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viroro-kun · 3 years

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My Review of the Pokémon Sun & Moon Anime (2019)

[The following post is a repost of a thread originally published on Reddit in November 17th, 2019, titled “My final review of the Pokémon Sun & Moon Anime”, which I’m sharing here again for archival purposes. I may eventually do a new one and this post is meant to only reflect my thoughts at the time. It will also not be updated with later information to keep it consistent with the original] About two weeks ago, the Sun & Moon series of the Pokémon Anime concluded after a run of three years, ending up as what's probably one of the most controversial entries of the show, with fans either loving it as a fresh take on the series or disliking it for several issues that cropped up over time. Now, after reviewing the series for the length of the aforementioned three years and at the eve of the beginning of the newer series, I'd like to pass my personal, final judgement of the Alolan series. Now, first of all, I think a preamble is necessary: all of what I will explain is my opinion and nothing else, and this isn't meant to be senseless bashing of the Sun & Moon series, either. I treasure striving to be objective and analytical above all else, and while I of course can't claim mine will be an absolutely perfect and objectively correct review, I will do my best to share my thoughts on the matter, while explaining why I feel this specific way.Secondly, I'd like to address an argument I've occasionally seen brought up, that due to Sun & Moon's seeming focus on comedy and slice of life it's not possible to compare it to previous seasons. And while that may apply for some specific choices it made, I don't believe that's the case: it was still set in a new region of the Pokémon world, still had Ash undertake the local region-wide challenge, still had a structure involving unimportant self-contained episodes (which we could call 'filler' in an useful but technically inaccurate definition) surrounding the plot-based ones, and still ended up with a League at a climax for it all. Therefore, at least on a structural and plot standpoint, there are enough commonalities to make a comparison possible, and that's where I plan to dig in particular to explain my stance.

Before I move to the meat of it, however, I want to spend some words of praise for some things I feel this series did right or at least deserves some compliments for, overall. First of all, I think that Sun & Moon does great in mantaining a chill, comfy atmosphere which to a degree makes it stand out from previous seasons, and I understand why this was appealing for some previous fans of the series. Most of the cast is pretty likable on the whole with particular props to Ash's Alolan Pokémon team managing to mantain lots of expressivity in all situations, and the series has a decent willingness to explore some concepts previous seasons only lightly touched on. The show also foregoes a lot typical Team Rocket shenanigans for different kinds of plots, making it great for people who find their usage stale and played out by now, and the simplified art style allowed for some pretty good sequences both in battle and out. At its best, the series can produce some of the best moments of this Anime as a whole, and it was at least the first series to let go of some limitations that were just weighting the show down at this point. While I think several of these pros also have indirect cons attached to them (especially in terms of tone and character usage), these are all things I feel need to be pointed out in positive for the series.With that said, I'd like to begin my proper dissection of the Pokémon Sun & Moon Anime.

Pokémon Sun & Moon - A Pokémon Anime in an Identity Crisis

1. Plot Pacing and Development: The Problem of the Stationary Setting and the "Happy Bubble"

Everyone who has heard of the Sun & Moon Anime is probably aware of its biggest break from tradition: rather than being an adventure series, this entry in the long-running Pokémon series decided to take place in a single location with occasional detours by having Ash enroll in the Pokémon School, shifting the general tone of the series towards a more slice of life approach. This had a significant effect on how the story developed, but in my opinion, if there's a fundamental issue of the Sun & Moon series, it's probably this one. Because rather than committing to the change, the writers appeared to want to have their cake and eat it too.

Specifically, adventure series and slice of life have radically opposed mission statements: for the first, progression and rising action are an important, consistent story engine moving the plot forward; the second is instead far more laidback, focused more on enjoying the moment and offering low stakes and drama more often than not, especially Sun & Moon's chosen brand of it that's closer to a sit-com than a proper slice of life. Pretty much, adventure series have a degree of development in them, while slice of life is defined by the lack of said development.

Now, I'm not saying Pokémon characters were always amazing examples of character development, or that every series prior was well-written. But the structure itself was sound, as you had Ash embarked in a defined goal of winning the League as part of his vague dream to become a Pokémon Master, having filler adventures on the way, but always undertaking rising action from the first to last Gym and occasional rivals, until the climax of the journey at the League (and in Kalos' case, the Team Flare arc). We see Ash, and occasionally his friends, actively train, fight or improve on the path to their goals, while the narration itself always reminds us of what the current major objective is. Even when the episode doesn't actually contribute to the larger story, the viewer always has a reassurance that the next objective will be reached eventually.

The structure of Sun & Moon, by comparison, is inherently more passive more often than not, as you have Ash and the others waiting for the plot to happen to them. Instead of having Ash actively seek a new challenge, you see him sitting down and wait for something specific to make him go and progress, and so does everyone else, with only rare exceptions. The characters are effectively static until the plot decides to move them, and while this could superficially resemble the previous structure (as both have a progression that could be defined as arbitrary), the Sun & Moon series barely, if ever, reassured the viewer to still remember the goals it set up, or even what the next one to come is.

Now, inherently, the characters being passive recipients of plot isn't a bad thing, it's just how slice of life stories tend to work. The problem of Sun & Moon, however, was that beyond the vague and SoL-friendly concept of Ash at the Pokémon School they still had Ash pursue the Island Trials (and in fact, he's impressed by the concept of mastering Z-Moves before he even enrolls in the school), which gave the show a problem: it wanted to be a chill story focusing more on small time hijinks than big adventures, while still taking on a structure that demanded to follow the rules of an adventure series, creating an inherent contradiction.

What I mean is that, since the Island Trials were still part of Ash's stay in Alola, the show was still supposed to abide to the rising action leading to a climax, giving the show a direction that it had to fulfill by its end rather than have an open premise with occasional plotlines (example: GeGeGe no Kitaro, where the open premise is 'Kitaro deals with evil Yokai' with every other longer plotline spinning from there). It's something that pretty much prevents the viewer from fully enjoying the more quiet romps, because in the mind of a viewer expecting progression, these are just a diversion over the more important goal Ash has in the region. Now, in fairness to Sun & Moon, the show seemed aware of the tension and made sure to tie each Trial Ash did into either school trips or wanting to get specific Crystals, but beyond making it seem like Ash didn't care much for something he claimed he wasn't interested in (especially with wanderlust being a previously estabilished character trait of his), this ran into another big issue of Sun & Moon: rather than a sense of rising action, pretty much every Island Trial Ash did was narratively unrelated to each other, especially once it was revealed that Ash didn't need to complete any of them to access the Alola League, in contrast with how every badge was important and necessary in previous regions.

This specific issue wasn't however unique to Ash, but rather a persistent problem in pretty much every element and story arc of the series: be it Ash's quest, Guzma's struggles, Rowlet's rivalry with Hau's Dartrix/Decidueye, Lycanroc's rage issues, Lillie's goal to be able to touch every Pokémon again, the Necrozma and Aether arcs to even the Alola League and anything in between, almost all of them had only the bare minimum of buildup and either ended as soon as they got teased or happened to be sidelined for a large amount of episodes before they got their due focus, if not both at once. While some of these arcs ranged from alright to pretty great (Litten's pre-capture arc dealing with Stoutland's passing, or the Guzma-related segments of the Alola League), there are quire a few (chiefly Necrozma) that were ruined by a combination of lacking setup work and the feeling that, simply put, nothing mattered that much. Sure, the arcs could be mentioned here and there, and some can set up things for the future (like how Aether leads to the Ultra Guardians), but on the whole, the arcs are effectively done-in-one in terms of lasting impact. Unlike how in previous shows you could've had stuff like Ash's and Dawn's intertwined journeys, here you have Stoutland lose relevance in terms of influence to Litten as soon as he dies, where save for Stoutland brief cameo as a spirit on Poni Island his storyline got shifted in the unrelated rivalry with Kukui's Incineroar.

This last example, in particular, brings up another of the big issues of Sun & Moon, one that can be divided in three parts: plot pacing, plot segregation, and the "happy bubble".

In regards to plot pacing, one of the most notorious problems brought up for this series is the fact that, to put it simply, each plotpoint will only progress when the show decided they have to, which led to things like Lillie going almost an entire real time year between getting her Z-Crystal and then her Z-Ring, or Ash doing absolutely nothing about his Lycanroc's raging issues for getting dirty for close to thirty episodes before they happened again in the Ula'Ula arc, during which neither character gave any hints of even thinking about these lingering elements in any way even if it was clear setup to be followed on. This, coupled with the aforementioned lack of a constant reminder of the next destination, just made for a frustrating waiting game in terms of the next major point of progression.

A related issue is the plot segregation, or specifically, how each major arc is effectively removed from the others, from Kiawe and Sophocles' occasional focus episodes to more important stuff like Lillie's Pokémon phobia, her and Gladion's later interest in finding their father, Lana's desire to create a balloon to explore the ocean with, Ash's Island Trials, and so on. It made these characters feel like they exist in their own separate paths, never to intersect, something the evolution episode in the Poni Island arc somewhat exemplifies since Sophocles' and Lana's efforts happen on completely distinct plotlines and locations. As I explained above this also happens with major arcs, like how the Necrozma arc's only contribution to the wider narrative was sending Poipole home (and given its later offscreen evolution and power up, one could make a case the arc had a negative impact on the series). The segregation also had the effect of having the plot act like something flat out doesn’t exist unless it has been directly showcased, leading to such goofiness as Kukui's best friend Molayne not being invited at his wedding in spite of being Sophocles' cousin, or how absolutely no one was in Poni Island during the Manalo Festival buildup. A good example of the difference, I feel, is this: in previous series, we could've had Serena relate to Ash with her Master Class loss at a significant point of his character arc during the Winding Woods episode; in this one, Mallow only revealed her mother issues after Lillie's entire arc revolving around her mother was resolved, with the two never comparing notes. The closest we get is Ash relating to Lana for his problems with Lycanroc using Continental Crush in Ida's first episode and Lillie trying to help out Ash during his fallout with Rotom, both of which refer to things that happened to them either mostly offscreen or entirely there.

The plot segregation was, in particular, noticeable with the decision to associate three of Ash's Alolan Pokémon (Torracat, Dusk Lycanroc and Rowlet) to specific characters as rivals, with the Pokémon driving the rivalry rather than Ash himself (who had otherwise rather civil, mostly friendly interactions with Kukui, Gladion and Hau). On paper, this should've guaranteed that every Pokémon had their moment to shine, but effectively, it meant that each of them were restricted to mostly their specific rival in terms of focus post-Aether. Lycanroc got Olivia's Grand Trial, the Ula'Ula arc to itself and then the rivalry with Gladion's Midnight Lycanroc, but no other significant usages; Rowlet got roles in the first two Grand Trials, but then spent almost one hundred episodes before its second focus episode, and beyond his friendship with Meltan it only got Hau's battle and a part against Kukui to itself; Torracat was the one absolutely done dirty here, as beyond the Stoutland appearence in Poni Island and the Totem Lurantis battle pre-Aether, all his following focus moments rely on the rivalry with Kukui's Incineroar, with only occasional minor scuffles to its name and a bit of the Guzma battle to its name. That would already be bad enough, but the fact that until the League there's no battle that requires Ash to involve more than two Pokémon (with most of them requiring him only one), Ash's team never actually gets to act as a team until the very final battle of the series, furthering the lacking sense of cohesiveness. Year two of the series was particularly bad in this sense, as most major battles were fought with either Pikachu or Lycanroc while Torracat and Rowlet barely did much.

And lastly, one persistent result of both the plot pacing and the plot segregation was a phenomenon I like to refer to as the "happy bubble," or the tendency of the Sun & Moon series to confine major conflicts and bad moments for the characters only to their specific focus episodes. In previous shows, you could have moments of self-doubt or worry linger even outside dedicated episodes (Dawn's depression for her losing streak, Ash's rivalry with Paul affecting him, and his increasing worries in the latter part of XY being clear examples), but due to Sun & Moon's commitment to fun times before everything else, it means the characters aren't allowed to have any conflict or moments of darkness to later conquer unless they're the focus, and even then resolving them quickly. See how bubbly Lillie is even when she's scared of Pokémon unless the episode is specifically about her, how she never even thought about her father until Gladion reminded her, how Ash's confidence and his relationship with Lycanroc are only focused on in Ula'Ula and then never again, and most noticeably the fact Mallow's dead mother was treated as something that tore her for years but it was only ever directly dealt with in one episode, to the point she's the only family member on Bulbapedia listed under characters of the day. The problem of this bubble is that it pretty much makes it hard to invest in the emotional struggles of these characters because they end up feeling like throwaway moments which are then functionally forgotten, with no sense of constant growth. Characters get their moments, the audience gets invested, and then it's forgotten, with only few and far-in-between moments of exception, and that's another thing making each conflict feel segregated from each other.

If I could sum up everything in one sentence, I'd say this: Sun & Moon is composed by a myriad of pieces, some excellent, some average, some awful and everything in between, that all exist mostly in a vacuum. I'll return to this topic in a bit, as there's another important aspect to touch first.

2. Characters and Their Development: Too Many, Too Little, Too Late

Another aspect of Sun & Moon that's often brought up is the decision to have a main cast of six counting Ash, with the game Trial Captains Mallow, Lana, Kiawe and Sophocles alongside plot-important character Lillie turned into Ash's classmates. These characters have been as much a point of praise as they were of criticism, with some fans absolutely loving this group while others couldn't absolutely stand them. I feel the best way to tackle this is to first list how I feel each character was handled in terms of planning and development, before going into their relationships and the rest of the cast, starting with the humans and then going through Ash's Pokémon before closing on Ash himself. I will say to start with, however, that none of these characters is inherently unlikable the way they started as, and most of their later issues came solely from their handling down the line or flaws in how they were approached.

2.1) The companions

Among the companions, Sophocles was probably the one that made the poorer first impressions, as beyond sharing the same type specialty, his game background as an inventor and his Anime presentation as a programmer that sometimes built things gave him a number of unfair comparisons with Clemont, not helped at all by an introduction episode that ranks among the worst ones of this group. That said, I feel by the end he actually ended up being one of the best characters of the group in spite of heavily scattered focus, for one major reason: he's one of the few characters of this group to have a consistent character growth that plays in his dream and that's easily noticeable as the story unfolds. Early on, he starts as the timid, insecure kid that gets easily scared of the dark and needs people and Pokémon's support over everything, but between his first few episodes and the later clarification of his interest in space, it's clear that his development was actually aimed towards him growing into a more independent and confident person and trainer. He goes from being unable to tell his friends that he's not actually leaving Alola after a misunderstanding and only getting his second Pokémon as a gift from Ash to slowly take an interest in rising Charjabug, first with a race and then by evolving it, then deciding to gain a Z-Crystal and a Z-Ring, learning to use it, and ultimately take part in the League in spite of knowing to not be on the same level of his friends, yet still putting his all, with a nice interlude where he takes things into his own hands during the Celesteela mission, and with the race he does to gain his Z-Crystal leading him to confront and surpass his fear of the dark. While still pretty scattered and sidelined, I feel he's a character that's been developed well-enough and that in his post-series aim is actively working towards his dream in a new but productive way by visiting Mossdeep City's Space Center, and definitely my favorite of the Alolan kids as he clearly developed into a better person by the end through a straightforward, traceable progression.

Lana is probably up there with Sophocles in terms of being one of the best characters of this group, and I'd go as far as saying she's probably the best non-Coordinator/Performer Pokégirl out there. While Sophocles ranks high due to getting good personal development, Lana ranks high because, while on paper her dream of creating a big balloon to explore the ocean with is simple and a tad silly, it is something she puts clear effort into and that she never loses track of through the whole series, even with a fairly noticeable void of attention in the mid-series stretch. Between being the first of the non-Kiawe classmates to get a Z-Ring and a Z-Crystal, learning how to use Hydro Vortex, then evolving Popplio to Brionne and then Primarina (while dealing with a Kyogre along the way) while also getting Oceanic Operetta, she's consistently focused on her improvement, and always the best female battler of the bunch. The only thing that really penalizes her is that while her dream is technically achieved, she ultimately gets Oceanic Operetta with offscreen training and they never make a point to highlight that as a big moment, and while her skill development is solid, she remains exactly the same character throughout the series from the first and last episode. An entertaining character for sure, but one that just gets stronger and not much else. Still, she's easily one of the best female leads this series ever had, and a good example of how to make a non-Coordinator-esque female character work well after the pitfalls Misty and Iris fell into.

Kiawe is not far from them, with a pretty solid run slightly marred by a few issues. Specifically, he's probably the best battler of this group that isn't Ash, but he's distinctly characterized as having two "modes" as a character: either the serious, spiritual follower of Alolan traditions, or the one that started popping out more often later in the series where he's an overreacting ham to rival Cilan. I personally feel Kiawe's better moments tends to come from the first mode, not only because he stands out better in a funny sense by being the straight-laced guy in a cast of wacky people, but also because he's the best character to explore the more spiritual angle of Alola, the element that truly makes the region stand out compared to previous ones featured in the series. Unfortunately, beyond the fact the slice of life romps tended to favor his wacky angle more than the serious one, Kiawe is penalized by not quite having a true arc to develop through: he wants to become a stronger trainer and claims so, but all his episodes ultimately end up involving unrelated matters: he catches his Marowak, learns to use a Z-Move with him later on, and ends up getting his Charizard back into working shape after he undertakes Fini's trial to save Ash, but while each of these are overall good showings and he's probably got the best League run of the cast in terms of prowess and skill, they tend to remain isolated instances. It also doesn't help that while his hot-blooded rivalry with Ash can be fairly entertaining and it's teased from episode 2, it ultimately culminates into an underwhelming showdown in the penultimate episode that barely feels like an afterthought. I'd hardly call him a bad character and he still does pretty well even with his issues, but one that could've been handled better on the whole.

A far different story is Lillie, a character that, I feel, suffered from several different issues all at once. To address the elephant in the living room first, let it be said that while they share traits, Anime Lillie and Game Lillie end up being fairly different characters by the end, and while I think Game Lillie is probably one of the best creations of GameFreak, my opinion on her Anime self couldn't be more different, and it's not due to straight comparisons between each other. Now, Lillie doesn't actually start badly: the fact that she has a phobia of touching Pokémon from an unknown source at first actually gave her a nice direction as a character in a way similar yet different from Lana, but it didn't take long for Lillie's major issue to show itself: things happen to her rather than her working towards stuff proactively, and the majority of the time her struggles are resolved by feeling sad or believing really hard with extremely few exceptions. This started already before the Aether arc, where while her episodes were good, they all relied on the exact same formula of Lillie unable to touch Pokémon, being unable to do so and feeling sad about it until she can in a spur-of-the-moment situation, which started to make her episodes feel stale.

The Aether arc seemed to finally change things as it heavily revolved around Lillie, but to anticipate some things I'll delve into more detail later, the changed circumstances ended up weakening both the conflict and her character, making her come across as too unlikable. But beyond that issue, the problem of the Aether arc is that it ensured that Lillie was completely healed of her phobia due to the actions of others rather than herself, which killed off all her character potential and left her with nothing to do for the rest of the series (while the conflict with her mother was completely brushed under the rug after this arc introduced and hastily attempted to resolve it). Sure, she 'grew stronger', and got a Z-Ring and Z-Crystal, but the majority of important things of the Mohn arc were actually dealt with by Gladion, while her own help ended up amounting to still, once more, feeling really hard rather than active work. But the biggest problem of her character is that all of her major achievements derived from either someone else (Silvally healing her phobia by saving her, Gladion actually defeating Totem Kommo-o, her Z-Ring being borrowed from her father, Gladion finding Mohn's Zoroark) or facilitated by outside assistance (her one victory in the League's Battle Royale coming from effectively killstealing a Salamence Kiawe weakened, her battle with Tyranitar having the assistance of a Totem Sandshrew) which made it hard to think she earned her development or truly grow stronger when she ultimately always ended up relying on someone else, especially given her tendency to never act unless prodded (see how she seemed perfectly fine not touching Pokémon for years until Mallow and Ash actively tried to get her to do it, nor try to learn why she has the phobia in the first place, nor thinking about where her father may be). This, alongside the tendency of the series to play up game moments like the Lillie and Solgaleo moment or her change in dress and hairstyle to show her resolve while sapping all the meaning they had in the source material and the habit of the characters to praise Lillie for anything she does no matter how minor or trivial, ultimately made her a character that was borderline insufferable to follow, especially for the classmate pushed as the most important beyond Ash.

The worst of all main characters, however, is without a doubt Mallow. While I have several issues with Lillie's handling as a character, at least her faults come with how the show decided to approach her, while I feel by contrast Mallow was only allowed breadcrumbs of just about anything, something already shown by how she had to wait until episode 18 for her first true focus episode. Back in the earliest episodes I thought her interest in making Aina the most popular restaurant in Alola could've given her a drive as a character similar to the one Lana and at the time Lillie had, only for the story to be content with leaving her where she is. Between the fact her Bounsweet evolved twice in ways that were respectively too sudden and rather unrelated to her and the habit of her focus episodes past her first to focus away from her more than on her (having to share screentime with her brother 'Ulu and Oranguru, specifically), it felt like she was added to the cast because they had to, and while the last year of Sun & Moon tried to put a patch on the problem by giving her emotional moments with her mother and her League match with Lana, said patches had the effect of not feeling very genuine since her mother, as I mentioned above, only really figured in one episode, while Mallow suddenly being afraid of Tsareena getting hurt when she fought in Ultra Space and in other instances just fine just feels like an awkward attempt at giving her an emotional moment that doesn't gel with her characterization too well. If we add onto it that she only mastered her Z-Move during the League itself, her Z-Crystal was gained just by making a burger, and the Shaymin she cared for after meeting her mother effectively did nothing afterwards until its deal was resolved at the last possible second during the final credits of the series because 'Ulu found some Gracidea with no input from Mallow proper, Mallow ended up feeling like the most mishandled characters of this crew, whose character and development felt more like isolated moments than anything cohesive.

The Pokémon of the cast outside of the major ones don't really warrant much talk, the best of the bunch being Kiawe's Marowak for his vibrant personality and good feats, while everyone else ranges from pretty much not too focused on (Turtonator, Charizard, Tsareena, Togedemaru), useful for development but otherwise kinda dull more often than not (Primarina, Vikavolt, Snowy), cute but pointless in spite of heavy buildup (Sandy), and pretty much useless (Shaymin, Magearna outside of being a McGuffin), mostly getting occasional cute moments than anything substantial or productive for their trainers.

2.2) Ash's Pokémon

Beyond the classmates, there's the matter of Ash's Pokémon as well, and I'd like to spend a few words on the Rotomdex. On the whole, he was never the most important character, but I'd say the best way to describe him is that he's a likable character that happened to star in some rather poor episodes: while his overreactions could get annoying sometimes, for the most part he was likable enough, and his existence ensured that Ash would lose his oft-criticized trait to scan Pokémon he already saw that made him come across as dumb, and some of his moments and hobbies made him pretty endearing. His only real problem is that his focus episodes usually tended to focus on rather stupid plots aimed only to comedy, and while three of them are at least arguable, his last true focus episode happened to be one of the worst episodes of the series due to how out-of-character Ash acted under the possibility of Rotom leaving. None of the issues of these episodes were Rotom's fault, but as a minor character, it was somewhat unfortunate for him to receive such a short end of the stick focus-wise.

Going back to Ash's actual Pokémon, beyond the eternal Pikachu, I'd say the one most worth of consideration overall is Torracat (or Incineroar, but he never fought under the form), both in terms of praise and criticism. I say so because, before his capture, Litten seemed to be given unusually large focus, including being the first of Ash's Alolan Pokémon to debut and appearing for several episodes even between his major pre-capture arc, which being among the most tragic and involved capture circumstances seemed to point towards Torracat being the 'ace Pokémon' of the region, only for things to change once Lycanroc entered the picture. To put it simply, Torracat has some rather solid episodes and a personality that very much matches Ash's own, but he often feels like he's only given breadcrumbs of focus. Between only taking part in one minor trial and no Grand Trials, not getting his own associated Z-Crystal until right before the League and having it used only twice counting the test run of it, and his rivalry battle being the only one in the Alola League to happen in the middle of a match rather than at the end of it (which lead to a rather goofy division of him getting declared winner and then fainting after evolving just so it couldn't technically be considered a tie even if it functionally was to preserve his triumph), it feels like the poor Pokémon is never given enough of his due, and while I enjoy his drive to surpass Kukui's Incineroar and especially the way the plotline was figuratively used throughout the Ash VS Kukui battle, it just seems like Torracat is always last in priority in terms of Ash's Pokémon, which makes even his good moments feel like afterthought even with nice bits like his relationship with Lycanroc, especially with how, as touching and well-executed as it was, Stoutland's effect on Torracat is forgotten as soon as it happens, between Fire Fang being mastered exactly one episode later and Stoutland himself only being brought back twice, once as a thought by Ash and only in the second with Stoutland meeting Torracat again in Poni Island, mostly for the purpose of teaching him another move. So, in my opinion, Torracat is a case of a conceptually solid-enough character, that's however penalized both by how little the narrative gave him focus, and the fact that his arc with Stoutland and his later rivalry with Incineroar are pretty much unrelated (for why I consider this a flaw, consider that fellow Fire starter Infernape was able to have a memorably tragic backstory that did dovetail into his major rivalry perfectly, so just asking for a degree of connection isn't outside the realm of what this show can do).

And then there's Lycanroc, the Pokémon that the series wants us to consider the regional ace, which had several issues associated with him. To put this simply, I feel like he was a much better character as a Rockruff than he was after his evolution, mostly for being the perfect mix of adorable, focused, and having actually pronounced rage issues that occasionally popped up but were treated completely seriously, alongside having a pretty good showing in the Olivia battle as a rare final bout to completely not involve Z-Moves in a period where their usage was starting to become excessive. However, after the evolution (which is treated as a rare, one-of-a-kind event due to Rockruff evolving during a rare green flash yet is never actually remarked on beyond very occasional comments that he looks odd that are never treated as much), his handling changes for the worst, specifically for two of his rather ace-worthy moments: its rage form arc, and the way his rivalry with Gladion's Dusk Lycanroc was handled. The first is overall the biggest issue, because it's also symbolic of Sun & Moon's tonal issues since his major challenge to overcome as a Pokémon is the fact that, whenever his fur gets dirty, he goes on murderous rampages, always after acting goofily shocked in a way intended to be humorous, creating a whiplash effect that doesn't make clear how the viewer should find the scene given it first asks us to laugh at Lycanroc and then to be scared of him. This is also only introduced once in the middle of the Aether arc and then never revisited until the Ula'Ula arc, where it's ultimately solved by Ash bringing back memories of how Rockruff used to act about getting dirty that happened completely offscreen, only for the writers to then milk the drama some more two episodes later by now handling the rage mode completely seriously in terms of reactions and using actual rage as the trigger instead of just specifically the fur, in an episode that ultimately relied on Ash not trusting his Pokémon (when he was already somewhat out-of-character by being scared by Lycanroc's rampage after he was willing to hug his blazing Chimchar to calm him down back in Sinnoh). It's all handled in an extremely brief arc and then never again, feeling like an arc that takes elements from both the Infernape and Ash-Greninja arcs while missing the slow buildup and non-regressive development that made those two arcs work (and I'll elaborate more on it in a bit). Beyond this, his rivalry with Gladion's Lycanroc suffers of being extremely sidelined in spite of being the 'major' rivalry of the series: while the two Pokémon did fight three times, the first time was interrupted by Team Rocket (something they stopped doing for major rival battles for quite a while beforehand), the second relying on some very weird resilience by Midnight Lycanroc by not only tanking completely Dusk Lycanroc's Splintered Stormshards to seemingly no damage but also snapping out of confusion to deliver a finishing Z-Move of his own, and the third relying on a battle that was overall not too bad, but felt more like a mid-series squabble than Ash's victory at the Alola League (which is then completely outclassed in spectacle by Ash VS Kukui). Dusk Lycanroc's rivalry isn't actually too bad, but considering how Gladion's Lycanroc is the only major opponent Ash's ace got to fight post-evolution outside the Ula'Ula arc, Kukui's Pokémon (none of which he defeated) and occasional training bout, it did restrict a lot of his feats and ended up with him feeling more like an okay Pokémon than the powerhouse the writing wanted him to seem like. Coupled with a lackluster personal arc, this makes him closer to the Krookodile tier of 'possible aces' than one of the major ones like Charizard or Infernape.

And then we get to Rowlet, the last of the major Alolan four counting Pikachu, and probably the most problematic of the bunch. Much like Torracat and Lycanroc, Rowlet isn't inherently a bad Pokémon, with the first episodes neatly estabilishing two things: yes, he is dopey and loves to sleep a bit too much, but he's also a serious and competent fighter in battle that never fails to impress, making sure that neither side ultimately hurt or diminished the other. His problem is ultimately revolving around two things: he's spent a long time out of focus, and his later focus didn't exactly paint him in a good light. The first is probably the major issue at hand: while both Rowlet and Torracat were heavily sidelined midway into the series, Torracat did at least get a few token episodes to himself, while Rowlet's first real focus episode after his capture one only really comes almost one hundred episodes later. While in the early series this was mitigated by having Rowlet take part in two minor trials and two Grand Trials, this focus is all but forgotten by the second year of the series, with Rowlet reduced to solely a gag Pokémon whose greatest achievement ended up being learning Razor Leaf by sitting on a magical tree. This had the adverse effect of making his gag tries, which previously only showed either in minor matches or not during serious parts of battle, to slowly become more and more prominent. The other issue is that Rowlet had without a doubt the weakest rivalry set up and buildup of the three major Pokémon Ash obtained in Alola, as Hau and his Dartrix only appear in one episode before the League and two of the three battles Ash had with Hau involved major, non-strategy related writing contrivancies to reach the desired outcome (Ash slipping his Grassium-Z and getting distracted to fetch it for Rowlet to lose for the first one; Rowlet's Decidueye hoodie tanking a Z-Move, the overturned loss, and the sudden learning of a Feather Dance that doesn't act like the one Rowlet was trying to master for Rowlet to win in the final one). The way Rowlet acted in the Ash VS Hau battle is kinda emblematic of this, as the oft-debated overturned loss moment involved him falling asleep in the middle a match he was supposedly fired up for just for the sake of a joke and nothing else; regardless of how one wants to justify it, it doesn't change that such a thing never happened before in the series, and it ultimately involved Rowlet betraying the trust Ash put in him just for a scene the writers deemed funny, in what was supposed to be his finest hour (while Rowlet fell asleep in the Hala Grand Trial, it was only after his part of the match ended). Considering also that two of the moves Rowlet learned required the help of his adoptive flock without as much input from Ash and he ultimately ate an Everstone just for a variation of Seed Bomb that turned out to be more a liability than asset throughout the series, not even a cute relationship with Meltan and the fact that he won his last important matches of the series makes up for some of the worst excesses of tonal imbalance and inability to let jokes go in a context that absolutely have no space for his brand of incompetence-based humor.

With the major Alola captures gone, there's just the other two latecomer to discuss, and I'd like to start with Poipole/Naganadel, specifically because he's probably one of the worst handled Pokémon Ash ever owned. While the second year of Sun & Moon had several issues, none are as glaring as Poipole being the major Pokémon of the period, only to not actually do much of actually important. Starting with the fact that Ash only bonds with Poipole by proxy to begin with since Poipole interacts with and loves Pikachu before Ash even actually enters the picture, Poipole's biggest contributions to the series afterwards are acting silly for the majority of episodes and never actually getting involved in serious fights beyond one small bout with the Team Skull trio (which is estabilished as even more pathetic than the Team Rocket trio), making the fact that Ash captured him feel like a waste, especially when his focus episodes dealing more with his emotional side end up being just two, and ultimately not doing much of helpful during the Necrozma arc except leaving at the end in what at the time felt like a rather permanent farewell (as he was stuck in another dimension rather than somewhere Ash can readily access). Now, if Poipole's story ended there, he would've been odd but not too bad all things considered, but the problem comes from the fact that Poipole eventually returned right at the end of the series for no adequately explained in-universe reason during an unrelated Guzzlord attack, not only evolved but also presented as a competent and useful battler in spite of the fact none of it happened either onscreen or by Ash's efforts (unlike how Gliscor and Goodra, Pokémon in similar situations, did prove their worth onscreen before being put aside for a time), making this turn come across as an undeserved boost for Ash just so he could have six Pokémon, alongside removing the beauty of the permanent farewell Ash had with Poipole because the sheer coincidence of Naganadel's arrival and then his departure means that they may as well see each other again in the future. Among Ash's Pokémon in Alola, Naganadel is probably the crowning example of the series wanting its cake and eat it too in terms of wanting to be cute and fun and then rushing to make battles matter without the required buildup.

Meltan shares a lot of issues with Poipole, but overall to a lesser degree, mostly because his biggest problem is just coming way too late in the series and, much like Poipole, he only really bonds with Ash by proxy due to starting to like Rowlet first. Much like Lycanroc, his existence is supposedly important as a new discovery but this trait of his is barely called to attention, and coming too late in the series he only gets a few battles to his name with his contributions mostly amounting to gags rather than skill and serious fighting, alongside having the dubious honor of being the only Pokémon of Ash's Alola team to never use Z-Moves in spite of Ash fetching a Steelium-Z as a result of his final Grand Trial for no other reason than the out-of-universe one that Melmetal has never been in a game where you could use Z-Moves. Adding to the fact that Meltan only evolved right before the League finals for reasons outside Ash's guidance or influence conveniently before the last match for the victory, only to give indirect help at best and then winning a battle against a Pokémon with no feats, it's hard to consider Meltan's power boost earned and even harder to tell if he even had a significant power boost to begin with considering how little feats we have for both him in particular and Alola battles in general. All in all, a Pokémon that's been more shortserved by how late he came than actually any inherent issues.

2.3) Ash, Pikachu, and the Team Rocket trio

And with all those characters breached, we have to move on to the Sun & Moon take on Ash himself, which is, to put it simply, rather complicated to discuss. Another one of Sun & Moon's biggest talking points was the decision to amp up Ash's typical childishness to higher degrees than usual, with even his voice actress Rica Matsumoto confirming in an interview for the next series that she was explicitly instructed to play Ash as younger than usual for the Alolan series. Now, yet again, Ash having a goofier and more relaxed personality is neither unprecedented (as he was always silly to a degree, even in XY) nor inherently bad, and the problems mostly came from how the series decided to handle him later. One good thing at the start was that the take this series seemed to go for was Ash being a battle shonen-esque hero stuck in the wrong genre, with his typical behavior clashing with the more relaxed nature of the setting, which actually worked well in ensuring he didn't feel reset while fitting the new mission statement of the series. The problems really came up with how, ultimately, Ash became the series' biggest target of butt monkey-related humor (with the rest of the cast either being treated far more seriously or only occasionally being given the same treatment) and his initial competence in battling lead the way to an overabundance of 'silly regular kid'-related humor with even battles treated as mostly laughing matters, something later battles and important matches overturned to a degree that started to make Ash's handling feel arbitrary.

And arbitrary is the best way to describe Ash in this series: he can either be as good a trainer and master planner as he always was (Ash VS Olivia, Ash VS Misty, Ash VS Kukui), a heroic young man willing to go to good lengths for people he cares for (Tapu Koko rematch, most of the Guzzlord arc) while being scared and intimidated by his own Pokémon (Ula'Ula arc), a regular kid screwing up on daily tasks and willing to cheat his homework (Sophocles' early focus eps, the open school episode), a whiny little kid (the Stoutland treasure hunt episode, the Rotom farewell episode), a surprisingly thoughtful and serious boy (Stoutland's death episode, Minior episode) and everything in between, with the changes being so jarring that it feels less like this show is attempting a nuanced take on Ash and more like the show is simply not caring to stick to any portrayal depending on what the episode requires, especially when as I said above the entire premise of the show hinges on Ash not falling for his typical wanderlust (which is the inability to sit still for long and explore the world, so 'school and daily life adventures' doesn't cut it) without ever adequately explaining how, and seeming strangely uninterested in looking for new chances to grow stronger unless they happen to come his way. Arbitrary is also a great way to describe his impact on both his friends and the region, where in spite of appearing in every single episode, it often feels like Ash is irrelevant to his own show: he has nothing to do with either of Lillie's family deals, nor Sophocles' growing independency beyond occasional sidelines support and kickstarting it indirectly with the Charjabug gift, he barely did anything to support Lana's achievements beyond being there when they happened, his rivalry with Kiawe was nice but ultimately wasn't given his due, and Mallow and him barely got to have significant interactions throughout the story. Most of his rivalries in the region were carried more by his Pokémon than himself as he only shared amicable relationships with all of his supposed rivals with no real competitivity at their core (aside from Kiawe, which as mentioned was done dirty), and even when he got to be a hero it was either as part of an effort by everyone (Necrozma arc, both Guzzlord instances, technically most Ultra Guardians episodes), relying on questionably justified plot devices (Aether arc, and once again the Necrozma arc), or ultimately moving the focus away from him and his influence when you'd think the story would do the opposite (Guzma's parts in the Alola League). Adding onto that that the amount of times his Pokémon gained moves in the heat of the moment without training (a series staple that previous series tried to downplay with more onscreen training) and how his Pokémon ended up learning moves more for the actions of someone other than him than because he helped them, and Ash's handling in this region really adds up to strangely inconsequential, which is particularly bad considering how the League tried to go the other way, making his eventual achievement at the end feel hollow in the face of lacking buildup in the region and the several boosts and narrative aids he got to get there.

There's also the elephant in the living room that is Ash's development. Early in Sun & Moon I've seen people claim this series was more about Ash developing as a human being than as a trainer, which would be true... if not for the fact stuff like Ash doing chores was also alluded to and shown in previous series like AG and DP, and that during the Alola League (which should be the culmination of the series) none of it is actually remotely involved except for Ash talking of his love for the region during the final attack, while it never actually showed in previous matches (even against Guzma, which should be where this should come up given Ash's declaration at the start of it, the narrative wants us to stay in Guzma's head instead). The 'love for the region' thing also seems weird to bring up to me considering he actually spent less time exploring the region and more being holed up in one city with very occasional detours, with most of the plots ensuing around him being the sort of thing you'd see in "filler" episodes (like taking part in some competitions, taking part in a play, etc). It feels more like the series wants us to pretend the typical filler hijinks now are part of character growth rather than being just small adventures for fun. If we consider that learning to love the region, then Ash didn't really do much of different from previous series beyond sitting still this time around. And ultimately, the fact that Ash is back to adventuring now in a similar way to previous series means that if Ash ends up winning a League again in the future (which is not unlikely now that the ceiling was broken through), none of the reasons given to make his stay in Alola significant would really age well. The only arc that I feel actively tried to develop Ash as a trainer was Ula'Ula, and that still relied on some very significant moments of out-of-character behavior from Ash.

2.4) Relationships, and Everyone Else

I think at this point one recurring issue has cropped up: specifically, there are so many supposedly important characters that none of them truly got their due in terms of focus, either having to be satisfied with a number of focus episodes that barely amount to an arc or with their involvement into things reduced to just their specific deals and barely little else, especially with how this was the first series to not have all of Ash's friends necessarily involved in every episode. I feel this had a pretty adverse effect on the series' dynamics, as the already diluted interactions between the cast due to the large group ended up being even less focused on given that not all the characters were always there. As a result, we barely know stuff like Mallow's or Sophocles' relationship, or Lillie's and Kiawe's, and so on, with their own relationships to each other mostly falling into basic friendship (the ones with Ash in particular mostly falling into respect, friendliness and occasional snark at his expense), with only a few like Kiawe's competitiveness with Ash or Lana and Mallow being revealed halfway in as childhood friends having particular focus, otherwise being content with splitting the cast into 'the boys' group' and 'the girls' group' whenever they needed focused attention, and the rare occasions where the characters had some interactions. For the most part, perhaps emblematically of this series, characters mostly shared moments rather than actual relationships.

All that's left to discuss in this area is the rest of the cast, and let it be said... for a series supposedly about exploring the people of Alola, the majority of the non-main cast ranges from forgettable to rather dull, especially once we move to the lesser recurring characters. Lusamine's reduction to an overworked mother who only gets involved in matters explicitly tied to her children and occasionally the Ultra Guardians missions was a rather noticeable waste of an interesting game character, and while Kukui does have a nice presence and good usage throughout the series, the same can't quite be said of his wife Burnet, who beyond some good presence in the Aether arc and minor bits of exposition when dealing with Ultra Beasts (and in particular Necrozma) is effectively sidelined in housewife position for most of the series as Ash's 'second mother' (a position that, unlike Kukui who actively acts the part, mostly seems to come from cooking for him and being married post-Aether) with most of her funny moments coming from being a Royal Mask fangirl. Wicke has very little going for her, while Faba is probably one of Sun & Moon's worst misfires in that, after making his villainy far worse than his game self, the story acts like he should be forgiven while never actually learning his lesson, in spite of the show telling us he caused trauma to Lillie for years and how most of his contributions to anything end up boiling to minor help at best, and attempting to cheat his way to what he wants (the League) at worst. It's a horrible lessons for kids to have, and I'm not sure what the writers had in mind with this aside from keeping him around because the games' more snively and heinous Faba (even accounting for his more evil USUM iteration) also did.

Then we have the Kahuna, which are for the most part okay bit characters (even if Olivia's take was pretty weird, coming from her game self), with Nanu as the obvious standout even between the issues of the Ula'Ula arc as a jerk trainer with a point that doesn't really get 'taught his place', close enough to his game characterization, and Hapu having a decent track to development in the Poni arc (even if much like Olivia, it sacrificed her game characterization along the way). The other Trial Captains not part of the main cast run the gamut between nice to see but not particularly deep (Acerola, to a degree Ilima) and pretty much borderline pointless (Mina). Ash's rivals are a similar deal, with Hau being nice but having not too much to himself with how late he enters the series, while Gladion is an alright character whose rivalry with Ash mostly suffers of being a tad vanilla: they're on friendly terms, are strong, and like to battle each other, but beyond that Ash doesn't have much of a reason to be a rival (something even Alain had by being interested in facing Ash even if he was as separate otherwise), like the student-teacher relationship Sawyer had, or the foil status Paul shared with him, or simply being an old friend he wanted to surpass the way Gary was. Their lack of connection alongside the fact that Gladion would barely think about him unless the plot required him to only contributed to them feeling a tad distant from each other, and why their final bout at the League felt for many viewers just 'okay' rather than the earned culmination of their relationship.

And then there are the lower tier recurring characters, ostensibly Sun & Moon's selling point as, unlike previous series, only rarely did the series happen to introduce 'characters of the day' that never came back afterwards. The biggest problem is that, ultimately, all of these lower tier characters are still as flat as the characters of the day of yesteryear: in spite of appearing several times, all we know of Anela the old lady is that she used to be a dancer and likes Litten/Torracat a lot, Ulu is pretty much an even more flanderized Brock that seldom pops up, Anna the reporter mostly stuck to that role, most of the parents and relative of the classmates that weren't Lillie's remained minor characters with little of note to themselves, and so on. The only noticeable recurring guys among the bunch are probably the Skull trio (which mostly acted as a second rate Team Rocket while was even less recurring than they were in this region) and Viren as a recurring antagonist, mostly for being the kind of villain you usually saw punished at the end of the series in previous series (like Dolan the Pokémon merchant) except made recurring in spite of being arrested in his previous appearence, with no real explanation beyond 'kids' show logic'. Even supposedly important characters like Ida and Horatio mostly remain rather regular mentors and rivals with not much else to them, and are unlikely to stick to anyone but the most diehard fans. There are of course some good characters among this bunch, especially the borderline characters of the day like two-episode-wonders Dia and the Kanto weaboos in the Malie City arc, but overall, if Alola truly wanted to make this a lived in and more developed region than previous series, its inhabitants didn't give this aim any real favors, in my opinion.

3. A Dissection of the Series: What Went Wrong, How, and Why

With the biggest parts of important elements of the series analyzed, I'd like to use this final part of the review for some extra analysis of how the series went down and why, in my opinion, it ended up changing for the worse as it went along, since there's one important thing to point out: Sun & Moon, conceptually and fundamentally, wasn't a bad series. But what it does have is, beyond some big flaws, several small ones that continously added up.

Now, let's start to dissect everything, dividing everything by their year of airing.

3.1) Year One: Beginnings, Akala Island, Aether Foundation

When I say that, I have to start with saying that my opinion of Sun & Moon wasn't initially this negative, and in fact, the first twenty-to-forty episodes were actually pretty nice: while the setup is slightly different than usual and humor is definitely prevalent (in particular the oft-mentioned 'funny faces', which would go on to become one of the defining elements of this iteration, far more than any prior series), there's a steady influx of plot-important episodes, development and setup for the future to help making the series a breezy watch, with each slice of life romp feeling either productive or simply fun diversions. Among the good things estabilished here that stand out as good even at the end of the series there's definitely the spiritual angle of Alola, an angle that whenever explored truly does make the region feel different than previous ones and like Ash is effectively experiencing something he never did before, and with stuff like the first trial and Grand Trial alongside Litten's capture arc and Gladion's introduction help keeping ther pace going even in the absence of a more overarching goal in the League. Now, this stretch is hardly perfect, considering that it already shows several cracks that later expanded: Ash only decides to move to the Island Challenge when he happens to remember about it in episode 9; a lot of battles end way too quick and barely get focus except for Trial and Grand Trial (which still have a somewhat lethargic pace); Gladion's decent rival setup is ruined by an unnecessary Team Rocket attack; some Idiot Plots and empty episodes that are just dull to watch happen; certain setups and developments are rushed to the finish way too fast; and, most importantly, the removal of Trial Captains from the lore and Team Skull as a consistent presence beyond occasional moments ended up removing tentpole parts of Alola's nature in the games that the show barely fills adequately, and it opens the door to call anything the show wants a trial, no matter how unrelated to battling it is, giving a feeling that the Island Challenge is hapzardly put together. But, during these early episodes, the problems are negligible or made up for, and even nowadays, I'd heartily reccomend everything up to Stoutland's death as legitimately good.

The first crack, overall, comes from the Akala arc. At the time of its airing, it looked to be a breath of fresh air as it finally moved away from Melemele Island after a rather noticeable dip in plot important events for more filler-y hijinks, and due to prior experience with the series, it was easy to assume the cast would've remained there for a while. However, that didn't end up happening, the arc ending mere episodes after it began, after rushing through equivalents of the three in-game trials (with Ash only effectively taking part in the Grass Trial from the games while Kiawe and Lana ended up gaining his Marowak and her Z-Ring and Waterium-Z instead) until it culminated in Olivia's Grand Trial, with one extra episode dealing with evolution-related issues for Lycanroc culminating into Dusk Lycanroc. This arc already started on a bad note by only allowing Ash one of the in-game trials for a Z-Crystal, which while to a degree understandable on the reasoning of wanting him to only have Z-Crystals he'd effectively use and the seeming decision at the time to not have overlapping Z-Crystals among the main cast, ended up solidifying the 'whatever counts' feeling of the Anime Island Challenge, and a first proper episode that seemed to relish into making Ash into an even larger butt monkey than usual, including him crying like a baby upon losing in a way that would've been immature for his OS self. Kiawe's episode was the standout of this batch, as it focused on him confronting an opponent he couldn't beat and with Ash giving him support into improving, estabilishing a good challenge to overcome in a way that had become rare for the series and was good to see again. Lana's own Trial wasn't bad either, but suffered of having more challenge put into it during the fishing part than the battling part, and Ash's Grass Trial being a battle that suffered of both misplaced comedy (an example of tone imbalance I'll address more later) and an opponent that barely even moved in Totem Lurantis. Olivia's Grand Trial was also probably one of the best battles to come out of Sun & Moon, putting a focus on strategy even in an extremely slow battle and with a more-than-decent finish, with the only blemish being that Rockruff's signs of evolving only really come one episode before they develop further into him evolving, and the already-mentioned problem of Dusk Lycanroc being supposedly a new discovery that nobody paid much attention to, after which we moved back to Melemele to resume the rhythm of seeming slice of life (with at least three episodes of good importance and one nominally important).

After another brief stretch, we moved briefly to Kanto for an arc that was ultimately just nostalgic fluff for old fans bringing back Misty and Brock, which was nice even if transparently OS-pandering (to the point Misty's Azurill and even Tracey were not even as much as mentioned during the episodes), with the only really important contributions to the series beyond two cool fights in the second episode was the first mention of the Alola Pokémon League (with Kukui being reminded he'll need badges, something he seemed to not pay much attention to later) and Misty and Brock getting a promise of a visit to Alola that didn't really do much for the series beyond further fluff. After this, however, we finally moved to one of the first truly major arcs of the series: the Aether Foundation arc, or, in my opinion, where the series really started to fall apart.

At first, the arrival of the Aether arc seemed to be rather promising, seemingly keeping the slice of life nature of the series but starting to delve into the elements of the games for what people presumed to be a slow burn to a payoff loosely covering the game events. Except... that's not really what happened. Instead, this entire arc turned into about a dozen of episodes harshly abridging the entire villain arc of the games and cutting everything they couldn't fit, while seemingly following the conflicting mission statements of making the arc as loosely close to the games as possible while trying to be as different from them as possible, and this was clear from the very beginning, with the introduction of Lusamine as an overbearing mother with none of the deviousness of her game counterpart. This, however, isn't necessarily a problem as the Anime has often rewritten game characters before, but what the problem is is the fact they changed the conflict of Lillie dealing with the emotional abuse Lusamine inflicted upon her into Lillie simply being annoyed at being treated as a child and, most importantly, being annoyed at how her mother evolved her own Clefairy, something Clefairy itself didn't have a problem with, that makes her come across as a spoiled brat and losing most sympathy (especially when no one but maybe Burnet reprimand her for her callous behavior), especially when Lusamine is treated as legitimately loving her and just being too busy rather than having any malice. The problem is also that, throughout the arc, the only one blaming Lusamine for never wondering how did Lillie develop her phobia of Pokémon is Gladion, while true to form Lillie doesn't seem to hold her mother accountable for it, and in fact, only wants to uncover the truth after Nebby teleports her near Type: Null by sheer coincidence, reverting her development from her focus episodes. Nebby is another big issue, as its ownership moved from Lillie to Ash for no reason other than giving him a reason to be involved in what would've otherwise been 'the Aether family show', yet the episode wants to still play into the game by implying Lillie and Nebby have a special relationship when they share their moment.

What I feel was the biggest issue of this specific arc, however, was shuffling the actively villainous role of the plot towards Faba, where he actually manages to be menacing for a brief while before the show decides to fully portray him as a silly villain hard to take seriously (including a magical girl routine to activate an Ultra Wormhole-creating machine) even as he's responsible for Lillie's trauma in his attempt to make Lusamine happy and finding an Ultra Beast for her and tried to wipe out Lillie's memories when she seemed to be able to reveal what happened. In the midst of a sea of confusing plot holes by adaptation (why was Type: Null fitted with the mask when as Silvally he did exactly what he was asked to do and Lusamine seems unaware it even exists? Where did the RKS System ROMs come from? Why the heck did a random Solgaleo and Lunala entrust their child to Ash to begin with?), the biggest problem of this arc comes from how, in Faba's aborted attempt to wipe out Lillie's memories, Silvally's attempt to save her reminds her of what really happened when she developed her phobia (a mere two episodes after it was revealed what caused it), giving her back the ability to touch all Pokémon again, making her previous attempts to do so feel retroactively pointless and only there to milk viewer sympathy for when she lost the ability to again, alongside ensuring to keep her development path directionless after this episode barely one third of the way into the series.

The biggest problem after this, however, comes from Faba's subsequent plan that ends up with Lusamine defending her children from a Nihilego and ending up dragged into Ultra Space due to her act of selflessness, with Lillie, Gladion, and subsequently everyone else moving on to Poni Island to rescue her. Along the way, Lillie changes into what the games called her 'Z-Powered Form', which in the games symbolized her moving away from her mother's shadow, while here it means... pretty much nothing, voiding it of its significance and making it come across as either a game-pandering move or something just done because the source material did it. Another significant issue of this stretch is Ash's upgrade of his Z-Ring into a Z-Power Ring, under the absolutely important reasoning of his Solgalium-Z not fitting in his regular Z-Ring. Meaning that Ash needed a magical, seemingly important ritual to obtain something whose usefulness boils down to borderline cosmetic reasons, especially as we later see Z-Power Rings doled out regularly like they're nothing important (including one to Team Rocket and Gladion's regular Z-Ring turning into a Z-Power Ring with no one remarking about it), which is probably one of the most blatant cases of marketing dictating plot flow in the history of this series.

We then moved on to the final battle, which was admittedly decent enough beyond some strange issues of power creep (like Sophocles one-shotting Lusamine's Milotic) and some occasional bits of tonal imbalance (Teether Dance hula in the middle of a serious mission by Sophocles, Mallow and Lana), but was marred by two issues of significance: one was the decision of having Lillie's big moment with her mother possessed by Nihilego involve her giving a speech of how she hates her and how she allowed herself to be possessed by an Ultra Beast for how self-absorbed she is, which while definitely meant to come across as "the mother I respect would never fall for it" has the problem of Lillie and Lusamine never getting a softer reconciliation before this moment (with said softer reconciliation seemingly happening offscreen after everything was over, which we never heard of until almost episode one hundred), which just further makes Lillie unlikable. The other problem is the grand debut of 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt, a move that was only used three times that was either poorly explained or never actually received an explanation depending on how you interpret the part where it's employed in the very last major battle of the series, completely out of nowhere except for perhaps Ash's Electrium-Z shining briefly a lot of episodes ago, which was never fully explained, as is the fact Ash's Pikashunium-Z reverted after use.

And thus, after a wedding between the four-times-dated Kukui and Burnet and with Nebby deciding to leave for no adequately explained reason, with Lusamine estabilishing a task force for Ultra Beasts which involves the classmates and Lillie in the closest thing this series gave them to an onscreen reconciliation, after an arc where Lillie supposedly grew... things returned to be for the most part exactly like they were in previous episodes, almost like this arc never happened, including Lillie reverting to her regular clothes. Pretty much, this supposedly character-focused arc ended up coming across as ultimately not so important, especially when Lillie's personality remained roughly the same with the only real problems she developed from being the ones this arc itself introduced, except for now being able to touch every Pokémon.

Things seemed to just return to normal, even if this was just a prelude towards the structure of the series completely collapsing on itself.

3.2) Year Two: Ultra Guardians, Ula'Ula Island, Necrozma

Year two is the one to which I, personally, trace most of the problems of the Sun & Moon series, as the major focus of the series throughout this period ended up being the 'Ultra Guardians', a Sentai-esque team formed by the main cast under Aether Foundation supervision tasked with dealing with Ultra Beasts, and the biggest problem of this arc is that it really wasn't an arc so much as it was a loose connection of monster of the weeks plots that occasionally was brought up outside of them, but was otherwise completely separate from everything not just in terms of structure, but also in tone, as a parody Sentai with barely threatening monsters clashed heavily both with wanting to be a chill slice of life Anime and with wanting to be a battle-based Pokémon Anime. It's an arc that never fully gelled with everything else (the only I'd save being Celesteela, a good Sophocles episode and a rare character-driven Ultra Guardians romp) and ultimately ended on a pitiful note with a rather dull episode with no real oomph to it, but ended up taking the 'main arc' position and leaving the rest of the series pretty much directionless, with several major arcs stalled and, beyond Lillie obtaining her Icium-Z and an Ice Stone that then disappeared completely, Torracat and Steenee evolving, and the Ula'Ula arc for Lycanroc, and Poipole leading to Necrozma, pretty much little of major happened. Teams remained frozen, and development seemed to hit a dead end, beyond officially introducing the Masked Royal.

Between the Ilima episodes (which felt like a waste considering his main purpose at the League ended up being effectively jobbing to Guzma) and the beginning of the Ula'Ula arc proper, the viewers and the students were properly acquainted with the idea of Alola soon getting a Pokémon League, with both Ash and Kiawe expressing interest in it. This didn't send any weird looks yet, as Kiawe was estabilished as the other major battler and to have taken the trials, but this was in hindsight an important omen of things to come. In the meantime, however, Ash departed for Ula'Ula in what turned out to be a solo arc, and one that started up promising only to run into big issues along the way.

I already mentioned part of it when talking of Lycanroc, but the problem of the Ula'Ula arc is that it works on the assumption that Ash would be scared of Lycanroc's rage issues to the point of not acting, with Tapu Bulu's training giving them a moment to surpass those issues that, even with Rowlet suddenly learning Razor Leaf by sitting on a magical tree, could've even worked if it wasn't for the fact that to calm down Lycanroc and reaffirm his trust in him Ash ended up involving a flashback to Rockruff that we never saw before, making the whole affair come across as insincere. After an interlude where Ash undertook a 'Trial' that was technically the in-game Ghost one but was effectively a phony one involving Team Rocket (just furthering the 'whatever goes' sense of the Anime Island Challenge) that resulted in no Z-Crystal, the debut Electroweb, and a strange appearence of 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt again in spite of the whole thing being a relatively down to earth affair even with Team Rocket about to win with Mimikyu's Z-Move, this arc reached its conclusion with Ash VS Nanu, a battle that's been in equal part praised and mocked, and which I had a friend describe in the most accurate way as a well-written and interesting battle... for anyone but Ash Ketchum.

Seeing a battle taking on a more psychological bent with Nanu toying with Ash and trying to force him to give in to Lycanroc's rage mode is an admitedly interesting choice and Nanu is absolutely the best part of this battle for it, but the problem is that this requires the assumption that Ash would unconsciously not trust his Pokémon after they put the rage mode under control with trust to begin with, alongside the battle being rather visually boring and with a 1 VS 3 set up that makes it more seem like Nanu is weak than Ash being strong (especially with Tapu Bulu tossing in a Sitrus Berry mid-match). This is supposed to be Ash's big development moment as a trainer in Alola, but it requires Ash to have a regressive mindset that doesn't fit how far he's come (something Sun & Moon does in quite a few things big and small, like completely forgetting Jennies and Joys are families of clones after the Kanto episodes) and, much like the Aether arc before it, begins and ends in the few episodes it takes to happen, I already covered Poipole's issue in his character dissection, so I'd like to move on to the most important part of this year: the Necrozma arc, which among the major arcs of the Sun & Moon series it's probably the most irrelevant. Coming in after only minimal foreshadowing (including a fairly interesting hint of a connection between Nanu and Giovanni that the show never really dealt with adequately), this arc was effectively as standalone as it gets, involving events that were only briefly mentioned after it (Rotom depositing the data of Necrozma in the Stufful episode, Naganadel's return, the stadium where the League was held being called Manalo Stadium), and that tried to make a big dangerous deal without actually having much happening: beyond the biggest damage of the episode being adults feeling comedically down as a result of absorbed energy, the introduction of an Elite squad of Team Rocket led by Giovanni's secretary Matori (here revamped as a Team Rocket trio hater in spite of originally being the one reccomending them to Giovanni in DP's last episode) that ultimately did nothing significant except maybe causing injuries to Nebby that wasn't clear if they happened or not with how stiff the animation was, the baffling and unexplained return of Nebby alongside an out-of-nowhere Lunala, and a general sense of big deal where nothing much of dangerous for the cast happened (and that bafflingly replaced the Ultra Recon Squad and Ultra Megalopolis with a talking Naganadel and a generic quarry that achieved effectively the same purpose), this arc ended up feeling like a snoozefest that only resulted in Poipole staying behind in his now healed world in an overall beautifully permanent-feeling farewell, except that, in the light of future events, this choice felt like one that effectively harmed the show in the long run. Also, with Matsui being the headwriter, one might think resolving the arc with everyone sharing their energy borders on self-plagiarism considering she was also the headwriter of Dragon Ball GT, which had a similar climax (itself inherited from Dragon Ball Z).

Thankfully, even if this year was really not the greatest, the following one brought as much improvements as it did other problems to deal with.

3.3) Year Three: Poni Island, Hints of Mohn, Alola Pokémon League

The third year of Sun & Moon did not start on a good note, as after the Necrozma arc the show ended up on a shortage of things to look forward to, with several arcs still stalled and only the still no show Guzma and the League left to check out. During this period, perhaps to lead into Let's Go marketing, we started getting some shorts at the end of each episode dealing with an Eevee getting to Alola, which everyone assumed would eventually go to Ash, only to unexpectedly go to Lana in a move that made some fans sour. Sandy didn't end up doing much else but being cute and possibly allowing Lana's arc to resume by giving her another cute Pokémon to hold in Popplio's stead, but that was it for a while alongside Hau's debut as a character, in an episode infamous for being at the same time an okay rival introduction where Ash lost a fight by fetching his Z-Crystal and getting distracted to take it back, and where Rowlet ate an Everstone for a move that turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.

Beyond Misty and Brock visiting an Alola (which involved an episode where Brock's womanizing gag was blown even further than ever before) and an actually pretty decent arc starring Ash tossed into a post-apocalyptic alternate Alola to deal with Guzzlord in a rare instance of an Ultra Beast being presented as an actual force of destruction, the show finally started to move again with the Poni arc, or as some people called it 'the ultimate development arc', as the focus of this arc seemed to be the opposite of Ula'Ula being an Ash solo act by putting the focus back on the neglected companions, giving them either a new character direction, Z-Crystals evolutions, new Pokémon or in Ash's case his final Grand Trial, all tied together by Hapu opening up to the crew after starting standoffish and distant. Overall, Poni isn't on paper a bad arc, and there are quite a few episodes that are actually pretty good (Kiawe's trial among them for sure), but cramming all this development on the same island one after the other only had the effect of feeling jarring (unlike how Akala was not only still early enough, but only gave significant new things to Ash, Kiawe and Lana), most noticeably by cramming two completely separate evolution plots in the same episode in a move that slightly hurt both of them (Sophocles' feeling a tad impersonal, while Lana's lost the actual training part of it), Shaymin was effectively even more irrelevant than Sandy in the series, the Mohn arc estabilished here had some problems I'll get into soon, and the Hapu Grand Trial ending up as one of the worst 'Gym battles'-like matches Ash ever fought by utilizing the same strategy to victory as the extremely derided Brock battle by dousing Mudsdale and using an Electric attack on it, only adding the patch that 'it was just like Soak' even if no Pikachu can access that move. Ultimately, a well-intentioned arc that felt a bit too little, too late, and came at the expense of Ash's own focus before his final Grand Trial (to the point unlike the previous islands he didn't even do any unofficial trials before this one).

Following this, the next major episode (excluding a two-parter introducing Ash's Meltan that arguably ran one episode too long) was one that was both long awaited and caused some issues and improvements for the series going forward: Guzma's debut episode, alongside the formal announcement to the world of the Alola Pokémon League... and more specifically, the fact that it would be open to everyone with no requirements whatsoever, on the justification that it's not important who wins. Now, I've seen way too many debates on the topic, so I'll put it simply: regardless of if you think an open League is a good idea or not, it does mean that the various trials and Grand Trials Ash took on lost a lot of their meaning since they became self-sustained achievements that don't mean much outside their bubble if Ash didn't need to do any of them to enter the League, and this structure did cause several problems that lowered the general quality of the Alola League for a decent part of its length. When Guzma is being painted as the bad guy for considering the League just a schoolyard fight between weaklings, the viewers shouldn't be inclined to agree with him.

Another big issue of this decision is that, otherwise, it caused the structure of the series to come under scrutiny: before, and usually, since Ash is the only character taking part in the League, it's only his growth in skill that is under scrutiny, and everyone else is free to be as strong or as weak as necessary, but opening the door to everyone to join in also meant that everyone in the series came under scrutiny, and to put it simply characters like Mallow just weren't made to be involved in it even under the guise of a League for fun, something that showed in the actual execution of the Alola League and that I'll get to in a bit.

The episode after this one started the further estabilishment of the Mohn arc, and let me just say... this arc is, on the whole, probably the most disappointing of the various arcs of Sun & Moon, and that's saying something after everything I explained so far. Specifically, the biggest purpose of this arc was for the Aether family to find out about the whereabouts of the seemingly dead patriarch of the family, and supposedly show Lillie as being 'strong' after the events of the Aether arc, but in actual concept, it was just a convenient way for her to get a Z-Ring after conveniently ignoring the possibility for almost one real life year, getting it 'on loan' for almost getting a Z-Move to work in spite of everyone else requiring to pass a real trial to get theirs, and with her contributions effectively ending up still needing Gladion's help and amounting, once more, mostly to feeling sad to catch audience sympathy, while Gladion gets a Zoroark to be only used in one round of the League. But the worst part of all is that this arc, to put it simply, doesn't end. After Magearna finally wakes up and we get the not explained reveal that it knows where Mohn is, the Aether family embarks on a journey to find him... only for the series to end at that point. After spending six months teasing this storyline, just leaving it hanging like this is poor storytelling, and even with the justification that Pokémon 2019's world-hopping premise would mean the new show can end it for Sun & Moon, the series shouldn't have to rely on another one to resolve its own plots, especially one on which supposedly significant moments of the late series hinged on.

The rest of the series, however, does gain something from the open League premise, and that something is a consistent direction by having everyone get boosts in preparation for the League, which at the very least leads to some alright moments for Sophocles that play nicely in his arc and the technical resolution of Lana's arc, among a sea of strangely persistent legendary appearences that only got more and more contrived as the series went on considering they were entirely separate from each other, even the ones that led to ultimately good episodes (like the one where a Celebi led to Ash and Torracat meeting a young Professor Kukui), since it felt like a move to ensure attention that was wholly unnecessary to the story being told. But over time, everything came to a close with the start of the Alola Pokémon League, probably the most talked about arc of Sun & Moon, for good or ill.

The Alola League is unique in several aspects, both in terms of the Sun & Moon series and the Anime as a whole: for the former, it's a battle-focused arc in a region that didn't want battling to be the focus as the climax of it; for the latter, it's the longest League arc in the series' history. clocking at roughly sixteen episodes. Being a tournament arc, you'd think such a good length would benefit it, but the way the series decided to execute things left a lot to be desired, most specifically because Sun & Moon has a very mixed track record in terms of battles and for the decision to show every battle of the tournament even if just partially. There is a lot that could be said about this arc, but I'll try to aim for the big ones first: for starters, beginning the League by reducing the contestants to just sixteen using a Battle Royale was a rather poor choice, as not only that's a format that allows characters to reach high positions by just surviving rather than being strong (as seen by how James got to the Top 16 even if he explicitly didn't face anyone), but confining it to just one episode meant that pretty much every battle of it was reduced to just a series of one-hit KOs from every major characters, with all of them ultimately surviving. After that, another problem was how a lot of the early rounds of the arc ended up averaging between okay to poor battles, with the dubious honor of having Ash's first battle being completely for laughs against Faba, the only character beyond Jessie and James to get one in this League in spite of being the eventual winner. I already mentioned the specifics of Mallow's attempt to quit her match coming out of nowhere from a character standpoint and the issues of Ash VS Hau, so I'll just say that Lillie's battle against Gladion was okay but done dirty for what was supposed to be a huge moment for her in terms of development, and that Sophocles', Lana's (sans Mallow's) and Kiawe's battles ended up being okay to great on the whole. However, the fact that the first two rounds of the League only used one Pokémon each didn't help the sense of escalation at all, nor the sense of Guzma being correct in describing this League as 'a schoolyard fight between weaklings'.

From the Semifinals onward, the League improves in quality due to only good battlers remaining, though it does run into problems of a different sort: Guzma, which was built up as the major threat of the League with Ash vowing to stop him due to what Alola did to him, is not only dealt with in the penultimate round rather than in the finals, but in a battle that makes that statement ring a tad hollow since the perspective we follow during the fight isn't Ash's, but rather Guzma's, shedding some light into his confidence issues and his Golisopod's habit to use Emergency Exit whenever scared (which beyond being only halfway foreshadowed, also ends up with the bad side-effect of giving Ash a free win through Torracat, turning Ash VS Guzma into a 2 VS 1 in Ash's favor), but effectively making Ash interchangeable as a result. It's a good fight with some nice moments, but it just makes his build up as possibly ruining the League for everyone ring hollow when his presence didn't seem to ruin the League for anyone in any way, and the threat wasn't even considered worthy of the finals. Kiawe VS Gladion, by contrast, is mostly a good fight with not much else to it. However, one thing that starts to be noticeable in this part of the League is the sheer reluctance of the show to start any matches before the halfway mark or close to it, padding the airtime as much as possible with not always necessary scenes and stretching the battles along two episodes even when not necessary.

The finals having three Pokémon each meant that Ash VS Gladion ended up having a bit more meat to it in terms of battling, but Ash once again ended up getting another boost in the form of Meltan's evolution into a supposedly powerful mythical Pokémon, which would already be bad since he shouldn't be getting these kinds of boosts at the very final stage of this story (and yes, just to be clear, Kingler's deal was poor writing back in OS as well) but also comes after a gag battle rigged in his favor, a battle that required several contrivancies on his side to be won with Rowlet, and another battle with a facilitated victory in Guzma, making it feel like Ash ended up getting into each of these matches with the writing rigged on his side. The Gladion battle has some fairly good moments both from a character and battling perspective, but between the unearned evolution right before it and just the way they built up to things, Ash's victory here ended up not really feeling as impressive as you'd think this first League Conference victory should be, all things considered. A battle that just ends up as 'okay' rather than the amazing it should've been.

However, after a somewhat dull interlude involving a Guzzlord attack that's probably comprised of more stock footage than action just so Naganadel can come in to make number, we moved on to Ash VS Kukui, probably one of the best battles of this series. That said, while it is pretty good and better written than the majority of them, especially in terms of how Torracat is handling for its first three episodes, it is knocked down by being an exhibition match, meaning that beyond 'fun' and offering a good fight, Ash doesn't need to win this battle (unlike how every other major battle at this stage usually comes with adequate stakes), and most importantly how Tapu Koko forced his way in in place of Kukui's last Pokémon (after Kukui allowed Naganadel in on the pretense of being part of the family, ignoring that three-to-four of Kukui's Pokémon in this match were never seen before and his supposed Pelipper was completely excluded just because the local deity wanted some fighting), which given how Koko wasn't part of this particular equation comes across as scrunching two battles to save time. It also doesn't help that then Tapu Koko interrupts the match again just to allow Kukui and Ash to use Z-Moves again, with Ash ending up using 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt for the final time while praising the region, which while making for a cool finisher it ultimately makes Ash's supposed aim to master Z-Moves to defeat Tapu Koko resolved in a poor way when he only won using the Z-Crystal he never actually trained to use and that only conveniently showed up whenever it needed. Accounting for yet another boost in the form of Naganadel's return, this battle is ultimately marred once again like most of the League by the writing apparently wanting him to win at all costs and look good while doing so, strategy and skill be damned along the way.

After this followed two episodes of closure, that had some good moments (especially in regards to the Team Rocket trio) but ultimately involved a lot of contrived instances (like an Ultra Wormhole for Naganadel to return home coming just above Kukui's house) or poorly executed moments, most importantly the completely offscreen adventure of Ash and Nebby in Ultra Space, the way Mimikyu decided to let go of his killer instinct towards Pikachu, and most importantly the fact that Ash decided to leave his Alolan team behind for reasons the viewer wasn't made privy to, and which ended up having negative implications for either the Alolan team or the previous Pokémon depending on how you read it.

And that's ultimately how Sun & Moon ended up feeling for me, with several small issues that kept adding up, until the show just couldn't handle them anymore.

3.4) The Problem of Themes and Other Technical Issues

Before to move on the closing statement, I'd like to quickly address something I've often seen brought up in Sun & Moon's defense, generally its themes justifying a lot of what it does alongside exploring the region of Alola by having Ash live there. Usually, the biggest themes I see brought up about this is that Sun & Moon is about family and meeting a world and learning from it... but while the first might have some merit, the second is very much what the show has always been about, arguably moreso than Sun & Moon has been since Ash actively travelled to meet said world rather than wait until the world came knocking at his door, and there were a lot of family-oriented moments in previous series, be they siblings or relatives. I'm sure there are other, different themes that one could bring up here, perhaps some that are indeed unique to the Sun & Moon series, but there's something important to say about themes: no matter how good the message you want to spread or explore is, if the narrative has issues, you can't excuse them on the pretense of themes, especially if it starts to be applied to every single imperfection one finds in a story. Themes are embellishments that make stories better, not substitutes for good writing.

And in terms of narrative issues, Sun & Moon has, in my opinion, quite a few of them, not just the ones I explained in the first paragraph but also some important ones involving both the way episodes are written, and how battles were handled, including the way the generational gimmicks were used. In regards the way the episodes are written, there's the fact that several of them end up involving a strange structure where the plot doesn't actually begin until the halfway mark, and while this may perhaps help with a slow pace and relaxed atmosphere, it does have the side effect of making quite a few of them feel dull to watch, especially older fans used to the rhythms of the series before this iteration.

Bigger, and most pressing, are the problems of battle writing this season ran into, which go deeper than just the absolute downgrade in battle presentation, but go straight into how the battles were written. One noticeable thing that feeds into how slow the battles ended up being is the fact that commentary became just as commonplace as it used to be in the earliest series, constantly breaking the action on a regular basis rather than letting the scenes flow more often than not. Beyond that, the biggest problem is that, more often than not, the battles aren't decided by skill or strategy (though there are occasional skill-based bouts), but rather who feels a bigger drive to win or happens to fire their Z-Move last, which coupled with the removal of most of the minor battles that could go either way to mostly focus on the big ones that have to absolutely be resolved a certain way, leading to such gems as the already mentioned battle with Hau where an otherwise good Ash ended up slipping his Z-Crystal just so he could be distracted and lose due to it, or one where Gladion managed to completely tank a Z-Move only to reply by his own, out of nowhere new Dragon-type Z-Move. It made battles dull to follow more often than not, especially with battles often falling more on shows of strength or exchanges of moves with no real rhyme and reason rather than giving the impression that the trainers had any real plan behind their orders (Ash constantly falling back on relying on an incompletely learned move in Ash VS Hau being a particularly blatant case of it showing).

And relatedly, another major issue of the series overall is the way it choose to handle Z-Moves. Compared to Mega Evolution being a fairly consistent 'have the stones + have the bond = Mega Evolution' in the previous show, Z-Moves depend on several factors, from getting the pose right to having a correct amount of focus and bond with the Pokémon to if the Pokémon used them before, and as a result, the entire idea of mastering Z-Moves feels wholly inconsistent: sometimes you can have characters with perfect relationships with their Pokémon completely failing at using their Z-Moves, sometimes characters like Mallow that first chided others for not getting the Grassium-Z pose right and then ended up unable to master Bloom Doom well until the League match, sometimes you can have characters that get Z-Moves right with Pokémon they never even saw before, and everything in between. It feels extremely arbitrary, and makes 'mastering Z-Moves' feel less down to the characters' agency and more down to whether the writers feel like having them master them or not.

But, if I may say, the real biggest problem of the series is that, simply put, it often raises questions it never manages to answer satisfactorily, just creating a situations were things are left so vague everyone has to either remain confused at what happened or supplant it with their own headcanons. Counting just some of the important questions: Why did Ash choose to go to school instead of a typical journey? Why was Tapu Koko so interested in Ash? Why did Ash receive Nebby from that Solgaleo and Lunala? Why did Nebby leave at the end of his arc? Why do Giovanni and Nanu know each other so personally? Where did that Lunala come from? What's the deal with Dusk Lycanroc and Meltan? Why does the Pikashunium-Z manifest? Why did Naganadel return? Why does Magearna know Mohn's location?

I have no clue. And frankly, I'm not sure if Sun & Moon knows, either.

4. Conclusions

And with this, I reached the end of this long dissection. It probably got pretty ranty, and it may sound excessive considering this is all the result of overanalyzing what's ultimately a kids' show, but I think I covered most of everything I wanted to. So, in the end, with so much said, what are my final impressions of Sun & Moon? Well, I'd say the amount of fun you'll have with it will depend exactly from what you want of it.

In spite of all my critiques, I'm fairly aware of how people just looking for a good time to cheer themselves up with occasionally emotional moments will find definitely stuff to like. Less critical-minded viewers will also definitely find something for everyone in there, and perhaps enjoy what the series has to offer. My personal opinion is that, ultimately, at its best Sun & Moon can be one of the best entries of the Pokémon Anime, while at its worst, it can be even worse than entries like the Best Wishes series. And as someone who likes consistency in terms of what a series has to offer, I found Sun & Moon a quite irritating watch to do, and probably my second least favorite entry of the series even with its good moments.

Overall regardless of which opinion you will have ended this read in, I hope you found my thoughts interesting to read about, and whatever opinion you hold of the Sun & Moon series, I respect it, and, in case you enjoyed it more than I did, I'm glad you did.

As for me, I officially consider the Gen VII Anime a closed book. With the new series starting soon enough, I'm optimistic that things will only look up from there. Not just for me, but for every other watcher as well.

So, regardless of what the future may hold for this show, I'm looking forward to continue my journey reviewing it with all of you, hoping in better stories to be told.

#anipoke #pokeani #viroreviews #archival post #sun & moon #series review #long post

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jihyuncompass · 4 years

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The Best

This is honestly probably my favorite thing I’ve written so far. There’s a little bit of angst at the end, but it’s not much, I promise.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and remember to wear a mask!

Mysme Week 2020 Day Five ( @mysmeweek2020 )

Quarantine

V/Jihyun Kim x MC

Word Count: 3.8K

Summary: You and Jihyun do the best you can, for the world and each other.

Tying the ends of your mask you made certain that it was properly tightened. It was easy for it to slip down your nose if it wasn’t right so you had to be sure. Pulling on it just a little you deemed it tight enough for your face. Checking the time on your phone a rush of panic went through you. Even though you had carefully planned out how much time you would need to get ready you were already running late.

Leaving the bathroom you went on a quest to find your boyfriend, hopefully he had been more aware of the time than you had been and was ready to head out the door. You called out his name a couple times, to no response. With a groan you went about the apartment opening doors.

You found Jihyun in the small home office the two of you shared. It had originally been a storage room and a place where Jihyun would work on paintings if he couldn’t go to his studio for whatever reason. However, after Quarantine went into place and you started working from home you both decided to convert it into a workspace for you.

Jihyun stood in front of a canvas, the end of his paintbrush touching his chin. He looked to be deep in thought and concentration. He also was wearing a pair of earbuds that made it impossible to hear out of. It was no wonder he couldn’t hear you calling his name. In an attempt not to make him make a mistake on his canvas you started flailing your arms to get his attention. You must have looked silly because when Jihyun finally noticed you he started laughing.

Pulling the earbuds out of his ears he stopped his laughter to speak to you. “Are you alright my love?” You tried to ignore the way his laughter still gave you butterflies.

“I was trying to get you attention, you can’t hear anything with those in.” You explained. A tinge of red went to the tips of Jihyun’s ears.

“Ah.” He exhaled. “I’m sorry.” After setting down his paintbrush he rubbed the back of his neck. Looking at him you could assume he also hadn’t been paying attention to the time.

“Jihyun do you know what time it is?” He had a moment of confusion and looked to your computer where he could see the time. Now the red had also spread to his cheeks as he realized just how much time has passed.

“I must have lost track of time.” He muttered, mostly to himself, pulling off his painting smock; he wiped his hands off on a spare towel he kept next to his paint pallet. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be ready to go.” Stepping aside to let him leave the room he made a beeline for the bathroom.

While you waited you checked on everything you needed to take with the two of you. You both tried to avoid going out as much as possible but today you had a few places you needed to go.

Before everything went into lockdown the RFA had started meeting in person once a month. Partially as a way to get everyone together but also to be able to go over party plans together. Since you were instated as the party coordinator and Jihyun returned to his position as the leader and Representative the group decided it would be a good idea to branch out and expand. Hosting more events and more often. As great as this was for your organization it also meant more meetings would need to be held to go over details.

After lockdown began you all decided to do virtual meetings instead. It was rocky at first, Zen had to use his phone since his computer was ancient, and no matter how hard Jumin tried he could never get his webcam to work properly. The Choi twins and Yoosung were really the only members who knew what they were doing.

During the virtual meeting a week prior you all ended up going on a tangent about the current goings on in the world. Zen vented about how he wasn’t able to work, and how Jaehee’s cafe was struggling, the twins both tended to be homebodies anyway but it wasn’t hard to see how much Saeran was struggling with his mental health, and Jumin and Yoosung just seemed rather lonely stuck at home. While the meeting had been cathartic for all of you it planted a seed in your head, a seed that you and Jihyun spent the past week growing.

Together the two of you created care packages for every member of the RFA, each one personalized for its recipient. There were homemade treats and snacks, a personalized mask that Jihyun made, handwritten cards, and small trinkets. Skincare masks for Zen, a Steam gift card for Yoosung, a matcha tea set for Jaehee, a book and homemade cat treats for Jumin, a long cat pillow for Saeyoung, and a cookbook and aloe vera plant for Saeran. The two of you even put together a package for Vanderwood, which you would give to Saeyoung to pass on. Even if it wasn’t much you both thought it might be a nice way to cheer up your friends and let them know you were thinking of them. After finishing putting them together last night you both agreed to take them today.

Jihyun met you in the living room wearing fresh clothes, his face mask was one he made himself, a white cotton fabric with a cactus pattern. “Ready to go?” Jihyun asked.

“Sure am, you take half and I’ll take half?” He agreed and you both grabbed your share of packages, balancing them in your arms as you both made your way to the front door.

Earlier in the day you both mapped out the best route to take the packages in. Everyone lived pretty scattered about so you planned it strategically. The twins lived the farthest away so you wanted to go there first, then to Jaehee who would be at the cafe doing takeout orders. Then to Zen and Yoosung who actually lived fairly close to each other, and finally to Jumin who lived in the heart of the city.

You texted Saeyoung once you were about twenty minutes away from their place. After reuniting with his brother, the two had decided to move into a different place that was less of a doomsday bunker. The place was still pretty much a fortress but it also had windows to let in natural light, and space for Saeran to grow a garden.

Approaching the door slowly you used the code phrase Saeyoung gave you to let you knock on the door. You may have cursed a little at having to memorize the Arabic phrase but thankfully the system didn’t seem to care that you butchered the pronunciation.

Setting down the free packages you both kept a safe distance from the door. Saeran answered the door wearing a black face mask. Saeran you knew had a particularly weak immune system so both of the twins were completely stuck at home. You couldn’t read his expression too well but considering the raise in his eyebrows he seemed happy to see you both.

“Our parents are here!” Saeyoung shouted once he got to the front door. Calling the two of you his parents began as a joke that had sort of evolved into a habit. It annoyed the hell out of Saeran and made you and Jihyun laugh.

“We thought you guys could use some care packages.” You said. “There’s one for each of you.” You could see both of their eyes light up as they picked up the boxes and looked inside.

Saeyoung looked up first. “This is so awesome!” He pulled out the long cat pillow and held it close to his chest, practically bouncing on his feet. Saeran held his little plant in his hand.

“Thank you.” Saeran said, you could see the sincerity in his eyes. He wasn’t one for many words but you could tell he was happy.

“That third one is for Vanderwood.” Jihyun said. “We don’t know where they live so could you pass it on?” Saeyoung looked down at the last package.

“I’ll make sure it goes through the God 707 Postal Service to one Mary Vanderwood III.” Saeyoung loudly joked. Jihyun looked at Saeran who was rolling his eyes.

“Saeran?”

“I’ll make sure it gets to them.” Saeran answered.

After catching up for a moment you and Jihyun said your goodbyes and got back in the car to your next destination.

You stopped inside Jaehee’s cafe, it was a little strange seeing the chairs stacked on the tables and the marks on the floor to indicate six feet of distance. You couldn't stay long but she greeted you warmly. After opening up her package she thanked you for the treats and for the matcha kit.

“I’ve been considering getting one of these for myself. Thank you both.” Jaehee said, you saw her place the kit next to the coffee grinder Zen gave her before she opened her cafe. She sent you off with two coffees and pastries for the both of you. She had offered it as a gift but the two of you had insisted on paying it yourself.

Zen was next, he had been hit particularly hard by the lockdown. With all of the shows cancelled he had lost almost all his work. To try and make up for some of the lost work Saeyoung had helped set up a way for him to do livestreams. It wasn’t much but it helped Zen’s confidence and made up for some of the lost income.

He gave a big wave to the two of you. You and Jihyun sat at the top of the steps that lead down to Zen’s basement apartment. Zen looked up to you both while he opened up his box. The snacks in his box were more healthy than the other boxes on purpose. He seemed to notice this when he thanked you.

The three of you spent some time talking and catching up. Zen talked about the livestreams he’d been doing. He started taking song requests where people could pay him to sing whatever they wanted. You and Jihyun had both watched whenever you had the time (and maybe requested a few songs for fun). He asked you and Jihyun about your lives and careers. You were still able to work and Jihyun was still able to paint, he had even started selling more of his works to support the two of you and to donate to good causes. In truth you had never seen him more determined and motivated.

Yoosung was next, all his classes were online now which was quite the struggle for him. It was hard to think about doing coursework when LOLOL was right there. His studio apartment was also tiny which you knew made the lockdown worse.

His relationship with Jihyun was still fairly rough. Still it was a thousand times better than it had been in the past. He seemed genuinely happy to see the two of you, but even happier to see the package that you brought for him. His package had a lot more essential items mixed in with the treats.

Again you could only stay for a few minutes, but you talked about his classes and how he was doing. You could see how he was deflecting from talking too much about school but you both encouraged him to do his best and offered any help you could provide.

Jumin was the last person on your list. You both kept in good contact with him, he didn’t say it but the both of you worried about him. He had Elizabeth the 3rd to keep him company but it wasn’t enough. The penthouse was a big and lonely place when Jumin was alone like this.

The two of you also prepared some extra treats for the security guards at Jumin’s penthouse. While he had less staff than before he still had a couple that worked for him. The security thanked you graciously and let you into Jumin’s penthouse.

Keeping a safe distance Jumin seemed very happy to see the two of you. Jumin, kind of like Saeran wasn’t one to show a lot of outward emotion but you could see a spark in his eyes that made him look more content.

The cat treats were hit. Considering the way to Jumin’s heart was through his cat, seeing Elizabeth the 3rd pleased was more than enough for him. He also loved the cat paw print face mask that Jihyun made special for him.

Considering it wasn’t a safe idea to share a bottle of wine, Jumin settled for giving you a bottle to have at home. With the bottle you also made a promise to video chat soon and drink together. The two of you spent more time with Jumin than you did with any of the others. And leaving Jumin’s was by far the hardest, Jihyun dragged his feet with leaving, coming up with more conversation topics to keep you both there, to spend a little more time with his best friend. By the time you actually left there were tears you saw welling in Jihyun’s eyes. Heading back to the car you held his hand to comfort him.

“Are you okay my love?” You asked him standing beside Jihyun’s car, he took a deep breath in and wiped his eyes. It was muffled by the mask but you heard a sniffle come from him. Before he could answer your question you brought him into a tight hug, one hand was rubbing his back and the other running through his hair.

“I think so.” Jihyun said. “I’m sorry for getting so emotional.”

“There’s no need to apologize Jihyun, the RFA is our family and it’s hard not being able to be around them. There’s no shame in being sad about it.” Jihyun let out a shaky sigh. You held each other for a little longer before letting each other go. Though you couldn’t see through the mask by the look in his eyes you could tell he was smiling.

“Thank you my love, I don’t know what I would do without you.” He said holding your hands in his. “It’s probably time for us to get to the community center right?” You checked the time and nodded. You spent more time with your friends than you planned so you needed to hurry.

At the start of the lockdown the two of you both struggled with feeling helpless about what was going on. It was overwhelming seeing the news and feeling like there was nothing you could do. Trying to find something to do to fill your time the two of you started volunteering at the nearby community center, serving meals and giving supplies to those who were struggling to keep afloat. It was only a few hours a week but it helped the both of you with feeling just the tiniest bit better.

After signing in as volunteers and getting your temperature taken, the two of you put gloves onto your hands and got to work. Today you were both assigned to fill and hand out cups of hot soup to those who came for a hot meal.

Working together the time seemed to go fast, you greeted each person with a smile, making small talk with some of those who came by. After a few weeks you started to recognize some of the people who came frequently being able to greet them by name.

One of the regulars, Ji-young approached the two of you with a wave, she was an older woman who you had grown pretty fond of. And she seemed to be pretty fond of the two of you.

“Hi Ji-young, how are you doing this evening?” You asked her.

“Getting by, you know how it is.” She shrugged.

“I do know, Do you want some soup?” You motioned to the pot on the hot plate next to you.

“Always. Thank you dear.” You pulled out a cup and used a ladle to pour the soup in, taking care not to drip or spill. Adding a lid to the top of the cup Jihyun tapped your shoulder.

“The pots are almost empty, I’ll be right back with some more.” You nodded and watched him head to the back of the center. Turning back to Ji-young she was watching him walk away.

“You know I’ve been coming here for the past few weeks and I just keep thinking about how cute the two of you are together. I miss being that young and in love.” Watching her Ji-young had this look of nostalgia in her eye. You could feel a blush in your cheeks where your mask covered your face.

“Thank you, Jihyun’s one of the good ones.” You smiled, it didn’t matter how much time you spent together talking about Jihyun still made you smile and blush like a middle schooler with a crush.

“Well, he’s got a good person by his side. You two are lucky to have each other.”

“That’s very kind, thank you.” You said.

Jihyun returned with a big pot held with two oven mitts. You removed the empty pot from the hot plate so Jihyun could put the fresh one on.

“Did I interrupt something here?” Jihyun asked, he seemed to notice the blush that was probably visible on your ears.

“Nothing much dear, just talking about you.” Ji-young teased. Jihyun looked over to you with his brow raised.

“All good I promise.” You said, waving him off with a wink. Now the both of you were flushed behind your masks. Smiling, you said goodbye to Ji-young so you could fill more cups.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur, you hadn’t even realized how tired you were until you both got back to the car and you sunk into the seat.

“Home?” Jihyun asked.

“Home.” You confirmed. Closing your eyes to get a little bit of rest on the way home.

The first thing the two of you did when you closed the door to your apartment was take off your masks taking in a fresh breath of air. Going to the living room, you collapsed onto the couch and turned on the TV while Jihyun went to take a shower.

The first thing on the TV was the news, too tired to try and change it you just let it play. As much as you tried not to pay too much attention to the newscaster it was hard to ignore. The newscasters listed endless numbers of new cases and deaths, and played frustrating interviews with politicians who gave no good answers, doctors who were begging people to be safe, and of course the people who claimed that the doctors were lying.

Listening was overwhelming but you couldn’t force yourself to stop. Shouldn’t you know what’s going on? You should be paying attention to the news, but it all just felt.

Too much.

“Love?” Jihyun stood in front of the bathroom door, his hair was still dripping from his shower. He approached you slowly, looking at the TV. Realizing what was going on he took the remote and shut it off leaving you both in silence.

“I hate this Jihyun.” You said staring at your shaking hands. Jihyun kneeled down to look you in the eye and took one of your hands in his.

“I know.” He said, his voice coming out just above a whisper.

“I miss the RFA, I miss going out, I miss the RFA parties, I miss travelling.” You said, your voice breaking. “I miss everything.”

Jihyun squeezed the hand he was holding and with his other he wiped away the tears slipping out. “I miss all those things too, but this isn’t forever. We’ll be able to do all those things again, but I know it’s hard right now.”

“I wish I could do more, I feel so powerless.” Sobs racked your chest, you could barely see Jihyun through your teary eyes.

“You’re doing more than enough my love.” He moved up and wrapped his arms around you holding you tight. You clung to him trying to stop your hands from shaking. “I know how easy it is to put the weight of the world on your shoulders and think you have to fix it all.” He held you tighter, his own voice breaking. “I used to think that I had to fix everything by myself, even the things I had no control over.” Slowly he leaned back so he could look you in the eyes, his thumbs brushing tears away. “But then, like an unexpected miracle from heaven, you came into my life. You taught me that I don’t have to fix everything and that I don’t have to carry my burdens alone.” He kissed your forehead, then moved back to look at you.

“Jihyun.” You whispered.

“The truth is, this isn’t something you can fix by yourself. This isn’t something any of us can fix on our own.” Jihyun said.

“Then what do we do?” You asked him. He leaned forward and enveloped you in a warm and gentle kiss. He pressed his forehead against yours. Whispering his next words.

“We do the best we can.” You brought him into another hug. You felt yourself grow calm, now just tired, your eyelids were growing heavy.

“I love you Jihyun. Thank you.” He rubbed your back turning his head to press a kiss to your temple.

“I love you too. Why don’t we get you cleaned up and go to bed? We’ve had a busy day.” Still holding him, you nodded and let him lead you to the bathroom, holding his hand tight.

A week later you went to get your mail. Finding five packages waiting for you and Jihyun. Thank you cards, and care packages from your fellow RFA members. A smile crossed your face as you carried them all up to your apartment to open with your boyfriend.

You, Jihyun and the rest of the RFA keep going forward. Jihyun worked with some of his fellow artists and old photography friends to do a virtual charity art show with the proceeds going to research. You and the rest of the RFA plan a socially distant RFA charity drive for those in need, partnering with C&R to gain more attention.

You all take it day to day, one step at a time, and together,

You do the best you can.

#mysmeweek2020 #mystic messenger #mysme #jihyun kim #kim jihyun #mysme v #v #jihyun x reader #jihyun x mc #v x mc #v x reader

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evien-stark · 4 years

Text

✧I Need You✧ Chapter 198

It took about a week to get everything together to actually process Peter as Stark’s newest head intern and recipient of a portion of the September Grant. Signatures, both his and May’s, were scrawled over the lines of numerous forms which then got handed over to Pepper. Media was starting to buzz. They knew something was up. The only problem was you had yet to figure out exactly what that was- or, more accurately, what the hell you were doing or what any of this meant. What it was supposed to mean. This was all an elaborate lie in the efforts of helping Peter hone his newfound skills and maybe continue to vent his frustrations in a safe space. It was much less about him being an actual intern and learning anything about running a business- something he definitely let you know (politely, of course) that he was not interested in. Which was fine. You didn’t mind that. He clearly seemed a bit more keen to spend time with Tony in the labs. His heart was where science was. That was okay.

All of this also gave him a coverup, if he ever needed one. A reason he had to leave class or was late coming home or why he couldn’t attend his extracurricular activities. You trusted him that he would not take it for granted and that he would not abuse this. Being a superhero was not fun or easy- but it was a life that he had chosen. You could not and would not try and take that away from him. But while he was still learning the ropes he had to understand this Stark Industries cover could only go so far.

It wouldn’t explain late nights or- god forbid- coming in through a window at one in the morning. It would also not explain away bruises or cuts or any trips to a hospital. It was important to lay all this down for Peter so that he understood where the boundaries were. But also… also that he would take it a little easy. He had said that he was trying to be just a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. And just looking out for the little guy. It seemed like he had no intention of fighting the big fights or being an Avenger. At least not right this second. Which was good. He was a kid. He was young. That was no life to get indoctrinated into so fast. He deserved to be a kid. To go to school, do homework. Date. Have fun. Not worry so much about all the bad things happening. But now that he’d accepted his fate and crafted this identity there was no going back. You just had to hope that by offering him this internship more for cover than for anything else was going to help him live an easier life as he tried to manage a dual identity.

Your support was also offered, of course. If he wanted to train, absolutely. But he also understood that if he ever got into a tight spot, you or Tony were a call away. ...god, he was just so young. There was a part of your heart that infinitely ached for him, having to deal with all of this. Wasn’t going through puberty hard enough?

It did make you think about those kids sitting on the Xavier estate. How they handled this sort of thing. How they came into their own and… still yet how you were supposed to help them. Something else that had gone on the backburner while you were trying to navigate the increasingly perilous superhero landscape. There was only so much you could put your focus on and now that you’d found him… Peter came first.

So you set up a press conference. One Peter had objected to the day before. Kindly and awkwardly, as was his way. He really seemed like he didn’t want to be in the spotlight so much.

“I uh… do I have to?” What could you really have said to that? “No, Peter. You don’t have to do anything. I’m not going to force you.” Because you wouldn’t. You wouldn’t drag him through something that made him feel so uncomfortable.

But it did make him realize how… out there this put him. A reality he was going to have to face sooner or later. It was strange, the more you thought about it. Of the enhanced individuals you knew, many of them wore their faces instead of hiding behind a mask. In fact, out of everyone you’d encountered (save for the mutants who were safe and protected) there was only one person who was going by another name while he fought crime at night.

And last you’d heard, things were not going so well for Matt Murdock. But that’s what having a secret identity did to you. It tore you in two directions. It made you have to hide things- maybe everything from people you cared about. And it left little room for release. No one to turn to. No one to talk to. No one that you could trust with a secret like that.

Then again… being so open about everything presented its own set of problems. ...god, did you understand that. Living with one of the world’s first (okay, second, but who’s counting?) out-and-proud superheroes… yes. That also had many challenges. There was just no good answer to how to do the superhero thing. No book written. No real rules except…

Do your best. Do what you can. And never give up.

You were all alone as you took the podium in the Stark Industries media room the next morning. Looking as well dressed as ever and just as tired of the sound of reporters murmuring amongst each other- and then calling your name over one another- along with the sound of shutter clicks and the blinding flashes of lights.

Holding your hand up you silenced them, as was tradition.

“I have about twenty minutes on the docket. Thanks for coming. You have your print-outs, so you know that I’m here to talk about the newest inductee to our point-internship-program. And then the remaining time will be spent on… oh let’s call it a potpourri round. So that you can all stop following me on the street.” There were a few chuckles that made the rounds, but they were all of a nervous sort.

You were tired of exactly that. Being followed around by the news and paparazzi. They were all starting to blend into the same terrible entity. They took pictures. Invaded your privacy. Made every moment hard to live through if you weren’t inside the safety of your Tower or spent resources on keeping them away from you while you went out. It was tiring. You were tired. And no amount of time at the end of a press conference for them to ask stupid questions that were probably going to be extremely inappropriate and personal would change their behavior.

But you had to pretend to try.

“Our newest inductee applied after a trip to our labs. We had a small blind round of applications based on the tours the Stark Industries labs were holding. He showed amazing prowess and a genuine love of the exact sort of dual science and tech that Tony is known for. Tony and I hand picked him for this program, the same way we did Harley Keener a couple years back. This is our newest round of this close sort of internship program that we hope fosters a love of not only science but of business. Of the future and building everything bigger and better. At this time, during this trial period, we are not disclosing his name to the press as we hope to be able to foster an environment of safety and peace while he’s in the learning stages.

Should he decide he’d like to change that, I’ll let you all know. But I’ll also let you know right now, Stark Industries will not tolerate any harassment. He is a minor, going to school, and he has a promising future. We don’t want to scare him away from great accomplishments. So trust me when I say if I find out any of you sitting in this room, or in your rooms across the nation as you watch this, dig to find out who he is, take pictures of him while he’s out with us, stop him on the street, or go bother him, we will pursue the highest legal action.” This would not stop them. It would deter some, but not the usual vultures. Still. Everyone knew you weren’t lying.

“Now. That being said. Tony and I are also in the next stages of the September Grant Foundation as a whole. I ask for your patience as we bring this program to life. We will very soon be opening a wider application pool, targeted at kids from communities in need as they transition from one stage of their life to the next. As we’ve stated before, the September Foundation aims to help kids unburden themselves and their futures from financial woes so that they can pursue their dreams instead of dying under debt. We believe there is so much unlocked potential that wastes away in this society due to the burden of paying back predatory loans. We are ecstatic to be a solution to that problem.”

Pretending like you were checking your watch, you let the moment sit. Let them hang quietly. It gave you full control of the room. Of them. As it was meant to be. ...fine. It was time. “Okay.” You let a little sigh out. “I’ll take all your burning unrelated questions now.” Even if you’d told them to stay on topic, they wouldn’t. This would give you a little credit with them, at least. And it was good for optics to play ball every now and again. One man stood after you picked his waving hand. “What’s the update with the Cadence situation?”

Hm. Well. That was easy enough, at least. “We’ve given her a plea deal. Her mental state is not the best, but that’s to be expected from someone who volunteered themselves for back-alley Hydra experiments and paid for blackmarket weaponry. She’ll be better served in a psychiatric facility for the rest of her life rather than a jail cell.”

The next man stood. “Did you and Tony elope when no one else was looking?”

Was it bad that you couldn’t help your smile? “Much as he’d like to, I’m afraid not. We’re currently engaged.”

“Then why does he have a ring?” To this your brow arched and you served up a very dry look. “Because I bought it for him. Next question, please.” A big duh. What? Women couldn’t engage their partners, too?

“When’s the wedding date?”

“We haven’t picked one yet.” Damn it all. This was what you were afraid of. What you’d been dreading. You didn’t want all these questions about your relationship. But they’d been brewing for a while now with no answer.

“Are you planning on having kids?”

“That’s nobody’s business but our own. And I won’t-” Tolerate any more of this, was what you’d wanted to say. But the person who had asked that cut you off in the worst way. “Are you concerned about the safety risks of what would probably be a high-risk pregnancy this late in your life? Do you feel like you waited too long?”

The room turned ice cold- mostly through your doing but because everyone else inside of it realized that man had fucked up. What a horrid thing to ask somebody. You refused to give in to this. Give him the reaction he wanted. Instead you stayed steady and stared him down. It didn’t take long for him to break into a sweat. And only after that, “You can either leave now or I can have security escort you. Your choice.”

He kept his head down. More out of fear than the shame he should have been feeling. Not that you minded helping him out with the feeling as you threw it over him like a net. He then got up and quietly scurried away. Another person stood. “Are you currently under investigation by the NYPD for a string of murders that happened in Harlem?” You kept your reaction to this question very controlled. A pop of your brow and a very slight purse of your lips. “No. That’s ludicrous.” That was all you wanted to say about that, so you picked on another reporter. “Have you heard the rumors of Danny Rand returning??”

This you were not expecting and were a little more than blindsided by. Your confusion probably read pretty clear on your expression. “I’m sorry- Danny Rand- of Rand Enterprises?” You had no idea what to make of this information. “He- he and his parents died in a plane crash, didn’t they? About fifteen years ago?”

She nodded. “Yes. But now there’s a man claiming to be him. He’s trying to take control back of his company. Is this a threat to you?”

“A threat?” The very idea seemed preposterous and you let that show. “I don’t know if you remember but Stark Industries holds the market on technological innovation, humanitarian efforts, and clean energy. Last I’ve heard, Rand Enterprises has been backing pharmaceutical research in the efforts of high-priced designer drugs- and dodging patent lawsuits.” Mean-spirited quiet laughter leaked out of some people in the room. “We’re not in the same class. So no, I’m not threatened.”

“Do you think it’s really him?”

“How would I know that?” Getting a little annoyed now. “Look, after everything we’ve experienced as a planet, stranger things have happened. And if that’s the real Daniel Rand, I feel very sorry for him. The Meachums are no joke- they learned all their business ethics from their late father.” Implying very clearly they had none at all. “He’ll need a really good lawyer. And a hell of a lot of evidence. I wish him the best.”

A familiar presence at the back of the room drew your attention. Tony was coming in through one of the doors. He caught your eye and then pointed a hand at his watch. Time to go. People were talking over one another trying to regain your attention where they realized they’d lost it. And as they were realizing you were about to call an end to the meeting. No reason to delay the inevitable. “Thank you all for coming. That’s enough questions now.” This didn’t stop them, of course, for continuing to call out to you. But you parted the sea of bodies on your own and walked all the way to where Tony was still waiting. He put a hand on the small of your back and guided you gently away from all the noise. “Thanks for the save.”

“Any time, honey. ...also you were running late for lunch.” His smile was a little mischievous.

Probably because he was lying. “What? Late for being early?”

The two of you entered the elevator and once the doors closed he put his hands in his pockets with a gentle shrug. “You know me. I’d rather not wait if I don’t have to.”

Putting a hand on his chest, you leaned up to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “I do know you.”

He warmed in that way he always seemed to. When you were near. When you doted on him. When you loved him. Which was always.

Over a glass of white wine at lunch in a quiet restaurant- by design after buying out all the reservations- the two of you chatted about nothing in particular. All the little important nothings going on. It was nice to just have a moment. But when he got an alert on his phone- and pulled it out-

You must have been making quite a face. Because he seemed to feel a little guilty. He put it down quickly, but you couldn’t help yourself. “What’s so important?”

“Nothing more than you.” Making sure you knew that first. And when you eased up on that steely-eyed stare of disapproval he grinned just a little. “RE stocks took a dive. Joy Meachum is threatening a lawsuit.”

The laugh that escaped you was something a little haughty. “I would love to see her try it.”

A little sparkle lit across Tony’s eyes. You knew that look. Your soft smirk only did him in all the more. “Please continue with the power-play talk.”

It was doing just about everything for him. You reached out, tracing the tip of your finger over the line of his knuckles. “If she comes near you or I, or the company, I’ll eat her alive.”

He was completely engrossed in you. “I know you will.”

“So does she. She’s grandstanding because I just made them look like fools. And she knows if she even tries this, I’ll make them look worse.” She and her brother were currently in charge of all the goings-on of Rand Enterprises, inherited from their shark of a father. You didn’t really care about that business- as you’d said during the press conference. It had no bearing on you, or Stark Industries. “Let her try to bite me. I’ll bite harder.”

Tony was coming just a little bit undone. Very into this. ...so were you. Which meant this was on a road to getting dangerous. It was why you weren’t surprised when a little swirl of lustful darkness took over his eyes, and his tone lowered. “Time to go?”

Your nod was a little helpless. But you continued the play with a fuller smirk on your dark-red lips and a breathy tone, “Check, please.” You felt the pang of heat run through him then.

Back in your office- your locked office- you straddled him as he sat on the couch, your thighs squeezing his. Your hands carded up his chest, loosed his tie out from underneath his suit jacket, and tugged on the edge of it, pulling him up and closer to your waiting, parted lips. He let himself be guided, hands weak and wandering up along your back. His breath came out in a small tremble before you sealed a kiss against his lips that had him groaning. A warm noise that turned to flush disappointment when you ended it too early. His eyes just barely blinked a quarter open as you still held him there.

Leaning a little more in, pulling him up at the same time, you dragged your lips from the corner of his jaw and over the shell of his ear. His hands clutched at your hips, trembling just softly. Your murmur was soft and powerful. “I will scorch this earth if anyone tries to hurt you.” Promising him this.

Knowing this truth. If the power of the sentiment turned him on, that was fine. You two were playing a little game. It didn’t make it any less real. You didn’t mean it any less just because you were using it to arouse him.

And hit its mark it did. A breath clutched in the back of his throat, he held on to you just a little tighter, and his hips were impatient as they rocked up against yours.

You shouldn’t have rewarded it, but you just couldn’t help yourself. The next kiss was much deeper. Much longer. And by the time it was over the two of you were breathing hard. You’d let go of his tie only so that you could rip open his button-up shirt and slide your hands up his chest.

His gaze was hazy and dark as his lips touched just barely over yours. “You are so incredibly hot.” Saying it like it was the only truth he knew in that moment.

Your hands touched up over the sides of his neck and then cradled his face in your palms. He was melting. Keen for your affection, your touch- your everything. It was causing him to move with franticness- grabbing your hips, pulling you into the next roll of his own. Impatient very suddenly. So that was why... “Be good for me, Tony.” Trying this out. Wanting to see if it felt right. If you liked the taste of it.

With the way it seemed to shoot straight through him? The way it stole his breath away? The way it made him want you so desperately? It was almost like you’d struck gold. “What-” His hands moved to squeeze at the back of your thighs. “What do you want?” What does that mean? He was mostly confused and entirely too turned on to make sense of this. But he knew he liked it.

You raked your fingers up along his scalp and towards the back of his head. “Do as I say.”

His smile was dazed. “Anything.” With a promise like that, well…

The office stayed locked for a long few hours.

#Tony Stark #Tony Stark x Reader #INY Chapter One Hundred Ninety Eight

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midhavencryptids · 4 years

Text

Rebecca Chapter 1 Test And Results

Based on Dr. Jekyll's Work becomes a very different Hyde, with an unexpected transgendered results.

The very start of Mr Edward Fletcher’s unwittingly transformative journey, where some bloods had been requested of him....

Note to readers all stories connecting with Midhaven (Mid-haven) are set in 1994. All the characters are purely fictional, and no way portray any real people or institutes of any kind.

MIDHAVEN:

Rebecca

By Maddie Jane Rann

1 Tests and Results

31st March 1994

Edward Fletcher sat anxiously in the empty waiting room of his local surgery for his appointment which was supposedly meant for 10:30am. He himself, was a gaunt and lanky looking 35 year old dressed in a slightly crumpled grey office suit. He had four inch long auburn hair which was styled into a centre parted undercut and also wore thin framed rectangular glasses. Restless with nerves knowing a blood test had been required of him by his new GP, Dr Elliot. He had only met the doctor once before, for some completely unrelated matter since he transferred from Bournemouth and taken over his previous doctor’s practice. Nevertheless, it was something that Edward really could of done without, plus the blood nurse was running late which only put him more on edge. Looking for some form of distraction he glanced to the low coffee table of magazines about three feet ahead of him. He rose slightly out of his chair, the red coloured tie dangled out of his jacket as he leaned forward. Shakily he rummaged through the assortment of ‘Glenda’ fashion magazines until clumsily knocking a couple of issues to the floor. In a panic he picked them up and placed them neatly in a tidy pile on the table before collapsing back into his chair with a sigh of embarrassment.

“You tit.” He uttered

He gave up the clock that was hanging on the far end wall an impatient glance, it was now 10:43.

“It's cutting it a bit fine.” He muttered to himself, he had an important meeting at 11:15 which he must attend the weekly briefing of the Lindenbay shopping district on the Harbour which he was appointed as a senior architect, then he was expected on site thereafter. As this was a fasting test he was just hoping there might have been chance of breakfast before his work begun.

Moments later he caught from the corner of his left eye, an elderly couple being led carefully out of the phlebotomy room and then the nurse as she watched them creep past the reception and out the main entrance. Then she turned and looked down towards him with her hands on hips.

“Edward Fletcher!” She called sternly yet with a playful tone. To him the calling was like the tolling of the iron bell, but the aged female voice was familiar and somewhat soothing to his recollection. He turned nervously to meet his calling only to smile with some relief that it was his Mother’s friend June who was on duty today.

“Oh....um, June, hello.” He greeted standing to his full height of 6ft1.

“April Fools by chance? No? Not today?”

“Hello Eddy, come this way.” The 60-year-old Nurse beckoned him with a smirk and led him into the poky room that housed a singular black leather treatment chair which was bolted to the floor. There was a tall fan blowing in the corner that made June’s blue disposable apron flitter dramatically in its breeze.

“If you could remove your jacket and roll up both sleeves before taking a seat, I do like to have my pick of veins.”

“Oh yes OK.” Edward did as he was bided.

“You seem a little tense Eddie? Anything the matter?” She asked whilst checking over his notes.

“Ah well you know…. It’s a blood test and…..” He began as he sat in the treatment chair gazing around at the four blind walls and quickly objecting.

"There are no windows in here?”

“Yes, you would think us phlebotomists were all vampires or something, you should know by now I don’t bite, just prick a little.” She smiled.

“Ah ha yes, that’s what I’m actually afraid of…...” He added with a nervous laugh.

“Oh, I see….. You fall under Dr. Elliot, lucky you, with your infamously well-known fear of needles and all. I don’t know. He’s always requesting bloods for one thing or another, usually something mundane coupled with genomic testing. Usually, I thought it was something reserved as a premium treatment, never known a doctor to request this as much. Seems to be his style, I guess, prefers the full ins and outs of his patients’ right down to their DNA. Anyhow he keeps me busy.”

“Terrific, lucky me indeed.” Edward squirmed as he tried to get comfortable on the leather seat.

“Liver function…. right.” She started to look for the colour coded phials through the equipment draws.

“I think Dr Elliot had been concerned with my history of drinking.” Edward mentioned shamefully

“Uh huh.” June sighed knowing all too well.

“And how’s that been going?”

“Very well, though I have had a few dips late. But only on occasions.”

June pouted with disbelief.

“Really?”

“Ahh, look, to be honest, it’s this shopping centre development it’s been really getting to me of late.”

“Oh really? You’re doing that now? It looks very exciting what they’ve been planning for the harbour.” Said June.

“Uh huh yeah, well you know when they had to halt construction during the discovery of the 14th century burial pit, it was all over the Midhaven Messenger for weeks on end. Well by the time the archaeologists had finished the architectural firm that had been employed for the project had gone bust leaving our firm to immediately take over. They left so many flaws it was unbelievable, never mind the parts that were left unfinished. A complete and utter mess, to be fair, that shouldn’t have gone as far as planning yet alone construction! You know they left 18 shop spaces, completely blocked off with no access!”

In meantime of Edwards complaining she had found the correct phial and took another look at his notes….

“Ah…. I thought so, bang on style, genomics too, right where did I leave those tubes. OK just sit back Eddy I won’t take long at all. Talk about drinking have you diluted yourself with plenty of water?”

“Oh yes Aunty June……. and have been fasting since 10 past last night.” As he saw it was on the tip of her tongue.

“Very good….. Just for security reasons could you confirm your address and date of birth please? Just so I know it’s you.”

“But you already know….” He stopped with June’s glaring, over the top of her glasses.

“Ohhh…. 15th of the 4th 1958 and 13 A Mitchell Avenue, Midhaven, MD1 JH3.” He sighed.

“Very good Eddy.” She confirmed then gave her hands a singular clap before scooting away from her desk in her wheeled desk chair to Edwards left side.

“Now just relax and I promise I won’t take too much.”

He gulped as the needle of doom was now inevitable, yet knew he was in safe hands. His eyes wondered from his Mum’s old friend preparing his arm for the surgical procedure to staring at the collection of photos stuck to the wall ahead of him. These pictures were an odd assortment of carnival masks and cocker spaniels, he figured it was probably something that either June or another blood nurse had put together for the patients to focus on rather than the blood being taken.

7thof April 1994

A few days later as Dr Elliot came to work he was handed several letters from the front desk that had arrived the day before. His brow rose with intrigue noticing that they all came from the Phlebotomy labs in the city. He thanked the receptionist with a smile of gratitude before taking the envelopes and his briefcase to his office. Without another moment he sat at his desk and was readily opening the envelopes with great enthusiasm. Dr Elliot who was an average looking man in his late middle years with silver hair that swept across his head. He also bore thick black eyebrows that were currently furrowed behind large paned glasses. These letters were indeed the latest round of test blood results that he requested, though he was more interested in his patient’s genomics, seemingly at first to disregard the other. He speedily went through two lots scouring them closely only to not finding what he was looking for. It wasn’t until his third envelope and opening it with a sigh to only expecting the same humdrum when something caught his eye that instantly gave him a chills, something exciting as he ran through the latest sets of numbers. A look of long lost cheer came to his grey middle aged face as he quickly drew a red pen from the desk tidy and roughly circled the odd allele scores that brought him to such frenzy. Once finished he slapped his left hand down on the edge of the desk then opened a draw just underneath, lifting the corners of a couple of folders that concealed a small flat key. He took hold of it before springing out of his chair, and almost skipped to the grey metallic filing cabinet that stood beside the window only 6ft to his left. Pushing the key into the lock of the bottom draw then turned it and pulled the handle. In seconds he was leafing through the murky green coloured folders until he found the one he was searching. Taking away the whole folder he returned to his desk and sat down before spreading out a few pages of his interest, one was another set of genetics like the one he marked. He ran his finger through the results.

“Ha!” He barked and scribbled circles around similar results in the same red pen. He beamed with joy as he held them studying them side by side, his mind now racing with possibilities. This was the opportunity that he and his associate had been waiting for, for quite some time with now just the thought that they might finally reach their goal in the next couple of days, if they planned it right. After a moment of pause for consideration he put down the paper and picked up the handset on the cream coloured desk telephone. He held it to his left ear and keyed in the number. While he waited for his recipient to pick up the phone he took time to find the name of the patient whom the results belonged to.

“Mr Edward Fletcher? What a lucky man you are.”

He smiled heartily when the other end of the line was picked up and proceeded to speak in bright and theatrical manner.

“Ah, good morning my dear May! It’s Elliot here….. Yes!…. Yes!….. I’m quite aware how early it is for you, but if you must be up all night skulking around until the early hours…. My point?” He was taken back by his recipient’s seeming impertinence.

“Now if you give me a little time and patience, I can inform you of some very good news that came by post this morning.” He picked up the results.

“Yes…. it’s some genomes if you care, from one of my patients, they came back from…. Yes, he has all the right faults that I have been looking for, in all the right places for the formula to work. This is it, my dearest May, this is it.” He listened to the receivers reply though by the sinking look on his face it was probably a reply of a dreary lack of enthusiasm.

“All right…. I shall tell you what…. “He breathed rubbing his temple in frustration.

“We shall reconvene this matter when I come off duty…. About half 6…. you say you’ll meet me. Of course, the usual place, the old sail factory, we can set up the equipment at once. Then we can decide how to safely capture our specimen. Until then I’ll let you have your sleep… oh.” May hung up cutting the call abruptly.

“You may even wake up a little less insolent too.” He said to himself glumly and still holding the phone to his ear, in a delayed moment later returned it to the base.

“But that of course would be asking too much of you my dear.” He sighed

Dr Elliot looked at his clock it was 8:30, then hurriedly gathered the test results and associated papers in the folder just before the receptionist knocked on the door.

“Coffee Dr Elliot?” She called.

“That would be lovely Miss Tibbs, please come in.” He replied with a big arm gesture, the young lady entered with a mug of filtered coffee in one hand and a printed A4 sheet of booked appointments in the other which placed on top of his desk next to the folder.

“There you go Doctor, milk and no sugar and your appointments for today.”

“Ahhh….Thank you so kindly.” He said and then began studying the list as she backed out the office. He nodded when he understood the workload ahead and took a sip of his coffee, then picked up his folder and placed it in his desk draw before dutifully calling for his first patient by pressing the button of the intercom device that was sat next to his telephone.

“Mr Utterson to see Dr Elliot, come to room 2 please, I am quite ready to see you now.”

next chapter

https://midhavencryptids.tumblr.com/post/629310030007713792/rebecca-chapter-2-edwards-day

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raendown · 4 years

Link

A commission from @officerjennie for a friend!

Pairing: TobiramaItachi Word count: 5077 Rated: T+ Summary: Itachi and Tobirama get a cat. They didn't really mean to. They certainly weren't prepared to.

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI and commission info in the header!

Meow and Furever

They hadn’t actually intended to get a cat. If not for their own collective lack of creativity they would never have even been inside the shop that day. Social niceties dictated they bring some sort of gift to Hashirama’s house-warming party that weekend but neither of them were any good at buying gifts for other people; such was the main reason they had a long standing agreement to the limit of one gift each during the holidays. Without any better ideas they had come to the conclusion that they would instead purchase gifts for Hashirama’s many dogs. That was just the sort of cute gesture he would adore and it came with the added bonus of not disappointing any human recipients.

So off they went to peruse through aisle upon aisle of nonsense toys that made an entire cacophony of noises when squeezed or shaken. It was standing at the end of aisle twenty-seven with a plastic hotdog between his hands that Itachi spotted the beast who would change their lives forever.

“Tobi,” he murmured from one corner of his mouth. When the other did not respond he reached out to nudge lightly with one elbow. Tobirama grunted, looking up from comparing two different squeaky donuts.

“What is it?”

“Look.”

He did. And what he saw was quite possibly the ugliest cat he had ever come across in his entire life. Situated behind glass in a wall of cages designed to attract potential pet parents while also keeping the animals safe, a pair of amber eyes glared back at him in a way that spelled death. Or possibly begged for treats. It was hard to tell under the absolute explosion of ginger fur and the massive jaw.

Almost before Tobirama could process the man had even moved Itachi was across the aisle and all but pressed against the glass barrier, fingers coming up to trace patterns in the air for the angry ball of fluff to follow with its eyes. The store employee standing nearby gave them a side glance that practically smelled like a sales pitch. She watched with dollar signs in her eyes as the giant orange cat stretched out both front legs and yawned, showing off uneven teeth sticking out in all sorts of strange directions, then pattered daintily closer to the glass where it sat and resumed staring at the brave human who dared to approach.

“What on earth happened to its face?” Tobirama wondered out loud. As though it heard him, the cat turned to look at him with both ears swiveled forward as best they could over the crumpled folds of skin. Despite its obvious feline roots one could almost mistake it for a pug with a face that squished.

“Poor genetics,” the nearby employee piped up. “He was born that way. It’s put off quite a number of potential owners.”

“I think he’s beautiful,” Itachi breathed.

When the cat looked back in his direction he cooed and wriggled his fingers enticingly. Tobirama sighed. After several years together he knew his partner very well and he knew the look in those dark, beloved eyes. Come hell or high water they were going to take that animal home. Oh he could put up a fuss and dig in his heels, he could come up with a dozen logical arguments why they shouldn’t or couldn’t, but when Itachi really wanted something he had ways of being quite convincing. All of them were very underhanded. None of them were the sort of thing Tobirama wanted strangers to witness in the middle of a public pet shop.

Still, he had a reputation to maintain. With as stern of an expression as he could muster he simply growled, “No.”

“But look at him!” Itachi whipped about to stare at him with wide eyes.

“I am,” Tobirama said. “He’s as ugly as sin.”

“He’s perfect.”

“The answer is no, Itachi, we are not taking him with us. We don’t have anything for a cat at home. He would destroy the furniture we only just finished paying off!”

Despite knowing this was a battle he would inevitably lose Tobirama folded his arms with every intention of standing his ground.

An hour later they were trooping out the front door of the shop with half a dozen bags of assorted feline paraphernalia and a plastic carrier containing one very smug orange monster. The inside was meant to be lined with blankets for extra comfort but after the third was ruined before it could even make it halfway inside the staff decided that perhaps it was best they keep anything soft far away from those sharp claws until the thing was no longer their problem. Tobirama said a silent goodbye to the sides of his couch even as he watched Itachi settle the carrier across both knees and murmur soothingly through the grated door. Incredibly, he did not get hissed at.

For the entirety of the drive home the two new cat parents discussed their options for names. On the adoption forms Itachi had written down the first thing that came to mind simply for the sake of being able to take him home quicker but that was one thing Tobirama had successfully put his foot down on. He refused to call out ‘Butternut Squash’ whenever he inevitably got angry at the cat for something. They tossed a lot of options back and forth and by the end of the drive it was narrowed down to two different options.

“I would have thought you’d be more excited about ‘Tang’,” Itachi mused. “It’s close enough to the word dang that you could almost feel like you’re swearing.”

“True. Unfortunately it reminds me of that awful drink powder my brothers were all obsessed with when we were young.”

“Ah yes. That would be why I rejected ‘Clifford’. I remember it a little too well from a show my own brother used to enjoy.” He frowned briefly, though it faded when his new monster gave off a sort of rumbling sound that might have been purr or growl, it was impossible to tell.

Pulling in to the driveway, Tobirama gave a sage nod. He’d never liked that show either. “Alright so what are we going for? I’ll leave the final decision up to you; are we calling him Winston or Rohan?”

He didn’t get an answer until after they had fought their way out of the car and in to the home with their many large bags. Itachi set the carrier down on the kitchen floor and then sat beside it to coo through the door soothingly. Whether or not it worked was hard to tell. Before opening the door to let their new family member roam free he paused to crane his neck up with a smile.

“Would you consider another option?” he asked.

“Seriously?” Tobirama lifted one eyebrow. “We just spent half an hour narrowing this down and you want to throw in a new contender?”

“Tesla. We could call him Tesla.”

“...because all that fur makes him look like he’s been in some sort of electrical accident?”

“Precisely.” As if to prove the point he’d already made Itachi squeezed the latch and twisted, swinging the little door open, then beamed with a parental sort of pride as their newest addition came stumping out of its carrier in a gait that reminded Tobirama very uncomfortably of his brother’s best friend.

True to his proposed name, however, the cloud of orange fur surrounding the cat’s massive bulk stood out from his body in raggedy clumps that gave a very good impression of being recently electrocuted. After pausing to rub himself up against Itachi’s knee almost incidentally he took a few cautious steps and lifted his nose to sniff the air. His misshapen little nose wriggled in time with his ears, swiveling front and back while he tried to take in as much information as possible about this new environment. Both humans watched him take a few more steps-

Only to plop his bottom down on the linoleum and declare the whole adventure business to be too much trouble. Instead he stretched out and rolled over to put all four paws in the air.

“I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean,” Tobirama murmured.

“Maybe that he feels safe here already?” Hesitating very briefly, Itachi reached out and dared to run his fingers through the wild hair covering the belly on offer. “Oh. Oh he’s so soft!”

“So clumpy, you mean. I wonder when he last groomed himself.”

His partner gave him a stern look. “Quit insulting him and just tell me whether or not you like the name!”

“Yes, I think Tesla is a good name for him,” Tobirama gave in. It wasn’t a lie, he did think it was a good name and it definitely appealed to his nerdy side, he was just a little too fond of the way Itachi’s nose wrinkled whenever he was exasperated. He was a little too fond of many things about this man.

Tesla himself seemed to approve of the name and he showed this by rolling heavily back on to his feet and strutting away from them both with his tail held high in the air. His short hesitant footsteps were surprisingly delicate for a creature of his size. Just as Tobirama was beginning to think that perhaps adopting him wouldn’t be quite as big of a change to their lives as he had initially suspected Tesla paused to lock his gaze on to the dishes piled up by the sink. With both of their families stopping by for visits over the past week there hadn’t been much free time to wash the dishes just yet so the stacks were getting just a little wobbly. That, of course, is precisely what caught Tesla’s attention.

Before either of them had time to do more than gasp with prophetic despair Tesla crouched down and launched himself upwards straight towards the tallest and most wobbly stack of dishes on the countertop. It was only by the grace of some god or other that all the bowls and cups he smacked in to face first were each made of plastic. A good thing, too, as they all immediately came cascading down towards the floor amid shrieking yowls of surprise. Tesla’s little claws screeched against the kitchen floor as he landed only to shoot out of the room in fright, abandoning his new parents to the task of cleaning up his very first mess.

Tobirama felt he was being incredibly generous by waiting until after they had spent five minutes chasing waywards cups that really wanted to roll their way to freedom before turning to his partner with both eyebrows on the upper limits of his forehead. Unfortunately for the sassy remark he’d been composing in his head, Itachi beat him to the punch.

“He lived his whole life in that shelter,” he reasoned. “A pile of dishes is probably something he’s never seen before; he couldn’t have known that would happen!”

“Don’t think logic will save him from my wrath every time,” Tobirama muttered.

Gathering up as much dignity as he could, he set all his gathered dishes down and swept out of the room. Now would have been a perfect time to actually wash the dirty cutlery and so on but he was much more concerned with what else their fluffy new resident could have gotten in to. Five minutes was a long time for a cat to be loose in an unfamiliar environment. All it took was a couple of visits to any of his brothers’ homes to know that pets were their own class of natural disaster.

As it turned out, his instincts were correct. Barely two steps past the kitchen Tobirama broke out in to a run as a terrible ripping sound reached his ears. When he skidded in to the living room it was to find Tesla halfway up their living room curtains, although by the look of the long rips he’d probably made it quite a bit higher before the polyester gave up its structural integrity. Granted, those curtains were ugly as ugly as he was and only remained in the window because they’d been a gift from Itachi’s younger brother at some point, but that didn’t make the prospect of replacing them any more pleasant.

“I should leave you there,” Tobirama snapped. Tesla wriggled until he could tilt his head for a very cute and innocent meow.

“What happ- oh! He’s stuck! Can you hold the curtains still so I can get him down?” Itachi inched around their cluttered living room to reach the window where he began stroking down the cat’s back, hoping to sooth him.

Tesla honestly didn’t look like he needed much soothing. He purred to have such gentle affection, a sound that could be compared to a dying lawn mower, and continued to hang in place as though such had been his intentions all along. It took the two humans working together several minutes to detangle all four sets of claws so they could set the cat back on the ground, whereupon he immediately leapt on to the couch and began kneading the blanket Mito had crocheted for Itachi as a birthday present several years back.

“You’re not going to stop him?” Tobirama asked incredulously. “He’s going to pull out all the threads and leave holes!”

“It’s crochet, it’s already full of holes. No one will notice.”

“Mito will notice.”

Like he’d been struck with lightning Itachi launched in to action, crawling over furniture to reach for Tesla and very gently encourage him to leave the blanket alone. Evidently having his activities interrupted was grounds for declaring war in cat language. The moment his claws were once again detached Tesla hissed wetly at them both and took off down the hall to disappear in to yet another new room. Both men hurried after him.

One cat, Tobirama thought to himself as they came to a skidding halt outside the bathroom. It was only one bloody cat. If he didn’t already know the exact devastated expression his partner would give him for doing so he would give up now and toss the bloody animal outside in to the garden. Gently, of course, because he was actually pretty fond of cats himself. But he was also fond of maintaining an orderly home life and while the cat he’d taken care of growing up had been docile, almost demure, it hadn’t exactly taken him a lot of time to realize this one would not behave the same. They may have chosen his name for the way his fur stuck out at odd angles but it was becoming very clear that Tesla had lightning in his veins as well. Tobirama could already predict many nights being awoken by an attack of ‘the zoomies’ as his brother called it.

“Ah! Tesla! Don’t eat that please!” Itachi hurried forward to rescue the bowl of sweets he kept on his side of the bed for the rare occasion he got a craving. “I don’t think those are good for you.” Tesla meowed curiously and made a valiant effort to follow the bowl, determined to continue inspecting the contents.

“Just let him sniff it and maybe he’ll leave it alone once he knows what it is,” Tobirama suggested.

“But what if he tries to eat one?”

With a sigh Tobirama looked down at the cat stretched up on his hind legs and shook his head. “Then I suggest putting it inside your nightstand for now. Come on, you, let's show you where your litter box and food are. Maybe that will calm you down.”

Tesla gave a very loud protest when he was picked up without further warning. As good as he’d been in the carrier, he didn’t seem to appreciate being swung freely through the air. Unfortunately Tobirama didn’t trust him to keep his claws to himself just yet and so he opted for holding the beast out in front of him like a stinky sack of potatoes rather than cuddling him up close as he would with any other cat. Considering the size of him it was no surprise that Tobirama’s arms began to feel the strain long before he finally made his way in to the laundry room where they planned to set up the litter, figuring this was the best place for any possible stinkiness.

Only after he had arrived and found himself in the middle of the room did he remember that they hadn’t actually had time to set anything up just yet.

“How much do you love me?” he asked in a flat voice. From behind he heard Itachi cough in a poor attempt at covering up a bit of laughter.

“Enough to lock you in here with him while I go get everything ready.”

Tobirama sighed despondently. It was probably for the best. Leaving Tesla in here alone would probably result in some kind of disaster. Reluctantly and with much pouting, he agreed, watching the door close them in like a prisoner might watch the door to his jail cell slam shut. When they were alone he set Tesla on top of the washing machine and wrinkled his nose in irritation when the cat immediately began pawing at a stack of clean laundry. He supposed he should say goodbye now to the idea of ever being cat hair free again. Not even a lint roller was going to save him from this explosion of puff.

By some merciful twist of fate it only took Itachi a few minutes to set up the food and water dishes in their kitchen and fill the litter box, something he did right outside the door. The sound of him pouring litter just a plank of wood away drove Tesla absolutely mad and set him to scratching at the door until finally Itachi opened it.

“Clearly he’s already decided which of us to attach himself to.”

“Well can you blame him?” Itachi carefully set the box down and buried his fingers in orange fur. “From the sounds of it I was the first person to ever give him a chance. Just look at this face, who could ever help loving a face like this?”

If not for the fact that he was overly aware he was making the exact same expression as the cat, Tobirama would have had some very different answers to that question. Instead he only darkened his scowl and turned away. Stupid animal. As soon as his partner spotted the thing he’d known they would end up taking it home but it was only now hitting him just how sleepless, fur-covered, and lonely his future was looking. The shame was probably the worst part. He was jealous of a cat. A cat. Well, more of an orange monster that was clearly plotting to steal all of Itachi’s time and affection away from him.

Doing his best to consciously smooth his face in to something more neutral and unrelated to cat based jealousy, Tobirama cleared his throat. “Shouldn’t we be showing him his litter box so he knows where it is? That’s supposed to be important.”

“Oh, right, yeah.”

“So maybe you should put him down, then?”

“But listen to him purring…” Itachi gave him a tiny smile that blossomed in to a full grin when he laid his head down against Tesla’s side to listen to his monstrous purrs from up close.

With a huff Tobirama nudged the litter box. “Just put him in it.”

It was already happening. The stupid beast was already stealing Itachi’s best smiles, the really soft ones normally reserved just for him when the two of them were all alone. And he was already feeling stupid for letting it get to him. Tobirama wondered if it would be a little too childish to bury the stupid thing in litter while it was still clean just to have what petty revenge he could; it wasn’t as though Tesla would really understand, after all. Stealing Itachi away wasn’t exactly premeditated.

Nor was it real, the man was still right there and he would no doubt still have a part of his large heart reserved for the one who shared his bed, it was just that Tobirama was already fairly sure their bed had just gained another occupant.

“Come on little one, like this!” Itachi used the litter scoop to dig through it like he was teaching a child something new.

“I think he knows how to bury his own shit,” Tobirama grumbled. “The store said he was box trained.”

“What if this isn’t the brand they used? Change can be confusing for anyone.”

“Oh for- I’m going to make dinner.”

So he did. Tobirama ignored the bemused questions that followed him out in to the hall, calling back over his shoulder that keeping up with Tesla’s explorations was Itachi’s responsibility for now as he himself stomped off to the kitchen while trying not to be obvious about said stomping.

Irritated as he was, he chose not to make anything too complicated for dinner, not wanting to let his distraction affect how well he cared for his beloved partner. He definitely had an advantage in this arena. Tesla was great and all but his paws probably weren’t all that useful in the kitchen - not to mention he would coat anything he touched in long ginger fur. Not very tasty for humans.

Eventually as he went about his business the familiar motions of chopping and stirring and fiddling with their faulty stove dials helped center him, calming the silly emotions he hadn’t been able to help. There was something about the simple domesticity of housework that never failed to bring him back in to himself. Probably because housework didn’t require much of his brainpower and so allowed him plenty of time to work through his thoughts without any expectations or outside pressures. Tobirama opened the dishwasher to pull out his favorite set of miso bowls and admitted silently to himself that he might have overreacted to getting a cat. Sure he usually loved cats and yes he had very much enjoyed having one as a child but he and Itachi had lived alone together for close to a decade at this point, their home had become a place where he knew that the rest of the world could fade away and he could envelope himself in nothing but the quiet man who stole his heart from the very first date. It was a little embarrassing to realize that he’d grown so attached to that concept that even as simple of an addition as a pet could make him feel threatened. Itachi would love him no less. Pay him no less attention. Really there was nothing to worry about.

Almost as though he could sense that a bit of mental peace had been reached, Itachi came wandering in to the room just as Tobirama was pulling down some glasses. He insisted on setting the table, for which Tobirama was grateful, and in only a couple of minutes they were both seated together devouring a simple yet delicious meal. The kitchen was Tobirama’s domain and his talents in that area only grew with each year. On the other hand Itachi hadn’t learned to cook until he was nearly thirty and his talents mostly included bowling water.

When Tesla came wandering in to the room with a plaintive yowl Tobirama found it in himself not to glare at the sight of his partner leaping up immediately to guide him towards the cat dish. He supposed the animal deserved to have dinner as well and they might as well eat at the same time. A small fragment of his mental peace was shattered when Tesla began to eat, however, and he realized the stupid thing snarfed down its food with a litany of disgusting sounds almost like he were gargling it. Just because he accepted that the beast would be living here didn’t mean he had to like the thing.

“Thank you for agreeing to let him come home with us,” Itachi said as he slid back in to his chair. Tobirama grunted. “I can’t imagine how it must have felt to stay in that place for so long with only a tiny cage to live in and never have anyone love him.”

Rather than answer all Tobirama could do was grunt again and stir his miso aimlessly while trying not to feel guilty for fantasizing earlier about tossing the thing out.

Dinner was quick, the clean up after even quicker, and even though it was probably a bad idea Tobirama decided that the rest of the evening would be his own, determined to ignore any shenanigans their new addition might get up to. Several people had told him over the years that he was too uptight. He would show them. Of course he knew how to relax, how to let the small things go. How much damage could one animal do in the short span of a single evening?

After the past couple of hours he already knew the answer to that question; he chose to ignore it.

Never having been a large fan of most popular TV shows, he spent the rest of his evening curled up in one corner of their large couch trying not to leap up and investigate every crash or yowl or quiet scolding word. Listening to his partner follow the cat around while Tesla continued learning this new environment did make him feel slightly guilty. Not guilty enough to actually go help though, not when getting the damn thing had been all Itachi’s idea. Sometimes he could be a nice guy but he certainly wasn’t that nice. Instead he combated his helpful urges by sinking farther and farther in to the cushions with every loud noise until he was all but buried between them and tried his best not to imagine what chaos was being made of his neat and orderly home. Whatever got misplaced he was sure Itachi would at least try to clean it up.

By the time his phone went off to tell him he should probably go to bed - a daily alarm he’d been using since college when his study habits grew wildly unhealthy - his efforts to relax hadn’t been nearly as successful as he would have liked but he wasn’t feeling quite so twisted up in knots as he had been before dinner. Tobirama called a few vague words down the hall to let his partner know he was tucking in for the night, pleased to hear Itachi call back that he would follow in a few minutes. A man of his word, he was in the bedroom getting changed when Tobirama came back out of the bathroom, teeth freshly brushed and flossed.

Since Itachi always took so much longer to perform his nightly ablutions Tobirama had plenty of time to slip under the covers and squirm about to find a comfortable position. He didn’t often move around much in his sleep but the older he got the more prone he was to aching limbs if he didn’t fall asleep in just the right position. Just as Itachi came out and crossed the room to turn out the light Tobirama at last found the perfect spot, spread out on his side just close enough to the center of the bed that when the other man crawled under the sheets he was able to fit himself right in to the cradle of Tobirama’s hips. As much as he liked to pretend that cuddling was something he only did for his partner’s benefit, it did help him sleep most days. Tobirama was grateful that slumber was such a private activity. There was no need for anyone else to know that under his gruff exterior he was nearly as sappy as his older brother.

Like he often did, Tobirama had trouble falling asleep. Listening to the sound of Itachi’s breathing evening out relaxed him, of course, but he still found himself distressingly awake to hear the sound of their bedroom door creaking open ever so slightly. A scowl touched his face when he felt the end of the mattress dip under a tiny weight.

“Do you really have to?” he grumbled under his breath.

As though in answer Tesla gave a low meow and trotted a full circle around the lump their bodies made together under the covers, looking for the perfect spot to lie down. No choice could have been more surprising than the one he went for. Tobirama was left blinking rapidly at the back of Itachi’s head when he felt soft fur press up against his neck; almost immediately his entire frame was practically shaken with the force of Tesla’s raucous purring. He didn’t even like the stupid thing but of course he was the one it wanted to cuddle with as they all slept through their first night together.

That, of course, was when it hit him. He understood at last why his partner had fallen so deeply in love with this creature and why it had been so important that they take him home. If ever there had existed a cat form of Tobirama himself it would be Tesla. Coarse and unrefined, prone to explorations and a curiosity that was never quite sated, he himself was exactly the sort of person many others would pass up without a second thought. He was grumpy, he was cantankerous, and he wasn't much to look at. But at the end of the day when it was only him and the ones he loved Tobirama was as soft as melted butter. If he could purr then he certainly would have every time he fitted himself around Itachi’s warm and welcoming form.

“Alright, fine,” he murmured, shifting so Tesla could curl around his head a little more comfortably. “You can stay. Just to be clear, though, I was still here first. And don’t you forget that.”

He didn’t get much of a reply but he wasn’t really expecting one. Tesla merely continued to purr, Itachi continued to dream, and Tobirama decided that he didn’t mind expanding his family just a little bit. Of all the possible choices for a pet it did warm him inside to know that, in a way, his partner had chosen to fall in love with him all over again.

#rae writes #commission #tobiita #tobirama #itachi #fanfiction

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jane-the-zombie · 4 years

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Is that a Police? I’m Calling the Weed! || Ulfric, Celeste, & Jane

TIMING: Roughly Three Weeks Ago PARTIES: @big-bad-ulf, @celestelavie, @jane-the-zombie SUMMARY: With the Bennett home trashed, Detective Wu has a few questions lined up for the owner of the truck that was seen outside their home that night.

The case should have been simple, but Jane was admittedly not happy to add on yet another missing persons case into her ever growing pile of them. White Crest was an enigma - a small town that surely meant to be a bore, which was exactly what Sergeant Kelley had wanted when he transferred her here. Except it wasn’t. The unexplained phenomenons that continuously occurred in this town soon made her realize that zombies were the least of her problems. At least this case had a lead. The Bennett residence trashed beyond repair with the residents missing - not great. But a neighbor had seen a truck outside that night and actually identified plate numbers. Ulfric Haakonsson. Owner of Ink Inc. Willingly came down to the station to have a “quick chat” with her. Jane led him to one of the spare rooms. “Mr. Haakonsson, thank you for joining me today,” she said, politely. “I just have a few questions for you, and then we can get you on your way. How does that sound?”

Ulfric hadn’t given much thought to human law when he’d agreed to help Ariana hide her tracks. Pack law, the law of his nature, had taken precedence, the impulse to remove the girl from the path of danger immediately overshadowing consideration of any long term risks. So when he received the call from Officer Wu to come in for a chat he was disappointed, but not surprised. As isolated as the former Bennett residence was, it had only been a matter of time before someone found the mess that had been left behind there and started asking questions. He’d just hoped that with so many other strange goings-on in White Crest the WCPD would’ve been distracted and given him little longer before those questions were directed his way. Since it sadly seemed that time was up, he had no choice but comply with Jane’s request, heading to the police station as soon as he closed up shop. There was no way he was going to be forced to leave another country because of the meddlesome mundane legal system. “Of course, Officer. That sounds fine. I’m guessing this is about the Bennetts,” He answered, deciding that being as open as possible was the safest approach. “I just want to do my part to clear things up, then you folks can get back to other matters more important to the safety of our town.”

He brought up the Bennetts almost immediately. Jane kept her face passive, and she hoped that this was either going to be easy or that things had actually ended well. Though, judging by the state of the house, she wasn’t sure how anything in that house could have ended well. “Why don’t we take a seat?” Jane nodded to the table and chairs set up, taking a seat herself. She stayed silent a moment, before leaning back in her chair to get a good look at him. He cut right to it, right to the chase. Jane appreciated that. That meant she could skip the lowball questions first - how long have you been in town, what do you do for a living, blah blah blah - but it also meant that this could end up being harder than she hoped. Could swing either way. Jane fought back a sigh. “How do you know the Bennetts, Mr. Haakonsson? Why do you think you need to be clearing things up?”

Ulfric pondered for a moment, it was sometimes hard for him to explain to himself what the Bennetts were to him, let alone to summarize it so it made sense to human company. It felt most accurate to describe Ariana as family, but with the WCPD resources it would be fairly easy to prove they weren’t actually related, and that would just dredge up more uncomfortable questions. So, the truth it was then, or at least the parts that were easily digestible. “Ariana, came into my shop for a tattoo after her eighteenth birthday. I met her sister shortly afterwards. We’re close friends.” If he didn’t specify which one he was friends with, it didn’t feel as dishonest and he just hoped Jane would assume he meant Celeste since most grown men didn’t have much in common with teenagers. “If you’ve found their old place, I can see how it could give off the impression that something bad happened to them and I just wanted to assure you that they’re not hurt, and never were.” And never will be, if he had any say on the matter.

He was silent a moment, and Jane settled back in her chair. Ulfric seemed to be quite cooperative, didn’t seem to want any trouble, and wasn’t showing signs of deception. Which was all well and good, but that didn’t tell her anything about the Bennetts or what happened in their home to make it look like a serious struggle took place. Jane’s eyes narrowed. They’re not hurt, and never were. “Their old place was found looking like a pretty bad fight took place, Mr. Haakonsson,” Jane said. She had the crime scene photos in the folder in front of her. “And your truck was seen outside the property shortly before it was found like that. Do you know where the Bennetts are, then?”

“They’re with me. Staying on my property, for the time being.” Ulfric answered succinctly, choosing to address the direct question over the statement, though his eyes did flicker momentarily to the folder one the table. It didn’t take a genius to guess what was in it, and he wondered for a moment if the police had already cleaned up the mess after they finished documenting it. It would be just his luck to go to such lengths to send a message only for it to be wiped from the slate before it reached its intended recipient. “I can’t be the only one who’s seen them safe and sound since then,” He continued after a beat, pulling his focus back on Jane. Surely property damage wouldn’t rank highly on WCPD’s list of worries if he could prove no one was hurt in the process. And there should’ve been plenty of evidence, since the Bennetts had been going about their normal lives as much as possible, even after they’d been supplied with glamours. “Someone must have seen Celeste serving at Al’s Diner. Or you could contact the high school, Ariana’s been going to classes.” He added to that effect. “I’m surprised you’re asking me about this before trying to reach them directly.”

“The issue at hand isn’t inherently about their whereabouts,” Jane said, easily. She leaned forward on the table, resting on her arms as she looked at him closely. It was curious that he would so openly admit to Celeste and Ariana staying with him. Something strange was going on, and Jane decided she didn’t like it. Either Ulfric was the cause of the giant disaster that the Bennet property was left in, or he was helping them hide from the thing that did. Disturbances like that didn’t just happen. It wasn’t like a knocked over lamp or something similar. Ulfric could have been playing her still though, simply telling her what seemed to be the truth where something much deeper could be going on. “We’re looking into it because the Bennett family, both Celeste and Ariana, seem to be in some type of trouble. What can you tell me about that?”

In the past, Celeste had never really had to think of the legal aspects of running away from a temporary home. They never remained in town long enough for there to be any repercussions for them. The last thing she had meant to happen was for Ulfric to get caught in some sort of legal trouble on their account. It seemed he had worked hard to build himself a life and a foundation in this town. Her own lack of foresight frustrated her when she’d received a text from Ulfric telling her he’d been called into the police station. She had told Al she had an emergency and rushed over to the station, still wearing her ridiculous 50’s style outfit. The front desk worker had pointed her in the right direction and she spotted Ulfric. She gave a wave as she approached the room they were in, lightly rapping on the door before entering. “I’m so sorry for any confusion here. I can assure you that both my sister and I are perfectly safe, in large part thanks to Ulfric here,” she explained hurriedly, “I’m Celeste Bennett in case that wasn’t entirely clear. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have, officer.”

Ulfric sat stumped for a moment, resting his elbows on the desk as he considered what to say. Officer Wu clearly wouldn’t stand for skirting the issue any longer, he’d have to give some kind of explanation for the trashed house, one that didn’t put him or the Bennetts under further scrutiny. If he told her the basic facts, that they were hiding from toxic family members who meant to do them harm, surely that would be understandable, even if the WCPD didn’t agree with the extent they’d gone to in order to maintain their cover. But then again, if Jane did believe that story, they might place them under protective surveillance which would only hinder their ability to take care of the hunters that plagued them permanently. Still, he was struggling to think of an alternative that sounded less incriminating, people didn’t usually cover their tracks because they had nothing to hide. Reluctantly, he huffed and opened his mouth to speak but promptly shut it when he heard the knocking on the door. He relaxed in his seat as Celeste entered. It seemed the ancestors were merciful, even in ensuring he’d seen that outfit previously so he didn’t laugh when it made an appearance in the middle of a police questioning. “I believe her word on this might be more valuable than mine,” he suggested to Jane, inclining his head towards the door. “Should I wait outside? These things are usually done separately, yes?”

Saved by the bell, it seemed. Jane stiffened slightly as someone interrupted, turning to snap at whatever idiot thought this was a good time to cut in, before she realized who it was and what she was wearing. Jane had only been to Al’s diner once, but she could recognize the gaudy uniforms anywhere. If this weren’t such a serious issue, Jane would say that her uniform was the true crime here. “Ms. Bennett?” Jane said, rising. She looked between Ulfric and Celeste, concern growing. If Haakonsson was forcing either Celeste or Ariana to do anything, there was nothing that she could do without Celeste directly complaining. But, perhaps, there was all a reasonable explanation for this after all. Jane looked between them one more time, naturally suspicious, but she finally just let out a low sigh and nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind, please,” Jane waited for Ulfric to exit, before she gestured the to the chair from where he had been sitting. “Ms. Bennett, I am Detective Jane Wu. I just have a few questions for you regarding the state of your home and supposed disappearance, if you wouldn’t mind.”

It should have occurred to Celeste that what worked when they were truly running away wouldn’t work if they actually stayed in town. At the time, she’d been so convinced her parents could arrive at any moment that it had to look like they’d left. It would buy them time, give them control of the situation. “Yes, that’s me,” she answered, “But you can call me Celeste.” She gave Ulfric a nod as he left the room. Her mind moved at a million miles a minute thinking of what believable story she could tell the detective. Most wouldn’t believe the real story. Even here, in a spot where the supernatural flocked, there were so many normal people just going about their lives none the wiser. The truth save the supernatural elements of it was probably the best way to go. She took the seat across from Jane, patting down the retro skirt as she did. Her features were etched with concern as she answered, “Yes, of course. What did you need to know, Detective?”

Jane let out a low sigh as she sank back down into her seat to begin her new line of questioning. Now that she was absolutely certain that Celeste and Ariana weren’t buried in a ditch somewhere there was only so much she could do. At least, she thought with a sigh, it wasn’t another missing persons case. It would be a shame for two young women to go missing in this town where those types of cases were hardly solved. Jane had a sneaking suspicion that most of those cases would never be solved because of the supernatural involvement. At least it was relief that Celeste and Ariana hadn’t been eaten by anything. “Well,” Jane said as patiently as she could manage. “You could start by explaining what happened to your home that left you to stay with Ulfric. If you please.”

Celeste should have expected an explanation would be wanted. There wasn’t really a satisfying one to give, but she could try. Leave out the bits about hunters and werewolves and it still sounded plausible, right? Did normal people have parents that spent the last fifteen years chasing them so they could kill them? Humans could be shiity parents, too, right? She’d read the news enough times to know as much to be true. Maybe vague was better. She placed her hands together in her lap, only realizing now how odd hands were. Did she just leave them there? Did it make her look suspicious? She let out a breath of air and explained, “There’s some people, they want to hurt my sister and I. We’ve been running from them a while. When the house, I assumed it was them and Ulfric offered us a safe place to stay so that Ariana could finish out the school year.” Vague, probably left her with more questions than answers, but believable.

Jane stiffened slightly at the honest answer, alarm crossing her features. “Someone is after you and your sister?” And they were hiding in little White Crest. Despite the mime problem and the supernatural issue (could it really be considered a problem? Another thought for another time, really, but something to think about), it was a small town. She didn’t know anything about the Bennetts other than what was in their file. Surely there wouldn’t be mob involvement with them - though, there were crazier things. “There are people after you?” Jane said, leaning forward on her arms. “Look, Celeste, I want to help you. Whoever is after you, you need to report them officially to the police. We can place you in police protection, and figure out a way to keep them away from you. Who is after you and why?”

Maybe that hadn’t been the right approach. Celeste wasn’t sure what she could say to dissuade the detective from pursuing this any further. She sighed, “Yes.” Not wanting to offer up more information than that. Detective Wu urged her to share more, allow the police to help and provide protection, but there was no reasonable way to explain this was a threat the police couldn’t help with. Her parents were well-connected enough that they’d find a way to get to her and Ariana. They’d been after them for fifteen years now and they weren’t stopping now. A small frown was on her face as she tried to explain, “I’m sorry, but this isn’t something the police can help with. Reporting them will just draw more attention to Ariana and myself.” She racked her brain for a way to explain this in a way that made sense. Her mind briefly drifted back to how Kaden’s girlfriend rationalized the wings thing. As a last resort, the wording of medical condition could actually come in handy.

There was nothing that Jane could do. In all technicality, there were no laws broken. Just suspicion of them having been broken, and upon looking into it, there were no complaining witnesses or victims or anything. Just information that some people are after me and my little sister. Vague words, and it was clear that Celeste wasn’t going to be giving her any specific information any time soon. The police, supposedly, couldn’t help. She had heard that before, and usually people who said things like that ended up dead, one way or another. But Jane could see that there was absolutely no way she could push Celeste into giving her anymore information. A shitty part of the job was that she couldn’t help anyone unless they wanted it, unless they gave her the means for it. Jane let out a low sigh. “I implore you to change your mind, Ms. Bennett, and let me help you and your little sister.” Jane stood, before she reached into her pocket and took out her business card. After a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed a pen, and quickly wrote something on the back of it, holding it out to her. “This is my card. It has my work line on it, and I’ve given you my personal cell-phone as well. Use it if you need anything, alright?”

Part of her felt guilty. This detective seemed like a good woman and Celeste wished she could turn to the police for help. The fact of the matter was, laws hadn’t stopped her parents in the past and they wouldn’t now. Jane wanted to help, but she feared there wasn’t much she could do. There was no evidence to hold against her parents and it would require giving her real name. It was too risky, no matter how trustworthy the detective seemed. Still, she said, “I’ll think about it.” She shifted in her seat to accept the card that Detective was giving her and tucked it into her apron. Celeste doubted she’d ever use it, but it was better to have it on hand. Just in case. She patted her apron back down and expressed, “Thank you, really.” She felt bad for the detective, but at least there’d be no legal implications for Ulfric. She looked back to Jane and asked, “Was I free to go then? I may or may not have a trainee covering my section at the diner.”

Think about it. Jane was trying her best to think of any reason that she could make Celeste stay, but there was truly nothing that she could do. With a low sigh, she stood and nodded, going to get the door for Celeste. “Of course, you’re free to go.” She stuck her head out, and nodded to Ulfric as well. “You too. Thank you both for coming in and answering my questions. Let me walk you both out.” And hopefully, Celeste would call her before it was too late.

#para #para ulf #ulf #para celeste #celeste #is that a police im calling the weed

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ghosthunthq · 5 years

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Memento (Part 1 of 2)

For: @seoulsborne123

By: @csakuras

——

The trees on the mountain path shimmered with morning dew. Gene passed through a row of red-orange torii gates lining the path, so dense that they practically made a vermillion tunnel.

Fushimi Inari Taisha. He had come here first thing in the morning, to beat the crowds and the heat. Gradually, he made his way up the mountain, snapping pictures now and then.

It was like he’d entered a different world. He could sense it, in the trees, in the shrines, in the thousands of torii gates. This was sacred ground.

This place is fantastic, Gene thought. You’re really missing out, Noll. Told you you should’ve come.

He knew his thoughts would not reach their intended recipient. Their abilities had weakened enough by now that their telepathic link no longer stretched across oceans. And yet, throughout his trip, Gene kept trying. Maybe it was just habit. He’d grown used to the fact that, no matter where he went— even when he was alone— he would always be able to reach his brother.

Which meant this was one of the few times in his life that Gene was truly alone.

On one hand, it was liberating. Being able to go anywhere and do anything he liked without anyone to caution or complain. But now, nearly a week into his trip, he was starting to realize just how isolating that could be too.

After making his way through another tunnel of torii, Gene stopped by a small shrine to catch his breath. The hike was tougher than he’d anticipated, and the humidity didn’t help. He sat on a mossy rock and sipped from his bottle of tea.

He sensed it before he saw it. A familiar tingle up his spine. He turned to his left, just in time to see it appear from behind a tree.

A white fox. Said to be the messengers of the Inari Okami, he had seen many statues of them along the way, many of them holding keys in their mouths. This fox didn’t look quite as fearsome; actually, it looked downright adorable.

“Hey, there,” Gene said. “Come to check on me?”

The fox stood still, staring at him.

“I’m no threat, I swear. Just visiting.” He gave it a disarming smile, and a short bow for good measure.

It sat, tilting its head curiously at him.

Slowly, Gene set down his bottle of tea and raised his digital camera, getting the fox into frame.

“Shhh…just hold still a second, okay?”

Briefly, he wondered if this might be considered disrespectful. Well…hopefully he wouldn’t be cursed afterwards.

The camera clicked, and the picture was taken. The fox didn’t seem perturbed; it merely stood and wandered away, having seemingly lost interest, and disappeared in a sunbeam.

Gene looked at the preview screen of his camera. There was no sign of the fox anywhere in the picture, even when he zoomed in. No smudge of light or anything. Just background scenery.

He smiled wryly. Gene knew that a camera couldn’t capture everything that he saw. Not even SPR’s high tech cameras could do that.

It was a shame. Noll might have actually liked to see this one.

The main reason for this trip was a client’s request, of course. And some research on the side. But also, Gene had hoped to visit his ethnic homeland someday, so he had been grateful for the opportunity.

Their ethnic homeland. Unfortunately, Noll hadn’t been interested enough to join him. But Gene still wished he could share what it was like. In one form or another…

——

It was on the weekend after the Agawa case. Mai brought Naru tea in his office as usual, but instead of leaving right away, she spoke up.

“Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you something. I mean, I would’ve told you when you first came back, but we had that case… Anyway, Mori-san already approved it, but since you’re my boss, you should know too.”

Naru sipped at his tea. “Please get to the point.”

“I won’t be here next weekend.”

He blinked. “Huh?”

Mai grinned. “That’s right, this time I’m the one going on a trip! To Kyoto!”

He stared at her, looking a bit lost.

She took a moment to enjoy that rare look on his face before explaining. “It’s my school trip. Do you have those in England? My whole class is going for a few days.”

Understanding dawned in his expression. “I see.” Then he nodded. “I will make note of it.”

“Come to think of it, you went to Kyoto too, right? A little after I started working here? How was it?”

“Hot.”

She waited for him to continue, but that seemed to be all he had to say about it.

Then again, he didn’t exactly go there to sightsee, did he? He had gone to search for Gene…

“Wait, does that mean Gene went to Kyoto too?”

Naru nodded. “I’d been retracing Gene’s steps during his trip, and learned that he had gone there to meet with a spiritualist. As far as I know, the man was one of the last people to have spoken with him before the accident. I went to ask if he had any idea where Gene had planned on going next.”

“Did he know?”

“No. It seemed they only discussed mediumship or trivial matters. If it had gone that easily, I would have found him much sooner.” Naru sighed.

And then, within only a few short months of them meeting, Naru would have left. And Mai would have never found out anything— about Naru’s identity, why he was here, or…about Gene. Selfish as it was, she was almost glad that things played out the way they did.

“Hey…” she began, hesitantly. “Do you think I could meet with that spiritualist too?”

Naru frowned. “Meet him? Why?”

“I guess…I’m just curious. Maybe if I talk to him, I could find out where Gene visited in Kyoto. I could see the same things, walk the same places…and stuff.” She blushed and shook her head. “N-nevermind, it’s stupid. You wouldn’t understand anyway.”

She took her tray and quickly exited his office.

What was she thinking? There was no use trying to explain something so sentimental to him. As if he’d even care.

——

Later that afternoon, John dropped by the office for a quick visit. Mai welcomed him eagerly; she had been hoping they could talk.

“Hey John, you lived in Kansai for a while, right? Do you have any recommendations for places to visit?”

John did indeed have a few recommendations, beyond just the usual tourist sites too. Mai took notes, nodding with excitement.

But partway through, the door to Naru’s office opened, and he poked his head out.

“Mai. Bring me a large trash bag.”

“Huh? Right now?”

“Yes, right now.”

She pouted.

John gave her an understanding smile and whispered, “We can talk again later, Mai-san.”

She sighed. “Sorry.”

Grumbling, she found a trash bag and took it to Naru’s office. “Here, I got you the—” she stopped.

A heap of maps, travel guides, notebooks, and paper was piled on top of Naru’s desk. As she watched, he rummaged through a desk drawer, pulling out another handful to add to the pile.

“Bring it here,” he said.

She closed the door behind her and walked up to the desk. “Don’t tell me…you’re throwing all this away?!”

“I found Gene. I don’t need them anymore.”

“That’s true, but…you should at least sort them for recycling!”

“Then I’ll leave that to you.”

Mai groaned. She just had to create more work for herself.

Having cleaned out his drawers, Naru sat on the edge of his desk, sifting through the pile. He gave each item a cursory glance before tossing it into the trash bag she held open for him.

This might take a while. She was tempted to just leave the bag with him and return to her conversation with John, but since Naru hadn’t dismissed her yet, she decided to stay for now.

Besides, she was curious what had spurred on this sudden cleaning spree. It had to be what they talked about earlier, right?

“I kinda forgot you still had all this stuff,” she admitted.

“Yes, well, I didn’t have time to throw them out before I left for England, and I didn’t have time when I came back, as someone immediately forced me to take on a case.”

Jeez, he was still holding a grudge about that?

Mai peered inside the trash bag. “You know…this stuff has been here since before I began working at the office. It feels weird to see it all go away. Like it’s the end of an era…”

She thought back to all those times she caught Naru in the office, pouring over maps. She used to think it was just a weird hobby. But she should have suspected; that look of concentration he had while tracing his finger over roads, mountains, lakes…she should have known the reason couldn’t be so frivolous as that.

Naru tossed several travel books, clicking his tongue. “Madoka had plenty of time while she was here,” he muttered. “She could have cleaned this out herself.”

“She probably thought you’d complain about her touching your stuff,” Mai sniffed. “Besides, she was busy. Actually teaching me stuff.”

He frowned. “…She never cleaned Gene’s desk either.”

Now this got her attention. “Gene’s desk?”

“At the Pratt Laboratory. I didn’t get around to cleaning it before I left for Japan, as I had too many other things to worry about. But I assumed Madoka would do it eventually. And yet when I returned, after the funeral, I found it exactly the way it was two years ago.” He shook his head. “Ridiculous.”

Mai gulped. If she were in his position, coming back to see that desk unchanged after all that time would have felt like a punch in the gut. “So…you cleaned it out yourself?”

“What little there was to clean, yes. It was mostly odd scraps of paper he had doodled on. He was active in the field, but the rest of us generally took care of the paperwork.”

She bit her lip. Now she felt torn. It seemed like such a waste. Gene would never put pen to paper again. To her, even little doodles would be priceless.

“But…if there wasn’t even that much stuff, it couldn’t have hurt to just leave it that way, right? Did you even need the space?”

“That is not the point.”

She looked at him, inviting him to explain.

He sighed. “My parents are free to preserve Gene’s bedroom as they wish. But we don’t need a shrine in the workplace as well.”

There was something about the way he said that. Not quite annoyance, more like…a deep discomfort. It made her hesitate. But at the same time, the dismissiveness of his words bothered her.

“And why do you get to decide that? Gene was an important member of Mori-san’s team, right? Are you saying her feelings don’t count, just because she’s not family?”

Naru paused. “…Even so, it’s been two years.”

“You don’t get to decide how long it takes!”

“It’s just paper.”

“Maybe to you, it is. That doesn’t mean you have to remove everything that reminds you of him!”

She had been wondering for a while. Why exactly Naru decided to return to Japan. He said it was for research, and that might really be all it was. But she also wouldn’t be surprised if he was just running from something.

“Is that what you think I’m doing?” he asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Isn’t it?”

A bitter smile crossed his face. “I see his face every time I look in the mirror. What other reminder do I need?”

Mai shut her mouth. She couldn’t argue against that.

An awkward silence passed. Naru lowered his gaze back to the notebook in his hands, flipping through the pages. Mai looked away.

When he finished flipping through the notebook, Naru tossed it in the trash and picked up another map. “Okinawa,” he said, looking at it with disgust. “He made me go to Okinawa.” This also went in the trash.

Mai rolled her eyes. “It couldn’t have been that bad.”

“I never intended to come to Japan in the first place. But he ended up dragging me here after all.”

“He didn’t drag you, Naru. Complain all you want, but no one forced you to come here. You made a choice.”

He scoffed. “The only other choice was to leave things to the incompetent police. He would have never been found.”

“But he was. Thanks to you.”

That was one thing she could say in his favor. Whatever his reasons— whether out of brotherly love, or merely because he wanted to dissect his brother’s brain— despite all the odds, Naru didn’t give up. She could admire that level of dedication.

And now, this clearing of the past seemed to signal a new start. His life had been in stasis for nearly two years, devoted to the search. Now, he could finally live for himself again. So, did that mean…that this time, he was here because he actually wanted to be?

Mai glanced at him. Maybe that was just wishful thinking. But it would be nice, if that were the case.

Minutes later, Naru was flipping through another notebook, when he stopped to tear a sheet out of it.

“Here.” He held it out to her.

“Huh?” She took the paper. “What’s this?” On it was a name, written in romaji, and a phone number.

“The man I met in Kyoto.”

She gasped and looked at him in surprise. “You found it for me?”

“It turned up while I was cleaning. It’s going in the trash anyway, I don’t care if you feel like salvaging it.”

“Uh-huh.” She wasn’t entirely sure she believed that excuse. Mai turned back to the paper and read the name out slowly. “Suzuki…Akitarou?”

“I’m surprised you could read that much,” Naru smirked.

Mai glared at him over the sheet of paper. “What’s the kanji?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Pfft. Even if you could, I bet you couldn’t write it.” Mai grinned, in better spirits now. “So I should just give him a call, ask if we could meet? Can I tell him I work for SPR?”

“Yes. He might be more willing to see you if you mention my name.”

“Which name?”

There it was. The ‘Are you an idiot?’ look. “Oliver Davis, obviously.”

“Well sorry. How was I supposed to know you didn’t introduce yourself as Shibuya Kazuya?”

He sighed. “It doesn’t take more than two brain cells to figure out that if I went asking about my identical twin named Eugene Davis, using an alias would be pointless.”

“My bad. It’s just that you have sooo many names, it’s enough to confuse a girl.”

“I have, at most, three.”

“Not counting nicknames, you mean.” She laughed, and waved the piece of paper. “But thanks, Naru. I appreciate it.”

#Ghost Hunt #GHW2019 #Naru #Oliver Davis #Mai Taniyama #csakuras #seoulsborne123 #submission

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annerly-san · 6 years

Text

History’s True Path: Ishida Mitsunari

Author’s Note:

Prepare lots of tissues and water to replenish yourself after you cry

Contains: character death, small disclaimer if you’re sensitive at heart. But if you like Mitsunari’s suffering like what I’ve seen from a certain fairyy’s post... then gg

good luck everyone. roast me in the comments

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fate never meant to be trifled with. And history had a certain knack to stay true to its course -- one way or another.

When she had originally been warped into the Sengoku period, history had altered in the quake of her presence and actions. The great unifier of Japan was pulled from his fate of death due to the actions she took to save him. A ripple effect translated throughout the rest of the events that should have happened in true history, forming a Sengoku period completely anew from the one recorded in the books of her time.

Originally, the difference in time and the transition to her new life gave her an unbelievably voluminous amount of stress and grievance. Isolation, ostraisition and loneliness ate at her heart and soul. But her momentary darkness was illuminated by the grace of the saving words: “I’ll be there for you, and that’s a promise.”

Ishida Mitsunari was the epitome of all that was good in the world. He was an angel that descended upon the earth, and she often referred to him as such. He was the first to welcome her, the first to console her, and the first to love her unconditionally as he did.

When she thought she that she loved everything about him, she was proven wrong time and time again. Each day that they would spend in one another’s company led to a revelation, an insight on yet another part of him that she did not know about. From his immersion in books to the extent of self-neglect, to his naivety of worldly things that made him seem too innocent, and to his undying affection that arose at the most unsuspecting times, she loved him. And she was not alone in her affections.

And though she thought that the rest of her days would play out in peace, and that their love would transpire forever, how unfortunate it was for history to turn back to its original course.

The events conspired simultaneously.

It began with the horrifying news of Nobunaga’s passing at Mitsuhide’s hands. The traitor then in turn perished at the wrath that was Hideyoshi’s vengeance. The latter, determined to carry upon the will of his deceased lord, took upon the goal of unification and passed shorter thereafter.

Spontaneous. The events which had been wrought out of its destined course cascaded one atop another in order to catch up to a singular date in that period of time. October 21, 1600.

Both she and Mitsunari were at Hideyoshi’s side when he let out his final breath. They, alongside Ieyasu, Masamune and some other vassals, departed from the former warlord with the promise to raise his young son to be the next shogun.

And yet, to both hers and Mitsunari’s dismay, they broke it.

“Ah, this must be some kind of mistake…” Mitsunari’s usually calm demeanor had the edge of anxiety upon it. “Lord Ieyasu would never betray Lord Hideyoshi like that.” His hands clenched at the report that was just delivered. “...We promised, after all, to protect and raise Hideyori…” He stumbled across his words and fumbled with the report in his hands, scanning it twice to ensure the meaning of its contents.

“...Mitsunari…”

“A bad report. A misinformed one. There’s no way that-”

“Mitsunari.”

“Ah, Princess!” A typical occurrence as he would often get lost in thought and forget her presence. “It’s just that I-”

She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his torso, burying her head in his chest. “It’ll be alright.”

Ieyasu always held his ambition. His painful upbringing and the lingering darkness of his past paved his character to be the resolute and hardened character that he was. It was something that she knew from her time in the future, as well as something that came up in discussion with Sasuke.

“For now, let’s just keep Hideyori safe and out of Ieyasu’s way. We’ll still be honoring Hideyoshi to some extent.”

The crackling of paper resounded from Mitsunari’s hands. “B-but-”

She held him tighter. “Let’s just keep Hideyori safe. Promise me?”

Her eyes met his. For the first time did she see the emotions of torment and confusion in him. The pain he felt when he tore away from her gaze and averted his eyes to the side to avoid hers. His face crinkled with hesitation and conflict.

She knew the course of history was already decided. She knew the fate of Tokugawa Ieyasu to become the final unifier of Japan. And she knew the fate of Ishida Mitsunari to perish as a traitor to the nation.

She managed to stop history in its path once. And she will do it again.

“Do you remember what you promised me when we first met in Azuchi castle?”

It was a distant memory. One so long displaced in the peace of the past, that it seemed to her as a dream that she awoke from and lost in the gaining of reality.

She softly put her hands on the sides of his face, turning him towards her. Those amethyst eyes of his had lost their vigor in the conspiring of recent tragedies, but they still retained that glimmer of affection for her.

“Of course I do,” was his soft reply. That all too familiar smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “I promised that I would always be there for you.” He gently pressed his lips against her forehead. “I can think of nothing more important to me than you.”

Her heart leapt. Despite his constant presence and actions around her, she was never able to still her pulse and racing heart. “Then promise me that you won’t put yourself in danger. Please promise me, that you’ll still be here with me. And be here with me, despite all the things that are happening now?”

He met her gaze. There was a reluctance in his expression that gave a sense of falteration before he buried his head against her neck and gave a small nod.

Her fingers found themselves in his hair, brushing the silvery strands in small strokes. “Thank you, Mitsunari.”

“But of course.”

Mitsunari sat in the waning light of his candle, and looked out at the moon outside the window. His beloved had long gone to bed at his insistence and left him alone to process the according measures to take next.

A single scroll lay untouched upon the corner of his desk. He need not open it to read its contents for he already knew of what foreboding warning it held.

He, not Hideyori, was the greatest threat to Ieyasu’s ambitions. And the both of them were in danger.

The promise that he had made moments ago was a forsaken one. He clutched at the robe against his chest. The pain of an empty promise ate at his conscience and heart. It was the first lie that he told. And the recipient was one that he had never wished to lie to. Despite his heart prayed that this would be the last lie that he would tell her. He knew. He knew that it wasn’t.

To keep both of them safe, he would have to play the offensive. He never wished to turn upon his friends and had never the intention to do so. Yet the situation gave him no other alternative.

The light of his candle flickered, indicate its dying light. His mind was made up. He had to protect the both of them, despite all of the unbecoming things that he had do.

“I would resort to the dirtiest of tactics… to keep you safe.”

~~~~~~~~~~

“I’ll return to you! Don’t worry!” The guilt ate at his heart with that lie. He smiled at her before giving her yet another kiss. “I’ll be back before you know it!”

She smiled at him. She felt guilty for doubting his words. He never lied to her. He never broke his promise. He will return. Her uneasiness was overridden by the guilt that she felt for doubting Mitsunari. “Good luck!”

He begun towards his steed before pausing and turning back around to face her again.

He bore a smile that she did not think she ever saw on him. A smile barely able to mask the misery and grief he was holding inside.

“I did remember to tell you, didn’t I? How much I love you?” He engulfed her in his arms and buried his head in her neck. He clung to her with an uneasy strength.

She returned his embrace, stunned by the revelation. “You did. You said that this morning, yesterday, and the day before. You’re always told me, Mitsunari.” She relaxed in his arms. “I love you too. Today, yesterday, tomorrow, and every day that exists in this world. I love you.”

He bit his lip. He was careful not to let his eyes water from the sentiment of their final farewell. He knew, it would be the last he saw of her. This was the last time to hold her, kiss her, and tell her that he loved her. Before he couldn’t anymore.

“Me too. I love you today. Tomorrow. And every day. Forever.” He was careful not to choke up at his words. Careful to not let her know that this was their final moment together.

He kissed her. Fervently, with all the passion he could muster. Their last kiss.

When he pulled away, he gave her a final smile. He bid her a quick farewell and turned quickly as to avoid her seeing his tears. Mounting his horse, he rode off with the rest of the men under his command.

~~~~~~~~~~

The slamming of metal resounded through the dungeons.

“Ieyasu! Masamune! Please listen-!” Bruised hands slammed against the cell of her enclosure for the thousandth time that day. “Please! Don’t hurt Mitsunari! I’m begging you!”

It had been months since she bid her Mitsunari farewell. But it was only a couple of weeks ago that she found out that he hid his true intentions from her.

Ishida Mitsunari declared war on Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Multiple attempts were staged to assassinate Ieyasu, but to no avail. As clever as Mitsunari was with his strategies, he was unable to account for the large network of connections that Ieyasu held with various clans around Japan. Ultimately, Mitsunari resorted to gathering up his own allies to rally against Ieyasu in a war.

When news of that reached her ears, she made haste to meet with both Ieyasu and Masamune, who were allies in this upcoming war. Her pleas to convince them to call it off with Mitsunari were futile. Her reminiscence of the past and their relations were disregarded when it came to discussion about making peace with Mitsunari.

They would fight until either Mitsunari or Ieyasu drops dead. And that was it.

With their unwavering intent and her failure to convince her two friends of the past to withdraw from this forsaken war, she made an attempt to go find Mitsunari. Only to be stopped by both Masamune and Ieyasu.

They took to holding her captive for her own safety-- locking her up in the dungeons of their castle.

The war rapidly approached and the date of destiny was soon upon them.

Her cries lingered through the dungeons. Her eyes were dry from emptying her body of water from all the tears she spilled.

“Please…” At this point, she knew not whom she was pleading to. To Masamune and Ieyasu to spare Mitsunari, or to Mitsunari to keep his promise to return to her.

His words played back in her mind like a broken clock. “I love you. Today. Tomorrow. And every day, forever.” She recalled how he would hold her, in a gentle and warm embrace. How he would tell her that she looked beautiful and how grateful he was to have her by his side. “I’ll always be there for you, and that’s a promise.”

Her hand slammed against the bars again. Red and purple from its abuse. “....Mitsunari…” Her chest roared in an unbearable pain. “You said…” Another slam. “... you promised…”

A sudden clank sounded out. An ominous creak. The dungeon doors opened to reveal Ieyasu and Masamune, dirtied and dyed in a mixture of blood and mud. Both held crestfallen faces, and neither would meet her gaze.

She was almost too afraid to speak. “M-mitsunari… w-... w-what about M-mitsunari…?” The thundering of her heart in her ears were the only things she was able to hear.

A loosely wrapped bundle of cloth was flung to the cell’s door, unfurling as it hit and ricocheted off of the bars.

Her angel returned to her. Just like he promised he would. But he had fallen from heaven and was plucked of all the feathers from his wings.

The severed head of her beloved, covered in crimson, laid in front of her. Those amethyst eyes which had so lovingly gazed into her own so long ago stared back blankly into her own.

#ikemen sengoku #ikemen mitsunari #Ishida Mitsunari #ikesen ieyasu #ikesen masamune #whoever draws me a severed mitsunari head can be eligible for a writing request

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aithne · 5 years

Text

(Illume) Tomika's Letters, 8/7 - 8/12: The Worm Turns

8/7/1583 Aomori

Dear Yukiko,

Short sailing this morning, landing us in Aomori this afternoon. We were met immediately by Storming Bear's samurai, and taken to his house and feasted in what appears to be Unicorn grand style. Much meat was involved. Bizarre, but there you have it. He noted immediately that the librarian was different, and said that his new form and apparent profession were much better than his old one. Storming Bear is many things, but stupid is not among them. He knew exactly what the librarian was, before.

We spoke of Minoru, the general who is trying to stir up conflict within the Unicorn, and he said that he'd never heard of the man. Almost as an afterthought, he said he'd had an advisor who he'd fired a month or so back, because he disliked his advice. That advisor was named Tadao, and had gone to Oni Killer after he was dismissed. Oni Killer happens to be Storming Bear's greatest rival within his clan.

So very convenient, it seems.

The Dragon samurai that Haku had sent to the Unicorns rather than causing trouble with the Lions had arrived; unfortunately, they had taken many casualties, and were something of a ragtag band of fifty-odd at this point. There was one that had been altered, who Storming Bear had been about to kill, but he offered to let us take a look at him first.

After finishing our meal, we did so.

Interesting, what we found. A man, but a man more afflicted by strength than any I have seen, wrapped in bonds of muscle as tightly as any ropes. He was feverish and sweating, moaning in what seemed to be pain, the sheet on his mat knotted around him. The scent of his sweat hung thick and sour in the air. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong indeed.

Storming Bear said gravely, "He said that the Dragon contingent had run into Oni Killer's people, and each of them were as giants in their strength. When he killed one, the Unicorn's blood splashed into the Dragon's wounds, and very soon he was feeling unwell. He has been like this for a week, perhaps two. Death would be a kindness, at this point."

Haku asked Panda to look at him with her orb of true seeing. She did, and whatever she saw made her go as white as her hair. She handed the orb to Reiko without comment, and fled from the room. She has had quite the touchy stomach lately, has Panda. Reiko peered through the orb and murmured, "That's neat. Disturbing, but neat."

The orb was passed around, everyone making somewhat disgusted noises. When it came to me, I could see what they had been grimacing about--under the man's skin and inside of him were worms, wriggling, exerting some sort of influence over him. Haku suggested using the true source on him and we promptly did so.

Unfortunately, it worked, but not how we wanted it to.

The worms did indeed come out of him. But they exited through his skin. It was as if he suddenly had dissolved in a cloud of blood. He drew his breath inward as if to scream but died before he could let it out.

We burned the worms that had come out of him and made arrangements for the body of the Dragon to be burned. Gryphon, as we burned the worms, ducked his head under his wing, and whined, "Owwwww....make them stop!" Reiko, confused, inquired what he wanted to make stop, and he said, "The worms are screaming! Can't you hear?"

None of us could, except Gryphon. Oni Killer also brought us a broken katana, and said that the dead Dragon had snapped it in two with his bare hands. Such strength is a frightening thing. Humans are not meant to be so strong.

Storming Bear told us Oni Killer's true name, with the request that we keep it secret, so that Funitsu could scry on him. (I can't tell you what the name is. But I assure you that it is very, very amusing. Evidently Oni Killer's parents had a vicious sense of humor.)

My husband scried, and came back with the information that Oni Killer has three hundred samurai, all altered as the Dragon who had just died was, stationed south and east of Aomori. South farther still are another three hundred troops, evidently in process--probably being altered as the rest are.

Tomorrow, we go south to try and see if we can interrupt the processing of the samurai. Tonight, however, we sleep.

Flirtation is not working on my husband. Strong measures are needed. I am unsure what these measures are, but I will come up with something, I'm sure. Perhaps Panda would have some advice.

Much affection, Tomika

8/8/1583 Aomori

Dear Yukiko,

Such an exciting day! A lovely fight against a mighty foe, and travel in comfort via the mirror. This is, indeed, the life. We headed south early this morning, all of us except Gryphon, Reiko, and Tadaki in the mirror. Gryphon and Tadaki were flying, and Reiko was riding Gryphon, as she takes every excuse to do. She really seems quite fond of the gryphon. Perhaps because in some ways, they are the outsiders, here.

We took the Warresh with us but left the Thrykreen behind. We are very careful to keep the Warresh near enough to the librarian so that he can see them. Out of his line of sight, they may become unpredictable.

Near the place we were heading, there was a barren area, one that looked like it had been growing for some time. There were small turning winds dancing along the surface, as if something from underneath were disturbing the air above. Gryphon found a place to land, and we all came out of the mirror.

We discovered that there were creatures beneath the ground--one giant worm, and many smaller ones. When we dug up a bit of earth, we found that they were the same as the worms that had infected the Dragon samurai, only larger.

Much larger.

A plan was hatched. Tadaki would fire a fireball into the warrens of the worm, and Hiroshi would try to poison the largest one. Meanwhile, we would try to fetch Tadao, who was busily infecting samurai with these worms. We were hoping that in the confusion we could take care of Tadao before the samurai knew what was happening.

A good plan, and one we put into action right away. At the explosion we heard from the barren area, we set out at a run to try to get Tadao. Haku, being the fastest of us, was the first there, and tackled Tadao as he attempted to escape.

The flaw in our plan became apparent when out of the ground burst the largest worm. At a hundred or so feet long, it was massive and much faster than anything that big has any right to be. It was heading after Hiroshi and the Warresh, who were fast but not nearly fast enough.

Panda and Haku were taking care of Tadao, and the worm screamed. The samurai who had been infected, as one, bleed and fell as the worms flew out of them and crawled to join the large one. Perhaps one of the more disgusting sights in the last few days.

I took aim at the worm, but then something happened to make anything I could do exceptionally dangerous. Gryphon had swooped down to pick up the librarian, snatching him out of harm's way, and tried to toss him up in the air and fly under him to catch him on his back. This, unfortunately, did not work as intended, and the librarian dropped, falchion-first, onto the worm's back.

I saw him pour something into the wound, and the worm convulsed and screamed again, writing, trying to rid itself of the man on its back. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Reiko with eyes narrowed, pointing at the worm.

Out of the tiny shaman came a great cry, directed at the worm. "BAD WORM. LIE DOWN!"

And, impossibly, it did.

A few minutes later, it shuddered and died, the poison that the librarian had given it finally working. And where the body of the worm had been, there was suddenly a hole in the air. One that led, quite improbably, back to Kyoto. We didn't trust the hole, and decided to linger to see if it would fade.

In the meantime, Haku gave Tadao some of the true source, and he turned out to be most cooperative, considering that he was one of the Dragon's. He agreed to work for us on the inside, which means we can, perhaps, have Panda's husband Nibori travel with us. I am hoping that will make her less short-tempered.

Tadao said that he though, after the mother worm had died, that in three or so days all of her children would die. We elected to test that theory by going back to Storming Bear and telling him that we could wait for three days and see what happened.

We also have a priest here who has agreed to ride on Gryphon and try a Mass Heal spell on some of the worm-altered people, to see what happens. More on that tomorrow.

Much affection, Tomika

8/11/1583 Aomori

Dear Yukiko,

It has been a tense but otherwise restful three days. When the priest did his heal spell from afar, the worms in the samurai died but their strength did not decrease. We elected to see this as a good sign.

The rest was waiting. I overheard Reiko asking Storming Bear if he had any daughters of marriageable age, and he said he had two. "But you might want the younger one, the oldest is ugly." Having met the girls in question, I had to agree. The younger is a remarkably pleasant girl, sweet of face if not overly pretty. The elder is...well, "ugly" sums it up. It is somewhat difficult to tell she is female, as a matter of fact.

I believe that Reiko is matchmaking, perhaps for your brother, perhaps for Haku or Tadaki. Trust the kitsune, in the middle of a war, to try and marry off those around her. She used to be a politician. Perhaps, in some way, she still is.

Today, we received reports that all of those who'd been infected with the worms had fallen over and slept for a time. Storming Bear stated that he could now take care of Oni Killer, and we have taken our leave.

Panda has been teaching her dog, who appears to be named Dog, to fetch. Dog caught on quickly, but seems to have generalized "fetch" to mean "bring anything small and portable to Panda". So far, Panda has been the recipient of shoes, pieces of Thrykreen armor, two kittens, a set of dice, someone's money pouch, one of the combs I use in my hair, and Taura in fox form, who looked very cranky indeed at being hauled around by a dog.

We're going to Akita, to see if we can convince Nibori to travel with us. Four days to Akita, we think; the winds are unfavorable at the moment for a southward journey.

Much affection, Tomika

8/12/1583 At sea, towards Akita

Dear Yukiko,

Most upsetting and puzzling happenings today. When my husband arose and opened his door, he was the recipient of three darts in the chest, each poisoned. We all heard his shout and came running, and found him pale and sweating, the poison already taking effect.

Reiko rolled her eyes, told Funitsu to hold still, and stood on her tiptoes and kissed his neck, lightly. A red light burned briefly in Funitsu's chest, and she pulled out the darts, the poison on them neutralized. She dropped them in the librarian's hand and stalked off, muttering something about people who were so unobservant as to walk into an assassins' darts.

The device that had fired the darts was a clever Black Hand creation, keyed to Lord Soshi, and we determined that it had been set recently enough that the person who'd set it was probably still on board. Haku went searching and Panda mustered the crew on deck, none of whom had anything unusual about them.

And at the same time, we noticed two things happening. One was that there was a sparkling cloud forming right before Shrike. The second was that the outlines of the ship were changing, taking on a sleeker, faster form.

Panda said a word I didn't think she knew, and I'm not certain she appreciates all of the connotations of. All of us except Gryphon plunged below decks, towards the control chamber. If the outlines of the ship hadn't changed, we'd never have known that someone was in the control chamber.

In the control webbing was someone who was obviously a ninja, and probably a Black Hand member. He or she--it was difficult to tell, with the clothing and the mask--disentangled themself from the control webbing, and braced to attack. Ignoring the ninja, Haku ran past , grabbing his reality-door wakizashi, and proceeded to teleport the entire ship five hundred yards to the left--far enough so we wouldn't sail into the sparkling cloud.

Reiko tried to do the spell she'd done so successfully on the worm, only it rebounded on her, leaving her stunned and mostly incapable of movement. The rest joined battle with the ninja. After taking some grievous wounds from Panda, the ninja slid under her guard, grabbed Reiko by the throat, and hissed, "How quickly do you want her to die? I suggest you stand down." The voice was definitely female.

I could see Panda hesitate, doing the calculus of honor in her head. Somewhere, I believe, she came to the conclusion that the promises of assassins can never be trusted, and came in for another attack.

True to her word, the ninja cut Reiko's throat and dropped her to the boards. Within moments, her body shrank inside her kimono, signaling that she was dead.

The fight, after that, was brief and bloody, ending with Haku taking off the ninja's head. Beside me, Funitsu said, "That's another piece of Arenro's spirit." He uncovered the ninja's dead face. It was nobody I recognized, but the librarian said, "Well, that was Takako. The former second in command in the Hand."

One more down, it seems. Perhaps they have started taking us more seriously.

Funitsu asked me to cast Speak With Dead, so I did, and while he was debating what to ask her, I dug the little black fox body out of Reiko's kimono. I'm reasonably sure the scarlet fabric is ruined. She goes through much clothing, does the kitsune. Perhaps I should look into making a fireproof kimono for her in my spare time. I gave her one of the resurrection tablets I keep on me, and she blurred and changed into her human form, beginning to breathe once more, her damaged throat healing over without a scar.

She opened her eyes, and I said, "You know, every time you wake to see me, you've just died."

She winced and rubbed her throat, and said, "I remember." Pulling on her kimono, both of us turned to pay attention to Funitsu's questioning of Takako's head.

She said she'd come aboard at Aomori, and had secreted herself in a secret compartment aboard Shrike. She had the help of three other Hand members in this; nobody important, Funitsu said, but they'd be found and punished anyway.

We weighted the body down and threw it over the side, and I waved goodbye as it sank into the depths. She had only a few interesting items on her, but the mention of a secret compartment aboard this ship is worrisome to me. I suppose we'll ask Shrike.

Sailing to Akita, still. With any luck, Nibori will still be alive. I believe Panda worries for him; her touchy stomach lately, I think, is perhaps not all due to her pregnancy. Honestly, if having Nibori around will ease her moodiness, I for one am all for it.

There seems to be some sort of fuss up on deck. I suppose I should go see what it is. Perhaps the puppy has chewed something it's not supposed to again.

Much affection, Tomika

[a note, written in Tomika's hand, but undated]

I went to my husband's cabin tonight on some pretext; perhaps I was going to ask him to come see the full moon with me. I slipped into the small room silent as a mouse. I was about to waken him with a hand on his shoulder when I heard him speak, and froze.

He was muttering in his sleep. The only thing I could make out were the words, "Tsutsako. Why? And why?" The tone he said them in was heartbroken and sorrowful.

I stood, hand pressed against my mouth, until he quieted once again. Once he had fallen deeply asleep once more, I slipped from the room.

I know now who my rival is, Yukiko. She is his half-sister, and until he knows why she has betrayed him, I do not think he will even notice my attempts to capture his attention.

My heart is heavy this night with all I have not understood about my husband, and all I have yet to understand.

--Tomika.

Quotes:

"I'm going to bite you, Sparrow." --Reiko

"Hellloooo, creature!" --Gryphon

"It's going to either get a flaming enema or a facelift, depending on which way it's facing." "I fell into a burning ring of fire..." --Ray and Laura

"Can I have a D...something?" "...yes? I think you're going to have to be more specific." --Graham and Kris

"We made a hole in the worm, and the worm made a wormhole." --Graham

"I'm sorry, Lord, for anything I've done in the past, and to your ancestors in the future." --Storm, as Tadao

"…who are you trying to marry off, Reiko?" "Never mind." --Haku and Reiko

"A kappa is a master of martial arts...so they're ninja turtles." --Bryan

"We travel with a former assassin, a current assassin, and the leader of the assassins. You bet I carry Neutralize Poison. I'm not an idiot." --Reiko, explaining why she happened to be carrying the perfect spell for the situation

"You know, every time you wake up and see me, you've just died." --Storm, as Tomika.

"You never really know a thing until you've put it in your mouth." --Kris

#so queued #gaming recaps: illume #D&D recap

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jewishangus · 6 years

Text

you are my sunshine (a.k.a the fix you’ve all been waiting for)

hello and welcome to your daily afternoon news, its eden “jewishangus” adventurezone from fantasy wikileaks, and boy do i have news for you!

remember @inkedinserendipity ? remember that hell fic she wrote a couple days ago? you know, the one without a fix? well, seren’s a dirty stinkin’ liar, and she wrote a fix. unfortunately, our girl seren couldn’t do one thing right and didn’t fucking finish it, so, as the sole recipient of this fix, i took it upon myself to write the 2.5k words i apparently needed to get the goddamn thing done. i have no idea whether it fit her original vision or not? but as far as im concerned, this is canon. how do i know?

that’s how i know. i’ve done it, kids. i’ve got your fix. itll be under the cut, along with some extra screenshots for photographic evidence.

let’s hope i do this massive hit some justice, shall we?

so. here’s the news story:

seren told me about this hit a few days before she posted it. how? idk. im from fantasy wikileaks, i have my ways. (just kidding, all i did was sacrifice my nap to the sleep demons. they rewarded me with this wonderful hit we all love so much. never making a deal with those assholes ever again.)

but anyways, while she did that, i was very generously promised a fix - a fix she later gave to me once she published the hit - and here it is (if you can’t read the screenshot, the text will come later on):

as much as the later piece she sent was wonderful, i ended up going with the former, as you’ll later see.

immediately after, she said this:

(haha, seren, serves you right), and then i promptly went to sleep for the night. the next day, we debated fixes for a bit:

and i officially got the go-ahead, as well as some important information. the conversation, of course, escalated from there, no thanks to tess and her angst, but thats all irrelevant.

you want this fix, don’t you? well, take it.

When Lup and Barry come back from the ten-year celebrations, there’s something different about Kravitz. Nothing they can pin down, just — he smiles less. Frowns less. Emotes less, in general. Barry remarks to Lup that it’s the most dead they’ve ever seen him.

They don’t put the pieces together until Lup realizes it’s been two months since Kravitz has asked after Taako. Before, he would ask every other week.

She hated it, those ten years. Every time he asked she would be forced to look him in the eye, knowing there was a part of him dedicated to her brother, a love he carried that he would never return, and tell him he meant nothing.

She asks, “Are you okay?”

Kravitz says, in this new way of his, flat and toneless, “Fine.”

“It’s just — you haven’t asked about Taako in a while.”

Kravitz cocks his head at her and asks, “Taako?”

“My brother,” she says, “your — ”

Beside her, Barry hisses a gasp between clenched teeth. Lup doesn’t realize she’s balled her hands into fists until her nails break skin.

“Well,” she bites, “your nothing, now.”

Lup awakes to a quiet chirp.

At first she thinks it’s a raven. It’s hardly uncommon for their Queen to send them missives, whether tied to the raven’s foot or pried from their beaks. But when she peers groggily toward the window she sees nothing.

Another chirp, by her chest. She looks forward and yelps to find a silvery mongoose, head cocked, nosing at her collarbone.

“What the fuck,” she whispers.

It perks up at the sound of her voice, butts at her chin. It’s not solid, and its brush against her skin doesn’t feel like fur but rather a whisper of rain, a deep chill. She shivers and sits up, cradling the mongoose in her two hands.

It looks up at her and chirps insistently.

“What are you?”

The mongoose bounds around her hands, spinning in circles as if chasing its own tail, before leaping from her cupped hands and onto Barry’s chest.

“No — ” she blurts, but it just butts up against Barry’s nose, pressing tiny paws against his lips.

“Lup?”

“It’s not me,” she says, handing him his glasses. There’s something...familiar about this, whatever it is. Something lost. Something just now found.

“What is that?”

“Don’t know.”

“It looks like....”

Barry looks at her. “It looks like a soul, Lup.”

“But not a complete one. It’s too tiny.” She picks it up again, studying it carefully. “Way too small.”

There’s silence for a moment as they both think. “Can I see it?”

“Sure.” Lup passes it off to him, and he cradles it carefully, smoothing back its fur.

“Lup,” Barry says, “this is Kravitz’s.”

It chirps excitedly at the name, paws skittering along Barry’s arm as it races to curl on his shoulder. A near-constant stream of chirring issues from the mongoose as it looks at Lup intently, brushing its tail against Barry’s jaw, intelligence bright in its keen eyes. Then it bounds off of Barry’s shoulder and in one fluid motion, scrambles out the door.

Lup’s already shrugging on her robe. Barry stumbles into proper footwear, dons his own, adjusts his glasses on his nose. They take each other’s hands as they leave.

They follow the mongoose out of the house, a little ways down the lane, before it disappears.

“Okay,” Barry says. “That — probably isn’t supposed to happen.”

It reappears just as quickly as it had vanished and chirps impatiently at them before disappearing again.

“I think it’s going to the Astral Plane,” Lup says, and manifests her scythe. She tears between the planes and steps through and, sure enough, on the other side waits the mongoose.

author’s note: that was seren’s bit, and here’s mine:

It keeps looking back at them as they follow it, scurrying across the Astral Plane’s beaches only to occasionally stop and turn its tiny head around and nod at them before continuing — it’s the first time, after all these years, that Barry doesn’t stop to take in the view of the sea in front of him — but, despite its worries, they follow it safely to a small door behind the stockade, where it stops one last time before chirping to them impatiently.

When Barry sees the door, his face goes beet-red. “How the fuck did you know this was here?” The mongoose chirps again, getting a laugh from Lup, and Barry stammers in an attempt to explain. “Like. This is Kravitz, right? It’s a part of Kravitz’s soul.”

“Yeah? What about it?” Lup prompts him to keep going mid-giggle.

“Lup, how does he know?”

“What, that you have a secret lab in the back of the stockade? Let’s face it, that’s a pretty open secret at this point.” She slips her hand in his pocket and pulls out the key, unlocking the door and watching the mongoose scurry in as Barry stands there in slightly over-exaggerated shock.

“But—I didn’t even tell—“

“Come on, Bear,” She drops a kiss on his cheek, causing him to blush further, before taking his hand as she steps forward, jolting him out of his (definitely fake) shock as she pulls him. “Krav won’t wait forever, won’t he?”

They follow the mongoose through the (very long, Lup complains every time) hallways that lead to Barry’s lab, passing by the old storage rooms full of broken necromantic artifacts and through the illusory wall that disguises the entrance to the lab itself; Lup laughs as the mongoose sniffs the magic around them and recoils at the stench, and Barry sighs as he taps his wand against the key, changing its form slightly, and holds the door open as the two enter. Barry can’t help but notice how the mongoose runs to his desk, pawing at the drawers as if trying to climb the thing, before glancing upward, noticing Lup staring at the very new, very unfamiliar thing that sits where he had cleaned a couple weeks before.

“Barry— is that— those are—“

“Lup, I swear I wasn’t the one who brought these—“

“Barold J. Bluejeans, I swear on the Raven Queen, if you had these in the lab this whole time and waited for the fuckin’ soul mongoose to let me know, I would have kicked your ass into the Soul Sea.” She breaks into almost a relieved, hysterical kind of laughter; one that in all these years, he can count the amount of times he had heard on one hand. “Taako’s soul shard is in there!!!”

“I know it is.” He smiles at her, and she smiles at him, still breathing through her laughter.

“We can find Taako’s soul piece, and put it back together, and—“

“I know—“

“We’ll make it right, babe.”

“Yeah, we will.” He walks towards his desk, spinning the mangled ball of soul shards around and listening to its mix of songs, Lup joining him in her chair next to him as they work to decipher what they’re seeing.

“Are we going to have to—“

“Sort through them all?” Barry finishes her sentence, like he usually does. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Song by song?”

He nodded. “Memory by memory, too.” His smile turns grim, at that. “It’ll take a long time.”

“Babe?”

“Yeah?”

“We have all the time in the fucking world.” She pauses, and Barry laughs, processing what she said before she did. “Ok not all the time, I get that Taako’s still mortal, but can you let me sound cool for once?”

Barry laughs again, and kisses his wife on the cheek before turning back to the chunk of souls in front of him. “You were the one who brought it up!”

“That doesn’t mean you have to make me notice it!” She protests, taking the tip of her scythe in her hand and sticking it gently into the mix of souls, watching its energy wrap gently around the blade. “So… If we shut up and close our eyes, we’ll both hear the soul’s song and watch its memory, right?”

Barry nods. “Well, you will, because your scythe’s in the thing.”

“And because it’s the piece that belongs to their soulmate, I’ll see memories of their soulmates. Meaning we know we’ve found Taako’s when—”

“When you see Kravitz, yeah.” Barry finishes her sentence again, and she thinks about it a bit before responding.

“Then you’ve gotta mark where one soul ends and another starts.” He raises an eyebrow at her, and she laughs before continuing. “I can’t see, right? So you guide my hand, and I tell you when the memories change, and then we’ll cut each soul shard and set it free.”

“Then?”

“Then I’ll tattle to our boss about you having a secret necromantic laboratory in the Eternal Stockade — we’ll just go and match every one of them to their original, duh.” Lup laughs. “There are at least 750 souls in here, that’s like….”

“Fantasy 37500 First Dates.” They both say that at the same time, and can’t help but laugh.

Lup closes her eyes, letting the first memory enter her head, as Barry interrupts with a “...I still actually like that movie.”

She peeks an eye open, her smile betraying her fake serious-ness. “Shut the fuck up and take my hand, Barold.”

He laughs. “You didn’t even have to ask.”

It takes the two reapers a lot longer to sort through each soul than they would like. They take turns looking at memories — the realization that everyone they’re looking at was faced with either a dead soulmate, or a soulmate that doesn’t remember them is a lot for one person to bear — and spend a long while carving out souls, knowing that if they mess up once, it’d be even harder to repair. Their first soul shard — their soulmate is a bard who wrote them stories that made them cry, once upon a time — took them a few days, but they eventually become quicker with practice, and one of the storage rooms next door becomes filled with animal friends and their hoard of assorted objects. It’s there that the two go whenever they feel the memories the hardest, or when Taako wonders aloud about how they seemed to stop loving him two years ago, about how they don’t spend any time with him anymore, about how they’re always “working,” and don’t say where or why or tell any stories.

And by the time they find Taako’s soul shard — it had been three years, long enough that they had long since stopped counting the months and the days and the hours — the room is full, vibrant, brimming with energy, and Lup walks in there to cry, the mongoose crawling into her lap as it recognizes the feather it had missed for so long.

“Hey, Barry?”

“Yeah?”

“Their anniversary’s coming up.”

“Since when did they have an anniversary?”

“Since they had a fuckin’ date at the Chug and Squeeze, nerd.” She laughs through her tears. “I thought I told you!”

He laughs, wiping the stray tears off of her face. “Do you want to fix their souls then?”

Lup smiles. “It’d be kinda poetic, wouldn’t it?”

Barry shrugs. “It’s been like 13 years, but sure.”

It’s quiet for a moment, besides the now bright and chirpy songs of the souls around them, and then Lup sniffs and wipes her eyes. “You’re going to have to convince Krav to give you his soul, y’know.”

He smiles softly. “That’s the easy part.”

“Ok, Mr. Confident.” She smiles back. “Good luck with that.”

He smirks. “Who said I needed luck?”

She laughs. “I can’t tell if you’re serious or not.”

“Last time I checked, I was Barry, so….”

“Shut the fuck up.” She pecks him on the cheek, then looks down at the now-sleeping soul mongoose in her lap, cuddling around the feather it missed for more than a decade. “It’s about time.”

It’s weird, Lup thinks, to be stealing her brother’s soul while he’s sleeping. He’s normally such a light sleeper, too, even with Lup’s Silence spell, but its almost as if Fate herself is blessing her with her luck that night, and she appreciates it all the more so as she sits on the floor by his bed and starts casting. It floats in place as she works, round, smooth and brimming with energy and heat and yet somehow missing the full extent of its glow, somehow broken and chapped like lips in the wintertime, yet she has to mold it into shape, coax it into a different form, to get the feather to fit in the soul it’s always belonged in. So she shapes it into the raven that’s been sitting at Taako’s windowsill, stretches it and expands it, the fibers that hold it together spinning to match their new form, and then fits the feather in its slot, welding it in with her magic, and the world seems to go still around her as she does; all that’s important to her, now, is this bird and its broken wing.

It takes her a couple hours of work, only stopping a few times to renew her silence spell, and eventually she shapes the bird back into the round, ordinary soul shape she’s familiarized herself with and places it gently onto Taako’s chest, letting it sink back into his body.

His soul is complete, the job is done…. Now, Lup thinks, they wait.

It’s when Lup and Taako are making dinner the next day, chopping vegetables for the spicy fish they’ve been meaning to try, that Taako brings it up again.

“Hey, Lulu?”

“Yeah?”

“Remember Kravitz?”

Lup smiles, trying to hold back the swell of emotions that bubbles in her chest as he says his name. “Kravitz like my boss?”

Taako blinks, pausing for a moment before turning to the food in front of him. “Wait — oh fuck, yeah, he’s your boss.” Taako laughs, and maybe Lup’s over-analyzing, but the laugh sounds almost heavy to her. “Well fuck, I can’t date him now—“

She changes her smile into a smirk. “Babe, if you wanted to date him, I should have set you up 10 years ago.” She can’t help but almost laugh, at that. “You can never say Barry and I are bad ever again.”

“Shut up! I just wasn’t that into him until now, okay?” Taako reaches into the spice cabinet, pulling out a few things before taking both the now-chopped vegetables and the spices to the deep-pan on the stove. “But I just remembered I tried to date him once. In the b-oh-b days. Fuck was that like? 13 years ago, today?”

Lup raises an eyebrow. “What happened, then?”

Taako shrugs. “Well, I did save the world. Got some good fuckin’ sex out of it, let me tell you.” He pops open the spicy paprika and sprinkles it into the broth before continuing. “But I guess I just? Forgot about him. Didn’t really want a guy I would settle down with or some shit.” He pauses, for a moment. “He’s still hot, though, right?”

Lup laughs, almost in surprise. “Taako, he’s dead, of course he’s still hot.”

“Well hit me the fuck up then!” He laughs along with her, and she picks up her Stone of Farspeech and starts to dial Kravitz’s frequency before Taako stops her with a “Hold on a fuckin’ sec, sis, you can’t just dial him right now while I’m in the room, I’m not that desperate.”

“Ok, well in that case….” She drops a kiss on Taako’s cheek, getting a groan from her brother. “I’ll be right back.”

“Taako?” Lup yells his name from the other room in the loud tone he’s grown so used to.

“Yeah?” He yells it back, though not nearly as loudly, hearing her footsteps approaching before she peeks her head through the doorway

“How does tomorrow night sound?”

He thinks about it, for a moment. “I’ve got no plans,” He says, shrugging, “But if I do they can wait.”

Lup smiles, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Hell yeah, I’ll let him know!”

Kravitz wakes up in the morning to the thought of Taako — oh fuck, why does he remember Taako, shit, it’s been three years that shouldn’t have happened he worked so hard — and the sound of Barry — it’s very obviously Barry, from his soft steps and the way his soul sings and the occasional clang of silverware falling on the floor — in his kitchenette, which, in hindsight, should probably explain everything and yet somehow doesn’t.

It’s only when he gets up and walks into his living room, seeing Barry eat breakfast at his table, and says “What brings you here?” and Barry responds with “Hot damn, that sleeping spell did a number on you,” that Kravitz remembers the dubious way he fell asleep the night before.

“Wait, that was you?”

Barry raises an eyebrow. “Who else would it be?”

Kravitz thinks about it for a moment, shrugs, and then said “But why?”

Barry shrugs in return. “It looked like you needed it.” He sips his coffee, letting Kravitz join him at the table, and then says “So how has your morning been?”

Kravitz looks at him suspiciously — he knows Barry’s been lying — before deciding to play along. “I’ve been sleeping up until a few minutes ago, but it’s been alright,thank you.”

“Nothing special?” Barry presses him, and Kravitz sighs before dropping the act.

“Barry?”

“Yeah?”

“What did you do last night?”

“Nothing, I—“ He almost seems to blush, out of nervousness. “Fine, Lup and I just fixed both yours and Taako’s souls last night and we’re waiting to see if you remember each other, okay?”

Kravitz sighs. “Well, to ignore your blatant act of necromancy and answer your question, it worked.”

Barry scratches the back of his neck; it’s a nervous tick Kravitz is used to seeing, at this point. “Ok—but—I’m just glad you remember.”

Kravitz grimaces. “I didn’t want to.”

“I know.” Barry smiles, in that soft reassuring way he usually only sees when Lup’s around. “But this time, Taako remembers you, too.” He stands up, going to wash the mug he was using before calling back to Kravitz. “Hey Krav, do you want breakfast or something?”

Kravitz shakes his head. “I think I’ll pass, thanks.”

It’s only later, after Barry and Kravitz finish their first bounty of the day, that they get the call from Lup. She opens it up with a “Hey Krav, remember my brother?” and they can hear her satisfied smirk and the happy tears that she’s holding back behind it, hear the way her voice seems out of breath from excitement and the soft cushiony noise of her collapsing onto the couch, and Barry’s smile turns giddy and Kravitz starts to smile again, soft and relieved, as he says, “Did he finally decide he wants to date me?”

#eden writes #eden talks #the adventure zone #taz #inkedinserendipity #yOU ALL ARE FUCKIN WELCOME #not you seren BUT EVERYONE ELSE #i know this fic is old news and im late but i come bearing Reciepts #there are soft blups and hints of taakitz and im so so goddamn happy #now if you dont mind me #im going to get my only meal for today

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waterstar2016 · 6 years

Note

I dont know if I can ask for more than one but I wont ask anything beyond 2, With Mikey- He went to visit his baby girl at her apartment and seen a room he never seen before. A studio looking room with canvases, art supplies, computer with tablet monitor. And sees his girl sitting in her chair sketching and discovers that she draws comics and characters which she tries to hide but was caught in the act. She is very shy and lack confidence in her work but loves it anyways. Catches her off guard

Thank you for this request. I hope you like it! I have the other one you sent me in reserve.

This is SFW and very fluffy…

It was late. The sun had set hours ago. Her only companions were her art and her music. Multitudes of canvasses rested upon one wall, layers of colour waiting to be finished and others with their bright white surface eager for the first stroke of a brush. Palettes, paint, pencils, charcoal, masking fluid, kneadable erasers and markers rested in drawers, stood in old cans, or were strewn on the corner of an art table in organized chaos.

On the wall adjacent to the door was a tablet monitored computer. USB sticks and printed pages full of ideas rested on the space beside it. Some would never see another’s eyes, others would be sold to eager recipients, and there were those meant for her own personal amusement. To many the room looked cluttered, but to her it was perfect. This space was her sanctuary, and her escape from the hustle and bustle of the city.

The only window was a large skylight above her. It gave her a unobstructed view of the sky. She couldn’t see the stars, but she knew they were there. Once a month she had the pleasure watching the moon walk across the glass. This was her space.

She knew he was on patrol and she had hours of uninterrupted drawing time ahead of her. It’s not that she didn’t want to see him, she loved her orange clad terrapin with all of her heart. This was just a side of herself that she had hid from him. Choosing to work in the hours that there would be no chance that he would discover her secret. Mikey never asked what was behind the locked door in her apartment, it never even occurred to him to broach the subject.

There was no real reason why she hadn’t told him. Sighing to herself she knew there was. She was shy and afraid. She was an anonymous artist, her worked signed with a hastily scrawled signature, indiscernible even when examined up close. Her e-mail where she wrote her correspondence was under an alias. She liked her anonymity.

Shaking her head she sat down at her computer and started working on her next piece. It was for a comic company she had started working for (again anonymously), and her work for them was rapidly gaining the strip popularity. Despite that acknowledgment from society that her work was indeed in demand, she still saw many so many flaws and was too afraid to go public. Putting on her headphones the world around her slowly disappeared.

“Alright Mikey, you can go.” Leo stood looking at his youngest brother shaking his head. He was trying to look disapproving but couldn’t help the small smile that graced his face. Mikey bounded off with a hastily yelled “Thanks bro!”. Raph looked over at him. “Ya caved.” Leo rolled his eyes. “The night’s quiet Raph. Besides we have Casey as an extra tonight.” Casey came over at the sound of his name. “Hey Raph, wasn’t it last week that Leo let you go early to see that brunette you’ve been hanging out with lately?” Raph growled. “I’m not seeing….never mind, it’s none of your business Friday the 13th!” He growled and walked away. Leo and Casey laughed.

After weeks of pleading with Leo and reminding him that “Raph got to leave patrol early last week”…he was finally given permission to go. Mikey moved swiftly, bounding from building to building with his destination clear in his mind. He couldn’t wait to see her. She was his Angel Cakes. They hadn’t been seeing each other for very long and he was going to take this opportunity to surprise her.

Hopping over an old water tower he could finally see her apartment building in the distance. The white brick of the building stood out against its darker neighbours. Landing on the roof he started heading towards the fire escape. He tip toed around the various skylights, grateful for the cover of night. One had a light on. His mind quickly realized it was hers.

No, he wouldn’t look. It was her private space and he did not want to break her trust. He was so mesmerized by the light that he wasn’t watching where he was going and he tripped over a raised air conditioning unit. Windmilling his arms he tried to alter the trajectory of his fall, but it was too late. He landed right on top of the window and watched in horror as a few small rocks from the roof spilled in through the gap. Then he saw the art. He couldn’t believe that this is what she had been secreting away, his baby was even more awesome then he thought!

A loud noise pierced through her head phones and she jumped. She felt something fall on her head and her eyes widened when she realized that it was gravel. Where in the hell did that come from? She looked up and gasped. There, with his face squished against the skylight was Mikey. She heard a muffled “Hey Baby Cakes.” Despite the nervousness she was feeling a smile and a giggle escaped her lips. “Come on down, Mikey, I’ll open the balcony door for you.”

She dragged her feet as she headed to open the sliding door. The gig was up. Mikey now knew her secret…what would he say? Opening the door Mikey practically jumped into the room. Seeing her he gave her a wink “Sup pretty girl, your triple threat is here.” Mikey opened his arms and she went to him. She rested her head against his plastron. “You’re, um, here early.” Mikey took his finger and slid it under her chin. Tilting it up she met his baby blues. “Yeah, Sweet Cheeks! I got Leo to let me go early…I just couldn’t wait to see you.”

He bent towards her and kissed her gently. She relaxed into the kiss, momentarily forgetting her nerves over him seeing her studio. Mikey pulled away from her grinning. “Baby, why didn’t you tell me about your art? From what I saw you got some serious skills! I’m sorry for how I ended up seeing it, but I’m not sorry that I did! She turned her head away from him slightly and Mikey could feel the slight trembling of her body. “O, it’s O.K, I just, well…” She stopped, her tongue frozen.

Mikey pulled her into him tightly and ran his fingers up and down her back whispering sweet nothings in her ear. “Sweet Cheeks? You gonna be alright?” Mentally shaking herself she nodded. “Yeah, you just surprised me. That’s all.” Taking a deep breath she grabbed his hand. “Here, I’ll show you what I’ve been working on.”

Leading him to the room she slowly opened the door. Bracing herself, she waited for Mikey’s reaction. She laughed when she heard “Woah…..Duuuuude”. Mikey eagerly walked around the room, his eyes alight with glee. “You did all this?! This is awesome!” He made his way over to her computer and with his face fixated on the screen almost missed the chair when he went to sit on it.

His arm snaked out grabbing at the air for her and managed to snag onto her sweater. He pulled her to him. Grasping her around her waist he settled her onto his lap. “You draw this comic! I’m like one of your biggest fans! Raph gets mad at me when I steal this page out of the paper. He’s gonna be stoked when he finds out it’s you! Would you sign something for him? Please?”

Her heart filled with joy at Mikey’s reaction to her secret, and she found herself wondering why she had hid this from him for so long. “Sure, Mikey, I can do that.” Mikey gave her a loud kiss on her cheek. “Thanks, Babe!” Looking to the skylight she sighed and Mikey immediately whispered “What’s wrong?” Shaking her head she gave him a reassuring smile “I’m just sorry for hiding this from you.” Mikey wrapped his arms around her. “Aw, it’s okay Angel Cakes.”

She rested her head against his and sighed happily. Mikey suddenly jumped up and spun her around. Laughing she hung on. “Mikey! What are you doing?” He stopped spinning and set her down on the floor. “Babe! I just realized that there so many blank walls in the lair that you can help me tag!” He gripped her shoulders. “How does that sound? It would be the best date!” Her eyes looked up into his and she grinned from ear to ear.

“That sounds like a fantastic idea Mikey.” She had always wanted to try spray paint. Making a decision she turned and tapped the print icon on the monitor. The page she had been working on slid out of the printer. Grabbing a orange pen she clearly signed her name on the bottom right corner.

“I will sign another copy for Raph, but I want you to have the first one.” Mikey beamed and kissed her once more.

End.

#reader request #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt mikey #tmnt fan fic #soft #tmnt fluff

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insomniac-arrest · 7 years

Text

Dear Tuesdays

pairing: Blue Zircon x Yellow Zircon (Courtship?)

words: 7k

summary: Blue Zircon x Yellow Zircon law school human AU set in 1973. Slightly NSFW in some parts

Ao3

Warning: slightly NSFW but nothing explicit, briefly deals with homophobia, race, and sexism in the 1970s

Reference:

Blue Zircon- Zarah Khan

Yellow Zircon- Zadya Gold

Dear Journal,

The councilor said that journaling could help with stress. I said that I figure I’m about as stressed everyone else, she says most her patients don’t look like me this early in the semester. I think I should be offended.

On the other hand, I have begun tearing out my hair. I’ve increased grinding my teeth. I have a twitch in my left eye and that’s the one I can barely see out of anyway.

It’s only the second month.

Go to Harvard Law they said, graduate Summa Cum laude, get hired at your mom’s law firm. Easy? Of course it’s easy, it’s perfectly easy.

I wish my hair would stop falling out.

10/15/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I was once more sent down to the counselor for concerning noises coming from my dorm room. The noises would be far less concerning if people learned to mind their own businesses, surely they have to have classes on that somewhere on this godforsaken campus.

A useful class, something that isn’t torts.

I was sent here and she told me to try journaling again, so trying again I am- and investing in new neighbors hopefully soon. Or classes that aren’t on torts.

They won’t even teach us heresy until year two, so here I am, watching my eyes fall out of my skull over civil legal liability (let no man on earth, specifically Professor Woods, see I wrote this. I’m stressed out enough as it is).

And of course, she is also in that class.

I am going to buy thicker pillows. Or get my neighbors earphones.

10/18/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

If you are wondering, you non-sentient piece of barely passable paper (my proper notebook paper is taking down the ink, blood, and tears of my notes for Professor Woods lecture), the counselor said that I should write to something I hate. She gave several reasons of compassion, forgiveness, and sending a postcard to my vacationing emotional state or some other questionable transcendentalist bohemian sentiment.

I told her I would write to the day of Tuesday, ever since my brain has had a critical capacity I discerned Tuesday is objectively the worst day. Sure, people en masse hate Monday, but that’s because it’s a red herring for the abysmal time period that is Tuesdays.

You have some reserve of energy from the weekend for Monday’s, some feeling of being resigned to Wednesday and the hope of the weekend from Thursday, Friday. Tuesday is the energy sapping in between scourge of this mere existence.

And she would know that if she listened to my entire case instead of dismissing the first lines and making our classmates side with her ‘Monday’ arguments. I wasn’t done! She didn’t deserve that round, or the next.

I’m never participating in ‘Drinking Court’ ever again, that’s my ‘Smiley Goal’ or however the counselor put it.

No more, drinking, no more teeth grinding.

10/19/1973

Dear Tuesday,

I had to go to the dentist.

10/22/1973

Dear Not Tuesday,

I have another name I would like to put as the recipient to my stress letters, but she is currently the Unnamable Problem. Her name just leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time.

There are exactly eleven (used to be thirteen) women in my law school graduating class, much more than last year but not enough for me to ever feel comfortable in any room. She is, of course, one of the few other female students in any of my classes.

Which would be fine, good really. If she wasn’t the worst.

She’s good, I’ll grant her that- but almost too good. Smug grin, smug laugh, wants to only work for corporations who will pay her six figures like the men.

Admirable, attractive even, but that does not detract from her incessant ‘teasing,’ and insatiable need to win. She challenges and laughs and points and grins with that feline look that I would give a good right hook to if I was still in Kentucky. But we are no longer in Kentucky.

I should simply stop accepting her challenges.

Or stop going to class. There are many dilemmas.

10/25/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I cut my hair short. I’m already tearing it out from the stress as is and I am that much closer to looking like a professional, that’s what she must want right? Hopefully. Maybe.

Mother sent me a blue handkerchief with the firm insignia on it. Diamond Corp, where the best and brightest work for the best and brightest and the family will hang our name in the ledgers of its services.

I’m going to have to grow my hair out if mom is going to visit in December, Lord, maybe stop biting my nails too (The Unnamable said the hair was attractive but I have serious doubts she’s ever meant anything she’s ever said. I also don’t like that look she gave me afterwards- mocking).

10/26/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I accepted another Drinking Court, future lawyers shouldn’t drink this much, but the man next to me said ladies shouldn’t drink like this either. I downed that entire whiskey in one go.

Note to self: do not down entire whiskeys.

Our topic today was on which was the least savory condiment. I defender Worchester sauce and she prosecuted.

Honestly, what is there to defend on Worchester sauce.

She was faster, made more eye contact and started louder. But my points were better! More thought out.

Damn her, damn her, one day I’m going to beat her at these fake games- or the real games.

That is of course, after I down more aspirin and I drink the largest cup of coffee I can find (perhaps a bowl?)

I have a theory she’s trying to ruin me.

Even if she complimented my hair again by the third round of drinks.

10/27/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

There are negative ‘Smiley Points’ today. In fact, frowny points are had all around.

I have to wear a night guard now for the teeth grinding and that rash is back. And she made me an offer- what choice did I have?

I was sitting in Professor Woods class, my 9am with the least amount of frills and most amount of reading- which is saying a lot.

I was re-skimming the section on Civil Liability for prisons, nursing a second headache in a week (not from a hangover this time thank you). When she came in.

She always sits in the front. I sit behind that, not too close but close enough to show the professor I am not cowed and trying to hide. That will be important one day.

She didn’t sit in front of me. She sits by me.

The unnamable, Zayda Gold (I might as well say it) approached. She slid over like she invented sitting, invented sliding, and invented grinning at me like I was the first person on her ‘swallow whole list,’ right after ‘the entire world.’ Ugh.

“Zarah Khan.” I don’t like the way she says my name. I mean, granted, most everyone in this school just turns it into ‘Sarah’ and forgets the Z. They say it’s easier, there’s a lot of things they would like to make easier about me.

I try to turn slowly, lawyers are never eager. They are collected, patient.

I nod at her, she leans forward, “You are the smartest person in this entire class,” my thoughts freeze in place for a moment, an ice cold punch, “And they aren’t even teaching us hearsay yet.” “I know.” I say mechanically.

“That is not going to help me be the best prosecutor in the the next 50 states and the District of Columbia.”

“Um.”

“I plan to make six figures.” “I know,” I wrinkled my nose.

“I need someone to practice against that isn’t a complete fool and where we aren’t at a bar.” One of the boys behind us scoffs, covering it up with a cough.

I frowned, “It’s the middle of the semester,” she raised an eyebrow, I took a deep breath. “I’m a little busy.” “I can make it worth your time.” “Oh?” I hate to admit it, she had my attention.

“You’re struggling in this class.” I scowl, “I’m doing just fine.” I sniff and scratch my arm, “you just said I’m the smartest one in this class.” She rolled her eyes, I could kick her, “You don’t know how to relax. They’ll eat you alive as a defender if you don’t practice now.” I look down at my lap, “I’m working for my mom after this. I’m not going to be a defender.” I wish I hadn’t mumbled.

“Oh please,” she says airily, waving her hand in the air. “I’ll help you with torts if you hurry up and help me practice for being an attorney.” I scowl at her further.

“Don’t try to force your hyper-aggressive BS on her Gold,” we both turn around as the boy behind us spoke, Aaron something. “If you think you’ll actually be hired for court cases...Well, just don’t make her into another little hopeless cocky would-be-attorney.” Zayda looked like a viper coiling to strike and for once in my life I was less nervous and instead waiting for the entire force of thunder to brought down on this boys head. I’m a little giddy too.

She simply turns away. She doesn’t spare him another look and I’ve never wanted to have something like that before, whatever it was she did. I watched him as he shook his head, “Especially for Khan.” He said my name in a much worse way than Zayda ever could. There were some things in this world they would never to let me forget.

I set my mouth into a hard line and turn back to Zayda, “I’d love to help you prepare for trials.” She makes the look of someone who planned to win and the professor walks in before O’Connor makes comments on things he feels obligated to comment on.

Journal, I’m not sure if any of this is a good idea- I don’t plan to be ruined by such girls that plan to ruin me. But something like this, it is a little tempting.

10/30/1973

Dear Tuesdays, I HATE HER.

11/1/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I. hate. her.

11/1/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

People are the worst. And by that I mean mostly Zayda Gold, I’m moving to the middle of the desert. Maybe my counselor will say I’ll reach Nirvana through the great outdoors and baking myself alive (she is always talking about Nirvana and ‘the magical east,’ double ugh).

Nevertheless, Zayda. Girls like Zayda are the worst kind of...mocking? Mocking.

I helped her with her dumb ‘fake’ cases where she goes through archives of trials and has us re-argue them. Until two in the morning.

Truly, I am a charitable person.

I told her, I told her, we had a test in one of my intro classes the day after and I should study for that (I always try to study four or five days in advance). But I had been busy- with a treason case for some Russian spy in the 60s. Like I’ll ever will defend a case like that.

She had us run through it anyway, openings, pretend-cross examinations, closings. It was exhausting, why is she like this.

Perhaps that would be all, nothing wrong, nothing amiss. Just practice.

And perhaps it was my own fault.

I insisted she fulfill her end of the bargain: help me with torts and whatever magic flashcards she had that let her ace more tests than not.

She just shook her head with a little humph. I told her to help or we would never practice the next case and whatever it was we were preparing for.

She took out a bottle of rum ‘two shots’ she said ‘and then we’ll play a game.’

I was not happy, she said being stress while memorizing anything was the only way to do it- nerves were going to ruin me if I didn’t practice getting a handle on them. Like I didn’t already know that.

I take the shots, she took out her damn flashcards, she said stress now made oral exam stress later manageable, ‘practicing like you play’- Zayda Gold.

I roll my eyes and accept whatever it is.

She tells me if I get a flashcard wrong I’ll have to take off some article of clothing. I balk, maybe my face was a little hotter than it should be, I tell her that’s juvenile.

She just does That Smirk and asks me what my problem was- “we’re both girls here.”

I don’t know how to answer that, maybe I was a little rocked because my mind goes blank. She was a good lawyer.

“Fine,” I gritted my teeth, it’s not like I’m bad at flashcards.

We start, her flashcards for one are very detailed, and for two, I’m a little tired. I get the first fifteen right, rapid fire. But I stumble on a question about false imprisonment- of course I did.

I take off a sock.

But I had lost my momentum, incorporeal chattels- I don’t answer with enough detail. Another sock. Law of Obligations- my brain is very tired. I take off my jacket.

I’m sweating now, I get the next ten right out of desperation.

Then of course, neighbor principle, a tort of negligence. My face goes pale, I can feel my mind racing, reaching. This wasn’t that hard.

“Um,” I pressed my finger tips together and then jam my glass farther up on my face, “omission… omission rules of evidence.” She raises an eyebrow, “and?”

My mouth opens and closes like a fish, I flounder. “That’s it?” She shakes her head and reads the full definition, I sink down lower into my chair. She turns back to me, “Go on.” I almost refuse, I had pride, standards, a reputation. A lawyer is nothing without a reputation. But she is nothing without a backbone either.

Zayda was looking at me expectantly, smoothly. I grit my teeth, everything about her was a challenge.

I start to unbutton my shirt, I could have gone for my pants but someone was going to learn if nothing else I had backbone.

I unbutton it slowly, one by one, forcing my heart to slow down and forcing my eyes to meet hers. She wasn’t the only one here that was a force onto herself.

My shirt falls away and I sit calmly in my brazier, I hadn’t put on an undershirt in weeks- there wasn’t enough time between classes, food, and not sleeping.

She looks coolly down at me and I wonder if it’s judgement or disinterest. Though I wouldn’t call it disinterest.

I spent a good deal of time always looking for jackets with large shoulder pads so people couldn’t tell I was just a slim gangly girl who was too tall for her age. Nevertheless, I had a feeling Zayda wasn’t accessing me like that.

She holds up another flashcard.

Something else hung in the air like an electric buzz that would sizzle eggs on the sidewalk.

I answer the next one wrong too, a simple mistake this time. But she doesn’t let it pass.

I don’t hesitate when I take off my pants, I’m not going to show any weakness here. Besides, it was just beige long underwear underneath anyway, for the cold night. And I wasn’t going to get any more of the questions wrong I promised myself, she watches me closely now as she flips the cards.

The next half-hour is a blur, I get the next handful right, there was nothing else to do but get them right. My nerves were a dull drone in the back of my mind and I ignore them.

She had something liquid and venomous in her green eyes, shining.

Journal, I can’t believe myself, I honestly can’t believe myself.

I draw a blank on the very last card, honestly I couldn’t tell you what the the subject was on since the panic set in.

“Go on,” she flapped it in the air, “It’s the last one.” My eyes go wide, a dryness in my mouth. I give a rapid-fire series of answers, her eyes narrow.

“None of those are right.” I clench my jaw, I knew that. “Forfeit.” I put my hands in the air, “I’ll study that one later.” Too bad I forget what it was.

Zayda had been leaning on my raised bed, accessing me. She gradually stalks across the room as if she is the slowest tidal wave in the world.

She was looking down at me, she was looking down at my long underwear and brazier, my heart does something unhealthy in my chest.

She leans over me, “What are we without rules?” The words honestly haunt me.

I shake my head, “I already gave in.” “We are a society of rules.” She was toying with me.

I wrinkled my nose. I wouldn’t be toyed with.

I snort, “Whatever.” I reach behind me and undo the clasp on the back, I meet her eye as one of the last pieces of my clothing falls away. I am laid bare.

I blow air out my nose, this was normal, it was just rivals, female rivals.

The air sizzled, she was just teasing me.

She looks down and I look up, I slowly raise myself to my feet, she is still looking down and we are in something that I can never tell my mom. Something I really shouldn’t be telling you.

Her hands dance at her side, I am standing now, we are around the same height. Almost six feet and perhaps finally not too tall for girls.

I watch her, I am the steady one for once.

“What is it Gold?” I finally ask in a low tone.

She takes a sharp inhale of breath, I half-lid my eyes as if in amusement (I do foolish things sometimes journal).

She glances down at my exposed skin and her hands reach forward.

Her hands ghost over my back, lightly touching the curve of my waist. She looks up slowly and her acid green eyes are helpless.

I don’t do anything, I won’t give her the pleasure of anything.

She is a shaking twig at the moment and I can feel her breath on my cheek, it is a little fast. We aren’t anything.

She arches forward as if by accident and our lips meet like phantoms. It’s not like a real kiss, real kisses are not accidents and this touch is as light and unreal as a dream. But our lips still meet.

She stumbles backward immediately and pants. She quickly straightens her shirt.

“You got six wrong.” She croaks and stumbles further backward, “and you’re still sweating when talking. Juries smell ineptitude in a courtroom.”

I blink a couple times, I start to hate her a little bit again, “six out of a hundred and twenty.” She shakes her head and turns away. She jams her flashcards in her bag and hefts over her shoulder.

I clear my throat and she turns around, her eyes cover me like glue again, “get them all right next time.” She covers her mouth, I seethe, “And be a little more decent.” She sniffs, her cheeks are flushed, “it’s lewd.”

“What?”

“Naked? Sweating? Honestly.”

My nostrils flare and I see red, “You’re the one that...this is.” I ball up my fists and stand up straight, she is still flushed. I didn’t care I was almost naked, “I have another rule for you.” I say with steel in my tone, she pauses at the door, “I’m never going to lose to you again.”

She blinks, something unreadable on her face. She leaves.

I shouldn’t feel this way. Hatred, real hatred, I’ll write it in my head until maybe I believe it.

11/3/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I passed the torts exam and my Intro to Procedure oral midterm. My name is boosted into the top three student rankings posted in the hall (a ‘motivational board’). So that’s at least three ‘Smiley Points’ I can tell my counselor about...woo.

I’m not sure if I’ve felt any sort of emotion in a week, but I’m sure I can just focus on the number one spot and be out of here. In a year and half. Out of here.

Please let it pass quickly, I’m having the worst dreams ever, and they aren’t even nightmares.

I’m going to focus on my classwork.

11/10/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

It’s parents weekend, I don’t know why they have it so late in the year but I really haven’t grown my hair out long enough for this.

Maybe if I hadn’t been so engrossed in essays, notes, and pouring my blood out for Professor Woods I would have prepared a little more mentally. My parents are sweet, but… a lot.

My mom knocked on my door five times at 8pm that day, and then she knocked some more until I answered.

She hugged me so hard I could burst and slicked my bangs back to get a better look at my face.

“It’s so short.” She says with a discerning look in her eye, “And you are so thin! Have you been eating enough? Or just coffee!” She wags her finger, “my bumblebee, have you been taking care of yourself?” I shrug loosely and she pulls me out the door, “I’m feeding you right now! Breakfast. Your father is still out getting you flowers, oh don’t let him know I told you. But I made sure he didn’t get the ones you are allergic to this time.”

I was smiling despite myself, rolling with her singing voice that held the air like a microphone. My mom could always talk.

I nod along and she tells me about the firm and annoying clients that bothered her boss and nonstop paperwork. ‘There were always things to do! Work to be done.’ That’s my mom’s favorite phrase, ‘There is work to be done!’ That’s what I used to chirp when I wore her heels in pre-school and pretended to debate the world, to be her.

I’m relaxing into my mom's presence, and her hugs and nice hazelnut coffee smell, but she pauses when we make our way down the stairwell.

Paul Michaelson passes us with a slight nod, he was a quiet boy who was seventh on the ranking list and had fair hair that slid over his eyes.

My mom nodded back and gave me a mischievous grin as we make it to the bottom, “He’s cute.” She says with a little hop in her step, “Is he in any of your classes?” I groan and look away, “I’m busy mom, I told you, I’m focusing.” My mom shakes her head, “This is the perfect time for romance bumblebee!” She tutts, “Me and your father met in school.” She always reminded me of that.

My mom had been able to slip into law school during the war when all the men were gone, my father did basic training but got a bum knee during the grueling exercises. He was really more of scholar. He ended up in her tiny law school class, and then her mom told the detailed Epic Romance of their lives as they courted.

I don’t think I’m going to have one of those, I’m not sure I’m built for it.

She rushed me down the stairs and into the nearest restaurant, afraid for my health and how much time I spent in the library. She told me I loved sunshine as I kid, the color yellow, and wouldn’t have me grow sickly.

She continues to point out ‘cute’ boys on the way.

“Is he in your class?” She asks as we pass the quad, “He’s very handsome, consider the grandkids!” I groan again.

“No, he looks like a 2A.” I assure her. “How about him?” “No.” “Tell me that one is, he has such a nice face!”

I pause and stare at Aaron O’Connor, I wince, “He’s in my torts class.” “Lovely!”

“I....I guess.” I don’t have the heart to tell her O’Connor was probably the one scrawling ‘Beware: Genghis Khan in here’ on my door- even after I explained to him my family was from Turkey and no where near Mongolia. I stopped trying after the third attempt.

My mom wants to go talk to him but luckily my father comes with the bouquet of flowers ‘for my first semester!’ and I can escape to a breakfast bistro. They are daisy’s.

It’s not a bad meal, it’s actually really good, I get a little misty eyed when my parents let me get the pancakes, the eggs and the fruit. A college budget it not always friendly.

Plus, I don’t know journal, they keep smiling and telling me how good I am doing, that they’re proud. The feeling of home is a little hard.

They want me to be happy, very happy. My father tells me my sister says I can wear her wedding dress after this year, she’s done with it. He winks and tells me she thinks it’s going to be a good year for me.

I sink a little lower in my seat, a year or so to meet a nice boy in a suit that can provide for me, before a wedding they are happy to plan. And they want me to be happy.

So I get a little misty-eyed.

“Mom, dad,” I take a deep breath and both of them pause, I edge my eggs around my plate, they look at me, I swallow.

“What is it honey?” My dad moves my orange juice closer to me.

I look at my lap, press something down, and then look back up, “Do you think I could make it as a defense attorney?” My mom and dad share a look, a calculating one.

My mom finally reaches over and squeezes my hand, “If that’s what you want bumblebee, of course. But...The Diamond firm is very good you know. The pay can make a family veeeery comfortable and the paperwork isn’t all bad.” My father is glancing at me, he rubs his mustache, he tried to smile, “Attorney’s can be very stressed. And it can be...unforgiving.” I shake my head, I know I’m worrying them. I know it would be the hardest thing I’ve ever done to make it as an attorney.

I lift my chin and smile, projecting a kind of confidence I always wanted, “I was just thinking outloud. It could just be...an option.”

“You can be whatever you want!” They are grinning, I am still their law school daughter and still going to marry that nice man and be comfortable.

“Now,” my father rubs his hands together, “Are there any boys I need to have a talking to?” He winks and holds up his hands, I look down again.

“No dad.”

My mom looks between the two of us, “Tell us about school.”

It’s not a bad visit. I tell them about the workload and pretty campus and the offer to join the debate team (I don’t), a few rivals I’ve made. And try to make up a boy for them, competitive, confident, yellow floppy hair and a stubborn nose.

I’ll let them be happy.

11/13/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I have a cold. I’m not pleased with said cold and have spent the last three days sniffling, I haven’t been able to answer so much as one question in class and I think my ranking might slip.

Zayda is still insisting we practice as if nothing has ever happened between us and I wish nothing had ever happened between us. Should I avoid seeing her? Is that defeat?

Who knows. I don’t. I haven’t been able to smell anything for 72 hours.

People with clear sinuses should give thanks to some sinus god, this is awful.

I’m going to go take a hot shower.

11/16/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I’m feeling a little better. I drank enough tea to potentially sustain a British army and lay in the sun for a couple hours yesterday- maybe my mom was right about the outdoors thing.

I even got a brief drink with two other female law students, I sip of some tonic and let them play ‘Drinking Court’ without me this time.

Zayda was looking at me the whole time but one of the boys said she was a bit of a germ-phobe, she doesn’t approach. Good.

I sniffle and watch her beat the 1A at lightning round cross-examination of whether mosquitoes should be eliminated or not.

There was a protest against what’s going on in Vietnam outside campus yesterday.

I really need to double down on my studies.

11/19/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I feel almost better, I woke up with barely an ache in my throat! Just in time to ace my oral exam in intro to Criminal Law. Things are looking up.

11/21/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

Things are weird. Life is weird. I think I’m feeling sick again. Why is life like this? Why did I even invite her into my room?

Protect me from the dumb things I do oh beings that protect law students. Or at least give me a guide to pretty girls that say cryptic truly bizarre things in the middle of the day.

I am going to bed.

11/22/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

??? I am still confused. Very confused. Zadya came by my room yesterday, she made it out like it was the most normal thing in the world.

She wanted to do that Russian spy trial again and record ourselves on tape, which sounds embarrassing.

I told her I was sick. She flinched and looked at me carefully. I shrug and tell her we could do it later, anything outside of schoolwork could really wait right now.

She came up beside my bed anyway.

“You are too stressed. What have I been telling you?”

I roll my eyes, “I’m not more stressed than anyone else.”

She narrowed her eyes, “Yeah. But the rest of us have coping skills for it and are not sick right now.” I set my jaw, “I don’t know what you want from me.”

She lifted her chin and said the next part very matter-a-factly, dryly, slowly, “Do you masturbate?”

Every muscle in my body tenses and I squawk, “What?!”

“You heard me.” I sit up completely straight and don’t meet her eye, my gut churns, “That is a ridiculous question.” And I certainly didn’t want her to be the one asking it.

“See? Bad coping mechanisms. You’ll die if you keep that up.” I snort and push my bangs back, “Not masturbate?” She grins, “No.” She prowls, “but I guess that confirms it.” I don’t answer and frown deeply, she draws nearer, “I’ve never seen you release a day in your life.” I make a face, “Release?”

“It’s good for you.” I make a face and she holds herself very still.

I look away and she just hopped down to the floor. I sniffle and she turns away, looking over her shoulder enigmatically.

“Call if you ever need some help with that stress. I probably don’t need anymore court practice right now anyway.” She had something coy on her lip this time. I am slack jawed and frozen.

I am still slack jawed and frozen. Help with stress? After...Do you think….

She has to be messing with me, right? RIGHT?

11/24/1973

Finals are coming like an avalanche I have no equipment to evade or stop. I’ve buried myself in books and there is no escape.

I’ve chewed a hole in my nightguard and haven’t returned half my phone calls, Professor Woods gave me an 83% on a test. An 83. I don’t know what his game is.

And if I’m being honest, I’ve become more aware of Zadya than I have of anyone else in my life. She hasn’t talked to me since.

11/27/1973

Dear Tuesdays or whatever,

I have two weeks until finals, I need to get it together. I better not lose anymore clumps of hair, I’m too young to have a bald spot.

12/1/1973

Dear FINALS,

I’ve been drinking three-day-old coffee for hours now and don’t why I don’t become an elementary school teacher or sheep herder. There are no sheep at an Ivy League law school. I’m not sure if the professors are going harder on me than everyone else, or if I’m doing that for them.

I want to sleep. I saw Zadya smoking last night, Cara, one of the other eleven female law students said she only did that near big tests. Maybe even the queen gets stressed.

12/5/1973

Dear Lord,

I think I need to go to the doctors for a developing ulcer.

11/??/1973

Dear FUCK,

Four more days, four more days and it’s 2 in the morning with another stack of torts literature to go through. They call these classes weed out classes but fuck if I’m not going to be that weed (weeds grow in places they aren’t supposed to like insidious fools).

I am considering doing something I may regret. I’m seriously considering something I might regret. It’s 2am, I know someone else that may be awake.

I’ll leave you here to watch my books.

11/11/1973

Dear….

Well. Well? Well! Well.

I have, ahem, done something.

11/12/1973

I have very bad decision making skills.

11/12/1973

It snowed! It’s very pretty.

Nothing quite like this in Kentucky, though one of my professors is already suggesting I do something about that accent.

11/12/1973

The snow was nice for a moment. I have made another questionable choice.

11/12/1973

Dear Goddammit,

I did it AGAIN. Someone needs to get me a leash, but Zadya would probably just like the look of it.

I need to erase that last sentence. And myself.

11/13/1973

Dear WHY DO I KEEP DOING THIS,

I keep doing this.

At least she fed me breakfast again this time.

Or is that bad too? Ugh.

11/14/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

Finals begin tomorrow, I should be more nervous.

But I am genuinely thinking about other things. My stomach is in knots all the time, I think I’m getting a fever, she sits by me in torts. She puts her hand on my thigh in torts.

Not that we haven’t done more things than that.

Someone save me. I didn’t imagine this is how she would ruin me.

11/16/1973

Dear Exhaustion,

I did my first two finals today. I am too tired to say much, they went well, I hope.

11/17/1973

Dear Sleep,

One more day. Two more to go.

11/18/1973

Dear ALMOST,

Break is so soon! I am so close!

I did one last final this morning, the second is in the afternoon. She’s coming over in between tests, I should stop it. But I’ve never done better on tests before.

11/19/1973

Dear Confusion,

I did the last final. I barely remember it.

I can only remember the moments before. Should I be this red? I was just a simple exercise between...friends? Rivals? Something.

My heart, damn my heart. I can’t stop thinking about it, she laid me down on the bed this time, no hoisting me onto her lap and reaching down my pants, fast and dirty with a few dry expletives. Not that I’ve minded that way.

No pinning me against the wall and heavy petting until I whine and she says she won’t stop until she hears me. It was a long night.

But it wasn’t today. In the middle of the day before both of our last final in Professor Woods class.

I can see the bags under her eyes and smell coffee like stain over her whole being and ginger in her hair. But maybe she always smelled like ginger.

I take the opportunity to get her shirt over her head, she rarely let me get her clothes off. She is pliant in my hands as I wrestle her pants to her ankles, delicately taking my time with her under garments.

She arches into me, I kiss her neck, maybe the kiss is too light, too tender. She moaned.

I took her carefully in my hand and rolled her over in bed, she runs her hand down my sides and we kiss. It’s not like before.

I can’t call it fast and dirty anymore. No, the desperation lingers, as it always had, the secret in our chests. And she touches me.

We make love this time and the hour passes with the scent of ginger in my mouth and sweat covering my body.

“You are beautiful,” she whispers and I know she’s saying something like a truth this time. I kiss the end of her nose and we roll into each other like coaxing symphonies out of pelvis’s and skin.

It’s only after we are both spent and the ticking clock tells us it is almost four that we lie wrapped in one another.

Her face is pressed into my chest and we are breathing heavily. I look at the wall opposite of us for a long time.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled into my skin and traces the muscles on my back lightly.

I chuckle gently, “I promise, you did good.”

She shakes her head into my skin, kissing it lightly, “For all the nasty things O’Connor writes on your door.” I purse my lips and feel the sunlight play across my skin like a caress, “You get a tough skin.” “I should kick his ass,” Zayda runs her hands down my side and kisses my shoulder, “you’re too good for him to even share the same air.” I roll my eyes, “Boys write those kind of things near you too.” I say slowly, delicately; ‘Jewish American Princess’ was the nicest of them. “We’ll get through.” She kisses me again, my collarbone and chest, as if she wanted to memorize the curves and swallow me whole- like I predicted. She kisses and kisses again.

I feel a shiver go up my spine and screw my eyes shut, something mournful bubbling up deep within me. I take a deep shuddering breath. She looks up at me with a question in her eyes, I swallow.

“Are you alright?” She weaves her hand in my hair.

“Zadya,” I say quietly, a shameful wetness breaking in my eyes as I look at her, “Is this… practice to you? For...others. For,” I gulp. “For after this.” She shakes her head, “I’m not looking for their ‘after.’” I take a rattling breath, almost a sob. I curl into her and she holds me closer, she messages my scalp and tucks my head under her chin.

“I’ve known what I am for a long time,” my eyes go wide, her hand grips me, “I’m sorry if...I dented any of your plans. It can just be practice for you.” I feel the sob rising in me again, I wipe at my eyes. “No.” I say it outloud like a curse, “No! I don’t...those aren’t my plans either.” A rule book written for somebody else, a love letter from society on the promised dream. I wish I could return to sender.

She kisses my eyelids and the timer goes off.

I go to my last final.

What have I done.

11/19/1973

Dear Tuesdays,

I have three days to pack and go home for winter break. Three days before this spell might be broken and I am asked about ‘after’ again.

I took Zadya to the movies tonight, I told her it was the least I could do (see? Backbone). She seemed just as smug and victorious as ever, figures.

We hold hands in the dark and laugh at the silly faces we make at a movie that is not particularly good.

She takes me to ‘the best ice cream shop this side of the Appalachians.’ I accept, for now.

It’s good, almost a little too good. Someone stares at us when she gets ice cream on her nose and I kiss it, but they look away muttering on girl friendships and hippies.

Maybe we could be ‘friends forever’ if no one looked too closely and I could hold her hand and they wouldn’t ask questions. I keep my hand by my side for now.

We walk and she asked where was I going after this.

I shrug, “anywhere I want.” She grinned from ear to ear at that, I lick the end of my orange creamsicle. “You?”

“You know,” she looked off into the distance, “Someone who will pay me enough to never have to worry about anything again.” Her shoulders squared, “Buy my parents a house.” I nodded, we weren’t all here under our lawyer-parents bankroll. I wished I could hold her hand.

I chomp on the ice cream, “Anything in mind?” She gave me a devilish look, “If Yellow Corp will hire me I’ll take them for all their worth.” I shake my head, “Lawyers already have bad name as it is you know.” She slips her arm over my shoulder on the empty street, pulling me close, “Don’t worry babe. I’ll make the CEO’s richer and you’ll put them all in jail.”

I raised my eyebrows and a laugh a little, “You know, I said I would never lose to you again.”

Her eyes go soft, “I don’t doubt it.” We go back to my dorm and kiss until our lips are bruised and blue and I try with all my might to tell myself a different story.

11/20/1973

Dear Journal,

Wow, I actually thought I lost you. I must have dropped you under the bed when I was going home for winter break freshman year.

It’s move out day and my freshman counselor would be happy to know I managed stress enough to graduate summa cum laude. Soooo, smiley points.

Gee, it’s been a long two years. Better though, it got better.

I can’t believe I wrote all this down, especially the last couple entries, I should burn this- a lawyer is nothing without her reputation. I might want to remember this all one day though.

Zadya’s been avoiding me for the last couple days, but she isn’t very good at goodbyes or sentiment. I’ll see her no doubt before my parents arrive to help finish packing.

I wish we were both going to the same city, I wish she wasn’t quite so stubborn.

But I’m stubborn too, I’ve already promised myself I’m getting that public defender job in DC. Just let them watch.

But I want to see her first.

I wouldn’t even be going out for these jobs without her, God, that crazy confidence and cocky smile, I can’t believe I gave in.

I’m going to have a lot to beat in the future, there is work to be done. First we have to say goodbye, even if it’s the hardest damn kiss of my life.

I’ll see her again, even it’s in the courtroom.

And maybe… some time forever from now, we’ll work this out and the law will recognize us back. Not that either of us would put our pride aside to propose.

But there’s always potential.

5/12/1975

Dear Journal,

She did it on a goddamn Tuesday. Of course, on one knee with a symphony playing because she is that kind of ridiculous. She chose a Tuesday and that is the day I’ll have to celebrate from now on every June.

Curse this woman, curse this woman for the rest of my life I guess.

6/27/2015

#steven universe #zircons #zirconshipping #steven universe fanfiction #bellow zircon #courtship #the formatting on this was really wonky for some reason so I'm sorry if it looks weird

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johnishere-blog · 5 years

Text

Old Freight Depot

Somewhere in a far away land in the 1940’s….

“Rat-a-tat-tat” came the sound as a hand laid a rap on the screen door as it reverberated and rattled against its framing. Steps could be heard making their way for the door shortly afterwards. “Just a minute.” The unique knock could be that of only one but yet familiar person.

Of the stops on his route as a railroad messenger boy, this was one the few stops around town he enjoyed if not looked forward to. The Mister of this house was never one he had to chase down. Young Frank just out of school would often have to wade along riverbanks calling out the name of some brakeman trying his luck at the local fishing hole or stick his head in the doors of local stores, barbershops, car shops, pool halls or eateries to see if a conductor or engineer on his call list could be found. If an employee on this list couldn’t be found, it meant starting back over at square one with another exhaustive search for the next pulse holder. It could be a troublesome puzzle to put together but it was a matter of first come first serve with no predictability. “Why wasn’t I called?” The counter question was “Why couldn’t you be found?” Luck of the draw for better or worse.

Frank got along well with most of the flock under his steed. The job was an eye-opening experience for him. One minute he seemed shy and too immature for his job yet other moments he could out foul tongue many of the local tavern patrons and charge into places that they, let alone angels, would fear to tread.

Interrupting a family picnic could either be pleasantly cordial or could end with a volcano of cursing if not the occasional fist throwing by the recipient and dodging by the deliverer. He was just a mere delivery boy but because he was the first representation of the ball and chain they signed up for, he caught more than his share of flak. Though sympathetic, his face represented an intrusion. It was deciding whatever face he had to wear at any given moment that could be taxing more so than the long walks around town out on the hunt for another name but he was slowly adapting to the terrain in which he found himself deployed. He wasn’t bipolar. His job just had a bipolar atmosphere and outsiders were clueless. Maybe they had no idea just how lucky they were.

The worst for Frank, however, was the search for none other than one Walter Baum, a man who cared little for a rigid organized lifestyle of living by the clock. This was a man who lived by his own conceptions and if there were misconceptions in between then playing the victim was his preferred escape route no matter what side of the fence he was on at any given moment. He wreaked of stale cigarette smoke, flat beer and any other odorous trademark of the places where he called home in the concrete and neon jungles. To Walt paying rent meant spending money on bills which he saw as an encroachment into his frivolous lifestyle. He said fun was all that concerned him most. It appeared instead that he wanted to forget something.

The smell of repulsive body odor was just a small glimpse to his self-indulgence. Some of the local homeless would feel a bit better off than to be victims of the circumstances that this guy needlessly put himself through. The career he held was as unpredictable as he was. Walt was a well known drunk around town and to locate him for a call meant going to shady parts of town searching the local bars. If not in one of the local sipping troughs, his claim to fame as a ladies man could be waining. This then meant a trip to the obscure whore house in search of him nursing his self inflicted wounds at cost. The hollowed out walls Walt called home seemed to host the finest recent graduates of the nearby Pine Acres Correctional facility or at best their future clientele. One could be certain that many graduates would go back for further enlightenment.

Walt somehow intermingled with them and yet was never caught up in his cohorts lawless shenanigans and sent away to share bunks with them. Some claimed he was a mediator amongst them yet given his exploits many would beg to differ. Walt played the devils advocate for his own interest. He always seemed to have a ready supply of greenbacks or the name of some local eye candy on hand to dissuade a messenger boy of “having found his presence” so he could continue living it up.

Sometimes his drunken incoherence upon being encountered made putting him on duty a bad proposition. This could go on for several days on end. Walt wasn’t a particularly bad person but he had different ways than the other railroaders of coping with the effects of the job but his methods caused his reputation to extend beyond himself him a bit.

“Well hi there. Won’t you come in?”

“Mrs. Loretta, good afternoon to you. Smells like a nice dinner you have cooking. As much as I’d love to hang around until dinner is served I’m quite busy today.” Loretta glances down at Franks small satchel at his side bristling with envelopes awaiting delivery.

“Oh heavens, I would say so yes!”

Frank double checked the writing on the envelope that read…

“F. T. Strawbridge 217 Sycamore Street”

He handed it to Loretta saying “It’s the Beltmoore. He should be home in time for festival Sunday. Could you sign here please?”

Once a signature was received on the company crew call roster sheet, Franks job had been done. He couldn’t ring the doorbell and run leaving an envelope at a door step no matter how much he’d love to do so in most cases. Passing the buck to another blindly would have been better than Christmas or at best rivaling a sinners prayer. The employees signature was required as this showed they were alive, functioning and breathing enough to sign their name thus signifying their acceptance and acknowledgment that they would report for work. In the 27 years of the Strawbridge calls, there was never an issue. Loretta’s signature was as good as gold in place of her husbands.

“Thank you, Loretta. If you happen to have any leftovers I’d gladly accept them at the festival. Hope to see you and Felix and the family there.”

Mrs. Strawbridge waved a farewell to Frank who left for his scaling of the town for another name on the roster and closed the door behind herself. She ambled back up to the bedroom to find Felix sitting at the edge of the bed groggily rubbing his eyes and yawning as he said “Well let me see the prize winnings today. Only Frank has a knock that sounds like a fat kid tiptoeing through a field of crunchy dried out daisies. Loretta, I do believe if you could learn his knock you could awaken my dead carcass to attend church with you some mornings. By the second day of his knocking, I knew it couldn’t be anyone else aside from him. Any other knock would have bored me into a deeper sleep.”

“Well, they are putting in the new telephone wires just a few blocks away. The storms last week took a lot of the phone lines out. Hopefully, ours will be back in service next week. Seems weird seeing railroads using crew call boys again. I’m sure as they make more and more headway poor Frank will have to find a new line of work. Maybe he will enlist in the Navy. He said he had been thinking about it and their motto ‘Join The Navy And See The World’ had appealed to him.”

“Dear. Doing what he’s doing right now….he’s seeing things he wouldn’t see no matter how many times he sailed around the earth. Especially if he gets out looking for Walt.”

Felix reached for his glasses as Loretta handed him the envelope oblivious to the plight of the one who delivered it. He asks how her day has been as he opens the envelope and pulled out the paper. Atop it was the company logo of a 5 pointed star representing the 5 states served by his employer’s rails. He giggled softly as he wondered what a Jewish Star of David for a logo would look like being the “Starlight Route” recently bought a connecting shortline in an adjacent state bringing them up to 6. His great grandfather would approve.

“The 136….” Felix said to himself in puzzlement.

“Felix I believe he said the Beltmoore.”

Felix glanced up at the ceiling then to the floor as he struggled to put two and two together from his just awakened slumber. The railroad gave their trains numbers but the locals and railroaders gave them names to better understand their whereabouts and “where’a’to’s.” Rarely did the numbers mean anything to the outsiders so the namesakes helped things along.

“Well, that won’t be a bad nights worth of work. Just hope the rain holds off until the morning. Those crossties and roadbed were already beyond sponge stage from soaking up the previous week’s rain.”

A distant train whistle blew and from the sounds of it, it was not the one Felix would take the helm of. Another shouldn’t be heard for another few hours giving Felix no sense of urgency. A look at his orders on the paper confirmed his thoughts. Frank wouldn’t knock too soon and yet even though his on duty time was a few hours away the tempting thought of another hours rest would do little but result in useless tossing and turning.

“Well come on down and I’ll put some coffee on for you. Madeleine and the kids are here. Little John has been raving all afternoon how he wants to see his pa paw. He wants to hear some of your ‘tales from the rails’ “ Loretta says laughingly.

“Glad I didn’t want another nap,” Felix thought to himself in light of the circumstances but was glad of the news of company before work.

After a few moments, Felix came downstairs into the kitchen as his wife and daughter sat at the table with plates already in place. The grandfather passed a tall grandfather clock, an assortment of pictures of his honeymoon, vacations, family and of fellow Marine Corps buddies continuing past well-crafted hand made in America furniture from a shop just down the road a piece. His grandson and granddaughter giggled as they played with Felix’s cocker spaniel, Wendy. Felix poured a cup of coffee and sat at the head of the table as a light Indian summers breeze flowed through curtains in an opened window.

“Kids, come on, s….”

He hushed Madeline’s command bringing a puzzled look to her face. There was no need to rush right into the early dinner. Time was available for talk and catching up.

“Shhhhh, let ’em play a little longer.”

She smiled and rested her chin in the palm of her hand, fingers resting along her cheek while looking at her father as her black hair rested lazily on her shoulders.

“So, how’ve ya been dad?”

A glance over his glasses as he sipped down his coffee and crossed his eyes caused the two women to burst into laughter.

“Ahhh come on pa. Surely it hasn’t been that crazy!”

He placed the coffee cup down and let out a giggle.

“Nah, all is well. Just been busy lately. There’s always something to do around this place. Always something needing tending too. Just trying to do my part to keep your mother from being run ragged.”

Loretta smiled as she got up and walked to the stove and began bringing dinner to the table.

Felix glanced in his wife’s direction and back over to Madeleine. “So how’s life on your end?”

“Fine…fine…” said half-heartedly.

“Audrey and John have been doing well in school and the new job is going well. Mr. Wallace gave me a raise and says I can work all the hours I want if need be. With the holidays coming up there’ll be no shortage there. He and his wife have been most generous. They’ve been understanding and working around my night classes. I only have one more semester.”

Glancing over at the two youngest, Madeline continued. “They have seemed to accept it a little. While they were in school last week, I….”

Her soft red lips began to quiver as she began to fight back a sudden unexpected tear. She told Felix in a barely controlled sob, “I miss Donnie so much.”

Loretta eased to her daughter’s side to lightly console her and to shield the glances of the two littlest ones in the room away from their mother’s condition. Their laughter continued as Wendy ran back and forth across the living room unwittingly diverting their attention from their grief-stricken remaining parent caught in the snares of a seemingly empty questionable future. For the moment Wendy was welcomed comedy relief.

“I lay in the bed at night reaching for someone who isn’t there and stare at the ceiling or out the window into at the stars. It seems no matter how deep I bury my head into the pillow they still hear my sobs. They come in asking me what is wrong and I don’t know what to tell them. Its been almost a year now and no matter how much I pace the floors praying for an answer or seeking hope I just come up empty handed. Why the hell did…”

Madeleine drifted off into even deeper tears.

Felix extended his hand across the table to Madeleine, taking her grip in his, he softly kissed and softly squeezed her hand rubbing his thumb slowly back and forth over the top of it.

Regaining her composure yet looking into the table as if into an abyss she softly said “Mom…dad…your help the past year has meant so much to me. Thank you.” She was afraid to look up and make eye contact for fear of another rush of sudden emotions.

Felix leaned back and took another sip of coffee. “Maggie….that help will continue to be there as long as your mother and I have breath in our bodies. We can’t begin to imagine what it must be like with Donald gone. But rest assured our help for you will never cease.”

After a pause, Felix opted to Maggie, “If you need to there are two empty rooms right up those stairs there behind you. I seem to recall one once being yours and the other one belonging to that knuckleheaded brother of yours. If you need to, you, John and Audrey are welcome to stay with us. Your mother and I have already discussed this. If it’s to help shoulder the burden of your loss or if it just feels right….you can stay as long as you want or need to. With your brother gone, my erratic long hours and days away from home…and well…now with Donald being gone…I’m sure you could both use one another’s company…”

Madeleine slowly raised her head looking up at her mother and over to her father. “Thank you. Things are ok but we’ll see. Thank you for a safe harbor.”

Assured Madeleine was ok, Loretta went back to prepping the dinner table as Felix got up to let Wendy outside. The children filed to the table as Felix came back to have a seat. The time ticked on.

After dinner was finished little John walked over to his grandfather gathering all of his work gear. He said nothing but watched intensely as Felix slipped on his work shoes and grabbed his shiny leather satchel containing rule books, time tables, forms, pens, pencils, one days worth of clothes and several outdated but interesting copies of National Geographic. About that time Madeleine came to gather John. John looked up at his mom. “But pa paw was going to tell me a story.” Felix winked at his daughter and nodded.

“John, I tell you what little buddy, I have to get down to the station and be ready to take a train out. So sadly I won’t have the time to do that but…”

Felix dug into his satchel and pulled out a new cellophane wrapped copy of The Little Golden Books “The Little Engine That Could” and handed it to John who shrieked with joy jumping up and down. He had bought it some time ago and was keeping it ready for just such an occasion.

“When pa paw can’t be here to tell you any stories perhaps mom or grandma will see fit to read you a few pages from this. That sound like a pretty good deal little fella?”

Madeleine held her arm out as John ran to his mother’s side while Audrey was already on the other side. Felix wrapped them all in a hug as he excused himself to grab the last of his things. Loretta escorted them out as Felix fills his thermos with coffee. He glances out the window looking out at the ensemble of his family huddled together at Madeleine’s car. Looking on as his family went about their business while work kept him frustratingly away at arm’s length was nothing new. This was a scene he had repeated time and time again in his career. Yet Felix had just as well learned long ago to accept it. Luckily the family did too. Others weren’t as fortunate or conscientious. He turns his focus to gathering lunch from the suppers leftovers. Madeleine looks into the window seeing her fathers silhouette. She kisses her mother’s cheek and drives away.

“My word! You ate enough to sink a battleship earlier.” exclaimed Loretta as she closed the door looking on at Felix placing one piece of fried chicken after another in his lunchbox.

“What has gotten into you lately? Have you gotten a tapeworm?”

“Dear I would think at 49 my tapeworm days are quite well behind me.”

The couple looks at one another across the length of the kitchen and laugh as they walk towards one another. Loretta takes her man in her arms in a deep embrace.

“Do you think you’ll be back in time for the festival this weekend?

“Oh, I should be. If all goes well I should be back home tomorrow night around 10 or 11. When does that thing start again? I can’t remember.”

“10 Sunday morning.”

“Ok. I should be able to.”

After a deep sigh and kiss on his wife’s cheek Felix puts on his hat and grabs his thermos, lunchbox, and satchel then heads out the door in an exchange of I love you’s.

Felix starts down the sidewalk with this work and personal belongings for other means along with extra baggage in his hands as he walks to the depot a couple of miles away in town.

DuPlois is home to about 17,500 and its largest employer outside of the railroad is the old Westinghouse lightbulb and fixture facility. Both run 365/24/7 except holidays and both equally kept the town afloat as they dueled in noise making through out the little towns concert and brick blocked walls. Most of DuPlois offerings lie along the stretch of Highway 25 called “Main Street” that runs east/west before swinging back north at the edge of town near the river. Either side of it more or less could be shoppers galore. Jewelry, clothing, home redecoration and sportsman stores and the like along with book, musical instrument and record stores held things down a bit. The pleasant stream is rippled a bit by the mortgage and loan offices. Even after most of the businesses have closed for the day potential prospectors can be found window shopping. Felix would usually allow himself an extra few minutes time in his walk to work to gaze into the displays in the shop windows and loved doing so after many had closed as to not have to deal with a pushy salesman or eager loan officers preying upon ones hardships only to bury them further. Commission has to be made somewhere somehow. Sometimes he deliberately contemplated using a fly swatter to keep the pushy at bay. The parking meter maid plying the sidewalks felt the same vibe only glancing at his reflection in the shop widows to break his monotony to see if his foot bouncing kept things slim and trim. While most of the goings on around town could be heard at local bait shops, the bus stop, the depot, some hair salon or any given church steps, this was the financial epicenter. To Felix it felt like a cesspool.

The bell to the courthouse clock makes its announcement that it is 1:00 pm. Felix stops and pulls out his railroad issued pocket watch seeing its 12:57 pm.

He grumbles to himself “Next week it will be off by 4 minutes. Maybe by this time next year, it will be 24 hours off and I can claim an unearned payday or send a replica of myself in.” Tucking his watch in his pocket he walks into the local diner across the street.

“Bob lemme have two sandwiches. One ham and one turkey. Both all the way.”

Tommy Dorsey’s “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You“ plays on the radio as Bob ask “Felix how are things down there on the R and R?”

Felix giggles at Bob’s sarcastic monicker. “Anything but rest and relaxation that’s for sure. Since we acquired the Noxapater & Northern back last fall it’s been hectic. Hopefully, things will even out soon. And they are starting to. Not complaining much. The extra money has been nice indeed. Just glad we aren’t stretched as thin as we were.”

“Yes indeed…” Bob slowly says as he finishes wrapping the last sandwich in wax paper putting it in a brown bag.

“That’ll be 3 and 2 5 there Feely.”

—————————————————————

Felix slides a chair up to the large round gray wooden table located in the break area after placing all his belongings off to the side. If you were joked about and laughed about while being able to take the heat, you were in and welcomed to the table. If you weren’t you were either an unknown, an isolationist or a woeful man who had been excommunicated from their circle. Getting kicked out was easy. Getting back in was almost impossible. At the round table there was no score keeping for the card games but in stature and loyalty which earned you a seat there.

Having a loose tongue, having assed up on the job over and over, not heeding and utilizing the advice of old hand railroaders, showing less than stellar work ethics, betraying a fellow rail brother, trampling over others to become a company man without earning approval and respect beforehand…these were grounds for expulsion. It sometimes took years to get a seat at the table but a moment of stupidity could result in your seat being little more than a mere season ticket. To sit there was a privilege not lightly given. You better be a trustworthy soul that could be counted upon in ethics, ability and mentality. Passing the company pre hire exams was one thing but this was another beast entirely. Proving yourself in the field was harder. A seat would be waiting for you if you got it right. A satanic caricature of Mickey Mouse laid painted in the center of the table. Mickey held a pitch fork in one hand and an unfurled reversed facing scroll in the other that said “Before you sits the highest order of the lowest of the low.” Impaled on his forked tail was of a smug man who could have well been a company official. Maybe it helped keep them honest.

The air was thick with smoke from Lucky Strikes and Chesterfields, the pungent smell of King Edward cigars and Prince Edward pipe tobacco. The sound of click and clacks not of the rails but of balls on the two pool tables just behind them could be heard along with opening and closing Zippo’s. Never mind the playing of dominoes and dice rattling in between. Any gaps in sound were filled in with the shuffling and dealing of cards. The clacking of cue balls were usually made by the outsiders with no place to go. Their table was the pool table. This area was located next to the wash and locker rooms, the constant sounds of shuffling feet from those coming and going from them rounded things out even further.

One could have been forgiven if they mistook the scene for a shady dance hall or watering hole. However this was inside the regional railroad’s main depot that rested on a central division point of several rail lines converging upon it. A sign with the company logo had a statement that said all was fine and well with the arrangements so long as money never changed hands in the act of gambling or affected company operations. On the bottom edge of the sign were some rather tactful statements written countering other corporate points of view. The masses would have revolted if management had tampered in kind with dear old Mickey.

“You gonna draw sometime today? By the time you get around to it, I’ll be drawing my retirement.”

George shrugged off the comment and continued looking around the table at others conquest deciding methodically what move to make next.

“George…honestly…why don’t you go over there to Herb The Turd and take him up on a game of chess. That may be more up to par with your slow speed taking all day to get something done.”

“Bill, do you mean just here at the card table or at the switch as well?”

The table erupted into laughter but that quickly ended when George laid out a straight flush.

George smiled widely with a toothpick on one side of his mouth and a cigarette hanging out of the other. George could be a bit aggravating to work with because he seemed to assess everything about the job. But when it all fell together he could build up or break down a train rather well.

“Well, guys that’s it for me.”

Around the table sat railroaders of various crafts and capacities. It wasn’t uncommon for a few retirees to drift in and hang around as if the depot were a VFW post. This evening was no exception. As George walked out looking to see if his train had arrived the eyes around the table gazed over to one of retired hanger on’s.

“Ellis you sure spend a lot of time around here for someone who said they wanted no part of this mess when they started drawing their pennies.”

“Pennies are right!” Ellis challenged in a gruff bark.

“You pay in a dollar and by the time you retire it may as well be a few pennies that you get back.”

“Awww hush Ellis! No one at home wanna hear you bitching anymore? You’ll run off the new hires. If you haven’t heard we’re short-handed as it stands. If you run them away I’m gonna make your retired ass mark back up on the board!”

“Yeah, Elly. Why aren’t you at home anyway?”

“What for? All I’ve got is that naggy baggy wife of mine and 6 kids….well it was 6 when I last counted.”

“And you wonder how she got that way?!”

“Ok boys. Here here. I know just the thing for him. We need to take up some money for poor old down in his luck Elly. What Elly needs is a television. He needs some entertainment. By gosh, if you put a TV in that house maybe poor ‘ol Margret could get a break from childbearing.”

The room exploded with yet another round of laughter. Felix took off his glasses to wipe away the tears from the result of a hysterical direct hit to his senses. Even Ellis couldn’t help but chuckle at the proposition.

Dale who launched into the comical tirade looked over at Felix exclaiming “Man down!”

The atmosphere around the depot and roundhouse could have an almost prison feel to it. Not in the sense of being locked up. But in the sense of the large concrete and cinder block walls, easy on the eyes green paint though dimly lit, the heavy smell of oil and warm electrical cabinets humming providing power to the adjacent mechanical building.

There were however the foremen, yard masters, train masters, division and district superintendents who may as well been wardens. Understandably a screw up from someone underneath their wings would result in stress. They couldn’t be an everyone everywhere at once person. They had to have faith in their troops in the field. But the troops in the field had to have faith in them. So long as things were an equal measure there was no argument. Gilding the lily.

But it seemed some among the upper echelons were either power hungry and loved to smear their positions in the faces of the ones they guided or tried to brow beat them to their benefit losing touch with reality along the way. A fantasy land pedestal. The higher up you were the more weight your voice had. A broken olive branch meant little. There were plenty among the ‘foremanintendents’ who were all too happy to convey their sentences upon others. Some were fair, some seemed to have been spawned from Satan himself. Others amongst their rank claimed God was showing off when he created them. Resentment and hatred ran rampant on both sides of the wielding swords.

“Anyone here want to clue me in as to what that means?”

Oliver Pope took a draw off his pipe then pointed it to the door leading to the yard office. Felix glanced over and looked above the door to see written in blue chalk..

“ARBEIT MACHT FREI!”

“Well Mr. Pope, I have to say I’m at a loss on this diatribe.”

Pope walked closer and pulled out a note pad and jotted the phrase down.

“You guys can write all the sinister comical messages you want. Have your laughs. But when I find out what this says in Latin you had better hope for the sake of the pen weasel that this isn’t an anti-company statement.”

“I’m sorry you can’t pat Dale on top of the head like a loyal follower but he gyrates a bit when playing that tune.”

Yet another round of laughter filled the entire room united in opinion as the door closed behind a fuming Pope. Their disdain ejected him. His persona was shot down again.

“You’d think being that’s in the same vein seemingly of his managements role model. Surely he ought to know what it is.”

Dale ends playing “Ride Of The Valkyries” on his harmonica as Pope removes his presence. Felix shakes his head cutting his eyes away from Dale.

Felix and Dale get up from the table and walk over to the bulletin and train order boards. Above it is the company clock with the official railroad time displayed which is in use across the railroads of the nation and beyond.

Felix looks down at his pocket watch and over at Dale as he checks his wristwatch then up to the company clock.

“Yep. The county courthouse is off a bit.”

“You too eh?” prods Dale.

“I noticed that earlier on the way in..”

Dale nods in agreement as they both turn for the yard office. They hang around waiting on the clerk to return. Frank is back for a short break in his evening searches. He assures the duo that the other 3 who’ll make up his train crew were notified. Of them, one’s pending presence is still questionable.

“Hey guys, what can I do for ya?”

“Yeah just here to grab the work and train orders for 136. Any idea where she’s at at the moment?”

The clerk walks over asking the dispatcher the last logged position. “Yessir at Cogswell.”

They turn and head back for the roundhouse and walk outside

Two of 136’s new crew, Desmond and Stan walk up to Dale and Felix as they get out of Stan’s car.

“Anyone around here seen Walt? 136 is about 10 miles out.”

Felix pokes his head in the break area as Stan gives Walt’s last known whereabouts.

“When we passed the Red Rooster he was standing outside with some fellas. Looked like he was having quite the time too. He seemed in no hurry but heck you can’t ever tell with that guy if he’s gonna show or not. How in the world ol’ scumbag gets away with what he does is beyond me!”

Desmond offers his take. “He had to done seen some executive or boss doing something they ain’t sposed to be doin’. Good lawd, maybe quite a few of skeletons in the closet he be done seen. I notice though each time he be act up, they like they be scared of him or something. Ain’t no way anyone else would gedda way with that sort’o stuff. Ain’t no way. There ain’t no way.”

Just as Desmond brings his insight to a halt, Walt’s distinctive laugh and cackling could be heard behind them as he came up joking wildly and loudly with a couple of the baggage handlers.

The three men turn to look as Walt carries on with his cajoling with the guy trying to get the bags in the baggage car but being hindered.

Almost having risen from the ground at the trio’s feet, Pope seemed to turn every shade of red possible. He looks Walt up and down who’s far from dressed for duty holding up others going about their work. It seemed as if Pope would self incinerate into ashes and blow away at any second.

“Walt! Get the hell over here boy and leave those men alone. Stop holding up my trains. You’re holding up those men and your scraggly butt is far from ready for work!”

Walt snaps his head around with a confused look on his face.

“Mornin’ the Pappy Pope. Do you see a kid out here? I don’t. Who ya think ya yellin’ at like that?”

“You got a problem with authority? You looking for work?”

“Well…I got a problem with those with a silver spoon up their butt. I have a problem with brown nosed, backstabbing cutthroats who played others like a fiddle to get where they are. Authority. No. No problem with authority here. Authority figures? Anything is plausible.”

Felix shouted as he sprinted up “Walt! Knock it off!”

“Pope if you wanna chop things, why don’t ya take your butt over in those woods there. I’m sure there’s an axe ‘round here somewhere. See if you can figure out what wood to chop out there instead of here! You might even make some friends with the local wildlife. I’m sure some of your forked tongued relatives are slithering around in there.! You sorry m…” The words only ceased so Walt could land a plop of tobacco browned spit at Popes feet.

Felix slid between the two just at the first millisecond of the pause.

“Walt! I said enough!”

Pope folded his arms together angrily glaring back and forth into Felix and Walt’s eyes looking as if a bloodthirsty wolf, the very semblance of what Pope was.

“Lemme tell ya what stank ass. I’m tired of your flippant ass attitude and flippant ass work ethic! You delay another one of my trains so help me you’ll be kicked to unemployment hell. No train was delayed on my part back when my feet were on the ground. From the looks of things hell monkeys could do the job.”

Walt sent a splatter of Beech Nut at Pope’s feet. “Did y’all get whole, sliced or peeled bananas back in your day?”

The whistle of 136 blowing for the crossing just north of the depot calmly quieted the dispute.

Felix grabbed Walt by the arm leading him away to the depot’s platform.

The others watch as Pope walks away fuming. Desmond with his slow heavy Mississippi drawl testifies to the others, “See there. Say I ain’t toldja. Ain’t no way. Ain’t no way.”

As they and others look on in shock and disbelief, others adored the episode that exploded before them. For whatever it was Walt could get away with and why was of no concern to them. They relished that Pope was getting his position made fun of, was being called out to light and more so not behind his back but directly to his face. Pope was known for throwing a fist to assert his alpha status and getting away with it but compared to Walt, it was no contest. The Pope’s best would have been nursery rhyme compared to anything Walt would have done just for mere starters. Walt wasn’t going to be shamed like some kid who had to explain to his parents why he chose shit himself to avoid the gym class he disdained.

Most of the train service crews equally despised both of them but to choose sides meant leaning towards Walt who was the wildest amongst them who’s tirades were true and honest. Pope unleashed his upon the undeserving or to weed out the ones who cared little to placate his inflated persona. This event didn’t need the judge, bailiff, and jury. Both were labeled as being lower than whale shit the deepest depth of the ocean. Seeing the Pope hunkered down was better than a cold beer on a hot summers evening to the on lookers.

Dale walks over to the duo to get things underway as the thunder subsided. Playing cards with apathy had to be done by someone. Differences aside there was a job to be done.

“Walt, go on and get ready and we’ll go over the 136 while you do that.”

As Walt heads inside Dale cuts his eyes to Felix and mutters quietly himself, “Take a bath while you’re at it.”

“If his mouth doesn’t get him thrown outta here then his hygiene certainly could.”

Dale slowly takes a draw from his pipe as he looks over the paperwork and train orders as Stan and Desmond and the previous conductor of 136 stride over. They go over what work is left and what the evenings trip will lay out before them. Felix talks to Harold the fellow departing engineer and head end crew. Walt should be present but as so typical he’s busy with other matters.

After a few moments their huddle breaks as one group heads for the train and the other heads inside for home. As soon Harold opens the door leading into the break area there’s the sound of loud upset voices and the like.

“What in the….?”

“Harold, what is it?”

“Feely, you ain’t gonna believe this.”

Felix sticks his head around the door and looking across the break area into the washroom stands a butt naked Walt scrubbing himself with a bar of soap from a waist high sink with wet soapy hair and no proper way to rinse. Felix drops his head and sighs deeply.

It begins to dawn upon Walt that he’s the center of attention.

“Walt! What in the Sam Hill are you doing?”

“Dale said for me to take a bath or I could lose my job. All the showers in here are full. Just doing my part.”

Walt looks around at the passerby’s.

“Any you got any lizard green? Lustereen?”

“Listerine Walt!”

“Yeah. That stuff. Uncle Dale said my mouth was a problem too.”

——————————————————————————— Once all were aboard Felix knocked off the brakes after the signal to proceed was given.

From both sides of the locomotive cab, Walt and Felix in unison call “Green board” after having gazed at the tricolored lights for several minutes anticipating their next move.

The sound of hissing air fills the cab only for its last remnants of protest to be drowned out by the sudden guttural roar as the engine digs in to move its burden. Felix doesn’t rush things on as a patient hand beats an eager hand any time. Even if it holds together it will scarcely move any meaningful inch. The engine bucks and slips momentarily. Felix is as careful and understanding with the throttle as he is with his own Loretta. Finessing is key. Overdoing things will just break the train apart causing delay and extra work.

A steady stream of smoke and sparks quickly exit the exhaust stacks as things get more vocal yet still slowly responsive. Walt leans out the window looking backwards for any signs of trouble. The two locomotives give their all as they dig in and claw forward. The gut hitting throb sang deeply as the organized chaos began to put on its show. The slack between cars tightened as wheel after wheel began to move. The snap of draft gear, couplers snapping together, clacks of wheels hitting joints and hollow booms from empty cars in the train began to fill the air. The parade had begun. The metal snake is coming to life.

Felix kept an eye on the ammeter only adding further fuel to the caged beast as the needle dropped comfortably away from the red. The snake was writhing.

Stan’s voice comes over the radio, “Rolling on the tail end” as Desmond can be heard mumbling in the background. The ace in the hole had been found. Old Sure Hand had done it again. In all of his years of getting a train out and over the road, Felix never busted a train in half no matter the territory, standing still or with an ill handling train. No one train was the same but Felix knew better than to be over eager or just plain stupid with his hand at the throttle. He never felt he had an image to upkeep nor did he ever dabble in competition with others among his rank. He was just that good at what he did.

With knowledge in hand that his train is in one piece Felix notches out the throttle a little more. His eyes dart from ammeter, the track ahead and speedometer while slapping the bell ringer in and blowing for the crossing just south of the roundhouse. He tips his hat at a few lookers on standing in a trackside parking lot. Any kids who weren’t watching were aspiring of other careers. To the kids who looking on in awe, these guys were their heroes. All the comic book heroes other kids emulated were nothing compared the rulers of the steel beast. They were their masters of the universe. Somewhere inside they couldn’t wait to grow up and shine the rails themselves.

As the train reaches 10 miles per hour Felix notches back on the throttle and holds at 10 as they waddle out of the yard, engine swaying side to side along with the occupants of its seats.

Felix notices a stick of blue chalk.

“Who’s is that?” as he glares at it rolling around on the floor.

“Beats me!”

He looks over at Walt frantically feeling around outside of his pockets to see if his blue saber was still there.

“Walt? You got some kind of an itch or something? I told you about picking those bad apples hanging around Eden.”

“Feely….just put your hands back on the steering wheel and drive.”

“Pope said you’re handy work was written in Latin. We didn’t tell him any different.”

They both smirk as the train rolls out of the yard.

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

Once the tail end of 136 clears the confines of the yard at DuPlois, Stan’s voice comes over the radio giving confirmation. Once that staticky crackle goes silent Felix leans into the throttle gaining momentum for an eventual climb down the rails. Despite pulling only a 51 car train, any momentum would help as Felix would have to battle an ascending S curve a few miles out of DuPlois which began a gradual dive at the other end tapering off into a long straight flat run for most of the way.

Behind the 136 is the pride of the company, their passenger train The Bluebird but known as the “BB” for short to many. More than one celebrity and a handful of Presidents had ridden the BB as the train was renowned for its class, luxury and service and none of the companies other passenger trains held the prestige of this torch bearer.

Any other time the lowly 136 would have waited for the BB to depart DuPlois and slither out behind it. However a delay a few towns back had it running far enough behind that the 136 was told to make Elmstadt siding and hold there some 40 miles away as the BB should be catching up by that point. It was all up to Felix.

Felix pulls one more notch into the growling beast as his train enters into first leg of the S curve. As the snake threads itself through the steel ribbons Walt again leans out the window looking back to the rolling wheels behind him for any signs of trouble. Just as the train curves into the other direction he tells Felix all was well. Felix begins toying with the air and throttle, manipulation of both as needed as his train starts it’s decent downgrade.

Felix looks back at his train anxious to see the caboose come out onto the straight away onto the flat straight away. When he turns back around there will be more throttle and no air brakes for the rest of the way until Elmstadt siding.

“Stan? Y’all hunkered down back there?”

“Yessiree we are.”

Felix throws the throttle wide open. With the BB breathing down their back this is the stretch that will give the 136 the rare opportunity to run at speeds reserved purely for company varnish.

Before their target siding lies the town of Elmstadt proper. As a coincidence 136 just happens to be polishing the rails at the exact same time the tardy Bluebird otherwise would be.

Before the station lies a curve with where a highway crossing runs interference.

Being a Friday evening the station platform is jammed with eager passengers ready to leave# the confines of small town life and head for the concrete and neon jungles or just to go elsewhere to simply get away or even further to put something behind them hoping to find another something somewhere beyond. The Bluebird was their savior for better or worse.

Almost on cue the grade crossing lights at the highway began to flash their message as the bell began to testify its warning. The passengers rushed to the edge of the platform to ready to board their savior.

Instead of the BB that would be slowing as it rounded the corner they were greeted with a speeding freight.

Felix laid into the horn blaring against the onrushing wind as the train roared around the curve drawing a bead on the station and platform. Before anyone had any scant chance of rushing back, the 136 descended upon them as if a beast sprung loose from the depths of hell. So much for their savior.

Walt looked back as they sped past in concern for the masses safety but laughed hysterically.

“Walt? What’s so funny?!”

Struggling to regain his composure he replied to Felix’s inquiry…

“In a swirl of newspapers and hats blown off heads I do believe I saw every shade of underskirts there could be from all those dresses flying up! It looked like the paper boy exploded in a clothing store!”

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

After having allowed the Blue Bird to stampede past them, the 136 ambles on into the low evening light as it arrives at Phoenix Creek to make pick up and set outs for a nearby industry. Stan and Desmond climb down from their perches into the thick oppressive humid summer evening to begin their first part of work as fireflies dance aimlessly casting their lights into the nearing darkness. After a few minutes a man, woman and their daughter come out from a tent in the woods and up to the tracks looking up to the cab of the locomotive.

Walt steps down from the engine and turns looking up as Felix hands down a bag full of food taken from home by himself and others among the crew. As Felix follows Walt, the small family walks closer. Walt passes off the bag and a $20 bill from his own pocket.

“Guys we really appreciate it. How we’d made it without you we don’t know. We hate to ask anymore of you considering all you’ve done.”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s what we do.”

Ben’s wife and daughter carried the care packages back to their tent as he and the others look on. Its a half lit area thick with trees and heavy kudzu and on days like today with heavy clouds, one could never know if it were just after sunrise or just before sunset unless they had a watch. For those among the woods here, telling time was set only by campfires set to cook the 3 daily meals and at best just once was a moment too few and far between. That was only when time meant the most to them. Smelling only fresh blooming honey suckles instead of sizzling bacon or boiling stew let the crew of 136 know that their offerings had arrived at a needed moment.

Ben had been a fellow rail brother who lost his job with the railroad. With 7 years of service on the rails, he was never late, performed his duties with excellence and without grumble. For two years in a row right up to his termination he was deemed best employee on his district. One day as he reported to work he was fired and no reason was given. The matter was a mystery to everyone. Having lost his job and fallen on hard times during an economic downturn, he was unable to find work of any meaningful kind and looking further abroad was impossible. One by one the dominos fell until he and his family became squatters roaming the land. Eventually they ended up living along the tracks with a few others in search of work.

During a late night switching move, Ben creeped up out of the darkness upon Desmond and Stan. Looking for food and seeking employment he was desperate but his approach scared the two workers so bad they stuck him down beating him until he questioned aloud with a voice familiar to them if this is how they treated all rail brothers. Realizing their mistake and shining their lanterns upon him, they stood him up and brushed him off amongst a flurry of apologies. Shoot first and ask questions later had became the law of the land in the area riddled with economic woes and shady dwellers. They knew of Ben from another local railroad but in the inky darkness he could just as well been another over eager panhandler ready to make off with their wallets.

From that night on the crew of that nights 136 made a vow to look after him and the others as best they could. They were a source to Felix’s sudden tapeworms and gained his unopened army tent stollen on a dare during his stint in the Marines for their homestead. Ben would help them with work secretly along their route in order to meet what he felt were their charitable contributions. They never asked or welcomed him to do so but his persistence prevailed. Worried some railroad officers would notice an extra man on the playing field, they had a reason for their reservations. Ben however knew when to become a phantom. That along with his skill built their trust.

“Ben, why don’t you come down to DuPlois and talk to Murray about a job?”

“I don’t feel like that life again.”

“Do what?! You do pretty good at it.”

“I’m only trying repay your kindness.”

“We’ve told you that you don’t have to. Kindness is doing something without expecting a pay back.”

“Well still…”

“Still what? You wanna keep living like this? Why don’t you go try.”

“Because of Pope! That’s good and damn well why. I couldn’t put up with what y’all do.”

“His time is coming. That’s for sure.”

“Oh bull crap! You know how long that’s been said? I’d rather count nails in a burlap sack for 50 years than to have a step on step off job on his railroad for one night. He’s a snake and has blood on his fangs. If you want to call them hands then I’ll leave that up to you. One day y’all are gonna see it”

“We can’t support you and the others forever.”

“I’m not asking you to. There’s just no way I’m coming out there. A man has got to know his limitations and I know mine. I’d be a boundary he wouldn’t want to reckon with.”

(Continuation & Editing Pause. This reading is posted here merely for the benefit of personal friends and family. For the interested more is to come as I work out the next scenarios and depictions as of 11/25/2019. If you enjoy it so far I’d love to hear your comments.)

Posted by ags_5152 on 2008-01-24 01:31:41

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