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fishylife · 3 years

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Street Dance of China, Season 4, Episode 8

- I don’t remember if I’ve said this before, but Poppin’C seems like such a chill guy. He always seems very optimistic, very open-minded, very friendly. I was just reminded when he was talking about what he thought of the first freestyle battle challenge. The thought it was difficult, but he wasn’t like, bitter about it or anything. He just takes the challenges as they come. But even from episodes past, we see that he’s very non-judgmental of stuff and things in general. Side note, the Chinese subtitles always call him Christian (which I assume is his given name).

- Henry’s outfit here is cute.

- The relay freestyle dance challenge got really fun as we got through more rounds, and got dancers of different styles dancing to the same music.

- In the relay freestyle dance battle, you could tell who the versatile dancers are. We already knew Bouboo had range, but what I think is interesting is that his stage presence is so strong is that his dancing ends up overshadowing the song. It’s not bad, it’s just an observation, because a lot of his performances, even with very different music, sometimes have more of a similar feel, because his dance style is so strong. On the other hand, some dancers like Rochka or even Xiao Jie (even though he didn’t get to battle much) seem to fit themselves to the music, which makes them very entertaining to watch. It feels like I’m watching a different dancer when I see them dance to different sorts of music.

- The dancers praising Yixing for earning two points in the relay battle 🥰🥰

- This panel made me laugh because just as Rochka was going up against Yang Kai and very in the zone, someone shouted “Rochka’s really cute!” I mean, he is, but in this moment, I think he was going for cool.

- My boy MT-Pop!!! I think this is the first time we’ve seen him actually freestyle (most of his previous performances were a prepared performance or a group performance) and I love how he maintains that creativity in his movements! Bouboo’s response to his challenge was pretty cool too, I loved that Bouboo matched MT-Pop in terms of having really interesting movements and weird body placements.

- Yixing being the first team to win 7 points, and MT-Pop and Yixing each getting 2 points 🥰🥰 Sorry but I am biased. During the battle, Yixing did mention that he and his teammates tried come up with an order that would be to their benefit (i.e. in terms of using music against their opponents). So the strategizing worked.

- You did so good dude!

- Our little meowmeow was telling his team how he used all of his power on his first dance off and by the second battle he was already out of ideas lol. Except on his second battle against San’er he did have some good ideas!!

- Poppin’C said Yixing’s krumping was so shuai :P

- Is that Yixing running to grab the water bottles in the background?

- I did like Ibuki’s performances over Nelson’s in their second place dance off. Like Judge Philip said, she had a lot of variety in her dance moves. Especially during the popping music, Ibuki did some popping (?) moves that I had not expected from her. In the first episodes, I thought she was all about waacking so I love seeing her expand her repertoire.

- Lmao Yuwan called Ibuki “全村的希望” which is something like “the hope of the village” XD

- What’s also cute is that Yuwan called Ibuki 小吹, Xiaochui, because Weichui is the Chinese reading of the kanji for Ibuki.

- And then he called her 村花, “Village Flower,” which is something akin to the village beauty.

- MT-Pop and Poppin’C battled so many times together, and I had fun every time they did! The fact that they have so many routines is impressive. But I also just love how happy and cheerful they look every time. It makes their performances that much more interesting to watch.

- Not gonna lie, seeing Ma Xialong dance hip hop was really fun haha. I think Han Geng’s team didn’t really have some “general” hip hop specialists, so that was why they had to ask Eleven and Ma Xiaolong to go forth, but I think they at least delivered a product that was fun to watch. If anything, they have swag.

- Omg Xiaoji and Xiao Jie team for maximum entertainment

- Rochka and Boris are so interesting to watch, because they are both such big boys, and it’s like, how do they move their arms and legs that fast when they’re so long??

- It seems to me that the lockers always have very pleasant expressions, as in, they never forget to smile, which makes their performances very enjoyable to watch.

- Chika and Han Yu are such a cute duo.

- Okay but Han Geng? Sir? This fit? Old man team ftw.

- You were wearing two pairs of sunglasses the whole time????

- Han-xiansheng.....excuse me.....sir.....

- Dianmen and Rei-san from Gogo Brothers was such an interesting combo because Dianmen is a popper and Rei-san is a locker, and this music is rather slow compared to normal locking music.

- Ibuki and Eleven was pretty hype, even if they did lose their battle.

- Judge Tam was praising MT-Pop and Poppin’C :3 She basically said that they technically aren’t similar dancers, but they have cool chemistry and fun ideas.

- Yibo got a lot of praise in this challenge, because he danced three styles of battle (popping, locking, hip hop), which showed that he’s flexible, and as Judge Phillip said, it also means he has a good memory because he had to remember all those routines :P

- Poppin’C truly the realest dude ever. He was like we were happy that we were first, but can’t let your foot off the gas either, because Yibo’s team is going to be challenging them from second place.

- Henry’s team is lowest in points right now, and Rochka was saying how Henry was being very encouraging and motivating.

- Just a small note, Momo speaks in a combination of Japanese and English and it’s cute :P I remember Junna did that on the show too, but I think this is the first I’ve seen it in the interview section. Most of the Japanese dancers speak in Japanese even if their English is alright (e.g. Ibuki), though Momo more often speaks in English than Japanese from what I’ve observed.

- The 5 person performance from Yixing’s team was cute! It wasn’t the most explosive, but it was very cute and quirky. I can see all of the influences of the different choreographers though. The parts when the dancers were in a V shape (more hip hop) were probably choreographed by Kenken, the parts relating to the table were probably choreographed by Bunta, and I think Huang Xiao did more of the choreography for himself and Qiao Zhi, who were supposed to represent the Chinese chefs. And actually I MT-Pop might’ve had a hand in choreographing the part when he and Kenken burst through the table (the quirky eccentric stuff). But like Li Bingbing said, they were focusing a lot on the story part of the performance, so that’s why they couldn’t plan as many cool dance moves that were just cool from an aesthetic point of view, and not necessarily related to the story.

- Han Geng’s team’s performance was abstract and artistic. I think the wind as a prop was really interesting. Technically we can’t even see it, but the wind changes the “direction” of the dance. All of the moves revolve around the fact that the wind is coming from that angle. So it acts as both a prop to alter the “perspective” of the dance, as well as a prop for the story.

- The performance from Yibo’s team was more of what I’d expected out of this challenge, something that was just aesthetically cool from all angles. Like Ye Yin said, it wasn’t advantageous to compete from a storytelling perspective, so they might as well just focus on the visuals.

- After this performance, Rochka told Henry not to worry. He was like “psst Henry! 一劉 team? We’re great!” The captaon says 暖心卡寳. 暖心 means warm hearted, alluding to the fact that Henry might’ve gotten worried since other teams had such strong performances and they were behind in points and Rochka wanted to reassure him. 卡 is “ka” as in “Kaka” as in “Rochka.” 寳 means treasure, but it is also the “bao” in “baobei,” and it’s also something you can just add at the end of someone’s name to make it a cute nickname. So basically the caption is saying that Rochka is a warm hearted baby.

- Henry’s team had a cyberbullying theme going on. I thought this performance was cool because it was both visually very cool and it told an interesting story compared to how minimalist their props were (just masks). Basically the dance covered themes of online bullying, and how social media can be just as isolating as it is connecting. I was surprised that Judge Phillip said that the theme kind of lost him because he thought it might not be clear to everyone who was watching. But I guess it’s also because Henry mentioned that there was a cyberbullying theme so I wasn’t as confused as someone might be if they were going in blind.

- Han Geng came over to cheer on Henry’s team before the final battle.

- This was the first freestyle battle that Kenken did and can I just say, his dance style is just so hype. Kenken was up against Nelson though, who is tough to beat. Yixing said that he’d wanted Kenken, Bunta, and Huang Xiao to join in on the battle to at least have some fun, but he hadn’t expected him to run into Nelson ^^;;

- Yibo’s team won 6 points in a row and everybody was like “who’s gonna challenge them? who’s gonna dethrone them?” OUR MEOWMEOW KING IS!!!!!! Yixing stopped Yibo’s team’s streak lol. Yixing’s team went on to say how he inspired such confidence in them, that he was their hero haha.

- Henry tried to challenge next. He challenged Dianmen. But alas, Dianmen got the point. At this point, I feel super bad for Henry. He probably feels a bit powerless to help his team v.v Ahhh I hope some good luck comes his way!!!!! He deserves it!!!!

- In this last battle, where teams can change their challengers however they want, we see how important it is to win the point, because once you’re on the defence, you get an opportunity to get a point every battle, whereas for each of the challenger teams, if you lose, you have to wait another round for your turn.

- Lmao as San’er was going to challenge, Chunlin just started yelling “AHHHHHHHH!!!!!” Guess that’s his way of motivating his teammates XD

- Yibo’s team won the final challenged in the end. Here’s our boy Poppin’C being all “shucks, but we’ll get them next time!”

- 23 points wasn’t shabby for Yixing’s team.

- Yixing started singing Billie Jean but the subtitles are not right at all lmao

- Yixing’s team said that through the challenges, they felt like they’d grown closer as a team :3

- Han Geng being encouraging to his team. In typical dad fashion he was like “no matter what happens, let’s have fun, don’t think about winning or losing!”

- Henry’s team members were talking about how it kind of hurt to see that they had the lowest score by far :(

- Oh no :(

- Rochka explained that he had asthma, so after the first round, he was quite tired, so he felt very sad that he couldn’t help his team in the later battles. The words on the side say that Rochka stayed on scene after he got medical help, but Henry didn’t want to let him battle. Later on, Rochka was available to dance again, but Henry moved him to the back of their queue (probably so he’d have more time to rest), but as we saw in the challenge, it took a while for them to get their turn and thus Rochka didn’t end up dancing.

- Rochka kept apologizing and saying he had no excuses and Henry comes up being like “what are you talking about bro?”

- That’s right! Give him a hug!!!!

- These two really take every opportunity to flirt huh. Well it’s more like Henry issuing the flirt challenge and Rochka accepting the flirt challenge by returning with equally flirty behaviour.

- The way Huang Xiao described the competition was very cool. He said that the world cannot stop your radiance, but you also are not able to cover up someone else’s light.

- Nelson announced to the show that he had to leave, to go back to France to handle some issues about custody over his son. I had heard that he had left the show, I just didn’t realize it would be so soon. But like everybody else, family is important, so we can’t be mad for someone wanting to return home for personal reasons. After all, this is just a competition, just a game.

- Poppin’C patting Yixing’s shoulder. Iunno, I just thought it was fun :P

- This round did not end with eliminations, but I suspect that as the winner, Yibo will earn some sort of perk later on.

- Finally, all of the figures in a row!

- I know the hot pot show is now no longer members only, but I don’t think I have the time to watch it. Maybe I’ll just download it now and save it for later, maybe after I’m done SDOC, but I probably won’t watch it as I’m watching the main SDOC show.

#thinking out loud #cvariety #street dance of china #screencaps

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diary-of-deadweight · 4 years

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Mystery admirer pt2 (this took along time for me to write.)

Pairing: Bakugou x reader

Weeks has passed and it seemed that the elegantly vibrant flowers and heart fluttering note had stopped coming, you came to terms with the fact that this was a sure fire sign that your secrete admirer has lost interest.

Not that you blamed them, they all did in the end as they went on to pursue your much better looking friends further solidifying your constant doubts of not being enough or not attractive enough to keep them interested. So as to not show your obvious heart break you decided to take Mina up on her offer on going to the arcade to blow off some steam with Hagakure, Jirou and her girlfriend Momo.

While you were away Bakugou room this time to set up his plan, that was neither perfected nor fully fleshed out in the slightest thanks to his dumbass friends impatience, he demanded that Kirishima, Denki and Sero aid him in doing so as all this was their fault to start off with.

“Why are we doing this again?” Denki moaned as he and Sero scattered rose petals on the ground lazily, their backs aching from hunching over so much that the blonde thought he’d become a modern day Quasimodo by the time they were finished their duties. “You fucked up my plans so this is your punishment since face,” Bakugou sneered, not even attempting to look back at the electric blonde, “now quite complaining and scatter those petals like I told you to.” The ash blonde has had quite enough with Denki’s childish whining and incompetence for something he had a hand in as much as the other idiots around him did.

“How come Kiri isn’t doing this?!” Sero was the one to complain now, pointing out the fact that Kirishima was seemingly going unpunished, holding a box of chocolates and a teddy bear wearing an eerily similar colour pallet as bakugous hero costume within his arms, walking in tandem with Bakugou flashing the two a cheeky smile and a peace sign as best as he could without our dropping the objects. “FAVOURITISM! I CALL FAVOURITISM!” Denki screeched as if he was some kind of activist for something totally inadequate and off the walls stupid. Kirishima only snickered at this after manly failed attempts of hiding his amusement the first few times a similar scene as this played out, Bakugou rolled his vermillion eyes at the duo who were slowly but surely testing his limited patience for bullshit and stupidity, he swore the two shared a singular brain cell that was gradually getting dumber and dumber with every word that slipped their lips without second thought or filter.

“I plead the fifth.” Was all he said just as something caught Sero’s onyx eye, curtesy of the widow panel next to them, upon first glance it didn’t look like anyone he knew but upon closer inspection the clearer the picture became as the puzzle pieces connected within his head, “ugh, guys...when were the girls meant to come back?”

“Not until this afternoon,” Kirishima clarifies, turning his attention to the raven haired male with a questionable expression, “why you ask?”

“Well...it’s either the arcade was shut or they decided it wasn’t worth it because they’re back.”

“WHAT?!” Denki shouted as he dropped the bucket of petals, rushing over to the widow to see what Sero was seeing before a barrage of ‘shits’ and ‘this isn’t goods’ came from his mouth only to get shoved aside by Bakugou who saw you and the girls pass through the gates, laughing about something, “Shit” he muttered under his breath, turning to the trio with an unrecognisable look, thinking of what to do before thinking that there was no point continuing the plan nor clean it up since that’ll take too long. “What’s wrong Baku-“ Kirishima started only to get cut off when a firm hand grasped his, Denki’s and Sero’s collars, dragging them down the way they came.

“Tape face is right, (y/n) is back, plan is a taking too long to put in motion and so will the cleaning task. We’re out of time.” They descended down the staircases with lengthy strides that left the trio to stumble after him. “What?!” Sero exclaimed, “but the plan?!” “Didn’t you hear me dumbass! We’re out of time and options other then to be straight forward!”

By the time they got to the outside, the boys caught sight of you sitting under a cherry blossom tree, alone with a book within your lap, you guys must’ve stopped at a bookstore on your way back; seeing the way Bakugou remained uncharacteristicly quite and how his grip slacked significantly enough for Denki and Sero to break free and make a break for it back into the dormitory whilst Kirishima places the box of chocolates and teddy bear with Bakugous costume right down to the mask that you once told him looked like the magnificent wings of a red emperor butterfly.

That comment alone made him the most flustered and defensive in his entire life, threshing to change his costume because of it. Did he? No because 1) the name of the butterfly sounded badass and 2) he wanted to keep something that has reminded you of something so innocent and elegant, it would leave a fond smile upon his lips as he subconsciously stroked the mask with feather light touches almost as if the material would break upon contact; he even remembered the time you told him that butterflies wings are entire constructed of scales when you couldn’t sleep one night several weeks ago.

Oh yeah, he’s very attentive to you, insanely attentive it shocked even himself sometimes but then he claimed it was because he was partially made to be the ideal man for you and you alone as he beloved that you were the ideal person for him in return. “Go ge ‘em tiger.” Kirishima said softly and encouragingly shoving Bakugou towards you slightly, which irked him a tad, but in order as to not alert you of his location he only growled lowly at the red head only to see that he was nowhere to be found, leaving the ashblonde all on his lonesome.

‘Fucking idiots’ he thought to himself as he finally gathered the strength required in asking you out once and for all but it seemed that the closer and closer he got the more and more obnoxious his thoughts became, telling him that this was a bad idea and that he should just turn away while he could and you’d be none the wiser. The vermillion eyed brute believed he was experiencing someone else’s thoughts instead of his own since he was quite loud, proud and unfiltered so that also meant his thoughts were about the same.

So why was he thinking such uncharacteristic bullshit then?

You saw a familiar spike of hair coming your way and a soft smile immediately painted itself upon your plump yet semi-cracked lips, a warmth spread throughout your chest at the sight of the man of your affections but then the negativity came flooding in the closer he got made your smile falter a fraction as they told you that even if he had feelings for you, he wouldn’t stay for long with how you looked compared to other girls like Momo and Mina.

He would leave you in a heartbeat when he realises that you aren’t enough for him, to face the fact that you were born be be alone. They would say this time and time again that soon enough you began believing it, never making a move and watching from afar as he would go on to date other girls much prettier then you, more confident then you, more sexier then you’ll ever be; your thoughts plagued your for so long that you didn’t recognise the hands that carelessly dropped a box of chocolates and a teddy bear to cup your cheeks with such gentleness that seemed to foreign to be Bakugou’s, leading you to tilt your head up to where your greeted by a pair of lips sensually caressing your own as they weaves expertly yet sloppily between your own while the sensation of heat rose upon your cheeks as you reached up with your hands, one cupping his cheek and the other upon his hand, letting your negative thoughts drown out as background noise by a more positive thought.

‘He does love you.’

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millenniumfae · 4 years

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Black Jack And Pinoko - Cute Headcanons

its canon that Black Jack goes abroad a lot, and is forced to eat out. but he grew up eating homely food like simple curry, chazuke, porridge, etc. and there’s only so much full-course dishes he can stomach before he begins to crave simple cuisine. once Pinoko learned to cook, she learned all of Black Jack’s favorite dishes and always tries to prioritize the meal on his preferences. Black Jack knows Pinoko doesn’t like some of the foods he does, so he never asks her to cook them - but sometimes she does, for his sake.

the original comic has Pinoko and Black Jack sleeping in the same room, while the 2004 anime has them in separate rooms. i like the idea of Pinoko having her own little girly bedroom - Black Jack’s old cottage isn’t huge, if there’s only three bedrooms, then surrendering one means less room for him to work, and one less room for patients to rest. but Black Jack loves his daughter and she deserves her own room.

the anime moves up the timeline and places the Black Jack serial during the early 2000′s. and Pinoko has a cute little pink flip phone, which definitely means Black Jack bought it for her, along with a data plan. he buys a lot of stuff for Pinoko, sometimes because she asks, and sometimes just because - her books, most of her toys, some of her clothes, her cute furniture and room dressage were all bought by Black Jack. he tends to wander into a shop and whimsically buy a toy she thinks she’ll like, or a book he thinks she’ll enjoy. for her clothing, on the other hand, he sets aside time to take Pinoko to a boutique or a mall and she’ll pick out stuff she wants.

and Black Jack is rich, no doubt. he puts aside a lot of his ridiculous funds into his secret revenge plot, or to buy islands to preserve the environment, but once Pinoko came into the picture, he’ll easily relinquish money on her. but he’s still a parent, so he won’t buy everything she asks for. no, Pinoko, you can’t have that giant chocolate teddy bear, that’s way too much sugar. no, we’re not taking first-class to London, business class is just fine. that floor-length cocktail dress isn’t gonna even fit you, Pinoko. if you want a fancy outfit, you gotta check out the kid’s section.

he knows that Pinoko likes to emulate what she believes is a woman of 18 years, even if she doesn’t particularly enjoy it, or understand it. she wants to buy a bottle of Chanel no. 5, because that’s what adult businesswomen wear. but look, Pinoko, it’s making you sneeze. “you can afford it, can’t you?” that’s not the point, Pinoko. Black Jack doesn’t want to dissuade these coping methods of hers, exactly. he can see that it’s tough for her. if its not actively destructive, or dangerous, then what’s the harm? when he comes back from another job abroad, he hands Pinoko the traditional souvenir; this time, its a small bottle of a girly perfume intended for teenagers. Pinoko sniffs - smells like sweet flowers. Black Jack gets a hug for his trouble.

people who read the original comic tend to say that the animated adaptations don’t make Black Jack angry enough. true, there’s a lot of panels where Black Jack shouts his head off at every turn, but everybody’s emotions are exaggerated in the comic. in the animated adaptations, Black Jack loses his temper only on occasion. and rarely with Pinoko. he doesn’t get angry when she throws fits, he gets angry during surgeries when lives are on the line. because that’s worth getting riled up over. not tantrums.

its canon that Black Jack doesn’t want Pinoko to know about some of his surgeries. such as ones where he’s paid to alter animals for the owner’s own entertainment. Black Jack emphasizes that its animal abuse. Pinoko’s asleep right now, i don’t want her to see what i’ve been talked into doing. she can withstand the blood and gore of surgeries, she bounces back from being kidnapped or threatened, but ill protect her from the darker, twisted sides of mankind for as long as i can. she deserves better.

one of his favorite activities to do with Pinoko is to teach her. she struggles a lot with the formal school system - being 18-years-old in a child’s body - so she has to learn everything from Black Jack. he rarely has time to sit down and tutor her, but sometimes he can put aside time to do it, and its so important to him. helping her read and write, introducing her to science and literature, teaching the piano, correcting her math, it makes him feel like he loves someone. loves his daughter.

Black Jack is canonically fluent in english, and knows some spanish, too. so he teaches Pinoko some, and her young mind picks them up quickly. they’d just be walking home from an op, and Black Jack’ll ask her something in english so she can practice. after just a couple of years, and the occasional time spent abroad in english/spanish-speaking countries, Pinoko can fluently speak english and spanish, just like Black Jack. many point out how talented she is, being trilingual at such a young age. Inside, Black Jack is glowing with pride.

Black Jack and Pinoko share a kinsmanship when it comes to bodily struggles. Pinoko’s body goes through the occasional high-risk complication due to her special circumstances. Black Jack’s scars ache on a regular basis, not to mention many of his organs being weak and delicate due to being blown apart and stitched back together. they take a lot of the same medications. sometimes, both of them end up having simultaneous abdominal pains, and spend the day resting on the couch - Pinoko curled up in Black Jack’s lap as they watch the latest Bob Ross.

they canonically live on a island, with their cottage a good fifteen minutes away from town (in Japan, that counts as quite a ways). its one of those islands that’s connected to the mainland by a ayre, meaning they can drive to the bigger city. their local town, meanwhile, is a port suburbia with no big department stores or skyscrapers, just streets of vendors and the occasional blocky office complex. Pinoko loves going to the nearest city, but she prefers living in a quieter place. Black Jack, meanwhile, would spend all his free time shut in his cottage if he could, but he knows Pinoko needs more socializing and he’ll accompany her.

Black Jack didn’t intend to be a father. but when Pinoko was abandoned right on the heels of her agonizing rehabilitation, he saw himself in the girl - how his parents had left him bandaged and aching, stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his childhood. Black Jack had Dr. Honma to save him from darkness, and he’ll act the same towards Pinoko.

he knows her favorite desserts, her preferred bath water temperature, how she likes to drink orange juice for lunch and apple juice for dinner, her current obsession with that particular american boyband, how she’s saving up money to buy a laptop like his (he’s still not sure if he should allow her that), or how she’s getting more and more interested in makeup and cosmetics (he’s definitely sure he’s not gonna allow that), how she hates using a kids toothbrush but loves her kiddie apron, how she struggles with literacy but grasps math surprisingly well, he knows her birthday, the sound of her footsteps, her entire medical record, her laughs, her cries, her shouts, her hopes and dreams.

like, edgy gorified medical dramas are ... nice and all, but the Black Jack series is best when the story is about being pure and good and thats the hill ill die on

#black jack #black jack anime #black jack manga #pinoko #kuroo hazama #hazama kuroo

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neverwatchedonepiece · 5 years

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650-651: "Luffy and the Gladiator of Fate - Rebecca!" and "Protect You to the End! Rebecca and the Toy Soldier!"

NARUTO-KUNNNNNN

So Bartolomeo is basically Hinata.

He collects Strawhat posters.

He is their biggest fan.

You guys were right.

This is hilarious.

I love him. xD

“I SENT YOU MY BLOOD, LUFFY!”

Once Luffy and Don Chinjao left the ring, the clean up and reconstruction team moved in. As of now, three contenders could potentially move forward to challenge Diamante: Jesus Burgess, Bartolomeo and the Not-So-Mysterious Lucy.

I say “not so mysterious” because everyone and their gran fighting in the next round knows who he is now.

And I have a theory: Bartolomeo, Rebecca and Luffy will team up against Burgess in the next round.

Why do I think this?

Well, once Luffy left the ring, pursued by Cavendish, two fodders happened to pass by Bartolomeo. He overheard them talking shit about Luffy.

“Why does Cavendish keep yelling Strawhat? As if he’d be here. That’s the guy who couldn’t even save his brother’s life. Anyone could do what he did if he doesn’t have to save anyone’s life!”

For some reason, Bartolomeo Did Not Like This. He pinned the fodder and almost crushed him with a barrier. At first I thought Bartolomeo’s reaction was something to do with Ace. Maybe they were friends once?

Nope.

The real reason was Even Better.

“What was that joke you made so lightly?” Bartolomeo growled. “Listen, Luffy-senpai will become the standard bearer for this era. He will become the Pirate King!”

No, I thought. No way. Bartolomeo was a Luffy supporter? How? And why Luffy-senpai? Had Luffy unknowingly taught him along the way?

The answer? Sort of.

Bartolomeo was there at Loguetown.

“I saw it with my own eyes. Over two years ago. At Loguetown in East Blue. On the legendary scaffold where Roger died, Luffy-senpai shouted it out then. At that moment, straight from heaven, came a bolt of thunder which saved his life. What I saw was a miracle!”

And thus Luffy’s Biggest Fan was born.

Seriously, this guy used to be a gangland boss (had taken over about one-hundred and fifty towns). But he began to follow the news stories. Alabasta, Enies Lobby, Impel Down and Marineford. He made a fan shrine with his bounty poster collection! In the end, Bart’s hardcore fanboy status reached the lofty height of emulation. Inspired by Luffy, he sailed out to sea.

And it turns out Bart does not take kindly to anyone talking shit about his idol.

While Luffy dodged Cavendish, Bartolomeo peeked round the wall and watched. “I can’t approach him. When it comes to it, I can’t do it. I’m too nervous to go anywhere near him. The scar under his left eye. It’s real! He’s so cool! Oh... my eyes are suddenly blind with tears. That stupid Cabbage shit. I want to beat him to death and save Luffy!”

It’s nice to know Luffy has such a dedicated in-universe fanbase.

And Don Chinjao can be added to the club too. He joined Cavendish in thundering after Luffy because he wants to place his grandson’s Happo Navy under the command of Garp’s Illustrious Grandson. What a result, right?

Except Luffy was thoroughly weirded out, wondering why these three crazy guys were chasing him.

Luckily for him, Rebecca was around.

Teach Takes Another Level in Scumbag

She grabbed his arm and hauled him off. There was a more private place nearby where no one else went.

On the way, they passed Jesus Burgess. He was in the middle of a DDM call. A very familiar voice was on the line. So familiar, it caused a visceral reaction in Luffy. He screeched to a halt immediately.

It was Blackbeard. And they were having a weird conversation.

“By that logic, Shiryu is no different,” Teach said.

“But I can’t trust Aokiji!” Burgess complained. “Uh... Hold on a sec, Captain. Strawhat is here.”

This piqued Teach’s interest. “Eh? You there, Strawhat?”

“You’re Blackbeard, aren’t you?” (You know when Luffy remembers you straight away that you must either be A) Really Good, or B) A Real Asshole.

“Yeah, it’s been awhile. Heard you’re fighting in the competition, Lucy. But my man, Burgess, is gonna win the Mera-Mera Fruit. I can’t wait because it’ll be like having Ace in my crew. He turned me down in the past.”

OOOOFT.

Wow, that one was a low blow. To be honest, I really like how Oda employs Teach as a long-term adversary to Luffy. Teach’s panel/screen time is economical but every time he appears, Oda really ramps up the enmity between him and Luffy. No exchange is ever wasted.

I was pretty proud of Luffy for keeping his cool here. It shows how much he’s matured as a person and as a Captain.

I am also intrigued by why Burgess is worrying about Aokiji? That was pretty random. Is our favourite ex-Admiral really operating in the underworld now? Is he trying to wangle information from the Blackbeards? Hmm... Don’t think Smoker would like that. Then again, he has had a hard lesson on Punk Hazard. Maybe he will be a little more cynical in future and won’t dismiss intel from pirates out of hand.

Justice for Toys!

Post Blackbeard Encounter, Rebecca led Luffy further away from the chaos. On the way, Luffy was distracted by free food samples. Just before he cleaned out the stall, Rebecca offered to buy him lunch, even though she didn’t have much money.

What a nice gesture, right?

Rebecca found a deserted looking area and Luffy smashed into his bento like it was Blackbeard’s face. Through mouthfuls of food, Luffy asked where they were. Rebecca explained it was quarters for the gladiators. They called it “a prison” (which, we learned later, it literally was).

Since Luffy’s life revolves around piracy and food, he asked Rebecca if she was hungry and if she wanted some food.

This triggered an Obvious Trauma Flashback. Smol Rebecca and her mother beneath the tree in Flower Field. Smol Rebecca saying, “I’m hungry.” Her mother replying, “Okay, do you think you can stay here alone for a while?” Then suddenly... dead mother.

Rebecca said tightly, “I don’t get hungry.”

Although I figured there was guilt here, I didn’t link Smol Rebecca’s food request directly with her mother’s death. Not until the big reveal of Rebecca’s past.

That unwitting conversational misstep must have pushed Rebecca into enacting her plan. She had intended to lure Luffy into a quiet area and kill him. When she turned on him, to my surprise, some randoms in bandages piped up from behind bars. “YEAH, GIT HIM, REBECCA!”

But Rebecca had picked on the wrong competitor.

Or, when you look at it from another angle, exactly the right one.

Luffy was able to fend her off while still tucking into his delicious meal. It was an embarrassingly easy win. The gulf of ability between them was so wide, she was never on Luffy’s radar. Right now, beating Rebecca would be like swatting a fly. (Not disparaging her general fighting ability, but compared to Luffy, most people would come off worse.) She was no threat, therefore Luffy wasn’t angry about the assassination attempt.

Luckily, she bought Luffy lunch. Especially since she didn’t have much money. He loves food and would appreciate that. Any other offence would pale in comparison to that act of generosity.

“I’m not gonna do anything to someone who bought me food,” Luffy said when Rebecca insisted he just kill her and get it over with.

Then Luffy noticed the “mummies” - the prisoners in bandages in the background. Rebecca explained the situation. She and the other guys in the room are “convict gladiators”, pretty much like the system in ancient Rome where slaves and criminals could be slung into the arena and ordered to fight to the death.

To ramp up Doflamingo’s evilness, they also said, “The king says we can be released if we win a thousand times. Everyone who tried to escape got shot. There’s nowhere to run for us. Before Doflamingo became king, gladiatorial matches were not to the death. In this kingdom, there are very bright and very dark sides.”

So Doflamingo brought in the Delayed Death Penalty for criminals. I guess it’s a way of ushering capital punishment through the back door. Entertain the masses and get rid of undesirables in one go. Few will object because most love the Colosseum games. The ones who won’t fight, or the really dangerous ones likely to talk too much, are turned into toys. That’s iron control of Dressrosa right there.

And Rebecca is not a fan.

“Today an army led by Sol will come to let us out by provoking a battle against Doflamingo. He is willing to sacrifice his life to destroy the kingdom. But I’m gonna do it before he does. I don’t want to just be protected anymore. I want to protect Sol this time! I’ll win today’s competition no matter what and will kill Doflamingo with the Mera-Mera Fruit power.”

I thought I’d figured out Rebecca’s motive to fight. Poor kid with no food, no family, maybe resorted to petty criminal activity, was arrested and now she wants to escape. Amongst all the crap that happened to her, maybe Sol was her only friend.

Luffy was like, “Why are you worried a toy is gonna die?”

Rebecca just smiled and said, “You’re not from here, so it’ll be hard for you to understand. Toys are the same as humans (wait til she finds out they *are* humans. She’s gonna flip tables). They are friends to the friendless. Siblings for those who have none. Lovers for the loveless. I don’t understand why they’re not able to live with us. Since I lost my mother, Sol-san raised me. He’s like a father to me (I bet he is).”

Luffy actually listened to this (which is a huge accomplishment, Rebecca. You should be proud of that) and said, “You don’t look like a prisoner to me. Buy me lunch again sometime!”

Rebecca walked out to the ring and said, “See you at the finals.”

I like her confidence.

Then a flashback kicked in that showed me how wrong I was about Rebecca’s motivations.

Oda Really Likes Princesses, Doesn’t He?

The sad tale of how Sol came to raise Rebecca opened with a scene of Smol Rebecca and her mother living quietly on Flower Field, picking flowers to sell in town. They had a lovely house. An idyllic life. But don’t think I missed that one empty chair at the table. (Sol is totally her dad.)

Then there was fire. The King Riku army was setting town on fire. This really puzzled me. (I’m still not one-hundred percent on this. Are we talking the actual King Riku or the Resistance King Riku Army here?)

Soldiers chased Smol Rebecca and her mother, Lady Scarlet. Diamante headed the charge. Sol stepped in and defended them. After the battle, Smol Rebecca and Lady Scarlet hid out in Flower Field. Rebecca said she was hungry. Lady Scarlet knew it was a risk but she sneaked into town to buy food. She was shot and killed. Sol brought her body back, along with the food she’d died to buy Rebecca.

Smol Rebecca nudging her mother’s dead body and telling her to get up was like post-stampede Mufasa and Simba all over again. It was Very Sad. ;_;

She almost cried but Sol clamped his hand over her mouth. Enemies were still looking for her.

“Your mother was high-born. Do you know we have a new king now? The new king wants to capture all the former nobility. He even wants to capture you because your mother’s blood runs through your veins. I’m gonna protect you unti the end with my life. Until the day you are filled with happiness, I will always be by your side.”

Wait... I thought. Rebecca is a noble???

What the hell?

What was going on?

Was the battle the night before a civil war in Dressrosa? One that Doflamingo won against King Riku?

Who Says Politicians Never Keep Their Promises, Eh?

Because here he is. On a podium. A shiny new king wearing his all time fave feather jacket. The adoring crowd chanted his name. “Doflamingo! Doflamingo!”

He made a speech. Par for the course with new kings.

“The Riku Family has been running this poor country for centuries! In the end they became shameless and robbed money and goods from citizens for themselves. I’m gonna make this country wealthy, instead!”

This is where I lost track of the situation. From what has been revealed about people turning into Toys, I thought Doflamingo “brought someone in” to do that. I figured that would have been *after* he gained power. But Toys were around before that. Sol is proof.

What gives?

And the people of Dressrosa *really* hate King Riku and anyone associated with his bad, corrupt family. Unfortunately for Rebecca, not only is she a noble, she is also King Riku’s granddaughter. Her status is also well-known in the Colosseum. When she walked into the ring, the commentator introduced her as the Phantom Princess of King Riku’s line. She was booed and vilified by the audience. “BURN IN HELL! CORRUPT FAMILY!”

I get the feeling Doflamingo engineered this somehow. It’s all too perfect a narrative. Doflamingo, the saviour, sweeps in and saves Dressrosa from the evil, corrupt family, while he is as bad, if not worse. Or maybe Doflamingo did have good intentions, but, as always in life, matters snowballed and he became hella corrupt himself. Leaning more towards deliberate coup at the moment.

I am also highly suspicious of the gladiator Ricky. It’s very close to Riku and there was definitely an older gent under that mask...

“SELL THEM FOR STRAWHAT MERCHANDISE!”

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. luffy #donquixote doflamingo #bartolomeo #rebecca sugar #sol the toy #lady scarlet #king riku #diamante #cavendish #don chinjao #dressrosa

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loststargrazer-blog · 3 years

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Can You Build a Philosopher?

Is being a philosopher too weird for you; well perhaps we could just build an artificial philosopher as then you could have objective philosophy? But what do philosophers do?

What do philosophers do? This is an interesting question, and there seems to be plenty to go on. One thing academic philosophers do is they study philosophy. I mean they really seem to care about who wrote what when, who commented on it and why, and who was influenced by them, where the philosophers lived, and what they had for breakfast. So philosophers on this view are a funny type of historian of ideas. They are not really that bothered about the right answer in philosophy, much more in what historically people believed. The problem with this is that I am not sure you need a PhD level detailed search through dusky archives to give you irrelevant information like what mental diseases Socrates had, or whether Anaxagoras disliked bacon sandwiches. Alternatively you could upload every surviving work of philosophy and get your robot 'Phylis the Philosopher' to spit out random passages and questions, which Phylis could then try to answer based on the library and archives using a combination of random shouting, search, and a machine learning algorithm. Is this job done?

Unfortunately when you look at philosophy, particularly modern philosophy, you get a different answer as to what philosophers should be doing. If we look back to the 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus' by Wittgenstein where he says philosophy is not a body of knowledge, but is a process. Interestingly, could we automate this process? What would it give us?

Wittgenstein says that much of philosophy is meaningless. The questions of philosophy are either based on confusion - so are part of philosophy, or are meaningless - so should be binned, or are questions of fact - and are part of science. So his philosophy is a facility for analysing language about confusions, and for clarifying them into logical relations and atomic statements of fact. Could you build this?

I shall call it the 'Wittgenstein Test', and it is a more sensible version of the Turing Test, not just to chat about human niceties, but to have Phylis shout either: "You are asking meaningless pointless questions you superstitious worm!" Or: "You are confusing x with y and z when they are different things you confused slug!" Then, like Wittgenstein himself, Phylis could spit out some tape of predicate logic in a weird mix of obscure and obsolete Greek, mathematical, and Hebrew symbols.

On a more serious note, Wittgenstein does give some more details about how to pass a Wittgenstein Test, and it is very like machine recognition (as you would find in a self-driving car):

- First, you take the sensory information about the world and describe it as a picture.

- Second, you identify everything in the picture in a finite number of statements or logical atoms (or (Ǝx)fx as Wittgenstein unhelpfully describes it - he also has a symbol for the set of statements that I can't draw).

- Third, you can describe the relations between the logical atoms.

- Fourth, you make propositions with the logical relations of the atoms and manipulate them tautologically [I shall discuss tautologies in my next blog - basically this means in a way that can't be logically false - so is a logically valid manipulation].

Really Wittgenstein doesn't give too many examples, so I am not sure if Phylis would be useful, but by showing the link to the logical statements from your question you would either be finding a tautology - so the answer would be yes, or finding a contradiction - so the answer would be no, or if neither of these it would be irrelevant to the picture. If irrelevant to the picture, Wittgenstein and the logical positivists (although not me) said the question was actually meaningless. I can see Phylis in this mode being able to answer things like is there a cat on the road? But less, should we stop? Also, there seems to be a large computational jump to being able to analyse a philosophical confusion from this. It is probably terribly politically incorrect, but I do often mock Wittgenstein in my head, despite his 'algorithm' for philosophy having been written before electronic computers were invented at the end of the first world war. Nonetheless Phylis could probably do 'philosophy' as set out by Wittgenstein in steps 1-4 only, which is good because I don't think a normal brained human could, but bad because I don't think this would solve many philosophical questions. But isn't philosophy a bit more creative?

Well is philosophy creative? There are plenty of things philosophy could be said to be, but I am not convinced that wild bouts of creativity are as prevalent as you might think, although perhaps they should be; but philosophy is not supposed to be fiction. So what do philosophers do again? One theory is that philosophers only do philosophy to promote themselves in society, but given the number of philosophers who rejected social niceties this seems an only partial view at best. Also philosophers would probably make more money if they became accountants, so I think this Nietzschean view is not really a comment on philosophers, but rather a comment on some human ambition and rather flawed too. Personally I just like to share my thoughts with you my friends, however it does lead us into a discussion of the role in society of philosophers separate from producing philosophy.

Quite interestingly for me, philosophy in academic groupings is lumped together with religious studies; which, based on Wittgenstein's probable account that the word god is meaningless, I find to be quite hilarious. Nonetheless it does suggest that Phylis, our robot philosopher, might need to have a religious role within society following on from our definitions of religious in blog 18 to be a true philosopher. Following on from the last two blogs, we can see that, especially historically, philosophers have been crucial to describing the generalisations, theories, and conceptions that govern our political and moral lives. Along with economists and sociologists, philosophers are the new priests of our secular society working alongside the vestiges of the religious organisations that never go away.

Philosophers probably aspire to incitefully solving confusions through educating and clarifying public thought. Also, they may polarise or distract the debate by adding logic, or even dogma, or even just by clinging to the views of their favourite school of philosophy. A surprising number of philosophers are advisors on panels and think tanks on a wide range of issues, and may even influence governments, or at least provide some alternative insane views to the prevailing orthodoxy. In fact academic philosophers in particular often love the thrill of having their interpretations being taken seriously, and not just by gullible students. So could Phylis become a secular priest, and influence society with awkward and backward philosophy from a long dead philosopher? Could she educate and corrupt the youth by providing an unhelpful academic education like Socrates?

Presently there is educational software, but it is quite textbook like, so Phylis could be loaded with someone's perceived wisdom. It is unlikely though that she could yet mark an essay correctly, and philosophy students generally have to write essays. In Socrates's day of course they had to use dialectic, verbal discussions. While it might be difficult to get a robot to discuss philosophy, it might be easier to get it to say: "You don't know that," at regular intervals. Socrates's education system was very much focused on denying speculative knowledge, although strangely not so much about the gods so much as political authority. Apart from Socrates there is a tendency to promote philosophy that is politically expedient, for example Confucius, or that tries to make you happier or more respected, like Aristotle. This philosophy is not necessarily truly justified by dialectic argument beyond an end justifying the means. For example, Socrates is probably correct in his view that an Emperor does not know what he is talking about; however Confucius tries to reconcile this by saying it is in the interest of a harmonious state to respect the Emperor. That this is oppressive totalitarianism is not relevant to Confucius's moral view that anarchy or civil conflict is a less favourable alternative. So sometimes philosophy is not about philosophy but about the conflicts in society, psychology, science, politics, even economics. This conflict can be captured in an essay or dialectic, but less in robot marking.

At present we could use search technology to search digital libraries, and digitalisation itself would much improve the availability, cost, and ease of access to philosophy. The delivery of education could be semi-automated with texts, comments, lectures, and criticisms loaded online. Interactive forms and worksheets would be useful in teaching the facts, particularly in topics like logic exercises. However this leaves quite a lot remaining. To study philosophy is also to test out how you think. This remains outside of technology for the moment.

In some respects contemporary philosophy is like a bunch of cut flowers, cut from other disciplines. Logics, which I shall talk about in my next blog, are cut from language arguments; philosophy of mind from psychology; meta-physics from physics and religion; ethics from decision making; political philosophy from campaigners; and of course running through almost all philosophy is history, the history of ideas. Can Phylis, our computer philosopher, do this? I think the flower arranging and ensemble is beyond the ability of a present computer system. When we look at what philosophers have done historically, there are both tasks that can be done better by a computer and tasks that are beyond Phylis, most notably the synthesis of a new religion for society. However, what about a future academic philosopher? What would happen in sci-fi philosophy?

There are at least three ways we could study how we think and whether our philosophy is valid in the world of sci-fi:

- One is to think the thoughts while in a brain scan: It would show the neural logic, the associations, the premises, the actual logic, and the exact references and the scope of the conclusions.

- A second way is to use a computer brain, perhaps taking a step by step analysis of neural learning methods as it goes from the explicit inputs via an analysed neural net to a weighted conclusion. Alternatives, like a Wittgenstein Test, might also be helpful in providing different cognitive analyses of a problem. This would transform philosophy from being based on opposing historical arguments to showing how the interpretation of an input, or the weighting of a learned emphasis could create tipping points in the logic and worldview; so one way you get the ethics of Jihadi John, and another way the generosity of the enlightenment.

- The third way is dystopian and that would be to create unethically a large organic brain, perhaps by hormones or gene therapy - so you could brain scan an experimental brain; perhaps it would be a monkey with the IQ of 300. This could be used to solve the hard problems, but would probably work out how to enslave humanity and conquer the universe with a race of monkey cyborgs. Okay this is definitely sci-fi, but the point remains that you could brain scan something other than a regular human brain, perhaps a large vat of neurons.

There are other experiments that could be carried out in sci-fi, for example testing the differences in perception and thinking between a primate brain (like a human) and a bat. This might be the case of building some simplified computer models of bats and primates in a super computer and reverse engineering the brain simulations to investigate the difference. Perhaps the sensation of being a bat could even be simulated for the curious using virtual reality. Would this still be philosophy, probably not? Probably it would be a form of science like computational psychology, but it would answer a current question of philosophy. So philosophy will both expand and shrink.

Back to the here and now for a conclusion; can you build a philosopher? The answer to this is that on Wittgenstein's definition, you might yes, however this definition ignores much of what philosophers actually do. However neither Wittgenstein's machine nor most academic philosophers spend that much time systematically rethinking and refining general philosophy. Academics do spend a lot of time on the quasi-religious public worship of old theories. There are therefore two final conclusions you can draw from this: One is what philosophers do might change radically in the future if digitalisation technology evolves into digital cognition. The second is that it is good to re-explore philosophy in this live flash blog form and try to revamp, and join up, our thinking; for academic philosophy is religious and has a backward influence with gravitas.

#philosophy #meta-philosophy #mind #Wittgenstein #Turing #test #religion #what is #ai #philosopher #philosophical #sci-fi #academic #religious

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magicalallura-archive · 7 years

Text

The Colour of Magic

for @platonicvldmonth

Day 30: Witch AU

Wordcount: 4534

Summary: Keith has always been able to see the magic. It just took him a while to meet others who could too.

Warnings: very brief allusions to child neglect/abuse and bullying

Notes: Doesn’t really follow the prompt? Oops. Also, I wanna say that while most of the quintessence we see in the show is purple, but that’s always used by the Galra and therefore ‘evil’. The rare times we see ‘good’ or ‘natural’ quintessence, it’s blue, so that’s the colour I went with.

Keith was five years old when he first talked with the magic.

It was late on a summer’s day, meaning that the sand was still warm as he stood on it, the telltale smell of dust and a lack of rain hung in the air, his pants were a little too small and pricked him in his side, and the sun stood low on the horizon, providing too little light to see anything but vague shapes.

The magic didn’t need any light to be seen. It swirled around the lonely dandelion that had managed to survive the desert heat, clinging to its leaves, crawling up and down its stalk, giving the yellow flower a soft cyan glow. Keith reached out a finger, and it crawled up him, too, drawing out little specks of light from his skin and growing brighter and larger.

It told him it was curious. He told it he was curious, too. He’d seen the blue glow before, but never this bright. It told him that’s why it was curious itself. It hadn’t been so bright before, unless it was around the Lion.

He was about to ask what lion it was talking about, when his dad picked him up.

“It’s getting dark, son,” he said, Texan drawl evident in his voice. “Let’s go inside.”

He put Keith against his shoulder, and Keith tried to turn his head so he could look at his father. “I saw magic today!” he declared. “It’s around the dandelion right now!”

His dad didn’t turn to look at the dandelion, but he smiled at Keith. “Really?” he asked. “What’d it look like?”

“Glowy blue!”

“Glowy blue magic? Sounds pretty.”

“It was! Nice too. I talked to it.”

“Did you, now?”

His dad carried him inside and closed the door behind them. Keith could barely catch the light around the dandelion flickering out.

Keith kept seeing the magic, but soon stopped talking about it. He learnt that others couldn’t see it, and that you don’t talk to things that aren’t there.

His dad left, or was taken, or died, or something, but he wasn’t there anymore, and social services found out. Nice ladies and a few nice men managed to take him to some community center, where they were talking about him very unsubtlety.

Keith was ten years old and not adoptable, but he went into the system anyway. The years after were a blur of families that didn’t care for him, didn’t understand him, and didn’t want to do either of these things.

He tried not to talk to the magic. Even before the houses, he knew people would think he was crazy. But in the houses, he learnt that it was scary to slip up. People yelled, grew pale, gave him back to social services, and sometimes even hit him, though that was mostly the other kids. He learnt that staying quiet wasn’t just preferred, but necessary.

But the magic helped him, in its own way. If a house he was in had forgotten to feed him, it would lay a trail to the nearest and cheapest grocery store. If it was dangerous to enter his house at the moment, either because the kids or the adults were angry, it blocked the way to the door. If he didn’t know the answer to a question on a test, it sometimes whispered it in his ear.

When Keith was twelve, it pointed him to a sign-up sheet for summer camp. Junior Astronauts, organized by the Galaxy Garrison. It was a camp to learn about space, and what it meant to be an astronaut, and it was taught by Galaxy Garrison cadets who were about to graduate. Keith had never been particularly interested in space, but he knew better than to doubt the magic at this point.

He argued with it when he saw the price listed in the pamphlet - those were all of his savings, and his current house wasn’t going to pay for the camp. But it insisted, and he relented. He convinced his house to let him go (not that that was very hard, as long as he was paying), and he left the next summer.

The magic followed him, of course.

He’d expected to be the odd one out at camp, and he was, but mostly because he was the only one who didn’t come in with a base knowledge about space. Apparently, the majority of the kids here really really loved space.

Which, okay, made sense. But it was still weird to Keith how he was the one being ostracized for not being a nerd.

Despite his general lack of interest in space and stars and everything related to it, the camp was fun, a basic sort of way. The kids weren’t necessarily mean, the facts were interesting enough, and the instructors/camp counselors were nice. Nothing outstanding, though. Until they got to a flying simulator.

The simulator was something else. The other instructors had grinned at them and told them they were in for a treat, flying together with Shirogane, who had apparently broken all flight records in the Garrison. Keith was skeptical, but even he had to admit that flying a spaceship (if only a simulation of one) sounded exciting.

Keith was almost last in line to go into the cockpit with Takashi “Call me Shiro” Shirogane. Shiro was waiting, and after a few seconds where he seemed to startle looking at Keith, cheerfully waved him over to the co-pilot seat.

His hand left little rays of blue light in its wake.

Keith stared at that for a while. Magic rarely attached itself to human beings, usually preferring plants and the occasional animal. In fact, Keith had never seen it linger for more than a second on anyone but himself.

But the veins in Shiro’s hands glowed with that familiar light, and his eyes carried blue specs in them. And the sparks he left behind as he tapped on the control panel were brighter than a bonfire.

“Are you coming?” Shirogane asked him, smiling with a friendly blue glow. “Nothing to be scared of, I promise.”

Keith almost wanted to ask him if he could see the blue light surrounding him, but instead, he sat down. No need to risk anything just yet.

“What’s your name?” Shirogane asked him, the words almost spelled out by blue.

“Keith,” he said, stubbornly refusing to look anywhere but the control panel.

“Well, welcome to the cockpit, Keith. We’re going on a mission to Jupiter today. I’m piloting, but we can switch sometimes, if you want to. That sound good?”

Shiro’s hands on the control panel were following a pattern spelled out by the blue. Keith watched it curiously, before remembering he had to answer.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, “sounds great.”

“Alright. Buckle up, here we go!”

And they were off, and Keith forgot everything about magic for a few seconds, as it almost felt like they were plunging off a cliff.

“Sorry!” Shiro said cheerily, as he steered them towards the ground. “Must’ve clicked on the wrong program!”

He pulled up at the last second, and swirled across the foreign planet’s ground, narrowly missing various red pillars. Keith was clamping his seat, almost forgetting that they were in a simulator, and hadn’t felt that alive in years. It almost felt like he was really, truly flying.

They swirled across the red planet some more, before taking off into the air, flying through asteroid fields and doing loops for no reason. He watched the stars - fake, of course, but it felt so real - float by, and he had never, ever felt more at home, right there in the seat next to a maniac who seemed like he was trying to crash them every few seconds.

“Fun, huh!” Shiro grinned at him, as he narrowly dodged a piece of space junk. “You wanna try?”

“Yes!” Keith shouted, flying out of his seat and into the pilot’s. Shiro easily switched with him. Keith noted that his whole body seemed to radiate light now, and as Keith moved to grab the controls, he noticed that he, too, seemed to be leaving a stronger trail of magic than usual.

The magic whispered that this was what he was good at, what both he and Shiro were good at, and what they both loved the most. After almost flying into an asteroid while Shiro just laughed, Keith was grinning too hard to disagree.

The simulation ended, and it took a few seconds for Keith to process as the lights turned on bright again.

Shiro grinned at him, leaning back in the co-pilot chair. “You’re really, really good at this, Keith,” he said, looking like he meant it too. “You should think about applying for the Garrison in a couple of years.”

Keith, still high on the adrenaline of not-crashing-but-only-barely, nodded vigorously.

“Oh, and also,” Shiro was getting up, and the magic around him was dimming a bit, “if they ask, you were on a cargo flight to Jupiter. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to pick that simulation.”

He shrugged his shoulders in a ‘what can you do’ motion, before winking at him. Keith grinned.

They got out of the simulator, Shiro called in another kid, and it was almost painful to look at non-glowing humans again.

After, Shiro seemed to take a liking to him. Or maybe he took a liking to Shiro. Or maybe it was just magic doing its work. Either way, they spent more time with each other, talking at lunch, playing games in free time, that kind of thing. Nothing screaming ‘blatant favoritism’, but still noticeable if you knew what you were looking for.

Most people didn’t. Keith did. He was hyper-aware of the glowing man, because he, well, glowed. The magic seemed permanently attachment to Shiro in much the same way as it was to him. Keith noticed that it seemed to become brighter when he was excited, dimmer when he seemed sad, and that it sometimes showed him the way the same way it did for him. It was really weird to see it from an outside perspective for once.

Shiro didn’t talk to it, and he didn’t even seem aware of it. But Keith wondered if that was because he truly couldn’t see it, or because he had simply trained himself to pretend the way Keith had.

He didn’t know how to find out, though. It wasn’t like he could walk up to him and say “Excuse me instructor Shirogane - Shiro - but can you see the magic around you?”

So he just waited. Observed. Tried to figure out if Shiro could see it. He got nowhere.

It all came to a head when Keith snuck away from the group he was stargazing with. One of the kids in there couldn’t stand him, and the feeling was mutual. Keith slipped away from the instructor first chance he got, and settled down some way from the group, looking up at the stars.

It was night, and the desert sky stretched out above him, filled with bright white dots. He was curled up in a ball, shivering against the cold. Staring at the sky was something he did a lot as a kid, and he’d lived in the desert, too. This wasn’t a new sight for him, and he didn’t care much for it.

“Want a blanket?”

Shiro was standing over him, waving a flower-patterned blanket at him. Light radiated from him, illuminating the area around him like he was shining a flashlight.

The magic walked ahead of Shiro as he came closer, until it was enveloping Keith too. He felt a sudden wave of warmth wash over him, and he tried not to gasp. He’d had no idea the magic was capable of that.

Keith didn’t protest as Shiro dropped the blanket on him, even though he was sure the light was enough to keep him warm.

They sat next to each other, Shiro quietly sipping from a cup of coffee, staring up at the stars.

“Not going to teach me about the constellations?” Keith finally asked, just to break the silence.

Shiro shrugged. “I could. I love nerding out about these things. But I don’t think you’d really care much.”

Keith nodded, than grimaced. It was probably not the best idea to admit that to a teacher at a camp for ‘young astronauts’.

Shiro saw his sour expression, and laughed. “It’s okay, kid. I know you don’t care much for space. Figured it out in a week or so.”

“Sorry,” mumbled Keith, because it seemed like the right thing to say.

“Eh, it’s fine,” Shiro said, waving his apology away, leaving small blue falling stars behind. “We can’t all be interested in everything. But I do have to ask...”

Shiro lowered his voice. The magic dimmed to an almost dangerous level. Keith watched curiously as it wrapped itself around Shiro’s neck, moving in a way that could almost be described as nervous.

And now that he was looking for it, Keith could see it in Shiro too. He gripped his mug just a bit too tightly, stared at the stars a bit too intently. Shiro was nervous.

Keith sat up.

“If you don’t care for space, why are you in a space camp?”

Why was Shiro about asking that?

Keith stared as the magic shrunk around Shiro’s neck with every second that he didn’t answer, the light growing dimmer and dimmer. It wasn’t just nervous now. It was scared.

The bright smile Shiro gave him was so incredibly different from his light that it was almost creepy. No-one should be able to act like that.

“Was there anything special that brought you here?”

The magic had almost disappeared. Shiro set his mug down. Keith guessed that his hands had started shaking.

“...something blue?”

Keith’s mouth fell open. He couldn’t react. He couldn’t even think.

Something blue.

The magic grew brighter.

“You can see it.”

And the magic grew brighter and brighter, until the blue light was almost obscuring the stars. It covered Shiro’s every vein, his eyes began sparking, and it was almost audibly buzzing.

And even so, Shiro’s smile was brighter.

“You can see it.”

Shiro’s story was similar to his own. He’d realized that he could talk to the magic when he was young, but suppressed the ability because people thought he was crazy. Shiro admitted that he’d started to become convinced that he actually was.

Until Keith showed up.

After that night under the stars, they talked about the magic, and sometimes through the magic. Shiro could do more than he - he could make the magic spell out words for him, give it almost physical form so that it could fetch things from far away. He’d learned how to adapt the magic to his normal life, and how to make his connection to it as useful as possible.

Keith was better at reading the magic, though. Keith could tell Shiro what the magic was feeling at any given moment, could unravel its mystery messages without breaking a sweat. The first time Keith had admitted that, Shiro’s magic had glowed so bright he’d almost bought a pair of sunglasses on the spot.

Shiro began teaching Keith how to use his magic, and Keith began teaching Shiro how to listen. They were both excellent students, and before the end of the summer, they had picked up at least half of the other’s tricks.

Their stories were alike in more than the magic. Shiro’s parents had died when he was twelve, and he’d bounced around in foster care before finally managing to win a Garrison scholarship.

“You can win one too,” he told Keith one night, “I saw you fly that simulator. I wasn’t kidding when I said you were talented. Apply for Garrison when you’re sixteen - I’ll put in a good word for you, if they’re still keeping me around then.”

That last part was said like a joke. The first part wasn’t.

Keith left the camp with more control over his magic, a goal in life, and the first real friend he’d made since.

Well.

Ever.

Keith and Shiro kept in touch, calling and writing each other. Usually they wrote emails. On special occasions, like Christmas, Shiro insisted on using the old fashioned postal mail, though.

Keith found out why the first time he’d opened a Christmas letter and found a glowing blue reindeer jump out.

Keeping in touch with Shiro was magical for the obvious reasons, and for the personal ones. Never had anyone put in this much effort to speak with him, to keep him around. It was overwhelming, almost, but good. Very good.

He applied for the Garrison at sixteen, as promised. He was accepted.

And, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, the Garrison still wanted Takashi Shirogane, now a decorated fighter pilot, around.

They saw each other for the first time in three years, and they hugged so long that Keith swore their magic would be permanently bound.

First day of school, he looked around at his classmates, and saw, to his surprise, that there was another blue boy sitting right behind him, chatting at everyone who would listen.

He followed the blue boy, and almost chocked when he met up with another guy, who was glowing only slightly dimmer than his classmate.

He swore that he would talk to them.

He didn’t. He was too awkward, and the longer boy, his classmate (Lance?) seemed to take all of his approaches as an attack. The broader boy, an engineer, he thought, seemed loyal enough to his friend to follow his lead and ignore Keith.

It hurt a bit, being hated for no reason, by two people who were exactly like him, but Keith wasn’t quite desperate enough to push through it.

After all, he had Shiro.

Two years later, the Kerberos mission went MIA. Crew lost. Pilot error.

The magic was pointing a neon sign towards Iverson’s office, and so he broke in. The Garrison was hiding something. He knew it. He just knew it.

Shiro wouldn’t have crashed his crew. He wouldn’t have. He couldn’t have.

He couldn’t be dead.

Keith didn’t manage to find anything in Iverson’s office, mostly because he didn’t have the skills necessary to hack his computer.

That did not stop him from punching Iverson in the face.

Two days later, he turned eighteen, and a day after that he was expelled.

Keith knew he should feel disappointed, but he couldn’t.

The magic was pointing a sign away from the Garrison, and with Shiro gone, there was nothing left for him, anyway.

It wasn’t like he’d ever cared that much for space.

The magic led him back to the old shack where he and his dad had lived, and Keith used Shiro’s solid-magic trick to help clean up. He and the magic were done before sundown, and still had time to fix his dad’s broken hover bike.

The first night, he slept.

The second night, the magic glowed, and it led him to the caves. Weird rock drawings marred the walls, and he knew this couldn’t be a coincidence.

Shiro had left a hole, and losing the Garrison had widened it. These paintings couldn’t fill it, not by a long shot.

But something bright and blue told him that it might be worth his time, anyway.

Months passed, and Keith found himself falling back into the habit of talking out loud to his magic. It was hard not to, when there was no one else around. And sometimes, sometimes he almost felt like he could feel people around him.

Sometimes, he could swear that he heard Shiro’s voice, loud and afraid. Sometimes, he felt flour on his hands, or nausea in his stomach. Sometimes, he felt like laughing, jumping into a crowd of people, feeling too lonely to stay still. Sometimes, he felt angrier than usual, swearing to himself that he will find them. He didn’t know who ‘they’ were.

Sometimes, he woke up during the middle of the day, when the sun was at its highest, with his teeth clattering, feeling cold.

But he was sure that was just him going insane. He lived in the burning hot desert, all alone, without human contact. Something was bound to snap sometime.

So he ignored it the best he could, and slowly built up his conspiracy board.

It all came to a head one night, when the magic shook him awake, frantically leading him outside, to his hover bike, pointing signs back to the Garrison.

Keith followed its lead, grabbing explosives as ordered, and set them off as a distraction so that he could sneak inside, to see what the magic was getting worked up about.

He saw Shiro’s signature even before he’d opened the door.

He wanted to cry, wanted to scream, but there was no time. He needed to get them both out of here.

“Oh no you don’t, I’m saving Shiro.”

A glowing blue boy walked in like this was some sort of shared lecture, shoved a table aside, and helped him carry Shiro. It took Keith a while to recognize him. Lance. The kid from his class.

Lance’s engineer friend was there too, magic dancing around his head as he nervously rambled on. Keith could see another boy behind him, a lot smaller than the rest, and to his surprise, he was burning just as bright as the rest of them.

Five people, all surrounded by glowing blue light.

No wonder the magic had been insistent on him coming here.

After that, things had happened at the speed of light, and before he knew it, he was facing an alien princess.

She was blinding. The blue didn’t just cling to her, it drowned her in it - no, that was wrong. It was like it surrounded her the way planets surrounded their sun. Her eyes burned bright as suns and turned to hellfires during battle, and her happiness turned her sparks of magic into fireworks.

She was magical, through and through, and Keith was so overwhelmed that he barely took note of anything else.

Even the giant space cat paled in comparison to this galaxy of light.

But even she felt like a candle next to Voltron.

He felt their magic connect, felt their gravities collide, and they formed one being. He saw his veins light up, saw them ooze the energy, capture it, use it to form weapons, to communicate with each other. Their magic was synced, no, more than that - their beings were synced, and they were really, truly one.

He was breathless when they lost the formation, and felt like crying.

He soon learnt that their magic worked in different ways.

Lance’s magic was like water. It flowed through his veins, and it rarely left his body. Keith saw it adapt to the people around him - when next to Hunk, the magic was slower, steadier, when next to Pidge, it was restless, taking different routes every second, when next to Allura, it burned bright, gravitating to her like all other sources of magic did.

Pidge’s magic was sly. It glowed inconsistently, dancing through her body like a circuit board, always changing its code. Only when Pidge was at rest did he see it act natural. Then, it was almost like a tree, moving in predictable paths, from her toes to her head, before fanning out like leaves.

Hunk’s magic was centered around certain places in his body; his feet, his knees, his hands, his shoulders, his forehead. It stayed there, glowing steady, only broken when Hunk was anxious or scared. Or when he was mad or happy - then, it jumped off his body, circling its pressure points, like it was too much energy to be contained in one spot, on one person.

Shiro’s magic was familiar, but it had changed so much. It was the only magic he’d ever seen that could jump around like that, rain from his body and flicker out, leave his atmosphere permanently. But it didn’t, anymore. The loose sparks that would’ve been lost forever, before, now clung to his body, circling him like satellites. He never saw any fallen stars anymore. It worried him.

Allura was... amazing. She was a galaxy, a sun, a star, a royal among magic. It adored her, clung to her, shone from her like she was its birthplace, like she was a beacon to it all. Everyone’s magic gravitated towards her, and Keith could feel his own magic follow - it had no choice. She was their sun, and they could not escape her gravity.

But, strangely enough, Allura was the only one who didn’t seem to notice that she had it. Lance knew, often pulling silly tricks on people, creating illusions out of nowhere, or using the magic to mask his footsteps to become completely quiet. Hunk knew, often using the magic’s strength to reinforce him in battle, or simply using it as a warm blanket. Pidge knew, using her magic as a glorified listening device, listening carefully to what it said. And of course, Shiro and Keith knew too.

Allura, however, steadily denied having magic. Each time she did so, the paladins shot each other a glance, but there was nothing they could say to convince her that she was the most powerful of them all, so they left it.

Coran didn’t have magic, nor could he see it. But when Keith tried to explain it for the first time, his eyes lit up.

“Oh!” he said, grinning the way he always did before he went off on one of his stories. “Yes, I know about that. On Altea, we called it quintessence. It’s the life force of every living being, and can only be seen and used by a select few. You are very lucky that the life force of your planet has chosen you!”

Quintessence?

The magic waved.

Keith smiled.

Quintessence.

Slowly, Keith realized something.

Their quintessence was not the life force of their planet.

He realized it first when Hunk’s quintessence seemed brighter, stronger, after returning from the Balmera.

It wasn’t their own either.

He saw many different planets, and with every planet they left, their quintessence changed.

After the water planet, Lance’s quintessence was calmer, more at rest.

After Olkarion, Pidge’s quintessence was less divided; it now flowed easily between a circuit board and a tree, often combining the two.

And Keith had seen the way Shiro’s quintessence had changed after escaping the Galra.

He realized something.

Their quintessence wasn’t theirs - it was the universe’s.

He couldn’t say that he was surprised.

They were the paladins of Voltron, defenders of the universe.

Was it really that weird that they’d carry its life force too?

Years later, they returned to Earth, glowing brighter than ever, with a piece of countless planets inside of them.

They were a patchwork of magic, a vessel for quintessence, and as Keith watched it light up the sky to signal their arrival, he realized that he would never have it any other way.

#platonicvldmonth #vld keith #keith #I can't believe I wrote a keith centric story #and I definitely can't believe that it's almost 5000 words #anyway this is the last story I finished for platonicvldmonth so I hope it's not too awful!#if I fly hard enough my issues won't follow me #personal #I hate the titel so much and this fic has so much more titel potential but w/ever #jay writes

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