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thecoleopterawithana · 4 years

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Hi there! Just discovered your blog and I love it. I appreciate your in-depth analyses. But I have a question: I saw in a previous post that you think the line "I'm in love with a friend of mine," from "Dear Friend," is Paul saying he loves John. But, couldn't this line apply to Linda? It seems to me Paul could be telling John either, "Let it go, you know I'm in love with you," or "Let it go, you know I'm in love with Linda." What do you think? I'd love the line to be for John of course. Thanks!

Hey there, dear anon! I’m so happy you’re having fun with the blog and my sporadic thoughts!

Ah, yes! The famous conundrum: who is the friend Paul’s in love with?

I want to start off by making it clear that I have no doubt in my mind that Paul was in love with Linda.

In the same way, I don’t see it as too far fetched to think that Paul was in love with John. They both used it to describe their relation often enough.

The question, as always, is what exactly Paul means and what we mean when using the term.

So the third point I’d like to make is that Paul being in love with John doesn’t necessarily entail him wanting to kiss him or be a typical romantic couple. It’s possible that this is simply the best term they found to describe the level of intensity and infatuation present in their relationship; how fascinated they were with each other, how interested in spending time together. Of course, we as a culture are very hung-up on the physical manifestations of these feelings, and often use this small constituent of very complex dynamics to categorize them into platonic, romantic, sexual, etc. But I think I’ve harped on enough about the illusion, limitation, and importance of language/concepts/categories in the previous post you referred to.

By all of this I just mean to say that maybe we shouldn’t decide who the line is about based on how plausible it would be for Paul to use “in love” in reference to John Lennon, as there are more instances him doing exactly so.

So, assuming that Paul is just as likely to use “in love” to refer to his relationship with Linda as to his relationship with John, let’s see what he says about the song:

“Dear Friend” was written about John, yes. I don’t like grief and arguments, they always bug me. Life is too precious, although we often find ourselves guilty of doing it. So after John had slagged me off in public I had to think of a response, and it was either going to be to slag him off in public — and some instinct stopped me, which I’m really glad about — or do something else. So I worked on my attitude and wrote “Dear Friend”, saying, in effect, let’s lay the guns down, let’s hang up our boxing gloves.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed for Club Sandwich (1994).

Dear Friend was to do with John, a bit of longing about John. Let’s have a glass of wine and forget about it. A making up song.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed by Paul Du Noyer for Mojo (July 2001).

[Dear Friend] was written for John, to John. It was like a letter. With the business pressures of the Beatles breaking up it’s like a marriage. One minute you’re in love, the next minute you hate each other’s guts. It’s a pity, because it’s very difficult to cut through all that. So you do what we all seemed to do, which was write it in songs. I wrote “Dear Friend” as a kind of peace gesture.

— Paul McCartney, in Bill Harry's The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia (2002).

And then with ‘Dear Friend’, that’s sort of me talking to John after we’d had all the sort of disputes about The Beatles break up. I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. I have to sort of choke it back. I’m not going to cry in front of all you lot though! […] But, for me, it is a bit like that. I remember when I heard the song recently, listening to the roughs [remastering works-in-progress] in the car. And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’. Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true!’ I’m trying to say to John, ‘Look, you know, it’s all cool. Have a glass of wine. Let’s be cool.’ And luckily we did get it back together, which was like a great source of joy because it would have been terrible if he’d been killed as things were at that point and I’d never got to straighten it out with him. This was me reaching out. So, I think it’s very powerful in some very simple way. But it was certainly heartfelt.”

— Paul McCartney, You Gave Me The Answer - ‘Wild Life’ Special (29 October 2018).

So, starting by stating the obvious, Paul has made it clear that the ‘dear friend’ the song is addressed to is John. Now, is the ‘friend of mine’ a different subject or the same?

Conveniently, because they continue to mirror each other, both Paul and John are ‘really truly, young and newly wed.’ So the whole phrasing of the song is exactly the sort of “very non-specific way to say it” that Paul prefers.

Though, in 2018, Paul comments precisely on this line: “I find it very emotional when I listen to it now. [...] And I thought, ‘Oh God’. That lyric: ‘Really truly, young and newly wed’. Listening to that was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s true!’”

It’s worth to consider the context of the whole verse, as that specific lyric is the end of a sentence: ‘Dear friend, throw the wine, I'm in love with a friend of mine, really truly, young and newly wed.’

Paul tells us that this phrase in particular gets him choked up, but also almost awed in realization. I personally don’t feel like this kind of surprised amazement would be elicited by acknowledging that it’s him and Linda that were ‘in love’ and ‘really truly, young and newly wed’, unless out of a sense of nostalgia.

But the thing is, Paul doesn’t bring up Linda or Yoko or their respective marriages even once while discussing the song. If the point he’s trying to make is, ‘Look, I’m in love with Linda, you’re with Yoko, why are we fighting?’, why would he never bring them up while discussing the song? Or state something to the effect of “We are individuals— all different. John married Yoko, I married Linda. We didn't marry the same girl.” (Which he did say in the autumn of 1969, to Life magazine.)

In actuality, he only mentions his metaphorical matrimony to John, and how “one minute you’re in love, the next minute you hate each other’s guts.” So, when discussing a song written to, for and about his ‘dear friend’ John, in which he declares he’s ‘in love with a friend’ of his, Paul explains how it’s like they’d been “in love” with each other.

I think we might be making this needlessly complicated by bringing in his love for Linda, and so would like to invoque the law of parsimony.

But then, what does he mean?

Paul makes it abundantly clear that the ultimate goal of this ‘letter’ is an attempt at reconciliation, “a kind of peace gesture”, “let’s be cool”, “let’s lay the guns down, let’s hang up our boxing gloves”. It’s a “making up song.”

It pays to point out that while Dear Friend was first recorded at the beginning of the Wild Life sessions, on 24 July 1971, the demo tapes date back to a year prior, estimated to have been made at home in 1970. So it’s unlikely it was a response to How Do You Sleep?, recorded on 26 May 1971, and released on 9 September 1971. So Paul seems to be answering some other slagging off in public that John did.

But let’s look at the song:

Dear friend, what's the time? Is this really the borderline? Does it really mean so much to you?

Are you afraid, or is it true?

Dear friend, throw the wine I'm in love with a friend of mine Really truly, young and newly wed

Are you a fool, or is it true?

Are you afraid, or is it true?

The first line seems to be pretty self-explanatory, with the same sentiment Paul expressed in 1994, that “life is too precious”; after all, ‘Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend.’

In the second line, the question could mean, ‘Is this really where we’re at? Is this where we ended up?’ Or he could be using ‘borderline’ to mean a division, in the sense that he asks ‘Is this really where the line is drawn?’, which could help explain the end of the verse and his bafflement at how hurt John is by having that line crossed.

Now, what might be the action that meant so much to John? What might be Paul pinpointing as the source of John’s hurt? The sources could be multiple. John himself said no one hurt him as much as Paul did, and he was quick to point out Paul’s insensitivity. Paul would later continue to ponder this issue:

I always felt guilty. Always felt guilty. But looking back on it, I keep thinking, okay, let’s try and analyse this. Now John was hurt; what was he hurt by? What was the single biggest thing that we can find in all our research that hurt John? And the biggest thing that I can find is that I told the world that the Beatles were finished. And I don’t think that’s so hurtful. [...] I look at it now and really kind of shudder. At the time it was me trying to answer some questions that were being asked and I decided to not fudge that question. [Note: Where John’s hurt is concerned, Paul may or may not be referring specifically to his answering “Do you foresee a time when Lennon-McCartney becomes an active songwriting partnership again?” with a definitive “No.”] And I say, looking back on it, I don’t think… I mean, if that’s the most hurtful thing I did, I haven’t really heard much else beyond that.

— Paul McCartney, interviewed by Chris Salewicz for Musician (October 1986).

Of course, there’s nothing to say that Paul would be aware of all of this back in 1970. So we may never know what hurt Paul was referring to, if any. Remember this is just my present personal interpretation; which can be completely incorrect.

Now comes the part which I consider the most mysterious in the entire song: ‘Are you afraid, or is it true?’ and the variation, ‘Are you a fool, or is it true?’ The exact meaning for these inquires often eludes me. What is John afraid of and what is the alternative state that Paul wonders if it’s true?

One interpretation I’ve seen is made in the context of Dear Friend being an answer to How Do You Sleep? Here, the question ‘is it true?’ amounts to ‘did you really mean all those things you said, or were you just hurt?’ This seems a reasonable take and it works as a response to any attacks by John, not just necessarily How Do You Sleep?

Of course, Paul uses the word ‘afraid’. And although I can see a post-divorce John Lennon slagging of his ex out of hurt, I don’t understand how he’d do it out of fear. But maybe there was something to lose still.

Personally, clarity arrived when I was exposed to the song A Love For You. Part of the RAM demo tapes made between May and August 1970, this track recorded in 26 October 1970 would only be heard by the public in 2003, in the soundtrack for the movie “The In-Laws”.

The piece shares many motifs with other McCartney songs, as I’ve tried to explore before. But, to our discussion, I think the most relevant part of this contemporary of Dear Friend is the very last line of the second verse:

Is it true, are you coming through, or were you just leaving?

Here we have it; around the same time, precisely the same question: ‘Is it true?’

Though in the case of Dear Friend, it’s as if what he questions as “true” is reversed, asking instead: ‘Is it true you were just leaving? Or are you afraid of coming through? Or are you a fool for not seeing that I really am, I really can, I really do, I really have a love for you?’

This interpretation seems to match my current hypothesis that the breakup was but a disastrous series of miscommunications, which both created and were created by fear, distrust and insecurity in the other’s love.

If this is the case, the second verse seems to also make more sense. The first line is explained by Paul in 2001: “Let’s have a glass of wine and forget about it.” Assuming that the second line (the reason for this whole post) is referring to John, then it represents a clarification of Paul’s feelings. The verse culminates with a question that seems to reinforce the whole message: ‘Are you a fool for not seeing I’m in love with you, or is it true that you actually meant to leave and that you don’t feel the same anymore?’

I have to reinforce that, even with all of this, when Paul says ‘I’m in love with you’ to John, I don’t think it necessarily means ‘I’ll leave Linda, take me back!’ From my perspective, the way Paul’s in love with Linda doesn’t really infringe on the way he’s in love with John. He probably had totally different needs and expectations from the two relationships, which he doesn’t see as mutually exclusive.

So, in conclusion, for me Dear Friend is essentially Paul writing a letter to John saying, ‘Come on, are we really wasting time with this fighting nonsense? Let’s make up! I still feel the way I felt. Do you?’

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itsuki-minamy · 4 years

Text

“K - THE FIRST STORY”

CHAPTER 3: THE SWORD, THE CAT, AND THE SEVEN KINGS (Complete)

* Prologue: Side: The Boy * Chapter 1: The boy named Isana Yashiro * Chapter 2: Flames

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: Ridia

Kuro Yatogami had a mission to fulfill. It is not an exaggeration to say that it means the meaning of living for the current Kuro.

(I ask you, Kuro.)

Miwa said from the hospital bed, and looked at him with compassionate eyes.

Miwa, never showed illness. Kuro wanted to do something for Miwa, but did not provide his care like a nurse, except to prepare the daily meals and take them to bed, and did most of his own work to the end.

He didn't want to believe that Miwa died, but as soon as he fell to the ground, he said, "My life seems to be short.", With a bit of embarrassment, but with a kind look. If Miwa was an ordinary person, he would have said, "Please don't say anything.", But Kuro, who knew Miwa's power, had no choice but to grip his fist tightly and accept it.

Kuro found it difficult to imagine living in a world without Miwa. For Kuro, Miwa's existence was a sign of life. He was worried because he lost him and didn't know if he could walk forward properly.

It may have been because of that Kuro that Miwa announced his death. Even after he died, Miwa showed him the way to go.

On the rooftop of the building in front of Shizume-cho station, Kuro was pointing his sword at a boy.

The boy seems guilty of his sins and is confused by what he does not remember.

But the evidence is already available. From now on, Kuro will kill this boy.

The sword arm has been trained since he was little. However, he has never killed anyone. It would be a lie if he said that he is not scared, but there is no doubt.

(This is the last difficult task.)

Miwa's smiling face after entrusting his life to Kuro was revived, and Kuro focused on the hand holding the sword.

The sword "Kotowari" that Miwa entrusted to him to fulfill his last mandate. He will not needlessly unsheathe this sword.

"Isana Yashiro!"

Kuro proudly pronounced the name the boy gave himself. Grab the handle of the sword with both hands and prepare.

"The word of the seventh king, Miwa Ichigen, is to take your life."

"Wait a minute!"

"Take this!"

The boy turned around and started running.

Kuro didn't chase after him, activating his right hand. It is the power to ignore space and grab the desired object, manifested as a member of the Colorless Clan. He can call it an invisible hand.

Kuro grabs the boy's neck and uses his long, invisible hand to hang him up in the air so he can't escape.

"Are you really going to kill me?!"

The boy screamed, flapping his limbs in the air unsteady. Kuro lowers his eyebrows at the evil of his death.

"Resign yourself!"

"No! I'm innocent! Is it Miwa's order to kill an innocent person?!"

"Innocent?"

Kuro turned his eyes to a huge monitor on the wall of the building. There was still a still image of the boy holding a gun with an evil look.

Kuro released the ability of the right hand dangling the boy. Catch the falling boy with one hand, turn around and look at the giant monitor.

The boy looked ridiculous at the motionless evidence.

"Ah... I may not seem innocent. But aren't you saying it right? People aren't watching, let's judge from the content."

"My idea is that people are not what they seem, they are not what they are on the inside, they should be judged for their actions."

"No, that's why I'm telling you it's not me! You're wrong!"

"No matter how you look at it, it's you. Don't swear wrong!"

“If I took a hundred steps, why didn't you kill me? If I were a murderer, the police would arrest me, the prosecution would prosecute and the judge would decide, that is the right way to go in a law-abiding country."

"My Lord is not in this country. It is only Miwa's word."

First of all, “King” is not something that the police can handle, and since it has no public existence, it does not go through the country's judicial power. There is an alternate organization, "Scepter 4," but Kuro had no intention of leaving this mission, which he received from Miwa, to others.

The boy drowned as if he had lost his power.

"Ok... I can't help saying this. Boil me or bake me, whatever you want."

"Finally ripe."

"But in the end, please allow me to make a request."

When a dying person asks him to make a final request, he can't do anything, but Kuro thought about it for a moment and then replied, "Tell me."

When he released the captured hand, the boy took a seat across from Kuro.

“I want to write a suicide note. To my sister."

"Sister?!"

"Yes. To remember me. I can't help you trust my innocence. But I don't want my sister to believe that someone else killed me."

Criminals have families too. That's obvious. However, Kuro got upset when he was hit by the obvious.

"My sister was born seriously ill and has been hospitalized for a long time. She has never had friends since she was a child, and I am the only person she can talk to... If they killed me, my sister would be alone."

His sister is not guilty. Even though she was sick and hospitalized, he wondered how sad she would be if she didn't have her brother, and Kuro went hard.

The boy took out a sheet of paper and a pen to write a suicide note and wrote something soft. Facing the suspicious boy who decided to make a decision, Kuro asked a question.

"What is your sister's name?"

He wondered if he wanted to postpone the innocent girl's misfortune even further. Maybe the boy was thinking of something else, he glanced at the brochure swaying in the wind on the edge of the rooftop and said vaguely.

"Marilyn."

"What?"

"Oh, yes, Mari. She's Mari."

"Isana Mari. It's a good name."

The boy's pen stopped and the completed suicide note was folded and presented to Kuro.

"Thanks. Well done. Hey, but will you give this to my sister?"

Imagine a little girl crying in a hospital bed, Kuro took a break. The boy ran to Kuro, who was holding his hand to grab that, and said...

"Please. No one else can ask. Because my sister will be alone for the rest of her life..."

When Kuro picked up the letter, the boy stepped back a bit.

He looked at the folded suicide note written in a short time, like a shopping note, and carefully opened it.

Kuro averted his eyes, at the thing that jumped into his sight.

"What is this?!"

When he raised his face, the boy opened a red umbrella and had a round object in his hand, be it a bomb or a firework.

Before Kuro could recover from his surprise, the boy dropped the round object in his hand onto the concrete and turned his back on it.

Frush! An intense light flooded the rooftop. Kuro closes his eyes and covers his face with his arms.

When the light that had lasted for a few seconds faded and Kuro opened his eyes, there was no one there.

There is a door that leads to the ajar building, a protective umbrella that the boy has thrown away, a dog character costume that seems to have been left by a human in this building, and on the ground the suicide note that Kuro grabbed, a paper with a cartoon that raises its thumb with its tongue sticking out and says "Lie."

The brochure the boy was looking at next to it is fluttering and rolling. It was a brochure from a store called "BAR Marilyn", depicting a shameful woman with her skirt up.

Kuro stood still and silent for a while as the wind ruffled his long hair.

It took a long time for him to get angry because he was overwhelmed. Gradually, he raised his eyes to the anger rising from the bottom of his stomach and he rushed open the door to follow the boy. The iron door throbbed too hard, but he couldn't afford it.

Once found, Kuro ran down the ladder into the building, with a strong determination to strike and slash without question.

++++++++++

Kusanagi had decided not to choose the media that day.

The video could be broadcast in the city center centered on Shizume-cho. It will soon be removed by "Scepter 4", but it cannot be said that the video once played was completely absent. That footage will continue to run underground for a time, followed by takedowns and resupplies.

Kusanagi looked at the vehicle that was parked. The interior of the car has been remodeled to make it a temporary information room filled with PC devices.

"How's the 'bounty announcement' going?"

"I'll upload it right now!"

Akagi answered Kusanagi's question and hit the "Enter" key on the computer.

The video of the criminal boy who was still on the huge monitor in front of the Shizume-cho station was changed and the announcement began to flow.

"Reward Notice. I am looking for a boy who shot on the rooftop of the Hirazaka 3-2-5 building in Shizume-cho at 11:45 PM on December 7 this year. Those who contribute powerful information about this boy will receive a 10 million yen prize."

The vast majority of humans will consider it a bad joke. But money is power. There will be quite a few people who will be taken seriously if the rewards will be paid with 10 million for the supply of influential information that will lead to the capture of criminals and the rewards will be paid properly even for other trivial information.

In the vehicle, the PDA of the member of "Homura", who is the reception desk at the same time, begins to ring.

"Yes, this is 'Homura'. Are you the person providing the information?"

"Oh, yes. Ten million. What? It's not a lie. Would you mind not speaking ill of us?"

Seeing Akagi and his friends busy, Kusanagi climbed onto the ladder attached to the back of the truck and looked up at the ceiling.

Talk to Anna, a girl in a red dress, sitting on the roof of the vehicle and looking at the map seriously.

"Did you find something, Anna?"

On the map Anna looked at, several red marbles roll by themselves.

Anna was investigating along with Kusanagi in response to the sighting of Akagi's criminal. Although he made her wait in a safe place so she was not in danger, Anna also witnessed the criminal from a distance. Anna, who recognized the sign of the other party, followed the boy with her sensitive ability.

Anna stared at the marbles without responding for a while. Kusanagi silently watches over his whereabouts so as not to disturb her concentration.

Finally, the rolling marbles gathered in a certain place and stopped.

"Here."

Anna points to a point on the map. Kusanagi raised his hand with the meaning of understanding and appreciation, immediately manipulated his PDA, looked for the map, marked the area indicated by Anna, and sent it to all the members of "Homura".

There was immediate reaction to the group call from the online criminal search members.

“This is a clue! I get it. I'll go immediately!"

The violent voice that answered is Yata's. It seems that he has come a long way, perhaps due to the regret that the black dog has rid himself of the criminal in front of his.

"I went into an alley that is not on the map, hahaha."

"Don't laugh, stupid!"

“Understood… This is Kamamoto. Hmm... I can't let go of my hands, and a little more... Ah, add fried rice!"

"Don't buy any more food!"

"Hey, who are you? What did you say about "Homura"?"

"Ah, is there someone who has made a fool of 'Homura'? Put a marker in the place, we go immediately!"

Kusanagi laughed bitterly as he smoked a cigarette and listened to the loud exchanges of the members.

“Search correctly. Ah, I don't know what to do with the black dog. I can´t help you. Kusanagi, over and out."

Kusanagi sighed slightly after leaving the group call despite Yata's unhappy voice.

"It's not okay, they're just kids."

++++++++++

Kuro was angry.

After all, he couldn't sympathize with the evil "King" and should hate that heinous assassin, Kuro bit his immaturity.

"I'm sorry, Ichigen-sama. However, tonight, I, Yatogami Kuro, am sure that I will fulfill my mission."

Kuro put his left hand on his sword sheath, "Kotowari", with determination.

"Where are you? Isana Yashiro! Get outside!"

The people who are after the fox are roaring loudly in the city.

Listen to the rubbing of the wheels against the ground. Kuro doesn't move and turns his face towards him.

A boy with a metal bat rushes straight towards Kuro, riding a skateboard while spewing flames from all over his body in the form of anger.

Is it the red clan member he encountered earlier? He knows how he feel, but now he is busy...

Kuro frowned slightly and put his strength into his bent legs. To dodge the boy who is rushing towards him with a metal bat, jump high and descend into the street light. He misses the time he was talking about now.

Yata, a member of the red clan on the skateboard, stood up to Kuro's level staring at him.

"Hey, Black dog! Where is that boy?"

"Member of the red clan. What is that?"

"I'm asking where the guy who hid is! If you don't want to hurt yourself, give me a quick answer!"

He can't afford to be a kid. The eyes looking at Yata grew colder than necessary.

"I don't have time to deal with you. Stay away from it."

The murder signal is increasing. Irritation from others rubs off and the air becomes hot.

A suddenly blurry voice echoed in the room.

"Oh, Yatogami-kun! I think I can escape from here. I'm going to get there soon!"

Kuro has doubts and looks for the origin of the voice. Then, he sees a person waving from the rooftop in front of the building.

Without a doubt, the evil "King" who called himself Isana Yashiro.

"You damn..."

Keeping people confused with such a lie, what is he planning?

At the same time that Kuro sharpened his eyes, Yata sharpened his teeth.

"You…!"

"You can defeat such a person in one fell swoop, beat him quickly, and come here soon!"

The boy says that. You see, the purpose is for Kuro to hit the red clansman and escape in the meantime? The villain who keeps circling the tolerance meter, Kuro raised his sword.

"Sorry! I'll tie that guy up after I crush you!"

Yata, easily fanned, raised the outer corners of his eyes and barked. It seemed unlikely that his eyes, burning with anger, would put out the fire, and he decided it was impossible to leave.

Even though Kuro pretends to be calm, he is overwhelmed. He looks at Yata from the high place and says chillingly.

"If you try to fight me, expect no mercy."

"Damn!"

Yata kicked the ground and ran. From the skeleton wheels that skim the surface of the street, flames erupt like a raging wave.

Kuro extends his right hand and extends his invisible hand towards Yata.

However, Yata may have learned from the fact that he was caught in the hand of a different talent down the alley. He deftly steers his skateboard to avoid Kuro's extraordinary hand and heads towards him.

Then, Kuro switched his target from Yata himself to around Yata. He concentrates his consciousness, increases the pressure of the power of different abilities, and pinches the surface of the street behind Yata with invisible hands.

Kuro's invisible hands squeeze the asphalt, car stop barriers, and even street lights, bend to pieces, and attack Yata from behind.

"Damn!"

Yata appeared to be swallowed up by the debris. However, he ditched his skateboard and jumped out of the dust onto the sheer rocks attacking him.

Yata, who jumped high using the wind pressure from the steep rocks, jumped to the spot where he was standing in the street light and swung his bat with a joyous voice.

Kuro escaped through the air passing him. The metal bat that cuts through the sky makes a loud metallic noise and hits the streetlight.

In midair, Kuro jumped a step higher, using Yata's face as a springboard, and reached with his invisible hand at the sign on the rooftop of the building that he noticed. Kuro, who was a bit sensitive to the word "sister", feels free to tear off the sign that appears to be an advertisement for a book titled "My Sisters Struggle" and drop it on Yata.

A powerful member of the clan. It won't do much damage, but if he's going to stall, Kuro drops Yata under the sign and jumps onto the rooftop of the building where the boy was.

Kuro has no reason to compete with the red clan member. All Kuro has to do is find the evil "King" before them and kill him for that "reason" before it turns into a great battle.

The boy was no longer on the roof where he had been screaming.

Kuro takes out a small emblem from his pocket, which he cut from the boy's neck when he swung his sword. Kuro tightly gripped the emblem, which is the emblem of Ashinaka High School.

"I will not let you escape."

++++++++++

Get home safely.

The boy arrives at Gakuenjima's bedroom, which is his current home, and walks over to the bed in his beloved room to lie down.

"Oh... I'm tired..."

He literally thought he was going to die.

He was glad that Kuro was a silly, serious and good person. His sick sister's lie that he thought had happened once, and among the fireworks he had, there was a flash ball for the production of events (there was a mysterious sales season called "One Step Before Military Supplies!") , and the fact that the costume was left on the ceiling saved the boy's life.

He dazzled with a flash ball and quickly donned the costume, escaping from Kuro who thought the boy had run away. Fortunately, he got away with the costume because it belonged to a popular dog character often seen walking around town on campaign. After all, it was right after a flashy video of a person with the boy's face killing a person. He was grateful that he could move around without being seen by people.

Along the way, he escaped while disturbing the people who were looking for the boy and the people who set fire, and he managed to return to Gakuenjima. He was unable to fulfill his mission because he had used the fireworks that Kukuri had asked him to bring. He will have to apologize to Kukuri tomorrow.

Following the boy who was weak and lying on the bed, the kitten who overcame a difficult adventure jumped to the headboard and meowed cutely.

"What was that, who are those people?"

The boy closed his eyes with a soft duvet. When he lowered his eyelids, he did not have time to desperately reflect during the trip, the image of a person who looks like him with a gun comes to mind.

"Was the person in that video... really me?"

Do not understand. It must have been a mediocre day. The days of floating fluffy while watching his friends' smiles without having to think about anything are about to be reversed.

"Somehow, it seems to be troublesome..."

"Hmm. I've been doing it quietly until now."

The boy's eyes suddenly opened when there was a close response to the boy's soliloquy. There was white skin there.

A member lying in a gentle curve. Rounded butt, narrow waist, flat chest and gently reshaped over sheets, smooth shoulders. There was no fabric to cover them, just long hair that flowed along her body.

A girl.

Naked

A naked girl.

At the same time as the recognition, blood pooled on the boy's cheeks.

"Waaaaaah?"

The biggest scream that came out today.

Whether he's about to get hit by a flaming metal bat, a flying fireball, a sudden aerial walk, or a sword that's about to cut his through, his voice so far hadn't come out.

"Who you are?"

The girl woke up with a mysterious look as she jumped back and saw the boy with his back pressed against the wall.

A pretty girl of fifteen or sixteen. She has strange, large, almond-shaped eyes, with different colors on the left and right like a cat. One blue eye and one gold eye lined by long gleaming eyebrows.

The girl from the deep looked down at her body and made a slight "Ah." look, but soon turned to the boy with a smile in full bloom.

He doesn’t know why a beautiful naked and unknown girl can give such a pretty smile.

She said happily.

"I am Neko!"

++++++++++

Ashinaka High School. Known as Gakuenjima.

The evil "King" wore the emblem of this school, which is the entire school island in Tokyo Bay.

It's ok to cross the bridge to the Gakuenjima entrance, but it seems that you can only enter the school grounds through the automatic gate at the entrance. Outsiders were told that they would not be able to enter without a guest pass issued by student association staff or officials.

It seems that if you have a matter, you have to go to the window for the visitors, but even if you make a statement in the window, it will be difficult for Kuro to get a guest pass issued.

When Kuro tried to direct his skill towards the door, he was greeted with a bright and gentle voice.

"Ah, what do you need?"

When he turned around, a girl who seemed to be a student from this school was smiling. She has shoulder-length brown hair and side ornaments.

"Kukuri, what happened? Do you know him?"

"No, but he seems to be in trouble."

A girl named Kukuri shakes her head, surprised by a schoolgirl who appears to be a friend. He was impressed by the kindness with which she called, probably because he was carrying some suitcases.

"I'm looking for a man named Isana. Do you have any ideas?"

"Isana...? Oh, Shiro-kun, I'm a classmate."

The girl answered so easily. In such a large school, Kuro leans towards the luck of suddenly meeting that man's classmate.

"Where is he currently?"

“Where… I think he went shopping. Oh, but I think it's about time he came back. Oh, would you like me to guide you to the student dormitories?"

The girl took out a PDA from her pocket and gave Kuro a guest pass. Being able to issue a guest pass probably means that she is a student association officer. At the same time that he is lucky, he thinks of the abominable idiot and the face of the evil "King", saying that Heaven is not on the side of the bad guys.

The girl smiled when she sent him guest pass to Kuro's PDA.

"Yes, this is fine. Follow me! I'll show you the men's dorm."

Kuro bowed deeply to the girl.

"Sorry. Thank you for your cooperation."

"It is an exaggeration. It is a matter of course."

"My master said" There are few people who can do what is natural." I will never forget what you did for me."

The girl laughed shyly.

"Hahaha, you are an interesting person. What kind of relationship do you have with Shiro?"

Kuro tightened his expression and put his hand on the sword at his waist.

"I have something to give him."

"What? Lost property?"

"It is a guide."

The girl bowed her head.

++++++++++

The boy stuck to the wall and was frozen in front of a naked girl who affirmed "I am Neko."

Who is this girl? When she appeared? Why is she naked?

Despite being confused, the boy decided to do something about the third question, so the boy took the coat from the chair and offered it to a naked girl claiming to be a cat.

"And for the moment..."

"No!"

Neko turned around and jumped on the desk to escape. She is terribly light. Really like a cat. But it shouldn't be naked and squatting. It seemed like he could see many things that he shouldn't be able to see, so the boy was sweating coldly and tried to force her to put on his coat.

"Girls shouldn't stay like this!"

"The clothes are annoying, so I don't like them!"

He felt as if he heard a bell ring.

The boy is relieved. Neko who was supposed to be wearing a coat disappeared in an instant. When the boy was confused by the girl who suddenly disappeared, just like when she appeared,

"Do you want to play? Well, it looks like fun!"

A screaming voice came from above. When he looked up, Neko lay down on the furniture and looked at the boy who was wondering when she had moved. The bare chest is crushed by the corners of her face.

When he didn't know what to do... he heard a voice calling him from outside the window.

"Oh, Shiro-kun! I brought a friend!"

It's Kukuri's voice. The word "friend" made him uncomfortable, and the boy rushed to look down from the window.

"How is your sister, Isana Yashiro?"

Next to Kukuri, there was a sword god, Kuro, who ironically raised the edge of his mouth.

The boy attracted a lot of attention.

It is bad. There is only a feeling of having been killed.

Kuro turned his palm towards the window where the boy was. The boy suddenly noticed that mysterious technique and retired to the room. Kuro grabbed the window frame from the boy's room with a mysterious power that seems to be capable of grabbing a distant object and jumped into the room immediately.

The boy somehow thought of engulfing him in smoke again, but this time Kuro didn't even give him a grace. As soon as he lands in the room...

The chill ran, and the boy moved according to his instincts, rolling on the ground and avoiding the sword by a short hair.

Crisp and light, Kuro's sword sits right next to the boy's face.

Really dead. The boy struggled to his feet and tried to escape. The naked sword pursues the boy.

"No!"

It was the girl's nudity that protected the boy from the sword.

The mysterious girl who calls herself Neko seems to have no shame to be naked, and stands in front of Kuro with her arms outstretched.

Suddenly, he froze before the bare wall. The face is tinted bright red.

"Hmm... embarrassing!"

Neko grabbed the boy's hand as Kuro involuntarily walked away. She pulls him hard by the hand.

The boy jumped out of the room and ran down the hall to the bedroom, being dragged by Neko.

Thanks to her nakedness he was saved. However, she is still naked and running in public places is bad.

The boy puts the coat he was holding on Neko.

"This! Put this on!"

Neko, whose head was covered with the boy's coat, was fluffy and small. At the same time, the sound of the bell resounds again.

Immediately, Neko's back running in front of him moved away. The boy staggers at the feeling of confusion. Out of nowhere, Neko suddenly sped up. The corridor has grown.

The corridor, which is not very long, suddenly becomes long enough to run 100 meters in a straight line, and naked Neko turns her back on him and walks away.

"Eh, what?"

The boy is confused and involuntarily stops and looks back. Then this time, the hallway behind the boy got much longer. The entrance to their room, which he had been in before, can be seen in the back, and Kuro who came out of the room to chase them looks like a bean.

Without knowing why, the boy worked again. Follow Neko's back tightly. Beyond the boy's line of sight, he gently jumped out the window. He hopped onto the external emergency stairs of the next building, jumped over the railing, and climbed out onto the next rooftop.

When he thought she really was like a cat, the long corridor suddenly shrunk and the boy was about to crash into the window.

"Wow, is that back? Is that girl's doing...?"

There is no doubt that the naked girl who calls himself Neko has a mysterious power. Maybe the hallway wasn't really stretched out, only the boy assumed it was. But now it is not the case when he is thinking deeply about it. After all, Kuro is chasing the boy from behind, and Neko who just snagged the boy's jacket on her head is trying to run outside, generously exposing her naked body.

The boy imitated Neko and went out the window, more dangerous than for Neko, he followed the bundle out of the window to the emergency stairs of the adjoining building, over the shackles and railings, sliding and clinging to the rain gutter.

The boy turned around, finally reaching for Neko's back who had already descended and was running down the street. Kuro was standing on the rooftop of the building next to the bedroom. Looking down at the boy, he can see his right hand pointing towards him.

It is bad. That mysterious hand will grab him again.

He can't think of a way to escape from that hand, ignoring the distance, the boy stiffened.

Neko who was running ahead looked at Kuro. Neko's eyes, strange eyes with vertically long pupils capture Kuro's appearance.

Hear a bell again.

Then, a small twister erupted on the rooftop where Kuro was. From the center of the twister, a huge bipedal ghost cat appears. A giant monster with a body reminiscent of a professional wrestler looked at Kuro with crescent-shaped eyes and laughed through exposed teeth.

"What is that?"

When the boy took his eyes off her, the cat was furry and naked.

"Strong!"

"That seems strong, but that's not the case... what the hell are you?"

"Wagahai is a cat."

"I heard... a cat..."

Neko smiled a big smile.

"It's a cat that has been with Shiro the whole time!"

Inside the boy, the girl in front of him and that kitten that was friends with the boy overlapped.

Certainly this naked girl appeared in the wrong place with the kitten sleeping next to him. Does that mean this girl is in the shape of a cat? No, the opposite? This girl transformed into that kitten. Rather, if she had the ability to display illusions, it would mean that she had an illusion that made her look like a kitten.

In other words, the boy intended to spend time with the kitten and was actually stroking and hugging a naked girl.

When the boy recalled the dizziness, it seemed like Kuro on the rooftop had already countered the giant monster.

Neko is unmoved by the fact that the giant monster cat has been defeated, and starts running again with a smile and a guard from Kuro. The boy also hurriedly followed her.

While chasing Neko, he noticed that she seemed to be invisible to other humans. It is an incident, a naked girl running around the campus during the day, but no one seems to make a noise even if they run among the students who are busy preparing for the school festival.

Neko running like the wind, with the boy's jacket over her shoulder without closing the front, crashed into a student who was walking with a basket full of oranges. He thinks she plans to make a maid cafe at the school festival. The schoolgirl dressed as a maid looked surprised and dropped the orange she was holding, the boy stopped his leg chasing Neko and stopped, helping her to pick up the orange.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes... there was something invisible..."

Looking at the student who gets confused and says "What...?" Without confidence, he is convinced that Neko is no longer visible except to him and Kuro.

Is it possible to not only show illusions but also make herself invisible? What is this super power that affects a person's cognitive ability?

While he was picking up the oranges and thinking about it, Kuro's footsteps were approaching from behind.

Kuro, who is running with his black hair tied back, is about to turn his palm towards the boy.

Before the boy answered, the bell rang again. Immediately after that, the phase of the place where Kuro is located changed.

Like a deception image, only the path where Kuro was floating in the air, and the place where the path was supposed to be was a wall.

On the crushed stone pavement that turned into an aerial tower, Kuro is standing looking at the boy who has collapsed. If Neko's power is the power to alter perception, there may be a way to step forward, even if it seems like he's gone. But humans can't easily ignore visual information.

The boy looked at the student in front of him, but she didn't seem to notice anything unusual. This illusion seems to work only for Kuro and the boy.

After picking up the orange from the student, the boy raised his hand slightly, greeted her and started running.

The escape and the chase in a world that seemed to lose itself in an image of deception continued for a long time. The boy was chased by Kuro and he is not sure why he is running because he accepted Neko.

It seems that the girl's appearance is not visible to other people, so why not leave her completely naked? Remember that it was not a problem, and that the main purpose he had now was not to dress Neko, but to escape the pursuer Kuro who was trying to kill him.

It was supposed to be a crisis situation, but the reason why he jumped in thought was because Neko who was fleeing to the front seemed to be having fun. Neko was laughing so hard it seemed impossible to think it was a life-threatening escape drama.

"Think, Isana Yashiro! The play is over!"

It's okay to chase after Neko and jump to the back of the school building, but he hit a dead end. Kuro approaches from behind.

Furthermore, the sound of the bell echoed.

"Nya nya nya!"

From the ground between the shrine and Kuro, a huge wall with the face of a ghost cat grows skyward as it screams.

"Anyway, this wall is also an illusion!"

From the other side of the wall, he hears the brave voice of Kuro, who inspires him. Humans can't ignore visual information that easily, but it seems that Kuro decided to believe his rational judgment rather than crazy perception.

Neko lightly tugged on the boy's elbow, who was staring at the wall, involuntarily. He can move a few steps sideways.

In the next moment, the painted wall of the ghost cat's face was scattered like petals from Kuro's assault.

The scene where the illusion was shattered was quite beautiful, and he decided that the illusion wall was an illusion and collided with it, and broken Kuro was echoing.

However, he smashed through the ghost wall, smashed through the place where the boy was standing, and hit the actual wall beyond his face.

It was quite a surreal scene because the look that broke the illusion was great.

"Nyahahahahahaha!"

Neko laughs out loud when she sees Kuro, whose face is buried in the wall.

With awkward and awkward movements, he hit a wall and turned his flushed face away, and Kuro looked towards Neko and the boy.

The voltage of his anger is only increasing, the boy sweats coldly.

However, when Neko saw Kuro, she really enjoyed with her big eyes. It was like a cat playing with prey.

Kuro looks at Neko and turns around. Neko stands happy, trying to protect the boy behind. The original purpose was lost in its pursuit.

Then the sun set, the night passed, and the sun rose again.

Humans, if they're too hungry, their heads won't work.

The boy is accused of murder, he is about to be cut by a guy with a sword, a naked girl shows illusions, and loses the power to think deeply about them. He just remembered the relief that Neko, who was running naked, put on his jacket properly because it was so cold in the middle of the night.

Now the three of them aren't even sure what purpose they were pursuing, and are kneeling in the boy's room, which is the beginning, to get rid of his harsh breath. The fatigue and hunger from not having eaten since last night seems overwhelming.

In the hallway of the student dormitory, the peaceful buzz of boys and girls trying to go to school in uniform resounded, like "Good morning." and "Did you do your homework?"

Kuro was also tired of being thrown during the night. Still, he has not lost sight of his purpose, and when he stands weakly to his feet, he reaches for the sword at his waist.

"Bad "King"... Isana Yashiro... By order of the dead "King"... You..."

However, since he has escaped many times, he is very weak. Also, there is swirling graffiti on the raised Kuro's left cheek, with "stupid" on the right cheek and "meat" on the forehead. It was written by Neko while being carried away by illusion. However, while chasing him, she got used to it, so she didn't laugh anymore.

Looking at Kuro, who was trying his best to draw his sword, the boy was confused on what to do, with a feeling that was different from the already imminent sense of crisis and was mixed with a slight sense of humor.

At that moment, a sad sound and signal was heard. It's Neko's belly.

"Shiro, I'm hungry… Ah~"

At what was said, the boy's belly screamed and responded.

"At the moment... aside from the accumulated stories, why don't we eat?"

At the boy's suggestion, Kuro frowned, "What...?", But his belly obediently complained of hunger.

The boy was flirting and standing up to him.

"Thanks for your support."

It's okay to put the problem aside for the moment and eat, but the boy had no other household skills than cooking rice.

It seems that Neko loves to eat too, but she can't seem to cook like a natural thing, and when they stood in the kitchen and talked about how they could make something that they could eat, it seemed like they couldn't make it. He stood up.

When he sees a briefcase that appeared to be stuffed with guns on the table, does he want to kill before meals? Although it was loud, when he opened it, there were some kitchen gadgets like his own kitchen knife and condiments that he thought were professional.

What kind of person is this guy, a chef who thinks he is a samurai? The boy is confused and watches Kuro's tendency.

Kuro first looked inside the refrigerator and looked at him.

The contents of the refrigerator in the room of the boy who does not cook is deficient. There are some ingredients that can barely be made with miso soup, but there is nothing that can be a side.

"Shall we go shopping? Because there is something like a supermarket on campus."

"I want to eat fish!"

Kuro looked at the boy and Neko with a hard look, and fell silent with a thoughtful look for a moment. Finally, he turns to Neko instead of the boy.

"Do you want to eat fish?"

"Yes!"

"Then buy three horse mackerel. The skin is crispy and the inside is smooth and juicy."

"Nyaa!"

Neko happily makes her eyes shine.

"If you put some soy sauce on the freshly baked horse mackerel, it tastes great. Because it's simple, it tastes universal and happy."

Horse mackerel, Neko sniffed at the drool.

"Then let's buy eggs. Do you like rolled eggs?"

"Dashimaki?"

"It is a dish that is made by mixing many sardines with broth and eggs, and rolling it while baking. It is a soft and smooth food with a spongy dashi aroma. When you put it in your mouth with grated radish, the flavor is accentuated and returns to be delicious."

Neko's drool could no longer be held and hung from the edge of her mouth. Kuro looked into Neko's eyes and said.

"You want to eat?"

"I want to eat!"

"Well. Then go buy it. Write down any other necessary items in a note. Well, your most important role is definitely bringing Isana Yashiro back to this room. If you run away, you won't be able to eat the delicious food I just mentioned. Do you understand?"

"Okay! Wagahai will eat delicious fish and dashimaki with Shiro!"

It seems like he intends to catch Neko with her appetite and make sure the boy doesn't run away.

In the chase during the night, Kuro seemed to have grasped Neko's characteristics to some extent. The endurance game that lasted over a dozen hours, gave birth to a kind of strange bond between the three of them. There is no trust in her, but he can somehow understand the points that he can trust.

He won't run away anymore... He's so hungry that he doesn't know where to run since he found his home, so he only wants to talk quietly once.

The boy laughed bitterly and watched the exchange between Kuro and Neko.

Steam comes out of the rice cooker and there is a slightly sweet aroma that can cook boy's favorite rice.

But that is not all today. The fragrant smell of burning fish mixed there, playing an indescribable harmony.

Wearing a pink apron, Kuro rhythmically cuts the onions. The boy gazed admiringly at the onions, which quickly and accurately became increasingly thin.

Tofu miso soup is made on the stovetop next to the fish, which has a small, crackling, explosive skin and is exquisitely browned.

After chopping the onions, Kuro takes it upon himself to bake rolled eggs with one fluent hand.

The egg, which was stirred well in a bowl and mixed with the broth, soy sauce, mirin, etc., was rubbed with a strainer, and the liquid egg was poured into a heated, oiled pan. The egg makes noise and hardens in good condition. Kuro started to roll it into a half mature state with beautiful movements.

"Oh~"

The boy and Neko involuntarily give a voice of admiration. The belly of the two screamed again.

When the eggs in the skillet are tightly rolled, the remaining egg liquid is also poured out and rolled further. In the blink of an eye, a beautiful rolled egg was completed and Kuro put out the fire.

At the same time, the sound of cooking rice resounds, and the fish appears to be baked and the grill rises.

It was a wonderful skill to finish everything at the same time.

The boy and Neko make their eyes shine on the table. It's simple, but that's why it stimulates an empty stomach.

He didn't have all the china in the boy's living room, so he bought it when he was shopping for ingredients.

While shopping, he offered to buy a bowl for Neko and was delighted with her large eyes glowing brightly. Along with Neko, who carefully selects her favorite tea bowl, the boy also chose tableware for Kuro. He doesn't eat as often in the boy's room, but he can't bear to let him eat white rice from a flat plate or drink miso soup from a cup.

Kuro opens the rice cooker. The white steam that smelled of freshly cooked rice rose, and Neko happily offered her a new bowl of tea of her choice. He's staring into her glowing eyes as another rice is spilled.

A boy dressed in a killer robe, a guy trying to cut it, and a mysterious girl who suddenly appeared and was believed to be a normal kitten until yesterday, like a united family, clasped their hands around the warm rice.

"Itadakimasu!"

When he sipped the miso soup, the moderate salty taste and aroma of the soup spread through his mouth. The ingredients are simple, tofu and fried, but the boy thought it was the first time he had had such a delicious miso soup.

"It's delicious! It's really delicious!"

The boy lifts the cheeks with red tide. Kuro didn't look careless, but he snorted with a casual expression.

Neko also hurries, squeezes the muff and rice, and enjoys the fish. However, she didn't seem to be very good at using chopsticks and she spilled grains of rice in a conspicuous way.

When he saw how Neko was eating, he looked up and pulled the voice recorder from his chest.

"Rice is important, chew it well."

A man's deep voice rang out from the voice recorder. It was a good voice that was smart but also had a mysterious feel to it, but the boy twisted his head at a strange word like haiku, slogan, etc.

"That's…"

Kuro's eyes said, "Do you want to listen?" He turned to the boy as his eyes twinkled. Seeing his glowing eyes, he said that he was talking about a mysterious tape recorder, the boy was sensitive to the long annoying air it created, and the sign that a story was likely to unfold that the boy didn't care, and he quickly turned his important attention to the rice.

As he cut the fluffy rolled egg into bite-size pieces with his chopsticks, cut out the story of the person that is important to the guy.

"By the way, I want to ask you now."

When the boy changed, Kuro also turned to the boy, erasing the childish expression he wanted to show off when he played the tape recorder.

"In the first place, who are those men who chased me?"

They were people who manipulated supernatural powers, such as attacking with a metal bat that spewed flames and shooting fireballs with cigarettes. Both Kuro and Neko have a mysterious power, so the boy feels lost if he is the only common person.

"A member of their clan was killed. They are seeking revenge."

"Clan member? Are they a runaway tribe or a mafia or something?"

"Clan is a group that follows the 'King', and Clansman is a member of it. The 'Red King' Suoh Mikoto is the 'King' of the third clan, and the most temperamental man among the 'Kings'."

Clan, clan member, "King", "Red King".

The boy freezes slightly, writing down the words that appear in his head.

"In short, the head of the supernatural powers? Is there some other group like that? Do you mistake me for the criminal who killed that member?"

"I am not mistaken; you are the criminal himself. When I finish eating this, I will crush you properly."

The boy was told with a very serious look and a tone that declared that he would take care of the domestic matters he had to do.

"Yes..." He withdrew.

Although he is eating rice with him, he seems willing to carry out the execution after the meal. There are simple parts that are easy to use in Kuro and stubborn parts that are unlikely to bend smoothly, and it seems easy to understand and difficult to read.

"Fill it up!"

Neko, who was happily eating, happily handed the empty tea bowl to Kuro. Kuro receives his bowl and tries to serve rice naturally as if he is doing it every day.

"Oh, yeah, me too!"

They have an especially delicious side dish today, and the boy's favorite white rice is on the rise. Kuro silently stared for a few seconds at the boy who took advantage of Neko and pushed the tea bowl away.

"Well, this is probably the last white rice of my life."

With a light sigh, Kuro also received the boy's tea bowl.

He doesn't want this to be the last meal, but the white rice he eats with the garnish that Kuro made is really delicious, so the boy chews the stuffed rice he got and puts a juicy fish on it.

"I know why they are after me, but why are you trying to kill me in the first place? You are not a partner of those people, right?"

It seemed like a lonely little shadow had fallen over his eyes.

"Because I am a vassal of the Seventh King, the former 'Colorless King'."

"Colorless?"

"It means it has no color. My deceased master ordered me to carefully identify the next 'King' and if he is bad, I will not hesitate to eliminate him. He had the power to predict the future."

He must have longed for the dead master. When talking about that person called Miwa Ichigen, Kuro has a scathing tone.

"The power of prophecy... "Colorless King"... What is that "King" you mentioned earlier?"

"He has great power and embodies the reason of this world. The power of the 'King' is moving this country. It is something that ordinary human beings do not know."

It's a tremendous story and the boy makes his eyes go round

"I was wondering if the Prime Minister was the greatest in this country..."

The current prime minister, Samukawa Kanichi, is not very popular but he is not very obnoxious and he is a person who still maintains a medium approval rating. There is no atmosphere like that of a king, but in this country where there should be no royal system, Prime Minister Kanichi should have the decision-making power to move the country first.

"Now, the politics and economy of this country cannot be established without the power of one man. Japan, which became a defeated country and was eaten by the surrounding countries, could now become the greatest economic and technological power of the world because of the appearance of that man in this country."

"Who is that man?"

"He is called the 'Golden King'. His power is secretly everywhere, for example..."

Kuro poured the soy sauce into the chabudai and took the PDA out of his pocket.

"Both were created by a company controlled by the 'Golden King'."

Soy sauce, PDA, gender and manufacturer are different, but both are famous brands that are spread all over the world.

“The head of those people with fire powers, you said he is the 'Red King', right? Is there red and gold?"

"There are seven kings."

"Seven people?"

Kuro took out various condiments from the briefcase containing a set of kitchen utensils and placed them on the table.

The seven seasonings with different colors on the tops can indicate seven "kings" respectively. Kuro puts his index finger on the seasoning on the red cap that contains paprika powder.

"The character of the clan is completely different depending on the 'king' who rules. For example, if you describe the Red Clan in one word, it is violence."

The boy instinctively frowned, "Uh…". He is being attacked by people who are like symbols of violence. The boy on the skateboard who attacked the boy with a metal bat without asking questions was certainly violent language.

"That is a very close-knit clan, which is united with an elegance darker than blood. Killing that member was a very stupid thing on the part of the new 'King'."

"That's why! It's definitely about someone else! I'm not a 'King' and I didn't kill anyone in the first place!"

The boy is quick to insist on the premise of something he does not remember. Kuro sipped tea silently with a nasty face.

Neko, who should be on the boy's side, seems not to be interested in the story of the two, and when she finished eating the rice, she got on the bed and started playing with the boy's umbrella.

"The 'King' is the one that moves the economy and is the boss of the mafia, right? A high school student living a mediocre life like me is not a 'King'!"

“I have said that the nature of the 'King' varies. There are several ways to do it. The fourth royal authority, the "Blue King", is the head of an institutional police organization for those who have powers, while the first royal authority has immutable power, but is shrouded in mystery. He is patrolling the sky over Tokyo in an airship without fulfilling the role of 'King'."

"Airship... Oh, I certainly could see it. That's a 'King' too, isn't it..."

There is something strangely intriguing, and the boy hugs himself around his belly on the shirt.

“Furthermore, although the existence of the fifth 'King', the 'Green King' has been confirmed, but he has not appeared on the table and appears to be planning something under the surface. It's no wonder if you're a newborn 'King', a high school student, or if you're hiding your status and power as a 'King' and killing for an evil purpose."

"Oh... what does that mean..."

“There is a mysterious relic called "Dresden Slate" that selects the "King" and grants him great power. It is said to be a huge block of stone with a mysterious power that was discovered and studied in Dresden, Germany, during World War II. After the war, the Slate was brought to Japan and is now kept in the Mihashira Tower, which is the residence of the "Golden King". I've never really seen it. The criteria for the Slate to choose the 'King' are unknown, but history shows that not only are good people chosen, and that position and age have nothing to do with it."

"Hmm...", the boy gave a warm reply.

"But I don't have any supernatural powers..."

"Is that what you are hiding? The Seventh King, the "Colorless King", is a special "King" who has different characteristics for each generation. What kind of power and what role does he play appears on the Slate. It is said to be a prankster who knows no limits, the king of clowns. So I don't know what kind of power you have, even if you're hiding it."

"No, I'm not hiding it..."

"Just what is common to successive 'Colorless Kings'."

Without hearing the boy's objections, Kuro continues.

"The 'Colorless King', good or bad, has the power to interfere with the 'King' and change the balance of power between the 'Kings'. The predecessor, Ichigen Miwa, was a kind person. He was doing his best as mediator so that there would not be a conflict between the 'Kings'. The new 'Colorless King', as 'King' has shed human blood, and I cannot forgive him for causing and causing chaos!"

In front of Kuro, who speaks enthusiastically, the boy again heaves a heavy sigh.

Perhaps Neko was tired of playing alone, she returned to the kotatsu and picked up a piece of fish that was slightly stuck to the plate with her finger and put it in her mouth.

Each plate was carefully emptied. When Kuro put his hands on the plate he had finished eating, the boy did the same.

"Thanks for the food."

When Kuro and the boy talked to each other, Neko compared them to each other, clasped his hands as if to look at them and said, "Sorry."

Kuro drinks the hot tea and stands up naturally.

"It's time to kill you."

So, Kuro said that with the same ease as if he said that he would go to a convenience store.

Neko jumps up and poses intimidatingly while yelling "Shah!" The boy was impatient and held out his hand.

"Wait, wait! Then it's funny! Let's calm down! The reason you want to kill me is because I'm the evil 'Colorless King', right? What's the evidence?"

"That video."

"It's so easy to fake! Don't you think that's funny? Why would I call myself the 'Colorless King'?"

"Evil, you reveal yourself."

"If it were so… I made a mess with those dangerous people, I'd already be running away to a safer place! Right?"

Kuro looked away with a thoughtful gaze, but it seems his determination to kill him hasn't changed yet. The boy says desperately.

"I said it many times, I'm just a mediocre high school student!"

"So who is she? Is she not your clan member?"

Kuro pointed at Neko. Neko, who was still intimidating, turned to her own topic and showed her big eyes as if she had struck the void.

"Eh? No... She is..."

The boy looks at Neko from head to toe. The beautiful long-haired girl, who wears only the boy's uniform coat and exposes her bare feet in the harsh place, does the movements that animals actually perform, as she claims to be a cat.

Apparently, it is the identity of the kitten who was friends with the boy, but that is not what he wants to hear and the boy had no words to explain what she was.

The boy asks Neko directly.

"Who are you? Or what are you?"

"Wagahai is a cat!"

Neko said it like she did at the beginning, and she was very excited.

Kuro puts his hand on his jaw as he ponders.

“A Strain… Is she here by chance? Cannot be."

"Strain?"

"A person who has her own special power without being granted by a 'King'. Some people have it."

The boy asked Neko, "Is that so?", But Neko tilted her head with a smile.

"I don't understand anything, but I'm Shiro's cat, and Shiro is mine!"

Neko declares that in a good mood and starts dancing around happily.

Kuro also thought that it was difficult to think that this innocent girl understood the story of the evil "King" or was his vassal.

The boy turned to Kuro and faced him with the greatest sincerity he had.

"Hey, Kuro Yatogami. This is probably some kind of unfair accusation. I'm going to clear up that suspicion in front of you! And I'll ask those scary people to clear up the misunderstanding. No!"

Holding his fist in front of his chest, the boy insisted.

"Your deceased master said to identify the other person and kill him if he was evil, right? Then identify me correctly, if I am good or bad!"

Kuro straightened his line of sight towards the boy and paused to think a bit. Finally, he took out of his pocket that voice recorder that played during meals and handed it to the boy.

"Press a button."

"Hey?"

"Do it."

The atmosphere cannot be maintained any longer, the boy gets confused and presses a button, "Well then..."

"Do not judge the cold, without first knowing the heat of the burning sun."

A good voice flowed with astringency, depth and sensuality.

"What is that?"

The boy was very confused, but Kuro was convinced of something.

"Don't make a quick decision. You have apparently earned a chance to live, Isana Yashiro."

Even with a smile, he was confused. He's not sure what that means, but for the first time, he's happy that Kuro's attitude has softened and the boy's expression relaxes.

"Shiro is fine. Yes, can I call you Kuro?"

"Isana Yashiro."

Kuro, who called him by his full name to cut off his offer, stretched his back and looked at the boy with a stern look.

"I will identify you as you say, and if I find out that you are evil, I will kill you immediately. Okay?"

He thinks he was stubborn, loud, but sincere. In response to Kuro's statement, the boy smiled and asked for a handshake and extended his right hand.

"Thank you, Kuro. That is enough for now."

"If you are grateful, thank Ichigen-sama for advising me."

Kuro doesn't hold his hand and walks away.

The fact that he gave up means that the voice of that recorder is the voice of "Ichigen Miwa". The boy wondered why he was really worried about the tape recorder containing Miwa's mysterious words.

"What is that voice recorder?"

At that moment, the atmosphere Kuro was wearing changed. The atmosphere becomes brighter as if a flower is blooming, and a loose smile is shown as if such a face is made, and the cheeks become red.

He seemed to be excited and began to speak rapidly while breathing.

"This is…! This is a record of the words of the late master, Ichigen-sama. The words of Ichigen-sama, who was also an avant-garde poet, were so connotative and beautiful! I was recording it. It was not enough. burn it on my soul, and I still get lost."

Out of breath, Kuro presses the switch on the recorder.

"Occasionally walk the path you have chosen, the path of your dreams."

"Miwa's words" flow from the tape recorder, and during the narration period, he listens with an elated face that appears to have been beaten. Stained like an apple, Kuro picked up the recorder and looked at the boy with a proud face.

"That's what I'm saying!"

"How awful!"

An honest impression came out of the boy's mouth.

++++++++++

Wagahai is a cat. There is no name yet.

She feels like she used to have one, but she forgets. So a cat is just a cat.

Neko is now curled up on the boy's bed in the shape of a kitten.

She chased him from last night until morning, and when she had breakfast, she made her sleepy, so the boy said, "We will sleep for the moment."

The boy is sleeping under the blanket where the cat is curled up, and on a small tatami space, Kuro is leaning against the wall, sleeping with a sword in a sitting position.

Neko doesn't like Kuro. He came to destroy the happy days with the boy.

There is no way she will like people who say terrible things like kill the boy.

However, the rice he made was so delicious that she forgives him a bit. Especially the fish with crispy skin and plump body was wonderful.

Inside the room with the curtains closed, the morning sun shines through the gap, but it is comfortable and dim.

Neko tried to fall asleep as she was, and after thinking for a moment, she moved towards him. Bring her face to the boy's face and wave by bringing the tips of their noses together.

"Good luck, Shiro."

Neko snuggled into a position where the boy's body temperature could be felt. It is not cold here. She is not alone. She liked this place where she could hear the boy breathing next to her.

Neko is from Shiro, and Shiro is from Neko.

Feeling the temperature of her favorite company, Neko closes her eyes and enters the world of dreams.

#k #k project #k the first story

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holycowbrowniekitty · 6 years

Text

20.5 Special talk corner: Kantou Tournament Veteran Schools summit p. 128-133

And here is the long awaited captain interaction! Tezuka, Tachibana, Akazawa, Atobe, Aoi and Sanada team up to talk about their role as a captain. This is some really good banter!

My translations can all be found here.

P. 128

20.5 Special talk corner Kantou Tournament Veteran schools summit ( A captain summit)

Proposals to the Middle school Tennis world. In this book, you'll find a never read before project! The captains of Kantou's most outstanding schools have gathered! Crossing the fences of their schools, the captains will passionately talk about their sense of responsibility, worries, and the state of middle school tennis as it is now and in the future!!

Written by Inoue Mamoru (Monthly Pro tennis)

From Main planner/Inoue Mamoru (Monthly Pro Tennis editor): The captain's leading the strongest clubs have unwavering beliefs and philosophies. I think I'll be able to hear some constructive comments to the middle school tennis world if they look back at the municipals and regionals.

P. 129

Inoue: Thank you everyone for gathering at this busy spot today! This year's municipal's and Kantou regionals were filled with unusually high leveled competitions, so if you look back at it, are there are any ideas or suggestions you would like to give the tennis world from now on?

Tezuka: I think it has been a huge privilege to have received a spot in this competition. However, I think I can share a few stories of the player's of Japan's tennis world.

Aoi: You're so stuffy Tezuka!

Sanada: What are you saying! If you want to call yourself the representative of your club, it is your duty to state constructive comments! That means calling someone "stuffy" is… tarundoru! (Because Rikkaidai's captain is hospitalized, we called the vice captain Sanada-kun as substitution)

Aoi: W-well… uh… I mean…

Tachibana: Well, don't say it like that Sanada. Even if he's a captain, he's still a first year.

Sanada: So age has become the reason for a lack of self-reliance? When I was a first year, there were few hydration spots on the grounds, and I established the installation of vending machines that sell drinking water by sending in a proposal to the administration of the tournament.

Tachibana and Akazawa: (… you are the only 1st year who would do that)

Akazawa: By the way, this time 7 people should have been called. Aren't we missing someone?

Tachibana: Now you say it, I don't even think we're with 6.

Sanada: To be late… It's preposterous!

Tezuka: Don't think too much. Listen closely.

???: Hyoutei! Hyoutei!

Aoi: W-w-what is that!?

Atobe: (shines) It's me!!

Akazawa: It's you again! Stop fooling around bastard! When we were competing for 5th place, he also appeared with such flash.

Tezuka: It's been a while Atobe. Are you satisfied now?

Atobe: Aah, yeah I am. You guys, go home already.

Hyoutei's tennis club members: Yes!!

P. 130

Inoue: Hahaha, it seems like everyone is present. Is it okay if we get to the main issue at hand?

Tezuka: Feel free.

Inoue: Then, I wanted to know what you guys thought was the best match at this year's municipals and regionals?

Atobe: I haven't thought as far as discussing that, ahn.

Aoi: I don't really know what I'd pick for the municipals

Sanada: Actually, can you please tell us what you mean with "Best match", Inoue-san?

Inoue: Ah, that's right (as expected Sanada-kun has an air of intimidation). First, the match's level should be high. And also fascinating the audience with the development of the match… things like that.

Sanada: Then we don't have any matches like that. From the start, our goal was qualifying, the contents of our matches don't matter.

Atobe: Heh, it can't be helped that you guys had dull matches.

Sanada: What!

Atobe: Oh well, the best match was ore-sama's and Tezuka's, and it's not like anyone will object to that.

Sanada: What about that was the best match! Breaking down in the middle of the match, it's disgraceful as a player.

Atobe: You're not a romantic guy at all. It was kind of like a tv drama.

Sanada. Hm. Anyway, tarundoru Tezuka!!

Tezuka: Do not worry Sanada. I will definitely have recovered by the nationals, and will take you on in a perfect state of health.

Atobe: Hey, you guys, don't ignore me and just continue the conversation!

Inoue: Ah… then there's no doubt about Atobe-kun and Tezuka-kun's match being the best? (Inoue note: After this, to prevent the quarreling and controversy, let them choose 3 best matches)

The captains chose?

Their municipal/regional's most favorite game (Best 3)

Tezuka (Seigaku) VS Atobe (Hyoutei) With Atobe-kun's severe pushing, they chose this match. The match development and the level of the players was high, and it was an undisputed amazing game.

Kamio (Fudoumine) VS Sengoku (Yamabuki) Tachibana-kun fiercely pushed this match. It's true that the match between the nationals level big gun Sengoku-kun and the tenacious Kamio-kun was intense!!

Akazawa/Kaneda (St. Rudolph) VS Oishi/Kikumaru (Seigaku) At the regionals, St. Rudolph lost, but the match where they defeated Golden pair was one with value.

P. 131

Inoue: T-then, is it okay if I continue with the next question (I wonder if I made a mistake in selecting my interviewees?). Who do you guys think is this year's best rookie? Ah, The definition of rookie is someone who this year, became a regular for the first time, appeared in a match and is relied upon as a player.

Aoi: (My heart's beating… if I get chosen as best rookie here, I'll get fan letters from 100 girls at the nationals…)

Inoue: As for my opinion, I think it should be Seigaku's Echizen-kun.

Tezuka: I'm taking your word, Inoue-san. Anyhow, despite Echizen's abilities, his character is still immature. If you're talking about him as a best rookie, he should improve his human nature.

Tachibana: If you say it like that, our group isn't fit to be the best rookie either. When they get heated, they do whatever without thinking.

Atobe: Then our Hiyoshi is a difficult case as well. That guy needlessly provokes, and he's also very antagonistic towards the club members. That guy Mukahi always irritates him. However, he's the kind of type that won't grow and will become menial if you don't push him.

Tachibana: I see. We all have our problems with our members.

Minami: Right, good grief.

Sanada: Well, isn't Echizen being the best rookie good. He created a sensation at the regionals, he's reliable.

Akazawa: If that's the case our Yuuta is… No, our Yuuta wouldn't win. If you guys choose Echizen, I wouldn't object.

Minami: Hm, hm, that's right.

Atobe: If it's like that, isn't Echizen our best bet?

Inoue: What does everyone think, it doesn't seem like anyone here has any objections to Echizen-kun..?

Tezuka: if everyone said it, it doesn't look like anyone has a motive to stubbornly refuse.

Inoue: Then I'll write down that everyone chose Echizen-kun as the best rookie.

Aoi: (M-my kind of topic…it has already moved on!!)

The captains chose (?)

This year's best rookie No1

Echizen Ryoma While he was in his first year, he became a regular of prestigious Seigaku, and until the semi-finals, he didn't lose once! With his small stature and offensive play, he suddenly became the hot topic of this year.

P.132

Akazawa: By the way, is it true that Echizen is the son of that "Samurai Nanjirou"!?

Tezuka: Ah, that's right.

Tachibana: So it was true!? I too thought he looked like him.

Atobe: I see. He who shook the world before, Samurai Nanjirou.

Inoue: That's right! With his heroic play, he evenly matched or even surpassed the veterans of the world, with his alias the Samurai, it's that Echizen Nanjirou!!

Echizen Ryoma's (Seigaku) real father

Echizen Nanjirou With his offensive and courageous play, he was nicknamed the Samurai, an unparalleled player. When he was at the top, he suddenly retired.

Sanada: Inoue-san. As a press member, you should be objective and calm at all times, and definitely not slack off in those areas!

Inoue: Ah… my bad, my bad, continue.

Minami: Oh well, isn't it okay?

Sanada: Anyway, Samurai Nanjirou… I've also admired his plays.

Akazawa: Huh!? You remembered him?

Sanada: Of course.

Tezuka: His play has left an extraordinary impression on me as well.

Tachibana:… I also recollect some faint memories… I think we were around 1-2 at that time, was he still active at that time?

Atobe: Aren't you guys glossing over your age ahn?

Aoi: Heeh, I don't care at all about that Samurai something.

Akazawa: What!?

Aoi: Well you know what they say "The older the wiser," like that? The elderly like you guys can remember the olden days much better.

Tachibana and Sanada: (Ugh!)

Akazawa: Hey. It's not because you're the greenhorn bastard here that you should be so conceited.

Aoi: Huh!?

Tezuka: Time flows evenly for all humans. You should remember that while you may be the youngest now that won't be absolute.

Atobe: Oh well, that urchin won't understand your lecture.

Aoi:…. S-such a thing….was it something I shouldn't have done?

Inoue: Well, it seems like there's a chance to change the subject now, we'll reach our conclusion soon… (The air has become somewhat uncomfortable)

Atobe: Hey, who's coming there?

Tachibana: Hm? That's…

P. 133

Oishi: Hah, haaah, haa…I'm sorry! Everyone, I kept you guys waiting!

Tezuka: Oishi!? Why are you…?

Oishi: Ah, Tezuka came as well? This is a problem. Sorry, I learned of the meeting just now…

Inoue: Oishi-kun, did you come because you thought you missed the captain's meeting?

Oishi: Yes. It's like that.

Atobe: Hm, we didn't call you.

Oishi: Huh!?

Tezuka: Oishi… when I was absent, you showed a full sense of responsibility. Because you were there, I could leave the club to you, and could completely devote myself to my cure with a peace of mind.

Sanada: No matter how many times you say it, injuring your own body is tarundoru!

Tezuka: However, at this place, you should leave it to me. I want to show my duty as Seigaku's captain.

Oishi: That's right, Tezuka. If you're here, I'm not anxious at all. Then, please excuse me. I'm sorry to have troubled you (Oishi, leaves)

Inoue: (What a troublesome bunch) Then, let's wrap it up this time.

Sanada: The municipals and regionals were just a side show. We will show our true strength at the nationals.

Tachibana: We share the same sentiment.

Aoi: We won't lose either!

Akazawa:…. (Everyone seems lively).

Atobe: Ore-sama is going on a vacation to my villa at the Aegean Sea. Well, I will be awaiting reports of your activities there.

Minami: Yeah! Please look forward to us!

Atobe and Sanada and Tachibana and Aoi: You, how long were you here?

Minami: Ha…!? Haven't I been here from the start!!

Tezuka: (….I didn't notice him either…) Then everyone, let's meet at the nationals.

The summit is over. Inoue Mamoru's impressions

Even when it got a bit noisy later on, with each school's captains here, there was a presence and sense of responsibility that completely overwhelmed me. As long as these guys are here, they will hold the hope of Japan's tennis from now on… It seems likely that I have said enough. When the nationals finish, I think I'm going to hold another convention like this.

#prince of tennis #tenipuri #translation #mytranslation #20.5 #aoi kentarou #atobe keigo #akazawa yoshirou #tezuka kunimitsu #sanada genichirou #minami kentarou #oishi syuichirou #inoue mamoru #tachibana kippei

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bluerosesburnblue · 5 years

Text

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 6, Part 1/2

Well, I said I’d shoot for Halloween, not that I’d make it. I legitimately wasn’t expecting the Yōkai sidequest to be so... dense. So, because of that, we’re splitting this chapter into two parts, too. I think the finale deserves an entry all on its own

We’re in the home stretch, folks. Get ready for Bravely Second Chapter 6, Bravely Second

Hey, welcome to my liveblog of Bravely Default. So Tiz, after the destruction of Norende wakes up... wait. Hmmm. Wrong brunet boy. How did we get to the Caldisla Inn?

Karl’s soothing voice is a welcome reprieve from... that scene

“Wait! Where’s Denys?” *noises of discomfort from Tiz, Edea, Magnolia, and me*

“We defeated Diamante...” No. We were denied the ability to defeat Diamante. Now it’s Denys’s burden, assuming someone can even survive at the end of time. The self-sacrificing idiot...

Magnolia is being called to return home, as the hero of her people... and the light of her communicator is clipping through her Black Mage hat. Whoops

Weird that Karl didn’t recognize Tiz until right now. What, was Yew the only one asleep? Was his hair so bad you couldn’t be sure until you heard his voice?

Even more insane that he recognizes Edea since I have her in her Ranger getup with a full face mask

“Me and Agnes and Edea and...?” “We always counted on him when we.. When we...” Tiz. Edea. Do you not remember Ringabel or the first game? I thought we just weren’t talking about him because it was a sore subject, but...

Tiz doesn’t even remember the king of his home nation. What happened to you kids?

Diamante’s bestiary states that when it fell, it destroyed a part of the Miasma Woods and split the continent in two. I assume that refers to the separation of landmasses between the Harena and Yulyana regions, since there’s... like... a crater there where I’m pretty sure there wasn’t last game. I never mentioned it, it’s just the spot where we keep boarding the Skyhold because Denys really liked parking over it?

Karl who are these two white-haired kids? Are they yours? They can’t be grandkids since Owen is...

Caldisla’s theme is still amazing. Feels like being home after a long journey. Love it when a game can do that to me.

Tiz really had forgotten his entire home and the start of last game. Edea couldn’t remember it either

Yew says he’s read about Caldisla, but he couldn’t remember what he’d read either

I am reminded of a plot point in the Korean webtoon Kubera: One Last God. In that, a person who uses time magic too much will “forfeit their existence” for a time. They disappear and don’t age, but as long as they’re vanished from existence, nobody can remember them. If someone tries to remember events surrounding them, they freeze up and then immediately think of something else, forgetting their original train of thought. I’m getting the same vibes here

I know that tinny tone, Alternis!

“I am the one who carried you out of the Skyhold and to safety.” But how did you get to the Skyhold in the first place? I can’t imagine it was still flying after we “defeated” its power source, so it must have crashed somewhere around the Yulyana/Florem area, in which case the party should be very, very dead. Dead beyond my ability to fix

“I would go to the very ends of the earth for you if you needed me, Edea.” Okay, Clearly-Ringabel, turn the charm down a notch and exposit for us

“That bloody witch... Yōko will pay!” So Yōko sealed everyone’s memories of Caldisla? How do you figure, Dim?

Ah, she gave him the cryptic message of “Go to Caldisla, the land of endings” and he had no idea what she was talking about but went anyway and his brain freaked out

He’s still wearing Edea’s bow! So at the very least it’s the same Alternis from the Geyser Grotto

You know, I’m just now realizing that it’s been two games and we still haven’t had party members from either the Yulyana region or the Eisen region. You know, one of the four main continents? Has a major magical artifact in the form of a capital-”C”-Crystal?

I mean, Tiz is from Caldis, Agnès from Harena, Ringabel from Florem, Edea and Yew from Eternia, and Magnolia from the Moon, which somehow got representation before Eisen did

...how dare they put a hidden item next to a child you can talk to. Do you know how difficult it was to get Yew to focus on the object and not the kid!? Yeesh

Hitboxes on hidden items are so finicky in this game I swear

And there was a Phoenix Down behind Owen’s grave. Thanks

Oh... oh no. Oh no I looked at Til’s grave. Oh god Tiz I’m so sorry

God he sounds like he’s gonna cry. “Til was a lot younger than me... Even younger than you.” I don’t think it ever occurred to Yew that while he was using Tiz to replace Denys... Tiz was doing the same thing back

And the Caldisla amnesia makes it worse oh no. Could you imagine? Walking through a town and slowly realizing that it’s your hometown. And then stopping in front of a grave and it’s your brother’s grave. And it only hits you while you’re looking at it that you even have a brother... had a brother

Til doesn’t get a big grave like Owen. His is one of the small, unassuming ones. The only person he meant anything to was Tiz

And Tiz is being lauded as the hero he deserves after his untimely coma after the defeat of Ouroboros. Can’t help but notice they aren’t celebrating Edea, who was also there, but eh. She’s got the entirety of Eternia to throw her a party. Let Tiz have his exotic cheeses

Heyyyyy, Egil! How’s my favorite kid who didn’t die in a mine!? Nice armor, buddy! Looking good!

Oooooooh a Junior Captain? Nice work!

A great beast at Lontano? It couldn’t be a Ba’al, could it? The only story-based one we’ve had so far is Urchin

That’s actually the one thing I think I prefer in Default over Second. The Norende Nemesis fights weren’t necessary for completion, which was good since I mostly played that game at college where my 3DS couldn’t connect to the internet thanks to how poorly set up the login information was. My 3DS just couldn’t handle it. I barely did them, and I really didn’t miss much because of it. Here, though, if I want to 100% complete the game I have to do the Fort-Lune Ba’al fights, and which ones I get are entirely up to chance. I have been doing them, though. Get a lot of Apparati (probably people sharing it because it’s the only one with a Catmancy skill), followed by Snowcap in terms of quantity. Heck, I only got my first Redshirt the night before writing this and the only Urchin I’ve seen has been the story one. Completing those Bestiary entries is probably the last thing I’ll be able to do just out of luck

“The Youth Brigade”? What, we doing child soldiers now or is this the Caldisla version of Boy Scouts?

“Tiz, would you care to introduce us?” “Of course! This is Egil. He’s like... um... a little brother to me.” Hey, Yew, meet your new favorite little brother. Egil’s family. Mostly because Tiz has chronic Big-Bro-itis, but still. He’s a good kid

Can Egil be a party member in Bravely Third, finally giving us our Eisen representation?

Tiz no. Don’t mention the Three Cavaliers. That’s still a sore subject!

Oh damn. “You must be, like, the best of the best! So why are you hanging out with someone like Tiz here?” Egil! Harsh! Tiz killed a World-Consuming snake demon, you know!

“Yew’s a good friend of ours. I guess you could say he’s like a slightly older younger brother.” These boys cannot stop taking in new brothers! It’s adorable! I love it! (See, Denys? This is what you miss when you needlessly throw yourself into a time vortex. You miss getting adopted by Tiz and having, like, 60 younger brothers.)

An earthquake? First reaction says it’s the “beast” but we are right near the Great Chasm. I hope it was just a rock slide, but it’s never that easy

It’s the Rubadub? Why the fuck did the Rubadub cause an earthquake!?

Damn, according to Sakura we’ve been out for over a week

Sakura is best team mom! She did the laundry while we were gone, fixed the damages from the Skyhold collapse, caught a ton of fish, and is already making dinner with it!

Oh... wait what? Wait. ...is that where Caldisla is? I... hrm.

So my poor geography sense ended up making the “Caldisla disappeared” plot point work because I misremembered where the whole continent was. I thought it was in the middle of the ocean between Eternia and Florem and just wasn’t on the map because the section it would be in would be cut-off and it wasn’t going to be relevant! I thought it was farther to the right! God, see, this is what happens when you change the orientation of the map on me. I can’t navigate for shit

So, hey, I read through my old Liveblogs to catch myself up for the finale just in case, and you know what I called out and had conveniently forgotten by the time I played the last chapter? Minette Napkatti is seventeen FUCKING years old. She’s OLDER than both Yew and Janne. I wrote everything last chapter under the assumption she was, like, 10! God, her being 17 is so much worse. Now it makes people treating her like a pet even creepier! How is Minette even worse than I gave her credit for! Stop enabling this girl and get her some serious mental rehabilitation!

Now, I should really look at that urgent Beast situation... buuuuuuuuut there’s a sidequest in Gathelatio!

Actually, Yew just brought up the Crypts in a Party Chat and now I’m curious. Where did the stairwell Denys was standing near... go? Does it just exit into the city somewhere?

Party Chat says Alfred said there was a secret passage between the Crypts and the Sanctum. I’m gonna go see if that’s what’s up with those stairs

“I’d rather we didn’t go blundering around the family crypts if we don’t have to” Sorry, Yew, I’m with Edea. It’ll be five minutes, max. Besides, it looks like the sidequest is in the Sanctum. I wanna sneak up on ‘em if I can

Uhhhhh... wh...

Denys? Denys did you leave this shadow-man ghost thing here? What the fuck is that?

Why is there a nondistinct shadow man near Foundar’s grave?

All it says is “Fear the Eye of Foundar... But I suppose it’s still too early for you to understand what that means. Heh.” Hey, don’t laugh! You aren’t the first person to give me awful, vague prophecies! Sylvie beat you to it by a whole timeline!

There are some bits of... probably hair dangling at the sides of Shadowman’s face. It looks kinda like Yew’s concept art hairstyle, honestly. Huh.

That’s it that’s unsettling I’m out

And hey, that was the secret passage into the Sanctum! I hadn’t even noticed a door there in my past visits. Let’s... uh... let’s just talk to Braev and forget that unnerving shadow boy

What’s the matter, narrator? “By what strange trick of fate do your paths cross anew?” getting too much for you? Braev’s been in the story for a while, I don’t think he needed an introduction

Ah. Well, the sidequest is still Edea-focused like all the others, but at least this one I can get behind. It’s Braev testing whether Edea’s ready to succeed him

And there’s still a choice, hm? Should you desire the power to cut down all foes, the Grand Marshal’s sword is in Everlast Tower. Should you desire the power to protect your subjects, the Grand Marshal’s shield is in the Central Command basement

I don’t suppose we could do both? They say the two are opposites, but I hardly see why. A true ruler knows how to balance the two. Knows how to change their persona to match the situation. To cut down your foes is to protect your citizens. To protect your citizens is to spite your foes. There’s no reason to limit your capabilities

Regardless, if they do make us pick one, I find the sword is the better option. A shield can only hold out so long without the opposing forces thinning out

“It’s a travesty! Ketchup is for burgers and fries!” God, Yew is a boy after my own heart. I’ll try any food or food combo once, but putting ketchup on a good steak seems like sacrilege

And Tiz is also a boy after my own heart. Keep it simple with your eggs. Salt and pepper is all you really need. Though I’ve never had hollandaise, so I can’t really comment on Yew’s choice

Aw, Tiz puts soy sauce on his oysters because that’s how Agnès did it when he first had them. Cute!

And it was all a ruse to distract them from the fact that she botched dinner! Oh, Magnolia, sweetheart. I appreciate the creativity but I think bringing up favorite foods was the worst thing to do

Edea thinks getting the sword was too easy... so she wants to talk to Elder Sirius? If I go, is he just gonna tell me to grab the shield as was my plan to attempt from the start?

Braev’s location is marked... but so is the shield still. I want both

“It’s what Heinkel would’ve done.” I have no problems believing that Heinkel would use an heirloom shield to grill food. That checks out

Aaaaand that’s why you ask Yew before you use his stuff to cook with. Leave my nerd son and his collections alone!

A true leader directly defies orders and grabs both heirlooms regardless! We make our own win states in the House of Liz!

And seek shield counsel with Goodman. ...screw it, let’s talk to Sirius and Goodman. I’m curious if either of them have new dialogue

Seems like they do! Unmarked cutscenes. Sirius warns Edea to be careful of all power, as any could be used for evil. But it can also be used for good. The power is not the issue, but the intent of its wielder. To cast aside any means of defeating all who would endanger those you seek to protect is foolish

And Goodman espouses the benefits of a shield. Separate the soldiers from the civilians, and have the soldiers become an unbreakable wall to repel all threats. The shield has no chance of endangering others (KH Goofy would like to have a word, sir)

Edea mentioned Dominus Harena, so I thought I’d check him out and lo and behold! He also has a scene. Ancheim makes weapons, but uses none. They fight instead with their knowledge, using the scholars of Al-Khampis to outbuild and outsmart their foes. And they can absolutely use those weapons if they want. “Don’t brandish a big sword - but be sure to have one ready when you need it” is pretty close to my life motto

Meeting Braev at Vestment Cave is the first relevant event in the Yulyana region, huh?

Vestment Cave is the place you were blessed with a daughter? Edea was born in this cave when Sage took you in? Did I know that or is that just some trivia you felt like sharing, Braev? Because if so uhhhh...? I don’t think I can get that out of my head

Oh? “I see you have the grand marshal’s sword AND shield. ...And yet you have equipped neither.” I... have Edea as a Ranger? Equipping either of those would do nothing for her. I was not aware you wanted those equipped

...you know what? Yeah! Have the big sword (and shield) but don’t brandish it! That is our answer!

“Justice must be supported by might and authority - but when it is delivered at the point of a sword it is naught but coercion. [...] A stout shield is needed to protect the people in times of war. Yet the true goal should be a world with no need for shields. The noble course is to believe in the ideal.” This sidequest is awesome

“But you have one more trial to face - together with the friends who stand beside you!” And you know what? Those friends are the only weapon a good leader needs! They keep you from swinging the sword with abandon or allowing harm to come passively! They balance you, keep you in check! Edea Lee, go and claim the position you have earned!

(I just wish that Edea was in a different outfit in that scene. Loses a bit of impact when her face is covered with an animal mask)

Damn! He revives more times than Diamante! You fucking hear that, Denys!? Edea’s dad is a harder fight than DIAMANTE

And now Edea receives the Stave of the Grand Marshall. She is, unquestionably, the Grand Marshall of Eternia. I’m so proud of my girl!

Ah! And we’re visiting her parents at Sage Yulyana’s old place! Seems Braev and Mahzer are moving out here to retire. Good for them

‘sup Alternis? ...still mad about the Grandship escapade?

Braev is taking up needlework, huh?

Okay, I love the way John Eric Bentley said “a new tea cozy!” He’s a good replacement voice for Braev in my book

That sidequest was EXACTLY what I had hoped the others would be! It was such a good character focus to showcase Edea’s growth from the beginning of the first game, and the actual elements of it were so nuanced! There were so many permutations of events. Did you obtain the sword, shield, or both? Did you talk to Sirius, Dominus, Goodman? All of them? None? Some combination of two of them? Were the items equipped when you talked to Braev? Ultimately, the structure was simple, but the narrative you got out of it was all up to you. I’d be interested to see every permutation of the talk with Braev, but I am so happy with what I got. And I’m so proud of Edea. She’s come a long way from the self-righteous, black-and-white girl of Default’s events. Eternia is in good hands

I love that Tiz being the king of cooking with leftovers is canon

...so I can’t help but notice that there’s a Fort-Lune Ba’al icon just sort of... floating there above Lontano. That’s weird.

What on Earth was that noise it made?

“I-it’s exuding a level of power on par with... No, even exceeding Diamante’s!” YOU HEAR THAT, DENYS? You didn’t even take out the strongest Ba’al!

“We can’t let Denys’s sacrifice be in vain!” Yew, honey. You’re sweet, but it was in vain the second he made it. We’re about to prove how useless it really was

Oh, it’s just a Turtle Dove? Not even, like, a special one? Alright

Not too bad. Only got close at the end there because Yew went down and I had trouble getting him back up

Certainly harder than Diamante, at any rate

So it seems the only two mandatory Ba’al fights in the game are an Urchin and a Turtle Dove, and I’m certain those were the only two that made appearances in Default as Norende Nemesis fights. So that’s why those two were added to the BD international release

Aw, Egil doesn’t understand how pendant-call works either and thinks we shoved Agnès in the jewel

Where is she? I can’t say I recognize that room. Wooden doors with a crystal-thing in the back?

And yet another person who just couldn’t remember Caldisla

I guess she was on an Airship?

And on the Magnolia Cooks sideplot: She’s really good! Her quest for recipes has led to her becoming a master of Luxendarc cuisine

“A bath has to be sot hot you can barely stand it!” I know Edea’s opinion is meant to be an extreme... but that’s how I take my showers so...

I will say I don’t jump out and douse myself in cold water, though. That’s a little much

I guess hot-bath-cold-bath followed by freezing iced lattes is an Eternian thing? Yew’s into it, too

Alternis and Agnès are already here talking to the king? We’ve almost got the whole family in one spot! (This Alternis doesn’t have a bow, though. Guess we’ve still gotta hunt down Ringabel and Denys if we want that family meetup. Why is it always the blond ones who are a problem?)

According to the king, the people of Caldisla forgot the rest of the world in turn. That’s some nonsense that’s going on

Bow-Alternis is absolutely Ringabel. Alternis doesn’t know anything about his arm being hurt or Yōko

It’s an interesting way of doing the Alternis-Ringabel thing. Last game they made them seem like the same person, too, up until the reveal by having them get injured in similar places and never on-screen at the same time. This game we’re able to tell them apart despite Ringabel actually trying to impersonate Alternis because of their differing injuries

Where do Ba’als come from and what are they? It’s a question that’s been forced to the background thanks to the immediacy of the Kaiser’s plot, but now with that settled it and Anne’s plan are all we have left to solve

I like how Yew and Magnolia got cut off in that shot, leaving only Agnès, Alternis, Tiz, and Edea. A version of the first party

Oh, Magnolia. She’s beating herself up because she never thought to ask what the Ba’als were, but still dedicated her life to stopping them. But no one knows what they are. She would’ve been asking a question no one could answer

I appreciate Yew trying to commiserate by telling her he didn’t know anything about the Crystalguard or Denys but I don’t think those situations are really... comparable? Magnolia is talking about unknowable eldritch horrors. That’s a little bit bigger than the Crystalguard stuff

“There must be someone out there who can give us a clue!” “Do not judge a carrot by its leaves, nor a man by his words alone...” Leave it to Altair to announce his timely appearance in the most dramatically dorky way possible

“It’s a ghost!” ...I mean, yeah? Technically? But we know Altair. Edea, chill. Team dad tire-man of the vegetable proverbs is here to enlighten us

So the Ba’als are Vega’s emotions given life. Born of her memories with Altair, and I imagine the fight with Geist back in Sagitta is what tipped him off. Diamante probably only confirmed it. I can’t imagine anyone else whose memories Diamante’s background could have belonged to

Altair theorizes that something found Vega’s regrets upon being left behind and gave them form to be used as weapons

And that just leaves one place the Ba’als could be from. The last place anyone saw Vega alive: the Celestial Realm

“Let’s go to the Celestial Realm!” Yew, if travel between Luxendarc and the Celestial Realm were so easy Vega wouldn’t be trapped there, Ouroboros wouldn’t have had to create a chain of worlds just to break through, and I would travel to Luxendarc just to hug you. It’s just not that easy

And Altair agrees. It’s just not... simple. Maybe not possible

“Never say never until you’re dead!” Okay, but Altair is super dead, though? He has every right to say “never” at this point

At least he’s got a good sense of humor about it

...3DS did the going black thing again

“Of course I do not... accept it...” This game does some interesting things with the concepts of acceptance and denial. To not accept something is similar to, but not the same as, denying it. I like that they brought it up like that

He’s getting desperate. Begging the party to help Vega. Altair...

“You’re our friend, Altair.” “Your... friend? Oh, thank you, my dear children!” Altair, I nominated you for team dad. You’re not a friend now, you’re family. We live to make the impossible possible. We have (or most of us have) defeated Ouroboros. Let’s go get Vega.

So who could help? As Altair said, Anne. A fairy who can control the Ba’al and who spoke of a Master. She clearly knows something about them the rest of us don’t, and I’ve still got a bone to pick with her

I’d know that place anywhere. She’s at Norende’s Great Chasm

Norende has a path between the Celestial Realm and Luxendarc... right where the Dark Aurora was... I should’ve known Ouroboros would use the weakest point in the barrier to get through

So that’s your plan, you little shit? Use this path as an express lane to get Ba’als to Luxendarc without interference from the Moon people? And then maybe get your boss in? Not happening. Nope. I refuse. Yew, Tiz, and everyone else deserve better

Funny you’re monologuing, Anne, since I know you know I exist and can, presumably, hear you. What’s their secret if it’s not the hourglass that let them keep their memories? I think you already know

They are directly using the fact that we, the player, saw that scene and now know where to go next and the party doesn’t. Party’s got no idea. That scene was for our eyes only

And the last sidequest has opened up. Yōko Yōko Yōko Yōko Yōkaiiiiiiiii

Oh thank god the Vampire Castle’s unlocked. I would’ve cried if they made me do the dragon fights again

Why should only Magnolia dress warm, Edea? You’re wearing about as much as her!

I don’t like Alternis’s helmet sitting at the door like that. Ringabel, you’d better be okay! You were my favorite last game, don’t you die on me!

Oh! My encounter rate is locked at standard. Guess I have to fight, huh? That’s... it’s never done that before

There’s a painting no one ever noticed before. Yōko in both human and Yōkai form, with a blonde child

And there’s the girl of the hour! You gonna pull a DeRosso and give us your backstory while we climb the tower?

I have never heard Vampire Castle called the Hall of Truth? Did I forget? It’s been a while. Hall of Exposition, more like

“Tiz! Do not think you can avoid the dangers that you encounter in this place.” AKA: no. You have to fight the encounters. Also, I forgot setting the encounters was a Tiz thing

“The powers of Luxendarc’s gods will not avail you.” So it’s a Celestial power Tiz was using. Assumed as much. And according to Yōko, this is Luxendarc. We play by Luxendarc rules this time (unfortunately)

So either Ringabel or Alternis can work the pendant call. He didn’t have the bow, but he talked like he knew what we were on about. Suspicious

So Yōko slept. And slept for quite a while. Twenty years ago an ambitious man came to wake her up, and with him came a girl with the Plague. The man in the painting is wearing Crystalguard clothes, and came to plunder the offerings at Yōko‘s shrine. The man was so determined to take those treasures home that he ignored the girl’s grandfather, who asked for her to be quarantined due to her sickness and pleaded with the church to let them sail. The church sent Geist. Once she was exorcised, the fleet could move. His ritual didn’t cure her at all, though. She doesn’t need to say it. I can already tell that the man was Yew’s father, Greide

Greide Geneolgia, whose greed sparked the Great Plague

She gave us his journals.

Foundar left behind texts for his descendants, texts that Greide managed to decode and use to locate Yōko’s shrine. The girl was the granddaughter of their patron from the church, sent to help them find the shrine that the Orthodoxy wanted so badly to find.

Greide used the girl to house Yōko’s soul, so she couldn’t stop them from raiding her shrine. It was there that they found the statue of Cú Chulainn that Bella would one day animate. The girl only fell sick with the Plague after the raid on the shrine. Griede’s writing comes across as paranoid. He thinks they’re being manipulated, and that his “enemies” are behind it

Judging by his outfit, the figure in this painting seems to be Geist

Hey uhhhh. Yōko? How long have you been staying here that you managed to replace a ton of DeRosso paintings?

Geist’s report went through, despite Greide’s attempts to stop it. The girl was put under quarantine and banned from travel. But another man and Greide decided to change tactics to get their plundered loot back. They asked to bring the girl to Eternia so that she could get the best medical treatment available to her. So they let her travel. And at every port they stopped at on the way back, they spread the Plague. To many continents. When the sailors began to freak out, Greide poisoned everyone aboard, including the girl. He was the only survivor, returning home with perhaps not all of the loot he wanted, but certainly enough. And one year later, Denys was born. Right on the heels of his dad murdering a whole crew of people for some sick loot

(I wonder if the timeline actually works out)

So Norzen and Braev were the ones opposing Greide the most, besides the elders. Greide looked into their pasts to see what he could use to... convince them to come over to his side

So if this happened in 2379... Denys was probably born in 2380-ish. Which seems about right? Definitely not 2384 like the Final Fantasy Wikia says. That would make him younger than Agnès and I’m very sure she isn’t over 23, which is Denys’s canon age as confirmed in the Bestiary (What are you guys doing, FFWikia?)

And this is just a painting of a huge area of gravestones with ravens.

The first deaths were in Eternia. “A sleepy border village.” And now we hear what we know from Default. Braev begged the church to help his home, and in return they sealed off all roads. Quarantined the smaller villages and left them to die. The incident that sparked Braev and the Anticrystalists’ revolt against the Orthodoxy. Braev gave Norzen full authority to investigate the Plague, where Minette’s mother would eventually discover a cure, but not before the first wave had killed more than could ever be counted

On the timeline: Greide’s 4/11, 2379 journal entry mentions a woman bringing her son and claiming he was Greide’s. Since he recognized her, he figured yeah, sure. Kid’s probably his and he can’t prove otherwise. So he took her and their son Denys in. So at the very least we can confirm that Denys was born before April 11, 2379. Unfortunately, I have no idea what year this game takes place in and can’t do math, so... I still have no idea if that date checks out?

And Denys’s mother... “left them” by 5/25 2380, and Greide became engaged to who I assume is Yew’s mother just over a year after that. And, like, jeez, Denys’s mom died when he was 1 or 2 years old? The way people talk about her it sounded like she was around for longer than that

Greide pretended to be loyal to Braev’s Duchy, but was appalled by how... businesslike they treated him. Like the idea of people not groveling at his feet because of his family name was repulsive

“There has been no warning from the Eye of Foundar...” God, is the Eye a prophecy machine? Why did a shadow man have to tell me about it in the Geneolgia corpse basement?

Hah. When Greide met with DeRosso and Sage Yulyana they called his ancestor a “sickly man” and a “monster,” respectively. And for the first time in his life, Greide felt true fear, but only at the potential loss of his status

Bestiary Tiz described DeRosso as “the pretend vampire with the baritone voice” which is really all you’d ever need to know about DeRosso

And here’s a painting of a burning Crystalguard banner. Greide disbanded the Crystalguard after Braev’s successful uprising, since the church was no longer in power and Greide wanted to keep himself and his allies out of the way of the rebellion. Houses Geneolgia and Camlann destroyed any who wanted to keep the Crystalguard together. Their biggest opponent: Janne’s father. His dying words were giving custody of his son to his squire, Angard. And Nikolai watched it all. After that, he tried to reinstate the Crystalguard and get himself and Janne a place in it. And just as Nikolai explained, the now unemployed soldiers went and looted the few villages left with survivors. And the Geneolgia and Camlann families formed private armies to save their own asses by taking down the bandits that they caused

Yew’s so shaken he collapsed. Hey, someone help my boy up? He’s having a rough day and I only see it getting worse

According to the Journals, Yew cried the whole night the attack on Jerome Balestra happened. Empathetic beyond belief, even as a baby

Seems Greide at least entertained the notion of choosing Denys as his heir. He says it himself: Denys had all the courage and skills he could want in an heir, but Yew had the superior bloodline despite his seemingly lesser talent as a kid

And he dies with some unspecified “promise” left unfulfilled

...I don’t even need to examine that painting to know who that is on the left. That’s Denys. I’d recognize him anywhere

Ah, a symbolic painting. On one side we have a young Yew grasping the Sword of the Brave, with Denys behind him. On the other side is Yōko and Danzaburō mirroring the Geneolgia brothers. It’s so obvious now that Danzaburō was just Denys in a hat and with two real arms. And I think with a different voice actor, maybe?

Yōko is a different kind of being. They called her a Yōkai, but that confuses her as she is the only one of her kind she knows. Her goal is simply to achieve true growth and lift the world into a higher plane of existence. True growth? It’s looking at yourself in the most open sense and accepting all that you are. By doing so, you become truly and fully realized, able to be the person fate wanted you to be

Girl, you didn’t have to switch forms on me

“Brave the dark depths within their heart”? Is that what you tried to do at the Geyser Grotto? Show everyone the parts of themselves that they deny to try and get them to accept those flaws and grow?

Yeah, I think that’s it. And she remembered that she never looked at Edea’s heart. Yōko... is absolutely right. Edea says she defected in the last game because she was appalled by their actions, and to an extent I’m sure it’s true, but it was also a ploy to get her dad’s attention. Selfless and selfish in equal measures. So often are actions both, and all it takes is a different angle to see it

And her other secret is exactly what I called out last liveblog: she misses Ringabel more than anything, and it kills her to see all of her friends and family and even enemies pair off while her love is probably in an alternate reality, loving an alternate her. Her love is a version of a man she should never have had the ability to meet if the worlds had stayed intact. The version of a man who wouldn’t have existed without that universal fabric being breached

“And what hurts most of all, is that he chose to leave you.” He did. He left the Edea he’d journeyed with to go try and save the Edea he’d failed. Just like Alternis is probably dismayed that she loves an alternate him, Edea probably can’t help but fear that Ringabel only saw her as a temporary replacement for her alternate self

Yoko’s being so mean since I am fairly certain she knows Ringabel is here. She called him interesting at Geyser Grotto. I know she knows who he is

OHHHHHH FUCK YEAH THAT’S LOVE’S VAGRANT

EDEA QUICK CHANGE OUT OF THE RANGER OUTFIT. GET SOME GOOD CLOTHES. UNLESS HE’S INTO RABBIT GIRLS? HE PROBABLY IS, ACTUALLY

That’s my last game fav! How’s it going, ‘Bel? Good to see I correctly identified his appearances, too. Geyser Grotto, then Florem, then Caldisla

Cute hug. CUTE HUG.

I don’t know why the revelation that it’s Ringabel means anything to Yew and Magnolia. I mean, it’s basically “You thought I was Alternis, but it’s actually me, his twin who you’ve never met!” but with the added bonus of “how did you dimension hop?”

A painting of Yōko fighting unidentified warriors. Ringabel calls them the Planeswardens, the group he’s taken up working for. They... warden planes. Which is to say they defend alternate realities. According to him, Yōko only wishes to create chaos, nothing more

“Growing as a human being is about more than drudging up old fears and traumas...” God, I missed ya, Bel

And the Planeswardens have classified Yōko as an S-rank Malevolent Spirit of Concern. So she’s dangerous, though I’m willing to listen to her spiel, at least. The most she’s done so far is emotionally traumatize us, right?

She’s over 4.6 billion years old? Because that’s just how long she’s been on Luxendarc, she’s actually older than that. Do... do you people know how time works??? (Evidently not because no one in the Glanz Empire did, but still) That’s a LONG TIME, GUYS!

No. NO. Do NOT cut to Ringabel, standing alone, going “No matter what the cost, I must defeat her!” I already had one unexpected favorite dumb blond boy sacrifice himself this game, I’m not letting you do it to the other one, too!

So Ringabel and Denys for Bravely Third party when?

And according to Greide’s journals, Foundar’s dying message was basically “If you have more than one son, have them duke it out. Winner gets his inheritance, loser is either his brother’s servant or dead. That applies to every generation after me. Have fun, losers!”

“Fear the Eye of Foundar.” What IS IT. What can it DO. Do I have to worry for my boys because I’m already worrying you don’t need to make it worse

To enter Yōko’s shrine, you have to decipher Foundar’s code using the symbols carved into the walls of the crypt. And you have to do it on your own. You cannot tell anyone how. Only then can you hope to know if you are even qualified

...Greide didn’t write “Fear the Eye of Foundar.” It simply appeared in his locked journal after he deciphered Foundar’s texts

YEEEEEEEEEW I think your family’s cursed. There’s some fucked up demon magic going on here and I DON’T LIKE IT. We gotta go get Denys. Like, now. I think you’re both doomed but he’s doomed and without Celestial guidance. And also trapped with a horse

Year AO 3. I think this is from Foundar. Proposed to by the pope’s daughter, then he spoke to Yōko at her shrine, describing her as “pitiful”

The “promise” was Foundar’s to Yōko. A task he needed someone with “the vast wealth needed to support a million souls, great military strength enough to strike down a thousand political foes, and technology advanced enough to grant a hundred men hundred-year lives” for. Greide suspects that those who failed Foundar’s request for his descendants gave up on the last part, with the Eye warning them of failure

Yōko was put to sleep to contain the first Plague. If you seal her inside the girl... the Plague returns because now the girl has it

Greide what... “Well, I didn’t get an ominous demonic message on the last page, so I should be good to go on the fulfilling Foundar’s promise thing!” N... no???

So first he wanted fame. Then he wanted the “power” Yōko bestowed on Foundar that caused his meteoric good fortune and rise through the ranks. Not a single shred of selflessness, as befitting a man named “greed”

Confirmation that Yōko had the Plague sealed within her and was put to rest in the shrine to keep it from infecting Luxendarc. I see we’ve got a morally grey fox demon here. For all she tries to help, it may do more harm than good sometimes

Greide was legitimately shocked that the Origin Plague spread as the Great Plague. His decision to poison those on their ships was due to a message from the Pope claiming he wouldn’t let any potential carriers dock

The Plague had one clear physical identifier on the effected: a star-shaped pattern on the pupil. He killed anyone he saw with that mark, and apologized to both the girl and Yōko sealed within her, who Foundar had wished to save and who he had failed

God, that star mark is just... ripe for a scene of someone turning around and having it in their eye as a dramatic reveal. If it doesn’t happen in this game I feel it’ll probably happen in a potential Bravely Third

“To my sons, and my son’s sons... I leave you this message: Blame me. Hate me. And then lead the church and this world on to a path which will ultimately eradicate the Plague that the fox girl so desperately wished to contain. To my sons... To all who come after me... Fear the Eye of Foundar. But do not fear failure.” And in the end... a moment of clarity. Who is right? Yōko or Greide, two tellers with biases that are different but no less strong?

I have never felt the pull of a sequel hook so strong in my life

Oooooh hello! Tent event with Ringabel!

And after giving him coffee, Yew and Magnolia make a hasty retreat so the Default crew can get some reminiscing done

Yes. Call Agnès. Get the quartet together again

Oh fuck Alternis picked up ABORT. ABORT.

So Agnès had him take her calls while she was in the bath, and now The Dim Twins are arguing

So Ringabel saved Braev and Alternis after the Kaiser’s attack during the first timeline. Alternis, did you not recognize your own damn voice when he saved you?

“Did you say Agnès was in... the bath?” *Edea whips her head to look at Ringabel faster than I can blink* Boooooooy you’re in... hot water now

...never change, Bel. Never change.

Did Yōko eat the team’s breakfast? The monster. Now she’s done it!

I’m gonna kick her ass and become a fox demon myself!

Yōko, that’s an amazing sword. I super love it. God, the pale pink fire theme? So rad

OH HOLY SHIT. Ringabel jumps in at random points in the fight to do his special attack!? THAT’S AMAAAAAAAZING. Love’s Vagrant may as well just be the battle theme at this point and I looooooooove iiiiiiiiiit

So, hey. Game. I see you can do this? Have a guest party member during a fight? Why couldn’t you do this with Denys!? Especially during the Diamante fight! It’s like literally every boss in Chapter 6 is designed to remind you how stupid Denys’s sacrifice was!

And Yew and Yōko‘s conversation is really something. She accuses him of bearing the sins of his forefathers, and when he tries to assert that he is himself, not Foundar OR Greide, and therefore shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions, she accuses him of denying his family. And that he sounds just like all the rest of them. Full of sentiment and idealism... and ultimately just as flawed and helpless and self-serving

So, hey, first of all leave my boy alone? Yew’s doing his best and has been this whole game. He’s the sweetest kid. You are not allowed to speak to him like that. I’ll kick your ass

Second, it just really goes to show how both Yew and Denys have spent their whole lives trying to fix a problem that shouldn’t have been theirs to fix. And it goes to show what great foils they are to each other. Denys instantly took the weight of their sins on himself, accepted them as a problem he had to fix, and dedicated his life to doing so by actively denying any good that came out of their actions and trying to undo it all. Yew is the one denying that it should be his problem to fix, yet he’s the one who accepts that what happened happened and is trying to fix the problem by looking at what went wrong and what went right and trying to smooth out the rough edges. It’s an interesting dichotomy of the acceptance-denial theme present in the narrative, where you could say that Yew’s denial led to a form of acceptance, and that Denys’s initial acceptance led to a form of denial that later had to be worked back into acceptance, but a less extreme kind

I LOVE YOU RINGABEL

God, he’s going, like, every turn! He’s using every weapon in the book! THIS MAN IS UNSTOPPABLE

Man, and a boss that doesn’t revive? I love this quest

And changing jobs back, I see we’ve unlocked something I’ve known about for a while: Job Level 11, the hidden level. 9999 JP? That’s actually not an awful requirement

The final truth. The song of Altair is playing (and his bestiary entry has him mention that Yōko is familiar). One day, two people appeared on a glimmering ship, travelers from another world. Yōko aided them, as they looked for a way back to their own world. But a disease from their world that they had been studying in their ship’s lab escaped, and mixed with a disease from Luxendarc to create the Plague. Yōko feared for the people of this world that she loved, so she sealed the Plague inside herself and then sealed herself away, so that none could get sick again. People began to worship her as a god and built her a shrine, until eventually they, too, fell (I imagine this is Wa, the nation that sank beneath the sea eons ago, mentioned in various weapon notes, most notably katanas and other Japanese weaponry. It would explain the Japanese aesthetic of Yōko). 2400 years ago, the subject of our final painting (maybe? Nice mustache either way), Foundar, found her (..heh) and promised that while he didn’t have the means to help her, one day he would have one of his descendants free her from the Plague and her self-imposed imprisonment. Greide sealed her inside the girl to transport her to Gathelatio so that they could use their medical equipment to cure her... and we all know how that ended. It all destroyed any sense of goodness and love left within Greide, the would-be savior of a doomed spirit whose overconfidence led to a Plague that destroyed half of his world’s people

Hey, somebody hug my crying boy? Somebody hug Yew for me? Please? ...please?

Yōko is grateful to both Foundar and Greide. Foundar couldn’t save her, but could inform her that an old friend of hers was safe. Greide freed her, and even though he killed her host and left them beneath the sea, he did help end the Plague as she always wanted

Yew doesn’t even have anything to say. It’s his turn to shape the future? It is. But I know he’s gonna make it a better place

And Ringabel has to go. He wasn’t even supposed to let us know it was him; his superiors forbid it. But Yōko essentially turned this castle into a pocket-dimension that she regulates, so he figured he could reveal himself without his bosses knowing

“Edea, I never left you and I never will. Wherever... whenever you are in peril, there I will be!” ...Edea has died more than anyone else in my party, to the point where she’s a full half a level down from everyone else, even in the mid-70s. You’re sweet, but you’re doing a terrible job, pal

And to Magnolia, a job: with Yōko gone, there isn’t anyone to hold her Sins back, and they have been unleashed. (Dark summons!) No one knows fighting unearthly demons like Magnolia!

And his request to Tiz: tell Agnès he says hi. She’s the only friend he never got to see again (thanks, Alternis)

Wow, way to just warp out in a flash of light. Later, ass! You couldn’t just escort us to the door? (Trash fav)

WOW that was a dense quest. Goodness. And it’s still technically not done! I’ve got Sins to snag! But holy shit, why couldn’t the other sidequests in the game be like this? I mean, there was plot relevance! Character focus! Backstory! I’m so glad the Chapter 6 quests managed to be so good, it’s just a shame there weren’t more of them!

So the Adventurer’s fox opened a high level magic shop and... taaaaalks? This isn’t Persona 4, why is there an entrepreneurial fox here?

Hey, you shadowy DICK. What’s the Eye of Foundar!? I read the notes, fess up! Do I have to start worrying for my two favorite boys or what!?

And now he says nothing. Cool. Thanks. If anything happens to Yew or Denys I’m coming after you first

(So I think the reason my 3DS screen goes black when I put it down sometimes is because I’m putting it down on on my computer, where there’s magnets to keep it closed when I fold the screen down)

Ooooooooh looking for the Sins I found the hidden village of Chompshire in the Yulyana region. That’s what that owl guy meant during the Grandship quest

I mean it’s really pretty. Seems like an easily missable area unless you’re going for completion. Not bad, just not super important

So let’s get this show on the road and see what these sins are all about, huh?

The first sin is Asmodeus, the embodiment of lust. I mean it’s freaking sick looking? Like a floating cloak with a bunch of snake heads? There’s a blood moon rising in the background. And the battle theme rocks. I mean that literally, we have wailing guitars and some riff that sound like old-school Final Fantasy songs. Which, I mean, I guess that makes sense, since I think these guys are supposed to be cameos from Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (I have a friend who played that game a lot). The Adventurer’s a cameo, too, since Bravely was originally envisioned as a spiritual sequel to that game. Neat trivia

Okay??? It can imprison people in the Infernal Realm??? Not my boy! Bring Yew back!

Hey, he did. Thanks, you demonic monstrosity!

Guys, you look winded. That fight wasn’t that bad. Bit worrying, I guess, what with the Infernal Realm nonsense, but not awful

Sin 2 is Beelzebub, the manifestation of gluttony. I honestly have no idea how Magnolia knows what these guys are and their names, but whatever. It’s a head wearing a crown with some squid tentacles. The sky is red. He’s classified as a bug? Do enough damage while it’s in Gluttony mode (all attacks heal instead of hurt) and it dies instantly. Which is what I did. Later, doofus!

Next up is Mammon, the being of avarice (aka greed for non-pretentious folks). It’s a chick with wings, fox-like ears, and four, clawed arms coming out of her back. Her Avarice attack lets her steal the whole party’s BP, so it’s a bit of a waiting game at times.

Died the first time after getting very close and then getting wiped, level grinded everything to max in between then and the second time. I don’t forsee any more combat deaths, I’ll tell you that much

Oh, it’s a “he” according to the Bestiary? Alright.

And now we have Belphegor, a creature of sloth. And... hey, I thought I recognized this guy when fighting Yōko! It’s a weird furry guy sitting in a wheelchair. I fought this guy as a Norende Nemesis last game! He was one of the few I did. How do you like us now, man?

Okay, scratch that “no combat problems” thing this asshole absorbs anything that isn’t magic of the specific element he’s weak to. Yew? Darling boy of mine? Think you can Spellcraft Summon him into oblivion?

Atta boy

Well kids, let’s go kill Satan, the manifestation of wrath. With all the ranting I do sometimes, you guys sure I’m not the manifestation of wrath? I will say, this is probably the coolest depiction of a wrath-based foe I’ve ever seen? I mean, it’s a buff guy with four arms each holding swords, a torn black cloak, and his head doubles as a helmet and a full blown furnace! No wonder we’re fighting him near the Eisen volcano, he fits right in!

I looooooooooove Meteor Raiiiiiiiiiiin

And on to Leviathan, the manifestation of envy. AKA a bunch of wiggly serpents that go offscreen. Joke’s on you, jackass. I have Yew Geneolgia, destroyer of all on my side. Boy’s a terrifying spellcaster now

See, this is what happens when you let Yew do what comes easily to him instead of trying to make him be a swordsman like his brother. He becomes THE MOST POWERFUL BOY

Guess he had a turtle shell head? I dunno, he died too fast

And for the last one, no one’s surprised by their appearances anymore. Heck, the team’s enjoying it! It’s Lucifer, the manifestation of pride. Guy took the “fallen angel” thing and ran with it. It’s a suit of armor with a double angel wing on one side and a feathery sword-wielding arm on the other. And a dog head on its belly that bites? A’ight, man, you do you

I love my powerful magic son

And it seems Yōko’s left Yew a note thanking him. Good! You’d better thank Yew, specifically, because he did all the work!

That was an interesting sidequest... related thing? I will say, the most interesting part of it is the Bestiary entries, which take the real-world stories of these demons and comes up with Luxendarc analogues for the stories. It paints a really interesting picture of their world, but other than the references to real-world religious figures I don’t have much to say about it

Okay, I know Agnès’s hint line of “Yew... where are you going!?” is supposed to be referencing the fact that he shouldn’t know where Anne is and the player does, but considering that since we left Caldisla we’ve:

Trekked down to Vampire Castle and hung out there for a long while for seemingly no reason to an outsider

Flown across the world, stopping at various points to fight high-ranking demons in no particular order

Walked around in circles in Florem Gardens for, like, 10 or 15 hours to level grind (and bounced around to various shops to blow off the excess cash)

And gone in for a few last-minute Bestiary entries that I knew the locations of

I mean... it’s a valid question. Like, from her perspective we probably look completely insane. Or, since it’s Agnès, like we’re just as directionally challenged as she is. I didn’t do anything here I didn’t do with you last game, Agnès, but I promise. Next time...

We’re gonna go save Vega.

#bravely default #bravely second #liz liveblogs bravely second #denys may be gone from the narrative but he lives on in a dozen admonishments in the liveblog

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lvnarstcne-blog · 6 years

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hey there demons! it’s me, ya trashcan. aka sam, she / her, 21, est timezone and i’m super excited to be here! i love rps like this and i love music so?? hopefully we’ll all have a great time writing together! under the cut you’ll find some info about luna aka ur local weirdo, so feel free to check that out and send me a message if you’d like to plot!

「 LINDSEY MORGAN, CIS FEMALE, TWENTY - SIX, PARAMORE. 」┈ did you read that latest viral gossip issue on LUNA AIZA? she is the LEAD GUITARIST in BETTER NOW, one of my favorite ALT ROCK groups. they’ve been releasing music for FOUR YEARS now, but viral gossip has only been talking about them for the last TWO YEARS. get this, i think i heard SHE’S BEEN HAVING PROBLEMS WITH HER BAND’S RECORD LABEL. they’re known as the FEY of the music industry, since they have a rep for being PERSPICACIOUS but SCATTERBRAINED, but who knows. maybe that will change once they become #1.

first off.......luna?? definitely not her real name but shhhh

born in mexico and raised by her maternal grandparents. they were always very good to her and took the best care of her that they could. the three moved to swamplands of louisiana when she was still very young and luna always loved it there.

( so she’s fluent in english, spanish, and cajun french )

luna’s always been a free spirit and has this very otherworldly energy to her. her grandmother is a psychic & a witch and luna absolutely believes she has the same abilities. she’ll do tarot readings for you, ask you if you’re doing okay because wow your aura is a very strange color today is something wrong, randomly tell you that your house is haunted and she can see the spirit standing right behind you what do you mean you can’t see it too??

scatterbrained af, constantly in her own world and would lose her own head if it wasn’t attached to her body

if you’ve ever seen ahs coven, her aesthetic is basically misty day’s aesthetic — flowy and soft but dark and a little wild

has trouble staying focused on literally everything for more than five minutes....except for music. it’s basically the one thing she’s latched onto that keeps her connected to the world bc otherwise she’s just up in the clouds by herself.

she and her grandmother moved from louisiana to california when luna was sixteen ( after her grandfather died ) and she’s been living there ever since. she dropped out of school upon moving to california, choosing instead to live and work at her grandmother’s new psychic office with the older woman. it was also around this time that she got a more serious interest in music, eventually saving up enough money to buy her first electric guitar from just about the sketchiest pawn shop in los angeles.

played all genres of music and was actually in a couple other bands before joining better now ( tbh most of the other bands probably kicked her out for being a weird forgetful flake ). they were just playing in bars before raleigh stumbled upon them, and after the departure of their former lead singer, they eventually hit it big with their first album and are currently working on their second!

luna loves being in the band and she loves her bandmates. some people might write her off as being completely out of it all the time, but she’s actually very perceptive and tends to understand people quite well. she knows raleigh can be difficult to work with, but she’s a pretty patient person. better now’s record label, however, seems to be trying to test just how patient she really is.

( hint: they’re really about to make the most chill person ever LOSE THEIR DAMN TEMPER )

basically.........they wanna change her image. they think she’s too weird even for the alt rock music scene and luna is very stubborn and independent and is one of those people who is 100% always like be yourself!!

but she’s also very compassionate & a total bleeding heart.......thus, she’s fake dating christian kelley. they’ve known each other and have been friendly for a while, and at some point christian asked her if she could pretend to be dating him out in public just to be safe because his father would cut him off financially aka ruin him if he came out as bisexual to the public. she agreed and goes with it even though she’s constantly trying to encourage christian to have the strength to be himself and blahblahblah no one cares luna. it’s not a very well kept secret anyway?? like, ok luna is really bad at secrets bc she’s ridiculously blunt so don’t tell her something unless you want literally everyone & anyone to know about it

i’m not kidding she’d tell the barista at starbucks her entire life story without hesitation

anyway, the thing with christian is 100% a pr relationship and while the general public doesn’t know that, most anyone who actually knows either of them is very aware that they’re actually just friends

this is getting way too long so........lightning round!! she’s very perceptive and good at reading people even though she doesn’t seem like she’s be that way, is also very scatterbrained and very likely to forget where she put her fuckin guitar 2 ( two ) minutes before she’s about to go on stage, trusts her bandmates very much, is an rl animal whisperer, loves the dark witch aesthetic, usually pretty chill, will go off on random tangents in the middle of conversations for no actual reason, pansexual af and proud of it, extremely easily distracted except for when music is involved

tldr; she’s your resident swamp witch flower child who’s forgetful af and constantly fighting with her band’s record label because they’re constantly trying to change her image

this is needlessly long and there’s probably still stuff i’m forgetting, but i’m still trying to get everything together! i have no specific wanted connections listed anywhere bc tbh i want all the things?? seriously i’m down for anything so please feel free to message me for plots! i’m v excited to write with you all!

#viral:intro #this is...A Mess™ but hello! i'm excited to be here~

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brianwilly · 6 years

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I'd like to talk about Call Me By Your Name for bit.

If you're not aware -- and I gotta say I'm kinda envious if you're not -- there's been a wee bit of discourse surrounding this film. Not an overwhelming amount, and even then thankfully very little of which has reached mine dashboards, obviously because everyone I follow is such a boss! or whatever

But it’s still there, and because I’m such a nosy prick who lives in tags, I’ve had the opportunity to glean a lot of the dispute on both ends. And so, I’d like to talk about it, this thing that...by essence is going to be very controversial to try to talk about. Especially on here, this site so known for being so very, ah, passionate and implacable about the issues it has taken to heart, mostly for the good, sometimes less so.

Specifically, for anyone still unaware, the issue is that the film’s story is about a romance between a seventeen year-old boy and a twenty-four year-old grad student who visits his house for the summer.

And the first thing I'd say, which is what most people would also probably say first, is to please watch the film (or read the book) before forming any strong proclamations about it one way or another. And try not to watch it with a...miserly eye, being on the constant alert for any ammo you can use to fuel whatever blog post you're gonna write after the fact. I've done this myself before, and it's an inept, feeble method of critique; confirmation bias is a thing that exists, and if you're going in with the sole intent of finding every bit of toxicity and harmfulness you can in this storyline, then that's truly all you'll end up finding. Instead, try to watch it for the simple fact of watching a story unfold, of wanting to know what happens, of allowing yourself to experience what these filmmakers and actors are trying to convey. After which, if you still dislike what you've seen? At least you'll be better able to articulate why without having to rely solely on sound and fury. And then you can call the cops on me, ‘cuz they’ll obviously prefer well-reasoned allegations of pedophilia-apologism as opposed to half-baked ones!

The next thing I say is going to be a bit of a...melodramatic diatribe about queer experiences. Bear with, please.

When you're a queer person living in certain situations -- whether you're a child, teenager, or adult -- much of your entire identity is based on the need for repression, for secrecy, for hiding. Every bit of affection, desire, or attachment you have to someone of the same gender, which is something that'll happen near every day of your life, is something else you'll have to learn to smother. Everything about what you're feeling is confusing and yet you don't believe for a second that there is anyone you can trust to share these confusions with or to experience these desires with. This pain of repression and confusion is something that the film version of CMBYN does hint at, but that the original book actually explores in broad, vivid detail, some of which I'm going to quote mostly verbatim for just how truthfully it paints these anxieties.

"What never crossed my mind was [...] that someone else in my immediate world might like what I liked, want what I wanted, be who I was. It would never have entered my mind because I was still under the illusion that, barring what I’d read in books, inferred from rumors, and overheard in bawdy talk all over, no one my age had ever wanted to be both man and woman— with men and women. I had wanted other men my age before and had slept with women. But before he’d stepped out of the cab and walked into our home, it would never have seemed remotely possible that someone so thoroughly okay with himself might want me to share his body as much as I ached to yield up mine." *** "Perhaps the very least I wanted was for him to tell me that there was nothing wrong with me, that I was no less human than any other young man my age. I would have been satisfied and asked for nothing else than if he’d bent down and picked up the dignity I could so effortlessly have thrown at his feet." *** "They worried for me. I knew they were right to worry. I just hoped they’d never know how far things stood beyond their ordinary worries now. I knew they didn’t suspect a thing, and it bothered me— though I wouldn’t have wanted it otherwise. It told me that if I were no longer transparent and could disguise so much of my life, then I was finally safe from them, and from him— but at what price, and did I want to be so safe from anyone?

There was no one to speak to. Whom could I tell? Mafalda? She’d leave the house. My aunt? She’d probably tell everyone. Marzia, Chiara, my friends? They’d desert me in a second. My cousins when they came? Never. My father held the most liberal views— but on this? Who else? Write to one of my teachers? See a doctor? Say I needed a shrink? Tell Oliver?

Tell Oliver. There is no one else to tell, Oliver, so I’m afraid it’s going to have to be you…" *** "[...] another part of me knew that if he showed up tonight and I disliked the start of whatever was in store for me, I’d still go through with it, go with it all the way, because better to find out once and for all than to spend the rest of the summer, or my life perhaps, arguing with my body."

Now, I'm not saying this stuff to grind for sympathy points or to be needlessly depressing, and I should probably sidebar here to make it clear that, in spite of the quoted passages above, neither the film or the book are as remotely fixated on these sorts of oppressive life experiences as it might seem; quite the opposite, in many ways. But I'm still saying this stuff to contextualize a lot of peoples' mindsets and experiences going into a story like this, and of the social foundations from which this story was conceived. Because the fact remains that when you're a queer person living in certain situations, this repression and confusion is your reality as you know it.

And this sort of reality...a disease, really...is something that will eat away at you day after day, week after week, month after month after year. This is the sort of toxicity that can actually scar someone's identity, if not ruin them outright. And as for romance? It's not even just a matter of your options being limited, it's as drastic as you never being able to show your affections, and no one will ever return those affections even if you show it, and you'll probably never be able to tell anyone any of this. It's not simply a matter of not having someone in town that you can get your rocks off with, it is a matter of having to hide so many important parts of yourself, a matter of feeling so alone in many of the ways that matter most. And none of that is even going into the shame you feel in yourself, in your own body, for just being wrong somehow.

Queer Tumblr is such a place of liberation and celebration for the most part, and that's a good thing, but I feel like it's easy to forget that this liberation and celebration comes about specifically as a shelter against the repression and shame out there in our real lifetimes. And I feel like we can be so fiercely, indiscriminately protective of our younger generations -- precisely because there is so much genuine danger out there to have to protect them from -- that we might miss the danger in seeing only danger and scandal and malice where there might instead be something important and cathartic and affirming in this story for anyone -- queer or straight, young or old -- to experience.

Bluntly: I'm not saying that seventeen year-olds should be pursuing twenty-four year-olds, and certainly not vice-versa. But given all that above, is it really so difficult to imagine why many viewers might not be so quick to disapprove of the relationship depicted in CMBYN? Is it so hard to imagine why it is not so vile or perverse for a seventeen year-old to have someone who understands his loneliness and alienation to assuage those vicious anxieties? That this seventeen year-old deserves the chance to explore and express his identity with someone in a caring, compassionate manner? That any sort of inherent harm that a difference of seven years might potentially do them might indeed be more than balanced out by the virtues of getting to experience the sort of love and companionship that only comes from total honesty and understanding between partners...something that they as queer people in their situation might have never thought possible. That the freedom to love and be loved in this safety of this validation is a gift and not an onus. That the appeal of this story is not about how cool or sexy it is for seventeen year-olds to be sleeping with twenty-four year-olds, but about how both of these boys -- and by inference every boy like them, every girl like them -- deserve the chance to not be repressed, to not be shamed.

And if I may be a bit of an asshole for a second. I look at the culture of Tumblr and I am persistently inundated with favored pairings that are born out of animosity, out of antagonism and toxicity if not outright violence. I have seen so many instances of fictional characters wholesale harming other characters both physically and verbally and having those things be called romantic by scores of thousands of likes and reblogs. Look up maybe any fandom in the search bar and chances are good that some of the most popular pairings are gonna be the ones most shrouded in dysfunctionality. Heck...even the ones that are ostensibly "the good examples" of healthy functional vanilla romances tend to be constantly punctuated by stretches of jealousy or dishonesty or manipulativeness or other such sorts of crass relationship issues in order to drive drama. So many creators' ideas of what make a fictional relationship appealing -- or even a non-fictional one -- often feel like trying to air all the dirtiest laundry you can find in that household and calling that romance. And let's not even venture for now into the dark boiling abyss that is the queerbaiting issue.

Now...'nother sidebar...I'm not saying that the romance of CMBYN is a perfect one; there are certainly issues of insecurities and miscommunications that afflict this relationship as well, and all that these sorts of things entail. I also don't wanna blow this whole film out of the water like it's some sort of immaculate remedy to all the ills of film and literature and the evils of the world or whatever, which is just gonna lead to disappointment if you do watch it. I definitely do not want to undermine anyone’s legitimate concerns over the issues inherent in age-gap relationships. Liberation is nice, naiveté is not.

But, again...is it really so difficult to imagine how people can look at this story, borne so thoroughly out of care and validation and respect between two people for whom those things are not readily-available, and be engaged by its content instead of repulsed by it, finding it vastly preferable to what usually passes for steamy pairings nowadays? Is it so unbelievable for people to be engaged by the goodness depicted in Elio and Oliver's courtship with each other, to not throw complaints of harmfulness and toxicity at something so marked by its distinct lack of harm, even with the seven years’ difference between them?

I'm not saying that seventeen year-olds should be pursuing twenty-four year-olds and vice versa.

But man, do I ever wish that more stories ought to be taking more cues from the way that this one does it.

#Call Me By Your Name #CMBYN #André Aciman #Timothée Chalamet #Armie Hammer #Luca Guadagnino #and so on #and so forth #long post #REALLY long post goddamn #Overthinking #LGBT #stuffs and things

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bugbearjack · 5 years

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Day IV: Day Harder

I did a bit better last night. Only a page or so, but its progress. Ironically enough it wasn't writer's block that cut me short. I actually forgot a lot of the dialog that took place during that session. I remember the outcome, but not the details of the important beats. Which sucks for me because I remember it being a great scene, with lots of tension. Plus, as I mentioned before, it was a great evolution for the kitty cat character because when we first meet him, he's just a mess. Wise cracking, catnip smoking, needlessly cartwheeling shit head. Now he is an interim council person. And he's slaying it.

So I reached out to the person who plays the character, Meffrey. Yes, to see if he could remember more of the details (he didn't), but also because I clearly remember him saying that he didn't really get across all of the things he wanted to say in the moment. So I wanted to give him the opportunity to get that out now. Besides I'm not going to be able to make this story a direct transcript of what happens in our gaming sessions. Some parts are boring, or are just unnecessary for the reader. Other parts I just want/need to inject my own will on the story.

For example. Currently my players are in this cast underwater research facility. It has almost a dozen floors reaching down towards the bottom of the sea. Encased in Ice on one of the lowest levels is an ancient sea creature that can read your thoughts, pluck out your desires, and use them against you. So I left many little subtle clues in the rooms leading down. Plus I had these great scenes planned out for each character where they would walk into a room and see visions, supplanted by the beast, bringing out their worst fears. Really creepy stuff that would add an element of suspense and (hopefully) fear in the players.

However…. Anyone who has been a dungeon master for more than 5 minutes knows that your players will always find a way to derail your best laid plans. In my case, these Mother F'ers found a maintenance hatch. As a result of some clever use of skills and spells, were able to circumvent THE WHOLE GOD DAMNED THING, and went right to the bottom of the facility. I mean, I can't really be mad at them. I'm not the kind of DM that would punish them for good planning just because they didn't get to see the cool thing I wrote. Yes I'm a little but hurt, but it happens.

But now I am in full control. And you can bet your sweet ass that this time these jokers will be going through the facility the long way. AS THEY SHOULD HAVE. No, I'm not bitter. Why do you ask?

Ok rant over. Where was I? Ah yes. So Meffrey and I had a short chat which garnered no progress in my quest to remember shit that happened two months ago. I have recap notes, but it's not enough. So new thing I learned today: If you are going to make a novel out of your gaming session, keep better notes.

This is my fourth day in a row chronicling my attempt to write this book. While that’s better than I thought I would do, the strangest thing is happening. The more I do this, the more I get the feeling that I am going to give up on it. I keep wanting to say "I can skip one day". We all know how that goes right? If I skip one day, a second day is no big deal. Etc etc. When I first tread that blog that told me to write everyday I was all like "Heck yeah!" Then I came down off that initial surge of motivation you get when you start a project. I was more like "OK, you don't need to write EVERY day. Just stick with it on a semi-regular basis." I'm pretty sure that won't work though. If I don't discipline myself, it will never get done.

I did some thinking, which was super difficult as there is no shower here at work. I will likely skip the second council meeting for now. Wait for either Meffrey or myself to have a flash of inspiration on the subject. I think I’m going to try and push through the block I had earlier and get these yahoos to the thing. I can't avoid it forever. I need to treat it as something to do in order to be rewarded with scenes I do want to write. Like eating my dinner so I can have my ice cream after.

I’ve been mentally assembling a group of story testers. They say you should have a few people that you can send your first or second draft to in order to get feedback. They should be someone you know and trust but who wont just say “it’s great”. Meffrey is obviously on the list. My wife will be as well, though I fear she may lean more towards the “it’s great” club. My father will be on the list as well. Yes this book will be geared towards to fantasy loving crowd. But if I can write in a way that even my father can understand my worgs and druids and kobolds and whatever I am going to change warforged into (copyright Wizards of the coast inc), then that would be awesome.

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qanoor · 7 years

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oh great, now I've gone and gotten triggered again about pedophilia / ephebophilia / minors and consent to sexuality / minors in sexual fantasy thing again. I really should just not read certain kinds of csa posts (largely white & western-oriented) sometimes. I don't know. It's so frustrating, this endless thing where people decide that, for example, 16 and 17 year olds are just never capable of consenting to sexual interactions with adults, or that adults who have these encounters are definitely predators.... besides the obvious arbitrariness of the minor / adult distinction, it's just. I don't know. it seems like a lot of abuse survivors cling to certain generalized notions of what counts as "predatory behavior" in order to legitimize and validate their experiences? ugh. like i get it but it’s such a harmful ideology

I'm exhausted by this, and I do feel that it is a kind of violence to have to obsessive-compulsively go over every possible thought I could ever have to the point that I have too much anxiety to even be around kids and teenagers most of the time -- this perseveration, this proliferation of intrusive thoughts and ideas at the level of bodily feeling (I still don't know if the way I immediately wonder if I'm feeling aroused, in a very bodily sense, and the sense of -- am I feeling this arousal, what does it mean, is it arousal or hyperfixation on genital feeling or what! -- when I have an intrusive sexual or violent thought about a kid is some kind of bodily learned anxious response to any kind of sexual thought like my therapist seems to think or if it really is evidence of pedophilia or, worse, predatory desire -- the two *are* different).

And I don't think I would have developed the intense OCD I have around this stuff if the world wasn't so fucked up around issues of desire and age, if there wasn't such an automatic conflation of pedophile/ephebophile and child molester, if norms around child/bodily/mind development weren't so oppressively universalized, if the arbitrary minor/adult distinction wasn't so terrifyingly upheld to the suppression of youth rights.... I'm so exhausted -- this constant contemplation over whether my body is diseased in some sick, deviant beyond deviant way, this constant fear that I will never get over my anxiety about being around minors and kids, that I will forever just seclude myself off for the most part, well, not extremely, but more or less, that I will never trust myself to have kids or care for kids, that I will always return to the stereotypical "what if I put my baby in the microwave" type of OCD fear and be like, in my mind, "I'll raise you one further," always make it worse, worse, always imagine sexually and otherwise violent carnage in my head worse worse worse,

and I am so angry that this world -- that I have learned to treat my every thought, my previous writings, even sexual fantasies I had as a younger person while masturbating that I may still have, as occasion for scrutiny, as heresy -- I don't know. I'm perseverating right now over how the last time I masturbated I kept chasing away thoughts about a story I read that had a fourteen year old in it exploring his sexuality in a slightly typical and cringeworthy teenage-guy way (but it was also a bit subversive) and I was worried about being aroused from that and then I had this thought of "well what if I just imagined him older" and I was like, no that's not good enough, that's a really creepy thing still!!! and worrying about how true it could have been or not been to the author's experience, chase these thoughts away away, and then returning to some staple fantasies in my stories in my head I've had that did involve a sixteen year old girl who was also kind of a version of myself but then she was fourteen in one story and then, like, no, sixteen is the youngest I'd permit myself to still fantasize about, and still, even so, even past orgasm, worrying that this is wrong (for that matter; is it wrong to fantasize while masturbating about sexual experiences I had as a teenager??! or my exes who I knew when we were teenagers??)

I could go on about this a lot, and I do, and I have, and there's the whole "fantasize about whatever you want; fantasy isn't the same as what you actually do" camp but then I'm like, what if that's close to child porn or something, and then, no, of course not, fantasy in one's head is just not the same as consuming media about (that is participating in and perpetuating) the sexual abuse of children, even fantasy that one writes (or even draws) about children is not the same as child porn that abuses actual children, but I'm always worried about the slippery slope, what if one thing leads to the other, what if I'm actually a pedophile or ephebophile (and this here is about stigma, about not wanting to be that which is abject, even if it is not actually abusive, even if desire is not the same as violence), and my therapist saying it seems like I worry about all of this a lot but don't seem to actually experience pedophilic desire (and this is probably true; I don't think I really do -- even when I fantasize about teenagers, and usually fictional teenagers, it is those who are quite past puberty -- although this makes me worried about when I have found actual teenagers attractive, and my therapist saying -- within a normatively age-dependent sexual framework, as opposed to pedophilia etc -- it makes sense to find bodily developed teenagers attractive when they really don't look much different from adults, and the thoughts I chase away chase away chase away the fantasies I don't allow the intrusive thoughts that make me stop masturbating or do I just make that happen? the fear that I must stop or change or chase away otherwise it's real, I am a predator) ah, the on and on of it.

I don't know how to escape -- and at the end of it all, there's a part of me that's just like, here I am, a twenty six year old queer femme complicated survivor, feeling guilty for much of my life for thoughts and ideas and impulses I don't carry out, for yes fantasies too, for stories I have written that involved dubious consensual sexuality at times, or large age gaps, when I didn't grow up with the cultural rabidity around age difference that -- I mean, to some extent yes but also no, and so much informed by my own crushes, and now as an adult, this idea that one should -- what, create some kind of artificial "cutting off" of all that one has been and fantasized about, the same OCD fear again that a thought itself, and especially a pleasurable thought in any way, that an activity that doesn't actually harm anyone *could* somehow... and just imagine all the fucking assholes in the social justice world who'd be after me now! if.... and I worry, every time, each time, that it is wrong, I am wrong, and still -- I don't know, I lose memory or grasp every time of -- and I don't know how to talk about this fully and coherently enough --

and I don't know, I have definitely done things with sexuality that I wouldn't do again or that I would do differently, such as being verbally/emotionally sexually pressuring or harassing in some cases of partners or friends I had unrequited feelings for. and, years ago, or before I got more caught up in the murky (non)consent of this, secretly (??) masturbating in the same room as roommates when I hoped they were asleep (and I do still have a lot of complicated feelings about this as a general thing, which I could go on about too, but I wouldn’t and haven’t done it in years because I worry a lot and don’t feel okay about it), and oh god that time in the same room as my mother while she was busy, and I hope not other times with my parents in the same room but I can't remember. and sometimes I feel the need to catalogue every fucking thing and I can't remember everything and -- I sometimes try to have some compassion for my past selves, like realizing that I had a lot to learn about how to be clearer about consent (but I should have! known, or -- I don’t know, cultural complexities, and being at war with it here there everywhere, and the excuse that that can turn into, and is it an excuse here? I just don’t know! I--), or also realizing that I have been quick to ‘exaggerate’ (perhaps) my mistakes and perpetrations, but then worrying that what if I’m actually under-exaggerating, I just don’t know I don’t know, and -- sometimes I wish I could remember every single fantasy I have ever masturbated to so I could list them in various degrees of culpability and shame, for I have gotten off to things in my head, or erotic stories, that I wouldn't really endorse -- and this whole endless question of age in fantasy -- I don't know I don't know I don't know I do think the (particularly) western & western-influenced social justice world is cruelly and needlessly hypervigilant, endlessly mired in scrupulosity and punitive surveillance, and I used to buy so much into it & I still do -- I am afraid of the abjection beyond abjection, that I am it -- and I don't know, I still -- and I'm sorry if I -- am wrong -- and this is one of the main reasons why masturbation and sexuality are so fucking hard for me, it's difficult when your brain is a constant fucking bomb of intrusion?!?!?!

as always, if anyone does think all of this points to my being predatory in some way, please just tell me, i would rather know than not know, please don’t spare any details

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skellylicious · 7 years

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Sasster Snippet

I’m seriously so high right now. Uh if you guys wanna see the first four pages of the story I’m writing where Sasster is kidnapped, here it is. *whispers* I’m so high...

@stealthnerd I’m so high.

The door slammed solidly behind him, the hard clunk of a metal bolt sliding into place further deepening his misgivings. Had he really just been kidnapped by what appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, two alternate versions of himself? Oh, he had suspected for some time that alternate timelines must exist, including copies of himself and the monsters he knew, but to have it confirmed shortly before being abducted was a difficult thing to wrap his brain around. And where was he? He had been roughly carried, manhandled really, before being ripped through the void, appearing in what seemed to be a large home or mansion of some kind in a secluded forest. There was no way of telling if he was still in his own timeline, let alone where he was geographically.

A faint rustle of fabric behind him alerted him to the presence of another, and he rapidly turned, coming face to face with a rumpled, sleepy human girl. She was dressed in a nightgown, tucked under several soft looking blankets on a queen-sized bed. Had they really locked him in some human’s bedroom? Feeling all too much like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, he paused, reluctantly meeting the gaze of the girl. She seemed unsurprised to see him, and he wondered whether she had been aware of the apparent plans to abduct him, and was in league with the two monsters who had left him here, before remembering the lock on the door. Perhaps she was a prisoner as well.

“Are you going to do something, or can I go back to sleep?” she asked rather abruptly, startling him out of his thoughts. Her hair was mussed, and there was a decidedly grumpy expression on her face, he realized belatedly.

“Do something…?” he inquired with confusion, lifting his broad shoulders in a slight shrug. Was she expecting him to rescue her? He was hardly in a situation to be doing favors for other people.

“Yeah, like are you going to take off your clothes and bend me over the bed?” Her face was unreadable, her tone impatient.

He stared at her, quite certain he had misheard. “I don’t even know you, do you make offers like this to every stranger you meet?” She startled him by laughing, tossing her hair back out of her eyes as she sat up, propping her back against the headboard. “It wasn’t an offer, it was a question. Who are you, anyway?”

This was very unsettling. He had intended to demand answers himself, yet here he was being questioned by a human who had some very interesting expectations that he had very mixed feelings about. “And who are you?” he responded, determined to take control of the situation as much as he could. This human wasn’t the slightest bit intimidating, but she also didn’t seem to be intimidated by him, which was...unusual.

She grimaced, pulling the covers up to her chest and folding her arms. “Spot.” Whatever he had expected, it hadn’t been that. “Your name...is Spot?” he said finally, after a long pause in which he attempted to determine whether she was being serious. The slightly mocking smile on her face told him she recognized the ridiculousness of her answer, which in turn told him nothing of whether she teasing him or in earnest.

“My name is Spot,” she repeated solemnly, mirroring his earlier shrug. “I had a name before that, but I don’t remember it anymore. Spot is the name they gave me.” Ah. A fellow prisoner indeed. Well, quid pro quo, he decided. “My name is Gaster.”

She frowned at him. “How many of you are there?” Ah, perhaps not as ignorant as most humans he’d come across. “I haven’t the slightest idea,” he replied with a small shrug. It really wasn’t important anyway, and he certainly had more pressing matters to consider right now. There was a window in the room, and he examined it cautiously, briefly ignoring the girl, who had now gotten out of bed and was standing beside him.

“That’s locked too,” she commented, rather to his annoyance. “And I’m pretty sure G has installed alarms since the last time someone broke in here.”

“People actually break into this place?” He couldn’t begin to fathom why. While the home itself was certainly charming and well kept, the occupants were decidedly unsavory, save for the girl, who while not dangerous, was not particularly interesting either. She smiled grimly, clearly ruminating on some unpleasant memory, and shrugged. “Just the one time. Didn’t go too well for them.” He assumed she meant the burglars, and didn’t inquire further. Maybe if he didn’t encourage her, she wouldn’t talk quite so much.

A brief silence followed, where she perched on the edge of the bed, watching him methodically pace and examine the rest of the room. Clean, expensively furnished, and deceptively secure, he finally decided with a tinge of despair. He finally turned back to ‘Spot,’ and she tilted her head, as if reaching a decision. “If you want,” she said hesitantly, not moving from her place on the bed, “You can sleep on the bed. But only if you stay on your side, and no weird stuff.” He could only imagine what she meant by that, and tried not to.

“Unlike some, I don’t have boundary issues,” he grumbled, recalling with distaste how easily the taller monster had slung him over his shoulder. She chuckled at that, and he liked her a little better for it. The bed was certainly large enough to contain them both without any awkwardness, beyond the fact that he was sharing a bed with a human to begin with. If he couldn’t escape, rest was the most logical step to take next. He was surprised to find that he was tired, exhausted actually, but wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep at all. Still, there was nothing to be lost by trying, and it he was more or less obliged to try, since he had clearly interrupted this human’s rest. “Very well,” he sighed with ill grace, awkwardly seating himself on the other side of the bed, and watching as the girl cuddled back under the blankets.

He had fallen asleep in his clothes more times than he could count, often too focused on his work to care, but now the lack of a better option irritated him. He may rarely change for bed, but he still enjoyed having that choice. A small freedom that he realized might come to seem pitifully irrelevant as the days passed. Kicking off his shoes, he tugged the blankets over himself, ignoring the slight but forceful return tug of the human reclaiming her share of the bedding. He lay on his side, certain that he wouldn’t get any sleep, but as he stewed, his thoughts became slower, and he eventually drifted into a more or less peaceful slumber. ***

The next morning, the click of the lock being undone startled him awake, and he blinked sleepily at the door, then at the girl slumbering peacefully beside him. Frozen by the sound, he waited cautiously to see if his abductor would appear, but after several moments passed, it appeared not, and he relaxed slightly.

Outside the door, G shook his head irritably, sighing as he walked away. Voidster had to stop locking the girl in her room. While she was, technically, a prisoner, she had made no attempts to escape, and it was needlessly cruel to keep her confined to one room. His memory of the previous night was somewhat lacking, due to the copious amounts of scotch he had downed to quell the frustration he felt that his mate had wandered into another timeline...again. It was tempting to put a leash on him, if he wouldn’t enjoy it so much, G thought sourly to himself. Scoffing, he wandered away to the kitchen, starting the coffee that he drank as part of his morning routine.

He was interrupted by a broad heat at his back, muscular arms curling around to embrace him from behind. [Good morning,] his mate purred, rubbing his cheek against G’s like a satisfied feline. Irritably, the lich tilted his head away. “I’m still angry at you,” he stated plainly, trying and failing to coerce his voice into sternness. His half-hearted attempts to pull away did nothing to dissuade Voidster, who frowned and tilted his head. [Why?]

“You were experimenting with drugs again, weren’t you?” The lich inquired in a flat tone, rolling his eyes. That explained his partner’s apparent lack of memory of the previous night. Laughing softly, Voidster released him and stepped back, shrugging. [How will I know which drugs to use on the test subjects unless I try them first?] G sighed, turning to face the incorrigible monster. “You realize that’s the absolute opposite of how experimentation is supposed to work, yes? You try the drugs on the test subjects first, that’s why they’re called test subjects.”

[Well, no harm done,] the taller monster rumbled, folding his arms. [Although I am curious why you’re upset with me.] “Forget it,” the lich muttered, turning back to his coffee to pour a cup. Black and bitter, just the way he preferred it. “As you said, no harm was done. Luckily. Stop developing experimental drugs and testing them on yourself. Is that so much to ask?” Voidster contemplated his words for several moments, mulling the request over in his head. Finally, with a slight sigh, he acquiesced. [Fine,] he murmured, approaching G once more to run a tender hand down his shoulder. [Only set aside the coffee for now, and make love to me. It’s easily been a day since we last lay together.]

Ah, so that was why he was being so cooperative. Only to his mate would a single day seem such an unbearable amount of time. Smirking, G set the mug carefully on the counter, about to tease the other man for his impatience, when he was interrupted by a rough, heated kiss. Hard, muscular arms pulled him against his mate’s broad chest, trapping him there as Voidster’s tongue ravaged him. When he finally drew away, G gasped for breath, trembling slightly with lust and surprise. He hadn’t necessarily expected to make it back to the bedroom, but the unbridled passion of his partner was overwhelming at times.

Roughly, he was shoved up against the table, trapped between Voidster’s body and the furniture. The taller man smirked and placed his clawed hands on either side of the lich, leaning forward to brush his clothed erection against G’s thigh. The lich felt himself stiffening in response, and panted, a feral growl weaving into his short bursts of breath as he fastened his jaws against the throat of his lover. Eyes half-lidded, the beast allowed himself to be bitten, his claws hooking under G’s buttocks to lift him onto the table, their groins pressed hard together.

It came as a shock when his mate’s violet eyes widened, his hands releasing the lich so that he overbalanced, and fell off the table. The distance was too short for him to correct his stance, and he fell painfully on his hip, snarling up at Voidster, who was staring in confusion at something behind him. [Who are you?!] the taller man growled suddenly, taking a menacing step forward. Lithely twisting around, G climbed to his feet, sudden memories rushing forward to assail him at the sight of the stranger. Fuck, that was what had happened last night. He closed his eyes and pressing his fingers to his temple, warding off what promised to be an unpleasant headache.

“Are you joking?” a leaner and less bestial version of themselves demanded in an outraged voice.

#tsm bonus stories #sasster in distress #sasster #gaster #undertail #gaster x gaster #spot #voidster #lich gaster #fanfiction #my writing #gastercest

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zombieheroine · 7 years

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My blood, my soul, my brother [Overwatch, shimadacest, M][1/5]

Pairing: Hanzo Shimada/Genji Shimada Rating: Mature Warnings: Dark!fic, underage sex, sibling incest, child abuse

Summary: Sometimes things happen to you, things that are so painful and horrible that you can’t talk to anyone about them. And then you do.

A/N: Shimada brothers stroke a cord with me and I was overcome with inspiration. I wrote this fic in the last two weeks and it’s finally complete at a bit over 20K words. I poured a lot of emotion and darkness into this, and after finishing I must say I like this fic a lot, and I reached quite the catharsis. So pain ahead, my dear readers.

Shout out to @beekeepercain for beta reading and supporting me during the writing process! You rock, my dude. Link to Ao3

Sun was up and high above Gibraltar. Its light was white, piercing and scorchingly hot, and it made the roof of Watchpoint shine and its yard almost impossibly hot place to loiter in. Hanzo stood in a thin shadow cast by a small tree, hiding from daylight that burned his skin and made existing painful. It was that time of the year again. The anniversary of Genji's death was only a week away, and just like past ten years, Hanzo felt restless and numb. The fact that his brother was alive and both of their lives now had a new direction instead of mindless wandering made little difference.

Hanzo wasn't officially a part of Overwatch, not really. Technically speaking no one was since the organization had been shut down, but the new version now in rogue had been rapidly becoming more and more operational during the passed year. Hanzo wasn't really a part of it, but with Genji's blessing and stubborn kindness and foolish trust from a certain few other agents, he might have as well been. He was very much aware that all he needed to do was to say the word and it would be official. Hanzo let his head fall back and hit the tree trunk behind him. The spring heat felt suffocating and the approaching anniversary was stirring his thoughts and feelings like a pond until its water was too muddy to see anything clearly. Hanzo wasn't sure if he wanted to leave or if he simply thought that was the right thing to do, or if he wanted to stay but feared what attachment would mean. Only one thing he was sure of, and that was that every thought started from Genji and ended up being about Genji as well. He let his eyes close even though it was impossible to block out the light of day. “Lovely day, isn't it?” spoke a serene voice with a metallic echo in it, five or six feet away from where Hanzo stood. Hanzo opened his eyes and saw Zenyatta, who had quietly appeared from somewhere and was enjoying the sun with his head tilted back. “A little bit too bright for my taste,” Hanzo replied to the monk. The omnic made him wary. At first it had been about his expressionless face and odd mannerism, but after Hanzo had learned to know him better it had focused on his otherworldly kindness and how he always seemed to know more than you. “Truly? Well, even if that's the case, sunlight is healthy for humans,” Zenyatta mused. “Healthy does not equal enjoyable, especially with this heat,” Hanzo answered. “I have found that to often be the case, as well,” Zenyatta said with a touch of amusement in his voice. “But might it also be that during this time of the year few things are enjoyable to you?” Before Hanzo had time to decide if he wanted to engage or make up a reason to leave, one of Zenyatta's orbs broke the formation and flew towards him prompted by a soft flick of the monk's wrist. Hanzo stood absolutely still as the little metal orb circled him while making its odd quiet jingling sound as it went. “There is a great deal of confusion and negativity in you right now,” Zenyatta observed and called the orb back. It fell back into its place flawlessly and the formation was complete again, “a great deal of conflict as well.” Hanzo remained silent. He didn't feel like opening up about his feelings, but got an uncomfortable impression that Zenyatta already understood them more than he himself did. “Conflict isn't necessarily bad,” Zenyatta continued, “it means many different forces are at play. It offers a chance for transformation.” “That might be so in some cases,” Hanzo reluctantly admitted. He really didn't want to have this conversation. “But I'm afraid this is just about the approaching date. I'm sure you are aware.” “Yes, I am. Genji told me,” Zenyatta said, as serene as ever. His gentle neutrality seemed out of place and thus felt unnerving. “That is why I sought you out, actually. Genji would like to speak with you. He is in his room, and I believe he has prepared tea.” Hanzo blinked. “Now?” “Yes, now,” Zenyatta confirmed. “I didn't wish to simply drop the message without proper greetings, but that is what Genji requested of me.” Hanzo frowned. A trickle of sweat ran down his temple. “I – Thank you for informing me. I'll be on my way, then,” he hastily said, bowed out of habit and started to walk across the yard and towards the main building's door. “Good luck,” Zenyatta wished after him and stayed in the sun. The room that Genji called his own was all the way up on the sixth floor of the Watchpoint, in the very end of the hallway with windows on two walls, all giving out to the sea. When Hanzo stepped from the stairs to the hallway, his feet ran cold and a vague feeling of threat settled in the bottom of his stomach. He had a bad feeling about this, but the idea of meeting his brother for tea was so endearingly nostalgic and sweet that he forced himself to move and face the whatever else had prompted this meeting. The door was open, and Hanzo stopped in the doorway, uncertain whether or not he should knock on the frame for formalities sake. He didn't come to any conclusion before Genji heard him and turned to meet his eyes, acknowledging his presence and freezing him in place, awkward. “Ah, good day, brother,” Genji greeted, stiff and formal. “Please, come in. Close the door, please.” Hanzo stepped inside and did as he was told. When the door clicked behind him, he immediately felt trapped despite the room's cozy atmosphere. Not that it was overtly cozy; in fact, in someone else's eyes it might have looked ascetic, barren, even. The room was small and thanks to the large windows bathed in light. One of the windows was creaked open and the salty smell of the sea and the sound of the waves dominated the open space. The floor was covered in tatami, a shout-out for the distant homeland, in the corner there was a double-doored white metal closet, under the window a neatly folded futon and on top of that a pillow and bed covers, and in the middle of the room a small, dark brown low table that currently had a large pot of tea and two mugs on it. They stood awkwardly on different sides of the table, Genji shifting on his feet and picking on his hands, Hanzo rigid by the door with his hands in his sleeves. “I... Made tea,” Genji said and needlessly nodded towards the pot on the table. “I think I've finally learned to make it properly, like you. Would you have some with me?” “Yes, of course,” Hanzo muttered, his gaze focused on the mugs instead of his brother. “I... Is there a reason for this?” Genji swung on his place some more and threw a quick look out of the window. “Yes. Please sit down with me.” They sat down, opposite of each other and unconsciously mirroring each other, legs crossed before them and hands on their knees. Genji pushed on mug towards Hanzo, then reached for the steaming tea pot. Hanzo thought to himself that his brother might have learned to brew tea but certainly hadn't improved his way of serving it. “We need to talk,” Genji said to the grey tea cup as he poured the tea. “About?” Hanzo asked. His chest felt tight. Genji finished pouring the tea and leaned back on his own side of the table. “About us. And, more specifically, that one thing.” He poured his own mug full too fast, spilled some tea on the table and made a frustrated sound under his breath. “You know. The thing. That we used to have. Or do. You know?” Hanzo curled his fingers around his tea mug and felt them turning cold and clammy despite the heat. He squeezed the mug harder. “Why do we have to talk about it?” he asked harshly, staring down into his tea. Genji made another frustrated huff. “Oh, we don't have to. So allow me rephrase that: I want to talk about it.” There was an uncomfortable buzzing in Hanzo's legs and he shifted on his place in order to let his blood flow properly, but it didn't help. He turned the hot mug in his hands and kept his eyes cast down, unable to look Genji in the face. His brother's mask was on, but behind the green glow were his eyes and he could feel those eyes staring. “Do you wish to punish me?” he asked. Genji took a deep breath, held it and slowly let it out. “I thought about that when I first started to really think about that stuff, but in the end came to a conclusion that it wouldn't be helpful to anyone. Plus this isn't about you, this is about us.” “Talking about it won't change the past,” Hanzo argued back. Genji made an agreeing sound. “And that is exactly why we must talk about it.” Hanzo couldn't stop a smile pushing its way to his face. “You have matured, brother.” Genji bowed his head. “My journey here has been long and difficult, and it isn't over. But I intend to keep moving forward, and I believe that in order to do that we need to talk about this.” Hanzo forced his other hand to let go of the mug and pushed it through his hair. “And why exactly does that mean we need to have this conversation? I am here, I followed you, I'm on the same path. Isn't that enough?! What do you want out of this?!” It was Genji's turn to shift on his place. He untangled his legs and knelt on them instead, though not properly and didn't settle his weight on his feet. “I want us to be close again, like real brothers,” he said with a strain in his voice. “Don't think I haven't noticed how you won't be left alone with me, and how you keep your distance so not even our shoulders will touch. You're afraid of me and our relationship, and I don't want it to be like that. I want us to be normal, like a normal family.” Hanzo combed through his bangs and needlessly tightened his ponytail. Genji's honesty rubbed him raw like sandpaper and demanded him to honor it with honest answers of his own. “We were never normal,” he said. “Whatever confessions you want from me, whatever curses you think you want to utter, none of it will matter. What I did can never be taken back, and that is my burden, not yours.” “We,” Genji corrected. “What we did.” They were closing in on the subject again, and Hanzo's insides tried to wither. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, tried to ground himself, and then opened them again. “Don't make excuses for me,” he said quietly. “That's not it,” Genji argued with a hint of impatience. He rolled his shoulders and shifted his weight, apparently just as restless as Hanzo but still pressing the matter. “You know, when I began to think about this during meditation, I thought I knew everything about it, too. The more I thought about it the more things started to gain some clarity, and I realized I had created this fitting narrative for you so it would fit into my story. When I realized that I also understood how absurd it was, as if I could read your mind and understand your side of the story. My anger and grudge needed that narrative, but it wasn't helping me one bit, so I discarded it.” Hanzo listened, lifted his gaze from the table little by little and finally focused it somewhere around Genji's collar. He still couldn't look him in his face, but didn't look totally away either. Genji paused and shrugged. “I also realized that you have probably done the same thing to me. You don't know what I think or feel, but you think you do. I don't know what you think or feel, and that's why I'm asking you now. That is why we need to talk, brother.” Silence fell and the sound of waves and early summer wind filled the room. The silence settled with such finality that even though Hanzo hadn't made any decision yet, he sensed that Genji had just presented a winning argument. He studied his younger brother and the air around him, and slowly shook his head even though he already knew there was no helping it. “Where would I even start?” he asked. Genji sat up a little straighter. “Well. You could start by telling me if you want to look me in the eye while we talk. I can leave the mask on if that's kinder to you.” Hanzo let out a breath and slumped a little. The room felt like a locked cage. This was inevitable. “Please, let me see your face then,” he said. Genji undid the visor and his helmet and set them both on the floor by the table, baring what was a very scarred face, bright brown eyes and short black hair that was flattened my the helmet in a rather amusing way. He ruffled his hair before his hands returned to cradle the tea mug. “So. From the beginning then.” * Three-year-old Hanzo hadn't been too happy to become a big brother. Very little had changed in life for seven-year-old Hanzo, and if anything had, he was now even less happy than before. Truly, one of the worst things in his life so far had been when Genji learned to walk, and it had now been triumphed by an even greater tragedy: Genji had learned to talk.

Genji followed Mother everywhere, even and sometimes especially places he he wasn’t supposed to, like when Mother entertained guests or had tea with aunties and Grandmother. Genji skittered after her, clinging to her dress or trying to hide in the folds of her kimono, all the while whining and screaming: “Mama! Mama! Mama look! Mama, pick me up! Mama did you hear?! Mama, pick me up!” Adults mostly ignored him, which only made Genji whine louder, grow frustrated and eventually start to cry. Once, when Mother and Grandmother were walking in the garden, Hanzo was raking the stones around the old maple tree. From there he saw how Genji tried to ride their Mother’s kimono, but lost his hold on the obi, tumbled off and burst in tears. The women had tried to ignore him, but when the wailing started Mother anxiously glanced at him, then spun around and cradled the small boy in her arms. “Oh, my dear child,” she cooed, “did you hurt yourself? Show Mama where it hurts.” Genji stopped crying in an instant, glistening brown eyes staring at the gentle face of Mother. He hiccuped, then pointed at his left knee. Mother hugged Genji to her chest and rocked him. “Poor baby,” she sighed, “how did that happen? Don’t worry, it won’t hurt long.” Genji nodded and leaned against Mother. He sniffed and pushed his knuckles in his mouth, suckling at them quietly for comfort. Mother stroked his hair and back and rocked him in her arms. Hanzo had stopped tending to the stones the second Mother had scooped Genji in her arms. He stared at his pathetic, ill-behaved little brother hugged tight in the arms of his Mother like a baby, and only because he had cried a little. Tumbling a little couldn’t have even hurt that much! Hanzo bristled with irritation. He didn't cry even when he got properly hurt. Not when he got injured during his training, not when he fell from the wall, not when Father beat him with a bamboo sword, but the younger child apparently was allowed to be fragile like a baby chick. Grandmother tutted at Mother. “You will spoil that boy rotten if you keep coddling him like that. He’s not a baby anymore, and you shouldn’t treat him like one either. He must learn independence!” “I know, I know,” Mother said. “Just this once. He’s hurt.” Grandmother harrumphed with dismissal. “That is the life of a warrior! He ought to get used to it. Besides, look at that one! He hasn’t cried since he learned to walk!” she said, suddenly gesturing towards Hanzo under the maple tree. Hanzo felt his spirit swelling with pride and fought to hide it. Praise from Grandmother was so rare Hanzo could count all the occasions of his life with one hand. He straightened, held the rake like a weapon by his side and made eye-contact with the old woman. She gave him a stern look and a nod of acknowledgment. “See? Ignoring ill-behavior gives results,” Grandmother spoke to Mother. “That is how I raised my sons. Now put that boy down, or he’ll never grow up to be a proper Shimada warrior.” Mother sighed in defeat. She kissed the crown of Genji’s head and put him down on his own feet again. “There’s my good little boy,” she said with a gentle smile. Genji stared at her kind face with pure wonder in his still wet eyes, but made no sound of protest. Mother smiled. “Run along now, go play! Mama and Grandmother have grown-up things to do.” To Hanzo’s surprise Genji did as he was told and left the women alone. Mother and Grandmother didn’t glance at either one of the boys anymore, but turned away and continued their way to the castle. Hanzo stared at his Mother’s back until she and Grandmother turned the corner and he couldn’t anymore. He turned to look at the perfectly raked stones he had worked on all afternoon. He didn’t particularly like stone gardens, but recognized his task was to create order there, not enjoy it. A small shadow appeared at his feet, and he lifted his eyes. Genji stared at his brother with a small mischievous smile. “What?” Hanzo snapped at him. “Mother likes me more than you,” Genji declared with childish glee and stuck his tongue out at Hanzo before running off. “No she doesn’t and that doesn’t matter anyway!” Hanzo yelled after him, but his little brother didn’t even turn to look and soon disappeared behind the rose bushes. Hanzo stared after him, once again alone in the garden. He bit his lower lip, looked at the perfect rows of white and grey stones by his feet and tossed the rake down, destroying what he had created. * Genji tapped at the rim of his tea mug. “Wow, that really was from the beginning,” he said, attempting humor to lighten the mood. Hanzo wasn’t amused. He stared out of the window with a frown on his face and his fist pressed against his mouth. “Why did you tell me that?” Genji asked when his brother didn’t say anything. “I don’t even remember that.” “You were too young then to remember that,” Hanzo muttered. “I don’t know why I told you that, to be honest. It’s just… I remember that very well. It’s one of my clearest childhood memories. The days with schooling and at dojo are all blurred together, but that day I can place exactly and I remember it all very clearly.” “Wow. Sounds like I was a miserable little brat,” Genji said matter-of-factly. “You must have hated me so much back then.” “Mmh, I don’t think I did, not really,“ Hanzo said. “I just… I… I don’t know what I felt. Or thought. I just remember that moment.” “The fact that you remember it so clearly means that it was important to you. Something stuck with you then,” Genji said. His scars were suddenly itchy and he reached to his face to rub them. Hanzo finally turned his attention to his tea and raised the mug to his lips. It was still steaming but wasn’t too hot anymore, and he took an experimental sip out of it. The flavor was strikingly familiar and brought a wave of nostalgia so powerful that for a second he couldn’t breathe. Genji was watching him closely, probably waiting for the verdict of his tea brewing skills. Hanzo nodded. “This is very good. You have improved.” Genji smiled. “Thank you.” Hanzo took another sip from his tea and turned to look outside again. The sea gleamed and sparkled in the sunlight, rising and falling calmly, and Hanzo noticed he was fitting his breathing to the rhythm of the sea. Genji spoke again: “You know… I don’t remember her holding me, at all.” Hanzo sighed. “Me neither.”

#Overwatch #shimadacest #shimada brothers #kapteenin raapustus

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gamerspasm · 7 years

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My 2016 in Games

It’s that time of year again. Time for me to look back on all the games I’ve played in the last 12 months and review them for no other reason than it’s the end of the year. Honestly, last year took a while to write up, but I’ve been looking forward to this since January. Obviously, like 2015, this is a mishmash of different games, both old and new, and ONLY games I haven’t played before. What’s more, these are games I have at the very least beaten. So let’s get right to it:

Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice (3DS)

I’m a massive fan of the Ace Attorney series, and it feels like it’s been ages since the last one. Realistically it’s only been 3 years. Like most of the games before it, Spirit of Justice does what it can to balance the classic gameplay everyone loves with new elements that help to keep the series fresh. Here, it’s the divination seance, adding literally the last moments of the victim’s life to the testimony. It’s a nice addition, offering a lot to consider, but given how previous additions make a return also, it does feel a little clustered when they try and cram them all in. Still the cases are a lot of fun. Typical Ace Attorney, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. One thing I did find irksome though was I felt some cases could have been expanded upon more in order to make the shocking reveals all the more impressive. There were a few “plot twists” that fell rather flat, basically. Plus, despite the inclusion of colourful characters, most of the time defendants are people we already know, which can lead to the stories feeling stagnant. The music is great as always and the overall look does the job. All in all it’s great, but, personally speaking, not the strongest entry in the franchise. The finales are always big in these games, but this one just doesn’t seem to have the same gravitas. That said, it does have one of the most emotional and heart-wrenching moments in the series’ history, but I dare not spoil it here. You’ll have to play the game yourself. 8/10

Another World 20th anniversary (Wii U - eShop)

This game has been sitting on my Wii U for a while now, but I finally got around to playing it this year. I never played the original, but even so I do have a soft spot for these types of puzzle/action platformers; especially those that came out during the SNES era. Graphically the game isn’t brilliant, even when updated, but it’s kind of cool that you can switch back and forth between the old and new on the fly. Sound-wise there’s absolutely nothing memorable here, which is a shame, but there’s a surprising amount of humour. I don’t know why, but all the death animations and cutscenes just made me laugh. I think it was the abruptness of them. Speaking of, the near instantaneous respawn makes failure less painful to endure, but dying can still be frustrating. For example, the game is programmed to only save progress if the player has accomplished the tasks before it in the right order. However, because the solutions to some of the puzzles aren’t very clear, it can lead to massive set backs, where the player is catapulted seemingly half the game backwards. It can be quite annoying. That, teamed with the terrible controller response time - something that seemingly feels neglected during the update - makes failure almost inevitable in some instances; and with a lot of reaction based combat being sprinkled in, it can drain the fun. Overall, the game is average. Nothing I’d write home about and it is a little short, but it’s fine. 6/10

Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)

I really enjoy Platinum Games’ stuff. No matter what they make their content is almost always unanimously fun. Bayonetta was no exception, and it’s sequel continues the trend. Going in, this game had a lot of praise. There was a lot of love for it, with many holding it up as one of the best on the system. Would I agree? Yes and no. Graphically the game is bright, colourful and lush, and the soundtrack is brilliant once more, but I couldn’t help feeling, especially in the early stages, that Bayo 2 was just a retread of the original. Story structure and level layout is very similar and there was very little new. Not that that’s a bad thing, but I guess I expected more. The plot at first is also a little sporadic and difficult to keep up with, so that didn’t help. By the end though, not only is the story proven to be really well done and thought out, but the game finally has a lot more to offer than what was previously there. Aesthetics are a little disjointed however. Whilst enemy design is magnificent and always interesting to look at, location design is often bland and boring. Even Hell, which is usually a goldmine of imagery, looks standard and uninteresting. Then of course there’s Bayonetta herself, who again seems to be mostly eye-candy for the male gaze. That does die down again, like it did in the first game, but somewhat much further along. It’s a shame really as I do think Bayonetta is actually a good character. She’s a badass who takes charge and doesn’t give a crap about what anyone else thinks. Plus she has a sensitive side beneath the bravado. I’d like to see more of this, not just the sex appeal. Ah well, I still had a blast with it, despite my own personal drawbacks. 8/10

Box Boy (3DS)

To be clear I started playing this last year, when it came out, but I only got around to beating it this year. Box Boy is a delightful and cute puzzle platformer that has all the charm and love you’d expect to find in a Nintendo game. The design is brilliantly simple but its surprising just how complex these puzzles can get from it. Each world has its own theme, with gimmicks and traps getting steadily harder as you progress, and there’s a challenge element there too. You can beat the stage using as many boxes as you want, but if you’re ruthlessly efficient you can earn the crowns. These don’t really do much outside of earn you more cash at the end of a stage, but some are really devilish to get so bragging rights are to be had too. Music, much like its appearance, is rather underplayed and standard, which is a shame, but I guess it’s forgivable. The reason why this game took me until this year to beat however, comes down to the secret stages after you clear the story. These worlds are no joke, compiling everything in the game up to that point into one gauntlet of puzzles; many of which make you feel like you’ve cheated when you beat them. It’s really interesting to see how complicated these simple mechanics can become, but the difficulty serge may put a lot of players off for a time. That includes me. 8/10

Castlevania (Circle of the Moon) (GBA - Wii U Virtual Console)

Fun story. When I was first getting a Game Boy Advance, I couldn’t decide which launch game to get with it. F-Zero Maximum Velocity or this. This was before I had ever played a Castlevania game, and so I ended up going with F-Zero; but looking back, I think this would have been a better fit for me at the time. As Castlevania games go though, and having played plenty now, it’s a little rough. This was very clearly the starting point for some of the later GBA and DS titles. Never the less, it’s a lot of fun. Graphics are gorgeous for its time, gameplay is mostly intuitive, and the soundtrack has its moments. Difficulty’s a bit cruel, mind, and there were some bizarre decisions made regarding design. Why is walking even an option? Why do I have to get a power-up in order to run, and even then, why do I have to double tap a direction to use it? These set backs make the game needlessly finicky at times, and the alternative isn’t so great when the game has an excruciatingly slow walk speed. For what is supposed to be a fast paced action game, you can see why this can be an issue. Then of course there’s the endgame structure. No real spoilers, but having a final boss that can kill you in one hit isn’t hard, it’s cheap; and having to grind for a stupidly long time in order to beat said boss is also poor design. Even so, I had a good time with the rest of it. 7/10

Chibi Robo Zip Lash (3DS)

Being a Nintendo fan is sometimes less fun than expected. With a company that has so many beloved franchises you’d think they’d use them properly. Well turns out, no, actually. Instead Nintendo has been taking some of its IPs and experimenting. Nintendo have been doing this so much recently, I’ve decided to coin a term for it: Genre-flipping. Chibi Robo Zip Lash is one example of this. Chibi Robo is a time management series, with fun visuals and an adorable character. Chibi Robo Zip Lash is not a time management game and nor are the visuals that fun. At least they got the character right. I’m not truly sure where to start. Visually, it’s bland, with environments being seemingly made out of lego bricks, and the soundtrack is absolutely forgettable. From a design standpoint, taking Chibi’s mechanics into consideration, it’s a little fun, but ultimately nothing special. It’s all rather by-the-numbers. There are a few collectables here and there, along with some bonus medals that do absolutely nothing. Of everything though, the most bizarre thing about this game is its wheel-of-fortune way of progressing. At the end of each stage you spin a wheel that tells you how many stages you advance through. Essentially it runs like a board game, with one path doing a circular from numbers 1 through 6 and then again. My question is: why? Beyond being pointless, it’s also annoying. You, the player, don’t get free movement of a world until you beat every level, and because you have to essentially roll a dice to decide which level you go to, you could end up doing laps of the world just to get to the level you need to play. Oh and FYI you need to clear the level again in order to roll again. Fun. Eventually, I learned a trick that guaranteed that I would play each level consecutively after the other, but again, that just hits home how pointless the gimmick is. The only explanation I have is that very early on this game was going to be a free to play game, only they changed their minds at some point and went to retail. The final boss is also dumb, asking the player to essentially buy the final level (if this WAS free to play, you know it would have been locked behind a pay wall). Still, it comes with a Chibi Robo Amiibo. So that’s nice. 5/10

Dante's Inferno (X360)

What’s that? A game that was no where near my back log and practically forgotten? Sure, why not, chuck it on. This year I’ve kinda had a thing for all things Hell related. I just find interpretations of it fascinating. That’s what led to me playing this. Graphically it’s a little dated now, but not hard to look at, and the music is actually quite impressive. Mostly its just choir and eerie instruments, but it’s Hell, what did you expect it to sound like. Mechanically it doesn’t really do anything special though. It’s about as standard a hack-n-slash as you can get - borrowing elements from games like God of War and such. That’s not really a bad thing, as the game plays fine, it just gets a little repetitive as you go. Furthermore, the difference in difficulty is too vast. On easy, enemies die in seconds, but in normal, you’re hacking away for ages. I never even bothered wasting my time on hard. Personally however, the thing I loved the most about this game was the design from an aesthetic standpoint. Each circle of hell is given a different theme that is faithful to its source material, and I often found myself just stopping to take in my environment. I wish the levels were longer to be honest, but at least everything keeps moving, unlike Castlevania: LoS last year with the intrusive results screen at the end of each “stage”. What I also like is how the game ties the levels of hell into the story of our hero. It’s not exactly an original plot, but it was interesting how Dante had committed sins worthy of each circle, and that every descent brought him closer to redemption. It’s certainly a nice adaptation, and the game ends on a never to be realised “to be continued” but it doesn’t need a sequel. it’s fine as it is. 7/10

Destiny (PS4)

There are certain genres I have no interest in getting involved with for whatever reason. MMO is one of them. Multiplayer games just don’t grab me as much as single players do, so generally, I don’t bother with them. So, when Destiny was released, I couldn’t care less. That coupled with the infamous lack of content didn’t really spur me into buying it, but when the taken king DLC pack came out I decided to give it a go. As stated, I’m not really an MMO gamer (shooter or otherwise), so I’m very aware there are probably much better games in this field, but I have to admit I kind of like it. It looks stunning, if a little too spacious, and there’s always something to do, even playing in single player. By far the most fun I had was playing with others though, time that led to some genuinely memorable moments. Enemy design is interesting, albeit unoriginal (the Fallen are essentially the Covenant from halo - like for like). Bizarrely, it’s the small stuff that makes this game good to me. All the big stuff where the budget clearly went (i.e. voice talent) doesn’t add all that much. What did shock me though, was when the Taken King story began. Not only was it a better campaign to play through than what had come before it, but it also highlighted just how bare bones the original title was at launch. This also goes into another matter of constantly re-releasing the game with brand new bells and whistles every 6 months - something I have no time for - but I digress. If you haven’t played it yet and you have a couple of buddies online too, give it a whirl. Nothing ground breaking, but enjoyable enough. 8/10

Doom (XBO)

Last year I wrote about Halo 4, and I talked about how it was the game that pretty much ended my affair with First Person Shooters. Realistically that hasn’t changed; I’m still not a massive fan of FPS games, but Doom got my attention. There was a lot concerning me about this game. No pre-release reviews (which is never really a good sign) and a lot of the gameplay footage resembled every other FPS game out there, so I was a little split on picking it up. Still, I gave it a whirl and I have to say this game is an absolute breath of fresh air. Action is thick and fast; locales are always different; and set pieces are easily distinguishable. Even the story, which you’d expect to be quite weak, is engaging. The ultimate word I would use though is fun. This game is a blast play. The character of the Doom Guy is so enjoyable to play as you can’t help grinning from ear to ear as you mow down the hordes of hell’s army. Which reminds me, enemy design is not only unique but also faithful. I’ve never played a Doom game before this one, but looking at the older games and seeing how the designers remained true to the originals I can see how much this game is a labour of love. The soundtrack is brutal and raw; not exactly something I would stick on my MP3 player, but enough to get the blood pumping, and there is a surprising amount of content. I think what makes Doom so enjoyable though is that it knows what it is. It’s a video game. It’s not focused on keeping things realistic. It’s all about carrying an arsenal on your back, destroying demons in endlessly satisfying ways, and finding little mini figurines, secrets and references. A surprise hit for more than just me, Doom may be one of the best 2016 had to offer. 9/10

FAST Racing Neo (Wii U - eShop)

FAST Racing Neo is a game that got a lot of hype, both before and after launch. It was easy to see why. Not only did the game look truly outstanding, but to many, it was the worthy successor to F-Zero that they were craving. Unfortunately it’s anything but. This is not F-Zero. It may look like F-Zero. It may sound like F-Zero. Hell, it may even want to be F-Zero, but it’s not. So what’s wrong with it? Simple: mechanics and design. There are some good ideas here, but an hour of testing should have told them they were going the wrong way about them. Changing colours to suit the boost pads is nice, but said boost pads are few and far between. Not to mention how truly difficult it can be to drive at such speeds. Turning or adjusting course is just straight up stressful when it’s this unreliable. This leads me on to the next problem, the difficulty itself. It’s way too hard for the earlier difficulties. It just throws you in the deep end. Refreshing as it may be, it’s certainly not welcome. It can lead to genuine frustration, and can make the player feel as though the game is unfair. This tied in with easily the biggest issue of them all: the boost pellets. Scattered about each course are small pellets that fill up your boost meter which can ultimately turn the tide. Again, nice idea, and on paper there’s nothing wrong; but when these pellets are incredibly tiny and laid out in tricky positions you can see where the issues come from. Not to mention the speed your travelling. Yes, I know it’s *FAST* Racing Neo, what did I expect, but the game has to accompany that speed. Fast is great, feeling like everything is based on luck with a near vertical learning curve, isn’t. 5/10

Fire Emblem: Awakening (3DS)

Fire Emblem is without a doubt one of my top 5 favourite gaming franchises, so you’d think it strange that I’ve not really played it in about three years. Maybe even longer. Thing is, Fire Emblem is a series that deserves respect. No distractions and no commitments. Just you and the game. So, earlier this year, when all my distractions and prior commitments were dealt with, I decided to finally play what many consider to be one of the best. It’s hard to disagree. As a Fire Emblem veteran, Awakening is probably the most refined of the series thus far (I haven’t played Fates yet). It’s simplified for newcomers, whilst maintaining the difficulty, and it introduces a lot of value to the support system, leading to some great battles. It also introduces the quick reset function for the purists. The characters are brilliantly likeable, and with the ability to play previous maps again and again, it allows you to get the most of the team mates you don’t typically use. The inclusion of an Avatar is a welcome change too, as is the chance to get specific special characters as a reward for gaining S rank support. The music is also wonderful. If I had any downsides it would be that it is overall quite easy by comparison to other Fire Emblem games, with only a handful of levels proving any challenge; allied AI is almost intentionally crap, with CPU villagers running headlong into enemy fire; and the story is a little disjointed - it feels more like three different stories, with one thread running weakly through them. These problems don’t really effect the overall experience however, and as always I walked away absolutely satisfied. An absolute gem. 9/10

Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)

There are hack-n-slash games and there are hack-n-slash games. Some play out a narrative or story that requires you to take out a number of enemies to progress, whilst others set an objective and ask you to mow down hundreds of thousands of foes to see it through. Hyrule Warriors falls in the latter category. Coming from the same studio behind the cult-hit Dynasty Warriors series, the game is a collection of levels and maps with a set task and just hordes of enemies between you and it. I’ve never played the Dynasty series, nor have I had any inclination towards this vein of hack-n-slash, but I have to say the experience was extremely enjoyable. In many ways, tackling army after army is cathartic and in the simplest of ways plays into a person’s deep desire for destruction. Want to feel godly? Play one of these games. Surprisingly though, there is a hell of a lot more on offer than you’d think. There are challenges and bonus tasks to each main stage, plus rewards for playing the stages in unorthadox ways, and that’s just the main game quest. There is an absolute boat load of content outside of that, with practically over a hundred levels and challenges, all of which encourage you to play the game to the fullest. Play as various characters, upgrade in various ways, grind, farm, there’s so much to do in fact that any attempt to 100% would be enough to drive you out of your mind. You’re looking at 200 hours, easy. As a result, there’ll come a point when you just stop. Not that the game gets bad, or gets stagnant, but that the way forward just gets too trying. I might jump back into it one day to relive the same joys, especially since they’re releasing DLC, but until then, I think a breather wouldn’t go amiss. Oh and the soundtrack is flawless. 8/10

Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush (Wii U)

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s gimmick games. No, not games with gimmicks in them, but rather games built around gimmicks. The DS suffered from an influx of these at the start of its life, with every title shoehorning needless touch screen elements into their games, but thankfully they started to die out. Nothing stays dead for long, it seems. Enter Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush, a follow up of sorts to the DS’ Kirby’s Canvas Curse. Let’s get the good out of the way first. Straight off the bat, this game looks gorgeous. The clay motif is wonderful to look at, and the lighting really makes the colours pop. Soundtrack-wise it’s nothing exceptional, but there are some good songs in there, along with some classics from the previous Kirby games. And that’s it. There is nothing else this game has to offer. Look at screen shots and listen to the soundtrack online; you do not need to play this game. Why? How about the game being 100% touch screen controlled. Buttons do nothing, and so you the player must scribble the life out of the Gamepad in order to do anything. I’ll try and convey how atrocious the controls are. For a start, once Kirby starts moving, he doesn’t stop. So he will just keep rolling about until you direct him otherwise. This leads the player into a wrestling match to keep the little bugger from wandering off. Then, in order to turn Kirby around, you “simply” draw a wall in his path. Except if your wall is drawn upwards and not perfectly vertical, Kirby will mount it and roll up it instead. Then there’s the limit to the rainbow rope. I get it, I know why there’s a limit, but once you draw a line, there’s no way to make it go away without using MORE rainbow rope! This can lead to the groundless levels being painfully frustrating, and even the standard levels aren’t much better. You can’t truly relax, you’re just always in a constant state of rage. You can forget collecting everything too. Not only is Kirby a pest to control in order to get all collectable items anyway, but many collectables are hidden in mini game rooms. These rooms are not fun. They give you 15 seconds to figure out what you need to do AND get Kirby to play along for a change. The number of times I came so close, only to be thrown out. It’s a joke. So yeah, bad, BAD, game with only a few - and I mean a few - moments of enjoyment. It’s only marginally more playable in multiplayer, but even then its just a game of babysitting that nonce, Kirby. 4/10

Kirby Triple Deluxe (3DS)

I actually don’t hate Kirby games. I mean, they’re not masterpieces, not by a long way, but they seem to get the right things down. Most of the time. By and large Kirby games are fun, if a little easy, but fun all the same. Triple Deluxe is just that, fun. I kinda don’t know what else to say about it really. Graphically it looks good - with some great character animations - and the music is, again, okay but nothing truly spectacular. It was good to play Kirby as he was meant to be played. Even if it wasn’t that hard, there was still a lot of enjoyment to be had. It’s classic Kirby gameplay with a slight 3 dimensional twist. If I had any negatives it’d probably be the ending, which I do feel goes on overly long with boss fight after boss fight after boss fight. Some would say it makes the finale all the more impressive and epic, but, to me, there’s only so epic a Kirby game can get before it outstays its welcome. It’s more of a personal reason, I know. Overall a quaint and charming game, which is certainly more relaxing than a certain other Kirby game I played this year. 7/10

Legend of Zelda: Picross (3DS - eShop)

After my frankly unhealthy addiction to picross at the end of last year, I’ll take any excuse to get back into it. So when Nintendo went ahead and released a Zelda version (essentially for free to My Nintendo users) you better believe I snapped it up. What can I say, it’s picross. It’s the same simple, enjoyable, and addictive puzzling its always been, only now you’re drawing Zelda things. For what is a cheap pick-up-n-play title, there’s actually a fair amount to get through, along with a new mode if you succeed at beating the main challenges. That being said, this “new mode”, otherwise known as Mega Picross, isn’t actually that great. Besides being needlessly complex and confusingly explained, you’re solving the same puzzles as before, only everything is convoluted and frustrating. All in all though, it gave me the perfect picross fix. Just don’t expect it to hold you for longer than a weekend. 7/10

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U)

Nostalgia can be a difficult thing to get past. Case in point, Twilight Princess; a game I felt was truly a flawless game the last time I played it on the Wii. Playing the HD update however, I’m not sure I can say that anymore. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a fantastic game, with great structure, dungeon layout, mechanics, graphics and soundtrack. Furthermore, it isn’t *worse* because it’s a HD remaster, its more or less the same - with slight improvements and detriments. It’s more that, playing over it again and doing everything I could to 100% it, I found a lot of the game more frustrating than the last time I played it. Certain side quests that were ultimately poorly designed. For example - having to manually trek back to the beginning of a quest if you fail it rather than just being transported, is a pain. I even rage quit at one time because it was so infuriating. There were even parts of the main quest that I felt were needlessly elongated. I know they were for story purposes, but when you’re having to travel back and forth to the same points over and over again, it can be a bother. In terms of what’s new in this version, much like the Windwaker HD, it’s mostly small items that don’t shake the foundations, but they certainly can be a big help. I also felt some of the collect quests were made a little easier, but I can’t be too sure about that. Of all my problems with this game though, my biggest comes down to the controller mapping. It’s not unplayable, but, just rather bizarre. The way certain buttons are mapped is a little backwards in my opinion, with some buttons literally not being used at all. It just feels odd that in the process of making the game slick and smooth on all fronts (gameplay included) they would seemingly botch this area up. Ah well, the game is still great, and one of the best in the series; even if my eyes have been opened to its shortcomings somewhat. 8/10

Liberation Maiden (3DS - eShop)

Japan is an odd place. There are some games that struggle to get a western release despite a built in audience abroad, whilst there are others that get released without any real problem. In the latter zone we have liberation maiden, one of a compilation that was released digitally outside of Japan by Level-5. Why do I emphasise Japan so much here? Well, because if I had to describe this game in one word I would say: Japan. It’s everything you would expect from a Japanese title. You are the princess of a space colony that is tasked with stopping the evil metal aliens from polluting the planet by using a giant, meta-morphing battlebot. See what I mean. If you take out the (questionable) english voice acting, this game practically screams “Japan”. But lets move off that shall we. Graphically, this game doesn’t look all that good, and the soundtrack is...well...it’s hard to say. Most of the time the music is really quiet and you can’t hear it over the sounds of explosions. As for the gameplay itself, it’s a little stiff, and it’s all rather confusing. I spent a little too long waiting for the game to grab me, and even then it never did. I found the combat to be rather bland, and the levels to be quite repetitive. That’s not too bad though, considering realistically you can beat the game in a single sitting. Generally, it was a decent way to kill an afternoon, but ultimately, its about as standard as it gets. 6/10

Limbo (PS3)

Limbo has been one of those games that I’ve watched from the sidelines. A lot of people praise it, it’s earned a lot of respect in the indie community, but it’s never really shot to the top of my to-play list. That was until the developer released “Inside” earlier this year to the same critical acclaim. Right off the bat, Limbo makes you feel like it’s a game with more style than substance, but as you play you get given more in-depth challenges with more dangerous obstacles. By and large its a puzzle game, but each brain teaser keeps you on your toes and forces you to think differently using the game’s design and logic to win the day. Visually its impressive. The dark tones create a brilliant atmosphere, as does the eerie soundtrack. It’s also a game with little to no frustration. If you fail a puzzle, you die; but you respawn so quickly, that the whole trial and error prospect doesn’t seem too bad. Honestly I wish more games did this. It’s a little on the short side, pretty much beatable in two sittings, but it’s just about the right amount of enjoyment. Like a French Fancy cake. 9/10

Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam Bros (3DS)

In spite of the fanbase, I actually like the recent run Mario and Luigi games. I mean, of course the original DS trilogy is better, but these are hardily trash. Hell, I actually think Paper Jam Bros gets the series staples bang on. It has refined and purified all prior game problems to create an experience that is efficient in its execution, and one that never asks too much from the player involved. With that said, it is strange then that this game is not the series best. I can’t really describe it, but it just feels as though this game is missing somewhat of a soul. Don’t get me wrong, the music is great again; it’s visually interesting; the battles are really clever and can be quite strategic; the writing and humour is some of the series’ best; and the overall gameplay is fun. But it’s something beneath it all. There’s no grandness to the adventure. No point or reason to having it. It just feels like an idea that, whilst done well, didn’t really have the weight to go anywhere. Structurally it’s not terrific either, with the game bouncing back and forth between the main adventure and mini-games. The mini-games do offer a nice distraction, but they aren’t really paced properly, which can make them feel completely out of place more than once. And if they aren’t thrown in at random occasions, they’re predictable. It all feels by the numbers really. The game is great, and in no way do I regret playing it; but it just doesn’t have the same quality and heart as previous entries. 8/10

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4)

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Shadow of Mordor doesn’t have an original bone in its body. Realistically, this isn’t a bad thing. It has the free roaming and wall climbing mechanics of Assassin’s creed, whilst also bringing in the combat and stealth segments of the Arkham games. In many ways, it delivers on the best of both worlds - albeit in a little clunky fashion. I did like the “power system” though, a near limitless roster of ranked orcs that you can take out, sometimes more than once, and the overall interface was quite intuitive. Graphically it looked great too, and the background music was atmospheric and cinematic right when it needed to be. The story too is quite interesting, offering not just an adaption of the events preceding the Lord of the Rings, but also an enormous amount of lore to get stuck into. Not to mention the side quests and bonus content available if you’re willing to put in the time. Sadly, in spite of all it’s good qualities, and there are a lot, the fact that there isn’t really anything that makes this game stand out from the crowd can lead people to just shrug it off. The final boss is also incredibly anti-climactic - unless of course you pay for the DLC which gives you a “better” send off. Typical WB; what are games for if you can’t make money off of them, amiright? 8/10

Overwatch (XBO)

I’m repeating myself. Multiplayer focused games just aren’t my thing. I can appreciate the design, and I can love the overall experience, but the games just do not have the power to hold me for longer than a week. With that in mind, Overwatch is incredibly enjoyable, with a few minor drawbacks. The cartoony style looks lush and interesting, and the characters are all beautifully realised and unique. The maps are quick and frantic, leading to some genuine fun and epic moments. It’s not all smiles and celebrations though. Naturally there are some pros out there who can play this game blindfolded, which in turn can make some matches incredibly one sided, and when there’s a heavy emphasis on teamwork, having that one teammate that does nothing, or even having a smaller team than the opposition, can make things un-fun very quickly. Fortunately, there is an option to play against CPUs, but these matches do not give out the same rewards to playing against real people. The rewards themselves are also meagre. They’re random, can be duplicated, and half the time they’re locked behind micro-transactions. You’re essentially gambling to get worthwhile skins and other cosmetics. Beyond all of this, there isn’t much the game offers, but I will say that when you’re playing with friends, it is a lot of fun. Definitely for its competitive audience, but that doesn’t necessarily include me. 8/10

Pokken Tournament (Wii U)

I feel I should point this out now. This game’s score is attributed exclusively to the gameplay. By that I mean the fighting. Whether its between you and a friend or the computer, it’s fun. Combat is surprisingly in depth, offering a lot to fighting fans, and the graphics are spectacular. Plus there are plenty of characters to choose from, so you can tell this had some effort and thought put into it. As for everything else though, it’s a little bare bones, and frankly tedious. For starters, all you can do is fight; and you fight a lot. There is literally nothing else this game has to offer. There is a story that pans out as you play through the game’s “league mode” (essentially a ranked arcade mode) but beyond that all you can do is fight. Over and over again. The way the league matches are organised is incredibly repetitive and asks for a lot of patience out of the player. As a comparison, imagine being asked to play street fighter’s arcade mode upwards of 8 times just to advance to the next bit. Sounds like a slog doesn’t it? Furthermore, the menus are intrusive and, as a result, make the player less inclined to change their fighter during the main modes - given that you have to pick a default fighter from the start that can only be changed by going to the main menu itself. Finally, the voice acting; oh god the voice acting. Not only is it obnoxious coming from your “guide” character - who will not shut up unless you switch her off - but it is also woefully bad. Delivery is a farce with lines and emphasis not matching up, and the general dialogue sounds like it was written by a 5 year old with no idea what pronouns are. Still, the gameplay is good. 7/10

Rhythm Paradise Megamix (3DS)

I’ve never played a Rhythm Paradise game before, and really, I didn’t exactly want to. They looked like fun, but when they were being packaged and retailed at the same price as other, far more in-depth games, I couldn’t bring myself to get into them. When Nintendo announced they were going to be releasing what is essentially a collection of the entire series up to now though, well that was a different story. Honestly, I’m kinda glad I skipped the series before now, as I can experience the greatness of the franchise in all its glory all at once. I’ve got to say, RPM is an absolute blast. Brimming with life, colour, and most importantly, rhythm, the game is almost impossible to put down. It’s highly addictive and more fun than you might think. Plus there’s actually a lot of content to get through, with challenges, highscores, and unlockables. The best thing going though is the soundtrack. Every stage has a completely original song made just for it, and each one is wonderful to listen to. I often found myself playing through the same levels over and over again just for the hell of it. If I had any draw backs, I’d have to say its more what they could have done, or should have done, but didn’t. For example, the perfect campaign, the ability to earn rewards by clearing a level without missing a single note, shouldn’t even exist; Three goes and then it kicks you out? Why? Why not instead just have it always on the level and then if you fail it doesn’t stop the song and boot you? Also sometimes the margin for error varies too much and occasionally button presses aren’t recognised on some of the faster games. Finally, why is there no randomizer option, or playlist function? These seem like no brainers to me, as the game is already the perfect down-time game. Ah well, the game is still a lot of fun, and I think I’ll be humming its beats until the day I die. BA BOM BOM BOM! 8/10

Rise of the Tomb Raider (XBO)

Tomb Raider’s latest reboot was a brilliant surprise last year, so I couldn’t wait to dig into this one. Right away, it certainly ups the ante. The game plays a lot smoother and the newer mechanics give depth and strategy to the overall experience. Lara’s character is irresistibly good, and still retains a lot of her strengths from the last game, but the good news is, they’re actually taken further here. The developers could have easily carted out the same old Lara, but it’s good to see they really care about her as a character. Now, Lara’s much more tenacious without being over-confident. She’s vulnerable, but resourceful; and she’s formidable but not impervious. The way she develops as she goes ties into the game’s title really well; this is Lara truly becoming the Tomb Raider we want her to be. Stealth elements are beyond intuitive. Everything flows without coming to a standstill and it’s all incredibly simple. Crafting items like bombs and Molotov cocktails in the midst of battle can also shake things up, and the layout and design compliment these elements perfectly. Everything is laid out so well that, if you play your cards right, you can take down an entire platoon of enemies without them even seeing you in a matter of seconds. In terms of content, there’s a lot to do and find, and the interface is so useful that the path to 100% is rather straightforward. Negatives? It does feel a little shorter than its predecessor, although I don’t know if that’s because the individual areas are a lot bigger or not. I don’t know. Honestly, I really struggle to find fault with this game. It was a lot of fun to play, and on top of that, it’s incredibly well made. 9/10

Shantae (GBC - 3DS Virtual Console)

After playing and loving Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse last year, I thought I’d go right back to the beginning with the Gameboy Colour original. And how was it? Well...let’s just say it’s certainly come a long way. Oh the game is good. It’s a lot of fun, with a startling amount of content for a Gameboy Colour title, but it is a little rough around the edges. Not only is a lot of the game not really laid out for you (forcing you to question whether or not you’re going the right way) but it’s also unspeakably difficult. Like, immediately this game pulls no punches at all. From the get-go it’s hard, with enemies doing a hell of a lot of damage, and Shantae herself being unable to hit them without getting really close. Not only that but there are insta-death zones everywhere, and also there’s a day and night feature which rotates every 5 minutes. How is that bad? Well enemies take twice as long to kill and do twice as much damage at night. This can make a lot of areas unplayable in the dark in the earlier stages, and as the game is designed in a metroid-type way, there’s a lot of back tracking involved, so you’ll be passing through the same areas a lot. Finding the warp squids makes travel less cumbersome, mind, but even so it doesn’t make exploring the wilderness any easier; a lot of the game’s secrets frankly require a strategy guide. By the end though, despite the unforgiving difficulty, I was somewhat sad to leave it all behind. I did have a lot of fun when all was said and done, and even though I’ll probably never play it again, I would recommend it to those looking for some retro adventure gaming. 8/10

Star Fox Zero (Wii U)

Here we are: arguably the most divisive game of 2016. One half claiming it’s great, with a lot of value and charm; whilst the other half calls it a broken piece of trash that doesn’t work. Frankly, I have no idea what the latter group is on about. Star Fox Zero is a fantastic game that’s a hell of a lot of fun to play. It looks brilliant, with a style that seems to be both realistic and retro at the same time, and the music is really engaging and great to listen to. The opening level has one of the best tracks to get the blood pumping. Honestly, going in I had reservations. I was worried about the controls. I feared they would get in the way of the gameplay, but I was surprised. In fact, I played the entire first level without even using them. Plus, they’re customisable to a degree, so you can mix and match to suit your style. Granted there are some learning curves later on, specifically with the walker, but as far as I’m concerned, if you’re willing to put in the time, you’ll be rewarded in spades. If I did have any problems I would say that the branching paths don’t really feel like proper levels, as they’re more like bonus levels; I wish the game wasn’t just a reboot of the series; and the final boss almost doesn’t feel like the final boss; but realistically that’s it. The controls are fine unless you have literally zero patience or tolerance for trying something new, and half the time you can play without them. And on top of all of this, it has the best tribute to Mr Iwata. I’m just glad to have Star Fox back. I’ve missed you, buddy. 8/10

Steamworld Dig: A Fistful of Dirt (3DS - eShop)

Steamworld Dig is an odd game to talk about. I don’t really know where to begin. On the one hand I could call it a dungeon crawler - although that’s not entirely accurate - and on the other I could say its an exploration adventure game. Tell you what, I’ll go with the title. Dig. Because that’s what you do. You dig. Downwards and sideways and sometimes even upwards. That’s practically 90% of the game. And it’s awesome. Who would have thought a game that asks you to do the same menial task again and again within seconds of each other would not only be fun but also incredibly addictive. Forging your own way through the underworlds below, finding treasure and mining ore as you go, as well as uncovering more of the plot, all come together into a highly enjoyable package. There’s just something incredibly soothing and cathartic about smashing a rock until it breaks. I rarely got tired of it. Even when I did, I was back to playing it after a few hours. It’s just a blast, surprisingly. There are a few downsides of course. It’s a little on the short side, even with the different worlds to uncover and the music is rather standard outside of the main theme, but these are just minor details when all is said and done. Pick it up if you can, it’s certainly good for a weekend. 8/10

Super Luigi U (Wii U)

Can DLC really count as its own standalone game on this list? When it’s released as its own retail copy it does. And what a strange one it is. It’s not Super Luigi U, it’s New Super Mario Bros. U + New Super Luigi U. That’s the name of the game. Meaning when I put it in my Wii U, the console had no idea about my NSMBU save file. But I digress. Super Luigi U is all right. Well it wasn’t really going to be anything special when it’s essentially built on top of a pre-existing game, but I do like what it’s trying to do. All stages are practically speed runs, with only 100 seconds on the clock, and a number of challenges between you and the goal. This is probably the game’s best feature. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I was trudging my way through another Mario title, but rather breezing through it at an alarming pace. It’s also pretty straightforward to 100%, even if Luigi plays like he’s on roller-skates and some of the levels are a little on the difficult side. At the end of the day though there was no shaking that this title didn’t really feel like its own game. I mean, I know it isn’t and that it’s DLC, but still. It’s more of a pleasant distraction than anything else. I would like to see Nintendo do more with Luigi, but until they start giving him his own proper space, instead of having him just run around in Mario’s, he’s always going to be second rate. 7/10

Tengami (Wii U - eShop)

Tengami to me is a classic style over substance game. There is some substance admittedly, but this game is clearly built on its look; which is paper. More specifically, origami. I do have a soft spot for it though. Having everything being treated like a literal story book, turning over pages and such, it did bring a certain charm to the game. Then again, it was developed by ex-rare staff, so we’re clearly dealing with some talent. It’s essentially a point-and-click puzzle game, but when I think about it there actually weren’t that many puzzles. The puzzles it did have were great, with some intriguing and inspired brain teasers, but it would have been good to see some more. Easily the game’s biggest strength though is it’s soundtrack, which honestly floored me with how good it was. This game came out in 2014, along with Shovel Knight, Bravely Default, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, and Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze. It got me thinking: 2014 was a bloody good year for Video Game music. Speaking of Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, the soundtrack is done by the same guy; the irrefutably gifted David Wise. He captures such mysterious nuances to everything he puts his hand to here, and it’s truly remarkable. Even if you’ve never played the game, I implore you to look up the soundtrack. I’m going a little off topic here, so let’s talk about Tengami’s problems. For starters, it’s short. Alarmingly so in fact. I beat it in a single sitting and with very few moments of pause; which is even more damning when you take into account the other major flaw. The game’s nameless hero moves so - bloody - slow. It’s painful sometimes, and god forbid you forget to do something before you move on because back tracking is an absolute chore. Overall, I don’t regret playing it, and if you’re looking for a decent game to unwind to, look no further; just be prepared to wait a while for your character to get his arse in gear. 7/10

Theatrhythum Final Fantasy Curtain Call (3DS)

Hey, big shock, I like Video Game music. You wouldn’t know it, would you? All joking aside, Video Game music is some of the best music out there in my opinion, and it’s a shame it doesn’t get more attention. So when a title comes along that takes video game music and makes an entire game around it, you know I’m down - especially when the music in question belongs to Final Fantasy. Theatrhythum Final Fantasy Curtain Call is a sequel of sorts. I played and enjoyed the first game, and found myself getting addicted to it, so it was only natural I played the follow up. Funny thing is, it’s not really a follow up, or a sequel, it’s more of an ultimate edition. This game is the first game again, only with a bazillion more things in it. It’s a rhythm game with some of the best songs in the Final Fantasy library; only now there are over 200 songs to play through, on multiple difficulties. Yikes! No joke, the way the game works, I hadn’t even played all the songs once by the time I reached the credits. Plus, you keep unlocking new songs as you go, which just adds to the playtime, and, whilst the first game just featured the main canonical Final Fantasy games with a few bonus extras thrown in, this game features music from any game with Final Fantasy in the title. It’s insane. Plus it doesn’t just stop there. There’s also a cool adventure-type mode, that sees you playing song after song, sometimes on the hardest difficulty to reach the end. You have to play through these if you want to get even close to unlocking everything. Oh did I mention the unlockables. As well as extra songs, the game also has extra characters, collectable cards, and Sound Test items to unlock. AND THEN, even though it has SO MANY SONGS to begin with, there are DLC songs too, just in case you were thinking of giving up on the real world altogether. This game has so much in it, in the end I just had to cut the cord whilst I was still plugged in. For the sake of my health I just had to put it down for good and walk away. Definitely a great time, but be careful you don’t lose yourself to it. 8/10

Thomas Was Alone (PS3)

One of the more random games I decided to pick up this year, Thomas Was Alone is a fun, quirky, and most of all funny puzzle game. I got plenty of Portal vibes off this game while I was playing. The dialogue is so witty and humorous. Add that to Danny Wallace’s excellent comedic delivery and you’ve got a game that has you laughing on every stage. Graphically the game is lacking, although this is intentional, and the same goes for it’s soundtrack. But the design and narration easily make up for the absences. It’s a little short, but it’s charming. No other game has given faceless, coloured shapes personalities before. That’s got to count for something. 8/10

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)

The Uncharted series has been on my back log for a long time, but this year - with the release of Uncharted 4 - I decided to finally get stuck in. And it’s ok. That’s it. Sorry, Sony-boys, the original Uncharted is only just above average in my opinion. Maybe for its time it was a much better example, but right now it’s a little dated. Graphically it’s not too bad, though environments are rather stagnant, and the music is very cinematic, but the gameplay is rather bland. Combat is tiresome, with firefights being overly long and boring. Seriously, you take on something like thirty guys every time; what other word is there but tedious. Then there’s the puzzle segments of which there aren’t that many. Most of the time you’re climbing which is equally as overplayed as the combat, and when that’s your lot it doesn’t take long for the game to get a little exhaustive. The structure here is also questionable. When Nathan Drake steps foot in a secret chamber no one has been in for centuries, why are there suddenly armed guards to take out in there? Basically, it seems combat is used as a device to add variety to the exploration, but there are surely more and better ways to do this. The best qualities this game has however are the plot, which is highly engaging, and the characters who are irresistibly likeable at all times. The overall gameplay is fine - although very clunky and rough around the edges - and for the most part it is enjoyable enough. A decent first effort from Naughty Dog but nothing truly spectacular. 7/10

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Coming off the back of Uncharted 1, I didn’t really have a lot of enthusiasm for the sequel. But, a lot of people had said that it was ultimately a better game and so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Thankfully, it paid off. Among Thieves is a much tighter experience than its predecessor. The story is just as good as the first, and of course the characters and writing remain brilliantly entertaining; but on top of this Naughty Dog have worked on the faults of the first game. Combat is much more balanced, with firefights now making a lot more sense, and there are a lot more environments to explore. There are also a lot more puzzles, although 90% of the solutions require climbing. Fortunately, that too has been improved, with Nathan moving a lot quicker and seamlessly from foothold to foothold. General variety is up too, with combat not just being the only thing to do. Generally the whole game is a mark up from the last one, but there are still a few problems. It does still feel clunky moving about - more than once Nathan swan dove off a ledge I didn’t want him to go near - and some of the newer elements, more specifically the stealth aspect, don’t exactly work. All it needs is a button prompt when you’re close enough to do a stealth takedown, but because it’s not there, Nathan just swings his fists like a maniac and draws all the attention to himself instead. Luckily, no parts of the game require stealth, but it’s frustrating none the less when you want to be stealthy but the game messes you up. In the end I gave up on sneaking and just went in guns blazing. All in all Uncharted 2 is a much better game and seems to be going in the right direction. A few weak areas here and there hold it back and I’m still waiting to be absolutely blown away but it’s definitely a great game. 8/10

Undertale (PC)

I am a firm believer that video games are art. Art - to me - is a means of expression that can be interpreted in different ways by different people on top of connecting emotionally with the viewer. So basically, so long as the user is connected and is invested in someone else’s creation, it is art. Now, not all video games should be considered art, but there are nevertheless plenty out there that could. Undertale is one of those games. Quite frankly, this game is a masterpiece. Part RPG, part bullet hell, not only does it do new things and break the mould of its genres but it also exemplifies the video game experience. Now I’m sure I’m not the first person you’ve heard say these things about this game, but I’m in earnest. This game is a triumph. In many ways, Undertale is the true Citizen Kane of gaming. Like Orson Welles, Toby Fox is pretty much a one man army with this project. Designer, Director, Writer, and Musician, among many other things I’m sure. Speaking of musician, can I take a moment to bring up how immaculate the soundtrack is. It’s easily the one of the best video game soundtracks of the decade. Every track is perfection and immediately recognisable, not to mention incredibly well made. Gameplay is excellent and intuitive, and it’s one of the games where the player’s actions directly impact the game as a whole. This is a game that rewards you for not killing, and vice versa. Beating the game on a pacifist run (do not kill a single enemy) will give you arguably the true ending to the game, whilst beating it on a genocide run (kill literally every living thing in the game - yes, that’s a genuine possibility) will result in the game being broken forever. I never had the guts to attempt a genocide run. For starters the characters are too endearing and full of life, but also because, if you constantly kill, the game openly does what it can to make you feel like a horrible person as you play. Music becomes distorted, your inner monologue becomes much more hateful and aggressive, and characters and NPCs regard you with fear. It’s seriously messed up. Honestly, the pacifist run alone is what made this game truly exceptional. I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but I’ll just say during the perfect pacifist run something happens that changes the way you see this game. All previous assumptions get turned on their heads. That sudden change in perception is what cemented this game as a work of art. I thought it was just a brilliant and fun game, but it’s something a lot more special. Undertale is the real deal; the genuine article, and you owe it to yourself to play it if you haven’t already. 10/10

Yoshi's New Island (3DS)

Ah, Yoshi’s New Island; or as I like to call it: Yoshi’s DO IT ALL AGAIN. This game is just disappointing, and I’m saying that after going in with low expectations. It’s hard to believe this game came out in the same year as Yoshi’s Woolly World (i.e. a vastly superior game). Presentation is lazy, soundtrack is obnoxious, and level design is bland and generic. I also find it ironic that the game calls itself Yoshi’s *NEW* island, and yet it seems hellbent on re-enacting the original SNES game. Every world is themed and structured identically to it, but whereas then it made sense given the structure of the island, here it doesn’t work. Why is world 5 a snow world? In the original it was because you were climbing the mountains, but here it’s just snowy. The game as a whole adds a little bit here and there, but nothing ultimately earth-shattering, and it’s not exactly hard. The overall design is just unfair for completionists though. The way collectables are placed can lead to some genuine fury, and if you end up missing that one red coin, that’s right, you have to do the whole level again! Not surprised I gave up on 100%-ing this after a while. Oh, and as if to throw in some form of self awareness, the final boss repeats itself. Nothing changes, it just asks you to, literally, do it - all - again! Fine as a “Babies First Yoshi�� game, but for fans, stay away. 5/10

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itsuki-minamy · 4 years

Text

“K - THE FIRST STORY”

CHAPTER 3: THE SWORD, THE CAT, AND THE SEVEN KINGS (Part 1)

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: Ridia

* Prologue: Side: The Boy * Chapter 1: The boy named Isana Yashiro * Chapter 2: Flames

Kuro Yatogami had a mission to fulfill. It is not an exaggeration to say that it means the meaning of living for the current Kuro.

(I ask you, Kuro.)

Miwa said from the hospital bed, and looked at him with compassionate eyes.

Kuro found it difficult to imagine living in a world without Miwa. For Kuro, Miwa's existence was a sign of life. He was worried because he lost him and didn't know if he could walk forward properly.

It may have been because of that Kuro that Miwa announced his death. Even after he died, Miwa showed him the way to go.

On the rooftop of the building in front of Shizume-cho station, Kuro was pointing his sword at a boy.

The boy seems guilty of his sins and is confused by what he does not remember.

But the evidence is already available. From now on, Kuro will kill this boy.

The sword arm has been trained since he was little. However, he has never killed anyone. It would be a lie if he said that he is not scared, but there is no doubt.

(This is the last difficult task.)

Miwa's smiling face after entrusting his life to Kuro was revived, and Kuro focused on the hand holding the sword.

The sword "Kotowari" that Miwa entrusted to him to fulfill his last mandate. He will not needlessly unsheathe this sword.

"Isana Yashiro!"

Kuro proudly pronounced the name the boy gave himself. Grab the handle of the sword with both hands and prepare.

"The word of the seventh king, Miwa Ichigen, is to take your life."

"Wait a minute!"

"Take this!"

The boy turned around and started running.

Kuro didn't chase after him, activating his right hand. It is the power to ignore space and grab the desired object, manifested as a member of the Colorless Clan. He can call it an invisible hand.

Kuro grabs the boy's neck and uses his long, invisible hand to hang him up in the air so he can't escape.

"Are you really going to kill me?!"

The boy screamed, flapping his limbs in the air unsteady. Kuro lowers his eyebrows at the evil of his death.

"Resign yourself!"

"No! I'm innocent! Is it Miwa's order to kill an innocent person?!"

"Innocent?"

Kuro turned his eyes to a huge monitor on the wall of the building. There was still a still image of the boy holding a gun with an evil look.

Kuro released the ability of the right hand dangling the boy. Catch the falling boy with one hand, turn around and look at the giant monitor.

The boy looked ridiculous at the motionless evidence.

"Ah... I may not seem innocent. But aren't you saying it right? People aren't watching, let's judge from the content."

"My idea is that people are not what they seem, they are not what they are on the inside, they should be judged for their actions."

"No, that's why I'm telling you it's not me! You're wrong!"

"No matter how you look at it, it's you. Don't swear wrong!"

"My Lord is not in this country. It is only Miwa's word."

The boy drowned as if he had lost his power.

"Ok... I can't help saying this. Boil me or bake me, whatever you want."

"Finally ripe."

"But in the end, please allow me to make a request."

When a dying person asks him to make a final request, he can't do anything, but Kuro thought about it for a moment and then replied, "Tell me."

When he released the captured hand, the boy took a seat across from Kuro.

“I want to write a suicide note. To my sister."

"Sister?!"

"Yes. To remember me. I can't help you trust my innocence. But I don't want my sister to believe that someone else killed me."

Criminals have families too. That's obvious. However, Kuro got upset when he was hit by the obvious.

His sister is not guilty. Even though she was sick and hospitalized, he wondered how sad she would be if she didn't have her brother, and Kuro went hard.

The boy took out a sheet of paper and a pen to write a suicide note and wrote something soft. Facing the suspicious boy who decided to make a decision, Kuro asked a question.

"What is your sister's name?"

"Marilyn."

"What?"

"Oh, yes, Mari. She's Mari."

"Isana Mari. It's a good name."

The boy's pen stopped and the completed suicide note was folded and presented to Kuro.

"Thanks. Well done. Hey, but will you give this to my sister?"

Imagine a little girl crying in a hospital bed, Kuro took a break. The boy ran to Kuro, who was holding his hand to grab that, and said...

"Please. No one else can ask. Because my sister will be alone for the rest of her life..."

When Kuro picked up the letter, the boy stepped back a bit.

He looked at the folded suicide note written in a short time, like a shopping note, and carefully opened it.

Kuro averted his eyes, at the thing that jumped into his sight.

"What is this?!"

When he raised his face, the boy opened a red umbrella and had a round object in his hand, be it a bomb or a firework.

Before Kuro could recover from his surprise, the boy dropped the round object in his hand onto the concrete and turned his back on it.

Frush! An intense light flooded the rooftop. Kuro closes his eyes and covers his face with his arms.

When the light that had lasted for a few seconds faded and Kuro opened his eyes, there was no one there.

The brochure the boy was looking at next to it is fluttering and rolling. It was a brochure from a store called "BAR Marilyn", depicting a shameful woman with her skirt up.

Kuro stood still and silent for a while as the wind ruffled his long hair.

Once found, Kuro ran down the ladder into the building, with a strong determination to strike and slash without question.

++++++++++

Kusanagi had decided not to choose the media that day.

Kusanagi looked at the vehicle that was parked. The interior of the car has been remodeled to make it a temporary information room filled with PC devices.

"How's the 'bounty announcement' going?"

"I'll upload it right now!"

Akagi answered Kusanagi's question and hit the "Enter" key on the computer.

The video of the criminal boy who was still on the huge monitor in front of the Shizume-cho station was changed and the announcement began to flow.

In the vehicle, the PDA of the member of "Homura", who is the reception desk at the same time, begins to ring.

"Yes, this is 'Homura'. Are you the person providing the information?"

"Oh, yes. Ten million. What? It's not a lie. Would you mind not speaking ill of us?"

Seeing Akagi and his friends busy, Kusanagi climbed onto the ladder attached to the back of the truck and looked up at the ceiling.

Talk to Anna, a girl in a red dress, sitting on the roof of the vehicle and looking at the map seriously.

"Did you find something, Anna?"

On the map Anna looked at, several red marbles roll by themselves.

Anna stared at the marbles without responding for a while. Kusanagi silently watches over his whereabouts so as not to disturb her concentration.

Finally, the rolling marbles gathered in a certain place and stopped.

"Here."

There was immediate reaction to the group call from the online criminal search members.

“This is a clue! I get it. I'll go immediately!"

The violent voice that answered is Yata's. It seems that he has come a long way, perhaps due to the regret that the black dog has rid himself of the criminal in front of his.

"I went into an alley that is not on the map, hahaha."

"Don't laugh, stupid!"

“Understood… This is Kamamoto. Hmm... I can't let go of my hands, and a little more... Ah, add fried rice!"

"Don't buy any more food!"

"Hey, who are you? What did you say about "Homura"?"

"Ah, is there someone who has made a fool of 'Homura'? Put a marker in the place, we go immediately!"

Kusanagi laughed bitterly as he smoked a cigarette and listened to the loud exchanges of the members.

“Search correctly. Ah, I don't know what to do with the black dog. I can´t help you. Kusanagi, over and out."

Kusanagi sighed slightly after leaving the group call despite Yata's unhappy voice.

"It's not okay, they're just kids."

++++++++++

Kuro was angry.

After all, he couldn't sympathize with the evil "King" and should hate that heinous assassin, Kuro bit his immaturity.

"I'm sorry, Ichigen-sama. However, tonight, I, Yatogami Kuro, am sure that I will fulfill my mission."

To be continued soon... Be patient, I will translate the chapter little by little.

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