#but spoiler: we get much messier immediately in session 2

[esteemedcrackpot]

Play Report: Ocean Tides

I've played two sessions of this delightful firebrands hack now and I'm absolutely obsessed, I think every game should have a truth or dare minigame. And the whole vibe is just *chef's kiss*. Since I can't stop thinking about our blorbos, I have decided to write up a play report.

Setup:

The sea is deep, ancient, and unpredictable. The climate is tropical. Humans live on an archipelago with only a few large "mainland" islands, but countless small ones spread in between. Magic is mostly limited to that which allows mermaids and humans to pass between land and sea, but some dabble in stronger, more dangerous forces. And who knows what power may be found in the depths?

Pirates are lawless brigands who seek notoriety and fortune. The pirate code is: them that find the treasure, get the treasure; don't wake a sailor sleeping on land; and, perhaps most importantly, the rules are more of guidelines.

Naval Officers serve the Empire Republic of Many Isles, and fly flags in shades of red (it has more positive associations after all). Deeply religious. Their own code demands that the first cut go to the shore, the second to the ship, and the third to the Sea Mistress.

Merfolk are nudibranch people, with bright colors and varied forms. Most villages are in shallow waters such as atolls. When merfolk walk on land, they are usually obvious, sporting legs but retaining their colors and some of their form in fins, tentacles, or even a reduced tail.

Our cast:

B'har (it/its) a mercurial and ethereal mermaid with very pale orange and white striped markings, tentacles on its face, frills around its neck, and a long tail with many scars. New to humans and rather fascinated by them.

John Finch (he/him) the pirate. Legally distinct from Jack Sparrow, probably, maybe. Captain of the Silver Oyster, he always expects his reputation will have preceded him (it usually hasn't).

Captain Monk Ghanan Sreal (they/them) the "humble" and naive naval officer. Captains a great ship cathedral. Received orders to find a religious relic (the spear of the mother) but has abandoned the mission. Instead seeks the teeth of the abyss-walker, the devilish figure of their religion supposedly vanquished many years ago.

Session one under the cut!

As suggested, we started with Monologues. They definitely helped us find our starting point, but I have chosen to integrate the relevant info with character bios or other story beats as needed. In play, we each chose one mini game, and slowly built up some promising plot threads.

The Great Hunt:

Captain Monk Sreal heard rumors of a huge beast that damaged Sunspot Atoll, a mermaid village. They met B'har and learned of the creature's path, then tracked it into the deep, craggy canyons offshore. After a bit of cat and mouse, there was a fierce battle. Both Ghanan and the beast survived, but the scale of the beast and costs of hunting it were greater than Ghanan expected. In the following weeks, they increased frequency of deep sea excursions with the aid of a volatile potion that allows humans to stand the pressure. The mounting toll on their health is of little concern to Ghanan on their quest for the abyss-walker's teeth. Or the abyss-walker itself, as it now seems.

Truth or Dare:

Some time post-hunt, our three characters meet on a beach. They share some drinks around a fire and eventually begin the human game, truth or dare. Memories are a bit...hazy of this night. Surely there were some minor truths divulged? Perhaps some harmless dares? B'har thinks it showed off its tail scars at some point, but mostly remembers the end of the night. John wasted a dare on getting B'har to skinny dip; no matter, shedding the magic legs and plunging into the sea was a relief, and The Officer soon joined. The Officer, with their moon-touched skin webbed nearly all over with dark, intricate tattoos of great sea beasts. The Officer, floating comfortably in the water even without fins. Quickly, B'har turned and challenged John Finch-taste the lips of the one here you most desire, be they willing. John disrobed and plunged into the water himself, splashing over to the pair. And kissed B'har! Fascinating.

A Dance:

After a little time, Sunspot Atoll finished clean up efforts and held a party to celebrate. B'har invited both John and Ghanan. All attended dressed their best. Well, "dressed" in the case of B'har, merfolk aren't wild about clothing as such, but various pieces of jewelry adorned its body, including many shell chains and fine coral beads, and even one pendant clearly fashioned from an old human artifact. Ghanan wore an elaborate outfit covered in bells. John Finch was less fancy, but sported an excellent hat. He soon wandered off to the drinks and largely spent the night telling strangers his tales of adventure. Meanwhile, B'har and Ghanan danced together in the midst of a whirl of colorful merfolk. B'har gently corrected for Ghanan's missteps in the unfamiliar dances and (mostly) prevented excessive bell jingling at odd moments. The two flirted throughout, but stopped short of making any overt moves. At some point in the night, Ghanan gifted B'har with a bracelet.

That's where we called session one for time. And it's where I'm going to call this post for now! Stay tuned if you want to hear about our second session, hopefully coming soon to a reblog near you.

[jaemtens]

Rescue (Chapter 6)

seventeen | junhao | side meanie / vernkwan | chapter 6 of 10 | 24.4k

tumblr links: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ao3 links: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

written with @rendawnie | updates every saturday morning

summary:  When Soonyoung finally “agrees” to let Junhui get a dog for their apartment, he realizes that he needed something a little bit more than a puppy. Enter Minghao, the bona fide Bad Boy™ with tattoos and piercings. Oh, and he doodles puppies and kittens in their Probability and Confirmation class.

chapter 6: dino

“Okay Dokyeom!” Dino announced, pulling out one of his class notebooks and setting it on Dokyoem’s desk. “It’s time to go over our plan for Operation Make Minghao Smile.”

Dokyeom was leaning back in “his” office chair in “his” cramped office. Spoilers: it wasn’t really his office (or his chair), he just pretended it was when the vet wasn’t there to, you know, care. Not that Dino would ever use this info against Dokyeom.

“Do we really need an operation name, Dino?” Dokyeom nervously scratched his head, his messy brown hair getting even messier. Dino had picked up on all sorts of Dokyeom nervous ticks, but this one was his most obvious; he knew he could charm his way into getting Dokyeom to help him out.

“Of course we do! ” Dino loudly retorted. “We need to have a codename to talk about our mission when Hao-hao’s around.”

Dokyeom paused for a moment. He was shooting Dino a puzzled look, like he still wasn’t quite on board despite Dino’s complete and unwavering conviction for codenames and missions and everything else covert. What wasn’t there to like about operation names? It was cool! Dokyeom was such a party-pooper sometimes.

“Okay… but… how does saying Operation Make Minghao Smile, like, not tell Minghao exactly what the goal of our Operation is.”

“It doesn’t because we’re going to have a codename for our codename, silly.”

Dokyeom sighed, leaning back in his chair even farther. The chair audibly creaked, though Dokyeom didn’t seem to mind much. “And what’s the codename for our codename?”

“Operation Mimosa, duh.”

Dokyeom raised an eyebrow in response. “I’m not even going to ask--”

“--Well, since you asked,” Dino interjected, “If you make an acronym from ‘Make Minghao Smile,’ it comes out to MMS, which you can sound out to make mimosa.”

His boss seemed to be deep in thought, as if he were trying to work out Dino’s logic in his head. Meanwhile, Dino just sat there expectantly, waiting for Dokyeom to realize his brilliance. Everybody always seemed so surprised when he said something even somewhat intelligent.

“That… That’s actually pretty clever,” Dokyeom finally replied. Dino: 1, Dokyeom: 0.

“And we can celebrate with mimosas after it works!”

“Don’t push it,” Dokyeom muttered, earning an immediate frown from Dino. “Why do we even wanna make Minghao smile?”

Dino frowned even more. How could Dokyeom, like, not have noticed? Was it not completely obvious to everyone in the whole wide world? Ever since the whole Junhui thing, Minghao was practically a ghost of his previous bad-boy self.

“Have you been living under a rock for the past few weeks, Dokyeom?”

“Um, well, actually--”

“--Yeah yeah yeah, you’ve been busy with whatever it is Dokyeoms go off and do,” Dino dismissively interrupted, watching as Dokyeom made a face. “Let me just remind you why Minghao hasn’t been himself.”

Dokyeom leaned back even farther in his chair. Dino was like 99% sure he was going to fall over.

“First, Minghao’s stopped talking.”

“Um, did he ever really talk much to begin with?”

“Yes!” Dino fiercely answered, leaning forward in his seat and staring directly at Dokyeom. “Minghao may not be the most talkative person ever, but he used to at least say more than ‘Hi’ and ‘Thanks’ or whatever. Now I’m lucky to get a grunt for yes out of him. Maybe he didn’t say much to you, but he used to talk to me all the time. Things like ‘Why don’t you go eat the cat litter, Dino,’ or ‘How’s the weather down there, Dino,’ or ‘Did you actually eat the cat litter today, Dino.’ Now he doesn’t say anything like that!”

Dokyeom leaned back a little farther until he actually almost fell out of his chair, catching himself before outright disaster. Dino repressed his desire to laugh out loud; Operation Mimosa was more important. Pretending like nothing happened, Dokyeom pivoted to his response:

“Aaaand that’s a bad thing how?”

Dino basically erupted, flying out of his seat and onto his feet in a passionate defense for Minghao. “Don’t you see a problem here!? Minghao used to care about me, that’s why he used to say those things. It was Minghao’s way of connecting with me -- his own sardonic, melodramatic, ridiculous way! But you know what? He owned it, and I loved it. Now he can’t even bring himself to be, well, himself!”

Dino sat back down again, collecting himself.

“And that brings me to number two: Minghao doesn’t seem to care about anything anymore.”

Dino sighed.

“Me included.”

“I’m sure it’s not just you.”

“It’s not, Dokyeom. It’s everything. You may not notice because you spend all your time doing paperwork and check-ups, but Minghao has been really reserved. Mellow. Like, even around the rescues, he doesn’t act like his usual self. Even around me, he doesn’t act like his usual self. And maybe I’m not his favorite person right now, but he always loves the rescues. You know Joshua Hong?”

Dokyeom made a face, as if he were deep in thought.

“Cute? Reddish-pink hair?” Dino prodded.

“Um, I don’t think so.”

“Joshua is his tutor for a few of his classes. Anyways, so he dropped by the shelter yesterday. Apparently Hao hasn’t been going to any of their tutoring sessions. He used to religiously go, Dokyeom. Like he made me cover his shift here once so he could go to his tutoring appointment with Joshua!”

Dokyeom frowned.

“Yeah, I covered for him! The point is that he used to genuinely care about doing well in his classes. But now I think he doesn’t even care about that. Or here. Or me. He’s down in the dumps, Dokyeom.”

Dino sighed again, fidgeting with the pen in his hand. “Third, Hao hasn’t been eating.”

Dokyeom frowned again. This time, Dino could tell it was less of a disapproving frown and more of a concerned frown.

“Are you su--”

“--Yes.”

“Hmmph,” Dokyeom replied. “I mean, he usually didn’t eat a lot, so--”

“But this is different, Dokyeom,” Dino insisted. He was slightly exasperated thinking about it, but he had to tell Dokyeom. “He used to eat most things I brought him. Now he won’t even look at it. He won’t even bring his own food either.”

Dokyeom pursed his lips. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay . Operation… Mimosa, or whatever, is a go.”

Finally, some progress! He had been telling Dokyeom about Operation Mimosa for the past few days, but Dokyeom kept waving him off. Now he knew he had his boss’s timid support, and that was more than he expected, to be honest. Meanwhile, Dokyeom shook his head, wondering just what he had gotten himself into.

“So here’s the plan,” Dino started, “I told Mull8 th--”

“--Wait wait wait.‘Mull8’ ? Did I hear that right?”

“Yeah, Mull8! That’s our codename for the target, Hao-hao.”

“Why? ” Dokyeom spat out.

“Do you remember back when he had that mullet for a few months? And his favorite number is eight, so, Mull8!”

Dokyeom buried his face in his palms. “Oh my go--”

“--I’m Agent Ramyum and you’re Agent Buttercup!”

“I regret agreeing to this so much.”

“This is important, Agent Buttercup,”

“If it’s so important did you really have to name me after a My Little Pony character!?”

“Are you trying to say you’re not a Buttercup?”

“I definitely am not!”

“Besides, I only named you Agent Buttercup because of Hansol’s chinchilla.”

Dino wasn’t going to lie; he secretly loved it every time Dokyeom was rendered completely and totally speechless. Like right now. There was something oddly satisfying about being so extra that people just didn’t know how to react. Especially people who were so slow to pick up on jokes, like Dokyeom.

“Anyways, so where was I?” Dino continued, pausing to remind himself what he was talking about. “Oh yeah, Mull8. So I told Mull8 to drop by after his class. I mentioned that he forgot something here.”

“Well? Did he?”

Dino looked away and quietly replied: “Not really…”

Dokyeom raised one of his eyebrows.

“Okay, well, he forgot about being best friends with me.”

“Aww, Dino,” his boss replied, making a sad face.

“It’s okay, though! This is why we have Operation Mimosa! Like I was saying, I’m going to lure Mull8 here, and then force him to come over to my apartment. I’ll say that I must have taken his thing home with me or whatever. Once we get there, your job, Agent Buttercup, is to block the door so that he can’t leave. I’m going to explain to Mull8 that this is an intervention, that we’re getting him a one-way ticket out of Mopeville.”

“Oh my god.”

“So, right now, I have enough popcorn to feed a small village, three really cheesy movies that I picked out on Netflix, and enough blankets to make at least 17 blanket forts. Oh, and some hair bleach.”

“Hair bleach? … Why?”

“New hair, new Hao, new boy crush. Duh.”

“Uh huh,” Dokyeom half-agreed. “Speaking of new boy crush… what exactly happened with old boy crush again?”

Oh, yeah. That.

“Well, um, honestly, I don’t know if Hao-hao is over Junhui. If I know anything about him, it’s that he’s probably out there beating himself up over yelling at me in front of his crush. He’s probably trying to get over his crush, but, like, can’t.”

Dokyeom just nodded. Dino decided to let the silence settle between the two of them, something he usually didn’t do. He really didn’t like thinking about what Minghao said to him. It hurt, you know? Minghao was one of his closest friends, and for him to say all of those things… even if he didn’t mean them...

“Yeah,” Dokyeom finally blurted out, “You sounded really upset when you called me after that whole… thing.”

“I know and I’m so so sorry I had to close down early after that, I know I was supposed to work til closing and I know it’s my job to take care of everything during my shift because you know that’s why you let me work here and I really let you down and I’m just so sorry and ups--”

“--Dino, it’s okay,” his boss interrupted. Dino looked up, and Dokyeom was looking back at him all concerned and stuff. His words and his expression were completely earnest. He forgot Dokyeom could be like that, and it made him feel so… relieved, that Dokyeom wasn’t like your normal boss.

“You were going through some things, and I get it. It’s also Minghao’s fault for walking out on you.”

“I know.”

“Dino, you did good, you focused on helping Junhui and then you called me. You did what you could do.”

“I -- I know,” Dino choked out.

“And…” Dokyeom started. “Well, I hate to ask this, but, like, why are you even trying to make Minghao happy again after he made you cry like that? After he said all of those mean things?”

“Because he’s my best friend, and he was having a bad day.”

*

“Dino.”

“Hao-hao.”

“Where’s my homework.”

To be honest, Dino wasn’t entirely sure that he was going to make it this far. He was 95% confident that Dokyeom was going to blow their cover at some point and/or that Minghao was going to catch on to what was going on. But, to his surprise, Dokyeom kept it together, and Minghao was oblivious. Dino had managed to convince Minghao that, yes, he had actually forgotten a piece of homework. And, yes, in a stroke of bad luck and bad forethought, Dino accidentally brought it home to his apartment. Furthermore, Dino was absolutely sure that it was due tomorrow because he remembered seeing a date on the assignment. Oh, and Dokyeom had decided to tag along for no particular reason. Minghao bought all of it. Bad boy? More like gullible boy. Not that Dino would ever say something that salacious to Hao-hao’s face. And, you know, risk death.

But, now that Minghao was actually in his apartment, the ruse was about to fall apart. Dino hadn’t really planned for how Minghao might react. Was he going to get angry? Was he going to try to leave? Was he going to chew him out again? Dino looked over Minghao’s shoulder and saw a very concerned Dokyeom. Dino quickly motioned toward the door, and Dokyoem got the signal -- block the door so that Minghao couldn’t leave. Agent Buttercup slowly moved into position.

“Dino,” Minghao sternly repeated. He was practically glowering at him, sullen eyes boring through Dino’s purest of intentions. Minghao was definitely not happy.

“Um,” Dino started, trying to think of words -- any words -- that might be able to convince Minghao to stay.

“I didn’t forget my homework, did I?”

Minghao was really glaring at him now. Dino kept wracking his brain, begging himself to come up with something, anything, to keep Minghao here. It’s like his brain was molasses, not a single coherent sentence or an iota of logical thought reaching him.

“And you didn’t bring it here, did you?”

Dino looked over Minghao’s shoulder again, his eyes pleading with Dokyeom to help him. Dokyeom just shrugged, looking equally as clueless and not-helpful as Dino’s brain. Note to self: write in Agent Buttercup’s performance eval that he’s not good at thinking on his feet.

“You don’t even know if I have homework due tomorrow, do you?”

Note to self #2: Agent Ramyun is also not good at thinking on his feet.

His friend rolled his eyes and sighed disapprovingly before turning around to leave. Minghao was moving quickly, but he stopped just in front of the door -- Dokyeom was blocking his exit. Dino could see Dokyeom’s eyes focus, like he had already prepared for Dino’s incompetence, like he had been steeling himself for this Minghao confrontation. It wasn’t like that was entirely surprising: Dokyeom probably had contingency plans for Dino throughout the shelter, Agent Ramyum just didn’t know about them. For instance, there probably was a plan B for when Dino accidentally adopted out the wrong pet to someone, which he almost did last week.

“So you’re in on this, too,” Minghao dryly said. It wasn’t really a question, like Minghao was totally disinterested in whatever Dokyeom decided to say in response.

“C’mon Hao, just listen to Dino,” Dokyeom calmly started, “He’s your best friend. Do you really think he’d plan all of this if it wasn’t important?”

“Oh, I’m sure he’d do something this stupid.”

Dino couldn’t see Minghao’s face, but he was sure it was expressionless, devoid of any feeling. Just like how he’d been for the past few weeks. Dokyeom, meanwhile, narrowed his eyes, basically glaring at Minghao.

“Hao,” Dokyeom replied, clearly agitated that Minghao was so openly dissing him. It wasn’t like his normal disses -- Minghao fully meant what he said, it wasn’t sarcastic or harmless teasing.

Minghao grunted, turning around to face Dino. His now-obvious annoyed expression definitely confirmed Dino’s suspicions: Minghao was not happy.

“So, um, I know the thing with Junhui a few weeks ago sucked.” Minghao’s expression soured even more; honestly, Dino didn’t think it was possible. “And I know I was partly to blame for making fun of you, and I’m really really sorry. I don’t think you meant what you said, but, um, I won’t lie. It hurt my feelings a lot.”

“And you didn’t mean to hurt his feelings, right? ” Dokyoem interjected.

“Even if you say you did, I wouldn’t believe you,” Dino replied before Minghao could open his mouth. “Either way, all I know is that you haven’t been yourself the past few weeks, Hao-hao. And you can try to say that ‘This is who I really am’ or whatever, Hao, but I still wouldn’t believe you. You’re not like this. You’re not boring. You’re not dismissive. You’re not someone who just drags themselves from place to place. I know you, Hao. You care a lot about your classes, you go to your tutoring sessions, you like doodling animals and dancing, you volunteer in the shelter because damnit Hao you love those rescues. And you say you tolerate me but I know you consider me a friend.”

Minghao looked away. His expression was softening, like Dino was getting through to him.

“And you can say whatever you want to try to deny that, but I know it’s true. I know it because you’re one of my best friends, Hao. You’re like a big brother to me.”

His friend looked back at him, his eyes wide.

“I wanted you to come over because I want you to feel better, Hao-hao. I want you to stop being so mopey, goddamnit! So I dragged Dokyeom into this, and… and we’re going to hang out tonight because you need to be reminded that you have friends that care a lot about you.”

“I know you care,” Minghao softly replied, looking away again. It was one of Dino’s favorite things about Minghao -- how ridiculously shy he got when his true feelings finally peeked through.

“Yeah, well I’m going to have to prove it to you, Hao-hao! So we’re going to watch cheesy Netflix movies, eat so much popcorn that we’ll get sick, hide in blanket forts on the couch, and we’re gonna bleach your hair,” Dino finished, holding up a bag of hair bleach.

“Wait, what,” Dokyeom piped up. Apparently he had forgotten about that part.

“I am not letting you bleach my hair,” Minghao insisted.

Dino just smiled knowingly.

*

“I’m going to help Dokyeom out in the back, Dino. You’ll be alright out front?”

Dino looked back at his friend, who was hovering in the open doorway heading to the exam room. Hansol had come in with Buttercup -- again -- and this time he brought along his boyfriend Seungkwan, who seemed to be even more of a hyperactive hypochondriac than Hansol. Hence the need for reinforcements; Dokyeom couldn’t deal with Hansol and Seungkwan breathing down his neck about their chinchilla’s mysterious “lethargy.”

Did anybody ever try telling them that maybe they had a lazy chinchilla?

“Dino?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ll be fine,” Dino said, smiling a little too much. He flashed an enthusiastic thumbs-up at Minghao who 100% definitely had bleach-blonde ramen-colored hair.

Minghao shot him a weird look, like Dino was the one who had bleached hair.

After his friend closed the door to the exam room, Dino chuckled to himself: Minghao was such a pushover. It took not even five minutes of pestering for black-haired Hao to buckle, giving into Dino’s puppy eyes. It was the “older brother” thing to do, Dino insisted. He loved every second of it -- if Minghao had been one of those Kpop idols or whatever, Dino stanned soft Hao-hao. He was just so cute.

And a pushover.

Minghao never really did apologize for three weeks ago. He didn’t have to, though. At least not verbally. Dino knew Minghao, and he knew that words were not his thing. No, Dino knew that Minghao was sorry when Minghao brought him a burrito yesterday. A burrito! Minghao doesn’t even buy burritos for himself. His friend gave it to him wordlessly with a small smile. It was cute.

Yet, despite the Operation Mimosa’s complete and resounding success, something was still off. Minghao was better, but Dino could tell something was off. He was still quiet. Reserved. Dino had a hunch it was about Junhui.

Dino heard the door open, perking up to see who it was.

Oh shit.

“Oh hey Dino.”

Oh shit oh shit oh shit.

Dino recognized that lilt in his voice, and he knew Minghao would too if he heard him, if he heard Junhui. Meanwhile, Junhui seemed completely oblivious to his role as Minghao’s #1 problem right now. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come here, Dino reasoned.

“Oh, um, hi Junhui,” Dino choked out, trying to keep his voice quiet-ish. He needed to get Junhui out of here before Minghao finished up in the back and before Junhui figured out that Minghao was here. Dino ran one of his hands through his dyed brown hair, pushing it back. He wasn’t good at thinking on his feet, how was he going to pull this off?

“So, um, how can I help you?”

“Oh, I --” Junhui started, stopping mid-sentence without much explanation. “I was just in the neighborhood with Lilli and figured I’d stop by?”

Junhui looked down at Lilli, and the little sausage pup was excitedly wagging her tail in response. Damnit, it was so cute; Lilli had a pastel pink collar now, and it looked like Junhui was walking her using a pink leash with flowers on it. She seemed to recognize this place, too, wagging her tail even more when she noticed him at the front desk. Oh my god, he wanted to pet her so badly. Instead, Dino nervously laughed like an idiot. He really wasn’t good at this thinking-on-your-feet thing.

“It’s nice of you to visit!” he finally responded. Dino was trying his best to keep his responses short, hoping that Junhui would leave.

“I actually had a few questions, too.” Junhui shifted his weight, watching Dino carefully. “You know, about puppy training.”

“Um, well, actually --”

“I mean, if you’re busy, I could wait and ask Minghao or something?”

Abort, abort, abort!

“No-no-no, you can totally ask me, I know a lot about puppies!” Dino exclaimed... anything to avoid another Junhui-Minghao interaction -- another disaster. “Besides, Hao-hao’s busy right now.”

“Oh, so he’s here?” Junhui piped up.

Shit.

“Uh, yeah,” Dino admitted, silently berating himself for being such a dumbass. “But he won’t be done in the examination room for, like, hours.” And with Seungkwan and Hansol, that might actually be true.

“He’s in the examination room?” Junhui looked back at the door behind Dino, the door that said ‘Examination Room’ in big, bold letters.

Shit!

Dino just about wanted to light himself on fire right now.

“Yeah, but it’ll be a really long appointment! So you should just ask me your questions.” And maybe forget about Minghao .

“Okay. And then maybe Minghao can examine me.”

What? Dino cocked an eyebrow, and Jun’s eyes grew super wide in embarrassment.

“I meant ‘my Lilli,’ sorry,” Junhui added. “Sometimes I, um, forget how to talk.”

“Uh huh.”

“It usually happens around Minghao for some reason…” Jun explained.

What was going on with Junhui? Last time he visited, he was pretty calm and collected; he wasn’t really flirting, but he also wasn’t really not flirting. Little things here and there made Dino wonder if Junhui really liked Minghao. But this week basically confirmed it. Who the hell forgets how to talk about one of their random classmates? No, Junhui probably liked Minghao.

Buuuuuut, Minghao definitely would not want to see Junhui right now. Dino had to stick to his plan: he had to get Junhui out of here ASAP so that he could avoid another catastrophe.

“O… kay,” Dino slowly enunciated, confusion spilling out into his voice. “So you had some questions?”

“Oh, um, yeah! I actually have a list.”

Dino watched as Junhui pulled out a neatly-folded piece of paper from his pocket and started unfolding it. He could feel his soul leaving his body as Junhui kept unfolding it and unfolding it until it was a full-sized lined piece of notebook paper with Junhui’s neat and tiny handwriting filling up each line with questions. Lilli kept trying to get Junhui’s attention, resting her front paws on his shins while her hind paws were on the ground. Junhui finally acquiesced, picking her up with his free hand.

“Um…” Dino demurred.

“Oh, uh, these aren’t all questions!” Junhui replied, laughing a little at Dino’s shocked response. “I have some other random notes here. Mostly because Lilli here is so… special.”

Of course he had a list. Of course Minghao would fall for the cute studious boy who makes disorganized lists and has a lilt in his voice. It all was starting to make sense now.

“Um, I can really just wait for Minghao if you want? It’s no big deal.”

Apparently Dino hadn’t changed his expression at all. “No, um, I can just answer your questions quickly? Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.”

Before Dino could mentally (and maybe physically) facepalm at himself for stupidly thinking out loud, a loud shriek cut through the building.

“OW!”

Oh shit, that was definitely Minghao’s voice, and it definitely came from the examination room.

“Is Minghao alright?” Junhui asked, putting Lilli down.

“Um, I’m sure he’s fine,” Dino answered, looking back toward the examination room. “He probably just hurt himself, he’s good at doing that.”

“Oh.” Junhui had this fond smile plastered on his face, the smile he usually had when he was looking at Lilli. Shit, did he make Junhui like Minghao even more?

Before Dino could even begin to answer Junhui’s first question, the door to the examination room burst open. Seungkwan and Hansol led the way with Hansol carrying the small pet carrier again. The first thing he heard, though, was Minghao’s shrill, nasally voice, which was really goddamn loud.

“I can’t believe their chinchilla bit me!”

Oh, so Minghao didn’t actually hurt himself this time.

“Seungkwannie, can chinchillas get diseases from humans?” Hansol quietly asked his boyfriend, who seemed frustrated with the whole ordeal.

“How am I supposed to know, Hansol? I’m studying to be a human doctor -- do you really think I have time for veterinary classes on top of Advanced Organic Chemistry, Physical Inorganic Chemistry, Ethics and Medicine, and Cell Biology for Pre-Medical Majors? Not to mention all the time I have to spend shadowing doctors and volunteering at hospitals and doing non-acaedmic extracurriculars.”

“I know you’re very busy, babe,” Hansol softly responded. “I was just asking because you’re so smart.”

God, Dino wanted to gag so badly right now.

Meanwhile, Seungkwan smiled ever-so-slightly, his chronically stressed facial features softening a bit. “We should just wait for the vet like Dokyeom said. I’m sure Buttercup will be okay til then.”

“Seungkwan?” Junhui piped up. “What -- I’m so confused. How did you beat me here?”

“Oh hey Junhui. My beau drove us here,” Seungkwan replied, looking up at his boyfriend fondly.

“No, you’re my Boo,” Hansol added, not missing a beat.

Dino actually started gagging this time, earning a mixture of concerned and annoyed looks from the small audience that was gathering in the front. Dino felt bad, but their PDA was just so… gross . Nothing like the soft flirty heart eyes Minghao made for Junhui a few weeks ago.

“Oh it’s nice to meet you,” Junhui answered after Dino was done externally dying. To be perfectly clear, he was still internally dying.

“Oh, yeah!” Seungkwan jumped in. “Hansol, this is Jun. Jun, this is Hansol, my boyfriend.”

“Like we couldn’t tell,” Dino butted in, earning a dark look from Seungkwan. Hansol nodded at Junhui while Junhui smiled.

“And this is Lilli!” Junhui added, motioning toward his puppy.

Hansol nodded again, seemingly not impressed by the literal ball of cuteness standing next to Junhui.

“I’m sorry, he’s scared of dogs,” Seungkwan explained.

“Oh.” Junhui seemed a little disappointed by that, and, honestly, Dino was too: who doesn’t like dogs? “Um, random question, but is Minghao back there?”

“Yeah,” Hansol answered. “You know Minghao?”

Junhui seemed a little taken aback by that totally normal question. “Um, well, yeah, you see, w-we’re--”

“--Oh my god, you like him,” Seungkwan interrupted, a big smile forming on his face.

In some far off universe, Dino was internally regretting everything in life right now. He could see this slow-motion trainwreck happening from a mile away.

“Jun’s in loooooove ,” Seungkwan teased, causing Junhui’s cheeks to turn a rosy pink. “Beau, we should go so that Junhui can have some alone time with his boyfriend.”

Hansol frowned. “You’re my boo.”

“What am I? Chopped liver?” Dino interjected.

Seungkwan groaned in response. “C’mon Hansol, let’s take Buttercup home. Besides, I’ve got to study for my four exams next week. And drink my sixth cup of coffee for the day. Unlike some people here, I actually have to know what a liver looks like.”

Seungkwan and Hansol headed for the exit. Lilli barked at Buttercup’s pet carrier while Hansol walked by with it in hand. Seungkwan made a supremely annoyed face at Lilli. Hansol looked back at Dino and mouthed ‘sorry’ at him. Junhui awkwardly waved bye, though Seungkwan was having none of it. Seungkwan and Hansol left. And Minghao finally stepped out of the back room, stopping in his tracks as soon as he noticed Junhui. Dino actually threw his face into his palms this time -- this was such a mess. Everything was happening so fast.

“What are you doing here?” Minghao pointedly asked Junhui, a whole lot of venom in his tone falling on the ‘you’ part of that question. In fact, his voice had done a complete 180 from earlier; instead of being soft-spoken and quiet, Minghao’s voice was lower and a little gravelly. Like he too was extremely fed up with this situation. Dino finally removed his face from his hands and looked over at Junhui, who was still blushing pretty profusely. He seemed legitimately surprised by Minghao’s question.

“Well, um, I was just in the neighborhood, and, um, I had a few questions about, well, puppy training and…”

Junhui’s soft voice got quieter and quieter until it disappeared altogether, the honeyed lisp dying under Minghao’s intense gaze. There was absolutely nothing Dino could do now other than watch the impending fireworks. Minghao was royally upset.

“Wow, your hair’s blonde…” Junhui whispered. Dino looked back at Minghao, who was still parked next to the examination room doorway. He seemed even more peeved by Junhui’s comment, full-on glaring at Junhui. Dino looked over at Junhui, who was now looking away.

Before anybody could say anything, Dino felt someone roughly grab onto his shoulder and yank him back toward the lounge.

“Dino and I have something to take care of in the back,” Dokyeom quickly commented, dragging a limp Dino back toward the mini-table in the lounge. Dino was able to catch a glance of Minghao before disappearing from the front altogether; he couldn’t care less about Dokyeom or Dino. His focus was entirely on Junhui.

Once they were out of earshot of the front, Dino looked over at Dokyeom, who was washing his hands.

“Why did you pull me out of there? ” Dino whispered. “What if something happens between them? ”

Dokyeom sighed. “Dino, there’s literally nothing you can do to stop what’s about to happen.”

Dino frowned in response. He was being a petulant child, but he wanted to know what was happening out there.

“If you stop talking, you can still hear what they’re saying,” Dokyeom added, his low voice barely making it to Dino. Dokyeom took a seat opposite of Dino, clearly interested in what Minghao and Junhui were about to say in the other room. Dino shook his head and listened in too.

“Why didn’t you ask Dino for help then?” Minghao asked Junhui.

“I did! We just, um, didn’t--”

“--Why are you even here? Was Google not good enough for you?”

A long pause broke out between them. Dino stopped breathing, trying to focus on hearing Junhui’s soft voice.

“I, um, actually wanted to talk to you,” Junhui replied, his voice barely audible from where Dino and Dokyeom were seated in the lounge.

“Isn’t that what your boyfriend is for, Junhui?” Minghao clapped back.

“W-what?”

“Why don’t you go talk to Soonyoung,” Minghao repeated, mocking Junhui’s assertion that they were just talking. “You know, while you’re cuddling with him in bed.”

“M-minghao, you’ve got it all wrong.”

“Oh? Do you guys save the bed for fucking?”

“No, Minghao!” Junhui sounded extra flustered, even from the other room. “Soonyoung isn’t my boyfriend!”

“Oh? So you’re just friends with benefits? Great. Just wonderful.”

“No, we’re not anything! We’re just roommates, I swear.”

“It doesn’t even matter!” Minghao shouted, his voice loud and aggressive. Dino could hear Minghao storming out the back door, his footsteps getting quieter and quieter. When the door clicked shut, Dino slowly got out of his seat and quietly walked to the front.

Junhui was still standing there, but he looked really distraught. He wasn’t angry -- he was upset. Like he was about to cry. Lilli was still jumping up on him and trying to get his attention, but Junhui was too messed up right now to notice. However, he did hear Dino stop near the front desk, his head shooting up and eyes widening when he realized that Dino was still there. There was an awkward silence between them; Dino had no idea what to say.

“Dino, I need to go talk to him. I need to explain everything. He needs to know.”

Junhui was talking really fast; he was frazzled, but motivated to make this right.

“I, um--”

“--Dino, tell me where he lives. Please. I need to go find him and explain everything.”

Oh no.

“Please, Dino, please. Which dorm does he live in?”

“You -- You didn’t know?”

“Know what?”

“Jun. Minghao’s homeless.”

Junhui just stared back at him, apparently in shock.

“He lives in a homeless shelter.”

[quillfulwriter]

James Ironwood: Tin Man’s Heart

SPOILERS

Also available on my website.

It doesn’t take a lot of digging to see that Ironwood is a man who tends to approach tasks as if he’s the only one capable of doing anything. Consider his very first appearance with a fleet at his side, which he’d clearly done without consulting anyone else.

And he held firm when he was with Ozpin, who explained why this display of force was damaging to their goal of peace. Ironwood is a self-reliant, confident (see also: arrogant) man who is certain that he has the right idea and everything under control.

He was warm and friendly when he first arrived at Ozpin’s office, but he quickly became serious when the fleet was mentioned. Although he did call Ozpin “Oz” when trying to plead his case for bringing those ships and forces, he was overall insulted that he was being questioned.

And in return, when Ozpin said they should both continue to train the best Hunters and Huntresses they can, Ironwood openly questioned Ozpin:

“But ask yourself this: Do you honestly believe your children can win a war?”

From Ironwood’s perspective, he’d taken action that the people of Vale needed to feel safe. The reaction he got seemed unappreciative and shortsighted for someone like himself, who does better with tactics as a whole than with how public morale truly works. As he said:

“When they look to the sky and see my fleet, they feel safe, and our enemies will feel our strength.”

So we can agree that Ironwood places action as the highest priority and indeed, an ideal trait in a leader. Going back to young Ironwood for a moment, I’d like to reflect on how that impacted him when combined with his tendency to take on tasks by himself.

Now it’s not been confirmed how Ironwood was so heavily injured as to require prosthetics for the majority of the right side of his body, but I venture that it was Ironwood overrating himself in his early career as a military man.

He sees his judgment as best, and he doubts those who don’t agree with him – if indeed he asks for a second opinion at all – and that’s as an adult, general, and headmaster.

Now imagine younger Ironwood with even less experience. If he had an opportunity to seize a bad situation and turn it around in what he envisioned as a display of cunning as well as strength, I am positive he would jump on it.

And when the worst happened, and he sustained such heavy injuries, what did Ironwood do? He rebuilt his body, most likely as soon as he was able to, and he continued to fight. Only now he was the man behind the front lines leading other soldiers, and Ironwood had turned a loss into a gain.

Action is always the determiner for Ironwood, and he made all that happen on his own (at least in his eyes). If this is at all true, he learned very little in the long run from the mistake that cost him half his body. He only seemed to hold more strongly that this loss was not enough to stop him, and his judgment could still be held in high regard. He was and is his own greatest ideal.

But there are distinctions that set him apart from the typical mighty lone wolf (and from the “Tin Man” of Wizard of Oz that inspired his role and character). He puts others first in his actions, he feels loyalty in his own way, and he does have a heart buried under that steely general’s facade.

First, let’s look at how he puts others first in action. Think of Penny (and try not to cry) and the guards she always had with her to keep her safe. She was more than capable of protecting herself, but he still went to that length to make sure she was never in harm’s way.

This type of protection denies her freedom to have choices and make friends, however. This is standard behavior for Ironwood believing he always knows best. Yes, she would be in danger if she was publicly known to be a robotic fighter child from Atlas. But he designed her to feel, to act like a person, and he wasn’t fully letting her be one by doing that.

Next up, get your tissues and consider his gift to Yang.

He didn’t come in person to deliver it, he just made it and sent it. This is definitely part confidence – he was certain she would accept and it would turn her life back around like it did for him – but that certainty once again eclipsed even the idea that she might not be ready or refuse.

Bearing in mind that someone who is about half prosthetics and as I said, he likely did that the moment he could, Ironwood may be less inclined to think of her not being ready (although he does have the capacity to see things from another person’s perspective, it’s not his strongest skill).

So in action, he puts the people of Vale, Penny, and Yang first – but he overlooks their feelings in the process. He doesn’t realize a fleet will instill worry, that guards will hamper freedom, or that a new arm might not be what Yang really needs right then.

But he does feel loyalty to a group, and his emotions do run deep. Yang’s robotic arm from Ironwood displays this on two counts. He learned a hard lesson in humility during volume 3 at the battle of Beacon. It’s not a far stretch to think Ironwood felt responsible for what happened, and hence why the arm was free of charge for her.

He’d lost hundreds of robotic soldiers, several ships, and at least two heavy mechs (Atlesian Paladin-290s) in the fight at Beacon. Not to mention any expenses he put into repairs to the city itself.

Ironwood had taken a serious financial hit, and he was in no position to be giving away top line prosthetics. Even after the time skip, that was a considerable chunk of change he’d lost along with most of Atlas’ reputation and trust.

But among the guilt over the fall of Beacon and so many preventable deaths, there was Yang – a student of Ozpin’s and one person he could personally reach out to and set things right for. Can’t bring back Pyrrha, Penny, Ozpin, or the Fall Maiden, but this young Huntress could have two arms again. This gesture was Ironwood expressing his remorse as much as it was a display of confidence.

And I would be remiss in my analysis of Ironwood’s emotional state if I didn’t mention the meeting with Glynda and Qrow during the fight at Beacon. When Qrow changed his weapon to the scythe and seemed to be scowling at Ironwood, James immediately tried to convince him that the attack wasn’t him.

I’ve linked the ten minute mark in this video, so you can see the full scene and have the delight of hearing the genuine concern in his voice when he calls out to Qrow (if you so choose).

Glynda, Ozpin, and Qrow are among the few people Ironwood truly considers friends, even if they don’t have the normal friendship where you’re generally nice to each other… He would be hurt to find that Qrow did not trust him.

At the threat of harm, Ironwood’s reaction was to explain and when he thought Qrow meant to attack him, he turned his pistol around to use it non-fatally (when he truly believed that Qrow had every intention of attacking him to kill or at least maim).

And if there was any doubt remaining that Ironwood does indeed care for the people he holds close, there’s this moment after Qrow teasingly calls him an idiot and says he knows this wasn’t Ironwood.

Just look at that exhausted relief that he still had their trust, and yes, a touch of injury to his vulnerable ego that he’d shown those emotions so readily. As an established man of action, he was back on his feet and giving out orders with very little prompting, but the moment was there.

On that subject, I do want to point out that he is also prone to showing his mental state through his overall appearance. Consider James Ironwood of volume 2 (top) to the James Ironwood of volume 4 (bottom):

In volume 4, he has stubble, his clothing is slightly less immaculate than it was, his hair is messier, and overall, this is a man with more on his mind than how he looks.

But he is still Ironwood. He is a general and headmaster and the lovable jerk we remember, even in his brief appearance. When Jacques Schnee questions him, he yields even less than he did with Ozpin by directly calling Jacques out on making his choices about himself, not about Atlas:

JS: “I’m not talking about the good of my company, I’m talking about the good of Atlas, our entire kingdom!” JI: “That is a load of garbage, and you know it.”

The video is linked here at the start of the discussion if you want to hear Jacques Schnee being put in his place. I know I never tire of it.

But he shows a softness and compassion to Weiss from the moment she entered their meeting room, and he told her she always had a place at Atlas Academy, and that they would be in session before she knew it.

He still walks that line of firm and sure of himself, but he’s more sincere in his kindness than he was in the past. He’s able to express that sentiment to her directly and immediately after having exchanged harsh words with her father.

That slight but large shift in him after the fall of Beacon is an interesting piece in his development, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that affects his actions going forward.

Thank you for reading!

[xpeppermin]

SERVAMP Festival Fanreport (2/5) (Noon)

Now that I’m finally back home I can reorganize my points and write the full report! Take note this report contains only the noon session. Night session can be found HERE. And since it will be made into a DVD (that will be released on 28th June), it will be considered spoilers if you are intending to get the DVD so you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to! My report may or may not be a little Kimura Ryohei/Greed pair-centric since I unconsciously focus on them most of the time.

I should also mention that it might not be 100% accurate as it is based off from memory, so sorry if I mess up! I’ll only write what I can remember. And also because I fail at English and suck at writing a report it probably turned out being messier than I thought it would be.......sorry.

It’ll get pretty lengthy so I’m placing everything under a cut!! ↓↓

☆CAST☆

Shirota Mahiru - Terashima Takuma (Terashii) Kuro - Kaji Yuki Alisuin Misono - Shimono Hiro Snow Lily - Horie Kazuma Sendagaya Tetsu - Ono Yuuki (Onoyuu) Hugh - Murase Ayumu Licht Jekylland Todoroki - Shimazaki Nobunaga (Zakki) Lawless (Hyde) - Kimura Ryohei Belkia - Matsuka Yoshitsugu Sakuya - Suzuki Yuuto Tsubaki - Suzuki Tatsuhisa (Tattsun)

I’m not sure how much the SERVAMP fans know about the cast but please refer to it if you aren’t already familiar with their names! (and nicknames since I will also be using the bracketed nicknames as well)

There will also be some seiyuu-related jokes, and references/mentions of other seiyuus in which I will explain too.

☆INSIDE THE VENUE☆

Pretty flower stands, present boxes (there wasn’t one for Tanaka-sensei so I had to drop the fanproject off at the airport’s post office yesterday), and just outside the entrance to the hall! Lol the Mikuni and Jeje standees freaked me out I thought they were going to be special guests for a moment :’D The pairs are standing in the position shown in the photo (Greed pair on extreme left) during the event.

☆EVENT REPORT☆ (NOON)

They kick started the event by playing a video with Deal With as the background music, and then introduced the pairs in order. So there were stairs on both the left and right side of the stage, and the Eves/Tsubaki entered from the left while Servamps/Subclasses from the right.

♡ I didn’t pay much attention when the Sloth pair appeared first lol I was staring at their outfits since Terashii and Kaji’s matched!!? Their jackets both had ribbons on the sides (Terashii’s in orange while Kaji’s in blue). I think they hugged when they settled down in the center though!

♡ Lust pair entered next and when they got down the stairs to the center, Horie started stripping half his jacket (like Lily) XD

♡ Pride pair followed, and I think Murase is afraid of heights!? He was gripping on the support and taking slow steps down and Onoyuu was already waiting for him in the center. He then piggybacked Murase to the front of the stage!!

♡ Greed pair next, and when they got to the center Zakki did Licht’s famous angel pose with Ryohei doing Lawless’s ‘tadaa!’ one.

♡ Melancholy entered last and when they got to the center, Tattsun hugged Matsuoka and Yuuto’s shoulders to the front.

♡ During the introduction, Zakki asked if we were angels or devils and he said if we weren’t angels he will make us into one XD

♡ Tattsun said there were a lot of potential people and intends to make us all into his subclass.

♡ Starting from Ryohei, some of them introduced themselves quoting Mahiru’s famous “putting it simply...” line XD (actually I dont remember if this was the noon or night session oops)

♡ Terashii was worried about having this cast gather for this event because he’s pretty sure it’s going to become chaotic...he said it was pretty chaotic even in the backstage so he apologized in advance LOL.

After the introduction, the staff had to set up seats and tables etc. so the host asked the cast to move forward a little more but they moved TOO forward and someone was saying it would be bad if they fell off the stage.

☆SCENE REMINISCE CORNER☆

So for the first corner, the casts picked their favorite scene of their own character.

♡ Matsuoka picks Belkia in episode 1 where he was first introduced. Matsuoka explains that because it left a deep depression and that he had a lot of fun voicing Belkia there. He also said that it’s partially because he had the most lines there :’D Kaji then said he loves Belkia’s “hey you” in that scene and would often appear behind matsuoka, put his hand on his shoulder and say that to him whenever they met during recording for Servamp LOL.

♡ Suzuki Yuuto picks the scene in episode 4 where Mahiru chased after Sakuya into the forest-y place and they reconfirmed their friendship.

♡ Horie picks Lily’s fight scene with Belkia. He says the main reason why he picked it was because Belkia was interesting/Matsuoka was amazing LOL. Though the real main reason why he picked it was because you normally don’t see Lily getting angry but when he failed to detect Otogiri and failed to protect Misono, he was angry with himself. ...though however Horie and Belkia jokes start from here XD

♡ Sloth pair both pcked the same scene in episode 9 where Mahiru finally faced Kuro and ‘helped’ him.

☆TSUBAKI’S LET’S TALK ABOUT SOMETHING INTERESTING CORNER☆

Second corner is “If it’s a YES, press the button”. For this corner, if the cast (individually) agrees on what is shown on the screen then they should press the button (it comes in the form of a wire with the button on the tip). The others will not know who pressed it but the number of people who pressed the button will be shown on the screen.

They did a test first and if “I’m a cast in Servamp”, they should press the button. Of course everyone pressed LOL.

First question was “I think I am more fitted as the protagonist”.

Ryohei and Tattsun pressed the button of course XD (Tattsun even held the button up and showed it to us while he continuously presses it pfff)

Second question was “I want to change my current partner”. I think there were 4 people who pressed it?

♡ Greed pair DEFINITELY did not press the button and we all knew that from the start because Ryohei (and Zakki followed) were freaking swinging and playing with the wire (hinting that their hands were not on the button at all) lol.

♡ Horie admitted that he pressed it first and says that it’s because he wants to try forming a pair with Belkia XD Matsuoka stands and bowed to thank him.

♡ Matsuoka then admits he actually pressed the button too and you could see a sad Tattsun LOL. And when the host asked who does he want to form a pair with, he blanked out and started thinking --which let to everyone asking him “you pressed it when you didn’t have one in mind!?” and then he said Lily. Horie then stood up, and went over to hug him awww.

♡ Murase said he believes their bond is strong enough so he believes Onoyuu wouldn’t press up but that’s when he admitted that he actually pressed it oops. He then jokingly said (bringing back the Belkia joke) he wants to form a pair with Belkia coz he’s interesting.

♡ Shimono finally admits that he pressed it which led to a sad Horie --and Shimono said to him “didn’t you press the button too!?” He then said it’s not because he doesn’t like Lily but more like the person behind Lily (Horie) gives him problems XD

Third question was “I have something I want to say to another cast”. ....I don’t remember who pressed it but Zakki and Kaji did.

♡ Zakki admitted that he did before standing up and apologizing to Kaji. He explains that it’s because he caught influenza the week before and at that time he wasn’t allowed to work even though his voice was perfectly normal so it was very frustrating. He then said he had about 3 schedules with Kaji and because he couldn’t work, he might’ve inconvenienced Kaji because those schedules had to be cancelled.

Fourth question was “I feel like I’m very similar to my character.”. Everyone immediately pointed at Terashima.

♡ Terashii said because firstly, everyone (cast) around him is weird. He starts pointing at everyone and going, weird, weird, weird and when it got to Tattsun he’s like extremely weird!!! Just like Mahiru, he has to put up with the cast and keep them in control when they got too out of hand XD And the only people who actually helped him/cooperated with him were Suzuki Yuuto and sometimes Kaji LOL.

☆GAME CORNER☆

This corner is split into three different games: Telepathy (bond testing), Word Searching (cooperation testing) (noon session only), and Who’s Behind The Door (how well do they know their respective partner)

The Servamps and their respective Eves will form a team (or Servamp/Subclass for Melancholy’s case) and try to score as many points as possible. Each correct answer gives them a point. The team with the most points in the end will be rewarded through a bonus game (which I will explain the rules later).

For the Telepathy game, each person will be handed out a sketchbook. Then, according to the question, the teams would have to answer without looking at each other’s answers and both the Servamp and their respective Eve has to get the same answer in order to score a point. Since there are 3 people in Melancholy trio, if 2 of them gets the same answer, that would be a point. If all 3 of them gets the same answer then that would be 1.5 points.

The first question for this game was for them to write a 決めゼリフ (signature phrase).

♡ Greed pair was the first to show their answers. Zakki wrote Licht’s famous “Why? Because I’m an angel” phrase while speaking in Licht’s voice and doing the pose. Ryohei probably knew Zakki would write that hence on top of the same signature phrase of Licht’s, he also wrote Lawless’s “As expected from the Arch Angel Lichtan~!!”. One point for them.

♡ Lust pair was next. Horie wrote Lily’s “Now then, shall I strip naked?” while Shimono wrote Misono’s “Don’t strip!!” The objective of the game was for them to write the same answer so even though it is technically correct, they didn’t get a point. They did argue for a point (though failing at it lol :’D)

♡ Sloth pair next. Terashii wrote Mahiru’s “putting it simply, it’s me right?”. Kaji on the other hand LOL, he wrote “putting it simply, ----------”. He probably got too lazy to write out the full thing (just like Kuro lmao). They still got the point though, after arguing for a bit XD

♡ Pride pair next. Onoyuu wrote “Hugh always says good things” while Murase wrote “I always say good things”. One point for them!

♡ Lastly Melancholy trio. All three of them answered “Not interesting”. 1.5 points for them!

Second question was if whether they preferred cats or dogs.

♡ Melancholy trio first. Tattsun and Matsuoka both answered cat while Yuuto answered dog. One point for them!

♡ Pride pair next. Onoyuu drew a bat and Murase..........drew an unidentified animal (it looks like a cross breed between cat/dog/alien) and he insisted it was a bat LOL. The other casts gathered around to take a better look at the drawing but they still couldn’t tell what the heck it was XD No points, sadly.

♡ Sloth pair next. Both answered cats. Pretty sure Terashima loves cat even though he has an allergy to cat fur orz. One point!

♡ Lust pair next. Shimono answered dog while Horie answered cat. Horie got upset Shimono didn’t know because I think in the seiyuu industry (or among themselves), he’s a pretty well-known cat lover?? I don’t know much about Horie so I can’t say for sure but it seems like everyone knows Horie loves cats. Terashima even said “Oi oi, when you mention cats it’s definitely Horie-san y’know?” so...

♡ Greed pair last. Both of them answered hedgehog!! Even though it’s not a cat nor a dog, their answers still matched so it’s still a point for them!

Last question was “What will you give as a return gift on White’s Day?”

♡ Greed pair went first again. Ryohei said he wrote the (very obvious) cookies. Zakki then showed his answer and said he wrote cookies too even though on the sketchbook “angel���s wings” are very clearly written LOL. Ryohei then tried to cover up and said that meant cookies in angel language lmao. Zakki then agreed and said they’re cookies in the shape of an angel’s wings... Too bad no point for them XD

♡ Lust pair next. Horie answered cookies while Shimono drew a candy... and audience started laughing (because that’s very elementary school XD). Shimono then retorted and said he was told by his friends in elementary school that he should give candies to the girl he likes. And Sloth pair comments that he’s the real life Misono TvT No points!

♡ Sloth pair both answered cookies. One point for them!

♡ Pride pair next. Both Onoyuu and Murase answered candy! --Well given how Tetsu is still a kid and Hugh.....it’s no surprise XD Shimono then runs up to them and said “see! someone agrees too!” to the other casts lmao. One point!

♡ Melancholy pair last. All three answered inarizushi! (Tsubaki’s favorite food) 1.5 points!

Okay so the second game Word Searching, the Eves would have to find some placards with single hiragana written on them that are distributed to some lucky audiences (they would have to hold them up) with a binoculars while the Servamps will write them down. There are 11 hiragana words in total and they form a full word. So the objective is to find these hiragana placards and guess what the word is. Now the thing is, not everyone has great eyesight.....plus with the binoculars, their visions are greatly narrowed. Terashii for all I know, cannot survive without glasses. He doesn’t wear contacts either XD Plus with the light reflections from the stage and everything it was pretty hard to find so the cast had difficulty (although the audience in the front helped).

When you add up all the hiragana, it actually makes up the word 千葉県文化会館 (ちばけんぶんかかいかん; Chi-ba ke-n bu-n-ka ka-i-ka-n; Chiba Prefecture Cultural Hall), the venue of Servamp Festival. So obviously the fans started gesturing “here” to let them know the word they’re looking for is the name of the venue.

Melancholy trio got it right quite early I think. Greed pair got it right too. Sloth pair figured out what the answer was but they didn’t get the point because they didn’t find all the hiragana placards. Kaji mentioned that Terashima messed up bu for pu (〇→ぶ、✖→ぷ) and Kaji got confused and got some weird answer LOL. As expected of Terashii XD

I don’t remember much from this since it was pretty messy.

For the last game, Who’s Behind The Door, oh god this is my favorite.  Definitely the cream of the crop. I haven’t laughed this hard in ages -my jaws hurt and I couldn’t breathe!!

So for this game, there are 5 numbered doors. In the noon session, the Servamps will go behind the numbered doors and the Eves will have to guess which door their respective Servamps are behind. 2 questions can be asked (first come first serve) and the Servamps behind the doors will all have to answer the questions thus giving hints for their respective Eves to make a better guess, or to confuse the other Eves. HOWEVER, the mics the Servamps are using will be heavily altered into some high-pitched voice used for censorship (Idk how to describe so I found a random video -it sounded something like that but way higher -probably their own doing lmao).

The big screen behind shows the audience where the Servamps were, hence the Eves were not allowed to look back at all cost. When the Servamps first went behind to decide on the doors, the Eves gathered in the center of the stage. Terashima then said something about them behind the new and improved Servamp XD And then Shimazaki started fooling around and running towards the right side of the stage to wave at fans (since greed pair is on the extreme left most of the time...) and of course since I had a hair color that stood out....... Zakki’s really nice T____T

Anyway, the Servamps behind the respective doors were:

#1 - Melancholy (Matsuoka, Yuuto) #2 - Lust (Horie) #3 - Greed (Ryohei) #4 - Sloth (Kaji) #5 - Pride (Murase)

Shimono asked the first question; if the Servamps preferred cats or dogs. I don’t remember what most of them answered since I was busy laughing -they were shocked by their own altered voices too lol!

♡ I do remember Ryohei saying hedgehog, in which Kaji tried to confuse the Eves by imitating Ryohei and saying he prefers hedgehogs too.

♡ Murase kept laughing at his own voice because it was so god damn high the Eves were like who the hell is this pfff. I mean, the chances of it being Murase is pretty high but then again it’s not like the others can’t use a higher voice to confuse the others right? It’s actually pretty hard to guess too, actually. But it was freaking hilarious when they were laughing into the mics oh my god.

The second question was asked by Onoyuu, who asked if they were old women (ババァですか？) LOL. Probably in relation to Hugh after he got defeated.. (plus Murase sounds like a girl so.)

♡ When Matsuoka and Yuuto tried to answer, Horie cut in and replied to Onoyuu’s question with “Hey...that’s rude.” (Horie is the oldest among the cast). Matsuoka then answered back to Horie with “Hey, that’s rude” too, leaving a flustered Horie XD

♡ Kimura!! Ryohei!!!!!!!!! In a very high and familiar voice, he said ババァじゃな～い！(Baba jyanai~!; I’m not an old woman~!) --He’s impersonating Yonaga Tsubasa, who’s a fellow seiyuu from his same song unit, Trignal. You can hear the original version by him here @1:49 albeit he’s saying onna no ko (girl) instead of baba (old woman).

♡ Kaji then followed Ryohei and said カッパでもな～い！！ (Kappa de mo nai~!; I’m not a kappa too~!) which is one of Yonaga’s nicknames XD

♡ Half-laughing Murase followed Ryohei and said ババァじゃな～い！(Baba jyanai~!; I’m not an old woman~!) too.

With those answers, the Eves had to take their pick:

#1 - Picked by Terashii #2 - Picked by Shimono #3 - Immediately picked by Zakki #4 - Picked by Onoyuu #5 - “Picked” by Tattsun

♡ When door #1 opened to reveal Melancholy Subclasses, Yuuto immediately said Mahiru....!! in Sakuya’s voice. He explains he picked #1 because normally Matsuoka/Yuuto would use polite speech (since they’re the juniors) but instead it was Kaji that used so he got confused... I think.

♡ The door #2 opened to reveal a half-stripping (jacket) Horie, I think. Shimono said he guessed it was Horie from when he said it was rude when Onoyuu asked if they were old women LOL. Sensitivity to age, perhaps? XD One point for Lust pair!

♡ Door #3 opened to reveal Ryohei and they immediately hugged aww!! Zakki said he knew it was Ryohei from when he was the first one to say he preferred hedgehogs over cats and dogs. The “I’m not an old woman~!” impersonation further proved him right. One point for Greed pair!

♡ Door #4 was revealed with door #5 at the same time...I DON’T REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED at door #4. I think Onoyuu was clueless hence he picked a random door :’D

♡ Tattsun got hugged by Murase when door #5 opened. Tattsun then said he actually picked door #5 because Terashii took door #1 which he wanted before he even had the chance to go over LOL....

Because Melancholy trio won overall since they had the highest points so they got to play a bonus game for the prizes. The staff pushed out some 9-tile board with prizes written on them. 5 tiles were prizes named according to the sins -the prizes would fall under that category too. The remaining 4 tiles were some random scrubbing brushes as prizes LOL. And each tile had different quantity too... (I think there were x1, x1, x8 and x20 wtf haha). They had to throw a ball from a distance and whatever tile it hits, they would get that prize.

All aiming for the Melancholy prize, Matsuoka went first and got x1 brush LOL. Yuuto went next and got the pride pair prize! The prize was a hot spring trip to the one where Tetsu’s is based off on! ......and Tattsun got a brush too HAHA :’D

☆LIVE READING☆

Theme for the live reading is “Valentine’s Day”. Story starts with Misono asking Lily if he knew what 14th February was. Of course Lily said it was Misono’s birthday but he’s like NOOOOOOO I’m talking about Valentine’s Day! He then said he found out it’s not just to lovers, but it’s also possible to give friends chocolate (tomo-choco) too. So he wants to give Mahiru and Tetsu home-made chocolates (while stuttering XD) but he doesn’t know how to make -so they ended up going to Mahiru’s place.

Scene changes to Mahiru’s place. Tetsu and Hugh drops by (I forgot why they did though oops). Misono comes barging in later saying the door was left unlocked so he just let himself in with Lily tailing behind. He was shocked to see Pride pair there and Mahiru asks him what brought him over. Misono whispers to Lily and asks him for help because he didn’t want Tetsu to know he’s giving chocolates to him but doesn’t know how hence he’s here to ask Mahiru to teach him. Lily said it was best to let the cat out of the bag so he ended up explaining the situation to Sloth & Pride pair. Though because he started with “Do you know what day 14th February is?”, Kuro responded with “Kisama-chan....don’t tell me you came all the way here just to announce your birthday...” LOL. Hugh said he’s heard of Valentine’s Day. And continues to say that it’s a day where you give friends chocolates by THROWING at them HAHA (he’s confused/mixed up with setsubun -a festive day where people would eat the number of roasted soybeans in accordance to their age. It was said that it used to be accompanied by a special ritual where people throw beans a disease-bringing evil spirits to drive them away). And OF COURSE Tetsu believe’s him :’D Anyway they go out to buy ingredients soon after.

Scene changes to the streets where Lawless was complaining about how Licht was dragging him to so many different stores just to get his hands on this limited edition chocolate that’s only for sale on limited time during Valentine’s and said he wanted a break and to make the next store his last. They enter and Licht finally finds what he was looking for -albeit the last piece left. He puts his hands on it the same time Tsubaki did. They started fighting verbally and comparing who has gone to more stores in search of le holy chocolates while snatching the last one available from each other. Lawless also starts fighting with Belkia verbally about glasses lmao. And then Sakuya tells them to shut up because the store clerk is glaring at them. He then ultimately gives up because he realizes those people were impossible and decides to leave. Just then wild Mahiru and Kuro walks into the store and bumps into Sakuya. Sakuya gets really excited from being able to see Mahiru again. Tsubaki ‘greets them’ and forgets about le holy chocolates for a moment. Licht sees Kuro, went “Neko-san.....!!!!”, forgets about the existence of le holy chocolates for a moment too and it fell to the floor and broke. Tsubaki gets upset. Verbal fighting ensues. Confused Mahiru asks Sakuya what was happening and Kuro thinks it’s better if they leave soon. Sakuya explains (and said it was nothing serious so it’s fine to leave them alone. Even though they technically broke something they haven’t paid for pfft.) Just then Lust pair comes in and Misono makes a big fuss upon seeing Tsubaki. Pride pair enters too and Hugh immediately comments on how Licht and Tsubaki were confirming their friendship for each other upon seeing the broken box of chocolates on the floor (he still believes in throwing chocolates at friends lmao). Tsubaki (or was it Lawless?) says it was getting lively with almost the full cast gathered and asks what the occasion was and Mahiru (?) explains that the were making chocolates hence they were out to get ingredients. Tsubaki then demanded Mahiru to make a similar chocolate as the one that (he and) Licht broke. Licht asks if Neko-san is going to give him anything lol XD Belkia sees the bags of ingredients Mahiru and co. had and comments on how there’s definitely more than enough for everyone in the store and asks if Mahiru intends to make more and give the extras to himself (as if he’s getting from girls in his class). He then calls him painful to look at pfft. Sakuya cuts in and *tries* to cover up for Mahiru by saying his homemade chocolates are probably the best in the world so there shouldn’t be left overs.......-but continues saying how he doesn’t recall Mahiru receiving anything from the girls in the class during Valentine’s Day either LOL. Someone then suggests everyone should make chocolates together. Licht immediately asks if Neko-san can eat chocolates as he’s heard that chocolates are poisonous for them....and Mahiru said Kuro isn’t exactly an animal so chocolate are perfectly fine. Sakuya gets excited and said he wants to make Mahiru some chocolates and started recalling how to get to Mahiru’s place from where they currently were at. Tsubaki suggests a genius idea for everyone to make chocolates and sell them!!! --HENCE started promoting the Valentine’s Day chocolate sets that were sold at the venue LOL.

Mahiru panics because he’s worried his house is not big enough to accommodate so many people (and vampires) but I guess regardless everyone’s still gonna go anyway XD Live reading ends with everyone heading to Mahiru’s place.

*Also, Suzuki Yuuto tripped over his words and messed up a little towards the end and it was adorable awww. *My memory of the Live Reading got a little hazy towards the end so the order etc. might be wrong....sorry.

☆FINALE☆

Started with announcements.

♡ Announced that Servamp Festival (both sessions) will be made into a DVD and releases on 28th June.

♡ Promoted the limited time stores and upcoming cafe.

♡ Promoted the upcoming character song CDs and played Tsubaki’s song in the background.

♡ Host wore Kuro’s jacket/hoodie and promoted it.

I think the noon session went over by 30 mins or so because it lasted about 2 hours long when I checked the time.. Night session was only an hour and a half iirc. Some of the casts didn’t manage to say their ending speeches too --I only remember Ryohei, Matsuoka and Yuuto but I think there were a few more.

I don’t remember what they said either but Shimono thanked us and apologized for making us sit through so much chaos and hope we were able to follow what happened. Ah, Ryohei and some others were also sexually harassing his man boobs (鳩胸ｗ)  somewhere in the noon session lol XD (Male seiyuus love doing this to him for some reason lmao)

...Now it makes me wonder if they’re going to cut some parts of the noon session from the DVD to make it an hour and a half long....they might cut out the Word Searching corner but I’m not sure.... :’D

It think that’s about all that I can remember... Once again I apologize for bad English and the messy report! I do hope it made sense though (>_<)

Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you’re still interested in the night session, HERE is the link!! Be warned that the night session is A LOT more ridiculous though --so much more fooling around and crazy fanservices.