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Comments 39

elfiepike June 15 2012, 07:12:27 UTC
this is fucking amazing. nothing feels gratuitous in this--even though you've created a world with a hundred intentional government-provided deaths a day--and the rotating pov makes it feel even more life-like and respectful. i really like the way you've slotted people in here--aiba who signs up to protect his family, nino the underground rebel, etc--and just. yeah. so many feelings!! i'm so glad it ended the way it did, too, because it so easily could have been horrendous, but this happy ending feels fitting in a plot-way and not just a "let's have it end happily" way. (well, as happy as it could be, anyway.)

so yeah. very well-crafted and compelling and gosh, i am def. going to have to read this again.

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astrangerenters June 25 2012, 16:09:44 UTC
Thank you so much. I figured after everything I'd done to Arashi that it would just be wrong to give them an unhappy end. They fought so hard, endured so much. I'm not as mean as I sometimes think I am :)

So glad you liked it!!

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lysanderpuck June 15 2012, 09:49:14 UTC
Oh my god it's 6 am and I can't be coherent right now but just so you know
This made me cry like a little baby

Jun and Nino's relationship
I just

This is fantastic in a really painful way, and I mean that as a compliment. <3

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astrangerenters June 25 2012, 16:10:13 UTC
It pained me to write a great deal of it, so I had a feeling everyone was going to be all "WHYYYYY" when they read it LOL. But thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

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r_1_ss_a June 15 2012, 13:06:34 UTC
First of all, WOW. Second of all, WOW. I don't even know where to start. I feel like no matter what I say can't even convey how much I absolutely LOVE this fic. It is so well written, it captured my attention so much that I couldn't stop reading. I finished it at midnight last night and I wanted to comment but I had to sleep. Sorry about that.

I absolutely squealed when I saw this fic, I WAS ALL, YESSSSSSSS YESSSSSSS, I knew we were in for awesomeness! I didn't know what was going on at first but that was to be expected but I knew if I kept on reading, everything would all be explained. AND I WASN'T WRONG. Oh my gosh, I love how each of the guy's stories were explained and told. How they were connected and/or how they met. Nice touch on the inclusion of the Civilian Staff manual, the Channel News One segments, and the interviews with the Japan Will Rise again movement.

I CAN'T EVEN EXPLAIN MY ADORATION FOR JUN IN UNIFORM AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH NINO. WHO BY THE WAY, AS USUAL STOLE MOST OF THE SHOW, HOW DOES HE ALWAYS DO THAT? <3 ( ... )

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astrangerenters June 25 2012, 16:11:39 UTC
Hello you. Thank you for being my biggest cheerleader on this story EVEN WHEN I COULDN'T TELL YOU WHAT IT WAS ABOUT. You helped me get through all the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things I did to all my precious boys in this story :)

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g_esquared June 15 2012, 14:41:35 UTC
(JUST A PRELIMINARY NOTE: this was all written as various points today as i read it, which is why i took so long and i'm really sorry for taking so long, such epicness is more deserving than my tardiness and blubbering. i also hope this seriously long series of comments doesn't freak you out too much but whatever even if it does, i had to say it. ;_____; )

OKAY, I'VE FINISHED THE FIRST PART and i'm getting a sense of what you mean by the angst train. and i am a little wary of all the feels and possible mindfucking that the rest of this will give me but at the same time i am super excite but let me just NARRATE MY THOUGHTS AT THIS POINT.

first off, oh my god you wrote me 7-part fic i nearly sobbed when i very blearily saw this on my phone when i woke up briefly at 4am. seriously. and it's posted on my day off work, too!!! IT IS LIKE WE WERE MEANT TO BE ( ... )

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g_esquared June 15 2012, 14:42:04 UTC
NEXT PART.

13. i'm really kind of perturbed yet intrigued by the way paradise circus calls everyone a hero and emphasizes on treating everyone well when in the end it's all to one end and that end kind of undercuts everything they say they want to give their guests.

14. i can't even begin to imagine ohno having been here for almost a decade. it's pretty unfathomable to me.

15. "What the hell was that?" the guy asked him, seeming unashamed of his fright. i like how you put this and i like how it's very aiba. and oh man, the next paragraph.

16. "They sound it when all the guests are in their rooms. They'll sound it again just after midnight. When all the guests are...well..."

Aiba's face turned pale.

"You get used to it," Ohno explained calmly, even as his heart raced. You never got used to it.

i can't even. the delivery is brilliant and i don't know if i can take this. of course, i secretly love the mindfuck, but all i can think is oh crap, ohno ):17. oh oh oh nino and jun live together. okay. i have feelings about this ( ... )

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g_esquared June 15 2012, 14:43:34 UTC
NEXT PART. at this point……i'm not reading fast enough because i want to take it slow but crap i have to leave the house soon. OK one more part anyway.

30. ok i'm actually very interested by this japan/china thing. reminds me of my half-assed essays from school on japan-china relations. except this is definitely not half-assed, of course. yeah my point was that i really like how you've gotten politics/international relations/real historical detail into the picture, and are actually addressing how this whole paradise circus scheme has anything to do with freedom.

31. Sho was many things, but he wasn't dumb enough to label the direct line to the Director-General with "Dad - Work." OH MY GOD SERIOUSLY.

32. It was always hard for Sho to reconcile the fact that Sakurai Shun, the father who'd given him everything, was the same as Sakurai Shun, the man in the government, one among many who desperately wanted Paradise Circus to continue without interference. still reeling. conflict of interest if i ever saw one, and boy do i like ( ... )

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g_esquared June 15 2012, 14:44:13 UTC
38. as he heard Aiba obviously trying to cover up his sobs by turning on the sink. oh, aiba, no. D: like, you know aiba would take it this way and you're torn between him being himself but taking this horribly, or just being much colder and desensitized and not having to be this affected by his surroundings.

39. Every day Jun encouraged the guests to write them, knowing they would never reach their final destination. i was just wondering about this. He could feel tiny pricks of tears forming in the corner of his eyes at the sight of poor Aiba, so new to this and with ten full years left of it to endure. no, nooooo. there should be a warning for aiba sadness alone. and jun being affected by this - it actually speaks volumes more about the entire situation. i also like the fact that ohno, who seemed so indifferent on the surface at the beginning, is calling aiba 'aiba-chan' and seems to be… taking care of him, for lack of a better way to say it.

40. If he didn't shape up, he'd get dismissed. now that i have some idea of the stakes ( ... )

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lianne29 June 15 2012, 17:32:35 UTC
This was gut-wrenching and at times hard to read but WOW.

"Sixty-five years from now," Sho said. "I wonder what the world will be like then?"

Would there still be names to read? If that was the world in sixty-five years, Sho definitely hoped he'd be dead.

Sho. He reads the names every night and his family connections make people have different impressions of him. He wanted to give equal chances to the 100 people regardless of background of making their voice heard and would prefer to be dead if things do not changed in 65 years. His personality would not let him toe government line once he finds out what really happens inside Paradise Circus

People never really knew what they were getting into when they signed on at Paradise Circus, and Ohno knew that as well as anyone. He wondered how long it would be before Aiba's kindness became depression, or worse, apathy.

"You get used to it," Ohno explained calmly, even as his heart raced. You never got used to it.

He thought he'd quashed that part of Ohno Satoshi nearly ten years ago, ( ... )

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lianne29 June 15 2012, 17:32:48 UTC
I think your characterizations are perfect. The words that you used in the entire narrative painted a very vivid picture of their world. There is the normal side of Japan and there is Paradise Circus. The snippets from Sho's daily evening recitation of names, the employee handbook and the Riser's interviews added to the realism of their world ( ... )

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astrangerenters June 25 2012, 18:31:17 UTC
Thank you so much! This was a really difficult story to write but I am glad you enjoyed it! I couldn't go all the way into this and not give somewhat of a hopeful ending. It would just be cruel not to after all of that LOL!!

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