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papers4me · 3 years

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Fruits Basket Manga Review ch (76 & 77)

So, I decided to read the manga mainly in search for a more natural balanced female presentation than the idealistic, shallower, savior depiction of tohru in the anime.

I’m intentionally skipping all the chapters of her as a (mother figure) in yuki’s life & won’t read them or even visit them for comparison with the anime. I love yuki’s growth story & the unique depiction of his platonic relationship with tohru, but if his mother-tohru phase was a drink, then the anime has force fed it to me till it came from my nose! So, for yuki, I’ll be reading his growth past-his mother confession.

I’ve consulted my lovely manga readers friends & thy recommended starting from ch 90 since the content in that chapter was completely cut! but some recommended checking kyoto chapters first since they contain a nice glimpse of the author’s style & artistic vision. Kyoto ep in the anime isn’t focused on “mom-tohru” so, i like the idea! I’ll jump to ch 90 right after ch 77.

- Subtle growth of a woman ( Clash of visions & presentation between the manga’s “ Loosing the wallet with mom’s photo vs the anime’s fractured photo frame):

I really love the underlined connotation of tohru loosing her “mom” unknowingly! In the anime, this scene played without any reference to kyoko & tohru’s attachment to her. We saw tohru the teenage girl confused as she experience romantic love for the first time. Nothing more than that. But the manga says “ Main female MC is way deeper than a (mom-figure) or a (girl in love), In this panel, tohru chases after kyo & unknowingly looses her famous wallet containing her mom’s picture. Here’s what this subtly indicates:

Normally, tohru would notice right away that her wallet is missing, here she never even notice until kyo suggest they hang out together. Subtly indicating that tohru is moving further & further from her phase of “ an afraid, grieving, abandoned child clinging to her mom”.

Normally, tohru would panic, say “ mom is missing” & everyone around her goes into search mode to make tohru at ease (hiro’s ep). Here once she notices, she says “ my wallet is missing” & kyo relaxed & laughingly gives her her wallet back. While he goes to bring the wallet, tohru instead of thinking “ oh nearly lost mom!” is musing over the fact that “it’s strange that kyo can make me happy or sad with one word only”. Subtly indicating that tohru is replacing her mom with kyo as part of growing up from the child she was to the woman she will be.

Tohru calling kyo “mysterious”, subtly explains that tohru is in the uncertain phase of understanding her feelings as a woman & hence, pave the path for upcoming trauma exploration & psychological depth.

The entire scene in the manga is depicted to convey different layers: romance, upcoming growth, & unexplored traumatic issues of abandonment, grief, & human weakness. “ Accepting human Weakness & change” IS the manga’s vision.

In the anime, the fractured picture worked simply becuz no issues of any traumatic experiences with tohru were ever hinted. Nothing abt tohru being a young woman moving away from a traumatic childhood was ever implied beside the weakly sharply cut & forgotten few scenes of her mysteriously going “ im okay” while remembering her dad’s shrine. Was there ever anything abt replacing her mom with kyo? Nope!. Was there anything abt tohru reluctance of loving kyo? Nope! to fix that, let’s shock the audience with empty photo frame! It’ll make the viewers confused & if we play the climax right & give tohru a tearjerker speech confronting akito, all is good. It worked in the anime as it served the purpose it was created for: shock value & drama. ppl bought it. But in the long run, it cemented tohru as the “savior angel” never the “ weak human”. But not many will have issues with that. Having yuki with his impressive story of growth & kyo with his shocking story of pain is enough to distract from the rest. The director must think: What does the audience want?

a woman who’d save the prince with her motherly care?“ Done!”.

a woman who’d love the monster? “ Done !”.

a woman who has her own deep story? no one will miss that~ skip!

-Yuki’s next stage of growth: Friends:

I like how smoother the scene played here. Yes, yuki thinks back to his gratitude to tohru, but it plays subtly & more emphasis is on his friendship with kakeru. No added scene of him waving back to tohru after kakeru which brought the focus back to mom-tohru again. No. Here is way less shoved in your throat. Yuki says how he felt in the moment, moved on to the next stage, thought abt his life & choives, moved on to school. Clear lines that makes yuki more dynamic & way less “ living in his head” character.

Side Notes:

The manga’s art is pretty but expressive! I was afraid it’ll have that weird eyes bigger than the moon & too much sparkles & bubbles like the usual old shojo manga art!

Yuki is way more expressive than the anime & less pretty & sparkly! I welcome this with flowers & songs! lol.

Tohru has “low” pigtails instead of the child-like high pigtails! YES! it is crazy that this trivial change adds so much to tohru’s presentation to the viewers’ eyes. In real life no big deal but in an artistic medium such choices send subliminal messages to viewers minds, that’s why artists spend a lot of time choosing their characters default appearance. It means a lot for the character’s overall path & sends messages. High child-like pigtails: make her look like innocent & naive child since viewers usually associate such hair do with children & toddlers. Low pigtails: are cute girly style that we associate with teenagers & young adult women, it’s practical & cute.

Kyo’s looks as youthful & handsome as the anime but less angry, annoyed & more versatile in his expression! It always bothered me that the anime just go with kyo’s default frowned face, hands in pocket looks unless he should express a key emotion. Also, kyo without an undershirt in his uniform! interesting change from the anime.

I missed kyo’s two buddies! T_T. Why they weren’t in the anime’s finale.. could’ve at least put them in the underwhelming graduation ceremony ~

I really appreciate that yuki’s fanclub are one page, less annoying.

That awkward moment when a manga panel drawn by one person can depict a crowded city more than an anime with a huge team. Like the anime didn’t even need to zoom out for a huge wide shot that showcase its weakness in depicting a crowded city. If you can’t draw that, just zoom in to lessen the effect of emptiness. kyoto isn't a deserted area especially not during a school trip!

The teachers checking on the sneaking vs sleeping students scene is a welcoming sight! XDDD

Hana met kakeru before? saw him & tohru together? weird!!

Kakeru is more focused on tohru here.

I really love the photos taken for everybody. It indicates real good time! Hana eating, yuki around girls, arisa annoyed, kyo teased with playing card: did the play “rich man poor man” again? XD

I’m starting to love yuki more in the manga than the anime!

Kyo having short inner thought abt not being able to tell tohru a girl confessed to him & deciding to say “ none of ur business” is doing wonders to the scene!!! it makes him less mean to tohru & more balanced character. I mean I guessed so in the anime, but what could've prevented making the VA say this short line of inner thought?! Yuki’s VA says essays & essays in nearly every ep abt nearly every character?!.

I liked the way kyo held tohru’s hands when he turned to her, the way he held her hand in the anime is a bit weird. lol. Also, in this scene, tender gentle kyo is so well-done both in the anime & manga. The manga wins for the zoom in & focus on emotions, tho.

Next is chapter 90!

#Fruits Basket #fruits basket manga #reading paper #manga reviwes #ch 76 #ch 77 #Anime Only

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potato-an0n · 3 years

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Part 2 of my really long oddly specific levihan now family fic no one asked for

(part 1 is right here)

Context for this: I'll be using Sophie's (aka drinkyourfuckingmilk) levihan children ocs, but made a few tweaks (here's more info on Samson and Leelu here)

Their personalities are still the same (well, I might tone down their crackhead-ness just a bit) the only difference is their birthdays, and instead of being 1 year apart, they're a few minutes apart, and Samson is the oldest twin by 5 minutes XD.

So...this is going to be REALLY long so be prepared for that.

Ok enjoy!

- Levi came up with the name Sam but Hange thought it sounded basic, so she came up with Samson.

- Levi also came up with Leighla, and then Hange started calling her Leelu as a nickname.

- Samson was a pretty loud baby as Leelu was pretty quiet, however she does get aggressive.

- Leighla once almost slapped Levi in the face when she was hungry.

- Samson makes weird noises whenever Levi is around, and he look at him confused, which made Samson giggle.

- Hange and Levi switch nights to watch over the twins.

- I can imagine Levi singing them to sleep and it actually works.

- Sometimes, Hange would watch from the door.

- Hange would ramble on and on about her experiments to the twins, despite Levi telling her they're not going to get it since they're babies and to at least wait until they can talk.

- When they take the twins outside, Samson would look around the environment they're in, meanwhile Leighla sleeps.

- Hange's parents came to visit to see the twins and offered to babysit them since Levi and Hange looked like they haven't slept, so they let Hange's parents babysit them as they catch up on some sleep.

- Kuchel and Kenny visited at one point to see the twins as well, and Kenny almost dropped Samson bc Samson wanted to be tossed.

- Levi was pissed but held back bc his mom, Hange and the twins are there, however, he didn't let Kenny carry him for awhile.

- The twins took a liking to Erwin, Mike, Nanaba, Moblit, Nifa, Farlan and Isabel.

- Samson and Leighla would sometimes pull on Isabel's pigtails.

- They also pulled Mike's hair and Leighla would lightly slap his face. Levi was amused by this.

- They were surprisingly calm when Erwin and Farlan held them. The twins would just stare at them and then lay on their shoulder.

- Nanaba played peek-a-boo with them and they seem to enjoy it.

- Moblit was a bit hesitant holding the twins, but they took a liking to him bc they started giggling.

- Samson took a huge liking to Nifa.

- Levi didn't feel comfortable with the twins around the 104th squad until they could stand (at least) bc he's afraid either they'll break the twins or the twins will break them.

- Mikasa asked about meeting the twins when she was helping out at the tea shop and went home with Levi to see them.

- Mikasa let out a soft smile as the twins started babbling to her and tried to touch her hair.

- She would try to get them to say her name but failed every time.

- Both Samson and Leighla are pretty active babies. Once they were able to crawl, they would crawl all over the house to the point where Hange would chase after them (she had fun chasing them around though and would praise at how active they are).

- Levi definitely baby proofed the house (and the tea shop)

- Once Hange was able to go back to work, Levi would take the twin to the tea shop to watch over them. They would be in the playpen in his office.

- Petra, Olou, Eld, Gunther, and Eren played with them a lot and gave them a lot of attention.

- As they were nearing their first birthday, the twins learned how to walk (or waddle) .

-Levi would watch them from afar in strict dad mode (aka how he usually is) but later eased up a bit.

- He gave the 104th kids a VERY stern warning to behave (specifically warned Jean, Eren and Connie), be gentle with the twins and made sure that their hands are clean.

- Samson loved the attention he was getting, meanwhile Leighla felt a bit overwhelmed until Armin carried her, she started to feel at ease.

- They occasionally enjoy Connie's silly peek-a-boo face.

- Sasha ate their baby snacks "on accident."

- Jean and Eren would bicker who the twins likes more, but turns out they like Armin, and Mikasa the most.

- Sometimes Ymir and Historia will join the 104th squad and play with the twins.

- Marco sometimes like to watch them crawl around and they'd chill on his lap sometimes.

- One time, Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie came into the tea shop and at first, they were confused on what's going on until they saw everyone was playing with Samson and Leighla.

- Samson and Leighla saw Bertholdt and started making grabby hands towards him.

- Bertholdt was a bit nervous, but held them anyways.

- When Bertholdt tried to give them back, they would NOT let go.

- Leighla did not like Annie. She got pretty aggressive when Annie tried to hold her at one point.

- Samson would poke Leighla repeatedly on her face to get her reaction until one time he accidentally poked her eye. She started to cry out of pain and then punched Samson in the face and he started crying.

- You can imagine how that went for Levi and Hange.

- Leighla and Samson were playing with the 104th squad and Leighla wanted Armin to carry her so her first word was Armin.

- Mikasa totally wasn't salty about that.

- The whole squad was freaking out and Armin felt honored.

- Leighla felt proud of herself.

- Levi was about to tell everyone to keep it down, but when he heard Leighla say her first word, he felt so proud of his little girl. He didn't show it, but when he took her to his office to feed her, he softly smiled at her and basically had a little father-daughter bonding time.

- Hange basically twirled her around screaming how she can now talk and smothered her with affections.

- The family was walking in the park, with Hange carrying Samson and Levi carrying Leighla. Samson spotted a butterfly and pointed at it saying bug.

- Hange started squealing "that's my boy!" and then gave a huge lecture on butterflies.

- Even though Samson has no idea what the heck she's saying, he seemed interested.

- Levi sighed, but gave Samson a soft smile and a pat on the head.

Toddlers- 4 years old

- They would make a mess in the living room bc they like to throw pillows at each other.

- Levi obviously scolded them and taught them how to pick up after themselves and where to put their toys away. Remind you they were toddlers.

- At least they learned where to put their toys and didn't scatter them onto the floor.

- They LOVE listening to Hange ramblings, especially Samson.

- She made bedtime stories more interesting, the twins looks forward to that.

- Levi would cuddle them close and listens to Hange telling them bedtime stories.

- Leighla really likes fairy tale stories, I would say her favorite would be Cinderella.

-Idk why, but I feel like Samson would like Alice in Wonderland, actually, they both like Alice in Wonderland.

- Hange would tell them the Grimms brothers version of the fairy tale classics, and although they were fascinated by it, in the long run.....that wasn't a good idea.

- Levi told Hange she shouldn't do that, but ofc, she didn't listen (spoiler, he gave her the "I told you so" look after an incident later in the future)

- Things started getting really busy at the tea shop, so grandma Kuchel would watch over them and they LOVE her, she's so sweet. She would tell them Levi's childhood stories.

- Isabel once babysat them and it was pretty chaotic. They made a blanket fort with her and they would cuddle up watching a movie together, it was so cute.

- Levi wasn't really happy that he's gonna have to clean that up but it was cute and the twins are in one piece so he let it slide.

- Hange took a picture.

- The twins liked riding on Mike's shoulders bc he's so tall.

- Nanaba would sometimes chase them around (idk I thought it'd be cute)

- One time, Hange brought her kids to her work and they wandered off.

- Luckily, Moblit found them in the lab staring at Hange's guinea pigs, Sawney and Bean.

- Moblit took them out for a bit so they can hold them.

- Hange came barreling into the lab out of breath and panicking to Moblit that she can't find the kids, only to find them playing with Sawney and Bean and Moblit.

- Hange ended up rambling about Sawney and Bean to the kids and went into too much detail.

- Nifa saw them playing with Sawney and Bean and decided to join them.

- When they go to the tea shop, Levi would lecture them on what rules to follow, things like not running around, disturbing the staff, steal pastries and don't exit the tea shop.

- Sometimes staff would make them iced fruit teas and give them a cookie to snack on.

- Connie would teach them how to do pranks. He had them one time sprinkle salt into Jean's tea and uhhh Jean spit it in Eren's face which resulted in a fight.

- Levi broke it up and was furious at Connie and the twins.

- He made Connie and the twins apologize and clean up the spill.

- He gave them a really strict lecture when they got home and uh, lets just say that was the first time they've seen Levi genuinely mad and it scared them a bit.

- Their punishment is to clean that they have to do house chores and help out with the tea cafe, they can't be with the 104th squad for a week.

- Hange bursted out laughing when she heard what they did, but stopped when she saw Levi wasn't happy.

- She could tell Levi had a stressful day, so she snuggled against him to comfort him.

- She saw the twins peaking from behind the entrance of the living room and called out to them to join them.

- They hesitantly went to into the living room and sat on the floor next to Hange.

- "What's wrong kiddos? Come here, don't be shy, it's just us."

- Samson and Leighla both squished each other on the left side of the couch and kinda hiding behind Hange.

- Hange picked up what's happening and brought the kids closer to them and gave them a pep talk.

- "Kids, I know you feel scared and guilty, but you know, even if you guys messed up, your dad and I still love you very much ok? And it's ok to make mistakes, it happens to the best of us, even you're perfectionist of a dad messes up sometimes, especially when we first got together but that's another story for when you kids are older. Anyways, the importance of making mistakes is that we make them so we learn from them and grow as people. And in the lab, we make mistakes or errors, but we don't give up, we learn from those errors and study past errors in order to find a way to thoroughly run an experiment and come to an accurate conclusion, there's this one experiment-"

"Hange, I think they get the point."

"Right, so in short, it's good you feel sorry for what you did, and it shows you genuinely care, but even though there will be times where we're going to have to be tough on you, we'll always love you ok?"

- Samson and Leighla apologized for their earlier actions and Levi apologized for yelling at them, and cue the sweet family bonding time on the couch.

This got way too long so part 3

#levihan #levi x hange #god this is really long #fuck how am i gonna do this once i finish writing my other fics #i clearly didn't think this through #levihan family

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yamithediaperdork · 3 years

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Happy Fathers Day (Mortal instruments..because..of course XD)

It was the annual father day picnic in central park, and while something semi scandalous seemed to happen every year, this year would be the one to take the proverbial cake. If nothing else one group of boys, close knit friends since they were in pre school together, would have a whole new world opened up to them. they were Alex and Jacob Wolfe, 12 year old twins with dirty blond hair that Jacob had in a mushroom cut while Alex kept his buzzed, Keith Ryan who had shoulder length brown hair and finally Kevin west, who kept his black hair buzzed down. Today while their four man band (At least that's what their dad's liked to call them, the boys all just rolled their eyes at that) where playing a game of football, waiting on their dad's to call them over for food, they got treated to a sight one may not of expected at a public park, at least not during the day. It was Jacob who noticed the sight first, stopping and starring and his jaw dropped which let the ball deck him in the face, but the pre-teen didn't seem to notice. "Dude, what's with you?" Keith asked, running up, annoyed since they were on the same team. "Jacob, you ok?" Alex asked, worried about his brother. "Oh man, he's gone comatose..tell me you didn't eat any of my dad's chilli. I warned you guys about that!" Kevin groaned. All Jacob could do was point, and the other three followed the finger, and joined him in drop jaw reactions. After all, it wasn't every day you saw a adult baby being lead into the park.

going back to a few days earlier, and Jace had been snuggling in his daddies arms. the shadow hunter had just finished a coming out party involving all of his closet friends and while not everyone was happy, they had been understanding and gushed about how cute he'd been in his barbie diaper and teddy bear top. Simon, the vampire daddy of the littlest monster killer had been semi glad about how well the party had gone, though he was also disappointed. "and then when Alec gave me head pats and said he knew it, had knew it fer years..ehehehehe your right daddy! Coming clean was the best thing to do!" Jace coo'ed, and nuzzled into Simon's chest. "Well to be fair, I guess I shouldn't of been shocked so many of them knew, since you've been wearing them to bed every night." Simon admitted and patted the boys soggy diaper. Barbie had long since faded away from the front but the diaper could take a bit more punishment, and with how often Jace went well, they had to make every diaper count. "And pull up's during the day, just like you told me to cuz I'm SUCH a good boy!" Jace beamed, all proud of himself for letting himself be sent back into 24/7 diaper wearing. "It's just..I dunno..I was mayybbeee..." Simon started and Jace giggled and smirked. "You wanted them to tease and torment me and make me a red faced big baby so I'd be super squirmy and cry baby~" Jace giggled. "Well tough! They were loving and understanding and I'm just all happy and want cuddles, not filled with massive humiliation and going into a whiny big baby mode!" Jace finished and blew a raspberry. "..You know. since you're gonna be my widdle guy 24/7.. I think we need to let even more people know and see the real you." Simon said, as he wiped the spittle from the raspberry off of his face. the fact he had a evil grin on his face made Jace gulp and lose his, and a muffled fart sounded from his rear. "...I don't like it when you get that look on your face daddy."

In the following days some steps were taken to help Jace be the little boy he wanted to be 24/7, even though Jace started regretting his decision to ask for it soon after. Step one was to gather up every adult piece of clothing that Jace wore, and have a nice big yard sale with them. the money was tucked away nice and next, and would be used not on booze or toy's, or anything like that. It went just right into Jace's diaper budget, with him going poopies at least 3 times a day, and diapers not being cheap. "This sucks! I should at least be able to get some toys!" Jace had argued. "well you can get a lot of toys, if we get you cloth diapers and plastic pants instead. but I'm not gonna be the one washing them or hanging them out to dry." Simon said as they sold the last of Jace's pants. the teenagers buying it had been laughing seeing Jace sitting there in a chair in just his diapers (with the weather being so nice and all) and laughed even more when they heard the argument. "But..but.I'm a baby! I don't do washing!" "and you don't get a say in what money is spent on. maybe if we'd been able to sell your undies we could of gotten you some action figures, but their just too skid marked and no one wants them, even at a nickle a pair." Jace huffed at that and in the end they did get rid of all 10 of Jace's undies, for 10 cents and they were sold to a blushing young man who couldn't stop looking at Jace. "Bet you he's gonna wear them all as like, a form of toddler pants." Simon said as the guy dashed off. "Pffft that's silly, who would do that?" Jace asked,. "oh, you'd be surprised."

The next part of Jace's permanent transformation was taking him out to load up his closet in Simon's home. that meant dozens of cute outfit and loads of diapers. Jace didn't mind the overalls or the shortalls, but the onsies were kinda squirmy to try on at the mall,m double so with the sales lady claiming that she needed 'extra help' and calling over all of the other clerks so Jace was basically putting on a little fashion show. Which only got worst when Kelly, the clerk they had started with, after hearing Simon jokingly complain about how often Jace needed a diaper change suggested that they try some dresses and skirts, They had already seen the poor big babies barbie diapers but Jace was NOT a happy camper as he then spent half a hour shaking his butt, and twirling in his short party dressed, mini skirts, and basically girl clothes that didn't do anything to fully hide his diapers. The fashion show thankfully ended when Jace in the middle of showing off a jean skirt with a fake plastic diamond heart on it off and popped a squat and destroyed the back of his diaper. Kelly hadn't let them get changed in there, though she had to hold a nose while ringing them though.

After a diaper change in the parking lot Jace and daddy had been on their way home when they heard a announcement on the radio about the father's day picnic in the park, opened to anyone and everyone. Jace despite having just gone poopie got a badddddd feeling in his tummy as he looked at daddy in the rear view mirror from his car seat. "Havvvve I ever mention how much I HATE the park?" Jace asked, gulping and squirming. "Oh Really? Maybe that's just because you haven't gone to the park with daddy, and been able to show everyone your cute widdle outfits." Simon said. "..You just want me blushy!" Jace whined and pouted, folding his arms and sulking. "Mmmhmmm, and DADDY gets what DADDY wants." Simon said. "Now who wants McDonald's?" "...I do but i'm not wearing a dress to the park!" Jace said. "We'll see~"

In the end Jace did win his campaign to not wear a dress or skirt to the park, mostly by pointing out that he'd just cry rape and beg for a adult if Simon tried. With Simon knowing the big baby well enough to know that wasn't a bluff, Jace was instead dressed in triple his normal thick bulky diapers, and in a light blue onesie with a teddy bear print all over it. (though to be fair, he'd given Jace a choice between the teddy bear themed Onesie or a white one, just the pink barbie diapers semi showed with the white one) a pair of white socks and Paw patrol light up sneakers were on his feet and a blue paci was in his mouth with a ribbon on it that was clipped to his shirt and his hair had been neatly brushed. One hand was in daddies as they walked into the park, getting stares and a few comments, and the other was hugging a Chase from paw patrol stuffie to his chest. With Jace being tripled diapered Daddy only brought along one change for the little guy, and it was in the picnic basket he carried in his free hand as they looked for a good spot to sit down. "See anywhere that looks nice little guy? or cat got your tongue?" Simon teased. Jace was sucking fast on his paci, quickly going crimson faced as the taunts came at them. "Awww that's so cute!" One girl said, pointing Jace out to her father. "What the hell.." Anther dad said. "Fucking fags. keep it indoors!" Called a big bearded biker dad. "Er..is this against the law?" A mother asked. "I KNEW YOU WERE LYING! THEY DO MAKE BIG KID DIAPERS!" one 5 year old huffed, yelling at his parents.

The 4 man band stared in shock and as Jace and Simon walked/waddled by them a strong smell of baby powder was in the air. two of the boys were fixated on how powerful and cool Simon looked, totally in control of the dumb big baby and wanted to experience a power rush like that,. The other two were biting their lips and squirming as they both focused on different parts of Jace's humiliation. "Whoa..L-Look at how massive those diapers are..t-they are diapers right?" Alex said, gulping. "No dork, he just has a massive butt. of course he's in diapers." Kevin chuckled. "T-That outfit.. oh man.." Jacob chipped in. "Could you even picture wearing something like that? that would get a 3 year old teased!" "heh, your got that right. only a total bitch would let himself be dressed like that. or his daddy is just THAT freaking awesome he's making that blond bitch come out like that." Keith said with a grin, turning and noting the look on the twins faces. "heh, Jealous?" "NO!" both twins yelled out, their own faces going bright red and Kevin and Keith just exchanged grins.

Of course with his Vampire senses Simon knew what was happening and chuckled softly. 'I suppose I should feel bad corrupting the young and all that..buttt fuck it. I'm already a soulless blood drinker.' the vampire thought. "Don't look now but I think we just inspired two new big babies." Simon said in a low voice, then paused and waved a hair in front of his face, acting as if Jace had just let out a stink bomb though the blond baby was holding his poopies in. "Jace! did you go uh-oh already?" Simon asked loudly. Jace's blush couldn't get any worse, but the big baby shook his head no,but kept his paci in. "Mhmmm. likely story. I know you like to sit in it it." Simon said, again in a loud voice and drawing more attention to them as he rolled his eyes. "turn around for a bum check little man." Jace squirmed like crazy but knew better then to argue with daddy, and when he was this humiliated, he went into a whole new level of subby. turning around Jace looked at the group of boys who half of which were watching with grins, the other half with semi envy as Simon dropped down to one knee and patted Jace's butt a few time. "Hmmm I guess it was just gas. sorry for not believing you little guy." Simon said. he looked around and then opened up the basket and pulled out a checkered red and white blanket and spread it on the gas. "I know you wanted to sit at a table buddy, but with the extra diapies you begged to wear daddies worried you'll fall and go boom." Simon said, and ruffled Jace's hair even as the blond baby glared at him, then nodded and plopped on his massive rear. Simon was pulling out their lunches, some fried chicken with mashed potatoes for him, with a bottle of what he would tell anyone who asked was fruit punch but was some of Jace's blood, while pulling out 4 large jars of prune flavored baby food and a bottle of formula for Jace. "Is daddies little man hungry now, or wanna let daddy eat first then spoon him him?" Simon asked, and reached forward, lightly tugging on the paci and pulling it from the big babies mouth. "I um..I.." "Use your big boy words." Simon said, smirking. Jace, who had been about to anyways squirmed and just nodded his head. "I um.. Daddy can eat first." he said,using his baby voice anyways. "ok buddy. I know you wanna eat big kid food like daddy but we BOTH know it doesn't agree with you an-" Simon was cut off as the boys from before strolled over. "Hey Mister um.. if you don't mind, I can feed him" the brunette with the buzz cut said. "Oh, have you ever spoon fed a baby before?" Simon asked. "It's not as easy as it sounds, they can be little fuss buckets." Simon added, reaching forward and tickling Jace's chin making him giggle a little. "well no, But Me and Keith." and the brunette jerked a thumb to the long haired kid. "Figure we'll need the practice." he said, giving a toothy grin as the blond twin blushed and squirmed. "heh Oh?" "Kevin! Don't tell him that!" one of the blonds squeaked out. "W-we're not babies!" the other one added. "Alex, Jacob, Hush. big kids are talking." the one named Keith said and Simon chuckled. 'oh yeah, they're gonna be little naturals.' he thought.

Jace whined and mentally begged Simon not to let the kids spoon feed him, but if anything the chance to pass on his knowledge made Simon even MORE teasing, which was something Jace didn't think was possible. Simon showed the boys how to tie a bib around the babies neck, explaining how important it was to use a good enough knot it wouldn't come off, but not so good you had to cut it loose after. "If I had brought some of his extra bibs, you could of practiced with your little guys." Simon smirked. Jace's heart went out for the blonds as they paled a little at that, and they seem to be trying to decide whether to run or stick around. "It's ok. I think their dad would be mad if they came back wearing a teddy bear bib anyways." Keith said. "they again maybe not. you know he's always saying what messy eaters they are." Kevin added. "Guysssss!" the twins whined in unison and pouted. "ok, that was cute. Now if Jace isn't a total little piggy like he normally is." Simon said and Jace whined at that, and pouted much like the twins were. "And there's any baby food left, you can split whats left between your little guys there, and they can take turns with the bib." "What!?" Alex yelped. "No way!" Jacob added. "Sounds good." Kevin and Alex said in unison. As Jace locked eyes with the twins, they gave him a pleading look and despite knowing just how bloated and gassy he'd get, Jace knew he had to take a bullet for them. 'god I'm gonna be farting like crazy!' Jace groaned. it didn't help he already had 5 pieces of high fiber toast that had been coated in apples and banana flavored baby food for breakfast and a big bottle on top of that. No two was about it, before they left the park Jace was gonna be filling his diapers. "Now you wanna get a fair amount, but not too much on the spoon." Simon was saying, snapping Jace out of his thoughts about his impending boom butt. "Jace here is a bigger boy so he can take more, but every baby really has a different amount." Jace looked at the heaping piled Kevin had on the spoon, and looked over to Simon, silently pleading with daddy to at least get the amount cut down, but Simon just winked and took a bite out of a chicken leg. "I know what to do next. Seen this enough on TV." Kevin said and then switching to a baby talk voice voice added. "Here comes the airplane~ Open widddde!"

Simon almost choked on his chicken as Kevin talked, he knew how much Jace HATED that bit and was nice enough to spare him that much. He flashed the big baby a look that said 'play nice' and Jace like a good big baby opened his mouth as big as he could. Sadly (or was that amusingly?) with the heap of mush on the spoon, there was no way it was going to fit all in Jace's mouth and purple mush dribbled down his chin. "oh crud uh.." Kevin looked over his shoulder to Simon, as Jace closed his mouth and swallowed what had made it in, and made a little face. "use the spoon and get what you can off of his chin and into his mouth." Simon instructed, taking a sip of his drink. "Oh ok!" Kevin said. It took awhile for the boy to get his rhythm down but soon he was stuffing Jace's face like a pro even as Jace started to burp now and then, which made Kevin make a face. "you think that's bad, wait till it comes out the other end." Simon commented. "why don't you boys switch so Keith can get a turn in. and Alex, Jacob..My little guys looking awfully full already, hope your hungry." The twins shared a whimper and were holding each others hands, though Simon noted they didn't try and run for their dad. either they didn't think they could outrun their daddies to be, or while they were scared and nervous, they on some level wanted to be Jace and were rooted to the spot. Either way, Simon had a hunch next time he saw them they'd be sporting diapers. Keith took a different approach to feeding Jace and it didn't take long to figure it out. The Brown haired boy was a tormentor, plain and simple and it showed as he kept missing Jace's mouth on purpose and smudging the food on Jace's cheeks, and would scold him for it. "No no no you silly big baby! Stay still! it's like you wanna wear your din din!" Keith teased and Jace whined loudly and looked to Simon for help. Simon pretended to be interested in a game of soccer that was going on near by instead. "I think your baby is full mister. he just doesn't wanna eat anymore." Keith said, looking at Simon then over at the blonds. "N-No! I hungee!" Jace cried out, and Kieth pouted a little. "I think he's just fussy because he wants daddy to feed him. you boys have been a big help but I better take over." Simon said, he was finished eating anyways. "besides, any second now the fart factory is gonna-" Simon was cut off as a massively long and loud despite the padding fart filled the air and the boys went from laughing to holding their noses. "Yeahhh that." Simon chuckled. "Side effect of the baby food." "Oh god, it's like ten million farts in one!" Keith gagged. "Or worse!" Kevin added. Adorably the twin's only commented on it by saying stinky, though there eyes were watering too. "Is that what they'll smell like if they eat that?" Kevin asked, waving a hand in front of his face but jerking a thumb at the twins. "Pretty much. I'd go with oatmeal if you want them not as rotten." Simon suggested. "Should I take that to mean you don't want one of the remaining jars?" "Uh..I mean..it's a really generous offer..But..we all drove over here together and.." Kevin started "We'll all die in the car if the twins are ripping out back door bombs like that!" Keith finished. "W-we wouldn't be that bad!" Alex huffed and crossed his arms, Jacob following suite and adding "Yeah!" "...Wait..do you dorks WANNA eat baby food?" Keith asked, seemingly forgetting about the stink in the air as he grinned. The twin's seemed to realized that had just tried to argue in favor of it and Alex covered his mouth while Jacob shook his head. "NO!" "looks like you boys have some things to figure out. Thanks for feeding the baby." Simon said and took a couple of 20's out of his wallet and handed one to each boy. they went to say thank you but anther back door bomb ripped out of Jace's backside and they took off running instead. "Cute kids. gonna have to get used to stinkers though if they wanna be be daddies." Simon commented, then turned his attention back to Jace who let out a burp. "then again..subjecting them to your funk when they're just starting is like teaching someone to swim by tossing them in shark infested waters." "DADDY!"

With the rest of the baby food in Jace and his ba-ba, the poor baby had a bloated tummy and was pooting up a storm. Simon had been forced to take the onise off of him with his big Jace's tummy tum had gotten and had tickled his sides till Jace wet himself. In just his socks and shoes and Barbie diapers, Jace was getting lots of attention though no one came too close, his poots were like a fog horn warning people to keep their distance. "you know, I was hoping to help you make some friends today but your butt is scaring them all away stinker." Simon teased. "I sowwy." Jace whined, rubbing a eye. After a month of training Jace was conditioned to get sleepy after a big meal. "well we'll go play in the sandbox for a little bit, then go home ok buddy?" "But sweepy daddy." Jace whined, eyes drooping and nuzzling into Simon. "Already? are you sure you don't wanna play on the slide or the swings or something like a big kid?" Simon asked, smirking. "No Big -yawn- kid. Just Jace. sweepy." The blond baby said, almost stumbling now and so Simon stopped and picked him up, setting his head on his shoulder and a arm under his butt, carrying the basket and Chase was tucked inside. "I guess we can go home. I hope you had fun today buddy." Simon said and kissed the big babies cheek, then whispered. "Because we'll be coming here a lot more often." "Ngggh.. yesh..daddy." Jace mumbled, and then drifted off to sleep, even as a series of wet farts erupted from his back side and the back of the babies diapers bloomed out. "oh I see. go sleepies and leave me stuck with changing you. really nice." Simon teased but as he headed for the car he had to admit, he didn't really mind. He was tempted to stop and change Jace on a table, but then spotted a older looking couple talking to a police officer and pointing over at them, and decided that could wait for anther day and not to give the cop a reason to hassle them.. as long as Jace's diapers stayed on he wasn't naked in public. Thankfully the cop seemed to agree as they weren't hassled on their way to the car, though before he went to put Jace in his car seat, Simon was treated to one last cute site. Kevin and Keith chasing the twins, holding onto a couple of towels each and having safety pins. 'Damn. now I really wish I could stay.' Simon thought and chuckled. there was always next weekend.

The end, fer now

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scarlettlawyer · 5 years

Text

Part 10 of my reaction/commentary to the Phantoms & Mirages fanfic series by @renegadewangs

(Chasing Phantoms): Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

(Haunted Specters): Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

(Vanquishing Mirages): Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

So moving forward, as I continued to read on, there was a backdrop of salt, apathy & hurt overshadowing everything as established in the previous post. But I was still reading on because “might as well see what happens I guess”. Starting Vanquishing Mirages chapter 20, I was also nervous & intrigued. Nervous about how the narrative was going to go about this and what the result was going to be… So I read on kind of with bated breath.

And it just remains in that interesting stage for a little while, the uncertainty stage where I don’t really know where it’s gonna go, for those first few paragraphs, as I’m waiting and reading on to see how it turns out… and then it takes a downturn when the negative emotions just start POURING in tsunami style and everything just starts crashing down horribly. I go quickly from nervous/intrigued to kind of horrified as it strikes me just. How. Traumatic and overwhelming the entire experience would be for someone who has never really had to deal with emotions of much severity their entire life. I’m just oh no… oh no…….. oh nooooo….. I didn’t foresee this at all, so distracted by so many things up until this point, and yet it makes perfect sense. But it was a real punch huh. This was awful, what a disaster. This was not good… Which is basically what Simon says:

What a mess. What a complete, total and utter mess. […] Perhaps this was punishment for playing god. Perhaps they’d flown too close to the sun. Perhaps they were Frankenstein, responsible for giving birth to a failed creation.

Me:

[hides away in a corner because I think we broke him lads]

Vanquishing Mirages, Chapter 21

The Phantom blinked, shedding a few more tears as he did so. Perhaps he hadn’t quite processed Simon’s words. Perhaps he hadn’t quite processed the situation in general. He swallowed and sniffed, then tilted his head backwards.

Am I meant to be picturing this in anything less than stunningly beautiful and fluid animation? Because I am not picturing this in anything less than gorgeously rendered animation.

Whatever it was that’d held Bobby back from touching the Phantom before, it was gone now. He placed a hand atop the Phantom’s clenched fist, hoping it might soothe him. “Whoah, it’s okay. It’s fine.” “It’s not fine! How dare you claim that it’s fine?! YOU did this to me!”

AAAAAAND WE’RE BACK LADIESANDGENTLEMAN HELLO THERE NARRATIVE FRAMING OF HIM AS A CHILD: ACTIVATE

HELLO! this is exciting and new!

“Calm yourself.” “I can’t! I CAN’T!”

He really wouldn’t know how to or be able to!

AND THEN AT THIS POINT IT JUST HIT ME

THIS MAKES PERFECT SENSE

HE ACTUALLY WOULD HAVE THE EMOTIONAL MATURITY OF A CHILD BECAUSE HE’S NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO MATURE EMOTIONALLY, DUH, CAUSE HE LACKED EMOTIONS SO MUCH, THIS IS BRAND NEW TO HIM H

Narrative framing of him as a child during Haunted Specters REALLY paying off even more right now! We’ve already reaped so much from those seeds. But now! Oh boy!

“We would not honor such a request even if it were within our capabilities. Congratulations, Phantom. You are now free to tussle with emotions just like every other human.”

MY FEELINGS/REACTION TOWARDS THIS WHOLE SITUATION CHANGED SO FAST IT WAS LIKE:

“Oh noooo… this is so awful and terrible for him this is too much I can’t handle th… W-wait. Phphhw. Heh. Hah. HahahaHAHAHA MUAHAHA YEEEES ONE OF US ONE OF US DEEEEEEEAL WITH IT HAHAHA SUCKERRRRRRRR!”

The Phantom’s wide eyes followed Fulbright out the room. Apparently, his departure served to rile the man up even further. “Get back here! Bobby Fulbright! You get back here and end my suffering RIGHT NOW!”

This is just so good this is just so good hohoooh!

The Phantom sniffed and huffed. Flinched and scrunched his eyes shut, his breathing turning to more helpless sobs. Tears continued to run down the side of his face, disappearing into locks of hair just above his ears.

Hey yeah just saying it again. This is nothing but pure unadulterated animation mode for me. With REALLY GOOD animation. A really gorgeous 2D anime style.

Simon hesitated for a moment, then placed a careful hand atop the Phantom’s closed eyes. They felt soggy and unpleasant to touch. “Focus on the sound of my voice and nothing else. Focus on my voice and breathe.”

IT’S WEIRD CAUSE LIKE. I HAD VERY FRESH PHANTOMQUILL WOUNDS AT THIS POINT OF READING BUT. Right up until The Kiss prior to the surgery I had been very firmly in the parental-child dynamic mindset camp and thoroughly enjoying myself. It was the kiss and stuff that I found jarring at first BECAUSE of that before getting up and moving over to phantomquill mode, only for it to turn out to be fake phantomquill. You’d think it might actually be hard for me to go back to “Oh the phantom is a child and Bobby and Simon are his parents” after the phantomquill fiasco but in terms of mindset, it really wasn’t difficult because I’d only been in Phantomquill mode comparatively VERY briefly before it got destroyed. I was already thoroughly versed in the ways of the parent-child dynamic heh and had spent waaaay longer enjoying that lens. Being so used to it, it was easy enough to switch back over to it.

Do NOT get me wrong, I was still VERY upset over it, yet somehow I could still deeply enjoy the familial dynamic between Simon and the phantom in this moment.

So I basically was still grumbling angrily about phantomquill under my breath while somehow simultaneously excitedly going “OMG SUPPORTIVE DAD SIMON!!!”

Me: yeah. Yeah. You’re really just Piling On that family dynamic after that huge mess with the kiss and the baiting??? Just showing me blatantly to my face how wrong I was to ever read romance into anything? You have the gall to?

Also me: …I still love the parent-child dynamics from this series so FIIINE I do appreciate this scene. I appreciate it a lot, actually. HMPH

Talk about being of a conflicted mind. But there’ll be more mention of that to come.

…Oh, and yeah, I have still been referring to him as the phantom, haven’t I? Well that’s simple: it’s what the narrative is still calling him, so I continue to call him by that title until it is dropped by the narrative itself

Besiiides, for all intents and purposes, during this small gap of time until it changes, he is NOT quite Lex yet, because he has not yet accepted the name and nor has the narrative itself.

So we get this awesome little window which is just, he’s still “the phantom” if that’s the only title we have before “Lex” is accepted and taken on. Pure, unfiltered “Phantom” + Emotion and it’s sooo special. Which… yes… Phantom + Emotions = becomes Lex but… argh, it gets confusing very quickly for me. :P

The question seemed to startle the Phantom for some reason. … No, not the Phantom. It was Lex, now. That notion still felt foreign. Perhaps Alexander would be more suitable. More formal. Less personal.

I WAS SOOO THANKFUL FOR THIS ON FIRST READTHROUGH. I was thankful for how jarring Simon was finding it too (because in that respect he certainly wasn’t alone lol – I wasn’t alone). I was thankful that the narrative hadn’t immediately switched over to saying “Lex” after he woke up from surgery. Oh, and I’d even been thankful waaay back when his name being Alexander Luster Jr was first revealed that the narrative switch hadn’t been made then either. I mean, it wasn’t for OBVIOUS reasons but like… Technically that’s his name. So the narrative could have tried making an attempt at it and I was just glad he was still always “the Phantom” even when we knew what his name was when he was born. Cause he sure as hell didn’t accept the name back then.

But I was SUPER thankful for Simon deciding to call him “Alexander” too. It was kind of a real godsend BECAUSE LIKE. The name “Lex” was so heavily entrenched and still attached in my mind to that super mean bald dude that got killed off. It was a name that therefore felt “ugly” that had been attached to a man with an “ugly” personality. And whoever this man was that woke up from the surgery, it sure as HELL didn’t feel like his name. I was kinda like “buddy. If you want me to start calling this character “Lex” you’ve got another thing coming.” So having “Alexander” instead was a relief that helped A LOT at the time lol. It was sooo much easier to switch to. And Simon going for the more formal variant is such a Simon thing to do anyway. XD

Also???? Alexander… Alexander Luster… felt like such a pretty name actually???? BUT I MEAN. I am the first to admit that I am probably extremely biased on that front. And that I’d probably just. End up thinking just about any name applied to him was “pretty”. LOL.

But yeaaahhh although I kinda had a hard time with the “Lex” business at first, after a little bit of time it became easy to accept, as it usually goes with these things. Now I’ve got 0 problems with it. Lex is Lex!

“That makes you nothing more than an ungrateful child,” Simon grumbled, finally stepping away from the window to take his own seat.

Every time the narrative makes a DIRECT reference or draws a DIRECT parallel to him being a child it feels like it adds another 3 years to my lifespan.

“Ahahahah! I-I c-can’t! Hahahahah! Ahahahahah! Irony!~”

…

MEOWZY. YOU. YOU. DID THIS. YOU MADE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION TO PUT A TILDE THERE. H.

You did that. You did that on purpose. What did you doooooo. What’s HAPPENING

I can’t… I… just needed to point this out and take you to task over it. GOSH

The i-intent… the intent of this in the narrative

As if to say,

Look… Look at how… endearing

As if to say,

“Yes, you not only can, but SHOULD find this endearing”…………

Ohooooh it’s too much IT’S.

It’s death by tilde is what it is. You didn’t. Need to. You could have just left the words and such as it was. But you threw it in, intentionally showing off how we’re supposed to take this just in case there’s any mistake.

You’re under arrest.

Vanquishing Mirages, Chapter 22: Epilogue

Still, as he raised the headphones to his ear, he heard enough. It was indeed playing music- and what horrid music it was. “-When skies are grey. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.” “Where the devil did you get this?” he demanded, virtually throwing it into Alexander’s lap.

BRO THIS IS SO UNREAL.

The sheer image of the (former) phantom listening to music was so wild and then it jUST

Alexander’s fingers began to play with the headphones, twirling them around in his hands as he spoke. “You know, it’s funny. I’ve listened to music before, but it’s like I’ve never really heard it. …Does that make sense?”

OH MY GOOOOOSH. THIS REALISATION HIT ME LIKE A TRUCK. THIS HAD NOT OCCURRED TO ME… AT ALL! BUT IT’S SO…! :D HE CAN LISTEN TO AND ENJOY MUSIC NOW. Get immersed in it. That was the most fantastic realisation to me. No, you don’t understaaaand, you see, as a child, getting immersed in listening to music was so central to me that as a kid I’d come up with a bunch of story ideas involving things like other planets/alien creatures that would revolve their entire society around music, or alien creatures that have no concept of music and get introduced to it and subsequently immersed in it for the first time. This just hit so close to hoooome, oh my goodness, I hadn’t remembered or thought about those memories/story ideas that kid me had for maybe a good ten years, and this fic suddenly reminded me with the headphones business. It’s really not related to the fic to mention but I’d looong forgotten about all those scenarios I’d thought about and it was so cool to be reminded. :’D

BUT ANYWAY BACK TO THE FIC-

Me like three chapters ago: WAAAAH, NOTHING THIS SERIES COULD EVER DO COULD EVER MAKE ME HAPPY AGAIN!

Me reading this chapter not too long afterwards: HMMM OKAY I AM KIND OF VERY HAPPY RIGHT NOW.

Oh and it just occurred to me: my guess is the person who “overslept her own execution” was Cammy Meele!

And now, I’m gonna start talking about Lifting Spirits! But at least just for this post, I’m gonna change things up a little and not segment my comments chapter-wise or comment on little things, but rather talk about stuff pertaining to the earlier parts of the fic as a whole. This is necessary because my thoughts were an unbelievable mess and were so terribly bunched together – that is, thanks to reading through it relatively fast, I guess everything got kind of mixed together, so individual reactions to individual parts of it are a little less well-“defined” than was the case with the prior fics at the point of reading.

...I don't know if I could ever do Lifting Spirits justice. I CERTAINLY don't do it justice in this post. Believe me, I want nothing more than to just sit down and gush endlessly about it because that's what it warrants, but for the time being this post seems to be too busy trying to outline just how much my own disposition threatened to botch and ruin it for myself. XD

But it will get better in future review posts, I promise!

Yeah, my thoughts were a contradictory, convoluted, conflicting mess. There was SO much going on at once for me with regards to how I was responding to the text on first readthrough. It’s hard to know even where to begin. So let’s try and tackle some things in Lifting Spirits:

1 - The Transition from The Phantom to Lex

…It does such a number on my brain on multiple levels. XD. IT MESSES WITH ME SO MUCH, it’s a straightforward concept enough in theory but my brain overloads and threatens to shut down when I try to wrap my head around it. XD

I love the phantom, so my instinctive bias at first was to try and cling to the label of “the phantom” as long as I could until it’s finally surrendered.

So, I’ve said already that I was kinda nervous about how this transition was gonna be pulled off. There’s always SORT OF a risk involved when going ahead and giving the phantom an identity and making them no longer the phantom – it kind of wanders straight into the Original Character zone. This New Character who used to be the phantom, in such cases, does get a bit of a complimentary “boost” of my investment in them by virtue of having been the phantom, but beyond that, the new character in the phantom’s place must learn to pull their own weight in the story. They cannot purely rely on having been the phantom – they must develop on their own and give the audience due reason to be invested in the new character. And/or, they must still have some ties connecting them back to having been the phantom too, even with their new characterisation and personality.

So yeah, I had literally no reason to be even remotely nervous. Lex is fantastic. And can very VERY easily stand up in the narrative on his own accord. Not only that, but it’s just… genius… the extremity of his emotions is, ironically, the very thing that connects him back to having been the emotionless phantom…! Because it drives home repeatedly that he really has had NO experience with this level of feeling due to his past. It’s a total pendulum swing to the other end of the spectrum and I love it SO damn much.

Regardless of whether he’s Lex or the phantom, he’s still my favourite character.

1.1 – The phantom as Lex/the phantom becoming Lex

Man, this fic.

I swear to god.

I keep trying to type out my thoughts and it’s so hard to be coherent about it.

Lex is… “the (former) phantom”. So I’ll use this phrasing to really drive the point home. Because such a huge amount of what happens, of what’s going on… derives its impact from this very important fact. From the unbelievable contrast. The seeming absurdity of EVERYTHING given who he was.

The former phantom laughs at stupid jokes, gets given a stash of sweets and a Jokes & Riddles book thanks to Bobby, gets goofily absorbed in a phone game………… The list just goes on.

You are doing this. You are making me read all this stuff involving the former phantom with my own two eyes, I… I…… This flippin’ portrayal. Almost feels like it should be illegal xDDDD

1.1a - YOU ARE WHAT IS KNOWN AS AN ENABLER

I have been… a fan of the character known as the phantom for many years now… I started playing through the Ace Attorney games in December 2014, and played Dual Destinies in the first half of 2015. I’ve had years to jokingly talk about the phantom ironically in an “awwww just look at them, awwww how innocent/”cute”” way, obviously knowing damn well they’re not.

And I basically went into Chasing Phantoms with, on some level, an attitude of “haha you can TRY to make me hate the phantom, I know you will, but I won’t let you”

Big mistake, to head into this series stubbornly guarding a totally opposite area of phantom perception compared to what I SHOULD have been guarding against.

And then you just

Came along and took the character

And did this.

It was fine at first in like, Haunted Specters and then Vanquishing Mirages. It was a big joke that everyone was in on. It was a joke and it was funny and I was laughing along with it. Albeit. An evolving joke.

And then Lifting Spirits just

It jUST

All of a sudden I had to be like wait a minute. I was just like whoa, whoa. Hold up. You can’t – WAIT a minute. No WAIT

I walked into this trap with no defences prepared. I’d walked into this series going “I’d like to see you try and make me truly hate this man, but it won’t work, I’ll make sure it doesn’t work out of spite” and now all of a sudden this was all happening at once and I had to suddenly try and backpedal dramatically out of the trap and be like wait wait wait no this is, this is, he was?? A bad guy was he not? Wait what are we-

The scales were tipping too far for my liking – too far in a direction I was ALREADY biased and predisposed towards and I wanted to stop it but what defence did I haaave

It’s like the narrative was poking me and going “Hey. So. Your favourite character. He’s pretty great, right? Right?” and I’d shake my head and try my best to go, “No… No! He isn’t – this isn’t right! What! There has to be some kind of mistake! This is a thirty-seven year old man who has killed people WHAT IS GOING ON”

And this is also, at the same time, set against a backdrop of me still stubbornly trying to cling to a mindset of not wanting this man to be able to cheat death or the finality of execution.

So here’s the first of many contradictory feelings I was having at once:

“This man must be punished and therefore I can’t abide by such a lighthearted portrayal” vs “I love this man so much and every single moment of this lighthearted portrayal is GOLD and I love it sooo much”

2- The Phantom VS Lex

The portrayal of my favourite character was making me rather pleased, but it felt way too good to be true on three different fronts. Firstly, the amusing absurdity in and of itself made it hard to process this was Really Happening, the levels of it feeling “unreal” were so much and I was so stunned and I was sincerely struggling to process it at first. Secondly, it just felt so catered to me (LOL) and “too good to be true” that I felt like. Like. The narrative surely couldn’t be doing something so great. A similar kind of inability to believe this was “really happening” which had cropped up during Haunted Specters. And this was heavily fuelled by, THREE… My pesky little reactions to our old friend, Fake Phantomquill.

The hurt that I was feeling over the phantomquill unfortunately seeped into and tainted my perception of other parts of the story and caused me to get irrationally defensive in many respects at the time. See, as I’ve implied, part of what was so very appealing to me about Legit one-sided phantomquill coming to fruition just before the surgery is that it felt like the final step in taking the phantom further down from his pedestal and that much closer to “joining the ranks of humanity” just in time for surgery that would have “the phantom” cease to be altogether and allow him to make the full transformation. It wasn’t so much about phantomquill itself as it was about the notion of the phantom being attracted to someone and causing such a big, stupid mess as a result, of being a fundamentally flawed human being but flawed in a vulnerable-

who claimed to be made of nothing but pure logic only to, in his final moments as the phantom act in the most illogical-

It’s silly, I know. First of all, if anything, it can be kind of arophobic, depending on how it’s done, to use “attraction to another person” as a proof or demonstration of a character’s core humanity. It’s just… That’s what I’d tricked myself into thinking the set-up was for, I guess. So when the set-up got so thoroughly negated and didn’t come to fruition, it felt like it had intentionally done the opposite with a bait and switch, and that instead of showing that even the phantom can fall from his pedestal in his final moments before “the phantom” ceases to be, it then seemed the goal was to demonstrate with a great sense of finality that actually, he is despicable and will never be anything but despicable and that we never should have expected anything more up until the very end.

Except… it was silly of me to feel like this first of all seeing as the phantom had already demonstrated during the narrative plenty that he very much does have the capacity to care about other people in his own very odd way. He DID go through character development. Just because none of the feelings he demonstrated were based on attraction doesn’t diminish what he did demonstrate. The Fake Phantomquill Kiss in and of itself is proof of caring because he was ultimately trying to protect Bobby.

But at the time it was hard for me to see that through my hurt. It’s an irrational perspective to take but I wasn’t being rational because of that hurt, and I was distrusting as a result. So, strangely enough, the phantom “dying” as the “filthy criminal he is” after the little show he put on, and then becoming Lex and waking up from the surgery with all these emotions kinda felt to me almost like it was throwing “the phantom” and all the progress as a character he’d made under the bus – of all the potential he’d shown prior to surgical interference.

There was just so much emphasis in the narrative on separating “the phantom” from “Lex” which was fair enough, but it felt to my irrational wounded self like “the phantom” was suddenly being characterised as “Pure Evil” in order to further the ends to which Lex could then be set up as “good”, when we’d previously spent around 2 fics delving into how, while the phantom is very much a villain and none of his crimes can be negated, there is more to him, and he’s, at the very least, not Evil 24/7. Almost like “the phantom” and “Lex” were being pitted against each other which I realise is stupid because c’mon, how can Lex as a character throw the phantom under the bus when Lex was the phantom? When he is merely another huge step – leap – in the character’s evolution? The transformation into Lex can’t negate any of the character development HE made prior to that point, prior to the surgery.

Another important thing to note, which I am extremely grateful to the narrative for, is that Bobby cared about the phantom not only before the surgery, but before the bone sliver was even discovered in the first place. And Simon had also been slipping back then, although he was not nearly as far-gone as Bobby was. But such a thing really helps acknowledge the phantom as a character… and does help reiterate that he wasn’t completely worthless and/or “not worthy of anything” prior to becoming Lex.

I did come to realise that I was, in fact, just needlessly worrying over pure semantics and that there was no point in doing such a thing. Regardless of how one might construe it, this man, Lex, was the same person in the sense that he has all the same memories. There is still a continuity of existence. The "death" of the phantom was only the death of the label itself, the mindset, but the man who had carried the title had still lived on. It allowed, helped that man to shed the worst of what had been part of him before and opened up so much for him.

It's just, the notion of a character actively striving to be good and overcoming themselves vs a sudden fix that gets externally applied, and it felt like any previous striving, however miniscule, threatened to be rendered obsolete by it.

But this was a misplaced notion of mine if there ever was one because not only does it not override previous character development, but the previous character development was necessary for not only making the surgery and its outcome possible, but also a crucial part of the character's arc that can't be overlooked narratively speaking. It is not Lex that characters like Bobby and Athena abruptly start believing in. They'd already believed in him before he was Lex, and they are who campaign for the surgery in the first place. And it is the phantom himself to give the final push and the go-ahead to make it happen through his consent, a vital component to it being made possible. It wasn't erasure, it was never about erasure. It was about continuity and expanding and developing on what was already there. (And I know as well as anyone that the extent of the outcome, and this progress wouldn't have been possible without some form of external interference. It was necessary.)

Whenever I did manage to reconcile it, it was just about the best thing in the world haha.

So yeah, most of this was basically me outlining my distortion of the text and then debunking myself…

I swear my opinions/thoughts/feelings had just about splintered in a million different directions mostly thanks to the shadow cast by my stupid phantomquill pain. XD. My mindset almost threatened to regress to harbouring that foolish unfounded sense that the author didn’t truly care about “the phantom”, and only cared about the person who woke up after that surgery instead. Which is nonsense because Haunted Specters & Vanquishing Mirages clearly indicate otherwise. Why bother spending two entire fics focusing on the phantom so much if the author didn’t care about the phantom? If they wanted to just do away with the phantom and replace him with someone new that they did care about, there were way shorter ways to go about it. I mean, I knew that it was the dumbest concern and that it was incorrect to even consider at this point, but that didn’t stop me from foolishly wasting time on it. It was so hard to believe & trust the story was so attuned to me after being “betrayed” that I semi-adopted/saw the more “hurtful” interpretation as the more “realistic” one.

But reading Lifting Spirits over again so far only reiterates what I realise was the case back then: I only had myself to blame, I was the one vastly exaggerating the perceived distinctions that were being made between Lex and the phantom in the text not only because of my own latent concerns but because of how personally mindboggling I was finding it.

And all the while, I’m SIMULTANEOUSLY borderline scolding the text for how seemingly soft it’s being on the (former) phantom and thinking that the author’s phantom bias is showing. Talk about doublethink!

I had been thinking this entire series that I was perfectly safe to “gush” over this man, because at least the author knew what was what, at least the author still had her senses about her and wouldn’t let it go too astray or let it get out of hand. IF THE AUTHOR IS TREATING HIM LIKE THIS AND I’M TREATING HIM LIKE THIS… THEN WHO’S DRIVING THE PLANE?!

And keep in mind too that I read through Lifting Spirits… Rather quickly. So I’ve got all of these tangled thoughts I’m trying to process at once meanwhile I’m just breezing through the chapters, not really giving myself any real chance to sort through my thoughts and untangle the messes that had formed.

I was somehow managing to feel overwhelmingly thrilled and yet hurt by the narrative at the same time. AAAAALLL the contradictory thoughts and feelings. Contrarian mode was on, it seemed, as I tried to juggle so many opinionated stances and arguments at once that cancelled each other out:

“The phantom was a human being too, with his own issues and he ALSO had (limited) feelings DON’T IGNORE THIS” vs “how dare you portray someone who used to be the phantom, a remorseless killer unworthy of a second thought, in such an endearing manner” vs “ohhhh I love this endearing portrayal so much it’s pure SUSTENANCE to me it’s so entertaining & amazing & makes me so happy” vs stubborn attempts to still cling to “make sure that execution goes ahead, this man still isn’t allowed to escape death” with a slight backdrop of that phantomquill salt-fueled apathy & denial. I was somehow now on the defensive and trying to argue that the phantom hadn’t been 100% despicable and yet also trying to retain the stance that the man in his place still needed to die because the phantom had been 100% despicable. YEP. Walking contradiction. Absolutely wild.

Oh also I just loved Lex in his own right too on top of all this, not just because he used to be the phantom. But because he’s LEX.

It’s all very confusing, I hope I didn’t confuse you too much. XD

Oh, also:

When it came to me feeling that the phantom – or rather, the person who used to be him – was being portrayed too lightly by the narrative given his history – Chasing Phantoms renders completely obsolete any possible argument about the series “skewering one’s perception of the phantom too far off-base”. It renders completely obsolete any possibility that the author was not “aware” of the true depths of his despicableness when going for this angle.

Chasing Phantoms’ existence, to me, makes Lifting Spirits all the more awesome, and strengthens its power. “The Phantom that Lex used to be was ruthless and terrible and awful and caused so much damage and destruction” is not just an offhand acknowledgement that gets referenced back to – it was portrayed firsthand in the first fic, in the series itself. It’s like it goes out of its way to drive home that undeniable fact that the phantom REALLY sucks, and yet Lifting Spirits exists anyway, even with FULL acknowledgement of that. I love that sooo much. It just straight up embraces it and doesn’t try to hide a damn thing. This was who he used to be. This is who he is now. That’s just how it is.

As already established, Chasing Phantoms felt like another universe when I read Lifting Spirits – way before then, even. It was SO hard for me to remember that, he was in fact, actually portrayed in a negative light. It’s actually really great to me that the series didn’t start with Haunted Specters – it did not seek to make the phantom sympathetic or whatnot from the start. He gets to clown around as the villain he truly is for an entire fic before any transition over to protagonist even begins to take place. The story doesn’t briefly go “yeah so we all know the phantom is bad and all obviously but…” and moves straight on, it spends a LONG time elaborating on HOW bad the phantom is back at the very start before proceeding on to anything else.

By the way, I’m aware it would be stupid to make arguments about “not knowing the full extent of how sucky the phantom is” purely on the basis of it not being demonstrated firsthand if that was the case, because like, everyone already knows, so we don’t need to be shown. But I’m merely pointing out how cool I find it that this series does demonstrate it firsthand anyway, because it just further crushes such potential arguments.

If Chasing Phantoms did not exist it would be almost easy to trick oneself into thinking that the full extent of the phantom’s villainy was not truly being acknowledged by the story, given Lex’s portrayal by the narrative (despite him being a “new person”, the fact remains that he was the phantom.) The Phantom is – was - very much a villain, and we know very clearly that the current portrayal of that man who used to be him doesn’t minimise that.

There was another big thing I wanted to talk about connected to much I’ve discussed in this post, but I’ll have to leave it for the next one! I had to cut sooo much from this I’m sorry, I actually did have a bunch of small comments from the beginning of Lifting Spirits. Well, until the next post, which will also get to the middle of the fic too. ^_^

#long post #if this is all over the place it was because my thoughts were all over the place sdjsdnkjsdkj #ghhhh

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kpopstarsreact · 7 years

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Got7 Reaction #18 - Their kid has a funny nightmare

anon asked: i loved your b.a.p reaction to their kid having a bad nightmare!! could you do that reaction for bigbang and got7 please? ^.^

y/s/n = your son’s name

y/d/n = your daughter’s name

y/n = your name

this was loooooonnnnggg xD

Mark: Within 3 seconds of hearing the bedroom door squeak open Mark felt what he knew was his 5 year old son grabbing his bed’s covers and yanking them off of him.

“APPAAAAA!!” His son squealed, tears streaming down his face.

“y/s/n!! What the he- I mean what’s wrong??”

“I had a dream that Pac man’s wife Mrs. Pac man...” *sniff* “Sh-she left him for me so he tried... he tried....”

Marks eyebrows rose in confusion as he stared at his child. “She left him... for you? And...he what?”

“HE SWALLOW ME WHOLE LIKE A PIECE OF FRUIT”

Mark couldn’t help the smile that tugged at his lips as he pulled his son onto the bed and under the covers. “Okay buddy since your mom’s gone, you can have her space for now until you forget about that dream okay? I’m here. I won’t let him swallow you, okay?”

Jaebum: Jaebum stood beside you, staring at your sobbing daughter as she desperately tried to explain why she peed in the corner of her room.

“Th-the-the!!”

You crouched down to her level and pulled her into a gentle hug, Jaebum crouching right beside you with his hand on the sobbing child’s back.

“The what sweetie?” He whispered soothingly. “What happened that made you do that?”

“THE TOILET CAME TO LIFE AND IT BIT MY BUTT WHEN I TRIED TO PEE IN IIITTTTTT!!!!”

You both pulled back from her in shock for a moment. The toilet...what?

You glanced at Jaebum before looking back to your daughter. “Was it... was it that dream again where the bathroom is like that house from ‘Monster House’?”

“YES AND I’M NEVER USING THE BATHROOM AGAIN!”

“Oh God.” Jaebum moaned. “This is never going to end is it? I regret ever letting you watch that movie. Come on....” He helped you stand up and picked up his daughter to bring her to the bathroom. “We need to clean you up and you’re about to face your fear once and for all.”

Jackson: The moment the pillow hit his face, Jackson was up and in full panic mode.

“THE FU-” Looking down to find his son standing there with a pillow clenched in his tiny fists he stopped short. “Y/s/n...what the hell??”

By now you were awake too and staring at the two in utter confusion. “What is going on??”

“Appa you’re so mean!! Do you even realize what you did to me??”

“Y/s/n what are you talking about what is going on??”

“You made mommy mad at you in my dream so she couldn’t cook! AND YOU MADE ME EAT YOUR NASTY FOOD FOR A WEEK! I ALMOST DIED!”

Instantly you started dying with laughter, imagining the horror of your 9 year old as he was forced to eat your husbands all organic and super healthy food for a week. Jackson didn’t find that so funny though.

“My food isn’t that bad! It’s really healthy and-”

“Gross!” You chimed in through your laughter. “Let it go Jackson! Your food is gross!”

Sighing dramatically Jackson fell back on the bed. “Nobody in this family appreciates good food!!”

You got up to bring your child back to bed, still giggling at Jacksons distress. You can be sure he pouted for the rest of the day.

Jinyoung: Jinyoung was on the floor at this point, hysterically laughing to the point where he wasn’t even making noise anymore, tears forming in his eyes.

You on the other hand, weren’t amused in the least. “I what...?”

Your daughter was still crying and through her gulping, hiccuping breaths she stuttered “I-I’m by the f-f-fish tank” *hic, gasp* “BECAUSE I DREAMED THAT MOMMY BENT DOWN TO PICK UP A TOY AND FARTED ON THE FISH TANK AND KILLED ALL OUR FISHES!!”

This of course sent Jinyoung into another fit of hyena-like laughter, tears now streaming down his face.

“I’m glad you find this amusing Jinyoung.”

“Our child dreamed....that you had toxic farts...” He said in a voice high-pitched from the laughter.

“Okay well then you can put y/d/n back to bed because I’m not dealing with you two anymore at 3am in the morning. Goodnight.”

“Aww honey come on!! The dream was funny don’t be mad!” He got up and wiped away the tears as you left, a smile still plastered across his face. “Ahh come on sweetie, it’s time to go to bed. The fish are still alive and mom doesn’t have toxic enough farts to kill, okay?”

Youngjae: "Y/s/n... why are you so afraid of coco all of a sudden?” Younjae looked down at his 7 year old son. He was normally running around and playing outside with coco by now but instead he was sitting on the steps of the porch and glaring at the dog wearily.

“I’m not afraid of him. I’m mad at him dad.”

“But why? Did coco bite you?!?” Youngjae grabbed his sons arm and inspected him for any bites or bruises. “Are you okay??”

“No! Coco didn’t bite me...but I had a dream that made me mad.”

“Dream? Okay but you know dreams aren’t real right sweetie?”

“I know! But when you dream that a dog chases you and you end up tripping and falling in it’s poop you get mad, okay??”

Youngjae was shocked into silence for a split second before erupting into laughter. “Y/s/n that’s such a realistic dream!! But it’s okay, sometimes that happens to the best of us..even me. So don’t worry about it okay?”

“Coco chased you and you fell into poo before??”

“....Er...” Suddenly embarassed Youngjae stopped laughing. “Yes...actually. Don’t tell your mother okay? Just... Just go play.”

Kunpimook: Bambam stared in horror at his son as he told him about the nightmare he’d had the night before.

“That’s....that’s the most horrific thing... I have EVER heard.” He bent over to hug his child as you looked at them in disbelief.

They continued on like this for a moment before you finally yelled at them to sit down for breakfast.

“Y/n did you hear y/s/n’s nightmare? Wasn’t it horrible? We would never do that to you son. I promise. I swear! I would never!”

You sighed as your son nodded and thanked Bambam. “Okay so you had a dream that we sent you to school with miss-matched shoes. I don’t understand why that’s so horrifying.”

They both gasped dramatically at you, food actually falling out of Bam’s mouth in shock.

“You don’t understand how- BUT- Miss. Matched. SHOES. That’s horrifying!! You would look horrible ALL DAY! That’s the worst nightmare EVER!”

You rolled your eyes at them again, not being able to help yourself from giggling at their sheer horror. “I guess everyone has their own version of a nightmare but...Really Bam? A fashion nightmare?”

“That’s the worst kind mama!” Your son chimed in. Bambam nodded in agreement, obviously proud to know his kid would have a good sense of style like he did. All you could do was shake your head. You knew you wouldn’t win this argument.

Yugyeom: “...So...a purple monster with pink dots on it taped you to a rocket and sent you to the moon?”

Your daughter nodded from where she was in between you on your bed. She had launched herself onto your bed after her nightmare and immediately ripped the blankets off both of you to wrap herself into a blanket burrito.

It was the only way to be safe from the monster apparently...

“He grabbed me from my window and pulled me to a field and taped me to it!! I don’t know how I was breathing, but I was in space and I never saw you or mommy ever again!!”

“sweetie, we’re right here now...” You said to her through the sheets. “And we won’t let anyone take you, okay? Please don’t get too scared.”

“We promise,” Yugyeom chimed in, “monster’s don’t exist and you’re safe as long as you’re with us. I promise.” He kissed your daughter’s forehead and pulled her into a hug.

You smiled at your husband and shook your head slightly. She wasn’t going to listen right now, you’d have to wait until the morning.

“You’ll have to sleep in your bed tomorrow but for now you can sleep with us as long as you promise to give our blankets back okay?”

“No.”

Yugyeom pouted at your daughter, “Pleassseeee?? Your mommy and I are so cold!! We’ll all share the blankets and we’ll all be warm!”

She sniffed and nodded her head. “Okay. But we’re all staying right here until morning. Promise?”

“Promise.” You both said together, and hugged your daughter after getting back under the blankets. You’d talk to her more in the morning.

You just had no idea how to explain that purple monsters didn’t exist...

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blaperile · 4 years

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Homestuck^2 - Reactions Chapter 3 “How Are Your Feelings” (Pages 96 - 118)

Chapter 3: "How Are Your Feelings"

Well, that's a title that reveals even less than Ghostflusters and Clown Logistics. :P

Considering the states everyone is in right now, I'm thinking the most likely option here is a feelings jam between members of the Meat chase crew AKA Dave, Roxy, Karkat, Kanaya (and possibly Jade, depending on if Alternate Calliope lets her go from time to time).

I can't really think of a different adequate party to have a feelings jam, unless Candy Jake's about to jam with Brain Ghost Dirk. :P

Also, "How Are Your Feelings" sounds like a sentence Kanaya might say.

Page 96:

Yes!!!! That definitely looks like it could be the chase ship of our Meat friends.

...Is it just me or does it like a pirate ship straight out of the Felt Mansion? xD

The question is, have Dave and Karkat grown further to each other? Or have they grown further apart like in the Candy timeline?

And how has Kanaya been coping, these 3 years without Rose. :(

And Roxy 3 years without Calliope...

At least everyone's got at least one person on this ship they're relatively close to. Dave with both Karkat and Roxy, Kanaya with Karkat.

And let's find out what Roxy looks like! Assuming they've still got their short haircut.

Page 97:

Ahahaha, it's a gigantic pipe. That's quite a silly ship design IMO.

It's like, the polar opposite of Dirk's ship, haha.

Page 98:

What the hell... that's preposterously dark.

OH BOY THAT TEXT AT THE BOTTOM. HERE COMES THE ALTERNATE CALLIOPE NARRATION.

Page 99:

HOLY MOTHER OF A JUMPSCARE

I think Karkat agrees, pfffahahaha

And hey, Dave's lying next to Karkat in bed! Implying Davekat's still a thing, hurray!

Also, apparently Karkat's now sleeping in a bed instead of in a Recuperacoon, hehe.

I wonder if Calliope has ever let go of Jade during this trip. Maybe not, if she believed it was the only way to shield them from Dirk's narrative control?

I'd find it hilarious if Dave just sleeps throughout this entire exchange.

Page 100:

Ahahaha, okay Dave is awake.

I like how he's not wearing his shades. I mean, he's probably gonna put them on in the next panel or so, but still. A sign that he's also letting Karkat see his regular eyes.

Page 101:

Oh man!!! We're seeing Dave IN SPRITE MODE without his shades on! Truly a day to savour for the rest of our lives. :O

Pfff, Karkat's wearing Dave's God Tier shirt.

And uh... looks like Calliope's alchemized herself a new outfit. Looks a bit like Jade's old Eclectica dress!

Welp, this indeed seems to impyl the normal Jade hasn't surfaced at all the past few years.

Page 102:

...Let's ignore the fact that "Jade" just creepily turned her head around in full 180 degrees, shall we?

Heh, the sentence "sleep is abandoned, coffee sought" reminds me of those sentence structures at the end of Act 4.

Page 103:

There's Roxy! :D

Looks like she let her hair grow again. And she alchemized a hoodie version of her God Tier outfit, hehe. Also, those heart glasses oh my god.

Pfff, just like Karkat's wearing Dave's shirt, Dave's wearing Karkat's shirt.

So, looks like Jade/Calliope has been getting stronger through the years and that her saying stuff and moving around is a relatively new phenomenon.

I guess her power level is slowly getting closer to that of her body from the Candy path?

Oh man, let's hope this coffee is better than that junk on the meteor. :P

Page 105:

Oh okay, Roxy's hair IS a bit different after all. A bit smoother like Dave's!

Heh, okay, so the ship's a bit bigger at least than I would have thought at first. It's good that they've still got multiple places they can hang out separately.

Amazing, Dave's "mom" has become "dad". I love this.

I wonder what's going to happen now that Dave is leaving to go to Kanaya. Are we going to follow him, or will the perspective remain with Calliope at all times?

Page 106:

...Nope! Looks like we're following Dave after all. :P

I like how these look like the cabins from a real boat that you'd expect to sail on water instead of... well, space.

I wonder how the Mother Grub is doing on Meat Earth. Jane's presumably got total control there now, so how is the Troll reproduction thing going? :/

I wonder if there's a Meat Vrissy out there or not.

Page 107:

Eeesh, Kanaya's sitting there alone... in the darkness. That's definitely not like her to be in darkness.

I'm a bit afraid of what her mental health is going to be like... she's been so long without Rose, I hope she hasn't totally isolated herself from her friends.

Is she just staring off into space, wondering where Rose is and how she's doing?

Page 108:

Okay, so she is lighting up, that's good. I'd have been more worried if she really was in complete darkness here.

And in her hair... she's got a rose. Oh man. :(

Yeah, Dave's right. Why does it keep coming back to this, insanely long trips with limited crews.

At least on the meteor they had more distractions. A much bigger facility for one, and all those Dreambubbles they passed through. Now they've got none of that, and an even smaller crew.

No Mayor, no Rose, no Terezi. Only Roxy and a creepy alien possessing the body of one of their best friends.

Page 109:

Huh... I wonder what this story is going to be about. Will it turn out to be something prophetic about something that will happen in the future? Something from an alternate timeline? A real Earth story?

Page 110:

N'aww... poor Kanaya.

The story of a Prince and a Rose... goddammit, that's really not helping right now.

Dave liked calling Kanaya "sis" because of her being his sister-in-law, but if anything maybe in this trip they could actually support each other a bit as if they're really brother and sister. That would be nice.

Page 111:

...There we go! I didn't expect them to actually bring it up.

Honestly, I'm really enjoying this. We never got a lot of interactions between Dave and Kanaya, so it's sweet to see them bond like this.

And don't worry Dave, you won't find Terezi lurking in the vents. That was only in the pre-retcon timeline on the meteor, with Gamzee. :P

Page 112:

D'awww. It's sweet to see that Dave can still make Kanaya laugh despite all that has happened.

Page 113:

Oh, so looks like Roxy's settled on "he" now instead of "they"!

Aha, "title drop"! I knew it, that is just a perfect Kanaya thing to say. xD

Page 114:

Poor Dave. Yeah, it's so strange. He's basically lost all his childhood friends. John's disappeared (and dead but he doesn't know that), Jade's in a coma, and Rose is... well, yeah.

This is so different from the meteor trip, when he at least received a message that John and Jade were doing fine on their Prospitian Battleship. And they had perspective of how long the trip was going to take and a vague idea what they were going to find.

He's really had a rough life when you think about it.

Also, yeah, I'm afraid Meat Earth's not doing well. Knowing what it was like on Candy Earth for Jake, I can't imagine him being any degree of fine right now. :/

Page 116:

HOLY SHIT, so Calliope's also on the ship!!!

I'm relieved to hear that they weren't left all alone on Earth, with just Jane and Jake for company.

Though I definitely didn't expect them to join on this trip, considering how scared they were of their other self. But maybe that's why they don't leave their cabin. :(

I hope Roxy at least visits them enough... The question is, are they still a thing together or not?

And yeah, I hadn't actually thought about it yet how Karkat seems to be the least impacted by all this. He wasn't very close to Rose and hardly knew Dirk, and has no idea Terezi's on the other ship.

Oh, if he only knew what his Candy version got up to.

Pages 117 - 118:

Hehe, Karkat's feeling better on this ship than on Earth, just like Dave.

Oh wow, that was the end of this chapter already.

Good thing Alternate Calliope didn't start monologuing here like Dirk did.

It is noticeable how Dirk reintroduced the narration, while Calliope's leaving it more to the dialogue for now.

Also, I just realized how while Karkat, Dave and Kanaya all opened up a bit about their feelings, Roxy’s keeping mostly quiet for now. He continues being a bit inscrutable.

But I can’t imagine this being very easy for him either. After all, he’s lost his daughter/mom, and he’s without his three childhood friends as well.

#Homestuck #Homestuck^2 #reaction #Alternate Calliope #Karkat Vantas #Dave Strider #Kanaya Maryam #Roxy Lalonde #Calliope

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