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moritakathedrawer-leonaguilez · 1 year ago

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Birthright Corrin: From sheltered life in the dark, to growth in the light and selfless sacrifices in Road Taken

Preface

HAPPY 8TH ANNIVERSARY FIRE EMBLEM: IF!! (known internationally as Fates)

As it was the birth-month of mine(June 21) and Fate’s first release 8 years ago in Japan,last month, on June 25, 2015. I wrote something for my favorite Lord, Corrin in Birthright. As Corrin goes through different paths, it is a gargantuan task to talk about Corrin in all paths. As most games that has different routes, I believe a character will become a different person by taking a specific path, and I would prefer one route over another. For example, Denam from Tactics Ogre LUCT. He is idealistic and stands for his principles & justice in the Chaos route meanwhile he is cold and pragmatic in the Law route. Thus I’ll be talking specifically about the Birthright version and within the context of that route, because it is my favorite version of Corrin, and I’m very fixated with Hoshirrin.

Actually months ago I was also planning to write (especially for the CYL) about Birthright Corrin and made some notes but I was too busy with annoying school work. I later found u/NobleYato ‘s The Most Misunderstood Lord and Why We Love Them, an excellent read and we have arrived at some similar points. And I have to say that I was kinda bummed that someone already beat me to it. However I already started my drafts and made some notes. If I started something, I’m determined to finish it. Thus I’ll attempt to make mine too with my own takes and interpretations. This would be another small contribution for understanding Corrin .

In writing this, I shall refer to Corrin as Male. As it is illustrated that Male Corrin represents Birthright in the box art and even in-game that Female Kana the child of Male Corrin is grouped together with the Hoshidan 2nd generation. In the Birthright drama CD, Corrin is male and has more flavor with his title, the second Prince of Hoshido. And other games such as FEH also followed suit, I also wrote and concluded that Male Corrin in FEH is consistently from Birthright. It is implied that the Birthright Route is tailored for Male Corrin. I’ll share my observation and explanation below why Male Corrin makes sense for Birthright.

His Birthright and the Hoshidan Way

The Trio: If you look closely and notice that the princes always have a lead in the openings of later chapters, indicated by these 3 sprites

They got separated with Ryoma and the others after the surprise attack after the events of CH6 which the battle stretched across up to the bottomless canyon, so they were spread out. Which leaves Corrin ,as the 2nd prince of Hoshido and the only eldest Prince left, the responsibility lies in him and to command the remaining part of the army. As he is also chosen by the divine Yato which gives him authority and legitimacy that makes people trust in his abilities. And even later when Hinoka—his elder sister joins, he is still in-charge and giving orders as he is the elder prince and the chain of command goes to him in the absence of the High Prince Ryoma. And to prove his dedication, he embraced himself as Hoshidan and dedicated himself to defend the Kingdom yet he only truly seeks peace between Hoshido and Nohr, without unnecessary bloodshed of the innocent. He is merciful to those who surrender and gives chances to lay down arms and spare them, as it is the Hoshidan way . He learns about this from Kaze’s words from CH7, after sparing Silas and then demonstrating it in CH 10 by sparing Zola. This act shows his great commitment to the Hoshidan Ways and this shows that he is not like what they think of those from Nohr, thus earning their trust and confidence of the lost 2nd prince.

Later when Ryoma, the eldest, rejoins and assuming top responsibility , he consults and briefs his little brothers on the matters of the army planning and strategy, as we can see with Takumi for example in CH 15 & 21, where he gives his views deciding on which route to take such as pointing out a forest nearby and a short cut through the demon falls, Takumi has a good sense of geography, and with Corrin, be his second command and may lead the way at times (we’ll be discussing this role more in the following sections). We see that the princes take the lead in the army, and in the opening scenes of later chapters we see Ryoma, Corrin and Takumi have the major dialogues. This shows that princes have the highest chain of command in the army. This is his Birthright and reclaims as a Hoshidan Prince leading the way.

In the white light

Corrin’s character is shown to be good, kind, intuitive, and values life, albeit sheltered and knows little of the world. We saw in the early chapters where he effortfully tried to save Kaze and Rinkah despite all the pressure and even threatened to death. Another thing that shows his good character where he even saved an injured bird (who later reveals to be Lilith). When confronted by Xander with his overly magnanimity, he would gladly lay down his life for the greater good, and it is his nature.

Later when he was out and saw the world for the first time, he witnessed firsthand the atrocities and terrorized villages by the faceless caused by Garon when he was in Hoshido. He wasn’t able to see and know these when he was imprisoned in the fortress and was brought up that Garon as his “father” and cannot be wrong. When the special sword that was given to him exploded and his true mother died protecting him, along those at the square, this triggered his memories of the day he was abducted and remembering his real father also died protecting him. Now he knows what true colors of his “Father” Garon are.

It was a hard pivotal decision of Corrin, to stand with Hoshido and his birth family. As it is in line with his character to be good and morally upright and he stands for justice as when he spared the prisoners when ordered to. He does not side with the man that incites terror and commits atrocities because it goes against his ideals and the sacrifices to those who protected him. His parents sacrificed themselves to save him from the man who abducted and made him sheltered and kept in the dark when he was held prisoner in a fortress, albeit pampered and able to bond with the Royal family. He quickly realized that he was a pawn, and his life was not valued by his “father”. Clearly Garon is the mastermind, clearly sees his intentions and clearly sees for what he is. He condemns him and vows to never return to Nohr, and to correct his wrongs. He believes that this is the right path towards peace and is determined to achieve it.

*Note that this will be the reading order of panels in the succeeding images

From Isolation to newfound freedom

Corrin: Travel? I hope you both realize that this isn't exactly a vacation... Fuga: Of course. It's just that Hayato has not had much opportunity to leave the village. In addition to helping you, he will be exploring the world for the first time. Corrin: I see. I think I understand exactly how he feels. After all, I spent most of my childhood locked in a Nohrian castle.

As he wasn’t allowed to go outside when he grew up in the fortress and even wasn’t able to see other people. He may have grown up in Nohr with luxuries but only in the fortress, he didn’t even know the Wolfskins, the demihumans of Nohr. And now he is finally free, naturally he enjoys his first times experiencing the outside world— enjoying the forest air, mesmerized by a boat ride, that he even plans to buy one after the war, just fascinated by new things that he wasn’t able to before ,and meeting new faces along the way. Being isolated for so long, he makes up to experience new things.

Due to his experience being locked in a tower, he highlights the experience and let others not experience his sheltered life, and encourages anyone to go explore the world; we saw this when he was introduced to Hayato. And also with Rinkah, whom he sees that they may have similar experiences, he encourages the princess of the isolationist Flame tribe to have this opportunity to explore the world and learn different cultures and he shows his optimism to think positively of what happened, he also shows to be a believer of “things happens for a reason”.

With being outside, free and without the pressures of being subdued especially under Garon, he can openly express himself and can be corny and cheeky at times. He has a dry-sense of humor to liven up moments such as when he joked about taking the “5-minute staircase” instead of the eternal staircase(CH8) and when with all the moving around they no longer need to work out after reaching the peak of Mt. Garou(CH15) . Or when he said “Can I be happy for a moment?” after taking over a fortress(CH15) and being reminded that there are more to be done. He is encouraged to share his thoughts when consulted by Ryouma on army decisions and is supported when he takes the lead. With this freedom, it gives him the opportunity to grow and be himself.

Leadership, charisma and growth

“In the white light, a hand reaches through”

As I have mentioned, as the second prince and the only eldest remaining prince when Corrin got separated from Ryoma. Now, the responsibility lies to Corrin. He may have had training in martial skills when he was in the fortress yet he lacks the field experience, but has no choice but to lead an army early on. Also with his background of being raised by the enemy ,where especially Saizo was very suspicious, may be a thorn in his side. He works hard to earn the trust of others and to gain their confidence and in himself. He earned it by demonstrating the aforementioned “Hoshidan Way” of sparing Zola, and through perking up others when the other princes were missing and tries to maintain a positive outlook and puts on a brave face and tries to be convincingly confident despite he hides it (CH10),

With these experiences of leading, he grows bold, charismatic and confident that later on when they are rejoined by Ryoma and resume command, his confidence has grown that at times leads the way and be a rallying cry for the army,especially when he gives a rousing speech before their first counter offensive in capturing a Nohrian fort (CH14) and to rally themselves to take a shortcut through the demon falls (CH21) , and he does initiatives to lead the way out when facing grave danger at the Fort Dragonfall (CH21)

Besides being confident with oneself, he also learns to be confident with others and rely on them as he can be very hard on himself at times, does want anyone to get involved and be hurt and even self- sacrifice or be a martyr. When he sided with Hoshido (CH6) or went on a pilgrimage to the rainbow sage(CH19), he was ready to sacrifice himself and not anyone involved. Or when the resistance was discovered, he was all downer. Every time he recruits someone or asks someone to join his cause he would always tell them not to join and they could not because of the possible blood be shed, for example with (Kaden, Hayato, Speech at the border fort). However, time and time again,he needs his allies around him to bring him back to his senses like that slap by Scarlet and most of all Ryoma’s guidance to bring back his confidence and the right path.

However, all that confidence and cool head is put to the test. A major blow to his trust, when Zola betrayed them despite all they have gone through. This was a hard lesson for Corrin to learn and proving his naivety. To further erode his trust after the betrayal, the rumors of a spy being continually taunted by Iago, made him lose his confidence in others and himself. He began to suspect others and lose trust after earning that from his new allies, and the stakes are getting higher. The main quality of his character is a trusting charisma, and the people around him are quick to notice the change of mood, most especially Takumi as we know with their rocky first relationship who was wary of Corrin but now he trusts Corrin but got hurt with his doubts.

As Corrin cannot deal with these matters alone, time and time Ryoma, his guiding light , reaching his hand through Corrin’s troubles, lifts his spirits back. He gives advice that is encouraging to Corrin on his journey to be a good leader, and helps him deal with or settle his old life, even cordial to his Norhian siblings . He points out and highlights his natural charisma and is very trusting in that it makes it both his strength and weakness(CH17), and uses his good sense of intuition on treading on his path. As the chosen one by the divine sword Yato, people lean on Corrin. Ryoma has been a wise guidance to Corrin when he loses his way and many times to bring him to the right path, showing him the light and what hope is possible, giving him confidence and earning with worth as the chosen one. If he wasn't there, his little brother would have been lost.

Ryoma: What's wrong, Corrin? You haven't seemed yourself lately. Corrin: Well, to be honest...our encounter with Iago is still bothering me. I'd hate to think I can't trust everyone here, but I've been burned once before... Ryoma: That's not your style, Corrin. You're on your way to becoming a great leader, and you lead by example. If you don't trust your own troops, how will they trust you? Don't let what happened with Zola shake your confidence. Corrin: I don't know. I feel like things have changed. The stakes have been raised. As if they could get any higher... Ryoma: Let's take a step back, shall we? Do you trust me, Corrin? Corrin: Of course. Ryoma: All right. How about Sakura and Takumi? Think about Hinoka, Azura, and Silas too. Any of them potential suspects? Corrin: Absolutely not. I believe in all of them! Ryoma: Very well. How can you be so sure? Corrin: I...I just can. I don't know. It's a gut feeling, I guess... Ryoma: Precisely. This is both your weakness and your strength. You have a keen intuition for people and natural charisma. Yet you lack the years of experience needed to make calculated decisions. So? Follow your strength. Use your intuition. Don't try to be what you're not.

Anger, Anguish & Resolution

“A double-edged blade cuts your heart in two”

In this path he may have felt the warmth of light and growing in it, but also in this path the darkness follows to test and challenge his personal progress, and the risks involved in the road taken . Now that he’s on the other side, it is inevitable that he would face and fight his loved ones from his old life. He would face trying and difficult moments especially losing his loved ones from his old life and the innocent lives. He lost Flora when she was forced to fight against her village and then sacrifice herself. And he was forced to fight the wolfskin, by false flag incident, in self defense. These losses, yet painful, enduring it and he would carry a heavy burden, made him more determined to swiftly end the war and make Garon pay.

Despite all that, he maintains his cool head, bearing the pain yet still be merciful to his foes, he still doesn’t want unnecessary bloodshed despite all the inner rage from all he lost. He gives the foe’s soldiers a chance to surrender, and does not do wanton violence against them when they no longer fight. He gives them a chance to talk, explain their side and be patient like when defeating Silas [Ch7], Flora[Ch8], & Leo[CH18]. But knowing the stakes at hand and fulfilling his duty he knows that one could not always be nice and necessary sword-threatening should be done, but when they can explain their side, he will give them a chance to defect and join their cause.

He learns that not everyone can be reasoned with, and the language they can understand is through his Yato. He grows resolute and understandably angry towards Garon and his lackeys, Hans and Iago. As always, he tried diplomacy first with them but he keeps failing. Nothing can be done but to end them. His interactions with them will always have a comeback, sassy remarks and be contemptuous over the suffering they caused. Corrin learns that not all people are reasonable and redeemable, that peace cannot be achieved without defeating them.

After all the losses he endured, he still carries on with the burdens and heavy heart, and maintains his cool head, brave face and optimism. However he has a breaking point. After Lilith shielded Corrin from Hans and died, another one very dear to him lost. That moment finally broke him, he finally felt anguished, fell into deep despair and lost all his optimistic spirits. After all that collectedness, he finally opened up the deep pain he held for so long and openly expresses the sorrows he hides, lamenting all the lives lost and for what? He faltered, was about to truly give and yield.

Corrin: What are we even fighting for? Is it worth it? Ryoma: Look up, Corrin. Corrin: Ryoma? Ryoma: Dry your tears. Think about Lilith's sacrifice. She gave her life so you could continue fighting. And what are we fighting for? We are fighting for peace! We are fighting for Queen Mikoto and for the whole world! Do you think Lilith would want you to give up like this? Corrin: Ughhh... Ryoma: Listen. It is time for you to rise to the occasion. If we want to end this war, now is the time for us to take action! Corrin: I'm just so tired. Tired of loss. Tired of death. Ryoma: There will be a time for rest. But that time is not now. Rise up! The sacred blade Yato chose YOU, Corrin. We're all counting on you! Corrin: ... You're right. I know you're right. I will not stop until King Garon's reign of terror is over. Let's go, everyone. Ryoma: That's the spirit.

Ryoma brought him back and gave him back the light, for the sake of the sacrifices, for their mother and most of all the peace of the world, as why the Yato chose him. Give him resolution, reminding of his cause and for world peace around, bring him back to light and to push him to continue, move on, and fight for them so that their sacrifices won’t be in vain.These trials are not the reason to give up but a challenge to improve ourselves. His pain is not an excuse to back-out, but a resolution to move on and forward.

Alight

Ryoma:... Look, Corrin. Can you see the sun breaking over the horizon? Corrin: Yes...I suppose I can. Ryoma: They say the sun never shines in Nohr, but we can see that that's not true. Perhaps it's small comfort, but I take this as a good omen. Corrin: It is warm here. The same kind of warmth I felt walking the streets of Hoshido. I hope someday, both Hoshido and Nohr can share this kind of warmth. Ryoma: Anything is possible, Corrin.

With his journey comes to a close, after being in the light of hope and shining on his optimism and that the possibility of peace between nations is achievable, especially when one can do things if you put your mind into it. Corrin was shown that it is possible that light can reach the darkness when they were in mount Garou (CH15), where Ryoma telling all the things are possible and when they made a pilgrimage in the seven fold sanctuary as a test and learned that a magical object nothing better in improving but one's mindset, will power, and hardworking efforts. These experiences changed Corrin to grow and be more commanding of one’s will, which in CH23 where Elise, after meeting since his pivotal decision, notices Corrin’s change compared to the time when he was in the fortress. His outlook is now more bold and knows what he is doing. Now he has returned to Nohr as a different person, he uses what he has learned and shapes his ideals to be the light who brings justice.

The theme music of the Birthright route is masterfully composed; listening to it evokes feelings of Corrin and what he goes through in this final part of his journey. In the calm version, you could feel the uneasiness, highlighted by the wind instruments, the sounds of nostalgia of his old life growing up in Nohr. That heavy feeling of bittersweet feeling of coming home, now for different reasons, it evokes uncertainty, reluctance, bittersweet nostalgia, hesitation and tense & heavy feeling. And in contrast, the storm version is very contrasting with its upbeat marching rhythm, full of emotion and heroic tone ,signifying Corrin’s choice to act decisively, determination for peace of the world. Thus I named this chapter after this masterpiece.

For the greater good

Growing up in Nohr albeit in a fortress, he grew up and bonded with the Nohr Royals and was treated as a sibling. He is very attached to them and is dear to him and they cherish him. It was a hard decision for him to go against Garon ,their father, but he must do what he must for his ideals of justice, even dealing with them should they stand in his way. It was clever for Garon to abduct and to let Corrin to have a bond with his children so that he would develop Stockholm syndrome, he would become a pawn to his machinations, but Corrin isn’t fooled and cannot stand his tyranny. Despite now joining the other side, he still held his Nohr siblings dear and tried on every occasion to be diplomatic and convince them not to fight, as he tried very hard to shed light on Garon’s true colors. And in turn they tried to convince Corrin back but he is firm in his decision and mission, he must make a stand for peace and goodwill between Hoshido and Nohr. Miraculously with all his efforts and the trials he faced in this journey, he somehow manages not to end them. However that may not be the case later on when facing Xander.

They later accepted Corrin as Hoshidan and agrees that he is in the right path but they cannot make a stand against fight Garon, as he is their father and as his children, only Corrin has the opportunity to stand up against Garon, and Corrin as the truly Hoshidan only can he defy and it is his birthright to stand up to their abusive father. They may have understood that Corrin’s duty is in the right path to peace to face Garon.

(The Xander and Corrin duel is a very symbolic battle and has a complex motif , u/Visual-Function-213 may have analyzed it better with Birthright Chapter 26: Analysis and Misconceptions , but I’ll share my short take.)

As Corrin has the birthright to bring light to the darkness, Xander as well has a duty and it is his birthright to be the crown prince to defend his kingdom no matter what with pride and dignity. Corrin’s efforts to dissuade Xander are futile as they both have duties to fulfill. Corrin’s hesitation and struggle to face Xander. That sad and heavy feeling of facing the one who trained you and is close to you, he made Corrin what he is.In this penultimate major trials of this path and the climax of his journey , it duel of ideals and clash of duties, contrasting ideals, as crown prince who is bound to his standing and has no choice , contrast to Corrin is free and has a choice. In this poetic battle between a mentor and a student, who have learned much of the world and to show his mentor how he has changed and grown. Corrin has learned a lot in his journey and he’ll show his mentor what he has learned in his journey that reshaped his views that things are possible, there is justice, which Corrin went through the lessons of his journey. He is no longer hesitant and giving it all. Corrin no longer holds back indications of decisiveness. Xander is very proud of Corrin’s decisiveness but he himself was holding back, making Corrin upset that Xander wasn’t giving his all while Corrin was.

Dawn Breaks

Finally in the end of Corrin’s journey, he traveled far in this path, from a pampered sheltered prince kept in the dark and after basking of the light of experiences, growing confidence, taking risks and all the sacrifices, with the highs and lows and with the wisdoms of his big brothers— Ryoma for showing him the hope, warmth and the possibilities; Xander for teaching and training him for to be strong, be decisive and to seize the day. Corrin has grown to be a capable leader and transformed to something else. Just like Yato transformed to its Blazing form in parallel and signifying his change as a person. He will face the source of all the suffering and the cause of the war, Garon who intended Corrin to be naive and unknowing of the world so that he could be a good pawn. But Corrin stood up and is no longer a victim of this manipulation. He fought valiantly but all of it was not enough as he was knocked out despite all his efforts.

“Waking dreams fade away”

In his unconscious state, he met for the final time with the loved ones from his old life. And imparting their final words: Flora to be self-dependent, Xander, to be decisive, Elise for the bonds, And Lilith, to be a kind heart to the weak . It is a symbolic gesture when Flora tells Corrin that sometimes he has to learn to wake himself up on his own and to decide for himself. In this final farewell, this signifies letting go of his old life, embracing the new life. This is the final push for him to strive and to finish Garon.

“Embrace the brand-new day”

Revived and now determined than ever with the path he chose and for the greatest cause and self sacrifice for the greater good. He is not alone and with his allies, they will achieve world peace. After saying goodbye to his old life and all the sacrifices, he has gathered strength to defeat Garon and was triumphant in beating the source of misery and Alight the kingdom in the dark.

However, Corrin will face his final loss and sacrifice, his good friend Azura.In her final words of comfort, to remind Corrin to smile and look up and live as they finally have world peace. Corrin had faced so many losses and heart wrenching moments, but he grew strong to not let these emotions drown him and break him, but he is more determined to carry on for their sake and for the greater cause. He wishes to strive to build a new world and to make the dream peace happen and for the memories of the fallen.

“Sing with me a song of birthrights and love”

Later in the coronation ceremony, he has an emotional moment with and with his siblings. This time of tears of joy,after all the sacrifices and pain he endured, he has achieved his dream of peace and friendship between Hoshido and Nohr. He also desires to enjoy and have fun after his emotional journey.

With his exemplary decision to stand with peace, sacrifices and growth, he is a model and a hero, and together with Ryoma,Hinoka, Sakura and Takumi, his birth family, showing their appreciation and commending Corrin’s decision. Together, they will rebuild the future in a brand new day. His mother would be proud of what a fine man he has become.

“The light scatters to the sky above

Dawn breaks through the gloom, white as a bone”

Conclusion

FEH: M!Corrin's Lv 40 confession reflects in his experiences and want to be protective to those who are dear

Defeating and making Garon pay may have been the main motivator but along the way he learned new stuff that made him grow. He was intended to be sheltered and ignorant of the world and to develop Stockholm syndrome by having bonds with the Nohr Royals, but in his new found freedom, gained new experiences outside in the world.He went through trials, leading the an army, being looked up and depended on, earning trust, becoming more commanding, gaining confidence yet he is till kind and merciful to enemies and intuition to trust and earn charisma. He experienced hardships and anguish, losing his loved ones from his old life and being forced to end a tribe in self defense, enduring the pain and even acting as a martyr and taking it all by himself. But with his allies around him, most especially, Ryoma’s wise guidance and light, as a hand to bring Corrin to the right path and to remain steadfast in their great cause. He made self sacrifices for the greater good, that is beyond his comforts of his pampered old life. Peace and universal brotherhood may have been his ultimate goal, but can’t achieve that without justice. You can’t achieve that by being nice and accommodating to injustice.

An inspiration

Like many of my favorite characters, this may sound cliché or cheesy, there is something I look up to them or some positive aspects to inspire or influence me. As someone who was from the “darkness” of social anxiety, Corrin’s journey (in birthright) inspired me. His story motivated me to try new things, to be friendly and meet with people and to get along with them easily. It instilled me with confidence that I can talk with anyone, even those you just have short talk with someone, even new acquaintances.

Like anyone who got into Fire Emblem, I met him at FEH and I loved his design, though I keep hearing some bad things about him. So when I played his game in this route, he wasn't that bad and what he does makes sense if you put it into context and his reactions felt natural to me. (Though I may confess when I saw Corrin in the other routes besides Birthright, I can see why they badmouth him.) Like I said I love his Birthright version, I think it’s in character for him and at his best. I like seeing him being outside living in the light free from the shackles of darkness and his abductors. It is satisfying for him to stand up and defy Garon.A fantasy Japanese prince felt refreshing to me versus the usual European fantasy. His dragon form is unique and cool, too bad it is very underused and isn’t much significant in the plot in later points.

His Birthright story reminds me of my favorite movie when I was little, the Prince of Egypt. Like Moses who grew up and was adopted to the enemy kingdom, when he knew the heritage of his birth, he left behind the old comfortable life and doing what is right and to defend his people, even facing the “brother” he grew up with. I love that kind of story, that is why Birthright is so appealing to me.

Closing words

And with that concludes my attempt of doing “”analysis””. I’ve put more effort into writing this than I ever did with my school essays. Like this has 5,000 words! And I didn’t even resort to using redundant word extending techniques. This shows how interest and passion would make you do. As a peak of my fixation, and before this phase wears off at least I have made a writing tribute to my favorite character before I’ll move on to something else. I hope people read and appreciate this because I have poured my heart and soul to this.

It was quite harder than it looks as I am mainly a drawer, not a writer. Writing is a way different beast than art. I was so “Lost in thoughts all alone”, like I got so many ideas, interpretations and understanding but I don’t know how to express it and articulate it, so those words got lost. I had doubts sometimes like who would even read this especially a Lord who has a particular reputation in the Fire emblem fandom. In finishing this I dragged myself on and slogged through, and rushed it just to make it done. I made a self-imposed deadline, and this was supposed to be done by Fate’s 8th anniversary, but I got burnt out and delayed this. Writing is scary, I’ll just go back to art as my own way to appreciate Lord Corrin such as doing illustrations of him.

I did my best with all my abilities and limits. I hope I didn’t miss something. If something was overlooked, please politely correct me and please don’t kill me and tear me to shreds…

And as always:

HOSHIRRIN, BEST CORRIN!!

#male corrin #fire emblem corrin #fire emblem fates #m!corrin #corrin #fe birthright #fire emblem birthright #character analysis #analysis

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hvnlyuzuha · 3 years ago

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ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING

fem child! reader

jujutsu kaisen x black child! reader

fluff, angst kinda if can even classify as angst, crack

summary: the first years have to babysit you and within two hours they lose you in sendai.

characters: fushiguro megumi, itadori yuji, kugisaki nobara, sukuna, and gojo satoru.

mentions of: nanami kento, principal yaga, ieiri shoko and the second years

continuation of gojo as a single dad!

warnings: none i think

notes: since y’all liked the first one i decided to make another.

not edited

the first years were a last resort

i am serious 😭

gojo desperately needed a babysitter and there was no one else cause nanami was on a mission as were the second years and shoko had traveled out of the country with yaga to deal with something

there is a good reasons why gojo won’t leave you alone with the second years

1. they were lowkey irresponsible 2. the last time they babysat you, you fell off a roof and almost died (megumi summoned nue to save you)

as i was saying they were a last resort and gojo was desperate so they were your babysitters for a day or two

it was the first day and since gojo left them three of his credit cards they decided to take you to your favorite cafe in sendai, kikusuian’s.

like father like daughter

sadly on the way to the cafe they lost you 🙂

They had officially done it. They lost the strongest person in the world daughter. Megumi was the first to notice mostly because you stopped pestering him to summon the divine dogs.

“Itadori! Where’s Y/N?” Megumi frantically looked around for your stark white afro.

“What do you mean? She’s righ-” Itadori looked down at his side in horror.

“You lost her?!” Megumi and Nobara screamed in unison, grabbing the attention of people passing by.

“It’s not my fault! We were all supposed to watch her.” Itadori reasoned as Megumi summoned his divine dog.

“Track Y/N.” The divine dog began to try and track your cursed energy but sadly one of the first techniques Gojo taught you was to mask your cursed energy for safety purposes. He also told you whenever you go out you should activate it and that’s exactly what you did.

“You can’t track her!” Nobara shouted. “Gojo taught her how to mask her cursed energy. We have to split up. Itadori, you go near the cafe. Megumi, you retrace our steps. I’ll go that way!” With that the trio took off in their respective directions. They were all unsuccessful and were also in a horrid state. Itadori fought a dog for his pant leg… the dog obviously won leaving Itadori with half of his pants ripped off. Someone spilled a soda all over Megumi making him sticky. And Nobara’s hair couldn’t take the insane heat and was insanely frizzy.

“You brats lost his kid! This is hilarious.” Sukuna laughed from Itadori’s hand.

“Gojo-sensei is gonna kill us! We lost his only daug-” Itadori’s rant ended short when Megumi covered his mouth to listen to the sound of giggles coming from an alleyway.

“Y/N?” Nobara called out but was only met with more giggles. In an instant, the first years took off in the direction of the giggles, entering a shady alleyway.

“How do we figure out where she is?” Itadori asked after the noises stopped.

Megumi let out a heavy sigh before doing something he hasn’t done since his junior high days when you were in your ‘hide and seek 25/7’ phase.

“I know I'm just a fool who's willing, to sit around and wait for you. But baby, can't you see there's nothing else for me to do? I'm hopelessly devoted to you.” Megumi sang looking away from his fellow classmates who were looking at him incredulously.

“But now there's nowhere to hide, since you pushed my love aside. I'm out of my head. Hopelessly devoted to you.” You sang back, causing the first years to sprint in you direction,

“N/N!” They cried in relief.

“Look who I found!” You held up a white fluff cat with piercing blue eyes. “It looks like Papa!”

“It does doesn’t!” Itadori smiled at your excitement,

“I named him Catoru! Can I please keep him?” You gave them the best puppy dog eyes you could muster on short notice, along with a blinding smile.

“Okay fine.”

“Yeah.”

“Of course!”

The first year all fell into your trap making you smile.

“Great! Let’s go to the cafe and get all the stuff we need for Catoru! Also, what happened to you guys?”

BONUS

“I’m back!” Gojo announced as he walked into the first years living area only for it to be empty. He ventured further through the dorms, hearing soft snoring.

“Hey-” Gojo cut himself off seeing all of them on the bed, fast asleep. He smiled to himself at the sight and took a few photos. Gojo was about to leave when he did a double take. There was a cat that looked like him, with glasses on and all, laying on the bed snuggled up with his daughter.

“What the fuck.”

#gojo as a dad #jujutsu kaisen gojo #dad! gojo #dad gojo #gojo x reader #gojo satoru x reader #jujutsu kaisen fluff #jujutsu kaisen x child reader #jjk fluff #jjk x black!reader #jjk gojo #jjk x reader

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twdgs · 2 years ago

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tell me uour thoughts on dp117 let rhe autism flow

YEAS okay so like to start, theres something to be said about how the tpci dub is weird w the trios relationship w eachother in like dp and ag

and specifically james and meowth towards jessie, intentionally putting conflict where there wasn’t necessarily any in the original, yknow yknow but thats always kinda been a thing.

like ok so them as a group are very different people obviously and they have different desires, usually the source for their temporary breakups see: meowth having his ideals tempted by christophers job offer, jessie tempted by her contest career, and james just . wanting things to be the same.

STARTING W JESSIE HERE BC we know she has low impulsivity kcontrol and she just kinda burns her own path no matter what, the gravity of the situation probably not even crossing her mind. she’s still in her own way kinda kind about it even though the actions were insensitive, w telling james to let meowth go, if thats what he wants. THE THREE TRY TO TRUST EACHOTHER SO MUCH that exact scenario happens multiple times, they respect the their teammates so completely that they would let them go if that was what the other wanted. maybe she believed that he wanted something else, elsewhere, the comment about like hey maybe you can go back to your home from jessie isnt very sensitive and its obviously not what James wants, but their individual needs for their own desires cloud their judgement and whatnot…

the thing that gets me about this episode is that james is just desperately trying to ignore the fact that he’s SUPER FUCKING UPSET, just trying to convince themself that he doesnt need the others to be the best a rocket agent can be when yknow. gestures. bozo

i think he just feels like he has nothing else to lose. feels like he lost his friends since god knows and teammates all in one breath, so whats it to try and stick it to em just this once and climb the metaphorical ladders without them? makes me insane bc GRHRGHHHRHHHRH he doesnt even actually think that. of course he doesnt wanna do any of it without the others, but one has to put one foot in front of the other to get through life or whatever… does it out of the guise of proving a point and almost fucking dies bc of it

and of course none of them know entirely how to deal with feelings that cant be squashed, the lingering dread of being alone, because that is one issue the three of them definitely share. they’re just deathly afraid of being alone even if its hidden under several layers of denial and anger and spite and whatever else.

THEY MISS EACHOTHER THEY MISS SHARING FOOD WITH EACHOTHER AND EXISTING WITHIN THEMSELVES AND THEY LIKE DOING IT !!!!!!! THE GRIND IS MANAGEABLE WHEN YOU HAVE PALS TO DO IT WITH!!!!!!!!! it just kills me, meowth specifically has that soft spot and its pretty deep rooted. and his doubts show up very early on, THIS FUCKING CAT MISSES HIS FRIENDS but he’s still mad at them and feels like he also has to prove something. him in particular it affects the quickest, insecurity and loneliness is just as deep rooted in him as it is in jessie, he’s just more open about it than her.

i know i havent even gotten to the obvious yet but UEGAHHHHHHHHHH!!.

and yknow the other two fucking drop it all in barely a heartbeat when they find out what james is doing. whatever they do they do as a team, even if it’s ridiculously stupid. especially if its ridiculously stupid actually

and james gets all teary eyed and sappy about it even through originally wanting to go it alone out of anger………. i cant even parse it this episode is brain melting THEY FUCK8NG PROMISE TO MEET EACHOTHER IN THE AFTERLIFE .. they sincerely believe they are about to die and jessie decides her last words would be to promise they’ll still find eachother in the lifetimes that follow. WHAT THE FUCK. WHTA THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ITS SO MUCH FOR A POKEMON EPISODE. ITS SO MUCH. its so . its not even necessarily a romantic thing but its so . you know that they mean it no matter the context…..

if one rocket dies the others do too. how poetic, surprisingly in character actually. everything these three do they do it together , when meowth comes back and inevitably saves them and they hug ndn ouhhhggghh…………………… you cant look at me and tell me they dont love eachother so fucking much. they’re literally friends…,how insane is that……. love does exist……………..

#ask #long post #anudda day anudda essay #sniffles and sobs and wails so loud i cant describe how emo this episode makes me no matter how imperfect they are #yhey find ways to forgive eachother and still decide to love every day ………………………………………..l.#hwhahhh #its cool. wuv this episode so much

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lunar-wandering · 3 years ago

Text

Sparkling Laughter

the giggle glow au is the only thing keeping me sane right now

Word Count: 2.6k

Read on Ao3

MK hadn't really noticed it at first.

Between always being in a brightly lit area and mainly focusing on training, it wasn't exactly like he saw Wukong laugh often.

So maybe it took him a while to notice.

But after he noticed, it was kinda hard to miss.

Wukong straight up glowed when he laughed.

And MK didn't mean that figuratively. No, he meant it very literally.

A single chuckle was enough to get Wukong glowing like a nightlight. Full out laughter could very nearly light up a whole room.

"You know, the stories never mentioned that you glow." MK said, one day, a few monkeys climbing all over him. The monkeys messing his hair up was what had prompted Wukong to start laughing in the first place, and MK figured there was no better time than the present to bring it up.

"It was never really something that others deemed important, I guess." Wukong said, shrugging, still faintly glowing with a few remaining chuckles as he helped remove some of the monkeys from MK. "It's definitely not showstopping or cool, so it was just left out."

"I think it's neat." MK said, "You're kinda like... a light up toy or something."

"Hm, not sure how I feel about that comparison." Wukong said, pulling the last monkey off of MK's shoulders, and ruffling MK's hair, fixing the mess the monkeys had left it in. "There you go, bud, all good as new."

"Thanks, Monkey King." MK said, scooping up his bag from where he'd laid it on the ground, summoning the staff and getting ready to vault back to the city. "Y'know, we are just doing game night tonight. You're welcome to join if you want to-"

"It's fine, I've got something to do tonight." Wukong said, giving MK a smile that didn't feel...fully real. "You go have fun with your friends."

MK slowly nodded, not fully believing Wukong, but figuring that arguing would probably get him nowhere. So he turned, jumping off of Flower Fruit Mountain, and leaving Wukong all by himself.

Two months later, on the ship, Mei found a game of Twister in one of the closets.

It hadn't taken much to convince everyone else to join in, that is, other than Macaque, who insisted on not taking part. Not even 4 minutes into the game, Red Son forcibly kicked Wukong out, on the grounds that his tail gave him an unfair advantage. This left only Tang, Pigsy, Sandy, MK, Mei, and Red Son on the Twister mat.

Macaque lazily spun the spinner with his tail.

"Left hand blue." He said, voice a complete deadpan. Mei moved to reach over across MK-

And Tang fell down, bringing Pigsy down with him, who accidentally bumped into Red Son, who, knocked off balance, fell into Mei, who fell down on top of MK.

In the end, only Sandy was left still in 'standing', the others in a pile on top of the twister mat.

".....Sandy wins?" Macaque said, a questioning lilt in his voice, prompting MK to look over at him-

Which caused him to notice the expression on Wukong's face.

It suddenly struck MK that within the one week everyone had been on the ship, Wukong had yet to laugh, which in hindsight was rather concerning, but right now that meant that the other's didn't know-

"Uh guys? You might want to shield your eyes." MK said, barely managing to say it before-

Wukong burst out laughing, doubling over, and lighting up like a flashlight, accompanied by a few sparkles shining in the air. Macaque startled at the sudden noise, and ended up falling off the couch, which just made Wukong laugh harder, glowing brighter as a result. The others yelped at the sudden brightness, MK's warning not having registered in time.

Wukong, registering the fact that he was currently blinding the others, calmed down a little, the glow lessening as he went from full out laughter to soft chuckles.

"S- sorry I just-" He started, clearly trying to keep himself from falling back into hysterics again. "You looked so funny I just- I couldn't help it-"

Mei was the first to manage to blink the residual spots out of her vision and register what had just occurred.

"You glow?!" She asked, incredulous, the others also sporting similar expressions of surprise.

Things proceeded to go downhill from there, questions getting thrown out without any answers. At some point, in the chaos, Wukong straight up left the room without anyone noticing he was gone until Macaque pointed it out.

Of course, after a day or so, the hype of the new information had died down a little.

But not completely.

It was early morning, and almost everyone was in the kitchen. Mei and MK on their phones, Pigsy working on breakfast, Sandy pouring some tea, Red Son sipping some coffee, Tang reading a newspaper, and Wukong leaning against the kitchen wall, looking lost in thought. (They'd all long since learned it was pointless to try to wake Macaque up, he was not a morning person.)

Overall, it was an average morning.

And then Wukong started giggling, glowing softly. He was clearly lost in thought, probably completely forgetting where he was at the moment. Mei looked up from her phone to glance over at him.

"What, did you think of something funny, 'Sparkle Snickers'?" Mei asked, and Wukong-

Wukong's giggling abruptly cut off as became aware of where he was again, and as soon as he registered what Mei had just said, he looked away, rubbing the back of his neck in a flustered motion.

It took a moment for the others to connect the dots.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Mei said, an evil smirk appearing on her face. "Glitter Gleam."

Wukong's tail waved back and forth in a nervous gesture.

"Giggly Nightlight."

A nervous smile formed on Wukong's face.

"Twinkle Toes-"

"Okay, stop." Wukong said, a hand covering his face, a faint blush visible on the tips of his ears. MK almost felt bad for him, but at the same time...

"C'mon, after everything I've tried teasing you with, nicknames about your Giggle Glow is what gets to you?" Mei asked, laughing a bit herself as Wukong squeaked as the word "giggle glow" left her mouth. "Seriously? This is what embarrasses you?"

"It's not embarrassing-" Wukong said, which was a sentence nobody really believed, considering the way he still wouldn't look at them and the fact that the faint blush still hadn't faded. "It's just, not....cool, y'know?"

"No, I don't know." Mei said, leaning forwards on her elbows. "Please, enlighten me."

Wukong stuttered, clearly trying to figure out how to explain it, as MK set his phone down on the table.

"Is that why the stories don't mention that you glow?" MK asked, "You don't think it's cool, which, by the way, it totally is, but since you believe it isn't you got them to cut it out cause you're embarrassed over it?"

"It's not cool! And I'm not embarrassed!" Wukong denied, fur bristling as the others leveled him with a look that clearly showed that they didn't believe that statement one bit. He looked around the room, registering everyone's expressions-

He could tell they weren't going to let him live this down.

So he did the first thing he thought of.

He turned and ran away, hitting the light switch as he did so, sending the room into complete darkness so no one could see where he went.

"Wh- hey!" MK cried out, standing up and fumbling for the light switch. As he did so, he heard a thump, a muffled yelp, and a door shut, but he was mainly focused on trying to find the stupid light, why could you never find it when you need it-

The light switched back on, revealing that MK had been a good distance away from it. Macaque stood beside it, looking confused.

"What is going on?" He asked, looking confused.

"Monkey King ran away over something stupid." Red Son said, filling the shadow monkey in on the situation.

"So, what, you're all going to go look for him?" Macaque asked, sighing when the others nodded in response. "I should've expected that...."

"C'mon! You can search with us!" Mei said, grabbing hold of Macaque's arm and dragging him with her, MK and Red Son following close behind. Tang, Pigsy, and Sandy opted to stay in the kitchen, in case Wukong ended up circling back. MK, Mei, Macaque, and Red Son ended up walking through the halls, keeping an eye out for any sign of the Monkey King.

"Couldn't you just, y'know, use your hearing to find him?" Red Son eventually asked Macaque, who stumbled a little at the question, having not expected to be addressed.

"Who, me?" He asked, looking...oddly nervous. "Nah, he has ways of getting around it anyways."

"...Are you sure?" MK asked, now feeling just the slightest bit suspicious. "I remember you saying that you could hear anything-"

"I'm sure! I won't be any help here, I assure you!" Macaque said, shrinking down a bit as the three continued to stare at him.

"Y'know, you've seemed a little off this morning...." Mei said, and Macaque scratched the side of his face nervously. "Are you....okay?"

"What? Oh, I'm fine." Macaque said, chuckling nervously- and immediately realizing his mistake, as a faint glow resonated from him for a few moments. It wasn't long, but it was enough.

"Monkey King." MK said, and Wukong turned, dropping the Macaque glamour as he ran down the hallway, the trio chasing after him. he rounded a corner, and the trio turned to follow, but MK paused, hearing a faint banging coming from the closet door. He stopped, letting the others continue to chase Wukong, and turned, opening the door-

And the real Macaque tumbled out, onto the floor.

"I'm going to kill him." He mumbled, distractedly letting MK help him stand up. "He locked me in the closet. I'm going to kill him."

"Yeah, maybe save the murder for later." MK said, turning to follow where he'd seen the others gone.

He eventually found them, standing in the common room, looking around them with a healthy does of suspicion.

"Where'd he go?" MK asked.

"We know he hasn't left this room. Red Son made sure of it." Mei said, Red Son holding up a tablet to show he'd hacked into the ship's security systems. "But as for where in this room he is...."

"...As much as I hate this, I've got an idea." Macaque said, the others looking at him with mild shock. "Don't look at me like that, I'm only doing this because it'll be funny, and cause I wanna get revenge on him for locking me in a closet."

"The floor is yours." Red Son said, doing an over dramatic bow as he said it. Macaque rolled his eyes (and MK mentally decided to bring up the shadow monkey's own dramatics later-) but he stepped forwards, into the center of the room.

A shadow clone appeared, slowly emerging from Macaque's own shadow. It stood there for a moment, still, before turning and merging with a shadow on the wall.

A few seconds passed.

And then a faint glow, as well as some muffled giggling, came from behind one of the cabinets. MK quickly moved forwards, reaching behind it-

And pulling out a doll-sized Monkey King, holding him up by the edge of his clothes.

Wukong squeaked, quickly switching back to his usual size, sending MK a bit off balance, and trying to run away, but MK refused to let him, holding tight to the edge of Wukong's outfit. It took a few minutes of struggling, (which Macaque clearly enjoyed, if his own muffled laughter was anything to go by.), but eventually Wukong gave up, sighing as he fell down onto his back, laying there, defeated. Mei and Red Son moved to stand closer to him, and MK lightly nudged him with his foot.

"You ready to admit that your Light-up Laughter is cool now?" He asked, and Wukong groaned, rolling over so that his face was hidden by the floor.

"Stop giving it stupid names!" He whined, "And it's not cool!"

"I should warn you." Macaque said, sitting down on the nearby couch, "You're not going to make much progress on this. He was like this even back when we we're 'friends'. I'm surprised he didn't grow out of it, honestly."

"You shut up." Wukong hissed, sitting up a little just to glare at Macaque before going back to laying face down on the floor. "I should've never let myself laugh in front of any of you."

Well. That sentence was, on some level, mildly concerning, but MK decided to brush past it for now.

"Aw, c'mon Monkey King." Mei said, kneeling down and poking Wukong's arm, repeatedly. "You can't just mope over a few nicknames forever."

"Watch me."

"If you keep this up, we'll have to start calling you the emo monkey, instead of Macaque." Red Son said.

"Should I be offended by that?" Macaque asked, "I feel like I should be offended by that-"

Wukong didn't respond, continuing to lay face down on the floor. Mei continued poking his arm. After a few minutes of consideration, MK started to lightly nudge Wukong as well. Red Son knelt down beside MK to start poking Wukong in the back with a pencil he'd found on a nearby desk. Macaque watched this go down with thinly veiled amusement.

After a few moments of no response from Wukong though, Macaque sighed, standing up and making his way over. Silently, he created a few pairs of sunglasses, handing them off to each member of the trio, indicating for them to put them on. A bit confused, but willing to go along with it, they complied, sliding the glasses over their eyes. Macaque, having affirmed that their eyes were protected, slid his own pair of sunglasses on, then looked down at Wukong, contemplating.

And then he leaned down and skittered his fingers behind Wukong's knee. The reaction was immediate, Wukong squeaking before breaking into loud laughter, lighting up like a beacon, sparkles shining all around him. It was nearly bright enough to make the trio shield their eyes, even with sunglasses. Wukong kicked his leg out, very nearly missing hitting Macaque in the face, rolling over and getting up, practically scrambling to get away from the other monkey.

"Don't do that." He hissed, once he'd managed to get a hold of himself, the light dimming and vanishing completely. (Mei, quietly, mumbled something about wishing she'd gotten that on camera.)

"Either you stop moping around and accept the facts about your, what did Mei call it- right, 'Giggle Glow'-" Macaque said, giving Wukong a threatening look. "Or I tickle you again. Your choice."

".....Fine. Fine!" Wukong said, "It's cool! Whatever! Can we just drop this already?!"

They didn't drop it. They very much didn't drop it.

Whenever Wukong so much as lightly chuckled, someone would comment on the glow. At some point, he genuinely considered the idea of just never laughing in the others presence ever again, but that plan was quickly laid to rest-

The others were just. Too. Funny.

"Kill me." Wukong muttered, his face on the table, a faint glow still surrounding him from residual laughter. "You guys are going to kill me."

"Yep, that's the plan!" Macaque called from the door way. "Can't believe it took you so long to figure that out, Sparkling Peach-"

"I hate all of you."

#Monkie Kid #Giggle Glow AU #my writing #i procrastinated on all my other fics for this

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kameliendame · 3 years ago

Photo

Went to see Raymonda today! It’s a brand new production made for the Dutch National Ballet. Money was spent on this and you could TELL.

I saw Riho Sakamoto as Raymonda, Jakob Feyferlik as Abd al-Rahman, Vito Mazzeo as Jean de Brienne, and then there was Naira Agvanean as Henriëtte, Maria Chugai as Clémence and Rafael Valdez and Dingkai Bai as Bernard and Béranger.

One thing that immediately hits you as soon as the curtain rises is the splashes of colourful costumes set before a minimalistic yet vast décor that pictures the inside of a castle, the courtyard (with a scenic view of the mountain ranges of the Provence) and the inside of a ballroom. Jérôme Kaplan did an absolutely stunning job with creating timeless pieces that convey the period within which Raymonda is set but without making it stuffy by keeping the silhouettes streamlined. My personal favourites were the long ankle length dresses of the noble court ladies (pictured last) and the Hungarian costumes in the pas Hongrois, which were based on actual traditional costumes (planning on scanning more photos soon!).

Another thing that also surprised me was how well rehearsed the corps de ballet was. Judging from the last performance I had seen (The Nutcracker last December, which was a hot mess) my expectations werent too high but now I feel kinda mean thinking like that lol. Literally every single act was done with laser precision and finish with the absolute highlight being the grand pas classique in the third act. Kudos to all the corps dancers and ballet masters who made this happen because it looked better than what some big(ger) companies have been showing these days.

Honorable mention goes to Connie Vowles who danced the second (Clémence) variation in the dream act. In this production, Henriëtte and Clémence don’t dance the dream variations for some reason; instead its danced by two different dancers. I literally have no idea why they would make such a decision esp. because it’s absolutely criminal to deprive the audience of Agvanean’s Henriëtte variation (but more on that later). Vowles danced her solo to damn near PERFECTION. I was literally gasping when she was ending those tours en l’air in perfect fifth not once but all three times. A really promising young dancer, here’s to her going far. I also spotted Chloë Réveillon in the corps, surprised to see her here after her stint at the Mariinsky but she’s a solid addition to the troupe. Loved her in the grand pas classique along with Erica Horwood, and, once again, Connie Vowles.

Now on to the main dish... The Sakamoto/Feyferlik/Mazzeo trio and the Agvanean/Chugai/Valdez/Bai quartet. I’ve seen Sakamoto before (Clara in the Nutcracker) and the best thing that I can say about her is that she’s a technical powerhouse with decent épaulement and very good aplomb. That’s it, really. Unfortunately the girl has no ballon whatsoever which translates into sluggish footwork, which then translates into sloppy finishes. She’s not a bad dancer at all but she lacks finesse. Her body is very limited in what it can do and there was never a point where I felt like she was one with the music or even conveying it well in her dancing, despite not missing a beat. She’s a classic example of dancing on the music but not dancing with the music. Combine that with her mediocre footwork and her lack of grace and lyricism and you have a very underwhelming performance. In the more technical parts of the ballet she was doing alright and managed to keep my attention, but it was in the final variation where she completely lost me. The ‘‘clacque’‘ variation is infamous for it’s supposed emptyness (just lots of bourréeing across the stage really), but because of that it requires enormous charisma and magnetism to keep your attention. If done well it hypnotises you (Sylvie Guillem!!), if done wrong it just bores you. Unfortunely, in this case I’m leaning towards the latter. That all being said... Raymonda is a behemoth of a role to tackle and Sakamoto did an absolutely tremendous job dancing all those variations and pas deux while still looking like she just came fresh on stage when she was taking her bows during curtain call. It’s her first role as a principal dancer since her appointment in December last year and despite my nitpicking eye she did really, really, really well. Her partnership with Feyferlik was great, his overwhelming stage presence managed to make up what she lacked. The one with Mazzeo however... again... it wasn’t bad... but they were just kind of... there. But they did the job well in technical aspects at least, there were some tricky lifts which were done with a well rehearsed and steady hand.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Agvanean/Chugai/Valdez/Bai quartet was such a treat to watch. Nadia Agvanean especially as Henriëtte was the highlight of my evening. Her little head movements, the turn of her shoulders, the stretching of her fingers into the distance to a point beyond her reach, she puts so much thought in all these little details that can make a performance into something bigger than the dancer itself. Not to paraphrase that infamous Tsiskaridze quote but the Russian school really is superior. You can tell she had a Vaganova upbringing in literally every single movement no matter how small. This really shows how much a dancer can get out of themselves if they pay miticulous attention to the style they’re being trained in instead of just thinking of doing the steps right.

All in all it was a great evening and an even greater addition to the Dutch National Ballet’s repertoire. The fact that they can stage a warhorse like Raymonda while still making it look fresh and modern (with an updated libretto, mind you) shows that even a tiny country like the Netherlands with not much of a ballet history can reach the same world renowned standards of the old ballet companies as long as enough respect, hard work and love are put into it. Bravo to all the people who made this happen, on stage and off stage!

#dutch national ballet #het nationale ballet #review

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jujutsu-headcanons · 4 years ago

Text

Gojo Satoru general headcanons

Let's get one thing clear: this man is absolutely chaotic. He is always full of energy. His energy levels never reach below 50%. He is loud and proud, always running, and never takes a minute to relax.

Do not give him Monster. Shoko did that once and it took her forever to get him off the ceiling. Also, avoid caffeine. Shoko replaces his normal coffee with decaf and he still hasn't noticed the difference. Keep it that way.

He was the class clown when he was younger. He wasn't exactly a trouble maker, but he may as well be. I cannot word that sentence and I am sorry. Next.

All of his teachers assumed he never listened in class, so they always called in him when they thought he wasn't paying attention. It still shocked them every time he rattled off the correct answer.

Not only did he answer the question correctly, but he could also explain his reasoning behind the answer, and if it was multiple choice, explain why the other answers were wrong.

This tall man child would march up to the board and absolutely fill it to the brim with work, turn around, drop the chalk-like a mic drop and walk back to his desk with the smuggest look on his face.

That doesn't mean he did the work tho

Idk how schools in japan work but we all know schools in America only care about the amount of work you do and not what you actually know so we'll use that for the sake of the headcanon: he had straight D's bc he never turned in his work

Despite not doing the work snd goofing off, teachers actually really liked him

A lot of people liked him and he was super popular, but he still felt alone

Fake friends, you know how that works, he didn't meet any real friends until he became a shaman

Clean freak. This dude actually makes his bed. He scrubs his bathroom twice a week. His desk can get cluttered but he straightens up once a week. He's not exactly a germaphobe because

He cannot respect your personal space and that's actually canon but let me take it a step further

He's a slapper. Especially when he laughs. It doesn't hurt, it's playful dw. He hugs you from behind especially when he's cold. He picks you up and carries you around. He will grab your wrist, arm, or hand and lead you around even if you're following him. He lays his legs across you or lays across your lap. Puts his head on your shoulder. Platonic cuddling between friends is mandatory. He's just so hands-on it's ridiculous.

Unless you explicitly tell him you're uncomfortable he won't stop

Don't worry, if you aren't in that type of relationship, your no-no square is safe. Except, if you seem chill, he will slap your ass regardless of friendship status. His ass is also slappable. You can't tell me Geto and Gojo didn't run around slapping each other asses, okay

He was weird and scrawny as a child. He didn't start beefing out until he started training to be a shaman and he's still kinda smaller than most beefy boys

He can pick you up and throw you around easily. He carried around a 170 pound Yuji like a sack of potatoes and can easily carry around three times that weight

It's amazing he's so tiny because you remember 2014 Shane Dawson making all of those wack ass desserts that was just s pile of chaos wrapped in chocolate?

He can eat every last bite of one of those monstrosities without getting a stomach ache, gaining weight, or dying basically

He knows bc Yuji dared him to do it

He has really cold hands and feet

He sounds old. Let me elaborate. He's constantly cracking his joints. They also creak when he moves. He complains about body pains like he's 80 y/o

He also shares wisdom with the kids as if he's actually 80 y/o

It's irrelevant advice that doesn't make sense but is also useful. Megumi can't count the number of times he's asked Gojo for feedback on his technique but had been told to remember to chew 40 times or never go to bed angry

Starts off sentences with "now son" and "when I was your age"

He uses his blindfold as a headband when he wants his hair out of his face. He also uses headbands as... Headbands... When he wants to wear sunglasses but get his hair out of his face

He owns so many pairs of sunglasses but he always wears the same pair

He's only bought a handful of them himself, most of them are gifts

No one knows what to get him for Christmas or his birthday bc he has everything, so they resort to sunglasses

His favorite pair is a pair that Shoko and Geto bought him as a gag. He thought they were dead serious, though, so he wore them around for a month

They were heart-shaped, rose-tinted glasses

Can you believe this man doesn't use any gel or anything to keep his hair spiky with the blindfold on? It just naturally defies gravity when the blindfold is on

Tell this man he's pretty because he already knows. He's narcissistic but not the cringy kind

Photogenic as hell. Takes great pictures from any angle.

He gives everyone a different story as to why he covers his eyes. Sometimes he says it's because his eyes are too pretty and are a distraction. Sometimes he says it's because the sunglasses/bandages/blindfold look cooler than his eyes. Sometimes he says it's to protect the six eyes from seeing things he doesn't want to see. The world may never know

He's tried covering his whole face before, but he thinks he's too pretty for that. He at least wants one of his many amazing features to be shown at all times.

So about his driver's license;

He knows how to drive. He can be a good driver. When he wants to be. He just doesn't have a driver's license.

Now he TELLS people he just never got around to getting one, however, there's a rumor he lost it due to too many parking tickets

It's amazing the only tickets he's ever gotten have been from that and once he got caught without a seatbelt; he would have gotten out of that one if he hadn't been flirting with the police officer so bad

This doesn't stop Gojo from driving places though

He steals Ijichi's car a LOT and Ijichi DOESN'T KNOW HOW like??? The windows are never broken and it doesn't look hotwired-

Gojo has a key

You're not even supposed to be able to duplicate car keys but Gojo did

Also; none of the first-year trio knows he doesn't have a driver's license, though that much should be painfully obvious

He whips around corners, speeds up at yellow lights, goes "watch this" and does a donut, it's just a mess

The poor students have to sit in the backseat too. Just imagine Megumi with all three seatbelts around him like that one meme.

He thrives off of Nobara and Yuji screaming from the backseat, and he can see Megumi being smooshed because he thought the middle seat was the safest through the rearview mirror

Which he doesn't even need because of the six eyes

Despite being such a reckless driver, he knows when danger will happen, so he's never once gotten in a wreck

He blasts the radio, which makes up for the driving.

Has a habit of getting in a car and ending up in the McDonalds drive-thru

Steals other people's fries and keeps the fullest one for himself.

He was rebellious as a kid and teenager, but hey, at least his juvie record is sealed

He's been detained and in the back of a cop car many times, but the reason was never really bad enough for him to be arrested. Mostly he's just being mouthy. And the time he got caught spray painting on the side of a building. And that one time he and Getou hopped the fence to get into the local pool. And that other time-

It got worse after Getou wasn't around to get him out of trouble. Suddenly, breaking the rules wasn't fun anymore and he mellowed out.

Tried alcohol and cigarettes before he was legal. Decided neither was his thing, however, he did start drinking occasionally when he was legal.

He's a fucking chaotic drunk. Oh my god he's absolutely feral

Most bars in the vicinity know him by name and they sigh whenever he walks in

Shoko is his emergency contact. She hates it

Shoko has to drag drunk Gojo home at least twice a month and is not happy about it

Once she left him in an alley. He made it home okay so she guesses it's fine

Once he got so drunk he spilled beer on his sock. The thought the fastest way to dry them was by sticking them in the microwave. Forgot about it until someone asked, "Who the fuck is cooking socks???"

I feel it important he was in the break room of the local grocery store and no one knows how he got there

As he was escorted out he stole a grocery cart and rode away in it while singing Don't Threaten Me (With A Good Time) by Panic! At The Disco

He has no alcohol tolerance at all what so ever

He will literally just stare at you and giggle

It's funny he's really flirty but also doesn't seal the deal. Literally, every woman in that bar is willing to get in his bed but he declines every offer. No one knows why

Its because he respects women

He helps his students break the rules as long as they're within reason. Once night Yuji was really hungry and after having a temper tantrum he couldn't order Uber eats bc the school is supposed to be secret Gojo helped sneak him out to get food. Who needs curfew anyway.

The shirts in his closet range from like twenty bucks to the iconic rich bitch shirt the kids ruined in that one chapter we all know the one

He still wears that by the way, he calls it "art"

When he was younger, Megumi drew a picture of Gojo being eaten by his shadow dogs. Gojo found it and now it's framed in his room.

He keeps up with current trends and memes like no one's business. This is how he bonds with his kids.

Don't call him old, but also, he'll tell you to respect your elders it's a mess

He has a lot of games on his phone. You can usually find him holding his phone sideways playing some RPG game he probably spent too much money on

He did hop on the Pokemon Go hype train but after becoming overpowered he got bored

This happens to a lot of games. He pays way too much money, gets to be the strongest in the server, and gets bored

He likes games where you can kill other people's troops and likes to watch as they lose all their power

I canon him as being borderline sadistic

This is why he's Sakata Gintoki reincarnated

White hair, sweet tooth, black leather clothes, dad vibes, never takes anything seriously bc when he does he's scary as fuck, the works.

He is Sakata Gintoki

He liked Gintama growing up. He watched a lot of iconic shows as they aired. He considers himself an og

He's hella bilingual

Because he's the strongest he goes overseas for missions a lot. Because of this he speaks a lot of languages and knows a lot about international cuisine

He takes pictures of himself eating disgusting foods like snails. He never likes them but he loves the idea of Nobara gagging back in japan

Has paperwork sitting untouched on his desk from three months ago that he will not touch for at least another three months

Does the crossword puzzles in the newspaper every week

Uses humor as a coping mechanism and it honestly just became a personality

Constantly popping his joints. I'm sorry if you find this gross I too find it gross.

Probably brought home every stray animal he ever met ever until he was at least like 22 y/o

Tags: @wasabito @kittaliapenn

#jjk #jjk spoilers #jjk headcanons #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen headcanons #jujutsu kaisen spoilers #gojo satoru #satoru gojo #jjk gojo #jjk satoru #gojo headcanons #gojo satoru headcanons

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commentaryvorg · 3 years ago

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Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 29 - Resurrected Digivices! A New, Shining Light!

In this episode, looking for a way to fix their broken Digivices, Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino come across a dojo where BanchouLeomon forcibly trains them to understand their Digisoul better, and the Bio-Hybrids show up to make things a lot more do-or-die.

(The spoiler warning I brought up last episode also applies to this one; I will be mentioning secrets that are not talked about in the story until episode 45.)

The recap is… still actually reasonably short. I’m surprised; I suspected that the future unnecessarily-long recaps which I’ve been pre-emptively complaining about a lot are the result of low animation budget, so I guessed that they’d start becoming more common at around the point that the protagonists’ Digimon start evolving into Ultimate-level forms that must take a lot more time for the animators to draw. Still, I’m pretty sure it happens soon.

One thing you can kinda notice already in this episode is a decrease in animation quality. This happens to be an episode in the weakest, most low-detail art style, but even within that, things are looking a bit worse than other episodes in this style – probably because the animator spent a lot of their time this episode drawing some ridiculously detailed Ultimate-level Digimon designs. Legitimately my single biggest complaint about Savers is that it needed more animation budget, and we’re reaching the point in the series at which that begins to show.

Anyway, the episode opens on Kouki beating up a tree. He’s not happy about having lost to Masaru and co. last episode.

(This is, of course, rather similar to the kind of behaviour Masaru exhibits when an opponent has outmatched him in strength.)

The three Bio-Hybrids have regrouped at their camp. Neither Nanami nor Ivan seem remotely bothered about losing like Kouki is. Ivan actually goes this entire scene sounding like a normal, rational person, without a single comment hitting on a woman or doing his terrible one-note joke of unintentionally thinking out loud, it’s a miracle.

Kurata shows up on a video call to tell them not to worry about the DATS trio.

Kurata: “It’s hard to believe they’ll be a big threat to us when they don’t even have the backup of their organisation.”

It feels a little like Kurata is trying to reassure himself of this here. It’s fine, he destroyed DATS the organisation, so there’s no way these three people could possibly pose any threat to him even if they proved to be able to overpower his Bio-Hybrids. Kurata is definitely still completely in control of the situation.

Kurata orders them to focus on hunting down Digimon for now. Kouki is not happy with this.

Kouki: “Like I care about that. This… has to do with my pride!”

Just like someone else we know, he’s willing to disobey the orders of his superior in order to satisfy his pride and competitive streak.

Nanami: “I don’t care either way.”

Meanwhile, Nanami doesn’t give a damn that they lost. She’s similar to Kouki in that she’s in this for the fun of it, but different in that she doesn’t really give a damn about winning or losing in particular.

Elsewhere in the Digital World, as we catch up with the DATS trio (without Ikuto, because he went off on his own last episode), Yoshino is confirming that their broken Digivices really don’t work. The animation showing this is a bit odd, though, because she’s waving a completely Digisoul-less hand over the device; it unintentionally comes across like she’s not trying properly. You’d think the problem here would be that, while they can still summon their Digisoul like normal, they can’t use it on their Digivices. Nothing about having a broken Digivice should be able to prevent them from getting the Digisoul to show up at all – Masaru got his first ever Digisoul in episode 1 before he was even given a Digivice in the first place.

Though they’re in a different part of the Digital World than they were last episode, implying some travel time offscreen, this scene feels awkwardly like a repeat of the scene from the end of last episode – Yoshino and Tohma lamenting that they’re screwed without functional Digivices, Masaru insisting that they just need to find his dad. Tohma then asks how they’re going to find Professor Daimon when he could be anywhere, which surely is an issue that you’d want to address before you started wandering aimlessly through the Digital World in an attempt to find him?

Regardless, though they probably should have talked about this sooner, they figure out between them that their best chance of finding a lead on Suguru’s whereabouts is at Wanderer’s Cape, aka the place they visited in episode 16 that the Digimon avoided because the human expedition team used to have a base there.

As Masaru starts to head off, Tohma suddenly tackles him to the ground and holds a hand over his mouth. The Bio-Hybrids, in their Digimon forms, are here looking for them. Kouki really did decide to disobey Kurata’s orders in order to come and settle his fight, and apparently the other two were happy to tag along.

Our six protagonists hide behind some rocks – Gaomon is also covering Agumon’s mouth, amusingly – so they won’t be seen.

As Kouki taunts Masaru to come out and face him, Masaru strains against Tohma’s hold on him and the hand covering his mouth. Tohma made absolutely the correct decision to physically force Masaru to stay quiet here, because Masaru one hundred percent would impulsively yell back at Kouki and broadcast their location to the enemy while they’re currently incapable of defending themselves.

Tohma: “Bear with it!”

But I love the phrasing Tohma uses here, because it shows how much he gets Masaru. He’s not thinking that Masaru would shout back at Kouki simply out of being stupid and careless. He knows that Masaru finds it almost physically painful to feel powerless against an enemy taunting them and would want to do anything he could to assert some kind of control over the situation, just because of who he is.

BioThunderBirmon: “You coward!”

Hearing this, Masaru strains even harder against Tohma’s hand, and again, Tohma tells him to “bear with it”. He knows that Masaru’s desire to yell back doesn’t have anything to do with logic or strategy and is simply about him not being able to hold back his emotions without outside help. And Masaru does stop straining quite as hard when he hears Tohma’s words!

It worked; the Bio-Hybrid Digimon pass through the area and leave without noticing them.

Masaru: “I’ll definitely pay them back for this next time.”

Pay them back for what, Masaru? They didn’t even do anything to you. Clearly he nonetheless sees “being made to hide and feel powerless and unable to fight back” as something worth getting back at someone for, which, of course he does. I love Masaru.

Now safe to head to Wanderer’s Cape in peace, they make it there only to find that the upside-down mansion underneath the jutting-out cliff has disappeared entirely. Instead, there’s a small building on top of the cliff that wasn’t there before. It’s a “Digisoul Dojo”, according to the sign on the door, which is written in Digicode and translated for us by the subbers, who are Digimon nerds enough to know Digicode as well as Japanese.

BanchouLeomon is here, standing on the dojo’s roof, because he still can’t not be incredibly extra about everything.

Of course, Suguru must have suspected they’d come looking for him at some point to seek out more knowledge about their Digivices, especially after BanchouLeomon gave them that vague advice about “power” last episode. I imagine he built the dojo here on purpose, the one place that DATS would know is connected to Suguru and would come to first when they wanted to find him.

Masaru: “What happened to the mansion here?”

BanchouLeomon: “I don’t know.”

Honestly, I don’t know what happened to the mansion either. He could be telling the truth, and it just disappeared of its own accord without his knowledge through some Digital World weirdness. That said, I also wouldn’t put it past him to be lying that he doesn’t know, and actually he destroyed it himself, for… some reason? Maybe there was something in there he didn’t want them to find? Maybe he just wanted to distract them from his connection to Suguru by acting like this dojo is a totally unrelated thing?

The mansion being gone doesn’t make the most 100% airtight sense, but it is nonetheless a very deliberate non-coincidence that BanchouLeomon showed up here of all places.

I talked last episode about guessing whether it’s Suguru or BanchouLeomon in control in each of his appearances, and for this episode, I’m very sure it’s meant to be Suguru. Admittedly he’s still being rather extra by standing on the roof – I bet BanchouLeomon had a say in that decision – but otherwise he’s somewhat more subdued and less over-the-top than he was in the last episode. But most pointedly, all of the teaching about Digisoul he’s about to do is definitely more Suguru’s area than BanchouLeomon’s.

Because I can definitely do it!

The narrative really likes punctuating BanchouLeomon’s appearances extra-dramatically by having things cut to the opening soon after he shows up. Here’s the final lyric of the first opening, because at last this is the final episode that this opening is used for! (In the normal sense, at least.) Yes, yes, I know I’ve been kind of grasping to find something worthwhile to mention about this opening for every single one of 29 episodes, shush. It’ll be easier with the next one, because there’s more stuff going on in that opening and fewer episodes for it to be spread between.

BanchouLeomon: “What is the Digisoul?”

Anyway, this is the question BanchouLeomon posed to them before the opening, which he repeats again after the opening for more dramatic emphasis. As Masaru asks him what the hell he’s even talking about, he leaps off the roof to come stand closer to them. I wonder if Suguru was feeling kind of awkward about having this dramatic booming conversation with them from such a distance and wanted to do things a bit more normally.

Masaru: “What? Wanna take a shot at me?”

Masaru no, him coming closer does not automatically mean he wants to fight you, stop trying to fight him. (Of course he still wants to fight a tough guy like BanchouLeomon. Man, if only he knew.)

BanchouLeomon asks them again what the Digisoul is.

Masaru: “Huh? What are you talking about? It has to do with evolution… right?”

Yoshino: “What are *you* talking about? The Digisoul is… … … Huh? What is it anyway?”

There’s a comedic quiz-show like sound effect during Yoshino’s long pause as the others all stare at her expecting her to answer.

I kind of like how the trio’s response to this is to scoff at the apparently obvious question – of course they know what the Digisoul is, it’s that thing they use all the time to evolve their Digimon, right? – only to realise, when they think about it, that they don’t actually have the first clue what it really is and how it works to cause their Digimon to evolve at all.

BanchouLeomon: “I see. It’s only natural that your Digivices broke from that dismal level of understanding.”

The reason their Digivices broke last episode isn’t necessarily that they can’t handle Ultimate-level power at all, but rather that they couldn’t handle an Ultimate-level Digisoul that wasn’t properly under control, because their wielders didn’t understand how Digisoul works in order to be able to control it.

Also, look at BanchouLeomon – Suguru – just casually dropping the fact that their Digivices broke when they haven’t actually told him that yet. Maybe he’d been eavesdropping on them sometime earlier, or maybe he just guessed that that would have happened based on everything else he knows about how this works and why they’d even come looking for him.

Masaru: “What did you say?!”

Tohma: “How did you know that?”

That incongruency goes completely over Masaru’s head because he’s too caught up on the perceived insult, but Tohma picks up on it.

BanchouLeomon: “Follow me. Then the path to your future will open.”

With that utter lack of an explanation for anything, he heads inside the dojo. Suguru sure is being incredibly vague here, but I imagine that’s on purpose, for more than one reason (the biggest one being that he can’t let them know he’s Suguru and so he doesn’t want to make it obvious just how much he knows about this stuff).

The trio confer on what to do. Tohma figures they have no choice because it’s clear BanchouLeomon must know something, like he picked up on. Masaru is just hoping for an excuse to get to fight him, because of course he is. The three of them figure they might as well go along with whatever this is and head inside. Their Digimon partners try to follow, but BanchouLeomon shows up again to block their way.

BanchouLeomon: “This is something you’ll need in order to fight alongside them in future. You should believe in your partners and wait.”

That’s… not actually a very good reason why they should stay outside? If this is something they need in order to fight with their human partners, surely it’d help for them to be with their partners while the humans learn this new power?

But I think that this being a load of profound-sounding bullshit is the point. Suguru wants the Digimon to stay outside because that’s part of the real test he’s putting them through here.

Tohma: “Now, tell us. What do you know?”

BanchouLeomon: “Before that, let me tell you one thing.”

Suguru is still very deliberately fobbing off any questions about this. You might as well stop asking, Tohma, the lion man does not want to tell you anything about himself or how he knows this stuff.

BanchouLeomon: “As long as you are unable to get a good command of your Digisouls, you will have no future.”

Harsh, but also basically true in a general sense – if they can’t gain command of an Ultimate-level Digisoul, they’re very dead when it comes to fighting against Kurata’s forces. He says this kind of out of nowhere, but I suspect this may be Suguru justifying to himself what he’s trying to do here (more on that later).

Masaru: “Shut up! You’ve got no right to go on lecturing us!”

At this, Masaru rushes forward to punch him. While BanchouLeomon is of course being frustratingly vague, I don’t think that’s the only reason Masaru takes issue with it – I think he also does not appreciate the implication that if he can’t do this (weird and vague and confusing) thing, then he’s not good enough at all.

BanchouLeomon dodges the punch and then summons three wooden training dummies which can move on their own, somehow, either through some weird Digimon power of his or because he built them that way, I guess? He claims that in order to complete this training, they must completely destroy the dummies, and this will open up their new power. It is very questionable that doing such a thing would be enough to unlock a greater understanding of Digisoul, and again, I believe that this claim being complete bullshit is entirely the point and that’s not really what Suguru’s after here.

Yoshino: “We never agreed to this! We just wanted to repair our Digivices!”

Yoshino continues to be the best and the most focused on the immediate practical problem. Tohma entered the dojo to try and figure out what BanchouLeomon knew that he wasn’t letting on, Masaru entered for the chance to get to fight him – only Yoshino was still focused on what they actually came here to do.

Masaru drops his fighting stance to glance back at her with a brief look that very much seems to be saying “oh yeah, that’s what we came here for, I forgot”. Oh, Masaru.

BanchouLeomon: “Be more aware of your gullibility. If you can’t overcome this trial, everything you do will be futile.”

Yoshino already knows that things will be futile if they don’t fix their Digivices, and since BanchouLeomon is currently being incredibly vague about whether or not this “trial” will actually fix them, it’s a bit much to call her “gullible” for not buying into his training dummy nonsense.

I wonder if this is him accidentally letting slip the fact that the three of them were being “gullible” to even enter the dojo in the first place. Tohma declares that this is absurd and ludicrous – a very correct assessment – and goes to leave, only to get a mild electric shock as he touches the door. BanchouLeomon’s sealed the dojo with a barrier.

BanchouLeomon: “Your training has already started. You can’t get out of here until you’ve completed it.”

Masaru: “Don’t leave out something important like that!”

I love Masaru taking issue at this. Of course he’d be frustrated at someone else not being up-front about their intentions and hiding important things about what’s going on. Underhandedness and trickery is so not Masaru’s style and he hates others using it on him, too.

(Oh man if only he knew who just used that kind of tactic on him. Honestly, I bet Suguru’s got to kind of hate being in a position where he has to do this. Masaru gets it from him; Suguru must really desperately wish he could just be up-front and straightforward about all this, too. There’s a reason he isn’t, and apparently it’s something even Suguru is willing to compromise his manly principles for.)

In his frustration, Masaru rushes forward for another punch. He’d clearly prefer his target to be BanchouLeomon, but a training dummy gets between them before he can connect, so that’ll have to do.

BanchouLeomon: “For power, you need a strong heart and unwavering courage!”

He’s… not entirely wrong here, but he’s still being very unhelpfully vague. This training is supposed to help them learn what the Digisoul is, but he’s not telling them what it is, even though, being Suguru, he knows the answer perfectly well. It seems like he’s doing things in this indirect way because he feels they’ll learn better if they figure it out themselves. (Hey, that at least is actually good teaching principles!) Masaru is certainly someone who’ll internalise a lesson better that way.

Outside the dojo, the Digimon partners are sitting around bored. Agumon’s chasing a baby Botamon for some reason, maybe to try and ask it questions about what’s been going on around here? Who knows. It’s scared of him and gets away before he can catch it, at any rate. (Let’s be charitable to Agumon and assume that, since it’s a fellow sapient Digimon, he wasn’t planning to eat it. I don’t think Digimon prey on each other in this universe? It’s not really brought up at all, for understandable reasons.)

Lalamon and Gaomon discuss whether they trust BanchouLeomon. Lalamon decides that she thinks they should, but can’t explain why. He certainly hasn’t given them any particular reason to trust them and has been acting rather vague and suspicious, but I suppose Lalamon can nonetheless intuitively pick up that his intentions are good. Gaomon doesn’t seem quite so sure, though he reluctantly decides to trust him anyway (not like they have a choice). Being a lot more cautious and analytical, like Tohma, it follows that he’d not quite be able to let go of all the weird ways BanchouLeomon’s been acting.

(Agumon’s only contribution to this conversation is the fact that he’s hungry. It’s kind of a shame that’s all he’s got to say here, because I’d have been interested to hear his take on BanchouLeomon. Probably something along the lines of trusting him because he’s cool and strong and a banchou, knowing him and his aniki.)

Back in the dojo, Masaru and Tohma are beating up the training dummies. Masaru’s taking on one while Tohma takes on two, which I’m surprised Masaru isn’t complaining about. We can see their difference in fighting styles here, with Masaru’s full-bodied punches contrasted with Tohma’s quick, sharp boxing jabs.

Yoshino: “Keep it up…”

Yoshino, who isn’t a fighter at all, is awkwardly sitting on the sidelines, cheering them on in a very deadpan way. She doesn’t want to be here and probably thinks this whole thing is ridiculous but has no choice but to sit and wait for those two to sufficiently beat up the dummies so she can leave. I love her exasperation that gets across here.

BanchouLeomon: “The Digisoul is not controlled solely by brute strength. It is mastered using the cries of your heart and the strength of your will! That is the shortcut to the ultimate Digisoul!”

Masaru: “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

I don’t blame Masaru; BanchouLeomon really is continuing to be so unhelpfully vague and metaphorical. Surely Suguru can’t be expecting Masaru of all people to actually get what he’s on about here. That’s probably intentional, because he’s just stalling until the real point of this lesson comes to pass.

But also, to be fair, Suguru has been stuck in the Digital World for ten years, barely talking to anyone at all, especially not other humans. He’s probably a bit out-of-touch about how to communicate things properly by this point. Maybe that’s a part of why he’s being so weird about this, too.

Outside again, the Digimon partners have got bored enough that they’ve started playing hopscotch, which is pretty cute. I bet it was Lalamon who suggested the game, since she’s been with Yoshino for most of her life and would be most likely to know playground games like this. Shame that hopscotch isn’t exactly something Lalamon herself can actually play.

They’re interrupted by the Bio-Hybrids showing up – in human form, for some reason, even though they were flying/running around in their Digimon forms in the earlier scene. Absolutely nobody can grasp the idea of staying evolved for more efficient transport, can they.

In the dojo, Masaru succeeds in punching one of the dummies hard enough that it falls to pieces… but then it glows and reforms itself. BanchouLeomon made these dummies to be resilient enough to utterly refuse to be destroyed by anything less than an Ultimate-level Digisoul. Somehow.

BanchouLeomon: “You can’t just discharge your Digisoul. Refine it, condense it, and focus all of it into one point!”

Even aside from the fact that this advice is still probably too vague for Masaru to grasp, the thing is that Masaru’s not even using his Digisoul at all right now! He can’t practice how to focus his Digisoul if his Digisoul isn’t even active! (Though, weirdly, we’re still hearing the Digisoul sound effect when he punches the dummies, but we’re not seeing it, so I have to assume it’s not actually there.)

They’re interrupted by a crashing sound from outside. The Bio-Hybrids have evolved (offscreen, raising even more questions as to why the writers had them show up in human form in the first place) and are attacking the DATS Digimon, demanding to know where their partners are.

Agumon: “You think we’ll tell you?!”

BioCoatlmon: “They’re inside that building, right?”

I mean, it doesn’t take a genius, but. There really is only one place the humans could possibly be hiding, in this wide open clifftop with a single building on it.

BioThunderBirmon: “Now that we know that… you’re in the way.”

They’re… not, though? They’re tiny compared to you and also you can fly. Feels more like Kouki being his usual cruel self and taking an excuse to beat up some defenceless victims on the way to his main goal.

The partner Digimon are determined to stand their ground until their partners come out of there with new power like BanchouLeomon promised they would. Which, honestly, is a bit of a weird approach to this situation? The Digimon don’t know that BanchouLeomon sealed the building with a barrier and their partners are literally trapped inside there at the moment. You think their response to this situation would be “okay, screw the training, we need to get our partners and get out of here right now”. Though I suppose that either way their Digivices are broken and so fighting back is out of the question unless some new power suddenly happens like BanchouLeomon is insisting it will.

Agumon: “I’ll beat the crap out of those guys for Aniki!”

Oh, Agumon, sharing his aniki’s trait of refusing to acknowledge how utterly outmatched he is.

As BioThunderBirmon fires an attack, the group inside the dojo hear and feel an even louder crash from outside.

Tohma: “What’s going on out there?!”

BanchouLeomon: “Even if you knew, there’s nothing you can do.”

That sure is a harsh way of putting it. But then, given that it’s Suguru saying this, maybe this line is actually pretty telling. Suguru’s spent the past ten years trapped over here (well, sort of), probably constantly wondering what’s going on back home in the human world and how his family’s doing. And yet… even if he knew, there’d be nothing he could do. This may well be something he’s told himself over and over again to try and cope with that desperate desire to just know, especially given how curiosity is one of Suguru’s defining characteristics.

Masaru: “You can’t say that, that only bothers us even more!”

Meanwhile, Masaru’s less bothered by the not knowing and more bothered by the not being able to do anything part of that statement, as always.

More impacts from outside break off pieces from the dojo, allowing them to see out through the translucent barrier to where their partners are badly hurt already. I love how Masaru unthinkingly rushes towards Agumon as if to protect him, forgetting in the heat of his worry about the barrier being electrified.

Tohma: “BanchouLeomon! Lift this barrier right now!”

BanchouLeomon: “I can’t do that.”

Let’s be real. He totally could. He made this barrier; he can take it down. It’s completely unreasonable to think that it’ll somehow unavoidably stay up until they complete their “training” and he didn’t think to include a failsafe in the event of an emergency like this. If that was actually what was going on here, BanchouLeomon would be a huge fool and the worst trainer ever. But Suguru’s no fool.

What I’m sure is really going on here is that this is the moment Suguru deliberately set up and has been waiting for this whole time. He wanted the humans trapped inside this barrier and unable to help as their Digimon partners face mortal peril outside, because that’s the sort of situation that’s going to trigger an Ultimate-level Digisoul out of them. The dummies and the vague “teachings” were nothing but an excuse to stall for time until the Bio-Hybrids showed up.

BanchouLeomon: “If you want to leave this place… hurry and finish your training!”

He’s still not telling them that, though. Telling them it’s a setup and that he could take down the barrier and go out there to kick the Bio-Hybrids’ asses any time he felt like it would rather defeat the purpose, after all.

(Granted, this is a huge risk Suguru’s taking. If the humans aren’t capable of achieving their Ultimate levels right here, he’s literally getting their partners killed. However, he probably figured that’s a fair risk to take, because if they’re not capable of reaching Ultimate level, they and their partners are going to end up dead sooner or later anyway. He basically said as much earlier, which is why I think that line might have been him justifying this to himself.)

Outside, the Digimon partners are forcing themselves to their feet. They don’t even seem to have noticed that the wall of the dojo behind them has broken and that their partners can see them. They’re in too much pain to turn around right now, and it also seems like the barrier is one-directionally soundproof.

Agumon: “Aniki and the others *will* get stronger and come back! For us, in Aniki…”

Gaomon: “In Master…”

Lalamon: “In Yoshino…”

Agumon, Gaomon & Lalamon: “Our belief is strong!”

I say “one-directionally soundproof”, because the humans inside the dojo can evidently hear this. Imagine how they’re feeling as they realise how much their partners believe in them, to the point of fighting against ridiculous odds because of that belief in them, and yet right now they’re not living up to that belief and their partners are going to die if they don’t.

The Bio-Hybrids fire off more attacks at the Child-levels, who cry out in pain as their human partners watch helplessly. (It’s honestly kinda surprising that this hasn’t killed them by now, but I guess they really are being that determined. And/or, being partnered with a human has some serious perks in terms of making a Digimon very resilient and difficult to kill.)

As the smoke from the attacks clears, Gaomon and Lalamon are collapsed on the ground, but Agumon isn’t with them. BioThunderBirmon is hovering above a hole in the ceiling with an injured, helpless Agumon in his claws.

BioThunderBirmon: “Daimon… MASARU! Stop sightseeing inside there and come on out already. If you don’t, he’ll die.”

Really, for the sake of Kurata’s genocide mission, the Bio-Hybrids should simply kill the Child-level Digimon right here while they’re defenceless. That’s way more important than getting to the humans, who can’t do anything significant on their own without partners. But since this isn’t on Kurata’s orders and is Kouki going rogue to settle the score from last episode (while roping Nanami and Ivan into coming with him), it seems that Kouki won’t be satisfied without proving he’s stronger than Masaru at his full strength. He really doesn’t want to just kill Agumon as Agumon if he can help it, because that wouldn’t prove much at all.

But of course, Masaru is in no state to realise any of this. He stares up in horror at Agumon, his best friend, hurting and helpless at the mercy of the enemy who’s about to kill him and there’s nothing Masaru can do…

…and he grimaces in an indescribable kind of emotional agony as he flares up with Digisoul, roaring with desperation. BioThunderBirmon sees the light from outside the building – they recognise it as the same light from last episode – and drops Agumon in surprise, but it doesn’t matter. The emotions have been triggered; this is what Suguru was looking for.

BanchouLeomon: “That’s not enough. Don’t leave it all to your emotions. Control your Digisoul with the force of your will!”

Masaru: “Even if you say that, I don’t…”

Oh Masaru, still struggling to understand things in more metaphorical terms like that, even right now when he’s actually feeling the concept in practice.

(also please appreciate Masaru’s hair floating upwards ridiculously from the force of his Digisoul as he grapples with how to control this new power)

BanchouLeomon: “What do you wish for?”

Masaru: “Huh?”

BanchouLeomon: “What do you wish for?!”

Credit to him, now that the real point of the lesson is here and it actually matters, maybe Suguru’s not such a bad teacher after all. Masaru can’t understand things when he puts them more metaphorically, but framing things as a simple, direct question such as this is exactly what he needs – and surely his dad of all people would know that.

Of course Masaru knows exactly what he wishes for: right now, he wants to save Agumon and the others. As he focuses on that wish, his Digisoul controls itself into a concentrated glow around him.

BanchouLeomon: “The Digisoul is the power of a human’s feelings… and the Digimon respond to those emotions!”

Of course it is! On hearing this, Tohma remembers the whole thing about Digimon being influenced by human emotions, with a tone that sounds like he’s kicking himself for not drawing this connection sooner. Of course Digisoul was always just another form of that. What else would it be?

And, now that I can finally properly talk about what it is, I want to mention that I really love Digisoul as a worldbuilding concept. Every other Digimon series has human partners being required for Digimon to evolve at will, and it’s clear that this has something to do with their bond, but I was never really properly sold on why this was necessary. Digisoul gives a clear and tangible reason as to why humans are such an important part of the human-Digimon partnerships, like no other Digimon series does. That human emotions thing that we spent a lot of the early episodes establishing and exploring was always serving as worldbuilding not only for that itself but also to underpin the entire concept of Digisoul in general. It’s great.

BanchouLeomon: “Human desires are said to have seven different classifications.”

No, they don’t, shut up, this is not about the seven deadly sins, please forget he ever said this line in particular.

BanchouLeomon: “But… the untainted and genuine wish of wanting to protect someone is another type of desire.”

Surely Digisoul isn’t just about wanting to protect someone? There’s gotta be other things that fuel it than that. How I choose to interpret this whole thing in my universe where I pretend nobody ever mentioned the seven deadly sins at all is that it’s simply negative, uncontrolled human emotions and desires which influence Digimon against their will and cause them to rampage, while positive human emotions and desires that are more under the wielder’s control become Digisoul, which can make Digimon stronger while letting them stay in control of themselves.

BanchouLeomon: “Once you’re able to control that with your will, the ultimate Digisoul will be born!”

Again establishing the idea that a Digisoul this powerful needs to be properly under control in order to work right. Last episode, they had the emotions powerful enough to reach Ultimate, but because they weren’t conscious of the concept of Digisoul being human emotions, they weren’t able to control that power as much as they needed to in order for it to not break their Digivices.

Masaru: “Then, I’ll fire up these emotions without holding back!”

It’s very fitting that Masaru’s the first one to put this concept into practice, even before he consciously understood what Digisoul was. He’s always been the most openly emotional of the group, and it turns out that’s a lot of what makes him so powerful, so long as he can stay conscious of this now and keep his emotions under control.

Then Yoshino and Tohma decide to do it too, and they just kinda go “RRRRRRRGGGGH” and flare up with their own extra-glowy Digisoul within seconds. This is… kiiinda silly and doesn’t quite land right, I don’t think. They didn’t have that moment of extra-intense mortal peril for their partner like Masaru did, and while I’m sure they’re still worried about their own partners, that seems to have taken a backseat right now next to BanchouLeomon explaining Digisoul to them. At the very least, I feel like the writers ought to have put in maybe a few moments of them looking at their own partners, like they’re reminding themselves of their emotions and how determined they are to save them, before this works.

As it is, it kinda ends up coming across like this is something Tohma and Yoshino would have been able to do straight away if BanchouLeomon had just begun by telling them “so hey, Digisoul is the power of your positive emotions”, rather than him needing to orchestrate this perilous situation to have it trigger for them in practice like it very demonstrably just did for Masaru. Which, I mean, maybe that’s the case for those two, since they’re much less learn-by-doing people than Masaru is? But that still feels a little disappointing.

The other thing I might have considered doing if I were the writer here is simply have Tohma and Yoshino not manage to achieve their Ultimate-levels here in this episode, and leave it for a bigger personal moment for each of them in upcoming episodes now that they understand the theory of it. Buuuut unfortunately, with their Digivices broken, they kinda need to achieve this now, because otherwise they won’t be able to fight at all and that’d be awkward for upcoming battles.

Anyway, with all three Digisouls fired up and concentrated, BanchouLeomon orders them to charge those Digisouls into their Digivices. Yoshino (I love that it’s her) points out that their Digivices are still broken, but he tells them to do it anyway.

Masaru, of course, is the first one to just try it. It doesn’t only fix the Digivice, it also turns it into a new version called the Digivice Burst, which is basically the only bit of shameless merchandise advertisement that Savers has. A lot of other Digimon series have weird gimmicks with the evolutions that are screaming of being an attempt to sell toys to kids, but Savers just has two different kinds of Digivices and that’s it.

BanchouLeomon: “Your Digivices themselves took in your feelings and evolved.”

I… guess? I guess if Digisoul can evolve injured Digimon into a new and unharmed form, it can do the same for Digivices. I guess that’s supposed to be the same principle here as to how this worked. Still feels like a very weird way to word it, though.

BanchouLeomon really could have just mentioned from the beginning of all this that, oh hey, by the way, if you achieve Ultimate-level Digisoul then it’ll fix your Digivices. That might have made everyone a lot more happy about staying to do this “training”. Perhaps he didn’t because he didn’t want to make it obvious that he knew this would happen, just in case people might conclude something from that fact – more on that at the end of the episode.

Apparently just for drama’s sake, because he’s already achieved the power he needs to save Agumon, Masaru roars once again and flares up with even more Digisoul to the point that it completely disintegrates the training dummies and destroys the rest of the dojo’s structure. I suppose the point of this is that the dummies and the dojo’s barrier were always designed to be able to be destroyed by Ultimate-level Digisoul. BanchouLeomon technically wasn’t lying when he said that the goal of the training was to destroy the dummies.

It’s definitely just for drama’s sake and to be good old Masaru that he then leaps out of the ruins and punches BioThunderBirmon right in the face. This is the first time we’ve seen Masaru fire up his Digisoul without punching something first! (I don’t think the dummies are meant to count.) But he still wanted to do the usual evolution-heralding punch anyway. If nothing else, Kouki deserves to be punched in the face for taunting him while threatening Agumon’s life.

With that, he rushes to the injured Agumon’s side.

Masaru: “Sorry for the wait, Agumon!”

Aww, he feels bad that he didn’t figure all this out sooner so that Agumon wouldn’t have had to get so hurt! Friends.

Agumon: “I believed in you…”

Masaru: “Thank you.”

Awwwww, Agumon, and Masaru’s face upon hearing this again, and Masaru thanking Agumon for believing in him (when Masaru himself must have been doubting for a moment if he’d ever manage to find enough power to save Agumon in time). They are friends.

Masaru: “Digisoul Charge! Overdrive!”

Here’s the new evolution call! I enjoy how it works as a follow up to “Full Charge”; that was like charging up to 100%, and now we’re going overdrive, way beyond 100% to an even ridiculously greater power. Of course “Perfect” isn’t the final evolution level, what would ever make you think that, this is a shounen anime.

Oh, also Believer is here again and has been winding up since Masaru’s Digivice “evolved” (it has quite a long intro, so it only just hit the main part of the melody now). We haven’t heard it since Yatagaramon happened back in episode 25, so, again, it doesn’t feel played-out and gives an appropriately triumphant mood! I still really appreciate that Savers does this and wish more other Digimon series would.

The evolution animations are rather CG. It’s not precisely bad CGI, but it’s very noticeably shiny in a way that the also-CG Perfect-level animations managed to avoid being; those imitated the 2D animation style reasonably well as CG goes.

As with most Ultimate-level Digimon, ShineGreymon and MirageGaogamon are ridiculously elaborate armoured designs who are probably between them responsible for all of the drop in animation quality from hereon out, because the animators must have to spend so much of their allotted per-episode work time just drawing these guys over and over. I have drawn ShineGreymon three times myself, and all three times it was only because I absolutely had to for the purpose of the art I wanted to draw; I would never inflict that upon myself by choice.

I do at least like that ShineGreymon’s design has a kind of interesting body shape to it and isn’t as boringly humanoid as a lot of these elaborate armoured Ultimate-level Digimon tend to be.

Meanwhile, I have to roll my eyes at the way Rosemon’s evolution animation lingers for a long time on her butt and her boobs, just to make sure you know that she has them. Yep, Lalamon, tiny round flower, has gone Obligatory Sexy Lady mode, just like almost every feminine Digimon does in their final form. Ugh. I genuinely liked Lilamon as humanoid (and feminine humanoid) Digimon designs go, precisely because she wasn’t like this.

You know the evolution animations are taking a while when Believer has got onto its second verse by the time Lalamon’s begins. Still, since this is the very first time seeing these new ones, I suppose we can let them off this once.

Rosemon is so tiny next to the two armoured giants. Funny how it’s the obligatory sexy humanoid one who stayed human-sized rather than becoming just as huge as the other two.

BioThunderBirmon: “Don’t look down on us!”

They’re not actually doing that, except for in a very literal sense for the two huge ones, but Kouki really does not like being made to feel inferior, does he.

BioThunderBirmon flies at ShineGreymon, who just effortlessly stops him in mid-air with one hand and flings him to the ground. Then BioStegomon attacks MirageGaogamon and gets counterattacked, followed by BioCoatlmon going after Rosemon and getting hit. I’m not sure why the Bio-Hybrids are choosing their opponents on the basis of matching gender in this episode; I liked the way that Nanami in particular didn’t do that before and always went after Tohma.

Tohma: “I never dreamed the power of the Ultimate could be this overwhelming…”

Really? You’ve seen Mercurimon and how completely effortlessly he defeated your three Perfect-levels, you should know how this works.

BioStegomon: “What’s up with this difference in power…?”

EVOLUTION LEVELS, Ivan. I guess Kurata never explained those to you.

BioThunderBirmon: “I’ll never accept this!”

Kouki is a sore loser who does not like it when his opponents are unavoidably, ridiculously stronger than him.

The three Ultimate-levels finish the fight by firing off their big signature moves. Rosemon’s is called Forbidden Temptation and involves her getting a G-rated kind of naked before firing off a beam of rose petals, because of course this was totally 100% necessary in this kids’ anime. Sigh.

The resulting explosion is so huge it destroys the tip of the cliff entirely. We don’t see what happened to the Bio-Hybrids here in this episode, but they somehow managed to survive that, although they’re very much defeated for now.

Later, everyone’s devolved and talking to BanchouLeomon on the remains of the cliff as he congratulates them for achieving Ultimate level. He is still not owning up to the fact that the whole thing was really just a set-up to force them into a situation where their partners would be at risk enough to trigger Ultimate-level emotions from them, mind you.

Yoshino: “Thank you very much.”

BanchouLeomon: “No need for that. The credit all goes to the power that was inside of you.”

He’s honestly right there, because it’s not like his “training” actually helped much. I suppose this is the closest he’s going to get to acknowledging it was a set-up.

I’m kind of surprised Yoshino even feels grateful enough to be thanking him, when she was very Nope about the ridiculous training dummy nonsense the whole time and is definitely sensible enough to realise that all that “training” actually did was put their partners in mortal danger. The only thing BanchouLeomon really deserves to be thanked for is the explanation of how Digisoul is human emotions, so I guess it’s that?

Masaru: “I think you’re being too soft on us. If we’d made a mistake, who knows what could’ve happened to our Digimon!”

I enjoy Masaru being a lot more blunt about things instead of acting like everything went off without a hitch. Well, sort of – I enjoy the Masaru-like bluntness, but it does feel a little weird that Masaru would be openly acknowledging that he nearly wasn’t strong enough to save Agumon’s life.

So, actually, I think it’s possible this line is being misinterpreted by the subbers. Japanese doesn’t use subjects a lot of the time, leaving some sentences ambiguous, and from what I can make out, this seems like it’s one of those times. I think it could be that Masaru’s supposed to be saying Yoshino is being too soft on BanchouLeomon, and that BanchouLeomon ought to take flak for putting their Digimon at risk with a plan that could have easily gone wrong. This line might be some level of acknowledgement of the fact that BanchouLeomon’s plan was always about trapping them inside the dojo to helplessly watch their partners get nearly killed in the hope it’d trigger the Ultimate level.

Regardless of which way Masaru meant it, upon seeing his son being so full of spirit and fervently speaking his mind without caring whose feathers it ruffles, BanchouLeomon – Suguru – chuckles and gives this adorable fond dad smile. His little scamp has grown so big; he must be so proud! He managed to put on a firm poker-face for most of this episode while he was “training” them, but here at the end he can’t help but let a little hint of his feelings about Masaru slip through.

Masaru: “Anyway, BanchouLeomon! I’m gonna settle things with you someday!”

BanchouLeomon: “If that time ever comes, I’ll take you on.”

Masaru: “Great! Don’t forget what you just said!”

Aaaa, Masaru being Masaru and just wanting to fight a tough opponent, with no idea that he’s actually asking to challenge his dad, and his dad happily agreeing that he’ll meet that challenge one day, still with that fond look in his eyes. Even if you ignore the obvious fatherly affection on his face, this is clearly Suguru and not BanchouLeomon saying this here, because he’s so much more subdued than the LOUD AND BANCHOU BanchouLeomon would be about such a challenge.

(At least Masaru has regained his priorities enough to realise that trying to fight BanchouLeomon right now would not be the best use of their time. Remember that genocide you guys are supposed to be stopping?)

BanchouLeomon asks them what they’re planning to do next, and they awkwardly mumble that they don’t know. Still didn’t really come here with much of a plan, but again, they were in a hurry, and it’s not like they know much about the Digital World and which areas of it would be most in need of defending. So BanchouLeomon points them towards a place called the Holy Capital, where a lot of Digimon will be needing their help.

As BanchouLeomon dramatically strides away on his own, Tohma is having some thoughts about everything that just happened.

Tohma: (When we gained better control of our Digisouls… our Digivices were programmed to evolve along with them. BanchouLeomon knew that. Just… who is he?)

This is a pretty big clue as to his identity, because we already know exactly who made the Digivices and therefore would have known about this! Or, well, at the very least, this observation of Tohma’s definitely proves that BanchouLeomon knows Suguru and must have heard about this from him, if nothing else. That he literally is Suguru is whole other leap that it’s fair for Tohma to not be making without reason.

(Of course, Masaru is not observant and analytical enough to have figured out anything along these lines. You just know he’d be all over it if he realised that BanchouLeomon definitely knows his dad.)

On my first viewing, this was when I became sure that BanchouLeomon was Suguru somehow. I’d been on the lookout for people who could turn out to secretly be Masaru’s dad basically ever since I heard he was missing. First I thought he might be Yushima (before we learned Yushima’s name and saw Suguru’s appearance), then I briefly thought this namedropped Ikuto guy could be him (before we learned Suguru’s name and met Ikuto), then for a bit I thought he might somehow be Mercurimon because I misinterpreted the scene where Mercurimon was remembering him. So this? This was finally the obvious correct answer to that question instead of a wild baseless conspiracy theory. Though I don’t know if the option would have occurred to me if I hadn’t been making so many wild theories on it – including thinking he could somehow be a Digimon – in the first place.

Overall thoughts

This seems on the surface to be a fairly lacklustre episode: our heroes punch some dummies while BanchouLeomon exposits vaguely at them, which is supposedly “training”, and then they evolve to their next level. For a while this was in my head as one of my least-favourite episodes in the series.

Doing this commentary on it bumped it up a fair bit, though, because I realised how much I appreciate some of the stuff going on beneath the surface. I really believe that the it’s the deliberate intent of the writers that the dummy-fighting and the vague advice is not actually the point of this “training”, and actually BanchouLeomon – Suguru – is using that as an excuse to effectively manipulate them into this predicament with the Bio-Hybrids which will trigger their Ultimate-level Digisouls. Now that’s a lot more interesting! Especially knowing that it’s got to be Suguru of all people being this underhanded and evasive.

While the bits where Yoshino and Tohma suddenly fire up their Ultimate-level emotions out of nowhere don’t really land right for me, Masaru’s emotional progression to that point at least is sold really well; I enjoy that part a lot. I also love that early bit where Tohma’s telling Masaru to “bear with” not being able to fight their enemies, because he actually gets that that’s practically painful for Masaru.

And then, this isn’t really a thing about this episode specifically but now’s the best time to shout it out in one of these summaries – man, I really love Digisoul as a worldbuilding concept to explain why human partnerships can power Digimon up, and the way it ties into the worldbuilding already established about how negative emotions influence Digimon. It’s just really good. Every other Digimon series wishes it had human-Digimon-partnership worldbuilding as good as the concept of Digisoul.

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[Dub comparison]

#digimon #digimon savers #masaru daimon #agumon #banchouleomon #tohma h norstein #gaomon #yoshino fujieda #lalamon #kouki #nanami #ivan #suguru daimon

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creativeashproductions · 4 years ago

Text

Elysium // Luke Patterson

Summary: The boys of Julie and the Phantoms need a hail Mary to dethrone Downslide from opening for Panic! At the Disco. While Willie is done to help his blue eyed crush and his friends there’s one issue: Willie can’t drive the bus. Moving a bench is one thing but driving an entire tour bus? There’s only one person who can and Willie’s not sure where she is after year of no communication

Warnings: Swearing, angst, talk of death (it’s a ghost show, why is this a warning??), mention of assault, violence, and fluff.

Words: 11.5k

A/N: This is why I haven’t posted much in the last week. I’ve been writing this massive fic that I refused to turn into a series. My god, 11k words. I don’t think I’ll be doing this again. Enjoy and comment if you figured out who Rudy is!

Masterlist

There wasn’t much in the afterlife that you enjoyed after time spent in the limbo between the living and dead. Listening to songs before they were released lost its appeal just as much as dancing on stage with the ballet companies around the world, of being an unseen extra in shows and films being filmed.

Then you found a purpose a couple, well it could be more than a couple, years ago when you found a lost soul. William Young, Willie to his friends, had been sitting on the curb staring at the pavement entirely still as he had for two days.

The time from the last breath you took to walking the streets of Los Angeles was a blur in all honesty. The years bled together as you stayed stationary in a world that kept on spinning and changing, growing up. You had watched your friends hit new milestones you could only daydream about. Friends that graduated college and built new lives on the ashes of memories that included you.

Today’s walk was an attempt to escape your friends’ greying versions standing in front of a once vibrant sculpture. It happened every single year, but this one hurt the most. Listening to your friends recall stories of all the adventures you did together.

From being drunken idiots jumping off cliffs into that one lake the summer of freshman year. Or making a bonfire on the school’s roof with all the entryways blocked, rather stupid with the exits being blocked as well. Sneaking into concerts and stealing that one car that came close to sending you to boarding school.

The rebellion that still lived in you had mellowed in the five individuals with the adult responsibilities of family and work. Martha had removed all piercings but her lobes while Chase quit dying his hair colour. Jordan now had three children and a bought house.

Seeing the group no longer young had made your feet swiftly move from the memorial for a walk. The only thing that stopped you in your tracks was tripping over something in front of you.

“Ouch.” You hissed rolling onto your back with a moan of pain that faded with the sniffles.

Curled into his knees, sitting on the curb was a teenage boy about your age. Long hair curtaining his profile you found your eyes grasping the cracked helmet that spoke for itself abandoned by his side.

“Your kinda a hazard there.” You simply spoke sitting down next to the distraught teenager, “Heads up, I suck at comforting people.”

At his silence, you spoke once more, “I’m digging the tie-dye. Did you do it yourself?”

“This is some kind of stupid coma dream right?” The boy’s voice was husky from crying and disuse, “I’m probably in some kind of hospital with a tube down my throat.”

“I’d say yes, but it would be a blatant lie.” You spoke twirling a loose thread on your jeans while the stranger gazed at a spot on the street.

His dark brown eyes bloodshot as he remembered the car honking mere seconds before he heard the sound of a thud. He recalled struggling to breathe with his broken ribs and his screams being illustrated with bloodstains.

He remembered thinking how he had just bought that board a week ago with his allowance.

“Am I really dead?”

“Yes. We’re are a couple ghosts in a lively city.” You informed him with one handheld in the space between your ethereal forms. The teen hesitantly placed his hand in yours with a firm shake.

“William but call me Willie.” He softly told you, catching sight of the patch on your jean jacket—one of many from both when your grandma owned it and then when you did.

“I’m Y/N. Let’s blow this disappointment. I’m gonna teach you everything you need to know.” Brushing off the invisible dust on your jeans, you held your hand out to him, “We’re about to make the afterlife our bitch.”

A stark contrast to his former hesitance he immediately grasped your hand to tug himself off the curb. The forlorn skater didn’t question the board in your hand or how he could possibly even touch his own board. He didn’t wonder how it wasn’t in pieces like it had been when he first got hit.

That rebellion that ended your life flared again in the presence of your best friend with crashing Justin Bieber’s house. Of rearranging items in classrooms to freak teachers out and sitting in the cars turning the radio on and off. Haunting the living until the friendship fractured under the influence of a powerful ghost.

Caleb Covington had bewitched the skater with promises and extravagant gifts until Willie had taken the offer.

“He’s not like you said he was! I think you should give him a chance!” Willie cried following you around the place you had taken to be home.

“Willie he’s a bad guy! He butters you up until you give him what you want! That’s when you see his true colours. All he wants is your soul to power his magic and spread his reach!”

“I got to talk to my sister!”

“Your sister is five years old! It’s not Covington that gave you the opportunity. She won’t remember the experience as anything other than an invisible friend!”

“There are so many people at the Club that we can talk to. Aren’t you tired of the same routine and people we see?”

Willie’s pleading brought your full attention to the skater avoiding your gaze, “William Young…you took his offer.”

Willie tore his gaze from the art on the wall to find yours blatantly glaring at him with a bucket of random colour in your hand.

“The Club is going to France to tour around the country for a while. I’m dead, so I might as well make the best of it. Besides who gets to skate through the Louvre!” Willie beamed, watching as a small smile, found its way on your face at his excitement, “I’m sure Caleb would let you come to the Club tonight!”

“Willie, you are my best friend, but I’ve already seen the Club. It’s not my style, and I want nothing to do with it.”

That interaction was one of the very few speckled through the years when Caleb discovered who you were. No matter his offers, you never took the deal and when he saw how close you and Willie where he kept the skater busy. The Club didn’t appear in Los Angeles for a long time until Willie’s distance seemed too great to bridge.

“So, you need a way for the slot to be empty?” Willie asked the trio of ghosts all spread around the area.

Unfortunately for Luke, the only person they could get help from was from the very guy that placed them in a predicament. While Alex was the one spearheading the conversation with the long-haired skater Luke was glowering in his direction.

“The Orpheum was the thing we never got to do. We spent hours practising and performing with one goal-“

“Play the Orpheum and get distance from our parents. Well, at the time that streetdog and becoming legendary was my main focus.” Reggie recounted the feeling of suffocating in a house filled with fighting. A home he wished still stood, now dead all he wanted was to see his parents.

“We almost did it too.” Luke pouted relaxing his glare at the skater who openly sent apologetic gazes at Alex’s bandmates.

“So, we need to get rid of the opening band.” Willie nodded to himself, thinking about ways before he caught sight of the abject horror on the band. The skater’s eyebrows raised, “I know I deeply fractured the trust, but I’m not suggesting murder.”

“Okay. Good.” Reggie whistled relaxing his tense posture while Luke grumbled under his breath an insult that in turn got Alex’s arm into the guitarist’s ribs.

“Your best bet would be getting the bus out of LA. The band will probably celebrate the upcoming gig.”

“Could you make the bus disappear?” Alex hesitantly questioned shifting in his now vintage sneakers. The blonde-haired drummer flushed slightly under the endearing smile from the skater. The feelings create a confliction within Alex under Willie’s issue, leading them straight into a madman’s hands.

“I can move a bench, turn sirens on, but a bus is outside my paygrade.” Willie openly admitted showing his hands deep in his pockets, “The only person other than Caleb that has enough power-“

“-is he just as evil?” Luke demanded crossing his arms to glare at the male that had unfortunately caught the interest of Alex.

However, Luke couldn’t blame Alex for falling for this guy because well, Luke saw the teenage ghost’s appeal. Willie was attractive, but he wasn’t the type of person Luke would fall for. Plus he had initially made Alex incredibly happy, and Luke would never blame Alex for that.

“She is as different from Caleb as one can be. She uh…she taught me everything about being a ghost. Actually, found me where I died.” Willie cleared his throat as the guilt and sadness reared its head from deep within him. The guilt of leaving his little sister to grow up without him and the sorrow of not growing up with the girl.

It wasn’t often Willie allowed himself to remember the little girl, barely five when he died, who was always dancing. His little sister adored the colour purple and anything shiny and more than once Willie had let her dress him up. Willie’s greatest regret is that he’d never have that interaction with her. God, she’d be around his age now and in high school.

“Okay, so where is she?” Reggie clapped his hands, bringing the skater out of his thoughts and back into the present.

Luke saw the hesitation in Willie, “There’s a catch, isn’t there?”

“Kinda?” Willie trailed off bouncing on the balls of his feet, “I haven’t seen her in years now. Last time I saw her we fought about the whole joining Caleb thing? I’m not even sure if she’s still in LA.”

“Of fucking course,” Luke grunted shoving both hands in his hair taking a few steps away from the other ghosts.

First, he dies, then he gets caught up in some bullshit revenge plot, then makes a deal with the devil without realizing it, and now their one chance is going up in flames. Luke Patterson was livid with the universe and the shitty hand he had been dealt, but at least he had his friends with him.

“It can’t hurt to look for her?” Reggie innocently offered with a shake of his shoulders, “It’s not like we have any other option.”

“Did we ever even have options?” Luke hissed, causing Willie and Alex each to flinch with the different guilt they carried.

Alex was guilty of going to Willie for help when getting back at Bobby was the biggest thing. Willie was guilty of ignoring his instincts on keeping Alex as far from Caleb as he could be he just wanted to impress the drummer. It’s not like Willie had many options for dating, and well, Alex was the first to get his entire focus.

“Dude. Stop. No one saw it coming.” Reggie bumped his hip against the annoyed guitarist, “Let’s find this ghost and get our shot at playing.”

The quartet of dead guys didn’t have high hopes of finding the girl in question, but it seemed the universe took pity on Luke Patterson. Just two hours into their search on the edges of the city limits an individual was walking.

The person’s stature leaned against a smashed concrete wall of the skeleton of where a building once was. The only thing the group could make out was a faded jean jacket with splotches of colour. Her ankles crossed as her back leaned against the cement, oozed laid back confidence. Coming closer, Luke noticed the sunglasses perched on top of her head and the lips painted dark.

“What do you need Willie? I heard you were looking for me.” The husky voice drew Luke in the most. The lead guitarist of Julie and the Phantoms enamoured with the girl.

“How’d-“Willie’s question was cut off as you simply tapped your right index finger against your temple.

“How do you think you managed to get here?” You inquired pushing off the cement to stride over to the group. To Willie’s surprise, he was tugged into your embrace before swiftly pushed away, “Come on. We should head in before someone catches us.”

In the dark as much as the other three ghosts, Willie dutifully followed you past the pieces of cement littered around the area. Gasps of surprise sounded as the once empty space became filled with buildings. It was not as extravagant as the hotel the Club worked out of, but it was hidden from the living and dead eyes.

“Where did this come from?” Reggie gasped astounded by the people once hidden from his view, moving around the area.

“This is Elysium. Don’t judge the name I lost the right in a poker game with Susie and Rudy. I’m Y/N.” You informed the group leading them to the gate where two people stood stoically guarding it, “Rudy was hellbent on calling it Valhalla.”

“This is Luke, Reggie and Alex.” Willie gestured to the awed trio of musicians only lingering on the blonde. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see the attraction between the skater and the blonde; finding a date in the afterlife was a lot harder than the living.

Nodding a greeting to the two ghosts, you lead the group to a building painted a pretty turquoise blue colour. The sign above the double doors a stark white with calligraphy writing simply stating Elysium Management. It was a building set up like an administrative office of three stories, and you led the group right up to the top floor.

“Just a heads up…Rudy is a little suspicious of people.” You admitted standing outside a door with a nameplate the only descriptor, “He’ll come off a little gruff and rude, but when you get passed that he doesn’t shut up.”

“I can hear you through the door dumbass.” The words were called out from the office door opening.

The man standing in the entry wore a crisp white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His honey-brown eyes lit up with a teasing look before it shuttered at the sight of four strangers behind you. Rudy had valid reasons to not fully trust people after the shitshow in his hometown when he was alive.

“And you’ve brought strangers.” Rudy deadpanned with a sigh concluding his sentence as he stepped back into the office. It appeared like the world repositioned itself on the young man’s shoulders once more.

“I should be done within the hour. We can go over everything.” You informed your business partner and friend. Receiving only a nod from Rudy, you closed the door to his office, cutting off the view from your guests.

“He’s..uh.”

“Standoffish? Rudy keeps his past to himself, all he’s ever revealed is that he’s from a town a few hours away.” You spoke, opening the door to your own office decorated differently from Rudy’s more sterile black and white aesthetic.

Your office had splashes of colour with vintage posters of both music and film framed on the walls—a plush couch in the corner with a basket of blankets next to it. Instead of sitting behind the dark desk, you chose the couch instead. As you settled in the corner, you flicked one finger bringing an extra seat over.

The motion shocking the three boys accompanying Willie who had seen the abilities himself.

“Okay so why did you want to search for me?” You questioned the skater leaning back in the seat.

“When did this all happen?” Willie countered gesturing to the office in a building settled in the middle of a ghost town. A literal ghost town.

“There’s an empty lot in LA that used to house an abandoned apartment building that Rudy and I both called home. Of course, it was torn down, and we kinda knew that there’s wasn’t a place that didn’t have the threat of being annihilated at some point.” The memories of those unknown days trickled into your mind among the more positive ones, “We wanted a home. A place to call our own.”

“A week or so later a skittish pixie of a brunette crashed into us full speed. Susie had a certain ability that Caleb desired to have under his thumb. There are so many ghosts he had manipulated into selling him their soul. Rudy and I both wanted to stop Caleb from having that chance for everyone.” You continued, “Can I show you?”

The moon shone through the light clouds as a duo wandered LA’s streets in different mental states. The only home you had known had been unceremoniously ripped down with no future plans in place. Your entire life had been in that apartment in a building you had once thought only you inhabited. You had been unaware that on a separate floor, Rudy had been dwelling.

The two teens in starkly different clothing grew close with each other through the whole being the dead thing they shared. The mission was to find another place too, use but the feeling of home being ripped away tore at their hearts. The apartment was a place Caleb Covington hadn’t been aware of.

Your thoughts threatened to turn darker as a force knocked you onto your bac—aA short brunette groaning in pain to the left of you. The girl was Gwen, who would become very important to both Rudy and you.

I’ve always been a little different than most people. I can move things short distances, but I developed a specific talent. I can get inside people’s minds to plant, remove or alter memories or simply talk and read their thoughts.

The sound of your voice in their heads freaked them out more than they would like to admit. The intrusive tickle of something in their brains unsettling as you made a more present entry so they could feel it.

“What?”

“This is why I can’t be anywhere near Caleb. The whole reason he gives people stamps and takes their souls is because of me.” You fully admitted clasping your fingers in your lap, “He couldn’t cope with the fear of another ghost leaving so added a stipulation to joining his Club.”

“How did you come to create Elysium?” Alex inquired leaning forward in his seat to rest his elbows on his knees. Luke and Reggie followed his posture as the anticipation built.

“Everyone deserves a safe place. A place as far away from Caleb as possible and we do so for free. No fee is required, and ghosts are free to come and go as they please. They are welcome as long as their unfinished business keeps them in this plane.”

It sounded like a sweet deal to the group of teens, but they had other commitments, “You can tell us more, but we need your help.”

The pleading in the messy-haired brunette tore at your heartstrings like the one time Willie brought you to his house. It had been shortly before your friendship fractured, a few years ago. He had brought you to a suburb for low-income families and straight to the backyard where a twelve-year-old year danced.

The dead skater boy and the rebel sat in the patio chair on the tiny porch nestled in the postmark sized backyard. A quintet of pre-pubescent girls danced on the lawn to some bubblegum pop song. The Young girl was submissive to a more confident girl even when the venue was the Young girl’s home.

“The girl to the left is my little sister Kayla. She’s twelve now, it’s been seven years since I died.” Willie’s brown eyes saddened at the dancer who had a spark of maturity in her eyes, “I check in every once in a while. These are Kayla’s friends. The bossy girl is Carrie, and while the band is a group, she is the unofficial leader of the band Carrie’s Constellations.”

“She looks happy.”

“Kayla’s always been bubbly in personality, but she had questionable friends.” Willie outright admitted keeping his eyes pinned to the girl that had grown up in a blink of an eye. Her dark hair concealed by the gaudy purple wig; the colour assigned to the teenager.

“It’s nice that she still enjoys dance.” Willie finished reaching out to grab your hand in his and just like that Willie transitioned back into carefree, “I found this really cool skatepark I think you’d like.”

“We don’t have a lot of time.” Alex winced as the three musicians flinched as a sudden purple spark of colour lit up their midsections.

Like a tentacle, your mind reached into the quiet raven-haired boy with the leather jacket. Beyond the imagery of docile golden retrievers and steaming plates of food, you found the regret and fear in the boy. Stepping into a recent memory, you watched their experience at the Hollywood Ghost Club.

“You’ve met Caleb.” You sighed roughly pushing your index finger between your brows feeling the familiar ache.

“It was a stupid decision,” Luke spoke up, tearing his focus from the mysterious girl that ultimately had the power in her hands. The entire plan was weighing on the decision you would give, “Either we join his house band, or we don’t exist.”

“Hm.” You spoke as the kaleidoscope of colours in Luke’s eyes glittered under the sterile lights of the room. It was difficult to look away from the enthralling teenage ghost, but the emotion wafting off Willie was concerning.

“They died before they could perform at the Orpheum. We’re banking that getting the opening slot with giving them the push into crossing over.” The long-haired skater leaned closer, “I know we haven’t talked in a while, but I can’t do much.”

“So, you want to pull ’09 incident again?” You completely ignored the trio on the couch staring directly at the sheepish skater with raised eyebrows, “Only this time without the train?”

“Train?” Alex whispered, looking between the two long-time friends with interest and then next thing he knew Alex was in the backseat of a van crushed between Reggie and Luke equally confused.

Chicago, Illinois 2009

William Young and Y/N Y/L/N were complete hellions in the ghost world, creating havoc that fascinated the living population. The recent event being the highjacking of a van filled with drunk teenage boys. These boys had been the sole reason a young girl was recovering in a hospital with life-threatening injuries. The scene changed to a hospital room with Willie and Y/N watching a girl with massive bruising laid.

It had hit both Willie and Y/N hard catching the tail end of the new report, Willie thinking of how that could have been his sister. Even if Kayla was only five years old, having a sister set things more in perspective. For you it was a flashback to when you were alive and thus led you to the ICU room for the girl.

Slipping into her unconscious mind was easy but while the injured teen appeared peaceful to the hospital staff, she was anything but. The poor girl’s mind replayed the traumatic incident over and over like a movie; keeping in the shadows, you gently repainted the portrait with lighter and brighter images.

For Willie, he watched as you wavered on your ghostly feet and smoothed out the features of the girl. The heart monitor subtly changing as the injured girl relaxed, and suddenly your interference heightened her chances of survival.

“I got it.” You spoke to Willie with a heated glare on your features and when the ghostly musician trio blinked they were back in the van.

Your hands gripped the van’s steering wheel with Willie turned in the passenger seat to watch a group of living boys scream. To the living eyes in the van, no one was in the front seats but whispered words spoke into their minds.

You’re going to go straight to the police and tell them what you did. You’ll hand over the photographic evidence and demand the worst punishment. You’ll leave the girl alone, or we’ll come back to finish our job. You will pay for the hospital bills if the family agrees.

The boys trembled with the putrid scent of urine permeating the enclosed vehicle. The distant sound of a train echoed in the distance as the van stopped on the tracks. No matter how much the living boys moved the doors refused to open, and the windows remained unbreakable.

“WE promise!” The ringleader cried, slamming his shoulder against the door with the train’s bright lights illuminating the van.

“Let us go!” The other screamed, slamming his bruising hands on the window.

Alex was flinching at each slam of fists on the glass, leaving smears of blood. Knuckles broke from the window. At the very last second, your foot slammed the gas pedal taking the van millimetres from the train screeching on the tracks.

You and Willie stared at the stationary train lit up from the van’s headlights with the rhythmic flashes of the red and blue police lights. The van’s seat arrangement was different with the ringleader in the driver’s seat.

The three ghost musicians standing unseen behind the duo but in the real world out of the dreamlike memory you knew.

Elysium, Present Day

“Holy fucking shit.” Alex cussed out of breath, leaning back on the couch with shaking limbs and fear in his bloodless veins.

Luke’s eyes blinked owlishly at the boy that he had once thought could never do something as terrifying and torturous. He was afraid to even ask the outcome of the life-threatening incident you did on the assailants.

“That is the reason for the train.” You barely glanced at the shaken trio to stare at who had once been your partner in crime, “Willie, I have responsibilities here. We just opened a new division for the children we house here.”

“It would take a few hours.” Willie pleaded, positioning his hands into a pleading position turning on his charm. The puppy eyes you had always struggled to say no to as if you weren’t the type of person easily capable of staying strong.

“We’ll do anything.” Luke pleaded just as much recalling the countless times he had charmed himself out of situations, “Please help us.”

“I’ll have to make arrangements with Rudy and Susie, but I might be able to pull some strings. I’m really sorry Willie, but I’m gonna need to erase your knowledge of this place. There are too many people depending on this setup.”

Outside the Orpheum

Outside the legendary venue, three out of four band members for Julie and the Phantoms walked up to the marquee. Hopefully, the letters for Downslide would be changed into their band name just under the main act. Everything was riding on Willie and Y/N’s capabilities. Trusting the skater was challenging to do and more so someone they didn’t fully know.

“Look, don’t worry, guys. Willie said he’d get us on that marquee.” Alex soothed his friends on each side of him. All three wearing concerned expressions at the place that hopefully was their last stop before crossing over.

“This is gonna work, right?” Reggie questioned with his hand confidently sliding into the pockets of his black jeans. The relaxed posture a juxtaposition to the anxiety and nerves on his flushed face.

“It has to.” Luke’s lips pursed into a pout with his words tinged with a dialect different from his best friends. The faint souvenir from the place he spent a few years growing up before moving to LA.

Luke’s words were highlighted by the groans of pain as that flash of purple courtesy of Caleb’s death stamp appeared. All three hunched over clutched their chests breathing through the pain; Luke was the first to unfurl his form.

“Whoa!” You gasped flashing underneath the marquee beside Willie. Rushing to give Luke support without even a second thought.

When the aftershock faded, the guitarist stood straight up with a thankful smile that boarded on adoration.

“Are you guys, okay?” Willie asked, keeping back with the swell of guilt that happened, seeing the familiar symptoms of post-shock. He had felt them a time or two in the time he had sold his soul to his unfortunate boss.

“Yeah, it’s nothing we haven’t felt before,” Alex replied, rubbing his hand over the baby blue shirt he had chosen today. His blue eyes doing their best to avoid looking into the puppy-like ones of the skater, “How’d it go?”

“Well, when that opening band wakes up, they’re gonna find their bus 200 miles outside of Vegas.” Willie proudly announcing turning on his heel to show off the Downslide jacket he took from the lead singer. His fist extending to bump yours instinctively before he did so with Luke.

“With no chance of getting back in time.” You snickered in response living on the adrenaline and nostalgia of the rebellion. With Elysium, you had turned around your life, “Meaning-“

“-there’s probably a promoter upstairs right about now freakin’ out.”

“Nah. This is Hollywood, man.” Willie scoffed with a wave of his hand matching the one you supplied, “I’m sure he’s being very professional.”

As Willie finished his sentence up in the promotor’s office out of earshot of the ghosts stood a very pissed adult. His finger-wagging his finger with teeth clenched, his flushed skin a juxtaposition to the cheery blue Hawaiian style shirt. Frank Wolfe couldn’t believe how stupid his once opening band was.

“What do you mean the bus drove itself into the middle of the desert?” Frank questioned progressively growing more and more frustrated. His assistant Tasha casting concerned looks to her typically collected boss, “BUSES DON’T DRIVE THEMSELVES!”

Tasha flinched at the sudden loud growl of the sentence but more so as Wolfe starting slamming the phone into the cradle. Her fingers halting on her keyboard, going over the list of frequent acts. Unfortunately, the five acts had other commitments causing Tasha to fear tonight. The blonde lady was worried Wolfe could have a breakdown once more.

While Willie snickered to his own words, your eyes, not your mind, could read that Alex wanted to talk to the skater. With only a teasing jab of your elbow in Willie’s ribs you shuffled around the drummer to join Reggie and Luke away from the ‘will they won’t they’ couple.

“So, can you do me a favour?” Luke hesitantly questioned you with his inquisitive eyes a greener colour in the sunlight. His attractive eyes took your full attention with a simple tilt of your head, “Julie’s family means a lot to us, and could you keep an eye on them?”

“And Carlos,” Reggie interjected rocking on his polished pleather boots he had spent ages on finding for his rocker aesthetic back in the ’90s.

“-Julie’s little brother.” Luke supplied at the confusion painted clearly on your pretty features. His green eyes scoured your face as he always did that flushed both his and your faces red.

“Yeah, of course, I can.” You firmly told the two dead boys each standing tense in front of you.

You could easily see the love they held for the living family that had come to mean so much in such a short amount of time. Since first meeting them you had always gotten the feeling that their living years weren’t the best. For Alex, it was living in the ’90s as a young gay teenager during a terrifying time for the LGBTQ+ community. Reggie flinched at the raised voices, and Luke had longingly stared after the happy families milling around the Elysium.

“Did you ever find out what your unfinished business was?” Reggie inquired fixing a strand of his dark hair that had fallen onto his blemish-free skin. Your smile faltered at his question; nonetheless, you answered.

“I did.” The two words carried a sense of pain with them. Your eyes unfocused recalling the euphoric feeling of seeing the breathtaking white light of the peace exuding from the beyond and the agony of denying crossing over.

“How-“

“Hey! Y/N!” Willie called out to the young denim wearing ghost with his beaming grin, “Don’t go stealing buses without me!”

Luke swore he could see your laughter in the air, just as endearing as the smoky quality your voice carried.

“Don’t go glitter bombing criminals.” You returned as your best friend dropped his board to skate off to wherever he was needed. It was bittersweet to reconnect with him knowing that it could be the last time.

When Caleb found out, not an if but a when Willie had a hand in helping his desired band it was high chance Willie would be gone. Caleb was all too powerful, and when he was betrayed, it never ended well.

“I need to get back to Elysium. Susie’s arrival is tonight. Good luck with tonight.” Your words were accompanied by a hug for each of the boys. The one with Luke lingering the most, “I wish you could play for the kids.”

“Yeah. Me too.” The brunette, messy-haired boy’s words carried a hidden desire simply to be in your space more. The teenage ghost helps those in limbo while wearing a jean jacket with patches from many decades. The jacket creating an unknown time you had lived.

“Goodbye, boys.” You told the trio before you poofed away from the busy streets of Hollywood where the band had come full circle in death.

“Are you guys, okay?” Reggie inquired his best friends, forgoing his casual personality for the layers underneath. His blue-green eyes filled with only concern.

Alex and Luke shared a lingering look, “Yeah. We’re okay.”

The dining hall was filled with long tables and chairs populated by the ghostly forms of everyone currently living at Elysium. It was reminiscent of a British book turned film series of youth with magic abilities. The series had been a favourite of a former resident.

“Incredible.” Susie breathed staring at the joyful people having a place to call home. Making the limbo between life and death more bearable.

“We’ve done well. You smiled, wrapping an arm around her waist, “It’s so nice to have you back.”

Elysium was so much more than you could ever hope for. It kept growing and growing with more ghosts. Since the founding of the haven, new developments continuously happened with one resident’s unique ability.

Harvey had joined the haven a year into the founding bringing the ability to gift the residents with the capacity to eat. During his life, Harvey had been a renowned chef and the dream to make food it carried into his death. As long as Harvey cooked the food with his volunteer staff ghosts were able to eat it.

“Harvey has outdone himself again,” Rudy announced his arrival at your side with his arms crossed, displaying his corded muscles. The constellation of moles on his face standing on his pale creamy skin.

“Rudy!” Susie squealed, throwing herself into his arms with the same glee that came each time. Susie and Rudy since their first meeting had a special bond as chosen siblings who bonded over heartache.

Rudy had died, leaving his best friend and his strawberry blonde girlfriend in the living world back in their dark hometown. It was just one tidbit he had revealed throughout your friendship. The only physical connection to his living friends was the three picture on his desk of a group of people.

The first picture had a lean version of Rudy with his arms thrown over a Hispanic boy with a crooked jaw and glimmering brown eyes. The Hispanic boy had his arm around a pretty brunette girl with deep dimples and wavy brown hair. The two boys wore a sports uniform of some kind holding lacrosse sticks.

The second picture had Rudy and the Hispanic teen again but with a beautiful petite strawberry blonde. Along with them was a brunette with blunt chin-length hair and hardened features besides a shorter blonde male with blue eyes.

The last picture was of Rudy with the same Hispanic boy wearing graduation caps and gowns with two beaming adults. The male adult wore a tan shirt adorned with a star on his left pec and dark brown pants. He had to be Rudy’s father with similar features. The woman was of Hispanic descent with laugh lines, and thick dark curly hair pulled into a half do; obviously the Hispanic teen’s mother.

The pain in Rudy’s face each time he saw the pictures closed off a desire to ask him about the people.

“Hello, Susie.” Rudy chuckled, wrapping his arms around her small stature, “How was Europe?”

“Why don’t you ask the five newcomers I found before Caleb?” Susie teased gesturing to the ragtag of new ghosts immersed in conversations.

“Family?”

“A boarding school had a fire. Those five were in the fire when it happened and the only victims out of seven that didn’t cross over.” Susie’s tone faded into a melancholy tone with her small arms wrapping around her middle. Faded brown eyes staring at the younger of the five seeing herself in them.

“That’s terrible.” You whispered, staring at the table with one finger picking the patch of a band from the ’70s, “I can’t imagine how scary that could have been.”

“Yeah.” Susie softly spoke, pushing a strand of her hair off her temple just as equally sad for the way that death had no qualms of how it took.

The youngest ghost in Elysium had been a three-year-old toddler who passed over quickly when he was found by the deceased mother. The two had been separated at death and luckily shared the same unfinished business of finding each other.

“Miss Reynold’s has twelve spirits that finished their business.” Rudy softly informed his two partners. Soft smiles formed on their faces at the happy news of Elysium’s goal being accomplished again.

“May they find everlasting peace and serenity.” Your words intertwined with Susie in perfect sync of the motto coined after the first crossover, “I suppose the Serenity will begin planning?”

“Have the Serenity ever not performed their duty?” Rudy raised one dark eyebrow with a rhetorical question. E/c and faded brown met recalling the countless times Elysium had hosted a celebration for those who found their unfinished business.

“That is-whoa.” You gasped stumbling at the scream echoing in your mind accessorized with the vintage sound of a band.

Calloused hands grasped your shaking form from collapsing onto the ground from a proverbial psionic shove. Agony slammed your brain flickering into an old fashioned club filled with people in both colour or black and white attire. You caught sight of baby pink, deep royal blue and bright red suits. The pained screams of a skater in a dark room overtaking the music in the Club.

“No.” You whispered clenching your hands on your head, feeling the dread building in the pit of your stomach.

The joyful voices in the hall muted while your body flickered with the deep instinct to leave the haven for the one place that utterly terrified you. It was the familiar touch of Susie and Rudy that kept you from finding the one person that meant the world. Willie’s soul was on the cutting board, and Caleb obsession with performing was the only reason Willie still existed.

“Willie.” You whimpered tears rolling down your flushed cheeks, feeling the panic in the skater’s mind.

“Susie help me.” Rudy stonily spoke ushering the distraught girl from the busy hall into an empty room.

Your shaking body finding purchase on the plush sofa with Susie holding one hand in hers and Rudy brushing the sweaty hair from your forehead. It wasn’t often your psionic abilities left you in such a state, but the distance proved difficult.

“Shit.” Rudy grumbled frowning, “This is bad. Y/N, we need to get you to Willie. You’re flickering, and the distance isn’t helping.”

“You want to take one of Elysium’s strongest ghosts straight into Caleb’s domain? You know how much he wants her in his Club.” Susie hissed to the co-founder of the haven they had to take extraordinary measures to protect, “It won’t work! You’re throwing her to the dogs!”

“Susanne I wouldn’t do this if it wasn’t necessary. Besides, we always have a plan.” Rudy retorted narrowing his whiskey eyes at the younger girl, “I’ll take her to get Willie, but you need to stay here to make sure everything runs smooth.”

“Are you sure you can-“Susie cut herself off with a nod as Rudy displayed the reason he could do it, “Okay, yep, you can do it.”

Rudy came back into her vision in his signature position with one eyebrow raised, and his arms crossed. The reason why Elysium worked so well was Rudy’s ability to erase an object from the view of anyone. He could make himself invisible to anyone and in practice, developed it to hide items and location. With his ability, Elysium was permanently hidden to anyone outside of his power. Illusions were his unique ability.

“You aren’t the first person to doubt my capability.” Rudy informed the other ghost reaching one hand out. With his fingers caressing your temple, he snapped his fingers, transporting you and him away from Elysium.

The empty room of Elysium’s dining hall was exchanged for the business streets of Los Angeles, bringing an improvement in your body. Pushing away from Rudy, your eyes frantically scoured the unfamiliar area for any hint of Willie.

“He’s close.” You exclaimed closing your e/c eyes to focus solely on your sixth sense kicking in. Rudy’s gasp snapped your eyes open to see his eyes pinned on your feet where a glowing neon purple smoke wisped.

“What is that?” Rudy demanded crouching to touch it, but it was like nothing was there. His whiskey brown eyes meeting your confused gaze.

“I have no clue, but I feel like I have to follow it.” Robotically your feet started walking following the smoke through the streets.

Rudy was silent as you came upon a park swallowed by the darkness of the night with the moon barely showing through the clouds. The odd purple smoke the only offering of light so far from the path with street lights.

“Of course we have to go through a park.” Rudy grumbled, “Nothing good ever happens in wooded areas at night.”

Lifting your eyes from the smoke, you looked at a deeply unsettled Rudy lost in the past only he knew. His mind recalling traipsing through the forest with his asthmatic best friend in the middle of the night. The last night before the unknown took over his life. Oddly enough dying and returning as a ghost was the most normal with everything that happened with his friends alive.

“You can go ba-“

“We’re not splitting up,” Rudy growled plainly scowling at your hesitant features. Rudy’s slammed the door closed on his past life.

Sensing unease Rudy’s calloused hand reached over to slide into yours in platonic support. You continued your mission, unaware that three certain ghosts in breathtaking suits were searching for you.

Alex, Reggie, and Luke, affected by the purple jolts, failed to find the one place where their plan B could work. What Julie hadn’t known was that the guys had a plan just in case the Orpheum wasn’t their unfinished business. The three would go to Elysium to accept their fate and ensure Julie believed they crossed over.

With no Elysium in sight, the boys returned to the Molina garage hoping that one thing would go their way: Julie would go straight to bed.

The glow purple smoke trailed through the city park into an older part of Los Angeles before it stopped. Where the smoke stopped was a vast empty space surrounded by trees.

“Well, that’s a little anticlimactic.” You grumbled crossing your arms, “Willie’s somewhere here. Do you think Caleb has an underground lair?”

Rudy cast an unamused expression at you, “From past experience. No, that’s not likely. He probably has an apartment downtown. An underground network of caves in the woods is more shapeshifter style but still not true.”

“One: You’re rambling. Two: What the hell kind of life did you have?” You questioned furrowing your eyebrows at his rather odd piece of information.

“An old one.” Rudy spoke, staring ahead, “Besides, I think we should check out whatever building is hidden from our sight.”

“Hid-“Your mouth halted when Rudy roughly gripped your shoulders to twist you to face the empty space.

“Close your eyes. Trust your senses.” Rudy spoke softly, “Or pay attention to the slab of concrete in the middle of an empty space with well-kempt grass.”

Your palm slammed your forehead with a resounding thump in the night with distance lights from surrounding buildings. Rudy squeezed your shoulders as he stepped to the side once more in turn, closing his eyes.

“Walk in my mind.” Rudy stated for the first time in your friendship, allowing you to look in his mind. Your hesitance was met with another squeeze of comfort in his calloused grip.

Your tired eyes closed as your mind timidly stepped into the rather breathtaking mind of Rudy, who felt guilt the most. While Susie’s mind was like a summer day spent at a lake with brightness and gorgeous field of flowers, Rudy’s mind was different.

It was dark in Rudy’s mind but not as if evil, but as if he had been touched by the darkness and painted permanently. There’s was the odd whisper of childlike laughter intermingled with the full adult laugh of a woman; the laughter overshadowed with the sound of funeral music. You felt the lose near that memory. Rudy’s mind was painful to be in and drowning in the feelings he had.

Your breath caught seeing a door you assumed was of his childhood room with a name you couldn’t pronounce for the life of you.

“My parents named me after my mom’s dad.” Rudy spoke through his mind with a soft smile on his face, “I couldn’t say it, so I called myself Mischief. I stopped using it when my mom died, and I went by a shortened version of my last name.”

Your eyes watched as the door disappeared, and the reason you were in his mind came back to the forefront. Your eyes watched the image forming of a vintage hotel rippling in the air before it solidified. The size reminded you of a castle, and it felt like you were storming it.

Without any more mental interaction, you stepped out of Rudy’s mind back into the real world. The very same hotel in plain sight to both Rudy and your surprised elation.

“Honestly didn’t think that would work.” Rudy breathlessly laughed, staring at the hotel once hidden to them. A dark comparison to Elysium.

“How do we play this, Rudy?” You inquired looking over at him, “This is very different from stealing cars and scaring teens.”

“Easy. We blend in.” Rudy responded, holding one hand out to grasp yours in which you noticed your attire had changed, “Perks of illusion? I can alter our own perception of ourselves.”

“Oh, wow. That looks expensive.” You replied, staring at the diamond bracelet on your wrist matching the necklace you wore.

Rudy’s attire had changed from his normal button-up with the sleeves rolled to be layered under a charcoal grey vest and jacket. Sleek matching pants to his coat and the dark black-tie matching the elegant black dress you wore. He had taken pity on your footwear to fit your ability to walk and for the fancy place.

He even had diamond cufflinks that matched you, but the wedding rings on your fingers took you aback. Your widened eyes staring at him.

“Tonight we’re Mr and Mrs Martin,” Rudy spoke choking on the last name he gave as it was the upscale name toppled from his lips.

“Okay. This is a test of our abilities.”

“This is if our plan A of being invisible doesn’t work. The one thing we know for sure is that Caleb has never seen either one of us.” Rudy soothed your nerves with a half-smile,” Let’s get Willie out.”

Your arm slipped into the crook of his to walk to the front door, “I feel like a spy. I feel like that Naomi Roma-“

“It’s Natasha Romanoff. Have you ever seen one of the marvel movies?” Rudy demanded walking up the entrance with a pained smile, “You’re like my best friend and when he wouldn’t watch Star Wars! Never caught one of my references!”

“Okay! Sorry, we can watch the movies when this over.” You grumbled as your heels clicked in the foyer of the hotel. The inside made you feel like you were sent back in time to the roaring ’20s.

“Oh damn, this is nice,” Rudy whispered, staring at the chandelier in the extravagant lobby of the last place you wanted to be.

While on the outside the two ghosts appeared cool, calm and collected they were anything but. Both a wreck inside from the perilous errand they had done that could very well be the ending of Elysium. Rudy nudged you to begin finding Willie with your mind, but you didn’t need to.

That same glowing mist was on the ground pulling you in the direction of a dark hall away from the route to the Club. Rudy kept his eye out, a characteristic carried into the afterlife from his time with the FBI, as you followed the mist. The hall continued to get more and more dark as the walk continued.

Finally at the end was a blood-red door.

“I swear to god if he kills his Club members, I’ll lose it.” You hissed to your arm candy, “What if he’s really H. H. Holmes disguised as a former magician? His door is blood red!”

“Have you been using your serial killer colouring book again?” Rudy demanded stuttering his steps to place his whiskey brown eyes on you. The sheepish expression on your face was enough of a response to gain the look of disbelief could have sent you into hysterics had the time not been too serious.

With a grin belying the situation, you twisted your wrist to open the door to hopefully where Willie was being held.

“What a cliché. He’s keeping Willie in the basement?”

“Will you shut up!” Rudy hissed right back with a clenched jaw entering the somewhat unfinished basement. It was cold even to your dead standards where the cold didn’t bother that much.

At the bottom in front of a desk with only a small lamp as illumination sat a vacant-eyed Willie painstakingly detailing a fabric. The lush purple velvet fabric was bougie, to say the least, and rather outlandish for the skater.

“Willie.” You softly coaxed the teen to glance up from the fabric you found to be something Caleb would wear. Willie’s brown eyes barely met yours before they returned to the sewing needle in his hand and the tiny beads in the bowl.

“Caleb is actually forcing him to be his personal seamstress?” Rudy scoffed,d stepping right up by your side to look at the work.

Both trying unsuccessfully to coaxed Willie out of the stupor he was engaged in the sudden poofing wasn’t heard.

“Mrs. Young taught both Willie and Kayla how to sew. She’s quite the seamstress, reminds me of my old one.” Caleb wistfully responded with a smarmy smile on his face, “Well if it isn’t little Y/N and whoever she brought. Nice threads.”

“Let him go.”

Caleb’s index finger caressed the corner of his mouth so gently to ensure the stage makeup didn’t budge. His clear ocean blue eyes turning thunderstorm navy as his lips parted in such a bone-chilling sinister grin.

“Let him go? He tried to take my new house band from me. He thinks that those boys not crossing over is his punishment. I think that adorable but so very wrong.” Caleb shrugged, dragging his finger down the bicep of his puppet.

“What can we do to- “

“You see after he’s done fixing the tuxedo jacket I’m going to tie him up on the table and slowly strip away his soul piece by piece. No, Willie won’t get the quick and easy zap erasing him. I’ll personally see it’s the most painful thing he experiences and I’ll do so happily.”

“Willie! Wake up!” Rudy shouted, shaking the skater’s shoulder frantically with his focus never entirely leaving the mad man. The whiskey brown eyes panicking at the odd displaced feeling of reliving his living life.

“That won’t work.” Caleb chuckled crossing his arms, “It’s rather amusing you think you can beat me. I’m Caleb Covington! I’m persuasive enough for hundred of memberships to financially benefit the Club.”

“And I’m Y/N Y/L/N bitch.” You snarled viciously throwing your mind into the nefarious narcissistic mind of the washed-up magician.

Caleb Convington had started to bore his audience with the same tricks at every previous show. The lack of interest depleting the attendance numbers and severely hurting the financials. So Caleb decided to broaden his talent by copying the likes of Harry Houdini.

He had a knack for both the dramatics and swindling his audience to be tricked by the illusions he created. The heightened popularity increased Caleb’s thirst for status and fame, so he overestimated himself.

Surrounded by adoring fans and journalists, Caleb had his assistant lock him in a safe with no key, to the audience’s knowledge, and push the safe into the river. Unfortunately from the infamous magician and escape artist the safe warped due to the material it as made out of. Caleb Covington died drowning in a safe at the bottom of the river.

You flinched feeling the emotion at the time Caleb had died and the feeling of disappointment at not leaving a legacy. Your continued your trek in the struggling mind of a man who viewed himself as invincible. You caught glimpses of a young Caleb with his family and the moments of tragedy that shaped him.

You saw his first taste of power in death and the content since the first time he erased a ghost from existence. It sickened you more as you reached the point where Willie came into Caleb’s path.

I’m unique, Caleb. Unlike you with the illusions and empty promises, I have real power that you could only dream of. Hearing your thoughts and planting my own words is just the tip of the iceberg.

Caleb screamed in response holding his aching head as you cruelly ripped every memory of Willie from his mind. The screams echoed not only in the basement but through the hotel the Club worked out of.

“Stop!” Caleb pleaded, shaking his head back and forth. The anguish was un-fazing to both the lucid people in the room. Rudy too busy trying to wake your best friend from the trance he had been placed in.

“I can alter memories. Remove them and even plant memories of my own design. You may take from people, but I give to people. I refused to give you anything.” You circled the man seeing double from outside and inside his mind.

I’m everything you wish you could be.

Your last action in his mind was searing a burn that flashed across his entire body from a nerve stroked. With the heat equivalent to magma in his veins, you burrowed to where Caleb controlled the souls. With a smear of your fingers, Willie’s soul was released from Caleb clutches.

“C’mon. Get Willie.” You told Rudy sending Caleb into an empty trance as if he was no more than a wax figure. Rudy eased the skater up from the desk while you exchanged Caleb to sit on the chair holding the needle, “We need to leave. I’ll get rid of any speck of Willie in memories.”

“I didn’t even get to punch the guy.” Rudy pouted, dragging his feet up the stairs away from the magician.

“That’s a good thing. I’m sure Caleb would be more pissed about his nose being damaged than losing Willie.” You scoffed helping the man urge Willie to walk up the stairs and then down the hallway to the entrance.

As you walked you brushed the minds of every individual in the building, all members in attendance, you gently removed all traces of Willie. By the time you reached the edge of the park, you had relaxed.

“We should get him to Alex, they didn’t crossover. I can still feel their imprint.”

“He’d be safer at Elysium to lay low.” Rudy replied, keeping on eye on the skater and on anyone he could see.

With only a nod, you ushered the ghost to teleport both the skater and himself back to the safe walls of Elysium. As he did so, you reached out with your mind to the blonde-haired sweet male in adoration with your best friend.

Clicking his place was easy enough for your draining power after the taxing bond with Willie’s absent presence. Instead of walking as you would generally choose you poofed on the cement pad in the backyard of a home. The surrounding skirt of the backyard encased with plants and flowers.

“Hello?” You called out in the darkness. The soft, mumbled words had your feet moving in the direction.

Standing in a circle mesmerized at the purple tattoos lifting off their skin was the boys of Julie and the Phantoms. The teenage beautiful Puerto Rican girl stood across from Luke with Reggie and Alex on each side.

“Alex?” You called out to the boy wearing a baby pink vintage tuxedo that complimented his skin and hair exquisitely. The outfit definitely screamed that Caleb had something to do with it, especially with the missing fanny pack.

“Y/N?” Luke gasped turning to see you in incredibly fancy attire matching his gorgeous blue suit modified to having no sleeves. The anticipation of eating at you to find Reggie rocking a red suit with butterflies on the fabric.

“I’m sorry you didn’t crossover.” Your words soothed the sad teenagers that had accepted their fate only to have no control again. An introduction was brought between you and Julie when the living girl elbowed Alex.

“Not that we mind but what are you doing here? How did you get here, and why are you dressed up?” Luke inquired, pushing his hands into his suit pockets, engrossed with your gorgeous appearance.

“Well when you crash a fancy Club with a narcissistic founder…any means to blend in is necessary.” You responded, “As for your second question.”

Your finger tapped your temple before continuing to speak, “I’m here because Alex deserves to know. You all do.”

The boy in baby pink frantically stepped forward, “What happened?”

“Maybe it’s best, I just show you?” Your brows furrowed to your own question accompanied by your lower lip being bitten by your teeth. The red lipstick not budging as it was an illusion as well.

“Hu-“Reggie grunted as he spiralled with his two dead bandmates into the scene that had sent you on your determined mission.

The rough action of being drawn into your memories as jarring as the first time and just as scary. The maniacal magician pacing the dark basement simply to heighten his dramatic speech. Alex’s heart clenched at the vacant look in the skater’s eyes with the faintest tinge of purple in the gorgeous brown.

“I feel like I got carsick.” Reggie moaned leaning over to clutch his midsection once you released the ghostly trio. Reggie would often gain a look of disbelief and horror from the blonde drummer, but his entire brain was centred on Willie.

“Rudy took Willie back to Elysium where he’ll be safe. If you want, you can join us.” The words were offered to both the dead and living currently in the room.

Opting out, Julie retired to her bedroom to calm down from the rush of performing at the Orpheum of all places. Besides she felt like going to Elysium was best for the three boys, and maybe they would move there. Julie would miss them, but she knew they’d always come back.

Susie was quick to hug you tightly as you stepped through the gates with the dead members of Julie’s band. The boys changed out of the tuxedos they had dropped off at a donation centre, Reggie had wanted to burn them. After living on the streets for a short while, Luke understood the need for clothing, so the clothing was taken to shelters.

“I’m so glad you’re okay. Rudy told me you overexerted yourself again.” Susie spoke with a deeply furrowed brow oblivious to the puppy dog look from the bassist in red flannel.

“If I didn’t, Willie would be gone.”

“You’re pale yet flushed cheeks. I can see you have a fever. You need to rest.”

“I need to soothe Willie out of the trance that psychotic prick put him in.” You scoffed shaking Susie’s hand off your shoulder to sidestep her, “I’ll rest when he’s fine.”

“I-“

“At least gab something from the cafeteria for energy.” Susie’s brown eyes dimmed at your typical brush off. The same routine of overusing your powers and not recharging correctly, “He’s in Cottage A!”

The boys were on your heels as you power-walked through the streets of the ghost city with one location in mind. The living streets with homes of all style and colours appeared passed the bakery, the school and the clothing stores.

“You can eat?” Reggie whispered as a little ghost girl licked an ice cream cone walked by.

“Harvey adored cooking for people when he living, so he continued in death. Harvey can make food for ghosts, and so can his staff if they work in his kitchen. His pastry chef provides baked goods to Flora’s Bakery and makes the best ice cream.”

“Oh my god.” Reggie practically squealed wholly flabbergasted by the almost perfect place you created, “How do you pay for things?”

“We don’t. What Harvey doesn’t grow in his garden, he can make ingredients out of thin air. We all have some kind of job we do. Everyone has a role in fulfilling to keep Elysium running.” You simply spoke keeping your eyes on the cottage with the robin’s egg blue door.

As if he knew Rudy flung the door open elated to see you standing there. Both of you still wearing the illusioned attire. IN milliseconds he wiped the illusion away, returning you back into your street clothes.

“How is he?”

“No change.” Rudy replied, following your steps in the living room. The skater was staring blankly at the wall.

“Willie!” Alex cried, rushing over to kneel beside the boy that had so swiftly stolen his heart without him realizing. The emotion in his word didn’t get a microscopic flinch from the formerly so-called enemy.

“Everyone be quiet.” You demanded forcibly staring each person in the room down for a mere second. With the desired silence continued, you ignored the headache forming in your head to step into the skater’s mind.

William Young was screaming to be released by the prison of his own mind Caleb had forced him into. He had felt the restriction on his soul lifted and the mist of purple leaving his brain, but he was still stuck.

He could barely breathe with the weight on his chest. Willie didn’t like feeling stuck in one place as he was a wanderer at heart. It was a reason why he had joined the Hollywood Ghost Club with the promise of travel.

Willie come back

In his mind, the sound of your voice firstly grounded the young man as a mirage of your form flickered. Your eyes screamed worry while the smile was one of relief.

Caleb can’t hurt you anymore. Come home.

The spectators watching see your flinching wavering expression and the tensing of Willie’s facial muscles. Everyone sat on the edge of their seat as the two pairs eyes opened in synch of the yells of hurt.

What they didn’t expect was your eyes to roll into the back of your skull and you to collapse onto the floor.

“Y/N!” Willie cried, stumbling off the couch onto the cold floor where your body lay prone, “Wake up!”

It seemed everyone forgot the little detail of being dead.

“She’s fine.” Rudy remarked, shaking your arm with such gentle care matching the four guys’ care in the room.

Your eyelids fluttered open under the bright lights of the unused cottage still waiting for an owner.

“Susie was right.” You grumbled allowing Willie to help you sit up against the blue velvet couch. Your mussed hair adorable in the eyes of the guitarist utterly enamoured with everything about you.

“She usually is.” Rudy mused, thinking of the many times she had proven everyone wrong, “She punched me for not bringing you home.”

“Gotta love her.” You snorted turning to face the four ghosts awkwardly gazing around the room. It was barren of personality with the lack of inhabitants. The yearning quickly found in the boys’ eyes, “You know this isn’t the only cottage in need of people.”

“What do-“

“You’re welcome to live here. I know you three live in that studio, but here you can have a real bed. You can eat and having your own place. You can come and go as you please.” You offered without looking, Rudy.

“I don’-“

“If you don’t want to live here, it’s okay, but the option is always there. Willie, we make plans for a skatepark-“

“Oh, you had me from the start.” Willie beamed tugging you into his arms, “I missed this. I missed you.”

“Me too.” You murmured into his warm embrace equally relaxed at knowing he was safe again. Your eyes clashing with the soft blue had Ideas songwriting already filled with lyrics of a pretty girl wearing a jean jacket with patches.

The lyrics turned into songs both in the studio and the cottage that Luke, Reggie and Alex accepted in Elysium. It had been a spirited discussion with Julie on moving to Elysium, but the boys were always there when she wasn’t in school. Often Elysium hosted a concert for the residents with the visitation of Julie.

Your reciprocated attraction with the messy-haired hazel-eyed guitarist flourished into a serious relationship. Luke took on the role of teaching how to play the guitar and songwriting. Alex took of mediation while Reggie worked with Harvey.

Willie quickly took on designing the skatepark he taught at while also taking a position at the ghost school.

“Morning.” The soft whisper roused your sleep into the golden glow of the morning light and chirping birds.

The growling aspect of his voice coming from only just waking up. The sight of Luke’s bleary eyes was heartwarming.

A year into moving into Elysium, Luke had asked if you’d like to move in as he was the only one in the original house. Alex had moved into the little cottage with Willie three months into the relationship while Reggie was going back and forth between Susie’s room and his own place.

“Morning.” You hummed leaning forward to kiss his cheek.

“You know I thought my life ended when I died. That I could never find someone and have a family. That I couldn’t share my music with the world. I was wrong.” Luke murmured as he cupped your cheek in his hand, “The band is growing more and more each day. I found the love of my life, and we have a family with everyone. I haven’t felt like I had had home for so long, but I get it now. You’re my home. I love you.”

Your cheeks warmed up at the adoration Luke displayed in his expressive hazel green gaze just as it had since day one. The awe fell from his lips before you pressed a kiss to his lips, only one of the many in the eons to come.

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