#i guess part of it is also that i don't have a solid team to fall back on when content gets too annoying for dps chong

[aro-aizawa]

I think Mirabel & Izuku would be besties tbh. This is prompted by anything but I thought you might agree

mirabel from encanto? oh ye i can get behind that ahah

[arthenaa]

ikaw at ikaw (only you) — mizu x f!reader

synopsis: 4 times your team lead chose you and 1 time you chose her.

content: modern!au, office romance, you and mizu are creatives, specifically in the character and concept design department in a very very famous gaming company (take a guess), she is your creative director and lead designer and you are the concept artist, 4+1 format, FLUFF, work relations, dynamic, and position might not be accurate, forgive me, this is basically just me projecting yet again.

a/n: this is requested by @andieperrie18 ! the answer shit isn't letting me edit my answer so ill be @-ing you here. TYSM FOR ENJOYING MY WORKS !! means a lot ... u also chose pasilyo 🥹🥹🥹🥹 sunkissed lola is the best

1.

Being part of the creatives team was a nightmare.

To tell you the truth, the position for a Concept Artist with a specialty in 2D design wasn't actually all that bad. The monthly benefits and wage were something you're quite lucky to receive considering the constant side eye other departments have with the admin's treatment of the artist employees. This was also your dream job—having had to play their games, specifically, VALORANT, left you in awe and gearing to apply once you were ready for an Internship. After your OJT course, you were accepted for a position in Character and Concept Design and are considered one of the team's most beloved artists (Your followers on Twitter reckon so).

In short, the work environment was great. A solid 15/10 experience—I mean how can you beat a company that caters not only to you as an artist but also as a player? Nothing can beat that feeling of satisfaction once you see your work displayed on various monitors all around the world.

It was more of ... the relationships and interactions with that work space environment that left you grasping at a chance to breathe.

People think you're overreacting but you think it's completely reasonable.

"Yes, you are overreacting."

Your face falls at Taigen's words—watching as he plays a round of unrated in the company's leisure space decked with state of the art PC builds that could definitely beat your poor touchscreen fridge with just a move of its mouse. You could hear the familiar voicelines of Jett from VALORANT as he uses the character's abilities to swiftly enter the site and take a hold of the defenders' positions.

Taigen is part of the Gaming Development Department in the VALORANT Team. He often does routine user gameplay checks and one of its perks is that you literally just have to play the game and get paid for it. You think its unfair but then again, its Taigen. He's always unfair.

"I think you're just saying that to be mean," You frowned, eyes trained on his face—the lights reflecting back on his stupid, stupid, clear-skinned face. Taigen rolls his eyes but not an ounce of his focus leaves the game.

"Being honest equals to being mean, got it." Taigen's voice comes out in a sarcastic tone. You kick a speck of dust on the cement floor, twirling in the gaming chair you're seated on.

"I just think its a reasonable thing to complain about!" You throw your hands in the air in an attempt to get him to look at your side of things. "You're completely unfazed because your team lead has the patience of a mother with 7 kids."

You hear the familiar cue of an ACE kill as Taigen hits a headshot on the last player. The game's interface shifts to the winner screen and finally, he turns to you, pulling his headphones off and giving his best deadpan stare.

"You're freaking out over Mizu sighing over your concept design proposal for Neon and overanalyzed even the way she drank her coffee because you're obsessed with her like that." Taigen arches his eyebrow to make the situation all the more ridiculous. Your mouth closes and opens like a fish out of water. "Am I right? Wait no, don't answer that. I know I am."

"What the fuck?" Your voice comes out in a desperate attempt of self-defence but it ultimately just sounds defeated. Taigen chuckles as he turns back to his monitor to take a look at the game stats.

"Look," Taigen tries to be empathetic but you're pretty sure this is just to get you off his back. The queue for competitive is already up and running. "As your friend, I say this with the love that I have for you and your works but please, Mizu is just one woman. If my mind process went like yours, I would've assumed Akemi hated my very existence and this is coming from someone who IS dating Akemi."

You purse your lips in thought as he raises his eyebrows in exaggeration. You're not exactly sure why you approached Taigen with this problem but he was the only familiar face that you saw after walking out of the meeting room in a hurry.

But then the question in this situation is who exactly is Mizu?

Well, there were a lot of things you could associate with the familiar blue-eyed director. Mizu is your boss—the creative director for Concept and Character design for the VALORANT team. She oversees character ideas, map visuals, detailing, and the final approval for character and asset ideation before it's sent for building in the 3D and VFX departments. She is your employer but you can also consider her your friend, albeit a highly respected one (she did the character design for Jett and Yoru).

It's not that you were obsessed—Taigen is wrong, he's always wrong—it was definitely because you respected her very much. Being a Riot Design Lead is basically fucking God. You create and give life to ideas. She's part of the original team that worked on the pre-release of VALORANT during its early stages and got to see the whole thing unfold. Something you wished to see back then but glad that you were able to become part of the journey despite being a few patches late.

You respected her enough to always want to be on her good side. I mean, who wouldn't? She's talented and very... youthful-looking and one of Riot's youngest leads, you honestly think that being worried over her approval like this is just a matter of respect and definitely NOT obsession.

"You're doing that thing where you space out and I have to assume that it's probably because of Mizu, yeah?" Taigen's voice intercepts your reprieve and suddenly, a curl of your eyebrows creates a look of annoyance on your face.

"I am not obssesed with Mizu," You reiterate, but this time with your mouth. "I just... respect her."

Taigen leans back on his gaming chair, nodding as if you just told him that he didn't need to double double-click everything.

"That's the most unbelievable shit I've heard today," Taigen finally replies with a scrunch of his nose. Your jaw falls open.

"I do not!"

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too!"

"Do fucking not—Stop it."

Taigen purses his lips, and makes a motion of zipping his mouth and shaking his head. You huff in anger. Taigen was never going to believe you.

Just as you were about to chastise him again for being mistaken, a knock on the glass doors notifies you of a new presence. You turn by instinct and your eyes widen in shock and probably, dread—who knows.

"There you are," Mizu's voice filters through your ears like classical music on a good Friday evening. You stammer slightly as she enters the area, eyes trained on you through those tinted orange specs. Mizu momentarily greets Taigen who only raises his hand in greeting before turning towards the screen (only you can see through your peripheral vision that this motherfucker is laughing). "I've been looking for you."

"You did?" Your voice comes off quiet. Mizu furrows her eyebrows.

"Uh, yeah?" She replies with a confused tone. "I had your concept design for Neon approved, it was more direct compared to Matt's. I wanted to tell you in person since you just bolted from the meeting room."

You fall silent at her words. She looks a bit concerned as you try to make sense of the information.

"You seem in shock—Are you okay?" Mizu asks, eyes glancing towards Taigen who looks at her before shrugging.

You feel your heart speed up. You momentarily calm yourself before finally responding. "Y-Yeah, sorry. Just didn't think that you'd approve it."

Mizu tilts her head like a fucking cat and you're quite sure you would drop dead then and there. "Why not? It's your work."

You're not sure what she means by that but a sudden shiver runs through your veins at her praise and suddenly your cheeks are flushing.

"Ah," You're voice fills in the silence, awkward and quiet. "Thank you?"

There's a pause of silence before Mizu chuckles. She heaves a breath before pulling the glass door open.

"I'll see you at my office, Y/N." She smiles. "Great work."

The silence further pushes you into the void as you and Taigen watch her exit and disappear into another hallway through the glass windows. Just as you were a few minutes ago, you lean forward to slouch over your knees, hands on your face as you meltdown from what just happened. You hear Taigen chuckle beside you.

"Give it a few more months and she'll give you a ring on your finger with a bent knee on the ground."

You sob into your hands as Taigen erupts in heaps of laughter.

Oh my fucking God.

2.

The release for Neon was a hit. An all-time new duelist originating from the Philippines, your concept design took off without a hitch. It's safe to say that your hard work paid off as you stood over the central common room—leisure areas decked with your coworkers trying out and celebrating the release. A sense of satisfaction fills you.

"I hear you spearheaded the design concept for Neon," A voice infiltrates your sense like a lure. You can't help but smile at its familiarity. Akemi wraps her arms around your waist, chin on your shoulder as she continues. "Marketing was thrilled with the positive response. Good job."

You turn around, her arms loosely accommodating you. "Akemi," you coo.

The girl grins wide and pulls you into a hug. You return the affection in a grander gesture of squeezing her tight against you.

Akemi's part of the Marketing Department for Riot. While she often creates publication material for VALORANT, she also has cross work with League of Legends for its various strategic releases (ie. KDA).

"I just want to say that I already predicted Neon would be a sure hit, it's your work after all," Akemi pulls away from the hug with a smug smile. She grabs your hands in hers, swinging them slowly. "Marketing it was like a breeze in the park."

You laugh softly at her enthusiasm. "You give me way too much credit."

Akemi rolls her eyes affectionately. "Humility is a disease—live a little."

You shake your head at her quips, opting to smile in response. A member of your team passes by, eyes widening in recognition of you before giving you a thumbs up. Akemi watches the interaction—eyes trained on that person's figure as they walked towards Mizu who was busy talking to other creative team leads. Your eyebrows furrow in confusion at her prolonged silence.

"Who are you—?" Your words trail off as you turn to look at what she's so focused on before turning back at the sight of Mizu. "Nevermind."

Akemi raises her eyebrow with an amused look on her face. "Taigen always has a penchant for exaggerating but I didn't think it was this bad?"

Your face falls at the information. "Taigen told you?"

Akemi gives you a 'duh' look—eyebrows raised and eyes half-lidded. "Taigen's a loose lock if you pry hard enough. He basically can never keep a secret."

You give her a deadpan stare before shifting in your position. Akemi crosses her arms over her chest as she eyes you up and down—filled to the brim with amusement. "I'm fine, stop making a big deal out of it."

"Uh huh," Akemi squints her eyes playfully. You could only glare back in response.

The loud cheering at the front catches your attention as resident workers, interns, and newbies alike begin to tune in at the commotion. Akemi and you move to the sidelines, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as you tried to find out what's happening.

"What's happening?" You ask the person to your front. He turns, eyes beaming with excitement.

"The creative director for C&C got pulled in a 1v1. They're playing against Beckham."

Your breath hitches at the information. Akemi nudges you with her elbow, overhearing the conversation. The two of you move to the side, finally getting a glimpse of the two team leads focused on a custom game of VALORANT. Your eyes zone in on familiar raven locks seated on the right monitor.

A live stream of their game is projected on the monitor up front and suddenly you feel sick from the amount of butterflies fluttering in your stomach.

She's playing Neon. The character you designed.

Oh God. You watched her take kill after kill, headshot after headshot as she sprinted across the map—zapping characters with Neon's electric abilities. You've never seen someone look so fucking hot playing an FPS game before. It's doing things to your brain.

Just as you expected, the winning banner appears on Mizu's screen and the C&C Team erupts in cheers. You become entranced at the sight—a few of your co-workers patting her on the back before she erupts in smiles and laughs. This is not healthy for your heart.

And just as you think the night couldn't get any better, one of the people from the Marketing departments begins stirring up an interview.

"What made you choose Neon on the character pick? You usually go for Sentinels, no?"

Your eyes meet and suddenly you could feel your heart skip a few beats. Mizu chuckles.

"Wanted to do a duelist around for a spin," Mizu replies. "The design and character visuals for Neon was amazing and I ought to pay the artist who did it a homage."

Suddenly all eyes are on you—some of them even "ooh-ing" for being praised by Mizu. You pale at the attention before doing a hesitant bow in gratitude.

Mizu pulls the headphones off her head and smiles. "Congrats, Y/N. Hope you liked the win."

You feel Akemi stir up beside you, chuckling at the interaction.

You're going to die. You can feel it and its all because of your boss.

3.

Okay, maybe admitting that you were a little bit obsessed and crushing over your employer was a bit overdue. You weren't exactly the type to parade your feelings around the office but if people were to zone in on you acting sheepish and awkward around Mizu, there was a 55% chance that you could tell based on that alone.

It wasn't like your admiration for Mizu started on a whim. As said countless and countless times, it had a foundation of respect until Mizu started trying to get to know and interact with you and those same feelings of admiration started to change. What else were you supposed to do? Mizu is a fucking all-in-one holiday basket—you didn't have it in you to resist the charms.

It also didn't help that over the past few days, Mizu seems to have her undivided attention on you. Showering you with praises, asking if you wanna spearhead a certain project, revel in your work—all that shit. It's messing with your productivity and mindset and that's not a good idea.

The Head Director for the VALORANT Team had decided to call a night out for drinking to reward the team for the positive feedback for the latest patch. You were quite thankful for the opportunity as this was a way for you to get a moment of rest from Mizu's constant attention. Not that you were complaining, it's just a little... too much.

You were seated at the far right booth of the restaurant, keeping to yourself as you watched Ringo and Taigen begin to have a debate about team composition. Akemi grumbles beside you, clearly not enjoying whatever the fuck these two were talking about.

"Look," Taigen holds his hands out in front of him, trying to make a point. "All I'm saying is if you keep putting DPS builds on your team comp, how in the hell will you be able to maximize their kit? Supports are there for a reason."

Ringo rolls his eyes. "It's called enjoying the game, Taigen. So what if I want to put dick 1, dick 2, and dick 3, together?"

Taigen's jaw drops. "Do you know how much skill point dependent they are? I'm even surprised you could bust a skill out." The raven haired man pauses before continuing with a face contorted in disgust. "And stop calling them dick 1,2,3? It's Dan Heng, Blade, and Jing Yuan."

"Of course you'd police that as well. You look like that fucking emoji." Ringo raises his prosthetic hand, imitating pushing up a pair of glasses. "Um, actually—"

"You are as annoying as my grandmother, do you know that?" Taigen snarls, eyes pulled into a glare. Your tall huggable co-worker only grins and bats his eyelashes.

You begin to tune out the two as Akemi excuses herself to take a cigarette break—already having enough of their banter. You eye the glass of beer in front of you, watching as the liquid sloshes around with each twirl of your wrist.

You had hoped to end the night with silence but alas, you can never get everything that you wanted. You feel a pair of eyes on you—direct and unashamed. Already having a feeling on who this was, you looked up and met the reflection of the ocean.

'You okay?' She mouths, concern overflowing her features. It's subtle enough for people to not notice her sudden shift of attention but enough for you to understand her. Your cheeks flush as you nod back with the same softness that she had thrown your way.

She nods in understanding, sending a soft smile your way before turning back towards her conversation with the Head. You hang your head down, wishing that the night would end faster so that you can finally have the moment of peace you have been wanting ever since this morning.

It was as if the world decided to cast hell upon you and revoked you of your rights to peace at the arrival of yet another problem.

"L/N!" The Head Director's voice encompassed the whole area—eyes turning towards him then at you in amusement. "You're one of the star employees and yet you haven't touched a single speck on that glass of yours!"

His hearty laughter follows—giggles and cheering from you co-workers following suite. You sweat drop, eyes darting to Taigen and Ringo who both looked away at your glare before turning towards the window where Akemi sends you a gracious thumbs up, a cigarette hanging from her lips. You groan.

"I-I'm fine," You wave your hand, laughing it off. Your eyes connect with Mizu, an unreadable look on her face as she takes a sip of her chosen beverage.

God decides to punish you more as the team lead beside Mizu chimes in. "Oh c'mon! You're a great asset to the company! I suggest drink up!"

One of your team members passes a full pint of beer as the others begin to urge you to drink up. You hadn't felt the intensity of peer pressure ever since your dance recital on 10th grade and that wasn't even as half bad as this. You weren't feeling on drinking yourself to death as well so trying to down a full pint of beer was a ticket for you to the afterlife (ie. you on your bed with puke all over the floors). The previous pint you had was enough.

You tried to decline as humbly as you could, afraid that this might be the instance that you could finally be fired off from Riot. You knew that if they kept pushing a 3rd more of their attempts that you'd probably give in for the sake of never doing this again but while the need hasn't yet arisen, you'll try fighting off the urge to be a people-pleaser.

Just as you finally begin to decline for the nth time, a hand emerges to your right—pushing the pint of beer in your co-worker's hands. The table falls silent. Your breath falters as the familiar scent of lavender and probably a hint of sunlight begins to seep in from behind you.

"Stop pressuring her like that," Mizu's voice sounds so close —your heart hammering off your chest. Your co-worker gives Mizu a sheepish smile.

"C'mon Mizu, let your team live a little!" The Head laughs once more before leaning forward with a smug smirk. "Unless you'll save this one yet again?"

There's a pause of silence as your co-workers darted between them—back and forth. You feel Mizu sigh behind you before her arms encase you against the table, one arm placed on the beside you each. Your breath hitches.

"Sorry," She mutters as she reaches for the pint. You stammer, turning towards her as you reach out to her wrist by instinct. Mizu blinks with her eyes wide open, suddenly surprised by your actions.

"Y-you don't have to!" You murmured, trying to keep your voice low. Mizu's eyes are unreadable. "You don't drink—!"

The woman chuckles before patting your hand and gently pulling herself off your grasp. "It's okay." She says.

You watch with stammering breath as she gulps the pint in one go, others cheering as she did. The Head claps.

"Didn't expect to see Mizu downing a beer today but here we are," The man bellows in laughter. Mizu chuckles, wiping the residue off her lips. You could only stare at her in shock.

Mizu glances down at you with a smile before patting your head then walking off. Your gaze trails on her and somehow the hammering within you becomes all the more intense.

Oh, Lord.

4.

It was supposed to just be a little game—a past time that the others decided to force you along. You really had no qualms joining games like this but if it concerns the people around you, especially in your work place, somehow you feel the risk of being outed for liking someone in you work space.

"If you guys wanted to date someone in the office, who'd you pick?" Ise leans forward, eyes squinted as she gives you and Akemi a smirk. The three of you were currently lounging in the cafeteria during you lunch break. There weren't many people present due an event going on in one of the building's sectors, so having a conversation like this somehow was less anxiety inducing.

"Taigen, unfortunately," Akemi deadpans. Ise rolls her eyes.

"I mean! Besides him," Ise whispers excitedly. "There's a newbie from marketing that looks cute but kinda quiet, maybe he's nice."

"You mean Takayoshi?" Akemi raises an eyebrow as she takes a sip of her tea. You glance back and forth between them.

"Is that his name?" Ise watches Akemi nod in response. "Well, I'll just have to go get his number then."

Akemi shakes her head at Ise's musings and you had hoped that the conversation would end there, but Ise suddenly turns to you with that mischievous look in her eye.

"What?" You whisper out, eyebrows furrowed in innocence. Akemi side glances you, the corners of her lips upturned in a smile. God, she was enjoying this too.

"What about you, Y/N?" Ise props her arm on the table, placing her cheek on her palm. "Got someone you're interested in?"

You avoid eye contact. "No."

Ise leans forward with a gasp. "You do!"

"I don't!" You reiterate with urgency. You turn to Akemi with a frantic stare. "Tell her I don't."

Ise turns to Akemi who smiles. "She doesn't."

"Bullshit." Ise deadpans. "The moment I'd believe Akemi with a smile on her face is the moment I'd die," Akemi flashes her middle finger at her to which Ise returns generously. Finally, the girl turns to you—chair scooted over to your right as she flashes you her doe eyes. "So? Who is it?"

You Akemi chuckle against her cup as you stammer in front of Ise. "I don't really like someone though?"

"Lies," Ise declares. "We might not be that close but you got that twitch in your eye that already tells me something. Who is it?"

"Ise," You plead, eyes darting around the space. Somehow, saying it out loud meant that you're solidifying the fact that you liked Mizu—an occurrence you'd like to keep to yourself as much as possible. You loved Ise, you really do. You worked with her hand in hand in bringing Neon to life (You worked on her design while she worked on the 3D build) and have become tremendously grateful for her critique and contributions to your work. But this, this was something else. You could feel your heart speed up as she started listing some names.

"Is it Beckham? That piece of shit always too full himself." Ise places a hand on her chin in thought. "Or Ringo? Nah, he's way too focused on content map-building."

There's a pause of silence before an 'aha!' look spreads through her face. You prayed that she would get it wrong but this is Ise we're talking about.

"Is it perhaps," Ise pauses, eyes darting all over your face. "Mizu—"

"What about me?"

The three of you tense, eyes darting behind you as you turn to find the familiar stance of your boss. She leans forward, a hand on the back of your chair as she gives the three of you a curious glance. You hadn't heard her at all, and something about Ise's frantic glance towards you says she didn't expect the same thing as well.

"W-we we're just listing people we found attractive," Ise laughs uncomfortably under Mizu's stare. The creative director glances at Akemi who raises an eyebrow at her. Somehow there was a silent conversation going on between the two that left you confused.

"Really?" Mizu asks, the ends of her words trailing off as she glances back at Ise. "Who said I was attractive?"

"It was Y/—"

"NO ONE!" You exclaimed, cutting Ise off with a jump. You flush under Mizu's wide gazed, surprised at your interference. Somehow, the way you said it implied that no one found her attractive at all, and that was way too wrong so you caught yourself before you delved into a pit of despair. "I mean, w-we haven't started and was just listing people off."

Mizu nods slowly in understanding, eyes examining your face for any slip-ups. You looked away from the intensity.

Ise finally saves your ass. "Yeah. What she said."

"What about you, Director?" Akemi chimes in from your left and both you and Ise turn to her with wide gazes. She simply smiles over her cup, face contorted in a mischievous look. You couldn't read Mizu at all. You had expected Akemi to drop it—after all, she wasn't even joining in on Ise's incessant need to know everything about everyone. "Who do you find the most attractive in this office, hm?"

You can feel Mizu shifting behind you before a chuckle pulls out from her lips. You turn towards her in curiosity as she flashes a smile towards you.

"I'd pick Y/N, of course,"

Huh?

Akemi rolls her eyes, somehow already expecting the answer. Your jaw drops at her response as Mizu turns to Ise who already has a knowing look on her face.

"She's just that reliable," Mizu looks back down towards you, those shades of blue peeking from her tinted glasses. She pinches your cheek in a flash before pulling away. "Cute too."

You turn away, afraid that the flush on your cheeks might've given you away.

"Anyways, I just dropped by to see what's happening outside the event," Mizu sighs, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. "I'll see you girls around."

Your interactions always end up one sided somehow. She gives and then leaves—resulting in you malfunctioning from whatever she's left for you to deal with.

Ise turns to you with a mischievous grin when Mizu finally turns the corner. "You and the Director huh?"

"Shut up, oh my God."

+1

"Why do you always do stuff like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you're not leaving me any room to process the shit you do?"

Mizu lets out quiet laughs from beside you. 10:47 pm. Normally, work hours in the office end at about 9 but you've learned that staying late is where the good things happen.

"I literally just told you 'good job' the other day and you malfunctioned in front of me," Mizu giggles, leaning forward as she tapped you on the nose with the pen to her digital tablet. "And I heard everything by the way. Quite adorable of you to deny everything."

You flush under her affectionate gaze. "Everyone's so gossipy. You can't blame me."

Mizu turns her chair towards you, arms reach out to take a hold of your own before pulling them close to her side. You lean back at her sudden proximity.

"Well you can't blame me either when you're this adorable," Mizu grins. You furrow your eyebrows, finally leaning close as you cupped her cheeks within your palms.

"You even drank beer," You whisper, tone apologetic. "You don't even like alcohol."

Mizu leans into your touch. "And you don't like being pressured into something you don't want to do. I can sacrifice a little bit of something I don't like just for you."

You melt at her words, eyes darting over her softened features. "Thank you," You whisper, grateful.

"Anything for my girlfriend," Mizu teases. You roll your eyes before pulling her into a soft kiss. She kisses back instantly, hands gripping the arm chair as you take lead of the kiss. After a few pecks and chaste kisses here and there, you finally pull back—reveling in the soft flush across Mizu's cheeks.

"Also," You chime in. Mizu raises an eyebrow. "I was the one who pursued, not you. Correct that when they catch on."

Mizu chuckles at your words. "Right on. Akemi threatened me the other day, saying something like, 'I forbid you from dating Y/N Y/L/N, Mizu Tagawa!' Funniest shit, I've heard. If only she knew."

You pinch her cheeks, giggling at her words. "Of course, she's say that."

There's a pause of silence before Mizu turns to her work, a sketch of VALORANT's newest agent displayed on screen.

"Want to help me with the new guy?" She nudges towards the screen. "Heard he's French."

You turn to her monitor, dozens of details sketched on the edges with a version of her idea of the new agent. You grin, placing a kiss on her cheek.

"You could've just asked me to marry you." You tease. "Also, sure."

You turn towards the table and pulled her tablet towards you. Mizu scoffs as you take over her work.

"And if I actually did?"

"Sure, Mizu, sure."

"I'm serious!"

a/n: hey guys!!! this was so fun to write and honestly i was just inspired to do this request bc ive been drafting an office romance for mizu after the roommate thing. hope yall enjoyed ! if yall arent familiar with valorant, here are the agents mentioned or referenced (neon & chamber (french guy)). also mizu's last name is derived from master eiji's va! cary-hiroyuki tagawa!

[muchanmocha]

Round 7 (and beyond)

I never intended on releasing a prediction post bc Team Vivinos is capable of excellent plot twists and there wasn't enough to go on imo to really have any solid guesses. But the recently released teaser gave me enough confidence in my current theories to put this out there. (Apologies if it's incoherent bc I'm basically just reposting a discord spiel I gave to an unfortunate friend a while ago lol.)

In sum:

Luka will be the winner of season 50 but Till won't die.

Bonus half-crack prediction:

Luka will win against Till, but Till won't die and Hyuna crashes the party to win season 50.

I can't recall the source but I believe Team Vivinos has mentioned that we're entering the main plot/part 2 of the story. Everything in this post is formulated based on this premise.

The artbook synopsis also seems to back up the claim that a bigger plot is coming.

Luka wins

Fairly sure Luka will win because that's his role. He is the epitome of this system. He is the symbol of Alien Stage. He cannot fall this easily.

Him maintaining his position at the top means he and the segyein enter part 2 with a strong presence.

Alien Stage may be fractured — 2 current participants have escaped to the rebels alive — but the system is still standing. It's scandalous, sure, but they have a winner and they will eventually go on to have Season 51.

Till survives

Till won't die because that's just weak sauce writing, plot, and character and we know Team Vivinos isn't capable of weak sauce writing, plot, and character.

Fact of the matter is, if Till dies in the next round he and his personal story will forever be overshadowed by Ivan's.

The climax of Round 6, Ivan's narrative and ending, it was executed so goddamn well. It was compelling. It was incredible. We are still not over it. And so—

There is nothing Till can do in the space of one episode ending in his death that can overpower Ivan's momentum from the previous episode. (Ofc everything in this series was somehow packed into 4 minute spurts that leave us emotionally wrecked so I am fully prepared to eat my words)

If Till dies here, regardless of what he does on stage before it happens, Till will be reduced to "the character who dies of guilt and regret after being the subject of someone else's obsessive love and sacrifice." He'll end up a passive player in his own story.

But if Till survives:

Till from here on out

Imo it would be FAR more interesting to see where his feelings and relationship with Mizi develops and shifts from here because Ivan has effectively tainted his idea of love.

Why do I say this?

Well Till's love for Mizi is... very innocent, very pure, very "first love"y. It's all things naive and fantastical and shoujo manga heart-shaped bubbles.

Meanwhile Ivan's love for Till is dark and gritty. It's obsessive. It's all things murky and ugly (I mean it in the best of ways don't come at me with your pitchforks) — the complete opposite of Till's impression of love.

Which makes it all the more impactful when Ivan forces Till to come face to face (literally) with that deep, obssessive love in Round 6 with his last moments.

After this incredibly traumatic eye-opener — an intimate, violent look into a different kind of love — I don't think Till can look at Mizi the same way again. (No not because he does or should be obligated to return Ivan's feelings, and that's a hill I'll die on regardless of pitchforks. If Till develops feelings for Ivan it should be on his own terms. If Till falls out of love with Mizi that should also be on his own terms.)

Hyuna wins Season 50 (jk)

Look it'll be funny.

Luka facing off against Till and then Hyuna crash the party, stomps him (vocally), effectively wins Season 50, and then yeets with Till and Mizi — one over each shoulder, hauled like sandbags.

(In all seriousness tho, not a very high chance of happening. They clearly have a lot of issues to sort out that'll prob happen later in part 2.)

"Never come back again"

The whole reason why this post is up. The caption for the new promo art gives me more confidence in the theory that everyone leaves except Luka.

'Never come back again.' I feel like there's a good chance this is Luka saying or thinking this to Hyuna (and co). If indeed it is, there's a lot to unpack there.

Tl;dr

Hyuna and Mizi busts Till outta there, Luka is left utterly alone seated on the throne again, Sua and Ivan eventually come back wrong to wreck emotional havoc as zombie androids

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

Heyo! Quick question: Do the HoMies have a common place to meet up/chill/sleep between missions, or they just bust into any of the members' canon houses?

That's a question which kept invading my brain since I discovered your stuff. I'm especially curious on how you'll tackle June being unable to leave Orchid Bay because of her role of protecting her town.

Not really? ��� They indeed most likely will crash in each other's towns/bases/homes, after a mission/team-up or just to hang out!

Jun is indeed a complicated situation, with her canonically being unable to leave Orchid Bay, but actually in HoM, there is a ... 'development' that allows her to temporarily leave it for a brief time! ;) It's going to be partially covered in Act 2, and more in depth in flashbacks, which I'm actually very excited about, because its one of the more important parts of this AU!

But honestly, besides Jun, others are also very location bound (even if they are not restricted by a magical barrier lol), so each of them would prefer to stay on their own territory for various reasons.

Danny is in or always close by to Amity, because it has a stable portal to the Ghost Zone. Jake is more or less required to stay on East Coast/New York because he is a guardian of one of the most central magical communities on the American Continent (the other major being Orchid Bay aka West Coast).

Kim, Zak, Jenny and Ben all have their solid homebases in their respective towns (or his parents/Saturday's mansion/lab house?? in Zak's case), but they travel a lot for work. Kim and Zak are more Earth bound, while Jenny and Ben also take trips to outer space. But each of them have a place where they can recuperate.

The only vagabond out of the lot is Rex (he is like a total opposite of home bound Jun lol), by circumstances and choice, so he often crashes in one of the other HoMies places, when he doesnt travel.

While I enjoy the AUs where heroes all live/work/chill out together in one complex (remember all those times of 2012 Avengers-live-in-Avenger-tower-domestic-shennanigans?? good times lol), I don't really want HoM AU to be like that, I guess. <;D

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

What do you think about Sabrina? Are you like her, dislike her or neutral?

I don't have strong feelings about Sabrina beyond a general distaste for her "redemption." Sabrina was played as way too much of a willing bully for me to absolve her of her past actions without some serious apologizing on her part. Just look at these matching smirks from the Derision flashback!

[Image Description: Chloe and Sabrina smirking evilly while plotting to hurt Marinette]

That was the episode that blamed Chloe for all of Marinette's problems while showing Sabrina doing all the actual dirty work, which is very much a running theme in this show. Most of the things that Chloe gets blamed for should see at least part of the blame going to Sabrina, too, but that's not what we get in canon. Sabrina spends multiple seasons helping Chloe torment people only to be welcomed on to team Miraculous before she even reaches her "redemption" moment (see: Penalteam). Now that Sabrina has done her one good dead, she's redeemed and is a permanent holder as a reward for that single good act, I guess?

The whole thing makes me deeply uncomfortable when I compare it to the way that the show handled Chloe. I only bring that up because, when it comes to Sabrina, I can't avoid thinking or talking about the Chloe thing because you never see Sabrina without Chloe! They're a matching set! They even have similar base stories with Chloe's parents influencing her behavior via their abuse and encouragement just like Chloe influenced Sabrina (which could have been a great discussion about abuse leading to abuse if this element of their writing had been even remotely intentional). Redeeming one and not the other invites you to make the comparison and it's unfortunately a comparison that's deeply lacking on multiple fronts.

If Chloè didn't earn a redemption - and I really don't think that she did, her redemption never truly stated - then neither did Sabrina. A sob story doesn't undo the harm that you've caused. A redemption doesn't even undo the harm! You can fully "redeem" yourself and still be rejected by those you hurt because your victims don't owe you a relationship. (Side note, this is where Chloe and Sabrina fall for me. In the early seasons, you could redeem them onto the team. Now? The writers took these two way too far to the point where they feel like totally different characters and even break early canon episodes because Marinette's treatment of them doesn't match who they supposedly always were.)

If they really wanted to redeem Sabrina, then they needed to highlight what makes her story different from Chloe's. As is, it feels massively hypocritical to welcome Sabrina onto the team after all that she's done to cause harm and after how little she's done to right that harm. At best, canon Sabrina should have just gone off to a new school to get a fresh start without Chloe. At worst, she should have become someone else's minion. Either way, she should not be treated as one of the "good guys."

Outside of that mess, Sabrina is just your standard minion character who gets minimal development, so it's hard for me to have a strong opinion on her. I think she's used well in the first few seasons, but she's still one of the characters that I'd cut or at least cut back on if I had my way with canon simply because she's not really necessary for the show to work and the cast needs to be cut down significantly. It's not that I hate her or anything like that. I just don't see why Chloe needed a minion or what Sabrina adds that another character can't.

For example, you could give Sabrina a solid character arc around developing healthy friendships and letting go of Chloe's influence, but why give that to her when you could give it to Mr. I've-never-really-had-friends-before-and-I-really-should-have-a-character-arc-around-that who also happens to have grown up with Chloe as his only friend? (That's Adrien by the way. Why go with Sabrina when you've got him unless you're using Sabrina to contrast Adrien in some way?)

[we-stan-cale]

Another key moment that I was too caught up in to blog about was when Cale and Choi Han met after Choi Han received the records from Choi Jung Soo.

We did kind of suspect it was coming, given Cale heard that Choi Han had collapsed after saying something about Choi Jung Soo - and at the time he seemed fairly calm about the prospect? His attitude seemed to be 'Choi Han might figure things out and be upset with me, but at least he's alive. We can deal with it so long as he's alive.'

And then there he is, burning up a lake of dead mana during a major fight, when Raon reports that Choi Han woke up...

Woke up crying, shouting about 'Kim Rok Soo', and immediately headed for Cale.

I guess first of all - what an amazing way to get one of Cale's closest compatriots to understand some of Cale's secrets. And history.

We all know Cale wasn't going to say shit, and his friends have seen enough to trust him even though they can tell Cale keeps a lot to himself, but we now have a solid reason (Choi Jung Soo passing along his ability, which required the records/memories) for at least one of them to know more. (With Alberu learning more later, and I suspect others eventually learning too).

This signifies yet another major shift in their relationship. One where Choi Han is much more of a friend than the subordinate he acted as initially. Not that he stops acting as Cale's knight, but there's a closeness that wasn't really there before. (All of which becomes even more obvious with Cale, Choi Han, and Alberu during the sealed god's test - and they are an amazing trio there! It was so fun starting my reread and remembering where they began, because they grow so close over the course of the story).

We also see some of what Choi Han saw, and I think this is the first time we really got an outside perspective of who Kim Rok Soo was before the transmigration.

Not just that, but hints of what Kim Rok Soo, Choi Jung Soo, and Lee Soo Hyuk were like before their tragic fight against the unranked monster.

We see how Kim Rok Soo supported the team with information, how he grabbed a metal board to block an attack on Choi Jung Soo, and even broke an arm in the process. Something Cale skipped over in his own flashback to the same event.

For the first time, we can truly see how Cale only tells part of the story...

We can tell Kim Rok Soo was devastated, not that it wasn't obvious before, but Choi Jung Soo was worried about him.

We also learn that, as Choi Jung Soo put it:

He would also take this Kim Rok Soo who claimed he was going to be a slacker and put him to work. If he left this punk to be a slacker, he was bound to go cause trouble somewhere. He and the team leader discussed making him farm with them, so that they won’t have to go save his ass.

Choi Han himself indicates that he figured out that Cale was Kim Rok Soo partly because they acted exactly the same.

And really, what sorts of things did Kim Rok Soo get up to, that they think he's a loose canon like that?

So team leader Kim Rok Soo probably was also constantly making trouble... Ah, the stories Team 1 could probably tell.

We have all that history, have Choi Han rushing to meet Cale on the battlefield...

And then we have one of the most ridiculous encounters imaginable.

Cale seems awkward and unsure on a way I don't think we've ever seen before. He's stuttering and worrying about things that seem kind of more a distraction than real concerns, and is avoiding his gaze (though he did make an opening for Choi Han in the wall of fire he set up while burning the dead mana, so he wasn't exactly avoiding Choi Han).

We also see how Cale is closely observing Choi Han for signs of anger, how he focuses on Choi Han's unthinking and instinctual touching of his sword which - is probably because of his traumatic childhood? We can see some of what Choi Han was thinking and knew he wasn't even considering hurting Cale, but Cale was obviously concerned about that).

And in the midst of all this. In the midst of this big dramatic moment, we have Raon commenting on how weird their being and - perhaps the most amusing part - the cheapskate ancient power still purifying the dead mana.

Yes, cheapskate. Good job. Keep on purifying that dead mana while Cale and Choi Han have their big moment.

Oh, whoops. I guess a major battle isn't really the time or place for that. Enter Dorph the Lion King, who won't even let them finish their conversation.

This whole encounter is equally moving and hilarious, really. And it's so nice that Cale finally has someone who really knows him.

[cineflections]

You know, if there was one manga that would be adapted to live action and succeed, I never would have guessed it to be this one.

I'm ofc talking about the One Piece Live Action on Netflix

A whole day binge right after release, I was READY, and thankfully, I was not disappointed. There are cuts and streamlining of the story, characters coming in earlier than in the manga/anime, and some of the emotional bits don't hit as hard as in the original. Still, I can feel the love the production team has of One Piece. The characters are goofy and lovable, but they are also serious and straight-faced.

One thing that I noticed throughout was the constant close up to faces and sometimes straight on, as if almost breaking the 4th wall. The very first scene with Luffy is like this, but there he DOES look into the camera directly, but the pov of the camera is revealed to be a newsbird. It's like a statement that they know this is a silly pirate romp, they know that some people will not take this seriously, but they will not do 4th wall breaks silly, but in-universe silly. Does that make sense?

I laughed at several points in the show, big and wide smile on my face and pointing at the screen several times...

But I do wonder how much of my laugh was on the show's on merit or if I was only calling back on the the source material. At times I did feel the straw hat crew not being as iconic as in the manga/anime. The extreme reactions, the over the top noises and actions, at the same time I realize that real people generally don't act like that.

I appreciate the show runners attention to details. Putting stuff in to tease future arcs, adapting some cover stories, some of the complete unhinged behaviors of characters (Garp I'm looking at you!).

This show adapted Romance Dawn, orange town, syrup village, baratie, and arlong park.

There are so many moments that are almost scene by scene taken from the manga. Luffy in the barrel and meeting Koby. Alvida with her giant spike club. We got to see some pre-captured Zoro moments (particularly him killing a baroque works agent!), Nami being a sneak.

Then we meet the one and only clown Buggy! They hammed him up, they made him a showman and a real clown (with a real bulgy nose as well, props!). I loved Buggy. Goddamn what a show stealer. Excellent casting, his devil fruit was show cased so well and it looked good!

Usopp's introduction is the most changed. The kids are gone and the Black Cat pirates never call in the entire crew or Jango. Instead of the fight on the slope by the beach it's instead in Kaya's house from which they cannot escape. The actor for Kuro nailing the mannerism and hand movements, altho his "teleporting" looks a bit wonky.

With Baratie we are finally introduced to Sanji! Who's British now 😆. And Mihawk's introduction tho! Badass and just so over the top and goofy. I love him so much! This is where we got the biggest change where we instead get Arlong and crew coming in smashing the place up (a tiny bit). Arlong may not be as tall as he should be but I love the practical approach instead of CGI, which means he actually feels present! All the fishmen we see are guys in costume and prosthetics!

Arlong Park felt a bit more rushed than the earlier parts, but I do think they nailed *that* scene tho.

If the bar for live action adaptation was below the ground, I would say now there's a new bar, which is on the ground 😅. I think it's a solid show but it might be my bias talking. I do have some gripes tho.

One thing that was constant in East Blue Saga was how much village people hate or are scared of pirates. I think they got the marines right, and the pirates, but they failed to really have the village people be a character in their own right. In the manga and anime the villagers are mostly a monolith who will think and act alike in situations and be part of the happenings either by watching or fighting. We got just about none of it here, except a mention in Arlong Park. They did some really good and cool world building with lots of people populating the sets in the background - but that's it, they're just extras to fill out the screen. There are ofc a few exceptions but I felt it was not enough.

I wish they had Luffy be more agile when using his gum-gum powers. Whenever he springs a pistol or a whip is stands in place, which I found boring (and they did so well with Zoro's fights!). I do think the explanation is that they decided for Luffy to be coming into his powers as we go. That we will learn with him all the things he can do (him not knowing he can blow himself up like a balloon proves this). I hope that in season 2 (please netflix!) they show the growth in his fighting!

But to end this long post. I just wanna say how much I fucking love the dude playing Mihawk. Goddamn he's so fun. MVP.

For the straw hats, I would say that Usopp feels the closest to manga version, and Luffy feels the most distant from it. But I don't dislike this, and I think the actor for Luffy has so much potential to really make the role his own.

It will never be "just like" the manga and anime, but that's ok! It's a new adaptation (in live action) made by people you can tell loves the source material and really really tried to make it work! I respect that, and I respect this show. Please watch it on Netflix! It's a fun and silly time, just like it should be!

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure 01x51 - Hell's Jester, Piemon / The Crest of Friendship

Previously on Digimon Adventure: Jou decided he needs to forge his own path by following in Yamato's footsteps. Meanwhile LadyDevimon made everybody extremely uncomfortable as part of Piemon's master plan to squick the Chosen Children into leaving his front door.

Now, with LadyDevimon's death, Piemon has come out to attend to what remains of the assault team in person.

We open on Jou searching for Yamato, while Yamato's harmonica music paradoxically plays in the background.

Narrator: Around this time, Jou, with harmonica in hand, was searching for Yamato. Gomamon: JOU, LOOK!!!

Gomamon draws Jou's attention to an abandoned swan boat.

Gomamon: IT'S YAMATO'S BOAT!!! He must be around here! Jou: But we don't know how long it's been here. We aren't even certain that Yamato was the one who used it. Gomamon: That's fine! We're sure to find him. By now, Yamato probably also thinks that it's about time he rejoined us anyway.

Jou examines Yamato's harmonica.

Jou: You're right. It was my idea to go look for Yamato. I can't be having second thoughts now! Gomamon: Yeah, exactly! You've become a lot more manly lately. Jou: What's that supposed to mean? (playful, pokes Gomamon) Are you saying I wasn't manly enough before?

Jou and Gomamon both break into laughter. Gomamon seems very pleased by Jou's decision to forge his own path, but he was also satisfied when they were still with Mimi's nakama. So it seems like Gomamon's just happy regardless of what Jou chooses.

As with Gabumon, it's most important to Gomamon that Jou be the one to make the choice for himself.

The dub opens by implying that Joe and Gomamon have been searching for a while now.

Joe: We've looked everywhere, Gomamon, but we still can't find Matt. Gomamon: Maybe your harmonica playing has been keeping him in hiding. Joe: (sarcastic) Mm. Everybody's a critic. Gomamon: Hey, Joe! LOOK OVER THERE!!! Joe: What is it? (Swan Boat) Gomamon: It's Matt's boat! He must be close by! Joe: But we have no idea of when he left it, or if he was using it at all! Come on, we'd better keep looking. Gomamon: Don't be such a downer; This is our first clue in a long time and I want to see a little Get Up and Go-mamon!" (Joe inspects the harmonica) Joe: I guess I'm still pessimistic 'cause when we found Matt's harmonica, it led us nowhere. But you're right. He could be nearby. Gomamon: Now, that's the spirit, Joe! You've become a real man lately! Joe: Oh, I get it now. (playful, pokes Gomamon) So you're saying that I wasn't a real man before, huh? Gomamon: (laughing uncontrollably) Joe: Are you man enough not to laugh when I tickle you?

This is really good. The bits about their search fudge the events a bit. They followed the harmonica music to Elecmon, who told them about the swan boat. Then they crossed the lake to pursue the swan boat, and now they've found the swan boat. This has been a pretty straightforward tracking mission so far.

The dub seems to imply that, after crossing the lake, they found nothing and had to wander aimlessly for a long time. But now they've stumbled back onto the trail by chance. This is a much messier version of events.

However, the playful banter between the two is a top-notch and entirely faithful adaptation of the original dialogue. Dub Gomamon also implies that Joe's been (badly) trying to play Matt's harmonica in the time since we last saw him, which is a funny mental image.

Meanwhile, outside Piemon's observatory, WarGreymon is on the offensive.

Calling Dramon Killer as an attack, WarGreymon volleys rapid-fire stabs at Piemon but struggles to land any of them. Piemon darts and weaves too easily through his attacks.

WarGreymon finally manages a solid hit when he surprises Piemon with a kick, knocking him back into the roots of a large tree. But Piemon picks himself up, seemingly no worse for wear.

Taichi: GOT HIM!!! Piemon: Muhahahahaha! Do Chosen Children truly rely on such childish tricks? Taichi: (surprised) What!? Piemon: My expectations have been dashed. I thought you'd be tougher than this. Koushiro: WarGreymon's attacks aren't having any effect at all! Hikari: (worried) Onii-chan, are we okay? Taichi: (determined) We're fine.

This fight is going badly. They landed a hit, but didn't seem to do any damage and had their successful hit written off as 子供騙し kodomodamashi, a composite of 子供 kodomo meaning "child" and 騙しdamasi which means "deception".

Kodomodamashi is a transparent, juvenile trick that only a child would think is clever.

Of course, what it says about Piemon that he fell for a kodomodamashi goes unremarked upon due to how intimidating he is right now.

In the dub, WarGreymon calls Dramon Killer as "Mega Claw". Probably to avoid the K word, even though they already solved that problem in the past by calling them "Dramon Destroyers".

Tai: I think we won! Piedmon: Hahahahahahahaha! Thank you for the sparring match, WarGreymon. Now I'm ready for the main event. Tai: Oh, no! Piedmon: Once upon a time, there were these DigiDestined. And then Piedmon destroyed them all. The end. Izzy: No offense to your storytelling skills, but I'd like it better if your ending were different. WarGreymon: IT WILL BE!!! Kari: We can't win unless we're all together! Tai: (worried) Where are they!?

This scene is very different. Piedmon isn't so dismissive of the children's abilities here; He simply blusters menacingly, including a callback to the Dark Masters' debut when he told the kids a twisted faerie tale of their own impending deaths.

Kari and Tai here use their lines to remind the audience that we're trying to buy time for reinforcements to arrive. It also makes a stronger transition into the next scene, as we find Sora and Takeru searching for the others.

Angemon seems to have reverted to Patamon between episodes, as the three of them are all riding Birdramon's talons. Sora uses her Digivice's radar function to try and scan for the others.

Sora: The Digivice still isn't reacting to anything. Patamon: The powers of darkness must be too strong. Sora: (thinking) How are we supposed to find them in this vast Digimon World? Takeru: ...Sora-san? Sora: What? Takeru: Will we find Onii-chan? And all of the others? Sora: ... Takeru: Sora-san? Sora: We'll find them, no matter what. (starting to freak out) If we can't then we're all.... Takeru: Sora-san! Sora: Ah! Takeru: ...are you okay? Sora: (polite laugh) Sorry about that. I'm fine! We'll find them.

Despite the fact that Sora is clearly only pretending to be okay while the stress eats her alive from within, Takeru accepts that answer with a smile. He's eight.

Sora: (thinking) I have to bring everyone back, or else we won't be able to defeat Piemon. This world... We won't be able to stop it from being destroyed.

Despite her attempt to keep Takeru from fretting over it, the stakes coupled with the seeming impossibility of her task are weighing heavily on Sora's mind.

In the dub:

Sora: The Digivice isn't responding at all. Patamon: I hope we find them soon; I'm getting airsick. Sora: (thinking) We'll never find them all. The Digital World is too big. They could be anywhere. T.K.: Hey, Sora? Sora: What? T.K.: We'll be able to find Matt and the others, right? Sora: (thinking) Should I tell him the truth? T.K.: Well, Sora? Sora: The only thing I can say, T.K., is.... (crying noises) T.K.: ...are you alright? You're not crying, are you? Sora: Just something in my eye! Don't worry! We'll find them, T.K! (T.K. smiles) Sora: (thinking) We'll find the others because we have to! Unless we fight as a team, we'll never defeat Piedmon! We can't let him destroy the Digital World!

Pretty straight adaptation.

They cut Sora's implication that Piemon is going to kill them all, replacing it with Sora breaking down into non-verbal sobbing.

Cutting back to the fight, WarGreymon attempts to land his Brave Tornado. It's gone two for two on Ultimate opponent kills so it's a good choice.

It does not go well. Continuing to fight circles around him, Piemon hurdles the attack with a jolly flip. Emerging from the ensuing dust cloud with scuff marks all over his armor, WarGreymon looks like he did more damage to himself with that attack than to Piemon.

Tailmon: He's strong! Hikari: Onii-chan-- Taichi: Everyone, stay back! Hikari: But why, Onii-chan!? Taichi: Wait until Yamato and the others get here! You just fought LadyDevimon; You need time to recover your stamina!

Taichi is still thinking ahead. Focusing on the next fight and not this one, even though the next fight is technically a part of this one. Banking not on winning this fight, but on WarGreymon holding the line until they can hit Piemon all at once.

The dub calls Brave Tornado as Terra Force.

Gatomon: He's tough. Kari: We should all fight. Tai: Everyone stay where you are! Kari: But Tai! Why not!? Tai: The Digimon are still too tired from our fight with LadyDevimon. We have to wait until we're at full strength, when Matt and the others rejoin us.

Another faithful adaptation. Kari does manage to spell out what she wants to do, where Taichi cuts off Hikari and leaves it implied. But what she wants is clearly the same in both versions.

From there, we finally go check in with Yamato and see what he's up to. He is in a hole.

Narrator: After Yamato separated from Taichi's group and became a solitary child, he tried to put his thoughts in order. Before he knew what was happening, he found himself lost, wandering through a dark cave. Gabumon: Yamato.... I have a bad feeling about this cave. Let's hurry up and find a way out. Yamato: Yeah. You're right.

Yamato agrees verbally with Gabumon, but he doesn't hurry up. Instead, he loses himself in memories, flashing back on Takeru announcing that he rescued himself from Pinocchimon's mansion.

(Flashback) Takeru: I was able to protect myself all on my own this time! (End Flashback) Yamato: (stops walking) I.... Gabumon: Huh? What is it, Yamato? Yamato: I kept saying that Takeru needed me. The truth is, I was the one that needed him. Convincing myself that Takeru needed me is how I found my place. But.... (Flashback) Hikari: That's incredible! Taichi: That's awesome, Takeru! Congrats! Mimi: We were so worried about you! Jou: You sure have grown up, without any of us realizing. (End Flashback) Yamato: Takeru has everyone supporting him. And Taichi acted more like a real big brother than I ever did.

Yamato doesn't answer. Silently, he starts walking deeper into the dark cave.

The dub takes its first commercial break following the previous scene, then we come back to Matt. They don't have the narrator to poetically set up Matt's metaphorical-made-literal surroundings, so Gabumon has to do the job. He plays the spooky cave for nervous laughs.

Gabumon: Matt? Matt: Yeah, Gabumon? Gabumon: Maybe we've been traveling in this direction a little too long. This cave is starting to give me the creeps. Let's hurry up and get out of here! I'm still not sure what you mean by 'trying to find yourself' but I'd appreciate it if you didn't look in here! Matt: Sure. Whatever.

The dub's flashback is only slightly altered; T.K. says "I told you I'd be back" instead of "I told you I could do it." But it's by far the most consistent a dub flashback has been yet.

(Flashback) T.K.: See, everybody? I told you I'd be back! I can take care of myself just fine! (End Flashback) Matt: I've been living a lie. Gabumon: You're not a real blond!? Matt: (heavy sigh) I kept saying T.K. needed me but, really, I was the one that needed him. Gabumon: What do you mean? Matt: I used to think that my one purpose in life was to protect my little brother. But then.... (Flashback) Kari: You're the man! Tai: Nice going, T.K.! Great job, buddy! Mimi: We were so worried about you! Joe: Boy, for a little kid, that was a pretty big escape! (End Flashback) Matt: He didn't need me to protect him anymore. And Tai was much better at acting like a big brother than I ever was....

Tonally inappropriate blond quip aside, this is still a pretty straight adaptation.

Gabumon's not about to let that last remark from Yamato go unquestioned.

Gabumon: What are you talking about? You are Takeru's older brother, Yamato! Yamato: I don't deserve to be Takeru's big brother. I just used Takeru so that I could feel secure in my place as his brother. I needed to believe that Takeru had no one else but me.

As Yamato speaks, a tendril of concentrated darkness moves through the cave behind him. Yamato, unnoticing, sits down in the cave and pulls his knees to his chest.

Yamato: That's why I got so mad at Taichi. I felt like he was trying to take Takeru away from me. Taichi is decisive and has strong leadership. Most of all, he treats Takeru like a man. Gabumon: Now what's brought this on, Yamato? There are so many great qualities that are unique to you too! Yamato: I always thought of Taichi as tactless and dim-witted, but I just couldn't see. Gabumon: Yamato....

This is the discussion they were trying to have back with Jureimon. This time, Jureimon isn't here to direct Yamato's anxieties. But Yamato's been thinking about this long enough for his anxieties to become self-sustaining.

He's still wandering the forest of lost souls.

In the dub:

Gabumon: But you don't have to act. You are T.K.'s brother! Tai isn't! Matt: That's just the point. I don't act like a brother at all. And even though it made me feel good to think that I was the only one there for him, in reality, all the kids were. Gabumon: Let's talk about this outside. There's something strange about this place.... Matt: That's why Tai made me so mad! I thought he was trying to take T.K. away from me! (Matt sighs and sits by the wall) Matt: Tai might be real bossy and hard-headed sometimes but he never treated T.K. like a child, which is how I've always treated him. But I'm the one who's childish. Gabumon: Matt, stop putting yourself down! Sure, you have some teenage angst, but you've been a great brother to T.K.! Matt: I used to think Tai never thought about anyone but himself, but that actually describes me a lot better. Ugh.... Gabumon: Oh, Matt....

"You have some teenage angst", Gabumon? I'll take "Lines that remind you that these children were written by thirty-year-olds".

(Matt isn't even a teenager!)

Gabumon gets an extra line so he can say, "Can we have this conversation in a less spooky and thematically resonant place?" Which is a valid interjection.

Suddenly, Gabumon notices the swirling darkness around them.

Gabumon: (gasp) Yamato! Something's wrong with this place!

The darkness of the cave surrounds and engulfs Yamato. He doesn't even seem to notice as it pours into him; His eyes glazing over with darkness.

Yamato: There's no hope for me. I can't go back and rejoin the others' nakama. Gabumon: STOP THAT!!! (scolding) Without you, Yamato... If the eight of you don't come together then this world is doomed! Yamato: They don't need me. It wouldn't matter if I was there or not. Gabumon: YAMATO, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!!! Yamato: Forget it. Just leave me alone. Gabumon: HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT!?!? Yamato: ... Gabumon: (tearing up) Yamato....

Gabumon's saying correct things but it doesn't matter when the other person is not in a mindset to be told. Yamato's depression is spiraling, and he's dissociating. He's not really here in this conversation, and eventually he stops responding entirely.

This is intercut with imagery of Yamato sinking into a vast, bottomless ocean of darkness.

In the dub:

Gabumon: (gasp) OH, MATT!!! I THINK YOU'D BETTER TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!!! Matt: Whatever. I'm no good. I can never go back to being their friend. Gabumon: You have to! Don't you understand that if the eight of you don't get back together, the Digital World will be destroyed forever! Matt: They don't need me. And besides, seven is a luckier number than eight. Gabumon: HEY, MATT, SNAP OUT OF IT!!! Matt: Just go away. I want to be alone. Gabumon: Come to your senses! Matt: ... Gabumon: (tearing up) Matt, listen....

Super inappropriate time for a quip, dub team. Again, this is pretty straightforward in its translation, apart from the futile attempts to inject levity.

At this point, Yamato shuts down entirely. He's as still as the grave, and trying to break through with reason has failed. Only one option left: Resort to violence.

Gabumon bites down on Yamato's leg hard enough to break him out of his dissociation. Yamato gets up suddenly, backhanding Gabumon off of him.

Yamato: OW!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?!?

As Yamato stands up, there's a single-frame animation error where he and his darkness aura briefly separate. As a mistake, Yamato physically goes back to his previous frame instead of into the next frame of his standing up animation, then teleports to a standing position in the frame after. Meanwhile his aura continues on into the next frame and then the one after like it was supposed to.

The aura goes 2-3-4-5 while Yamato goes 2-3-2-5.

This implies that Yamato and the aura are being animated separately, which I find fascinating. How did this mistake happen, I wonder?

Anyways.

Gabumon: There is only one Yamato in this world! Am I wrong!? So then why do you keep comparing yourself to Taichi!? Obviously you and Taichi are different! You're Takeru's big brother, aren't you? It makes no sense to say Taichi's a better brother than you are! Yamato: ...Gabumon...? Gabumon: Besides.... What would I do if you were gone!? I spent so long in this world waiting for you, and you alone! Yamato: Gabumon.... Gabumon: Do you truly want to be alone, Yamato? Because if so, then I'll leave this place by myself. But only if that's what you really want.

Gabumon's teethmarks in Yamato's leg do wonders for getting him to pay attention and engage with what Gabumon is saying. This time, he seems to actually be listening and processing Gabumon's words.

In the dub:

Matt: OW!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!? ARE YOU CRAZY!?!? Gabumon: Don't you understand, Matt!? You've got to quit comparing yourself to Tai! You're not him! It's like ice cream; He's vanilla and you're rocky road. But only one of you is T.K.'s real brother and it's not him! No matter how much he impresses T.K., Tai will never be able to break the bond that you two brothers share! Matt: Gabumon.... Gabumon: And besides, don't you think it would break my heart if you weren't here? After all, I didn't wait my entire life for you to arrive just so you can wallow in self-pity! Matt: Huh? Gabumon.... Gabumon: But Matt, if you really want to be left alone, then I'll respect your wishes and disappear. But only if that's what you really want me to do.

Accusing people of wallowing in self-pity is rarely a convincing argument against continuing to wallow in self-pity, Gabumon. In fact, that's a great way to kill an intervention by getting them defensive.

This was a little thing that's slowly been compounding but I don't like Gabumon's tone of voice in the dub. In the original, he's pouring his heart out and sounds on the verge of breaking down in tears. Which makes sense since he's actively crying.

The dub voice sounds aggressive and accusatory. There's not as much empathy for Matt here as there is for Yamato.

Also, they're still desperately trying to insert quips to keep this light, and they are failing miserably. This is still a dark and serious conversation even with Gabumon and Matt making tonally-inappropriate jokes here and there.

Faced with Gabumon's emotional earnestness, Yamato clenches his fist and answers.

Yamato: No. When I said I wanted to be alone... that was a lie. I was putting on a front. Since I was young, I've been pushing people away like that. But the truth is....

Yamato flashes back on his parents' divorce. The camera closes in on his face, as he watches Natsuko take Takeru away.

Yamato: Really, I'm lonely. I told myself no one would ever see me cry. If I had to be alone, then I was going to be a great man who can do anything by myself. But... what I wanted to do was cry. Gabumon: Yamato.... Yamato: (crying) I hate being alone.

Gabumon pulls Yamato into a hug.

Gabumon: I'm here for you! You can depend on me the way I depend on you. If you do that, then we can persevere (ganbaru) through anything!

Finally, Yamato unpacks the effects that his divorce trauma has had on him. Like Gabumon said back at the Jureimon encounter, Yamato is still, deep down, an empathetic young boy who wants to be loved and accepted by others. We've seen it multiple times throughout the series. He's always been driven by his empathy, even if he couldn't acknowledge it.

But he closes up and becomes defensive when his nerves are exposed. His fear of abandonment motivates him to push people away and try to act like a lone wolf. Even though he's really, truly not one, and never has been.

If anything, by his behavior, he's always been Team Mom, constantly looking out for the welfare of the group as a whole. Because that is his truth, buried beneath the lie he's been trying to convince himself to believe.

In the dub:

Matt: No, I don't really want to be left alone. Sorry, I never meant to hurt you. I've never let anyone get close to me before. Not since my family split up. (Brief divorce flashback) Matt: Ever since then, I've been alone. I figured if my family didn't want me, then I would just keep to myself and never tell anyone what I was feeling. And I swore I would never let anyone see me cry. But really, all I wanted to do was cry. Gabumon: Then cry. Matt: (crying) I hate being alone. (Gabumon pulls Matt into a hug) Gabumon: I'm here for you, Matt! I used to be lonely too! I wandered around the Digital World without any friends at all! And then, after I met you, I'd never be lonely again!

Yamato says that his lone wolf behavior is a deliberate ruse. That his behavior is fake. He pretends (poorly) to be a self-made island of a man who doesn't need anything or anyone, as a defense mechanism. But really, his behavior only isolates him further and makes him irate and miserable.

He is a very unhappy social butterfly, because he denies himself connection and pours all of his need for human contact onto Takeru. Who, as previously noted, slips through his armor because he can lie further and tell himself that he doesn't need anything but Takeru needs him.

Matt touches on that, but only goes as far as to say that he keeps people at arm's length. He explains that he closed himself off because "my family didn't want me", which is an obviously untrue childish exaggeration. Especially since we've met his family and we know how they feel about him.

Yamato describes himself as 一人 hitori, alone, as a result of the divorce, but doesn't cast blame for it. His story is focused on what happened in his head due to the divorce. He never implies that his parents hurt him intentionally.

Which makes it seem like this whole thing came from Matt just... misunderstanding the cause of his parents' divorce and thinking they broke up because of him. Yamato needs therapy. Matt needs a hug from his mom.

Then Dub Gabumon starts bald-faced lying about his background. Gabumon has never been alone. From the day he hatched, he's had a social network around him. He's thinking of Gatomon. He stole her backstory in order to pretend he could relate. The bastard.

Credit for letting Matt cry in the dub, though. Past episodes have taken a strong anti-boys crying stance, so that was a pleasant surprise to see.

Inspired and touched by Gabumon's words, Yamato responds.

Yamato: (smiling) You're right. Gabumon, because you were with me, I was able to make it this far. Even in the depths of this dark cave, you're still here, chasing after me. I don't have to be alone. Gabumon: Yamato! Yamato: I have the nakama too. And Takeru, Dad, and Mom.

Yamato flashes back again. This time, rather than the divorce, he sees the reunion with his parents and Takeru shortly after VenomVamdemon's defeat.

Yamato: (thinking) I'm sure I'll look much happier next time. Dad! Mom!

In the dub:

Matt: I know what you mean. Me too. After all, you're the main reason I came to the Digital World in the first place. And here I am, lost in this dark, strange cave, and you're still right by my side. That's the sign of a true friend. Gabumon: Aw, shucks. Matt: I guess I have friends. And that includes T.K. and my Mom and Dad! (Brief flashback) Matt: (thinking) Now I realize I was never really alone. People like me. They really, really like me!

Matt says "you're the main reason I came here" like that was a choice he made.

As a finisher, "People really like me" feels like a much weaker closing argument than "I'll look much happier next time my family sees me" in my opinion, but that may just be personal taste. This isn't incorrect; I just don't like it as much.

As Yamato self-actualizes, the darkness is purged from him and rises into the cave, swirling overhead. At last, Yamato sees it for himself.

Gabumon: Yamato, look! Yamato: What is that? Gabumon: It was coiling around you this whole time! Didn't you notice? Yamato: Not at all. Gabumon: I think it was trying to get inside your heart, Yamato. Yamato: It's black. ...I understand. These are the black feelings that I was experiencing just now. But you're wrong. Gabumon: About what? Yamato: That thing wasn't trying to get inside of me. It pulled out the darkness I already had inside. I think I've been carrying that darkness deep in my heart all this time. Gabumon: I see. Yamato: My isolation is what drew this darkness into me. But everything is different now!

Adding onto the thematically resonant nature of this hyperbolic place, the dark swirly-swirl is itself the manifestation of Yamato's feelings.

(I believe he has found the part of the Digital World that came from Silent Hill's data.)

In the dub:

Gabumon: Matt, look! Matt: What is it!? Gabumon: It's been around you this whole time! You mean you haven't noticed it until now? Matt: Not at all. Gabumon: It was weird. The more you talked about being alone, the bigger that thing got. Matt: It's pitch-black. ...that's exactly the feeling I had in my heart just a minute ago. I know what it is! Gabumon: Please tell me. Matt: It's the darkness that I've been carrying around with me this whole time. The darkness that's been buried in my heart. Oh, Gabumon, now it's ready to swallow me up whole! Gabumon: Like Jonah and the whale? Yamato: I have a feeling that if I didn't recognize it just now, it would have taken over my whole life. But I'm not gonna let that happen!

(spit take)

Okay so we can't use the word "holy" but referencing specific Bible passages is fine.

Then again, there was that one time Sora's mom yelled "Christ", but I'm still convinced that was an ad-lib no one caught.

Man, threading the needle of acceptable Christian references under 90's cartoon censorship is hard.

In any case, this is pretty solid. My one note is that they again removed the discussion of Yamato's feelings of isolation. Matt says this is the darkness he carries but does not go into detail about where that darkness came from, what it means for him personally. Instead, he treats it like an external threat trying to destroy him.

Which is. Y'know. The opposite of what this scene is meant to convey about Yamato's internalized darkness. That's his little trauma ball up there. Let's whack it with a stick! A stick made of love.

(Not you, Sora, this is not your time yet. Yamato has to learn to love himself first.)

Yamato: After all, I'm not alone anymore! Gabumon: That's right! Yamato: Thank you, Gabumon. Gabumon: Yamato! I've always, always wanted to thank you, ever since we met!

Yamato hugs Gabumon, and as they embrace, the swirling mass of Yamato's darkness disintegrates into pixels.

(God, I hope that thing isn't going to reincarnate into a Digitama. ...oh, wait, the Village of Beginnings is... Aww, I made myself sad. Piemon's darkness domain sucks! I hate it here!)

Yamato: You've been by my side, and I never realized. I've always had you! Gabumon: (happiness noises) Yamato: (stands up and grips Gabumon's claws) You might have to put up with a lot from me from now on, but I'm counting on you. Gabumon: I can handle that. Yamato: And I'm not going to complain anymore. Gabumon: It's fine! You can complain to me all you want. Haha! Yamato: Alright, then. I'll whisper my complaints to you very softly.

Gabumon and Yamato share a laugh. As they do, the cave around them distorts and fizzles out of existence. It was never real to begin with.

In the dub:

Matt: It can't hurt me because I'm not alone anymore. Gabumon: That's the spirit! Matt: I want to thank you, Gabumon. Gabumon: Don't mention it. That's what friends are for. Besides, I should be thanking you! You're the best friend a Digimon ever had. (Matt hugs Gabumon) Matt: Let's make a promise that we'll always be there for each other, no matter what happens. Gabumon and Matt, friends for life. Gabumon: (happiness noises) Matt: (stands up and grips Gabumon's claws) What do you say? Do we have a deal? A handshake makes it official. Gabumon: Will a pawshake do? Matt: And I promise not to complain anymore either. Gabumon: Don't start that again. If you're upset about something, you should get it off your chest. Matt: Alright, if you insist. I'll still complain once in a while, but only to you!

I appreciate Dub Gabumon calling Matt out for the "no complaining" thing. No, Yamato, suppressing your feelings and refusing to communicate what's going on with you is not the correct takeaway from this. Try again! Use your words! XD

The dub's take on the cave scene has been touch and go but I like this part. And yes, you are permitted a quip here. Now is the proper time for tension-killing gags.

As the cave fizzles out of existence, Yamato and Gabumon unpack what that was just now.

Gabumon: The both of us were just inside this huge cave of darkness.... Yamato: We've been lost for a very long time.... Jou: HEEEEEEEEEEY!!! YAMATOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Due to a lack of pronoun, it's unclear if Yamato is saying "We've been lost" as in they were in the cave for a long time or "I've been lost" as a reference to the psychological cage he'd imprisoned his mind in for years. This ambiguity may be deliberate, as both are appropriate context for this scene.

The abrupt sound of Jou screaming for them brings Yamato back to the present.

Yamato: (surprised) Jou!

Jou sprints up to Yamato, then stops and gasps for breath. Once he's caught his breath, he starts laughing and whips around to face Gomamon.

Jou: Ahahahahaha! I told you we'd find him! Gomamon: I never said we wouldn't. Yamato: (amused) What's all this, now? Jou: While we were walking here, I told myself everything would be fine as long as I believe in my path! Yamato: I see. Jou: Oh! Here.

Jou offers Yamato's harmonica to him.

Jou: This is your harmonica, isn't it?

Yamato takes it, closing his hand around it and closing his eyes for a moment. Basking in sentimentality. Then he opens his eyes again.

Yamato: Thank you.

Mission complete! I hope this helps Jou feel better about himself.

As Gabumon and Matt unpack the cave experience, the dub doesn't quite capture the poetry of the original.

Gabumon: Uh, correct me if I'm wrong on this one, Matt, but weren't we just in a big, dark cave a minute ago? Matt: That's right, and we were completely lost! Joe: HEY!!! MATT!!! OVER HERE!!! Matt: It's Joe! (Joe runs up, then stops to catch his breath) Joe: Hahahahaha! Who's the man now? I told you I'd find him! Gomamon: I never doubted you for a single minute, Joe! Matt: What's going on? Joe: I said to myself, "Joe," I said, "Just follow your own path and sooner or later you'll run into Matt!" I'm just glad it happened before I retired! Matt: I see! Joe: Oh! That's right. I forgot. Here. It's your harmonica, isn't it? (Joe gives Matt his harmonica) Matt: Thanks, Joe.

Joe's a little dub Joe about it but the whole exchange between him and Matt is nonetheless pretty accurate.

From here, we cut back to the fight with Piemon.

Piemon fires off his Trump Sword, throwing four swords at WarGreymon two-by-two. WarGreymon deflects the first pair with his Dramon Killer gauntlets, but the second pair slice past his exposed legs.

Then, moving of their own volition, the four swords fly up into the air to rejoin each other and come back around for another go. This time, all four swords slice past WarGreymon unblocked, carving him up.

Koushiro: WarGreymon is.... Hikari: (covers her eyes) No! I can't watch! Taichi: Shit!

Further attacks from the persistent projectiles bring WarGreymon to his knees. With WarGreymon struggling to even stand back up, the swords return to Piemon. Two by two, he catches and re-sheaths them on his back.

(Piemon vs. King Bradley, go!)

Tentomon: (distraught) Koushiro-han, put me in! Taichi: DON'T!!! Koushiro: (uncertain) Taichi-san!? Taichi: (thinking) Yamato, hurry!

Taichi's still holding the others in reserve for when the real battle begins, but he's running out of time and the others are beginning to question his decision.

The dub keeps the name Trump Sword for Piedmon's attack.

Izzy: WarGreymon's exhausted! Kari: (covers her eyes) I can't watch anymore! Tai: Stay tough! (WarGreymon continues to get slaughtered out there) Tentomon: Please, Izzy, let me help WarGreymon! Tai: No! Izzy: WarGreymon needs help! Tai: (thinking) Come on, Matt, where are you!?

Subtle change in that Izzy directly argues back at Tai. It's minor and makes sense for the dub's more assertive take on the character. Otherwise, mostly identical.

Cut to Sora and Takeru searching for the others.

Takeru: Ah! What's that?

Takeru points out Yamato's discarded swan boat.

Sora: Let's go take a look.

The Birdramon Express comes in low for a landing, and we go to commercial.

Can I just say that this swan boat is the unsung MVP of Digimon Adventure? Between this and the PicoDevimon sub-arc, it's put in so much overtime work to keep these children together despite their repeated insistence on splitting up.

In the dub:

T.K.: Look down there! Sora: That's Matt's boat! T.K.: But... where's Matt?

XD Sora, you weren't even there for the "Matt must have used the swan boat" conversation.

Hell, when they split up to reunite the team, it was Tai and Joe that took the boat across the lake! Matt stayed on land! You know this! You were stalking them!

Matt used the boat one time and suddenly everybody knows it as Matt's Boat forever. I hope this haunts him for life. I hope when they're forty years old, they're having a team reunion in the park and someone sees a swan boat on the lake and goes, "Matt, someone's stealing your boat!"

I mean. It is Matt's boat this time around.

But other people have used it too! That could be Mimi's boat! You don't know! XD

(Mimi, of course, having escaped being reunited by the boat this time around. Last time it was Koushiro who slipped the boat's notice. The boat does its best but there are many children and it can only do so much to gather them.)

Coming back from commercial, Sora and Takeru set foot on land.

Takeru: Onii-chan is nowhere to be found. Sora: (thinking, distraught) WHY!?!? At this rate, Taichi and the others.... (focused, determined) I'll find them. I promised! I have to find everyone and bring them back!

As if in response to her thoughts, a black void appears beneath Sora's feet. Darkness swirls, climbing up her legs. Takeru notices quickly

(There are benefits to being short.)

Takeru: Sora-san! Some black thing is crawling up your legs! Sora: Eh!?

Before she can react, a black void opens up beneath Sora, which then materializes into a deep, dark hole. Sora plunges into it.

Sora: (scream) Piyomon: SORA!!!

They don't emerge. Takeru stands at the edge, calling down into it.

Takeru: Sora-san!? SORA-SAAAAAAN!!!

(Did the boat know this would happen? Perhaps it is more nefarious than we realized. It did bring Yamato to Digitamamon's diner, after all....)

The dub lets Sora begin the conversation.

Sora: I hope he's not hurt somewhere. T.K.: We'll never find him. What are we going to do? Sora: (thinking) T.K.'s right. Maybe we should go back and help the others fight? (focused, determined) No. Tai asked me to find the others and that's what I'm going to do. I won't let him down! (Darkness appears and starts snaking up Sora's legs) T.K.: SORA, WATCH OUT!!! THERE'S SOME BLACK THING COMING OUT OF THE GROUND!!! Sora: Whuh? (Void becomes a hole and Sora falls in) Sora: (screams) Biyomon: (also screams, diving in) T.K.: Sora! SORAAAAAAAAA!!!

You get the impression that Sora's worried in the dub, but she's not quite at the "knife's edge of sanity" point that her Japanese counterpart is hanging out at.

Original Sora is hanging on by a thread, something that's apparent in both this and her previous scene. The stakes are so high but her task is seemingly impossible, and she's cracking under the pressure of those two conflicting realities.

In fact, this is the second time in as many scenes that she's had to suppress intrusive thoughts about Piemon killing them all. It's no wonder the darkness entity or whatever it is has taken an interest in her now.

Whether or not Sora can hear Takeru crying out for her, somebody does hear. Yamato and Jou come running.

Yamato: TAKERUUUUUUUUU!!! Takeru: (gasp) Onii-chan! Yamato: Takeru!

Yamato's first order of business is to hug his brother.

Takeru: Where were you!? I was so worried! Yamato: I'm sorry. I won't leave you like that again. I promise. Takeru: Huh? Onii-chan, you look a little different. Yamato: Don't worry about that, Takeru. What are you doing here, anyway?

Suddenly, Takeru remembers the current crisis. He points at the hole.

Takeru: Sora-san fell down there! Jou: (runs to the edge) EHHHH!?!? Sora-kun did!?

The boys peer down into the ominous unknown.

Takeru can be forgiven for being so excited to see Yamato again that he completely forgot Sora plummeted to her possible death two seconds ago. It's his brother, y'all.

In the dub:

Matt: T.K.!!! T.K.: Hey, that sounds like Matt! Matt: It sure does! (The brothers hug) T.K.: Oh, Matt, where have you been!? I was so worried about you! Matt: Sorry, T.K. I needed time to get my head straight, but I won't leave you again. I promise you. T.K.: Gee, Matt, you look different. Did you cut your hair or something? Matt: Nah, I just haven't been using as much gel. Where is everybody? T.K.: Some black thing pulled Sora down into that hole! Matt: Huh!? Joe: (runs to the edge) What!? Is she alright!?

I'm not sure the dub really understood the meaning behind Yamato "looking different", so they made a quip out of it. This is connected to Yamato saying that he'll look happier the next time his family sees him. Takeru's commenting on the visible change in Yamato's disposition.

Without that context, the quip's a bit of a non-sequitur, but it can be explained easily enough by T.K. having not seen Matt in a while.

I love the "That sounds like Matt!" "It sure does!" exchange. That's cute. ^_^

Gathering at the edge of the pit, the boys peer down into it. It looks eerily familiar to two of them.

Gabumon: Yamato, this.... Yamato: Yeah. This is the same cave we were trapped in earlier. Takeru: What is it? Jou: Whatever it is, we have to save her!

The boys climb down slowly into the black hole of darkness.

Jou: I have a bad feeling about this. Takeru: It's scary.... Yamato: It's okay! Don't be scared, Takeru. Your fear will agitate the darkness. Takeru: Oh! Got it!

Descending into the cave, a rock under Jou's foot gives way and he falls onto his butt.

Jou: UWAAGH!!! Oww..... Yamato: Are you okay? Jou: Yeah, the bottom wasn't too far down. I wasn't sure where I was falling to.

Once that's settled, Yamato directs the group's attention to the spooky cave.

Yamato: This is it. Jou: Where's Sora-kun? Takeru: It's so dark, I can't see. Patamon: I hear voices that way!

Everyone turns to look at the tunnel behind them.

Jou: (firmly) We'll start there.

Okay, I don't know about you guys but if someone said to me, "Your fear will agitate the darkness," that would be some scary shit that would absolutely not help me control my fear better. I was terrified of the scary hole and I am now pissing myself in the scary hole, thank you.

In the dub:

Gabumon: Hey, Matt, does this remind you of anything? Matt: Yeah! It looks just like that cave we were trapped in before. The same black thing must have gotten Sora! T.K.: You've seen it!? Joe: Come on, guys! We've gotta help her! (The boys start climbing down) Joe: I don't have a good feeling about this. T.K.: It's scary! Matt: Whatever you do, don't be afraid, okay, guys? I've realized that it's your fear that feeds the darkness. T.K.: That's easy for you to say! (Joe slips and falls) Joe: Wha--OW! Ugh.... Matt: Are you alright, Joe!? Joe: Yeah. Fortunately, I landed on the one part of my body that has a built-in airbag. (They face the cave) Matt: Very funny. Joe: Where's Sora? T.K.: We need a clue. Patamon: Listen! I think I hear something coming from over there! (Everyone turns to look) Joe: I'd call that a clue.

This is really good. I appreciate that T.K. calls Matt out for how scary that line was rather than just nodding and going, "Ah, gotcha."

They also manage to slip a well-placed quip in after Joe's fall. It's already a brief moment of levity so the quip fits in perfectly, and it doesn't replace any vital dialogue.

Following the voices, it doesn't take the group long to find Sora and Piyomon.

Piyomon: Sora! Sora, what's wrong with you? SORA, LISTEN TO ME!!! Gomamon: That's Piyomon's voice! Jou: Sora-kun must be with her!

The boys sprint down the tunnel until they find Sora and Piyomon. Sora's in the same position Yamato was in earlier: Sitting by the cave wall with her legs pulled up to her chest, covered in a black aura.

Piyomon: Sora! SORAAAAA!!! Takeru: SORA-SAAAAAAAN!!! Piyomon: Guys!

The boys surround Sora. Yamato tries to appeal to her.

Yamato: Sora, what's wrong? Get up.

After this incredibly convincing and thorough argument fails to budge Sora, Yamato tries violence.

(To be fair, it worked when Gabumon did it.)

He grabs Sora's arm and physically tries to pull her out of her sitting position.

Yamato: She won't budge. Jou: I'll help.

Jou grabs Sora's other arm and together they pull as hard as they can, thoroughly humiliating themselves as the black aura refuses to let go.

Jou: What the hell!? Did gravity change all of a sudden!?

Well, that was embarrassing. Great job, team.

In the dub:

Biyomon: Sora! Sora, talk to me! Please tell me what's wrong! Gomamon: That's Biyomon's voice! Joe: Which means Sora can't be far behind! (The boys start running) Biyomon: Sora! Sora! T.K.: Hang on, Biyomon! We're coming! Biyomon: Over here! (The boys surround Sora) Matt: Sora, what's the matter with you? Get up! (Matt pulls) Matt: She's stuck. Joe: Let me help. Matt: On three. One, two, three! (No dice) Joe: Once, it took four of us to get my grandmother off a toilet like that.

Gross. Can we go back to complaining about gravity?

Fine place for a quip, though. I just. Don't like the quip. <.<

After picking Sora up and carting her away like luggage has failed, we're back to talking.

Takeru: Sora-san is saying something. Jou: Huh? Sora: Have to keep looking for Mimi-chan... and Jou-senpai and Yamato-kun.... (crying) I have to save Taichi.... If I can't stop it, our world will end.... Piyomon: She hasn't answered me at all. She just keeps muttering the same thing over and over!

Jou kneels down and tries shaking Sora.

Jou: Yamato and I are right here! Look at me!

This seems to work. Sora looks up and sees Jou's face, though her eyes are glazed over with darkness just like Yamato's were before.

Sora: (deadpan as if in a trance) Senpai... Thank goodness.... And Yamato-kun too... Yamato: Don't worry, everything is fine. Sora: No, it's not. I can't go on like this. I'm supposed to be strong. I have to save Taichi... or the world.... Jou: Sora-kun, you're putting too much responsibility on yourself! Yamato: Sora! Your negative thoughts are turning into negative energy. The darkness in your heart is generating this cave! Jou: Wait, what!? Is that why you told Takeru not to be scared!? Yamato: This dark cave is a reflection of your dark feelings! Sora! You have to throw those feelings away! THROW THEM OUT!!!

Once again, Piemon's realm of darkness is an asshole. This is the worst stripe on Spiral Mountain. It's just concentrated death and despair.

In the dub:

T.K.: Hey, listen! Sora's saying something! Sora: I have to find Mimi... and Joe and Matt... I have to help Tai or the world will be destroyed! There's no place like home... There's no place like home.... Biyomon: She won't talk to me anymore. All she does is keep mumbling the same thing over and over again. Joe: Sora! Matt and I are right here! Look at me! Focus! Sora: Joe! You're really here... I can't believe it... and Matt's with you too! Matt: Just relax. Everything's going to be okay now. Sora: I'm afraid not. I haven't been trying hard enough. I have to get to Tai right away and help him fight because, if I don't, the world will be completely destroyed. Joe: Sora, come on! You can't be responsible for saving the world! Matt: You have to realize how strong your negative feelings are! They produce a powerful destructive energy! Sora, it's the darkness in your heart that has created the cave in the first place; Don't you get it!? Joe: Really, Matt? Is that true? Is that why you told T.K. not to be scared? Matt: Sora, listen to me. There's only one way to make this cave disappear. You've got to reach deep into your heart and erase all the negative feelings!

They start out by turning a portion of this sequence into an out-of-nowhere Wizard of Oz spoof, so that's a bad start.

The heightened aggression of the dub rears its head again. "Don't you get it!?" is a very unhelpful thing to say to someone who's having a panic attack.

From here, we zoom in on Sora's darkness-infused eye and enter her mind space. Sora floats in a black void, curled up just like she is in reality.

Sora: These feelings... What does that mean? Yamato: We're not doing this out of obligation, but because we want to do this. If you don't want to, then you don't have to. But I think it's because we wanted to do this that we made it this far. Sora: If I don't want to do it, then I don't have to.... Yamato: That's right! If you don't want to do it, then don't! Sora: That's... You're wrong! We have to do it!

Well, that was a bust. Yamato's putting in his best effort but Sora simply isn't receptive to the logic, "I mean you don't really have to save the world if you don't want to. It's fine to let your friends die and the world be destroyed. You think about what you really want."

If the stakes weren't so goddamn high, this might be a solid argument from Yamato. But as it is, it falls on deaf ears for predictable reasons.

In the dub:

Sora: I don't know if I can.... What should I do? Matt: You'll have to find the answer to that question on your own. Sora, this isn't the kind of thing you do just because you have to. If you're going to do it, then it has to be because you want to. Sora: You mean that I don't have to do it if I don't want to? Matt: Right. It will only work if you want to do it. Sora: I'm confused. How will I know what the right thing to do is?

Uh, point of order, she does not have to find the answer on her own. The whole point of this conversation is to help her find the answer. Matt didn't solve it himself when it was his turn either; Gabumon bit him in the leg to make him pay the fuck attention and then scolded him for three minutes!

Sora finds Matt's argument in the dub confusing and so do I. As opposed to original Sora finding Yamato's argument unconvincing, as did I.

Alright, senpai, you want to take a crack at this? Maybe Yamato doesn't feel the crushing weight of billions of lives on his shoulders, but Sora needs advice from someone who does.

Jou: Sora-kun! We're lost in a labyrinth and no one can help us, that may be true. But it's because we're the only ones capable of doing something about it that we're even here! Sora: We can do something about it.... Jou: Doesn't that thought fill you with courage? Sora: (excited) We can do something about it! Here and now!

That breaks through Sora's despair spiral. Inside her mind space, Jou and Yamato descend, each taking one of Sora's hands to pull her out. Back in physical space, the dark glaze vanishes from her eyes.

Sora: We can do it! That's right! Isn't that right? Yamato: And we're here for you. Takeru: Sora-san! Sora: (nods) Mhm! Piyomon: SORA!!!! (hug) Sora: Piyomon! Piyomon: Thank goodness, you're back to normal!

Awww. Yamato was trying to make it this a big philosophical thing about obligations and individual motivation. But really, all Sora needed was a pep talk from senpai. Legit, sometimes all it takes to change someone's entire day is to just tell them they're valid.

In the dub:

Joe: When this whole thing started, do you think we had any idea what the right thing to do was? Of course not! But that didn't stop us, did it? Maybe we're here for a reason. Maybe we're the only ones who can do it! Sora: We're the only ones who can make a difference.... Joe: It's working, Matt! I think we're finally getting through to her! Sora: (excited) We're the only ones... That's why we're here! (Sora wakes up) Sora: I get it now! You were right, Matt. How did you know? Matt: I kinda went through the same thing myself. T.K.: Welcome back! Sora: (nods, giggles) Biyomon: Sora! (hug) Sora: Biyomon! Biyomon: I'm so happy that you're the old Sora and not the new Sora!

With Sora's injection of positivity, the spooky despair cave once again fizzles out of existence.

Jou: It disappeared! Yamato: Because the darkness in Sora's heart disappeared. Sora: That was inside my heart...? Takeru: Hey! Taichi-san is waiting for us! Jou: Right! Yamato: To Taichi.... Let's go! Sora: YEAH!!!

It's not the full team of reinforcements that Sora was tasked with collecting. Mimi and her growing nakama are still out there. But she's got Yamato and Jou, and that will have to be enough.

In the dub:

Joe: The cave's gone! Matt: When the darkness from Sora's heart disappeared, so did the cave. Sora: I feel so relieved. T.K.: Boy, wait 'til Tai hears about this! Joe: Let's find him. Matt: Tai's waiting for us right now! Let's go! Sora: Right!

Minor difference: In the original, it's Takeru who reminds everyone on purpose that we need to hurry back to Taichi. In the dub, he casually mentions Tai and that's what gives Joe and Matt the idea that we need to go back.

This is part of the general trend of the dub trying to preserve T.K.'s innocence and childishness, which was particularly noticeable in the Puppetmon arc. But at this point, Takeru is as much a child soldier as the rest of them.

Cutting back to the fight.

Piemon fires the confusingly named Toy Wonderness at Taichi. Not even at WarGreymon; He attacks Taichi directly with a shockwave of compressed air.

WarGreymon jumps in the way and tries to block the shockwave, but enough force still gets through to throw Taichi a good ten or twenty feet.

Hikari: ONII-CHAN!!! Koushiro: Taichi-san!

Koushiro tries to run to Taichi, but Taichi calls out to him.

Taichi: KOUSHIRO, STAY BACK!!! You take care of Hikari.

Piemon hits him with another shot from Toy Wonderness. Again, WarGreymon blocks as much of it as he can, including a chunky bit; A large rock was lifted up by this shockwave, but it slams into WarGreymon's gauntlets and doesn't make it to Taichi. The wave, however, picks Taichi up off the ground and tosses him again.

WarGreymon crumples to one knee, doing his best to protect Taichi but running out of steam.

Koushiro: Taichi-san! I know protecting Hikari-san is the most important thing, but if this keeps up then you'll.... Tentomon: He's so stubborn! Taichi: (pained) It's fine. I can be stubborn or whatever. Just let me do this myself! I'll figure something out! Koushiro: No! That doesn't make any sense! Taichi: This is okay.... Koushiro: Taichi-san, do you really plan on doing this whole thing by yourself!? Taichi: Yes! What's wrong with that? Koushiro: You can't... Why!? Why won't you LET ME FIGHT WITH YOU!?!?

We rarely see Koushiro lose his cool. His politeness and civility is one of his most notable characteristics. So it's a big deal when he breaks down and starts screaming at Taichi.

The dub reuses the name Trump Sword for Toy Wonderness.

Kari: GET UP, TAI!!! Izzy: Hey, Tai! Tai: IZZY, STOP!!! You stay there! Protect Kari! (Second blast) Izzy: Tai, look. I know it's important for me to stay here and protect Kari, but in the meantime, who's going to protect you!? Tentomon: He tends to be a bit stubborn, doesn't he? Tai: (clearly barely holding on) Don't worry about me! I'm fine! I've got him right where I want him... He's exhausted.... Izzy: But I can help you! Tai: I'm fine! Izzy: That's funny. General Custer said the exact same thing at Little Big Horn. Tai: Thanks for the history lesson. Izzy: Alright then, just one thing. How come every time I ask, you NEVER LET ME JOIN IN THE FIGHT!?!?

I assume Izzy means this fight because Tai's let him join in plenty of other fights. In any case, his generally rude and dismissive demeanor means this moment of him snapping doesn't hit as hard as it does for Koushiro.

As with the darkness cave, they are trying very hard to soften things up with some quips.

Tai doing the half-conscious "I got him right where I want him!" bit and Izzy comparing him to a dead general keeps things silly and fun. This serves not to draw attention away from the fact that Piedmon is actively beating him to death as we speak, as the gags are still in service to the scene, but to make it feel less dire.

Unfortunately, Piemon's done with this. He lets off one more attack: Ending Snipe.

Clasping his hands together to make a finger gun, Piemon shoots off a bolt of energy. His shot shatters WarGreymon's armor and finally puts him down.

(So much for indestructible Chrome Digizoid. Everything has its limits.)

Hikari: WarGreymon! Taichi: War...! G-Greymo...on....

The last of Taichi's strength finally gives out. He collapses into the dirt.

Koushiro: TAICHI-SAN!!! Piemon: So, who wants to go next?

The dub renames Ending Snipe to Clown Trick, but at least they don't call this one Trump Sword too.

Kari: WarGreymon's been hit! Tai: No! WarGreymon... ugh.... (Tai collapses) Izzy: GET UP!!! Piedmon: Right, now who shall be next?

Suddenly, a voice rings out.

Yamato: TAICHIIIIIIIIII!!! Taichi: (weakly) ...Yamato...?

Taichi opens his eyes to see Garurumon and Birdramon on their way in, ferrying the missing Chosen Children except Mimi.

Yamato: TAICHI!!! Sora: TAICHI!!! Piemon: Some late arrivals. No matter; The result will be the same either way.

Piemon hangs out and does nothing while Yama runs to Taichi's side. He picks up Taichi and holds him.

Taichi: (weakly) You made it... I waited all this time for you.... Yamato: Taichi.... Taichi: I truly believed you'd come... I was certain of it.... Yamato: (tearing up) Thank you for believing in me. But I'm sorry I was so late. Taichi, you're my true friend! I won't let your friendship be in vain!

An interesting note is that Yamato doesn't use nakama here but instead goes for tomodachi. Nakama means we're working together towards the same goal. We're a team. Colleagues. Coworkers. Squadmates. And we will get to know each other and build social bonds as we move towards the same goal. That's normal.

Since Digitamamon's restaurant and up until the Jureimon incident, Yamato had become comfortable with being nakama with these people. But tomodachi, true and genuine friendship outside of the nakama's purpose? That was a bit further than he was willing to go.

But he doesn't just use tomodachi; He modifies it with honto as an adjective, which means "real, true, genuine, sincere" to show that he means it.

In the dub, we go to our last commercial after Tai passes out. Then we return to Tai passing out again to remind us where we left off.

Tai: WarGreymon... I'm coming.... Ugh... (passes out) Matt: TAI!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?!? Tai: ...huh... Matt!? Matt: Hold on, buddy! We're coming! Sora: Tai, it's us! We're almost there! Piedmon: Once upon a time, there were DigiDestined. Now they're just sitting ducks, waiting for me to take target practice. (Matt picks up Tai and cradles him) Matt: Tai! Tai: Matt... you made it... I can't believe you're here.... Matt: Yeah, I made it, Tai. Hang in there, buddy. Tai: I never doubted you for a second, Matt... I know it didn't always seem that way.... Matt: Thank you, Tai. For believing in me. I'm just sorry I was so late. Tai, you have to know how much our friendship has always meant to me! And I swear, nothing will ever come between us again.

Piedmon's new line, once again playing on the Storybook Time thing from his first episode, is off. It's an odd thing to have a character say when he's just going to stand nearby and let the dramatic reunion unfold.

Unless he's being literal, and meant he was going to pop back into the observatory to brush up on his skills at the shooting range before coming back to this. Which, you know what, maybe he did.

Not sure why Tai leads with "I can't believe you're here" when the point of the scene is that he had an unshakable faith that Matt would show up, even to the point of letting himself nearly be killed over it.

Still, Matt's big speech is the focal point of this sequence, and it comes through pretty well in the dub.

They can't just have him say "You're my friend" because they've been using friend as a translation for nakama, so the distinction between it and tomodachi wouldn't carry over. So instead, he uses their friendship as a whole and pours out his feelings over how important it's always been, confessing what we now know he's been suppressing since the beginning of their journey.

This is an effective and powerful sidestepping of the linguistic hurdle present in this scene.

Yamato's declaration suddenly causes his Crest to activate.

Garurumon approaches WarGreymon's body and gives his head a nuzzle. Rainbow magic pours out of his Friendship nuzzle and suddenly WarGreymon is back on his feet and good as new.

Taichi: This is.... Piemon: What the...? Garurumon: Yamato's Crest of Friendship gave me the power to bring WarGreymon back to life. WarGreymon: Thank you, Garurumon! Now I can fight again!

Sure, that might as well happen.

Given that WarGreymon hadn't disintegrated, I imagine he means this more in a "WarGreymon was on the verge of death" sort of way than a "I literally have resurrection magic now" sort of way. Like how a defibrillator brings someone back to life, but not in the same sense that necromancy does.

I would make a joke about how the Crest of Friendship also gave Garurumon the power to heal WarGreymon's armor, but they're DIgimon. The armor is technically a part of WarGreymon's body, because he's a wire-model frame with a texture skin over it. So, actually, yeah, it does make sense that it works that way.

Similarly, as goofy as this moment is, it does kinda make sense within the established rules. The Partner Digimon are powered by the energy from their associated Chosen Child. So, basically, Yamato's outpouring of Friendship made his Crest glow super-bright, and then Garurumon used his body to channel that energy from the Crest into WarGreymon and refill all his meters - in the process, resuscitating him from his half-dead state. That does make sense to me.

But on its face, as something that just happens and then we move right the hell along, this is wild. Especially with Garurumon just staring into the camera and explaining it as flat exposition with no elaboration. XD

In the dub, it's explained like this:

Tai: WarGreymon! Piedmon: Now what? Garurumon: Matt! Your Crest of Friendship gave me strength and brought WarGreymon back to normal! WarGreymon: Thank you, Garurumon. Now I can fight again!

Pretty much exactly the same except they crossed out life and wrote normal. A minor hiccup is that Garurumon says the Crest gave him strength and resuscitated WarGreymon instead of giving him strength to resuscitate WarGreymon.

A subtle but important distinction, because resuscitating WarGreymon uses up the extra strength Garurumon was given.

While Garurumon degenerates back into Gabumon, Jou and Yamato try to cart Taichi away to safety.

Koushiro: Guys! Hurry, hurry! Jou: Taichi, are you okay!? Taichi: (weakly) I'm fine....

Cut to Piemon, who has inexplicably been doing nothing while this is going on.

Piemon: I had planned on defeating you all in an instant, but if you so enjoy suffering, then I'll relish every minute of tormenting you slowly. Yamato: This jerk never shuts up!

Yamato has been here for thirty seconds and he's already had enough of Piemon.

In the dub:

Izzy: Come on, guys! Get out of there! Joe: Tai, are you okay? Tai: I think so.... Piedmon: My first thought was to destroy you all together in one nice little package. But now I believe I'd rather do it individually, so as to prolong your suffering a little longer. Matt: You sure talk a lot for a clown!

You tell him, Matt!

Piemon throws his Trump Sword once more. Gabumon responds by Warp Evolving into MetalGarurumon.

Hikari: MetalGarurumon!

WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon fire together, their combined energies destroying Piemon's four swords, which disintegrate into pixel dust as normal for Digimon parts.

Jou: YES!!! They broke through Piemon's swords!

For his part, Piemon hops over what's left of the attack as it reaches him.

Piemon: It seems the battle I've been waiting for has finally arrived!

We close here, with WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon finally reunited, and Piemon's promise that things won't be that easy next episode.

In the dub, Hey Digimon begins playing as the pair attacks. What ever happened to that cool 90's rap they had that one time?

Kari: Ha! Now he'll see what we're made of! (WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon vaporize the Trump Sword) Joe: They were able to break Piedmon's attack! Alright! (Piedmon hops over the attack) Piedmon: Well, could it actually be the case that I've finally found an adversary worth fighting? Narrator: Will WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon have enough strength to defeat Piedmon, the last of the Dark Masters? Find out on the next Digimon: Digital Monsters.

We will indeed find out. And the answer may surprise you!

Assessment: Ahh, the infamous "Matt wanders around a cave for twenty minutes" episode.

Piemon's realm is in an odd place. There is a clear desire to spend some time fleshing out his stripe of Spiral Mountain and getting to know what it's about. But also, what it's about is death and despair, which makes it a tricky place to write a complete adventure fantasy episode about.

This episode uses it to confront Yamato and Sora's fears via the never-explained Cave of Go Fuck Yourself. There's just this one spot in the realm of darkness where, if you go there, you get pulled into a psychic quagmire of your own insecurities.

Weird. But the Digital World is full of weird shit so it doesn't really need explanation. Digimon tends to treat darkness as, to an extent, eldritch and unknowable. More of that in 02.

In any case, this is pretty much the quintessential episode for unpacking Yamato, detailing the effects that his childhood trauma have had on his development. But it also has its detractors on account of like half the episode just being preteens having anxiety in a cave.

There's not a lot of action or running around with goofy new characters in this one, if that's what you're here for. It's very drama heavy and character-focused.

[erumai-maadu]

YOU KNOW WHAT I just read your post about the Kohona 12 hc and one thing I gotta mention: TEAM 10 AND TEAM 8 BEING BUDDIES YES PLZ THIS IS SO IMPORTANTE!!! Not just bc of their senses dating (which is also a factor) but-- Team 10 is an intel-gathering team, Team 8 is tracking and capturing, CAN YOU IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES????

These two teams would have been the BEASTS of the spy network. Ibiki is desperately trying to convince everyone to join the Anbu squad. The biggest hurdle is Hinata being a Hyuga (her eyes can get stolen) and Shikamaru (he's just lazy).

Ino makes sure everyone looks polished. They're gonna learn what you had for breakfast 12 years ago, hunt you down and drag you back (dead or alive), looking like models whilst doing it ✨

(i'm so normal about this, I totally don't think about them all the time)

YOUR BRAIN >>>>>>>>>

every day Ibiki goes to Asuma and Kurenai and is like “please make ur kids join ANBU in the future pls i’m begging u” and their kids r all like haha no thanks. hinata is like “maybe” for one second and her uncle is immediately like NOT THE BYAKUGAN. ibiki is so sad. he just wants some good spies. he’s trying his best.

anyway some random side thoughts i have about them.

In the part 1 anime filler Shikamaru does call on Shino and Neji for tracking a lot. I guess because Hinata’s a girl and they can’t let her do anything ever :/ truly bizarre. there’s literally a filler episode where Hinata goes “I can see paper bombs all over the village!” and everyone immediately turns to Neji and doesn’t do anything until Neji confirms it. i hate this show.

doyalist sexism aside, Shikamaru heavily relies on Shino and the Byakugan’s sensory abilities to formulate his plans and so I think he very quickly grows used to having team 8 with him when Tsunade lets him form a squad. It helps that they spend a lot of time together (thank you senseis dating) and I’m sure that aside from his own squad, they’re the ones he relies on most.

Choji and Kiba are probably the front line fighters, with Shino and Ino backing them up and Shikamaru at mid-range advising/strategizing. Hinata probably pulls double duty as their long-range sensor and a close range fighter/flanker when things get hairy.

everyone on both teams gets along well but it’s a struggle to get Kiba and Choji to get along at first. Kiba is a bit of an asshole (understatement) and Choji isn’t a huge fan of how aggressive Kiba is. Kiba, for some fucking reason, just canonically doesn’t like Choji when they’re younger. I’m sure there were a lot of fights and a lot of insults thrown around before Shikamaru and Ino got them to sit down and shut up.

Ino tries her best to keep the squad polished but it doesn’t work so well when they’re younger lmao. When they’re older tho…. most fabulous and on point squad out there. your other faves could never.

kiba the leather jacket wearing hottie, ino ‘every outfit i wear has been on point since age 12’ yamanaka, choji who is canonically referred to as the most handsome chubby guy in the leaf (insane statement but still), shikamaru who somehow serves while wearing the standard chunin uniform, shino’s mysteriousness inherently makes him hot, and hinata with her silky hyuuga hair and flawless skin

their formations are tight, their teamwork is seamless, their communication is solid, and they look good while doing it all. ibiki is in a corner crying. he wants them to come work for him so bad.

[thewebcomicsreview]

Woah, it's a hamsteak! Bit early this month, maybe they're splitting it into two parts (Edit: Apparently yes, per a newspost). They've been teasing a big [S] page for a while, probably where the game starts in Meat and The Point is revealed in Candy, and these updates seem like they're getting everyone in position for that. We're now done with the Ship and with DIrk, and we won't see either until the [S] comes, but we still need to pick up the kids and see what Karkat is up to, so I'm expecting this is a setup-heavy update for an [S] page...next month, on 6/12? Let's see.

KARKAT: KEPT YOU WAITING, HUH?

Candy Karkat is blatantly Solid Snake and I'm a bit surprised the old team never had him riff a Snake catchphrase. New team popping that cherry right off. Also, wow, Karkles got swole.

MEENAH: took you long enough bossman KARKAT: I THOUGHT I ASKED YOU TO STOP CALLING ME THAT WHEN WE'RE ALONE. MEENAH: big bossman KARKAT: NOT BETTER. MEENAH: sweetie-pirate KARKAT: BOSSMAN IT IS.

We're just going all-in on the Metal Gear references, but Meenah loses fishpoints for not calling him Big Bass. It's right there, Meenah.

KARKAT: AS YOU MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE NOTICED THERE'S AN ESCALATING, LARGE-SCALE MILITARY CONFLICT UNDERWAY;

Is there? I hadn't noticed, because the war is entirely fucking offscreen in HS2, to the point where I'm really unclear on if it's huge open battles (as in the epilogues) or a terrorist insurgency (as implied by Jane's focus on PR, the lack of any on-screen fighting, and even here Karket saying he was blowing up "Crockercorp" supply depots instead of "human" supply depots). "Escalating" is an interesting word, though. I have a theory that Jane and Rose both don't consider any of Earth C's population "Real", and in Jane's mind she's basically just been larping as a bad guy up until her dad died and she got serious, and this is why Jane was seemingly cool with helping Jade raise Yiffy, even though Jade is a commander in the anti-Jane rebel army. Jane's going to just stop being evil on a dime and everyone but Rose and Jane are going to be baffled.

There was a writer commentary where they kept making jokes about doing this, but I guess it's real. Why is the Carapacian naked?

These guys, who are not guaranteed to survive to the end of the update, are already fucking great.

KARKAT: ALRIGHT, COMPANIES 1 THROUGH 3 ARE IN PLACE. KARKAT: 4 THROUGH 6 ARE EN ROUTE.

Is this the first 413 in HS2? I'm surprised they're not using 612, the troll number.

KARKAT: ALSO THIS COVERT-OPS SUIT IS TIGHT AS ALL FUCK. MEENAH: well if its any consolation that may be rough for you but its a pretty great time to be your rear admire-all 38) KARKAT: MUCH OBLIGED.

The ship no one expected!

KARKAT: NOT LIKE DAVE. MEENAH: how you feelin about that

I know Karkat hasn't had a lot of screen time in HS2, and I know they've justified why this is coming up now, but as far as Karkat knows Candy Dave A. Married Jade, and then B. Died fifteen years ago. Has this really not come up in fifteen years?

SOLLUX: there's like a bazillion m0oks swarming ar0und my crib and none 0f the grubereats dudes are accepting orders right n0w. SOLLUX: probably 0n account 0f your inc0nvenient ass war. SOLLUX: could y0u pick me something up? SOLLUX: i'm assuming you're 0n your way.

Is this...the first on-screen interaction between Karkat and Sollux since Cascade in 2011? It was worth the wait.

KARKAT: MAYBE YOU'D GIVE MORE OF A FUCK ABOUT THE REPRODUCTIVE FUTURE OF OUR SPECIES IF ARADIA WAS EVER ACTUALLY THERE LONG ENOUGH FOR YOU TO GET SOME. MEENAH: ohhh snapper KARKAT: ANYWAY YEAH I CAN PROBABLY SWING THAT.

This is maybe the most Karkat interaction ever. He's furious for extremely good reasons, he's constantly insulting his friends, of course he'll swing his A-team war truck by McDonalds on the way to the war zone to get Sollux something. Doesn't even occur to him not to.

KARKAT: AND WE NEVER LET IT GO. LOB 4: Well said, sir! KARKAT: WHAT THE FUCK. KARKAT: HOW LONG HAVE YOU ALL BEEN LISTENING? TER 2: Pretty much since the beginning, sir!

It's cool and thematic that these guys talk in Dave's colors but I'm unbelievably sad they don't have names.

KARKAT: COMMANDERS HARLEY, MARYAM, AND LALONDE ARE INBOUND, AND NOT LONG AFTER THEY GET HERE THINGS ARE GOING TO GET BATSHIT STUPID!

Last time we saw Vrissy, she was seeing Yiffy for the first time. I was expecting an update following up on that before the big everything coming together, but maybe they won't get a chance to talk yet

Because this sure feels like the last page before an [S]

Edit: But it isn't, the news post said another update this month.

[mercurialmalcontent]

Spoiler-free DA:TV Review

tl;dr -- I thought it was fantastic.

When I found out we were really for real getting a new Dragon Age game, I was interested but not excited. It had been ten years since DAI released and I'd made my peace with us never getting another one years ago, so my reaction was oh, that's cool, maybe I'll get it on sale later. As release came closer and I saw more about the game I got more interested, enough so that when I suddenly had some spare cash I decided I'd get it on release after all.

I ended up barely able to put it down for two solid weeks.

The Dragon Age writing team wove together all the many, many story threads they spun out over the previous three games into one glorious tapestry. None of the story felt like it came out of nowhere or any sort of gotchya, but that it was carefully and expertly crafted into what unfolded before my eyes.

The story is also focused in a way that Origins and DAI were not. No more meandering aimlessly around a map or ultimately pointless fetch quests; every sidequest ties into the story and has direct results… as do your decisions. There will be things that come back to haunt you, because all hard decisions have consequences, after all.

The rest is under a cut for length.

On a character level, for once I didn't feel like any of the companions were extraenous. They're all integral in their areas of expertise and, as far as I could tell in one lengthy playthrough, all have a lot of reactivity to one another (and apparently other non-companion NPCs). It's worth switching your party up regularly and going back to base after every quest to see who's chatting with who and who has new things to say to you. I'm absolutely certain I missed a ton of stuff because I'd get so caught up in questing and exploring and didn't return to base often in early game.

For the player character, Rook is less of a blank slate than the Inquisitor or HoF, but more of one than Hawke. They very much have a base personality suited to someone who can build trust and lead a team, but you have a lot of flexibility in how to express that. Mimir, for example, I played as largely stoic and decisive with a few places he was pushed into a snarling rage, but when he independently acted a little goofy and awkward after building up some trust with his team, it still made sense -- after all, how is he going to build trust if he can't unclench once in a while? I played into that in his more vulnerable moments and it worked really well for me.

I was also delighted that his background came into play far, far more frequently than I could have guessed. I chose Mourn Watch because it sounded interesting, but I had my doubts about how tied into the story it would really be. However, I got quite a few Mourn Watch-specific responses and a TON of dialogue whenever anything to do with their domain came up. Mimir was able to talk shop extensively with the Mourn Watch companion and it felt like they understood each other on a deeper level, especially coming from a culture considered weird and creepy by most of Thedas. (Some players may still find Nevarran customs weird and creepy, but personally I thought they handled death in an interesting and respectful way.)

Rook's race also plays a part in how they participate in conversations. Mimir is an elf, and while I got the occassional elf-specific option, he would often indepedently speak from an elvish perspective in relevant conversations. I really enjoyed him feeling like a part of the world without me having to make it happen.

As far as the moment-to-moment gameplay goes, I had a great time. Maps were fun to traverse, with multiple levels and full of (relatively simple but still satisfying) puzzles to get to hidden areas and secret chests. There are some jumping puzzles, but they're pretty forgiving (if you almost-but-don't-quite make a jump, Rook will grab on and haul themself up) and there's no fall damage; any fall that would have killed you just respawns you where you jumped. Maybe this takes the 'stakes' out for some people, but I'm glad they cut out the annoyance.

The combat is fast and fun, if a little frantic once the game starts throwing five to ten enemies at you at once. (I recommend playing with a controller if you can.) I went straight Adventurer (normal) difficulty and only had to use a revive a handful of times, but there's a lot of customization so you can tweak things to get gameplay you prefer. (There's also a wealth of other accessibility options too; the fixed point always on screen saved me from constant motion sickness.) If you don't want to change difficulties but still struggle, check your build; you can redo your point allocation for free any time outside of combat. I started having a hard time with my scattershot choices at around level 20, but when I refunded my points and went straight for a specialization before branching out, I was suddenly hitting a lot harder.

While I do have my nitpicks, they're pretty inconsequential. I only have two real gripes -- one is that it's not entirely clear when you're going to a one-time-only map. Unfortunately these maps are also littered with treasure and codex entries that you'll miss forever if you skip them. Being on an ostensibly time-sensitive mission but knowing you're going to miss a bunch of stuff if you don't explore is a buzzkill.

The other is more petty but still really annoyed me, and that's that enemies can block your attacks even when you're standing directly behind them. I thought maybe I was reading the screen wrong until J watched me play a bit and asked, "Uh, why was he able to block you from behind??" Good question! I grumbled "This doesn't happen in Elden Ring" far too often.

I'll be playing the game again at least a couple more times; I'm really interested in seeing how the story feels from the perspective of other races and factions, and I always have a good time in taking a closer look at how the story falls into place once I know how it plays out.

[italeteller]

Thoughts on Undead Unluck 208

I love horny women

ngl tho I'm kinda sad Rip's got abs this loop, I'd hoped he'd have a more regular-guy kinda body now that he's more doctor than fighter. Also I'm gonna be annoying and wonder if Tella could actually play the guitar or not with Untell. But also also... damn, look at all that beefcake buffet. Tozuka really knows how to keep the fanbase well fed

Sean's mom's likely dead like his dad, so he knows what Fuuko feels like wanting to see her mom again

Eyy they gave Julia a Union uniform, that's nice

Neat little detail, Sean has the mind to keep one eye open even when being splashed with water so as to not trigger Unseen with civilians around, you know he's been training his reactions

I guess this is implying Fuuko gets her looks from her dad? Seeing them side by side her eyes are rounder than her mom's, and her hairstyle looks similar to her dad's, though with her mom's color

Also it's really damn funny that Fuuko's dad is completely used to the disaster of a human being that is his future wife. The man loves his cringefail girl. Though also, it's weird that Fuuko doesn't seem to have realized that the guy is indeed her dad. Maybe she had more of a relationship with her mom?

I love that the Union can just call Fuuko's ass out and she remains eternally oblivious to her shonen MC behaviors

The fact that Unluck gets explicitly mentioned twice makes me think there's some negation fuckery afoot. I know everything we've seen so far makes it look like no two people can have the same negation at the same time, but still. Maybe it'll be a red herring, but I have to wonder

Ok, the big thing of the chapter. I have no idea what is going on, by all means it doesn't make sense, but Tozuka specifically brought up how this shouldn't be happening only to make it happen, so I believe he's got a plan, and the man plans good, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I also wanna point out that this is the very first loop someone other than Juiz is the looper, so this is literally the first time this scenario is happening in this world

Baby Fuuko in her panpanda onesie is the cutest fucking thing I've seen all week

Ok so Billy and Tella are indeed part of the Tatiana rescue mission (no Nico in sight tho, which is weird). I was so fixated on Gina being part of the idol mission I didn't even think she'd be a big asset as the only other russian on the team. And Chikara also makes sense, a quick activation of Unmove might be able to freeze Tatiana's Untouchable before it can blow her parents to dust. I hope that's the only reason he's there, and Tozuka isn't planning to resume the nonsense ship this loop too

Rip and Latla are on Bunny duty, no surprises there (though again, no Ichico, which is weird) and Shen and Mui are training literally under Feng. Sad day for Mei fans though, she seems to have been demoted to tea girl and isn't even training anymore. Guess my hopes of her being the Mui of this loop are dashed

Hoo boy. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I desperately wanna see the whole Union play musical band. On the other hand, Tozuka has done a big group arc three times: on the 11 minutes fight, the Unmove arc and the Sick, and he only pulled it off on the 11 minutes fight. I'd much rather have only Gina, Mui, Latla (and Leila! Twin idols shtick!), Yusai and Haruka get solid focus than have a big group where a few people get most of the screentime and everybody else gets three panels like the Unmove and Sick arcs

Idk what Tozuka has in store for Kururu, but I don't see how she's gonna outshine all of this

[therobotmonster]

Gah, I love Turtles of Grayskull!

I'm on record for rambling about how much I love MOTU origins, an action figure line that provides solid value, craftsmanship, and a sense of fun in an era where everything is increasingly none of those things.

And Turtles of Grayskull understands both its contributors spirits intimately in a way many nostalgia projects don't.

Because nostalgia remembers the cool very easily. But it rarely remembers the silly and the stupid-fun.

You buy a bus ticket to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" or "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and you have to know that route will be winding almost exclusively through Historical Crazytowne.

And the Turtles of Grayskull/MOTU Origins team gets this. This isn't some Batman/TMNT crossover where they give you a bunch of cool mutant Arkham Villains and deny you toys of them (but a Michaelangelo wearing the bat-cowl is worth a sculpt, eye-roll).

Recent-ish stuff to ramble about:

Okay, not only is this just an awesome Hordak variant, he's conceptually blended with Lord Draxum. You've got the mutant bat-wings, to go with Hordak's vampire thing, but his shapeshifting weapon arm from the toon is very clearly a mutagen-blaster evoking the mutagen-mosquitos. You've got the shoulder pads evoking Draxum's little gargoyle boys. Fantastique!

I had wondered who Casey was taking inspiration from for awhile, but apparently the lore got revealed from his packaging, he's combined... with the WEAPON RACK/Pack.

Well, technically he raided it, but it's a clever option when it would have been easy to just put him in Man-at-Arms gear or give him a Man-E-Faces gimmick. Deep cuts are appreciated, as is that delightful amount of accessory swag.

Stealth Leo is just a cool Leonardo figure. He's the reason for my hypothesis that Mattel is low-key pitching to be the main TMNT figure company. April gets a sweet power up by being Combined with Zo-ar and the Sorceress, and the amount of new sculpting is impressive there. Nobody would have blinked if she'd been 90% Sorceress parts, so I appreciate it.

He-Man goes stealth ninja after he's de-mutated. that's cool I guess, but He's probably going to wind up with a different head when I get him. Skeletor, however, is everything you want in a repaint guy. 90s neon? Check, kusari-gama with goat skulls? Check. Tube of mutagen? Check. He's obviously a premold for the 2005 Samurai Skeletor but who cares? He's green!

Splinter-Skull is mostly OG Playmates Splinter, down to the face design, but he's got just enough King Grayskull in him to keep him a fun hybrid. In fiction, this is is the spirit of Grayskull taking on a form to match both sets of heroes asking for his help. Fun!

Leatherhead, on the other hand, is just Mattel auditioning to make normal TMNT toys again. Toss some WWEternia legs with some pants on that guy and he's basically the best and most in-scale Leatherhead to not come out of NECA. I look forward to the use of that tail on many, many snakemen related characters to come.

And yet there's more!

I thought this was going to be a four-wave limited thing. But apparently they're just keeping the train rolling until the wheels fall off, to which I say...

Wave 5 has been semi-revealed (no pics yet) and it's:

Variant Donatello, Variant Raphael, Mekaneck, and Rattlor!

Donnie and Raph are going to be costume variants like Stealth Leo, though I'm hoping they're not also stealth versions, because there's tons of other options to pull from.

My druthers would be them with accessory pak themes (cliff climber Raph, Scuba-Attack Donnie (to nod at the wind-up swimming donnie toy), etc). The Dontatello #1 gauntlet could be a fun accessory, and I wouldn't say no to a "slime pit zombie" Raph, but we'll have to wait and see.

The real thing that has me hyped is Mekaneck and Rattlor. I love reptile-people, and the Snake-Men give me a lot of them, so I'm always glad to get more options.

Mekaneck is one of the dorkiest MOTU characters and is thus one of my favorites. He's immensely goofy, and his origin implies that Man-at-Arms decided to fix the guy's broken neck by chopping off his head and giving him an extendable robotic spine. He also has the advantage of just being somebody's dad.

His son is named Philip, by the way.

I can't imagine them not making Mekaneck a wildly mutated weirdo. They had to pack his origins figure in with the road ripper to make him appealing, so I'm pretty sure he's gonna be a mutant. Fingers crossed for a giraffe head. Bonus points if its some kinda blue eternian giraffe or something.

And Rattlor, man, I want him to be a full on character hybrid so bad. Options: Tokka (snappers do have long necks), Snakeweed, Rat King (King Ratsnake?), Hothead & Scaletail.

[mirandaputsherbestbuttforward]

Anyway, I finished Dragon Age: The Veilguard just over 85 hours for the whole thing (definitely missed some puzzles and a bit of loot here and there), but here are a collection of my thoughts before going to bed.

Spoilers below!

Genuinely, I think it was a solid game. The writing and themes throughout are really potent. I think the dialogue in some places was a little 80s cheesy or a BIT out of place in the DA setting but I definitely laughed at a lot of it.

I think the companions were great, though I found myself not really caring for Lucanis (and I'm not torn up that I accidentally got him killed in the endgame).

Neve, on the other hand, was a sniper shot directly at my forehead; she is carrying out the legacy of the Emotionally Distant Usuallly Hetero BioWare Brunette™ that I have always fallen for, but thankfully not straight this time (bless).

I think the environments were amazing and had so much depth even if the maps were more 'linear' in terms of areas to explore but I loved not having fetch quests. I loved being able to use companion abilities to unlock more parts of the map as we went along.

I do think there was a lot of content - which is good - but it did feel like a bit of a slow go to start.

I felt that the romance wasn't necssarily lacking in terms of BioWare's standard style of romances with casual flirting -> serious flirting -> kiss scene -> romance scene just prior to endgame, BUT because there was so much to do in Act 2, it felt like I wasn't getting anywhere fast and so spacing it out that way felt like there could've been a few more little things in between (e.g. kiss animations like BG3, or something) to hold us over.

In terms of story, I think for the most part it really fit into the series well enough; I don't think the lack of worldstate mattered too much in order to tell the story they wanted to tell with Solas. A few mentioned and call backs are all we would've gotten and I'm okay with that (e.g. like who you picked for Divine or who is ruling Fereldan, etc).

I like that we got to explore more Dwarf lore again, I think this fandom needs to be more into dwarves because holy shit.... the whole reason they can't dream???????? insane.

Also in terms of gameplay, the combat was fun and refreshing, and very mass effect-y and I loved it. I was a warrior and just had fun smashing the shit out of everything. I do wish we had more loot / options to work with (lowkey missed the crafting system in DAI to make our own stuff) but I get why they did it like that.

I loved Rook, and I know that you can't be a super aggressive asshole but tbh this doesn't call for it. They were brought in as someone who could help the team and work together.

As someone on tiktok said, they are friends with fully developed prefrontal cortexes and act like it; DA2 companions are not found family, they are only friends with Hawke and only tolerate each other because of that mutual friendship. Inquisitor is like the manager of a bunch of coworkers.

ANYWAY, I think Rook was a fine protag, and I LOVED the CC aside from a few things like why do some of the more detailed complexions get a 5 o clock shadow embedded into it? No age slider??? no grey hair slider???

Fat slider good but should've had more. Also the boob/ass slider lacking like I get it that it helps keep armours intact but they should've let the sliders go more for better shapes.

All in all, I'm giving it a solid 8.5/10, and well worth the 10 year wait.

I just hope that they get to make a DA5 with that hint they dropped on us in the post-credit scene. I was really hoping for DA Absolution to have a tie in because what the fuck has Meredith Stannard been doing beefing w tevinter to get a circlet to bring someone back from the dead, and what plot point is that gonna be????? but anyway I guess I can hope for a season 2 of DA Absolution next

[howlingday]

Jaune's Shampoo

Mawraider

"DAMMIT, NORA!" Jaune opened his shower door. As he exited, he noticed his body had drastically changed. Using a mixture of his shampoo and experimental goo found at the fiendish Dr. Merlot's laboratory, Nora had unwittingly created a mutagen just to prank her team leader.

Jaune pushed his way through the shower door, a loud crash echoing through the steamy room. He fell to the floor, catching himself on the slick tiles for a moment before his body scraped underneath him, and his chin smashed into the hard ceramic beneath. He gave a groan as he felt the aching and stinging in his mouth. He ran his tongue across to find where his teeth may be missing from, if there were at all.

"Huh." None were missing. "Guess I got lucky."

This luck was short-lived as he pushed himself to his arms, but his legs felt stuck. Actually, stuck wasn't the right word. Stuck implies individual movement hindered by another. This felt like he was moving both legs as one.. if that made sense, which it didn't for him.

"What the heck?" Jaune looked down, eyes nearly bulging as he saw large protrusions from his forearms. Were those... fins?! Not only that, but these fins had scales, too! He looked further down his torso and discovered his, er, other body parts were gone! Everything below his belly button was replaced by a long, solid white tail with fringes of yellow at his sides! "What the hell is going on?!"

"Would you keep it down in there?!" Jaune snapped his head to the door, where a melodious screeching voice muffled through. "Whatever 'teenage boy' problems you have can be resolved yourself! Quietly!"

Oh, this was not good. In fact, it was well beyond not good. He'd completely forgotten the study session Nora set up with him and Weiss! Wait, did Nora plan this whole thing together? Oh, she was the absolute worst!

"Uh, Weiss?" Jaune called. "Is there anyone out there with you?"

"No, it's just you and me." Even through the door, he could still hear her say 'Unfortunately' under her breath. "Everyone else is busy with some other study session." Another 'Unfortunately' could be heard, a bit louder this time. "Why? You didn't hurt yourself in there, did you?"

"Uh..." Jaune looked down at his body. "Maybe?"

"Unbelievable." Weiss sneered. "Not only are you late to our study session, but you're also injured." There was a drawn-out sigh for extra drama, as Weiss is wont to do. "Are you at least decent?"

Again, Jaune looked at himself. "Kind of?"

"Can you open the door?"

Dragging himself to said door, he looked up to the knob, realizing how close and yet so far away it was. "I'm here, but I can't reach the lock."

"Do you have your scroll in there, or do I need to get Ruby to emergency unlock it?"

"Uh, no and no! My scroll should be by my bed at the end of the room." Quiet thumps of footsteps grew softer, before returning to their normal timbre. "Um, before you open the door, I need you to promise me something!"

"And that would be?"

"Don't freak out?" He couldn't see, but she was rolling her eyes.

"I assure you," the door came open, "I have seen far worAAAAAIE!" Weiss ran to the dorm room door, slamming it shut behind her as Jaune tried crawling after her. Sadly, her bipedal and still very much human form beat out whatever abomination Jaune had going on.

"Yeah, I'd freak out, too." He said with a sigh.

Jaune crawled his way out of the bathroom, his body dragging across the carpeted floor. He didn't want rug-burn, so he tried his best to keep whatever human skin he still had stayed off the floor. Once he reached the desk, he struggled his way into the chair. Nora and Pyrrha shared a mirror up here for personal use. Looking in, he finally got a good look at himself.

His hair remained it's moppy, blond self, though the skin underneath had become coarser than it used to. Following the trail of yellow scales down, he passed his mouth full of serrated teeth, and caught a glimpse of a dorsal fin jutting from his back. Looking down from the mirror to his body, his pale belly shifted to pearl white down his new tail, which ended in a strange near crescent shape. If Jaune didn't think he was a monster, then this was one heck of a costume.

"What the hell happened?" Jaune asked. "No wonder Weiss ran away."

Weiss freaked out earlier, but how was everyone else going to react? Would Ruby still want to be his friend, or Yang, or Pyrrha, or Ren- Well, Ren was a pretty cool guy, so he'd still be his friend. Nora, too, though he'd be angry with her at first. Blake... Well, him and Blake were more friends of friends already.

Still, his mind raced to all the ridicule and disgust his change would bring upon him. He'd be kicked out of Beacon, ruining his dream. His family would disown him, leaving him out on the streets. He'd have to get a job as a traveling circus freak, or worse, be abducted for science experiments and-

"Here." Jaune looked to his side where a tissue limply hung from the delicate fingers of one Weiss Schnee. "Don't get any shark snot on me."

"Th-Thanks, Weiss." Jaune took the tissue into his clawed fingers, accidentally shredding them, and blew into the clumps of rags. "Ugh."

"My thoughts exactly." Weiss said, setting the box next to him. Taking the box, he grabbed more clumps of tissues. After a long silence without blowing, Weiss spoke. "How did this happen?"

"My best guess..." Jaune gave a sniffle. "Nora."

"I hardly think she's capable of genetically altering a human's body to this degree." Weiss said with a scoff.

"You don't know how bad her pranks can get."

"And when would she have time to change you into... this?"

"She must have put something in my shampoo."

"Hmph. I would have used honey."

"She did, last time." Jaune said, remembering his training session ending with him being attacked by Rapier Wasps that snuck into Beacon, mysteriously by a jar borrowed from Cardin. The former bully swore he had no idea why she needed his jar, but she did threaten to break his legs. "This time, she put it in my shampoo."

"...At least it doesn't smell bad."

"Did you just sniff me?" Jaune asked, looking to his crush. She turned away with a blush.

"I thought it might be a clue of how you changed into this!" She nearly screamed. "It's not my fault coconut and lemon would turn you into this!"

"Coconut and lemon?" Jaune asked. "I think that was my shampoo."

"Maybe." She said. "Do you remember the ingredients?"

"Uh... no?" He sheepishly chuckled. Sharkishly? Whatever. "All the ad said was that it was 'spicy fruit' that would 'make me smell like a big fish in a big pond'."

"Of course it did. It's Advertising 101: The Truth Doesn't Sell."

"Do you... Do you think there's a cure?"

Weiss was quiet for a long time. She walked over to the window and tapped into her scroll. She gave a huff and continued to do so. Having enough of looking at himself, Jaune fell from his chair as he attempted to climb down. He crawled over to his bed, his claws digging into the blankets and sheets he made that morning. He tried to lay on his back, only to feel uncomfortable as his dorsal fin almost bent, and chose to lay on his stomach instead. He watched her work tirelessly.

In the afternoon light, she looked like an angel. He fell asleep with those thoughts.

An hour passed when the rest of Team JNPR returned to their dorm. Weiss was asleep next to Jaune, her hand in his hair as they quietly dozed. Nora beamed at her partner. He simply sighed.

"I told you it would work~."

A special thank you to @rwby-encrusted-blog for the inspiration of this work. I hope it's up to your standards.

[possibilistfanfiction]

conservationist au already!? you write so fast dang (what are your secrets) (also it's okay if you want to keep them secret) (mostly i am excite for frog)

here she is! frog au! lol [ao3]

//

to see us blossom (while the green spreads like wings)

//

only our feet have been here, that i'm aware of. it's wild and remote and beautiful as can be. i just want to be quiet and love it. let it sink in. i'll be leaving the planet, sometime. and i'll miss it.

— dr. bruce means

//

'dr. silva,' diego bursts into your office, his hair fluffed and messy, 'i found someone for the expedition!'

'did you... run here?'

'yeah, from the lab.' he gulps a breath. 'i got excited.'

it's fucking awesome that diego, your favorite grad student, is coming on this expedition, but it's becoming a huge pain in the ass to plan — you try your hardest not to feel guilty about why, but it is mostly because of you — and is starting to feel more and more impossible by the day. you don't want to get your hopes up: you don't have that much funding, and it's starting to seem a little bit impossible logistically, even with dr. superion's help. but you'll humor him: 'so who are we taking with us?'

he waits a breath, practically bursting at the seams. 'beatrice zhang.'

'the photographer?'

'she's an experienced climber! you follow her on instagram, right?'

you have gratuitously followed beatrice zhang on instagram for the last four years — for her photography, because it is some of the most beautiful and thoughtful you've ever seen, regardless of the subject matter, but also for the occasional photo of herself, surfing or climbing or behind the camera, particularly delightful if it features her arms in a tank — but diego doesn't need to know that part. 'yes, her work is wonderful for lots of conservationist efforts.' diplomatic, you think, mentally patting yourself on the back.

'and she's hot.'

'i didn't say that.'

diego rolls his eyes.

'anyway, how would we even get her to come with us?'

diego grins. 'i emailed her.'

'what?'

he takes out his phone and shows you her instagram, which, indeed, does have an ‘email’ button, which, obviously, you've never paid attention to before. 'she hasn't responded yet, or her team or whatever, i guess, but i only sent it ten minutes ago. and it went to a legit address and hasn't bounced back, so, i just figured, why not?'

even though, last year, you had had a successful time in guyana, finding and recording a few new species, there are a lot of why not's, really: your GA probably shouldn’t be making these choices without consulting you first, but you don’t really care about that so much as your mobility is more limited than ever lately. the weather probably won't hold so who the fuck knows if it'll even be possible to reach to spot at all. and, plus, it's for a frog. one tiny frog, that may or may not exist — (you're sure it does) — in the middle of a jungle on the top of a tepui that's never been climbed. it's... a little crazy, when you think through it now, way crazier than it had seemed when you wrote the grant for funding last year. most people, even world renowned war-turned-wildlife photographers with insane biceps — especially them, probably — aren't interested in a project like this.

'well, the least that will happen is she doesn't respond,' you figure; you don't believe in any religion and life had dealt you quite the shitty hand for a long time, so if there's any balancing it out, maybe this will be a strike in the good column for you. so, 'yeah, you're right. why not?'

/

it's two days later when your phone vibrates about seven times; you roll over in... some girl's bed? okay, solid night, then, and when you look over at her, she's beautiful and fast asleep. you remember your fifth shot of tequila and vaguely how great riding her dick had been; you find your phone graciously plugged into a charger on the nightstand on your side of the bed, and when you go to the bathroom you see condoms in the small trash can — so, all in all, a success. your back is sore but not terrible and you groan when you see it's only six am, but there's texts from diego and you have a policy not to ignore those, no matter how stupid they occasionally can be.

these are unequivocally not stupid, though, because they start with dr. silva! and then ava!!!!! ava! and devolve into some emojis and then omg oh my god and finally check your email, which is really the only helpful part of that — but they're not stupid because when you do check your email, you see a forwarded message from diego first. it's a cordial reply to the email he had sent to beatrice zhang, from her, it seems, asking politely to be put in touch with the lead biologist on the expedition if possible. which, you remember with the tiniest bit of a happy jolt, is you. you open the newest email, which is, in fact, connecting you and beatrice. she’s already responded, and it’s kind of wild because, from the three short sentences asking if you could set up a video chat to talk more about the expedition or, if she happened to be close to where you were in the world, even meet near your office or lab for coffee, she sounds, well, at least interested. you don't think someone like her — someone who has photographed war, and famine, and wildfires, and, miraculously last year, a snow leopard and her cub — would even respond to something she didn't care at all about.

holy shit, you text diego. you need a cup of coffee, or, like, maybe three cups of coffee, and a breakfast sandwich before you can respond to that email, so you decide to get a move on. plus, it feels unhinged to respond to it from your phone, so you need to go home anyway. you should also maybe definitely shower, you think, as you look at yourself in the mirror: your makeup is a little smudged and your hair is an unrepentant mess. still hot though, you think when you quietly find your clothes and put your bra on, a deep teal that makes your boobs look awesome. thankfully, you were just in high-waisted, loose jeans and a cropped sweater last night, so after you wash your face and get dressed, it's not really giving walk of shame — walk of pride, thank you very much.

you google maps where you are and, thankfully, it's a nice enough morning and a short enough distance that you can walk to your favorite cafe and then to your apartment without having to call an uber. you grab your cane from where you'd left it propped up by the wall near the bed, and then, because you're definitely not an asshole, gently shake your, well, one night stand's shoulder. her eyes are green, and you do remember that much.

'i gotta go do some work, sorry.'

she nods. 'right. doctor.'

well, maybe you're a little bit of an asshole, but it's not your fault that people think you're a very important neurosurgeon or something. you are very important in cataloguing biodiversity, so you just roll with it. 'thanks for a great time.'

she nods with a soft smile, and it's nice to kiss her, gently, goodbye.

/

'wait, you're meeting with her? here?'

'yes,' you say, mostly annoyed at camila's vaguely unhinged energy. 'she's close by train, so it's better to meet in person.'

'oh my god,' camila says. she's one of your best friends and probably the smartest, most tech-savvy person you know. when you figured out how helpful it would be to have someone operate drones for you on this expedition, you hadn't even bothered to ask anyone else.

'don't you know her?'

'well, sure,' camila confirms. 'i did some drone work for her a few months ago in the bahamas when she was photographing sharks. but, like, she's amazing, ava.'

'well, hopefully she'll say yes.'

'you'll have to charm her.'

'i'm very good at charming hot women.'

camila rolls her eyes.

'i'm also very good at charming people to go find frogs with me.'

she waits for a beat and then relents. 'well, i suppose that's true.'

'come on,' you say, 'help me make a slide deck. i feel like she'd think that's sexy or something.'

'you're ridiculous.'

'it'll work, i'm telling you.'

/

beatrice zhang in soft wool pants and closed-toed birkenstocks and a crewneck sweater sitting ramrod straight at the decent cafe just off campus near your office is, quite honestly, not a sight you'd ever expected to see, but it is kind of a miracle. or, at least that's what it had felt like, when she had emailed that she was, actually, a few hours away by train and wouldn't mind a day trip to meet in person. you're glad that you wore your best professor outfit today, flared navy slacks that make your ass look divine, and a crisp white button up that you tucked in tight and rolled up at the sleeves, a camel peacoat and expensive loafers that dr. salvius had gotten you when you passed your dissertation two years ago. you usually wear... well, not this — you reserve this for conferences and presentations — but, if looking professional helps beatrice sign onto this project, so be it.

and, well, maybe it's not strictly professional to undo another button as you had walked to the cafe, and, like, you don't actually know if beatrice is gay or not, but you spot her and smile and wave and her eyes get big for a moment, and you’re afraid you’ve got it all wrong: you’re small and young and pretty and, sometimes, people think that disqualifies you from being smart. but then her eyes rake over you and linger, for just a moment, on your chest, so you're probably right. if this helps too, so be it.

you wave and she stands very formally; she clearly recognizes you, which makes you feel a small thrill of satisfaction. 'hey, glad you found it okay.'

'i've had much more difficult locations to navigate before, although the freshman can be a bit scary.'

it's deadpan, so it takes you a split second, but then you laugh and offer your hand. 'i'm dr. silva.' you want to roll your eyes at your title, which you normally feel quite proud of, all of a sudden. 'ava, any pronouns.'

'dr. silva,' she says anyway, and shakes your hand firmly. 'it's a pleasure. i'm beatrice, she/her.'

only after do you sit, a little sprawled, and prop your cane up on the table, does she sit too, and then looks down at the menu. 'do you recommend anything? i haven't had lunch yet.'

'well, if you're like, uh... —' falling prey to diet culture, you think, but you don't know beatrice at all, so — 'wanting a vegetable forward option, their salads and quinoa bowls are okay.'

she wrinkles her nose. you hide a smile in the collar of your coat.

'but their kimchi fried chicken sandwich is my favorite.'

'and the slaw?'

'well, i'm a fries girl.'

she smiles over the top of her menu, just slightly.

'but my friend likes the slaw, and i trust her.'

she nods and sets her menu down, her wrists resting on the edge of the table, her hands clasped. a practical smart watch, no wedding band. her full attention is on you and it makes you feel a little breathless.

you're saved from saying something incredibly dumb — you're very, very smart, and you're actually very good at flirting, but beatrice zhang is hot as hell and a certified badass and you also really want her to be, like, your colleague — when your server comes to your table. you both order, and you get the fried chicken sandwich too, even though you already ate lunch an hour ago — diego's always happy to eat your leftovers out of the fridge in the lab anyway.

you're not saved from saying something marginally dumb, though, because beatrice kindly thanks your server and hands over her menu and then looks at you again, fully focused.

'i like your hair,’ you say, instead of, well, anything else. you want to groan and slam your head down into the table, or something, because beatrice's brows knit together and she brings one hand to run through her floppy middle part, short in the back and on the sides, pushing it out of her eyes.

'oh,' she says, softly and definitely confused. 'thank you.'

you're sure you're blushing. 'sorry, i just, like, the last time you posted — you had long hair.'

it's mortifying, the moment you say it, because you can mentally calculate the last time beatrice posted a picture of herself on her instagram, and it was definitely over a year ago.

she also seems to realize this, because her confusion turns to a smug little smile that could probably eat you alive. you'd definitely let it.

'i read about the last species of frog you discovered, when the article came out.'

that was also over a year ago, and you laugh, tension releasing from your shoulders. 'so that’s how you knew what i looked like.’

‘sure.’

to be fair, the article did include a picture of you, muddy and sweaty and overjoyed, holding a tiny frog in the palm of your hand, but, ‘did you google me?’

‘i only take on projects, at this point, that i find interesting.’

‘so you think i’m interesting.’

she raises a brow, a scar that also wasn’t there over a year ago running an inch above it and then straight through, cleanly healed but not faded yet, stopping right on the top of her cheek — thankfully your brain didn't comment on that, even though it's kind of hot too. ‘i think that fact that you've already identified six new species of frog two years into an assistant professorship is interesting.’

'so that's a yes.' you grin. ‘want me to tell you about the project, then?'

she thanks your server when he brings her water and your lemonade of the day, and a coffee, and then leans forward in her seat. ‘yes,' she says. 'i do.’

you tell her about it as coherently as you can: you're sure there's a brand new species of frog — maybe more than one, if you're lucky — on the top of a land mass deep in the forest in guyana. you've secured enough funding to make it happen; bare bones, but still. you have diego and yasmine, your grad students, and michael, another assistant professor in your apartment who's helped you on expeditions before, mostly by carrying a bunch of shit. you've gotten camila — who beatrice is also very excited to work with again — to sign on to do tech work for you. dr. superion and dr. salvius are helping from here.

'so, anyway, i need you to climb the tepui.'

beatrice sits back when you're done, flicks through a few slides on your laptop that you'd handed to her with pictures of the jungle, the cliff face, the budget outlines and logistics and equipment you anticipate you'll need.

'do you know a lot about climbing?'

it's kind — to not assume that you don't; to not expect you to either. you shake your head no.

'i'm an alpinist, for the most part,' she says, 'which means that i climb, well —' she pauses.

'no need to be modest for me.'

she offers a small smile. 'i've climbed eight of the ten tallest mountains in the world.'

hot, you think, but you take a deep breath instead and say, 'that's impressive.' nailed it.

'yes, well.' she blushes. 'thank you. but this kind of climbing is traditional climbing — big wall climbing.'

'oh.' you frown. 'so, you can't do it?'

'i can,' she says, 'and i'd like to. i think i know enough of biology to be marginally helpful, and i can certainly photograph the expedition.'

your heart soars, warming your whole body, and you take a bite of your lukewarm sandwich to hide your smile.

'but i'll need a team. i'm confident that i'll be able to get up the wall, but i'm not experienced enough at this kind of climbing to lead on all of these passes.'

'we might not have the funds to pay much, if you bring on more people.'

she shakes her head. 'i have access to plenty of discretionary funds, so that shouldn't be a problem.'

'that's hot.' well, you tried.

she laughs, thank god. 'i just wanted to make sure that you and your team are okay with me bringing other people on.'

'as long as they aren't, like, shitty, you know. racist, homophobic, ableist. all that stuff.'

she nods, very seriously. 'i can assure you that, while one of my climbing partners is inclined to be an asshole, it's always done with respect toward important identities. she's more annoying than anything. and my other partner is the best person i know.'

'well, other than me, now.'

you can tell beatrice is torn between smiling and rolling her eyes; she does a bit of both. 'and, as far as logistics go, i could easily provide a helicopter to get us in as far as possible. less of a hike.'

it's impossible that beatrice didn't see your cane. 'i have adaptive equipment for myself. i can do the hike.'

but her brows knit together. 'yes, i assumed so: you're leading the expedition. i just meant, for my team at least, the fewer miles we have to bring photography and climbing gear in a jungle, the better. it's heavy, and then we have to do a major climb.'

'oh.' you bite your bottom lip. 'that makes sense. sorry, people suck sometimes.'

'i imagine so.' she looks at you very sincerely. 'i'm sorry.'

you wave her off. 'thanks. it is what it is, though.'

beatrice doesn't try to argue, although you can tell that maybe she wants to. 'anyway, whatever you think will help your team, and whatever will help mine, that falls outside of your grant funds, i can cover.'

'that's — are you sure?'

she nods. 'quite.'

'where did you get these discretionary funds?' you can't help asking.

'a bad man,' she says, leaning forward and whispering dramatically. it makes you laugh.

'ooh, did you kill him? warlord?'

'alas, no. my father, and he's already dead.'

'ah.' you snap your fingers. 'well, if another opportunity comes up, you just let me know. i have tons of lethal neurotoxins in my lab. i'm always down to... you know — murder —' you whisper — 'a billionaire. long haul ethics, you know?'

she nods very solemnly, fighting a smile. 'i'll keep that under advisement.'

you fight the urge to ask her for a drink, and you definitely stare at her mouth a little too long, but then you get it together and offer your hand. 'well, partners?'

she shakes it, hers strong and rough with callouses. the thought sends a little shiver up your spine, but you valiantly ignore it. 'partners.'

/

beatrice invites you, after a few days of emailing back and forth to create an updated budget and logistics plan, to meet at a climbing gym. it's to meet her other two team members first. before you all get together with your main crew for dinner afterward. she'd given you their names, headshots, and very formal bios, which you had kind of loved: lilith, who, according to beatrice's bio, will be the lead climber. when you google her, you find out that she's, like, a world champion big wall climber, so that bodes well. and then mary, another photographer and world class marksman — I know this isn't particularly relevant, beatrice had included as a footnote, but it is quite impressive — and avid climber too.

you're hopeful about it all, and you're hopeful that tonight maybe she just wants to see you alone, and to have you watch her climb. there's, like, a two percent chance you'll physically be able to climb, really, but that's fine. she'd texted you about it, far less formal than her perfectly punctuated emails, so that's a good sign. and she'd posted a recent picture someone took of her — a candid, petting the trunk of an elephant peacefully — on her instagram too. maybe that was scheduled — beatrice seems like the kind of person who would schedule instagram posts — but a girl can hope, you know? you liked it one hour and fourteen minutes after she posted, from the lab's social media account and not your personal one, so you figure you've handled this all perfectly. you're great, beatrice is a colleague, and you've got this.

you're stressed about what to wear to a climbing gym and then to get dinner afterward, although there's probably a locker room or something, but it's fine. you're hot in anything. (or nothing. not that the night is going to go there.) you settle on tight leggings you wear to the gym and a sports bra, a cropped jacket on over. it's, like, cute and femme, but also practical. you brush on some mascara and put part of your hair into a little bun so it won't fall into your eyes, and you pack a spare change of clothes in a canvas tote — slacks and a nice bra and a t-shirt that hugs your body perfectly along with a pair of platform converse and an army-green overshirt — in case everyone else changes before going to dinner.

you grab your cane and head out the door.

/

if you fall to your death, it's definitely not going to be because of your back or legs. it's going to be because beatrice is in loose pants that seem comfortable for climbing and a tight racerback tank, and when you walk in, she's hanging by one arm on a short wall, just chilling out there, before she seems to decide what she wants to do. she brings her legs up to find footholds and then she's almost upside down, holding onto the wall with both hands calmly and moving so fluidly — a leg stretching out, her chalked fingers grasping onto a tiny hold. there's a delicate tattoo along her right forearm, all linework, and there are scars all over her left shoulder, running down to her elbow from what you can see: some are jagged and some are clean, neat, like surgical incisions. they don't seem to be limiting her progress at all, because she moves over the outhanging ledge easily and then to the top before just letting go and calmly rolling to her feet after she lands without a sound.

the — very hot — woman, lilith, you know from the headshot, sitting on the floor next to the wall, legs outstretched, leaning back on her palms set flat on the ground behind, and looking impossibly graceful while doing it, groans.

'getting stuck that long on a soft V8? come on, beatrice.'

beatrice, to her credit, just shrugs.

'shoulder?' the other woman asks.

'it's fine,' beatrice says. 'just getting back into the groove of your tiny walls.'

'oh, ha ha.'

'8091 meters will really change your perspective. you should try it sometime.'

'no thanks, i'll stick to my world records, thank you very much.'

they seem like they might physically fight, but then they both start laughing. weird, but you fuck with it.

beatrice turns, her hands on her hips, and, like, whew, god fucking bless, and then waves with a smile when she sees you. she walks over. 'hello ava.'

'hey,' you say, suddenly feeling a little awkward: you have not a single idea what you're doing. 'that was pretty impressive.'

'it was not,' the lilith says.

beatrice heads toward her anyway, and you follow. 'you can ignore her most of the time,' she says. 'dr. silva, this is lilith. lilith, dr. silva.'

'just ava.' you look at beatrice with a raised brow. 'please.'

lilith lazily salutes. 'ava, then. our illustrious leader, i hear. beatrice is making me lead a 1000 foot first ascent for a frog?'

'i'm not making you do anything,' beatrice says, and lilith grumbles like a teenager. it's funny, and you decide that you like her then and there, even if she scares you a little. she scares you a little more when she gracefully gets to her feet. she's tall and imposing, with a sharp face and long hair braided back, more wiry than beatrice's bigger muscles, but — you're sure — just as strong.

she offers her hand, which you shake. 'in my defense,' you say, 'it is a very cool frog. we can even name it after you, if you want.'

this seems to amuse her, because there's a hint of a smile on her face.  'i do like first ascents anyway.'

'see,' you say, 'that's the spirit.'

'ava,' beatrice says, 'no pressure, but i thought you might find it fun to try climbing. only if you'd like.'

'i'm, uh —' you gesture a little clumsily with your cane, the tips of your ears turning red. 'not sure that i can?'

'mary is an adaptive climbing instructor,' beatrice says, gesturing over to the taller wall with ropes connected through pulleys at the top, where a strong Black woman with perfectly neat braids and a dark outfit on is sorting through a few harnesses on the ground. 'but if you'd rather not climb, lilith and i are just finishing up. we can show you a few things we've been practicing in anticipation for the route, and then change and go to dinner.'

beatrice doesn't say either choice with any more or less merit, or worth, or importance: they're choices, and they're yours, and they won't affect how much she trusts you or believes in the expedition. lilith is checking her phone, uninterested at this point, and you decide, as you always have, to try.

'yeah, sure. i have no idea what adaptive climbing is, though.'

beatrice smiles and lilith stays on her phone, texting. 'that's fine. i have no idea about ninety percent of what you study.'

'i find that hard to believe. you're a wildlife photographer.'

she hums, softly touching your elbow and then walking toward mary. 'conservationist photography, sure. but i'm not a biologist.'

you make a note that beatrice doesn't really like wildlife photographer as a job title, although she was polite enough to not outright tell you so. 'well, i'm not a climber, so, quid pro quo?'

'ah, but you will be after tonight,' mary says, standing with a smile and offering her hand. 'dr. silva, right?'

'just ava,' you tell her, endeared by the fact that beatrice had probably been very formally saying dr. silva to her team this entire time. you shake mary's hand as firmly as you can and feel immediately a little more relaxed with the confident, easy way she holds her shoulders, her kind smile, her bright eyes.

'beatrice and i go way back,' she says. 'this project of yours sounds amazing. i was excited when she asked if i wanted in.'

'of course i'd ask,' beatrice says, bumping mary in the shoulder, who rolls her eyes fondly.

'well, beatrice said you were promised an adaptive climbing lesson.'

'if you're still in,' beatrice says, 'mary can show you the ropes.' she laughs at herself. 'literally.'

mary groans, but you're delighted. 'well, don't leave me hanging.'

'no. not another bad pun aficionado. please.'

beatrice grins and you sling an arm over her slightly sweaty and delightfully strong shoulders. she stiffens a little, and mary looks to her for a moment, and you're worried you've overstepped, and fast. but then beatrice relaxes.

you step back and gesture between the two of you happily. 'is this our thing now?'

'if trading terrible puns is wrong, then i don't want to be right.'

mary groans. 'not sure why i agreed to this trip after all.'

'we can name a frog after you, if you want,' you offer.

mary perks up. 'really?'

'yeah,' you say, 'sure. i've already named one after myself and given five others the dumbest, gayest names i could think of.'

'i'm back in, then.'

you laugh. 'well, let's rock and try not to roll.'

mary sighs, but beatrice's muffled laugh into your shoulder is way worth it.

/

Hi Ava, I'll be in town today to get some equipment squared away. I was wondering if maybe you'd like to have dinner if you're free. No shop talk, unless you want

you read and reread the text. you'd gone over shitty — expected, but still shitty — test results from an mri at your neurologist's earlier today, and, even though your team seemed to gel the other night, and all of your logistics are much less daunting now that beatrice has covered some of them financially, you had planned to stay home in your favorite boxers and most comfortable hoodie and wallow with a mediocre bottle of wine and good pizza and great reality tv.

but — hey, that sounds sweet. any places in mind?

beatrice texts back almost immediately. I don't know the area too well. You can pick, if you'd like

like, you're colleagues. you're about to be in one of the most remote parts of the world together in five days, with just a handful of other people, for weeks, maybe longer. you're the leader of the expedition but beatrice is, in important ways, a leader too. she's smart and beautiful and handsome and focused. if it's a date, incredible; if it's not, you still want to know her, you still want to spend time in her gentle warmth.

any food allergies/hatred?

she responds, No, I'm pretty adventurous

still, no clarity, but you set a place and time — one of your favorite tapas restaurants with a great little bar and, if it gets late enough, a good dance floor — and then set about getting ready. you eat a banana and take ibuprofen, which hopefully will help you be able to dance without much pain, and then get as pretty as you deem not desperate for a normal dinner with a colleague to be. which, it's you, so you're still very, very pretty, including one of your very best cleavage tanks. you finish your eyeliner perfectly and blow yourself a little kiss in the mirror. for good luck, or whatever. it's science.

/

'i got tired of it,' beatrice says. 'war photography is...' she pauses, and shakes her head, like she doesn't quite know what to tell you. you're totally sure she's not telling the truth, not really, but you know not to push, to spook her away. 'i could leave,' she settles on. 'as much as i hate the west, as much as i hate american and european, especially british, foreign policy, and its destruction of the world — i got to take pictures, and leave. at first, i thought it was something important i could do, to record the truth. political inherently, anti-imperialist, without being in politics. but, i was in occupied palestine, and, then, after —' she clears her throat, brings her fingers up to ghost over the scar through her brow — 'after. i couldn't do it. they're wars because of my history — our collective history — but they weren't my wars. they aren’t my wars. i can’t photograph them, at least right now. because i got to leave.'

you're horrified that she might start to cry — which isn't horrifying, not at all, you cry all the time, but you're supposed to be having a nice meal with your colleague and you had asked what you thought was an innocuous question about how she got into her more recent conservationist work, but clearly, not innocuous. you're starting to think, with a kind of clarity you very rarely have about anyone, that nothing about beatrice herself is innocuous. even her collarless button down and loose pants cuffed at the ankles — and the way all of her clothes, ever practical, drape with a tailored casualness on her small, strong frame — her easy hair that’s always actually perfectly trimmed and styled, the pattern of callouses on her hands: everything about her is intentioned. she means what she says. she means what she does. she means who she is.

'i started studying frogs with my mom,' you offer. it's true, and you mean who you are too.

she takes a sip of her water and nods in what you can tell is a quiet relief.

'my family is from manaus. my mom wasn't a scientist or anything, she was a bank teller, but when i was little, we'd go out often. she loved the rainforest, so, you know, i loved the rainforest.'

beatrice smiles gently. 'that sounds beautiful.'

you stare down at a croqueta and tear a small piece of it off, let the old ache fill your chest. 'she died, when i was seven.'

'oh,' beatrice says, 'i —'

'— it was a long time ago,' you say.

'sometimes that doesn't make it hurt any less.'

it's permission, to feel how you need to. most people accept when you tell them that and move on in relief, unwilling or unable to give you the space. but beatrice sits steadily. 'i broke my back, during the car accident we were in; we were visiting spain and, well. i had to relearn to walk. it took a really long time, and the orphanage i grew up in wasn't big on good physical therapy or really any care, so i taught myself what i could outside of school, got into university, got good medical care for the first time, like, ever. and i started studying biology. i went back to the rainforest as soon as i could, as a research assistant, and guyana was ... it's mind-blowing, bea.'

she weighs it all in contemplative silence for a moment, trying to decide what you need; what relief she can give. ‘i can't wait to see. i've always wanted to go.'

it is relief, what you feel, to be so immediately seen and understood. 'well, it's not just anyone i'd want to bring to the rainforest. my mom's favorites were always frogs, so —' you shrug, suddenly a little at a loss.

'so here we are, about to go find another.'

you pop the croqueta into your mouth, feel the dull pain in your chest dissipate when you realize you're close enough to beatrice's face to see her freckles. 'i have spinal stenosis, from the accident. it's progressing pretty fast, even with the best medical team, tech, surgeries, all that.'

she nods, like she understands what you mean without making you have to say it. it's a gift, bigger than she probably knows.

'i really want to find that fucking frog.'

'well,' she says, and lifts her glass, 'to finding our frog.'

'you know, it's bad luck to toast with water.'

she frowns. 'i don't usually drink.'

'you're very... controlled.'

she waits a beat and then grins. 'okay, one beer.'

'fuck yeah!'

'one, ava.'

'mhm. whatever you say, bea.'

/

'i have to take the train back,' beatrice argues — or, at least, tries to argue, because her eyes drift down to your boobs when you take your sweater off. success.

'you can just stay at my place. i have a mediocre ikea couch.'

'i can't let you sleep on your own couch.'

you laugh. 'oh, you definitely get the couch. i need all the good mattress support i can get before i sleep in a tent for a month.'

she smiles, gently and a little sad, but then the moment passes, a kind of grace. 'fine.'

'really?'

the set of her shoulders is looser but still sure, still so, so certain. 'yes.'

'hell yeah!' she laughs. 'shots?'

beatrice pulls a face but you order lemon drops anyway, mostly because vodka seems neutral and they're a good shot for people who don't drink often, sweet and tangy and fun. beatrice sniffs hers first — bold move, big mistake most of the time — but then nods in approval.

'to our frog,' you say, and she clinks her glass with yours. you touch it to the bartop and she follows suit, and then take it as smoothly as you can. it's an easy drink, so you don't have any problems, and she swallows without too much of a grimace. 'okay?'

'it's not bad,' she says, and your whole body hums, probably because of the two margaritas you had with dinner and this shot now, but also because there are freckles stretching across her cheeks and gold flecks in her brown eyes and if you let yourself look closely a tiny split on her lip, probably from the dry, cool air recently.

you shake yourself out of... whatever that was, and you order two more shots; she takes hers without hesitation this time, laughing when you spill a little down your cheek. she reaches a hand and wipes with her strong hand, tender, over the corner of your mouth, down to your jaw, and then clears her throat, takes her hand back quickly, although you want to ask for her to stay. but instead, 'come on, bea,' you say, 'let's dance!'

she only groans in a show of protest for posterity, you're sure, because she's very strong and you're very small and when you tug on her wrists she follows you easily.

you love to dance; you have always loved to dance: what little you remember of your mom is full of green, the rainforest and the wall of your living room. she would push back all the furniture to the edges, just the two of you in a small apartment, where you slept in the same bed and ate fruit from the trees outside. she would put on britney spears and jump around with you; she would put on stevie nicks and hold you in her arms, swaying around. she was full of light, from what you remember, always ready to read to you, in portugese and in english; to help you with your math and your handwriting. she cut your food for you and bought you new shoes when yours wore through the soles. she had been a good mom in the way good moms are: happy to hold your hand, to rub her nose against yours, to let you eat the batter off the spoon. you don't remember much, not before the accident, but it had been easy, and beautiful — the mist and orchids and green, all around.

beatrice is a little stiff until you start jumping around, fully out of time with the music, just to make her laugh. and she does, a smile lighting up her whole face. her body is graceful like this too, like it's always somehow known exactly how to move. you wonder, fleetingly between songs, what she was like as a child, if she was as sure and smart and kind as she is now. someone crowds into her space from behind and then you're not thinking of anything other than the tickle of her hair against your cheek as she presses into you, the lilt of her laugh into your ear, the hard muscles of her shoulders and the soft, small swell of her hips when you bring your palms to rest there. you're drunk and she's beautiful, and you've kissed lots of beautiful people when you've been drunk. but she closes her eyes and sways to the beat and it's like the rest of the world falls away. it's like there's only you and beatrice and the cloud forest, above anything else that has harmed and will harm again. there's her gold skin and scars and tattoos hidden under her shirt, the healed slices down your spine, the air between your bodies: sweaty, sticky with spilled drinks, thumping bass, everyone else in this bar. there's only the two of you, and it's a little like you've been punched in the gut: you're falling in love with her. it's easy, right now, to put a name to it all, when you can look at her jaw without reproach.

she opens her eyes and looks at you, a smile on her face, and leans in your direction. it's easy, to bring your hand to touch where you had been staring, to say, 'bea,' as she laughs into your neck, says, 'this is so fun, thank you.' it's hard to not kiss her, but she's ... extraordinary, and you don't want your first kiss to be in the middle of a mid-at-best dance floor after a few shots. you want it to be somewhere beautiful. somewhere you already know; somewhere you're certain she'll love.

'let's go home,' you say, because you had done another round somewhere between songs and she's slightly unsteady on her feet. she nods into your neck and you take her hand.

/

you walk back to your apartment with her, one arm looped through hers — 'very gallant,' you'd said when she'd offered, and even in the dim light from the moon and streetlamps you had seen her blush — and your other hand using your cane. she had found it for you, tucked behind where you had been sitting at the bar; she hadn't asked anything about why you didn't use it when you were dancing, or why you need it now. you know so many good people and you organize a lot with some of your other friends who work with the disability center at the university, but there is some kind of a revelation about being seen so wholly.

but maybe you're also just a little drunk, because she sways a bit as you walk and her accent is lilting, tender, her hair messy in her eyes. it's probably as soft as it looks; you had lost your hair tie somewhere between shots two and three and you tuck yours behind your ear. you have so many questions you want to ask her but you hold them in because she looks up at the moon and the stars and it's enough, to be here with her. to know her laugh, now, and the way she has hurt too.

it's enough to just walk.

/

it hadn't actually taken too much convincing — after you unlocked the door and gave her some choices in pajamas, soft sleep shorts and a big cotton crew her eventual choices, and gotten her a glass of water and a few cheddar crackers — to get her to agree to sleep in your bed with you. perhaps it had been because your couch is ... an unknown number of years old — 'listen, bea, phd students make, like, no money, and it was twenty bucks on craigslist three years go' — or maybe, maybe, it's because she just wants to.

you settle in first, listen to her brush her teeth with a spare toothbrush you'd given her, and wash her face with your facewash — that she had frowned at, accidentally rude but pretty funny and, like, fair, you got it from the drug store on the corner and you're sure she has a whole understated fancy little routine when she's not out in the field — and then wash her hands after going to the bathroom. you love sex, so you sleep with people often. you've had a boyfriend before, that you cared about deeply, so there's some parts of intimacy that are familiar to you, of course. but this, beatrice carefully climbing into bed next to you, with her freckles and her eyelashes and the pink of her lips, is different: you're not going to kiss her, not right now. you're not going to reach out and put your palm on her jaw like you want to, or feel the warm skin of her ribs, the goosebumps that would inevitably rise there if you raked your nails across the ridges. you're not going to because, you know, somewhere elemental in you, that you want to know her, and love her, for a long time. you want to take her to the rainforest.

'where's your favorite place in the world?' you ask instead, whisper it into the dark, the soft outline of her face.

she's turned toward you, her hands tucked carefully under her chin; it makes her look younger. 'tibet. the himalayas.'

'makes sense. you and your big mountains.'

'what's the last mountain you... summited?'

'annapurna. it's the tenth tallest in the world.' she pauses, considering. 'are we playing twenty questions?'

her eyelids are drooping. 'i don't think you're going to be awake for twenty questions.'

she laughs softly. 'i want to ask you one, though.'

'hmm. sure. two to four questions, then.'

'do you... uh, well, okay. do you like women?'

it's so awkward, so out of place for someone so sure, that you have to fight the urge to burst out in laughter. but it's also soft, and nervous, her eyes wide. it makes you feel sixteen again, full of possibility. 'yeah, bea. i'm bi. i love women.'

she nods, tucks her hands even tighter under her chin, lets a big relieved breath out. 'cool.'

'yeah?'

'mhm. i'm a lesbian, if you didn't know.'

you want to say you're the gayest looking person i've ever met but you refrain. for the romance of it all. 'good to know.'

she tries hard to wink and fails miserably. you let yourself, just once, just for a moment, reach out and run your hand through her hair. she leans into your touch, relaxes under it, before you fold yourself back onto your side of the bed. 'you have one more question.'

'so do you.'

'okay. hmm. favorite ice cream flavor?'

she laughs. 'that's what you want to know.'

you nod. 'it's very important information.'

'okay.' she thinks hard about it, genuinely. 'mint chocolate chip?'

'that's so boring, jeez.'

'oh, i'm sorry. simple combinations of dynamic tastes is probably too sophisticated for you to understand.'

'okay, ratatouille.'

she tries, a valiant effort, to not crack a smile, but she eventually does. 'okay, my turn. favorite color?'

you let your eyes fall closed and imagine it all, the sharp thorns and the torrential rain and the chirp of the neon blue frog you'd found last time. you think about taking her there. 'green, of course,' you tell her, a promise, a future in the clouds. 'green.'