#hmhm thinking i dunno

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Ngl some days I'm like writing crackships and ships and rarepairs is so silly goofy and fun and then OTHER days I'm like wow I wish I'd never written or drawn a ship ever in my life how do I erase this and OTHER days I just go about forgetting ships exist entirely and I swing WILDLY between those three options with no chill whatsoever

[amourningcrow]

some thoughts on the lucanis romance. caution! spoilers

you know, i've seen a lot of people complaining about how lucanis's romance is somewhat lacking and i agree, at least a little - i can't say i enjoy the scene where you lock in his romance (could have been a banter) and i honestly didn't get that it was supposed to be a 'i'm scared of wanting you' kind of romance until the end where he actually said that (i was constantly sleep deprived while playing though, so maybe that one's on me) - but i don't really think more scenes were really necessary. i loved the last one and the one in the middle was also pretty good, even though i didn't like how scripted it was.

what i really, really miss in this are the party banters. you know, like the one with alistair and wynne, where she teases him about checking out the warden?

imagine for a moment: davrin and lucanis

'they're fine.'

'i- what?'

'they're fine. you keep staring at their legs, but the venatori barely even graced them. you can stop checking every time they climb up a rock or bend to pick something up.'

'of course! i was checking on their injury! that damn venatori, nearly got them, huh?'

... (awkward silence)

'right.'

oooor maybe taash and lucanis?

'you're not being subtle, you know'

'excuse me?'

'saw you sneaking in with rook's favourite food yesterday.'

'so? i make everyone's favourite every once in a while.'

'not in the middle of the night just after they tell you, you don't'

... (stony silence)

'yeah'

ooooor i dunno, harding and lucanis?

'lucanis?'

'hmmm?'

'it would be okay, you know. if you liked someone and told them how you feel. hypothetically.'

'what? what are you talking about?'

'nothing. i just... thought someone should tell you.'

'mierda, harding, there's no one like that. so this is completely irrelevant.'

'hmhm, sure. but in theory, if there was... i'm pretty sure they like you, too. and you both deserve to be happy.'

i'm obviously not a writer, but i really think some stuff like that would have helped to set up the romance more. i tried so desperately to look through the game and find something, and maybe i just haven't discovered it yet! but the few banters i did find were all after the relationship was officially established. i don't know. i'm really disappointed because i think the potential was there, it could have been such a sweet, angsty slow-burn but they just.. didn't set it up right? the yearning™ feeds on other people seeing exactly what is going on and rolling their eyes at the idiots involved not getting on with it (/getting it on lmao). maybe something like that was planned but they had to cut it because all the companions had to get their 'making it official' chat at the same time? and pretty late in the game, too. that would sort of explain why his relationship with neve was more fleshed out as well. idk. that and my added frustration that i can't really roleplay my rook the way i want (in my roleplaying game) probably means i'll just have to write some stuff myself. and wait for someone to search through the audio files so i can get my grubby raccoon hands on all the banter i didn't hear yet 🤞

[pokege-ne-project]

(asktheisle) Oscar approaches Pop, sitting along the shoreline.

"Hmhm, a city 'mon as well hm? How are you taking to it? I used to travel around with humans, so I've had my fair share of time spent in such areas. The bigger ones were always a little too cramped for my taste, ahah."

"Don't blame ya there! There was one big ol' city I passed by b'fore, think it was somethin' with a big ol' electric tower? It was too much for me." Pop laughed about that. "Ironic given where I ended up, but life's kinda like that."

"Honestly, I love it where I was at. It's now jus' one big ol' home to me."

"When I'm done with what I'm needin' to do, I'm goin' back home. It's gonna be wild seein' everythin' that's changed, I dunno if I'll keep up!" The Lopunny laughed about that.

"By the way, what kinda city did ya end up livin' at? Kinda curious if they do anythin' different compared t'home."

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

@asktheisle

[2n2n]

general random ch96 thayoughts

Teru is so funny.... he really is not dissimilar to Hanako... I feel like if Hanako was brooding you could also make him come out of his room if you threw a big party without him with sparklers and made him all jealous and left out.... HARRUMPH... without ME??? precious and lovable... wtf.... .. you NEGLECT MIETTE?

nothing funnier than Teru grabbing his SWORD before he goes to pout about stuff and barge in.... crazy dude. Yet couldn’t we imagine Hanako entering a party intended to make him jealous knife-first, lol....

PUT THAT THING DOWN.

I feel like you were going to barge in and electrocute Akane...... 

I really like the visible pain in Aoi here...

Nene means well, and I think its something to interpret as you wish, but... given Aoi’s stated acceptance of that ‘state of mind’ being nothing but Herself, With Guff Removed, having Nene see her self now as a ‘different’ Aoi, owing those behaviors to ‘that wasn’t Aoi’, may feel like they’re not ready to be closer; she’s not ready to... ask Nene to really understand everything that happened to her, what that all was an expression of. The narrative that she was ‘brainwashed’ is what Nene understands, right now... it’s not the time to challenge that. Truly... Aoi now will be a liar on a few levels.

Being ‘accepted/forgiven’ is touching/painful, as it is, that Nene is so pure/kind she would not be afraid of her, while at the same time feeling the conditions of that acceptance rely on a misunderstanding or mischaracterization, hmhm... I think it’s a bit of everything.....

I’m pleased Akane is the only one with complete knowledge of Aoi’s entire personality issues.... this exclusive acceptance and grasp of the situation, is sweet... I mean, I feel as if Akane himself could never have seen that Aoi as ‘brainwashed’ in quite the same way, since he recognizes her pattern of thinking. Ultimately he loves it. Well.. That Why He Her Man’s.

I dunno, just a goodgood thing that made me sad but endeared to see. Nene and Aoi still have a ways to go, in their friendship... I have faith that it could become more full-hearted, that some day Aoi will trust Nene to ‘see’ her... or rather, will feel less like she’s burdening Nene... but, baby steps. It’s a sweet and painful little middlezone to be in this... Aoi has been graciously granted this narrative, situation, that lets her evade explaining herself for a little longer.... 

I kinda like the contrast of the more tasteless Hanako who I feel gladly leans in to the way others will rewrite the narratives for him, assume him ignorant or sloppy, save him interrogation, without it seeming to burden him to do so  (And I’ll Do It Again Lol), while Aoi choosing to keep Nene at a distance is more like... well, Aoi knows Nene doesn’t deserve to be lied to, as someone so hurt by lying herself....  

AND I’m thrilled if our next trajectory is TALKING TO BROADCAST CLUB MEMBERS!! for the love of GOD... I’d be happy with anyone, eager to learn about Natsuhiko OR like, what the hell Mitsuba thinks about Tsukasa.... Mitsuba doesn’t strike me as the most observant of his environment though, nor like he’s trusted with crucial information, so beyond his feelings/takes on things I don’t know what light he could shed... but nonetheless just knowing his feelings would do me a favor.

It’s sortof funny to me Kou’s first objective when coming back isn’t checking in on Mitsuba, fklsdj;lsjdfksl;fjsdkl I’m starting to feel bad for the guy... please go talk to him, and preferably not in the context of gaining intel, maybe just in the context of You Are My Friend....! I Was Worried! You Looked Scared!

[ratanslily]

Hello! I have no one to discuss with, but I really want to discuss 😔 If you don't mind, I would like to know what you think about the first episodes? (I understand that it's difficult to judge so far, but maybe you already have some thoughts)

Personally, Ram seems to me like a mix of Amrit and Ratan 🤔 But more like Ratan. It’s more by feel than by looks hmhm

And I'm also glad to see Ratan himself. For some reason, it seemed to me (perhaps it really is that the eye color is slightly different) that he looks tired? Haha maybe it's just my imagination that when he was with Amala, he looked more alive 😁

I only played first episode, it wasn't very interesting to me!

but I find Ram so 😳 he's so intriguing and handsome, but i didn't take his diamond choice, so i dunno more, haha!

I agree about Ratan! he seems tired (like when the author 🙂 told us about the prototype of ratan, she described him as a tired man, which reflects in his kfs sprite) he kind of looks very... statue-esque? I'm almost begging him to show expressions, haha. (maybe I should call mr. rose so ratan can make faces at his existence😂)

[magma-queen]

Hey! Idk if this counts for your fic ideas thing but what about this dialogue prompt: “Is that my sweater?” For contestshipping? Idk I just absolutely love May and Drew. :)

Hey, boo! I got you! ❤️❤️ it absolutely counts! That sounds so cute!! So here you go! I hope it’s ok!

“Hey, babe, have you seen my-“ The green haired boy stood in the doorway of he and his coordinator girlfriend’s bedroom staring at her while she looked at herself in the mirror. “Is that my sweater?”

May jumped a little before she turned around to face her boyfriend. “Jeez, don’t scare me like that! And.. mayyyyyybe~”

Drew rolled his eyes. “Is there a reason you have my sweater?” He asked, walking closer.

“Yes, as a matter of fact! I’m gonna wear it for my next contest! I plan on performing with Glaceon, so it would be appropriate to wear such a cute sweater! I’ve even got cute snow boots to match!”

“Mmhm, I see.” Drew replied. “And did you think to maybe.. I dunno… ASK ME, before you steal my clothes?” He asked with a smirk on his face.

May rolled her eyes and turned to face him. “Oh, stop being so dramatic. It’s just a sweater!”

“And I’m guessing that you’re wearing this sweater because you’re cold, right?”

“Yeah, I guess.. but I mainly put it on to see how it looks on me.” Seeing Drew’s smirk was not reassuring to her. “Why?”

“I mean.. if you’re cold..“ He came closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. “I can help warm you up.”

May’s face turned bright red, and she felt Drew’s cold hands slip up the sweater and begin to glide across her stomach.

“Ahahahehehehahahah!!! D-Drehehehehehew!!! Whahahahahahat thehehehehe hehehehehell?! heheheheheheheehehee!! Knock ihihihit ohohohoff!”

He smiles, going for her sides. “Mmm.. nah. You’re too cute when you laugh.”

“St-stahahahahahp!! Ehehehehahahahahah!! Plehehehehease!!!”

“Do you promise next time to ask me when you want to use my clothes?”

“Y-yehehehehehes!!” May shrieked. “Ihihihihit’s nahahahahat eheheheheven thahahahat big of ahahaha deheheheal!”

“Well, it is to me.” Drew laughed, tickling her armpits next. “How would you react if I got into your closet and stole one of your shirts?”

She bucked backwards and wriggled in his arms. “Ihihihihihi would lahahahaugh ahahahat you behehehecause I guarahahahahantee thehehey won’t fihihihihihit you!”

Drew playfully gasped and tickled her faster. “Are you insinuating that I’m bigger than you and can’t fit into your clothes? For shame. I’m insulted, love.”

“Eeeeee!! Stahahahahahp!!! Ihihihihihi’m begging yohuhuhuhuhu!!” May shouted, mirthful tears cascading from her eyes. “Ihihihihihi’m nahahahat sahahahahaying yohohohohou’re bihihihihigger than meehehehehehee!!!”

Drew could see that she was about at her limit, so he stopped his playful attack and held her to his chest. “Okay, okay, I’m done. I promise.” He chuckled. “But, do you promise to ask next time?”

“Hehehe.. hehehee.. yehehes, I promise..” She giggled out, twisting her head around to give his cheek a kiss. “I love you, you big dork.”

“Hmhm.. I love you too, May.”

[ourflagmeansparty]

I'm not very musical, love

Prompt 3: Leave Her Johnny

By: @yourrainbowarrior (Team Black)

"When you cut loose you really cut loose."

Stede turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. He wasn't sure what expression he'd been expecting to see in Ed's eyes, but it wasn't this. Pupils blown and gaze unwavering, Stede wondered if, perhaps, for the first time, he was being allowed to really see Ed - to catch a glimpse into his soul. The vulnerability of it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and a chord strike down the length of his spine.

A beat went by before he realised he had yet to say something. What was he supposed to say to that? He couldn't help but let out a breathy laugh of astonishment and pride.

"Thanks," he said simply.

Their eyes remained locked for just a second before Stede's darted to one side, his ears ringing with the intensity of Ed's stare as the voices of Oluwande and Frenchie faded into the ocean breeze.

As they boarded the revenge later, Stede climibing the ladder just below Ed, he could have sworn he heard the sound of him humming .

____________________________________________

He saw the same look in Eds eyes again later that evening, as he tucked that lovely piece of red silk into his breast pocket, and watched Ed's chest puff with a hesitant tinge of pride before saying,

"Look at that. You wear fine things well."

Stede smiled softly, watching as Ed's breathing hitched in response, his eyes inviting once again. He noticed the way they reflected the moonlight-dappled ocean, and found himself wanting - yearning - to explore those depths further. To get to know Ed better.

Perhaps better than anyone else had.

And as they said goodnight, stopping after a few paces to look back at one another, Stede couldn't help but let out a hum of his own.

____________________________________________

It was a few days later when he heard Ed humming again. He was sure of it this time; he'd allowed Ed access to the axillary wardrobe - the thrill of the two of them sharing a secret - and as he passed his quarters he noticed the door open ajar, the deep, surprisingly tuneful melody floating towards him. Intruiged, he treaded lightly towards the wardrobe, not wanting to interrupt but too inticed to walk away.

He peered round the door and saw Ed, his back to him, admiring the cuffs on the burgundy jacket, brushing his knuckles along the sleeve with one hand and caressing the fine lace detailing between the fingertips of the other. He hummed with a confidence which suggested this was no random assortment of notes, but an established melody.

As if to confirm this, Ed began to splice his hums with lyrics:

"Leave her Johnny, leave her,

hmm hmmmm hmhm hmm hmmm hmhm

and it's time for us to leave her."

Stede couldn't resist; he wanted in on this secret, to swim deeper into the mystery behind Edward Teach.

"I thought you said you weren't very musical."

Ed jumped, nearly yanking the jacket clean off the rail. "Jesus, man."

"Sorry!" Stede chuckled. "Didn't mean to alarm you."

"S'alright," Ed said, shrugging. He was avoiding Stede's gaze. "Were you... so, you heard that, then?"

"I did. I wasn't meaning to pry, it was just... well, I thought you sounded rather lovely."

Ed shrugged again. "It's just an old sea shanty."

"Ah yes. I suppose I ought to learn one or two of those." Ed still wasn't making eye contact, busying himself with putting the jacket back on its rail properly. Stede stepped forward and took the jacket in both hands, allowing Ed to hold onto the hanger while he adjusted the shoulders and smoothed down the front. "Do you like to sing?"

"Nah. Well, not in front of people. I guess to myself sometimes, yeah. Helps me think. S'relaxing."

Stede nodded. "That makes sense."

"Does it?"

"Yes." Stede frowned. "Shouldn't it?"

"I dunno. I guess I've never really talked about it with anyone before."

Together - because it was a job which required two men, of course - they returned the jacket to its rail. With nothing left to hold, Ed nestled his hands into his pockets and looked down, rocking forward and back on the balls of his feet.

"Would you teach me?"

Stedes voice surprised them both. Ed looked up at him, his expression unreadable.

"Really?"

"Over a glass of brandy, perhaps? C'mon, it'll be fun!"

For a moment, Stede thought he was going to say no. Then, with a grin, Ed clapped him on the shoulder.

"Fuck it. Sure, why not." He gave a short laugh. "You really are a strange one, Bonnet."

For some reason, this made Stede beam.

"So, how does it go?" he asked as they left the closet. Ed collapsed on the chiase long, letting out a long sigh while Stede went to fetch them each a glass.

"To be honest mate, I don't know all the words. Just kinda make them up, most pirates do. The middle bits stay the same though."

Stede popped the brandy stopper. "The chorus?"

"Yeah, thats the one."

Ed began to hum the rhythm once more, this time closing his eyes and drawing curved shapes in the air with his fingers like a conductor. Stede grinned. He knew this would be fun.

He brought over the glasses and, after listening to Ed for a couple of rounds, perched on the end of the chiase and joined in. Their voices fit well together. Neither one of them was trained, or even particularly skillful, but it didn't matter; they could both stay in tune and in time, and what they lacked in technique they made up for in deliciously tipsy zealousness.

Once Stede had successfully mastered the verses' melody, Ed sung him the chorus.

"Leave her, Johnny, leave her

Oh leave her, Johnny, leave her

For the voyage is done, and the winds don't blow

and it's time for us to leave her."

"Who's Johnny?" Stede asked.

"Not a clue mate. The 'her' is the ship though."

"So it's about a captain leaving his ship?"

Ed finished off his brandy, and like clockwork, Stede had already reached for the bottle to pour him another. "That's how I always thought of it. But I just make up the rest of the words, so probably doesn't matter."

"You can make it mean what you like."

Ed gazed at Stede, his brow knitted in thought. "Yeah. Never thought of it like that but. S'pose you can, yeah." His eyes lit up then, and he learnt forward with such urgency he almost spilled his brandy. "We could make our own one. You and me."

Stede couldn't help but smile at his eagerness. "Yeah?"

"Yeah! You wanted to learn a thing or two about being a pirate - this is part of it."

"Writing songs with Blackbeard?"

"Well, no, but-"

"I'm only teasing." He leant forward too, waiting until their eyes met before saying, "I would love to sing shanties with you, Ed."

And even as the two sung half-drunk into the moonlit evening, Stede concluded that there was no sweeter sound than moments like this, when he was made privvy to the heart and soul of Edward Teach.

[dcviated]

send me a url and i’ll tell you the following || [ open ]

@mielmoto​ sent:  drag me, bear father. (url meme)

my opinion on;

character in general: WHICH ONE? THIS ONE. It doesn’t matter because as has been said at length (and you properly embrace yourself) they’re all fantastic, diverse, and wonderful. There’s some overlaps as to be expected, but you do (you do!!) properly give each character their own space along the personality spectrums and give them their own peaks to stand on... we know who your zenith is of course.

Honey is one that snuck up on me, too. They were by comparison relegated to a side muse on the multi that blog once was, and you could say I was taken off guard by how much hid behind the sugary glaze as it were. Never the less she’s a great foil to some of the others, and her off the cuff and from the hip energy a fun little change of pace.

how they play them: Flawlessly. Next question?

the mun: Meeting you was something part of my pessimistic mind thought would never happen, and murphy’s law just about came into effect, didn’t it? ALAS. CON HANGOUT FINALLY HAPPENED. You’re just as fun in person as I anticipated you would be, and even if I can only keep up so much with social doings I really hope you enjoyed spending some time with my wife and I as well. I hope you get that job on this side of the country, because it’d be great to see you a little more often than, y’know, once every half a decade.

You’ve been through a lot, and you hit a lot of bumps, Bird, but as someone who’s been watching for awhile I know you’re the kind of person who’s strong enough to get through. You are far too stubborn to let anything stop you.

do i;

follow them: aha! rp with them: hoho... want to rp with them: hmhm~! ship their character with mine: I dunno I think we have a few soulmates, both platonically and romantically across the roster. You’ll forgive me if I wish you were more active on Anette but that is a Raguna bias talking.

what is my;

overall opinion:

**Note: Mun’s answer are all to be completely honest. Don’t send url if you don’t want brutal honesty.

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Mks angst - existential crisis. his friends being hurt or taken from him. Being abandoned. Failing. Being seen by others the same way they see swk maybe???

Swk angst - just indescribable physical pain being inflicted on him. Loneliness. Losing Mk

Mei angst - familial. Losing mk. (with the samadhi fire it was having a power she couldn't control ig but that was short-lived:( so) not being strong enough maybe???

Pigsy angst - losing his kid. Losing his shop. Being a lazy good for nothing. Being Zhu Bajie

Tang angst - being useless. Being left behind. Being seen as useless by his friends

Sandy angst - becoming violent/blackout rage. Causing harm

[belamourelysianlimerence]

Arthur Fleck

SFW Alphabet

Okie-doke. So, he's here... but, i'm gonna answer.

But, you can correct me if I'm wrong about something.

'Mkay.'

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Haha! He's blushing. Umm... mhahaha, are you okay?

'Just answer the question...'

He is extremely affectionate. How... umm... he makes me laugh and smile. Aand...he's physically affectionate and verbally, also. Is that a good enough, very vague answer for you?

'Mhmm.'

Mokay.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

He's a shy person. He's really shy, but that doesn't take away from the great amount of friendliness that he has. I think if he was more confident in talking to people, and if the people around him weren't such fuck heads, he'd have lots of friends... what do you think?

..... he's just nodding.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Yes. Haha. He loves to cuddle... do you wanna answer this...? No?

Yes, he's a cuddler. I think that goes hand in hand with his affection though. How? I mean, anyway you can think of, I guess.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

'I don't wanna do this anymore.'

Why? Don't leave. Sorry, I think this is embarrassing..... but not in a bad way.

'Why do they need to know this?'

It's just for fun.

.....

I'll just say... Yes. Yes he can. Yes he can.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

I don't know, Arthur...? How would you break up with me?

'I wouldn't.'

If you had to.

'I don't have to.'

What if I was very mean to you all the time... would you keep me?

'No.'

Okay, how would you get me to leave?

'.....lock the door?'

Pfft. Okay, next.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Don't shrug. You have to answer these!

'I don't know what to say.'

If I asked you your name, would you shrug?

'No.'

Okay....

'I'd want to know you for a bit, first.'

Good answer!

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

He touches me like I'm made of porcelain... unless I trip or something, of course.

You're not rough with me.

'No. Why would I be?'

...Myou can be... firm... though.

.....'yeah.'

Emotionally... your emotions remind me of water colors. Colorful, unique, .....messy. Sometimes. But, everyone gets messy at some point. Next.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

You like hugs?

'Yes.'

How often would you say we hug each other?

'Every day.'

But, how much?

.....'a lot.'

And... what are my hugs like?

'Soft.'

Okay.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

'How fast?'

Yeah, like in a relationship.

'Umm... I dunno.'

Like, first date?

'No.'

Then when?

.....'few months.'

Okay, doin' good!

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

....well?

'What?'

Dyou get jealous?

'No.'

:0 That's a lie.

'I don't.'

You do so! What about Randall?!

'Randall's a flirt.'

That doesn't make you mad?

'No.'

When he comes on to me, you're not mad.

'No.'

Pfft. Okay.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

'Why-'

It's just for fun! You don't have to be detailed.

'Mmm... .... soft.'

And where?

'.....'

He kisses me on the forehead a lot... right?

'Yeah.'

I don't kiss him specifically anywhere. Just kinda general.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

This... is your time to shine.

'Hmhm.. I love kids. They're fun.'

...and?

'I like it when they laugh, it's nice....

They make me happy.'

Arthur...

'What?'

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

WHAT DO WE DO IN THE MORNINGS???

'We.. drink coffee, don't yell.'

..... I'm sorry. What else do we do?

'Watch t.v.'

Mhmm...

'Eat cereal... or waffles. Sometimes you'll make french toast. I like that.'

That's really good. That's really good. Keep answering like that.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

'We sleep.'

Do we do anything else?

'I don't.. wanna-'

I mean before bed.

'Oh, um.. we watch t.v. Eat maybe.'

What do we watch?

'Murray Show.'

What's our favorite thing to watch though, you and I?

'Hm.. Americas funniest home videos.'

Heheh, yes. We like that.

'Mhmm.'

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

'Um... Interests first.'

Okay.

'Then... maybe family stuff?'

Right..

'Iunno.'

I told you a lot about me when we first met. Like, almost too much. But, you didn't seem bothered by that. Why?

'I didn't see anything wrong with it.'

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

You get..... pissy.

'Wha- no I don't.'

Pissy is the wrong word.... irritable.

'...I- yeah, okay.'

We get in fights... tiffs.

'Yeah. We're normal.'

I ain't normal!

'Ah... I mean we fight.'

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

'Mmm... I remember a lot.'

Yeah.

'I know your birthday, and.. your favorite color. What kind of ice cream you like...'

Do you know my middle name?

'Yeah.'

What is it?

[Muted For Privacy]

Correct.

'What's my middle name?'

...... uh-oh.

'You don't know my middle name?'

I mean, I never call you by it!

'I can't believe you.'

When did you tell me your middle name?

'When we first met, you asked.'

And I'm supposed to remember that today?

'I did.'

....Yes, you did. You're too kind to me.

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

'Whenever you're gonna remember my middle name.'

Oh, shut up!

'Heheheh.'

Mine.. haha.. is... hm... there's too many choices. I can't pick.

'I like watching you cook.'

You do. You hover.

'Hmhmm. Yeah.'

..... I... I like when you come home.

'Aww.'

I miss you.

'I miss you, too.'

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

.....

'......'

.....?

'We protect each other.'

Mhmm.

'I don't let you get hurt.'

I don't let people push you around, or yell at you.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

'I do... what I can.'

You mean financially?

'Yeah.'

I don't care about material things. Anything else?

'I make you breakfast in bed.'

Yes, you do. That's nice.

'You give me stuff.'

Yeah, Stuff that I know you'll use. Like that note book.

'Yeah, I like the notebook.... thank you.'

You're welcome.

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

Do I have any?

.....'No.'

Thaaat was a long pause.

'Hmhm.'

What do I do?

'Um... you're mean to yourself.'

Mmm?

'You put yourself down a lot... mmm...you tolerate me.'

Arthur!

'Msorry.'

That. You do that... ..... hm... I don't like that you smoke but..

'Yeah, I'm trying to quit.'

I know. ... you take life too seriously sometimes. Which is quite contrast to your job and your true personality. But, life's hard.

'Yeah.'

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

'.....'

Youuu... get concerned.

'.....'

Sometimes. You shouldn't be. But, you do, and I do to... sometimes.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

'Yes.'

What would you do if I never came back?

.....

Go in the fridge?

'Haha. Yeah, go in the fridge.'

You don't go in there at all anymore.

'Well, there's food in there. I don't wanna pull it out.'

I feed you.

'Yeah.'

I make sure you eat.

'Yeah.'

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

....You have less L-fits.

'Yeah.'

Is that cause of me?

'Yeah... and my pills.'

You mean the fact you don't take them?

'Can't afford them right now.'

I've told you I could get them.

'.....Mno.'

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

'Judgement.'

Same.

'Mean... rude.'

Mhmm... some one that puts you down.

'Yeah.'

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habits of theirs?)

You snuggle up really close to me at night.

'I do?'

Yeah. I don't mind. Do I do anything?

'You toss around a lot.'

Mhmm.

'And get out of bed a lot.'

Yeah, insomnia....

Okay. We're done.

'That was...odd.'

Just wait for the NSFW.

'What does that mean?'

You'll see. 😏

[pukanavis]

Main Story - Chapter 3 Part 2 “Bar AIR”

Light: –You got lost?

Chrom: Indeed. We lost our way on the trip home from an underbattle.

Kei: Before we knew it we had ended up all the way over here…that’s the gist of it.

Night: I see, I’m sorry to hear that. The streets around here can get pretty confusing.

Light: And on top of that, those dangerous guys loiter around here too. It’s bad news to get involved with them.

…I mean, they already decided to pick on us!

Cobalt: Ooo~...wow~....!

Night: Have you taken a liking to the interior?

Cobalt: Yeah! What was this called again? A bar? What kind of place is this!?

Light: Well, it’s a lot of things. First and foremost, this is a place where people come to drink alcohol…

It’s also somewhere that you can meet all kinds of people and satiate your loneliness…haha, just kidding.

Neon: …What? I don’t get it.

Light: Huh? I thought I was being obvious.

Night: Anyway, shall we introduce ourselves again?

Light: Oh, sure!

Once again, I’m LI-0202ES/Light. I’m a member of STAND-ALONE and a bartender at AIR!

Night:I’m NA-0202ES/Night! Light and I are the same model. See, don’t our faces look similar?

Chrom: Certainly. You’re the spitting image of one another.

Light: We’re like “twins”. Twins know everything about each other! Right, Night?

Night: Yep!

—And what were your names? I don’t think you ever told us?

Cobalt: I’m CO-0728HS/Cobalt!

Chrom: You may call me CR-0904HS/Chrom. It’s a pleasure to meet you.

Kei: SI-0111HS/Kei.

Neon: …NE-0419HS/Neon.

Light: Nice to meet you! And you’re, Alto, right?

Night: These guys called you Doctor, didn’t they…?

Cobalt: Yep, Doctor is our doctor!

Light: I see! Then why don’t we call you “Doctor” too?

…Huh, are you okay?

Alto: …

Night: What’s wrong? You look like you’re frozen…?

Alto: N-N-N-No…d-don’t m-mind m-m-me….

Neon: …Do humans get errors too?

Chrom: In addition to your accelerated heart rate, you’re also sweating…what’s the matter? Do you feel unwell?

Alto: N-No, I’m s-seriously f…f-fine…

Light: …Hmhm~?

Night: Oh~...

Light: Hey now, no need to be so uptight! C’mon, talk to us!

Night: He’s right. Bring back the enthusiasm you had when you saved us!

Alto: Okayy!? No no, that was a time of emergency so…

I mean, it’s rather disrespectful for me to act over-familiar with two members of STAND-ALONE…

Cobalt: I dunno what Doctor is talking about!

Kei: …What’s going on here?

Light: Don’t be so tense! You can drop the fancy-smancy talk–!

Night: Hey, why don’t we take a picture together? Let’s put our arms around each other’s shoulders!

Alto: Tooclosetooclosetooclose….!

Chrom: These nerves are– oh, I understand. Your pulse has accelerated as a result of a momentary rise in excitement?

Cobalt: Huhhh, what does that mean?

Chrom: When confronted with an unexpected situation, intellectual creatures such as humans will use their brains more than usual in order to formulate either a method of escape or a solution.

As a result, they experience symptoms such as higher body temperature, sweating, irregular pulse and disordered breathing and will fall into a state of panic.

In other words, it’s similar to a program that has been overloaded with mass amounts of information to process.

—I heard about this from an educational television program that aired this morning named “The Mind of Animals”.

Neon: …But what has them acting like this?

Chrom: Hmm, I’m not sure. I wonder what it could be?

Alto: C-Can you stop with the calm analysis and help me!?

♡　♡　♡

Light: Sorry, sorry! I guess we teased you a little too much.

Night: We don’t get to talk with our fans one-on-one often so we got a little carried away.

Alto: N-No, it’s fine…

Light: –But seriously, you don’t need to be so nervous. We’re really owe you one

Night: You’re Dr. Esora’s pupil, right? We’re basically family then.

Alto: Re…really?

Light: Yep! So you can drop the formality and just act casually with us!

Alto: Very w– ah, no…

Night: Hm~

Alto: O–…Okay. Again, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance…I-I mean, nice to meet you!

Light & Night: Nice to meet you!

Cobalt: Ahaha! It’s hilarious how much Doctor’s expression has been changing!

Chrom: So this is what a “fan” is like. I’ll make note of this.

Alto: N-No…this isn’t how they usually are…

Light: –By the way, you mentioned that you had come from an underbattle, right? How’d that go?

Night: I bet they won with flying colours! Right?

Cobalt: Ah…

Kei: …

Light: …Huh? What’s wrong?

Chrom: We lost.

Night: What!? But the four of you were amazing at Babel!?

Light: It’d take an opponent completely out of this world to beat that!?

Alto: Ah–, the truth is…

♡　♡　♡

Light: I see…

Chrom: It’s not as if we were malfunctioning in any way. We planned to challenge the battle with all the specifications we possessed, and yet…

Neon: …I don’t get it.

Night: …

Cobalt: For some reason…when I think about it, I get a murky feeling in my chest.

Kei: …Yeah. I don’t know what it is.

Night: I’m not sure what went wrong with your performance but…I understand that “murky” feeling.

Cobalt: Huh…

Naight: It’s “disappointment” isn’t it?

Kei: “Disappointment” …?

Night: You’ve got a gloomy feeling that you can’t shake off, yeah? It’s the disappointment of losing! At least, that’s what I think.

Cobalt: Disappointment…that’s what this is?

Light: I get it too. I feel that way when I don’t perform well.

Chrom: Hmm…

Neon: Uh…

Night: It looks like you don’t quite understand yet.

Could it be that your “kokoros” haven’t developed yet?

Cobalt: “Kokoro” …?

Light: It’s a special program that androids have.

By experiencing and learning all sorts of things, we’re able to produce the same “emotions” that humans feel.

Night: Depending on the individual, different experiences will conjure up different emotions. Just like humans.

Light: I mean, if you don’t even know what “kokoro” is then…

Alto: They’ve only just been rebooted so they don’t know about that kind of stuff yet.

Light: Just as I expected. In that case, I think I’ve got a pretty solid guess as to why you lost.

Cobalt: What is it?

Light: Well–

Kite: –Sorry for taking so long. I ran into some robot exclusionists while I was out shopping…

…? We have guests?

Alto: Ah…!

Kite: You’re…

Light: Yep. We’ve got some special guests today!

Night: Welcome home, Kite!

Prev | Next

[dajaregambler]

Wind Boys! - Soshu Kaneko kizuna story 1 "Self-introduction”

Gasp! It’s winbo!

I really like Soshu, so I might as well... I did this mostly as a practice run, 敬語 is my mortal enemy you see. My friend proofread it though, should be good (lol).

I might dabble here and there in stuff for Wind Boys!, mostly depending if I’m bored and dunno what to do. I don’t want to do things that feel long so no big plans in mind.

I’m still trying to get a grasp on the characters too, so it’s a bit of feeling around for what feels right as of now.

TL Notes:

The kanji for kaneru and furui are respectivelly 兼ねる and 古い. 

The Chinese names have been Japanese’d for it to make sense given how he explains the kanji being used for his name. Pinyin for the names are as follows: Kasou is He Zong, Joshuu is Xuzhou, Li Ten is Li Dian and Houshin is Bao Xin.

Xuzhou isn’t explained, but it’s specifically was a territory of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms era (taken from Wikipedia).

Soshu: A self-introduction, you ask? Yes, leave it to me! Hmhm, ahem. Now without any further delay…

Soshu: I am Kaneko Soshu. My class is 1-F, the one which you are the homeroom teacher of.

Soshu: It’s “kaneru” with “furui”. And then, the “sou” from the politician Kasou from the last days of the Later Han Dynasty during the era of the Three Kingdoms, with Joshuu’s “shuu” forming Soshuu on paper.

Soshu: The other day, as I read through the works of Shima Jozaburo… Hm? What’s the matter, Sensei.

Soshu: Eh, you do not know of Shima Jozaburo!? Ah, no, excuse me. Is that so… I see…

Soshu: I enjoy the Records of the Three Kingdoms, which is why the books written about the Three Kingdoms by this novelist known as Shima Jozaburo are out of this world!

Soshu: If you don’t mind, I’ll lend it to you next time which would no doubt be a delight if you were to read it. 

 Soshu: Ah, incidentally, my flute bears the name of Li Ten, who was also a military commander from the Records of the Three Kingdoms.

Soshu: If there are any other instruments? In middle school I played oboe. I had named it Houshin, another military commander from the Records of the Three Kingdoms.

Soshu: Suppose there was also piano and cello...

Soshu: Due to attending music classes I had the opportunity to come in touch with all types of instruments.

Soshu: No, it isn’t that much of a big… Eh, it’s amazing? I-is that so…

Soshu: ...Ahem, my apologies. Receiving such blunt words of praise had thrown me off a little.

Soshu: It's an honour. Thank you very much.

Soshu: Thinking back now, I’m glad that I had gone out of my way to try out various things in order to broaden my expression for the flute.

Soshu: I intend to devote myself much this time around too, so Sensei, I am looking forward to receiving your guidance!

[cookie-cutter-communications]

Following the thief now… it was quite a challenge for the half-bot. It hasn’t been more than a few moments, yet they had already disappeared into the teal hues of this manor. The paths were winding and twisting with confusion, no doubt it would get to Cyborg soon enough.

Aimlessly moving about whatever path they could find, they took the time to open most of the doors they came across. Most of the stuff was boring- some bedrooms, a library, a few balconies- ooh! Those were the gems they stole last night! They looked at the bunch of them, a grin of pride brought to their face as their visor lit up with delight. There were so many colors that flickered in the morning light! They didn’t think silly little rocks could invoke such delight! Well- they didn’t really, they didn’t have much of a purpose- but they looked edible! ...Maybe they could eat one? Hm… Roguey wouldn’t be looking, so a small one would be fine, right? Picking one up with their mitten, they examined it closely. They didn’t know what it was, but it was red and blue! Neat! What was not neat was the reaction their systems had when it was brought close! There were loud static pops around their head, their arm seizing a little while their mind buzzed persistently...as if there was a sudden storm that had filled their form! It was enough to get them to drop whatever it was, and it fractured the moment it hit the floor. Abruptly, all of these things would collectively stop, and Cyborg groaned as things just seemed to go back to normal. Mmm, that was kinda mean! Maybe they were inedible...The rocks were finally fighting back against their fate, bummer. They were going to have to find a way around that! Haha, wouldn’t that be funny…!

Moving along, other rooms weren’t worth noting- it was cyborg’s perception of things, after all- Though they did happen to come across some large, vacant spaces. Hm… that creepy scientist would probably make use of this space. However, past those rooms, they would finally walk into the room that Roguefort had nestled themself into, full of fabrics and things of the like with lengths of it loosely reaching for the center of the room. There was a soft humming from the thief as they looked about them, then down to a sheet of paper they had scribbled things down on. The moment they felt even the slightest movement, however, they squeaked, their gaze darting to where they had noticed something else moving.

“...O-Oh. It’s just you.” “Yeah, the dumbass passed out. Soooo, now I’m left with you!” “...You don’t like what I’ve done.” “I sure don’t!” “Yet you’ve lied to me.” “H-Huh?” “I was told I would have fun during all this, yet we’ve all hurt each other. I’m also losing my sense of self... I think it’s fair to call ourselves even.” They glanced at the half-bot, who, after a few moments, huffed at such a remark. “Whatever, fiiine. Your offense was still worse, though.” “...If you assume so. I still plan on apologizing to you both with at least something of worth.” “Is that why you’re here?” The question got a nod out of Roguefort. “I don’t wish for us to drive each other apart-” “Tch, you say that when you let Aloe of all people live here-” “Rather, I think we should try to befriend each other.” “...We need to take you to another gem place, don’t we?” “Hear me out, will you? It would benefit us both to become friends with what could be considered a worst enemy. That way, they have fewer reasons to turn on us, and perhaps they’ll have a bit of a turnaround and realize that helping us with the husks is beneficial.” “...So...There was a reason you let them stay here…” “Cy, it would have taken five seconds to explain...perhaps you should try to think a little before acting?” “I can do many things, but that’s impossible!” Such a phrase got them both to laugh a little. The taller continued to scribble down things, prompting Cyborg to sit next to them and look at what they were doing. “...What is that?” “Well, I’ve felt that we’ve all been through a handful of things, so… If we’re becoming nothing like what we were, I figured that our physical identities should be shed.” “...What?” “I’m making outfits, Cy.” “...Ohhhh!!!! Why didn’t you say that before?” They giggled, bapping them on the back. “I didn’t know you made things like that!”

“I still wish to remain eloquent, is all. And, why wouldn’t I? I’m a thief, it’s only fair that one would have to come up with their own disguises. All of ours, whoever made them...oh dear. They are in such need of repair.” They smiled, glancing at the other. “...By chance, do you know what Aloe likes, aesthetically speaking?” “...Why are you asking me that?” “I wish for it to be a surprise for both of you, and I don’t know what either of you likes most.” “Oh...um. They like green!!! And gold, I guess… They’ve always seemed like they wanted fancier clothing, I think…? I dunno, they always seemed unhappy with how they looked.” They would trail off, feeling some guilt that they knew not the origins of. To get their mind off of it, they looked at Roguefort, who was scribbling out a little design for them. “...Do you have any preferences for yourself?” “Mmmm, I wanna be fluffy!!! With little neon colors, maybe more orange!!! It looks really neat, and-” At this point, they would begin to ramble about what they’d like, all of which the thief would be sure to scribble down. It was a lot more specific than Aloe’s, that’s for sure! By the time they finished, they looked down, and noticed something...odd! Roguey didn’t have a single mark down on how they wanted to look!!! Hm!

“...We could try going on another heist tonight if you’d like.” “We?” “We! You’re not half bad at trashing the places we steal from, now are you?” “Hmhm, I would never be half bad!!! I’m the best when it comes to a little destruction!!” “Ah...then we shall embark on our little adventures soon enough. ..Would you mind speaking with Aloe for a little while when they wake up?” “About what?” “Just… anything, really. I don’t want us to fall apart. As useful as it would be to befriend them, I’d rather it be a genuine friendship, not some flimsy attempt to force them to stay.” “...Fine. Uh, so, we’re gonna go and do stealies tonight, yeah?” “We are, yes.” “Hm!!! I will destroy all the paintings you’ve collected!! And then I'll get food! And... then talk to Aloe, ew. I’ll do a lot so you can make silly little outfits!” “And it is much appreciated.” the stealer of jewels watched them dart away, before turning back to the page.

~ “...So, it’s been weeks, and they still haven’t been able to think of something to wear?” “I mean...yea. They said they wanted to give us the outfits for us today since you somehow are feeling better. Why are they missing out on the fun stuff?” “Perhaps they’re having an identity crisis.” “A what?” “...Right, you’re still dumb. Uh… I think we could try to make something for them…” “But we don’t know shit about making clothes!” “That’s why we attempt to do such a thing, Cyborg.” Aloe huffed, reaching for some of the pale yellow fabric strung along the length of the room. “Should we keep the color scheme the same?” “HELL NO! I dunno what would work nicely with that cheese, but I know they’d want some tacky fancy stuff…”

“I mean, they don’t look half bad in fanciful things.” perhaps a darker shade of teal…? Off-white… With a few light purples. “Do you have any ideas for them?” “Mmmm, I like the cape they have! It’s like a portable blankie!” “Is that all you can think of it as?” “Definitely! I will steal it someday!” “Already taking notes from them, I see… How odd.” “Hm?” “I never thought you would be able to adapt to the changes someone else has.” “Oh, no no! Nope! Not even close! You’re not even in the same ballpark! Y'see, they’re chaotic. We both share a brain cell, that’s how I manage to do that.” “...I’ll have to conduct an experiment on that later.” “H-HUH?” “You’re second-guessing yourself now, hm? Having regrets?”

“Shut up! Ugh, let’s just...work on this. I can’t believe you managed to get better, I was hoping you’d die again.” “Very nice of you, thanks.” They shot a glance at the pouting Cyborg. Nevertheless, they’d continue working on the outfit, which would very easily take over a few hours. The half-bot attempted to help, but the most they could do was suggest ideas and hold pieces of cloth in place. Boring!!! That was up until they were about to start making the cape- That was something Cyborg snatched right up! “I’m making this part!!! Mine!!” “...Allow me to help, at least a little.” “No! You helped with everything else, I should get a little say in this!” They held the fabric close, but the scientist would grab onto it. “I understand, but I’m following the design you wish for them to have!” They would try to yank it from them, but their grip remained strong. The prototype of the cape was in a deadlock between the two.

“No! Nono, Roguey needs something from me! You already got your grimy hands on everything!!” They seemed a little desperate, continuing to pull at the fabric. “Let go!!! You never let me do anything!!!” “You let go! You can come up with a design for this, it will be just like the rest!!!” “No! I wanna make this piece!!” “Well, you’re going to mess it up!” “I won’t, Dumbass!!!” “That doesn’t want to make me let it go any faster!!” “Well, then I’ll MAKE you let go!!!” They yanked on it as hard as they could, which did get Aloe to fall back… Only because the cape was ripped in half. The anger the half-bot exuded simmered down as quickly as possible thereafter. They could only stare at what they had caused with a bit of shock, and even more guilt. It… It’s only been a few weeks, yet… They still weren’t over the thought of killing the scientist… “...I’m sorry…” “Hgh...it’s fine…” They let out a heavy sigh, shaking their head as they sat up. Ough, that wound from all that time ago still hurts like a bitch. “Perhaps we could just...work on it together. It...Hah, it’s even torn in half…” It was clear to Cyborg they were just trying to make the most of this inconvenience… and it made them feel a little better that they were at least trying to make amends. It was...still way too small to matter, but it was big enough to be noticeable! “...Mmm...sure.”

~

“I’ve noted you both were in the room I was in while designing outfits for you both...whatever was your business in there?” “Well, we uh-” “We made you this really cool thing!!!! We think you would like it lots!!!” Cyborg said, seemingly happier than they were before the two of them walked into the room. This caught the thief off guard, a warm smile brought to their face shortly thereafter.

“Well, I’m pleased to let you know that I’m here to show you both your outfits… Made from what we all think you both would like most!” They unveiled the two designs they had been working on, handing each to their respective owners… Who seemed to cherish them. “There’s so much fluff on this!!! More than I asked! I thought there would be only neck fluff, but this??? This much????? I love it! I dunno who thought of it, but thankies!!! It’s also so bright!!! And the orange is all shiny...It makes me so happy!!!” They hugged what they were given as if it were some form of a plush. Not a moment later, they zipped away, likely to change into it. Aloe simply stared at what was given to them, looking it over as if attempting to find a single flaw… “How is there not even a single loose thread…?” “Ah, I have my ways. Yours was a lot of fun to make, Aloe.” “Hah...it makes me feel bad…” “Why’s that?” They tilted their head inquisitively, perking up when Aloe showed them the outfit the others had made for the thief of the night… “We...did our best, but it doesn’t look that great…” They glanced away as Roguefort took what was offered, also looking it over. “It’s not that bad! Some of the stitching is weird, yes, but… I like to think it gives the piece flavor.” They grinned, no hint of contempt on their face. “The only thing I wonder is why the cape was presumably torn…” “Ah, we got into a bit of an argument… We stitched it up together soon after and tried to hide it with a ribbon...” “Hm...the concept is interesting! Do you mind if I make a few changes?” “Not at all. It’s something to make you more comfortable with yourself, after all.” “Then, I’ll likely put a few more ribbons to match what you’ve chosen for me. It’s...a nice change of pace, the colors you chose.”

~

The moment they got the chance to move back into the fabric room, Roguefort did, sighing as they closed the door behind them. Right… They just had a few things to take care of. The ribbons, checking up on the outside world, and...one other thing they nearly forgot about entirely. There was a closet on the far side of the room. The phantom silently moved over to it, looking back to the doorway to make sure nobody was looking, before opening it up and peering in. There it was...this odd cane they never really found a use for until such a moment, when they recalled the dangers that lay ahead of themself...and everybody else. Taking it, and lightly dusting it off, they looked to a nearby window. The number of husks staring back, smiling with the faces of the damned… it was growing. It’s gone from one to twenty, and they could tell some form of danger was lurking. Glancing down at the cane, they gently lifted the handle away from the base of it. The moment they saw the sharp glimmer of metal, they closed it again. So...this wasn’t just them hallucinating things about what this was capable of. Perhaps it would prove to be useful? They knew not. What they did know, however, was that it would be put to the test soon enough. Best not to dwell on it now. Right, their outfit...there was quite a bit to fix. ...Where were the ribbons put? Ah, there...the spool had a little happy face on it, likely drawn by the happy-go-lucky bot themself. What a curious little group they have befriended...

[ranissupercool]

Fic Where Mari is Problematic Ch. 4 (Final)

Fandom: Love Live! Sunshine!! Characters: Matsuura Kanan, Takami Chika, Sakurauchi Riko, Ohara Mari Relationships: ChikaRiko, KanaMari Rating: Teen and up Word Count: 1,816 Summary: Mari kisses Riko and stuff. No one is happy with this.

this whole fic is a cheesefest i'm so sorry

Read on Ao3!

It was a couple of days after Mari had… made a regrettable decision in randomly kissing Riko, one could say.

“Ka-naaan! Stop ignoring me!”

“I’m not ignoring you, Mari. I said I’m busy.”

Things weren’t exactly going great with Kanan.

Riko had, surprisingly, not been very upset with her-- nor had Chika. They both seemed a lot more occupied with each other, the two having apparently started dating after the whole ordeal. While that had been Mari’s goal from the beginning, it most certainly didn’t have the effect she’d hoped on Kanan.

Yeah, she wasn’t going to be asking Mari out anytime soon.

“You’re totally ignoring me! You have been for the past two days!”

“I’ve been busy for the past two days.”

“Come on! I didn’t bring it up during class or practice because I knew you’d get upset, but this is obviously about the thing with Riko-chi, isn’t it?”

Kanan side-eyed Mari. She’d been following Kanan persistently ever since idol practice had ended, although that wasn’t really anything new given that they often went home on the same bus… despite Mari’s parents constantly telling her they’d “prefer” for her to go by car instead.

“What, you mean you kissing her? How is that any of my business?”

“Well, I dunno! Maybe you might possibly… I don’t know… like me or something?”

Kanan stopped and turned to Mari. She really didn’t like the look Kanan was giving her. It was just a cold frown and slightly furrowed brow; Kanan’s “I’m upset so don’t talk to me” expression.

It was usually just used in regards to Mari, who didn’t much like Kanan’s approach of not talking about problems and refusing to even try resolving them. So it wasn’t that effective on her, but god did it hurt to see.

“Don’t you think that’s a little self-centered to assume?”

“But you’re not denying it.”

“Look, I need to help Chika study today. Can we do this later?”

Mari pouted, resisting the urge to stomp her foot on the floor like a child throwing a tantrum. Kanan was hardly taking her seriously to begin with; she never would if Mari did that . “This is more important!”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, Kanan. If I left it up to you to decide when we talk things out, it’d never happen. That’s why we spent two years apart!”

“Mari, that was because I was--”

“Yes, I know you were looking out for me-- because you know so much better for me than I do! You’re not my mother , Kanan.”

“H-- Hey, will you quit yelling? You’re attracting attention…”

“I didn’t even want to go study abroad. You knew that-- Dia knew that--”

Kanan took Mari’s hand and, without warning, pulled her along to somewhere else, away from all of the other students staring at them in the hallway.

Mari continued without care to this or to their surroundings, “If you’re going to be mad at me, just say it! You’re never honest with me, and it’s, like, really starting to tick me off!”

She was taken into an empty classroom, and Kanan shut the door behind them. “Mari.”

“ What .”

Kanan sighed, running a hand through her hair and somewhat messing up her ponytail. Mari kept quiet, if only because she wanted to know whether or not Kanan was actually going to have the conversation with her that they needed to have. “Where do I start…?”

As much as Mari was tempted to say, “With your love confession to me; duh!” she refrained.

“Mari, I’m sorry.”

...Eh? An apology wasn’t quite what she expected, if she was being honest. Completely called for, she thought, but-- “Sorry for what?”

“For… well, for one, the whole… studying abroad thing. I didn’t notice it at first because of the way you acted, but you really seemed to hate being out there.”

“Oh… I didn’t think we’d be bringing this up again,” Mari had to comment, given that Kanan had seemed content to forget about it after they’d made up and rejoined Aqours.

“You’re the one who brought it up first.”

“Hm. Well, it’s not like I hated studying abroad. It wasn’t much fun, and I was pretty depresso , but that was because I had to leave you and Dia and my favorite school and town in the whole wide world to do it.”

“No one was forcing you…”

“You sure about that? You two clearly wanted me to go, and that’s pretty much the whole reason you decided to stop being idols, right?”

“Well… I-I’m sorry, like I said. I really didn’t know you cared as much as you did about Aqours at the time. Especially since I pushed you into joining at first.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad that you understand now… although I appreciate that you finally apologized. Took you long enough~” Mari giggled. “Although that’s not really the main issue at hand right now, is it?”

“...Yeah, I guess it isn’t.”

Silence overtook them for a good moment, Kanan seeming quite unsure as to what to say. Mari was beginning to think she might have to steer the conversation herself, but just as she was about to speak up, Kanan did instead.

“Why did you kiss Riko?”

“Oh, that? Ummm, thing is, I… did it on impulse!”

“What…?”

Mari chuckled awkwardly. “Well, when I saw you and Chika-chi looking all flirty and lovey-dovey, I can’t lie; I got mega jealous and, like… did the first thing I could think to do, which I guess was try to make you jealous back? Tee hee oopsie… I totally regretted it as soon as I did it, though!”

“O-Oh. Well. Talk about honest…”

“Unlike a certain someone~”

Kanan rolled her eyes, but her expression was becoming a lot softer than it had been previously. “I guess I can see how what Chika and I were doing could look bad. I was just helping her think of how to ask Riko out… although it seems like they figured that out for themselves.”

“Hmhm, so Riko-chi told me~”

“Anyways… Uh… You said you were jealous? How… so, exactly? Did you--”

“Ah ah, Kanan, this isn’t a one-way trade of information. If you want me to answer that, you have to answer one of my questions~”

Kanan grimaced a bit, but she reluctantly nodded in compliance. “Fine, I guess that’s fair. What question?

“So, about you getting all mad and ignoring me. Were you jealous~?”

“N-- ...Maybe. I mean… yeah, I guess. Probably.”

Huh. Kanan seemed pretty uncertain, didn’t she? “Mmmm… Close enough. Your turn to ask something, then.”

“...Were you just jealous I was flirting with someone, or… jealous I was flirting with someone?”

Mari tilted her head. “ Que? ”

“I-I mean, like, was it just because, like, your friends were flirting and you don’t have anyone to do that with, or because uh, it was me specifically and you wanted to be flirted with by, uh, me…?”

“Kanan, you seem flustered.”

“I’m-- I’m not! I’m just wondering.”

“Hmm… I thought it was obvious, to be honest… but since you really don’t seem to know, I’ll tell you. I tooo-tally want my BFF Kanan to flirt with me lots and pin me against the wall~!”

“M-Mari!”

“Hehe~ My turn! Do you want to flirt with me lots and pin me against the wall?”

“No way! I mean-- Ugh… I don’t know!”

Hmm. Mari wasn’t completely sure whether this was getting anywhere or not, but Kanan at least seemed to be answering honestly… “You don’t know?”

“I know it probably sounds stupid, but… I don’t know what I want? I get a lot of… weird feelings with you. Especially when you get all affectionate… Whenever I think of something like flirting with you or dating you…” With a growing blush on her face, Kanan averted her eyes. “I don’t really get them.”

...How on Earth could Kanan be so cute and yet so frustratingly dense at the same time?

“You’ve thought about dating me?”

“Ch-- Chika’s the one who brought it up.”

“Hmm. Sounds like a crush,” Mari replied bluntly.

“That’s-- I don’t… I mean, it’s… not impossible,” Kanan awkwardly admits, “but I don’t know if liking someone usually makes a person feel like throwing up when they’re around them.”

“There is a reason they call it ‘lovesickness’.”

“But-- But we’re best friends.”

Mari rolled her eyes. “So are Chika and You-- the only difference is that You’s crush isn’t requited.”

“...Wait, You has a crush on Chika?”

“Oh my god, just kiss me you big dense idiot.”

“H-Huh? Wait, hold o--” Unsurprisingly, Mari didn’t listen and pulled Kanan into a kiss anyways. And, seeing that Kanan stopped trying to pull away pretty quickly, she held the kiss.

It lasted a lot longer than the one with Riko. Mari, then, was the one to break it off as well.

“So, can I possibly make my feelings any more clear?”

Kanan quietly shook her head.

“Still feel like throwing up?”

“Uh… it… lessened. When you kissed me.”

Mari grinned. “Think doing it more will make it totally go away?”

“You’re acting pretty nonchalant about stealing my first kiss…”

She did already steal one person’s first, so why not another? Of course, she didn’t say that out loud. Mari wasn’t tone-deaf. “I figured it’d help you figure out your feelings is all."

Kanan frowned, placing a finger uncertainly over her own lips. “So you like me?”

“Duh. I wanted you to be the one to say it first, but since you’re a biiig ol’ dummy and couldn’t even tell how you felt…”

“Mm…” Kanan pondered this, crossing her arms. “...Guess I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of my life with you…” It was said in a quiet mumble that Mari could hardly hear. Was Kanan talking to herself?

“Huh?”

“Nothing. I think this whole thing did give me a better idea of how I feel about you, though. That’s what you’ve been wanting to hear, right?”

“Oho? You’ve got that right; lay it on me, babe!”

“Babe? At least wait until we’re dating to call me that…”

“Kanaaan, come ooonnnn, will you just--” A pause. “Wait, until we’re--?”

Kanan chuckled. “Yes, Mari, I like you. And yes, I will go out with you.”

“Wai-- Wha-- K-Kanan, no fair!” Mari pouted, but that just made Kanan laugh even more. “Don’t you laugh at me! You’re the one who couldn’t even tell you had a crush on me ‘till I kissed you!”

“And you refused to tell me your feelings until you knew mine. I think that makes us both laughable messes.”

“Oh, shush, you.”

“Make me.”

Kanan grinned at the appearance of a rare blush on Mari’s cheeks. She wasn’t quite so smug when Mari affectionately jumped her afterwards, but she certainly wasn’t unsatisfied.

Elsewhere, Chika wondered why Kanan was running nearly an hour late to their study session.

[1stunseeliefaelass]

Darksiders Arthurian Tales Revisited

Chapter 2: An Unlikely Meeting

Barrcus decided to go over the plan with Morgen again, but only after Mina took the girls out to go play for a moment. After all these little ladies didn't need to know what may happen. That and keeping secrets is rarely a child's strong suit, let own for two of em. Morgen looked to Barrcus as he shut the door behind them again.

With that he began, "So you start taking the trail, make sure you make your rounds around countryside. Be sure everyone sees you, even the bandits. We need to make sure that this is as public as possible."

From there, he detailed the route as one that was often raided by bandits. He further explained that he knew what time they'd strike, due to his future seeing capabilities.

"Why send me on such a route if you know what's coming?" Morgen questioned him.

"Because the Horsemen will be coming along that same route. Specifically around the time you get attacked. They should protect you when finding the carriage."

Morgen's eyes widened, "The Horsemen?! But why would they help me? Why are they even coming here?"

"I may have slipped in details of the book in a few rumors. A carefully spun web I assure you." Barrcus reassured her.

"Why do this? It could put you at risk if Uther finds out what you've done." Morgen frantically explained.

"Please, I've been in the castle this whole time. My spiders however, have not been. Besides, the only way for Uther to find out is if someone in our group told him. As far as the Council knows, it was just a bunch of rumors. Rumors that they need to check."

Morgen thought a moment before nodding, "Very well, I'll trust your judgment Barrcus. Just please, promise me you'll be careful."

"Hmhm, if everything goes as planned tonight, I will be." Barrcus stated with a smile before fading into the shadow.

Morgen then readied herself for the trip ahead. It was just another sort of ride she often took by carriage. To greet the people and make sure they were alright. Course the captain would need some convincing about the path, but she and Mina managed it. The only problem, was Mina couldn't convince the girls to stay there. Morgen believed they'd be safest at the castle, but with the girls' continued insisting and begging she caved. Bringing a thin sword of hers that melded into a mage staff. Course she'd also have to ask Vortigern about bringing them along. Which may lead to a lecture or two as far as she was concerned. With that she entered the throne room, a bit nervous but doing her best to hide it.

"My liege, I came to bid you goodbye before my latest ride out into the country. And I needed to ask something of Uncle Vortigern before I left." Morgen declared as calmly as possible.

"What is it?" Uther inquired of her.

"The girls are insisting I bring them along. I tried telling them no but they can beg way too well these days. I wanted to know your opinion on it first though Uncle. See what you thought of the idea."

Vortigern observed her briefly, and upon seeing her sword staff, "Is this going to be dangerous?"

"The route is a risky one yes. But I wouldn't let anything happen to them and you know it." Morgen replied nervously.

"What time are you going to be back?" Vortigern bade her.

"I shall return before the party, and I'm sure the girls will be tired after I'm back. So they'll likely go to bed all the faster." Morgen stated calmly.

Vortigern sighed, "If you can ensure their safety, I'll allow it."

Morgen gave him a hug, "I'll let them know. Don't worry I'll make sure nothing harms them."

Vortigern reciprocated the hug, "Stay safe, and keep an eye out for bandits."

"Of course Uncle, thank you." Morgen replied before going on her way.

Vortigern let her go and then glanced over at his brother. Uther was barely hiding his jealousy at that moment. "You know if you'd quit with your tirades around her, maybe she'd trust you more."

Uther doesn't return the look, "One must show strength, not weakness."

"Strange how everyone has a different point of view on what weakness is." Vortigern states before inquiring, "So is there anything else I need to know about?"

"No, it's just a Masque, this party I mean. Nothing to worry about." Uther mumbled out whilst staring blankly at Vortigern.

Vortigern feels a twinge of terror at the cold blankness of Uther's gaze before coughing, "Ahem well, I think I should be getting ready for the party."

"Yes that would be a...good idea." Uther muttered out simply before walking off in the opposite direction of his brother.

Vortigern couldn't help but wonder why Uther seemed so, distant this time. Especially so after Morgen hugged him. It was only a hug after all. Surely it was nothing to be concerned with. At least he could only hope so.

Meanwhile Morgen and Mina were enjoying the open road with Anna and Elaine along for the ride. Morgen enjoyed their little game of I Spy whilst waving to the village folk and stopping occasionally to help anyone in need. Wanting to be a good example to the girls after all, and to be a kind person overall. She kept noticing the same group of horse riders following their carriage overtime. Realizing they may likely be the bandits Barrcus had informed her of seeing in his future sight. Eventually her concerns would become realized, as the bandits waited until a particular stretch of wooded road to attack the carriage. Meanwhile the two Horsemen had FINALLY made it to the veil to open a portal through it.

"Took ya long enough." Strife noted in exasperation.

Death only growled at him in response.

"How long do you think you can keep it open?"

Growling again Death shouted, "NOT LONG!"

Once Despair, Dust, Mayhem, and Strife were all through the portal Death created, Death had to be pulled through himself by his younger brother. Strife watched him a bit concerned as he worked to catch his breath.

"Need a minute?"

"Yeah....that would be...appreciative right now..." Death expressed between deep breaths. Strife placed a hand on his shoulder still, and Death only shrugged him off with an, "I'm well. Let's just keep moving."

Strife shook his head before saying, "Alright whatever."

From there the two continued riding on. Soon finding a secluded road without pavement, and with seemingly no travelers on it. Strife however noted his elder brother's paranoid gaze searching the woods surrounding them.

Finally after a long enough silence he groaned, "Ugh....dude."

"Hmm?"

"Stop it!" Strife demanded.

"Why?" Death inquired cocking his head at him.

"You're freaking me out!" Strife urged him.

Death remained simple with his questions, "How exactly is this freaking you out?"

"I dunno you're making me paranoid. What with all that looking around like something's gonna happen. It's like you're expecting a fight."

"Seriously?" Death asked once again in a simple tone before continuing with, "What am I supposed to do about that?"

"Stop acting paranoid! Seriously man when you're paranoid I am. We all get paranoid whenever you do. As you only get like that when you're absolutely sure something's gonna happen."

"If you don't keep quiet, something will." Death growled lowly in a threatening tone before calming enough to explain softly, "Just look at the ground, and you'll see why."

"What am I looking for?"

"Just look." Death implored quietly.

Strife did so rolling his eyes, only to find horse tracks around them. None of which came from Despair or Mayhem, "Bandits."

"Yes, that's why I've been looking around. Now shush so I can listen for them." Death whispered to him.

Strife nods at that, "Right.", then begins to palming Mercy at his waist.

Before long they began hearing a cockney accented man saying something rather interesting, "Well well well, looks like we've got ourselves a Princess here. Wonder what we can do with that? Bet he'd probably pay a pretty penny for ya."

A female voice spoke up with an irish sounding accent, "Do your worst gentlemen, you won't get passed me."

"Oh, so she's got some fight in her, wonder what else she's got." The man snidely stated with a smirk.

Course Death and Strife have come to witness this, and Death has chosen to comment on it, "So what seems to be the matter here?"

"None of your business fellow traveler."

Strife however retorted, "Seems to be, you're in our way."

"We'll move this alongside, you don't need to worry about this."

"Right don't worry about it eh? Brother?" Death bade.

"Way ahead of ya bro." Strife remarked, drawing Mercy with lightning speed.

"We gonna have a problem here?" The man asked both brothers.

"I guess we will." Death mumbled before he and Strife descended upon the bandits.

Death unhooked Harvester from his belt, leaped off Despair, then began cutting bandits down. Strife pulled out Redemption in the meantime. Then whilst taking some bandits out with Mercy, used Redemption to take out the main one's kneecaps.

As the man attempts to crawl away, Death came up to him, "Oh no you don't."

After being picked up by his collar, the man begged of Death, "Wh-who....w-what are you?"

Strife shook his head, "Just some good samaritans passing by. What about you though? You gonna be a body? Like my brother other here wants to see? Or you gonna apologize to this young lady, and be someone living?"

"I'm sorry! Eh please call off your dogs!" The man begged looking at the woman.

"They are not of mine or the King's. Who am I to order them what to do?" She says a bit coldly.

"You may be one of the few people I actually like. Huh." Strife mused aloud.

"Well what do you think?"

"Hmm I dunno, has he had enough?" Strife checked with both Death and the woman.

"Like I said, I have no orders to give you. As you are not servants to me. Therefore I leave it to you good sirs." The lady states matter-of-factly.

"Well I guess the other person I would need to ask is you. So what do you think brother? Let him walk, or kill him?" Death tendered almost menacingly.

"Hmm....1....2...." Strife began.

The man, realizing what was happening, tried to scurry away. Failing miserably to do so as Strife counted down further towards ten.

"7.....8.....9 10!" Strife shouted before firing off at the man, killing him.

Once the man lay dead, Death could hear what sounded like little girls crying. He also heard another woman speaking softly, likely trying to calm them.

Sighing he muttered under his breath, "Shit.", then looking to Strife, "Brother would be so kind as to check on who's crying?"

"Right." Strife responded before heading up to the carriage door. Quietly knocking he called out softly, "Hello, anybody in there?"

A scottish accented woman responded, "Aye stranger, meself and two little lassies 'ere."

"Alright.", then after grabbing some chocolate from a side pocket on his belt, "Have you been good for the nice lady in there?"

The woman calls out to him, "Forgive em sir, they're still quite scared ye see. Being as young as they are. But they are nodding and I'll confirm they've been good and quiet in 'ere with me."

"Ok think they are deserving of a candy bar?"

"Oh of course. I'm sure it'd go a long way in helping calm them down too. Bless ye sir, both of ya out there." The woman replied to him.

He hands it over through the door and is surprised by the two little ones hugging his arm as they take the candy.

He's left stuck there for a moment and looks at Death, "Uh bro, need a little help here."

Death only shook his head, "It's best you leave my brother alone. Lest you hurt yourselves by accident."

Course he heard one of them reply with a sniffle, "We're being careful mister."

"Ok then, brother?"

"Yeah I'll keep my uh....'toys' locked up real tight." Strife remarked.

The woman from inside finally opened the carriage and Strife found himself being hugged by both little girls once they were out. Now they just clung to his legs.

"For crying out loud."

"Heheh, had to expect that one coming." Death stated snidely.

Strife looks up, trying to resist the urge to pat both their heads. Meanwhile Death inquired of the short and stout red head that left the carriage with the girls,

"Are you alright miss?"

"Oh I'm fine, I'm mainly worried about me mistresses. Her especially." The red head stated going up to the Princess.

"Oh Mina, please I'm fine. Not even a scratch on me." She replied calmly.

"That's only because they needed you alive. What use is a corpse in a ransom? She had every right to worry for you." Death retorted.

"Well I may not seem like much sir, but I indeed can hold my own." The woman proclaimed.

"Morgen, you don't know much in offensive spells. And ye've not wielded a proper blade in...." Mina began.

"I am more than capable of handling a few bandits. Not that I don't appreciate the aid we received, but still." Morgen insisted.

"May I take a look at your staff?" Death inquired of her.

Morgen cocked her head but allowed him to see it. After a bit of observance he noted that there wasn't much in terms of power for this staff. An indication of the wielder's power level. He also was surprised by the thin blade on the inside of the staff.

Course the thinness of the blade was also amusing to him, "In case you were caught off guard?"

"I was a knight some time ago. Sadly my order was....retired, so to speak." Morgen informed him.

"Hmm....may I ask, why are the four of you out on these roads? You'd think you'd be safer in a castle." Death questioned her.

"I'll not lie about you being correct on that last part. But we're out here because I like to check on the people every now and then. Make sure they are well and all."

The girls then piped up in unison whilst finally releasing Strife, who'd begun losing circulation in his legs, "And we just wanted to come with her."

Death glanced their way then back to Morgen, he did this a few times, as if searching for something then finally posed another question, "Are these yours?"

"Oh no. They're my Cousins." Morgen explained.

"Oh. Well then that's a bit interesting." Death noted before looking at Strife.

"Well you know how Fae are. Who knows they could be her seventeenth cousins." Strife remarked as he rubbed at his leg muscles.

"I assure you, they are my Uncle's only children." Morgen insisted.

"Seriously? I thought you Fae got down and dirty every single day of the week." Strife said confused.

"First off, stereotypes. And second off, that's more like your Satyr friend." Death retorted.

Morgen cocked her head at that, "And this friend is...who exactly?"

Both brothers replied, "Puck."

"I'd be concerned normally by such an answer. But he's been on his best behavior today at the castle. Wouldn't be surprised if Uther invited him to the party after the self portrait he painted." Morgen explained simply.

Strife's eyes widened, "Huh. Well then, nine times outta ten he's gonna be playing. May as well go say hi to him."

"Actually you may have more time to converse than you think. Considering that you did aid us. I'm sure the King and my Uncle would be glad to reward you in some way." Morgen replied.

"Well we were just interested in getting to the party that's it." Death simply stated to her.

"Will Mina here be attending?" Strife asked attempting to flirt that direction.

Mina however answered for Morgen this time, "First off lad I'm a maid. I won't be doing much beyond working the kitchens. Secondly, I do have someone in my life thank ye very much."

After the cold rejection Strife mumbled out, "Must be a lucky bastard.", then as a spider began crawling up his back...., "EEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

As Mina began snickering, Death just looked at him confused and annoyed, "Serves you right casanova."

Meanwhile the spider somehow was unharmed and crawled up Mina's body before settling on her shoulder. From there it gave her a sweet little nuzzle. Death then suddenly took notice of it and inquired cautiously, "Is that you're pet?"

"Hmm? Oh no. This one is controlled by the man in me life." Mina replies stroking the spider. And Death is surprised again by the spider suddenly getting all giddy.

"Ooooooook then." Strife remarked slowly backing away in concern.

Death looked down at the ground in front of the carriage, noticing tracks of horses heading away from it. That and the cut harnesses on the ground indicated quite clearly what had happened.

"Well.....the horses have gone wild. We can use our steeds to pull the carriage along, if you wish." Death explained to Morgen.

"That'd be a help. Thank you. I wish we could find the horses, but that may not be a fruitful search. Especially not with the amount of time left before the Masque." Morgen contemplates.

"Oh so you're heading there now?" Death questioned.

"Yes, I am the Princess after all. I should probably be there to get ready." Morgen replied a bit snidely.

"Uhmm...you mind giving us some assistance? Me and my brother here would like the attend." Death told her as Strife continued to stare at the spider on Mina's shoulder.

"Of course. As I told you before, Uther and my Uncle would be happy to reward you I'm sure." Morgen stated.

"Great, sounds cool. Uhm I'll be in the carriage. D...Argh!", Strife began before Death elbowed him, "Ahem, my brother will be outside. He doesn't really like cramped spaces that much."

"It's not the space it's the company, for the most part." Death said.

"Perhaps you'll permit me to ride out with you, for directions and all?" Morgen inquired.

Strife then realized something and asked, "You're royalty, you didn't drive this yourself did ya?"

Morgen's eyes widened, as she clearly began remembering something, and she then started looking around frantically, "Oh dear, I hope he's alright."

Death cocked his head simply, "Who?"

"The captain of the guard was our driver. I heard screaming when the horses took off, maybe they dragged him along!" Morgen exclaims in minor panic.

"He's indeed with the horses." Death expressed just as simply before telling Strife, "Brother, let's hooks the horses up and get these ladies over to the castle as soon as possible."

"What about the captain guy?"

"The horses will eventually slow down, allowing him to get his footing again." Death replied before working with Strife to hook up their own steeds.

Despair sat perfectly still and gave no fuss as Death hooked him on, Mayhem however was a different story. Attempting to kick Strife in the head, and biting at Death. Only stopping when getting kicked himself by Despair. The two horses then shared an annoyed growl between them. Course during all this, a certain rodent was getting slightly shoved about. Only revealing himself by accident with a scared whimper after the two steeds growled. Death of course heard it all the same.

"FUZZBALL?!"

Fuzzball shook inside the saddlebag he was hiding in, scared even more now. Course he only really began to shake when Death angrily threw open the bag he was in.

"What are you doing HERE?!" Death demanded of the rodent.

Fuzzball whimpered even more and shrunk down in his fear, course Strife couldn't stand it anymore and grabbed Death's shoulder, "Bro chill out dude."

Death growled before grabbing Fuzzball with one hand, he could feel just how badly the little ball of fur was shivering now. "Do you know how dangerous this mission could actually be?!"

Fuzzball covered his ears with his little paws terrified, whilst the two girls were now huddling against Mina again.

Strife gripped his shoulder tighter, "Dude look around for a moment."

Death looked around for a moment at last and recognized the girls were currently scared of him now. As was poor Fuzzball. Grumbling quietly, he marched up to the girls and bent down to their level. From there he handed over Fuzzball, "Do you think you can keep an eye on this one for me?"

The girls looked at him from behind Mina's skirt, and Anna asked him, "How come you yelled at him?"

"Cause he's not supposed to be here." Death told her gently.

Elaine then spoke up, "Is it because you have a dangerous job?"

"Well.....to say the least." Death replied.

"We get it, Daddy always leaves us with Cousin Morgen when he's going somewhere scary." Anna stated as she swayed around like most kids her age do.

"My job is far more...horrific. Let's just say it would give you nightmares. And Fuzzball here is...way too fluffy for my work."

The girls then take Fuzzball and begin cuddling him. With that Mina takes them inside but points out, "So I imagine with these steeds we'd be traveling very fast then eh Horsemen?"

Death froze at that and looked over at the horses, realizing too late that he forgot to cloak them in any glamour spells. As best he could, he came up with the following excuse, "Uh.....we use this camouflage to scare off any bandits...heheh..."

"Really now? And how is that supposed to work if they attack ye anyways?" Mina probed.

"Well it's supposed to be a deterrent. Would you attack the Horsemen?" Death insisted to her.

"I get that part, but how could it be a deterrent when it failed as such? Given that the thieves attacked anyway." Mina explained.

"Heheh....it's because I'm not wearing Death's mask. It's far scarier." Death smugly stated.

"You mean far edgier?" Strife corrected him even more smugly.

Death turned his way with a death glare, "Riiiiiiiiight."

"If everyone is quite finished, shall we finally head out?" Morgen requested.

"Yes let's." Death stated before putting a glamour spell on the horses whilst pretending to do the opposite and muttered, "Since it didn't work this time."

Morgen looked at him curiously as Strife hopped into the carriage with the ladies. Morgen then got into the driver's seat. Or rather attempted to before Death lent her a hand, "Here, let me help."

"Ah thank you." Morgen replied before taking his hand.

Death couldn't help but note how....powdery her hand felt. Sure it was soft as any royal's would be, but he hadn't expected powder. Usually a royal would use hand lotion or something, not that. It actually reminded him of the feeling of porcelain the more he thought about it.

Finally after rubbing his fingers together in confusion he asked her, "Uhm...what's that on your hands?"

"Hmm? Oh the powder you mean? Oh just some makeup powder. Why?" Morgen inquired.

"You'd expect lotion."

"Ah yes, well.....I have my reasons sir." Morgen explained simply whilst the spider on Mina had migrated to watch the two of them. When Morgen mentioned the powder, it seemed to try and get closer to her. It looked as though it was trying to search for something. Course it's stealth failed as it crawled up her body, causing Morgen to jolt a bit. She glanced at the spider only to find it looking all adorable at her. She patted the thing gently and watched as it ended up with a bit of powder on its head.

[garden-ghoul]

This week on Overground: Evil City we find out what a union station actually is, hammer out some of the material impacts of the Evil City, name the worst subway line in existence, and, uh, assassinate some labor rights activists. Episode is 53 minutes, sorry, we have cannot shut up disease. Transcript below the cut!

GHOUL: Okay, we are rec-ording.

VERA: Yahaa.

GHOUL: Let’s do our welcome.

VERA: Nyee.

GHOUL: I’m from Boston.

VERA: And I’m from Newark.

BOTH: Welcome…

GHOUL: …to the Overground.

VERA: [at the same time] …to the Evil City. [wheezes]

GHOUL: No, we’ll keep that.

[Theme plays: ‘Bolt Cutter’ by Doomtree]

GHOUL: Aaaall right. So, last time we made one TRULY horrible subway line, [Vera laughing] which is bad, very, very bad. And properly should be two separate subway lines, but isn’t.

VERA: Mhm!

GHOUL: And the trains, you know, are each other. And we added a couple of subway stops too. As is our…

VERA: [with relish] Municipal Intersection.

GHOUL: Ahh! Municipal Intersection.

VERA: Not named for an intersection of streets.

GHOUL: But an intersection of buildings.

VERA: Horrible.

GHOUL: And… as is our custom, we were thinking about, but not actually creating content for, this evil city, you know, out of respect for the listeners. So Vera actually wrote down in their notes some questions that we’re going to consider today.

VERA: I did.

GHOUL: So, what order do you want to do these questions in?

VERA: I can just read all of them out. …That’s stupid.

GHOUL: Pick one that’s cool. Yeah, don’t read all of them out at once. Overwhelm the listeners.

VERA: [softly, sinisterly] Yeess.

GHOUL: Oh, I do think first we should place Union Station, and we should talk about what happened to the union railroad.

VERA: Yeeeeeesssssss. Yes.

GHOUL: We might need another rail line. Would you like to draw it?

VERA: I think it would be fun if it was like [awful creaking noise that indicates Vera is drawing a line, probably northward from downtown]. I don’t know. Maybe just [shorter awful creaking noise that probably indicates the line is shorter]. That’s kind of dumb. I don’t know.

GHOUL: Partially make it stupid, but also think about where it would be useful to have rail lines, and where there’s a lot of high density of stuff.

VERA: Uhh, what were we saying were places that stuff was? We’ve got… downtown… we’ve got… the Silver City over there. [presumably the Palisades]

GHOUL: Here we have refineries and industry.

VERA: And…

GHOUL: Where was the place where all the railroads met up?

VERA: You’d think that freight rail would have a lot of stuff in the industrial sector, and passenger rail might be downtown.

GHOUL: I assume the passenger rail goes along the coast. Obviously there’s also something upriver, but. You know.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: I mean, upriver I would assume there’s mountains and I would assume there’s mines, because that’s how rivers work. But maybe that’s just me being partially from the mountains.

VERA: Aaah.

GHOUL: Railroad bridges!!

VERA: Huhuhuhuhuu.

GHOUL: This is the city of bridges.

VERA: Yeah, it has so many fucking stupid bridges. I kind of want to notate some of them.

GHOUL: Oh, yeah, sure.

VERA: Obviously we’ve got bridges there and there… [pointing out two of the five bridges already on the map]

GHOUL: And one at 9th Crossing Boulevard.

VERA: There and there…

GHOUL: …3, 4, 5… so we need… at least three more…

VERA: At least four… Yeah, and then I’m not sure all of these are ‘crossings.’

GHOUL: Right, some of them are just bridges. [laughs]

VERA: Like that one?

GHOUL: What, Nusquam Street Bridge?

VERA: Clearly it’s called Nusquam Street Bridge, not, I don’t know, Third Crossing or whatever. So.

GHOUL: Hang on, is this over here [the bridge north of Municipal Intersection] the First Crossing?

VERA: Hmmm.

GHOUL: Or is there one even further downriver that’s really annoying when steamships try to come into harbor?

VERA: Yes. Yes! This is Evil City, and it’s very stupid.

GHOUL: Do you call those trestle bridges, the ones that can rise up? [looks it up and cuts the audio lol] Okay, the thing we’re thinking of is a bascule bridge.

VERA: Sometimes referred to as a drawbridge. Okay.

GHOUL: So I think First Crossing should be a drawbridge. And they have to stop traffic so often because ships are always trying to come into the harbor between 1st and 2nd Crossings. [laughing]

VERA: Ahh, that’s so stupid. I love it.

GHOUL: Also, where… union stations are generally a little ways out of downtown, right?

VERA: Mmmm. [again, but in the intonation of ‘I dunno’] Mmmm. I don’t know because there isn’t one in Newark. There is just Penn Station and Broad Street Station.

GHOUL: Where am I thinking of…? Worcester! I don’t think there’s one in Boston either, but there’s one in Worcester.

VERA: Hm. And it’s a little ways out of downtown?

GHOUL: No, Union Station actually is downtown because it’s where you come into if… it’s like the hub for passenger trains.

VERA: Yeah. That’s kind of what I figured it would be. So, yeah, okay.

GHOUL: You know, South Station Boston might actually be a union station, but there’s two of them so they had to call them North and South Station instead of Union Station. I… probably should look that up.

[looks it up]

GHOUL: A union—! A union station is not a station built by a union railroad company, it’s a union of railroads. Did you know that and you didn’t tell me?

VERA: I didn’t know it, but now that you say it it makes a lot of sense.

GHOUL: Ohhh, my gosh. Okay, in that case, what that means is we have to postulate the existence of a bunch of local railroads from the 1800s or whatever that all unionized at Union Station. Which would basically just be somewhere that three or four different railroads would all want to go. Which would probably be downtown.

VERA: Yeah. I do feel like maybe we should just move Municipal Intersection a ways down one of the lines and have that spot…

GHOUL: Or we could just make more horrible intersections of different lines.

VERA: That’s a much better plan, you’re so right.

GHOUL: I was thinking we could put Union Station just north of Municipal Intersection on the north side of the river.

VERA: Mm.

GHOUL: And then have another line going through there.

VERA: Yeah, yeah, sure.

GHOUL: The problem is there’s nowhere non-stupid for this line to go, so it has to go somewhere stupid.

VERA: [sarcastically] Oh nooo.

GHOUL: I was just thinking of a drawbridge that sometimes has a train on it, and going insane.

VERA: Oh, that’s so stupid.

GHOUL: But I think it goes under the river there. [at 1st Crossing] It’s okay. [laughs]

VERA: You know, that’s extra funny, because that’s like ‘yeah, we bored a tunnel for the rail but cars can’t use it, they still have to go over the stupid drawbridge.

GHOUL: Yeah! Does it intersect with the green line again, or does it… it’s possible that the terminus of the green line is just another stop on this. Soon it’s going to be time to tape another couple pieces of paper on the bottom.

VERA: You know, maybe we should do that now.

GHOUL: Sure.

GHOUL: Hi, we’re back. We taped two more pieces of paper and doubled the size of the map. I… [laughing] I think that we should make the green line from the Palisades go down to a beach.

VERA: You’re right.

GHOUL: ‘Cause that’d be just fucking typical.

VERA: You’re so right. Eugh. [sarcastically soft and sweet voice—henceforth ‘rich person voice’] The fucking Coastal Line.

GHOUL: Eeuugh.

VERA: [continued rich person voice] Isn’t it beautiful?

GHOUL: And in fact it is. What’s the beach called? What’s a good terminus name, because this is going to be Palisades to Something Beach or whatever. Um, it could be named after a town that was down there, and now it’s part of the Evil City but it used to be a town.

VERA: I just keep thinking ‘Bramble.’ See, Bramble Beach is like, mm, that’s a good beach, but it’s not the kind of beach that rich people love to go to.

GHOUL: Although if a town was fucking brambly it could be called Bramble Hill or something.

VERA: Mm. Brambling Hill?

GHOUL: Brambling Hill. [both crack up] That’s too Rich People. Sorry, did rich people found this town actually? They want to live out of town, but close enough that they can drive there in a carriage.

VERA: Right. [rich person voice] ‘And I want a seaside view…’

GHOUL:  [likewise rich person voice] ‘Like they have at the Palisaades, darling.’

VERA: [lol] Now imagine… [train driver PA announcement voice] Coastline… Palisades to Brambling Hill.

GHOUL: Is it Brambling Hill or Brambling Hill Beach?

VERA: Brambling Hill.

GHOUL: Maybe the stop north of Brambling Hill is Brambling Hill Beach.

VERA: Oh, that’s bad, I love it. Yes. …Oh, I was also thinking that the orange line could have some stupid branch thing going on.

GHOUL: YEAH stupid branches baybeeee!

VERA: [laughing] Yeah, I know, you’re from Boston.

GHOUL: [pffff] All right, would you like to draw a stupid branch of the orange line?

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: Well, we can… we should mix our systems here. We should also have one that, downtown it’s the same fucking train and for most of it it’s the same fucking train, but they’re still called two different lines.

VERA: [very softly] Yes. [Ghoul chuckling wickedly] YES. The worst of both worlds.

GHOUL: The worst of both worlds. …Mmm. Vera is drawing a highly stupid kind of hook-shaped nonsense. This subway line thinks it’s the river.

VERA: [hmhm laugh]

GHOUL: And I will be clear, on a map there is no reason for it to look like this. We’re not drawing a map that is to scale. [laughing] Aahh I really like that one of the branches is super long and awful and the other one has three stops on it.

VERA: Mhm! Mhm!

GHOUL: Okay, okay, now we have a plan, what are the lines that are—is there a line that’s almost exactly the same as the long orange line but it’s a different color?

VERA: Mmmyes. [Ghoul laughing] Yeah, goes that way at the end. [don’t know what way this is because we didn’t keep this] Also, is it part of the heretofore-unnamed-and-colored line that’s at Union Station or…

GHOUL: When you say part of… hang on, does it go like this? [outlines the monstrously stupid yellow line loop that crosses both 1st and 2nd Crossings]

[a beat, and then both start laughing like loons]

GHOUL: Oh, that’s bad, baby.

VERA: Oh, that’s so dumb.

GHOUL: It takes a small detour to serve this area up here. [weird yellow shark fin thing in south Evil City]

VERA: Mhm. Oh, I love it.

GHOUL: [laughing while trying to talk] What if they have the same terminus too!!

VERA: Ehh! Yes!

GHOUL: Where’s the other terminus.

VERA: Hmm. Hmmmmm. [‘here?’ intonation] Mm?

GHOUL: [wheezingly] Also a stop on the orange line.

VERA: Is that too much?

GHOUL: Evil City!

[both laughing]

VERA: Ah, I love it.

GHOUL: But it’s the terminus, so if you get this train it’s not going to go on.

VERA: No.

GHOUL: Right.

VERA: No. Also, you can’t transfer for free.

GHOUL: No. Obviously not.

VERA: They’re going in different directions! You have to cross the platform!

GHOUL: Fuck. That’s true. And you think it’s like, oh, X Station to Y Station, yeah, there’s track between those stations. Nooooo. You have to go around the loooong wayyy. [laughing]

VERA: Uh-huhhhh.

GHOUL: All right, so now we have the yellow line, which goes south and is mostly the same as the southern 2/3 of the orange line.

VERA: However, Worse.

GHOUL: Mhmmm [chef’s kiss].

VERA: Oh, this is great. Folks, you love to see it.

GHOUL: We love to draw it.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: Um, I want to name the termini of the yellow line.

VERA: [heheheehee] Yeahhh. Yeah. Yeah. Same.

GHOUL: Also, I think at this stop [probably the western end of the orange line from before we drew the extension] you can transfer to a commuter rail, but you know, it’s a different… oh, my gosh, have you seen… there’s this really stupid part of the Red Line in Boston.

VERA: Oh, I have not.

GHOUL: [laughing] I need to show it to you. [typing as ghoul looks up a map] Okay, you see down here, so Ashmont is actually the terminus of this line. You say, ‘going to Ashmont/Braintree.’ Right.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: But! There is more Red Line after that that goes to Mattapan! [almost incoherent with laughter] You just have to transfer!

VERA: Oh, that’s so dumb.

GHOUL: Also, see, between Park Street and Downtown Crossing you can just walk there. So it’s a different station but you can walk to it. Ashmont is just two stations and you have to walk between them and the trains don’t go there! [nearly weeping with laughter] That’s some Evil City bullshit right there, Boston.

[editor’s note: having looked this up since then, I THINK you can just take the lift up one level to catch the Mattapan Trolley, like a normal transfer between lines. But it’s still pretty funny. The Mattapan Trolley is a tiny little one-car orange trolley and it’s the cutest thing.]

VERA: Mmm. Oh, that’s delightful. That’s delightful, thank you. Thank you for showing me things about Boston that are dumb. I love to see them. I told you about things in New York that were dumb last session, so.

GHOUL: Yes. So that’s what I’m proposing we do with one of the lines on here. I think either the red line or the stupid little nub of the orange line.

VERA: Mmm. Mm. They both have extreme merits. I feel like the red line is already just soo stupid. Like it kind of stands on its own.

GHOUL: [laughing] All right. We’ll do the orange line, then. But it’s also quite short after that.

VERA: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

GHOUL: So it’s like,

VERA: Still extremely useless. …uh, so.

GHOUL: We really need to name some more termini, my friend.

VERA: Yes, we have got to. We’re just drawing lines willy-nilly like ‘Oh! We never have to do anything that’s not this!’

GHOUL: Yellow/orange terminus. What’s down here?

VERA: Mmm. I feel like down there is a city that’s really kind of a city in its own right but it is…

GHOUL: It’s still very much part of the Evil City Metro Area.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: Because there’s a subway that goes right downtown to there.

VERA: Right. It does have its own downtown, but…

GHOUL: But we scoff at it like we scoff at Worcester.

VERA: [laughs] You scoff at Worcester, I don’t know enough about Worcester to scoff at it.

GHOUL: One day you’ll scoff.

[both laughing]

GHOUL: Right, and I think it’s a former industrial city that was just founded to have a place to put the foundries or whatever. But now… if it weren’t part of the Evil City Metro commuter radius… You know how they’re trying to rebrand Durham as hip and happening?

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: So they’re trying to rebrand themselves as hip and happening, but everyone’s just like ‘Oh, that’s in Evil City, right? That’s like, a neighhborhood in Evil City.’ ‘Nooo! We’re our own city!’

GHOUL: Um, and… what is that city called.

VERA: Hmm. Okay. So, it was founded for industrial reasons.

GHOUL: Yeah.

VERA: Horrible, horrible, horrible.

GHOUL: What are some suburbs of Newark called? [Vera hesitates] If you don’t know any suburbs—if you like Newark so much, name 5 of their suburbs.

VERA: Well, Belleville and Bloomfield…

GHOUL: What the fuck, stop naming things pretty names!

VERA: Nutley, Montclair… Maplewood… Orange, South Orange, um, West Orange, [audibly smiling] East Orange, no North Orange.

GHOUL: [whispered] Stupid.

VERA: Yeah! I don’t know, the thing is that I do feel like even cities that are just founded to be horrible garbage dumps … [ghoul laughing] Like, they don’t name them Horrible Garbage Dump #1, Horrible Garbage Dump #2.

GHOUL: Well, maybe they do in the Evil City! [both laughing] No, we should strive for realism.

VERA: Realism in all things… except… what our subway maps look like.

GHOUL: It’s… it’s called… fucking Blossomtown or some shit. But it’s also based around an iron foundry.

VERA: Something less dumb.

GHOUL: Oh my gosh, the people from this town really hate that Evil City used to have the nickname Silver City, because it actually came from the really, really nice steel products that this iron foundry put out. [Vera laughing delightedly] And they’re like ‘No, Evil City didn’t make those! We made them! We’re not part of Evil City! They can’t just have their name based on our products!’ But they did.

VERA: They diiid.

GHOUL: I want to call it Birchbrake for some reason.

VERA: Hm, I like it.

GHOUL: All right, we’re calling it Birchbrake.

VERA: I also like that it’s called Birchbrake when I feel like birch is one of the worst possible things to make a firebrake out of? On account of it’s wildly flammable?

GHOUL: Maybe it’s a brake for the birches, so that you surround the birches with a firebrake. But it’s actually not named after that, it’s named after a guy named Birchbrake.

VERA: Ahh. Typical.

GHOUL: All right. So we know that Birchbrake is famous for—I mean, it’s famous for being a suburb of the Evil City—but it’s famous for its iron foundry and its really cool—I think they actually do steel jewelry and it got really popular at some point.

VERA: Mmm, I like that, I like that. Uh, want to name some other stupid bullshit.

GHOUL: Yeah! Yeah, baby!

VERA: How about the other yellow line terminus, which is also just…

GHOUL: A normal stop on the yellow line.

VERA: And a normal stop on the orange line.

GHOUL: Okay, so what’s there?

VERA: So far we’ve got some real industrial areas up north by the river and down south by Birchbrake.

GHOUL: I imagine that between those two things there is or used to be a lot of woods.

VERA: Yeah. Right, it’s probably pretty… well, I don’t know, it’s in the city really, still. The thing is that I’m still thinking a bit… I still have the subway/commuter rail distinction very… in my head, which is probably not true?

GHOUL: Right, in fact large parts of the Green Line in Boston are aboveground. Most of the Green Line is aboveground.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: So it really is more of a commuter rail, but here’s the key thing. It doesn’t cost as much as the commuter rail.

VERA: Ha-ha! Yeees! I definitely have that distinction a lot clearer in my head, ‘cause when you transfer from the commuter rail into New York City to the New York City subway it’s like, these are two very different experiences.

GHOUL: Right, right, I do… the thing that I like about the Newark Metro Area’s public transportation and rail system is that it’s still a patchwork of several different systems.

VERA: Yeah, it really is.

GHOUL: Right, you’ve got PATH, you’ve got the actual metro, you’ve got Long Island Rail Road, there’s a bunch of shit.

VERA: You’ve got NJ Transit Rail, which is the one I would actually take into the city if I wasn’t taking PATH.

GHOUL: Yeah, that’s like four fucking railroads. Do they all appear on the same map?

VERA: No.

GHOUL: Because they’re run by different companies.

VERA: Right, also they operate on extremely different scales.

GHOUL: Hm. But would you, on a map of the New York City Metro, just mark stations where you can transfer to any of the three or four other railroads?

VERA: Yeah. Yeah, you definitely would be like ‘Yeah these are some PATH transfer stops…’ Grand Central you can take the LIRR… Penn Station I think could take the LIRR or NJ Transit.

GHOUL: I like how it sounds like ‘Lear.’ The point is that we were trying to figure out what is between Birchbrake and the Evil City proper. And we were saying it used to be all forest but now it’s probably towns. I think it’s good if there’s just small stands of trees still and they just have them? But there’s sort of a weird town soup also.

VERA: Yeah!

GHOUL: There should be a place where there’s still a patch of forest and it’s really dense and tangly and impossible to walk through and just no-one’s bothered to cut it down because it’s in a weird place between town boundaries and nobody actually wants to claim it because it’s going to be a whole bunch of work to actually develop that… So it’s just not part of town and it’s a weird little patch of forest that’s not part of a town.

VERA: Mhm. Although also I am kind of finding it difficult to conceptualize that this whole area has not been clearcut several times in the past hundred years.

GHOUL: But the thing is, it’s like three acres though.

VERA: Yeah—maybe it’s also kind of down a ravine or something?

GHOUL: Yeah, yeah, it’s three acres, it’s in a ravine, no-one wants to try to develop that. Someone—they tried to cut it for fuel a while back but people kept getting lost in there. [Vera laughing] Small but incredibly dense.

VERA: [happily] Mm. A little forest that eats people!

GHOUL: [likewise happily and sweetly] A little forest that eats people!

VERA: In the middle of a big old city that eats people.

GHOUL: It’s perfect.

VERA: I love it now.

GHOUL: People found towns 1) as a place to live, or 2) as a place to make stuff.

VERA: You know, maybe it was agricultural.

GHOUL: [smiling] Agriculture! Aw! Right, and they did clearcut a whole bunch of forest and it was fucked up.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: And the forest got really angry at them.

VERA: Mhm. [reading end of storybook to 4-year-olds voice] And now there’s just one little bit of forest!

GHOUL: That really hates them~~!

VERA: And it will eat you if you go in there.

GHOUL: Right, it condensed all the anger of an entire forest that got clearcut into one extremely tiny three-acre plot in a ravine.

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: There’s a huge chain link fence around that forest with barbed wire on top, because everyone who fucking goes in there vanishes!

VERA: [pfft!] Aaah.

GHOUL: [laughing] And they’re just not dealing with it! …Um, okay, so, agricultural town. What if we invent a stupid name and then tweak it until it’s less stupid?

[editor’s note: there was a WHOLE diversion here about the town called Crowsfield near Anisport and corvids playing chess, which I have omitted for everyone’s sanity. Just trust me that this next thing does not come from nowhere.]

GHOUL: All right, it’s called Bishop. —Wait, do we want to postulate the existence of Christians? I’m not sure about that.

VERA: Right, yeah.

GHOUL: We name it after a different chess piece… not rook. It could just be called Castle, though. A town that’s called Castle inexplicably is pretty good. They founded it as a small homesteading town, right, and they just named it Castle.

VERA: Kind of as a joke.

GHOUL: Kind of as a joke. But then it stuck.

VERA: Yeahh. And people are like ‘Okay, where’s the fucking castle?’ [through gritted teeth] ‘It was a jo~oke.’

GHOUL: They had to build a castle. But it fucking sucks and it’s a casino.

[both cracking up]

VERA: [lovingly] Oh, of course it sucks and it’s a casino. There we go, thank you.

GHOUL: Yeah! [laughing] Um, I do want it to have some stupid bullshit like, ‘This is Castle, it’s the smallest one, then there’s North Castle, West Castle, South Castle.’

VERA: [adoring sigh] I like this.

GHOUL: Which is the main one? Like, if you say you’re going to Castle, people are like, ‘Oh you mean North Castle?’. Or…

VERA: West…

GHOUL: West Castle.

VERA: Yes.

[pen uncapping noise, scribbling sounds]

VERA: West Castle to Birchbrake…

GHOUL: Yeah, and then we have, Ninth Crossing to Birchbrake. Hang on. Which… direction… is the orange branch a branch of. Is it a—like, can you get there [Valentine Institute] from Birchbrake or can you get there from Ninth Crossing.

VERA: Um…

GHOUL: Or! Is that the parent branch. And you can get both of those places but you can’t get—[laughing]

VERA: Oh… Yeeees.

GHOUL: [while still laughing] Like, if you want to—

VERA: That tiny little three stop line is the parent line.

GHOUL: And if you want to get from Birchbrake to Ninth Crossing, you have to transfer. At this stop that’s just southwest of Linden.

VERA: Delightful.

GHOUL: And obviously, you have to pay another fare.

VERA: Obviously.

GHOUL: Unless you go all the way of the orange line. So, it’s such a short thing that most people just do that usually.

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: That’s the only station where you don’t have to pay to transfer from the south orange line to the north orange line. [laughing again]

VERA: Ahhh… [ghoul still laughing] Folks… you love to see it.

GHOUL: Alright. I wanna name the terminus and the transfer station. ‘Cause that’s some good bad bullshit.

VERA: Mhm. Mhm.

GHOUL: I think… It’s quite possible that what’s down here [spoilers: Valentine Institute] is actually suburb?

VERA: Yeah. —Oh! There’s got to be some universities somewhere.

GHOUL: Oooo! It would be highly stupid and cute if that were a university. You just like—to transfer from one half of the station to the other, you have to actually walk through some of the tunnels that like, belong to the university? Because the branch was built after the university, and like, they couldn’t—they couldn’t actually get permission to build through the university’s underground space. So they just have people walk through the existing tunnels under the university.

VERA: [sharp inhale] Yes. [ghoul starts laughing] It is a free transfer though.

GHOUL: [still cracking up] It is a free transfer though!

VERA: The only one!

GHOUL: There are some other free transfers.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: It’s just like, half and half and you never know if it’s going to be free or not? So sometimes if you’re planning an unfamilar route you just have to like, google how many transfers you’re going to have to make, and whether they’ll be free?

VERA: Mhm.

GHOUL: So that you know how much money to put on your fare card.

VERA: Mhm, mhm. Because of course half the fare machines don’t work.

GHOUL: Of course! I mean, a lot of stations just don’t have fare machines, also.

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: Or! Here’s the thing: if you want to use the fare machine in a station, you have to go out, use the fare machine, and then come back in, paying a fare. Which is how it is, in fact.

VERA: Yes…

GHOUL: Like, there’s never fare machines in the station past the turnstiles. You have to leave the station to use the fare machine.

VERA: Of course…

GHOUL: A lot of the transfer stations that aren’t free just don’t have fare machines.

VERA: Yeah. [ghoul starts laughing] What a garbage fucking city…

GHOUL: Charlie Off The MTA.

[both cry-laughing fondly]

GHOUL: Okay, what’s the university called.

VERA: Um…

GHOUL: Is it named after a town, or does it have, some kind of like, stupid, like you know how some universities are named after like, allegories or some shit?

VERA: Mm.

GHOUL: Like, The University of the Incarnate Word. Right?

VERA: Christ.

GHOUL: That’s in San Antonio.

VERA: Mmm, normal.

GHOUL: [laughing] I know, right? Like, what does that fucking mean? It sounds cool as shit, but I love a university with a dumb allegory name.

VERA: Right. Um. I mean, that’s definitely a Christian university.

GHOUL: Right. But like, you could—or like, from Night Vale, the University of What It Is?

VERA: Good.

GHOUL: It doesn’t have to be an allegory, it could just be named after a town.

VERA: Right, see, you know the college I went to was called the New Jersey Institute of Technology, which is—

GHOUL: That’s normal.

VERA: Just the normalest possible name.

GHOUL: Right. But we haven’t named the Evil City, or the ?state? it’s ?in?. So, we can’t really do that, we’d have to name it after a town.

VERA: Right, and we don’t want to do that. Um… Hmmm…

GHOUL: It could be named after a person, but then we’d have to make a person.

VERA: I mean, we could come up with some other fucking… stupid-ass old rich families that suck.

GHOUL: [emphatically] Mm!

VERA: See, that’s the one thing we can name.

GHOUL: The Valentines.

VERA: [snorts] Are you perhaps thinking of the Ballantines? From Newark?

GHOUL: Yeah, no that’s why I said that.

VERA: Oh okay.

GHOUL: I was trying to disguise it!

VERA: Ah! Valentine University… Oh, we were also tossing around other…

GHOUL: Valentine Institute of Science and Technology… VIST… Wait, what if it’s the Valentine Institute of Science Technology and Arts and everyone calls it VISTA.

VERA: Well, okay! There we go.

GHOUL: Is the stop. Called VISTA. Or is it called Valentine Institute of Science Technology and Arts. Or is it just called Valentine.

VERA: Or is it called Valentine Institute.

GHOUL: Valentine Institute.

VERA: Imagine you’re looking at a subway map. Which looks weird and eviller: VISTA, all caps, or Valentine Institute.

GHOUL: I think, it’s not called VISTA because that’s what people call it in colloquial speech.

VERA: Mmhm.

GHOUL: So if someone was like, ‘Oh, yeah, you just have to take the train down to VISTA and transfer to the nub line or whatever,’ and you’re like, ‘There’s not a stop called that…?’

VERA: Right, and you try to ask someone else on the train and they’re like, ‘Just get off at VISTA.’

GHOUL: And you’re just like ‘what???’ You would think that people would call this stop Valentine, but they don’t.

VERA: No, they call it VISTA.

GHOUL: It’s not like they’re looking at the subway map,

VERA: No.

GHOUL: and nicknaming the subway stops from that.

VERA: No.

GHOUL: Alright, wonderful. So we have Ninth Crossing to Valentine Institute, and Valentine Institute to Birchbrake. [Vera laughs a bit] That’s some good shit.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: What’s the nub terminus?

VERA: Hm. Let’s see. It’s in the bend of the river, or the, not the bend, the,

GHOUL: Yeah.

VERA: the bit.

GHOUL: We could definitely have a stop called Riverbend that’s like, not the terminus but it’s in there.

VERA: Oh, yeah. [snorts] I mean, we could have like seven stops named Riverbend. The river just keeps bending.

GHOUL: [overlapping] Right, and that’s why it’s funny that there’s only one stop named Riverbend, they had to fight for it. [Vera laughs] Or, we put the one stop named Riverbend in a place the river doesn’t bend. I was thinking like, out here. [at the bottom of the orange/yellow lines]

VERA: Oh, good. [ghoul laughing] You know, another thing that’s stupid about the red line? Is that it doesn’t go through Union Station.

GHOUL: Yeah, that is stupid.

VERA: Mmhm.

GHOUL: I mean, to be fair, Municipal Intersection is also a very major transfer station. But, I think this maybe implies that the red line, was like, not owned by one of the railroad companies that, you know, made the union.

VERA: Mm.

GHOUL: It was owned by a separate railroad company that refused to join the union. Or, I don’t fucking know how the metro works.

VERA: [giggle cackle thing]

GHOUL: Whatever.

VERA: Yeah, I’ve definitely read about the formation of the MTA from however many companies used to own different parts of the subway in New York City, but—

GHOUL: Okay, so, it did not start off as, the subway was a government owned thing.

VERA: No.

GHOUL: Okay, great, perfect. So the red line was just owned by a company that refused to join the union, and may in fact still be a different company? And they have a slightly different fare?

VERA: I mean, slightly different fare is one thing, the same fare but a different fare card is another thing.

GHOUL: [gleeful] Yessssss! You do have to have two different fare cards if you want to transfer onto the red line.

VERA: [blissfully] Ah, that’s so stupid.

GHOUL: Also, this means we can reasonably put more stupid branches on the red line, because like, it’s a whole subway system.

VERA: Mmhm, mmhm! Oh good. Well, we need to do that. Obviously, we’re going to do that.

GHOUL: Right, and like, at any point when you transfer from the red line to another line, you cannot transfer for free, because, you—they’re—you pay the fares with different cards! [wheezes quietly]

VERA: Right!

GHOUL: Often they’re not, like, on the map they’ll be the same station, but you do actually have to walk from, like there’s this stupid little corridor.

VERA: Mmhm,

GHOUL: Where you have to walk from one station to another.

VERA: Mmhm. Yeah, there’s this stupid little corridor and it goes kind of halfway through a building…

GHOUL: Halfway through a building?

VERA: There’s this one, um, stop I’m thinking about in New York City where, I think—it was the way you got from the 6 to the E?

GHOUL: Sure.

VERA: Um, and I don’t remember exactly what was going on there, but I do remember, getting off the 6, and, having to go over to one side of the platform, not out of the gates, but instead, down an escalator,

GHOUL: Okay,

VERA: Like, through, like this ground floor bit of, or maybe, maybe, even deeper, I don’t…

GHOUL: So, you went down an escalator to the ground floor, is this an elevated train?

VERA: No, not at ground floor, I guess, then—

GHOUL: The basement.

VERA: To the basement of a building, [ghoul laughing] over a bit, up some stairs?

GHOUL: In the building.

VERA: In the building. [ghoul giggles delightedly] And I think at one point you could see out the ground floor windows, is what I was thinking of. [ghoul is still laughing but it’s so breathless it’s almost inaudible] Um, I think there was also an elevator somewhere you could take—

GHOUL: This is SO stupid, I love it!!!

VERA: Oh yeah, no, no no no, and don’t worry—and then, when you’d gone up the stairs, then, you walk over a little more, and go down an Even larger, really REALLY long dumb escalator.

GHOUL: Good. Good.

VERA: And that was how you got to the E.

GHOUL: [as if about to cry] Ah! Yes, wonderful, effervescent!

VERA: Mmhm!

GHOUL: [laughs] I feel like we do need to have another branch of the red line, like maybe it intersects with the orange line, somewhere in the Valentine region?

VERA: Yeah, I think it’s good if it intersects specifically with the stupid nub line.

GHOUL: Yes. Wonderful. Um, are we—

VERA: Because it’s just like, doubly useless.

GHOUL: Righ— [wheezes] You can transfer in two places, you can transfer at one of three stops downtown, OR you can transfer at this stupid nubbin, where you’d have to… [starts laughing]

VERA: Pay another fucking fare to get back on the regular orange lines. Wouldn’t you?

GHOUL: No, the Valentine Institute is a free transfer.

VERA: Okay, okay, I just—

GHOUL: It’s also called VISTA.

VERA: Right

GHOUL: It’s obvious that I’m a tourist here.

VERA: Right, okay, so the VISTA stop, like, even that stupid thing, over to the nub end, is also a free transfer, but it’s like, a dumb one?

GHOUL: It’s—so, the 6 to the E, is that a free transfer?

VERA: Yes.

GHOUL: Okay. I think, if a transfer is dumb enough, it should also be free. They pay in inconvenience.

VERA: [guffaws] Right, Eskew has rules.

GHOUL: [high pitched giggle] So what I was wondering, was, when you transfer from the red line to the orange nub, is that, we’re extending from the terminus? Or are we extending from this stupid elbow here?

VERA: Right, I was thinking the same thing, and I was thinking, ‘stupid elbow, right?’

GHOUL: Where does it go after that? Is that the terminus, like, you can transfer there and that’s all that’s for?

VERA: I kind of like if it also goes, like, kind of almost to the yellow stupid bend here? [the shark fin thing]

GHOUL: Uh-huh.

VERA: But, doesn’t, like that’s not a transfer you can make.

GHOUL: Right, you can walk—

VERA: I mean, you can walk over—

BOTH: a couple blocks,

VERA: But,

GHOUL: It’s not a ‘transfer.’ I mean, it’s actually easier than the transfer to the orange line, though.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: Because you don’t have to go through a fucking basement.

[both laugh]

VERA: Oh, is the transfer from—over by the Institute? I think we should save that for a place that actually Could have a stupid free transfer through a stupid complicated bullshit, because the red line to the orange line is never going to be free.

GHOUL: That’s true. It’s just a transfer. But it is in the middle of nowhere, so.

VERA: Right, it could definitely be through, the, like, maximum amount of dumb, you have to pay AND it’s stupid. Like, you know.

GHOUL: I mean, I think it’s—I like the idea that the red line, because it’s run by a separate private company, trying to discourage anyone from actually transfering off of it? Which is, a complete misunderstanding of how and why people use the subway system.

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: But they do do that.

VERA: Oh, I love that. Oh man, we should think more about, like, we should look at this and think about layers.

GHOUL: Yes yes yes. Brambling Hill Beach is also only in the Silver City, right?

VERA: Oh yeah, Silver City.

GHOUL: Maybe you could transfer there from business. Suit City.

VERA: You know actually, maybe you can’t, but you can from Brambling Hill. I’m not sure we’re thinking of the same thing as a transfer.

GHOUL: No. What I’m saying is that like, if you live in Suit City or in Silver City, or, if you’re coming from there, or if you’re in there or whatever, you can get off at Brambling Hill Beach. If you’re in the Undercity, that stop just doesn’t happen. I mean I don’t know if you can get on the green line at all if you’re in the Undercity. You can get on the green line to transfer from Union Station to Municipal Intersection and that’s IT. [laughing] It’s like a pointless two-stop subway line.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: But it’s—it’s just basically there if, um, if the orange line isn’t coming.

VERA: It’d be just typical of the green line to have like, pretty good service times.

GHOUL: Like a lot of the subways stop service at like, eleven?

VERA: Mmhm.

GHOUL: But the green line actually runs until 1am.

VERA: [sighs] No…

GHOUL: But here’s the catch: [increasingly laughing] you can only go from Union Station to Municipal Intersection.

VERA: Unless you’re loaded, in which case you could go to a couple other, still pretty useless places for rich people.

GHOUL: [still laughing] At 1 AM.

VERA: At 1 AM. Oh, this is great.

GHOUL: [laughing so hard they start coughing]

VERA: Who stops service at 11 PM??? Okay,

GHOUL: Just the red line. [laughing]

VERA: Oh… Okay.

GHOUL: Just the red line stops service at 11 PM.

VERA: Okay. That’s good.

GHOUL: [laughing] They’re like, ‘We’re an independent company, and we can go to bed when we want.’

VERA: You’re not my real mom, commuters who have to get to work. At night?

GHOUL: At 11 PM? Does the night shift start at 11 or 12? No, it starts at like 10, right?

VERA: People have to get home from their really late shifts.

GHOUL: Well, they can’t fucking take the red line, so good luck.

VERA: Right. Hope you live somewhere else!

GHOUL: Which sucks because the area the red line serves is specifically the area mostly full of people who are gonna have late shifts.

VERA: Yeah… Christ!

GHOUL: Like, people who live in Brambling Hill don’t fucking need that.

VERA: They don’t!

GHOUL: There’s, there’s like—there’s like One train that runs at midnight. The midnight train, right? And if you don’t catch it, you just don’t get to go home tonight.

VERA: The midnight train…

GHOUL: So you can—the midnight train. And if you, like, I think there should be a local phrase like, ‘missed the midnight train.’ [Vera squawks in delight] Which is like, a narrow window of opportunity, that was left by people who hate you?

VERA: MM!

GHOUL: Right? And so, you can always find like, like half a dozen people sleeping in a lot of red line stations at night, [Vera gasps] because they can’t get home ‘cause they missed the midnight train.

VERA: Yeah… yeah…

GHOUL: Also, I want to name the red line. Like,

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: I assume that like Long Island Railroad, it’s named after one of the termini? ‘Cause that’s the town that it was sort of half based in?

VERA: Right, which is fun, ‘cause we have not named any of the termini of the red line yet.

GHOUL: Ah, I think it should be That terminus. [spoilers: it’s called Trestle]

VERA: Mmhm. That makes sense.

GHOUL: And it should just be like a town, and it should be called the Town Name Railroad. But, we should name the town so that it makes a good acronym.

VERA: So, we’ve got Rail Road…

GHOUL: Could call it SORR… Like, fuckin sore from sleeping on the floor all night.

VERA: TARR,

GHOUL: [laughing] TARR… Yeah, missed the midnight train, so I have to sleep on the TARR. That’s pretty good.

VERA: That’s pretty good…

GHOUL: All right. TARR then.

VERA: Okay. So T-A… Trench and Ale Rail Road.

GHOUL: Trestle. Town called Trestle.

VERA: That’s…

GHOUL: The Trestle Allendale Rail Road.

VERA: [quietly] Is Allendale a real town?

GHOUL: There’s definitely a town somewhere called Allendale.

VERA: Yes, there’s at least one in Pennyslvania.

GHOUL: There you go. See it’s not, this city’s not in New Jersey.

[both laugh]

GHOUL: The city of Trestle is called that because of their fucking famous trestle bridges or some shit, and it’s all because there’s a railroad there. [laughs] It’s kind of like a chicken and egg thing. Like did they build the railroad that the town was named after first, or did they build the town that the railroad was named after first. [laughs] It’s one of those mysteries. Are we doing Allendale, or what?

VERA: Um… Well I’m just gonna name this place Trestle.

GHOUL: Yeah, sure. It’s named after this bridge, right here.

VERA: Right here? [pointing at the bridge just south of the western TARR crossing] Which is extra funny because the red line doesn’t—the TARR does Not go—

GHOUL: I mean, I was actually pointing at the crossing, where the TARR crosses the river.

VERA: Oh.

GHOUL: But, we just went ahead and did that, so whatever.

VERA: I mean, there could just be a bunch.

GHOUL: What if there’s an intersection over the river? Like, they built two bridges over the river at right angles to each other?

VERA: Well that would be wildly dumb. I like it.

GHOUL: Mm, it can’t be the Trestle crossing, though. It has to be like, here. [black plus sign north of Burning River] It only counts as one crossing, though. That’s just the double crossing.

[pen uncapping noise]

VERA: Yeah. Ummm…

GHOUL: Sixth Crossing, or just the Double Crossing.

VERA: [guffaws]

GHOUL: What does the A stand for, Vera?

VERA: Ah, fuck—umm,

GHOUL: Is it Allendale or not?

VERA: Uh, you also said Ainsdale [mumbles] Which I liked.

GHOUL: I said Ainsdale.

VERA: I kinda like Ainsdale.

GHOUL: Okay. [mumbles] We’ll use Ainsdale. [aloud] The Trestle-Ainsdale Railroad. Or TARR. And none of the component lines of TARR are named, or have distinct names. It’s just named after the terminus and one of them is, you know, just like, oh yeah, the loop, right.

VERA: G-d, what a garbage fucking—

GHOUL: There’s TARR loop, there’s TARR to Trestle—

VERA: And there’s TARR—presumably a couple other stupid bits, that aren’t on the maps, yet, but are not ‘written’ down.

GHOUL: I think we might be done with this episode.

VERA: Yeah…

GHOUL: I’m really hungry, I only had two breakfasts.

VERA: Right, you left your other breakfast on the—

GHOUL: I left my other breakfast.

VERA: Mm. I did wanna talk about what the city is mourning and why it is alone in its grief…

GHOUL: Ffffuck! Euch. What is the ci—okay. What is the city mourning? I think this actually ties into the question about immigration and geopolitics, though.

VERA: Mhm, mhm. Right, I know you’ve been thinking about a war, because, you like to have it.

GHOUL: I like, well, partially, because I really want to reuse the song ‘Oh, Nightingale,’ which has the really good verse about the war.

VERA: Yes. Which is super—yeah. I do also like for the city to be mourning internal fuckery? Because, for one thing, although it is apparently not true that a Union Station is built by a Railroad Union of railroad workers—

GHOUL: There is some union busting shit in there.

VERA: Yeah. There is nevertheless Definitely some union busting shit in the Evil City’s history.

GHOUL: Right, there was, there was definitely like a steelworker’s union that got brutally crushed.

VERA: Yeugh.

GHOUL: I assume like a dockworker’s union?

VERA: Yeah…

GHOUL: They might still have that, just in like a pathetic weak reduced form.

VERA: Yeah…

GHOUL: Where it’s like a union in name only, and they don’t actually exercise any power because they know the city will squash them flat if they try?

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: I think, like the city could be mourning its previous economic prosperity and cultural prosperity, that was like, it was made possible by the people by, you know, community organizations like unions, like neighborhood associations, that the lords of the city are now suppressing. And they’re like, [does stupid voice] ‘I don’t know why our city sucks now’. It’s like, bro. It’s ‘cause you killed it.

VERA: Yeah! Yes! That’s what—that’s the shit I like.

GHOUL: Yeah, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah—

VERA: —yeah—

GHOUL: —yeah. I assume because this is partially based on New England that there have been some textile mills. You know, how it is,

VERA: Yeah, I know how it is with you.

GHOUL: The… Pentagon… Shirtwaist Factory.

VERA: [wheezes out a laugh] That’s too derivative.

GHOUL: You’re right.

VERA: The Trapezoid Pantwaist Factory [busts out laughing as soon as they get through saying it]

GHOUL: Got it! Honestly, if we have a stop called ‘Trapezoid’ that kinda rules.

VERA: [one big ol’ shriek of laughter]

GHOUL: But no-one actually remembers why it’s called that, because obviously, the factory burned down. [both laughing]

VERA: Right, the factory burned down and… was, was not successfully used as a labor rights warning story for the next forever.

GHOUL: No. No.

VERA: It just burned down.

GHOUL: It just burned down and tons of people died.

VERA: Yeah.

GHOUL: And, they covered it up.

VERA: Yup.

GHOUL: It was not actually reported in any major news outlets, that people died there. It was like, popularly known, ‘cause like, where the fuck else did my loved one die.

VERA: Mmhm.

GHOUL: Than at the place where they work, where it is known that they keep the doors locked,

VERA: Where—that just burned down.

GHOUL: I feel like, that was one of the events that kind of started the destruction of the—I don’t know if they had a union. Like maybe they were trying to form one. And then there was this, terrible fire, completely unrelated.

VERA: [inhales loudly] Chhhrist. G-d, fucking typical though.

GHOUL: Yeah. There have been, SO many assassinations of union leaders in Evil City. So many.

VERA: [sighs] Yeah…

GHOUL: So many assassinations. Blackthorn has definitely had people assassinated.

VERA: Oh yes.

GHOUL: Oh my gosh.

VERA: Oh yes.

GHOUL: And now, on the site where the factory used to be, there’s just like, a trapezoid-shaped plaque on the ground? And everyone assumes that the station is named after that.

VERA: Oh my G-d…

GHOUL: You know, that’s like. Misdirection to, help people forget.

VERA: Oh, I thought that like, um—I thought it’d be fun if—before they got assassinated, some of the factory workers’ loved ones, uh, who were trying to—uh, did a plaque, among other things. I don’t know that ‘plaque’ is the first thing I’d go for, if I was—

GHOUL: No, I would start an independent newspaper, or like sell the story to an independent newspaper.

VERA: Right.

GHOUL: But now it’s just like, this plaza that’s sort of like a weird little park, and it’s in between two factories? Or office buildings that used to be factories And it’s like, this is a super weird place for a little park that’s also a plaza.

VERA: Yeah. [ghoul laughs] Mmm!

GHOUL: And it has this, trapezoid shaped thing. Which is, I assume, why we call it the Trapezoid.

VERA: Right. You know, maybe it’s a fucking. Blank, completely sanded down, bronze trapezoidal plaque.

GHOUL: Right! It used to have ‘In memorial of the 87 people who died in the Trapezoid Pantwaist Fire.’

VERA: Right. [sarcastically bright] It doesn’t anymore.

GHOUL: It doesn’t anymore. It was sanded down.

VERA: Pretty quickly!

GHOUL: Very—[audibly covers face] fuck, I’m so sad, no wonder the city’s grieving.

VERA: Right, this sucks!

GHOUL: Two other fun facts about the Trapezoid. One, it is often referred to by locals as ‘the trap.’ [Vera exhales punched-ly] Just, as a nickname, [Vera laughs weakly] no relation. Two: if you go there from the Ghost City, it’s still on fire. [Vera laughs weakly AGAIN] There’s a lot of things that are still on fire in the Ghost City.

VERA: It’s just that kind of city!

GHOUL: It’s just that kind of city. [wheezing] Yikes!!!

[both making noises of astonished yikes-ness]

GHOUL: Yeah, okay!

VERA: Okay!

GHOUL: Good—good talk!

VERA: Good talk! [both laughing grimacingly]

GHOUL: And with that, I think we’ll sign off for this episode, thanks for listening, Lee.

VERA: [laughing] Yeah, thanks for listening, Lee! [suddenly stops being high-pitched] Right, no—

GHOUL: Okay, bye!

VERA: Mmm, bye-bye…

[outro plays, from Bolt Cutter by Doomtree]