6,000 Strips of Washi Tape Intersect in a Kaleidoscopic Installation by Artist Emmanuelle Moureaux
One hundred colors and 6,000 strips of masking tape later, Tokyo-based French architect and artist Emmanuelle Moureaux (previously) has constructed an elaborate installation of intersecting lines in Kurashiki, Japan. The immersive work, which was a commission from the brand mt, extends from the factory floor to ceiling in a crisscrossing mishmash of diagonals and pigments. To complete the piece, which is part of Moureaux’s 100 Colors series, the artist fastened 15-millimeter tape in a vibrant, rainbow gradient throughout the space, leaving a tunnel-like walkway for visitors to pass through and experience how perspectives shift depending on the angle.
Redesign of Teresa in her The Comet Empire iteration of Star Blazers. Kind of a blend of her reboot look with a ton of personal touches. Especially the dress. And bonus doodle with her and Shima because I can. <3
Description: Daisuke has never had victory ripped so suddenly from him before.
Fandom: Starblazers/Space Battlehship Yamato
Pairing: Daisuke Shima (Mark Venture)/Reader
Word Count: 1.9k+
Warning(s): None.
“I can’t believe we lost the entire third bridge!”
“Wasn’t (L/N) sent down there today?”
Daisuke has never had victory ripped so suddenly from him before.
His heart leaps in his chest. His thoughts screech to an abrupt halt. “What?!” he shouts, looking wildly around for the officer who’d spoken. He is gripping the armrests of his chair so tightly his gloves creak.
There is an energy in his muscles, one that winds and winds and winds, the tension stretching in him like an elastic band in preparation for… Something. It’s an animal reaction, one that he can’t suppress at the thought of you in danger.
“Well, go on, Shima!” Kodai shouts, startling Daisuke enough that he leaps from his chair and bolts across the bridge to the elevator. He barely manages to prevent himself from running into the elevator doors, and once inside, he cracks a button in his desperation to get to the lower decks.
As the elevator moves, he grips the railing to keep himself from pacing and he thinks of Gamalon; of the sulfur sea, of how it corroded the metal of the ship within minutes - had they suffered casualties? He was too focused on piloting the ship through the strange, underground airspace to hear anything else being said on the bridge.
What if you’re injured? What if you’re truly gone, along with the third bridge? What then? What would he do then?
You still haven’t returned to your home, shown him the pines and the aquamarine lake you dream of, of the rolling fog you wax poetic about, of the dew and the rain and the ocean full of rusting, hulking freighters - you’d promised you’d take him to see it. What would he do if you never get the chance to take him there? If he never quit the game in time to just tell you how he feels?
It is hard to breathe and his chest is burning with panic unknown to him. He thinks of your face and cannot imagine a world without it.
The elevator opens to the lower decks in chaos. Crewmen in orange are rushing about sealing corrosion damage off, quieting hissing pipes, and shouting at fritzing communication panels. The air is heavy and muggy, like a windless, summer afternoon from childhood.
Daisuke rushes out into the confusion, not sure where to look, but looking nonetheless. There is a long line of crewmen standing against the wall farther along the hallway, clutching their sides, slumped or sitting on the floor - obviously injured. Daisuke approaches them swiftly, eyes flitting over each of their faces, desperate to see yours, and then he finds you standing in a crowd of crewmen waiting to be treated for acid burns, directing the flow.
Your face is dotted with sweat, smudged with grease, and smoke stains the white of your uniform. Daisuke rushes towards you, and his voice is torn from his chest as he shouts. “(L/N)!”
“Shima!” You whip around to face him, raw relief written over your features as you hurry over to him. He slows when he nears, then says, “fuck it,” and grabs your face, intent on kissing you before he realizes with a start what he’s doing and stops himself.
“Can I kiss you?” he rushes out, suddenly finding himself resisting the urge to tear his hands from you in shame, his voice loud from how nervous he is.
You don’t respond, just stare, wide-eyed, up at him. His ears are full of cotton and his depth of field drops off. There is a cut on your forehead, bleeding red; your lips part when you suck in a sharp, surprised breath.
Sometimes Daisuke feels like you’re a cloud of smoke he’s trying to contain with just his bare hands; the idea of you slipping through his fingers whenever he tries to hold on. Other times, he’s sure you’d rather be at his side than anywhere else, and the thought fills him with such pride and joy his chest feels about to explode.
Before he can say or do anything else, you grab the collar of his uniform and press your lips against his. Your face is frazzled, and a wild blush craws up his cheeks when he feels your hot breath on his skin.
It feels like everything he thought it would and more, to have you in his arms. The kiss is something desperate, your arms wind around his neck, he feels nails drag lightly across the skin of his scalp, and the more you pull him towards you, the less he wants to resist this feeling anymore.
He cranes his neck to lessen the height difference and kisses you more firmly, to try and tell you without words what he is feeling in this very moment - relief; joy; great, unbridled affection. He wants to tell you everything he feels for you, how long he’s felt it and why. Your lips part and glide against his and he never wants to stop kissing you.
He maybe forgets a bit where he is, but so do you. Daisuke takes a step forward, bending over you and you take a step back, pulling him closer by his shoulders. He doesn’t think about much except for how to press his lips against yours, how to move, how to never let you out of his sight again.
You make a sound that’s muffled by his mouth, something small, a promise of more, it is like a hook in his stomach. Heat floods his body - and then you both pull away from the kiss when you hear the wolf whistles of the crew.
“I-” Daisuke looks around, mortified, and tries to step away, to put the proper distance between the two of you, but your hold on his collar quickly moves to his arms to keep him close. He locks eyes with you in a panic, and finds you’re beaming up at him.
You let out a disbelieving laugh, mouth in an open smile as you stare up at him, and that’s what does him in. There is clapping, hooting and hollering, and he squeezes his eyes shut and drops his head to your shoulder, hiding away his face as you wrap your arms around him in an attempt to comfort. You continue to laugh, though, the distinct tone of victory flavouring your voice, and even still, he wants more of you.
He groans, embarrassment clawing at his chest. He’s supposed to be cool and collected, he’s the goddamn executive officer of the whole navigational division, the main helmsman of the ship, he isn’t supposed to be like this. He isn’t supposed to do this.
“I’m so sorry,” he mumbles into your shoulder, and you laugh harder, then brace your hands on his chest to push him back, so you can see his face.
“I’m not!” you say happily, peering at him with such lovely eyes.
Daisuke is a bright, cherry, stop-light red, looking from you to the small crowd that’s gathered around the show. Then he remembers he left his post. “I have to get back to the bridge!” he shouts suddenly, jumping away from you.
You balk at him. “You left while still on duty? You’re the helmsman!” Daisuke is already running past you and down the hall. “Shima, you drive the ship!”
“We’ll talk later, alright?” he shouts over his shoulder, calling out from the end of the hallway as he presses the elevator call button, urging it arrive faster by tapping his foot. You run to catch up with him just as one arrives, and then he steps inside.
“Yea! Of course! Later, Shim-” the elevator doors shut before you can finish your goodbye.
He goes through a slew of emotions on the short trip back; from jumping for joy at your reciprocation of his feelings, to burying his face in his hands at how his declaration had been in front of so many people. Heat returns to his face when he thinks of how attractive you’d been, of how into the kiss he was. Then he feels horror creep over him when he remembers how he’d ran before you could finish what you were saying. Was that rude? Would you be upset with him?
He shamefully steps back onto the bridge and thanks whatever higher power there is that Captain Avatar wasn’t on there to witness his unprofessionalism, but soon finds that every bridge officer is giving him such smug, knowing looks - he’d rather face the captain’s wrath than this.
Kodai has the smuggest face of them all, he’s wearing a wide smile and has his eyebrows tauntingly raised. Nova is grinning happily at Daisuke in support of his romance, Aihara is smirking at the communications station like it’s just told him an inappropriate joke, but the worst - the absolute worst of them - is Sanada, who is grinning straight at him, like he’s an older brother proud of his younger brother’s first girlfriend.
Daisuke shudders and resolves to never give Jiro that look. Or maybe he should out of dedication to some centuries-old rite of passage.
He does the walk of shame to his post, all the while dreading any sort of acknowledgement of what he’d just done. He’s just waiting, still waiting, for the comment he knows is coming because Kodai is giving him the look he gives someone when he’s just won an argument - and Daisuke knows whatever it is that’s about to come out of Kodai’s mouth is going to send him into cardiac arrest.
The teasing doesn’t come until he reaches his chair. He’s just barely set his hand on the back of it to swivel it around and take a seat when Kodai snorts.
“So, how’d it go-”
“Don’t even start with me, Kodai,” Daisuke interrupts with the line he’d prepared, putting on a mask of indifference and intolerance of mischief. It’s the person he wishes he was, the person he projects when he’s tasked with responsibility. He sits down fully and pretends to be dignified, busying himself with taking unnecessary readings on the console in an effort to dissuade Kodai from continuing.
This does not work.
“Yea? Or what?” Kodai swivels his chair around. Daisuke makes the mistake of looking over and finds that he’s slouched completely, with his arms smuggly crossed over his chest. “You’ll tell (L/N)?”
Daisuke flinches at the mention of you, and goes silent and beet red. Memory of what happened comes rushing to the forefront of his mind: the feeling of your hair tickling the strip of skin revealed by the back of his glove, the smooth skin of your cheek brushing his, your wet lips pressed against his, the barrier of your teeth, the dip of your waist, the way you -
“I see how it is,” Kodai says, facing forward again. “Did you at least tell our deputy communication’s officer that you’re head over heels in love-”
“Kodai!” Daisuke hisses. He is uncomfortably aware of every other crew member in the room pretending to not be able to hear their conversation while at the same time, very obviously eavesdropping. That damn Aihara is the worst. He’s staring strictly away from them while tilting his head in their direction, ear like a satellite disc.
“What? It’s true isn’t it?”
Daisuke whips his head back around and hunches over the console to try and will the blush from his face. “You’re impossible,” he grumbles, and Kodai laughs, then sits up in the chair.
“Yea, well, you’re welcome, anyways.”
Daisuke permits himself a small smile and concedes that Kodai does in fact deserve a thank you, not that he’ll get one.
Daisuke Shima (嶋 大輔) who played Yusuke Amamiya/Red Falcon in 1988′s Choujuu Sentai Liveman would later go on to play Captain Harumitsu Hiura of Team EYES in 2001′s Ultraman Cosmos.