radio414

I only have ten characters worth talking about, and four of those didn't get more than, like, four or five posts. But I guess I can condense the remaining six down into a top five for you. Number Five Number Four Number Three Number Two Number One

Melissa wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, only that the little voice in her head that wasn’t hers was still encouraging her and telling her she was doing okay. Oh, and that she’d managed to keep the panic of the non-duel-disk-wielding students to a minimum. So that was two things, but everything else seemed to go on in a chaotic whirlwind of dragons, fire, and, for some reason, suplexes. Taking things in one at a time wasn’t an option; there was enough that by the time she comprehended one thing two more sprung up in its place. The best she could do (and the best way to maintain her duel field) was to focus on a singular moment and try to deal with that as best she could. The one she chose was the most eye-catching one, really. Gabriela commanded her skeleton king to deal with the massive threat that was the Relinquished, and it had done so with gusto. “Show it what happens to those who invade my territory” was an interesting choice of words, especially since the Relinquished ended up in the area it was supposed to protect, but still. Although, on the other hand, perhaps that was the plan. Melissa remembered some sort of talk to that effect. Her duel field made the monsters less real? More real? Whichever was the better one for them, hopefully. But also, like, if it was her duel field, didn’t that mean she could do something about it now? Something more? Her mind immediately went to her deck, and soon after, her hands had brought it out into view. She was looking for one of a few cards, and, as though by providence, one of them was right there only a few cards deep. The Relinquished wasn’t so scary anymore. Whether it was her duel field affecting it or just watching it be overpowered by a fellow level one monster, Melissa wasn’t sure, but one thing she did know was, though it was a new addition, it couldn’t stay. “The path of the righteous is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil,” Melissa said to herself as she slid her chosen card into one of the Spell/Trap slots of her duel disk. It was, in fact, a trap card, but that just meant she could say a little prayer first, as an introduction. “Blessed are they, who, in the name of charity and good will shepherd the weak through the valley of darkness, for they are truly a finder and nurturer of lost children.I will carry out great vengeance on them and punish them in my wrath. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I take vengeance on them. -Ezekiel 25:17 (NIV)“Solemn Strike!” Melissa called. The sky darkened again. There were no clouds above the field, nor were there stars, though. It just served as a contrast to the bolt of divine fury coming down from the heavens, landing a direct hit on the Relinquished as it lay there on the ground. The moment it struck, too, the single bolt turned into a column of lighting and flame, erasing the darkness entirely. Melissa looked away. Witnessing divinity wasn’t an issue, of course, it was just a card, but the brightness still overwhelmed her. Her attention shifted elsewhere, to the Mystic Piper and Yushiro wrestling on the ground. Jun had sent a wyrm out to help assist, and, when Melissa looked back at her duel disk, she remembered she had an ally that could assist there as well. “Ukoback, help deal with that Piper,” she said, and watched as it flew up and dove at the Mystic Piper, arms stretched in front of it to deal a flying punch to the back of the head. it really is working, her voice said. And it was. Things were starting to turn around.

Chris narrowly avoided the next rat attack, though he was momentarily caught off-guard and let out a “Whoop! Okay…” as he threw himself back. Estellise’s speed charm did throw him off a little bit -- he wasn’t expecting to move as quickly and as fluidly as he did, but he did still manage to land on his feet. Getting out of further attacks was much easier too, especially as he got more and more used to the effects. But still, Estellise had implied that the spell couldn’t last forever, or even very long at all, really, which meant that he -- they, really -- needed to be on the offensive, and soon. Sergei, at least, had taken that initiative, though he too had ended up on his back. Of course, his situation was worse -- the rat was literally right on top of him. It wasn’t what Chris had meant by “help,” but it was a distraction, at least, and if there was one thing he was good at, it was capitalizing on distractions. He ran at the giant rat again, sword as ready as it ever could be, aiming for the neck. The speed boost definitely helped because, while the rat definitely noticed Chris coming, it wasn’t able to pull away completely before Chris landed a healthy slash right where he was aiming. Between Lana’s hit earlier and this new missing chunk it was clear, whatever they were doing was working, they just needed to keep at it. With that in mind, Chris charged at the rat again, ready for round two.

Counsel Aiden Bell, High Priest of Lar, Master of Ceremony, Keeper of the Flame, and probably a couple other titles he never could remember, wasn’t having the greatest morning. Of course, no morning had been all that great recently, given the low attendance and a populace generally avoiding the temple he presided over, but this one started out especially poorly after Aiden had to reprimand an acolyte for openly theorizing that the current situation was some sort of divine punishment. Obviously, it wasn’t. The gods as a whole, Aiden lectured, would not permit such a thing. Not after having already saved remnants of humanity the first time, even if, unfortunately, there were some rather prominent people on the island who said otherwise. Even worse, then, was when a young woman barged into the temple demanding to know where Simon Weatherson had gone. Aiden had to patiently explain that Simon hadn’t been in his particular temple in weeks, and he was about to go into his whole spiel about what a plague Simon was on Galatea before she introduced herself as Nuumu’s watchdog and that if Aiden did find out where Simon was, he should tell her immediately. It wasn’t the interruption by itself that was the problem, of course, but the news that came with it. Even without Neasa revealing that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, he probably would have found out eventually, Of course, he might have preferred finding out by himself, but that couldn’t be helped. After finishing the morning’s rites, he informed a fellow priest of his whereabouts and, almost as an afterthought, asked if they could refresh the temple’s water supply, “I know we’re not anywhere close to running out, but I would like to be sure,” he said. As soon as those words left his lips, the priest made a confused sort of face. “From the spring, you mean?” they said. “Did you not hear the- no, I guess you wouldn’t have if you were asking about this. Brother Aiden, the spring dried up last afternoon. The rumor is Dia’s been unhappy with her worship.” Aiden’s eyes went wide. He didn’t even try to hide it; he knew what that meant. With barely a “Well, just look after things,” left as instructions, he dashed off into the temple square, looking for the woman who was just there. Fortunately, either she had figured it out herself, or her brute force method of barging into temples demanding to be spoken to had worked out, and she was now facing down Dia’s temple. He only just caught up to her. “He’s in there,” he said. “Of this, I am as certain as I can be without actually knowing. Whatever you plan to do with him, know that with an occasion such as this, he’ll probably be expecting you. Be wary.” He would have tried to convince her to stop, but, well, she was a watchdog, and it seemed her mind was made up already. All he could do was watch her go and keep a prayer in his heart. …and also try and tell the council. They wouldn’t hear him until they were finished with their meeting, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try. Council The entire council, naturally, went silent as Olive and Kitt interrupted with their own ideas of what needed talking about. It couldn’t quite be described as “stunned” silence, but it was at least a rather pregnant one, only broken when Mercy said, “Oh, I like this one! Hinder always seems to know how to pick them, does he not?” It was Thomas who answered that particular question with an annoyed sort of cough before levelling his gaze on the watchdogs in the room. No other movements were necessary, he simply began to speak. “Well, I suppose we can move Simon up on the docket if that is your desire. You are our guests after all. And newcomers likely would be frustrated by a situation they have not had the time to understand. “I will say this, though, before we continue. Just as we were powerless to keep you from attending this meeting, so, too, are we unable to force you out or any other action your patron might desire from you. If your mind is already made up as to the correct course of action, there is very likely nothing we can say or do to stop you. However, if you’re looking for reasons, well… reasons we can provide.” As if on cue, Katherine spoke up. “The problem of occult worship is not a new one,” she said. “With a temple on this island for every god, an altar for every goddess, extreme views are bound to crop up from time to time. That isn’t to say the problems they cause are solved ones, but it is something Galatea has faced before. The solution we have landed on that has come the closest to working, though, is confinement, and while Medeis’ legacy may be tarnished, she has provided a good space for such actions.” Elliot spoke next. “Of course, Simon has created problems separate from the normal occult worship ones. Most cults don’t cause harm simply by internalizing their beliefs like Simon’s does. In fact, one might even say that, because we know that at all, we are the most at risk. I believe Levanna told you all as much yesterday-” “I did not tell these two,” Levanna interrupted. “But yes, I did say it. Knowing specific aspects of Simon’s liturgy is dangerous, which is another reason perhaps the guards might have been perceived as lenient. Corralling a herd of cultists is difficult without worrying about getting too close.” “In any case,” Thomas said, trying to gather the disparate threads into a single package, “Simon knows this as well, or most of it, anyway. Hence the difficulties. ‘So just remove Simon,’ you might say, and who is to say we have not as well? Elliot seems to bring it up more meetings than not, I believe…” He gestured to Elliot, who nodded. “I am with you on this,” he said to the watchdogs. “There would undoubtedly be political ramifications, but then again, his preaching does, as you say, continue to cause hurt.” “…But, then again,” Thomas said, “this may also be what Simon wants. Levanna tells us you spoke with him yesterday, correct? Then you must know that legitimacy for his group is what he seeks above all else. Martyrdom is one such form.” “I said this yesterday as well,” Levanna said. “What would you have us do? As Thomas said, you believe we should kill him? You are watchdogs, go and do as you believe. But if there is some other action, one that requires us, we would like to hear about it.” OOC

The subway ride back to Horizon Academy was significantly less troublesome than the first. The elevator was still there, for example, so getting down wasn’t an issue, they didn’t have to buy new tickets, thankfully, and the cart/turnstile problems got closer and closer to being completely solved with each pass -- this go-around was no exception. The only things that really stayed the same were the stares they got for waddling around with a shopping cart in the middle of a subway station, but that was more of a minor annoyance. Peter was used to stares. On the subway proper, Hana went around again trying to make eye contact with whoever, and Peter would have tried to ignore her -- just like he had the first time -- but a question crept into the back of his mind, and quickly was at the forefront. Was it a worrying one? Maybe. It definitely required more thought, in any case, and, well, with the subway ride long ahead of them, he needed something to do with his hands. So he took out his deck. Fifty-two cards -- okay, fifty-four, including the jokers -- all the same on the back, but each one of them with a unique print on the front, ace to king in four different fonts. Sure, he could have shuffled around his Duel Monsters deck instead, but the sort of idle shuffling he was planning on doing was not ideal if he wanted to keep the condition of the cards pristine. He could hear his parents in his head now, “What happened here?” they said in unison. “These are bent, Peter, how’d you bend these so much?” Not that they knew about the bicycle deck, of course. Or rather, they knew he had it, but they didn’t know he always had it. Or that he could fan it out and hold it across the aisle to someone -- Makoto, in this case -- and say, “Wanna pick a card?” “Is this one of those magic tricks?” Makoto asked. Her enthusiasm seemed to shoot up, as she replied “Of course I'll pick a card. Let's go with... this one!” A card near the center, just a bit to the left. That was her card of choice. “Alright, probably a good choice,” Peter said. He turned his head down the aisle. “Hana!” He had to say her name a few more times to get her attention away from the octogenarian she’d decided to strike up a conversation with, but eventually, she came back, whereupon Peter made the same offer. “Oh, are you going to do a magic trick! Should I find a hat?” She looked around a bit for a proper hat before returning her gaze to Peter. “Right, right, sure” “No hat needed,” Peter said. He set the deck in his lap and rubbed his temples in that showy way that meant he was deep in thought. He pointed at Makoto, then Hana. “Ace of clubs and… three of clubs.” “Hmm… Nope!” Hana said, which was to be expected. “You’re still getting the hang of this, aren’t you?” Makoto, meanwhile, let her mouth go agape and revealed her card to the whole train. “It is!” she said, “How did you do that!?” If anyone was more surprised than her, it was Peter, who, with a “Wait, really?” lurched forward in his seat and sent the cards tumbling into the aisle between them. “Ah, uh, crap.” He scrambled to start gathering them but intentionally did a terrible job, more mixing them all together, flipping some of them over than actually gathering them. “Can you help me with this? Sorry, uh, yeah, I dunno.” Between the three of them, they’d managed to get the remaining fifty-two cards back together, but now they were all mixed up, some cards facing one way, and some others the other way. Peter did a few bridge shuffles but didn’t bother flipping them back to face the same way. “I didn’t actually have a plan if I got it right,” Peter said. “I figured it just wouldn’t happen and I could just move on with the trick. I’d say something like, ‘Well, what is your card, then? You can tell me, I’ve seen this trick before.’” He took a breath. “So, Hana, what is your card?” Hana flashed her Joker proudly. “This one! It’s fitting, isn’t it?” Peter nodded. Of course it’d be the one he’d never guess, but, then again, he’d already been lucky once today. He fanned the cards back out. “Alright, next thing I’ll need you to do is put those cards back. I guess, like, we already did all that work putting these cards back together, might as well finish the job, right?” Once that was done, Peter did a quick count, running through the cards like anyone would going through a stack, making sure that all the cards were indeed back in the deck, before setting the deck down -- next to him this time -- and looking back up at his audience. Now was the time, while he had them in rapt attention, to ask his question. “Hey, dumb question probably, but do you worry? About someone you know seeing you when you weren’t expecting them to?” Hana went first. “Nah,” she said. “You know why? I don't expect anything to happen! If I went around worrying about things I don’t expect, I’d always worry.” Makoto, too, shrugged and said, “Hmmm... not really. It's not like I've got anything to hide.” “I don’t always worry,” Peter said, almost on instinct. “I just… I don’t know. When I’m out, I always feel like someone’s going to recognize me. That’s not normal?” It wasn’t, and he knew it, but he still felt like he had to ask. “I guess when I’m recognized, that means my parents might find out. And when my parents find out, if it’s not something they’ve expected of me, they start lecturing me. I don’t know. They’d probably look down on me even doing this bicycle card stuff.” “Sounds rough.” Makoto frowned. “If my folks caught word I was up to something they didn't expect, they'd probably just ask me how it went. Your parents sound kinda stiff.” “It’s not like I’d rather be doing this,” Peter said, “I’d rather be… okay, I don’t actually know what I want. I don’t know, sorry. Anyway,” He picked the deck back up. “You can take your cards back now,” he said, and fanned it out to reveal all the cards were now properly facing the same way. All of them but two, the ace of clubs and Hana’s joker. “Wait when did you do that?” Hana asked, pointing at the cards. “You're not just a smart fish you're a MAGIC fish!” Peter gave a sheepish smile. “Thanks for indulging me, I guess. That’s all I got.” They only had a few more stops after that before they had to get off. Peter led the way, from bracing the front of the cart as they went up the escalator to constantly checking his phone to making sure they were still going the right way back. The only real interruption was, when they were almost back, Hana pulling him aside to say, “You know, your parents aren’t here; you are,” a piece of advice Peter didn’t really have time to comprehend before they got back to Horizon Academy, and once they were there, wandering the halls back to the team room. And once that had happened, well, there were bigger problems to deal with. “Where is everyone?”

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Duel 17 -- The Thorns of Death Or: Guess Who’s Back // Back Again // Shiori’s Back Tell A Friend We’re nearing the halfway point of the show now, and while I have been generally ignoring the broader, more stylistic symbolism that is Revolutionary Girl Utena’s entire aesthetic, I thought it would be a good idea to do a little of that here. Basically, I’ll take an element of the show I haven’t talked about yet and, well, do exactly that. I figure a good place to start would be the setting itself: Ohtori Academy. We actually do have a general layout of the school thanks to the video game, and again, technically Someday, My Revolution Will Come is canon, but also, like, that’s still a pretty obscure place to find a map, you can’t expect everyone to find out about that, and also, knowing the physical landmarks doesn’t really help any. It is important to note, though, that the school is shaped like a coffin. We’ve seen coffins in a few other places so far throughout the series, most notably in Saionji’s flashback to when he and Touga found Utena hiding in one. Coffins in Utena are things to be trapped inside, hinting to the nature of the school. But the architecture by itself is odd as well. Referring to skyscrapers as “phallic” is kind of a basic criticism, but, given who we know to be in the Chairman’s Office at the top of the Central Tower, not to mention Utena’s designs towards critiquing gender roles, it certainly stands out. The Duel Forest that, remember, only about a dozen people are ever allowed into also eats into that space immensely. But, by and large, spaces in the school are made for whatever situation requires them. Various sports fields, a culinary classroom, these things show up once and then never again. The locations that do return, though, are certainly the more memorable ones, whether that’s Nemuro Memorial Hall with its rows of pointer fingers or the piano room with its vast amounts of open space against its single grand piano. They are also the most mutable; the fencing hall gains a raised platform at some point, for example, not to mention the Student Council’s room with its varied backdrops. Of all of this, perhaps the most obvious bit of symbolism is the rose garden, a greenhouse that is rather conspicuous in its birdhouse shape. This is where Anthy spends most of her time, remember. It’s also where we find Juri at the start of this episode, so let’s join her now. The bird metaphor extends beyond the birdcage Juri’s trapped in, of course. Special care is given to feature bird imagery throughout the episode, most prominently in two places. The first is when Juri and Shiori have their initial confrontation, a bird flies into a window and injures its wing. It's accidental harm, but it still hurts, just as Shiori meant to hurt Juri by stealing the third in their little friendship triangle, but instead hurt her by not reciprocating Juri’s feelings. In fact, Shiori overall is rather similar to Kozue in how their problems stem from how they perceive their loved ones looking down on them. While Miki does, indeed, have that problem, we don’t see much of that from Juri, given most of the relationship-building there came from flashbacks. The second is during the duel, with the hundred birds perched, one on each desk. Shiori is dueling because she wants to hurt Juri purposefully, she explains as much during her elevator scene. When Utena strikes the rose from Shiori’s chest, that’s when the birds take flight. In terms of symbolism, Juri should be free from her feelings towards Shiori now, but given her internal monolog referencing how she’s wearing her locket again, she clearly is not. So who is the bird then? Well, if it’s not Juri, there’s only really one other person it could be. Shiori could have injured her own feelings during her talk with Juri by being, as Juri puts it, “cruelly innocent.” But what is Shiori freed from? One can easily make the reading that Shiori is even more in the closet about her sexuality than Juri is (a reading confirmed by some extra materials, though, like the video game example above, it’s not like that needs to influence anyone’s reading of a work), and maybe that fits into it in some way, but at the very least, she’s free from Juri’s secret in a way that they can at least interact in a normal sense, as seen by the very end of the episode. Anthy makes a comment, “She hasn’t changed at all,” of course, and Juri is still holding on to the image of Shiori in her locket, so it’s possible the words still hurt, but at least it’s an improvement. The episode introduces one more major mystery, though. Juri threw her locket into the lake, how did it end up in Shiori’s dorm? This isn’t going to be directly explained, though one could easily make the assumption it’s either Mikage or Mamiya’s meddling. Just something to keep in mind as we move forward. -r Next time: Tsuwabuki grips the handles of the Zoltar machine and whispers, “I wish I was Big.” ←Previous Post -- Link to Episode -- Next Post→

i wouldn't recommend pinning all your hopes on one pokémon like that

Corbin tried to omit all the excess stuff Elsie had gone and insisted was important, though once he’d done that, there really wasn’t all that much to say. “Well, we learned where we’re staying tonight,” he said, “that is, we’re staying here. Don’t expect to get a lot of sleep, though; if El gets her way we’ll all be spending the night prowling the streets looking for trouble. That’s one of the big things we learned too, that they’re nighttime attacks. “Maybe get a nap in now,” Corbin pondered, though that was more to himself than to Wada. He did have more knowledge to impart, after all. “We also learned that, well, we’re not the first ones they called to deal with this particular problem, some band of mercenaries was, and we don’t know what happened to them.” Was that it? Corbin almost wondered if he was supposed to ask Lauryn if he’d forgotten anything, but she had seemed reluctant to even part with some of that information in the first place, he wasn’t sure he wanted her to relive that experience if she didn’t have to. But at the same time, like, wow, Elsie hadn’t really asked all that many good questions, had she? Really, outside of picking up on that one comment Lauryn had made, all the actual information had come from Lucine’s input. At least Elsie had been receptive to it all the same, Corbin thought, though he did also make a note to talk to her about properly asking questions and how to not go down weird conversational cul-de-sacs when she had a task to get done. But, until then, he was enjoying the reprieve from dealing with her and instead went to engage Wada a little further. “How’d you join up with all this, though? With us, El’s always looking for trouble, so when Jekyll asked, she jumped on board. What about you?”Okay, so Lach’s initial reaction to her hard-hitting investigation wasn’t really encouraging (though she’d never seen a person already hugging the wall drive themselves even further back so that was interesting to watch) but Elsie didn’t let that deter her as she maintained the close distance between him and her. It was only when he started babbling about her smell that she realized how silly she was being anyway, and she pushed off the wall to return to balancing on her own two feet. Of course, Lach’s own comments were silly as well. No matter how many times he apologized for it, he still just… let it out that he’d smelled her in some capacity. She wasn’t self-conscious about it, like, her preferred glamour kept her smelling like whatever the person smelling her liked (and water was a pretty neutral preference, she thought) but it still was a weird thing to admit. Such actions couldn’t go unreciprocated, Elsie decided. She squared up, widening her stance and bending her knees a bit to make sure she could take in as big a breath as possible, then did exactly that, leaning back in a bit too to make sure she got it. She even powered through the bar smell and whatever else was in there and made extra sure to hold her breath as she tried to discern exactly what she had just taken in, before ending it all in one giant exhale. “You,” Elsie said, pausing for dramatic effect, “smell like a wet horse. Either that, or the bar does, but I’m guessing it’s you. “Anyway,” Despite being the one to escalate things, Elsie was still plenty ready to move on afterwards, “In my experience, there are two types of tavern names, those named after the town they’re in, like, uh, I visited this place called Barrelhaven and the tavern was just named ‘The Barrelhaven Tavern. The other kind are the weird ones, and those generally have some sort of inspiration behind them. That’s why I asked. If I had a tavern, it’d be called ‘The Witch’s Brew’ or something like that, I think. “But ‘The Naughty Crow’ is nice,” she said. Oh, she was going now, not giving Lach an inch as he tried to slink away. “Got some story behind it, even if I didn’t get to hear it all. It’ll be fun staying here, I think, while we get ready for tonight.” Not that she knew what they were getting ready for, of course. Jekyll had implied it was Fahlyn, but nobody she’d spoken to had really given any sort of description. And even if it was Fahlyn, those were pretty vague monsters in and of themselves. Not that she wasn’t confident she (and everyone else) wouldn’t be able to handle it, of course. “So, eat up, gossip, I dunno, ask more questions? Oh!” She could practically feel her eyes lighting up as she remembered. “What did you find out, anyway?” Corbin would probably give her an earful for not asking that sooner, but she was pretty proud of herself for remembering at all.