#pt 3

*three kilograms of catnip fall directly onto her face, avoiding the eyes*

Was that how much that was..?

CATNIP TIMMMEEEEE!!!!!

WAIT-

Hargrove moved to unlock the cell, talking to another cop passing by as he did so. Steve was so focused on Dustin, who was sitting up on the bench, looking at them curiously, that he'd not even noticed the other officer was one Jim Hopper. Steve struggled not wanting to look away from Dustin, but he needed to focus on Hop; the man was talking to Hargrove like nothing was wrong, and barely glanced at Steve. Steve opened his mouth to say something, but Hopper had already turned, making his way into his office and shutting the door. Shit, Steve swore under his breath - Hop was definitely someone else to wanted to speak to.

"Alright, Henderson. Your buddy Stevie here missed you so damn much, he came up asking about you in the middle of bumfuck nowhere." Hargrove commented, moving to unlock Steve's handcuffs. Hargrove met Steve's eyes, smiled, and Steve knew enough of what was coming, as he was shoved rather abruptly into the cell. Steve kept his footing, raising his chin up at Hargrove defiantly - not this time, asshole, Steve thought to himself as the gate closed.

"I'm a popular guy, couldn't you tell." Dustin said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. God, Steve missed his voice. "Just ask your not so well kept secret."

"You want to lose more teeth, Henderson, keep talking." Hargrove said, and for the first time Steve saw a glint on his hand. He was married? Billy had implied he'd thought maybe they'd slept together, that he'd slept with other men, but he was married?

"Haven't lost any teeth, actually, thanks. They grew in." Dustin answered Hargrove as he stood up, but he wasn't looking at him - he was appraising Steve. "Hi. I have no idea how we got separated back there."

Their holding cell wasn't large, not in a place like Hawkins, but at the moment it felt as though they were a world apart.

Steve broke first, hands shaking as he grabbed Dustin in close, wrapping his arms around his back. He squeezed him tight to his chest, not wanting to let go. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have said any of that about Eddie, about you. I didn't mean it- god, Dustin. I didn't mean it, everything was just... different. I didn't know how to handle it, I wanted to protect you, but I couldn't. I just didn't want to lose you, and I thought you didn't want me around anyone. I missed you, so damn much." Steve clenched his eyes closed, willing himself not to cry. When he opened them, and leaned back to really look at Dustin, he found his friend smiling up at him sadly.

"Are- are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?" Steve asked, moving back enough to look him over, patting at his sleeves. He didn't look injured at all, as far as Steve could see. Those weren't the clothes he'd been wearing though, were they? It was an odd mix of black and very vibrant patterns. It seemed like something he'd wear, but Steve didn't recognize it.

"Yeah, yeah, hey - It's okay. I know." Dustin answered, reaching up to cup Steve's cheek. "I'm fine. It's okay, I understand. I know. Really."

Steve started to smile, until Dustin kissed him.

He had to lean up some to reach Steve's lips, but he'd wrapped his own arm around Steve's waist, the other slid back into his hair, thumb caressing the sensitive skin on his nape. Steve froze, unable to move, unable to think. His mouth had fallen slightly ajar in shock, which Dustin used to deepen their kiss. His lips moved against his own, skillful and eager.

It felt good- but, no. No, Dustin was 16 still, Steve had never, would never- Dustin wasn't-

Dustin wasn't Dustin.

Steve pulled back, away from him, searching his face for a sign - any sign. Now that he was seeing him like this, Steve realized he'd been even more of a fool than he'd realized. Maybe he'd wished so much that it was him, he'd looked past the obvious, the things he didn't want to see. This Dustin was most certainly older, he had stubble on his face, his facial features were more mature, and his hair was shorter.

And there was no glimmer of recognition in his eyes.

"Keep it in your pants, you two, or you'll be separated." Hargrove snapped, slamming a hand against a table. Steve startled, but Dustin seemed accustomed to it.

"I told you I wasn't there for any of that, Billy, I was there with a friend." Dustin told Hargrove, who sent him a withering stare. "My friend, Steve. We're very good friends. Like you, and your friend."

"Watch it," Hargrove grit out. "You'll wish you had to deal with me for the rest of the night, Henderson - Hop ain't as pretty as I am."

"Heading home so soon, Billy? How's Tommy, by the way? Is he back from visiting Narnia?"

"Henderson," Hargrove warned him. "You can be as irritating as you want, I'm not letting you go until morning. Maybe then you'll reconsider this shit. You used to be smart, didn't you? Act like it."

I remember what it's like to have a friend, a real friend-

"Did you find anything on either of us? No? Then maybe, just maybe, consider this - we were just fucking at a party, where other people happened to be dealing, and when you showed up in your compensation uniform, things got out of hand." Dustin continued, snarky as ever, clearly talking directly at Hargrove, through Steve. Was he just using Steve as an alibi?

Hargrove just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure you and Munson just happened to be at the same party and nothing was going on, and Belle here just happens to be tripping on nothing for no reason, huh?"

Munson? Eddie? Eddie was alive here, too?

Steve looked at this Dustin, and didn't see the same bags under his eyes, the same anger in him. He was happy.

Without him.

He took a step backwards from this Dustin, ears ringing, stumbling to the bench in the cell. Steve dropped down onto it, unable to stand anymore, dropping his head into his hands. He had no answers, and only ghosts around him. Of people, of love.

"Hey, man, you doing okay?" A voice came from Steve's right, as Dustin sat down beside him. Steve looked up, and found the room empty apart from them. Hargrove just have left already. "Steve, right? Sorry about the kissing thing, tends to drive off Billy like garlic to a vampire, he's so deep in the closet he's got moth balls for testicles."

Steve couldn't even answer, couldn't smile, couldn't think.

"Did you actually take something, or are you a friend of Eddie's? I really don't need him to try and get me out of here, they had nothing on me. Billy is just a dick, as per usual." Dustin asked him with a crooked smile, no braces, but Steve just shook his head.

"You're not my Dustin," Steve whispered, more to himself than the doppelganger. Dustin made a face, eyebrows going up some. "I'm not from here. I don't know if I'm in hell, or some kind of..." Steve exhaled, shaking his head. "Upside down bizarro world. Nothing is right, people who are dead are alive, and no one knows who I am. Not even you, and you were..."

His best friend, the person he trusted most, a soul mate.

Dustin studied his face for a moment, before nudging his leg. "I hate to say it, but I think Billy was right. Maybe try sleeping this off, and you'll feel better."

Welcome to pt.3 of my Anime Rewatch Journey. In this one, I started the Chapter Black Arc and went through all of Casshern Sins. You can probably guess which one I received better. Both are inherently good, but they're just so different in style and pacing, that the latter was hard to get through.

Yu Yu Hakusho S.III - Ohhh baby! This is a rock solid part of the series. The way the DVDs are split up, this covers the final part of the Dark Tournament and goes right up until the penultimate fight in the Chapter Black arc. It's clever - I see what they were doing. This Season "starts" with the end of Younger Toguro while it "ends" with the demise of Older Toguro, but in truth, I feel like Season III properly starts on Disc 2 and should end at Disc 2 from Season IV. It's a little annoying how they did it that way, but it was smart in the sense that it would force a collector to get the whole thing, if they were picky about the final season or whatever.

Anyway, all that said, my feelings have not changed on this ride one bit. Toguro vs. Yuske was epic as shit, and if anything maybe this time I was surprised as to how short it was. The aftermath of the Dark Tournament was just as exciting and intriguing as Toguro almost redeems himself in death, while the Demon agenda actually continues behind the scenes. We find out later that Older Toguro cooked it up with Sensui, but in the meantime, when you learn about it through Yuske's perspective, the pacing, action and new music are all just amazing!

I really liked the concept of Yuske & co. being forced to learn to think outside of the box. Very quickly we learn that brute force alone won't stop this foe. We first meet 3 new people that at first seem like adversaries, but they actually become allies. I also appreciated that they didn't take the full spotlight, but truly served as supporting characters during some of the most dire moments. Hei even bows out for a while, seemingly not caring about the idea of Demons taking over the World. We eventually meet Sensui's team of 7 and these villains are all intriguing, because they're essentially corrupt humans that want to end humanity. There starts to become a moral quandary of killing, and if sparing their lives is an option, or if their death is worth the lives of others. If they resort to that, then Sensui was right and our gang already lost.

Without rambling the pacing just kicks a lot of ass, we get a sweet mid-card fight sampler of Yuske vs. Sensui and we see how outmatched our guy really is. Bit by bit, we go through 5 of the 7. We even turn one of them! Hei actually comes back for a sick rematch with Yuske in the midst of that, but plays it off as "testing him". Yeah, okay...

As I stated, Season III "ends" with Older Toguro finally falling. This was at the hands of Kurama, which was really impressive. I use "ends" in quotes, because there is still at least 8 or 9 episodes left of Yuske vs. Sensui and the ins and outs of where that brings us.

However, the conclusion of that battle leads us directly into Season IV, so they decided to pace it this way.

I have to say, I was thoroughly enjoying these episodes and "Waking up", if you will, when I wasn't watching the other show.

Casshern Sins - Ooh, boy. I'd hate to say it, but this was a friggin Snooze Fest, man! Again!! At very first, I was on board with the 2008 animation, jammin intro music and overall style of the show. The very first thing you see is a crazed Casshern saying, "Luna. I'll kill you!" Knowing of the lore, this turns everything on it's head! Luna was Tetsuya's human lover/companion. How-what?

This is clearly a different universe. Luna is a robot this time around. In fact, there are barely any humans at all. Instead there's a mysterious plot thread looming that Casshern killed Luna. Or in their words he "killed the sun named moon" and with it, he brought "the ruin" upon everyone. We quickly meet a very cute baby girl named Ringo. She is cared for by a robot who has a striking resemblance to Braiking Boss, but tapered down to look like more of a trucker. (I thought he was secretly BB for a while, until he later explains that he formerly worked for him. It was upon meeting Ringo after the ruin that changed his life and his ways.) [Okay]

I did like that Casshern met some new Robot Compatriots. I'm not gonna call them friends or allies, because everyone changes in this show. However, Lyuze was really cool. At first she wants revenge on Casshern (who apparently killed her sister off screen in the past) but she ultimately ends up falling in love with him. The whole not remembering, being sullen, mournful and sacrificial thing really did the trick on her. There was also his enemy Dio, who basically looked like a Purple Casshern. There was definitely an Inferiority Complex going on there, but what was the most interesting was the severe lack of Braiking Boss. He was there, just not in the spotlight, ever. He was almost cameo status.

Essentially in this lore, he had his reign, somehow got Casshern to kill Luna, the ruin began and humanity perished along with most of the robots. I guess he basically won. Dio's motivation was to form a new robot army and use Casshern's power to bring everyone back to life. [It really flips the concept on it's head].

Of course there were cool moments where he defended himself, even against Lyuze who would attack him time and again. But the majority of this show was an Amnesiatic Casshern meeting new people in every episode and learning that they had hope for life, even though death was imminent. (I suppose that's almost a call back to the original show, but whoa is it different).

It also gets weird when Luna resurfaces. So it turns out that Casshern really didn't kill her? But then we learn that she doesn't really resurrect people either? She just ensures their death?

Which one is it, people!? There's too many twists at this point.

Casshern and Dio do get their ultimate death match. I recall not getting it the first time in my 20s. Now, I kind of understand that it was more of a last wish sort of thing. Dio was dying, but he technically bested Casshern in battle before his arm shattered. Casshern does end up fighting Braiking Boss at the tail end. It's so anti-climactic, that I actually slept through it and had to rewind it!!

We get some sappy/sad moments with Lyuze and other supporting characters. One last Concert for the people. One last painting before I die. A lot of concepts about not really living unless you have an expiration and making the most of life.

Luna... is unlikable in this. Casshern apparently accepts himself as the harbinger of death and threatens Luna that if anyone forgets his name, he'll come for them. [I'm making it sound worse than it was] but either way, these 2 did not have a happy ending or friendship or anything.

Ringo got to grow up though, at least...

So yeah. I didn't really like that one. If this project is ultimately to help me decide what stays or goes, this one is going. In comparing from 20s to 40s, it had the same effects if not worse. I would pass out to this after work. My initial notes stated that this show was waaaay too artsy for its own good. Sometimes it was intriguing, but mostly it was a snooze fest. Definitely style over substance here.