#anyway lots of belial in this one huh

[nightmarenoise]

[harveybwabbit92]

[If frost giant! reader was accidentally sent to the past before she met Doll! Belial and she still meets Kaiser! Belial who still ends up keeping her as his prisoner (And yes, he still catches feelings for her.) but there's a twist; She turns up at around the time Riku was born, she kidnaps him, settles on Geed's Earth! and raises him as her son. Anyway Riku goes up to R/n one day and asks her about his dad.]

R/n: Oh… Your father, huh?

Riku: Yeah, you never talk about Dad. What was he like?

R/n: Uh, He was… a loner? Had a lot of trouble making friends-- very abrasive.

Riku: Am I a lot like him?

R/n:

R/n: You ...have his gender.

[icharchivist]

@nightmarenoise​ submitted:

ACTUALLY, there is one more very important thing about Versus I need to tell you about!

So the main story is that Belial and Bubs are fucking causality, so things get weird and you and your friends are flying around locations known from the base game to do damage control and figure out what is going on. Basically, you fight some monsters or Erste Empire soldiers (they think their Empire still exists) and then every now and again you fight one of your friends. You beat some sense into them, they remember that they’re your friends and join you. Something about the Singularity being able to warp causality so you un-warp the fuckery those two guys caused. Then the next fight is usually a tutorial section, where Lyria and Vyrn explain the new character’s moveset and you try it out and experience it for yourself. Then they join your roster and you can play them as many times as you want.

Funnily enough, if you have the Djeeta DLC, her intro includes a summary of the WMTSB saga with some really good art (including the from the “I’m getting beheaded, can I call you back” meme) and then you learn how to do her moves.

If you have the DLC for Beelzebub and Belial, you unlock them at some point and, in a fun twist, you don’t have Lyria and Vyrn explaining their moves

Belial does the tutorials for them! With the goshdarn prettiest art I have ever seen.

He delivers all the explanations with innuendo, obviously (“We still haven’t reached climax?”) and if you play with JP audio, he sometimes says “Bubs-san, Bubs-san” before delivering more instructions.

He also explains his own moves later

It’s hilarious.

Sidenote, Belial’s taunt is him manifesting an apple and rolling it around for a bit (and I think Avatar Belial squishes it, but I’m not completely sure rn) and when he gets hit while doing this, he drops the apple, which has its own hit box, so you can technically kick it around. If you taunt Beelzebub, he will sing-song Bubs-san~ to him while doing his apple thing, so that’s very fun. They just have a very specific dynamic in this game. They’re flirting, they’re divorced, they have never touched, they fuck every night.

Anyway, I’m adding this one to hurt you specifically, but other than that I hope you enjoyed my little presentation, because it’s like, my favorite thing about the entire game lmao

THIS IS SO COOL OMG

thank you for sharing this in detail this is incredible.

Belial truly is the devs special boy who can hijack the gameplay just to be dirty and pretty huh!

but OUTCH THAT LAST ONE HURTS A LOT. BELIAL YOU MEANIE.

thank you for sharing!!!

[nfumbewalk]

Highly Transmutable Death Energy™

Altar from many, many years ago. The only sigil I can see is Eurynomous.' I imagine this is for the death Demons, the green candle I used for Ba'alberith or possibly Belial.

I'm studying how the HTDE current enters the right side of the body. This is where it is active, and as it travels through each chakra - See how that feels. The right side is Yang energy. The positive polarity. The ground is hot. On the opposite side, we have the HTDE that is receptive, holds within a great deal of energy, strength of our ancestors, & not to forget - emotion mostly lies here. What I said about Yin doesn't look enough? Read again what Yin covers! This is the negative polarity. When out of balance, things will go awry. How do you know? Most ppl do know when they feel "off." If you get that feeling, try a simple salt bath. I can recommend things on a case by case basis, for free. Just contact me via email, preferably:

stick.priestess at gmail.com

Again, what is HTDE?

My theory: Highly Transmutable Death Energy. Long & fancy but very simple. Where do you get this energy? The best way to get this energy is from an actual deceased person. I got some from my dad. It can be very disturbing for lots of folks, but I watched both of my parents perish at somewhat early ages (Mom, 58; Dad, 74). Not one aspect bothered me except that the nurse could have closed his eyes & hid the rigor mortis. I have a medical background, almost became an embalmer.

Anyway, HTDE is Death Energy but its filtered into a more pure state, like you'd filter oil, etc. So is HTDE as easy to get as Death Energy is? No, it's not as easy because you need something OF the muerto, meaning ashes, bones, hair or fingernails. Soo..HTDE is kinda rare. I've tried to make it accessible, but other options don't work. I'm not pulling your hair. Buying bones at the boneroom.com ain't gonna suffice unless you know or are related to that person. HTDE requires a person who can get cremains (ashes) or other items from a corpse. If they're dying, no. They gotta be dead.

Sorry. This is *extremely* powerful energy, and novices shouldn't do it without training. I'm the ONLY teacher. These are MY methods. Highly Transmutable Death Energy™ can be used for very important things in life. Use it for heavy assault & bodily harm threats or even death threats, bully deflection, a monetary blessing (a big one), life's conundrums & family disputes or to gather family together, blessings of love & marriage (serious), healing (BIG guns!!!), and maybe something you want & you promise on the ashes that you'll deliver on your end with something for the family.

This IS NOT ancestral in nature, as you can have different remains or cremains. I just used it in a familial sense because it's a lot easier to explain. While I love my family & ancestors, they do not have a shrine. My mom made a VERY loud & clear statement that she nor anyone else wanted to be on an altar. She used very colorful and some racist comments because that's when I practiced Yoruba. She hated it. Yoruba is not my way. They don't understand my need for the color black! White is very powerful, but the second I wear it - covered in filth!! 😂

I'm very fortunate to have my dad's cremains, though he wanted to be in the ocean. But he never said anything. I've talked to him recently through channeling and he repeated something he said when he was alive, about his cremains: "I don't give a shit whatcha do wit' em. Put em in the trash." All normal speech, no emotional reactions. My dad, the spade. Me too. 💖 Very old expression.

So...the remains or cremains hold special energy. What do you do with the cremains or remains? These tools are brought about to catalyze the processes of what you are working toward, or for. Look up the word catalyze, that will give one clue.

Y'all want to know what is done with the stuff, huh? There's a few things. You can wear an urn necklace. I do. You can take the item somewhere in nature for your work. You can put it in a mojo bag. You can have them sealed in a piece of artwork. Tons of things can be done!

How do you feel the energy? Get near HTDE. You'll feel it. And yes, newer deaths ARE stronger in vibration. Within the last 25 years, estimated. Care must be given for very old cremains or remains - I would caution about using old bones & ashes because most of the time, they aren't worth it and most of the energy is depleted.

And you can only feel HTDE in a graveyard if the tomb is VERY fresh, no longer than 1 week OR are in a very guarded graveyard that's ruled by a gang or close knit group. That's just the way things work.

Lots of experience here.

L8R!

M.M. 💖💀💖

(What's M.M.? Memento Mori or, Remember Death!)

[heclingmuzik]

PRIZE 😎

a comprehensive list of scenarios

PRIZE :  for one muse to win the other a prize at a carnival. @encarnal

MAN, she wanted to try playing one of those games where you shoot as many targets as you can and you win a prize. It's too crowded there though. There's a lot of people here at the carnival and she's already uneasy BUT....BUT the gaaaaame. She wants to play.

Maybe next time.

Though, it looks like Belial has other ideas, because he's walking in the direction of the game and Ismael's outstretched hand goes unnoticed (or so she thought). Eyes widen when BELIAL does...well Belial things and the people around the game disperse, they move out of his way.

Did....he notice her discomfort? Huh.

"Whoa! Look at all these prizes!" She gasps, approaching the stand eagerly. She will have to thank him. "You know I've never been to a carnival or like an amusement park. The first one I went to was actually here." With Kyrie. For her birthday. Anyway, Ismael grabs a ball, bounces it in her hand and giggles.

She's excited. So excited in fact she doesn't realize that Belial is about to tease her, BUT she throws that ball and it hits! One game turned into 5 games. She wanted to get this ONE prize. aaaaaaaaaaand yes, after that 5th one, she does and she beams when its handed to her. "HELL YEAH! LOOK BELIAL!" She turns to face him, palm out and up. There's an angel plush with a keychain just sitting at the palm of her hand. "It's for you! Kindddaaa looks like you, huh? Without that annoying smirk." She grins playfully. "Thanks Belial! You're pretty cool."

[solomonish]

oh please don't feel bad!!! (ŏ̥̥̥̥ A ŏ̥̥̥̥ ) I'm really happy to hear that you've been thriving in real life and enjoying recent interests tbh! I just wanted to make sure I hadn't pulled a serious stupid or worse, a serious stupid that had negative effects on you is all, and am really, really glad to read that no such thing has occurred. I also really appreciate the further explanation on everything, as it has definitely put some worries to rest regarding the ask itself {and also regarding the situation which led to the initial "hey please respect my boundaries" post to be honest. not gonna lie my first reaction to catching wind of the whole debacle was just instant (ง'̀-‘́)ง }. anywho! genshin sure is something huh? the multidimensional gameplay is really fascinating to toy with, and the animation style is also?? so pretty?? I die, tech is so cool sometimes. and the concepts! the concepts. the abyss alone is really intriguing, and I've gotta admit that I am really curious to see if any other goetic demons make their appearance as "archons" or the like later on. {ah yes, complexities on complexities on complexities and problems caused on purpose for exactly no reason at all. gnosticism at its finest}. personally my money's on signora herself having a secret identity to such effect too, and if such a theory is indulged by the devs, her connection to the fatui and also general disposition lends itself to belial being a strong contender. maaaybe also naberius given the whole "cryo = likely connected Khaenri'ah" thing that seems to be a trend, tho that one might be a bit niche for marketing purposes 🤔. oh! also! what's your favorite vision type/weapon class btw if you don't mind me asking? :D — Return of PB

Haha, well its all over now so no need to get upset about it. But thank u for double checking and im glad we could figure it out!!

Listen my friends pulled me in sometime in November I think? But I stopped playing for a few months because I couldn't play it on my phone or laptop but once they implemented cross save i FELL IN LOVE AGAIN!! And then today with the livestream -- I am in the group of people who were so excited to see a certain hat-having character again <3

Ahhh i gotta be honest I'm not too familiar with demons (despite my position in the obey me fandom lol) and don't have any theories regarding future names lol? But those are super interesting! I personally want more Scara screen time, not just because he's hot my favorite bastard but I also really, really wanna know what the fuck he meant at the end of Unreconciled Stars. My man's just said "the stars are a lie" "what?" "I don't have to explain myself to you" and then LEFT FOR ALMOST A YEAR. WILL WE EVER KNOW???? HELLO???

Obey Me is easy and fun to make theories off of because yes queen give us nothing 🤩 there's not a lot to go off of so I can just kinda go crazy? But with genshin there's a lot of established lore and its a lot for me to keep track of so I'm more of a theory listener than theory creator in that regard lol

Anyway! My fave element to play with is definitely anemo bc swirl reactions work with pretty much anything except geo. And I love polearms!! Very speedy and stronk. This works out because I'm a Xiao main LOL

Although Amber is the best girl and I'm going to build tf out of her at some point. She's gonna be so fuckin buff. Idk how but she will be. God I love her so much.

[aerospaceaspirant]

The Wicked Powers: What We Know and What the Hell Could Possibly Happen

warnings for spoilers for.... just about everything and anything. I’ve read everything save for a few short stories here and there, but this will have ChoG, GotSM, and LBOTW spoilers, so stay safe

Ok, so we know (from things CC has told us) the following about TWP:

 The main characters are going to be Ty, Kit, and Dru

Ty will be fresh from the Scholomance

Dru will be fresh from the *NEW* Shadowhunter Academy, which is in New York?

Which means she might have seen a lot of the TMI gang

Kit is still in London with Jem, Tessa, and Mina.

TWP will supposedly be Arthurian Legend inspired

It’s related to TLH... somehow

TEC3 will take place either before or during these books (the wiki says before, in a recent ask, CC said during)

We also have SEVERAL plot lines to see the end of, meaning other characters we will probably see a lot of are: Ash, Janus, the Seelie Queen, Kieran, Jaime, Thais, Tessa, Magnus

We also have... a lot of plot lines we need to see the end of, and probably 3 books to see them end in, which are:

First Heir/Faerie stuff

This is where the Seelie Queen and Kieran come in, though Ash plays a role here. 

Kit... will probably have to make a tough choice, but I think we all know that one way or another, he’s going to end up as the High King of Faerie.

We also have Jaime running around with the Eternidad, which ties into this, but how, well, we don’t know yet.

“Consequences of Ty doing magic”

The wiki phrases it this way, not me

Based on how necromancy is portrayed in TSC, I think one way or another, we’re saying goodbye to Livvy.

This could be how it ties into TLH with whatever happens with Jesse

Malcolm is also set to be a decent player in TLH, especially if the tarot cards are anything to go off of.

Based off GotSM, the bond between Ty and Livvy is dangerous and harmful

Considering Ty is set to be a romantic interest for Kit, we can’t have bad things happening to him, or at least not too many bad things

Janus/Ash/Thule

How... did they get into our world :(

:(

Though, they might still have the Black Volume of the Dead, and that’s how they got here

This would also tie into TEC 3

Oh, wouldn’t that be a twist. TEC 3 dealing with the consequences of Thule in QoAaD, and TWP dealing with the consequences of the Epilogue of LBOTW. Huh.

We know what Janus wants: Clary.

Ash... has been indoctrinated into pure evil by literally everyone he’s spent significant time with.

He could still be redeemed!

We also know he has a crush on Dru, based on one of Julian’s drawings and their short meeting

Plus, will there be more short meetings between the two of them? I think it’s likely that it’s not a one-off thing, especially considering Sammael is causing trouble, and that’s the sort of thing that’s in his realm of control.

We know Janus thinks he has Lily under his thumb

I’d like to think he doesn’t really, but we’ll find out

I don’t want her to be a villain.

The Cohort

They... aren’t going to stay in Idris. 

Especially considering they can spy outside of Idris?

They’re going to be causing some damage.

This could be another tie into TLH

Parallels between Tatiana & Belial

Except the Cohort and a Prince (or more) of Hell

They absolutely could stoop that low, we have seen Horace do it with the Unseelie Court.

The Princes of Hell & Lucifer

This can’t be cleaned up in one TEC book.

It just can’t.

Also, considering the title is based of the Shadowhunter poem.

“Bronze to summon wicked powers”

The Cohort and Faerie isn’t... evil compared to the actual Princes of Hell

This means Tessa and Magnus will have decent roles in TWP

Tessa even more so as Kit’s adoptive mother

They’re probably going to end up in Hell. Again. In either TEC3 or TWP or both.

Also, I know there’s a lot of fan theories saying one of the TMI gang is going to die. Here’s what I think on that: No. But if it does happen? It’ll be Simon. Think about it. Sammael absolutely hates his guts. It’ll be horrible.

Anyways, as for actual theories? Considering CC is really good at writing endings, she knows all she has to wrap up, and she will. It’ll be sad and heartwrenching, and probably bittersweet.

But what we do know is that “it will change Shadowhunters forever”. If it wasn’t for the fact that LITERALLY anything could do that, I’d be more worried. 

Anyways, TWP is gonna hurt.

[ishgard]

► Name ➔  “Mana... of the Dotharl,” she give a short, bitter laugh, shrugging. “But... it’s not like any of them would actually recognize me.”

► Are you single ➔ “Nope!” Beaming, she rocks on her heels a little.

► Are you happy ➔   “In spite of everything? And believe me, there’s a lot - very much so.”

► Are you angry? ➔   “Uhh...” She arches a brow, a bit perplexed with this question on the heels of the last one. “Well... actually, yeah.” Despite that, she smiles, laughs, and shrugs. “Quite a lot, to be honest.”

► Are your parents still married ➔  “Hah, well... I’ve never really known my parents very well. Or... at all, really. I don’t know if they were ever technically married by standard terms, even. But... I do know that they love each other. Or did at some point in time... And very, very much. I guess that’s something...”

NINE FACTS

► Birth Place ➔ “The Azim Steppes, if you’d take Hydaelyn’s word for it.” She snorts and shakes her head. “But in truth, a place very far from here.”

► Hair Color ➔ “Blond,” she says, giving her hair a light tousle.

► Eye Color ➔ “Warm, like amber dripping with honey~” she gesticulates dramatically like some romantic pleading to the heavens, then gives a boisterous laugh and shrugs. “Brown.”

► Birthday ➔  “July 17th- er... ohhh uhh... the... seventeenth sun of the...” She winks one eye shut in thought as she folds her fingers in counting. “Fourth? Umbral- no, Astral Moon? Yeah.”

► Mood ➔   “What, like... right now? Uhh... Hm... Curious enthusiasm? Or maybe enthusiastic curiosity...?” She shrugs. “Good though, feeling pretty good.”

► Gender ➔  “Oh, hm... well,” her face scrunches up a little. "I guess the easy answer is ‘female’, isn’t it?”

► Summer or winter ➔ “Hmm... and I can’t say both, huh? That sucks... I guess summer, if I had to choose.” Mulling over it a moment longer she quickly adds; “But like, if I had to live somewhere that was perpetually one or the other, I’d probably choose a winter place.”

► Morning or afternoon ➔ “Heheh... mornings, I think.” She nods to herself, caught up in some seemingly pleasant reverie. “Nice, lazy mornings.”

EIGHT THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE

► Are you in love ➔ Laughing, the mirthful glow she keeps seems to burn even brighter as she shoots a toothy grin. “Death-defyingly so.”

► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔ “Hah! Hmmm, I believe in... attraction? At first sight. Which could be love, I guess, or anything else, huh?”

► Who ended your last relationship ➔ “There wasn’t anyone else before Bel.”

► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔  “Huh...? Not that I’m... particularly aware of. I sure hope not...” Pensive for a moment, she then breaks into a mischief little cackle. “But I sure did break my poor brothers heart when I told him I was dating Bel. You should have seen him.”

► Are you afraid of commitments ➔ “Hmm, no? I guess... I might have, kind of been, before I fell in love with Bel. But it was more like... I didn’t want to get too close to anybody, on any level. Felt safer that way.” There’s an air of gravitas around her words, but then she shrugs and it dissipates nigh-instantly. “But that’s in the past now, so. No.”

► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ “Oh, for sure.” Her grin is absolutely shark-like. “Within the past hour. And then some.”

► Have you ever had a secret admirer ➔ “Hmmmmmmm~” With an exaggerated hum she taps her chin. “I guess if I have, they’ve done a good job keeping it secret!”

► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ "Hah! ...Yeah. That whole, keeping a distance for everyone’s own good B.S.? Good way to fuck yourself up.”

SIX CHOICES

► Love or lust ➔ “As far as I’m concerned, the perfect love is a perfect union of both.”

► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ “Both! Lil’ bit of lemonade, lil’ bit of tea, an absolute monstrosity of honey. Vwa-lah! Refreshing summer drink. If I have to choose though, uh... Lemonade.”

► Cats or Dogs ➔ Her whole scrunches up as she deliberates this most important of questions, rubbing her chin. “Ca-... hmmm... But dogs? ...Mrrr...” Slowly her attention slips over towards Belial. “Snakes.”

► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔ “Listen, I know I’m supposed to choose one or another - and that I’ve been doing a really bad job of that so far - but this is silly. I have a ton of regular friends, and among them I have a few who I’m much closer with than others, and I love all of them so very much.”

► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔ Pursing her lips in a cheek-puffed pout, she lets out a very low murmur that sounds almost like a growl in the back of her throat. She knows what her track record is looking like and at this point there’s just no going against it. “B o t h.”

► Day or night ➔ Exhausted, she hangs her head. “Listen... we both know how this is gonna go.”

FIVE HAVE YOU EVERS

► Been caught sneaking out ➔ “Hah! Oh yeah, definitely. Many times. Used to sneak out to run in the woods, and Soma would catch me, but I mean... He’d do the same thing!” Swaying side to side a little she thinks about it further. “And we’re pretty good at sneaking around, but there have been a few times Bel and I have gotten caught.”

► Fallen down/up the stairs ➔ “Not uh, without assistance, yanno? I mean... fighting in the streets during like, coup’s and calamities and shit comes with a lot of perils.”

► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ “Whew, boy. Yeah. Funny thing is, even when you get it sometimes it still hurts? It’s not... bad...? It... I think that’s what ‘love hurts’ is supposed to mean. A feeling so strong, so good, it’s like your heart could burst.” Her cheeks redden a little and she gives an awkward laugh, waving her hand dismissively. “Ah, but I’m running off track.”

► Wanted to disappear ➔ “...Very much so. And... desperately, not at all. S’a funny thing about having death looming over your head. Wanting to defy it. Wanting it to just... be over.”

FOUR PREFERENCES

► Smile or eyes ➔ “Smiles that show in the eyes?”

► Shorter or Taller ➔ “Taller. Hah!” She beams way too proudly, cheering quietly beneath her breath. “Chose one.”

► Intelligence or Attraction ➔  And then she blanches. “Aughhh... both. I mean, intelligence is plenty attractive.” And Bel has it in spades, she thinks to herself. “Anyway, I’m back in my indecisive hole.”

► Hook-up or Relationship ➔ “Relationship,” again, she beams proudly, again because she could pick one rather than the answer itself. “I mean, hook-up’s are plenty hot, but like, if they lead into a relationship?” her head bobs slowly. “Yeah, that’s some good shit right there.”

FAMILY

► Do you and your family get along ➔  “Weeeell~ My brother, Soma, and I get along fairly well. Though... we do butt heads on occasion. I consider a lot of the crew my family, and some of the Scions, too... and we all get along pretty well or else... why would I? As for my parents... meh.” She shrugs, and in lieu of continuing, leaves it at that.

► Would you say you have a “messed up life” ➔ “Pffp! I guess to most that’d be ‘putting it lightly’. And there’ve been times I’ve kinda looked back on it all and been like... really? Yanno? But... most of the time? It’s not so bad, not really. Yeah it’s ‘messed up’, but it’s been pretty damn good, too. All the messed up stuff, I’d go through it again in a heartbeat.”

► Have you ever ran away from home ➔ “Mmmmmmm, mmhm? I... hm. I guess not really, but we were kind of ‘on the run’ when we left?”

► Have you ever gotten kicked out ➔ (Insert the math face lady meme here) “....Probably? I... I dunno, a lot happens!”

FRIENDS

► Do you secretly hate one of your friends ➔ She slowly arches a brow. “I mean, we have a big crew, there are definitely some I don’t vibe with quite as well, but definitely not anyone I hate. And among the Scions...? No, no one like that.”

► Do you consider all of your friends good friends ➔ “Some more than others. Which isn’t anything against those I’m not as close with, again, there’s just... a lot of them, and I do cherish them all. It’s just not always possible to get good and close with that many people, sadly.”

► Who is your best friend ➔ “Bel,” she looks practically tickled when she says this, but then her eyes widen with realization. “Oh shoot, Caglio would kill me if she heard that. Both of them, okay? Obviously Bel is my world, but Caglio is... I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her. I owe her so much, and I hope she’ll always be a part of my life.” For a moment her gaze lingers far off on the skies, before she continues thoughtfully. “Oh, here, though... Alisaie, Lyse and I are pretty close. It’s fun going out and finding new treats to try with them. Kind of feels like being back home.”

► Who knows everything about you ➔ “Hah, those two. Caglio and Bel. I think she’d have to defer to Bel in this case though,” she chuckles, grinning mischievously, “since there’s a lot that goes on in the bedroom and she’d kill me if I regaled her with the tales.”

[writingpaperghost]

Like Father, Like Daughter (Part 5)

Mayu finds that she isn’t getting rid of Zero so easily and in investigating the possibility of Belial clones, finds somethings rather... Unexpected. And cute.

Listen, a very big part of this chapter- okay it’s like half to two thirds- is inspired by @chacerider ‘s Shared Genes Au. If you’re familiar with that, than you can probably figure out what’s going on here.

Also on AO3! https://archiveofourown.org/works/22967815/chapters/55582312

As it turns out, Mayu’s previous assumption that Zero would be leaving so soon was, while not entirely wrong, not exactly right, either. She sets about her day as she normally would and had frankly forgot about Zero’s plans to head into space, that was, until Zero had spoken up.

She had been finishing up some homework she had, sitting at a desk as she clicks away on the keys of her laptops keyboard. She had just finished what she was working on when Zero had said, “You’re going to need an excuse to be gone over night, probably.”

Mayu stopped what she was doing, at least thankful Zero had waited until she was done. She pauses for a moment, then looks to her side, a habit she had begun to do occasionally when talking with Zero, a way for her to easily imagine him as if he were actually standing there. “I guess I could always say I’m spending the night at Noa’s house...” She said, thinking, then asked, “But why?”

She could practically see the smirk on Zero’s face when he responded, “You’ll see,” A statement that made Mayu groan. As much as she enjoyed having Zero around, all things considered, sometimes, just sometimes, she wanted to strangle him. Okay maybe it was more than sometimes. She wondered, idly, if this is how Noa felt with her siblings.

“Fine,” She said, standing up and shutting her laptop down. She pulls her phone out and sends Noa a text, explaining the situation and that she was going to tell her parents she was at Noa’s house. Noa responded with a question mark and a “sure”. Just like Noa. “Where should I go?”

“Somewhere that doesn’t have too many people.” He said, “Uh, an alley way or something.”

She heads out, telling her parents her “plans”, then left home. Mayu searches for a decent alley way, one that was actually empty. It didn’t take long and once she did, she stood there, mentally poking Zero.

“Okay,” She said to him, “We’re somewhere no one else is going to notice us. Probably.”

“Ah,” Zero responded, “Great. This’ll be fun.”

“What will be fun?” Mayu was, admittedly, a bit worried. Because, as much as she’d like to get it over with and get rid of Zero so he can go do his thing, the fact he was being so vague right now was... concerning. Something told her he wasn’t just going to leave.

Zero takes control, producing the Zero Eye, a grin on their face. “We’re going to space!”

“We?” There it is. There’s the part that Mayu was worrying about. What did he mean by “we”? She didn’t need to come with him? He was going to space! Mayu did not have time to go to space! What would even be the point of that?

Mayu, with all her will, takes control of an arm and grabs the wrist of the hand Zero holds the Zero Eye in. “You can go to space,” She said as Zero struggled against her hand and she could practically see the grin that would totally be on his face, “I’m staying on Earth, okay?”

“Noooo!” Zero laughs, “You’re gonna come along! It’ll be fun!” Were Mayu not busy trying to keep Zero from transforming and dragging her into space, she would be resisting the ever-growing urge to strangle him – it was really rather big at the moment. But instead she focused all her energy on keeping the Zero Eye away.

Immovable object, meet brick wall. The only problem there, was that a brick wall could still be defeated. And Mayu was, unfortunately, the brick wall and Zero was, unfortunately for Mayu, the immovable object. As such, Zero ended up winning, much to her immense annoyance.

“I want you to know that if I could, I would try to strangle you right now.” She told him, certain he could tell how annoyed she was. Zero – the gall of him – laughed.

Soon they were transformed and Zero took off to the sky. Quickly reaching into space, Mayu couldn’t help but marvel, ever so slightly, at their surroundings. She lived in a city, she could barely see the stars in the night sky on an average night, so seeing so much the way they were now... It really was rather pretty.

As Zero headed to wherever it was, he was heading, Mayu wasn’t exactly sure, tilted his head and commented, “You’re oddly quiet, no complaining?” He was also hoping that he wasn’t going to regret pointing that out.

“It’s... very pretty.” Was her response, a bit reserved. Truthfully, while she was horribly annoyed at Zero, she also found herself amazed at the space around them. No one, not even Mayu, could deny how pretty it was. She’d never seen anything like it, really, the rare views of the night sky she got from Earth, with its glittering stars, really didn’t compare.

“Huh, I guess it is.” He said, “Must have never thought too hard about it.”

“We don’t really have things like this on Earth,”

“It’s easy to forget that... I don’t spend tons of time on Earth,” Zero commented, thinking. Just how much time had he spent on Earth? Or on a version of it? What about the time he actually spent not there, not fighting monsters or chasing aliens or worrying about any of that?

“Of course,” Mayu agreed, “You probably spend most of your time doing... whatever it is you normally do. Is that still fighting monsters and aliens? That or spending time with your friends and family.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty much always fighting aliens and monsters. A hero’s work is never done.” He sounded particularly proud of himself with that last statement. Of course, he did, this was Zero, “And... I guess I spend a fair amount of time with the UFZ...”

When it was clear that he wasn’t continuing that thought, Mayu asked, “What about your family?” It was strange that he had said nothing to do with them. She was certain she’d heard him mention his dad, at least once, so she knew he had some kind of family.

“Huh? My family?” He thinks for a moment, “They’re in the Land of Light, I uh, don’t spend a ton of time there.”

“Why not?”

Zero shrugged, though Mayu felt there was more there than just a shrug, “I just... don’t.” He answered, after a moment, “I mean... there’s not a lot of reason for me to be there much, when I can help more people by being elsewhere.”

That sounded more like an excuse than a reason. Mayu... wasn’t sure it was quite as simple as Zero was making it out to be, but she decided that she wasn’t going to push. Something told her that it wouldn’t do much good. If Zero ever wanted to elaborate, then he would do it on his own, though she wasn’t sure that would ever happen. Instead, she decided to change the subject.

“Whatever, just try to get back to Earth in decent time,” She groaned, “I have other stuff I need to do.”

“Yeah, yeah, geez...” Zero grumbled, “We’ll get it done as quick as we can.”

“We?” Before Zero could respond, explaining his choice of words, a voice cut them off.

“Hey! Zero!” The voice was rather brash sounding, something that Mayu would expect to hear from a sort of hot-headed character. Zero whips his head, turning his gaze over to the source of the voice. A... person... who was fire. He was on fire. His head was on fire. Beside him was a green colored person and two robots, one red, one purple.

“Glenfire!” Ah, Mayu realized at Zero exclamation, these people... they were the Ultra Force Zero, they were Zero’s friends. They appeared to be an... interesting group, but she figured she couldn’t really judge. Look at the people she had been keeping the company of recently.

“We got your message from REM,” The green one, who Mayu finally concluded was probably Mirror Knight, said. Mayu recalled Zero telling REM to send his friends a message, to get their help in searching for this Belial DNA.

Glenfire, who Mayu decided was rather accurately named, spoke next, “Yeah, what’s this about someone trying to make Belial clones? Thought we got rid of his ugly mug.”

The red robot spoke next, “Glenfire, we know Belial’s DNA has been running around the black market, it’s no surprise someone’s trying to clone him.” Mayu wasn’t sure which of the two robots he was. Zero wasn’t horribly descriptive when it came to his friends, at least in terms of appearances. Which isn’t horribly surprising, usually when you talked about your friends, you don’t bring up their appearances, not unless it’s important to what you’re talking about. And she felt Zero would probably forget to bring up some of those details even if they were.

“I’m surprised we haven’t had this problem sooner,” Mirror Knight said, “It’s been ten years since Geed defeated him.”

“It could have been happening and we just didn’t know about it,” The purple robot offered. Mayu really needed to figure out which of those two was which.

“Anyway,” Zero declared loudly, clearly changing the subject, “We know where those scientists are hiding out, so let’s go find them and hopefully keep any Belial clones from getting out.”

“You know where the scientists’ lab is, Zero,” The red robot said, in what Mayu would consider a dry tone, “You have yet to inform us.”

It seemed Zero had forgotten about that, but none the less he said, “Yeah, yeah, not my point, Jean-Bot. The point is, follow me.” With that he took off, the UFZ following behind. Well, at least Mayu finally knew which one was Jean-Bot and which one was Jean-Nine. Jean-Bot was the red one, now she just had to remember that.

Zero led them to the location of the scientists’ lab, which was hidden almost comically badly behind an asteroid. Mayu wasn’t sure what the standard space lab was, but she figured this was pretty normal. It didn’t really look like something you’d see on Earth, but she figured space had different structures. Logically. Still, she found its hiding spot like something akin to somewhere a cartoon scientist might try to hide their lab, but maybe that didn’t mean much.

Instead of doing what could be considered the most logical entrance, say, a door, Zero, being Zero, chose to use the much closer, though somewhat more destructive entrance. That is to say, he flew through a window, immediately trying to fight any poor soul with the misfortune to be near said window. The other four followed behind him, joining in the fighting, though Mirror Knight did make a comment that echoed Mayu’s own feelings.

“Was breaking through the window necessary?”

Zero scoffed, punching some poor alien, “It’s quicker than finding a door.”

“Here’s another question,” Came Mayu, who was doing very little to hide the hint of irritation in her voice, “Is immediately beating up everyone you see necessary?”

“Duh,” Zero responded, knocking the alien he was fighting unconscious, “They’re alien scientists trying to clone Belial.”

“You don’t know that.” She argued, “Some of these could be trying to do something else. You have no way of knowing what they’ve all been up to.”

Zero sighed and she imagined if he hadn’t been in the process of chucking an alien across the room, who screamed in complete terror, he would have run his hand down his face. Or something to that effect. “You can’t assume everyone’s nice.”

“You can’t assume everyone’s evil.”

“Actually,” He said, finishing with the last alien in the room, “When you know you’re in a lab where people are trying to clone an evil person, it’s safe to assume that everyone’s probably up to no good.”

“Uh, Zero?” Whether Zero had realized it or not, he had begun to speak out loud, and with no one left in the room to fight, the other members of the UFZ had noticed, eyeing him with confusion. It had been Jean-Nine who spoke, though Mayu found it hard to figure out how he was feeling, as his face didn’t exactly show expressions. None of theirs did, really.

Zero groaned, “Mayu, my human host.” He proceeded to make his way to a door that he assumed lead to outside the room, another room or a hallway perhaps. “She and I... Don’t always share the same views. And she’s kinda stubborn.”

“Says the one who dragged me to space with him despite my protests,” Came Mayu’s annoyed response. “Yet you call me stubborn.”

“Right....” Glenfire commented, leaning back slightly and stretching his arms.

“Why did you drag a human all the way out here with you?” Jean-Bot inquired, doing what was probably the equivalent of eyeing him with concern.

Zero was quiet for a moment and Mayu had to hold back her laughter. He clearly didn’t have anything he thought Jean-Bot would consider a good answer. Still, he answered, “She could do with some new sightseeing.”

With that, Mayu actually laughed, though Zero and herself were the only ones who could hear it. Really, any attempts to hold in her laughter previously were completely undone by Zero’s weak excuse.

“Oh yes!” She laughed, “I truly don’t get out much. Never get to see anything interesting!” She was still very annoyed at Zero, really, she was. But at the same time, she really found the whole thing far too hilarious. She had only known Zero... not even two weeks, but she’d already figured out that Zero honestly didn’t need a lot of a reason to do or to not do something. Besides, she could stand some laughter at Zero’s expense.

Zero groaned, “Great, now she’s laughing like no tomorrow. Look what you did.” Then he returned to moving through the door, “Whatever, she’ll stop eventually. Let’s split up, try to find that clone and those scientists.”

Mayu tried to stifle her laughs, succeeding to some extent, “I can hear you, you know.”

“I know,” Was the only response Zero gave. Seemed he was a bit annoyed at her. Good for him, now he was feeling the same she was. Annoyed.

Zero traversed through the hallway outside that door, having split from the others. He searched each of the rooms, but didn’t find much of interest, just some scientists, that he promptly beat up.

“Here’s a thought,” Mayu offered, an almost bored tone to her voice, “Maybe try asking one of those scientists before you knock them out?”

Zero seemed to almost pointedly ignore the question, only responding with an indifferent, “Yeah, sure.”... Honestly, it bugged Mayu. She wasn’t exactly sure what triggered this change. Was it her laughing at his excuse? She wouldn’t think so... Maybe them disagreeing about how to deal with the scientists? That would be a more likely cause.

While she was pondering Zero’s switch in mood, she saw something when they entered the next room. It was a curious tube, but perhaps what was more curious was what was in it. She couldn’t quite make out what it was, but it was small, red, black, and grey.

“Zero,” She said, trying, and failing, to keep the concern from her voice, “What’s that in the tube?” Zero moved closer, allowing whatever was in the tube to come into better view.

Finally, they could make it out. Inside the tube, floating and asleep, was the shape of a baby. A baby Ultra. The two of them couldn’t make out it’s details very well, the liquid in the tube not clear enough.

“Okay,” Zero sighs, “It’s a baby. Sure. I’ll just... get it out. We’ll figure out what to do from there.”

“Okay, sure,” Mayu said, “But that still raised the question, what’s a baby doing here?” A baby in any lab of any form was a cause for concern, at least in Mayu’s book. A baby in a lab where alien scientist were trying to clone a powerful, evil, Ultra? That was cause for even more concern. What the hell was this baby Ultra doing here?

Zero fiddles around with the controls, pressing buttons in what Mayu suspected was a random fashion, judging by how he really didn’t seem to be putting much thought into it. Soon enough, the liquid in the tube drained out and a hatch opened. Out the hatch, from inside the tube, the baby practically flopped out, letting out an ear-splitting wail.

“Hey, hey!” Zero panicked, reaching to pick the baby up, “Don’t cry!” Then he got a good look at the baby.

Its head was light grey, with bright blue eyes, not exactly round but not exactly with sharp corners, baring what looked like very pointy teeth in its wailing. Its body was red and black, with some grey stripes thrown in, its stripes random and almost wild in their placement, with the exception of some rather pointedly placed blue stripes on its chest. On his chest was a blue color timer, shaped like a pill, below which were the blue stripes. On his lower arms, above his wrists, were almost fin like protrusions, followed by actual claws on his fingers. The strangest thing about the baby?

“It looks like a small version of Geed, mostly.”

“Whaaaaaaaat?” Was all Mayu heard before Zero just stopped, froze holding the baby, far away like one might hold a disobedient pet. Then Mayu could have sworn she heard dial up noises.

“Zero? Zeeeeerooooo?” He didn’t respond. Mayu sighed, taking control of Zero’s body while he recovered.

“Aww....” She cooed, actually holding the baby in a manner that you would hold a baby, and not like it would bite (though with those teeth, it might). “Who’s a cute little baby? Who’s a good baby? You are, you are!” The baby immediately stopped crying, basking in the attention. Despite being a certainly strange baby, this was still a baby, and Mayu was like any sane human. She thought babies were adorable.

“So cute,” She continued, “I can’t believe anyone would keep you like that. You seem like a wonderful baby.” She continued cooing at the baby, figuring she could just do this until Zero came back to the land of the living. 

“Uh, Zero?” Oh, that was Jean-Nine, wasn’t it? Mayu turns to look over to where his voice came from, finding that it was Jean-Nine, as well as the rest of the UFZ. “Why are you holding a baby?”

It occurred to Mayu, then, that they just walked into what looked to them to be Zero cooing at a baby. Which at least Glenfire thought was funny, judging by how he looked like he was trying to stifle laughter. Mayu figured that for Zero’s own sake, she should probably say something. But, instead of saying anything that might save Zero’s pride, she instead just said, “I think we found the clone?”

The baby cooed, smiling at the new arrivals. The baby made a gurgle sound, the sort of sound that all babies make, though it soon petered out when it became clear Mayu wasn’t going to go back to cooing at him. Then he bit them.

He didn’t really have teeth, despite how it appeared. Though they looked pointy, they were actually soft and gummy, so his attempts to bite really didn’t hurt. Still, this was enough for Mayu to return her attention to him. Whether it was from the baby’s gumming or he just finally managed to wrap his head around the baby’s existence, Zero finally came back. Mayu quietly gave him control.

Zero looked around for a moment, and then to the baby trying to chew on his arm. “Oh,” was all he said, then he sighed. He seemed to have come to the same conclusion that Mayu had. This baby was the Belial clone, that’s why he looked so much like Geed.

Zero looks at the baby for moment, then back up to the Ultra Force Zero, back to the baby, then finally back to the UFZ. “Hey, uh, Jean-Bot, Jean-Nine, wanna see if you can find anything about this guy in those computers?” The baby stopped trying to chew on Zero long enough to look up and make a gurgling babble, then went back to trying to chew. Zero just sighed.

Jean-Bot and Jean-Nine nodded, then went about searching the computers for information on the baby. Logically, the scientist should have notes or some kind of data, which would hopefully confirm their suspicions about the baby. Or maybe tell them about what all DNA this baby had. Clearly, it had enough Ultra DNA to be a baby Ultra, and given its resemblance to Belial, the majority of that Ultra DNA was probably Belial’s. Why anybody would want to make a baby with Belial’s DNA was still a mystery. A baby wasn’t really all that dangerous.

“At least the baby’s cute?” Mayu offered weakly. Zero sighed once again, something he’d been doing a lot of the past few hours. This was his life now, apparently. “And at least he can’t be dangerous, given he’s a baby.”

“Until he grows up,” Was Zero’s sour, grumbling response. “Once he grows up, he’ll be a little terror.”

“Not with the right parenting he won’t,”

Zero held back a laugh, “Who’s gonna take care of him? I sure can’t, I probably couldn’t take care of a plant, let alone a baby.” The baby in his arms stops chewing, looking up and began blabbering. He makes an up movement with his arms and Zero sighs, raising the baby closer to his face.

The baby pats its hand on the side of Zero’s face, which regardless of the baby’s intention was not painful at all. “Blurh!” The baby squealed, then began to laugh when Zero had no visible reaction. Zero sighs once again.

“I mean, he looks like a little version of Geed, more or less, so why can’t he take care of this baby?” Was Mayu’s suggestion, as she quietly held in her giggles of amusement and coos from the adorableness of the baby’s actions.

Zero didn’t immediately respond, instead thinking about Mayu’s suggestion for a moment. Honestly, he didn’t know anything about taking care of a baby, Ultra or otherwise. Of course, Riku probably knew even less. Still... Ultra-babies were probably a lot like human babies, right? They could find some books or something. He couldn’t really go to the Land of Light for help, mostly because he did not want to try to figure out how to explain a baby that’s also technically a clone of Belial. Never mind that someone probably would have to do that eventually.

“There’s nothing here,” Jean-Bot calls.

Beside him, Jean-Nine sighs, “Mostly because these computers barely work, Zero.” The tone in his voice when he says Zero’s name is accusatory at best, annoyed at worst.

Still, the baby was probably the closest thing to a Belial clone in this lab. Probably. Really, Mayu would have loved to spend more time trying to figure out whether that was an accurate statement, but something shook all of them. Literally, something was causing the building to shake.

“That... Can’t be good,” Zero said, looking down at the baby in his arms. Then he moved over to Jean-Nine, shoving the baby into Jean-Nine’s arms, “Take the baby, I’m gonna go check it out.” Then he went rushing off, heading towards the source of the shaking.

As it turned out, the shaking was being caused by a Kaiju, who was currently stomping around and making a fuss, causing a fair bit of destruction, and all the shaking. “What is a Red King doing here? He wasn’t here a few minutes ago!”

“Is now really the time to be questioning this?” Mayu sighed, “Just go... do your thing.”

“No need to tell me twice,” Zero declared, shooting off to fight the monster. He got in a few attacks, before the Red King more or less swatted him out of the sky, causing Zero to crash into one of the walls of the lab. “Okay, maybe we need to try something else...”

“Like what?”

Zero thought for a moment, before he seemed to have what he must have considered a genius idea. “Zero Beyond!”

Mayu wasn’t sure how to respond to that, “Zero Beyond? What?” What on Earth- or well, off Earth, she supposed- was he talking about?

“Zero Beyond is a form that I can only really use when I have a host since it requires someone to perform a Neo Fusion Rise.” Zero quickly explained, “A lot like how Geed transforms, really. But I only need it to access Zero Beyond, using the New Generation Capsules.”

“Oooookaaaay....” Mayu wasn’t exactly sure where he was going with this. Because while she understood what he was saying, she wasn’t entirely sure how she fit in to that. And judging by how he was talking, she fit into it, somehow.

“I need you to perform a Neo Fusion Rise, so we can become Zero Beyond, that should let us defeat Red King.”

“Couldn’t you just, wait for your friends to help?” Wasn’t that a part of the reason why they were there at all? At least other than computer skills, it seemed.

“Mayu! Just trust me on this, okay?” Zero groaned. Maybe he was right, maybe she just needed to trust him on it. It was kind of hard to know, mostly because Mayu wasn’t entirely sure the extent that she trusted Zero. It seemed she was about to find out.

She thought for a moment, before sighing, “Fine, how do I do this... thing... you need me to do?”

“You’ll need the Riser and the Ultra Capsules,” He began, “Put the Zero Eye on it, then scan the capsules. Once you’ve done that, put it up to your face like if we were transforming normally.”

That was great and all, but Mayu found one small, teensy, problem with that. “Zero, I don’t know where I’m supposed to get any of those things from.”

Zero was silent for a moment. He wasn’t entirely sure himself, not that he’d let Mayu know that. Leito always just kinda... knew... he guessed. But Mayu had never had to do this, wasn’t around when that power was given to him, like Leito had been. Still, he had to give her an answer, he couldn’t exactly let her know that he didn’t know, after all.

“They should just sorta... be there...?” He offered, “I’m not... exactly sure how it works, but they always were there when Leito needed them.”

“Great,” Mayu groaned. How almost entirely unhelpful of a response. Still, she supposed it was better than nothing. “I’ll... see what I can do, I guess.”

“I’m sure that if anyone can figure it’s out, it’s you.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” Still Mayu searched around the strange sort of... void? She really wasn’t sure what to call the area she inhabited when Zero transformed. She’d have to ask Zero about that, later. For now, it was just going to be called the Void, for her own sake. She feigned patting her pockets, despite that fact that her jacket’s pockets were clearly empty.

Despite her pockets being empty, she did feel something beneath her pockets. What on Earth...? She checks under the side of her jacket, finding sitting on her right hip, as though connected to an invisible belt, was a sort of container, that held two capsules. Those must be the capsule Zero mentioned. She checked her other hip, finding a strange device affixed there, in the same manner as the container holding the capsules. The device had a handle, which she grabbed it by. Above the handle was a strange cylinder-shaped thing... she found it hard to describe. This must have been the Riser.

Right, okay, two obstacles out of the way, now what did Zero say to do? Attach the Zero Eye to the Riser, right... Now where was the Zero Eye? She sticks the hand not holding the Riser into her coat pocket, becoming shocked to find something in it, something that was definitely not there a minute ago. Pulling it out, she finds it’s the Zero Eye. Well that sure was convenient.

She attaches the Zero Eye to the Riser, then reached for one of the capsules. She examined it for a moment, it held the picture of two Ultras facing each other. Okay, sure. She puts it into the little cartridge thing, she supposes that part of how you scan them, then she grabs the other capsule and places it in too. 

“Doing okay there, Mayu?” Came Zero’s voice. He seemed to understand she very little idea what she was doing right now, so that’s... nice.

“I guess?”

“I see you’ve started it, so let me finish!” Despite the fact they were technically transformed, Zero somehow took control of her body, taking her glasses off. He grabs the cartridge and places it into the Riser, allowing it to scan.

“New Generation Capsule Alpha!”

“New Generation Capsule Beta!”

“Neo Fusion Rise!”

Once the Riser called out the capsules, as well as the Fusion Rise, Zero brings the Riser and the Zero Eye up to their face. He presses a button and from there the transformation begins and soon Zero stands, no longer red, grey, and blue, now just grey and blue.

“That was... weird...”  Was all Mayu really had to say. She was in a bit of a daze, really. The whole day, which hadn’t exactly started normal, was not getting any less weird. Only weirder and weirder. She was starting to figure out that “weird” was probably going to become the default setting as long as she was Zero’s host. She really didn’t see herself getting rid of Zero anytime soon. Though now she had seen one of these form changes Zero mentioned having.

“You’ll get used to it,” Zero responded, right before he launched himself at Red King, returning to fight it. He seemed to be faring much better now than he was before. It seemed he was right about transforming into Zero Beyond, though Mayu still thought it would have made more sense just to wait for the rest of the UFZ to arrive and help.

Soon enough, while she was letting Zero do his thing, fighting the monster, she noticed that the rest of the UFZ had arrived, now standing off to the side. Jean-Nine was still holding the baby, who was watching the battle in fascination. Notably, none of them were actually trying to help Zero fight the monster. They apparently had great faith in his ability to defeat it.

Maybe they were right to, after all, now that he had become Zero Beyond, Zero was quickly beginning to sweep the floor with Red King, who just didn’t seem to be able to keep up with him. Still, Mayu found it hard to have that degree of faith in him. Maybe it was because she hadn’t known him very long, maybe it’s simply because she’d rather overestimate the capabilities of various monsters.

Soon enough, the monster had been defeated, and Zero had returned to his normal form. Strangely, despite having done very little herself, Mayu found herself beginning to feel a bit tired. She’d felt a certain degree of tiredness after transforming with Zero before, but she always assumed she was just tired from the adrenaline. It occurred to her, then, that staying transformed with Zero, even when they were doing very little that was particularly taxing, was probably tiring for her. Especially since in this case, they’ve remained transformed for much longer than they’d ever had before, and then Zero just went and fought a monster. That was probably why she was feeling tired.

“Alright,” Zero nearly chirped, sounding extremely proud of himself, “Now that that’s taken care of, I think that’s all we have to deal with.”

“What about the baby?” Jean-Nine asked, holding the baby out, clearly telling Zero to take it. With a groan, Zero complies, resulting in the baby cooing in glee, a babbled sound of happiness.

“We’ll take ‘em back to Earth with us, keep ‘em safe from Emari. Besides, how hard can one baby be?” Mayu let out a laugh in his head, telling him exactly how hard she thought it would be. Extremely.

“You’re going to take care of a baby?” Mirror Knight asked, not at all trying to hide the immense disbelief in his voice. Mayu didn’t blame him, Zero himself had said he’d not suited to taking care of a baby.

Zero groaned, “Riku, Pega, Noa, Mayu, Moa, and I should be able to take care of one baby.” He shifted the baby to one of his arms, using the other to rub his temple, “We’ll figure it out.”

“Right...” Jean-Bot responded, “We’ll leave you to it.”

“I’ll tell Moroboshi you said hi!” Glenfire calls as the four flew off, heading away into the depths of space. Zero shifted the baby to be held in both his arms, then takes off, heading back to Earth.

“Well,” Mayu said, “Today has been quite the day, huh?”

“No kidding,”

---

By the time they returned to Earth, they were immediately greeted with a wayward tail of a Kaiju. Normally, this would be a time that Zero would jump into the fight. The issue there was, well, he had a baby in his arms, so instead, he let Geed handle it. Really, it wasn’t like he even needed help dealing with the Kaiju.

This was why, once Geed defeated the Kaiju, he turned around to face Zero, as he had noticed Zero return. Then he noticed the baby Ultra in Zero’s arms, currently trying to jam his own fist into his mouth. “Zero,” Geed said slowly, taking in the sight, “What do you have?”

Zero was silent, desperately wishing to be anywhere else, or more preferably, not holding a baby. “Uh... A baby?”

Geed... well not blinks, he can’t really blink, but Mayu imagined that’s what he would have done. “Okay...” He spoke slowly again, “Why are you holding a baby?”

“Uh... how about we figure out how to get him human sized,” Zero offered, “Than I’ll explain why he’s here.”

“Right, okay...” Geed replied tentatively, “How do we do that?”

Zero looks up from the baby, to Geed, quiet. He looks back down to the baby, then to Geed. He shrugged, “I don’t know, I’m not at all qualified to take care of a baby.”

“You’re an Ultra!? He’s an Ultra!?” Came Geed’s shocked response, “Shouldn’t you know this!?” Geed’s timer began to beep, flashing red.

“Well we don’t know if he’s entirely Ultra,” Zero started to sound a little panicked now, “Chances are there’s probably some other stuff.”

Geed groaned, rubbing his temples. “Alright, well I need to go back to being human so...”

“Right, right, you do that,”

Mayu giggled slightly at Geed and Zero’s panic. Surely, they would be able to figure out how to get a baby to be human sized or something, right? Of course, maybe they couldn’t, which would be very concerning. Okay, so maybe she should worry a bit, or more than a bit.

Geed dropped his transformation, shrinking back to being human. The baby watched in awe, his fist falling from his mouth. He laughed, then begins to glow himself. Zero began to panic more, shifting how he was holding the baby.

“What is the baby doing?” Zero, to his credit, was outwardly calm. All the actual panic was held within him, though his voice was beginning to betray his actual feelings.

“I think,” Mayu noted, sounding about as calm as Zero, “The baby is shrinking,” Which was technically an accurate observation, as the glowing baby was getting rapidly smaller. Soon Zero held a very small, roughly human sized, baby Ultra cupped in his hands.

“Uh, Riku?” Zero called, “I’m, uh, gonna bring the baby down now.”

“Okay!” He responds from down below them. “Uh, is he gonna be small-ish or something?”

“Uh... Yeah...” Slowly, Zero lowers his hands, still cupped as gently as he could. Once his hands reach the ground, down to where Riku would be able to grab the baby from his hands.

“Oh...” Was all Riku said, though he quickly recovered. He grabbed the baby from Zero’s cupped hands, awkwardly holding the baby, hands holding the baby by the area under his arms.

Zero then joined Riku and the baby. The second they finish returning, Mayu yawned, stretching her arms. She looks at Riku and how he was holding the baby, then took a double take.

“That’s not how you hold a baby,” She said, then walked over to him, adjusting the baby in his arms so that he was holding the baby better.

Riku looked at her somewhat astonished, “Why do you know how to hold a baby?”

“I’ve seen pictures of my parents holding me when I was a baby,” She shrugged, “Now, we should probably hurry back to the Nebula House, before someone sees this baby and starts asking questions.”

With a glance down to the baby in his arms, who was now attempting to chew on Riku’s own arm, Riku nodded. The two hurried back to the Nebula House. When they arrived, Moa sat in a chair, talking with Pega who sat at a table making flowers.

“Mayu, REM told us you and Zero were back,” Moa greeted, waving. The baby made a gleeful coo when he saw her. This brought her attention to him.

“Riku, why do you have a baby?” She asked, beginning to switch into her professional mode, “And why does the baby look like a little version of Geed?”

“I don’t know,” Riku shrugged, looking down at the baby, “Zero kinda just showed up and handed me this baby, said he’d explain later.”

“Yeah...” Mayu chuckled a bit, “That’s a fun story...”

Then Zero takes control, pulling Mayu’s glasses off, “Congrats Riku,” He smiled, “You’re a big brother now.”

“Eh?” Was Riku’s shocked response, “What do you mean by that?” The baby in his arms squirmed at bit, then started chewing on his own arm.

Mayu takes control, letting out a sigh before explaining, “That baby is the Belial clone that the scientists made.” She gestures to the baby and Riku, “Since you’re also a clone of Belial, to an extent, that would make you two, essentially, brothers.”

“Okay, sure the baby’s another clone like me,” Riku said, “But why is he in Ultra form? I couldn’t even access it until I had the Riser.

Zero came back into control, shrugging as he responded, “I’m no scientist, but maybe he has more Ultra DNA than you do?”

“So, he could have more Ultra DNA than Riku,” Moa repeated, then added, “Which could explain why he’s defaulting to his Ultra form.”

The baby made grabby hands at Moa, cooing when his attention was brought to her. Moa smiled, taking the baby from Riku’s arms, wincing slightly when the baby’s little claws started to dig into her arm. The baby was excited at having all the attention of not one, not two, but four people! Pega had come over to peer at the baby.

“We’ll... have to figure out how to get him into him human form,” Riku said, then had a realization. “Wait! Does this mean I have to take care of a baby?”

Zero gave him a grin, “Yep, but don’t worry, you’ve got Pega, Moa, Mayu, and myself to help.” He gently pokes the baby’s belly, to which the baby let out a laugh. “Not to mention you could call Leito and ask. He’s a dad.”

Zero returned control to Mayu, who nodded with a smile. While she was worried about if Riku contacted her dad, given that would give plenty of opportunities for him to learn about Zero, but he was also the only person with any experience with babies.

“Which reminds me,” Mayu said, “We can’t just keep calling him the baby.”

REM was the one who responded to that, “My research has concluded that giving a baby a name is important for its development.”

“In general, a baby should probably have a name,” Riku said dryly, “Anyway, uh, so what’s a good name for a little bitey Ultra baby with claws?”

“Oh!” Came Pega, “How about... Don? Or uh, Taiki?” While one came blatantly from Don-Shine, but Taiki... That sounded like a normal name...

Moa blinked for a moment in response, then said, “We’re not naming the baby after Don-Shine in any capacity.” Then it hit Mayu, Taiki could mean shine.

Mayu sighed, thinking a bit, “You could call him something like… Yuji?”

“That’s a nice sounding name,” Zero commented, “It’s a human name that would certainly fit in.”

“That’s because it’s a normal human name,”

Riku smiled, “Yeah! That’s a good name, and no one can complain to me about picking it!”

Moa nods, “Yuji it is.” Yuji let out a cheery gurgle, then stuck some of Moa’s hair in his mouth.

“Now to figure out how to take care of a baby,” Riku sighed, “I guess we’re gonna need to get him clothes and food and stuff.”

“Will Yuji being possibly more Ultra than you effect how we have to take care of him?” Moa asked, crossing her arms, “We don’t know much about Ultra babies, after all.”

“He should be... fine enough…” Zero said, “I mean, he’s been here for a lot longer than a normal Ultra baby should and his timer hasn’t started flashing. I think he might have enough of non-Ultra DNA that you can probably take care of him like a normal human baby. Maybe just put him in the sunlight for a bit to be safe?” Mayu had the impression that there was probably going to be a lot of trial and error with Yuji’s care, unfortunately.

“Right...” Riku sounded unsure, “So we’ll have to figure out how to get him to look human, since something tells me that if people saw a little Ultra, especially one that looks like Geed, that would probably draw attention.”

“Yeah,” Zero shrugged, “I don’t know how to help you there.”

Riku sighed, with Moa soon handing Yuji back to him. When Zero returned control to Mayu, she laughed, more at Zero than at Riku. She smiled and began to entertain the baby in Riku’s arms. Moa, Riku, and REM began to plan what they’d need to get for Yuji, with Mayu occasionally throwing in a few ideas of her own.

Well, it seemed on top of Belial clones and aliens and whatever else might show up from here, they now had a baby. None of them really knew how to take care of a baby, but Mayu was pretty sure they’d be able to manage.

At least Yuji is a cute baby, given he’s an Ultra, right now.

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Iruma-kun 13 - 14 | Somali 1 | Magia Record 1 | BnHA 75 | Eizouken 1 | Idolish7 s2 1

New season...incoming!

Iruma-kun 13

How did Iruma even notice that collar? Geesh, that kid is perceptive…

This “spitting blood” joke is getting old already…

*Kiriwo starts his machine* - Why do I get the feeling something bad’s about to happen…?

Could you possibly call this “rank is the most important thing” a study of class consciousness, to throw some of Anime Feminist’s words? Or maybe this is a fantasy version of technology and it’s extolling the virtues of technology advancement?! *eyes sparkle*

Can Iruma join Kiriwo already? Please?!

Aw, dear darling! (<- I’m not sure if I’ve said that a lot in these notes, but I say that when I get the warm fuzzies and wanna protect a character…basically, platonic love, I guess…? Oh, “moe instinct” - that’s the words I’m looking for.) Iruma, go and live your best life, okay?

Thank you, story! Even though I knew it was being foreshadowed so heavily by being the focus of basically 24 minutes of this show’s runtime (= about 1 ep), I thank you from the bottom of my heart that Iruma went to the right Battler.

Wait, so Ameri is actually Iruma’s senpai by one year?! Hmm? I never realised that and I read some spoilers!

I like this new chibi animation style! Yay!

I never noticed this until now, but Kiriwo has one big horn and one little one.

I think the title, aside from the pronunciation of “Thirteen Dinner”, is meant to mean “The Thirteen Counts’ Gathering” (or some other high rank) or something of the sort. Update: So I checked and the character used, kanmuri/kan, is used to mean “crown” or someone who wears a crown, i.e. a peerless person, so it would be appropriate to translate that using the term for a high rank which is presumably going to be stated in the segment itself.

Turns out Babel…is just makaitou (the demon world tower). I don’t think it’s really Babylonian in any strict sense.

Depending on where you live, the 665th floor could count as the 666th or…well, the 665th. I know in Japanese, the word for the floor on the ground is ikkai (first floor)…I’m not going to tell you what I know it as though…that would reveal my location outside cyberspace, no?

According to the katakana, the guy’s name is Beruzebyuto (hence the translation as “Beelzebuth”). Beelzebub is the Lord of the Flies and a quick google tells me Beelzebul (close enough) was apparently an alternate spelling for him (or something like that…?). Patron demon of gluttony.

Astaroth, also a demon (king of rot, I think it was from Blue Exorcist)…interestingly, Beelzebub, Lucifer and Astaroth make up an unholy trio and all of them were referred to by a dude called...Solomon (which does kinda sound like “Sullivan”, if you think about it). There’s the connection between these guys…I like his top, too.

Asmodeus, patron demon of lust. We already knew that demon was represented through Azz-Azz, but now you see a spoiler I’ve been hiding for a while – Azz’s mother.

Amaimon…uh, I don’t remember what kind of demon he is in the demonic canon but I know him from Blue Exorcist.

Behemoth…?

Ooh, Ameri’s father is smokin’ hot! (Dangit, I do not want DILFs…) Azazel, a fallen angel and apparently personification of uncleanliness(…?)

Belial and (Lady) Leviathan, which we already knew existed from initial namedrops.

Who’s Baal? Even I have no idea…Update: Apparently he’s a Middle Eastern equivalent to Zeus, which explains his thunder allegiance.

Paimon kinda looks like Chaika, LOL.

LOL, “lifehack” is certainly the right word for it, Sullivan.

LOL, Belial is so short!

Although it’s kind of awkward to not see Lady Levi take a position of power for herself, it’s nice to see she has spirit!

Aw, this is cute. In much the same way I wanted Iruma to join the magical apparatus Battler, I want Sullivan to be Demon King.

Is Opera perhaps related to Ameri somehow…?

Somali 1

I was hoping to get to Plunderer, but got carried away writing another post and then lost the ability to watch both episode 1 and 2 ahead of schedule. So Somali is the new start of the season, but the last relic of the fact Plunderer was meant to start my season (outside ID: Invaded’s advance premiere) is the visual I have for this season. (Oh yeah, one of the reasons I’m supporting this – aside from it being a mid-ranker on my hype list – is that I heard a French animator, a friend of Thomas Romain, is getting his big start here.)  

“Dad.” – Oh, f***. I have myself an Usagi Drop. I knew I was going to get something of the sort going into this show, but…Usagi Drop’s experiences (or rather, watching the anime knowing the manga has that ending) have left their mark. Not to mention Somali (as this girl will come to be known) has Latina eyes, which annoys me even more since I dropped that on the basis of being scarred by Usagi Drop.

I’m wondering what Crunchyroll was thinking when they decided to coproduce this – sure, it’s probably quite cute and wholesome, but I’m far from the target audience. Did they think, “Is this what Western audiences will like?” Sure, it would hit a niche that likes this surrogate father/daughter stuff, but I don’t think it’s for me (and I’ve been thinking that all through the OP). I’ll give it a bit more to wow me, but it’s doing pretty terrible so far (because note all other anime of this particular reputation I’m more on the “neutral” side than the “like” one). Somali’s voice is probably the biggest factor – it sounds like an adult woman’s voice got pitch-shifted to attempt to be a child, rather than an actual child.

How can this golem talk about sight when he doesn’t even have eyes??? (Kinda like Juzo from NGL.)

Alright, that’s it. I can see when you’re trying to bait me with supposedly “cute” children, show. You’re gone.

Okay, since I have time and the reviews say otherwise, I’m trying again. I don’t expect to be sold to this though…

Was it just me or was there a reduced frame rate when Somali’s cape was the only thing in the frame…?

For some reason the subbers put “Why?” when the word was actually “What?”, which is a bit silly to be honest with you. (Nande?/Doushite? vs. Nani?...it’s kind of similar-sounding, but the sound is distinctly different.)

Still dropping this show. I just have another episode to add to my list now.

Magia Record 1

I heard there’s no Urobutcher this time around, but the first time I encountered the Urobutcher (in ConRevo) he made a particularly weird-feeling (in the context of the show) episode, so…uh…let’s say the Urobutcher is only as good as the material he writes, and leave it at that. Anyways, this topped my list – even before ID: Invaded came to hunt down that top position – so this better be good.

Um, am I just imagining it, or is that Sayaka and Hitomi discussing magical girls (or Madoka?) over the top of Iroha (I know that’s her name already from the synopses floating around the ‘net) and her fellow magical girls fighting?

Letterboxing? Now there’s something I thought I’d never see in Madoka Magica, ever.

One of the books was on organic recipes.

The teacher talks a tad too fast – I can understand what she’s saying, but it’s like she operates on x1.5 speed compared to the x1 speed of everything else…

“Nakama – because we can do it” – I wonder if that will mean something later…? In Madoka Magica, strange details always mean something.

“The only good witch is a dead one!” “Speech is silver, silence is golden.”�� The tiny English isn’t particularly subtle, is it?

Uwasa = rumour.

Takarazaki, huh? I’ll make a note of that.

Who’s Ui?

According to the credits, I assume the blue spear girl is Nanami Yachiyo.

This is a respectable re-entry into a universe which I left not too long ago (in 2017). I’m definitely going to be able to stick with it for a season or however long it lasts.

BnHA 75

All this talk about a database…reminds me of the Quirk I designed for the wiki (also called “Database”). I conceived it in 2015, but I don’t remember who was meant to use it before I retrofitted it to fit the BnHA universe. Update: Welp, I found the document. The superpower Database (which was retrofitted to be a Quirk) is for one Itsuki Hatano.

“One blow to the top of the head!”

Iruma-kun 14

(Note: Some notes may be missing because I was busy multitasking while watching this episode.)

Go, Iruma! Live your best life!

Note “speak of the devil” isn’t how it’s said in Japanese. It sounds something like “whisper a rumour and it will come back to you” based on what I heard Kiriwo say (since I heard the word uwasa in there). Update: Apparently the phrase is uwasa wo sureba… (if you spead a rumour…) and then you cut the saying off to finish the rest of the sentence, just like you would in English.

You can’t even see a substantial part of Iruma’s hair when that demon on the phone (<-I know who it is, because I read spoilers, but I’ll keep quiet on that front!) yells for the first time.  

Makura (demon pillow) has that demon pun going on.

Ooh, Kiriwo-senpai is actully kinda sexy with his hair up like that…not that I know the first thing about sex appeal…

So is the ED about the Battler Party, in a sense?

Eizouken 1

I picked this show up because of the rave reviews it was getting.

Very Future Boy Conan, that.

…what? That OP was trippy. Then again, I didn’t mind ConRevo and that was trippy…this negative feeling is probably because I don’t know much about Masaki Yuasa’s quirks, I guess.

Why do people not translate “Eizouken”???? It means “video research club”.

The back is a good spot to sit in a theatre for anime. Why do I know this? I sit in the back of my anime club all the time, that’s why!

“Are those MiBs?” – I laughed pretty hard at that one sentence.

Why does this strawberry milk seem to be a parallel to the milk Asakusa promised Kanamori? (P.S. Asakusa is in Tokyo, IIRC.) Update: Mizusaki means “on top of water” if I understood the kanji right and Kanamori, with the right combo of characters, can mean “forest of gold”...which makes a lot of sense, considering how gold is equated with wealth and currency. Also, here’s proof Asakusa is in Tokyo...not to mention it’s the place from Sarazanmai! Meanwhile, I was thinking there was some sort of anime-related significance to the name, but I was thinking of Asagaya.  Update 2: Mizusaki actually means “water peninsula”. Sorry, wrong saki.

I know there’s a chase scene at the end of this ep, thanks to reading reviews. I want to be wowed by it, which is why I’m (metaphorically) holding my breath.

I like how Asakusa and Mizusaki are bouncing around ideas. That really brings the process to life.

Long skirts and wind but no sexualisation. That’s a good sign!

Whoa, that scene with the comets was AWESOME! I want more!

Idolish7 s2 1

Back with some good boys one season too early…let’s have some fun while these simulcasters can get this stuff fast!

Oh no! (<- self-censored) Nagi’s stupid accent is back! *yells incoherently for a second*

I like the little sound effects that happened whe Nagi’s finger moved around (to suggest “magic”).

I think the joke was something to do with the word gera (?). I don’t quite get it myself.

Misuta- Shimooka, LOL. I love how this s2 isn’t doing any hand-holding, though! I half-expect a flashback to appear and it never does.

Yamato, how are you so-*crying and Yatta! can be heard in the background*Okay, nevvvvvvvvvver mind…

I remember mistakenly saying that Nishiyama was part of Idolish7 (since I looked through some of my old notes lately). Nishiyama is part of ZOOL, so now…I’m not wrong anymore…(That’s not quite relevant to the random announcement of Re:Vale showing up, but it’s on my mind now.)

Hmm…Yamato’s thoughts on Re:Vale…I’ll keep an eye on him.

I think people like Tamaki because he treats them like he would his little sister…a true gentleman. Or maybe that’s all in my head? I haven’t been in the fandom properly, y’know.

This switch to occasional chibi antics…I’m not sure I like it…

Ohmyglob! Another boy to add to my growing list of husbandos! *points at Yuki* I knew he existed, but I haven’t had a proper chance to have a reaction to him ever since I started really “having a thing” for long-haired guys.

Re:Vale are like a comic act (manzai).

Momo has pink nail polish…I just noticed. Update: It’s probably more red than pink.

“Chan-momo” appears to be a variety of modern slang similar to Pig Latin. Apparently Gen from Dr Stone uses it as well.

Yuki has these cute little diamond earrings and Momo has studs. I’ve also never noticed this until now. (I, myself, can’t wear anything past clip-ons because I have a genetic quirk that makes it annoying to get my ears pierced, called beta thalassemia, so I can only fangirl about other people’s earrings.)

What’s the FSC again…?

Kyu-to aidoru!

I think Momo and Yuki are going to reach out to Mitsuki and Tamaki (respectively) most this season…just a feeling, based on their dispositions. Tamaki and Yuki have similar faces, on top of that, so thank goodness we can tell them apart by hairstyle.

Yuki wears this steel blue shade of nail polish…ooh, also cute.

*Riku goes stiff-faced* - *audibly facepalms at Riku’s reaction*

Momo has a black and green earring set on one ear…huh.

Ooh, very nice. It’s a keeper.

Update: Apparently, you pronounce their name “Re:ba-re”, which is a bit different to what I was expecting (essentially “Re: veil”).

[mrslittletall]

Angel Sanctuary Re-Read Volume 7

We met two new angels right away. The first is the angel of fire, Michael. He's small, he has red hair, a dragon tattoo and a temper. He hates his twin brother so much that he killed the messenger of Sefie coming to get him, but it was okay, that messenger was just a puppet anyway. And then we got to meet Raphael, the angel of wind. He is blond, fucks every woman in his vicinity and he also talks. A LOT! A LOT LOT LOT! He calls Michael Mika-chan which the latter doesn't approve of. What the... these are the elemental arch angels?! Yeah, heaven is screwed. Some of you might say now "WAIT! What about the angel of water, Gabriel?!" She exists, she is called Jibril and is in a catatonic state. Apparently Metatron liked her too much, so people assume that Sefie did that to her. Are you noticing that Rosiel isn't our only villain in the story? ^^ Okay, we remember now that Setsuna died. Like died DIED, so Kira tries to call back to him and Setsuna comes back! In freaking Alexiel's body! I mean, it was his body once, but it is still Setsuna, a 15 year old horny teen boy and he wakes up like "OH MY GOD! I am in the body of a busty beauty! Aaaaah!" Yes, for how grim the manga is, it has loads of dumb humour. We also see more of Mad Hatter and his true name. Belial. A known name in the bible. And his proposal to Kurai? Yeah, it isn't about him marrying her, but he wants her to marry Luzifer! So, huh, this is a sacrifice, huh... Anyway, I have to mention that Noise is still possessed by a demon, but only Arakune knows it, but for some reason, he stays quiet about it. And then Mad Hatter turns up and tells Setsuna that there is a method to get his body back to life. Also, I made a mistake about Noise. That wasn't Arakune with her, but another demon. Well, Noise killed her and she gets discovered by the other ogres. Noise is riling up the ogres to walk against Alexiel, because she's an angel and could be the only one who murdered the ogre (though we know it was possessed Noise). In the meantime, Setsuna tries to cut Alexiel's hair and gets stopped by Kira. Setsuna is like "You all just want her, not me!" and has a crisis because he has so many feelings, far too many feelings, that are not his own.

Mad Hatter returns and we learn that he is not a man. But also not a woman. He is whatever he wants. Soooo, ENBY ENBY ENBY! I just think the author didn't have a word for it back then. Basically, Mad Hatter is a trans masc enby. Well, Setsuna learned about the methods to get his body back. Either he can use the angel of wind, Raphael or he could go into hell and find the spell he needs there. What will he do? Before we find out, Raziel is still trying to communicate with Sara, but she hasn't woken up yet. Back to Anagura. Kira and Setsuna, or more, Alexiel, are having a moment. Kira says he always hated Alexiel and killed her earlier reincarnatons, but Setsuna believe he lies. However, they get distracted by Mad Hatter and then he shows them that the ogres are about to kill Setsuna's body for good. Setsuna runs there to prevent them from killing him, and the sword Nanatsusaya flies in his hands. The ogres are afraid of course, but Alexiel manages to tame the sword and tells them to stop. But then Mad Hatter kills one of them and lets it look like it was Setsuna who did it. The ogres are mad and it is Voice who flees with Setsuna and his body. And then, we see Mika-chan arriving on earth...

[pyrewriter]

Reconnecting

The Friday sun was rising over Paris and Adrien needed to go shopping. He ordered the beanies in bulk the day before but they weren't going to be delivered until Sunday. He placed the order as Chat Noir and paid for priority shipping straight to the tavern upfront and in cash. Today he wanted to gather the components needed for creating the smoke signals, most of which wouldn't be hard to find but finding powder charges big enough would be difficult. Shopping ,however, would have to wait until he was done with morning patrol.

"Do you get the feeling that Hawkmoth has been distracted lately?" Ladybug asked, she had finished early and had been waiting for only a few minutes.

Chat offered her a warm crescent from that he ordered from the bakery he slept above "Forgive me for answering a question with a question but, what do you mean 'distracted'?" he replied.

She grabbed the crescent taking a bite of the familiar tasting pastry "I mean the last two Akumas both seemed more deliberate than others before them".

"Kaleido was focused on trying to spite the other Agreste and Private Eye was focused on my friend but he was ultimately still looking for Adrien" Chat agreed. He was still confused though "But I don't see how that makes Hawkmoth distracted".

"Well, from what you told me of how Willy was practically abandoned the same day that Adrien disappeared and then two Akumas with Agreste related grudges..." she trailed off.

Chat snapped his fingers in front of her to bring her back from the void of theorizing that she sometimes fell into. "Even if Hawkmoth is after the Agreste kids he will never reach them" he assured her.

"What makes you so certain?"

Chat smiled "Because assuming he can find where he is in the first place, he would have to get through me and every Cheshire to reach him just like the search parties and media".

Ladybug reluctantly had to agree "I guess you're right" she remembered all the times that she and the class had been turned away by who she assumed to be members of the Cheshire. They had learned to avoid that area but it had taken quite some time before they found the border, she was desperate to get in and look but she knew that the Cheshire knew her face. Then she got an idea "What about his friends and family, how would they find him?" she asked.

"Well if they're smart they would stop looking for him" Chat annoyingly remarked "but the Cheshire have a special signal for if someone needs him or me, that's all I'm saying". Ladybug prodded him for more information but Chat was un-moving in his vow to keep the code secret but he did make a compromise for her. "Tell you what, when I can I'll get you what you need if you ever need to get in touch with either of us" he planned on giving one to her as a surprise anyway but this worked too.

Ladybug hugged him tightly blurting "THANK YOU" in a practical squee of excitement, she pulled back blushing and repeated herself while Chat chuckled "Thank you, I appreciate it". She did wonder if any of her classmates had gotten what Chat was referring to, so far only Nino had been able to contact him and as far as she knew that was email or text only.

*BEEP BEEP* "Sounds like my time's up, I shall see mew again next paw-trol or whenever the next attack occurs" Chat said giving Ladybug a bow before leaving. Once he was out of line of sight Adrien de-transformed and carried on his day to look for powder charges and powdered dye of some kind. Ladybug zipped her way home to prepare for school, Marinette asked around before the first bell to see if the class or Fe' had received what Chat was talking about. None of them had any idea what she was talking about of course but now Alya wanted an interview with Chat Noir to ask for access to the Cheshire Square. The school day passed in a pleasant blur, Chloe' even complimented Marinette on her perseverance giving a genuine apology for how she used to be. The class agreed that similarly to Adrien they admittedly knew very little about her other than what she openly displayed.

After a full day of wandering the city looking for the components Adrien had managed to find most of what he needed, all that was left were fuses, flash paper, containers, and matches. The Magic shop on the edge of the city had everything and ,to his surprise, a how-to guide for smoke bombs, all he would have to do is scale the amounts accordingly. The walk back to the Square was long but he knew the class wouldn't be out looking so he took his time enjoying the cool evening air, once at the tavern he dropped off the components and set out for night patrol.

"Bonsoir, Chatton" Ladybug was more upbeat than normal but Chat didn't mind.

"Bonsoir Ladybug, have a good day?" he asked.

Ladybug let out a satisfied sigh "A great one actually" she told him, then looking to him "-did you get me access?" she asked.

"Patience LB, it's a virtue" he chuckled.

"Well I'm not feeling very virtuous lately".

Chat pretended to gasp "Ladybug, I'm supposed to be the sinful one in this duo" she gave him a look that he returned in kind.

Ladybug pushed him rolling her eyes "Good to see you're still the same cat".

"I just get serious when things are purr-sonal" Chat told her with a laugh.

"Personal how?"

"Well, Kaleido put me in a box and forced me to deal with crap I'd already come to terms with, and I don't think I need to tell you what Private Eye did" Chat explained.

When Ladybug thought about it Chat was right, he had been targeted in one way or another but she still wondered what Fe's connection to her partner was if there was one. "Chat who was the women that I fought with against Private Eye?" she asked.

"My sister and a member of the Familia" Chat replied almost instantly.

"So that must have been what she meant when she called Chat her 'brother'" Ladybug thought to herself, then aloud she questioned further "Do you by chance know her name?".

Red flags shot up in Chat’s mind "No I don't know her very well, she was introduced to me by Adrien and we get along ,she's part of the Familia, and Familia watches out for each other" he answered. He thought through the possible reasons Ladybug would have to ask about Fe' eventually settling on the possibility that she saw Fe' de-transform.

Ladybug's voice brought him back to reality "You and Adrien have a pretty strong bond of trust with your 'Familia' huh" she said thinking of Adrien's history and family troubles. Her upbeat mood had faded "Is Adrien happy with the people he surrounds himself with?".

Chat chuckled "He couldn't be happier...but" he paused letting out a sigh "-he misses the class, being able to attend school, he misses a lot of what he left. If he could go back and try again without that stupid amber alert he probably would've worked something out". He turned to look at Ladybug and her expression "Th-that's what he told me anyway, he's a smart kid after all".

"Yeah he is" Ladybug agreed solemnly, they sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before both their Miraculous beeped and they went their separate ways. The weekend was chaotic as Nino, Milo and Adrien worked throughout the two days to try and finish the last of the renovations. They only took breaks during hours of operation and to sign for the delivery of beanies, when they finished Milo and Adrien shared a shot then promptly passed out from exhaustion.

Adrien awoke when Plagg pulled his eyelids open telling him "You're gonna be late for patrol if you don't wake up" Belial was booping his nose with a paw. Lifting his head Adrien saw Milo was still passed out with his face glued to the bar by the dried drool, letting him sleep he left a note saying he'd be back later to celebrate properly. Before leaving for patrol he grabbed his old school bag and filled it with beanies, Adrien Agreste had a special appearance to make. Chat stashed the bag at his camp near the border of his and Ladybugs patrol areas on his way to the tower for their regular check in. Neither had much to discuss resulting in a short and to the point meet up as both Ladybug and Chat were tired, Ladybug from baking with her parents and Chat from renovation. Few words were spoken between them before they went their separate ways, Chat had gone to pick up the bag and de-transformed at street level.

"Matin Mari, you look tired, did your parents have you working in the bakery over the weekend?" Alya asked, Marinette yawned and nodded. "Well you're better off than Nino here, he’s been helping his Uncle since Friday and from what he's told me they barely slept this weekend" she explained.

"I had to stop but Uncle and Bro kept going, I don't think they ever slept" Nino groaned.

Alya patted him on the back "It builds character" she stated with a laugh, adding "There hasn't been a lot of action as of late so I haven't been able to get anything for the Ladyblog". As she finished her sentence the door swung open and everyone's heads snapped to the figure strolling through the door, a silence fell over the room.

"A-Adrien?" Juleka asked cautiously.

He lifted his shirt slightly displaying a fractal scar that seemed to creep across his side, "Scars and all Jule" he stated with a chuckle. Everybody in the class leaped from their seats practically crawling over the desks to reach him, before he knew it Adrien was at the center of a collective bear hug.

"Where have you been?"

"Why did you leave for so long?"

"Thank god you're ok?"

"It's so nice to see you again?"

"Are you back?"

Adrien tried to laugh but the air was being pushed from his lungs "If you let me go I can tell you" he squeaked out, they let go of their friend letting him catch his breath. Miss Bustier entered shortly after he was released from the class hug and at the sight of him caught him in an embrace of her own "Hehe good see you too, Miss Bustier" he said. When he was released once more he explained himself, "It's good to see you're all doing well even after my disappearing act and news hijack. Unfortunately I can't stay, I came to make a special delivery so you can stop searching". Marinette stood with Chloe' at the back of the small crowd that had formed around Adrien, neither of them felt as though they had the right to talk with him.

Juleka had excused herself saying "I need to grab some things from my locker real quick"

"I was the only person he could be with for most of his life in Paris but during all that time I still failed to see all that he was dealing with all those years" Chloe' thought to herself. Seeing him again made her almost ashamed as she remembered how she used to be but at the same time she was happy because of how she bonded with the class over their concern for him.

Marinette had thought she knew the kind of person Adrien was "He was perfect, kind, generous, thoughtful and caring, I knew everything there was to know about him or so I thought. It was just like Fe' told me 'you know the mask he was forced to wear' he's still kind, caring and everything else but I never knew why" she thought. The two of them had been lost in their thoughts for a few longer than either had realized and were snapped back to the real world by Adrien addressing them.

"W-What?!" they asked seemingly mirroring each other

Adrien stifled a laugh before repeating himself "Matin Marinette, Chloe', glad to see some things never change" he said, then looking to Chloe' "-but change isn't bad either". Tears began to fill both of their eyes as they both fell forward arms wide, Adrien tried to catch them but they knocked him off balance causing him to topple in a heap. The class watched and laughed as he lay there with Chloe' and Marinette sobbing tears of joy and relief that the boy they cared for so much was here. Adrien smiled under his mask placing a hand on their backs and whispering softly "I'm happy to see you too" to try and calm them but to no avail. They stayed on the ground for a few moments longer before finally getting up and wiping their eyes, apologizing. As Adrien invited them to join the rest of the class Juleka had returned with Luka and Fe' in tow.

Pretending that this was the first time that she has seen him in years Fe' pounced at Adrien ,who barely managed to catch her, saying happily "Still strong as Oak I eh brother".

"Light as Balsa, as always I see" he replied before setting her down.

Luka was less happy with Adrien's return "So you finally came back, or did you just come back to tell us to stop looking for you personally?" he said arms crossed. During his time helping with the search Marinette had told him of all the things she knew of Adrien, he could see how destroyed she was by his disappearance

Adrien reached into his bag laughing to himself before pulling out pairs of beanies ,Black and Yellow, he handed one of each color to everyone in this class. "Wear these when you enter the Square if you need us, Black is for Chat Noir, Yellow is for me, we'll find you" he told them.

"So you're just coming and going?" Luka asked with disdain in his voice.

"I can't stay here now can I?" Adrien shot back "-if I'm seen and word gets the authorities or my father all hell will break loose and I don't want to be the target of another man hunt". He took a step toward Luka with a pointed finger "You want to confront me about it, go to the Square and ,if I'm available, I'll find you". Adrien slung his bag back over his shoulder and turned to leave but stopped cold when he saw Nathalie walk through the castle like doors ,tablet in hand, "Dammit" he cursed.

The sound was enough to alert Nathalie and her attention shot to the sound, her eyes widened as she saw him "Adrien!" she shouted surprised.

"Adrien, where?" asked another faint voice ,a familiar voice, coming from the tablet, Nathalie turned it to show the face of none other than Gabrial Agreste. Adrien stood for a moment to let his father get a good look at him as Nathalie approached to allow the two to speak without shouting. "Son you've had your fun now come home" Gabrial ordered in the same voice he always had, that same monotone, uncaring, emotionless voice.Adrien scowled and shook his head silently. Nathalie was within an arms length of Adrien now "I am your father, I am ordering you return to your home, this world is too dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt" Gabrial demanded.

"FOR WHAT?" Adrien raised his voice enraged, the class was taken aback and Marinette was genuinely scared by the sound. "-So you can just lock me in that gilded bird cage of a room, so you can control every move I make, schedule every breath I take while you call yourself my 'Father'!?" he asked pointedly.

"Adrien what has-"

"FUCK YOU" Adrien snarled raising his middle finger, suddenly he snatched the tablet from Nathalie who let go in surprise. Throwing it to the ground he looked into the camera with resentment in his eyes as he raised his foot "You never knew me, and now you'll never find me". Stomping on the camera of the tablet he came down with enough force to leave an imprint of his shoe in it destroying the device. He stood with his foot still embedded in the screen for a moment taking deep breaths trying to calm himself after his outburst. Once he regained his composure and lifted his foot he kneeled down to open what remained of the device to access the memory card, removing it he handed the card to Nathalie. Adrien sighed "I'm sorry about that Nathalie, your photos and other data is in here" he told her, he knew that was her personal tablet and he honestly did feel bad.

Nathalie took the card from him before letting out a sigh of her own "I'm sorry that I let him push you this far, I should have said something, I-'' she began to tear up and choked on her words. Adrien embraced her, she was stunned but her arms quickly wrapped themselves around him, she began sobbing softly. "All this time-" she started "-nobody blames you, not me, not your bodyguard, no one" she told him through her sobs and sniffs.

"Don't weep for fools, you'll never stop crying" Adrien said holding Nathalie, letting her use him as a shoulder to cry on and vent to. She sobbed harder holding him tighter, "I know Nathalie, I know" he said reassuringly.

Gabrial's mere presence commanded an intense sense of fear of failure to meet his standards in everyone who worked under his name. They were all forced to wear 'masks' of their own that only came off when they knew their employer was not present. Adrien never got that ,he never took off his mask, and underneath writhed someone who hadn't seen the light of day until he was granted a different kind of mask. The Black Cat's Ring made him the protector of Paris Chat Noir, and that mask became the outlet the persona writhing beneath Adrien Agreste, model and symbol of perfection needed. Since escaping his old life and forming the Familia that now knew his secret and supported him, Adrien Agreste and the persona that bore the name Chat Noir had become one.

Adrien was the most 'himself' he has been since moving to Paris, and there was no going back to how things were but he didn't want them to even if it hurt to move forward. He only wanted to mend the wounds he left as Adrien and making sure all those who cared for him could contact him was a big step, even if he couldn't tell them everything. To everyone but his Familia Chat Noir and Adrien are little more than lookalikes and that's how he wanted it to be ,how it needed to be, but balancing both lives was difficult. He stood there comforting Nathalie when he heard cries of fear coming from his classmates behind him.

"Oh no"

"Everybody think happy thoughts" 

Adrien looked up to see an Akuma fluttering through the open window in the classroom "Dammit" he thought "-too many emotions ,I stayed too long, my presence is an Akuma magnet now". The corrupted butterfly flew toward Marinette at first but was repelled by the class as they formed a wall around her forcing it to divert toward Nathalie and himself. He released Nathalie pushing her away, as she stumbled back the Akuma veered toward her. Adrien refused to be responsible for another Akuma, not if he could stop if and especially if it's target was one the only people who truly cared for him. Reaching out he grabbed the Akuma with his bare hand forcing it into his lighter. 

Hawkmoth's voice flooded his head "Greetings- wait you're not the one I was... no matter, I am-".

"I refuse the 'power' you offer, now get out of my head" Adrien told him, for a moment there was only silence but he could feel Hawkmoth's connection. 

"A-Adrien" Hawkmoth asked, his voice filled with fear and confusion.

Adrien brought the lighter to eye level glaring at the reflection with rage burning in his eyes, "I said out" he commanded again. The Butterfly cleansed itself as it left the lighter changing from the sickly black and purple of an Akuma to stark white, like they did when Ladybug de-evilized them. He watched as the former Akuma flapped its wings flying back out the window it came through and was carried away in the wind. The class and even Nathalie were frozen, whether it was by fear of Adrien almost becoming akumatized or shock at what he had just done was anybody's guess. Alix, Kim, Ivan, Nino, Rose, rushed over to commend Adrien for his actions. 

"You're crazy, Bro" Nino told him, giving him a hug.

Kim gave a fist bump, "Congrats Adrien, you are officially an Akuma victim like us" he said jokingly.

Alix gave Kim a punch in the arm scolding him "Not the time, but for real that was pretty insane dude, guess you're more hardcore than I thought"

"You have no idea" Adrien laughed    

"That was reckless and stupid...but brave, thank you" said Rose.

Ivan gave him a noogie telling him "I guess even symbols of perfection can have flaws huh". The rest of the class looked on as he appeared to brush off what had just happened. Fe' approached him asking if they could talk in private and Adrien agreed but made it a point to check on Nathalie since she had been a target. 

"I'm fine ,really, thank you for worrying about me but I'll be fine" she assured him adding after a deep breath to steady herself "I should return to Mister Agreste and report what has happened". She chuckled slightly "Though I think I will leave out my breakdown and the part where you grabbed an Akuma". Adrien chuckled himself, thanking her and wishing her well as she left making sure to give her his personal number before going to the back of the class to speak with his sister.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Fe' asked.

Adrien shrugged "It's the best Idea I could come up with and besides I already told the Cheshire what the colors meant, they'll be expecting people".

Fe' shook her head "Ok but what about your little 'secrets' what if they find out about those, did you think about those".

"Relax Fe', if I could hide my little escapades from these guys and Gabrial for this long I don't think they'll find out anytime soon. Besides I'm assuming Jule and Alya don't remember their way to the tavern, no one else knows where it is and I don't plan on taking them there".

"Are you sure you can handle meetings and your jobs?" Fe' asked still unsure.

Adrien put a hand on her shoulder pulling his mask down and tapped his forehead to hers "Trust me I'll manage" he said looking into her eyes. 

"You're right" Fe' sighed "-I trust you but don't overdo it will you" Adrien nodded before putting his mask back in place.

Turning to walk away Adrien looked back over his shoulder "The weight I can carry would impress even Atlas himself".

Outside the school Nathalie was sitting in the same car that for months had brought Adrien to and from what was once his house, "I can't tell him the truth...not yet..." she told herself. She sat with the car running using the hum of the engine to focus herself and recompose. After reassuring herself that it was better for Adrien not to know of the atrocities his father was responsible for she put the car in drive and headed for the Agreste mansion. The mansion was only a few minutes away but morning traffic filled the streets extending the drive exponentially.

At the mansion Gabrial paced in his office rambling to himself nervously, "I'm doing this for him, for us, why, why can't he see that I only want to protect him".

"Master please I'm sure there is a reason for your son's actions" Nooroo offered trying to calm him in an attempt to keep him from acting rashly as he often did. His attempts did nothing to aid his masters current mental state. 

"Everything I've done was for him, to give him a better life than the one we escaped from but he continues to defy me". Gabrial's face deformed into a disgusted scowl "The appearance of that 'thing' that Felix has become has no doubt worsened the situation" he spat. "If they did not play a vital role as my 'payment' I would have taken them out of the equation with Kaleidotherapist'' he clutched his head "augh but that would only serve to distance myself further from Adrien". As the minutes passed and he continued to ramble until Nathalie finally arrived, the sound of the door closing snapped Gabrail back to reality. Bursting through his office doors and rushing to his assistant he stumbled over himself to reach her, putting his hands on her shoulder he asked "How was he, was my son alright?".

Nathalie had dawned her mask of professionalism and told him her predetermined answer "Yes Sir, he appeared to be in good health with no signs of injury".

"And what of the Akuma, what happened to him?" he asked, shaking her slightly.

"Adrien attempted to swat it away but it was instead absorbed, once it left him he seemed perfectly fine ,if very annoyed, but nothing else" Nathalie explained fixing her glasses. Gabrial breathed a sigh of relief, she knew better than to question why he even tried to Akumatize anyone near Adrien let alone ask why she was targeted. After confirming Adrien's wellbeing he realized that he had lost all composure and forgotten to replace his tie leaving the Butterfly Miraculous exposed. 

Clearing his throat and quickly gathering himself Gabriel retreated upstairs excusing himself "Apologies Nathalie, if you would excuse me I must go freshen up. You may take the day off". 

"Of course Sir, Thank you, Sir".

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[icharchivist]

Not to say that Belial invented the "incredibly attractive chaotic trickster who causes insane destruction" character, but I do feel like we're seeing more of them in Gbf in the aftermath of his insane popularity

the irony of this statement is that Morgan really is just like Loki from the Main Story and really predates Belial by a lot ahah

i don't think we had that many trickster characters in gbf, did we? like, Loki, Belial and Morgan sure counts as such... Felix perhaps would count? I guess?

Anyway Belial did indeed open the door to a lot of things after his insane popularity but on this one Morgan behaves so much like Loki rather than Belial that it kinda makes me laugh. Belial's bitchiness just completely removed the OG trickster of the game from people's mind huh.

[icharchivist]

I thought it over and can conclusively tell you that Lucilius would not like Human Centipede

I however regret to inform you that Belial would

He helped Lucilius perform those experiments and, as with all things related to Lucilius, probably conditioned himself into believing that inflicting gruesome body horror on people is sexy

He would watch with rapt attention and be mentally undressing the mad scientist guy

If we further go by the song Red Flags, two lines in particular stand out

"I admire the narrative of character growth"

That's a pun, since the people involved in the Centipede "grow" by being sewn together. Lucilius would not have the patience for wordplay, but Belial, silver-tongued serpent that he is, would fucking relish in it. He would pride himself on that phrasing

"The costume design was a highlight"

The segments wear pretty much rags that cover up their bottoms and, in the case of the women, their chests. Lots of skin showing. An immediate plus for Belial

So all things considered I see a lot of reasons for Belial being the horror movie fan. He already has a history of getting unreasonably attached to things, why not really get into a movie that reminds him of his Lucilius?

Red Flags would then work as the tale of someone going on a date with Belial before the guy reveals how truly unhinged he is. But he's hot and some say that crazy is really good in bed, so they're willing to take the risk

I personally think it'd be especially funny if the other guy was Beelzebub

Anyway, I'm terribly sorry, but I felt the need to exhume this discussion only to lay it to proper rest

*buries face in hands* can't believe you all successfully brought the human centipede lucilius discourse back. After having tried so hard to push it back away.

Anyway yeah i agree on Lucilius not actually being fan of the idea (mostly because he can do it better) but at least we stopped there last time, and now having to face the actual, very true, point that Belial would totally be into it, makes it a whole new level of horrifying. I guess we're never escaping the Tom Cardyness of Belial.

Now you just need to picture Belial singing "I admire the narrative of character growth" when Lucilius is starting to make Avatar while Lucilius. sighs. so deeply.

In a modern AU type of things, i can totally imagine Belial being a horror movie fan who would unironically be into human centipede so. that's correct. And the fact that this movie could remind him of Lucilius is spot on.

and as for this last point. Damn. so we're making it human centipede Belial now while he's horrifying Beelzebub huh.

this is terrible. You brought back this nightmare and for what? to be absolutely right about your take? to give a perfectly reasonable ending to it all? to traumatize me one last time?

thank you very much for this i'll never recover.

[icharchivist]

Translator!Anon here! In honor of the new trailer I have decided to lose my entire mind and fed a short piece of the Belial's Room segment from the GranFes 2022-2023 (which I painstakingly cut out of the stream myself, btw. I am mentally sound) to the voice-to-text program and while again, it's not the most reliable, I'm gonna try a text-based translator later, since the segment is subtitled, I was curious to see what it'd spit out

One thing I actually heard with my own ears is after Belial read a letter from someone who bought his figurine, he went "kore wa kore wa", which most closesly translates to "Well, well", but a translation also suggested it's "A phrase used when one feels shocked upon encountering something unexpected" which is hilarious because it's so patently untrue. He sounds neither surprised nor shocked. More like smug. So yeah. I thought that was funny.

One sentence that the program figured out that looks super close to the actual subtitles provided ended up being "It was a very exciting first time." Of course it would get that right. What was I thinking. He was referring to how he got here and how he had difficulty getting to the Fes and got stuck (in traffic?) and ended up taking the car, which was said exciting (doki doki) first time. Then something about feeling the wind. But please take this with a grain of salt. All we know for certain is that he had an exciting first time. Good for you, man.

He refers to his segment as a treat for the audience and thanks them for their many letters (the questions you could send via his Twitter, I am never getting over that) and promises that we're going to love it. Or that he loves us (suki). Pick your favorite, but I know mine.

He also laughs and it looks genuinely wholesome, like he's actually having fun. He's probably enjoying having such a huge harem who coo at his every move. Well, maybe it's a bit sinister, but he looks so happy so I don't mind the ulterior motives.

He was surprised by the amount of messages he got, which does not surprise me, personally. He goes on to say that responding to some of them is his way of showing his love.

The first question was someone asking about how Belial would describe his ideal man, according to Granblue_en, my heroes, and according to them he goes on for a while before realizing he's describing himself

My mix of programs unfortunately spat out something pretty cryptic and hard to understand, so I went for something else.

I tried Google Lens and yeah, it's a bit sluggish, I have to cover the camera and pause often because it doesn't fully realize when the text changes and occasionally refuses to focus on the text I want it to and translates something completely random instead, like the keyboard on my laptop. I had no idea those are numbers in the top row, thank you, Lens.

According to it, however, his answer to the question was "A good man, huh? Genuine and sincere, doesn't lie to himself, earnestly fulfils his role. Isn't that a good man? ...Ah, my bad. Isn't this a self-introduction?"

I'm counting that as a success because it's actually comprehensible. Perhaps if I had a lot more time on my hands I'll try longer sequences with the Lens, but again, it's not super cooperative. But I appreciate getting to catch a glance at how he sees himself, apparently? How he sees himself? Is he just being ironic again?Food for thought!

From the Granblue_en summary, I was honestly expecting much worse, so this is a relief

I intend to keep finagling with this occasionally until I uncover the whole truth. I even started looking for Japanese classes in my area. I am obsessed. Don't be like me, kids

Unrelated but even without knowledge of the Japanese language I enjoy watching these Belial's Room segments, it's pure Hosoyan ASMR and just nice, so I definitely recommend them and hope we get another one next year

Anyway, take care!

OH HELLO NONNY!!!

MAN THAT'S AMAZING HOLY SHIT thank you so much for the hard work getting the summary??? That was so much work to make sure to know what this bastard said in that one fes i'm so impressed!!!

and thank you so much for sharing it with me on my blog :sob: i'm so touched.

Going into the commentary now, under cut so it's not too long,

-for the Kore wa Kore wa i could imagine him playing it up like he's shocked while he knows very well that he has this effect on people, this is so funny thank you

-OH I REMEMBER ABOUT HIM GETTING STUCK!!!! I remember seeing a hundred of fanarts about him getting stuck in the subway actually, there was a huge meme at the same time as a fes where he was especially stuck in a station in Shibuya because of subway difficulties, and i think it was because the Belial hologram mentioned it or something before. (I also think i remember it bc then Belial did a PSA about wearing your mask in a public space, since it was during the height of covid) so i'm assuming he's refering to that one time he got stuck, and so he was careful this time taking the car! That tracks with what happened a few years ago so i'm sure you're right!!! exciting!

-aw he loves us..... i decide to accept this is the official translation now,

-aw he likes having a full group of people all over him cherishing him??? canon confirmation he would like being our collective boyfriend, and canon confirmation that in here with Ichas and the Nonnies we understand Belial the most and here's the proo-

-how can he be surprised about that he's THE mister "drives fans crazy". he doesn't understand how loved he is SMH!! but i'm so touched he's giving back some love for the fans. ofc it's a bit of fanservice, but i'm feeling serviced so i'm happy.

-The ideal man answer will never fail to make me laugh. yeah you're right babe you're right.

Oh i feel you so much for google lens, i had the same issue trying to put the MeguMari duet through the translation :(

BUt ALSO HELLO ON THiS DESCriPTION??? It's one thing if he would have described how hot he was but holy shit. Good man??? HIM??? Genuine and Sincere??? MISTER McLIAR???? though i guess he's genuine and sincere over his feelings of love and devotion so. i guess that the only thing that matters in this case. "doesn't lie to himself" Belial. Belly. Sweetie. "earnestly fulfills his role" THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING KNOWING THE PRIMAL STUFF BELIAL... but can we convince him into being a good housewife after that asking for a friend (me)

I think that like, for instance, his devotion to his role, his genuine and sincere feeling, he especially describe how he is to Lucilius and describes that he would be the most perfect of lovers of Lucilius would give him a chance, because those attributes should be the ones to help him out on that. But he's definitely lying on the not lying to himself :sob: guy is lying to himself about lying to himself. Or he's trying to manipulate us again.

but that's so interesting, loving it.

So glad it ended up being quite fun like this!

Good luck with working on more of the translation, and WOW! congratz on seeking for more Japanese knowledge just to get what our Belial is saying, i'm so amazed. You're a rolemodel.

And so much mood, it really is just ASMR segments when you don't know what he's saying. IT's always so fun

thank you again so much for sharing those with me i'm so happy <333

take care!

[icharchivist]

My list of favorite jobs Belial has lied about having/ may have actually had at some point:

1) Fashion designer (Gbf)

Believable, makes me hope he made his own outfit himself, because the drip is insane and it's weirdly endearing

2) Interior designer (Belial's Room)

Still fitting with designer, the man just likes coordinating things, plus I can think of at least one dirty joke to be made with this vocation, but I'm sparing you

Honorable mention: Deputy head of the Astral research facility

You know he ran that place by himself, Lucilius could not be bothered to handle any amount of organization. Though the idea of him helping with experiments is cute too

3) Archaeologist (Versus)

I don't get it

Is this a dirty joke I'm not getting? A reference to something? Or is it because he's digging for Lucilius' legacy and the man died several millennia ago? Or was he literally just trying to throw Percy off?

Such a random choice

Anyway, as we can see his skillset is varied and he's worn a lot of hats over the course of his long life

We are not counting the sheer limitless amount of blow- and hand jobs he's been involved with today, but I'm sure there were many of those as well

submitted by @nightmarenoise

HELP.

so i was looking back to it but i could SWEAR it's mentioned again in gbvs, the whole fashion designer thing. If it's a lie, he clings to it quite a lot. And honestly yeah it's believable, looking at his drip

Interior designer is really funny to me too. The guy really went "obviously i'm an Artist". though with Lucifer helping with the designs of a lot of actual beings it's fun to see Belial go into the design of unalive stuff.

Help about the deputy, i'll also add "boss of the marketting department in the real world" due to how the livestreams go everytime.

as for the archeology thing. Yeah. it's a very dirty joke 😭😭

i think there's a part of what you said about how he's uncovering the past, Lucilius's legacy and all, but what matters is what he's saying next. And you're putting me into a situation where i have to explain things. (he's talking about fisting. That's why it's elbow-deep. it's about fisting.)

anyway yeah i'm sure he had more jobs just to lurk and you indeed mentions a lot of huh, interesting jobs he could get there!! but yeah. yeah.

This guy is so funny. We're never free.