#around with different hairstyles. It’s normal for a person to change their hair so I kind of imagine maybe he had it styled differently at

[corset]

Look at my boy

[nightingalescall]

Weight of the World

Kingdom of Ebreau:

prologue|part 1(you are here)|part 2

"You really do look like God."

Zephyr caressed your cheek with his thumb as he smiled lovingly at you. He leaned in, pressing his forehead against yours before raising his other hand to cup your face.

He stared into your eyes, awestruck before signing blissfully, "You look just like him....". You remained silent at his blatant display of affection. Zephyr continued, nuzzling his nose against yours as he closed his eyes and let out a content chuckle. In an effort to ease the awkwardness you felt from having the saint be so close to you, you adverted your gaze to the side, landing on your and Zephyr's reflection in the standing mirror situated in a corner of your room.

Zephyr was dressed in his usual white robe but today, he had put extra care into his hair and tied it in a low ponytail using a black ribbon. As for you, you had long since changed out of your old blouse and shorts. In fact, the temple gave you a makeover and threw out your old clothes the moment you stepped foot inside the building, saying your current attire was "unsuited for their beloved Messiah". It had been a few days since your "fall from heaven" as the devotees liked to call it but you still clearly remember the absolute bewilderment you felt when the nuns handed you your new clothes. Holding a golden dress with black beads as embellishments around the collar, skirt and hem of the long sleeves, the nuns grinned brightly at you, expectantly waiting for you to try it on. It looked more expensive than your total salary as the guards' errand girl(which wasn't a lot but you still could never imagined spending all that money on one piece of clothing). You declined at first, unable to accept such a gift but the dejected expressions and teary eyes that immediately came onto the faces of the nuns made you reconsider. Reluctantly, you took the dress from their hands. You stepped inside an empty room nearby and changed into the dress. Oddly enough, the dress fitted perfectly. Not too big, not too small. It was a wonder how they matched your measurements so well.

You slowly creaked opened the door, feeling bashful and self-conscious for wearing something so....Different from your usual attire. Your body felt foreign to you as you struggled to walk normally, thinking you should change the way you carry yourself in order to better match the sophisticated aura the dress brings. Feelings of doubt crept into your mind as you began to regret being so gullible to the nuns.

But what's done has been done. The door opened and dozens of eyes snapped towards you as you reappeared from within the room. The staring made you feel even more awkward.

"Does it look weird?" You asked, hoping to divert their attention and save yourself from the uncomfortable silence. Zephyr was the first to move. He immediately came forward and grasped your hands in his. His smile was wide as he answered. "You look wonderful, Messiah." He seemed a bit breathless.

Thud!

You heard something heavy hit the ground and some frantic voices come from behind Zephyr. You peered over his shoulder and saw that a few devotees had fainted.

"Messiah? Are you alright?" Zephyr's voice rang in your ear, cutting your flashback short. As you came back to reality, you saw Zephyr's reflection in the mirror staring back at you, a concerned frown clear on his face.

"Yes. Sorry, I was, um...." You tried to come up with an excuse as you turned your gaze back at him. Your eyes flickered towards his ponytail and a lightbulb lit up in your mind. "I was admiring your new hairstyle."

A bashful smile spread across Zephyr's face the moment you finished your sentence. "Do you like it? I'll tie it up more often if you like." He blushed slightly. Before you could reply, a knock came from the door.

You saw Zephyr's smile drop before he turned away and excused himself to go answer the door. Now with the saint out of your personal space, you could finally breathe again. Even if Zephyr wasn't cruel or strict in any way, his position as saint was still quite daunting. You felt like you needed to be on your best behaviour whenever he's around.

Sighing in relief, you took a seat on the edge of your bed, the soft mattress sinking lightly with the addition of your weight. You stretched and heard your joints pop softly before you reached for the cup of water placed on the bedside table. Bringing the beautifully decorated porcelain cup to your lips, you took a sip.

You held the almost empty cup in the palm of your hands as you stared down at your reflection in the water after you had your fill. Your face came into view and you were once again reminded of how familiar and yet foreign your face was now.

In the water, a pair of golden eyes looked back at you. This was the mark of Calerus. This was what the temple used to determine you were their Messiah. Calerus had given you the same golden eyes he had when he declared you his lamb that day. You are the one and only human in Ebreauan history to ever possess golden eyes. You're the first person to ever resemble their God. Such was the infatuation the devotees held towards your gaze, fawning whenever you even looked in their direction. So far, Zephyr is the only one who could somewhat keep his composure around you.

You stayed seated on your bed, waiting for Zephyr to finished attending to the person who came knocking. It was taking longer than anticipated.

"...me help the Messiah put them on, Saint Zephyr." Your ears perked up at the mention of your name(or your title to be exact) from the doorway. You glanced over at Zephyr and saw he was conversing with a young monk. You leaned back a on your bed, trying to get a better look at him from your position.

The monk seemed to notice movement within his vision and moved his gaze from Zephyr to the inside of your room. You both make eye contact and you finally notice the brown box he was holding in his hand.

A package?

The young monk's voice suddenly echoed through your room, drawing your attention from the box back to him. "M-miss Messiah. H-hello!", he waved enthusiastically at you, a toothy grin plastered on his flushed face. "Please allow me the honor of-" "Thank you, Brother Esten. I'll take it from here." Zephyr suddenly cut him off, snatching the box from the young monk's hand before slamming the door in his face. You jumped, startled as the door closed with a loud bang.

Zephyr walked over to you, holding the box the young monk had delivered, his usual kind smile back on his face. "Sorry that took so long, Messiah. Brother Esten can be a bit stubborn but he is a good soul." He smiled and handed you the box. You took it from his hands as you nodded. "Did he want something?" You asked, shaking the box gently as you tried to guess what was inside based on its weight.

Zephyr shook his head before reaching for the lid of the box. He lifted the lid and revealed the contents inside. A pair of black ballet flats. You raised an eyebrow in confusion.

You didn't order any shoes.

Zephyr simply chuckled at your expression before taking the flats out of the box. "These are a gift from the temple, Miss Messiah. We thought they would go well with your dress." He said as he went down on one knee in front of you. Placing the flats on the floor beside him, he gestured towards your feet.

"May I?"

You hiked up your dress, revealing the old brown boots you've worn even before becoming the guards' errand girl. They've been with you through thick and thin, through stormy and sunny weather so it pained you a bit having to say goodbye to them. Zephyr slowly undid your shoelaces and slipped the boots off your feet. “Brother Esten had asked to help you put on your new shoes but I informed him that I could do it. He was persistent though, insisting that he should be the one to do it.” He began to recall, taking one of the black flats and slipping it onto your foot.

“In his words and I quote, “A lowly task like this shouldn’t be handled by the saint. Let this humble servant of god do it instead.” I, of course, refused.” Zephyr relayed what transpired at the door just now as he slipped on the other shoe and checked if they fitted you.

You nodded, unfazed by his confession. Zephyr had been constantly at your beck and call ever since you became Messiah, lending his aid even when unnecessary. He goes out of his way to serve you and make your new life as comfortable as possible. In addition, you've also noticed that he had taken over the other nuns and monks' jobs of serving you, such as delivering meals, giving you fresh clothes and other menial tasks after a few days of observation. Sometimes it truly feels like he's your servant rather than your colleague.

You take a look at your new flats too, admiring its design. They fitted perfectly just like every other clothing the temple has given to you. "They're very comfortable. Thank you." You thanked Zephyr for helping you put on the shoes despite not needing the assistance. He smiled tenderly at you before reaching out to hold your right foot in his hand. "You're welcome, my Messiah." He pressed a kiss on your foot.

!

Your eyes widen in surprise at his action. You blushed and adverted your eyes to the side, too embarrassed to look him in the eyes. No matter how much time you spend with him, you don't think you could ever get used to his odd affection towards you.

"Miss Messiah..."

You heard Zephyr's voice call for you before feeling some weight on you lap. You looked down and saw he had placed his hands on your lap before resting his chin there. He gazed up at you, a look of concern plastered on his face. "You seem distracted today." He frowned. "I noticed you staring at your cup in a daze just now when I was talking to Brother Esten." Zephyr said as he moved one of his hand from your lap and reached for your hand. He gently rubbed the back of it with his thumb as he continued, "Is something bothering you?".

"Oh..." You let out, not expecting him to point out your habit of daydreaming. They've become more frequent after you came to the temple as Messiah. You just had a lot to think about. Your duties, your future, your new role and now the future of Ebreau as well as the well-being of its citizens. The role of Messiah required you to stand with the people and lead them towards a better life. The sudden drop of weight on your shoulders of being Messiah was a heavy one indeed.

"I'm fine. Just a lot to think about especially with how Ebreau is right now." You confessed and sighed, sharing your concerns about the country's current state. Zephyr reached up and cupped your face, making you look at him. "You have a heart of gold, my dear Messiah. I understand that with the way things are presently, you have much to worry about but please remember to not overwork yourself. Too much stress will do no one any good." He stated firmly, his eyes clear and free of doubt, wholeheartedly believing in what he said just now.

You were shaken by his conviction as you fell silent, processing his words. You nodded after a while. "You're right. I'll try my best to manage my anxiety. Thank you, Saint Zephyr." You thanked him, grateful he helped you snap out of it.

Zephyr smiled before leaning in to kiss your cheek. "You're welcome, Messiah. Also, please just call me Zephyr." He pulled back as he looked into your eyes, his gaze soft and warm. "Thank you, Zephyr. You may call me (y/n) too." You smiled back.

For a brief moment, you saw the corner of Zephyr's lips twitched. He suddenly looked down at your lap, avoiding your eyes before taking a deep breath. You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion at his behavior.

Did you say something wrong?

"One would suggest thee to not push the saint's self control too much."

A familiar voice rang inside your head. It was Calerus. You perked up at his sudden presence. "Oh, hello." You thought in your mind. The God of prosperity had a tendency to randomly pop up and speak to you directly through your mind ever since you became his lamb. Sometimes it was advice on what to do as Messiah and sometimes it was just to give one-off comments about the situation at hand. It was the latter this time.

Zephyr suddenly sprang onto his feet, pulling you off the bed by your hands as he did so. Not expecting the sudden pull, you stumbled and fell into his chest. You heard him chuckled as he wrapped his arms around your waist and hugged you tightly against him. You looked up from his chest and stared at him, perplexed. Zephyr simply laughed, "Let's take a walk in the garden, Lady (y/n)."

~✟~

The temple's garden was big and well kept. The flowers here bloomed splendidly, attracting little bees and butterflies to come play on their petals. The soft breeze of the afternoon blew gently, weaving through the yellow leaves of the aurum trees lining the walkway through the garden and shaking them lightly. The soft rustling of leaves paired with the running of water from the nearby fountain was a pleasant change in atmosphere that you desperately needed at the moment.

Zephyr walked beside you quietly as he let you bask in the warm afternoon sun and relax yourself. You sauntered through the garden, going off the pathway and inched closer to the various flower beds. You admired the flowers and couldn't help but smile at the sight of them.

It was a welcomed change of pace. You never found yourself to be a flower lover but here you were. Perhaps it was just a lack of exposure to them in the past.

"This is nice." You mumbled, crouching down and observing a butterfly on a purple flower. "What's this flower called?" You pointed at the flower as you turned your gaze up at Zephyr.

Zephyr smiled and joined you, crouching down beside you. "These are meripurlets."He started as he tucked a loose hair of yours behind your ear. "Their flower language is devotion." He smiled.

You raised your eyebrows at his words. "You know flower language?" You tilted your head. Zephyr chuckled, "Just the few that are commonly used around the temple."

You nodded with a brief "I see." and went back to the flowers before you. Their colours were vibrant and its leaves were evergreen, signifying that they are well taken care of. The shade of purple was nearly identical to that of Zephyr' eyes. You stared as you wondered who's in charge of taking care of the garden, awed by their dedication to these flora.

...

"...siah!"

?

A voice too soft and distant suddenly caught your attention. You couldn't make it what the voice said but it sounded frantic. You looked around the garden as you searched for the source of the voice, your eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Beside you, Zephyr did the same except instaed of being confused, he seemed more cautious and alert.

"Messiah!"

The voice got louder and closer as you heard it call for you. You turned and looked towards the entrance of the garden. A man waved at you as he ran over, tripping on his feet as he did so. Behind him, you see two guards tailing him closely, screaming at him to stop.

"Sir, stop this at once!"

"This is an act of trespassing and will have you arrested!"

The man ignored their demands as he continued to sprint towards you. As he inched closer, you noticed he looked familiar.

Mr. Citris?

Before you could confirm your suspicion, someone blocked your view, shielding you behind them. It was Zephyr. He kept you behind him, his hand holding onto yours in a tight grip as he watched the man approach.

You heard a thud come from in front of him. You tried to peer over his shoulders to see what was going on but unfortunately, he was too tall even when you went onto your toes.

A familiar voice rang and you confirmed who the man was.

"Saint Zephyr! Please let me see the Messiah!"

Mr. Citris pleaded but Zephyr didn't budge.

"My brother, while the temple is open to all followers of his Lord, Calerus, the garden, however can only be accessed by the devotees of this temple." His voice was deadly cold, unbefitting of his usual warm manner.

"I know, my saint, I know! But please! I'm at my wit's end. Please just let me talk to the Messiah!" Mr. Cirtris begged. He really did sound panicked. What got him so worked up? In your mind, nothing could ever shake Mr. Citris.

Mr. Citris is a farmer who sold fresh produce at the central market. You remembered passing by his stall when you were shopping there a few times. He scared you at first. His tough appearance paired with the ever present scowl on his face, it wasn't just you who felt reluctant to approach him. It was only until after you heard more about him from the guards that you changed your opinion on him.

Mr. Citris lives near the northeast outskirts of Ebreau. There, he has a plot of land where he use to plant his vegetables and fruits. His wife passed from complications of childbirth many years ago so it's just him and his daughter at his home.

However, life seemed to be particularly unfair to him as his one and only daughter suffers from a degenerative muscle disease that causes her to have difficulty moving. She still tries her best to help out her dad in his field but she can only work for so long before the pain kicks in. She's been prescribed some medicine to help slow down the degeneration and ease the pain but from what you heard, the medicine is quite expensive and is an extra burden on them when they can only make enough money to put food on the table each day. However, Mr. Citris somehow made it work by selling his products at the market and doing odd job around the city. Tiring as it is, he was able to make enough to afford the medicine and food for his daughter.

From then on, you invested in his small business when you could and even spread the word of his predicament around so people would consider buying from him more. You're not sure if it helped but at least you've seen an increase in customers at his stall ever since then.

In short, Mr. Citris was a big guy with an even bigger heart. Family was everything to him and you admired the lengths he went to for his daughter.

"My brother, the garden is a private resting place for the devotees and workers of the temple. You're intruding on the Messiah's personal time." From your angle, you could see the frown on Zephyr's face as he looked at the man.

Mr. Citris sounded like he was on the verge of crying as he called for you, hoping you would listen to him from behind Zephyr's back. "Messiah, please give me some of your time! It's about my sick daugther!" That immediately caught your attention. Zephyr continued to shield you behind him.

"Brother, you need to leave."

This time, Mr. Citris was silent and you felt a chill run down your spine at Zephyr's demand.

Zephyr stared him down and once he made sure Mr. Citris had nothing more to say, he ordered. "Guards, please escort this man out." Footsteps sounded as the guards approached Mr. Citris.

"On your feet, sir." One of the guards demanded when Mr. Citris remained unmoving on the ground. "I..." Mr. Citris breathed shakily. The guard who had previously ordered Mr. Citrus to move leaned down and grabbed onto his arm, ready to pull him up. Just as his hand touched Mr. Citris, another appeared, its touch soft but firm in stopping any further action.

You stepped forward, coming out from behind Zephyr's back. Pressing your hand onto the guard's, you stopped him from taking Mr. Citris away.

"Lady (y/n)?" "Messiah?" Zephyr and the guards let out in astonishment.

You kneeled down onto the ground as the guard withdrew his hand from Mr. Citris. Mr. Citris kept his head down, his eyes fixated on the ground. Now on the same eye level as him, you could see the redness at the corner of his eyes.

He was holding back tears.

"..."

Something big must have happened for Mr. Citris to be this desperate.

"Mr. Citris, what happened to your daughter?" You finally asked. Mr. Citris' head suddenly snapped up and stared into your eyes, his own wide in shock, seemingly only noticing your presence after you called for him.

"My Lord..?" Mr. Citris whispered in disbelief, his body trembling. "Sorry?" You asked back, caught of guard by his question.

"C-calerus." A invisible question mark appeared above your head.

"I'm (y/n), Mr. Citris. The Messiah. You asked to see me, no?" You attempted to correct.

"Mes...Messiah?" He repeated as if he was unsure of your dentity even after you told him

"Yes." You nodded and smiled at him, wanting him to believe you. Mr. Citris' mouth stayed shut as he blinked, staring at you as he seemed to ponder something profound.

You lightly coughed and asked again, ignoring his stare. "So, tell me, Mr. Citris, what happened to your daughter?" You wanted to get to the bottom of Mr. Citris sudden visit.

At your question, he snapped out of it, shaking his head as he took a breath. "Y-yes, Messiah....Of course..." He mumbled under his breath before meeting your gaze once more.

"I...It's..." Mr. Citris stuttered, his voice shaking and you saw tears well up again in his eyes. "Take a breath. Slowly now." You patted his shoulder reassuringly.

Mr. Citris breathed in deeply and calmed himself. "My daughter....She has a degenerative muscle disease ever since birth but she has been prescribed some medicine to help with the sickness. They are expensive but I am able to pull together enough money each month to buy them by selling vegetables I've planted on my land at the outskirts of the kingdom." He began to tell and you nodded. Nothing you didn't know of.

He suddenly paused, swallowing as he seemed contemplate something. You raised an eyebrow and ushered for him to continue.

"No need to be hesitant, Mr. Citris. Let me hear it."

Mr. Citris nodded and continued. What you heard next stunned you.

"Recently, my house got attacked. By...by the Casvians." Your eyes went wide at his words. Behind you, you felt Zephyr stiffen.

"Casvians?" You repeated, not believing your ears.

Mr. Citris nodded. "They attacked my house, burned my land and my crops with it. I managed to save my daughter and myself before they got to us." He said mournfully. You listened attentively, nodding each time he looked at you for conformation to carry on.

"We've been living at an inn in the capital for the past 2 weeks but with my land gone, I've lost my main source of income from selling vegetables and fruits on the market. I...I can barely afford food for us both now, let alone...." He trailed off but even with no words spoken, you knew what he was going to say.

He can't buy medicine for his daughter.

You bit the inside of your cheeks. This was a tight spot for Mr. Citris. Food, medicine and now accommodation? Even if he did still have his land, you doubt that'd be enough to afford all three of them.

He said Casvians attacked him but how? You knew Mr. Citris' house was near the boarders between Ebreau and its neighbouring country, Casviren but it couldn't be that close to where he would get caught in the crossfire.

Then, assuming he isn't lying, for the Casvians to attack Mr. Citris' house would only mean either the Casvians are getting bolder or...

Ebreau's defenses are falling.

You clenched your fists as your expression hardened.

The situation may be more dire than you thought.

This kingdom is falling apart. Fast.

You took a deep breath and steadied yourself. The state of the kingdom needed to wait for now. First, you need to help Mr. Citris.

You turned back and looked up at Zephyr. "Does the temple have spare money to buy the medicine for his daughter?" You asked, standing back up and facing him. Zephyr was silent as he stared at you, his face unreadable. You felt uneasy at his silence. You glanced downward briefly and saw his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

Was he angry?

The thought crossed your mind for a second but you quickly brushed it off. Why would he be? You're helping someone. There was nothing wrong in that.

Right?

Zephyr noticed that you have spotted his curled up fists and quickly release them. He cleared his throat before answering. "While the temple does not lack in terms of money, the Royal family specified that the funds given to us should be spent on strictly temple related matters and nothing more." Zephyr said, his lips turning down into a small frown and his eyes softening in concern.

"Them, is there anyone in the temple with medical training that can help Mr. Citris' daughter?" You refused to give up, searching for another way to help the man.

To your dismay, Zephyr shook his head, a look of sorrow on his soft features. "There are some nuns and monks that have basic medical knowledge but I am not aware of any that are experienced enough to able to take care of someone with this sort of disease."

You bit your lip, your eyebrows knitted together in worry. This was bad. How were you going to solve this...

Just as you were going to begin panicking, Zephyr gave you something that lessened your anxiety. "However, if Mr. Citris likes, he may collect meals from the temple." You tilted your head at his suggestion. Zephyr smiled at you and elaborated. "The temple prepares food for all devotees everyday and most of the time, there will be leftovers. If Mr. Citris doesn't mind, him and his daugther may have the leftovers." Zephyr looked at Mr. Citris behind you. "I know it's not what you wanted but hopefully, it will at least decrease your financial burden." Zephyr added, bowing his head apologetically at Mr. Citris.

You turned and looked back at Mr. Citris. He was staring at you and Zephyr, unmoving and silent.

"I...Thank you, saint. I am grateful. Any help is appreciated." Mr. Citris lowered his head. He sounded... Disappointed.

Everyone fell silent. The light breeze that tickled your face had stopped blowing and the sun that shone brightly had dipped behind the horizon, leaving behind only streaks of its rays as the afternoon turned into evening and soon night. You sighed silently and hung your head like Mr. Citris. You felt so ashamed at your incompetence. As Messiah, the people expected you to lead, to guide, to help but today's encounter showed you that you were still far from fulfilling any of those requirements.

You were Messiah in name.

Power and will?

You can only pray Calerus will give them to you in the future.

Mr. Citris sniffled and the boulder weighing on your heart became heavier. You felt a hand on your shoulder. "You're trying your best, Lady (y/n). Don't blame yourself." Zephyr whispered into your ear. At that, you loosened your fists which you didn't know you were gripping.

Yes, calm down, (y/n). Nothing can be accomplished by moping around.

You inhaled deeply before kneeling back down. Mr. Citris kept his head low, unwilling to meet your gaze. On the ground beneath him, you saw small splotches.

He was crying.

And he didn't want you to see his tears.

Your heart ached at his predicament but what else could you do?

Carefully, you reached for his hands. You clasped them in yours as you pulled them close to you and shut your eyes.

There was nothing left to do but pray.

You mumbled your prayer, loud enough only for you and Mr. Citris to hear.

"Calerus, our lord high above."

Your grip on Mr. Citris' hands tightened.

"A problem arises that cannot be solved by our mortal hands."

I'm sorry, Mr. Citris.

"Please grace us with your mercy and benevolence in this time of need."

I wish I could do more for you.

"Spare the daughter of this follower of yours. Let her pain be subsided. Let her agony be gone."

But, alas, I am a fraud.

"Give the daughter the strength to overcome that which plagues her body. Give the father the strength to overcome that which plagues his mind."

I am only a pawn in Calerus' hands.

"Let your power be seen through this pair of parent and child."

I am at Calerus' mercy.

"Earnestly, we pray."

Clink!

Your eyes snapped opened at the sudden sound.

Clink! Clink!

?

You looked around, confused at what's making that noise. It sounds like....Coins dropping?

Clink! Clink! Clink!

You gazed down. On the ground between you and Mr. Citris, a few gold coins laid there, some still spinning in place.

Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink!

More appeared, seemingly falling from thin air. They fell rapidly, like they were overflowing from their source. You were perplexed at where they were coming from until you looked at your hands.

Gold coins seeped out from within your sleeves and onto the ground. They flowed like water, their speed and frequency of appearance increasing rampantly.

"What in the..." You gasped as you looked in disbelief. Gold coins were basically pouring out of your sleeves right now.

"Messiah...!" Mr. Critris gasped as he finally lifted his head and saw the scene before him. "I, um," you struggled to find words to say in this situation.

Mr. Citris suddenly bowed down to you, his forehead pressing on the ground. " Thank you, Messiah! Thank you! Thank you! This will be more than enough!" He thanked you before raising his head, a wide smile plastered on his tears stained face. He wiped away his tears, drying his eyes as he continued to thank you. "Messiah! Truly, my Messiah!" He cried, tears of joy (you assume them to be at least) continued to roll down his cheeks despite just wiping them.

The pour of coins slowly calmed down into a drizzle before finally stopping. In front of you, a small pile of gold coins sat on the ground, reflecting the last bits of sunlight and shimmering softly.

You stared in shock at what just happened with a still emotional Mr. Citris kneeling before you, muttering incoherent thank-you's while scooping up the gold coins. Your brain was melting from having to process the weird occurrence. Was that Calerus' answer to your prayers? Or was that your power all along and it was just a matter of you not knowing? Your head was spinning.

A hand suddenly grabbed your arm and pulled you onto your feet. You looked back and Zephyr glared at Mr. Citris over your shoulder, a frown tugging on his lips. He pulled you back behind him, pressing you to him so you couldn't do something he didn't expect again.

"Mr. Citris, it seems our gracious Lord has answered your prayers." His tone was cold despite the miraculous event that called for a joyous celebration. "Now that your problems have been solved, I think it's time for you to go back to your daughter, yes?" He questioned, his voice holding a certain persuasiveness and firmness in it, like he wasn't asking but ordering.

"Yes, thank you. Thank you, my Messiah...My saviour...m-my God!" Mr. Citris smiled, looking up at you. His smile grew into a grin as he began to mumble to himself. You grew concerned at his mumbling.

Mr. Citris isn't usually like this...

Before you could ask if he was alright,. Zephyr tugged at your arm and pulled you away from the scene. "Help Mr. Citris collect his money and escort him out of the temple." He ordered the two guards before quickening his place and pulling you away with him.

You were still in a daze, astonished by what just transpired. You barely even noticed Zephyr had dragged you towards one of the entrance to the temple that connected with the garden. Only when you both stepped back inside the temple did he let go.

You finally snapped back to reality as the familiar white marble walls and well lit halls came into your view. You raised your hands and stared at them. They seemed fine. Nothing looked different from before....Then, what on earth happened back there?

Another pair of hands came into your peripheral before intertwining your hands in theirs. You looked up and saw Zephyr staring at your hands in his.

"Zephyr?" You raised an eyebrow. He's been acting weird since Mr. Citris came.

You felt him tighten his hold as he breathed shakily. "Lady (y/n)..." He whispered, eyes still glued to your hands.

"Are you alright?" You made no move to pull away from his grasp.

Zephyr was quiet.

"..."

"Zephyr? You're worrying me." You voiced your concerns. Zephyr was really out of it today.

At your words, he raised his head and met your eyes. His signature smile still absent from his face.

"Did you know, Lady (y/n)?" He began.

"Know what?" Zephyr was beginning to confuse you. You thought you had a decent understanding of him now after living together for the past few weeks but...

Maybe there was still more to him than what meets the eye.

"Meripurlets and aurum trees have a symbiotic relationship." He rubbed your hands.

"Meripurlets have short roots which causes them to have a hard time finding water especially during dry seasons. To battle this, they grow near aurum trees which have long roots and can easily absorb water deep within the soil. A meripurlet will penetrate its roots into an aurum tree's to take its water. As such, meripurlets are categorized as a parasitic plant." Zephyr glanced outside towards an aurum tree.

"However, if you look in books, they will say that the relationship between meripurlets and aurum trees is mutualism. Fascinating, no?" A small smile finally crawled onto his face. You couldn't help but feel relieved when you saw it. At least he looked like he was back to normal. Wish the same would apply to his voice though.

"That is because meripurlets only take a small amount of water from aurum trees. Just enough to sustain itself. In return, they give nitrogen they absorbed from the soil to aurum trees to let them grow taller and stronger. Research also found that each meripurlet plant only ever get water from one aurum tree. It doesn't matter if another one is planted beside it, once it chooses one, it will depend on that aurum tree for the rest of its life. A very...devoted flower, don't you agree?" This was interesting and all but you couldn't wrap your head around why Zephyr was telling you all this. He continued on with his rambling.

"Despite all the good they do for each other, did you notice that the meripurlets and aurum trees in the garden are not planted together, Lady (y/n)?" This time, Zephyr tilted his head.

You recalled back to your walk. Indeed, the flowers and trees were separated from each other. You nodded, unsure where this was going to lead.

Zephyr smiled wider. "Well, another fascinating thing about meripurlets is they don't like to share."

"What?" You blurted out.

"When another parasitic plant comes and lives off the aurum tree they had chosen, the meripurlets will suck all the water from the aurum tree and will stop giving the tree its nitrogen supply. Slowly, the aurum tree will wilt and die just like any other host plants in parasitic relationships." Zephyr explained as he stepped closer, brushing his lips against the back of your fingers.

"As for the meripurlet, the excessive water will cause it to rot from within until it eventually dies." His gaze darkened and you unconsciously swallowed nervously.

"The meripurlet would rather kill the aurum tree it tethered itself to than share it with another plant. It would rather die than choose another aurum tree to depend on." Zephyr looked back down, his bangs tickling your hands.

"To this, botanists like to say..."

He leaned in and whispered into your ear.

"Devotion can kill."

~✟~

Done! Another chapter in the bag. Thank you all for the immense support you've shown for the prologue. I didn't expect it to blow up like that especially since it's the first thing I've ever posted here. Thank you again for the support and for waiting for the next chapter!(I'm a slow writer so please bear with me!(´-﹏-`；))

Same thing applies, if you find any problems, please tell me so I can make corrections in order to give everyone the best reading experience!

~

Taglist

@ursinaw @ceeesxy-blog @deepinballs @vash-yuu @fairy-lenaa @fleurescentlight @surprisemodafakas @cerisearan (you wrote master list but I'm gonna assume you meant tag list. Sorry if I'm wrong(T_T)) @avyannasstuff

[hyperactively-me]

Hi 💜💜💜I was wondering if you can write a ghost x reader who one day just gets a drastic hair cut. Like they always just had long hair ina ponytail but they just randomly decide to get shoulder langth hair and bangs. Like how do u think he would react?

I did that today and I feel so out of my comfort zone but I'm also so happy I finally made a change

U can ignore me if u want 😅

(I also really love black tie affair ur amazing 😍)

first of all, i bet your hair looks amazing! second of all, thank you for complimenting black tie affair, i truly appreciate it. i really really hope you like this 🫡

Simon "Ghost" Riley was a quiet man whose actions shouted volumes. Above all, action is what catches people's attention. And for Ghost, well, action is the way he communicates best.

He had always liked your long hair, frequently admiring it for its beauty. It became a trademark feature of your look, generally pulled back in a tight ponytail that matched your lifestyle. It was pretty much the only hairstyle you wore around the base, becoming your trademark look. However, one defining day, you decided to get a dramatic haircut. You wanted some change in your life, a fun, harmless way of bringing about a breath of fresh air. After you settled on what new style you wanted, your hair was now shoulder length, with stylish bangs framing your face.

When you entered the room, the team members turned their heads in astonishment, their eyes widening at your transformed appearance. Ghost, known for his constantly veiled face, couldn't help but leave a momentary expression of amazement before composing himself. His penetrating eyes inspected every aspect of your new haircut. 

For a brief minute, the room was deafeningly still, and then Ghost's lips curved into a smile. He couldn't disguise the admiration in his eyes as he looked at you. His typical stoicism dissipated, replaced with a feeling of warmth.

He was so used to seeing you with your long hair pulled back that he never considered the notion that you had the chance to make such a drastic change. The idea that you could change your appearance in this manner had simply never crossed his mind. Personally, he never really cared for his hair, often having “mask hair,” as his teammates liked to call it. But seeing you with your hair like this, he has to admit, he's thrilled by it.

He finally spoke. "You look different," he said, his voice a blend of surprise and genuinity. He studies the way your hair falls about your face, eyes flitting to and fro. “I love it. It suits you.”

His remark made you feel relieved. You were concerned that the new haircut would not be properly welcomed by your teammates, but Ghost's reply, however slight, soothed you. His approval meant the world to you.

“Thank you,” you said, your lips pulled in a modest grin. “I thought it was time for a change. Something new, y'know?”

Ghost stepped closer, his presence both welcoming and reassuring. He extended a gloved hand, his fingertips brushing against the ends of your new hair. 

You still, mouth agape as he unabashedly takes in your appearance.

“It's refreshing,” he stated, nearly whispering. “Like you.”

Your cheeks flushed, and you couldn't help but feel a burst of confidence. Ghost's infrequent displays of vulnerability had that impact on you. Something about his usual quiet behavior made his comments carry more significance, amplifying even the tiniest praises. 

Ghost continued stealing looks in your direction as the mission briefing began, a little grin tugging at his lips. He just couldn't stop appreciating the way you looked. Every time you took a quick glance at him, he appeared enthralled by your new appearance, admiring it in a manner that only he could. You smile to yourself, knowing that he's really, truly, appreciating you.

Though Ghost's emotions were normally veiled in mystery, his reaction to your haircut demonstrated that he paid attention to every little detail. And you knew his appreciation extended beyond your physical appearance. It was a deeper connection, a subconscious understanding that existed between the two of you.

Ghost's silent support remained consistent throughout the assignment, as did his faith in your skills. You couldn't help but be thankful for his subtle but significant presence in your life. And while you stood side by side, you couldn't help but think that change wasn't always about haircuts, but also about the unforeseen ways it altered the ties we had with those we cared about the most. Especially the way you and Ghost knew each other.

[chaoscheebs]

It's Midnight, Cinderella, chapter 2

(Chapter 1) - (Chapter 2) - (Chapter 3) - (Chapter 4) - (Chapter 5) - (Fic Tag)

------------------

How did such a good night go so wrong?

Sure, it had been a little awkward at first; Otogi had promptly ditched him to flirt with (admittedly pretty hot) girls, leaving him stranded in a sea of stuffy people in suits he didn’t have the first clue how to approach on his own. But then Seto Kaiba—and boy, was it painfully obvious it was Seto Kaiba, even with the mask—approached him first! Without prompting! Because Kaiba’s apparently into the Ouji look? Regardless of why, it had been… nice. Very nice, to just leave all the drama and troubles and bad blood at the door and talk to him (flirt with him oh god why did he do that) like a normal person. Then it had led to card games in a private room and… Honestly, why should he have been surprised that it was like foreplay to Kaiba?

Leave the masks on, they silently agreed, let’s put aside real life for a while and enjoy the moment.

He could have revealed who he was at any time, but he didn’t. His thoughts were only how good it felt to be in Kaiba’s arms, how good it felt to have Kaiba’s attention on him and solely him for once in his life, how good it would feel to have those long, elegant legs wrapped around him, and thought absolutely nothing about the potential fallout afterward.

In short, Yugi Muto got carried away, thought with his dick, and that’s why he fled home as soon as Kaiba was asleep to go dye his hair back to normal at four in the morning, quietly thanking whatever deities existed that he hadn’t styled his hair like normal and left it in its natural state. No amount of trying out a different hair color would have hid that hairstyle, that’s for sure. Jounouchi’s gonna be upset that the perfect bleaching he helped Yugi with was already being covered up, but better covered up than the alternative.

Shit. The alternative. What was he going to do now, Yugi asked himself, slumping on the couch while he waited for the 20 minutes for the dye to set to be up. What if Kaiba figures out it was him? How is he going to react? Is he going to get fired? Or worse, barred from being involved with the major players in the gaming industry? Is he going to have to focus on the indie scene, or worse, have to take over the game store?! Is it too late to follow Anzu to New York and start over there?

“Yugi? What are you doing up at this hour?”

Yugi snapped out of his anxiety spiral-induced reverie at the sound of his grandpa’s voice behind him. “Wh-what are you doing up at this hour?!”

“I asked you first, m’boy,” Grandpa asked. He gingerly poked at Yugi’s dye-saturated hair, realized what he just touched, then wiped his dye-stained finger off on the towel around Yugi’s neck. “Didn’t you just change this the other day?”

“Oh, I, uh…” Yugi wracked his brain for a quick but plausible answer and mercifully found one. “I forgot I had a piercing appointment tomorrow and want to get this done now so I won’t forget about it being there and get dye in an open wound!”

Grandpa frowned, clearly still suspicious but unable to think of a good rebuttal at this hour. “More piercings? You’re certain your workplace is all right with that?”

Yugi smirked. “I have a company-wide e-mail from Seto Kaiba himself from the last time someone complained about someone getting piercings, telling all management that he, quote, ‘doesn’t care how much metal someone has in their face if it’s not impacting their ability to work, stop wasting his and everyone else’s time with this.’ Saved it to my computer and printed it out too~”

Grandpa laughed and patted Yugi’s shoulder. “Ho, ho! That’s my boy!” He paused for a moment, then let out a bit of a sigh. “Anyway, don’t forget to get some rest when you’re done with this, all right? Staying up all night isn’t good for you.”

“I will, Grandpa,” Yugi lied. Like hell he was getting any sleep when he was in panic mode like this. Thankfully, his grandfather took him at his word, but not without one more worried glance before leaving.

Once Grandpa was out of sight, Yugi started to flop down on one side on the couch, but suddenly remembered the hair dye and caught himself before the wet hair touched anything. His life was difficult enough at the moment; he doesn’t need Mom complaining about dye stains on the furniture on top of it. Again. He settled instead for slouching forward, staring at the floor, until it occurred to him to pull out his phone from his pocket and stare at that instead.

He really should talk to someone about this, but who? Anzu would commiserate with him, but it would be early afternoon for her off in New York; she’d probably be at a rehearsal or something. There’s also Jounouchi, but hearing him talk shit about Kaiba was not what Yugi needed right now. Honda, maybe? Yugi shook his head; they’re close enough, but not close enough to wake him up over this disaster. Bakura’s right out; he’s the god-king of wandering into trouble and making it everyone else’s problem himself. There’s always Hanasaki, he supposed, but he was prepping for midterms or something and did not need this added to his load either…

Finally, he asked himself, Otogi, maybe? It’s his damn fault he was even at the damn party anyway. But no, Yugi decided, remembering the circle of women surrounding the man before he went off with Kaiba. There’s no way Otogi was alone and he wasn’t interrupting that. At best, he’d get an invitation to join, and any other day that’d be tempting, but again, this was not what Yugi needed right now.

Yugi heaved a sigh and flopped backwards, leaning heavily against the back of the couch, head reclined back as far as it would comfortably go. He thought for a split second about what to do, but then he remembered. The hair dye.

FUCK.

He leapt to his feet and spun around to see a great big splotch of purplish pink, then bolted to the bathroom to get a wet washcloth to hopefully clean it up before it set. Dye job first, he told himself, then worry about what to do next. It’s not like he didn’t have all day to figure something out, after all.

------------------

Meanwhile, back at the hotel room, Seto Kaiba was sitting on the edge of the bed, pondering his next move.

He had been sleeping more peacefully than he had in years, but when he turned over in his sleep, his arm fell onto… nothing. The other man’s lithe form was no longer next to him, nor any trace of his warmth left in his place. A quick check of the room and adjoining bathroom proved he was no longer there, period, and a brief check of his belongings showed nothing was missing, save for his mask—he presumed the man grabbed the wrong one in his haste—and, infuriatingly enough, the business card the man had given him.

At least corporate espionage seemed to be off the table as a motive for the man’s quick retreat, Seto thought; with everything that’s happened in his life, a honeypot operation targeting him wasn’t out of the question. Not that he thought anyone would be bold enough to try, with how utterly apathetic he was about… well, being with anyone that way, to be frank.

Which, honestly, was what made this hurt, and what he was blaming for the urge to fight his cynical first impulse to let this matter drop and chalk it up to a passing whim and people being shitty yet again.

He growled quietly, running a hand through his hair. What was wrong with him; why couldn’t he just let this go as an obvious mistake, a momentary lapse of judgment? The man clearly wasn’t taking this as seriously as he was, if the bastard could just run away like this. Still, something nagged at him, something he couldn’t quite put a finger on, but he was very clearly missing something in all of this and it was absolutely infuriating.

He picked up his pants from the floor, fished out his phone, and opened a notes app. He needed a guest list, he typed into it, and started typing out a description of what the man looked like and what he could remember the man saying to him. Also, a description of the man his target was the plus one for, not that he got a terribly long or clear look at him. Still, combined with the guest list, what he did notice could be illuminating. If he could find the “date” that ditched the target, maybe he could get the target’s damned name.

For better or worse, Seto Kaiba was a man who, when his personal curiosity took over, could not be stopped until it was satisfied, and this was going to be no exception to that.

[our-trans-punk-experience]

Mohawk anon here, actually it's a lie that I got all my info from Wikipedia, I did some digging before hand and found this article kinda useful https://www.popsugar.com/beauty/mohawk-hairstyle-history-48916724 look idk if u care abt this topic, it was completely stressing me out yesterday in a way I don't think is entirely normal (idk I think I'm starting to treat politics like religion in the way I berate myself as if I have sinned) I know anything more complicated than a yes or no answer on this topic will never be enough to suffice for me I feel like such a bad leftist and a hypocrite, like I'm happy to change myself when I learn my behaviour is wrong bit not for something that actually matters a lot to me, like I care about my hair SO much and I want to keep it SO much bit I don't want to live with guilt over something that may not be an issue or is at the least a very complex one. Have you ever dealt with anything like this and am I a bad person for feeling this way?

Ok hello, first I would like you to take some deep breaths.

[For context anon sent me two asks in a row, the first being an ask over whether mohawks were offensive to wear, in the same tone as above post]

I am not Native American, but I have been around the scene a while and seen a variety of takes on this. I'll open this ask obviously to corrections but from pretty much everything I've ever seen or experienced, no the hairstyle you refer to is not offensive to wear. It's not a closed practice, and tbh the way that punks style it is so different to any sort of traditional cut that the name "mohawk" is the only thing that still ties it to indigenous people.

Obviously exceptions apply if you were say, wearing it as a "costume" to mock native people, but having a 'hawk as a punk has not ever seemed to offend anyone for being any sort of cultural appropriation.

Second point, while I thank you for having the self awareness to realise that you've started to treat political correctness like a religion and that that's not great, I suggest you maybe go further with that and start doing the work to move forward from that?

I get how hard it can be, especially as someone who when growing up would often have their words taken wildly out of context and spun to make me look awful. You feel defensive, you feel like you could be swooped on at any moment for something you didn't even know was wrong. It is awesome you don't want to hurt people, but take some time to self develop so if you ever do accidentally do or say something out of line, you'll be able to fix it and move on without feeling like you're gonna get dammed to hell?

You're not a bad person for having anxious thoughts about fucking up socially. You're not a bad person for wanting to keep a hairstyle you love while worrying it might be appropriation. But try and not define whether you're a bad person on how PC an Internet dude says you are OK? You care, and that's amazing, so keep on growing, and don't ever feel like you're damned for not knowing all the answers.

[consumeroflemoans]

Lovely additions as always, Vil would absolutely be so cool and supportive about the shorter hair and just play with it all the time, Idia would probably feel some level of instant regret because firstly it's just such a big change, it looks different, it feels different, depending on the length the back of the neck might be exposed now, plus so much hair was probably heavy and secondly the haircut would immediatly be the nightmare haircut, but "Oh, Vil likes to run his fingers through" and then it becomes the Vil-likes-it haircut, I also think Vil would help him style it and get him clips to make up for the amount of hairstyles he lost

So when we're talking fire hair logistics like cutting or disposing, I've always gone off of the assumption that there's the hair and there's the curse on it

Due to the fact that Idia has had it up in a ponytail, braided and had clips in it, there needs to be some kind of corporality to it so I always figured the curse is attached, but still somewhat seperate, see the parasite comparison, I assume it's like hair skin, covering the head and every single strand coming out of it as the way it holds attached to its host and when hair is cut off the curse vanishes from it as it no longer connected to the being the curse is on, then it's just hair, maybe it's not even blue anymore

For everything-is-terrible-all-the-time pourposes I like to think that not a single hair is visible, for cuter shit I like to think that if you brush it far enough back you can see some actual strands peeking out slightly beneath the fire

I also like this idea just for the extra kick you can get out of this, because imagine you have completly normal person hair that is just perpetually swallowed up by one of the things keeping you from living a normal live, imagine the only way to free part of you from the thing that threatens to consume you when you don't feed it your magic trauma ink is by literally seperating it from yourself as a person

I just think that's beautifully fucked up and I have more

Most mages don't exactly pop out as babies ready to start casting, their magic presents itself, shows up and develops at some point and the curse can't exactly feed off of Idia when there's no magic to consume, yes, the most likely explanation for this is that the curse was consuming the blot all around it down in the Isle of Woe, but that's not incompatible to what I'm thinking so I'll keep talking

I like to think Idia had perfectly normal hair, maybe originally pink from his mom, until his magic reared its head, this is part of the reason Ortho and Idia wanted to leave when he was still young, to get out before he got his magic and the resulting curse and he'd be stuck in STYX so he wouldn't get literally magic burned alive

When the magic does come and your hair is shrouded in flames, it comes as the announcer to let all, but especially you, know that you're a watchman now, you have Gate To The Underworld now

One moment you're sitting the next you see a flicker out of the corner of your eye and suddenly your hair ignites

I also think it would be fun if magic development could be affected by your emotional state and if the whole seeing a phantom kill your brother in front of you thing caused such a strong reaction it just went "whooosh" and turned on so the death of Ortho would also mark the day Idia was irrevocably magically bound to his duty and since the curse eats blot around it as well, there would have been the nagging guilt of "if it had come just a little sooner maybe it could have stopped the phantom"

So yeah, to expand on that a little

And Idia has little special privleges that make the whole of Pomefiore jealous, but also if he doesn't stop being like "yo vil look, i beat my highscore" at two in the morning Vil will personally walk to his room wrap him up like a caterpillar in its coocoon and physically hold him still until he's asleep

His new short hair becoming the ‘haircut that Vil likes’ aaaughh my heart that’s so cute. (Though I feel like Vil would really not have much a preference between his hairstyles. They both had perks to him)

Tbh I’ve always held the thought that the fire itself is hair, but having there be individual strand that are just all covered in flame is so much more logical.

Even though it gets rid of the possibilities of bald Idia 💔💔

ALSO I AM CURLED UP SOBBING. NOT IDIA TTING HIS CURSE TO HIS BROTHER’S DEATH MAKING HIM DESPISE HIS HAIR EVEN MORE. MY HEART CANT HANDLE THIS

Vil needs to make that man into a blanket burrito and cuddle him and then maybe to the same to me

[twistedtavern]

Another reverse au interaction or continuation? (I like the reverse au)

It has been EONS since I have received this ask, but now I know exactly which of them shall be tonight's Mother of Fucker. Idk this is kinda more of a character introduction than anything.

CW: Yandere, I tried to salvage this irreverent/sarcastic Yuu but idk if it worked, reader is Yuu, canon-typical racism, canon-typical Sebek slander, murder/execution mention, LIGHTLY IMPLIED planning of genocide, implied abuse

You swore today was going to be a normal day when you woke up.

You had awoken, got ready for your inevitably exhausting day at NRC, and the moment you were about to be on your merry way, you were greeted by none other than Lilia Vanrouge and... Sebek with his hair down?

Lilia explained that apparently there was a second Sebek running around, this being the second in question, and long story short he was dumping Diasomnia's 6'2 crocodile surplus on you.

And as Lilia left, you could see for the barest second that this strange other Sebek looked back at him with the shiftiest eyes you had ever seen. Even Jamil, pre ass-kicking, looked less shifty than this rat bastard who had been placed before you, but everyone in this school was either shifty or a rat bastard or very much both, so he fit right in.

The differences from the Sebek you were used to were minute, but noticeable. Most apparent was his hairstyle, not overloaded with gel to keep it upright, and instead left to hang down. Funnily, it almost made him look like a completely different person. The front of his blazer was buttoned up completely, and the ribbon signifying his dorm was missing, as well as the golden pin to go with it. If it weren't for the bright green magestone, you wouldn't have been able to tell he was even in Diasomnia.

You blinked owlishly up at him, and he looked down at you before promptly looking away and bowing his head, as if to avoid eye contact.

" Greetings, prefect. I don't want any trouble. Just say the word, and I will leave," he said simply. He raised his head again, still very pointedly not looking you in the eye as his gaze scanned around Ramshackle. He seemed quietly surprised by his surroundings.

You looked at him in confusion, deciding to just be a polite host, " Uh... No, you're okay. You can grab a snack and sit down, if you want. I don't have a lot of movies, but I've memorized the passwords to Cater's streaming subscriptions."

His voice suddenly changed as a faint confusion ghosted over his features before being replaced by a polite, small smile, " Ah, forgive me. It seems you are quite different from the Ramshackle Prefect that I have been accustomed to,"  he bowed halfway at the waist, one arm bent behind his back as the other reached to gingerly take your hand in his and raise the back of your palm to his lips.

Hearing Sebek's boisterous, proud shouts replaced by a low, dulcet tone as his gloved thumb traced over your knuckles rendered you speechless. You could only blink through your sheer lack of comprehension. You were being handled like glass, in stark contrast to the occasional times your usual Sebek would unceremoniously pick you up by the collar to plop you down wherever he saw fit.

The subtle tilt of his head and his half-lidded eyes sent a whirl of the most baffled butterflies in Wonderland alight in your gut as he finally looked into your eyes. Sebek... kinda looked good with his hair down... That was all you would say. You dumbly looked up at him as he stood at full height again, your hand still over his. His smile returned as he saw your expression, and he spoke again.

" I am Sebek Zigvolt," he placed his other hand over yours, and don't think anyone d been this blatantly into you since your last conversation with Rook. " I am honored to be your houseguest."

" O-Oh. Thanks...!" you squeaked out.

His expression became gentler, if that was even possible, and he continued, " Pardon my ignorance, but what is your name? I'm afraid I've never heard the housewarden of Ramshackle referred to as anything more polite than the Prefect, at least from Dawn Phoenix College."

" I'm Yuu. I'm not much housewarden as I am the only non-cat to live here, I guess," you paused as his words fully registered in your brain, " Wait- Dawn Pheonix? I've never heard of that."

The... transfer student(?) looked puzzled, " It is the school attended by His Highness and Grand General Vanrouge," he seemed somewhat... irritated having to say it, a shocking development, given that the Sebek you knew made his downright worship of the former a good three-fourths of his entire personality. " But it appears as if this place can boast that same accolade."

" Yeah. This is Night Raven College. Where's Dawn Pheonix located?" you asked. You were usually tasked with being the resident helper, so you began to naturally slip into that mode.

" Sage Island, if memory serves," he mused, before coyly smiling at you. You felt his hand move from covering yours to... holding your chin up?!?

" If I may, I must admit I do enjoy this Night Raven College far more."

You froze at the contact like you had been raised in a nunnery, and you felt your face heat up. From your throat came a noise like the peep of a tiny bird, and you immediately turned your head in embarassment, squeezing your eyes shut. He chuckled, and-

" THAT IS QUITE ENOUGH!!"

A large figure came between the two of you, a heavy hand over your face shoving you back so hard you fell square on your butt, and the push from the other hand hardly made your companion stumble back.

Sebek, your Sebek, had suddenly arrived, here just in time to give you your daily headache. He turned to yell at you, but your attention caught on the expression of the second. The other crocodile turned to look at him with a sharp, silent stare, green eyes wide and pupils slitted. It was almost startling, how his demeanor changed from gentle and flirtatious to seething anger barely being restrained.

You expected him to do something, but he stood completely still, gaze locked completely on the yelling guard as he scolded you about propriety. What surprised you was yet another complete 180 in tone, an amicable smile to rival Kalim's appearing on his face as he set a hand on your frenemy's shoulder.

" Come now, brother! It's just a mere human. I see no need to bother."

Sebek whirled around upon feeling his touch, still scowling. " Then just what were you doing, TOUCHING them like that?!?"

Not-Sebek seemed completely unbothered by his words, " Ah, don't be that way! I was just having a little bit of fun. It wouldn't have gone much farther, I assure you."

This statement angered both Sebek and you, the heat on your cheeks increasing in intensity from your embarrassment mixing with newfound indignation at his implication that you were "just" some human toy he could have "fun" with. Sebek opened his mouth before you could, " HOW DARE YOU? The prefect is NOT some- S-Some PLAYTHING!! They may be a puny human, but they can't be that easy to string along!"

You scoffed in offense as you looked at both of them, and you saw the cornered half-fae's gaze flit towards you for the barest second before his smile faded slightly. His eyes narrowed somewhat as he looked at Sebek, " And what's got you so interested in what I do with them? To think, you'd be keeping His Excellency waiting so."

Sebek's attitude changed in an instant. You facepalmed while Sebek squawked, " T-The young master?!? He's waiting?!?"

Not-Sebek nodded and tutted at him with crossed arms as if disappointed, " Since you seem so concerned about this human, I had naturally assumed you would be here. I was sent to fetch you for urgent business, since we all know just how much you are relied on."

" WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME WHEN I WALKED IN?!?" he all but screeched, before darting out the door, " I'M COMING, MASTER MALLEUS!!"

The remaining first-year snickered wryly to himself as his adversary practically disappeared into thin air, muttering to himself, " Works every time... boot-licking sucker."

He turned to you, his self-satisfied sneer pulling the exact same disappearing act when he saw your expression. With a face like he had been injured, he dropped to one knee before you, holding his head low and crossing one arm over his chest.

" I beg that you forgive me. You are my gracious host, and this is not the first time I have had to utter such slanderous lies in front of a crown loyalist. It was done for the sole purpose of preserving your safety," he said with as much of a smooth, even tone as one could while simpering on the floor.

You gawked at him, still angry, before speaking your piece, " My safety? In front of Sebek?? The greatest threat HE poses to me is rendering me deaf! I'll tell you one thing, and it's that this school is full of two-faced con artists, and I'm sick of it! I'm sure as hell not gonna have one staying in my dorm without proof of improvement!"

He looked up like you had struck him. You pointed firmly toward the door, " Go! Go on back to wherever your overgrown lizard prince is skulking around! Shoo!"

You saw the green locks lower again, hiding a sharp-toothed snarl and brightened green eyes as the crocodile fae bristled at your rejection. His hands balled into white-knuckled fists as his face became politely remorseful, and he stood up. Not-Sebek looked at you with mournful, yet determined eyes, " I will give you the proof you desire as soon as possible, honored housewarden."

" Good for you, now get!" you huffed.

He bowed his head once more before leaving, walking out the door just like his counterpart.

Once he had walked far enough away, a rage overcame him, dead silent and blazing. Not towards you, an innocent human would never earn his wrath, but towards that disgusting, dirty sympathizer that had interrupted his time in your presence. Finally, someone else he could truly dedicate his cause to, and yet, through pure meddling, he would need to get back into your good graces.

" ...to the gallows... no, the guillotine."

His words came out in a growling hiss, swearing his revenge... just another head to put on a pike once the time was right. Once the dragon falls, it'd only be a matter of time until his circus of a court will follow at the hand of the future Lord Zigvolt, dragon-slaying usurper of Briar Valley, and the last remainder of fae blood.

A glittering hoard, a towering throne, and the corpses of every fae in the Valley rotting on the outside just as within... A crown on his head, just like it belongs. A shimmering ring on your finger, just where it belongs. All of it, his dream, the thing that made everything worth it. Every straining smile, every time he was forced to say "human" as if it were a dirty word, every time he'd seen poor Silver limping through the halls at another ungodly hour.

Some day, it all had to come to an end... Didn't it...?

[renyen808]

A Date with Death: How is this Game FREE?!

Lately, the video game industry has taken a turn. When it comes to purchasing high-end games, instead of the $50 amount that I used to pay, I find that now games can cost upwards of $80, which to me is ridiculous. I mean, clearly with the success of Baulder’s Gate 3, they show that they can make an amazing, complex, and fun-filled game for $60. I can already hear people saying, ‘Well, if you want the Deluxe version, that is $80.’ Yes, it is, but it is worth it when you can play the game over and over again and have a different adventure each time. I will write a blog post later about Baulder’s Gate 3, but let’s just say I am a huge fan. Unlike games that require you to not only buy the equipment, but the game itself cough Spider-Man 2 cough. I personally never played Spider-Man 2 and I heard it is great, but it is absurd to me that I have to have a PS5 in order to play one game. Anyway, I am getting off topic a little, the point is, games are getting expensive in the mainstream and I just want something fun to play with me having to pay little to no money. I was searching through Steam when I found it, the game I am about to talk about: A Date With Death.

(Credit: Steam)

A Date with Death, which was released on December 7th of last year, is a texting and chatting based game where you are talking to a Grim Reaper created by Two and a Half Studios. You are able to communicate through text messaging and video calls for the majority of the game, with at least one chat and video call per in-game day. You can customize your own character, choosing from an array of different outfits, skin tones, hairstyles and colors, facial attributes and accessories. You can also choose your pronouns, your first and last name, and pet. You can also customize your in-game apartment with all sorts of things, such as polaroids or plants. 

(Credit: Two and a Half Studios)

At the point I am writing this, I have completed the game, obtained every ending, and got every Steam achievement available. I played the game a total of four times and received a different ending each time. There are many different requirements that you have to do to complete each ending, and while, during the game, it could seem confusing, once you figure out how Grim, that’s what I will call the Grim Reaper, reacts to your words, then you’ll be able to change the course of the story. Although this game only goes for seven in-game days, they find many ways to pack it with content. I have a total of 26.6 hours on the game (honestly, some of it is from it being idle), but that shows you just how much I played it. Before we continue, I also want to add that this game does have swearing and some suggestive content, but I think that can be assumed because this is a romance visual novel. Nothing NSFW shows up in the game. 

Also, before we continue, I have to admit that I got the DLC for this game, which was $7. It adds more dialogue and different choices you can make in your character’s appearance, so there is that. However, I can tell what was a part of the base game, thanks to a little star next to the new dialogue (I honestly thought it was saying he likes those the most, that is not the case for some of the choices). What I am saying by bringing up that I purchased the DLC is that you do not need it in order to enjoy the game. It really is great without it at its core. 

It helps that Grim himself, to me, is pretty cute. I love his snark and charm and instantly understood that that is what the developers were going for. His outfit is also unique. He is wearing a jacket, but it’s around his shoulders. He also has white hair (LOVE) and red eyes, because of course. He is video calling from his bedroom, and he is usually slouching like he is in the image on Steam. Sometimes he will perk up and blush and stuff, but he is normally guarded when he is on call with you. He will also message you in different styles since he is learning to talk with a mortal, so there is that little bit of information. Oh, I forgot, you can also completely customize your in-chat profile, changing the image and name, but only after an in-game event. 

(Credit: Steam)

The artwork in this game is absolutely stunning for a free game as well. I cannot believe how gorgeous it is. They give you a gallery, which shows all the different images of Grim and what the previsuals looked like before the in-game counterparts. They give a lot of artwork and put a lot of love into the game and I appreciate it so much. I really enjoy when I see people put their heart and soul into games they create because it shows that they love what they do. It doesn’t feel like a cash grab, but rather a passion project that they can build more off of.

(Credit: Two and a Half Studios)

Speaking of that, currently, there is a DLC expansion planned for the game. There is currently no release date at the time of this post, but I can assure you, once it comes out, I will be one of the first ones to purchase and review it! 

A Date with Death, a free game where you chat and romance the Grim Reaper was a lot more fun than I anticipated it to be. I found myself going back and wanting to complete everything instead of it feeling like a chore to achieve all the endings and achievements. While I don’t think I’ll play it again right away, once the new content comes out, you best believe I will return to Grim and our adventures. In the end, play this game. I honestly think this is a well made game for FREE, and I believe anybody will have a fun time with it. 

Also, sorry for the lack of images this time around! I don't wanna spoil anything for you all ;)

[exoticalmonde]

I've seen one (1) Shenpai video of her playing Baldur's Gate 3, alongside creating a character with @notanegrill for his second play (first play didn't work out so well) and I am already in love with Astarion.

I'm an Astarion enjoyer and damn it not again with the white hair and pointy eared guys who can charm my shoes off in ten or less words. He sees us as food that should not be as attractive but he is a little babo shnookums and he is such a pathetic little thing that I can't help it. He can't say 'CAN I HAVE JUST A LITTLE TASTE' with those tired watery eyes and not expect me to cave in like a caprisun you sucked the air from.

All to the reluctant acceptance of some.

And the support of others.

Can't wait to dream about him.

On the flip side of the 'See mode' tab,

Speaking of dreams we got a real handsome boy this time around and they're so adorable!! I think we named him Asher and he's a Bard, which V didn't expect would matter too much until he realized that being a Wizard was easier to study that alien technology/language while trying to save that other woman. Wow names will be so hard starting from now.

I didn't save any screenshots of his final looks but maybe V will be able to provide eventually. Until then, have some of our conversations during the 2 hour long character creation.

---

V: *Reconsidering his Invitation to have me watch his stream and help make a character while I force him to check every class and read their traits so he could learn*

Me: *Waxing about the traits of Elves/Drow/Half-elves being the same which leaves him with aesthetics to work with.*

V: *Checking out the male and female body types of them in silent appreciation.*

---

Me: *Having hoped he'd show me the genital options because I saw way too many memes and was curious.*

V: *Doesn't even take their clothes off other than to show female dragonborn have cake*

Me: "Fighter is... Well... The most generic role, I guess, around the Archer/Ranger class"

---

V: *Sincerely* "I don't want to be a cutie patootie."

---

V: "Imagine, someone made a human fighter in this game."

Me: "That's like asking for bread with salt."

---

V: "Mmmm... I don't think I like the Monk class very much."

Me: "Surprising, considering you're such a monk-ey. Ahaha- Haha-" *Noticing V stopped moving the mouse around* "V, no, V, don't hang up! Pleasepleasepleaseplease... don't hang up, please!"

---

V: "Are these *points at purple* the shades of a Drow?"

Me: "Generally yeah, I think?" *Surprised I see the 'general' skin shades are also going into normal human skintones*

V: "What if I- OH! NO!"

Me: *Guffawing at snow white princess drow*

---

V: *Clicking through every imaginable hairstyle top to bottom* "This is the first game where changing the hairstyle actually makes the character look different."

Me: *Watching Asher go from pig tails to balding head* "Yeah, yeah, it's like it's a different person every time you click on one."

Both of us: *Silently admiring two hair styles, one of which is very ME and the other being very HIS type*

---

V: "How about we make the Guardian your style now!?"

Me:

---

I don't know if she's meant to have a name but she is so pretty, I think we ended up making her a Wood Elf so we played along with the forest aesthetic.

I love her.

Also this is the Shenpai video. I forgot Im a fan of her content because it's so fun to watch and the reactions are 1 to 1 with what I would have done. Love the content, the creator, actually the bestest experience of actual gameplay.

[zenixromeave]

review of aphmau’s mcd skins/designs! (season 1)

original skin

this one doesn’t really count, given it was just Jess’ usual Minecraft skin and it wasn’t really meant for the world which would be established for MCD, but I’ll talk about it anyways for funsies.

I actually prefer this hairstyle for her. It’s not a big change, but the more side swept fringe she has later is used in basically all of her character designs, so this slightly more blunt hairstyle that covers more of her forehead is a nice change of pace. The shading on her hair has always been weird, but again, it’s a nice difference compared to how many of the female characters have very similar hair.

The colors in the outfit obviously don’t fit the world, but they’re not terrible on their own. The lack of shading is a little bland though, and her shorts are so short they’re practically unrecognizable as clothing on a Minecraft skin. Otherwise, I think these colors go well with her character. They’re colorful and stand out, but they’re also actually pretty unsaturated and let her skin, eyes, and hair stand out.

-

iron armor

Okay, this isn’t even a change in skin, but I think she looks really good in her armor, and she wore it for a long time. Again, the greyer tones of the outfit really let her character pop, and since this is actual iron armor (with small bits of leather), the lack of color or saturation makes perfect sense. I would say that maybe, in a perfect world, her eyes would be hue-shifted to better match the brown in the leather (or vice versa), and her hair would be slightly darker to enhance the contrast, but it makes perfect sense why that couldn’t be done in actuality. The armor is thanks to her texture pack, but it’s really cute and gives a sense of it being hand made, which makes sense for her character. She looks cute in it.

-

diamond armor

She doesn’t start many of her videos by doing an f5 view for this outfit, so it’s less instantly recognizable and iconic to me personally, but it’s actually pretty cute! The clunkiness of it makes her look cute underneath, and gives it a cool, bulky, strong appearance. I can greatly appreciate this texture pack not going the route of making the diamond armor just armor fully made of diamonds, because while it is iconic in the game, it is tacky looking and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Another props to the texture pack artist for giving different designs to the different sets of armor. The helmet is a little strangely shaped and comes across more like a hat in it’s silhouette, and the gap between the leggings and boots has always been confusing and off-putting. I have never been able to tell if the armor is genuinely supposed to look like that, or if the boots and leggings weren’t designed around each other and the boots cover a large part of the leggings and make what would be normal armor look like iron bootyshorts. Otherwise, I think this looks pretty good, actually.

No comment on the sword that’s the size of her whole body.

-

flower crown dress

I would prefer to use an in-game screenshot rather than a thumbnail, but I couldn’t find one (I didn’t care enough to go into a video and take my own screenshot). The colors between Aphmau’s actual skins and her in the thumbnails seem pretty consistent though, so I don’t think it changes much this time.

I know it has to be purple. I know. But it can’t be. Purple is historically tied to royalty because it used to be incredibly hard to make. Even in Minecraft, purple dye is one of the dyes more difficult to obtain, as it requires blue and red dye to make and isn’t acquired from any flowers. Specifically, during this time in Minecraft, blue dye was lapis lazuli, and therefore was only obtainable through mining or maybe loot chests, so again, it was slightly more difficult to obtain.

As seen here, the end of her dress is certainly not magenta. I wanted to say that maybe we could pretend it was magenta, a dye which is much easier to obtain, at least in Minecraft. However, that’s definitely purple.

Despite the historical/world building inaccuracies, this outfit has some visual flaws, but it isn’t too bad. The most glaringly obvious flaw to me is that the “white part” of her dress at the top is a light purple, while the “white part” at the bottom is perfectly white with no purple undertones. As I understand it, these are meant to be part of the same garment, but if not, it’s still a bit noticable that the ends of her dress are pure white, despite how it reaches the floor and she wears this outfit for a while, going in the dirt and grass plenty of times. Making this part of her dress shorter or more off-white probably would have avoided this, knowing of course she wouldn’t want to edit her skin to have literal dirt at the bottom of it. If it were less white initially, (could have just been the same light purple as the top portion. I don’t like it myself, but I can’t really identify any legitimate problems I have with it. I just don’t like it.) dirt wouldn’t show up quite as much as on the pure white, and therefore it wouldn’t be so weird that it looks so clean.

-

princess (?) disguise

The silhouette is nice, but that’s all I can say positively about this one. There’s no consistent shading, even on her hair, which is usually consistent between her designs. I guess Nicole dyed her hair, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have shaded it the same way as usual... This is also the only skin of hers, to my knowledge, where even her eye color is changed. Maybe it’s just because it’s a disguise, and she’s supposed to look different, but it’s weird considering she never changes characters eye colors like that, and it’s not like Nicole gave her colored contacts.

The yellow/gold should have been slightly more orange, and it’s tone is far too similar to her skin, and almost blends in at some points. The purple, too, is too light and doesn’t fit the medieval fantasy world very well at all. It definitely doesn’t give her the appearance of someone who should have been in the mines for weeks(?) at this point (that was a story that was part of her disguise.) Additionally, why the hell would Nicole have had this on hand?

On top of al that, maybe I’m just imagining things, but this outfit is very reminiscent of orientalist belly dancer stereotypes/tropes(?), with its small top, draped sleeves and gold accents. It’s very much giving “recolored princess Jasmine,” who might have been a sincere attempt at good representation, but was really an oversexualized, generalized orientalist caricature.

Don’t like this one.

-

That outfit Dante gave her

This one slays bitch!!! I think it’s adorable. The colors are soft and wintery but don’t take away from her own warm colors. If I’m remembering correctly though, this outfit had a skirt or shorts, which doesn’t make sense for Dante to have had and doesn’t make sense for the occasion in the first place. However, I can’t find a different picture of this one, so take that with a grain of salt. I love this outfit.

-

tailored by Cadenza

Another day another slay!! This outfit doesn’t make PERFECT sense within universe considering the short shorts and purple, but it looks great!! Cadenza is a professional tailor and at this point Aphmau has made her way up in the world pretty significantly, so it’s not a terrible stretch to have this purple color. The dark purple provides a similar color to all the black to make this outfit mostly dark, with a hint of white, and it mixes really well. The white is fully bordered by black (her hair and her sleeves) so it stands out a lot, and the purple is a more subtle pop amidst the black. The color coordination is great. It looks cute. 10/10 I don’t care if it’s not incredibly practical because it slays. What a good note to end the season with! I sure hope the next two seasons can match this quality. (Spoilers, I think it does, actually! With maybe a few exceptions.

[springsaladgaming]

What sort of outfits would the ROs wear to a nice formal event? Thank you!!

Hi, anon!

I was going to link an ask I had a while back (not because I've answered this before, but because it was about masquerades and might be of related interest), but the terrible Tumblr search feature strikes again, and I can't find it. Just know that it exists somewhere, if you're brave enough to look for it.

But regarding your question! Bear in mind that I am woefully uncultured when it comes to formal dress and what different types of fancy clothing might be called, but I'll try my best!

Alex - Favors a vest for formal events, in whatever form that would take. Vest over a button-down and some formal slacks or a faux vest dress. They are likely to pick less traditionally formal colors and go with colors that make them stand out, sometimes in the form of fancy patterns. Their shoes are the one place where they'd indulge in comfort over fashion, probably wearing flats or loafers. They would accessorize mainly with belts, earrings, and bracelets. Alex might do up their hair fancy if they feel like it, but they would stick to high bun styles. Alex doesn't prefer makeup, but they might do some light eye makeup if the situation calls for it.

Teagan - The least formal he could possibly be. He's had his fill of stuffy formal events and doesn't particularly like dressing formal, so he'd probably go the most basic black or khaki slacks with a solid-color button-down shirt and loafers. No accessories, nothing fancy with his hair, no exciting patterns, no makeup or nail polish.

Ansel - Very close to how he dresses normally, but nicer clothing. Long-sleeved button-down shirt, tie or bow-tie, formal slacks usually black. He might add a vest and jacket if the event is especially formal. He'll also wear fancier shoes than normal and has a pair of glasses with a fancy frame that he wears for formal events. He might braid his hair rather than keep it in a ponytail like normal.

Cherry - Bouffont or a-line style dresses, probably in warmer colors. With or without patterns, depending on what kind of formal event it is. Very light makeup if she is applying it herself, but she'd be willing to do more makeup if she has someone knowledgeable to help her. She's not really one for jewelry, but she might wear some understated earrings or bracelets. Whatever nylons match the dress she's wearing, and probably wedges or kitten heels because they are a little easier to walk in.

Lucia - Most likely to show up looking like a Vogue model. Lucia loves fashion and loves all different styles of clothing. Dresses, pantsuits, blouse & skirt—she will wear anything to a formal event. Big on makeup, nail polish, and accessories too. She'd pick from a wide variety of hairstyles too. Lucia is very much a "you'll never see me in the same formal outfit twice" kind of person. Don't even get her started on shoes. Lucia's taste in fashion is waaaay bigger than her wallet.

Rene - He would show up in a proper tux, though he might play around with the colors a bit rather than sticking to the basic formal colors. He'd also paint his nails to match his tux—or a partner's outfit if he's attending the event with someone. While he doesn't change his hair style often, he changes his hair color a lot and would try to coordinate that with his outfit if possible.

??? - She attends a lot of events for both family and the family business, so she often dresses in a business formal on an everyday basis. For special formal events, she prefers form-fitting dresses, usually strapless or halters, typically in dark colors. She usually has that kind of femme fatale look, especially when it comes to her makeup. She'll wear necklaces and bracelets, but only very sleek, minimalist ones. Her nails are always manicured, usually with some kind of french-tip, but she'll do other styles as well.

I hope this paints enough of a picture! Thanks for the ask!

[gender-buddies]

Artist Commentary: Phase Two

Here's some artist commentary on Phase Two of Gender Buddies, put below the cut to make sure it doesn't take up too much space on people's dashboards.

Bigender: This one is a personal favorite between all the very simple designs I have. It's based on a crecropia moth, which looks like it has little crescent moons on its wings. It was chosen out of a bunch of different moth species I was looking at because the idea that bigender can be two or more genders fit the moon phase look. I particularly like the half moons on its back wings that look like a full moon when the wings come together, the same way the pink and blue stripes on the flag come together to make purple.

Butch: I knew immediately that this would be a crocodile or alligator of some sort, but it was almost covered in more foliage originally. I wanted the coverage to be a bunch of thick grass that would help it camouflage, but I decided to try and make it look more like native marsh plants. I also incorporated some monitor lizard parts into the design a bit. I'm pleased with the design and it was a decent introduction to the Earth type.

Femme: A counterpart to butch in an unexpected way, I went with another marshy sort of animal at first. This would have been a box turtle but I had trouble making the feet look good. Plus the little bio says that Femme likes to hitch a ride on Butch to ride across bodies of water, so I made it into an animal that couldn't swim. The turtle design was still pretty cool so I kept it and just made it into a sulcata tortoise. It went through a lot of changes as I tried to figure out spikes or hair or whatever. It almost had swamp grass on its head like a punk rock hairstyle and then Butch would have been more of a grunge inspired design - but that seemed too high-concept for a Basic-level Buddy, and I needed to keep Femme looking... well, femme. I like to think Femme looks a bit like an elder lesbian, especially with the "bags" under the eyes and the fact that sulcata tortoises live a very long time. Originally, it was a Light type with shining gemstones on the body, but I weirdly seem to have too many Light types planned.

Neurogender: I knew right away that I wanted to base this Buddy off of hyperactivity, which makes the Light element make sense here. The sketch on paper looks very much like Linoone from Pokemon and I liked the idea of a very fast ferret-like animal, but I wanted it to be a lot more distinct. The infinity symbol on the flag made a very good "mask" for an animal that was sort of a ferret-looking thing. The lightning bolts were added at the last minute to symbolize fast movement. The colors were SO HARD to figure out because the stripes in the flag are so different. I had to cheat and add the darker teal color to the arms and legs to make it look better - I've been known to add one or two extra colors to a design when it makes sense to do so.

Genderfae: One of many personal faves, this one turned out better than my original plan for the design (which has happened more than once and I like that.) I knew I wanted something almost alien and a bit ethereal, and I really enjoyed the idea of something flowy with streamer or tendrils coming off of it. A jellyfish was the obvious choice for an animal but with my tendency to break expectations left and right, I had to make it something that could just float around forests and flower fields.

Genderfaun: This one went through a lot of changes as I tried to figure out a design that was an earth animal, but not literally a goat or deer. Okay, well, I technically went with a deer in the end. That's what a moose is. But it felt like a non-avian forest animal people don't normally think about. The original idea would have been some sort of snake with mushrooms along its back that would help it camouflage on the forest floor, but it wouldn't have had as much detail as Genderfae, and level 3 Buddies need to be a bit more complex. I had a whole list of animals - a pangolin, a capybara, an armadillo. Somehow I ended up with a moose and changed the type to Ice so I could incorporate the blues from the flag. Usually deer designs make the antlers look like tree branches with leaves, so I decided my icy moose would get some hanging icicles. Also, I swear I didn't plan on this snowy forest animal to be released on Christmas Eve! I happened to finish the designs for Genderfae and Genderfaun before getting the other common Buddies done so it all lined up nicely. Pretty cool!

Xenogender: Hoo boy. I avoided this one for a while because I was frustrated that none of my ideas seemed very good for this Buddy. At first, it was going to be a floating planet with rings and a cutesy sort of alien face with this long alien tail. I didn't like it, so I scrapped it and left it alone. I thought about the design of the flag and how the one with the star symbol had that rainbow outline around it - I thought of animals that would have that sort of arching shape. Wings was the first thing I thought of, and I tried to design a flying fish using that concept. And then I realized that this is Xenogender, so it's weird to make it an earth animal. I went back to the alien idea and looked at the design of the iris flag. The flower looked like a sort of weird alien mouth or weird claws. I tried both out and the claws looked pretty neat. I decided at the very last minute to make the body itself look like a worm-on-a-string, and incorporated the colors from both flags.

Maverique: The orange and yellow of the flag made me think of orange tabby cats and I thought about all the cats I've met and rescued over the past few years. I think about my little fiery orange baby Gadget, who I rescued from outside along with his siblings, who fought an eye infection and got through it like a little trooper, and now he has one beautiful and curious golden eye that gets huge when he sees I'm about to refill the food bowl. He always looks like he's smiling and I think about how wonderful that is, that he's so happy and curious despite everything he had to deal with. I think about all the cats that I couldn't take in who are out there with their little personalities and their experiences with injuries and birth defects that I never knew the source of. There are cats that were so afraid of me only to become good friends once I visited them enough times with some food. They're all little fighters and this one represents them all. This design was challenging because of the limited number of colors I had to work with, but I managed to make it work by leaning into the Fire element.

Aegogender: I wanted this one to be a songbird when I first started doodling it and it slowly became some kind of quail. But I liked the song motif so much that I tried to incorporate music notes into its design. You can actually see a treble clef, a bass clef, quarter notes, and quarter rests hidden in its design - the last two being added after it was already colored. It also has piano keys incorporated into its wings. It's pretty simple otherwise and I sort of wish I did more with it.

Leptrois: This one was easy and fun to make because I love lightning-based creatures and I love working with strong highlights on glossy surfaces. I wanted this Buddy to be really small until I made it look super draconic, then it definitely needed to be huge and impressive. The leptrois flag is only black and white so what I decided to do was incorporate colors found in common leptrois identities - positrois, negatrois, centrois, nulltrois, and ambitrois specifically. I think the lightning is the best part because it fades from "negative" to "positive", from the electrodes on its nose to the one on its tail, and there's an in-between color in the middle to help it flow better. I experimented with the lightning casting a highlight on some parts of the body and I think it turned out pretty good. The tongue was added at the last minute because I'd forgotten to incorporate green into it, and a green reptile-like tongue seemed to fit. This one is another favorite of mine.

Paragender: Not much to say about its design other than penguins are very strange to draw. Since paragender means that some part of the gender prevents it from being 100%, I added that detail in the design - It's a bird, but the fact that it's a penguin prevents it from being able to fly, so it's not 100% avian. Being ground-bound earned it the Earth element and I thought it'd be fun to give it an additional element, since paragender sort of comes in two parts.

Panxenic: I didn't like this design as much mostly because of the struggle trying to get that folded wing look okay. I knew I wanted a mythical creature and I chose a gryphon for fun, and tried to figure out how to incorporate so many colors to represent a pan-xenogender experience. I imagined the gryphon as a nesting animal and its eggs could be colorful. I almost made them all different xenogender flag colors - aesthetigenders, coric genders, and others. It seemed a little too daunting so I stuck with colors from my panxenic flag. The gryphon itself has very few colors so the eggs could stand in for the rest. I wish I were better at dynamic poses though!

Phase Two is finished, of course! I feel better about this one than the last one because I can see myself getting better at details, at coloring, at shading, and I'm also getting the designs done a lot faster. This will be good for getting a phase done per month, which is my goal. It's basically a year-long project.

I hope everyone enjoyed them! Once I'm reaching the end of my list of identities, I will start taking requests and doing special-edition sets of them. - 💜

[a-dumbass-jester]

Slaughter Web and Eye.

Hello this is part 3 of my designs for the Sentient Entities au!! Pt 1 is important if you haven't seen the {main post}

{End, Dark, Hunt}

{Stranger, Lonely, Desolation}

{Slaughter, Web, Eye}

{Spiral, Flesh, Corruption}

{Vast, Buried, Extinction}

For all of these I took heavy inspiration from this post and will be referencing it a lot.

SLAUGHTER

I like the idea of a punk slaughter. Mainly because it gives a lot more personality than some soldier or smth. But also the Piper already exists and I don’t rlly want Slaughter itself being just the Piper part 2. I was debating whether to just make it the Piper bc I mention in the main post that the entities can enter areas that that entity had created. They’re in between point. Like Vast with the Sky dimension thing. So in some cases of war it can enter/manifest and be the Piper, and I also mention that entities can have multiple forms, as long as it fits what it is so The Slaughter can be both the punk design I’m about to talk about and also the Piper. But I don’t rlly like that and want them to be separate things. Slaughter put Piper in charge of the war areas of it as it took over everywhere else.

ANYWAY ONTO THE ACTUAL DESIGN!! it’s basically that design I mentioned earlier. It’s too perfect sorry. I put some outfits I liked below with a collage thing that kinda represents what I was picturing. However I would like to add to her hair. I was picturing short dyed (bloodish) red pigtails with blonde at the roots. I like the image below but with the pigtails a bit higher up. The last image is a necklace I like for it (BULLET NECKLACE BULLET NECKLACE!!).

I’m going to expand on the first part again ab i can and I want to share a hc (congratulations your fear god is trans!). I mentioned earlier that entities can take different forms and change over time. Slaughter wasn’t always like this. In its early developmental stages it took the form of an identity less soldier. Soldiers (Especially at that point) are typically men or at least very masc presenting. Which at the time it didn’t rlly mind, but eventually it grew uncomfortable and didn’t like it. When it grew into itself and focused more on violence on a normal scale and not purely war. It started to present much more as a girl. Basically what I’m saying is trans Slaughter. Congrats on the transition queen. I would also like to mention that she actually looks quite young. Mainly bc her being around teen age (I’m thinking around 19. 16 at the youngest) works rlly well in my opinion. Like confused, impulsive, emotional teen. Yknow? It just works in my mind. Also Slaughter is the youngest entity so her looking young does kinda work. Anyway I will be using it/she/he for the Slaughter (it doesn’t mind ‘he’ just prefers the others).

Images: 1,2,3: outfits 4: hairstyle 5: necklace 

WEB

For the Mother I took heavy inspiration from the post I mentioned earlier. I’m basically picturing Bayoneta but in a suit covered in webs. (She looks like Bayoneta bc I say so) As I mentioned with stranger a lot of them have clear historical inspiration and Mother is one of them. More specifically ~1920s. Her suit was Tailored in that era and her hair is very 1920s bob esc almost pixie. One of her glasses frames are cracked into a web. When she’s not in a suit it’s wearing some other 1920s outfit. Luckily i just found a post with 1920s suits (and other historical fashion). I was thinking more so of the one all the way to the right, but with a web design. I will be using she/it for the Mother.

Images: 1,3: Bayoneta(face claim kinda) 2:hair

EYE

Again I’m using that post:)!! So me and @helinedmightbehere talked about this a bit here. We were both thinking it would look like one of those weird core ocs that have an eye for a head. I was thinking specifically an eyeball. Mainly bc its other main form is basically a massive eye ball. Like one of those biblically accurate angels but without the wings. Beholding, like most of the others, takes a more humanoid shape/form bc it’s more convenient and easier that being a giant eyeball. I imagine the rest of its body (like the arms and legs) are also made of eyes. More specifically like how people draw those eyes around Jon or Jonah, but they make up its entire body. And it’s wearing a cloak like outfit. Like the one on that post. I will be using it/is for Beholding!!

Thx for reading!!:3

[impprtante]

Eira's Children (the squad :0)

Okay, new day new me, I'm actually in my right mind and not impulsively writing things down after being awake for more than 24 hours lmao. So here's what's up.

So, right now the first gen children have moved out of Eira's house into their own households. They've kinda solidified baseline personalities and interactions (and family dynamics from parenthood) so i let them loose in the world. (To live as if they're Stanley Humphry.) Eira isn't the richest mom tho, so I staggered it out so I could give them like, 5k-10k to start off. So they all started by living in tiny barely furnished shacks. I normally get money in the sims by grinding, and in the actual legacy challenge they're super rich, but I wanted to try building up their wealth through odd jobs and work. Get them different incomes and all that. I also want to build them unique housing / decorate their areas according to them so that's also on the books. (because i didn't bother with them before :p)

And to give me a more thought out clothing design. To get into the mindset of teens i had all the kiddos wearing school uniforms (from snowy escape lol) and since I haven't really been them too much, i haven't gotten around to doing all their fashion since. BUT THE POINT IS technically i haven't played as most of these. Just a little bit, I've mostly committed to Lamia (by accident;;)

Okayyyyyy, so this is how it's going:

GUYS I LITERALLY CANNOT CHANGE HIS HAIRSTYLE. I was like, this is a very distinct sims hairstyle. BUT I CYCLED THROUGH EVERYTHING AND I CAN'T, IT FRAMES HIS FACE BETTER AND SEEING HIS HAIRLINE NOW SCARES ME.

What started has his emo, dye-ing my hair now mom, has gone too fair ;; __ ;;

But yeah, Phoenix is the same physically. I've just dressed him up as a more of a starving artist since he's out here painting in a tiny shack. I'm pretty sure that's going to change soon tho, since painting does actually give good money (probably unrealistic but :p). He's gotten the gloomy, dog lover, and family oriented. In the last save he had his house "open to dogs", so thats a nod to that. family oriented is kinda more because of his older sibling status, and he has a good relationship with his whole most of his family (and he loves them all very much, even the brats). Im still figuring out where he lands on the love things, because i've had him be a player in some saves but also he's more a reserved person so i can't image him being that out there in this version. I'm figuring it out <3

He's living in a tiny home (because i say so) and has a nice backyard pool area. He's under the recycle challenge, mostly as a nod to his upbringing out in the middle of nowhere, conservation is important.

Lamia is the most overall different from them all. I didn't really have anything going on with her character at all, besides what i later realized was a comedy aspiration, not a party one (oops). Her character is really shaped by the manners her mom instilled into her now, so she's in more conservative dressings because of that. I kept her hat as a nod to her previous version.

The vision is that she goes through her era of struggling artist (playing gigs and teaching lessons) and works as a normal salary worker (manners: she's trying to live up to the "has a normal job and will do fine for herself mom i promise i can pay bills"). Her piano-ing is more of a side gig but she really loves it so she doesn't want to stop doing it. Most of her parties at this point is so that she can break up the monotony of life. She ends up catches eyes of someone famous and is catapulted into doing more high end jobs. It makes her parties have a more exclusive guest list (not super famous but still really well known) and her high pay grade allows her to quit her job. She's pretty famous now (by the general public as a socialite, by more music-centric crowd as a pianist) and lives pretty comfortably.

Basilisk is the point where i start saying i got nothing. He's got the slob and kinda jock personality, but truly im looking for something else to flesh him out with. But he's the buff one of the bunch. Traits of slob, bro, and foodie, i haven't gotten around to updating his wardrobe. He's closest with Lamia, though the eldest three make a bit of a trio since they grew up the closest in age. He was team captain of the sims football team tho since the sports in the sims is so limited im debating changing the sports (but football would be fitting because he's a tank). He has piss-poor manners, but he's really in touch with emotions, having strong empathy for people. He's also the reason most of his siblings are fitness freaks; he convinced his mom to makeshift a basketball hoop that they used a lot in childhood. The biggest offenders were Sphinx, Phoenix, and Lamia. He challenged Phoenix in football and Lamia in basketball, but Sphinx just liked sneaking into his fitness gear the scrawny bastard.

Griffin and Sphinx still out here twinning hard. Eira must've had a blonde gene from her parents because three blond children can't be a coincidence wow. Freckles were also unexpected. I don't have anything to say about clothing preferences here either. Griffin was on the chess team? and Sphinx as a lazy person was not in any afterschool things, preferring to tinker. Both of them work on the handiness side of things, but i like to think Griffin is into woodworking and Sphinx is into metalworking (his type of jewelry he makes for his family is lacking in the gem department). I have Griffin working as a civil planner ingame, and Sphinx is unemployed selling jewelry at home (its.... its going. I only played like 3 days though to start off).

Griffin is more applied in general (was valedictorian), being clumsy, overachiever, and a bro. Sphinx is lazy, perfectionist, dance machine. Sphinx was one more for sneaking out (mostly out into the forest), once and a while teaming up with Lamia to go to some party (school mate get together) after curfew. They're both little shits, still living up to the mischievousness, but Griffin hated Lamia with a burning passion, and Sphinx really got annoyed with Phoenix's dramatics (neither dared anger basilisk too hard). And, yes, they teased their little sisters as well but they didn't despise them as much as their elder siblings got on their nerves for daring trying to have superiority over them. Eira had a time with them. Got stuck doing many chores as punishment. Griffin is pretty insensitive, but he's gotten really good at *dealing* with his own emotions. He's chill like that. Sphinx meanwhile gets into way more trouble being irresponsible, but he's great at resolving his conflicts.

Nephele has changed as much as phoenix. Aka, she's just had a skin changed, mostly because i didn't want to mess with her too much considering her genes are he one's carried onto the next gen. Gen 03's heir does happen to take over her father more though, but she has her mom's blond hair, so we kept that. She looks like she has such a baby face, but you can see she has Eira's eyes (WHICH IS A TREND, THEY ALL HAVE HER EYES).

I've been trying to make her seem more polished, mostly because I had her be a secret agent in the past (i don't even know how to integrate that into anything ;; __ ;;), and i haven't changed her wardrobe yet either. She also is well mannered so that's a part of it. Personality wise, she's neat, foodie, and socially awkward. She's used to picking up after her family as mostly trying to help out her mom with the hecticness of an 8 person household, and when she was old enough she did the cooking as well. But, her mom being an excellent cook, made her standards for food really high (it's why basilisk is a foodie too). Retreating into working like this was also kinda coping for being terrible conversationalist. (With the neat trait she autonomously cleans things too which is really funny. It's like she can't help but clean even things that other people think are already clean.) She tag-teamed with Griffin on fixing anything throughout the house though. She has a strong personality however, being the type of person who has people she likes, people she doesn't, and they don't change. She doesn't like to apologize (it's like pulling teeth) and likes to be seen as correct.

Arachne I've played a little more of too. Mostly because she was left alone in the household with Eira once all her siblings moved out. But she became an accomplished writer at a young age (so, a really well receiving book that will forever be remembered and a lot of other pretty big hits). I had her go through a redemption, mellowing in her original version, but I really liked the punk thing she had going on before that i decided to keep the kind of rebellious aesthetic.

She was supposed to be a spoiled brat but in a big household its too much to be doing that kind of thing me thinks. She gets more irrationally angry, but she's a perfectionist in her craft, and grows up to be a wee self absorbed. She grows up to fame because of her books (it was pretty out of nowhere fame) so i gave her slightly more daring clothes than her siblings. She's super argumentative though, she feels all her emotions super strongly. She has the healthy outlet of writing however so she is able to regulate, even if it takes a bit.

oke im falling asleep again so i will randomly blog whenever i feel like it again peace

[jacqueline314]

BN/MHA x Lupinranger Fanfiction AU

hot-pinkI’ve been watching Lupinranger vs Patranger recently, and I enjoyed every episode so far (rn, I’m at ep17) My mind then then thought, “What if Lupinranger was implied in BNHA/MHA?” So that’s what I did. However it isn’t where Lupinranger powers are converted into quirks, it’s more of a merge of two worlds but there will be no Ganglars nor Patrangers & past Lupinrangers. It’s just going to be a story about an OC Phantom Thief stealing back Lupin Collection Pieces from BNHA’s Yakuza, Villains, Gangs, Leagues, and Museums. Meanwhile, there’s a detective and a UA Student chasing after the Phantom Thief. It has been a while since I’ve done some story writing, and now I’m going to give it another shot. I might do some artwork of this when I feel like it.

Pilot

In a world where the majority of people poses a unique ability called a Quirk, there are those who will use their supernatural abilities for good or evil. However, there are a very few number of people who don’t need to rely on a quirk to do get the job done.

Hidden from the public streets, there is an underground Masquerade Casino, being run by a Yakuza Family. This Yakuza in particular are a group of gunslingers who were each rejected by society for having a worthless/useless quirk. Almost every member is highly trained to use a gun by carefully watching and learning from the pro hero Snipe. Even though their level of skill is far from the pro, they are still considered dangerous to the average person.

Blending in among the Yakuza, is a hero in training, infiltrating them to retrieve a stolen piece. Momo Yaoyorozu. A UA Student disguised in a hot-pink color dress with a ribbon wrapped around the waist and tied to a bow at the back. Carries a hand bag over her shoulder. Her hair style is also different, so it’s to make people not recognise what her normal hairstyle looks like. Her new hair has two long bangs that split and go down to the side of her face. Her tied hair is relatively similar but it’s styled in a curved design. And of course, a mask to obscure her facial features. This is a masquerade, after all.

Five days ago, while Momo was working for Majestic, her work study mentor got an unsuspecting visit from a detective named Gorou Ogasawara. He has seen Yaoyorozu’s performance in the school sports fest and license examination. And based on what Majestic told the detective, he finds her as a reliable asset. Even though she’s young, he sees great potential in her.

Detective Gorou offers Momo an opening to a sting operation with him. He informs her about an up coming underground masquerade casino, held by a yakuza. They learned from their sources that they will be selling a prized Jewel that was stolen from a historical museum 5 years ago. 

The detective went to Momo for her quirk and her careful wits. And after giving it a day to consider, Yaoyorozu agrees to help Detective Gorou with the sting operation.

The jewel that was stolen is known as the Calder Jewel. Encased in a gold piece, that’s aesthetically designed to be, descriptively, a canopy of a tree. It’s also worn as a neckless.

In order to get pass the security unnoticed, Momo has to break in by disguising herself as a staff member and then change in a private room into a formal masquerade attire.

And now that Momo has infiltrated the casino, she has to look around for where the yakuza has kept the jewel.

She passes by an open bar and the tapper(aka: a bartender) asks what she would like to order. Yaoyorozu replies in a nervous tone “N-No thank you. I’m driving.” The tapper happily respects, and goes to another client to serve.

The casino is relatively spacious. There’s three lines of 5 slot machines at one side of the room, 4 total blackjack tables on the opposite, and 8 roulettes filling up the rest of the space. There are two sets of stairs that lead up to the 2nd floor balcony where gamblers can find a couple or few poker tables. In this same spacious area, Momo spots a pair of large doors being guarded, located at the 2nd floor. Perhaps that’s where they’re keeping the prizes.

Momo eventually makes her way up the stairs after pretending to play one of the slot machines so no one would be suspicious of her. When she reaches the 2nd floor, Momo hides behind a corner and informs the detective through her ear piece. “Detective. I’ve spotted the location.” She says. The detective replied “Be careful and be vigilant with your approach.”

When Momo peaks around the corner, she is then spotted by the guard. Momo quickly pulls back to hide, but the guard has already spotted. The guard approaches Momo after she yells out “Hey!” The guard catches Momo and asks a few questions. “What are you doing at the corner?”

In Momo’s head, her thoughts are jumbling around. “What should I do?” “I’m caught!” “Should I fight?” “Immediately run?” The guard slams her hand on the wall to get Momo’s attention. “I’ll ask again, What is your business?”

There is a momentary pause between the two. Before Momo could speak, the guard goes “If you’re not hear to try your luck in roulette, you’re not going to participate in the bidding.”

Thanks to Momo’s quick wits, she under stands what the guard meant. “Oh, Y-yes!” Said Momo. “I’m here to play.” The annoyed looking guard then places her hand behind Momo and shoves her in to the direction of one of the roulette tables. That was close. Her cover was almost blown.

Now in order to avoid suspicion again, Momo steps into the poker table and meets a few poker players and a dealer. After standing in front of them for a moment, Momo quickly takes an empty seat on the table. Fortunately for her, the other gamblers are about to start another round. The dealer looks at Momo, and lets out a cough to get her attention. Momo turns and is puzzled by the way the dealer is looking at her. Did she do something wrong or is it an actual bad time to join?

The player next to Momo gives her a nudge by the elbow to inform her. “Your poker chips?” Said the player. That’s right! She knew she forgot something. She tells the dealer to wait for a minute, then she put’s her hand in her bag to “bring out some poker chips” In actuality, she’s just making her own poker chips. Fortunately, she has a good look on what they looked like from where she is sitting.

Being relatively new to gambling, she just drops an arm-full of poker chips onto the table. She then mimics the other players on how they organize their poker chips. Once Momo has fixed her pile, she’s ready to play.

The dealer deals out each player 2 cards faced down, after two players raise the pot. Each player secretly checks their cards. Momo’s cards are the 4 of clubs and the 8 of hearts. When the player next to her calls their chips, everyone turns to Momo to she what she does.

Momo is relatively nervous playing, but fortunately Detective Gorou has already taught her how to play. As it was her turn, she calls her chips to the pot. Once all the players have placed in their starting bets, the dealer places 3 cards face up on the table. There’s the 5 of spades, king of hearts, jack of spades. One of the players fold, and the others call. The next card is placed and it’s the Ace of diamonds. All of the players, including Momo, checks their turn. The final card, the 3 of hearts, is placed. This is the final turn of the round. The other players have checked their turn. Momo is carefully studying her cards and the probability. Eventually, she checks too. Once all of the cards are revealed, the winning pot does to the player at the opposite end of the table. This is just the first game, Momo will win next time.

After a while, Momo walks out of the poker room with her poker chips. After losing and winning multiple rounds, she earns 2% more than she initially started. There was not much of a profit from playing poker.

Momo then places the poker chips into her bag. Just as she was done pouring, she accidentally bumps the side of a person while she was not looking as she walks.

As Momo and the person in front of her catches themself, they go “Oh pardon me.” before turning towards her. Momo sees the person in front of her wearing a black morning coat attire with some pink aesthetics, a pink decorative mask, and a fedora with a pink ribbon around. Everything about their outfit gives out a pink aesthetic yet still dressed formal.

Once the two looked at each other, Momo softly yips before bowing forward. “I’m deeply sorry!” She apologize. “I wasn’t paying attention on where I was going!”

The pink person replies, “That’s quite alright, ma’am. In fact, I should be the one apologising you. For I just came out of the poker game.”

“Oh really?” Momo awkwardly laughs as she tells them her first experience playing poker. “I didn’t get lucky with every hand I got.“

“You’re just relatively new to gambling. Heck, I bet a lot in these games but I’m not a gambler. I only lasted one round of the game that I was just in. I betted 500 and I lost 500.” They laugh at their own irony. “I just started playing and I only bet in a poker game, Once.”

Momo finds it hilarious too, but also feels sort of bad for their loss.

Once after the two of them shared a laugh, the pink anonymous takes a drink from their glass that’s shaped like a bee hive, topped with a honeycomb and a piece of cotton candy.

While they were savouring their drink, Momo’s ear piece goes on and she hear’s Detective Gorou’s voice. “Yaoyorozu.” He said. “Come in. Have you spotted the stone yet?”

Momo turns to secretly respond. “Negative.“ She replied. “The room is being held by guards until the bidding starts. I have to blend in until they’re open.“

“Affirmative.“ The detective then ends the call.

When Momo turns back after the call, she sees the guard who yelled at her earlier, had just turn towards her direction. “Did she see me that I was in a call?” “Does she suspect me?” These are the thoughts that are going around her head.

"Say, I can lend you all of my chips.“ Said the pink individual.

Momo is shocked when she heard their offer. “Uhh, n-no. I can’t do that.”

“I insist. You can use them to earn more chips.”

The offer is intriguing to Momo. The chips she has in her bag are her creation and doesn’t want to inflate the economy. So using the actual money would sustain it.

“That’s... Quite generous of you. But are you actually fine with this? Giving your money to a complete stranger you just met? Aren’t you interested in buying something from the bidding as well?”

“I only came here to have fun.” They replied. “And fun I will have!“ They raise their hive glass as they cheer.

“O-okay.” Said Momo, hesitantly. “I’ll accept your offer.“

“Very well. Shall we?“

“Ehh? You’re coming with me?”

“Sure.” The pink anonymous opens one side of their coat, showing the poker chips being kept in their pocket. “Someone has to carry them while your bag is already full.“

Momo looks down at her bag then sees and feels how cramped it is inside. Right... She hasn’t realised until now.

And so, the two of them head down stairs to bet in other games. Roulette was worse than poker, it’s too random to come up with a strategy. Slots are next, however, 10 times in a row, they won nothing. That is until Blackjack. Momo made a huge comeback with her wits of probability analysis. In the end, they earned about half from what they’ve started with.

After the back to back gamble, the pair sits down at the open bar. Momo still refuses to drink while Mx. Pink orders the same glass from before.

The tapper takes out the hive-shaped glass and sets it on the table. Then pours in 1 part of whiskey, half-part mead, honey, maple syrup, and stirs until the honey-syrup is diluted. He then adds a piece of honeycomb and cotton candy, before sliding it to Pink. They thank the tapper and takes another sip.

To Momo, that looks like a lot of sweet flavours going into their mouth. Perhaps too sweet for Momo’s liking.

“I’ve got to say, you have quite a sweet tooth there.” She said.

Pink replies. “Well, this is a night where we get to be happy. Does it not?”

Momo sees how genuine their smile is. Even though this person might be a criminal, she can hear the tone of happiness in their voice.

Momo nods to their response. It’s probably a good thing that they gave her all of their chips. Otherwise, they would’ve been devastated when they found out that a particular item was taken from the bidding? If they didn’t crossed paths, would they still attend the bidding and be wiped out by the competition?

A moment passes, everyone in the casino then hears the speakers turn on. Everyone hears a message. “Attention. We may now be starting the bidding in 5 minutes. Please bring your chips and pick a number sign. Those who out their chips together with others are allowed. And to those who do not have any, will be kicked out of the casino immediately.” When the ends, the speakers become silent. Then, Momo sees the majority of gamblers start heading their way to the two doors where she suspects where the jewel might be. The other players are cashing out and leave. The staff are leaving as well.

Momo stands up and turns to Mx. Pink. “Looks like this is where we part. I appreciate your help but I need to head up there.” Before she could hold out here hands to receive their poker chips, Mx. Pink stands up and says “Wait a moment.”

And just as they start to walk over, Momo’s thoughts are running around her head again. “What?” “D-did they change their mind after everything?” Was being so generous an act to get more chips?”

When they stand next to her, they let out an unexpected info.

“I thought you were just here to get extra money, but you actually want to bid on something. You see, those chips I gave you are registered to me. If you walk up there with my chips alone, they’ll accuse you for stealing from other.“

Does that mean the chips Momo created wouldn’t be accepted?

“What do you mean by ‘registered’?“ She asked.

“You remember that one staff who provide you your chips, asks for your thumb prints? Well, that means you registered an account. And for every chip that was first touched gets added to the player’s account. This is so that no greedy gambler here would snatch anyone’s chips.”

Oh no. The detective heard what that individual said was not aware of the anti-piracy system. This is bad. How is Momo going to take the jewel now?

Pink turns and sees the troubled look on Momo’s face.

Momo looks down and is standing in the middle of the room, internally panicking. She messed  up. The sting operation has failed.

Pink holds out their open hand to Momo. When she sees the hand, she looks up to them. “It’s okay.” They said. “Your not going to get in trouble, because I’m going to be paired up with you.”

Well, that’s quite kind of them to say, but that’s not really the problem. Before Momo could say anything, Pink grabs her right hand and pulls along with her to the two doors, up on the 2nd level.

When they arrived in front of the door with the guards.... guarding the door, each holding a device. Mx. Pink demonstrated how the device works. They take their poker chip and place it in the slot. Then they press their thumb on the scanner. The light turns green, meaning the chips belong to them.

Now it’s Momo’s turn. She’s entirely anxious at this moment. Her poker chips are a fraud. This is not going to end well. Momo opens up her bag, reaches in, and pulls out one of her chips. Pink then snatches the chip from her fingers and places it in the slot. Now, is is the troublesome part.

Momo hesitantly reaches out and presses her right thumb on the scanner. As it’s pressed, the device starts scanning, analyzing the her thumb print. Momo readies herself for the worst. When the device says negative, she just has to fight her way through the guards and break into the stash some ho--

The light on the device turns green. Confirming her chips are valid. This has come to a surprise for Momo. How did the light turn green?

“You’re clear. C’mon in.“ Says the guard. The ear piece is still active. Detective Gorou was being so worried about Momo getting caught, he let out a big sigh of relief when she is granted access. He would’ve called for back up and stormed the casino if anything bad happened.

Before she could question to herself more, Pink grabs hold to her hand again enters the room.

Once they enter, the doors close behind them. The room they have entered gives off a small cinema vibe to it. There’s multiple rows of chairs and a stage at the front with small sets of stairs leading up to the stage. There’s a large curtain backdrop and two lines of yakuza guards on each side across from each other.

The speakers in the room turn on, and the two head over to take a seat. The bidding is starting. When they sat down, Pink whispers to Momo. “You can use all of my money to buy anything you want.” and then goes back to their sitting position.

That’s generous of them, but Momo has eyes on a bigger prize. The first item to bid is a gorgeous chinese house pot with a lid. It looks really pretty. Momo has about 10 of them in her [“house”]. Pink whispers over to Momo again. “This is one is an antique.” They said. “This used to be a soup pot.”

Momo turns her head and looks over to Pink with a concerned face. Pink’s comment even get picked up by the ear piece microphone, Detective Gorou becomes puzzled also.

Pink continues to whisper. “No one uses them anymore, but back then, in almost every household in china, they have pots like that one, used for making soup. That’s why the pot has a lid, to prevent the steam from escaping. Now a days, we have modern cooking pots and stoves to have better control.”

So it used to be a kitchen utensil. Imagine using an old kitchen pan or steamer to act as a plant pot. That would be weird for a lot of people.

Once the pot was sold to the highest bidder, now comes the second round. An anthropomorphic shark walk in, wearing the same attire as the yakuza, carries something with a blanket over, on a dolly. This is strange considering that there are no yakuza members with powerful quirks. Momo’s friend, Tsuyu Asui, talked about her experience with a shark quirk during her internship and how strong he was in her encounter. So why is there a shark in the yakuza?

When everyone sees the shark, all of the guards draw out their gun. Looks like he isn’t apart of the them. He doesn’t seem hostile yet either. He’s just slowly walking on stage.. Once the shark stands in the middle, he sets the dolly down and then pulls away the blanket. He reveals a tied up old man with duct tape on his mouth. It looks like he’s struggling to get out.

The audience and guards gasped when they say all saw what was under the blanket.

The shark draws out a gun and points it at the old man. “You damn bastards!” Shouted the shark. “Do you even know what it’s like to lose someone you love?! You all treated him like one of you. And then you just threw him under the bus?!”

The guards point their guns directly towards the shark. He sees them and places the tip of the barrel at the old man’s neck. “Go ahead! Your guns aren’t strong enough to penetrate my skin. If you do, I’ll blow your boss’s neck off.”

The old man is the head of the yakuza? Momo turns to the guards and sees that they’re shaking as they’re holding their guns. They eventually lowered them before the shark swaps out a tommy gun and starts spraying the room. He mainly aimed at the guards while the audience and Momo ducked down. A couple got shot.

Momo tells Pink to take cover before she crawls over to the other side of the sitting row. The detective hears gunfire and immediately calls for back up.

At the end of the row, Momo peaks over a seat to see the shark. Then she pulls back and creates a shield. She has to take down the villain before things escalate.

Momo rolls out the seats and runs up the stairs with the shield facing towards the shark. He sees her running and then fires the gun at her, but the shield reflects off the bullets, protecting her. She rams it at the villain, making him drop the tommy gun.

Momo quickly creates a rod and swings it at the shark. When she strikes however, there was no damage done. The villain absorbed the force like a brick wall. He grabs the rod and tosses Momo across the stage. Just as she gets up, the villain then pulls out his hand gun again and places the tip at the same spot on the yakuza boss.

“It’s useless. No one is going to help him.” Says the villain. “He’ll be the first to pay for what he did!“ Said in an infuriating tone.

To Momo, hope is not lost. By now, the detective has already called for back up when he heard the gun shots picked up from her ear piece. She just needs to stall for time until they arrive. But the real challenge is, how is she going to save the yakuza boss?

Just then, she notices a red card flung into the air. It changed trajectories and flies pass the shark’s hand. Giving him an unbearable sting on his and and dropping the gun, before the card vertically sticks onto the stage floor.

The boss, Momo, and the villain, focuses on the card when it landed. They look concerned on how it got here.

“Ehh?” says the villain. “What is this.” He then hears a gunfire as he fells something hitting his back before he fall down to his face from the force behind him. His fall domino effected the yakuza boss, making him fall as well. Momo heads over to the boss and crates a sharp tool to quickly cut the rope.

After shots were fired, the shark and Momo hear a voice replying to the villain’s question. “You may have tough skin, but everyone gets paper cuts.” To Momo, it’s entirely familiar.

The two looked behind the villain and sees the Pink Maskarade person with a fedora. Momo thought they were still hiding. She then noticed a strange looking gun in Pink’s hand. It’s white with some orange stripe features and a grip handle at the back. She has never seen a gun or a blaster like that before.

“Your weapon may have hurt me.” Says the shark. ”But your power will be overwhelmed by mine!” He says that as he and the freed yakuza boss behind him stands up simultaneously.

There was a brief pause and then the two looked at each other. Just as the villain goes “Huh?!?!” in shocked, the boss immediately flees the room with all of the bidders and other yakuza members in a fast forward zany visual and leaving the doors open.

The villain turns back to Pink with an even angrier look oh his face. “LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!! YOU LET MY PREY GET AWAY!!!”

“Well then.” Pink replied. “Looks like you’re my opponent now.” They then pull out a pink-silver aesthetic jet that's the size of their hand. Momo sees it and wonders what they’re going to do with it.

Just before Pink could do anything, the villain picks up the tommy gun he dropped and sprays at the ceiling. The debris then fall on top of Pink. Momo couldn’t help them in time because everything happened too fast. Pink got crushed.

When the villain is about to laugh at their demise, he stops and sees a silhouette in the cloud of dust. When it has cleared, the shark and Momo sees Pink has changed into a black helmet with a pink top hat-shaped mask at the front, and a Pink cloaked tuxedo. They are also holding the gun but with the pink jet from earlier, attached to the gun.

“Ehh? Wh- who are you?!“ the villain asked as they point at Pink-top hat.

Pink replies as they start walking towards the villain. “You didn’t introduced yourself. So you don’t need to know, for now.” Then they start firing a few shots at him. He takes in the hits and shoots back with the tommy gun. Pink evades the bullets, swerving in front of the shark as he continues to lock on them.

Momo takes this opportunity to create something to capture the villain while he’s distracted. She sets one knee down to create a special cannon that’ll shoot soft ammo. Once the cannon is set, the shark turns his head towards her as she hold an orange sphere that’ll fit into the weapon. The villain turns around and points his gun at Momo and fires before she could load up the cannon.

Momo quickly holds up her shield to defend herself from the bullets. Pink sees all of this happening and then blasts the tommy gun out of the shark’s hands. When Momo notices no bullets fired at her, she immediately loads the cannon pointed at the villain, and fires.

The villain gets hit by the projectile then it covers him with a soft-yet sticky substance upon impact. The shark’s body is now trapped in a tar-like blob, leaving his head sticking out. “What is this? Release me at once!” he demanded.

Pink ignores his demands and walks over to Momo. But before they could say a word, she disappears from where she was last standing. Meanwhile, Momo ran to the back of the stage to look for the stolen Jewel. After rummaging around, she finds a jewellery case. Upon closer inspection, the case has already been open and the necklace is gone. “Wha- Who- Where did it go?!” she thought.

Just then, Momo hears the police entering the room and shouting “FREEZE!” and the detective calling out “Yaoyorozu!”. They’re here to apprehend the villain who caused trouble. She immediately heads back to the front of the stage. “I’m alright!” She responded. “But detective, we have a pro-” Just as Momo passes through the back drop, she sees Pink having their hands raised while the police and detective are pointing their guns at them.

Momo stares at the scenario she’s witnessing. Detective Gorou turns his head to Momo. “Yaoyorozu, don’t go near them!” he said. “They’re the Phantom Thief.”

“So they are a criminal.” She thought to herself. But if that’s the case, why would they be so generous by giving all of their money for the bidding and help Momo get through security? If they’d haven’t bumped into each other, they would’ve attend the bidding anyway because the chips were registered to Pink.

“Glad I could help out.” said Pink as they look at Momo. “But I’ll be taking this with me.” Then they hold out the Calder Jewel in their hand. Momo is shocked that the stranger who was helping her, has taken a priceless artifact.

The police opens fire and Pink gracefully evades them while keeping the jewel undamaged. They swiftly run towards the exit door while slipping pass, pushing, and redirecting the cops away. They immediately jumped off the 2nd floor balcony and then lands on the ground floor. Detective Gorou follows along by quickly taking off his long coat, grappling it by the railing, and holding on to the other end as he jumps off. His rope-cloak allows him to decrease his momentum when he reaches to the ground.

The detective stops at 3 feet above ground, then he lets go of his cloak before immediately dashing towards Pink. Who has already called the elevator. The detective jump towards the Phantom Thief to tackle them and prevent from escaping. However, just as the elevator doors open, the Phantom Thief grabs Gorou’s arms uses his momentum turn and redirect him down on the floor. Causing him to feel excruciating force on his body. When he’s on the ground, Pink lets go of his arm and steps into the elevator. The detective watches them press a button and say “Adieu~” before the elevator closes.

The detective is infuriated from the sight of the Phantom Thief escaping. He slams his fist on the ground as he lays there. Momo sees the detective pacing on the floor from the 2nd floor indoor balcony. She then reflects on what happened tonight. She interacted with a criminal, but they helped her get into the bidding room. “Why were they after the Calder Jewel? How did they changed appearance?” She then takes off her mask and looks at ti in her hand. “And who is the Phantom Thief?”

[coldgoldlazarus]

I wanted to draw them but my brain isn't letting me draw, so I'll describe them instead for now.

-The orange Cure looked kiiinda like the gal from the current series? Uhhhh Cure Butterfly, that's the one. Long ginger hair, outfit was kinda this mix of like, bright orange, dark brown, and a sorta soft tan colors? I don't remember the shaping too well, just that she had this weird sorta scarf/shawl thingy half-draped, half-floating over her shoulders? It behaved as though it was in zero-gravity even though she was otherwise moving normally.

-Personality-wise, she was sorta the comic relief member of the group, kind of clutzy and on the recieving end of a lot of slapsticky gags, (and her fighting method was along similar lines as Drunken Fist technique, minus the drunken part) but there was kinda this running vibe that she was partially intentionally playing it up? Like some of it was real accident, and then some of it was her leaning into that to make it funny, very class clown behavior. When she let herself slow down a bit and just vibe on her own, though, she was really gorgeous.

-The grey Cure was like, super tall. Kinda resembled uhhhhh looks something up Cure Moonlight? But with a ponytail hairstyle, and again, aside from her actual skintone, her dress was super monochrome in different shades of darkish grey, but despite this it somehow still looked very fittingly pretty and elaborate and precure-ish? Her hair when transformed had this subtle shimmery sparkling effect to it, sorta like metalflake paint almost. She also carried around a japanese straight sword when transformed, though she never unsheathed it.

-She was very stoic and emotionless a lot of the time, to the point that Orange joked about her being more robotic than the actual robots they were fighting, but in the chronologically later episodes it felt more like she just wasn't good at emoting. (The main shows of emotion being her despair when the fear MotW showed an illusion of her failing a test, and subdued, frozen panic when she got taken captive.) That being said, when I was looking at the album I saw tumblr posts theorizing she was an android without even realizing it and pointing out possible bits of foreshadowing.

-The purple Cure looked a lot like like Cure Macaron, minus the cat ears, beret, and general air of menace. Same exact hairstyle and face, but her vibe was a whole lot more like, wholesome, for lack of a better word? I saw less of her because she was absent from the first bit and not the focus for the rest, but still seemed neat. Kinda hung around Yellow a lot of the time and was (s)mothering her a bit. Though she was also responsible for dunking the hippo guy off the train in the last part, was like literally floating over him, grabbed him up in a hug, floated to the side and dropped him, like some sort of weird crane game with herself as the claw.

-The yellow Cure had like, a fluffy bob cut and a pair of short pigtails? Like Cure Pine but symmetrical. She was the physically smallest of the bunch, and fairly timid during the overnight (the fear MotW went after her by turning out the lights while she was washing her hands in the restroom) and in the gym class, but showed no signs of that during the actual fights, and probably got the most individual hits in. Seemed pretty content to let Purple fawn over her, but did seem to be getting a bit annoyed about it around the time of the discussion on the train before they got attacked.

-The pink Cure is kinda weird in that I don't remember what she looked like too clearly in comparison to the rest, even though I feel like she got a pretty solid amount of mental screentime overall. I think part of it was her hairstyle changing; sometimes she had it down and loose, sometimes it was in a long ponytail, and this was true of both transformed and civilian state. Also, had some blue in her transformed outfit that kind threw me off at first.

-With Orange being the more klutzy scattered one, she took more of a mature-for-a-kid vibe, not quite a natural leader but still doing her best and holding up pretty well, all things considered. Also while there was a lot of unsubtle subtext with the rest, she was like, explicitly canonically queer, had a couple pride pins on her student uniform, (trans and bi) had massive crushes on both Grey and one of the boys in their gym class, and her targeted illusion during the overnight episode was of the other students laughing at and shunning her for being queer, until the others broke through it and reminded her the actual students had long accepted her.

---

As for the villains, they seemed to be divided into like, three categories of robots.

-The original leader, his second-in-command secretary gal, and the mysterious newcomer were convincingly humanlike androids, aside from having silver metal with seam lines instead of skin. The leader even had like, a trimmed beard and moustache, and he and the secretary wore like, handsome business suits, and their black hair was very prim and dapper. (His very short, hers in a strict bob cut.)

-Also, the newcomer gal was dressed like... a sexy/punk cosplay version of a ninja, for lack of better phrasing; had like, fingerless gloves, a crop top over a fishnet shirt, short shorts, and thighhigh boots on. Despite all that, the framing always emphasized not the sexiness, but how menacing she was; with her constantly playing with knives and kunai between her fingers and smiling evilly, and all the other robots seemed just as scared of her as the Cures. She also shared Grey's sorta sparkly-metalflake dark grey hair color, just in a darker shade, which was interesting. She also had glowing tron lines appear in her seams when she took over the Cures' train.

-Meanwhile, the scouts who got sent out to the baseball field were very stereotypical/retro robots; bodies, heads, and feet were silver boxes, hands were crane game claws, and their limbs were thick black hoses. They all roughly averaged to about half the height of the Cures, through individual proportions among them were extremely varied and exaggerated.

-Also, they were of course wearing baseball gear in that episode, and my guess is if they showed up in the intervening episodes, they'd have other relevant costumes on. Somehow, though, nobody on the human side seemed to notice they were robots? Just treated them like out-of-place elementary-schoolers, so I guess there was some sort of illusion or hologram thing going on, or the unconvincing disguises were somehow effective.

-There were about six or seven of them and they bickered constantly, yet stayed together in a big clump. Very silly, very idiotic comedy act group, but also very ready to summon a monster and let it destroy stuff at a moment's notice, without any obvious signs of remorse.

-And then finally, there were the other inner circle robots, who seemed to be in a weird in-between state between the like, cartoon-robot style of the scouts, and the realistic-human-shape of the three androids, plus each one had an animal theming going on. (In general, they all talked a big game after the leader was gone, but still seemed obviously less intelligent than the secretary or the newcomer.)

-For example, the frog lady from the train had like, a humanlike head, with glasses and frizzy hair and a frog beanie hat. But then her neck was a rubber hose, and her body was kind of a round-top cylinder with metal armor layered to look like overalls, and she had hose-claw arms like the scouts... but then realistic legs again. Also when she attacked, the frog hat opened up like a lid, so the tongue-whip could come out of the top of her head.

---

Unfortunately, while the fairies were discussed, and one of them was on the train, I don't remember what they looked like at all.

Dreamed I started watching a new (entirely fictional) precure season on a whim. Quintet of girls, (though there was no blue Cure) and unusual emphasis on their high school, though I couldn't figure out a consistent theming. (Seemed to be sports at first, but then trains happened, so idk) The results:

---

It started with me watching an episode out of order, somewhere in the middle of their precure career, where four of the five were at school after dark, doing a sort of MotW-enforced test of courage as it forced them to face their various fears and the others supporting them through it, (discrimination and mockery for Pink, failure and disgrace for Grey, and darkness and isolation for Yellow) ending in the last girl (Orange) being completely unphased by whatever it showed her and kicking its ass.

The punchline; "Any humiliation you could throw at me doesn't matter when I already embarass myself every day!" As she wrapped it up in her scarf (which it like, drenched in some sort of gross goldenrod-colored grease or something?) and high-kicked it down a flight of stairs into the school basement, where it finally disappated in a burst of flame, taking the scarf with. Pink and Yellow still hugged her anyway, though. ^^

---

Then there was a rewind to like, the start of things, where the girls met in gym class. Orange, Grey, and Purple (the last gal who'd been absent in the prior bit) were seniors, while Pink and Yellow were a grade below them. Anyway, all five were chatting idly while taking a rest+water break from an indoor basketball game, and a disaster pentagon of one-sided crushes sprang up pretty quickly. (Orange was into Purple, Purple seemed to want to dote on Yellow, Yellow was into Pink, and Pink was utterly head-over-heels for Grey, who was barely aware she existed yet but seemed faintly amused by Orange's fumbling antics.)

From there, it went to the villains. The current leader was like, this android CEO guy in another dimension, sending subservient robots through to disguise themselves as humans and spy on people as like, the precursor to revenge on humanity for forgetting they existed. It was implied that the robots and pocket dimension were like, the result of either an advanced ancient civilization like Atlantis that had died out long ago, or these guys were from the future and didn't realize it, misblaming the present.

The guy was stressed because the first few attempts had already been foiled by the Cures separately, but his second-in-command suggesting he reconsider the plan wound up having the opposite effect of making him double down harder whoops.

Anyway, after the scouting team, poorly disguising themselves as baseball players, got shouted off the diamond outside the gym so actual students could play baseball, they decided to unleash the first(?) MotW. Only for the girls to immediately all transform and wreck its shit before it could even do anything, and the rest of the 'runtime' was dedicated to them basically doing that spiderman pointing meme at each other as they realized the others were all Cures too; first time seeing they weren't alone in having this power, since the prior incidents that had brought them on had all been in separate parts of the city.

---

Then it skipped forward again, to like, the start of the second cour's worth of episodes. The CEO guy, who'd seemed like the Big Bad at first, was just defeated last episode, and now his second-in-command and some other high-ranking androids were having a power vacuum struggle. A new android gal showed up out of nowhere to also throw her metaphorical hat into the ring, and suggested all those competing for leadership prove themselves (or get disqualified) by fighting the Cures directly.

Meanwhile, the team was in their new base, a single silvery steam engine (which seemed to have some space-warping shenanigans going on, the outside being fairly small but the interior being roomy enough for them to sit and have tea) chugging through a forest somewhere and wondering what to do now. They'd (seemingly) defeated the androids, but the fairies who'd given them their powers still needed help of some sort, their realm still kinda falling apart, so they were planning to go see if they could do anything about that.

(Also, this wasn't remotely hinted at in the dream, but thinking back now, kinda wondering if the fairies were actually the formerly-advanced civilization who had created and then abandoned the robots?)

But then before they could plan any further, the train came under attack; the androids had a sleek (if oddly flat-ish) train engine of their own, more Art Deco styled with glowing Tron lines, and a big open-air platform at the back, where a couple of the prospective new leaders were standing and launching attacks. One of them was a frog-themed android lady, and the other guy seemed to be themed around either a rhino or a hippo?

They seemed to be the weakest of the inner circle, and the Cures dealt with them pretty easily; hippo guy got dunked into a pond as the trains passed by it, (hopefully was waterproof lol) while one of the Cures (I think Orange, since the dream seemed particularly biased toward her) grabbed the frog-lady's tongue whip weapon and swung-and-flung her away using it.

But unfortunately, the mysterious newcomer android lady who had suggested this whole thing was secretly there too, and while the others were distracted, she ninja'd into the Precure train to commandeer it just as they left the forest behind for open fields. Worse, Grey was still driving that train, and so got taken hostage with a knife to the throat; leaving the last shot of the episode being the other four stuck on the robots' train as both it lost power and their own transformations timed out, watching the captive Grey being carried off into the distance.

This was episode ~14 out of the usual 52.

(I imagine they would probably rescue her soon, but there was still very much a vibe of status quo being rather unreliable this time around.)

---

Also, apparently one of the VAs they got for this series was also a singer, so taking a page out of Symphogear's book, they found ways to like, put in a bunch of like, grander broadway-tier songs for her to sing here and there along with the more typical pop-y OP and ED, so released an album after the first thirteen episodes, (with plans for three more to release as the season progressed) which I decided to listen to while going for a walk afterward. Can't remember too many specifics now, (just that the voice kinda made me think of Stack, who's sung for some vocal Touhou remixes) but I did really like it. Also, a faded-out picture of the Orange Cure's face was on the cover, again kinda interesting/unusual focus bias.