But when the school bell rung, it hit him by surprise and he hastily put it back into the exercise book. If it had been fate or pure coincidence that day, he would never be able to tell. As he made his way through the corridor to his locker, he stumbled into no one less than Melas himself.

All their books and papers fell to the ground as they both muttered excuses. They tried to fetch their stuff again and it had to be Lucas’ sketch of Melas that fell into the latter’s hands. Completely dazzled he looked at the drawing. Lucas felt himself blushing, what could he possibly say to explain why he had drawn Melas without sounding like a complete lunatic? Melas’ head turned red too, which was way more obvious since he was so pale.

‘I - I can explain’, Lucas stuttered. But Melas just looked him cold dead in the eyes.

‘Why would you draw me ?’

‘Why - why would I draw you?’

Melas nodded.

‘Uh… Well… I think that you’re, uh… Beautiful.’

An embarrassing silence fell between them - the noise caused by all the other students in the hall miraculously disappeared.

‘Why would you even notice me. No one does. I am practically invisible.’

‘Not to me.’

Melas handed him the paper with his own portrait.

‘You’re weird’, he grumbled.

‘Well, you’re weird too’, Lucas replied and grinned again. But Melas didn’t move a muscle. Instead Lucas thought to see some kind of sadness in his eyes, some kind of hidden sentence he wasn’t able to understand. He felt himself getting goosebumps and a shiver ran down his spine. They were drastically kept from staring by the school bell, which announced the next lesson. Melas took his school bag and just left without saying another word.

And why would he? He seemed to be someone who was rather on his own. Who could Lucas possibly be to him?

Until then Lucas’ drawings of Melas had simply been a way to pass time. However, he couldn’t deny that ever since Melas had found out about them, he felt the urge to draw more of them. Of that startled look he had had on his face for a mere second, his sad eyes that made him feel like being ripped away of a river’s tide, all the way to the ocean. How could Melas not understand why Lucas noticed him? Why would he be so surprised by that? Of course they were different, but that didn’t make Melas any less extraordinary.

After school , Lucas went to the local bookstore. He went there every day, even if he wouldn’t actually buy something. Just smelling the air of paper, ink and carpet; feeling the hidden worlds, dreams and imaginations of all these authors. It was like a drug to him. Consequently, he knew every single one of the books the store offered very well. He walked to his favourite section and stroke with his finger above the spine of the same book. It was just a book like any other, but the cover was engraved and it looked beautiful on that bookshelf.

“NO!” Every head turned to the boy who was standing in front of a shelf and just disrupted the sacred silence of a bookstore. Instantly, Lucas felt how he started to blush again. It was Melas standing there, a pained look on his face, staring at the shelf in despair.

“What is it?”, Lucas asked and walked next to him.

“Volume one, volume two, volume three, volume four - volume six!”, he whispered with a shaking voice. Lucas followed his eyes and saw that he was talking about a manga series.

“You read Black Butler?”, he wondered more to himself than it was meant as an actual question, but it made Melas raised his head and with horror in his eyes he whispered: “I need volume five.”

Lucas jaw dropped open. Not being able to read the next volume of the series disturbed Melas more than him drawing his portrait during school? Suddenly he was sure that he got sick, but then he realised that it was only his heart pounding as if he had just won a marathon.

“I have it at home. I can lend it to you if you want.” What was he doing? He had no control over what he said anymore. At least his voice wasn’t breaking under the nervousness he felt inside of him so the already awkward situation wouldn’t get that much worse. Only because he never counted on Melas taking that offer though.

Quietly they walked to Lucas’ home. He tripped two times on the way there and he would have loved to cry just because he didn’t understand what was suddenly happening to him. All the while Melas seemed to feel completely comfortable, having his expressionless face on again. This had all escalated too quickly. Usually it was Lucas who was in control of situations. It just happened naturally. But this time he was too flustered to think ahead. He opened the door and smelled the dinner his mother must have been cooking.

“Oh! You have brought a friend!”, she greeted Melas as they walked into the kitchen to say hello.

“I’m so happy to get to know you! Lucas doesn’t bring friends home much”, she said and Lucas felt how he blushed even more.

“Melas is just here to borrow a book”, he mumbled and walked upstairs.

“Thank you, by the way. For… lending it to me”, Melas said as he followed him. Lucas just nodded.

There was a reason why he rarely invited friends over, of course. He was quite popular, but there was something none of them knew. Lucas was born with a destiny. He was given knowledge and a cause, a sense in life. It was the one thing most people desired, looked for, searched and never found, something that humans have given their life over. Lucas had it, and he didn’t want it. How incredibly peaceful the ordinary life looked to him. How simple. So free.

Lucas was created by no other than Apollo himself. The greek god of light, healing, spring, arts, purity, piety, and so much more. The older he got the more he wondered what Apollo wasn’t the god of. A sigh escaped his lips. Bow and arrow. He was also the god of the archers. Another sigh.

“Is everything fine with you? I didn’t mean to push. I am sorry if I am causing trouble”, Melas muttered behind him but Lucas quickly smiled at him.

“Don’t worry, I offered it. I am happy if I can help.” Melas actually smiled back at him. It was the first time he ever saw that smile. He nearly fell down the stairs.

Lucas’ room was filled with books of all kind. Though he didn’t have to look for the small manga, he found it right away. There was a sparkle in Melas’ eyes and it was this moment that he held it, the face of someone who just fell into another world and reality, that Lucas knew it.

He had fallen in love with him a long time ago, without realizing it. But now that he talked to Melas for the first time, he was sure of it.

“You know, I find it fascinating to think about our mortality. To think about death. It is the only thing that is certain in life. You know?”, Melas told him, not noticing Lucas’ revelation.

“I prefer not to think about it. Life has so much to offer.”

“What could life possibly have to offer?”

“Beauty. Light. Love.”

Melas seemed to think about it while staring at the manga’s cover.

“No. I don’t see that.”

“Why not? What could death possibly offer?”

“Peace. Silence. Freedom.”

“Freedom? How could death possibly offer me freedom?”

The sad look returned to Melas’ face, the river running in those dark green and brown eyes. He just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

“You wouldn’t understand. Nevermind.”

Lucas would have loved to talk to him more, but suddenly he was waving with the book already and before he could say anything else, Melas had already left.

Every time Melas heard the noise of a pen on paper out of Lucas’ direction, he wondered if he was painting him again. He was staring at the textbook in front of him. Why would Lucas draw him? Out of all the people in this class. There were nice guys who would have made a good model for drawing, a lot of beautiful girls too. And still he chose to draw him. Why? Silently he pulled out the Black Butler manga and started to read it during class. It was already volume six. It wasn’t really an art to finish the thin books in an hour. Not, that anyone would have noticed. He was invisible for most of them after all. He was just one of those people, who blended in. That no one actually cared for. If a confrontation was inevitable, they were scared of him. As if they were seeing a ghost. Could he blame them? Of course not. In a way they were right, after all.

Melas returned the manga to Lucas after the lesson.

“Thanks again, for lending it to me.”

“You’re welcome!”, Lucas replied and smiled broadly. He had such a warm smile. Melas loved seeing it. It was a little, as if the sun was shining and only when he smiled, he didn’t feel so cold.

“Do you need the next part?”, he asked and Melas didn’t know for a moment what to answer. Of course he didn’t. He nearly finished the sixth one already after all. Still, he said yes. Without being able to stop himself. Lucas smile just got bigger and he invited him over after school to get it. It was like bathing in sunshine. How deeply he missed that feeling. How much he loved it.

Ever since they had been in the same class from the first day of high school, Melas had noticed him. It was impossible not to. Never would he have thought that he could notice him too. He read the manga extra slowly now. Not that he would have actually been able to concentrate on it. Since he knew that Lucas was seeing him, he couldn’t stop wondering if he might not feel the same. Every day, he went home with him to get the next volume. He already dreaded the day that he would finish the series. What other excuse would he have then to meet with him?

At Lucas’ home he sat down on his bed. His mother had winked at him as he entered, apparently she was very excited that Lucas had invited a friend every day the second week in a row. Lucas’ room was full of the things he was good at. Art, notebooks, regular books - but all in all it was a plain room. The whole house seemed very ordinary. That Melas spotted the box, was caused by his gifted eyes. It looked like just any box, for a normal human’s eye. But he knew the expensive mahogany wood and the detailed engravings on it fell out of its surroundings. An heirloom, perhaps? No. He knew exactly what it was. If he was right, it contained the mark of a greek god, proof that he was the creation of that god, destined to carry out his beliefs.

“Here it is.” Lucas gave him the next volume he thought he needed.

Maybe Melas wouldn’t have thought about the little box, hidden so well in between the books on the shelf after that, if he didn’t own the exact same one himself. He looked Lucas in the eyes. He had beautiful eyes. Blue like the sky in a warm summer day. Looking in these eyes - Melas felt to be seen for the first time in his life. He knew very well, what cause this feeling. He had felt it from the very first day. He remembered the exact second. Deep down in his heart, he knew that he had fallen for Lucas the moment he had laid eyes on him. Would he also have done that, had he known back then?

“Lucas, what do you want to do after school?”

“M - me? After school? Well - I usually say that I want to become a cop.”

Melas looked at him. There was a hidden desire in his eyes, tied to something deeper, something sad.

“And in truth?” Lucas sighed. He stared right at Melas, without fear, but without the sun too.

“I want to write stories. To tell people through them, what I -. To show them how to live a better life. I know it is arrogant. To think I would be entitled to do so. Just forget it.”

“How do you think people could live a better life?”, Melas wanted to know, stood up and walked towards the bookshelf.

“Cherish it more. Use it to help people, to commit to the beautiful arts and fight for what they think is right. Worship the light.”

There was no doubt. Melas was sure of it. He didn’t know what to do. But then again, his mouth wouldn’t follow his mind’s orders anyway, when he was in Lucas’ presence.

“I have the same box, you know?”

“The same? I always was under the impression that it was a unicum.”

“Me too.”

For a moment, there was silence. Melas felt his eyes on his back. How badly he wished to turn around and look at him too. But he had to calm down his thoughts for a moment and think what was wise.

“What do you want to do, after school, Melas?”, Lucas asked, silently, as if he already knew the answer.

“I want to become a funeral director. An undertaker”, he answered and looked down at the manga in his hands.

“People do so many harmful things in this world. They do bad things. All because they fear death. Of course humans fear what they don’t know. But that is no reason to harm others. They have forgotten to respect death. If they knew better, maybe some evil in this world would… Perish.” Melas stood close enough to the box to see the little engravings. Suns, bow and arrows, scripts. No, there was no doubt at all. Lucas was sent here to carry out Apollo’s beliefs. To bring the light. Whereas he, Melas, was created to remind people of Hades’ beliefs. Didn’t that make them the exact opposites?

“So we want the same”, Lucas whispered, standing right behind him. Melas could feel his breath in his neck and he felt how his heart started to pound quicker. If he turned around now, he would be so close that he was able to touch him. And he did.

“How do you come to that conclusion?”, he asked, their faces just inches apart.

“We both have to help humans. Make the world a better place.”

“I didn’t see that option before.”

“I guess we have both been blind for some time.”

So Lucas knew too? Of course he did. He was intelligent enough to come to the same conclusion as Melas. It’s not like Melas had tried to hide his thoughts.

“But now we see”, Melas said.

“We could work together, you know? To reach our goal. Just because we have different ideas to achieve our task, doesn’t mean we are too different.”

Melas felt himself smile. Lucas was right. They could work together. And maybe, somewhen, Lucas would feel the same for him as he did.

“You remember what I said about freedom yesterday?”

“Yes.”

“You know, Lucas, when you look at me, that’s freedom too.”

Never had he seen Lucas smile warmer. It was like Lucas was his own sun. Just his. He was shining just for him, the one who was supposed to be forever in darkness, never to be seen.

“I always thought, having to carry out Hades’ beliefs was a burden. A curse I would have to live with for my whole life. But you have given me hope, Lucas. With you, I know that I can make it.”

He was too startled by the kiss at first to reply it. Lucas face had turned red like a tomato, but Melas was sure he looked the same.

“All the love I have, Melas, I know I feel it for you. You are all that is beautiful in the world to me. And you deserve to be free.”

“That rhymed. You’re a weirdo.”

“You’re a weirdo too.”

“I know”, he laughed. He was free. He was the darkness, Lucas was the light. From afar, the looked like the exact opposites. But in heart, they were the same.

~11.12.2018~

#writeblr #short story #3100 words #story by rie #rie's reposts #apollo and hades #37 #fantasy #also gay #writers on tumblr #this short story turns one year today!

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taehyungiestummy · 5 years

Text

Summer Dreams -- Chapter Twenty

Masterlist Previous Next

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3357

“You say that this store has an English section?” I speak up as we stop the bookstore just down the street.

“It does,” Namjoon answers. “It is probably the biggest one in the city, but that doesn’t mean it is huge.”

“You’ll be able to find something, I’m sure of it,” Emily grins. “It’s like your superpower. To find at least one book you want to read in every bookstore you enter.”

“Thanks for letting us come along,” Taehyung swings our clasped hands.

“Emily wasn’t ready to be alone, and I understand that,” Namjoon brushes his fingers against Emily’s hand. “A double date is a nice starting point.”

“Or you can be like Amber and just dive right in,” Emily chuckles as we enter the bookstore.

“Well, Tae asked, and I said yes,” I feel the brush creeping up my cheeks. “I feel comfortable around him, so it felt like a good next step.”

“And we hold hands,” Taehyung giggles, tugging me towards what must be the English section. “She’s still thinking over me calling her jagiya,” he whispers to me in Korean.

“I thought that last night I would blank on Korean,” I chuckle, keeping with the boy’s native language. “However, I know a lot more than I think.”

“Isn’t that how it always is?” Namjoon says. “When you go in to take a test, and you think you will forget everything you studied, and then you get a perfect score.”

“Amber doesn’t have to study,” Emily says. “She just remembers what the teacher said, and she writes so much down to help her remember. I’m a bit jealous of that skill.”

“I do study,” I focus in on the books on the shelves to see that we have made it to the English section. “Just not as much as everyone else because I am able to remember if I write it down along with listening.”

“Such a good student,” Taehyung presses a kiss above my temple.

“I just like learning,” I shrug. “Some topics intrigue me more than others.”

“Like what?” Namjoon questions.

“World War II I find fascinating, and conspiracies about different things. Social protest movements are also amazing to look into. When I know I’ll have a lot of free time, I make sure to get books about those topics to read. With a balance of fiction.”

“You sound like Namjoon,” Taehyung chuckles. “A cute book junkie.”

“I think I’m going to go find a few that look interesting to me,” Emily speaks up. “Meet up back here when we are ready?”

“I am going to go pick some books out for Amber,” Taehyung releases my hand.

In the blink of an eye, Emily and Taehyung have rushed off to explore the English section, leaving Namjoon and I alone in the manga section.

“So much for a double date,” I sigh, shoving my hands into my short’s pockets.

“I think Emily is scared to admit feelings for me, but I don’t understand why,” Namjoon pulls a book off the shelf.

“Different reason than me, that’s all I know. I’d ask, but she would just deny that she is pushing feelings away.”

“Has she talked about liking me?”

“A few times, but I can never pry for more information. She turns the conversation on me and my feelings for Taehyung.”

“Has she had bad relationships before?”

“Neither of us have ever been in a relationship, so her fear is unknown to me,” I pull a hand out of a pocket, running my fingers over the books. “I think that while a long-distance relationship wouldn’t strain on me too much. Sure, it would suck being away from Taehyung for months, but there are ways to keep in touch. Emily needs to have physical contact, and being away for months would hurt her more.”

“It seems the opposite from what I have seen you do,” Namjoon chuckles. “You love holding Tae’s hand, and he is always giving you kisses, and you love hugging each other. Are you sure you will be okay when you go home?”

“You saw right through that, huh?” I sigh, pulling a book off the shelf. “I just don’t want to admit that I am going to be like one of those girls who whines about her boyfriend she hasn’t been able to see for a day.”

“Taehyung is going to be the same way, so you can help each other through it.”

“I wish I could help you with Emily, though.”

“No worries,” he shrugs. “When she is ready to go to the next level in our relationship, I hope that she will let me know. Or let you know, and you can tell me.”

“For sure,” I nod, placing the book back and moving to look at a different section.

“You like manga?” Namjoon turns the conversation to a more lighthearted topic.

“Manga, comics, visual novels,” I turn Deadman in Wonderland over in my hands. “They are like a reward for doing schoolwork, or reading a novel. Helps my mind relax.”

“The combination of drawings and a story is satisfying. Do you own a lot of books?”

“My goal is to have a library in my house when I get older. Right now I have two bookshelves filled to the brim with books, and I have begun stacks next to them. Books are just one of the things that I collect.”

“We could give recommendations to each other. I’m not sure what kind of novel types you like to read, but I’m sure I could figure it out easily.”

“I’m really up to anything, just as long as it is relatively easy to understand,” I pick a few more volumes of Deadman Wonderland off the shelf, scanning for another series that grabs my eye. “I want to buy a good amount of books for next year. I didn’t bring any books besides the ones I had to read for school, and Nari bought a few for me based on my taste, and Emily and I have read all that are in the apartment. We even talked about them at length.”

“It’s hard when there aren’t many bookstores with a nice English section,” Namjoon hands me a manga volume to look over. “You could always order books to deliver to your cousin, and start transferring your library over here.”

“Why would I do that?” I grin, looking back at the boy.

“Well,” his cheeks have a light dusting of pink. “I just assume that since you mentioned next summer not too long ago, that you will be coming back here. Especially with your budding relationship with Taehyung. I know you two haven’t even decided if you are boyfriend and girlfriend yet, but if it becomes serious, he’s not moving out of the country.”

“I do love this place, and I hope that we can come back next summer, and the summer after that, and maybe never leave,” I hand the manga back to Namjoon. “If we send things over, start making this place feel even more like home, I don’t think it would be that terrible of an idea. Even if Tae and I don’t become serious for a while.”

“I think that you two will be a tiny bit serious before leaving. He’s like that. Once he has a feeling for something, whether a person or animal, it doesn’t take long before he is diving in.”

“So, because of how quickly he started liking me, and all the hanging out, and the date yesterday, that he’s a step away from going crazy with me?”

Namjoon chuckles, “That’s an interesting way of putting it, but yes, that boy is crazy about you already, and it is only going to grow the longer he is with you.”

I tenderly smile, pulling One Piece off the shelf to focus on something. “Thank you for telling me that, Namjoon. It helps with a decision that I am thinking over, and makes me like that boy a smidge more.”

“Hey guys,” Emily walks up with multiple novels in her arms. “I think I’m good for today. There’s a pretty good selection here with how little the section is, but if I keep looking, I am going to spend to much money. Oh, and I think you’ll like the books I picked out, Amber.”

“If you like it, than I bet that I will too,” I glance over at my best friend and notice that Taehyung is not with her. “Where’s Tae?”

“Oh, I think he’s still picking some books out for you. He kept asking me what you read, and showing me what he thought you would like. That boy must know about your dream to have a library in your future home, because he is going to make sure it is full.”

I giggle, “We did talk about that last night, but I didn’t think he would use that information so soon after.”

“He is so giving,” Namjoon sighs. “I’m sure that it is because he comes from little, and this is his way of showing those around him that he cares about them. He always sends money back to his family, and little gifts when he spots something good.”

“He did mention last night that he comes from a farming family,” I grab a few more series off the shelves that have caught my eyes. “They make the least money over here, don’t they?”

“Close to it, since not much of the land is being used for farming, and it is hard work,” Namjoon answers. “Taehyung’s parents and grandparents have worked hard to get where they are now, and even that isn’t amazing living. He doesn’t talk about it much.”

“So that you don’t treat him differently,” I nod a few times.

“Exactly,” Namjoon takes a deep breath.

“I think we might have to bring Nari here,” I steer the conversation in a happier direction.

“That would be a good idea,” Emily nods a few times. “Last shopping date with her, getting books for next summer. We need to keep a better stock since we ran out of books to read this time.”

“Hi,” Taehyung steps up with an armful of books. “I’m done.”

“Who are those for?” I look at Taehyung, barely smiling at the boy.

“I got a couple for me, and then most of them are for you,” he has switched the language over to Korean. That boxy smile taking over his face. “You might not have a library yet, but I want to make sure that I help fill it up. Why not start now?”

I giggle, “That is very sweet of you, Taehyungie. I can’t wait to see what you got me. I’m ready to check out as well,” I look over at Emily and Namjoon. “What about you two?”

“I think I said a few minutes ago that I am ready,” Emily answers. “However, Namjoon, only one book?”

Namjoon shrugs, turning the manga over in his hands, “I didn’t really leave this area, as I was talking to Amber, but I don’t have a lot of time to read. If I want a book, then I can just come back.”

“That’s not good,” Emily pouts. “How about we go look for a book together, and Amber and Taehyung can wait in the lounge area.”

“That sounds good to me,” I step closer to Taehyung.

“I’ll get one more book then,” Namjoon chuckles, linking arms with Emily. “Lead the way, Emily.”

“I have no idea where to go, but we’ll figure it out,” she widely smiles; a blush forming on her cheeks as the two walk away.

“I want to buy at least half of those books, Tae,” I look up into his eyes as he opens his mouth to protest, but I cut him off. “No objections. You paid for dinner last night, and I want to show that I care about you too.”

“You are cute,” Taehyung chuckles. “If it will make you happy to buy the books, I can’t say no.”

“Good,” I stand up straighter. “Now, let’s go check out, and then stay out of Emily and Namjoon’s way. She’s finally participating in her date, and I hope that it goes well.”

********

“Well, you two are stuck with me now, since those boys have left for the States,” Nari sips on her tee as she relaxes in her recliner.

“We love hanging out with you, so we aren’t stuck with you,” I switch out my blue colored pencil for green, coloring away in storybook that lets the reader color the pages. My legs are up on the couch to make it comfortable to color.

“If only you were home longer than a few hours every night to hang out with us,” Emily scrolls through Instagram on her phone, sitting on the opposite end of the couch from me. “All we do when together is cook, or watch shows, or learn more Korean.”

“We talk about your adventures that you have with the boys, or what you do when I’m not here,” Nari sets her mug down on the side table. “We pack a lot of crazy and fun into the few hours that I am with you before I go to sleep.”

“No more adventures with the boys now that they have left,” I pout.

“That doesn’t mean that the end of our trip won’t be amazing,” Emily sets her phone down next to her thigh. “I say that we spend tonight planning what we are going to do for your birthday, Amber.”

“Oh yes, I almost forgot that you would be spending your birthday over here,” Nari giggles. “I think that would be a good idea to at least get some ideas out there for what we could do on your birthday. Any thoughts already?”

“I just hope that the boys can come back for the day,” I take a deep breath, finding myself wanting to cry over the fact that I may not see those boys again this summer. I shake my head to get the thoughts out of my head. “If there is one thing that I truly want, it is a big chocolate cake.”

“I can make that happen,” Nari grins, typing the idea into her phone. “We made the one for Fourth of July, but I say we get this cake from a local bakery. I know one that makes such great desserts, and you girls deserve to taste at least one thing that they make.”

“Well, the cake is decided on, so that was easy,” Emily chuckles. “What should we have for lunch though?”

“Hm,” I nibble on my bottom lip as I think over all the foods I would want on my birthday. “It will be close to us going back home, but I still crave American food, so I think we should do a combination of Korean and American.”

“That sounds like a lovely idea,” Nari taps away on her phone. “We’ll order take-out from two different places, and then just eat all day.”

“That will be perfect,” I switch out my green colored pencil for a purple one. “I’m going to miss getting take-out all the time, though.”

“I don’t think we have any Korean styled restaurants near us, so we better get our fill before we leave,” Emily says. “The more take-out the better.”

Nari giggles, “You aren’t wrong. The take-out here is some of the best if you know where to go. Now, what about presents?”

“My present is going to be late since it will be the scrapbook,” Emily looks over at me. “However, if you let me, I will go get you a present with Nari.”

“You two don’t need to get me anything,” I look between the two girls. “Nari’s gift is letting me be here, and the scrapbook is enough.”

“We’ll be sneaky about it, Emily,” Nari winks at my best friend.

I let out a breath, rolling my eyes, “Why do you even ask?”

“So we can make you mad,” Emily giggles, tapping my sock-clad feet with her index fingers.

I can’t help the grin that appears on my face. “I can’t refuse a gift if you do buy something for me.”

“I think it is only fair since it is your birthday, and it will be like a thanks for being such a good guest,” Nari says. “Emily, I’ll have to send you something when your birthday rolls around in the fall, but I won’t forget about you.”

“We’ll have to send you a birthday present next year then, too.”

“Don’t do anything too out there, since it cost quite a chunk of money to send something over here from the States.”

“We can save up, and then we won’t have to hold back,” Emily picks up her phone.

I look back down at my coloring book, “I guess we are done planning my birthday, so what are we going to talk about now?”

“Not much to talk about,” Emily shrugs. “We already know every second of your date with Taehyung.”

“I know nothing of your bookstore double date from a few days ago, though,” Nari speaks up. “I’m sure that there’s talking points from that.”

“Well, on my end, Taehyung bought me a lot of books, and I can’t wait to read them,” I widely smile. “I’ll leave some here, and then keep bringing more for my future library.”

“Future library?” Nari’s eyebrows furrow together.

“Just a dream I have when I have my own house,” I shrug, setting my colored pencil down. “Anyways, Taehyung and I then relaxed in the lounge area and read until Namjoon and Emily got their books.”

“Ah, so Emily is the one with the gushy details,” Nari teases.

“There are no gushy details,” Emily shakes her head. “I just helped Namjoon find a few books, and we talked a little bit. Nothing interesting, just the two of us getting to know each other better.”

“I was surprised she went off alone with him,” I comment. “All this time, she makes sure that someone else is nearby, but then she lead him away from Taehyung and me.”

“You already had your books, that’s why,” Emily defends herself with a pout. “I don’t know why it matters.”

“Because you are so defensive about liking a guy,” I carefully say. “Namjoon was asking me about you, and I had barely any answers. You like him, don’t you? From the conversation we had, I have a feeling that he likes you more than a friend.”

“I don’t want to do too much since we have to leave, and we might not be coming back,” Emily lets out a huff. “Is that such a bad thing?”

“You sound like me,” I awkwardly chuckle. “Such a bad excuse.”

“Sure, sure, you have a boyfriend now, and you have all the answers,” she glares at me.

“Girls, girls, please,” Nari’s voice brings the tension down. “This is nothing to fight over. You two are best friends, and you are not acting like it right now. Emily, you need to think about your tone, and Amber, you need to not pry like that.”

“Sorry,” Emily and I mumble.

“I wish you also didn’t do that,” Nari sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.

Emily and I then burst into giggles. The argument flying out the window.

“I’m not ready for Namjoon to be anything more than a friend,” Emily speaks up after a few minutes. “I don’t want to rush into anything, and I think we still need to get to know each other.”

“See, now was that so hard,” I tease, knowing that I am on thin ice.

“Shut up,” she chuckles.

“You don’t have to worry about my relationship anymore, so focus on your love life.”

“What about me and my love life?” Nari can’t help but laugh at her comment.

“We could set you up with someone if you really wanted,” I pick my colored pencil back up. “Just say the word.”

“I’m was joking, but I wouldn’t object to a blind date with someone you know.”

Emily grins, “Oh, we’ll keep that in mind.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Hope you enjoyed reading! Early post, so there might be another later today. I am still working hard to finish this before the New Year, but I am running out of days. It will get finished soon, though, so stay tuned. :D

#BTS fanfiction #BTS series #BTS x OC #BTS imagine #Jungkook x OC #Jungkook imagine #Taehyung x OC #Taehyung imagine #Jimin x OC #Jimin imagine #Namjoon x OC #Namjoon imagine #Hoseok x OC #Hoseok imagine #Yoongi x OC #Yoongi imagine #Seokjin x OC #Seokjin imagine #my OCs

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kill-it-with-an-x-burner · 7 years

Text

Incineration (KHR/BNHA)

This was the fic I was talking about here and here. Yes, finally, the Hisashi-centric crossover has arrived.

I finished this while hungry and sleepy, so pardon any incoherence regarding the plot. I might rewrite/add some things. Maybe. Not guaranteed.

Summary: Midoriya Hisashi was pretty sure his quirk was breathing fire, so why does he keep seeing things no one else could?

Hisashi didn't even notice it.

He was simply walking home when an old lady approached him. Silver hair from old age was put into a bun, whilst a wrinkled face with twinkling gray eyes and a kind smile greeted him. She had a tiny star-shaped mark on the left side of her bottom lip. Much to his distaste, she wore a bright, gaudy, sequined pink dress.

"Oh, Hisashi, where have you been?" She asked. "Your mother's been looking for you."

"My mother?" Who is this lady? The young man was slightly weirded out. This old woman straight up came to him without warning, telling him about his mom. He didn't even know her, so why was she acting so unreserved towards him?

"Yes, she's waiting for you. Her boss dismissed them early today," The old lady then brought out something from her equally bright pink purse. "I just bought some snacks. Here, have some. I'm sure you're pretty hungry from baseball practice, right?"

As if on cue, his stomach grumbled. Hisashi blushed lightly as the old woman tittered. Hesitantly, he slowly reached for the umaibo, trying to gauge the lady's reaction. Seeing no malice in her expression, he took the snack and pocketed it. "I'll eat it at home. Thanks."

She waved at him. "Well, I've got to go to the market now. Tell your mother I might take long; these old bones don't work the way they used to, you know?"

He nodded. "Right."

She was highly suspicious, but she didn't seem to have any ulterior motives.

What a weird old lady.

Once he got home, Hisashi indeed saw his mother, like the old lady said; which was unusual considering that she always went home at god awful hours in the evening due to her work. "Oh, you're home. Hey," He greeted.

"Hey, sport," She greeted back. "My boss had to cancel today's work because of an emergency, so here I am."

He then decided to ask his mother about the overly-friendly woman. "Hey, mom, do you know any old ladies in the neighborhood?" Because as far as he knew, she was too busy to make friends with the neighbors because of work.

His mother furrowed his eyebrows, gray eyes narrowing in suspicion. He vaguely noted that she and the old woman had similar eye colors. "No, I don't. Why'd you ask?"

"I just met this old lady saying that you're already home and that you were waiting for me?" He rubbed the back of his head. "She also said to tell you she'd take long on her trip to the market."

She pursed her lips. "No, I don't. I wasn't expecting a guest and your father won't come back from his business trip until next week so I know he didn't invite anyone, either. What does she look like?"

Hisashi felt his stomach drop at the implications. Did they have a stalker? "Um, she's old and wore this really ugly dress? Wrinkly face, too." What was the most memorable thing about her face? He crossed his arms in thought before snapping his fingers. Oh, right. He pointed at the bottommost part of his face. "And she had this tiny mark at the side of her mouth? It was weird. She was weird."

His mother rapidly paled as he described the lady. With shaky hands, she grasped her son's. "Dear, does this lady have gray eyes like me?"

"Oh, right. She does." It's not just the color – they have the same shade of eyes, too.

Her grip on his hands tightened. "And is the mark on her face... star-shaped?"

Hisashi nodded vigorously. So his mother did know this person. What a relief! They don't have a stalker, after all. "Yeah! I've never seen anyone with a face mark like that. Is it a tattoo or something?"

Hisashi yelped as she released his hands and slowly skidded to the floor. Her face was contorted in shock and blank gray eyes stared downwards, hands firmly curled into fists. In a split second, his mom had gone from "I sense a suspicious person" into a completely lifeless mess.

Suffice to say, he panicked. "Mom! Mom, what's wrong?!" Hisashi grabbed her and repeatedly shook her shoulders. She didn't respond. "Hey, listen to me! Say something!"

It wasn't until after a few more seconds that his mother snapped out of her stupor and recomposed herself. In an instant, she wrapped her arms around him into a tense embrace. His mother began to cry.

"She... even now, she's still watching over us..."

"Who is she, mom? Why are you so upset?"

His mother just continued to hug him for another minute or two before letting go. Wiping her tears, she gave him a melancholic smile.

Hisashi felt a shiver down his spine when she finally answered him.

"That was your grandmother. She passed away long before you were even born."

The second time it happened, Hisashi remained none the wiser until after the encounter.

He was visiting a bookstore for his school project. They were tasked to make a book report comparing light novels to your regular novels. Unfortunately, neither the school nor the local library had a light novel section; the closest thing was an entire shelf assigned to foreign comic books and manga.

Honestly, he didn't have high hopes for his project. Most of the light novels the bookstore had were of the isekai genre, wherein the protagonist is from the modern world who suddenly gets transported or reincarnated into a fantasy world. However, with the emergence of quirks and the rise of the hero system, this certain genre has become stagnant. Rarely did such light novels not include a protagonist with a useless quirk or a quirkless person altogether.

It wasn't something he was particularly interested in, because most of those light novels were wish-fulfillment given literary form. But he would be lying if he wasn't intrigued by the idea of alternate dimensions- that's kinda cool.

He grumbled as he spied another row dedicated only to harem and loli-centric works. Is this really all they have? The most different one he found was something about gore and magical girls, but it was so old and worn out that he couldn't even read the kanji anymore.

He then felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Excuse me, young man. Do you know where the manager's office is?" It was a girl around a few years older than him, maybe in university or something. He spotted the book held in her other hand. "The cashier is missing and I didn't see anyone else, so..."

Hisashi inwardly groaned. This always happened. The owner was nice and accommodating, but he kept on hiring slackers who wouldn't do their jobs properly. Might as well call the old man. I should ask if he has other light novels, too.

He beckoned at her to follow. They encircled around the shelves at the back before stopping in front of a metal door. He knocked and called out to the owner, "Hey, old man. It's Hisashi! The clerk's gone again and you have a customer to attend to!"

"Will be right there in a jiffy, sonny! Just let me– oof!" They heard a loud crash from the other side. The teen winced. That sounded like it hurts a lot.

"Does this happen often?" She meekly inquired. He simply closed his eyes and nodded.

He then knocked again. "You okay in there?"

"I'm fine. Nothing's broken this time, too, so it's all good!"

"You should really be more careful! What if you bang your head or something?"

"I've been doing these for decades, boy. If I was accident-prone, I would have been long dead by now." The door swung open as the owner peered from his room. "So what did you want again?"

Hisashi gestured to the girl behind him. "You have a customer. She wants to pay but your cashier's off to who knows where."

The owner scratched his head, confusion evident in his features. "Who're you talking about? There's no one there." The teen's eyes widened before he turned around. Indeed, the girl was missing. "You sure you didn't hallucinate or something, boy?"

"B-But she was just here a-a-and she was even going to buy a dictionary or something–!"

The old man simply patted him on the back. "You gotta get a proper amount of sleep. I know you're a baseball nut and all, but that's not an excuse to skip out on rest."

"No, seriously, she was here! She even talked to me while I was knocking on your door! I'm not lying!"

"Then she must've left when you weren't looking."

Later that day, the owner asked his cashier who was apparently lounging in another area of the store if he had seen anyone. The employee denied it, saying that other than Hisashi, no one else came that hour. It was why he decided to read some manga to cure his boredom.

Hisashi's blood ran cold when they reviewed the security cameras. All this time, he had been alone and was talking to thin air.

What the hell is going on?

This continued for more encounters. In some cases, he would immediately realize that he was seeing things no one else could. In others, he never noticed that he was talking with someone who didn't exist until afterwards. Not to mention that his surroundings felt like they were burning him during these encounters.

Frankly, it was creepy, and it was taking a toll on him. He was getting stressed out real fast.

If no one else perceive them, Hisashi simply concluded that he must be seeing ghosts. He was pretty sure that breathing fire was his quirk, so why was this happening to him? He even went to a quirk specialist who told him that his ability didn't change. His friends were starting to worry. His parents were starting to worry. He was starting to worry.

Fire breathing definitely had nothing to do with seeing things so what's wrong with him?

Hisashi didn't understand.

To make matters worse, he began to see them everywhere – at school, during baseball practice in the field, out in the streets, and other places he went to. It even escalated to the point that he was hallucinating places now.

Sometimes, he'd enter an establishment to buy something and subsequently realizing it's not the same store. At times, when people ask him for directions, he'd point towards a specific building as a landmark and people would end up confused because they're not seeing what he can.

This entire mess was frustrating him.

He met a peculiar guy.

Initially, he merely saw him around the vicinity. Sometimes, it was when he was hanging out with his friends. Sometimes, it was on his way home. In other times, it was during his errand runs. Hisashi thought that he must be a new neighbor, but after asking his mother and the other residents, they didn't know anything about a mover.

Surely, a boy around his age with bright green hair would be eye-catching, right?

Not.

No one knew where he came from. Hisashi presumed that he was a ghost, but he was too corporeal to be one, nor did he try to communicate with him like the other ghosts.

Then who was he?

It didn't take long before he encountered the green-haired kid properly.

It was during his walk in the beach park when the other appeared out of nowhere. Startled, Hisashi tripped over his own feet and fell face first to the ground. The other helped him up and dusted sand off his clothes, encircling him. Satisfied with what he saw, he clasped Hisashi's shoulder.

"So you're the one," The green-haired kid said. "I wasn't sure because you weren't reacting at all. But then, you were always around whenever I appeared."

Hisashi was taken aback by his sudden approach. "I'm the what?"

He smiled as if inwardly laughing at a joke. "The chosen of this world, silly!"

The teen scratched his head. What the hell was this guy talking about? Was this guy some sort of chuunibyou? "Um, 'chosen'? What do you mean?" Perhaps insane?

"Figures you wouldn't notice anything. This is a world of superpowers, after all." The green-haired teen huffed and crossed his arms. "Tell me, have you been seeing weird things lately?"

That was spot-on! Hisashi whipped his head to meet the other's eyes and saw his smile widening. "H-How did you–"

"That's because I'm the same as you. We see things that we aren't meant to see." He began to pace around with his hands behind his back. "While everyone else is limited to the world we live in, we are different. We see beyond that; beyond our own existence."

The green-haired teen stopped in front of him, with the glares of the sun shining from behind. It made his hair shine like a halo and his entire body ethereal. Hisashi felt as if he was staring at something otherworldly.

"What do you know about parallel worlds?"

Haku was his name.

He claimed to be from another world, and that he had been trying to contact Hisashi for a long time now. In his world, there were no quirks – instead, there were Dying Will Flames, the manifestation of a person's will and determination.

According to his new friend, there are a limitless number of worlds that exist, and each world has an infinite amount of parallels. However, one thing that doesn't change in every world are the three absolute powers: the power to connect to the past, the power to perceive the present, and the power to predict the future.

For each world, there is one person who possesses an absolute power. He, Haku, and countless others were born with the ability to perceive the present; the power to see and occasionally, cross parallel worlds. The people and places that don't exist were indeed from parallel worlds. His ability had awakened for the first time and since he's never used it before, it was out of his control.

(All of this sounded so familiar, though. It's as if he's experienced this before.)

"Why are you helping me?"

"Because I had no one to help me when I was in your shoes." Haku looked pensive, as if remembering a particularly bad memory. "Not to mention that you can somehow mingle with people from parallel worlds without any prior training. I don't know how you did it, but it should be impossible to interact with others without any sort of conduit to channel your powers."

Hisashi pointed at him with a disgruntled face. "But aren't you crossing over yourself?"

"I'm not. You can only see me because I'm projecting myself to you, but if you want to be technical about it, we're communicating via telepathy."

T-Telepathy? "I thought people didn't have quirks there. Or is this an ability of your 'Flames'?" He said with matching air quotes. Haku made a vague gesture with his hand. "We may not have quirks, but we do have a superior technology."

Haku was a good friend.

He was a generous person who genuinely wanted to assist him, he could tell that much. He was truly grateful to the other teen that he was willing to go out on a limb for a someone he barely knew. Haku taught him how to control his powers so he wouldn’t keep confusing his world and another. He taught him how to regulate the visions so they would stop showing up randomly and interrupt his daily life.

(Oh, he couldn’t completely put a lid on it, but he was able to manage with what meager control he had over it.)

Because they were in similar positions, both were instantly able to relate to one another. They promptly clicked, like two pieces of a puzzle.

It was why Hisashi found it easy to open up to him. The green-haired boy served as his confidant throughout the years. He told him stories about his daily routine – what he did in his school, what he wanted to do with his life. He even went on to ask him for dating advice, and eventually, ideas on what to name his own child and how to be a proper parent.

But sometimes, when the other thought he wasn't looking, he saw something else.

Was Haku helping him only because he was lonely?

Hisashi finally recalled why his current experiences struck a chord within him.

This all happened, even back when he was still a kid; back before he even received his quirk.

Like any other child, Hisashi wanted to be a hero. Unfortunately, not everyone gets to have a chance to chase their dreams. Even though they live in a superhuman society, his family didn't have anything extraordinary. Both of his parents were quirkless, so were all their relatives before them – a rare phenomenon in this day and age.

Suffice to say, he had resigned himself to a mundane life ahead of him.

He went to an unremarkable school. He got mediocre grades. He didn't have an exceptional talent or boasted an impressive physical ability. He was just... there. Ask anyone and they'll give the same answer: that he was not someone meant for greatness, but a person meant for anonymity.

He would live as an ordinary person and die as one.

But all of a sudden, something different happened.

He had a peculiar dream filled with dread and weariness. There was nothing but darkness around him and he was all alone. In a flash of light, inexplicable warmth enveloped him as a figure gave him a gentle smile. Just as he was about to reach for this person, he woke up with his arm stretched towards the ceiling.

Hisashi felt the same warmth lingering in his room.

For the next few days, he would have the same dream. It wasn't anything bad, so the young boy did not tell anyone about them.

Not long after, he started to suffer from random hot flashes and nausea. Everything was spinning and he could barely stay conscious. He began to hallucinate, as well. Wherever he looked, his surroundings constantly changed and the people never noticed any difference, so he thought that he was simply ill or fatigued. However, Hisashi didn't want to trouble his parents in case it was just a false alarm.

It wasn't until he saw a bizarrely-dressed man that he admits to himself that there might be something wrong with him.

While he was walking home with his friends, he spotted said man across the street. He donned a mask and a trench coat. He also wore a checker-patterned iron hat with matching gloves. The eeriest part of him was the checker pattern on his own face. The teen scratched his head in puzzlement. Is he a hero or something?

Hisashi has never seen anyone like him before.

He nudges an elbow to his friend and gestures in the man's direction. "Hey, do you think that guy's a hero?"

"Hah, what are you talking about? No one's there."

Hisashi blinked and stared back at the other side. The man was still standing across the street. "Um, he's... just standing there? Don't you guys see him?"

His other shook his head in disagreement. "Man, we knew you weren't feeling well, but if you're starting to see things then maybe we should hurry home so you can rest."

"But–" He was about to add more, when he noted their concerned expressions. The teen sighed in exasperation, yet reluctantly backed down. No use arguing when he knew they were only worried for him.

As they walked away, Hisashi stuck his hands in his pockets and huffed. He was so sure that the man was real – there's no way he could be deluding himself! Then again, he briefly glanced at his friends who saw nothing, maybe I'm so tired that I'm imagining things.

He nodded at himself. Yeah, maybe they're right. I haven't had a decent night of sleep recently anyway.

Making up his mind, he snuck one last peek at the bizarre man again to make sure that the other really is not there. His eyes widened when the man smiled and waved at him.

Hisashi was officially spooked.

He started to lose sleep and eat less, neglecting to take proper care of himself. His cheeks began to sink and his eyes darkened. His previously healthy complexion turned pallor. He dozed off at random intervals. It wasn't until he collapsed that his parents found out and sent him to the hospital.

A week's worth of rest and medicine helped him recover, but they sent him to the therapists after confessing he'd been hallucinating.

None of the therapists could figure it out – "There should be nothing wrong with young Hisashi, yet he's still seeing things that aren't there." – and the counselors were of no assistance, either.

"Don't worry, Hisashi. I'm sure that there's someone who can help you," His mother said, trying to console him after another failed session with a new psychiatrist. Her pats on his back were comforting, yet he still felt awful for his current situation and all the trouble he was making them go through.

"...Do you think it could be his quirk?" His father whispered, features darkened and discouraged. Hisashi wasn't blind to how they were starting to look like him. His parents were stressed out by his predicament, too.

"That's impossible!" She slammed her fist on the table. Just like his father, she was equally burdened with the mysterious ailment of her son. Her hair was unkempt and her eyes dry from exhaustion. "We're both quirkless and our son has always been the same for a long time now."

His father snapped, "I'm not deluding myself that he could actually have a quirk, but there's nothing else we can think of. There's nothing wrong with trying!"

And with that, he was brought to the local quirk specialist.

"You should celebrate. Your son doesn't have an extra joint. Theoretically, this means he can develop a quirk," The doctor explained, pointing at an x-ray; particularly, at Hisashi's toes. "You are both quirkless, correct? It isn't unheard of for first generation quirk users to be late bloomers or to have dormant abilities."

"H-How is this possible, doctor?" Hisashi's mother exclaimed, with both his father and Hisashi himself nodding in agreement.

"It's not an absolute that quirkless people can't give birth to a new quirk. After all, the original quirk users did come from powerless families. There's really no guarantee on whether a child would have a special ability or not." The doctor was writing down something on his clipboard.

Hisashi wasn't paying attention to the man anymore. All he could focus on was the fact he has a quirk, after years of thinking he didn't have one.

"Since your son has been suffering from bouts of feverish heat, I believe that this is the reason for his hallucinations." The doctor laid an assuring hand on his shoulder, breaking his train of thoughts. "Young Hisashi will most likely have a fire or temperature-based ability."

True to the doctor's prediction, a few days later, Hisashi accidentally set a tree on fire – fire breath, the specialists inferred. His parents and friends celebrated the fact that he unlocked his special ability and he, too, hoped that it was the end of his problems.

It was.

After he continuously used his fire to stop himself from overheating, the dreams were gone and the world didn't feel like it was set on fire anymore.

Despite that, something was nagging at the back of his mind - that everyone was wrong, and that there's something more to it than just a quirk.

But if they stopped once, what brought it all back to the surface?

He confided in Haku, and the green-haired male didn't know the cause, either. Haku was surprised to hear that he could tap into this power as a child, when the other only awakened his in his pre-adolescent age.

Hisashi couldn't help but feel antsy at not knowing why. It simply remained a mystery. No matter what he or Haku did, they couldn’t figure it out. The issue began to gnaw away on his mind.

There was something deeply unnerving about it, like a calm before the storm.

Even then, the world goes on without a hitch.

Not long after, things went down the drain.

Hisashi tried to do his best as a father even with his current dilemma chipping down on his psyche. He still went to work diligently. He spent time with his wife and son. He did his best to be a pillar of support to the people around him.

However, regardless of his efforts to bury it inside, it stressed him out. And when he was stressed out, he lost what little control he had over his powers. Images of people’s lives from various worlds bled into his daily life. His vision constantly shifted between looking at the world he lived in and a parallel one. He even had a hard time discerning who was speaking due to the voices from the other worlds.

With the intense amount of vision, he was having difficulty in identifying which was his own world.

He felt like he was experiencing his childhood all over again, only ten times worse.

Hisashi saw death everywhere in the streets and flames burned as far as the eye could see; and even in his dreams, they plagued his mind. In all the worlds he had seen, Hisashi only encountered desolation. He fretted on the current state of the parallel existences.

What was happening to the worlds. Why was every world in the brink of destruction?

To make it more horrifying, it wasn’t limited to just seeing now. Sometimes, he could feel their emotions and physical reactions. Hisashi shuddered at the lingering sensation of his skin being peeled off, or being shot in the chest. Indescribable heat pooled in his body with each world he witnessed.

He suffered from sleepless nights in a poor attempt to stop himself from seeing them, but he ends up dozing off due to exhaustion. In addition to that, he ran himself ragged in regulating his body heat by overusing his quirk.

Haku was no help, either. His green-haired friend didn’t have any idea, simply that no matter who he tried to contact, everyone was either in the same position or unavailable. He often talked to Hisashi to distract him from seeing the other worlds, but it wasn’t enough.

Inko asked him countless times what was troubling him, but he waved her worries off. He tried his best to spend time with his family and enjoy life as he used to, but it was hard to focus when he was drowning from seeing the parallel worlds and felt like he was being incinerated to his very core.

Much to his dismay, he and Inko began to argue non-stop.

“Every moment we do nothing but fight! I think we need some time for ourselves!”

“Oh, so you need more time? What about this family, huh? What about our son? He needs us now more than ever!”

“I know that, but there’s nothing we can do for him; not when he’s like this!”

“So this is about Izuku being quirkless? And here I’d thought you’d accept him. Just because you received a quirk unlike your parents, you act like he isn’t even worth your time!”

“Like you’re any better. I saw it – you were disappointed when he didn’t get one!”

Because he was pouring so much of his time in this issue, Hisashi inadvertently neglected them both to the point that they barely talked in their home anymore; and when he did, he merely snapped irritably at his family. His stress was affecting them, too. There wasn't a day that they weren't fighting.

Izuku, his poor son who did not deserve any of their burdens, suffered the most from the rift in their family. Not only was he being bullied at school after he was proclaimed quirkless (which Hisashi wasn't really surprised to hear), he came home to his parents arguing on the pettiest things.

Neither he nor his wife were blind to his predicament, but no amount of prodding could make him talk.

Hisashi could only bury his face into his hands as he lamented on the fact that their family was gradually tearing itself apart.

“It’s just too much for me to handle. What do you think I should do?”

“I think you should come with me.”

Hisashi snapped his gaze to his friend. The green-haired male merely smiled benignly at him as if he hadn’t dropped a bomb on his lap. Come… with him? Sure, crossing over worlds was possible, but Haku himself said it rarely happened. “What do you mean?”

“You said it yourself, didn’t you? You need time away from all of this – your family, your work… everything on top of the problem with the worlds. Out of sight, out of mind.” Haku explained. “Unfortunately, ignoring the parallel worlds is out of the question. It simply can’t be done. Instead, you’ll keep away from your current life. Think of it like a vacation of sorts.”

A break, huh.

He snapped out of his reverie when Haku placed something metallic in his hands. How did–

Hisashi’s eyebrows rose at this new development – they weren’t able to physically interact before. Haku had a proud grin on his face when he spotted the other’s perplexed expression. “Amazing, isn’t it? Technology in my world has developed so much that we can do this now. It’s how I’m going to bring you with me.”

“This ring is advanced technology?”

“Yes!”

Hisashi inspected the ring. Other than the unique design, it didn’t look anything special. It was silver, with folded metallic wings. In the center of the wings was a green gem; it emitted a few sparks when he touched it. He's never seen anything like it. It gave him an eerie feeling and made him gravitate towards it at the same time.

“What is it?”

“It’s what we call a Mare ring. It can amplify our powers to a certain degree. With that ring, you can cross over to my world.”

The jewel glittered under the sun.

It was quite gaudy in his opinion, but the gem was beautiful enough, he supposed. “What am I supposed to do? Wear it? Then what?”

“That’s it.”

“That’s it?!”

He made a vague gesture with his hands at Hisashi’s incredulous response. He looks like he was holding back laughter. He probably was, the cheeky bastard.

“What do you think? Want to come with me? It’s not like you’re not coming back.” Hisashi hesitated. Haku tapped his cheek in wonder before snapping his fingers. “How about this – we can do a test run! Spend the rest of the day in my world. Once you’ve reached a decision, you can either stay or go home.”

The urge to wear the ring tugged at his heart.

“What do you say?”

“…I’ll do it.”

Haku’s smile widened.

The world exploded into flames.

Images of people flashed through his eyes. Hisashi witnessed events worth of trillion of peoples' lives all at once, maybe even more. The man clutched his head as his vision jumped from person to person, world to world, as the overwhelming amount of information slowly overloaded his mind.

Hisashi only continued to helplessly claw at his head. It was too much for him to handle. An infinite amount of knowledge crammed into his head in one go was too severe. He vaguely heard someone screaming in the background.

Somebody make it stop.

Make it stop!

Haku simply watched him burn.

After the flames subsided, all that's left in Hisashi's place was the ring, with orange flames flickering and green sparks crackling.

The green-haired man's smile faltered. After he picked up the fallen ring, he tutted in annoyance.

"Ah, it's too bad he burnt out before I could finish the transfer. I guess the world can't handle two of the same person physically existing at the same time in the same place." He sighed. “And after investing so much time on him, too. But you know…”

He gazed at the sky.

“I wouldn’t have figured out the full extent of our powers if it weren’t for you or Sho-chan, so really, I am grateful for your efforts. Thank you for being my friend for what little time we had, and for the valuable data.”

His hands clenched around the small trinket.

"Don't worry, Hisashi. Haku will take good care of you. As long as your will is engraved in the Mare ring, I can extract it whenever I want."

His green hair turned white. Purple eyes twinkled in mischief as his smile turned malicious.

"And this time, you can be my ghostly friend."

So if you didn’t understand... Hisashi is Ghost lol.

Okay, I remarked about Haku/Byakuran’s loneliness. There’s that chapter in KHR where Byakuran was isolated and Yuni was his only confidant at the time. Despite the initial megalomania, he struck me as a lonely person; someone who didn’t have much in common with anyone.

(I believe that buried deep down, was a boy living in solitude due to his awareness about existences. This part of Byakuran was what Hisashi saw.)

Then Shoichi fucked up with the time travelling and Byakuran’s descent started.

The point wherein Hisashi first awakened his abilities in childhood was due to Checkerface showing himself. Why he was there? I believe that Checkerface always knows who the next bearer of the Tri-ni-sette artifacts were, and he checks on them. In the BNHA world, the Mare holder is supposed to be Hisashi, Byakuran’s parallel self.

(Also, note that I never described what Izuku’s father looks like. He’s supposed to look similar to Byakuran.)

The next instance that the ability emerged was due to Byakuran awakening his own ability. Remember that all parallel worlds are connected in some way. I imagine that because he unlocked his powers and tried to project himself over countless other worlds, he jumpstarted the development of those Byakurans, too. This was the case for Hisashi.

So Hisashi trusts Byakuran because they’re technically the same person.

#fanfic: incineration #kitburner writes #crossover #katekyo hitman reborn #boku no hero academia #midoriya hisashi #may be subjected to revisions i dunno #fanfiction

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its-just-like-the-movies · 7 years

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Date Night!: Death Note (17, F)

I think part of the reason it’s so much harder to really analyze a perfect film than a perfectly shitty one is that a great film leaves you wondering how they did it. What geniuses had the decision to write that score, to edit in this style, to write that character in such a way, to interpret them so fully? I can’t imagine how much time I’ve spent wringing my hands at Annette Bening in 20th Century Women, trying to understand Dorothea Fields as a creation, as a conscious work of art by way of multiple collaborators as well as the actress playing her, amidst a film that feels utterly human and alive, and without seams in any way. I bring up this film here because I had this thought watching Adam Wingard’s disgusting, dull take on Death Note only a few nights ago. You may be asking “Why is it that both of your Date Night pieces have been centered around demonstrably monstrous acts of garbage?” and I say wait a minute, we’ve seen good things. One day I’ll talk about Shin Godzilla. But that’s just me postponing the inevitable. Tommy and I, and our very good friend David, sat down on the first of September and decided to watch a train wreck that was even worse than we could have imagined. It hasn’t just been whitewashed, but striped of all the source material’s morality and mythology, about as far removed as one could be from anything in the original series while vaguely needing to use certain character names and still actually having a death note, and Americanized in the worst possible way. But it steals baldly from other films and makes it central character completely unbearable while everyone else is vaguely more interesting and doomed to the sidelines of the story. No one wanted this film, necessarily, but is it too much to ask that it be good?

The first immediate example we get of the film’s selective pilfering of its Japanese source material is that our central character is named Light Turner. It’s not in any way a typical American name, especially for white boys with dye-blond hair, but because the source material starred a dude named Light, why not? They couldn’t let that central character stay Japanese, though, because this is America, so it has to be about a white dude and his white girlfriend trying to dodge the world’s greatest detective, a young black man who is still called “L”. The white soon-to-be girlfriend is named Mia, and we know that she is Serious and Not Like Other Girls Or Whatever because we see her looking Hardcore and Bored and Over It during cheerleading practice, a brunette in a sea of blondes, who finally just starts smoking rather than letting the Other Girls catapult her in the air. This is probably because they wouldn’t hurl her into the sun itself, which is the only thing Hardcore enough for her to join. And we know Light is Hardcore and Over It but Still Has Morals because we see him doing another student’s homework and later trying to save another student from the most college-graduate-looking motherfuckers who ever decided to teleport from the 90’s to now and bully someone.

It’s almost too easy to tear down this shambling mess of a film. Wingard shoots Ryuk as though the filmmakers either couldn’t afford to make him look presentable or were just embarrassed to look at him. Light is a terribly bland protagonist, made even blander by the far more interesting sociopathic tendencies of said soon-to-be girlfriend Mia and the truly bizarre spectacle of Wingard’s remodeled L. This version of L is at least someone interesting to watch, even if it’s in such a conventional way as to have almost no resemblance to the original version of the character. Mia, on the other hand, is only altered insofar as her obsession with Light is really just an obsession with the death note itself, and a desire to kill off people more indiscriminately than he does. There’s something deeply uncomfortable about how Mia and Ryuk are eventually aligned as the villains of the piece for lacking a moral compass, especially when Light’s feels superficially arbitrary and utterly dull, and even moreso given that Mia’s eventual betrayal of Light feels like some version of “bitches be crazy”, but both are still the most captivating characters on the screen. If Ryuk has almost no real reason to be there after his introduction, Willem Dafoe’s self-satisfied line readings make the character a welcome presence. That this character egs on Light to commit his first killings was perhaps the biggest sticking point to David early on, given the manga version’s role as an excited but impartial audience surrogate more than anything else, but his presence is still entertaining. Dafoe’s reading of the line “Humans are so interesting!”, one of the few moments where Ryuk got an actual close-up, was also the only actual chill I got during the whole 100 minutes, though credit must partially be given to my shock that any line from the manga - let alone one of its best, in the early going - even made it into the film.

My previous interactions with the Death Note media empire is having gotten partway through the manga and the anime dub in early high school, losing interest a little while after the death of a major character, though not necessarily because that character died. Maybe it felt like the end of the series, or maybe I just straight up lost interest, or moved on to a different property. That being said, I still remember Death Note and its characters fairly well, and certainly well enough to know how butchered this abominable film was. It’s astonishing how much Wingard tries to alter these characters away from any resemblance to their source material, but it brings up what strikes me as the largest question I have about this film, and all the grossest politics and connotations I can think of surrounding the terms “whitewashing” and “Americanizing”. Of course America’s version of Death Note had to star a white boy in the lead role, because Hollywood can’t just have a leading character of color for no reason at all. Of course he had to be saddled with a faux, crummy version of “morals” with a faux-tragic backstory behind his killings while his girlfriend is giving the depravity that made the original so noteworthy and framed as the eventual Big Bad for it. Mia Sutton is perhaps the only character Death Note has going for itself, a genuine female sociopath on film who barely seems motivated by her hubby-in-crime and is more than willing to ditch him once he gets cold feet. Apparently Wingard credits Mia as having more of Original Light’s traits instead of Misa Amane’s, which makes sense to think about but speaks plenty about Wingard’s seeming disinterest in actually adapting his source material. I kept thinking about The Hateful Eight’s Daisy Domergue, featuring another case of villainous characters whose only point of agreement is that the lone lady of the bunch is the worst of them all, though there her crimes are left mainly vague, her threats treated like bluffs once she has the room to say them rather than getting smacked around by her walrus-moustached captor. It’s the film’s most toxic element, one that I’m not convinced Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performance makes the right decisions about in portraying her. The Hateful Eight is also a much better film than Death Note - what film isn’t? - albeit with its own, significant flaws, but in Death Note Mia’s crimes and the crimes of her allies and enemies are all equally defined, because the film is so awful it needs her amorality if only to give the viewer someone compelling to root for, as my squad saw it, because Margaret Qualley commits to her character and makes us sad to see her go. I don’t mean to imply that Qualley is a better actress than Leigh, nor is her performance necessarily stronger in these respective films. But sometimes mere competence in a shitty film is easier to like than a commendable misfire in an uneven one, and Qualley’s work is one of the few umbrellas we can run under in this heaving shitstorm of a film.

I truly don’t know how to engage with L, who seems like the most conspicuous victim of Wingard’s rewrites. LaKeith Stanfield is clearly giving his all to the performance, and if you told me he was the only person on set who’d ever read the manga I’d believe you in a heartbeat. But all the intrigue of his work, the intensity it achieves in certain moments, is drowned out in how overly mannered this character is. Repeatedly L is seen sloppily eating gummy bears ascribed with ingredients that enhance thinking capabilities, rather than strawberry shortcake because it’s fucking delicious, that’s why. Twitchy behaviors are augmented by the character’s complete lack of chill, rather than the naturally super-intelligent, laid-back L the manga gave us, one in terrible physical shape and complete physically incompetence. Here, L gets a chase scene by car and by foot, and brandishes a firearm. Here, L gets a traveling Victorian set to be imported into the middle of the San Diego Police Department’s office area. At least he still gets to keep his own brand of amorality, perfectly content as he is to use some criminals as bait to see where “Kira” is based, but he’s not the savvy liar and manipulator detective of yore. This character is conventionally compelling, but perhaps the most emblematic case of Wingard’s seeming desire to write a Death Note film that doesn’t actually resemble any previous Death Note property. Who knows why this character was cast with a black actor in a shocking white version of San Diego - or even if there was a “reason”, and Wingard just liked Stanfield’s ideas about the character - but the spectacle of him being placed in a chokehold by SDPD chief Light’s Dad was easily the grossest thing Death Note had in store. I can’t help but wonder what Stanfield really saw in this opportunity, how much he got out of it, and what the disparity is for having highlight roles in the best and worst horror films of 2017.

And then there’s Light, remixed from a type-A, grade A model student into an angsty loner who has literally nothing going for him but a wonky dye job and being lucky enough to get a handheld killing machine. Putting a hat on the guy makes him instantly the blandest man alive, and he as much as anyone else is shorn of the traits that made the character such an interesting protagonist. Yes, Mia gets so many of Light Yagami’s traits, but can Light Turner have anything going for him? Can he not nearly shit himself once Ryuk (in such a bitchy spectacle of an arrival) storms onto the scene? Can he not have a motivation so forgettably stitched on the film all but abandons it twenty minutes in, and can his morals actually be interestingly complicated instead of bland, Americanly contrived? Nat Wolff’s Light, possibly the worst performance of the year, is such a guileless goon that his last-act transformation into a criminal who’s actually capable of planning out a long con to save his own life and kill one of his enemies is easily the least believable part of the film. It’s astonishing how much the want of having Evan Peters and Emma Roberts in the lead roles is present in how Light is styled and in how much Margaret Qualley just fucking looks like a less actively bitchy version of Emma Roberts. There’s even a little card that says “Normal People Scare Me” in the American Horror Story font in Light’s locker, like some emo kid in 2011, which gets to the heart of this character’s deep mischaracterization. Why make this kid into a Tate Langdon-type who’s so blatantly angry at the world it’s honestly shocking his father takes as long as he does to realize his son is a fucking mass murderer? How is it in any way a bold, difficult statement that the valedictorian can be a sociopath, that kids with ostensibly no real problems can also want to end the world themselves? There’s a lot I didn’t like about the fourth season of AHS but at least it gave us an emblem of corrupted white, heterosexual male privilege and prejudice that this film just can’t recognize, or won’t.

A funny, somewhat poignant, and very quick moment in Okja sees a character flash a newly made tattoo on his arm that says “Translation is Sacred”. Death Note is not just an abominable act of translation, but of adaptation, of fidelity to a source material’s characters and themes. Outside of its vaguely compelling supporting cast, a lot of Death Note feels haphazardly cobbled together from a multitude of sources and bad ideas all meant on making the film more palatable to an audience that only wanted this film because the source material was so rich, most notably that killings in the Death Note seem to be primarily carried out by Final Destination, Rube Goldberg spectacle-type accidents, rather than simple, mundane accidents. Why make a Death Note film if you’re not going to make it resemble Death Note at all? It feels late in the game to say that I’m not fundamentally against molding source material to suit an adaptation, especially with something as dense as Death Note into a feature film under two hours. But there’s not a single alteration that this film makes to the material that helps it in any conceivable way, no small high point worth the heaps of garbage you have to sift through to get it. It’s not so much a misfire as a willful rejection of any sharp edges or idiosyncrasies that made the original property the hit that it became. It’s also, hopefully, the kind of misfire that kills a hoped-for sequel dead in its tracks. If there’s one thing we can do to reckon with the fact that this shambling corpse of a film exists, the best thing we as a viewing audience and as people who want adaptations of ambitious, international properties can shout from the rooftops that hypnotized FBI agents are leaping off of like synchronized divers. We liked them for a reason, and if you shear off that reason to be more appealing, all you’re left with is a boring white boy nattering on about his schemes in a hospital bed, outshone by a demon barely in focus, and failing in every way to live up to that demon’s last, great line. In the world of Adam Wingard’s Death Note, humans aren’t interesting. They’re cardboard cutouts of characters that aren’t tarnished by association, but shine a little brighter in comparison. You couldn’t ask for a less ambitious take on this property, no one did, but we got in anyways, and if no one will bother to learn from it, then all we can do with this maddening pile of shit is heave it straight into the sun and hope it burns into an even greater state of nothingness than the film has achieved just by existing in this neutered state.

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