Monday, July 12, 2004

   did you know SEX that the average SEX male thinks SEX about sex every SEX three seconds? SEX.
Personally I didn’t think it was that long….


Hiya all you crazy otakus out there. Had a good weekend? Mine was crap, but what can I say? I was working.

I went and bought Evangelion Directors Cut on DVD on Friday. OMG!!! WTF!!! It was brilliant. It is actually possible for the most f*cked up anime to be even more f*cked up. My fav part was the revamped fight between Unit Zero and the 16th Angel. The only part I didn’t like was the fact that the V.A’s had changed a little bit, but what can you do? The disc did however make up for that by containing both the original episodes as well as the directors cut episodes. That’s episodes 21-23 in TWO versions on ONE disc!!! I cant wait until the second disc comes out, the Final three episodes!!! The disc also had an interview with the directors/producers of the Live Action Eva movie!!! The visuals look like they’re gonna be stunning. I just hope the story will be as good. I also got Tenchi Muyo vol.2. I should watch more tenchi. It makes me laugh…

This is for all you who enjoyed my last little comic strip. Its something I thought up whilst on the checkouts on Saturday. I give you: FANTASIES OF A CHECKOUT OPERATOR 2: THE ATTACK OF THE GUNDAM OTAKU!!



The original Gundam series is soo cool. Graphics aren’t up to much, but it was made in 1979 ^-^;

And for all of you who have been waiting for this, I give you the completed Chapter three and newly completed chapter four of “See No Evil, Speak no Evil”!!! I wont post the whole of chapter three, as it’s a huge chapter, but I’ll post from the bit where Seraph and Kida arrive at Kida’s village. Story so far: Aww, frig it , theres too much stuff, just trawl through my archives until you find Chapters 1,2 and the beginning of Chap 3. Okay? So, in the words of the great Onokij: We continue where we left off…

We made it to Kida’s village at about two in the afternoon. The sun was still blazing bright and it was warm, despite the brackish feel to the air. The village of Yokosuka was small but homey. Traditional style houses and wide open streets with a small square in the centre, which was surrounded by homes, a small convenience store and a small bar/restaurant. It was calm and peaceful.
“Kida!”
Kida looked to who had called out and in her sight I saw a man of medium build and height with thinning hair run across the square.
“It’s my old sign-language teacher, Mr. Furumura.”
“Kida, where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you.”
Kida spoke to him in sign language whilst giving me a running commentary.
“I’m telling him that I think I must have sleepwalked or something and that you found me and offered to help me back home.”
“But that’s impossible,” Mr. Furumura was saying. “The roads have been washed out, we’ve only begun to get supplies in today. You would have been killed if you tried to walk out the village if you were awake, let alone asleep.” He was looking at me now. I fidgeted, aware of how my scarred shut eyes might appear to a normal person. Kida started gesturing again,
“I’m telling him that him that I don’t understand it either, but I really have to go see my mum, let her know I’m all right.”
“Okay. You let me know if you need anything.” He glanced at me again; clearly reluctant to leave Kida with me, but Kida shooed him away.
“Come on, I wanna show you my house.”
Kida led the way to her house, stopping every time somebody saw her giving quick gestures of confirmation that she was fine. Yokosuka was an even tighter community than Shinoi was.
“Does everybody here know sign language or something?” I asked as we headed down a street towards a large house on the far edge of the village.
“Pretty much. Everybody learnt it when I had lost my voice in the accident. It actually makes life easier in the town for everybody, and it wasn’t too big a deal as it is a small town.”
Kida ran up the path and rang the bell. I followed a few yards behind.
The door opened and a small kind face, which had signs of worry over it, peered out. Her eyes widened when she saw me…I mean Kida. Then with a small scream, she threw herself around Kida.
I just stood there taking this in. I assumed the woman to be Mrs. Chihara, Kida’s mum. She was babbling something about how she was relieved and amazed and so on. She must have noticed me because she looked Kida in the eyes and asked
“Who’s this?”
Her gaze, which appeared to be looking at me, was penetrating and deep, from which I didn’t think I could lie to even if I wanted to.
Kida spoke in my head along with gestures to her mum.
“This is Seraph. He helped me home after he found me.”
“He didn’t hurt you did he?”
“Mother! He’s been a real gent, going out of his way to help me home.”
She turned round and I saw myself blush again. I coughed and stepped forward.
“Pleased to meet you. I found your daughter and realised she was mute. So I offered to escort her home.”
“Thank you for returning my daughter to me, despite you’re…um…the fact that you can’t…”
“It’s not been a problem, I can assure you.”
Kida gestured again, but without commentary.
Kida’s mother looked to me again.
“Kida asks if I would invite you to join us for tea. I would be honoured if you could accept as a thank you for doing this act of kindness,”
“I’d be glad to.”
Kida grabbed my hand and “guided” me into the house, following her mother. Mrs. Chihara disappeared into the kitchen as I took the opportunity to have a look round Kida’s house. It was large and spacious.
“Nice place you have here,”
“It is. I’ve been here all my life. It can get claustrophobic though.”
“A house this big?”
“Not the house so much as the village lifestyle.”
We were invited into the living room, where we knelt down at the table and Kida’s mother brought in the tea. We sat in silence as the tea was poured and the first sips were taken.
“When Kida disappeared from the house in the middle of the night during a storm, I was horrified. The paths around here can get so treacherous around here when it rains heavily. I thought I had lost her forever.”
“Well, I found her near Goto. She was suffering from near hypothermia and I nursed her back to health, then waited for the storms to let up before we headed back up here.”
“So, do you live in Goto?”
“No, I live in Shinoi.” I paused, realising that Shinoi was miles from here. “But I was in Goto for a business trip. I’m a reporter, and I wanted to do a piece on the beauty and tranquillity of this part of the region.”
“Really.”
Kida gestured to her mum, who nodded and Kida got up and left the room. I heard her feet padding upstairs as the second sight vanished.
I was silent, uncomfortable with the woman that I had met only a few minutes before. I started to sip my tea.
Mrs. Chihara broke the silence.
“You have symbiosis, don’t you.”
I choked on the tea, and coughed.
“How..?”
“You’re good at hiding it, but there are tell tale signs.”
“How do you know about it?”
“It’s a rare phenomenon, but not unheard of. My sister and her husband used to have it when she was about Kida’s age.”
“ “used to”?”
“Yes, she lost it after a while. But yours is a strange case. I’ve never heard of speech being transmitted through another. It’s normally one of the five senses that are complimented by another. But never has there been speech before.”
I sat for a while, digesting this titbit of information.
“So how did you really meet with Kida?” Mrs. Chihara broke the silence.
I sighed and started from the beginning. It was the first time I had told anyone the whole story, apart from my brother, and I felt a great burden lift from my shoulders. Mrs. Chihara made non-committal noises; as if it was a story she had heard before, but with an understanding rather than boredom.
“So what do you think you should do now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you like Kida?”
“Yes. But she really should be with her family, someone who understands her and can talk to her.”
“The way I see it, there’s no one better qualified than you Seraph. Kida’s obviously crazy about you. I think it would do her good. But that’s for both of you to decide.”
I sat there thinking about what she had just said.
Suddenly, Kida came clattering down the stairs. As the second sight kicked in, she grabbed my arm and pulled me outside her house.
“What are…?”
“Just sit here a second.”
She sat me on the steps of her house and then moved away. The sight temporarily vanished as Kida moved just out of range. I sat there, hearing a noise that was familiar, yet one that I was unable to place. The second sight suddenly came back and I saw myself get larger in my vision as Kida came running back towards me.
“Smile!”
“Wha...?” Kida leapt behind me and put her arms around my shoulders. As she looked up, I could see a camera on a tripod, a little light blinking to show that it was on a timer. The noise I had heard was the familiar clack of a tripod being set up. As I was a reporter, I had been around enough photographers to recognise their equipment by sound.
I tried to smile, but I wasn’t really photogenic. The flash was bright, the brightest thing I had seen in a long while.
“What was that for? I asked as Kida packed her equipment away.
“I just wanted a picture of us together. So that I won’t forget you. I’ll send you a copy.”
“Thanks.”
Suddenly a boom shook the town. Kida looked up and I saw a thundercloud just above the peak of the mountain, and it was starting to move towards the village.
“Seraph, you had better get going. When that cloud breaks, the trails are going to be totally inaccessible.” Kida’s mother called from the house.
I nodded.
“Wait…how are you going to get back. Without me, you’re blind.” Kida was frantically making gestures to her mum.
“Mr. Furumura is going to Goto. He can take him.”
We waited whilst the situation was explained to Mr. Furumura, and he agreed to take me to Goto, but we had to hurry.
I went to say goodbye to Kida.
“I don’t want you to go.”
“I have to go home. My brother would freak out if I went missing without a word of where I had gone, and I have to go back to work soon. I wish I could stay but I can’t. I’ll try to visit again when the storms are over. We can go and see Mt. Fuji-san from the trail you told me about.”
I couldn’t see Kida, but her vision was getting blurred, and I assumed she was on the verge of tears.
“Mr. Shinkai, we have to get going!” Mr. Furumura called.
I hugged Kida and whispered in her ear. “I’ll be back. I promise.”
I let her go and walked away. I watched my back start to move away. Then the second sight vanished with a sudden flash of blackness. I turned my head to face the way I came, and then followed the sound of Mr. Furumura’s voice. The rain had started to fall, but it was light, and not threatening yet. The wind had picked up slightly, and the thunder now rumbled ominously overhead on a more regular basis. We kept walking. In the darkness, which had become almost a stranger to me, I kept seeing images of the last two days. To try and dispel the emotions that I was starting to feel, I called out.
“How much further?”
“Not far. We are at the Wish Fountain.”
That did it. My tear ducts had been removed after the accident, so I could not cry anymore, but if I could, I knew my tears would be heavier than the storm that had brought Kida into my life, and the storm that was taking her away.
* * *
CHAPTER 4: KIDA’S TRUTH.
I felt an arm go round my shoulder and I looked to see my Mum standing there, comforting me as I watched Seraph turn and walk away through the village, following Mr. Furumura.
I felt tears on the verge of bursting through my eyes, but I kept them back with an iron will.
“This is silly.” I thought to myself. “He said he will be coming back. Why am I so upset?”
“It hurts, doesn’t it? The bond between the two of you. It’s tugging at your heart.”
I looked at my mum in surprise.
“Yes. I know about symbiosis. Your aunt used to have it with your uncle. When your uncle died, your aunt felt the same tug at her heart as you are now.”
“Does it mean its breaking?” I asked my mum, my hands trembling as I made the appropriate gestures.
“I don’t know. It obviously did for them. Maybe yours is different. He is something special.”
Something special. In the split second I had seen him open the door of his house, the instant the bond between us had joined us together, I knew that Seraph was indeed something special. And not just because he supplemented something I had lost a long time ago. In the day we had spent together, I had felt myself drawn to him, like a moth to the flame, to be burnt by his passion for life.
I had had other boyfriends before, but that was more to satisfy my budding curiosity as puberty gripped my body. None of them had even come close to being like Seraph. I remembered his kindness as we explored our newfound connection. I was still wearing the clothes he had leant me. I remembered the meals he had cooked, the easy going conversations we had, the first conversations I had had with someone who didn’t know sign language. I remembered the village store and Seraph’s easygoing relationship with everyone. The more I reminisced about the last couple of days, including the journey up to my village, the more the pain in my heart grew. The breaking point came when I thought of the fountain and the wish I had made. The dam cracked and the floodwaters broke through. Tears streamed down my face.
A hand appeared by my side. In it was a raincoat. I looked at the owner of the hand, my mother.
“If you hurry, you can catch him up.”
I just stared at my mum.
“I don’t know. Maybe Im going soft in my old age. But I know one thing. He’s your destiny.”
I stared at my mum, and then hugged her.
“Okay, Okay, get off me. Go on, get going before the rain gets any harder. Just promise me you’ll return for your third year of school.”
“I promise.” I kissed her on the cheek and the started off towards the trail. I paused, and then turned around.
“Mum, auntie and uncle didn’t have symbiosis did they? It was you and father. You don’t have a sense of taste or smell, yet your cooking has always been excellent. And father was also blind. So that’s why you know so much about symbiosis.”
My mum just smiled a knowing smile, and then waved me off. I smiled as well and then took off towards the trail. My heart began to pound along with the rain, which was starting to fall more and more heavily. I ran along trails that I had ran along my whole life, but with a new urgency, knowing that I was going to be with my destiny.

“You don’t remember me,
But I remember you,
I lie awake and try so hard
Not to think of you
But who can decide what they dream?
And dream I do…

I believe in you,
I’ll give up everything just to find you,
I have to be with you to live to breathe
You’re taking over me.

Have you forgotten all I know?
And all we had?

You saw me mourning my love for you
And touched my hand
I knew you loved me then

I believe in you,
I’ll give up everything just to find you,
I have to be with you to live to breathe
You’re taking over me.

I look in the mirror and see your face
If I look deep enough
So many things inside that are
Just like you are taking over.”

SERAPH TAKES OVER…

I was standing on the platform of the station, waiting for the last train. The rain was getting heavier now. I could feel it pounding on my neck, soaking me to the bone, but I didn’t care. My mind was in a spin, sinking in darkness and despair. I knew logically that I could and would see Kida again, but something was pulling at my heart and had been the whole journey back. And with the pulling came a melancholy loneliness, the same kind I had heard in Kida’s music. But now all I could hear was the rain, pounding in a regular rhythm. No…I couldn’t just hear it. I could see it as well. And I could see a solitary figure standing on the edge of the platform, getting larger in my vision. At the same time I could hear pounding steps and heavy breath. The figure in my vision and I turned as one in time to catch Kida as she leapt into my arms.
“Kida!”
“Seraph!”
And then we kissed. The darkness was back this time, but I welcomed it as we took a taste of each other and knew that neither one of us wanted to let go of each other this early.
The kiss broke apart but the hug did not.
“But I thought…”
“Mum said I could. She knows that I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ve got you.”
I smiled and sighed. “Yes you have.”

Kida slept on the way back, exhausted from her run from Yokosuka to Goto. I was happy. My wish had come true…
KIDA: I slept most of the way back. But at one point I was awake. I was happy. My wish had come true…
SERAPH: I was with Kida. I knew now that she was what I wanted.
KIDA: I was with Seraph. I knew in my heart that we were meant for each other.
SERAPH: We had all of summer together…
KIDA: All of summer to get to know each other better…
SERAPH: And to enjoy our strengthened bond together…
KIDA: We knew we were each other’s destinies…
SERAPH: and that was all that mattered.
SERAPH AND KIDA: And so Life continued…

“I believe in you,
I’ll give up everything just to find you,
I have to be with you to live to breathe
You’re taking over me.”

(Lyrics by Evanescence, from the song “Taking Over Me” from the Album “Fallen,”)


So?

The Evanescence song was a stroke of divine inspiration. I was writing the end to chapter three and thinking what I could do for chap 4 when the song started playing on my CD player (I was listening to the album and the player was set on Random Play). I had the little booklet with the lyrics in front of me and as I read the lyrics, I could equate them, and the whole feel of the song, the whole ambience, to what was going on in the story. It was like this song and the story were meant to be together. I could get a clear image of Kida pounding her way down the path in the rain as I listened to the song. It was like a moment out of a movie. Listen to the song whilst reading the chapter, and you might get an inkling of what I was feeling.


Anyway, that’s me for today. I will see y’all tomorrow. Ciao for now….


Thought for the week: Id rather be lonely and free than chained by love...

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