#also we are alive i promise we just forgot this entire blog existed

[the-cepheid-system]

Auditory hallucinations or alters? Who knows! Certainly not us!

[itsclydebitches]

With respect, Ironwood brought an army to deal with a covert threat. In his FIRST appearance he'd had ozpin removed from the tournament staff with secret meetings. He was told many times his embargo was hurting the city, he kept a woman on life support prisoner and his treatment of Robyn convinced a technically legal protest into an outright criminal. Not to mention he abandons the best defense humanity has against the Grimm to keep some control. Shooting a dissenter seem very in character

“Ironwood brought an army to deal with a covert threat” - For which he was suitably chastised by Ozpin. It’s a whole conversation in “Welcome to Beacon” and, back when RWBY was doing a better job of handling these complex issues, that conversation gives weight to both sides. Ironwood isn’t trying to, idk, take over Beacon or something with his army. He wants to be prepared in order to help people. “I’m just being cautious.” Ozpin points out that scaring everyone won’t help, but notably the story acknowledges that Ozpin’s preferences are far from full-proof. “Do you really believe your children can win a war?” Can you prove to me that the kids we’re training will be enough when the shit hits the fan? Ozpin doesn’t have an answer. He dodges answering by saying only that he hopes his kids won’t have to fight, not that he has unwavering faith that they will win. Then Beacon falls. Ozpin dies. Ironwood is left alone with an entire kingdom to keep safe and I think it’s worth acknowledging that he did that. Mantle is far from perfect, there’s a lot there to fix, but the people are alive and that’s in part thanks to the soldiers that keep the grimm from eating them all. The rest? That’s due to Penny, a symbol of hope that Ironwood gave to the people. He learned that from this conversation with Ozpin. 

“In his FIRST appearance he'd had ozpin removed from the tournament staff with secret meetings.” - It’s not Ironwood’s first appearance. He meets with the inner circle, has his talk with Ozpin, introduces his Atlesian knights to the public, attends the Beacon dance, discovers Ruby fighting Cinder, later compliments Ruby for her initiative in Ozpin’s office, confides in Glynda that night, and helps defend Vale against Roman’s attack. So your implication that as his “first” appearance this tells us he’s really an irredeemable person is not accurate. 

Second, I’ve seen this claim a lot the last couple of months and I finally went back to find/watch the scene for myself (it’s in “Breach”). These were not secret meetings. Ironwood “reported” to the council which I assume is what he’s supposed to do. Given that he is a Headmaster. And this is the council overseeing the schools. Keeping updated is their entire deal. Were these reports fair to Ozpin? We don’t know. You might assume they’re full of lies and horrible misrepresentations, but that’s not what the text tells us. Ironwood told the council Ozpin’s plans, then the council said, ‘No way are you holding the Vytal festival with those precautions alone.’ Then the council asked Ironwood to provide troops for additional security. Did Ironwood manipulate the council and paint Ozpin as a villain to get what he wanted? Maybe. Did Ironwood objectively say precisely what’s going on - Ozpin thinks his huntsmen are enough to keep everyone safe in the event of an attack - and the council, independent of him, came to the conclusion that it wasn’t enough? Maybe. Again, we don’t know. What we do know is that Ironwood is doing all this because he honestly believes it will help others. He begs Ozpin to understand that: “This is the right move, Ozpin. I promise I will keep our people safe. You have to trust me.” And you know what? He wasn’t entirely wrong. No one could have predicted that Salem’s minions would take control of his army. Ironwood did, however, predict that there would be an attack too large for a bunch of students to handle... and he was right. Beacon fell because a those half-trained kids weren’t enough to hold off a major attack, but Ironwood did everything he could to try and prevent that. In a slightly better world where his army wasn’t unexpectedly taken advantage of, that could have easily been what turned the tide of battle and saved Beacon instead. The world where everyone views Ironwood as a hero for providing those extra forces is just a smidge away from the world where everyone views Ironwood as a villain for inadvertently providing the enemy with those extra forces... but the forces themselves are not a black and white bad thing to have. Not in a world where your festivities are interrupted by the giant bird trying to eat the audience. 

“He was told many times his embargo was hurting the city” - Yes, the embargo hurts the city financially. Ironwood is attempting to keep it from being hurt in the ‘everyone is wiped out’ kind of way. Post the Fall of Beacon he’s unsure if the other Kingdoms will declare war against Atlas or not, so it’s not wise to continue giving them one of the easiest means of attack. That’s the official story, but Ironwood (and the audience) know that Salem has also been collecting dust for a while now... so how about we stop giving her any more? Was this the right move to make? Are short-term economic difficulties worth avoiding the risk of potentially supplying enemies with the means of destroying you? I can’t answer that, but it’s not a clear-cut bad decision like you’re making it out to be. Retroactively we can say that no one attacked Atlas and Salem seems to have stopped collecting dust because the writers forgot about it... but Ironwood doesn’t get to see into the future. He didn’t know things would turn out this way. Once again, he’s trying to prevent tragedies, not just survive them when they come along. The balance between short-term sacrifice and long-term protection is far from an easy thing to strike and a character’s failure to achieve perfection despite their best efforts says more about their luck than their morals. Ironwood is an incredibly flawed man, but those flaws have always shown throw via his attempts to help others. 

“He kept a woman on life support prisoner” - Are we talking abut Amber of Fria here? Either way that’s a gross misrepresentation of what happened and, frankly, does little to make me receptive to your other arguments. Amber was attacked, Qrow brought her back to the inner circle, Ironwood kept her alive so that the rest of the power wouldn’t immediately pass to Cinder (and, I would think, because this group isn’t in the habit of just letting friends die if at all possible). Fria was the Winter Maiden, she got dementia, and Ironwood had her live out the rest of her days in a facility so that a) no one murdered her, b) a Maiden with dementia didn’t wreak havoc on the city (we saw her powers go wild during the fight), and c) the power passed to an ally when she finally died. How do you know Fria was a prisoner? Was there a scene I missed where she said as much or, just as likely, might she have agreed to these precautions once her memory started to fade? Amber, meanwhile, was in a coma and unable to consent to anything. Ironwood did not kidnap her for nefarious experimentation, nor do we have any evidence that he held Fria hostage. That sort of thinking only makes “sense” when we’re already inclined to paint a character’s every action as morally corrupt. Is a 80 year old who keeps wandering into the street held prisoner because they were put in a home where they could be taken care of? That’s this with the added complications of “The 80 year old could kill everyone with magic. Or reveal to the world that magic exists” and “A lot of people want to kill this 80 year old” and “If they succeed the world is #screwed.” 

“His treatment of Robyn convinced a technically legal protest into an outright criminal” - Robyn is a criminal. Ironwood never stopped her from protesting. He required that she a) not spy on a classified project, b) not keep his men from working on that project, and c) not steal supplies meant for that project... all actions that are illegal. Honestly I’m not entirely sure what this phrase is saying. That Ironwood forced Robyn to become a criminal? If so, we once again need to discuss agency and how Character A doing something that Character B doesn’t like does not give Character B blanket justification for every horrible choice they might make. 

“Not to mention he abandons the best defense humanity has against the Grimm to keep some control” - I’m not sure what this is referring to either. What defense? The wall? Amity? Mantle? “To keep control”? That’s another incredibly simplified and subjective view of events. I’ve already done enough work on this blog to explain why, based on the group’s current knowledge, Ironwood’s plan is horrifying but also the best they’ve currently got. It’s not a grab at power, no matter how easy it is to paint it as that and move along. The morality of these actions is absolutely in question, but the motivation is not. We’ve seen no evidence - and a great deal of evidence against it - that Ironwood is simply out to maintain power.  

Nothing here proves that Ironwood would be willing to shoot an allied kid. “Ironwood did controversial things in the name of protecting others” does not equal “Ironwood is willing to murder an ally.” Rather, these things contradict because we’ve spent six volumes with Ironwood pushing every limit possible to help others, not attack them. Lists like these likewise ignore everything that Ironwood did which doesn’t support shooting Oscar: every conversation he’s ever had where he didn’t attack someone for disagreeing with him, every action he’s taken being in the service of helping others (even if there’s disagreement about how to best go about that), him flipping his gun around when Qrow (presumably) attacked him, reassuring the Vytal students that there’s no shame in running from the fight, confiding in Glynda, standing up for Weiss, sending Yang her arm, being overjoyed to (he thinks) see Ozpin again, willingly training Oscar, choosing to trust RWBYJNR with both his plan and the relic, listening to them later about Robyn and telling the council about Salem, destroying his arm to protect the people, choosing arrest rather than, I don’t know, just trying to straight up kill Team RWBY for daring to say no to him. Because isn’t that the Ironwood you’ve described above? Someone who won’t hesitate to do anything to get what he wants, even murder? It’s a compelling character, but I don’t think we’ve seen that character anywhere prior to Volume 7′s finale. That character is the opposite of who we had before. When things get tough, stressful, and traumatic the show has said, time and time again, that this is how Ironwood treats his allies

So it’s a bit jarring to suddenly go, “Never mind. He shoots them now.” 

[daily-destiel]

Here is my honest opinion, without seeing what anyone else has had to say:

The fact that Dean kept the dog made me happy. It seemed symbolic of his character development from hating dogs at the start of the show and now he is just grateful.

While watching, I felt a little disappointed at the fact that we were spending the last episode with some dumbass purge vampires led by some girl they saved that no one remembers or cares about. One of the many great things about supernatural is their amazing villains, and I feel like we kinda got jipped.

Of course, I stopped caring about it the moment I saw the nail on the wall. Jensen and Jared’s acting in Dean’s final moments was incredible. At first I wasn’t even sad. It seemed like a incredibly confusing joke for the writers to play at the very last second, but we always knew this was how Dean Winchester’s story would end. Violent, bloody, and unexpected. I feel that this is a very final and full circle ending for Dean.

We got something real special with Sam tonight. He has his morning by himself and we can easily see in every aspect of his face how much pain he was in. His voice on the phone with the man that called Dean’s phone was so heartbreaking and emotional. Sam kept fighting , just like he promised Dean. In this scene, we also get confirmation that Donna is alive, when before, we weren’t sure if their friends were back. Good catch supernatural.

My best friend and I screamed when we saw Sam with his son, Dean. I apreciate his full circle ending, coming back around to a normal life with a family. He also didn’t forgot his past (naming his son Dean, keeping Baby, the photos on the walls). Jared acting and moving around like an old man did give me a good laugh.

It’s no secret that heaven has always been problematic. The way Jack “fixed” things is a start, but the only heaven I will personally accept is having one like the way that The Good Place did it. Having everything and everyone (not really, I will get to that soon) is great for a while, but they will eventually become bored and need to cease to exist.

In the ideal world, I want the love confession and the kiss, but we all kind knew deep down that it wasn’t going to happen. It’s not that I don’t want it to happen (my entire blog is about them!), it’s that they didn’t want the show to just look like some gay slowburn to outsiders. (Check out some of my other reblogs explaining this further and better than I can) We know Cass loves Dean and there is indirect proof that Dean returns those feelings, but we needed something. All we got was Bobby mentioning Cass helping Jack to fix heaven. We needed one visual representation of Cass. We needed him to be standing on that bridge when Dean stopped the car. That’s it, I would ask for nothing more.

This is obvious to me, but I’m sure that there are people that wil get salty over the way Jack was (or wasn’t) acting. He said that Chuck’s mistake was being hands on, and he is right. Jack did nothing wrong when he did not step in to save Dean’s life. The boys knew this, for they did not pray. They understood, and we need to too.

It feels there is still a lot unresolved, but I am too emotionally exhausted to list it. I do have a lot of other problems with the episode, but hop on literally anyone else’s account to see about all that.

The story started with the brothers,, and it ended with them. They should not have left Castiel’s story unresolved, but I am not going to waste my time and energy cyberbullying the writers, actors, and other fans. It is impossible to create a perfect ending that pleases everyone, but no one feels satisfied. This story needed a beautiful ending, and we got it. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but isn’t that the point?

[megashadowdragon]

itsclydebitches

With respect, Ironwood brought an army to deal with a covert threat. In his FIRST appearance he'd had ozpin removed from the tournament staff with secret meetings. He was told many times his embargo was hurting the city, he kept a woman on life support prisoner and his treatment of Robyn convinced a technically legal protest into an outright criminal. Not to mention he abandons the best defense humanity has against the Grimm to keep some control. Shooting a dissenter seem very in character

sent by anonymous

“Ironwood brought an army to deal with a covert threat” - For which he was suitably chastised by Ozpin. It’s a whole conversation in “Welcome to Beacon” and, back when RWBY was doing a better job of handling these complex issues, that conversation gives weight to both sides. Ironwood isn’t trying to, idk, take over Beacon or something with his army. He wants to be prepared in order to help people. “I’m just being cautious.” Ozpin points out that scaring everyone won’t help, but notably the story acknowledges that Ozpin’s preferences are far from full-proof. “Do you really believe your children can win a war?” Can you prove to me that the kids we’re training will be enough when the shit hits the fan? Ozpin doesn’t have an answer. He dodges answering by saying only that he hopes his kids won’t have to fight, not that he has unwavering faith that they will win. Then Beacon falls. Ozpin dies. Ironwood is left alone with an entire kingdom to keep safe and I think it’s worth acknowledging that he did that. Mantle is far from perfect, there’s a lot there to fix, but the people are alive and that’s in part thanks to the soldiers that keep the grimm from eating them all. The rest? That’s due to Penny, a symbol of hope that Ironwood gave to the people. He learned that from this conversation with Ozpin.

“In his FIRST appearance he’d had ozpin removed from the tournament staff with secret meetings.” - It’s not Ironwood’s first appearance. He meets with the inner circle, has his talk with Ozpin, introduces his Atlesian knights to the public, attends the Beacon dance, discovers Ruby fighting Cinder, later compliments Ruby for her initiative in Ozpin’s office, confides in Glynda that night, and helps defend Vale against Roman’s attack. So your implication that as his “first” appearance this tells us he’s really an irredeemable person is not accurate.

Second, I’ve seen this claim a lot the last couple of months and I finally went back to find/watch the scene for myself (it’s in “Breach”). These were not secret meetings. Ironwood “reported” to the council which I assume is what he’s supposed to do. Given that he is a Headmaster. And this is the council overseeing the schools. Keeping updated is their entire deal. Were these reports fair to Ozpin? We don’t know. You might assume they’re full of lies and horrible misrepresentations, but that’s not what the text tells us. Ironwood told the council Ozpin’s plans, then the council said, ‘No way are you holding the Vytal festival with those precautions alone.’ Then the council asked Ironwood to provide troops for additional security. Did Ironwood manipulate the council and paint Ozpin as a villain to get what he wanted? Maybe. Did Ironwood objectively say precisely what’s going on - Ozpin thinks his huntsmen are enough to keep everyone safe in the event of an attack - and the council, independent of him, came to the conclusion that it wasn’t enough? Maybe. Again, we don’t know. What we do know is that Ironwood is doing all this because he honestly believes it will help others. He begs Ozpin to understand that: “This is the right move, Ozpin. I promise I will keep our people safe. You have to trust me.” And you know what? He wasn’t entirely wrong. No one could have predicted that Salem’s minions would take control of his army. Ironwood did, however, predict that there would be an attack too large for a bunch of students to handle… and he was right. Beacon fell because a those half-trained kids weren’t enough to hold off a major attack, but Ironwood did everything he could to try and prevent that. In a slightly better world where his army wasn’t unexpectedly taken advantage of, that could have easily been what turned the tide of battle and saved Beacon instead. The world where everyone views Ironwood as a hero for providing those extra forces is just a smidge away from the world where everyone views Ironwood as a villain for inadvertently providing the enemy with those extra forces… but the forces themselves are not a black and white bad thing to have. Not in a world where your festivities are interrupted by the giant bird trying to eat the audience.

“He was told many times his embargo was hurting the city” - Yes, the embargo hurts the city financially. Ironwood is attempting to keep it from being hurt in the ‘everyone is wiped out’ kind of way. Post the Fall of Beacon he’s unsure if the other Kingdoms will declare war against Atlas or not, so it’s not wise to continue giving them one of the easiest means of attack. That’s the official story, but Ironwood (and the audience) know that Salem has also been collecting dust for a while now… so how about we stop giving her any more? Was this the right move to make? Are short-term economic difficulties worth avoiding the risk of potentially supplying enemies with the means of destroying you? I can’t answer that, but it’s not a clear-cut bad decision like you’re making it out to be. Retroactively we can say that no one attacked Atlas and Salem seems to have stopped collecting dust because the writers forgot about it… but Ironwood doesn’t get to see into the future. He didn’t know things would turn out this way. Once again, he’s trying to prevent tragedies, not just survive them when they come along. The balance between short-term sacrifice and long-term protection is far from an easy thing to strike and a character’s failure to achieve perfection despite their best efforts says more about their luck than their morals. Ironwood is an incredibly flawed man, but those flaws have always shown throw via his attempts to help others.

“He kept a woman on life support prisoner” - Are we talking abut Amber of Fria here? Either way that’s a gross misrepresentation of what happened and, frankly, does little to make me receptive to your other arguments. Amber was attacked, Qrow brought her back to the inner circle, Ironwood kept her alive so that the rest of the power wouldn’t immediately pass to Cinder (and, I would think, because this group isn’t in the habit of just letting friends die if at all possible). Fria was the Winter Maiden, she got dementia, and Ironwood had her live out the rest of her days in a facility so that a) no one murdered her, b) a Maiden with dementia didn’t wreak havoc on the city (we saw her powers go wild during the fight), and c) the power passed to an ally when she finally died. How do you know Fria was a prisoner? Was there a scene I missed where she said as much or, just as likely, might she have agreed to these precautions once her memory started to fade? Amber, meanwhile, was in a coma and unable to consent to anything. Ironwood did not kidnap her for nefarious experimentation, nor do we have any evidence that he held Fria hostage. That sort of thinking only makes “sense” when we’re already inclined to paint a character’s every action as morally corrupt. Is a 80 year old who keeps wandering into the street held prisoner because they were put in a home where they could be taken care of? That’s this with the added complications of “The 80 year old could kill everyone with magic. Or reveal to the world that magic exists” and “A lot of people want to kill this 80 year old” and “If they succeed the world is #screwed.”

Nothing here proves that Ironwood would be willing to shoot an allied kid. “Ironwood did controversial things in the name of protecting others” does not equal “Ironwood is willing to murder an ally.” Rather, these things contradict because we’ve spent six volumes with Ironwood pushing every limit possible to help others, not attack them. Lists like these likewise ignore everything that Ironwood did which doesn’t support shooting Oscar: every conversation he’s ever had where he didn’t attack someone for disagreeing with him, every action he’s taken being in the service of helping others (even if there’s disagreement about how to best go about that), him flipping his gun around when Qrow (presumably) attacked him, reassuring the Vytal students that there’s no shame in running from the fight, confiding in Glynda, standing up for Weiss, sending Yang her arm, being overjoyed to (he thinks) see Ozpin again, willingly training Oscar, choosing to trust RWBYJNR with both his plan and the relic, listening to them later about Robyn and telling the council about Salem, destroying his arm to protect the people, choosing arrest rather than, I don’t know, just trying to straight up kill Team RWBY for daring to say no to him. Because isn’t that the Ironwood you’ve described above? Someone who won’t hesitate to do anything to get what he wants, even murder? It’s a compelling character, but I don’t think we’ve seen that character anywhere prior to Volume 7′s finale. That character is the opposite of who we had before. When things get tough, stressful, and traumatic the show has said, time and time again, that this is how Ironwood treats his allies

iron-and-ice I never thought I’d see people referring to Ironwood providing comfortable protected residence to an elderly woman in possession of magical WMD powers as ‘imprisonment’. Fria, unlike other ‘good guys’, understood what her duty was. Vol 7 MVP, undisputed.

[kaibutsushidousha]

New DanganRonpa V3 full prediction

Having answer to @photoshopronpa​‘s survey made me realize I already have a complete prediction for the entire game. Of course, I know that I’m not really that good at fortune-telling, so my chance of getting everything right pre-release is way below 20%. Still that prediction thing was lot of fun to make and I’m looking forward to hear your thoughts about it. 

Here’s my prediction:

“Wait, 6 killers and 4 victims?” 

“What the fuck, Shirogane mastermind?”

Yeah, I know that seems confusing, but don’t worry, everything will make sense once I lay out the story chapter by chapter. Here we go:

Chapter 1: Saihara kills Amami

Basis for Amami as the first victim: The first victim must always be someone portrayed as important. Amami seems to be presented as important as Maizono and as mysterious as Twogami. He gives us this false sense of security of believing he will not die before he remember his talent. Not to mention he is too suspicious to actually be a killer. I really don’t think I needed to explain this one, as lots of people agree on him as the first victim, but better safe than sorry.

Basis for Saihara as the first killer: We already know he is the first person Akamatsu meets and the one who introduces her to everyone, but this role was replaced by Naegi in the demo. The demo evidences points to Naegi and we know for a fact that the first Debate Scrum discusses whether or not Saihara is the killer. A point of interest in the demo is the lie tutorial: Akamatsu lies to create a fake alibi to Naegi. Considering Saihara is replacing this role, Akamatsu will do her tutorial lie because she blindly trusts Saihara, so having Saihara as the first killer is a necessary step of character development to make Akamatsu face reality.

Important prediction plot point: Unlike every other murderer in the series, Saihara will not reveal his motives after the trial is over.

Chapter 2: Momota kills Iruma

Basis for Momota as a killer:  No strong evidence really. Originally I had Momota as one of my survivors because I thought he would be the new Hagakure. This series’ structures always requires a couple of dumb characters who are necessary to make the Class Trial cover every single point, even the most obvious ones. That’s why Hagakure, Asahina, Souda and Owari were left alive. I assigned Momota as one of my new dumb duo and dismissed him as a survivor. Then came his part on Suzuki’s blog. Suzuki pointed out the fact that Momota was smart enough to pass the Astronaut Exam and said that this smartness will be his main point of interested during the game. With that in mind, my theory of Momota as survivor collapsed and now I see him as a really clever murderer and Gonta and Chabashira as the new surviving idiot duo. Of course, considering his personality, I believe his murder might be a really emotionally intense and maybe even accidental murder, kinda like it was with Oowada. There’s also that one execution in the intro with the meteor showers and all, that’s some nice evidence.

Basis for Iruma as the second victim: I think I said this one before already. Haruka Ishida was chosen as Iruma’s seiyuu because of parallels with Fujisaki and Ishida commented about her script being short. The obvious conclusion her is a character arc similar to Fujisaki: dies early but leaves behind something that will later save the day. This probably the part I’m the most sure about.

Why Momota in the second chapter specifically?: It was the only murderer slot left after I laid out everything. I guess I just forgot Momota was a character, as usual.

Chapter 3: Yumeno tricks Angie into killing Hoshi

Basis for Hoshi as victim: I mean, his backstory involves lots of murders, so its more than obvious he is not murdering anyone here. It’s the Genocider Shou effect. However, I really can’t see him as a survivor either, so victim it is.

Basis for Angie as a puppet murderer: Ever since we got to know her better, we all knew that this little fanatic would have absolutely no qualms about murdering anyone with she was doing it because her god said so. Angie being one of favs is proof of how I like that idea. However, that alone is boring and insufficient. It would make a much better plot if someone took advantage of that faith used Angie as a murder weapon by pretending to be the voice of God in her head.

How is that even possible?: It’s already have been establish that the every student will have a personal laboratory to upgrade their talents. Assume these laboratories become open areas after its owner dies. That means that after Chapter 2, everyone has free access to Iruma’s inventions (important future plot point because that’s how they will find her “save the day” machine). Iruma already said in the demo that one of her inventions allows to read manga even when you’re sleeping. Speculating about how would that work, I built a theory that it is a computer that scans the manga and provide a full audio description to a speaker in the user’s ears. Of course, Iruma values confort above all else, so she would make this earpiece the size of a speck of dust, unnoticeable by anyone not named Kirumi Toujou (who would only notice after speculation in the Trial). If anyone disassemble the manga reading the device and connect it to a transceiver, they should be able to able to give Angie “God’s orders” without gathering suspicion (Minor detail, but the first trial screenshots establish that a transceiver does exist inside the school). For lots of reasons, that‘s the part of the prediction I’m the least sure about.

Basis for Yumeno as the puppeteer: On the practical side of the story, the first step of plan is planting the communication device in Angie’s ear without her realizing. Considering everyone’s talents, Yumeno is easily the most capable of doing that. She could even disguise it as a “coin in ear” trick and that’s what clues Angie into who her controller was. Now on the character construction side, having someone else commit murder and disguise the crime for her fits the lazy Yumeno. However, the one who made tie me Yumeno to this crime was not Yumeno herself, but actually Chabashira. As we all know, the first demo included the scene where Asahina and Sakura are drinking tea together happen to see the victim grabbing the knife. In the V3 demo, however, those two were replaced Chabashira and Yumeno. And then there’s the other scene during trial where Chabashira looks absurdly glad for having Yumeno spend the whole day educating her on the difference between mere ilusionism tricks and real magic. It’s clear to me that these two will be those two characters who are constantly together and will interact with each other whenever possible. That’s the point makes me link this to Yumeno: Sora Tokui said she thinks Kodaka likes to make the cute ones suffer, probably refering to her own character. As I said before, I don’t think Chabashira will die because she is filling the dumb quota on the Class Trial, so my guess for this promised Tenko Pain Train is that Chabashira will have her best friend turn out to be the most unscrupulous murder of game (and the first female murderer, to top it off).

Class Trial procedure: When asked about accomplices, Monokuma already answered on 1-3 that the accomplices are just treated as regular innocents, with no special privileges for helping out the crime and would be executed in case the culprit wins. Case 2-2 expands this concept saying that an accomplice is still an accomplice even if they are “the murder weapon”. Only the mastermind of the murder is treated as the culprit. That means Angie is treated as innocent by Monokuma and gets to survive. In terms of character development, that would make Angie a little bit less blind about her faith. It would also heavily affect her interaction with other characters because, manipulated or not, she still killed a guy with her own two hands for a reason everyone else considers absurd. I don’t know what her redemption arc for that could be, to be honest. I do like the idea that Chabashira would be the first to forgive her though.

Chapter 4: Shinguuji kills Toujou

Basis for Toujou as victim: Her work policy is “duty before self” and her first name is how a Japanese would pronounce “kill me”. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I can’t get past the idea that Toujou will orchestrate her own murder in order to help someone getting out of the school.

Basis for Shinguuji as a murderer: @atterozen​ already said everything here. However, I believe the spider web in heaven represents Toujou rather than Gonta (as I put Gonta as a survivor for reasons already explained). Toujou has the spider web motif in her dress and thematically fits better the Spider’s Thread tale as Toujou’s murder was a heavenly present given by Toujou herself to help Shinguuji escape from hell. And just like in the original tale, Shinguuji will lose his thread because he doesn’t want anyone else to survive along him.

Chapter 5: Harukawa and Ki-bo kill each other

Basis for these two: As you know, Chapter 5 is supposed be a big moment that pulls the plot towards the finale. As a big moment, it obviously must involve the big players. At this point of the prediction however, the only big players left alive are Harukawa and Ki-bo. At first I thought Harukawa killing was the obvious way to go because I couldn’t see Ki-bo killing anyone, but after Sasaki’s comment on how Ki-bo will have the biggest before-after impression difference, I started to have my doubts about that. I couldn’t decide who kills who and thought “Hey, why not making this the first actual mutual killing of the Mutual Killing Games?”. 

State of the crime scene: The two of them died at the same time, then there would be no one to disguise the crime scene. If anyone found the bodies, they could immediately tell what happened and the Class Trial would be a waste of time. To avoid that from happening, the ringleader (I’m still salty that they replaced the word “mastermind” btw) has to take action to disguise the crime scene. That’s where Shirogane comes in and does her job.

Why Shirogane of all people?: She is the only character left I don’t know what to do with.

The Class Trial results: After half of the Class Trial figuring out the double murder, we get a new a question. “If they both killed each other the same time, then who arranged the crime scene”. The second half of the Class Trial is them figuring out it was Shirogane. Shirogane then outs herself as the ringleader and takes blame for the entire killing game. One of the smarter liars (probably Ouma) will then question her about how does she talk to everyone and control Monokuma at the same time and she won’t know how to answer. With her lie exposed, everyone would realize Shirogane’s situation. The ringleader is controlling Monokuma from elsewhere, but they still wanted an agent inside of the game keep everything under control in case of emergency. That was Shirogane.

Aftermath:The survivors would then proceed to interrogate her regarding the real ringleader’s identity. Shirogane doesn’t say anything because, unlike the previous traitors, she actually believes/agrees with the ringleader’s goals. The ringleader, however, is that “better safe than sorry” kind of guy, so he will execute Shirogane anyway as this chapter’s culprit just in case. Betrayed, she would be dragged to her while desperately yelling the name “Saihara”. After the trial is over, everyone would go together to Saihara’s laboratory to look for clues. There they would find investigation files detailing how Saihara (no given name specified in any point of the files) was being tailed by the Super High School Level Spy, Rantarou Amami. They would them move to Amami’s laboratory and find his report.

Re-chapter 1

Re-chapter? What?: It’s an interlude kinda like DR2′s Chapter Zero but a lot longer. It’s the game up until the first murder, but told from Amami’s POV. He was feigning his amnesia the entire time and doing his spy job to investigate Saihara. Shuuichi’s motive for murder was believing Amami was after his life because of the misleading file in his laboratory.

Basis for Amami’s talent as a spy: Already explained here.

Chapter 6

Trial discussion: Everyone would start by accusing Shuuichi, until Akamatsu remember he saying that he worked as his uncle apprentice. Akamatsu will re-examine Amami’s report taking the uncle into consideration and notice it makes more sense like this. Amami almost screwed everyone up by not writing given names, but that’s how the plot works. Then we get to our usual “mastermind shows up and offer a final sadisctic choice to the survivors” finale.

Basis for uncle Saihara as the ringleader: The first thing noticed at Saihara’s name reveal was that Saihara Shuuichi can be shortened to Saishuu, so we that’s already a hint to his connection to the school. Then we get the news that the school was built specifically for the killing game, so that reduces the chances of the name being a coincidence. Then we got to Shuuichi’s introduction, which establish he has a related character that could be ringleader and the most important part: he doesn’t think he is worth of his title. Shuuichi clearly shows himself to be genuinely confused about why he of all people was chosen as a Super High School Level. Normally, I would interpret this as just lack of self-esteem, but considering the idea someone close to him is behind everything, it’s easy to guess how he was chosen.

Survivor roles: I already explained where I think Angie and Chabashira will get their moments. Ouma will be the main rival character in the trials. He is the self-proclaimed liar in a game about lies after all. He might play a bigger role in Ki-bo’s trial but I don’t know. I can’t think of anything to do with Gonta.

ADDENDUM: Finally found a role for Gonta.

[lifeandthings]

Atheism & Christianity.

Hah, okay so please allow me to preface this with… This is LITERALLY just flowing out of my head and not rooted in any fact whatsoever. This is my opinion based on an entire life of being surrounded by Christianity.

But I’m just thinking about it right now. On a whim. I have been re-reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, a book I have read probably at least six times. I like to re-read it as often as I feel like it, because it’s a book I greatly enjoy and a book that exercises my thought process a bit more than most – and yet it’s still written colloquially.

As I was reading last night, I started thinking ‘I bet there are so many rebuttals to this book,’ and I had never actually thought of that before, throughout the many times I’ve read it.

So, naturally, I googled it. I searched for “opposition to mere christianity” or something like that. And a bunch of really great articles/atheist blogs came up.

I read through about ten individual “Why Mere Christianity is a load of crap” type posts. And more of that sort of thing. I actually enjoyed reading them. There was some really wise logic in those posts, and I’m grateful people took the time to explain their opinions and their own logic regarding Lewis’ book.

I haven’t fully digested their words and thoughts and incorporated them into my memory bank, so I’m not even going to write about that, but what was interesting to me is how I started to feel as I read these posts. I started to feel a little hopeless. Not like I forgot about Jesus, but like I could tell there is very little chance these guys (and yes, ironically, they were usually men… not that that means anything) could ever see the grace of God, even if it slapped them on the forehead. I was hopeless for them.

There’s something so funny to me about atheism in general. It’s an “anti-religion,” and yet it is still a religion. To be an atheist, you are required to think that they is no chance that a God exists. You are required to think this way and talk this way. Atheists create their own sets of rules by which to live, and it really boils down to something very similar to a religion. In my personal opinion, everyone has a “religion” they adhere to, whether they realize it or not. You have a set of beliefs about the supernatural, god, or man’s place in the world, even if you haven’t specified them completely. Sure, there are many different types of atheists like many different types of Christians, but it’s similar.

What struck me all of the sudden is that atheists are literally defending NOTHING. And I don’t mean nothing as in “no thing is there.” What I mean is they are defending the existence of a lifetime of nothing, as in, a capital N Nothing. Nothing to live for. Nothing to die for. Nothing to hope in. Nothing to become of your sentient and careful, intricate brains and bodies. That doesn't mean they don’t find joy and love, and usually most of them are extremely kind people, but how odd to me that there’s no hope for after they die. 

Frankly, that’s depressing. I don’t even care about whether someone chooses to be an atheist or not. That’s their choice. God gave us choice, because there is no real love without the power to choose love and no real hate without the power to choose hate. It’s a bummer that we aren’t all mindless followers of God, right? A robotic universe? No. But choice exists so that people can choose God or not. In the end, everyone gets exactly what they want.

Of course I yearn for these people to find hope and choose Jesus, but I also understand why they don’t. I mean, logically. It totally makes sense to me why people don’t think God exists. There are endless articles, books, scrolls, blogs, talk shows and podcasts devoted to de-splaining the existence of a supernatural power. There are so many reasons people choose to live without God, or to avoid God, or to run from God, or not to think God exists. The church has had a depressing part in that, too.

But, I truly don’t understand how someone could live and die with no hope for something more. This world is wretched. This life is short. What the hell are we all living for if not for more?

I have digressed. But I also wanted to make the point that Christianity, as opposed to religion, is actually a person. It’s not this set of rules and guidelines. SURE, there are suggestions for how to live your life to avoid falling into the pitfalls of humanity (aka our inherent sinful nature brought about by pride and wanting to be our own god), BUT even if you took all of those rules away and you still had Jesus, Christianity would still exist. Christianity is a person, and a person who died and rose from the dead, effectively conquering death’s permanent hold on humanity, and therefore He is still alive. Thus, Christianity is a relationship with that living, God-in-flesh person. Sure, we can’t see him NOW. He’s not walking around NOW. But He exists, because death can’t touch Him.

Christianity’s message is that Jesus killed death so that death can’t touch us either. ALL that God wants from us, more than any abiding to His rules, is for us to just be joined with Him, to choose Him. Why else do you think we humans have such an innate desire to be chosen, to be special, to be loved? It’s hard-wired into our coding, because we are made in the image of Him. When we choose to believe that what Jesus did was real, that He was real, that his death and resurrection is real, we are realizing that through Jesus death has no hold on us. And life becomes whole.

And on top of all this, honestly, even if you want to throw all logic and analogies out the window, what would you rather believe? Something that promises new life, a better life, that’s not actually the set of rules people think it is? Or something that may make sense now but ends in a final, fruitless, human death? What do you have to lose by believing in Jesus? You run the risk of being transformed, of course. But truly, even if Christianity were false, you would still end up in the same dank hole you hoped for, so why not take the risk on hoping for something more? The worst that can happen is you die, which of course you would anyway.

[atomiccrusadeperfection]

The Rainbow Lumite

Continuation of the Prologue posted earlier on my blog

Chapter 1

“So, this is the sealed girl our elders talked about? They said she was sealed in a rock,” Bacbouc said, as him and his fellow explorers, who were sent out by Tethu to gather materials, observed the glowing ancient rock that was the size and shape of a seedling in seed form.

“Well, then, let’s hurry and get it to our chief! I’ll carry it,” Ida said, picking the surprisingly light stone up. She felt an extreme wave of relief and happiness once she did pick it up and put it in a satchel she had brought with her to gather materials.

“We’ll defend you, Ida. Just try not to get ahead too far, okay? Who knows what the girl could do?” Yahya said, looking at Ida’s bag, which was now glowing.

“I remember the Drauk Elder saying something about rainbows and the ultimate white light… But, people were asking too many questions about how she looked, so I didn’t get a chance to ask what she does,” Ida said as the crew finished gathering materials and left the abandoned Catacombs.

“We had a meeting like that, too. The Lagora Elder would tell us stories if we voted on one. I can tell you one of the stories!” Bacbouc cried.

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to take a break,” Yahya said, sitting down. Ida sat down and placed her bag aside.

Bacbouc sat down and started his story, “Once upon a time, the desert once used to be covered with oases, as far as the eye could see. This very cave used to be a secret underground oasis protected by the ultimate white light, emitted by a young goddess named Ever. In that oasis, the chief and elders of each tribe worked together with her to create a beautiful underground oasis, inhabited by a large number of people, even Chaos itself.”

“What?!” Ida cried. Yahya looked at Ida’s bag again and shivered.

Bacbouc continued, “But the negativity throughout the desert above ground became so intense, Chaos finally snapped and began attacking oasis after oasis above ground until he was strong enough to consume the ultimate white light. But she was sealed away before any crucial damage was applied to her, so he went on a rampage, promising to destroy all life forms roaming around the desert until he ultimately forgot she existed. Our elder said that ultimate white light was a mix between a water spirit, a seedling and a little bit of darkness. Thus, she made the first great tree above ground and assigned Thoth and a water spirit to it, creating the oases.”

“I see… So, she is the true creator of the oases. But why hide her? Couldn’t she go against the chaos?” Ida asked.

“I asked the elder that. She said that the ultimate white light is essential to soothing Chaos because that was her job, but he was getting too out of control for such a small girl. She didn’t even know the full English alphabet yet! She only spoke in ancient tongues nobody could understand but Chaos. Just knowing that Chaos was willing to kill a little girl...”

“Oh god…,” Yahya said, shaking his head.

“That’s a little rude, so to speak,” Ida replied.

“Yup. I also asked how to free her, and the elder said that you have to say a very specific prayer. We could try it now, ya know!” Bacbouc cried, excited.

Ida pulled out the stone and placed it in front of Bacbouc. Bacbouc put his hands together and bowed his head.

“Oh dear goddess, oh young goddess, come to your power. Oh dear goddess, oh so bright goddess, we need you in this dying hour!” Bacbouc cried.

The stone began to shine brightly. Streams of tiny rainbows swirled around the stone until the light faded, revealing a seedling in a white and gold dress, a crown and several gold bracelets. Lastly, was her face, in which her eyes were closed, but more importantly was the fact that on the left side of her face was cream colored skin, while on the right side was a pale purple. The same stood for her arms and legs.

The young seedling girl opened her eyes and almost immediately starting forming something from white light until she finally finished it within three minutes. She had formed a lumite that was mostly white but was covered in rainbows at a harder glance.

“Wow…,” Bacbouc amused. The girl looked at him and gasped. He jumped in fear.

“You’re so cute!” she cried, hugging Bacbouc. Bacbouc gave her a confused look and scratched his head.

“I guess she likes cute things?” Yahya said, confused. The girl stopped hugging Bacbouc and looked around.

“So Chaos did destroy everything… Well, at least I’m free now so that I can fix this place up. Care to join?” the girl asked.

“Um… How do we join?” Bacbouc asked.

“Just follow me, of course! To the center of my great oasis!” the girl enthusiastically cried.

“But we aren’t chiefs…,” Ida replied.

The girl started walking towards the middle of the abandoned city, saying, “I need either a child of the great tree or one person from each of the three tribes.”

“Ok…,” Yahya said, a little scared.

The group followed the girl, who was somehow skipping and keeping the Rainbow Lumite perfectly balanced upon her index finger at the same time. They eventually got to a large empty spring that was way too deep to even be called a spring. She grabbed Bacbouc’s hand, who grabbed Ida’s hand. Ida then grabbed Yahya’s hand.

The girl lead them to the middle of the lake, where the dried out spirit shrine was. As they made their way there, the lake suddenly began to fill up with water. Once it was full, the group made it to the spirit shrine, which was now reforming once again and surging power into the dead great tree above it.

The great tree began to straighten up as the group waited for the shrine to finish forming. Shrine began to be swirled with gold and the water began to glow brightly. Lastly was the sideways rainbow the tree emitted, being formed as a rainbow circled the outside of the lake. Finally, they entered the shrine.

The group joined the line they formed into a circle. They focused their energy and began to create a colorful ball in the middle of their circle. Sparkles swirled around them as they began to float in midair, mist filling the shrine. The great tree then, after absorbing their energy, burst with a flash of light and restored the entire oasis to its former glory, even reverting certain corpses and dead bodies back to their alive state.

“Finally, I can feel my subjects’ happiness again…,” the girl said, closing her eyes and spreading her arms, letting the mist of the shrine fall upon her, “Go, enjoy our luxuries as I fix the place up a little more. I’m sure my people are willing to trade with you.”

The group looked at each other and left, walking along the branch extending from the shrine, followed by a long pathway of lilypads. Beyond the pathway though was the rainbow outlining the lake, and was a ton of Seedlings, Noots, Lagora, Drauk and Serkah just waiting for them. They started to cheer upon seeing the group.

“It’s the kind souls who freed our goddess! We’re saved!” a Seedling cried. Everyone cheered louder as the group left the lake and stood in front of them.

“Alright, everybody! Settle down!” another Seedling cried, pushing everyone aside to get in front of them, only this one looked as if he was a chief…

“We all humbly thank you three kind creatures for freeing our goddess, truly. We are in your debt,” the seedling continued, “Please, if there is anything you may need, we are willing to help.”

“Well, we’re trying to make our oasis Chaos proof,” Yahya said.

“Is that so? Well, I shall consult with Ever. In the meantime, please enjoy our oasis! Oh, and if you are wondering, I am indeed the chief. Everyone, let’s help fix this place up!” the chief said.

The large crowd immediately disbanded and began fixing their Bloom Booths, sweeping the roads, fixing up swings and tending to the farming fields, which put the garden back at their oasis to utter shame.

After walking around and watching all this go on, the group finally realized that the cave’s ceiling had suddenly turned transparent so they could see the sky from down here. There were even clocks on every street, and each street was made of bricks, something hard to come by. Even more interesting was the barns that were even rarer, where they raised creatures and harvested their materials.

“Wow… This oasis puts ours to shame in every way…,” Yahya said.

“Well, at least Tethu is trying his best,” Ida said.

“I never knew that this cave would look so majestic after being restored. Plus, this great tree has the power to bring people back to life!” Bacbouc cried.

“We have to tell Tethu, immediately!” Ida cried.

Yahya tapped her shoulder and reminded, “We still have one more day, let’s just spend the night here. After all, this is a nice oasis… Is that a hospital?! And look at the size of that hotel! It’s so big!”

“Holy seeds! That hotel must serve their guests well! I gotta go in there!” Bacbouc cried.

“Well, let’s go, then!” Ida cried. The group rushed off to the hotel.

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“Feed this thing Chaos? That’s it?” Aronbesh said. Sheut nodded.

“Oh, ok, boss. Oh, by the way, did you see a cave near the entrance of the Kalari Woodsea light up, too?” Aronbesh added.

“What are you speaking of?” Sheut asked.

“This cave, we walked past, it lit up all of the sudden then faded. I felt some kind of immense power coming from it, like, an oasis. You felt it, too, didn’t you?” Aronbesh explained.

Sheut looked down in thought and said, “Hm… Yes, yes I did… Change of plans. Once I form the Black Lumite, I want you to show me which cave you speak of.”

“You got it, boss!” Aronbesh cried, starting to corrupt the Chaos Kelp with Chaos

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“Mm… This food is delicious! I love how they use fire and some smelted metal objects to cook food! Seedlings are genius’!” Ida cried, stuffing her face with BBQ corn and smoked peppers.

“The Serkah do that too, but yeah, seedlings are still genius’,” Yahya said. Bacbouc was about to say something until the Chief came up to them.

“Ever has agreed to help protect your oasis. She says to bring this crystal to your water spirit. But you must promise if you oasis is covered in Chaos, that you do not give it to your water spirit until your chief comes back from his trip and clears the chaos,” the chief said. Ida took the crystal wrapped in red, silky cloth, tied together by a tough vine.

“We understand, but may we ask, is there something going to happen?” Yahya asked.

“Yes, but I am not allowed to tell you. Just keep this crystal in this cloth and do not open it until the chaos is cleared,” the chief said. The group nodded as he began to leave.

“Wait, what’s your name!?” Bacbouc cried.

“I can’t tell you. I don’t trust you yet,” the chief replied, leaving the hotel’s dining room. The group looked at each other, shrugged and then went back to eating.

Eventually, after eating, the crew packed their stuff and began to leave, getting some materials and goodbyes from almost everybody there. Once outside the cave, though, Chaos was brewing everywhere.

“Holy moly!” Yahya cried, shivering.

“Come on, now! We can’t let it scare us! Let’s run past them with our haul!” Bacbouc cried. Ida nodded in agreement while Yahya groaned.

The three ran past all the monsters, who proceeded to chase them, and made it to the cave containing the Forgotten Forest. Upon arriving, they ran into Tethu and his two crew buddies, Sol and Isa.

“Woah, hi guys!” Isa cried. The three jumped and started to panic until they realized that it was their chief.

“Oh… You gave me a heart attack… On the way here, it wasn’t covered in Chaos… And we done went the wrong way…,” Ida panted.

Yahya collapsed to the ground to sleep. Bacbouc rolled his eyes and sat down. Ida did the same, followed by Tethu’s team.

“You can go on ahead. We don’t want to slow you down from getting that next Lumite,” Ida said.

“I refuse to let you stay here. There could be monsters coming in at any moment!” Tethu replied.

“That’s true…,” Bacbouc said.

“We just need to get back to the Oasis,” Ida replied.

“Hm… Then I’ll make an Aqua Gate real quick. Just to make sure you guys are safe,” Tethu declared, summoning an orb of water. Everyone was submerged in balls of glowing water. Once the water disappeared, they appeared safely in their oasis.

“Alright, time to go hide- I mean buy a bunch of stuff I like!” Ida said, smiling innocently. Tethu looked at her in confusion as Isa and Sol rose a brow.

“Hide what?”  Sol asked.

“Nothing! I can’t show you until the chaos is cleared!” Yahya said.

“Oh, okay,” Tethu replied as he opened the aqua gate again and went back to the cave with Isa and Sol. Ida sighed as Bacbouc looked around.

“So we just hide this until chief comes back with the Lumite and clears the chaos?” Ida asked.

“Hide what, I may ask?” Sharkuro asked from his booth.

“It’s a crystal. I dunno what it’ll do, but it's supposed to go to the water spirit once Tethu comes back with the Lumite and clears the Chaos,” Ida said, walking over to the booth with Bacbouc and Yahya.

“May I have a peek?” Sharkuro asked. Ida pulled aside a bit of the cloth, revealing a shiny crystal that was rainbow colored. It had a soft, calming glow to it, and was warm, due to the cloth.

“Oh my god… Sis, look!” Sharkuro cried. Jamelia came over to her older brother’s booth.

“Is it really… The rainbow shard? Only Ever can make those…” she murmured.

“How do you know Ever?” Bacbouc asked.

“Our ancestors lived in her oasis until the big war under there. Then they had to leave and be a part of the oasis. It was sad, hearing the stories, but if you got this… Jamelia, we could go see our ancestors! Maybe even our parents!” Sharkuro cried. Jamelia jumped for joy.

“Where is it, Ida?” Sharuko asked, eager to know.

“It’s in a cave in the Kalari Woodsea, but the-,” Ida started.

“The Chaos, I know. Just please, if you ever go back, take us with you!” Sharkuro begged.

Bacbouc nodded and replied, “Sure! Anything for second management!”

“What?” Sharkuro asked.

“Aren’t you? You manage the oasis when Tethu’s away…,” Yahya reasoned.

“Oh, that makes sense. If you want me to hide it, I will. Just come to me when Tethu comes back,” Sharkuro replied.

“Can’t you give it to him?” Bacbouc asked.

“He’ll probably be rushing to the water spirit once he gets back, I bet. We can wait for him to finish if you want,” Sharuko replied.

“Sure, do that. We need to be told when he comes, though,” Ida reasoned. Sharuko nodded and watched as the three left to the residential part of the Oasis. The Chief was never seen in the residential area, so if anyone needed help, they’d come out of the residential area.

“I’ll see you guys later! I have to go back and drop off our materials we gathered to Sharuko!” Ida cried. Bacbouc and Yahya waved her goodbye as they went to their respective houses.

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Seipha and Saluru sat in a circle around a purple and black flame, waiting for their boss and Aronbesh to come back. Once they did, the two joined them in the circle.

“So, you’re going to the oasis, boss?” Aronbesh asked.

“Yes, but before entering the Forgotten Forest, I saw something. Something that might just be stronger than the Black Lumite…,” Sheut said in thought.

Seipha added, “You mean that small exploration team that was scrambling all over the Kalari Woodsea? I saw them holding something that was glowing in a cloth. It wasn’t that bright, but it was bright enough to see it.”

“Yeah. But that glowing only showed for a split second. You had to be paying some serious attention to even get a glimpse! You sure you saw that?!” Saluru cried.

“I was! Those idiots were running around, screaming like little babies! I couldn’t ignore that clear source of entertainment!” Seipha argued back.

“True…,” Saluru said.

“What shape was it, since you were paying close attention to the ‘entertainment’,” Sheut asked, clearly upset that Seipha admitted that she was slacking off.

“It looked like a shard, as if it was a lumite…,” Seipha said.

“A shard, hm? Interesting…,” Sheut said. He looked like he was changing plans, so now was the time for the three to chat.

“Why didn’t you, ya know, follow them? They could’ve found something very powerful!” Aronbesh said.

“We followed them, but they were scrambling so fast, we lost them within a turn of a corner!” Saluru said.

“They would’ve been able to run straight past you then!” Aronbesh reasoned.

“What he means to say was that they turned a corner and then boom. Gone,” Seipha said.

“Must’ve rushed into a cave,” Aronbesh said.

“We checked all of them, you know. They probably teleported back to their oasis,” Seipha replied.

“That’s possible,” Saluru agreed.

“Silence,” Sheut hissed. The three turned their attention to their boss.

“I have a change of plans. I will go to the oasis and form the black lumite, but you three will come with me and look for that shard. If that shard is what I think it is, I could destroy the oasis all in that single day,” Sheut, chuckling evilly afterward.

“That’s a fantastic plan!” Seipha exclaimed.

“Yeah, boss! When do we go?” Aronbesh asked.

“We should go in a few minutes, but I suggest we go now. It would be better for us, time-wise,” Sheut replied, standing up from the circle they formed around the purple fire.

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Ida had engaged into a conversation with Sharkuro about the underground oasis later in the day. He told her everything he knew, from the oasis’ capacity to the inventions that never came above the surface.

“Even though I’ve only been there when I was a baby, the visual images of the oasis never exited my mind… I always wanted to see it again,” Sharkuro replied, daydreaming about how glorious the underground oasis looked.

“It is truly a glorious oasis. Before Ever restored it, it looked like garbage. No offense to her, but whatever Chaos did to it…,” Ida replied. Shakuro looked down.

“It’s still bizarre to me, how Chaos used to live in the oasis… I wish I could ask Ever how he was in that oasis…,” Sharkuro replied.

Ida’s bag started vibrating. Ida reached into it and pulled out the clothed rainbow shard. She uncovered it slightly, reveal a projection of Ever’s face.

“Ever?!” Ida exclaimed. Sharkuro quickly followed her gaze and gasped.

“Hello! I wanted to see if I could communicate with you, and it works, so… Oh, who’s that?” Ever said.

“He said he came from your oasis,” Ida informed.

“So there were survivors, too… I recognize you! Sharkuro, correct?”

“Yes, it’s me!” Sharkuro replied with excitement.

“Oh, yes, you’re the one I used to babysit for the chief with your sister! Gosh, you’re grown up now, aren’t you?”

“I guess…,” Sharkuro replied, scratching the back of his head.

“Oh, man, I almost forgot! I looked into the mere future and I saw the destruction of your oasis,” Ever explained.

“What?! How soon?!” Ida exclaimed.

“In an hour. And there’s no way to stop it,” Ever said.

“But Tethu is coming back with the Lumite!” Sharkuro cried.

“A mere rainbow shard is more powerful than all the Lumites combined. Chaos will get his hands on this shard because this oasis doesn’t contain good hiding places. Even trying to hide it outside of the oasis won’t do anything but add 30 minutes to the time limit, but I can ask you to evacuate everyone if you see suspicious characters roaming around. I will evacuate Tethu and the Water Spirit myself,” Ever explained.

“Well, can we hide it outside of the oasis while everyone has time to evacuate?” Ida suggested.

“That may work as well,” Ever replied.

“Alright! Sharkuro, tell everyone to run for the exit when suspicious characters appear! I’ll get Bacbouc and Yahya and hide this somewhere…,” Ida said while running off to the residential areas.

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Eventually, residents of the oasis had evacuated to the plaza beforehand, resulting in the plaza to be filled to the brim with seedlings, noots, Serkah, Lagora and Drauk. Ida, Yahya and Bacbouc had already left the oasis to go hide the shard while everyone simply waited to evacuate.

“So, where do we hide it? Would the Horned Cave, or maybe the Kidung Caves do?” Yahya asked. Ida though for a minute.

“Our efforts will prove futile if we hide it in the Kidung Caves. We have to hide it where monsters aren’t present. Although, I have absolutely no idea where that is. I would say the horned cave, but recently, monsters entered that too,” Bacbouc explained.

“You’re right… Ever said that no matter what, chaos will get this thing tonight, regardless of the time extension. We have only thirty minutes, too… But how? It’ll never figure out it’s here if the cloth stays on it,” Ida said.

“Maybe monsters?” Bacbouc asked.

“That could be a possibility- Holy smokes!” Yahya shouted.

A whole group of Razortooths was rushing towards the crew. The three turned towards Pottery Cave and ran off, with the feral beasts tailing behind them. After entering the caves, they passed through a door and shut themselves in an empty room. Yahya and Bacbouc panicked as the Razortooths scratched at the door.

“We’re going to DIE,” Yahya whined.

“No, we aren’t! Stay positive!” Ida shouted. The shard glowed through the cloth it was in and emitted a warm aura that calmed the two panicking friends.

“Thank you, Ever,” Ida said.

“You’re welcome. You plan seems to be working, despite the fact that I didn’t recommend it,” Ever spoke through the shard.

“Why? It seemed like the better choice,”

“Remember when I said that it MAY work? It might only work out for the people evacuating, but you guys… Chaos and his cronies will hunt you guys down, and with these monsters outside, they’ll be here in about thirty minutes. I didn’t want you guys to confront Chaos himself, but you’ll have to deal with it. I just hope the aura on the shard is enough to ensure that Chaos spares you,” Ever explained.

“Now I have a good reason to panic!” Yahya panicked.

“I’m so scared!” Bacbouc cried, balling up into a sad but adorable ball.

“I will try my hardest, okay? I have no confidence in my ability to soothe him, since he’s been raging for a century, but I am confident that you will live, regardless,” Ever said.

“Ok…,” Ida said, sure enough, that her confidence was at an all-time low right now.

“Shall I emit more soothing remedies?” Ever asked. The crew nodded. The shard started emitting the warm aura again. The three, within minutes, fell asleep.

The ground shook. The door began to crack. Ida, Bacbouc and Yahya woke up from their short naps and came to the realization that Chaos was here.

“Quickly! Uncover the shard!” Ever exclaimed. Ida grabbed the shard from beside her and pulled the cloth off of it. The light of the shard brightly illuminated the entire room, blinding the three from seeing the wall crumble. The shard previously wasn’t THIS bright.

“Ah! My eyes!” Aronbesh shouted.

“It burns!” Saluru cried, tears welling up in his eyes.

“It wasn’t this bright when I first saw it!” Seipha exclaimed.

The three wiped their eyes several times before finally being able to see through the bright light. There was a dark lagora, a dark drauk, and a dark serkah standing at the newly made hole in the wall, wiping their eyes. The Razortooth were gone, most likely because they couldn’t handle the light either. Most importantly, there was a dark seedling, who just happened to be in front of Ida. He held his hand out. Ida gave the shard to him.

“Ever must’ve told you to be submissive,” he chuckled, poofing the shard out of physical existence, “At least she’s making things easier for the both of us. Now begone before I kill all three of you.”

Ida, Yahya and Bacbouc rushed out of the little room and straight out of pottery cave. They continued to run until the reached the entrance of Bahar Hill, where they stopped to rest. The ground began to shake violently.

Despite being in Bahar Hill, the three witnessed the great tree being killed before their eyes. The heartbreaking sight of watching their home get demolished tore them apart, but they got themselves together and pressed on, still not knowing if any of the residents escaped or not.