Okay but imagine Vash picking up little hobbies while he travels.
There’s the obvious gun care he has. While essential, it’s also therapeutic. Keeping his gun clean, taking it apart and reassembling it, knowing his weapon inside and out – it gives him peace of mind that no matter what happens, he alone is responsible for anything that gun does. Including saving lives.
He helps a little old lady find one of her ten cats and she teaches him embroidery and gives him his own hoop. It breaks a lot from all the rough housing he goes through, and he’s lost too many needles to count, but it’s all carefully taped back together every time. It keeps his fingers nimble and helps him calm down on cool nights in the desert by a fire. It’s also useful to sew up bullet holes in his clothes!
Listening to podcasts. He may listen to local radios to hear if anyone needs help, but on days when no towns are within iles or he might need to lay low, he tunes in to podcast stations and listens to people jabber on. His favorites are a group of girls who talk about the latest books they’ve read (they’re a riot), and a couple of older women who talk about unsolved mysteries from Earth files uncovered. It’s comforting. It gets very lonely sometimes, and listening to people talk, even over the radio, helps that ache go away.
Idk I need to know what this man does for fun other than run from bullets lol
Sayori whimpers and cries quietly to herself in the bathroom stall she managed to hide herself away in. Her brain is all abuzz from past trauma rearing its head from somewhere she least expected it. She had no way to prepare for it, so it hit her like a sucker punch to the gut. She's nearly ready to heave like she did get one, honestly.
Only about ten minutes ago, she was called to the front office by the principal to meet with a parent suddenly. This isn't unheard of, as she's met with plenty of parents of the students to get to know them better and let them know how their child was doing in a safe and calming environment. To her, children are equal to the adults she sees for her job, they just have trouble expressing their thoughts and feelings because they don't have the life experience yet. And neither do some of the parents. This seems to be one of those cases here, too.
A simple and courteous greeting to someone who clearly didn't want to be here, escorted back to her office where they could talk in private. A seat across from the coral-pinkette as they address the cause of this meeting: That the parent didn't appreciate what Sayori was doing for their child and probably more children here. That she should be ashamed of herself. Of course, she asks them to elaborate. That sets off a bomb, apparently.
They accuse her of brainwashing children to question authority and seek out answers from other adults that aren't their parents. That parents can't be trusted to answer all of their kid's questions because they say so and know everything and are always right? She moves to object, but they object her objection. How she was so stupid to ruin a good thing that they had going with their kid, who always said 'yes' and never talked back to them or questioned anything they said.
Sayori lets them know that it doesn't sound like a very good relationship and that it sounds more like controlling their kid with fear and repercussions for the simplest things when they're just children. Allow them to grow and find information and help elsewhere when that parent isn't around. Wouldn't it be better to then share that experience with them and then answer any questions they bring back from others and work it out together? Wouldn't that be such a good thing? To see your child as an equal who just needs a little extra help in some areas that they could come to you fo-?
"I didn't ask you for help, I came to tell you how horrible you are and that I'll be making sure you are removed from this position with the children."
"....Excuse me?"
"You heard me, you sow. If you are doing this to my child, let alone other children, I can't imagine what other parents would see in you or your teachings. You are a danger to these young minds and I'm going to the highest authority here to have you fired or removed or whatever is possible!"
"B-But why? Please, this is such a sudden jump to conclusions! We can just talk it ove-?"
"No! You will not brainwash me like you have the children! Your days here are numbered, you pink elephant! When I'm through with your boss, you'll be fired! You'll be removed!"
"But I-?"
"Gone in an instant!"
Suddenly, the room starts spinning for the young woman. Something in the way they said that and their screaming at her finally breaks her composure. She can't utter a single word to save her life right now, as she starts to tear up and shuffle back away from them. They assume they have won this and will be expecting her gone by the end of the week, smug as can be as they slam her office door behind them.
Sayori is left in the middle of a panic attack as she starts feeling everything close in on her. During a moment that it lets up, she struggles for the door and cries out for anyone to help her. No one can hear her back there as she eventually stumbles out, running in a panic to get somewhere, anywhere away to be alone for the moment that isn't her office. It was the scene of the trigger, so now she wants to be far away.
Running through the halls is so exhausting for her and all her heft, but her brain isn't thinking about that right now. It's about the bathroom on the other end of the school. She needs to hole herself up somewhere that no one will see her have her complete breakdown.
Back to where we started, Sayori finally lets it all out. She cries out in absolute terror and anguish as her trauma was triggered. Gone in an instant, she remembers. She forgave Monika, but that experience from then still makes her skin crawl and her soul fearful. It was just that, too. Total erasure of even her soul. There was nothing. Just a void.
She's struggling to breathe properly as she relives the experience. The memory of the experience and the feelings are washing over her entire body as she feels like she's going through it all over again. When will it stop? She's not one to have these nightmares when awake, so this is especially agonizing. She can't just wake up from this one.
Eventually, after realizing she was missing, someone finds her sobbing and having made a mess of herself on the bathroom floor when they get her carried to the nurse's office. She's cleaned up and helped to relax with the current nurse there, being asked if they need to call anyone for her or if she wants to go to the hospital. She refuses both, for now, saying she just needs time to think and lie down.
They'll have her removed, they said. Fired, gotten rid of. Her job she worked so hard to get and start the schooling for. A job where she helped other kids not become like her or what she was back then, either. Gone. In an instant. She starts crying again right there in the nurse's office, but it's now a cry of sadness and not fear. The nurse simply hugs it out with her and lets the woman get it all out. She clearly needs the support, right now.
Sayori finally gets home for the day, disheveled and a shell of herself at the moment. That person is going to spin some sort of lie and ruin her entire career, just because she was a good counselor. Just because she did her job well. Just because she did her job right. She flips right onto her couch and groans loudly, clearly done with today. There's absolutely nothing she can do, she feels. Parents always have such sway, especially those heavily involved with the higher ups or so.
After an hour or two of crying it out some more and finally napping, she gets up and trudges for the refrigerator. Something easy and simple and not experimental to eat, while she gets up the courage to call her friends about this and see if she can use any of them as references on redoing her resumé...?
Cloud wasn’t in the mood to deal with this, Hell he didn’t even know where he was supposed to start. He barely remembered what had happened this early in the timeline let alone know how to stop it. ‘Should probably start with the reactor in Nibleheim.’ Getting there would be a long journey on foot with no weapons. Cloud decided to wing it and took off in a random direction.
Typical ffvii time travel fic. No weapons no transportation no thoughts. Just a rewrite of CC with AC cloud collecting swords in the background.
He could feel the warmth of blood passing over his fingers, his hand pressed to his torso — a wound that he knew was long healed, and yet in this moment was wide open, bleeding profusely and he couldn't get it to stop…couldn't get it to slow.
Ricard glanced around, frantic, trying to find anything that looked familiar, anything that could give him an indication of where he was — why this was happening — and found himself more confused that he had been to begin with.
He wasn't in the front foyer of the company estate he had once called home…in was in the sitting room of the Gray Estate…the place he now resided in with his wife.
It was wrong. All of it was wrong.
He attempted to stumble from the room — the door requiring more effort than he anticipated, hand pressed to the wound that refused to close, trying to stem the flow of blood that refused to slow, trying to find anyone…anything that could help him make sense of these disjointed bits of information that he knew and yet together they didn't fit.
The door was finally nudged open with his shoulder, and he squinted, attempting to focus down the dimly lit hallway.
There, at the very end — almost out of sight — was a familiar silhouette. Cordelia. Her back was to him, and as he moved further down the hall, she seemed to move further and further from him, not responding or even hearing his attempts to call out to her.
She was hazy, appearing to be a bit frayed at the edges…that wasn't right, but then again, nothing about whatever was happening was right.
He kept moving, a futile attempt to try to catch up with Cordelia, or the form that was supposed to be Cordelia — which was also fading more and more as it continued to move further down the halls. As the figure faded the pain in his side grew, accompanied by a nausea that threatened to overwhelm him.
He stepped past what was the threshold to the bedroom and the pain exploded — causing him to drop to his knees…and the last thing he saw as his vision slowly faded was an image of that hazy, frayed depiction of his wife, gripped by the hair by some unknown figure, dagger in hand and that dagger being thrust forcefully — purposely — not for her throat, but her midsection.
And him being powerless to stop it.
Ricard woke with a start, heart hammering in his chest, breathing rapid — shallow, his chest aching.
"Fucking hell…"
He reached for his side, pulling hand away to find nothing, only to glance down in order to check again and finding nothing but a well healed scar. A quick glance to his side found his wife sleeping soundly beside him, no worse for wear, and completely unaware of his discomfort.
He turned, setting his feet on the floor and running his hand through his hair with a tired sigh before standing and walking the length of the bedroom before moving to the windows and glancing out at the cold, snow-covered grounds.
Nightmares had been a recurring event since he'd woken from his poison induced coma. They were generally brief and easily pushed aside, nothing more then revisiting the evening he became ill and the events that led to it.
This was different, unsettling, and damn it all he despised it — the lack of control.
He let his forehead rest against the cool glass, hoping it would help to settle his thoughts — at the very least enough to get back to sleep.
It felt like Delwyn was taking his time discovering the "inside man" who had caused so much disruption, and Ricard was losing his patience.
He wanted the issue taken care of, both within the manor and outside of it. Everything was on pause until this individual was found, out of an abundance of caution — and Ricard grew tired of being cautious.
There was movement from the bed, and Ricard pulled his head away from the glass turning his attention towards the subtle noise, only to meet his wife's curious (and tired) gaze.
He said nothing, simply returning to the bed with a small smile, gathering her into his arms as he slipped back under the covers and letting her rest her head against his chest as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
They'd been held captive by this foolishness long enough, and he wouldn't tolerate it any longer.
If Delwyn couldn't find the individual they were looking for, then he would need to dip his hands into the mix and do it himself. They would talk, and he didn't care what needed to be done to make them do so.
The life they'd discussed would come to fruition. And no minor concerns related to kitchen staff or former brother-in-laws were going to prevent that.
Hey there, I’m Saku and welcome to my blog Sakura Haze.
I’m a foreigner who has been living in Japan for the last 8 years, going from the well known JET Programme to working as a private hire. I love traveling and have been to 26 out of Japan’s 47 prefectures at this point.
In a time of clickbaits and travel advice on videos less than 30 seconds, I wanted to help revive the blog space even if just a little bit.
I’m looking forward to talking about everyday life in Japan, the good and the bad, what travel can look like in a not curated form, and answer any questions that you may have about Japan to the best of my abilities. I still have a lot to learn and experience, but I hope the things I have done can be of help to those who are just starting out.
If you ever have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I’ll be happy to answer them.
What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to act? How do I proceed knowing the most likely outcome? How many more times do I gamble with my life and someone else's for the small improbable chance that things work out perfectly or at least kinda good for everyone... That's just not life that's just not how things work no matter how much I will it.
I've lived more of my life than not in this space... I can continue to do so and I selfishly want to spare you from that and from reaching that inevitable point in which you hate me. I just want everyone else to be happy if I can't be, maybe that really is my purpose.... To help others find their peace and happiness.
