Quote:Ah. My interest died about three chapters into Children of, so I can't comment on that. ^_^
As in, Dune. Specifically, Children of and later books, and Leto the Second's Golden Path. It was the first thing that popped into my mind upon hearing the mention of the Golden Millenium.
I'd never been that nervous before in my life.
Frankly, I like to think that I had good reason to be - the potential end of all human life is more than big enough stakes, thank you. I'd checked the start date for the next semester at Fuuka Academy almost as soon as I'd put my thoughts back together after waking up. My age was listed as fifteen in the records, and my new birthday was in November, so I knew that this at least should be the right year. I'd even gone so far as to book my ticket on the only ferry that fit the timing more than a month in advance.
By the time the actual day rolled around, there was quite literally nothing for me to do but sit on the promenade deck with a novel that I was completely ignoring in favor of some last-minute fretting.
In my case, at least, the classic self-insert question of 'what do the characters look like' had defaulted to 'real people'... my own hair, now that it was growing out of the bleaching, was a shade or two darker than it had been, and Shiho's a fairly natural shade that bore only the faintest resemblence to her animated counterpart's. Nevertheless, my first glimpse of Tokiha Mai was utterly unmistakable.
In the first place, the show had gotten her clothes right, and that bright red t-shirt stood out like a road sign. Between that, the figure that would have been impressive on somebody five years older, and the fact that she must've had at least one western ancestor to inherit that flaming red hair from, she really couldn't have been anyone else.
Beyond that... I'll be honest and admit that I'm shallow enough that a girl's face usually isn't the first thing I notice about her, or the second.
But I noticed hers.
I didn't even realize I was staring until Shiho had poked me in the ribs. "You're being indecent," she said, which, as much as I'd discovered it to be a bit of a catchphrase of hers, definitely raised goosebumps on today of all days.
I tore my eyes away and dropped them back down to the book. "Right. Thanks."
Not long now, and dear god almighty what was I going to do? Mai, Natsuki, Mikoto I could deal with, and Yukino and Akane, sure. Midori - hell, Midori would probably know more than I did! But Akira was a total wild card, Nao was about as trustworthy as she thought everyone else was, and the idea of even having to try to negotiate with Shizuru was, frankly, terrifying...
"You're not going to go talk to her?" Shiho asked.
I turned a page I couldn't recognize a word of. "I'm not that brave."
"Of course you are! Don't you remember... oh."
I sighed and gave up on the book and flipped it shut, then reached over to mess up her hair. She shrieked and gave me an outraged look, and I smiled, then sort of shrugged. "I might've been. Now I'm not."
I found out later, when she gave me her old diaries, that after I had dropped the novel in my bag and walked to the side to look for Mikoto, she had gone to strike up a conversation with Mai.
In retrospect, the wonder is that anything went as similarly as it did.
Ja, -n
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."