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Estellise had told Chris to be careful and here he was going and getting hit in the exact same spot. He could just imagine the lecture now, but what was he supposed to do, not keep fighting? He took a quick glance at where the rock had struck and immediately regretted it. It was a mess. Maybe it looked worse than it actually was, but it was a mess all the same. And yet, thanks to Estellise’s spell, moving his arm around still felt no worse than anything else. Pretty soon, he was resuming his charge, allowing Lana to pass in front of him as she ran after the goblin/rat pair -- they weren’t mount and rider anymore, but it was easier in his head to think of them like that -- before running at the one on the right. The only real obstacle was the second rock lobbed at him, but Chris made sure to not let that interrupt his step again. A flash of violence later, one sword stab for the goblin and a pair of daggers into the head of its accompanying rat, and that was that. He looked up to see Lana dealing with her half of the rock-slingers and rats as well, so all that was left was a shaman (that Sergei hopefully could manage, maybe with Estellise’s help) and a giant rat. They’d all been giant rats to be fair, but this particular one was a giant among giants. It had been inching forward throughout the entire fight, maybe that was its top speed, at least? Chris rubbed his shoulder and took a breath. “Alright,” he told Lana. “Um, don’t get eaten, don’t get clawed, don’t get hit with the tail, uh, don’t get trampled…” He kept trying to think of last-minute warnings, but they all sounded so mundane against the actual scope of the thing. In the end, Chris settled on, “Aim for the head, I guess. Should be the fastest way, right? Ready?” He didn’t feel ready, but something in his gut and aching shoulder told him he had to be ready real soon.

The cart seemed like a Hana problem to Peter. Since getting it and putting all their groceries on it had been her problem, it made sense that this would be too. And it had been a problem that she’d taken care of impressively, actually, or at least her boundless optimism kept it from ever being a problem to her, which was impressive in itself to Peter anyway. Of course, when she suggested that they all ride down the escalator in it, then it became his problem too, and that was where he drew the line. Makoto suggesting carrying all those groceries down wasn’t better, either, though it was a step (heh) in the right direction. An elevator, or something else to make the station wheelchair-accessible, was the most obvious solution, Peter thought, and he almost said as much before he realized that this wasn’t a station that had that for whatever reason. But it did have an escalator, which was like Makoto’s plan, except without involving the constant inching down and instead meant just standing there bearing the weight. “And I definitely can help with that,” Peter said, explaining his version of the plan to the group. It was difficult, but Makoto had already valiantly volunteered to take the brunt of things by being in the front. Hana still had a vice-like grip on the actual handle of the thing, so that left Peter and Leila to squeeze to the sides of the escalator and hold onto it there. The escalator was on the longer side, sure, but they managed alright. The next problem, as Hana put it, was “Where are we going, exactly?” “Well, the ticket machines, for starters,” Peter said. Leila said she’d ridden a subway before, but had either of the other two? “And we probably shouldn’t use the club money for this either so…” He sighed. Tickets, even round-trip ones like three of them were going to have to be, weren’t expensive to him, but the costs still added up. He didn’t say as much, but he hoped that the way he said, “Please don’t lose these,” as he passed them out to everyone got the point across fine. Then, as if he was still answering Hana’s question, the one she’d asked, like, several minutes ago, he said, “Next is the turnstiles. Hana, the cart’s your job, probably a bigger challenge than riding the train will be.” Something about a camel and an eye of a needle came to mind, but he wasn’t sure why. “After that, though, I mean, just don’t make eye contact with anyone unless you’re ready to start a conversation with them, and, I dunno, get off when I say to get off.”

The fact that Lauryn walked away without getting mad at her was enough for Elsie to think that the matters of money had been waived, at least for the time being. She did wonder if Jekyll was going to have a conniption over the massive tab they were inevitably going to run, but she only wondered in the curious sense, not with any sort of worry. Why should she? It wasn’t her problem anymore. Besides, she had other things to think about now, like the sheer number of her companions who had just walked in, or, worse still, how most, if not all, of them were about to drink poor-quality booze. Elsie managed to restrain herself on the latter point, though, mostly because she got a particularly mean stare from Corbin that didn’t let up even after she said “What?” all innocent-like. The rest, of course, was her wanting to know just what everyone else had found out. Even though some of them seemed to have ignored her initial approach of a question, that didn’t mean she couldn’t try again. To nobody in particular, she started, “What’s the deal with-” “Maybe you should talk to them, like, individually,” Corbin said. “They might respond better if you single them out.” “That’s no fun,” Elsie said. “Didn’t say it was.” She would have gone over to Tricky, the one person who had even just returned her greeting, but he seemed more interested in Lopt and Alexandre, and, by extension, whatever card game they were about to play. Not that she wasn’t interested too, but Corbin had said “individually,” and while he certainly had been rude about it, he still was kind of right. She didn’t need vital information passed around in addition to chips and cards. One would just distract from the other. That left Wada and Lachlan left, each hanging out all by their lonesome, one at the bar and one just flowering on a wall. What was she supposed to do about that besides “Wanna split up? You take hammer boy and I’ll go talk to Lach?” “Sure,” Corbin said. “Although, if you kiss, you have to tell me all about it.” Elsie laughed. “Same to you,” she said, and, with that, she left her familiar to his own devices. The last thing she heard him say before tuning out to focus on her own conversation was, after hopping over to Wada’s portion of the bar, “How was your first purview of the place? You learn anything interesting out there?” Lachlan looked a little sad, Elsie thought. She didn’t have the best solution for that -- happy spells were notoriously fickle, anyway -- but the next best thing, she was sure, was to just get nearer to him and just start talking. “Lach, hey!” she began. “How’s things? I’m pretty excited myself to stay up the whole night looking for monsters, what about you?” She leaned in and put a hand on the wall to balance herself. “Oh, I guess also I learned why this place is named The Naughty Crow. Would you believe it’s named after the bartender there? She won’t tell me what she did that was so naughty, though. Little disappointed about that, but, you know, it’s whatever.” It was a two-pronged attack, really. Either she got to learn more about the monsters or she’d get to do more gossip without Corbin’s supervision. What could be better? Maybe this would be fun after all.

The Shape of Water The only ones left in the room were Levanna and Finn, which was just fine by Finn. In his left pocket was the mother of pearl, in his right was the gem representing all of Galatea’s water, and the fewer people around who could find that out, the better. Not that he intended on telling Levanna anything of the sort either, especially not when he had other questions on his mind. The first was “Who’s Wendell? I was down -” Revealing that sort of information, where he’d been, was giving a bit too much, Finn decided, and he just managed to cut himself off. “I heard the name while I was out and about and it seemed important so I figured I would ask.” “Which Wendell?” Levanna raised an eyebrow at Finn’s verbal backspacing but didn’t question it, at least out loud. “Wendell… the doctor? Wendell… the dockworker? There are enough Wendells, you’re going to have to be a bit more specific.” She laughed. “That’s why I got a less common name. Not too many people named Levanna anymore. You hear that name, you think of me. But no, Wendell is common enough I can’t help you there, unfortunately.” “Hmmmmmmm.” Finn said “hm” in that exaggerated way where he began a bit too loud and held on for a bit too long, before coming back up for air with an “Okay!” and a “Second question then, kind of a repeat, but would Galatea like its own ocean?” Levanna frowned. “Why are you asking that again? If I remember, I made my stance -- and therefore, the island’s as a whole -- perfectly clear the last time. No, we do not; Dia has blessed us in other ways.” “Sure, sure,” Finn said. “I was just wondering -- just a thought that came to mind. A lot can change over the course of half a day and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Well, if you do think the people are asking for an ocean, you probably won’t even have to find me. I’ll be right there with you.” He left quickly after he finished, trying not to give Levanna any time to even think about what exactly he meant. Because she would… Tomorrow, she would. When did it get so dark outside? Finn wondered. It had already been late afternoon when he found his way back, sure, but there had been enough light in Levanna’s office to make him lose track. Not that it was too big a deal; he already had his destination in mind and he already knew how to get there. Tavern, schmavern, he wanted to see Dia again and tell her all about his day. He wanted to lie by the pool they’d given her, cause some ripples, and fall asleep pretending the lapping of the water against the walls was the sound of the tide. Plus, in the morning, there would no doubt be all sorts of people at Dia’s temple ready to sing her praises. Finn imagined that almost-barren shell he’d been at before just lush with activity. Most of it, hopefully, would be the worship Dia so desperately needed, though he could forgive a few chatters off to the side. So long as people were there, Finn thought, she would be okay. It was with these thoughts that he pushed against the temple doors, and was met with… “Greetings,” someone said. “I am sure you are wondering what we are all doing here, especially so late at night. My name is Simon Weatherson. I was wondering if we could have a little chat…” Notes from Captain Helmsley’s Logbook What a fine sunrise I woke up to this day. The colors were especially vivid, and while “red sky in the morning, sailors take warning” is one of those phrases I’m expected to believe in in this line of work, I still can’t help but take such a sunrise as a blessing. My appreciation was interrupted by one of the dogs I’ve been escorting -- Amir, I think his name was -- coming to me early asking about passage East. It seems he had been called separately from the rest, and now had been urged back towards that rising sun to the island of Delft. I found myself unable to leave this island while there are so many other watchdogs who may need passage onwards, but I did assist them in commissioning a small ship of their own to start their voyage. I am sure, of course, that our paths will cross again one day. What else can be said? All the shipments we had been assigned were unloaded yesterday, but like I said, without a heading from the dogs still remaining on the island, I hesitate to weigh anchor. I am sure if I am restless enough I will take a visit to the Temple Square like I wrote as we arrived, but for now, I think I will make small talk with the dockworkers and wait to see what the day has in store for me. OOC

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other. -Matthew 24:10 (NIV)Melissa had told everyone “we all need to think this will work or it literally will not,” and yet, as the Relinquished absorbed another monster and the rest of the horde came closing in, well, she wasn’t exactly practicing what she had been preaching. Of course, because it was her duel field that was holding everything together, such thoughts had deleterious effects on the space she had created. It didn’t flicker out of existence like last time, but her light did go dimmer. Up above, storm clouds rumbled in, the kind that were especially dark and grey. No rain yet, but surely soon. Her fellow students either must have noticed or had already gone down that same mental drive off the cliff of misery, because that was when the panic started. People Running About was already one of Melissa’s least favorite cards just on concept alone, and seeing it in the flesh wasn’t particularly soothing either. It took a lot of effort for Melissa to not follow suit, or worse, lose control of her breath and be unable to. Some people hadn’t budged yet, though. Gabby, bless her heart, kept up the skeleton assault in the meantime, and- actually, everyone Melissa knew knew, was still around, either avoiding the uproar where they could or not even paying it any mind. The new kid, whatever his name was, hadn’t moved yet, either. Yushiro was, though, running at Gabby and screaming something about… pulling the Relinquished into her duel field? It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that made sense to her, but then again, Melissa considered, her plan probably hadn’t made much sense when she’d said it out loud either. Besides, Gabby seemed to manage okay. But if that plan revolved around her duel field still being up, she had to do something about the people it was supposedly protecting. What was she supposed to do, though, to quell such panic? There was really only one thing Melissa could think of, and she still took several moments trying to think of another. She took a few more breaths, then summoned her best impression of Jeremiah. “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel says: ‘Listen!’” Of course, she didn’t actually have any follow-through, but a few of the people who hadn’t immediately left the sanctuary did turn around at least. Oh, she remembered why she hated this. How did she manage to do this before? when there’s a plan, there’s hope, right? It was silly, and it sounded a bit too much like a platitude, but the voice in her head did give her some amount of encouragement. Just enough to prompt her to continue on with her own. “It’s going to be okay,” she said. She said it again, just to be sure. “It’s going to be okay. I realize it might be hard to focus on, uh, ‘good thoughts’ right now, but at least start with that. Everything else, uh, to be honest, everything else hinges on that. Or if that’s too much, um, we’re still here, right? We’re all still trying. How about that?” The sky was starting to brighten again, so that was something, at least.

←Previous Post -- Next Post→ Duel 14 -- The Boys of the Black Rose Or: Now The Game Truly Begins I alluded to wanting to talk about how stories “become immortal” last week, though, within the context of that post, there was probably a bit too much emphasis on “getting retold a bunch of times,” which, okay, that is a thing that happens to “immortal” stories, but it feels to me like that should be a product of said “immortality,” not the cause of it. I’m also not entirely sure that Revolutionary Girl Utena would even qualify for that sort of thing. I mean, it’s good (I wouldn’t be talking about it if it wasn’t), and it’s left an impact (see the previous post where I talked about the various media referencing it), but, like, most of Be-Papas has worked on more well-known things. So, instead of waxing lyrical on how Utena telling and retelling the same story in every form it takes (outside of After the Revolution, which, uh, is after the story (and not officially in English for a few more months)) inherently makes it memorable in the same way reusing shots like Miki’s watch or (as we’ll see) Souji Mikage’s seminar makes those shots memorable, let’s just go through and talk about some of the elements the main canon (manga, anime, and movie) use in their adaptations. I’m focusing on the Student Council arc here, partially to avoid spoiling people following along and partially because after that the stories diverge wildly. The Black Rose arc is confined to a manga side-story and only gets a visual reference in the movie, and the Apocalypse arc, being the story’s conclusion, relies on how each adaptation presents its ideas and so are rather distinct from each other. The most obvious is Saionji. It isn’t always Wakaba’s letter that spurns Utena onwards, but he is always abusive to Anthy and a jerk besides. Utena always challenges him with a weapon inappropriate to face the Sword of Dios (kendo sword or rake, really), and Saionji always loses. Miki, meanwhile, always has Kozue ruining his dating life, though to what extent depends on where you see him. Touga, too, has different reasons for pining for Utena, and when he exactly started gets changed around as well. The most interesting case, I think, is Juri, because she is wildly different. We’ve seen how she is in the anime, pining after Shiori at a distance and having an on-off relationship with miracles, and while that still exists in the movie, she also takes a few swipes Miki’s direction, and in the manga, she completely absorbs Nanami’s role as Touga-obsessed, becoming jealous of Utena when Touga gets too close. Nanami is practically anime-only, only getting visual cameos in the other two versions, and the movie’s is more like a gag than an actual appearance. Chu-chu’s appearance in the movie is similar, but he gets a whole side-story in the manga that doesn’t appear anywhere else. That leaves us with Anthy and Utena, who, like Juri, also have a relationship that varies between adaptations. There’s always the “Why don’t you have more friends?” portion of the relationship, but where it goes from there really depends. This seems, in fact, to have been a point of contention between Chiho Saito and Kunihiko Ikuhara, with the former arguing against a less ambiguous resolution (though she seems to have walked this back later). This may also be because, well, their relationship is the focus of the story, so if each version is already drawing its own conclusions, it stands to reason it would also apply to the characters themselves. I’m character-focused here mostly out of habit. Because they’re, you know, the primary method the story uses to tell itself, they’re easier to follow throughout. But the locations, of course, have their own similarities and differences, and the symbolism in all of them is generally consistent between the three. But I chose to write about this series with newcomers in mind; I don’t want to bog down too hard on detail that people might not catch until they’re fully immersed. When talking to people who are immersed, of course, I’m dreadfully over my head. “A whole bunch of named characters,” I said last time. Now, of course, it turns out “a whole bunch” means four. Souji Mikage, Mamiya Chida, and, of course, Akio and Kanae Ohtori. And while going through these characters one at a time could be fun, I thought it’d be better to introduce the arc as a whole this time and let the characters describe themselves. Way back in the very first post of this series, I mentioned that each character challenges for a chance to revolutionize the world for their own reasons, and together we would go through each of these reasons as they came up. This is going to be especially true in these later episodes, as the duels themselves become less and less a part of the narrative, with more focus put to the lead-up and epilogue of them. And about a month ago in the ninth post, when talking about the visual novel, I mentioned that this arc is about contrasting characters against each other. Kanae, this episode’s duelist, for example, serves as a counterpoint to Anthy. They both love Anthy’s brother Akio in exactly the same way (yes that last scene means what you think it means), and it’s their mutual dislike of each other that attracts her to Mikage’s seminar. As an aside, here’s an age-check. Anthy is fourteen and Kanae is eighteen. Akio’s age isn’t mentioned, but he’s presented as being in his twenties/early thirties. Yes, the show thinks this is super creepy too. Some call this a “filler arc,” which I guess makes sense on paper, but without it, we also lose a lot of exploration of one of the show’s other themes, dealing with the past, specifically, relationship baggage. Ohtori Academy also has to deal with its own baggage, the fire that happened fifteen years ago, and the ghosts of those hundred students who were buried alive. The last theme this arc specifically deals with is embracing -- or at least dealing with -- change. Kanae is unsure about the path her life is taking, yes, but the show represents this on a background level as well. he Shadow Play Girls, back from their spaceship, are starting to interact with the cast, the transformation theme song, “Absolute Destiny Apocalypse” gets a subtle tune-up, and the dueling field is going to become more and more surreal as the show goes on. Hopefully, you can appreciate it. -r Next time: As if drama between one pair of siblings wasn't enough... ←Previous Post -- Link to Episode -- Next Post→

Nidoran♂ Nidoran♀

Female Meowstic Coalossal Gloom Dewpider Heliolisk Sirfetch'd Ursaring Comfey

(english lyrics in the description)

The moment Estellise’s spell had finished, Chris started moving his arm around. It wasn’t like he didn’t believe her, but he did want to make doubly sure before he ran off at another goblin or rat or both. It was like she said; it didn’t hurt anymore, and he could move his arm freely, but he did have to wonder if he was just doing more damage to himself by even testing the spell’s limits. At the same time, he noticed the now goblin-less rat wheeling around for another pass, and, well, he figured the jolts from having to stab that one two or three times would probably be even worse, and those were things that definitely had to happen, so… He still didn’t have time to get his sword out, not with how fast the rat was coming his way. Thankfully, he had already managed a singular rat with just a dagger, way back on the first floor of the dungeon, and this one seemed to be no different. Just one, two steps, stab stab stab, and it wasn’t a problem anymore. What was a problem, though, was the rest of the room. Chris stood up from the dead rat and immediately got hit across the cheek with a rock. “Ow! Gods…” He looked in that direction and zeroed in on the offending goblin, almost wanting to lob a dagger right back, but decided against it. It would leave him with just one singular weapon, and with everything else in the room, Chris didn’t want to take that chance. He ran over to that first dead rat, the one with his sword still sticking out, and gave said weapon a hard yank. It took another to get it out completely, but he didn’t have time to celebrate his achievement. Another rock flew past him, and more were sure to come until it was dealt with. Chris gripped his sword tight and charged.