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icharchivist · 2 years

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I LOVE MISUMI SO MUCH AND I WANT TO GIVE HIM A HUG. okay deep breaths now. uh. i went through captain sky's pirates! for the longest time i misread the play title and was CONVINCED they were like sky pirates like they were all in airships and stuff and honestly. i actually didnt realize they weren't in flying ships until i watched the play which was over halfway thru reading the event. um. clearly i was hoping too hard that i ignored everything else lol. but seriously... why else would the captain be named sky...

anyways gosh. its been a whole 3 months since clockwork heart! now that it's summer (fitting season for this troupe lol) im gonna go thru some more a3 though i think. let's see the actual event...

well first off the lil intro with part of the older summer troupe's play did make me go and read the first chapter of one piece haha. just for the Vibe. the paper airplane competition they had was so fun and i personally related w/ tenma prototyping his paper airplanes and having it absolutely suck because that's so me like taking something so extremely seriously that i forget that precision engineering isnt like actually feasible so all this theory is functionally useless and that i also don't know any aerodynamics theory in the first place. but also “don’t you know that paper airplanes fly farther if you put all your love into them!?” this is so funny i could never say that. pfft i just looked back to the notes i was taking and i was like "oh its paper airplanes because SKY pirates!!!!" i cannot read apostrophes.

i also was like "omg tsuzuru didn't faint immediately" only for everyone to also comment the same thing haha so i knew that wasn't gonna last... i mean i assumed he was trying not to faint bc he wanted to talk abt that original script paper thing but i also noticed that he faints very specifically after people compliment him on it so i like to think he was so relieved that his body gave out.

when they're discussing the play there's a part where yuki talks abt costuming and kazunari talks about like the design colors and the accents and stuff and i was just like !!! bc it's like! that's what sardine search started! with kazunari discussing design aspects with yuki... and now he feels comfortable enough to just talk about it! i loved how natural that was.

also it's been a while since i went through the og summer troupe bc i was sitting there like "wait did people not KNOW misumis grandpa did scripts?" like i didnt remember the script thing specifically but i remember he was an important mankai person for sure. bc its like.... well, why else was misumi living there huh.

i was very happy muku was the second lead in the play! although i am kind of sad tenma didnt play francoise lol... literally i was sitting up in my seat like. my fic idea of tenma saying he'd play a female role real??? but i guess the short jokes wouldn't have worked then.

and then for most of this event i felt Deeply Concerned for misumi and wanted to give him a hug. like it's all like it was a cute "tenma's scared of ghosts!" thing when they found him but also he was just living out there alone? he’s got great athletic skills but how long has he been living out there alone. I’m really asking how long. he's not that old how long was it. his grandfather died six years ago it how long has misumi been living alone how long has he been on the run. “gramps was the only one who didn’t abandon me. he was the one who made sure I wasn’t alone.” i am so worried about him. and misumi's whole thing with not being able to remember hakkaku's face Really got me! like that's just such a painful thing and like. idk. personally as someone who can really only visit some of my relatives very rarely i definitely get him.

anyways the treasure map! that was so cute. also i didn't remember how muku and kazunari's room looked,, it was so fresh feeling. oh wow! muku and kazunaris room looks so fresh and nice. tenma hiding a self help directionally challenged book is also so hilarious. yuki re: yuzo “how is that geezer always so free? does he really have a job?” how are YOU free, yuki??? you have TWO jobs (acting, costuming) AND ur a student!

when they couldn't find the last treasure box i immediately called it like "i bet what he liked most was being able to hear the troupe perform. bc those precious memories w/ his friends is what he treasures most" and i pretty much nailed it on that account i feel. i am so glad madoka is the one who showed up to meet muku and izumi bc he is actually a good kid which made me feel so relieved. the my master's mesmerized by mystery event made me cry because i felt so bad for homare and this made me emo but i didn't cry which is great. also when muku and izumi first try to talk to him i think it's so funny that muku's like "maybe tenma and yuki would have done better..." if u let tenma and yuki do it they would have gotten arrested 100%.

still i got extremely sad when madoka was like "“so he’s still alive…” like izumi’s inner voice is like oh! he’s smiling hearing about him! guess he doesn't hate him after all :) meanwhile fucking sirens going off in my brain like madoka had literally no assurance on whether his brother was alive or dead. what the hell. anyways the “…if I always hung around such a weird person, I’d start acting like one, too.” i want to engage misumi's parents in mortal combat. that's such a real feeling tho, i definitely remember growing up like madoka with regards to parents being like don't be like your older sibling AT ALL (though not to such a serious extent as him). even the way he immediately picks out st.flora by saying that's where smart people go...

after they got the final treasure box back i finally watched the play lol... moments that stood out to me. misumi's outfit is GREAT although i wish there were triangles on it. i think it is SO funny that blackbeard is not only a woman but their name is francoise. that's so funny to me. like they're not even elegant enough for that name when they're not disguised. also henry being like "ya u guys were too miserable to steal from so I hung around" is so funny to me. and misumi is like. not even that tall in comparison to muku and yuki which is so funny to me. so i like to imagine when sky is like "the smaller they are, the more famous they be" he like solemnly takes off his platform boots like it'll gain him instant fame somehow. also jonny gives massive unpaid intern vibes to me. also with the whole triangle island thing and the treasure box... are we sure tsuzuru is not like a precog or something because there's similarities to real life and there's this which is something else.

and the paper airplane coming back at the end was so cute! though... misumi's father works for mr.kamikizaka... that's the god troupe guy! god. also im squinting at when misumis dad is like do paperwork and im like. is this guy... profiting off of his kid's script labor? or is he perhaps repurposing hakkaku's scripts... evil. madoka please be safe.

some other minor notes i did NOT miss yuzo going "back then, he was still…” um sir. have something to say abt izumi's dad perhaps? i'm realllly curious as to why the whole mankai troupe went no contact. the ending with the fireworks was so cute! the whole summer triangle thing, too, like god. they are all just Best Friends and that is their treasure! it's so sweet. also the way summer troupe makes fun of tenma like very nicely bc tenma is just like so. bluffs all the time but is also stupid sweet to the troupe is like... idk. i love it when tenma and yuki bicker it just feels like something that grounds the team it feels so natural yknow? it's so nice. also i listened to the song for this play and the inst is so fun!

that's about all the thoughts i had... just three events between me and nocturnality now :)

MISUMI EVENT LET'S GOOOOO

it's already long so, my own reply/thoughts under the cut :3c

Misumi deserves all the hugs in the world and that's final! god. AND HELP THE MISREAD. To be fair there IS a pirates in spaceships play way further down the line (tho it was never covered by the EN server) so it's not THAT far fetched. I feel like "Captain Sky" works for Misumi in the sense of both, freeing himself from his family in a way that can be aiming for the sky, and in general the fact Misumi finds a lot of solace in the nightsky especially. We see it in this event with his love for the summer sky and especially the summer triangle, which, for him, equals his ultimate happiness, but also how he has a fascination with the moon as we see from his crossbackstage with Tsumugi. Angstily, i could imagine that at a time his loneliness was at its peak he found himself some happiness in looking at the Sky, so eventually this name can be an extention of that: of this freedom but also of this sense of belonging that he found there. But if any of that is to take for granted it also means we need to start considering that Tsuzuru is a witch for figuring it out. That's a thing.

BUT YAY welcome back, it's so good to see you again :3c it's always a pleasure to see you go through a3!

And omg for the vibe that's pretty sweet. And YEAH the paper airplane is so cute!! Also a call back to the fact a competition also happens in Misumi's base SR's backstage i think? and just, man the way it comes back to haunt us. But RIP on you relating to Tenma in that moment this is so funny. Tho it's really honestly pretty sweet especially to see Tenma being so… childish. I've rewatched the anime recently and by god, Tenma gets to be so silly and participate in so many childish things as time goes by that i forgot just how much he had to play the adult for his job and how he denied himself some happiness like this unless it was for acting in movies. So everytime he gets to have silly moment like that my heart melt. Sweet kid… (also if you want to suffer i have to let you know that the Stageplay of a3 has Misumi and Madoka have a duet about paperplanes: part 1 & part 2 )

HELP THE TSUZURU THING. Tsuzuru fainting best running gag, i'm sorry Tsuzuru for your suffering but we must all admit it's endlessly funny. Also i love that you pick up he collapses as soon as he's complimented. The relieve from the stress that was basically holding him awake for that time help.

AND YEAH GOD THE YUKI AND KAZUNARI THING. honestly this is what solds me so much on those events and that i can't imagine skipping directly to act 2's main story: not only the characters grow a LOT during those events but you get to also see the direct results of how it affected them. From Sardine Search we know Yuki was doing it all on his own and was overwhelming himself and Kazunari didn't feel like he could share his design ideas with Yuki, and in the end the two of them realizing they can lift each other up by being a support on that regard, and the fact that Yuki especially opened enough to let Kazunari have a place in his creative process, that the closed off kid opened up and that the kid who wouldn't know how to assert himself now find his place proposing ideas to Yuki and seeing the two of them discussing on tandem, and being so excited and building each other up… god!!! this is so good. I love to see them heal and grow after each event and keeping the lessons they learnt up. It's so touching.

And omg yeah i think Misumi mentions gramps but like, in a whisper? And even Izumi isn't sure she caught it. So the rest of Summer doesn't specifically get it, i think? i'm not sure, else Izumi heard it. I know the anime did away with it with just, not having Misumi bring it up at all DLKFJDLF but yeah! people didn't know! but yeah like, this is also the obvious thing as to why Misumi felt he could come living here help.

Muku being second lead was SOOO good, i'm so happy with seeing him becoming more assertive and confident on that regard. He did shine so well after all of this! And DLKFJLDKFJ Be the change you want to see in the world, go write this fic! Tenma deserves it. But yeah alas they needed to mock Yuki on his heigh, typical. (Tsuzuru revenge fantasy of making fun of Yuki's heigh as payback for the Villager C thing)

And god yeah… yeah. Misumi's whole story is seriously so heartbreaking. I think a3 works the line between comedy and tragic very well in a way, where Misumi's introduction was really funny because it was burrying the leads of the implications of how tragic it is that he's there thanks to how silly the situation was, and then, when finally it addresses the tragic it's like oh. right. that was here from the start i forgot. For how long Misumi had run off, he does mention that he's been here since "before there started to be noise in the theater", which means he has been here for at least before Spring. Initially i would have thought it meant that he must have been here for a couple of months before Spring started to act there, if he can take this event as a temporal mark. But then thinking about it, Matsukawa mentions that the room has been haunted for a very long time and that's why he never came in and it makes me wonder if Misumi's marks aren't skewed by loneliness to the point it means nothing: could have been years since he's there. Which makes more sense as to why Madoka thought he was dead. If Misumi had been gone only for a year or so, i feel like this wouldn't have been Madoka's first thought, so……….. Personally i'm inclined to think he perhaps stayed one or two years after his gramps death with his family and the more lonely he felt + the grief, the more he felt he couldn't stand it, and eventually he came back to the one place that could make him think of the only person who made him feel like home: Mankai. This was my Detective Work™ of "trying to read between the lines but especially between my tears" But yeah man him forgetting Hakkaku was so sad 😭 poor kid.

The tresure map part of the event was adorable! I love the tidbits into seeing the other summer people being silly in that search, it was adorable. AND HELP at roasting Yuki there :sob:

And waaa you know their heart so well 😭 And oh boy Madoka. he's such a good kid…. I'm glad at least you kept yourself emotionally stable! this is a plus because this event personally just murders me in more way than one. ALSO HELP "i think it's so funny that muku's like "maybe tenma and yuki would have done better…" if u let tenma and yuki do it they would have gotten arrested 100%. " this killed me on the spot. you're 100% correct.

And GOD yeah. yeah Madoka's reaction raises a hundred of red flags about his parents this is terrible. AND YEAH let's engage Misumi's parents in mortal combat this is so fucked up. Like the implications of both how they isolated Misumi, making him know he was too weird for them, isolating Madoka from him, Madoka being too young probably to process it other than "i don't want to shame my parents so i'll do what they tell me even if i don't understand why" and only realizing how fucked up it was once Misumi was gone, but even so, the fact he thought he was dead probably means his parents are either telling him so, or that they just never bring him up at all and so he jumped to conclusion. It's honestly really fucked up.

As for relating to the situation, oof. I feel you for that. And yeah little tidbits about me but my elder sibling ran away from home when i was 6yo never to be seen again and yeah, so, this event did a particular amount of psych dmg to me in a way i could never anticipate. I related a lot to Madoka's situation on that regard, and perhaps project some of the uglier aspects of what a situation like this means on him, but by god. This is so cruel. And like, out of this experience, Madoka was having the "don't be like your brother" when he was still here which in itself was damaging, but with on top of that him running away it adds another level of pressure on Madoka of "not abandonning the family like my brother did". There's this type of pain that, even if you manage to process that it was for the best that they left because you eventually process how badly the family has treated him (and perhaps even you in the process), the absolute pain of the abandon, of being left behind, and especially feeling responsible on "if i wasn't a silly kid who pushed him away perhaps he would still be here, but also, wouldn't it have been more pain for him?" and therefore not wanting to put your family through that again, and just. Listen. Madoka is a mess. I'm claiming Madoka i'm giving him so many psych problem, my city now. So even if his family would be better off without Misumi, the idea, the social stigma, of the younger doing the same, would in itself be either a present or a subtextual pressure on Madoka and god this kid must be going through it. And on top of that "even if he manages to process it was for the best" is something he can only do NOW that he knows Misumi is alive. Honestly Madoka's relief made him take it in in such a mature and graceful way for such a kid. takes deep breath sorry this event touched on something extremely primeval in me and it makes me take it in all of the complex ways, and honestly it baffles me how well a3 did capture this experience. Because goodness it's an insane one, and for a minor character (at this point at least) i feel like they did such a good job to portray some nuances on that regard. And back to Misumi it's also just a nightmare for him as well, he had to sacrifice his little brother to be able to move on and be happier, but also with the belief his brother, whom he loves dearly, hated him. It must be so painful when he gets to think about it and it's just. god. so much.

aNYWAY, the play now. It's sUCH a fun play i love it so much. but yeah mood Misumi deserved more triangles. AND HELP THE COMMENTS ON FRANCOISE. Very true, very true. i LOVE Henry in this play, he's so so funny and honestly seeing pure and cute Muku play "Bloody Henry" was incredible. I love how we can still buy him. Innocent face to hide his bad intentions yeah? so good. Muku ever since he joined Mankai like "i want to play a prince, but if i can't i will be the biggest thug of the play", godspeed baby. "so i like to imagine when sky is like "the smaller they are, the more famous they be" he like solemnly takes off his platform boots like it'll gain him instant fame somehow." THIS IS SO FUNNY this is the only way i'll picture it now. And god right, such a good play. AND YEA LEGIT TSUZURU IT'S BECOMING TERRIFYING. Tsuzuru doesn't write, he gets possessed by the spirit of whoever is going to be the lead of that play and suddenly he writes something that will force you to face an intense buried trauma whenever you want it or not. Fucking terrifying.

The ending was really adorable as it is. And yeah oof the fact the father works for the God Troupe really makes it so sour. Even if Misumi and Madoka manages to patch things up they still have this thing separating them… how unfair. And yeah i read it that way too of, the father profiting of his son's writing. Whenever Madoka writes from Hakkaku's plays or are 100% original, he's clearly being exploited lol. but hey "don't disappoint me like your brother" must be a hell of a motivation. Dipshit. I will fight their parents myself. and Adopt Madoka. That's the least i can do.

And god yeah. yuzo still so mysterious… share your secret with us. Please. we need to know. I really want to know toooo. And YEAH THE FIREWORKS WERE SO CUTE. I'm so glad it's becoming a tradition for them, it's honestly so so adorable. And the summer triangle really pushed Misumi's obsession with triangle from cute to so meaningful i'm bawling everytime he talks about them. IT's such a sweet scene. And the fact he finds all of his friends to be his treasure is just. bites fist. it's adorable i'm so happy for them. And yeah god, re what i was saying at the begining i love to see Tenma just being silly and having a good time. I remember some Itaru's minichat where he also brings it up (try this link) and it's so soft to me. and yeah god mood, i love their bickering, i love this troupe, it has such a nice dynamic and vibe and you can feel them just. being much happier everytime they get to be together. It's so sweet. I love them. And the song for this play is SOOOO GOOd, Misumi's voice actor went off with it it's so pretty. Also i've seen it live and by god. He goes ham it's 😳 okay!

Thank you once again for sharing all of your thoughts, it's really always a pleasure to read them ❤❤❤❤ The a3 experience will always bring tears to my eyes truly.

And owo Nocturnality soon!!!! The very normal event that i can be soooo normal about. Normality. LEt's GOO

OH and the next 3 have some of my fav moments but also i feel like i've been saying this about every a3 events DLKJFDKLFJDFLK. At least the good thing with a3's event is that even when it's not about your fav you will always find something worth your emotions. So great. Can't wait to see your thoughts on what follows :3c

Thank you once again for sharing it all ❤❤❤ have a nice day!

#ichareply #ichafantalks a3 #aranarumei #ichablogging a3

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dracotheocracy · 2 months

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the original localization of the first ace attorney trilogy is not very good... in fact i think the quality of AA2's localization is worse than AA1's

i'm going to take this opportunity to ramble about localization :)

i get the impression ace attorney was probably a challenge to localize and none of the mistakes are so egregious that they detract from my understanding of what's going on but there's a lot of grammatical mistakes and a few misused words/sayings like here's just the stuff i noticed in like. 2-3

von karma says "silver" when the proper word to use given the rest of her sentence was "sliver". i don't remember precisely her dialogue but it was something like silver of sense or silver of doubt which is not how that saying works

they also use rouse instead of ruse at one point when phoenix is trying to calculate von karma's next move. "see through her rouse" or whatever. rouse is a verb, first of all

they use the wrong form of it's/its twice

actually they just overuse the apostrophe a lot in general there's also a time where they use an apostrophe on a plural noun. "acrobat's put their life on the line" as opposed to "acrobats put their life on the life"

probably the most hilarious mistake: at one point the judge tells phoenix he's done a great job thus far of "fingering the witness". they definitely meant "pointing a finger at" and probably just verbed finger as a way to save space on dialogue. but like. brother there is a world of difference between phoenix wright pointing a finger at a witness and phoenix wright fingering a witness. those two sentences do not mean the same thing

i'm not pressed about it, like i'm sure the remasters correct a lot of this anyway, i'm only playing the original original trilogy because uhhhh well i think the remasters were made for the 3DS and i don't have citra

in any case in my limited experience i think this level of quality is typical for localizations of this era. if memory serves (<- guy who did a lot of research into the history and functions of localization like 4 years ago and only retained about half of it) localization for video games was a nascent industry in the 90s and it wasn't often being carried out by people who knew what they were doing- generally there weren't a lot of people working on it and there weren't many third party localizers game companies could hire to do their work for them yet. so a decent amount of localizations in the 90s were carried out by like 2 or 3 people on the dev team relying on a japanese to english dictionary, which is how we got some of those famous mistranslations like "all of your base are belong to me". things were getting more sophisticated by the early 2000s so like, they got a lot better. but i remember the official localization of FE7 also suffered a little- i don't remember it being as noticeably shaky as AA's but i mean. dialogue is a much more central part of a visual novel's gameplay in comparison to an SRPG. like yeah FE7 had story cutscenes but the gameplay is still largely dialogue-less

anyway. ace attorney good. sorry for being an english major (lapsed)

#mars revisits his gamer roots #ace attorney

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passerine-writes · 10 months

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Silent Sparks - Volt 50

Warnings: The first like, half, sums up the last chapter, babes has a panic attack, trauma Word count: 4602

Notes: Italics - Tsukare signing Bold italics - Family/friend signing 'Italics with apostrophes' - Thoughts

Masterlist

Volt 49 | Volt 51

I woke up to a bright light surrounding me. My whole body felt heavy and when I looked to my side, I wasn't expecting to see Dad, Pops and Hitoshi crying.

"How long was I out?" I tried to ask, my voice scratchy. "Dad? Pops? Hey, what's going on?" They flew forward and hugged me all at once. I finally let the tears fall, my body sore but I didn't care.

"You had us worried sick. And you were so beat up, you-" Pops tried getting out through tears but we all just had a cry session for a little bit until I sat up straight.

"Where is everyone? Did the League get caught? And Shiroka? Someone tell me what happened, please." I went to move one of my curls but hit myself in the face with a cast. Too many horrible memories coming back to me at once. Pops passed me my, now charged, hearings aids and I put them in gently.

"Let's have the doctor catch you up first, then we'll fill you in on the rest." I nodded and looked to the door where an older looking lady stood.

"Hi, Tsukare Onryo?" I nodded and sat up a bit. "Can you tell me what you remember?" I felt my heart start to race, hearing it on the monitor beside me.

"I- I don't wanna talk about it." The doctor nodded and wrote something in my chart.

"Well, you suffered multiple lacerations, internal and external bruising, first and second degree burns, and a stab wound to the thigh. Your right wrist was fractured, five ribs were strained and three were broken. Your left shoulder was dislocated and you also sustained a mild concussion." I took a deep breath and nodded, already feeling myself dissociate at what I was told. "We preformed minor surgery to remove the knife and put a metal clamp on your artery and reset some of your bones. Recovery Girl has been in here everyday working on something else to gradually work you up to being fully healed." My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"How long have I been out?" She looked at my family and then back at me.

"You've been unconscious for five days."

"And what pain killers do you have me on?"

"We have you on a naproxen drip. Do you have any other questions for me?"

"Uh, when was the last time I was given my medication? I can feel my body going through withdrawal." She flipped through my chart and grew confused but came back with the pills. "Thank you."

"Onryo. We need to tell you something." I looked to Dad and tried to figure out how bad it could be. "All Might beat the guy in the mask, All for One, but he's out of commission now. He overdid himself and now he is stuck as his true form." I raised an eyebrow but he promised he would show me later. "When you're ready though, we have to go to the station to give your statement. Are you up for that?"

"Sure."

"Pops and I will go sign you out, we were told you were good to go as soon as you wake up thanks to the old lady." I nodded and Hitoshi handed me some clothes, pointing me towards the bathroom.

I made the mistake of looking in the mirror. A new scar went down my face to the top of my pectoral. New scars adorned my arms, torso, back and legs. My dark circles and bags looked horrendous and I even looked skinnier. My brother was silently waiting right beside the door as I came out, making me jump and let out a small squeak. He softly apologized and nodded his head towards the door.

"Hello, for filing purposes, would you please state your name?" Tsukauchi asked as he placed the rolling recorder on the table.

"My name is Tsukare Onryo."

"Thank you. Would you be open to explaining everything that happened up until you were kidnapped?" I nodded and swallowed the lump in my throat.

"Uh, we were at the training camp, in the woods that the Wild, Wild Pussycats own. The first two days were normal with training, and then the third night we had a test of courage. I was excited because this was my first one, it's almost like a ride of passage in the hero course and my brother and I watched a lot in the last few years." I took a deep breath as I tried to align my thoughts, not wanting to backtrack too much. "Uh, Midoriya and I were teamed up to go last. So we were waiting with Mandalay and Pixie-Bob. I smelled the smoke before I saw it, I also saw some of the noxious gas but at first I thought it was a trick of the light. Spinner and Magne came for the group of us first, Pixie-Bob got knocked out and Mandalay ordered us to go back to camp. I knew where Kota was, and I needed to get my brother out of there, I ran without thinking and Midoriya followed me. I sent him to the cliff side where Kota was, that was always his secret hideout, I was the only other person who knew where it was. I ran towards where I thought Hitoshi and Jirou would be and came across Kendo and Tetsutetsu from class B, they gave me some gas masks that Yaoyorozu made. I ran off again and found Hitoshi trying to carry Jirou.

"I carried them to one of the entrances and put gas masks on them. I started making my way back to the camp because I knew I wouldn't have been able to carry them both the whole way back and through the fight, that's when we heard Mandalay announce we could fight. I found Shoji and Tokoyami's quirks was out of control, we ran to Bakugou and Todoroki because we knew their quirks could counter Tokoyami's. Accidental blessing, Dark Shadow knocked out a villain with a bunch of swords coming out of his mouth. Sometime when we were running is when we heard the news that Bakugou and I were targets, Midoriya also joined us and his arm was busted. We had a great formation on getting back and I don't know when I got grabbed but next thing I knew I was being pulled through the warp guys portal and I was knocked out." I picked and pulled at my fingers nervously, not wanting to continue reliving this.

"Are you okay to continue?" I nodded, just wanting to get it over with. "What happened after you woke up?"

"I don't know what they were talking about before I woke up but Shigaraki wanted to recruit us. I woke up with a muzzle on and I.. I recognized one of the members. Dabi. I met him once when I was a little kid, he helped me get out of a big neighborhood I was lost in and gave me an old compass. They took the muzzle off and I used sign language and they tried to tie my hands, I freaked out. I broke the chair I was sitting in, and that's when they told us they wanted to recruit us. Then they brought in Shiroka. I tried to back away from her but Dabi put the muzzle back on. She was saying how my parents drilled lies and horrible things into my head but they would fix it. Started talking about how Toga might be able to convince me and we were warped to a room with no doors or windows. I don't know how long we spent in there but I lost a lot of blood and she drank some of it. She also collected some of it and ch-changed into Shiroka." I squirmed in my seat and harshly rubbed the scar on my neck.

"Take your time, Onryo. We aren't in any rush." I nodded and tried to control my breathing.

"I thought I was hallucinating from the blood loss until Bakugou saw it happen too." Tsukauchi nodded and continued writing, patiently waiting for me to continue. "I didn't stop fighting. They put me back in the chair and Spinner got really upset about what she did. He said that I was one of the few Stain approved of and I essentially should be treated better. Shiroka asked me to join again and I declined, she slapped me pretty hard. Then I realized there was probably a deal or money involved, maybe both." I shook my head as I tried to get back on track.

"What makes you say that?" I looked at him curiously, wondering if I was right.

"She's been trying to get to me at any cost. So whether it be if I joined she would become a benefactor of sorts for them. She would pay them to kidnap me for her. They get me, she gets the cops off their trail for a bit. I know Shigaraki was interested in me to begin with, but that definitely would've lit a fire under his ass." Tsukauchi laughed at my choice of words but nodded.

"Okay, what happened next?"

"Uh, my hands weren't tied again so I signed to Bakugou that there was probably money involved and they wouldn't kill me, so no matter what he couldn't break. They asked him what I said and he had me 'sign it again' so that he knew what to say. He told them I said I would join if he did and that they can keep it coming cause it was child's play. I turned off my hearing aids and said I didn't feel like hearing Shiroka screeching anymore. That's when she broke my hand." Tsukauchi gave me a disappointed look and I shied away. "I know I shouldn't have said it, but it was the only thing I could think of. Mostly Shiroka, Toga and Dabi hurt me. I don't know how long, I just kept trying to stay awake. Spinner and Magne were the kindest, Twice was nice sometimes, they would sneak us water and small snacks when the rest weren't around. I know all the broken bones were from Shiroka, some of the cuts too. The rest of those were from Toga and the burns from Dabi. They started going through my phone, trying to find one of my parents cell numbers, but Shigaraki couldn't figure out who was who."

"Why's that?"

"I have everyone in my phone named after a Pokémon, except family work numbers because those are more serious." Tsukauchi set down his pencil and started laughing as he put his head down.

"He couldn't figure out who your parents were with nicknames? What are their Pokémon?" I looked at him confused. "Don't act so shocked, I have a four year old at home who is currently obsessed with Squirtle."

"Dad is Drowzee and Pops is Jangmo-o." He tried to stifle his laughter but he couldn't.

"I don't know how they didn't crack it but I'm glad they didn't."

"Probably because my name for my phone is Whismur and Hitoshi's contact is Espeon." Tsukauchi clenched his stomach as he laughed.

"I see. So back on track, they found the work numbers?"

"Yeah, Shigaraki set up the camera to take a video. Shiroka told the league that they were my parents."

"And that's when you got the idea to use sign language?" I nodded quickly.

"Yeah. Sometime after that we saw the conference and they started going on their tangents again. They let Bakugou and I out of our chairs and we got ready to fight, then the rest happened. When we got teleported again, some of our classmates rescued us and Bakugou flew me up in the air to them with an explosion. After that I woke up in the hospital and now I'm here." Tsukauchi let out a breath, nodding as he mulled over what I said.

"And between the time the video was taken and the conference, did the violence s-" I shook my head, cutting him off. "Alright. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Was anyone captured?" Tsukauchi looked surprised for a moment.

"I shouldn't be shocked at this point that you would cut to the chase, you've always been like that. We have Shiroka in custody, and her case isn't looking good for her. She'll most likely be sent to a high security prison. Your parents gave us permission to gather photo's of your physical state after the incident as evidence, along with access to the medical examiners official report and a copy of the video Shigaraki took. Those documents served as evidence for temporary holding until the official statement, after what happened, we will not be asking you to testify in court, the recording will serve that purpose. No other league members were captured outside of her and All for One. I do, however, have to leave shortly to interrogate Shiroka. Do you have any other questions for me?" I let it sink in and thought about what I could even ask at this point.

"I don't think so." He nodded and closed the manilla folder with his notes that he took and retrieved the recorder.

"Okay. If you think of anything, you know how to reach me. And Onryo?"

"Yeah?"

"You did great. I know this was hard and it's going to be for a while, but keep your head up." I nodded and he gave me a small smile before guiding me out of the room. My parents immediately pulled me into hugs, Hitoshi joining.

"I'm sorry." My brother whispered as he held me. "If I was just a little faster then, then none of this would've happened."

"Toshi, it's not your fault. I'm not mad at you. You don't have to apologize." He held me tighter and nodded. "I'm serious."

"Let's get home, little listeners." We nodded and followed our parents through the building.

"Young Tsukare!" My throat closed up at the all too familiar name. I turned and saw a skeleton of a man with blond hair running towards me. "You may not recognize me in this form, but I'm glad to see you're alright." My eyebrows furrowed.

"You're so small. It's like you deflated." I said blandly, still in shock. The retort earning muted snorts and chuckles from some of my family.

"Ah, yes. This is my true form. I'm glad to see you're alright, you gave us quite the scare for a while." I nodded and stared at my feet.

"Yeah, it wasn't exactly an ideal situation. Thanks though, for being apart of the raid." He gave me a thumbs up with a large smile. My family and I walked to the car, my phone finally being returned to me and clearly, I had missed a lot.

From Pikachu: Hey, I know you won't get these yet but please be okay

From Pikachu: I wish I could go for your rescue mission that our friends are planning but my parents picked me up from the hospital and are keeping me under a tight watch

From Pikachu: I'm glad you're okay, please pull through this and wake up soon

From Pikachu: I got to visit you in the hospital, my parents let me go with Sero, we brought you some things for when you wake up and your parents took them home for you so they wouldn't get that hospital smell

From Pikachu: I don't think Aizawa was too happy about me being there after he saw us cuddling

From Pikachu: Please wake up soon, I miss you

From Boldore: You passed out before I could say a thing to you, but I'm glad you're alright. We miss you man

From Boldore: Our group isn't the same without you dude

From Boldore: Please wake up soon man

From Rayquaza: We all miss you Onryo, you gotta wake up soon

From Rayquaza: I heard you broke your arm too, hopefully Recovery Girl can help with that

From Rayquaza: We all came to visit you, but your Dad kicked us out after a while

From Venomoth: Hey Tsukababes! You better wake up soon, okay?

From Venomoth: I'm serious, we all love you and need you awake now!

From Scraggy: Hey

From Scraggy: You gotta wake up soon man

From Scraggy: Denks and I visited with my family, the kids wanted to see you

From Scraggy: The twins wanted to color on you, they thought your scars were made to color in the lines, you might make them want to be tattoo artists

From Scraggy: Hinata asked why his Uncle Ryo was sleeping so much

From Scraggy: Please wake up dude

From Regice: I hope you're okay.

I put my phone down and wiped the stray tear that fell. I wasn't expecting my friends to visit me.

"Have I missed anything else these last few days?" I asked my parents as we got into the house, immediately I picked up Mittens and cradled her to my chest as best as I could.

"Aside from All Might's reveal, we're going to be switching to a dorm system about a week and a half before the next term starts. We're also going to train for ultimate moves so that you all are ready for your licensing exam." I nodded to Dad's words, understanding why those would be a priority. "The things your friends brought to the hospital are in your room, we made sure to leave the name cards with the ones we could." I nodded and pulled my family in for another group hug, needing something to ground me.

"Do you need anything before you go check everything out?" I stepped back and before I declined, I remembered something. I rushed upstairs and came back down, giving them the compass.

"Get rid of it, please? I don't want to look at it. He's not the same person and after everything I just, I don't want it anymore." Pops nodded and kissed the top of my head before taking it.

"We'll hand it over to Tsukauchi and tell him we don't want it back. Go de-stress for a bit. I'll make you lunch and then we can have strawberry ice cream later." My head perked up at the sound of my favorite flavor.

"With too much chocolate syrup and whipped cream?" He chuckled at my query.

"Duh, it's the only way you'll eat it." I gave him another hug and went upstairs. In my rush earlier I didn't gather just how much was on my bed.

There were blankets and stuffed animals, some fake flowers, books and snacks.

Sato left me some cookies, Yao-momo gave me a picture of the class in a frame, Mina gave me a scrapbook, Todoroki left a comedy movie and a bag of popcorn. Some classmates left flowers, others left chocolates, quite a few left a small stuffed animal. Midoriya gifted me a rare Eraser Head figurine, Kirishima got me a red croc keychain, Sero gifted me a very warm blanket and Denki made me something labeled a smile jar accompanied with pikachu and whismur plushies. I hugged both of them close to my chest and took a deep breath before texting everyone back.

Tsukababes Pokémon

From Espeon: Please don't blow up the group chat or Onryo's phone. He woke up today and we just got home a little while ago. He'll respond on his own time.

From Venomoth: WHAT!!!

From Venomoth: THATS HUGE NEWS

From Boldore: Hell yeah! Tsukabro's back!!

From Boldore: How ya feeling man??

From Rayquaza: Onryo's awake?!

From Scraggy: About time!! How're you feeling?

From Pikachu: WHAT

From Pikachu: ONRYO WEVE MISSED YOU

From Pikachu: DID YOU GET OUR GIFTS

From Pikachu: HOWRE TOU FEELING!!

From Espeon: That's exactly what I said not to do.

From Pikachu: Well we're excited!!

From Pikachu: How could we not be??!??!!

From Whismur: Hey guys, sorry I'm still kinda out of it

From Whismur: Thank you guys for the gifts and the cards, I love all of them

From Whismur: And I'm feeling okay I guess, I'm still pretty sore and I have a cast for now but that's about it

From Whismur: If you guys want we can have a group call tomorrow after I'm more settled in again

From Boldore: I'm so happy you're okay dude

From Boldore: Tomorrow works for me

From Venomoth: Of course Tsukababes!

From Scraggy: I'm down! You need your rest, you feeling better is the main priority right now

From Rayquaza: Yeah!

From Pikachu: I'm just glad you're okay :)

To Regice: Hey, I just got home from the hospital, I'm feeling better already

I set my phone down and started moving things around, however I knew a lot of them wouldn't have permanent homes because of us having to move to the dorms in a week and a half. So I didn't focus too much on placement, mostly on just clearing my bed.

Pops knocked on my door and came in with a sandwich and a glass of juice before sitting down on the foot of my bed.

"Everything okay, Pops?" He licked his lips like he was nervous, his foot bounced in the air, his hands were folded in his lap. He was nervous. "Pops?" His head jolted up to look at me. "What's going on?"

"Sometime tomorrow a lady is going to come and check out the house." My eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Why? Are you and Dad selling it cause of the dorms?" Pops shook his head and fear settled in my stomach.

"Because of what happened at the camp and after, a social worker is coming here tomorrow to do a home inspection and ask us all a bunch of question. Your Dad and I are going to do everything in our power to make sure they don't take you two away. You and Hitoshi are our sons and nothing is going to change that." I sat next to him on the bed and rested my head on his shoulder. "It'll be okay. I promise, little listener. They aren't going to take you away." He pulled me into a side hug and held me there for a minute.

"Have you told Toshi yet?" My voice wavered as I spoke.

"Sho's talking to him right now, we figured we shouldn't overwhelm either of you with a big family meeting in the living room." I nodded and sat there, my nerves climbing exponentially. Pops' hand rested on my own, stopping me from scratching at my arm, my mind so clouded that I didn't even remember doing so. "It'll be okay. When have we ever let things stop us from being your parents?"

"Never." I mumbled out.

"Exactly." What he said after that faded out with anxiety overcoming me. My breathing picked up, the pain of it radiating throughout my torso, my heart pumped viciously and all I could hear was radio static in my head. My stomach churned and it felt like I was frozen in fear.

My body shook and I tried to steady my breathing.

'In and out. Just like Chiyo taught you. In. Out.'

'Come on lungs, work.'

Hot tears streamed down my cheeks and my arms tingled from panic. Through blurry eyes, I made out Pops crouching in front of me with the juice from earlier and my meds.

I couldn't move, my body was frozen. My brain didn't compute that I needed to grab the meds and take them. Nothing was working. My jaw clenched and unclenched from the pain, my breathing wasn't slowing down. I saw a mess of purple hair in front of me, his lips were moving but I couldn't make out what he was saying, but I let out a strained word of acknowledgment and it all stopped.

My mind went blank and I felt like I was peacefully floating in a pool. I watched my hand reach out and take my panic attack meds, my chest rising and falling slow and rhythmically. My racing heart slowed to a melodic pace with the occasional hiccup, one where I felt sane having it. It felt like hours and seconds passed at the same time before I regained control of my body again.

"Thank you." I said softly as I looked to my brother, him and I having talked about this before and even having done this once or twice.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He shot me a look, our Dad giving me the same one. "Really, I'm feeling better now." Hitoshi and Dad sighed but nodded.

"Okay little listener, try and eat your lunch and then we can have ice cream later." I nodded and watched as our parents left the room but Hitoshi stayed, sitting himself on my bed.

"I'm making sure you're actually okay." I rolled my eyes and sat down at the head of my bed, pulling over my plate.

"I'm fine, Toshi." He rolled his eyes and grabbed one of the tiny stuffed bears I was gifted.

"Bullshit."

"Language." I jokingly scolded.

"Like you have any room to talk." He muttered and tossed the bear at my head.

"Touché. But really, I'm fine."

"You're not and you don't have to lie to us about that. I can get lying to our friends because we've only known them for a few months. Dad and Pops I can get a little bit because it can be hard to tell them how you really feel. But you're my brother, I don't.. I don't want you to feel like you have to lie to me too." I looked at my brother in shock, not realizing until now just how much me dismissing problems effected him.

"So you admit they're our friends finally?" He tsked and shot me a pointed look.

"I'm being serious."

"Me too! I never thought you would've admitted that our classmates are your friends too!" I stated before taking a bite of my sandwich. The taste of real food making my stomach very happy. "Look... If I'm not at least fine, then I don't know what I am. And that's- that's more terrifying then actually acknowledging my bad days. I'm not okay after what happened, I know I'm not and I know nobody is expecting me to be. So until I'm better then.. I'm fine. I'm still the sunshine friend and if I'm not the sunshine friends then I'm fine." He stared at the blanket on my bed as he took in what I said.

"You're allowed to not be 'just fine'. You're allowed to admit that you're hurting or you're sad or you're depressed or whatever you think you might be feeling. You don't have to put on this mask when you're home." I shut my eyes tight with my head hung.

"I know but I'm fine. I know you care, I know people worry but I'll be okay." He sighed and looked at his hands.

"So he got you pokémon stuffed animals to match your contact names?" I looked beside me and smiled at the two pokémon.

"Yeah. How bad do you think Dad's gonna react if he finds out about the kiss?" Hitoshi snorted and gave me a pointed look.

"He probably already knows. He has parentuition." I laughed softly and nodded.

"You have a point."

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tathrin · 1 year

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#yeah kiss my entire ass cormac mccarthy What's up with Cormac Mccarthy? I've only seen some of the movies based on his books. Are his westerns hollow or something?

Ohhh ha ha ha so. This may not even be entirely his fault? I don't actually know enough about him and his writing to say for sure, because the one book of his that I did read filled me with so much rage that I would sooner set myself on fire than read another.

I was in college (art school, majoring in comic books) and I took all the writing classes that I could squeeze into my schedule because I love writing too (storytelling is where my heart lies, and I thought I would do that with pictures at first, but turns out I actually like writing prose more, oops). Well, my Creative Writing professor had clearly ended up at the wrong school somehow and was deeply frustrated about it — because let us just say that most of the kids at this school were not in my boat re: love of writing, and they only took classes like these because they needed a few non-art credits to graduate.

So the level of interest/talent he got out of his students was mediocre at best. (They weren't there to write, they were there to draw or sculpt or design. Of course 98% of them were half-assing or less their non-art classes.) So he was really excited to have someone who liked writing and was good at it and was excited to be there...!

But. he liked Literature. And only Literature. And I used the Capital L there on purpose, because he was one of those folks where you can just HEAR the sneer when he says "gen-re fic-tion," you know? Looked waaaaaay down his nose at all the stuff that I would consider actually good and interesting books in favor of Boring Person In Boring Life Does Boring Thing That Changes Nothing About Boring World, Wow What A Commentary On The Human Condition That Was! So Deep! Much Thought! etc type books.

(So you can see what I thought of the stuff he liked, too.)

So here I am, turning in all these stories with spaceships and witches and robots and shit and it's the best writing he's gotten from one of his students in years. He's thrilled! ...and so distressed because Why Won't I Write Real Stories? I could be Such A Great Writer if I would just get over my interest in this Genre Stuff! Woe! Alas! Weeping! etc. Someday I'll Grow Out Of It, Surely, Because I'm So Talented! All that jazz.

He wasn't a dick about it; he was actually a very nice fellow. We were COMPLETELY incompatible, but he was nice and so I tried to be nice in turn even as I gave my very honest opinions about all the boring-af shit he had us reading lmao.

So, I'm being A Good Sport about it every time he assigns his Boring-AF Projects where I'm not allowed to put in rayguns and magic swords and alien species and all the stuff that makes writing fun. But I still put in effort, and turn in good (if boring-af) pieces, and participate in class (and argue very politely for The Merits Of Genre Fiction), etc etc. He's delighted to have me, and I have no doubt that I was one of his favorite students ever, even though I had Shit Taste In Books. So he decides he's going to give me a treat! He's going to make our next assigned book a Genre Book! I'm going to be Delighted!

He assigns us Cormac McCarthy's The Road. I don't know if you've ever read it, but: don't. It was intolerable. Second-worst book I've ever read. It's a Post-Apocalypse story about some dude and his kid walking across the world to...idk. Walk? Be a Metaphor? I don't fucking know. Nobody has a name because That's Deep. And because we're being extra deep, we're going to Write Badly On Purpose because it symbolizes the Breakdown Of Society!

And by "written badly on purpose," I mean we're throwing out the entire concept of Writing So Your Shit Can Be Read By Human Eyes.

Apostrophes no longer exist! Commas hardly do either! Or sentences! Or quote marks! Or any form of useful punctuation whatsoever! Just a bunch of either fragments or endless run-ons trudging away into the abyss until you're ready to throw your soul down there with them just to fucking escape. Paragraph breaks only happen when a scene changes! Your eyes skitter-off the page as though it was coated with teflon, your energy sinking into a bleak grey misery that isn't even alert enough to qualify as despair. Every section leaves you a little less alive than before. This is drudgery, the very concept of dullness distilled into ink and printed out for all to read and suffer. I give you an except, but I don't suggest you actually read it because I'm not that cruel:

Oh my gods it was unreadable. I think my eyes actually bled. And to make it even more of a slog, it was clearly written by some dumb-fuck who'd never actually read any post-apocalyptic stories, and thought that he was Far Too Clever to need to do any actual research on the genre that he was "elevating" with his "literary style" or what-the-fuck-ever, because every character in it was so bum-fucking stupid that there was NO WAY any of them would have lived five minutes in an actual fucking wasteland. Also every single Wasteland Cliche that you can imagine, without a drop of originality or subversion or even lampshading or clever commentary or anything. It was all just...there. In the shallowest, blandest way possible.

(He also never actually defined or even hinted at What Happened, I presume because he was too dumb to figure out a backstory this was Literature and not Genre and thus Proper World Building Wasn't Necessary Because This Was A Metaphor Or Something idk fuck it. Like...sometimes there were gas-masks? but also people didn't need them? and there didn't seem to be radiation in a way that hurt anybody, but there also seemed to be Radiation Aesthetics going on...? It was just. so badly done.)

And our protagonists were SO stupidly incompetent. Just, complete idiocy, countered with Incredibly Convenient Random Happenstances (you would not believe how many Untouched But Easily Accessible Stashes Of Food these fuckers stumbled over oh my gods) to save their asses from their self-inflicted imminent death over and over and over again. An absolute travesty of a book, written in the worst fashion possible.

Needless to say, the essay I turned in on the book tore it about seven new ones. I SHREDDED it from first word to closing paragraph. Did not find one single redeeming or enjoyable thing about that clusterfuck of a "story" (and I use the term loosely) and I made sure everyone knew it. I wasn't shy about my opinion of the arrogant asshole who wrote it, either, and what I thought of the choices he'd made in writing that way, and the lack of talent and intelligence he'd demonstrated throughout.

My poor professor was devastated. He'd thought this would be my favorite book of the whole class! He picked it especially for me, as a treat! And I LOATHED it. (I hadn't realized it was supposed to be a gift to before I wrote the essay, or I probably would have been gentler in my disassembling of it. But I only discovered that when he handed the essay back. Poor man. I did feel a little bad about that. But oh my gods the book was horrible.)

So I have no idea what kind of author Cormac McCarthy is in general, or whether he's more tolerable (or even hypothetically enjoyable, I suppose) when he's writing whatever he does usually. This may be a complete outlier: an attempt to try something new (that failed abysmally) from a guy who normally writes Just Fine. I don't know! And I'm not interested in finding out, because to me he will always be the egotistical shithead who wrote the most spirit-draining, eye-torturing travesty of a book ever printed called The Road and he will not be forgiven for that crime.

#rants #i'm not tagging this with his name because i presume there must be people who actually do like his books because they keep selling somehow #and so i presume that whoever is in the cormac mccarthy tag doesn't want to read me shitting all over im so we'll just once again go with:#yeah kiss my entire ass cormac mccarthy #which frankly feels like the only tag i'll ever need to have on my blog for navigation purposes involving him tbh #least favorite books #me

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