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lilyrachelcassidy · 3 years

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Birthday Cake

A/N: Suprise folks!!! *me laughing maniacally* The whole scenery for this fic somehow appeared in my head and I just COULDN’T let it slip away, so... My biggest inspo for that was @drawlfoy!! Remember her posting the fic where Draco and Reader work at McDonald’s and are total suckers in their job (arguing with the customers; preparing wrong orders; etc.)? Dee unfortunately, deleted this precious, but it’s stuck to my head ever since (lol lol, it’s the moment where Dee wants to get rid of something, but I kindly remind everyone it existed). Therefore I present to you the next Draco x Reader fic related to our fav fast-food rest. This time, however, they’re not working at the same workplace but... I'm going to stop here cuz I don't want to spoiler :P

**The second thing that triggered me to write this fic is the YouTube video I recently saw with a lady who orders the 'specials' appearing to be out of the menu list of McDonald’s, through the Drive-Through. She asked for a birthday cake, was laughed at a few times, but eventually got what she wanted. Applause for the attitude!!

About the fic (context, my bitches): ofc it’s the modern AU, non-magical world. Draco’s the worst boyfriend ever but always manages to turn things into their righteous place.

Summary: The birthday is upcoming, and Draco is in a rush to think up an idea for a perfect gift. His ingenuity fails, however, and leaves Y/N very unsatisfied with a disaster that has been forged.

Word Count: 3.6k

Warnings: my brain playing a total psycho, language, alcohol, sexual undertones/allusions to sex, Pansy being too much of her self... deal...

Tags: @drawlfoy @eltanin-malfoy

Such an unrestrained desire to strangle somebody you hadn't felt in a long time.

Really.

Today was your birthday, which you had been widely announcing for almost a whole month to people you might have accidentally forgotten about it. Having your boyfriend, Draco, on your mind in particular.

You doubted he would have the guts to omit your big day, though as repeatedly as he had done for a few years back. But something between foresight and the second sense of prevention told you to keep reminding him every day of the upcoming event, with a heap of birthday-themed emojis and uppercases in the messages.

Everything was planned out in your head: him picking you up from your house with the sharp-red cabriolet that he used only for special occasions; him driving the two of you to the fanciest restaurant he could find in town; him bestowing you with a nice-looking, golden necklace or a different piece of jewelry you had been suggestively pointing out in the store's exhibition; him booking up a hotel room for you two to celebrate.

Either way, that was much beyond your expectations, as it turned out. And now you were sitting in the front yard of your house, waiting for him to show up.

'If he was going to at all.' This thought invaded your mind for the last hour, try as might to subdue it. An hour you had been sitting tight, hoping it was only a delay caused by a traffic jam or other irrational explanation he could come up with. But you were deceiving yourself, you eventually presumed -- you had been checking up your phone every one minute, only to see if any message notification popped up on the screen, other than birthday wishes from friends who actually cared for you.

2.02pm: Nothing.

2.03pm: Susan 'Happy birthday bitch!'

2.04pm: Instagram notif. (Someone liked your photo, which you had posted before leaving your room, posing in front of the mirror in the best cocktail dress you could find in the wardrobe.)

2.05pm: Nothing yet again.

2.06pm: Still... Peace and quiet.

"Fuck it...Enough," you muttered under your breath, an annoying disillusionment falling like a heavy mile stone on your chest. Tears suddenly started sprinkling in your eyes at the regret, and you were very reluctant to admit that your friends were right -- Draco Malfoy was an egoistic, negligent, self-absorbed pri--

"Hi." You heard the raspy, panting voice says. "Sorry for the delay."

You blinked slowly, stupidly. You raised your head to assure yourself it was him. That his expression actually corresponded to his words and showed some kind of remorse for standing you up. But no... There he was: standing in front of you, plainly confident and unashamed, with his cocky smirk provoking you to slap him.

Oh, how much you craved to slap him right now. "Where to the fuck have you been?"

"I've tried to pick this up," he explained, simultaneously lifting up the paper bag he'd been carrying in his hand. The big, exclaiming letters 'McDonald's' with the brand's logo were printed on its exterior, and it was fully stuffed with something inside.

Not quite comprehending, you furrowed. You attempted to hide the venom in your voice, but somehow it found its way to leak out. "Couldn't you do that in advance?"

"Nope..." It was his turn to furrow, looking almost shocked with the question. And thanks to all those years of your relationship, you knew it was his piss-poor estimation of time taking over. "It was a last-minute surprise."

"Sounds like it," you commented irritably. "What's that?"

"Your birthday present, sunshine," he drawled happily, ignoring your remark. He sounded positively delighted and satisfied with himself at surprising you with that because he saw a slight crease of shock painting on your forehead. "Here you go."

You took his deposit out of his grasp, still quite unsure. What if his gift would only make a situation worse? Can it get any worse with Draco's total lack of tact? Yes. But it was only one way to find out.

Without even stealing a second glance at him, you ripped off all of the packaging that had been folded around, protecting the contents. You tried to do it carefully and without any impact of emotions revealing the way you felt inside, but your hands were shaking with rage, and you couldn't quite contain yourself. You had been highly aware you shouldn't have expected much from him, but still...

You wondered if the universe was playing against you.

There was a moment of tense silence as you struggled to deal with all the wrappings. Rather unfortunately, you wished you hadn't put so much effort in opening your so-called 'gift' because as you finally did, it only angered you more, seeing as the disappointment laughs at your face. And yes, as a matter of fact, the universe was against you today...

"Are you kidding me?" you asked in disbelief, fury reappearing in your eyes. "A birthday cake?! From McDonald's?" Ugly, little cake with the creepiest smiley face of a clown. It wasn't even fresh, you realized, when you smelled it and felt a musty reek of a freezer, it probably had been kept in. A confusing sense of sadness in your chest couldn't reach any higher at this point.

"Don't you like it?" he asked, detecting the wrath in your eyes. At that, you felt the dumbest urge to laugh and never stop. "I thought it'd be something original."

"Oh, I love it," you said sarcastically, a faint voice of hope telling you it was only a very bad joke was still lingering in your head. But it wasn't a joke.

"It's not just--" He struggled to form a coherent sentence. "I've been asking Blaise and Theo about any ideas. I told them, what you had said to me -- 'you didn't want anything fancy.' So we decided it's... something."

"Of course I didn't tell you I want anything, you dolt!" Your voice raised up almost two octaves, and the pulse sped up so fast it entailed a headache along. A neighbor from the opposite garden who was watering the flowers looked at you, startled, and eyes widened your exasperated tone. You didn’t care. "It's how it works: you don't tell other people you expect them to buy something!"

"But I'm your boyfriend. You shouldn't -- er-- feel uncomfortable to tell..."

"Exactly! As my boyfriend, you should have known!"

"Well... I didn't. If that's what's bothering you, we can...we can..."

"Stop." Listening to him and his pathetic excuses was the last thing you were going to do now. "What – why would you even – " You sputtered out, unable to process or express exactly what you were feeling. There was definitely anger and indignation. Curiosity, for another, as to why Draco would even fall for such foolish and ill-considered idea, and -- to the top of it -- hope it would make a good fit. And possibly, the last and most satisfying part, was the wicked impulse to throw the cake directly into his arrogant face, letting him taste his own medicine he had been serving you for years on each failed birthday.

"You know, for once, you could pay more effort and try doing something nice for me," you told him firmly, deflating to calm down your buzzing nerves.

"I've been tr--"

"Do you realize how much it costs me to pretend to be happy when you forget about me? Last year, I organized a big-ass party for your birthday, inviting over all of your friends and buying the best booze I could find to celebrate it properly," you said harshly and pretentiously, as you intended. "The best part is, you didn't even thank me." You stared at him, wringing your hands and expecting to perceive any trope of shame in his eyes. For the first time, you actually did.

"Listen, about that--" he calmly attempted to cut off your monologue.

"No, you listen..." Did you really want what was upcoming next? Maybe it was about time. "Today, I decided I'm standing up for myself. So, for the last time, get out from my porch."

He bristled, the thunderstruck air hanging around him. "Because of the stupid cake?"

"What?! No! It's just... I feel like you don't give a damn about me anymore." Gulp formed in your throat, and the tears finally left your eyes at the consciousness of what was happening. "I think we both deserve some time."

Your eyes moved to his, and you almost wished you hadn't looked. He was watching you, with pursed lips and a pure mixture of every emotion: anger, sadness, resentment, pretension, dejection. The faintest of his flustered blushes appeared on his cheeks, and you suddenly wished you could hug him. "So you are putting us..." His finger pointed at him and you as if expecting clarification. "...on a break? Is that what it is?"

You were truly torn, to be honest. Becoming single on your birthday was the last wish you had for this day, but you felt a strong sense of adequacy and pride for building up the boundaries of tolerance. Besides, seeing as it was heading nowhere, it was only a matter of time that your relationship came to an end.

Although, it hurt. A lot. "Yes."

You darted your eyes from him, not wanting to study his reaction in case it caused you to meltdown and jump to his embrace, apologizing endlessly for your words. You loved him. But you didn't regret what you had just said.

Something like a dry chuckle of disbelief escaped out of his mouth. "Is that what you really want?"

'No,' your thoughts prompted you instantly before you could even contemplate. 'I want you to say so many things you're never willing to say. But you don't know.'

So instead, you lied: "Yes."

All expressed, you spun around without peeking back and rushed into your room, already knowing there was no more sense in strives to make this day any better; all of it would bring only bad associations. It would be depressing, even more than it already was.

God, was it how the break-up pained? Because if so, you wanted to be deceased. The world spun suddenly, and you sank to your knees, shaking madly and doing your best to find your way back to your bed, located a few mere meters from you. Part of you felt numb, but your head was wide awake and alarming you that something in terms of a disaster had just happened. Because it did. The clutching in your chest was unbearable, and tears were dashing out of your eyes like a living waterfall, which made you bury your face in your hands. Never have you ever wanted to be so drunk before.

And so many questions rung up in your head at once.

Did you make a good decision? What if you are going to miss him, yet knowing you could never call? What about college -- are things about to get awkward?

No answers.

But you knew someone who would be able to reply to them.

With the blurred by tears vision, you struggled but managed to find your phone in the purse, and then clumsily scrolled through and tapped in your list of contacts before holding the phone to your ear.

Please answer, you begged. Please, please…

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Pansy's voice roared from the other side of a line, as always, enthusiastic.

"Pansy." You tried to sound less brokenly than you were, feeling marginally worse at the reminder of your birthday. "Is Daphne around?"

"Ouch, you're a really nasty bitch sometimes, you know. I'm not goin' to point out today, but since you didn't let me end my wishes, I'll note that for the future reference." You were sure she was grinning at the teasing, seeing as much as she liked that. Normally, you wouldn't mind, but... "How--"

"Pansy, please..." you sobbed out, almost desperate to have someone to consult and share emotions with. Daphne -- contrary to Pansy, who could be very judgy sometimes -- was someone you had especially on mind now. "I need to talk to her."

You heard her sigh; the kind of sigh she used to either prove her resignation or concern. But, as much as it surprised you, she suppressed her curiosity and, without a second word, obediently handed the phone over to Daphne. At least, that's what you assumed because you heard a pause and subdued mutters in the background.

"Y/N?" the milder tone spoke up, and you felt suddenly very strange as if submerged in water of relief; relief to hear the familiar voice. That released you from keeping a distant attitude, and yet again, a sadness washed over you, triggering a loud wail to come out of your mouth. "Y/N, is everything alright?"

"No..." you sniveled, unable to collect yourself together. "I-I... We br-brok-e up."

"You and Draco?" Daphne asked, astonishment evident.

You nodded but then remembered she couldn't see you nor read your expression. So instead, you forced your vocal cords to work again. "Mhm..."

"What happened?"

Restoring the story in your brain again, you told her everything, still tearfully but much more coherently this time. You avoided the details, briefly skipping from one utterance to another, as your conversations had gone, and you were very much thankful she didn't press for more information about the prospect of the situation. If it hadn't been her sporadic gasps or loud inhales of breath, you would have almost presumed she wasn't listening. However, she was, and as soon turned out, Pansy was as well.

"That's bananas!" Pansy shouted somewhere from the back as you had ended, and despite your gloom, you giggled quietly at her comment.

"Shush," Daphne tried to silence her, covering up the fact she had put you on the speaker. You didn't mind because you knew Pansy, who would definitely expect Daphne to cite the whole conversation if needed. But knowing Daphne as well, you could bet she flushed more than she would want to at that point. "So it all started because of the cake?"

"And the delay," you added. "But it's not just about that, obviously. It feels like... he completely stopped caring. And I don't want to be stuck in a relationship where everything is about sex and having fun only. Draco wasn't looking for a commitment, which..."

"Sucks,"ended this time Pansy unhesitatingly, who wasn't now screaming from the other part of a room but openly participating in the discussion.

"Yeah," you agreed.

"As for me, I think he might love you more than you know, Y/N." It was Daphne talking again, and she sounded positively convinced about her view as for someone who had hardly exchanged any word with Draco for the past few years. As if reading your thoughts, she continued. "I've observed you a lot. I know he might seem unemotional, but it's you who discovered him. That must require a lot of trust, you know."

You contemplated, and some of the memories and images from your first encounter run across your brain, try as might to suppress it: spotting each other at the party; binging some whisky shots together; flirty teasing; the very masculine scent of cologne; and then... more spicy recollections -- eager lips pressing against each other; against each others' necks; against other parts of the body; stripping off the clothes in the passionate haste...

Receiving a long moment of silence, Daphne took a second chance and asked. "And what's with you? Do you want to end it?"

It felt like standing before the oracle of truth. Therefore, you couldn't deny it in front of yourself. "No."

"So what're you still doing there?" commented Pansy impatiently, and you could imagine her rolling the eyes. "Get out and find him!"

She was right. You will.

XOXOXOXO

"I thought I'd find you here..."

No. Actually, you didn't.

You had tracked Draco's phone with your own one with some help of an app that, as the two of you had established still in the relationship, would be a good idea in case of an emergency. That in itself proved to be more than helpful, believing that your argument may be pinned as something in terms of an emergency, right?

So having access to his location, you had found out he was in the park where he had taken you on the first date, shortly after dinner, to watch the sunset that, as he had described, 'was a typical cliche from every romantic movie.'

But you had fallen for that. So much.

You hadn't been aware the place had actually some meaning for him until now, and that... God, that he had even remembered it. Time showed, however, that it indeed did, to which your heart reacted with a happy jolting. But also with a nasty sting of nostalgia following shortly after.

Yet, that only had encouraged you to make up your mind and go looking for him, which hadn't been such a difficult task per se. He was sitting on the bench, in the shade of a tree, and hiding his a little too delicate skin from the sun rays. As soon as he had heard your voice, his gray eyes flew up to see you standing a few meters away.

"What are you doing here?" was the immediate question that tumbled out of his mouth. He arched his eyebrow, and to your surprise, he didn't even look angry or sad with you. Nothing near the edge; actually, almost something like the amusement was painting on his face.

"Aren't you mad with me?" you asked intrigued, completely forgetting about his question.

He frowned. "Why would I be?" His tone was so mild that you weren't sure if he was referring to the double meaning; but then he smirked playfully and said, "Besides, I knew you were coming."

"Wha-- How?" you asked, eyes dilating a fraction, in shock.

He smirked, pointing at his phone in an explanatory manner. After a moment, you finally figured out what he meant: the app must have registered he had been tracked and that your phone was trying to find his. At this notice, you reacted with a wave of flush, suddenly regretting your previous lie. His smile only widened at your expression. "Wanna sit? It's plenty of room here."

"Mhm..." You nodded, pleased to accept his offer, and walked over to the bench, doing your best to hide the evident embarrassment on your face. You felt strange he had taken you with such ease, seeing as merely two or three hours ago, you had burst at him like a cram-full volcano of unspoken emotions.

Draco shifted a package from his side, making more space for you to sit, and it took you a moment to realize it was a McDonald's cake from earlier. Everything started from that -- a stupid, little piece of cake which stood up between...

You shook the thought away, taking a seat next to him, close enough to smell his sandalwood cologne. "You didn't answer my question," Draco reminded you. "What's so important to make you track my phone?"

"I'm sorry, okay?" You rounded your face to him, flustrated, leaning at the backrest of a bench. "That's why I came. I wanted to apologize."

"Oh... Couldn't you call?"

You sighed. "I figured you wouldn't want to talk to me after...you know... our quarrel," you said half-despondent, half-desperate, watching your feet as if it were the most interesting thing to peer at now. "I didn't mean what I said earlier."

"I know," he said. Out of nowhere, he was gently grasping your palms which forced you to look up directly into his intense gaze. His eyes were swirling like molten silver at you. "But I should be apologizing, love. I made a mistake, okay?" His hands traveled all across to your tense shoulders, squeezing them lightly. "I know I should be more... affectionate with you. And this was...dumb. A dumb mistake. With that cake. But I'll try to be better if you give it another shot."

He looked so serious that you instantly believed him. You wanted to actually, with all force of longing, which grew up too rapidly in you when he wasn't around. Draco was a fool, you could easily say. But he was your fool, which was a thing you couldn't be more proud of.

Peeking slowly in the other direction, you asked, out of the topic, "You remembered the place?"

"Of course," he puffed jokingly, smiling. "Our first date. Officially our place from then on."

"Right..." You smiled back.

Honestly, the mere fact that he had called this spot 'yours' warmed up your heart, and you felt yourself grinning at his never-before-discovered emotionality. To assure yourself you weren't the only one caring, it was all you needed to hear.

The whole moment was intense, and now, you realized, is when you should have hugged him. Kissed him. Said something back at his sincere endearment.

But instead, spotting plastic cutlery next to your 'gift', you asked, "So what's the taste of the birthday cake?"

And you knew he had caught the subtext of your playful inquiry. And you knew that soon you would work things out again. But, as for now...

"I thought you would never ask."

XOXOXOXO

A/N: Looooooool. Such a drama-comedy, right? And I could easily say It feels like 50% Draco-x-Reader / 50% Draco-x-BirthdayCake... But whatever (2am is working like a drunken bud, folks). Happy beginning of August :)

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transsexualhamlet · 3 years

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sherlock holmes reactions part six (aka me losing my mind over the final problem)

Hi, I am once again reminding you all that I've formed a parasocial relationship with the crackhead detective 👍 This made me overly emotional for the fact that he didnt even die

But like

hhhmmmmmmmm those were certainly an interesting 14 pages

Yeah, I already made a post about how the final problem relates to yuumori's final problem and how incredibly sexy it is but yes now I'd just like to relay to you how absolutely heart brocken i am over this lol I will eventually get to reading the post hiatus stories i just. I haven't emotionally recovered from this yet

Yelling below the cut somehow this reaction feels longer than the story itself. but it's about half cracking jokes and half sobbing so be prepared

I mean, starting off strong with "well yknow since i got married my and sherlock's Very Intimate Relations had to be modified and all but we hadnt seen each other in a while so it was kind of jarring to see him crawling in my second story bedroom window clutching Wounds and closing the shutters absolutely fucking wasted losing his mind over some dude named moriarty"

We've been over this but. Oh my god why are they gay

I just like????? Imagine how fucking bizzare that would be to just see your old homie crawl into your window bleeding on your floor and asking to exit the other way in case he's followed like "hey bro can we Talk i hope you're not busy" WHAT IS HE SUPPOSED TO DO, SAY HE IS? Imagine watson just like "no dude I'm fucking busy go get killed"

But legitimately. That's certainly something. And like, I see a lot of books starting like this lmao but. Holmes's stuff usually starts off kind of easily with watson going "yeah so lately ive been Experiencing Sherlock Holmes" and spend 20 minutes on exposition with them having a Conversation but no. mans just fucking escaped a hitman and went directly to his boyfriend's house having apparently Never Before In His Goddamn Life mentioned his actual nemesis to this guy. How the FUCK has watson never heard of him before.

And how sherlock starts talking about it isn't any less funny he's just like "UHHH SO THERE'S THIS GUY. THIS ABSOLUTE MAN. AND HES REALLY IMPRESSIVE I MEAN HES LIKE SUPER FUCKING SMART AND HES LIKE DOING CRIMES????? SO I LIKE. I NOTICED AS I DO BUT HE NOTICED THAT I NOTICED AND I MIGHT HAVE MADE A LITTLE FUCKY WUCKY DUDE CAN YOU HELP ME LIKE. FLEE THE COUNTRY" and watson's like my dear sherlock What The Fuck

Im also loving how he calls moriarty a "mathematical celebrity" awhi;grih;oaewhhta;ioh;iaewh;ii;oewh;eh;rg mans just. ok lol hes a Math Celebrity that had to quit his math teacher job because EVERYONE JUST KNEW HE WAS A CRIME LORD LIKE THEY TOOK ONE LOOK AT HIM AND WENT MANS DEFINITELY HAS BODIES IN HIS BASEMENT I DONT WANT HIM TEACHING HERE

But yeah, it was interesting to see what the big deal about og moriarty was... especially since the deal simply did not deliver. There was not really a big deal. It's like reading the first chapter of a book and immediately skipping to the climax. Everything is so hyped up and clearly having been building for years and you just get like NO CONTEXT. I swear Moriarty wasn't goddamn mentioned any time before this. He's just suddenly the big guy and watson has just never fucking heard shit about this guy.

What's so funny about this whole situation is that I just. Cannot objectively know anything about Moriarty at all because sherlock just... does not go into what this dude's alleged crimes even were, other than. The fact that he like. Does them. He's just really involved in crimes. How? Why? For how long? In what way? For what purpose? NO FUCKING CLUE HE JUST. HE JUST DOES. And there's nothing to really suggest that Moriarty was honestly a really evil guy. They're all like trust me he was just. he was just really bad but show absolutely No examples of being such. The most evil thing we saw Moriarty do personally was call sherlock stupid for letting him get into the apartment. And even then he immediately followed it up with complimenting him lol

yeah, my impression of Moriarty was like. I expected him to be worse, honestly. I expected him to be like a cartoon villain because he was kind of made out to be one and then he's just honestly a really polite and refined guy?? Mans strolls the fuck into 221B like hi shawty and it is Not like yuumori obviously man's holding a gun but like. What the fuck they are just. They have never met before but They Clearly Have and it's. its so weird

Like honestly I don't dislike og moriarty. He's really what william tried to be (and fucking failed, but beside the point) but like. Dude's so powerful and for what. He just walks into the apartment with No Pretense like why sherlock holmes is that a revolver or are you just happy to see me oh my goodness you are a dolt why would you hold the gun that way. disgusting. disgraceful. dreadful. Oh my god. I love him I'm sorry

abngnahhghifeah;iewh and Why does sherlock describe him like that hes like "MANS A REALLY REFINED LIZARD /pos" HIEHIFEHW:HGIHOEWFEEW FOR WHAT. FOR W H A T

baaaaaaaaghhhhhh but likeeeee they went STRAIGHT to "you know what I'm here for" "you know how I'm going to respond" "well then" "yeah" "mhm" "damn well it really do be like that sometimes" "ur really smart by the way" "im fucking aware let's kill each other as we both Thought in our Minds" "yes lets" AHDHDHDHDFS WTF THIS IS INSANE

But damn uh. mutual destruction my beloved this is very different from sherliam but im not. im not. opposed to it tucks hair behind ear

I just. Holy shit they really went "if you destroy me I will ensure that we both go down hand in unlovable hand" "I wouldn't mind that"

Annnnd I just noticed that the actual lines for this part kind of. that kind of happened in chapter 31 when sherlock was like i would Gladly die to take down the lord of crime and william was like. hahahah yeahNO NO NO NO

BUT SERIOUSLY THO IM LOSING MY MIND OVER HOW SHERLOCK SAYS THIS WHOLE THING TO WATSON AND HES LIKE DAMN SHAWTY HES LIKE THE REASON FOR HALF THE CRIME IN THIS CITY BUT HES SO NICE THO??? LIKE I EXPECTED HIM TO BE TOUGH AND EVERTHING NO HES JUST SOME POLITE PROPER UNDERSTANDABLE MAN WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE VERY DIABOLICAL shawty is having a Crisis

And then watson is like wowww that was cool you wanna spend the night and sherlock is like "UNFORTUNATELY BESTIE I AM BEING FUCKING TRACKED DOWN ID LIKE YOU TO NOT DIE WITH ME"

This bit gave me a Moment Moment because oh my god. Then watson is like "no shut up i'm coming with you i don't care" and i just had to Take A Minute because THEY SWITCHED PLACES AAH SHERLOCK IS TRYING TO KEEP WATSON SAFE NOW AND WATSON IS NOW MORE RECKLESS BC OF HIM AND. AHHHH

Completely random but. How sherlock still refers to 221B as "our rooms" to watson even though watson hasn't lived their in years........ shawty i am emotional.........

SO THEY GODDAMN FLEE THE COUNTRY TOGETHER BC WATSON SAYS THEY HAVE TO STICK TOGETHER AND SHERLOCK HAS A MOMENT WHERE HE'S LIKE YEAH NEVERMIND PLEASE GO HOME WATSON AND WATSON IS JUST LIKE. NO. AND HSERLOCK IS LIKE. DAMN OK I HAVE NEVER HEARD YOU SAY THAT BEFORE

But. Ok as funny as this is. They have this fucking Conversation on the train to switzerland where sherlock is like "I have not lived in vain" and watson is like "YOURE NOT DYING" and hes like "i have not lived in vain. like i said. this will not be a bad way to die" UHHHHHH DAMN SHAWTY

hhhhhh and it just Gets. it. it. it Gets. These fuckers get to switzerland and they stay in a hotel and then leave for reichenbach but watson gets this goddamn letter telling him that hes needed at the hotel to basically save this lady's life. And he doesn't. Like. he doesn't even want to go he's like FUCK IT SHE CAN DIE IM NOT LEAVING YOU but sherlock convinces him to go fULLY KNOWING THE LETTER WAS FUCKING FAKED BY MORIARTY JUST AS A PLOY TO GET HIM ALONE

AND THEN HE JUST. WENT ANYWAY AND WATSON HAD TO WATCH HIM JUST LIKE GODDAMN WALK OFF INTO THE SUNSET LIKE "LITTLE DID I KNOW THIS WOULD BE THE LAST TIME I WOULD SEE HIM BUT IT JUST. IT HAD THAT VIBE YKNOW"

God I just. Wow sherlock really did that huh. He really went and did that. And I went over it in the post about this compared to yuumori but it just RUINED me how watson just. Never saw what happened and there's just so little information about it that all they have is these assumptions and pieces that just suggest that these guys met up, walked up to the goddamn waterfall having a nice civil conversation about how talented and smart they both were at this and how they revealed their methods to each other and complimented them because of course they did

And they just sat up there talking to each other so long and Moriarty legit waited politely or even possibly was the one that suggested he write a letter to watson in which sherlock just went "damn lol moriarty's pretty nice actually anyway uhhhh sorry watson ily ✌" and just like. left it up there in his damn cigarette box

But just like. damn the insinuation that moriarty just sat there and watched while he wrote that entire goddamn letter, sealed it up, and then got up and went alright buddy let's go but it makes no goddamn sense if they wanted to actually kill each other and assure they themselves would survive I could name like 23 different ways they could have managed it so easily and they Didn't. they were really set on mutual destruction huh. There's no way they were even trying to do anything but Die Together at that point and that's Something huh

It absolutely baffles me how they could say that these guys had plummetted like, holding each other tho. Like. ok lol but How Do You Even Know

It was certainly a ride. But the fact that Watson had to actively try to think like Sherlock to figure out what happened in the scene was just. The cherry on top. Especially after they'd consciously started to switch roles in this i just. Damn.

In conclusion uhhhhhhhh gay people real I suppose

#rowan views moriarty #rowan's hyperfixation essays #sherlock holmes #*screams* THIS BOY GOT ME FUCKED UP. FUCKED UP

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smalltowndetective · 4 years

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Hey! So, I am super new to tumblr, but I finally made one to talk about Wayhaven. I’m a writer, and I suppose this snippet is my application to the fandom, lol. It’s just something small that I have been working on for the past few weeks, and if I don’t post it now, I don’t think I ever will. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! (Formatting may get a little messed up, but hopefully it will still be readable)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26565814/chapters/64764400

(I think there is another way to publish links, but this is the Ao3 link)

Pairing-Thea and Felix

Words-1.6 k

It was the middle of the night at the warehouse.

Most supernatural races did not need sleep, and vampires were included in that, but with how almost deathly quiet the warehouse was, you would have expected that somehow, all four vampires that resided there were all somehow asleep at the same time.

Cutting through the quiet however, there was a noise.

The noise that had woken Felix up.

Not that it was an awful noise to wake to. The small sounds of a melody, simple yet complex all at the same time.

Oh, of course, the piano.

The piano was originally Nate’s, who knew how to play quite well, though it had been months since he had played last, and Felix had never known him to play this late.

Might as well see what he’s doing up.

He made this way to the social room where the piano was, the melody quiet, yet sweet, something like standing on top of a hill on a summer day.

But when he made is way over to the piano, he found the person on the piano bench was not Nate after all.

It was Thea.

The detective was staying at the warehouse that night, and she had gone to bed hours ago, needing the sleep more than Felix and the others did. But here she was, looking as beautiful as ever, her dark brown hair pulled messily in a ponytail that ran to her waist, the firelight making her pale skin almost seem to glow. It took his breath away, as she always did. Thea had not noticed him come in, and for a second, he wanted it to stay like this, peaceful, and it surprised him, due to his normal subversion to quietness. However, he knew he could not stay silent forever.

“Well, isn’t this unexpected?”, he says, a grin in his words, “Didn’t expect you to be up.”

Thea stopped playing, and looked back up at him, a shy smile that he knew so well on her lips, “Sorry”.

“Don’t be”, Felix shrugged, “I’m always happy to see you”.

Thea shook her head, but Felix could see a small blush on her face. She had never been a hard one to fluster, and it always put a spring into him when he was able to, finding it endearing.

“You wouldn’t mind if I asked to sit next to you?”, he then said, gesturing to the piano bench, having the sudden desire to be closer to her.

“No, of course not”, Thea smiled, but Felix could see something behind her gunmetal blue eyes, and it gave him pause. In the few months that he had known her, she had never been one to stay up late, always going to bed no later then ten. But he put that thought behind him, and he moved to sit next to her, their shoulders brushing, making his nerves flare, but in a happy sort of way. But at the same time, Felix felt an intense calmness from being around her, unlike anything he had felt with anyone else.

A few moments of silence pass while the two of them gazed at each other, it finally being broken by Thea, her voice not more then a whisper, “I hope I didn’t wake you, I just couldn’t sleep”.

Felix almost made a joking remark about her able to wake him anytime at night, but he could again see that quiet sadness in her eyes, so he decided against it, instead changing the subject.

“I didn’t know you could piano”, Felix said, a grin on his face, “That’s pretty cool, I don’t have the patience for that sort of thing” He chuckled out the last bit, and when Thea did not immediately answer, he continued, “You know, Nate plays piano, you should tell him, he’ll probably love to talk about it”.

“I’m really not very good”, Thea stammered, averting her eyes from his gaze.

“Nonsense”, he scoffed, “Have you heard yourself? Give yourself more credit, Thea, you’re pretty amazing.”

That was enough to turn Thea bright red, and Felix tried not to chuckle at her flustered state, not wanting her to think he was making fun of her.

“Th-Thank you”, she finally said, her face still flushed, but she was looking back at him, and Felix gently wrapped his arm over her shoulders, bringing the two of them closer together then they already were. Ever since the maa-alused, they had not had many moments of being alone together, and he wanted to savor it as much as he could.

“So, what are you doing up?”, Felix said, turning a little to face her, “You sure you’re doing okay? Did you have another nightmare?”

“I did”, Thea muttered, and Felix reached out to hold one of Thea’s hands, and smiled a little when she entwined their fingers.

“Yeah, what happened with Murphy was…”, he struggled to find the correct word, “Awful. It’s okay for it not to be completely figured out yet. Being kidnapped isn’t something that I don’t think anyone can just put behind them”.

“That wasn’t exactly what I was dreaming about”, Thea mused, lost in thought, “Well, it’s sort of related, I guess”.

“Then what was it?”, Felix said, who felt like he could not help himself but ask, genuinely confused to what she could be possibly referring to.

“Do you remember when we were fighting Murphy after running from my apartment?”, Thea asked, and he nodded in response, “Well, when Murphy threw you against that lamppost, and you… fell to the ground...”. Thea swallowed hard, and then continued, “I was really scared that I would… never see you again”.

For only a few times in Felix’s life, he was struck speechless. He could not form the words on his lips that he wanted to say, his chest feeling constricted from him just breathing, and he grasped her hand tighter, but he was not sure if it was for Thea or for him.

“I had only known you for a few weeks at that point”, Thea said, like she wanted to fill the void between them, “But Felix, I- I lost my father when I was two, and even though my mum and I have always been close, I’ve always been scared I would lose her too, and even though it doesn’t make sense.. I… when I woke up in Murphy’s lair, what scared me the most wasn’t being there, even though that did scare me a lot, it was never seeing you again, and I had no idea what happened to you, and I didn’t know if you were okay, and- “

Thea bit her lip, in what a seemed like an attempt to stop talking, with what looked like the start of tears at the edge of her eyes, and even though Felix knew her heart was pounding, he could barely hear hers over his own. He had known how much of what happened with Murphy had affected her, but he never realized that she felt this way about it. He still remembered the dread and fear when he woken up, with nothing he could do except drag himself back to Thea’s apartment, and it still was something that still haunted him.

“I guess what I’m trying to say”, Thea said, obviously noticing Felix’s quietness, “Is that I’m really scared of losing you, and that I’m afraid that I won’t be able to do enough, and I’ll again lose someone that I deeply care about”.

At that, Felix brought her into an embrace, her head on his chest, and he slowly ran his fingers through her hair, and he finally found the courage to say something.

“You know I’m scared of losing you too, right?”, he said, then he whispered softly, “More than you can know”.

Thea sat up in surprise, and almost breathlessly, said, “Do you really mean it?”

“Of course, I do”, Felix said, the smile finally back on his lips, but it was not his usual grin, it calmer and almost more genuine then it normally was. He remembers back to a few weeks ago now, the night that he had kissed her for the first time, and how he had been nervous that it was only a kiss to Thea, when it had meant so much more to him. He had never felt this way with anyone before, and to know that Thea was scared of losing him too, well, there was not much he could say to describe how that felt.

Felix then leaned forward, and he lightly rested his forehead on hers, and moved his hand into her hair, and tenderly kissed her. The kiss was gentle, but it still felt passionate, and no matter how many times they kissed, he did not think he would get tired of it.

When the need for air called them both, they broke apart, and Felix felt elated at the smile that was on Thea, and after the heaviness of their conversation, it made him feel better then anything else he could think of.

“I really should get back to sleep”, Thea said, “We have an early meeting tomorrow, and I don’t think Adam will be happy if I’m falling asleep through half of it”.

“Oh, come on”, Felix pouted before he could stop himself, “We don’t get enough time together as it is.”

Thea shakes her head, but she moves to her put her head on his shoulder, “Alright, I’ll stay for a little while”.

“Yes!”, Felix exclaimed, unable to hide his glee, and he wraps her to him close. After what felt like a few moments, he heard her heartbeat slow, and realized Thea had fallen asleep, and even though his arm was falling asleep, he did his best not to fidget, the happiness flooding through his veins that he knew that no matter how long he is was Thea, would never calm.

This truly is the best thing that could have ever happened to me

.I am also open to requests! It may take me a while, due to school, but I would love to write more, with this same pairing or different ones!

#the wayhaven chronicles #twc #felix hauville #detective thea holland #wayhaven chronicles

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wrong-bts-shitposting · 4 years

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The Cigarette Burner

“He knew he was building a brand for himself by now – the burnt cigarette in the mouth of his victims, the closest everyone will get to the actual evidence tying him to the murders while at the same time being far from it...”

Mafia!Jungkook x Detective!Reader lol??? help

→ summary: You’re on Jungkook’s tail as he carries on doing Mafia stuff. Assigned to stick to him like freshly-chewed gum, you wonder if you can survive this case and tie him to all the murders.

→ genre: dark, angst, fluff, a bit of smut??? (haven’t decided yet)

‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘‘

Chapter 1

→ warnings: quite realistic description of the murders, weed mentioning+consumption, guns

→ word count: 2.064 words

→ a/n: Welcome to my first fanfic ever?? I decided to write this as a joke for my friend Lys over here, and she actually really liked it. After months of egging me on to post it, here I am, modifying my female heroine into a Y/N so all of you can read :) Please tell me what you think. I’m looking forward to any criticism, just don’t be mean. I guess that’s it, enjoy the read! I’m trying my best to come up with another chapter soon.

kisses, Omi xx

Prologue

Everything happens for a reason – or so he tells himself. I’m not a bad man, they’re the ones who deserve punishment is the only thought racing through his head as he watches the life drain through the victim’s eyes. He wasn’t wrong, however. He was just mistaken. He was just as bad as them. How could a cold-blooded murderer play God as if he ruled over the kingdom of the living? A kingdom so beautiful at times, but more often than not, terrifying even to the toughest…

Another gunshot echoes through the darkest of nights, startling the crows on top of a tall, abandoned building, causing them to caw desperately and flap their raven wings, deserting the place in mere seconds. Heavy footsteps walked towards the unknown man who was barely keeping his eyes open, gripping his chest hastily and fighting for his right to live. Suddenly, he feels the hair at the front of his forehead being latched onto and pulled harshly, causing him to tilt his head up and look the perpetrator in his eyes – a pair of onyx orbs staring right back into his, as if he was receiving some kind of sick pleasure from his pain. “You tried to trick me? Me? Out of all people?” he spat the words so hatefully that he made the dying man shiver. “Mr. Jeon, I swear we delivered the precise amount-“ he couldn’t even finish his sentence as Jungkook pressed the warm muzzle of his gun against his forehead and pulled the trigger, watching as blood splattered across the cold ground and all over the front of his white shirt. He lets go of the man’s hair in slight disgust and gets up, scoffing to himself. “I hope Leonard gets the message when he sees you…” he mutters lowly while pulling out a pack of cigarettes, grabbing onto an individual one by its’ neck and shoving it in between the lips of the corpse, lighting it with his Zippo, the whole image becoming a gory, unsettling sight.

He knew he was building a brand for himself by now – the burnt cigarette in the mouth of his victims, the closest everyone will get to the actual evidence tying him to the murders while at the same time being far from it, as the cigarettes always burnt away up to the butt. Without even giving him a second glance, he walks away, twirling his Glock in between his fingers before putting it behind his back, inside the band of his trousers.

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“This is it, Y/N, I’m really fucking done with this man!” the tall, blond man known by his high status in the Police Department of Los Angeles – the sergeant – almost blurts out in anger as he kicks the door to her office open. “Another day, another body; I’m about to lose my fucking mind” he throws a pile of documents under the name of Jeon Jungkook on your desk, the collision with the hard wood making a loud, slapping noise. “Sir, calm down, I told you I’m your best chance at tying him to all this-“ You stood up from your chair, a bit taken aback by his sudden presence and the fact that his face almost turned bright red from the poor managing of his emotions. “How could I let my best detective just throw herself at some relentless animal?? Tell me how? You know what he’s capable of.“ he walks to her desk, his breathing sounding a bit ragged as rushed up a flight of stairs and kept on raising his voice unintentionally.

He opens the documents in front of you, gruesome pictures of dead girls almost flying out from in between the sheets of paper that were holding infinite amounts of details related to the autopsy and the surroundings they were found in, everything but one thing: proof that Jungkook is the one behind all this. “You need to understand that if you offer to go undercover, you might become just like them: a pretty face on a maimed body… or vice versa” you roll your eyes at his last comment, not wanting to interfere in his small speech about the girls. “I completely understand, Oliver, but you have to let me in on this. LA is already fucked by his drug cartel, we don’t need them to fear his killings on top of all that” you let out a long sigh, glancing with the corner of your eyes at the poor, poor girls. You knew he was right, and deep within you lay a fear of such death, your heart throbbing at the thought that you might give your life away for a grain of truth.

A heavy silence fell upon both of you as you stood in the middle of the office, each staring at a random object from the room, hoping that the other would just say something. Anything. Oliver runs a hand through his thick, blonde locks and looks up into your eyes, feeling uneasy “Okay, Y/N, I’ll let you in on this job… But if you die, I’ll be so disappointed”. you quickly deliver him an encouraging smile, the dimple on your right cheek making a glorious appearance on your face “Thank you… I won’t let you down. I hope it doesn’t take too long...” you trail off before walking to your desk slowly, opening the first document that revealed a mesmerizing, yet somewhat scary man: his dark locks contrasted with his dark brown eyes and his really pale skin. The only picture available of him was slightly shaky; depicting him at what you could tell was a club, probably looking up at someone. How they got their hands on this – you’ll never know. But you were thankful that you at least had the smallest of leads on how he looked like. The man breaks the silence once again, letting you know that he’ll be preparing everything that’s needed for later that night, as you were bound to begin as soon as possible to prevent any more tragedies from happening. Amongst the many drug dealers killed, innocent people found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, falling into the killer’s hands. You nodded to Oliver before he disappeared out of your sight, leaving you alone with your thoughts which only became louder as adrenaline kicked in – you realized you’ll finally come face to face with the most dangerous drug lord. What if I die? What if he finds out who I am? God, I’m an idiot sometimes…

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You were nervous, you couldn’t lie. You were holding a cold cup of coffee to your chest while staring outside the window of the office, your mind absent. You knew that Paula, Oliver’s assistant was almost done packing the bag which only contained clothes and a really small, device, which could easily be hidden almost anywhere. It served the purpose of alerting the police once you were in real danger or once you considered that you’d found out everything needed to throw him behind bars. You hear your phone go off and pull it out of your pocket, reading the text that popped up on the screen “I’m done, come downstairs and meet me” the name above the text was Paula. Sipping the last drops of your coffee, you throw the cup into the trashcan near your chair and walk out of the office, running both hands through your hair as if it weighed you down greatly. Everything around you felt heavy; it felt like you were walking to your death sentence – which was… probable. “Miss Y/L/N” shouted a high-pitched voice, reeking your ears painfully. You could never stand Oliver’s assistant, you thought she didn’t deserve her job, but only got it because of her looks. Shaking the thought away, you force a smile and walk to Paula, who was waiting next to one of the police cars which was often used by the detectives when going undercover – a black Mercedes. She reaches her arms forward, almost pushing the bag into your embrace “The clothes are a bit… revealing. Jeon is known for liking… naughty women.” Paula’s sentencing almost made you choke on your tongue, a slight blush appearing on your pale cheeks. Is this girl serious? How could Oliver hire such an unprofessional woman… Your biggest problem was your judgmental nature. Maybe it came from years of working for LAPD; meeting all kinds of people – the dumbest to even the smartest of criminals, whom you respected for their skillfulness, but despised for the field they chose to display it on.

You hold the bag to your chest, afraid to open it, not knowing what clothes were chosen for you to wear. You could work with anything, well… almost anything. You weren’t going to flaunt your body around in patches of cloths rather than feel more comfortable in slightly revealing clothes. Giving Paula a soft glare, you unlock the car and throw the bag inside “I’ll go now, tell Oliver I’m not going to disappoint him”. The assistant watches you sit in the car and drive away, wondering if you know where you’re headed.

You had the documents with you, hidden in the glove box, as you had been analyzing them all day. You noticed Jungkook had a habit of visiting a strip club named Trinity, somewhere downtown, almost speeding to that place as your memory had reminded you of it. You were thinking of your boyfriend and family, not to mention your friends. Bound to be gone for a while, you knew they’d start worrying. The worst part was not being able to connect with them or even see them, just to let them know that you’re doing fine.

What a shabby place… is this where I’m supposed to be? You wished your thoughts would just shut up at times, as they only made you grow more anxious. Parking the car in a very dark place, on an alley, you glance at the board of the car, becoming aware that it was well past 11 PM at that point. Rifling through the bag on the passenger’s seat, you pull out what seems to be a baby blue, short dress with noodle straps and a pair of white high heels. You let out a really long sigh, although you were glad it wasn’t the worst outfit ever. You might’ve as well worn this at some point in time when going out clubbing. Making sure no one’s around, you quickly change in the car and hides the small device in between the foam and the material of your bra, on the inside. Okay, I’m ready… somewhat ready. It won’t be bad, right? He can’t be that bad.

The bodyguards let you get through quite easily as you batted your long eyelashes at them and pleaded them nicely. Upon opening a heavy door and walking down a set of stairs, your mind could only comment on how sketchy it all looked. This definitely isn’t filled with criminals… A thick cloud of smoke could be cut apart with a knife, and as you waved your small hand near your face to push it away, you see him. All the way back in a corner, dimly lit by a red light, he sat sprawled back on a cozy couch, surrounded by girls… and a few of his men. He was wearing a black shirt, the top buttons of it undone, paired with black jeans and a pair of worn-out black boots. You stop dead in your tracks, your lips parting so softly and slightly, your bright blue eyes slowly widening at the sight of him. This man was… gorgeous. How could you think such things about a criminal? As you indulge in the sight, from across the room, Jungkook notices everything. His keen eyes saw everything the second it moved, one of the things which annoyed most people he knew. He shifts his dark orbs towards the front door and sees you, slightly scanning your face as it was the only thing he could see through the crowd of people dancing around. Your eyes meet his briefly and you swallow tightly – understanding that there’s no turning back now. He was watching you curiously, although his glance was too intense, burning holes through you, wanting to find out everything about you on the spot.

I will definitely throw this mission…

#bts #bangtan #bangtan boys #bts jungguk #bts jimin #bts jungkook #bts x reader #jungkook x reader #mafia jungkook #detective reader #fanfic #bts fanfic #jungkook fanfic #jungkook angst #criminal jungkook #police x criminal

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airyravenmaid · 5 years

Text

Eye Contact

Back at it again at Krispy Kreme with more FF Versus XV bullshit. This one’s kinda wonky and really bizarre since the AU overall ties in with a KH crossover I helped make up along with personal headcanons, but can also standalone for a FFXV AU in itself. I’m just clearing that up since there is a part mentioned towards the end that nods to a world the Chocobros went to as one of their many “world detours” en route to the one they needed to go to in order to establish diplomatic relations with a potential sister kingdom also of light. ...Oh, and there are implications of another headcanon regarding a certain Immortal Marshal, but that’s a popular HC in itself, so that goes without saying. So, yeah, sorry for that; just warning y’all so you don’t get confused and want me burned at the stake.

Alright, alright, that’s enough idiotic justification rambling from me; I’m already buzzed as is and can hardly think right anyways lol. Just enjoy the crazy piece I wrote so I can try and work on the next tone. This one’s not Lightis and is more platonic bc Light’s making fray-ends with these dumb boys :3c. Maybe I can write more of her befriending the others, but we’ll see. ‘Til then, here’s this one and happy reading for those who see this! 💘

Staring back at Prompto from the caravan bathroom mirror was himself, but more clouded. He only blamed it on having just gotten up and dressed for the day not too long ago, figuring he’d taken care of everything he needed to per his morning routine. The very sight of his dull, everyday mirror reflection made him sigh a tad forlornly, but realizing the time to go was imminent only had him slap two hands to his cheeks once. Putting on his more traditional smile, Prompto gave the mirror two thumbs up as enough motivation to start the day right. No prob! He could do this, he could do this!

Upon going to exit the vicinity for the fresher outside world, Prompto rubbed whatever lingering weariness stuck by away from his eyes to clear his vision. When things still looked slightly blurry as before, he gulped. Fumbling through his smallest bag, he dug for what he thought was taken care of already. Pulling out two connected circles he knew to be his contact lenses case, Prompto opened it to find it empty, to his panic.

“Maybe I’ve still got my spares…?” Prompto hoped, rummaging through the bag to try and find more disposable lenses. He found the source box, but opening it only gave him an empty container and an expectation for a very rough day ahead. “You’ve gotta be kidding me! I’m out already?!”

“Prompto, what’s the hold up in there?” Gladio called from outside. “We gotta move!”

“Be right out! Just— making sure I didn’t forget anything is all!”

“Then do one last good check and hurry. We haven’t got all day either!”

Prompto in response called out a playfully affirmative “Aye, aye, Big Guy!” before going to search what he could of something to counteract his flawed eyesight. There was a definite solution on him, he knew, but the glasses case buried somewhere on his possession was considered a dead last resort. Otherwise, those days of having them as his sole option were over and done with. His investigation was thorough, but unfortunately, his results came up fruitless with no lenses available.

Giving up, he exited the caravan to catch up with the other four and hurry into the vacant passenger’s seat in the Regalia before it finally drove off along the world around it. His only hope now was for supplies to be low enough for warranting a pit stop at the nearest store of some sorts, or at least somewhere he can pick up some new spares. Luckily in recent days, he’d been thoroughly reminded to digitally order replacements by a certain team strategist, but there was no telling when the chance to claim them would come. A gunsman’s aim-precise eyes certainly depended on excellent vision, and in a way, so did the entire team.

“So! Ignis, where’s our next destination?” Prompto asked next to him, knowing subtlety was key in his strategy to get his lens replacements. “Anything we gotta do first?”

“Actually, our first order of business is none too far from the Disc of Cauthess,” Ignis noted. “Seems we’ve run low on a few things, and waiting to get them is out of the question.”

“I couldn’t agree more! The sooner, the better; the more supplies, the merrier! So, no need to wait on it.”

“What’s your hurry for?” Lightning inquired, suspicious. “It’s just a run-of-the-mill supply run. We’ve done them hundreds of times.”

“Oh, I know that, it’s just, umm… you never know what you’ll find there that’s useful. And I’m just curious on what’s ‘in store’ for us.”

Lightning rolled her eyes at the quip and slouched back a bit further in her seat. “I guess. Whatever floats your boat, Prompto.”

Prompto knew the excuse was flimsier than wet paper, but if it got Lightning to not interrogate him any further thanks to her lack of concern, then he wasn’t gonna complain anytime soon. His secret plot was to rightfully claim his contact lenses in the proper place, find a place to hide and put them in, and the others would remain none the wiser without being slowed down in the slightest. Until then, however, he’d be stuck in the car unable to so much as fully enjoy the moving sights around him. And what photographer could be truly happy at being unable to see the full, beautiful world that made their digital easel? So much as thinking about it made him more antsy than usual, Prompto exerting it in the form of impatiently bouncing his leg due to only so much space in the Regalia.

He was too distracted by his hasty need for his contacts that he didn’t notice the sky blue eyes of Lightning staring a hole in his skull from the seat behind him. The only feeling compelling her to stare was her good old friend skepticism. Though definitely none of her direct concern, Prompto seemed up to something. But, what was it? That answer she didn’t quite know just yet.

Ignis pulled the car up next to one of the gas tanks, his suggestion to Noctis and Gladio on filling it up for the road taken without much question from either. Lightning got up to stretch her legs and see if anything was of necessary interest in the Mini-Mart, while Prompto went a little further a distance to see if his guess was correct. To his relief, he found what he’d expected to be in the area’s vicinity. It didn’t let him stray so far from the others that the Regalia was out of sight, but it was still a bit of a walk away on its own.

Okay, en-bee-dee, Prompto kept reassuring himself. Just a little trip to the nearest little pharmacy; in and out, then nothing happened from the others’ perspective. Walking in was a lot easier when only strangers he didn’t feel as self-conscious around were also minding their own business like he was non-existent. They were oblivious to who he was as a person and everything; the perfect getaway, he could say! In and out, then he’s run about!

“Hello, Sir, how may I help you?” the optical center clerk greeted. “Are you here to pick up something?”

“Yeah. I’ve got my prescription,” Prompto told them, surrendering the proof that he was medically approved to be there. “I’m here for my spares.”

The clerk looked it over carefully, nodding once the written prescription was validated and approved. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be right back out with the brand. It’s the monthly ones, right?”

“Yup! I know they say ‘daily is healthy’, but… turns out it depends on the person.” Prompto let out a laugh under his breath. That was certainly not an agonizing road he wanted to go back down again. Better safe than sorry!

The clerk took about as long as they’d promised. In “Prompto Time”, however, it felt as though every second passed was a minute wasted. He nervously clung to the hope of the others not having gotten done sooner and were presently waiting on their energetic youngest member. Just when it felt like forever had almost gone by him, back came the solution to his trouble of the day. Prompto mutely sighed in relief, thanking them while taking his new supply of contact lenses and handling what he needed to in regards to officially purchasing them.

So as not to risk hitting the road blind as a bat, Prompto hurried into the nearest bathroom to put them in his eyes. In accordance with his process, Prompto removed no more than his fingerless gloves and washed the hands underneath. His studded wristbands got a bit damp from the watery suds, but he couldn’t have cared less. Under the warm gusts of the hand dryer his palms went, rubbing each other all over to eliminate every layer of water.

And now… the harder part he dreaded so much. Two tiny dome-shaped, colorless terrors waiting to torture Prompto until he was to manage in getting them over the two most sensitive organs in his head. Nonetheless, he opened the box and took out the first pair, peeling off their wrapping and concentrating on his reflection. One wrong move, and it’d be over for him and his vision. Spreading his first pair of lids apart with his thumb and pointer finger, Prompto used the other index one to use as an applicator.

“Just a little further…” Prompto gulped, shakily pressing the contact more towards the rim surrounding the stressed lavender-blue of his eye. When it got too close, he wound up giving into fear and setting his finger down to let him blink for relief. “Wait, okay, time out! I need a second…”

“You did remember to wash your hands first, right?” the sudden voice of Ignis asked from behind, startling Prompto into nearly poking his eye out with the younger’s shriek.

“Ignis! Dude, don’t do that! But, yes, I washed my hands, I promise. What— are you doing here, by the way?”

“Tracking down my AWOL friend, who I knew to be running a bit low on his own supplies. Did you find what you needed?”

“Yep! Should be good for a long while!” Prompto looked behind Ignis, even near spots most wouldn’t detect so easily. “Nobody… followed you, did they? Like say…”

“If it’s Light you’re worried about seeing you, then no, she’s waiting in the car. Even if she had followed me, I believe you’d be more than safe in the men’s bathroom.”

“Right, right! Just making sure is all! You never know, you know…?”

“I ‘know’ that there’s also no harm in her finding out about your poor eyesight. I doubt she’d care too much if she knew, anyways.”

“Well, sure, but… let’s just say some things are just better off totally left behind without the reminder. And besides, there’s no harm in not telling her, either! For now, ignorance is bliss.”

“At least, until she gets too suspicious and finds out one way or another. You aren’t exactly among the best at ‘acting natural’, Prompto. Especially when you’re nervous.”

Prompto dismissed the notion, working on getting the first lens into his eye. “I’ll be fine, Iggy. What Light will never know won’t hurt her~.”

“One way or another, something’s bound to happen. But, on the subject. These lenses? They are not meant to be worn to sleep.”

In response, Prompto first let out a mock-buzzer noise while crossing his arms into an X-shape. “Wrong, Iggy! I was sure to get the monthly ones that are a little safer. Besides, that was like one time I did that!” Seeing the raised brow on Ignis’ forehead made Prompto backtrack, knowing he’d been seen right through like glass. “...Plus— okay, maybe two others, but I know that now! Thanks… anyways, though. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

“I’ve enough faith in you to uphold that, but also give your eyes time to ‘breathe’ to be at your safest. And, do know that there’s no harm in a certain someone learning something new.”

Ignis left Prompto to finish putting his contacts in peacefully, having no need to tell him where to go afterwards. One down, the other to go. His fingers were shaky, but gripped the lens for dear life to do everything in his power not to drop it. At a snail’s pace, towards the other eye it went until its rim made a perfect contact around the iris. Winking a few times to get the plastic to stick, Prompto moved both eyes back and forth behind his lids, settling on a good enough feel for the new contacts in place.

“Ah, that’s better,” Prompto sighed, happy to see everything clearer than before. “Thank the Six for ‘boneless glasses’ to make my life just a little easier!”

Cleaning out his contact lens case with enough disinfecting solution and putting them in the Armiger’s storage system for ultimate safety, Prompto looked both ways and around on the outside of the men’s room. When the coast was clear, he shuffled out of the store uttering the appropriate “stealth music” as if a spy on a deathly mission. He ducked around some of the aisle shelves to hide himself occasionally, holding a long note once at the entrance before springing out of the building.

“Haha! Completely nailed it!” Prompto boasted, hurrying his way back to the Coernix Station - Cauthess while looking back at the pharmacy he’d escaped from. “And just in time to hit the— ROAD!”

“There you are,” Lightning said, knuckles on her hips and slightly hunched forward to show more of her disapproval at the spooked boy. “Missed you at the shop. Where’d you decide to wander off to?”

“N— Oh, nowhere, Light! The shop just didn’t have what I needed to pick up, so I found someplace else!” Prompto grew even more anxious at the well-known glare being as strong as ever thrown right at him. “I’m telling the truth! I didn’t go too far!”

“You’re up to something, Argentum.”

“Yeah, I am. I’d say about… five-foot-eight? Not as tall as Gladio or Ignis, but you’ve got a little catching up to do—”

“—You know what I mean, don’t be wise. What are you hiding?”

“Me? I’d never hide a thing, ma’am! I’m Prompto ‘Open Book’ Argentum, that’s me!”

“If you’re such an open book, then you’ve got no reason to be so scared of telling me the truth. What is it, already? Spill it.”

Just then, the savior in the form of the Regalia pulled up and honked the horn, courtesy of Noctis driving up front. “You two having fun over there? Whatever you’re talking about can be said in the car, too.”

“Can it, Prince,” Lightning hissed coldly, getting in one of the two remaining seats. “This conversation isn’t over, Prompto. I’m letting you know that now.”

Gulping, Prompto sat himself down in the car, giving Noctis wordless permission to drive onwards again. Thankfully, he was separated from Lightning in the back thanks to Gladio sitting between them. A bit of a tight fit considering how large the man was, but nothing close to “excruciatingly unbearable”. Even with a living barrier between them, Prompto got chills tingling his spine in the worst way possible whenever he was faced the brunt of Lightning’s infamous staredown. Six, if looks could kill, then he’d have been vaporized by now for gazing directly at such a goddess in woman form that had as much beauty as she did perseverance. All he had to do for the time being was work his way around her suspicion until she forgot about it enough, and he’d be home free! After all, how hard could that be to try and get away with…?

The next time they stopped for a while to camp out later on in the day, Prompto sought the opportunity to celebrate his new contact lenses. He did so in the form of, what else, taking advantage of the exquisite outdoor scenery. Letting everyone else know he’d return in due time, Prompto set off to a remote area of the woods with his camera in hand, on the hunt for whatever might catch his eye and become a future memory of the past. Such a moment would be even better with someone else there to also experience the magic with him, but— as much as he’d rather stay far away from the nastier parts of it— nature was bound to have something to tickle his fancy within it.

Prompto took in everything about his surroundings to see what he could do for his little “indie photo op”, as he’d put it before stepping away from camp. Tripod, check. Camera, obvious. Light source? “On fleek”! Angling? Top-notch! Alright, everything was in place and nothing nearby that he could see to mess it up. Selecting his first snapshot spot, Prompto positioned his beloved camera in its standing hold, setting the timer for when it’d go off. Counting down the seconds; three, two…!

“There you are,” Lightning interrupted, scaring Prompto into stumbling into his tripod and accidentally taking a blurred photo of the ground instead of the nice view.

“And there goes my shot,” Prompto sighed, filling his lungs with his breath and exhaling to calm himself enough. “Light, at least warn me first before sneaking up on me like a serial killer!”

“If you’re mad about your dinky little photo, just take it again. This place isn’t going anywhere, but neither am I until you tell me the truth.”

“Oi-vey, there’s just no dropping that, is there? Why do you wanna know so badly, anyways?”

“Because if it wasn’t something worth hiding, you wouldn’t be dodging the question so much. Now, fess up, Argentum. I’d hate to resort to ‘less pleasant’ ways of getting you to talk.”

Prompto found himself sweating in the brow and backing away, one step in reverse synchronized with Lightning’s forward. “There’s nothing to say, already! I’m not hiding a thing!”

“I don’t buy it. Either tell me and let me leave you alone, or don’t tell me and only make this harder on yourself. Make the right choice.”

He’d run out of options, and inner shame prevented him from potentially making for an awkward confession. So, between fighting it or flight, Prompto chose the impulsive option of the latter with his beloved camera in hand. He could always come back for the tripod later once he didn’t have a rosy-haired warrior out for his past. Although it was common sense to know Lightning was chasing after him, Prompto gave into looking back at her anyways and running faster before turning his head around again. When he did, all he received was a faceful of tree bark smacking him right against the face, his camera falling to the soft ground unharmed when his hands went to cover achingly where he got hit.

“Looks like you’re out of options, Argen—” Lightning started to say until she realized Prompto sank to the ground covering his face. Her irritation cooled into an odd sense of concern, now going over to inspect the man more carefully. “Wait, are you hurt?”

“Mmm-mmm,” Prompto got out, something crystalline falling from his left eye and sticking to his upper cheek. When he felt it, he gasped. “Don’t come any closer, okay?”

Lightning grew more worried, especially at the sight of what seemed to be a tear. Did she go too far in pressuring him into injuring himself? That was quite a run into the tree he just did… “I have to make sure nothing’s broken. Are you bleeding?”

“No! Stay back! I’m fine!”

Lightning disobeyed and removed Prompto’s hands from his face. To her relief, he didn’t seem to be bleeding or bruised, but strangely, neither eye seemed damp with any tears. How that could be was unknown to her, but then she looked closer at what was really stuck on a freckle. Against Prompto’s further protest, Lightning picked it up and squeezed it between two gloved fingers while examining it a little better. After a few seconds, she recognized what it’d been if not a salted tear of pain like she initially believed.

“...It’s a contact lens,” Lightning pointed out, still looking at it until Prompto snatched it back from her. “Why do you have a contact lens on you?”

“N— Not important,” Prompto mumbled, trying to slip the lens back into his eye, but to no avail without the proper concentration.

“Sounds so to me. Look.” Lightning knelt down in front of Prompto, getting him to look at the new gentleness her eyes now held for him, not a trace of force to be seen on her. “If this was what everything was all about, you can tell me. Unless you really are somehow secretly conspiring against the others, then I have no reason to get that much on your case over a little contact lens.”

“You thought I was—? No! Never!” Prompto sounded almost offended that she’d think that of him, but in all fairness, he was acting a little off his loop from trying to hide his secret from her. “...I dunno if I can tell you, though. I wanted to make a good impression on— well, someone who’s never met me before this.”

“You’d have better luck by being honest. Trust me, I’ve had my share of bad news, so since you’re not putting anyone’s life in danger, whatever you have in you, I can take.”

Before he could think of any other objection, Lightning sat down next to him against the tree, picking up his camera and brushing off the dirt it’d acquired from the fall. She checked it over to see if it’d gotten cracked or anything of the sort, but was pleased to hand it back to Prompto when it looked as intact as ever. Prompto frowned; there was no way out of this, was there? And it’d be rude to leave a lady unanswered when she’d so sincerely asked, so… time to face the music, it seemed. Astrals, this was gonna suck.

“Well, as you could probably guess, my vision’s not the best in the world,” Prompto confessed, a sheepish laugh leaving his throat. “That’s why I gotta wear contact lenses to— ya know, fix that. Can’t be a photographer or gunsman that can’t see, can you?”

“Then how come you don’t just get glasses?” Lightning wondered as Prompto used his phone reflection to fight the lens back over his vision hole. “It seems harder to put those things in, doesn’t it? One wrong move, and you’d never see again.”

“It’s not so tough once you get used to it and take care of them the right way. And I am never going back to wearing glasses again when I don’t have to! They look fine on Iggy, but count me out!”

“So, you did used to wear them? Why’d you stop?”

“That’s kinda where the whole ‘I’d rather not talk about this’ part comes in. When I was a kid, I didn’t just wear glasses. Believe it or not, I also actually used to be pretty chunky and more of a turtle. Always in my shell and whatnot, you know?”

Lightning didn’t say it aloud, but the revelation did surprise her. Trying to picture a younger, slightly more plump Prompto that couldn’t so much as speak his mind sounded completely foreign to her. But, he also sounded… different in telling his tale. There wasn’t the usual buoyancy to really be heard, or too much of the wise-cracking nature she was more familiar with. No, all Lightning could hear was more of a sadder little boy wearing a sunnier mask to hide a past he wasn’t proud of. She logically kept her full judgement in line, wanting to hear more to see what else there was to it.

“You don’t say?” Lightning commented. “First, on you needing glasses back then, why was that? I’d have figured a noble from Lucis would be able to afford something ridiculous like laser eye surgery, or—”

“—Eh? ‘Noble’, who? If you’re talking about me, I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong guy there, Pink,” Prompto laughed uneasily. “I could never be able to pay for that.”

“You’re not a noble? How could that be; you’re travelling with a prince of all kinds of people!”

“I know. I’m as surprised as you are, trust me. But, alack, I am but a commoner in a group of rich men! Even so, I honest to the Six doubt Pop would have been able to afford getting eye correction surgery for me. Shit’s expensive, lady!”

“Fair enough. Then, how did you get into the Crownsguard if you’re just normal?”

Prompto’s face grew even more sullen, looking at the camera between his fingers without a hint of his usual smile. “That’s what I’d like to know. It’d be super nice to think ‘wow, all my hard work paid off, so I got to be worthy of joining’, but… I just can’t believe it’s anywhere close to the truth. Sure, I got in; lost the weight, did the work, yadda-yadda. But really, even with Pop training me to get here today, I just don’t know if I’d have done so well on my own anyways.”

“It… sounds really important to you. Then, why go through so much if you feel this way?”

“To be honest with myself? A big reason’s all because I wanted to be worth something to Noct. Oh, and that’s besides him being a prince dealing with a commoner and stuff, too. My bestie’s kinda my ‘firstie’ too, if you know what I’m saying.”

Lightning scoffed, rolling her eyes more at the mention of Noctis than Prompto’s friendship with him. “Leave it to the little snob of a prince to hold such expectations on you. He’s got two others that aren’t broken, so why rope you into it?”

“What? Oh! No, no, Pink, you’ve got it all wrong!” Prompto’s tone grew more frantic, realizing he’d planted an accidental misconception in the ex-soldier’s head. “Look, I get you and Noct would rather not wanna deal with each other, but believe me. I’ve known the guy since at least high school; he’s a total sweetheart once you see enough underneath the surface! A little crabby, sure, but he’s really not anywhere as bad as you’re making him out to be.”

“More power to you, then, because I’m not seeing it. Whatever, this is about you, not him.”

“In a way, it’s kinda both. If it weren’t for how my friendship with Noct started, then I dunno where I’d be now. Me wanting to both protect him and be a good enough friend to him is what got me started on the road to changing who I was into someone much better. I’m not sure if I’ve totally succeeded yet, but if I’ve been with him this long, maybe I’m doing something okay for once? Maybe you don’t understand what I’m saying, but to put it all simply, Noct’s done nothing but help me all these years. And all I wanna do is do it back and keep doing it for as long as possible.”

...Wow. At that moment, that was the only word Lightning could form in her mind. She may not have understood why Prompto was going to such lengths for someone like Noctis, but if there was something she did get, it was the gunsman’s process. And though Gladio and Ignis she was beyond fine with as people once she’d gotten to know enough of them, something with Prompto resonated with her in a way those two hadn’t quite achieved (at least, not yet to her knowledge). Maybe it was on the fact at not being the only common person after all Now that he’d said that to her, but whatever it was, Lightning was curious enough to know more.

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t go and say I don’t understand where you’re coming from,” Lightning admitted. “To want to change so badly to make someone you care about the most happy… you’re not as off base as you think.”

“Really, now? Anyone back home make you feel that way?” Prompto wondered. “Like a best friend you’ve got yourself?”

“Yes, and no. Just know I’d do anything to see them have a good life. I can only hope I did enough to make that happen, considering every horrible mistake I’ve made.”

“Assuming they’re still around, if they seem to be doing okay because of you, then… well, lo hiciste, you did it!”

“Sh— they’re thankfully alive and breathing, but I can’t help but worry if I ever did enough or not. And even if I did, what now? Will they still need me anymore?”

‘This would be a little easier if I knew how close she was to the person she’s talking about.’ Prompto worded what he wanted to carefully. It wasn’t every day Lightning have off such a vulnerable aura, so the last thing he wanted to do was make her more upset. “If you ask me, just being able to stand by them and know you could help them go far in life sounds like reward enough. Sure, maybe you can’t be together forever and ever, but knowing you made an impact comes just as close.”

“And how would I know if my impact even mattered? For all I can tell, they could be fine without me. Better, even.”

“One way of seeing it? They may be able to live their own life just fine, but it’s hard to forget how they got to that life in the first place. If you impact enough, they’ll be sure to never take that for granted.”

Hardly even realizing it immediately, Lightning felt her heart mellow out a tad melancholically the more she thought about her most cherished protectorate. All the foolish mistakes she’d made along the way she may not have been ready to forgive herself entirely for, but in where everyone from Cocoon and Gran Pulse now were, she’d do anything to keep it how it’d become in the end. Now, of all the people to find that appeared to understand her in that way, it’s Prompto who claims such a spot.

“Those are some wise words coming from you of anyone,” Lightning told him. “Never imagined it’d be from the same person who’s compared gloves to being ‘hand condoms’, either.”

“Light, that’s only the beginning of my endless wisdom,” Prompto said proudly before simmering back down in his tone again. “But, frankly? I’m more surprised you were so willing to listen that easily. I’ve only really said all that to Noct.”

“It’d be ‘pot calling the kettle black’ if I gave you such a rough time about this. But, if you ask me, it really looks like you’re on the right track, even if you think you aren’t.”

“Can’t stop you if you wanna think that, but all I can do is keep trying and see if I can succeed. Until then, there’s no saying for sure.”

“Well, considering you’re already pulling more weight out here than any nobody could hope to, I’d say you’re making the progress you need. Hell, you’d give Sazh a run for his money if he saw how well you work a pistol. And he uses two!”

“Right! Now, for my next question; who the heck is Sazh?” Prompto in asking it sounded closer to his more chipper side, but was just as unfamiliar with the comparison.

“A friend back home. I think you’d like him just fine.” Lightning started counting off a few fingers, fishing out the similarities. “You’re both top-notch gunsmen, wise-cracking even in the tightest of situations, have a fondness for chocobos—”

“—Wait, wait, hold up! This friend of yours also sees the true glory of Eos’ finest creatures?! Do tell, Miss Farron! Don’t keep a guy waiting!”

Lightning couldn’t help but softly laugh at Prompto’s enthusiasm for once. That certainly got his attention. “It’s more his son, Dajh, that’s crazy about them. But, if keeping a chocobo chick in his hair amounts to anything, I’d say he’s a huge fan of them, too.”

“He keeps a chocobo chick in—! Get out! I’ve— that clinches it! I gotta meet this man someday! I just gotta, Pink! I’ve gotta learn his ways! How could I have been so blind?!”

Lightning pat Prompto a few times on the head, appearing to quell his innumerable excitement levels. “Easy does it, Sunspot. I’m sure he’d forgive you for taking a while to do that. But, while we’re on it, how did you get so good at firing a gun?”

“Well, I hate to keep bringing my pop into this, but back when I was still in training, he found my aim wasn’t just top-notch in taking a few snaps. Turns out projectiles are just my calling, too.”

“And I may as well ask this, too, but who is your dad? He sounds a little more than just another commoner. Is he a veteran?”

“You could say that, but you’ve met him already! He’s the same guy who sent you to travel with us in the first place!”

“What? But that was—” Lightning stopped, eyes widening when she realized who Prompto was talking about. She looked at his sunny, almost cutesy-looking mug, then comparing it to the complete 180 of his apparent parentage. “...No way. The Marshal?! Cor Leonis is your dad of all people?!”

“Yes… and no. Obviously, we’re not blood related, but he sorta adopted me as a baby. Then, eventually, he had to give me up to my… other parents. So, I guess I grew up the rest of the way with them.”

“He had to give you up? Why?”

“Guess it had to do with him being leader of the Crownsguard and all. Someone like that can’t balance such a huge responsibility and a kid, so he didn’t have a choice on it at all.”

“Then, how come you still call him your dad if he’s technically not anymore?”

“I try not to when I need to be formal or in front of other Guard members, but honestly, I still pretty much consider him my father even though I had to go somewhere else.” Prompto’s mouth flattened into another frown, this one as wistful as the ones before it. “Hard to admit, but he’s the only older adult figure in my life there enough to earn that title. My… folks weren’t exactly home too much, so I mostly had to look after myself all the time.”

“They left their kid on his own just like that?! Some ‘parents’ ya got there. Actually, I don’t think I should use that word. If they were really your mom and dad, then they shouldn’t leave their kid behind when it’s still in their control. If it wasn’t? Different story. But, that’s not the case here, is it?”

“Well, I— look, Pink, bad mouthing them isn’t the answer. Can’t change how I was brought up, so… what, huh?”

“I don’t care in the slightest. Prompto, you don’t deserve to be practically ignored by the two people meant to be there for you the most. I’m not accepting it, and neither should you, Mister.”

“It’s not like I ‘accept’ it, exactly. It’s— I just wish… you know…”

The words faded on Prompto’s tongue, but were replaced by a quiet gasp at what happened next. Of all the things to get from Lightning for any reason, her arms wrapped around his body in a strangely maternal embrace was definitely not one he expected. But, for once, it simmered his heart into steady, rather sad thumps. He didn’t find it appropriate to hug back, but it appeared Lightning wasn’t going to let go of him just yet. Although it was his primary thought, it didn’t seem to be a hug of empty pity; even at her rare warmest, the woman to him never appeared as the type to go and show something so pointless for another person. Rather, the display felt as comforting to Prompto as it did secretly unearned.

“You’re doing just fine. You just have to not quit while you’re ahead,” Lightning reassured him. “I haven’t been here as long as you four, but I’m sure they’d have said something by now if you weren’t at least close to good enough. Real friends stick by you from start to finish, but also know when you’re falling behind on what’s really crucial.”

“That sounds true and all, but…” Prompto silenced himself, shaking his head without the desire to say too much more. “Nevermind. You’re right; I shouldn’t overreact or turn into a real ‘Debbie Downer’ here.”

“I never said you were. Feeling low’s gonna happen against your control; it’s what you do with it is what makes the difference. I’m nobody to tell anyone else how to feel, but I can at least encourage you not to throw your hopes out the window just yet. Think you’d be able to do that?”

“Hmm, dunno. I’ve already got bad eyesight, so it’s not like I’ve got better ‘future sight’, either. But, man! Would if I could, Light. Would if I could.”

Lightning could feel a delicate little smile tug at her mouth corners hearing Prompto regain the laugh in his voice. “Careful what you wish for. Being able to see into the future might not be as nice as you think.”

“What makes you say that? Having that as a superpower would rock! Unless— yeah, maybe some things are just not meant to be seen before they happen. Is that why?”

“Among… other reasons people wouldn’t like it. Bottom line, I’d rather you waited and saw, and not saw and waited. You got that?”

“I gotcha! Won’t see any ESP from me, lay-dee! But, you mind if we get going? I did say I was only gonna be gone for a little bit. Don’t want everyone thinking I almost became bear chow again.”

“It is a good time to— wait, ‘again’? What do you mean ‘again’?”

“Nothing that’s not best left in the past! It was before you came along, and we’re all fine now! Don’t you worry your pretty pink little head there.”

Having done enough of interrogating Prompto for one day, Lightning left it at that and got herself off the ground. She was about to turn the other way hoping to be followed, when Prompto let out a loud, energetic gasp after looking at his camera again. Without explaining himself, he grabbed Lightning by the wrist and ran in the direction of where she’d originally chased him from. Besides not wanting to leave his poor tripod all by its lonesome, having another person with him in such a great spot was a photo opportunity just begging on its knees for him to take it.

And just who was he to up and refuse it so rudely?

“Really, Prom, we’ve gotta go,” Lightning insisted as Prompto set her up in front of the tripod and camera like a living prop. “Can’t this wait until later?”

“Not a chance!” Prompto chirped, making sure everything on his camera was all set and in position. “Why pass up the chance of a lifetime in getting a nice snap with my favorite photogenic newcomer?”

“If you wanted a selfie, then you don’t need my help with that,” Lightning quipped, hiding her smirk behind a few fingers at the consequent stunned blush on Prompto’s face born from the comment.

“Oh, fair maiden, how you flatter a clown. But, nope! You’ve gotta be in the shot; no way out until this memory’s made!” Prompto set the timer up, running to where Lightning was and readying himself for the shoot. “Smile for the camera, Pink! It loves ya!”

Lightning never really considered herself a “camera person”, but with how little time she had to think about it before the camera went off and captured her appearance in the moment, she did what first came to her mind. Giving off the most modest of her smiles, the shutter went off and immortalized the exact moment and pose the two were in. Prompto went to go look at his new photograph, rather pleased with the almost punkish way he had his tongue stuck out and the peace sign fingers on the hand belonging to the arm he’d wrapped around Lightning’s shoulders without actually making physical contact. As for his female companion in the snapshot, hers didn’t seem like anything to write home about, but nothing of it wiped even a bit away of the smile on his face.

“Another shot gotten! And this one’s the first to be blessed full-on by such a gracious presence!” Prompto beamed, making loops around the moon from how happy he was to have gotten a photo with Lightning. “Hey, why don’t you see how it came out, too? No need to let you miss out on it.”

“Why don’t you show me while we’re heading back to camp?” Lightning suggested, hauling the tripod under her arm and allowing Prompto to follow in her steps. “Nothing against you doing what you like, but we were supposed to head back a while ago.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course! And since we’re doing it now, take a quick look!” Prompto put the camera in front of Lightning’s eyes, the screen still on its most recent picture.

“Easy with— ...oh.” Lightning saw how the photo came out, rather impressed by the expert-level accuracy and the fact that even her more mild expression didn’t lower any of the quality either. “Gotta say, for someone that needs contacts, you’ve really got an eye for the camera.”

“I’ve had two for as long as I can remember. This journey’s not gonna last forever, so I might as well make a way to capture it for as long— WHOA!”

Lightning immediately ducked and caught Prompto by hugging her arms around to his torso, pulling him back up onto his feet hiding her suppressed urge to laugh. “Maybe tell me more on the way back. While looking where you’re going, of course.”

“That can be arranged. See, it all started when…”

Ignis was in the middle of getting the last few minor touches on camp set up, at the same time Gladio and Noctis were preoccupying themselves a distance from him with a harmless sparring match. Their combat reminded him personally to take a good look at his recently acquired Mythril Knives to ensure they were ready for use next time the team was to be under attack by the forces of evil or wilderness. His ears picked up on faint chatter past the sound of swords clashing and a prince rapidly warping, further investigation informing him that the culprits were the previously absent Prompto and Lightning. The ecstatic storytelling from his blond friend was nothing new, but the interested placid smile on his pink-haired one certainly provided some questions on what happened between them in the woods.

“—Then, I got attacked by a horde of angry baboons! As if that wasn’t bad enough, this leopard comes along and tried to take a bite of me in the worst way possible!” Prompto recited to a fascinated Lightning, Ignis recalling exactly the moment in question on one of the detours taken before they’d even officially set out on their current mission. “All because I wanted to snap a pic of this cute little baby monkey I saw, too! Was that so wrong?”

“You might have just scared the thing with your camera,” Lightning guessed. “What’s harmless to people might not be so to a wild animal. It probably mistook you for a hunter.”

“Still no excuse to try and get me killed! The little…” Prompto grumbled, trailing off and ending the bitter sentence in his head. “Any jungles where you’re from, Pink?”

“Not where I’m living now, no. But, where I was born, the closest I can think of is the Sunleth Waterscape. Never been myself; my sister and a few of our friends passed through it, though.”

“Bummer. Was that awesome ‘Sazh’ guy you were talking about one of those people?”

Lightning nodded. “Him and Vanille went at the same time. Speaking of which, you act a lot like her, too. I think you almost have her beat in the ‘perky youth’ department. And… some other more personal things you’ve got in common, too.”

“I won’t make you say things you don’t wanna, but my ‘Light’s friends I just gotta meet’ list is growing!”

“Maybe when I go back home, you can find time to visit. I’m sure they’d get a kick out of you.” Lightning’s voice had a noticeable lightheartedness to it, imagining the sheer chaos of Prompto meeting her loved ones back home.

“It sounds like you two had a good time out?” Ignis inquired, finally getting the two’s attention on him. His glasses-covered eyes were particularly on Prompto asking it, who knew the reason why.

“Definitely nothing I was expecting, that’s for sure. Anything could end a lot worse, but I’m happy this didn’t.”

“That makes two of us, sister!” Prompto agreed, bringing up the new photo of him and Lightning on his camera. “And guess who also finally got the ultimate selfie today? This guy, that’s who!”

“You finally partook in one of Prompto’s photos, Light? I always thought you to be the camera-shy type,” Ignis said, scanning the camera screen with intrigue.

“I’m not much for taking them, but it came out really well,” Lightning admitted. “As long as Prom doesn’t ask me to take too many of them, I don’t mind getting another in for him.”

“Do you really mean that?!” Prompto squeaked, beyond joyous.

“I just might. I don’t have ‘future sight’ either, though. We’ll just see where things go after this.”

Lightning only left it at that after, flashing Prompto another kind glance before going over to request a sparring match of her own with Gladio after Noctis concluded his with him. It hadn’t gone past Prompto’s cleared up eyes at all, the ecstatic shutterbug still feeling his innards doing giddy flips and turns about the events that’d transpired overall. He found himself smiling with his sunny aura after Lightning, freezing when he’d caught the look on Ignis’ face, too.

“Seems you’ve made a friend in her,” Ignis pointed out. “I’d have to be halfway blind to think she isn’t starting to warm up to you.”

“You really think so?” Prompto breathed, scratching one cheek with his pointer finger.

“I’ve more than a feeling. Not as scary as you thought her finding about your contact lenses was going to be, was it?”

“Pish-pish, lucky guess. Turns out, a lot of things that’s bothered me, she’s been on the same ride just as bad.”

“And yet a lot remains a mystery about our newest comrade. However, enough has certainly come to ‘Light’ with her since she joined us.”

Prompto laughed, quickly catching onto the discreet humor. “Can’t know everything about everybody, of course. Especially since there’s some things we just don’t know the answer to.” At the same time he said that, he fixed the black bands covering his right wrist so they wouldn’t reveal anything the mystery mark underneath.

“Which is perfectly fine. Everyone has their skeletons in the closet, big or small. It’s only a matter of how people take them is what makes the difference.”

Prompto couldn’t argue with that, being unable to avoid looking at not just Noctis toying around on a favored game on his smartphone, but also Lightning performing an impressive deflecting of Gladio’s strike. He still couldn’t fully believe what happened today did, nevermind actually reaching this point in his life. And yet, somehow, here he was; still among the Crownsguard of all things, and making a new friend that turned out to be sailing in the same boat as him in a way.

Another person— Lightning, no less, was more than willing to encourage him from her own honest faith alone. She’d joined Noctis in rooting for him, so Prompto had to be a fool to do so much as consider letting her own too because he couldn’t live up to the simplest of expectations. Whether or not he was sure he’d succeed in the end aside from his personal lack of true confidence, nothing was an excuse to stop after every step taken in the first place.

Prompto tapped one closed eyelid each gingerly, making sure what stuck to his eyes behind them were both secure. He laughed once to himself. Of all the ways possible he could have shared such a deep moment in the woods with someone, it had to be over a measly pair of contact lenses. Small world, he thought. Small world, indeed.

#Final Fantasy XV #Final Fantasy XIII #FF Crossover #Prompto Argentum #Lightning Farron #Tales From The LibrAiry #FF Versus XV #idk what the name for these two is; but it's platonic anyways so no need to use it I don't think???#Regardless; Lemonade Mouth is a go :3c #Also you can pry dad!Cor from my cold; dead hands; let Prom have at least one (1) good parent in his life goddamn it

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sparklyjojos · 6 years

Note

So the pieces in the book that relate back to Jorge Joestar, now that you know the context, what's the real meaning behind those exchanges?

Let me present to you: a long meta post (and I do mean LONG) in which I analyse Jorge Joestar chapter by chapter, pick quotes that relate back to Tsukumojuku and/or hint at the Beyonds’ True Nature, and unleash massive commentary as well as some theories.

[NOTE FROM FUTURE ME: THIS POST IS PRETTY OUTDATED AND SHOULDN’T BE TAKEN AS VERY ACCURATE. It also strongly depends on the particular wild guess theory linking Beyond with the narrator of another book rather than just Maijo. ]

[BIG SPOILERS for Jorge Joestar and Tsukumojuku under the read more; seriously, if you care about having spoilers for Tsukumojuku, either read the book first or head to my masterpost here for English recaps]

Chapter 1

“But you understand the concept of a detective? (…) A fictional device, a role destined to always arrive at the truth in the end. (…) That’s me.”

Not even a minute into his first talk with Jorge and Tsukumojuku already says he’s a fictional plot device. Which… yeah, he is.

[Tsukumojuku swishing curtains] “A new world lies before us!” he announced. “Facts previously hidden from view! My solution was not complete! I was wrong! The case! Is not! Done!”

Why would he say that “this is (here is) a new world” (ここに新しい世界がある!)? Because it is. For him, this is a new world, and I’m not sure if by all this talk about how “the case” is still continuing he doesn’t also mean that the narrative’s existence is continuing. (ie. ‘Y’know, with the way things ended in the previous book I thought this world was going to implode, and yet it didn’t and here I am’)

[Explaining why he doesn’t mind if he gets shocked with hamon] “Experience is everything.” [何事も経験だからな, something like “[in order to] experience everything”]

I may be oversensitive to the word “experience” after Tsukumojuku (just like I’m oversensitive to whenever he uses the word “honestly” because it has Shoujiki’s name in it, lol), but it does remind me a lot about the Original achieving “growth” because of “experience”.

“I’ve been playing the role of the detective all this time, and I know exactly how it feels. Something like this cannot occur without the arbitrary will of a ‘god’. I have something watching over me, something like a god, yet not God. (…) Say that I’m Sherlock Holmes. Then I’m certain that I have something outside of this world serving as my Arthur Conan Doyle.”

A very apt comparison there, as the Beyonds really have been ‘writing’ him. He says he’s been “playing the role” of the detective, because once again, he’s a character in a story, and on some level he’s aware of that.

“My Beyond has abandoned me. I’m still me, but my role in this world is no longer guaranteed by Beyond. Beyond has chosen a new protagonist for this world… for this story. You, Jorge Joestar. This is the last thing I’m certain of.”

Read: “the triplets switched fandoms and you’re their new shiny self-insert OC, and I got degraded to NPC status, so to speak”.

This is also why he doesn’t have the supernatural beauty anymore: it was something he only had because of the triplets overcompensating for their own poor self-image. Since Tsukumojuku is not a self-insert anymore, maybe that trait doesn’t have to be there? Or is that because the triplets are in a better mental place now and don’t have to overcompensate? (God I hope so.)

“Sure, I had my rough patches, and things happened that were sad, or painful.”

“Rough patches” is an understatement of the year, considering what things he went through in Tsukumojuku.

“I know that much, even at eleven. And because I’m eleven, I’m a little jealous that you’ve stolen my position. I’m just a kid, after all.”

That… doesn’t really sound like something an 11-year-old would say, but like something someone (a character) with far more life experience would say trying to be seen as an 11-year-old. (I’m not saying that he’s that adult-in-kid’s-body trope, he’s not, it’s just that the fictional concept of Tsukumojuku is older and.. god, I don’t even know how to explain my train of thought here. It’s very meta.)

“I think you’ll play the character of Jorge Joestar in a story called Jorge Joestar.”

…yeah. Yeah, he will.

”[Tsukumojuku] was amazing. He should have been the main character!“

He was :’)

Chapter 2

[wacky theory mode on] I said that before, but “Jouji” is an alternative name for a repetition mark, aka the thing that repeats the previous kanji without being the same kanji. Combined with the fact that neither Jorge nor the Katos recognize Tsukumojuku or even the name ‘Tsukumojuku’, and Jorge was adopted by a single father from Nishi Akatsuki and grew up to be a detective, there’s an interesting theory to be had here about whether we could count Jorge as a would-be-Tsukumojuku of this world. …though of course Jorge is the self-insert / para-me of one of the Beyonds, so you could argue he’s the Tsukumojuku equivalent for that reason already. [wacky theory mode off]

The farmhouse on fire belonged to the Kato family of Nishi Akatsuki. Kato Serika’s parents had died recently, and she’d been in town to deal with their empty house.(…) I found her standing outside with her husband Satoshi and their four-year-old son Seshiru, staring blankly at the fire.

Serika and Seshiru are here, for some reason as a mother and a child, and also without that whole matricide business. Jorge uses their proper kanji towards them both. Serika being a happy wife and mother is quite expected, since in Tsukumojuku she ultimately apologized to him and he removed the curse. (I guess the Beyonds forgave at least the fictional version of her on some level and “let” her have a normal life? Or this is an idealized, ‘innocent’ Serika – she even uses the Fukui dialect, which may I remind you she never used in Tsukumojuku and even abused it out of Tsukumojuku because hearing it pissed her off so much. …note that even in this book Tsukumojuku still doesn’t use the dialect; guess it’s kinda ingrained in his character now, even if in Jorge Joestar’s 1st Universe he was brought up in presumably different circumstances.)

I have no idea why Seshiru’s a four-year-old. Maybe because while the Beyonds can imagine a happy adult Serika easily, the only possible image of an innocent / happy Seshiru they can think of is back when he was a small child? Or did the actual Seshiru, as in Serika’s twin, actually exist in the 37th Universe but died, and the kid was named after him? Who knows.

The wormhole tornado fucking up the Kato house can be seen as a very delayed fulfillment of Tsukumojuku’s wish to destroy it back in the Seventh Story.

I looked up, and the clouds covering the sky were swirling. I saw something shaped like a funnel retreating back into the sky. It was dark, and hard to make out, but… had that been a tornado?

Wormhole tornadoes make a comeback, and just like in Tsukumojuku, they like to show up near the Kato residence and throw people into the previous story– pardon, the previous universe. Since the 37 Universes loop around, Tsukumojuku got thrown back from the 1st to the 37th one. (So he didn’t actually travel to the future, but to the past.)

“There will be no next time,” Tsukumojuku said. “I’ll never call myself a detective again. Not now I’ve met you.(…) You are the Jorge Joestar who will steal my title.”

Read: “I’m not the main character anymore, since you stole my spotlight and that’s why this book’s title is Jorge Joestar instead of Tsukumojuku”

“Why did Javier spend so much time sleeping? ‘When I slept, I was trapped in a locked room with my mother.’ (…) What caused such anger, and self-loathing? (…) What was his mother doing in that room that would lead to such hatred? (…) Sleeping and escaping into dreams were ways of escaping his flesh while he was in that locked room with her. Whatever was happening to his flesh was so horrific he had to escape it. (…) It’s nothing but a hypothesis, but I’ve begun to believe that continual, repetitive suffering can lead to the development of unusual powers that help the sufferer escape.”

This quote applies so well to what the Beyonds went through that it has to be intentional: abused by their mother (and later some other people), they withdrew into daydreaming as a defense mechanism. Or, to use a term from Jorge Joestar, they developed a Wound, and that Wound just happened to be the entire ‘reality’ of of Tsukumojuku and Jorge Joestar. The term “continual suffering” was already mentioned in Tsukumojuku, when describing how Ms. Suzuki (=the fictional version of the triplets’ mother) repeatedly burned his throat (=the fictional ‘mild’ version of what was actually her trying to kill them), and he slowly got used to that. This fact may also be reflected in the story of Antonio Torres slowly getting accustomed to getting his skin peeled off by his own mother. (You may notice there’s a lot of horribly abusive moms in Jorge Joestar. And a lot absent or never-really-talked-about paternal figures, even if you’d expect them to play a bigger role in the plot, like Speedwagon or Straits. Relating to the triplets’ own relationships with their parents?)

Tsukumojuku mentioning earlier in the chapter that Javier Cortez was a high schooler and wanted to become a mystery novelist may also apply to the triplets, as they’re assumedly teenagers (in their late teens by now, maybe?) and love mystery novels. Especially since Tsukumojuku later says that “Beyond is writing a mystery novel in which you are the detective.” Though it’s important to note that Javier Cortez never actually wrote anything; instead of pouring his creativity on paper, he used all of it to perfect the dreams and his locked room ideas… kinda like the triplets.

The first two chapters are painful to read in hindsight. The Beyonds invent two different characters who are sons physically abused by their mothers, and both of them end up killing people and later being killed. A symbol of how the triplets, consciously or not, perceive their possible life outcomes?

Maybe researching [the Katos’] family tree would get me somewhere.

This is a hint, maybe?

My eyes met Tsukumojuku’s. His eyes looked very sad. Did we have our own Javier Cortez?

YES. YES, YOU DO. I love how this paragraph is constructed. If you don’t know Tsukumojuku, you’ll be like, okay, Jorge is clearly thinking about Javier Cortez here in context of that 15-puzzle serial killer. But if you do know Tsukumojuku, this is a clever connection of Tsukumojuku ( and the Beyonds) to what happened to Javier Cortez.

Chapter 3

Nothing really important. The term Wound (as in, the word 傷 put in quotation marks) did appear in Tsukumojuku, in the Third Story, but it was only describing a mental state rather than a Stand-like superpower.

Chapter 4

”(…) Tsukumojuku must have headed [to Morioh] shortly after I left him at the hospital. Either he’d been pretending not to be interested or he’d found some reason to care after I left.“

While Jorge Joestar doesn’t give a possible reason why he went to Morioh, we can make guesses. Maybe he learned that the Arrow Cross House was there, and for some reason felt like he should head there. (Back in Tsukumojuku, the Second One mentioned that maybe because of destiny they’d have to go to the Cross House eventually, so…?)

[wild theory mode on] Or, let’s assume that while he still was in Nishi Akatsuki, Tsukumojuku really did talk with the Katos like he mentioned he wanted to – this would also explain how he got the money and knowledge needed to make the train trip to Morioh (that’s assuming they were still friendly after he destroyed their house, of course). Maybe he heard from them that this universe’s Daibakusho Curry (ie. Kato Tsutomu, his dear younger brother in Tsukumojuku) was currently in Morioh, and wanted to get to him fast? Maybe he somehow knew that the Arrow Cross House is in Morioh, and that in combination with Daibakusho Curry hanging around spurred him into action, even though he probably wouldn’t even know why he felt so compelled to hurry there (because he’s already been too late to the Cross House once and almost lost Tsutomu… though he probably doesn’t remember that.) [/wild theory mode off]

His throat had been slit so deep that only a single layer of skin kept his head attached.

If this was Tsukumojuku, he’d just stand up and continue as always with his head magically okay, since being the self-insert gave him functional immortality. However, this Tsukumojuku, just like the character of Seiryoin in the Fifth Story, has “lost the status of God of this world” (is now just an NPC) – and so can be murdered for good.

I got off the train at Morioh Station shortly after 1 PM, and looked over the map of the town posted just outside the station gates. Deja vu. Had I been here before?I was sure I hadn’t.

Later in the book, this deja vu is explained with the fact that the land Morioh is located on actually has the long-lost land of England underneath it, and Jorge has seen the shape of England on Tsukumojuku’s map. Which I guess makes sense… but in my wacky theory loving heart, this is because once he looked at the map of the town, and at his destination = Arrow Cross, he felt a weird sense of deja vu when seeing a cross-shaped house on a hill. (Tapping into Tsukumojuku’s memories? Or the Beyond’s memories, in a way?)

“It appeared five years ago, without any of the neighbors noticing the construction. Despite the size of it. For three years before that a different house stood here (…) Now, the house that stood here before this one was a very simple square building. (…) At any rate, that square house – the neighbours called it the Cube House – supposedly was moved here from a town called Nishi Akatsuki, in Fukui. How that rumor got around without anyone having any idea who owned the house, nobody knows.”

In Tsukumojuku, the Cross House was in Nishi Akatsuki. Nobody has noticed its construction, it could be moved to some extent just like Arrow Cross, and it happened to have 24 rooms, which is the number of rooms Arrow Cross has if you don’t count the halls or the Cube House in the middle. (That could also mean that you can interpret the ‘Heavenly Throne’ to be… Rohan’s chair in his study. Because he’s an artist, therefore a ‘God’. lol)

It’d be an interesting theory to say that the Cross House kinda… teleported on top of the Cube House and merged with it, but later in the book the not-Cube-House parts of Arrow Cross are said to be a natural result of Reimi getting stabbed with the four arrows, so I guess the theory fails here. (Still a cool reference, though.)

Whatever. I was more concerned with what the fact that Tsukumojuku had been murdered here, in a house that had been transported from Nishi Akatsuki, actually meant.

*looks at Tsukumojuku with the titular character having to at one point attempt to solve a case of (what seemed to be) another ‘Tsukumojuku’s’ murder in the Cross House* *looks again at Jorge’s deja vu* Hm. I wonder

Nekoneko had been found in town, near a strange-shaped stone called Angelo Rock, surrounded by stuffed dogs, cats, and pheasants.

…I feel a certain sense of satisfaction knowing that her corpse was deliberately put next to another child predator.

“There’s an important, inflexible law that defines the world. (…) Everything has meaning. Nothing is out of place.”

“Hmph. That’s only true in mystery novels.”

“But I’m a detective. The moment I get involved, the rules of the world shift to my genre.”

“(…) So this is a mystery novel, then? Hmm.”

(…) “If everything has meaning, then my coming here means something, Rohan,” I said. “I have a role to play here – that much is certain.”

Yes, Rohan this is a mystery novel. Which is why Jorge feels confident (even if he doesn’t quite know why) in repeating throughout the book that “everything has meaning”, which in Tsukumojuku was a phrase connected to the world being fictional and imagined by the Beyonds. To quote Tsukumojuku: “Everything has meaning. Everything has meaning, because this is a story. Things like these don’t happen in reality.” Add to that Jorge’s will to fulfill his role as a character.

When I used Heaven’s Door to read your book, all your adventures as a detective in Nishi Akatsuki were listed under the heading: Forgery. (…) Behind your left ear, I found the Real account. It was very short. ‘Born in 1889 in the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain. Became a pilot in the English air force, and fought in WWI. Murdered in 1920 by an air force general.’ That’s all it said.“

The word used for “forgery” is 偽書, which also means “a False Document”, a literary technique where the author (=Beyond in this case) is putting a seemingly real document into a story to make it seem more authentic. To quote wikipedia, “The goal of a false document is to fool an audience into thinking that what is being presented is actually a fact.” That’s what Jorge’s memories are: something inserted into the book to make him more “real”; something to flesh out the backstory. Something his Beyond invented.

The “real” account isn’t accurately describing ENG Jorge – it’s waaay too short for that – but what it does is describe the few facts we learn about George II in the JJBA manga – because that’s what’s ultimately “real”; that’s the information that exists about his life in the real world of the triplets. Jorge is just a bunch of AU changes and headcanons built on top of it.

Chapter 5

This, I thought, was why he’d been so fixated on Jonathan. Jonathan was stuffed full where Dio was empty; he’d grown up to be a man who made genuine friends he could honestly share his honest emotions with, a man who threw himself body and soul into everything he did. (…) how could Dio not compare himself to Jonathan? The frustration this comparison caused him was perhaps the one genuine emotion he ever felt. And because he was unused to such emotion, he grew confused, and was driven to kill Jonathan and steal his body.

Remember this for later. Will be very important in the last chapter.

Chapter 6

“We all have our limits. Right? Or is my faith in limits betraying my own mediocrity? (…)”

(…) As an artist, I could see why mediocrity would be Rohan’s greatest fear, and why he’d want to deny that humans have limits.

This reminded me of when in Tsukumojuku we had the musings about how humanity hates to be “limited” and tries to rise above mediocrity at all cost. The Japanese version of Jorge puts “limit” (限界) and “humans being limited” (人間に限界がある) in quotation marks.

“They drew these pictures while they were on fire? (…) Beautiful. (…) What? That’s what I thought,” [Rohan] protested, but that’s not what my look meant. I’d felt the same thing. (…) “They were trying to get it right. But none of the drawings did him justice, so they had to try again. (…) I’m an artist, I can tell. I know what it feels like to fill every available white space, desperately trying to capture the image in your head. It was beauty they were after, beauty they sought. (…) each of them sought the same beauty! In a sense, this is a miracle! A terrifying one, but no less impressive!”

(…) “What happened here must have been some sort of mass hysteria. Anxious people, gathered in a room, the door locked…”

Not sure if this one’s intentional, but it may in a way symbolize the Beyonds desperately making their art (the imaginary worlds) while “burning in a locked room” (being kept under lock and key and abused), making newer and newer Stories to try and ‘get it right’ again since their plots tended to always go too far after a point. In a way, it really “was beauty they were after, beauty they sought”.

BTW, I believe the Mothman is something taken not even from Tsukumojuku, but straight from the JDC series (non-canon, but still): in Detective Ritual, a certain Rorschach blot-like image would cause people who see it to either commit suicide in a locked room or kill others, depending on their personality. When the Detective God Tsukumo Juku came in contact with that image… well, let’s just say he sadly wasn’t an exception to the rule.

“I thought my hunch had come true,” I said, still unsure why I’d had the hunch to begin with. Was it detective sense speaking? But it really did seem to be just some vague, baseless anxiety. If only I had some context to tie it to… anything like that.

This is referring to Jorge’s earlier sense of unease and dread, which made him feel like if he left the Arrow Cross alone, something terrible would happen. …I sure wonder why he got that hunch, huh.

Chapter 7

“And… not that I’ve ever tried to write one, but characters in a novel don’t always do what the author intends.”

Foreshadowing!

“I exist now in eternity, in the final frontier,” Tsukumojuku said. “But I expect I won’t be there forever. There must be some meaning for me to have come here. Like I always said. Everything has meaning.”

SPACE, THE FINAL FRONTIER Once again, the phrase “everything has meaning” shows up, and is apparently something Tsukumojuku says a lot.

Look carefully, and think. Tsukumojuku has said these word to me countless times. Look carefully… so I did.

Probably a reference to how Tsukumojuku was told to look carefully and think a whole lot in his book, which eventually helped him realize what was going on.

“I’ve been transported to a place called the Arrow Cross House, and I’ve gotten caught up in another case.”

He does use the passive verb here (”I’ve been brought”), and probably means he was brought there by the will of the Beyond (ie. this had to happen in order for the plot to go forward).

“Your Beyond is making it happen. I’m sure this isn’t a task just anyone could accomplish. For a Miracle like this to occur, you need the Name of God. ‘God’ is words. Words are names.”

こういうをおこすにわ, が必要だ. . 言葉とは名前だからね.

“For a ‘miracle’ like this to occur, the ‘name of God’ is needed. ‘God is a word.’ The word is a name.”

And that name, as we may remember from the Sixth Story, is 九十九十九 , ‘Tsukumojuku’. A name that in many ways symbolizes the biblical God, but also the Beyonds themselves, the meaning behind ‘three connected people/Gods’ being that they’re conjoined triplets.

In Tsukumojuku, the term ‘miracle’ was mentioned briefly when he was reviving Yuuki. Later on, he wondered whether or not he actually decided about it. Or was he nothing more than yet another prop to bring about the ‘miracle’, and there was actually some other God that played with him? (That would be Maijo Otaro, so, yeah.)

Back to the quote, what Tsukumojuku is saying here is basically, “Sure, I can plot device you across Europe in seconds, as the triplet writing you wants you to get there but probably doesn’t want to bother with setting it up more.”

“If you flip the kanji for 9, 九, you get the astrological symbol for Jupiter, ♃, Jupiter being the Roman name for the Greek god Zeus. The God of Gods. The kanji for ten, 十, is a cross; so my name has three all-powerful gods linked together by two crosses. If God is the Trinity, then God can be split into three. I am in the Arrow Cross House, I am here, and I am trying to connect to a third me.“

You know, I can’t believe that after however many word plays about his name there were in Tsukumojuku, Maijo still had strength to do even more of them. And all fit the Beyonds.

Chapter 8

“Ha ha ha, I guess my life belongs entirely to Jorge Joestar. To both Jorges: Don’t worry about it. In the words of Iason Sobra Quarto: ‘Life is an explosion.’ My life is exploding as we speak. Ha ha! See you again.” And with that, he vanished.

One, I have no damn clue who Iason Sobra Quarto is, and googling him (or イアソンソブラクアルト) or the phrase itself doesn’t help.

Two: Tsukumojuku spontaneously vanishing reminds me of the Original doing that in the Seventh Story, where he was somehow able to jump into Sixth (2), which I don’t think was ever explained, though the Second One pointed out how weird that was.

Either way, I see two possibilities for what is happening with Tsukumojuku here:

1) Tsukumojuku is still perfectly alive, and vanished because he let the Cube House fling him somewhere else in time (and eventually he went to get murdered to avoid a time paradox) – this is probably the intended reading here, although I’m not sure if you can time travel from the Study too, or only the deeper Cube House? (Now I remember the Original was standing just next to the Cross House when he vanished, so is there like… a weird teleportation field around it or… you know what, I give up on this one.)

2) Tsukumojuku’s already dead and this is his soul doing all the time travelling. The Deep Lore does say that people continue living past death up to the total of 120 years, and Ryouko’s soul in Tsukumojuku was perfectly visible and had some effect on the world, like audible footsteps. So it’s probable.

[wacky theory mode on] If you remember, in Tsukumojuku the Third One only started existing because the Original and the Second One jumped back in time through the wormhole tornado (or rather, the Second One jumped and Original just vanished). So if Tsukumojuku here got back in time from 1st to 37th Universe, would that mean that the 37th Universe would start its existence with a newly created Tsukumojuku running around and being a narrator? And considering that JPN Jorge is the narrator… although JPN Jorge may as well exist because ENG Jorge is the narrator of the 1st Universe, so the 37th would have another ‘Jorge’ narrating. Even if it wasn’t ENG Jorge but Tsukumojuku who jumped back in time… GOD this is confusing. [wacky theory mode off]

“Do humans come back to life sometimes?” she asked.

Depends. Is their name Yuuki?

I laughed, buoyed by the sudden possibility that Tsukumojuku might be alive. (…) “I think some people just don’t die that easily.”

*looks at Tsukumojuku surviving things he really shouldn’t in his book* Yep.

They were summoning me by name? Daibakusho Curry and Runbaba 12 were both from Nishi Akatsuki, too!

With Kato Tsutomu aka Daibakusho Curry arriving, we now have all four Kato kids showing up in Jorge Joestar at some point.

“Hey there.” “‘Sup” “You still alive?” “Eh heh heh.” “Didn’t think we’d have a reunion here.”

This dialogue is so vague we don’t know who says what. But I swear to god, if this is Daibakusho Curry saying “didn’t think we’d have a reunion here”… from a meta standpoint this breaks my heart, because aw, buddy, nice to see you too!

[wacky theory mode on] Also, hey, remember when pretty much the last thing Tsukumojuku thought about in his book was that he could go and help Tsutomu with detectiving, and wondered what new name he should choose to go under?… well, JPN Jorge technically does help in the same giant case that Tsutomu gets roped into by Passione, so… yeah. [wacky theory mode off]

I kept the pebble, Daibakusho Curry took the rubber ball, and Runbaba 12 the orphaned shoe.

I still think this is a morbid brick joke on how Daibakusho Curry seemed to die in Tsukumojuku, with that iron ball smashing him, and with a volleyball and a basketball placed next to the corpse.

I looked at Narancia and saw someone standing next to him. It was Tsukumojuku.

(…) He grinned at me. “Hey! I am your instrument. A person needs your help. I’ll take you to them.”

Tsukumojuku once again refers to himself as a tool or (plot) device. (Also, if Daibakusho Curry remembers anything from Tsukumojuku, I imagine he’s internally screaming right about now.)

Chapter 9

I wanted to get back to my cell. The tiny cell at the very back.Where Lisa Lisa was.(…) I didn’t really want to leave. With Lisa Lisa being nice enough to bring me food and snacks and clean the place and teaching me things this place was paradise. (…) Since Lisa Lisa had been with me almost since the moment I was arrested I had escaped all anxiety and fear.(…)“You’ll be in prison for a long, long time, Jorge.”But then I could live in prison with Lisa Lisa. That was my first thought, but a moment later I realized how pathetic that was, and felt dizzy. (…) it’s not like I wanted that to happen but if it did it wouldn’t be that bad, and knowing that made me willing to accept it. That’s how fucked up my mind was. (…) As time passed trapped in that tiny world I was sure I would convince myself it wasn’t that bad.

*points at this* *points at Tsukumojuku and the Beyonds being fine with trapping themselves in ‘a tiny world’ as long as they had their imaginary beloved* *coughs*

Chapter 10

What did [Tsukumojuku] mean, he was my instrument? He seemed as if he knew everything, understood everything, but threw me off the deep end without even attempting to explain.

lol get used to it, that’s how reading Tsukumojuku feels like

“Do you know how to get to Heaven?” Pucci asked. (…)

“Isn’t… that what you’re supposed to tell me, Father?” (…)

“It is. You’re a good detective. You always find the right answer. But not where it concerns the one who brought you here. The one who vanished soon after. You don’t understand what Tsukumojuku Kato said. Yet. (…) Detectives are a wonderful thing. Everything has meaning, huh? (…) God is everywhere. (…) God is the word. The word has meaning. Thus, everything in this world has meaning. I see! You coming here, too, has meaning.”

If you’ve been paying attention, you may notice that the “god is the word” stuff was indeed said by Tsukumojuku… but to ENG Jorge. JPN Jorge should NOT have this in his memory, unless he a) somehow has his memory mingling with ENG Jorge’s (???), or the more intriguing option [wacky theory mode on] b) what Pucci is actually reading are remnants of the last few parts of Tsukumojuku, where similar musings are made (God is the word, word =meaning, everything has meaning etc.). According to the Second One memories do stay in their bodies between worlds, though they don’t seem to be readily accessible by the person holding them, or can randomly surface like when Tsukumojuku was remembering the women from the previous Stories. [wacky theory mode off]

Whether Pucci fully Knows about the Beyond or not, he implies he knows more than Jorge, and that it may have something to do with “going to Heaven”.

Funnier chuckled. “Pucci said he’s going to talk, sure that he alone will find the ‘Way to Heaven’. Rather selfish for a servant of God, wouldn’t you say? Will the staircase to Heaven really open for one so impetuous?”

If Tsukumojuku taught me anything is that the “stairway to Heaven” is that worhmole tornado, so yeah, he could probably jump into one.

“This Way to Heaven you speak of? You know nothing, That is why you cannot talk to Cars. (…) I’ve been negotiating with Cars for the last eleven years.”

Implication that Funnier knows way more than Pucci does, and either shared this knowledge with Kars, or Kars knew it before.

“Jorge Joestar, I do apologize, but that ship will explode in two minutes. If you really are brought here here by fate or destiny, then I’m sure you’ll find a way to survive that explosion!”

Funnier seems really adamant that Jorge will survive it. Later we’ll see that he and the Funnies may understand what’s going on, so is he so sure about it because he knows about Jorge’s functional immortality?

[No noticeable quotes later in the chapter, although Jorge’s explanation about the meteors burning up in the atmosphere seems really similar to Tsukumojuku’s from the Second Story.]

Chapter 11 - Nothing particularly interesting.

Chapter 12

“Humans are a fascinating species. They seem like they are constantly striving to become something else, but they resist actual change. Most likely they simply enjoy imagining things.”

Just like the triplets, who prefer to imagine things instead of doing them in reality.

“And looking back, I was baffled by how I had ever lived without doubt, without dissatisfaction. We could never set foot in the light of the sun, could never know the world above during the day. We were trapped in the world underground. I couldn’t bear it any longer.”

It’s actually surprising how much of Kars’s monologues you can just superimpose on the triplets. Not all of it, though.

It looked something like Pucci’s White Snake, but it was bigger, and had three heads and six arms like a statue of Ashura.

I don’t know about this six arms thing, but according to the illustrations Kars’s Stands tend to have three heads joined in the back, which is exactly how the triplets’ conjoinment was described back in Tsukumojuku. I’m not sure why it’d be Kars who has those Stands, though.

“Eh? I’m adopted. Not actually related to Joseph at all.” And it wasn’t this mysterious vampire who put me on the H.G. Wells, but Tsukumojuku. When I said so, Cars’ White Snake appeared in front of me, fist clenched.

This is a bit vague, but it’s possible that Kars for some reason reacted only after hearing about Tsukumojuku?

Cars didn’t respond at all (…) [After a paragraph] I managed to recover and see Cars enjoying my memories. He was just staring at empty space, but I think he was enjoying my colorful life.

Or he was just shocked seeing your memories, which apparently have bits that shouldn’t be there.

“You can still think like that even without your memory disc? This isn’t something learned through experience, but a creation of your innate intelligence? I see why they call you the ‘deduction machine.’”(…) that was an insult critics of the detective novel genre used to dismiss the presence of the detective character…

Yes, Jorge. It’s a term used towards fictional detectives. That’s exactly why it can be used towards you. As for why Jorge can think alright without his disc, well, of course he can; his knowledge/reasoning abilities weren’t something he ever learned; they were encoded into his character when he was created, so in a way, they’re something ‘innate’.

“But my experience also tells me that you’ve already died a number of times.”

Jorge had died a number of times before. Although Kars says that Jorge may have only felt like he was dying, this is still interesting.

“You’re right, Cars,” I said. “I remember who I am.”Cars was watching me intently.“I think deeper and broader than anyone else around.”“That’s right,” Cars said. “But do you really understand the true nature of what Tsukumojuku called the Beyond?”

Two implications here: 1) Kars does know what the true nature of the Beyond is, either because the Funnier told him or/and from Jorge’s memories, and 2) there is a connection between “who Jorge is” and “the true nature of the Beyond”, and Kars knows that.

I nodded. “You’re cool with that?”Cars smiled. “I have no desire to be the leading man.”

He says 主役, as in, “a leading role” or “a leading actor”. Yep, he Knows, alright.

When I’d stepped off the train in Morioh, and looked at the map of the town it had seemed familiar. Just before we hit, I’d seen it from the sky, and remembered that feeling.Had I been here before?

Again, while Jorge immediately does explain that it’s probably because the moving island’s shape looks somewhat like England that he saw on Tsukumojuku’s map, I like the theory that he just vaguely remembers a cross-shaped building from somewhere. Which would fit here, as they crashed into Arrow Cross House, so that would be what he saw from the sky right before they hit it.

[reaching mode on] Bonus points for this scene bearing resemblance to one of the biblical mitate from Tsukumojuku (on purpose or not??) : the Star / a meteor falling (the ship) would hit the earth, there would be a bottomless abyss where it hit (the Cube House’s wormhole), and from the abyss would come locust-like monsters tormenting humanity (Antonios???). This has been your daily dose of mitate hunt. [reaching mode off]

Chapter 13

“Loving you is a foundation of my personality!”

Well, Lisa Lisa, you’re… not wrong. That’s what you were created for: to love the Beyond Jorge.

“Then I guess you won’t die. (…) That god [Beyond] may not have made up its mind, either. But if you wish to go on living, you must follow that god.”

Read: ‘your author isn’t sure whether he wants to off you or not, so you better give him a reason to care about you.’ Also see that Darlington quote about characters not doing what the writer tells them to.

What did believing in Beyond entail?It meant there was an author writing a story with me as the main character.

YEP.

Then come on and save me! I thought, but I know there was a reason why they couldn’t. (…) Stories had plots, they had narrative flow, and you couldn’t have things that didn’t make sense or just showed up out of the blue.I had to create the flow.

And he proceeds to create the flow by looking for a wordplay involving Tsukumojuku’s name. Basically, he’s doing what Tsukumojuku used to do in his own novel: wordplay so hard that your author says ‘huh, I’ve never thought of that before, but that’s a really good reason why the plot should go x instead! I can’t believe I accidentally wrote so much foreshadowing into this!’ (Non-writers, I can assure you that it happens a lot when writing.)

The shape of the kanji was a metaphorical symbol. In Japanese, you could manipulate that meaning to ‘convey’ that one thing was another. Force open a path, and allow meaning to pass down it.

He uses the word 見立て (mitate) as ‘convey’ here. The narrativium seems to still work like it did in Tsukumojuku: if you bang two concepts against each other hard enough, you’ll always find a common point, and so you can force them to seem relevant to each other, which in turn will influence the plot.

So he’d come back once more. Here.

“That’s right.”

Aaand Tsukumojuku can pretty much read his mind now. I wouldn’t be surprised if he can see the narrative fabric itself or something. Shit’s weird, man.

“At last you decided to believe in Beyond, Jorge,” Tsukumojuku said. “It took you getting this bloody? You sure are a troublesome protagonist.”

Says someone who only resumed believing ‘in his own god’ in the Fourth Story when he was dying from injuries. Jorge is outright called a protagonist, again.

“You’ve got another role to play. But don’t worry, it’s a role your Beyond prepared for you. Although that doesn’t guarantee it’ll lead to a happy ending.”

read: ‘from what I know, and trust me I know, the Beyond sure likes grimdark fanfiction and torturing the protagonist in dark basements so uhhhh good luck?’

“The world to come is in your hands!”

後の世界はよろしく頼む. I believe this can be translated as, ‘I leave the next world / the world after this entirely to you” or “as for the next world / the world after this, I’m counting on you.” I’m reminded of how he said this was a new world in chapter 1.

Chapter 14

“Oh, yeah!” Narancia said. “You saved our asses! Thanks, dude! But why did you save us?”

Because Kars Knows about the Beyonds, so he understands that, to paraphrase the Second One, there’s no telling what could happen to this world if its narrator (Jorge) died.

“Why are you looking for that [Desolation Row]?”

Why were we? I wans’t sure, maybe just the narrative flow lead us to it? (…) We were finding Pucci’s metaphors one after another, and using them to guide us. (…)

We didn’t really need a girl to protect us, I thought, but then rethought it; perhaps this was another important narrative being introduced.

(…) Someone else came up on the bridge behind me, askind what was up, and of course it was Enrico Pucci, and I figured his religious fervor has sniffed it out. But there was no way to stop this flow now, and it would likely take us to whatever resolution lay in store.

Jorge is really aware of the narativium. (I like this last paragraph, it’s like ‘oh no no no I didn’t mean to walk into a main quest checkpoint yet fuck’).

[After this Pucci explains what the fig tart has to do with the Bible and Jorge is left trying to desperately trying to come up with some sort of an answer to Pucci’s bullshit. Which is funny because Tsukumojuku hinged on finding exactly this sort of forced biblical references.]

Thinking about it, how much free will had Tsukumojuku had?

I don’t think you want to open this can of worms, Jorge.

“"Buccellati,” I said. “I can’t move forward if I don’t solve the mystery. That’s the nature of a detective.”

“…oh,” he said. (…) “In that case, go ahead.”

It may seem surprising that Bruno allows Jorge to investigate the Kira & Diavolo murder so willingly after this line, but since it’s implied that Daibakusho Curry and Runbaba 12 has been working with Passione for the last few hours, I assume Bruno already had his head talked off about the Great Detectives’ Duty™ and is like “fine, fine, oh my god, do whatever”

[Funny V.:] “There is also a church, named for that which we serve.”[Pucci:] “Trinity Church.”.

The Trinity = the Beyonds. Also, in Japanese Funny says here: その名前は奥義を示している. “The name [of this church] indicates a mystery (?) / hidden purpose (?) / some esoteric secret (?).” 奥義 can also mean “arcana” (of a field of knowledge) or deep obligation/connection (?). I assume he means that the name of the church shows that there’s a Trinity-related secret it harbors, ie. the Holy Corpse in the basement. I’m not sure where the ‘that which we serve’ part in the translation came from (unless in the Japanese text there’s a set phrase I don’t recognize? That may be a thing too)

Chapter 15

“I understand you spent time in the company of a detective,” Giovanna said. “I hear your time together left you with a new type of power called… a Beyond?” (…)

How did he know that?

“Oh, that was me, too,” the Japanese man [Rohan] said, waving. “(…) Seems like you handled that mess with the air force commander well.”

I’m not sure why a few chapters earlier Rohan didn’t seem to find info about the Beyond in JPN Jorge’s memory, then, unless he was too mesmerized by the “forgery” thing to care. Also, once again we’re reminded that while JPN Jorge has ‘dies to the air force commander’ written as the ‘true’ account, ENG Jorge survived that encounter. Since he’s not the real canon George II

[Dio] “Heh… this is a Japanese katana, Jorge. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Oi where did you get that. Is that what I think it is

“Make me the one who gets your soul. Make me your… Dio Brando’s double. (…) I followed you here, to this far off universe, and waited. So I could be useful to you, father. So I could become you.”

Something something father and son becoming one in a very fucked up way? May be a possible reference to Tsukumojuku, check.

“It is the power of my will, father,” Giovanna said, tearing up. Without hesitation, Dio thrust the sword into his heart.

The narrator’s kinda-brother gets stabbed through the heart with a katana, after talking about the power of his will? That’d be Seshiru. Check.

Dio stood up and walked to the man with the horns (…), bit him, began drinking the man, chewing as he went, the speed with which he ate growing until he was straight up devouring the man. “(…) I can eat the ultimate being and make his flesh my own!”

Unexpected tactial vore to make someone’s body a part of you, so to speak? Shoutout to the Detective God’s creepy bulshit in the Fourth Story, and another reference check.

I managed to push myself up on my elbow, just high enough to see that there was something Japanese written on the deck in blood. A dying message left by Giorno Giovanna. Dio couldn’t read it, but I knew hiragana well enough.

ゆうき

“Courage”, of course. He was telling me to be brave. Giorno Giovanna had sacrificed himself to save me.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Because I didn’t have enough courage, he had to die!

I couldn’t just manufacture narrative flow. If I wanted this Beyond to work for all of us, not just myself, I needed courage. I had to start being more proactive.

So.

The hiragana right there?

It spells “Yuuki”.

Yep.

Of course, it can be read as “courage” (勇気), but you may remember that “Yuuki” has been an incredibly important word in Tsukumojuku – the name of Morimoto Yuuki, one of his beloveds, as well as a wordplay on the word “leaving”, “the way out” (yuki, 行き), which was the last thing Tsukumojuku (and the Beyonds) needed to see to finally decide to leave their imaginary world.

By the way, in this scene, Giorno brings to mind both Seshiru (saves his sorta-brother’s life from an evil guy, gets stabbed with a katana through the heart), as well as Tsutomu (younger technically-brother who attempts to tell the narrator what’s really happening through drawing something on the ground). Also, Jorge notices the word right after thinking of Lisa Lisa – who, in this Beyond-created world, would be yet another imaginary ‘beloved’, just like Yuuki was.

The above quote is also the very last thing in ENG Jorge’s narration. Nothing after this is written from his point of view. We can theorize it’s because while the character of Jorge doesn’t recognize the meaning of “Yuuki”, his Beyond does, and it prompts him to ‘leave’ the imaginary world – thus his narration ends. (Although you could argue that Dio never even gets first-person narration while having a Beyond, so it may not work like that.)

It’s interesting to see how the last paragraph would be read in context of it being thought by the Beyond as he slowly decides to leave [taken more from Japanese version]: I couldn’t just manufacture narrative flow [= make up an imaginary story for myself]. If I wanted the Beyond that existed for my own sake to be of help to people, [If I wanted this to be more than a self-indulging maladaptive defense mechanism], I’d have to gather courage, and do my best at being more proactive [= leave and do proactive stuff myself, in person].

[Reaching Even Harder mode on] In Tsukumojuku, ‘going to heaven’ (finding the Heavenly Throne) was synonymous with self-discovery, realizing that you are God etc. In Jorge Joestar (like in canon JJBA), the set of instructions on how to ‘go to Heaven’ tells you to “Have the courage to cast aside your Stand, and as your Stand withers, it will gather 36 souls, and give birth to something new.“ So… Have the courage [or the resolve to leave, since courage = yuuki] to cast aside your Stand [= the power you developed to protect yourself, the Wound, the imaginary world], and as your stand withers [the imaginary world collapses], it will gather 36 souls [= ??? idk, the characters will get reintegrated with you…?] and give birth to something new [= you will have a chance to discover yourself and grow in reality]. [Reaching Even Harder mode off]

Chapter 16

“The Steel Ball Run has never once been a ‘local shindig’,” ‘Funny’ said. He reached into his chest pocket, and pulled out a book. “Part of the holy scriptures. Nine volumes in all. I’ve ordered my men and their associates to collect and recover these.” (…)

“What’s in the book?” I asked, but before I could look closer he slipped the ‘holy scripture’ back in his pocket. It was a very old book, and it looked ready to crumble or fall apart if it was handled at all roughly, so I didn’t press the point.

At first I thought that these may be the Stories, but their number doesn’t check out, as it’s not 7 or 10 (7 ‘basic’ ones + Fourth (2), Fifth (2) and Sixth (2)).

However, the illustrations prove something even more interesting: the Holy Scripture Funny Valentine shows here is The Book: Jojo’s Bizarre Adenture Another Day. It’s perfectly possible that the rest of the Holy Scriptures are other JJBA light novels (not sure if there’s nine of them?), possibly released in a unified format – you can see “1/9″ written on the Holy Scripture’s cover. This raises the possibility that the Funnies know exactly what’s happening… because they’ve already read about it. For what it’s worth, the physical hardcover edition of Jorge Joestar does have something like a mock leather cover with gold lettering inside (you can see a photo of it in this post), similar to The Book’s style of cover design.

“An abandoned Japanese kid adopted by the Joestar family who becomes a detective. You are born only once in this world, and there is no replacement for you in any other universe, or in any parallel world.”

[wacky theory mode on] What Funny may mean here: ‘now if you were a (sorta) abandoned Japanese kid adopted by the Kato family who becomes a detective, well, that would be another story alltogether. But your name is not Tsukumojuku, and that’s why you’re unique.’ [wacky theory mode off]

Or, Funny Valentine considers Jorge and the Holy Corpse (ie. Dio) to be Singularities because they both have a Beyond. Though what the Singularities actually are is debatable: later we learn it’s Nishi Akatsuki and the Bermuda Triangle, for example.

And the Cars from this world appeared to be very angry.

“We told him this was but a parallel world, and he and everythingin it weren’t real,” Funny said. (…)

[Cars’s] eyes met mine. (…) Cars tossed ‘Funny’ aside, and Dirty Whatever floated away, swooping back towards us. Returning to its original owner. But Cars was flying after it…!

“So you’re the one who made this world? I did not give you permission, and I will not allow it!” he yelled, clouds billowing up behind him. He was so terrifying I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

This chapter is trying its hardest to make the reader think that this AU Kars is yelling at Funny Valentine. Earlier Jorge even asks Funny if this alternate world is created by D4C – however, Funny answers that ‘the possibility never occured to me’, so probably not.

You may notice that Kars starts pursuing them after noticing Jorge, and keeps eye contact with him while shouting ‘you’re the one who made this world’… because he’s yelling this at Jorge(’s Beyond), and immediately after that tries to kill Funny and Jorge, probably hoping that when Jorge dies, the world dies with him. Although AU Kars still achieves his goal even if he only kills Funny: with Funny’s death, this AU world is no longer accessible to the narrator, so as far as the narrative is concerned, this world doesn’t exist anymore. (We’ll be back to it later with Light Dancer).

“Do you know why Cars brought you here, and is trying to take you further in? (…) Precisely because you’re a Singularity. There is not other you in any other world. Cars has sniffed that out somehow. I’m sure of it.”

Yet another confirmation that Kars Knows, and Knew fairly early.

“That said…even without knowing a thing about parallel worlds, the nature of the world is that we all fulfill our roles.“

Because you’re all fictional characters. Gotcha.

So many ways we sync our internal time to the world outside. Keeping us aligned with our peers. It would be much harder to remain isolated, in a world of your own. In a world of my own? Cars had just accused me of doing just that.

*loud coughing while pointing between the ‘isolated in a world of your own’ part and the triplets*

Then the lights grew even brighter and the variations increased innumber and the array of copies added a third dimension and soonBudogaoka Academy’s campus was filled with blinding light cast bya giant mandala pyramid that made me forget to breathe.

The local schoolyard being filled with something similar to multiple copies of a character all burning up? That’s another check for possibly unintentional Tsukumojuku reference.

“I’ve already understood his point, so why does he not stop?”

“I think…he’s not just doing it for you. He’s doing this for himself, as well. Like…something he needs to express, something he needs to leave behind.”

“This is a parallel world. It isn’t real. Nothing will remain, so how can this have meaning?”

“Of course it has meaning! Don’t be stupid, Cars.”

First thing: Our Kars and the Light Dancer, just like the Single Braid Kars, seem to be aware that once the narrator (Jorge) leaves an alternate world, it’ll cease to exist.

Second thing: that line Jorge says that begins with “something he needs to express” is in Japanese “出し切りたいんじゃないかな, 残しておきたいというか…” Something like “I wonder if he wants to finish this / to exert himself completely [ie. put all his might and glory into this one final moment], wants something to be left behind [something of him to still remain once he vanishes], something like that…” So yeah, Light Dancer knows that his world is doomed, and decides to go out in a colorful blaze of glory, maybe hoping that at least his final words will leave some imprint on reality.

[And from a meta standpoint, Light Dancer was successful: his heartfelt speech is the only part of Jorge Joestar that made it into another Jojo medium, All-Star Battle, with Kazuhiko Inoue himself voicing more than a half of it. Even if Light Dancer is gone, a part of him still remains in reality.]

“My flesh may not be able to die, but my life is as fragile as it was before, and can be snuffed out so easily!”

Read: ‘Even if I’m immortal, I’ll still cease to exist when the world vanishes.’

“You, who are another ‘me’! You are not special! You share the same sadness I feel!”

Read: ‘Hey other Kars, you may be more ‘real’ than me in terms of how the world mechanics affect you, but in the end you’re also fictional, sorry.”

This other ‘Cars’ showed no sign of surprise at the original Cars’ arrival. So he was already aware of the existence of parallel worlds. He was fully aware that he was fake. How was it he already knew that?

Because he’d met ‘Funny Valentine’ in this world. And like in Monument Valley, he’d engaged in an experimental skirmish. I was sure ‘Funny’ had fought with ‘Dirty Whatever’. And Cars had understood that Stand ability, and realized the truth about himself.

Yeah, what I said before. Light Dancer (also Our Kars?) learned about it from Funny (or Funnier), whether it was Funny’s intention or not.

And behind Dio I saw a shadowy figure, with long hair, his face hidden by a shadow seemingly unaffected by the direction of the sun. He was half naked, his rail thin body covered in wounds, and there was a crown of thorns on his head.

“I agree with everything,” he said. “Keep going, call it off, do anything you like, do nothing at all.”

I’ve written about it before, but in the illustrations, this Beyond’s crown of thorns is wrapped three times around his head. This brings to mind the Sixth Story, when Tsukumojuku encountered a lot of his own disembodied heads all with long hair, all wrapped around three times with rope as if it was a crown (this… makes as much sense in context, I’m afraid). The ‘Tsukumojuku is Jesus / the Lamb / literally God’ was also a thing there, and since technically Tsukumojuku is the same as triplets/Beyond, I guess the Jesus imagery was left over and that’s why Dio’s Beyond looks like this? I guess neither Dio nor Jorge know (or want to acknowledge) what the triplets really look like, and that’s why the Beyond doesn’t look to them like the triplets’ True Form?

Dio opened his mouth, and I heard what he said. “This is right. There’s no mistake. Everything is taking me where I need to go.”

That sounded like what the wounded man with the crown of thorns had said.

So basically, we now have two people with Beyonds (the third one has fucked off in the previous chapter), and since both are functionally immortal self-inserts that viscerally understand how narrativium works, that’s just pure chaos, man. It seems unwinnable for either side… as long as they have their Beyonds, that is.

“You worthless shit!” Dio screamed. “Can’t you do anything you’re told!? That’s why nobody ever loved you! That’s why they all pushed you away! Your mother peeled your filthy skin off in a desperate attempt to at least love the surface of you! You were always empty inside, and there was never anything in there that anyone could love! I bet even your mother couldn’t believe it at first! Even after she peeled your god damn skin off she still couldn’t find a single worthwhile thing about you!”

Antonio Torres was letting out strangled sobs, but try as he might he couldn’t seem to get any tears flowing.

“If you can’t even take a fucking breath, then die! Die as theuseless piece of shit you were born to be! As a worthless piece oftrash even your mother wished she’d never given birth to!”

This fragment is already uncomfortable on its own, but when you know that Dio’s Beyond – one of the triplets, who spent a lot of time blaming themselves for the horrific abuse their mother unleashed on them – is writing those out-of-control, frustrated lines full of internalized hate? That’s just excruciating to think about.

“But there are still detectives in Morioh, right? Runbaba 12 and Daibakusho Curry. Have them look into it. They know what they’re doing, right?” They might be a bit eccentric, but still.

I can’t believe Jorge and co. could go back in time and save the world only because Tsutomu (okay, okay, Runbaba 12 too) was so quick to help them find 37th Universe’s Kira.

“You were right, Kunimido Chien is our man! The real Kira Yoshikage at last! He blew several detectives up. We also found a bachelor he was about to kill in the basement of that man’s home. He’s on the brink of death, seems like he was badly tortured, but he’s still alive.”

A serial killer camouflaging as an upstanding citizen with an important social function, caught torturing a main character in his basement, check! (ie. Okubo Kengo reference). Notice how quickly ENG Jorge dropped dead after he got ‘abandoned by his Beyond’. (He gets better, though.)

Cars didn’t actually have a reason to do this. This thought almost made me cry. That man was sacrificing so much.

“What?” Elizabeth said.

I wiped my tears. “This adventure’s almost over.”

It’s interesting that while Jorge seems to be crying because he’s moved by Kars’s sacrifice, his answer is about something different. As if he was on some level aware that the narration is coming to an end, and it briefly overrode his in-character reason for crying.

From what he’d just said, a head belonging to the holy man was here, too, but that was likely a miracle. One brought about not by Dio, but by the man who stood behind him, the long-haired, wounded man with the crown of thorns.

Once again we’re talking about ‘miracles’, that Tsukumojuku also talked about in context of ‘the name of God’ being needed to bring about a ‘miracle’. Since the triplets’ True Nature is contained in the name of God (ie. ‘Tsukumojuku’), of course they can bring about a miracle like this; Jorge is right.

“All this time and you’re still trapped by your parent’s curse. You’ve lived more than long enough to grow up, but you refuse to take responsibility for anything. If you had the time to steal glimpses of my heir’s lives, you should have spent some time reflecting on your own life.“

Whether Erina intended it to be or not, this may be a jab at Dio’s Beyond, too (that is, the Beyond’s subconscious yelling at him through the character of Erina): ‘you’re still trapped by what your parent [Ms. Suzuki] did to you, and refuse to face the reality and grow up. Instead of living precariously through the fictional characters of this world, you should instead reflect on who you really are.’

From inside my stomach, Funny Valentine produced seven parallel world ‘Cars’ and flung them up towards where Cars was floating (…) so a ladder of eight ‘Cars’ stretched from my stomach towards the body of the ‘holy man’.(…) I started running up the Cars ladder.

Jorge running up the makeshift Cars ladder to reach the body of the ‘holy man’ reminds of the Fourth Story, in which Tsukumojuku had to scale a ladder of souls to get to the Castle, and later had to run up the stairs he made with those corpse boxes to get to the crucified ‘Jesus’ (aka the false ‘God’, aka ‘Seiryoin’).

I ignored him, and put Jonathan Joestar’s head right on the fresh cut stump of the mummified ‘holy man’. (…) This was the place where it belonged, and now it was back. Human bodies had such strong identities, I thought; all of this was only possible because me and the other ‘Jorge Joestar’ and Dio all had Beyonds, but those three Beyonds were actually one. The Trinity.

I turned around and looked right past Dio’s severed head at the face of his Beyond. It looked a lot like him. Sad, kind eyes. Dio’s Beyond knew this was all over. With a smile, it faded out, and was gone.

…so.

Let’s take that quote about Dio I asked you to remember, and apply this to Dio’s Beyond. The Beyond was ‘fixated on Jonathan” [on the fictional character of Jonathan], who had “grown up to be a man who made genuine friends he could honestly share his honest emotions with, a man who threw himself body and soul into everything he did.” I guess this Beyond understands that it’s not something he can say about himself, and that’s why he puts himself in Dio’s shoes and not straight up in Jonathan’s; but since he still desires those things Jonathan has, he tries to take over his body – become him, so to speak.

But then Jorge breaks the entire plan, ruins the ‘miracle’, by putting Jonathan’s head back on the body that Dio(’s Beyond) wanted to possess, as if to point out, ‘this is not your body. This is Jonathan Joestar’s body. You have to understand this character’s body will never be yours; taking over it won’t make you become ‘less empty’, or suddenly have friends, or be able to share emotions with others, or change reality.’

And in that moment, the Beyond understands, gives Jorge one last sad smile, and disappears – leaves the imaginary world in order to face his own reality.

[Bonus points for that scene with Jorge being very similar to Tsukumojuku putting Yuuki’s head back on and reviving her]

Maybe I should ask Tom Petty about my name.

So I picked up the pebble and called across space time and the result made me think I’d been an idiot to ask anyone from a country without kanji but then I looked at it again and sort of liked it which was bad.

It was just super weird from a Japanese perspective.

So why did it feel right? (…)

I mean, Joestar was always just Jo-suta- in katakana, but using ‘castle’ and ‘character’ for Joji was just madness!

Jorge’s name is written 城字ジョースター. The first kanji of his name means ‘castle’, the second is ‘a character (as in a letter, a kanji, a written symbol)’ or ‘(hand)writing’.

Most Japanese analyses (and pixiv fanarts) I saw treat this as a wordplay on the author’s own name: since Jorge is 城字, you could say he’s “舞城王太郎”の“城” の ”字”, that is, “the symbol/kanji used to write the ‘jo’ in ‘Maijo Otaro’”. Or maybe he’s a part of “Maijo(’s) writings”.

This is sometimes paired with the theory that Dio might be the “o” ( 王) in Otaro, since he has a giant 王 on his clothes in the novel illustrations, and when we first see his Beyond, Dio is busy yelling about how he’s the king (王) of the world. I can’t see how ENG Jorge would fit either “mai-” or “-taro”, but it’s nevertheless an interesting theory, and meta as hell – effectively proving that while their world is already fictional, the ‘reality’ of the triplets is also written by someone – that mysterious other God mentioned at the end of Tsukumojuku: Maijo Otaro. It’s all fine and good.

HOWEVER.

After reading Tsukumojuku, the word “castle” immediately brings to mind Geneijo, the Illusionary Castle. When we first encounter it, it’s a paracosm created by Serika and Seshiru, a way for them to escape from the unpleasant world – a big foreshadowing that the world of Tsukumojuku itself is a similar ‘imaginary castle’ of the triplets… and so is the world of Jorge Joestar.

So Jorge’s name may as well be read as something that betrays the true nature of his world, like ‘the symbol of the Castle’, or ‘writings that have something to do with the Castle’, ‘the letters and symbols that make up the Castle’. It may be that Tonpetti (who’s pretty genre-savvy in the book), just like Giorno, by giving this word to Jorge actually passed it to Beyond, who realized what it meant, acknowledged the nature of the imaginary world, and decided to leave.

And this could be why JPN Jorge’s narration stops and never continues again after that last sentence – and since his Beyond was already the last ‘author’ standing, the book itself comes to a halt and ends.

#Anonymous #jorge joestar #jorge joestar spoilers #jorge tag #maijo and jdc stuff #hcs meta and stuff #long post #who's ready for EXTREMELY LONG JORGE META #with extra reaching

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queen-of-fanfics · 6 years

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No One Needs To Know

Prompt: You, Finn and Poe were captured by the First Order. Little do the boys know, you and Kylo Ren have a secret relationship and he helped you escape.

Pairing: Kylo Ren x Reader

A/N: Sup y’all. I’m trying to get back into writing more and posting I promise. Strangely, out of nowhere, I got really into reading Kylo Ren fanfics. Lol, no joke, they’re actually amazing, and I couldn’t wait to get all up in it. Sorry if this is a little long but I couldn’t help myself. I hope you guys like it! :)

You groggily try to open your eyes but immediately squeeze your eyes shut from the bright light in the room. You let out a groan as your head starts to ache terribly. The last thing you could remember was the Rebels were ambushed by a group of minions from the First Order. You were with Poe and Finn at the time of the attack and you remembered being struck in the back of the head as Stormtroopers were shooting at the boys.

Being more cautious now, you slowly open your eyes little by little, letting them adjust. Finally able to look around the room, you saw the room was plain and you were tied down to a chair with weird looking machinery surrounding you.

Deep groans sounded behind you and you jerked in your seat. Your heart started beating in your chest as you crane your head around to look behind you. Barely seeing out the corner of your eye, you saw a figure of a man that looked a lot like Finn.

“Finn?!” You strain out from your painfully dry throat, desperation sounded through your words.

“Is that you?”

“Yes, it’s me, Y/N. Poe is here next to me too. He’s waking as well but it’s taking him more time to adjust it seems.”

You let out a sigh of relief that someone close to you was here with you. “I’d hate to admit it, Finn, but I think we’re on one of their ships. Are able to get up and free me from this chair? My body is hurting painfully from being tied down.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Y/N, but it seems that we both are also tied up. Unfortunately, we’re both tied to a post here. God, my ass is dead. They couldn’t find us a chair or something?” Poe grumbled out in this annoyed tone.

Letting out a soft giggle, you turned back in your seat. “Hello, Poe. Good of you to join us.”

“Hello, Miss Y/N. I’d hate to agree with you but I do believe we were taken during that ambush.” “God. I wonder what they have in store for us.” You were saying it more to yourself because the two men behind you started conversing between themselves on an escape plan.

You looked straight ahead, trying to think of a plan yourself but all you could think of was Kylo Ren. You two had an … interesting relationship. You weren’t together due to the fact that you were on opposite sides of a fatal war, but that didn’t seem to stop you two from stealing touches and glances at each other when no one was looking.

It was rare when you two could see each other without others knowing but when you could, you kept those times close to your heart. The first time you two had seen each other privately, you were scared out of your mind, but he was so kind and playful you were afraid he was playing a joke on you. Yet, as time passed, you couldn’t help but grow feelings for him more and more.

There were nights where it was so difficult without him. He became like a drug to you but it was near impossible to leave base without signaling some kind of detection and for him the same. Luckily, Kylo had been able to connect with you and communicate with you even if it meant reading your mind.

He promised to never use what he learned from you or around you while you two were together to use in his fight against the Rebels. It still hurt your heart whenever an attack would be sent out but you couldn’t stop it. The war was bigger than you two.

Lost in your thoughts, you hadn’t realized that the boys had asked you a question that you completely missed.

“Y/N? Are you alright?” Poe’s voice asked in concern.

Shaking your head to gather your thoughts, you replied, “Yes, of course. I’m sorry what was-”

Your sentence was cut off when the door in front of you slid open.

A gasp caught in your throat when you saw that it was Kylo Ren standing in the doorway.

He quickly stepped into the room and the door closed behind him. He walked quickly over to you and yanked off his mask that you hated. A smile pulled at your lips and you couldn’t think of what to say. Behind you, you could hear the boys’ voices growing louder in fear for what Kylo might do to you, but you didn’t hear them when all you could focus on was your man in front of you.

His face was full of anger and concern. Reaching you, he started pulled at the bonds that help you down. “I can’t believe they took you. I hadn’t even known an attack was set out, damn Hux. I had made perfect instructions to never lay a hand on you under any circumstances.” He growled out. Freeing you from your bonds, he pulled you from the chair to stand in front of him. The chatter of the boys grew even louder in alarm but cut to a stop when they saw you jump into Kylo and wrap your arms around his neck.

His arms quickly wrapped around your body and pressed his face into your neck. You melted into his arms and whispered in his ear, “About time you came for me.” You felt his body loosen slightly from your teasing and pulled you in even closer. “I’m so sorry this happened. You know I would never have-”

“Shh. You don’t have to explain because I know this wasn’t you.”

Reluctantly, he pulled away from you and looked to the side at the men tied up on the floor.

You looked over and barely contained yourself from letting out a laugh at the looks on their faces. Grimacing slightly, you realize that this is going to end a lot messier than you would have like and might get you kicked out from the Rebels.

Before you could say anything, Kylo spoke for you. “I can assure you that the relation between Y/N and I have never been used to attack your team. We might be friendly but I would never use her that way.”

“Friendly? I would hardly call that friendly.” Poe sneered out at Kylo. You knew he hadn’t meant it towards you with ill intent but it stung all the more.

“Don’t you dare. Y/N would never compromise you like that. Never and if I ever hear you disrespecting her, you’ll be hearing from me.”

Placing a hand on his chest to calm him down, you reached up to turn his face to you. “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary. I don’t know if you can do this, but can you please help us escape?” You knew that you were making him choose between you and his people, but you had to try.

“Of course I can. You are to never be hurt. Those two, I couldn’t care less but because they’re with you, they’ll be spared. And I can’t let General Hux think he succeeded now can I?” He joked with you and this time you did let out a giggle. Rushing over to the boys on the floor, you bent down to help them out of their bonds. Poe gave you uncomfortable looks, caught between wanting to be relieved and distrusting you. Looking over at Finn, he gave you a comforting smile and winked at you.

Feeling better than before, you all three stood up and turned to Kylo. Holding out a hand for you, you came towards his embrace one last time before he had to step back and slip his mask back over his beautiful face. “Follow me.” He commanded with his distorted voice.

He opened the door and stepped into the hallway first before beckoning you to follow. For the next ten minute, you three followed Kylo as you weaved through the maze of hallways, making sure to stay hidden from any Stormtroopers or cameras that were active. Finally, you made it to a small room and Kylo quickly closed the door behind the group.

Poe and Finn were still on edge and came to stand in front of you as if to protect you from Kylo. He reached up and pulled his mask off before he spoke. “These are pods that will be enough for you to make it back to your hideout. Once you start up the pod and leave the ship, there will be a notification set out to the main control room. You will have about five minutes to get far enough away from detection. There will be a way to turn off the tracker in the pod. Once you’re inside, you’ll see. It’s hard to miss.”

Running between the two men in front you, you ran right into Kylo’s arms and squeezed him tight. Shoving your face into his chest, not wanting to let go, you mumble your thanks against him. You felt his hands cup either sides of your face and pull you to look up at him. You couldn’t help the tears that stung your eyes. You didn’t know when you would be able to see him again and you had a feeling, it was going to be a while before you could.

He lowered his head and kissed your tears away before laying his lips on yours. “Don’t you start crying on me. You’re going to be alright, I’ll make sure of it.” You nod your head because words couldn’t help at the moment. Pulling him down to you again, the men start to prepare the pod and gave you two privacy to say goodbye. “I’ll come for you tonight. Got to make sure my girl makes it home alright.” He teased against your lips.

Once you pulled away, your lips were slightly swollen from your deep kiss and Kylo helped you into the pod. “Stay safe. I’ll make sure to keep them occupied long enough for you to get out.” Kylo promises. Sneaking one more peck against his lips, you said, “You stay safe as well. I couldn’t bear it if-”

“Don’t go stressing yourself out like that. You know I’ll be fine.”

With a nod, Poe pressed a button that closed the door, cutting you off from Kylo. As the pod started up, you stayed close to the door where there was a small window that allowed you to keep looking at your man. He gave you an encouraging smile and you gave him a wanting look. What you wouldn’t do for another moment in his arms.

Poe navigated the pod farther and farther away from the ship until it was looming in the distance. Letting out a heavy sigh, you walked towards Poe and Finn then flopped down onto an empty chair. The silence was defending in the small space before Poe spoke. “No one needs to know about what you two have. We simply escaped and found our way off the ship.”

You threw a surprised look towards Finn who winked at you with a smile. Poe let out a sigh before saying, “At least we now know where you run off to every now and then.” You let out a happy sigh and looked out the window into the nothingness of space, but you didn’t feel nothingness this time. In your head, you could clearly feel that Kylo was connecting with you,

I told you everything was going to be alright. Stay up tonight, I want to see you again.

You silently thought of your agreement you knew he could read. A smile pulled at your lips and you couldn’t stop it from brightening up your face.

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epitome-of-supernatural · 7 years

Text

My Coming Out Story

So since I always seem to miss National Coming Out Day, I figured I would just share my coming out story anyway after seeing @insidemykingdom2 reblog his post about his experience in coming out. I also plan on doing this on YouTube in the hopefully near future on a new channel. So to start, some of this is in one of my posts on my blog called "Ensure Them That They Are Loved Early" This is kind of two coming out stories because I came out as gay and then somewhat came out as trans. I came out in bits and pieces to certain people, the very first person I told I was Gay was my little cousin, we'll call her ladybug we're 6 years apart so let's just say I was about 10 which puts her at 6 (I know that's very young for her to know but I was a kid and thought nothing of it). She's like a little sister to me and we've always been pretty close especially now that she's 18. She didn't care at that age, she knew what it meant to be gay but just loved that I played with her lol, but even at 6 and as she got older she never said anything to anyone. Next I came out to a few people in middle school during like 7th and 8th grade but I've always been feminine so people knew but I didn't give a fuck, I still denied it when asked just because I wasn't ready to come out yet, you have to do these things on your time, the way I was raised played a part in that decision. About 8th-ish grade a cousin that's actually my age and I got really close(technically she's not my cousin because we're not of any relation by blood, she's kin to an older cousin of mine on her mother's side I think which cuts her off from me in some way but we grew up together so she's family to me, we've always said we're cousins) we'll call her Kelly who later became Keenan. We both basically came out to each other at the same time, I believe I came out to her over the phone and she to me in person on a summer break when she visited from Michigan, we've literally gone through the same steps together, we came out during the same time, and discovered we're trans around similar times, that was kind of years apart. Next I told my older cousin whom we'll call Cupid who is the mother of my little cousin ladybug, and also Kelly's actual older cousin I spoke of earlier. She more so found out rather me telling her, so she lived in this cute little complex at the time that had a pool, Kelly was here for the summer and we used to go to the mall and buy stuff and hang out, we had a thing for press on nails at the time and would always wear them. So my natural nails are basically bomb because they grow long and perfectly straight and so people always love my nails and think they're fake at first, this worked in my favor for a bit because I didn't want it to be detectable that I was wearing press ons so I always bought French tips or natural looking ones that could pass for my nails, until this one day in particular we all went to the pool and a girl I went to school had a father and siblings that live next door to Cupid (the irony) and one of her siblings was too cute, I had a crush, and we used to hang out (none of that is relevant just a little tea I needed y'all to know lol), so we're swimming and what not and I'm a little blury but what either happened was that unbeknownst to me the press on nails I was wearing had an iridescent appearance to them when wet with the chlorine water and as I was getting out of the pool my cousin noticed or when I came up from under for air I was wiping my face with my hands and my high school friend noticed and mentioned it to my cousin lol (believe other or not I was mad if that's what happened because I do remember them both seeing the nails). So my cousin ended up asking me and I admitted it to her, and she was extremely cool, supportive, and accepting( she was/is the cool older cousin). So next time goes by and my freshman year of high school starts, I remember telling myself and a couple of the few people who knew I was gay in middle school that once I start high school I was going to be totally open about it from the first day of school so if anyone asked(because people always asked either because I was fem and/or they'd heard a rumor about me and this guy, whom was popular and yes the rumor was true lol) and that's just what ended up happening people asked and boy did the word get out fast and the questions kept coming. So I was now out to the public for the most part, the rest of family not so much. The only other people in my family I remember actually coming out to are my mother and sister but I can't remember which was first, and the rest of my family I think just got the memo lol. I remember telling myself sister when she was taking me home from somewhere at night, and she asked me if I had a boyfriend and if I'd have sex, her exact words were "y'all be fuckin?" And I thought we would get closer but eh lol. When I came out to my mother it was also during my freshman year, and I remember writing her a letter that morning and putting in her car where she could see it, then I caught the bus, I was so nervous all day, the perk to this day was it was a Friday and I was going to stay at Cupid's house for the weekend. So school gets out I go to Cupid's house and eventually get a call and she handed me the phone and to make that part shorter she didn't stop loving me at all, she treated me just the same, it was definitely a stepping stone towards us getting closer. I'd started dressing in "girls clothes" and at first she was kind of like what? Why? Then she started picking stuff out for me and even coming shopping with me. Fast forward to about the mid end-ish of my junior year and I'd discovered and came to terms with being Transgender, and to be honest telling that wasn't necessarily a coming out thing I just did me, because I was already cross dressing so it basically was like "come on, who didn't know that?" situation. So the only person who truly has an issue and has ever had with my sexuality and gender identity etc. is my sister, needless to say I give zero fucks 😃😏 Well that's my story 😊

#me #mine #my shit #royal #royal lebeau #epitome #supernatural #national coming out day #coming out #my coming out story #coming out story #it gets better #lgbtq #lgbt #lgbtqi community

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furederiko · 7 years

Photo

Today's Random-News-Digest is of course related to the happenings of San Diego Comic Con International 2017. Some recent news after that event are also included. This is just part 1 of 2 though, with the second arriving... hopefully soon (the plan is tomorrow, but we'll see). LOL.

Death Note

I believe by now, fans of the original Japanese franchise (manga nor anime) should STOP wishing for a faithful and bit-by-bit adaptation in this Hollywood movie. At the very least, it might be best to NOT even expect it to be one. Director Adam Wingard brought some of his cast to Netflix first Hall H panel for SDCC 2017 (on July 20th), and once again stressed out that this movie is 'his personal take' on the source material. He even said he was interested to work on it, with the goal to "breath new life into a great premise". That pretty much summed it up, if you ask me. Wingard was accompanied by Margaret Qualley, Lakeith Stanfield, Masi Oka, and obviously, lead actor Nat Wolff who said that he wrote his own 'Death Note' as soon as he got the part. Creepy... much? Actor Willem Dafoe didn't attend, by his voice was featured to present a special clip from the movie.

The clip depicted the first meeting of Wolff's meek and angsty Light Turner and Dafoe's sinister-looking but clown-like 'shinigami' (God of Death) Ryuk. Light opens the 'Death Note', and Ryuk unveils himself to the boy, taunting him to write the name of his bully, Kenny Doyle. And the rest is history. For the clip, and not Doyle. No way Netlix going to spoil the movie's first R-rated scene, right? LOL. Said footage, which has been made available by Netflix via their Youtube channel, is precisely another (the first being the American cast and setting) solid proof to why this is not a direct adaptation of the manga. While Light and Ryuk still retain traces of their manga/anime characterization, they really feel like a different incarnations. Rather than consciously accepting the book, it felt like this version of Light was being 'tricked' to use it instead. I could be wrong on this, because I'm not an avid fan of the manga/anime, but I honestly remember it... differently. Also, this Light is giving off a strong vibe of Jughead from "Riverdale" if he was pushed too far, so picture that if you will. Ryuk was more or less similar to the source material, thanks to Dafoe's eerie vocal-tone. But the design... made it a bit hard to fear, nor even be wary of him. And here I am remembering how the anime Ryuk gave me nightmares for a good while when I saw him for the first time.

Wingard stated that audience can expect to see 'humor' in this movie too, so it won't be all-out horror. To put it simple, this movie will have its own 'dark comedy'. Hmmm... I'm not really sure what to say about that. I have to admit, I'm really curious to see this movie. Yet on the other hand, I'm not fully sold about it, for reasons I can't even really tell. The early reviews didn't sound too bad, but also NOT too good. So it hasn't really cleared out this personal doubt of mine. Go ahead and read them, perhaps it might convince you... better. "Death Note" arrives on Netflix, August 25th, 2017.

Spawn

Are you a fan of "Spawn", was disappointed by the 1997's movie (for the record, I thought it was okay, even if I never managed to get past the first half LOL), and has been itching to get a modern live action movie adaptation? Well, then you're in luck. Todd McFarlane has personally announced that he will be writing and also directing a new R-rated movie for Blumhouse Studio! If that wasn't clear enough, McFarlane is THE series own creator. This project has been pitched as a low-budget horror movie, and it's really an intriguing take on what's supposed to be a CG-heavy movie. Guess who he wanted to play the lead character, an NYPD detective named Twitch Williams? Leonardo Dicaprio. Wow, that's a really TALL order... for a now Oscar winner actor. Let's just see if it pans out.

Fantastic Four

Quite surprisingly, 20th Century FOX didn't brought out their Marvel franchise like "Deadpool 2" or "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" to their SDCC panel this year. Instead, they brought the sequel to "Kingsman" which I will talk about in the next category. That doesn't mean the studio weren't making headlines though. In the panel of the TV series "LEGION" (which I will also talk about later in the TV section... *sigh*) that took place July 20th in Ballroom 20, showrunner Noah Hawley made a major announcement. He's developing a movie for FOX, and it's going to be about... "Doctor Doom". That's not the title of course, but I'll use that instead.

Honestly, I'm not even sure how to react about this. As proven by his hit series "Fargo" and also "LEGION", Hawley is indeed a name you can trust. So the prospect of him working on a Marvel title for the big screen, would make his devoted fans cheer. On the other hand, do we really NEED another Doctor Doom story? FOX have tried to work with this character twice, and both failed miserably (though I'd gladly argue at least Julian McMahon's version was still much better than Toby Kebbell's horrendous version in that awful 2015 movie). So why, pray tell WHY must they continue milking this character eventhough the well of potential is pretty much dry? And that's where I'm starting to get a little pissed off. It's more than clear than FOX will do ANYTHING to keep the "Fantastic Four" copyright from automatically reverting to Marvel. The 2015 "Dis4ster Four" was a good example of this annoyingly negative behavior, and now this.

Making a Doctor Doom movie without a Fantastic Four, would be similar to what SONY is doing with Spider-Man-less Venom. It feels like a FATAL mistake. Would Victor von Doom work in a solo spin-off too, much like what they did with "Logan" and "Deadpool"? In the comics, the answer might easily be YES. But this is a movie, and I need not to remind you, FOX has an infamously BAD track-record in adapting this amazing antagonist to live action. So yeah, should I be cheering, or should I be jeering at this 'idea'? I can't even answer that. I don't think anyone in their right mind would! Oh well, let's just see how this develops. But really, this spells... DOOM!

Barbie

Have you been wondering where Anne Hathaway went? It felt like she somewhat faded away from mainstream publicity after singing herself towards an Oscar win... and got married. She's probably taking more Indie projects like "Collosal" though, and American indie movies don't really get much spotlight in a far away land like my country. But we can expect this to change in the near future with a potential high profile project on the way.

Latest report has it that she's currently in talks to star as in the live action "Barbie" movie. This Mattel toy line project has previously circled Amy Schumer for the lead role, who has to drop it due to scheduling conflicts. Director Alethea Jones has been brought into negotiation, after being handpicked by Hathaway herself. Assuming the plot of the movie stays the same, it will tell the story of a woman realizing she doesn't fit into the perfect land of Barbies and thus journeys to the real world. So basically, "Enchanted" part Deux, which I think is a really good fit for her. With this project (assuming she takes it), as well as the "Ocean's 8" spin off, I think we can expect Hathaway to be back in the spotlight once again. "Barbie" is currently set for a June 29th, 2018 release, but that is subject to change to match with Hathaway's schedule.

Kingsman

Okay, let's leave that bizarre Doctor Doom reality aside, and talk about what's likely going to be good... "Kingsman: The Golden Circle"!!! The cast of the sequel attended the FOX panel, and entertained audience with a chug of beer and fresh mind-popping second trailer. And wow, was it really good! The actions, and all the style and swaggers? It was SOLID for me. Oddly, eventhough I've been a fan of Taron Egerton's Eggsy and his classy team of Kingsman, I'm slowly growing a weird fondness to the American counterpart instead: the Statesman. Particularly, that hispanic cowboy character with the electric lasso rope who is played by none other than Pedro Pascal. He's a real scene stealer in this trailer, and to think that he's not even getting his name top-billed for the movie. Ouch! "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" is set to be released on September 22nd, 2017. And it's TOTALLY on my watch list!

By the way, there's also an interesting animated short where Eggsy runs into... the infamous Sterling Archer from the FXX series "Archer"! If you're a fan of both worlds, make sure you see it. Because well, it's hillarious!

James Bond

You want a more serious, non-comic-adaptation spy movie? Then well... "Bond 25" (obviously a placeholder title) has been announced. The Hollywood Reporter first delivered the news, before it was officially confirmed by Eon Productions. Yes, the 25th James Bond movie has gotten a release date, of November 8th, 2019. Meaning two years from now.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much the whole content of the news. There were no details whatsoever. Thus everyone got pushed into this weird 'curious' mode, with plenty of important questions being thrown around. What is the movie's title and/or subtitle? Does the movie have an actor? Is Daniel Craig really returning, and if he's not... who's the replacement? Will we be getting a female Bond, following what happens to the hit series "Doctor Who"? Come again, which studio has won the distribution bid? Because I totally haven't caught that announcement. Many sites began developing their own take, or should I say 'theories' about this announcement, and well... for now, they are nothing more than that, theories. Some have said that Craig is a done deal. Other said that the franchise will be sold off after this one movie. Then again, until there's another official confirmation (said to be announced at a later date), it's pretty much anyone's guess, right? So yeah... perhaps we should let it slide for now, and just look forward for "Kingsman" for the time being.

LEGO Movies

2nd trailer for the "The LEGO NINJAGO Movie" was premiered in the SDCC 2017 panel, and was later made available online by Warner Bros Animation. And well... I'm still mixed about it. The pseudo-brick animation style of "The LEGO Movie" is very clear here, moreso than "The LEGO Batman Movie"... particularly with that hybrid scene featuring a real life CAT. Which I'm positive wasn't CGed (assuming it's not the case of "The Jungle Book"). So fans of that first movie will be thrilled.

But at the same time, this felt like a drastic difference compared to the hit TV series. And that is the part that's not working for me. As I've said once before, having been invested with the show for SEVEN Seasons (which is a great achievement, since I normally wouldn't go pass Season 2 for other shows), it's just hard to make good sense out of this... 'ALTERNATE UNIVERSE' version. I'm not even sure how I feel about seeing Dave Franco's Lloyd as an awkward high schooler, with the others being hi classmates. It just screamed too... "Power Rangers"-y to me, and I truly never expected them to go that route *sigh*. Not to mention, Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood" was just grating on my nerves, no matter how appropriate it was used to depict Lloyd's fractured relationship with Garmaddon (which seems to be the core plot of the movie).Perhaps, this movie is intended for those with ZERO experience in the franchise, then? Likely so. Anyways, whether you're digging this or not, "The LEGO NINJAGO Movie" will still arrive on September 22nd, 2017. Let's just see how the critics and audience will react to this version.

Ready Player One

If Walt Disney has critically-praised director Ava DuVernay and her "A Wrinkle in Time", then Warner Bros' secret weapon is none other than... legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg and his "Ready Player One". Nope, by all means, I'm not pitting these two people and their totally different movies. I just need to point out how they are SIMILAR to one another. Because both are working on a movie based on a supposedly famous and fan-favorite novel that... I haven't had the slightest idea about. No seriously, I have been seeing these titles being headlined every now and then, yet I was totally clueless about them. Were they good? Don't ask me. I've never even heard them before, so all I did was scratching my head wondering how they ended up being so highly talked-about. One thing for sure, it wasn't until I've seen the first trailers to those movies that I could say... "Aaaah, so THAT's what this book is all about". That's a genuine LOL moment right there.

Since I've dished out about my confusion for "A Wrinkle in Time" last week (thanks to the movie making a big splash on D23 Expo 2017), this time I'll shashay into the second title. Mainly because the movie was among the major features of WB's SDCC Hall H panel, alongside "Blade Runner 2049" and of course DC Films (which I will talk about in the next category). Spielberg attended the section of this panel with book writer and co-screenwriter Ernie Cline, co-screenwriter Zak Penn, and cast members Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn and T.J. Miller. The director shared his thoughts about the movie, as well as presenting the first official teaser. Since this is WB, obviously we could easily expect said video to arrive online right after the panel, and of course it did. Exclusives footage for attendees? That's not their thing... LOL

Turns out, "Ready Player One" is like a live action version of "The LEGO Batman Movie", or Disney's "Wreck-It Ralph". It's Cline's love letter to the 80s, and also the technology of Virtual Reality. The trailer didn't shy away from this premise, as it showed plenty of nostalgic stuffs like "The Iron Giant", Lara Croft, Freddy Krueger, DC characters to "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", and all. Though of course, most of them are WB's own properties, no surprise about that. LOL. We get to experience this massive virtual space where everything collides, through Sheridan's Wade Wyatts, a young man living in the year 2045. He'll go through a fantasy reality-bending adventure to locate an Easter Egg inside the OASIS, because whoever fins it, gains control of the virtual reality world. That kind of stuff. Yes, it's a grand concept, and the trailer seemed to wow practically everyone.

But I'm probably in the minority here to say that, it was not that... 'mindblowing' for me. Perhaps, because I've already seen this concept before, over and over again through other media? I'm not sure. It's the case of "The Hunger Games" I think, where western audience saw it as a new concept, whereas it's basically a 'been-there done-that' in Japanese entertainment. So in a way, I've been there before, hence it didn't feel that original no matter how glorious the CG effects looked. But don't let this subjective opinion ruins your hype. Not everyone saw "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle", right? If you're digging the vibe of this movie, then good for you! If you're not, then we're on the same team. There's one for everyone after all! "Ready Player One" arrives on March 30th, 2018. And yes, that's 3 weeks after "A Wrinkle in Time". Coincidence much? Hmmm...

DC Films

"Justice League" is set to be released on November 17th, 2017. So should we even be surprised to see WB bringing the core cast to their panel? Nope. Minus Henry Cavill though, since he's busy filming "Mission: Impossible 6" with a troubling thick mustache (why? more in this later). Beside, he wasn't even shown in the latest appetizer official poster (available through the official twitter account). To which I'm not a fan by the way, even if it's been given almost unanimous praises all over the globe. "You can't save the world alone", the tagline said. A sarcastic statement towards Cavil's Superman's for "Man of Steel", perhaps?

Oh, and of course there would be a new trailer. Duh? Remember, this is WB we're talking about. If the first one that Zack Snyder (when the absent director was still solely in charge) debuted in last year's SDCC showed action scenes, CG flares, photoshoot poses, with a relatively small amount of story, this one had more balance between character interactions and battle sets. Longer duration too, clocking at more than 4 minutes! And yes, that means more of J.K. Simmons' Commissioner Gordon and Jeremy Iron's Alfred Pennyworth. To be honest, I'm also not a fan of this trailer. It didn't really made me want to see the movie, which has become a constant issue between me and WB's marketing department. I DO like it better than the poster though, because it's clearly taking many good cues from "Wonder Woman". In many ways, it also felt... a bit similar to Joss Whedon's "The Avengers". That scene with an antagonist arriving near a macguffin? Or the heroes talking in a meeting room esque setting? Yeaaah. No surprise, because the movie's pretty much in Whedon's hand right now. Sadly, similar to "Ready Player One", had this was released before the 2012 Marvel Studios movie, I would've responded in a much better manner. For this time, it felt like an odd dejavu instead.

However, the biggest takeaway from the panel, would be the other non-Justice League-related news. Because WB confirmed a parade of projects currently in development, as well as some new projects in the works. There are 8 big titles in the works! It's currently unclear if they are chronologically ordered, but they are: - "Shazam!". Prior to the panel, "Shazam!" was already reported to be starting production in early 2018. If not in January, in February. So it's safe to assume it might be released in 2019, that's the goal anyway. While WB hasn't revealed, or even cast the lead actor just yet (perhaps, Armie Hammer?), David F. Sandberg has been assigned to direct. - "Flashpoint". The new official title for Ezra Miller's solo movie. After losing directors over and over again, WB has decided to go ahead and just do an adaptation of the massive storyline. And this might be the most unexpected and shocking reveal of them all, that immediately raised up concerns and speculations in the fanbase. Why? In the comic, "Flashpoint" was used to... RESET the DC Universe!!! The event in that movie, ultimately created a new timeline, that sequed DC Comics into the New 52 era. Does this imply that... WB is attempting to do the same with their live action movies? So EARLY in the game? Is this their way to fix the mess that was caused by Snyder? Or a direct response to Marvel Studios' sequel to "Spider-Man: Homecoming"? Hmmmm. It's clear that this movie won't make it to fulfill its initial March 16th, 2018 release, due to Miller's commitment with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2". But there's also no telling if the studio would be able to rush it for a 2018 release. No director is currently attached, but safe money is leaning towards Phil Lord and Christopher Miller after their departure from "Star Wars". - "Wonder Woman 2". This year's "Wonder Woman" is DC's first critical and financial success since "The Dark Knight", so a direct sequel is practically a no-brainer. Not to mention, director Patty Jenkins have been working on a script with Geoff Johns, that will put Gal Gadot's Diana Prince in the 80s. Jenkins might even return to direct the movie, though that part was not yet confirmed. This movie has recently been confirmed for a December 13th, 2019 release. - "Suicide Squad 2". Just earlier this month, we have heard that Jaume Collet-Serra has been the frontrunner to direct the sequel. Will Smith and Margot Robbie are expected to reprise their roles as Deadshot and Harley Quinn. - "The Batman". Yes, looks like that IS indeed the official title. And we know that Matt Reeves will begin working on this title as soon as he's done promoting "War of the Planet of the Apes". Hot negative report (not rumor) was running rampant prior to SDCC 2017, that current Batman actor Ben Affleck might be walking out of the DC Extended Universe. Especially with the fact that Reeves won't be using Affleck's script that he has written with Johns. Thanks to that, Affleck had to blatantly give a public response. He pretty much confirmed his involvement as a lead actor in the solo Batman movie. Oddly, he never blatantly denied that he's leaving the DCEU after this movie. So in a way, that's just him smart talking his way out of difficult conversation. Suffice to say, it was NOT a nice moment. - "Batgirl". Whedon has openly revealed to IGN that he'll start working on "Batgirl" next year as well. Likely after his obligations to 'help a friend' with the post producton of "Justice League" is wrapped. - "Green Lantern Corps". I think... David Goyer was working on this? The movie had been given a 2020 release window in WB's old announcement. It's unclear if it will still keep up with this plan. - "Justice League Dark". Last we heard, Doug Liman has walked out of this title. But that was due to his conflicting schedules and commitment with other studios. Since this is the last title on the list, there's always a chance that he might be back on board. After all, WB needs the self-proclaimed 'greatest director' in the world, right?

These announcements sounded GRAND and AMBITIOUS and all... but should we really be excited about them? I'm not sure. It obviously caused mixed reaction in the internet, triggering plenty of questions in various media in regards to DC Films' long-term plan. The way I see it, WB was just the KING of big talk as usual... eventhough they don't really have a good track record of keeping up with their words. I honestly doubt the studio came fully prepared for this panel, and that those titles were merely another temporary placeholders that might come and go without certainty. Several titles that have been headlining in the medias for a while now, were conspicuously MISSING from the lineup. Remember Dwayne Johnson's much reported "Black Adam", Ray Fisher's supposed solo movie "Cyborg", "Justice League Part 2" that originally was set for a 2019 release, the heavily rumored "Man of Steel 2", and David Ayer's "Gotham City Siren"? Not to mention, a recent entry in the rumor circuit that talked about a Harley Quinn vs. Joker movie, that started as soon as SDCC began? Yeah, those titles were a no show. They might even be gone for good.

With WB only releasing one movie next year in form of Jason Momoa's "Aquaman", we should expect most of these newly announced title to arrive as soon as 2019. I hope they won't get carried away and act bullish by releasing 4 titles a year. Even Marvel Studios took almost 10 years before finally deciding to release 3 per year. Then again, that's certainly their main intention, especially if we put into account that they HAVE 4 release dates for 2020 now! Does this mean, we get the first 4 of those movies in 2019, then another 4 in 2020? I don't know how I can even begin to fathom that...

Also, WB just can't catch a break. After sort of 'debunking' (technically, that's just smart corporate talking) a previous rumor about Batffleck, another one already hit the studio as soon as SDCC 2017 was wrapped. Variety reported that the reshoot process for "Justice League" has been causing issues for the studio. This report was backed by The Hollywood Reporter, that called it 'substantial'. Apparently, the extensive extra production took a toll of $25 million, roughly the cost of a separate mid-budget movie! Budget for additional photographies in big budget Hollywood movies generally cost between $6-10 million. Production duration was also dragged on for roughly two months, causing scheduling headaches to its cast members. Momoa and Gadot had to spend 2 weeks worth, while Affleck is still filming new scenes this week. In the case of Cavill, as I've mentioned above, a special post-production budget will be required to digitally remove his natural mustache.

Thanks to this bizarre new scenario, Whedon would also be getting a producing and/or screenplay credit, due to him spending more time than planned to finish the movie and add much-needed 'connective tissue' between sequences As I said, the recent trailer strongly felt like his own "The Avengers", so I sincerely hope Whedon will be getting the credit he deserves. Will this movie be another case of "Suicide Squad" or "Fant4stic Four"? Or will it come out unscathed like "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" or "World War Z"? Here's hoping it's the latter case. We'll know the answer in November.

DC Television

When it comes to live action adaptations, the TV side of DC actually fared much better than the tumultuous DC Films. Even shows that wasn't a hit like "Legends of Tomorrow", slowly getting better and became a favorite. Not saying I'm a fan nor avid follower to those shows though. I'm just fully acknowledging that they are indeed, the more favorable ones. Especially when compared to Marvel TV's products. As each The CW shows had their own panel, a new cool-looking mashup trailer for them was released during SDCC 2017. One show that was included in it, is their upcoming adaptation of "Black Lightning", set to debut in 2018.

Ironically, Black Lightning has been publicly confirmed to be its own thing, and not part of the Arrowverse. So general audience seeing this trailer, might be getting the wrong idea about it. As for my impression on this new show? Well, superhero SHOW's fatigue aside, it's getting more and more clear that this show is definitely not my cup of tea. Not saying it's bad, the concept and overall look felt just about right. It's definitely in the standard of other The CW superhero shows. I just didn't feel a personal connection to warrant a regular viewing for it. After all, I'm more of an animated guy...

Speaking of animated, the "Young Justice" Q&A panel debuted the official character designs for the much-anticipated 3rd season. The season will be officially titled "Young Justice: Outsider", and the concept art includes Static, Kid Flash, Robin, Wonder Girl, Spoiler, Blue Beetle, Arrowette, Arsenal, Beast Boy, and a new character named Thirteen. The absence of several characters from Season 2 will surely make some fans wonder, and co-creator Brandon Vietti reassured that characters like Aqualad, Miss Martian, and Superboy won't be completely absent since they are still part of the DC Universe.

Vietti also confirmed that the series, planned to be 26 episodes in total, will be streamed in a separate channel, not on Cartoon Network like several existing DC shows. "There’s more creative room here for more adult themes and more sophisticated and challenging stories for our characters", he said. It's still unclear what form will this stand-alone DC only streaming take. But I'm sure we'll be hearing about it in the near future.

X-Men Universe

I believe the upcoming X-Men series "The Gifted" had a panel during SDCC 2017. That's because a new trailer has debuted for the show. But since I couldn't care less about it, I won't be talking about it.

Instead, I'll talk about FX's "LEGION" instead. First season for the Dan Stevens' starring mini series, was a huge hit. Even I have to admit, that I didn't see it coming. Showrunner Noah Hawley and the cast were present at Ballroom 20 for their panel, and of course talked about the upcoming Season 2. Saïd Taghmaoui, who was featured in the WB's "Wonder Woman" movie, has been announced to be playing another 'face' of Amahl Farouk, a.k.a. Shadow King. In the first season, this supernatural entity (I don't recall that he's a mutant, no, but I could be mistaken) was played by both actress Aubrey Plaza, and Stevens himself, since he's part of David Haller's consciousness. It's going to be interesting to see how Farouk cooks up his creepy plot in the new season, especially because he's getting a new form. We'll just have to wait and see the 10-episodes sequel when it arrives in 2018.

NOTE: By the way, I didn't consider this to be a Marvel talk, since it's developed and produced by FOX. Yes, the characters are Marvel's, but we all know that FOX never really cared about source material, right?

Netflix

No Marvel talk here either, so expect the category to be more... brief. LOL. Also, it's the reason why this category gets bumped down a few notch than usual. Though definitely not because it's lacking by all means.

The first full-length official trailer for "Stranger Things" Season 2 was debuted through their SDCC 2017 panel. And great goodness, things weren't looking good. I mean, in the show, due to Noah Schnapp's Will Byers death-defying experience in the "Upside Down". As many of us had suspected, Will's return to the real world might not be a good idea. Instead, it's likely he's opening up a gateway for more creatures from the supernatural place to visit and 'invade' the real world. CREEPY af!!! The panel itself could be seen as a success, with Patton Oswalt moderating, and Shannon Purser making a delightful surprise visit.

That suspenseful trailer did a really good job teasing the developments of the characters. We see pretty much everyone, including the new cast members like Paul Reiser's Dr. Owens, Dacre Montgomery's Billy, Sadie Sink's Mad Max, and others, as well as fan-favorite Millie Bobby Brown's Eleven who wrapped the video by discovering a way out... or should I say 'way back' to the real world. Go Eleven! Series creator the Duffer Brothers had promised the new season to be 'Bigger, Darker, Scarier' and it really showed. They had already mapped out the series end game, which could be even bigger than this, so that's certainly saying much. "Stranger Things" Season 2 arrives on October 27th, 2017, and obviously I can't wait to see it.

"Voltron Legendary Defender" also had its own separate panel, with producers Joaquim Dos Santos and Lauren Montgomery, as well as voice actors Bex Taylor-Klaus and Tyler Labine making their appearances. Aside from debuting the official trailer for Season 3 (possibly the reason why it wasn't available in the official channel before), the team also announced voice actor A. J. Locascio as the voice of new antagonist Prince Lotor. Lotor will have four half-galra female generals as his aides. First episode of Season 3 was premiered exclusively for SDCC attendees.

The panel confirmed that the 7-episodes Season 3 will arrive on August 4th, 2017. That's a strange number, huh? I wonder if several episodes will be... I don't know, 50 minutes or more? Remember, the first season was only 11 episodes, but its first episode had the duration of 3 episodes. So in total, it was still 13 episodes like Season 2! Anyhoo, what I didn't expect was, the event also confirmed that a 4th season will arrive much much sooner than expected, in October 2017! I'm curious to why it's announced so early? Could it be... the final season? Hmmm...

Overall, Netflix had a generally successful presence throughout the event. Even if cult-favorite "Sense8" was a no-show despite its much applauded finale renewal, and David Ayer's "Bright" had mixed reception, the other panels were considered to be a win. They are taking over Hall H this year, and who knows what will happen next year and so on. One particular highlight was of course Marvel's "The Defenders". But since it's Marvel-related, that's a story for another day... or to be precise, another post!

One Piece

Now this is a news that would get any anime fans feeling... mixed. Mixed as in, a joy with a hint of concern, or anger with a touch of delight. It's your call.

Yahoo! Japan (via ComicBook.com) reported that... we'll be getting a live action Hollywood TV show for Eiichirou Oda's "One Piece" series!!! It was officially announced during the manga's 20th anniversary. Yay, or nay, I'm sure this will make you speechless. In one side, the cast of One Piece is as global as it can get, so having international cast would be VERY fitting compared to Japanese actors who pretend like they are foreigners. But on the other hand... seriously? This is a big title that requires massive special effects, particularly characters with the effects of those Demon Fruits. Don't forget the numerous islands, with their own quirky colorful inhabitants that hints towards huge production cost for makeup and costume. Can a TV show, with a really limited budget pull it off such tremendous challenge?

Marty Adelstein is set to be in charge, and Tomorrow Studios will be working on it. And this is where things get more... concerning. Adelstein is also the one working on that "Cowboy Beebop" TV Hollywood adaptation! And he even has already boasted... er, I mean admitted that this adaptation will be the most expensive TV shows ever made in the US. "I have been a fan of One Piece for 20 years. It is an honor to be entrusted with such an important work by Shueisha and Mr. Oda. I am enthusiastic to give my all to make One Piece succeed. I think this project could set a new record for the highest production cost in television drama history. The work's worldwide fame merits this scale of production.", was his official statement. Confident, but knowing the rating system and stingy budget of US networks, will this approach even work? He hasn't even proven his worth with "Cowboy Beebop", how can he be so bold about a more difficult one like this?

Thankfully, Oda has officially expressed that he has taken a great amount of time to consider this. So basically, he has given his seal of approval. His promise to not let down his fans, is definitely reassuring. Beside, Oda is notorious for speaking out if he's not pleased. Which means, as soon as he's not 'feeling it', I'm sure he'll immediately pull the plug. Thus the franchise is saved! LOL.

Professor Layton

"Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy" has been released last week! Have you played the game? Before you ask, nope, I personally haven't. Sure, it's available on iOS and Android for worldwide release, but unlike "Layton Brothers: Mistery Room", it's not free. So of course I haven't had the chance (nor money) to play it. Ahahaha... ^^;. Its Nintendo 3DS version is also currently only available in Japan, so there's that.

Thankfully, western fans who are holding out for an English 3DS version, can now rest at ease. LEVEL-5 has officially announced that it will be available very soon, in October. That's good news, albeit a bit odd considering the iOS and Android version have already been made available in foreign language. Why would it require 3 months to transfer the finished product to a 3DS cartridge, right? Oh well, the important thing is, you only to be patient just a few more months to experience Katrielle's adventure in your region-locked 3DS! Good for you...

Of course, if you don't want to wait that long, don't forget! The full version (consisting of 12 complete cases, and the entire set of additional mini games), and not some random scaled-down clone is already available on the App Store and Google Play for $15.99. Just make sure you cleared up the proper space on your smartphone before you download, okay! Because I have a feeling the size is going to be preeeetty BIG.

Sonic the Hedgehog

That cool-looking new antagonist for "Sonic Force" that was teased by SEGA last month? He has been given his own reveal trailer, as well as his own theme music! Yes, Infinite, is just one of the villains that Classic, Modern, and Custom Sonic will have to deal in this game. But there's no doubt that he's definitely the coolest of them all. At least for yours truly. "Sonic Forces" will be released this holiday for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Street Fighter

Three more character costumes have been made available for "Street Fighter V". Ibuki, Laura, and Rashid have received sports-themed alternate costume, and they should have been released alongside the latest update on July 25th. CAPCOM announced this on their "Street Fighter 30th Anniversary" panel at SDCC 2017. Ibuki got a volleyball-themed costume, while both Rashid and Laura got football-inspired ones, all available alongside a new DLC character Abigail. Visit Gematsu to see their individual pricing.

ARIKA

The company debuted 50 minutes worth of gameplay from their... 'Mysterious Fighting Game'. It's available online via their official channel. Seeing EX characters like Garuda, Hokuto/Shirase, and Kairi is nostalgic and all, but I can't help but feel that the whole gameplay looks... 'rough around the edges'. The design was a bit blocky, somewhat "Street Fighter IV" inspired, and the movement wasn't as smooth as the "Tekken" series. Even the first version of "The King of Fighters XIV" looked nicer somehow. But this new title is expected to be released next year, so the company still have plenty of time to work on the visuals and controls. Here's hoping we'll get clearer idea of what this is all about in the near future.

#Random-News-Digest #random thoughts #news #movie #Kingsman #lego ninjago #james bond #dc #justice league #TV show #legion #netflix #stranger things #voltron legendary defenders #one piece #professor layton #street fighter v #sonic the hedgehog #game

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