Every school has many of the same cliques and every student including Akatsuki Mishiro involuntarily belonged to one. You can tell a lot about a student’s life by where they can sit in the cafeteria, she said, but in spite of all the cosmetic differences among them, really most of them were all the same. For all the many different inane cliques there were, Mishiro believed there were really only two — cliques with students who secretly fight “demons” and cliques that don’t. She then looked off into the distance withdrawing to a sanctuary within her while the wind carried her hair. The only thing missing was snow.

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Kino is a traveler. Shouldn’t we all be? Maybe not literally. No one I know takes time to learn about the place where they live. Like when I lived in Philadelphia, as far as I can tell, 99% of the people who live there never visited the Liberty Bell until family from out of town came to visit and they had to take them someplace. Tourists would stop a resident on the street and ask them how to get to Independence Hall and they’d blink back hemming and hawing because they didn’t know where it was because they’d never been there even though they were born there and lived there all their life. It doesn’t just apply to monuments and tourist attractions, but to everyday things that have grown invisible through familiarity. Looking at familiar surroundings with the eyes of a traveler is tough to do, but it should be something to do from time to time.

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Okay, yeah, I’m getting depressed by the lack of PVC-ness going on here, so here’s a filler post about what I’ve got on pre-order:

Alter

Nadie (Delayed but in progress)
Franco Il Nero
Exelica (Delayed)
Nagato Yuki
Reinforce Zwei
Enma Ai
Kirijo Mitsuri

GoodSmile

Atsuki Mishiro (Re-release)
Rize
Chu Chu Astram (I want this one NOW!)

MaxFactory

Saber (In Transit)
Emiya (In Transit)
Makoto
MM

I’ll probably add another 3 or 4 at some point. I really like what should be coming over the next couple of months. Going by what I’m actually buying, I guess Alter has the best line-up for the first part of 2008. Those getting all of the Shuraki figures from GoodSmile will probably disagree, plus that Chu Chu Astram is really hot looking (please dear god don’t be a trap).

How about you? If you’re only getting one or two, which ones are you getting? For me it would be Exelica or Chu Chu.

The sun bleached the sand so white that it hurt to look at the beach. Everyone else already left, but he stayed behind so that Haruka didn’t have to catch up with the group all by herself. The house was quiet for a change. Actually, the old house creaked at every little thing, so if it was quiet that meant Haruka probably fell asleep or something else that had nothing to do with getting ready for the beach. He thought about just letting her be, since he liked looking at the beach more than he liked being on it, but if they didn’t show up that would start rumors which would end his career as a photographer before it got started. He’d be blacklisted for ruining the reputations of budding idols.

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One fine day, Saber contemplated the possible strategic effects on the most recent Grail War had a master other than Shirou summoned her. Saber, not normally one to waste time on useless speculation, began analyzing the course of her quest when she found herself dressed in meido fetish-wear. How did she get to this point and would she walk a prouder path today had a different master summoned her?

GunxSaber

Van is a master that really won’t care too much about the Grail War. Saber would constantly be shopping for mayonnaise.

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