#something there

[kyowritesstuff]

Ohhhh might have just figured out how to make Astrophage and Taumoeba work in my pjo au!! Somewhat. The idea is kinda completely insane. But ☝️ It is also Very Silly and bringing me Joy.

[pov-rosie]

MOONCOVEY —Something there

[robron-always]

A bit of Seb, so this is your warning. ____

Aaron wasn't interested in Seb. At all. Robert had expected things to be rocky at first, especially as Angela hadn't wanted two excons to see Seb in the first place, and convincing her had been a challenge. But now they got Seb once a week, mostly Saturdays around school, and Aaron just... wasn't interested.

It was an argument Robert never expected to have. This time, at least. Back in 2018 he'd expected it, but Aaron had thrown himself into being a stepfather with his whole heart, the way he did most things. But not this time.

"What?" Aaron said that night when Robert came into the bedroom. He could tell Robert wanted to have a conversation.

"Seb," Robert said heavily, sitting on the edge of the bed. "You don't... it's like you don't want him around."

"You need to have your kid in your life," Aaron said with a defensive shrug.

"But I need you to get on with him, too," Robert said. "What's the problem?" Aaron sighed. "Spit it out, I'm not letting it go so you might as well."

Aaron bit his bottom lip. "I can't do it, Robert. I can't go through it all again, taking Seb on as my own just to lose him? It'd kill me. I can't do it." He shook his head. "Do you actually know what happened when you went to prison? With Seb?" Robert stayed silent, waiting for him to carry on. "One day Pete turned up and said "Ross and Rebecca have decided they don't want you to see Seb anymore." Ross?! He'd spent a few weeks with Seb at that point. I'd been his parent for nearly two years, but in one conversation I lost him. And Ross or Rebecca didn't even have the balls to tell me themselves. They let someone else do it." Aaron's voice shook. "I loved that kid, I treated him like he was my own. He felt like my own. But really... I had nothing legally to say he was, it all came through you. Once you'd gone? I lost any right I had to him." Aaron stormed off to the bathroom.

"Aaron..."

"Just leave it."

[dissonantdreamer]

Utena, itena, we all tena

[no-future-mudwasps]

A lifepod can be spotted drifting in space a few kilometers off the Wings' port bow. If investigated, the inside is found to be empty save for a rolled-up piece of paper, which reads:

To the finder of this message,

We are in dire need of aid. Our ship Castile 3 was struck by an unknown object on September the 26th, 4288U and all aboard but we three crewmen were killed. All communications are lost. Water and oxygen cycling are failing. The food aboard will not last us the week. We have jettisoned this and other messages in our lifeboats in the hope they will be found and help may come. In the meantime, we are sealing ourselves in stasis. We beg God that the auxiliary power will hold.

If you are reading this within even the next century, we are the luckiest men to ever fly the black. Our rough galactic coordinates are on the reverse of this message. If you are able, we beg you: bring rescue with all haste.

We ask only that you pray for us if not.

With hope,

Meriwether Ali, Ship's Lieutenant

Ander Terenni, Engine Technician

Linn Priana, Reactor Technician

What’s our ETA to the nearest gate?

Two-hundred nineteen hours. We will absolutely find some operation there that can attempt to corroborate with flight records, communications. They could send someone out, if we did not offer our own services.

If we did, it could be (clean money) a way to balance out the last op. Bit of a karmic cleanse?

It’d get the taste out of my mouth. I say go.

Mm. Any opposed, state your case. Else I see no trouble.

[eddiewithcat]

ever since someone pointed out that buck died / dated a death doula and now eddie having catholic guilt / is dating a nun i have not been the same.

big brain people pls expand upon this because i am losing my goddamn mind rn

something something “don’t know why i thought it would be such a good idea dating a death doula”

“to be fair, you did just die”

“welcome back to the land of the living” idk mind racing

[aranarumei]

So Kiri, I've just reread "something there" and I feel like I've asked you this before, but what kind of thoughts do you think are going through Sasaki's mind during this part where they're talking about Kagi? Given some of the recent posts floating around about sasakagi and how Sasaki might see Kagi and be confused about how this kid he barely knows has such an animosity toward him somehow... Dunno if that might affect how you might imagine his thought process in the part you wrote here?

"He's popular?"

“He does always get a bunch of confessions on Valentine's day,” Shirahama grumbles on instinct. Then he realizes there's a lot of terrible implications to that routine complaint and backtracks. “Not that—”

really fun question!! a quick correction, though: you've got the dialogue switched. "He's popular?" actually comes after the "He does always..." line, but looking at it like this it kind of does work either way, huh. anyways, you're right in that you have asked this before, but there's always more to say...

first, some relevant links: something there sasaki's thoughts during something there thoughts on sasaki & kagiura thoughts on shirahama & kagiura since I've already written about related things, if I gloss over something, I might've already touched on it in those links. also, if you're ever looking for some of my longer-form thoughts, chances are that they're collected in my #in this essay i will tag. now! the scene itself! let's get under the cut for this.

the original something there ask is actually dated before the release of ch 24 of hirano to kagiura, so there's definitely some new avenues to explore in terms of what went on there and what's going on in something there. my overall point remains: sasaki's extra Aware of kagiura because he's aware something is happening with him and hirano, even though he's unclear about the details. he's thinking, huh... what is hirano's roommate like? if he's popular, how does that affect his and hirano's relationship?

as an aside, shirahama's complaining about the number of vday confessions kagiura is due to totally heterosexual reasons. yes sirree. sasaki mentions he's curious about kagiura and you complain about the confessions he gets, unprompted. to a guy you Know is dating a guy. why are you conflating any curiousity or interest with confessions. i'm sure those implications mean nothing... man is that relationship fascinating though. because like. he also knows that kagiura's hopelessly pining after someone he loves...? so it's like. kagiura is popular and a starter on the team as a 1st year and also he knows a very vulnerable side of him, and whether he wants to know or not, it's already in his heart. idk. shirahama could've just been like looking from afar and wanting to compete with him, but the fact that they seem to casually talk to each other a lot always gets at me.

since I already talked about what's going through sasaki's head in something here, I think I'll actually devote this ask to analyzing the sasaki-kagiura interactions of ch 24 of hirano to kagiura. because boy are they fascinating. first, I don't think sasaki's particularly confused by the animosity. in fact, i think he recognizes it.

this expression comes from ch 12 of sasaki to miyano, and it's a really critical moment of sasaki being possessive and jealous. it happens again in ch 20 of sasaki to miyano, but the expression is less intense and I think we actually don't get to see it in full, considering makimura's relationship of what was that face? seems to suggest he looked more intense than what's depicted. we also don't actually get to see kagiura's expression in ch 24 of hirano to kagiura, but we do see his reaction—he's ashamed. he can't make eye contact. (and man... the idea of shame sure is a theme that recurs again and again in hirano to kagiura). whether that expression was filtered through misery or anger, we can debate, but I know it was an expression of jealousy. and then kagiura does the same thing he did in the adult au—he runs. i don't think he wants anyone to look at him like this... all... ungraceful. not good.

so, sasaki's reaction. his first thought we see is he... was looking at me, right? the way I interpret this is that sasaki recognizes that kagiura's jealous, but he can't grasp why. because he can't imagine that someone would actually feel threatened by his & hirano's relationship. this makes perfect sense to me. hirano is influenced by sasaki, and sasaki is influenced by hirano. they are friends. but they don't self-describe as close, because hirano's probably thinking of him as that guy he had to chase down during his first year to turn in assignments and stuff, and sasaki gets so weird about friendships that he has an internal freakout about calling hirano his friend... in their third year. you can find these moments in the first years and second years light novels of sasaki to miyano, respectively.

so when we look at the expression at the back of volume 5, that's what I see going on: kagiura's like, ahhh this guy is close to hirano-san and i don't know what's up with him! it's almost a mirrored realization to the jealousies of vol 10 of sasaki to miyano, where both sasaki and miyano kind of have to confront that they dont exist entirely in each other's circles anymore. miyano doesn't know who ugawa is, and sasaki doesn't know who shirahama is, and they both just have to witness this friend and person they don't know exist in a way they don't know anything about. sasaki, there, is like, hirano's roommate-kun looked at me weird and i know something is up with them but i don't know why he looks so wary of me.

but. he's also ignoring it. going back to ch 24, sasaki's subsequent thoughts are. ...that was roommate-kun, right? he's the one who gave him those earrings... nah, not gonna tug at that thread.

sasaki "avoidance" shuumei my BELOVED. first, I love that sasaki still only thinks of kagiura in terms of hirano. he's "roommate-kun" here, and in ch 46 of sasaki to miyano, he asks shirahama if "kagi-kun" is around. second, he immediately connects the "roommate he wakes up in the mornings" business with "earrings gift, which hanzawa mentioned is not a normal gift between friends at all." and then he consciously makes the decision not to really think about hirano and romance in the same breath. but then the fact that he makes those connections really quick means that he is actually paying attention to them. in the second year novel extras, when hirano mentions being jealous of sasaki's height, it's sasaki who brings up the fact that "roommate-kun" is taller than him. and once again, looking at hirano's pleased expression, he goes "hm..." and then thinks about myaa-chan. refusing, once again, to tug on that thread. hell, even ch 46, where he calls kagiura "kagi-kun"... he does it again! he brings up kagiura of his own accord, and then immediately backs out of actually talking to him when shirahama offers to get him. and he refuses to tell miyano anything because I imagine he's protecting hirano's peace. it should be mentioned that in ch 43, sasaki just saw hirano wearing a ring. the next two chapters involve sasaki and miyano's date, and the ch after, when he happens to be in the school, he asks after kagi. I am almost 100% sure that was the reason he asked.

it's a little involuntary, I think. he doesn't mean to get involved in it, because he's not the meddlesome type, and he'd probably die if he talked to hirano about it directly, but he can't stop paying attention, and being curious. he literally sends kagiura a pic of hirano yawning in the vol. 8 extras. probably bc he thinks he'd like it. maybe he is a little meddlesome. it's such a sasaki-esque kind of thing to do, yknow? that casual support. the way he offers kagiura a dango when they run into each other. telling that mother that he can take care of the customers so she can pick up her kid.

so, circling back to your actual question: my thoughts on sasaki's thought process during that section haven't changed much, but ch 24 has kind of developed my opinion on it... before I might've said a lot of sasaki's interest in kagiura comes from his interest in hirano, but now that I've reconsidered it, I think around here is probably where sasaki develops a slowly budding interest in getting to hear about kagiura himself, outside of just hirano's lens. and that probably motivates him to ask shirahama about stuff like this.