#THANK YOU FOR THE ASK FRIENDO

[waterlogged-detective]

For Doe and/or Darcy, 🎖️ what's their proudest non-Ambition accomplishment?🤔

Flondon Asks!

I'll do Darcy because it's easiest, but somehow that fucker still has his soul? And Doe...doesn't?????

He likes to hold that over Doe's head when he's teasing him. It never works, Doe didn't use his soul for much anyway.

[caninecluster]

Getting notes from you guys is a whole new jumpscare now (/lh)

-💚🗡

ASJDFKLNP

Well prepare for more jumpscares then! >:]

But honestly same for you guys. I see I have notes and I'm like "Ah!" Then I see it's from y'all and just go "AH!" /pos /lh

[dzvagabond]

can I get numbers 66 and 80 milord.

Hi bestie! 👋

No. 66 is my mans The Sorrow (MGS3)

There's so much I haven't said about MGS Snake Eater and my insert's lore so here we go! The Sorrow and The Lonely (insert) are both a part of the Cobra Unit led by their other lover, The Joy. Now I haven't really put much thought into who is with who first, but I'd love to imagine that both Sorrow and Lonely were an item first, saw Joy, and were IMMEDIATELY infatuated. But ANYWAY! Sorrow and Lonely obviously are both a part of the Cobras together, one as a spirit medium, the other as a Code-Talker of sorts, a scout in the field to see if any enemies nearby (hence the feeling of being "alone" on the battlefield.) They bond over the fact they never really get in the midst of combat, preferring to be on the sidelines providing support while the rest take care of the action. The two (+Joy) are almost utterly codependent on one another to where when Lonely finds out about Sorrow's death from Joy herself, they isolate and do not join the rest of the Cobras in defecting to the Soviet Union. But instead join Naked Snake and FOX for Operation Snake Eater & The Virtuous Mission. I also love to believe that Sorrow still visits Lonely from time to time even in death, not wanting them to be truly alone.

No. 80 is another husband, Luis (RE4R)!

There's soooo much that I have put into thought for the lore between Luis and Ezio. For one, I love toying with the idea that they meet before Luis leaves Umbrella Euro entirely due to the fact that he doesn't want to hurt anyone, doesn't want to perform experiments on live human test subjects despite already having done so with Ezio & the nemesis alpha prototype parasite. They are both toxic for one another in the beginning of it all, especially when they kidnap Ezio, take them to Spain, and continue to experiment on them thinking that it's helping them (no fault on Luis really, he's just trying to make up for what he's done), and form a trauma bond.

Eventually, they both come to terms with the fact that they due care for one another despite the circumstances given, and are still trying to escape and help people while doing it ***cough cough, Leon and Ashley, cough cough***. There's so much more I wanna say, but I will continue rambling on if I do. So yea, that the gist of their lore XD

[saints-who-never-existed]

For the terror ask game-Franklin?

Franklin - Who’s an underrated character in your opinion?

Well, funnily enough, I actually find Franklin himself to be underrated in many ways.

As so often is the problem with fandom generally speaking, he often gets flattened down and smoothed away until he's just 'stupid old man who fucks everything up'. And, like, I'm not saying that he's not that but I do think there's much more to him than just that.

I think he's a man more than aware of his own limitations for one thing - sometimes painfully so but also often not? He knows full well he wasn't first in line to lead the Expedition:

"Sir, he [Crozier] was no one's first choice for this expedition." "Nor was I..."

He also shows in places a surprisingly keen understanding of both his limitations in comparison with Crozier - "I'm not the sailor you are Francis, never will be." - and the difficulties of communicating with him - "Perhaps it is I who's unable to truly bring him into the bosom of my confidence. I want to. I always plan to. But then, when I'm with him, I don't know why I falter."

There is a willingness there in him to confront and accept his own foibles and I find that really interesting to think about in comparison with his hubristic, self-aggrandising side.

-

Another contrasting aspect of Franklin's character I find fascinating is the care he has (or doesn't have) for the men under his command. There's an artifice to it in many places - the way he turns David Young's death into self-serving propaganda (all after making choices that actively worsen the circumstances of that death), or bribes the marines in the hunting blind with rum and revels in feeling like one of the gang afterwards. But there are other places where it feels much more genuine. Gore's death, of course, hits Franklin like a ton of bricks and it's Crozier raising the idea of risking further lives that really starts to set him off in E03 too -

"It's only eight men, Sir John. And there is just enough time." "I have lost six men on this expedition to date. SIX! And you ask me to risk more..."

-

And don't even get me started on that rant! My god! It's absolutely my favourite scene for Franklin! Again, there's a fascinating contrast in the way he so accurately reads Crozier to absolute filth but then, anger spent and realising the pain he's inflicted, the way he fails so utterly to make up for it - "So let us turn our energies back to being what the Admiralty, and life, have seen fit to make us..." etc. that's just putting a bandaid on a stab wound. And I go a bit bananas for the additional lines that didn't make it into the final cut too

"...There can be no argument between us there. I will not bother you again with more. But do not test me again with more, either."

[pickles4nickles]

Pickles Played Persona 5 Tactica and Has Some Words

I finally finished Tactica and its DLC sans some challenge stuff and I do wanna do some cleanup, but I thought I'd write a review for it.

It's long (like, 3k words long) and there's spoilers and overall... it's an Okay(tm) game, but... here, just lemme talk about it a bunch:

Alright, I'm not gonna mince words.

Persona 5 Tactica is not a game I can reccomend to anyone.

But is it a bad game?

Well, no.

But I have no idea who it's for.

Maybe it's for people who want more of the P5 characters? Not exactly? Both stories' focal points are on new characters and the Phantom Thieves just kinda happen to be there. There are some nice interactions, but this isn't a story about the PTs like Strikers.

Is it for people who like tactics but aren't really into P5? Well... it might be the other way around, actually? It's an okay tactics game with persona elements, but both parts of that are watered down when compared to base game persona and other tactics games like XCOM.

With that being said, lemme just ramble about what I thought about the story and gameplay.

THE STORY

The best way I can sum up my feelings about Tactica are "the story was told well, but I'm not sure if I liked it." This is a game that's less about the Phantom Thieves and more about Toshiro and Erina and focuses around the internal conflict of rebellion versus self-preservation.

Toshiro is probably why I'm neutral towards the game At Best. Erina grew on me but Toshiro...

Ehh.

At the beginning of the game, he's a big wimp and he's constantly telling the PTs and Erina that they have to be careful. From a theming standpoint, Toshiro's behavior makes perfect sense.

But from the petty bitch inside of me, this is infuriating because not only do YOU know that this is the Phantom Thieves that have taken down Shido (and also Yaldaboth), but TOSHIRO knows it as well and he's being Like This.

Like, he kinda sucks in the beginning and does so for the first two acts, understandably, but by the third act, when The Big Persona Moments happen, my opinion of him just kinda stayed the same. They swayed in a different direction, but... still on the negative side of the spectrum.

The reveal of Erina as Toshiro's Persona... makes sense. She's Toshiro's spirit(?) of rebellion and is based off of his classmate that once inspired him to stand up for himself and others.

Did I like this revelation?

Hell no, I was punching my thigh and screaming in voice call "No fucking way, Toshiro's so lame, though" as loud as I could without upsetting my parents in the other rooms.

From this point on, Toshiro now has the resolve to do what's right, even if it's scary... but he comes off as a little too strong in my opinion. I kinda have the same feelings about Zenkichi once he gets his persona in Strikers. In the beginning they feel like a new character meant to balance out the insanity that is how the metaverse is, but once they get their persona, they're full on inundated in the anime stand battles and they're a little too extra about it.

Having two full acts of "hey guys maybe we shouldn't help the hat people out of hat people slavery," pivoting into "WITNESS OUR POWER AS ONE" has the same vibes as a relative who's not really an asshole, but one that you've been trying to convince for years that economic inflation is the reason why our generation can't live comfortably, and once they finally understand, they come off a little bit too strong and righteous about it that you're not sure they're genuine or if this is a "he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit" situation.

And then god happens.

In persona games, I usually don't fully understand how or why the god-being is doing all of this, but I especially can't wrap my head around how they work in Tactica. It's mostly because Toshiro's metaverse is kind of a Silent Hill kinda deal where it's a mental torture labyrinth for him personally, as opposed to Mementos, which is naturally the collective unconscious, connecting everyone's minds and hearts together.

The jump from "I'm going to bully this one guy in particular" to "now EVERYONE will be as lame as Toshiro" is lost on me. Maybe politics?

It's... it's fine, there's no reason to lose sleep over it.

The ending of the story is nice and reasonable, though. It sorta redeems Toshiro for me. It's one thing to yell in your own metaverse hellscape how you're going to do the right thing, but once he's back in the real world, he actually stands up to his dad and fiancé and steps down from his political position to build it back up from scratch, but better.

And, yeah! I respect that.

That being said, though, the game isn't devoid of new Phantom Thief interactions. There's some good ones like Futaba "I don't kinkshame" Sakura, casually bi Joker as seen in that one "who would you marry" bit, and a guys only sidequest in which they think they're looking for Toshiro's porn stash (yeah, I know) (it's not). I wouldn't say it's crumbs, but you're not getting the whole loaf that you'd get from, say, Mementos Mission or Strikers.

The story also does this thing where the Phantom Thieves can relate with Toshiro's issues, but something about it feels... off.

Toshiro's in an arranged marriage with Marie for political reasons! Just like Haru! His fiancé sees him as a pushover! Kinda like Makoto! His mom died when he was young and he blames himself for it! Wow, Yusuke and DEFINITELY Futaba can relate to that!! Eri, the real person that Erina is based on, had to transfer schools because she was accused of a crime! Gee, that SURE sounds familiar-

Part of me thinks I'm being a little too unfair on the game for creating parallels like this because Strikers also kinda did this. But in Strikers, the PTs being able to connect with the jail rulers was integral to the plot. Here, it's just kind of a wink wink nudge nudge kinda thing.

And my knee-jerk reaction to that is a small "I get it, shut uuuup."

Again, and overall because I think that rounds out what I have to say about the story, P5 Tactica's main story isn't bad. It's told well, but I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of it.

GAMEPLAY

I've only played Strikers and I don't think I've played a true tactics game, so I don't know how much weight my opinions hold.

So um.

I dunno, the gameplay was fine.

The pacing is weird because it's kind of a visual novel first, and a tactics game in-between, but I got used to that after a bit.

It's a really simple tactics game and... yeah things don't get too complex outside of sometimes there are buttons that'll open doors or raise and lower platforms, sometimes height matters, but the mechanics don't get too crazy outside of certain boss battles.

The game revolves around downing enemies to get Once More's so you can either encase the enemy in a triangle formed by your units to initiate an All-out Attack or you can chain together Once More's to extend your unit's range and move them across the map. This mechanic took a bit for me to understand fully, but I never really got tired of doing it.

Boss battles were kind of hit or miss in this game. The fights with Toshiro's Dad and Salmael I enjoyed as they were kinda formatted as "here's a weird stage, go figure out what to do." However, Marie and *checks notes* "the scary Eri Natsuhara that Shadow Toshiro made" I didn't care for as much since they changed the game from "your decisions on where to move your units are key for this" to "you need to do exactly as we say." Which always kinda sucks, y'know?

Character selection is also kind of a weird thing in this, too. It doesn't seem like it matters who you take with you into missions, which... feels weird to me considering past Persona games. The elements have all been kinda smooshed down into less of a weakness thing, but just a special move that can hinder movement, do damage over time, or change enemy placement entirely, but which type of special you bring along doesn't seem to be as crucial as other Persona games. Each character has a slightly different attack, gun spread, and movement limit, but it wasn't anything drastic that I noticed apart from Haru (she is very slow but apparently hits like a truck) and possibly Morgana (his attack was very weak for me, but I'm not sure if that's because I didn't have him kitted out properly or that's intended).

I played the game almost entirely with Joker and Ann, while swapping between Erina and Ryuji for the last slot and I didn't run into any problems.

The last stretch of the game is... a strange one gameplay wise. Toshiro becomes a party member except... he's Different(tm). He doesn't get a skill tree, is a permanent fourth party member, and can initiate All-Out Attacks, but isn't a part of the triangle that forms it. He does have a gun, but it's in the form of a 0SP attack that Ernesto/Erina can use... that also happens to ignore walls entirely. And he also gets Almighty attacks, which kinda just do big number damage for way more SP.

It's hard to say if the game did a good job scaling the level difficulties to incorporate a fourth party member as staying on top of your persona fusing, weapons, and the skill tree can kind of make the game a breeze. I also played on the normal difficulty, so maybe in harder difficulties, Toshiro becomes more of a necessity than a party member that breaks the game.

My only big gripe with the game is just... the weirdness of the undo button. I don't know how it is in regular tactics games, but the undo in this game doesn't work on a "clear the last action this unit did" basis, but on a turn basis. If you happen to screw up on turn one, unit one, you have to back out COMPLETELY to the mission start screen, which is hella annoying especially if you're playing on the Switch because of the load times.

"But Pickles, what about the DLC? Surely you have just as many thoughts about it?"

Y'know?

I actually don't.

I liked Repaint Your Heart a lot. Again, it's less a story about the Royal Trio and more about Guernica, but it's closer to the traditional Persona 5 story format where they're changing someone's heart. This story also had much higher emotional... fidelity? I guess you could put it?

Guernica needed to remember her main inspirations for creating art - being abandoned and homeless and her big sister dying because of it and she embraces that anger against society into art that inspires hope in people less fortunate. While being groomed into a political pawn from basically birth and then, later in life, being thrown into your own mental hellscape sucks, in terms of emotional weight, Toshiro's story feels like a feather compared to Guernica's.

Also her design is just cool and the paint aesthetic is definitely more my speed.

In terms of Royal Trio content, I think this was the best case scenario we could expect from Atlus.

Emphasis on "from Atlus."

Yeah, we didn't get Black Mask Akechi, but there are MORE THAN ENOUGH moments where he lets the facade slip. His default spell is Megidola, but his skill tree lets him have both Light AND Dark spells. He'll cuss at you if you hit an enemy into him. I don't know what he's doing viscerally screaming half the time he summons Robin Hood.

Sumi. Is also there.

She is fine.

Guernica's connection to the thieves is also written in the same way as Toshiro is, in that it's a little shoehorned in and doesn't add to the story beyond that. After finding out that Luca is Guernica's sister that died, Sumi definitely feels motivated and inspired to help her out, but Akechi also being an abandoned child, scorned by society, and angry at the world because of it is never touched upon. This is probably for spoiler reasons, but... still.

Because this is a story that takes place during Sae's Palace in the main game, they all have to have amnesia about it in the end. Which, understandable, and at least no one in the trio had extensive character development but...

*clenches fist*

Man,

Having tackled this after the main game, I enjoyed the gameplay a lot! It's basically P5 Tactica but with Splatoon mixed in. When a unit is on a tile painted the opposite color for them, they can be instantly knocked down and combo'd on, which adds a whole extra layer of complexity to the game. I wish there were a few more levels to play, but the length of the DLC never overstays its welcome.

Hokay.

If you made it this far, congrats! You reached the end. And my tl;dr section.

I think that's just about it on what I cohesively have to say about P5 Tactica. This isn't a terrible game by any means, but I don't know if the audience it's intended for actually exists. It has a just okay story and just okay mechanics, but the DLC has a more than okay story and the core mechanics are given a fresh coat of paint (yeah, boo, I know) that makes the game more interesting. I would not go paying $80 USD to experience the DLC alone, though.

Thank you for reading my review if you made it all the way to the end! P5 stuff (well, mostly Akeshu) has been my muse these past few years and playing a game that was "just okay but why did they..." got into my brain real bad, so I wanted to write some stuff out.

I'll close this out with some bullet points of thoughts that I couldn't really cohesively fit into my review:

I really really liked how they got little costumes for the old timey Japan kingdom and I was hoping we'd get more of that and every kingdom was based on a new theme... but we only got three kingdoms and the last one before "Smithy's Forge from Super Mario RPG" was............ School.

SATANAEL'S BACK IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS (BUT ONLY POST-GAME)

Erina also being Ernesto thing is mostly weird to me because she's still her own entity but also not???? The possible genderfluid connotations are cool though.

There's a quest where Haru asks Yusuke how to be fast. Yusuke tells her she has to "Become a Black Hole." I do not know what this means.

After the quest, Haru says that even though the axe slows her down, she's very partial to it as her father didn't like her chopping wood as a kid, but she'd sneak out and do it anyway. She later found out that her dad knew she was doing this, but decided not to scold her for it. She took this as a sign of kindness from her father and that's why the axe is so special to her. I do not know what this means as Haru's father was a horrible capitalist who basically tried to marry her off in pursuit of power.

The weapon designs in this game are generally kind of silly, but I appreciate that they exist in the game. There's a chompy gun with teeth that Joker gets and I really like it :)

God the Lyn tracks from the DLC FUCK

...what

Futaba says "sus" at one point in the end

[humming-fly]

throws the 🧋 at you gimme the sweet sweet goods (either)

🧋 (Boba Tea) - Come up with a Kirby Café item themed around your OC! It can be a savoury dish, a drink, a dessert, or something else entirely. [Kirby OC ask meme]

glasses you with these

[that-one-cat-meow]

i attacked you since i wanna see you suffering >:3

~from artfight

OMG IT'S SO BEAUTIFULLLLLLL

THANK YOUUU 🌸

[logan-the-artist]

Hey! Hope you're having a nice day!

I was wondering, which Gerard outfit would you give each side? 👀

hey!!! you too!!!!!

FUCK YES

this is logan. do i have to explain

these are virgil because i mean. come on.

roman (this one genuinely makes me Feel Things)

this is the most remus shit ever

patton. i will not elaborate

janus (because i say so)

[tetzoro]

Aiimmmssss,

We both know Zoro holds a lot of guilt on his shoulders for a variety of things, how do you help him through it? 👀

just rip my heart from my chest next time, it’ll hurt less /j .. ily ෆ

often times, the words of others does not ease the immense weight of guilt that rests on our shoulders. they can help — a temporary fix, a small bandaid over a wound in desperate need of stitches.

but what zoro needs is deeper. he needs someone to keep him company as he tries to stitch himself up with a slightly shaky hand. thread by thread, mending himself in the way he’s always known, trying to erase the shame he feels for his failures — the ones that taunt him every time he closes his eye for too long.

i’d like to think that my presence would give him a little reassurance. i’d help him whisk away all of the impure thoughts that threaten him, chasing them far, far away. there’s not much i could really say to make him feel better, but knowing that i’m there and i love him for every single piece of him, helps soothe his mind a bit.

so his hand becomes steadier, the threading becomes quicker, and the wound begins to heal.

[nancyheart11]

If you are a professional seamstress, do you have your own sewing room? How do you organize your sewing stuff? Asking cuz my closet is a mess and sewing stuff takes up more room than my clothes XD.

alright so! I've been putting this off because the sewing area was disorganized but I finally managed to just move the few things back into place that really needed it.

Firstwe have the fabric shelf, I have it organized by hand (the way the fabric feels when you touch it) though before I start any project if I'm unsure of the fiber content I do a burn test and then wash all the fabric the way I plan to wash it once completed in order to pre shrink it and see how it will react to washing (if it's dry clean only fabric I skip this)

There are about 14 rolls of fabric on the sides where I was able to aquire in bulk! (Seeing them makes me happy)

Here are the large majority of my patterns, I have the boxes labeled with what kinds of patterns are inside

Then I further break down what kind of patterns there are based on what kind of project I may want to do, and sizes after the nth time pulling out the right dress but wrong size for a project.

here we have my little resource shelf, on the left are reference books and videos while the right are portfolios and samples I've made as reminders to look at

While on the bottom we have my thread and bobbing case and a bin full of sharps (be careful sticking your hand in there, that where the scissors and pins live)

Getting a thread and bobin case is one of the best things I've done for my organization and I can't recommend it enough!

Here's a current alteration project in the bins I use to keep all the things I need for one project together, it makes it a lot easier to keep track of this way!

then I have some more little shelf boxes for notions! This one holds mostly bias tape and twill tape, with a couple other odds and ends that really need to be moved 😅

This is in no way comprehensive, but it's what I have in the basement of my parents house until i can get a place of my own, and I think I've done well in making things work well regardless!

[floofgryph]

(Tell me friendo, what do you think of this? :3)

It's very adorable and soft-looking 🥹💖

[beefrobeefcal]

Special delivery to Ms. Beefro Beefcal!

Although I'm a Canva noob I wanted to make you a little something with the help of @rebel-held @strang3lov3 @bitchesuntitled @toxicanonymity and @xdaddysprincessxx . Happy Blog Birthday hon! You deserve the world!

WHAT?!?!??!?!??!

I can't even put into words how much this means to me. @rebel-held, @strang3lov3, @bitchesuntitled, @toxicanonymity, and @xdaddysprincessxx - thank you beautiful friends! @neverwheremoonchild - you are just the gift that keeps on giving - thank you!!

Your sweet b-day messages along with the AMAZINGLY FESTIVE PEEPAWS are making this beef's heart sing. Never in all my wildest dreams did I think writing one specific actor's characters as chubby variants would lead me to some of the most valuable people in my life. I can't say it enough - thank you thank you thank you for being you and being my friendos!

And now I have to wrap this up before i make it really awkward. Because I am going to cry and it's gonna be a weird, ugly cry.

Yours in sin for all time,

Kiki aka Beefro👌🥩💜

[littlepikmins]

you asked for timber fics!

not for very much longer by CreamofTomatoSoup

-> Great Bernard time loop fic. Super angsty tho.

Bellbottoms by riotbadger

-> street racer Bernard fic. Kinda angsty too.

The Blondie Vampire Theory is a funny little fic where Bernard meets Jason and weirds him out. The series has other great fics too.

beep beep!! fun little fic where Bernard is a great getaway driver.

Bad Driver is a crackfic where Bernard’s bad driving makes/ruins Jason’s little reunion with the Harpers (I don’t rly ship them but the fic is hilarious and I can excuse it)

Not really timbern focused but What do you mean Tim isn’t a vampire? has some timbern in it and it’s too funny to not recommend

I could be your man all day is another driver Bernard fic but this time he’s a Taxi driver. It’s more Tim focused, specifically character-wise

There is one more fic that’s ongoing and it looks very promising. It’s not in my bookmarks and I can’t find it, but the premise of it is that Bernard became an anonymous writer of a bunch of books when he was a middle schooler and he blew up. The fic hasn’t gotten to the point yet but the dynamic with Timbern is basically “mystery author” x “annoying reader who guesses all the plot twists”

Aaaaaaa thank you!! These all sound so interesting and in general I love fanfics so much, I'm really excited to read these!

[saints-who-never-existed]

what is (or are) your favorite terror ship(s)?

(pairings not the sailing vessels, tho if you have opinions on those i’d also be happy to hear them lol)

Ooh fun! :)

Slightly niche perhaps but one of my enduring favourites is actually Gore/Little.

I just really love the idea of Golden-Boy Man-of-Action Gore discovering that he rather likes being bossed around/dominated/treated like the pretty little princess he is.

And I'm equally enamoured with the notion of sweet Nedward finding that he enjoys getting to be powerful/assertive/just a bit of a sadistic wee bastard for once. ;)

[mika-0730]

divisibles of 7 :3

1. Who was the last person you held hands with?

Okay this one is SO CUTE, a friend very very close to me

7. Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

I do think so tbh >///<

And i hope by then the ones I'm in will really start to feel real and not something that'll fade.

I'm also not for sure if you meant divisible or multiples

If the former, thank you for not making me do 30

If the latter, don't worry, i currently have that exact ask up next lol

[breadandbloodybutter]

cambion-companion asked: Hi friend! For the word ask..hmm..how about "Scintillating"

You know, I always thought I was pretty well-literature'd, but I had to google what this word even meant--

Scintillating: Sparkling or shining brightly, or to be brilliantly and excitingly clever or skillful.

It was quite the rare occasion that you would be dipping your toes into the world of fine arts. Or at the very least – to be so apprehensive yet excited about an event.

Even devils must get bored sometimes from just scamming people out of souls, you supposed. A once in a lifetime opportunity! That’s what it had been advertised as. If there’s one thing that this enigmatic man liked to do, it was to stroke his own ego.

You had received a special invite in the mail, just for you. Fancy, elegant writing – and self-combustible after you’d finished reading over it. You had to resist the urge to roll your eyes. Anything to leave no evidence of anything but a business relationship.

And now, you found yourself sitting in the front rows. Not so close that you’d have to crank your neck to get a good view, but not so far away that you would miss any details. He was wearing an outfit not unlike his usual blue and gold ensemble – but much more extravagant and finely worked. Seeing him on a stage was a whole different experience than seeing him writing contracts in a private brothel room.  

The confidence.

The posture, and the poise.

The way that those big brown eyes would sweep the crowds with devilish delight, until they landed directly on you.

It was almost as if he could hear the way that your heart stopped dead.  

He continued his performance flawlessly, but now that he knew you were in attendance, you caught his eyes continually sliding towards you, radiating a smugness. Knowing that you were captivated by him, leaning forward in your seat. You could tell – he was showing off. But you didn’t really mind, because seeing him in his element was almost as striking as when he’d first showed off his cambion form.

“And as the shadow of the moon fell on these hallowed grounds – not a living soul to speak of could be found! Until the sun would dawn upon flushed apple skin..”

Much to your alarm, he’d knelt and extended a hand towards you, the colours in his eyes seeming to flare as he spoke again, “..ready, once again, to drown oneself in such decadent sin.”  

You were sure that your face must have broken out in the colour of said apple as the crowd around you burst into applause – like this had all been staged and not just thrown upon you for Raphael’s amusement. That lingering stare was magnanimous; promising that if you didn’t follow his lead, there would be hell to pay later on,.

Resigned to your fate, you took his hand and he proceeded to place a single kiss upon it, making the skin tingle. He’d pulled you up to his side, a hand firmly curled around your waist to prevent any possible notion of escape. As the crowd stood and continued to show their appreciation, he hummed approvingly against your hair.

“Did you enjoy the show, little mouse? You’re always welcome to stay for an encore.. and perhaps, celebrations of our own in a private after-party.”