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seyaryminamoto · 4 years ago

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Matching Heartbeats: Sokkla Saturdays 2020

Day 7: Loyalty

On FF.net//On AO3

A/N: So very sorry for the late entry. I've been having some really serious computer problems lately, I was lucky I finished writing the chapter BEFORE tragedy struck, but it still took me a while to go over the whole thing so it'd be ready to be posted. It's been quite the ordeal of a weekend, ngl.

I'll leave more notes at the end. This is definitely the darkest of my entries so far, so even if there's concepts you dislike... try to bear with me :'D

He knew it. He knew from the start that frozen kid was going to be trouble, but who listens to Sokka? No one ever listens to Sokka. Even the tribe's children never listen to Sokka.

He couldn't stop scowling as he fit his warrior's outfit into place. He didn't have any armor, he was meant to craft his own with his father once he returned from the war… if he returned from the war. The very thought of never seeing him again, just as he'd never see his mother again, made him wish the likely, upcoming fight, would take him away just as well.

But no. He wasn't that weak, he wasn't that stupid: he was here to defend his people. That was what his father had tasked him with, and the women and children from the tribe would be safe with him. He hoped. As long as that damn flare hadn't been glimpsed by anyone Fire Nation, then perhaps they would be. Yet with the damn light beam that burst from the iceberg, just before that airbender tumbled out of it, right into his sister's arms, he couldn't take for granted that the Fire Nation wouldn't have noticed anything. In all likelihood, they'd come… and they might try to wipe out the village altogether. And he had no choice but to fight, even if he failed to stand against them.

He had practiced the traditional warriors' face-paint countless times in the past, with his father's supervision. He had continued doing so even after his father was gone, wondering if he'd ever wear it for a battle… he no longer wondered today. Without even glancing at his reflection in the basin of the hut he was preparing at, Sokka stepped out into the open as Katara and Kanna helped lead the women and children to safety.

It happened after he climbed his watch tower: a loud, machinery sound in the distance. He felt chills rushing down the nape of his neck and scowled: this couldn't be good. They were here. That shape he could see, hidden within the mist, had to belong to a Fire Nation ship.

And he was right, naturally: a massive, metal ship slowly traversed the icy waters, and Sokka clutched his weapons nervously as he watched it looming closer…

And then it stopped, right upon reaching the shore, cracking the ice lightly, as Sokka could see from where he stood at his watch tower. He swallowed hard and raised his gaze at the monumental ship… and then the ramp at its front was lowered with a loud, mechanical hiss. Sokka's whole body trembled as he waited, knowing the enemy would rush them in no time…

Footsteps upon the metal. Loud ones, multiple ones. Sokka frowned as a group of soldiers appeared at the top of the ramp, and he scanned them carefully: it wasn't his first time seeing Fire Nation soldiers in the flesh, but it had been a long time since he had last crossed paths with any of them. And while his anxiety was ramping up because of it, he still could pay enough attention to notice that they were flanking two people who weren't sporting a full soldiers' uniform.

"What is…?" he whispered, narrowing his eyes at the sight of them…

An old man, and a young woman. Both were shorter than the uniformed soldiers, and they were studying their surroundings carefully, it seemed. They walked side by side until they reached the end of the ramp… and then the soldiers lingered back, close to the ship, while the two people who wore lighter armor approached the Tribe's enclosure.

"Ah, but this is quite the freezing environment, isn't it?" the old man said, smiling carelessly at his companion. She scoffed.

"What else could you have expected in the South Pole, Uncle, really?" she said.

The area was silent enough for Sokka to understand their words perfectly. He frowned as he gazed at them, wondering if he should speak up… and just then, the young woman's eyes took to studying his watch tower… to studying him.

He felt the air leaving his lungs, and wondered if perhaps that girl was an airbender like Aang, to make him effectively breathless that way. Or maybe he was just too nervous, too anxious, and terrified of the possible consequences that would come from this encounter with likely firebenders…?

"You, up there," the young woman called to him. Sokka froze. "We come in peace. Find your leader, so we may speak with whoever they are."

"Peace?" Sokka repeated quietly, before raising his voice. "You've just barged into enemy territory on a ship like that, and you expect me to believe you're here to make friends?"

"Well, what else could I be here for?" she replied, with a sarcastic grin. Sokka's stomach sank. "Do tell. Are you hiding anything in your funny huts that I might make use of?"

"Like hell we are! Go back to your rotten nation and leave us be!" Sokka rebuffed, raising his boomerang in an intimidating gesture that he knew would fail.

"We can't quite do that," she said, simply. "Find your leader, I said. We don't have much time."

"Find our leader?" Sokka repeated. "Well, as things stand right now? You're speaking to him! I'm the Tribe's leader!"

"You… no way," she snorted, smiling as she placed her hands on her hips. "The Southern Water Tribe has only one teenager manning their defenses, and he's the tribe leader, too?"

"Maybe we're in the wrong place," the old man suggested, stroking his beard.

"It's possible," his niece replied, still staring at Sokka pointedly. "But it's the closest settlement to the flare, isn't it? And we did see the Avatar skipping about in the ice earlier…"

"I can only hope I'm that flexible and nimble when I'm that age," the man laughed. His niece scoffed.

"You can't even finish climbing the tower's stairs without your knees aching, Uncle…"

"I can work out and regain my good shape, Princess Azula, no need to shame me for not exercising often these days…"

Sokka's eyes widened upon overhearing those words: Princess Azula, he'd said? And they were talking about… the Avatar? Did they believe Aang was the Avatar? If so… then he definitely needed protecting, rather than banishing. Curses, why did everything have to be so complicated…?

"Y-you… you're the Fire Nation Princess?" Sokka asked. She frowned but glared at him, no longer distracted by her uncle.

"Something like that," she said. "Feel more willing to help us track down your Avatar now? Or will this pointless back and forth continue until we freeze to death standing out here?"

Sokka snarled, uneasy. If Aang was the Avatar, he couldn't hand him over to the Fire Nation, not even if they allegedly had come in peace. How could he ever trust a claim like that? Fire Nation people were ambitious, and surely deeply treacherous… these two couldn't be any different. Even from up here, Sokka could tell they were intelligent… they were likely strategists, hoping to trick them somehow. And whatever game they thought they'd play at the expenses of his people, he refused to go along with it.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, so get out and find your Avatar someplace else. We don't have any Avatars here," Sokka declared. The Princess below scoffed.

"Really, now? So that skipping airbender we saw wasn't the Avatar? You're harboring other air nomads here, then? Fine, they'll be useful at tracking down the real thing anyway…"

"There's no one here! No airbender!" Sokka shouted. "There's only women and children inside these walls, and you won't find any Avatars or airbenders or…!"

A sudden, whooshing sound caused the Princess and the uncle to turn sharply to their right: something was rushing their way through the snow. The Princess took up a defensive firebending form immediately, but her uncle spread an arm before her as the shape came closer…

"A child?" the Princess said so softly Sokka nearly failed to hear her: he turned towards the noise as well only to feel his heart sinking to the bottom of his stomach.

Aang was back, surely hoping to help the tribe. Oh, curse that boy and his good heart, why would he choose to return just now?!

"Aang! Go back! Get out!" Sokka shouted, but the young airbender's penguin simply continued to rush towards the two Fire Nation Royals.

Both Azula and her uncle had to leap out of the way so the penguin could continue onwards: the airbender, however, leapt off the creature's back and stood between them and the tribe, holding his staff while gazing at them steadily.

"You're the airbender? The Avatar? A… child?" Azula said, blinking blankly.

"Well, you're just a teenager," Aang said, simply, though he wasn't sure his response warranted as loud a bout of laughter from the old man beside the Princess. "Uh… what's so funny?"

"Ah, it's such a relief! He is a child! See, Princess, no amount of exercise will ever be enough for me to jump around the way he did, ahaha…!"

"Stop giving excuses not to stay fit, Uncle!" Azula hissed. "We're in no position to afford laziness, or sloppiness, and you're indulging in both by neglecting your health and training!"

"Uh… what's going on?" Aang said, blinking blankly before glancing up at Sokka on his tower.

"I know just about as much as you do, buddy," Sokka said, grimacing. "Though… sorry for kicking you out. And thanks for coming back."

"My banishment is lifted?" Aang asked, smiling weakly. Sokka shrugged and hung his head.

"Guess so. Though this isn't over," Sokka said, frowning as he picked up his spear. "You two… last chance. Go back to your ship, and the airbender there won't hurt you."

"Ah, nonsense. Airbenders won't hurt anyone unless it's self-defense," the old man declared proudly. The Princess breathed out and glanced at the young boy before her.

"We're not here to hand you over to Fire Nation authorities, Avatar," she said. Both Aang and Sokka frowned. "If you truly are who we believe you are… then we'll be the very best allies you'll find if you have any hopes to bring back balance to the world."

"You… what?" Aang said.

Sokka frowned heavily and jumped, slipping down his tower and landing right next to Aang – by the tribe's front gates, Katara lurked, gazing out at the debate between the two Fire Nation visitors, her brother and her friend: where both Sokka and Aang were reluctant, dubious, the old man couldn't seem to stop smiling in a disarming manner… while his niece offered them a steeled glare, sharper than a blade, more unyielding than the sturdiest of metals:

"We need you to help us defeat the Fire Lady."

Where the villagers no doubt had expected a confrontation, they had found, instead, a diplomatic visit, of sorts. The soldiers had stayed aboard the ship, leaving the two royals to deal with the discussions and to convince the skeptical teenagers and the young Avatar to join their cause: it wouldn't be easy, but Azula was certain it could be done.

"I'm pretty confused as it is, but I guess I'll hear you out," the Avatar decided, smiling as they sat at the central fireplace of the village: Azula and Iroh sat with them, while the rest of the villagers – just as the warrior had claimed, women and children – watched from a safe distance. Acceptable, understandable caution, all things considered.

"What's this about a Fire Lady?" the warrior asked, frowning as he stared at Azula. "Last I knew, it was a Fire Lord who was throwing the world out of balance. When did that change?"

"To be precise? Five years ago," Azula said, simply. The warrior appeared perplexed, but curious enough to continue listening anyway.

"Our dad left about four years ago…" the teenage girl said, glancing at him with unease. "I guess we haven't heard from anything in the outside world since then… and even before that, news didn't spread much either."

"Naturally. You're in the South Pole, and with the war's politics being what they are…" Iroh said, shaking his head "Everyone has taken to isolating, instead of thinking clearly: a coalition between Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe and Fire Nation rebel forces would more than suffice to topple my sister-in-law's regime."

"Your sister-in-law?" the warrior repeated.

"My mother," Azula said, curtly. The words seemed to send a powerful ripple of confused understanding through all her three new acquaintances.

"Y-your mom…?" said the Avatar.

"She is the Fire Lady. Has been, since Fire Lord Azulon died mysteriously on the night he demanded for my brother to be killed to punish my father's transgressions," Azula explained, gritting her teeth. Sharing such memories with strangers wasn't easy, despite she had grown used to discussing them in recent times. "My father was crowned on the next day. He was dead too, within the week."

"Wait… your mom killed them?" asked the warrior, aghast. "Y-you're saying…"

"I'm saying she's leading the Fire Nation as we speak. Has been, for the past six years," Azula said, staring at the young man intently. "She has avoided every political reprieve sent her way, hell knows how, and ensured to stay on the throne under the guise of being my brother's regent: he will come of age within a few months, and once he does, he'll be Fire Lord in her stead. One step out of line, however, and…"

"You keep saying that, Azula, but I doubt Ursa would kill Zuko…" said Iroh. Azula scoffed.

"I'm her daughter. She banished me. I know she prefers him over me, but that hardly makes her an innocent person, let alone is she incapable of protecting her own interests to the point of sacrificing her own family," Azula snarled.

"Why did your mother banish you?" the warrior's sister asked. "That's awful!"

"She found a petty excuse, started an argument I didn't back down from. Demanded that I should be taught respect and tasked me with tracking down the Avatar and handing him over to her to prove my loyalty and worth to my nation," Azula explained, rolling her eyes. "I have no intentions of doing such a thing, if you expected otherwise: I don't trust that woman. Even calling her my mother revolts me. That she killed my father is…"

"Now, now, Azula…" Iroh said, patting his niece's back. She flinched away from his touch, but attempted to focus again.

"She sent my uncle Iroh with me, because he's yet another threat to her ill-gotten throne," Azula declared. "The two of us were investigating, looking into both my father and grandfather's deaths, if independently… and she knew it was only a matter of time before we unearthed solid evidence of foul play. Granted, the situation is as fishy as can be, as things stand, but…"

"But she has managed to play everything off as a coincidence so far," said Iroh, grimacing. "I wasn't in the Fire Nation when she took the throne… by the time I arrived, she was much too comfortable on her seat. I couldn't do anything but offer my assistance to Azula, and hope to guide Zuko away from her, but…"

"But you'd never succeed at that," Azula said, bitterly. "My brother is the only one who's better off with this arrangement. I don't think I ever saw him quite so happy."

"I guess he's the favorite kid?" Sokka asked. Azula scoffed.

"Hers? Yes. Iroh's, too. He's stuck with me because he has no choice."

"Oi! I do appreciate you, Azula! We've been scheming together for three years now!"

"That's no evidence to contradict my claim," Azula said, dismissively. Iroh's outrage amused the Avatar and his female friend slightly, though the warrior only continued to watch the Princess pointedly. "My father did favor me, and he wasn't kind to my brother. Neither was my grandfather, who outright asked for him to be executed, so…"

"What a messed-up family," sighed the warrior, shaking his head. "So you two don't like each other but are stuck together, your mom is in the Fire Nation grooming your brother into being her perfect brainwashed tool, and your dad is dead, and your grandpa is dead too because he wanted to have your brother killed? Is that how it is?"

"Uh… yeah. More or less," Azula said. He sighed.

"And what exactly do you expect to accomplish next?" he asked. "You want Aang to help you take down your mom? You're on some quest for revenge or something?"

"You could say that, yes," Azula said. He scoffed.

"And how do I know you're not simply going to hand him over to Fire Nation authorities, so your banishment gets revoked and you're free to live your life as you wish?"

"You'd know it if you'd known me for longer than you have," Azula replied, with a dry grin. "I'm no fool: I don't long for my mother's approval, I want her held accountable for her crimes. Even if I went home, and she pretended to love me and accept me because I brought her the Avatar, it would amount to nothing more than a pretense. Within another two years she'd find another excuse to get rid of me, and where would I find anyone else to help me depose her then?"

"But the problem is your mom, right? Not your brother," said the Avatar, tapping his chin. "So if he becomes Fire Lord… wouldn't we have to fight him instead?"

"You don't truly believe that my mother, after all her scheming, would set down her crown and throne and leave my brother to rule without her 'guidance', do you?" Azula asked, skeptical. "She'll control him, without his awareness. A puppeteer, you could say, ensuring the Fire Lord doesn't go astray, meaning, she intends to retain his loyal to her at all costs. My brother isn't the problem, it's her."

"And how do you plan on defeating her, without causing him any trouble?" the warrior asked. "I feel like if we help you guys, and you're not tricking us at all, we'll end up going from one problem to the next: take out the Fire Lady, and her son will follow on her footsteps and set the whole world on fire. Right?"

"That's exactly why our intent isn't as violent as you may think," Iroh said, with a weak grin. "I assumed the Avatar would be old… perhaps too old to be of use. But he's young! And, I'm sure, inexperienced with all four elements. Right?"

"Uh… I'm afraid so," the Avatar admitted, with a lukewarm grin.

"Then the course is clear! He must learn all the elements before becoming the protector of harmony in our world," Iroh grinned. "Though… I don't know if you can learn waterbending here. Last I knew, Fire Lord Azulon had…"

"Attacked our tribes, countless times?" asked the warrior, scowling.

"I'm the last waterbender left in the South Pole," the sister announced, sadly. Azula grimaced.

"Then… ugh. It means he'd have to learn up north instead," said Azula, glancing at Iroh… to find him grinning madly, of course. "Well, then. Out with it. You have an idea, don't you?"

"A lot of them, actually," he giggled. "Pakku is in the North! And Bumi in the Earth Kingdom. I can be the firebending teacher, and…"

"Bumi?!" exclaimed the Avatar, his eyes wide. "Y-you know Bumi? Wait, how do you know Bumi? Is Bumi still alive?! I thought I'd been frozen for a hundred years!"

"Uh… huh. That explains your youth, at least," said Iroh. Azula grimaced, resolving to explain more about that particular matter later. "And… yes. I believe King Bumi is well past his hundred years. If you know him… then all the better! I can see to it that you train and develop your skills as the Avatar little by little, young man. What do you say?"

"Well, I say we have to think about it," the warrior declared, crossing his arms over his chest. "Not to look a gift ostrich horse in the beak, but…"

"Can I come too?!"

"K-Katara?!"

Despite the Avatar appeared nervous, it seemed he would agree to their proposal, and the waterbender was absolutely stoked about joining them, too: the warrior was the only one with obvious doubts, and while Azula held his accusatory, distrustful gaze with relentless defiance, Iroh only laughed and clapped cheerfully.

"It seems we have quite the journey ahead of us!" he declared, deliberately ignoring the warrior's obvious displeasure, focusing only on the far more cheerful and agreeable response of the waterbender.

Azula guessed the warrior boy might be trouble, and yet she couldn't blame him for it in the least: the readiness of the other two to trust them was surprisingly agreeable and yet proof of how innocent and gullible they were. They were rather fortunate that they had no ill-intentions indeed, Azula reasoned, after she returned to her ship that day: the soldiers welcomed her, ever ready to obey her every command. The highly questionable Fire Lady, in whose veins did not flow any royal blood, had failed to charm every soldier to her favor. Where she had hoped, no doubt, to get rid of her most dangerous opponents by tossing them in the sea with the least reliable soldiers in her army, her decision had been double-edged: Azula and Iroh had joined forces, and within less than a few months, the entire ship answered to them, and only to them. It was one starting point of rebellion, one Azula hoped they'd be able to expand further… but only after they gained enough political relevance and power to challenge her mother's rule, and her brother's, if it came to that. The Avatar was the key to achieving that goal.

Noise by the ramp surprised Azula as she paced on deck. She stepped close to the ship's railing to find the warrior boy, naturally, had approached the ship. What did he want? Shouldn't he be packing, or resting, before setting out on their long voyage?

Despite her better sense told her otherwise, Azula made her way down to the ramp indeed, finding the soldiers had been reluctant to let him through. The warrior pouted rather childishly, and she sighed as she stepped between the soldiers and himself, startling him when he failed to notice her presence.

"Do you need something?" she asked, directly. His childish expression faded quickly.

"Just… wanted to talk," he said, raising his hands defensively. "I won't do anything bad, I promise."

"Hmm. You promise, then," Azula said, releasing a breath before ordering the soldiers to let him through.

The two made their way to the deck, a small walk Azula found no wonders in, considering she'd traversed the full extent of her ship countless times in the past. To the warrior beside her, however, it was likely the first Fire Nation battleship he had ever entered. His amazement was apparent… and yet he voiced no compliments, containing his amazement as best he could. And while he studied his future means of transportation, Azula studied him: he was perhaps slightly older than her, and yet burdened with a much more dangerous duty than he himself had likely ever realized. Where Azula would have been forced to stay in her brother's mediocre shadow, if her mother had her way, this young warrior was expected to protect his people at all costs…

"So… what do you need to talk about?" she asked him, as they came to a halt on the deck. He grimaced.

"Well… I'm just worried," he said, earnestly. "Look, I'm sorry for what your mom's done, and I really don't know how I'd react if anything like that had ever happened to me, but… are you against the Fire Nation? Or just against her?"

"You're wondering if I'll want to continue the war after she's defeated and replaced?" Azula asked. He swallowed hard and nodded.

"I just… don't know where your loyalties really lie. And I think I should, before we join you in this trip. I don't know if I can trust you."

"I never did ask you to trust me, did I?" she said, plainly, but he scoffed.

"Just by asking us to join forces with you, or rather, asking Aang… you're silently asking me to entrust the best hope this world has to you. Maybe you didn't say the words directly, but you're asking for trust anyway. And…"

"And you'd be a fool to give it to me blindly when we've only just met," Azula concluded. The warrior released a breath… perhaps relieved she understood his plight. "My father trusted my mother, no doubt: she took advantage of that trust to kill him. Do you really think I'd be so stupid as to ask for trust… or to give it?"

He froze in place, their eyes holding each other's gaze firmly. Both of them had been through their own set of struggles, she realized that… but if he had come here looking for a heartfelt speech about how good a person she was, he was out of luck. Azula had no intentions to…

He smiled.

She blinked twice, and then he sighed, hanging his head while setting his hands on his hips.

"You know what? I can live with that," he said. Azula raised her eyebrows, puzzled.

"With… not being trusted?" she asked. He nodded.

"The Avatar's dead-sure his bison thing can fly, you know?" he said. "If you or your creepy uncle do anything on this trip that we can't accept… well, I'll be grabbing my two dorks, climbing on that saddle and getting as far from you guys as possible. And as you're not going to ask for trust, or give it, that should be fine by you, right?"

"It is, actually," Azula said, simply. "While I'd rather have the Avatar on my side… it's not a necessity either, despite Iroh is certain of the opposite. We're loyal to our own causes and purposes, and there's no reason why it should be any different. This is an alliance of convenience, nothing more."

"Sounds right to me," he said, extending his hand towards her. "By the way… my name is Sokka. I heard your uncle calling your name before, so… figured it was a good idea to tell you mine."

"Sokka, then?" she repeated, before raising a hand to clasp his. "Very well. Let's… not trust each other."

"Perfect," Sokka grinned.

It was an odd arrangement… yet one that brought a smile to Azula's face just as well. She had the strange feeling she could grow used to the warrior's presence, despite everything…

Their long journey began on the next day, after the three new passengers climbed aboard the ship, once they said their farewells to their fellow tribespeople. The journey to the North Pole would be long, and Azula wondered if those three would be able to endure the trappings of the steel ship without complaint… strangely, the Avatar was the most restless of the group, often taking off on gliding trips unless they neared any Fire Nation watchtowers. The waterbender had been quite eager to manipulate the seawater they were coursing through… but just as expected, she wasn't skilled enough to bend anything impressive yet.

The warrior was the least restless one, Azula had thought… until he happened upon her training with Iroh on the ship's deck one day. The old man often told her to take her drills calmly, to focus on her basics… but she didn't have time to take it easy. Her blue fire needed to be strengthened further, that was all there was to it…

"The source of firebending… isn't aggression," Iroh had said to her, on one afternoon. Azula scoffed and glared.

"Really? And that's why the way to conjure fire is by hugging people, right?"

"You misunderstand," Iroh sighed. "But hopefully you'll see in time. Firebending is an art… it isn't merely a means to an end. You can channel your rage through it… but that won't make you any stronger than you would be if you fought calmly, in direct contact with your inner fire."

"That's too bad," Azula hissed back. Iroh shook his head and made to leave… only stopping on his tracks upon finding someone stood by the threshold of the tower, watching them.

Sokka flinched and stepped out of the way, offering Iroh a guilty grin before glancing at Azula. The exiled Princess scowled at first, but surely he didn't bear any nefarious intent in mind, going by that goofy smile across his face.

"That… that was pretty impressive," he said, biting his lip. "Your fire… it's pretty cool, you know? That it's blue… it's not like everyone else's, right?"

"Indeed," Azula replied, bluntly.

"It's a sign of strength, I figure? Or something?" Sokka continued. "Well, whatever it may be a sign of… you're pretty good with your fire. Which, well, isn't something I ever thought I'd say to a firebender, but times change…"

"I guess they do," Azula said, raising her eyebrows. "I suppose you're quite bored if you're watching my attempts to train…"

"Well… bored and a little curious," Sokka admitted, grinning awkwardly. "I thought I was ready to fight you before, but I guess I wasn't. I just… wanted to ask if it's okay if I train with you once in a while? You know, polish my skills…"

"Polish your skills?" Azula repeated, a hint of amusement crossing her face. "Why… I suppose that'd be fine, yes."

Sokka grinned brightly and rushed inside to collect his weapons when she told him to. By the time he returned, he was stretching and smirking proudly.

"Well, I sure hope you're ready, Princess. You haven't seen what I can do so far, so I think I have an advantage," he said, raising his club in her direction. Azula smirked too.

"Oh, the horror," she said, sarcastically. He flinched as she took up a stance. "Give me your best shot. You'll regret it if you don't."

And he did regret it, of course: as much as he tried, he couldn't seem to avoid the power of those blue flames. He dodged clumsily, attacked even more clumsily, but to Azula's amusement, he never asked for respite. He didn't beg for her to stop attacking. He was stubborn… and that was a good thing.

She defeated him on every round that day. He seemed discouraged for it, lying against the ship's railing while breathing heavily, his body overheated despite it was still rather cold. She approached him with a slightly more sympathetic smile than intended, taking her seat beside him.

"You're not very experienced in combat. That's all there is to it," she said. "Train with me some more, and you'll be able to withstand the strongest of firebenders without breaking a sweat."

"You sure?" Sokka asked, grimacing. "I thought I'd made a fool of myself…"

"Oh, you did, but it was a lot of fun. I can stand for a few more reasons to be amused," she said, grinning at him. He snorted and laughed, shaking his head.

"Great. I'm a laughingstock for the Princess. Just what I hoped for," he said, dropping his head against the railing.

"And what else were you hoping for?" she asked.

"Uh… respect of equals?" he said. She snorted and laughed outright, surprising him. "What? You don't have to laugh that hard…"

"You and I aren't equals, Sokka. On any level," she said, smiling at him. "Not yet, anyway. More training is required, without a doubt, if that's what you're looking for."

"Then I'll oblige," he said, smirking too. "You think I'll back away from a challenge just because you're pretty… uh, pretty intimidating?"

"Ah. I'm pretty?" she said. He grimaced and blushed.

"That's not what I said! I was just… looking for the right word!"

"Sure you were: pretty. That was it," Azula smiled. He groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"Is this a thing girls do?" he asked, flustered. "Turning a guy's words against him mercilessly just because they feel like it?"

"I have no idea. Bu it's certainly something I do," she said, grinning at him.

She hadn't had much of a chance to try her luck with boys so far – she had been banished three years ago, and too busy trying to harvest evidence to prove her mother was up to no good on the years before that to look for any suitable matches. But if she wasn't misreading the situation… this warrior might actually harbor more than a wish for mutual respect for her. She wouldn't mind it much, if he did. He was easy on the eyes himself, there was no denying that…

"Guess I'll have to get used to it, then?" he said, smiling back at her. "Or… maybe I could, uh, try my luck at it too? You know, if you ever say I'm handsome…!"

"I'd never say that," Azula declared, proudly. Sokka scoffed.

"You could say 'hand', and right after, 'some', and then I could misinterpret it just as you did right now…" he said. Azula laughed.

"How so?" she smiled. "'Get your hand some ice, because I burned it so badly'?"

"See? There you go. You think I'm handsome too," Sokka declared. Azula laughed again, dropping her head against the railing as he smiled at her. "Alright, jokes aside… you have a nice smile, you know?"

"I'm not taking any of it as a joke, mind you," Azula declared. "But, truthfully I… haven't had much of a reason to smile for the past six years."

"Yeah… I can tell," Sokka whispered. "And I don't blame you. Though… at first I figured you got along better with Iroh than you do. You two seemed to be on the same page when you were at the tribe's doorstep… guess I just jumped to conclusions, huh?"

"I did say Zuko was his favorite, didn't I?" Azula said, her smile waning. "Truthfully… my mother assumed we would never be able to work together. That's why she exiled us this way, and she would have been correct in her assessment… if only Iroh and I weren't slightly sharper than she hoped we'd be. Even if we can't stand each other's guts, the bigger picture is the priority. Whatever happens after we've dealt with my mother, Iroh and I will work together until she's defeated. That's simply how it is."

"Your family really feels… awful," said Sokka, grimacing. "Not just that your mother's the worst person in the planet right now, apparently… but you can't even rely on your uncle even if you've been traveling with him for three years? I… can't imagine how difficult it must be to live this way."

"Your people have a rather different culture from mine," Azula said, simply. "Family… matters more to you. Far more than it matters to us, apparently."

"You're trying to do right by yours, though. In your own way," Sokka said.

"Am I?" Azula said. "You weren't wrong to say this is a quest of revenge. I don't even know how far it will take me, and even if it's my father I hope to avenge, I'll…"

"You'll fight and maybe even kill your own family?" Sokka asked, frowning. Azula shrugged.

"Is there any other choice?" she asked. "My mother isn't a firebender, but she will have all the strongest soldiers of our nation defending her. She will gain all the advantages she can obtain, anything to stay on the throne, or close enough to it, once my brother takes office. How can I pretend I'll defeat her through anything less than that?"

"She's still your mother," said Sokka, eyeing her with uncertainty.

"He was her husband. I am her daughter. Didn't stop her," Azula said, closing her eyes.

Sokka swallowed hard but conceded once he fell silent. Perhaps he knew there were some things in life you couldn't fix just by talking them out… perhaps he knew there were some people no one could fix with just a heartfelt conversation. If so, she certainly had been rather lucky to have it with him, rather than anyone who might have been more forceful about making her abide by their ideals…

"Will you… train with me again tomorrow?" Azula asked, softly. He blinked blankly but glanced at her with a weak grin.

"If you'll have me, sure thing," he said, grinning. Azula smiled and nodded.

They continued to train hard across the next weeks of their long journey: the weather changed as they progressed north, prompting Sokka to occasionally train with sleeveless shirts and, on one fatefully hot day, outright shirtless. It was outrageous… and yet she had been so distracted he had nearly beaten her for the first time on the day he had first done so. Utterly embarrassing.

She spent more time with him than she ever meant to, than she did with most everyone else. Iroh had taken to spending more time with the Avatar, and he offered the waterbender frequent advice, but the warrior… he seemed to be drawn to her. To find more common ground with her, to feel safer with her than with the soldiers, or her uncle… and it was strange. It felt right, even if her mind said it was wrong. For she was growing used to him… and she didn't think that was wise. She was supposed to stand strong, to need nothing, no one… and she certainly didn't need this boy. But… did he need her? Sometimes, when he gazed at her with those clear blue eyes after their sparring was done, she wondered if he did. And she also wondered what that would mean for her, if that was the case.

The Northern Water Tribe was magnificent, yet a dreadful mirror that reflected how miserable and downtrodden his own tribe was, back home. Sokka had been amazed by it until that reality had dawned on him… he gazed at Azula, finding she seemed utterly unconcerned with the regal glory of the location, focusing instead on preserving her body heat as best she could. She was used to this opulence… if anything, she probably felt at home with it. It suited her, Sokka thought, to a fault… what if she dressed up in a Water Tribe parka? Then it could match her blue fire, why not…?

He shook his head quickly as they were ferried into the depths of the tribe on a canoe that Iroh had somehow arranged for them. He'd been having strange thoughts about Azula for a while now, thoughts he was sure he shouldn't have. She was so driven, so determined, so set on her goals… becoming her sparring partner had been a good idea, both for her and himself, as even though he had never defeated her, his combat abilities had increased greatly with her as his opponent, or at least, he thought they had. He had more stamina and he had learned many things regarding how to read a bender's next movements. Seeing as she was a firebender, he expected that what he'd learned would come in handy in the future.

But that was it, wasn't it? He'd said it himself: he didn't trust her, and neither did she trust him. As far as he could tell, she didn't trust anyone, not even her uncle… and considering what she'd been through, he didn't blame her for that. Yet the more he sympathized with her, the less he distrusted her… was that healthy? Was it a good idea to like her better than he should have…? With every glance he stole in her direction, he knew in his mind it wasn't, but in his heart…

They were welcomed with pomp and splendor, and Sokka felt more and more out of place with each passing moment. He wasn't sure why he felt so inadequate, or why he felt the need to stand beside Azula throughout the whole matter… perhaps he feared this was some sort of trap, too. That the northerners would consider them traitors, and would capture Aang, Azula and Iroh and send them giftwrapped to the Fire Lady… even the welcoming smiles of the local Princess, who seemed to get along fairly well with Katara as they sat together during the welcoming feast, didn't reassure him at all. And the balding, bitter man Iroh had proposed as Aang's new waterbending teacher didn't help matters much either.

Maybe he was simply used to expecting the worst from people, at this point: on the next day, Master Pakku accepted Aang as his student gladly, and rejected Katara, outright, for he refused to teach women how to fight. Sokka had spent most that day waiting for Azula to finish her meetings with Iroh and the tribe's leaders when Katara stormed in, revealing her outrageous struggle to him.

"He's a jerk! Why wouldn't I be allowed to fight just because I'm a girl?" Katara exclaimed. "He wants me to learn healing? I've never healed anyone with bending! I know other techniques to do that, but not with bending! What if I can't heal someone, and I waste all my valuable time here learning something I can't even do?!"

"Uh… I don't know?" said Sokka, grimacing: the door swung open then, and Katara glanced at Azula and Aang, who had arrived at the same time.

"You okay, Katara…?" Aang asked. Katara huffed.

"Of course I'm not! That Master Pakku is the worst!" she exclaimed.

"Why's that?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows. "I suppose I shouldn't take for granted that any of my uncle's associates are worthwhile, but… I had hoped he wasn't completely worthless."

"Well, he thinks I can't learn waterbending combat because I'm a girl," said Katara. Sokka grimaced, glancing at Azula with uncertainty, wondering what her reaction would be…

"Wow. And here I assumed these people were civilized," Azula said, with a sarcastic grin. Katara grinned brightly at the obvious, expected support from a successful, powerful female warrior. "So much opulence and fancy halls, and yet they're the most backwards nation I've seen, if this is how it is."

"Well, it's not like we were much better off down south…" Katara admitted, shooting a glare at Sokka. "Someone had a thing for telling me I should stay back and let him handle all the fighting, or, how was it? 'Leave it to a girl to mess everything up'?"

"Hey! Not like I was wrong, was I? You kept soaking my clothes!" Sokka pouted.

"Not the point! Me being a girl has nothing to do with whatever I can do with my bending!" Katara declared. "And that stupid, uptight, stick-in-the-mud Master Pakku…"

"You… seriously said that kind of stuff?"

Sokka froze in place: it felt like his heart had stopped upon hearing Azula speak with such stark disapproval to him. He grimaced under her skeptical stare: just what he needed, the girl he liked would think he was a…

The girl he liked? That thought alone jumpstarted his heart again immediately.

"It's not… it's not really like that?" Sokka smiled awkwardly. "I mean, big brothers always mess with their sisters, right?"

"Right," said Azula, dryly. Sokka grimaced: she didn't believe him. Oh, hell, she didn't believe him. She turned towards Katara again, though, with a proud grin. "Well, then… I guess you need a solution for your dilemma. And I think I need a new sparring partner too, so…"

"W-what?! Hey! That's not…!"

"What do you say we give that Master Pakku a rather alarming surprise?" Azula suggested, smirking at Katara. Sokka could swear he had never seen his sister's eyes glisten so brightly.

"I have no idea what you have in mind… but the answer is yes. Absolutely, yes," Katara said, beaming.

Master Pakku would obviously expect that the stubborn waterbender would rebel against him. Thus, Azula recruited even Aang for her plan: the Avatar was perplexed over his role, but apparently, walking at night across several ice streets, on his way to a supposed hiding place, was as good a plan as any.

Sokka, of course, was barred from joining the plan. Azula wasn't sure why she was so outraged, she wasn't completely surprised that women would be dismissed as irrelevant in combat by certain cultures… but perhaps it had something to do with the suspicion that he wouldn't have held back against her, not even on their first encounter. He had sparred with her constantly, failing to defeat her… and not once had he voiced any dismissing words or thoughts like those Katara had credited to him. Maybe it was true, and he was merely an annoying older brother… or maybe it wasn't true, and he simply didn't see Azula as a woman.

And why, oh, why did that thought bother her so damn much?

She was being an idiot, she knew, but she had no time to think about that. Instead, she encouraged Katara to step closer to the nearest stream, and the waterbender did as much, most willingly.

"Now, then… follow my lead. Only, bring water with you, and perform the movements with me," Azula decided. Katara nodded.

"Then… I'll learn fire-waterbending?" she smiled. Azula shrugged.

"Seems like it. Now, then, pay attention to the sequence of my movements… every last one of them."

Azula shifted from kata to kata, conjuring firebending with her renowned expertise. Katara swallowed hard as the short sequence was finished, and she sought to repeat it, carrying water with her: the result wasn't particularly impressive, and yet the water had obeyed her more than when they had been on the ship. Katara grinned brightly at her, and Azula smirked.

"Let's keep going, then," she said. "I have the feeling you'll learn a lot of fire-waterbending for sure."

"Thank you for this, really," Katara laughed. "I know it's not the traditional way, but… who cares, right? If the traditional waterbending styles are meant to be for men, I'd rather find my own way to bend instead."

"Sounds about right," Azula smirked. "Alright, next sequence…"

"Oh, hey, guys!" Aang's voice came from the ceiling of a building: he airbent himself down to the river and smiled peacefully, despite he was, quite apparently, nervous. "Want some help? I can give you a few tips, Katara…"

"No need for that, Avatar," Azula said, raising her voice unnecessarily. "Outdated bending will never defeat the Fire Nation. I'll teach her a far better combat method, so much better you'll be begging her to teach you, rather than the other way around, once I'm through with her…"

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Azula turned, staring at the elderly waterbending master with nonchalance as he stood at a bridge, overlooking their alleged hideout. Katara tensed up, and Aang fell off his air scooter, grimacing at Pakku's obvious loss of temper.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Azula said, simply. "I'll teach her combat waterbending. Why? You'd rather to do it yourself?"

"What a childish claim… your culture is different from ours, Princess Azula!" Pakku declared. "Don't expect to impose your values here!"

"Oh, but I want her to teach me. I asked you, you said no, she offered, and I'm taking her up on that offer," Katara said, simply. "And hey! You have no power to stop her!"

"Unless you have anything else to add, feel free to walk away," Azula said, waving a hand dismissively at Pakku. "Katara has to learn to defend herself as best she can, after all. We may eventually be caught in a path of violence, and she refuses to be dead weight for the rest of us. Who knows? She might even end up saving the Avatar's life…"

"Don't ridicule me! That sort of notion could never…!"

"You know? Maybe this is why they're still winning."

Sokka's voice startled everyone, breaking across the near-scripted encounter with complete naturality: he had sneaked up on Pakku, and he stood beside him, glancing between his friends and the waterbending master, who turned towards him in confused outrage.

"You saw her, didn't you? She's a powerhouse," Sokka said, smiling at Azula. "A girl that strong… she might be the greatest firebender in the world, don't you think? She can even bend blue fire! When had you ever heard of something like that? And you know what? Maybe some of the girls you've refused to teach could have been as strong as Princess Azula was. Then… maybe the Fire Nation could've been stopped before the war escalated this much. Meanwhile, the Fire Nation is perfectly willing to train their girls, and Azula is an example: if she weren't a rebel, she'd be fighting against us, and I can tell you, that would suck big time. She's the strongest girl I've ever met… and I have no doubts she'd kick my ass, and yours, and everyone else's, if given a chance. Maybe… maybe you should give my sister a chance, too. If a girl's power can be the driving force to end this war… why not support her? Why not teach her? Why not break old traditions that don't make any sense?"

Pakku scowled, but confusion crossed his eyes. For a long moment, Sokka stood there, holding the man's gaze… only for Pakku to storm off without another word. Sokka grimaced and sighed, glancing at Katara apologetically after Pakku's footsteps were undoubtedly gone.

"Sorry, I… hoped I could help," he said. "Guess I messed it up."

"You didn't…!" Katara gasped, smiling brightly at Sokka. "You… you really think all that, Sokka? Or are you just trying to impress Azula, now…?"

"W-wha…?! Hey! Of course I think so! All I just said is true!" Sokka exclaimed, blushing as both Katara and Aang laughed.

"Well… even if he won't teach you, you can learn with me and Azula!" Aang said, beaming at Katara as the two of them started on their way back to their given rooms, across the bridge Sokka stood at. "Teaching waterbending with firebending… it sounds fun, right?"

"It was! I don't know how effective it'll be, but it was!" Katara grinned, and she continued to chat animatedly with Aang as they walked back to their quarters.

Sokka stayed behind, waiting for Azula to reach the bridge too. She released a breath as she stepped towards him, stopping at arm's length.

"All you said was true, for sure," she said. "Whether you truly believe it or not, it is. That the driving force in the war right now is a female non-bender ought to speak lengths about how no one should be underestimating women. It's the entire reason my mother got away with everything she did until now…"

"True… and I won't lie to you, okay? I think you've had people lying a lot to you throughout your life. I don't want to be like them," Sokka whispered. "I did think, back before I knew you, that women had some very specific duties… and men had other duties, too. That's how I was raised, and I did say a lot of stupid things to Katara because of it. I mean… it doesn't mean I'm a monster, I hope, but… I know now it was wrong. After all I've trained with you, and all the time I've spent with you, now I'm… I'm able to look back and know I messed up. I shouldn't have said the things I did to Katara, not even if I was just trying to be an annoying older brother…"

"If you truly know that… then I guess it means you should come up with more creative ways to annoy your sister, from this day forward," Azula said. And Sokka grinned brightly once he saw she was smiling, too. "I'll choose to believe you truly have changed… because if you somehow don't think I'm a girl, and that's why you trained with me for all this time…"

"W-what?! Heck, that's what you thought?! Hell, no, absolutely not, Azula…!"

"I mean, I'd hope you wouldn't think that, you did say I was pretty, so…"

They both talked over each other, and only stopped when the other did. A light laugh left both their lips, and Sokka smiled fondly at her.

"I do think you are pretty, you know?" he said. "Though… I guess that's not too relevant to the conversation, is it?"

"Isn't it?" Azula whispered, softly. "You think I'm pretty… and the most powerful firebender in the world, too?"

"Uh… yeah. I think that sums it up," Sokka grinned. Azula laughed again, shaking her head.

"I guess I should thank you, if anything. For what you did just now, and… for everything else," Azula whispered, gazing at him intensely. Sokka's chest tightened: everything else? What did that even mean…?

The question vanished in his head once she stepped closer, leaning forward… and he followed suit, catching her lips with his own clumsily. He didn't really know how to do this, he'd never done it before… and neither had she. But they stood where they did, under the dark skies in the North Pole, sharing a strange, sincere, peaceful moment where no wars weighed on their minds, no conflicts, no pursuits of revenge…

He held her in place, feeling closer to Azula than ever before, and not only because they were kissing: despite their starting point had suggested otherwise, by now he found himself trusting her, wholeheartedly, even if he shouldn't have. For even if the Fire Nation would never reassure him, he thought he understood her loyalty better after today. It wasn't a matter of nations, not for her… it was a matter of standing by those you treasured, come what may. And while she shouldn't have grown fond of them, for a myriad of reasons, she wouldn't have helped Katara so readily if she hadn't felt a powerful kinship with all three of them by now. Perhaps he could see through Azula better now, if just a little…

Surprisingly, Pakku relented on the next day: he took to training Katara personally, freeing Azula to spar with her and Aang on evenings, so the waterbenders could test their skills against firebenders like herself. Mornings, however – if they could be called that, it was always damn dark in this pole, as far as Azula could tell – were much more exciting: she'd spend the whole time with Sokka, training with him just as well… and occasionally doing something other than training, too. They were still young, and they had much left to learn… and as it was, they were quite busy learning how to kiss properly. And with every joyful grin their secretive exchanges elicited in Sokka, Azula's heart soared too. Suddenly it was all too easy to forget she wasn't merely taking a trip with friends, seeing the world, and that she had a rather important task in mind…

She guessed everyone had figured out what was brewing between her and Sokka by the time Iroh decided they'd do best to leave already, once all alliances were settled, and the two waterbenders had learned plenty by Pakku's standards. They didn't walk hand-in-hand, nor did they make any sorts of affectionate gestures in public… but Sokka never stopped smiling goofily at her. It wasn't unpleasant, of course. She could withstand it, no doubt. Though she did fear that, if this kept up, her uncle would congratulate her, and even offer unwanted love advice… ugh, just the idea was embarrassing and sickening.

Yet their new journey was different, now that they were together, in some strange way. She shared her meals with Sokka, visited him in his cabin, and he visited her in hers. They spent occasional afternoons napping together, or talking, or simply cuddling… and all of it had been smooth, perfectly agreeable, filling her chest with a joyful warmth she was sure she had never experienced before. She shouldn't lower her guard so much, she knew that… but Sokka felt safe. He was a good person… he couldn't lie, it wasn't in his system. And he valued people… he treasured them. That was why he could hold her so closely, why his strong heartbeats could soothe her, why his voice sent blissful shivers down her spine…

It was slowly becoming the best period of her life. She didn't need anything but his sweet good night kisses, and his stubbornness as they trained together, and his clumsy flirty remarks that charmed her even if her common sense told her she shouldn't find them all that amusing. She wanted more of this, more of him…

Until they reached Omashu, and reality slammed into her with the force of an avalanche once they glimpsed the red-and-black banner of the Fire Nation dangling at those gates.

"She made another move. She's… she's going to take more and more Earth Kingdom bastions until everything is under her control!" Azula had exclaimed, fists tightened as she glared at the city.

"Calm yourself, Azula," Iroh said, breathing deeply. "We… we may yet find a way in."

"Bumi…" Aang grimaced, lowering his gaze. "We're too late to help…"

"I doubt it. I'm sure we can get in somehow," Sokka said, stubbornly. "The Fire Nation can't be that infallible. And hey! They probably didn't kill your friend Bumi either, Aang, because if he's king, like Iroh says, he's too valuable to kill anyway! So that means we have a chance to save him, alright?"

"You're right… you're right!" Aang said, frowning with determination. "I'll find Bumi. I mean, I hope I can recognize him even now, but I'll do it! And I know just the way to get inside the city!"

The way inside, as it happens, included a trip through sewers that Iroh, naturally, refrained from taking part of. He claimed he'd stay outside, with their soldiers, ensuring to stay hidden while he left the difficult job to the youngsters since they'd, allegedly, blend in easier. No, Azula didn't believe for a second that he was doing it for any other reason besides being appalled by the notion of waddling through literal rivers of shit.

But the more shocking moment of the experience came afterwards: as much as they tried to sneak through the city unnoticed, they failed to be stealthy enough to avoid hostilities by Fire Nation soldiers. And while Aang and Katara managed to keep most at bay with their bending, a sudden flurry of projectiles cast towards Sokka when he was busy parrying a soldier's flames with his club, caused Azula to leap forward and banish them away from him with a blast of blue flames… and a familiar voice suddenly spoke, in the darkness of Omashu's night streets:

"Azula?"

Those projectiles. That voice. Azula froze in place as she raised her gaze to find a silhouette so familiar, and yet so much more grown than she had last seen it. It couldn't be anyone else but her, though…

"Mai," she spoke, swallowing hard. No, she wasn't ready to confront her former friend, she truly wasn't, but if it came to it…

Mai seemed to snarl and rush towards them: that was Azula's first sign that something was different. Aang and Katara geared up to defend themselves, but Azula stretched her arm before them, stopping her new friends from attacking the old, who merely raced through streets, silently asking her to follow. And so Azula did, leading her three companions while ignoring and disregarding the soldiers shouting after them – as well as Mai's mother, who appeared to be aghast that her daughter had rushed off somewhere, straight towards the action.

After much running through maze-like streets, they reached a small, empty hut that stank of stale fish, a smell Azula found most distressing, but it seemed that very stench would serve to ward off the soldiers, as per Mai's logic. She ushered them inside and then they waited: the troops rushed past, searching further down the streets, assuming no one would be hiding within the old market's fishing storage room.

"My parents shut this place down about a week ago," Mai explained. "I knew it'd be empty. I try not to pay attention to their boring business, but…"

"Why would they even shut anything down?" Azula asked, aghast. "Mai, what are you doing here?"

"So… she really is your friend?" Sokka asked, with an awkward smile. "Not that I doubted you, Azula, but maybe a little heads-up would've been nice."

"I didn't think we'd have time to introduce you all when escaping from rabid soldiers, mind you," Azula sighed, shaking her head. Mai raised her eyebrows.

"Huh. You found yourself a boyfriend, then?" she asked. Both Sokka and Azula flinched and blushed, grateful that the darkness of the room wouldn't allow anyone to pick up on their reactions all that easily.

"He's…! W-well…" Azula mumbled. Sokka pouted.

"Not really like we've discussed what terms we want to use, so, uh, I mean…"

"Yes. He is her boyfriend," Katara said, with a blunt smile. "And I'm his sister. And this is…"

"Their friend," Azula cut off, once Aang's introduction came next. "Just as she is Mai, my old friend from school."

"I'm surprised you've made so many new friends, actually. You were never much good at that," Mai said, bluntly. "But it's a good thing, I guess, so… congratulations. Invite me to the wedding."

"We're a little too young to get married, right?" Sokka said, with a small voice. "But, well, if you wait for a few years, surely…"

"Surely?" Azula asked, startled.

"W-well, I mean, once I convince you I'm worth marrying, right?"

To Azula's surprise, Mai snorted. She couldn't remember when was the last time she ever heard her friend laugh – maybe she never had, actually. She turned a confused stare towards Mai, who shook her head sadly.

"Must be fun, huh? Not having everyone choosing your life for you," she said. "Not that I complain too much about my lot, I could be worse off, but… I'm not in Omashu because I want to be, for starters. The armies took the city a few months ago. My father was offered the position of governor, and he accepted it without a second thought. We've been here for a week and I already want to die if it means release from this drab place…"

"My mother…" Azula said. Mai tensed up immediately. "This was all her doing, obviously. Do you know anything else about her plans? Anything…?"

"What are you trying to do?" Mai asked, eyeing Azula with unexpected compassion. "You're not… trying to rebel against her, are you? It hasn't gone well for those who've tried…"

"I'm not stupid enough to be scared just because of that," Azula hissed. "Surely there's still enough dissenters…"

"Less and less every day," Mai said. Azula's heart sank. "She… gets rid of them. One by one, without leaving a trace. The Fire Nation… it's terrorized by its leader, I guess."

"And Zuko is fine with that? He doesn't do anything to…?" Azula said. Mai's eyes dropped to the ground at those questions.

"Zuko… has changed. Not to the point where he isn't himself anymore, but…" Mai said, grimacing. "He's not the boy who'd save me from burning apples anymore. Without you, without your father, he's different. Your mother's doing, I guess…"

"So… what, you don't care about him anymore?" Azula asked. If Zuko had changed so much that even Mai, who had loved him since childhood, couldn't endure it anymore… just what kind of madness was taking place in the Fire Nation?

"I didn't say that. I know his true self, his better sides, are still somewhere deep inside him," Mai said, closing her eyes. "But all this power, all your mother's teachings… they've done him a lot of harm. He's become… arrogant. He gets away with anything he wants to do. He can even hurt servants in fits of rage, if he feels like it, and… and no one cares. The servants vanish after. I… I've been with him, for all these years since you were banished. Technically, this assignment of my father's is meant to cement my eventual marriage to him, but… I can't be as excited about it as I was when I didn't know what I was signing up for."

"Then… it's my mother's influence. That's all there is to it," said Azula, looking at Mai pleadingly. "Join us. Help us release the king, and come with us. You can help us fight my mother, get Zuko back to who he…"

Mai shook her head slowly, and Azula's heart sank.

"If you want the king, I'll give him to you. But I… I can't fight against him, Azula. I may not be happy with who he is anymore, but… I love your brother. I think I always will."

"What…? No! You can't…! Mai, if you love him, that's all the more reason to fight!" Azula exclaimed, exasperated. "You should want to bring him back to who he was when you fell in love with him, you should…!"

"I'm not gullible enough to believe that's possible," Mai said, startling Azula. "It would be grand, if he chose to turn back into who he was before, but… I won't hold my breath. Innocence can't be regained when lost. I fear as much, at least."

Azula gritted her teeth, tightening her fists so much her nails dug into her palms painfully. So that was it? That was her choice? It was outrageous… unbelievable. It made no sense to Azula, and yet the reality of the situation dawned on her further: her mother had damaged the Fire Nation on every possible level she could have. She had corrupted her brother's once-pure soul, and turned him into someone even Mai couldn't love as wholeheartedly as she once had. She had done away with every smidge of resistance until there was nothing left… and now she was taking over every remaining city in the Earth Kingdom, no doubt intending to conquer every city left in the large continent, perhaps to gift the whole world to her puppet son once he reached his seventeenth birthday.

Those thoughts were tormenting her when Mai led them all the way to the statue being erected at the top of Omashu's tallest pyramid: Azula scowled upon recognizing it was made in her mother's image. How she wished to be an earthbender and tear the damn thing to pieces…

But where the king, suspended in a strange coffin, should have rejoiced over the opportunity to leave the city without a hassle, he instead refused to do so, surprising the previously thrilled Aang, who stared at him in chagrin at those words. The king made up some strange excuses about neutral jing, doing nothing, as an option in fighting, and claimed his moment to reclaim his city would arrive in due time. In the end, their venture into the second largest city of the continent was but a waste of time, and a rather depressing one at that. Mai led them to the sewers again, and Azula glanced at her as she walked away, knowing her friend meant her no harm with her decision… but knowing, too, that there was no way she'd change her mind. Zuko was Mai's priority… no matter what kind of man he might have become.

"We should simply teach him firebending! What's the point of sticking to the damn cycle of elements anyway? The idea is for the Avatar to learn it all! He's had two perfectly capable firebenders to teach him for months and we haven't taught him a single thing because you won't allow it!"

"The cycle is what it is for good reason, Azula. An airbending Avatar needs to learn how to ground himself before he can firebend, lest he will lose control of his fire in virtue of how volatile the element and his bending in general will be. The same is true for everything else! A firebending Avatar learns waterbending to temper his flames before the air stokes them out of control…!"

"And it's always the fire that's the problem. Funny philosophies you have, Uncle."

"My philosophies are the product of study and tradition. This is done this way for good reason, Azula: the Avatar is a delicate entity, and any mistakes in his upbringing could result in a catastrophe!"

"Then what the hell are we going to do, huh? Please, enlighten me!" Azula exclaimed, rising to her feet as she glared at her Uncle. Sokka grimaced, sitting beside her by the fire as they'd been. "Are we going to stay put because we can't convince one damn earthbender out of thousands to teach the Avatar? Do we let my mother get away with everything she's done so far? I thought we had an agreement…!"

"And we still do," Iroh said, sternly. "But we both agreed to be lenient with each other, flexible, until everything was resolved. And you aren't being that right now…"

"Neither are you, Mr. Tradition and Study," Azula scowled, shaking her head and storming off without another word.

Aang and Katara shrank awkwardly by the fire as Iroh sighed. Sokka, of course, grimaced and stood up.

"I'll go after her," he said. "Though… I do think I agree with her. Not just about the bending, but… what are we going to do if we can't release the king? You were betting on these alliances to be strong enough to defeat the Fire Lady… but is anything that powerful?"

"I… don't know," Iroh admitted, quietly.

Sokka sighed and walked away, following the trail Azula had left through. She sat by the edge of the mountain they were camping at, glaring at Omashu in the distance, when he took his seat beside her again.

"Want to make out?" Azula blurted out, suddenly. Sokka nearly fell off the mountain altogether at the sudden question. "Can't say I'm in the mood… but it might help me feel better."

"Well… maybe after we talk?" Sokka said, with an awkward smile. Azula sighed and buried her face in her knees. Sokka reached out, caressing her head. "Azula…"

"I get it now. I… I understand how you must feel about me," she said. Sokka froze, unsure of what she would mean by that. Was she trying to end things between them, somehow…? Oh, he sure hoped she wasn't… "I've kept rambling on and on about my revenge quest… but I've never said I'm against anything the Fire Nation did in the war, have I?"

"Uh… yeah. I guess you haven't," Sokka admitted.

"It's because I wasn't," Azula said. Sokka frowned, his fingers slipping down from the top of her head to the nape of her neck. "I saw nothing wrong… with everything that we'd done. Because I wasn't raised to see it, so I didn't care to. Even when we met… I just wanted to end the war at all costs because I thought it'd be the worst blow against my mother. But now… if I'm feeling so lost, so angry over Omashu being hers, the people there must feel a thousand times worse. As must have everyone else, all across the Earth Kingdom, and the old Air Nomad bastions… though those aren't even alive to resent the Fire Lords for it. And yet it took this much for me to see it."

"At least you see it now," Sokka said, biting his lip.

"But I also see why you couldn't trust me. It's why I never encouraged you to trust me, too," Azula mumbled. "I'm like Mai, aren't I? It doesn't matter if I know the Fire Nation is wrong, or breaking balance, I… I just want to fight for it. I want to do what's right by it. Even… if it doesn't deserve that."

"Heh… I don't know if the whole nation deserves your hard work or not," Sokka said, lowering his hand to clasp hers. "But you're not like her. You're taking action, right? You want to fight back. She's given up, but you never did."

"I'm not fighting the right battle, though, am I?" Azula said, glancing at him. "It doesn't end just with dethroning her. Not if she's corrupting Zuko as Mai says she did. Whatever my uncle may say or think about him, my brother… he has an awful temper. He's hot-headed and impulsive, and there's no way mother's death or forceful removal would ever sit well with him. He needs to understand what's wrong with the Fire Nation, just as I have, but… he won't. He just… won't."

"Then maybe the Fire Nation needs another Fire Lord," Sokka said, gazing at her meaningfully. Azula frowned before shooting him a wary glance. "Or… is it Fire Lady in this case too? I'm sorry, I don't really know…"

"I… take the throne? Instead of Zuko?" Azula asked. Sokka shrugged.

"If you want to, make it a temporary thing," he said. "Until he's seen enough of the world, if you can trust him to do what's right by his people if he learns better. Or you can just depose him for good, and take the throne yourself to guide the Fire Nation to a better future… I mean, you could, right? You've been friends with us… you've helped us, protected us, given us a chance to fight back, even if for your own reasons. I… I know I shouldn't trust you, right? But… I think I do now. Even if I didn't mean to… I do."

"So, if I let you down, I'll hurt you," Azula concluded, with a grimace. "That's fun…"

"I'm sorry if it's a lot of pressure," Sokka smiled sadly. "But… come on, I wouldn't make out with someone I can't trust."

"Why not? Could be fun," Azula huffed.

"Wait, it 'could' be? Here I thought you'd say you're doing that with me," Sokka smirked.

To his relief, Azula smiled before leaning in to kiss him softly. Sokka returned the gesture, finishing off by pressing another kiss to the tip of her nose.

"Guess I've ended up trusting you too. Curses, we're a mess," Azula sighed, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her face to his shoulder. "I just… feel at ease with you. I trust that you won't betray me… I trust that I understand you, no matter how different we are. And yet I… I can't trust the Fire Nation. I can't trust anyone there, not my friends, not my family, I… I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. And I can't say any of this to anyone but you… which is already a miracle. Because I… couldn't tell anyone, before I met you. I spent three years letting my thoughts fester…"

"And now you can share them with me" Sokka said, smiling warmly at her "Look… I don't know if I'll help at all by saying this, but before we met, I hated the Fire Nation. Now, because of you… I can't hate it, not really. What I'm thinking is… you're a product of that mess of a culture, just as everyone else you know is. But you're also proof that not everything in the Fire Nation is doomed, Azula. You're proof great things can come from it… and you're proof they can change their ways, too. If you've learned from all this… if you can't help but empathize with those who've lost their homes, their hope, their very nation… then it means you're the one better suited for breaking the Fire Nation's cycle, the best hope this world has. I know the path ahead wouldn't be easy, but… I'll be here. Even if your mom goes down, and your brother leaves you be, and you get to rule the Fire Nation and bring it back into proper harmony, I'll be right there with you, every step of the way."

"You… you took the marriage thing that seriously, huh?" Azula sakd, with a weak grin. Sokka chuckled and shrugged.

"I like you more and more every day, as it is," he whispered. "I… I guess maybe at this point I even…"

"You even…?" Azula said, her heart racing as she waited for him to finish his sentence. He smiled and bit his lip, almost shyly.

"I even might love you. But, you know, I've never felt like this with a girl, so… it's all new for me and I don't know if it's love yet," he laughed. "I… kind of want it to be, though."

"You… want to love me?" Azula asked. Sokka grinned and nodded. "That's… a strange concept. But… it's somewhat cute, I guess."

"Glad you think so," Sokka chuckled.

Azula smiled as she leaned in to kiss him again. She hadn't said the words back, but this was the second-best follow-up, as far as he could tell. She wasn't quite so forthright with feelings, he had noticed… she had been far more honest tonight than in most their long conversations before he left for his cabin at night on the ship. He felt a little closer to her now, and that was a blissful sensation indeed. She had been troubled before, but now… she seemed hopeful. She had heard him out… and she understood him. Maybe she didn't agree with everything… maybe she didn't want to take the throne for herself in the end. But she smiled anyways after their kiss broke off, and his heart soared because of it.

Iroh seemed relieved when Azula returned in better spirits… and he didn't ignore the bold handholding between the pair of teenagers. He held back a smile, though he remained silent until Azula's voice reached him.

"Our next goal should be gathering support throughout the Earth Kingdom," Azula declared, firmly, as though she hadn't been upset mere moments ago. "I propose we go to the largest cities, especially if you have any contacts in them. We'll find a proper earthbending master for Aang eventually, I'd assume."

"That… yes, sounds reasonable," Iroh said, nodding. "Then… we'll leave Omashu be?"

"We don't have much of a choice, do we?" Azula sighed. "And we still have a war and a Fire Lady to stop. At all costs. If King Bumi is sure he can fix this himself somehow, it's his business, but we can move forward regardless. There's no reason to think the war effort should be over only because Omashu has fallen."

Her renewed determination, after her previous bout of frustration, had soothed Iroh deeply. He smiled again as they made arrangements to continue their journey, and while they wouldn't have it as easy to travel as before, for they'd need to leave their soldiers on the ship if they didn't want to garner unwanted attention in Earth Kingdom settlements, their reinvigorated direction aided the group's mood greatly.

The city of Gaoling was their next goal, and while Iroh took his time to arrange matters to gain the local nobles' favor, the younger members of the group busied themselves with finding an earthbending master for Aang. After a fruitless attempt to have him train in Master Yu's school, they found out about an underground earthbending battling ring… and while Azula enjoyed watching her boyfriend – the word still felt foreign, but she was growing used to it gradually – screaming excitedly to his heart's content over each combat, she enjoyed nothing quite as much as his horror when the champion of these duels stepped into the fray at last, and defeated Sokka's favorite fighter with nothing but a few well-calculated blows.

Aang had been convinced immediately that the small girl was his fated master, but his intervention in the fights, and attempt to challenge her only to request her help, hadn't gone so well. In the end, they wound up returning to the earthbending school in hopes to track down any information about the Blind Bandit, but their best attempts amounted to nothing. In the end, they merely followed Iroh into yet another one of his meetings with local nobles… and curiously, a small girl in the Beifong family looked enough like the Blind Bandit – and even acted like her, whenever her parents weren't watching, by lashing out at Aang when he dared tell her the dress suited her too – that it seemed they had happened to discover her identity all the same: the blind daughter of the richest family in Gaoling, Toph Beifong.

What followed that discovery was a spree of wild madness: Aang and Toph were taken prisoners by Sokka's admired earthbending fighter, and as much as Azula, Katara, Sokka and Iroh rushed to their rescue, Toph ended up defeating all the enemies herself. Even then, her parents seemed unwilling to allow her to leave with them… and it seemed she truly did wish to, despite she had rejected the notion of teaching Aang any earthbending so far, even after he told her he was the Avatar.

Yet, just as they were ready to give up…

"I… think I shall have a chat with the Beifongs, before we go," Iroh told Azula, with a bright grin. Azula blinked blankly.

"Are you sure about that?" she asked. "I thought you'd already said they weren't going to be much help in the war effort…"

"That's still true. But I may be able to resolve another problem, if I play my tiles right," Iroh grinned, patting her shoulder before reentering the Beifong mansion.

"What do you think he'll do?" Sokka asked, clasping Azula's hand in his own. Azula grimaced.

"Knowing him? Charm the Beifongs into letting Toph come with us," she said. Sokka scoffed, and Aang groaned.

"It'll never work…" Aang pouted. "They won't let her."

"It's not very likely," Sokka agreed. Katara sighed in defeat as well.

"We'll have to find someone else to…"

"Hey, guys! I'm coming with you!"

Toph voice broke through the conversation: they all turned around in utter disbelief to find the earthbender's parents were crying, hugging Iroh, talking about entrusting their daughter's safety to him. Toph was still wearing her fancy regal clothes, but she had put together a quick bag anyway, and she rushed towards them and Appa with the brightest grin on her face.

"Told you," Azula smiled dryly, as Sokka laughed and shook his head.

"He'd charm a starving man out of his last breadcrumbs, looks lik,e" Sokka said. "That's one less problem, right? We have our earthbender! And now…"

"Now… Ba Sing Se," Azula said, glancing at him with determination: that next goal would be pivotal, crucial, in ending the war to their favor.

They traveled by bison at first, intending to catch up with their ship again halfway through the ocean. Whenever they stopped for a short break, Aang and Toph would work on their earthbending training, or Aang and Katara would work on their waterbending instead. In the meantime, Iroh continued to craft his plans for the next stages of their rebellion… and Azula and Sokka either helped him or hid away for a while for further privacy, returning to the group half an hour later, holding hands and smiling rather carelessly. And while Azula had no intentions of chatting with her uncle about her growing relationship with the Water Tribesman, she certainly had noticed he seemed more likely to smile at her these days, watching over her as, perhaps, a doting father might… not that she thought her own father would ever have approved of this relationship, though. It was, perhaps, an advantage that it was Iroh with her right now, while she explored this rather new walk of life with Sokka.

Toph wasn't particularly thrilled to be stuck on a metal ship once they reached their favored means of transportation, and often demanded she and Aang took off on Appa so they could get some training done in the outskirts of the eastern Earth Kingdom. The pair had only returned from one such journey when one of the soldiers informed Iroh that Ba Sing Se's wall was within view.

"Very well… very well," Iroh nibbled on the tip of his thumb, as his niece stood beside him, arms crossed.

"How will we get in?" she asked. "I doubt we'll find a sewer to sneak through this time… and I also doubt I'll bump into any of my friends here to give us a hand. Do you have any contacts in the city?"

"Regrettably… none I've been able to reach," said Iroh. "But it makes no matter! We shall find a way through, Azula. I have a few ideas on how to do it: we can go incognito! Pretend to be travelers, innocent ones, completely harmless…"

"And how will innocent travelers ever earn an audience with the Earth King?" Sokka asked, blinking blankly: as ever, he stood beside Azula, a hand on her waist.

"Oh, you needn't worry, young man!" Iroh declared, proudly, rubbing his hands together. "I'll see to it myself. You'll be surprised just how far a careful set of words can bring you, if you speak them to the right person!"

"Huh…?" said Sokka, though he smiled at Azula. "Guess he might pull off the same thing he did in Gaoling, right?"

"Maybe. Is that what you intend?" Azula asked Iroh. He chuckled and shrugged.

"Just wait patiently, Princess Azula," he said, determined and enthusiastic. "I shall not lead any of you astray!"

"Well… that sure didn't go as planned, eh?" Iroh smiled awkwardly, at the four sets of glaring eyes that bore into him… and the scowling, sightless eyes that weren't aimed in his direction, but might as well have been.

Being stuck in a narrow space with Sokka's arms around her body wouldn't have displeased Azula under any other circumstances… but a prison cell could easily kill any romantic mood she might have felt, and she certainly had felt none from the moment they had been captured and dragged into Ba Sing Se as prisoners rather than honored guests, regardless of Iroh's many promises.

Their attempt to enter the city through the passports Iroh had procured for them – with the help of some mysterious associate he had met while they traveled with Appa near the Misty Palms Oasis – had been an absolute failure. While he had certainly charmed the woman at the counter, he had failed catastrophically at talking them out of a Dai Li inspection right afterwards. Even though all of them were clad in Earth Kingdom clothes, and Aang's every arrow was perfectly covered with a large hat and a tall collar, something about them had pissed off the earthbenders so much that they found themselves imprisoned in the Earth King's underground prisons now, and with very few hopes of escape, as far as they could tell.

"Ugh, just be quiet. I can try to get us out of here if I just… make a good key," Toph grumbled, using some of the earth of the ground to craft a useful method to either open or outright break the lock.

"We shouldn't even be here in the first place," Azula hissed, regardless of Sokka's soothing caresses to her hair. "What did you say to those bastards? It felt like they just decided to lock us up because they were annoyed by your rambling."

"Maybe. I am good at charming with words… not so good without them," Iroh admitted, stroking his beard.

"But it is excessive, isn't it?" Sokka reasoned. "I mean… unless they figured out who we are? Or at least, who you guys are? I'd think no one knows about Aang yet, right? Even in Omashu he didn't do anything too damning, did he?"

"No, and I deliberately held off from telling Mai who he was," Azula said. "While she's not a bad person, as far as I know, any information she gained on us could be used to destroy us. So… no, I didn't tell her. And in that darkness, I'm not sure if anyone could've noticed it if he was airbending."

"Then maybe they know who you and Iroh are," Katara mused, biting her lip. "Do you think that's possible?"

"Well… yes," Azula conceded.

"We're not very popular at the moment," Iroh admitted, closing his eyes.

"But would the Earth Kingdom know that?" Katara asked.

"They certainly know me as the man who tried to overtake their city, so… I can't say it's too surprising if they want me dead," Iroh admitted. "They may have simply seized us all just because they recognized me, despite the passports."

"And I guess maybe they could've captured Iroh to use him as a hostage to negotiate with the Fire Nation?" Sokka asked. "Just a thought…"

"Might just be the truth, actually," Azula mumbled, frowning.

That gloomy, discouraging possibility was followed up by a surprising sound: metal, screeching in a rather unexpected, unnatural manner.

"Toph?" Sokka called the youngest member of the group. She stood by the door and turned with a rather devious smirk.

"I, uh… think I discovered something," she said.

"Did you… y-you just broke through the metal door?!" Aang gasped, upon glimpsing that Toph's hand was past the door, through a small hole she had dug into it somehow. She couldn't have looked prouder.

"Guess… I'm a metalbender," she announced, grinning.

They were racing down the Palace basement's corridors moments afterwards, speeding up as fast as they could, hoping to find a hiding place, anywhere safe where they might be able to cheat the Dai Li, and either get out of the city or contact the king directly, and inform him of their situation. Aang spotted a staircase that led to the upper floors, and they all rushed towards it in a hurry…

"Wait. I sense people!" Toph exclaimed, grimacing before pulling out a chunk of the wall to use as a weapon against whoever stood outside the prison block's doors.

The others merely stepped out of the way while the earthbender heaved the massive projectile and tossed it, busting the door off its hinges, startling the soldiers in red and in green right outside the…

Red?

Azula's eyes widened when she identified those helmets, those dark uniforms, highlighted in crimson. But most of all, everyone gasped when an onslaught of fire scorched Toph's projectile and blasted it out of the way…

Azula's heart sank. It sank deeper and deeper as soon as she saw those crimson robes fully: Imperial Firebenders. That could only mean…

"Oh, dear. I suppose you've made rather uncivilized friends who cannot seem to greet others in an acceptable manner, haven't you? I expected something classier from you, Azula."

Her heart couldn't seem to settle between racing or stopping when her golden eyes found the honeyed-poison ones of the woman who had just spoken her name with derision. The woman who stood behind the Imperial Firebenders who had just stepped out of the way… revealing her, as well as a young man who stood beside her, proud and strong in his gold-lined armor, his chin held high despite his eyes betrayed a joviality and innocence that didn't befit a Crown Prince.

A joviality and innocence completely absent in the eyes of the woman he followed most obediently.

Azula felt Sokka tensing up beside her. She could tell Aang was nervous, that even Toph was doubting, that Katara was frantically looking for a way out, despite they were surrounded by hostile soldiers of two nations that should have only been enemies… that Iroh was as furious as she was, and for once, failing to conceal it properly.

This was why they had been imprisoned. This was why their plans were failing: she had made her move. And whatever her plans were now, she intended to take Ba Sing Se for herself. Perhaps she already had.

"Well?" said the elegant woman, raising her eyebrows skeptically. "Did they infect you with that uncivilized behavior, by any chance? Glaring at me in such a manner is most unbefitting, Azula…"

"How… how dare you…?" Azula hissed, her furious eyes gleaming. "Why are you…?! How are you even here?!"

The woman smiled, and Azula's tightened fists seemed poised to shatter with all her charged fury. Once she had pretended to be gentle, kind, a perfect mother with no ill intentions… she had long put aside such pretenses, and now stood before her with no masks, whatsoever.

"Answer me…" Azula snarled, glaring so fiercely it seemed she intended to set the woman on fire through willpower alone: "What are you doing here, Mother?!"

The soldiers had dragged most the group back to the prison cells. They had been locked in another one, this time with guards poised watching them, ensuring that even if they managed another miraculous escape that defied sense and reality, they wouldn't be able to make it very far without alerting the whole Palace that they were running. It seemed, to Azula's utter chagrin, that their first escape attempt had been a failure by mere chance: had Toph released them merely ten minutes earlier, they might have been able to get away.

"It was rather amusing, I must say. I had intended to visit you and your uncle, of course," Ursa was reciting, as she paced inside a Palace sitting room, a cup of steaming tea in her hand. She had poured another one, but Azula, the only other occupant in the room, by Ursa's express request, refused to touch it, no matter how parched she was. "But you two merely rushed me and my procession just when we were handling the security details regarding how to head down into that dark prison block as safely as possible! Amusing, truly…"

"You still haven't answered me," the exiled Princess said, her head hung, her arms chained behind her back, shackled just as her feet were, held down on the heavy table. She had managed to sit down… but that was as far as her movements would get her, apparently. "Why… why are you here? How? The Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation have been at war for…"

"For a hundred years, even longer if you're to take into account how poorly the Earth Kingdom responded to Fire Lord Sozin's first colonies, yes," Ursa said, carelessly, taking her seat at the other side of the table. She was the picture of regal luxury, clad in beautiful robes, sporting as many jewels and royal artifacts as she dared wear… whereas Azula was in an incognito outfit, filthy from her time in jail, her hair in disarray. And where Azula sat on the floor, without even a cushion, her mother relaxed in a smooth lounge, reclining sideways into perfect comfort. "Isn't it a rather drab business, the war? I've had to continue it, of course, the nation would've stood for nothing else, but… oh, there just had to be more effective ways to resolve all this, don't you believe?"

"Effective?" Azula repeated, breathing heavily. "Like what? Are you… y-you're trying to enter an alliance with the Earth King?"

"Trying? Do you really think I'd be here if I hadn't succeeded?" Ursa smirked. Azula's aghast expression only amused her mother further. "It wasn't quite so difficult, mind you: just a little persuasion goes a long way with unseasoned kings who don't know any better. King Kuei isn't even aware there's a war… his fool of an advisor never told him as much. Once I arrived for a diplomatic visit, how could they have refused me?"

"He didn't tell him…? The Earth King didn't know there was a war?" Azula asked. "That's absurd! How could they shelter him to a point where…?"

"Isn't it utterly embarrassing, really?" Ursa said, smiling and shaking her head. "I almost felt sorry for the poor thing. He's infatuated with me too, you see… perfectly useful for my purposes, of course. If I give him enough reason to believe he'll ever be able to craft a permanent alliance between our nations, he'll wind up signing his whole continent to me without his awareness…"

"And that's when you'll strike," Azula hissed, resisting the urge to spit at her mother right then and there. "Guess that's what you stoop to nowadays, huh? Seducing men to get your way?"

"Oh, don't be so dramatic. It's hardly my fault men are quite so foolish and gullible," Ursa said, raising her eyebrows dismissively as she took to checking her makeup. Azula snarled.

"That's surely what you thought of my father too, isn't it? Foolish and gullible… and then you killed him. You killed him, just as you killed my grandfather, all for Zuko's sake…!"

"Honestly, child," Ursa said, rolling her eyes before glancing at her skeptically. "Do you truly believe your incompetent father could've run this nation and finished this war with anything short of Sozin's Comet's second coming? Even then, he surely would have failed. He filled his mind with absolute delusions about how that throne belonged to him… as though he'd ever be capable of ruling without sending the whole nation into chaos and disaster. Am I questioned over my rise into power? No doubt: is the Fire Nation thriving, more than it ever did before? Of course it is. And neither your father nor your thrice-accursed grandfather could've achieved that. The Fire Nation's better than it ever was, and it's all because of me."

"I have a hard time believing that," Azula hissed. Ursa let out a soft chuckle and she shook her head.

"No doubt. You were your father's beloved golden daughter, weren't you?" Ursa said. "I suppose you would feel rather differently if he had been Fire Lord for longer than a week. And what a tragedy that was…"

"Tragedy? Tragedy?!" Azula snarled. "You and I both know you were behind that! You were! Quit playing pretense and admit it, if not to the world, to me! You've lied to my face for years, and then got rid of me because you knew I'd discover the truth! Now you've trapped me because you know I'm a threat! If you'll just lock me away somewhere, the least you can do for your daughter is admit your blasted crimes!"

"Lock you away? Oh, dear, again with the histrionics…" Ursa sighed, standing up and making her way to a nearby armoire. Azula glared at her mother fierce, wrestling with her chains, wishing she could move beyond being chained to the damn table. "What makes you think I'd want to keep you imprisoned, Azula, really?"

Azula huffed, breathing heavily as the reality and weight of those words sank inside her very soul. No, her mother didn't traditionally take prisoners. What she did was…

Her eyes widened just as Ursa turned around, a small vial of translucent liquid in her hands.

"Calm down, Sokka… you won't help her just by fretting in here," Katara told her brother, but Sokka refused to listen to reason.

"We have to get out. We have to. Toph, please…"

"There's a lot of soldiers out there," Toph said, biting her lip. "If we wait for a change of shift…"

"That could be too late!" Sokka exclaimed. "Azula is alone with her murderous mother! There's no way she'll be fine there, damn it! We have to…!"

"Shh," Toph said, suddenly. "Someone's coming."

Sokka fell silent begrudgingly, his heart racing and aching on equal amounts. No, no, no, he couldn't lose Azula, he simply couldn't lose her… he felt as though he were falling off Appa, with an unbearable vertigo, as though the whole world would shatter if he couldn't reach her on time…

The footsteps Toph had heard were audible eventually, and they stopped at their cell. The voice that accompanied them was only familiar for one member of their group, once they heard it:

"Leave me. I'll speak to my Uncle alone."

Wait… soldiers, dismissed? Sokka's eyes gleamed. It was their chance…!

Iroh shot him a warning glare, and Sokka's soaring heart sank all over again. Iroh turned towards the door, waiting for the young man outside to stop breathing heavily and to speak, outright.

"I… I'm sorry you're imprisoned, Uncle," said none other than Azula's brother, of course: Zuko. "I didn't want you to be, but Mother… she thinks you're dangerous. I've told her you're not, that you'd never hurt me, but she's sure you can't be trusted. I'm sorry she sent you away with Azula, you two never got along… it must have sucked. But hey, I'll try to convince Mother to let you stay with us! I'll be Fire Lord this year, so if you're patient I can revoke your exile sooner than you thought! You'll be able to come back home, Uncle… and I know things between you and Mother are messy, but I'll help you fix it. I will. I just… I miss you."

Sokka's harsh glare warned Iroh not to do anything foolish either. Iroh held his gaze for a moment, nodding weakly before speaking through the door.

"I missed you too, my nephew," he said, smiling heartily, offering his words yet another coating of warmth and kindness. "It wasn't easy, no… but while I didn't expect to reunite with you while I'm imprisoned, I sure rejoiced in it all the same. You've grown into a very handsome young man! Surely all the ladies in the city want to marry you…"

"Oh, haha, well, yeah…" Zuko laughed outside. Iroh grinned.

"I trust you, my nephew. I know your heart is in the right place. I'll wait until you can help me, but… is it okay if I make one request right now?"

"Sure! Anything you want, Uncle!"

"I would very much like to see your face properly… and give you a big hug."

Sokka blinked blankly. Katara and Aang stared at Iroh in confused chagrin while Toph's jaw dropped. No way. That was so obvious, it was even worse than ANYTHING he'd said to the Dai Li earlier…

"Oh… I'd need the keys for that. Give me a second! Guards!"

Iroh smirked, and Toph had to cover her mouth to avoid chortling. Sokka bit his lip, his heart racing at haste yet again…

The lock slid open. The door swung outwards. The regal Fire Prince, soon to be Fire Lord, stood right outside, smiling warmly at his uncle…

Iroh sighed and spread his arms, and Zuko knelt before hugging him. Iroh rocked him gently in his arms, and Zuko chuckled, no doubt elated that his perfect life would only improve from now on…

And then his whole body seemed to go numb right after Iroh's hand pinched him right at the nape of his neck.

"W-wha…?" he said, his voice trembling: even speaking seemed near impossible to him now. What on earth…?

"I'm sorry, Zuko. But I won't abandon your sister."

Sokka didn't wait for another moment before rushing the guards right outside: Toph helped him by slamming some into a wall while he attacked two with powerful bare fists, and Aang joined in by using his own earthbending to fight back. Katara smiled wildly as she leapt over Iroh and Zuko: the old general was pulling his nephew inside the prison cell, and he laid him there just after all the nearby guards were defeated: the betrayal in Zuko's eyes was heartbreaking.

"I'm sorry, truly," Iroh said, nodding in his direction before closing the door, locking it firmly.

"For a second there I thought…" Sokka told Iroh, breathing heavily. Iroh scoffed.

"You think I'd ever join my sister-in-law? After everything she's done?" Iroh said. "No matter how honeyed Zuko's words may be… I won't abandon Azula. You're not the only one who's loyal to her, you hear me?"

Sokka smiled and nodded, just as Katara returned to him, strapping her waterbending pouches to her body while handing Sokka his weapons.

"We need to find Azula," Sokka said, firmly. "Toph! Help us track her down!"

"Aye-aye, captain!"

They didn't waste time rushing to the stairs: Toph and Aang tore open the ceiling and they raised their group to the next floor with earthbending. There was no point in stealth anymore, not when they knew this was an enemy best fought through unpredictability… Sokka breathed deeply, leaping off the earthbending pillar once they reached solid ground – albeit now torn with a huge hole –, while Toph and Aang slammed their bare feet into the ground, searching the Palace's upper floors with seismic sense until they located Azula…

"You'll get your answer, I said… once you drink this. Simple, right?" Ursa smirked, stepping towards her daughter: Azula pulled away violently, keeping her lips tightly shut as her mother knelt beside her. "And here I thought you wanted to know the truth. Don't you want to anymore, Azula? That's just so confusing and contradictory…"

Azula would've snarled, would've protested, if she had thought her mother wouldn't empty the vial's contents in her mouth as soon as she dared separate her lips. Curse everything… curse it all. That was how she'd done it, then. Poison… a suitable weapon for one who didn't dirty her hands willingly. She was ever the picture of perfection… and now she intended to destroy her, just as she had destroyed her father. How many people had she killed this way? How many had suspected her, known she was up to no good, and she had simply offed them right then and there? Azula couldn't even venture a guess. Her whole body screamed rejection, and she tugged at her chains in a hopeless attempt to release herself from the shackles…

But Ursa only smirked where she knelt, cockily raising her eyebrows defiantly, waiting for Azula to make a mistake. Hoping to goad her into making them, even.

"It's supposed to be tasteless. You surely won't feel a thing," she said. "Your father was quite calm when he drank it mixed with a cup of rice wine that night, if I recall right. Oh, no… it was lychee wine, wasn't it?"

Azula gasped: Ursa made her move: Azula screamed as her mother held her jaw forcefully, preventing Azula from slamming her mouth shut as she had intended to… and pouring the contents of the vial right into her mouth.

"That being said… I could've mixed it with your tea, if you preferred that. Would it have been better, perhaps? You might have enjoyed it better, right, Azula?" Ursa smirked: now she held the exiled Princess's jaw closed, doing her very best to prevent her from spitting out the liquid.

Azula's face was contorted with outrage, disgust and fear. She was going to die, she was actually going to die… and her mother had admitted the truth. She had admitted this was how she'd killed so many people, so many times…

"How I've longed for this moment…" Ursa said, holding her daughter down still, in a more violent display of strength than any Azula had seen from her until that day. "How I've wanted to get rid of your meddling, you spoiled brat. You won't take your brother's throne for yourself the way your damn father did with your uncle. Oh, yes, your uncle deserved it, but Zuko… he's the one true Fire Lord. And you… you were never meant to be born. You were an unwanted accident, one I'll put an end to, right now…!"

The floor underneath the table collapsed suddenly, loudly: Ursa gasped, her control on the situation shattering for long enough to release Azula… and for Azula to spit the entire content of the vial in her mother's face, to Ursa's horror.

She'd still need to rinse off, she had to do it as soon as possible, that damn thing had to be potent if Ursa believed such a small amount would suffice for murder… one quick glance nearly made her cry of joy rather than despair: tears did burn in her eyes after Ursa had damn near killed her, but they gained a new meaning now as Sokka jumped out of the hole in the ground towards her, concern clear in his face.

"Azula! Azula, I'm here, we're here…!"

"What have you done to her?!" Iroh bellowed, rushing towards Ursa and clasping her by the neck of her long dress. "Answer me!"

"P-poison…" Azula coughed, trying to spit out the remnants of the thing: Katara knelt before her, offering her some of her bending water to rinse her mouth fully, perhaps too invasively, but Azula didn't care. Not if it meant she'd survive… and she truly expected she would be, with Katara's help, while Sokka held her closely.

"To think I complained about my family being boring," Toph growled, holding a boulder at the ready to attack the Fire Lady.

"How could you do this to your own daughter?!" Aang asked, aghast. "You… you're not worthy of leading the Fire Nation! What you've done here today will be known…!"

"Ha! What's a child like you going to do anyways? I have soldiers, an army…!" Ursa shouted.

"And I'm the Avatar!" Aang shouted: yet it wasn't his voice alone: a sudden flash of light startled all of them, for his eyes had gained an unexpected white gleam, as well as the arrows in his body. Ursa's jaw dropped, and she trembled in Iroh's grip, even once the brightness faded, and the young boy no longer channeled a strange energy through his body. "I won't allow you to continue destroying this world's balance, or your own family, as you have! This war is over, and you're…!"

He fell silent when Azula rose to her feet, near stumbling as her blood rushed vertiginously through her veins. Iroh gazed at her with concern, as did Sokka, who held her gently…

"Toph. Can you… get rid of these chains?"

Toph did as she was told immediately, setting down her boulder to do so. It was a strange suspense that spread across the room, as Azula waited until each shackle was off… but she held the chains all the same. And she glared at her mother with mad fury across her bloodshot eyes.

"You killed my father," Azula said, firmly. "You poisoned his drink. You poisoned my grandfather just the same. You've killed countless in this manner, and admitted to planning on taking advantage of the Earth King for your schemes…"

"You… have no evidence…!" Ursa said, though her poised elegance was gone now: it was her turn to fear, for all tides had been turned against her: where were her soldiers? The Dai Li she had stolen out of Long Feng's control, after ensuring one of the kitchen cooks poisoned his meal? No one was coming to the rescue, but someone had to, someone would… "W-where's Zuko? What have you done to my son?!"

"He's safe and sound. Trust me, he'll never get the same treatment you will," Iroh said, scowling at Ursa.

"Yes. Zuko will live," Azula said, ominously. "She won't."

Her words floored everyone within the room, even the young man who held Azula closely. He gasped, tugging her towards him, but Azula clasped the chains with her now free hands, glaring at Ursa furiously.

"Azula, no!" Sokka exclaimed. "You can't just…!"

"She damn near killed me! She meant to, and she would've killed each of us, one by one, until no one stood against her!" Azula shouted back, trembling violently as she leveled her glare at Ursa. "I won't… I won't let you hurt anyone I love ever again… never again. I will kill you. I will kill you!"

"Azula, stop!" Sokka said, pulling her into an embrace she tried to shake off. Azula snarled, feeling the tears running down her face as she built her resolve: one murder, one more death, and the world would be set right. That was all it took, that was all… "You can break the damn cycle. We talked about this! You can put an end to the misery, to the hatred in the Fire Nation… but not if you continue what your mother already started. Not if you kill her now, just as she killed your father! Your people won't think you're any better than her! They'll assume you don't belong on a throne any more than she does…"

"I don't need a damn throne!" Azula shouted. "I just need…! I just need…!"

"You don't need to kill her. You think you do… but you're a better person than she could ever be," Sokka said, burying his face in her neck.

"Violence and death… that's what the Hundred Year War has been about," Aang said, gazing at Azula sadly. "Maybe… maybe it's not what you want to hear now. But… I think Sokka is right."

"I won't tell you she deserves better than death," Sokka said, gritting his teeth. "What she's done… what she nearly did to you, I want to kill her for that, too! But Azula… if she's dead, the world…"

"The cycle… won't ever break…" Azula whispered, gritting her teeth. "If I kill her…"

"You… you shouldn't kill me, no!" Ursa said, clinging to the sudden possibility of survival that had reared its head when she expected otherwise. "Azula, truly, I only did everything for Zuko! Your grandfather would've killed him, and your father would've done worse…!"

"Shut the hell up!" Azula shouted, glaring at her again. Ursa gritted her teeth, as Iroh scowled at her too.

"No past crimes by your victims will justify what you've done," Iroh said. "You killed my father… and my brother. You nearly killed my niece, too. You've corrupted my nephew's mind while he was none the wiser. And while you won't die today… you shall spend every last day of your life paying for those crimes."

"N-no… no, Iroh, you can't do this to me… I'm the Fire Lady… I'm the Fire Lady!" Ursa shouted. Iroh smirked.

"Not anymore, you're not," he said, curtly.

The meaning of his words wasn't clear, not beyond the obvious: Ursa would be deposed officially, starting today. The bulk of the soldiers who meant to protect her had been defeated effectively by their surprise attacks while they rushed to find Azula: next, they'd visit the Earth King, and explain everything to him thoroughly. And once they were ready, they'd return to the Fire Nation… and Ursa wouldn't see the light of day for the rest of her life.

But who would take her position instead? No one could tell just yet. There was one candidate, locked in a prison, stealthily chi-blocked by his uncle. There was another, cradled in her boyfriend's arms, crying in despair as she relented, accepting that her revenge wasn't what was best for the world, no matter how deserved it might be. And the final candidate, born and raised under the belief that he'd become Fire Lord one day, seemed to believe a new, fresher generation was better than himself for the role.

And as they lingered inside that room, calming down, waiting for the remaining, loyal soldiers to the Earth King to arrive upon being summoned by Toph's shouts out the window, none of them knew what the future would bring… but with Ursa defeated at last, it seemed fitting to believe the war was finally over. It hadn't been the epic bending brawl many expected… but when it came to ending wars, especially the long ones, what mattered most to anyone was that it was finally over, regardless of the manner in which they ended.

A world in peace was a concept that had eluded most their generations. That the Fire Nation would have suddenly withdrawn its troops from the Earth Kingdom, that they had signed treaties of peace with all remaining nations, would have sounded as an impossible, absurd delusion for most people… and yet it was their new reality. A reality that many people cherished deeply, though few cherished it quite as much as the heroes who, in a rather unexpected manner, had defeated the woman who had led the Fire Nation for the last six years.

Zuko, despite all hopes, had taken Iroh's actions as an unbearable betrayal. He would have been granted leniency, but he wanted none of it: he sought to attack his uncle and his sister as soon as he had a chance, demanding for reparations, for justice to be served, for his mother's freedom to be restored… and as much as it had pained Iroh, he had no choice but to restrain Zuko as well. His loyalty to Ursa was unquestioned… but misplaced, just as well. He would be likely to receive second chances in the future… but not until he was ready to listen to the truth. And for now, he certainly was anything but ready for that conversation.

The widespread fear Ursa had subjected her people to became apparent once Azula and Iroh returned home as the new leaders of the Fire Nation: they never expected a hero's welcome, and yet that was what they had received nonetheless. After many debates and thorough conversations with the nobles, the unanimous decision was made: Iroh would take the position of regent for a few years, to guide the transition between Ursa's rule and Azula's future one. The reinstated Princess wouldn't be crowned right away, but the Fire Nation had readily accepted her as their next ruler just the same. Surely occasional opposition would rise, as Ursa's loyalists would still linger somewhere… but fortunately, Azula had more than enough loyalists of her own to back her up.

The most important of them, of course, were currently in the Palace's garden, three of them engrossed in an all-out triple bending battle: Aang laughed as his airbending skills helped him avoid Katara and Toph's attacks, which too often resulted in the two girls striking each other instead. Azula was amused as well as she watched their fight, leisurely relaxing in Sokka's arms as he cuddled her gently.

"Odd… we were supposed to teach him all the elements, but the war ended without him learning any fire," Azula said. Sokka chuckled, kissing her brow.

"The war is over, though. He has plenty of time to learn now," he said. "And he'll have a great teacher, right? Whether you, or Iroh…"

"Eh, I'd be a dreadful teacher…"

"Heh! I'm only a decent warrior now thanks to you, you hear me? I learned a lot from you!"

Azula laughed, nuzzling his neck as she released a deep breath. Sokka smiled, rubbing her back reassuringly: these days, his tense Princess had been much more relaxed than usual. Coming home had done her good, he had no doubts about it… but perhaps it was also the knowledge that she'd helped set the world onto a better course that allowed her to breathe more easily. Her fingers clung to his shirt, clasping it gently, ensuring they'd stay close together for as long as possible… stabilized by the young man who had become her most loyal supporter, and the kindest boyfriend she could have ever hoped to find.

"I know it'll still be a while… and you should make sure to rest and recover from your years on the road while you can," Sokka said, rocking her gently in his arms. "But… I can't wait to see the wonders you'll weave, Fire Lord Azula."

"Wonders?" Azula repeated, smiling weakly. "I doubt that…"

"I don't," Sokka grinned enthusiastically.

"Who'd have thought the most loyal of my subjects wouldn't even be from my nation, huh?" Azula smiled, raising her head towards. him "Somehow… it feels fitting, too."

"We're breaking the cycle," Sokka said. "Marrying a Water Tribe guy? Sounds like just the way to break it for good, as far as I can tell. No old, outdated traditions will ever be followed: time to bring about harmony and peace in the best way possible, right, Azula?"

"By marrying each other? In a few years, that is," Azula said, smiling warmly. "I wouldn't trust anyone else to be my husband anyway."

"And I wouldn't trust anyone else to be my wife," Sokka said, stroking her hair. "It is kind of funny how life turns out, huh? We've come full circle, completely…"

"We have. And I'm definitely proud of it," Azula smiled, raising her head to kiss his lips. "Though… there's one thing left to do, to finish that notion."

"Oh yeah?" Sokka asked, amused.

"I… think I might love you too," Azula said, teasingly. "And even if I don't, I want to."

"Ah… hah," Sokka laughed, pressing his brow to hers. Azula grinned, kissing him again. "You're always so clever… always so clever."

Azula laughed as they exchanged more kisses, deliberately ignoring the loud, rowdy bending battle in the gardens. And from the corner of the nearest corridor, Iroh smiled fondly too, watching his niece from a distance. Theirs had been a strained relationship for a long time… but it certainly wasn't that anymore. Azula had been deeply grateful upon hearing of what he'd done to help save her… how he had set aside Zuko, and privileged her safety instead. By now, their relationship was better than ever… and it would continue to be, Iroh knew, as long as he didn't interfere in her private moments with her beloved Water Tribe warrior.

"I, too, can barely wait to see the wonders you shall weave," Iroh spoke quietly, closing his eyes and turning his back on the Princess.

She would make an excellent Fire Lord, he was sure of that… but for now, he would let her enjoy her time with her closest friends, in a peaceful environment, with no heavy pressures weighing on her shoulders. After all the hardships she had endured, and the pain she had suffered through, he had no doubts she had earned these miraculous moments of peace. Yes, peace, no doubt, was the best word to describe the beautiful scene he had just witnessed at a distance in the palace's garden, and in his earnest opinion, no one deserved such blissful harmony quite as much as Azula did.

A/N:

While I have no doubts I've cemented myself a terrible reputation for all my Ursa portrayals, I do want to set clear that I didn't write this particular entry to villify her, despite that's what it'll look like to some... the truth is, the whole basis of this idea came from the very frequently debated AUs where Azula is the banished one, rather than Zuko. I pondered under which circumstances could Azula EVER wind up banished at a young age, as well as how the blazes she'd ever be banished with Iroh, who'd most likely not join her of his own volition, if his characterization is kept true to his canon self. Then the idea of turning someone else into the bigger bad came to mind, someone both Azula and Iroh would develop personal grudges against, to the point of setting aside their differences to work together.

This is, therefore, just a matter of exploring storytelling possibilities for me - as can be obvious by the fact that this is, by FAR, my most favorable portrayal of Iroh up to date. I usually don't write him this way, just as I usually don't see Ursa as a character remotely as dark as she was in this entry: all was done for the sake of exploring storytelling posibilities and nothing else. One day I might surprise by offering you all a favorable Ursa portrayal, for a change! :'D All this being said, it's fine if you don't enjoy Ursa as I portrayed her here, but I want to set the record straight, it wasn't done for the sake of making her appear a fundamentally worse person than Ozai or anyone else. Basically, this is an Ursa who decided to stop at nothing to keep her son safe. And while that sounds pretty in paper, it can also have a very dark meaning, and that's why things turned out this way.

Hope you enjoyed this story anyway!

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pumpkinpaix · 5 years ago

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Hello! and PSA

*waves* hi everyone! so uh, I’ve kind of had a bit of a surge in followers recently, and I thought I would make a bit of a PSA/intro post with a bit more targeted info than my about page.

anyways, I’m cyan! statistically speaking, you are probably here for one of the following reasons:

my fic

my meta

my gifs

my translation

all of the above

this is pretty much an mdzs blog on main these days, but I also rb a lot of other misc things because I have never been good at keeping my interests separate. it’s also my personal blog, so expect some of that? i am very all or nothing ahaha. my opinions change very quickly as I process new information, so like, something I said last week or yesterday might be different now! I’ve seen several people going through some of my older posts, and I’m just like oh dear, I said a lot of things six months ago that I no longer vibe with. /o\ please keep that in mind as you go diving in my blog!

i don’t have a BYF or DNI policy, but I reserve the right to block anyone for any reason because this is a personal blog first and foremost, and I do need to be better about setting my boundaries and curating my own online space! on that same token, you are free to follow, unfollow, block, whatever, even if we’re mutuals. <3

you’re free to come talk to me in my inbox or dms, but please be aware that there’s a very high chance I will never get back to you /o\ it isn’t personal!! I am just very mentally ill and have many difficulties with keeping up social interactions or talking to people.

in the interest of trying to be more open about myself, my brain, and what that means for me in an online/fandom space, I’m gonna do a boatload of mental health talk under the cut (or, if you’re looking at this on my blog proper or somewhere where the cut doesn’t display, it starts right after this paragraph), including mentions of self-harm/thoughts of specific self-harm etc, just so you are warned! I’ve been thinking recently that it’s good to try and take steps towards being more open about my issues, both for my own sake and others’. It’s long, because one of the fun things about my mental illness is that I am hyperverbal ahahaha (if that... wasn’t already obvious orz)

so if you’ve read pfmmpd, you can kind of get a sense of what I’m working with. a lot of how i wrote lwj was drawn directly from shit happening in my own brain, but like? dial that up from the specific issues that lwj had in that fic and apply it unilaterally across the board to almost anything you can think of.

I hesitate to describe my OCD as debilitating, but only because my specific cocktail of compulsions and anxieties and triggers push me to be hyperachieving and hyperfunctional. I consider myself pretty fortunate (?) in that regard. on paper, you could never tell how absolutely batshit my internal landscape is! which is very good for me practically in that I can hold down a job, keep scholarships, graduate with honors, have good prospects for my future, hold onto relationships (usually yikes) etc. but the fact of the matter is, I’m like. oh boy.

to give you a peek, here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that have triggered me to varying degrees of severity within the last like, week or so:

my dog

a chinese folk song

my mother reading a chinese haiku to me written by a young gay man

a chinese reader of my fic lovingly and gently giving me a history lesson on china and on mdzs while praising me

stepping on a piece of snow that didn’t collapse in the precise way i expected it to

writing meta

reading meta

ruminating on my triggers (honestly, I played myself)

seeing a twitter thread going around tumblr with decent information but the OP is someone who was exceedingly cruel to a good friend of mine

visiting my grandmother’s grave

deciding to visit my grandmother’s grave

discussing the concept of cuddling my partner whom i love and have been with for four years

self-harming (truly the height of irony, being triggered into self-harm and then getting triggered by the result of the self-harm hahahahahaha)

dropping off a package

trying to explain queer-coding to my parents

talking about stressors in my life related to covid19

having a very pleasant conversation with a person i admire

editing my translation

the fact that the “close” button on my accessibility sidebar on the translation website is the wrong color

choosing between eating all the shiitake mushrooms in my soup and purposefully giving myself a bad reaction or throwing one out and wasting food

thinking about playing a fun game with my partner and a mutual friend

my mom asking me to take a photo of some tea for her

my mom asking my opinion on a photo she was photoshopping

animal crossing

writing this fucking post HAHAHAHA

like!! it goes on!! endlessly! obviously, these triggers are not simply “bad” things. the chinese folk song and the haiku were both really beautiful and i love them! but I did spend a good amount of time curled up on my floor in the dark sobbing as i played the song on repeat. the haiku was one of the last straws that ended up with me screaming and crying and hurting myself. the snow??? like wtf the snow thing. I stepped on the snow and it felt wrong and my brain just started screaming SMASH YOUR KNEECAP. ???? (I didn’t, for the record, and I would never.) I love my partner very much! I love my friends very much, and my mother, and my grandmother etc. my triggers are infinite, unpredictable, and bizarre.

I’m saying all of this because I want to be clear that MDZS/CQL fandom specifically triggers me on a daily basis, sometimes very very badly. this is just a fact! it is no one’s fault! I have decided it is worth it for me to stay anyways. it is impossible for me to request people tag for certain things because I myself have no idea what my triggers are until I encounter them. It’s like a fun mystery boss encounter! sometimes it’s low level and i’m well-equipped to handle it. other times it’s a one-hit KO. We just don’t know! there are lots of very cool content creators in this fandom that I can’t follow because it would make my dash that much more high stakes. the original source canon material triggers me! all the events leading up to Lotus Cove massacre? I was shaking at work for three hours after consuming it for the first time.

Meta specifically is something I know a lot of people like me for, but it’s 100% the most triggering activity I participate in for this fandom. like, that suibian meta post I wrote that’s currently going around? Probably took me four or five hours of concentrated effort to write because I was compulsively panicking and rewriting and editing and panicking more and qualifying and editing and qualifying some more and then debating whether I should post it or not and then fighting with myself about my wording and then immediately regretting it and then every time someone commented on it (regardless of positive or negative!) my anxiety spiked. I started a reply to a response on that post and had to stop after a few minutes because I was already starting to trigger myself over it.

this is actually a pretty good outcome when it comes to meta! I recognized that I was hurting myself before I got any further, and I only spent like, five hours on it! it was good exposure therapy for me! the bad outcome is. well. bad, as you might imagine lmao.

I like writing meta. I like talking to people about it too! I like participating in fandom, I like writing, I like translating, I like all of these things. they’re just also really hard for me! there’s a couple meta requests sitting in my inbox right now that I want to get to, but it might take me like. a long time because of. you know! *gestures* Everything takes me a long time. that first chapter of the translation took me literally five months from beginning the project to posting a final edited version. It’s just over 1k words. D8

I try really hard to be chill and kind in public and I largely think I succeed on the kind part (I hope!). If you thought I had even an ounce of chill before this, perhaps I have disabused of that notion entirely now lmao. I’m not saying this for pity, but like? just so we all know what we’re dealing with here. I don’t want anyone to get hurt when I don’t engage with them or feel snubbed if I never reply to them. and also like, hey, if someone relates it’s like hooray, high fave, solidarity! we’re not alone in this world! or maybe this will help someone understand OCD a little better! I don’t know. I hope this post is a positive thing. BUT! I’ve spent three hours on it already, and i’m definitely starting to compulsively spiral, so instead of going back and editing it over and over, I’m just going to post it. thank you everyone for your understanding! I hope you enjoy your time on my blog! (*´▽`*)

#/#//#///#////#/////#personal #psa #cyan gets too deep in the weeds #HA HA HA.#can't believe i'm using that tag on a personal post except like. of course i am #hello everyone are you ready for some cyan dlc?#well you're getting it #im anxious about this thing because i'm anxious about everything but!#we are doing exposure therapy this year!!#even if the world is burning down around us i can still try to confront my problems!!!#about

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trikxx · 4 years ago

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Lookk so to mention this is not just any friends to lovers story my toxic side is screaming friends with benefits type beat so😉 there will be some heartbreaking and Shinsou talking to other girls and you talking to other boys❤️❗️this is also a poc reader sooo read if you want i dont own you🤷🏽‍♀️

Songs for this chapter ⬇️

• B***h dont kill my vibe by kendrick Lamar

• in control nba youngboy

⚠️❗️marijuana use in this chapter❗️⚠️

"Alright we have 569 orders to pack Toshi." You say to Shinsou "ok hold on." Shinsou said licking and blunt to finish rolling it. You grabbed a box of packages and put it in the living room the grabbing your computer to print out labels and receipts.

You light a candle and turn on some music (the song at the top) Shinsou puts the blunt to the side and starts labeling the packages and putting the orders together in this order costumers order, business card, thank you card, and receipt. You do final packaging and stamp for the mail marking each order off the list and putting it in the box of finished orders.

"Hey n/n wanna go get a tattoo tomorrow?"

"Sure but where?"

"You remember Sero and Denki from Highschool?"

"Yea."

"Well they opened a tattoo spot on 58th." Shinsou said "Bet we can go." You respond putting another order in the box.

*DING*

"Who is it?" You ask Shinsou cause he pick up you phone. "Armoni." "What did he say?" "He said can he come over?" Shinsou responded "Are you ok with him coming over?" You say "Yea." "Ok then tell him Its ok."

Armoni⛓💵: Is it ok if i come over?

Y/n🤍🌸| Yea. You spending the night and do you need a ride?

Y/n🤍🌸| Also do ma know?

Armoni⛓💵: yea she know and no dad dropping me off.

Armoni⛓💵: ouu i can spend the night bet. Yea if thats the case.

Y/n🤍🌸: i didn't-

Y/n🤍🌸: Aight.

You and Shinsou start back in the orders soon finishing them. "I'm tired as fuck." You say flopping down on the couch "Get untired sweetheart cause your brother is coming over and we have a blunt to smoke and food to order." Shinsou said while laying across your legs.

Y/n's pov

Shinsou lit the blunt and hit it a few times. I looked at him as he let the smoke move out his mouth softly blowing with his head back. "Like what you see?" Shinsou said looking at me with a cocky smirk thats when I noticed I was staring "shut up and pass the blunt." I say. Shinsou chuckled and gave me the blunt. I did the same thing as Shinsou but blew o's "stop trying to show out n/n." Shinsou said taking the blunt "boy ain't nobody 'showing out'." I say putting up quotation marks with your hands.

We pass the blunt back a forth a few more times until I got a notification from life 360 saying Armoni go to the apartment. Shinsou put out the blunt and put it with the spongebob rolling tray we had. I cracked the window and opened the balcony door a little bit and went in my room to put the orders away.

When I came out the room someone started knocking on the door kinda like the police (strong ass knock✋🏽💀) "Armoni Keith l/n how manys time do I have to tell you stop knocking on my fucking door like that." I say opening the door. " Dang Im sorry you aint gotta cuss at me n/n" Armoni said "Aye Shinsou where the hoes?"

I smack Armoni on the back if the head while walking past him to the living room "Ain't no hoes." I say coldly. "Yea Armoni ain't no hoes.... right now." Shinsou said smirking. "Nigga." I say with a straight face. "Im not finna do this with ya'll tonight." Shinsou and Armoni start laughing "ANYWHOO. Did you eat yet Armoni cause was finna order some food."

"Nah not yet." Armoni said. "What do ya'll want to eat?" I say walking into the kitchen with my phone to grab an water and then lean on the island.

"What about taco bell?"

"Armoni who the fuck."(sorry to the people who like taco bell) I say "ima have to agree with y/n Armoni. Who eats Taco bell?" "Uhh..obviously me." Armoni says.

"Awe naw you gotta go." I say "how about in and out? We can go out and get that." K said "im cool with that" Armoni says. "Ok." I say walking to my room. I got in to my room and pull out a pair of jogging pants and a oversized (fav anime) shirt and took off my bonnet and styled my faux locs

I grabbed my purse and house and car keys. "Yall ready?" I ask putting on my air force ones. "Been ready. We was waiting for you." Shinsou said.

Time skip

I start up my car using my remote start while we were walking to the car in the parking garage.

Everyone gets in the car. "LET ME PLAY THE MUSIC!" Armoni yells "STOP FUCKING YELLING." And it depends on what you finna play." I say turning around to look at Armoni. "Come on n/n let him play the music." Shinsou said looking at me tilting his head with puppy dog eyes. "I guess." I say rolling my eyes. "Just dont play no trash shit." I said looking at him through the rear view mirror. "Ok ok and i was going to say yall had to cause yall smoked with out me." He said making this face '😌' "boy.."

Play in control by nba youngboy

"shhhhhhhh" Shinsou said putting his finger up to your mouth and pointing to the steering wheel. "Food." I side eyed him and started backing out the parking spot and driving out the garage. Armoni start playing Nba youngboy. As much as I wanted to turn it off Shinsou wouldn't let me so we had to flow with it.

"Sk machine guns its two of us wit four nines!" Armoni rapped with the song (in control-nba young boy only song i can get down to🙌🏽 edit- i put the wrong song🙂 if you listen to yb just ignore that🧍🏽‍♀️) I turned down the radio. "What do yall want from here?" I asked they both said what they wanted and i went inside and ordered the food. As im waiting a guy comes up to me "Damn, what a fine girl like you doing out by yourself." He says "ahaha" I said sarcastically "getting food." I say still looking down at my phone. "You should me get your number." He says "you should let me get your name." I respond dodging the request. " My name is Shindo and you?" "Y/n" i say

"Order number (blah blah blah)!" The cashier says "welp thats me." I said not wanting to talk to him anymore. "Here you go ma'am." R/n says handing my bag "Thank you, have a good night" i say walking towards the door. "Hey! Uhh.. y/n you said it was!" I heard the guy from before right when I walked out the door "Hey" I said putting on a fake smile. "Can I get your number?" He asked "yea sure" I say pulling out my phone to put his number in.

Shinsou's pov

As me and Armoni are just chilling the car I see y/n coming out on in and out but she getting stopped by someone "who the fuck.." I say "what wron... oh shit" Armoni says. "You know who that is?" Armoni asks me. "Not at all." I tell him. Im not gonna lie i was jealous. But like fr who is that. I see y/n put her phone back the guy tried to hug her but she away "she dont want em" me and Armoni said at the same time and busted out laughing

"What are yall laughing at?" Y/n said opening the back door putting the food in the car. "You petty for doing that to that dude." Armoni said trying to stop laughing. "Awe well he was the on that didn't realize." Y/n said " But you still gave him your number though ." I said. "Yea Im finna block his number rn." Y/n said pulling her phone back out.

Y/n's pov

"Aye. Disconnect from my car now." I said to Armoni "whyyyy?" Armoni whined. " Disconnect or get out. Either way your still disconnecting just the second one your walking." I said smiling at him "ok ok"

I started playing my playlist.

~Time skip~

Shinsou's pov

We got back to the apartment and everybody got comfortable and we ate and watched movies Armoni went into his room and got in the bed around 3 am. Me and y/n were still in the living room. Y/n was laying on me and I was laying on the couch.

~30 minutes later~

"Hey y/n..." she fell asleep on me. 'How cute' I chuckled and just stayed there not wanting to wake her up to put her in her bed. I kept watching f/a that Y/n had put on after Armoni went to bed.

*DING*

Kami💀⚡️: Yoooo are yall coming through to the shop tmrw

Hitoshi☄️: yea why wouldn't we😃.

Kami💀⚡️: just asking cause you guys change up plans really quick if ya know what i mean😉

Hitoshi☄️: stfu. It was only once.

Kami💀⚡️: if you say soo Hitoshi😌

Hitoshi☄️: stop fucking texting me.

It was only once we only did it once. Me and Y/n were supposed to go to their shop the other day but thing between me and y/n go heated and we ended up in bed together but thats besides the point. "Yo Hitoshi your still woke?" Armoni said walking into the living room. "Just up to get som..."Armoni stopped and look at me then down. "Uhmmm..." Armoni went back to his room and got his phone.

"Moms is gonna love this." Armoni said taking a picture. "Why you take a.... fuck Armoni delete it now." I whisper yelled still trying not wake up y/n

"Why should I delete it? Why ya'll ain't tell nobody you guys were a 'thing'?" Armoni shot back. "Cause we're not. Bruh delete the pic and we stay safe. You know your sister is crazy and if she finds out thats the end of our lives." I say slightly sitting up causing y/n to move around a little bit. "Valid point I'll delete it on one case." I was over joyed til the last part.

"Let me drive the car tomorrow." Armoni said. I sighed knowing either way this might be my last week on earth. "Ok." "Anddd deleted thank you for your service." Armoni said taking his water and going back to his room.

I layed back down trying to comprehend what just happened.

*DING*

"What the fuckkkk." I say reaching over to y/n's phone.

*New message from (***)-***-****

(***)-***-****: Hey y/n this Shindo😉.

*read*

I looked at the phone for a little bit 'who is Shindo'

(***)-***-****: from In&out we met there just yesterday.

(***)-***-****: shit. My bad for blowing up your phone just realized how late it is. Text me back when you see this👋🏽.

'Wow' I think to myself bro really is blind. Would this be considered harassment. Maybe I'm tripping... im still high as fuck. Maybe I should go to sleep. I cut on another show to try and fall asleep on but I couldn't. I kept thinking what if she falls for him?

"Y/n." I say shaking her a little bit "come on" Motioning her to wrap her legs and arms around me so I can put her in her bed. "Can I sleep in here?" I ask "Bruh your room is down the hall go there." She said in a sleepy voice. "I dont feel like ittttt" i say.

Y/n slow turned over to face me. "I dont have the energy to argue with you." She said "I take that as a yes." I say getting into her bed.

I felt y/n snuggle under me trying to find warmth so I grabbed and held her close to me. "Goodnight." I say. No response so I start to let go "ok ok night." I heard y/n say. "Mhm thats what I thought." After a while I was able to fall asleep.

2062

This chapter took 5 ever to write but it was worth it I really hope you guys liked this chapter.

🌸L O V E Y A B E B E S🌸

#mha x reader #bnha shinsou #shinsou x y/n #shinsou x you #x reader

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toujoursmiraculous · 5 years ago

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Desperada Reaction/Thoughts!

Does your throat hurt from all the screaming, too? Literally took almost an hour to get through this 20 minute episode. And here I thought Puppeteer 2 was filled with such secondhand embarrassment! I was like, awwww Luka and Marinette and the girls notice they’re cute together. And then Adrien and Kagami walk in and now Adrien thinks Luka and Marinette are a thing and they’re being all cute together too. OOF. ”Is that your boyfriend?” Not now but future, most likely. Damage has already been done anyway, Adrien thinks you’re a thing now. ”Luka? You know he’s just a friend.” This right here, this confirmed right here that they’ll be together now. He CONFESSED to you. You were happy about it. But keep being in denial, for now. x3 I was still okay in regards to not screaming and freaking out too much, until Marinette suggested Adrien to play the guitar. Girl, are you blind?? Yes, yes she is. She’s as blind as Adrien. Also Jagged knows Anarka? :O Somehow I’m not fully surprised. Also super curious about their history now. Kagami’s really smart, but way too impulsive. “You have a troubled heart, Marinette!” Tell me about it. See, she knew she should’ve chosen Luka to begin with, but NO. And you’d hope that she would’ve learned, but again, nope! Luka is so brave, okay. Putting himself in harms way, distracting Desperada so Ladybug can get away. And Adrien too, tackling him to the ground to save him. I just love them! Ahaha! Luka and Ladybug moment in front of Adrien! That look on her face! This is going to end up being a mess later on, I just know it. But lol @ Adrien doing the same thing. Please don’t tell me he’s going to be like “I’d understand why you like him. He’s a great guy.” because ouuuch. Luka and Adrien Luka and Adrien Luka and Adrien. I love them okay. I hope that at the end of everything they can be good friends. “Whoever uses [Snake Miraculous] must be wise enough not to be tempted to manipulate time for their personal gain.” Right at this point, I knew things were going to go horribly wrong because Adrien is not wise enough at all. I love how Chat tried to make it seem like he’s not Adrien by “sniffing him out”. xD Oh dear, Adrien’s becoming Marinette now. GUYYYYS STOP LISTEN TO PLAGG. You can’t be Chat Noir AND another superhero at the same time! The fact that Chat Noir was there and capable, you can’t just back out. You’re needed. The lucky charm said she needed to get a Miraculous, but she just assumed Adrien even though Luka was there too. Mistake #2 of choosing Adrien over Luka. “That’s not how it works!” Plagg and Ladybug now have told him that’s not how Lucky Charms work. Anyone else loving how Plagg’s stepping up and being really responsible? “Can I love - AH trust you?” Marinette please you’ve got to chill. Really though, if Chat doesn’t give Marinette the Rat Miraculous after this, I’m not going to lie, I’ll be disappointed. Adrien’s really trying hard to act like he doesn’t know anything, and Ladybug watching him, looking so proud. YOU CUTE DORKS UGH. The cuteness overload is too much for sick ol’ me today. Super interesting that the Snake Miraculous and the Cat Miraculous both turn just plain silver when worn but not in use. Nobody would question it, unlike some other Miraculous we’ve seen. How cool! These two are seriously just trying way too hard. This shows that he needs to be with Kagami and she needs to be with Luka for awhile. They’re so cute but they really need to take a step back. Or two. “I would’ve preferred a horse shoe for my first mission.” An absolutely Chat Noir joke. And she LAUGHS. “I love your sense of humor!” Psh, GIRL. “Come to think of it, we’re okay without [Chat].” Aspik’s face falls. This is really interesting. He got super excited that Ladybug wanted him, Adrien, to help her out. But the fact that she pretty much says she doesn’t need Chat, that’s a blow too. He’s put himself in an awful position. She obviously can’t wait around for him when he’s not going to come. So she’d say something about having to do it without him, but her wording was a bit hurtful. At the same time, with Aspik’s power, she may think that that’s all they’d need anyway, and she has defeated akuma without him in the past. “Wow! You’ve only just started being a superhero and you already seem to have all of this down!” Oh hahaha how strange, huh? It’s like this isn’t his first rodeo. Why does it feel like all these things are just going to add up one day, then they’ll figure it out and there will be some complicated feelings about all this? Like they’ll both feel hurt neither told, but at the same time they understand why they couldn’t, but they’ll feel like they weren’t trustworthy enough, like they didn’t love each other enough, etc and they’ll have to get past this too? Plagg knows this isn’t going to go well. And he seems like he might feel left out. AWW PLAGG, WE LOVE YOU! Remember when he didn’t want to transform and would complain? x3 So proud of him. Adrien, this is NOT the time to be giving her flowers okay! And seriously, your Chat is showing. “He can read my mind, too.” No he just knows you well enough. ;) I think their blindness because of their crushes is literally why they don’t know by now. It’s not that they’ve denied any possibility, it’s just they don’t even make the connection. The WAY SHE JUST FALLS INTO HIS ARMS LIKE THAT SO CUTE BUT GIVEN THE SITUATION, SO CRINGE. “Adrien, I mean Snake...” “Call me Aspik.” “Aspik, you really are super-” This entire thing just proves to us that something needs to change before she ever finds out. Whether it being she finds out about him first, and doesn’t tell him she knows and comes to terms with it on her own, or something else, but when she knows it’s just purely Adrien, she can’t even function.

“You know, Ladybug?” “Huh?” “I’m also actually Chat Noir, and I’ve been in love with you since our eyes first met.” I love how her expression goes to interested to hear what he has to say, to angry/irritated he just told her who he is, to ‘wait what you love me?’ Just as he says the “I’ve been in love with you” part. I wonder if this is anything like how it’s really going to go, but I hope it’s not willingly given but it just happens due to circumstances. The fact that they’re giving us this tells me it won’t just be said. But we’ll see! “I wasn’t the right choice for you after all.” In more ways than one. Superhero, Aspik is not the right choice, but Chat Noir is. Luka is also the right choice for her right now, but also Adrien is the right choice for her once they’ve grown. “I just can’t protect you. I never manage to save you. I can’t bear seeing Desperada capture you every time without ever being able to save you.” My HEART is not OKAY. That kind of pain he’s in really hurts. ;-; “How many times did you see me?” “I’ve been trying for months. That was the 25th thousand, nine-hundred and thirteenth time. I don’t know what to do anymore!” His dedication to trying to get things to work out that way, spending literally months without sleep to do it. Wow. He sure had to learn the hard way, poor sunshine boy. :/ “But who can possibly wear this Miraculous besides you?” “Ladybug?” OH HEY LUKA WHAT TIMING YOU HAVE! If you would’ve just had thought of him for the guitar, you wouldn’t have embarrassed yourself. And if you would’ve thought about Luka for the Miraculous, things wouldn’t have gotten so messed up. But you know what? She learned to see that Luka’s there, he exists. He’s great. He’s perfect for some things in her life. Adrien isn’t all around perfect at everything. Adrien learned that he can’t just will things to happen that he wants. He can’t just protect her if he wants to, especially when he’s out of his element with a different Miraculous. He’s meant to be Chat Noir. He can combine Miraculous, but he’s not cut out for the Ladybug or Snake Miraculous but he makes a perfect Chat Noir. That is what he needs to stick with. He’s saved her and protected her so many times that way, it’s just too bad he couldn’t do that with her knowing who he is. But awww another Ladrien cheek kiss. That they both remember! How cute. x333 The thing I notice about almost every Miraculous wielder is their family and/or friends are always in danger by the akuma when they get the Miraculous and succeed. They use that as their motivation for their first time with the Miraculous. Adrien, he doesn’t think that way when he’s Chat Noir, he just fights the akumas like he always does. He doesn’t have that fire. So when he was handed the Snake Miraculous, part of the reason I think it failed was he just didn’t take it seriously enough, his feelings for Ladybug aside for the cause of it. He didn’t have that drive they all had and let Ladybug being defeated thousands upon thousands of times get to him. Kim is an exception, we know he’s always had the drive and desire to be a hero. It seems to come naturally to him as he did it purely on his own. Luka’s rock’n’roll transformation is so cool! x33 “Perhaps you would’ve preferred a lucky horseshoe for your first mission.” “Ah, Chat!” I love how they brought that line up again! But in that context, it’s kind of mean. xD “Ladybug brings enough luck for all of us.” Ah ha yes. Good job finding that to agree on. ;) Ahhh Viperion’s playing is so pretty. The three of them work really well together. “Thank you for trusting me.” YOU WERE AMAZING, SO PROUD OF YOU x3 “I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.” Luka gives a knowing look. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this boy figured it out. He’s not blind and some signs have already been there in this episode and Captain Hardrock. If so..... Ahhh the drama and angst. It’ll be great. “I was wrong about you and Luka, wasn’t I?” Oh wow, someone else that isn’t blind! Kagami and Luka are going to figure everything out before our dorks do. That’ll be fun. xD “But you better hurry up and choose, Marinette. You don’t always get a second chance when it comes to love.” That’s oh so very true, Kagami. Yikes. Please don’t let this mean something. “Well Adrien and Luka can choose too, right? And they haven’t made their choice either.” That’s really true too Alya. Oh gosh this is just letting us know things are going to get messy. OOF. Despite all the screaming and pausing this episode, I really, really loved this episode a lot. I loved the interactions, the characters being themselves. None of the kids caused any trouble, it was something completely outside their lives. Marinette and Adrien learned some things to hopefully grow from. Marinette, Adrien, Luka, and Kagami were all in the episode which was nice (it seems like this is supposed to be after Ikari Gozen as Kagami is actually giving Marinette advice like a friend would rather than a rival). We got both Aspik and Viperion. Luka and Adrien interacting and being nice to each other. Tons of Ladrien which we don’t get much of. Plagg being responsible and a lot more of him as it was more focused on Adrien this episode, which we don’t get a lot of either. Definitely makes the top of my list of favorites so far! It also makes me really anxious to find out what happens next.

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twstarchives · 4 years ago

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Cater Diamond・Voice Lines

Additional Voice Lines: Beans Camo Event Card

School Uniform - R

Unlock Card “Wanna know some tips for having a fun life at school? I got you covered!”

Groovy “You gotta be full of energy when you’re with everyone ♪”

Home Setting “I kinda like the standard outfit.”

Home Transitions “Mm! The first-years’ uniforms always look so shiny and new.”

“Riddle’s calling for me. Wanna come with me?”

“Wait, are you free? Same here! So, anyway~ Do you have any Magicammable news to spill?”

Home Transition (Login Greeting) “Were you sad that you weren’t able to see Cay? ...Ahaha! I knew it. You’re so honest, Prefect~”

Home Taps “Our schools uniforms have a nice balance to them~ They’re not extra like our dorm uniforms, but they’re not too casual either.”

“Okay, pose! ...Aw, man! It came out blurry. Can I take one more? I want to post it on Magicam.”

“Huh? You think I look cool in my uniform? Ehh~! Where’s this coming from? You’re making me smile ♪”

“Sometimes it’s hard to tell what you’re thinking all the time, Prefect. ...Me? Aren’t I super easy to read~?”

“Hey, you know... you didn’t forget that I’m your senior, did you? JK! ♪ I probably shouldn’t ever do that to Riddle.”

PE Uniform - R

Unlock Card “Glistening sweat! Surging with youth! ...I’m kinda meh about these kinds of things.”

Groovy “I’m always down for an aesthetic-looking sport! ♪ Play with me, Prefect!”

Home Setting “Alright, our PE uniform!”

Home Transitions “I’ve got things to do too, you know! Huh? ‘Like what?’ Like... looking for stuff to post on Magicam!”

“Prefect, your collar, your collar! I saw Riddle nearby, so maybe you should hurry up and fix that.”

“Coach Vargas’s classes are so exhausting, aren’t they? I get it; I felt that way when I was a first-year too.”

Home Transition (Login Greeting) “You can find a lot of different ways to wear our PE uniforms. Hmm~ The way you wear yours is nice!”

Home Taps “You don’t need to force yourself to use honorifics with me. I don’t really mind things like that. Plus it’s easier that way, right?”

“What is it? What is it? You’re worried about something? I could never turn my back on my cute little junior if they’re in need~”

“Have you gotten used to life at this school yet? It’s really interesting with all the weird people here. Kinda feels like a gold mine of things to use for Magicam ♪”

“Athletics...? I’m not bad at them, but I don’t know how anyone could get so pumped up about them.”

“Wait, is this a popular game right now? Don’t tell me I’m late on the bandwagon!?”

Lab Coat - SR

Unlock Card “Even studying can be a blast when it looks fun and photogenic!”

Groovy “Let’s take things nice and slow! You’ll burn yourself out if you’re only ever working too hard.”

Home Setting “Alright, let’s get to work!”

Home Transitions “Hehe, do you need your senior’s advice on something? Okay, okay, relax and talk it out with me ♪”

“‘What am I usually doing?’ Mm, that’s a secret. No, I’m not free all the time! Cay is very, very busy!”

“What’re you doing today? If you’re free, then let me invite you on Cay’s Tour for Collecting Stuff for Magicam ♪”

Home Transition (Login Greeting) “There’s someone better suited to help you with your work if that’s what you need. How about you go see Trey?”

Home Transition (Groovy) “So? I look a lot more serious than usual, don’t I? Ehh~! What’s with that reaction!? I’ll have to show you my actual serious side sometime.”

Home Taps “You seem to have a lot of time on your hands, Prefect. Are you all ready for class?”

“Looking aesthetic for Magicam is important. They say that having things you’re mindful of makes your everyday life a lot fuller!”

“Dedication is not a bad thing, but you need to give yourself a break sometimes too. See? Look how relaxed Grim is...”

“Prefect, you should focus only on the important things for your future~ Just like I do ♪”

“What? What? Are you homesick? I don’t think I can really relate to that~...”

Home Tap (Groovy) “Everyday has been so exciting ever since you came here. It never gets boring.”

Ceremony Robes - SR

Unlock Card “I like to try looking sharp every once in a while ♪ What do you think? Personally, I think it fits!”

Groovy “Our special ceremony robes! Let’s take a pic together to commemorate ♪”

Home Setting “How do I look? Handsome?”

Home Transitions “Are you interested in my robes? Wanna take a pic?”

“Does this look good on me? Sometimes looking formal like this is nice, don’t you think?”

“Hey, nice work today ♪ You can chill out for a little bit now~ I’m taking some downtime myself.”

Home Transition (Login Greeting) “What? Something happened again? Things are always so busy around you, Prefect~”

Home Transition (Groovy) “Your belt’s a little out of place. Alright, there you go. These are our special ceremony robes, so make sure you keep them looking picture-perfect, ‘kay?”

Home Taps “Man, our ceremony robes seriously are so cool~ When the whole school is lined up wearing them, it feels super powerful!”

“Our robes look the best at nighttime, but trying to get the right lighting when I’m taking pictures of them is seriously the worst...”

“What? What? You wanna know more about me? Mm, what should I say~?”

“Let’s talk about all kinds of things! You look like you’re full of interesting things I could post about.”

“I know. I know you want so desperately for Cay to fawn over you. But could you calm down just a little?”

Home Tap (Groovy) “Alright, you’ve got some new problem to solve, right? Well, even if you don’t, I’ll come with you anyway. ‘Cause it sounds like fun ♪”

Dorm Uniform - SSR

Unlock Card “You have to have fun with croquet and Unbirthday parties ♪”

“Everything’s alright now, ‘cause I’m here! Just kidding ♪”

Groovy “Do you want to see Cay’s serious side? Okay, if you insist!”

Home Setting “Our dorm uniforms really do fit the best.”

Home Transitions “Don’t get me involved in any trouble... Well, there’s not really any point in me saying that. You’re so hopeless, Prefect~”

“You called for me again? Hehe, I bet you often get comments about how curious you are~”

“Trey’s desserts are so Magicammable~ And they’re super delicious! Wanna come with me to go eat some, Prefect?”

Home Transition (Login Greeting) “Let’s make a memory of today—do a peace sign! ☆ Hehe, that was a nice shot! Okay, what tags should I use?”

Home Transition (Groovy) “Do you wanna secretly try on our dorm uniforms sometime? They might actually look good on you~”

Home Taps “Have you seen Heartslabyul’s lounge yet? You really can’t find decorations with an aesthetic like that anywhere else.”

“If you want to look fire in our dorm uniforms, you gotta know the latest trends! Maybe come shopping with me next time?”

“Have you ever noticed that the playing card pins on the left sides of our chests have a different design for each person? Tiny details like that are so cool ♪”

“Aren’t you homesick or anything? Hm? Me? I’m... not. I’ve got some unreasonable older sisters...”

“It’s nice you feel so comfortable around me... but don’t tell me you’re trying to bring down Cay’s dignity?”

Home Tap (Groovy) “It would’ve been so much fun if you were in Heartslabyul with us, Prefect. Well, there’s no point in talking about things that’ll never happen ♪”

Duo Magic Cater: “Trey, you ready~?” Trey: “Got it, Cater! Count on me to back you up!”

Birthday Celebration Outfit - SSR

This card was only obtainable during Cater’s birthday event (Feb 3 - Feb 9, 2021).

Login on Birthday “You remembered my birthday? Thanks! You’re so nice for coming to celebrate. I’m super happy, so let’s post on Magicam ♪ Okay, look this way~!”

Unlock Card “Wow! This is getting a super ton of views on Magicam! ☆ Birthday parties rake in so much attention!”

“‘Happy birthday’ is such a nice phrase~ It feels like the ones celebrating and the one being celebrated can both be happy, doesn’t it?”

Groovy “Okay, grab your glasses... Cheers~! Thanks for making my birthday so much fun ♪”

Home Setting “Wearing this outfit makes it really feel like it’s someone’s birthday~”

Home Transitions “Astrology’s my best subject! But I won’t do my own birthday fortune reading... ‘Cause it’s so much more exciting not knowing your future! ♪”

“Is the toothbrush Trey gave me his way of saying to take care of my fang tooth? Well, it is one of my charm points! ☆”

“We have lots of rules in our dorm, but it’s my birthday, so it’s okay if I break some! ...Probably not... Yeah... Boohoo.”

Home Transition (Login Greeting) “It feels so exciting with everyone celebrating! I think I’ll use my Unique Magic and make some clones to show off around the school.”

Home Transition (Groovy) “Just between you and me, keeping up a smile for the entirety of the party gets kind of tiring... Just kidding!”

Home Taps “Idia gave me Magicam stickers as a present! I don’t know what anime they’re from, but I’m happy! ♪”

“Maybe Vil would follow my Magicam if I asked for that instead of a birthday present~”

“I got a skateboard from Kalim. ☆ He said he’s pretty good at skateboarding too, so next time we’ll go do it together!”

“My dorm made me a bright red, diamond-shaped quiche! It was filled with habaneros. I love super spicy foods so it was perfect ♪”

“My rosette was crooked? Thanks for fixing it~!”

Home Tap (Groovy) “I kinda wanna make some noise! How about you, Prefect? Wanna sing together? Or we could dance?”

Duo Magic Cater: “Lilia-kins, let’s take a pic for the birthday memories!” Lilia: “Cater, a happy birthday to you!”

Tutorial “Let’s have fun together, ‘kay?”

Lv Up “Yay~ I’m getting stronger!”

“‘#BetterThanEverCay’ kind of energy!”

“Let’s keep doing our best from now on!”

Max Lv Up “I always thought anything goes as long as I’m having some kind of fun, but I actually like getting serious every once in a while. Plus I want to look cool when I’m posting on Magicam.”

Episode Lv Up “You think we’re really close friends? Ehh~ You’re so funny~! Hahaha, I wasn’t saying I hate the idea; why are you making that face? It’s just, you said it so seriously—I guess I don’t know how to react.”

Magic Lv Up “Hmm, so you’re the type who would do things like this for me. Thanks!”

Limit Break “Don’t you think I’ve got wayyy too much potential? Hahaha! Well, thanks for all your help!”

Groovy “Man, aren’t I super cool now? It’s getting me all excited!”

Lesson Select “Let’s do our work together! I’m still your senior, so I should try to impress you ♪”

“You really are super dedicated to things... Do you get that a lot? ...Yup, I thought so!”

“C’mon, give yourself a break. It’s not worth putting so much effort just into your classes.”

Lesson Start “Alright, let’s get things done!”

Lesson End “It’s finally over! Time for my after-class Magicam check!”

Battle Start “Make sure to repost and share all my impressive moves!”

Battle Win “That should be enough. Bye-bye!”

Other

Profile Quote “Welcome to Heartslabyul, the dorm run by the strict ‘Queen’ ♪”

January 2020 Trailer “We’re waiting for our dutiful little freshman!”

Countdown Poster “You have to have fun with croquet and Unbirthday parties ♪”

Login Bonus “Oh, you look like you’re doing well again today~! We should get going soon. But before that, wanna grab some tea so I can get a few shots for Magicam?”

Player Birthday Wish “Happy birthday! You can’t believe I remembered...? As if I’d ever forget this special day! I got a present ready that I think will make you really happy. And there’s no doubt about that, since Cay picked it out! ♪”

Valentine’s Gift Letter (2021)

These letters were originally in English. I didn’t translate or edit them in any way. They came with official merch from Aniplex, and are not present in-game.

Helloooooo, Thanks for the present! It was totally awesome! I didn’t know you were an expert at choosing thoughtful gifts ♪ I already took a picture and put it up on Magicam, so go and give it a Like! ;)

#twisted wonderland #cater diamond #voice lines

177 notes · View notes

themockingcrows · 5 years ago

Text

Familiar Ch. 5: Quicken

This chapter is mildly not safe for work This chapter is available on my AO3! All the preparation in the world won't ready you for some things when it comes to cohabitating with a bird hybrid, but some things come more naturally than others.

“Hold still,” Dave said, carefully aiming the shot so he could capture John and the surrounding moss in the shot. He’d been trusted with Dad’s camera for the day again, and he wasn’t going to mess up the chance to make the most of it. He’d already taken shots of the surrounding woods, but taking some nice shots of himself and of John were still high up on his list. He had to keep track of so many things with this camera: how much film was left, that the lens cap was off, that everything was in focus, that his hands didn’t shake, and God forbid that he didn’t drop the camera again.

“How much longer till I can move,” John groaned as if he were dying. Seventeen years old, and he still didn’t have an ounce of patience to his name. Dave took a snap, pulled back from the camera and threw some leaves on top of John before adjusting them individually, trying to make it look as careless as if he’d been sleeping in the forest all autumn instead of dodging puddles of mud and praying it didn’t rain yet again before the shoot could be finished.

“Close your eyes and stay still,” Dave grumped, snapping a few pictures at different angles before giving the go ahead to rise.

Grunting, John sat up and pulled leaves out of his hair, dusting sticky flecks of dirt and moss off his jacket and the back of his head. “Oh FINALLY, my ass was going numb. Do you realize how cold the ground is out here?”

“I was born outside, John.”

“I mean currently. With a human ass. Human ass thermometer says it’s too cold to be sitting on the ground,” John explained, coming to stand closer to Dave’s side as he looked around. “Where else did you wanna take pictures? It’s supposed to rain later, Dad wouldn’t want his camera wet.”

“I know. I was thinking somewhere a bit further… there’s a stand of trees and this huge pile of rocks, I wanna get some angles of that.”

“Big pile of rocks. Exciting.”

“It’s a huge pile, John, wait till you see it.”

John hummed and nodded to show he was listening and believing as much as he could, but it was difficult. For one, he was chilled and Dave’s fascination with photography could be tiring to keep up with. For another… he was distracted.

Dave had been more hands on the last few weeks, more touchy feely than usual. He lingered with wake up kisses, kept finding more and more excuses to settle on John’s lap. He also kept making sure John got the bigger half of things suddenly, making sure his plate was first in the line and that he got plenty of snacks. Dave kept being caught staring, watching, lingering in doorways to keep track of where John was. He’d improved his rock collection with shiny stones from here and there… though also he was gifted with bottle caps and soda pop tabs, beads and odds and ends from around the house and up in the attic. It was sweet, really, but it was a bit confusing, a ramp up on his usual behavior.

Noticing so much of Dave’s abnormal behavior was making John notice Dave and his mannerisms more. The way he touched his face when he was crouched on a chair, the way he flipped his hair out of his eyes but refused to let Dad trim it shorter, the way his face screwed up when he got a good scratch between the shoulder blades, the way his wings twitched and splayed out when it was grooming time. The way he smiled, frowned, the way his face relaxed when he napped against his shoulder in the afternoons while John worked on schoolwork.

“...John?”

“Huh? What.”

“The rocks are here,” Dave said, gesturing proudly. “I was asking what you think. Thought,” he corrected.

John blinked, realizing he’d been following without paying attention. He glanced around to orient himself before taking in the view. The rocks were, as promised, pretty sweet. They were massive boulders with moss and speckled markings, balanced atop other boulders. The very top held a decrepit sapling that had tried to flourish and dried upon death, dangling at an angle by its roots. John whistled softly at it.

“Okay, this is cool. What kind of pictures did you want?”

Considering for a moment, Dave soon gave directions for John to climb the first stone and sit in different ways, standing on the last shot, before carefully coming down. If they were developed right, they’d hopefully come out looking how they did in Dave’s head. Maybe if they were in black and white they’d be more pressing, or sepia…

“Hey, let me take a few shots of you,” John offered with a grin, reaching for the camera. “I bet your wings would look great against the stone.”

Dave’s wings abruptly fluffed and splayed out showily before stretching and flattening out. He cleared his throat, coughed, and righted his wings again.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah! Go up where I was and crouch. Maybe ditch the jacket, if you can handle the temperature,” he said, holding the camera up in front of one of his glasses lenses and smirking, crouching down to one knee for the full effect before standing up again. Okay, that was silly, he couldn’t see from that angle.

Hesitating for a moment, Dave pulled his jacket off and flared his wings again, flapping them a few times before he turned and scaled the rock face, finding the stable point John had been at before turning around and crouching. As expected, the dark feathers against the stone looked amazing in the dull light, and John found himself wishing he was better at photography to catch it in some better light. Maybe when they were home he could get a look at the feathers under the light and get a snap of them there, black and faintly iridescent close up where the filaments of feather connected.

“Got it! Come on down!” John called, grinning as Dave splayed his wings and hopped down, coasting a bit before flapping to stabilize his landing. When John grinned broadly at him, Dave’s wings twitched and tried to flatten out once more, fluttering when he turned to pick up his jacket and pull it back on.

A stick broke in the distance, though it didn’t catch Dave’s attention. John’s attention, however? He was predisposed to being overly aware of their surroundings when his head wasn’t in the clouds, especially when they were away from the yard. It was his job, guarding Dave’s existence from the outside. This deep in the woods should be safe, but there were natural threats to worry about, bears and other creatures.

...Or humans.

In this case, a hiker with a cell phone who was staring at them from a ways away before freezing and taking off running the opposite direction as if pursued. Cursing, John stuffed the camera back into Dave’s bare hands before grasping his upper arm and tugging, dragging him into a run the other direction.

“Fuck, wait,” Dave cawed, trying to cover the lens with the cap without dropping the camera before adjusting his grip and hurrying along after John, back towards the house. They sprinted, John leading them astray till things started to look more familiar and he corrected the route since Dave was the one who’d led them in this time, and didn’t stop till they reached the edge of the woodline.

Slowly, John sank down into a crouch and grasped the back of his head with both hands, panting heavily as he listened to his pulse hammering in his ears. “Shit, shit, shit… Shit.”

“John?” Dave panted, watching him before mimicking him, crouching down. One wing stretched out and curled loosely around John’s back like an arm, shielding him while he was down. “...John?” he asked again, worried.

“I’m fine. It’s okay. We’re fine. This is totally okay. We were just seen by a stranger with a phone, no big deal,” John rambled, only to go quiet and croon an upset noise out once more.

Biting his lip, Dave considered his choices. He looked around the empty yard, the distant shape of Dad’s car parked in front on the gravel, the shriveled remains of the garden and the last crops that hadn’t been picked yet, the vast amount of pumpkins on display. He looked back over his shoulder, back towards the woods he knew so well from before, then back to John’s shaking shoulders and panicked expression.

“Oh fuck, oh man, oh God Dad’s gonna be pissed off why wasn’t I watching clos-”

Dave had leaned and grasped John’s chin, holding it carefully as he pecked his lips once. Twice. Three times. Normally he’d pull back then and nuzzle while cawing affectionately… but this time Dave remained in place, lip to lip. He was letting out a soft sound, croaky singsong noises that were surprisingly comforting to hear, and didn’t pull back till John’s breathing was slower and calm.

“...Uhm.”

Dave just grinned at him and fluttered his wings hopefully, giving them small shivery shakes before folding them against his back once more.

“...Heh. Haha. Hahahahaha.”

“John?”

Caught up in the giggles, Dave adjusted his glasses and shook his head, holding a hand up begging for a moment to collect himself. It took the full minute before he could wheeze. “I’m s- Ahahaha. I’m sorry. Just. Fuck I was so freaked out and suddenly I’m getting kissed and just?? Ahaha that’s just so funny for some reason. Can’t panic while you’re being kissed I guess? Off switch located on the lips.”

Dave’s grin widened and he leaned forwards to repeat the kiss now that John was laughing, which only made him giggle more. The camera was set aside in favor of Dave crawling messily onto John’s lap, knocking him over, and then crawling up his body to keep the kiss going. They were a pile of laughter and kisses, Dave’s wings splaying out over the two of them and John’s hands playing along Dave’s ribs to tickle him, making him join in the giggles.

It was so hard to be stressed around Dave. It’s like he outright didn’t allow it to happen. Fuck he was lucky to have a friend like him.

...Er. ...Was he just a friend? Had he ever been just a friend, when so much hinged on making sure he was happy and safe and by his side? When his daily morning routine involved kisses and affection that John knew he wouldn’t feel comfortable doing with anyone else?

He was still being kissed by Dave when the giggles died down and he didn’t feel the urge to break it off or push him away. John felt warm in his stomach, a flush in his cheeks and down his back, lightheaded from the rush of laughter and the sudden stimulation. Dave was warm against him, his body weight slight but welcome, and the shadow of his wings beautiful against the dim light of the sky. John forgot how cold his ass was on the ground, that his dad might be able to see them. All that mattered then was keeping Dave close for just a little longer.

Lifting both hands up, John grasped Dave’s waist before raising up higher to touch the base of his wings, getting a soft, startled caw out of Dave before they fluttered and flattened out again as they had earlier. What was up with that? Or with the throaty noises Dave was making? It was cute, sort of like a sound effect from a game, clicky and croaky and tinged with the warm tones of his voice.

All good things come to an end. Dave was the one who eventually parted the kiss, face flushed and body stiff. He was arching away a bit, body seeming to want more contact but trying to avoid it at the same time. Specifically, he was keeping his hips awa-

Oh.

… Oh.

Clearing his throat, John gently pushed at Dave’s shoulders to get him off his lap, realizing he was at risk of the exact same thing. This was normal. Well. Not normal for them persay, but it was a natural thing to have happen? Fuck, he hoped he didn’t need to have a chat with him about it. Or worse, Dad.

… Then again, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. He’d handled the introduction to those things well enough when John himself was learning them, maybe having The Talk with him wouldn’t be life ruining.

Wait, why was he thinking about this, there were bigger problems at hand.

“Dave, we need to tell Dad what happened.”

As if remembering minutes earlier, Dave’s tense frame wilted and he nodded, glancing back to the camera before he crawled over to pick it up. Well. At least they’d managed to get a lot of pictures before being interrupted. … Not to mention getting to kiss him, that had been nice. Very nice, if the zinging in his pants was anything to go by.

Slowly rising, adjusting his jeans and dusting debris off of himself again, John slapped either side of his face a few times. “Okay. Okay, we’ll just go inside and Dad’ll be all ‘Hello, son! How are you!’ and I’ll be all ‘Hey Dad! We got seen by a hiker!’ and he’ll be all..” John trailed off, realizing he wasn’t sure what his father would say or do. He groaned quietly.

“John,” Dave said, reaching a hand out. It was a simple gesture, a single word being a command as much as his name, an offer of comfort. John took his hand and laced their fingers before slowly starting the walk towards the house.

They were still peeling their jackets off when James strolled into the mud room with a smile. “There you two are. I’ve got some hot apple cider to share, if you boys would have some with the pie from earlier.”

Leave it to his dad to bake circles around everyone, but the idea of hot cider and some fresh pie was good, especially after the time in the woods.

“Sure, Dad.” Might as well get him nice and busy first. No, no, putting it off was bad. Gnawing his lip and squeezing Dave’s hand tight once again, he shook his head. “Dad? Something… something happened.”

Almost immediately James’ stance changed and his eyes narrowed, looking them both over from head to toe, checking for injuries or signs of damage. With no sign of blood of serious scuffs, he let out a pent breath and smiled again.

“Take a breath and tell me, Son, it can’t be that bad. I’ve seen your surprises before after all,” he said, gesturing to Dave before turning to head to the kitchen, the unsaid request for them to follow him hanging in the air.

“We uhm. We went to go take pictures, yeah?” John said, taking a seat at the table.

“Is the camera damaged? It’s okay if it is, but I’d like to know.”

“No, camera is fine,” Dave promised. “Not a scratch.”

“...You’re making me a bit concerned,” James chuckled as he cut apple pie into even slices and pulled out some whipped cream to top them with. “Go ahead and tell me before I start jumping to more conclusions.”

“Well uh. We.. We got the pictures,” John said encouragingly. “Then someone… might have probably seen Dave. Their phone was up, too. They might have gotten pictures.”

James slowed to a halt at the news before slowly making himself start to move again, bringing over the pie slices before going to get big mugs of cider for each boy’s place. He didn’t speak till everyone had a mug, and even then he was quiet as he sat down with a soft sigh, warming his hands on his cup.

“How close were they to you? Close enough to tell they’re not a costume?”

“I don’t know,” admitted John, looking down at his pie, one hand still clasped in Dave’s. It helped. “They looked fairly far away.”

“Well. I’ll keep an eye out for any signs of things, but odds are if they weren’t close, any photo they could get wouldn’t be the best quality,” James said. He smiled a bit. “We all knew this day might come. We’ll just deal with it best we can. Okay, son?”

John pulled up a smile the best he could, but he still felt worry. The smile faded and he eventually released Dave’s hand to clasp his mug, tilting the contents and swirling flecks of cinnamon and thicker liquid around the bottom. Home made cider really was the best.

“What do we do if the word gets out, though?” he asked, looking over to Dave. Though the bird boy had taken a sip of cider and seemed content, he’d taken out his chewing toy from beneath his shirt and was idly gnawing at it while the conversation remained intense, stress bouncing his teeth on the material. Gone were the days of stress biting elsewhere, but it was still a reminder that the topic needed to ease out soon enough or that toy wouldn’t last nearly as long as it could under normal circumstances.

“We’ll deal with it one step at a time, as it happens,” James promised. “If anyone comes knocking from the press, we’ll just have to keep Dave cloaked for a while. If anyone comes knocking from our higher authority… well. We’ll tell the truth and hope they understand the circumstances and that you were just a child.”

John’s stomach ached a bit, but he nodded. It was the best answer he could get given the circumstances, and it wouldn’t do to push further hoping for more. He finally took a sip of the warm liquid, feeling it slip down his throat to soothe his stomach like a hug. “Okay, Dad.”

“Now, let’s lighten up those faces, you look like the council is breathing down our necks already,” James chuckled. “What if Dave becomes his own form of notoriety? A… oh, what’s the word. A cryptid.”

“Like Moth Man or the Jersey Devil?” John asked. Dave looked at him, confused, not understanding. He spit his toy out to go back to sipping his drink, then set the mug aside to dig into the pie wholeheartedly. Even stress wasn’t enough to deter Dave’s appetite when snacks were involved, especially not freshly baked ones.

“Yes, precisely,” James said, before explaining the basic premise of a cryptid to Dave. “You see, if enough people believe a winged boy exists in the woods… the funnier and less real it sounds. The fewer people would believe the story to begin with.”

“But then you’d also get diehards who’d want to practically live in the woods, stalk the house, and never buzz off,” John warned. “We’d have to move!”

James pursed his lips as if the idea’s downside had only then occurred to him. “My. You may have a point there, John. Perhaps that wouldn’t be ideal after all.”

“I think being a cryptid would be fun, I could scare people,” Dave said, cawing loudly a few times and flaring his wings out in a showy fashion before they rustled and went back to normal folded against his back and the back of the chair.

“Hah! Well, at least he’s game if it came to that,” James chuckled. “Ah, I’ll develop the pictures for you later. Do you want them a certain way?”

“Black and white, please,” Dave asked. “Or sepia. I like how those look.”

Nodding, he reached for the camera and checked the number of shots left. “Hmm. We’ve got a few left on this roll. How about you keep the camera for now, and give it back when all the pictures are used up instead?”

“Are you sure?” Dave asked, pausing his pie destruction to look up with wide eyes.

“Positive. You’ve been very careful with my camera and it shows, I trust you with it.

Giddy, Dave beamed at him and went back to devouring the pie slice and whipped cream, getting a dab on his cheek and nose in his excited fervor of snacking. Laughing, John reached over with a finger to scoop the cream off, popping it into his own mouth without a second thought.

The sound from outside came first as a soft, low rumble that steadily grew in intensity until the windows rattled. Everyone went quiet before James looked to the window and hummed.

“Ah. The rain should be coming any minute now, then. The clouds were looking ready to burst all day today.”

“Should we get the candles? That was a lot of thunder.”

“Candles might be a good idea. Be ready to cast a few orbs as well for your room when you go to sleep, you know how dangerous it is to sleep with candles lit.”

“We know, Dad, don’t worry. Right, Dave?”

“Mhmm. Yessir,” he said quickly, rubbing his face with his forearm before putting his hands on the table and using them to push himself up from his seat. He scampered out of the room before coming back to put his dishes in the sink, then took off again at a dash, already knowing where the candles and matches were stored in their preparedness boxes and knowing which scented ones he wanted to use more than others.

“I promise, John. Everything will be okay,” James said softly once they were alone. “Try not to worry about anything. We’ve come this far and gone this long without any issues, we can handle a few bumps in the road. We’re family, after all.”

“Okay, Dad. Thanks,” John said, finishing his snack up before going to hug his father, accepting the kiss to the side of the head and the firm squeeze of two large arms that eventually released him. “What’s for dinner later?”

“Leftovers,” James said. “And if the power goes out, snacks. Remember, don-”

“Don’t open the fridge, you’ll let all the cold out and it’s a pain in the neck to adjust cooling spells to the precise temperature in a confined space for however long it’d be out,” John rattled off. “I know, I know. Don’t worry. I remember the icicle milk.”

James chuckled, eyes crinkling at the edges as he stood up to take care of the dishes. “Go help Dave then, and make sure the windows upstairs are all shut for me?”

“Alright,” John called before taking off at a jog to catch up with the bird boy.

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

The storm that hit the house that night was bigger than anticipated. It didn’t knock the power out, but it was taking every opportunity to rattle the windows threateningly, to pelt the car with debris and what they were pretty sure sounded like hail, and to put pressure on every single tree in the forest. Breaking branches rang out like gunshots in the blackness, startling everyone who heard them.

Though they didn’t need them, John and Dave lit candles anyway, while John got a few light orbs going in different colors to drift lazily around the room, set to dissipate within several hours like gently floating nightlights. Dave was blissful with the scent of the ocean and the soft shadows the candles cast against the wall, curled up against John’s side on his bunk as John read a book. The camera had been left on the desk for now, safe and out of the way. His book didn’t hold his attention for too long, however, not with Dave pressed so warm up against his side and memories of earlier rushing through his head.

Unable to take it any longer, John coughed and set the book aside.

“Hey, uh. Dave? About earlier. What uh. ...What were you doing?”

“Earlier?” Dave asked, looking up from where the book was set, confused. “How much earlier.”

“You know what I mean, right? The kiss?” John asked, keeping his voice down to avoid his dad hearing. The last thing he needed was a Congrats On The Liplock! Cake in the morning. “You uhm. It was different from the ones you normally do, like in the mornings.”

Dave nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Of course it was different, John, weren’t you paying attention?

“...Why?” John finally asked.

Here was where things got a bit difficult to answer. Dave opened his mouth, closed it, tried again and failed again. When the words wouldn’t come he puffed up and made an agitated cawing sound before dropping his head back to look up towards the ceiling and underside of the upper bunk to try finding the words hidden there instead.

“...Was it okay?” was what he finally asked.

“I’m. Well. ...Yeah. It was okay,” John finally said. It had been more than okay, actually. It had been kind of fantastic in the moment, but how could he explain that?

“Can I do it again?” Dave asked, cocking his head.

“Do. ...Do you want to?” John asked.

Dave smiled at him and nodded, already moving to straddle John once more, before John put his hands on his shoulders, face flaming. “Whoa, whoa, hold on. Just. Give me a second,” he said, fluster growing more intense when Dave didn’t seem phased. Though held back, he spread his wings and flattened them out as he had before, crooning that soft, croaking song once again as he bobbed his head a few times, eyes looking slightly glazed.

...Wait.

“...Are. Are you flirting with me when you do that?”

Dave paused his crooning, face reddening, and looked askew.

“Is this a bird flirting thing? Earlier too?”

Slowly, Dave leaned back and covered his face with his hands as he started to make the crooning noise again.

“It is, isn’t it! It’s. Wait, no, birds don’t flirt. Oh my God is that a bird sex thing?” John asked, smirking. Shit, Dave looked pretty cute like this, burning red in the face in the candlelight and trying to continue making his sounds as if he wasn’t able to stop himself from doing it.

It suddenly all made so much sense. The extra food, the preference for him going first in things, the shiny odds and ends, the staring, the extra touches. All of it made sense. ...Mostly.

“How long?” John asked quietly.

Slowly, Dave uncovered his face and wet his lips, the crooning noises stopping prematurely.

“...Always,” Dave said. “You’re always my most important. Most special. Mine,” he said haltingly.

Dave had been a fully grown crow before becoming a humanoid and growing again, adjusting to his new life. He had new habits to learn, new things to adjust to. John had never set him loose before, there had never been a chance for his familiar to breed if there’d even been an interest. Yet seeing him now, hearing him crooning, watching the displays and making sense of how hard he’d been trying it seemed obvious that Dave had chosen his partner already.

It was just up to John to accept or not.

Easy choice, after so long of being together and closer than close.

John reached his hands up and rested them on Dave’s hips again, waiting till he set his hands on his chest to balance before reaching up to kiss him once, twice, three gentle times, following the morning pattern. Dave pressed forward for the fourth time and held it, eyes closed and head tilted to deepen the gesture. John kneaded at Dave’s hips, keeping him close before humming into the kiss.

Dave’s lips still tasted like cinnamon from the pie and drink earlier, sweet and welcoming. He was a warm, comforting weight on his lap, and when he eventually stiffened and tried to pull away again, John tensed his arms to keep him scooped close. No escape. Dave hesitated… then dipped his hips forward instead of trying to go back, grinding downwards.

The candlelight grew brighter and flickered wildly, while the orbs above whirled around quicker and bounced into each other aimlessly like drunken marbles. Earlier, they’d stopped short of this but now there was no reason not to see where the rabbit hole led. John felt himself stirring down below, but decided well enough was well enough and ignored it. He was satisfied that Dave didn’t pull away when he released his hips, hands drifting up to instead touch softly at his wings, tracing feathers as they spread out. The bird shivered when he felt fingers tracing between his shoulder blades, the sensitive skin around where the wings protruded, then up towards his neck.

They wouldn’t go further than this, deepening kisses and warm touches, the shy press of body on body as stiffness appeared. John knew he’d need to have a conversation with Dave about it after all, probably explain a few other things… including some ground rules for the displays in front of his father, if all of those behaviors were flirting. There had to be limitations on things if everyone was going to keep living happily together, after all.

John felt Dave’s tongue and shyly opened his mouth to the invasion, allowing him even closer. Time swept away and all they focused on was warmth and touching of shoulders, hips, faces, chests. The taste of lip and skin, the sound of heartbeats syncing up as if hearing a song their hearts had long forgotten and falling into line. Safety.

Comfort.

The storm raged outside, but all that Dave and John were focused on was each other, only separating when they had to come up for air, smiling shyly and laughing before falling together again to kiss gentle and sweet. There was hunger there, just under the surface, but tonight? Tonight there was no place for hunger, just the wonder of being alive and together in the same space.

#homestuck #johndave #john egbert #dave strider #my fic #birdboy makeouts

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 4 years ago

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All in a Day’s Work!

A gift for my very talented and very cute friend, Kana (aka @shimmeryspark)! ;u;

To clarify, the “Shrimp” mentioned in this piece is not MC/Yuu! “Shrimp” is Kana’s Octavinelle student OC! (I recommend checking out the character sheet after reading, since the artwork gives away the twist ending!)

Imagine this...

The evening cast its somber net over Night Raven College, throwing its buildings into darkness. What few lights remained glowed faintly amidst the creeping shadows—like lost souls in the depths of the sea. A chilling breeze swept by, kicking up a torrent of leaves.

Beckoning to him.

Octa A shivered, wrapping his jacket around himself even tighter, as he stepped out into the waiting night. With each step that he took, the trash bag at his side seemed to grow heavier and heavier. The shadows themselves seemed to cling to it, adding the weight of lost souls past.

A pink blur surged ahead, humming a jaunty tune all the while. The spring to his step set his fluffy hair and double ahoge bouncing excitedly.

Octa A stared warily after his coworker. Despite carrying a broom in one hand and a trash bag in the other, the pink-haired boy’s mobility was not deterred.

“C’mon, Kon-kun!!” Shrimp chirped over his shoulder. “The trash won’t take itself out, you know!”

“R-Right…”

Octa A picked up his pace to meet Shrimp’s. Their footsteps, and their bags, rose and fell in tandem.

Night came down upon the pair, smothering them. The howl of a distant wind grazed their ears—that, and the frantic flaps of an owl, plunging into the moonlight.

“I-I, um… I’m glad I have trash duty with you today,” Octa A piped up, his small voice filling in the quiet. “I-It’s scary to do my chores with Jade-senpai or Floyd-senpai.”

“Oh, they’re not so bad, silly!” Shrimp giggled, casually twirling the handle of his broom. “Jade lets me hang out in his terrariums, and Floyd shares his candies with me.”

“Well… th-that is nice of them, but… I’d hate to bump into them in the middle of the night.” The thought of their haunting golden eyes peering out from a curtain of jet black… it sent Octa A’s weak stomach into a series of somersaults.

“Ahaha, really? I always feel safe with them around~” Shrimp’s smile was a beam of light in the dark. “Like earlier today! They helped us out with those mean customers.”

“D-Don’t remind me…” Octa A winced as the memory resurfaced.

When closing time had rolled around, a particularly rowdy group of customers refused to clear out. There had been shouting, cussing, threats made—Octa A on the verge of tears—until Shrimp had fetched the Leeches. Jade, with a composed smile, and Floyd, with an irritated expression.

“Gentlemen, let us discuss this dilemma outside. Perhaps my brother and I can assist you with finding a solution that is agreeable for both of our parties.”

The fools had followed the twins—and as soon as the door shut behind them, a cacophony of horrific sounds rang out. Glass smashing, bones snapping, guttural shouts and sobs. And above it all, Floyd’s wild laughter, with the occasional soft chuckle from Jade breaking through in brief moments of silence.

The twins had returned not long after without so much as a speck of blood on their beings.

But Octa A hadn’t seen those poor, unfortunate customers again since. And he didn’t dare to ask what had become of them.

The mob student vigorously shook his head. “P-People that ask too many questions of Jade-senpai and Floyd-senpai end up… disappearing. O-Or tricked into making a bad deal with the dorm leader. I-I… I don’t like tha—w-whoa!!”

Shrimp leapt in front of Octa A, causing him to skid to a halt. Their gazes locked, pink orbs against maroon ones.

“... You know what, Kon-kun?” Shrimp’s expression was unreadable, each word slow and meticulously placed.

Octa A stared back at his coworker—into the wide, sparkling galaxy of Shrimp’s eyes. All hope and starlight, painted in. a rosy hue.

And yet… the longer Octa A looked, the more and more that galaxy seemed to be swallowed up by the pupils. In the dim lighting, the black holes dilated, grew, expanded… and drowned out the stars.

A bead of sweat formed on Octa A’s crown. His throat, dry.

Then Shrimp brightened and belted out a laugh. “You worry waaay too much!”

“H-Huh?”

“All that stress isn’t good for your health!”

“A-Ah… You’re right about that. M-My doctor says I need to better manage my stress, since it gives me… stomach problems.”

“Hey, hey—here’s an idea!” Shrimp leaned a bit closer, whispering into Octa A’s ear. “Head home early for the day, and get some rest! I can take care of your trash duties for you.”

“Wh-Whaaaat?!” Octa A immediately startled. “ I… I can’t!! Jade-senpai and Floyd-senpai would kill me!! Th-The dorm leader would cut my pay… I’ll have to live off of cup ramen for the rest of the semester!!”

“It’ll be our little s-e-c-r-e-t! I wouldn’t want my good ol’ buddy ol’ pal to burn out~”

“I… I don’t know...”

Octa A glanced down at his trash bag. Before he could open his mouth to protest once more, Shrimp yanked the garbage out of his hands.

“I got this!! Really! I’m tougher than I look!!”

“... Well… i-if you say so.” The mob student awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “I-It’s really nice of you to help me out with this. D-Don’t stress yourself out too much either, Shrimp-san.”

“Hehe. I’ll do my best!!” He pat Octa A on the back and flashed a reassuring grin. “Go, go! Get some Zs!”

“O-Okay. Good night…”

“Good niiight!!”

Shrimp waved and waved at his coworker’s shrinking figure, until, at last, Octa A was long gone.

The pink-haired boy stood—waiting, listening, for creatures hidden in the night. For the beating of wings, a midnight hoot. For the scuttle of nocturnal beings, racing across the path. For incriminating footsteps in the dark.

When Shrimp was certain he was alone, he dug the handle of his broom into his trash bag, then Octa A’s.

“Heeey~ Are you guys still conscious in there?

Weak groans and whimpers crawled out.

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and shrimpy!!”

Shrimp tore open the bags in turn, revealing a few trembling students curled into fetal positions. Some bruised, others with bits of dried blood blossoming on their lower lips or from their nostrils. Upon spotting Shrimp in his Octavinelle uniform, the mob students yelped and retreated further into the bags—as though that would offer some sort of protection.

Hehe. How silly.

With deft hands, Shrimp unceremoniously dumped the injured students onto the cold pavement. They landed—on their backs, on their sides, on their faces—with harsh impacts. Their surroundings spun, the moon, the stars, and the sky pooling into a singular color.

Some parts darkness, some parts light.

“I sure hope you bad boys learned your lesson!” Shrimp warbled sunnily, wagging a finger at the disoriented mob students. “You’d better play nice next time, or else you’ll really be swimming with the fishies!”

His words were playful and as light as air, but something in his large eyes and smile seemed… off. The shadows framed his face, his eyes appearing beady and sinister from behind the evening veil. And the curve to his lips… crooked, distorting and warping his cheer.

“Wh-Who are you people…” One of the mobs—from Savanaclaw—managed to choke out. “W-What are you…?!”

“We’re Octavinelle! Founded on the compassion of the Sea Witch herself!!” Shrimp tapped a finger against his chin and giggled. “And me? I’m just the busboy~ It’s my job to clean up after messes. Speaking of which…”

“Time to tidy up!” Brandishing his beloved broom, Shrimp spun around on his heel and began feverently sweeping up the path.

“Gosh, you folks make so much trouble for me…!! I had to clean up the crime scene and now this drop off spot, too,” Shrimp sighed, though the lilt remained in his voice. “Busy, busy…”

The Savanaclaw mob gritted his teeth. Though his body ached and screeched in pain with every slight movement, the anger boiling in his blood propelled him to move. He stumbled onto shaky legs, glaring intensely at Shrimp’s back.

“You… bastard..!!”

He lunged, claws out, for his prey.

“Hup!!”

Shrimp whipped around, reacting just in time. He rammed the handle of his broom right into the mob’s chest—-and the wind sailed right out of him.

The Savanaclaw student went flying, landing atop another fallen ruffian. They collectively groaned, pain reverberating through their bodies.

Shrimp leaned his broom in the crook of his arm and clapped his hands together—once, twice—dusting off the scum that he had just dealt with.

“Grimey guys like you need to wash up before they try to pull any funny business!” he warned, smacking the mob student on the head with the broom’s bristles.

“D-Damn it…”

His curse went unheard, for Shrimp had set to taping his lips together and humming a tune.

“Hmm hmm hm~”

The Octavinelle student turned away and set back to dusting off the ground. A sweep here, a brush there… Shrimp worked his way down the path, his small figure retreating into the night.

The last thing the Savanaclaw mob heard before he blacked out...

“All in a day’s work!”

#twst #twisted wonderland #twst oc #twisted wonderland oc #twisted wonderland imagines #Octavinelle A-kun #disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland scenarios #Shrimp #twisted wonderland headcanons #I hope you like this Kana ;u;#and I hope I wrote your Shrimp well!!!!!#RIP Octa A #unknowingly an accomplice to borderline murder

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toonstarterz · 5 years ago

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BECAUSE I’M NOT POPULAR, I’LL READ WATAMOTE: CHAPTER #164

Hey, not dropping the ball actually worked!

We’re just a hair’s length away from summer vacation, but unlike last year when Tomoko approached summer with not much consideration, she’s now taking a proactive role in deciding how to spend her last summer in high school. At first glance, Tomoko appears to have become a responsible, young lady. But as we soon will see, that can-do attitude may not be as refined as it looks on the surface.

Chapter 164: Because I’m Not Popular, I’ll Do My Best Starting From Summer Break

There’s that time period during the day when most students have already left but school hasn't quite closed up. It’s pretty creepy, even more so before summer break when you’re expected not to stick around.

Have I mentioned Itou is a cute? ‘Cause she is.

It’s usually her looking after Komiyama, so it’s really sweet to see the dynamic flipped around like this. Despite, well, everything, Komiyama is a good friend.

Assuming that cheering for the baseball teams is optional, it’s endearing to see Itou go through with it. Even though baseball isn’t her thing, she’s likely doing it to support her bestie, which I can 110% get behind.

Ah, right. Dude’s in the manga club. That said, I wonder if their plans are for just being attendees, or if they’ll actually be manning a booth and selling their work. With his skills and, er, preferences, I think Hatsushiba could do the latter.

Don’t be so modest, Tomoko. There’s no slouching either when you’re a three-year veteran of the Going-Home Club.

Studying during summer break? Outrageous!!

It’s intriguing to see just how Tomoko’s study habits have evolved throughout the series. The early days would see her spend summer goofing off on her hobbies, with bare minimum concern for academics. But now, Tomoko is actually considering studying on her own accord. Sure, it’s more-or-less a fallback when she has nothing else planned, but the thought itself is still worth mentioning.

Is that one of those mini-fans that you can carry around in your bag? I love those things.

Study camp, huh? Any other day, Tomoko would be apathetic to the idea, leaning more on the side of brushing it off. But having Katou bring it up makes all the difference, ‘cause let’s be real. Katou could ask her to sign up for a hostess bar at the Red Light District and Tomoko would still seriously consider it.

Miss you, Yuu-chan.

I second that, Komi. Fourteen hours of studying a day is brutal, even if that’s to be expected in what is essentially a boot camp. I’ve always questioned the efficiency of cram schools and the like, mostly because they seem to prepare more for short-term memorization than long-term understanding. But even it actually works in principle...

...I’m not sure Tomoko will be able to handle it.

Perhaps it’s just me, but it feels like Tomoko is overestimating her discipline for studying. She already struggled with Katou’s flashcards and study sessions that a whole training camp feels like it would have a more detrimental effect on Tomoko than a positive one. “Work hard, play hard” was never meant to be that extreme, Tomoko.

That’s...genuinely uplighting. Tomoko has missed out on several of the key “memorable” high school moments, and she usually lets it go with only mild regrets. But here, Tomoko’s actively trying to gain what she once lost. Sure, she’s trying to “game the social system” a little, but what did you expect? She’s a person, not a saint.

This was Yuu’s only line in this entire chapter. My girl deserves more than this.

Will the 2% of Tomoko’s personality that is tsundere ever realize that if you really “didn’t care either way”, then you wouldn’t have asked the question to begin with? Doubt it.

That romaji tho.

It comes to the surprise of absolutely no one that Komiyama has some pretty...vivid fantasies about Tomoki. But what stands out to me is how deep into the relationship her thoughts go. Most people fantasize about their crush first in their sexual attractiveness, but only a few ever dream beyond that. Ironically, you know your crushing has gone off the deep end if you start thinking about them in domestic, SFW ways. Least Komi’s committed, yeah?

Gee, I wonder what’s that “and stuff” Tomoko’s talking about?masturbating

Nothing like a fresh bowl of Grossi-Os and Gross Juice to start the day!

If what Yuri says is true, then that would mean that she and Ucchi have probably walked to school together several times before–more than the couple of times we’ve seen, at least. And even so, it doesn’t look like they haven’t gotten much closer as friends, if at all. Some people just don’t click, I suppose.

Not sure how blind Ucchi is because anybody with a pair of eyes (beady or not) would see that Yuri has friends, even if you only count Mako. Poor girl just can’t accept the truth even when it's right in front of her face.

Ah, Yuri. Why can’t you just drop the “savior” act and just admit you want to spend time with her?

I’m inclined to agree about Yoshida, but who knows? She’s surprised us before. Mako's a safe bet, though. Especially if the former’s going. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Boy, does that take me back. It still blows my mind that all of Ucchi’s problems originated from one night of misunderstandings. The art nerd in me really appreciates the subtle improvement in Niko’s art style. The character models feel “weightier” and more consistent without compromising the stylization.

You don’t see it in the previous panel, but Ucchi was totally blushing at the prospect of reliving her trauma/dream. Perhaps she was also looking to live out that ping pong match she never got.

I’m not sure if there was some kind of wordplay in the original text. Either way, it kind of sucks for Yuu-chan that she got such a “flattering” nickname when she wasn’t involved in that scenario whatsoever. Though it sure is a tad classier than Miss Akari “Dick Sister Jr.’ Iguchi.

It’s kind of (read: absolutely) frightening how Katou’s envy towards Yuu feels a lot more intense than Yuri’s. Perhaps it’s because Yuri’s so transparent that you know how to deal with her. But with Katou, that air of secrecy feels like a nuclear bomb about to go off.

I always wondered where girls picked up that thing where they intertwine their fingers as a sign of affection. It’s precious.

Praise modern technology for convenient storytelling.

Wow, Fuuka’s already made her mark on Tomoko’s “bitch” list. Though exactly why she’s on that list now is kind of odd. I mean, yeah, she asked Tomoko about the whole fondling thing, and she unintentionally presented herself as a pervert for the whole “hair” thing, but Fuuka hasn’t really done anything all that terrible. If anything, Tomoko is probably expressing a rare bit of jealousy towards someone else supposedly perving on Katou besides her.

The most striking part about Fuuka’s inevitably failed plan is that she describes Tomoko’s appearance as “sudden”. It was touched on before, but it further emphasizes that Tomoko’s friendship with Katou was just as unexpectedly quick in-universe as it was for the readers. And in doing so, it brings us one step closer to the real mystery over why Katou is so enamored with Tomoko in the first place.

Ya’ll know Sayaka’s got her homegirl’s back on this one. Let’s see (hopefully) how Akari screws it up.

Chapter 58, mothereffers!

I don’t know whether I’d say Nico Tanigawa has been playing the long game, or if they just found a convenient throwaway to capitalize on. But the acknowledgment itself is very much appreciated. Tomoko may have forgotten, naturally, but us overzealous fans certainly never did!

The chills, man. Chill’s right up the spine.

It’s certainly true that Tomoko’s words can be interpreted in a good or bad way, so it’s pretty telling that Katou’s gut reaction went for the latter. It suggests that Katou may actually have some insecurities that can easily set her off. Then again, a defining part of Katou’s personality is that she takes everything Tomoko says at completely face value, so maybe she’s starting to see Tomoko’s negativity even if it’s not there. Just more of the enigma that is Asuka Katou.

Not a bad save, Tomoko. Countless battles with shame have made her quick on the fly. Unfortunately, while she’s improved at starting a save...

...she still doesn’t know how to end it.

It would’ve been a clean getaway if Tomoko had just ended about half-way in the above panel. But because Tomoko’s anxiety causes her to try and cover all the bases, she ends up rambling suspiciously. The part about Nemo isn’t even that relevant, but in her burst of defensiveness, Tomoko ends up saying things that could just exacerbate the problem even further.

Fucking shit, Katou is damn scary.

The one fortunate thing about Tomoko’s defensive rambles is that once she starts to cool down, her honesty starts coming out more organically. Self-deprecation becomes self-reflection, and brings to the forefront Tomoko’s endearing side.

Only Tomoko could spout such a cliché moe line and sound so pure of heart. Must be the irony.

Aha. Ahaha. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

–that totally didn’t happen.

Tomoko, girl, you’re in the CLEAR! Stop trying to fan flames that have already been put out.

But on that note, it does affirm that while Tomoko is honest with Katou about certain things (perversion, laziness), she isn’t quite ready to be honest on anything that would paint Katou in a bad light. I’d say tha’st about 85% due to fear.

Death Flags raised all around.

I had a feeling that Nemo would take the plunge this time and invite Tomoko out somewhere during the summer. It seems like such an insignificant gesture, but considering that this is the very first time a classmate has asked to hang out with her during the summer, it warms my heart.

Hey now, Tomoko. Don’t get cocky when you’re maximizing your own goof-off time by taking a study camp.

The easy guess is that Nemo wants to go to Comiket. But really, it could be anything that Tomoko would have an interest in. And because it’s implied that Nemo is going for research purposes, it could be anything from a seiyuu panel (the last one went so well) to a hot spring to a hentai game company. Hope they bring Okada along...

Mama senses her daughter’s giving in to peer pressure.

Not gonna lie. This hand gesturing from Rena made me think that she was thinking about doing...something else.

Damn mind-in-the-gutter.

Even though Anna doesn’t appear to be the studious type, it’s pretty cool to see that she can respect people who are. Also, I dig the way she wears her tie (or is that a ribbon?).

Emoji II really has become an honorary delinquent and it fits her perfectly.

I guess no matter how much more grounded Tomoko becomes, she still thinks reading manga is legitimate practice for playing in real-life (though tabletop games may actually allow for some truth).

Sub!Tomoko confirmed.

What a way to end a chapter. For the longest, Katou had always viewed Tomoko through a pair of rose-tinted glasses, always seeing the girl’s faults as endearing “quirks”. But as her soul-piercing gaze seems to indicate, Katou has reached a revelation about Tomoko that she can actually disapprove of. Whether or not it’ll shatter her illusion of Tomoko is still unclear, but how she treats Tomoko from here on out may finally give us a deeper look into Katou’s psyche.

160+ chapters we’ve followed Tomoko, and we’re still learning new things about her. The very extent of Tomoko’s agency has always been a tad murky. She’s good at (poorly) executing short-term ideas, but hardly does she plan out and follow up on her long-term goals. Even her greatest milestone of making friends involved a lot of pushing from outsiders (Ogino, the most obvious case). That said, having to take charge of herself for once is inescapable with college on the horizon. How she goes about it amongst her various mom-friends may end up being Tomoko’s biggest personal challenge yet.

#watamote #watamote review #chapter 164 #no matter how i look at it it's you guys' fault i'm not popular!#tomoko kuroki #kotomi komiyama #hikari itou #hatsushiba #asuka katou #yuu naruse #yuri tamura #emiri uchi #sasaki fuuka #hina nemoto #rena #anna haruna #review

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minchiutau · 6 years ago

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QUARTET NIGHT LIVE FLY TO THE FUTURE 2018 Report (Day 1&2)

Most details are from 1st day because we usually can’t see 1st day performances except for MC in DVD/BD anyway so i tried to focus on writing details of performance from 1st day more than 2nd (tho in term of perf there weren’t many differences) It contains most of the MCs and my thoughts about it!

Warning: Both reports and translations of the dialogue ARE not 100% accurate. It’s based on what i and my friend remembered and took notes of. The post is extremely long! And i spent tons of time typing this so there might be a lot of grammar and typing errors. I’d be happy if you would overlook all of my mistakes here!

Edit: Let me apologize for the extreme delay.. I actually had this finished a week after it happened, and i was probably super tired when i finished it. I’m not sure how that happened, but apparently i didn’t post it and this had been sitting on my drafts for six months because i went on a hiatus afterwards.... I realized it after opening tumblr a day ago. I was super sad because it was so long and i spent tons of time writing it.. if possible i don’t want to delete it so here it is!

Opening lines by QN members

Opening VTR, there isn't anything like last QN live but it was visual picture slideshow of previous live and it shows how QN has been around since 2012~now. QUARTET★NIGHT instrumental was playing on the background.

Followed with clock'tick tock sound, bell rang and the main stage monitor was split into two and QN appeared with gold stage outfit and big clock on the background! Tattsun and Morikubo had similar hairstyle to the previous live with minor change (styling?) while maenu had brown hair tied like in 6th live melting of snow performance and shoutan with ai's hairstyle+hair color (bleached in some parts, not entirely but it looks really nice!)

1. THE WORLD IS MINE I actually guessed this would be the first song and i was right! It started with really pretty acapella ;;_;; THEIR HARMONIES WERE PERFECT IT WAS LEGENDARY like it was probably one of the best harmonization i've heard in my life (if previous live wasn't enough) I kinda forgot what happened during this performance because i was too amazed by how good they sang tbh. Pretty sure people know how good QN harmonize, but this one was especially good! If i remembered it right, there were some dance moves! The audience also sang "The world is mine!" part in the bridge, it was fun! I literally cried the moment they appeared i can’t remember much AHAHA //sweats

2.Poison KISS As soon as the intro started people around me went crazy with their screams xD It's more or less similar to what we've seen in previous lives. Do they have any tradition bc they always sing this song since 3rd live xD Except of course, they were dancing a lot more now and this song is actually one of the good example of their improvements! This song is still as hyped as always. They walked from the main stage to the front stage and during that they also did some poses and fanservices

MC (or not really since they were talking in character voice the whole time? kinda like opening serifu) Maenu: *Camus butler mode* Welcome to "QUARTET NIGHT LIVE FLY TO THE FUTURE" ladies and gentlemen. I'm Camus and let us enjoy tonight together. *Camus usual mode change* Or did you really think i'd say that, you peasant?! Be sure to follow us to the end. (In 2nd day camus didn't say the peasant thingy tho idk why) Shoutan: I'm Mikaze Ai. I'll make it a fun and dokidoki live until the end! *throw kiss* Tattsun: It's Kurosaki Ranmaru! It's finally our rocking time! Let's enjoy it till the end! Morikubo: Rei-chan’s the one left here~! My girl and my boy!! It's okay for Rei-chan to start first, right~?! and it went right to the next song

3. On Your Mark! I personally thought that this song sounds hard to sing (maybe bc of the key progression??) but Morikubo did great! His singing was super stable and consistent, as usual. He danced A LOT more on this one! Probably the most i've seen from reiji's solo so far! And he did super great! ;; It’s similar to the perf he had in 6th live except i think he did even better this time!! He must've worked really hard! He forgot a bit of his part in 1st day xD but he recovered right after!

4. Futari no Monogram I HAD FEELING THIS WOULD COME bc it was the only ai's solo shoutan didn't sing in QN 1st solo con.. and I definitely saw improvements! He was dancing (almost) all of the time and but he sounded A LOT more stable than 5th live (and i think 5th live was already great) it looked so easy for him xD But all in one it's similar to the one we've seen previously, except i think there were some additional moves? (Edit: many parts are entirely different too) In the end shoutan also said "Da~isuki" like 5th live, except it was in a bit more playful tone (kinda teasing tone?) Overall i think he did even better than 5th live! He also did some fanservices and i personally like the part where he fixed his silver gloves.

5. Saintly Territory Maenu appeared with his (this time a bit thin?) white mantle and did the dance like in previous live! Same with shoutan, i think he improved a lot with his singing stability and this time it sounded extremely stable and he looks a lot more relaxed with his dancing too!;; I really love how they keep on improving even tho they were already that good to begin with. He came to from main stage to front stage and suddenly he appeared with camus' stick from halfway and danced with it! xD He danced a lot! I’m not sure if it’s in this song or not but if i remember it right on first day, he also gave us a fanservice of him smirking in front of the camera and people went crazy over it (i mean, me too AHAHA)

6. BE PROUD Remember how legendary 6th live performance of this song was? Yeah, this time it was equally amazing. He appeared with stand-mic and it was a straightforward+simple performance, yet his singing was really amazing i kinda stopped swinging penlight.. The adlib on the bridge was really powerful and it just hit me hard i almost teared up ;; On last reff he went down on his knees and made really pained expression ;; in general he had pained expression on his face and it made me emotional.. also the trademark super-long notes in the end was also there, it was just amazing! I got chills. Personally i like last reff "hoeru shika naku (I have no other choice but to howl)" because he sounded like he was actually howling. BUT SERIOUSLY it was extremely emotional, both days were powerful and all in one it’s just simply amazing. Fight me you don’t like Ranmaru and tattsun after you listen to this performance AHAHA

The screen suddenly said "Acoustic corner, Reiji Camus", Morikubo and Maenu appeared with long sleeves shirt. Morikubo (reiji's) was black (with stage-like vest?) and maenu was white (with blue tie).They greeted the hall and live-viewing audience. Maenu wore camus' glasses. They said they were doing something new, which was acoustic corner! The band (?) was preparing on their back while they were doing the MC. Chairs were also prepared for them and they talked while sitting on it, also telling the audience to sit throughout acoustic performance.

Day 1 They talked about there weren't many chances to have only the two of them on MC and how rehearsal have passed in a blink of eye. It seemed like they were doing it under a lot of pressure (considering last live extreme high quality i'm not surprised tbh lol) Maenu: "It's hard to gather all of us together on the rehearsal" Morikubo: "We only managed to get all together once (?!) on the rehearsal. We sometimes did it with three of us present and for some reasons most of the time one of us couldn't be present." (audience sounded surprised! Me too, they performed really good together i just didn't expect it) Maenu: "I started rehearsal mainly from September. Though of course, i received choreography videos beforehand." Morikubo: "The red person started really early, didn't he?" (audience laughed) Maenu: "He always got to start rehearsal really early every live" Morikubo: "He always got to start really early i couldn't help but thinking "Eh?! He started already?!" when i heard it." Maenu: "And he'd contact us with "I started with it!" first everytime" After that they were talking about the live and how it started with a new song! Apparently they were practicing it it a lot to the point that they saw it on their dreams lol Morikubo danced a bit (?) of the choreo with his hand, pointed at Maenu and said he often did those moves (practicing the move, the usual maenu’s greatness; not sure but i think it was killer kiss moves?) xD They talked about how it was the first time for the four of them to perform an acoustic corner on utapri live and that the live was fun. Morikubo: "I always receive the choreography video from the dance teacher first and i got to voice my opinion first if the dance was too hard or if it needs to be changed into easier moves. If i'm okay with it then the three of them will follow. (Because he's the oldest) Until now if some parts were too hard i'd say so and got scolded by certain someone (Tattsun LOL). But this time, after receiving it I said nothing about it and did it the way it's supposed to be." (Audience cheers) Maenu: "The choreography was really hard, wasn't it?" Morikubo: "Neverthless, our duty this time is to follow after Quartet Night. If the four of them are supposed to do it that way, then we will do our best to follow after them. We did our best without making excuses." (Audience cheers) Morikubo: "Up till now, there are a lot of idol groups existing right? They dance and sing." Maenu: "They do." Morikubo: "But look at us, we're dancing, singing AND harmonizing. Isn't that rare to be found?" Maenu: "It's rare indeed!" Morikubo: "We're dancing, singing AND harmonizing! (2nd time xD)" (Audience cheers) Morikubo: "If the four of them aim for even higher level, we'll also aim for it and chase after them(characters)!" After that they called for the acoustic band members. They also talked about Maenu's Camus glasses and apparently, Maenu being the biggest Camus fan he is, got the glasses by himself xD (If i remember right it got sold out really fast so i think he meant he put tons of effort to get it)

Day 2 They talked about how they’re doing it on Kobe this time. Up till now utapri live (or most events actually) was held in kanto region/near tokyo but this time the live was held in kansai region (Psst as someone who lives in kansai i’m extremely happy) They greeted people at live-viewing. Maenu: *to the camera* “Can you see us here?” Morikubo: “Live-viewiiiing!” Some of the audiences in the hall went “Fuuu~↑” even tho they were calling for the live-viewing LOL Maenu: “*a bit puzzled* O--oh I could hear their voices, i heard the Fuuu~“ xD From this point they’ll keep on doing this few times if someone let out voices when they were calling for people in live-viewing LOL There was also a small accident of the staffs bringing wrong water-bottle for Maenu (it was tatsu’s) xD They talked about how the penlight color change was automatically controlled by the staffs (like the one on previous live) Morikubo: “I thought it was amazing!” Maenu: “At first i thought ‘they changed the color so quickly!!’ but it seems like that was not the case” xD Morikubo: “Ah, but it’s possible to switch it into your favorite color, right?” Maenu: “Yes, it’s possible to do both” Morikubo: “If i say a color right now would it be possible (for the staffs) to change the color right away?” Maenu: “It’s supposed to be on programmed automatically isn’t it?” Morikubo: “Let’s try it!” Maenu: “I’m not sure, we haven’t told the staffs beforehand!” xD Morikubo: “We haven’t told them anything!” Maenu: “They must be panicking right now” Morikubo: “Everyone, I’ll say ‘red’ so please switch your penlight into another color and don’t change the color manually! Let’s see if it’s possible” Morikubo: “Here i go, red!!!” They waited few seconds and the color didn’t change xD Morikubo: “So it’s not possible!” *audience laughed* Maenu: “It has to be programmed beforehand” in the middle of their talk suddenly all of the penlight on the hall turned red Morikubo: “OHHH IT’S RED!!” Maenu: “That’s amazing!!! The staffs definitely panicked just now” Morikubo: “I’m sorry for doing it suddenly!” Maenu: “(it’s all in red) So this is what Tatsu saw while singing” Morikubo: “(to audience)Ah, you can turn it back to your favorite color now. Thank you very much for your cooperation” They talked about how the concert hall is a good hall (and i totally agree) and how they could see the audience clearly. Then they talked about how it was a 2 days concert as opposed to prev one. Afterwards Morikubo told us that they’re ready to do it for another day or two xD Maenu agreed Maenu: “Even the rehearsals were fun. Of course there were a lot of hardships, but the sensation of being able to stand with the four of us.. it’s just addictive” Morikubo: “Lately, there’s something all of us often do. Inside the dressing room, when the four of us were sitting in front of the mirrors and our songs were played on the background, we’ll do an imitation/impression of our own characters” Maenu: “A bit exaggerated one” Audience screamed “Do it~~” and the two of us fell into silence all of sudden xD Maenu: “If you said something like that of course it’ll come into this!” Morikubo: “It’s more or less just what you always hear from us” Audience told them to do it again Morikubo: “Yesterday we talked about such topic. We were talking about how Shouta used to sing demos of most utapri songs and we asked about how he did our character voices. *stares at maenu* How did he do Ran-Ran again?” Maenu: “?! I’d be the one doing it?!” He did an impression of Ranmaru’s “Arai hou ga ii~” of Poison kiss and it was super funny! xD He made his voice really hoarse and also made funny expression with his eyes wide-opened LOL Morikubo then apologized at him for making him suddenly do it Maenu: “You told me to do it!” Morikubo: “I wasn’t expecting you to do it with that expression” Maenu: “I’m sorry please forget the thing i did just now” LOL Maenu: “At rehearsal we often do something like that to fill the part of the member that wasn’t there. For example Morikubo-san’s part” Morikubo: “They’ll start imitating ‘Tee ↑ ee↑ (the vocal swing he often does, you’d probably get what i mean if you listened to Reiji’s singing in general)” Maenu: *imitates* “More and More and~~(poison kiss w/hands movements too)” Morikubo: “It’s not “Mori mori ok?!” (means to do something vigorously in japanese) Maenu: “Even all of those things were really fun” Morikubo: “Camus’ (impression) were amazing too you know” Maenu: “Tatsu totally did that on purpose!” Morikubo: “If Tatsu comes later, tell him to do it here” And they called the band

7. KILLER KISS When they talked about how they were going to perform it acoustic i actually couldn't imagine how it would sound with this song but it actually sounded really pleasant! I mean, it sounded a lot quieter than the actual song so you could hear their great voices and amazing harmonization crystal clear! It sounded really refreshing! They also did a bit of the little hand choreography similar to the one on 6th live. They sounded really powerful!

Shoutan and Tattsun appeared. Shoutan had white shirt with lilac-colored flower on his left pocket and Tattsun had black shirt they also talked while sitting like Morikubo and Maenu (At some parts they also stood?).

Day 1 Shoutan talked about how it's refreshing to be able to talk with just the two of them and tattsun agreed to it. In the middle of convo Tattsun just went with sudden "Let's introduce ourself" and the audience laughed. Shoutan: "Everyone, good evening! I'm Mikaze Ai's good friend Aoi Shouta!" Tattsun: "You went with that?! I'm the one who's always standing closest to Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa." Tattsun: "Aaa~ It's refreshi-- *looks at shoutan turning his back from audience* Hey! Don't fix your belt here!" (Shoutan a bit panicking lol) Tattsun: "This is why before the live started i told you not to eat that many cream puffs!!"* (if you don't get this reference go search for game and drama CDs involving Ai lol) Shoutan: "That's not true!" lol Tattsun also said Morikubo and Maenu talked a lot so almost no topic left for them to talk xD Shoutan told the camera to zoom at Tattsun's nails. Apparently at previous lives Tattsun's nail colors were normal red but this time he finally had Ranmaru's burgundy dark red! Also Shoutan tried to let his nails grow but at rehearsal two of it hit the mic and broke. He also had Ai's color nail btw. Tattsun: "This time, at rehearsal we were often together. Of course we were looking at each other practices a lot too. The more i see him, to be honest I could only see Shouta as a girl!" Shoutan: "You said that a lot! Stuffs like "what's with that body line!?" Tattsun: "His girl power (女子力) is increasing day by day! If it's me i definitely wouldn't be able to do it! For example this pose *posing*" Shoutan: "This one? *posing*" (hard to describe so take a look at matoni-sensei's report pic here! the pose at the very middle of the pic) Tattsun: "How did you do that?" *imitating but failed* (Audience laughed) Tattsun: "This time, for example the dance, like previously talked, we're following the footsteps of our characters. As they go higher, we as one try to follow them. To begin with I only do stuffs like this once a year here you know!" Shoutan: "This kind of chance doesn't happen often, right? But actually tatsu-nii at his own will, you know, even after the rehearsal was supposed to end--" Tattsun: "Hey~ Stop this topic!" Shoutan: "When the rehearsal ended he'd go around saying "I'm sorry, can i do it just one more time?" you know! Of course we have to make sure we're in good condition by resting well too, but his feelings reached me and it made me want to reply it with same thing." Tattsun: "Right, at that time i had the time so i tried to use all of my time practicing and when i realized it i've been doing it for six and half hours." Shoutan: "Really, how many times did you do the live that time?" (Audience laughed) Tattsun: "And Shouta was also there the whole time."(Not sure if he said he was standing there or singing behind him) Tattsun: "To be honest, I couldn't produce Ranmaru's voice easily. And so i'd need time to adjust my throat beforehand. Sometimes i got frustrated and was troubled with it alone. And at such times, he'd come closer to me and said "Tatsu-nii, what about doing quartet night songs together?". Among us, Shouta　is the one who's always trying to consider others feelings. At that one time all of us got together, we were troubled with a thing and couldn't come into agreement. At such time, Shouta was the first one to speak up "What about doing this way? Maybe it's going to change for the better!". He was always thinking about our feelings and what to do about it. In that way, he's the one supporting our backs and i think that's what's good about him." After that they talked about how they're going to sing after this with the acoustic band. Tattsun: "We were talking a lot prior to this performance, like how to make it sound better and what to add and improvise." Shoutan: "That's right, we talked a lot about it." Tattsun: "I was thinking of supporting Shouta while he's singing freely with his all, but actually Shouta also adjusts with how i'm singing. It feels like a matchmaking (お見合い)." Shoutan: "It feels like we're sharing same atmosphere!" Tattsun: "It made me feel like, "Ah, so singing with others could be this interesting!" It's really fun. I haven't had chance to sing with someone with such a different type of voices and it feels refreshing. *suddenly bowing?* Thank you so much" Shoutan was off guard because Tattsun just suddenly thanked him and was like "nn?!" xD Tattsun: "So, are we doing it?" Shoutan: "(to the audience suddenly) Do you want to hear us~?" (and of course we said we want to hear it) Shoutan: "They said they want to~" Tattsun: "Why did you start it and answer it yourself?" (Audience laughed xD) Shoutan: "I'm sorry" (Audience screamed "Cute~!") Tattsun: "That part! That's the cute part of you, you know" And i kinda forgot what they said after this.. but not long after they started with title call and the next song started! Day 2 Shoutan: “Good evening~ It’s finally our turn” Tattsun: “No matter how many times we did it, it always feels refreshing to be here (doing MC) with just the two of us” Shoutan: “It does! The previous two’s MC/perf was really heated up” Tattsun: “Right” Both: ”Right~” (audience laughed xD) Tattsun: “First, please introduce yourself” Shoutan: “I’m Mikaze Ai’s best friend, Aoi Shouta!” Tattsun: “I’m the one with privilege to stand closest to Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa” Shoutan: “Isn’t it interesting that our introduction changed a bit everytime?” They talked about live-viewing and called out to them Shoutan: *to camera* “How are you guys?” Tattsun: “Everyone at live-viewing places, how are you?” the audiences in the hall went “Fuuu~↑” again Tattsun: “I could hear voices even though it’s supposed to be live-viewing! Amazing!” LOL After that they changed topic into the outfits they wore on acoustic corner Shoutan: “After the first day ended, there was something a lot of people were talking about regarding this acoustic corner. As opposed to our previous gold outfits, in this corner we have a shirt as our outfit. *Tattsun spun to show the audience his outfit*” Shoutan: “It has Ranmaru’s color on it” Tattsun: “(the red cloth of the lower part of his outfit) I requested this” Shoutan: “For me, i wanted a symbol at Ai’s left chest. The staffs also added Ai’s color on it” (whoever manage to understand the symbolism i love you) Shoutan: “The real topic starts here. The shirt i’m wearing right now is an oversize shirt. So it has a bit of kare-shirt (It’s a situation when someone is wearing their lovers’ clothes) vibe on it. “ *audience loud screams* xD Tattsun: “Right” Shoutan: “And that’s..” Tattsun: “That’s why you should just say you were staying over in my place” *fangirl squeal* Shoutan: “And there’s the fact that the two of us are doing MC together too.. For a moment i thought 'Eh?! Did i actually stay in Tatsu-nii’s house and borrow his shirt?!'” Tattsun: “I thought it would look good on you, so you can have it” *embarrassed shoutan* xD Shoutan: “This person right here... Why does he always say this kind of embarrassing lines like it was nothing?! This is embarrassing” (you two so cute stahp) Tattsun: “Could you stop getting ‘seriously’ embarrassed?” xD Shoutan: “Of course i would! *to male audience* Even male would feel the same, right?!” A male audience answered and tattsun laughed at it Shoutan: “I told you so!” Tattsun: “I could hear your voice (male audience) really clearly! Wait a bit, let me take off my in-ear monitor. (He looks happy to hear them) *male audience cheers* Tattsun: “This is awesome, i could hear you guys really well! *laughs* Oi, you guys sure have great voices!” (they both look really happy xD) Shoutan: “And obviously, all of you girls, it made your heart throb right?!” *audience cheers* Shoutan: “I told you!” Tattsun: “Wait a bit, why did you put yourself in girls side?!” LOLOL Shoutan: “After standing on many stages of utapri, i feel like i could understand what everyone is thinking about!” Tattsun: “That’s what i told you in the rehearsal wasn’t it?! When i was watching your solo, i told you 'Your girl power(女子力) is increasing even more!'“ Tattsun: “Especially when he was dancing and singing, his body-line definitely doesn’t look like a male! Shoutan: “Really? *does the same pose as the one on 1st day MC* I ended up doing it like that” Tattsun: “If i’m the one doing it, it looks like a plastic model *does the same pose* So stiff” Shoutan: “But in return you have the coolness of Ranmaru!” Tattsun: “All i could do is being aggresive (オラつくit’s a bit hard to explain)” Shoutan: “That’s Ranmaru!!” After that they talked about flower stand! (btw for some reasons if i go to QN events i always see many cool and artistic flower stands so if you’re curious be sure to look it up) Tattsun: “We wanted to see it by ourselves but it was close to where the audience was waiting so we couldn’t see it. But our managers took a VTR of the flowers for us and we all watched it together. While we were talking about how big and pretty it was suddenly a panel appeared and we were like ‘Eh?! You can create such flower stand?!’” Shoutan: “It was amazing wasn’t it?” Tattsun: “And also, i know it’s a form of love and i probably shouldn’t say an unnecessary comment like this, but there was a flower stand with Ranmaru’s silhouette and an instrument on it. The thing is, that silhouette wasn’t a bass, it was a guitar!!” Shoutan: “A-Ah, the instrument Ranmaru plays is..” Tattsun: “Bass” Shoutan: “And what came was...” Tattsun: “Guitar...” Shoutan: “That was close! So close! B-but it was a silhouette so..” Tattsun: “But.. it was a guitar...” Shoutan: “So close!” Tattsun: “That shape was probably an SG (gibson SG? i’m not sure) guitar..” Shoutan: “You sure know a lot!” xD Tattsun: “*asks a band member* Right?! But i could feel the love and so i think ’It’s okay, a guitar is fine too’” Shoutan: “After all, they made it so pretty!” Tattsun: “Indeed! Among them there were also outfits right? The quality was so high i thought ‘Eh?! Did we wear that outfits?!’” Shoutan: “Eh?! It’s the real thing?!” Tattsun: “Did we give/show the real thing to them?!” xD Shoutan: “Was it leaked somewhere?” Tattsun: “Without realizing it, do they know our three sizes?!” Shoutan: “That’s bad!!” Tattsun: “No way, no way!!! We’re in trouble!” (what are you guys doing LOL) Afterwards they talked about how it represents audience love for the series Tattsun: “It was so amazing it feels like being on an exhibition! Don’t you think we could charge an admission fee for this?” Shoutan: “That’s right!!” xD Tattsun: “A lot of people also sent it directly to certain character and on that part too i could totally feel your affection for them.” Tattsun: “Yesterday, after 1st day ended we had a small after-party with the four of us plus few people. We talked about a lot of things there and there were a lot of talks full of love for the series. We’ll talk about it in depth after the four of us are all here.” Tattsun: “Also, on dressing room lately, doing an impression of QN members has became a trend, right? Shoutan: “We do impression of each other’s characters. It’s before the live so tatsu-nii brought a stereo-- Is this the right word? I’m hopeless when it comes to such thing.. ” Tattsun: “Shouta” Shoutan: “Yes?” Tattsun: “Ba~ka” (in teasing tone asdhjkf what is this, a shoujo manga?) *Audience screams* Shoutan: “ *a bit of sulking tone* He said i’m an idiot..” Tattsun: “That’s called a bluetooth speaker!” Shoutan: “Ah! It’s a speaker!” Tattsun: “Don’t just go and group everything into 'latest model machine’!” Shoutan: “I’m sorry.. -- so he used a speaker to play the setlist of this live inside our dressing room. And then we’ll hum or sing along” Tattsun: “I thought if there’s no sound maybe the atmosphere would be a bit gloomy so i brought a rather big one and played the playlist of the setlist. And when i did that, suddenly we could hear Rei-chan that wasn’t Rei-chan” LOL Shoutan: “You’re right. After that we would hear an addition of one more person, and another one, we would then hear someone who did an impression of ranmaru, and so on...” Shoutan: “But the thing is, when Camus’ part comes..” Both: “All of us would do it” LOL Shoutan: “It was amazing wasn’t it?” Tattsun: “All of us would gather and sang the “kindan no kajitsu~♪ (killer kiss)” Shoutan: “We did it. Not only our own character, but did such to another character of the same group” Tattsun: “We did it” Shoutan: “Ai’s impressions were also amazing” Tattsun: “When doing Ai we would pucker our lips” Shoutan: “That’s right! Actually, i have such a small mouth/lips so when they’re doing it like that i could hear some similarities.. Tomo-nii also did it. That’s what’s trending on our dressing room lately” Tattsun: “When doing an impression of Ranmaru, all of them would sound so hoarse!” Shoutan: “First of all we would strain our voices” Tattsun: “Raise the distortion to the max..” Tattsun: “Do you still remember the first time you voiced Ai?” Shoutan: “I do! At that time i was just started learning how to be a voice actor. With an illustration of Ai right in front of me, I was thinking of how to make him alive. While thinking of such things i would practice over and over again. After spending a lot of time, i finally managed to do that.” Tattsun: “The staffs were really careful about it weren’t they?” Shoutan: “Yes. What about Ranmaru? How was it?” Tattsun: “A bit roughly but at that time I saw all of the utapri series first. And at that time, i thought that there weren’t many people with low tone voices. As a senpai, when i read the script at that time Ranmaru also said so many harsh words. I was thinking of what to do with it and came into conclusion that to make it sounds manly i should do it with low tone. And so it became like that.” Tattsun: “But that time, i didn’t give it much thought and let out the lowest tone i could at that time.” Shoutan: “I see!” Tattsun: “And so when i’m voicing Ranmaru i have to keep my throat wide opened the whole time” Tattsun: “The first time i thought ‘i’ve done it wrong’ was at the singing recording. At that time i realized that i have to practice hard to produce Ranmaru’s voice well. Especially at the very beginning, i have to warm-up my voice well before recording something as Ranmaru. At that time i’d practice “*Ranmaru’s voice* Oi” with my throat wide open.” Shoutan: “And so it becomes Ranmaru” Tattsun: “*points at the area between throat and chin* the shape of my face here would disappear (bc he’s keeping his throat open). It would turn into a neck of a dinosaur. ” xD Shoutan: “But after going through all of that Ranmaru was born” Tattsun: “That’s right” Shoutan: “A lot of stories were there”

And they announced next song

8. HARUHANA ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE: BEAUTIFUL. I guess this one is easier to imagine in acoustic ver. It sounds really classy~ I must say this arrangement fits this song A LOT! Both of them sang super emotionally ;; Tattsun used softer tones at some parts and shoutan sang some parts more dynamically than others creating an emotional performance;; When this song was released i saw someone said that they voices don't go well with each other, but nah they really need to watch this performance. Their chemistry was heavenly.. their timing, the way their voice overlap and harmonize, even how they put power in their singing, it was a perfection. To be honest, the two of them in this performance probably had the best chemistry i've ever seen in utapri live performances. They shared A LOT of eye contacts! (they were staring at each other like most of the time? lol) They also inserted really pretty adlibs and even harmonize on it. Before last reff they sang it really passionately before suddenly (intentionally) stopped singing for seconds and left a bit of silence. After seconds they start again with really emotional last reff! It was amazing. (Explanation: "Oru youni kasaneatte, koe e to, uta e to~~~ (long notes) Aa *stops for like 3 seconds* yokaze ni fukarete...") Also last reff's "..mune wo sasu kedo ↑" was improvised as the notes went up instead of down. I couldn't say anything other than perfection. I personally like their perf of this song on the first day more than the second day (tho of course it was awesome too) so i kinda hoped utapri would ever release DVD/BD of 1st day of their lives too...

A bit of MC. Tattsun said that because they finally had the chance to sing acoustic they wanted to sing with the four of them and called Morikubo and Maenu!

Day 1 Morikubo said he had two things to say to them Morikubo: "First, the two of us talked about a lot of topics (that Tattsun said they have nothing left to talk) because it took a lot of time for the band to set their instruments on the stage!" xD Maenu: "It can't be helped!" Tattsun: "Talk about of such circumstances when we're on backstage instead of here!" (Audience laughed) Morikubo: "Also second, Tatsu is amazing with his practice and all, but sometimes there's also time when he's only stretching for 2 hours!" LOL ((After this they talked a bit more but i forgot the details, i think my memory went overcapacity starting from here, i'm really sorry //sweats)) They talked about how QN appeared for the first time at 2012. If i remember it right Tattsun also said previous live was only last year (6th) but he felt like it's been longer than that. I didn't remember who brought it up first (Tattsun maybe??) but they then talked about how Shoutan used to provide his singing for the demo/prototype version of utapri songs before the respective seiyuu sing the song! (I think a lot of you knew it already, as people around me already knew abt this too) Shoutan: "You promised you won't talk about this, right?!" xD and they realized they didn't give us enough explanation about what they were talking about and decided to explain. Maenu: "For a period of time, Shouta used to sing for all utapri demo song alone by himself. " Tattsun: "Not to mention, he also sang it the way the character would" Morikubo: "You did STARISH songs and Quartet Night songs right? And what about HEAVENS'? Shoutan: "I also did HEAVENS song!" (Audience and the rest of them were surprised) Tattsun: "That's why, i mean, isn't it a good idea to release those CDs?" Shoutan: "*panicking* No way! No way!" (Audience screamed they want it xD) Shoutan: "It's only good because they (respective char/seiyuus) are the one singing you know! Demo songs are just demo" Tattsun: "Even so, how did you do sing it (the way other characters/seiyuus would)?" Shoutan: "Of course, first i heard each of their CDs. After that i tried thinking of how to sing it so that it's easy to understand who is singing which part. If i sang it all the same way, it'd be hard to understand!" Morikubo: "If that's the case, for example how would you do it if you're doing Ranran's part?" Shoutan: "Wait!! I'd get scolded for this!!" xD (Audience laughed) Tattsun: "You won't!" Morikubo: "Like first, do you need to get your feelings fired up or such? Tell us how you do it! Maybe the audience will have the chance to sing Ranran's part at karaoke or something!" (I kinda forgot this part) Tattsun: "But for some reason, when everyone was imitating Ranmaru's voice, they'll make their voice hoarse. And they'd start saying "I'll kill you!"? Ranmaru didn't even say such thing!" Maenu: "We, and other utapri members (starish seiyuus?) sometimes imitate other character voices on rehearsal and practice." Shoutan: "We did! Also personally same here, when doing Ranmaru's voice i tried to make it sounds threatening (? (LOL xD)) and put my attention on creating more breathy sounds” Morikubo: “Did you hear it guys? Breathy voices!” Shoutan: “But the original singer actually didn’t even do it on purpose right?” Tattsun: “Yes, i’m not aware of it myself” Morikubo: “What about me?! Me?” Shoutan: “With Reiji i’d insert many vocal swings” Morikubo: “Ah, i see!” Shoutan: “Even with Ai there are times i used that kind of singing technique, but after listening to a lot of songs i tried to think of the way i could get the feel with my own voice” Maenu: “What about me?” Morikubo: “With Camus, the first thing is to put in a lot of sugar right?” Shoutan: “Yes xD a lot of sugar cube!” *Tattsun agreing lol* Maenu: “So how did you do it?” Shoutan: “With Camus.. i tried to sing a bit through my nose?” Maenu: “I see! It’s like when Tatsu imitated my voices with bad intentions (LOL) He does it a lot on the dressing room” Tattsun: “Didn’t you do that a lot too?!” Maenu: “We all do! *shoutan and morikubo laughed* Morikubo: “When we all stand side-by-side the ‘let’s imitate other characters tournament’ would just suddenly start!” Tattsun: “Inside the make-up room we were all sitting side by side. At that time the setlist of the concert was playing on the bgm. And then suddenly someone would just start singing a part that isn’t even theirs!” Morikubo: “Didn’t you *points at Maenu* also sing your own part exaggeratedly?!” Tattsun: “He did!!” *shoutan laughed* Tattsun: “What were you even doing?!” Maenu: “I just thought maybe it would be interesting, i tried to guess how my singing sound for people around me” xD Morikubo: “In the prev live i talked about how singing with the three of you feels so good, right? This time while listening to ourselves in acoustic corner, the existence of Maeno’s solid low notes, Shouta’s clear high notes, and for mid-high notes i’ll be there together with Tatsu’s mid-low notes, make a great balance.” Shoutan: “I thought so too!” Morikubo: “Especially because it’s acoustic you could hear the voices clearly. It felt so nice! What do you guys think of it?” Maenu: “I ag...ree with you *stumbled with his words*” Tattsun: “Which position are you standing on right now?! Also where is your glasses (camus’ glasses) ?!” Maenu: “I took that off” Shoutan: “You took that off!” Maenu: “It’s a coincidence but our voices balance out each other extremely well. They’re so compatible with each other. It’s such a wonder.” Morikubo: “What do you guys think of it? (audience)” *audience claps* Morikubo: “Today is the Culture Day (a holiday in Japan) but we’re able to be here. Why don’t all of you start your own QUARTET NIGHT with 4 people around you right now? (xD LOL)” Tattsun: “Live-viewing too!” And they show themselves on camera for people in live-viewing! Tattsun: “It’s QUARTET NIGHT~~~~” (his tone was so cute xD karunai dayo~) Tattsun: So, a lot of QUARTET NIGHTs would be born from among the whole country today? (LOL)

Morikubo: “Let’s sing together shall we?” They talked about the outfit a bit before getting into the next song

Day 2 After the performance Tattsun said that it was really fun and called for the other two. Morikubo&Maenu: “It was a great performance!” Morikubo: “I could listen to your (haruhana duo) talk and performance forever” Tattsun and shoutan laughed Shoutan: “Really?!” Morikubo: “I mean it. But Shouta, how could you mistook a speaker for a stereo?!” Maenu: “But i think Tatsuhisa who mistook a video for a VTR (video tape recorder) is also more or less the same” Morikubo: “What has gotten into you?! a VTR?!” *to tattsun* Tattsun: “EH?!” LOL Shoutan: ”I sure made a grave mistake..” Tattsun: “At least i didn’t say something like ‘a beta’ (betamax)” Morikubo asked the audience about the acoustic corner Morikubo: “It felt really good” Shoutan: “It was fun!” Maenu: “It was!” Tattsun: “During today’s rehearsal showtaro-san also talked about this but I feel like we could make a lot more stuffs with this corner” Morikubo: “Like for example, an acoustic live or something” (OMG YES PLS) *Audience cheers* Maenu: “It’ll be great” Tattsun: “For example wouldn’t it be nice if we do it with night sky in the background?” Morikubo: “Our dream keeps on getting even bigger” Tattsun: “We keep on saying this kind of thing, i’m sorry!” (about what they want to do in the future onstage without consulting to staffs xD) Morikubo: “I think it’s important to have a specific dream!” Maenu: “It’s also important to say it out loud” Morikubo: “That’s right, let’s keep on saying it. Right, everyone?” a bit of short silence Morikubo: “You’re not going to say it?!” LOL Everyone laughs Maenu: “It’ll be nice if it becomes true in the future!” Morikubo: “When the two of you were talking I could hear the voice of ‘my boy’ (male audience) so clearly! Let us hear it again, ‘my boy’!!” *male audience cheers* Maenu: “Oh! It’s amazing!” Morikubo: “*to a male audience* Thank you! It makes me happy!” *male audience cheers* Tattsun: You guys sure have great voices! I’m so happy!” (he looks super happy xD) Morikubo: “What about in the live-viewing?” Tattsun& Maenu: “My boy?” Morikubo: “My boy!” Morikubo: *to the camera* “My boy in the live viewing~!!” *Male audience in the hall cheers xD* Shoutan: “There must be some of them!” Maenu: “I could hear them!” Tattsun: “That true, even though it’s live-viewing i could hear their voices!” LOL Maenu: “It reached us! Words filled with feelings definitely gets across, doesn’t it? xD Morikubo: “Right, it’s amazing. We’re so grateful that a lot of people from the whole country came to see us. Thank you very much” Morikubo: “This time it’s a 2 days concert. What do you think of it?” Tattsun: “Yesterday i felt extremely nervous.. I was full of momentary nervousness, but as i talked on previous MC the four of us had an after-party, didn’t we? It seems like i was really happy. The moment i woke up today all i could think of was about that!” Morikubo: “Actually, it seems like the four of us were really happy about it” *the four of them laughs* Morikubo: “We’re surprised about it ourselves. But it seems like the four of us put our arms around each other's shoulders and walk back to the hotel on that position!” (o mg cute) Shoutan: “It’s a real story!” Maenu: “We were all pretty drunk” Tattsun: “To reach the hotel there was a bit of distance so we decided to just walk to the hotel. The four of us keep on putting arms around each other during our walk back to the hotel! “ Shoutan:“That’s true!” Maenu: “Our managers happened to be on the lobby of the hotel and took a picture of us!” Tattsun: “They were like, ‘what are you guys doing? It’s funny so can i take a picture?’ and took a picture of it! Morikubo: “It was so fun!” Tattsun: “It was a blast! We talked about a lot of things” Morikubo: “We were able to feel this feeling thanks to the group named QUARTET NIGHT. So, Shouta, how was it?” Shoutan: “Even though yesterday was only the first day, I already felt like tearing up many times on the stage.. I tried my best to endure it” Tattsun: “It’s okay to cry though” Shoutan: “And this person would say something like that!! Near the end when i was about to tear up he would come and say “Oh? Oh? Are you about to cry?” (he’s like provoking shoutan to cry xD) and i’d say “That’s not true!” ” Tattsun: “That’s okay Shouta~ if you cry I’ll pat your head” (asdahkf) Shoutan: “But in truth, *points at maenu* tomo-nii was also about to cry in certain song!” Maenu: “A sweat, i was just sweating a lot!” Tattsun: *points at maenu “This guy right there, all he could do it say stuffs like that till he actually breaks into tear!” Maenu:“It was just a sweat!” Shoutan: “Something like that happened! Everytime i stand on this stage, i could feel all of your feelings directly. It directly reached my heart. I’m sure, it also reaches the four of them (chars) directly too.” Morikubo: “It’s our second solo live, so to surpass our previous live, we thought a lot about what our stage is supposed to be. For example the acoustic corner. After this too, we have a lot in store to show all of you here in Kobe. Please look forward to it!” Tattsun: “Among us, Maeno is the most passionate about QN, isn’t he?” Maenu: “That’s not true, all of us are equally passionate about it!” Tattsun: “Of course, we’re all passionate about it! But in terms of concentrating himself to the characters, i feel like he inspires us the most.” Maenu: “That’s not true!” Morikubo: “That’s true, whenever i see him he’s always practicing!” Shoutan: “Exactly! Everytime i’d see him practicing on the corner of the room” Tattsun: “So, how’s this concert for you?” Maenu: “Just as always, while looking forward to it i hope i could leave good memories in the history of QN’s journey. Every moment is so precious and dear to me, it happened to me during 6th live too, but that’s why when the show ended and i have to take off the sparkly and beautiful outfits, i would feel so sad. But of course, if there’s a beginning eventually there will come an end too, so i want to create a lot of memories with all of you before it ends. “ Maenu: “But really, the moment four of us are all here together, i always feel so at ease. It just feels like we’re unbeatable. It’s so addicting.” Morikubo: “That’s true.” Tattsun: “I agree” Shoutan: “When we’re practicing there are a lot of formations. In most of them, we’re supposed to stand a bit apart from each other, but when we started to talk with each other without even realizing it we’d suddenly stand so close to each other!” Tattsun: “Without even realizing it!” Morikubo: “in the previous live something like that happened too wasn’t it? Even though the stage was big, suddenly we all were already in the middle of the stage standing so close to each other! We’re supposed to use the wide stage!” Maenu: “I mean, don’t you think it’s already unusual for four fully-grown adults to walk back to hotel with their arms on each other’s shoulder?!” xD Tattsun: “And the thing is, aside from QUARTET NIGHT we actually always go on our separate ways, right?” Maenu: “That’s true! Even if we meet on another works we’ll just say greetings and go our separate ways!” Tattsun: “Actually this time, the day before the concert, i heard that we could do rehearsal on the hall and i was on the same bullet train with Maeno. I met him in the station of Tokyo. We exchanged “Good morning” and just went our separate ways just like that!” Shoutan: ”Eh?! Really?!” Morikubo: “You didn’t come together?!” Tattsun: “We just exchanged good morning. It’s not like i had any reason to go together with him.” (The way he said it was a bit funny xD a bit tsun) Maenu: “That’s right! I was buying something in the convenience store and Tatsu came in when i was about to quit the store. So it was like ‘Oh so you’re going to buy something here, i see. See you later!’ “ Tattsun: “And so i replied ‘Yeah, i’m going in. Later!’ and went to opposite direction“ Maenu:“But the moment we met up on the rehearsal we would start saying things like ‘Let’s do this part!’ to each other.” Shoutan: “That’s very like Ranmaru and Camus!” *audience laughed xD* Morikubo: “You’re right! That’s exactly the same!” Shoutan:“Exact same!” Morikubo: “The two-shots of these two is interesting so let us see it! *goes away from the other two and gets closer to shoutan* Yesterday when we were eating together it was like that too. They were like Ranran and myuu-chan” Maenu: “But at the group line Shouta also enthusiastically does stuffs like that!” (acting like characters) Tattsun: “He said stuffs like that!” Maenu: “He’d say stuffs like ‘I won’t forgive you if you’re late!’” Shoutan: “We uploaded a photo of our hands and mics, didn’t we?” Tattsun: ”We actually created a diamond on that photo” (the more you know) Shoutan:”We’re a group so it’d be better to upload it on the same time. Showtaro-niisan suggested that we all upload it on 21:00. Tatsu-nii edited the photo for us. After he sent it to us, tomo-nii replied with “Can’t be helped, i’ll use it” (like camus xD)” Morikubo:”Then our whole in-char conversations started!” Maenu:”*points at tattsun* He replied with “You’re not being honest” Tattsun: ”That’s normal thing to say, right?! If you’re going to use it you could just say thanks, right?!” Shoutan:“And they i’d reply with “*Ai’s voice* They’re at it again” and added *back to usual shoutan* let’s do it on 21:00″ Tattsun: “We sure talk in our characters personality don’t we? Shoutan:”We do!” Morikubo:”Speaking of LINE, we actually have an utapri all cast group line and yesterday all of the STARISH members gave us encouraging messages.” Tattsun: ”It made me really happy!” Morikubo:”All of them did!” Tattsun: ”We’re standing here right now as QUARTET NIGHT, but we want to treasure the fact that it’s STARISH who opened the path for us. So it makes me really happy! I feel like that it fired us up even more, it made us stronger” Morikubo then said that they’re going to sing the next song and he suddenly told tattsun and maenu to stand beside each other to which maenu replied with “It’s not like we’re close with each other or anything!” xD and they started with next song

9. Marriage

Because it was acoustic arrangement there weren't any background vocals so instead they sang all of the english background vocals live too (ex: "under the starlight~ let's find our love part" etc) and it was really pretty! ;; if i remember well it's mostly shoutan for higher octave (i thought i heard female voice LOLOL) and switched between maenu/morikubo/tattsun for lower parts! Tbh listening to the reff reminded me how much maenu has improved with his singing/harmonies. It sounded really pleasant. On the middle of the song they introduced band members (i think it was percussion, violin, guitar, bass and keyboard??) while they were sitting on the front stage floor xD it was cute!!

Questions VTR. Seiyuus were asked some questions about their characters (impression, stuffs they like about them, etc) Maenu joked a lot, (or stuffs he said were just purely funny lol) shoutan too! In general it was really funny! But it was pretty long and fast so i didn’t manage to remember/take note of most of them, i’m sorry!;; Stuffs written here are not in order and is more or less just the gist of it. They didn’t show each of their full interview as one but instead cut their sentences halfway, switch to another person and so on so it was a bit hard to remember their full answer but here are the questions:

Was there something you couldn’t understand from your character?

Morikubo→ “Thank you very very Macho-cho “ LOL Tattsun→ How harsh he was toward ppl around him Shouta→ He sleeps on siting position LOL Maenu→ He puts way too much sugar on his drink (Saw that coming xD)

Which part do you like from your character from the very beginning?

Morikubo→ As a moodmaker, he actually could read the atmosphere well Tattsun→ He’s extremely straightforward and devoted (abt his work/in general?) Never compromise (to aim for better thing) Shouta→He’s like a cute younger brother. His voice is beautiful LOLOL Maenu→ His “strong heart”. He’s not afraid of being hated and says stuffs the way he think it is.

What was your first impression of your character?

Morikubo→ Bright but hard to figure out (his inner thoughts etc) Tattsun→ Scary Shouta→ Difficult to deal with Maenu→ Full of dignity

When did you feel like you’ve become best friend with your character?

Morikubo→ The moment “Yoroshiku Macho-cho “ was born Tattsun→ The moment some parts of Ranmaru he didn’t know started to appear, when he felt grateful for the chance to learn more about Ranmaru Shouta→ The moment he learned that Ai is not a human being Maenu→ The moment he woke up and mistook Jan 23 (Camus’ birthday) as his own birthday

Is there something you still can’t understand about your character?

Morikubo→ Wonder how did Reiji become such a “strong” person Tattsun→ “Aside from his honest and serious personality he also cooks well, is kind to animals, Isn’t his ‘spec’ too high?!” He said he couldn’t forgive Ranmaru for being too ‘high-spec’ xD Shouta→ He still sleeps in sitting position (He talked about how sleeping on bed def works better to recover yourself many times LOL) Maenu→ When he drinks something he put in a lot of sugar

What is something you like from your character now?

Morikubo→ (not sure i’m sorry;;) He pushed himself to limits for members Tattsun→ Everything (Aaaaaa) Shouta→ Became a lot softer. Understands his own position well Maenu→ He doesn’t try to flatter others/sugarcoat things

Is there a (bad) thing you want your character to fix/improve?

Morikubo→ He’s strong but he should stop keeping his feelings bottled up inside and relax more Tattsun→ He should stop wearing different color contact lenses for both eyes LOL Stop depending on color lenses Shouta→ Stay the way he is Maenu→ He’s drinking way too much sugar for his health

Is there anything you hope for your characters?

Morikubo→ There must still be a lot of Reiji’s side we’re not aware of so he should show us more sides/charms of him Tattsun→ Stay just the way he is Shouta→ Ai might be a robot but he should meet a lot people, move forward with his comrade, treasure each of the moment of his life Maenu→ He believes Camus could make the impossible possible so he wants to see him fly in the sky LOL

What should you/character do to achieve higher heights?

Morikubo→ Not only about what about to happen in the future, for now they should look at what is right in front of them. Tattsun→ They should clash more, and at the same time also try to understand each other, tolerate each other more. Shouta→ They should sing more variety of songs Maenu→ They might not in ‘that’ good term with each other, but in return those colliding powers are creating an even stronger power. By that, they boost each other up and that’s the kind of group QN is. They should keep going they way they are.

If you were to describe your character in a word, what would it be?

Morikubo→ Wedge Tattsun→ Flame Shouta→ Love (Ai) Maenu→ Ice

All: “That’s.. QUARTET NIGHT” And next song started! Outfit change, white pants, white and their respective colors? a bit casual, design is different for each of them!

10. The dice are cast Powerful singing, as we already knew! The choreography looked like 5th and QN 1st solo con? They moved around the area and stopped when all of the carts became one in the middle of arena seats. I also noticed that tattsun's part of the adlibs on the bridge was a bit different (improvisation with higher notes and i think i heard him doing it in both days)

11. STARLIGHT MEMORY I PERSONALLY LOVE THIS SONG so i was really hyped up for it! They sang while still on the cart and like on QN 1st solo con they used stand-mic for the choreography. It was really heated up, the "Just say Quartet Night!" parts were also sang by the audience and our voices were LOUD! It was fun!

12. Evolution Eve The first acapella sounded as heavenly as what i've heard in previous lives! ;;_;; Also the first acapella which was supposed to be lines without harmony for some reasons was harmonized? pretty sure it was tattsun with higher harmony! The instrumental break dance part we already knew from previous lives were changed, i'm pretty sure it wasn't the same. The previous one was good but this one was even better! I remember morikubo doing a really smooth turn. Proud of their improvements!

13. Double Face *Camus butler mode voice* "Let me show you my everything" *Camus usual mode voice* "You peasant! Fine, i'll do it according to your wish. Witness my 'love'!" Suddenly Maenu appeared with this song! I wasn't expecting this at all but it was a good surprise! Two dancers in white and black (like in QN 1st solo con) were present and maenu was also singing on a stand-mic. It was really similar to QN 1st solo con performance. As usual his voice change was amazing! In first day, it was clear that maybe the fast voice change made him a bit confused sometimes tho xD it was cute.. In 2nd day he did super great tho! One of my favorite thing about watching over QN seiyuus’ growth is watching Maenu getting more confident and glowing each live ♡

14. Synchronism Shoutan appeared on front stage with dancers. Apparently his outfit this time had animal ears (i'm not sure is it cat? or not..) fur hoodie and he had his hoodie up! It was extremely cute!! The dance was similar to 6th, but i think there were additional moves? Also if 6th live performance wasn't cute enough this one was even cuter it was illegal //no On 2nd day he also made a lot of different expressions from the one in 1st day during dance break (you probs know which one if you watched 6th live) As expected from shoutan, lot of fanservices were given! In 2nd day last reff "Amaku shite~" part he gave us a thrown kiss too! lol Been thinking about it for a while but it’s actually amazing how stable he was even at extremely low notes.

15. Not bad Tattsun and dancers came from main stage! He danced most of the time and both his dances and singing were amazing and powerful! ;; Also i'm really sure some parts of the dance moves changed entirely, for example the reff's "yoku kike yo, nidoto wa iwanai ze" part? It was such a passionate performance and i have no words except it was SUPER COOL ;;_;; There was also fire burst (?) stage effect and it was cool! He walked from the main stage to front stage! Instead of singing it, the music suddenly stopped and he said the "Ore ni *a bit pause* tsuite koi (follow.. me)" as a serifu

16. NEVER Morikubo appeared with his hat and he threw it away xD I think he improved a lot with his dancing compared to previous performances of this song! The choreography looked similar to the one on 5th live with some additions? I really love the part where monitor behind him turned into a big green　→　rainbow ferris wheel! ;; I personally really love Never's Reiji and the performance was wonderful ;; On the quiet part he usually went with falsetto on "honki to iu na no imi ga tsumatteru" but this time he went full power on that part! He also inserted a bit of adlibs after that and it was pleasant

17. Non-fiction Main stage was engulfed in red light and non-fiction intro was played, people around me went wild xD Tattsun and Maenu appeared sitting on a (what seemed to be) luxurious sofa while singing! It's interesting how the way they sit reflected their character personalities lol (Maenu legs crossed? and tattsun had his right leg up on the sofa) lol Maenu had his camus glasses on. They also danced a lot on instrumental parts and did some poses/combination dance(?) together! I love how they were posing with the sofa (for example if one of them sit the other stand behind the sofa etc) and also posed together (ex maenu put his hand on tattsun's back etc). Tattsun "Aaaa ↑" high notes part (you know which one) sounds amazing on live, it was powerful and on point. They also danced a lot on front stage. All in one it was GREAT and i’m pretty sure a lot of you would like this performance a lot

18. Fiction Started with pretty adlibs. As opposed to Non-fiction, It was an emotional and melancholic performance. Their harmonies were really pretty and their singing were great/emotional too! They weren't doing many moves, instead at some parts it feels much like drama posing (There were still kinda melancholic choreography at instru break). It somehow had really sad vibe ;; Shoutan was a great actor, they posed like stageplay at some parts. For example shoutan (ai) was looking at morikubo (reiji) but shook his head and decided to turn back, or morikubo staring at shoutan from afar, etc. At one part they had their hands up and joint their hands, but shoutan/ai let go of his hand and went away ;; At the end they stared at each other and shoutan/ai walked away from the stage first (from the middle of main stage) and morikubo/reiji followed after. The outro was still playing, with only falling petals (2nd day correction i think it was white feathers?) being lighted-up. I kinda teared up during this performance

All: "Fiction or non-fiction"

19. KIZUNA As usual, the harmonies of this song were really pretty. They also sit on main stage stairs and pose like car-scene on the anime (like they did on QN 1st solo con) with morikubo acting like he's driving the car. The whole thing felt similar to QN 1st solo con, it was amazing nonetheless. Last slow part never fails to make my eyes teary ;; I MEAN who doesn’t.. they also did the last part where they pointed at the characters on screen.

20. QUARTET★NIGHT I ACTUALLY WASN'T EXPECTING THIS TO COME HERE LOL but i love this song with passion bc it's the start of QN so i was really hyped for it! The choreo was also similar to QN 1st solo con. I personally think their 3rd live (aka 1st appearance as QN ever) of this song was unrivaled, but this performance was probably even better than that! It was easy to see how much they improved and i was extremely happy. Their vocals gave me chills and it also reminded me of when i first came to like QN, it was amazing.

Morikubo/Reiji told us it's his DJ time (wasn't really DJ-ing like prev live tho) and introduced dancers as the rest of them sit on the main stage stairs. They took turn to introduce the dancers. Reiji→Ranmaru→Ai→Camus

Tattsun (in Ranmaru’s voice) told us it's last song after this

21. FLY TO THE FUTURE I knew it LOL I guessed this song would be the last song after encore and i was right! When i first heard this song i was amazed at how QN managed to even surpass their previous harmonization with this song. The live version was amazing, their harmonies were heavenly. It was perfectly done, i can't help but crying halfway... They also danced quite a lot on this song. There was LONG (like 10 secs?) pause before the serifu "Arigato, soshite kore kara mo" (last reff after "nakeru hodo waite~"). Basically they sang That part was really emotional. It's also fun to do "Fly to the future~" call with other audience. It was easily one of my favorite QN performances of all time.

Encore “QUARTET NIGHT!!” calls started. I think i LOVE the Kobe World Hall they're using this time. It's not as small as previous QN solo con (to the point that the "Quartet Night" call wasn't really that loud bc there weren't that many people to begin with) but it's also not too big to manage a perfectly synced encore call. It's probs one of the most synced encore i've heard in my life (in BOTH days). Actually, i was really moved by how amazing the audiences were this time around. Super interactive and cooperative. The acoustic of the hall was amazing, both voices and instru were easy to listen to and sound crystal-clear. It’s easily one of my favorite concert hall ever.

22. Force Live They danced the choreography from the MV (except maybe the kick thing at the beginning lol) This song sounded great without autotune btw LOL i have to say QN sounds great on their own so they sound a lot better without autotune live. There isn't much to say except both of their dancing and singing were awesome! Morikubo also did front kick on 2nd verse if i remember it right! It was really cool watching the MV on the screen behind while looking at their performance/dance. You could see how much effort they spent to perfect their performances.

MC Announcement→ Renewal of utapri movie website Day 1 by Camus Day 2 by Ai (+DVD/BD announcement of the concert) Day 1 Maenu: “I’m the one trusted to voice Camus, Maeno Tomoaki. I’m sure all of you managed to feel the characters through our performances, so i’m not going to talk a lot this time. It’s been a year and half since the first solo live. At that time, i talked about how i was the only one without any singing career among us and how i felt about it. I felt like i had nothing at the beginning. Of course, i still feel it now even if it’s just a bit. But now that i look back at it, maybe i was able to bring something new to the group precisely because i had nothing. And i was able to do it thanks to the other members, all of your support and the utapri staffs. Thank you very much. As for me, i’ll keep on chasing after Camus’ back. If i have the chance again in the future, i’ll do my best to perform as Camus onstage. So, from now on please keep on supporting STARISH, QUARTET NIGHT and HEAVENS. Thank you for coming today!”

Shoutan: “I’m the C.V of Mikaze Ai, Aoi Shouta. Whenever this time (last MC) comes I somehow could never put my thoughts together well.. This time, we got to sing a lot of new songs. Among them are the newest Fiction and Non-Fiction. The recording was a bit painful and i got to feel a lot of different feelings. Up till now I always felt like i just couldn’t catch up to Ai and it gave me chance to think a lot about myself. Their time (chars), and of course our time will never stop moving forward and will pass. I hope Quartet night could be the group to keep on challenging themselves. I really love all of the members/my comrades. Being able to stand on this stage always makes me rethink about a lot of things. With these feelings, I want to be able to find more “possibilities” and take it to the future. I’m really grateful to be able to stand here. Please keep on supporting utapri!”

Tattsun: “I’m the one standing closest to Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa. I had a lot of things i wanted to say. During the rehearsal, when i was practicing with the members of QUARTET NIGHT, i felt something. At that time what crossed my mind was ‘Ah, today i feel “scared”. My heart was racing, and it reminded me of the first time i became Ranmaru. ((Stuffs i couldn’t remember after adjalksjf i’m really sorry;; I think he said about how he was not sure if it’s alright for him to stand as Ranmaru onstage and also made a joke about it but i just can’t remember what was it ;;)) But the ‘idol’ Ranmaru is, without me even realizing it, has already moved so much away in front of me. The Ranmaru inside me keeps on telling me “I should do it like this” and thanks to that i caused a lot of troubles (bc he keeps on being idealistic), practice a lot. I would imagine how all of you would react and feel, and to be honest right now I’m extremely anxious. When i stand as QUARTET NIGHT, i could hear all of your supports directly, and seeing your happy expressions i’m just glad i could be here. Everytime, i’d think about how i just purely love all about this series. I love all of my comrades (starish+heavens too?), there’s no one i dislike, I respect all of them from the bottom of my heart. I love each of them. And so that those words won’t turn into lies, I hope that all of the people watching this, be it here or on live-viewing could feel it through my performances today. That’s the only thing i have on my head right now. I’m really happy i could stand as Kurosaki Ranmaru. It’s all thanks to the staffs, utapri casts, all of you who come today, a lot of others who couldn’t come today, STARISH who opened the path for us. I couldn’t thank all of you enough. Thank you!”

Morikubo : ”To all of you who take us to the world we could never imagine before, to QUARTET NIGHT who gave us the chance to spend this time, thank you very much. (the topic mentioned in prev MCs) It’s true that we’re the one standing closest to our characters. But we’re standing ‘behind’ the characters, the one standing besides them is all of you. You’ll be the one guiding our characters, and so that the four of us could also move forward. This time we’re blessed with a chance to do a 2nd solo live, so of course I intended to do my very best! Experiencing a lot of things, in previous solo live the word “payback” naturally became our theme. And after that we got the chance to stand on 6th live with HEAVENS also joining us. I was happy at that time for the fact that at that time we had ‘future’ performances waiting for us. The words “evolution” “thanks” “kizuna/bonds” of course are still naturally here with us, and we’re about to see what’s going to be the next theme. Did you manage to feel something through us? Thank you. From the day of last solo live up till today, i’m sure QUARTET NIGHT was the one taking all of us to the future we have today. From now on, please keep on standing by your favorite characters! Please create a future for us! We’ll be following from behind. Let’s enjoy it just like that! As long as we have your love and feelings, we’ll keep on advancing. I hope to see you again if the chance comes. I’d be looking forward the day when we could dance, sing, along with STARISH and HEAVENS in front of you again. To all of you on the hall, live-viewing, thank you very much!!”

Morikubo : “Sooo~~ what do we do now? *laughs* Let’s drink the water shall we?” And they drank the water onstage xD love how the audience let out a big reaction and they were like we’re only drinking water here xD After that they had a short MC connecting to the next song

Day 2 Morikubo: “And n-now, for the e-end *stumbled with his words many times* let each of us say our last messages! (him stumbling) It’s my body showing you all my feelings or not wanting it to end!” xD Shoutan: “I can feel it!” Morikubo: “Let us begin with Maeno!” Maenu: “*in camus voice* I refuse!” (audience screams) Shoutan: “So he feels sad!” xD Morikubo: “That’s a convenient word!” Maenu: “*in camus voice* Well, sure i’ll do it. Wait a bit" "closes his eyes for a while and opens it* Maenu: *back to normal “ I’m the one trusted to voice Camus, Maeno Tomoaki. Since October started and we started our rehearsal, almost every night i saw a dream of yesterday and today concerts. Expectations, anxiety, pressure, i’m sure i saw those dreams due to a lot of feelings. And now, to see all of you here, people on the live viewing, spending time together, it all feels like a dream. I’m sure even tomorrow and the day after, i’ll see it on my dreams. As a part of QUARTET NIGHT, i think i managed to create many great memories here. On previous live, our theme was to do “payback” to starish, to utapri and to all of us. And this time too, we talked a lot and decided on a theme but our journey of ‘payback’ will never stop as long as utapri still exists. With that as the foundation, so that a “ final destination” will never come to the future of QUARTET NIGHT, it’s a journey that will never ends. I’ll do my very best so that i could see the back of Camus who’s standing so far in front of me. From now on, please keep on supporting STARISH, HEAVENS, QUARTET NIGHT and utapri. Thank you so much for coming today.”

Shoutan: “This moment finally comes once again.. (audience says ganbare) Thank you! I’m the C.V of Mikaze Ai, Aoi Shouta. Did you have fun? While doing my very best to sing in front of all of you, i keep on thinking about what to say here. I had a lot of things i wanted to say, but whenever this moment comes I can’t put my feelings together.. That’s just how big it is. After the first day ended, we had a little after-party. At that time we talked about how there’s still today. There was still a future called “tomorrow” for us. I’m standing here today with the hope of creating beautiful memories together with all of you here, people on live-viewing and with all of the staffs. With starish opening the path, the four of us then joined in the middle of the story. To be honest, as a member of QUARTET NIGHT, i’d be lying if i say i didn’t feel inferior to others. But the fact that i could stand here right now and be with all of the people who love utapri, like starish and heavens, makes me feel that i’m actually spending the time together with everyone. To stand as a proud member of QUARTET NIGHT, to be someone who supports the utapri series which i really love from the bottom of my heart, that’s what i want Ai to become. That’s why, from now on as a part of QUARTET NIGHT, as Mikaze Ai, i’ll do my very best to liven utapri up. I hope to spend good time with all of you. I’m still no good, but thank you for always being here. From now on, let us love uta no prince-sama together. Thank you very much.” Morikubo: “You’re getting a lot better on giving comments. I talked about that with Maeno on the underground backstage when we were listening to your MC at acoustic corner” And suddenly Shoutan teared up ;;; morikubo then followed him up Morikubo: “Is that some kind of malfunction?” (ref to Ai’s identity) (Audience laughs)

Tattsun : “I play the role of Kurosaki Ranmaru, Suzuki Tatsuhisa. I keep on thinking of what to say. This time, i felt anxious too. Yesterday Showtaro-san said a really good thing. The four of us are standing behind the characters, and the one standing besides them is all of you. I thought it was a really good words. I’m always chasing after him. He runs very fast, you know (audience laughs). He keeps on doing his best and moving forward. He’ll say “I want to do something like this!” “I want to do this kind of performance!” “I’m still nowhere my limit!” and will run even faster. I can’t help but think that “He’s too fast”, and everytime i have the chance to stand on this stage I always feel like it’s way too much for me. For me, objectively speaking as part of the audience, Utapri’s live is so fun. I always get overexcited like an idiot on the backstage. Humming the melodies of the songs. But i wonder if it’s okay for someone like that to stand here. It’s not like that i have something beautiful to show to all of you. But even so, i decided to at least do the very best i could. So that, i can proudly tell him that I’ve done everything i could. So that i could tell him I managed to let out everything he has to show. I’m standing here now so that i could say all of those words. I sincerely hope my thoughts could reach you even if it’s just a bit. The only thing i could do is to give him a voice and to push him forward. With my singing, i can move forward together with him. But the one who could take him further ahead, is all of you. You’re the one who makes it “amazing”. Isn’t it the best? Nothing but the best isn’t it? I really love utapri that gives me the chance to do so. I love STARISH, I love QUARTET NIGHT, and I love HEAVENS. I love everything about it. I could love all of the characters. I just love it so much. From now on there might be both positive comments and criticism. Bring it on! I’ll shoulder everything and stand behind the mic, be it onstage or not, as Kurosaki Ranmaru. No matter what it is, i’ll shoulder it all. I believe it’s all because of something carved deep inside of my heart. That’s why i’ll keep on moving forward just like that. To the future! Thank you so much for today!”

Morikubo: “Did you have fun? And live viewing?” Morikubo: “Just like the other three, i have many things i want to say. I came up with the words after listening to Tatsu’s “I’m the one standing closest to Ranmaru” yesterday. But it feels a bit off if i say ‘beside’ them, because each of us are standing behind quartet night. The one should be beside them is all of you. Please take them to the future, and so the four of us will also follow, that’s what i said yesterday. And such feeling is getting stronger today. Just as what maeno said, we talked about how we should stand on the stage today. A keyword, our share motive. Up till now, it naturally came to us. For example on the previous live it naturally came to us on our LINE group chat. We then just naturally agreed on it. And having a keyword/theme managed to bring us together as a group. “If the four of us are together we feel at ease” we talked earlier was also something like that. This time, actually until the day before, we had no such keyword. But that’s actually something to be grateful about. In the past there were a lot of things, a lot of stories and hardships that built up and naturally provided us with a keyword. But this time, when we realized it we have nothing like that. That means we’re just purely advancing towards the live. Rather than something like “Let’s beat something!”, it was purely “Let’s do the live!” kind of feeling. But in return, then it was hard to come up with a keyword. We were wondering if we should have one. The day before the live, this time too, Tatsuhisa started asking about it. I came up and say something like “Do you have a bit of time? Why don’t we gather and talk about it? It won’t take long” on our group LINE. Because the next day we have to wake up early, Maeno was about to stop us but suddenly he got no signal and it was unsent!” Maenu: “He said something like that on 12 pm when the day was about to change and we were all tired after practice!” Tattsun: “It can’t be helped! It crossed my mind when doing the rehearsal!!” Maenu: “So i was about to send a message about how we should just talk about it the day after, but suddenly i had no signal and it was unsent! Afterwards, the others were ready to do it so i have no choice but to erase that message.” Tattsun: “So that’s why! I thought it was rare for you to say nothing” Maenu: “And so in the end.. *gets it back to Morikubo*” Morikubo: “We ended up talking about a lot of things. Looking back at stuffs we’ve done in the past, and a lot more. And so a keyword was born. I won’t say it here. It’s the best to feel it through our performance. But there was talk about DVD just now, so maybe~ they will have a commentary video or something right? I’m not sure, i haven’t heard anything about it! But we stood onstage with that keyword on mind. I’ll be happy if each of you could feel it through our performances. And if someday the chance comes, we’ll talk about it there and not right now. This time we’ve done everything, the best of the best we could’ve done. We’re doing our best to chase after QUARTET NIGHT. If they move forward, we’ll do so too. We believe that all of you will take them even further. But Maeno, Aoi, Suzuki and Morikubo who are standing here right now, had done everything we could possible do. If you’re okay with us, if you’re okay with this kind of atmosphere and performance, the four of us will be more than happy to stand on the stage again! We’re serious about them. I’m sorry, but even if you try and search through the whole world, you won’t find someone who is as serious as we are toward them. Please believe in us for that matter! Please take them to the future. Will you show us the future?” (audience cheers) Morikubo: “Thank you! Thank you very much for today!” They then talked about how it’s not like them to be emotional. But then no one continued the convo bc they don’t want it to end and Morikubo was like ??!? Morikubo: “I understand that feeling! But! I’m not going to take up that offer again! I’ve became an adult” (He meant the scene on 1st live when they talked about not wanting it to end and he lay his body on the floor and sulked xD) And they finally got it into next song

23. GOD'S S.T.A.R The serifu at the beginning completely changed! *u* This song was so fun to do!!! The call and response was extremely fun and the hall was fully heated up by this song. It's probs hard to get the hype of this song if you haven't experienced this song live and only see this song on videos. BUT THIS IS the song that got the audience fired up/hyped more than any other song. The choreography was similar to QN 1st live and 6th live. I remember Maenu went down on his knees at some point at the reff and people around me went crazy over it!

Double encore I had feeling there would be double encore considering the amount of song they did plus they weren't changing into encore T-shirt on 1st encore. This time they had live t-shirt, Maenu wore camus prince parka on top of it. Day 1 Morikubo: “This is the first time we had double encore right? *audience cheers* Let’s go to the last song, the one that will unite all of us together. Let us begin!” *silent of other members xD* Morikubo: “Mmm?! We’re not starting?! You three had that kind of faces (of not wanting to start next song)” Tattsun: “If it’s possible i just want to get closer to everyone/audience”| Morikubo: “And now you’re saying something like that again~ Let’s do it shall we?” Day2 Morikubo: “Thank you for the double encore! I was worried all of you would just return home after that..” Morikubo: “It seems like we’re allowed to sing one more song!” Shoutan: “Yaay!” Tattsun: “There’s still that one song we haven’t sung, isn’t it?” Morikubo: “Let us sing that song! But please remember that when it comes to our feelings, we’re actually super ready to do another day or two!” Tattsun: “If it 's possible, to be honest i really want to do it” Morikubo: “We keep on talking about stuffs like that! But those feelings, please use that feelings to create a path to future!” And they started with the next song ;;

24. You're my life It seems like we need this song to end every QN solo con and i’m totally not complaining! They went around the hall with carts and the whole performance was similar with QN 1st live, except they were a lot cheerier and weren't crying that much?? (edit on 2nd day they did look teary) Since they were circling around, i also got the chance to see all of them up-close! ;; We were also singing lalalala part like in QN 1st solo con! I really love their smile at this song ;; they look like they were having tons of fun Audience also sang last "Kimi no moto ni todoke~" together and it was really touching. 2nd day "Kimi no moto ni todoke~~~~~~" was really long. On 2nd day i also remember the moment carts pass each other they did hi-touch with each other! tattsun and shoutan also had a hug? at one part

When they were doing the farewell greeting they went around like how it usually goes, fly to the future instrumental was playing on the background and the audience sang the "Fly to the future" part together ;; it was really touching!! At first day they weren't crying but i saw shoutan and maenu having teary eyes.

Day 2 Shoutan was crying a bit, at one point he was crouching down and hid his face. On 2nd day audience was singing along to fly to the future too and they took off their in-ear monitor to listen to our voices and they looked really touched by it ;; They hugged each other starting from tattsun and maenu and so on. I remember tattsun and shoutan hug was a bit longer bc shoutan got so emotional and tattsun comforted him and patted his head ;; Shoutan was tearing up but at last moment before stage closes he smiled and it was memorable. When the stage was closing shoutan dragged morikubo close to him and shoutan+morikubo+tattsun peek through the remaining open gap and at last seconds Maenu also went to the middle except i could only see his rings in dark xD Also, can you believe that all of us the audience keep on singing along to the instrumental ver of QN songs (god’s star) EVEN AFTER the live ended? That’s just how cooperative and interactive the audiences were for both days and It was a BLAST. I felt so glad to be able to take part on it. The audience was extremely passionate and i’m sure you’d be able to feel it too even through BD/DVD vids.

This felt awfully short compared to previous live maybe because the amount of the song! instead we got a lot of MCs tho. Utapri, thank you so much for getting all of these awesome people together. I can’t understand tbh, how did producer Agematsu gather four people whose voices blend like heaven even tho they have such a different voice characters...? Plus they also harmonize like heaven and perform really well.. I’m just so grateful I discovered such an amazing group.

(From Morikubo’s tweet!) Thank you so much for reading and i hope all of you love Quartet Night as much as i do ♡

#utapri #suzuki tatsuhisa #aoi shouta #maeno tomoaki #morikubo showtaro #quartet night

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