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wcrlds · 2 years

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I never should have gone to the surface. I’m too curious. I’m told it’s my worst failing.

Oh, she’s so… she’s so beautiful. Kes. I think one day she’ll see the sun.

Kes is an occapam. A series native to the delta quadrant, known for their strong telepathic abilities and short lifespan. Most occampans never see the sun, much less the stars, their planet was for centuries controlled by an alien. He gave them everything — food, energy, entertainment. It wasn’t enough for her. She was… curious, and everyone could see it. When she was born, her mother said: she is going to see the sun one day.

And she did. For the first time in centuries, an occampan left their underground home and reached the surface.The sun was glorious, more than she could have ever dreamed of. There, she met a man named Neelix. Kind, funny, he promised her he would take her to see the stars. But the Occampans weren’t the only people living on that planet. Another race, jealous of their prosperity and access to water, took her so she would show them the way to her city. She refused.

Eventually, she was rescued by the Starship Voyager, and there, among the aliens and the stars, she found her home.

If there’s one thing that this experience has taught me, Captain, it’s that there’s no time like the present.

occampan biology

body temperature: 16C (that’s why you often see Kes wearing several layers of clothes, tights under her dresses, boots to keep her feet warm);

lifespan: average of 24 years (they become adults at 5 and a half years old.) The occampa, due to their short lifespan, have increased mental capacity, learning things very quickly so they can contribute to their society. Despite their rapid lifespan, they age very slowly for most of their life. Only during the last year of their life they quickly age up - a process known as the Morilogium);

eating habits: they are vegans and they require less food than the average human;

physiology: their average height is 5′2″;

sleeping habits: they only require three hours of sleep per night;

senses: similar to humans;

skin: it has a grainier quality than humans, not as soft;

powers: eidetic memory and general telepathic powers;

character sheet

She has a dazzling, ethereal beauty, waifish and fragile. But Kes is not frail: there is a dignity to her bearing, an alertness in her look, that suggests a being of powerful intelligence.

name: kes;

nicknames: sweeting (by neelix);

age: 5 + (roughly 20 human years);

weight: 47 kilos

height: 160cm

body build: slim, elfin, delicate

eye color: green

hair color: brown;

skin tone: brown;

predominant features: occampan ears, large eyes, slightly far apart;

hair style: kept in dreadlocks, usually styled in buns or large braids;

voice: low, husky, softly-spoken;

good personality traits: joyous, attentive, bright, assertive,

bad personality traits: secretive, abrasive, worried

mood character is most often in: “It’s a joy to pretend to be this extraordinary creature, so open and everything so new. No sort of cynicism or precociousness or pretentiousness or sarcasm” - jennifer lien.

It bothers you that I’m making friends of my own. You always have to involve yourself somehow.

neelix and kes: neelix saved her, and for that she will forever be grateful. i don’t acknowledge they had a romantic relationship, i see it as a more of a familial relationship – neelix as sort of an older brother figure who feels responsible for kes and her safety. he is still controlling, possessive; he sees kes eternally as a child, but there is no romantic undertone to it.

Look at me, Captain. I’m the same Kes you’ve always known. I haven’t lost my judgment. I’m not under some alien influence. I believe something crucial is happening to me and I want to see it through.

kes, janeway and tuvok: kes sees janeway and tuvok as parental figures, especially tuvok. he became her mentor, her friend, the person she can turn to when her mind becomes a hurricane she can’t control. he is usually the person who can bring her out of her head. his guidance is extremely important because when it comes to important matters, he doesn’t show where he thinks she should go, he allows her to make a choice. to put it simply, kes worships janeway. she sees her as something larger than life, she is the manifestation of the wonderful ship they are in, she is stronger than a planet but willing to change and adapt when given new information. kes wants to emulate her. she is also the person she feels most comfortable to speaking about personal matters.

Just let me stay for a little while. I haven’t seen you much over the past few days. I miss you.

kes and the doctor: she was the first person to see him as something other than a machine, a thing whose only purpose is to serve the voyager crew. he was also the first person to see her as something beyond neelix’s companion. the sickbay was the safest place in the ship for her, just the two of them, discovering themselves in this strange new world. she adores him. they never have awkward lulls, conversation flows easily between them.

I don’t know what happened. I looked at the hypospray and it just came to me.

powers: oh, voyager, you really had to find the weirdest way to write kes out, huh. so, here is my whole spin on the whole thing. instead of her powers being something the writers can bring up from time to time for a plot line, I have that Kes is steadily working with them in the background. She takes a small break after she hurts Tuvok, but he is the first one to say that suppressing them will only lead to a more dangerous situation later. mastering her powers is essential to avoid a repeat of the incident.

teleknesis: the first one she masters, she is very proficient with it. most objects up to 100 kilos she can move without breaking a sweat, it takes more of an effort the heavier the thing is, but up to half a ton, she can usually do it. above that, it requires too much of her.

increased life span: as we saw in the other occampan group, using their powers, mastering them, increases their lifespan. Kes will live probably until she is 32, gaining 8 more years due to her increased control and contant use of her powers.

telepathy: its a work in progress, always. she struggles a lot in creating steady connections, slipping into other people’s minds, or overwhelming the other side with her emotions. she can reach the minds of people far away from her, up to one kilometer.

manipulation of subatomic particles: she can create fire, increase the speed in which atoms are moving, making plants grow more quickly, and she can also reverse the process, making things freeze. metal turns to water, water to ice.

teleportation: she can move herself, and objects (such as voyager) to par off places. it is not something she usually does, especially with objects, as it drains her. she can, however, teleport herself across short distances without much of a problem.

time travel + more complicated skills: the depth of her powers is never fully explored, she feels in her chest that she can do more, and she certainly wants to explore it, but she can see the fear in other people’s eyes when she uses her powers, it scares them so it’s never something that becomes a part of her life.

#⟨ the mayfly _________ ⋆˚ general.#really tempted to rewatchs easons 1-3 of voyager just for kes again #i'm missing her #anyways she is tiny she can punch a hole in space and time #me in the last version of this post: limited powers #me now: let me re-read memory alpha to see if i remember anything else

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cosmiccino · 1 year

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An illusion. (1)

This is an illusion. (1)

I once thought I had [it all], but it was all a delusion. (2)

an illusion you’re hell bent on protecting and preserving at all costs. (3)

Remember how we started? Then look at us now. And then think that it's up to you.Just drop that fool delusion that you're better than everybody else and go to work.In a year, you'll have an office that'll make you blush to think of this dump. You'll have people running after you, you'll have clients, you'll have friends, you'll have an army of draftsmen to order around!...Hell! It's nothing to me what can it mean to me? but this time I'm not fishing for anything for myself, in fact I know that you'd make a dangerous competitor, but I've got to say this to you. (4)

What if the only peace attainable comes from immersing oneself in illusion? (5)

Whatever wants to live demands more than beautiful illusion. (6)

For now we still have the power to choose our fate, and the remaining question is only this: Haws we the will to act vigorously and in time, or will we remain imprisoned by a dangerous illusion? (7)

Nothing can be more real, or concern us more, than our own sentiments of pleasure and uneasiness; and if these be favourable to virtue, and unfavourable to vice, no more can be requisite to the regulation of our conduct and behaviour. (8)

In short, the repression of a desire necessarily turns into a desire for repression, the renunciation of a pleasure turns into the pleasure of renunciation, the regulation of pleasures into a pleasure of regulation. (5)

When the guardians of morality perform a great tragedy […] and then believe that therefore the world is no longer in order and the great law of the gods and humankind is in danger, then kynical satire first admonishes us to stay calm. Let us see whether that is really so bad! Who is really harmed by this copulation that goes against the regulations? Only the naive illusion of law.How would it be, however, if human beings did not have to serve the law, but the law had to serve human beings? Did Isocrates not teach that human beings are the measure of all things? (6)

What is the human being if not an animal of which too much is demanded? (9)

You will understand how much may be effected this way, if you observe how even wild beasts grow tame by dwelling among us, and how no animal, however ferocious, continues to be wild, if it has long been accustomed to [world’s] companionship: all its savageness becomes softened, and amid peaceful scenes is gradually forgotten. (10)

It's very tiring, not being alienated from your environment. (11)

It has alienated all its rights to the [world], who is, therefore, absolute master. (12)

On entering the palace he […] had learned what kind of game was being played that evening and (13) the monarch, more “savage beastly” than ever, puts in an appearance. (14)

False eyebrows and false moustaches were stuck upon them, and their hideous countenances were all bloody and sweaty, and all awry with howling, and all staring and glaring with beastly excitement. (15) All observing the strict etiquette of the court, and all organized according to their place in the hierarchy. (18)

The emphasis is on animality, the animal side and animal basis of human existence. (6)

And, lest we forget, the animal is not “The Animal,” but the principle of animality that belongs entirely to human culture. (16)

How, too, can I describe that palace which I discovered after having walked a while? (17)

[She] represents absent things as being present and appearance as reality.Both create an illusion, and in both cases the illusion is pleasing.

Whatever her wings were, her nakedness was certainly a stage illusion.

Can any eye ever be sure how wide they are and avoid being taken in by the optical illusion? (21)

But up close the illusion disappears, and she’s lost in reason’s opposite. (22)

It seemed to be a sort of rite […], to prepare […] for slumber by meditation in the presence of the grand spectacles of the nocturnal heavens. (23)

For I will pass through the land of […] this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land […], both man and beast; and against all the gods […] I will execute judgment: I am the [God]. (24) We are all gods here. Beastly Gods.

(1) Asimov, Complete Robot Anthology

(2) Wollstonecraft, Complete Works

(3) Anzaldua, This Bridge We Call Home

(4) Rand, The Fountainhead

(5) Zizek, Less Than Nothing

(6) Sloterdijk, Critique of Cynical Reason

(7) Hovestadt Buehlmann, Quantum City

(8) Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

(9) Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life

(10) Seneca, Complete Works

(11) Carter, Shaking A Leg

(12) Rousseau, Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(13) Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier

(14) Girard, Violence and the Sacred

(15) Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

(16) Hays, Architecture Theory since 1968

(17) Harrison Wood Gaiger, Art in Theory 1648 1815

(18) Kuhl, 50 Buildings You Should Know

(19) Carter, Nights at the Circus

(20) de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

(21) Powers, The Overstory

(22) Hugo, Les Miserables

(23) King, James Bible

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aminiatureworld · 3 years

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A Little Rest II

Characters: Xiao, Zhongli, gn!reader

Word Count: 2,104

Warnings: Swearing

Premise: Sometimes life is just unbearably tiring. And a comforting shoulder can be the perfect substitute pillow. In which the reader falls asleep on their partner.

Author’s Note: Second part!!! I realize the first didn’t get a ton of traction, unfortunately, but hopefully, this’ll still be welcomed. I realize since most of these are basically pseudo fics, would you guys prefer it to be bullet-pointed or paragraphed? I’m just wondering if one format is easier or more pleasant to read than the other.

Also, adepti’s rules and personal needs are kinda nebulous to me so I sort of made them up myself. Watches also weren’t a thing until the 1800s, and specifically didn’t really become a thing in China until the mid-20th century. But this is fantasy so I do what I want.

Xiao

You loved Xiao more than you could say. Every little moment spent with him made your heart flutter, every habit of his that you’d noticed, every little way he revealed his soul to you.

It seemed so improbable to you sometimes, than an adeptus, someone so very disconnected from the world of humans, should choose to love you. Although Xiao would never let you think you were any lesser than him, would never let his nature put you down, you were still somewhat in awe of the whole setup, and little reminders of his adepti status often brought you back to when you two had first begun to fall in love, when Xiao had explained that he didn’t quite understand the human way of life.

And one of those things that he didn’t understand appeared to be the concept of sleep itself.

It wasn’t that Xiao didn’t know what sleep was. Nor was he unable to sleep, he once told you. Theoretically he could sit down and take a nap much like any normal human. It was more that he didn’t need to sleep, and didn’t see the need to do something that took up so much time and left one so vulnerable.

Not that he didn’t pay attention to your needs; he wasn’t about to disrupt your sleep schedule on purpose, in fact you often joked that Xiao cared more about your rest than you did. It was only that, after spending so many years simply not thinking about things like sleep, it became hard for him to suddenly remember that he had a partner who needed said sleep every day. And a day was oh so short in Xiao’s mind.

It was a beautiful evening at the Wangshu Inn. The air was warm without being stifling and a breeze blew, light and cool. You were on the roof with Xiao, the place that had become your normal meeting spot. For as much as Xiao adored you with every fiber of his soul, he was still an adeptus, and his comfort level around most humans was that of an anxious cat – always ready to bolt.

Besides, the roof of the Inn was such a lovely place to relax. You gazed at Xiao’s profile as he looked up at the stars, noticing the way that the wind ruffled his hair slightly, the way his posture seemed so relaxed, so comfortable. One of his hands was clasping yours, fingers linked together, his palm nice and warm; the other pointed out constellations to you, each bearing a story, some which had long been forgotten by the residents of Liyue.

It wasn’t often that Xiao was so talkative, so open. Although he still barely mentioned his past – keeping that part of himself shut away with only the occasional crack through which you might learn of his sorrows – he’d become much more willing to disclose his everyday thoughts to you, as well as share stories that he knew. The latter was something you always loved to listen to, not just because the stories he told were always interesting and so full of life, but also because they gave you the sense of knowing him better, something that always made you happy.

Unfortunately, tonight was one night where, though you were more than happy to listen to Xiao talk about the stars, you were kind of dying of fatigue. A headache slipped in and out of your consciousness, and you found it more and more difficult to concentrate on Xiao’s words, finding they were all melting together into some semi-coherent monologue.

Your fatigue must’ve been very apparent, for when Xiao glanced over at you his whole demeanor changed; the carefree look on his face was gone, replaced with one of slight confusion and definitive worry. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine!” You shook your head. “Just a bit tired, that’s all.”

“Then you should rest.” Xiao squeezed your hand slightly before moving to stand up. However, as tired as you were, you cared more about spending time with him, and weren’t about to cut said time short.

“Wait!” You exclaimed, causing Xiao to pause, looking at you in a puzzled way. You smiled, slightly sheepish, but pressed forward. “I’ll be fine. If you don’t mind though, may I, uh, may I lay my head on your shoulder.” You gazed up at him, but inside you were struck with the urge to suddenly look away. Xiao was still a bit reticent with affection, not that it bothered you. He’d told you that he was simply unused to it, not averse to it. You weren’t about to pressure him into anything though, no matter the cause, and thus you waited for his response, hoping your expression conveyed that it’d be perfectly fine if he declined.

Your worries proved to be without ground however, for Xiao’s expression grew only fonder. Lying back down he gestured towards you. You gladly scooted closer to him, laying your head on his shoulder, hand once more in his. “You were saying about the boar constellation.” You murmured.

Xiao smiled, kissing the top of your head, before once more going on speaking about the stars. You smiled too, allowing his stories to carry you off to sleep, your head already swirling with half formed dreams about creatures who walked among the stars.

Xiao listened to your breathing even out, still talking a little after it seemed you’d dozed off, making sure that the sudden stop of his voice didn’t wake you up.

Gazing down at your peaceful face he pondered for a moment how much his life had changed so quickly. Even a month ago the idea that he would become friends with a human seemed impossible, much less that he would fall in love with one.

When he’d first met you it was as if something that had been frozen inside him for a long time began to thaw. He was terrified at first, terrified of you, terrified of himself, terrified of the unknown that loomed before him like a vast chasm. It had taken every ounce of courage to hold your hand at first, and every ounce of courage for every step after that.

But he would do it again if he had to, for being with you was the best part of his long, often cruel life. And he would do anything to protect you, anything to make sure you were comfortable and happy and healthy.

“Goodnight.” He spoke softly. Up above the stars kept silent vigil along with him. Tomorrow would be a bright new day, but for now he was simply going to enjoy the moment he’d been given with you.

Zhongli

For someone who’d lived thousands of years, you’d think Zhongli would remember that tea had to be decaffeinated sometimes.

Not that you could really blame him for forgetting. After all it’s not like he needed to pay attention to whether or not his tea was caffeinated. To one of the Seven sleep was something more akin to a perk than a necessity. Sure, it was nice to sleep. But it’s not like Zhongli was going to feel regret if he accidentally downed five cups of tea right before midnight and spent the rest of night starting at the ceiling, wondering where he went wrong.

Unfortunately, you were definitively not a god, and did, in fact, need sleep. So, when you found yourself staring out the window at 5 am, having long come to the conclusion that sleep was just not going to happen, the emotion going through your mind was something more akin to: “Oh. Fuck.”

This turned into an “Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me” when you saw the list of your daily commissions. Yeah, someone had to go to Jueyun Karst and Qingyun Peak to collect Cor Lapis, and considering your relationship with Zhongli and the adepti it should’ve been unsurprising that you were going to be the one to do it. But your sleep addled brain was having a difficult time processing things logically, and all you saw when you looked at the list Katheryne gave you was the fact that today was going to hurt.

Your prediction turned out to be only too true. No adepti came to ask why you were mining outside their front doors – honestly what would you even respond to something like that – but the amount of treasure hunters that ran into you began to feel less like a likely coincidence, considering the location, and more like a targeted attack. Thankfully there was nothing you couldn’t handle, but by the end of your expedition you were more than ready to go home and take a nap.

Hurrying through the rest of your day, barely responding to the people you interacted with, by the time you’d finally finished up with your adventuring duties you felt like the most irritated person on the planet.

Arriving home, throwing your pack haphazardly onto the floor you almost tripped and fell flat on your face in your hurry to get to the bedroom. Not bothering to take off your adventuring gear you threw yourself onto the bed and quickly found yourself lost in long overdue sleep.

Zhongli glanced at his watch, frowning as he saw the lateness of the hour. The sun was already beginning to set, and though he’d walked as fast as possible, he still found himself feeling vaguely guilty about being so late. You two hadn’t spoken much in the morning, you’d seemed a bit restless and hurried out right after breakfast, so Zhongli was anxious to spend as much time with you after work as possible.

“Darling?” He called out, walking into the home you two shared. He glanced around uncertainly, surprised that you hadn’t greeted him at the door. The sight of your pack sprawled about the hallway only made him more confused, and vaguely alarmed, and he hurried down the hall, checking each room to see if you were there.

His worry immediately faded upon seeing you, curled up above the covers, evidently fast asleep. Unsure as to whether or not to wake you up he instead headed towards the kitchen, thinking you might like something when you got up.

You woke up in the dark, something that surprised you. You’d been out for a long time. Seeing that the door had been opened you shuffled down the hall, still a bit groggy from the extended nap you’d just taken.

Zhongli smiled as you entered the kitchen. “Did you have a good nap my darling?” He asked, kissing you on the forehead. You nodded sleepily, propping yourself up by your elbows on the counter. Zhongli chuckled. “Here, something to warm you up.”

Yours eyes widened as the cup of tea was placed in front of you. For a moment there was silence, then you glanced back at him.

“Zhongli?”

“Yes?”

“Uhm, is this tea, well, does it by any chance have caffeine in it?”

The look on Zhongli’s face was enough to make you burst into giggles. Perplexion melted into realization, which evidently caused some sort of embarrassment, for the former god blushed a bright shade of red before bringing his hand to cover his mouth.

“Ah, I see. That’s why you were so tired this morning.”

“It’s alright.” You finally replied, the initial fit of giggles having passed. “I know that you don’t have to think about these sorts of things normally. Only me making the same mistake two times in a row would be a bit hilarious, wouldn’t you think” You placed a kiss on Zhongli’s cheek, finally causing him to calm down a bit.

“I suppose you’re right. I’m sorry. Next time I promise to pay more attention.”

“Thank you.” You smiled, fatigue coming back after the initial burst of energy. Leaning into Zhongli’s neck you sighed slightly.

“Still tired?” Zhongli asked, voice soft and caring.

“Yeah, a bit.” You admitted. Zhongli nodded, before scooping you up.

Carrying you over to the couch you both settled in a bit. Zhongli began humming a sort of lullaby, and you smiled despite yourself. “You’re too good for me.” You mumbled.

“Nonsense.” Came Zhongli’s reply, just as full of love and affection. “You’re too good for me. And I won’t hear otherwise.”

“If you say so.” You replied, too tired to really fire back, already drifting off.

“I do. It’s only the truth.” And with that he began to hum again. As you fell asleep one last thought lingered in your mind.

If such contentment comes from staying up too late, then I’d be glad to do it again.

#I was today years old when I realize Xiao's VN is Soma from Food Wars #I can never unhear it #That show is my guilty pleasure #anyways... yeah #I hope people like this #xiao #zhongli #xiao x reader #zhongli x reader #genshin impact #genshin impact fanfiction #scenarios #my writing

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funtimebunnyblog · 3 years

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I'M BACK!!! 🥰😍❤ Did you all miss me? I'm happy to say that I've finally gotten some WiFi where I'm currently living and updates are gonna try to be more steady here in the future but I can't make any promises because I get very busy with my work 😅😇 Please continue to bear with me!

In other words, a while back I wrote the OG version of this little short fic on A03 but I realized that I had never posted it here! 😱 Nevertheless, I decided to write the Part 2 to this and then decided to remaster that first part before posting it here! 🙂🙂🙂 I'm thinking about turning this into a little mini series 🤔🥰

Anyways, I'll stop rambling! Please enjoy! 😚

Pillarroomates (Chapter 1: Roommate wanted)

(This is dedicated to Dagdoth and Sureynot; 2 of the best bad influences I could ever ask for 🥰😍❤)

The steady click-clacking of keys filled the pleasant silence of the little kitchen, Kars typing away on the laptop before him at the table.

It was just a little after noon, a time where he usually put down his work for a brief session to sit back in silence and enjoy a cup of coffee, or maybe a mug of tea depending on his mood, with whatever baked-good had been whipped up recently. Today however, he chose to cut his little break out of schedule completely to get a jump on the deadline of the month that he was currently picking away at.

Hunched over, eyes glued to the screen, one could've swore he was a living statue perched like that so quietly if it weren't for his typing fingers.

The sweet smell hanging in the air came much closer as Wamuu strode over to the table, a soft smile was painted across the mans lips as he placed an oven fresh cookie on a plate down next to the mug of black tea his Master was letting steep at his side.

"Thank you, Wamuu." Kars said quietly, watching the blonde depart in his peripheral vision for only a beat before regaining his sharp focus on the sea of numbers staring back at him.

Kars had his own room with a desk to work in of course but he always found himself enjoying doing work down here this time of day. The heavenly smell of the kitchen when something was being baked and the pleasant background noise of the radio chiming softly, sometimes accompanied by Wamuu humming along, was something sort of relaxing to Kars.

Relaxing around here tended to be something rare too, as there never seemed to be a dull moment in the lives of the Pillarmen these days.

Not in this neighbourhood, no.

The younger man hummed in response, heading back to the stove to finish scraping fresh cookies off the pan to place on a rack to cool. He was sure Santana would make an appearance soon to try one, with the lovely smell filling the air and all.

Santana could never stay asleep (as heavy of a sleeper as he had the tendency to be) holed up in his room when there was something yummy being cooked.

The times where he appeared the quickest was when Kars flicked on the coffee machine first thing in the morning, the red-head manifesting at his side at the very first spew of hot caffeine never failed to nearly give him a heartattack; especially when it was 5 in the morning in a dark kitchen.

Kars' head lifted, cocking an eyebrow as there suddenly came a knock at the front door; three evenly spaced thumps on the wood. The thought of another complaining neighbour was the first thing to cross his mind, making him sigh as he moved to get up from his chair.

"PIZZA'S HERE!!!"

The sounds of heavy footfalls coming at a rapid speed from down the hallway accompanying the cry stopped him in his tracks.

The plum-haired man grimaced, Wamuu glancing over his shoulder with a frown, as none-other-than Esidisi sped by; the one hand clutching the towel around his waist was the only thing keeping it from blowing away completely.

Despite only catching a glimpse of his speedy companion, Kars didn't miss the fact that the other was sopping wet and trailing water.

Esidisi had simply lept out of the shower the second he heard the knock at the door, leaving with only a towel (just barely even) and the foamy suds that were still clinging to his hair and his body.

No doubt about it, he was dripping all over the place.

And all over his clean floor too.

Kars clicked his tongue, more than tempted to sigh again.

"Really, Esidisi?" He called out to the other.

It was hard to tell whether he was more displeased with his state of soapy undress or the fact that the oldest Pillarmen had gone and ordered yet ANOTHER pizza this week with only God-knows-what on it.

Sure, he the others found themselves actually partaking in "Human food" casually these days. Wamuu even went so far as to teach himself how to cook as a hobby to fill time around the house when he wasn't going to the Gym or to work, but Esidisi had become something of a strange enthusiast on the matter.

Some people in this world got a little riled up over something as simple as Pinapple being added as a topping on a pizza but Kars had a feeling those people would have an absolute fit listening to Esidisi's phone order of a multi-fruit pizza (consisting of: oranges, apples, watermelon and strawberries) with cheese, olives and pepperoni.

He was starting to wonder if his longtime companion was simply doing it just to see how far he could push a Pizza place with his barrage of odd orders until they yelled at him or worse, barred him completely from the place.

His question was only met with laughter. "I decided to ask for Mac and Cheese and Jalapeños on it this time!" Esidisi called back, voice echoing off the walls, as he finally reached the front door.

Wamuu's nose crinkled at the very sound of that, choosing wisely to direct his attention to his cookies once more.

Kars decided to follow suit and do the same with his own work.

He supposed it wasn't really his problem, therefore; he shouldn't say anything.

☆☆☆

The advertisment had been a strange one for sure, but really, you had no choice but to at least look into it. It never hurt to try and you were already desperate enough as it was.

Apartments and open housing in the area was becoming a rarity at best these days, this busy time of year didn't help things either, and you had been scouring the internet for every opportunity or opening there was to move in with someone in this portion of the city.

Sadly, you had turned up empty handed quite a few times.

The last one you had looked into had been great; a nice building, nice seeming people, decent budget; but alas, the people who put out the advert took it down just a day later.

They had decided to give the opening to a close friend of theirs who wanted to come across the country and live with them instead.

You had been starting to consider checking the complete other side of the city and trying to squeeze yourself in somewhere there or maybe even just going with the option of moving cities completely! The hassle of finding a place was just becoming too much until... this one happened to pop up.

☆ Roomate requSWIGGITY SWOOMATE, WE NEED A ROOMATE!!11!!!1!

We are Four Men seeking out a Human roomate to live with us in our rented house.

4 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 kitchen; upstairs, downstairs and basement.

Location: Western side of the city, 929 Bizzare av.

Rent and chores are divided equally among us.

Requirements as followed:

• Must be a CLEAN Human.

• Human must not bear the surname of "Joestar" under ANY means necessary.

•Must be actively working and have claims to have the ability to hold their job.

• Must be willing to contribute to the household via chores and yard work when necessary.

• must be CUTE!!!

• Mus

•

• Must like llf6io78fjjl0

•

• Jo9sjw6jnsjej27ebeolu

• Jsjsij wkk d18kkjs lkdjsjsns52jsjjsnend2njsmdv 6272jsndbdhs2672 jd Djjsija bsij eeskdnne9s782728 jd bjejrn rnusjjsj

• the human must not be loud

• It would be most appreciated if the Human was a mannered person, who holds appreciation for similar hobbies we do. -W

•

Ask within to apply! ☆

You couldn't help but wonder if whoever had written this advert had been drunk at the time by looking at the grabbed mess that took up half the page.

Better yet, you could only hope this was a real advertisement and not some sort of stupid prank.

Either way, you were determined to find out today and claim this oppertunity before anyone else got the chance.

Glancing down at the print out you had made of the ad at the Library, you sighed as you kept going down the street. You had been walking all morning and were beginning to wish you had the foresight to pack a snack or a drink for your seemingly endless sojourn for this supposed place.

There was no picture put onto the advertisement, even a proper description of the place would've been nice, and finding a direct address wasn't exactly a piece of cake to you.

Nonetheless, you kept going. Stopping at every house you passed in hopes to spot a matching address; finding nothing but different numbers and barking dogs tethered in yards.

With every different number meeting your eyes, the possibility of this just being a fake ad just kept growing and growing in your mind.

You were even starting to consider just giving up entirely when, at last, there it was. "292" the numbers were bolted to the front porch, the 9 starting to tilt to one side.

It seemed nice enough. The lawn was well kept, the walkway however looked as if it needed to be redone. The building was a sunbleached blue, probably a nice clean periwinkle once upon a time, but now leaning a tad white and staring to flake. The place was definitely in need of a touch up.

This was the place, now if someone was Home to even just talk to you about this ad that would be great.

You gathered up the courage to leave the sidewalk and start up the overgrown walkway, the wood of the porch whined under your feet as you stepped onto it. A couple of chairs, a book carelessly left behind in one, a little cage sat all by its lonesome in the far corner, and a big unmissable stain (probably coffee) caught your eye on the wood.

The word "Pillarmen" was scrawled on the name card over the mail slot of the front door.

A strange surname, you had never heard of it before, but it must've been safe to assume that it belonged to someone here. Presumably one of the men who had made this advertisement in the first place.

With only a moments hesitation, clutching the print-out in hand, you reached out and rapped on the door hard with your knuckles, then stood back and waited.

Silence... You took the opportunity to fix your appearance slightly, suddenly becoming a little self-conscious, smoothing out your shirt before clasping your hands behind your back neatly and putting on your best smile.

First impressions were important, most especially a first impression made at the door after all.

There came the sounds of voices, too muffled for you to hear through the walls, followed closely by the unmistakable thundering of footsteps coming closer and closer from within.

Finally, the door flung open.

You felt your eyes go a little wide, the smile drained from your face as you craned your neck back slightly to meet the gaze of the very tall and very muscular dark-skinned man that now stood before you.

Belatedly, as your eyes followed the droplets of water that were dripping off him, trickling down every inch of his muscular body and pooling at his feet, you realized he was practically naked; clutching only a fluffy white towel around his waist.

The towel didn't look nearly as fluffy and white as his hair, however.

"Uh--" Your tongue swole in your mouth as you both found yourselves staring at one another, seemingly sharing a similar dumbfounded moment.

He blinked owlishly.

"You're not the Pizza delivery." He said matter-of-factly, breaking the tense silence that had fallen between the two of you.

Your head shook violently, broke from your sudden stupor, pulling out the slightly crumpled piece of paper out for him to see.

"Uh-- I--... N-No! I'm not-- I'm uh.... here ab-about the-- the roomate ad...?" You sputtered, the words felt as garbled as alphabet soup falling off your tongue, you felt a nervous sweat beading on your skin under your clothes as it hit you for a second time that wasn't wearing any. "Oh! If uh-- this is a bad time I-- I can come back later!"

His face lit up suddenly, eyes shimmering like sapphires. "Oh!" He cried. "I forgot about that!"

The massive man turned, calling back over his shoulder deeper into the apartment.

"Kars! There's a Human here, they saw our advert!"

You happened to be so gobsmacked, still reeling from the slight shock of the very first of your encounter, you hadn't even noticed he distinctly used the word "Human" there.

"What?!"

You couldn't see past the mans hulking figure but you could very well hear the scraping of a chair in the distance, followed by more thundering footsteps heading towards the door.

You blinked as yet another larger-than-life sized man made his appearance, pushing past the first with a frown. The both of them looked almost comically squashed where they stood taking up the whole doorway.

This man was just as tall and as muscular as the first. His skin was like ivory, framed by dark cloth wrapped from his neck to the top of his head with only a tuft of deep purple hair dangling precariously out over his pointed nose.

More importantly, very much unlike the first, this one was fully clothed.

Clad in a dress shirt that matched his hair, slightly unbuttoned to just give you a peak of the buldging muscles he had underneath and the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, neatly pressed black dress pants and house shoes.

Kars blinked in surprise as he caught sight of you at last, eyes scanning over you. He honestly hadn't expected someone to come to their door about the advertisement they had put out so quickly, they had only put it out less than a day ago.

If anything, by the way it had turned out, he was surprised someone responded to it at all.

"Please, come in." Kars told you, making his best attempt to save this lousy first impression.

His surprised look was short-lived, turning sharp as he directed it onto Esidisi. The other man smiled sheepishly, turning and retreat back to the bathroom to finish his shower without the pizza he had left it for...

☆☆☆

☆Previously...☆

Kars hummed, reading over the advert for a 4th time with pursed lips.

He had listed all the necessary information about them and the living situation and even put down a few requirements to set the bar for any Human who would happen to want to apply.

However, even with the ground rules set, it still just seemed a little too bare to him.

"Hmm," Kars peered over his shoulder towards the living room doorway; he swore he could hear more of the crunching of the flaming hot cheetos Esidisi was enjoying rather than the actual program he was watching. "Is there anything specific you would like to add to this before I post it?"

"Shay they mush be cute!" came the reply though a mouthful of spicy junkfood. Kars could only hope he wasn't getting crumbs all over the couch again, not to mention getting too handsy with the T.V remote eating those things...

"That isn't what qualifies as a 'requirement', Esidisi..." he sighed.

The other swallowed, now blessed with the ability to speak much clearer; the crinkling of the cheeto bag hit Kars' ears next.

"Well excuse me for having standards." He heard his oldest companion grumble, drowned out by the crunch of more food.

Wamuu's head peered out of the kitchen, the pie he was just about to place in the oven cradled in oven-mit hands. He had decided to try his hand at fudge pie this time, having mastered apple so quickly.

"It would be nice if the Human were a Warrior as well," he said, disappearing from Kars' sight again as he went back into the kitchen, carrying the pie to the awaiting oven. "Or perhaps if they were interested in going to the Gym or baking as I do..."

Kars sighed, "Wamuu, I understand you would like someone to train with but this--"

"The Human must not be loud."

The Pillarman practically jumped out of his chair, the tiniest yelp escaping his lips as he swiveled his head to find none other than Santana looming over him. The sheet lines imprinted in the others face indicated he had just arisen from a deep sleep; most likely venturing out of his cave and into the kitchen to see what Wamuu was up to.

Even after thousands of years, he still couldn't get used to the youngest Pillarman sneaking up on him.

It probably didn't even count as "sneaking" anyways as Santana was just so naturally quiet he just happened to go unnoticed until he spoke up.

Kars opened his mouth to make an attempt to speak again, only to be cut off one more time as Esidisi finally made his own appearance; leaning over the purple-haired man to see the advert in the works.

"See, this is all wrong." Esidisi told him, frowning at the screen. "This is too formal! If we're going to get someone at all, we need to grab their attention somehow. Here, I'll fix it!"

The other practically clamored over him, cheeto bag tucked under arm as he reached over to type on the computer, deleting the majority of the title Kars had written out and already replacing it with one of his own creation.

Kars belatedly realized the others' hands were still coated in hot cheeto crumbs, smudging the keys of his pristine computer with imprints of red and orange as he typed away.

"Esidisi, stop this at once!" He commanded, trying to push him at arms length, only to be met with a hand pushing back and smooshing against his face. The smell of spicy cheese flavoring hit his nostrils, only fueling his fire. "This is my work computer! I'm the one writing this advertisement!"

Santana merely stood back, watching the two elder Pillarmen fight over the computer in silence. Esidisi was pushed by Kars into the keyboard a handful of times before their focus was solely on one another and no longer the ad.

"Get your grubby hands off me!" Kars growled as the other straddled him in the chair, his face now smudged like his keyboard. They kept pushing on one another, a clumsy slap war already underway, obscenities and curses getting mangled as they argued back and forth.

"You never let me--"

"I told you that--"

"I wanna do it! Just let me--"

Santana peered down at the computer curiously, uninterested in watching the display before him any longer.

The red-head typed out his own request before picking up the device and carrying it to the kitchen for Wamuu to see and whatever he wished; Santana ignored the sound of two bodies toppeling out of the chair and hitting the floor as he left.

Kars didn't even get to see the ad (or rather; the remainder of what qualified as an advert) before it was posted online by Santana.

#funnybunny #pillarmen #kars #esidisi #wamuu #santana #my writing #pillarroomies

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alexiethymia · 3 years

Text

JSHK Questions and Answers

Since I love lists, and I want to organize these for future reference, this is my compilation of the questions I still have as of the most recent chapter, and attempts to answer them with theories and headcanons with no bases whatsoever. So, let us begin!

1.) How does a human become a supernatural?

Among the Seven Mysteries, only Hanako and Akane-kun were or are humans. Shijima isn’t the original Shijima Mei, and the current Mitsuba was created from the original Mitsuba. Is there a difference between a human becoming a simple supernatural or becoming a School Mystery? Are humans who died and become ghosts, like original Mitsuba, considered Supernaturals? Is Sakura one such human-turned-ghost-turned supernatural?

For Amane and Mitsuba, we know how they became spirits. They had lingering regrets, which is confirmed by Kou when he said he’d help Mitsuba with his unfinished business so that he could pass on. So what Kou was talking about in the most recent chapter is probably not that.

Going back to Akane-kun and Hanako. How did Akane-kun become a supernatural? It was through a deal to save Aoi’s life, albeit he was tricked into it.

Did something of that sort happen to Amane and Tsukasa perhaps? Did Amane make a wish, was tricked, and somehow as a consequence end up killing Tsukasa as some sort of exchange? Because for some reason, among a time lord, a spider that has a library full of knowledge, and the GOD OF DEATH, it’s Hanako-kun who’s the leader of the School Mysteries. Something big must have been exchanged for that.

Perhaps Tsukasa heard a rumor that one way he and Amane could stay together forever was to become Supernaturals, with one being the other’s yorishiro and for this reason he wanted to kill Amane, except it happened the other way around. Admittedly, this is a bit farfetched.

2. Who does Teru actually like?

This was established from the very first chapter, so i believe it’s an important plot point.

Sakura: My first guess, again despite having no basis at all, is Sakura. But Sakura already has Natsuhiko so hmmm....

Mei: Yes, this is a bit weird. The only thing I have to go on is that one picture of Teru with Mei and Shijima in Monster Nursery. Teru could have been a kid who had a crush on high school student Mei before she died.

Aoi: Recent chapters would point to that. It seems so obvious as to be a red herring, but what if that is what makes it surprising enough to be true? I always thought Teru ‘liking’ Aoi was a way to troll Akane just as how Teru lords over Nene’s crush on him to Hanako (man in other circumstances, Akane-kun and Hanako-kun would get along soooo well), but he never said he liked Nene in a joking way, like he did with Aoi.

If the Teru-Aoi-Akane triangle is suppose to parallel the Kou-Nene-Hanako triangle, then it checks out if both Teru and Akane have a crush on Aoi. I do see them as being kindred spirits. Both are set up on a pedestal despite no one actually knowing their true selves. Everyone thinks they’re so perfect and nice, but both have pretty twisted characters. I mean Akane is also a ‘nice guy’ but everyone knows about his yandere tendencies, and he’s pretty free about what he thinks. On top of that, there’s also the shady business going on in the Minamoto and Akane families.

Akane: BUT THEN, what if Akane is the Nene in their triangle. Admittedly, a lot of Teru’s actions could be interpreted as him teasing the boy he likes who’s already in love with someone else. IT CHECKS OUT.

Akane and Aoi: Or you know he could have a crush on the both of them. This is just headcanon after all.

3.What on earth is Natsuhiko’s deal?

I swear he’s like the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Always beware the fool. I have this weird headcanon that he belongs to a family that’s also spiritually inclined like the Minamotos and the Akanes. Who knows, what if both Sakura and Tsukasa are dead supernaturals and Natsuhiko is their link to the living world?

Someone pointed out how the room with the mirror and the toys could be Hanako’s boundary. Besides the fact that we didn’t see any water, I would say that that is one brilliant observation! I could easily believe that. With what we know now about Sumire and from what Tsukasa said about not seeing Hanako for ten to twenty years, Hanako probably left Tsukasa, his yorishiro, in his boundary and never went to see him. The implications are horrifying. As we saw with Sumire, she kept relieving her death. That’s bad enough with No. 6 letting her die. But based on what we know, unless something else gets revealed, Amane was the one to kill Tsukasa. And he left Tsukasa in the boundary for ten to twenty years to relieve that? If true, I really will have to reevaluate my whole opinion about Hanako.

I think based on what we saw, if that really is their boundary, it may be a replica of the twin’s room, what with all those toys, and by the time we arrive at that point when we’ll see Hanako’s boundary, I think that’s where the key Nene picked up from Amane in the past will play a part. Is that the key to their house? The twin’s bedroom? Perhaps a secret tree house? There must have been a repercussion as well with Nene picking up that key from the past, because if it’s with her now, then it wasn’t with Amane in the past, and that may have changed something.

If that’s true, then it was Sakura and Natsuhiko who broke Tsukasa out. Again it gives credence to the Sakura-is-already-dead theory, because Tsukasa grants the wishes of the dead, so perhaps there was a wish that Sakura had to have granted no matter what, enough to bind herself to Tsukasa, like how Nene did with Hanako.

(A bit of a sideline, LISTEN I STILL HAVE HOPE FOR A HAPPY ENDING OK. Kamisama Hajimemashita also had time travel shenanigans. and it looked like the protagonist would die, but all of those time travel shenanigans were necessary for them to earn their happy ending. Time isn’t a straight line after all. It’s more like a loop or a circle. What will happen has already happened.)

4. Why are Tsukasa and Sumire the only human yorishiros?

Although Tsukasa as a yorishiro is not yet confirmed, I still have to wonder why. All of the supernaturals had or have strong ties to a living human. No. 1 has Akane-kun, Yako had Misaki, Mitsuba has Kou, Shijima had Mei, and Tsuchigomori had Amane. We don’t know what No. 1 and Mitsuba’s yorishiro are, but for the other three, the yorishiros they have are in relation to their precious humans.

I can’t imagine that Yako loved Misaki less than No. 6 or Hanako (presumably) loved Sumire, or Tsukasa, and yet Misaki isn’t Yako’s yorishiro nor is Mei, Shijima’s yorishiro, and I have to wonder why.

Is it because Misaki and Mei had already passed on peacefully, while in contrast Tsukasa and Sumire wanted to stay by Hanako and No. 6′s side, which translated to them being bound as yorishiro?

It’s stated in the story that yorishiro are the things most precious to a Mystery, but it also makes me think that yorishiros are the things or people that the Mysteries have the most regret about.

5. Why is Akane-kun affected by supernatural events?

Akane-kun has stronger ties to Supernaturals, being a Supernatural himself, unlike Nene who’s just an assistant to one.

So why did he forget about Aoi when Yako kidnapped her the first time around, yet Kou and Nene were unaffected, and why did the confession tree have an effect on him?

Maybe, because except for the deal with No. 1, for all intents and purposes he’s just a normal human being?

But this time around, he doesn’t forget about Aoi. Maybe because he was too involved this time so his memories couldn’t be so easily erased.

But admittedly, it may just have been a story telling choice so the readers wouldn’t know Akane had anything to do with supernaturals.

6. Why was Nene chosen as the kannagi?

This was a question I had all throughout the arc, and it still wasn’t answered. Normally you’d think that Nene became the kannagi the moment she made a wish to Hanako but Hanako later says that he had nothing to do with her short fate. So if Nene had never met Hanako in the first place, would she have been doomed to die for completely mundane reasons?

BUT THEN when she read her book at the Bookstacks, if I’m not remembering incorrectly, her first disastrous date was in college, but Mirai says in the Clock Keepers arc that she had less than a year to live, which means she’s supposed to die in high school. Why this discrepancy? Could Hanako have been lying? Did her lifespan shorten after making a wish to Hanako thereafter becoming the kannagi i.e. Hanako’s assistant? But again only those who were already near to death could have made a wish to Hanako so maybe since they were already doomed to die anyway, making a wish to Hanako and becoming his assistant was just the prerequisite to being the kannagi. Except in this case, Hanako wanted to change her fate. Perhaps opening a person’s book changes their fate. Nene’s book was read, Amane’s book was read by Tsuchigomori, but again no in-story event would support this.

Sumire identifies Nene as the kannagi, but No. 6 passes her by and identified Aoi as the kannagi, so again why this discrepancy? Perhaps someone in the past put a stop to the practice of sacrificing Akane girls (the Minamoto family perhaps?), but an Akane girl would always go to Kamome as a sort of back-up just in case.

Hanako was clearly lying when he said no human sacrifices happened during his time. What if there was a Hanako-san before our Hanako-kun? What if either Amane or Tsukasa made a wish to that Hanako-san, and as a result one of them became the kannagi or human sacrifice?

7. Why is No. 1 so important?

Kako is just sus af. Out of all the supernaturals, No. 1 always seemed the most powerful to me, which makes me wonder why Hanako is the leader of the Seven Mysteries. I mean when he called a meeting, only Tsuchigomori and Yako came, but when Kako presided over the meeting, all the supernaturals were there, except No.6. It was like Kako was the judge while Hanako was the defendant.

Time is an amazing power, even if it’s only in the school. Theoretically, if only within the school, doesn’t Kako have the power to reverse time going back to when Amane’s time when he was still a student there? Or does Kako have the power to transport people to the past while in the school?

Similarly, is stopping time for fifteen minutes the extent of Akane-kun’s powers as the Clock Keeper of the present, or is there something more to it? Why is it necessary for a living human to be the Clock Keeper of the present anyway? Akane-kun once said he was forced to clean the clock where they kept Mirai imprisoned so Akane must know the location of No. 1′s boundary and yorishiro.

Teru said it was important for them to get to the Clock Keepers. Would something happen if all of the Clock Keepers combined their powers (like some super sentai)?

And let us not forget, Shijima’s hint about Nene’s lifespan lies with No. 1, specifically with Akane. (Speaking of Shijima, what on earth was the price Tsukasa exacted for her wish?)

Who knows? Perhaps the key to solving Nene’s lifespan problem without sacrificing Aoi lies with No.1 and No. 6 as the mysteries who have dominion over time, life and death.

Seven questions for seven mysteries.

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villainousshakespeare · 3 years

Text

Learning a Lesson Chapter 9

iLearning a Lesson Chapter 8

Part 1 Here, Part 2 Here, Part 3 Here, Part 4 Here, Part 5 Here, Part 6 Here, Part 7 Here, Part 8 Here

Young Actor Tom Hiddleston/OFC

Rated E -Smut, Angst, Complicated Relationship - Teacher/Actor Posing as Student, Feels, Flirting, Fluff, Oral Sex, Sex, Shower Sex, Threats, Breakups, Angst…

ANGST IN THIS CHAPTER! (but don’t worry… I’m a hopeless romantic)

Summary: It’s your first day as a teacher and things are going well. That is, until a tall, gorgeous boy with blond curls and dramatic ways saunters into your last class. When he ignores all the swooning girls to flirt outrageously with you, it is secretly thrilling. Even more so is when he tries to steal a kiss after class ends. How long will you be able to keep your defenses up?

Up and Coming actor Tom is under cover in high school for research for a movie, but the pretty drama teacher is making the long assignment so much more enjoyable

@arch-venus25, @caffiend-queen @ciaodarknessmyheart @frostbitten-written @just-the-hiddles @kellatron55 @myoxisbroken @nonsensicalobsessions @poetic-fiasco @shiningloki @shae-annelore @thecutestlittlebunbunfairy @hiddlesholic @yespolkadotkitty @vodka-and-some-sass @wolfsmom1 @tom-hlover @toozmanykids @delightfulheartdream @whyispistashanuttaken @hopelessromanticspoonie; @loki-yoursaviourishere @is-it-madness

The Monday morning walk to school was the longest of Emily's life. With every step she took she was tempted to turn around and run the other way, hiding under her blankets and weeping rather than going on. Only a deep seated stubborn streak kept her from giving in to her fears and doing just that.

She needn't have worried. Tom was true to his word. There was no sign of him to be found in school. No infectious laugh ringing through the hallway, no tousled halo of blond hair floating above the shorter students amidst a throng of admirers, and no ice blue eyes seeking hers for a secret wink or speaking glance.

Emily told herself it was for the best. She hoped she would eventually believe it.

The other god-send was that Jim Howard seemed to have called in sick. A substitute was in his classroom when she got there, and never had she been so glad to see the old woman than she was that day. She assumed that it was his pride that kept him from walking into the building with a black eye and a swollen jaw, and took evil delight in the fact that Tom had so thoroughly trounced him.

Tom. There he was again. She could not go five minutes without calling him to mind. It was going to be a long day. Hell, it was going to be a long forever as far as she knew. How long would it take to get over the golden boy who had so completely won her heart?

Half a day was how long it took for the news of his exit to hit the school grapevine. Emily began hearing his name whispered during her fourth period class. By the time that class ended and she made her way to the staff lounge it was all anyone was talking about. Ada, Janis, and Mike were gossiping about it when she came in, a pathetic lunch of coffee and a banana in her hand.

"Well, anyone with eyes could have seen that that boy should be a movie star," Janis was opining. "It doesn't surprise me one bit."

"Oh, come on Janis," Mike laughed, skepticism showing, "he was handsome, sure, but there's no way you saw this coming!"

"I'm not saying that," Janis sniffed. "Obviously I didn't know he was an actor. But if anyone in this school was destined for greatness it was Martinsson."

"Hiddleston," Mike corrected her. "Apparently that's his real name. You're awfully quiet, Emily. You were close with the boy, weren't you? Tutoring him after hours and all?"

"Not that close," she said with a half shrug. "He claimed to want help with an audition monologue, but that was obviously for show. We never actually worked on it. Just class."

The words were true enough as far they went, even if the meaning behind them was an all out lie.

"Still, he clearly preferred you," Ada said, giving her a probing look. "I heard all sorts of chatter about how he always flirted with you, volunteering to read romantic scenes with you. I was a little jealous, to tell the truth. I mean, and I can say it now that I know he's a genuine adult - what I wouldn't have given for a chance to sculpt a nude of that boy!"

"No wonder Howard hated him so much," Mike laughed good naturedly. "It seems it's not just the high school girls who had a thing for him."

Emily did her best to tune them out after that, and took to eating in her classroom. The days blended into each other, with no end of the day secret to make them stand out as special.

The kids in her drama class were all excited of course. The thought that they had read scenes with an honest to goodness actor, one who was going to be starring in a movie, made them practically giddy. Kate began recirculating the lie that the two of them had been involved, and no one dared to correct her. Emily was angry on his behalf, offended that anyone would believe he would fool around with a student, until she realized the implications of that thought.

It was that guilt that was the worst. Well, along with the loneliness. Even if he had been an adult, she hadn't known that. She had thought him no different than Kate or Zack or Jamie, and she had slept with him anyway. She deserved all the pain she was feeling. Deserved more than that; to loose her job and never be hired again, even. More and more she slipped into a depression.

It was nine days after she had thrown him out of her apartment and her life that the first letter arrived. She grabbed her mail from the small slot inside the door and rifled through it on the way up the stairs as she always did, expecting nothing more than bills and solicitations. When she turned over an envelope addressed in an instantly recognizable hand, she felt as though she had been punched in the gut. Hands shaking, she opened the seal, afraid that if she didn't do it at once she would never find the courage, and unfolded a letter.

"My Darling Emily," it began in Tom's loopy mess of long hand, "I know I have no right to write to you, having broken your trust in the most caddish way possible. I only hope that you will allow me the opportunity to once more take advantage of your goodness of heart and kindness of disposition, that I may try to explain why I orchestrated such a hurtful charade.

"As you are patently aware now, I am an actor of both stage and screen. I take my profession very seriously, perhaps more so than it deserves, though I like to believe that you among all women will understand why. If I can peel away the layers of a character enough to expose the beating heart within, allowing my audience to sees even a piece of the truth of humanity in my portrayal, then I truly believe that I am contributing something to this shared experience we all are living. Pretentious as that sounds, it is my goal every time I assume a role, be it Iago or a soldier, or even Mr. Toad.

"When I was cast as a student from the States, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I was educated, I blush to say my love, in the best schools in England: Eton, Cambridge, and RADA. My good fortune has been quite excessive, I know, though no teacher I encountered in all of my tutelage could hold a candle to you, my darling. In any case, I was woefully unprepared to know the struggle such a young man was going through. My director came up with the idea to have me pose in a small town school, and I admit I leapt at the chance.

"Never in a million years would I have guessed that I would meet the woman of my dreams in such a situation.

"I confess that in the beginning I flirted with you to amuse myself. You are quite breathtakingly beautiful, my sweet, and I was bored beyond belief. As the days went on, however, I began to uncover the woman underneath the starched blouses and pencil skirts. A woman with a mind that soared and a soul that sung. One who shared my passion for stage poetry, and did not back down from a challenge.

"In short, my darling Emily, I fell in love with you.

"I should have told you the moment our relation crossed over the line. Alas my love, I fear that it is a coward who worships you. I was afraid that if you learned the truth you would be angry, and I wanted to collect as many precious moments with you as I could before your warm eyes turned cold. My sin is great, I know. I do not deserve to be forgiven. Nonetheless, I place my heart at your feet in hope that you will take it up, take pity on me, and not stomp it beneath your shoe.

"The film I am working on seized the opportunity afforded by my early matriculation to begin shooting. I am relocated to New York City to start principal photography. I know it is a mere two hours from you, and yet it feels the length of the world. Knowing I will not see you each day, hold you at night, is a weight on my soul that I know I have only myself to blame for.

"I ask nothing of you, my dearest Emily, but that you allow me to write to you. I do not expect you to write back, although I live in hope that one day you will. The distance keeps us apart, but perhaps that need not be all bad. Perhaps it can give you time to heal and to trust me once more. Let me write to you, to tell you about myself - my real self - and try to win your friendship back if nothing else. It has been the most important of my life.

"I do not flatter myself that I will ever hold you again, kiss your soft lips, feel you beneath me as you gasp in passion. I have too great a mark against me to hope for such grace. I would die to have it, but will not impose it on you. Just let me try to heal the hurt I have done, and I will be content.

"If you cannot find it within you to accept my offer of friendship in the form of epistles, simply write me with one word. 'Stop' and I will cease. You are in control, my heart. I will bow to your wishes.

"Please take good care of yourself, my Emily. I wish I could be their to tend to you myself. Be warry of the dread maths teacher. I know it is no longer my place, but I would ask you to not be alone around him.

"Enough of that. I will end for now. Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.

"My heart is yours.

All my love,

Tom."

Emily read the letter through, barley able to make out the words through the tears welling in her eyes. When she had finished, she collapsed onto the bed and read it through again, openly weeping this time. All of the pain and guilt she had been holding in came flooding out. In the end, she had to put the letter aside so that the deluge of her tears didn't permanently mar the ink composing the lines. By then she knew it by heart, but she still loved to see his strong hand scrawled out over the page.

She did not for a moment consider writing him to stop. Perhaps she should have. There was no future she could see for the two of them. Her trust had been shattered, along with her mental image of herself, by the situation. On top of that, he was away, filming a movie in the big city that she rarely went to. When this movie was ended, who knew where he would be? Jetting off to exotic countries? Treading the boards in London? His life was exciting and adventurous, and she was a little mouse of a school teacher from a small town. How could they hope to make a relationship work, even without their drama?

The letters came far more frequently than she had expected. While it was not every day, Tom was clearly grasping every spare moment he had to pour out his heart to her. He told her all about the filming process. She felt as though she knew his costars, so vividly did he depict them. Against her will, Emily would find herself laughing at ridiculous anecdotes, or groaning in commiseration at delays in the shooting.

In the midst of all of these tales of misadventures and productivity, Tom made clear to he still hoped to win Emily back. He never missed an opportunity to praise her, calling her darling, his sweet, his dear, his love. He mentioned how he had suggested that one of the teachers should be young, smart, and sexy as an homage to her, though no one could possibly do her justice. He let slip that he had been making his costars groan with his continual referencing her, to the point where they teased him any time her name arose.

At the end of each letter he dropped all pretense, stating plainly that he loved her and would do anything to win her back. He insisted that he would wait, that the decision was entirely hers, but that he lived in hope that one day she would write him back, telling him she forgave him. Until that day, he would soldier on and try to deserve her.

Several times Emily found herself sitting down, trying to pen a reply to him. She wanted, desperately wanted, to do so. But each time, the fear would come crashing down and she would end up tearing the letter to shreds.

About two months after the letters started, there was a longer than usual gap between arrivals. Emily began to think that he had given up on her, and a panic she had never felt gripped her. She had not realized the extent to which she had been living for his words.

When an envelope finally arrived, it was in an international envelope, and the return address was London, England. That was it, then. He was out of the country. All of the stories of his homecoming, complete with welcoming family, were a dagger to her. He still professed his love, but now an actual ocean separated them along with the sea of emotion.

Their were two more letters, spread over a month and a half, and then nothing for three weeks. Depression returned. She had all but given up when a card shaped envelope, gilded on the edges, arrived in her box.

***

"Alright, out with it!"

Emily looked up from the pile of papers she was grading to see Ada standing in her classroom door, arms crossed over her paint splattered apron and a determined look on her face.

"Out with what?" Emily asked, confusion genuine.

"It's been four months, Emily," the older woman said, shutting the door behind her as she walked in and sat at one of the student desks. The same desk, Emily couldn't help but note, that had once been Tom's.

"Sorry?"

"Four months that you have been moping around! Barely showing your face in the teacher's lounge, looking like someone stole your dog and kicked your kitten. This, from the girl who was such a spark of joy when she was hired that she even ignited passion for teaching in an old war horse like me!"

"I'm sorry," Emily mumbled.

"Don't be sorry, girl! Tell me what's wrong!"

"It's nothing."

"Emily, do you think I'm blind?" Ada asked with a sigh.

"No..."

"Or that I'm stupid?"

"Of course not!"

"Good," Ada snorted. "As I am neither. Four months ago, a certain long-legged boy with more looks than are good for anyone swaggered out of this school, and you have been a ghost ever since. It's not hard to put the pieces together."

Emily gaped at her, all color draining from her face. If Ada knew, or strongly suspected, was it then general knowledge? Was her shame a joke amongst the faculty, or a cause of scorn?

"Don't worry, hun," Ada said, as though reading her mind. "Most of the people around here are blind and stupid. No one else has any idea. Well, maybe Jim, but that's a whole other can of worms that I am not too keen on digging around in. So, you fell for the boy, huh?"

"You must despise me," Emily said, voice hardly above a whisper.

"So you're failing is that you're deaf," Ada shook her head. "How many times did you hear me rhapsodize about him? Hell, I was undressing him with my eyes every damn day!"

"But you never took it farther than that."

"No, I didn't. But then I am decades older than either one of you and was not given the opportunity. Who knows what I might have done if he had batted those long golden lashes at me and flashed a dimple."

"You wouldn't have slept with a student," Emily said doggedly.

"Is that what this is? That you feel guilty? Tell me something, Emily: would you ever even consider anything inappropriate with say... Jack Simmons, or Zach Lewis, or Dan Fielding? Would it even occur to you?"

"No," Emily said at once, repulsed by the very idea.

"Of course not. Because they are children. The Simmons boy is a hulking child, true, but even though he is big, he is still an adolescent. You can easily tell in a moment he is not an adult. Now, compare that to Tom. He has a baby face, and is all gangly, but there was something about him that flatly identified him as a man. You knew that, instinctively. That is why you let things play out the way you did."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I know you," Ada said simply. "You are a good person, with a moral compass. Was it a stupid thing to do? Of course! It could have ended horribly for you, and thank god it didn't! But don't beat yourself up for listening to your intuition when it turned out to be right! Even if the boy did end up being a snake."

"What if he wasn't?" Emily asked carefully.

"I just assumed... he left, and you didn't seem happy about it... Emily, what did happen?"

Emily looked at her friend, chewing on her lip as she decided what to say. Ada already knew the worst; what harm could it do to let her in on the rest? In a rush it all came out. The clandestine affair, the trouble with Mr. Howard, seeing Tom on Nicholas Nickleby, their disastrous fallout, all of it. Ada sat there rapt as Emily spilled the whole sordid story.

"He really punched Jim?" Ada asked when she had finished, a huge grin spread over her face.

"Twice," Emily confirmed, answering smile on her own mouth. "Hard. Knocked him flat onto the ground."

"Oh, would I have loved to have seen that."

"I could have lived without it, honestly."

"Oh, hun, I don't know what to tell you," Ada shook her head. "I don't even know whether to feel jealous of you sorry for you. Both, I suppose. Ah, to be young again."

"He's been writing me letters," Emily confessed, face reddening. "Ever since he left."

"What does he say?" Ada's eyes were huge.

"Different things. How his day is going. About the filming. That he loves me and wants to be with me."

"Well what the hell are you doing here then?" Ada stood from the desk to stare at her.

"Ada..."

"Girl, if that young man wanted me, you can bet that nothing would keep me away!"

"He's in London," she muttered.

"Did something happen to all the airplanes?"

"No... In fact..."

"In fact what, Emily? Spill it? Give a woman something to live vicariously through!"

With a sigh, Emily dug through her bag and pulled out the card she had received the day before. It was an invitation to a movie premiere in New York City. Folded along with that was a train ticket, prepaid first class, and a small note:

"I would not wish Any companion in the world but you, Nor can imagination form a shape, Besides yourself, to like of.

Tom (with all thanks to Miranda in The Tempest)"

"Well," Ada smiled at her, "when shall we go shopping? You, my dear, are going to need a dress!"

#Tom Hiddleston #tom hiddleston rpf #Tom Hiddleston/OFC #fic #fanfic #love #angst #pining #letters #love letters #smut (in other chapters)#teacher/student relationship #BUT NOT REALLY #he is undercover for a role #I am a sucker for a happy ending I promise!

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skyholders · 4 years

Text

Lucien: Passing By [Rumours & Secrets]

This translation contains DETAILED SPOILERS of Season Two of MLQC- Proceed with caution!

NOTE: This Rumours and Secrets tells the happenings of what happens after MC left for the other world, leaving Lucien in the OG world to prepare for the “Second Birth of Life.”

P.S: Apologies for any grammatic or spelling mistakes I have missed. Some minor details are added to this translation to make it less confusing.

Section One

[1/6]

It was very quiet in the streets, quieter than Lucien thought. His hand(s) reached into the pockets of his coat, and, unhurried, he walked towards where it was usually the most lively in the streets. A large, yellow truck was abandoned amidst the road, filled with furnitures like an old wooden rocking chair, a bookcase without half of a pair of frosted glass doors; toys stuffed and huddled into large plastic bags- seems like the truck of a moving company.

Lucien couldn’t piece the phrases together, 'end of the world', 'moving', 'abandoned truck'. They seem to have no connection among them to formulate a believable story. He stood in front of the truck, thinking of the time when he’d first moved in next to the girl.

[2/6]

Lucien is a rather minimalistic man: When he’s moving, he’ll only bring along his collection of books, his computer, and other necessities. Packing up doesn’t require more than seven boxes, and with the moving company's employees' skills, everything will be moved within two trips up and down the apartment. The night has grown very dark, Lucien stood in the middle of the road.

[3/6]

A gust of wind blew against his bangs. He sudden thought of how pleasant the weather was the day he moved. He’d lifted his head up to the sun as he drove, looking towards the sky above him. The sun was hidden behind a layer of clouds then, yet it still burned the eyes and sizzled the heads of many.

The moving company’s supervisor had a white towel hung across his shoulder, using it to dab the sweat off of his face occasionally. He said hello, chatted briefly. He smiled, saying how little he’s brought with him, and how customers like him are quite the rarity. After all, who doesn’t bring their life along with them when they move?

“I’m afraid it’ll be quite inconvenient, I can always purchase them once more after I’ve settled in,”- That’s what he said to the man.

[4/6]

As time went by, there were certainly many new additions to his home. However, most of them are gifts the girl’s gifted him. From a small cartoon memo, to a big, soft pillow, among other intriguing decorations.

He thought of the girl’s expressions when she first walked into his living room, a sort of timid politeness- not daring to look around too much, not daring to look at him any longer as well- like an innocent little bunny, entering the predator's trap willingly and without any bit of caution.

However, the little bunny soon familiarized herself with him, happily bouncing about around his life, trimming the leaves of his plants occasionally, never once leaving without assuring his fridge was filled with food. She liked to read while laying against the rug next to the floor to ceiling window, her legs dangling about. And she would have fallen asleep by sunset, where a seemingly miraculous golden hue coated her dress and her hair.

[5/6]

Those memories, seemingly distant, yet close enough to grasp, they came without warning. As it turns out, he remembers every little thing so vividly.

There was a foreign light dancing in his eyes, and yet, when he looked around, he couldn’t see a single thing. The buildings around him had no lamps or lights, they stood along the road, two roads facing one another, looking as if they’ll collapse anytime soon.

The end of the long road's an endless darkness, like an abyss raised from the grounds, with not a bit of light able to pass through it.

It’s only him, and the hems of his white coat being blown by the wind, contrasting against the night, thick with darkness.

[6/6]

A group of comets left brilliant trails among the sky, and he stopped looking, walking towards the pressing darkness in front of him.

Half an hour later, he stood in front of the Highest Bioscience Research Centre.

Section Two

[1/6]

Lucien noticed the weeds and shallow puddles of water in front of the gates.

He was also here when the research centre was under renovations, and it almost looked the same, if not for the taller grass, and little earthworms in the mud- Abandoned, ruined without a trace of humanity, yet brimmed with liveliness.

Life will always create all sorts of surprises in every little way, and life will never seem to be erased.

Lucien stepped over the shadowed silhouette of a branch filled tree, and pushed the doors of his research centre open.

[2/6]

There’s probably no one in there, perhaps there won’t be anyone else.

Without the lights, the hallway seemed long and narrow. Lucien walked along it, his leather shoes echoed as they hit the marble floors, creating an almost sinking sound to the malicious space.

He didn’t inspect each and every laboratory, instead, he walked straight to his own office- he still had one more thing to complete.

[3/6]

The hanging pot of orchids beside his window had completed wilted, its long branches reduced to a sick, black and yellow hue, falling down onto the floor from high above. It was quite a determined little thing, it only needed a little bit of sunlight to survive. He’d always forget that he needed to care for them, but the girl will always think of them. She loved caring for them, buying them all sorts of nutrients

.Many praised him, saying how rare it was, to see orchids raised as beautiful as those.

It’s always been a species that’s learned how to survive under minimal care, but under her nurture, it could grow its branches and leaves comfortably under gentle winds, it could breathe freely under the sun, could crawl freely far from ground- it had the chance to live with such contentment.

[4/6]

Lucien pulled his chair, and unknowingly sat on the wilted leaves of the hanging orchid.

After entering the password for the data storage unit, Lucien browsed through the information he’d stored with his own special method.

[5/6]

In the silence of the office, there was only the clear sound of a keyboard being used. The screen reflected upon Lucien’s eyes, as countless lines of data rolled over the screen, not worthy of being read. His eyebrows furrowed, lips sealed to a tight line. He’d spent countless hours researching of it, and it’s been clear, through numerous repeated experiments, that there aren’t any abnormalities or differences between the gene of an EVOLVER and an ordinary human being. The truth these data revealed had halted any further research, but even so, one thing’s for certain: The information he’d taken (out of) from BLACK SWAN was not complete.

He’d even argue there was only half of it.

[6/6]

He’d been delaying it for far too long. He must immediately find and acquire the lost vital information, and uncover the most important secret hidden among these data, he had to do it now.

Section Three

[1/8]

The Highest Bioscience Research Centre.

Lucien’s familiar with every corner of the place. When it was being reconstructed, it’d only gone through the most basic of renovations. There wasn’t any changes towards the information units, and all the data stored in them remained the same. In this period of time, he’d almost stripped down every drawer, every layer of every bookcase, and yet, it’s proven to be fruitless...Not truly so, however.

He found something wrapped in old newspaper, sitting hidden in the lowest layer of a bookcase. Upon unwrapping it, he was stunned- ten pieces of 5.25 inch and 3.5 inch disks, each stored in a plastic container, with a red date tag stuck on them.

[2/8]

Lucien was curious. He found an old computer in the storage room, and inserted the disk into the empty drive. The computer still had a CRT display, the mouse still had a little roller in it. And when filed were being transferred, the computer would make an odd, clicking sound.

He selected the files in the disk, files which showed many experimental results cramped together neatly in numerous rows.

Bioscience, every since this branch of science has been established, there’s been countless scientists putting all efforts into finding ways to advance further. Even with differing views, even with differences among their specialties, they’ll willingly dedicate themselves into the field with every bit of their passion. Lucien mindlessly explored through all of them, from the first disk to the last, there were a total of twelve years of experimental results recorded in them.

[3/8]

Those were twelve years of a researcher’s life.

Lucien didn’t know why he’d thought of all of those things all a sudden.

He stood in front of the window, looking towards the big beam of light from the horizon- the first batch of comets had hit the surface of the earth, the second batch should arrive forty five minutes later.

He entered a deep state of thought.

[4/8]

A soft disk has the storage of 1.44 gigabytes, and has the capacity of 700000 words, where as a regular disk has the storage of up to 700 gigabytes, and with that in mind, it’s possible to store as many GB as you want in one single removable disk., or in a USB. If the 'other half' of the missing information are mixed within these things, simply thrown in random corners of this building, who can possibly find it?

If it were him, he wouldn’t do it- any digitally stored content has the risk of being damaged.

[5/8]

Even then, seventeen years ago, when digital technology has reached a level that’s beyond imaginable, as long as it’s a piece of data stored in a computer, then there will be the absolute possibility of a person finding the information they need in a short amount of time.

Not to mention, KEY was still there seventeen years ago. The hacker’s appearance is a guarantee that every information stored digitally can be found. Reality has proven so.

Lucien’s gaze shifted, as he walked towards the deepest end of the corridor- and into the database room.

[6/8]

There, all of the data were organised and stored according to their dates. Lucien took out an old report, sealed in a brown paper envelope from 17 years ago. He read slowly. Even though the handwriting was quite messy, and the drafts and diagrams drawn haphazardly, he still read them with his full attention. The sound of pages being turned over filled each corner of the room. There were only thirty pages of reading materials, yet it took him half an hour to go through them.

Finally, he stopped at one particular page. Tearing it down, he brought it up towards the light. The paper was thin, yet it blocked it.

He’d found it.

[7/8]

The paper was made of two individual pages, someone had skillfully glued the two pages together, creating a secret layer. The trick was one as old as time. It’s hard to imagine that anyone would use a trick like this to store information in a time where information can be kept digitally. It took Lucien quite a while to tear the pages apart, using a small screwdriver to take out a piece of paper kept in the middle.

It’s small, around B5 in size, and it was very light. Its corners have begun to yellow with time, and the center of the paper was ever so slightly wrinkled, perhaps having been soaked in some sort of liquid. It was a poorly done work, as it’s left its traces.

Lucien handled it once more, and finally, he unraveled the mystery.

[8/8]

The information on the slip of paper was yet another data of genes, yet its structure's slightly different from that of a modern human's gene. It’s been given many question marks for many decades, and for that, Lucien made a bold deduction. It’s written on the back of the paper as well, the same theory inked in a fountain pen- The Prehistoric Civilization.

Lucien knew, that the tiny paper may perhaps be the very foundation of his research centre, the meaning of its postcode existence. It’s the passion project, the effort and time spent by researchers from one decade to another, all for the desire of seeking the truth among the world.

The secrets carried with it was perhaps heavier than the data of every genetic information of all human beings.

Section Four

[1/9]

Lucien knew that humanity's traces were undergoing an eradication, as when the comets have impacted the Earth, its explosions have formed tsunamis- obliterating countless cities and large museums, palaces and cathedrals, skyscrapers and all the wonders alike.. nothing could escape as big of an inevitable as that.

A notification from his phone rang in the silence of the night, pulling him away from his thoughts. He didn’t imagine that anyone would contact him at all.

[2/9]

“The Seedlings Project's*” researchers have sent him the final observation report. Even if the group of young people have always felt that they should be crippled with fear, burying in pain, in tears upon the awakening of a disaster as big as this, they’d still hang onto their researches.

Lucien did not open his email, instead, for the first time in forever, he clicked on the messaging app instead- as expected, the group of researchers have been keeping in contact with one another in their moments. He was unexpected hit with a wave of those researchers' beliefs and values: They were still hanging on, smiling and joking about, and at the same time, they’re working as hard as they can.

Lucien opened the email, and absorbed the contents of the three thousand word report in one go. After a short while, he responded with a “Thank you for the hard work.”

He lifted his head up, looking at the device in front of him.

[3/9]

The dream recording device.

Under the cold of the light, his expression seemed much too calm.

The information's complete.

The secret files BLACK SWAN had been hiding with every bit of effort, the progress and results of the research centre's years of research, they’re right in front of him. Even if Lucien does not have any proof, even if he’s unable to testify on his own verdicts and hypotheses, for he’s running out of time, and does not have a chance to settle on a solid conclusion through numerous procedures and experiments.

[4/9]

At that moment, he’ll have to trust on his own instincts. To believe in the girl that’s already left- left the road that’s already so close to its end, waiting for her to unravel a new scene, a new future. He does not disapprove of this idea at all, he’s a scientist- he accepts any sort of possibilities, however improbable they may be.

Anything that hasn’t been proven has the chance to be true.

She can do it, and she will do it. He’s determined to believe in her, and because of it, he’ll have to be prepared for any possibility that lies ahead.

There’s something he must leave. Something that will seem obvious.

[5/9]

To be frank, he’s rather worried of the girl.

Even if she’s grown to be rather strong and independent, however brilliant she may be, he still remembers the pair of innocent eyes. The fact that he is unable to walk along with her on her journey makes him feel rather unsettling.

She’s only left for the other world a few hours ago, yet he’s starting to miss her already.

And when he felt that sense of longing, the person he’s longing for is already out of reach.

[6/9]

He lifted his hand to the left side of his chest, feeling the rise of the familiar rhythm. Lucien felt himself being more honest to his own feelings than he did in the past. He wondered what sort of a smile the girl would give if he told her that. Will it be comforting? Or will it be as if an eruption of joy? Or will her cheeks flush a shy shade of red, as she steps a little closer towards him?

Time did not stop its pace, the silent countdown reached its final few moments.

[7/9]

Around a hundred comets flew across the ozone layer, more magnificent than any other view, a scene unable to be described with words; unable to be captures fully with any form of expressions. Lucien thought that he was very lucky to be able to witness such a scene. He’s not an astronomer, but he knew, for the past centuries, countless astronomers had held up their telescope, aimed towards a place further than the sky, beyond the horizon, just to have a chance to witness how these stars morph into crushed pieces of rubble, how they form, how they’ll react as they sink into the ozone layer, its explosion as it collides.

Humanity was formed by a single spark. Humanity’s extinction was brought on by a single spark. Nature has always had a sequence.

And he will keep holding onto this sequence.

[8/9]

Another piece of a comet fell onto the range of mountains a hundred kilometers away from Loveland City, its steam igniting the night as it set the forest on fire. Following tightly behind it, was yet another group of comets brought by the night.

“The next time we meet..”

Lucien's eyes shone with a glimmer of gentleness, lasting for one fleeting moment before they returned into their usual coldness once more.

He turned around, activating the dream recording device.

Your appearance is enough to occupy the years of my life I’m losing.

[9/9]

There was a sudden beam of light from the sky once more, welcoming the string of comets. In that sinking moment, the brilliance of the night sky fell upon Earth, bright as a large firework.

And at the same time, the wilted hanging orchids returned to its soil as a little seed, and continued to remain asleep, until the second birth of life.

Time’s cycle has reached the starting line after completing its turn.

The round of chess restarts itself.

[END]

*The Seedlings’ Project (Direct translation): An international scientific project where a group of scientists preserve seeds of many species of plants as a way of protecting those species from the “End of The World.” Part of the New World Project.

May we have a moment of silence of the hanging orchid, all the furnitures Lucien’s abandoned, Lucien, and everything involved in this story.. so the entire world.

You will be missed for now.

Hope you enjoyed this odd translation, sorry for any grammatic mistakes I’ve missed, and have a nice day!

And no worries, I am as confused as you are!

-Shio

#mlqc #mlqc spoilers #mlqc lucien #mlqc translation #lmao my phone went fbrevbervbeb because of a volleyball #mr love queens choice #mr love spoilers

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uhlikzsuzsanna · 3 years

Link

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Loki Season 1, Episode 5, “Journey Into Mystery.”]

In the penultimate installment of Marvel’s Disney+ series, Loki gave truth to the phrase “the more the merrier,” as several Loki variants made their marvelous debut in The Void at the end of time.

Convening in the literal dumping spot for all things pruned by the TVA, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) met a horde of variants ranging from Classic Loki (Richard E. Grant) and Kid Loki (Jack Veal) to Boastful Loki (Deobia Oparei) and the ever-popular Alligator Loki. The Void is also where he reteams with Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) with the goal of uncovering the truth behind the TVA’s control.

In order to get there though, Classic Loki made the ultimate sacrifice of distracting The Void’s all-powerful Alioth just long enough for Loki and Sylvie to enchant the smoke monster creature. Although brief, Classic Loki’s appearance was certainly impactful. Below, Grant opens up about what drew him to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) in the first place, his Classic Loki costume, and what it was like working with Tom Hiddleston — a performer he’s admired for years — and fan-favorite Alligator Loki among other things.

What initially drew you to the MCU?

Richard E. Grant: [Tom Hiddleston]… I jumped at it. He has an encyclopedic depth of knowledge of all things Norse and Loki, he was a walking, talking resource. You could ask him anything and he could explain everything with great articulation and he’s passionate about everything. He was very, very informed. So that made it a delight to do.

(Credit: Disney+/Marvel Studios)

And taking that into consideration, Classic Loki is a variant. What direction did you take when tackling the role? Did you refer to the comics or take inspiration from Tom Hiddleston’s role?

Well, I was inspired by Tom and led entirely by what was scripted. I was very struck by the fact that, in one scene, I had to talk about not being the God of Mischief so much as being the God of Outcasts. I thought that that was the key to who he was in this episode, that he is very isolated by living immortally, and that he’s arrested by the TVA when he gives in to his need and desire to have human connection again.

My major disappointment was that I didn’t get to have muscles because in the Jack Kirby drawings and the original sixties comics, and certainly in the costume design that I was given with my face on it, I thought that I was going to be stepping into a muscle suit. I was born without any, so I was fairly rattled that I didn’t have that. I thought, “well, how am I supposed to fight as an Asgardian when I’ve got only my own muscles?” They said, “Don’t worry about that.” It did worry me, and it still worries me.

(Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Studios)

The costume still worked though, something that not many could pull off either. Was it fun getting into that or was the helmet as heavy as it looked?

The helmet is heavy, but more than anything, it was just very tight. But I was on it for such a short time, and it’s my job. So actors like to complain about things, but yeah, it was all fine and handleable. I so longed to be able to step into a muscle suit. I didn’t have to go to the gym. I’d have biceps and big shoulders, but that was not to be.

Well, really your Loki’s strength lies in his magic. What challenges did you face working in such a special effects-laden episode? Was there any tricks behind the scenes to help get you into the role and moments like the final face-off with Alioth?

Well, Alligator Loki looked like something made from three stuffed cushions that had been sewn together with a head and then a body and four little legs and a bit of a tail. So that was something that could either be dragged along next to us or thrown when it bit Loki’s hand off. But, otherwise, everything else had to be imagined. It’s the nature of your job that you have to use your imagination, so the magic is really what the CGI and the production designers come up with. The special effects were apparently extraordinary. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve seen stills, and it does look amazing.

(Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Studios)

It really does look amazing. But were the sets as complete looking as they did appear on screen? All the Lokis convened in the bowling alley and it just looks so impressive. What was it like to step onto a set like that?

The bowling alley set was all intact. Everything that you saw, we saw. When we were in the Void, we were on a football-sized landscape of grasses and mounds and things. But all those derelict ships and things that you see, we didn’t see any of that or the distance. It was all blue screen. So all that came afterward.

For the most part, all of the Lokis were there for you to interact with. What was it like getting to work together and expand upon this character fans have loved for so long?

Tom Hiddleston is the beginning, the middle, and the end of it all for me, so anything that Tom approved. If Tom felt that it was all right, and Kate [Herron, the director], who was so invested in it thought it was steering in the right direction, then I thought, oh, I must be doing something that they think is all right.

(Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Studios)

It’s a very odd thing when you come into a world that is so established, and then into a series that has been ongoing for episodes prior to your arrival, and then you leave. So you’re sort of parachuted in and then out of it. So you look for reassurance, and I suppose, some kind of stability from the people who are doing it all the time when you’re not. A bit like being a new person at school, thinking, have I got the right uniform on? Am I going in the right place or do the right things? It’s fear-filled at the beginning for me from that point of view.

As you mentioned, it’s a challenge bringing a new character into an established world, but Classic Loki really did make his mark. Do you think he really found his “Glorious Purpose” in sacrificing himself?

Yeah, helping [Loki and Sylvie was] the thing he was meant to do. Making that ultimate sacrifice.

(Credit: Courtesy of Marvel Studios)

You spoke earlier about working with Tom Hiddleston. Some cast members have mentioned his “Loki Lectures” on set, were you one of the lucky listeners and if so, how did it help you get into the head of the God of Mischief?

I did. Tom came and saw me on the first day that I worked, and I think he spoke almost nonstop for about two hours in sharing all his knowledge and wisdom about playing Loki. So it was incredibly helpful and useful. That was like an introduction into this universe from the man himself. That’s never happened to me before, and then I had that privilege of being in a situation like that. I’m very grateful for it.

Loki, New Episodes, Fridays, Disney+

#Loki #Loki series #Richard E. Grant #interview #tvinsider #Tom Hiddleston #2021.07.12

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thewritewolf · 3 years

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Old Ways, New Age Chapter 5 (Final)

And so ends my contribution to Marinette March! I hope you enjoyed this short story and that you'll visit for my other love square months!

@marinettemarch

Enjoy!

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

Read on Ao3

Ladybug’s earrings gave out a shrill beep. Time was running out, and not just for her. Alix was just about to detransform too, and Kim wouldn’t be far behind her. They’d all given their best, but this was one fight that they would have to take hours on if they were going to stand a chance. Just about the only thing going well for them was that they had fought the akuma and amok to a standstill. Which meant that all they needed was one good push to turn the tides in their favor.

Taking in a deep breath, she got ready to yell out an order to her teammates to fall back and regroup. But the command died in her throat when a streak of orange struck like a bolt of lightning into the titanic amok. Ladybug’s eyes widened when she could finally make out the figure.

His foot slammed into the monster’s forehead, Master Namdak stood suspended in the air for a long moment, face set into a serene yet resolute expression… and the miracle box slung under one arm. That alone was cause enough for a surge of panic, but he landed among them, staff held at the ready and eyes locked on the enemy.

“Long have you labored alone,” he said. “I am here to rectify this.”

“Have a change of heart, Namdak?” Her eyes narrowed at him, but she spun her yoyo into a shield as she adopted a battle stance.

“My heart is unchanged. But now my heart and mind are aligned. Let us make quick work of these fiends.”

Without another word, Master Namdak charged forward at their enemies and it was all Ladybug and her team could do to keep up with him. While he lacked their superhuman abilities, there was definitely something about him that went beyond the average human. Like when a single strike with his staff caused the amok to go completely senseless for half a minute. Or how a chant was enough to nullify a bomb tossed by the akuma.

His arrival was just the thing they needed to push the fight in their favor and what started as an evenly matched grind turned into a curbstomp battle. A quick purification later and the five of them stood together in the newly repaired city of Paris.

Three sets of shrill beeping cut off any conversation before it could start. With one hand on her earrings, Ladybug looked at Chat and pointed at Namdak.

“Keep an eye on him! I’ll be right back.”

Chat Noir snapped a salute as Namdak replied, “I had no intentions of leaving. But if this makes you feel better, then I welcome the watchman.”

Ladybug wanted to retort, but she could already feel her transformation fraying at the edges and ran off. Once she had recharged and grabbed the Ox and Snake miraculous from Kim and Alix, she returned to the city street. There, Chat Noir was staring unblinkingly at Namdak, who was sitting cross legged on a car, the miracle box in his lap.

“Before we begin,” Master Namdak said as he rose to his feet. “I want to apologize for the invasion of privacy from earlier tonight. For both trepasses.” He bowed low to her. “And I also wish to apologize for my… high handed dismissal of your concerns.” Another bow, even lower and to the both of them. “It was unbecoming of me and the order as a whole.”

“So… what?” Chat Noir had his arms crossed in front of his chest, his tail flicking back and forth irritatedly behind him. “Are you leaving the box with us or are you still planning on making off with it?”

His answer was to hold the box out to Ladybug. Suspicion kept her from reaching out to it immediately, but it was quickly overruled. She took the box back and placed the Ox and Snake back inside. Holding it close to her chest, she breathed a sigh of relief and turned her attention back to Master Namdak.

“What made you change your mind?”

“I could say that it was the severity of the threat posed here.” Master Namdak leaned against his staff and stroked his chin. “Certainly while the usage of the Butterfly and Peacock are… brutish, they are effective. Alone, your struggles would be tenfold what they are currently.”

Chat snorted. “Glad you figured that one out.”

“...But in all honesty, I feel that the miracle box is already in good hands. Ladybug, you are an exceptional leader and a true friend to the kwamis.” Namdak turned his eyes toward the setting sun. “Long have we been removed from the world. Evil has changed with the years and festered in our absence. Blindly stealing our lost artifacts back from the frontlines of our long campaign will only harm us in the long view.”

“The Guardians are afraid.” The words left her mouth just as soon as the realization struck her. “They’re in a new world and are lashing out. You’re desperate to get some sort of control over things again.”

“Perhaps you are right.” Master Namdak smiled sadly. “Indeed, you most likely are. But the antidote to our fear must not come at the price of innocent lives.”

“What are you going to do now?” Chat Noir had let his arms fall to his sides. His voice was softer now, more understanding. “Are they going to be mad if you go back empty handed?”

“Maybe so. But I hope not to return with nothing to show. It is my wish to tell them that the Guardians have allies - friends, even - among the heroes of this new era.” For the first time since she had seen him, Namdak seemed nervous. “Is that… a foolish hope?”

Ladybug exchanged a look with Chat Noir. After a few moments, he gave the shallowest of nods. She turned back to Namdak with a comforting smile.

“It isn’t. We’ve been alone in this fight for way too long already. We’d be happy to have allies we could count on.”

“It may be some time before we can render aid to you. There is much that needs doing, across all the corners of the world.” Master Namdak drew himself up to his full height and gave her a solemn look. “But that day will come. For now, know that the Guardians will be watching from afar and keeping you updated.”

Master Namdak bowed again and Ladybug felt compelled to offer a bow of her own in return. Chat Noir followed her lead. While she was still looking down, the Guardian said one last thing before leaving.

“You are not alone.”

#Miraculous Ladybug #Ladybug #Chat Noir #Marinette March #ml fanfiction #my writing #Old Ways New Age

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maliciouslycreative · 3 years

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A totally fake-sounding story of how stupid I am at flirting, fake dating, and kpop

My life is for the most part a series of weird coincidences that once strung together sound entirely fake but I swear to god they are real.

Back in the early 2000s I found a lot of fame in the Beyblade fandom. I wrote a popular fic, it was pretty rad. One of my oldest and dearest friends from YGO once asked if she could introduce me to one of her friends who was apparently a HUGE fan of my writing. And I was like “absolutely” and that was the start of things with me and J. We got exceptionally close. Honestly I know I’m aro but the love I felt for her might be the closest I’ll ever feel to being in love.

Things were complicated though, we lived in different countries and were both in high school. We were super close friends and flirted a lot, everyone noticed. Our friend wrote poetry about us. Yes I still have some of that poetry saved somewhere. Everyone in the fandom shipped us and honestly we did talk about how if we weren’t in different countries and in high school that we would be together.

In my senior year of high school I had this biology teacher that enjoyed making us do a lot of group projects. There was another girl in my class that we weren’t really friends but neither of us had friends in the class and we didn’t mind each other so we always grouped up. Unfortunately we needed to do groups of 3 or more for this one project so this random guy in the class ENTHUSIASTICALLY volunteered to be in our group. Neither of us knew who he was but whatever we could survive some weird guy for one project. We exchanged emails so we could exchange notes easily. Except when I got home I noticed the guy had added me to MSN messenger. Ok sure, he probably just wanted to discuss something about the project. Except he didn’t. He wanted to talk to me about anime. Which… I guess? I mean there were not a lot of anime fans when I went to high school, it was distinctly not cool in 2005.

I spent the next few weeks being mostly weirded out by this guy but he seemed harmless so I kind of talked to him intermittently. And then came the day before Valentines Day. He asked me what my plans were to which I responded that I was spending it with a good friend whose birthday was February 14th. He then proceeded to ask me what kind of flowers I liked and I was like “uhh I’m allergic to flowers so I guess fake ones?” And then I mentioned this to my one friend and she was like “OH MY GOD, STACEY. HE IS TRYING TO ASK YOU OUT.” And I was like “what? No, that’s………… fuck” so I had to in a panic tell the guy to not get me flowers and that I wasn’t looking for a boyfriend.

He seemed ok with this. But like any mediocre white man it didn’t stick. He proceeded to talk to me a lot about his favourite anime and how it’d make him cry. His favourite anime was Ayashi no Ceres. For those of you not familiar with it, it’s a series written by Yuu Watase that tells the tragic story of a selkie that was bound to a human man and they died tragically so they were cursed to forever reincarnate as fraternal twins in this one family’s bloodline. So yah, he’d cry to me over an anime about incest. Like yah it’s a great series but you’re not gonna woo someone by telling them how much it makes you cry.

I’m not sure who came up with the plan, my fandom “older sister” or J herself but eventually we decided the only way to get rid of him was if I had a girlfriend and J enthusiastically agreed to be her. So when he finally did outright ask me out I got to be like “sorry man, I have a girlfriend in the US.” He absolutely lost it. Was very upset and thought she was fake. I had to bring J into a chat and be like “yes, this is my loving girlfriend.” He told me how disappointed in me he was and how he didn’t think I was “that kind of girl” whatever that means.

He didn’t speak to me for an entire year after that. I ran into him randomly at university and he asked me “did you really have a girlfriend or were you just saying that to let me down.” And I was like “excuse you? Yes, I had a girlfriend and we are still together now. What gives you the right to ask something like that?” And he got upset about it again and I’ve never seen him since.

J and I were sort of together for a couple years. Nothing serious, just some casual flirting. I sent her a care package once full of chocolate. We both knew neither of us were ready to move across the continent for the other but we still loved each other deeply. When I started dating my abusive ex we were still friends. I got to meet up with her one of the times I visited the US. Like most of my fandom friends I lost contact with her in 2009 after my fandom big sister passed away. It hurt a lot to be in that space without her. My abusive ex also did a good job of isolating me from everything. I did briefly reconnect with her for a bit afterwards but it’s been a while since I’ve talked to her.

To detour back to the fake dating, there’s another parallel story. So when I told one of my other friends about this, A, she was like “oh, well if you need another fake girlfriend I would be willing and I mean we only live like 5 and ½ hours apart.” And my stupid ass was like “oh of course! I’ll keep you in mind.” This girl who had the patience of a saint with my stupid ass. She started calling me “muffin” one night and I was like “why are you calling me muffin?” and she was like “because it’s cute” and I was like “ok but I feel like I need to give you a food nickname now…” but my brain short circuited. I couldn’t think of anything cute in turn and made a terrible comment about calling her porkchop. And this girl, bless her heart, told me I could call her porkchop. So for several years we went around calling each other Muffin and Porkchop. It took me almost a decade to figure out that she was FLIRTING with me. I have no contact with her any more so I can’t even apologise.

So here comes to the kpop and how I stumbled into it. I had my sisters over for a movie night in 2018. While waiting for our food to cook somehow we wound up watching K/DA POP/STARS among some other stuff. But this planted the seed in my sister's mind and she descended into kpop hell. I’m sorry not sorry. She mostly got into girl groups and we let her gush to us about them. But then she found it, Lucifer by SHINee. This song is an absolute bop and the clothing was absolutely tragic. We were in love with it. Something always haunted me that I knew this song though but something was just not 100% right so I couldn’t figure it out.

Lockdowns happened and we couldn’t do our regular family get togethers. However where we live if you were a family of 4 or less you can adopt into your bubble a single person that lives alone, just so that people that live alone aren’t so isolated. So once a week I’d go over to her place and we’d do supper together. Neither of us like do anything other than go to work and grocery shopping and the occasional shopping for other essentials. Anyway when I’d be at her place we’d often listen to her kpop playlist. It was a little more bubblegum than what was really my taste but I was starting to get a taste.

Then my shit brain did what it always does and comes up with a cursed fic idea that involved everyone listening to kpop. I dove head first into kpop. I have learned so much in the last two weeks. It started with SHINee and branched out. One of those things that I discovered with SHINee though was that they recorded a lot of their songs also in Japanese. And then I found the Japanese music video to Lucifer and it was like someone plunged a knife deep into my heart and twisted.

J was into SHINee. She tried to get me into them in 2011, right around the time we fell out of contact. We were both really big into jpop and jrock back then and she was right, I LOVE that song. So somehow I narrowly avoided becoming a shawol in 2011. I don’t know how I didn’t honestly. Probably has to do with my abusive ex. A lot of stuff from that time period is honestly a blur and I really don’t care to remember it.

So that’s the story of how I, an aro, am a disaster when it comes to people flirting with me and how I almost became a kpop stan in 2011.

#malicious musings #fake dating #aro problems #ok to reblog #you are also free to ask me what is wrong with me #because honestly so much #i also wan't to seriously apologise to anyone who has ever flirted with me #i don't mean to not realise you are flirting #but i really have NO idea

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tomodachimeter · 4 years

Text

Fukigen na Mononokean Chapter 83 Spoilers

WHAT

Read raws here.

Sakae explains to Abeno that just like a yokai would disappear if they’re commanded to “disappear” with Influence, touching a yokai infected with the parasite shrub while Influence is active will cause Abeno to disappear.

“I’d... disappear?” is the only thing Abeno can repeat in shock, and they’re interrupted by Aoi pawing at them again. Sakae says even without using Influence, Aoi should settle down soon. Having been infected by the parasite for so long without moving, Aoi will likely run out of energy and fall asleep soon, so they should just wait.

Seeing Abeno grab at his arm, Sakae says he’ll stop the bleeding in Hanae’s place and they sit down to do it.

While watching Aoi, Abeno thinks that he’d thought Aoi was actively being hostile to them, but actually Aoi’s actions are more like as if they’re playing around with a mouse. He gets mixed feelings about seeing Aoi so lively even though Aoi’s been infected so long with the parasite and lets out a long sigh.

Abeno brings out the container of medicine around his neck and looks at it, concluding that there’s no mistake that Aoi’s infection is at an advanced stage. Sakae asks him what the medicine is, and after Abeno explains, asks if they can save Aoi with that.

Abeno says no, because the medicine only slightly weakens the parasite shrub for a short while and it’s not a cure, along with running the risk of killing the host yokai from the sheer pain it inflicts. He continues, saying that the roots are so deeply embedded throughout Aoi’s body so he can’t be sure whether Aoi can withstand the pain.

Sakae agrees, saying if they make Aoi take it now, they might go on a rampage from the pain and make it unnecessarily harder to escape, to which Abeno nods in agreement. Meanwhile, Aoi yawns.

A while later, Sakae and Abeno are able to climb up and escape to the upper ledge of the clearing. Sakae begins to yawn, but Abeno asks him not to turn back into “Ashiya” yet, and says he has something to ask Sakae.

Abeno asks why Sakae lied and told them “Aoi is dead”, as well as why he seems to know Aoi’s condition so well to the point that Sakae could say Aoi would fall asleep quickly.

Sakae says as their last words and command to him, Aoi told him “Become a ocean fortress surrounding the Sea of Trees and never allow anyone to come find me”.

Abeno is confused at how Aoi could issue Sakae a command like that since he died many years ago. He also asks why Sakae is in the Sea of Trees if his true form is that yellow butterfly, why Sakae is possessing Ashiya, and why a human who’s supposed to be dead can exist right now. He asks Sakae what he even is.

“I am... the Influence that once used Ashiya Sakae’s body as a host.”

“Influence...?” Abeno repeats, and “Sakae” asks if Aoi never taught him that Influence is “the power of a human possessing a yokai”.

“Sakae” continues that “on that day, when “Ashiya Sakae” sustained a fatal injury, I should have disappeared along with him, but that human...” Sakae made his Influence (referred to as “I”) possess Aoi. Afterwards, Aoi tried to test if they could have Influence (I) possess a different human, while the panel shows baby Ashiya, but the process failed midway. But Aoi’s body wasn’t fit to be a host for Influence.

Among a sea of flowers, Aoi touches a black butterfly, and says, “Become a ocean fortress surrounding the Sea of Trees and never allow anyone to come find me”, transferring the Influence into the butterfly.

Aoi: “...I’m counting on you... Ashiya.”

Ashiya wakes up in an unknown room, wondering where he is when they were just on the island. He recalls his last memory is escaping with Abeno while Aoi fell asleep, and realizes he was “dreaming” halfway through, and saw an image of Sakae’s Influence moving to possess the yellow butterfly from Aoi. He realizes that his own Influence is also from Aoi, but more importantly, realizes that he saw when Sakae used Influence on Aoi, the parasite shrub disappeared from Aoi’s hand.

OKAY

THAT WAS

A LOT

A LOT!?!?!?!??

The following thoughts aren’t in any sort of order but

Influence isn’t just a power that lets you (humans only?) command yokai absolutely, it’s a power that allows humans to possess yokai. Influence is suppose to disappear upon its user’s (host?)’s death, but Sakae was able to transfer his own Influence to a yokai, Aoi, and the Influence takes on Sakae’s personality.

-Sakae’s Influence (is this what we should call him now!?) says that a human that uses Influence on a yokai infected with the parasite shrub will disappear. But Ashiya at the end realizes that the parasite shrub disappeared when Sakae used Influence on it. Based on this, can the parasite shrub be cured with Influence at the cost of the human user disappearing? Is this what happened to Aoi, that for the duration Sakae’s Influence used Aoi as a host, the parasite shrub infecting them was held back and then took over again when Aoi made Sakae’s Influence possess the butterfly?

The next point is that we have??? A really different timeline than we all thought this whole time?

-Sakae begins working with Aoi as an employee of the Mononokean.

-On a certain day (Nov 2, from chapter 57) on a certain job, Sakae is critically injured, and transfers his Influence to Aoi and disappears. From that panel, we see that Aoi has already been possessed by the parasite shrub at some point.

-On Christmas when Ashiya is 5, Aoi disguised as Sakae visits Ashiya’s family. This is likely the time when Aoi attempted to transfer Sakae’s Influence to Ashiya (not confirmed yet though) but the process failed.

-When Abeno is 7, Aoi saves him and takes him in as a Mononokean employee.

From the beginning of the manga, I’m pretty sure we were led to believe that Aoi was possessed by the parasite shrub after Abeno met and became an employee, but that's apparently not the case... And it'd mean all this time Abeno was working for Aoi, Aoi was already infected by the parasite...

And also!!! So Ashiya's Influence is kind of "artificially" transferred to him and is actually Sakae's Influence, but then what's Abeno's? Are Abeno and Sakae's Influences some kind of "natural" power to them? We know more about Influence but we still don't fundamentally know where it comes from or why humans can have it, unless it's just a set power that can happen to humans who can sense yokai.

ALSO WHERE DID ASHIYA WAKE UP I feel like the most realistic answer is Koura’s place at the Kiyakudo but I saw some theories going around that it might be Abeno’s place...? (kya)

#fukigen na mononokean #the morose mononokean #fnm manga summary

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roccinan · 3 years

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1/? simply because you have the most galaxy brain thoughts ever,,, what do you think would've happened if they waited until s5 to reveal sergio and andrés were (half)brothers?

i do know that when my fam started watching lcdp at first i was so put off. like i watched ep 1 and the prof creeped me out. ""berlin"" creeped me out. e v e r y o n e creeped me out. and i was cringing so hard becz of the short lived romance angle with alison parker. i literally did not watch s1 at all xcept for like sneak peeks. highlights being the scene where berlin discovers monica is alive and does his dramatic door by door thing? that was so SUSPENSEFUL even tho i had no idea what was going on. DOMINGO DE RESURECCION remains forever iconic.

2/? And OF COURSE the group bella ciao dance when they hit earth (hahah i thought the banda were actually like a "found family where they all love each other LOL") i am a SUCKER for found family. but anyhoo when i properly got intrigued was s2 when tokyo was kicked out (the music from that scene is still my favourite) it's just so dramatic..!! why am i telling u all this again? right, i haven't slept a wink and it's nearly 7 am pls forgive me if these rambles make no sense. i have a point with this.. i'm going somewhere

RIGHT. so when the fam actually rewound the ep cz i wanted to know WHY berlin did that (didn't fully realise how batsht crazy he can be), the russian roulette scene played. and pedro's acting. MAN. and like just that ep they made a point of showing us these flashbacks where sergio and andrés hug....

Hi anon! Thanks for stopping by- sorry took me a while to get back to you, will do my best to answer this string of messages (got all 4 parts)! Glad you like my thoughts XD

Firstly, I believe Andres/Sergio would be the biggest LCDP ship if the writers were evil enough to wait until s5 to reveal that they’re brothers asdfasdf. They’re already the two most popular male characters anyway.

It’d be especially crazy because it’s not like they tell the actors these things beforehand either. So that means there’d probably be a Serdres vs Berlermo vs Serquel fight every 5 minutes. I mean, even if not everyone agrees on everything in the lcdp fandom, it’s the most “peaceful” one I’ve ever been in because no character really gets in the way of any other ship (like even with helermo and berlermo there’s no true conflict since Andres is dead). But with Serdres in the mix?? CATASTROPHE. Everyone out here writing essays about how much of a bastard/bitch/homewrecker/motherfucker that Andres or Sergio or Martin or Raquel is. Never a moment’s peace!! so basically, a regular fandom lmao.

Then when we find out they’re brothers, it goes from catastrophe to Apocalypse. Suddenly serquel and berlermo have the upper hand. Everyone would double down and harass the crew/cast into whatever’s going on. Plot-wise, everything is the same though, just without Andres calling Sergio “hermanito.” Fandom however, would be a minefield! And I’m glad that’s not the case because I’d probably be an unfortunate serdres shippers XD No joke, my mother and I thought they were a couple in S1. So bullet dodged!

Secondly: haha, everyone creeped me out in S1 too, especially Berlin, I hated him, but thinking back, I think I mostly hated the fact that I didn’t hate him as much as I should have. I’ve made peace with it now but oh boy, was he a controversial figure in my head. I actually like the professor on sight though! IDK why, maybe because I thought his plans were cool or because of Alvaro’s delivery. I was afraid of an Alison Parker romance thing too- like, I do feel like she had a storyline that got dropped, but that part was quite cringey and overall unnecessary to the plot. Same with Ariadna, which was even cringier and even Less necessary to the plot.

Domingo de resurrecion was iconic though yes! And even with all that said, I genuinely enjoyed parts 1 and 2 because it was so different from anything else I’d seen. Not content wise, but maybe tonally? IDK, they were just really bold with a lot of things, like being objectively unafraid of having the protagonists (plural because all of them did LMAO) do objectively shitty things. Really kept me in suspense from beginning to end!

I’m usually a big fan of found families too! The funny thing is, then banda never struck me as a “family” until season 3. In 1 and 2, I was wondering what felt different about this show; then it hit me that these people remained colleagues to the end. Like, they backstabbed each other (repeatedly) and everyone was quite selfish, and only the bonds that were already there stuck. They were the opposite of a found family LOL But I think by S3, they went down the found family route and I didn’t mind because it makes quite a lot of sense for them to feel that bond after the Mint heist and almost dying/living together (and having witnessed 3 deaths together on the team). But I still doubt Berlin and Palermo were ever really part of this found family, with good reason XD

LOL the scene where Tokyo got kicked out is also among my favorites!! It was so funny and dramatic, and it was like, wow we can go anywhere with this now! Don’t worry- your rambles and thoughts are always welcome :D

I’m rolling over how you watched the Tokyo expulsion scene before the Russian Roulette scene haha. Also yes, PEDRO. Berlin may have been “controversial” to me at first, but I became Pedro’s fan from day one! Also the Hug is probably what made me like Berlin (despite my determination to hate him rip) in the first place.

3/? ... and like now that i think about it... tokyo had real guts huh. like she KNEW berlin was close enough to el prof to know his name (fhshshs imagine if she'd heard andrés saying 'hermanito' it's unrealistic that she didn't TBH. i mean obviously they decided to make them brothers only towards the end but like in canon universe. how tf did andrés de 'i raised my bby brother since he was 12 and i'd actually die for him and his stupidly brilliant plans' fonollosa go 5 months without slipping up once and calling sergio hermanito. or like,,, i like to imagine sergio kinda gave him lots of leeway(?) sergio's a lil oblivious too but like i'm sure half of it is.. that's my dumbass older bro shut up i'm not being partial you all have city names .. andr-berlin, pass the salt. like OOF. + sergio also knew his big bro was dYiNG so like. i'm sure they were sneaking in some quality time (i hope they did 😭 gosh imagine if sergio really did not ever consider the possibility of andrés dying in the heist so he'd tell himself he needs to perfect the plan now & anyway he'll have enough time to spend w/ his brother post heist in philippines. and then ... that happened :/

Tokyo has guts in place of braincells you bet that she’d do something like this, consequences be damned XD I also think it’s unrealistic for Andres not to slip up, but I have a feeling nobody besides Tokyo really tried to spy on them in private. I headcanon that Andres instead slips up and does things like ruffle Sergio’s hair or adjust his tie when other people are around. I also think Tokyo was convinced that they were a gay couple when she saw them hug XD And if Sergio never went on to tell the banda that Berlin was his brother, everyone would be giving Palermo such awkward looks after Nairobi accused him of being in love with Berlin LMAO.

I agree! I also imagine Sergio giving Andres leeway because he’s just so used to interacting with his brother that way haha. So either he’d go out of his way to ignore Berlin in front of everyone else or IDK, borderline telepathically communicate with him. Not even “pass the salt” has to leave his mouth- Berlin just puts salt into his food and cuts it up for him, in front of everyone who’s just staring like O.O

I actually do think Sergio never considered the possibility of Andres dying in the heist because he was just that confident in his own plan. Plus, Andres was probably the one person he expected to survive. And a lot of it has to do with Sergio’s attachment to him + Andres’ own habit of downplaying any illness/injury over the years, which I think is safe to believe canon. He was really in no condition to be in the heist, let alone lead it. Just the fact that he needs to take those injections is a big sign that he shouldn’t be there, but Sergio didn’t catch it because he’s human and blinded by faith :’) So yeah, I think Sergio was planning to spend proper time with Andres in Palawan and at Toledo, they just settled for those little moments by the fireplace.

4/? what always also just GETS me in the feels is that el prof was shown to be this in control creepily calm dude who is miles ahead of everyone. + in the 1st Toledo class itself we see how detached,, like how impersonal he is, how professional - choosing frickin CITY NAMES?! no 'personal relationships' ? (after recruiting his older brother, a father son pair, and war cousins... oh sergio 😂 he's such a frickin nerd and i love him) but like the earlier seasons really emphasised how robotic and down right COLD he can be. it still sometimes bothers me that he put the button in the car. he lead the police to his own damn brother, his blood, who took care of him and adopted him and was terminally ill and like - UGH i try to rationalise that sergio is that cold and unbothered. or that he has strict morals. but it still bothers me becz that button really sort of tipped andres' already unstable sanity. like andrés tells denver someth like you've robbed my future and after that he just seems so much more suicidal and accepting that he can't get out of the mint alive - WHY SERGIO WHY. I KNOW THAT AT THAT POINT YOU BASICALLY DIDN'T KNOW ANDRÉS WAS GOING TO BE YOUR BROTHER YET BECZ IT WASN'T WRITTEN IN THE SCRIPT BUT WHYYYYY

That’s so funny to me too LMAO No personal relationships, then he recruits these guys. Sergio, hello?? Also can’t forget how he just recruited his own girfrleind in the second heist too. Buddy! Love this nerd.

I don’t think that cold aspect of Sergio went away in later seasons either; he just had more opportunity to show a more open side of himself + without Andres, he had to metaphorically leave his comfort zone without a safety net. But in earlier seasons, he really did seem heartless at times XD Then again, we can argue that the same goes for Andres.

To be fair, I didn’t feel sorry for Andres over the button thing lol, but once the brothers reveal happened and all of Alvaro/Pedro’s headcanons came out and we know everything Andres did for Sergio, it makes what Sergio did REALLY harsh. We really just have to explain it through Sergio’s strict morals and him believing this to be the best non-fatal punishment for Andres, who at that point had convinced him he killed a hostage. And because he knew the television interview was coming up, maybe Sergio assumed Andres would use it to “clear” his name anyway. And empathy isn’t one of Sergio’s strong suits either, so through that lens, I can rationalize it.

Also it was lowkey funny to me how Andres was there like DENVER MUST DIE until he found out Sergio put the button there, then he was like “oh hermanito, you and your practical jokes <3″

Still, like you said, Andres and Sergio weren’t brothers yet at this point. They were probably supposed to be lovers lmao and had a dysfunctional Hannibal Lecter x Will thing going on. But because they made #hermanos canon, that button moment just feels very out of place now, especially given how much the two genuinely love each other.

Guess we could also say that Sergio’s just generally kinda bratty with Andres XD Like, he knows no matter what, Andres would forgive him anything. That’s how I see it anyway!

#anonymous #thanks for stopping by!#royalpaperhouse is this you my friend? :D

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hils79 · 3 years

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first lines of your last 20 fics!

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

@merinnan said everyone was tagged and I have some time to kill while I wait for my takeout to arrive

Also going to tag anyone who wants to do it

1. Triggering the trap had been an accident. ( I Live For You - DMBJ - Pingxie)

2. Bai Yu is filming on location in the woods when he gets the call. ( Talking Side By Side - Guardian RPF - Zhubai)

3. Zhao Yunlan thought he’d be prepared for finally finding Shen Wei. ( Falling Too Fast to Prepare for This - Guardian - Weilan)

4. Shen Wei is back. ( Where Love Has Been Confined - Guardian Weilan)

5. Zhu Yilong is aware that he keeps staring, but it’s been months since he last saw Chen Minghao so who can blame him? ( Hotpot Reunion - Lost Tomb Reboot RPF - Zhu Yilong/Chen Minghao)

6. It’s common knowledge among actors that becoming friends with your castmates leads to better on-screen chemistry. ( The Unravelling of Zhu Yilong - Lost Tomb Reboot RPF - Zhu Yilong/Chen Minghao)

7. He jolts awake to the sound of screaming and he’s out of bed and running down the hallway before his brain has fully caught up with what’s happening. ( Because the Night - DMBJ - Gen)

8. The sound of the rain lashing down against the windows of the van eases Wu Xie into a doze. ( The Road Ahead - DMBJ - Gen)

9. Some mornings—actually most mornings if he’s being honest with himself—Wei Wuxian takes a few moments when he first wakes up to just lie there in the warmth and look at Lan Wangji. ( Nothing Here But Light - The Untamed - Wanxian)

10. There’s a blanket draped over him that definitely hadn’t been there when he’d fallen asleep. ( Still Want You By My Side - Guardian - Weilan)

11. Jiang Wanyin stumbles over an upturned root and Jin Zixuan reaches out soundlessly to steady him. ( He's My Brother - The Untamed - Wangxian)

12. Nate has that look on his face again. ( Sugar and Spice - Hockey RPF - Tyson Barrie/Colin Wilson)

13. It’s almost 6am when Nail finally gets home and he can feel the exhaustion seeping into his bones as he tosses his things onto the nearest available surface and heads straight towards his bed. ( Teri's Holiday Avalanche - Hockey RPF - Nail Yakupov/Mikko Rantanen)

14. Losing sucks. ( Whatever It Takes - Hockey RPF - Tyson Barrie/Gabriel Landeskog)

15. When Carl was five years old, he’d marched into his living room and announced to his parents that he was in love with Oscar who lived at the end of the street. ( Stay in the Light - Hockey RPF - Carl Hagelin/Phil Kessel)

16. As soon as he collapses into his seat on the bus Jack closes his eyes and tries to sleep. ( Instagram Adventures - Check Please - Zimbits)

17. Neither of them take losses particularly well but Geno, at least, has the luxury of being able to work through his anger and frustration while he’s showering, changing and packing up his things. ( We Are Each Other's Family - Hockey RPF - Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury/Kris Letang, Phil Kessel/Carl Hagelin/Patric Hornqvist)

18. Sid tries to keep his cool on the ice, to be a good captain, but he’s only human. ( Best - Hockey RPF - Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin)

19. Kent’s lost count of the number of drinks that have been pressed into his hands over the course of the night. ( Staring Into Open Flame - Check Please - Kent/Tater)

20. Carl shuffles into the box, flashes Phil a grin, and plops down beside him on the bench. ( Boxed - Hockey RPF - Phil Kessel/Carl Hagelin)

I’m not sure I see any patterns, although my most recent ones all seem to have short and punchy opening lines.

I think of all of these my favourite opening line is When Carl was five years old, he’d marched into his living room and announced to his parents that he was in love with Oscar who lived at the end of the street. It’s funny because even though this fic is a few years old now (posted in 2017) I still remember writing it clearly and this line wasn’t in the first draft. It came to me while I was editing and I think it just sets up nicely the sort of person this character is.

This was fun! A nice little trip down memory lane. Am quite amused that 20 fics covers a five year period but 7 of them were written this year and 11 of them covers the past 12 months. I really did have something of a writing dry spell between 2017 and 2020. It feels good to be writing regularly again.

#my fic #dmbj #cql #guardian #check please

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parva-noctua · 3 years

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30 Questions Tag

tagged by @anotherobsessedfangirl thx sweetie!

name/nickname: Since my first name's been on my blog for a while anyway, I might as well tell it: Alina. But most people here still know me as "parva (noctua)". This also brings me to my nickname, because "parva noctua" is Latin and means "the little owl". My favorite grandpa used to call me "owl" when I was little. That's one of my strongest memories of him. And my best friend still calls me "Kleines" sometimes. Best translation to English is "peewee", I guess, though "Kleines" isn't meant to be negative) How you call me is up to you. For me, every name's okay.

star sign: Taurus

height: 5'6" / 168 cm

birthday: May 15th

favorite bands: among many others Silbermond, Sunrise Ave, Radio Company, Queen, Måneskin (just to continue the new tradition :p)

time: started 2:40 pm. finished (with lot of breaks) 9:23 pm

favorite solo artists: That's even more difficult to answer^^", but definitely a lot of Hip Hop and Rap is involved (there is good stuff!) One of them is Curse, I still listen to a lot of his tracks. Maybe he is my all time favorite, even though I still love Everlast and Fiva a lot, too.🤔

song stuck in your head: Wanna be your slave by Måneskin (Well... xd)

last movie you watched: "Catching Fire"

Dream Trip: Road Trip to travel all across Germany and maybe some neighboring countries. But for this, I need to lose my fear about driving^^"

Last Show: "Grimm" on DVD

When I Created This Blog: This one must be three years old right now. There was another, I created... 7 or 6 years ago, when a friend showed Tumblr to me.

What I Post: Changes from time to time, a lot stuff's deleted, because I felt bad about Tumblr at the time and even considered to leave for good. But here we are today, still here, still posting "this or that." and weird rantings.

Last thing I googled: Bed frames, industrial style (comparing prices, looks and feautures) Due to some changes at home, my mom and I started painting and renovating some rooms.

Other Blogs: None

Do I get asks? Some of friends, but not many. But I love every ask and try to answer all of them. So if you wanna know something, just send me an ask (even if you didn't send one before 😊) It would make me very happy to interact more with all of you!

Why I Chose My URL: just go back to first question ;)

Following: 31 (fandoms, friends and art mostly)

Followers: Tumblr says 431 (varies from week to week) I guess, most of them are bots, because there are a lot of... x-rated pages in my notifications now and again. And most of my posts get 5-20 notes. Three years ago, there were a lot more - especially during the #ringsy or #toris "era" xd Sometimes I miss "good ol' times", but things change and what remains are some funny, some weird, some sad, some freaky and a lot of happy memories.

Average Hours Of Sleep: 5-6 during the past few months (rarely restful and refreshing) In the daytime, I felt sleepy and dumb - it's slowly getting better now. Lately I get up to 7 hours of (better) sleep.

Lucky Number: 5 due to my birth month and 9 (love the shape)

Instruments: This user is absolutely not musical, but loves to warble her favorite songs. I remember one day in improv theater (behind the mixing console): One of the younger groups performed to music and I was quietly humming/singing along to the song. The guy next to me (an intern, too) just said: "Just stop it already!" Me: "What's the matter? I know, I can't sing. I'm just one of those singing-in-the-shower people. It's just for fun." Him: "So what. You can't sing, so don't."

So if you're one of those crooked-voiced people like I am - shut the fuck up. Just kidding! Screw party poopers like.... let's call him Carl.

What Am I Wearing: Right now some blue long sleeve shirt and jeans. In general: mostly casual, spiced up with a lot of hoodies xd

Dream Job: I did a BA in Social work, focusing on Drama in Education/theatrical pedagogy . Loved improv theatre, but never had the guts to pick up where I left off^^"

Favorite Food: Nearly all kinds of soup, cheese and mixed up leftovers, tbh. There's nothing better than that.

Tea or Coffee: Tea lover, but addicted to morning coffee

Nationality: German.

Favorite Song: All time fav: "100 Jahre (years)" by Curse. Current: "City Grown Wollow" by Radio Company

Last Book I Read: 1. finished re-read: "Supernatural - Heart of the Dragon" and 2. nearly finished: "The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes".

Top 3 Fictional Universes I Would Like To Live In:

1. "Grimm", actually. I like the idea of Grimm's (and other's) Fairy Stories being real in this kind of way. Wesen, creatures (apparently human) only visible for Grimms. Sure it's a potentially dangerous world to live in, but it's also truly fascinating and full of surprises. I mean, a vegetarian Blutbad (Bad Wolf) doing Pilates for a peaceful "let's not let this get out of hand, I just had the carpet cleaned" lifestyle. And I also like the idea, that there's more in the world than meets the eye.

2. An "The Three Investigators AU" with bit less of stereotypes, though. The german radio plays of "Die Drei ???" is kind of a cult for so many generations since 1979. For 42 years now there are the same three voice actors for Justus/Jupiter, Pete and Bob - and I guess, that's part of its success. Adults, teens and kids grew up and grew old with them, learning about friendship, courage and not giving up. Three friends, a salvage yard and cherry pie. Actually it's sort of a time capsule: Forever 18, forever holidays full of adventures: Solving riddles, having fun, catching "the bad ones". There's always a solution, always a story with kind of a happy ending. It's a safe space, a short peaceful time-out for me and so many others out there.

3. "Harry Potter Universe" because of similar reasons as in No. 1 (just don’t let talk about JKR here).

tagging everyone, who wants to 😊

#tagged #fun #okay... let's move to fantasy world #personal stuff #parva plappert

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davidmann95 · 4 years

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Superman’s 10 Best of the ‘10s

Good Miracle Monday, folks! The first third Monday of May of a new decade for that matter, and while that means that today in the DC Universe Superman just revealed his secret identity to the world on the latest anniversary of that time he defeated the devil, in ours it puts a capstone on a solid 10 years of his adventures now in the rear view mirror, ripe for reevaluation. And given there’s a nice solid ‘10′ right there I’ll go ahead with the obvious and list my own top ten for Superman comics of the past decade, with links in the titles to those I’ve spoken on in depth before - maybe you’ll find something you overlooked, or at least be reminded of good times.

A plethora of honorable mentions: I’m disqualifying team-ups or analogue character stories, but no list of the great Superman material of the last decade would be complete without bringing up Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye #7, Avengers 34.1, Irredeemable, Sideways Annual #1, Supreme: Blue Rose, Justice League: Sixth Dimension, usage of him in Wonder Twins, (somewhat in spite of itself) Superior, from all I’ve heard New Super-Man, DCeased #5, and Batman: Super Friends. And while they couldn’t quite squeeze in, all due praise to the largely entertaining Superman: Unchained, the decades’ great Luthor epic in Superman: The Black Ring, a brilliant accompaniment to Scott Snyder’s work with Lex in Lex Luthor: Year of the Villain, the bonkers joy of the Superman/Luthor feature in Walmart’s Crisis On Infinite Earths tie-in comics, Geoff Johns and John Romita’s last-minute win in their Superman run with their final story 24 Hours, Tom Taylor’s quiet criticism of the very premise he was working with on Injustice and bitter reflection on the changing tides for the character in The Man of Yesterday, the decades’ most consistent Superman ongoing in Bryan Miller and company’s Smallville Season 11, and Superman: American Alien, which probably would have made the top ten but has been dropped like a hot potato by one and all for Reasons. In addition are several stories from Adventures of Superman, a book with enough winners to merit a class of its own: Rob Williams and Chris Weston’s thoughtful Savior, Kyle Killen and Pia Guerra’s haunting The Way These Things Begin, Marc Guggenheim and Joe Bennett’s heart-wrenching Tears For Krypton, Christos Gage and Eduardo Francisco’s melancholy Flowers For Bizarro, Josh Elder and Victor Ibanez’s deeply sappy but deeply effective Dear Superman, Ron Marz and Doc Shaner’s crowdpleasing Only Child, and Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine DeLandro’s super-sweet Mystery Box.

10. Greg Pak/Aaron Kuder’s Action Comics

Oh, what might’ve been. In spite of an all-timer creative team I can’t justify listing this run any higher given how profoundly and comprehensively compromised it is, from the status quo it was working with to the litany of ill-conceived crossovers to regular filler artists to its ignominious non-ending. But with the most visceral, dynamic, and truly humane take on Clark Kent perhaps of all time that still lives up to all Superman entails, and an indisputably iconic instant-classic moment to its name, I can’t justify excluding it either.

9. Action Comics #1000

Arguably the climax to the decade for the character as his original title became the first superhero comic to reach a 1000th issue. While any anthology of this sort is a crapshoot by nature, everyone involved here seemed to understand the enormity of the occasion and stepped up as best they could; while the lack of a Lois Lane story is indefensible, some are inevitably bland, and one or two are more than a bit bizarre, by and large this was a thoroughly charming tribute to the character and his history with a handful of legitimate all-timer short stories.

8. Faster Than A Bullet

Much as Adventures of Superman was rightfully considered an oasis amidst the New 52′s worst excesses post-Morrison and in part pre-Pak, few stories from it seem well-remembered now, and even at the time this third issue inexplicably seemed to draw little attention. Regardless, Matt Kindt and Stephen Segovia’s depiction of an hour in the life of Superman as he saves four planets first thing in the morning without anyone noticing - while clumsy in its efforts at paralleling the main events with a literal subplot of a conversation between Lois and Lex - is one of the best takes I can recall on the scope on which he operates, and ultimately the purpose of Clark Kent.

7. Man and Superman

Seemingly geared on every front against me, built as it was on several ideas of how to handle Superman’s origin I legitimately hate, and by a writer whose work over the years has rarely been to my liking, Marv Wolfman and Claudio Castellini’s Man and Superman somehow came out of nowhere to be one of my favorite takes on Clark Kent’s early days. With a Metropolis and characters within it that feel not only alive but lived-in, it’s shocking that a story written and drawn over ten years before it was actually published prefigured so many future approaches to its subject, and felt so of-the-moment in its depiction of a 20-something scrambling to figure out how to squeeze into his niche in the world when it actually reached stores.

6. Brian Bendis’s run

Controversial in the extreme, and indeed heir to several of Brian Bendis’s longstanding weaknesses as a writer, his work on The Man of Steel, Superman, and Action Comics has nevertheless been defined at least as much by its ambition and intuitive grasp of its lead, as well as fistfuls of some of the best artistic accompaniment in the industry. At turns bombastic space action, disaster flick, spy-fi, oddball crime serial, and family drama, its assorted diversions and legitimate attempts at shaking up the formula - or driving it into new territory altogether, as in the latest, apparently more longterm-minded unmasking of Clark Kent in Truth - have remained anchored and made palatable by an understanding of Superman’s voice, insecurities, and convictions that go virtually unmatched.

5. Strange Visitor

The boldest, most out-of-left-field Superman comic of the past 10 years, Joe Keatinge took the logline of Adventures of Superman to do whatever creators wanted with the character and, rather than getting back to a classic take absent from the mainline titles at the time as most others did, used the opportunity for a wildly expansive exploration of the hero from his second year in action to his far-distant final adventure. Alongside a murderer’s row of artists, Keatinge pulled off one of the few comics purely about how great Superman is that rather than falling prey to hollow self-indulgence actually managed to capture the wonder of its subject.

4. Superman: Up In The Sky

And here’s the other big “Superman’s just the best” comic the decade had to offer that actually pulled it off. Sadly if reasonably best-known for its one true misfire of a chapter, with the increasing antipathy towards Tom King among fans in general likely not helping, what ended up overlooked is that this is a stone-cold classic on moment of arrival. Andy Kubert turns in work that stands alongside the best of his career, Tom King’s style is honed to its cleanest edge by the 12-pager format and subject matter, and the quest they set their lead out on ends up a perfect vehicle to explore Superman’s drive to save others from a multitude of angles. I don’t know what its reputation will end up being in the long-term - I was struck how prosaic and subdued the back cover description was when I got this in hardcover, without any of the fanfare or critic quotes you’d expect from the writer of Mister Miracle and Vision tackling Superman - but while its one big problem prevents me from ranking it higher, this is going to remain an all-timer for me.

3. Jeff Loveness’s stories Help and Glasses

Cheating shamelessly here, but Jeff Loveness’s Help with David Williams and Glasses with Tom Grummett are absolutely two halves of the same coin, a pair of theses on Superman’s enduring relevance as a figure of hope and the core of Lois and Clark’s relationship that end up covering both sides of Superman the icon and Superman the guy. While basically illustrated essays, any sense of detached lecturing is utterly forbidden by the raw emotion on display here that instantly made them some of the most acclaimed Superman stories of the last several years; they’re basically guaranteed to remain in ‘best-of’ collections from now until the end of time.

2. Superman Smashes The Klan

A bitter race for the top spot, but #2 is no shame here; while not quite my favorite Superman story of the past ten years, it’s probably the most perfectly executed. While I don’t think anyone could have quite expected just *how* relevant this would be at the top of the decade, Gene Yang and Gurihiru put together an adventure in the best tradition of the Fleischer shorts and the occasional bystander-centered episodes of Batman: The Animated Series to explore racism’s both overt and subtle infections of society’s norms and institutions, the immigrant experience, and both of its leads’ senses of alienation and justice. Exciting, stirring, and insightful, it’s debuted to largely universal acknowledgement as being the best Superman story in years, and hopefully it’ll be continued to be marketed as such long-term.

1. Grant Morrison’s Action Comics

When it came time to make the hard choice, it came in no small part down to that I don’t think we would have ever seen a major Golden Age Superman revival project like Smashes The Klan in the first place if not for this. Even hampering by that godawful Jim Lee armor, inconsistent (if still generally very good) art, and a fandom that largely misunderstood it on arrival can’t detract from that this is Grant Morrison’s run on a Superman ongoing, a journey through Superman’s development as a character reframed as a coherent arc that takes him from Metropolis’s most beaten-down neighborhoods to the edge of the fifth dimension and the monstrous outermost limits of ‘Superman’ as a concept. It launched discussions of Superman as a corporate icon and his place relative to authority structures that have never entirely vanished, introduced multiple all-time great new villains, and made ‘t-shirt Superman’ a distinct era and mode of operation for the character that I’m skeptical will ever entirely go away. No other work on the character this decade had the bombast, scope, complexity, or ambition of this run, with few able to match its charm or heart. And once again, it was, cannot stress this enough, Grant Morrison on an ongoing Superman book.

#Superman #Miracle Monday #Opinion

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